Lena Hall is about as straight-up rock n’ roll as we’ve ever had on Soul Sisters, which is perhaps surprising considering she’s mostly known for being a Tony-winning Broadway musical actress. But just listen to her belt “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” at the end of this episode and there will be no room left for doubt that Hall is the type of performer who can do anything — anything — she sets her sights on.
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This includes, of course, her award-winning role as Yitzhak in Hedwig and the Angry Inch (oh, by the way, she’ll be playing Yitzhak and Hedwig in an upcoming touring production, just to challenge herself).
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“I like to push myself to my utter limit, and beyond,” she tells us on this episode recorded at NYC’s Chord Club. Preparing for a residency at the Café Carlyle (starting June 14) in which she’ll be performing songs inspired by her former flames, Hall tells us about the challenges of breaking through on Broadway (“I [still] don’t have a big enough social media following to sell out an entire run”), what vocal techniques she’s learned from watching Kurt Cobain (“It’s very calm, the way he’s doing it…you can scream and do it constantly and it never hurts your voice because it’s from a totally different place”), and why she thinks that now — with all the troubling news in the world today — is the time for women to really rally for one another.
“Us women need to stick together as well and remember that we are going backwards a little bit, and we need to start watching out for each other more,” she warns. “Girl power needs to come back.”
Listen to the full episode below, hosted by Darah Golub and Jessie Katz, and be sure to subscribe to the Soul Sisters iTunes channel for all upcoming episodes!