Broadway performer Abby Mueller is shown in her role as King Henry VIII’s wife, Jane Seymour, in the show “Six.”
Submitted photo
Critics have long praised Broadway star Abby Mueller for being a superb songbird. But away from the stage, and away from the noise of New York City where she lives, Mueller admires the real songbirds — the ones she finds in nature far from the crowds on her informal bird-watching excursions.
She took up the hobby for a measure of pandemic peace in the past two years.
“Just getting out in nature is important for me,” she said, speaking by phone from her home. “It’s interesting for me to sometimes go to a new geographical area to see what different birds might be around. I know that may sound kind of nerdy.”
Few could call the performer nerdy. Besides, she most recently rocked as King Henry VIII’s wife, Jane Seymour, in Broadway’s mirthful musical “Six” and starred as the title character in “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.”
Mueller will bring tunes from each of those shows plus much more, including a cover from Adele, to her approximately 75-minute Cabaret at The Commons concert at 7:30 p.m. today at The Commons, 300 Washington St. in downtown Columbus. Her music director, Sharon Kenny, will join her.
Yet, without her thick Carole King locks from her stage wig, Mueller asks the audience to be prepared for something slightly different than the ’70s songstress’ sound.
“My Carole King on stage obviously was something of a hybrid,” she said. “It was my voice with her flavors I tried to put into it. But with this (cabaret), it’s a very different context.”
Meaning that she feels more leeway now to make the tunes her own while retaining the greatest of respect for the legendary artist — one with whom she sang literally alongside on “The Today Show” a few years ago.
“I was shaking in my boots,” she said.
Sister and Tony Award winner Jessie also portrayed King in an earlier Broadway run of “Beautiful.” But forget thinking Mueller might someday playfully take on her sibling in a friendly King sing-off — and then name a winner.
“Nobody has ever asked that before,” she said with a laugh. “And there’s not ever a competition between any of us (family members).”
In fact, relatives are so supportive that she fully expects her Chicago-based actor twin brother, Matthew, to make it to one of her two Cabaret performances Friday in Indianapolis. Another brother, Andrew, is also a Broadway performer.
“But I think people sometimes imagine our (Chicago) childhoods as a little bit too Bohemian,” Mueller joked.
With all her success, including a recent invitation to tour before she herself even had considered a cabaret, she still faces auditions with some trepidation — and some heartache in what can be a painful, professional world.
“One of the very basic challenges in show business is the constant rejection while realizing the need to continue to put yourself out there,” she said. “With theater, no matter what, you still have to find the next show.”
In the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic’s Cabaret at The Commons series since 2015, audiences have shown ample love to myriad stars. Mueller was especially excited to hear that the local, small town cabaret series averages more than 300 people per show, and at one pre-pandemic point, stood at a 350-plus average.
“That’s so heartening to me,” she said. “I love hearing that. A narrative that we sometimes heard pre-pandemic was that the arts don’t really matter.
“Then, we realized throughout the pandemic where people turned for comfort, and it was the arts. Movies, TV, music.
“And the arts are such a human, universal thing. So I want to thank the audience there for supporting a form of the live arts.
“That always increases our empathy and compassion. And the more we can tap into that, the better off we all are.”
About the show
Who: Broadway star Abby Mueller, who most recently appeared in “Six” and “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical on Broadway.”
When: 7:30 p.m. today.
Where: The Commons, 300 Washington St. in downtown Columbus.
Information and tickets: thecip.org
