Your Broadway debut, speaking of being in a musical, was Roxy Hart in Chicago.

Yeah.

And that was also a crazy thing because I had said to... well, actually I heard an interview that Oprah had given her that in, in the LA times.

And she said, you know, you really have to, somebody asked her, how do you do everything that you, you do? And she said, well, I really know what it is that I want.

And when you know what it is that you want, you can take the steps to make it happen.

Most people don't even know what it is they want.

And that was really impactful to me.

Like the decades are reversing in the sense of-

Mm-hmm.

Like, you know? But her generation was like, "Is he a good man?" Mm.

"Will he provide? Will he..." There wasn't any of this, "I have to be madly in love- Mm-hmm ...

and I have to," you know.

And I'm, it, it was just like they thought of things differently.

Yeah.

And my parents were married for 59 years, so whatever they figured out, they figured out.

Mm.

Mm.

And so when I, I heard that, I was like, "What do I want?" And I think because of the way I grew up, my parents, you know, having escaped their countries to come to America, what they wanted, they achieved, and it was enough.

They came to a country, and they could live free lives.

And I grew up every day with that, that appreciation and that gratitude.

And so for me, wanting something felt almost like I was tempting the fates.

Like, if I wanted something, how could that be? I already had enough.

And I thought if I wanted something, it felt selfish, which is, I think, another part of being a woman.

Wow

Wow.

And I realized that those tips helped my parents...

This will make me cry.

Pennies bought a house.

Nickels, dimes, and quarters bought a house.

And I don't know if people can do that nowadays.

I really don't know.

Wow.

Hmm.

And he realized that if he worked at night, that's when the trains would come in, and they would collect the coal, and they would take it away.So he bribed one of the guards with cigarettes and he said, "I would love to work the night shift.

I'm kind of a night person and can I get on that?" And because of the cigarettes, he got on the night shift.

While he was on the night shift one night, after he timed it out and thought about it, he said to one of the guards, "Do you mind if I go down and get some more firewood 'cause our fire's c- going out?" It was about 1:00 in the morning.

And the guard said, okay.

And he said, "Listen, can I take my friend," we'll call him Richard, "with me because, um, it'll make it quicker." So they said okay.

So Richard and my dad went down there.

Oh my God, Rita.

How old were you when you realized your mom was a human, a person, an individual, not just mom?

Probably not till I had kids.

Probably not till I had kids.

I mean, she, first of all, she was my best friend, so I loved her so much, and she was really funny and really, um, observant and opinionated and really, really creative.

But, you know, I think until you have your own children, you think of your mom as just this other person that, you know, is there.

She raised you.

She did all that.

... and playing video games.

[laughs]

...

when you're acting or doing something else, you're using other people's words, and the whole act of songwriting that I did come into in my 50s really allowed me to use my voice in a way that I couldn't really do in the kinds of parts that were being offered to me.

And II realize that it, it was such a very vulnerable place to be.

You're, you're really exposing yourself, and I've been very lucky and comfortable to be in a very public profession and still be a very private person.

So this album being more personal, uh, is a little bit scary to be out there with it, you know, in that way, talking about these subjects.

But it's also because as women, we come into the world immediately with identities that are attributed to us.

But I'm fascinated by what you've recently revealed at the 92nd, 11 years free, 92nd Street Y, that you told Tom to make you two promises in case it didn't work out.

Mm.

And he said, "Well, there's places like RADA.

There's places like LAMDA, a place called Juilliard in New York." And he put me together with a woman who had just come from LAMDA, and she told me about the program, and I thought, "This is incredible." And at that point, I don't know if they still do it, but they'd had a, a one-year overseas program.

Usually, their course was three years.

So I figure out how to apply, and I figure I might as well apply to all the drama schools that he mentioned.

So I applied to RADA, I applied to Juilliard, and I applied to LAMDA, and they all come to the US to audition people.

So I did my auditions, and then you wait, and you wait, and you wait to hear.

Yes.

Mm

... is very different.

Um, having had breast cancer, I, uh, the relationship I have to my body was very different because, you know, you, you have a baby.

You, your body goes through all of those physical changes, external, internal, then you can nurture that baby if you choose to nurse your b- your child.

And then you go through these other physical changes when you get to a certain age.

We go through menopause.

We go ...

The secret.

without a doubt we're going to come back to a few of those particularly uh joni but uh congratulations on on the single look how far we've come um can you tell me about that project and how that collaboration came together

Yes.

Look How Far We Come.

I wrote that with Billy Steinberg and Josh Alexander, his new writing partner after Tom Kelly retired.

And for people listening who may not know who he is, you might want to Google him, but he's responsible for songs like True Colors, Eternal Flame, I Touch Myself, I Drove All Night, I'll Stand By You, and You know, I could go on and on alone, but that heart did.

And I was a huge fan, obviously, of Billy's.

And we had some mutual friends, and I met him.

I'm in tears.