NR:  Tell me about your two Tony nominations.

As Martha in The Secret Garden

AF:  The two Tony nominations I’ve had for parts I’ve created were parts where the creators have told me, “You got the part when you walked in the door.” I do think that there are parts out there with my name on them. I think Josephine/Monica was one and I think Martha in The Secret Garden was another one. Those are the parts that really attract me.

The first time I was nominated, I was walking on air. It was like a fairy tale come true. One month I’m in a little black box theater down on West 28th Street - the Actors’ Outlet and it was so dirty we called it “The Actors’ Outhouse.” I was doing this little jewel of a show and it was one of those instances where I really clicked with the material. Within two months we were on Broadway and had a cast album. I had a new leading man because Dennis Parlato, who did it downtown, opted to do Chess instead. (even though I offered him my MG to stay!) But we were lucky enough to get the wonderful Scott Bakula and we clicked. We had a great time. On top of that there was the Tony nomination. It was a dream come true.

Of course it was more of a nightmare when we did our number for the Tony Awards ceremony. My zipper got stuck during the quick change and they literally had to rip my dress off me. If you watch a tape of it, you’ll see Scott looking offstage because I missed a few beats. I had several people tugging on my dress to get it off. It was the most terrifying moment of my entire life. It was worse than being mugged. There were all those people, I was on national television, and I was going to look like an idiot.

At least with that nomination I thought maybe there was a chance. My part was really big and it was flashy. People were liking it. I knew I never had a chance for the next one (Secret Garden). Once I heard that it was Daisy (Eagan) that I was up against I didn’t even buy a new dress. I knew.

NR:  Did you get to watch her on The It Factor at all?

AF:  I didn't see it, but I was on The It Factor with Daisy. I did this fun show at Arci’s, which was a celebration of Tony nominees. They requested that we do material from our Tony nominated shows so I was doing a Secret Garden thing. I had not sung “Fine White Horse” in public since the show. I told the audience, “I’m going to sing this, but I’m going to ask a little girl to come up so I can sing to her.” Of course, Daisy came up as the “little girl.” She had a martini in her hand - it was very funny. I sang “Fine White Horse” to her. Then she did a song and finally we did “Hold On” together.

The Secret Garden was such a lovely group of people. I’m still very good friends with Rebecca Luker and Peter Marinos, who’s now in The Producers, and Daisy, and John Babcock, the little boy who played Colin. He’s now a Harvard graduate and the tutor of my son. And of course, Howard McGillin, who’s in my mind the greatest leading man Broadway will ever have. His performance in Edwin Drood was beyond mind-boggling. He’s our great, great treasure, and why people aren’t writing shows for him is beyond me. He’s just brilliant.

Michael Rupert, Alison Fraser, James Kuschner, Chip Zien, Stephen Bogardus in March of the Falsettos -- photo by Susan Cook

NR:  Tell me about Falsettos. That must have been a fascinating experience.

AF:  It was. It was great because we didn’t know what we had. The Falsettos story starts with In Trousers. Bill Finn, Mary Testa and I were singing songs in his apartment. We decided to do a presentation for some people in the apartment, which was a mess. Mary and I spent the day cleaning it. We all pooled our pennies because we were intensely poor. We bought grapes and cheap jug white wine. We borrowed chairs from the nearby synagogue and we put together this presentation. That show eventually became In Trousers, which we did at Playwrights Horizons. The first one was directed by Billy and he also played Marvin.

To this day Bill Finn is one of my favorite singers. I am definitely going to take credit for bringing his vocal prowess out of retirement because he sang “The Passion of Rhoda” on my CD. That song is one of the cut songs from the original In Trousers. I always like to include one of Billy’s unrecorded songs on my albums so I begged him to do it. I guess he got the bug because then he did Infinite Joy down at Joe’s Pub.

Falsettos was next in the trilogy. I don’t know if he knew it was going to be a trilogy at that point. We did it upstairs at Playwrights Horizon and James Lapine came on as the director and really started to shape the Marvin story. I was horrified when he told me they were going to add a 13 year old son because at the time I was in my early 20s and I thought, “There goes my part.” He was nice enough to keep me on board so that was good.

Joshua Park, David Hess, Alison Fraser, and Christian Borle in Prodigal -- Photo by Carol Rosegg

NR:  Let’s talk about Prodigal.

