October 2003 Archives

Tovah Feldshuh has made a career playing heroic women: three queens of Henry VIII, a Czech freedom fighter (in a TV mini-series), nine Jews who age from birth to death (in an Off Broadway play), a young Jewish woman masquerading as a man, a Brazilian bombshell fielding two husbands (in a Broadway musical) and such divas as Sarah Bernhardt, fashion doyen Diana Vreeland and Tallulah Bankhead. She's also an acclaimed cabaret/concert attraction and, as she proved playing the hip Jewish mother in last year's Kissing Jessica Stein, is a deft comedienne.

Now, among her 90-something characterizations, she's just opened on Broadway tackling the many facets of Russian-born, American-bred Israeli prime minister Golda Meir in Golda's Balcony by William Gibson of Miracle Worker and Two for the Seesaw fame. Prior to the uptown move, it had an extraordinarily successful four-month run at Soho's Manhattan Ensemble Theater.

[On December 8, Feldshuh and veteran Tony-winning director Jerry Zaks will be honored with Tree of Life Awards by the Jewish National Fund in a star-studded event. For details, see below.]

Gibson, now 89, had reworked his 1977 Broadway play Golda [starring Anne Bancroft and a cast of 24, directed by Arthur Penn and which had a three-month run] into a pared down monologue. A friend of Feldshuh's saw it at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox and called her. "She told me the play had my name on it," explains Feldshuh, "but my response was ëOi vey! Another old, Jewish woman! Just what I need! That was becoming a career trend for me. I was in my 40s [well, she's a bit older] and going out and auditioning -- trying to convince directors that I'm nearly 60. It's hysterical. But, now, I've really done it. I'm playing a character 25 years my senior!"

Prior to opening, Feldshuh found a window of opportunity to visit Milwaukee, where she absorbed the world of Golda Mabovitch, as she was known when she immigrated there from Kiev. Prior to the opening on Broadway, she was able to get away to Israel to absorb herself even more in the Meir characterization.

Feldshuh's performance garnered almost unanimous critical acclaim and, among others, a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance. The play also received an Outer Critics Circle nomination for Best Play.

By show business standards, Golda's Balcony came about very quickly. In February, 2002, Feldshuh and director Scott Schwartz visited Gibson in Stockbridge, MA, in an attempt to secure permission to restructure his restructured play. He was agreeable to some things; not so agreeable to others. "When he was reluctant," reports Feldshuh, "I said, ëThis is going to be such an under-the-radar production in a small Soho theatre, that the stakes are not that great. The worst-case scenario is that the critics will say I was lousy in a great play.'"

And if you know Feldshuh, she does have persuasive powers. They worked because she and Schwartz got almost everything they wanted. "I kept after him and wore him down," she admits. "He finally said, ëOh, do whatever you want.' I think he just got tired!" [The clincher was that Mr. Gibson would see a late rehearsal and give his approval. He did.]

Golda's Balcony is a triumphant return to Broadway where she's been absent for 13 years. Feldshuh, a New York native and the sister of playwright David Feldshuh [Miss Evers' Boys], made her Broadway debut in her 20s, going on to star in Yentl, Sarav?! and Lend Me a Tenor, each earning her a Tony nod for Best Actress - and three Drama Desk Awards.

Her first breaks came as a rock singer and on the little screen, especially in a recurring role on Ryan's Hope. In a 1975 TV movie about Howard Hughes, she portrayed Katherine Hepburn, which no doubt brought her to the attention of the esteemed John Willis, who named her as one of 12 "Promising New Actors of 1977."

She later won an Emmy nomination for her role as freedom fighter Helena Slomova in the mini-series Holocaust. In addition to numerous film roles, she does frequent TV guest stints, most recently in a recurring role of defense attorney Danielle Melnick on Law & Order.

A consistent Feldshuh career trend has been one-woman shows. "When you're looking for subjects for interesting one-person vehicles," she says "who's going to sustain that type of scrutiny but a heroic woman? Vreeland, Bankhead and Meir, like many of the women I've portrayed, were groundbreakers. They had heroism. They broke taboos. They were feminist without being a feminist.

