February 2009 Archives

Oscar Buzzzz: And the Envelope, Please; New to DVD; Movie Palaces; More

By Ellis Nassour on February 22, 2009 12:00 AM

Hollywood's all dressed up for cinema's biggest night: the Oscars.

Recession hasn't hurt business at cineplex box offices. More than $10-billion in tickets were sold, which means more people than ever went to the movies in the last years [of course, that big number could be the result of skyrocketing movie prices in the last 20 years]. It seems when the going gets tough, America goes to the movies. We love rooting for the slumdogs, superheroes and supervillians, even wackos attempting to make a movie in the jungle. And, more than anything, we love a comeback story; and 2008 gave us a highly improbable one.

Compared to other forms of entertainment, even with the highest movie prices in the nation in New York City, going to the movies is still one of the least expensive [even less than bowling]excursions you can make, especially if you stay away from concession stands. Of course, it would be nice if even 50% of the films released were worth going to see.

Inevitably, movie tickets will go higher; maybe not as quickly as Broadway producers are raising their prices and increasing fees for premium seating. But for now, movies out or in are an inexpensive escape from realism [that is, unless you count those who jumped on the bandwagon for The Class].

Tonight, the American movie industry honors the world-wide movie industry with the 81st Academy Awards. An at-home audience of an estimated 32 million have the pizzas ordered and the trail mix mixed. The show will be seen live on ABC from 8 P.M. [a half hour of red carpet arrivals] and broadcast to eager viewers in 200 countries.

Hugh Jackman hosts the newly conceived idea of an "intimate" Oscars [in the behemoth Kodak Theatre?].Among the entertainers will be Queen Latifah and, performing a production number with Jackman staged by Baz Luhrmann, Beyonce.

Audiences can expect some interesting innovations for the Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress categories. Presenters will include Jennifer Anniston, Jack Black, Marion Cotillard, Robert DiNero, Michael Douglas, Whoppi Goldberg, Cuba Gooding Jr., Joel Gray, Anthony Hopkins, Angelica Huston, Alicia Keyes, Nicole Kidman, Ben Kingsley, Sophia Loren, Shirley MacLaine, Mary Louise Parker, Natalie Portman, Eva Marie Saint and Ben Stiller.

But who wants intimate? We want outrageous costumes, those fabled Debbie Allen production numbers where dancers are dancing for no logical reason while someone sings or attempts to sing nominated songs, the quality of which sure's not what it used to be.

Bewitched, bewhiskered Bruce Vilanch is back doing the bulk of special material writing, this year with Jenny Bicks [the late Men in Trees; contributor, Sex and the City].

Buttons or Slumdog

Talk about taking a short story, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, to extraordinary lengths, David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons raked in a very long list of nominations; in fact, the most this year.

A close second in the noms is the sleeper of the year, Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire, which had a budget of $10-m and was almost consigned to straight-to-video [when original co-financier Warner Independent was shut down]. It certainly rose from the ashes. But while being hailed and accoladed here, the movie that Boyle describes as "a story of love lost and love found is being slammed in Mumbai and across India as being insulting to slum-dwellers [who don't get doused with chocolate and peanut butter when they take the "dive in"].

While we certainly know much of this industry has heart, it will be interesting to see if a studio film, well-hyped and with a respected megastar, wins out over a much-praised indie, from half-way around the world and with no stars, that almost didn't see release until Fox Searchlight came to the rescue.

Frank, the Mick or Sean?/strong>

Mid-season, it appeared no actor had even a remote chance to beat Frank Langella's Nixon in Ron Howard's Frost/Nixon, then came Gus Van Sant's Milk and Sean Penn's totally unexpected bravura performance, and, at the New York Film Festival, the unveiling of the return of Mickey Rourke in Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler, which became the big comeback story of the year.

Not that he has a chance in hell of winning, but it's great to see the Academy nominators recognize veteran character actor Richard Jenkins as Best Actor for The Visitor, which has been on everyone' must-see list [they just can't find it playing anywhere].

Kate's Year - Finally?

Now six-time nom Kate Winslet is nom'd for the infamous The Reader, that coming of age story [yes, I spelled "coming" correctly!] of Nazi-era bibliophiles set against the backdrop of the Auschwitz extermination camps.

Everyone who rushed box offices to see RR expected nominators to double-dip her, but she has to settle for just one nod this year. Will 2009 be her year? Will she somehow manage to ace out mean old Sister Aloysius Meryl Streep for her redoubtable work in Doubt? Good luck, Kate!

Speaking of toiling away for years without recognition, the Academy has also made a worthy nod to Melissa Leo, mainly known to those who work at home for her days on All My Children, for her portrayal of a desperate mother suddenly in the business of transporting illegal aliens across the bleak tundra in the less-than-exhilarating Frozen River. Did you see it? [You should be ashamed of yourself!]

The best female supporting role of the year is turned in by newcomer Tarji P. Henson in Ben Butts, however she's up against adored Amy Adams [Doubt] and, in one of her very best ever screen portrayals, Penelope Cruz [Vicky Cristina Barcelona].

And in this cat, don't discount Oscar winner Marisa "I Can't Keep My Clothes On!" Tomei in The Wrestler.

Then there are the snubs - those who did great work but got left off the ballot [there are no write in votes allowed!]. At the top of the list is baby-faced, but all-grown-up three-time nom Leonardo DiCaprio, one of the anchors of Revolutionary Road.

No Joking, Can Heath Lose?

In the Supporting Actor cat, can there be any winner other than the late Heath Ledger; and will the Oscars trot out his adorable daughter to accept on his behalf?

There have been no shortage of megascenestealers in the Batman movie franchise created from the DC Comic books of Bob Kane: Jack Nicholson's 1989 Joker; Danny DeVito's Penguin and Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman in 1992; Tommy Lee Jones Two-Face and Jim Carrey's Riddler in 1995; and Schwarzenegger's Mr. Freeze and Uma Thurman's Poison Ivy in 1997.

However, there has probably never been a movie, much less a Batman one, where the film was stolen lock, stock and barrel from the "star" and, in the case of The Dark Knight , all those gadgets and vehicles in gigantic IMAX, by what was surely envisioned as a real featured role. But what's an Oscar-winner to do in such a role but attempt to steal the movie?

Heath Ledger does that and creates a role that's one for the cinema history books in his portrayal of ultimate arch-villain The Joker. It's a performance that the bets are on. It would be hard to believe that he won't be awarded, but stranger things have happened..

Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight didn't make the Best Pic list. It must have gotten edged out by the fast-paced, edge-of-the-seat, spectacularly entertaining Milk.

The filmmaking is flawless, thanks to now three-time Oscar-nominated cinematographer Wally Pfister [The Prestige, Batman Begins], nominated Nathan Crowley and Peter Lando for Art Direction [which includes set decoration] and Oscar-nominated editor Lee Smith. Dark Knight also has received nominations for Visual Effects, Make-up Design, Sound Editing and Sound Mixing.

The pulsing score, by Oscar winner and multiple nom Hans Zimmer and seven-time nom James Newton Howard, who also collaborated on Batman Begins, strangely didn't get a nod.

Got Milk?

James Brolin does. He's quite the capable actor but is his nominated performance [Supporting Actor] in this bio pic about Harvey Milk, California's first openly gay elected official, anywhere near as strong as Emile Hirsch or Diego Luna's?

What's the Score?

A.R. Rahman [do you remember when he journeyed to Bway with the score to ALW's Bombay Dreams?] nominated score for Slumdog is multilayered, to say the least. And in the multiple noms tradition of Alan Menken, Rahman has two nominated songs [those two with the exotic beat that had you Bollywooding in the aisles]. But, also as worthy, are James Newton Howard's Defiance and Thomas Newman's WALL-E scores.

Hey,Laaaady!

Jerry Lewis will receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in recognition of his medical research fundraising.

[For an insightful look at his career, read Manohla Dargis' profile in today's New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/movies/22darg.html?ref=arts]

New to DVD

Want some family fun the whole family can enjoy? Take home the sequel to one of the most successful animated films of the last few years: Madagascar - Escape 2 Africa in a double DVD pack [Dreamworks, 1 hour, 29 minutes; SRP, $35]. The animation is stellar. Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Alec Baldwin, David Schwimmer, Sasha Baron Cohen, Bernie Mac, Cedric the Entertainer, Sherri Sheperd and Jada Pinkett Smith provide the voices. Oscar winner and multiple nom Hans Zimmer and Will.i.am composed the score and songs. Ethan Cohen [from King of the Hill] is one of the writers. This sequel is a rarity: it's funnier and better than the original. The second DVD is The Penguins of Madagascar, a 24-minute animated short [widescreen]. Both discs contains a variety of bonus material, including video games and the features African Adventure and Going MAD at the Bronx Zoo.

