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An Interview with Anna Szapiro and Johnny Smith: Making the Move from Philadelphia to New York

Following a year of critical acclaim in Philadelphia, which culminated in nominations for both for the Barrymore Award for Best Ensemble, the talented young couple Anna Zaida Szapiro (nominated for A Knee That Can Bend with Orbiter 3) and Johnny Smith (who took home an award for his work in Inis Nua Theatre Company’s The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning) just recently made the move to New York City. Before settling in to their new address in Brooklyn, they finished out their time in Philly with featured roles in EgoPo Classic Theater’s season of Russian Masters – Smith as Ivan in Delirium (an adaptation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov) and Szapiro as Nina in Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull.

I met with Anna and Johnny in New York, after the closing of their Philadelphia shows, to discuss the transition, their backgrounds, future aspirations, and common interest in creating and devising, as well as acting.

Anna Szapiro. Photo by Plate 3 Photography.

Deb: What immediate impressions do you have of the differences between the theater communities in Philadelphia and New York?

Anna: I can’t really tell yet, other than it’s so many times larger! It’s a little intimidating, because there are so many different groups, styles, and genres within the overall theater community, so I feel that I need more time to explore it all.

Johnny: Yes, I would have to say the same thing. I’ve met some people, but there’s so much here and I don’t know about all of it, so I can’t make a general statement. But I’m anxious to get to know it.

Johnny Smith. Photo by Plate 3 Photography.

Has the transition been challenging?

Anna: For me, it’s been hard to start building a foundation in New York, because I had to go back for the show in Philadelphia, so I wasn’t able to jump right in as fully as I would have liked. I haven’t yet built a network of theater artists, but having so much family here has made it easier; they’ve been so supportive, and my brother lives just about a block away. Not being around my old friends is difficult, though I did get to see them for The Seagull and I’ll continue to see the people I’ve known in Philly for the past five years.

Anna Szapiro in The Seagull. Photo by Dave Sarrafian.

Johnny: Logistically it was a nightmare for me, because I had surgery before I moved, so I was set back a month after closing Delirium. I’m a shy person by nature, and I’m feeling it with New York actors, especially after knowing everyone in Philadelphia and feeling comfortable there for almost ten years. This move is definitely forcing me out of my comfort zone, so it’s scary, but in an exciting way!

If you could have one of your wildest dreams come true in New York, what would it be?

Anna: That’s a really hard question, Deb; I don’t know. I think one of the things that’s so unique about New York is that so many people are able to see the shows – they have long runs and big audiences. When I did A Knee That Can Bend by the amazing Emma Goidel, I knew it touched people and I wished we could have done many more performances, so that more audiences could see it and respond to it. That would be very special, to do a show here that moves people and doesn’t just disappear in two weeks.

Johnny: Well, if you want to talk about the wildest possible dream, mine is to host The Late Show!

What’s your first creative memory?

Johnny: I did school plays because I was the class clown, so my teacher could direct my energy. In sixth grade, I was making fun of the teacher and it embarrassed him, so he gave me the choice between detention or auditioning for Crazy for You. I had so much fun at the audition, I knew I wanted to do it! He had me read for five or six parts, and then I was cast as Billy, who enacts death scenes.

Anna: The first thought that came into my head was looking at Georgia O’Keefe paintings with my Dad. I grew up in Washington, DC, so we had a lot of free museums and we would go on father-daughter dates. In the fourth grade for my birthday we went to The Phillips Collection and I loved her work there; of course I didn’t understand the sexual content until later. But related to the theater, for third grade graduation we did a skit about bullies; I was one of them. I had the line, “I like to play volleyball,” and the other kids loved it and made me say it over and over and over. In college, I majored in Art History, and didn’t really start doing theater seriously till after graduation. But I believe that there’s no divide between the arts.

Johnny: And theatrical storytelling is always a combination of all the arts.

How did you end up in Philadelphia, since neither one of you is a native?

Anna: I went to Wesleyan University in Connecticut for college, where I was an Art History major, but I also took theater courses. During my senior year I had a week off, and had an existentialist crisis: I wanted to act! David Jaffe, who was a Professor at Wesleyan at the time, asked if I would be interested in applying to Headlong Performance Institute in Philadelphia, which had a relationship with our Theater Department. I applied in July, and moved to Philadelphia in 2011.

Johnny: I was just riding the waves of life! I attended Indiana University of Pennsylvania with my friend Sam Sherburne, who’s also an actor in Philadelphia. Though we were in different high schools – he went to Indiana High and I was in neighboring Blairsville – my small town didn’t have a community theater, so we met in his home town, when we did Winnie the Pooh together; I played Tigger. At the end of college, Sam applied for a grant to do a show in the Philadelphia Fringe, and he got it. I started doing some plays and sketch comedy, and went to work at Eastern State Penitentiary in the seasonal Halloween event Terror Behind the Walls in 2007, and then again in 2012. Then I stuck around. I had a job, doing sketch comedy nights at Walking Fish Theatre, and built up my resume, acting with The Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre.

Anna: In 2011, I had my first gig with Philly Shakes, and that’s where I met Johnny. I was already committed to staying, since I’d grown so fond of the city and the artistic community while I was a student at HPI; I had a reason to invest in Philadelphia, and then Johnny was a huge bonus. I entered into the EMC system [Equity Membership Candidates] while working a day job at Di Bruno Brothers cheese and culinary shop. Then I did a Fringe show, Scout, with Fur Collective in 2012, co-devised and performed From the Swamp to the Stars as a member of No Face Performance Group, and worked as a standardized patient, until I got my first professional role in regional theater in 2014, in Azuka Theatre’s Tigers Be Still.

You were both nominated for a Barrymore Award last season in the category of Best Ensemble. Why did you decide to move to New York now, after such a successful year in Philadelphia?

Anna: I had a really great 2015-16 season in Philadelphia, but the move was separate from the success; the decision was in the works before that. I had family in New York City, and I’ve always wanted to try living here. My parents’ house became available this past summer, so the puzzle pieces came together, with exact timing. The opportunity presented itself and I jumped on it!

Johnny: I hope to continue my work in Philadelphia, but I wanted to take some time in New York to consider the potential outside. I want to be able to have choices, not just in theater, but also in other media – sketch comedy, film, and TV; I want to immerse myself in all of it.

Anna: If we are our own business, there is more access in New York City to the different markets.

Anna Szapiro in 901 Nowhere Street. Photo by Plate 3 Photography.

What has been your favorite role to date, and your best experience?

Anna: Can I have two? First is Virginia Langley in 901 Nowhere Street with Sam Tower + Ensemble, which we presented in the 2015 Philadelphia Fringe; I birthed that woman 100%, so I just love her because I made her and I’m the only one who ever played her. A devised piece is very different than learning a scripted work, but in a scripted character, I love Nina in Chekhov’s The Seagull, which I just closed in February with EgoPo. The more I got into that script, the more I loved it, it’s so beautifully written. I’m still sad that the show is over and I don’t get to play her again. She’s brave and reckless and naïve, but she does it – so that’s been my favorite experience.

Johnny Smith in The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning. Photo by Katie Reing.

Johnny: For me, my favorite is always the most recent! But the experiences I value most are The Diary of Anne Frank with EgoPo and The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning with Inis Nua. I enjoyed getting to know Tom [Reing, who directed] and working with him. It was my first Equity role, but I felt so much respect from him as equal collaborators. As for characters, I flew to LA in January to do more work on Shithead the movie, which is due out this year. It’s a feature-length indie film that takes place in fictional America, about an addict trying to get his drug-of-choice chenko. I play the lead Jordan, which I pretty much devised. We filmed in Voorhees, New Jersey, over the past two years; it was originally supposed to be two weeks! I was more immersed in the process than originally planned; we would run with my ideas and film them. Jordan is a heinous individual – a real shithead! – so it was such a catharsis for me to be this character.

Johnny Smith in Shithead. Photo by Mike Morelli.

Anna: I’m in it too, and my character is also a heinous person. She wasn’t part of the original script, but was created in reshoots.

What do you miss most about Philadelphia?

Anna: All my favorite spots! Restaurants that I always went to that became my hang-outs and were almost like a second home to me, where they know me. I knew so much of the city so intimately that I miss the command I had of it; I don’t like being a perpetual tourist.

Johnny: South Philly Comics was in my neighborhood, and I liked going to see the guys there on a weekly basis. I also miss my puppet-show buddies, so I’m hoping I can create something similar here.

What do you love most about New York?

Anna: New York affords a certain level of anonymity, so you can do whatever you want and be whoever you are, without having to worry about what people will think. There’s no judgment here, and there’s a wealth of all kinds of different and eccentric people.

Johnny: I like being able to go out for groceries in the middle of the night! Everything is open here – we have all the conveniences.

Where do you hope to be five years from now?

Anna: I would like to have finished a graduate school program. I would also like to be in a place as an artist where I feel more confident about being able to sustain the life as a vocation, to feel that I can confidently say I’m proud of my decision to do this, and to be able at that point to make serious financial investments for my future.

Johnny: I want to be more concrete in my thirties, less abstract than in my twenties. I know what I have to offer, and I want to polish that product, especially by being involved in the sketch comedy scene. I do dream big, and I’m confident in it!

Thanks to both of you, and best wishes for continued success in New York, Philadelphia, and everywhere your career takes you!

March 20, 2017
Interview: Catharine Slusar Returns to Theatre Exile in ‘Lost Girls’

Following her Barrymore Award for Best Actress as Martha in Theatre Exile’s 2014 production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, which was preceded by two Barrymore Nominations for Best Actress with the company – as Faye in Iron (2010) and Emma in Annapurna (2014) – Catharine Slusar returns to the stage at Studio X in the Philadelphia premiere of John Pollono’s Lost Girls.

Catharine Slusar.

A native of Connecticut, alumna of Yale University, member of Actors’ Equity Association, resident of Philadelphia since 1995, and recipient of the Barrymores’ F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Philadelphia Theatre Artist in 2001, Slusar has performed with a wide array of local theaters, as well as nationally and internationally. In addition to her impressive acting credentials, she shares her expertise with students as an Assistant Professor at Bryn Mawr College and in an ongoing partnership with the E.M. Stanton School in South Philadelphia, where her focus is on Shakespeare.

Despite her busy schedule, Catharine was kind enough to come in early to Studio X, to chat with me before an afternoon rehearsal and the first preview of Lost Girls. The play, performed for the first time at Exile on a revolving stage, is set in New Hampshire during a snowy winter. It tells the story of three generations of women in a working-class family, caught in a cycle of teen pregnancy. Directed by Exile’s Founding Artistic Director Joe Canuso, it has all the “grit and passion” of the company’s signature style, as it explores the human condition with dark humor, foul language, and keen insight.

Kim Carson and Catharine Slusar in Iron. Photo by Paola Nogueras.

Deb: Lost Girls is the fourth production you’ve done with Theatre Exile. Aside from the Barrymore recognition, what is it about Exile’s style that keeps you coming back?

Catharine: It’s a people-focused theater. The design and direction are structured to work with the actors, to respect them, and to promote what we have to bring to the table. We can take chances. I’ve done wildly different roles here, I’m not put into a box. The designers, directors, and actors all take chances, and I’ve been fortunate to work with both Joe and Deb [Deborah Block, Director of Iron, and Exile’s Producing Artistic Director], and I would love to work with Pfeif [Matt Pfeiffer, Associate Artistic Director at Exile]. So by saying it’s people-focused, I mean it feels like an actors’ theater. It’s human-scaled, and they do top-quality productions in a tiny space, by putting their money into the people. There is something thrilling about doing theater in a space so small that the molecules in the air seem to shift depending on who is present. All live theater is dependent on the audience, but at Exile their presence is palpable. It is a luxury.

What does Joe Canuso bring to the plays he directs, and why do you enjoy working with him?

Joe has deep passion, a lot of heart, and a spirit of camaraderie. He trusts me, we speak the same language. This play is unusual for me, and it shows his trust in me, that he was willing to try something different. He does not cast me as a ‘type,’ but as a person able to play a wide range of characters.

How did your casting in Lost Girls come about? Were you involved from the beginning of Exile’s interest in producing it this season?

Yes, I was involved from the beginning. Joe came to me conditionally, with the understanding that my casting would depend on who was cast in the lead role of Maggie, because it’s about a family. I’m not the main character, I play Maggie’s mother Linda, a believable member of the family with Molly Ward cast in the lead role.

Catharine Slusar, Molly Ward, and Susanne Collins in a pre-production photo for Lost Girls Photo by Robert Hakalski.

Although the play is about three generations of women, it was written by a man, and is being directed by a man. Do you think men are able to create believable female characters, or do they have a completely different perspective and experience than a woman would?

First of all, they don’t create the characters – they create them in concert with the actors. I’m very aware of gender in theater, and I see that there are fewer and fewer roles for women of a certain age, between one’s mother years and one’s grandmother years. I believe there need to be more roles for women in the theater, both onstage and off. In this, I’m playing the grandmother of Maggie’s teenage daughter, because the women in the story had children at an extraordinarily young age, in their teens. The fact that John made the play female-centric speaks of his upbringing and his desire to focus on women, which shouldn’t be minimized. There are many important areas of expertise that John brings. He knows New Hampshire, where Lost Girls is set; he grew up there, and it feels authentic. He knows the people who inhabit his plays because they are HIS people, his family. And Joe grew up in South Philly, and he understands working-class people, and actors. Yes, it’s written by a man, but he wrote four women and two men into the play. John and Joe rely on the actors to bring the women’s understanding. I should also mention that other productions of the play were done prior to the last presidential election, pre-Trump, so I’m curious to see where this will land.

Catharine Slusar in a pre-production photo for Lost Girls. Photo by Robert Hakalski.

Tell us about your character. Is there anything in her that you can relate to, or that you see in yourself?

Yes, of course! Number one is her fierce love for her daughter. She didn’t have a good role model in her own mother, she doesn’t really know how to be a mother, yet she’s fierce – and I’m a fierce mom myself. My twin daughters are fifteen, and I would do anything for them, so that’s my main connector with the character. Linda has already, to use the colorful language of the play, given all the fucks, so she has none left to give. Her attitude is “This is me, so live with it.” She really doesn’t take crap from anyone, and I love that. The harder aspects of her for me are her politics – and I’m very political. Though it doesn’t specifically say it in the script, she seems like someone who would have voted for Trump. She has a few lines about girls getting pregnant, that it’s not the boys’ fault, it’s their fault, it’s up to them to take care of themselves. It’s visceral for her, it’s survival; she knows men aren’t going to do it for them. Her world is really stark, and that’s how she survives. In my private life, I haven’t understood how a woman could speak, or vote, against her own interests. Yet I see here, at least for Linda, it’s from a place of survival. It is fascinating to play someone with very different politics, and this has been an unexpected gift. Acting is a deep dive into empathy, into wearing someone else’s skin.

