Jim Brochu to Interview Peter Filichia - Barnes & Noble, Nov. 30.

On Tuesday night at 7:30pm, Jim will interview Peter Filichia about his fantastic new book Broadway Musicals: The Biggest Hit & the Biggest Flop of the Season, 1959-2009.

Special guests will be NY cabaret legend, Steve Ross and hot new actor, Jake Wesley Stewart, who has just moved to New York. (He and I sang together a lot back in Los Angeles, where he was a sensation in the Celebration Theater production of "Altar Boyz.")

The book itself is beyond priceless, especially if you're studying theatre, or are interested in theatre. Far from being a "dry read," Peter tells all the backstage stories, analyzes why shows hit or flopped, and remembers great performers of the past and present.

I read the book a couple of weeks ago, and I sped through it so fast, my only complaint was that I wanted more! More! More!

GET  Broadway Musicals: The Biggest Hit & the Biggest Flop of the Season, 1959-2009 at Amazon.

Filichia: Jim Brochu A Generous Actor.

From today's theatremania column by Peter Filichia.

After Grisetti finished “The Joker” to tumultuous applause, Jim Brochu (Sir) came on to deliver his next line. But Brochu realized that the audience was in no mood to stop applauding, and far be it from him to prematurely take away even a second of it. He waited patiently, looking off into the wings, still in character, acting as if Sir were searching for something he’d misplaced. I love generous actors!

Brochu was equally marvelous, not going over-the-top, which is so easy to do with Sir. He trusted his material, and I trust that everyone enjoyed him as much as I. And, my, for a staged reading, did Brochu know every word of his songs! I surmised that he, like I, listened to the cast album incessantly when it came out in 1965. I asked him about it at the closing night party. “Yes,” he said, “but the reason I really remember it is because during the run I sold orange juice at the back of the Shubert.” Nice to have you out front, Jim.

Scottsboro Boys is a Storytelling Triumph.

Why, it's just a hat and cane show, isn't it? The kind that is usually built on corny jokes and silly routines? Isn't rock supposed to be more honest than Vaudeville?

The front of house is very old fashioned.
The colored lights are a great touch.

Thrilling, exhilarating, scary, uncomfortable, innovative, with not a wasted moment on stage, Scottsboro Boys is the kind of incisive and uncomfortable storytelling that leaves all the "entertainments" that have been passing for musicals behind in the dust.

This is how you tell a story.

Toward the end, there's a costume change that I read as a big F-U to the society that pretends to care about justice, but who is really just wanting another diversion until the next one comes along.

Kander and Ebb have never shied away from exposing hypocrisy and shame in our culture, and they don't shy away here.

The Lyceum is one of the oldest theaters on Broadway.
Built in 1903.

Classic style posters.

Jim Brochu ("Zero Hour," "Roar of the Greasepaint")

 You also won't see better performances, nor hear better singing. What a cast!! It's hard to know who to single out, because each performer has his moment to shine -- and just the SOUND of those voices when they harmonize sent shivers all up and down my spine, especially in songs like "Commencing in Chattanooga" where the simple pile of chairs has now been assembled into a train. The joy in their voices as these nine men, who had never met before, were feeling free, and on the road to a better life.

(They were wrongly accused of gang rape by two white women, who didn't want to go to jail for freeloading the train ride.)

Particularly bone-chilling is a hymn to Alabama, sung in the jail cell, that lays waste to every plantation song ever written. You really don't know whether to applaud or not, and that's not because of any fault of the staging. But, the whole story is just so tragic. And yet, here we laughing at it!

Two trial scenes bristle with sharp-edged sarcasm and anger. All of it in ragtime!

This is not a happy minstrel show. This is bone-rattling, nerve-twisting reality that smiles at you while twisting the knife in your gut. And they manage to do it over and over again, all through the piece, until you're left shattered.

