While most teen boys probably want to sneak a six-pack and get drunk behind the bleachers for their 16th birthday, I reveled in a mix tape artfully crafted by two of my favorite show-choir girls. Their heartfelt (albeit somewhat flat and lacking vibrato) rendition of Stephen Schwartz’s “Day by Day” left me as inebriated on musical theater as if I had bathed in an overflowing tub of champagne — or in those days Bartles & Jaymes sparkling wine coolers.

It was my first introduction to Schwartz’s folk/rock chamber musical Godspell and I was hooked. I then discovered Pippin, followed by a spat of a piece called The Baker’s Wife, which everyone knows because of the mega-belting “Meadowlark” but I fell in love with “If I Have to Live Alone” because it was in my baritone range and suitably depressing for a teenager.

After a few commercial flops, Schwartz disappeared (and I moved on to Les Misérables). Not really. He went to Hollywood and cranked out lyrics for a bunch of Disney animated features only to return to Broadway in 2003 with Wicked, adapted from the fantastical novel by Gregory Maguire.

Stephen Schwartz (photo: Richard Termine)

With a career spanning more than 40 years (watch out for Houdini, slated for Broadway 2014), it seems only fitting that Schwartz recently celebrated his 65th birthday at Carnegie Hall with the New York Pops. Helmed by Music Director and Conductor Steven Reineke, the concert featured stars of stage and screen, including Jeremy Jordon, Julia Murney, Jennifer Laura Thompson and Norm Lewis, along with the Essential Voices USA choir.

The concert was the final hurrah in the Pops’ 30th anniversary season and its fifth sold-out event of the year. The program spanned Schwartz’s diverse career with selections from his musical theater compositions as well as lesser heard works from his opera Séance on a Wet Afternoon and a powerful choral piece titled “Testimony” that was originally written for the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus.

Julia Murney, who played Elphaba in Wicked on the national tour as well as on Broadway, shared a story of first auditioning for Stephen Schwartz back in 1996 for a review of the composer’s work. He was so taken with her voice that he asked her to sing “Meadowlark,” a notoriously difficult song. She did it on the spot (“after throwing up in my mouth a little bit”) and hadn’t sung the piece again since that audition.

Jennifer Laura Thompson (left) and Julia Murney. (photo: Richard Termine)

Revisiting the number, she shook the rafters of Carnegie Hall but was not to be outdone by Jennifer Laura Thompson, who tackled the equally difficult “West End Avenue” from The Magic Show. The men of the evening had their shining moments, too — particularly Jeremy Jordan, whose soaring tenor voice seemed to effortlessly glide over powerful ballads from Children of Eden, Godspell and Pippin.

Schwartz took to the stage to share some backstory on the creation of “The Wizard and I” from Wicked. Originally conceived as a song titled “Being Good,” he and writing partner Winnie Holzman revisited the song several times, taking into account original actress Idina Menzel’s strengths and crafting a song and situation that would fit more naturally with her voice. Murney delivered her rendition of the piece in an appropriately emerald green dress.

This was the final concert in this season’s series, but you can celebrate the New York Pops’ 30th birthday at their star-studded gala on April 29. The event honors artistic collaborations and the work of Frank Loesser, Jule Styne and Danny Kaye.

“I am thrilled,” says Dena Kaye, “and so very touched, that The New York Pops has chosen my father, Danny Kaye, to honor at their 30th Birthday at Carnegie Hall, as we continue a year-long tribute of the Danny Kaye Centennial. As my father was born and raised in New York, this is the perfect celebration for a man who has brought his laughter and joy to generations through his talent as an actor, singer, dancer, conductor, comedian and humanitarian.”

Next season’s performances have also been announced and include Chris Botti, Tony award-winner Montego Glover, Marin Mazzie, Jason Danieley and others. Season tickets start at $150.
Visit www.nypops.org for more information.

Heather Headley in "The Bodyguard". Photo by Paul Coltas.

Regal. That’s the word most people associate with Tony and Grammy winner Heather Headley. And who can blame them when you consider her graceful beauty and her commanding voice, not to mention her star-making Broadway roles as a Nala in The Lion King, and the titular royal in exile of Aida.

But to those who know her, and I consider myself lucky enough to have spent some personal time with her as a fellow alumni of Northwestern University, she is also a wickedly funny friend, a loving wife to her college sweetheart (former New York Jet Brian Musso) and a devoted mom.

