Discovering that Patti LaBelle was going to play his mother on “The Wonder Years” was like eating a piece of delicious pie, Dule Hill says.
“You can’t ask for a better mother…and to share the screen with an icon? That’s something I don’t think any of us take lightly.”
In the second season of the rebooted ABC sitcom, the Grammy winner turns up in an episode about the church choir. She’s the group’s director – and drill sergeant. When she barks orders, they listen. Unfortunately, the addition of her daughter-in-law Lillian (played by Saycon Sengbloh) rankles some choir members and causes a family stir.
The good that comes from this: Sengbloh gets to sing. “We did a little music in the first season but to know that Miss Patti LaBelle was coming was a lot more exciting than even a kid waiting for Santa Claus,” she says. “It was the best thing ever to get to sing with her.”
While the two worked together several years ago on “Fela,” a Broadway show, “I didn’t get to talk with her as much…I think I was more shy,” Sengbloh says.
On “The Wonder Years,” the two bonded. “I had to pick her ear a little bit,” Sengbloh says. “I asked her personal advice…you know she’s the ultimate in glamour – a singing domestic goddess.”
Actors Dulé Hill and EJ Williams talk about what the wonder years meant to them growing up. They now act together in the show “The Wonder Years.”
While Lillian comes into her own in the church choir, Sengbloh started in middle school choirs. “I sang a little bit in church but I really started in middle school and show choir. Jazz hands!”
Born in Atlanta, she acted at the Tri-Cities School for the Visual and Performing Arts and attended Agnes Scott College before beginning her career. Along the way: She was a Donna Reed Festival scholarship recipient in 1996. The next year she made her TV debut in “The Ditchdigger’s Daughters.” From there, film and television work mingled with Broadway appearances, including roles in “Aida,” “Wicked,” “The Color Purple,” “Hair” and “Fela!”
In 2015 she was cast in “Eclipsed,” a play about five Liberian women and their story of survival. She won the Drama Desk Award and was nominated for a Tony for her work. Roles on “Scandal,” “In the Dark” and “Delilah” led to her current spot on “Wonder Years.”
Among the current perks: Getting to bond with her TV family. Because Hill also has a musical theater background (he was a star of “The Tap Dance Kid” as a child), they have the skills for an episode that goes beyond the church choir.
Actresses advise and learn from each other during “The Wonder Years”
A dancing episode of “The Wonder Years”? “If Bill is going to show up dancing anywhere, I think it would be in the midst of (son) Dean’s flights of fancy,” Hill says. “If we’re afforded enough season, I think you might see Bill do a soft shoe or two.”
Meanwhile: LaBelle. She’s slated for two episodes of the series and introduces the audience to the role of a matriarch.
“She brought such magnificent energy to the role,” Hill says. “I think the audience is really going to enjoy what she brings to the family. When she comes, she’s going to capture the rules of the game. If you’re the matriarch, you’re always the matriarch.”
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The Journal's Top Stories for the Week of June 4, 2023
