Judy Kaye’s Come a Long Way From the Melodyland Theatre

Judy Kaye’s calling card should read: “Have Voice Will Travel.”

A Tony Award winner for “The Phantom of the Opera,” Kaye has sung in musical comedies and operas here, there and everywhere. This Tuesday, she reprises her role as the egotistical opera diva Carlotta in “Phantom” at the Ahmanson.

Kaye, who attended UCLA, got her Equity card while still in college by doing a season of musicals at the old Melodyland Theatre in Anaheim and appearing in TV series. Her big break came playing the tough-girl-with-a-heart Rizzo in the first national touring company of “Grease” back in 1973.

“That was an amazing company,” Kaye recalls. The cast included Jeff Conaway, Marilu Henner and John Travolta. “Marilu, we all knew she was destined (for stardom),” Kaye says. “The one who was just a bit of surprise was John Travolta. He was just 17. We were all pretty young. We all grew up together.”

Thirteen years ago, Kaye traveled across America performing her award-winning Broadway role as platinum blond ‘30s movie star Lily Garland in “On the Twentieth Century.”

Five years ago, she agreed to don her blond wig again and play Lily in a 62-city tour of “Twentieth.” Kaye jokingly refers to it as “The Bus and Truck Tour From Hell.”

But if she hadn’t taken the tour, Kaye says, she wouldn’t have met her husband, David Green, who had a featured role in the musical. The two met the first day of rehearsals and within a month were engaged.

“If I hadn’t met him I probably would have killed myself probably somewhere out near Peoria,” Kaye says, laughing.

Kaye will be performing Carlotta for six weeks and is excited about being back in L.A. “I hadn’t been (to Los Angeles) very much. I wanted to touch base again. It was an opportunity to make some nice money and go back to a role I had so much fun doing.”