Theater with Pat O'Haire
June 3, 2008
For a man who can neither read or write music, John Bucchino has come a long way, baby.
His songs have been sung in cabarets, clubs and theaters by the likes of Patti LuPone, Barbara Cook, Art Garfunkel, Kristin Chenoweth and Harvey Fierstein.
And Julie Andrews.
And now, after 30 years of work - transforming words and music that only he hears in his head into songs that singers love to sing and people love to hear - he's finally beginning to get the recognition he deserves. He's not yet become one of those celebrities written up in gossip columns who can't walk down city streets without being noticed, but the music industry are finally sitting up and taken notice of him. About three years ago, he composed the music for a play Julie Andrews and her daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton, wrote for young people and then, in a complete U-turn, turned in the score for a new Broadway play, "A Catered Affair," which was adapted by Harvey Fierstein from a 1955 Paddy Chayefsky TV show about a Bronx family trying to decide whether their hard-earned banroll should be used to buy the father a new taxi or give their only daughter a wedding she'll never forget.
It was made into a film the following year, this time adapted by Gore Vidal, starring Bette Davis and Ernest Borgnine and directed by Richard Brooks. This time around, it stars Tom Wopat and Faith Prince as the warring parents, and Leslie Kritzer and Tom Cavanagh as the engaged couple. Harvey even wrote himself into the play - as the family's gay uncle, a role that suits him as beautifully as an Armani suit might - if he ever thought of wearing one.
"Harvey did a lovely job working it out," Bucchino said one night recently at Bar Centrale, the new hangout for Broadway actors located one flight up from the original Joe Allen's on W. 46th St., a short walk from the theater where "A Catered Affair" is being performed (at the Walter Kerr theater, on W. 48th).
The tall, slim songwriter, who is always seen with his glasses on, talked about his background - he's a Philadelphia native whose family moved to Palm Springs, California when he ws 12. When he finished college there, he headed straight to Los Angeles and started knocking on doors at recording companies.
He was always writing songs then, just like now - things would come to him - melodies, lyrics - while he was studying for exams. At the same time, when he wasn't studying, he was checking out the L.A. music scene, making friends and writing, always writing.
"I really just wanted to be a singer-songwriter, like the people I admired - Billy Joel, Elton John, Joni Mitchell and such," he said. "I didn't have much ambition beyond that. That would have been too much to imagine. I knew I could play piano, even if I couldn't read the music." So he put together an act of his own songs and started to look for work.
Somewhere on his route, he met Steven Schwartz, composer of "Gospell" and Broadway's "Wicked" and the two became friends. Happened again when he met Art Garfunkel, who listened to him play a number one night called "Grateful," and immediately said he wanted to add it to his club act - and still uses it as his closing number.
Through Schwartz, he met Kristen Chenowith, the original Glinda in "Wicked." She, too, has recorded some of his songs. Patti LuPone, now starring in "Gypsy" on Broadway, did an entire concert of his music and lyrics at Lincoln Center for several nights. Daisy Prince, daughter of the legendary producer/director, Hal Prince, was so impressed, she took him to meet her family. He's made several records of his own tunes, the most noticeable being "Grateful," which has his songs sung by a whole group of his friends.
And then he met Julie Andrews, and his life took another course. She asked him to write the music and lyrics for a show for young people that she and her daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton, had written for the Bay Street Theater, in Sag Harbor on Long Island, that Emma and husband, Steve Hamilton, run. It has also been turned into a book, published by Harper Collins. And that brought him to "A Catered Affair."
"I can hardly believe I'm here," Bucchino said, finishing off a Coke with lots of lemon.
He'd better start believing. Looks like he'll be around a long time.
* * * *
New Yorkers always have plenty of theater to choose from - Broadway, Off Broadway, Off Off Broadway and who knows what else, but come Monday nights this year and hopefully next and the next and the next and so on, they'll still be able to go to one of the plasantest, informal stage performances in years.
It's "Project Shaw," a series of readings of various plays by that crusty old curmudgeon, George Bernard Shaw, performed one Monday night a month by fami. liar Broadway actors on the stage of the Players Club, the beautiful old landmarked building on Gramercy Park that was once the home of actor Edwin Booth, brother of the notorious John Wilkes. In his will after he died, Booth decreed the house should become a place for actors to come, meet with friends, play some cards or billiards, use the library or all the other things a club is used for.
On one Monday night each month, the club's dining room's tables are cleared out and rows of seats are set up for the evening's entertainment.These are readings, and while they are often acted out, the actors perform with scripts in hand - there's rarely a shortage of good actors for the series - actors recognize good, meaty roles when they're available, and there are plenty f good, meaty roles in Shaw's plays. The nextperformance will be June 23 at 7 p.m. and there will be two short plays (if any of Shaw's plays could be considered short).
One is "Great Catherine," Shaw's take on Russia's most infamous Empress, and Tyne Daly will be her. John Cullum will play a dissolute Russian prince who tries to maneuver his way around her while a shy British emissary tries to tell her about the newly begun American Revolution. Matthew Arkin, Alison Fraser, Nick Wyman, Lacey Kohl and a few others complete the cast. The second play is "Annajanska," with Daly again as a Grand Duchess and Culllum as a general. The Russian Empire is crumbling and the Empress is trying to convince the general that she really wants to join the Revolution that's going on. This has never actually been performed in the U.S., so Shaw fans are in for a treat.
Thee two plays are the 28th in the Project; David Staller, an actor as well as being a Shaw-oholic, is the producer of the series. Besides Daly and Cullum, Staller has managed to lure such Broadway names as Marian Seldes, Brian Murray, Blair Brown, Malcolm Gets, Marc Kudish, Paxton Whitehead, Tovah Feldshuh, George S. Irving, Matt Cavanaugh, David Garrison, Michelle Pawk, Fritz Weaver, Charles Busch, Simon Jones, Boyd Gaines, Matthew Arkin and more.
And the toll is only $20 a show.
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The Voice of Broadway
By Jules Peimer (with his Samsung L77 camera)
June 2, 2008
The Liz Smith You Didn't Know
Jeffrey Lyons penetrating interview of NY Post's columnist Liz Smith, may have enticed her to reveal more than she cared to as she was being honored at the Friars Club popular Celebrity Luncheon Series, produced by Randie Levine-Miller.
She revealed that she has made many enemies in her time.
"Donald Trump threatened that he was going to buy the paper just to have me fired. Frank Sinatra denounced me for many years while performing in nightclubs throughout the world. I could go on and on.
"Thanks to newspaperman Sid Zion, Frank and I finally kissed and made up which was a lot of fun. He asked Frank, ‘Why do you keep beating up on Liz? You wouldn't do that if you really knew her,' I received a call from Zion who told me that Sinatra is coming to town and wants to meet you'. I tried on 100 dresses and met him at a crappy bar. He jumped up and said, ‘Liz, I'm so glad you came. Call me Francis.' I replied, "Thank you Mr. Sinatra."
During their 2-hour talk the past was never mentioned. She fell madly in love with him. He sent her orchids every day for 2-months. She knew the affair was over when the orchids stopped coming.
