Robin Lamont: From Day by Day to Wright for America

Robin Lamont

Born in Boston and raised in Brooklyn, Robin Lamont attendedCarnegie-Mellon’s specialized drama program where she performed in and helpedconceive the musical Godspell.  She stayed with the show from its originalOff Broadway run and went on to re-create her role in the film by ColumbiaPictures. To her surprise and delight, her recording of Day by Day from the cast album became a hit on the Billboardcharts, and the film version of the song still draws viewers from around theworld.
Robin and I sat down to talk about all things “Robin” lastmonth in celebration of her latest book, WrightFor America, a great read, by the way!  I began my interview with Robin, as I do withall of my blog subjects, by asking Robin if she has a favorite quote orpersonal philosophy. Just as she has had various careers in her lifetime, herpersonal philosophies have evolved over the years as well. Robin has developed a very strong interest in animal welfare. Right now, she has a very strong moral philosophy that she feels, as I do,should extend to ALL human beings to re look at our relationship with animals,particularly, the animals we eat. We need to try and figure out what God hasmeant for us in how we deal with animals. Animals endure a great deal ofsuffering for us. Robin is not opposed to people who eat meat, but the way thatfarm animals are being raised today is just too brutal. That is not what natureor God intended. That right now is Robin’s strongest motivation.

Original cast of Godspell

Let’s go back to the beginning and how Robin got from thereto here. Robin was very interested in acting in high school in Brooklyn, NewYork. She did all of the usual high school productions. As a result, her actingteacher encouraged her to apply to, at that time, Carnegie Tech, nowCarnegie-Mellon. At that time, it was the only college in the United States,even before Julliard, where one could go and major in acting from day one. That’swhat she did. She took acting, dance, singing, movement, speech, voice, accents. They had to take one English course. That’s where it all began for Robin.

Robin in Godpell

The moment that solidified Robin’s forging ahead was themoment when she was cast in John-Michael Tebelak’s production of Godspell at Carnegie. At first, it was ahorrifying moment. The directing majors at Carnegie would mount their ownproductions. Everyone knew John Michael as this “hippy kind of guy.” His hairwas “out to here.” He wore overalls. Robin remembers walking down the hall. Itwas casting day. As a junior or senior, you could be cast in one of the mainstage productions which is where everybody wanted to be in one of the directingstudents projects. Robin was walking down the hall with   SoniaManzano, who went on to play Maria in SesameStreet. She has become an author in her own right. 
They looked on the mainstage casting boards and their names were not there. Then they went over to thedirecting majors and there they were! Robin was “clown number four” and Soniawas “clown number six.” They looked at each other and said, “Oh my God! Whatare we going to do?”  That production wasGodspell. It was the very earliestand raw production with different music. 

Stephen Schwartz

Stephen Schwartz was not involved atfirst. It was different music with a very gritty sound. It was a self-made veryexperimental production. They only did three or four shows but by the lastshow, word had gotten around at Carnegie, students were piling in and they werepressed against the back walls from the engineering department, from everyplace. This took place just before the Christmas break. John Michael got abooking for them at Café La Mama. Sonia and Robin and David Haskell took aleave of absence from Carnegie for a few weeks to do the show. This is wheretheir producers saw it and invited Stephen Schwartz down and said, “We reallylike the show but we feel that it needs better music. Can you rewrite thescore?” Stephen agreed to do so and Robin, Sonia, and David went back toschool. Three weeks later, Stephen had rewritten the score to Godspell. It had hugely changed. Robinfeels that Stephen’s score for the show is brilliant. It makes the show what itis. They then went into rehearsal to open at The Cherry Lane Theater in May of1971. Stephen’s score changed the feel of it. It made the show more commercial.It gave everyone more direction. It became a more cohesive show as opposed to thepreviously gritty experimental thing.Robin got her Equity card with this show. Robin considersherself lucky to have been the one chosen to sing Day By Day. After Stephen wrote that song, he looked around thecast and asked, “ Who has the least amount of range here? That girl! RobinLamont.” It was a simple song requiring limited range. Robin likes to sing butshe didn’t really consider herself a singer at that time. She was lucky to fallinto that. She stayed with the show through various productions. She went to LAto do it. She came back to New York to do it on Broadway. She did the film. Shebecame known as the Day by Day girl. Thesong became very popular. Robin desired to move on. She was asked to do Grease and she did.  She did a regional production first and then replaced Candice Earley on Broadway as Sandy. She went back to working with StephenSchwartz on Studs Terkel’s Working.She sang James Taylor’s Millwork.  It was a wonderful experience working withhim. She admired him a great deal and that was a special moment in her life.After that, she kind of floundered as an actress. Through a day job, Robinbecame a private investigator! She enjoyed the diversity, the suspense, and theintrigue of it. There was occasionally some danger involved. That attractedRobin, perhaps because she had lost that in her theater world. Every time yougo on stage, there is an element of a little bit of danger that somethingterrible is going to happen or that the audience won’t like it. Beingundercover satisfied some of that for Robin. 

