April 2007 Archives

In Legally Blonde, Orfeh, who's stunningly, legally blonde, and the tall, handsome Andy Karl play the irresistible "trailer trash," hopelessly-in-love manicurist, Paulette Bonafonte, and the object of her manicured, pedicured lust, Kyle, the UPS guy. Their onstage chemistry is as strong as their offstage chemistry.

They've worked onstage together five times, but Legally Blonde is the first time they worked as a marrieds on Broadway. They are that Broadway rarity: a married couple working together. [The show's composers Nell Benjamin and Laurence O'Keefe are also married.]

They met during the last six months of Saturday Night Fever. Orfeh had been playing Annette and bringing the house down with her rendition of "If I Can't Have Him," when Karl joined the show. He hardly set foot inside the stage door before they started dating and segued into a mad courtship. In 2001, a week after SNF closed, they eloped.

Legally Blonde, based on the 2001 megahit that starred Reese Weatherspoon, is the story of Delta Nu beauty Elle Woods, played by Drama Desk-nominee Laura Bell Bundy [Ruthless; also Wicked, Hairspray], who gets dumped by her boyfriend for someone "more serious." Elle, not exactly magna cum laude, follows him to Harvard Law School, where she proves that being true to yourself never goes out of style.

DD-nominee Christian Borle [Spamalot, Thoroughly Modern Millie] co-stars as Emmett Richmond. The show also marks the return to the stage of Tony and DD-winner Michael Rupert as Professor Callahan.

Legally Blonde, with music and lyrics by Nell Benjamin and Laurence O'Keefe and book by Heather Hach, opens at the Palace on April 29th.

During the pre-Broadway San Francisco run, the reviews for Orfeh and Karl were exemplary and only drowned out by screaming girls hunting down Karl. Of her salon super-diva Paulette, stuffed into hot pants and heels, one reviewer reported she was capable of setting the scenery on fire. Another loved her Fran Drescher-style comedics. Karl, it was noted, nearly steals the show and is akin to "walking porn." One went so far as to write that "Kyle, the UPS guy, has a nice butt!" [Okay, she was the teen critic for the Oakland Tribune, but now we know what attracts young girls to theater.]

Orfeh came into the business as a pop/rock singer with a power voice. She can belt "and if called upon, even do opera. It might make people insane. I've broken a glass or two, not even trying!" Adds Karl, "And a few bones!"

She admits she wasn't the producers or director/choreographer Jerry Mitchell's first choice. "Because of my past [recording star with an international hit, songwriter], it's been difficult getting roles. When I played Janis Joplin [Love, Janis], people in the business thought ëThat's what she does.' Casting people think I'm someone who'll blaze you out of the room, not someone subtle and heartwarming. They're reluctant to allow someone to step outside the box they feel that person should be in."

Thinking "bend and snap" Paulette, played so indelibly on film by Jennifer Coolidge, was the perfect role, Orfeh became quite determined, "but they wouldn't see me for a year. I wasn't their idea - physical, age, height - of Paulette. They never see me and say, ëOrfeh. Funny.' They don't know my comic side. Comedy's where I live! Some started to get it when I was in ÖTrailer Park."

Karl had been involved for two years in LB's road to Broadway. "Paulette seemed to be the hardest role to cast. They saw everyone. Nothing clicked. Every reading, it was somebody new. At some point, I suggested ëHey, how about my wife?'" He stops, glances at Orfeh and smiles. "Or am I just making this part up?" "Probably," she laughs.

They worked on the parts at home. In the end, however, it was how Orfeh finally nailed her audition. "The seventh time!" she squeals. Says Karl, "They fell in love with her. They opened their eyes and came to the conclusion that we'd make a great team." States Orfeh, "It was was just a matter of convincing them I'm not this hard ass rock chick."

Orfeh and Karl may be the embodiment of the old axiom that opposites attract. He's 6'2", she's 5'4" [much taller with heels!]. "I never understood why she'd be crazy enough to want to be with me," he states. "Oh, shut up!" she replies. "You're one of the most handsome men on the planet." Later, she adds, "Andy wasn't someone up on a screen that I couldn't get to."

In explaining what makes their marriage work, Orfeh says, "We're normal. We're not wrapped up in the business of show. When we come home, there's talk, but it's not the all-consuming reason for our existence."

Karl says, "Our differences compliment each other, and there's no ego, no trying to get each other's jobs. I'd be happy if Orfeh was making millions and I could buy a Mercedes." Orfeh, cracking up, may not think too much of that idea! "Even though I love to work, and I've been lucky to keep working, I'm not one of those persons who says, ëI've got to make the money.' We support each other's career." [He's now pursuing musical theater composing.]

Orfeh's one word name is not meant as pretension. "It fascinates me that people think I came up with it. Never! That's a name only a mother could come up with. Mom was big fan of the Michael Camus film Black Orpheus [based on the Orpheus and Eurydice myth and set during Rio's Carnaval]. The girl is Orfeo and Mom got it into her head that was what her child was going to be named. Regardless of sex. So it's good I was born female."

A born and bred New Yorker [Karl's from Baltimore] with a French and Italian heritage, she does say that her name intrigues people. "Someone recently thought I was Asian!" In public school here, she continues, "no one even batted an eye when roll call was called. I was the least unique person. Even when I got into the music business, no one batted an eye."

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Antoinette Perry is the namesake of the Tony Awards. From childhood, everyone called stunningly beautiful but tough-as-nails Denver actress "Toni." That was the name by which she was known in theatrical circles in her early acting career and later as a pioneering producer and director. With much chagrin, she felt compelled in the late 1930s to change the "i" to a "y" because of the immense popularity of the Toni hair home permanent line.

