SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Feb. 12, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — Local theater legend Mary Fanning Driggs is no stranger to the Pioneer Theatre Company stage. In fact, for her, it’s a home away from home.
Chances are if you’ve seen a musical at PTC, Driggs may well have been part of it. She last appeared as Emily Hobbs in “Elf” in 2021. Other PTC shows include “Mamma Mia!,” the regional premiere of “The Last Ship,” “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas,” “Sweeney Todd,” “The Music Man,” “42nd Street,” “Smokey Joe’s Café,” “The Light in the Piazza,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Beauty and the Beast,” and every performance of both productions of “Les Misérables” in 2007 and 2013.
PTC was the first regional theater company to earn the rights to produce “Les Misérables,” and it was extended multiple times for a total of 82 sold out performances in 2007, a record for the company. Driggs even learned to play the accordion for the musical “Once.”
Some of her regional credits include “The Tempest,” directed by Tony Kushner, “Annie Get Your Gun,” “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” “Once Upon a Mattress,” “Sweet Charity,” and “Baby.” She’s also appeared in movies such as “The Holiday Stocking” for Hallmark, short films including “The Roads We Travel,” and the upcoming series “Dusty Bluffs,” which she filmed in Helper. Driggs, who has an MFA in music dance theater from Brigham Young University, maintains a private vocal studio specializing in belt and musical theater techniques.
Next up for Driggs is portraying Cumie Barrow, the real-life mother of Clyde and Buck Barrow in the musical “Bonnie & Clyde” at PTC. During the height of the Great Depression, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow captured the nation’s imagination with their infamous rise from small-town West Texas nobodies to American legends. Featuring a book by Emmy nominee Ivan Menchell and a Tony-nominated score by composer Frank Wildhorn and Oscar and Tony Award-winning lyricist Don Black, “Bonnie & Clyde” is a celebration of quintessential American musical genres: blues, gospel, and rock ‘n’ roll. Debuting in 2009 at San Diego’s La Jolla Playhouse, the musical had its Broadway premiere in 2011, followed by numerous notable productions around the world, including a recent West End revival. PTC’s production marks the first professional mounting of “Bonnie & Clyde” in Utah.
The show, which is directed by Gerry McIntyre, opens Feb. 23 and goes through March 9; tickets are available here.
We chatted to Driggs over the phone during the cast’s second week of rehearsal, and asked her first about her path to becoming a professional performer.
“I started my training in Louisiana at a summer program for youth,” she said. “And actually, I always say that my first drama teacher was Tony Kushner. There’s a big story with that. But Tony and I both lived in the same town; Lake Charles, Louisiana. His parents were in charge of the music department of the summer program. And he was an NYU student and came back and taught drama, and directed the plays and musicals. It was great fun, and he really sparked my love for theater and for acting. And so I’d say that’s where I started thinking, maybe this is something that I like. Before that I’d wanted to be an attorney, or I thought about majoring in English literature, all with their elements of acting, right? And then I moved here to Utah. My schools in Louisiana, and before that, in Kentucky, didn’t have drama in the school that was offered to students, but I moved to Utah my senior year of high school and they did have a drama department. And I had almost all the credits I needed to graduate anyway. So after moving from Louisiana, I jumped into that. And then I went to BYU and received a BFA in music dance theater, and it just went from there.”
We asked her what it has been like to be in so many shows at Pioneer and also if she has a favorite.
“In terms of what it’s like, I have to say in a certain way, Pioneer Theatre feels like home for me,” she said. “I lived in New York for almost eight years, came back for family and to have that kind of life, to have more of a suburban family life I guess, and to help take care of my parents. And I was very grateful that Pioneer Theatre took me in and allowed me to keep working there. It, you know, since they bring in so many other actors from New York and the directors from New York, and not that our local actors aren’t absolutely professional, they absolutely are and working with local actors has been very gratifying as well. But it gave me that bigger experience of knowing what was happening in other parts of the country and and really trying to keep up with things even though I lived here locally, and I really appreciated Pioneer Theater for during that. Couple of my favorite shows; I loved doing “Smokey Joe’s Café,” that was years and years ago, 2003 I believe. I loved “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas.” That was a great one, the music, of course, it’s just incredible, like the Great American Songbook. I really loved “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.” I loved our production of “Sweeney Todd” in 2018. That was very challenging and exciting, and I loved everything about that.”
She also told us more about learning the accordion for the show “Once.”
