Getz Sees a Broadway Delivery in ‘Mail’

Virtually from the beginning, there was talk of “Mail” going to Broadway.

“Everyone said it,” Mara Getz recalled during an interview. “There’s always hype, but you never believe it, because everything is hyped in this town. But then a representative from Washington, D.C., came out and said, ‘I want you there in the middle of February.’

“So Washington is for sure. The only way we wouldn’t go to New York is if we bombed in Washington--and I don’t see that happening. So I’m gonna be singing on Broadway. “

For the actress-singer, appearing on Broadway will be a dream come true. Raised on a farm in Baker, Minn., Getz moved West five years ago, quickly established herself on the club circuit, and in 1985 was a finalist on the television show “Star Search.”

Last year she tried her acting wings in Amanda McBroom’s “Heartbeats,” a montage of songs at the Matrix. Now she’s flying high as mixed-up Alex’s dumped-upon girlfriend, Dana, in the Jerry Colker-Michael Rupert hit musical “Mail” (at the Pasadena Playhouse through Jan. 30).

“No one really knew,” she said of the show’s beginnings. “Everyone thought the concept (months of stacked-up mail coming to musical life) was clever and ingenious, and as things developed, there was a really good vibe in the cast. But it was a work-in-progress.”

After the show’s initial summer run at the Playhouse (where it returned in November), the authors “took a hacksaw to the second act,” she said, “and now it just clips along.”

For Getz, the detour into musical theater was unplanned.

“I always dreamed of coming to Los Angeles and getting a record deal,” she said. “Then I had one with Arista. Everything I ever wanted was finally in my hands--and it went bad.

“It’s very hard to get a record deal these days, especially if you don’t fit into one of those niches that people who control the record companies like to have. People see somebody who looks like Madonna and say, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s the gimmick we want.’ You can’t just be a singer (with) a good voice. You have to have a gimmick, something that will sell records.”

She shook her head. “Singing out here in clubs (the Backlot, Rose Tattoo and Hollywood Palladium), I’d do Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin, country/Western, Broadway. I enjoy all kinds of music, and I’m able to do them, so they didn’t know where to put me. First my agent wanted me to be Pat Benatar, then Liza Minnelli, then somebody else.

“Finally I said, ‘Wait a minute. . . .’ I believe that now, through this avenue, I’ll be able to be myself--and I think I’ll get a record deal from this. This will be my gimmick.”

The “Star Search” gimmick, she admitted, bore little fruit.

“It’s the same thing: You’re trying to fit into their niche. Their female singer is a bit of a diva, very chanteuse. I was up against an incredible chanteuse, Cat Adams. We’re very much alike, down to the red hair and big voices. But she had been at it much longer. Whatever the reasons, Cat won.

“The truth is, ‘Star Search’ didn’t do a thing for me. Maybe I got one booking--and I still get recognized by people; the show’s got a lot of real fans out there. But . . . I don’t want to put it down. It’s not a joke; it’s just that it’s not taken terribly seriously. Not considered hip.”

About her foray into theater, Getz has only positive things to say: “I listen and watch a lot. In the beginning, I kept saying ‘first set’ and ‘second set,’ and they’d say, ‘No, Mara, it’s first act and second act .’

“And upstage is back, downstage is front, things like that. It’s all new. But as far as the acting--well, I’ve always implemented acting with my songs. Even if it’s a pop tune, there’s a story to it. I’ve always considered them acting pieces. It worked very well with ‘Heartbeats,’ and this (“Mail”) takes it that much further. You’re telling the story musically, like a pop opera.”

Much as she’s loving the stage, Getz hasn’t given up her club work. On Feb. 1, she’ll be at At My Place in Santa Monica, singing “ballads, mid-tempos, pop tunes, a bit of rhythm and blues--white soul.” Then it’s back to “Mail.”

“I want to enjoy every moment of this,” she said. “I mean, I have my goals and I have my dreams, but I want to enjoy this time. I want to enjoy people while I’m doing it. And I want to remember to be as kind as I can all the way through.

“I’m a perfectionist. So I get caught up with ‘The dress is wrong, the song stinks. . . .’ The biggest thing I’m working on now is self-love, self-acceptance. Until you find that, you can be crucified in this business.

“You have to have a base in yourself: Find that little girl or little boy, throw the negative seeds away and fill it up with positive seeds.”