November 2008 Archives

Though it seems Christmas comes earlier each year, with store decorations often going up before Halloween, the season officially kicks off with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Tomorrow the sun will come out and it's going to start to feel a lot like, well, Christmas.

For sure, the Pilgrims, who'll be making their annual appearance in the Parade, and Indians, who'll be reclaiming some Manhattan turf this year, never saw anything like this on the first Thanksgiving.

Tomorrow's is the 82nd Annual display of huge character balloons, floats and marching bands from across the nation. It also marks the first visit of the season to the Big Apple by the one-and-only Santa Claus who appears in the Santaland Express.

There will be no shortage of A-List celebs in the parade, which NBC will interrupt numerous commercials to telecast almost in its entirety from 9 A.M.

[For an up close and personal experience, hike up Columbus Avenue late tonight as the workers begin inflating the balloons with helium].

As always, the Parade will salute Broadway. Hair, In the Heights, Disney's The Little Mermaid, South Pacific and Irving Berlin's White Christmas cast members will be in front of Macy's performing production numbers from their shows as the Parade winds its way down Central Park West and Broadway to Herald Square. In addition, the Radio City Rockettes will kick it up a sparkly, heated welcome.

A lovely way to spend Thanksgiving, or any day, is with Broadway's li'l darlin' Kristin Chenoweth, who will be singing tunes from her first ever holiday CD, A Lovely Way to Spend Christmas.

In the Parade tradition, some of the best bands in the land will strut their stuff; and, as always, there'll be stars, stars, stars.

Among the celebs on decorated sponsor floats will be country sensation Trace Adkins, this season's A.I. runner-up David Archuleta, recording artist Ashanti, members of the Big Apple Circus including Grandma the Clown, teen fav Miranda Cosgrove, that overexposed Hannah from Montana Miley Cyrus, Lang Lang [the real one, I presume], Rent and Wicked leading lady Idina Menzel, -- all those and two music legends, James Taylor and Andy Williams.

There will also be floats with Smurf characters [along with a balloon] and visitors from Sesame Street, the Peanuts comic strip and Muppet favs, including that tiny green balladeer Kemit the Frog, who'll be performing live.

Taking flight among the high-flying balloons for the first time will be Horton the elephant and Buzz Lightyear. They join such favs as Dora the Explorer, Hello Kitty, Kermit, Ronald McDonald, Shrek, Snoopy and SpongeBob SquarePants.

There'll be elaborate sponsor floats and dance and cheerleader groups along with the Alvin Ailey School, Camp Broadway, Colonial Williamsburg's Fifes & Drums, the NYPD Marching Band and Mounted Unit and the huge [maybe half the young women in the state!], Hawaii's Polynesian Dance Ensemble, which will be all leid out.

Over 10,000 participants, including Macy volunteers, take part in America's favorite parade, also called "the longest show on Broadway," which this year celebrates a Macy's milestone: its 150th birthday."

While you're in the neighborhood, check out Macy's and Lord and Taylor's animated holiday windows.

The Music Hall's Christmas Spectacular

The fabled Rockettes, Santa Claus, 3-D, ice skaters, a young ballerina, three well-dressed wise men and a huge cast make up Radio City Music Hall's 76th Christmas Spectacular.

Since its inception, the holiday show has been seen by 65 million. If you've experienced it the before, there's reason to see it again. In many ways, the show is bigger and grander than ever - re-touched, re-tuned and re-imagined with more than half of the 90-minute show all new.

The Rockettes are more front and center than ever before, dominating more than three quarters of the program. In addition to their famed rag doll number, the tour-de-force "12 Days of Christmas" and the classic "March of the Wooden Soldiers," the precision dance group perform two new numbers: a double-decker bus ride that rocks and rolls you through a montage of Manhattan's scenic wonders to a fireworks finale in Times Square; and "Let Christmas Shine," the finale where a tree grows 20 feel high right before your eyes decorated with 36 live Rockette diamond ornaments.

Audiences flock to the Christmas Spectacular to be inspired and uplifted. That's accomplished by the magnificently-staged Living Nativity which features the entire cast and live animals. It's way over the top in splendor [even the manger looks like it could be on The Great Hotels of the World list] but only a cold, cold heart won't be moved by it.

Factor in elements audiences have come to love, such as hundreds of razzle-dazzle costumes for the cast of 140, songs and carols, and you'll know why this is a treasured tradition. It's a very airborne show with flying that includes Santa soaring over Manhattan in 3-D through a blizzard to his North Pole workshops.

The world's largest flying indoor LED screen [90 feet wide, 40 feet high] will knock your socks off with its incredible depth and high res. But, though there some eye-popping effects, I rather miss those gigantic sets that flew in or came up on the elevators.

There are blasts of confetti and tons of special effects and something else. You won't have to dream of one because a white Christmas is guaranteed at the Christmas Spectacular. Snow falls - inside - all the way to the balconies.

You'll want to arrive early. Entertainment begins a quarter hour before showtime when the mighty Wurlitzer organs roll out for a mini-concert.

But something about the great stage's curtain, which replaced the incredibly gorgeous golden one, bothers me; not to mention the attention it's being paid. It's embarrassing to think with this multi-million dollar production of stunning costumes, effects, dancing and singing that no one can find a pair of shears to clip its dangling "chads."

The Big Apple's Own Circus

Artistic and creative Directors Paul Binder and Michael Christensen like to call the Big Apple Circus New York's own circus "because it was born right here in our own back yard."

The spectacular holiday edition of the one-ring up-close-and-personal European-style cirque has pitched its Big Top in Lincoln Center's Damrosch Park for Play On!, the circus' 31st Edition, through January 18.

While the title is from Shakespeare - "If music be the food of love, play on!" - this new edition is, as Christensen puts it, "pure circus, featuring the world's finest artists." Binder, in his last year as A.D., adds, "The Big Apple Circus is family entertainment in the purest sense."

The best thing about the B.A. is that no seat is more than 50 feet away from the ring.

