A Tearful Visit to Columbus.

"Don't run."

That's what Dr. Anthony told me just as I was leaving his office. So, on Sunday morning, at 4:50am, as I ran to the Newark/Manhattan bus, departing Port Authority at 5am, my back heel hit the carry-on bag, rolling behind me, and I hurtled through the air, hitting the ground hard, my left arm finally hanging useless at my side. 

I determined it wasn't broken, but it hurt like hell. I almost decided to not go. But I couldn't miss this.

Though I wasn't getting paid, people were depending on me, having raised the money to pay for the plane ticket. So, I forged ahead, got to the station just in time, and took off for Columbus to play two concerts for the health care workers at a hospice, and then, later at a hospital.

Getting from Newark was another adventure. Just as we got on the plane, it has a "mechanical," and I had to stand in line, change carriers, go to a different terminal and go through security again. The first time was difficult and painful enough, as I was unable to use my left arm to buckle my belt, lift my carrying case or tie my shoes without screaming.

I went to the other terminal, got the new ticket on a different carrier, stood in line, and was told that the plane would be leaving from the first terminal I had just come from.

Sighing, I went back to the first terminal, went through security, found a pharmacy, got a sling and some motrin, waited two hours and got on the plane.By now, I'm hurting so badly, all I can think is, "How will I ever play the piano?"

When I landed in Columbus, Brian, Sarah's adorable bear husband, picked me up. The kids, who I hadn't yet met, were in the back seat. 

Sarah introduces me at Kobacher House hospice.

I met Sarah -- she was single at the time -- almost from the first day I set up this diary in 1996. In fact, as she introduced me the next morning, at the hospice, before my "show," she reminded me that this Bonus Round site was actually the very first web site she ever logged into, having just gotten her first computer.  

She explained, "At the time, I was working with dialysis patients, and I felt Steve's entries were inspirational. So, I would print them out and read them during the treatments. Then, one day I asked him to come sing for us, and he said yes. This was 10 years ago."

I looked at the 30 or 40 hospice workers sitting in front of me. People who spend their lives tending to the dying. And not just the dying, but the dying and their families. 

Some families, so racked with pain, they can't even speak to each other. Some families, prepared and peaceful. These people work through all that, trying to make sure the patient is comfortable and at peace, while helping the family make "decisions" they usually don't want to make.

Each nurse, aid, doctor and lab tech is a part of this journey, and it takes a huge toll on them. 

And that's why I was there. I went through it all as a patient. My mother was a Registered nurse. My father was a minister. I watched how they ministered to people in pain. I knew the emotional toll it could take on them, long after they left the "office."

Imagine, reader, having a job where every single person you treat dies.

How fast can you fall in love with another human being? And how far to do you allow yourself to care, knowing that person is not going to last very long? Or is constant pain? 

And, speaking of emotional toll, all of us were drenched in tears. At one point, one of the nurses, noticing my kleenex, pilling up on the piano, brought up a trash can. I said "We're gonna need a bigger boat."

These people have created a support system for just the workers. I was so proud to be a part of this program. As a patient, I thanked them for their work, I told them I understood that this kind of work is a calling, and not just a job. 

I didn't think about my arm during the two hour concert. I don't remember feeling pain, but I think it's because my mind was elsewhere. I knew I couldn't play strongly or as percussively as I enjoy. 

Brian made me breakfast, earlier, dressed in a chef's hat.

After the show, Sarah took me back to her house, where I slept all afternoon with Uno, the one-eyed dog. He laid down next to me in the bed and didn't move a muscle until he heard the door open downstairs, when Sarah came home to fetch me for the evening gig.

The venue, at the neighboring Riverside Hospital, was much bigger. And I had a magnificent Yamaha piano. Also, my arm wasn't hurting quite as badly and I was able to play with a big more aggression. It was very exciting.

I didn't cry this time, having gotten it all out in the earlier show. My voice was strong, and I told stories and sang for two hours. We also engaged in a dialogue, as we shared stories and I answered questions.

By the end of the night, after getting about a thousand hugs, we went home, and I miss them, already. I also miss Sarah and Brian and the kids. Talk about falling in love.

Uncle Steve with his two new favorite human beings on earth.

Sadly, though, I came home to an empty apartment. Jim is in Florida doing Zero Hour for the next 10 days at the Maltz Jupiter Theater. (Lucky them!) But, there's lots of things for me to do, including working on a brand new production of New World Waking in Miami by the Gay Men's Chorus down there. But I'll save that for another blog entry.