Changeling, starring Oscar nom Angelina Jolie, was the centerpiece of this year's New York Film Festival and has just been released on DVD and Blu-ray [Universal; SRP, $30, $40]. Directed by Cline Eastwood [and running much too long at almost two-and-a-half hours] and written by J. Michael Straczynski, this is the based-on-a-true-story of a mother in 1928 L.A. and her search for her son. With the help of an activist minister [John Malkovich, with not much to do, but he's fiery], she goes up against corrupt police and a skeptical public. Jolie delivers a poignant performance. The CGI special effects of early L.A. are a plus. Tom Stern's cinematography and James Murakami and Gary Fettis are Oscar-nominated. Eastwood composed the score.

Fans of Showtime's acclaimed epic, lavish, sexy and scandalous historical series The Tudors starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Henry VIII can continue to be regaled at home in the regal splendor with the DVD release of the complete Second Season [Paramount Home Entertainment, Four discs, Nine hours; SRP $41].

Meyers, once a wonderful Elvis has been thrust to stardom in the role the power-hungry king, still young and lusting here, whose thrusting ways change the course of history as he moves to divorce Queen Katherine [stunningly beautiful Maria Doyle Kennedy] to marry the shy and innocent schemer Anne Boleyn [Natalie Dormer]. From the series debauchery, evidently the 60s had nothing on the decadent 16-Century. A central early element is Henry's conflicts with Pope Clement VII and, when he can't get his way, the deconstruction of the Catholic Church in England, which later prompts the wrath of Pope Paul III [eight-time Oscar nom Peter O'Toole] and gets him excommunicated. But, Henry, be careful what you wish for. Anne ain't all she's tooted up to be when she finally gets bedded inthe royal chamber. Her failure to provide Henry with a male heir sets the wheels in motion for her beheading and sends the King into the arms of Jane Seymour [Anita Briem]. From the historical standpoint, don't expect a lot of accuracy though Season Two isn't quite so sticky. Disc Four bonus material includes featurettes Descendents of Henry and : Tower of London, plus second season premiere episodes of Showtime series This American Life and Californication. Season Three, The Tudors debuts on Showtime in April.

Serial killer, anyone? The Blue-ray DVD of Season One of the Emmy-nominated Showtime series Dexter, starring Emmy and Golden Globe-nom Michael C. Hall as the eerily sympathetic vigilante serial killer, has just splattered out [CBS Home Entertainment/PHE; three discs, 10 + hours; SRP $58]. Based on Jeff Lindsay's novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter, the series [thanks to edgy writing] is compelling and quite often hilarious crime drama like no other with audiences rooting for the serial killer next door who only those whom he feels deserve to die. Bonus material includes a Michael C. Hall podcast, the first episode of Dexter, Season 3 and the first two episodes of Showtime's United States of Tara, starring Toni Collette.

Coming Soon

Due March 10 are two movies on DVD and Blue-ray that generated a lot of Oscar and Golden Globe buzz, Rachel Gets Married, starring Oscar nom Anne Hathaway, and Oscar-winning writer Charlie Kaufman debut directorial film, the sprawling Syncedoche, New York [pronounce it: si-nek-duh-kee], starring Oscar nom Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Rachel Getting Married [Sony Pictures Home Entertainment; SRP $29 and $40] the family drama directed by Jonathan Demme [Manchurian Candidate, Silence of the Lambs] and penned by first-time writer Jenny Lumet, has created quite a buzz. In addition to Hathaway, there are acclaimed performances by Rosemarie Dewitt [Mad Men], Bill Irwin and Oscar nom Debra Winger. The film has been honored with six Spirit Award noms, including Best Feature, Actress, Director, Screenplay, and Supporting Female [Dewitt, Winger].

In Syncedoche, New York on DVD and Blu-ray [SPHE; SRP $29,$40], Hoffman plays a husband, a theater director, in free fall and obsessed with his own mortality after his wife leaves him. When it premiered at Cannes, some audiences found it fascinating but puzzling. One critic named it one of the better films of 2008, calling it "a miracle movie." The strong buzz subsided. No Oscar or GG noms for the movie, which blends fantasy, drama and comedy and has plenty of twists and curves, some have subtitled "one man's search for meaning in the midst of meaninglessness." Kaufman [screenplays for Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine...], however, was honored with a Cannes Golden Palm. The stellar cast includes Hope Davis [soon on Bway in God of Carnage], Peter Friedman, Catherine Keener, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Samantha Morton, Tom Noonan, Emily Watson, Diane Wiest and Michelle Williams. Synecdoche received this year's Spirit Awards' Robert Altman Award, honoring the ensemble cast, Kaufman and casting director Jeanne McCarthy.

Movies the Way They Used to Be

Movies, movies, movies at one time were shown in "everyman" palaces with Wonder Organs to interlude audiences between showings. You get a taste of that era when you go to some events at Radio City Music Hall, opened in 1931, and they whip out the dueling organs. But New York City's movie palaces have, so sadly, gone the way of the wrecking ball.

If you'd like to see of how our parents and grand parents saw films, you can visit the still intact, almost 78-year old opulent former Loew's Paradise in the Bronx [2413 Grand Concourse] recently reopened for concerts and special events after an extensive $5-mil renovation of most of its Italian Baroque grandeur by entrepreneur Gerald Lieblich. The cherubs, caryatids, recumbent lions, gargoyles and other statuary in the vaulted lobby [often used for high tone parties and such in film/TV] and gargantuan auditorium have been cleaned. The famed midnight-blue ceiling has been repainted, but the stars won't start twinkling and the clouds won't begin rolling again for a while.

The fate of Jersey City's magnificent treasure 3,000 + seat movie palace, Loew's Jersey [54 Journal Square, and easily reached by PATH] which opened in 1929 as "the most lavish temple of entertainment in New Jersey," is not quite the happy story, yet. Slowly, but surely, its glory years are returning with restoration ongoing. The theatre's huge Wonder Organ masterpiece recently returned after being refurbished and rebuilt.

This landmark deserves the support of dedicated moviegoers. Next weekend is a wonderful opt to rediscover the Jersey. On February 27 and 28, there's a Film Noir Weekend. Chinatown shows on Friday at 8 P.M. On Saturday at 3 P.M., there's Jules Dassin's Night and Day, the rarely seen film starring Richard Widmark and one of filmdom's great beauties, Gene Tierney; and at 7 P.M. a double bill of Stanley Kubrick's The Killing in stark B&W, starring Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray and Marie Windsor, and Henry Hathaway's Niagara, in breathtaking Technicolor, starring Joseph Cotten, Marilyn Monroe and another screen beauty Jean Peters.

Admission to monthly screenings is bargain-priced and the popcorn is popped fresh in the huge and stunning lobby with one of the most awesome crystal chandeliers you'll ever see. And everything at the concession stand is more than reasonably-priced. For movie screenings and concert information, visit www.loewsjersey.org.

On Sunday, March 8, at 3 P.M., the Wonder Morton Pipe Organ is the show as the Garden State Theatre Organ Society presents March Musical Madness. Tom Hehn will be at the mighty console with Avery Tunningley at piano. Tickets, which are purchased at the door, are $15; seniors and children, $13.

A Must-See Cripple; Kathleen Turner, Trouper; Henry V; Broadway by the Year; Irena's Vow; Avow Returns; Willa Cather Musical; Star-Studded Benefits; More

By Ellis Nassour on February 20, 2009 12:00 AM

Every theater season has its share of standout shows and performances but the Atlantic Theatre Company and Ireland's Druid Theater Company seemingly have outdone themselves. ATC is staging Druid's acclaimed production of Martin McDonagh's The Cripple of Inishmaan for its Main Stage, where it runs through March 15.

Cripple is McDonagh-lite with no blood and guts spilling out all over the place. However, there is plenty of laughter. And some of the best, most memorable performances of the season.

There's not a false note in the cast, superbly directed by Tony winner and DD nom Garry Hynes [Translations, Beauty Queen of Leenane, Lonesome West]: Kerry Condon [Lieutenant of Inishmore], Andrew Connolly [LOI], Laurence Kinlan, Dearbhla Molloy [Touch of the Poet; original cast Dancing at Lughnasa], Aaron Monaghan, Marie Mullen, Patricia O'Connell, David Pearse and John C. Vennema.

In particular Pearse, as the village town crier, Laurence Kinlan as the incredibly juvenile Bartley and most especially Condon, as Helen, the local gal of easy virtue and egg-throwing, must have mastered in Scene Stealing. Condon should emerge from TCOI as the go-to actress for wildly eccentric, over-the-top comic roles. If ever there was a star-making role, she's created it.

Stand out is not exactly the word for Monaghan's performance as Cripple Billy. He amazingly transforms himself into the twisted misfit yearning for romance and displays incredible acting chops. It's not easy to get his performance out of your head. It's one for the ages.

The Atlantic/Druid's production is no-frills, but what you want to see when you attend theater is onstage: a beautifully-crafted play that's beguiling, poignant, tragic, funny and heartbreaking. It's certainly one of the highlights of the season on or off Broadway. Cripple is an absolute must-see for anyone interested in the dynamics of theater.

Just Try and Stop Her

Kathleen Turner took that old show biz expression just a little too seriously!

Due to an injury sustained onstage by the actress co-starring in MCC Theater's production of The Third Story, two performances were canceled at the Lortel Theatre, as will be the case tonight while Ms. Turner gets her footing.