After too long an absence from the theatrical stage, she is making her long-awaited return in the West End adaptation of The Bodyguard. The musical features a hit parade of songs made famous by the original film’s star, Whitney Houston — including “Queen of the Night.” Taking a few moments from her busy schedule, we exchanged emails (emoticons and all!) to talk about making the role her own (The Telegraph called it “a thrilling star performance,”) her toughest times and her dreams of coming back to the New York stage.

Many of us hoped we’d see you in a musical on stage again. What about The Bodyguard made it the right property for your “return”?

The story. The music. The girl. For the past few years we (my husband and I, and my agent) have been looking for the “right” role. Aida was very good to me; I had such an amazing time playing her, and being a member of that cast. So, I really was on the lookout for a role that would at least come close.  I read through the script of The Bodyguard, and loved the story and the characters. Rachel is a lot like Aida: flawed, obstinate, needs and longs to be loved, and when she finally finds love, loses quite a bit and has an amazing change in her life.  Who doesn’t want to play that girl?! Read more…

Patti LuPone and Ben Rimalower. Photo by Jenny Anderson for Broadway.com.

Judy, Barbra, Liza. Bernadette, Julie, Patti…

The names of legendary divas roll off the tongue like a litany of saints and martyrs. But, ultimately, we all choose just one to whom we build our shrine.

Even as a child, accomplished writer and director Ben Rimalower prayed at the altar of belter-extraordinaire and dramatic dynamo Patti LuPone. Now, he’s woven together stories of coming of age as a LuPone lover (from being a fan to working with her as a colleague) in an acclaimed one-man show, Patti Issues. The play, though, is much more than just inside Broadway gossip. Emotionally cathartic as well as raucously funny, Patti Issues focuses on Rimalower’s relationship with his father — who “came out of the closet and embarked on a drug-fueled tear that left his family in tatters” — and how having a guardian diva can help all of us find our way home.

As he prepared for a new round of performances (beginning tonight at the Duplex), born-storyteller Rimalower took time out to chat with me about the moment he fell, his first time performing and what Patti said when she came to see the show…

Why Patti? What was the moment for you?

That’s basically what my show is about. The moments were in several degrees.  I had a very intense experience of the Evita commercial when I was very little and we lived in New York.

(laughter)

And that really stayed with me. Even when we moved to California when I was five in 1981. Whenever the Evita tour would come through, which seemed to be a lot in the 80’s, they always used that same commercial. So I felt like Patti was haunting me. I talk about in the show how I was a little kid in New York and I saw some Broadway shows and I wanted to see Evita but I was told it was “too grown up” for me.

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Matt Leonard & Olivia Simas ushering "Through the Yellow Hour". Photo by Tom Mizer.

A crowded staircase leads to a dark hallway. Graffiti mars the walls. A sickly plastic film lines entrances as if sealing in some contagion. And a tall, expressionless man wearing a hazmat suit approaches, telling you to join the line and prepare to be stamped.

Is this some kind of nightmare (or a return to 1980′s NYC clubbing)? No, it’s just the usher welcoming you to Rattlestick Theater’s production of Through the Yellow Hour, a post-apocalyptic Off-Broadway thriller by Adam Rapp, currently extended through November 10.

As my neck was stamped and my boundaries unsettled, I started to wonder about these ushers and their non-traditional duties — invading patrons’ personal space and setting up the world of the play with a gleeful intensity. The theater was counting on them to do a lot more than hand out playbills; in fact, they were the first act of the play.

On a recent sunny afternoon with not an invading biological weapon in sight, I met two people who’ve ushered at The Yellow Hour – Mat Leonard, a handsome and thoughtful young actor currently appearing in The Austerity of Hope at the Abingdon Theatre Arts Complex, and Olivia Simas, an energetic and articulate local high school student with a passion for theater — and we chatted about unflattering gear, Big Brother and some very testy audience members.

How did you first get involved in doing this very unusual job?

Mat:  I’d seen The Hallway Trilogy at Rattlestick and I’d sort of had been checking up on them while I was on tour last year. My friend Allison who lives in the city was ushering and said, “So there’s another play by Adam Rapp opening and you wouldn’t shut up about Nursing [one of the parts of the trilogy]. Would you be interested in ushering?” She sent me the link and I signed up. And all of sudden you show up and they’re like, “You want to put on this costume?”

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Daniel Pearce, Celia Howard, Daniel Everidge, Jacey Powers & Julia Murney in "Falling". Photo by Carol Rosegg.

Mothers often say that they’d give their life for their child–but what happens when the child she loves is truly a danger to her and the rest of the family?