Lyons remarked that Sinatra once sent Lauren Becall flowers. "She sent back a note saying, ‘To little, too late.'"
"What perks do you enjoy because of your column," asked Lyons.
"I'm invited to the Friars Club and get to sleep with all these guys. I'm also invited to restaurants, opening nights, premieres and other numerous things."
Ms. Smith laughed and jokingly remarked that she is a real scumbag for accepting all those perks.
During Ms. Smiths illustrious and most profitable 30-year career, she has raised over $20 million for the fight against illiteracy and countless millions for the fight against aids.
Among the many celebrities seen enjoying themselves was Lee Roy
Reems, Anita Gillette, Joe Sirola, Michael Riedel, Cynthia McFadden, Len Cariou, Elaine Orbach, Mayor David Dinkins and Joni Evans.
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Jubilant Jenna
By
Betina Paley, Writer and TV Interviewer, New York City
April 20, 2008
From the moment Jenna Esposito strode onto the stage, the sophisticated set that frequents The Metropolitan Room knew they had come to a party. Jenna bursts with "the good times are here" in a cascading warm welcome with verve and humor and a voice as strong as her vibrant smile.
An endearing extra in this extremely entertaining cabaret show is musical director/guitarist Fortune Esposito, Jenna's proud papa, accompanying her with such delight
Titled "13 Men and Me", she sings songs of 13 songwriters ranging from Kurt Weill to DickieThompson. The entire program has been recorded on her debut album, also called "13 Men and Me".
Jenna's live performances and her CD have been widely praised and are certain to lead to more successes.
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Saluting Black History Month: An ABC Movie Event: Sean Combs on Lorainne Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun Segue from Broadway to TV
by Ellis Nassour
ABC is promoting the heck out of next Monday's much-anticipated telecast of Kenny Leon's production of the three-hour movie adaptation of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun. It stars Sean Combs and the leads of the Tony and Drama Desk-nominated 2004 Broadway revival that not only brought in a new breed of theatergoers, as Oprah's The Color Purple has these last two seasons, but also broke box office records.
It will be heavily advertised to one of TV's biggest audiences next Sunday during the Academy Awards; and should be, from the buzz from advance screenings, one of the highlights of the season and of Black History Month; and the recipient of numerous Emmy nominations come late summer.
Raisin became a passion project for executive producers Neil Meron and Craig Zadan after they saw the revival that also starred Phylicia Rashad and Audra McDonald, both of whom won Tonys and DDs. "However," reveals Meron, "we always wanted to do. Years before the Broadway revival, we tried to get a network interested. When we saw the revival with Sean and the extraordinary audiences he brought into the theater, it was the perfect opportunity."
He reported that before he and Zadan could get the words out of their mouths at the meeting with Steve McPherson, president of ABC Entertainment, "he gave us a commitment. To his credit, it was that quick. We don't know another network president who would give away three hours of broadcast time for a black family drama written in 1959."
Zadan says, "It just mattered that we made the movie and it got broadcast because we felt it was important to be seen by a new generation. Looking back at it, it was worth every moment. We're so proud of it."
ARITS is Hansberry's poignant story of a family struggling on Chicago's South Side in the 50s iwith hopes and dreams of movin' on up. Son Walter Lee especially wants to get a piece of the pie but is constantly deferred. Sister Beneatha has dreams of a better life, not necessarily in the U.S., as she has hopes of becoming a doctor.
As the Youngers await a $10,000 from the life insurance policy of Walter Lee Younger, his widow Lena, portrayed by Rashad, has a dream, too - retiring from her job as a domestic and trading the family's tenement apartment for a deluxe home in the sky.
Of course, not every family member shares that dream. Each has their own idea of how to use their newfound wealth. For one thing, Walter Lee Jr., a chauffeur, played by Combs, has plans to open a can't-miss business, a liquor store. Needless to say, obstacles are thrown in their path and racism rears its ugly head and dreams are almost shattered. Almost.
Many have wondered where the title came from and its signifiance to the story. Hansberry was a huge fan of the poet/novelist/playwright Langston Hughes, and found these lines memorable:
"What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over
Like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
Like a heavy load.|
Or does it explode?"
- Harlem/Montage of a Dream Deferred
Hansberry's play was the first written by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway. It premiered in 1959, running 530 performances, starring Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeil, Diana Sands, Ruby Dee and Louis Gossett Jr. Poitier. Miss McNeil and director Lloyd Richards were Tony-nominated. The play was Tony-nominated and honored by the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. A film with the same cast followed in 1961, with the screenplay by Hansberry. Miss McNeil and Poitier were nominated for Golden Globes.
The '05 revival, with then-three-time Tony-winner McDonald as Jr.'s wife and the Tony-nominted Sanaa Lathan as his sister, was Combs' stage debut. It broke box office records. Kenny Leon, who directed and received a DD nom, also helms the TV film.
Combs, who's a co-producer on the film, said his first-time theater acting gig "was one of the most challenging things I'd ever done and it truly changed my life. To be able to tell my kids and grandkids that I did that! That's crazy! It's definitely one of my proudest things I've ever done."
He says that the timing couldn't be better for the film. "This is not only Black History Month, but also a particularly historic time where we have a historic election and also the fortieth anniversary of Dr. King's death. We always see examples of racism trying to stick its head out, but I think America has said we're not going to have that anymore. This is an uplifting story and with all that's going on, the film will have an impact and touch people's hearts. They'll get the message."
Going onstage, making his Broadway debut cold, was a daring leap for the hip hop artist known to millions as P. Diddy, but It didn't take long for him to fall in love with Walter Lee Younger Jr.'s character. "He had so much passion and many different colors and dimensions," says Combs. "You don't read scripts like that these days. There aren't an abundant of roles that look into the dimensions of a black man."
He sees things changing for the better. "You don't see those gang-banging, stereotypical movies as much as you used to. African Americans are getting more power being executive producers. The work Will Smith, Jamie Foxx and Denzel Washington are doing is opening up doors for actors like me.
"My acting coach told me that if I wanted to get serious as an actor," he continued, "Walter Lee was a dream role. I was like, there's no way I can do that. When I was offered the part, I was so thrilled and blessed that I jumped into doing it without knowing how tough starring on Broadway would be. But it was an experience I'll remember forever."
Being with Rashad and McDonald onstage boosted his confidence. "If you're playing basketball and want to get better, you don't play with scrubs. You play with guys that are great. All I could do was try to get better every day, and there were times I stood out. The hardest part was adjusting to the schedule. With eight shows a week, you don't have another life. And you're so worn out because it's such an emotional play. All I did was sleep and do the play, sleep and do the play."
Anytime he got stressed out, he says he thought of how blessed he was to have the opportunity to play Broadway. "So many would love to be in my shoes," he says. "Hopefully, what I did will open more doors for others."
First and foremost, Combs views himself as an entertainer. "The great entertainers did many things. They had businesses, they had albums and they acted. I like pushing the culture of hip hop forward so we can do other things that aren't typical - things that would raise our culture up.'Äù
As much as he loves music, he has big plans. 'ÄúI'm transitioning from music to acting. It's something I'm passionate about. It's something that you have to have to fall in love with it and be totally dedicated to. I always have to constantly be expressing myself. If I don't, I'd probably go crazy. Now I'm able to do that in other ways. Acting is a perfect vehicle for me to stay sane and to express myself in ways people don't expect."
