Author: Chris Van Patten

Eartha Kitt Makes an Entrance

Which might be one of the grossest understatements I’ve ever made. In 1978, the late, great Eartha Kitt made a comeback on Broadway in Geoffrey Holder’s revision of Kismet retitled Timbuktu! The new musical adapted the book and score of the original, transporting the setting from Baghdad to the eponymous African oasis. Kitt took on the role of Shaleem-La-Lume, originated in the earlier musical by dramatic soprano sexpot Joan Diener, and was given a brand new song (since “Not Since Nineveh” is topical to Baghdad) called “In the Beginning, Woman.” In the new song, she sensuously dispels the Biblical myth of whom God created first. The revision played the Mark Hellinger Theatre for 221 performances in 1978, costarring Melba Moore and Gilbert Price, before going out on national tour. Unfortunately, no cast album was produced. Though playing a supporting role, Kitt took top billing and walked away with the show and a Tony nomination for Lead Actress in a Musical. She got a star entrance so opulent and grand, it brought down the house every night. And now here it is, enjoy:

Broadway Commercials, Part 1

Would you have paid to see the shows based on these commercials? I think the audience testimonial about Cyd Charisse in Grand Hotel is my favorite. More to come!

Evita:


Grand Hotel & The Will Rogers Follies:

Grind:

The King and I:

Fiddler on the Roof:

Ballroom:

Nine:

Big River:

Carrie:

Nick & Nora:

Offstage Whispers

From the January 1976 Playbill of Pacific Overtures, I found this amusing featurette written by Walter Vatter and wanted to give you a glimpse into the theatre of the period.

Clive Barnes on Carol Channing: “Who wouldn’t like her? It’s the only time in your life you enjoy being hit by a car with its headlights on!”

Elizabeth Ashley on Tennessee Williams: “Usually an actress looks at a script and thinks, how am I going to wrap my mouth around this junk. Not so with Tennessee.”

Rita Moreno on the matinee ladies: “Those blue-haired ladies have the dirtiest laughs in town.”

Nicholas Dante (author of A Chorus Line) on Michael Bennett (director): “He wanted to illustrate the humanism among the dancers in the gypsy community as well as the brutalism.”

Julie Harris on the 30th anniversary of her career in the theatre – “It feels like it doesn’t belong to me.”

Morton Gottlieb (producer of Same Time, Next Year) on the city of Boston: “The Colonial is one of the most beautiful theatres in the world. I love the restaurants in Boston and Elliot Norton (Boston Record American) is a very fair critic – someone whose criticism is a big help.”

Geraldine Page on playwright (The Norman Conquests) Alan Ayckbourn: “The similarity between Ayckbourn and Neil Simon is that they both write a lot of plays and sometimes have two shows on the same street at the same time. And both of them have the same message – They want us to straighten out fast.”

Tom Stoppard (author of Travesties): on the theatre: “Theatre is a series of small or large ambushes.”

Clive Barnes on Clive Barnes: “God wanted me to become a critic because He wanted me to go to the theatre almost every night of my life, but He did not want me to buy tickets.”

Is it two years already?

Well, would you believe it? Today marks the second anniversary of the blog. I could have sworn it was some time next week, but lo and behold here we are! It was two years ago that SarahB and Noah successfully convinced me that I needed to start blogging. Given my track record with such personal projects, I never realized that I had the focus to maintain a site regarding my thoughts and interests for this long. This past year I’ve seen the site grow in ways I could never have expected or imagined; meeting all sorts of wonderful new people from other blogs and around the internet. I’ve seen more theatre in the last year than any other time of my life. I’ve gotten accustomed to such technological hijinks as the flipcam and skype. There have been some incredibly surreal moments as my blog has introduced me to many professionals within the industry. I am most grateful to all of you who actually care what I have to say, and I always appreciate your comments, emails and tweets. And for those of you I see on a regular basis, I am most appreciative of your friendship and the good times we’ve had as well as those that are to come. Here’s looking toward an even better year three!

