For These Broadway Veterans, the Show Must Go On… and On and On

Angie Schworer, Brian O’Brien and Patricia Phillips on their 25-plus-year careers in musical theatre

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Classically trained singer Phillips, who’s currently in the ensemble of Sweeney Todd, recalls that casting directors didn’t know what to make of her when she was starting out decades ago. As a biracial woman, she had “dark curly hair in the era of Marcia Brady,” she says with a laugh.

Now that she’s a real-life grandma (“Grangie” as she jokingly calls herself), she enjoys dispensing advice to her juniors—”Always say yes to everything that comes your way and don’t ever pigeonhole yourself!”—and getting together with her peers from shows past. “My besties include Jerry Mitchell, Cady Huffman and the Will Rogers Follies girls, we text one another all the time,” she says. “We’re like a family because we’ve watched kids grow up and people get married and so on.”

Phillips, whose real-life son David is in his twenties, has similar maternal instincts when it comes to her much younger castmates. “I drive them crazy. ‘Do you need help? Need a Band-Aid?'” she says, chuckling. “Being a mom has made me take caregiving to the next level.” It’s even factored into the backstory she came up with for her nameless Sweeney Todd character. “Her name is Phoebe Smith, she’s a single mom like me, her child has grown, and she still has to take care of herself,” Phillips says. “She cleans and cooks for people, hard manual labor.”

Although they’re thankful to be doing eight shows a week, all three interviewees agree that they’re slowing down. But they’re not yet ready to hang up their dancing shoes. In fact, they’re still learning new tricks… and steps.

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TDF MEMBERS: At press time, discount tickets were available for Some Like It Hot. Meanwhile, Chicago is frequently available at our TKTS Booths.

Top image: Angie Schworer in Some Like It Hot. Photo by Matthew Murphy.