Interview with the multi-Tony Award nominated actress, Kate Baldwin. She is currently starring as Dorothy Brock in the Goodspeed Opera House’s production of 42nd Street (click here for my review). We talk about the musical and her appearances in the Broadway shows, Finian’s Rainbow, Big Fish, and the starry revival of Hello, Dolly! that starred Bette Midler. Musical selections included.
KATE BALDWIN starred as Irene Molloy opposite Bette Midler, David Hyde Pierce and Gavin Creel in the hit Broadway revival of Hello, Dolly!, for which she was nominated for the Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critic’s Circle awards. She originated the role of Sandra Bloom in Big Fish on Broadway and earned accolades and a Drama Desk Award nomination for her work as Leslie Lyntonn Benedict in Michael John LaChiusa’s Giant at The Public Theatre. She received a Drama Desk Award nomination for her role as Jen in Keen Company’s 20th Anniversary revival of Andrew Lippa and Tom Greenwald’s John & Jen. She garnered critical acclaim and a Lucille Lortel Award nomination for Tom Kitt and John Logan’s Superhero at Second Stage.
But it was her starring role in the 2009 revival of Yip Harburg’s and Burton Lane’s hit classic musical Finian’s Rainbow, which drew Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critic’s Circle Award nominations and put her on the map as “a real musical theatre star.” (New York Post)
Kate has appeared in the Broadway casts of The Full Monty, Thoroughly Modern Millie and Wonderful Town. She starred in The King and I at Lyric Opera of Chicago Irving Berlin’s White Christmas (San Francisco, Detroit, Toronto), The Women at The Old Globe, Henry V at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, I Do, I Do at Westport Country Playhouse, She Loves Me at the Willliamstown Theatre Festival, and The Music Man and South Pacific at Arena Stage, earning a Helen Hayes Award nomination.
She has performed in concert with the New York Pops, Boston Pops, National Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Portland Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Chicago Symphony, the American Songbook series at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center and at the legendary New York nightclubs Feinstein’s, Birdland and 54 Below. Her concert work also includes several appearances with Stephen Sondheim as a featured performer in his critically acclaimed evening, “A Conversation with Stephen Sondheim.” On television, her work includes a guest star on NBC’s “Law & Order: SVU” and a featured role in the PBS filming of Stephen Sondheim’s “Passion.”
Kate’s debut album on PS Classics, “Let’s See What Happens” features Lane and Harburg songs from both stage and film. Her second album celebrates the work of lyricist Sheldon Harnick and is entitled, “She Loves Him”. She is a graduate of Northwestern University and lives with her husband and son in Maplewood, NJ.