"America Will Be…"

What can I say? I love a good opening night. The stars are out, the excitement is high and you are usually privvy to a rather impressive night of theatre. As luck would have it, I took in my seventh Broadway opening with the official arrival of Tracy Letts’ engaging new play Superior Donuts at the Music Box Theatre.

I met up with Steve on Broadway and his partner Doug at Angus, where we enjoyed a pre-show champagne toast and were soon joined by Gil Varod of Broadway Abridged. As we made our way to the theatre, we encountered Tony-winner Elizabeth Ashley in the outside hallway of the restaurant, where she was casually seated. Perhaps it was the champagne or the opening night aura or both, but I decided I just had to talk to Ms. Ashley, having enjoyed her work last season in both Dividing the Estate and August: Osage County. She is everything you would hope for in a stage legend: warm, congenial and quite the character. We excused ourselves when her friend and former co-star Penny Fuller arrived (another surreality) and found ourselves at the opening night red carpet.

We made our way into the theatre, where we perched ourselves next to the concession stand which was ideal for people watching – and very similar to the way SarahB, Kari and I experienced the opening night arrivals for August: Osage County a couple years ago. I spotted Alan Alda, Joan Rivers, Stephanie March, B.D. Wong, Tamara Tunie, Adam Guettel, Richard Thomas, Jonathan Groff, Elaine Stritch, Amy Morton, Molly Regan, Jeff Perry, Brian Kerwin, Lois Smith, John Cullum, Jim True-Frost, Dana Ivey, Jeff Goldblum, Bobby Cannavale, Karen Ziemba, Rex Reed, Liev Schreiber and perennial opening night favorite Marian Seldes, with whom I had the privilege of speaking after the performance.

Letts has done it again. Only three months following the close of Pulitzer and Tony winning juggernaut, August: Osage County, the playwright is back on Broadway with another thought-provoking, incisive and wholly different new play.

It must be difficult to follow-up a success like August, given the overwhelming critical and audience response, but Letts has done what only the best of writers can do: he’s come up with something new and entirely different. Superior Donuts opened at Steppenwolf in Chicago last summer to positive reviews, starring Michael McKean as an out of touch, emotionally stunted former hippie going through the motions as he runs his parents’ donut shop in uptown Chicago. The show met with positive reviews and big box office as a result of the buzz surrounding Letts, and now the play has opened at the Music Box Theatre with its entire original company intact.

McKean is perfectly understated as Arthur, the son of Polish immigrants who has inherited the donut shop which has been in his family since around the time of his birth. While Arthur has great difficulties communicating with the rest of his world, he opens up to the audience in painfully revealing monologues that provide important insight to the character and the drive behind his motivations. A draft-evader and former hippie whose time has seemingly past, Arthur is sleepwalking through life until he needs to hire a new assistant, which ends up changing his life considerably.

Jon Michael Hill, in the most auspicious Broadway debut we’re likely to see this season, is that new assistant, a young black man desperately in need of a job (see the play to find out why). His character, Franco Wilks comes into the shop with bold ideas, intelligence and his great American novel consisting of a dozen or so notebooks unceremoniously tied together. The dynamic and energetic Hill imbues Franco with an ebullient idealism which starts to stir Arthur from his antisocial stupor. At the heart of the play is the conflict between Arthur’s jaded cynicism and Franco’s seemingly unending optimism. Arthur unwittingly becomes the closest thing to a father figure in Franco’s life, and Franco is standing in for Arthur’s estranged daughter. They should engrave Mr. Hill’s name on the Theatre World Award now to save time. Prepare to hear his name mentioned a lot this spring during awards season.

