This was the first time I had a chance to really talk with Carolee and it was such a thrill for me. She's an amazingly talented actress and I had heard so many wonderful things about her. We spoke late one night after a performance while she was waiting for her husband, Gregg Edelman, to finish up for the night as Javert in Les Miz. We were both tired so we ended up sitting on the floor while she signed posters for Broadway Cares.

NR: Can you tell me a little bit about where you grew up?

CC: I grew up in Albany, New York, not too far from you guys. I even stayed there for college. I went to State University of New York in Albany and got my degree in Business Administration.

NR: Really? What were you planning to do with your life?

CC: I think I was planning to be some sort of corporate personnel manager. I always thought I'd work for some large corporation and do some sort of "people-related" thing. I never wanted to be a computer engineer, although I had to take stuff like that in school. I thought I'd be in the corporate world somewhere or go to law school.

NR: So what happened?

CC: I was a senior in college and someone offered me a job in a local dinner theater. Do you know where Lake George is?

NR: Sure. (Lake George is a resort community outside of Albany.)

CC: There was a dinner theater and a guy offered me a job, having seen me do a community theater thing in Albany. It was an Equity theater and I said, "What's Equity?" I didn't even know what it was and he explained it to me. I had been doing community theater while I was in college, and he said, "If you want to ever do this professionally, then you need to join this union. If you don't want to be a professional actor, then you shouldn't, because it will prevent you from doing other things." So, I kind of stood there and said, "Oh. Let me think about this." I thought I would try it for the summer and see how I felt. I decided that it would be the kind of thing that I would always regret if I didn't try it and get it out of my system for a year. I really never thought I'd be doing it this long. I just thought I'd move to New York, find out it was too hard, and then go home and go to law school.

NR: (laughing) And you didn't.

CC: No, I didn't. I just kept being fortunate enough to get jobs, and work with really good people. One thing would lead to another. I was just sort of waiting for that time when I would say, "This isn't working out." I always told myself that if I made a living I would keep doing it and so I kept making a living.

NR: Do you know Bob Cuccioli?

CC: Just socially.

NR: I went to college with him and he was a business major also.

CC: Was he? I didn't know that.

NR: He was a finance major who worked on Wall Street for three years.

CC: Really? I didn't know that about him.

NR: He did community theater and the same thing happened to him. It's a very similar story to yours. Someone kind of talked him into it and he said the same thing, that he would regret it if he didn't try.

CC: I always envisioned myself at 55 thinking, "If I had moved to New York that summer, I would have been a big star!"

NR: You did Marguerite in the early readings.

CC: I did, yes. I did all of the pre-Broadway presentations.

NR: How has Marguerite changed since then?

CC: Not a whole lot actually. Not too much. The character itself has remained pretty much the same. It's just the arrangement of material that has been different - what's sung where. When I did it, it was the older version - the first version with "Guillotine" and "Vivez" and all the material that was in there before. I never sang "I'll Forget You." There were things that were different about the show but the character was pretty much the same.

NR: What attracted you to come back to it?

CC: I think some sense of completion. I was just coming off of Parade and I was offered this job. It was really good timing and I thought, "This would be a nice way to complete my experience with the show" because I had always felt that I had been a part of the early stages and the creation of it, and yet had never been able to do it in production. I thought it would be fun. I always loved the music. I loved singing those songs. I'm glad I did it. It's really been a fun experience.

NR: You're actually the third Marguerite I've interviewed, after Jessica (Phillips) and Rachel (York.) How do you describe your Marguerite?

CC: Oh....old.

NR: (laughing) Nobody ever said that before!

CC: (laughing) I'm feeling very old tonight. I have a four year old daughter and she wore me out today and I'm trying to be glamourous and a "French actress/star" and I'm thinking, "I'm too old for this." (seriously) Let's see - how would I describe her? I guess I would hope she's smart and feisty and gritty. That's the only thing that I really feel like...if it's at all different from the other two women who I thought were wonderful. (I never saw Jessica do it but I bet she was great too). I did see Christine (Andreas) and Rachel do it and they were both wonderful. People have their own attacks on things. I've always felt like Marguerite's a little more from the gutter. She clawed her way up and then she was this big star. She married this aristocrat, but really underneath she was this middle to lower class girl who's got a lot of grit.

NR: What I noticed you do differently, which is very interesting, is in the "Storybook" reprise. It's a very different take when you're joining in the dance. You look a little more scared and nervous. Rachel did that number very angry and I've noticed that you approach it differently. I like it. It's very interesting.

CC: Everyone has their own take.

NR: That's right and I love seeing that. I love seeing someone take something and turn it around so you think, "Oh, that works too."

