Keep the Change

BUTLER DID IT The captivating actress lands the season’s juiciest role.

“I did not, in the least, ever want to sing.”

It’s a little jarring to hear those words from one of the city’s most sublime musical-theater actors. But it’s true: E. Faye Butler never intended to be a singer. “It was never a goal of mine. I was classically trained [as an actor].

I wanted to do the classics—Shakespeare, Molière, Ibsen—the whole nine yards,” she says.

Even now, the Chicago native balks at being labeled a singer. “I don’t consider myself a singer, [but instead] an actress who sings,” she says. “It still makes me extremely nervous to sing; it’s not something that’s comfortable for me.”

Intentionally or not, Butler built her career on musicals; she’s often away from her husband and their Chatham home for months, performing at regional theaters on both coasts. She’s also logged considerable time traveling with shows like the Dinah Washington bio Dinah Was and the Fats Waller revue Ain’t Misbehavin’, nostalgia pieces that demand a rich voice more than fierce acting chops.

This fall, though, Butler gets a role meaty enough to engage all her talents, in Court Theatre’s Chicago premiere of the Tony Kushner–Jeanine Tesori chamber opera Caroline, or Change. Caroline Thibodeaux is an embittered black maid to a Jewish family in 1963 Louisiana, a formidable and resentful woman buffeted by domestic change on every front.

Caroline is also an intensely challenging vocal role, but Butler finds that her acting-first approach serves her well. “I love the fact that [Caroline] is such an acting role. You can’t get through that sucker trying to sing it,” she says. “You’ll lose at every turn.”

Court’s artistic director, Charles Newell, who’s helming Caroline, held out for the busy Butler to become available. “I immediately thought of E. Faye when I first read it,” he says. “You don’t go into Hamlet without an idea of who your Hamlet’s going to be… I didn’t want to do it without Faye.”

Appropriately enough, Caroline is Butler’s first musical at Court, a theater where she’s previously been seen in plays by Lillian Hellman and Molière. “If I didn’t have the ability to do the acting, the singing would never come out,” she says. “I have to approach it from the book.”

Kushner’s book revolves largely around the burgeoning civil-rights movement and the assassination of President Kennedy. Given Court’s Hyde Park locale and the particular election cycle in which it’s appearing, it might be hard to avoid seeing political parallels. But one thing we’re pretty sure of: With Butler leading the way, this’ll be a Change we can believe in.

Court Theatre, 5535 S Ellis Ave (773-753-4472). Sept 11–Oct 19, $32–$60.

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