This circus symphony of performers from 11 countries includes a duo from the U.S., Pennsylvania's flashy identical twin hunk jugglers Jake and Marty LaSalle, who're making hearts flutter with desire and lust. Winners of performing medals from numerous international circus competitions, they're also Columbia grads.

Giving them a bit of competition, Guiming Meng juggles colossal Chinese ceramic jars and balances them on his head. One of the most breathtaking acts at the recent Career Transitions for Dancers gals were China's Nanjing duo, Zhu Zhengzhen and An Nan. She's quite the accomplished ballerina. She has to be since she dances on his shoulders and head!

There's never a shortage of thrill acts at the Apple. Sarah Schwarz walks and dances on a sliver of tight wire. The Rodions will have you on the edge of your seat with their soaring leaps and flips from a five-inch wide bar. Not to be outdone, the Flying Cortes soar through the air with the greatest of ease in double and triple somersaults. Regina Dobrovitskaya, who offers beauty with thrills, will literally take your breath away jauntily swinging from high above the ring on her trapeze.

Several traditional acts are associated with every edition of the Big Apple: Horses, dogs and clowns. Christine Zerbini and Sultan Kumisbayev present a new act combining trick riding with eye-catching equestrian displays. Zerbini, sister of Ringling star Sylvia, is a ninth -generation circus performer. Her mother was a famed aerialist; her father, Tarzan, is a legendary animal trainer and circus owner.

The dog-gone fun this season comes from Luciano Anastasini Pound Puppies, canines [rescued from animal shelters] Italian-style presented by.

For more laughter, there's Big Apple's "incomparable paragon of love and laughter," Grandma [Barry Lubin. International Clown Hall of Fame inductee], who's always trying to duplicate what the thrill acts do with sidesplitting results.

The show's "Department of Laughter" is being bumped up with new clowns Glen Heroy and, in particular, Mark Gindick, who could pass for Grandma's grandson.

The Big Apple Circus is staged by veteran clown Steve Smith, with music by award-winning Broadway composer Michael Valenti.

Sarah Brightman Heard but Not Always Seen

Stopping by the Garden Sunday was classical crossover diva Sarah Brightman, POTO's original Christine, promoting songs from her first holiday CD, A Winter Symphony and Symphony, the CD released earlier this year [both on Manhattan Records].

MSqG has the worst sound of any arena I've been in, but in the midst of some powerful odds SB gave it the old college try. She was especially effective when she sang those soaring opera arias and intense romantic Italian ballads.

On the bigger, heavily processed numbers, often with eight dancers prancing, she was drowned out by her own sound engineer who had the orchestra pumped so loudly that you could barely make out the lyrics. It helped immensely if you were a fan and knew the songs.

[Having the lyrics in her album booklets has always been an asset, but in the Symphony CD, released earlier this year, there's an elaborately illustrated booklet but to get the lyrics you have to go to SB's web site.]

Brightman has quite a resume: 26-million albums and two million DVDs sold; and 150 Gold and Platinum records for sales in 34 countries. Six albums have ranked No. 1 on Billboard's classical crossover chart.

I've known SB since she was a youngster in the West End musical Albert and I and later, showcasing her years of dance training, as Jemima in the W.E. Cats [where she had a small solo part in "Memory"], have frequently written about her, and am quite fond of her, her mom Paula and sister Violet, so I hate to say it but she's getting lazy.

This became obvious on the Symphony CD, which contains only 12 tracks, 11 of them vocals. After a wait of over four years, don't the faithful fans deserve more? It's also obvious in the length of the concert where there was just over 90 minutes of real entertainment among the numerous costume changes. The 20-minute interval which stretched into almost a half hour only made the show seem longer.

Brightman isn't everyone's cup of tea; however, in the right circumstances, she can be quite mesmerizing. And she's warmed up considerably from her steely reserve during the West End and Bway runs of POTO, which might have been from over protection.

It's interesting to observe SB in those casual backstage meet-and-greets where she displays genuinely charm and interest in fans who adore her to the point of paying upwards of $500 for the meet-and-greets, which include a photo with the star, signed photo and a gorgeous souvenir photo book. In those moments, Brightman also has a few seconds to chat with old friends and acquaintances.

The problem with the concert lies in SB's popularity, which is presumed to be so huge that her shows must play arenas that aren't suited for her style of vocalizing. On top of that, the shows are incredibly overproduced and often have mind-boggling moments. There were certainly a few in the Symphony concert.

SB made her entrance shrouded in bolts and bolts of black fabric as if she was appearing in a mourning sequence in some Fellini film. When the dancers stripped away all that fabric, there she was spotting a tiara in this splendid red gown by costumer Victoria Adcok.

She thanked the audience, shy by at least 1,500 even with the stage setup on one end of the oval, and said how she loves being back in NYC, her favorite city in the entire world. She stated how grateful she was to fans for giving her more than 30 years in show biz spotlight. "I wanted to give something back," Brightman gushed, "especially at this time of year."

I kept waiting for an apology for her misstep in making her film debut in the god awful Repo! The Genetic Opera, where she's very Goth and even rips out her eyes with scissors [what possessed her to say yes to that debacle, which also has the horrendously untalented PHilton attempting to act (and, in a very truthful moment, admitting that she can't) and the once respected Paul Sorvino attempting to sing opera (who the hell ever planted the notion in him that he can sing?)!].

The apology never came. And, after a few minutes, things got worse.

SB was done in by set designer Johan Engles, who seemingly wasn't told the show would play arenas. Otherwise, how does a designer create a set where more than a third of the audience can't see the star in several numbers? Where are the sane production folks, SB's producer, manager, stage manager, anyone?

New York audiences have been ripped off and taken for granted so often I'm amazed at how much they will tolerate. And Brightman's following, for the most part, is considerably older than a rock star's or the Jonas Brothers'. So it was a [wee] bit satisfying when a couple of badly seated patrons yelled "We can't see you!" in an especially quiet moment. Bully for them! However, no one seemed to hear them.

The set's centerpiece are three huge Plexiglas panels that are occasionaly hydraulically raised, but stay mostly lowered for the projection of such images as a garden of red tulips, toy soldiers, a forest and winterscapes. These holographic images were ethereal and added a hi res and 3-D factor. But what's the use if you cater to the reverse of that old axiom that it's better to be seen and not heard.