He says he wouldn't trade his stage experience for anything. "It was one of the greatest experiences of my life. Who can start on Broadway, sell out a theatre week after week and then have it become the second highest grossing non-musical play in Broadway history?"
But Combs has no immediate plans to return to the stage, though he states "I would love to come back to Broadway, but no one has submitted any scripts for me to consider."
Combs is very blunt, saying, "I still have a lot more growing and learning to do. I want to continue working with great actors, but I'm proud of my progression from roles I've had in films to Broadway and now being able to help bring Raisin to TV, where it will be seen by millions."
Playing Walter Lee Jr. onscreen was easier. "I had time to mature as an actor. On Broadway, I was kind of thrown out onto the stage. I was trying to find the character and never truly found him until I had time to mature and gain more confidence. By the time we began shooting the movie, I felt I'd become Walter Lee. I truly did my best to tell the truth in the film."
The stakes were high, but doing the film gave Combs more of an adrenalin rush "because I knew how important it was to give something different than what was onstage. There was pressure and anxiety, but for three-and-a-half weeks in Toronto [where the movie was shot] the adrenalin stayed up."
He explains how proud he's been at the various screenings to see how audiences have been moved by ARITS. "That's an experience I've never has as an artist."
Combs noted that he drew on his childhood experiences growing up in Harlem and Mount Vernon, New York. "A lot of people think that because I've had a little bit of success I may not be able to relate. My father was killed when I was three and I grew up in a house with three women - my mother, my grandmother and my sister. I went through those years watching Mom and my grandmother work two jobs and still not be able to take care of us. I remember the look on my mother's face when I'd ask for things and she couldn't afford it."
He recalled the stress his family went through when he was going to Howard University and he was having dreams of being in the music industry. "It all related to Walter Lee's dream. I feel I was destined to play this role."
Not everyone agreed. "A lot of people looked at me like I was crazy - just like, in the play how everyone looks at Walter Lee. They forgot I've had success in the music field and run several companies successfully [including his very popular Sean Combs clothing line]. I come from the world of hip hop and most of the artists are known for the bling bling and Champagne. But, in my regard, that was blown way out of proportion because most of the time I was just in my office working or in the studio."
Combs knows about some of the anxiety that exists when you're born into conditions where your life is predestined for failure. "When you're pursuing a dream and constantly hitting obstacles, you can't give up. You have to keep that passion and motivation. The fact that I couldn' stop was something I was able to tap into for the movie from my life."
What touched him about Hansberry's writing "was her understanding of each character's motivation. I haven't read another script where every single word from beginning to end means something or could relate to something. She was a genius. That's what makes this work so timeless."
He pointed to Shakespeare's works as an example. "When people ask why do his plays over and over, it's important that the stories live on, just like Romeo and Juliet lives on. People keep finding relevance."
Broadway was like a warm up game for Combs, Rashad, McDonald and Lathan, he says; and he found himself, once again, in incredible company. "Working with these incredible actors make you feel vulnerable. They're not acting. They're living it. They're so real, you can't but help tell the truth when you're looking into their eyes. It's important when you're speaking lines with actors that you listen and they listen to you. You're having a conversation and speaking the truth. It becomes reality.
"Working with actors such as them," he adds, "you can't help but get better. You can't help but nail the scene because they're so believable. I appreciated their years of experience. I was able to ask questions and, if I needed help in a scene, even when we were rehearsing, they would still dig deep. It wasn't any less."
Meron and Zadan became big fans of Combs. "Sean's probably the hardest working person we've worked with on every level," says Meron. "No matter how many takes, he was tireless. He's not someone who likes to fail and he works hard to make sure he doesn't. Sean knew he had a lot more to prove and he strived to prove he was worthy. His commitment and work ethic was such that I stood in awe of him. And what energy!"
"Sean's very demanding," relates Zadan, "and he demands as much of himself as he does of his collaborators. He was extremely serious about every aspect of the film and held everyone to a very high level. He was always questioning, always making sure that the movie can be the best it can be, that we had the best people working on it - the best adaptor [Paris Qualles, who wrote the critically-acclaimed and Emmy-nominated Tuskeegee Airmen and The Rosa Parks Story], designers, the best director of photography."
Notes Meron, "Sean had the most to gain and the most to lose. He was aware of that every minute."
Zadan reports that the thing he and Meron admired most was Combs' ability to challenge himself up to the level of Rashad and McDonald.
Meron says it was mesmerizing "to watch Phylicia Rashad brilliantly inhabit the role of Lena Younger. Audiences here she's capable of great things, but for the masses who only know her from The Cosby Show there are going to be some surprises. She can hold her own with any great dramatic actress."
Combs sings the praises of director Leon, who has opened the play up in many ways so that it doesn't feel like a stage play. "Kenny's a genius. He truly knows how to work with actors. Every director is different. There aren't a lot out there who know to help an actor. Kenny can really bring out the best in you. On Broadway and in the film, he made me feel comfortable and allowed me to break the rules. He didn't mind as long as I did things to protect the role, to make audiences feel the character."
Leon, Meron and Zadan decided that every scene in the play that worked best outside would be taken outside. "Our challenge was to make it into a movie," explains Zadan, "and not have audiences feel they're in an apartment. We didn't want a filmed a play. So we're on the street, on the bus, in other houses, in the bar. We're all over the city; and, when we need to be, we're in the apartment."
The team made a conscious choice to achieve realism by shooting not in digital or B&W 35mm but in Super 16, which gives ARITS a slightly grainy look. "We also decided to use a tremendous amount of handheld and steady cam," Zadan adds, "so that there'd be a voyeuristic feel, like you're a fly on the wall. You're in those rooms and wherever these people are and we wanted to create the sense that you're right there with them experiencing this story."
Though Meron and Zadan respect the original film, says Meron, "We wanted to reintroduce the voice of Lorraine Hansberry, who's someone we haven't talked enough about. She is a role model in terms of being the first African American woman to have a play produced on Broadway. She was only twenty-seven, which makes it all the more remarkable considering the time. Sadly, she passed away at thirty-four in 1965. Hers was a voice that only blazed bright for a moment."
The original A Raisin in the Sun was produced Hansberry's her husband, a Jewish literature scholar and songwriter, the late Robert Nemiroff [the couple were divorced in 1964]. It closely parallels events in the playwright's life.
Born on Chicago's South Side, the playwright was the youngest of four children of a prominent real estate broker. She went on to become a magazine writer. When the family moved to an all-white neighborhood, they faced fierce racial discrimination from, as Hansberry described it, "a hellishily hostile white neighborhood."
Her father battled against a binding covenant that, in essence, prohibited blacks from buying homes in the area. The case led to the landmark Supreme Court case of Hansberry v. Lee. Mr. Hasberry was able to have the covenant struck down but fierce resistance to the family's presence continued.
Three months before her death, Hansberry saw a second play, The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window arrive on Broadway for 101 performances. It closed the night she died. Hansberry had been working on a novel and three plays. A third play, Les Blancs, had a short run in late 1970.