What is the most important message that audiences should take away from Lost Girls?

We’re always talking about having a bad-decision gene, but in fact Maggie is doing extremely well, considering her circumstances. Families are not easy, so it’s the fierceness of a mom’s love that can wrench them out of generations of bad patterns. She is determined to be a better mother than her mother was for her, and to make a better life for her child. Then there’s her ability in the end to forgive, which shows that change can happen. And this play upends our biases and expectations. For example, Penny, the new wife of Maggie’s ex-husband Lou, is a born-again Christian. In lesser hands, this role could be an invitation for broad-stroke generalizations. Amy Frear, who plays her, is committed to the part and she brings humanity, and a real feeling of love and forgiveness. What we see on the surface is just the surface.

Have there been any particular challenges in performing on a revolving set?

It doesn’t rotate while we’re performing on it, so we don’t have to balance. The motion is very smooth, the locking mechanism is easy, and we’ve been on the platform through the whole rehearsal process, so it really hasn’t presented any problems. It only rotates in the dark, during the blackouts between scenes, so that’s a tiny bit disconcerting. It’s funny because you’re not always sure where you are – and it’s snowing all the time! But actually, it’s been easier than the cast having to move props around a stationary set. Colin McIlvaine did an excellent job with the set design.

How does the artistic design impact or inspire your performance?

It was a gift to me that Fritzy (Costume Designer Katherine Fritz) had the costumes ready in advance, so I got to rehearse in my character’s pajamas and slippers. To be in her shoes, you have to rehearse in the shoes! And I have been for the whole process. You move so differently depending on what you’re wearing, so we’re fortunate to have had a close approximation of what these characters would wear and how they’d behave in their clothes. Our sound designer Elizabeth Atkinson has been coming to one or two rehearsals a week, so she has been in the room with us, and Thom Weaver has been so specific with the lighting, that when he makes changes, you go, “Oh!” – he’s so precise. The design team has made careful, caring, and artistic choices across the board.

Pearce Bunting and Catharine Slusar in Theatre Exile’s 2015 production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Photo by Paola Nogueras.

What have been your most memorable roles to date, and why?

Hands down it’s Martha! Everything about Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf was just amazing, from working with Joe and Pearce [Bunting, who played George] to performing at Plays and Players, which just drips with ghosts – as does the role. It’s been done so many times before, and so famously, that it was harrowing for me. But now that I’m doing Lost Girls, I see that it was the perfect preparation for this. With Martha, it was a feeling of promise that’s been stomped on. I see her in Linda, and in so many people in our country under the current administration.

Are there any parts you would like to perform in the future that you haven’t done yet?

Yes, and there are parts that I want to do again. I did King Lear at Bryn Mawr, where I teach, and Lady M with Adrienne Mackey and Swim Pony – an all-female re-envisioning of Lady Macbeth, in the 2011 Fringe. I would like to work on both again, many times. I also want to do Beckett’s Not I. But I’ve never been a person to have a bucket list, for fear I won’t get it! And I think there’s something to be found in every role. In terms of why I went into theater in the first place, I saw my father in a community-theater production of The Music Man, as a member of the barbershop quartet. It was beautiful and magical, and now I’m getting teary-eyed. The actors were all amateurs, making theater out of their love for the form; they could weave a spell, and I wanted to do it, too.

Thank you, Catharine; you always do! We look forward to seeing you in Lost Girls and in many more shows with Theatre Exile.

Lost Girls plays through Sunday, March 12, 2017, at Theatre Exile, performing at Studio X – 1340 South 13th Street, in Philadelphia, PA. For tickets, call (215) 218-4022, or purchase them online.

February 17, 2017
Review: ‘The Game’s Afoot (Holmes for the Holidays)’ at Spotlighters Theatre

This weekend I had the pleasure of attending an opening weekend performance of The Game’s Afoot (Holmes for the Holidays), by Ken Ludwig at Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre (“Spotlighters”). Award-winning Ludwig is known for his period-piece farces – popular plays like Lend Me a Tenor and Moon Over Buffalo. He bills this funny drawing-room mystery as a “comedy thriller” and I happily approve. I love mysteries and, as Director Fuzz Roark noted in his curtain speech, we all could benefit from some lighthearted laughs after the stressful election season we’ve endured.

The Game’s Afoot is a whodunit set in December 1936. Following an attempt on his life, Broadway star William Gillette (Thom Eric Sinn) invites his cast-mates to his home to celebrate Christmas with him as he recovers. With the blessing of Arthur Conan Doyle, Gillette wrote the Sherlock Holmes play in which he has starred for decades and he has amassed quite a fortune. He used the money to build an honest-to-goodness castle on the Connecticut River, complete with secret passages, hidden rooms, and state-of-the-art gadgets like an intercom and a remote control. Impressed, one of his guests jokes, “This is where God would live if he could afford it.” This is the setting of The Game’s Afoot.

Unknown to his guests – longtime friend Felix Geisel (Tom Piccin), his wife, Madge (Ilene Chalmers), and newlyweds Simon Bright (Andrew Wilkin) and Aggie Wheeler (Kellie Podsednik) – Gillette has called them together not only to share some holiday spirit, but to ferret out the identity of the assailant who tried to kill him. To the delight of no one, neither his guests nor his mother, Martha (Penny Nichols), Gillette has also secretly invited the much-maligned Daria Chase (Melanie Bishop). A scheming theater critic who has written something dreadful about pretty much all in attendance, Daria is an unwelcome addition to the party.

True to the genre, The Game’s Afoot is full of twists and turns, misdirection and misadventure. While Gillette is busy sleuthing to solve his own mysterious attack, one of his guests falls victim to foul play and the evening becomes a double whodunit. By the time Inspector Harriet Gorring (Suzanne Hoxsey) arrives on the scene in Act II, everybody is a suspect. Even more than in the quick-moving, suspenseful Act I, the second act runs in high gear from its start after intermission until the very last scene. Wacky antics; perfectly-timed entrances and exits; characters just missing each other or appearing in unexpected places; and sharp, witty dialogue keep you guessing and make the second half of the play fly by.

Back Row – Andrew Wilkin, Kellie Podsednik, Thom Eric Sinn, Suzanne Hoxsey, and Tom Piccin. Front Row – Melanie Bishop, Penny Nichols, and Ilene Chalmers. Photo by ‪Shealyn Jae Photography‪.

Each of the actors in this production does a great job playing bold, genre-stereotype characters without coming off as a caricature. Kellie Podsednik, as the ingénue, Aggie, brings just the right balance of wide-eyed innocent and ambitious starlet. Andrew Wilkin adeptly uses body language to help define Simon Bright as a charming social climber. Particularly impressive in Wilkin’s performance was how present he was in scenes even when he was not speaking. Wilkin’s facial expressions while hearing the others talk were priceless and provide a lot of insight into his character.

Thom Eric Sinn’s performance as William Gillette was wonderful. Sinn played Gillette as bigger than life, perfectly suited for a character who is used to being the star of the show. Likewise, Tom Piccin, as Gillette’s BFF and costar Felix Giesel, was spot on. Piccin has excellent timing and delivered some of the funniest lines in the play with a pleasing, dry wit.

The creative team for this show transformed the theater into the perfect setting to let these actors shine. I can’t even imagine how many hours it took Set Designer/Scenic Artist Alan S. Zemla to put together such a detailed, meticulous set. For one, there were five doors gracing the small theater, mentally expanding the set to include a boat dock, kitchen and other rooms. In the main room, the walls were adorned with dozens of period-appropriate items one might find in a castle designed by a man whose alter-ego is the world’s most famous consulting detective. There were axes, daggers, a broadsword, knives, firearms… even a garrote. Shelves were stuffed full with knick knacks, candles, and tchotchkes. In another excellent directorial choice, when set changes were necessary, the tech who came on stage to make them was dressed in a maid’s costume.

Speaking of costumes, Costume Designer Andrew Malone did absolutely gorgeous work here. Thirties and forties society attire is so glamourous and beautiful! The gown Aggie wears upon arrival to the Gillette castle is lovely. And the dusty pink dress Daria wears is elegant and downright stunning.

I highly recommend The Game’s Afoot (Holmes for the Holidays) at Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre. At a time when we need it, this play is fun and funny, an energetic romp that keeps you guessing and laughing from start to finish. With great acting, an amazing set, beautiful costumes and excellent direction, The Game’s Afoot is a production you’ll be thankful you attended.

Running Time: Two hours and 30 minutes, with one intermission.

The Game’s Afoot plays through December 18, 2016, at Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre – 817 St. Paul Street, in Baltimore, MD. For tickets, call the box office at or purchase them online.

RATING:

November 23, 2016
Review: ‘Bye Bye Birdie’ at The Goodspeed

I have been viscerally connected to this charming musical about teenage life during the mid-1950s, when pop music was surrendering to the hot wave of rock ‘n roll started more or less by icon of the era, Elvis Presley. He was no new Sinatra, Perry Como, or Andy Williams and new music plus his unique performing style entered virtually every living room via the then smash Sunday night TV variety program, simply called The Ed Sullivan Show.

Chita and Dick Van Dyke in The Broadway cast of ‘Bye Bye Birdie.’ Photo courtesy of Vanity Fair.

I mention my connection, because early in the creation of the musical, its producer Edward Padula, approached me as the agent representing Chita Rivera who had had an exciting two year run with West Side Story, in which she lit up the sky on Broadway and in London. In those days, theatre practiced type casting, and Rivera was of Puerto Rican extraction. Leading ladies in musical comedies were all Caucasian unless the role called specifically for someone of color or Spanish, French, or any language other than English.

Barbara Cook (She Loves Me, The Music Man) comes to mind, as does Florence Henderson (Fanny), Julie Andrews (The Boy Friend, My Fair Lady), Gwen Verdon (Sweet Charity, Damn Yankees), Tammy Grimes (The Unsinkable Molly Brown) and many more. Ms. Rivera would never have been offered any of those roles. But adventurous Mr. Padula, recognizing her star quality, decided to change all that, and he asked me if we could discuss the leading role in a new all-American musical he was just beginning to assemble from scratch.

Padula had been a successful stage manager and book director, but he longed to be a producer and after auditioning several young composer-lyricists, he went with Charles Strouse and Lee Adams who, like him, had never had a show on Broadway. He went through a book writer or two, but none came up with an acceptable story line, and finally he went with young Michael Stewart who was getting buzz as a contributor to the successful variety show headed by Sid Caesar.

When the material was finally in presentable shape, it evolved from something called Let’s Go Steady into Bye Bye Birdie, a title that did not attract single investors. But the great thing about Padula and his team is that he and they remained committed to their dream show through the next two years, before it finally could actually go into production in 1960. Before that date could be finalized, a director/ choreographer had to be signed, and again Padula paid attention to his instincts and hired Gower Champion, whose only New York credits were as choreographer for two small revues and a moderately successful book show (Make A Wish). He’d never been in full directorial command, but that didn’t phase the producer.

Here’s where I came in. The show was capitalized at the then standard $300,000, plus a possible 20% overcall, and Ed was having a hard time raising it. I had a personal reason for wanting to help. My cousin Andrew and I decided to raise 10% of that capital by plugging the show to everyone we knew. There must have been 50 live backers’ auditions in the next months, and a Texas oil man L. Slade Brown), stagestruck and eager, came up with half the capital, thus making the production’s schedule realistic. I was further motivated to help, because my own career as a theatrical agent was just beginning to flourish, and I was the proud manager hoping to help turn Ms. Rivera in to a star.

Mr. Champion was not certain. He’d envisioned a young star like Debbie Reynolds or any number of any other current favorites. But Padula was convinced Chita would bring something fresh and exciting to the show. Her would-be director asked if she’d meet with him for tea so he could get to know her better. I accompanied her, and the meeting went very well. He was tactful and said he was sure she’d be curious about him were he being considered as a performer himself, for a role unlike those he’d ever played. He very graciously asked if she’d mind showing him some material that would reveal her vulnerability, and perhaps her sense of humor. He’d loved her work in the West Side musical, but her character in that had none of those qualities.

She asked for a few days to prepare, and on the appointed day I joined her at a Broadway theatre where she wore a simple dress with a Peter Pan collar. After a few nervous “hellos,” she climbed on to the stage, sat on a stool very quietly, then nodded to her accompanist, and in the sweetest most mellow voice imaginable, she sang “Sit there and count your fingers, little girl blue. What else? What else is there to do?”.

As she took a breath to support the next line, Gower Champion rushed down the aisle, and shouted: “That’s it!. It’s yours, you are our Rosie!” I kid you not — two lines and he knew she could play the part; she could probably play little Bo Peep or Lady Macbeth, so instinctively honest was her way with the words. His one concession to her Latino background was that the character Rose Grant became Rose Alvarez, and now all those WASPY ladies would not have been right for it! The film, shot several years later, used Van Dyke, but Janet Leigh played Rose and she was about as Hispanic as Julie Andrews.

You’d have thought I got the part, so thrilled was I. And my joy was doubled when a short time later I accompanied Johnny Carson and Dick Van Dyke, both clients at the agency where I worked, to their auditions for the male lead, and Dick nailed it.

For a young man (me) who had been handling talented supporting players for at least 5 years, this was a breakthrough. If the show was a hit, I would be handling the two stars of a hit Broadway musical. In our profession, that was a big deal.

Tristan Buettel, Rhett Guter and the cast of Goodspeed’s ‘Bye Bye Birdie.’ Photo by Diane Sobolewski.

That’s a long way round to The Goodspeed revival as of this week. The little town of East Haddam, Connecticut has been home to the musical theatre program at this 19th century theatre on the Connecticut River for 53 years ; Michael Gennaro became its artistic director last season, and Birdie is something of which he should be inordinately proud.

I know the show backwards, and I was apprehensive on approaching, but I needn’t have been. He chose Jenn Thompson and Patricia Wilcox to direct and choreograph and the show is better than ever. They’ve even improved certain key moments — the song “Put On A Happy Face” has become a duet for the two leads, instead of the charming Champion version of having the leading man sing it to a down-in-the mouth ensemble player. It’s been expanded as well.

Janet Dacal (Rosie) and George Merrick (Albert). Photo by Diane Sobolewski.

Another marvelous enlargement has turned “A Lot of Livin’ To Do”, started as a solo, turned into a rousing ensemble song and dance that brings energy and great fun to the second act.

“The Telephone Song,” sung in the original production in a giant grid filled with teenagers, Thompson and Wilcox have saved a ton of money by coming up with their own way of earning cheers. From the scenic concept to the ’50s comment on fashion, the show looks brand new.

