Exclusive: Catching Up With All My Children Legend Susan Lucci

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Susan Lucci, the Daytime Emmy-winning actress who is eternally beloved to soap fans for her iconic 1970-2011 run as All My Children‘s Erica Kane — or, if you want to get technical about it, Erica Kane Martin Brent Cudahy Montgomery Montgomery Chandler Marick Marick Montgomery — is busier than ever these days. Earlier this year, she filmed a Jonah Hill-directed movie with Keanu Reeves; earlier this month she hit the red carpet for the star-studded concert celebrating Saturday Night Live‘s 50th anniversary at Radio City Music Hall; and this week (on Wednesday, February 26, to be exact) she begins an off-Broadway run starring alongside some comedic heavy-hitters in the Joy Behar-produced play My First Ex-Husband. Soap Opera Digest caught up with the legendary star to get the 411 on her new endeavor.

Soap Opera Digest: Susan, I must tell you, I am not over my raging jealousy that you were at that SNL concert!

Lucci (laughs): It was an epic concert, to say the least!

Digest: You’ve done Broadway in the past, but this is your first foray into an off-Broadway production. How did your involvement with this play come about?

Lucci: Well, Joy Behard, who’s producing — and really, I think, this is her baby all around — called and asked if I would do it. It’s just as simple as that! Joy did mention that she had seen me do [the comedy stage show] Celebrity Autobiography, and that was her first notion that I could do comedy. She said, “I saw you in that and I thought, ‘This girl can do comedy!’ ” So, that was good news! I think that’s what prompted her to call me. It’s a limited run with a revolving cast right now. Joy was in the original, and then I chose to be in the second cycle. Our opening night is the 27th and I go through March 23, and then there’s a third group. Each cycle is a cast of four actresses reading from these true stories written by women in bad marriages.

Digest: Ah, bad marriages — the perfect “we laugh because if we don’t laugh, we’ll cry” kind of thing.

Lucci: Exactly! And I think that’s what the stories [in the show] are about, too. I’m not sure so they’re meant to be funny, but they’re funny!

Digest: Is the format of the show that you’re all kind of performing solo, or is it more of an ensemble style, where you’re interacting with one another?

Lucci: It’s more solo, but it’s clearly an ensemble of actresses, and Joy at the help, who want to read this material. It’s kind of like Celebrity Autobiography in the way that we have the book in our hands [during the performance]. However, of course, you have to know it! You can’t just get up and plain read.

Digest: Did you see the first cast perform it?

Lucci: I did!. I was at their opening night a couple of weeks ago, and needless to say, they knocked it out of the park. I mean, there’s Joy and Susie Essman [Curb Your Enthusiasm] and Tovah Feldshuh (ex-Bethany Rose, As the World Turns et al), who’s a wonderful actress, and Adrienne C. Moore from Orange is the New Black, and she was fabulous! It made me very excited! I was in the presence of some masters. What’s also nice is that this is being done in a brand-new off-Broadway theater, and that makes it nice for the person coming to see the show; it has nice, all-new seats and it’s off-Broadway, but it’s on West 60th, so it’s right around the corner from Lincoln Center.

ust that, um, it’s also very nice, um, because it’s being done in a brand new theater, brand new off-Broadway theater, uh, that MAX was an event space and it’s so it’s a brand new theater, and that makes it nice for the person coming to see the show, have, nice, seats and, you know, all, all brand new and um. And it’s off Broadway, but it’s on West 60th, so it’s very, it’s right around the corner from Lincoln Center. So the location makes it pretty easy to get to too.

Digest: Your cast is also pretty fantastic: Judy Gold, who’s well-known on the comedy circuit; Cathy Moriarty (Raging Bull, Soapdish); and the name that really stood out to me, Tonya Pinkins, who appeared on AMC as Livia Frye!

Lucci: Yes, isn’t that something?! She’s had a really good career on Broadway, and I ran into her at some point when she was on Broadway, but iI haven’t seen her in a while. It’s going to be great to see her again!

Digest: When Joy first brought this project up to you, what about it appealed to you?Lucci: Well, I just love comedy, I always have, and lucky me, I got to do some comedy as Erica Kane, too, on All My Children, and loved it. [Since then] I’ve had the opportunity to do more, and that makes me happy. I love doing comedy.Digest: I feel like comedy was really baked in to Erica via your portrayal of her. I’m curious if you find that often, that when you do comedy, people say they’re surprised, because if you didn’t watch AMC, they might think, “Oh, she was Erica Kane, she must have solely been doing heavy drama.”Lucci: I think people who didn’t watch All My Children or didn’t know my work are surprised, yeah.

Digest: Is there anything you can tease about the stories you’ll be bringing to life in this show?

Lucci: I would not do it justice. This really has to be seen! And I don’t mean to be drumming up business — apparently that’s doing very well! — but it’s just much more fun to hear these stories in their own words.

Digest: In this show, as you mentioned, you’re going to know the material by the time you hit the stage, but will also have the book on stage with you. When you were playing Erica, you were memorizing scripts all the time. Do you find that muscle memory comes back quickly when you dive into a new project?

Lucci: It does come back, I’m really happy to say. I don’t know how it is for every actor or actress who has to memorize, but I was memorizing just naturally, as a little girl. I remember in first grade, having a new book to read, and I would come home with a new book to read nad I would say, “Mommy, do you want me to read my book?” But actually, I knew the book — I had memorized it! So I don’t know if [my memory] is semi-photographic — and I only mean semi, believe me, I don’t mean fully — but I think it starts there. I think everybody’s got a certain bent, a certain talent, and then certainly I have had the chance to develop that muscle over the course of time.

Digest: I can’t let you go without asking if you had a nice time with Andy Cohen at the AMC reunion held last month in New York City.

Lucci: Oh my gosh, he was the perfect host, so much fun. He really was a doll. He asked fabulous questions, both for the sake of those of us on stage, but also the audience. It was really um a love fest on stage and between the people on stage and the audience. Everybody was so engaged. Everybody had such a good time, and Andy was fantastic. It was so heartwarming; it really was spectacular to all be together again. And we went and had dinner — we had a long dinner, maybe a three-hour dinner —afterwards, because a lot of us hadn’t seen each other [in a long time]. Eden [Riegel, who played Erica’s daughter, Bianca] was so amazing, because it was at the height of all those fires going on in California. She flew in to do the show, and she flew out on the red-eye to get home, because she certainly wanted to be home. But that’s how much it meant to her to be at this reunion on stage for All My Children. So I was very grateful to her and thrilled to pieces to see her and to get to be with her.

Digest: What did it mean to you, 45 years after the shows’s premiere, to look out into packed audience of people who are still so devoted to AMC?

Lucci: It was very heartwarming and really exciting. I had been told that people were lined up around the block, and that that rarely happens at the 92nd Street Y, although they have spectacular guests! It was really very touching.

For tickets and more information about My First Ex-Husband, click here.

Steven Bergman/AFF-USA.COM / MEGA

Reunion Special: Lucci with fellow AMC alums Kelly Ripa (ex-Hayley, far l.), Eden Riegel (ex-Bianca) and AMC fan/reunion host Andy Cohen at a celebration of the show held in New York City in January.