Nemiroff adapted much of Hansberry's unpublished work into the hugely successful 1968 Off Broadway play To Be Young, Gifted and Black, which appeared in book form. Hansberry's friend, singer Nina Simone, no stranger to controversy herself, had a hit with a song titled after the play.
A musical version of ARITS, simply called Raisin, by Judd Woldin and Robert Brittan, opened in 1973, winning the Tony for Best Musical. Like the original play, It was produced by Nemiroff, who co-adapted the Tony-nominated book with Charlotte Zaltzberg. The stars were Virginia Capers, Joe Morton [as Walter Lee], Ernestine Jackson and Ralph Carter, all nominated with Miss Capers winning.
Debbie Allen, sister to Miss Rashad, later to become a choreographer and Tony-nominated and DD-winning actress, in only her second Broadway role, played Beneatha. Allen is directing the black version of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, which opens next month.
Combs reveals that when decided to take the leap to Broadway for the ARITS revival, he received strong moral support from Sidney Poitier, who originated the role of Walter Lee. "When I was offered the role, I immediately reached out to Sidney. I wanted to tell him and get his thoughts. He was very excited and supportive. He literally passed me the baton, giving me confidence, support and inspiration."
He also reports that Ruby Dee, the original Beneatha and the late Ozzie Davis took him under their wing. "They felt it was important to expose A Raisin in the Sun to a new generation. The day after the first preview on Broadway, I had like an acting session with Ruby Dee and Ozzie Davis. It wasn't planned. They just came and had some notes on how I could get better. Just to get those arms wrapped around me was just incredible."
Monday, February 18, 2008
As Black History Month Ends: Off Broadway Pioneer Ellen Stewart; Remembering Rosetta LeNoire, Virginia Capers and Bert Williams; More
by Ellis Nassour
Ellen Stewart, the much acclaimed and venerated founder and director of La MaMa E.T.C., which celebrates its 47th Anniversary in October. The company occupies a unique presence not only in the storied world of Off Off and Off Broadway but in international theatrical circles. Just as her name is synonymous with controversy and controversial productions, it ranks at the top of the list of daring and avant-garde theater.
Make no mistake about it, experimentation, politics, risk-taking and challenging artistic boundaries and the public or various city administrations'Äô definition of decency have been the focus of work created at La MaMa.
The stories about Ellen Stewart, her struggles against censorship and the establishment are legendary and could fill a couple of books. She's been arrested and ridiculed and harangued in news articles. The problem is you don't how many of these stories are true and which have been exaggerated. So to get to the bottom of things, it was wise to go to the "horse's mouth."
Ms. Stewart, now in her 80s and going as fast as she can here and overseas, often in four directions at the same time, doesn't grant many interviews. But when she does, you can bet it's going to freewheeling, informative and a helluva lot of fun.
Her Greenwich Village loft apartment on the top floor of the La MaMa complex on East Fourth Street, between First and Second Avenues, is filled with photos, books, plays and a vast array of music and theater memorabilia; so vast, in fact, you might wonder if this lady could put her fingers on something she wants when she wants it or when some inquiring mind asks a question about that something.
Worry not because, like Joe Franklin in his office of nostalgic memorabilia that gives "piles of clutter" a new definition, Mama, as anyone remotely close to her calls Ms. Stewart, knows exactly where it is, how long it's been there and who's touched it last. And you better ask before you touch it!
The company's philosophy can be summed up in their mission statement: "La MaMa believes that in order to flourish, art needs the company of colleagues, the spirit of collaboration, the comfort of continuation, a public forum in which to be evaluated and fiscal support."
Annually, La MaMa prides itself on introducing to audiences at its two East Village venues to artists from around the world. "Cultural pluralism and ethnic diversity have been inherent in the work created at La MaMa," notes Ms. Stewart. "Whatever else you say about us, and plenty has been, you definitely can say we are an international theater company."
To date there have been more than 1,900 productions - and over 1,000 original scores. Resident troupes have traveled the world: Australia, Austria, Brazil, Columbia, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Greece, Holland, Iran, Italy, Korea, Lebanon, Venezuela, Macedonia, The Netherlands, Scotland, Siberia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and Yugoslavia.
Mama has lectured and directed, written librettos and composed music for shows presented throughout Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin and South America.
La MaMa has given work to fledging actors, such as Bette Midler, before anyone ever heard of her, and writers such as Harvey Fierstein and Sam Shepard; composers Tom Eyen, Philip Glass and Elizabeth Swados; directors Wilford Leach, Tom O'Horgan and Romanian director Andrei Serban [still active with the company]. The company introduced New York to troupes such as Mabou Mines; and theater from the Eastern bloc, especially with the debut in the company's first decade of Polish ultra avant-garde theater director Jerzy Grotowski.
The company name came about because playwrights, directors, actors, designers and staff in the early years considered Stewart a mother figure. As one put it, "In those days, we were all kids and she was the adult." Actually, in mind, body and spirit, she was probably younger than them. To this day, even in her 80s, she still thinks young and has a sly, devilish spirit. And an incredible memory!
In a rare nod to Off Broadway and beyond, in 1993 Stewart was elected by theater critics to the Theatre Hall of Fame. She's been honored with dozens of Drama Desk Awards and over 30 Obies. And Ms. Stewart has been given so many honorary and distinguished service awards and doctorates that she has an archive and archivist to keep track of them; and cataloging the early work presented.
La MaMa started ever so simply. It was such a lark that, according to Mama, no one really knew exactly what they were doing. They just had ideas and decided they were going to bring them to fruition. "Never in a million years did I ever think we would accomplish all we've accomplish and become what La MaMa has become," she says. "Our mission was and is to develop, nurture, support, produce and present new and original performance work by artists of all nations and cultures."
In fact, growing up in Chicago, theater never entered Ellen Stewart's mind. She wanted to be a fashion designer. As a young black woman, she knew it wouldn't be easy. "No surprise," she laughs, "it wasn't. At that time Chicago had nothing on the Deep South as far as racism rearing its ugly head."
To escape, she came to what she thought was very cosmopolitan New York City. But there were surprises here, too. "Bernard Gimbel, then president of Gimbel's, hired me as an executive designer for their Saks Fifth Avenue store, but found resistance from their high-end customers." But stick by her, he did. By the time doors started to open, she had met an interesting circle of friends - some in very high places. And, in a nutshell, she decided one night to put on a show.
La MaMa began as a tiny, second-floor space over a Second Avenue tailor shop. Interestingly, Miss Stewart said she didn't start off looking to be controversial, "but we certainly stirred up quite a bit of controversy."
The first play "to get us some headlines" was O'Horgan's 1964 production of Genet's The Maids " because of his decision to do it with boys." She notes that the show that really put La MaMa "on the map," and in more ways than one, was 1967's Futz by Rochelle Owens and directed by O'Horgan.
The dark, very dark, comedy didn't exactly conform to social norms of the day. Without raising her voice in exclamation - in fact, very matter-of-factly, Mama recounts the story. "It was about a farmer who's had so many bad experiences with women that he falls in love with Amanda, his pet pig, and marries her. There was also a very attractive, but not too tightly-wrapped hayseed who's a Peeping Tom at Mr. Futz's basement window. While Mr. Futz had, well, darlin', let's just say intercourse with his pig and told her that they'd always be together, the chorus made sexual sounds which was exciting the boy. The town's most beautiful and richest girl - a stunning blonde, has a crush on him.