Then after a while, Robin thoughtthis was not going to make it as a lifetime career. So, she went to law schoolat night thinking that she might become a lawyer. She finished up with the helpof her husband. He put her through law school. She immediately went into the DA’soffice in Westchester County. She was immediately attracted to criminal law. 
Again, there was a little bit of danger and intrigue. She has always likedmysteries.
 She enjoyed it and worked there about eight years. Then she had a boyand adopted a girl from the Philippines who was two and a half while Robin wasat the Da’s office.
She came with a big package.
They didn’t know it at thetime but there were physical and social issues with her. It was more than Robincould handle at the time, being a full time working mom and trying to raise twokids.
The government doesn’t pay a whole lot. It was a personal decision toleave the DA’s office. As soon as she was home, she was wondering what she wasgoing to do with her life besides raising two kids. They were off at school. SoRobin thought, “I’m going to write.” So, she started writing. She worked atthat for about six or seven years before she even published a book. Her “routine” has also evolved over the years. Her son isalmost twenty and attends the University of Richmond. He hardly speaks to Robinbut is the love of her life. 
He is very happy and very beautiful. Her daughterJackie is now a junior in high school. Her routine now is to do her errands inthe morning, shopping, household chores, etc. She then does her socialnetworking. She didn’t use to be involved in social networking, but it hasbecome very important when you’re trying to establish yourself as an unknownauthor. 
She also has a blog on her website. She is not hugely active with it.She responds to people who are interested in her book. She tweets. Shemaintains two Facebook pages. For her, it is about “clearing the decks” andthen she sits down and writes. She is working on a new book now.If she had it all to do over, she probably would stick toone thing. Had she stayed with the DA’s office, she would be making reallygreat money now. She would be able to help her family more. There would be alot more stability in her life. She has turned back to her creative writing. Itis not a huge money maker unless you are Stephen King. In terms of advice, shetells her own son to follow his own path. He doesn’t know what that is yet atnineteen. 
Her daughter has some learning disabilities and challenges but she isat a technical college now learning culinary arts. She really likes that. Ittakes a while to know what you love to do. This world is just too hard and itis going to be way too competitive in terms of careers and money to dosomething you don’t like. It is just too difficult.
On the morning of this interview, I asked Robin what workshe had done that morning on her career. Our blog interview was keeping in linewith her work!   She did some of hersocial media prior to our 10AM meeting. She responded to a couple of tweets. She tries to find out something personal about her followers. Over the trajectory of her life and careers, the work thatRobin is most proud of is her books, her writing. She is proud of the work shedid in theater and in Godspell. Shefelt very lucky. She feels lucky to have been cast in the show. She felt shewas handed a gift with Day by Day.Anybody could have sung that song. It happened to be Robin. She was given manygifts and opportunities. The writing she has done all on her own.                 I asked Robin if, when she is alone, if she dances like noone is watching. She does and it is like Mick Jagger. She does that side thingwith quick twirls. Her balance isn’t as good. It was at one time. She stilllikes the way he moves. This question is from Linda Purl: Who does Robin pray to when she’s in trouble? She prays to God. ForRobin, she doesn’t have a traditional Christian view of God. She thinks “God”is a force in nature. When she is in trouble or when she is worried for herkids, she prays to “God” very hard. 
Having self published her first book, putting out a secondbook under her own imprint (which is self publishing, but a little moresophisticated), and now working on a third, Robin does see the publishingindustry changing dramatically. It is going through a huge transition. It hasbecome easier to self publish. You can self publish and make it look identicalto anything “Penguin” might put out. Authors are keeping triple, quadruple, andthe royalties of what they would earn if they were to go through a traditionalpublisher.  However, a self publisher hasto do his/her own marketing and PR. Authors are beginning to find that they don’tneed the “big guys.” The problem that Robin would like to see somehow changed,yet she doesn’t know how, is to eliminate a lot of the junk out there. Anybodycan now self publish. With the internet, there is just this massive amount ofinformation out there. The good news is that you can sit home on your computerto promote your service or your product. That’s the really good news. The badnews is that everybody else in the universe is doing the same thing. It’s ahuge amount of news in the internet. The main advice as to how to navigate through those waters,as Robin has been trying to do, is to follow some of the advice of some of thepeople that Robin has spoken to. When it comes to social networking, you needto put out information that is constructive and helpful and relevant. 
Robintunes out when she receives tweets where people are just promoting themselves.Everyone wants to be directed to information that can help them or somethingthat is interesting or funny for the day. Robin doesn’t throw a lot of stuffagainst the wall with social networking. What she does do is to try and stayconstructive and relevant. That is the advice she would dispense to thosereading this blog. Robin unfortunately has lost her singing voice due tothyroid surgery. That transition was very hard for her. It made it somewhateasier in the fact that she was an attorney at the time of her surgery.  She couldn’t do oral arguments in court.  Herspeaking voice even today isn’t a hundred percent what it was.  It has been almost fifteen years. She stillhas to remember to breathe properly and do everything that a singer might do tokeep her voice even on a speaking level.