"I've never drawn parallels between Diana Vreeland, Tallulah Bankhead and Golda Meir!," she continues, "but there are parallels. They were women with access to power who demanded respect - or, in Tallulah's case, disrespect. None of ëmy' women made apologies for rubbing people the wrong way. Vreeland set new trends in fashion, Bankhead saw herself as a groundbreaking member of the full life movement and Meir envisioned a state. All were women to be reckoned with."

Feldshuh's research really educated her on Meir. "In particular, Golda was a woman of remarkable intelligence, voracious appetite and untrampled emotional freedom. She was not your sweet motherly or grandmotherly type. She could be a fierce warrior. A lioness. She had no fears because she was dedicated to a cause greater than herself. The seminal incidents in Golda's life were the pogroms she experienced as a child of a poor family in Russia."

The actress went all-out to portray the chain-smoking, black coffee-loving Meir. "Golda was a woman who took chances that were extreme. I don't drink much or shoot up. I have a fairly normal life - marriage, kids, no maid. My acting career is an opportunity to explore parameters without living them, but truth is always vital."

She is extensively made up with body fittings and a prosthetic nose. Since she never smoked, Feldshuh took lessons. She grins, showing her "tobacco stained" teeth. "So far," she adds, "I don't inhale and I'm not hooked. We tried using vegetable cigarettes, but they smelled up the place. It was as if someone was cooking vanilla and marijuana."

The play is based conversations Gibson had with the P.M. in 1977, a year before her death, and is set during the 1973 Arab-Israeli conflict known as the "Yom Kippur War" - when Meir, in a high-stakes game of poker, perhaps, bluffed the U.S. into thinking Israel had a secret weapon - the nuclear capability to drop a bomb on Egypt and Jordan.

The P.M. was a pretty shrewd character - and, as Feldshuh's interpretation of her take on Secretary of State Henry Kissinger proves, pretty good at impressions, too. But her demanding political career had consequences. It destroyed her marriage and family. She also did her share of fiddling, and not on the roof. One very surprising aspect was the number of lovers she had. Oi vey!

However, as a stateswoman, Meir wasn't exactly loved by everyone. "Friendly with everyone in politics actually doesn't work," states Feldshuh. "Golda always tried to take the higher ground."

How does Feldshuh balance her acting and concert career with family? "That's easy," she immediately replies. "My husband [Andrew Levy, an attorney and East Coast coordinator for an international real estate firm] and children come first." The couple have been married 27 years and have a son at Harvard and a 15-year-old daughter.

Feldshuh laughs, "Andy's the most tolerant husband in the world. I love him. He loves me. We get along, but we fight. We have bad days. We have worst days! We have better days. There's a love affair and, after marriage, building a life with someone. I am blessed. I not only married a great man, but a person who took our intelligence gene pool and put it through the stratosphere."

For more on Tovah Feldshuh, visit www.tovahfeldshuh.com.

[For her charitable work, Tovah Feldshuh is the recipient of the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanities Award, Hadassah's Myrtle Wreath, the Israel Peace Medal and the 2002 Jewish Image Award. On December 8, as a co-honoree with Broadway/TV director Jerry Zaks, she will receive the Jewish National Fund Tree of Life Award at a gala at New York's Marriott Marquis Hotel. Lewis J. Stadlen will host. Nathan Lane, Kristin Chenoweth, composer Andrew Lippa and Richard Dreyfuss will be among those to entertain and pay tribute. For information, contact Norma Balass, 212-879-9305 X. 502.]
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More stars than there are in the heavens will be there! No, not on an M-G-M soundstage for the making of a megamusical, but City Center's stage and Career Transition For Dancers [CTFD] 9th annual gala benefit, Gotta Dance! A Dance Tribute to Hollywood, Monday, October 27th, at 7 P.M. Good news: tickets at "popular prices" are still available.

Production director, choreographer Randy Skinner of 42nd Street fame guarantees "a very special evening." He says, "Not only are we going to have these movie musical greats together onstage - Cyd Charisse, Esther Williams, Jane Powell, Marge Champion, Fayard Nicholas, George Chakiris, Russ Tamblyn, Arlene Dahl - as well as such stars as Mary Tyler Moore, Lynn Redgrave, Cythia Gregory, Marni Nixon [the singing voice of so many stellar stars in film musicals], Rosie Perez and Leslie Browne - but also musical numbers saluting the films.

Just for a bei trotti and pas de deux or two, how about this for an extra added attraction? Several tribute numbers will feature dancers from the Royal Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, Les Ballets Grandiva, Lar Lubovitch Dance Company and Jacques d'Amboise's National Dance Institute!

