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Exclusive: BACKSTAGE WITH RICHARD RIDGE- Tonys Special with 2015 Nominee Ruthie Ann Miles!
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Nov 8, 2022
Welcome to BWW's exclusive talk show, BACKSTAGE WITH Richard Ridge. Follow Richard as he visits the theater's best and brightest in their dressing rooms, on their stages and favorite hang outs to talk about their lives, careers and all of the things you don't know, but want to know. In the special interview below, Richard welcomes 2015 Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical nominee for The King and I, Ruthie Ann MIles!
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0:00
Welcome to Backstage with Richard Ridge. I'm in the Tony Awards pop-up shop in the Paramount Hotel
0:05
sitting with one of Broadway's favorite new stars, Ruthie Ann Miles, who is Tony-nominated
0:10
for her brilliant performance as Lady Tiang in Lincoln Center's new production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's King and I
0:16
Welcome, Ruthie Ann Miles. I love these. How cool are these? These are the best
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Aren't they the best? Yes. I've already done one interview with these before. I was helping a friend propose to his boyfriend
0:31
That's good. And they're getting married, right? Yes. He said he was his boyfriend's biggest fan
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And so I brought out the King and I fan. It happened backstage at King and I
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Awesome. Well, thanks for sitting with me today. Yeah. Richie, I'm your biggest fan
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I'm your biggest fan. I love that. Well, congratulations on your Tony nomination
0:52
Thank you. How did you find out? That was a crazy morning for you, wasn't it
0:56
It was a crazy morning. First of all, she was sick. Like, Abigail was sick, and so I was up at 6 or something
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and then when she went back to sleep, I went back to sleep. And, you know, subconsciously, somewhere in the far, far corner of my mind
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I knew it was happening that morning, but I was sleeping, and my agent called me, and my phone exploded
1:13
and I thought something had happened. I thought something bad had happened. And he's like, no, no, no, it's the Tony nominations
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Congratulations, you were nominated. And I was like, oh, that's cool. Have they lost their minds
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Then that was my morning. And then I hear through the wall, mommy. I pooped
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I was like, excellent. Reality kicked in really fast. That was like a really quick second
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Oh my God, toy nomination. I gotta go be a mom now. Fabulous. You know, what does this nomination mean to you
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Oh, I don't know what it means because I haven't really been able to settle in with it yet
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It's been a lot of love notes from people and it's been a lot of encouragements from people
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from 20 years ago, 15 years ago, saying I knew that you had a personality that could tell stories. I wasn't in
2:01
theater for a long long time but when I finally did go into theater I had a lot of encouragement by a lot of wonderful people so that's been the sweetest part
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you know to hear from all these people and you know to reconnect with a lot of
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people. Sure and this is your Broadway debut. Is it all surreal? Yeah that's why it doesn't feel so real
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I got my agents and my card at the same time that I got my first off Broadway gig
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Wow. And it seems like this one, I know that Tony nominations don't happen all the time for everybody
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but certainly not on their Broadway debut. Yeah. So it seems like it's just, it's all a little too good to be true
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and I'm just waiting for somebody to be like, wake up, Ruthie, it's the first day of rehearsal
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You know? It's like a Dallas episode. Right, right. You're two hours late
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It was all a dream. Yeah. I'm still waiting for that, but I hope not
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It's not going to happen. What is it like living in the world of Rodgers and Hammerstein and The King and I
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Oh, my gosh. It is also very surreal. We have some people who are the biggest fans of The King and I
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and people who, of course, who know the music, grew up on the music, have seen the movie, memorized all the lines
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have met Rodgers and Hammerstein, have met Yul Brynner and everybody. And then to come backstage or meet them at the stage door
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and telling their stories of their first experience and their 50th experience of The King and I
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is really sweet to be part of that family, to now be included in their story
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and their King and I journey and their Robinson Henry journey. Get over here, you
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I see the little one. This is your daughter. Come over here, Abby. You want to sit on mommy's lap? Come here. Oh, no, she's going to water through
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She's going to water through the funny story. Bye-bye. I love this. Bye. I'll see you later
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You are the perfect Lady Tia. Thank you. You totally get her
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You understand everything about her. You love the king. You know everything that's going on in the palace
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You're strong. You're sensitive. your warmth. I mean, did you work on that with Bartlett, share your director? How did it all
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come together, your interpretation of her? It started in, it really did start in the auditions
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He, I went in there, I had not read The King and I, horrible, I'm a bad Asian, such a bad Asian
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I did not know the story of The King and I, I knew vaguely, you know, there was about, she goes
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there, she sings some songs, and then he dons. That's what I knew about The King and I, I hadn't
