There is nothing Annaleigh Ashford can ever do to fully thank her mother for all the sacrifices she made as the budding stage and screen star was growing up.
Not for the Christmases when Ashford’s dance costumes would cost so much, she knew Holli Swanson would not be able to afford to buy anything for herself.
Not for the countless late nights driving Ashford to and from dance classes and theater performances with younger brother and sister in the back seat sleeping in their jammies as her husband worked the night shift.
Not for the years of encouragement and support that makes mother and daughter, still to this day, best buds.
“But,” Ashford said to an inferred rimshot, “giving her a new kitchen is a nice place to start.”
The end? This is just the beginning for Annaleigh Ashford, shown appearing at a fundraiser for the Denver Actors Fund at the Lone Tree Arts Center in 2017. The Wheat Ridge High grad will star in the new Paramount+ crime series "Happy Face."
Ashford was approached earlier this year by the producers of CBS’ reality series “Secret Celebrity Renovation,” which gives stars the chance to gift a surprise home renovation to a meaningful person who helped guide them to success. Ashford now has something in common with Debbie Gibson and Shaquille O’Neal: She said yes. (And please. And thank you.)
Ashford’s episode, which will detail the makeover of Swanson’s Applewood home along with a producing team that includes “Survivor” legend Boston Rob (Mariano), airs at 7 p.m. Friday (Aug. 19) on CBS4 Denver.
“This is a really special show that gives you the opportunity to say thank you to the people in your life for the blessings that they have bestowed upon you,” Ashford said on a Zoom call with her mother, a “retired” physical-education teacher and track coach who has kept right on pitching in for Jefferson County Schools because of the ongoing teacher shortage.
Actor Annaleigh Ashford wields a sledgehammer in her mom's Applewood kitchen during demo for the CBS reality series 'Secret Celebrity Renovation.'
“Not only did my mom sort-of retire during the pandemic – so we didn’t really get to celebrate such an epic chapter of her life – but she consistently puts everybody before herself,” Ashford said. “We never really get to do anything special for her – and this is something she would never do for herself.”
OK, there is one other reason Ashford was quick to say yes: She and her mom are big-time fans of the home-renovation genre. “The terms ‘open concept’ and ‘primary en suite’?” Ashford said. “They give me a thrill.”
Ashford, who graduated from Wheat Ridge High School at age 16, has become a very big deal in the theater and television worlds. She made her Broadway debut in “Legally Blonde” and played “Glinda” in “Wicked.” She won the 2015 Tony Award playing the perpetual ballerina Essie Carmichael in “You Can’t Take it with You” and performed alongside Jake Gyllenhaal in the Broadway revival of “Sunday in the Park with George.” On TV, she played Paula Jones in “American Crime Story: Impeachment” and just wrapped two seasons starring in the CBS sitcom “B Positive.”
Annaleigh Ashford with the cast of 'Ruthless' in 1994.
She first showed her stage chops (and some teeth) at age 9, when she starred in “Ruthless, the Musical” at Denver’s long-gone Theatre on Broadway. She played Tina, a child prodigy with a bloodthirst for stardom, in the wickedly fun stage spoof of “Gypsy” and “The Bad Seed.”
How do we know that young Annaleigh was not typecast for the role? Tina does not gift her mother with a home renovation. No, she shoots her with a gun. And on the nights when the gun would not go off, sweet little Annaleigh would whip off her tap shoe and beat her mother to death.
Annaleigh Ashford in Ruthless, 1994.
“She was just the cutest little professional,” said castmate Penny Dwyer, whose daughter’s middle name is Annaleigh (after Ashford). “You would not believe the confidence she possessed at age 9. She had this amazing tap break where she would jump up on a wood coffee table and belt her little guts out.”
Part of the fun of “Secret Celebrity Renovation” is the star surprising a loved one. Another part is the show surprising the celebrity. Producers arranged for an on-camera reunion between Ashford and the entire cast of “Ruthless” at the Town Hall Arts Center in Littleton. Everyone came: Dwyer, Sue Leiser, Anne Parks Comstock, Heather Fortin Rubald and Steve Tangedal, who drove in from Montana for the spot. Ashford was caught completely by surprise, “and I wept openly,” she said.
The home that’s been newly renovated in Applewood has been in the family since the 1980s, when it was bought by Ashford’s great grandparents (named Ashford). Eventually, that couple also built the house next door and moved in there. Chris and Holli Swanson, pregnant with her third child, took residency in the original house in 1993, when Annaleigh was in the third grade and on the precipice of making her stage debut.
Future stars Melissa Benoist, top center, Annaleigh Ashford and Jesse JP Johnson all appeared together in 'The Sound of Music' at the Country Dinner Playhouse as kid growing up in Denver.
“Our first week in that house, I remember we all got really sick and we didn’t have beds yet, so we slept on the floor in sleeping bags,” Ashford said with a laugh. “We were all throwing up – and it was the first week of school.”
The old-school shag carpeting and wood paneling on the walls were first to go. But home renovation over the years has been a family story of fits and starts. “My parents have taken on many small, DIY projects over the years," Ashford said with a smile. “Problem is, they haven't finished many of them."
In March, a team of four CBS producers, including Boston Rob, visited Swanson at her home to discuss possible renovation projects. Swanson told them that since her mother passed away, her home has become the natural gathering place for the extended family. We're talking up to 60 relatives at a time.
"I just thought it would be really cool for the space to be more conducive for all of the hosting that she loves to do," said Ashford. So the brainstorming quickly gravitated toward applying the ‘open space’ concept to the kitchen as well as the living, dining and family rooms. That meant lightening things up and giving the main floorplan more cohesion.
“No. 1 on my list was to make the space as bright as my mom,” Ashford said. The locally based crew painted the walls, replaced all the furniture and installed new countertops and cabinets. They laid down colorful new rugs, added accessories and upgraded all appliances. The TV room has a new tile floor, a new entertainment center and a custom-built bar.
Over the course of the project, Swanson said the producers and crew became part of the extended family. Her husband, she said, bonded with Boston Rob and all of the workers. "Everyone could not have been more kind and generous, not only with their talent but also with their hearts and their spirits, which I think is an unusual thing to say about a reality show," Swanson said.
The show held a “reveal” party on May 1, which Swanson said was unexpectedly emotional for her. She cried, she said – a whole bunch.
“I love it. It is so beautiful,” she said. “Every day for the first few weeks, my husband and I would walk in and go, ‘Are we in the right house?’ I felt funny the whole time, but I also felt very special and just so grateful.
“Our house was nice, but this made it spectacular.”
Ashford will be watching Friday’s episode from Los Angeles, where she is working on two big upcoming projects. She plays half of the couple that founded the male exotic-dancer empire in “Welcome to Chippendales” (previously titled “Immigrant”). The limited series will air on Hulu in early November. “It’s dramatic and wild,” Ashford said. “I play the woman who makes the monster a man.”
She’s also co-starring in a newly announced movie called “Dust” that is set in the 1930s New Mexico Dust Bowl. “I get to play Sarah Paulson’s starving and demented sister-in-law, so it should be fun,” she said with a laugh.
She called the reveal party, which America will see on Friday, “a true celebration of mom’s accomplishments and her 30 years of teaching. But this is not just a gift to my mom. It’s a gift to the whole extended family.”
Actor Annaleigh Ashford, center, in her mom's Applewood kitchen during demo for the CBS reality series 'Secret Celebrity Renovation.'