An Email I Received…

Someone sent me an email asking whether or not they could place advertising on my blog, after sending a reply to her, this is what I received:

HI Kevin,

I apologize; I believe I emailed you by mistake. I was looking for sites that were more geared to Broadway theatre blogging. Thanks for your response.

Betsy

I’m not sure if this is the funniest or saddest email I’ve had in regards to my blog (can it be both…?). Here’s an opinion poll – if I’m not a Broadway theatre blog, what should I be blogging about?

To quote that lady in the Post, “Only in NY, kids…”

Two a Day

After taking a two month hiatus, I finally made a triumphant return to the Great White Way. Alright, so it doesn’t actually call for a title song with high-kicks down a staircase, but it’s really good to be back in the Midtown area, inspite of the tourists. I convinced fellow blogger and regular partner in crime Roxie to play hooky from work (almost, she worked the morning) and have a two-show Wednesday with me.

First up was the Tony winning Best Revival of a Play, Boeing-Boeing (sad they relegated this to the off-air hour that wasn’t televised). It was my first time back in the Longacre since Well and the restoration is complete. Rox and I agreed that we didn’t particularly care for the peach-pink paintjob, but the hunter green seats are quite nice and more comfortable than I expected. All I can say about Boeing-Boeing is that it is a fast-paced, first rate and furiously funny production of a rather unremarkable farce. It’s a testament to the company that they can take something that in less capable hands would be lethal and turn it into a comic gold mine. The cast, extraordinarily directed by Matthew Warchus, stars my new hero, Mark Rylance in his Tony-winning Broadway debut, Bradley Whitford and Christine Baranski. The gist of it, Whitford is a savvy businessman in Paris is romancing three stewardesses from three different airlines (each from a different country), played by the gam-happy trio of Kathryn Hahn as the obnoxious American, Gina Gershon as the lusty Italian Gabriella and the scene-stealing, Tony nominated Mary McCormack as the German amazon Gretchen. (Note: Gershon was out, her understudy is the incredibly talented and uber-sexy Roxanna Hope). Rylance plays his childhood friend from Wisconsin, a naive sad sack type who gets thrust into the middle of the hectic day in which Whitford’s carefully calculated affairs collide with the inevitable date with oblivion. Rylance was endearingly funny, as he does his best to cover for his friend, getting more and more outrageous as the play goes on. Whitford excels as the swaggering businessman who suffers panic attacks when his careful existence is threatened. (One of the day’s highlights is when Whitford literally climbs the walls of his apartment while Rylance rolls himself under the carpet). Baranski is a delightfully droll highlight as the long-suffering yet chic maid Berthe. This is the first farce I’ve enjoyed in NY since the 2002 revival of the superlative Noises Off! and you know what? We could use more of this genre in NY. Whitford and McCormack leave the show this Sunday. The rest shall carry on the funny at the Longacre for hopefully quite some time. Here’s his hilariously offbeat acceptance speech at the 2008 Tony Awards, which consisted of his recitation of a prose poem:

In between shows we grabbed dinner at O’Lunney’s with my best friend Matt who happened to be in NY for some auditions where he and Roxie discovered the secret to interpretive dance in Sondheim. The results were nothing short of hilarious. Then as if the comedic gods were still smiling post matinee, an old guy walked into the restroom on Matt directly across from our table, at which point Roxie and I went into complete hysterics. (Who doesn’t love a little low comedy in real life?) Loving the O’Lunney pens, I made sure to grab a handful in the greatest tradition of Sophia Petrillo. (What? I love how they write!)

That night we took in The Marriage of Bette and Boo at the Laura Pels. So far, Roxie and I have taken in both Juno and Inner Voices because of great affection for Victoria Clark. Needless to say, we were going to continue the trend with this revival of Christopher Durang’s darkly absurdist comedy that deconstructs a complex marriage (ripe with Catholicism) over the course of 3o years. Clark was joined onstage by John Glover, Julie Hagerty (who shouldn’t be allowed to ever leave NY theatre), Kate Jennings Grant (whom I adored in Proof and is a decidedly lovely human being as well) and the standout, Terry Beaver, who dominates in the second act as Fr. Donnally, the family priest, with two glorious monologues about marriage and death (leading, respectively, a marriage counseling session and a funeral). One of the highlights of the entire day was the moment in which gives the congregation his impression of a piece of bacon in a frying pan. As someone brought up in the Catholic faith, with nine years of parochial school and countless years in choirs and as an altar server, I could relate to practically everything going on in the play, and laugh at it with knowing incredulity. Clark scored comedic pathos in a scene involving a birthday cake, quite possibly her best moment of the entire evening.

