Ginny King is a Broadway actress who now calls North Georgia home. She runs a successful dance studio in Sautee Nachoochee, GA, called Sautee School of Dance. King is well known in theatrical circles for her role as Lorraine in the Broadway Production of 42nd Street which opened in August of 1980 and ran for 3,486 performances. She’s been performing since she was a child and her theatrical credits extend internationally.
Now Habersham’s Arts & Entertainment reporter Justin Gallagher recently met up with King at her dance studio in White County to talk about her journey from Main Street to 42nd Street and back home again.
Justin Gallagher: When did you first start dancing?
Ginny King: I was five years old when my mother took me to my first dance class, which was ballet. I was five and I hated it. I felt like I had gone to prison. I didn’t like it one bit and I got through the recital and was glad to be taken out the next year. My mother had always wanted to dance and knew I was too young. I went back at nine and realized I was in the right place and I loved it. I loved it completely. So mothers, five is too early for a lot of children to start dancing. Some will like it but, if they don’t like it, take them back when they are at least nine or ten. A lot of children start very early and they may have a great time but they may want to change channels, they may want to do something else. It’s a big world.
Justin Gallagher: What motivated you the most in making this a career? What was the thing that set you off as a performer?
Ginny King: I couldn’t do anything else very well. I did consider other careers one time because making it as a performer seems so hopeless. I entertained the idea of going into the Navy because, to me, my ballet training was very much like the military. It was very demanding and very rigid. I was attracted to ships and the ocean. I might have done it if I had not gotten a job. I didn’t think I had the chops for leading roles and I thought I was going to go to technical school and I honestly thought of becoming a plumber. I knew I’d be miserable no matter what it was but I thought I might as well go for the money.
Justin Gallagher: When did you realize you had what it took to dance in New York as well as teach?
Ginny King: I was constantly thinking I didn’t have what it took. It’s a mindset that you learn. I just knew I couldn’t go home. I said to myself, ‘If I’m going to stay , I better learn to enjoy the taste of blood at an audition.’ That’s metaphorically speaking. The first couple months, New York was chewing me up and I knew I had to get tough. You had to go in and say, ‘This part is mine and I’ve come to claim it!’ You have to act. You have to self-talk, be fierce and tough. I also liked to help people. I mean, I’d be at the callback and there’d be a girl who couldn’t do a cart wheel and the teacher in me would always come out and help. A real Broadway diva would never help anyone at an audition, so, I truly love to teach.
Justin Gallagher: Were your parents supportive? Were you ever told by anyone that you would never make it in show business? That’s one thing that holds so many people back in a community like ours is the fact that people are hesitant to take chances.
Ginny King: They might not even see the value of failure and falling down on your face. People are way too self-conscious and worry way too much about what people think of them. It’s realistic to think that you will not make it in New York. You have to ask yourself: ‘Can I live with disappointment? Can I live with less than I’d hoped for?’ You always find another path. You have to be flexible. After 42nd Street, I set my sight on Cats! ‘I have come to claim my part in Cats,’ is what I said! I show up and there are a thousand people who had also come to claim their part in Cats. I don’t think I even got to dance for them. They picked the ones who looked interesting and sent the rest of us home….typecasting.
Justin Gallagher: Did you have a survival job or were you mainly focused on dance?
Ginny King: I worked in restaurants like most performers. It was awful.
Justin Gallagher: Name some dancers that you admired and worked with.
Ginny King: Natalia Makarova who defected in the 70’s and appeared on Broadway in 1983 in On Your Toes where I got to meet her and shake her hand. Gene Kelly…he picked me for a show. I got down to the final cut. Sadly, the show got pulled for some reason and was never produced. It didn’t even matter that it didn’t happen. I was one of the last girls standing at the audition chosen by the Gene Kelly!
Justin Gallagher: Most people outside of New York and large cities don’t realize that it can be difficult to be seen at an audition without an Actors Equity Card. How did you obtain yours?
Ginny King: In 1978 I did a cabaret in Atlanta that took off and ended up cutting many people from the cast due to hiring a new investor. I then moved to New York to get started with a friend and the first day I was visiting, my friend, who was currently in Annie Get Your Gun with Lucie Arnaz at Jones Beach, she came in and said, ‘Deborah Phelan has quit on her first day to go and be in A Chorus Line and the producers have asked us to bring in a friend to audition.’ I was the only friend to be brought in that day and they barely made me audition for it. I danced and sang quickly. They said, ‘Great. You’re in!’ I was adequate and I was there. That got me my Actors Equity Card. I was in the right place at the right time.
Justin Gallagher: What were some things that you learned from auditions or from current teachers?