Alexander J. DubÈ is executive director of CTFD, which was founded in 1985 and has offices in New York and Los Angeles. Their mission is to provide services to assist dancers establish new careers when dance is no longer an option. It has awarded over $1.7 million in scholarships and provided more than 32,000 hours of free one-on-one career counseling.

Ms. Charisse, who has been dancing since childhood, will receive the Movado Dance Award in recognition of her outstanding contributions to the world of dance. She's been seen in such movie musical classics as Singin' in the Rain (1952), The Band Wagon (1953) and Brigadoon (1954).

In addition, Baccarat crystal awards will be presented to Fayard Nicholas, half of the legendary dance duo, the Nicholas Brothers; and posthumously to legendary hoofer Donald O'Connor.

"When you think of movie musicals," says Skinner, "these are among the names that really stand out as the cream of the crop. They gave us so many fantastic hours of incredible entertainment."

Another award goes to Turner Entertainment, in recognition of their film restoration efforts and keeping movie musicals alive on TV.

"We're very proud we've helped restore and keep these film musicals alive," says Roger Mayer, Turner Entertainment president. "They are considered treasures of the M-G-M and Warner Bros. libraries that we own. Our restoration project started at M-G-M and has been ongoing for many years. The best musicals made, with few exceptions, were made there, thanks to the wonderful musical unit headed by Arthur Freed. He and Roger Edens recreated Broadway dance onscreen. They also brought out Broadway's best performers, such as Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire, choreographers, directors and art directors, such as Vincente Minnelli."

Mayer says Turner Entertainment is particularly proud of the recent 50th Anniversary release - for the first time on DVD - of the meticulously-restored Singin' in the Rain, which many consider Hollywood's greatest musical.

Restoration and preservation, which adds to the commerciality of these film classics, depends on the condition of the stored negatives. "Some films don't need a lot of work," says Mayer, "others need a lot. The black and white films, of course, are less challenging. When color enters into the equation, the process can get time-consuming because of fading over time. It depends on the amount of money and time you're willing to spend. We take the work very seriously."

Some restorations take a year to a year and a half, but, says Mayer, the average is six months. Cost ranges from $100,000 to a million or more.

The gala, dedicated to CTFD board member and arts patron Caroline H. Newhouse, will feature dance homages to such films as The Red Shoes, Singin' in the Rain, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, West Side Story and Sweet Charity. Adds Skinner, "And to the stars, such as Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, and Gene Kelly, who provided so many glorious screen dance moments."

Skinner has choreographed two world premieres, "Gotta Dance!/Singin' in the Rain Suite," which will feature the young dancers from National Dance Institute dancing to the title tune and "Broadway Rhythm"; and "Horray for Hollywood," which will feature him, Kate Levering [Tony-nominated for the 42nd Street revival; The Music Man revival] and 19 of Broadway's top gypsy tappers from The Producers, Gypsy, Cabaret, Beauty and the Beast and 42nd Street.

Choreographing numbers for such large ensembles isn't easy, reports Skinner, "but we choreographers have our ways! You use paper and a pencil with a very good eraser for charting your dancers, and that is a great tool when you get everyone in the rehearsal hall. And much credit has to go to the dance assistants."

His "movie musical vision," reports Skinner, "is his greatest tool as a choreographer. He's watched the screen musicals of the 30s and 40s over and over. "I close my eyes and see pictures and hear sounds and this tells me exactly what I want to do. I've been able to do it since I was a kid. Every director and choreographer has some version of that ability to visualize what they want out of a scene and where they're going to place people. It's a gift."

Another gala premiere will be "Saturday Night Fever" by choreographer Andy Blankenbuler.

The program will include the "Big Spender" number from Sweet Charity, performed by an ensemble that includes Ann Reinking, Bebe Neuwirth, Elizabeth Parkinson [Tony and Drama Desk nominee for Movin' Out] and Caitlin Carter [late of Chicago; Swing; Ain't Broadway Grand], who's also the gala's artistic chair; a tribute to Carmen Miranda by, yes, of course, Les Ballet Grandiva; "The Cotton Club," a tribute to the Nicholas Brothers by the Williams Brothers [this will be introduced by Maurice Hines and dedicated to his late brother Gregory Hines]; Nicholas and his wife performing "Chattanooga Choo Choo"; and "Appalachian Clog" saluting Seven Brides For Seven Brothers by d'Amboise, who played one of the brothers in the film.