That’s the heartbreaking question at the center of Falling, the intense and emotionally evocative Off-Broadway play which opened last night. Inspired by playwright Deanna Jent’s own experiences, the drama (with some decidedly unexpected and welcome big laughs) follows one family as they try to figure out how best to care for an autistic son who has grown to adulthood–and whose violent outbursts can no longer be completely controlled. Supported by a deeply committed cast, acclaimed singer/actress Julia Murney (Wicked, Wild Party) anchors the play as a woman torn between her desire to escape her life and her duty as a mother; the New York Post raves “superbly staged by Lori Adams and wonderfully acted…Falling soars.”

After a recent performance, the cast, director and playwright sat down to talk to the audience about the inspirations for the show and their preparation for doing this moving work. Here are a few excerpts from the conversation:

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Gary Cole, Julianne Nicholson, Lois Smith, Betty Gilpin & Jenny Bacon. Photo by Gregory Constanzo.

You’ve heard of An Actor’s Nightmare? Well, Jenny Bacon is living an actor’s dream. An accomplished veteran of stage and screen with a resume that includes some of the great theaters, writers and directors working today, she is now originating a role in a new play by Pulitzer Prize winner Sam Shepard.

Heartless begins previews this week at the Signature Theatre in New York and Jenny graciously took some time from rehearsals to talk with me about working with a icons (including fellow cast member Lois Smith), balancing New York and Chicago theater and being the murdering type on Law & Order.

I was two years younger than you at Northwestern.

Oh!

There’s no reason for you to remember me.

Oh cool. I was wondering…

You were definitely one of the people I looked up to. That’s good acting, already in college. It’s such a pleasure to get to talk to you again all these…cough…many years later.

Seriously, a pleasure to talk to you, too.

I have to start by asking you, what is it like to be originating a role in a Sam Shepard play? Is it a “pinch me” moment?

Absolutely. (laughter)

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Jake Silbermann, Anna Chlumsky & Hanna Cabell in "3C". Photo by Joan Marcus.

Once a month, a member of the theater community will pull up a chair to our cyber table and join us for a little conversation. I’ll edit the transcripts (removing the truly libelous parts) and post the results here every second Wednesday. For July, come and knock on our door; we’ve been waiting for you…

Jake Silbermann. Image via JakeSilbermann.com.

Jake Silbermann is fearless; at least he seems to be judging by his resume. As a young actor, he stepped up to play one half of daytime drama’s first gay male supercouple, “Nuke” (Luke & Noah) on the dearly departed As the World Turns. Instead of sticking to on-camera work, he’s also taken to the stage in Phaedra Backwards directed by Emily Mann and the recent revival of Dracula. And now he bravely steps into the iconic shoes of John Ritter (and gamely goes full frontal…what would Luke say!) in David Adjmi’s 3C, a decidedly dark comedy inspired by the classic sitcom Three’s Company, alongside fellow TV stars Anna Chlumsky (Veep) and Eddie Cahill (CSI:NY).

In between the prat falls and bared souls of performing in 3C, Jake took a brief moment to answer some of our burning questions about making history on the soaps, making his own short film and making something special in the kitchen.

Three’s Company went off the air when you were barely a year old so I assume you didn’t have much contact with it until you started work on this play. What sort of research did you do to prepare?  What was your reaction when you first started watching episodes of the sitcom?

3C is inspired by Three’s Company, something I actually wasn’t aware of until after the audition. I had never actually seen a whole episode from start to finish until the day before rehearsal’s began. Three’s Company is incredibly offensive by today’s standards and I was glad to be a part of a show that exposes these thinly veiled insults from yesteryear.

In many ways, 3C explores the darkness that lies beneath what we do to entertain ourselves, using Three’s Company as a sort of jumping off point. Which other seemingly innocuous TV show do you think has the potential to be a world hiding a lot of ugly secrets?

Morning talk shows.

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Roger Rees, Alex Timbers & Rick Elice. Photo by Joan Marcus.

Who knew a little fairy dust could be so powerful?

Like its orphan hero, the Broadway underdog Peter and the Starcatcher soared, grabbing nine Tony nominations — the most nods for any play this year. Behind the stellar cast is an equally starry creative team, led by co-Directors Alex Timbers (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson) & Roger Rees (most recently as an actor in The Addams Family) and writer Rick Elice (Jersey Boys).

As they prepare for Tony night and a recently announced Peter national tour, this “dream team” sat down to answer a few questions about the show, their collaboration and their careers. First up, the playwright (and a Tony nominee this year for Best Score) Rick Elice…

Kevin Del Aguila & Christian Borle in "Peter and the Starcatcher". Image via O&M Co.

Peter feels like such a collaborative, improvisational work and yet the script is so intricate and detailed. What was the genesis of the script?