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seen the movie, I hadn't read the script, I don't know how I missed that, I grew up in Hawaii, how
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did I miss that but I did and so I went into the audition with this idea of what the Lady Tiang was
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supposed to be and I went in there I was like stop what are you doing and and I was like I'm
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being Lady Tiang am I not being Lady Tiang he's like no Lady Tiang is Hillary Clinton Lady Tiang
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is Imelda Marcos except she doesn't have a she doesn't have the loud megaphone so he's like stop
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Stop, stop, take it home, bring it back. So I did, and then the next time that I met with him
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we sat down at the table, and we were just talking about who he thought Lady Tiang was and who I thought Lady Tiang was and then we started talking about our families and his Chinese aunts you know his stepdad is Chinese from Hawaii too And so he was talking about his Chinese aunts and I was talking about my family too
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And he's like, I think you know who she is and I know exactly who she is
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Now I know who she is. She's a real person. She's real. She's not this little person who comes through
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And then from there the auditions really kicked off. And that was about the third or fourth one in
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You know? What was your last audition like and how did you find out you got the role
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My last audition was at the Lincoln Center, in the bowels of the center. And we had Ted Chapin from Rogers and I was there, and Andre was there
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Everybody was there. We had about 10 people sitting in the back row
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basically just checking off to see that these people were okay to play their roles
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And I did the best that I could. It was like 9 in the morning
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It was like 8.30 or 9. It was so early in the morning. And I'm coming in from Brooklyn, too
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So I've been up since 6, trying to prepare for this 9 a.m. audition. And so I did my audition
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I went outside. They said, can you just stick around for a minute? I was like, okay. About 15 minutes later, they called me in
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And they said, okay, Abigail, that is a lovely umbrella. Oh, my God
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Yes, it is bad luck to open that in here. Just so our audience knows that you have your daughter here
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My daughter is here. Who was going to watch your daughter? And I love that you brought your daughter
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Yes, Abigail, come here. This is pretty. Oh, she's getting down. You don't want to see the fan? Okay. Go
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This is what one of Broadway's newest stars does. Yeah. Alright, so you're in the bowels of Lincoln Center
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So I'm in the bowels of Lincoln Center. Yeah. And everybody's there and they go, they tell me to go sit outside for a minute and they
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said, okay, now bring it back in. So I'm shuffling my papers, putting it back in order and I'm going to stand on my mark
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And they're like, you don't have to do the scene again. We just wanted to tell you that you'll be playing Lady Tiang in the revival of King and I
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And I just crumbled because it had been a very, very long audition process
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And I know wonderful, wonderful actresses who were also up for it
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And I was so, many things flashed through my mind. One of them was, thank you for never asking how old I was
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Thank you for never, you know. So it was a very surreal moment
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And I just, I collapsed on the ground and I just started to cry. It was a dream
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singing this incredible Rodgers and Hammerstein score and working with this cast what has been like for you? It feels like I'm part of history you know
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it's one thing if you're able to create a character from scratch or if you're if
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you've if you join a company that has been running for 15 years that's that's another thing but to be able to go back and look at the original scripts and
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and bring lines in from the original workshops, and then go to the bowels of Rodgers and Hammerstein
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and find music that has been lost and cut. And to be part of that process is really, really sweet
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It's really sweet and everyone has been so supportive. But yeah, it feels like we're part of making history. Yeah
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It's so gorgeous. I mean, the entire production, the cast, everything you do in this show
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Just superb. Talk about all these crazy activities leading up to performing on the Tonys and everything
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What's it been like? Trying to be a mom at the same time. Yeah, trying to be a mom
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Dresses. Lots and lots of clothing. People who know me know that clothing is not exactly my forte
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So when I find a pretty dress, I buy it. But I don't often have time to find pretty dresses
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So I've just been wearing and recycling my dresses and different jewelry
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and hoping nobody notices. It's been fun. And I've got a really great team of friends
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who come and help me do my hair and makeup. It's all about accessories
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Yeah, every one of these is just like a big get-together with my friends. They help me look pretty
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And they're like, okay, go, have some champagne. Have some champagne. Have you picked your outfit yet for Tony Night
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I'm about to go have my fitting today. Later, after this, Miss Venture is going to put something on me