Robert Mikulski, currently onboard at Aida, is musical director.

The event has taken a year to plan by a volunteer committee. "It's time consuming to put together such a gala," says Skinner, "because it gets complicated from the organizational standpoint - contacting the celebrities; hoping the date fits into their schedule; then, when they say yes, getting the music prepared and figuring how we're going to get the stars here and in what order they're going to be presenting the numbers.

"You have to be very careful not to slight anyone," he adds. "If you're going to do a salute to the Hollywood musicals, it certainly helps to have a really committed committee person like Jane Powell [who's in the Sondheim musical Bounce, now at the Kennedy Center]. Not only was she in some of the great dance films, but she's also friends with almost all the stars she worked with."

Planning so far ahead, adds Skinner, "you hope and pray that as the dates draws closer, everything stays on track. We were truly blessed in that we only lost Chita Rivera, who was one of the first to commit, but who now has a conflict. Also, we badly wanted Ann Miller and Van Johnson to be with us, but personal situations prevented that. Sadly, of course, we lost Donald O'Connor."

There are other stars on the bill that we, unfortunately, don't see every day: Academy Award winner George Chakiris (West Side Story), Russ Tamblyn, Marge Champion, Fayard Nicholas of the famed Nicholas Brothers team and Esther Williams.

Honoree Charisse spent her early childhood taking ballet and, using the names Maria Istomina and Felia Sidorova, joined the Ballet Russe at 13. She co-starred in such M-G-M classic musicals as It's Always Fair Weather (1955) and Silk Stockings (1957), the ballet feature, Black Tights(1960; U.K.) and performed an elegant striptease in the opening sequence of the camp spy thriller The Silencers (1966). She got her first name courtesy of her brother, who nicknamed her Sid. She tried to convince her agent to keep the spelling but, fearing it was too masculine, he persuaded her to change the Si to Cy.]

Skinner, who can boast that he's worked in regional theater with Ms. Charisse and Ann Miller, came to the attention of Gower Champion almost fresh out of college. In 1976, he was appearing in the pre-Broadway try- outs of Jolie, a musical about Al Jolson starring Larry Kert that never made it to New York. Donald Johnston was music director and was so impressed with Skinner's tap abilities that he recommended him to Champion. He eventually became one of Champion's assistants on 42nd Street. Later he helped mount the London production and several international companies.

"What really made it incredible was that I was so young," explains Skinner. "I'd only been in New York four years. Working with Gower on a big, splashy David Merrick musical was the opportunity of a lifetime. He allowed us such creativity. It was a true collaboration. Those six weeks of pre-production were some of the happiest days of my career." It did come at a cost, however. Looking back, Skinner admits that seeing all those dancers dancing gave him all sorts of separation anxieties. "Part of me wanted to be onstage with the chorus!"

And as far as 42nd Street is concerned, he's come full circle, having recreated choreography from the original production and creating several spectacular numbers for the current revival.

Chairs for the Gotta Dance! gala are Amy Bermant Adler, Fe Sarcino Fendi and Anka K. Palitz, who are joined by Jane Powell, Anne H. Bass and Cynthia Gregory as honorary chairs. Vice-Chairs are Helene Alexopoulos, Mercedes Ellington, Susan Jaffe and Laura Zeckendorf. Sponsors include Movado, CondÈ Nast Publications, Pointe Magazine/Lifestyle Ventures LLC and Rolex Watch U.S.A.

Performance only tickets are on sale at City Center box office at $45, $55, $70 and $95 or by calling Citytix [212-581-1212].

For more information on CTFD, visit www.careertransition.org.
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He's back, and Marian's got him - again! The "he" would be Brian Murray; the "Marian" is - honestly, folks, isn't there only one Marian? : Marian Seldes [the almost royal Marian, a.k.a. St. Marian of the Proscenium]. The dynamic duo, who long ago became intimate friends, are onstage together for the third time in Beckett/Albee, reviving four rarely performed one-acts by the playwrights.

The first act plays are: Not I, A Piece of Monlogue and Footfalls from that wild and crazy guy Beckett's Theater of the Absurd repertory; and, for the second half, Albee's Counting the Ways, which the co-stars describe as a "vaudeville."