Letter from Dan Wackerman, Artistic Director.

Dear Steve,

I just wanted to acknowledge your generosity to Saint Clement's Episcopal Church by organizing and performing in Living in the Bonus Round as a benefit for the church's Food Pantry and free Vet Clinic. In additional to thanking you, however, I wanted to say how impressed I was by your music, your skill as a singer and master of ceremonies and the quality of the talent you assembled for this event.

All of the music struck me as polished and professional, both as written and as performed by the ensemble. A few of the numbers I think I will remember for a very long time. Lazarus Come Out was an anthem of personal liberation with deep spiritual overtones as was My Thanksgiving Prayer, performed with the utmost tenderness by you and John Fitzgerald. How Do You Fall Back in Love?, sung by you and Jim Brochu, was simultaneously witty and poignant as it described the process of reuniting with an "ex."

But the songs from The Last Session really blew me away. How can it be that music this tuneful, this rocking with such clever, relevant, funny and sad lyrics isn't better known? This is "popular music" in the best sense of the term. In other words, you know how to write that endangered species in American musical theater- a "song": an unforgettable melody supported by lyrics that really mean something. And when music this good is performed by the likes of Michele Mais and Amy Coleman... wow!

Michele is an R&B powerhouse who really "took us to church" with The Preacher and the Nurse. Amy Coleman is that rare combination- a great actor with an equally great singing voice. I was completely captivated by her performance of Somebody's Friend , an angry, heart-wrenching ballad about "miracles cures" for HIV. Amy's rendition was exactly my idea of a great musical theater moment- the distillation of character through song.

Anyway, I just wanted to say "bravo." And please light a fire under your agent so that more people get to experience what I heard on Wednesday night!

Best,

Dan Wackerman
Artistic Director
The Peccadillo Theater Company

[Note from Steve: I don't have an agent. Or a manager, for that matter. Anyone interested?]

From The Vicar.

Blog Entry For Steve
(from Rev. Mitties DeChamplain, vicar of St. Clement's)

Living in the Bonus Round 2010 to the Rescue!

On Wednesday night, I witnessed a remarkable and life-giving event. The sight and sound and sense of Steve Schalchlin’s music and lyrics—performed with his partner, Jim Brochu, and some of his brilliantly talented friends—filled the sanctuary theater at St. Clement’s with electricity, and from start to finish it was a sublime experience.

When Steve opened with his gripping song, “Connected,” I realized I was being drawn into holy union and relationship with everyone present—performers and audience alike.

The whole evening was a profoundly loving display of the truth in the opening song: It’s good to be connected with each other.

I am sure that Steve decided to open with that number in light of the fact that the Bonus Round concert, as it turned out, happened just a day after our sisters and brothers in Haiti were suffering terribly from the catastrophic earthquake that happened late on Tuesday.

[She is correct. -Steve]

And so, on the day of the show, the scope of the benefit—originally conceived and dedicated to help fund the Food Pantry and Free Vet Clinic at St. Clement’s—was widened to embrace the acute and urgent need in Haiti. 50% of the proceeds from the evening have been dedicated by St. Clement’s to the relief efforts in Haiti.

The concert rescued and redeemed a day of great sadness in the world, and the music from start to finish was brimming with hope and confidence that the world and our own lives can be made new.

Even though Steve (raised Southern Baptist) and Jim (raised Roman Catholic) do not regard themselves as particularly religious, I am convinced that their music is God-haunted—theologically loaded through and through.

When they sang to each other from The Big Voice: God or Merman?, I could see and feel how much they love each other—deeply enough to tell the whole truth about relationships—the glory and the grief that can happen when you truly love somebody.

The whole evening raised us up and drew us closer to the light, so that we who were there could see everything in a new light. The music made me want to be more faithful and steadfast and true in my vocation as a priest—and in all of my relationships.

I am a vicar of an Episcopal Church that houses an Off-Broadway theater, but Wednesday night I stood on the threshold of the kingdom of heaven, thanks to Steve Schalchlin and company. The splendid sounds of Jim Brochu, Stephen Bienskie, Amy Coleman, Michele Mais, Jennifer Wren, and John Fitzgerald made the whole concert a little bit of heaven right here and now. Who could ask for anything more?

Rev. Mitties DeChamplain
Vicar
St. Clement's

Bonus Round 2010 Concert Triumphant.