John Bakos [Cyrus Futz] starred along with Seth Allen, Mari-Claire Charba and Frederick Forrest. Sally Kirkland did narration.
"Now, Tom is a composer and musician," she continues, "He could play every instrument imaginable. So there he is in the wings with various instruments tied and hanging on him - a one-man orchestra. He had made a living singing on the Borscht Best as a counter tenor and he was making these sounds.
"One night, the boy brings the girl to watch Mr. Futz and Miss Pig. He starts using Mr. Futz's rhythm and the more Mr. Futz gets - gets - you know. Yes - very excited, the more the boy gets excited; and, in a very dramatic and graphic scene, he rapes the girl. He's arrested and is sentenced to hang. His mother comes to pay a last visit and they commiserate in a Southern cracker dialect. To suckle him, she exposes a breast and puts it in his mouth. Well. Right. Nothing like this had been done before."
As word spread, lines formed around the block. La MaMa's tiny space couldn't contain the crowds. When asked how long a run the play enjoyed, Miss Stewart laughs, "We don't got runs. We never had runs. Unless you want to count me running. La MaMa's early history is marked by the number of times I was running. Running from the police! Always running! We couldn't stay long!"
Mama also decided to tour the show in England and Europe. "Now, after what happened here, imagine this in very conservative Edinburgh!" Were there protests? "Protests?" she asks. "Oh, yes! The Scottish Daily Mail accused me of shipping filth to their country."
The controversy sold tickets. "They had lines down the block," she states not able to control her excitement or laughter, "and around the block, down and around another block, across the street and down another block. You had to see this scene of local women protesting with placards accusing us of all sorts of things, and audiences wanting us to do five shows a night!" As it played Germany and other cities in Europe, the scene was repeated over and over.
"You wanted to know what put us on the map!" adds Mama. "After that, we were known! So we all were laughing when there was all that fuss over nudity in Tom's Hair. That was nothing!"
Futz! later transferred to what is now the Lucille Lortel and Actor's Playhouse; and was filmed, says Miss Stewart, "with Sally riding buck naked on a pig!"
Bette Midler got her first theatrical break at the original La MaMa on Second Avenue with Tom Eyen in Miss Nefertiti. "She had just arrived from Hawaii," recalls Miss Stewart, "and she was a knockout. Quite voluptuous. Those breasts! She was supposed to be nude from the waist up, but Bette was quite modest in those days. She wouldn't take her hands off her boobs. We would go, 'Bette, psssst. Come on. Go ahead.'"
Harvey Fierstein, whom Mama had the pleasure of introducing at his recent induction into the Theatre Hall of Fame, also started at La MaMa. "We will never forget his debut!" says Stewart. "He came running onstage with his fly unzipped and his cockylove popped out. He ran off stage and I had to get down on my hands and knees to sew the fly shut."
Nudity in La MaMa shows caused "some" problems, but, says Mama, "I never did it; but, back in the day, I was really beautiful and if a role called for me to run naked, I would have. But no more!"
It didn't take long for La MaMa to outgrow Second Avenue. In 1969, it began business on East Fourth between First and Second Avenues in a building that now comprises two theatres and a cabaret.
Stewart discovered the work of Serban and brought him to La MaMa that year. "I was much more political then, and concerned with the state of the Negro or black or whatever we were called and how we were shown culturally. I wanted to do theater where a black could play a role that didn't require a needle in the arm, a jail cell, being a domestic washing dishes or clothes or being in the morgue."
To accomplish this goal Serban, "who didn't know from black and white," and Swados chose Medea, and cast black actress Betty Howard. It was decided to do the play in Greek because "to Andrei and Elizabeth's ear, the way Americans spoke English didn't sound poetic enough." She is cracking up laughing, having a difficult time catching her breath as she described the long process of putting the play in French, German and several other languages. Finally, Andrei, who's half Greek, said, 'Let's try Greek.' I got a tutor to teach the company and it was sounding pretty good. Still, with the music Elizabeth had in mind, they decided to translate further into 'Ancient Greek,' and were finally satisfied the music went with that."
When Howard was cast in a Broadway show, Priscilla Smith stepped in, receiving great acclaim in what became a landmark production for La MaMa, that tour internationally. It was the first of several collaborations between Serban and Swados.
Controversy followed to the new site. Mama got arrested several times. She recalls harassment from the Fire Department over safety issues at La MaMa, especially during the Koch administration. She claims the former Mayor was out to get her and close La MaMa.
The first show there was Caution: A Love Story, written and directed by the late Tom Eyen with music by the late Bruce Kirle [later a generous scholarship donor at La MaMa]. Eyen went on to become a Broadway director, playwright and lyricist. He co-wrote and directed Paul Jabara's 1973's Rachael Lily Rosenbloom and Don't You Ever Forget It, the thinly-disguised musical satire based on the life of Bette Midler, which starred Jabara, Ellen Greene, Anita Morris and Andre De Shields [it never officially opened]; and will forever known in theatrical books as lyricist and book writer of Dreamgirls, with music by Henry Krieger.
Popularity and demand for tickets meant having to find larger space and, in a lottery for East Village buildings owned by the City, Miss Stewart landed a few doors West in what is called The Annex. Grant money from the Ford Foundation paid for the extensive renovations in a building that had once been a TV sound stage and, as legend has it, the last place Judy Garland recorded a song for a movie.
It opened in 1974 with The Trojan Women presented, as had become tradition, in Swados' invented language.
Miss Stewart has had many memorable milestones, from the controversial to the beautiful, such as the first chamber opera, Camila, about two Lesbian vampires, in 1970, which was created by Wilford Leach, the La MaMa's A.D. He went on to become a resident director at the Public and direct The Pirates of Penzance and Rupert Holmes' The Mystery of Edwin Drood, for which he won Tony and Drama Desk Awards.
According to Mama, Leach as designer and director, was quite the ahead-of-his-time theatrical innovator. "He used projected slides and film to enhance the opera. Cast members used mikes onstage. When I tell people this, they call me a liar. They say nothing like that was done then. But it was, and it was done at La MaMa."
When Leach returned to La MaMa in 1981 to revive Camila, the earlier production was recalled. "The Village Voice lead theater critic wrote a page-long article asking how we stoop so low as to claim we had opera, projections and the like in 1970 when it didn't exist anywhere in the world. Needless to say, a big fight broke out between me and the Voice. I went down there with a baseball bat, but I won. I even went so far to forbid entry to their critics. However, they threatened a lawsuit, stating that I couldn't bar anyone."
Along the way, Mama found generous benefactors along the way; and La MaMa's work has benefited from, believe it or not, the usually conservative National Endowment for the Arts. In addition to theater and cabaret, La MaMa's has internships at the high school and college level and a ticket subsidy program open to students, seniors, social orgs and the physically and mentally-challenged allowing attendance at performances at no cost.
