Sherie Rene Scott, a star of the 2010 Broadway production of “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” but probably best known for the autobiographical “Everyday Rapture,” is opening a one-woman show on Tuesday night at 54 Below. Called “Piece of Meat” and developed in collaboration with Todd Almond as musical director, it’s a mash-up of (mostly) contemporary pop songs by Joni Mitchell, Talking Heads and Paul McCartney, among others, along with tightly woven monologues inspired, partly, by Ms. Scott’s recent conversion to omnivore, after spending her entire adult life as a vegetarian. She says, quite simply, that the show — which runs through Oct. 27 — is about “desire.”  Ms. Scott gives off the seemingly contradictory appearance of wide-eyed Midwestern-ness and urban hipness, and that’s precisely who she is — an import from Kansas firmly rooted in the New York theater scene. She speaks quickly, intelligently and emotionally, thoughts pouring out on top of one another. We sat in my office for an interview, and afterward went out with our spouses — for steak. An edited and condensed version of the conversation follows:  Q. You began eating meat after being a vegetarian for 26 years, but you sound as if your conversion were involuntary.  A. I never wanted meat, and then I started to have a sensation, a serious, undeniable, overwhelming hunger for meat that came upon me at 44. I was in the apartment alone, and someone was cooking a brisket down the hall. I left my apartment to go find the door that the smell was coming out of, and I found myself with my nose stuck in the crack of some stranger’s door just so I could smell their brisket.  Q. This aligns with the line in the show about sticking your nose in someone’s gyro on Ninth Avenue. But how did you know that the craving was a craving for meat and not a craving to sleep with someone else or buy a red Corvette?  A. Vegetarianism was a part of my being, not just something I identified with politically; it was who I was, a part of my nature. And for it — for this desire — to come up in me, I had never been tempted in all of that time. So I looked at every aspect in my life to see what could I possibly be lacking. A lack of nourishment artistically? Was I hungry for another type of flesh, like a middle-aged lady hot to trot? But then my doctor said that female vegetarians over 40 do not get enough iron, and he said, “It’s eat meat or you get treated for anemia.”  Q. Your first piece of meat?  A. It was a stir-fry vegetable and steak that [my husband] Kurt and [my son] Eli had made. And of course there were tears and it was good that it was the three of us together. It was really nice.  Q. How does all this play out in “Piece of Meat”?  A. I was already working on this piece and, of course, the one thing I didn’t want to do is talk about this one personal private issue. But it kept coming out. The work evolved; as we were looking at songs, Todd and I realized that all the songs kind of reflected this struggle. They’re all about hanging on, higher self, lower self. And Todd just kept saying: “You’re telling a story. Look at some of your writings and see if it’s something you want to talk about because it’s talking through the music already.”  Q. The show goes way beyond food: Opposable thumbs, Paul and Linda McCartney, the Dalai Lama. The questions of what to hang onto and when to let go.  A. The most advanced, evolved part of us is our thumbs, and it’s what’s connecting us to the animals, but it’s also what’s pulling us away from them. We somehow find a way to use our thumbs to communicate all around the world in a nanosecond. The same thing that’s reaching forward into the future is pulling us back to our animal selves. I’d find those kinds of things and say: “See, I am being pulled both ways. I’m on path, somehow — I’m supposed to be connected to my animal self.”  Q. The song choices are fascinating. I get “I Am an Animal,” but why “Life During Wartime”?  A. There’s always a melody that’s going on in my head, and that song — most people would be like, “This song has no melody” — but it just came naturally. It was really back to the roots of loving music and listening to music in a way that was such a great part of my life.  Q. The show is funny, and fun, but there are serious moments, and the overall feel to me is quite feminist, assertive.  A. Of course I’m going to identify with the meat. I’ve been body-parted, and if it’s going to be predator or prey, I’ll align myself with the prey. I want to enjoy my flesh, and other people’s flesh, when it’s my choice. I don’t want to constantly be treated like a piece of meat. And I had to look at how I had treated others as a piece of meat, too. When have I been the predator?  Q. Is that always a bad thing?  A. As long as you’re doing it consciously.  Q. A year after beginning to eat meat, it’s become part of your life. How does that feel?  A. People talk about becoming vegetarians a lot, but no one talks about leaving the fold. There’s a lot of shame about it. And, really, for me, it was earth-shattering. It was like the last thing I ever thought would happen. There was some sort of group consciousness that I was a part of that I would no longer be able to be part of. And I’ll probably never get to sleep with Paul McCartney now.  âPiece of Meatâ opens Tuesday and runs through Oct. 27 at 54 Below, 254 West 54th Street, Manhattan; (646) 476-3551; 54below.com.
Sherie Rene Scott discusses her rejection of vegetarianism and her new show, âPiece of Meat,â with Mark Bittman.