The setpiece could be effective, as it was in two Busby Berkley cinemaesque moments where Brightman lay in the pit - not coming close to breaking a sweat - washed over by oceans of rippling blue lighting as if she was the little mermaid under the sea. An overhead camera shot her surrounded by dancers performing the type of homages the swimmers did in Esther Williams movies. This was then projected onto the Plexiglas ala those fabled synchronized kaleidoscope overhead shots in 30s movie musicals.

Then SB would run, presumably breathless, behind the glass and sing -- once atop a mattress-stacked bed as might have been seen in a production of The Princess and the Pea; another time, while riding a stationary bicycle.

From time to time, especially for SB to make an extended entrance in another ab fab Adcock creation from the rear stage to the tip of the runway, a bridge would pop up to connect it with the front T-section. The bed and bike could have easily been moved in front of the panels on that bridge without the background effects being lost. A couple of times later, even with the panels raised or semi-raised, the view was still obstructed.

My first thought was that Engels should be shot, but not all the blame can be heaped on him. There's a stubbornness [I was going to say arrogance] when the blunder is pointed out and still no one fixes it.

Doing a little research into the 11 dates that preceded New York, there were complaints galore of not being able to see Brightman during segments of the show. One complaint was from a critic who, amazingly, was placed in a seat with an obstructed view. And yet nothing was or probably has been changed.

In an interview from Los Angeles, SB said, "I'm a great believer in fluidity in music. I see things very much like one would look at a movie. You have to have a vision and an understanding of music and the visual arts, right down to the color of the beads, the makeup and costumes."

That's all well and good, but in a concert where every last aspect is so terribly controlled, someone is not doing Brightman justice.

ALW video regular, Bombay Dreams and Mamma Mia [W.E., Bway and the movie]'s Anthony Van-Laast's contribution of choreography, heavy on Martha Graham movements, was questionable.

Tenor Mario Frangoulis joined Brightman for two duets from POTO. Even in the Garden, his stunning voice resonated well. Usually, for one of her signature hits, "Time to Say Goodbye," which Sunday was a sort of faux finale, SB performs it as she recorded it: a duet, which is so much more affecting. Why she did it solo when she had Frangoulis and the tenor Fernando Lima in the house is puzzling. Lima joined her as he does on one of the loveliest tracks from the Winter Symphony CD, a new, Spanish "Ave Maria" by Loris Ceroni and Jorge Luhrs [the latter wrote the novella theme "Pasión," on the Symphony CD].

Though the Symphony CD has disappointed some fans, it has its moments. Brightman recaptured five of them: the poignant, bittersweet title track; "Fleurs du Mal" [Perfume of Pain] in French and English [Is it you I keep thinking of / Should I feel like I do? / I've come to know that I miss your love / While I'm not missing you / We run Til it's gone]; "Let It Rain"; and the Italian "Canto Della Terra" [Song of the Earth], a duet with Frangoulis.

Number five was a stunning operatic piece, "Attesa," adapted with lyrics by Claudio Ferrau from the symphonic Intermezzo from Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana. [La mia vita va come un fiume in piena / Io con lui ogni giorno godrò / Ora sono sola / Presto tempo vola / Portami il mio amor / E fa' svanire il dolor (my Italian is pretty bad but it sort of translates as My life goes on like a river in a flood / I will enjoy every day with him / be with him every waking moment / because his love makes the pain vanish)].

To welcome in the holiday season, SB sang "I Believe in Father Christmas" from Winter Symphony . There were also songs from 03's Harem. After four encores, and long after it was "time to say goodbye," the audience, on their feet, cheering and stomping, wanted more. They didn't get it. Perhaps, what they wanted was Brightman's soaring rendition of "Nessum Dorma." It's long been the aria she's closes her shows with. Sadly, not anymore!

In the last few days, we lost two giants of the New York and international theater community.

Though in quite different ways, Gerald Schoenfeld, chair and CEO of the Shubert Organization, and Clive Barnes, the first-string critic for the New York Post, had tremendous influence on what got on Broadway and what stayed on Broadway.

Mr. Barnes was an old friend; Mr. Schoenfeld, an old acquaintance.

Gerald Schoenfeld:

The last time I spent a few minutes of quality time with Mr. Schoenfeld was during last year's stagehands strike. Talks had been stymied and were finally back on again. Mr. Schoenfeld, as a former president of the Broadway League and theater owner, was in the heat of negotiations. He was exhausted and heading into his offices at the Shubert Theatre; but he stopped to say hello and report how talks were going.

He said the strike should have never happened and was concerned of the repercussions it would have on business. He had just circulated around to some of the picket lines, speaking to some of the Shubert employees and saying that talks were moving forward again. He predicted the strike would most probably be over the next day. That wasn't the case, but it did end soon after.

I got to know Mr. Schoenfeld and his wife Patricia on several occasions at the home of John and Isabelle Stevenson. Mrs. Stevenson was for many years the powerful president of the American Theatre Wing.

Though he wasn't that tall, Mr. Schoenfeld, a Shubert Org attorney brought into the company by J. J. Shubert, the last surviving brother, became a giant in theater here and abroad. As head of the Shubert Organization, he wielded great power and influence not only on what went into their theatres but also what shows Shubert money helped produce.

As pointed out in his Times obit, Mr. Schoenfeld was very hands on - involved in casting, luring A-List stars to headline, encouraging playwrights and choosing to produce [as David Merrick, with all his eccentricities did] shows that weren't deemed profitable and may have never seen the lights of Broadway.

He also campaigned tirelessly for the cleanup of Times Square and Theatre District safety.

Because of his positions, many thought him intimidating, but they didn't know his charm, wit and warmth. He was merely protecting his turf. When former Shubert president Bernard Jacobs, a beloved theater figure, died in 1996, Mr. Schoenfeld was suddenly in the catbird seat. There was an intense transition period, but once he settled into the job, you could see he was more relaxed and his jovial sense of humor returned.