Every song has a steely surprise and every scene subverts its show biz trappings. A hat and cane show, dancing and singing with leather electric chair hoods over their heads. It's the kind of thing you imagine Sondheim doing in that you get no quarter (though, of course, Kander and Ebb have been doing this almost from the beginning.)  No chance to just be entertained.

Neither does it merely skewer the easy target country rednecks who ruined these "boys" -- one was 12 -- lives, but also a liberal establishment where the fight for justice for them was little more than the fashionable and tabloid thing to do, forgotten as easily as last year's runway offerings in Paris.

I'm going to be thinking about this show for a very long time. It seems to be about the Scottsboro Boys. But, really, it's about us and what we are, and, maybe what we always have been.

The question is whether we have the courage to look into that musical mirror.

Hat and cane, indeed.

Grisetti & Brochu Do "Roar of the Greasepaint..." for Musicals in Mufti.

We've been holding back the news because we didn't want to get in the way of the York Theater's PR schedule, but Jim is gonna play the role of "Sir" in the Anthony Newley/Leslie Bricusse "Roar of the Greasepaint" with Josh Grisetti, a young singer, dancer and actor who is not only one of the hottest upcoming stars on the Broadway scene, but also, they'll be directed by the equally hot Marsha Milgrom Dodge, who directed and choreographed that incredible Tony nominated production of "Ragtime" last year, and the guy who played Coalhouse Walker in that production, Quinton Earl Darrington. (Even we didn't even know him until the announcement!).

This whole series, "Musicals in Mufti" -- "mufti" being an old fashioned word for street clothes -- is one of the most eagerly anticipated of the entire season. Many terrific musicals are rediscovered through programs like this and the York's is one of the favorite.

"Roar of the Greasepaint" produced several hit songs. Nina Simone's version of "Feeling Good" is a classic:



What I love is this sunny lyric juxtaposed with a sad, bluesy harmonic. Really nice.

This is gonna be fun.

I Loved YANK! at the York.

I cannot say enough good things about the new musical, YANK!, about two gay soldiers during WW2. (Jim and I have met a couple of WW2 couples down through the years).

I was captured from the first moment and it held me through to the end, especially Bobby Steggert (who I knew from a short stint on All My Children, and who was terrific in last season's 110 In The Shade), whose deeply emotional, and yet light-hearted, completely present performance left me with tears burning in my eyes and a lump in my throat.

Since I've never liked pastiche songs, written as if from the 40s, I approached this show with trepidation. But the score moved the show along beautifully, and though I wouldn't say the writers are in the same category as a Cole Porter, it didn't matter because, as a whole, the piece is a well-told story, directed with fluidity and magic.

The York should be very proud. A wonderful, wonderful show.

Jim Does Shaw Again.

Jim will be once again appearing in Project Shaw on February 15. The play is The Philanderer. It's part of a series where they do a staged reading of a different Shaw play a month at The Players.

Monday, February 15
7pm @THE PLAYERS

THE PHILANDERER
A topical comedy in four acts of the early Eighteen-Nineties
Written by George Bernard Shaw in 1893

ACT I: Mr. Joseph Cuthbertson’s Flat in Ashley Gardens.

ACTS II & III: The Library of the Ibsen Club in Cork Street.

ACT IV: Dr. Paramore’s Rooms in Savile Row.

Period: During the first vogue of Ibsen in London, after 1889.

THE PHILANDERER CAST:
Leonard Charteris - Mr. Chad Kimball
Mrs. Grace Tranfield – Ms. Julia Murney
Julia Craven – Ms. Cassie Beck
Colonel Daniel Craven, V.C. - Mr. Paxton Whitehead
Joseph Cuthbertson – Mr. Jim Brochu
Sylvia Craven – Ms. Emily Young
Dr. Paramore – Mr. Robert Stanton
Narrator – Mr. David Rooney

@THE PLAYERS
16 Gramercy Park South
(20th Street east of Park Av)
Produced and directed by David Staller.

