TRINI IS
BROADWAY'S NEWEST STAR
By Angela
Martin-Hinds
Sunday Express
Section 2
May 14, 2000
Page 30
She
may go unnoticed here, but in New York circles this high
profile entertainer with Trini roots is a bona-fide Broadway star, with all the
trappings.
Heather
Headley, the new star of AIDA, now playing on Broadway, is so hot that
she has one manager handling her affairs in New York and another doing the same
in Los Angeles. AIDA tells the
story of a love triangle between Aida, a Nubian princess forced into slavery,
Amneris, an Egyptian princess, and Radames, the soldier they both love.
Headley
is in such demand that she is hounded by autograph seekers every time she
leaves the Palace Theatre, has a personal driver at her beck and call, and is
not allowed to do any interviews without the prior consent of the publicity
firm Boneau/Bryan and Brown.
Just
this week, she was informed of her nomination for a Tony Award for her role as
Aida, a Nubian princess, along with Elton John (who wrote the musical score)
and Bob Crowley, the show's costume designer.
The
Tony Awards, hosted by talk show host Rosie O'Donnell, comes off June 4.
But
despite all the acclaim, there is one thing Headley swears she never forgets,
that is her Trini roots, a heritage to which she proudly attests in each and
every interview.
Last
week in a telephone interview from her Manhattan apartment, where she was
resting before her 8 p.m. show at the palace Theatre (she does eight shows a
week) Headley did not sound as tough she has any of the negative aspects of the
"diva" qualities that go with her top star status. In fact, she sounded totally natural. She is exuberant, hyped and happy about the
nomination, and was as down to earth as when I first interviewed her in 1997,
when she was creating waves as Nala, in another Disney hit, The Lion King.
Her
voice deep, throaty, and slightly incredulous, she declared: "I can't
believe that at 25 I am up for a Tony Award.
Imagine, I am competing against Audra McDonald, a woman I once
understudied when I did Ragtime."
"As
a young teenager I was running around playing barefooted on 41 Eighth Street,
Barataria. I never believed that I
would be such a huge star on Broadway.
This is really the stuff that dreams are made of and shows me that any
Trinidadian, be it man or woman who has the talent, can make it to
Broadway."
An
indication of Headley's current appeal: she is featured in an article in People
Magazine's recent issue of "The 50 Most Beautiful People for
2000" where she is referred to as "New York theatre's new
superstar" and described by one New York Times critic as
"simply splendid."
It
does not stop there.
She
is being swamped with requests for interviews and has appeared on Good
Morning America, Regis and Kathie Lee, The Today Show, The
Rosie O'Donnell Show, BET, The View with Barbara
Walters, and had articles written about her in Newsweek and Ebony
magazine.
In
the April issue of Essence magazine, she is featured as one of the
"30 Women To Watch in 2000".
The
raves apparently have not gone to her head, since she says with humility:
"I always remember this is not Heather, this is God."
The
daughter of a former pastor, as a child growing up in Trinidad Headley sang at
the Barataria Church of God and appeared on Auntie Kay. She left Trinidad at age 15 with her mother
Hannah, her father Eric and Eric Junior for Fort Wayne, Indiana. She attended Northrop High School. In 1991, she competed and won the title of Miss
Indiana Black Expo. She went on to
Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois where she studied music.
She
was performing at a huge gala in Chicago when her raw talent caught the
attention of the musical director of Dream Girls, which was playing off
Broadway. She recalls: "He asked
me to audition for the role of Michele which I won."
That
was her stepping-stone into Broadway circles.
She went onto the role of Sarah in Ragtime, a role, which, she
says, "changed my life and caused me to quit school to tour. Disney executives saw me in Ragtime
and were so impressed they brought out my contract and cast me as Nala in The
Lion King.
"The
Lion King was a great run. Disney
was considering auditioning some of the top R&B female performers for the
role of Aida. I was representing the
girls of Broadway. I had to audition
for Disney's CEO Michael Eisnor to get the role. I knew I had got the role of Aida in 1998. I took six months off from Lion King
to do AIDA in Atlanta, came back to Lion King for three months
and began working on Broadway with AIDA in September 1999."
She
described the role of Aida as deep and challenging. "I am thankful. Bet
your life, I notice the blessings! The
standing ovations everyday are sweeping me."
Admitting
that the financial rewards were also very good, she said: "I have invested
wisely. I have been able to provide a
better life for myself and my mom who still lives in Chicago and I am very
careful about the manner in which I treat people. I have seen the "divas" at work in this business, they
are not nice. The woman who dresses me
every night is my mother's age and I respect and treat her with kindness. If I come of stage and blow my nose in a
tissue I will never hand it to her. I
will throw it in a bin. Mummy did not
rear me to treat people badly. In this
business you can be hot property today and cold the next. You don't know where you will end up. Nobody will ever be able to say, 'Heather
was mean and cruel to me'."
On
an even more intimate note, she confided, "I would like to have a child in
the future. Right now I am not actively
involved in a romantic relationship. I
have what I call an interest, a phone relationship," she added with a
chuckle.
On
the subject of her career, Headley said she plans to pursue film roles:
"The scripts are coming fast and furious.
Janet Louer, my manager in Chicago reads them first and then sends them
to me. I am looking at a few."
Another
project, about which she is extremely excited, is her upcoming Pop R&B
album, which she hopes to release next spring.
"I have already written three songs," she said proudly.
Despite
her hectic schedule, Headley spent a week in Trinidad in January. "I wanted to do the tourist things, you
know, the bird sanctuary and all that.
I wanted to see things I did not see before. I was relaxing in Arouca at the home of my good friend Dianne,
looking at the hills and drinking bush tea," she said with a laugh.
"All
I wanted was my Trini food. There is
nothing like coming home. It reminds me
of where I come from. It keeps me
straight and, most importantly, it keeps me humble."
TRINI HEATHER NABS A TONY AWARD
Newsday
June 6, 2000
Page 3
Trinidadian
Heather Headley was one of the big winners at the Tony Awards, capturing the Best
Actress in a Musical prize for her lead role in the Broadway production, Aida.
The
crowd at the Radio City Music hall in New York, where the gala awards show took
place Sunday night, cheered as Headley collected the big prize for her work in
the Disney musical.
When
she accepted the award, the emotional actress told Disney: "I will work
for you for the rest of my life."