In 1986, with the proceeds from a MacArthur Genius Award, Miss Stewart founded La MaMa Umbria, an artists' retreat in Umbria, Italy, where workshops and festivals are held each summer.
Actress, TV Star and Off Bway Innovator: Rosetta LeNoire
Rosetta LeNoire, "Rosie" to everyone who loved her [and that list was a very, very long one], at 5' 2" was tiny in statue but was quite the dynamo. After years of acting in starring roles and seguing into major and memorable character portrayals, she had a dream to form a theater company that wasn't black or white but a company for everyone.
Ms. LeNoire's family emigrated from the Caribbean island of Dominica. She suffered from rickets and wore leg braces for 13 years.
Rosie's godfather was the legendary dancer, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. "I began my career as a child performer, Rosetta Olive Burton," she once recalled. "It was an unusual debut. Bill would plant me in the audience and then pluck me out and bring me up onstage. Before you know it, we were singing and dancing!"
Her mother died of pneumonia at age 27 after giving birth to her brother in a Harlem hospital corridor because segregationist policies barred her from having a room.
Acting in Robert Earl Jones' troupe, Rosie had the distinction of baby-sitting James Earl Jones, who became a life-long friend and supporter.
In 1936, Miss LeNoire made her Broadway debut in the limited run of Orson Welles' landmark all-black "voodoo" adaptation of Macbeth, produced by the Negro Theatre Unit of the WPA's Federal Theatre Project and John Houseman. She was back on Broadway in 1939 as Peep-Bo in Mike Todd's all-black Hot Mikado [which starred Robinson as the Mikado].
She made her TV debut in the early 50s on a soap and went on to play countless roles in live TV drAmas and specials. She was featured in Philip Yordan's controversial 1959 film Anna Lucasta. In 1966, she played Queenie in Lincoln Center's production of Show Boat.
Growing up in New York, Ms. LeNoire, who died in 2002 at age 91, struggled against racism during her touring years and knew the drill about African-American actors having to stay in their own hotels or rooming houses. She often spoke of those early years when she was perpetually typecast in the role of the maid. "There were so many of them," she once joked, "I lost count."
During enactment of civil rights legislation in the 60s, she had what she called "an epiphany" to change how theater is perceived. In 1968, she founded of AMAS [Latin for "you love"] and segued from actress to a pioneering figure in American theater.
Playing a nurse, she joined the cast of Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys and appeared in the 1975 film adaptation. That year she was seen in Stanley Kramer's ABC-TV adaptation of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner; and on Broadway opposite George Grizzard, Rosemary Harris, Eva Le Gallienne, Sam Levene and Mary Louise Wilson in Ellis Rabb's hit revival of The Royal Family, which was filmed for TV.
Years later, it was on TV that Rosetta LeNoire became a household word playing world-weary, but all-wise "Mother" Winslow, the grandmother, on ABC's hit sitcom Family Matters. The money she made helped finance her dream.
She related that at a job interview in Harlem, she overheard a teacher ask children, "Who do we love?" "Their answer was, 'We love black!' And the teacher asked, 'Who do we hate?' And they replied, 'We hate whitey!' I thought, my God, we worry about our kids getting into alcohol and drugs, but this is worse. I felt it was poisoning their minds, and at a time when they couldn't make decisions for themselves."
When she related the incident to her husband, he encouraged her "to do something about it." That night, "on broken-down typewriter, I started writing letters." Among the letters was one to the New York State Council on the Arts. "I didn't know anyone there, so I wrote to several; and all answered! When I went for the interview, I took my male business manager, and two young women, one Jewish and the other, Korean. When I explained what I wanted, I was asked, 'ÄòWhy don't you want an all-black theater?'Äô I answered, 'My world is not all black. My world is as God created it, all colors, a glorious bouquet.'"
Rose was informed she'd have a difficult time because so much funding was going to black cultural groups, but decided to take her chances. "I prayed and made Novenas and asked others to pray. A month later, a miracle happened. I received a check for $25,000. And that was how AMAS started!"
One of her first big projects was the musical revue Bubbling Brown Sugar in 1973, which later moved to Broadway where it became a huge hit. As things at AMAS developed, Rosie was an exponent of diversity through non-traditional casting.
In a production of The Bingo Long All-Stars, about the Negro baseball leagues [which later was the basis for a film co-starring James Earl Jones, Billy Dee Williams and Richard Pryor], Rosie was criticized for casting a young, red-headed white male as one of the Negro players. She was quick to respond, "I was denied roles because of my color. I'll be damned if that will ever happen in my theater! AMAS is not a black theater." She did make a small compromise by asking the actor to wear dark make-up.
In 1989, Rosie was honored by Actor's Equity with the establishment of the Rosetta LeNoire Award, given annually to producers and theatre companies who exemplify her commitment to multicultural production and casting in the theatre. Rosie was the first recipient. Then AE prez Colleen Dewhurst, with whom Rosie worked with in YCTIWY, presented and stated, "This is given in recognition of your outstanding artistic contributions to the universality of the human experience in the American Theatre."
In 1999, President Clinton awarded Miss LeNoire the National Medal of Arts to Rosie along with Aretha Franklin, Steven Spielberg, Garrison Keillor, dancer Maria Tallchief, BAM's Harvey Lichtenstein and George Segal.
With Miss LeNoire co-starring in a hit TV series, AMAS needed a full-time A.D. Donna Trinkoff came aboard and, as Rosie entered a long period of illness and on her death, continued the mission and the tradition of multi-cultural casting began by Rosie. Under Trinkoff, AMAS has become a leading not-for-profit lab for new musicals, including the very recent Wanda's World, Shout!: The Mod Musical, Lone Star Love and Zanna, Don't.
Remembering Virginia Capers
South Carolina-born Virginia Capers studied voice at Julliard, but according to her son Glenn, a photographer, she was expelled when she became pregnant. She ended up as vocalist in a band heard on radio and which toured. She found roles on Broadway in musicals, 1957's Jamaica, which starred Lena Horne, and 1959's Saratoga, set in the 1880s in New Orleans and New York. From the early 60s on, she was cast in ever larger roles in TV drAmas.
Glenn Capers said, because she was black, his mother spent a lot of her life being told she should sing the blues. That wasn't her plan. In fact, she diligently fought black stereotypes. "Though Mother often found herself in those roles out of necessity," he said, "she was eventually allowed to become more 'professional,' playing nurses and judges - any role other than the poor, single Mom struggling to make it."
Her her first starring role on Broadway came in 1973 when she won the coveted role of Lena Younger in musical adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun, called Raisin. She opened to great acclaim and was nominated for and won the Tony, the first black woman to win solo.
The landmark for blacks on Broadway was 1950 when the Juanita Hall became the first African-American to win a Tony, for her acclaimed featured role as Bloody Mary in R&H's original Tony-winning South Pacific. Fifteen years later, Leslie Uggams won in the Actress, Musical, category for her performance in the Tony-winning Best Musical, Hallelujah, Baby!. But it was a tie, with Patricia Routledge - yes, later to become TV's Hyacinth Bucket and Hetty Wainthropp - in the short-lived Darling of the Day.