Friends of Zero Mostel, a Panel Discussion.

If you're a theater lover, I think you will enjoy this stimulating discussion about Zero Mostel held at the Barnes & Noble book store at Lincoln Center in New York. So much theater history here, and frank talk about how Zero could be a very challenging person to work with, and to be around.

Famed lyricist of "Fiddler on the Roof," Sheldon Harnick, actress Frances Sternhagen, Lynn (Mrs. Burton) Lane, Louise Kerz Hirschfeld, Jim Brochu and host, Peter Filichia.

Jim Returns To Sardi's.

Busy Day.

This was a "hurry up and wait" day. It was also raining. Outside, the banner had been hung, so that people could now see that Zero Hour was HERE! It was so exciting to finally see it and to know we're here.

I know people who struggle their whole lives just to do this once, to have a show in New York. But for us, this is our third shot so, more than anything else, we feel lucky and thrilled and thankful. And especially with this show, which we believe to have so much important material.

The set was up by the time we got to the theater, but the stage is so gigantic that Jim decided to bring in the walls just a bit so that it would have a more intimate feeling. So we spent the day, mostly, sitting around letting the tech crew move everything in. Also, the big skylight, which will be more prominently featured in this production had to be moved. It hangs from the ceiling, and that took a couple of hours to redo.

Still, the important thing is to get it right. Today will be another tough day. First, we have to do the tech rehearsal which we couldn't do yesterday. And, then, tonight Jim will do a dress rehearsal for an invited audience.

You forget how much work goes into staging a show, even one as seemingly simple as this, with one set and one actor. You need a team of workers, busting their butts almost around the clock.

Then, tomorrow night, the first preview.

I have been taking lots of video, but no time to edit anything. Too much to do!

Cathy Renna is Cool.

Talking about Cathy Renna, who Jim and I had lunch with, yesterday, after way too many years, is difficult because she's a professional in this business, but she's also a friend. I was a guest in her home long ago, in Boston back when I was the "just back from the dead" songwriter doing AIDS education concerts, at colleges and universities, following the success of The Last Session in New York.

I think I was still very fragile back then. (I'm still fragile, but who isn't?)

She had a deaf cat. Its ears never moved. And we all bonded.

Over the years, as Jim and I did our thing out in California in theatre, Cathy became involved with GLAAD as their PR person, and our lives intersected again when both TLS and Big Voice in New York and L.A. became nominees (winning once).

On her own now, with Renna Communications Cathy knows everybody and, better yet, everyone knows Cathy, or who she is. She's based here in Washington, but has been out of town until now for personal reasons. This was our first chance to catch up. I was almost unable to speak. All I wanted to do was hug. (Maggie, who we also saw this week puts it, totally deadpan, "Oh, right. You're a hugger.")

After we got caught up on our personal lives -- she and her partner's daughter is a "girly girl" who loves princess parties, Jim's here with Zero Hour and headed for New York -- and after playing, as Jim put it, La Ronde, with our menu selections -- "I've decided to have what he wanted"-- we began discussing a Depression-era type experimental theatre project she's involved with: A sequel to The Laramie Project, where the cast has gone back to the town and come back with another play, once again transforming, but this time into the thing Laramie has now become, ten years down the road.

The two killers were interviewed. It should be hair-raising.

Only instead of one production, they're allowing 130 simultaneous productions -- of either this one or the original -- to be performed on different stages all on one night, October 6. Would this be, in effect, a virtual movie or tv show?

I thought, how ingenious of the writers back then. It was being "broadcast," but everyone's channel had a different cast.

It's retro, and yet it's cutting edge because with all our electronics, there is no substitute for the live human voice. Almost everything that humans have ever been invented to make a sound are doing so in order to copy or catch something the human voice does. Or to reach beyond it while still being a "voice."

A movie or tv show is one step removed from real life, pale imitations of the real thing you feel when live theatre is at its best. It's visceral.