Word is out from A.D.s Robert LuPone and Bernard Telsey that Ms. Turner will be back onstage with Charles Busch in his play by Saturday. In the-show-must-go-on tradition, Turner will perform with a cast on her foot and cane in hand.

Gangster flicks, fairy tales and B-movie sci-fi collide in T.S., which centers on a mother/son screenwriting team fleeing Commie-obsessed 1940's Hollywood for Omaha.

"Kathleen Turner personifies the Broadway trouper," states Telsey. "Against any odds, she must and will make her performance."

A Third Story benefit performance has been scheduled for the Actors Fund for Sunday, March 8 at 7P.M.

Henry Battles On

The Tony-winning Guthrie Theater of Minneapolis and New York's Acting Company are presenting a new production of Shakespeare's Henry V, the epic tale of the Brit warrior King's pursuit for the French crown, at the New Victory Theatre from February 27 - March 8. Matthew Amendt wears the crown, with 12 actors in more than 55 roles. Tkts are $12.50 - $35 and available at the box office, by calling (646) 223-3010 and online at www.NewVictory.org. There will be Talk Back and sign-interpreted performances. Purchase a ducat for Henry V and two other New Vic prods and not only become a New Vic member but also save 30% on season tkts.

Musical Time Travel

Ah, it's back to happier times.

That era just before that other depression hit, as Scott Siegel and Town Hall's musical travelogue Broadway by the Year kicks off its ninth season Monday with Broadway Musicals of 1924.

James Barbour [Tale of Two Cities], Jeffry Denman [White Christmas], Jason Graae, tap dynamo Kendrick Jones, Marc Kudisch, Sarah Jane McMahon, Kerry O'Malley, Ryan Silverman and the Howard Fishman Quartet are among the headliners. Series regulars know that Siegel is adding cast members as they read this.

1924 includes songs from The Student Prince, Rose-Marie, Lady Be Good, among many others, and songs from revues such as The Grand Street Follies. You can also expect some always-anticipated "unplugged" moments.

Denman also choreographs and directs. Musical direction and arrangements are by Ross Patterson, accompanied by his Little Big Band.

"It's great having Jeffry back in his triple-threat capacity," said Siegel. "He directed last season's opener, The Broadway Musicals of 1947, one of our most popular to date. As he did with 1947, it looks like he'll go with a lot of dance."

BBTY regular and King of the Unplugged Kudisch made it back to town just in the nick of time after doing a Denver reading with O'Malley of a new adaptation by Dick Scanlan of Meredith Wilson's Unsinkable Molly Brown.

He was hardly back and unpacked before flying down Ft. Lauderdale way, his hometown, to rendezvous on the beach with main squeeze Shannon Lewis, bus and trucking into there with the Chorus Line tour. He loves BBTY to such a degree ["because there is nothing else like it. Where else do you get to sing such great songs from our past?"] that he's missing 9 to 5's first day of rehearsal. A highlight on Monday, he says, will be songs from The Student Prince by Barbour, Silverman and himself. "And," adds K, "wait till you hear Ryan sing 'Rose Marie'!"

Broadway by the Year is funded by Bank of America and the Edythe Kenner Foundation. Tickets are $45 and $50 and on sale through TicketMaster, (212) 307-4100, at www.ticketmaster.com and the Town Hall box office.

1930 on CD

Probably more songs from the Great American Songbook were introduced in 1930, than in any other Broadway season. Although America was going through the effects of the previous year's devastating stock market crash, the Gershwins, Rodgers and Hart, Porter, Dietz and Schwartz, Arlen, Fields and Youmans brought vibrant life to Broadway with such tunes as "Body and Soul," "But Not For Me," "Embraceable You," "Get Happy," "I Got Rhythm," "I Happen to Like New York," "I've Got a Crush On You," "Love for Sale," "On the Sunny Side of the Street," "Ten Cents a Dance" and "Time On My Hands."

Original Cast Records has just released the CD of Broadway by the Year 1930 [SRP, $15]. Nancy Anderson, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Marc Kudisch, Deven May, Jennifer Simard, Emily Skinner, Mary Testa and Michael Winther are among the artists, accompanied by Ross Patterson and his Little Big Band. Scott Siegel adds historic tidbits. For more information, visit www.originalcastrecords.com.

Remembering a Forgotten Heroine

Four-time Tony Award-nominee and two-time Drama Desk-winner Tovah Feldshuh will again channel the spirit and heroism of an unsung WWII Polish woman in Dan Gordon's Irena's Vow, which moves from its extended Off Bway run to Bway and the Walter Kerr on March 10. There's a cast of 10 under Michael Parva's direction.

The play marked Feldshuh's first New York stage appearance since her triumphant DD-win and Tony nod for Golda's Balcony, which also transferred from Off-Bway to become Bway's longest-running one-woman show, later playing the West End.

Feldshuh describes Irena's Vow as "a riveting, life affirming story about one of wartime's most courageous heroines. During the Nazi occupation of Poland, Irena Gut Opdyke, a Catholic, was forced to work as housekeeper for a Nazi major. Over two years, she hid twelve Jewish refugees.

"There are over 50,000 recorded acts of heroism by Polish citizens who reached out to save victims of the Nazi terror," she continues "This is the extraordinary story of one woman, who chose to do good in the midst of evil. Her story is a searing testament to the bravery of those who risked their lives to save Jews from certain death."

Feldshuh is known for her incredible roster of accents and characters which she develops through intense research. In preparation for Irena's Vow, she visited the places "graced by Irena Gut. In searching for her, I found the best of myself - the part that nurtures, the part that's just, the part that reaches out to those in need."

Before the war and German occupation, there were 3.5 million Jews in Poland - about ten percent of the population. Only 100,000 somehow survived the death camps. On her trip, Feldshuh felt obligated to visit Auschwitz and Birkenau. "When I walked through the gates of Birkenau, my legs gave out. I fell to my knees because I couldn't even see to the end of this ground - this factory of death, developed for the annihilation of human beings."

She reflected on Gut's amazing deed. "Irena did it in the flower of her youth and never spoke of it for 35 years. I like to stop for a moment and cast a light on this incredible heroine. Our goal is to use this drama to inspire the very best in ourselves so that we may follow in Irena's footsteps."

Avow Returns

Love, the kind that used to dare not speak its name, is the subject of Bill C. Davis' Avow, in a limited engagement of a new production by the Cardinal Group at the 45th Street Theatre [354 West 45th Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues].

Playwright, sometime actor Davis' Mass Appeal , which moved from MTC to Bway [and later to screen] has been produced world-wide.

C.G.'s D.H. Johnson and Richard Pepenella feel the time is right for the return of Avow. California's Proposition 8 being in the news for months. The play focuses on a Catholic male couple who ask to be married by their parish priest. Though liberal and sympathetic to them, the priest holds to church policy, that same-sex individuals cannot be "married" and must remain celibate.

The plight of Tom and Brian, respectively Jaron Farnham and Timothy Sekk, is complicated by their friendship with the priest, played by Jerimah Wiggins, Brian's single pregnant sister and their devout mother Rose, portrayed by theater veteran Joy Franz.

Franz has worked frequent with Cardinal and if her name sounds familiar, it should.
She's appeared in Into the Woods [original and revival] as Cinderella's not-so-nice stepmother, Assassins [original, Playwrights Horizon], A Little Night Music, Company, Merrily We Roll Along, Pippin, Sweet Charity, Guys and Dolls [1965 revival], Jacques Brel... and also in Bernstein's Mass.

Tickets are $18 and available at www.smarttix.com or calling 212) 868-4444. For more information, visit www.CardinalGroupNYC.com.

Musical from Cather Novella

La MaMa E.T.C. [74 East 4th Street, between Second Avenue and the Bowery] and Watson Arts are presenting the premiere of Coming Aphrodite!, Paul Foglino/Mark Ettinger/Mary Fulham's musical adapted from the novella by Willa Cather running through March 8.

The plot revolves around a man, woman and dog and "is a love story that explores the pursuit of art and the nature of success. The man is a painter; the woman is a new neighbor, an aspiring actress who likes to sing and exercise in the nude.

Lyricist Foglino took home the 2005 FringeNYC Award for Overall Excellence for Outstanding Music and Lyrics for Hercules in High Suburbia. Fulham, who was an original member of High Heeled Women, also directs the four-member cast.

Tickets for Coming Aphrodite! are $18 and available by calling (212) 475-7710 or online at www.lamama.org.

One Night Only ~

Benefits with More Stars Than There are in Heaven>:

The stars are certainly coming out for Monday's Defying Inequality: The Broadway Concert - A Celebrity Benefit for Equal Rights, at 8 P.M. at the Gershwin. Co-hosting are Judy Gold and Carson Kressley.