The Cast of Goodspeed’s ‘Bye Bye Birdie.’ Photo by Diane Sobolewski.

And the cast! George Merrick, Alex Walton, Janet Dacal. Warren Kelley, Tristen Buettel, and Rhett Guter (a dazzling and original Conrad Birdie), sparkle all the way from the two leads (Rosie Alvarez and Albert Peterson), down to the smallest (Harvey Johnson) in this regional theatre production. With a shorter rehearsal time than Broadway, less money, and the difficulty in finding talents of this caliber to be available for a long season in a tiny town must be enormous. But this bunch all seem delighted to be up there, and I can’t comment strongly enough on how much they deserve to be.

With all respect to Ms. Rivera, Mr. VanDyke, Paul Lynde, Kay Medford, Michael J Pollard, and of course Gower Champion and Edward Padula, all of whom brought the original to vivid life, this vibrant new look at the show revitalizes it, and I certainly hope others are fortunate enough to have a gander for themselves.

Bye Bye Birdie only runs until this Thursday, September 8th, so if you can consider a trip north, I highly recommend you give yourself a treat and see for yourself.

Bye Bye Birdie plays through September 8, 2016 at The Goodspeed – 6 Main Street, in East Haddam, CT. For tickets, call the box office at (860) 873- 8668, or purchase them online.

September 6, 2016
‘Love and Money’ at Signature Theatre in NYC

Master Playwright A.R.Gurney has used his own life as background material for some 50 plays, 4 musicals, plus 3 novels. Born in 1930 in Buffalo, New York, he decided early on to “write what he knew”, and he has since probed and poked into the many aspects of his life as a White Anglo Saxon American, who has witnessed his WASP world evolve into a rainbow coalition beyond his wildest imagination at the start. He’s dealt with himself as a son, a father, a husband, a teacher, and certainly as a playwright, whether returning home to seek his parents’ permission to use them in a play (The Cocktail Hour) or to interview a Buffalo icon, the great star Katherine Cornell (The Grand Manner). He’s dealt with country club life, with grandparenthood. He played his own grandfather once in a reading of Ancestral Voices, which along with Love Letters and Screen Play were meant to be read directly to the audience rather than being fully staged. Now in his mid-eighties his work is ubiquitous, for earlier works are being revived everywhere. Sometimes he has three going in New York at the same time.

Kahyun Kim, Maureen Anderman, and Gabriel Brown. Photo by Joan Marcus.

His latest, Love and Money, at the Signature Theatre, has been brought into town from Westport, Connecticut where its artistic director Mark Lamos staged it earlier this summer. With a cast of five, it deals with the distribution of great wealth by the matriarch of another WASP family, one “Cornelia Cunningham” as played by Maureen Anderman.

She is determined to see that virtually all of her worldly goods are bestowed without question to a group of charities, mostly benefiting under privileged children of the world. A young attorney in the law firm that represents her comes to inform her that there is a complication: a letter has been received, written by one Walker “Scott” Williams, claiming to be her grandson, the son of her daughter, now deceased.

The first half hour of this seventy minute play in one act is filled with the delightful badinage which introduces us to two impeccably written characters, one the matriarch of a prominent family and the other the young attorney who has brought news from a claimant that will upset her plan. She has no knowledge of this character’s existence and the rest of the play offers the intruder himself, a household fixture of a servant who has been at her job for over thirty years, and a representative of an organization which has been promised a piano which also has an impeccable pedigree. The claimant is a young black man whose story she allows to unfold and as he’s well equipped with facts that would seem to validate his claim, she appears to be sold on his authenticity. Her attorney and her maid have doubts, and as the play unfolds, she will have them too.

The young man is played by Gabriel Brown, a lithe and lean charmer who surprises us with almost everything he says. In addition, he’s able to perform some of Cole Porter’s most infectious songs, accompanied by the player piano. Brown is so appealing that we can almost accept Ms. Cunningham’s attraction to him and her seeming willingness to accept his story. Or does she? Her ultimate decision about what to do about him is satisfying and all ends on a very happy note with all parties very pleased with the results.

https://vimeo.com/134662892

John Guare in 1990 dealt with a similar theme in his Six Degrees of Separation, and that play served him well on stage as well as on screen as a film with Will Smith. His play is richer than this sketchy piece that puts language back on stage, but though it attempts to throw darts at the American dream gone wrong, it succeeds only in giving us a boulevard comedy that manages to bring some relief from summer’s heat, but which by no means quenches our thirst for more. Ms. Anderman is pure joy as she tries to make us believe that great wealth is a killer every time.

Mr. Brown plays the supplicant with unflinching confidence, but his character is glib and facile, and to the play’s disadvantage, he doesn’t have the material with which to make us truly root for him. I thoroughly enjoyed Joe Paulik’s take on the young attorney, the writing of whose role seemed to me the must substantive. He imbues the lawyer with intelligence and he gives him a sense of humor that is appealing. Pamela Dunlap and Kahyun Kim round out the cast capably.

As language is fast disappearing from our everyday life, Mr. Gurney is always welcome and refreshing. It has its moments, but it needs work.

https://vimeo.com/136728657

Running Time: 75 minutes, with no intermission.

Love and Money plays through October 4, 2015 at The Pershing Square Signature Center – 480 West 42nd Street, in New York City. For tickets, call the box office at (212) 244-7529, or purchase them online.

RATING:

August 26, 2015
Update: The March on Washington for Gun Control Presents “26 Pebbles” on Monday, August 24th at 8 PM at Arena Stage

Monday, August 24, 2015 at 8 PM
At Arena Stage-In the Kogod Cradle
1101 6th St., SW
in Washington, DC 20024

Price: $20.

Tickets are available at the Arena Stage Sales Office, by phone 202-488-3300, or online.

Everytown for Gun Safety and the Newton Action Alliance

announced as beneficiaries for 26 Pebbles

Nicholas Rodriguez.

Nicholas Rodriguez joins previously announced lineup of notable D.C. actors for one-night-only reading on Monday, August 24 at 8:00 p.m.

The March on Washington for Gun Control will present a Benefit reading of a Newtown documentary theater piece 26 Pebbles by Eric Ulloa on August 24 at 8:00 p.m. at Arena Stage at the Mead Center of American Theater directed by Molly Smith. This is a stirring new play that explores the power of community in the face of the tragedy in Newtown, CT and proceeds will benefit Everytown for Gun Safety and the Newtown Action Alliance.

“To bring 26 Pebbles to our nation’s capital, is an exciting step in further allowing the messages of this play to resonate, bringing it right to the front door of where change is made daily. Opinions are easy to ignore, but this play presents the facts from the very people who lived within this tragedy, its aftermath and the messages of hope they inspire. Hopefully these stories continue to ripple out and eventually make their way through the Capital’s iron dome and into some practical solutions.” – Eric Ulloa

Nicholas Rodriguez (Oklahoma) will join already announced actors: Edward Gero (The Originalist), Naomi Jacobson (Mary T. and Lizzie K.), Dorea Schmidt (Fiddler on the Roof), Lise Bruneau (Legacy of Light), Hannah Willman (My Fair Lady), and Joshua Morgan (Fiddler on the Roof) reading stage directions. Susan White will stage manage.

Funds from the reading will support Everytown for Gun Safety and the Newtown Action Alliance. Everytown for Gun Safety is the largest gun violence prevention organization in the United States with more than three million supporters, including moms, mayors, survivors, and everyday Americans who are fighting for public safety measures that respect the Second Amendment and help save lives. At the core of Everytown are Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, a grassroots movement of American mothers founded the day after the Sandy Hook tragedy. Learn more at www.everytown.org and follow at @Everytown.

The Newtown Action Alliance is an action-based grassroots organization that was formed spontaneously by Newtown residents after the tragic shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary.

They are dedicated to reversing the escalating gun violence epidemic in this nation through the introduction of smarter, safer gun laws and broader cultural change. Ordinary citizens stepped up to #HonorWithAction to #EndGunViolence by collaborating with families of victims of gun violence and gun violence prevention advocates from across the country, to advance the conversation, and bring common sense to the gun laws in our nation. The goals of The Newtown Action Alliance are to: support policies and state legislators as they work to pass smarter, safer gun laws; support policies and federal legislators as they work to pass smarter, safer gun laws; and work together with other gun safety organizations towards safer schools, streets, towns, and cities.

The original steering committee for The March on Washington for Gun Control described the organization in December 2012 as follows: “We are a non-partisan group of concerned citizens who have gathered together to create a March on Washington for Gun Control. We have coalesced around a common cause. For us, the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School was a turning point and we believe now is the moment to act. When we stand together, we stand a chance.”

The March in January 2013 was just the beginning of the organization, as members continue to call, write, email, remain active on social media, and visit their representatives and discuss the issue of gun violence. The March on Washington for Gun Control newsletters can be received via email by signing up at the following link: https://eepurl.com/ued05

Tickets for the Benefit reading of 26 Pebbles are $20, subject to change and based on availability. Tickets may be purchased online at https://tickets.arenastage.org/single/SelectSeating.aspx?p=22453, by phone at 202-488-3300 or at the Arena Stage Sales Office at 1101 Sixth St., SW, DC.

Connect with us:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GunCtrlMarch

E-News Letter: https://eepurl.com/ued05

______

Posted on August 13, 2015 on DCMetroTheaterArts

The March on Washington for Gun Control will present a benefit reading of a Newtown documentary theater piece, 26 Pebbles by Eric Ulloa, directed by Molly Smith. This is a stirring new play that explores the power of community in the face of the tragedy in Newtown, CT.

On December 14, 2012, 20-year-old Adam Lanza fatally shot 20 children and 6 adult staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown. The tragedy captured the attention—and broke the hearts—of the entire nation. These 26 innocent deaths—referred to by one Newtown resident as “pebbles thrown into a pond”—created ripples and vibrations that were felt across the country and beyond. Proceeds from this event will benefit the Newtown Action Alliance and Everytown for Gun Safety.

Playwright Ulloa conducted interviews with residents of Newtown in the months after the tragedy—including shop owners, parents of students, religious leaders, spiritualists, town workers and others who were touched by the tragedy. These interviews create a new verbatim play about the lasting impact of gun violence in a community.

The cast features some of Washington, DC’s most socially engaged and dynamic actors: Edward Gero (THE ORIGINALIST), Naomi Jacobson (MARY T. AND LIZZIE K.), Dorea Schmidt (FIDDLER ON THE ROOF), Lise Bruneau (LEGACY OF LIGHT), Hannah Willman (MY FAIR LADY), and Joshua Morgan (FIDDLER ON THE ROOF) reading stage directions.

Molly Smith, one of the organizers of the MWGC, says: “As a private citizen, I am responding to the epidemic of gun violence through Eric’s beautiful play about Newtown. Over 30,000 people die each year from gun violence in America. On a yearly basis we lose more lives from gun violence than the Ebola epidemic in Africa or prostate cancer in the United States. We need common sense regulations now. The right to own a gun is not the right to own any kind of gun.”

Article from Arena Stage.

LINKS
‘From Broadway With Love: A Benefit Concert for Sandy Hook’ Video Interviews and Highlights by Joel Markowitz.

The March on Washington for Gun Control Is This Saturday, January 26th at 10 AM.

August 20, 2015
The March on Washington for Gun Control Presents “26 Pebbles” on Monday, August 24th at 8 PM at Arena Stage

Monday, August 24, 2015 at 8 PM
At Arena Stage-In the Kogod Cradle
1101 6th St., SW
in Washington, DC 20024

Price: $20.

Tickets are available at the Arena Stage Sales Office, by phone 202-488-3300, or online.

The March on Washington for Gun Control will present a benefit reading of a Newtown documentary theater piece, 26 Pebbles by Eric Ulloa, directed by Molly Smith. This is a stirring new play that explores the power of community in the face of the tragedy in Newtown, CT.

On December 14, 2012, 20-year-old Adam Lanza fatally shot 20 children and 6 adult staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown. The tragedy captured the attention—and broke the hearts—of the entire nation. These 26 innocent deaths—referred to by one Newtown resident as “pebbles thrown into a pond”—created ripples and vibrations that were felt across the country and beyond. Proceeds from this event will benefit the Newtown Action Alliance and Everytown for Gun Safety.

Playwright Ulloa conducted interviews with residents of Newtown in the months after the tragedy—including shop owners, parents of students, religious leaders, spiritualists, town workers and others who were touched by the tragedy. These interviews create a new verbatim play about the lasting impact of gun violence in a community.

The cast features some of Washington, DC’s most socially engaged and dynamic actors: Edward Gero (THE ORIGINALIST), Naomi Jacobson (MARY T. AND LIZZIE K.), Dorea Schmidt (FIDDLER ON THE ROOF), Lise Bruneau (LEGACY OF LIGHT), Hannah Willman (MY FAIR LADY), and Joshua Morgan (FIDDLER ON THE ROOF) reading stage directions.

Molly Smith, one of the organizers of the MWGC, says: “As a private citizen, I am responding to the epidemic of gun violence through Eric’s beautiful play about Newtown. Over 30,000 people die each year from gun violence in America. On a yearly basis we lose more lives from gun violence than the Ebola epidemic in Africa or prostate cancer in the United States. We need common sense regulations now. The right to own a gun is not the right to own any kind of gun.”

Article from Arena Stage.

LINKS
‘From Broadway With Love: A Benefit Concert for Sandy Hook’ Video Interviews and Highlights by Joel Markowitz.

The March on Washington for Gun Control Is This Saturday, January 26th at 10 AM.

August 13, 2015
Extra! Extra! An Interview with Ben Cook: He’s Home and He’s in ‘Newsies’ at The National Theatre

Ben Cook is returning home and will be dancing his heart out in Newsies at The National Theatre. I had a chance to catch up with Ben.

Joel: Please introduce yourself to our readers and tell them where they may have seen you on DC area stages, on Broadway, or on ‘the road.’

Ben: My name is Ben Cook, and I am 17 years old. My family and I moved from North Carolina to Virginia when I was 3, and I started taking dance lessons at Metropolitan Fine Arts Center (now Metropolitan School of the Arts) when I was 7. Melissa Dobbs, who runs MSA, said that I had talent and urged me to get a manager/agent, so I auditioned for and signed with Linda Townsend, and she started sending me out on professional auditions.

Ben in ‘Ragtime.’

When I was 9, I booked my first professional role as Tiny Tim in Ford’s Theatre’s A Christmas Carol. From there I performed in Macbeth at the Folger Shakespeare Theatre, at Ford’s the next year in A Christmas Carol and The Heavens Are Hung in Black. I was the understudy to Little Boy when Ragtime was at The Kennedy Center and then moved to New York when the show transferred to Broadway. My first performance in Ragtime was on the Broadway stage.