I had the unique opportunity to interview Miss Perry's daughter, Margaret Frueauff Fanning, who died Sunday, April 8 at her ranch in a remote sector of Colorado, a state her grandparents helped settle in the 1860s. She was 94. She reverted to her mother's maiden name onstage and screen.

She was quite a character. Under her mother's tutelage, she and sister Elaine, acted on the New York stage. Ten years ago, I was somehow able to contact her in Colorado and speak with her about her mother.

"Mother wanted to be an actress as soon as she could lisp," Margaret Perry told me. "She was fond of saying that she didn't say she was going to become an actress. From childhood on, she felt she was one. No one could have convinced her she wasn't. When other girls were playing with dolls, mother was putting on shows in the backyard."From age 15, she toured with her uncle's company, "watching and learning, doing everything from helping in wardrobe and selling tickets" to eventually playing ingenue roles in melodramas, farces, even Shakespearean male roles.

In New York, famed impresario David Belasco, obsessed with her beauty and porcelain complexion, put her on the Broadway stage, where she graduated to major starring roles.

Ever the ladies' man, Belasco let Miss Perry slip into the hands of an old Denver beau, Frank Frueauff, an oil, gas and utilities magnate [his companies eventually merged and became CITGO]. At the peak of her New York acting career, Miss Perry married Frueauff. They traveled the great liners to Europe and, on settling in New York, entertained in their Fifth Avenue apartment in robber baron style.

It didn't take him long to convince her to give up theater and become a full-time wife, mother and hostess. Or so her husband thought. Margaret Perry explained that it didn't take long "before mother's theatrical aspirations clashed with Frank's conservative lifestyle and, very discreetly, very much on the sly, she got back into the business."

In 1920, approached by Brock Pemberton, a flamboyant press agent turned producer, Miss Perry became an "angel" in Pemberton's productions. Soon, using her husband's money, she became a silent partner. When her husband discovered his wife has invested in theatre and had done so well, he gave his blessings. Then, in 1922, he died of a heart attack. He left a $13-million estate.

"In those days," said Margaret Perry, "that was a vast, unimaginable amount of money. Mother was quite knowledgeable of the stock market. With father, we'd often go to brokerage offices to watch the ticker tape."

Miss Perry's savvy increased the wealth from what she was able to claim from her husband's estate [after much legal wrangling] with shrewd investments. "Mother guided many an actor to good fortune with her tips," reported Margaret Perry. "She generously lent money, and bailed actors and playwrights out of overdue hotel bills. She enjoyed the extravagant life. The summer of 1923, she took us, our governess, Uncle Brock, as we were instructed to call him, and his wife Margaret, and ten others to Europe for seven weeks. On coming home, Mother heard theatre's siren call again."

Miss Perry [Mrs. Frueauff] told an interviewer she wasn't leading a very fulfilling life. "Should I go on playing bridge and dining, going in the same old monotonous circle? It's easy that way. But it's a sort of suicide, too."She hadn't been forgotten, and was soon back on the boards in starring roles in a broad spectrum of plays by Kaufman, Ferber and William S. Gilbert [of Gilbert and Sullivan].

"It was in 1927, during a revival of Electra, in which mother played Clytemnestra, that she came to a decision to leave acting," Margaret Perry said. "The effects of a stroke had taken a toll. Mother was no longer the beauty of fifteen years ago at the prime of her acting career. She went into a great depression and became an avid reader. Then suddenly, no doubt thanks to Uncle Brock, her interests changed."

Miss Perry, greatly influenced by by actress/playwright Rachel Crothers, who directed her own plays, decided she wanted to direct. She quickly became a unique innovator in theater at a time when there were only a handful of women producers and directors.

Needless to say her relationship with Pemberton, with whom she was now intimately involved, gave her an edge; but her shrewd stock market investments doubled the size of her holdings. She and Pemberton had modest successes until 1929, when they struck paydirt with Preston Sturges's Strictly Dishonorable, a cynical play about virtue and Prohibition. A critic praised Perry "for doing a man's job" as director. Scalpers got $30 a ticket. Movie rights were sold. They were on their way to easy street.

"A month later," remembers Margaret Perry, "the stock market crashed. Mother awoke two million dollars in debt. It took seven years to recover. Somehow, probably because of the success of Strictly Dishonorable, she talked banks into a loan of two million dollars."

Even during the depths of the Depression, Miss Perry, according to Margaret, "was generous to a fault. She was maternal to everyone. It didn't matter if you were the taxi driver who took her to the office, the theatre janitor or on that pedestal of pedestals to her, an actor. She cared and was always eager to help those in need."

Margaret also confided that her mother was an inveterate gambler. "The seed money for many an American Theatre Wing [which she co-founded] activity or show investment came from her winnings at the racetrack. Even during Wing board meetings, mother played the horses. She'd have her secretary tiptoe in to give her the odds, then place a wager with a bookie."

Before her death in 1947, Miss Perry and Pemberton had a huge smash with Mary Chase's Harvey, starring Frank Fay and Josephine Hull, which ran a then-unheard of 1,775 performances, It was also adapted into a successful film starring James Stewart and Miss Hull.

Margaret Perry appeared onstage, beginning at 16, in the late 20s and made her Broadway debut in 1931. She was directed by her mother in Ceiling Zero [1935] and Now You've Done It [1937]. In the late 40s, she became interested in following in her mother's famed footsteps, producing and directing. Unfortunately, she said, she didn't have her mother's "or Uncle Brock's intuvity" for investing in hits. Her producing efforts were shortlived.