CC: It's interesting because you can take the same material and the same costumes and yet it somehow tells the story differently. I always find that fascinating too. That's why I love when understudies go on. They're in the same clothes and they're saying the same lines, but it's completely different, which is fun.

NR: Marguerite doesn't have a lot of light moments, but this is a much lighter show than Parade was.

CC: True.

NR: Do you enjoy one type of a show more than the other?

CC: I think I like the opportunity to go back and forth. I think if you do too much of the sort of light entertainment, you start to feel like, "What does it all mean?" And, if you do too much of the really heavy, "artsy" stuff... (laughing) you never make enough money.

NR: (laughing) Well, that's a good point.

CC: And, you also don't reach the same numbers of people, because the audience for a show like that is that kind of "inside-theater people, New York, that artsy-fartsy kind of show" that some people really love, and the people that come to this show couldn't care less about. It's really lucky if you can go back and forth so you can appeal to the masses and appeal to the elite theater crowd. I like to go back and forth if I can between mediums too, if people will let me.

NR: Scarlet Pimpernel has just announced that they're closing, and you had to deal with Parade closing. How do you get through things like that? That must be hard.

CC: It is hard. It's devastating. When I went through that whole thing with Parade, I think that was the hardest that I've ever been through, because I had been involved since the very early stages. I had so much invested in it and I felt so much a part of the whole process of making the show happen. This will be hard because I really enjoy the show and I really enjoy the people, but because I wasn't involved all the way along, I don't think it will wreck me emotionally as much as that did. But you just hope that something else will come along to distract you, and it usually does. Sometimes you have to wait awhile. Usually some project comes and you think, "Oh, that will be fun." It's like a new boyfriend. (laughs) It takes awhile, you mourn for a little while, and then you say, "Oh, he's cute."

NR: Tell me a little more about Parade. What about all those awards and the Tony nomination?

CC: Oh, it was so exciting and heartbreaking at the same time because we weren't running anymore. Every time the show was recognized in some sort of award or nomination I was just so sad that we weren't still doing the show. I think all that attention would have brought more audience in and maybe it would have been running a little longer. But it was so exciting. The night of the Drama Desk Awards when...and it's still unbelievable to me that I tied with Bernadette Peters because I was SURE that she was going to win. My husband was telling me on the way in, "You'd better write something just in case. I have a feeling." I kept saying, "No. Honey, will you stop? I'm NOT going to win." He kept saying, "I don't know. I have a feeling." I was totally shocked. It was so exciting. There's nothing like that when you're sitting in an audience and they call your name out. You wait for that all your life. It was really cool and it was fun to be at the Tony awards and to perform because we were reunited - the cast members that did perform on the show that night. It was bittersweet.

NR: Are you interested in doing the Parade tour?

CC: You know, we're talking about it now. As I mentioned I have a four year old so it would be very hard. It's hard to tour. I used to do a lot of touring when I was younger and not married. Now that I have a family, it just disrupts everything. Gregg will probably stay with Les Miz for a little while and my daughter Zoe's in pre-school and she'll be starting kindergarten in the fall. I would love to do the show again but I have a feeling it's going to have logistical problems.

NR: I'm just wondering when she starts to get older, it's going to be hard for both of you, because when she gets home from school you're leaving for work.

CC: Yeah, that's true. There are a lot of actors that have kids but usually what happens is one of them decides to stay home for awhile. We haven't come to that point yet. I don't know what's going to happen.

NR: Would you like to do some TV shows? You're not doing Remember WENN anymore, are you?

CC: No, they didn't pick it up for that last season. They did four seasons altogether and I did three of them. Then they did this big cliff hanger which was Pearl Harbor at the end and AMC decided not to do it anymore. We were all so mad because it was such a good show.

NR: Would you like to do some TV?

CC: Yeah, totally.

NR: Would it have to be locally?

CC: No, even if it was out in L.A. My husband and I have been out there twice now for pilot season work - you know, all the actors flock out to try to get the TV jobs. It's such a nice job if you can get a sitcom. It's an easy schedule and very high paying. If one of us got one we'd probably just move out there.

NR: Is it tough without the audience?

CC: You do have an audience with a sitcom. We didn't with Remember WENN. That was sort of shot like a movie. It was one camera and it was a lot more strenuous, but a sitcom is quick. They rehearse it for three days and then the last day they shoot it in front of an audience so you get that sense of laughter and response. That's the gig. That's what I'm looking for.

NR: Do you think it's easier or harder that both you and Gregg are actors?