Non-sequitur: I was at one time an incredibly obedient practicing Catholic, so much so that it was thought I’d be a priest. Some even went as far as suggesting I’d be the first American pope. However, I had my “calling” in seventh grade when I decided that I wasn’t about to go through life without sex. Many people laugh when I relay this story.

Anyway, it’s definitely not a play for the faint of heart. The diabolically funny running gag of the play is that Bette constantly delivers stillborns, with the unceremonious dumping of the baby on the stage by the doctor, which eventually lends itself to swaddled bundle being tossed in from the wings. I imagine were I still a devout Catholic I might be offended at what was going on, but years of religious disillusionment open one’s mind to the appreciation of such goings on. (Oh the irony…)

As I type this, Adam LeFevre, who played Paul Brennan in Bette and Boo is currently on TV in a bit role on “Law & Order: SVU.”

It’s Official…

The majority of the original cast of August: Osage County will be reprising their roles for the original London company at the National Theatre later this fall. We first got wind of this about three months ago during Tony time. Michael McGuire, who assumed the role of Beverly Weston from the late Dennis Letts will reprise his performance as well as Molly Ranson, who replaced Madeleine Martin, who had to honor her contract for Californication, as Jean. Frances Guinan will not be in the ensemble as he is already slated to be in The Seafarer at Steppenwolfe this December. Paul Vincent O’Connor will assume the role of Uncle Charlie. They have yet to cast the role of Steve Heidelbrecht, currently played by Brian Kerwin at the Music Box in NY.

However, if you didn’t get a chance to see Deanna Dunagan, Rondi Reed and Jeff Perry all play opposite the magnanimous Amy Morton, here is the opportunity for you. August will run at the National from November 21 to January 21, 2009.

Anybody want to fly (me) out to London…? ;

Julia McKenzie’s "The Worst Pies in London"

We often think about our Angie or Patti (or Elaine or Sheila or Judy, et al), but here’s another solid interpretation of the great Mrs. L. offered by one of the premiere interpreters of Sondheim in the London theatre scene, Julia McKenzie. McKenzie was a lead in Side By Side By Sondheim, a fetching Sally in the London premiere of Follies in 1987 and was the Witch in the original London cast of Follies. She was also the person behind the early 90s revue, a follow-up of sorts to Side By Side called Putting it Together. She won the Olivier award for her performance in the RNT revival of Sweeney Todd and here the awards telecast performance, including the “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd, followed by her rendition of “The Worst Pies in London.”

Yes, records…

I like to browse. I like to rummage through things at most stores. You can put me in a supermarket or Home Depot and I’ll keep myself occupied for as long as necessary. But even moreso, I enjoy going through second hand stores, taking a look to see if I can find anything of interest.

For most of my life I’ve managed to collect a considerable collection of books, films and music. I’ve take an especial interest in discovering show music, and before I got my first CD player it was mostly in the form of records. Growing up in my house, my parents were a little behind the times on the music technology – it took them to 1995 to get their first CD player. Yeah, seriously. In fact, my father only got a CD player in his car for the first time in 2005. But anyway, for lack of the CD player, we did have a very nice unit that played records, cassette tapes and, get this, 8-tracks (I’ve never owned one of those). In fact, my first cast album was the original London cast recording of My Fair Lady, in all its lavish Columbia gatefold beauty, which I found in a used book store run by the local public library. I think it cost a quarter, along with several other LPs I picked up.

When I made the switch to CDs, I kept my LPs but didn’t give them as much play. It wasn’t until college that I started to get back into collecting cast recordings on LP. Looking to see what I could find in terms of releases and sleeves. It’s been a rather fun project, because going through a $.25 bin in a college town music store you’ll never what sort of surprises you’ll be in for. Add to that when I was living in New Paltz, NY (where I attended college), the two music stores would recognize when I came in and would advise me as to where I would find the most recent musical theatre records. (I think they were just grateful that someone was buying as much as I was).

Anyway, I managed to find a lot of treasures, many times 10 for a $1.00, inclusive of many recordings, some of which aren’t available on CD, such as Inner City, Illya Darling, Carousel studio cast with Robert Merrill, Patrice Munsel & Florence Henderson, and from the commonplace into the rare, a private label recording made of The Yearling, a disastrous 3 performance flop from 1965. So plain was it, there was no date, authors, labeling – nothing that would point it out that it was a show album.

I write this today because this morning I got up and left the house at 7:00 to drive to Stormville, NY with some friends of mine. Every major summer holiday they have a weekend vendor market in which you walk through an airstrip filled with booths from antiques dealers, retailers, or people just trying to unload their junk. The first time I went to this was in 2003, when elderly neighbors of mine gave me $150 to unload their truck for them and then reload it. I had the rest of the day to wander throughout. In browsing I found the original cast albums of The Unsinkable Molly Brown and High Spirits (both featuring the sublime Tammy Grimes). I immediately picked them up and much to my delight, discovered that they each contained the show’s original souvenir program as well.

