Arts & Entertainment
Will Nattalyee Randall be Our Next Big Broadway Star?
vocal performance. But yes, I almost
became a band teacher.
PHOTO BY PATRICK WEISHAMPEL
HS: How did you make that transition
from being at school to becoming a profes-
sional?
NR: I went to school on and off and dur-
ing that time I would do regional work,
every summer. So I also would occasionally
work at community theaters in my home-
town, but we would usually do regional
work in the surrounding areas. And I actual-
ly worked in Montana in a theater. So I said
after I graduated college, no matter what, I
would move to New York to continue on in
the profession. I graduated two years ago
and now I’ve moved to New York to see
what happens.
Read the rest of this story online at
www.theskanner.com
From left, Rodney Hicks, Tyrone Roberson, Mary Patton, Nattalyee Randall and
Lexi Rhoades in “Dreamgirls” at Portland Center Stage.
By Helen Silvis
Of The Skanner News
P
ortland Center Stage will open its sea-
son Friday, Sept. 26, with Dreamgirls,
directed by Chris Coleman. Judging
by the dynamic performances on view at a
recent rehearsal, Dreamgirls will be one of
the most vibrant and enjoyable productions
in recent memory. Loosely based on the
story of The Supremes, Dreamgirls tells the
story of the Dreamettes, featuring music
with a Motown sound along with beautiful
costumes and dancing that will transport
theatergoers back in time to the 1960s.
Starring in the show as the original
Dreamettes are: Nattalyee Randall as Effie
Melody White, Mary Patton as Deena
Jones, and Lexi Rhoades as Lorrell Robin-
son. Antoinette Comer plays Michelle
Morris, the singer who joins the vocal group
after they’ve reached stardom as The
Dreams. Portland singer Shalanda Sims
up there.
HS: You studied music and English Edu-
cation at University, so did you study music
as a child?
NR: My parents are both pastors so I
grew up in the church singing and I got
involved with musical theater- community
theater when I was in 6th grade. That was
when I did my first show. It wasAnnie, and
I was an orphan, and it’s still actually one of
my favorite musicals to this day, as clichéd
as that is. I just remember being on stage,
because we have a really big community
theater in my hometown. It seats nearly
2000 people; it’s really big. It’s an opera
theater and just being on that stage and per-
forming for everybody was definitely
life-changing to the point where I wanted to
continue doing it as an adult.
HS: Did you see yourself becoming a per-
former from quite young?
Being on that stage and performing for
everybody was definitely life-changing
plays two roles in the production.
Helen Silvis talked to Nattalyee Randall
about her career and the show. A classically
trained singer Randall was named Broad-
way’s Next Big Star by Ken Davenport on
BroadwaySpace.com.
Helen Silvis: Where did you grow up?
Nattalyee Randall: I grew up in Spring-
field, Illinois, about three hours outside of
Chicago. It’s a town of about 200,000. It’s
the Land of Lincoln. I love Abraham Lin-
coln, so I let everybody know that he grew
NR: Yes, actually I was talking about this
the other day. I was saying that when I was
growing up I was thinking about being an
entertainment lawyer. Then I played the
flute all through growing up. And when I
was younger you had to choose between
choir and band so I always chose band.
Finally they changed it to where you could
do both. So I joined the choir in 8th Grade,
and I was like, ‘This is pretty fun’. So when
it came to my senior year, I had to choose
either vocal performance or flute perform-
ance, and I’m very grateful now that I chose
October 1, 2014 The Portland and Seattle Skanner Page 7