Last night, one of our close friends, the wife of an ambassador, came up to me after the show and said, excitedly, "You know, I didn't see Jim tonight! I thought I was going to see Jim, the actor, but I didn't. It really felt like I was with Zero Mostel."

But enough rambling. Cathy Renna is cool.

From her website:

Bruce Shenitz | THE ADVOCATE | October 2009

Eleven years after Matthew Shepard’s murder, the creators of The Laramie Project take a look at everything that’s happened in the town since in a new play that will premiere in more than a hundred theaters worldwide on the same night.

Kaufman has said that by opening a play at different theaters on the same night, he is following in the footsteps of the Federal Theater Project, the New Deal–era program designed to employ out-of-work artists, writers, and directors and through which Sinclair Lewis’s play It Can’t Happen Here was produced simultaneously in 22 cities in 1936.

ON A PERSONAL NOTE:
In many ways, it's similar to the experimental theatrical project I have done with several student groups, including Northeastern University, where they cast and rehearse a staged concert version of The Last Session -- with me as Gideon, playing the score. They learn the music. I come in and stage it in a few days. Boom. We have a show, and everyone leaves, after laughing and crying for two hours.

I felt energized after talking to Cathy. She reminded me how much I love grass roots, community-based projects and programs, like I created and ran at NAS. The volunteer phone operator on the front desk who became the managing director almost overnight because we were broke and I was the last one left standing. Me and Danny Kirkpatrick and Paul Zollo. (To poor Paul, I was like, "Who the hell is he again?" To Danny, I was the one guy he could rely on to do make something happen so that we could stay open another month. I was inventing programs right and left. And one day, I created an artist development division, found a volunteer to staff it and and one day this nice, intelligent guy walked in the door and now he's Dan Brown, the biggest author in the world.

And I'm going to get his book today.

And I'm going to remember the power of being the volunteer front desk operator who comes in with an intention to just be useful.

Theodore Bikel Talks About "Edelweiss."

This is a session of theatre story-sharing between Jim Brochu and Theodore Bikel, who was in the original production of "The Sound of Music." He talks about the writing of the song "Edelweiss" -- and a funny story about the cast and some nuns.

The Presence & Politics of Zero Mostel.

In a new, very thoughtful review of "Zero Hour" in DC Theatre Scene, Josh Fixler, raises two aspects regarding Zero Mostel. (I warn the reader, it's quite complimentary of our Mr. Brochu.) My emphases:

The play treats us to an opportunity that may never have existed in life: to be present for an evening in Mostel’s private sanctuary, his art studio... In this way, the play doesn’t feel much like an interview, but more like watching the inner workings of Mostel’s mind. He interrupts himself, sometimes with a witty line, and sometimes because he appears to have forgotten what he is saying.. Brochu’s performance is a symphony of the wiggling eyes and silly facial expressions which made Mostel famous. From the moment the play begins, we are pulled in to a world of the gregarious, the witty, and the raunchy. His Mostel is both self-deprecating and everyone-else-deprecating. There is more than one joke made at a friend’s expense, but you can tell that it is done with the deepest of love (the same may not be said for the comments about the interviewer’s stature and clothing choices). And, the best part is, all of this is hysterically funny.

If it wasn't funny, it wouldn't be Mostel!

The other night, after the show, a man said to me, "The moment he turned around, I believed he was Zero and I just relaxed. I knew I was in good hands."

Peter Marks called it "verisimilitude," a word Jimmy can't quite pronounce, but it means feeling as if you're in the presence of the real thing. Or, as he put it, "the next best thing."

Jimmy has always said, of course, that nobody can really be Zero Mostel. He was one of a kind. Rather, he says, "Zero inhabits me."

It's sounds supernatural, but really, it's just acting. This is what the great actors do. They don't inhabit a character. They let the character inhabit them. And when they're in the zone, it appears effortless. But effortless is not the same thing as "easy." One younger audience member came up to Jim afterward and thanked him for the acting master class.