If you read Playbill and playbills thoroughly, you know the extent of Shubert Foundation generosity [in the millions] toward theater and companies and charities. Gene Feist, exec director and a co-founder of Roundabout, notes that the company as we know it wouldn't exist as the force its become had it not been for a $100,000 grant at an opportune time.

I had often razzed Mr. Schoenfeld about his movie star "day" when he portrayed personal manager Sid Bachrach in Woody Allen's 1982 Broadway Danny Rose. "That was it," he laughed, "one film! But how often does one get the opportunity to work with Woody Allen?"

Allen and Mr. Schoenfeld became acquainted in 1960 when Allen was a writer of the short-lived revue From A to Z, which played the Plymouth. Allen's 1966 Don't Drink the Water opened at the now-gone Morosco; and his 1969 Play It Again, Sam premiered at the Broadhurst.

Though he took a lot of heat for naming one of "his" theatres after himself when the Plymouth became the Schoenfeld, Mr. Schoenfeld took great pride in seeing one of the rewards for what he and the Shubert Org had contributed to theater under his tenure.

Harvey Sabinson, long a partner in a top publicity agency and former league head, said, "In recent years, Gerry bemoaned the absence of a sense of tradition in the current Broadway theatre. That loss is magnified considerably by his passing."

Condolences to Mrs. Schoenfeld, daughter Carrie Schoenfeld-Guglielmi, the Schoenfeld family and Philip Smith of the Shubert Org. The date for a memorial will be announced soon.

Clive Barnes:

I knew Clive from a unique perspective. One of my first assignments at the New York Times was as copyboy in what came to be called Culture News. There was quite a buzz when it was announced that a British critic none of us had heard of was going to be the Times' theater and dance critic.

I sent a note to our London bureau and said it would be nice to have some English tea for the new critic. They sent me several boxes of Typhoo.

I didn't know it at the time, but it wasn't the Harrods of teas. More or less, the Lipton. But that little gesture bonded Clive and I. It also created a lifelong dependence on Typhoo! While others craved cigarettes and did drugs, my habit was Typhoo.

Clive brought life to an otherwise stodgy department. He treated me not as a copy boy [later, his news assistant] but as a colleague. It wasn't long before he was offering me an extra ticket now and again for the ballet and Broadway. On occasion, he even hauled me along.

He was a font of knowledge, and since I was a hick from the sticks, an introduction to a world I knew nothing of.

Clive had a wicked sense of humor. One I greatly appreciated. He also brought a lively style to the paper -- something that had been missing. At first, there was a bit of upheaval about his not using Times Style, but since it went over big with readers that was soon forgotten.

One of Clive's outstanding traits was that, in spite of a very hectic schedule, he was never too busy to share his knowledge - something he did quite often when press agents inquired about elements of dance.

Seven years later, when I became stympied at the Times and was in a quandary about accepting a position in "show business," he was encouraging. We stayed in touch and often visited. "Show business" was an adventure. I was working for a major Hollywood studio and music org, but mostly from behind a desk with only a rare opt to visit Tinseltown and roam the backlog. Within two years, I was establishing a career as a freelance writer.

Through the years when I'd see Clive on the aisle and in our neighborhood, he always had a cheery Hello and inquired what I was up to. He was most generous in his praise of books I wrote and my coverage of the arts. When my friends Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber singled him out as their favorite critic and wanted to meet him, I was able to arrange a most memorable meeting in his Upper West Side flat.

Everyone speaks of Clive Barnes, the dance and theater critic, but most of all I remember him for his generosity of spirit. He was a dear man, so full of life, who so loved what he did. He will be sorely missed in the coverage of the arts; but more than that, he will be long remembered.

Condolences to his wife Valerie, a former dancer, daughter Maya, son Christopher and his second wife, Patricia. A memorial is being organized by the NYPost.

How many Billys does it take to do a pas de deux? In the case of Billy Elliot, which opened last night, with music by Elton John and lyrics by Lee Hall, who also did the adaptation from his screenplay, it takes three, but only one on opening night.

I don't know how many can do what a friend from New Orleans did last week, purchase tickets to three performances to catch the three Billys: David Alvarez, who performed last night, Trent Kowalik and Kiril Kulish. His report: all are excellent. Of course, the musical was in previews. As of today, with the gushing reviews, it's a solid hit. Can you still hear the thunderous applause from last night?

However, there two very special people you definitely will catch at every performance: Greg Jbara and the indefatigable Carole Shelley.

Jbara, a 2005 Drama Desk nominee for Featured Actor for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and who was prominently featured in Victor/Victoria, with his touching performance as Dad, rises from the featured category to leading man status.

Ms. Shelley, well-remembered for her turn in Wicked and her Tony and DD-nominated performance in The Elephant Man, knows how to seize a stage as she certainly does in the role of Grandma.

The John/Hall score, Peter Darling's choreography and Stephen Daldry's direction are shoe-ins for Tony and DD nods.

It's shaping up to be quite a season.

It's Good to be the King

Tonight at 8 P.M. is the official opening night and last performance of the first revival of Alan Menken and Tim Rice's "modern oratorio," King David, which was the opening attraction in 1997 at the magnificently-restored New Amsterdam. The 10th Anniversary production is being presented at New York University's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts [566 LaGuardia Place at Washington Square Park South]. Special guests include Sir Tim and Menken.

Those are names you've surely heard of: Rice, for Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Chess, The Lion King, many more; Menken, for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Little Shop of Horrors, the movies Aladdin, Enchanted, many more.

Rice and Menken will be inducted into the NYU Music Hall of Fame. Rice departs New York for the West Coast, where he will be honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The musical -- actually, Menken says he is never certain what to call King David, since to date it has only been presented in a concert format -- is based on the books of Samuel and 1 Chronicles, as well as text from King David's Psalms. It celebrates the amazing journey of the biblical shepherd from humble beginnings to becoming monarch but in Act Two David, seized with power, becomes an adulter and also arranges for the death of his son Absalom, who has become power hungry. There are also some shades of Henry VIII in David as he tries "bend" Hebrew marriage rules.

