Atw - Downstage Center

Tony-winner Harriet Harris talks about being "the adult" in a company of kids in the Broadway musical "Cry-Baby" and reveals which of the musical numbers in the show convinced her that she needed to be in the production. She also talks about being sent to theatre school as a child in Texas to cure her shyness; her Juilliard auditions for formidable directors John Houseman and Michael Kahn; her touring years with The Acting Company; how she transitioned from classical to comic roles under the tutelage of Christopher Ashley and Paul Rudnick, who wrote her multiple characters in "Jeffrey"; her belated Broadway debut in 2000 opposite Nathan Lane in "The Man Who Came to Dinner"; branching into musicals with Broadway's "Thoroughly Modern Millie" and the Kennedy Center's "Mame"; and finding the humor in the character of Amanda in "The Glass Menagerie" at The Guthrie, as role she'd wanted to play since she was 13. Original air date - June 6, 2008.