It is a disparate combination from playwrights so many feel have so much in common. Seldes isn't one of them. "Darling," she states with great authority, "one has nothing to do with the other!" Seldes, who won a 1967 Tony Award as the daughter in A Delicate Balance and portrayed two roles in 1994's Three Tall Women, is an Albee expert. But Murray gently interjects, "Except that they both are obsessed with the usage of words."

And in Murray's Monologue and Seldes' exciting Not I [in some circles, a.k.a. Lips], her quite veiled filibuster monlogue, they spew forth with lots of words. [Trivia: Abbott & Costello were so inspired on experiencing Beckett's Footfalls, that they went straight home and came up with their classic vaudeville routine "Slowly I Turn" -- this is hearsay, but from quite reliable sources.]

Counting the Ways wakes every snoozing audience member up. It's classic, trademark Albee, a series of vignettes [complete with "drum roll blackouts" about a very elegant married couple constantly seeking romantic assurances. He took his title from a line of Elizabeth Barrett Browning poetry [his original was Scenes from A Marriage, but that had been taken]. Like The Play About the Baby, their previous outing together, it's filled with sarcastic dialogue; and Murray and Seldes are in a similar position to theirs in TPATB. They were simply referred to in the credits as Man and Woman; here, they are He and She. The subject is love and it's obvious these two players are immensely enjoying themselves. The most fun comes when they are invited by the playwright to break the fourth wall.

The New York Times' Ben Brantley, in his review, compared their onstage chemistry to Fred and Ginger, adding: "When Brian Murray and Marian Seldes get together in a play by Edward Albee, it's as if they are dancing on air."

They are. According to Murray, "we're having the time of their lives" and nothing short of a lovefest. It is one that has come somewhat late in their careers and lives [he's approaching mid-60s and Seldes is, hummm, a woman of a certain age]. They have ebulliently enthused publicly at American Theatre Wing events and in print of their great mutual admiration -- an admiration, Seldes admitted, that can lead to problems for her. She has said that watching Murray work she sometimes -- amazingly -- loses focus. Such devotional flattery can
get Murray more than a bit red-faced, but he is equally generous in
his praise of Seldes. He says their collaborations are easy because they have great confidence and trust in each other, adding. "For us, "working together is heaven."

They first co-starred five years ago as husband and wife at Playwrights Horizons in Theresa Rebeck's Butterfly Collection. In 2001 they garnered great acclaim in Albee's TPATB, which debuted at East 15th Street's Century Center for the Performing Arts, where B/A is running. After nine years of marriage, Seldes had recently lost her second husband, Garson Kanin, and, being in the company of an old friend, they bonded.

Alone or together, they're always working, whether on Broadway or Off. When Murray is not acting, he's directing.

Murray says he can't explain why he's always in demand. "It's a matter of luck and timing," he chuckles during a rehearsal break. "Being available and that job being right, then being available for another than can follow. It's all just luck."

That's a bit hard to swallow. Talent, easy to work with and reputation must also enter the equation. Interestingly, Murray has never met a part he didn't like. And he never considers the size of a role, or whether the audience will like his character. Two favorite roles are John Tarleton in Misalliance (which he did at Roundabout) and his Tony-nominated Ben in The Little Foxes (for Lincoln Center Theatre).

"Misalliance is one of Shaw's most affectionate and funniest plays," he notes, "but I can't say Tarleton is the standout because it's really an ensemble piece. However, he's the most agreeable character. In fact, he agrees with everything. I loved the journey Shaw takes him on and, since he goes thorough some nice changes, the challenge of attempting that. Ben is one of Lillian Hellman's best-drawn characters. He's evil incarnate, right on a par with Regina, who's his perfect match. Playing that sort of part can be great fun!"

Murray was born of British parents in South Africa. His mother had been a dancer who wanted to become an actress, "but then came World War II and it never worked out." His father was in the Army [a total of six years] "and Mother had to do whatever it took to support us."

When he was seven, his mother had him take elocution. Not long after, his teacher suggested him for a play. "I remember it vividly. It was King John. It was my first Shakespeare, and I didn't do any again for years. I was blessed in that in the 50s, there were a lot of plays written with wonderful parts for juveniles. One after another, I managed to weedle my parents into letting me do them. I was being paid. I liked that! They liked that!

