AUSXIP Lucy Lawless Files - Flawless Print - Lucy Articles

Lesbian News
(US)

1 December 2005

Many thanks to Taipo for the transcript
Scans contributed by Roger

GIRLBAR Celebrates 15 Years in Style! 

By LYDIA MARCUS

Girl Bar celebrated its 15th Anniversary with a packed house of a thousand revelers dancing the night away to club music and a past midnight show by "Xena Warrior Princess" turned songstress Lucy Lawless.  For fans used to seeing Lawless with her trademark Xena black hair and pumped up, muscled physique, the actress/singer looks
radically different with blonde tresses and a very slim, lanky post Xena body. 

Before and after the show Lawless hung out in the VIP Lounge with a group that included her vocal coach, husband Robert Tapert (a "Xena" director and producer), and good friend actress Marissa Jaret Winokur of "Hairspray" the musical fame.  Winokur shared with me that she and Lawless became friends back in 1997 while performing in "Grease" on  Broadway (Lawless played Rizzo). 

This past summer I caught Lawless' L.A. Gay Pride Festival Performance where she awkwardly warbled a cover of "Come to Me." But this Girl Bar performance was a marked improvement with Lawless giving a good vocal performance, showed off plenty of sexy gyrations and graceful moves, and she quickly formed a strong connection to the audience.  She had the Girl Bar crowd hanging on her every move during her two song performance- opening with Eurythmics feminist/Sapphic anthem "Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves" and closing with her self-penned "Down on Your Knees."  After the show
Lawless took a few minutes back in the VIP room to chat abut the show.

I: (for interviewer) I saw you perform at Gay pride, is this your second performance in L.A.?

LL:  Yeah, it's my second performance ever.  I'm trying to earn my chops.

I:  Do you get a charge singing in front of a live audience?

LL:  I do but at the moment I'm still I'm learning.

I:  Why only do 2 songs?

LL:  Leave 'em wanting more.

I:  What kind of music are you into?

LL:  I'm a Nina Simone fan by (my) voice is not suited to everything.

I:  The crowd was really charged up by your performance.

LL:  Oh, that's great.

I:  Did you practice your moves at home in front of the mirror?

LL:  No, no, I kind of work out some choreography, some really basic stuff…I come from a culture that's very modest (New Zealand) and I'm finally getting over that actually and getting up there and singing such an in your face song like "Down on Your Knees" you just gotta be ballsy, not too much otherwise, you'd shortchange everybody.  And
it feels really scary to do that.

I:  Is it kind of like being in an out of control car?

LL:  Well yeah you're like (sings) "Get down on your Knees if you want me, Get down on your knees and show that you care," and you got to fulfill that by being totally egotistical in that moment.

I:  You had a mostly female audience, you have a lot of female fan obviously from Xena?

LL:  There were a lot of men here too.  There were a lot of men lining up to get in I know.

I:  Do you get a different energy from the women?

LL:  The gay community generally- the men and women- that I feel really at home.  I just feel at home.

 

---