Directing is William Wesbrooks. The cast and orchestra is composed of undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students from NYU's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development's Music and Performing Arts Professions departments. Stephanie Lang choreographs. Bruce Gil is music dirfector. Conducting the huge NYU orchestra will be Gerald Steichen.

Jay Armstrong Johnson appears as David. He recently appeared as Mark in the first national tour of the ACL revival.

Limited seats, at $10, are available. Purchase at the Skirball box office, online at www.skirballcenter.nyu.edu or by calling (212) 352 -3101.

Sound by God

This Monday at 8 P.M. at Town Hall enjoy Broadway songs the way they used to be heard, without mikes and mighty amplification, at Scott Seigel's Fifth Annual Broadway Unplugged.

"Amps and mikes be damned," states Seigel, who is writing the show. "The only sound you hear from our starry array of vocalists will be the old-fashioned kind, the way it used to be heard on Broadway - remember Merman? Martin? Drake? Gray? - without microphones and amplification. You might say the credit can read: Sound design by God."

The Unplugged concerts are nothing less than memorable and spectacular and always marked by surprises and sustained audience ovations.

The singers [Mr. Siegel's usual cast of 20 +] with voices that can be heard right up to the last seat in the balcony include Ashley Brown [Broadway's original Mary Poppins], Ron Bohmer [Woman in White, where he could be heard even over a roaring locomotive], Mr. Bass himself Chuck Cooper [Tony winner, The Life; Caroline, or Change], Obie nom, Bistro Award winner and four-time MAC Award winner Bill Daugherty, Deven May [Batboy], Jeff McCarthy [Side Show, Urinetown], William Michals [u/s, Emile, South Pacific; Les Miz, B&B ], Christiane Noll [J&H] and, in his much-anticipated return to Unplugged, two-time Tony and three-time DD nom Marc Kudisch, who's just back from L.A.after being hog-tied, battered and beaten, by three chicks no less, in Dolly Parton's 9 to 5, coming to Broadway in early '09.

Broadway Unplugged is sponsored by, among others, the Edythe Kenner Foundation, Thoroughbred Records, TheaterMania.com, Trattoria Dopo Teatro, Jill and Irwin Cohen and Edith and Ervin Drake.

Tickets are $25 - $75 and available at the Town Hall box office, online at TicketMaster.com or by calling (212) 307-4100.

Character Actor

If you want to see an actor walk off with a play, actually steal almost the entire second act, rush to the Abingdon Theatre Company Complex [312 West 36th Street, off of Eighth Avenue] where Peter Brouwer is co-starring in the premiere of Steven Leigh Morris' Beachwood Drive, a potboiler that explores human trafficking.

Brouwer, frequently cast in Abingdon plays, especially scoring in Teddy Tonight and Glory Girls, plays LAPD detective William Cromwell, whom the script describes as being in his 70s and a fatigued Caucasian homicide investigator who's been trying in vain to retire.

To compensate for the criminals, suspects and witnesses he deals with, he keeps handy a flask of brandy, even drinking on the job. But Brouwer adds tons of color to the character that the playwright and director Alan Mandell should be quite grateful for.

I adore Abington's A.D. Jan Buttram, a fine actress in her own right, and when she recommends coming to see a play I know I should. Since 1993, she and her team have developed the Abington into a fine Off Broadway venue for developing new works - and in one of the city's most comfortable 99-seaters.

I wasn't as enthralled with the play as Jan is. Thoughts entered my mind to make a discreet exit at the interval, but you know the rule: Stay for Act Two, because you never know what surprises might be in store. And, as Jan reminded me, Act One is the set-up for Act Two. And it is, and what a set-up because the Act Two surprise is Brouwer, who's not seen in Act One [big mistake!]. This is one detective who's not really that anxious to retire. He enjoys playing games with witnesses and criminals too much.

The pay off is quite a lot of fun as Brouwer, who conceivably could be in his 70s but looks at least a decade younger, is not only a welcome character, but a character who, in my humble opinion, saves the play with his sly Cromwell [keep in mind the Cromwell of Henry VIII England!]. This Cromwell also uses his powers of persuasion -- a sauve, debonair Southern gentleman's drawl and offers of brandy -- to off-put witnesses as well as suspects.

I noted in Brouwer's playbill bio there's no mention of TV and movie credits -- not even nno L&O!. Wow! are they missing the boat! Here is a man for all seasons and all media.

Performances of Beachwood Drive this weekend in the complex's June Havoc Theatre are tonight and Saturday at 8 P.M. and Saturday and Sunday at 2 P.M. Tickets are $40 and available online at www.smarttix.com, by calling (212) 868-4444 or at the Abingdon box office one hour prior to performances.

Encores! Returns to Paint the Town Red

Leonard Bernsetein and Comden and Green's love-New York musical On the Town opens the City Center Encores! season November 19 - 23.

The cast of 30 + includes Justin Bohon as Chip; Legally Blonde and Spamalot's Christian Borle as Ozzie; Michael Cumpsty as Pitkin W. Bridgework; Jessica Lee Goldyn as Ivy; Leslie Kritzer as Hildy; Andrea Martin, fresh from Young Frankenstein, as Madame P. Dilly; Julyana Soelistyo as Lucy; Jennifer Laura Thompson as Claire DeLoone; and Gypsy's Tony Yazbeck as Gabey.

Comden and Green wrote the hilarious book. Directing will be John Rando with Todd Ellison directing the Encores! orchestra. Choreography will be by Warren Carlyle. Jack Viertel is Encores! A. D.

You may not have seen the original or the revivals, but how can you forget these classic lyrics by the late, great lyricists Comden and Green: "New York, New York, a helluva town/The Bronx is up and the Battery's down/The people ride in a hole in the ground/New York, New York, it's a helluva town!"

And it is, as the fleet docks and three sailors in particular hit the town running on 24-hour leave to discover the glories and gals of New York while searching for Miss Turnstiles.

On the Town is based on an idea by Jerome Robbins and inspired by his 1944 ballet Fancy Free. The score includes the poignant ballad "Some Other Time," "Lonely Town," "I Feel Like I'm Not Out of Bed Yet" and the showstopper "I Can Cook, Too."