I've asked some friends of mine to write up their thoughts about the Bonus Round concert last night. They haven't responded yet because it's too early, but for regular readers, I'll try to just do some bullet points.

First of all. The reunion of TLS members -- Amy Coleman, Stephen Bienskie and Michele Mais -- was a triumph of the first order. We sounded like we'd never been apart. It was thrilling to just be on that stage, but I think the moment that crystallized it was when Maisey, noting that the microphones were a bit too far apart, told everyone to pull together.

Suddenly, the verisimilitude of the event came together in a way that cannot be described. TLS is about a band reuniting. So, for us to reunite after 10 years and to bond and blend and blow the roof off while singing "When You Care" created a dynamic tension that can only happen when something is 10 years in the making.

Another moment was "Going It Alone."

I never got to perform this show with Stephen Bienskie. So, when our eyes met at "the moment" in the song where the two characters from the play first really SEE each other -- it was pure magic.

It was also a moment of absolute, unqualified love. Me for him. Him for me.

Dan Wackerman, the artistic director of the Peccadillo Theatre Company, who helped sponsor the night -- and who never saw "The Last Session" said that, for him, the bleeding edge intensity of Amy Coleman tearing through "Somebody's Friend" was one of those "feel the hair raising on your body" moments.

He said, "It's so rare when you see a singer acting through a song."

And then there was Maisey, whose powerful voice was raising roof.

I mean, kids, it was transcendent. Jim had the video camera on. Amy Lynn took a little, too, but none of it can really match the energy in the room.

It began when Rev. Mitties announced, at the top, that not only would the donations from the evening go toward the food pantry and vet clinic there, but also we would split the take with the Haitian relief efforts from the earthquake yesterday.

I then decided to open the show with "Connected." It just felt right. And we were all connected last night.

John Fitzgerald joined me on a beautiful rendition of "My Thanksgiving Prayer," Jennifer Wren helped us break the seriousness a bit with "Triple Threat," the comedy song from the upcoming "Manhattan Clam Chowder" by coming out of the audience pretending to be auditioning for the new piece.

Then, Jimmy came up and, as always, stole the show right out from under me by being hilarious and heartbreaking on "Why" and on "You Are A Stranger."

So, we were all on cloud nine before we ever got to The Last Session, which I scheduled as the finale of the evening.

And what a finale.

From "Preacher and the Nurse" to "Somebody's Friend" to "The Group" to "Going It Alone" and, finally, "When You Care."

Behind the scenes, the people who really made it happen, though, were Jeramy Peay, Don Myers, Taylor Milne and Jeramy's friend, Daniel Koehler, who brought in sound equipment. I didn't even ask. They just volunteered and made it happen seamlessly.

The whole thing could have been taped for broadcast, it was so beautiful.

My heart this morning is literally overflowing. After the show last night, Jim and I were so high from the emotions of the night, we walked and walked the frosty streets of the city, just blowing off energy, trying to remember every detail.

I'll talk more about it, but what an incredible gift last night was. To me. To all of us.

And now all I want is a revival of The Last Session. It's time has come. It really has. 12 years ago, Broadway didn't really know what to do with this show. It was so different and so cutting edge in its own peculiar and powerful way.

But now it's time. Whatever I have to do, I'm going to make it my life's mission to bring it back. It deserves another chance. It has earned it. We all have.

I have so many people to thank for last night, I know I'm leaving people out. So, just take this as the initial word. I wish all of you could have been there. Magic. It was pure magic.

I am the most grateful human being alive.

BroadwayWorld Article on LITB 2010

From BroadwayWorld:

The Theater at St. Clement's (423 West 46th Street) will host LIVING IN THE BONUS ROUND 2010, a "pay what you can" benefit concert featuring GLAAD and LA Ovation Award-winning composer/lyricist Steve Schalchlin and Friends, including playwright/actor Jim Brochu (currently starring in the Off-Broadway hit Zero Hour), plus original cast members of their acclaimed Off-Broadway musical The Last Session - Stephen Bienskie, Amy Coleman and Michele Mais (currently on Broadway in Rock of Ages), as well as singers Jennifer Wren and John Fitzgerald, plus many more to be announced.

The one-night-only event on Wednesday, January 13th at 7PM, will benefit St. Clement's weekly food pantry and monthly free veterinary clinic for low-income families in Hell's Kitchen. (Well-behaved pets are welcome at the concert.)