Ginny King: That getting rejected is not the end of the world and half of life is just showing up. I also learned that showing up early was great and that you didn’t want to go in late. It’s an advantage. I haven’t auditioned in a while. I have been taking voice lessons with Ms. Lilly and recently placed second at the National Association for Teachers of Singing (NATS) in my division. The best thing that has happened to me all year is training with her. I learned more from her than I have from any audition. She’s helped me fix all of my bad habits. It’s been a year and a half with Ms. Lilly and I feel like I can go out now and get those parts that I’m now right for due to her guidance.
Justin Gallagher: Tell us about the 42nd Street audition process and how it has affected you.
Ginny King: I religiously attended class with Lee Theodore, the original Anybody’s from West Side Story, and one day she noticed me and asked if I could sing and tap dance. Of course, I said I could. Theodore then invited me to her office to talk about 42nd Street and was mentioning everything I could do performance wise to someone on the phone. She didn’t know my name even though I had been taking class from her for over a year. Theodore got me an audition for Peggy Sawyer. I went in for the role and the auditions seemed to get worse and worse BUT she invited me to the New Amsterdam Theatre. This was before it was renovated and was home to the Ziegfeld Follies. It was a crazy mess and in ruin but this is where they had our final callback. It was ghostly weird. I got the final cut and I was just one of thirty girls. I didn’t have the part of Lorraine at that point but something happened to the girl originally cast and I was asked if I could read for the role and test it out by adding on lines piece by piece for the directors. I didn’t know if I was going to replace someone. It was very awkward but I did get the part. I had been let go many times in show business and I was nervous I would be let go again, but I never was. To this day I cannot watch shows such as SMASH because I will have nightmares. As wonderful as it is to say that you have a Broadway credit, it’s a grind and it got old really quick. I left one year after opening night and the show ended up running for nine years. I knew others who stuck with it longer but I didn’t have any more juice for that show. I gave it all the juice I had.
Justin Gallagher: What was it like walking out of a Broadway Theatre stage door?
Ginny King: It was always incredible, no matter who was out there. You felt so connected; I mean, you were in a hit show. It was top of the world.
Justin Gallagher: What did you think about the Broadway Revival of 42nd Street?
Ginny King: Oh, I loved it. I loved it. It was just terrific. I even got to party with the cast on tour.
Justin Gallagher: What do you think is most important for those who would like to pursue a career in musical theatre or performing, in general? Did you have a favorite job out of all the ones you were cast in?
Ginny King: To grow a thick skin. To be resilient. To get strong. Give it your all and then go home if you feel you have succeeded. I gave it six years and probably could have given it more but I had to weigh it up. I decided to be a bigger fish in a smaller pond because New York has some insanely talented people. I thought I’d get more performing done by being away from New York. Most of my memorabilia is actually not from 42nd street. I also did cruise ships and did so many things that I even stopped keeping a resume. I performed in a Korean theme park, which was my favorite. It looked exactly liked Broadway. It was just as much money as Broadway with less performances and it was even choreographed by Baayork Lee who was in the original cast of A Chorus Line. I ended up working there for five months.
Epilogue
Ginny King returned home to North Georgia in the early 1990’s. She says leaving 42nd Street for Main Street was a big change both professionally and personally but she doesn’t look back. “I dance everyday and all my family is here. It’s home.”
She may be way off Broadway now but King still has theatrical ambitions. “I want to do musical theatre in Northeast Georgia. I would love to play comedic roles such as in Sondheims musicals. In his shows there are many good old broads that make you laugh and those are the kind of roles I’m looking forward to playing.”
There are lots of young, talented performers in Habersham and North Georgia who dream of one day performing on Broadway. King’s advice to them? “Have a lot of money saved along with having a skill and friends to rely on.” Solid advice from someone who’s been there.
Classes Offered by Ginny King:
Sautee Nacoochee Center
Wednesdays and Thursdays after school.
For more information visit https://snca.org/snc/classes/youth/dance/youth.php.
Sautee School of Dance
Jazz, Tap, Hip-Hop & Ballet
Contact: Ginny King at 706-754-8498 or visit www.sauteeschoolofdance.com
Classes Offered by Ginny King & Ms. Lilly:
“Spotlight Players Presents” – An after school musical theatre program
Mondays 3:45-5:45
Cost: $50 per month per student
Sibling discount $30
Where: Ms. Lilly’s Studio, 3980 Hwy 115, Demorest (2 miles west of Clarkesville).
Contact Ms. Lilly or Ginny King to schedule an audition!
Ms. Lilly 706-768-9950
Ginny King 706-754-8498
Both directors have over 35 years of training and performing experience and over 25 years of teaching experience.