Headliners on tap are Douglas Carter Beane, Shoshana Bean, PJ Benjamin, Stephanie J. Block, Daniel Breaker, Kerry Butler, Lynda Carter, Gavin Creel, Harvey Fierstein, Jane Fonda, John Gallagher, Jr., Malcolm Gets, Jonathan Groff, Jayne Houdyshell, Allison Janney, Capathia Jenkins, Nathan Lane, Cyndi Lauper, Adriane Lenox, Rue McClanahan, Phyllis Newman, Keith Olbermann, David Hyde Pierce, Billy Porter, Seth Rudetsky, Stephen Schwartz, Carole Shelley, Christopher Sieber, Sally Struthers, Tamara Tunie and Scott Wittman.

The evening will also feature the Broadway Boys, Gay Men's Chorus and cast members from Billy Elliot, Color Purple national tour, Gypsy, Hair, Jersey Boys, Lion King, Little Mermaid, Mary Poppins, South Pacific, Spring Awakening and Wicked. There'll also be guests from Saturday Night Live and Sesame Street. There'll also be the premiere of an excerpt from Marc Shaiman's Prop 8 - The Musical; and a video message from Elton John.

Orgs benefiting are five groups from the Northeast and California working to promote equality and guarantee civil rights for gay, lesbian and transgender communities. Tickets are $50 - $500 [prime seating] and $1,000 [premium seating] and available through www.Ticketmaster.com. With the $1,000 purchase, you receive a signed benefit poster and entry to the post-performance cast party. For more information, visit www.defyinginequality.com.

The Jewish Alliance for Change presents Broadway for a New America - Standing Up for Marriage Equality and a Progressive Agenda for Change March 2 at 7 P.M. at Peter Norton Symphony Space with Bway, film, TV and comedy performers, not to mention political and LGBT activists.

The host will be multiple Tony, DD, Grammy and Audie [spoken word]-winnerJim Dale. Scheduled to appear are: Richard Belzer [L&O, Homicide...], Tony and Emmy-winning Stockard Channing; multi-DD winner and multi-Tony nom Tovah Feldshuh, singer Mario Frangoulis; Tony nom and multi-MAC Award winner Ann Hampton Callaway; DD-winner and Tony nom Eve Best [The Homecoming, Moon...Misbegotten], Marni Nixon, political comic Scott Blakeman; Tony nom Jonathan Freeman [currently, Little Mermaid and Seth Rudetsky.

JAC's mission is to mobilize America, fighting for marriage equality and a progressive agenda for change. Tickets, $80 - $125, are available by calling (212) 864-5400 or online at www.Jews4Change.com or www.symphonyspace.org. Premium seats, which include tkts to a post-show cast reception may be obtained at www.jews4change.com/broadway.php.

R&H Go Digital

Coinciding with the CD release of the complete, restored score of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Allegro, Masterworks Broadway and ArkivMusic have released the first in a series of digital-only editions of classic cast recordings by the musical theater legends.

The cast of 1965's Lincoln Center Carousel features the original Billy Bigelow, John Raitt, Eileen Christy [Julie Jordan], Jerry Orbach [Jigger] and Katherine Hilgenberg [Nettie Fowler]. Bonus tracks: Raitt, Doretta Morrow, Patrice Munsel and Robert Merrill with songs from Carousel studio albums.

The Oklahoma! CD is the complete 1952 studio recording, conducted by Lehman Engel, featuring Nelson Eddy as Curly, Virginia Haskins as Laurey, Portia Nelson [Aunt Eller] and Kaye Ballard [Ado Annie]. Bonus tracks: songs by Raitt and Patricia Northrup from a 1953 Ok! studio recording.

Rodgers Conducts Rodgers with the NY Philharmonic. Tracks include On Your Toes's "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" ballet suite, "The Carousel Waltz," "March of the Siamese Children," waltzes written with Hart [Jumbo, Boys from Syracuse] and Hammerstein [Ok!] and a suite from the TV doc Victory at Sea. The bonus track is a promotional radio interview with Rodgers.

The CDs have each original cover art and liner notes. They're available through ArkivMusic.com [SRP $14 each; type Richard Rodgers in the Composer Search Box].

Julie Salutes Billie

On March 4 at 7:30 at the Metropolitan Room veteran chantuse Julie Wilson will present A Tribute to Billie Holiday, which, says Miss Wilson, "runs the gamut from catchy, clever swing to deep, soulful blues." Miss Wilson's trademark gardenia is a homage to Holiday, a friend and her fav singer. She'll give her legendary interpretation to such Holiday classics as "The Very Thought of You", "God Bless The Child", "Body and Soul", "Good Morning, Heartache", "Don't Explain" and "Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do." Admission is $25 plus two-drink minimum. Book by calling (212) 206-0440 or online at www.metropolitanroom.com.

Tales of Depression

Brother, Can You Spare A Dime? Songs and Stories from the Great Depression, a revue told through 24 songs and first-hand accounts of that first financial crisis brought on by stock market manipulation, opens March 6 to play Friday, Saturday and Sundays at the Triad [158 West 72nd Street, between Broadway and Columbus Avenue].

Conceived and staged by Bill Daugherty [When the Lights Go On Again; formerly part of comedy duo Daugherty & Field], Brother... will take audiences on "a heartfelt journey from pre-crash mania through to the plight of the Dustbowl Okies and laborers riding the rails in search of better times." He co-stars with a cast of five.

Tickets may be purchased at www.theatermania.com.

Black History Month; Jerome Robbins Remembered; Estelle Parsons Contributes; Broadway/Cabaret Valentine's Day Love Fest; Romantic Getaways; More

By Ellis Nassour on February 13, 2009 12:00 AM

Drama Desk, OBIE and Lortel Award-winning Classical Theatre of Harlem, now in it's 10th season, salutes Black History Month with a work considered to be one of our greatest plays. The story offers audiences the opt to consider the spiritual paralysis that keeps us from pursuing our dreams, the feeling of unfulfilled lives and the longing for meaning in daily pursuits.

The result is an uncanny blend of the painful and trivial, the ordinary and the catastrophic. In fact, conventional boundaries between comedy and tragedy are deliberately blurred, and things are seldom what they seem in Checkhov's Three Sisters.

Checkhov? Three Sisters? Classical Theatre of Harlem? Why not?

Scheduled to run through March 8, the production is directed by company co-founder Christopher McElroen, no stranger to Chekhov. He helmed the company's acclaimed produciton of The Cherry Orchard [not to mention Waiting for Godot and their multiple OBIE Award-winning production of The Blacks].

TTS is the fourth Chekhov work this season, joining BAM's Cherry Orchard [directed by Sam Mendes], Classic Stage Company's Uncle Vanya [starring Tony winner Denis O'Hare as Vanya, Maggie Gyllenhaal as Yelena and Peter Sarsgaard as Astrov] and Broadway's The Seagull [which starred Kristin Scott Thomas].

The 14-member cast of The Three Sisters includes Reg E. Cathey [The Wire], Earle Hyman [original production, Anna Lucasta; numerous others; The Cosby Show ], Billy Eugene Jones [Passing Strange, Raisin in the Sun], Carmen de Lavallade, Sabrina LeBeauf [Cosby Show] and Roger Guenveur Smith [stage,TV's A Huey P. Newton Story],

Performances of TTS are at Harlem Stage Gatehouse [150 Convent Avenue at West 135th Street]. Tickets are $40 and available at the box office, by calling (212) 281-9240 X. 19/20 or online at www.HarlemStage.org. For more information, visit www.classicaltheatreofharlem.org.

Paley Center CTOF Reading

Tamara Tunie [Law & Order:SVU], Carmen De Lavallade, Zainah Jah and NoshirDalal from the Classical Theatre of Harlem will present a reading of Arnold Rabin's Queen of Thebes on March 23 at 7 P.M. at the Paley Center for Media [25 West 52nd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues]. CTOF A.D. Alfred Preisser will direct this new play focusing on Queen Jocasta. Following the 90-minute reading, there will be a Q&A. Admission is free for Paley Center members and $10 for non-members. To reserve, go to www.paleycenter.org.

CD Salutes Black History Month

In celebration of Black History Month, Sony Classical has released Lift Every Voice - Honoring The African American Musical Legacy [2 discs; SRP $19], an anthology of seminal performances of more than 60 years of recordings by legendary black artists in the fields of classical, gospel, spirituals, pop, blues and jazz.

The roster includes Harry Belafonte, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin, Dizzy Gillespie, Mahalia Jackson, Wynton Marsalis, Johnny Mathis, Nina Simone, Luther Vandross and Nancy Wilson. Also included are selections by famed opera divas Marian Anderson, Kathleen Battle, Jessye Norman and Leontyne Price and the legendary Paul Robeson.

The CD is the second in the Carnegie Hall Presents series of recordings featuring historic live and studio performances. It's being released in conjunction with Carnegie Hall's Honor! A Celebration of the African American Cultural Legacy, a city-wide festival curated by Ms. Norman and running through March 23. For information on Honor!, visit: www.carnegiehall.org/honor.

Jerome Robbins Remembered

No other creative figure of the latter 20th Century was as contradictory as Jerome Robbins, and few were as controversial. As difficult a taskmaster as he could be, he was beloved by his dancers. Robbins was a master of the Broadway musical, transforming its possibilities with such works as West Side Story, Gypsy and Peter Pan, and was one of our greatest ballet choreographers.

