Katharine McPhee isn't particularly interested in being a triple-threat.
Now 34, McPhee is twelve years removed from finishing second on American Idol. With the time that has passed and the turns in her career that have followed, McPhee says she has more clarity than ever about what she has to offer the entertainment world — and it's not as a pop star.
In a new interview surrounding her critically acclaimed run in the starring role on Broadway in Waitress at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, McPhee tells 710 WOR's Michael Riedel that her focus right now is on acting, be it on stage or on screen.
"Quite honestly I don't really have a desire to make records anymore," she tells Riedel. "I don't think I'm very good at it. I really don't."
McPhee explains that she's not entirely ruling out a return to music, but at this point in her career she just doesn't have the ambition to deal with everything that comes with a pop career; she's much more comfortable as an actress.
"I love being on the stage doing musicals, and I love being an actor," McPhee says. "I just don't love being a recording artist. Maybe it's too vulnerable. It's like, 'Hi, this is me.' I'm selling me. Whereas, [in acting] I go in for an audition, I'm selling me; I'm the product. But I get to play somebody else, so it feels different...I don't have to go and promote me; I'm promoting the performance."
She adds that she would only do another solo album if it was produced entirely by her husband-to-be David Foster.
Waitress is McPhee's Broadway debut, although she is a seasoned television actress with roles on CBS's Scorpion and NBC's Broadway drama Smash.
After her run in Waitress ends Aug. 19, the singer says she'll take some time off to recharge, then figure out what her next move should be. She says she very well may end up back on Broadway if it's for the right part.
"Once the show's over, I can kind of put some feelers out," she says. "I really don't know what my next step is going to be. I mean, I was on a TV show for four years and we really didn't know if it was going to get picked up or not. Most people actually thought it was going to get picked up. So I got to stay and do this longer, which has been so great. I don't know if I'm going to come to another show here in New York or get another TV gig or what."
One idea that she would be interested in is reprising her role in Smash in a Broadway adaptation of the show.
"There's so many ways you could make that...I don't know that they've ever done that: a musical within a musical on Broadway is kind of cool; it's really clever. But they better hurry because I'm just getting older. I'm about to play Karen Cartwright's mom!"
Watch the full interview above!