On June 28, 1946, as Margaret and sister Elaine [an actress, stage manager, and producer/director who died in 1986] made plans for their mother's 58th birthday celebration the next day, Miss Perry had a fatal heart attack.

Friends and peers were stunned to discover she was $300,000 in debt and living on $800 a week from Harvey royalties.

Once a reporter questioned her support of things theatrical. He asked, "Why do you devote so much of your money and time to such thankless activities?" Replied Tony, "Thankless? They're anything but that. I'm just a fool for the theater."

"True," said Margaret. "Theater was mother's great love, her passion, what she lived and breathed. Her outstanding trait was that she cared. It didn't matter if you were a janitor, cab driver, or, on that pedestal of pedestals, an actor."

Pemberton memorialized her as "an individualist who met life head on, dramatized life, and gave of a generous nature." He proposed an award in her honor for distinguished stage acting and technical achievement. At the initial event in 1947, as he handed out an award, he called it a Tony. The name stuck.

Margaret Perry's second of three husbands was the renowned actor Burgess Meredith. With her last husband, scenic designer Paul Fanning, she had four children. She is survived by three of them, Karl, John and Clare.

Sondheim Musicals Remastered

On the heels of Masterworks Broadway's four-disc Legends of Broadway series saluting Barbara Cook, Angela Lansbury, Bernadette Peters and Chita Rivera, comes MB's digitally remastered reissues of the original Broadway cast recordings of four of Stephen Sondheim musicals: Into The Woods, Merrily We Roll Along, Sunday In The Park With George and Sweeney Todd.

Into the Woods, the 1988 Tony and Drama Desk Award-winning Best/Outstanding Musical, has first-time-ever bonus tracks that include John Cameron Mitchell, through an interesting chain of events, singing "Giants In The Sky."

Merrily We Roll Along, which earned 1982 Tony and DD nominations for Best/Outstanding Score, has an extraordinary bonus: the "It's A Hit" demo from Sondheim's personal archives.

Bonus tracks for Sunday in the Park with George, recipient of the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and nominated for 1984 Tony and DD Awards for Best/Outstanding Musical, include Julie Andrews, Stephen Collins, Rachel York, Michael Rupert and Christopher Durang performing Putting It Together's "Putting It Together."

Sweeney Todd, on two discs, the 1979 Tony and DD Best/Outstanding Musical, has a load of bonuses, including "Symphonic Sondheim: Sweeney Todd" from Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall, featuring Eugene Perry, Henry Perry, Jerry Hadley and American Theatre Orchestra conducted by Sondheim musicals veteran Paul Gemignani; and Julie Andrews performaing "Sweet Polly Plunkett" from PIT.

Victor Garber, who played Anthony in the original production, says he sensed early on that "I was about to be part of something innovative." He adds, "I remember feeling exhilarated when Steven first played ëJoanna' for me. It was the most beautiful thing I ever heard." Then came the day when he entered the theatre and set eyes on the set. "I'd never seen anything so big. My heart sank. I felt intimidated! It took me two months to find my way around it. Technical rehearsals were brutal; yet, all the while, it was tremendously exciting!"

Each disc [SRP $14 to $25] contains illustrated booklets with new liner notes by performer-turned-director Richard Jay-Alexander.

Something New for Somethings Old

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's long-awaited opening of the new Greek and Roman Galleries is next week. It was worth the wait.

A spectacular "museum-within-the-museum" for the display of one of the finest collections in the world of Hellenistic, Etruscan, South Italian and Roman art, much of it unseen in New York for generations, arrives after more than five years of construction. It's located in the Lamont Wing at the South end of the Museum.

The installation continues on the wholly redesigned mezzanine level, where galleries for Etruscan art and the Greek and Roman study collection overlook the court from two sides.

The centerpiece of the new galleries is the Leon Levy and Shelby White Court - a monumental, peristyle court for the display of Hellenistic and Roman art. It occupies an area created by the architectural firm of McKim, Mead and White between 1912 and 1926 and evokes the garden of a Roman villa. The space has been stunningly transformed into a soaring two-story atrium with a colored marble floor.

The mainstay of the new galleries will be art created between 900 B.C. and the early Fourth Century A.D., tracing parallel stories of the evolution of Greek art in the Hellenistic period and the arts of southern Italy, Etruria and the world of the Roman Empire.

They're Back - Two Nights Only!

Les Ballets Grandiva, 19 men in tutus and toe shoes, returns April 16 and 17 at 8 P.M. to the Peter Jay Sharp Theater at Symphony Space to celebrate the company's 11th Anniversary. LBG combines outrageous antics with the physicality and [sometimes] grace of classic and modern ballet.

Showcased will be three premieres: company founder Victor Trevino's Le Grande Tarantelle with music by Louis Moreau Gottschalk ; Brian Reeder's They Who Wore White Flowers, music by Rachmaninov; and Marcus Galante's Who Dares? (a symphony in weee), music by Leroy Anderson.

The latter pays tribute to Balanchine's fun, jazzy ballet Who Cares! Also featured from the Grandiva repertoire will be a pas de deux from Spartacus.

Costuming is an important element of ballet and Grandiva takes this to an extraordinary level; so Jose Coronado's designs for LGT and TWWWF and Oswaldo Muniz's for
WD should be colorful and stunning.

Dancer Allen Dennis [a.k.a. Karina] will be celebrating a milestone: 25 years touring the world as "the most senior male ballerina absoluto." He won't let audiences down. He'll perform his legendary Dying Swan.

