"Suck it, Rose’s Turn!"

The hiatus was brief, I am fully recharged (for now) and it’s all thanks to some vampire killing I witnessed last evening.

Sunday was another two-a-day for me. I went to August: Osage County for my fourth and possibly final dinner engagement with the Weston clan, which was also the final performances for Jim True-Frost and original cast members Troy West, Sally Murphy and Amy Morton (who for me was the reason to see the show so many times). There isn’t much to add to what I’ve said about the play – it remains one of the most vibrant, unnerving productions currently playing in New York. Though, one of the biggest gasps of this audience was new to me – the older crowd seemed agog at the incredibly rapid pace with which Estelle Parsons climbed two flights of stairs at the end of the third act. Long may the show run. (I say I’m done…but if anyone wants to fly me to England and put me up for a week, I’ll more than gladly see the show again!)

With little time to spare, I ducked of the Music Box and crossed Broadway to get over to the Lyceum for the closing performance of [title of show]. Excuse me, I meant to say the [title of show] pep rally, which is how the cast and creative team decided to view the end of their run. I was supposed to go with a good friend of mine who really wanted to see the show. I picked up tickets on a whim last Wednesday and all seemed set. Until I got out of August at 6:25 to discover a voicemail from my friend informing me he was stuck in traffic near Reading, Pennsylvania, and that he wasn’t going to make it.

So at 6:30 I’m calling the few numbers I have in my cell phone looking for someone I know who would just want to take the ticket. After twenty minutes of dead ends, I got a call back from Sarah, who is always up for shenanigans, especially theatre related. Besides, from a personal perspective I wanted to extend the ticket to someone I knew before I handed it over to a stranger.

There’s always an intensity and energy surrounding a big performance. However, I don’t think there are many that could compare with the pep rally last evening. First off, it was a wonderful sight to see the Lyceum packed to the hilt. (Though the balcony usher was a rather bizarre fellow, I’m guessing they don’t get too many people up in the rafters at this flop-prone house). There was intense screaming for Larry as he made his way to the keyboard. Then a full house standing ovation for Jeff and Hunter as they made their first appearance. The show was a mess of energy – an mutual admiration society between stage and audience. Unlike some closings, this didn’t feel really have the usual tinge of melancholy. Yes it was sad that the show was closing prematurely, but there was a celebratory feeling and one that this wasn’t the end of the road. For Jeff Bowen, Hunter Bell, Heidi Blickenstaff and Susan Blackwell (and Larry Pressgrove), it’s certainly a new beginning. I can’t wait to see what they come up with next.

I witnessed the longest mid-show standing ovation I’ve ever seen in the theatre for “Nine People’s Favorite Thing.” I’ve been to opening nights, closing nights, post-award performances, one night concerts and have witnessed the phenomenon (and this includes the Madame Rose of both Bernadette Peters and Patti LuPone). The Routledge went on for three minutes and fifteen seconds (topping the previous s/o for Heidi’s “A Way Back to Then” just moments prior) and will remain one of the most extraordinary theatregoing experiences I’ve ever had. The title of my post was my facetious verbal response to the ovation.

My appreciation of this show seems to have surprised many who thought I wouldn’t like it. It felt as though I was watching a show put on friends. Not just kindness being polite either I might add, I felt that they had something relevant to say and said it with idiosyncratic charm and heart. I wish the show could have run longer, but I’m glad they had the opportunity. Anyhow, it was the sparkplug I needed to slay a few vampires of my own and become nine people’s favorite thing.