Robin Lamont and family

She loves to sing and she misses it. Shedoes sing around the house when she is dancing like Mick Jagger when no one iswatching. When she is biking, she has her ear phones on so that she thinks sheis sounding really good when she is singing along with someone. Robin is constantly going to other sources for inspirationin her writing. First of all, her acting inspires some of her characterdevelopment with her characters in her writing.
 It is very easy for her to getlost in a character, in a good way, to feel that she really is that person. 

Clockwise: Sonia Manzano, Robin Lamont, Jeff Mylett, Lamar Alford, David Haskell, Peggy Gordon, Herb Braha, Joanne Jonas, Gilmer McCormick, Steve Nathan — with Sonia Manzano, Robin Lamont, Stephen Nathan and JJ McCraty.

Ifsomeone was to watch Robin write, it is kind of kinetic. They would see hermouthing the words and acting it out. She gets very emotional while writing andfeels terrible at the end of books when she wants a big emotional climax andshe starts to cry and she thinks, “You idiot! You wrote this. Why are youtearing up?” Robin also goes to music for inspiration. She chooses certaintypes of music that works for a particular book that she is writing or for acertain character. If she hears a certain song, she might play that song as sheis writing for a particular character and/or scene. It puts Robin inside theroom with them or inside their soul, in a way. Music is vital for Robin.

Left to right top row: Herb Braha, Steve Nathan, Jeff Mylett;
Second row: Lamar Alford, Peggy Gordon, Sonia Manzano, Gilmer McCormick, Robin Lamont,
Bottom: Joanne Jonas scorching it up with Bless the Lord — with Sonia Manzano, Stephen Nathan, JJ McCraty and Robin Lamont.