After Ragtime closed, I played the Page in Terrence McNally’s Golden Age at The Kennedy Center, then I booked Billy Elliot in New York. I was in the ensemble and understudied Michael on Broadway, then went on tour as Michael and, finally, as Billy.

I’ve also been on episodes of three TV series — 30 Rock in a flashback as Young Jack; as Mike’s stepson on an episode of Veep and as Dunbar’s son in House of Cards.

Ben’s Dad Glenn Cook.

When your Dad Glenn Cook was writing his column Stage Dad on DCMetroTheaterArts, you were in Billy Elliot on the road. When he finished the column the musical had closed.

Take us on your journey from when Billy Elliot closed and you got called in for auditions for Newsies, and you were offered your role in Newsies. And what role are you performing in the show? Are you understudying any role and have you gone on for that role yet?

I left Billy Elliot in May 2013 because my voice had changed and I had outgrown the role. I had seen Newsies on Broadway and knew that was the next show I wanted to do, but I could not audition for it until I turned 16. I moved back home to Lorton, VA., and went to school with my twin sister, Emma, at Lake Braddock Secondary School. I also continued my dance training at MSA, and worked on the combinations for Newsies.

Last year, after I turned 16, I went to an open call for the Newsies tour. The producers had announced that the show would be closing on Broadway but that it was going out on a national tour. I went through the open call process and had two callbacks before the final callback in front of the original creative team and producers.

I booked one of the Newsies roles, but they didn’t assign the characters until we started rehearsals. The director, Jeff Calhoun, gave me a chance to try the role of Race, who is one of the leaders of the ensemble. He is Jack Kelly’s buddy, kind of a smart aleck, and he always walks around with a cigar.

On the tour, I’m also understudying Crutchie, who is Jack’s best friend and is hobbled by a bad leg. I haven’t gone on as Crutchie yet, but I hope to soon. The show’s writers have added a solo for Crutchie in Act 2 especially for the tour, and I’m looking forward to performing that.

Ben Cook (Billy Elliot) and Rich Hebert (Dad).

Both Billy Elliot and Newsies have extremely ‘challenging’ choreography. What’s similar about both show’s choreography and what’s different? Which scene or song’s choreography was the hardest to learn and perform in both shows?

The shows are very challenging, because they require you to know how to do all types of dance. In Billy, you had a lot of tap in addition to ballet, and in most of the scenes the focus was on the main character. The dance was very precise and you had to perform the steps a certain way.

Newsies is different because it is focused on the ensemble. It’s very athletic and very strong dancing with a group of young men who are in their teens and early 20s. The original choreographer, Christopher Gattelli, worked with us on the dances and allowed us to bring our individual strengths to the choreography. In that way, it is much more collaborative than Billy was. At the same time, it’s tough because so much action is occurring on stage during the biggest numbers that you have to know where you are at all times.

In Billy the most difficult numbers were “Born to Boogie,” where you had to jump rope while tapping; “Angry Dance,” which ended Act I, and “Electricity,” which is a complete solo and has 16 turns in the second position at the end of a three-hour show.

Newsies has several big numbers in it that require you to go all out for them to work, so by the end of “Seize the Day,” “Carrying the Banner,” and “King of New York” you’re really tired, and there’s a huge part in the finale as well. But the show is so inspiring that you quickly catch a second wind.

You have to stay in great shape to perform in Newsies. What is your ‘routine’ to stay in great shape for the show?

Stretching, water, rest, lots of protein and carbs, and Starbucks. All of these things are necessary to get through the show and life on the road.

Is the production we will be seeing at National Theatre different than the Broadway production in any way?

What you’re getting is the same quality show that you saw on Broadway in terms of the set and production values, but you also have the song they added for Crutchie, which really helps add to his role.

Where has the tour been so far and which theatre has been your favorite so far?

We started with rehearsals in New York and DC. is our 23rd city since October. We’ve performed in New York state, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Maryland, Illinois, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, California, Nevada, Arizona, and Texas so far.

I’ve really enjoyed the mix of theatres on this tour. Some of them I went to when I was on the Billy tour, but I’ve been to a lot of new cities too. I really enjoyed the theatres in Dallas and in Orlando; both of them are new and they are fantastic buildings to perform in.

Have you ever performed at The National in DC before? What are you looking forward to most when you perform there?

I’ve performed at The Kennedy Center, Ford’s Theatre, and the Folger, but not at The National, so I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve seen a couple of touring shows there and it’s a really nice building.

What I’m looking forward to most is seeing my family and friends when I get back into town. I haven’t been home since February, and it will be nice to catch up with people and bring this tremendous show home.

What does Newsies have to say to young audiences? What are some of its themes and lessons?

One of the cool things about this show is that it’s based on an actual historical event, the 1899 strike that led to the establishment of child labor laws in our country. So you get a piece of history wrapped up in a show filled with song, dance, and hope. Newsies is about the underdogs taking a chance on something they believe in and ultimately winning. You can see young people taking on big business and getting what is rightfully theirs. At the same time, the newsies are not lazy. They know they have to work and work hard. They just don’t want to be taken advantage of.

Ben Cook (Right front) and the Original company of the North American Tour of NEWSIES. ©Disney. Photo by Deen van Meer.

How have you grown as a dancer and actor since appearing in Newsies?

I’ve learned to take better care of my body, that I have to have proper sleep and food to be able to do this show night after night. As a dancer, I’ve seen all of the other guys work so hard at what they do, perfecting their craft, learning little tricks, and I’ve tried to take all of that in.

As an actor, I like Race because he’s a comedic role, and fun to play. He’s given me a chance to practice my timing on certain lines, to see how the audience reacts on any given night. And also, within this great ensemble, I’ve seen actors and actresses who have been working at this for a long time, and they are still trying to make things better.

I’m never 100% satisfied with a show. I always think it can be better. And the best part of doing something like this is that we always have tomorrow to try to make it better.

What advice do you have to a young dancer or actor who wants to make theatre his or her career?

Train. Work hard. Train some more. You never stop training, whether you’re in a show or not. Have goals, short-term and long-term, and don’t be afraid to seek advice from others when you have questions about your future. Also, remember that it takes everyone, from the house manager to the director and producer, to make a show run successfully. Everyone is equally important.

Many people forget that parents make many sacrifices when their children are on the stage and have to perform out of town. How has your family supported you with your career?

My family has been tremendous, starting with my mom and dad, who’ve taken me to auditions, helped me move to New York for three years, and supported me no matter what. They understand that this is what I want to do, and really need to do, to feel whole in my life.

I’m a twin, and my sister Emma has also been there for me, even though it’s difficult to be apart from her for long periods of time. As much as I missed working, I also enjoyed being home with her and my sister Kate last year. And my brother, Nick, has come out to visit and take care of me on the road at different times. I’m really very lucky.

(Ben Cook (Front Right with Cigar) and the Original company, North American Tour of NEWSIES. ©Disney. Photo by Deen van Meer.

What has been the most fun about performing in Newsies?

Seeing the reaction of the audience to the show every night is tremendously gratifying. Newsies has been blessed to have a very devoted audience that cares a lot about the show and the plight of our characters. They respond to the show and give us all the energy we need.

Why should parents bring their kids to see Newsies?

Newsies is a fun show for the entire family. It has great dancing, great music and a strong story about underdogs who take a chance and ultimately find success through hard work and perseverance. It’s tremendously entertaining, but it’s themes are big. They make you think, even as you sing along to the score. That’s the best kind of musical to me.

LINKS
Stage Dad: ‘So Long Billy! It’s Been Good to Know You!’ by Glenn Cook.

Read Glenn Cook’s column Stage Dad on DCMetroTheaterArts.

https://youtu.be/RPAzkdi0kvc

June 4, 2015
‘Living on Love’ at The Longacre Theatre in New York City

In the 1940s and ’50s summer theatres popped up all over the place, particularly in New England, where every other town boasted of one. Westport, Ct. had two; Hyannis, Falmouth, Dennis, all on Cape Cod had one each. Next door so did Newport, Rhode Island. Olney in Maryland, Stockbridge in Massachusetts, Ivoryton and East Hampton and so forth and so on, all opening around Memorial Day to attract summer theatre lovers, for most of Broadway went into hibernation in those pre-air conditioning days. There were musical tents in abundance as well, and the much-missed Subway Circuit run by the diminutive showman Jules Leventhal, who would pick up the rights to a Broadway play that was closing in June, and offer the cast including the star (he loved stars) another six weeks employment in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens in what he called “a lovely vacation by the sea”, all reached by subway.

The cast was paid stock minimum (about $46 a week each), the star got as many thousands as he/she could command. The theatres were large second rate neighborhood movie palaces with 1500 seats or more, far more than the plays’ original homes on Broadway. He was able to lure the likes of Ethel Barrymore in her hit The Corn Is Green. Diana Barrymore put on armor in Joan of Lorraine in which Ingrid Bergman had starred on Broadway, but Bergman couldn’t tour as she was under contract to David Selznick who did not like his stars risking all by appearing live on stage. So Ms. Barrymore, who was doing a bit of imbibing in those days, would join her audience at the matinees, by having a beer with them in the intermissions, still dressed in Joan’s armor, at the bar next door to the theatre. Everyone seemed to enjoy that. Even top star Tallulah Bankhead dared to endure an outing in The Ziegfeld Follies, which gave up the ghost somewhere in New Jersey or Pennsylvania. Many a comedy, usually with just one set, a star role or two, would follow the same route. Which brings us to this season’s late entry, at the Longacre Theatre on Broadway, a light comedy called Living on Love.

Renee Fleming as Raquel De Angelis and Douglas Sills as Vito De Angelis perform in “Living On Love.” Photo by Joan Marcus.

It’s exactly the sort of item the summer crowd would have loved. Originally written in 1968 by the venerable author/director Garson Kanin, it tried the “straw hat” circuit. By the late sixties, regional not-for-profit theatres had become the fashion, and they more or less replaced the old barns and town halls that had served as summer theatres. More practical, these regionals were supported by grants and tax free contributions. Kanin assembled a first-rate cast headed by Christopher Plummer an Glynis Johns in his play which was then called Peccadillo. Evidently it didn’t please enough people, including its author, and it was laid to rest after being published by Samuel French. Writer Joe Dipietro has unearthed it, dusted it off, set it in New York in 1957 which allowed him to let Derek McLane design a living room that could only exist on a Broadway stage, for they were all the fashion in those so-called “Eisenhower years.. Every drawing room comedy seemed to have millions of dollars worth of antique furniture, art work, carpets, draperies, silver and gold tossed about like confetti, a butler (this comedy has two) and all the rest that pleased the hard core Broadway audiences of the period. Donald Oenslager usually designed them, with “Gowns by Mainbocher,” or “Lady Star’s gowns by Molyneux.”

This production, with its “glorious Manhattan penthouse” is by Derek McLane with costumes by Michael Krass. Its star is the magnificent Renée Fleming, a true prima donna from opera, here making her debut on Broadway. She’s a delight – a beautiful woman with a sense of humor, and the talent to toss a comic line like the best of them. She wears the magnificent Krass creations with style, she earns all her many laughs, and she’s exactly what the summer folk would have loved under the stars or barn roofs of the summer playhouses. I don’t mean to patronize this amiable comedy but standards are lower out there in the country on balmy summer nights, and I believe those audiences would have felt royally treated by this undemanding attempt to explore married and unmarried love by throwing us a couple of “peccadillos” (innocent love affairs of little or no major impact).

Douglas Sills, as Ms. Fleming’s husband (a major maestro, also in opera), is a worthy adversary and their scenes together had me thinking “Hmmm. Wouldn’t they be fun in Molnar’s The Guardsman, the theme of which is not terribly unlike the one in Living on Love?”

Jerry O’Connell contributes goofy innocence to the farcical quartet, and it is completed by Anna Chlumsky who tries to keep up by racing through her lines to the point where she is almost unintelligible. The two butlers are very helpful in setting the tone for the sort of madcap madness that enlivened such early films as My Man Godfrey and It Happened One Night.

Jerry O’Connell and Anna Chumsky. Photo by Joan Marcus.

If you think of the Longacre Theatre as a converted barn, if you adorn yourself with light summer clothing, you’ll have a laugh or two at this pleasant farce. You’ll also enjoy discovering the surprisingly comic gifts of Renée Fleming and be happily reminded that Douglas Sills was the best thing about the musical The Scarlet Pimpernel. He’s done lots of regional work plus his share of touring since then, but it’s good to have him back on Broadway, making like the Lunts with the gorgeous Ms. Fleming. The Lunts themselves managed to get decent runs out of flimsy material (O Mistress Mine, The Guardsman, I Know My Love) so we’ll have to wait and see if Fleming and Sills can accomplish that with this undemanding romp in these more cynical, expensive times. Not likely, and we wish them well, for they’ve given it their all, and they alone are worth watching.

Running Time: Two hours and 15 minutes, with one intermission.

Living on Love closes on Sunday, May 3, 2015 at the Longacre Theatre-220 West 48th Street, in New York City. For tickets, call Telecharge at (212) 239-6200, or (800) 447-7400, or purchase them online.

RATING:

April 23, 2015
A Chat with Pippin’s Leading Player-Sasha Allen

Two nights before we chatted, Sasha Allen was burning up The National Theatre Stage and doing some fancy moves on a high-hanging trapeze while wowing the crowd as the Leading Player in the Tony Award-winning revival of Pippin, which has made DC its home through January 4th.

Sasha Allen (Leading Player). Photo by Matthew Murphy.

Joel: How are you doing? You were terrific on opening night! Lots of magic on the stage and in your performance.

Sasha: Thanks so much!

When did you first get the call to audition for The Leading Player for Pippin and how long was the process before they made you the offer?

My manager told me to go watch it and see if I would be interested in the role. And I watched it and I felt I couldn’t do the trapeze and all that dancing, but they really worked with me. It took about two months. It was a long time. And here I am!

Are you still scared when you are up there on the trapeze?

No. I love it! Now it’s so much fun!

Too bad they can’t put a net down there.

I guess it would ruin the ‘look.’

Instead of talking about The Voice-let’s talk about your voice. How would you describe your voice? It’s so gorgeous.

Thank you. I would describe it as powerful, passionate, and sultry.

How about ‘velvety’?

Yes. That’s perfect.

How much fun are you having up here?

I’m actually really enjoying it. With the stage here in The National being smaller I can actually see the energy on the stage more. And I can see the audience more – so it inspires me to give even more to them.

Have you ever performed here before?

Yes. I was in the cast of Whistle Down the Wind here 2o years ago. [1996]. I played one of the children.

I remember it quite well. I was here on opening night I know it never made it to NYC from DC, [Lloyd Rose’s review in The Washington Post didn’t help] but it had an almost 3 year run in The West End.