"We didn't have television until way after I left in the mid-70s. I grew up completely without it. I worked an awful lot in radio. That gave me a very good grounding. I was directed and taught by fine English directors who'd come out for a gig during the English winter, our summer."

After he left school, he did two years of professional acting. "I was working so much, I didn't go to university. I was happy doing what I wanted to do, so I didn't see the need to go. When I was 18, my parents separated. I applied to Lamda in London and was accepted. My parents saw it as a great opportunity and let me go. But, before I even enrolled, I got a job in a rep company and that's where I really received my education."

In 1961 he was accepted into the Royal Shakespeare Company and landed in New York in 1964 on their world tour in honor of Shakespeare's quattrocentenary. "It was the RSC's first U.S. tour," he recollects. "We did King Lear, directed by Peter Brook at Lincoln Center in the New York State Theatre, the only time there's ever been a straight play there. It opened only two weeks before we did. We didn't have mikes, and the acoustics were dreadful!"

There were two up sides. It was during that run that Murray first met Seldes, who says she still vividly remembers his performance. Murray was impressed with her pedigree. Seldes is the daughter of journalist/author/editor Gilbert Seldes and a niece of journalist George Seldes. And Murray, who's now a United States citizen, fell in love with New York.

"I'd never known a place as exciting," he gushes. When the tour ended, he beat a path back New York. "I'd never known a place as exciting, but what really impressed me was the theatre and how people worked."

He lucked into the Off Broadway hit The Knack, directed by Mike Nichols. And, during his off time, caught as much theatre as possible. "What impressed me was the passion, commitment, and vitality of the actors. By comparison, English theatre was laid back. Over there, it was considered bad form to get too intense, and I was an intense actor. By that time I was completely hooked on New York, which was a place where everyone seemed to be intense. I was, and knew this was where I wanted to be."

He hasn't worked in the U.K. in almost 15 years. "I very much consider myself an American actor. I've lived here for nearly 40 years. I've always felt tremendously comfortable professionally and personally here. Maybe it's because I was raised in South Africa, which has a similarity in outlook. Then, too, it's a big open country. Not a little island [like the U.K.]."

In 1965, Murray made his Broadway debut in Bill Naughton's All In Good Time, "starring the distinguished Donald Wolfit in a company that was mostly English, but which had a lot of good American actors: Richard Dysart [later known for his portrayal of Leland McKenzie on TVs L.A. Law] and John Karlen [Tyne Daly's husband on Cagney and Lacey]. It got wonderful notices, except in the Times. So we closed. It deserved much better."

He returned to the U.K, where he worked on the West End and in the regions and ruminated on coming back to America. It took three years. The vehicle was Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.

"That was an extraordinary experience," says Murray, who was nominated for a 1968 Tony for Featured Actor along with cast members Paul Hecht and John Wood. "We won the Tony [for Best Play] and became a cult hit." In his book The Season, William Goldman called it the first snob hit. "None of us realized it was going to be that popular. Least of all, [producer] David Merrick, who only took the theatre for three months. But it was the 60s and every kid who was possibly going to Vietnam identified with these two almost nameless, background people who are used by the government. We ran for a year."

Did the Tony nomination secure his future? "Yes," he replies. "Let's say, ëOf course, it did!'" he adds thoughtfully. "More than anything, it was the play and the incredible reviews."

Some highlights of his career are: Hugh Leonard's 1978 Tony-winning Best Play Da, in which he played Charlie, the son; Sleuth; Noises Off; Off Broadway in Travels with My Aunt, opposite Jim Dale; a scathing performance in a revival of The Entertainer, which co-starred Jean Stapleton; the homosexual priest in LCT's Racing Demon; and, two seasons ago, when he did everything but eat the scenery as Puritan deputy gov Danforth [who presides over the witch trials] in the Broadway revival of The Crucible.

"Noises Off was memorable," observes Murray. "Being farce, it wasn't considered as great to work on as Rosencranz, but I'd put it right up there. I had the opportunity to do Da again at Irish Repertory [where he has directed] and I jumped for the opportunity. A few years had passed and I played the title role."

