My aim is to bridge Broadway and the R&B world; and to bring all my Broadway experience to the R&B world; and one day, when I go back to Broadway, to bring some R&B to that.
Heather Headley
Truth be told, I decided years ago not to call it a job, because I know people who work - my mother worked, hard.
Broadway's a lot of work, don't get me wrong. It's eight shows a week. You hardly ever see the sunset. I remember when I left, I was like, 'Oh! The sun's setting! I haven't seen that in a year!' Singing eight shows a week is hard.
I had left 'Ragtime' - and 'Ragtime' was a completely different beast, no pun intended, than 'The Lion King'.
I remember coming into 'The Lion King' and, oh forgive me Lord, but doubting it. The way that musicals are put together, we're kind of exclusive of each other. And so somebody's working on this in one room, and somebody's working that in the other room. I did not understand how all this was going to come together.
I love doing 'I Will Always Love You.'
You know, the funny thing was that I grew up listening to, like Whitney Houston and Cece Winans, and a lot of American singers.
We lived above the church, and I remember there was no air conditioning in the church. I would shut all the windows and I would have concerts in there. Practice, you know, take the microphones.
You know, that, with every choice you make there are consequences. And so if you have an amazing husband and you have a child, you go outside that marriage and outside that relationship, there are consequences that follow.
I toured with Andrea Bocelli, went to London to do a show for a year in the West End.
And it's beautiful - the man that I married has never ever put just a limit on to what I could do and would do as a woman, as his wife, as a mommy. He actually pushes me out the door a little sometimes more than I wanted him to.
We put up these facades, of maybe strength of who we are, but inside there's this incredibly broken person.
As a wife, I am married to maybe the greatest guy on Earth because he has just been amazingly supportive.
My father was a pastor, my mother was the quintessential pastor's wife.
But my parents picked Ft. Wayne, which was the best decision because if they had brought me to New York or Philly, I would have swam back to Trinidad!
I did three musicals in high school.