Frankly, I think the world could use a great, big dose of Zero Mostel. To feel the energy of that volcanic presence -- "self-deprecating and everyone-else-deprecating" -- must have been as hysterical as it was intimidating and scary.

But, I wanted to begin this blog with the above so that a reader not acquainted with the play, would know that the piece itself is not a polemic, but a great entertainment. But Zero is not afraid to express his political opinions.

Mostel was quite a troubled man, and his boisterous persona often gives way to brokenness and anger. The portrayal is manic, an art of extremes, and the versatile Brochu goes from shouting to whispers and back again, sometimes in a single sentence. He captures the devastating effect that being black listed had on the actor.

Rent two movies: The original "The Producers" with Zero and Gene Wilder, a movie that almost didn't get released. Watch the first hallway/office scene with Zero and Gene Wilder. Watch the sheer terror on Gene's face as he cowers away from the wild animal Mostel. Just the credit sequence of the film, alone, puts me on the floor; Zero playing S&M games with Estelle Winwood, who, at that time, had to be a 150 years old.

Film two: "The Front." Watch him in the scene where the club owner only gives him half of what he'd been promised. Watch his body language as he shrinks into a helpless mess, big hang-dog eyes tearing your heart out. And watch him instantaneously morph into a bellowing, roaring dragon. And remember that he is thinking about his best friend, Phil Loeb, who had just committed suicide.

Jackie Gleason could pull that off, too. Each, a menacing mountain of pain, innocence and anger.

Others may have cowered in fear in front of the notorious House Un-American Activities Committee. But we watch as an offstage voice delivers the questions, and Mostel, alone in the spotlight, stares down his accusers and uses his signature brand of humor, to soften, but not hide, his indignation at being summoned. Brochu shows us the depth of agony that the Hollywood blacklist caused for Mostel and his friends and the profound sense of anger that he felt towards those who named names. In particular, Mostel rants more than once about Jerry Robbins, but even here we are shown the complexity of Mostel, who tells Robbins, to his face, that he is a traitor who will be condemned by their Jewish faith, and yet later describes the art of the Broadway choreographer as “brilliant”. Brochu does not sugarcoat or simplify but shows a man who is simultaneously strong and broken, a contradiction that I think summed up Mostel’s life.

Mostel’s defense of socialism is notably apropos as we hear that word brandished and misused so often in our modern media. This relevance is especially surprising considering that the play was written in 2006, before the “socialism equals evil” equation made its sudden return into our national consciousness and political discourse. I was also particularly moved by the wistful way in which Mostel reflects on America’s greatest socialist venture, Roosevelt’s Work Projects Administration and all of the great arts it funded. As an admirer of the greats, Mostel describes with reverence the impact that public funding for creative ventures had on the artistic legacy of the country, and notes how hard that must have been to pull off in such dire times. Zero Hour reaches from the past to give us commentary on the hard times and tough choices that we face today.

Interesting. What a great city for "Zero Hour" to be in right now. This is where people discuss these issues. And he's right. Jimmy put this into the play right from the beginning, long before it became a meme, and it's word for word, Zero Mostel.

"Big Voice" to open in Florida in June.

You know what I love about theatre, as opposed to the music biz? When you record an album or a CD, it comes out. If you're lucky, you get some traction, and then it goes off the charts and it's dead.

But when you write a theatre piece, all it takes is for a new theater to want to produce it, and suddenly, it's totally alive again. I experienced this over and over with The Last Session, and it's happening again with The Big Voice: God or Merman?

Since the next production of Zero Hour isn't due until August in DC, we were approached by the Broward Stage Door Theatre in South Florida about doing The Big Voice there, beginning in June.

From a purely commercial standpoint, The Big Voice is a more difficult marketing problem than Zero Hour because, with the latter show, Zero Mostel is a known entity, especially among ardent theatrephiles. Jim's jaw-dropping characterization of Zero, which picks up awards everywhere it plays, is also another factor.

