Opera House Broadway Live series is back and there’s an ‘annoying’ local connection
It did not take long for Audrey Belle Adams to land her first gig after graduating from the University of Kentucky in 2019.
A well-known UK Opera Theatre (UKOT) performer, the Louisville native picked up her diploma in May, moved to New York in August, was cast as Mrs. Gloop in the national tour of “Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” in October, and by November, she was in rehearsals. The tour hit the road soon after, heading into 2020.
Into 2020.
“We, and I think the whole world at this point, were kind of oblivious to what was going on, because we didn’t really know,” Adams said, reflecting back to March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic altered life in unprecedented ways, including shutting down theaters around the world. “We had a rehearsal on that Thursday that Broadway shut down. And I remember we were all sitting in the audience during a rehearsal, and we saw on Twitter that Broadway is shut down. And the next day we got sent home.”
Though she had moved to New York, like many young city dwellers, Adams chose to ride out the pandemic shutdown at home. In Louisville, Adams made the most of her time, growing her voice studio and teaching choir at Mercy Academy.
“If I if I hadn’t gone to UK, I would have not been prepared for this pandemic,” Adams said. “The education that I got at UK; they taught me not only to be a performer, but to be a scholar. And that’s why I was able to keep afloat during the pandemic, to get jobs and, you know, to be able to teach because the pedagogy is so amazing at UK that they taught me how to be a teacher.”
It also helped that in “Charlie” she was part of a production that stayed in touch during the 18-month hiatus, assuring the cast and crew there would be jobs to come back to and keeping the cast and crew in touch with each other.
‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ reopens Broadway Live Series
Finally, rehearsals resumed in September and the production reopened Oct. 12. This weekend, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” reopens the Broadway Live Series at the Lexington Opera House, a stage Adams is intimately familiar with through performances with UK Opera as well as the Lexington Theatre Company (The Lex).
The last Broadway Live show was “Fiddler on the Roof” in early February 2020.
“I’m so thankful that I get to perform on that stage with this amazing cast and in front of all the friends and family that got me to where I am today,” Adams said.
Mrs. Gloop is in line with the type of comic characters Adams specialized in at UK.
“Mrs. Gloop is your annoying, helicopter, fun-loving Bavarian mother,” Adams says of her character in the beloved story. “She doesn’t know. That’s what’s so fun about the Gloops. They just don’t know. They’re just here for the good time. They’re here for the chocolate. They’re here for the tour. They’re not here to get in anybody’s way. They just want to do what they want to do, and they’re going to yodel about it too.”
The musical includes music from the iconic 1971 movie “Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” and songs written for this show.
Coming home to the Opera House
Asked about her favorite UK role, Adams goes to a very different part: Mother in UKOT’s 2016 production of “Ragtime,” a role that took her on an emotional journey through the struggles of ethnic and racial minority communities in the early 20th century.
“I still can’t believe to this day that I got to play that role when I did,” said Adams, who was a sophomore when she was in “Ragtime.” “It’s still, to me, the epitome of becoming a woman on stage.”
Adams was directed in that show by Lexington Theatre Company director Lyndy Franklin Smith who also directed her in several Theatre Company shows. One thing Franklin Smith talked to Adams about was the experience of coming home to the Opera House with a professional tour, which she did in 2003 with a tour of “Fosse.”
“She was just like, ‘You’re gonna be on this stage one day, and it’s not going to be because of The Lex or UKOT,’” Adams said. “So, the fact that I get to come back as what I was trained to be at UK and The Lex — it’s going to be the most amazing weekend.”
‘Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’
What: National tour of the Broadway production presented by Broadway Live at the Opera House
When: 7:30 p.m. Nov. 12; 1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Nov. 13; 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Nov. 14
Where: Lexington Opera House, 401 W. Short St.
Tickets: $60-$175, prices vary with showtime, seating location, and are subject to change
How to buy tickets: Call, 859-233-3535; Online, lexingtonoperahouse.com
COVID notes: The Opera House strongly recommends all patrons wear a mask while attending the show.
This story was originally published November 10, 2021 at 6:00 AM.