A chat with Diana DeGarmo: From “American Idol” to “Back to Bacharach and David”

It was great to be able to sit down with Diana DeGarmo to talk about her role in the musical review Back to Bacharach and David currently playing at The Music Box @ Fonda in Hollywood. But I had to start by asking the American Idol season three runner up who she thinks will win the singing competition this year.

“Adam Lambert,” the 21-year-old said without hesitation. “He’s a musical theater kid and I think he’s just so talented. He;s got the whole package already. It would kind of be stupid if he didn’t. He’s the most deserving.”

Diana knows all about making it to the finale of Idol. She was just 16 and finished four places higher than Jennifer Hudson and lost in the 2004 finals to Fantasia Barrino. She is joined in Back to Bacharach and David by West End musical star (and former Idol contestant) Tom Lowe, musical and film actress Tressa Thomas and Susan Mosher with whom DeGarmo starred with in Hairspray on Broadway.

Diana may only 21 but she was more familiar with the Bacharach and David songbook than she realized: “It’s so great and so relevant even now. Of course What the World Needs Now and Say a Little Prayer from certain movies that my generation has seen but as we were learning the music, I was like, ‘I don’t even know how I know this song!’ I hope that by me being a part of this show, I hope I can expand my generation into knowing more of their music because it’s so great. Good music is good music no matter when it was made.”

Her favorite number is What’s New Pussycat? which sounds like it will be far from wholesome: “It’s going to be completely outrageous and it’s going ti blow people’s minds,” Diana said. “I just hope I don’t give my mother a heart attack when I do it.”

Actress-comic Kathy Najimy directs the show with musical arrangements by Steve Gunderson. The pair conceived the musical in the early 90s and it had a successful off-Broadway run. It has since been licensed and performed in productions across the country.

“This is the first time it’s been with Mr. Bacharach and Mr. David backing it and supporting it and really having both of them on board together and wanting it to succeed and maybe one day taking it to Broadway,” Diana said. “We shall see.”

Diana released a moderately successful album post-Idol but has had her biggest success as a stage actress. She played Maria in the American Musical Theatre of San Jose production of West Side Story then made her Broadway debut in Hairpray as Penny Pingleton. She followed that with the lead role in a national tour of Brooklyn: The Musical.

Back to Bacharach and David is the latest in her growing stage musical resume.

“It’s very different on very many levels,” she said. “Brooklyn only had eight people in the whole cast so I’m used to having a small cast but at the same tine, the music kind of reminds me of being back in (high school) chorus. We sang a lot of difficut pieces and that’s kind iof what this reminds me of because when you’re learning it, you’re thinking, ‘I want to bang my head into the symbol because I can’t get this! But when you finally do, it just sounds so great and all that hard work is definitely worth the last beautiful product that comes out.”

But she has no hang-ups about being best known for American Idol.

“I don’t mind at all, I think it’s a good thing,” she said. “Everybody’s gotta be known for something. I’d rather be known for American Idol than be known for, you know, flashing people or something like that (laughs). I’ve been really blessed. I was 16 on the show which I think is a big part of why I’ve been able to keep going. I haven’t been like, ‘Oh I’m too old! I have to walk away.’ Great opportunities have kept coming my way in life and it just keeps getting better and better each year. Each thing kind of leads me to the next.”

The show opened on May 15 but Sunday is its gala opening. It will run through May 17. Ticket info HERE.