It’s safe to say, there are millions of little girls around the world who dream of one day acting, singing and/or dancing on Broadway. After all, the bright lights, the razzle-dazzle costumes, and the thrill of audience appreciation provide an infectious adrenaline rush many performers prove powerless to resist. But what happens to those theater lovers who don’t quite have what it takes to make it on the Great White Way, yet still want to work in showbiz? In the case of Atlanta native Jennifer Lott, they go behind the scenes.
Lott has been the national marketing & press representative for the North American tour of CATS for the past four years now — a dream job for a woman who grew up steeped in Atlanta’s rich theater scene. “I was introduced to live performance very early in life,” Lott recalls. “My parents took my sister and me to Broadway shows at the Fox and the Center for Puppetry Arts, and I remember seeing and being in musicals at St. Timothy United Methodist Church. I joined the Young Singers of Callanwolde at about [age] nine or 10, and then was very active in the Clarkston High School chorus. I loved every minute of it!”
After graduating from Clarkston, Lott went on to take acting at Vanderbilt with the intention of becoming a theater minor, but soon came to a life-altering revelation. “I was terrible!” she confesses. “I loved being on stage, was a great background member and could sing well enough, but found I was much better behind the scenes.”
Over the course of completing her degree, Lott took a few marketing classes and quickly realized it suited her. A summer internship with the Nashville Shakespeare Festival led to contacts with the Tennessee Performing Arts Center, where she was hired upon graduation to market and promote touring Broadway shows. After eight years in Nashville and four working with Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theater, she landed her current job with CATS and eventually moved back to Atlanta. Lott describes the gig as a dream come true.
“I saw CATS during high school at the Fabulous Fox,” she warmly recalls. “And it always stayed with me. All Broadway shows involve acting, dancing and singing, but this one involves two and a half hours of high-energy dancing and singing at the same time. These cast members are in incredible shape. I always start a diet immediately after spending time with them!”
Asked why the Andrew Lloyd Webber classic remains her favorite Broadway show after 16 years in the business, Lott (who has a cat named after Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats author T.S. Eliot) points to its accessible nature and her desire to expose young audiences to musical theater, just as her parents exposed her to it decades ago.
“CATS is a perfect gateway musical,” she insists. “If you like dancing, there is fabulous dancing. If you like singing, the songs are memorable. There’s something in it for everyone. It’s like comfort food — nothing controversial, just good clean fun — but at the end of the day it still has such a wonderful message: listen to and respect your elders, and always remember that everyone is someone.”
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Bret Love has been covering Atlanta’s arts and entertainment scene since 1993 for a variety of local, national and international publications. He also performs regularly with Jackpie Improv at Relapse Theatre in Midtown.