Carlyle will reproduce the original Robbins' choreography for three numbers: "New York, New York," "Ya Got Me" and "Times Square Ballet." Scott Wise, Tony-winner for Jerome Robbins' Broadway, will assist.

This production is part of Bernstein: The Best of All Possible Worlds, a partnership with Carnegie Hall and the New York Philharmonic. For more information, visit bernsteinfestival.org. The Encores! season sponsor is Newman's Own Foundation.

Performances are Wednesday - Saturday at 8 P.M., Saturday at 2 and Sunday at 6:30. Tickets are $25-$95 [season subscriptions are $120 - $270] and available at the City Center box office, or online at www.nycitycenter.org. [where you print your tickets] or by calling (212) 581-1212.

Coming up: Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein II's Music in the Air, February 5-8 with the original orchestrations by Robert Russell Bennett; and Burton Lane/E.Y. Harburg/Fred Saidy's Finian's Rainbow, March 26-29.

Songs of Fugitive Composers

on November 18 and 20 at 8 P.M. the New York Festival of Song will present Fugitives, songs by composers who fled Hitler's Europe, at Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center [129 West 67th Street, off Broadway]. The program includes music from Broadway, the concert stage and Berlin cabaret by Kurt Weill, Erich Korngold, Arnold Schoenberg and others sung by Metropolitan Opera rising young stars tenor Joseph Kaiser and mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey.

NYFOS A.D. Steven Blier, whom The New York Times praised as "a national treasure when it comes to the art of song," be pianist/host.

Tickets are $40-$55 and available at the Merkin box office, online at www.kaufman-center.org or by calling (212) 501-3330. A limited number of $15 student tickets are available. Call (646) 230-8380. For more information, visit www.nyfos.org.

Cook Will Be Cookin'

One of the most celebrated vocalists and channelers of, among others, Sondheim, Barbara Cook joins orchestrator/musical director/composer Jonathan Tunick as his very special guest at Broadway at Birdland on November 24 at 7 P.M. Oscar, Tony, Emmy and Grammy winner Tunick will be music directing his big band, the Broadway Moonlighters, which features musicians from the orchestras of Road Show, The Little Mermaid, In the Heights, Pal Joey and others.

Could Ms. Cook preview songs from her new DRG CD Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder.

Admission is $30 or $50 for VIP seating, with a $10 food/drink minimum. To reserve, call (212) 581-3080 or book online at www.Birdland.com.

Upcoming concerts at BAB: Christine Ebersole and Billy Stritch, November 26-29; the Broadway Boys, December 1; and Victoria Shaw, December 1.

Swingin' Duo Return

They're coming back with more, more more. They being Alison Fraser and Mary Testa, who will be reprising their show November 24th at 7 P.M., November 30th at 8 and December 11th at 11:30 at the Laurie Beechman Theatre Voices from the Great White Way series. Special guest will be Annie Golden.

Music directing a four-piece band will be Allison Leyton-Brown. Among the songs heard will tunes from Rusty Magee musicals, The Green Heart, written with Charles Busch; and The Czar of Rock and Roll , written with Lewis Black.

The cover is $25 with a $15 food/beverage minimum. For reservations, call (212) 695- 6909.

Viennese Bon Bons and More from PBS

Get your wallets out, have your credit cards at the ready, because Pledge Week two weeks away, but PBS has some very enjoyable rewards as a bonus for giving.

Placideo Domingo, Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón will perform to the intoxicating strains of Franz Lehar [The Merry Widow, Land of Smiles] and other masters of operetta and zarzuela [El Gato Montes] when PBS' Great Performances presents Domingo, Netrebko & Villazón: Three Stars in Vienna, a concert gala from the Imperial Park of Vienna's Schönbrunn Summer Palace, on November 30 at 7 P.M.

French conductor Bertrand de Billy will be directing the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra.

The hour-long special, taped last June, will be presented by Thirteen/WNET in HiDef.

Following at 8:30, Great Performances presents what you might call an "infinite" variety program as 15 Grammy Award-winner David Foster gathers some of his friends at Vegas' Mandalay Casino to entertain you.

Hitman: David Foster & Friends features a gilded roster of artists including songs from Andrea Bocelli, Josh Groban,Michael Bublé, Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, Brian McKnight, Peter Cetera, Boz Scagg, Kenny G, Katharine McPhee and 16-year-old Filipino power-house Charice with Foster at the keyboards with a virtual jukebox of songs written and/or produced by him over his, to date, 35-year career.

Showstopping moments include tenor Bocelli and McPhee dueting on "The Prayer"; and Groban with signature songs "Bridge Over Troubled Water," a duet with McKnight, and and "You Raise Me Up"; and segment with Celine Dion.

Great Performances is funded by the Irene Diamond Fund, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and, of course, viewers like you.

Enemy Performances

Playwrights Horizons is presenting the New York premiere of Prayer for My Enemy by two-time Tony nominee, Pulitzer Prize finalist and two-time Obie winner Craig Lucas. Tony winner Bartlett Sher [South Pacific, Light in the Piazza] is directing Tony and DD winner Victoria Clark, Tony winner Michele Pawk and Tony and DD nominee Jonathan Groff in a six-member cast. It runs through December 21.

Lucas describes the play, set against a backdrop of a son returning from Iraq, as "a keenly-layered drama about the preciousness of life and the grace to share common ground - even with those we love the least."

Tickets are available at the Ticket Central box office on Theatre Row, by calling (212) 279-4200 and online at www.playwrightshorizons.org.

Reflecting PH's commitment to making productions more affordable to younger audiences, it is offering $20 rush tickets, subject to availability, day of performance only, starting one hour before showtime to those 30 and under [proof of age required; one ticket per person, per purchase] and $15 student rush tickets [same policy].