"Raisin was her true love," recalls Glenn. "No one expected her not to win the Tony [that year's Tony category had Miss Capers up against only Carol Channing in Lorelei and Michele Lee in Seesaw]. That night, I watched in silence as she got ready. On the way to the theatre, I slipped her a note saying this was going to be her night, as other blacks had had theirs for the trails they blazed. I felt their spirits were guiding her.
"When the envelope was opened," he continues, "and from the silence her name sprang out, Mom lifted out of her seat as if on wings. She started toward the stage, turned back and hugged me. 'It's mine!,' she whispered. Afterward, everyone gathered around wanting to touch her and share her moment of joy. It was like a revival meeting! Her winning was Mom saying to all those with dreams and aspirations, 'Yes, you can do it!'"
In the press room, according to Glenn, the reporter from The New York Times rushed passed her to interview Channing and Lee. "He didn't seem to care that history was made that night. But Mom stomped her foot down and said, 'Excuse me! I am the Tony Award winner. You interview me!' He did, and it appeared the next day.
Miss Capers went on to play Lena Younger in Hansberry's play, but didn't appear on Broadway again. For her role in an episode of TV's Mannix, she earned her a 1973 Emmy nomination. In the 70s into the late 89s, she was featured in such major films as The Great White Hope, Lady Sings the Blues and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. She founded and acted with the Lafayette Players, a Los Angeles repertory group comprised mostly of black actors.
Virginia Capers died, after a long illness and many complications following heart problems, cancer and hip replacements, in L.A. in 2004. She was 78.
"Mom's last wish," says Glenn, "was to make sure all races and nationalities could be identified for their accomplishment in theater." He explains there's no record of her attending Julliard, where she became close friends with Mississippi-born Leontyne Price, who went on to international fame in opera.
Actors Union Has Fought Inequality
Actors' Equity was one of the first unions to stand up against "Jm Crow." In 1944, the union created a committee to assist minority actors turned away on the road from segregated hotels. Jose Ferrer, who co-starred with Paul Robeson in Othello on Broadway, was outraged by segregation and announced he'd never perform in front of a segregated audience.
Two years later, Ingrid Bergman and the cast of Joan of Lorraine, complained to AE about audience segregation at the legit theatres in Washington. The union took a strong stance stating that unless the situation was remedied, they would forbid members to play there. The policy was reversed, a milestone in the early days of the civil rights movement.
Equity continued to monitor segregation and announced in 1952 that its members would not perform in South African theatres while apartheid existed. AE sponsored showcases for casting directors and producers to push non-traditional casting.
The union also used its clout to defeat racism through collective bargaining. In 1961, AD and the League of American Theaters and Producers [now the Broadway League] agreed that no member of Equity would be required to perform where discrimination was practiced and the Ethnic Minorities Committee was formed.
In 1964, Fredrick O'Neal, one of the founders of the Negro Actors Guild, became the first African-American president of Actors' Equity. By 1980, all Equity contracts contained clauses encouraging the casting of actors of color, actors with disabilities, women and seniors.
Bert Williams: Forgotten Black Star
Camille Forbes introduces us to a long ago world of intense racism in America, but a world where the color barrier was broken on Broadway and a medicine show performer became a star in Introducing Bert Williams [Basic/Civitas Books, 404 pages; Photos, index, extensive bibliography; SRP $27.50}
Born in the West Indies, his dream from childhood was to become a song and dance man. From Wild West touring troupes, Williams landed on the Great White Way, where he not only became one of the first blacks to break through but also changed the face of the American stage. Forbes argues that every black performer owes something to Williams, who rose through vaudeville in New York to become a Broadway composer/lyricist, with his first show produced in 1889. He debuted as a performer the following year.
In 1903, he was featured in the first all-black cast on Broadway in the musical farce In Dahomey. The score, not by Williams, consisted of the no-longer politically correct "When Sousa Comes to Coontown." Three years later, he composed and starred in the musical comedy Abyssinia.
In 1910, Williams became the first black star of the fabled revues of beautiful girls, the fabled Ziegfeld Follies. The impresario knew he was making a bold move, and he was severely criticized for integrating the company by many of his investors and audience members. Williams, singing his signature tune "Nobody" and doing rubish comedy, played on the same stage as Fanny Brice and W.C. Fields [even if his salary wasn't comiserate with theirs]. He starred in seven more editions before his death in 1922 at 47.
Inspite of his triumphs, Williams was often viewed by the black community with more critical suspicion than admiration because he performed in blackface and the fact that he didn't use his stardom as political or civil rights activism.
His was a remarkable performer, but Forbes, a historian, critic, and performer who holds Ph. Ds in history and American civilization from Harvard and who's an assistant Literature professor at the University of California, San Diego, but also offers a realistic glance at his inner turmoil.
Williams was to see fame again on Broadway when his songs were used in Bubbling Brown Sugar and the 1980 revue Tintypes.
Unusual Passage
By
Rob Lester, CD and Cabaret reviewer, New York City
March 31, 2008
An original retro-jazz-vocalist with a unique "new-old" approach, Julian Yeo blends old school soul with known quality of today (and sometimes with a twist). His latest album "Unusual Passage" is an experience that's quaint but highly addictive.
It has been an uncommon musical path for vocalist Julian Yeo. He has had some unusual passages - so here is the guided tour for that trip.
His path to singing in the nightclubs of New York City began many miles away. An Australian of Asian descent, Julian was a shy kid miles and decades away from his own personal musical heroes like dapper Fred Astaire gently crooning and tap dancing his way across a Hollywood soundstage. "When I hear Fred Astaire singing Irving Berlin songs like 'I'm Putting All My Eggs in one Basket' or 'Isn't this a lovely day (to be caught in the rain)?'; no matter what mood I'm in, these songs always bring a smile to my face," he says.
Though he has always loved singing, his practical side found him studying accounting and finance. It was an offer to teach theories in that field and the stock market world, not an opportunity performing, which brought him to the United States. Soon he was a button-down professor teaching at Columbia University. Being in New York City, his passion for singing led him to many open-mic events that are part of the vibrant Manhattan's cabaret and jazz scenes. At these opportunities, it was his unusual charming retro and highly stylized vocal quality that caught the attention of club booking managers and like-minded musicians who then collaborated with him. Soon, Julian was gaining regular bookings at nightclubs in New York City.
It's not surprising that a retro sound comes so naturally to him. Singers from the 1920s and 30s are what he most likes listening to: Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, Rudy Vallee, Arthur Tracy ("The Street Singer"), early Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, vocalists from the "sweet bands". But Julian Yeo is not satisfied to just do a copycat re-creation. "I am a throwback, I guess," Julian explains. "It's a very intentional homage, but to do so slavishly is rather pointless. People can still listen to those old records any time. I want to bring the essence of that innocent, timeless sound with a slightly hipper, knowing quality of today and sometimes even with a darker twist." Fortunately, he's found an arranger, Jesse Gelber, who knows how to bring a contemporary sensibility to the old songs that works. Today meets yesterday, melding instead of colliding. It really is an unusual passage.
Julian Yeo is about reconnections rather than antiques. In the song "Too Close for Comfort," Julian entertains both the perils and pleasures of proximity, even cutely inserting his own spoken addition, "There could be serious consequences." Romance can be a chance for losing control and/or gaining a forever partner, a little dance with danger, and why not enjoy it all?
