Daytimers Magazine
By Seli Groves
Approx June 1982

There's a Broadway production currently lighting up the Great White Way. It's called 42nd Street. It's a fascinating, glamorous, glittering stage version of an old Busby Berkely movie musical that starred the late Dick Powell and the magnificent Ruby Keeler. It's the story of the little girl in the chorus who endures disappointment and disillusion, but never really gives up hope that one day she'll be a star and that one day the man she loves will realize that he loves her, too. In 42nd Street, the fantasy becomes reality as the girl is taken out of the chorus and taps her way into show business immortality.

Well, it's not quite the same story for lovely Lisa Brown, the actress who plays Nola on Guiding Light. But, in a way, there are those similarities that could very well lead one to say of Lisa--that yesterday she was an actress with a dream--and tonight she's the Toast of Broadway.

Of Course, in Lisa's case, while she waited to become the star of 42nd Street (a fantasy that came true by dint of a lot of work and determination not to allow disillusion to become the dissolution of her dreams), she had already achieved acting stardom on the soap. Playing Nola, the lady whose mind frequently takes her on voyages of the imagination, has been, for Lisa Brown, a wonderful experience.

We chatted with Lisa at a time when several marvelous experiences were coming together for the bright young actress. She had just learned that she was going to take over the starring role in 42nd Street; she and Guiding Light cast mate Tom Nielsen ("Floyd") had just picked their wedding date ("just the month at this time--the date is still undecided; but we'll marry in October"); and she was also told that her role as Nola was one of the most popular with the daytime viewing audience. (P.S. Although she wasn't chosen as an Emmy nominee, many felt she should have been, and several insiders have told us that leaving Lisa off the list of nominees for Supporting Actress was a difficult decision for those who do decide those thing."

Speaking of Nola, Lisa said: "I think she has to be one of the most fascinating roles I'll ever play. I like her. And I like the idea that she can create these fantasies for herself. As an actress, it's wonderful to be able to step out of one character and become someone else so often. I've always loved to watch the movies of the 1930s and '40s and to play heroines such as Ruby Keeler and Ginger Rogers. With all the dancing and the costumes--it was like a dream come true for me. Nola's fantasies, you could say, were my own realities; I was actually, really and truly dancing and playing my way through the roles I'd always hoped to be doing. Of course, I couldn't be Ruby or Ginger; but as a child, when I'd see old movies of theirs, I would dream of being just like them. Isn't it interesting how things work out?"

Guiding Light not only gave Lisa a chance to realize her childhood fantasies, it also provided the means by which she'd realize a romantic dream as well.

"Well, of course, who hasn't thought--how nice it would be to fall in love the way people used to do in those old films? You know, boy meets girl while doing the same show and they find themselves falling for one another. But I didn't really think that would happen to me," she laughed. "But it did . . ."

Lisa and Tom began their relationship as strictly co-workers toiling away at their respective roles--and nothing more. There were friendly nods in the morning when they met in the areas between dressing rooms. And there were smiles when they found themselves sharing a few lines in a scene or two. But gradually-- "Tom and I would start talking about music at lunch and we discovered how much we both loved music. (Tom Nielsen, of course, is the leader of the group, Tom Nielsen and the Parker Brothers.) We started to talk about other things and discovered how much more we had in common. Pretty soon we both began looking forward to lunch time so that we could talk . . ."

In time, talked turned to matters that were more attuned to the plucking of the strings of their hearts than how to best find the frets on a guitar or pick up the tempo when one is dancing to an orchestra that seems to be following a different score.

"We got to the point in our relationship," Lisa said, "when we started to talk about marriage."

Aha! Why in this day of relative "liberty" in relationships--when marriage was not necessarily the primary goal of lovers--did Lisa and Tom decide that, for them, it was an early priority in the course of their romance?

"I suppose," she smiled, "because we really were ready to make this sort of commitment." Once they decided that they would marry, Lisa found herself living--for real--another fantasy from the past.

"We chose to marry in the famous Little Church Around the Corner. This is the church near Fifth Avenue in the 20s that once accepted and welcomed actors when no other church in the area would.” The story is the church got its name--which isn't the official name; it's The Church of the Transfiguration--when actors would go to other churches which were nearby, and which had very social congregations to be married. They'd be refused and were often told--'go to the little church around the corner . . .they'll take anybody.' Well, in time actors would go there first.

"That's what my grandmother--she was in show business--did. That's where she chose to marry my grandfather. And that's where I always thought I'd get married someday. And that's where I am getting married!"

At the time we spoke, Tom and Lisa hadn't yet had too many scenes together on the soap. "We would like to have more, of course. I think the characters of Nola and Floyd can exert a tremendously exciting--I guess you'd say--chemistry together. (ed note . .oh come on, Lisa. That couldn't be further from the truth.) In many ways they're alike and in many ways they're not. It's the differences between them that can create a lot of excitement." (ed. note . .no one created less excitement on screen than TN)

Lisa, of course, was planning to do both her soap and 42nd Street. "We're very lucky to be working on Guiding Light," she said. "They make every accommodation they can for their actors. They encourage us to do outside work whenever possible."

(Doug Marland, the talented former head writer of the soap, once told us: "I think it's because I was once an actor myself. But in any event, I do believe that you help your actors grown when you encourage them to do something other than the soap from time to time. They go out--stretch--and return to the show more experienced, more aware, and better all around.")

Still, we pointed out, the role in 42nd Street, where the character, Peggy Sawyer, sings, dances and carries the entire show almost certainly from curtain up to curtain down six evenings and several matinees every week, was going to be a demanding one; much more so than someone who performs in a straight drama with few costume or scene changes.

Lisa had an answer for that, too: "There's something about performing that's really quite miraculous. No matter how tired or sick you feel, when it's time to go on--somehow we do it. I suppose it really is a matter of the mind or the will being so strong. But when you enjoy your work as much as I do, then you seem to get stronger as you perform."

As for how marriage might intrude into a life that has hitherto been directed mostly towards her work, once more lovely Lisa had the logical answer to that as well: "I'm marrying an actor who is also a musician. If anyone can appreciate what a performer goes through, it's another performer."

"We know exactly what it feels like to be up for the work--and then, afterwards--to need the time to restore ourselves. Marriage will not intrude on our lives; it will add to our lives."

For Lisa Brown, fantasies have become realities in her own life. Playing roles she dreamed of has become a dreams-come-true truth. Nola-- and Peggy Sawyer--are both the sort of roles that make all the hard work and all the waiting, wondering and sometimes, the slightest touch of despair, well worth it.

Living the most fantastic reality of all--love--is, of course, the untoppable dream fulfilled. (ed. note . .uh, give me a break.)

But with all the appreciation for fancy and fantasy that any good actress should exhibit, Lisa Brown is also, very much, the hard-headed, intelligent young woman who knows that dreams don't come true until you wake up. "That's why I want to keep learning and growing and experiencing," she said. "I always want to be ready to say--here I am--when opportunity calls Nola she has it."