Melissa Etheridge stopping at Lexington Opera House on her way to Broadway

Walter Tunis

July 17, 2023 at 6:00 AM·6 min read

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How did the chorus of “On Broadway” go again? Oh, yes. “I won’t quit till I’m a star on Broadway.”

That was the do-or-die quest expressed by The Drifters when the song was a hit in 1964. But Melissa Etheridge has followed her own variation of that sentiment. She has long been a star with a 35-year career that can boast two Grammys and an Oscar as credentials.

But the veteran singer-songwriter will also realize a life-long dream when “My Window,” her one-woman stage production, will head to Broadway in September for a two-month run at Circle in the Square Theatre.

But quitting? Forget that. “My Window” is being sandwiched between a summer concert tour, the launch of her second memoir and a performance documentary set to surface in 2024.

“I’ve been busy,” she said with a sigh and a laugh in a recent phone interview.

Melissa Etheridge has been busy putting together concert tours, a Broadway show, writing a new book and much more.

“I can really only look now about a year ahead. Back in my 20s and 30s and even my 40s, I was always like, ‘In 10 years, I’ve got to experience this and achieve that.’ I wasn’t really stopping and saying, ‘Wow. Look what I’m doing. Look what I’ve done.’ Now I enjoy just really sitting in the moment.

“Every show, I look out and go, ‘This is great.’ People, after 35 years of this, are still coming out. They are staying on their feet and singing ‘I’m the Only One’ (a massive 1993 hit for Etheridge) at the stop of their lungs. It’s so great and I’m so grateful. I’m enjoying every moment of it. So, thinking ahead? Yeah. I’ll always be writing and recording new music. But I’m just rolling along and enjoying every moment in the moment.”

Concert at Lexington Opera House

First things first. The artist and activist known for such anthemic, affirming, soul-informed rock radio hits as “Bring Me Some Water” and “Come to My Window” will be back at the Lexington Opera House on July 18 doing what she loves most – performing. While she has no new album to promote (some pre-pandemic recording sessions in Lexington were “the beginning of what I was trying to do, but then I sort of went in another direction”), Etheridge said she is energized by her current band and her own vigor as a guitarist.

“I’ve curated an interesting show that has all the hits that people love and maybe some tracks they haven’t heard in a while along with a couple of new things. It’s just a really fun show.

“A little over 10 years ago, I started really getting serious about my guitar playing. It was like, ‘Hey, I want to play the leads. I want to step out. I want people to know I am a first-rate guitar player.’ That’s been my goal. Putting that goal in front of me really sort of drove me, so it brings a lot of joy now when I’m playing.”

Melissa Etheridge will perform at Lexington Opera House on July 18.

Broadway show ‘My Window’

That performance focus will shift this fall when Etheridge hits Broadway. She stresses “My Window” is not a concert, but a theatre piece with music designed to illustrate her life story.

“Over the years of playing concerts, I’ve always found that some nights, I just want to talk to my audience,” Etheridge said. “I realize that I like to talk a lot and I usually have to edit myself in concert. But this is the other way around. I actually get to tell the stories now and sort of guide the show along, putting the stories in the music and letting them both take front and center. It’s different than a concert, but it’s a gorgeous challenge that I really enjoy at this stage in my life.

“When I grew up in Kansas in the ’70s, Broadway was just a huge kind of dream. What came first, of course, was my rock ‘n’ roll dream, but I always found such a connection between great dramatic rock ‘n’ roll and the stage. So now I have the opportunity to put together a show that’s not really a concert. This is my life. I’m telling my life story, my own personal emotional journey — just my ups and downs, things like that — onstage with my music. It’s just me. There are no other musicians. We’re putting this together with great video effects and lighting. My wife, who is an Emmy-nominated writer and director, is helping me. We’re really getting some great people together for something no one has ever seen before.”

Melissa Etheridge is bringing her show “My Window” to Broadway later this year.

To be sure, Etheridge has a story to tell. While life has provided a career bolstered by lasting popularity and a loyal fanbase, she has faced monumental real-life upheavals offstage. One was a devastating tragedy — the 2020 death of her son Beckett following his battles with opioid addiction. Another turned into triumph — beating breast cancer in a journey that included a powerful and redemptive performance at the 2005 Grammy Awards while she was undergoing chemotherapy.

New memoir coming

The latter two events will be among the topics explored in “Talking to My Angels,” Etheridge’s second memoir. It is due for publication in October. Her first, “The Truth Is ... : My Life and Love in Music,” came out in 2001.

“At that point, I had barely lived my life. It’s funny writing your biography at that age. It’s like, ‘Wow, I’m just getting started.’ I hadn’t gone through cancer. I hadn’t lost my son. These experiences I’ve had that have shaped me, these are things that I want to share with people who might be going through stuff like that. Now is really the perfect time.”

If that’s not enough activity, a documentary built around a recent concert Etheridge gave at the Kansas State Women’s Penitentiary is being prepared for a premiere next year. But as a robust career rolls on, so does Etheridge’s work as an activist on behalf of environmental and LGBTQ issues. In discussing the latter, Etheridge said her faith is unrattled despite recent court rulings and laws that have been seen as setbacks.

Melissa Etheridge has a new memoir and documentary coming out.

“There’s always, always, always hope. That never goes away, because we live in a reality that is a balance of dark and light. We’re always going to have that thought, that fear out there, especially when great change is happening.

“In my lifetime, I have seen great change. I have seen us advance in our understanding of what it is to be human, to grapple with our diversities here in this great country which is built on diversity. What we’re seeing is fear that is being weaponized for power. I’ve lived long enough to see the old ‘Let’s go pick on the queer community. Let’s go pick on people who are different and let’s say things about them that are completely untrue’ to rile up fear, especially about children.

“But with as much of the bad news as we see, I, myself, believe there is as much, and even more, good in people in all places that understand love is not something to be afraid of. And if they take care of their own peace in their own state of mind, then you can see more peace in the world.”