[quote of the day]

“Lots of folks have asked ‘How you guys doing?’ or ‘How do you feel?’ and the answer is, a lot of different emotions. When our ‘pep rally’ date was first announced (we prefer to call it a pep rally…closing night sounds too final), we were super sad for like 48 hours. We cried, got angry, sad (sangry)…all of it. However, pretty quickly on came this wave of creative energy and excitement about all the possibilities for the future of [tos]. Truth is, Jeff and I succeeded the day we wrote down the first words of this show. Anytime anyone breaks through and starts to create something they love, they have succeeded. [title of show] is about not being afraid to dream out loud. Our dream was to tell this story on a Broadway stage, and with courageous producers and investors and blood sweat and tears from all the folks in our [tos] family, that dream is happening. While this [tos] chapter at the Lyceum is done on the 12th, I know that this journey is far from over. One of our awesome [tos]ser fans sent us this Louis L’Amour quote that says: ‘There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning.’ I love that. So we’re hitting pause this Sunday and then next up…maybe [tos] in some other cities and then back to New York (we want to have to get tuxes and dresses for the Broadway prom…also known as the Tony Awards!), plus a [tos] TV show, and we’re still keen on a [tos] blimp and theme park, too!”

Hunter Bell to Playbill.com – 10/10/08

"On the Twentieth Century"

The first time I listened to the original cast recording of On the Twentieth Century was in April 2001. I can recall this because it was the first time I ever went to New Paltz, NY, where I ended up going to college. I had been borrowing a lot of cast albums over the previous weeks from the local library, hearing scores like Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, The Secret Garden, She Loves Me and many others for the first time. The reason I had picked it up was because the musical originally starred the late, great Madeline Kahn in a high coloratura soprano role. That was enough to make me go “Hmm!”

On the Twentieth Century was based on Twentieth Century, a 1930s play by Ben Hecht and Charles MacDonald (itself a reworking of Charles Bruce Millholland’s unproduced Napoleon of Broadway about his experienced working under flamboyant impresario David Belasco) and probably most famous as the Howard Hawks’ 1934 screwball comedy film classic starring John Barrymore and Carole Lombard. The story centers around a flamboyant impresario (go figure) named Oscar Jaffee, who is down on his luck as a producer and director. Facing flop after flop, he is determined to win back his own Galatea, an Oscar winning Hollywood star Lily Garland, who was once his former lover. The play (and musical) is mostly set aboard the 20th Century Ltd, a luxury liner train that used to run between Chicago and NYC in 16 hours.

Anyway, the ride got off to a great start as I listened to what is one of the most unique and well orchestrated overtures in the entire musical theatre canon. When I say this is a phenomenal overture, I mean it I repeated it immediately. The overture just screams of farce and operetta. It was love at first listen. The score (by Cy Coleman and Comden & Green) has become one of my all-time favorites.

Joining Madeline Kahn were John Cullum, Imogene Coca and Kevin Kline. The show opened at the St. James Theatre in NY in 1978. The show was a big critical success, earning kudos for its screwball antics, pastiche operetta-spoof score, the performances. Robin Wagner received incredible acclaim for his Art Deco flavored set design. Direction was provided by Harold Prince in a rare musical comedy project (musical theatre of the 1970s was all but defined by his darker conceptual collaborations with Stephen Sondheim).

The show also had the distinct privilege of bringing Judy Kaye to the forefront of musical theatre actresses. She was hired by Prince as an understudy for Kahn. However, Kahn was having vocal problems (evident at certain points on the original cast album) and left the production two months after the opening night, with Kaye taking over the lead (in the “overnight star sensation” mold), though there have been long established rumors of clashes with Prince. Kaye received the Theatre World award and a nomination from the Drama Desk awards for her performance. However, the awkward came from the Tony committee – they nominated Kahn, as per their rules that only the originator of a role can receive the nomination (the only exception to this rule was Larry Kert, who replaced Dean Jones early in Company).

The musical won five Tony awards. Best Actor for Cullum, Best Featured Actor for Kevin Kline, Book, Score and Set Design. Best Musical went to Ain’t Misbehavin’. The show ran for a little over a year, closing after 449 performances. Kaye went on national tour with Rock Hudson and the show opened in London in 1980 starring Keith Michell and Julia McKenzie (which went unrecorded) running for 165 performances. Kaye and Coca went on a bus and truck tour in the mid 80s with Frank Gorshin. However, the musical has only been seen in NY once since its original production, as a concert for the Actor’s Fund in 2005 with Douglas Sills and Marin Mazzie. It seems highly unlikely, given the revival of Twentieth Century by Roundabout that there are any plans for a full-scale revival of the musical, but it’s definitely a musical that deserves to be seen and heard.