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in about 45 minutes. That is crazy. Anna Wintour, one of her designers, right
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is helping dress you for the big night. Can you tell us anything? No, I don't know a thing
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Oh, I love it. Oh, of course she would tell me, right? But I don't know a thing. Yeah, but you're being handled by the best people
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So you're going to take your mom and your daughter over there, right? Maybe. We'll see. We'll see
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She might not ever leave the store. If she hasn't, she'll have it in the Tony store here
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You know, I read that you were always an ensemble girl. Yeah. And you were always happy doing that
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I love being in the ensemble. I always had been. The first thing that I was kind of plucked out of the ensemble
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was for Hear Lies Love. And I was like, okay, if you want me to, I will
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But, you know. Because you had gone in there for the ensemble, right? Yeah, I had
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I had auditioned for the ensemble of Here Lies Love and I had, it was maybe the third
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or fourth audition for that that they were like all right we just going to have you read Imelda And I was like okay is it the same songs or like who is you know what up with that She the lead Yeah I like okay sure I think I sang I think oh it was so funny
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They asked us to sing contemporary, what was it, classical, more classical sounds
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but in a contemporary kind of way. I sang, come down from the tree. Come down from the tree
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Audra McDonnell, you know this? So I sang that in a more poppy way. I don't know what I was thinking, but they were like, all right
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this girl's either weird enough that she can play this, or maybe she's a hidden genius
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No, I'm not. But yeah, they gave me a shot at it and it was a lot of fun
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It turned out to be a lot of fun. The only thing I wasn't prepared for with playing, from going from ensemble
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wonderful ensembleness to being a principal is the stress of being reviewed
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I had never been reviewed before. And suddenly I was like, oh my goodness, they may hate me
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If they don't like the way I sing, they're screwed. The audience, they're screwed because I'm going to sing for 90 minutes
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If they don't like the way I sound, if they don't like the way, you know. And they all loved you
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Every critic loved you in this. They were very nice. You received Lortel Award. You received the Theater World Award
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I did. I love that. What was the best part about playing her and doing that show? It was so different
11:03
It was. It was. The best thing about playing Imelda Marcos was the stories that people came up to me afterwards
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and said, I lived through that. Yeah. Or I had to flee the Philippines because of that
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Or my mom and dad fled the Philippines, but they didn't tell me the story until they saw the show
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You know, so people's real-life stories coming out and how they were affected by it
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It did two things. It educated me, but it also broke my heart
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And it became harder to tell the story because I started to know real-life examples of the consequences from these people
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So it became harder and harder for me to play it. But isn't that great when you're creative
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You can put that out to people and it unlocks a lot of things in them that they can then deal with certain things
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That's what live theater does. That was really, I mean, that was gold. That was the best
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You know, growing up, did you fight between studying the classics like Shakespeare
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and then musical theater classes? Yeah, you know, I went to school to study Shakespeare
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And I was at the Southern Oregon University where the Oregon Shakespeare Festival is
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And so my professors were directors and actors there. And that was what I wanted to do
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Mask work and Chekhov work and rapier. And I thought I was going to be, you know, the next big Shakespeare star
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And we did cabaret my freshman year. Just, you know, throw a musical in the repertoire
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So we did cabaret, and I was like, well, this is a lot of fun. And then we did a second musical my sophomore year
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And I was like, you know what? I think I really do want to study musical theater
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I didn't think that that would be a degree that I would really ever use. And the degree itself sounds kind of, huh, I have a musical theater degree
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I have a theater, you know. So I was like, oh, I'm not sure about that degree name
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But I'm going to go study music for a while. It's been a love affair. Yeah
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Do you remember, I'm here, your daughter, again. I think she's coming back. Yeah. Do you remember that defining moment when you said, I think I want to be an actress
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I want to go for this. Was there a defining moment? Yeah
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It was my sophomore year at Southern Oregon University, and we were in a dance class, and we were doing some warm-ups
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And we did have one dance teacher who taught all of his students songs from musical theater dance
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so choreography from musicals. I think we're doing something from Smokey Joe's Cafe