What was your fondest memory of appearing in that production?

I was a freshman in High School and I was away from home, and my Mom would come here some times and I had different family members here making sure that I was OK. It was so amazing! The theatre appeared so much bigger to me then.

Maybe the new color of paint makes it feel smaller.

You think that”s what it is?

I was just kidding!

I know there isn’t a lot of space in the back of the stage so how is that affecting the backstage crew and you and the cast?

We had to change our backstage track because there wasn’t a lot of room to get by.

So how many times have you been bumped into people or things?

Not many times. I just have to get used to the space.

How do they get all the trapeze stuff up there?

I really don’t know. I am just grateful when they check it to make sure it all works properly before I get up there.

Where were you born?

I was born and raised in New York, and I still live there.

Did you ever appear in a production of Pippin when you were in high school?

No. We did A Chorus Line.

I remember my high school doing it too. Everyone was doing it. Today everyone is doing Legally Blonde, Rent, and Hairspray.

What have you learned from John Rubinstein and Kyle Dean Massey who have been in the show before you joined the Pippin team?

I have been inspired by the stories John has told me about when he was playing Pippin in the original Broadway production.

I was so glad to see Kyle here on the road after playing the role of Pippin in NYC.

He is so sweet and accommodating I know it’s hard to work with new people who have come into the show, but Kyle has been great.

Well he knows the part well, and that really helps.

Absolutely.

Lucie Arnaz (Berthe). Photo by Terry Shapiro.

I have always said that Lucie Arnaz is the most underrated performer around. It must be tough for her to always hear about her Mom and Dad all the time.

I totally understand. It’s just natural that you want to ask her about her patents. And I am sure it must be hard for her. But she brings the experience she learned from both her parents to the show. She is great in the show.

Let’s talk about DC audiences. Are you seeing something different with these audiences than what you have seen elsewhere?

They have lots of energy and they listen carefully.

Is there another character in the show – that you are not playing -who is most like you?

I can relate to Catherine who is a parent with a young child. There is so much depth to this character.

So if you could play any role in the show (where gender didn’t matter) who would you want to play?

Catherine. I really ‘get her.’ When you have a child you want everything to be right, and she has so much patience with Pippin. I can relate to that.

Where is the show going next? What’s been the most fun traveling so far?

We are going to Hartford, Connecticut. It’s nice to get a chance to see new cities. I am looking forward to playing in Chicago.

What I admired the most watching you opening night is that you have the ‘Wow!’ factor. And there was so much chemistry on the stage between you and the rest of the cast. You sparkle on the stage.

Thanks so much! There’s a lot of spontaneity on that stage.

There’s a lot of dancing going on. Did you have a lot of dance training?

Not really. I had some dance training but not the kind of dancing you see on the stage.

So how are you keeping in shape and keeping your energy up for this strenuous role?

Trust me-the show keeps me in shape!

What about ‘the voice’? What are you doing to rest it?

By the end of the week it’s a little sore, so I just let my body rejuvenate itself.

You tried the honey, lemon, and tea combo?

I have tried it all.

The nicest thing about having you in the show is that kids who saw you on The Voice will come and see you in the show, and you are introducing them to the theater.

It is a really nice feeling. Thank you.

Sasha Allen and the cast of ‘Pippin.’ Photo by Terry Shapiro.

Have a wonderful time in DC performing in the historic National Theatre. Wishing you and everyone in Pippin a successful tour, a Merry Christmas, and a happy and healthy 2015.

Happy New Year to you too!

Pippin plays through January 4, 2015 at National Theatre – 1321 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, in Washington, DC. For tickets, visit the National Theatre Box Office, call (800) 514-3849, or purchase them online.

LINKS
Gina Jun’s review of Pippin on DCMetroTheaterArts.

Kyle Dean Massey’s website.

Pippin website.

Broadway Royalty Returns to Broadway: A Chat with John Rubinstein on Joining the Cast of ‘Pippin’ by Teresa McCormick Ertel.

‘Pippin’ is Playing at The National Theatre: An Interview with Kyle Dean Massey on Playing Pippin by Teresa McCormick Ertel.

December 31, 2014
It’s a Bittersweet Homecoming for ‘Evita’ Stars Sean MacLaughlin (Juan Peron) and Caroline Bowman (Evita)

It’s a bittersweet homecoming for Evita stars

The final stop on the Evita tour at The Kennedy Center is bittersweet for hometown stars, Sean MacLaughlin (Juan Peron) and Caroline Bowman (Evita). Both actors hail from our area, Sean, from Northern Virginia and Caroline, a Howard County Maryland native. They have been touring with the show for more than a year and spoke about the joyousness of coming home and the sadness of the show’s closing. We reached Sean during the Midwest engagement of Evita and more recently spoke with Caroline in Connecticut, the last stop before the DC run.

Sean MacLaughlin (‘Juan Peron’) and Caroline Bowman (Eva Peron’). Photo by Richard Termine.

Carolyn: What’s it like coming back to The Kennedy Center where you had appeared before?

Sean: This is going to be quite an honor to return to The Kennedy Center. It was my home for many years. I took a summer intensive there when I was eight years old. I saw Phantom of the Opera there was I was 14 – a show that inspired me to sing. Years later, I performed the role of Raoul at the Center when I was an understudy on the Phantom tour. I was able to sink my teeth into working new pieces on the Millennium Stage, and I can clearly say I am the performer that I am because of the training and experience that I got from The Kennedy Center, Signature Theatre, and the DC theatrical community. Performing this role at the Opera House is going to feel like I’m singing The Little Drummer Boy for my family…I’m going to play my drum and, hopefully, the audience will smile at me.

Carolyn: So how many tickets will we need for family and friends?

Caroline: Oh, gosh, massive groups are coming every night. I think the Opera House will be filled with tons of family, friends and people who know me. I grew up in this area, and performing at The Kennedy Center is a dream come true.

Carolyn: You’ve been on tour with the show since late 2013. How will the closing of Evita affect you?

Sean MacLaughlin (Juan Peron). Photo by Richard Termine.

Sean: It’s truly sad that this tour is ending. It is one of the most beautiful productions in which I have been involved. I have been able to travel the United States with my family, giving my little boy experiences that few children have, and perform in a production that I believe is special. It’s been a fun ride!

Caroline: The closing will be bittersweet. There will be a lot of hugs on stage. Sean and I have been together for over a year. We’ve become close friends. I couldn’t imagine going out on this journey without doing it with him.

Carolyn: When did you first get the theater bug? What is your first memory of being on the stage?

Sean: When I was little I remember watching a kissing scene on the television and telling my mother that was what I wanted to do when I grew up. I loved how the television took me to different places and created beautiful stories, and I wanted to be a part of that. So at the tender age of four years old I was performing in The King and I in Fort Lee, near where I grew up. My dad performed with me and my brother, and my mother helped with the costumes. And yes, I wanted to kiss on TV.

Caroline: I grew up in a nurturing theater community where I honed my acting skills. My mother is an actress who always encouraged me to follow my dreams of reaching Broadway. I joined my mother on stage at the Laurel Community Theatre but it was at Toby’s Dinner Theatre where I got my professional start as an understudy in two productions. Sue Miller, theater director at Glenelg High School, inspired me to “stretch my wings. She gave me parts as varied as Marian, the Librarian, in The Music Man to Rizzo in Grease. Sue has been supportive of my career from the beginning. She has become part of my family, a spiritual connection, and, hopefully, will be bringing lots of my Howard County friends to Evita.

Carolyn: Take us back to when you first auditioned to play Juan Peron? Where did you audition and what did you perform at your audition? How long was it before you received the call that they wanted you to play the role?

Sean: The who process took about three to five months as I had to prepare all of Peron’s material. I officially got the call to audition sometime back in February 2013, the day of my son’s birth. But my official notice of getting the role didn’t happen until July. My agent sent an email wishing me a happy July 4th and the offer to play Peron. It was probably one of the greatest emails ever received.

Caroline Bowman (Eva Peron) in the National Tour of EVITA. Photo by Richard Termine.

Carolyn: And Evita’s part?

Caroline: I first auditioned at Pearl Studios in New York City, actually three months of auditions in a long, extended process of eight or nine sessions. I sang “Buenos Aires” and two other songs from the show. I danced, too. After my final audition call back, my tape was sent to Andrew Lloyd Webber. I was on my toes every time my phone rang.

Carolyn: How would you describe Rob Ashford’s choreography?

Caroline: I love it. It’s tango-based, all about the culture of Argentina. Tango is a language. It’s cool for theater because we are up there trying to tell a story. And Rob loves legs. There are lots of kicking and turning. “Buenos Aires” is one of the hardest physical numbers in the show. I am belting very high. I’m out of breath and I try not to show it.

Sean: Rob Ashford’s choreography is stunning. There is a reason for every movement and a story that goes along with it. The “Buenos Aires” number is Evita’s welcome to the big city. Argentina is a proud, beautiful culture, rich with confidence and strength, and he captures this spirit in the dances. As much as I would love to dance that celebration, I am glad I have just my tango with Eva. Then I can watch them do that gorgeous number.

Carolyn: What advice did Rob Ashford give you that helped to shape the performance we see on the stage today?

Sean: Seth Sklar-Heyn and Chris Bailey are the tour directors. Seth was an assistant in the Broadway version, and Chris was the tour choreographer in London and New York. Kristen Blodgette is the musical supervision. A few weeks into the tour, director Michael Grandage came to see the Chicago show and was thoroughly impressed by our cast and the setting of his work. He gave us details on the history of how the revival came to be and how much the production means to the audience. It was quite an inspirational speech.

A few months later Rob Ashford came to see our production. He, too, was quite impressed and had notes for us about the show’s intention. It was fascinating to hear him talk about purpose and the story to tell. He gave me some very nice compliments on my performance and mentioned the word, “organic.” That’s what I strive for everyday since the beginning of the run and even more so after getting that note.

Carolyn: What do you admire most about Caroline Bowman’s performance of Evita?

Sean: I have admired Caroline since day one! Having the DC connection makes our bond strong. It’s a joy to perform with her. She is professional and incredibly talented. It’s very rare that you find someone who is that consistent and hard working, all wrapped up in a beautiful person. It’s going to be hard to say good-bye to this production as well as the relationship Caroline and I have created on stage, but it is quite a wonderful thing that both of us can do our final bows at home.

Carolyn: Why do you think Evita is still so popular 34 years after opening on Broadway? And what do you hope audiences will take away after seeing Evita at the Kennedy Center?

Sean: Everyone knows the music, and for the few who don’t, won’t ever forget it after seeing the show. Evita’s story is one that touches the audience. Besides humming the amazing music, you walk away thinking.

The audience may parallel this show to any event that is happening our world right now. It’s a political show about the rise and fall of Argentina’s economy. It’s history. And I believe the lesson to be learned is look before you leap. Perhaps audience will leave reflecting on their own lives and the mistakes of the Perons.

Caroline: Evita’s story that will never be too old to tell. It’s fascinating how much this woman accomplished in her short life. She fought to the death. She was a true feminist. And her message is still relevant today.

I’m so proud of this company and what it has done with this show. People who aren’t expecting to be changed are moved. It’s magical the way we take everyone away to a different place and time.

Evita opens Tuesday, September 30th and plays through October 19, 2014 at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts – 2700 F Street, NW, in Washington, DC. For ticket information, call toll free 800-444-1324 or 202-467-4600, or purchase them online.

Running time 2 hours and 45 minutes, with two intermissions.

Caroline Bowman will make a guest appearance in Bringing Broadway To Columbia, an Evening of Music, Song & Laughter, a benefit gala for the Columbia Center for Theatrical Arts Monday evening, October 13, 2014 at Toby’s Dinner Theater of Columbia -5900 Symphony Road, in Columbia, MD. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. for the pre-show auction, trivia contest, buffet dinner, and performance. For details, call (410) 730-8311, or visit the CCTA site.

September 26, 2014
McLean Community Players Presents Ken Ludwig’s ‘The Game’s Afoot, or Holmes for the Holidays’ 9/26-10/12/14 in McLean’s Alden Theatre by Cathy Farnsworth

The McLean Community Players (MCP) present the area premier of Ken Ludwig’s The Game’s Afoot, or Holmes for the Holidays, opening September 26, 2014, in McLean’s Alden Theatre.

Police Inspector Goring (Elizabeth Replogle) listens as Felix Geisel (Stephen T. Wheeler), Madge Geisel (Melissa Dunlap), and William Gillette (Frank Gorrell) explain the solution to the murder. Photo by Toby Chieffo-Reidway.

Veteran director Bob Sams leads an award-winning cast and crew. The Edgar Award–winning The Game’s Afoot, opens Friday, September 26th and runs weekends through October 12th, with performances on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and two Sunday matinees, September 28 and October 12, at 2 p.m.

This mystery comedy opens in 1936 with the cast of the long-running Broadway hit Sherlock Holmes, brought together at the Connecticut castle home of the show’s author and star to solve both an attempted murder and a successful murder at the theater. During their solution attempts, there is yet another murder, and Broadway’s Holmes and his actor colleagues are the suspects with a local Police Inspector trying to solve the murder while everyone is snowed in. Bodies appear, disappear and reappear, there are hidden rooms, hidden microphones and other gadgets, murder, mayhem, many misunderstandings and a surprise ending. It’s a fast-paced evening of fun.

The just-married couple, Aggie Wheeler (Carolyn Schaumburg) and Simon Bright (Michael Schwartz). Photo by Toby Chieffo-
Reidway.

Director Bob Sams says, “It is always a privilege and challenge to do the first area production of a play, particularly one by a playwright of the stature of Ken Ludwig, author of Moon Over Buffalo, A Fox on the Fairway, and Lend Me A Tenor. I’m delighted to have this talented cast and production crew to present this comedy/mystery. When an actor who has played Sherlock Holmes for twenty years is faced with a murder to solve – he’s Sherlock Holmes, what could possibly go wrong?” Come and see.

Ken Ludwig’s The Game’s Afoot plays weekends, from September 26-October 12 , 2014 at the McLean Community Center’s Alden Theatre-1234 Ingleside Avenue, in McLean, VA. Tickets are $18 to $20, and group rates are available. For more information, call (703) 790-9223, or visit www.McLeanPlayers.org. Tickets are available at the Alden Box Office, through OvationTix at 1-866-811-4111 or at www.McLeanPlayers.org.

The Game’s Afoot is presented by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc. Through a cooperative agreement with The Metropolitan Washington Ear, along with the support of the Alden Theatre, audio description services for individuals with vision challenges will be offered at the October 11 performance.

The McLean Community Players, based in McLean, VA., celebrate both the musical and dramatic theater traditions. Putting up four shows a year–two musicals and two plays–MCP is committed to doing theater for the community, in the community, with the community, and sustained by the community.