Grandiva has performed to sold-out houses in Japan and was seen live by over 90,000. Television appearances have reached over 30-million Asian viewers. The company performed at the Shanghai Grand Theater, marking the first time a male comedy ballet company performed in such an important Communist country venue.

Les Ballets Grandiva showcases dancers who have performed with such major companies as St. Petersburg's Kirov, ABT, Houston Ballet, National Ballet of Canada and the Royal Swedish Ballet.

Tickets are $21 and $ 26 [$17 and $22 for SP members] and $15 for students and seniors and are available online at http://www.symponyspace.org/, at the SP box offices or by calling (212) 864-5400.

Milestone

On Wednesday, April 18th, the little show that could, Warren Manzi's Off Broadway murder mystery Perfect Crime celebrates its 20th Anniversary at the Snapple Theatre Center [Broadway at 50th Street]. Last December, in another milestone, the puzzling psychological thriller's leading lady Catherine Russell celebrated her 8,000th performance as psychiatrist Margaret Brent. The only other Off Broadway show that comes close is Blue Man Group, which in November began its 16th year.

Since its premiere, Perfect Crime has moved seven times. Russell admits it's a complex outing, but claims that, unlike many who've seen the play [even two or more times], the plot is "figure out-able, but you really have to listen to put the clues together correctly. Ten-year-olds often figure out who the murderer is faster than their parents."

Russell attributes the play's longevity to the fact that "people love thrillers, our tickets are affordable [$40-$50] and we are in the heart of Times Square."

Like that that TV battery-operated bunny, she's still going strong. Since the play opened, she has only missed four performances [for her siblings' weddings]. Neither rain, snow, sleet nor hail has kept her from her appointed rounds - not even illness; and, unlike other colleagues, she's never taken a vacation. If the adage is "The show must go on," Russell feels it must go on with her.

Also in the cast are Richard Shoberg, David Butler, Philip Hoffman and Patrick Robustelli.

Russell's record [ratcheted up now to 8, 142 performances], doubles that of Carol Channing for Hello, Dolly! and far surpasses the 1,809 times Marian Seldes performed in Deathtrap.

"I love what I do," says Russell. "That keeps me healthy and happy. It helps that I don't smoke or drink. Of course, there's been a toll on my personal life. I've gone through several fiancÈes, but now I have one who is used to being with a workaholic."

Russell, who's also GM of the STC, where the record holder for the world's longest-running musical [17,162 performances for the original production], Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt's The Fantasticks is in revival, somehow manages to find time to teach [acting at NYU, English at Baruch College (CUNY)].

What Will the Critics Say?

You might wonder what the critics will have to say on April 23rd about the cast of Project Shaw's Androcles and the Lion by, yes, GBS at New York's historic Players Club [16 Gramercy Park South, between Park Avenue and Irving Place]. Wonder no more because they will heap praise upon praise upon their performances because they are the cast.

PS, continuing it's three-year program of tackling the 50 plays, well known and the obscure, Shaw wrote, is presenting New York journalists and critics: David Cote, Adam Feldman, David Finkle, Eric Grode, Charles Isherwood, Howard Kissel, Jeremy McCarter, Michael Musto, Patrick Pacheco, Rex Reed, Michael Riedel, Frank Scheck, Michael Schulman, Raven Snook Alexis Soloski and Roma Torre. No, Matthew Murray and I weren't asked - even to audition!

Also starring [there are no featured or ensemble roles in this presentation because of the ego factor] Seth Rudetsky as Androcles, Bruce Vilanch as the Lion and Brendan Lemon as host.

David Staller is series director and the reading is presented by his Gingold Theatrical Group, named for actress Hermione.

Among the upcoming readings in the 07 series are The Millionairess, July 23; Pygmalion, September 17 and Man and Superman, December 17. For a full list, visit the web site. Readings are at 7 P.M Tickets for the readings are available after the first of each month.

Tickets are $15 and available through www.TheaterMania.com, (212) 352-3101 or http://www.projectshaw.com/.

Food, Glorious Food - and Cabaret

The Play Company holda its Fourth Annual Cabaret Gourmet gala Monday from 7:00-9:30 P.M. at the Angel Orensanz Foundation [172 Norfolk Street, between Houston and Stanton Streets]. A theatrical celebration of the shared spirit of the culinary and theater arts, the event will feature delicacies from New York's top chefs and restaurants, wines and cocktails, silent and live auctions and performances by stars of stage and screen.

Participating chefs/restaurants include Michael Ayoub, Cronkite Pizzeria and Wine Bar;
David DeCarlo, Angus McIndoe; Nancy Olson, Gramercy Tavern; and Cedric Tovar, Waldorf Astoria's Peacock Alley.

The performance line-up includes Tony nominee Manoel Felciano [Sweeney Todd], Tony and DD nominee Malcolm Gets [Amour], Cheyenne Jackson [All Shook Up], composer Michael John LaChiusa, author Alex Prud'Homme [My Life in France with Julia Child] and Mary Testa. Tony and DD winner Ted Sperling [The Light in the Piazza] is musical director.

The Play Company, a not-for-profit Off-Broadway company developing and presenting new works, was co-founed by Kate Loewald, Jack Temchin and the late Mike Ockrent. Lauren Weigel is managing producer.

Tickets are $99 to $5,000 [VIP tables of ten]. For reservations, call Leslie Caiola, (212) 398-2977. For more information, visit http://www.playco.org/.