So, Dee and David at the Stage Door were skeptical about producing it in their space until they actually saw our one-night benefit a few weeks ago. Once they saw it, they fell in love with it and became passionate about it. And, by the way, that's another thing I love about theatre. Those who are in it are usually doing it because they have a great passion for the artform itself.

So, having experienced it for themselves, armed with our lengthy list of great reviews and awards, they want to give it a go.

We're going to open for two weeks, initially, and see if people come. There will be hurdles to overcome. First it's in the off-season. Secondly, though Jim has garnered some attention for Zero Hour, we aren't, in terms of name recognition, Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, either.

So, aside from promoting the show to their regular patrons, which mostly consist, candidly, of the huge retirement community in the Coral Springs area (where the advertising can focus on Jimmy's recent run), they want to try to reach the gay community in nearby Ft. Lauderdale, who, like most people, don't want to have to drive too far to see a show. Luckily, it's only about a half hour, but still, I know how I am when someone asks me to go even to Santa Monica.

So, if you have any friends there, tell them about The Big Voice!

Photos of Jim Accepting The Carbonell Award.

Photographer Tony Schreiber posted some beautiful shots of Jim on his website, along with photos from the entire night. Click oh photo to embiggen.

Jim Wins Best Actor Carbonell.

When Jim got to Coral Springs six weeks ago, he had no idea he was even nominated.

The 33rd Carbonell Awards are a formal affair and encompass live theatre in the south Florida area.

"Zero Hour" played here at the Broward Stage Door Theatre last year, but it wasn't a local production so he didn't really give it any thought when he wasn't mentioned in the nominations for the past year.

Then, a call this past Friday. He's been nominated for Best Actor in a Play in the category of Roadshow, meaning not a local production. The big traveling companies from Broadway are in this category. Their practice is not to announce the nominees in this category.

There were no guarantees that he'd win. And since I'm flying home early tomorrow, we hadn't planned on going out. (He's staying for a couple more weeks to direct "The Odd Couple," a last minute offer from the Stage Door).

So, we went.

And he won. So did Judy Kaye in the same category, doing "Sweeney Todd."

And I'm still packing. But I wanted to announce the news. It was really nice. He also gave a very good speech.

Jim's Groupies.

Sondheim and Rich at Avery Shreiber.

Stephen Sondheim.

This is an article based on notes taken during a conversation between Frank Rich and Stephen Sondheim. Rich wrote in his autobiography that he made his reputation when he wrote a review, while still at Harvard, of Sondheim's "Follies," my favorite musical. It drew the attention of Hal Prince and the rest is history. Rich became the NY Times lead theatre critic. He was brutal but honest, and his reviews were the best read in town. He retired from that position and is now writing an influential weekly political column.

When he and Sondheim sat down for a chat at Avery Fisher Hall, this writer took notes. For theater fans, this is cocaine and heroin.

We've heard most of the Merman stories. Jimmy tells most of them in his lecture series. But I loved:

Sondheim noted that he didn’t think that Merman would be able to act when he wrote most of the show. As such, he designed “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” as a song in which Merman could belt to the rafters while Louise and Herby would do the real acting. Furthermore, “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” was designed to be similar to “Blow Gabriel Blow,” another famous Merman number, so that she would feel comfortable in the moment. Sondheim then admitted that, “We found out later that she could act.”

I also related to this as a writer:

There was also a production of “Company” in England where Bobby shot himself at the end. Rich then asked, "He shot himself after 'Being Alive'?"

Clearly upset, Sondheim said, “These directors feel they can improve a show. They have such contempt for the authors. We (the authors) know what we’re doing and they don’t. It’s contemptuous of them.”