The Game’s Afoot Creative Team

Co-Producers-Annie O’Neill Galvin, Diane Sams

Director-Robert Sams

Assistant Director- Jerry Gideon

Stage Manager-Karen Veltri

Assistant Stage Manager- Shayne Gardner

Set Designer-Bill Glikbarg

Lighting Designer-Lynne Glikbarg

Assistant Lighting Designer-Lauren Thomas

Sound Designer-Revathi Murthy

Props and Set Dressing-Jerry Gideon

Construction Chief-George Farnsworth

Costumes, Hair, Makeup-Susan Boyd

Fight Choreographer-Carl Brandt Long

House Manager-Columba Hoban

Madge Geisel (Melissa Dunlap) slaps her husband Felix (Stephen T. Wheeler) after finding out in front of all the other guests that he has been unfaithful. Photo by Toby Chieffo-Reidway.

The Game’s Afoot Cast

Role-Actor

William Gillette-Frank Gorrell

Martha Gillette-Kathryn (Katie) Johnston

Aggie Wheeler-Carolyn Schaumburg

Madge Geisel-Melissa Dunlap

Felix Geisel-Stephen T. Wheeler

Daria Chase-Dina Soltan

Simon Bright-Michael Schwartz

Inspector Goring-Elizabeth Replogle

August 30, 2014
The Playwright’s Playground: SOURCE Festival 2014 – Interview with Playwright Susan Goodell on Her Play: ‘After Unlocking the Universe’

Welcome to the conversation and The Playwright’s Playground, an in-depth conversation with female playwrights in the D.C. theatre community. Female theatre artists make up more than 50 percent of those involved in the theatre, yet the number of female playwrights being produced is dramatically lower. In this continuing Interview Series, I’ll introduce DCMTA readers to the many talented playwrights in the DMV area to learn about their writing process, their inspirations, and the motivations and struggles to write and produce their art.

In this special edition, I am overjoyed to feature the ten female playwrights of Source Festival 2014. Led by the Artistic Direction of Jenny McConnell Frederick, Source Festival 2014 is a three-week performing arts project of CulturalDC that cultivates new work in a nurturing environment and spotlights the witty, incisive, and thought-provoking writing from today’s emerging American playwrights. Building the path for the next generation of outstanding performing artists, The Source Theatre Festival (June 7-29) presents three themed full-length plays (Mortality, Revenge, Quests), three experimental Artistic Blind Dates of created original work, and three thematically grouped programs with six 10-Minute related plays to enjoy.

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Susan Goodell

Playwright Susan Goodell. Photo by Dennis Bradbury.

Selected from more than 500 nationwide submissions, Susan Goodell’s play After Unlocking the Universe is one of the six ten-minute plays featured under the Quests theme in this year’s Source Festival 2014.

A self-described late bloomer, Susan Goodell’s plays have received over two dozen productions in nine states. Currently residing in Weston, Connecticut, Goodell’s accolades include selection for the Djerassi Residence Artists Program, being nominated for a Denver Drama Critic’s Circle Award, and a commission by Steppenwolf Theatre Company where she also was awarded the Steppenwolf Theatre Company New Play Award. After a stage readings in Philadelphia and New York, the Source Festival is the fully staged premiere for After Unlocking the Universe.

______

Sydney-Chanele: Why do you write, and more specifically why do you write plays?

Susan: I also write because I entertain myself. I was always fascinated by, infatuated with theatre from a young age, but didn’t venture playwriting until I took a Denver Free University class at age 29. (I also took dog obedience, light cuisine and woman’s self-defense.) My initial interest sounds pretty flippant: the parties seemed fun, and I always wanted to see a play with a character’s arm falling asleep. Initially I fantasized more about limelight. Now my commitment is around the journey of creating and the challenge of craft.

How disciplined are you about writing every day?

I wish I were more disciplined. I don’t write every day and have to shut out all distractions like music and business. It’s useful to have a structure such as a prompt or the momentum of a writer’s workshop.

Was there a turning point when you considered yourself a professional playwright?

The first evening a full-length play received a strong audience response was a turning point – I began taking myself more seriously. However, I don’t generate the income boldly to call myself professional.

What is the plot of your play in this year’s Source Festival 2014? In addition to the plot, please detail the themes and discuss the characters.

After Unlocking the Universe is a parody on the human potential industry and the school that we can bend The Universe through the force of our own minds. It’s the story of Willow, who wishes a break from humdrum and seeks counsel from a confident life coach. However her new power succeeds too well, and she learns to be careful what she wishes for.

The story is sweepingly epic for a 10-minute play: two of the actors, Judith and Bernard, play nine characters between them. Willow is the play’s one constant, the seeker of greater happiness and transcendence. The play begins with Willow receiving a spiritual consultation from Judith, who clearly is a charlatan. It’s paradoxical that people can be instructed that humility generates some sort of superpower.

How did you come up with the idea for your script? What has been your biggest challenge?

I wrote the first draft for a reading at Philly’s Primary Stages. It was a Thanksgiving- week reading, and they asked for a short play around the theme of “thank you.” I’d already done a holiday table play there, so this time I brainstormed the word “gratitude.” I floundered before landing on an idea that would sustain a play. “A mission to get people to say thank you” and “women out-gratitude each other” were two of my rejected themes.

What was the time period between conception to completion? How many drafts went into what we will see on stage?

I likely wrote the first draft in about 3 days after considerable brainstorming. The play probably has undergone about four drafts and other small revisions. There’s a quote attributed to Paul Valery, “A poem’s never finished, only abandoned.” I will revise again if I get that itch.

Amie Cazel, Teresa Catherine, & Jack Novak in ‘After Unlocking the Universe.’ Photo by C. Stanley Photography.

What do you like most about this script and has it ever been performed on stage before?

This play has received script-in-hand readings in Philadelphia and New York, but The Source Festival is its official fully-staged premiere. I enjoy the parody, the quick changes and skewering of pop culture.

A Deeper Look & Inspirations

What is your biggest struggle as a writer of getting your work read and performed?

I joke that I walk away from playwriting several times a day. My biggest struggle is committing to ideas, particularly full-length projects. It takes courage to continue when my early attempts are disappointing. I’ve had a couple dozen productions of short plays, and received my first main stage production this spring at Tri-State Actors Theater in Newton, New Jersey.

How do you feel about the disproportionate number of female playwrights consistently being programmed by theatre companies?

I can’t draw a firm line attributing career set-backs to being a woman. Beginning when I was older and being outside the MFA track is another barrier. I have such challenges creating the best plays I can, marketing them and guiding them through development, that I just keep going. I can always do more and do it better.

I’m 63 and give successful women my age large credit for overcoming my era’s cultural messages, particularly the opinion women ought mute their intelligence and initiative. Then I jump into the theatre world that demands ridiculous stamina, unrealistic optimism and an ultra-thick skin. I’ve had to learn to filter the feedback. These were not lessons I received in my 1950s-1960s Texas upbringing.

What inspires you to continue, and who are your playwriting inspirations?

Since my plays are comedies, writing can be a balm, a way of defying fear and pain and twisting the over-serious into absurdity. I take normal situations and then inflate them – giant Thanksgiving’s Day parade balloons. (Thanksgiving must be a leitmotif in these answers.)

I have endless fascination with the creative process itself. I have to walk in other people’s shoes to create characters. Writing is its own wondrous and mysterious act of faith. I’m moving forward even when I don’t realize it. The other large inspiration is the fulfillment of working with collaborators.

Do you have an all-time favorite play? Who is your favorite living female playwright that you’d recommend to others, or would like to see performed in the DC area?

I’m the short-attention-span kid when it comes to favorite work because a play may hit me on a specific day. My latest musical “crush” is the older She Loves Me. The story is moving, the music simply soaring. A woman playwright’s whole body of work doesn’t come to mind, but I’ll name some individual titles: Charlayne Woodard’s The Nightwatcher, Nilaja Sun’s No Child, Caryl Churchill’s Mad Forest, Melissa James Gibson’s SIC and Julia Cho’s Durango. I think the commonality of these is their keen sense of observation. I found them all very moving.

Is there anything you like to share with DCMTA readers about yourself or your playwriting?

I’m now revising my full-length Heels Over Head toward a reading at The Barrow Group in New York City in September. A Chicago reading of my 90-minute Hope Throw Her Heart Away is in planning. I have a large cache of short plays which I’ve bundled into two collections, Walking the Floor in Limbo and One Exit Past Nowhere Delaware. And I bravely accepted an invitation to write two 1-minute plays, my first at that length, due in a week.

I committed to arts and writing because those subjects were taught by my most passionate and creative teachers. Playwriting has taught me about myself and the world around me in ways I never would have dreamed. Arts education is not a “frill.” It’s an important tool in educating the whole person.

After Unlocking the Universe is performed as a part of the Source Festival – QUESTS: Six 10-Min Plays, which is playing on June 21, 2014 at 1:00 PM, June 21, 2014 at 8:00 PM, and June 25, 2014 at 6:00 PM at THE SOURCE THEATRE FESTIVAL 2014 (June 7 – June 29, 2014) at Source– 1835 14th Street. NW, in Washington, DC. For tickets, call OvationTix customer service toll-free: 866-811-4111, or purchase them online. Source is located 2 Blocks from U Street/Cardozo Metro Station on the Yellow & Green Lines.

LINKS:

Susan Goodell‘s bio and list of works on the Philadelphia Dramatists Center’s website.

Doolee.com The Playwrights Database.

The Playwright’s Playground: SOURCE Festival 2014 – Interview with Playwright A.K. Forbes on Her Play: ‘Collateral Damage and Other Cosmic Consequences.’

The Playwright’s Playground: SOURCE Festival 2014 – An Interview With CJ Ehrlich on Her Play ‘Picnic on the Lake.’

June 17, 2014
‘The Most Happy Fella’ at The Arlington Players

Who doesn’t like a good, touching love story? If you are also fond of musicals-especially the grand old fashioned Broadway productions of the 1950s-seeing The Most Happy Fella at The Arlington Players is simply a must!

The cast of ‘The Most Happy Fella.’ Photo by Peter Hill.

“Wanting to be wanted, needing to be needed, that’s what it is…” and that’s what Heather Whitney (Rosabella) dreams about as she sings about her yearning for love and happiness, and later with her co-star and admirer and husband-to-be Jimmy Payne (Tony), she sings beautiful duets including “My Heart is Full of You.” Frank Loesser’s most challenging musical, is by no means a ‘boy meets girl and they live happily ever after’ cliché. Expect the unexpected. There’s a large age difference, hurtful disappointments, jealousy, and more. Does the fellow end up happy? Does the audience end up happy? Judging by the standing ovation bestowed on the performers after the finale – most definitely!

Entering the auditorium, seeing the orchestra pit with the conductor ready to begin , and a spacious stage by Scenic Designer Bill Wisniewski, which hat has been turned into a San Francisco Chinese restaurant, I was so excited with anticipation. Within minutes after watching and hearing the first performer – beautiful, talented, and funny Teresa Danskey (Cleo)-I was transported into the world of 1950’s Broadway-esque magic, with a score that marvelously fused American and Italian cultures and musical styles together. What followed was a display of amazing singing, acting and dancing, and a great visual and musical feast in 3 acts, 11 scenes, and 27 musical numbers. Not that I was counting, because I was too busy with my eyes and ears ‘glued’ to the stage, lost in time.

By the end of the first act, I was familiar with all characters and performers, enchanted with the songs, dance, and superb performance of David Rohde’s talented musicians. I was so moved by the story of two lonely people; Tony, an Italian middle aged wine farmer and a much younger Rosabella, who dreamed of marrying Tony, despite his sister’s objection.

Jimmy Payne is perfectly cast as a the romantic farmer with a good heart and a strong disposition, and his unique ability to attract a younger woman. Apart from the impressive stature and his handsome face, Payne has a special twinkle in his eyes that adds to the attraction. Combine this with a powerful singing voice and an ability to generate laughs with a thick Italian accent and you have a compelling stage presence. Heather Whitney, also a talented singer, is equally convincing as the younger, modest woman craving love and stability and she performs memorable (among others) renditions of “Somebody, Somewhere” and “Warm All Over.” And Payne is superb on “Rosabella,” and “Mamma, Mamma.” Christopher Overly in the role of Joe sings a wonderful rendition of “Don’t Cry.”

Like every classic story, this one also has a villain, Tony’s sister Marie (Linda Wells), is the only character dressed in black, for a reason. On the surface Ms. Wells is a perfect embodiment of an Italian Mamma, full-bodied and warm, just like Marie, yet she easily transforms into a possessive, scheming, and vicious woman that she portrays.

Most of the laughs in the show are generated by three groups of characters; a trio of cooks, Pasquale (Tom Mirenda), Ciccio (Quinn McCord) and Giuseppe (Jerrod Laber); the pairing of vivacious and flirty Cleo (Teresa Danskey) and good-hearted, always smiling Herman (Joseph Wilson), and a foursome of farm boys; Herman, Jake (Jerrod Laber), Clem (William Shingler), and Al (Derek Marsh), whose comedic talents go hand-in-hand with their singing and dancing skills. Look out for the farm boys singing the bouncy “Standing on the Corner,” the cooks’ song “Abbondanza”and “I Like Everybody,” and “Big D” by Cleo and Herman. The Ensemble lends their singing and dancing skills to many scenes, enriching the action and adding to the feel of the 1950s with their colorful costumes and characteristic hairstyles.

Staging The Most Happy Fella is a dream come true for its Director, Gloria DuGan, and Musical Director David Rohde. Both have always wanted to do the show, despite its scope and challenges. The musical score is very extensive and thus demanding on both the singers and musicians.

There are 26 performers in the show, including 13 members in the ensemble, several set changes, and a live orchestra. It took seven weeks and 1,100 hours of volunteer time to prepare the beautiful backdrops supporting the scenes; a colorful backdrop of Napa Town depicting shop fronts and a back drop depicting the rolling hillsides of Napa Valley. All in all it took 5,300 hours of volunteer time to put the production together. And what a success!

The cast of ‘The Most Happy Fella.’ Photo by Peter Hill.

Congrats to Producer Janet Bordeaux, Choreographer Jeannie Torres, Scenic Designer Bill Wisniewski, Lighting Designer B. Keith Ryder, Sound Designer Stan Harris, Costume Designers Laura Fontaine and Holly McDade and Hair and Makeup Designer Kendel Taylor for their brilliant work on this production.

If Frank Loesser was in the audience last night, he would have been thrilled with The Arlington Players’ gorgeous production of The Most Happy Fella. Abbondanza!

Running Time: Approximately two hours and 30 minutes, with one intermission.

