Showstopper

9/13/2024 12AM

Renée Elise Goldsberry says her Oct. 12 performance will celebrate the power of love with songs from the worlds of soul, pop, rock, jazz and blues.

Hamilton’s Renée Elise Goldsberry brings Broadway magic to the Palladium stage

 

Renée Elise Goldsberry

with special guest Kyrie Courter

Saturday, Oct. 12, at 8 p.m.

The Palladium
Hoosier Village & The Barrington of Carmel Songbook Series

 

By Scott Hall

 

Even if she hadn’t scored the biggest break of her life, Renée Elise Goldsberry could still tout a multi-hyphenated career that would be the envy of any performer.

 

The California native has been active for over two decades as a vocalist, songwriter and award-winning actress of stage and screen. Her TV credits have included Ally McBeal, One Life to Live, The Good Wife, the title role in HBO’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and an ongoing Emmy-nominated lead role in the comedy series Girls5eva on Netflix. A pillar of the New York theater scene, Goldsberry made her Broadway debut in 2002 as Nala in The Lion King and continued with roles in Rent and The Color Purple, filling out her schedule with Off-Broadway work and national tours.

 

Then came a little thing called Hamilton. The hip-hop historical Broadway blockbuster revitalized the world of musical theater, claiming the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a record-breaking 16 nominations and 11 wins at the 2016 Tony Awards, including Best Musical.

 

Goldsberry originated the role of Angelica Schuyler, who delivers the showstopping “Satisfied” in a swirl of soaring vocals and rapid-fire rhyming. For her work in Hamilton, she won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical, the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical, the Broadway.com Audience Award for Favorite Featured Actress in a Musical, and a shared Grammy Award for the cast recording. She also appeared in the acclaimed 2020 film version of Hamilton that streamed on Disney+.

 

The experience was life-changing for everyone involved, Goldsberry says in a telephone interview.

 

“We have a very signature experience that will keep us connected forever, not only to each other, but to the audiences of people who also love that show and are really passionate about its message,” she says. “And that’s the great joy I get, performing around the country, is meeting members of that family, members of the community of people that really love what that show represents, love that music and just love to be in a space with other people enjoying it.”

 

All the while, Goldsberry has cultivated another side as a songwriter, recording artist and concert performer, which she will showcase Oct. 12 at the Palladium, backed by bass, drums, guitar, keys and “three of the greatest singers you’ve ever heard in your life.” Opening the evening will be Kyrie Courter, a 2013 alumna of the Great American Songbook Foundation’s annual Songbook Academy who recently debuted on Broadway in the 2023 revival of Sweeney Todd.

 

Goldsberry says the show will celebrate the power of love with songs from the worlds of soul, pop, rock, jazz, blues and folk, she says. “And then, of course, we end the evening with a huge bang, with all of the songs from the Broadway shows that I’ve been in, that people love to hear.”

 

She compares the experience to an old-time revival meeting, “specifically because we have selected music that is inspirational and, I think, very necessary for the times we live in,” she says. “I think what’s most thrilling is an opportunity to lift up the universal experience that we have, and very specifically love in many different forms. That’s the theme of the evening, and it works really well in the most beautiful spaces around this country, just filling those beautiful concert halls with music that people know and love, that’s a celebration of the best of us.”

 

The show has been evolving on the road since 2017 and now includes a growing repertoire of original music. Goldsberry – a past winner of the annual John Lennon Songwriting Contest – has been stockpiling songs for an album release later this year and is now pondering how best to share the collection through today’s various platforms, perhaps in conjunction with a new film.

 

Satisfied, which premiered in June at the Tribeca Film Festival, is a feature-length documentary tracing Goldsberry’s efforts to balance family and career as Hamilton became a phenomenon. She and her husband have a 15-year-old son and an 11-year-old daughter.

“That journey is the most remarkable of all of the journeys I’m on, just being their mother and watching them become the awesome human beings that they are,” she says. “There’s been a lot of miracles in my life, and there’s a lot of excitement, but nothing overshadows the joy of that.”

 

Goldsberry doesn’t see career and family as opposing forces.

 

“In reality, they really do serve to make you better in the roles you play in each,” she says. “I’m definitely a better performer because I’m a mother, and I’m a better mother because of the opportunity I get to step into these roles, playing awesome human beings, with all of that experience.”

 

As for the wide-ranging nature of her career, Goldsberry notes the importance of remaining open to opportunity and building on each experience as a branch to others.

 

“If you say yes and you’re prepared, you get blessed with a career like the one I’ve had, which is extremely diverse and it feels perfect, really perfect,” she says. “You just keep moving down this road of showing up, saying yes, and having the opportunity to connect with people in all different facets.”

 

Case in point: Girls5eva, which originated on Peacock and recently streamed its third season on Netflix. Goldsberry is joined by Sara Bareilles, Busy Philipps and Paula Pell as middle-aged members of a one-hit girl group trying to rekindle the magic. The show provides many opportunities for art to imitate life, she says, and vice versa.

“The show has really been inspirational for me, because it’s about a group of women who continue to nurture each other’s dreams and continue to be very ambitious in terms of what they’re doing with their gift – singing and being a group together and continuing to ask the world to make space for them,” she says. “I have been fueled in my own pursuits by the opportunity to play that character and to work with that group of women and Meredith Scardino, our show runner. They all do so many different kinds of things – they write, they perform, they act. Being around other people that are also doing it makes it more fun. It’s like wind at your back.”

 

Meanwhile, Hamilton – which will mark its 10^th anniversary next year – remains a presence in Goldsberry’s life. Does she ever worry that it outshines her other accomplishments?

 

“I often joke that if I walk into every room, and they play ‘Satisfied’ for the rest of my life before I have a chance to say anything, I would be absolutely fine with that,” she says with a laugh. “It has only opened doors for me. It truly has only been a gift in my life.”