Tony Winner Kelli O'Hara Recalls Her Life-Changing Decision to Move to NYC With 'No Job and No Apartment'

Kelli O’Hara appeared on the one-night-only return of The Rosie O’Donnell Show to benefit The Actors Fund, and recalled what brought her to New York City 20 years ago. “I didn’t come to New York for the first time until I was 21 years old,” the Tony-winning O’Hara said. “I’d never seen a Broadway show. I didn’t even really see live shows—I saw movie musicals. I just knew I was different from everybody. And I loved it, and I just knew I wanted to do it.”

O’Donnell, who is also a Tony winner, sympathized with O’Hara’s indescribable attraction to the New York stage. “I would remember going to Broadway shows with my mom when I was little, and I remember thinking, ‘God, if only one day I could do this,’” the host said during the livestream. “I would see the actors come out of the stage door all sweaty, and I’d think, ‘This is where you go.’ Where Hollywood was such a vague, illusionary place—how do you get there?—I knew where [Broadway] did it.”

O’Hara appeared on the Rosie show with her kids, Owen and Charlotte. Now that she's a mom, O'Hara said she especially appreciates the chance her parents took in letting her move across the country to pursue theater. “They let me get on a plane with no job and no apartment,” said O’Hara. “I think about that with my own kids. What would I say to them if they said, ‘I’m gonna move all the way across the country and do something crazy’? I’d have to let them.”

For The King and I and Kiss Me, Kate star, spending time with her children is a lone comfort amid a viral pandemic that’s closed Broadway and forced everyone to self-isolate. “This is what the whole thing is about for me, being with these guys,” O'Hara said, gesturing to her kids. “I have to say, there’s a tiny bit of me that never wants this to end.”

After her interview with O’Donnell, O’Hara sang a tear-jerking rendition of “Take Me to the World” from Stephen Sondheim’s Evening Primrose, offering a nod to the 90-year old Tony-winning composer’s March 22 birthday and offering solace with the song’s lyrics: “We shall see the world come true. We shall have the world. I won’t be afraid with you.” Watch the luminous actor's interview and performance below and, as O'Hara reminded viewers, donate to The Actors’ Fund.