In 2007, Roger Rees and Alex Timbers embarked on a series of workshops to adapt Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson’s novel, Peter and the Starcatchers – an origin story of Peter Pan – for the stage.  During the first “lab,” they worked entirely from the novel. But they needed some sort of introduction that would explain how narrative voices would be used in a potential play.  They called a mutual acquaintance, me, and I wrote them a prologue.  The first workshop led to a second, for which they needed some scenes, so the actors would know what to say.  They called a mutual acquaintance, me, and asked if I would supply some dialogue and some ideas for scenes that weren’t in the novel.  Dave and Ridley came to check it out.  Dave, not one to beat around any bush, asked “Who wrote that stuff?  We really like it.”  Tom Schumacher of Disney, who had underwritten the workshops, said, “That guy, sitting over there.”  (I raised my hand and grinned sheepishly.)  Then, Tom added, “He’s going to write the play.”  And sometimes, that’s how you get the gig.  So basically, it’s important to know directors who don’t have lots of friends who are writers.

Did you participate actively in rehearsals and did the cast influence the script? Is there still wiggle room for play in the piece even now that it has been “frozen” on Broadway?

I was at rehearsals every day, or close to it – (sometimes I had to do laundry).  I wouldn’t have missed them.  In La Jolla, I was rewriting whole sections, so I often sat in the room, glued to my keyboard.  I just liked being in a room with so much great, creative energy.  And I was getting to know the actors, and enjoyed the very particular pleasure of writing to various actors’ specific talents.  Between La Jolla and New York Theatre Workshop, I did major rewriting to accommodate a change in cast size, and a conceptual change that dramatically altered the two title roles – something we only learned through La Jolla’s great “Page to Stage” program, of which we were a part.   At Theatre Workshop, I was there every day, because I was jealous of the limited rehearsal time, and, by this time, had become great friends with the actors.  So to have a free ticket into the room was a treat.  Also, like a tailor at the local laundry, it was very efficient to have me there to do rewrites, and develop new sequences “on premises” – based on our finally having a set. For Broadway, we gave the actors a new script on the first day that had some big structural changes, and over the course of rehearsals, I was able to do very specific work.  I love being at rehearsals a lot.  I have the rest of my life to be somewhere else.

Wiggle room?  Well, actors of the caliber in Peter are so alive in their roles that wiggle room isn’t necessary.  Also, the physical tasks at hand require that everybody know what everybody is doing moment to moment, or someone could be hurt.  So no – the text is the text and the production is the production.  There are one or two “cadenza” moments, where the duration of certain things may vary from night to night, at the discretion of one or two of the actors.  It’s lovely when audience members say the whole thing has this entirely improvised feel, but believe me, it’s all worked out very carefully by the extraordinary ensemble of actors, the choreographer, the directors, the stage managers.  It’s a tribute to them that the play has that improvised feel.

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Nina Arianda & Hugh Dancy in "Venus in Fur". Photo by Joan Marcus.

“There’s nothing in that.”

Those were the sage words of advice David Ives received from his father as the young playwright headed off to the Yale School of Drama. We should all have such nothing. With a career spanning influential comedies like All in the Timing and acclaimed translations of classics like the Moliere “rewrite” School for Lies, to his current Tony-nominated, Broadway hit Venus in Fur, Ives has proven those words wrong and made a life working in the theater.

During a recent discussion moderated by famed critic John Lahr at the 92nd Street Y Tribecca, Ives opened up about the highs and lows of his career in sparklingly articulate and, at times, raucously deadpan stories — from his tragically lost first play to his current much-anticipated collaboration with Stephen Sondheim.

On his unfortunate debut as a playwright: 

I got bitten by the theater bug quite early and I wrote my first play when I was nine. I took this three hundred page, sort of noir novel out of my parents’ library and I turned it into a ten minute play. For my cub scout troupe. I was going to play the lead, of course, and all my friends were going to play the secondary roles which were much smaller. But what I didn’t know is that everyone in the play has to get a copy of the script. And so I learned my lines, I passed the script on and he lost it. And it was probably my best work ever. I’m still looking for it.

On the thrill of discovering his love for theater:

The stinger really stuck in my flesh when I was seventeen and I went to see Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy in A Delicate Balance. It came through Chicago. I well remember the sensation that I had sitting in the front of the balcony for $3.65 and watching Cronyn & Tandy and feeling like I was in the front car of the Cyclone in Coney Island. Because I had never seen anything like this, something so extraordinarily passionate and eloquent. I might as well have just gone home that day and written my parents a note that said, “Dear Mom & Dad, I’m going to be a playwright. Nothing can stop me.”

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