I’ve been back several times since, voraciously poring through milk crate and box after milk crate and box just to see if there’s anything of use. The downside to this is that there are a lot of terrible things such as Rex Smith, The Bee Gees, countless “never heard of them” artists and such interesting things as “Do the Strip Tease” novelties. But it’s usually worth it. Last time I got a few show albums, Barbara Cook at Carnegie Hall, It’s Better with a Band, The Anna Russell Album? and The Bob Newhart Button Down Album, to name a few. While today wasn’t as successful as usual, I happened upon a mint condition LP of the original Broadway cast of 1776 for a $1. It may have been the only thing I bought (my hopes to discover LPs of On the Twentieth Century, A Time for Singing, Donnybrook! and Darling of the Day weren’t assuaged, but on the other hand they haven’t dashed either. (I know I can always check ebay, but part of the fun is finding them at such incredibly low prices).

While I know I’m going to sound a lot older than my 25 years, I can’t help but think about how much is lost in the music experience with downloadable mp3s. Sure, it’s the easiest thing to go to i-tunes and enter a search query and have it on your computer right then and there, but there’s none of the gratified satisfaction that comes from the effort put in looking for something. It’s for that reason I hope that while music stores may become about as hip as the Automat, they will never fully disappear. If you’re willing to look, you never know what surprises you may find.

The Drew Carey Show – "Brotherhood of Man"

If there was anything about The Drew Carey Show I enjoyed, it was its sense of the absurd. And that would of course include the cast spontaneously breaking into song and dance (much like the opening credits for the series). Here, Drew and the entire cast, along with guest star Hal Linden take on the “Brotherhood of Man” the fool proof showstopping eleven o’clock number from How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, even parodying the dialogue lead-in and lines interspersed throughout. Two notes: They are using the original 1961 arrangement and Mimi taking on the Ruth Kobart (the original Miss Jones onstage and onscreen) vocal line is an inspired choice, wouldn’t you agree?

Happy Birthday, Michael Jeter

Today would have been Michael Jeter’s 56th birthday. Jeter, whose career as an actor spanned from his film debut in Hair in 1979 to an Emmy award winning turn on “Evening Shade” to Mr. Noodle on “Sesame Street,” was an impressive character actor who made his mark in every medium possible. His greatest career triumph arrived in the role of terminally ill Otto Kringelein the 1989 musical Grand Hotel, a role for which he received the Drama Desk and Tony awards for Best Featured Actor in a Musical.

Grand Hotel, which was one of the big successes of the 1989-90 season, features some of the most profound direction that has been seen in a musical. With Tommy Tune at the helm, the show was culled from the wreckage of the 1958 out of town closer, At the Grand, with a score by Wright & Forrest of Kismet fame, as well as a book by Luther Davis. When Tune came on the scene as the show was struggling in Boston, he also brought in Maury Yeston who added a few songs and helped turn the show into a solid seamless piece. Grand Hotel ran for 1,017 performances,winning additional Tony awards for Tune’s staging and choreography, Jules Fisher’s lighting and Santo Loquasto’s costumes. (The big best musical winner was Cy Coleman’s jazz noir musical comedy City of Angels). The original cast starred David James Carroll, Liliane Montevecchi, Karen Akers, Jane Krakowski, Timothy Jerome, and of course Jeter.

Carroll was forced to leave the show early in its run when he was stricken with AIDS (further sadness came when he passed away in the recording studio, just before they were to record his numbers for the original cast album). Replacing him in the show (and eventually on the album) was Brent Barrett, with whom Jeter performed the show’s unabashedly jubilant showstopper – one of the best in the American musical theatre, “We’ll Take a Glass Together” on the Tony telecast in 1990.

Moments later, it was time for the Featured Actor in a Musical award. Jeter offered the world one of the most moving acceptance speeches seen on a Tony telecast

Jeter was diagnosed with HIV in 1997, but his tragic death in 2003 came from a epileptic episode combined with asphyxiation. The world lost one of its great talents much too soon. Just thought it would be nice to remember him on his birthday.

Quote of the Day

“It’s finishing the hat. You get completely entranced. The world disappears and you’re with your own imagination, and it’s really fun,” he says. “Starting the hat is hard. Finishing the hat is fun.”

– Stephen Sondheim on why he hasn’t retired and remains excited about work. Excerpted from Jeremy McCarter’s profile on the composer in this week’s New York Magazine.