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07/26/2018 12:01 AMHer mother Mihae Lee is a pianist. Her father Ronald Thomas is a cellist. So, it should not be a big surprise that daughter Lili Thomas is a performer, too—a singer, dancer, and actor. But what is a surprise is that all will be appearing in this area in August. Ronald Thomas, who is artistic director of the Chestnut Hill Concerts, will be playing in all four Friday night concerts at the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center in August. Pianist Lee, who is the artistic director of the Essex Winter Series, will appear in two of the Chestnut Hill performances.
And Lili Thomas will be at the Ivoryton Playhouse for the month of August in the production of A Chorus Line.
“This is kind of a career renaissance for me,” Thomas admits. “It’s a little bit terrifying, but it could not be a more supportive community for me.
Thomas, 33, took time off from performing for her two children, Annabelle, 7, and Jack, 5. At first, she tried to mesh career and motherhood, touring along with her husband and Annabelle when she was five months pregnant with Jack. It didn’t work well.
“I decided, no more,” she says.
Instead, Thomas now operates her own voice and acting studio in Hastings on Hudson, New York. Still, she sees a connection to her stage career in her current work.
“Teaching has made me a better performer. I’m aware as I help students of achieving tone and resonance and vocal health,” she says.
‘It’s Scary...’
Still, the jump back to performing has been a challenge.
“I’ve had two children, and childbirth changes your body. I’m not dancing everyday anymore,” she says. “I’m the oldest person in the cast. It’s scary doing it with younger people and scary to think how I will look in a leotard.”
Jaqueline Hubbard, the executive director of the Ivoryton Playhouse, has no worries about Thomas’s dancing. Hubbard had previously seen video of Thomas singing. But she had not been aware of what a skilled dancer Thomas was until preparation for the current production.
“She is a wonderful dancer, dynamite,” Hubbard says.
Thomas started dancing lessons when she was four years old. At 14, she added acting lessons. And there were music lessons, piano of course, and Thomas plays a veritable orchestra of other instruments: baritone horn, trumpet, ukulele, tuba, and cello.
Thomas, a soprano, says she listened to a lot of opera growing up, loved Maria Callas, but knew she didn’t want a classical career. She graduated from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and began looking towards a career in musical theater.
“The goal was always Broadway. I wanted to originate a part. I’ve wanted that since 4th grade,” she says.
Thomas got parts—not on Broadway, but in regional theater. She was a dancer in the ballet in The King and I, Fastrada in Pippin, and Gigi in Miss Saigon.
Some of those musical instruments she played turned out to be assets when she performed. In Cabaret, where she was a Kit Kat girl, she recalled playing baritone horn, tuba, trumpet, and guitar. In Blues in the Night, she played trumpet, guitar, and piano.
Still, there were frustrations.
“I got down to the last two so many times. The disappointments ate away at me,” she says.
Working Through Uncertainties
Sometimes the problem was her appearance. Since her mother is Korean, Thomas was sometimes sent to auditions for roles for Asian women.
“But I didn’t look Asian enough,” she recalled her agent reporting to her.
For other parts, the reverse was true: She looked too exotic. The harsh comments were hard to deal with. Finally, she had enough, and she went to St. Paul, Minnesota, where her father was then principal cellist of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.
She deliberately had nothing to do with show business. She worked for six months as part of a team planning the opening of a luxury hotel. Then a friend called to say a theater troupe in Memphis, Tennessee, was looking for someone to play the leading role of Mimi in Rent. Thomas got the part, later touring the show to Milwaukee.
She has worked through her uncertainties about her appearance.
“I’m okay with who I am. I am not going to change myself. I am more confident and self-appreciating,” she says.
Thomas is excited about all the possibilities A Chorus Line presents for career and personal life.
“This is going to be a great summer for theater and family,” she says. “And I’d better not let my mom down.”
A Chorus Line
Ivoryton Playhouse
Wednesday, Aug. 8 to
Sunday, Sept. 2
For tickets and information, visit ivorytonplayhouse.org or call 860-767-7318.