Coming of Age Now

A coming-of-age story about two brothers, Capture Now, written and performed by Josh Jonas, is getting some critical buzz at the Theaters at 45 Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village. The buzz is not just for the poignant writing which one critic called "Captivating. Innovative, insightful drama. A smash of the soul, a Jewish Field of Dreams " for also for the multi-talented Jonas, who in a tour-de-force plays all 10 parts. Larry Moss [The Syringa Tree, RFK] directs

You might have heard of the producers: Kurt Peterson [Sondheim: A Musical Tribute; and who was Young Ben in the original Follies and appeared with Angela Lansbury in Dear World], and Jane Bergère [13, All My Sons, Curtains].

For tickets, call Tele-charge, (212) 239-6200 or book online at www.telecharge.com. For more informtion, visit www.capturenowtheplay.com

A Special Trio in a Special Performance

On December 1, celebrated jazz and cabaret artists Laurie Krauz, Luba Mason and Spider Saloff will perform back-to-back in conert at the Metropolitan Room at 7 P.M. The cover is $30 with a two drink minimum. For reservations, call (212) 206-0440.

"Insanity is just a state of mind" is a tagline of Anthony Horowitz's sexually-loaded psycho drama farce Mindgame, playing at the Soho Playhouse [15 Vandam Street, between Sixth Avenue and Varick Street]. The director is Ken Russell. Yes! That Ken Russell, making his New York and stage debut as a play director. And no one can make do with sexually-loaded psycho drama like Russell, who also has a bit of a reputation for being flamboyant and outrageous.

Recently, in the U.K., Russell was on the TV reality show Celebrity Big Brother. "I didn't think of it at the time but," he laughs during a break in rehearsals prior to last night's opening, "all that intrigue and those different personalities going at each other sort of prepared me for directing a play set in an insane asylum."

Russell has acted, danced, written, produced, directed TV concerts [Sarah Brightman, Diva; Andrew Lloyd Webber], operas and, of course, has directed classic and controversial films. But, at 81, he's waited a long time to direct a play.

"Operas are plays with music," he explains. "I think when you establish a niche, such as directing films, you're not at the top of producers' lists to direct a play. Mindgame came to me in a circuitous way, through Lee Godart, who's one of the three actors.

"By the end of Act I, I was ready for a large scotch," he continues. "By the last page, I had finished the bottle. It was the scariest script I'd ever read. It caught my fancy. I don't do anything I don't like, ever. I found it intriguing and fascinating and thought I could bring something to it."

He says he liked Horowitz's ploy of making Act One so "drop-dead dramatic and tense with a surprise every five minutes" and Act Two so hilarious. It's a laugh-a-minute horror play."

Horowitz, a horror writer known for his Alex Rider series, also created the hugely popular, BAFTA-award winning TV series, Foyle's War.

Mindgame ran on the West End in 2000 following a 10-month sit-down in a regional and two-year tour. It tells of a crime novelist's attempt to get the head shrink at an asylum for the criminally insane to allow him to interview a serial killer who killed his father. But are the sane the insane or vice versa? In fact, is anything the way it seems?

Through a series of lies and manipulated memories, dark secrets are revealed. There's one recently alive skeleton in the doc's office and plenty waiting just outside the door -- or is that a cupboard? And what's with the portrait that can't make up what gender it wishes to be, to say nothing of the nurse in the tight-fitting white mini worthy of a porn film set-up.

Though Russell is usually most comfortable "painting on large canvases," the stage at the Soho is literally postage stamp-size. "It all takes place in a psychiatrist's office, so it's self-contained and confined to begin with. The theatre is rather intimate, too, which makes the play accessible to the audience."

He pointed out the main advantage in directing a play as opposed to a film "is that in the former you can go from start to finish every time in rehearsals. This allows the characters to develop naturally and in the moment, as one dramatic incident follows another and pushes them to grow organically."

He adds, "Films, for logistical reasons, are generally shot out of sequence, which is not only tough on the actors but also the director."

As he contemplated Mindgame for Off Broadway, he began a search for his leading man. Keith Carradine got wind of the project and contacted Russell.

"I wasn't as familiar with Keith's work as most Americans are," states the director. "He was anxious to do the play and sent me a DVD of clips, which confirmed in my mind if this guy wants to do it, I better grab him. In addition to films like Pretty Baby, The Duellists and Nashville* he's done quite a few of horror films and thrillers on the quiet."

* Carradine penned "I'm Easy" for the film and won an Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Original Song.

In Mindgame, Carradine has a field day with some very broad acting, channeling, it seems, Cary Grant, David Niven and Prince Philip. "Now that you mention it, right on," Russell laughs. "It could be worse, couldn't it?"

The play marks the Altman alum's first New York stage appearance since his July 2006 return to Broadway [after being Tony and Drama-Desk nominated for 1991's Will Rogers Follies] in the musical Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, replacing John Lithgow.

[Trivia: Carradine, who's the father of Martha Plimpton, made his Broadway debut as a replacement cast member in the original Hair, which brought him to Joseph Papp's attention and making his Off Bway debut at the Public in 1979's Wake Up, It's Time to Go to Bed, opposite Ellen Greene].

Mindgame also stars Lee Godart, an actor of some acclaim in France, here on TV soaps and in regional theatre; and Kathleen McNenny [Mrs. Milcote, Coram Boy; and for Roundabout, The Constant Wife, After the Fall].

On arrival in New York and finally ensconced in a flat on Bleecker Street, he had a time getting used to the early morning sanitation trucks doing their rounds. "I wanted to use that little doll and some pins on them, but now I seem to out sleep them. The cacophony of the sounds of New York life eventually becomes a sort of symphony of unsurpassed sweetness. I think the thick wads of wax I put in my ears and the dressing gown I put over my head have helped."

Known as Britain's "enfant terrible" of cinema, Russell directed the acclaimed Women in Love [1969, BAFTA and Oscar-nominated for director], The Music Lovers [1970], The Devils (1971), The Boy Friend (1971], Mahler [1974, Cannes Golden Palm-nominated for director], Tommy [1975], Lisztomania [1975], Valentino [1977], Altered States [1980] and Crimes of Passion [1984].

Russell's film adaptation of The Boy Friend is one of the most visually-stunning films of all time. "That one was such a joy to do that I just decided to have a lot of fun. It is pure escapism, and it turned out rather well."

