From the boardroom to the stage: Affirmations CEO bends genders in 'The Rocky Horror Show'

FERNDALE – First she followed Jan Stevenson as executive director of Affirmations, but now Leslie Ann Thompson is walking in the steps of yet another short list of talented women who have shattered age-old gender barriers with great success. Only in this case it's not in a boardroom, but on the stage of Ferndale's Ringwald Theatre where she's one of the few women in the country to play the roll of the Narrator in the popular, gender-bending musical "The Rocky Horror Show."
"I'm glad I got through it," Thompson laughed the morning after her successful opening night performance. "I don't think I let anybody down."
Even more impressive, though, was yet another first for the 50-year-old chief executive officer. "It was my first ever, ever, ever theater (performance). I've always wanted to do theater after doing stand-up, but I realize it's remarkably different, because other people are relying on you not to screw up," Thompson chuckled.
Thompson earned the roll after Michael A. Gravame, artistic director of The Actors' Company, saw her present an award at the 2007 Wilde Awards this past August. "When the script wasn't there, I just winged it. And Michael said, 'That's what I need: someone who can wing it.'"
Because of time constraints and other factors, however, Thompson didn't get her script and join the show until relatively late in the process. "Everyone else had already been rehearsing for three or four weeks," she said. "I wouldn't have been able to do that."
Which is why Thompson hadn't seriously considered a stage role before this opportunity arose. "My real job doesn't afford me the time you need to invest in something like this with all the rehearsals and stuff. It just happened to fall during a time where I didn't have a lot of meetings."
Although Sally Jessy Raphael and Kate Clinton took one-week turns in the Broadway production after 9/11, what drew Thompson to the role was Gravame's concept for the Narrator, a character traditionally played by a man. "Michael added the twist of trying to get me to look very 'Victor/Victoria' – actually, the make-up is off a picture of Julie Andrews in 'Victor/Victoria.' So it really is fun, because I get this androgynous look going, but I'm definitely a lesbian during the whole routine."
There's certainly no doubt about that, as the audience discovered last Saturday night. "The whole thing with Janet (a virginal lead character in the show) just kind of evolved as rehearsals went on," Thompson said. "And that poor woman in the front row that I danced with turned out to be the mom of one of the cast members. She might never be the same."
But it all works perfectly for the show, Thomson believes. "This show is so weird anyway," she laughed. "There's just so much bizarre stuff going on, that why not throw in the twist of having the narrator be a lesbian?"
As people who know Thompson probably suspect, the executive-turned-actress is at her best with the show's audience participation. "The ad-libbing is really fun for me. Once I got it through my head that I didn't have to be the Narrator I saw in the movie – that I just needed to be myself and do my own thing – once that happened, I was much more relaxed in the role. It's almost like doing stand-up," she noted.
The hardest part, she added, was coming into the role late – and not knowing the language that actors speak. "One of the girls in the show has been doing theater since she was four. I've been doing theater since a week from Tuesday!"
Everyone involved with the show has been incredibly supportive, Thompson noted, and she appreciates it. "They've been really patient. Keep in mind that I'm also the oldest person in the cast. I could be the grandmother – literally – of some of the people, like the 18-year-old straight boy who's been doing my make-up. What a great group to start out with. It's been great."
With her appetite for theater now whetted, Thompson doesn't rule out another stage appearance one day – most likely after retirement, and in a role that would require her to interact more with other characters. Plus, she has a career in comedy clubs to continue. "My retirement plan is to play golf by day and do stand-up at night. It sounds perfect," Thompson said.
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