“This show was an idea that started before I was ever nominated for any Tony,” says Kelli O’Hara about her role of Kirsten in “Days of Wine and Roses” that has earned her the eighth Tony Award nomination of her career. The idea to musicalize the 1962 film of the same name came from the actress, when she approached composer Adam Guettel during “the very first workshop of ‘Light in the Piazza’” about writing the score. She shares, “In a way, this particular role and piece have been in my mind along with every other role I’ve played since that time… so that makes it the most special to me.” Watch our exclusive video interview above.
Though it might seem counterintuitive to adapt “Days of Wine and Roses” to the stage as a musical instead of a play, O’Hara said it made perfect sense because she tells “stories so much of the time through music and through song,” adding that when she’s singing, “That’s when I am emoting at my highest level.” The show follows Kirsten Arnesen as she meets PR executive Joe Clay (Brian d’Arcy James) and, though him, gets introduced to alcohol; their subsequent addictions lead them both down dangerous paths. It is an incredibly challenging work in terms of both themes and material, yet the Tony-winning actress says, “It was the easiest thing I’ve ever done.” She attributes that ease to the fact that Guettel wrote the score specifically for her voice. She explains that Kirsten is “a role that not only serves my voice, which Adam did so beautifully for me, but also Craig [Lucas] wrote this character that I could sink my acting teeth into. It was the first time I felt like I was fully me… as an actor and singer.”
WATCH our exclusive video interview with Tony nominee Brian d’Arcy James, ‘Days of Wine and Roses’
In one of the first musical numbers in the show, the gorgeous “There Go I,” Kirsten expresses to Joe that things that are dangerous and hazardous are what thrill her the most. O’Hara believes the song is “the most truthful song there is for an artist to sing” because as performers “there is a bit of danger and risk” in their chosen profession. The actress shares, “What’s so beautiful to me about that song is that as an artist, at least for me, I have an addiction and it is this art, it is this art form, it is doing what I do, it is intoxicating to me, I can’t explain it. There is a literal high that comes to me when I begin a show and take a journey on a stage with a collective group of people in a room.”
“Days of Wine and Roses” often moves from scenes of pure joy to others of devastating drunkenness. In “Evanesce,” for instance, Kirsten and Joe sing and dance while popping bubbly and mix margaritas. As O’Hara describes, “Brian and I as actors felt extreme joy in getting to completely unload and unleash ourselves,” especially because the character’s “don’t see [their] own demise.” To go from that number of such lightness to other ones such as “Underdeath,” which is a low point for Kirsten, the Tony winner said she just needed to “trust that honest, honest material.” She continues, “I was really served by the material. We didn’t need a lot of heavy explaining in our transitions, we just needed to drop in and trust it.”
There is perhaps no scene that better encapsulates that level of trust than the one in which Joe discovers Kirsten on a bender in a motel room. “Talk about vulnerability,” reflect O’Hara. She credits playwright Craig Lucas for giving her this “gift” of a scene, which really feels like a play within the musical. “We’re never given shot like that. We’re given a couple of lines here and there to connect us to the next song,” shares the performer. She calls the monologue “incredibly scary at first, and then it became incredibly joyous because I learned to trust myself.” She also put her trust in scene partner James, who she says she has trusted “for almost 25 years” and who would “catch” her during that scene because “it was never quite the same” performance to performance.
The end of the musical is quite ambiguous and heartbreaking, as Kirsten does not think she can stay sober long enough to reunite with Joe, who has been in a recovery program, and with their daughter. Though the future for Kirsten is uncertain, O’Hara says, “I have to believe in Kirsten, I have to believe in her future and, as a mother, I have to believe in the goodness in her.” After having seen the current revival of Stephen Sondheim’s “Merrily We Roll Along,” the Tony winner also wondered, “What would happen if we told ‘Days of Wine and Roses’ backwards?… What if you saw her demise and then we go back to her hope and potential?… Would it inspire somebody to make better choices?”