Dallas native and current New York City resident Will Kelley performs his autobiographical cabaret show, For the Record, Aug. 29 at the Laurie Beechman Theatre in the West Bank Cafe in NYC (Photo by Austin Ruffer)
RICH LOPEZ | A&E writer
Rich@DallasVoice.com
New York is home now for actor Will Kelley, but he got his theatrical start right here in Dallas.
Kelley performed all around North Texas with roles in shows by Uptown Players, Quad C Theatre, Theatre Arlington and Theatre Three. He revisits his own life experiences — some of them from the boards — in his New York cabaret show For the Record.
“It tells a very specific story. But it’s not like my whole life. The theme centers on the walls we build to keep ourselves safe,” he said by phone from his home in New York.
Kelley will perform his show — for the “last time” — on Aug. 29 at the Laurie Beechman Theatre in the West Bank Cafe in New York.
“I performed this for the first time in February and then again in June. I think this will be the last time to perform it in this iteration,” he said.
For the Record is an original autobiographical cabaret show about the walls we build around ourselves to survive — and what it takes to finally take them down. Through a curated setlist including songs from musical theater to rock-and-roll numbers — and everything in between — Kelley traces his personal journey through identity, resilience and, ultimately, the freedom of telling this whole story.
“I’m a different person than the one who wrote this show. Performing it three times did what writing couldn’t. [This performance] is where that person gets to take a bow,” the actor said ahead of this interview.
Since just February, Kelley has said that For the Record has evolved with each performance.
He considers this upcoming production, that has incorporated new material and refinements, the most fully realized version of the show.
So why choose now to tell the story of his life so far? Because at 40, Kelley said, he’s already led many lives, and, along the way, he’s had his epiphanies on what he felt held him back.
“These walls I built up kept me safe, but they also kept me from experiencing life and connecting to people and really living life to the fullest,” he explained. “So I have to find what it takes to tear those down.
“I’ve kind of used this show to step into the next era,” he continued. “I’ll continue to do cabaret and do shows, but this story will have had its full run.”
In For the Record, his first foray into cabaret, Kelley touches on his loves and losses, family, life as a queer man and home.
“I talk about growing up gay in Texas in the late ’90s, early 2000s, so of course I sing some country songs,” he said.
He noted that friends have encouraged him to bring the show home to Dallas. And that idea is definitely not off the table.
“I feel like I would absolutely bring it to Texas if I could find a place to do it,” Kelley said. “That would be amazing.”
Kelley said that he chose to put himself into this vulnerable space by presenting his colorful life onstage, and doing so opened his eyes.
“It is fucking scary. A lot of time in rehearsal, I’m crying, going through something. You can’t have thick skin about it. It’s more like having a soft, underbelly and being willing to expose that.
“It’s frightening, but it is also so freeing,” he said.
Kelley insists he’s no recluse. In fact, he says, he is a rather social person.
But ….
“You couldn’t have told me two years ago, ‘Hey, Will, you’re gonna bare your soul on stage to strangers,’” he said. “I’m not the kind to share my deep, dark inner thoughts, no matter what.”
In fact, doing this show has helped him learn a new life lesson.
By day, Kelley is a white-collar professional, working as a lawyer for a large firm in New York. That life has a lot of structure, rules and boundaries created through his career alone. What For the Record has allowed him to do onstage — and perhaps a little bit in life now — is something altogether new.
“It taught me I can be messy, and that’s ok. I’m not that way at all, but this showed me that ,sometimes, I need that,” he said. ■