Lortel Nomination Highlights

The 22nd Annual Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway will be presented May 7th at New World Stages.

The League of Off-Broadway Theatres and Producers has a limited number of tickets, for the ceremony only, on sale at the NWS box office and through Telecharge.com, (212-239-6200).

Nominated for Outstanding Play are Keith Bunin's The Busy World Is Hushed [Playwrights Horizons], Christopher Shinn's Dying City [Lincoln Center Theater], A.R. Gurney's Indian Blood [Primary Stages] and David Hare's Stuff Happens [Public Theater].

The nominees for Outstanding Musical are Scott Brown and Anthony King's Gutenberg! The Musical!, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegr"a Hudes' In the Heights, Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater's Spring Awakening and Rachel Sheinkin, Valerie Vigoda and Brendan Milburn's Striking 12.Among the special awards to be presented will be Lifetime Achievement to Kevin Kline and Outstanding Body of Work, to Classical Theatre of Harlem. Christopher Durang will be inducted into the Lortel Theatre's Playwrights' Sidewalk. For a complete list of the 2007 nominees, go to www.LortelAward.com.

Sneak Peek at Upcoming Herman Doc

There's quite a buzz going around regarding Words and Music by Jerry Herman, Amber Edwards' 90-minute documentary from NJ Public Television. It will be broadcast in the Fall by PBS, but will have its premiere Saturday, April 14 at the Sarasota [FL] Film Festival.

Before its TV showing, several invitational screenings are planned, such as one on June 18 at New York's Museum of Television and Broadcasting. However, if you would like a preview, go to: http://njn.net/television/specials/wordsandmusicbyjerryherman/ .

Nearly five years in the making, the film incorporates photographs and archival footage, much of it never seen by the public, including Carol Channing's first time singing Hello, Dolly!'s title song; Super-8 films of Angela Lansbury in Mame and Dear World; numbers from Mack & Mabel and the college musical Jerry wrote at University of Miami.

Since 1988, Edwards has been host/producer of NJN's Emmy-winning State of the Arts and producer, writer and narrator of Public Radio's Jersey Arts on the Radio.

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Tony and Drama Desk-winner Kristin Chenoweth, who recently concluded her critically acclaimed run in Roundabout's The Apple Tree, will host the 52nd Annual Drama Desk Awards on Sunday, May 20. Making the announcement were Robert R. Blume, executive producer of the awards ceremony and telecast, and William Wolf, Drama Desk president.

Chenoweth won a DD and Tony nomination for her role in Wicked and DD and Tony Awards for her featured turn in You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown.

Beth Leavel, 2006 Drama Desk and Tony Award-winner [The Drowsy Chaperone] and DD and Tony-winner James Naughton [City of Angels; a nominee for Chicago] will announce the DD nominations on Thursday, April 26th at 10 A.M. in a media event at the Friars Club. On Tuesday, May 1, nominees will be feted at a reception and media meet and greet at Arte CafÈ on the Upper West Side.

The Drama Desk Awards, held in the F.H. LaGuardia Concert Hall at Lincoln Center, will be taped for broadcast on PBS stations nationwide, including the metropolitan area's Thirteen/WNET and NYC TV 25; and webcast live by TheaterMania.com, one of the award show's sponsors.

"We've had a great relationship with Kristin in the past and we are thrilled to welcome her back into the Drama Desk Awards family," said Blume. "Kristin is a sensational performer whose multiple talents as a singer/actress have made her a Broadway and television star."

Chenoweth's bantam size belies the fact that she can soar vocally with a 4 octave range. She's used this gift to great affect on world concert stages and solo CDs in addition to her cast recordings.

Prior to the Awards, from May 10 - 14, Chenoweth will headline City Center Encores! first original production, Stairway to Paradise, which will celebrate a half century of Broadway revues.

Chenoweth is well-remembered for her featured role in Kander and Ebb's Steel Pier, for which she won a Theatre World Award. Her performance in Roundabout's production of Moliere's Scapin also won her raves. She made an impact on TV in the cast of The West Wing, playing Marian in TV adaptation of The Music Man and as Lily St. Regis in the TV Annie. She also starred in her own series, Kristin. Movie roles include Running with Scissors, The Pink Panther remake and Bewitched. Currently, she's developing a film based on the life of Dusty Springfield.

Another Milestone for POTO

The Broadway production of Andrew Lloyd Webber/ Charles Hart/Richard Stilgoe's The Phantom of the Opera, the longest-running show in Broadway history, makes history again at Wednesday's matinee when it achieves another milestone: 8,000 performances. There'll be a special curtain call with current and long-running Phantom Howard McGillin wheeling out a huge cake to mark the occasion. POTO is directed by Harold Prince with musical staging by Gillian Lynne. It won numerous 1988 Tony and DD Awards, including Best Musical.

POTO's Milestone Is Marked By A Passing

The life and career of one of the theater community's most beloved personalities, J. C. Sheets, the actor/singer-turned-dresser who spent his career working two Cameron Mackintosh mega-musicals, Les Miz and POTO, will be commemorated Monday, April 9 at 4 P.M. at the Majestic Theatre, where he was worked as dresser to Howard McGillin and a host of Phantoms. The memorial is open to the public.

"J.C. left work after the curtain call on Friday," recalled McGillin, "telling all of us he'd see us on Tuesday, but that was not to be." Sheets died Sunday, February 4th of a brain aneurysm.
McGillin, co-stars and the POTO crew speak fondly of Sheets. "He was a friend who is deeply missed by all," McGillin added. "J.C. was a welcoming presence to any new addition to our cast or crew and had a reputation of always being available to show 'the new kid' the ropes."

