Seventies hit maker Helen Reddy is returning to the spotlight at the Arcada Theatre this month. Coming out of Australia she went from troubled waters to international success with fifteen singles in the top 40. “I Am Woman” roared into households becoming an anthem for feminists. She won many awards including being the first Australian to win a Grammy. She hosted a variety show along with her numerous television appearances over the years.
In the ‘80s she worked in musicals including Anything Goes and Shirley Valentine. Afterwards she took a break from performing but now heads out on tour on her own terms. We talked about her long history and new lease on life on the phone.
Jerry Nunn: Hello, Miss Reddy. Where in the world are you?
Helen Reddy: I’m in LA where it is one minute after eight.
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Actress Nia Vardalos found romance and an Academy Award nomination for the film My Big Fat Greek Wedding. She is actually from Greek Canadian parents and married to Cougar Town’s Ian Gomez. She adopted a daughter and became a US citizen in 1999. She pretended to be a drag queen in Connie and Carla and a florist in I Hate Valentine’s Day.
Her television roles have included being on Drop Dead Diva, My Big Fat Greek Life, and Grey’s Anatomy. She returns to TV for a guest stint this week on Law & Order SVU as an attorney.
Nunn talked to her about that and her big fat gay life with musicals.
Jerry Nunn: Hi, Nia. I think I have your career covered because I’m gay, adopted, and live in Chicago.
Nia Vardalos: My God, are we related?
JN: We might be! Could you talk about your huge gay following after playing a drag queen?
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Actress Mary-Louise Parker visited Chicago recently for Steppenwolf’s Fourth Annual Women in the Arts Luncheon this time at the JW Marriott. The two-time Golden Globe winner was honored with a career spanning video montage and questions by Artistic Director Martha Lavey.
Parker’s work on Showtime’s Weeds has garnered her four of her Golden Globe nominations, six SAG nominations and three Emmy nominations. She took home a Tony for the Broadway play Proof in 2001.
She has starred in unforgettable roles in Red, Fried Green Tomatoes, and Bullets Over Broadway.
She has been a consistent friend to the gay community with her beginnings in the gay film Longtime Companion, playing a woman with AIDS in Boys on the Side and the wife of a closeted lawyer in the HBO adaptation of Angels in America. This added to the surprise that recently she was accused of calling an antique dealer a “fag” in a scuffle. She wanted to set the record straight after the luncheon Nunn on One.
Jerry Nunn: Hello, Mary. How did you wind up at this luncheon?
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One Night Stand is a feature documentary about the challenge of making four musicals in 24 hours for a good cause, the Exchange, a nonprofit theatre company.
Modern Family’s Jesse Tyler Ferguson along with chanteuse Cheyenne Jackson star in one of the segments entitled Dr. Williams where they play surgeons.
We talked to Jesse about his role and how we hope for an Emmy in his future.
Jerry Nunn: Hey, Jesse. This is perfect timing, I just watched you as a guest judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race last night.
Jesse Tyler Ferguson: That worked out well. It was lots of fun to do.
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The LGBT activist Vito Russo will always be remembered for writing the book The Celluloid Closet. It discovered past scenes from movies where the dialogue could be perceived to have LGBT meaning.
He co-hosted a series on public television called Out Time and co-founded the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.
Vito passed away from AIDS complications in 1990 but his legacy lives on in a current documentary thanks to director Jeffrey Schwarz.
Jeffrey documentary Vito chronicles the life of Russo and his many accomplishments through friends and family as well as past clips of interviews that Vito had done.
Schwarz is the president and CEO of Automat Pictures specializing in documentary feature films. Past films include Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon and People Like Us: Making Philadelphia.
Nunn talked to Schwarz before Vito debuted on the HBO Channel this week.
Jerry Nunn: Hi, Jeffrey. I heard you have been doing interviews all day.
Jeffrey Schwarz: Yes, but it is fun for me. I try to make it different every time.
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Legendary actress Debbie Reynolds doesn’t plan on retiring anytime soon. Starting off her career at age sixteen for Warner Bros. then moving to MGM landed her parts in movies from Singin’ in the Rain to The Unsinkable Molly Brown where she received an Oscar nomination. She has continued to perform in over 50 films as well as television roles such as Will & Grace which earned her another nomination this time an Emmy.
She brings her one-woman show to OakBrook Terrace where she will present clips and stories of her lengthy and varied career.
Nunn talked to The Singing Nun one on one about all of this and more.
Jerry Nunn: Hello, Miss Reynolds. You have been entertaining crowds for six decades I read.
Debbie Reynolds: That’s for sure. “Here she goes again…”
JN: And out on the road still.
DR: Oh yeah. I get bored if I stay at home. I like to entertain. Today I wouldn’t want to go to New York and begin a play. In order to be in one place you have to do a play. That is six shows a week and something I don’t want to do anymore. I love the Drury Lane because I always worked at there for Tony DeSantis. Did you ever meet him?
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Australia singer Olivia Newton-John has won four Grammy, spawned five number one singles, and crossed genres from country to pop.
As an actress she fell into our hearts first playing Sandy in Grease then followed that with memorable roles in Xanadu and Twist of Fate. Olivia even played on our team as a lesbian in Del Shores’ Sordid Lives and in the AIDS drama It’s My Party. She appeared on Glee and most recently as mother in the movie A Few Best Men, where she sings on the soundtrack.
She brings a new cookbook project with her and performs at Market Days in Chicago to get the crowds going this summer.
Jerry Nunn: Hi, Olivia. I just read that you wanted to be a country singer in the beginning.
Olivia Newton-John: Well, I was a country singer but I didn’t plan on being a country singer at all. What happened was my manager and my producer thought my voice suited that kind of music. John Ralston wrote me some country music in fact “If Not For You” that was my very first hit. Then I found myself being a country singer but it is not something I planned at all.
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