PHILADELPHIA — It was 20 years ago, Sheryl Lee Ralph recalled, when State Sen. Vincent Hughes gave the actor a gift in a not-quite robin's-egg blue box with a white bow that began their love story.
Like a punchline from "Abbott Elementary," Quinta Brunson's Philly-centric ABC sitcom on which Ralph plays the all-knowing kindergarten teacher Barbara Howard, the gift was ... a Pennsylvania almanac. Cue one of those deadpan reactions to the unseen mockumentary cameras that follow the teachers at Abbott, the underfunded fictional Philly public school that has captivated the nation.
"Inside of it he had written: 'So you will know more about all the things I truly love,'" said Ralph, 66, who was nominated for a Tony back in 1982 for her role as Deena Jones in the original "Dreamgirls" on Broadway.
"I was so fascinated that this man," — her husband since July 30, 2005, who represents Pennsylvania's 7th District — "wanted me to know right off the get-go that, 'I am all about my state, and I love my city.'"
Now, as the already iconic, Jim Gardner-loving, always freshly manicured, regal Mrs. Howard on the breakout show, Ralph is finally wielding some Philly cred of her own.
Especially with her almost 99-year-old mother-in-law, Ann Hughes, she said, whose long career as a Philly school secretary was part of Ralph's inspiration for her unflappable character.
"Absolutely," she said. "Everybody is so happy that I'm doing it. And that I spend so much time in Philadelphia. So it's much more real. They know it's not just actors playing the part."
Ralph says she's in Philly every two weeks, but people are still surprised to see her here. (Their Philly home is in Wynnefield.)
"First of all, 20 years, keeping this marriage together, you have to be together sometime," she said. "Vincent is not able to leave the state the way I can leave the state. In fact, in 20 years of our being together, I'm going to say my husband has maybe been in California, maybe, 25 times. That means I'm in Philadelphia every two weeks.
"After 20 years, people still don't know or realize that we're married," she said. "That I live there part time. It's always like, 'What are you doing there?' 'Um, I'm married to Sen. Hughes. I live here.'"
Ralph’s own career is going into its fifth decade, from the star turn 40 years ago on Broadway in "Dreamgirls," through roles in "Moesha," "Ray Donovan," "Sister Act 2" and, most recently, as a producer of the Broadway play "Thoughts of a Colored Man."
To be suddenly in the midst of a hit sitcom is something else altogether, as magical as an instant Broadway smash, she said in a recent interview via Zoom, looking resplendent in glam makeup and big hoops for a day of press, and a warm yellow dress that matched the walls of her (part-time) Los Angeles home.
"When we did "Dreamgirls," we knew immediately that people loved us, by the way they stood up and applauded, lined up around the block for tickets,," she said. "With this, as soon as the show is coming on, social media starts hitting right away. ... As soon as the show is over, they're talking about this, they're laughing about this. So when I heard the numbers are quadrupling, it's just like, 'Wow. This is amazing.'"
The cast is indelible, from Barbara Howard's effortless teaching and ethereal self-assuredness to Brunson's overeager, earnest teacher Janine Teagues, to comedian Janelle James' hilariously narcissistic principal Ava Coleman, to the branzino-marinating, "Philly 11″ South Philly teacher Melissa Schemmenti, played by Lisa Ann Walter, whose lovely friendship and bonding with Howard as the "oldheads" at Abbott is an ongoing plot line. (Schemmenti is from New York).
"I love the whole South Philly thing, where, you know, she's like," and here Ralph imitated Schemmenti imitating South Philly: "I got somebody for everything. You need something? What do you need? You need rebar? What do you need?"
Ralph's own take on the joke of the obsession with Gardner, the soon-to-retire "Action News" anchor — stirring her coffee as Barbara Howard, inhaling his image from up close on the TV in the teacher's lounge, reminiscing about seeing the iconic anchor once, "at the Chipotle" and then, dreamily rhyming, "He ordered a bowl so handsome-lay," — is sitcom genius.
Ralph originally wanted to play Ava, the principal, she said. "When I first read the script and was speaking to Quinta, I loved the role of the principal," she said. "To break out of what people would normally expect of me, and I said, 'Yes, let me do that.' And she said, 'Absolutely not. We need a queen for Barbara Howard, and you are that queen.'
"'We need the wisdom that you will bring to this character. We need you to show women that they're not long suffering in this job, it is their passion, and that passion has turned into that power.'"
To have such a Philly-detailed show resonate so broadly is no surprise, Ralph said.
"I don't know if people can see it, but Philly is a hardy city," she said. "It is an artistic city. It really, really vibrates with the American voice, with the cultural voice of Black people. It is truly, however you look at it, it is the epicenter of America. ... There is literally human magic in Philadelphia. When Philadelphia and Pennsylvania get it right, as much as they say all things spring from California, overall America gets it right. "
But the Philly synergy of her marriage and career has taken on new importance, she said, as her husband is intensifying his efforts to bring about funding equity for Philadelphia schools. Hughes tweeted his own video from inside classrooms, showing mold and asbestos, calling the schools "broken, toxic, rodent infested & unacceptable." No laughs there.
"To see him using his voice to fight for proper education for all the state's children, and for God to put me on a path to get a show that's all about Philadelphia with the trajectory of teachers and education and the students, it's like sometimes God and celestial Mother Goddess are amazing at how everything comes together," she said.
"I'm just doing what I've always done. And he's doing what he's always done. And together it's become a very powerful thing."
She said the conversation about public schools in American cities like Philadelphia "should have happened a very long time ago."
"Everybody is now having this conversation about education in America," she said. "Everybody is having the conversation, including teachers themselves, about what they are getting from the government, from the community, from the schools, from the families in regard to the education of all of our children.
"This is a magical time," she said. "It's a wonderful time. This is a conversation that should have happened a very long time before this. But if it took ""Abbott Elementary created by Philly's own Quinta Brunson, so be it."
Ralph, who has two children from a former marriage, said she is grateful for the arc of a tremendous career, and to be so fulfilled in a profession that can often write women off after the age of 30. She’s also the creator of the 30-year-old DIVAS Simply Singing fund-raiser to fight AIDS, an epidemic with parallels to COVID-19, she says (referring to the resistance to condoms and the resistance to masks).
As a tough-love but supportive mentor on the show to Brunson's Janine, Ralph said the generational-bonding dynamic between the two women resonates off screen.
"Whenever I'm around Quinta, she always likes to just sit next to me, and just look at me," Hughes said. "There's a way she'll reach out and just touch me. And it's just such a great feeling. Or she'll write something, you know, and say, 'Sheryl what do you think about this?' And I'm just like, 'God, I just love it.'"
She's impressed with the way the studio has replicated Philadelphia in Los Angeles, and promises some more authentic-looking shots to come, but wishes some of the external shots could be filmed in Philadelphia. She urged the city and state to pass some film tax credits to help make that happen.
"When I tell you they built Philadelphia in California, they even built the El," she said. "I was like, 'Woah, wouldn't it be great if some of those externals were shot in Philadelphia?'"
Ralph says she is ready for "Abbott Elementary," which, let's be honest, has, as Brunson herself predicted, quickly grabbed the Philly baton from "Mare of Easttown," to have a long life, like "Grey's Anatomy" long.
"Actors pray for one hit," she said. "I have been very, very blessed to go from 'Dreamgirls' to 'It's a Living,' to 'Moesha,' 'Sister Act 2,' 'Ray Donovan,' 'Abbott Elementary,' so many other things in between. I'm like, 'Yes, this is the big hit right here.'"
