It’s a controlling thing on stage – you’re directing the action, getting people to play their role. In real life, I take being kind and nice seriously, so the last thing I’d ever want to be is that weird, controlling, manipulative character.
We spent a lot of time on that record with the sound and recorded it on the Paramount sound stage which is this huge room where the sound is reflected but the reflection is so late and comes from so far away that it doesn’t blur the music but gives you a room nonetheless.
I have a good cry once in a while; it’s such a great release. Or it could be a cry of joy – watching your child being born or your child walking across a graduation stage.
When I was doing ‘Britain’s Got Talent,’ I really enjoyed it, but I found it very difficult to be in the audience. I like to be on stage; I feel safer on stage because I’m in control.
The great thing about stage is that you have a live audience.
At the University of Maryland, my first year I started off planning to major in art because I was interested in theatre design, stage design or television design.
When I get up there, maybe I’m nervous for the first song, but then I get into it. It’s a lot of fun to stand up there. I always enjoy the moment when I’m actually standing on stage. When I’m done, I’m like, ‘Oh, I want to play one more song.’
I became the stage for the great argument between Nietzsche and Rousseau. I was the extra ready to take on all the roles.
If you don’t have a certain amount of stage fright, then it’s not going to be that interesting. It’s not going to have the inner vibration. I think screen work needs inner vibration.
It goes back to a style of moviemaking I remember seeing as a child, in movies like The Man With The Golden Arm, which I think was shot all on a sound stage.
I like bringing keyboards and stuff on stage.
Seeing my father’s handwriting puts me in contact with the man he was at each stage of his life.
I’m always thinking I’m messing up. I did a lot of classes. I can’t stand being on stage or the only one talking in a room, so class really helped me deal with that. It doesn’t really get any easier, but it helps you focus on the acting.
I don’t think you should ever say, ‘This is the last time’. Music isn’t like that. You’ll be sitting there not wishing to get onto a stage again for maybe two, three, four, five months, or maybe a year, then suddenly you’ll wake up and feel like you’ve got to do it again. It’s in the blood, and I never say never.
On stage, I make love to 25,000 different people, then I go home alone.
During my teen years, I just really started to get anxiety. I would get stage fright when I would do certain speaking engagements and I always would get through them, but it was a really nerve-racking and hard thing to do.
I had a really great performance with Steven Tyler in the movie ‘Be Cool.’ I performed ‘Cryin’,’ so we recorded the song beforehand. But I didn’t get to meet him until I hit the stage with him, and we had a live performance with 30,000 people in the audience, and that was for the movie.
Even on the stage, I’ve played a bit of a persona, and the persona I played was a much brasher, more arrogant, less aware, less educated version of me.
I don ‘t know what the future holds, but what I know is that as long as I can enjoy life, anywhere is my stage.
I have never danced in any film of mine, barring some stage shows.
I grew up in Manhattan and, since my father was a playwright, all I ever wanted to be was a stage actress.
Oddly enough, I have really bad stage fright – getting up in front of people. And I made a living going on live television.
For me, it’s always this constant battle and search when I’m out on stage as to where and when do I really open myself up to the people that are there. How do I let myself feel present in the space, and how do I allow myself to get into the music and interact with the band members.
Somebody like Bowie was so interesting because when you got him off stage, he was like a businessman. But on stage, he was just dazzling. It was like watching butterflies grow.
I just can’t wait to get out there on stage. There’s no anxiety at all. I love being able to take this journey with the audience, because we all have a ball with it – even if we’re crying.
You cannot stage plays to make money. That’s quite impossible until our people start spending more on tickets.
Good soul music should make you feel something in your heart, in your body, and in your spirit. That’s what I try to do both in the studio and on stage.
I started off on stage because it was the only work I could get. I haven’t been back for 11 years. I think any stage experience is good experience, as far as being an actor is concerned.
Winning the Outstanding Contribution award is great, because you know you have won in advance. Previously, I have been really nervous during the ceremony because you have no idea if you are going to get called up on stage. This time I could relax and enjoy myself.
But I have fun with the fright, work with it. You have to – that’s your timing, that beat of excitement. And when I go on stage, it’s just like taking a step into heaven. Poof, you know? Poof – and there I am.
What a thrill it was to play opposite Maurice Evans in this brilliant, dazzling musical, based on the life of two of the greatest personalities in stage history.
Because so many people love seeing me on stage and because I can make many people happy, I become happy through them.
Each time you present a tour, you’re faced with these questions of, ‘How do you want to present visual information? How do you want to take the music that we’re making on stage and visualize that?’
I got arrested once on stage in Memphis for looking too much like Liza Minnelli.
Then I left school at 16 and worked in Perth Repertory Theatre, which was quite nearby where I lived. And I worked there for about six or seven months, as part of the stage crew.
I wanted to be Anthony Hopkins and ended up being neither a film star nor having a career on the stage.
One think that you notice about anyone that gets up on stage is that they don’t really have a lot of self-awareness. It’s kind of a trait that performers don’t have because you just kinda just have to let go and do whatever you want to do on stage.
What I do, basically, is look at things from different angles. That is what I do on stage comedically, and that is what I do in art. I was always fascinated by the structure of things, why things work this way and not that way. So I like to see how things behave if you change the point of view.
I prefer stage work, as an actor.
To be part of the big picture, whether it’s celebrity interviews or seeing how big the U.S. Open is in New York or on the world stage, is amazing.
It takes a lot of guts to get on stage.
Mainstream media’s representation, or its guerrilla decontextualization, of black men’s lives in particular can set the stage for erroneous assumptions capable of damaging an individual or a nation.
But that’s one of the nice things about doing a stage show, if something doesn’t work out, you have the luxury of working on it over time.
I never wanted to go on stage alone because if you mess up, who can you blame?
The problem is not simply that the Singularity represents the passing of humankind from center stage, but that it contradicts our most deeply held notions of being.
I think, for anybody – not even when you’re on stage – it’s good to dress in the way that you’re comfortable; it definitely boosts your confidence. If you’re worried about what you look like the whole time, you’re not going to be able to be confident.
Auditions make me nervous; any time I have to perform, I get stage fright.
I’ll tell you what I think in general about people who want to make their Broadway debut that are not trained stage actors. Don’t they know, Broadway ain’t for sissies? It is a tough gig. You are responsible, physically, mentally, emotionally, for eight shows a week, at the top of your game. It’s not easy.
There’s not much difference between what I appear to be on stage and what I am. I think people like that, that I’m not trying to pull a caper.
When I’m on stage, I do very much feel like I’m Cinderella, which is kind of how I deal with it.
The average session takes about one to two hours. It’s totally amazing because when a person breathes, they go through one stage of relaxation after another, and every stage releases tension.
In cinema, you can see an actor but he can’t see you. On stage, there’s a one-to-one and an eye-to-eye connection.
Old age, believe me, is a good and pleasant thing. It is true you are gently shouldered off the stage, but then you are given such a comfortable front stall as spectator.
I’ve been on stage since I was 7. That’s where I’d rather be than anywhere else. Just because you can do a bunch of things doesn’t mean you are a bunch of things. I can act. I can sing. But I am a dancer.
Of all the many leaders I have met in the course of my life, none made a deeper impression on me than Nelson Mandela. His courage, compassion, humility and wisdom were without parallel on the world stage, and he himself was an enduring source of inspiration.
Dancing is my number one love. That was my first goal as a child. I would love to do stage, maybe do Chicago. I love being in front of an audience. It’s so stimulating. I also love to barbecue.
