Interview 1: Kaye Ballard

## Kaye Ballard Interview

The first interview to be conducted by Adrian D. Holmes in preparation for the release of his album *The Pirates of Penzance: Revamped and Revisited* featured Kaye Ballard, an American stage and film actress. The interview was officially published with the title "A Conversation with Kaye" and is available for purchase in ebook format on Amazon.

## Background

Late in the summer of 2016, Holmes realized that in order to gain much of any serious attention from reputable press outlets around the world, he first needed to secure strategic celebrity attention and, if possible, endorsements for his project. He decided to reach out to various public figures who participated in one of the major productions of *The Pirates of Penzance* in the second half of the twentieth century. Kaye Ballard was the first actor to be contacted and to respond to the call for an interview regarding her experience in the show.

Holmes had previously familiarized himself with Ballard's work after watching a re-run of her appearance on *The Muppet Show*. His knowledge of Ballard bode well for him in his future interactions with the actress while working on *The Pirates of Penzance: Revamped and Revisited*.

## Interview

Ballard and Holmes conducted a telephone interview in the month of August 2016. During their conversation, Ballard agreed to endorse Holmes's album. Through their interaction, Holmes was prompted by Ballard to contact and interview Ballard's fellow *Penzance* co-stars Robby Benson and his wife Karla DeVito, who played the roles of Frederic and Mabel respectively during Ballard's stint in the show.[*citation needed*]

## Highlights

Ballard references multiple actors with whom she became very fond of during her run in *The Pirates*. Maureen McGovern is mentioned affectionately several times in the final web publication of the interview. Ballard claimed she only missed one performance due to sickness in her entire fifty-three-week run in *The Pirates*, whereas McGovern—a professed vegan—purportedly never missed a performance and was never sick.

Ballard states that her personal favorite actor for the character of the Pirate King was Treat Williams; however, she also praised fellow co-star and Pirate King actor Gary Sandy numerous times following the release of the printed interview with Holmes, including on a radio broadcast with Holmes hosted by George Bettinger in December of 2016.

In the interview, Ballard revealed that her favorite song from the show was "When Frederic Was a Little Lad," which is the first song she would sing each night as the character Ruth.

Ballard mentions that she worked with numerous actors who portrayed Frederic and other major characters. The consequence was every night the stage manager announce a new roster of actors each night, shortly before the nightly performance was supposed to begin. This annoyed Ballard to the point that she nicknamed the stage manager "Nurse Ratchet."

## Analysis

It has been suggested by various sources that Treat Williams was not, in fact, able to handle the rigors of the nightly performances of *The Pirates**,* as his role of the Pirate King demanded a consistently high level of athleticism from the respective actor. A critical review published by the *New York Times* in September 1981 went so far as to state that Williams could not do acrobatics and that his performance was "not a successful impersonation, either in terms of skill, energy or concentration." It is believed that for this reason, Williams was replaced by Gary Sandy, who happened to be another one of Ballard's good friends and fellow *Sheba* alumnus, soon after Ballard had been officially added to the roster of *The Pirates*. It is believed that Holmes reached out to Williams for an interview regarding *The Pirates of Penzance;*[*citation needed*] however, no public confirmation of acknowledgment has ever been made by either Holmes or Williams.

It is strongly believed that Holmes's interview with Ballard is the most definitive and in-depth publicly accessible discussion of *The Pirates of Penzance* ever given by the actress. Most, if not all, other published commentary made by the actress regarding the production is scant, barely exceeding more than a sentence or two of acknowledgement. Although alluded to in the Holmes interview, Ballard stated in another interview Broadway journalist Don Grigware that *Penzance* "was the most difficult to do. I talked like a typewriter in that one."

## Reception

Public reception of the interview between Holmes and Ballard was excellent. Within the first week following publication, the interview had been accessed by over 6,000 people according to Facebook Analytics statistics announced by Holmes's public relations team.

## References

1. ↑ Kaye Ballard, "A Conversation with Kaye," interview by Adrian D. Holmes, September 5, 2016, http://www.adriandholmes.com/news--notes/a-conversation-with-kaye.
2. ↑ Jerry Talmer, "No joke: Ballard to be honored by Caring Community," *The Villager*, Vol. 75, No. 23, October 26, 2005, http://thevillager.com/villager\_130/nojokeballardtobe.html.
3. ↑ "Kaye Ballard, Adrian Holmes George Bettinger Show," internet radio interview, *It's Right Here in Miramar*, podcast audio, December 7, 2016, https://audioboom.com/posts/5371807-kaye-ballard-adrian-holmes-george-bettinger-show.
4. ↑ Frank Rich, "Stage: New Cast At The Helm of 'Pirates of Penzance'," *New York Times*, September 30, 1981.
5. ↑ Dan Dietz, *Off Broadway Musicals, 1910 - 2007: Casts, Credits, Songs, Critical Reception and Performance Data of More Than 1,800 Shows* (Jefferson, NC and London: McFarland, 2010), 84.
6. ↑ "2012 Interview with Kaye Ballard," interview by Don Grigware, *Grigware Interviews*, February 28, 2012, https://grigwaretalkstheatre.blogspot.com/2012/02/2012-interview-with-kaye-ballard.html.