“I suppose there are a lot of reasons to be jaded or sarcastic or bitter in life, but I hang on to the reasons why life is beautiful.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“I don’t ever think about the roads I didn’t take because I spend too much time thinking what’s ahead. I don’t go backwards.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“I was able to do concerts all the way up until two weeks before I had the baby; I thought I was stopping a month ahead, but he was three weeks early.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“I was raised in Oklahoma. I was actually born in Tulsa, but I grew up in a small town on the west side of Oklahoma called Elk City on a farm, where my dad grew up, actually.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“I’ve been singing since I was nine or ten.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“I loved to sing and I loved to act, and I didn’t want to continue opera because I wanted to act.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“By no means, I can’t sing any rock and roll.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“Everyone’s story is different, and we can’t really be inside them.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“The ‘Carousel’ overture has always been one of my all-time favorite pieces of music.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“When you’re pregnant, things – at least for me – get very sincere and very wholesome, and it’s about family, and singing becomes about warmth.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“I think anything emotional adds to your acting and singing, no matter what it is that you go through. It will always add to it, never take away.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“I grew up on a farm.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“My degree was in opera.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“I don’t want to be famous for being famous.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“It’s really important that I have a personal life.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“To play a character is to inhabit the world and the life of that character.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“Some songs depend heavily on the character, but, for the most part, a great song begs for reinterpretation every time it is sung, even when in character.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“Playing characters allows me to do things I may not always do, while singing in concerts allows me to really find my own voice and grow.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“It’s always hard – it’s a little counterintuitive to leave your baby at any point during the infancy.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“Everyone has these ideas, especially about the middle of the country, about people being backwards and three-toothed.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“Every part has its relief when I’m done with it.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“I feel so rich in my emotions and in my life and so grateful when I’m home and so grateful when I’m at work.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“When I’ve done TV and film, when it’s offered to me, I loved doing it, and I would do it again, but the ins and outs of auditioning is – that’s time away from my kids.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“When I was a kid, I would sing in people’s living rooms and for different little family things.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“’South Pacific’ has a definite heaviness that people don’t realize. It’s got a seriousness and a message.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“My mom’s side of the family is from Arkansas!”
― Kelli O’Hara
“There is such a cliche to certain roles that all I can do is to try to make them realistic and work for the times, and so the audience actually won’t see me as a caricature of something, but rather as an actual person.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“I’ve had great opportunities to show different sides of myself, but the challenge will always be getting either people to let you do it or finding the right things to do in order to do it.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“I love playing an ingenue, and I love doing revivals, and I will continue to do that.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“I’m proud to be Irish.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“My great-grandfather, Peter O’Hara, was born in Ireland, I believe, in County Clare. His father, my great-great-grandfather, had actually come to America a generation before when times were very bad in Ireland. He worked in the Pennsylvania area and did well with horses and farming.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“Corned beef and cabbage – that’s our favorite holiday meal when all the O’ Haras gather around the table.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“My father named me Kelli because ‘Kelli O’Hara’ just sounded so Irish.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“I never really try to watch the movie of the things I’ve been in.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“I’m a mother, and when you have children, there’s a protection. You’ll do a lot to protect them, to do what’s best for them.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“I’ve always wanted my characters to have more dimension and realistic cores than the ingenue material often provides. It’s been a challenge.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“I think it can be a good idea to know what you do well and use that to open the door for yourself. Once you open the door, close it behind you, and start to make changes.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“I don’t mind talking about my family and how to balance it all. But, in today’s world, we should probably be asking both women and men about work and family and how to balance the two.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“I’ve always wanted to do a Shakespeare play.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“You breathe fast when you’re scared.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“Shakespeare has great ability to skirt around a subject and portray human nature.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“We didn’t have a lot of live theater in Oklahoma. I didn’t visit New York when I was growing up. I watched movie musicals, and I believed in an idealistic, idyllic version of Broadway.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“The hardest role that I’ve ever tried to play was Clara Johnson in ‘Light in the Piazza’ at Lincoln Center. It was the least fun I’ve ever had, but the most beautiful experience I’ve ever had. I could not understand her. I could not put my feet in her shoes. I came home every night, and I was depressed.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“I don’t read reviews, because if you believe the good ones, you have to believe the bad.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“When you step out and do a song in a musical, the easier thing to do is make it funny. But when those transitions become necessary, when they aren’t camp, that, to me, is magic. I’ve done musical comedies and enjoyed them, but subject matter that’s deeper and more realistic is always what’s appealed to me most.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“If I get tickled in a certain way, I actually lose the ability to stand. I don’t mean to, but something happens to my knees, and I fall on the ground.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“I don’t have that many family and friends.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“With a revival, you’re compared to somebody else.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“It is such a luxury to open a new book that’s highly recommended by friends – either an inspirational yet humorously self-deprecating memoir, or a page-turning piece of fiction.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“In my special place, room service could only consist of my husband making me a breakfast of eggs, avocados, and hummus. And coffee with milk.”
― Kelli O’Hara
“I love to play things that are out-of-the-box. It’s just that I don’t always get the chance to do it!”
― Kelli O’Hara
“I don’t ever sing classically when I am singing a contemporary score – I kind of try to fit in whatever needs to happen.”
― Kelli O’Hara
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