A FEW MINUTES WITH DEE HOTY

All right. I am throwing out any writer’s objectivity I am supposed to maintain. I can’t help it. I just hung up the phone after interviewing Dee Hoty, the leading lady in the national tour of DR. DOLITTLE coming to Playhouse Square Center on April 18, and I am smitten. She is a “star” who makes anyone comfortable with the first words out of her mouth. She always seems to have a smile in her sonorous voice. She speaks fondly of her hometown of Cleveland (specifically, Lakewood), and is excited to be “playing the Palace” in the role of Emma Fairfax, Dr. Dolittle’s love interest. She is delightfully real.

“I am happy to be coming back…it’s always great to come home. What makes it even better is that I’ll get to see my brother Tony in Westlake,” says Hoty. Hoty’s brother runs the highly respected broadcast studio at Westlake High School, and his big sister is very proud of him. “He places students and graduates of the program in successful broadcasting jobs right out of school,” she beams. “What could be better?”

“Cousins and other relatives are still in the area,” she adds. “Just about anyone with the last name of Hoty is related to me, so I see whoever I can when I’m in the area.” Although other siblings and her mother now live in the South, she still considers the Cleveland area home.

She grew up in Lakewood, and spent much of her youth working in her father’s downtown Cleveland eatery, Doty’s Restaurant, at West 6th and Superior right across from the Rockefeller Building. Even though many struggling actresses spend time as waitresses, “the cosmic joke in my family is that I never had to use those skills as an aspiring actress, though maybe one day I’ll play a waitress and put all those long-ago skills into use,” she laughs.

In addition to her much-lauded Broadway and regional theater work, Hoty has starred in the national touring productions of The Will Rogers Follies and Mamma Mia. However, she has “never played the Palace before.” She explains that often “there are different casts, different ‘sizes’ of the shows, differences that apply to different venues,” so while one cast is playing Chicago, another may be playing Cleveland. But she’s not only happy to be coming to Cleveland, she is thrilled to finally get onstage of the Palace at Playhouse Square Center. “Who wouldn’t be?” she asks.

Currently touring with DR. DOLITTLE, she enjoys the traveling and the different cities. “I’m always glad to catch up with old friends who have moved, college friends I haven’t seen in a while, and, of course, family. The downside is the packing and unpacking—living out of a suitcase,” she says. She’s proud of her past as well as what she’s currently doing, and adds that she has “stumped for Otterbein College [her alma mater] all around the country.” She often attends alumni meet-and-greets and other functions in the different cities she plays.

And what about the tour of DR. DOLITTLE? “It’s going great,” she exclaims, “and I can’t even begin to tell you what a thrill it is to be onstage with AND directed by Tommy Tune!”

She appeared on Broadway in Tune’s productions of The Will Rogers Follies and The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public, receiving Tony nominations for her work in both shows. “Ever since, we would run into each other and always say ‘when are we ever going to work together again?’”

The answer came in September when Tune called Hoty, explaining that he was completely “doctoring” the DR. DOLITTLE touring show, and would she consider playing the love interest? “This is it,” she answered, “my chance to work with Tommy Tune again, and to be in such a delightful show.”

“I love this show,” says Hoty. “It’s a show for the whole family, and it’s a wonderful children’s show. It’s a legitimate theatrical experience for them. It’s simple, but not simplistic. It’s G-rated in the best possible way. It keeps children engaged.”

“I think we hit our stride in L.A.,” she adds, “but the beauty of working with someone like Tommy Tune is that it is constantly evolving. We do have rehearsal time even when the show is up, and Tommy is constantly fixing, noodling along, tweaking as we go. It’s a living process, and it makes us even better.”

“Yes, it’s based on the Rex Harrison movie,” she explains, “but you just can’t make a stage play out of a movie. The beautiful music is still there, but things like the animals have to be something a little different. The performers aren’t puppeteers, they’re actors/dancers who turn the animal puppets into characters.” She is proud of the production and the work of everyone involved, and you can hear it in her voice.

“I really hope that families – several generations – will come with the little ones to see DR. DOLITTLE; I know they will enjoy it.”

Hoty is quick to talk more about DR. DOLITTLE, Tommy Tune, the other members of the company and the child tap-dancing prodigy who plays a monkey than she is about herself. But she is amused that I had heard something about her “Tony Curse.”

“Oh, that,” she laughs. “ I always figured that would be a perfect ‘Tonight Show’ story, but yes, I guess it is interesting. I call each time it happened a ‘Slap in the Face, Pat on the Head from the Universe.’”

The gifted actress has been nominated for Tony Awards three times. “The first time was when I was appearing in The Will Rogers Follies. My folks were in New York, and we had planned to spend the day sightseeing and shopping. That morning, before picking my parents up at their hotel, I signed my divorce papers. That afternoon, after having been gone all day, I had 37 messages that I had been nominated for Best Actress in a Musical.” That day the mail also brought a bright note: a “fan letter” from noted director Hal Prince. Slap in the Face, Pat on the Head #1.

#2 came when she was appearing in The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public. “We played on Monday nights with that show, and the Monday that the nominations were announced, I arrived at the theater and the doorman placed the recognizable Tony nomination envelope in my left hand. I was thrilled for a moment, until the company manager walked by and put the show’s closing notice in my right hand.”

Slap in the Face, Pat on the Head #3 occurred when she was with her family grieving her father’s death and preparing for his memorial service. “There I am, vacuuming, dusting, helping to get the house ready for relatives, and a friend calls to congratulate me on my Tony nomination for my role in Footloose. My niece saw the look on my face and asked if it was a good call or bad call. I explained what it was, and she immediately went into ‘Give me that vacuum cleaner, Cinderella!’”

She feels it’s all karmically balanced, but she’s also hoping that it’s also the “three strikes” theory—that’s quite enough, thank you! We agree: nothing but acknowledged success from here on in.

She’s the “hometown girl who made good,” and we’re happy to have her coming home, if just for two weeks. She’s the Broadway star who’s just like that girl you had a crush on college. She’s Emma Fairfax in DR. DOLITTLE, but she just wants you to call her “Dee,” not “Miss Hoty.” She’s delightful. I’m smitten.