Kate Buddeke is perfection as the awkwardly self-conscious Chicago cop with more than a fleeting interest in Arthur. James Vincent Meredith provides ample humor as her uber-serious partner, also a Star Trek enthusiast. Cliff Chamberlain and Robert Maffia are unsettlingly menacing as two low-end hoods who have their eye out for Franco. Jane Alderman is touching as Lady, the alcoholic and seemingly homeless woman who offers unexpected pearls of wisdom. Yasen Peyankov is the brash Russian immigrant who’s invested himself 100% in the American dream, who when he gets what he wants proves that one person’s achievement of the dream usually comes at a loss for someone else. Michael Garvey is his nephew. Looking like he stood in for Dolph Lundgren in Rocky IV, he’s quite possibly the purest character in the play, offering one of the most heartfelt moments onstage.

Director Tina Landau, who took on the project when Amy Morton decided to stay with the Broadway company of August: Osage County, has done concise work here in establishing the characters and the donut shop as the centerpiece of their world. Christopher Akerlind’s lighting design is beautifully understated, while set designer James Schuette creates an atmosphere so realistic, you can almost smell the donuts being made offstage, and feel the chill of the Chicago winter.

In reading the reviews and commentaries about the new play, I find it inevitable that the discussion would include comparisons and contrasts to August: Osage County. While there are obvious parallels, they are innately two entirely different kinds of theatre. August is the sort of grand, epic theatre that recalls American drama of the mid 1950s leaving you numb with catharsis. Superior Donuts is a lighter comedy, with a much more uplifting outlook on life. The American experiment mourned in the former isn’t entirely dead in the latter, even after considerable personal setbacks. I can understand comparing Superior Donuts to a socially aware 70s sitcom, but it seems like a gauche generalization of what is actually happening onstage. The play is what every substantial comedy should be – a drama that happens to be very, very funny. Mr. Letts’ latest work only proves that he fast becoming the most important contemporary American playwright.

What’s My Line: Helen Hayes

The First Lady of the American Theatre. That’s quite a moniker for any actress, but Helen Hayes MacArthur earned it. Hayes’ whopping 80 year career started when she was five years old. The diminutive actress was a major presence on Broadway from 1909 to 1970 and was one of the true American theatre stars. She had a film career, picking up two Oscars (one for The Sin of Madelon Claudet, the other for a comic supporting turn in Airport), but it is her work on stage for which she is so greatly remembered. She had a huge triumph in Victoria Regina that made two Broadway return engagements, and also played Mary Stuart in Maxwell Anderson’s Mary of Scotland. She received three Tonys: two for acting (Happy Birthday and Time Remembered), and one for lifetime achievement. Her final appearance on Broadway was as the long-suffering Veta in the 1970 revival of Harvey starring Jimmy Stewart, which they recreated for television.

I am fascinated with this clip, yet another from my “What’s My Line” obsession, because of the voracious response she receives from the audience – the sort of recognition even the most recognizable theatre stars of today would not receive (with the probable exception of beloved superstars like Angela Lansbury). She is also one of the few mystery guests to avoid simple yes and no answers, and assumes a character for her appearance. On top of it all, she’s also just so endearing and gracious. Enjoy.

My First Time

Well, at least it was the first time I judged. My earliest show memory is a vague recollection of a local production of Peter Pan. However, my earliest memory of seeing theatre, processing it and making a discerning opinion about it was a local semi-professional production of Annie when I was eight years old. Or at least I think I was eight. Whenever it was, the details surrounding my seeing said production aren’t as important as the impact it had on me.

I spent nine years as a student in Catholic elementary school. I was a pretty good student who was especially taken with music, something not lost on the music teacher, this terrific nun named Sr. Rose Marie. Had she not been called to the convent, I think she would have been a major Broadway soubrette, standing by for Angela Lansbury in Mame, etc. (If I think of one, I usually think of the other – they both are altos with distinctive timbres). I later learned that she was also a big fan of musical theatre, having seen the original production of South Pacific, among others, and she gave me some of my first cast albums (yes, records). She encouraged me to learn about music, watched as I started to play piano by ear and challenged myself to sing Schubert’s “Ave Maria.” I also joined the school choir, which she directed. She has had an enormous impact on who I am as a person, and as a student of music and theatre.

