Andrea McArdle

Though she had performed in commercials and soaps with her big blazing voice and a sprightly demeanor, Philadelphian Andrea McArdle became a legend playing the tiny title role in Annie, premiering the role on Broadway and in London. Since that time she has played a wide range of women — a hooker on TV’s All My Children, a bruised Belle in Broadway’s Beauty & The Beast, and a young speed-freaky Judy Garland on NBC’s Rainbow mini-series. Along the way she’s tackled everything from Les Misérables and State Fair to Tin Pan Alley classics on PBS’s Andrea McArdle on Broadway and several CDs of such standard fare (much like she’ll be doing in March with Peter Nero and his Philly Pops in Broadway Showstoppers). But what brings her back to Philly is playing the ultimate fallen woman — Sally Bowles — in Cabaret.

You set a standard with Annie as perhaps one of the few child actors not to crack up, to go on, survive and flourish into the present. What’s the secret?

I think certain people are more cut out for the business than others. There’s also a lot of kids, TV actors in particular, who are cast merely for their beauty. It’s not about actual talent. I was blessed with talent. Actually, if I hadn’t have done this I would have been an athlete. I was a gymnast at the start.

So how did you get into showbiz?

I went to audition in New York for a Cheerios commercial that I never got. They wanted a gymnast so there I went. I was disappointed but I loved the competition. I always had a good attitude about stuff like that. The other thing was my dad worked for AMTRAK so we could afford to take the train for free.

In Philadelphia you studied voice with Russell Faith and dance with Rita Rue. How did they shape what you came to do?

Some people have gifts more natural to them than others. I was also lucky that my parents were into so much good music — Cleo Laine, Nat King Cole. What Russ really did was let you discover who you are. He was really a mentor. I don’t like practicing. Never did. I’m not disciplined. But he feeds the dream — as expression, as escape. Rita gave me incredible dance training. But I’ve never had another trainer or dance lesson since the age of 12.

You starred in Annie in 1977. What’s the biggest difference between casting on Broadway then and now?

Revivals. It’s so difficult to get behind new works — an expensive gamble — that investors go for the tried and true. However, I’ve never seen a revival get so infused and reinvented than Cabaret. It had a lot of stamps before I got to it. Liza, Joel Grey. But what’s funny is that neither Sally Bowles nor Cabaret ever spoke to me. Then again, I never though of myself as Belle in Beauty & The Beast, especially after Toni Braxton ended the run. No matter what I did it would come off as traditional after her. They let me play her outside the Disney mold. Now what’ s funny is you would’ve thought I would have done more Disney roles, what with them thinking I’m light and fluffy. But I’ve played plenty of fallen women — Fantine, Eva Peron.

So what convinced you to do Cabaret?

I like Fosse’s movement — it’s an athletic style more than a fluid ballet style. But I had a bad audition for Cabaret to replace Jennifer Jason Leigh. I was terrible. I was in a fender bender and I had road rage. It didn’t work. And I was ticked off — because I needed a role like this. People like me with my background make it more exciting, more delicious to see in a role like that. You get a lot of joy in the rottenness of it all. There’s a lot of Sally Bowles in me and in most actors. I could have gone down that road, got with the wrong kind of people.

Cabaret, Feb. 13 to Feb. 25, $39.50-$69.50, The Merriam Theater, Broad and Spruce Sts., 215- 336-1234. Broadway Showstoppers with Peter Nero and the Philly Pops, March 4, 5, 11 and 12, The Academy of Music, Broad and Locust Sts., 215-893-1999.