Brace yourself, San Francisco, Wilhelmina is coming to town! Actually it's Vanessa Williams, the beautiful star of stage and screen, whom millions of fans remember as the devious fashion diva Wilhelmina Slater on TV's Ugly Betty.
Whether your fondest memories of Williams are from Ugly Betty or Desperate Housewives, her film roles in Soul Food or Eraser, her Broadway turns in Kiss of the Spider Woman, Into the Woods, Sondheim on Sondheim, or The Trip to Bountiful, she's sure to touch on all of them when she appears on Sat., April 25, at the Broadway @ The Nourse concert series. The evening is a combination interview and concert hosted by Seth Rudetsky, with a special appearance by drag diva Varla Jean Merman. "I have no idea what's in store with Seth," Williams told me in a recent interview. "I don't know what to expect, so we'll just see what happens!"
Williams recently finished shooting a pilot for the Fox comedy series Fantasy Life opposite Kevin Connolly of Entourage. "It's a workplace comedy about fantasy football," she says. "I play the Senior VP of Programming for the Fox Sports Channel: another strong, opinionated boss woman. In TV, I've proven that I can do that role."
Williams first came to national attention as the first African American to be crowned Miss America in 1984. The title was later revoked when nude photos of her surfaced, but she parlayed the notoriety into a successful music career throughout the 90s, most notably with the hit song "Save the Best for Last" and the Oscar-winning "Colors of the Wind" from Disney's Pocahontas.
As Williams recounts in the 2013 mother-daughter memoir You Have No Idea, co-written with her mother Helen Williams, despite the pageants and the music, she was first and foremost a theatre girl. That dream came to life when she made her 1994 Broadway musical debut following Chita Rivera in Kiss of the Spider Woman.
"My most emotional performance was opening night of that show," she says. "My family, my friends, and my friends from school were all there, and it was like a collective triumph. I grew up in New York, and it was a dream come true."
In the 2002 Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's musical Into the Woods, Williams earned critical praise and a Tony Award nomination for her performance as the Witch. She only saw part of the recent film version with Meryl Streep (while her daughter was watching it), but she says it's impossible to draw parallels or comparisons.
"Stage and film are always such different experiences," she says. "There's nothing like doing live theatre, and I love that show. I saw the first production [with Bernadette Peters], and I saw Cleo Laine do it. I just loved working with Stephen and James, and it was great to get a Tony nomination."
Her dastardly doings as Wilhelmina Slater on Ugly Betty, aided by her conniving gay assistant Marc St. James (Michael Urie), endeared her to fans of camp comedy both gay and straight. The show ran for four seasons, from 2006-10, and is currently earning new fans on Netflix.
Williams is the proud mother of four children (ages 15-25), she's been married twice (to PR consultant Ramon Hervey II and NBA player Rick Fox), and in 2014 she announced her engagement to retired accountant Jim Skrip. She's been an outspoken advocate for gay rights and has partnered with HRC to fight for marriage equality, yet she's never experienced any backlash. "My parents were both teachers, and they were very progressive," she says. "My mom had gay friends, and I grew up with them visiting our house."
Supporting LGBT rights came naturally to Williams, who grew up surrounded by gay friends. "I majored in musical theatre in high school and college," she says. "I was a dancer! I have gay friends who've been together longer than me in all my marriages combined!"
Vanessa Williams: Broadway @ The Nourse, benefits San Francisco AIDS Foundation, Project Open Hand & San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus, with pianist/host Seth Rudetsky and guest Varla Jean Merman. Sat., April 25, 8 p.m., Nourse Theatre, SF. Tickets: (415) 392-4400 or cityboxoffice.com.