Thirteen/WNET's American Masters profiles this complex mid-century artist in Jerome Robbins: Something to Dance About, premiering February 18 at 9 P.M. Directed and produced by six-time Emmy-winner Judy Kinberg and written by Robbins biographer Amanda Vaill, the two-hour film is narrated by Ron Rifkin, who performed the roles of both Robbins and his father in a workshop production of the director/choreographer's theatrical autobiography, The Poppa Piece.

The doc features excerpts from Robbins' personal journals, archival performance footage and never-before-seen rehearsal recordings, as well as interviews with Robbins, Baryshnikov; Jacques d'Amboise; Suzanne Farrell; Arthur Laurents; Peter Martins; Chita Rivera; Sondheim; and Robbins' Fiddler collaborators Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick and Joseph Stein.

"Robbins' remarkable body of work redefined dance and musical theater for a contemporary audience," says A.M. exec producer Susan Lacy. "The upcoming revival of West Side Story validates his lasting importance, his lasting impression. This film is a tribute to Robbin' genius on the 90th anniversary of his birth."

Parsons Contributes

At the recent Theater Hall of Fame inductions, THOF member, Oscar and Drama Desk winner and four-time Tony nom Estelle Parsons, speaking with an acquaintance who informed her he was about to journey into the bowels of Asia to work for several weeks with Mother Teresa's order, the Missionaries of Charity, at an orphanage.

Parsons became very silent, then blurted, "Isn't that wonderful! And what am I doing? Appearing in a Broadway play!"

Of course, it's not just any Broadway play but Tracey Letts' Pulitizer, Tony and DD-winning combustible August: Osage County, where she's co-starring as the death-defying, fierce Violet Weston [the role Deanna Dunagan created to Tony and DD acclaim].

The acquaintance replied, "Estelle, you're making a contribution. You're scaring the hell out of audiences eight times a week. No matter how bad their families are, you're getting them to appreciate what they have!"

How true! If your special someone isn't quite into you yet, seeing this play will do the trick. Comparing you to what's onstage, you'll be highly regarded.

So what better place to show and share love with loved ones than at A:OC with the family that gives dysfunction a new definition: Violet; Mattie Fae, Charlie and Little Charles; Ivy; Karen; Barbara, Bill and their little demon Jean; and every parent's worst nightmare Steve?

The stakes and histronics have, no doubt, gotten higher at A:OC with the recent arrival of Elizabeth Ashley in the role of Mattie Fae.

You Don't Have to Go Far to Celebrate Valentine's Day in Style

So she/he's just not that into you? That can all change with the right moves this weekend. Saturday is Big Love Day for the one you're into or want to be into.

If you're already with that special someone, don't forget Valentine's Day - the works: flowers, chocolates, andy, dinner, theater, weekend escape, love-you-forever card - or, for the next few months, you'll be in the dog house!

The U.S. may be the only nation that spends as much money on Valentine's Day as we do on Mother's Day. And, hey, Mom can be that special someone!

Broadway Love

Some astrologers say that on Valentine's Day the moon will be in the Seventh House and Jupiter will be aligned with Mars - other astrologers we know say it's later in the week, but what the hey, so come Saturday we will be in the Age of Aquarius! The tribe from that tribal rock love musical Hair will be onstage celebrating free-love and abandon beginning next month at the Hirschfeld.

Basada en la clásica historia de amor Romeo y Julieta, West Side Story se desarrolla en las calles de la parte Alta de Manhattan donde Maria y Tony se enamoran. Las funciones comienzan el día 23 de Febrero en el Teatro Palace.

Love, the kind you find in an instant across a crowded room on some enchanted evening, is being celebrated by Nellie, Emile, Joe and Liat in Lincoln Center Theatre's sumptuous, award-winning revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific, where the Seebees seemingly are in constant lust.

There's all kinds of love on Broadway. You've heard of puppy love, well, there's a lot of puppet love at long-running, Tony-winning Avenue Q, wet love on dry land in The Little Mermaid and adulturous love in Chicago. Look is easy to find in Billy Elliott, Guy and Dolls, In the Heights, Jersey Boys, The Lion King where you can feel the love, Mamma Mia!, Pal Joey, Shrek and don't forget the Phantom and Christine.

Cabaret Love

Lisa Asher:

The Laurie Beechman Theatre within the West Bank Café will again celebrate love on Valentine's Day night with a concert that's become tradition these last five years. Their romantic evening includes a three-course dinner and the passionate, rich vocal stylings of MAC, Bistro and Nightlife Award-winner [for Stranded in the Moonlight] Lisa Asher.

Asher's eclectic musical tastes range range from Rodgers and Hammerstein, with songs from Cinderella, Rodgers and Hart and Cole Porter ["Love for Sale"] to Janis Ian and Mary Chapin Carpenter. "My Valentine's Day show isn't just about love and romance per se," says Asher, who'll undoubtedly display her acclaimed belt, "but I encourage singles and wanna-be-couples to attend."

There'll be plenty of love onstage as Asher's music director is husband Jeff Waxman.

Asher recently returned from Colorado where she co-starred in Almost Heaven ... Songs and Stories of John Denver at the Denver Theatre Center Company. For Lisa Asher CDs and more information, visit www.LisaAsher.com.

The house opens at 6:30 for drinks and dinner. Showtime is 7:30. Reservations are recommended since this show has sold-out in the past. Package price is $65, with show-only tkts for $25 plus $15 food/beverage minimum. Call (212) 695-6909.

Shelly Burch:

Returning to the spotlight after 20 years, Shelly Burch plans to sing her heart out in Second Coming, February 25 - March 2 at the Metropolitan Room. She says her show "takes a look at the many aspects of love - from the exciting first moments to the choices a woman makes confronting marriage/career/children and the calm that comes with fulfilling love."

Directed/written by husband Martin Charnin [Annie, Two by Two], it will feature songs by Vernon Duke, Ira Gershwin, Jule Styne and Maury Yeston. Additional material has been written by musical director Keith Levenson.

After triumphs in Stop the World..., Annie, Nine [original Claudia] and an eight-year stint on One Life to Live [as the evil Delila], Burch relocated, married and had a family. Singing remained a passion and she did concerts and theater. Single again, she reunited personally and professionally with Charnin, her Annie lyricist/director.

Admission is $30 plus two-drink minimum. Reserve at (212) 206-0440.

Romantic Getaways

There's no shortage of Valentine Day or romantic weekend getaways right in our midst or very close by. Nothing could be more romantic than a stroll around and through the Cloisters, any number of galleries at the Met and MOMA, a ride on the Staten Island ferry as dusk approaches, those Poconos heart-shaped bed and tubs [not to mention Champagne glass baths] or, the granddaddy of all romantic spots, Niagara Falls.

Then, only 90 miles North and a step back in time, there's magnificent Mohonk Mountain House [a Historic Hotel of America] at New Paltz, celebrating its 140th anniversary in one of the most awesome setttings imaginable. Mohonk is said to be an old Native American word for "lake in the sky." This is a very apt name; for once you discover this hidden jewel of rustic elegance nestled along a half-mile lake and the mountains, you'll go back again and again. It's still family-owned [the Smileys] and famous for its service, over-sized rooms, huge hearths and antique furniture. There's no end to the list of activities: fitness center, rock climbing, boating, tennis, golf, fishing, horseback riding, winter skiing, biking, hiking, nature walks. In season, there's swimming in the lake along a sandy beach. Amenities also include outdoor heated mineral pool, indoor pool and a spa with a solarium. In addition to meals in the cavernous dining hall, there's afternoon tea. For more information, visit www.mohonk.com.

On and Off the Boardwalk in Atlantic City

The many temptations and vices of Atlantic City are also close by [two to two-and-a-half hours] via Amtrak ACES Express Service, Academy Bus and Greyhound. What happens in A.C., stays in A.C. - just make sure you tell your friends to remain tightlipped.

There's no better time than now for cupid to book a weekend getaway or spa rendezvous in Atlantic City.

Remember when they just weren't that into you and only wanted you to gamble. Not anymore! The city is repositioning itself as a world-class vacation destination, so just come. Of course, the casinos pray you'll drop a few bucks on the tables or slots.

A.C. today isn't mother's A.C. The options range from deluxe rooms with wide-screen TVs, marble shower stalls accommodating two to six [I know!], wi-fi and iPod docking stations.

Food options run the gamut from milk shakes and hamburgers to health salads and stir-fry [in a casino? You betcha!; and that's in the upscale Borgata's Cafeteria food court] and lavish buffets to star chef restaurants. Each casino has numerous high-end restaurtants. Homesick, try the A.C. outposts of some NY dining establishments, such as Old Homestead [Borgata], Patsy's [Hilton], Carmine's and the Palm [Tropicana] and Morton's [Caesars].

Want to chow down - pardon me, I mean dine with a fav chef, try Wolfgang Puck's and Bobby Flay's at Borgata.

Since A.C. is about half way between NYC and Phily, you can expect several tastes of Philadelphia's fine restaurants, such as George Perrier [Le Bec Fin] and Chris Scarduzio's smashing Mia at Caesars.