Here’s the third video of Claire O’Brien’s ‘Behind the Scenes’ videos for The Arlington Players’ production of The Most Happy Fella, which opens this weekend.

In this video meet the cast.

Meet Director Gloria DuGan

Meet Musical Director David Rohde.

The Arlington Players’ production of The Most Happy Fella plays through April 19, 2014 at the Thomas Jefferson Community Center – 3501 Second Street, in Arlington, VA. Purchase tickets online.

LINK
‘The Most Happy Fella’: Let’s Take It Outside: The Expansive Musical World of ‘The Most Happy Fella’ Which Opens at The Arlington Players on Friday, 4/4

April 5, 2014
‘The Most Happy Fella’ at The Arlington Players Preview Video #3 Meet The Cast of TAP’s ‘The Most Happy Fella’

Here’s the third video of Claire O’Brien’s ‘Behind the Scenes’ videos for The Arlington Players’ production of The Most Happy Fella, which opens this weekend.

In this video meet the cast.

Meet Director Gloria DuGan

Meet Musical Director David Rohde.

The Arlington Players’ production of The Most Happy Fella plays from April 4-19, 2014 at the Thomas Jefferson Community Center – 3501 Second Street, in Arlington, VA. Purchase tickets online.

LINK
‘The Most Happy Fella’: Let’s Take It Outside: The Expansive Musical World of ‘The Most Happy Fella’ Which Opens at The Arlington Players on Friday, 4/4

April 4, 2014
‘The Most Happy Fella’ at The Arlington Players Preview Video #2 Meet Director Gloria DuGan

Here’s the second of a series of Claire O’Brien’s ‘Behind the Scenes’ videos for The Arlington Players’ production of The Most Happy Fella, which opens this weekend. In this video meet Director Gloria DuGan

And Meet Musical Director David Rohde.

The Arlington Players’ production of The Most Happy Fella plays from April 4-19, 2014 at the Thomas Jefferson Community Center – 3501 Second Street, in Arlington, VA. Purchase tickets online.

LINK
‘The Most Happy Fella’: Let’s Take It Outside: The Expansive Musical World of ‘The Most Happy Fella’ Which Opens at The Arlington Players on Friday, 4/4

April 2, 2014
‘The Most Happy Fella’ at The Arlington Players Preview Video #1 Meet Musical Director David Rohde

Here’s the first of a series of Claire O’Brien’s ‘Behind the Scenes’ videos for The Arlington Players’ production of The Most Happy Fella, which opens this weekend. In this video meet Musical Director David Rohde.

The Arlington Players’ production of The Most Happy Fella plays from April 4-19, 2014 at the Thomas Jefferson Community Center – 3501 Second Street, in Arlington, VA. Purchase tickets online.

LINK
‘The Most Happy Fella’: Let’s Take It Outside: The Expansive Musical World of ‘The Most Happy Fella’ Which Opens at The Arlington Players on Friday, 4/4

April 1, 2014
‘The Most Happy Fella’: Let’s Take It Outside: The Expansive Musical World of ‘The Most Happy Fella’ Which Opens at The Arlington Players on Friday, 4/4 David Rohde

Let’s Take It Outside: The Expansive Musical World of ‘The Most Happy Fella’ by David Rohde

You can set a musical just about anywhere, and Frank Loesser certainly did that. In Guys and Dolls, Nathan Detroit fails to secure a spot for the craps game, and the gamblers head down to the New York City sewers for “Luck Be a Lady Tonight.” In How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, the executives of World Wide Wicket take their electric shavers into the men’s washroom while Finch gazes into the mirror and sings a love song to himself, “I Believe In You.”

It’s in Loesser’s musical magnum opus that the doors instead fly open to the great outdoors on the other side of the country. The Most Happy Fella is a pastoral celebration of California’s Napa Valley, set in a world with neither subterranean grime nor high-rise office politics. It’s replete with food and fresh air and any excuse for a party, with much the same atmosphere as My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

To present this world, Loesser composed his largest score, a semi-operatic mélange of Puccini-esque duets and trios, gently comedic waltzes and tarantellas, and plot-heavy song segments that foreshadow today’s through-composed musicals, all interspersed with classic verse-and-refrain Broadway ballads and pure showbiz production numbers.

If The Most Happy Fella, which I have the honor of conducting for The Arlington Players this April, is a little difficult to place at first, that’s probably due to the contradictions in Frank Loesser’s life and work. Loesser only wrote five Broadway shows, but that’s largely because he spent the first half of his career in Hollywood, where he was primarily a lyricist for other composers, and he died early at age 59 of lung cancer.

Loesser’s musical upbringing probably helped determine this path from the outset. Loesser’s father was a noted classical piano teacher and his older half-brother, Arthur Loesser, was a famous concert pianist of the time. But Frank gravitated to popular music and Tin Pan Alley, and he never took piano lessons from his father or anyone else. Instead he simply absorbed the classical background from his surroundings until it was time to employ it for The Most Happy Fella a few decades later.

Frank Loesser.

The result may have been a truncated Broadway career, but it also produced lyrics for more than 100 movies and a rash of songs that could lead other songwriters to say in later Loesser retrospectives, “Oh, he wrote that too?” Among them were “Baby It’s Cold Outside,” “The Moon of Manakoora,” and “Two Sleepy People.” Loesser was even responsible for the words to Hoagy Carmichael’s impossible-to-forget (and now perpetually annoying) piano-practice anthem “Heart and Soul.” That also fooled Loesser’s daughter Susan Loesser when she went to write her father’s biography, A Most Remarkable Fella. “I never knew my father wrote “Heart and Soul,” she quipped in the book. “I thought whoever wrote Chopsticks wrote it.”

That same shock of recognition is bound to come for audiences in The Most Happy Fella, one of the biggest of the I-Didn’t-Know-That-Song-Came-From-This Show shows. “Standing on the Corner” became a staple of barbershop quartets and “guy groups” after the show’s initial Broadway run. “Joey, Joey, Joey” and “Don’t Cry” became standards for Johnny Mathis and other crooners. “Somebody Somewhere” went straight into the soprano ballad songbook. Song titles like “Big D,” “How Beautiful the Days,” and “My Heart Is So Full of You” may only ring a distant bell until you hear them in the theater and the melodies pour out.

Running throughout the songs in The Most Happy Fella is the arc of the agricultural year, with the story’s protagonist being a successful vineyard owner. The characters sing of Oregon cherries, Texas avocados, a variety of grape called Fresno Beauties, and a wine called Malaga Red. An Italian trio joyously brings out supplies for a wedding party and announces their arrival as frutti (fruits), fiori (flowers), and formaggio (cheeses), while the townspeople happily report “the smell of mozzarella in the air.” These folks sing of themselves as “all the neighbors, and all the neighbors’ neighbors,” which may be a sly nod by Loesser to Gilbert & Sullivan and the H.M.S. Pinafore chorus of “his sisters and his cousins and his aunts.” The lengthening days of the growing season and the earlier night onset of the harvest contribute to the tension of the story, taken from a play by Sidney Howard called They Knew What They Wanted.

Of course The Most Happy Fella is a musical, and as in so many musicals, the 10-word description of the plot – “a mail-order bride is duped into marrying the wrong guy” – begs for more context. But in that way it’s no different than the last musical on which I collaborated with my dear friend, the director Gloria DuGan, when the thumbnail description of the plot was “a woman has one too many children so she sells one to her boss,” belying the overall impact of the former Elden Street Players’ 2006 production of Blood Brothers.

Here in the original play, a San Francisco waitress accepts a mail-order marriage proposal to go to Napa, but the resulting complications are a foil for an extended discussion about labor and management in agriculture and industry. In Loesser’s reworking of They Knew What They Wanted, a waitress whose real name we never know until the end of the show (because she plays along with the vineyard owner’s fantasy that her name is “Rosabella”) becomes a much greater focus of the story after traveling to Napa, and the emotional developments result in the classic “main couple plus comic couple” formula for Broadway musicals. Is there a happy ending? Maybe the title The Most Happy Fella gives you a clue, although 10 minutes from the end of the show you might have reason to doubt it.

In recent years, The Most Happy Fella has become identified with the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut, whose 1991 production became the Broadway revival and whose recent fall 2013 production exuded tremendous energy and positivity even from characters whose lines read as hard-edged on the page. In a touching portion of Susan Loesser’s biography of her father, she relates how after his death in 1969 his name faded from popular consciousness until suddenly in the early 1990s – around the time of the Goodspeed revival and a restaging of Guys and Dolls on Broadway – it popped back to prominence. She knew it for sure when the receptionist at her optometrist’s office asked if her name was pronounced the same as Frank Loesser’s.

With our upcoming 2014 production, Gloria and I and the team at TAP are thrilled to help further the legacy of Frank Loesser and bring the zest of The Most Happy Fella back to the D.C. metro area. We look forward to seeing you there!

David Rohde.

David Rohde has conducted numerous musicals in the Washington area, including Guys and Dolls and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. David enjoys vocal and instrumental arranging, piano accompaniment for singers, keyboard work in orchestra pits, and watching actors and musicians he’s worked with “make it” when they pursue a performing arts career. David is a six-time nominee and two-time recipient of the WATCH Award for Outstanding Musical Direction.

The Arlington Players’ production of The Most Happy Fella plays from April 4-19, 2014 at the Thomas Jefferson Community Center – 3501 Second Street, in Arlington, VA. Purchase tickets online.

https://youtu.be/ZDyyqwnn-x4

March 28, 2014
‘From Broadway With Love: A Benefit Concert for Sandy Hook’ Released on DVD and Double-CD Set Tomorrow, iTunes on 2/7, & on Blu-ray on 2/18 by Joel Markowitz
From Broadway With Love: A Benefit Concert For Sandy Hook
DVD And Double-CD set Released Tomorrow, February 4th, as two volumes digitally via iTunes on February 7th, and on
Blu-ray on February 18th.

STARRING
300+ NEWTOWN STUDENT PERFORMERS and
OVER 100 BROADWAY PERFORMERS

Broadway Records will Donate 100% of its Profits from Sales to the Newtown-Sandy Hook Community Foundation

Broadway Records announces the release of From Broadway With Love: A Benefit Concert For Sandy Hook on DVD (Tomorrow, February 4th), Blu-Ray (February 18th), as a two-CD set (Tomorrow, February 4th) and as two volumes digitally via iTunes (February 7th).

Broadway Records will donate 100% of its profits from the CD, DVD and Blu-ray to support the Newtown-Sandy Hook community via the Newtown-Sandy Hook Community Foundation.

______

Cast and Crew of ‘From Broadway With Love: A Benefit for Sandy Hook.’ Photo by Darren Wagner.

From Broadway With Love: A Benefit Concert For Sandy Hook was a concert of healing for the Newtown community where composers, musicians and more than 100 stars of Broadway came together with over 300 students from several Newtown dance groups, the Sandy Hook Elementary School 3rd and 4th grades (2012/2013 school year) and the Newtown High School Chamber Choir (2012/2013 school year).

“You Can’t Stop The Beat” (Nikki Blonsky, Brooke Tansley, and 72 Newtown Dancers). Photo by Grace Rainer Long.

A one-hour version of From Broadway With Love: A Benefit Concert For Sandy Hook” aired on local PBS affiliates in the New York City Tri-State area.

The concert, which took place on January 28, 2013, at the Palace Theater in Waterbury, Connecticut, was recorded and will be released in its entirety on DVD and as a two-CD set tomorrow, Tuesday, February 4th. The Blu-ray edition of the concert will be released on February 18th. Both the DVD and Blu-ray contain 9 special features on the making of the concert and behind the scenes footage.

The deluxe CD release includes 68 pages of photos from the concert and essays from the creative team. The iTunes edition of the album will be released in 2 volumes on Friday, February 7th. The CD, DVD and Blu-ray can all be purchased on Amazon.com.

The concert features renowned Broadway performers including Brian Stokes Mitchell (Ragtime, Tony Award winner: Kiss Me Kate, 3-time Tony Award nominee), Linda Eder (Jekyll & Hyde), Stephen Schwartz (6-time Tony Award nominee including Wicked, Pippin and Godspell), Micky Dolenz (Aida, member of The Monkees), Marc Shaiman (Tony Award winner: Hairspray, TV’s SMASH), Michael Cerveris (Tony Award winner: Assassins, 4-time Tony Award nominee including Evita and Sweeney Todd), Frank Wildhorn (Tony Award nominee: Bonnie & Clyde and Civil War, Jekyll & Hyde), Nikki Blonsky (Golden Globe nominee: Hairspray movie), Alan Muraoka (Pacific Overtures, TV’s Sesame Street), Robin de Jesus (Tony Award nominee: La Cage Aux Folles and In The Heights), Ashley Blanchet (Annie, Memphis), Capathia Jenkins (Newsies, Caroline, Or Change), Christine Ebersole (Tony Award winner: Grey Gardens), Paul Scott Goodman (Rooms, Bright Lights Big City), Philip Boykin (Tony Award nominee: The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess), Richard Kind (The Producers, TV’s Mad About You), Brett Boles, Mary Testa (Guys and Dolls, Xanadu), Julia Murney (Wicked, Lennon), Janet Metz (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Falsettoland) along with Muppets and cast members from Sesame Street as well as members from various casts of Million Dollar Quartet: Lance Guest, Erik Hayden, Randy Redd, Dan Mills, Victoria Matlock, featuring Lee Rocker of the Stray Cats and members of the Broadway and touring casts of Sister Act.

Brett Boles and Van Dean (Co-Conceivers of ‘From Broadway With Love: A Benefit Concert for Sandy Hook.’ Photo by Brent Durken.

Brett Boles, author of the musical Foreverman, and Broadway producer Van Dean, both from the Newtown area, are the original conceivers of the benefit concert. It all started with a Facebook message on December 16th, 2 days after the tragedy, from Brett, the emerging musical theater writer, to Van, the Tony Award-winning producer, after meeting at a theater industry event.

“After Brett suggested the notion of a benefit concert to me, I immediately posted a note on my Facebook page looking for volunteers. Within a few hours I had 100 responses and knew that this would become something very special,” noted Dean. Six weeks and seven hundred volunteers later, the concert took place at the Palace Theater in Waterbury, CT thanks to the generosity of the volunteers and sponsors who provided the theater, transportation, lighting and sound equipment, set elements, food and the majority of the other resources needed to put on the show. “The outpouring of love and support from the Broadway community was incredibly heartwarming, and everyone was looking for a way they could use their talents to bring something positive to the community. From Broadway With Love provided them with the perfect outlet to do so.”