As an actor, Sheets was with Les Miz on and off from 1988 to 1996, as alternate and understudy for Jean Valjean [whom he played more than 300 times] and portraying Brujon, as well as covering 12 featured roles.

Following a stroke which crippled his vocal abilities, he continued in musical theater but in the behind-the-scenes role of dresser at POTO.

A Passion Play [Of Sorts] - with Music

Phil Hall's Matthew Passion, a "passion" play with music, arrives just in time for Easter. It's having its New York debut in a very limited showcase engagement at American Theatre of Actors' Chernuchin Theatre [314 West 54th Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues].

The exploitative poster and some ads have stirred some passionate and purient interest in members of the cast. But, if interested, get thee to the box office because MP gives its last performance, in this inception, on Easter Sunday.

Many know Hall as a musical director, vocal arranger, composer/lyricist, performer and author. He composed Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which played NJ's Paper Mill Playhouse and numerous regionals. Among his Broadway conducting credits was associate conductor for the Mame revival. Tour credits include POTO, Cats and 42nd Street.

Hall describes Matthew Passion as "moving, boldly dramatic, funny and musically entertaining" and says it has "a universal relevance for straight and gay audiences because it's about embracing who you are with no apologies. This message unfolds through three separate stories on the life of Matthew Shepard; a friend who realized that a HIV+ diagnosis wasn't the end of his life; and that of passion and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Though taking place thousands of years apart, they reflect common themes and dramatically converge in the final moments."

Shepard, a gay Wyoming youth, was brutally murdered in 1998 and left to hang on a pasture fence. This tragedy brought national attention to the issue of hate crime legislation at state and Federal levels.

MP's nine-member cast alternate in various roles with Jimmi Kilduff portraying Shepard. There are six musicians. Steve Stringfellow directs, with choreography by Jacob Brent. Hall has composed the music.

Tickets are $18 and available through SmartTix, (212) 868-4444, or at http://www.smarttix.com/. For more information, visit www.matthewpassion.com.

Genet's Political Drama In Revival

The experimental Medicine Show Theatre Ensemble [549 West 52nd Street, Third floor, between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues] has Jean Genet's provocative political drama The Balcony in revival through April 21st in a new translation by Obie-winner Barbara Vann, MSTE founder, who is also directing and in the 16-member cast.

The Balcony was penned in 1956. It's a high camp portrait of power and intimacy set in Madame Pimpadour's House of Illusions [a brothel] in a monarchy on the brink of revolution where prostitution is legal and spies are everywhere.

It was even more controversial than the author/playwright's 1949 The Maids; so controversial that is was banned in Paris and so raised the wrath of England's Lord Chamberlin that it had to be staged in a private club.

Genet was notorious for his sexually explicit work and was briefly imprisoned and not allowed to leave Europe. The Balcony was literally banned everywhere in the English-speaking world.

However, what was considered the official world premiere took place in 1960, in spite of religious condemnations and protests, at the former Greenwich Village Circle in the Square, directed by the celebrated Jose Quintero. In spite of the fact that the translation from the French left a lot to be desired, it ran a very impressive 672 performances. [It still used language never heard onstage by American audiences.]

"I saw the original just out of college," states Vann, "and didn't understand what the play was about. When I was asked to direct it in 1981, the theme of the revolution had been deleted from the translated text I studied, leaving it a soap opera within a whorehouse."

Dissatisfied with existing translated editions, Vann used Genet's definitive version and translated portions of it to make the text more faithful to the original. Genet approved.

She calls her new translation "a further labor of love in which I've tried to keep the music of Genet's language - his rapid switches from the vulgar to the exalted - and his biting satire of political wrongdoing."

The Medicine Show's revival follows the 1976 production by Ireland's Abbey Theatre; and a 1990 production at the Hudson Guild, with a translation by Bernard Frechtman.

Among the cast of the 1960 production was Tony and DD-nominee Nancy Marchand [a DD winner for Mornings at Seven; and later Livia on The Sopranos] as the brothel Madam, two-time Oscar-nominee Sylvia Miles as the Thief, John Perkins [who went on to roles in Shakespeare, Duerrenmatt and such musicals as Wish You Were Here [as hunk Harry "Muscles" Green] and Bells Are Ringing] as the Executioner and Salome Jens as the Girl.

"It was an extraordinary production," says Miles. "We ran for two years and during that time, in spite of the controversy, the actors were asked to appear at churches where the subject matter of Genet's play was used in sermons."

[Trivia: Elliott Gould was a friend of a cast member. Dating Barbra Streisand at the time, he got her a job tending dressing rooms at CITS between singing engagements.]

Tickets are $18 and are available from Smarttix at (212) 868-4444 or www.Smarttix.com.

At the Ballet ~

From Russia with Love

Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg, celebrating its 30th Anniversary, plays a three-week season at City Center from Friday, April 13 - Sunday, April 29. The Opening Night Gala will feature Yelena Kuzmina in the world premiere of Cassandra by Nikita Dmitrievsky, with music by Holst; as well as excerpts from ballets by Boris Eifman.

Hailed by critics worldwide as Russia's most innovative contemporary ballet company, Eifman Ballet is the only foreign dance company to earn the status of a resident company at City Center.
Eifman says he founded the 45-member company "because the passion for ballet in Russia is unquenchable and I felt sure Russian ballet hadn't exhausted its potential. My goal was to develop new forms and ideas."