There are two outstanding restaurants at Taj: Safari Steakhouse and, for Indian, Royal Albert's Palace. At Harrah's, in addition to one of the city's best buffets, there's the super elegant Steakhouse that should be renamed Steak and Seafood House. There's every imaginable cut of meat, and also a wide array of seafood [you may leave saying you've never seen shrimp as large as theirs - they give jumbo new meaning]. And if seafood's your thing, try McCormack & Schmick's.

Tired of snobby door policies at Manhattan bottle clubs? A.C. has more high-end bottle clubs where you can dance your bootie off 'til dawn in one boardwalk block than Manhattan has in one mile. And they're friendly! Try Borgata's mur.mur and mixx, Harrah's The Pool and Resorts' Boogie Nights. For info on all the joints that are jumpin', go to www.atlanticcitynightlife.com.

Move over salt water taffy! A.C. can boast of the number of luxurating, pamering spas. We're not talking a little dip in a Jacuzzi and a pat-on-the-back massage. No sir/ma'am. We're talking the Qua Baths at Caesars, inspired by the jaw-dropping, dripping-wet Roman Baths at Caesars Las Vegas, Elizabeth Arden Red Door at Harrah's, the Borgata's Toccare [where The Pump Room, their macho workout center, has the gall to charge guests to use it] and the W.C.'s high-end, high-up Immersion.

There's no shortage of entertainers appearing, either, at Caesars superstar Circus Maximus [the Gypsy Kings, this weekend], Harrah's Concert Venue, Taj's Estes Arena, Resorts Superstar Theatre [Howie Mandell] and the list goes on. Just this weekend at Borgata's Music Box and Event Center, there's Hall & Oates, Aaron Lewis and that evil, hilarious Queen of XXX-Rated Comedy Lisa Lampanella. Speaking of the B, weeknights, guests get free admission to the Comedy Show, with a line-up of three comics. Recently, comedienne Sherry Davey had the audience rolling on the floor with laughter at her home-grown quips - and, lo and behold, there wasn't a four-letter word in her entire act. For casino shows and megastar appearances at Boardwalk Hall, visit. www.acweekly.com and click on casinos.

And then there's the blues - the House of Blues, that is, at Showboat, which will be in a festive Mardi Gras mode beginning this weekend. In addition to entertainment and a bar that gives "full service" new meaning, HOB A.C. is home to one of the chain's stunning high end restaurants, the Foundation Room, decorated in to-die-for lush Moroccan and kinky decor.

Remember when suites were reserved for high rollers? Not anymore. With the new economy, comes a change in attitude. Welcome to a wonderful world of suites, with some that defy your fantasy imagination and others reaching the height of elegance. And they don't want you to come alone. Bring friends, family. Book a reunion, a bachelorette. Showboat recently introduced HOB's kinky, large, well-appointed [and not at all like what you might expect], multi-level, surprisingly reasonably-priced suites. The rates for standard rooms have been slashed across the board in A.C. There are also some great package deals that include breakfast and a spa visit.

Pools, anyone? Can't get into the pool at the Gansevoort or belly up to the wet bar at Room Mate's Grace's pool? Not to worry, just dive in in Atlantic City! Pools are a plenty and not your mother's swimming pool either! At Borgata, you have a stunning Olympic-size pool with adjoining Jacuzzi, but over in their sister hotel [no gaming], the very chic Water Club, you can choose from five pools [three, this time of year], with one up, up, up on the 32nd floor with a view to die for. Harrah's magnificent pool under the dome is not only a swimming hole but a tropical resort in itself. By nightfall, when everyone has dried off, it transforms into Party Central.

Shopping, anyone? Almost every casino has high-end, over-priced designer boutiques. Chances are you can find what you're looking for much cheaper at The Walk, four-square-blocks of 40 + chain-store outlets, between Atlantic and Baltic Avenues. If they make it, it's here - along with a variety of restaurants, including a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse.

One side trip from The Walk has to be a visit to the very simple White House, within walking distance, which is world-famous for their subs and the waitresses' attitude.

Along the boardwalk, in addition to taffy and corn dogs, you can actually find fun stuff, collectibles and objects d'arte.

Across from Caesars are The Pier Shops, 78 high-end and specialty stores and seven feature restaurants - including Buddakan, with it's giant golden Budda, The Continental and Phillips Seafood. From the third floor food court, with many reasonably-priced options, there are spectacular ocean views. Highlights of the pier are a free dancing waters/light/sound show and, on Three, a [free!] sand "seashore" with replicas of those great, large seaside chairs where you can sit and watch the waves roll in and the sunset.

If you forgot to bring the chocolates, not to worry. There's terrific fudge all along the boardwalk and, if you want to really impress, visit Harrah's incredibly edible Jacques Torres chocolate factory Tempations.

NYC is famed for the neon glitter of Times Square, and now A.C. has something that would make even IMAX a bit envious: the world's LED light display The Experience that plays nightly on the entire 44 floors of Harrah's new Waterfront Tower, the tallest building in the city [over 525 feet high] and the second tallest in the state. There's 33,000 linear feet of LED lighting - roughly six and a quarter miles - and over a million and a half color combinations. It's visible for a 10-mile radius.

Leslie Uggams, Celebrating 50 Years in Show Business, Portrays Lena Horne and Looks Younger than Springtime

By Ellis Nassour on February 11, 2009 12:00 AM

Pasadena, CA - Stormy weather or not, the sun seems to always come out for Leslie Uggams. Seeing and hearing her onstage at the Pasedena Playhouse in Stormy Weather, you might be surprised to find out she's celebrating over 50 years in show business. Like the subject of the musical revue, she simply seems ageless.

Seeing her channel [the older] Lena Horne in this loosely biographical musical based on the life of the legendary songstress and star of MGM movie musicals, you can't help but be impressed with the timbre of the Tony and Emmy Award winner's voice and the youthful beauty she exudes.

You'd never guess it but, come May, she'll be 66. Looking back on over a quarter century of memories, she discusses her ups and downs.

After a New York workshop and Phily "preview," audience response and reviews here have been riding high. The show broke P.P. box office records with $330,000 in advance single ticket sales.

"Philadelphia was the opportunity to get the show on it's feet and see what we had," says Uggams. "The production team is made up of all the top designers from Broadway, so we were very blessed in that aspect. I'm happy to report the audiences have gone crazy over it. In the end, that's the most important thing."

Suggested by the biography Lena Horne, now 91, S. W. is conceived and written by Sharleen Cooper Cohen and filled with musical gems from the Porter, Arlen and Mercer, Rodgers and Hart and Strayhorn songbooks.

Co-starring are triple Tony nom Dee Hoty as Kay Thompson [who's enjoying a huge revival of interest], Nikki Crawford as the younger Ms. Horne.

Michael Bush, former A.D. of the Manhattan Theatre Club, directs the cast of 16. Choreography is by Tony and DD nom Randy Skinner. Linda Twine is music director, with costume design by Martin Pakledinaz.

"As a long time fan of the iconic Lena Horne, it's a great honor to have that lady and her music presented on our stage," says Pasadena Playhouse A.D. Sheldon Epps. "I'm a huge admirer of our trio of leading ladies. It's been my pleasure to work with Leslie and Nikki many times and I welcome Dee to our stage with great enthusiasm. Our audiences are the lucky recipients of all of this theatrical and musical magic."

S.W. is a musical but it doesn't shortchange the racial challenges Ms. Horne faced upon marrying "white," to MGM musical director, composer and arranger Lennie Hayton.

A great deal of the Lena Horne story parallels Leslie Uggams' story, especially her marriage to Australian Grahame Pratt. "There are similarities," Uggams admits, "but not that many. We faced a lot of the same prejudices, but I started out as a kid. Lena got her first stage job at 16. Her parents were on the move a lot and I had quite a stable upbringing born and raised in New York."

Uggams was the ultimate Horne fan. "Anytime she was in a musical, I went to the theater. When she was in a movie, I was there. I think my parents got tired of me always talking about Lena!, Lena!, Lena!"

With glamour, grace and an inner fire that blazed a trail for generations, the legendary Lena Horne never failed to amaze. Though best known as an actress, she took the music industry by storm. She didn't face the same challenges on record as she did with her films. MGM studio chief Louis B. Mayer broke taboos by featuring Horne in the studio's big musicals.

Due to the racial climate in the 40s and early 50s, some theatres in the South deleted her scenes. She wasn't the black stereotype all too often seen in film at that time. Horne was light-skinned, stunningly beautiful and very sexy. She could embrace a poignant ballad but she could also cut loose in the style of Ella Fitzgerald.

MGM also crafted all-black musicals with Horne as star. On screen, record and in concert and later on TV, her voice resonated throughout the decades with hits, now classics, such as "From This Moment On," "The Lady Is a Tramp," "They'll Be Some Changes Made," "Can't Help Lovin' That Man O' Mine," "Come Rain or Come Shine" and, of course, "Stormy Weather"; and also through her determination to fight for what she believed.

Though in a much more low-key way, so did Uggams. She also had champions, white and black, who believed in her and felt her talent trumped racial barriers.