But this one was my favorite because it's about a friend of ours. Rich asked him to cite his favorite auditions. He mentions, here, Pamela Myers, who sang a song called "I'm Not Getting Married" in the show Company. It's a song with a gajillion words sung as quickly as you possibly can because it's about a nervous bride having a nervous breakdown over the ceremony that's moments away from happening.

Marta was originally envisioned as a Jewish girl. But after Myers, a Midwesterner, auditioned and stunned all of them, the creators agreed to rewrite the role to fit her personality and background..

Yes, we from the Middle Lands of the United States can get just as crazed as any New Yorker. And it's impossible to listen to that song and not hear her voice. I didn't grow up in theater, so it all came to me second hand and, even before I became friends with her, all I needed was to hear it once.

Enjoy the article.

(I kinda met Sondheim once. We met him in the lobby of the City Center. I mentioned "The Big Voice" to him and I think we even gave him a flyer, but I don't think he would remember. He was being approached by a lot of people that night. Someday, I'd love for him to see one of my own musicals.)

A Rock and Roll "Big Voice" in Indio.

Halfway to Indio, Jim asked me if I had packed the keyboard stand.

"No."

"The sound cues."

"No."

"I asked you about the sound cues last week."

"Oh. I thought we had a disc in the folder."

"What folder?"

"Don't we have a show folder?"

"No, we don't have a show folder."

He pulled over into a foreign grocery store parking lot -- not foreign language, just not in our region -- and called Rick, the stage manager.

"He has a recording studio. He'll bring a keyboard stand."

We get to the theater. It's an old movie complex turned multi-stage performing arts center. Still new in its conversion, it's much changed since the last time we were here with "Zero Hour" where Jim's dressing room said STORAGE on the door.

The script was being printed out as we arrived.

Rick said, "I just take 'em in order. If I tried to read ahead, I'd never get anything done."

Shamedly, I said to him, "I don't have sound cues. But I can get them if I can get on the net."

He said, "Good omen! When everything's going bad it means you'll have a good show."

My laptop wouldn't connect because of the city firewall -- it's a city building -- so I had to download an FTP program, get the mp3s, and burn them to a disc -- thank god I'm a computer geek. The disco would not play in the CD players. At that point, I gave up. I knew he had a recording studio of his own, so he would know how to make it all work.

And he did.

But by then, it was 4pm. Too late for a tech. So we set the sound cues.

Then we met the -- I don't know his title -- general manager for the facility, a charming British fellow who told us a funny story about Princess Margaret. (Back in the 80s, he ran ran the hospital where Princess Diana kissed the man with AIDS, thus making us positoids visible and touchable in the world. He was there.)

As for lighting, we had a general wash plus two volunteer senior citizens on spotlights.

We decided that the Stage Manager, who acts as a traffic cop shows, anyway, could just wing it. And since he could only talk to one of the spotlight operators, we said to just assign each of us a spot and tell that person to follow us.

And that's what we did. Rick cued the one spotlight operator, punched the sounds cues (perfectly, I might add) , hit the lights and ran the show like a bus driver seeing the road for the first time. He was reading and seeing the show as it ran!

Totally guerilla.

And it totally worked. The audience went nutso / crazy, leaping to their feet.

I did not tape anything or take any pictures. Something told me to play this one in real life. It was like a white knuckle ride all day long and I didn't want to make it worse.

But tomorrow! Tomorrow I bring it along and we have some fun. You have to meet these fabulous people.

The Big Voice goes to Allentown, PA!

Does this photo look familiar?

How about this one?

My friend, Dean Hiatt (L), a survivor of ex-gay programs, has created a theater company in his MCC church in Allentown, Pennsylvania. And they've decided to do "The Big Voice" as their first production. Jim and I feel so honored! Dean is playing Jim and that's Jim Lamb playing Steve. They're raising the money for the production on eBay and getting local vendors to donate lights and sets and costumes for the company. Here is the email he sent out a little while ago:

Thanks to our webangel, Michelle, our website is up and running. We are still making changes and adding to it, but go take a look. Everything you need to know about the company and our upcoming season will be there. http://rainbowplayers.mcclv.org/

THE BIG VOICE: GOD OR MERMAN?

