--Real Housewives of Atlanta star Kandi Burruss is already having a crazy busy
2018 having just wrapped up a 22-City reunion tour with her R&B group
Xscape, while the tenth season of Housewives currently airs on Bravo
and now the Grammy winner is starring as Countess of the clink Matron Mama Morton
in Broadway's Chicago. Burruss stopped by her studio to chat about leaving the Big
Peach and making her Broadway debut in the Big Apple.
--Kandi, thank you so much for joining us.
--Well thanks for having me. --Of course. I'm so excited to chat with
you. You, welcome to Broadway!
--Thank you! --Tell me a little bit about what
made you want to do this? What brought you to Broadway?
--Well, I have been wanting to do Broadway all my life. Since I was in high school I
always wanted to do it, but you know at for whatever reason, I didn't pursue it
as hard as I should have, I guess, but now the opportunity has come and I'm so
excited. It it was kind of a fluke. I had to
audition for a TV musical, and they wanted me to sing a Broadway song, so I
sang the Mama Morton song on tape.
--When You're Good to Mama
--Yeah, and they sent it. My agent sent it in, but then he came back and was
like you know what I loved it so much I sent it to the company, Chicago. And
then they called us said they wanted to see me, so it was like yes!
--So surprised
and everything. Nailed it right out the gate. And Matron Mama Morton is just one
of the best characters in the show When You're Good to Mama is one of the best
songs in my opinion in the show. What do you love about singing that song?
--I love
that song. That song is like for me especially at the end when you get to
really put your own spin in the ending and give it that grr. You know but
it's it's really cool because you know you're basically giving the message of
who this woman is all in one song, you know and so it's just great song but
then it tells part of the story, which is awesome.
-- Yeah and what is what's your
interpretation of this character? What what have you brought from Kandi into
Matron Mama Morton?
--Well overall you know Mama Morton is she's she runs the ship.
-- Yeah, yeah. Keeper of the keys. -- I you know
basically I tried to make her strong. She's strong. I want you to see that from
the jump that she's strong. She runs stuff but then I get giddy every time
it's a mention of me being able to get paid for girls. Oh, you know if you wanna ehhh
give me some of that moolah. Yeah so it's kind of a fun
character because it's like yeah she's
stern, but then at the same time you know she's always fine finding a way to make
a buck. You know which is kind of funny.
--You are a an award-winning
singer-songwriter and you've worked with some huge artists, TLC, P!nk, Mariah Carey
Whitney Houston, you worked with. What what is the Kandi touch that you bring to
songwriting into the songs that you make? --Well I think I am great at um taking
real life stories and making it into a song. So, like a lot of the songs that I
wrote in the past, I can tell you yeah that was about my boyfriend back you
know either if you know I had a conversation with the artist and they
told me something that was funny or crazy that was going on, I'm great at
taking a real life story and making it a relatable song that everybody wants to
sing along with.
--What do you make of the songs that John Kander and
Fred Ebb wrote for this show? What do you what do you think their special skill? I
mean to the point where audiences come to see the show, it's one of the biggest
shows on Broadway.
--Oh for sure to be running 21 years woah...
--Yeah, absolutely. --I can't believe I'm a part of this.
--But I just feel like their songs are just it's just an amazing way that they
were able to really take this story and put it into the song, and make it flow
like you never feel like there's a dull moment.
--Absolutely --In the show, which
is great. Even though Mama I mean When You're Good to Mama is like my main song,
but I truly loved the song Class, which is the duet I sing at the end
with Velma and it's something
about you know reminiscing on the way things used to be, into what's going on
now, and even though of course the the scene of the play is you know
a long time ago, it still relates to what's going on in the real world.
--Absolutely do you like to hang when you're not on stage do you like to hang
around and watch the show from the wings, listen to the the other songs or are you
are you busy back there?
--Um, well even from the top of the show like,
before I come in for my part, I'm automatically singing "he had it comin'"
In my mind, I'm like I wish I could sing that with
them because I really love that song.
--Well now that you're here, you'll be able to do whatever parts you like. You
could play all the parts in Chicago.
--In my head. --Absolutely. You you've said you've
been interested in musical theater since like high school and then you you've
also written a musical.
A Mother's Love.
--Yes, I did. --Yeah right what I know that you planned
on taking that on tour at one point, but where what what brought you to write
that? And what do you hope to do you hope to write more musicals?
--Well well I would actually, now that you mention it. But um with A Mother's
Love, it was really inspired by my real life, and what was going on at the time.
A lot of people saw a lot of that stuff when my mom didn't like my with
who is now my husband. Um she didn't like him. She had her
sisters against him, and so I kind of did like uh my interpretation
--Of what was
happening.
--Yeah in a musical form. So it's really cool. I'm its on DVD now. You can
get it on my website, but it turned out really great and I wrote every song and
the in the in the show as well as I had somebody to help me with the actual
script, but it turned out to be amazing. --What did you enjoy most about that
process of just crafting your own your own musical? It's a huge undertaking.
--Yes. I think the part to be able to take what was in my head, and actually see it come
to life on stage. That's an amazing feeling. You
know, all the songs, you know, to be able to create those songs and have you know
musicians come in and to you know bring them to life and have the artists to
come in and sing them and and then we hit the stage and everything just comes
together. It was amazing. --It's, the tenth season of Real
Housewives of Atlanta is airing right now. Some of your fellow housewives,
though they can say crazy things about you,
--Always. --And besides a great clap-back on
Twitter, which you're excellent at, how do you kind of get that stuff out of your
mind and be able to pursue your dreams of being on Broadway and your restaurant
and your music and all of that?
--You know what? You just can't allow anything that
anybody else is saying to hinder your success because really your success is
the greatest revenge. You know... you can do all that talking, but check this out!
You know and that's kind of my way of just you know the greatest clap-back.
--What do you hope your fans, fans of your music fans of yours from Real Housewives,
why do you hope they come and see you in Chicago and what do you hope they take
away from seeing you up on Broadway stage?
--Well, I think the cool thing about
this whole entire year up until now is I think people have really been able to
see the other side of me, what got me into the entertainment business. A
lot of people who are fans of the show, they just you know they think oh Housewives,
but to be able to see me on stage, I think that gives them a real
perspective of who I really am. It's not about the drama.
It's about the music, the talent, and entertaining you for real, not for drama,
but really entertaining you.
--Right, and you're still in the process of
getting bitten by that Broadway bug. Is it something that you think is gonna
stick? Is this something you're gonna want to do more often? Hang around with us
for awhile? --Definitely. I would love to.
You know continue to do Broadway.
--Yeah well make sure you go see some shows and see what else you'd like to do
because we'd love to keep you around. --Well, thank you!
--So you think thank you so much. Make sure
you go see Kandi Burruss in Chicago at the Ambassador Theatre through March
11th. You're gonna love it. Thank you again so much for coming by.
--It's such a pleasure having you.