AF:  I love Prodigal! It’s taken such an interesting journey. It could have turned into a disaster because our director was let go about three days before our first preview. The writer (Dean Bryant) and Jim Morgan, the artistic director, decided the vision was not going in a way that was compatible with their vision. They did a lot of rewriting and reblocking. We really did not know what we had until three or four days into previews. Every day major changes were going in and we were all very nervous. I think it was a tribute to the great heart of the York Theatre, which of course is one of our great treasures in New York City, because they really, really support new material in a passionate way. They’re not doing Forever Plaid every two years to make their nut. They are out there doing new material and to me, that’s the excitement of theatre - creating new material. It’s a great tribute to these brave boys who came over from Australia - Mathew Frank and Dean Bryant. They’re kids, but boy are they smart. It’s also a great tribute to the actors involved because they did not cave. The actors did not come in with a bad attitude. Every day, every single one of those actors was working their ass off to make sure that the writers got the best shot possible in New York City. As a result, we’re a very close company. We love each other and I think it shows on stage. I think it’s because of the dire circumstances that this show is what it is. It resonates more deeply because of the travails that we were put through.

NR:  Is there any chance that it will be recorded?

AF:  From your mouth to God’s ears. We’ll see. It would certainly be a very cheap show to do because there are only five of us and it’s just piano. I would love to record it.

NR:  We have to mention Talkin’ Broadway since you’re such a good friend of the website.

AF:  We love Talkin’ Broadway! You guys rock! Just the fact that there’s a whole Internet site filled with passionate theatergoers is amazing. The people on All That Chat are smart and knowledgeable. I love them.

NR:  (laughing) Does that mean you don’t think we closed Seussical or did any other of those horrible things?

AF:  No. I do think you have a lot of influence. To me, it’s very democratic. Because of the Internet, everybody has an opinion. I love that, and even though sometimes it’s a bad opinion of me, it’s okay. I read something on All That Chat one day about my diction and I went back and went over my stuff. If somebody couldn’t understand me, that’s bad, so I lightened up some of my diction because of that. Everybody’s opinion is valid. I love the guys on All That Chat. I love the annual party. I also have to give Talkin’ Broadway credit for getting me back into singing in concerts. When Wayman (Wong) called me to do that party a few years ago, I had never thought about doing concerts. I had such a good time at that first party that I said, “I could be doing this.” I have a nice little concert thing going now. So, thank you Wayman and Talkin’ Broadway!

NR:  And now you have another CD coming out.

AF:  It’s called Name Dropping. We’re just in the planning stages right now. It’s going to be fun. It will be eclectic. My CDs tend to be very personal and strange. I do believe I’ll be doing an original Billy Finn song on it, as well as some Broadway standards. I’ve had complaints that I don’t do enough Broadway stuff so I said, “Okay, fine. I’ll do something.” I might actually be singing my first Sondheim song, but I’m not sure yet.

NR:  What didn’t we talk about?

AF:  My son Nat is just turning 12 years old. His favorite place in the world is Las Vegas. He wants to live there. He goes there every year for winter vacation. He now has a giant poster of Las Vegas over his bed.

NR:  Is he interested in doing music or theater as a career?

AF:  No, I don’t think so. Early on when he was 6 years old, he came very close to getting a movie - The Stepmom. My agent gets him these incredible auditions and Nat is not a child actor. He’ll get an audition for a movie and he’ll say, “I don’t feel like it. I have gym that day.” Of course it’s usually an opportunity that we would kill for, but we’re not going to push him.

NR:  What’s ahead for you?

AF:  I’m going to do a lot more concerts. I’m doing Broadway By the Year: 1951 at Town Hall on May 13th. I think I’m going to get to do some King and I material. I’m looking forward to that. I want to do my one-woman show again. It’s called “The Happy, Sexy, Truthful Show” because I just wanted happy, sexy songs and truthful stories. I’m going for an audition for something today. Maybe I’ll get it. Who knows? I also do a lot of voice-overs for television and radio ads. I do books on tape. Recently I did a wonderful book on tape called The Buffalo Soldier by Chris Bohjalian. It’s unabridged and it’s for Random House. It’s definitely the best book on tape that I’ve ever done. I got to meet him. He’s also the guy who wrote Midwives and it’s an absolutely beautiful book.

NR:  I know Prodigal is ending soon, but it sounds as if you’re going to be quite busy. Good luck with the audition and I’ll see you at the Talkin’ Broadway party.

AF:  Thanks.

While we spoke, Alison frequently referred to people in the business as “great treasures.” Looking at her body of work, and the enthusiasm and joy she brings to this career that she loves so much, I think it’s safe to say that the same words can be used to describe her.