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One thing they don’t warn you about Muppets is how cute they are, and you must never surrender to the temptation to kiss them. Bernadette Peters learnt this the hard way.
“Because you leave your lipstick on them and they can’t get it off,” Peters says. “And then you get this strict note: Please don’t kiss the Muppets. But they’re so cute, they’re very kissable.”
Despite her many stage and screen credits and living-legend status, I first heard Peters’ name when Kermit the Frog introduced her on The Muppet Show. She performed the song Just One Person to Kermit’s little nephew, Robin, received an Emmy nomination for her appearance, and no, I’m not crying.
Bernadette Peters is appearing exclusively at Melt Festival of Queer Arts and Culture, Brisbane 2025.
It was at the height of her fame – she was starring in movies such as Annie, Mel Brooks’ Silent Movie, and with Steve Martin in The Jerk and Pennies from Heaven. She subsequently gravitated back to the stage and became the muse to Stephen Sondheim, originating roles in the composer’s most popular musicals, including Into the Woods and Sunday in the Park with George, and winning three Tony Awards along the way.
The petite singer seen on YouTube serenading a green sock back in 1978 does not look so different to the glamorous 77-year-old seen on Zoom today, as she tries to control her curls in her New York City apartment while her dog, Charlie, barks in the background. “I’m sorry, my hair is crazy,” she laughs.
Her upcoming appearance in Brisbane will be her first, despite several previous visits to Australia. She is performing one concert at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, an Australian exclusive, to headline the annual queer arts festival Melt.
Peters is one of a select group of Broadway divas – Patti LuPone, Liza Minnelli, Babs Streisand – who are also gay icons.
Born in Queens, she started young, appearing on television game shows and making her stage debut at age nine. “When I was 13 I was on the road with Gypsy, and the boys in the chorus were gay and a lot of fun,” she recalls.
“Then I did a show called Dames at Sea off Broadway, which was a parody of [Busby Berkeley] movies. And I was very aware of the queer community, and how much they loved the show.”
Peters thinks that her popularity with LGBTQIA+ audiences stems from the emotional vulnerability she developed learning to sing as a teenager. “Growing up different makes you very sensitive and hyper-aware, and I think because I was a very emotional singer, I grew a bunch of queer fans.”
Peters is famous for Broadway shows including Gypsy, Hello, Dolly!, Annie Get Your Gun, Into the Woods and Sunday in the Park with George.
Peters sits on the board of trustees of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, which began at the height of the crisis in the 1980s; she lost close stage colleagues, “very quickly”. She also started an animal adoption charity, Broadway Barks, with Mary Tyler Moore.
While Peters originated the role of the Witch in Sondheim’s Into the Woods, and Dot in Sunday in the Park with George, she likes to perform songs from those shows that were not necessarily her characters’. “Because I’m in the wings listening to everyone sing and I’m going, ‘Oh, that’s a wonderful song.’ I fall in love with the music, then I start incorporating them in my shows.”
In Brisbane, she will also throw in a few surprises, like one of Australian performer Peter Allen’s numbers: “I worked with him on the Oscars; I worked with him on a tour. I was in Vegas with him, and he was a fabulous person.”
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Sondheim was a complicated talent, always extending the possibilities of musical theatre, and his reputation has only grown since his death in 2021. Peters has been left to some extent to carry his flame.
“I think about him a lot and he was a friend, so I would call him and I’d ask him for advice. He was a very funny guy. And he left us with all this beautiful music.”
An Evening with Bernadette Peters is on Friday, October 24, 8pm. Melt Festival runs October 22 to November 9 with concerts, talks, parties, performances and exhibitions.
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