An hour into Betty Buckley’s first set at Joe’s Pub, she began the aching ballad from “Cats” that has won her legions of fans. Among them, she now knows, is President Trump.
Ms. Buckley, 77, who regularly reposts social media content critical of the Trump Administration, did not mention the president when she tore into “Memory,” which brought the reverent Thursday evening crowd to its feet, whistling and whooping. She didn’t mention him when she finished the number, either.
But then she pivoted to Paul Simon’s “American Tune” — with lyrics like “I don’t have a friend who feels at ease” and “I wonder what’s gone wrong” — and called it “particularly perfect for what’s happening these days, which is weird, and not cool.”
This has been an odd few months for Ms. Buckley, who has known for years that Mr. Trump loved “Memory,” but did not know her version, from the 1982 Broadway production, made her his favorite Grizabella, the once glamorous but now shunned feline whose plea for connection is the musical’s emotional high point.
How does she know now? Well, in March, Mr. Trump reminisced about seeing Ms. Buckley in that Andrew Lloyd Webber show while addressing the board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, where his handpicked trustees had appointed him chairman. “The place went crazy,” he recalled of the “Cats” performance, before musing, “Is Betty Buckley still alive?” He continued: “Of all the great voices and stars, bigger stars than her, she had the best voice.”
Ms. Buckley, who is alive and well and living in her native Texas, was stunned.
“I knew that he loved the song because he played it at his rallies,” she said a few days before her concert when we talked over breakfast at a hotel in Midtown Manhattan. “But I didn’t know he knew my name. It left me really gobsmacked that my name actually resides in his consciousness.”
Ms. Buckley has long believed that Mr. Trump somehow relates to the song’s theme of longing.
“My theory is that Trump, on a deeper level, wants to connect,” she said. “He’s trying to be seen and to be loved. So for a while there, I felt this kind of glimmer of hope that wouldn’t it be great if he could allow us, as theater artists, to share with him that which we know in storytelling to assist him to see things a bit differently.”
What does she want him to see differently? “For example, the National Endowment for the Arts,” she said, referring to the federal agency that has issued grants to arts organizations around the country, but which Mr. Trump is seeking to eliminate.
Ms. Buckley, choosing her words carefully, continued: “I still have hope for an awakening of awareness of community, of humanity, of the importance of life, the importance of every one of us. I’m appalled at the tech bros who think empathy is a weakness. Art is really important, because it’s there that we express these feelings — you can feel that connection — and I feel sure that that’s why Trump is moved by that song.”
Later, she emailed a sharpened point. “While I’m honored whenever my performance resonates with an audience member, I find it deeply troubling that this praise coincides with actions that undermine the very foundation of the arts in America,” she wrote. “I urge President Trump to recognize that his genuine appreciation for the arts requires more than personal enjoyment — it demands support, protection, and the courage to uphold the freedom of expression for all artists.”
As for Ms. Buckley’s own relationship to “Memory,” she still remembers struggling to master the song. But then, she recalled, she saw a homeless woman in her neighborhood whose bearing and demeanor helped her reimagine the character as more proud than pitiful. Ms. Buckley has been in eight Broadway shows, and has also worked in film and television; her recent projects include two indie movies, “By Design” and the upcoming “Eternity.”
Her current six-show residency at Joe’s Pub, a music club at the Public Theater in Lower Manhattan, is her eighth at the venue. Her voice is now deeper, and her hair whiter, yet the ferocity and joy in her vocal stylings remain. Her set list includes songs associated with social ferment (Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’” and Sarah Vaughan’s version of “Everything Must Change”) as well as songs from Stealers Wheel, James Taylor, Burt Bacharach and Sara Bareilles.
She notes that her new interpretation of “Memory,” performed with some of the same gestures she refined over 40 years ago, is informed by age. “Now I’m Grizabella,” she said. “The depth of my understanding has changed because there’s things you learn as you live and you get older.”
She hopes that the president will find new meanings in the song, too.
“I would wish for him that he could build on that feeling that he has for the song, and translate that to good feelings for all others,” she said. “It’s pretty simple.”
Michael Paulson is the theater reporter for The Times.
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