Robin works in a linear fashion when she is writing. Some thingstake her by surprise but her interest is in suspense. The book she is workingon now is part of that genre. Wright forAmerica is a slight deviation from that. There are suspense elements to it.It is pretty much a satire/comedy. Going back to suspense, Robin stronglybelieves in Robert McKee’s sense and delineation of what a good story is. ForRobin, it means you have to work up to a climax that is the pivotal moment foryour book. If you don’t know what that is and how you want to get there, you’rein trouble. Robin pretty much outlines her story before she begins to write. To prepare to write each day, Robin turns on the computer.Sometimes there are moments in the day in which Robin thinks, “I have to rightthis scene. I know what the scene is, but I don’t really know how to start it.I don’t know really what’s important. I go back to the outline.” She then asksherself what the most important elements she needs to get. She needs to findout if this character has done something. More often than not, start to write.That gets her started. It’s like getting in a car that can’t start. You get itgoing and then you turn on the engine. There are many books that Robin wishes she had written. Recentlyshe read a book by Tom Franklin called CrookedLetter, Crooked Letter. To her, one of the best suspense novels ever readin her life. It is so personal and emotional. That is what Robin hopes sheachieves in her own writing.
Robin’s favorite memory is the day she gave birth to her son,Matt. That is a pretty great memory. One of the fun things that Robin hopes that she has broughtout in Wright for America is about agirl who works under cover and how she maintains character. She takes on twoundercover roles. One is to try and undermine this right wing conservative hostand then she is doing a simultaneous sting on this smarmy Turkishcounterfeiter. She keeps getting the roles mixed up or someone will find her ina restaurant with one person and thinks she’s a different character when she issupposed to be the other. There is a moment sort of midway through the bookwhen she is in a recording studio and she is so happy because her “real person”loves to sing and loves to be there and she forgets herself for a moment andshe laughs. She is not aware that the people she is supposed to be conning arelistening to her. She lets something out where they question aspects aboutherself that she has pretended not to be. She chastises herself for droppingcharacter. It is a theme that runs through both acting and privateinvestigation and law enforcement. 

Original Godspell Cast on The Today Show: Robin Lamont, Peggy Gordon, ...masterworksbroadway.com

For an actor, the worst thing you can do isdrop character. A critic or an audience member will think that actor isterrible. For an undercover, it could be a matter of life or death. That’s whatRobin went through. She doesn’t know that she was close to death as a privateinvestigator, but she was in some very difficult circumstances. The corollariesare interesting. They are fun to explore. When Wright for America is made intoa major motion picture, Robin has thought about Ellen Page. Jennifer Garner isalso in the back of Robin’s mind. She might be a little too pretty for therole. Maren Garrity, the main character, is pretty, but regards herself in thebook as she says at one point, “Maybe I’m not that good an actress. Maybe I’mjust mediocre which won’t get you anywhere except in Hollywood. But even then,I’m not pretty enough.”  That is what shefeels about herself. You need a spunky ordinary actress to play this strugglingactress who is approaching thirty one and feeling that her career is at astandstill. She is always cast as the sidekick, never the leading lady.   

Order Wright For America today!                            

Thank you Robin Lamont for the gifts you have given to the world and will continue to give!


With grateful XOXOXs ,


Check out my site celebrating my forthcoming book on Hello, Dolly!

I desire this to be a definitive account of Hello, Dolly!  
If any of you reading this have appeared in any production of Dolly, I'm interested in speaking with you!

Do you have any pics?

If you have anything to add or share, please contact me at Richard@RichardSkipper.com.


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Please do what YOU can to be more aware that words and actions DO HURT...but they can also heal and help!    
               My next blog will be... My Exclusive interview with E.Faye Butler (Dolly Levi, Hello, Dolly: Drury Lane Dinner Theater, Chicago 1991)

Thank you, to all the mentioned in this blog!

  Here's to an INCREDIBLE tomorrow for ALL...with NO challenges!
I'm celebratingPamela Luss on Saturday,October 20th, 2012 at 7:00 pm
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 Richard Skipper845-365-0720

TILL TOMORROW...HERE'S TO AN ARTS FILLED DAY
Richard Skipper, Richard@RichardSkipper.com                            
 
This Blog is dedicated to ALL THE DOLLYS and ANYONE who has EVER had a connection with ANY of them on ANY Level!