Call Redialed: NEW Karen Mason Interview: 30 Years and Counting of Music & Friendship at Birdland Jazz NYC
Aug 02, 2022
Cabaret Icon & Broadway Star Karen Mason has been singing & performing for 30 years. I have been a fan of hers for at least 10 of those 30 years. I’m thrilled every time I get to interview her.
Karen’s concerts have garnered her 14 MAC Awards & 3 Bistro Awards. She has starred on Broadway in Mamma Mia!, Frank Wildhorn's Wonderland, Sunset Boulevard, Hairspray & Jerome Robbins’ Broadway.
Karen lit up the stage in the North American premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Love Never Dies & was most recently featured in Ryan Murphy’s Halston on Netflix.
In this NEW interview, Karen once again answered my call, but this time around she shares:
- Celebrating her 30-year musical collaboration & friendship with music director Christopher Denny
- How she & Christopher began working together
- When she realized Christopher was the right musical director for her
- Key ingredients that kept their partnership strong for three decades
- A time when Christopher helped her sing through a difficult situation
- Special moments & details audiences should watch for in this concert
- The piece she is most excited to share with the audience at this show
- How she & Christopher brainstorm new projects together
- A dream project that's been in the works, but not fully finished
- So much more
Connect with Karen: Website, Facebook, Instagram
On Monday, August 8, 2022 Karen will celebrate her 30-Year friendship & collaboration with Musical Director Christopher Denny.
The evening will highlight some of their favorite arrangements including “Help/Being Alive,” “Watch What Happens/I Will Wait for You,” “Pick Yourself Up” + a few surprises.
1. This August you are celebrating your three decade collaboration with musical director Christopher Denny. How did you & Christopher first come to meet? Three Decades!! Wow! It feels like yesterday!
First, you need to know that my first Music Director, Brian Lasser, was very sick with AIDS, in and out of hospitals in 1990-1992. I had a few cabaret jobs that were for Brian and me, but sometimes he just couldn’t do the gigs. So, the one where Chris and I began working together with my act was August 5, 1992 at The Russian Tea Room.
Now, I first met Chris when I did a Hearts and Voices show at a hospital in NY. Hearts and Voices was an incredible organization that put on shows for patients and families in AIDS wards during the ‘80s and ‘90s. I really liked working with him. And Brian really loved how Chris played...so he seemed like the right choice.
I don’t know if I ever told Chris that Brian admired his playing. But it was enough for me. And knowing how difficult it was for Brian at that time, and yet be so loving to me......you see how lucky I have been in my life to work with beautiful human beings.
2. How long after meeting, did you know Christopher was the musical director you needed to have on your team? After Brian died, I worked with a few people. I did not want to be with any one MD [Musical Director]. It would hurt too much to have that connection again. Oh well, here we are 30 years later.
I guess it was fairly close after coming back to NY from LA doing Sunset Boulevard, that Chris and I started working together all the time. And during that time, brought in my Director of almost 30 years, Barry Kleinbort! So much for not getting too close again!!
3. What has been the secret to your longevity together? I don’t know if it is a secret. I think we love working with each other! We both respect each other deeply. And are family, in the best way!
My relationship with Chris, and with Barry, is based on love and respect. We laugh a lot and really listen to each other. Rehearsal with those two is absolutely the best!
My husband says we talk for an hour and rehearse for 30 minutes!! It is that knowing and sharing that makes the music so wonderful.
Karen Mason
Photo Credit: Gene Reed Photography
4. If you had to pick one song that you sing, to describe Christopher, what song would that be? That is a tough question! What comes to mind is “It Had to Be You.” Cuz......it did!
5. What has been one of your biggest musical mishaps to happen in the last 30 years while working with Christopher? One of my favorite stories....but since I am telling it at the show on August 8 at Birdland, I don’t want to give it away. But it is an amazing story! Come see the show to hear it!
