She’s from Floral City, a one-stoplight town about an hour north of Tampa, but Kissy Simmons’ parents named her after a different Central Florida burg: Her full first name is Kissimmee.
“It’s a Native American word for river,” Simmons explains. “My mom thought it was a beautiful name. And that ‘Kissy’ would be my stage name. So I guess she just manifested something.”
That she did. Kissy, who’s part of the ensemble cast of the new freeFall Theatre musical, Bash of the Titans, has an illustrious stage history as a singer/actress/dancer.
For nine years, she played Nala, the young lioness, in Disney’s groundbreaking musical The Lion King. She starred in the show’s first American tour, then on Broadway, and then in Las Vegas.
On TV, she had guest roles on 30 Rock, Smash, The Detour and Six Degrees.
Simmons was a star athlete before she even thought of a show business career.
As a senior at Citrus High School, she won the Florida state high jump championship in 1992; she entered the University of South Florida on a track scholarship.
She’d played piano and organ and sang at Grace Temple Church of the Living God in Floral City, and made up little skits in Sunday School. But athletics took over.
In high school, “My drama teacher was the one that pretty much told me I was going to be in school musicals,” Simmons laughs. “She got wind that I played the piano, and I could sing. She knew I was a student athlete, and she said ‘You should audition for our show choir.’”
One show led to another, and another. “Now, she didn’t have much resistance, because I really always wanted to perform.”
Play practice came later in the afternoon, after track practice. The drama teacher and the track coach worked it all out.
During her senior year at USF, at the suggestion of a friend, she auditioned for Tampa’s Center for the Performing Arts’ in-house theater company. “And what happened was, I was getting ready to graduate. And my debut, opening night of the show, was the same night of my graduation.”
She earned her BA in speech communications, but she had the diploma mailed to Floral City. “Once I did my first show,” she says, “I was like ‘This is what I want to be when I grow up.’”
For four years, Simmons performed consistently at the CPA, which was eventually re-named for David A. Straz, and at other theaters in the area. She worked as a model, for Beall’s Department Store and the Home Shopping Network, and waited for opportunity to knock.
She learned that Disney, which was getting its feet into the Broadway business, was hosting open audition calls at New York’s Apollo Theatre, a place she’d never been and knew less than nothing about. Simmons and her husband (of two years) made the trip.
She auditioned for a production of the Elton John-Tim Rice musical Aida, and got a callback. For this second sojourn, Disney paid for everything.
Simmons tackled her second audition for Aida. She and her husband were on the way to the elevator when a Disney rep chased them down. Please stay in town, she said. Whatever you need, we’ll take care of it.
“Then, Simmons remembers, “she said ‘Have you heard of The Lion King?
“And I was like, ‘You mean the cartoon? I love that movie!’
“She says ‘It’s a musical. It’s on Broadway. We want to start seeing you for the first national tour.”
Just like that. Workshops began the next day with director and choreographer Julie Taymor. Simmons was cast as Nala, young Simba’s cubhood playmate and eventual wife.
“It had already been on Broadway for five years,” Simmons explained. “I originated the role on the tour, and after a year and a half went by, they transferred me to the Broadway company and then I did it for six years.” She next christened the Las Vegas Lion King company, at Mandalay Bay.
Nine years in such a big budget production, she says, was “life-changing.”
Her daughter was born after the Vegas run. That was especially life-changing.
“You never really leave Disney,” Simmons, who resides in New York, observes. “Fortunately, I’ve been blessed to continue to work for Disney, doing special events concerts. I do the Festival of the Arts at Epcot. Disney Cruise Lines. I’ve been to Japan four times, singing Disney songs with an orchestra.”
Bash of the Titans is a loose satire of the 1981 fantasy film Clash of the Titans, about mischievous – and vengeful – Greek Gods. All set to 1980s pop songs with re-worked lyrics.
The theater’s co-founder and artistic director Eric Davis, one of the writers of Bash (and its director), is an old friend from her Straz Center days. “I’ve always known that he would do something special in this area, because he’s brilliant,” Simmons says. “Very artistic. Very aware of theater; I learn so much just listening to him talk. And listening to his ideas.”
The musical runs through Aug. 2. Simmons’s one-woman cabaret at freeFall July 9 is already sold out. “Schedules don’t always line up for me to come,” she explains. “But when they do, the answer’s always yes. Because I love Eric.”
For Bash of the Titans showtimes and tickets, click here.
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