Randy Graff’s ‘Blessed’ Career Turn Brings Her Back to ‘City of Angels’

Two years ago, Randy Graff moved from New York to Los Angeles to try her luck in television.

It was a bust: “I stayed for a couple of months and landed a pilot which didn’t go.”

Graff is now back in the City of Angels in the hit “City of Angels.” She’s starring with James Naughton in the much-anticipated Tony Award-winning musical, which is in previews and officially opens Wednesday at the Shubert Theatre.

Graff won the 1990 Tony and Drama Desk Awards for the Larry Gelbart, Cy Coleman, David Zippel musical that tells two stories: In one, a ‘40s detective novelist named Stine is writing his first Hollywood screenplay; in the second story, his alter-ego, a Humphrey Bogart-like private eye named Stone (Naughton) comes to life. Graff plays Stone’s tough-but-tender secretary Oolie and Donna, a movie mogul’s assistant.

Graff prepared for “Angels” by watching the 1941 classic Bogart film noir “The Maltese Falcon.”

“The Oolie character is based on the secretary in ‘Maltese Falcon,’ ” she says. And Graff admits she stole a bit of business from “Falcon.”

“She has one moment when he (Bogart) is rolling his cigarette and he goes to light it and she lights it for him,” Graff explains. “I said, ‘This is perfect!’ And I found a place to put it in the top of the second act.”

Graff considers her Broadway career “blessed.” Besides “City of Angels,” she’s appeared on Broadway as Rizzo in “Grease” and originated the role of Fantine in “Les Miserables.”

That’s a far cry from her humble beginnings doing non-Equity dinner-theater for $125 a week in North Carolina.

“I played Louise in ‘Gypsy,’ ” Graff recalls with a smile. “That was my first big role. I had to take my clothes off in front of all of these rednecks. It wasn’t a lot of fun.”