As she proved on Bway in King Hedley II, as Ethel Thayer in the revival of On Golden Pond [opposite James Earl Jones] and in the recent blistering revival of Leslie Lee's semi-autobiographical The First Breeze of Summer at Off Bway's Signature, Uggams doesn't have a problem playing older. The challenge is getting audiences to believe she's older.

In the role of Gremmar, the beloved matriarch of a modern black family "movin' on up" who's revealed to have had a shady past, Uggams was padded and wigged to look in her 80s, but she simply didn't look old. "All I can say," she announces, "is that it must be something in the genes."

Uggams says that Stormy Weather "takes audiences on the full journey, the stormy times and the extraordinary ones. But here the older Lena doesn't just sit and reminisce and observe her younger self as Gremmar did, she's out there and very much a part of everything."

The above plays weren't the first time Uggams made audiences feel she'd found the fountain of youth.

In Thoroughly Modern Millie, you waited an hour for her entrance. But what an entrance! The set parted and there was Uggams [replacing Sheryl Lee Ralph mid run], as 20s vamp Muzzie Van Hossmere wearing a jaw-dropping white fox coat. When she threw that coat open with great abandon, it was as if time stopped. In that sequin-studded, tight-fitting black, white and silver dress, she looked as she did 30 years ago.

The role of Lena Horne is tailor-made for Uggams even if it wasn't specifically written for her. She won the right to portray her idol over some pretty big names.

"It's a great role and Leslie's great in it," says choreographer Skinner. "The best news is that she still has a great set of pipes! She loves to sing, and you can tell."

Has the show changed since Phily? "Michael has done some tweeks and fixes here and there. As far as the choreography, it's basically the same. There's a wide range of dance sensibilities."

These and the songs take Lena from the chorus of the Cotton Club in the 30s through the swing era to the soundstages of MGM, her blacklisting for being tagged a Communist sympathizer to her ultimate "comeback" in her brilliant and often searing 1981 one-woman show on Broadway, The Lady and Her Music. It not only ran for 333 performances and won Horne a special Tony award but also still holds the record for the longest-running solo performance in Broadway history.

"Lena's life wasn't all roses and honeydew," states Uggams, "but a lot of people don't know that."

Stormy Weather tells Lena Horne's story in a nonextravaganza extravagant way. "We don't have those gigantic fantasty sets that took over the MGM soundstages," reports Skinner. "In fact, we don't have any big chorus numbers. It's mainly trios and duets. The numbers are all Lena's hits, so there's great music to work with."

Skinner, who has been hailed as the King of Tap Choreography has created a tap production number for the stand-in for the famed Nicholas Brothers, who in S.W. are called Bones and Jones.

How does Leslie Uggams keep those "pipes" so pristine? "I just respect it and take care of it," she proudly replies.

They've been her prime asset for some time.

Uggams, seemingly, has done it all: best-selling recording artist, ground-breaking TV star, Vegas headliner, concert tours, daytime TV, stage drama and musicals. She's been nominated for Tony and Drama Desk Awards. In fact, Uggams has even been a cover girl - TV Guide and Newsweek.

She grew up in a four-room apartment in Washington Heights. Her father was a singer, elevator operator and maintenance man; her mother, a waitress and Cotton Club chorus girl. "We had a modest but stable life," she says, "where somehow my parents always made ends meet."

Early on, Uggams was exposed to music. Her father was a member of the Hall Johnson Choir - "but," she points out, "in their pre-movie days."

As a tot, Uggams sang along to records, impressing family and their friends with a remarkably mature voice. At age six, Uggams made her "professional" debut, singing in church. Tap lessons led to appearances on NBC's Milton Berle show. At 10, she had best-selling records, such as "Missus Santa Claus," "Every Little Piggy Has a Curly Tail" and "Easter Bunny Days." Soon, she was opening for Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald and Dinah Washington. In 1951, she made her acting debut on TV's landmark Beulah.

"I played Ethel Waters' niece and the producers wanted my hair in 'pickaninny' braids," she recalls. "Miss Waters said, "Absolutely not! You see the way her hair is now. She has beautiful curls. That's how it is going to be on the show.' I was impressed with her even at six years old. She invited my mother and me to see her in Member of the Wedding. It was an extraordinary performance and made quite an impact on me."

[Trivia: Dooley Wilson, Sam in Casablanca, was Uggams' boyfriend in her Beulah appearance; and Uggams and Brandon De Wilde, who played John Henry in Member of the Wedding were friends in elementary and high school.]

Her first Broadway show was Porgy and Bess. "I was enthralled by Leontyne Price, William Warfield, Cab Calloway and my aunt Eloise Uggams [Blackbirds of 1929] in the ensemble and that incredible Gershwin music. That's when the bug bit!" She says that her aunt wanted her to study opera "and become another Marian Anderson, but I wasn't leaning that way."

After third grade, Uggams attended Professional Children's School, where she became friends with Mary Martin's daughter Helen "and got to see tons of Broadway shows." Soon, she was "going to auditions. I got lots of kiddie roles. I grew up with Gregory and Maurice Hines. We were the token black kids."

At 14, she won $25,000 as a contestant on Name That Tune. She laughs, "The excitement in the neighborhood was like in the movies when everyone opens their windows and shout the news!"

In 1961, while studying at Julliard, Uggams got the break that made her a household name. Bandleader Mitch Miller broke color-barrier taboos and cast her on his weekly Sing Along with Mitch. When stations in the South complained and refused to air the show, Miller held his ground. "Mitch was told either I go or the show goes," reports Uggams. "He said, 'She stays or there's no show.' He loved that show, and had been trying to sell it for years, so to do that was heroic."

The South soon fell and "it seemed the world embraced me. When I went to Australia, where the show was very popular, and walked off the plane and saw the crowds I thought, 'Oh, my God, I must be a rock star!'"

She went Down Under to play a club date and left with a tall, handsome Aussie following her back to the States. Uggams and Graham Pratt married in 1965. He's now her manager.

Uggams' infectious smile and vocal talent made her America's sweetheart. Sammy Davis, Jr., whom she "fell madly in love with when I saw him on Broadway in Golden Boy," said in an interview: "Everybody identifies with Leslie. She's bridged a very important space. The first great step has happened with her."

TV stardom came at a price. "Being an African American performer on TV," she says, "was a great honor but also a heavy load. A lot was expected of me." In 1963, "when I was finally able to vote!, I was invited by President Kennedy to sing at the White House!" [She later did a command performance for President George H.W. Bush].

In the late 60s, Uggams starred in her own variety series. Slotted opposite Bonanza, it lasted only a season.

Uggams found it all frustrating. She was singing, singing, singing, "but, more than anything, I wanted to act. No one realized I'd been studying since I was eight. All through my teens."

That dream became a reality when she starred out West in The Boyfriend. "My notices were wonderful," says Uggams, "and word filtered back to New York where gossip was spreading that Lena Horne had bowed out of a show and David Merrick was looking for a leading lady."

Appearing in Atlantic City, Uggams suddenly found "all these Broadway folks coming to check me out. Then I got a call to audition. While I was reading, Mr. Merrick fell asleep. I thought, 'I'm never going to get this part.' But, next thing I knew, he was out and there were new producers. And I got the part."

That was 1967's Hallelujah, Baby!, a cavalcade of African-Americana from the turn of the 20th Century to the late 60s with music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Adolph Green and Betty Comden and book by Arthur Laurents. "I was 23 and on Broadway in a show written by legends. I couldn't believe it." She won the Tony.

Then there was playing Kizzy in one of TV's biggest hits, 1976's TV mini-series Roots. "That was extraordinary. Getting to know Alex Haley was thrilling." The role won her an Emmy nomination for Best Leading Actress.

Other career highlights: the short-lived, much under appreciated musical Her First Roman [1968] as Cleopatra and Jerry's Girls [1985] with Dorothy Loudon and Chita Rivera. She appears in Rick McKay's Broadway:The Golden Age...

Uggams says she's "fortunate that things seem to naturally come my way. It helps that I'm receptive to the right projects. So many talented actresses have had a difficult time, I consider myself blessed that in every decade to be doing something exciting."

And it's been a good, exciting life. "I wasn't denied anything by being in show business. I feel just the opposite. I look at what it's given me. One thing it did was save me from being a thug. I lived in a tough neighborhood! Back then, I had no idea I'd ever be in such a wonderful place and still doing what I love most: theater.

"I love going out to a different audience every show and having to win them over," she says. "It's deliver or else. You're up there with no place to go. You're challenged every performance. When the light hits me, the adrenaline is pumping like a biggest Texas oil well. But, I have to admit, doing it eight times a week for months, it's not a job for sissies!"

The featured cast of Stormy Weather includues Tony Award-winner Cleavant Derricks, Tony nom Robert Torti as Lennie Hayton, Kevyn Morrow as Billy Strayhorn and, in a variety of roles, including respectively, MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer and MGM musicals unit chief Arthur Freed, Bruce Katzman and Michael Scott.

