"Mama Mia!" (Photo: Joan Marcus)

The Broadway Blog asked some of our favorite theatre folks to tell us about their favorite Broadway love songs. Ah, love. While my high school cohorts were smoking weed on the football field and doing it in the back of a 1986 Chevette (yes, I’m dating myself,) I was swooning over Patti LuPone’s bullhorn vocals in the revival cast recording of “Anything Goes.”

Broadway was my lover before I knew how or whom I could love. While I experienced a bit of bullying and subsequently lashed out at a few kids myself during those years, nothing seemed to matter when I popped in the double length cassette of “Les Misérables” and dreamt of Marius and Cosette (actually Marius and Enjolras.)

Leading up to Valentine’s Day, the Broadway Blog will be showcasing some favorite romantic moments from the Great White Way. Have some of your own? Share them with us on Facebook.

Click through for our first two picks…

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Our contributing correspondent Andrew Glaszek remembers the life and work of Tony-winning costume designer Martin Pakledinaz, who passed away July 8.

Martin Pakledinaz. Photo by Ken Howard.

I went to a performance-based program, in Detroit at Wayne State University, which meant that we did a season of 5 fully produced shows each year at a 1200 seat proscenium arch theatre in addition to a season of studio productions and two touring shows at the same time that the graduate company was doing 8 full productions in rotating repertory in their own theatre. (breath) On top of our class loads and training, of course. We did everything. And we did it with our blood, sweat, and tears. All three of which ended up on the costumes – plenty of it was mine.

When I wasn’t on stage or in rehearsal (which was a hell of a lot), I worked in the costume shop to pay my rent and buy my booze (and some groceries sometimes, I guess…) I stitched, ripped, surged, washed, dyed, and pressed, blocked hats, cut patterns, pulled together looks, loaded in to the theatre and loaded out again… and again. I also learned the skills to make a lil side career as a designer. Working there was life changing, especially due to my mentor, professor and friend Mary K. Copenhagen. The costume shop is where the heart is – where actors are able to meet, not only their character’s presence, but the creative process in action.

At WSU, we had a hero – Martin Pakledinaz. Marty had gone to WSU for theatre many years before but, at the time I was in school, he was reaching the height of his success as a costume designer on Broadway and starting to pick up TONY nom after TONY Nom. – 10 with 2 wins! Show after show, we were able to revel in the fact that one of our alum had made it big. He had worked under the best, Theoni V. Aldredge, to be the best. Here’s Marty in his own words describing his start:

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"Thoroughly Modern Millie". Image via Google.

Buckle up, gang, the years are flying by again as we hit the gas on our time machine. With 1972, 1982 and 1992 in our rear view mirror, 2002 is rising before us in all its palindromic glory.

And what does Tony-night look like to us time travelers as we step into the celebrity-packed theater? Sutton Foster is beaming; future Smash cast mates Christian Borle and Brian d’Arcy James are a seat away from each other; Bernadette Peters bubbles and coos. In fact, it’s all eerily similar to where we live today except for the nagging feeling that everything and everyone looks a bit fresher and less lived-in — like we all went to sleep in New York and woke up in Toronto.

Edward Albee’s The Goat or Who is Sylvia? takes the top prize for plays while Thoroughly Modern Millie bests Urinetown in the Best Musical category, though that feisty little show grabs a number of other statuettes. As for the performances, the less said about the awkward “tell the whole story in 3-minutes” mega-mix strategy employed by Mamma Mia and the Into the Woods revival the better. (How often are those two shows ever in the same sentence?) Seriously, a note to today’s producers planning their Tony performances — do one whole number! Musicals don’t cut into nice neat little movie trailers. Songs are meant to be experienced as a build to climax.

So where shall we start watching? How about at the very beginning? It’s a very good place to start, I hear…

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Gavin Creel at Birdland. Photo by Monica Simoes.

Two-time Tony-nominee Gavin Creel is on a roll–and it’s rolling him into a theater near you. Producers just announced that he’ll be playing the lead in the first national tour of the smash hit The Book of Mormon. But that’s just the latest in a string of bold moves for the charming and handsome Creel. From a new pop album to his groundbreaking work for marriage equality with Broadway Impact, he’s long been winning hearts and minds far beyond the Great White Way.

Two months ago (and sadly before I could grill him about Mormon), I caught up with Creel via phone to interview him for the May issue of “Passport Magazine” (hitting newsstands any day now). However, we had so much to chat about and so much that was too juicy for the print edition, it couldn’t be contained in one article–so I thought I’d share the extras here. Serious or silly, whether discussing his own wedding dreams or his codependent relationship with his dog, Creel proves why he’ll always be one of our favorite leading men…

Hi Gavin. How are you doing?

I’m good. I’m literally standing on a marina in Key West so I’m going to step outside so we can have a little chatty poo.

I’m sorry to interrupt; I didn’t realize it was vacation time.

I’m not on vacation; I’m doing a Broadway Across America concert. Doing a little presentation for eleven new musicals for next season. Just coming down to sing a song. I literally flew in an hour and a half ago and am flying out tomorrow morning.

Fun times.

Crazy. That’s the life of being a show business whore.

[laughter] Honestly, the first thing I have to do is thank you. My partner and I of eleven years just got engaged last week.

Oooh! Congratulations!

It truly is because of people like you that we were able to do this.

I appreciate that; it’s very kind of you but I’m not getting married or engaged yet so it’s people like you who are doing it. Even though we’re still fighting for the rights it takes people like you to do it, to stand up and face all the stupid that might come your way even though it’s legal.

Have you had a chance to attend any weddings since it became legal in New York?

No gay weddings yet.

None! Oh no…

I’ll be looking for the invite.

It’s in the mail now.

[laughter]

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