Sarah, Noah and I had the great privilege earlier that very year of seeing Kaye perform the song “Never” at the Theatre World awards. The woman is, in short, a wonder. Anyone who saw her dynamo performance in the short-lived Souvenir can attest to that.

Here is the Tony Awards performance of the title song featuring the entire company:

Would I chuck the old acquaintance?

Ditch the auld lang syne…?

So it has been 525, 600 minutes since I inaugurated the “Theatre Aficionado at Large” blog. First of all, I’ll write this inane sentence for those who know me in order to give them a chance to get over the fact that I have referenced Rent for the first time in my writing. Anyway, it started one year ago today. It seems that a brief retrospective on the first year of blogging is absolutely obligatory and I would not want to overlook the opportunity to look back and contemplate the experience.

It had started on Sept. 30 of last year. I was at the Sunday evening performance of Spring Awakening and went to Starbucks with Sarah and Noah afterward. It was during our discourse that both insisted that I should be writing – and Sarah especially insisted that I should jump on the blog bandwagon. I’d been keeping up with her blog for the few months prior and it certainly seemed like an interesting. Anyway, I thought about it for a couple of days and this site was born. I had no expectations, I just figured I’d do it.

Truth be told, I never thought that my blog would have any sort of longevity, which is why the first few several months didn’t have that many posts. I wasn’t sure exactly what I would write about, nor if I would have the time or discipline to keep it up. So the person most surprised that I’m keeping this up is me.

Blogging has proven a most incredible opportunity. I have met so many people who’ve become an integral part of my life whether it be here online or over brunch in Joe Allen’s. There’s this unending generosity of spirit and conversation that ensues whenever we meet, greeting strangers like old friends and carrying on as if these friendships had existed always. There’s also the added bonus that none of the bloggers I’ve encountered so far have likened themselves to the cattier posters on the All That Chat and Broadwayworld messageboards. Suffice it to say, it’s nice to be able to share what I know and what I think with such stellar company. So to Esther, Steve & Doug, Chris, Alicia, Kari, Eric, Jimmy, the immortal Roxie and especially my beloved Lady Iris, Sarah, thanks for a merciful year. And to all of you, thanks for reading. You have no idea how much that means to me.

Now if this blog entry were a musical, this would be heading into a raucous eleven o’clocker right now. And if you haven’t guessed it already, I feel Patricia Routledge summed it up best with hers in Darling of the Day. Enjoy.

Also note: The song is also among the tracks in my brand new shiny playlist courtesy of BroadwaySpace in the upper right hand corner. So now you can listen to some of your favorites – and mine as you read.

Home Sweet Heaven

Alright, so it’s not a revival of High Spirits, but I can barely contain my excitement at the idea of Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit coming back to Broadway. The 1941 play, about the chaos that ensues when a man’s dead wife is resurrected during a seance, was last seen on Broadway in 1987 starring Richard Chamberlain, Blythe Danner and Geraldine Page.

The revival is going to be directed by Michael Blakemore and it was just announced today that the production is going to star Christine Ebersole as Elvira, the first (deceased) wife. I’ve heard the producers want Angela Lansbury for the role of the eccentric medium Madame Arcati, a role written for Margaret Rutherford (and subsequently played by Mildred Natwick in the original Broadway cast and by Bea Lillie in the musical adaptation, High Spirits in 1964). Lansbury has apparently gone on record saying she wouldn’t take on any more stage roles after the taxing production of Deuce. Let’s hope that producer Jeffrey Richards and Blakemore can convince her otherwise!

Other casting is pending. Any thoughts on who should round out the play?