Remembering my mama, Ann Campbell...

 

You might have noticed that Kip’s Korner has been quiet for the last few weeks. That is because my beautiful mother, Ann Campbell, has been in hospice care and we had to say goodbye to her this past week. We had a private family “Celebration of Life” for her a few days ago at Williamson Memorial Gardens in Franklin, TN. My mother was a strong woman of faith and an extremely talented singer and musician. I like to believe that I inherited her talents and that is what made my professional career in musical theatre possible.

Ann used her talents for the lord, playing piano at her church in Clanton, AL starting at the age of nine and was very active at Whitesburg Baptist Church for decades, where she sang in the choir and was also frequently featured in a trio, duets and as a soloist. I have no doubt in my mind that if my mother had chosen a different path in life, she easily could have had a career on Broadway. Which got me thinking about all the phenomenal “Mother” roles in musical theatre.

The “Mother” roles in the theatre, and for the purpose of this conversation I am only referring to those in musical theatre, are plentiful and there would be no end to listing them all. So, I would like to share the ones that have stuck with me over the years. Here are the five mothers from shows that have had a significant effect on me:

1.   Fantine in Les Misérables. One of the most tragic figures in musical theatre history (in my opinion), originated by the incomparable Patti LuPone, she sacrificed everything for her daughter Cosette. I Dreamed a Dream is one of my favorite songs of all time. And also, Fantine’s last words sung to Jean Valjean before her death are forever haunting:

“Good Monsieur, you come from God in Heaven. Tell Cosette I love her, and I’ll see her when I wake.”

 

2.  Mama Rose in Gypsy. The definitive stage mother of all time! Such a complicated character with incredible songs and of course the eleven o’clock number, Rose’s Turn, which always brings the house down. No wonder Rose has been played by all the greats (Merman, Lansbury, Daly, Midler, Peters, LuPone), and soon to add Audra McDonald to that list, who will reopen the famed Majestic Theatre on Broadway with previews starting in November.

“Here she is, boys! Here she is, world! Here’s Rose!”

 

3.  The Witch in Into the Woods. You don’t even know her name. She is just called the Witch, and originally played by Broadway Royalty, Bernadette Peters. Between all the evil spells she casts, and revenge plots she actively pursues, dubbing her the “Mother of Tough Love” is certainly an understatement. But she really does love her daughter Rapunzel as shown by her overly protective ballad, Stay With Me, she desperately sings to Rapunzel. But the lyrics that best sum up the Witch for me are from The Last Midnight:

“You’re so nice. You’re not good, you’re not bad, you’re just nice. I’m not good, I’m not nice, I’m just right. I’m the witch. You’re the world.”

 

4.  Mother in Ragtime. Here’s another character where you don’t know her name. She is just called Mother. Originally played on Broadway by the brilliant Marin Mazzie, Mother goes through a complete transformation throughout the course of the show. She was a woman who wanted more from her life, during a time when women weren’t allowed to want more. But too much has changed in Mother during her transformation to go Back to Before:

“There are people out there, unafraid of revealing that they might have a feeling, or they might have been wrong. There are people out there, unafraid to feel sorrow, unafraid of tomorrow. Unafraid to be weak. Unafraid to be strong… We can never go back to before!”

 

5.  Diana in Next to Normal. One of my favorite musicals from the past 20 years. Alice Ripley deservedly won a Tony Award for her performance as Diana, a suburban mother and housewife who is suffering a worsening case of bipolar disorder. Next to Normal deservedly won a Pulitzer Prize in Drama. The show deals with loss, grief, mental illness and family dysfunction. But it ends on a note of hope with the emotional ensemble number Light:

“Day after day, wishing all our cares away. Trying to fight the things we feel, but some hurts never heal. Some ghosts are never gone, but we go on, we still go on. And you find some way to survive. And you find out you don’t have to be happy at all, to be happy you’re alive… There will be light. Sons and daughters, husbands, wives can fight that fight. There will be light!”

As you can see my taste in musical theatre is pretty dark. Haha. I love the drama and a good cry when I’m watching my favorite “Mothers” belt out their hearts onto their sleeves. But hey, I’ll throw in an honorable mention that lives in the happy lane of life:

·   Edna Turnblad in Hairspray. Originally played on Broadway by the fabulous Harvey Fierstein, who also won a Tony Award for playing Edna. Edna is the big and brassy mother of Tracy Turnblad. She loves her daughter very much but is very protective of her and afraid she will be hurt by the world. But all turns out great in the high-energy finale, You Can’t Stop the Beat, where Edna makes her entrance out of a giant hairspray bottle:

“Tracy, I have a little something I’d like to add, if you don’t mind. You can’t stop my happiness cause I like the way I am. And you just can’t stop my knife and fork when I see a Christmas ham. So, if you don’t like the way I look well, I just don’t give a damn…Cause you can’t stop the motion of the ocean or the sun in the sky. You can wonder if you wanna but I never ask why. And if you try to hold me down, I’m gonna spit in your eye and say that you can’t stop the beat!”

Of course, now my mind is racing with all the other great “Mother” roles I haven’t mentioned like the unbelievable performance of Julie Reiber in Jagged Little Pill, the musical, which I saw in Nashville. It had the same effect on me as Next to Normal did, which left me emotionally exhausted but wanting more even so:

“Like any uncharted territory I must seem greatly intriguing. You speak of my love like you have experienced love like mine before… But this is not allowed. You’re uninvited, an unfortunate slight. I don’t think you unworthy, but I need a moment to deliberate.”

And at the other end of the spectrum would be the fun-filled, sing-along, dancing in the aisles musical Mamma Mia. The mother role, Donna Sheridan, was played originally on Broadway by Louise Pitre and of course by Meryl Streep in the musical film version:

“You are the dancing queen, young and sweet, only seventeen. Dancing queen, feel the beat from the tambourine. You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life. See that girl, watch that scene, diggin’ the dancing queen.”

Ok, I’m officially forcing myself to stop naming “Mother” roles!!

I will leave you with this: My mother, Ann, never said goodbye. She always said, “goodbye for now.”

So, thank you for spending some time with me today and “goodbye for now.”