Oh, and some fun trivia: Sr. Rose Marie was part of the chorus that sang for Richard Rodgers when the composer visited Manhattanville College to research liturgical music for The Sound of Music in 1959.

But I digress… Anyway, my first year in the choir we were treated to a Christmas field trip, as a sort of thank you for all the holiday singing we’d been doing (the perennial favorite: the nursing home & senior center circuit). In fact, where we were going and what we were doing was a well-hidden secret from all of us. We didn’t really care much, as you can expect – getting to skip class and leave school is always a joy.

Well, details surrounding the production are sketchy. I was familiar with “Tomorrow” (is anyone not?) and had heard of the comic strip. I’d never seen the movie and was never into the strip itself (those Annie characters creeped me out with those dead eyes…) and would still rather read Calvin and Hobbes and Peanuts. The musical also explained to me for the first time why Annie was living with Oliver Warbucks.

So, the show got underway. Nice overture – still a knock-out with those trumpets. There were orphans, and an earnest redhead girl who couldn’t have been much older than myself who came out to sing what I would later learn was “Maybe.” Almost immediately I felt this sense of disdain; there was something about this that didn’t strike the right chord. She was the heroine, but why didn’t I like her? My disdain started to grow to sheer dislike as the first act progressed. Perhaps she was too cloying, too sweet for this orphan (if you look at Andrea McArdle’s performance from the Tony telecast, she at least supplied some sass). I cannot explain with clarity what it was about her performance that I disliked so much, the most vivid recollection is the garish wig they shoved on her at the finale (I’ve seen fake clown wigs that were more effective).

However, I knew the show wasn’t a total loss when this slatternly middle-aged woman, clasping a flask, whistle around her neck, entered and started tearing things up. Suddenly I was paying attention. The impression this woman made on me – an actress of whom I have no recollection. (My ticket stub and program are long lost). But it was she who single-handedly saved the afternoon from being a total bore. She had the best lines, the comic delivery and in the battle of Annie vs. Hannigan, I wanted Hannigan to win. I don’t know if that speaks more about this production or myself, but c’est la vie.

When all was said and done, I didn’t have much to say about the score, the book, the performances – except for this actress. And since the show was a surprise and essentially a group Christmas gift, it would have been rude for me to speak up and say I didn’t like it. On the bus ride home, I have what is my earliest memory of experiencing a headache. Coincidence…?

So much did I dislike the musical, I didn’t bother with either film version nor have I seen the show live. However about ten years down the road, the Broadway’s Lost Treasures series started airing on PBS and one of the clips was the original Broadway cast performing on the Tony awards. That was when I first experienced the magic of the late, great Dorothy Loudon, and made it a point to familiarize myself with the score, which has grown on me. I’ve always been so impressed that she took what is a comic supporting role and made it a star turn (not to mention winning the Best Actress Tony over McArdle).

If it weren’t for Miss Hannigan (and the long-forgotten actress that played her), I may have given up on stage musicals all together. Well, perhaps that’s not quite correct… if it weren’t for Miss Hannigan and Sr. Rose Marie.

Rebecca Luker: "I’ll Tell the Man in the Street"

I first encountered Rebecca Luker in the 2000 revival of The Music Man where she played Marian the Librarian opposite Craig Bierko’s Harold Hill. I thought she was merely capable until ‘My White Knight’ when she bowled my friends and I over, and stopped the show in one of the biggest ovations of many that evening. In 2002 she made an appearance with Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops for a centennial celebration of Richard Rodgers. The concert showcased Rodgers’ collaborations with Oscar Hammerstein and Lorenz Hart, and was aired in two parts on PBS. Here is Luker singing my favorite rendition of “I’ll Tell the Man on the Street” from I Married an Angel (lyric by Hart).