Y&R's Valarie Pettiford On Working With GH Fave Jack Wagner: 'He Was Brilliant'

JPI

Decades before she would play Amy Lewis on Young and Restless, triple threat (singer/dancer/actress) Valarie Pettiford played Anita in the touring company of West Side Story.

The year was 1987 and the actor playing the male lead, Tony, was none other than Jack Wagner, who had become a soap superstar as Frisco Jones on General Hospital.

Boy, Boy, Crazy Boy…

“He was brilliant,” recalls Pettiford about sharing the stage with Wagner. She admits she had her doubts at first about whether he would be able to pull off such an important role. “I mean, all I knew him as was [as] a huge soap fan. And so you didn’t know what you were gonna get, I didn’t know his background — this TV person coming into this theater.”

He quickly put those doubts to rest. She reiterates, “He was brilliant. Oh my God, truly one of the best Tonys I’ve ever gotten a chance to see. And the [theater] fans were crazy because they were all soap fans; we had a lot of soap fans coming [to see the show].”

Pettiford notes that appearing in the musical was one of the highlights of her theatrical career. “It truly was a life-changing experience because it was me getting a chance to play Anita, which is truly one of the best roles for a dancer/singer/actress ever! I put on that purple dress and cried,” she shares, her voice growing thick with emotion. “And to think of the women who did it before me, Chita Rivera, who created it [on Broadway], Rita Moreno [in the Oscar-winning film] and then Debbie Allen [in 1980s Broadway revival]. And Debbie Allen is actually the woman I got a chance to see [perform it on stage]; of course I saw Rita on film. But to do that [role] but to [have the chance to] do that and to have [a co-star like] Jack, I’m telling you, it was a joy. I mean, I hate to sound like a broken record, but this cast was extraordinary. The talent — eight times a week and we did it on the road. We were on the road, you know what I mean? Going from city to city. But we just had such a great time on stage and off.”

One memorable moment of those great off-stage times landed Pettiford some unexpected press. “When we first went into rehearsals, I think it was kind of around my birthday, and Jack Wagner and some of the dancers took me out. We ended up on [the gossip section] Page Six of the [New York] Post,” she marvels. “So, that was my experience with Jack Wagner — to this day, an absolutely extraordinary performance.”