Is it easy to be directed when you've directed? "Much easier," he notes, "particulary if it's a director I trust. I happily say, ëI want to be directed. Govern me', as Tarleton says in Misalliance. When there's a director who's nervous, I assure them it's a dream to be directed. Frankly, I could no more direct myself in a play than fly! As a director, you cannot have your ego get in the way of your concern for the actors. You have to be their nurse, lover, daddy, all those things. An actor has to have an ego, but a director shouldn't -- not that sort of ego."

He explains that being an actor makes him a "dream" director. "I treat the cast as I would want to be treated." There is something he can never see himself doing. "I could no more direct myself than fly. Certainly not in theater. As a director, you cannot have your own ego as an actor get in the way of your concern for other people's egos. You have to look after them, be their nurse, the lover, the daddy, all those things. An actor has to have an ego, but a director shouldn't -- not that sort of ego anyway.

Murray enjoys going back and forth between his two personas. "I seem to do it in batches," he explains, "several in a row, then I come back to acting." What makes the time right? "I'll read a play or, perhaps, discuss one in which I'm too old to do a particular role, and the juices start to flow. My favorite directing is a play by, say, Shaw, because you have so much intelligence to deal with. The secret to having fun is to get people who can understand and speak it well."

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How many Broadway musicals have the audience going wild as soon as the curtain rises? And it doesn't stop there. At the revival of Alan Menken and the late Howard Ashman's Little Shop of Horrors, there are standing ovations before the actors even take their bows and screaming fans at the stage door.

Since it was a preview performance, one is suspect that, as often is the case, the producers filled a good portion of the theatre with theatergoers on the "Friends and Family Plan." But, according to co-star Hunter Foster, that was not the case. It definitely appears Broadway has a cult hit: A fun, horror musical - and just in time for Halloween.

"It's wonderful to have enthusiast audiences," says Hunter Foster, who plays Seymour, the nerdy florist's assistant/botanist who befriends an exotic plant with ever-growing carnivorous appetites. "People know the characters and the songs -- from its original Off Broadway run, the film adaptation and the fact that it's been done by nearly every regional theatre, university and high school."

Little Shop of Horrors is black comedy at its best. It's one thing to have seen it at your community theatre, but, says Foster, if you're seeing it on Broadway, with all the production values that name implies, you expect that all the stops will be pulled out.

One worry, says Foster, was that the Virginia Theatre, with its huge stage and nearly 1,280 seats, would be too big for the little Little Shop; that the show would be so bowdlerized for Broadway that it would lose its charm.

Thankfully, Foster adds, "that hasn't been the case. The scope of the show is big, so the story and songs fill the space. It helps that the show is inherently funny and that [multi Tony Award-winning director] Jerry [Zaks] knows how to mine humor. He was careful to get us to base it on truth as opposed to just doing shtick. With a show as loved as Little Shop, there are high audience expectations so you don't want to disappoint. I'm sure there were temptations, but our producers, [choreographer] Kathleen [Marshall] and Jerry [Zaks] saw to it that we kept things reigned in. It was a constant reality check."

Howard Ashman was the artistic director of the now-defunct WPA Theatre when he was introduced to Menken via the BMI Musical Theater Workshop. They collaborated on a musical adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, a fantasy musical which didn't catch on when it was moved to a larger Off Broadway space. "I believe," says Menken, "that we set the record for losing the most money Off Broadway! But we used what we learned on Rosewater for Little Shop."

Menken added that theater doesn't get any easier, even for someone who has somewhat of a track record [not to mention a couple of Academy Awards for his Disney movie songs], "but the best career you can have is as composer of a number of musicals that have a life out of New York. With Little Shop, we just wanted a show that would run a little while Off Broadway so we'd be able to do our big project.

"It ended up becoming an international industry. It was incredible watching it take off. [The musical went on to win Drama Desk, Drama Critics and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Musical.] Over the years, it's been done literally everywhere and has had and will have a long, long life in regional theatre. You can't even do better than that in Hollywood, which is not always as lucrative as it is touted to be."

The musical, inspired by the quickie indie 1960 Roger Corman movie [which is best remembered for a spectacular performance by Jack Nicholson, in what is credited as only his second film], may be set on Skid Row, but you don't come out of this Shop depressed. That's partly due to a fabulous cast.

Foster, amazingly boyish for 34 and who shot to fame as the hero in another cult hit, Urinetown, is quite believable playing much younger. You might assume he's in his late teens. "The youthfulness helps in this business," he admits. "My goal was to grow up and play ëadult' parts. I now realize I can have a pretty long career playing younger."