A highlight of the City Center visit will be the American premiere of The Seagull, based on Chekhov's play, with music by Rachmaninoff. Other full-length ballets will be Anna Karenina [Tolstoy, music by Tchaikovsky], Russian Hamlet and the company's acclaimed Red Giselle.

Tickets are $35-$100 and available at the City Center box office, by calling CityTix at (212) or (877) 581-1212 or online at http://www.NYCityCcenter.org.

Eifman will do a Q&A following the New York premiere of Alexander Gutman's documentary Boris Eifman: Work in Progress tomorrow night and April 6th at 7 P.M. at the Directors Guild Theatre [110 West 57th Street]. Tickets are $20. To purchase, call (212) 399-0002.

Highstepping from Blues City

Classical ballet meets contemporary cool, Southern-style, as one of the South's most acclaimed companies, Ballet Memphis, celebrates its 20th season by making its Joyce Theatre debut April 3rd through Easter Sunday. There are two ambitious programs, with five of the works receiving their New York premiere.

Founder and artistic director of the 14-member company is Dorothy Gunther Pugh. Resident choreographer is Trey McIntyre.

Tuesday at 7:30 P.M., Program A debuts with McIntyre's The Naughty Boy [ Music by Mozart], which tells of "a streak of passion and the flight of Cupid's arrow"; Julia Adam's A Curtain of Green, based on a short story by renowned Mississippi author Eudora Welty; and Thaddeus Davis' Mercurial Balance, which "defines the process of collaboration between choreography, urban hip-hop and poetry]. Other performances: Thursday, April 5, 8 P.M.; Saturday, April 7, 8 P.M.; and Sunday, April 8, 2 P.M.

Wednesday at 7:30 P.M., Program B debuts with Adam's The Awakening [music by Chopin], based on the ground-breaking feminist novel by 19th Century Louisiana Creole activist Kate Chopin [no relation to the composer]; McIntyre's In Dreams [music, Roy Orbison]; and Mercurial Balance. Other performances are: Friday, April 6, 8 P.M., and Saturday, April 7, 2 P.M.

Single tickets are $38, $29 for Joyce members, and available at the box office; through JoyceCharge, (212) 242-0800, and at http://www.joyce.org/.

Choice PBS Programming

Tonight's American Experience: Sister Aimee focuses on 20s colorful, controversial evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, founder of the Church of the Foursquare Gospel and a a pioneering Pentecostal, who drew bigger crowds than Teddy Roosevelt, Harry Houdini and P.T. Barnum. On radio, she preached fiery sermons to multitudes. At her Los Angeles temple, where she delivered musical productions worthy of Broadway, she packed in 5,000 believers or curious. Needless to say, she eventually became engulfed in the flames of her publicity and embroiled in juicy scandal.

Tuesday's American Masters repeats 1991's Ray Charles: The Genius of Soul.

Wednesday's The American Novel examines in "dynamic visual style"themes reflected through characters found in Dreiser's Sister Carrie, Wharton's The House of Mirth, Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. Passages from the books are dramatized through photos and woven together with original and archival footage.

On Thursday American Masters repeats the acclaimed 2004 two-hour doc Judy Garland: By Myself.

Theatergoers are in for a supreme treat Friday night at 9:30 on WNET when the talents of DD-winner and without question 2007 Tony nominee Christine Ebersol of Scott Frankel/Michael Korie/Doug Wright's Grey Gardens are presented in all their vocal glory on New York Voices.

Easter Sunday, Masterpiece Theatre goes High Definition for the first time with a new adaptation of Kenneth Grahame's beloved classic The Wind in the Willows. This presentation dispenses with animation and relies on the striking animal instincts of some very talented actors - which is only proper, since Grahame's story features animals acting like people. The cast is headlined by British comedian Matt Lucas, who stars as gadget-crazed Mr. Toad, the irresponsible scion of a great fortune and Bob Hoskins as Badger.

Dance fans can look forward to Thursday, April 12, when Great Performances presents Dance in America: Beyond the Steps: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre.

This Saturday, WNET's 9 P.M. movie is William Wyler's masterpiece The Best Years of Our Lives, 1947's Oscar-winning Best Picture. There've been excellent movies on the subject of war-weary vets returning home from world conflict, but none yet have captured the devastating poignancy of this film about soldiers returning to small-town America from WW2 and attempting to pick back up their lives as the nation undergoes a new beginning. In spite of its age, the film has stood the test of time [thanks heavily to the Oscar-winning screenplay by Robert Sherwood, adapted from MacKinlay Kantor's novel] and, all these years later, has a strong revelancy. There are some stunning visuals in glorious B&W [by cinematographer Gregg Toland], such as Dana Andrews' visit to a fighter plane cemetery. The superb cast includes Frederic March [Oscar, Best Actor], Myrna Loy, Teresa Wright, Virginia Mayo, Cathy O'Donnell, Hoagy Carmichael [who sings "Lazy River"], Gladys George and Harold Russell [a double-amputee who won the Featured Actor Oscar].

Special note to WNET, Channel 13: We love you, but you are way overdue purchasing telecast rights to a new block of Saturday movies. And how about putting some of that loyal Syms [where Educated Consumers are their best customers] sponsorship toward some outstanding indies and docs from recent years?

Retrospective of Second Tier Musicals

A lost era of Hollywood history is revealed in B Musicals - 49 movies in all, from the 40s and 50s [some in double and triple bills] - through April 19 in Film Forum's retrospective of musical second features, most of which have never been on video or disc or, for that matter, seen on TV.