Reminiscing, he says that there was one film "that maybe wasn't such a good idea." He takes a quick pause and adds, "Maybe a couple! I've been a critic's darling and a not-so-darling. But most of them are dead and I'm still going."

Russell met ALW and Tim Rice in the late 70s. He was to do the film adaptation of Evita, which starred Elaine Paige on the West End. She was ALW and Rice's choice for the screen, but Russell had Liza Minnelli, still riding high following her Oscar win for Cabaret, come in to audition. He was so mesmerized by her test that he refused to go forward on the film without her. Production was halted.

Russell states he's "never been afraid of being ridiculed. I'm not an understated director. I go the other way. I know my films upset people. I want to upset them. Life is too short to make films one doesn't like. My work is meant to be constructive and illuminating, but I'd rather gamble than play it safe. If I err, and admittedly I have, I can say that I tried to get it right."

That said, he notes that he would never do a violent, disturbing film like The Devils, which he considers his masterpiece. Though never released in the U.K. or here as Russell intended, it was one of the most controversial and top films of the 70s. It was called "provocative," "brilliant," "disturbing," "brilliant" and a "crazed exercise in Grand Guignol."

Britian's Evening Standard critic Alexander Walker called it "monstrously indecent" in a TV confrontation with Russell, who grabbed a copy of the paper, rolled it up and hit him over the head.

The Devils has become a cult favorite, especially at Halloween. Opulenty set in 17th Century, it starred Vanessa Redgrave as a sexually-obsessed nun and Oliver Reed as a priest in a devil-possessed nunnery caught up in Cardinal Richelieu's power-hungry attempt to control France.

He's been called the English Fellini and Orson Welles. "But," asks Russell, "do you know what Fellini was dubbed?" The Italian Ken Russell? "That's right," he beams.

He says he's not only outlived most of his critics, and that he takes care of the ones still around "with this little doll and a bunch of pins. What more do I need."

Every step of the way, for better and worse, Russell's always done it his way. He went from being acclaimed and very bankable to controversial and not so bankable.

Russell credits his love of classical music as the path that led him to film. "At the end of World War II, where I was in the Merchant Navy, I had a bit of a nervous breakdown," he reveals. "While I was recovering, Mum would put on the radio while she Hoovered around the chair where I sat gazing into space.

"One day I heard something that shook me up and woke me up," he continues. "It got me on my bicycle and peddling furiously to the record shop saying do you have Tchaikovsky's D Minor Piano Concerto? I played it over and over, and the next day I was back to buy more by this Tchaikovsky fellow. That led me to another Russian, Rimsky-Korsakov. I later found out they didn't like each other."

Eventually, Russell explained he went through all the classical composers "and each time I played their music, I saw pictures and couldn't stop seeing them. That was the beginning and my sort of intro to my dream of putting those images on the screen. After many starts and stops - I was a ballet dancer, a photographer, an actor, I saved up enough money to make home movies. That got me into the BBC, where I was encouraged to do programs on my hobbies. Mine was music."

In the late 50s with his work for the BBC TV's Monitor, he began to reshape the documentary tradition.

Once he made the leap into films, things didn't always go according to plan. There came a time where some of cinematic instincts made it difficult to get the next picture financed.
"I won't say that's not true, but I think the real culprit was that I chose not to move to Hollywood."

Adds Russell, "I was brought up in Southhampton, near the New Forest, which is a magical place of pastures and heaths with a weird spirit, and I didn't want to move to Hollywood. Most producers there, unless they can have breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner with you, aren't interested. It was something I resisted."

He considers Glenda Jackson and Oliver Reed the actors he enjoyed working with most.

With a keen eye and a penchant for flamboyance and eroticism, Russell gained international acclaim with his feature film adaptation of DH Lawrence's Women in Love.

"When Glenda was cast for Women in Love, I'd never heard of her," he reveals. "I found myself watching her varicose veins more than her face, and only later what a magnificent screen personality she was. She was puzzling. Sometimes she looked plain ugly, sometimes just plain and sometimes the most beautiful creature one had ever seen."

It's rare for a director to name an actor he didn't particularly enjoy working with, but Russell is not that director. "With William Hurt in Altered States, I found I was his analyst for six months. It wasn't the part he talked constantly about, nor was he asking for guidance. He just ran on with all this crap about what a terrible thing being a billionaire was after being born into poverty. When my wife and I told him to cut the crap, he was stunned, but after that he was actually quite human."

It's no secret that Russell and Paddy Chayefsky, the Altered States screenwriter, clashed. "Paddy had never been involved with a director who wasn't malleable. But, in my case, he would make suggestions and I would listen courteously - and then disagree. He also kept interfering with the actors."

And that is something Ken ell never does? "Not like he did! The actors and I collaborate. I'll at least listen to anyone who has an idea."

He adds that on his films, there's no ad lib. "The script is as tight as a drum. I have every shot in my head before I shoot. I don't do a lot of cover [several shots of the same scene]. There's a right way to do it and I do it in what I consider to be the right way."

Russell is in moderately good health, except for a weight problem and recent surgery, which resulted in a metal knee cap. "I was well on my way to being totally mobile when I fell on the bloody thing and exaberated the situation. So, for a while, I'm hobbling along with a cane."

What next? Broadway? "Who knows," he quips. "Wouldn't be bad, would it?" Though he never been asked to direct at the Metropolitan Opera, he would like to put on Mindgame there.

Mindgame, the sexually-loaded psycho drama? "Yes," he replies. "I'd write the libretto and lyrics and, since I can't write or read music, have John Corigliano [Altered States] compose the score."

But, in the immediate future, on his return to the U.K., Russell and wife [Number Four] Lisi will be back into movies. The first priority will be completing post-production on Moll Flanders, which features Barry Humphries as Madame Needham.

There will be more low-budget films, and his self-financed "home movies," such as Revenge of the Elephant Man and The Fall of the Louse of Usher, which he gets done with the help of friends "by giving them a good dinner with plenty of wine."

Up next is, from Russell's description, quite an interesting piece, Brave Tart vs. the Lock Ness Monster.