“I’ve played the piano since I was 8,” Driggs said. “Not particularly well, but I’m very serviceable and I played the oboe for many years. So I started out as a musician well before I was an actor, but yeah, I think the accordion teacher that I hired thought I was a little crazy, that I wanted to learn the accordion in a month to perform in this show; it was really fun. I could play the show. I could play what I was given for sure. And I think I got through the first two Primer books at my lessons which he insisted I play through, which was great, that taught me a lot. I think I could do it again. I think I could pick it up and still play a little bit. I could certainly play the right hand; the left hand gets tricky. But you know, I’d love the chance to do it again. Actually, that would be really fun. You know, it’s fun when you’re in your 50s, which I am, to learn a new skill.”
We also asked Driggs how she keeps her process fresh having been in so many shows.
“I think it’s pretty easy with theater, and with film too, because it’s a new script,” she said. “It’s a whole new situation every time; I’ve never worked with Gerry McIntyre before, our director, I’ve never worked with most of these actors who are in the play. I mean, it just brings a whole new energy, which is why live theater is so great; every night is a whole new energy depending on who’s sitting out there in the audience. So it keeps the process very fresh. I’ve never done ‘Bonnie & Clyde’ before. I’ve done a lot of shows, but I’ve never done this show. I’ve never sung these notes, I’ve never said these lines. So I think that’s kind of inherent in the profession; it stays fresh. And ‘Bonnie & Clyde’ is a different process than you know, ‘Once’ or ‘Spelling Bee,’ because I’m playing someone who really lived; really had a full life, who really went through these experiences. So that’s a fresh approach as opposed to creating a character from a script and putting your own spin on it. I have to be a little true to who Cumie Barrow was.”
Driggs said she is very much enjoying the rehearsal process so far.
“I am, I have to say it’s a lovely cast,” she said. “They’re just very, very nice people. Gerry is a nice director. There’s a great energy in the room. So much talent. I mean, people in the show can sing. And so yeah, I’m really enjoying the process. And honestly, as a child, I was fascinated by these pop culture stories anyway; I was born in Texas, they’re from Texas. I knew about Bonnie and Clyde. So anything that has a historical bent to it that was kind of amplified in the pop culture scene at the time, I’m already very interested in.”
She also talked about the costumes in the show, which are by K.L. Alberts, in his 46th production for PTC. “I actually pulled up a picture of my great grandmother, and this picture would have been in 1934 because my father was born in 1932. And the dress she’s wearing is very similar to one of the dresses I’m wearing in the show. The costumes are fabulous, they’re great. Just as far as the style goes [for her character], these were poor people. They lived in a very poor section of West Dallas. So the costumes for me are certainly not glamorous, nor should they be.”
We also asked Driggs how the musical theater scene has evolved in Utah since her training.
“Well there’s certainly a lot more going on here,” she said. “People are very talented; there’s just a greater pool of people who are prepared and trained. I think that’s very exciting. I think audiences are more willing to see something that’s different. I think there’s just a place for all of the theaters that are here. It gives more people an opportunity to work on their craft, and more people an opportunity to see live theater. Very exciting.”
She also talked a little about what 2024 has in store for her after “Bonnie & Clyde” closes.
“That’s one of the hard parts about theater, that you don’t always have something lined up,” she said. “You don’t always know; there’s a lot of unknowns. I am not an actor who… a lot of people want to do back to back shows. I am not that person just because I have a large family and a lot that I need to do there. So I don’t have anything lined up next. I do have a couple of things coming out on film this year. I have one movie with Candlelight Media that I don’t think he has an actual title; we had a working title. And I’m in one episode of a series that was filmed down in Helper, Utah, called ‘Dusty Bluffs;’ I’m not sure when that comes out either. So I do have both of those coming out, and I just keep auditioning.”
Driggs explained that her family is also musical; her husband also has a degree in musical theater, but is currently a fundraising consultant with his own business. All of her children did theater in school, and two of them have appeared in shows at PTC with her before; one of her daughters is soon going to appear in her fist professional show.
We also asked Driggs if she has any dream roles that she hasn’t played yet.
“You know, I get asked that all the time,” she said. “Honestly, I don’t. That isn’t my process. I don’t have dream roles. I don’t have roles that I’m dying to do. I try to make the role I’m doing be the one I’ve always wanted. So I try not to have those specific roles. Because I mean, as much there as we have here in Utah now, that’s, that would just be a hard ask. To play a very specific role for someone who’s in their 50s. But I’m really enjoying like right now. I really enjoy playing Cumie Barrow. That’s a great role. I’ve really grown to love her. And whatever show I’m in next, I’m sure I will really love that character.”
For more information about “Bonnie & Clyde” at PTC and for tickets, click here.