CC: Oh...it's both. It's easier because we understand what each of us is going through and if there are jobs that he doesn't get, I know exactly how devastated he is. Right now, we're on the same schedule. I know other couples where one of them is an actor and one of them is an accountant or something like that, and they don't have as much trouble with childcare but they never see each other. One is working all day and then they switch off. They get to say, "Good-bye. I'll see you tomorrow." It's easier for us because we get to spend time together, but it's also harder because this business is so precarious and you can never plan anything. You can never say, "OK, I've reached a certain level and now I'm sure I'll have a job in the next few months and we won't have to worry about where the next paycheck is coming from" because you always do. My husband's been nominated for three Tony awards and he's pretty well established as far as theater goes, and yet he went a good nine or ten months last year not working.

NR: Would you encourage your daughter to be an actress?

CC: I would not encourage her, but I know how it is to want to do something, so I'd let her do it. Hopefully she'll want to do something else.

NR: What do you think? Do you think she may be interested? I know it's hard to tell if she's that young.

CC: She's very theatrical but it may also be because she sees us do it all the time. She's never done anything on her own yet. She's never performed, but she's backstage all the time. She's traveled with us and she sits in rehearsals sometimes.

NR: How about the two of you? Have you performed together often?

CC: Yeah, actually we've had quite a few opportunities, before and after we were married. We met doing a show. We met at City of Angels but we didn't really know each other because he was the lead and I was in the chorus. Then we did a show together up at Goodspeed - a musical of the movie Arthur, the Dudley Moore movie.

NR: (incredulous) That was a musical?

CC: (laughing) Yeah. It was really good actually. It never made it into town but it was a really good show. We did that show together. We did Falsettos together on the road. We did 1776 on Broadway last year.

NR: Do you like working together, or is it a little too much time together?

CC: I like it, but I think there is something to be said for having your separate time. It's great because whenever we're working together we know we're on the same schedule, which doesn't always happen. We also know that we both have a paycheck so it's always nice when we're both working. (laughs) Yeah, I do like working with him. He's really fun to be with.

NR: You have a huge fan base that follows you.

CC: Really?

NR: I don't know if you're ever reading on the Internet...

CC: Never.

NR: Parade has a tremendous fan base on the Internet. A lot of them came to this show to see you. You didn't know that?

CC: No. I have so little time when I get home. Sometimes my husband will go and check his stocks or something on the Internet, but I so rarely go on the computer unless I'm playing a Disney game with my daughter. I never have time to do it. I've had a couple people tell me that they've done websites of me and I haven't even had a chance to look at them all.

NR: I was wondering if that prepared you for the League.

CC: Not at all. I have to say that the fans for this show are unlike anything that I've ever experienced in any other show. Of course, I wasn't in Jekyll & Hyde, and the first I experienced it was in Texas because I had never performed the show in front of an audience before. People were coming from all over the country to Dallas and Houston, saying things like, "We came from Ohio. We had to see the show." I would look at them and say (disbelieving), "You flew all the way from Ohio - to see the show?" There were a lot of people who did that. Some said they had flown down from Boston, and I said, "The show's going to be in New York in a month!" They said, "We couldn't wait. We had to see it." It was amazing. They were so enthusiastic and so passionate about the show, so crazy about it. It's great because when you're on stage you can really feel that. It's so nice to be in a show that people really respond to.

NR: What do you do when you're not working?

CC: Chase my daughter around. Let me see, what else do I do? It's mostly about my daughter because these are kind of long hours, especially on a two show day. When I'm home I try to spend time with her when I can. She's a great kid so I don't like to do too many other things. But I did get to sing for the First Lady on Monday. That was exciting. It was really cool. That's the perk of being in a business like this.

NR: What roles would you still like to play?

CC: The one that I finally did get to play right before I came here, (which I would love to do again) is Ella in Bells Are Ringing. (Note: Carolee won the L.A. Ovation Award for Best Actress in this role.) It was so much fun and I would love to do it again. Those things are short and it was only three weeks. I would do anything to do that show again. The other one that I always, always wanted to do, but I'm probably too old for it now, is My Fair Lady. I just feel like it's kind of passed me now unless I do it in some out of the way theater somewhere where they figure that they would give me the chance. It's just one of those parts when you're growing up you just say, "Oh, I want to play that part."

NR: Well, maybe there's someone out there who would love to offer it to you. Thank you so much.

CC: You're welcome.

Underneath it all, I suppose Carolee is just a "working mom" like many of the rest of us. OK, she's a working mom who gets standing ovations, but a working mom nonetheless. I thoroughly enjoyed speaking with her and I love to see her perform. I wish her the best of luck in the future, and I think the business world's loss was most definitely our gain.

Questions suggested by:

Shanda, Andrew Reith, Jaime, Renee Girard, Jessica Parker, Nathan R. Brainard, Farin, Catherine, Wendy Gibb, Alejandro Luciani, karen k., Will, Erin White, Chris Miller, CJL, Kiersten Scarpati, Dee Koudsi, Bec Finkelstein, Jan Combopiano