A couple of the songs have had unusual passages of their own. "I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan" by Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz, for example, was first written as a camp song when Schwartz was a counselor at a boys' camp, with another camp staffer - Lorenz Hart. They called it "I Love to Lie Awake at Night" about the wonders of camp life as opposed to the ups and downs of possible romantic entanglements. Julian finds the easy-going side of the song, as silky smooth as the blue pajamas mentioned in its second lyric.
Julian's unusual passage can be a detour to "Hernando's Hideaway" for pure escapism. Or, he can travel and stay for a while in more emotional waters. His version of the 1960s' movie title song "Charade" lets him actually drop the charade and reveal his heart and genuine emotional side with vulnerability and bittersweet qualities in full bloom. As he sings about being "lovers until love left the masquerade," there's a real sense of grown-up loss. You sense that maybe he's been through a couple of those unusual passages himself.
A real sense of joy and playfulness is clear in his singing. Julian is a guy who'd be very comfortable with a big fedora, a megaphone, and totally at ease in a time warp! The smile comes through and is contagious. Quaint, perhaps, but also disarming and worth giving into. Unusual to some ears at first, it may seem natural and addictive soon enough - as much as one song choice, "You're Getting to Be a Habit with Me", happily surrenders to getting used to the way a romantic partner's "every kiss, every hug seems to act just like a drug."
Who knows where his next passages will bring him? Meanwhile, enjoy the ride. He sure is doing so. Join Julian for two CD release events. Julian Yeo and his band will give a free half-an-hour concert as part of the "Any Wednesday Series" at Barnes & Noble (Lincoln Triangle - 66th and Braodway)" on April 16th 6pm. The official CD release concert will be held at the Iridium Jazz Club on May 23rd, Friday, at 7pm.
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Reviewed by Judd Hollander
Bill Connington brings to life one of the most fascinatingly repulsive characters to come down the pike in a long while, playing a psychopathic serial killer in the one-person play "Zombie." Based on the Joyce Carol Oates' novella, directed by Thomas Caruso and presented by Razors Edge Productions, Connington was also responsible for adapting the work to the stage.
To that end, Quentin P___ starts reading up on how one to perform a lobotomy, a procedure which is quite graphically described. (This show is not for the weak of stomach.) But more than simply relating these events, they're given enough vivid details to cause them to be recreated right before the audience's eyes, with Quentin reveling in his passions as he takes the audience through the process of attempting to create his most cherished desire. As well as angrily recalling some of the failures that went along with it. Just as intense is Quentin's way of attempting to create sympathy for himself as he continually (and quite convincingly to the uninformed) insists everything that happened was not his fault, but rather the fault of those who, in one way or another, preventing him from getting what he needed and deserved.
Connington is excellent in the role, bringing forth a kind of sinister fascination in regard to the character, a person you wouldn't want to be within 100 miles of, but who is so eerily compelling one is hooked by the performance and the story. Caruso's direction is spot-on, continually ratcheting up the tension and never giving the audience a chance to recover from one situation before leading them headlong into the next. Scenic design by Josh Zangen (basically a table, chairs and a few props) works perfectly and serves to add another layer to the seemingly insignificant but oh-so-dangerous Quentin. Lighting by Joel E. Silver worked well.
Garnering kudos as the "Fringe Festival's" contribution to family fare, "The Seven Little Foys" takes a contemporary look at the family act that quickly became a national institution in the early 1900's. 
The creation of the family act is urged by George M. Cohan (played by Ryan Foy and actual great-grandson of Eddie Foy). When Eddie (played by Michael Townsend Wright) says he wants his children to have a college education, his good friend and vaudeville partner, Cohan counters that show business is in their blood. 
Town Hall closed its Second Annual Summer Broadway Festival's season with an explosion of All Singin' All Dancin' II created, written, directed and hosted by Scott Siegel and inspired by Fred Astaire, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Bob Fosse and Jerome Robinson that left the audience applauding and cheering uncontrollably.
It's been said "you can't go home again." But sometimes it's more a question of not really wanting go back even if one does have the chance, as noted in A.R. Gurney' well-executed work "Buffalo Gal."
However it quickly becomes obvious Amanda is terrified to be back on stage and would probably rather be anywhere else. All her attempts to be "one of the gang," i.e. living in the same hotel as the cast and taking the company van to work each day, as well as her endless emoting about the glories of the stage, only prove how much of a "star attitude" she has and how far out of her comfort zone she finds herself. Things aren't helped by her continual failure to remember her lines and that one of the leading actors (who she was looking forward to working with) dropped out of the show for a more lucrative gig. This leads Amanda to basically demand his replacement, one James Johnson (Dathan B. Williams), audition for her to make certain he's up to her standards.
There are a number of themes running through Gurney's text. Ones about choices made and roads not taken, about regrets and acceptance over incidents in the past, memories which can comfort and sustain you, and recollections which can envelop and destroy you if they can't be kept in perspective. The latter embodied by the sudden appearance of Dan Ruben (Mark Blum), a former wannabe actor and old love of Amanda; and who has become more than a little obsessed with her. But while Dan decided to go the safe route, getting married and becoming a dentist, decisions that cost him the freedom of an acting life, Amanda made hard choices and sacrifices of her own. In the end Gurney seems to be saying that we must all be able to live with our decisions, because we almost never get a chance to go back and change them.
Casting is letter-perfect. Sullivan is wonderful as the Waspish Amanda, with her superior attitude masking several deep fears, while at the same time putting the blame for anything that goes wrong (i.e. late contracts) on her people back in Hollywood. While she never lets her outside veneer down completely, there are times when she gives the audience a glimpse into the tired and insecure woman she has become. This allows one to understand the character and if not always sympathize with her, to at least see where she's coming from.
Regan works well as Jackie, the director of "Cherry Orchard." The character is also a sort of mouthpiece for Gurney, railing at how the "system" works and how we are all slaves to the almighty dollar (herself included). Jackie is also more of a realist than Amanda, in that the former faces reality head on, rather than being someone who tries to hide the truth beneath flowery words or a layer of agents. Williams is good as James, a journeyman actor with limited expectations; his dreams tempered by family responsibility and love for his hometown. Carmen M. Herlihy brings some nice charm and comic relief to the role of Debbie. An assistant stage manager, Debbie is also working on her thesis on the importance of amateur theatre in America, getting in a comment or to about the need government funding in that area (which got a big round of applause from the audience). James Waterston is fine as the company stage manager.
Fifty years ago Bert Stern filmmaker and one of the most prestigious photographer's of his time approached jazz impresario George Wein offering to shoot a movie depicting the legendary 1958 Newport Jazz Festival while capturing the exciting performances of legendary greats including Louis Armstrong, Chuck Berry, Thelonious Monk, Anita O'Day, Chico Hamilton and Mahalia Jackson.
Michael Feinstein, one of the greatest interpreters of the American Song Book, opened in Feinstein's at Loews Regency in an evening celebrating 50 years of Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe Award-winning lyricists Alan & Marilyn Bergman who were in the audience celebrating their 51st marriage anniversary. 