Michael Kostel (Emmy Award winner) and Van Dean/The Broadway Consortium (Tony Award winner) are executive producers of the DVD and Blu-ray. Bob Conover (Emmy Award winner) directed the filmed version of the concert and the special features. Jeffrey McLaughlin, of Chelsea Post, edited the 108 minute concert video, Firelight Media Group, LLC provided the post production DVD and Blu-ray authoring and Michael Croiter, of Yellow Sound Label, mixed the concert and produced the CD.

The benefit concert was directed by Michael Unger and was produced by Van Dean and Kenny Howard of The Broadway Consortium, Jennifer Isaacson, Ken Mahoney, Sarahbeth Grossman, Bethney Ruggiero, Michael A. Alden, Rob Hinderliter, Yvette Kojic, Dale Badway, Mike Kostel, Dominick LaRuffa, Jr. and Meredith Lucio. Jeffrey Saver (End Of The Rainbow, Sister Act, Chicago) served as music director and conducted a 40 piece orchestra consisting of many top Broadway musicians. Librettist David Thompson (The Scottsboro Boys, Steel Pier, Chicago) helped the creative team shape the evening. Cindi Rush Casting acted as Casting Consultant. Tom Bussey served as Technical Supervisor, Tom McPhillips and Mike Rhoads as Scenic Designers, David Agress as Lighting Designer, Kristin Fiebig as Costume Designer, John Petrafesa as Sound Designer and David Bengali as Projection Designer. Zoya Kachadurian served as Production Stage Manager.

Nikki Blonsky and Newtown Girls: (L to R: Hailey Avari, Lauren Smiley, Lauren Jacobs, Devyn Reilly and Meghan Bailey). Photo by Grace Rainer Long.

Song List:
1. “Seasons of Love” (Robin De Jesus, Ashley Blanchet and From Broadway With Love Chorus)
2. “Sandy Hook School Song” (Sandy Hook Elementary School 3rd and 4th Grade Students)
3. “Beautiful City” (Stephen Schwartz)
4. “Defying Gravity” (Julia Murney with Stephen Schwartz on piano)
5. “On The Atchison, Topeka and The Santa Fe” (Christine Ebersole)
6. “Funny”/”The Duck Joke” (Janet Metz & Richard Kind)
7. “I Wan’na Be Like You” (Richard Kind)
8. “Ol’ Man River” (Phillip Boykin with Jeffrey Saver at the piano)
9. “Still” (Brett Boles, From Broadway With Love Chorus)
10. “When You’re Good to Mama” (Mary Testa)
11. “Finishing the Hat” (Michael Cerveris)
12. “Sunday” (Michael Cerveris, Newtown High School Chamber Choir and From Broadway With Love Chorus)
13. “Somewhere” (Newtown High School Chamber Choir)
14. “Raise Your Voice” (members of the Broadway and Touring Cast of Sister Act)
15. “Just One Person” (Sesame Street Performers & From Broadway With Love Chorus)
16. “Blue Suede Shoes” (Broadway cast members from Million Dollar Quartet featuring Lee Rocker on Bass)
17. “I Hear You Knockin’“(Broadway cast members from Million Dollar Quartet featuring Lee Rocker on Bass)
18. “Brown Eyed Handsome Man” (Broadway cast members from Million Dollar Quartet featuring Lee Rocker on Bass)
19. “I’m A Believer” (Micky Dolenz & From Broadway With Love Chorus)
20. “Good Morning Baltimore” (Nikki Blonsky & From Broadway With Love Chorus with Marc Shaiman at the piano)
21. “You Can’t Stop the Beat” (Nikki Blonsky, Brooke Tansley, Micky Dolenz, Capathia Jenkins & From Broadway With Love Chorus with Marc Shaiman at the piano)
22. “Sing” (Paul Scott Goodman & From Broadway With Love Chorus)
23. “The Impossible Dream“ (Brian Stokes Mitchell)
24. “Finding Wonderland” (Capathia Jenkins & From Broadway With Love Chorus with Frank Wildhorn at the piano)
25. “If I Had My Way” (Linda Eder & From Broadway With Love Chorus with Frank Wildhorn at the piano)
26. “One Voice” (From Broadway With Love Company & Sandy Hook Elementary School 3rd and 4th Grade Students)
_____

The Finale with the Cast and Sandy Hook Elementary School students (on video screen). Photo by Grace Rainer Long.

The concert event also featured a stellar Broadway ensemble consisting of Krystle Adams, Lindsay Aster, Rachel Baker, Leslie Becker, Mimi Bessette, Ashley Blanchet, Katie Branden, Corey Brunish, Billy Casey, Mark Chmiel, Andrew Clark, Aaron James Darr, Willie Dee, Hannah Rose DeFlumeri, Demi Fragale, Brian Golub, Carly Robyn Green, Curtis Howard, Anthony Johnson, Missy Keene, Richard Koons, Kyshawn Lane, Tony Lawson, K.C. Leiber, Danny Lindgren, Jaygee Macapugay, Rhyn McLemore, Mark Bradley Miller, Thomas Ortiz, Allie Parris, Annie Pasqua, Jenna Pasqua, Jennifer Prescott, Aaron Riesebeck, Emma Ritchie, Brian Charles Rooney, Gabrielle Ruiz, Roland Rusinek, Krista Severeid, Cory Stonebrook, Erin Sullivan, Stewart Tabler, Tiffany Trainer, Price Waldman, Jamie Westberry and Chris Woods, as well as Pas de Deux dancers: K.C. Fredericks and Shanna Heverly.

Sandy Hook Elementary School 3rd and 4th graders, teachers, and ‘From Broadway With Love’ creative team.
Photo by Darren Wagner.

This benefit concert was made possible, in part, by the generous donations from many companies and individuals including All Mobile Video, Chelsea Post, Atomic Design, Bermuda Limousine International, The Palace Theater of Waterbury CT, PRG, production glue llc, Atomic Rental, Ken & Trish Mahoney, Sound Associates, Strategic Event Design, WorldStage, Consulting for a Cause, Evolution Industries, Department of Events (D.O.E), Mahoney Asset Management, One Dream Sound, Record Plant, Shaboo Productions, St Regis Deer Valley Utah, Sterling Affair Catering, New York Yankees, Yellow Sound Lab, Anthony Augliera Moving & Storage, Best Trails & Travel, Bernard & Sarah Boisseau/Bernard’s Restaurant of Ridgefield, Broadway Records, Crowne Plaza of Southbury, Marriott Courtyard of Waterbury CT, Rapid Press, Rose Brand, Michael Ashendorf and Travel Techsperts, Chemtura Corporation, CP Communications, Julie Manfredi, Bonnie O’Sullivan, Marcus Miller, National Football League, Lynn Negron/Weenie Lynn’s, Pret a Manger, Printech NYC, Russian Standard Vodka, The Ardian Group and Jeff Shelton, Tasty Chicken of Brooklyn, The Silent Orchestra, Big Y, Carroll Music, Coca Cola Refreshments USA, LampLust, Nola Studios, Ripley Grier Studios, Springworks, Haley Swindal, Vita Coco Coconut Water, Waterbury School Arts Management D.O.E, Tickets.com, Big Y, SpotLight Awards, Pepsi-Cola of Bristol, Tasty Bagels of Brooklyn, Crystal Rock®, Entrees & Encores, RM Bradley, Delta Air Lines, Hornblower Cruises, Bedlam Theatre Company, Contemporary Services Corporation, Show Lighting Corp, Holy Cross High School, Litchfield Piano Works, Diversified Building Services, Waterbury Arts Magnet School, YoCrunch Yogurt Company, Domick and Pia, Spice, Diorio’s, Dottie’s, and LG Electronics.
______

ORDER YOUR DVD;CD SET; AND/OR BLUE-RAY HERE.

LINKS
From Broadway With Love: A Benefit Concert for Sandy Hook website.

From Broadway With Love: A Benefit Concert for Sandy Hook’ Video Interviews and Highlights.

Photos of From Broadway With Love: A Benefit Concert for Sandy Hook by Grace Rainer Long Photography.

From Broadway With Love: A Benefit Concert for Sandy Hook f acebook page.

List of performers, directors, designers, and sponsors of From Broadway With Love: a Benefit Concert for Sandy Hook.

Saul Markowitz,Nikki Blonsky (‘Hairspray’) and Joel Markowitz at ‘From Broadway With Love: A Benefit for Sandy Hook.’

Watch clips below from some of the video interviews I conducted with the cast of From Broadway With Love: A Benefit Concert for Sandy Hook.
February 3, 2014
Let’s Take It Outside: The Expansive Musical World of ‘The Most Happy Fella’ by David Rohde

You can set a musical just about anywhere, and Frank Loesser certainly did that. In Guys and Dolls, Nathan Detroit fails to secure a spot for the craps game, and the gamblers head down to the New York City sewers for “Luck Be a Lady Tonight.” In How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, the executives of World Wide Wicket take their electric shavers into the men’s washroom while Finch gazes into the mirror and sings a love song to himself, “I Believe In You.”

It’s in Loesser’s musical magnum opus that the doors instead fly open to the great outdoors on the other side of the country. The Most Happy Fella is a pastoral celebration of California’s Napa Valley, set in a world with neither subterranean grime nor high-rise office politics. It’s replete with food and fresh air and any excuse for a party, with much the same atmosphere as My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

To present this world, Loesser composed his largest score, a semi-operatic mélange of Puccini-esque duets and trios, gently comedic waltzes and tarantellas, and plot-heavy song segments that foreshadow today’s through-composed musicals, all interspersed with classic verse-and-refrain Broadway ballads and pure showbiz production numbers.

If The Most Happy Fella, which I have the honor of conducting for The Arlington Players this April, is a little difficult to place at first, that’s probably due to the contradictions in Frank Loesser’s life and work. Loesser only wrote five Broadway shows, but that’s largely because he spent the first half of his career in Hollywood, where he was primarily a lyricist for other composers, and he died early at age 59 of lung cancer.

Loesser’s musical upbringing probably helped determine this path from the outset. Loesser’s father was a noted classical piano teacher and his older half-brother, Arthur Loesser, was a famous concert pianist of the time. But Frank gravitated to popular music and Tin Pan Alley, and he never took piano lessons from his father or anyone else. Instead he simply absorbed the classical background from his surroundings until it was time to employ it for The Most Happy Fella a few decades later.

Frank Loesser.

The result may have been a truncated Broadway career, but it also produced lyrics for more than 100 movies and a rash of songs that could lead other songwriters to say in later Loesser retrospectives, “Oh, he wrote that too?” Among them were “Baby It’s Cold Outside,” “The Moon of Manakoora,” and “Two Sleepy People.” Loesser was even responsible for the words to Hoagy Carmichael’s impossible-to-forget (and now perpetually annoying) piano-practice anthem “Heart and Soul.” That also fooled Loesser’s daughter Susan Loesser when she went to write her father’s biography, A Most Remarkable Fella. “I never knew my father wrote “Heart and Soul,” she quipped in the book. “I thought whoever wrote Chopsticks wrote it.”

That same shock of recognition is bound to come for audiences in The Most Happy Fella, one of the biggest of the I-Didn’t-Know-That-Song-Came-From-This Show shows. “Standing on the Corner” became a staple of barbershop quartets and “guy groups” after the show’s initial Broadway run. “Joey, Joey, Joey” and “Don’t Cry” became standards for Johnny Mathis and other crooners. “Somebody Somewhere” went straight into the soprano ballad songbook. Song titles like “Big D,” “How Beautiful the Days,” and “My Heart Is So Full of You” may only ring a distant bell until you hear them in the theater and the melodies pour out.

Running throughout the songs in The Most Happy Fella is the arc of the agricultural year, with the story’s protagonist being a successful vineyard owner. The characters sing of Oregon cherries, Texas avocados, a variety of grape called Fresno Beauties, and a wine called Malaga Red. An Italian trio joyously brings out supplies for a wedding party and announces their arrival as frutti (fruits), fiori (flowers), and formaggio (cheeses), while the townspeople happily report “the smell of mozzarella in the air.” These folks sing of themselves as “all the neighbors, and all the neighbors’ neighbors,” which may be a sly nod by Loesser to Gilbert & Sullivan and the H.M.S. Pinafore chorus of “his sisters and his cousins and his aunts.” The lengthening days of the growing season and the earlier night onset of the harvest contribute to the tension of the story, taken from a play by Sidney Howard called They Knew What They Wanted.

Of course The Most Happy Fella is a musical, and as in so many musicals, the 10-word description of the plot – “a mail-order bride is duped into marrying the wrong guy” – begs for more context. But in that way it’s no different than the last musical on which I collaborated with my dear friend, the director Gloria DuGan, when the thumbnail description of the plot was “a woman has one too many children so she sells one to her boss,” belying the overall impact of the former Elden Street Players’ 2006 production of Blood Brothers.

Here in the original play, a San Francisco waitress accepts a mail-order marriage proposal to go to Napa, but the resulting complications are a foil for an extended discussion about labor and management in agriculture and industry. In Loesser’s reworking of They Knew What They Wanted, a waitress whose real name we never know until the end of the show (because she plays along with the vineyard owner’s fantasy that her name is “Rosabella”) becomes a much greater focus of the story after traveling to Napa, and the emotional developments result in the classic “main couple plus comic couple” formula for Broadway musicals. Is there a happy ending? Maybe the title The Most Happy Fella gives you a clue, although 10 minutes from the end of the show you might have reason to doubt it.

In recent years, The Most Happy Fella has become identified with the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut, whose 1991 production became the Broadway revival and whose recent fall 2013 production exuded tremendous energy and positivity even from characters whose lines read as hard-edged on the page. In a touching portion of Susan Loesser’s biography of her father, she relates how after his death in 1969 his name faded from popular consciousness until suddenly in the early 1990s – around the time of the Goodspeed revival and a restaging of Guys and Dolls on Broadway – it popped back to prominence. She knew it for sure when the receptionist at her optometrist’s office asked if her name was pronounced the same as Frank Loesser’s.

With our upcoming 2014 production, Gloria and I and the team at TAP are thrilled to help further the legacy of Frank Loesser and bring the zest of The Most Happy Fella back to the D.C. metro area. We look forward to seeing you there!

David Rohde.

David Rohde has conducted numerous musicals in the Washington area, including Guys and Dolls and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. David enjoys vocal and instrumental arranging, piano accompaniment for singers, keyboard work in orchestra pits, and watching actors and musicians he’s worked with “make it” when they pursue a performing arts career. David is a six-time nominee and two-time recipient of the WATCH Award for Outstanding Musical Direction.

The Arlington Players’ production of The Most Happy Fella holds auditions on January 25th and 27th at Theatre on the Run. The show runs from April 4-19th at the Thomas Jefferson Community Center-3501 Second Street, in Arlington, VA. Purchase tickets online.

https://youtu.be/ZDyyqwnn-x4

January 3, 2014