‘BODYGUARD’ STAR BRINGS ICONIC ROLE TO NEW AUDIENCE
The ‘Bodyguard’ musical’s stalker angle became suddenly topical for star Deborah Cox, who lives in Parkland.
Whitney Houston’s music has been a big part of singer-songwriter Deborah Cox’s career.
In 2000, Cox recorded the duet “Same Script, Different Cast” with the superstar for Houston’s greatest hits album.
Being in the studio with Houston, who died in 2012, “was one of the proudest, most magical moments of my career,” Cox said. “She’s been a person who really inspired me to be in this business.”
In 2015, she provided the vocals for the Houston biopic “Whitney.”
But nothing identifies her more with Houston than the role of Rachel Marron, the singer Houston portrayed in the 1992 film “The Bodyguard”. Cox plays the character in “The Bodyguard: The Musical,” which opens Tuesday at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach.
The film, which was Houston’s big-screen debut, yielded the best-selling movie soundtrack of all time, selling more than 45 million copies worldwide. Its signature hit, “I Will Always Love
You,” held the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for 14 weeks.
If you loved the soundtrack, you might find even more to love in the musical, which features 16 Houston tunes — the movie’s six plus 10 more, including “So Emotional,” “Saving All My Love for You” and “I Wanna Dance with Somebody.” Unlike the movie, which used song fragments, the musical delivers whole songs accompanied by a live band.
“I’m really excited about bringing this show to a whole new generation of people who might not have seen the film,” said Cox, who was teenager when the movie was released.
The musical follows the same basic plot as the movie. Rachel, a famous singer, falls in love with Frank Farmer, a former Secret Service agent hired to protect her from a stalker. Frank saves her life when he interposes his body between her and the stalker’s bullet.
The show became unexpectedly topical — and close to home for Cox — after the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, when 17 people were killed.
Cox lives in Parkland and her son knew two of the victims.
“What I’ve found in doing the role is that it’s given me and the people around me a perspective we’ve never had to face before,” she said. “There might be an overzealous fan who will want to get up close and personal. I’ve taught my kids that we have to set boundaries.”
The Canadian-born Cox, who began her recording career as a backup singer with Celine Dion, has had 13 No. 1 songs on Billboard’s dance charts. Her bestknown songs include “Absolutely Not,” “Things Just Ain’t the Same” and “Nobody’s Supposed to Be Here,” which topped Billboard’s R&B chart for a then record-breaking 14 weeks.
Cox made her Broadway debut in 2004 in the title role of Elton John’s and Tim Rice’s “Aida.”
The transition from singer to actress-singer “wasn’t difficult,” she said. “A certain amount of acting goes into singing a song. A lot of things I sing about I haven’t been through.”
In 2012-13 she toured the country as Lucy in “Jekyll & Hyde,” stopping off at the Kravis Center in March 2013 before a short Broadway run.
“The Bodyguard: The Musical” began its life in 2012 on London’s West End. Cox assumed the role of Rachel in November 2016 at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Milburn, N.J., then took to the road in January 2017.
In addition being a good actress, a performer portraying Rachel “has to be able to sing like nobody’s business and sing a lot,” said Nick Scandalios, executive vice president of the Nederlander Organization, one of the musical’s producers.
Cox’s performance has reaped plaudits from most critics.
The tour wraps up at the Kravis Center. Is Broadway in the musical’s future? Scandalios hedges the question. “Broadway is very full at the moment,” he said.