We are just a afew weeks away from our opening of "The Big Voice: God or Merman?", and, believe me, things are heating up!! The performances are Friday, November 14th at 8pm and Saturday, November 15th at 2pm and 7pm. Suggested Donation at the door of $15. We also have a program for free admittance for those who can't afford to pay if you contact us and let us know.

Jim Lamb and I (and our BRILLIANT ACCOMPANIST, LAWRENCE SARWONO) are rehearsing like crazy every Friday night from 7-10pm, Saturday from 11am - 8pm, and Sundays from 2pm-8pm - also with the help of our assistant director, Bruce F. Brown (a lifesavor who heard about us and volunteered his services). We also have the help of Erica Hoelscher as our costume director (heads costume department at Lehigh Valley University) and Susan Ragusa (heads lighting at Lehigh Valley University) - WONDERFUL VOLUNTEERS!!!! And the rest of our tech staff who you can check out on our website. Please do!!

Fifty percent (50%) of the proceeds from the matinee of this show will go to F.A.C.T. (Facing AIDS Continuously Together), who does great work in PA. To learn more about the incredible work they do for, check them out at http://www.factlv.org/. In fact, 50% of the proceeds from each show we do will benefit a GLBTA or allied organization in our region or other areas of the state of PA - next year we will donate 100% of the matinee proceeds to the matinee recipients. Again, check out our website for the matinee recipients of our 4 productions for this season.

Jim and I performed scenes from "Big Voice" at Allentown Pride in the Park in August and the FACT Summer Games benefit in September. We also shared tables at the MCCLV booths at these events, as well as Reading Pride.

Am in the midst of selling ads for our program, so let me know if you have any leads. Have to have them in by October 30th.

EBAY AUCTION

Since we are just starting up, we have no budget until after our first weekend of shows. We held a fundraiser in May to pay for start-up expenses for our first show (royalties and rental fees). So, we are holding an auction on EBAY to raise money for our lights, light board and dimmer packs. Thus far, we have raised $258 - and need another $250 to cover the costs. I have been receiving donations from church members and friends and trying to get them listed as fast as possible. It takes a LOT of time - photographing, writing up descriptions, then downloading everything onto the EBAY site. Unfortunately, between working on selling program ads, getting out flyers and press releases, supervising the tech areas for the show, working on getting the lighting system installed, directing the show, and trying to get all of my lines and music learned (since I am also one of the 2 characters in the show) - as well as working my part-time job and traveling and hour to and from the Poconos for rehearsals and meetings - IT'S A LITTLE CRAZY!! Hopefully, will get a larger volunteer staff to help me out as we get our first season underway.

OTHER ITEMS

Have received and signed the contract with Paula Martinac to produce her show, "Their Town", as our second production in February. It is a comedy dealing with gay marriage rights. As of this moment, I will be directing this show as well - unless God drops someone in my path who is willing to do so, and then maybe I can just concentrate on getting our theater company more organized. Will be holding open auditions for this show the weekend after "Big Voice".

Am also in the process of finding people interested in directing, choreographing and performing in our future productions.

Am in the process of choosing one-acts for our May and August productions.

We have had great support from Panzee Press, PA Diversity Network, FACT, OUT in the Lehigh Valley, our regional MCC office, as well as some other groups in getting the word out about our theater company and our first show - for which we are GREATLY APPRECIATIVE!!

This is an exciting time for us and we hope that you will be able to attend our first show!!

Dean Hiatt

Artistic Director

Arthur Laurents Interviewed on NY1.

Arthur Laurents, the author of the great Broadway musical, Gypsy, is interviewed about the current production, which he directed. Two parts. In part one, he discusses his history with Patti Lupone. In part two, he talks about Jerry Robbins.





Thanks to Mark Evanier.