6. One arrangement you will be singing in this upcoming concert is "Pick Yourself Up." When was there a time Christopher had to help you "Pick Yourself Up" to keep singing? I do love that arrangement! It just makes me so happy to sing. And with the Barry Kleinbort additional lyrics, makes it just mine!
You know, there have been times when life has been very complicated. I found out my Dad had cancer while doing shows in San Francisco. Having Chris there at the piano helped me to focus on the music at hand. And lose myself in the show, and the music and being with my friend, Chris. Performers do it all the time.
Karen Mason
Photo Credit: Christopher Boudewyns
7. What is something audiences should watch for in this concert? Just come and celebrate something good in this world! We live in a very disposable world. Come celebrate a friendship, musical and honesty!
8. What is something you can't wait to share with the audience in this concert? There is a parody Barry wrote for me when Wonderland closed....we had to do one of Barry’s parodies he has written for me. Such a brilliant, funny man!
9. Was there ever a time you were in a theatrical show that you asked Christopher for his opinion on any of the songs your character had to sing? I am sure I have! I value his opinion.....but I can’t think of one right now. He probably remembers.
10. Where is your favorite place for you and Christopher to brainstorm about upcoming projects together? His apartment! Barry, Chris, and I spend hours on shows. Discussing songs we want to do, show orders, patter! And rehearsing! Of course, all the hours of rehearsal! All joyful and hard work!
11. What is one project you and Christopher have talked about doing together, but hasn't happened yet? Well, we did a presentation of my show Unfinished Business a few times. We would love to have a real production of it!
It is such a beautiful piece about what happens when you lose someone in your life....and we use mostly the music of Brian Lasser, and one of Paul’s songs.
It is, to me, such a full circle event! Brian, Chris (Music Supervisor), Barry (co-writer and Director), Paul and me. Absolutely heaven!
More Karen Mason Interviews:
2026 (Read Here): Celebrating Life at 75 with Broadway Baby
2024 (Read Here): Celebrating The Music of Kander & Ebb
2021 (Listen Here): Lessons Learned From Broadway, Cabaret & Beyond
2021 (Listen Here): Leaning Into Her Broadway & Cabaret Legacy
2017 (Read Here): It's About Time
2015 (Read Here): Coming Home with Mason at Mama's
2011 (Read Here): Ruling Broadway as The Queen of Hearts in Wonderland
Karen Mason
Photo Credit: Gene Reed Photography
More on Karen Mason:
Karen Mason was recently seen playing “Mrs. Marsh” on Ryan Murphy’s Halston on Netflix.
On tour, Karen was last seen as “Madame Giry” in the North American premiere of Love Never Dies (Andrew Lloyd Webber’s epic sequel to The Phantom of the Opera).
On Broadway, she starred in Wonderland, Mamma Mia!, Sunset Boulevard, Hairspray & Jerome Robbins’ Broadway.
In regional theater, Karen starred in Chasing Rainbows (Paper Mill Playhouse), A Christmas Story as Miss Shields; White Christmas (St. Louis Muni Opera); Side by Side by Sondheim (Coconut Grove Playhouse in Florida); Gypsy (Sundance Theatre in California); Company (Huntington Theatre in Boston).
Off-Broadway, she won the Outer Critics Circle Award for her performance in And The World Goes ‘Round.
Karen is a 14-time MAC Award winner, and was the recipient of the 2019 MAC Lifetime Achievement Award. She also won 3 Bistro Awards. Her eight recordings include the single “It’s About Time,” written by Paul Rolnick and Shelly Markham; her 2009 MAC Award-winning Right Here/ Right Now, The Sweetest of Nights, When the Sun Comes Out, Christmas! Christmas! Christmas!, Better Days (featuring the 1998 Emmy Award-winning song “Hold Me”); and Not So Simply Broadway.
She is featured on the original Broadway cast recording for Wonderland (original cast); the studio cast recording of Wonderful Town (JAY Records); the cast album of And The World Goes ‘Round (RCA Victor) & on the soundtrack to the film Jeffrey (Varese Sarabande).