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And I was like, is all musical theater music like this? It's all like this, fun, and it was so energizing
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I just wanted to be around that music all the time and that's when I started buying scores and just like albums and albums and just
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You know completely immersing myself in that into that new Culture that you know some people have been lucky enough to be doing since they were 10
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But it was about when I was you know 19 or 20 that I was like I really yeah I want to do this
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And then within a couple months I was transferred out of there And look at you now
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I don't even know if that's the right. It's a really good song, but whatever it is
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If you could sum up the best part of the experience of working on King and I so far for you
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Ruthie, what's it been? Okay, there was a moment when we were just a few weeks back recording our cast album
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And anytime that I wasn't, you know, recording something, singing something, I was down with the orchestra
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And they had hired 10 extra musicians from a 29-piece. We had a 39-piece orchestra
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And that, it was, to sit with that many people using their instruments to make one voice was just like floodgates of emotion
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And it was so special It was it was probably it probably my favorite moment so far How do you juggle both Motherhood I mean people do it motherhood and performing eight shows a week It a whole different animal isn it It because of that woman that right over there my mom
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That's how. That's amazing. Because I think your daughter's in the bar now. Yeah, my daughter's at the bar
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She's getting a Shirley Temple, but she is at the bar. But my mom is so great
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My mom knows me very well, and so she knows when I need, she knows which days that I need extra sleep on
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especially after the double shows or something. Sure. And so my mom makes sure that I eat and make sure that my daughter eats
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And yeah, she takes care of both of us. It's how it's, that's the secret
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It's so great. That is the secret. We're going to play a little game, things we don't know about Ruthie Ann, okay
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So here we go. Favorite piece of clothing you could never live without. Favorite piece of clothing I could never live without
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I love my scarves. I have a lot of scarves. I have too many scarves
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I have too many scarves. That's got to be it. We're cleaning up a scarf drawer
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Yeah. I love it. Favorite comfort food? Ice cream. Is that a real question
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Come, come now. Ice cream. Haagen-Dazs. Any flavor. Any flavor? Any flavor
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Household items, since you're a mom, you couldn't live without? Lavender oil
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Oh, I like that one. It's on everything. She cuts herself, bruises grapes, me
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I use her for deodorant. Lavender oil. Lavender oil. I love that
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I'm going to start wearing that. Lavender oil. It's a bug spray. It's a sunscreen. It's everything. See, moms know everything
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Mix it with some olive oil or coconut oil. Yes, yes. Lavender oil. You should have your own line come out
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I should have. Ruthie's Lavender Oil. Fabulous. People mix up. So like it's center of a lobby
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Right here. Tony. With the King and I fans. Yeah. Fell in with these, right? Yes
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Dream role you'd love to play. I don't know that. I get asked that a lot. But you're in the middle of doing that right now, too, I'm sure
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I am. I am. But if you have any ideas, throw them my way. My dream roles. Yeah, give me some dream roles
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All right, we're going to work on this one. Okay. All right, lucky audition song. Lucky audition song
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I do have some. You know what? I like singing Rubber Ducky
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Rubber Ducky, you're the one. It's my favorite. I love that song
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It's, yeah. Anybody can play it? You can do it any way you want
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It can be a little naughty song. It can be a little fun song. It can be anything. I love that
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Yeah. Okay. Dream vacation spot? Dream vacation. You know, I've never been to Seychelles, but I would love to go
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Okay. I think that would be fun to start from Madagascar. Just a nice, quiet place where you can be naked and nobody knows
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Heels or flats? Oh, I... Flats. Flats. Being a mom. Because of that other show
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It ruined my feet. I was in six-inch heels for 90 minutes eight times a week. So now, if I can help it, I am always in flats
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You're in flats in this show, Jim. And I am barefoot on this show. Barefoot. Barefoot flats
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Barefoot feet. The best. Okay, my final question is, what is the best bit of advice that you've been giving
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either personally or professionally, that you live by? It's not about you
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It's that simple. It's that simple. It's not about me. You're telling a story. It has nothing to do with me
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You know, if a friend is hurt, don't make it about you
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If a friend is happy, don't make it about you. It's never really about you. We wish you the very best
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We are so there on June 7th. Thank you. I wish you the best of luck. I adore you madly
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Get over here. Bye-bye. Thank you
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