LIVING IN THE BONUS ROUND 2010 will feature Schalchlin at the piano, along with special guests performing songs from Schalchlin & Brochu's critically acclaimed musicals The Last Session; The Big Voice - God or Merman? and their upcoming Manhattan Clam Chowder, along with songs from Schalchlin's song cycle for peace, New World Waking.

Steve Schalchlin explains, "When Jim and I arrived at St. Clement's this past November with Zero Hour, I saw a line of people outside the building that stretched down the block. I thought, ‘Oh, great! We're a hit and we haven't even opened yet! Upon closer inspection, we saw they were waiting for bags of groceries being given out by a team of teenagers, volunteering community service for the day. And I thought, ‘How great is that? A theater that gives out food to the poor.'"

For Schalchlin, it's personal: "My father was a Baptist minister in southeast Texas. I watched his tiny congregations of paper mill workers and subsistence farmers always reaching out to people with barely enough to survive. Also, for several years, AIDS put me in that position of going from service to service, begging for help just to get through another month. When I attended the Sunday morning service at St. Clement's, I witnessed what I saw growing up, a small congregation devoted to providing basic services to people (and their pets!) in need. And I wanted to help. Plus, they let people bring their pets to church with them. So we decided to make the show open to people and pets. As admission, bring what you can, pay what you can afford."

Steve Schalchlin received an L.A. Theater Ovation Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical for his performance in The Big Voice: God or Merman? but he primarily sees himself as a songwriter. He has been a performer all his life, first in his hometown Texas church, chorus and ensemble work in college, band gigs, and now the stage. He currently lives in Los Angeles and regularly appears on the nationally broadcast "Kulak's Woodshed" in North Hollywood, both as on air host and performer.

Jim Brochu is currently starring in the critically acclaimed Zero Hour as theatre legend Zero Mostel at Theater at St. Clement's, which won the Ovation Award for Best Play. He and Schalchlin wrote and performed The Big Voice: God or Merman? Off-Broadway.

Stephen Bienskie, who originated the role of Buddy in the original Off-Broadway production of The Last Session, has gone on to much acclaim, winning the Helen Hayes Award in Washington, DC for his leading role in The Fix. He also appeared Off-Broadway in Zombie Prom and on Broadway in Cats.

Michele Mais performed the role of Tryshia in the LA production of The Last Session and is currently featured in the Broadway smash Rock of Ages playing Justice and Mother. She also appeared in Roza and Zoot Suit.

Amy Coleman also appeared in the original The Last Session. She recently toured Italy with her Italian blues band Amy Coleman and Texaco Jive. With Valerie Smaldone, she wrote Spit It Out, a play with music (Midtown InterNational Theatre Festival). Coleman sang with Peter Frampton in the British Rock Symphony and portrayed Janis Joplin in the original production of Beehive.

Jennifer Wren is a New York singer discovered by Schalchlin and Brochu at Mark Janas' Salon, currently at Etcetera Etcetera. She performed "Nobody Leaves New York" from Manhattan Clam Chowder that night and they immediately invited her to join them for this benefit.

Jonathan Fitzgerald is also a popular singer in Manhattan nightclubs. Schalchlin first heard him singing at the Sunday morning service at St. Clement's.

Recently cited by The New York Times as creator of one of (if not THE first) AIDS diary, Steve Schalchlin's website, Living in the Bonus Round, was created in March of 1996, long before the word "blog" was even conceived. It was an experiment to help him and his doctor keep track of his disease, and to keep his family informed about the state of his health. Living in the Bonus Round inadvertently became the first "blog" of a musical in progress as The Last Session went through its workshop phase in Los Angeles. The blog exposure led to funding for the New York production, which led to features in People Magazine and Entertainment Weekly, among others.

The Last Session was created from songs written as healing therapy by Mr. Schalchlin (book by Jim Brochu) during his struggle with AIDS. The writing of the songs kept him alive just long enough for the new HIV drugs to come on the market.

This Off-Broadway production, which opened to near-unanimous raves in 1997 at the 47th Street Theatre, went on to win multiple theater awards around the country, including L.A. Critics Circle awards for Best Musical, Best Supporting Actress (Michele Mais) and Best Musical Score, an award Mr. Schalchlin also received for The Big Voice: God or Merman?, their subsequent autobiographical musical.

After playing New York for nine months, a Los Angeles production was put together using three of the five of the New York cast, Bob Stillman, Stephen Bienskie, and Amy Coleman, opening to rave reviews.

Says Mr. Schalchlin, "I'm excited about the music we're going to make on January 13. It will be a deeply emotional evening."