In 1997, a hauntingly beautiful and richly uncommon musical called Side Show opened on Broadway to critical acclaim. The show was based on the lives of Violet and Daisy Hilton, the famous conjoined real life twins who were headliners and best paid performers in the 1930s vaudeville circuit. The Hiltons also starred in the 1932 cult film Freaks.
Emily Skinner and Alice Ripley played the sisters who desperately longed for love, acceptance and an individual identity while dealing with the constraints of their bodies. They were so convincingly physically connected and synchronized some people actually thought they were somehow glued together. And yet each actress managed to make her character astonishingly unique. As the title of The New York Times review declared, “With Restraint, Illuminating The Freak In Everyone.”
In fact, Skinner and Ripley made history becoming the first women to be co-nominated for a Best Actress Tony Award for a musical. (Norm Lewis, the current Phantom of the Opera on Broadway and Hugh Panaro, who played the Phantom just before him, also made up the cast along with Jeff McCarthy, Ken Jennings and a plethora of talented performers).
17 years later, this past November, Side Show came back to Broadway. This time, Emily Padgett and Erin Davie were joined at the hips playing Daisy and Violet Hilton. Bill Condon, known for directing the films Dreamgirls and Gods and Monsters made his Broadway directorial debut with Side Show. And once again, this quietly daring show about the grave desire to feel human in a misunderstanding world was lauded by critics as the musical not to be missed.
Consider some of Side Show’s lyrics written by Bill Russell (Henry Krieger composed the music)
“You should be loved
By someone who knows you
Wants you to blossom
Always is true
You should be cherished
Like the first sign of springtime
You should be loved
You should be loved
With constant devotion
Heart-pounding passion
Flooding you through
You should be treasured
Like a ruby or a diamond
You should be loved in the way
I love you”
And
“Like a fish plucked from the ocean
Tossed into a foreign stream
Always knew that I was different
Often fled into a dream
I ignored the raging current
Right against the tide I swam
But I floated with the question
Who will love me as I am?”
Sadly, the highly competitive Broadway season with so many shows vying for ticket buyers proved to be too challenging for this tender show. Side Show will play its final performance later this week. The new cast recording will be released on Broadway Records in early 2015. “We know Side Show will live on in the hearts of its fans and Broadway lore,” said its producers in a statement.
Emily Padgett who plays Daisy Hilton shared the joys and challenges of playing a conjoined twin and what it’s like to be part of such a uniquely special production.
When did you first learn about Side Show?
Emily Padgett: I knew Side Show based on the original cast album. I had never seen a production of it. I never read a script. I just knew it was this cult musical. I knew the score and about Alice Ripley’s and Emily Skinner’s performances. That was the extent until I auditioned.
Have you connected with Alice Ripley and Emily Skinner?
Emily Padgett: We have. Alice came to our first preview and brought the original poster from their Side Show cast. Emily is out of town doing Mame {at The Virginia Repertory Theatre}. She sent us a video message over email for our opening night and offered her love and words of encouragement.
Erin and I and Emily and Alice are the only 4 women on Broadway to really experience what it’s like to go through rehearsals, previews and performances attached to someone. They are almost like our older sisters. They blazed a trail for the show. A lot of people know Side Show from the recording. What Emily and Alice did with their voices made it possible for it to come back. Because people were so enamored with the first production, they made it possible for us to be welcomed with open arms. To have their support, saying, ‘You can do it. We love you. We believe in you. Go out there and tell the story,’ is really lovely.
Wasn’t Erin Davie involved in this Side Show production early on?
Emily Padgett: Erin was involved in a reading back in 2008. The director, Bill Condon, wanted to move forward with the musical but he had some film commitments. It took about five years for him to come back to it. He knew he wanted to keep Erin for Violet but he needed a Daisy. He was hoping to find one that would match her and had a bunch of auditions. Also you have to cast a pair, so they also looked at different Violet/Daisy combinations just in case they couldn’t find anyone for Erin. Luckily they found me. I was cast and have been involved in the show for over a year.
Do you and Erin have pre-show rituals that you do together?
Emily Padgett: We usually have voice lessons together with Liz Caplan which lasts about an hour. We don’t actually sing. We do a lot of vocal exercises. When you’re connected to someone like we are in the show, inevitably your body sort of contorts to make a believable conjoined twin. So it’s hard getting back to zero, making sure we don’t have any tension – because that can really affect your voice. We work on keeping our body alignment and make sure we’re loose in our hips and our shoulders. We start with breathing exercises. And then we do a series of exercises that might seem odd. Each one is designed to lift the soft palate or create space in the mouth or get it more connected to make sure that the vibrato is even. We actually snort before we do a vocal warm up because it creates space in the mouth. If someone heard us warming up they would think, what are those girls doing?
Also, our dressing rooms are right next door to each other, so we get dressed together before the show. We check in with one another to see how we’re feeling. We’re two actresses playing two characters. But it’s such a collaboration and important that we blend. If she’s feeling one way or tired, I have to pick up the slack a little and vice versa. We really make sure we’re there for each other.
You and Erin are so in sync — you dance joined together. And yet your characters are very different in the show.
Emily Padgett: It’s actually not as hard as you think. Our legs are so similar from hips to knee to toe so our strides are really the same. That makes a big difference because out steps are similar. We’ve been doing the show for a year {at the La Jolla Playhouse and the Kennedy Center}. We worked out our kinks in terms of going up stairs, which can be difficult. But it’s actually easier than it seems. Figuring out shoulders in front and the inside arm took a little finessing. Basically, whoever is the most dominant one in the scene will take the lead. Now we don’t really think about it anymore.
Your boyfriend, Brandt Martinez, is also on Broadway in Aladdin.
Emily Padgett: It’s really great. He understands all the demands of the business. It’s also nice to have the same day off and our schedules are the same. After our shows end, he usually walks over to my theater and we take the train home. We met when we toured in the musical Flash Dance together. He’s a sweet, sweet guy who is kind, supportive and makes me laugh. He smiles with his eyes.
Brandt comes more from the dance world and is an amazing dancer. He actually helped me with my dancing in Flash Dance because I played Alex {the lead role} and come from the singing world. I dance but not to the extent that he does. He really trained me for that show. He gives me tips on movement. I help him with singing. We’re all about learning and making sure we can be the best we can be singing, dancing and acting.
What inspired you to become a performer?
Emily Padgett: I love to sing but I was actually very nervous to sing as a child. So I would have to perform and pretend to be someone else to make the nerves go away. My parents would say that I would zip myself up into whoever I was playing or into the performance cocoon when I was younger and in middle school. I just loved acting through song even before I really knew what musicals were. Then through high school I did musicals and a lot of community theater. The first show that I ever did was The Pajama Game in high school in North Carolina. I played Poopsie and was one of the dancers in the number “Steam Heat.” I drank the Kool-Aid. I was hooked. I loved the whole process of rehearsal and putting on shows, the community of it, top to bottom. I wanted to be on Broadway
For more information about Side Show visit SideShowBroadway.com.
