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'Purlie' star Melba Moore comes to the Rrazz Room
One afternoon in the late 60s, a 20-something Melba Moore was working a recording gig. "These two hippies, who didn't have sense enough to put on shoes even though they were in a recording studio in New York City, walked in and asked me if I wanted to do Hair . I said, 'Excuse me, but I did not get a Bachelor's Degree in Music to do nobody's hair.'" She laughs long and hard. "I was an educated fool!"
Moore opens at the Rrazz Room at Hotel Nikko this Saturday, and is ringing in the New Year with sistah diva Darlene Love.
Yes, she did the then-infamous Hair nude scene. "I was there when it was created, and it was fun and exciting. We were past previews, and someone on the creative team came up with the idea. At first, it caused something of a breach with the cast. Here we are doing this show about freedom, then we're told we have to do something that we might not like." When the costume-dropping was made optional, the concept was embraced. "As it turned out, eventually most everybody wanted to do it, to experience it, for various reasons."
She stayed with the show for 18 months, eventually inheriting the role of Sheila from an Annie Hall-bound Diane Keaton. "Before Hair, I wasn't really into Broadway. I saw a few shows, but it wasn't a dream for me." A castmate in the show suggested she start auditioning for other shows, if not for the roles, at least for the experience, and told her of an open call for a new show. "That's the spirit in which I went up for Purlie. I didn't know the language – stage right, stage left, nothing – and I got the part!" As Lutiebelle Gussie Mae Jenkins, Moore stopped the show nightly with the joyous "I Feel Love," and picked up a slew of that season's awards, including a Tony for Featured Actress in a Musical.
Flush with success, Moore returned to her first love and launched a recording career that saw multiple Grammy nominations throughout the 70s. She returned to Broadway in Geoffrey Holder's visually exotic but troubled production of Timbuktu! On her co-star Eartha Kitt, Moore demurs. "Let's just say I have better memories of Eartha after the show closed. She was going through some problems, and basically was not a nice person to be around at the time. It was a beautiful show and should have toured and been recorded, but Eartha really slam-dunked it. She killed it. I hope somebody does it again someday."
For her current gig, she's definitely feeling the Love. "We started having fun from the first rehearsal!" she beams. Though this gig marks their duo debut, the ladies have followed a parallel path of early success, a long and painful intermission, and a solid second act. In Moore's case, a sudden divorce left her financially destitute and questioning her future. She is retrospectively pragmatic about that time. "It was the process of going from the mailroom to the CEO position of my life. I have bloomed because I am in control now. You have to be willing to start over again, again and again. I've become a great student."
She's also become a writer and producer, hard at work on the development of Still Standing, an autobiographical musical. "We're taking it on a tour of 13 historically black colleges in Arkansas as a showcase," she says, and is actively seeking collaborators with an eye toward a New York production.
Looking far younger than her 63 years, Moore gives thanks to God, but not without humor. "God has been good to me for a long time," she acknowledges. "He's given me a second chance. He's coming back, you know, and he told me he doesn't want any raggedy, wrinkled-up, nasty-looking divas," she says with a hearty chuckle. A born-again Christian, Moore holds her faith close. "He owns the whole planet. It all belongs to him," she says, the use of personal pronouns emphasizing the intimate relationship she feels. "Those of us who have been given gifts, whatever they may be, are really responsible for doing good things with them. Those of us who have made him first and last make that a [life] study, and we speak about it. With that as my focus, I can go wherever he allows me to go." She admits that showbiz does not frequently create sacred spaces, and reconciling her personal and professional lives can be a challenge. "We have to be the thing that bring sacredness into it, and that's not always religion. We just have to be his emissaries wherever we go."
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