by Frank O’Donnell
Lauren Gemelli is very excited about her upcoming appearance at the Providence Performing Arts Center. “I can’t believe I’m doing PPAC,” she said during our recent phone interview. “I went to shows there growing up.”
The Norwell, Massachusetts native will be in town with the touring company of “Chicago,” opening May 2. She’s been on the road with the tour since 2015, and it’s taken her across the country and to international stops like Japan.
“I started auditioning for this show in 2008,” she said. In that first audition, “they kept me til the bitter end, but ended up not using me.” She said she recently checked her calendar, and found that between open calls, callbacks, final callbacks and workshops, she’s been seen by the show’s producers a dozen times. “The last time was on my grandmother’s birthday, October 16, in 2015.” Her grandmother passed away in 2008.
“I was working in DC in ‘Oliver’ when my agent called and asked if I could be excused from rehearsal on a Wednesday” to go to another ‘Chicago’ audition in New York. “She told me there was a good shot I would book this.”
So she got excused, and took the overnight bus to New York. “I was there at 9:30, all dolled up. They kept me all day. They’d seen me as Velma and Mama Morton, so they gave me other parts.” When she left the audition, “I didn’t think I’d booked it. I couldn’t quite get a read of the room,” but she wasn’t confident.
A week later, she got a text at the hotel she was staying at with her cast and crew from “Oliver!” “We were watching ‘American Horror Story.’ It was 11PM. My agent asked where I was, and I was thinking something was wrong. She texted that she was going to call me.”
Lauren’s agent was calling with good news. “She said, ‘I just found out you booked the tour.’ I was floored. I sat down and started crying.”
Then she had a difficult decision. “Do I accept, and leave the contract and show I was doing? Do I take this seven-month contract that would take me to Japan, doing a show I’ve dreamed of doing since I was a kid?”
Her bullet points, which can serve as a guidepost for others in the business, are simple. “I auditioned a lot. It was a long time coming. And I’m very thankful.”
She’s playing the character of Liz, one of the six merry murderesses in the show’s “Cell Block Tango.” “That’s her name, but I call her Pop, since that’s her sound in the song.”
Lauren’s also the understudy for Velma Kelly and Mama Morton. At the beginning of April, she went on as Velma for the first time in Washington. “That was crazy. Tara, our regular Velma, had a bout of laryngitis. Physically, she was fine, but she couldn’t speak. She needed vocal rest.”
She says it’s unusual to get a break like that. She ended up playing Velma for the whole weekend. “I got to learn a lot between each show. My dance captain and stage manager would come to me with little fixes. Each time, I would check a little something off my list.”
What made the whole thing even more exciting was working opposite Brandi as Roxy Hart. “She is as sweet and kind as you can imagine. And she was my rock, all weekend. She would take my hand; say ‘I’m so proud of you.’ She was my cheerleader.”
She’s looking forward to her return to Rhode Island. She’s been in six productions with the Ocean State Theatre Company, counting one at Theatre By The Sea (“The Sound of Music”) and five at the company’s venue on Jefferson Boulevard in Warwick (“42nd Street,” “Guys & Dolls,” “Damn Yankees” and “Meet Me in Saint Louis” as an actress and dancer, and “The Addams Family” as assistant choreographer). She also worked at Trinity Rep in “Oliver!”
Lauren’s contracted with the show until this summer. “We’re in the US until May 14, then we’re going to Seoul, South Korea for two months, and then Tokyo for two weeks.” After that, if they ask her to continue with the show, she’ll “say yes in a heartbeat.”
[“Chicago” runs May 2 through May 7 at the Providence Performing Arts Center. Call 401.421.ARTS or visit www.ppacri.org for tickets and information.]