In Hollywood's Technicolor musical heyday, a B-picture meant a bottom-of-the-bill quickie in B&W from a major studio or a best effort from a "Poverty Row" studio, such as Columbia Pictures [in that era] and Republic, whose heart was its Westerns franchise [many starring Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, John Wayne and Rex Allen].

Though low on budget, they were high on talent. The films in the B Musicals line-up, many in new, remastered prints, proved to be basic training for such future A-list stars Sinatra, Garland, Crosby, Rooney, Rogers, Grable, Monroe, Reynolds, O'Connor, Jane Powell, Alice Faye, Ann Miller, Linda Darnell, Dorothy Lamour, Mitzi Gaynor, Martha Raye and Marge & Gower Champion - not to mention directors, choreographers and songwriters and screen writers [such as Herman Mankiewicz, who wrote Citizen Kane].

B Musicals will give younger movielovers the rare opportunity to discover the wondrous comic and the amazing vocal talents of the all-but-forgotten brilliant "hillbilly" comedienne Judy Canova, who could go from marvelous face mugging and yodeling to stun with operatic arias.

On Monday, the actress's daughter, TV's Diana Canova will pay tribute to her mother and introduce a triple bill which includes comic classics Joan of Ozark [1942] in which Canova brings down a Nazi spyring; Sis Hopkins [1941], which has country bumpkin Canova going to college and starring in a "Spring Fling" show with lavish costumes and sets [well, they are taking it from the auditorium straight to Broadway!]; and Hit the Hay [1945], where Canova is discovered singing opera as she milks a cow and ends up saving an opera company from financial ruin by introducing "jive opera."

In spite of the age of these three films, and the fact that they are obviously dated and from a bygone era, some comic gems shine through. Republic and Columbia had the good sense to feature stellar character and comic actors in co-starring roles. You'll recognize faces that continued to pop up in lesser roles for another decade or two.

The special thing about Sis Hopkins is that it doesn't look like a "B musical." There are quite entertaining songs [such as the stirring, patriotic anthem "Look At Me, Look At You"] by future Broadway greats Frank Loesser [Guys and Dolls] and Jule Styne [Funny Girl] in their prolific Hollywood period, first-rate choreography by Aida Broadbent in "Here We Are Studying History/Cleopatra." None other than [late] Broadway producer Cy Feuer was musical director. The great deadpan comic Charles Butterworth steals every scene he's in, but gets stiff competition from anything-but-subtle Jerry Colonna, here a sort of substitute for Groucho Marx, but who has one of the funniest lines of that period in the scene where he steps out of a bubble bath in a tub equipped with two phones. Adding support is a very young Susan Hayward The film received a 1942 Oscar nomination for B&W Art/Interior Decoration.

The series also features a rare screen appearance by Fats Waller; the song and dance trio the Andrews Sisters in a triple bill on Easter Sunday that also headlines Abbott & Costello [the hilarious Buck Privates] and the Ritz Brothers [Argentine Nights]; and, on the April 12th triple bill, MM singing and dancing in her first featured role in Ladies of the Chorus [1949].

B Musicals is programmed by Bruce Goldstein, FFs Repertory Program Director. For this series, he relied on such advisors as Clive Hirschhorn, author of The Hollywood Musical; British musicals expert Tom Vallance, author of The American Musical; and Howard Mandelbaum, co-author of Screen Deco and Forties Screen Style and founder of the Photofest movie stills archive.

Film Forum [209 Houston Street, West of Sixth Avenue] tickets are $10.50; $5.50 for FF members, children under 12 and senior citizens Monday-Friday for shows beginning before 5 P.M. For more information, schedules, cast list, showtimes and membership, call (212) 727-8110 or visit www.filmforum.org.

New Musicals in a Cabaret Setting

The Laurie Beechman Theatre [407 West 42nd Street, at Ninth Avenue, in the West Bank CafÈ] will host triple-bill premieres of short musicals on Fridays [April 6, 13 and 20] at 7 P.M. The works - Playtime by Erato Kremmyda and Sean Keogh, Mrs. Smith Goes to Washington by Karlan Judd and Robin Share and Momento Mori by Rob Broadhurst and Maggie Coleman - are by students in NYU's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing program. Phil Geoffrey Bond and Ryan Mekenian are directing, with musical direction by Ray Fellman and Sam Willmott.

Admission is a $12 cover charge, with a $15 food/beverage minimum. For reservations, call (212) 695-6909 between Noon and 6 P.M.

[Photos: 2) JOAN MARCUS; 3 and 4) DAVID MORGAN; 5) JOHN QUILTY; 6) MARTHA SWOPE; 9 and 10) PHOTOFEST]

= ~ = ~ = Recent Archive = ~ = ~ =

Monday, March 5, 2007
[ STARS ] A Banner Season for All-But-Forgotten Playwright Harley Granville-Barker; Voysey Inheritance's Designers; Philharmonic's Fair Lady; Metropolitan's Gaud" to Dal"

Wednesday, March 21, 2007
[ STARS ] Curtain Up on Kander & Ebb's Curtains; Harvey Fierstein Back to Broadway in New Muscial; Recalling Broadway 1938; A CD of 1929 Broadway Classics; Encores! Restores Berlin and Hart's Face the
Music
With the death of Fred Ebb in 2004, Curtains, years in development, marks the last collaborations by the longest-running songwriting team in Broadway history; More.

Monday, April 2, 2007
[ STARS ] Kristin Chenoweth to Host Drama Desk Awards; Another Phantom Milestone; A Passion Play; The Balcony Returns; At the Ballet; Choice TV and Film Programs

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