He says he been fortunate to have done so well in a relatively short time. "You always have struggle. There are parts you desperately want that you don't get. They were always bringing me in for Miss Saigon. I must have auditioned ten times, but I never got it. I really wanted to do Rent, and I auditioned for the tour, but that was not to be. Then I was up for Bruce in The Producers, but that wasn't terribly disappointing because it was around the same time of Little Shop."

Sometimes, he says, fate is a good thing. "After we did Urinetown in the Fringe Festival, I was pretty high on the list for Dance of the Vampires. Thank God I didn't get that one! I would have been really depressed."

Digressing momentarily, here's a little background on Foster: He grew up in Georgia and Michigan. He auditioned for the theater program at the University of Michigan and that was a successful audition. With his younger sister Tony Award winner Sutton Foster of Thoroughly Modern Mille, they are both stars on Broadway. The Foster family must have been one musical family.

"Not at all," he explains. "What has happened - our success - is really amazing since no one in our family was interested in theater. Dad was an executive with General Motors. All we ever heard about were cars. We didn't grow up singing Broadway show tunes. As a youngster in Georgia, I didn't know what Broadway shows were. We did shows in high school, like Grease [which, after touring as Rum Tum Tugger in Cats and understudying the lead in Footloose, he would eventually do on Broadway, playing Roger], but we didn't know about theater. It was just fun."

He reports that he actually wanted to be a writer. "I wrote dozens of short stories and my teachers predicted I'd be an author or journalist. Being around musicals in college really changed my direction." However, he has managed to circle back to writing - having adapted the book for the short-lived Off Broadway musical Summer of '42 in '02 and now putting the finishing touches to the books for the musical adaptations of Bonnie and Clyde and the 1992 film Fearless.

Foster says he's drawn to passionate love stories - "make that, situations where two people are thrown together during unusual circumstances and somehow manage to find love."

Can anything - novel, movie, play - be made into a musical? "No," he instantly says with a great laugh. "It's pretty evident that there are certain things that shouldn't have ever been musicalized."

He points out that although Summer of '42 didn't fare well here with critics and audiences, it's having a major success in regional theater.

Getting back to Little Shop and it's cast: there's also Kerry Butler, who may look, as Foster states, as if she's 12 but she's been around - Mrs. Jones in Blood Brothers, Eponine in Les Miz, Belle in Beauty and the Beast, Shelley in Bat Boy and most recently Hairspray, where she portrayed Penny Pingleton. The wide-eyed innocence she's able to exude helps make her delightfully likeable as Little Shop's Audrey, a girl with a past who dates men who are hazardous to her health.

Then there's Douglas Sills, best known for his acclaimed portrayal of The Scarlet Pimpernel, as a gleefully delightful vile villain [his characterization of the dentist will do for that profession what Jaws did for swimmers going to the beach!]; a female doo-wop trio that keeps the joint jumpin'; and Rob Bartlett channeling Zero Mostel's Tevye for his Mushnik, the florist.

But don't forget Audrey II, the little plant (created by the Jim Henson folks) that in this big show set in a little shop grows bigger and bigger, lustier and lustier and hungrier and hungrier. Michael-Leon Wooley gives terrific bass voice to Audrey II, which is hydraulically operated by designer Martin Robinson into a King Kong-like monster.

[Before or after the show, or even if you don't go see the show,
stop by Season's Florist at Eighth Avenue and 53rd Street, just around the corner from the Virginia Theatre, to see their window display of a much tamer Audrey II.]

Reviews for Little Shop of Horrors have been positive to mixed, but Ben Brantley of the Times agrees. He wrote: "Directed with silky efficiency by Jerry Zaks, the show is, in word and song, honorably true to the smaller Off Broadway incarnation that became the sleeper of the season 21 years ago. The urge to go for the glitz has, for once, been kept in checkÖHoward Ashman's droll, clichÈ-bending book and lyrics remain in placeÖSo does the gleeful 1960's-pastiche score by Alan Menken, which still sneaks into the back of your head and stays there."

According to Foster, it does more than "sneak." He says, "Alan Menken and Howard Ashman created a master class for anyone interested in writing musicals. From the opening moment, the momentum builds like a runaway train. Its boom, boom, boom -- one song after another. That lifts us off and we never let up in taking the audience higher and higher!"

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