What next for Stormy Weather? "We're hoping there'll be a recording," says Uggams, "because audiences are going crazy for the songs. Of course, the goal is to bring the show to Broadway, where we know there can be an audience. But hope springs eternal, especially these days. We know what the economy's like. But we're not a Shrek/$25-million musical. This is a little show.

"Still, times are tough for everyone," she continues. "Theater will definitely be affected. I picked up the paper again today and, as I'm reading the news, once again I said, 'Oh, my God!' California has really taken a beating. That's all the more reason to be amazed at our wonderful box office. None of us expected this type of response. Let's just hope things improve and quickly."

The world prem of S. W. was produced at Phily's Prince Music Theater in 2007. The original New York workshop was presented by Amas Musical Theater in 2003.

Stormy Weather, barring an extension, plays through March 1 at the Pasadena Playhouse [39 South El Molino Avenue]. Tickets are $48 - $78 and are available at the box office, by calling (626) 356-7529, and online at www.Pasadenaplayhouse.org.

[For those in the L.A. area, Leslie Uggams will give an intimate glimse into her life and career with "a candid and lively conversation" tonight a the Pasadena Playhouse courtyard. This inaugural event of their 2009 Conversation with ... series begins at 7:30 P.M. Sheldon Epps will moderate. There will be entertainment from 6:30.]

Chenoweth and Sills Encores! Standouts; A Train Broadway Bound; Liza Scores Again; Channing and Plimpton Sizzle; Blithe Spirit; New Allegro; Broadway Extreme Makeover; Broadway Jukebox; More

By Ellis Nassour on February 6, 2009 12:00 AM

We don't hear a lot of Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein. But if that dynamo diva Kristin Chenoweth and dashing tenor Douglas Sills sang their songs more often, seats would be filled as they were way back in 1932 at the Alvin, now the Neil Simon, where the composers' Music in the Air operetta roused audiences for 342 performances.

Not a lot of excitement emerged when City Center Encores! announced the operetta as part of its 2009 season. There was a buzz after initial casting then, due to life-interrupted circumstances, changes had to be made. Tony winner and Drama Desk nom Chenoweth was aboard, joining absent-from-the-stage-much-too-long Tony and DD nom Sills.

Co-starring are Sierra Boggess [on leave from The Little Mermaid], Ryan Silverman, Tony and DD winner Dick Latessa and Walter Charles were announced in lead and featured roles. Then, after another life-interrupted circumstance, Marni "Voice of Voices" Nixon joined the company.

The musical romance, under the direction of Garry Griffin [The Color Purple] and musical direction of Rob Berman, combines sharp comedy and elegance the way Ernst Lubitsch did in his films. But Music in the Air came along just as operetta had fallen out of favor and was written as a bit of a spoof of the genre. It also broke new ground in the heavy use of extended huge choral numbers and also underscoring. It appears David Ives has contemporazed Hammerstein's book [maybe a little too much] because some of the humor as presented here just wouldn't have been acceptable back then.

If Kern and Hammerstein aren't enough, you have the brilliant orchestrations by Robert Russell Bennett [South Pacific, so many more], a cast of nearly 40 [just like the good old days] and the 28-member Encores! orchestra. The score and orchestrations have been meticulously restored by Bruce Pomahac of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization.

Four performances remain: tonight at 8, tomorrow at 2 and 8 and Sunday at 6:30.

Music in the Air is the story of young Bavarian singer Sieglinde [Boggess] who goes to Munich with her boyfriend [Silverman] on a lark and ends up being groomed for stardom in a theater company by a lothario librettist [Sills], who when not [hilariously] preening in front of mirrors is feuding with his opera diva and live-in "fiance" of nearly a decade, Frieda Hatzfeld [Chenoweth]. The show has charm but is terribly outdated; however when Chenoweth and Sills go at it, egos clash and claws flair in Kiss Me, Kate fashion.

It's no surprise that Chenoweth and Sills, as the long-suffering couple know how to command a stage, but their chemistry in MITA is WOW! Chenoweth and then she and Sills score in Act One with the comic "I Am So Eager." In Act Two, Chenoweth has a poignant moment with "I'm Alone." Near the end of the act, Sills soars singing "The Song Is You" to Boggess, then when he and Chenoweth [now in one of her trademark ultra low cut fully and quite revealing gowns] duet on the classic song, the dome lifts off the Arabesque temple to the arts.

Boggess and Ryan Silverman have their moment, too, with another classic "I've Told Every Little Star," which, undoubtedly you'll go up the aisle humming since it's reprised and reprised. Encore! Encore! Other songs include: "And Love Was Born," " "Night Flies By," "One More Dance," "We Belong Together" and "When Spring Is in the Air."

Nixon, winning a huge ovation from the audience, Joy Hermalyn in a cameo as Frieda's maid [and who knows how to milk slapstick] and Sella as the orchestra leader have memorable turns.

Tickets are $25-$95 and available at the City Center box office, through CityTix (212) 581-1212 and online at www.nycitycenter.org.

Hop the A Train

The critically acclaimed [12 DD noms, an Olivier nom] LAByrinth Theater Company, the multicultural collective whose mission is to produce plays reflecting the many voices of New York, plans to revive Stephen Adly Guirguis' Jesus Hopped the A Train , blisteringly set at Rikers Island, next season on Broadway, according to John Gould Rubin, the troupe's co-artistic and exec director. Guirguis also wrote the highly acclaimed In Arabia, We'd All Be Kings.

The 2000 Off Bway play was directed by Oscar and Golden Globe winner and Tony and DD nom [as actor and director] and LAB'S co-artistic director Philip Seymour Hoffman, who's expected to helm the controversial play in its main stem bow. In its Off Bway run it played for one month. Hoffman is Oscar-nominated for Best Actor for last year's Doubt.

Ben Brantley wrote in the New York Times in 2000, " In this probing, intense portrait of lives behind bars . . . the road to redemption isn't just paved with obstacles. In absolute terms, it probably doesn't even exist."

Liza

She's not at the Palace anymore, but $19.98.the buzz of her performance of a lifetime still rings among fans. She was at Barnes & Noble, Lincoln Triangle, on Wednesday to launch her live two-disc CD [Hybrid Records] of the Palace show. Her less than timid fans began lining up in frigid temps and snow outside the store at 3 A.M. in order to be among the first to get a wristband and purchase the album.

By 6 P.M., B&N had to call in extra security. There was a turnaway crowd, but over 150 got to experience Liza live [while more than another 100 got to just hear her] sing Kander and Ebb's "And the World Goes Round," Aznavour's "What Makes a Man a Man?", the original tune "I Would Never Leave You" and, accompanied by "my boys" [Cortes Alexander, Jim Caruso, Tiger Martina and Johnny Rodgers], "I Love a Violin," from her second act tribute to her godmother, film star and MGM vocal arranger/music director/vocal coach Kay Thompson.

Oscar, Tony, Grammy, Golden Globe winner and DD nom Liza was accompanied by her long-time friend and Palace pianist/musical supervisor Billy Stritch.

The CD, produced by Phil Ramone contains 16 songs and the Palace medley sequence that is a tribute to Minnelli's mom. The tracks, of course, include two of her other signature K&E standards, "Cabaret" and "New York, New York."

Minnelli stayed longer than planned to sign every CD purchased. She also posed for photos. Onstage, taking questions, she displayed her famous sense of humor. When a young woman exclaimed, "I've loved you all my life," Ms. Z retorted, "How old are you? Eight?" The woman confessed she was a ripe, old 22. Another daringly asked, "Would you ever get married again?" Liza shouted, "Are you nuts?"

Her response to "What's your secret for staying so young?" was "I keep moving!" To that it might be added that Liza Minnelli also keeps moving us with her ebullience at age 63 [next month] and sheer, mad determination to keep going, going, going.

They Bewitch, Bewilder and Sizzle

Who would have expected Martha Plimpton and Stockard Channing would emerge as this season sex symbols? And both in the same show, Pal Joey.

Tony and DD nom Plimpton, often cast in dour roles, is a revelation as showgirl-with-an-attitude Gladys Bumps. Like a much later showgirl-with-attitude, Mazeppa, she really "stumps" it; alas, without a trumpet. She's not up there alone. She seems to be channeling Shelley Winters in her ultra sexy heyday, Mae West and Jean Harlow. The new adaptation of the Rodgers and Hart musical also gives Miss Bumps the opt to sing the showstopping "Zip."

Channing, turning 65 next week, in a scene with co-star hunk Matthew Risch tucked snug under her sheets, reveals a "hot mama" side totally unexpected for a woman of a certain age and one we haven't seen since her Rizzo of three decades ago. With that bod, do you think she's been spending a lot of time with pilates?

Divided opinion and body parts aside, director Joe Mantello, with his seamless segues, Graciela Daniel's choreography and Paul Gemignani's musical direction are also assests.

Everyone Needs a Little Spirit

Broadway welcomes the third revival of one of the most popular stage comedies of all-time when Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit begins previews February 26. Featuring a ghost, a love triangle, a medium, it stars Christine Ebersole, Angela Lansbury, Rupert Everett, Jayne Atkinson and Simon Jones.

Two-time Tony winner and three-time DD winner Michael Blakemore [Is He Dead? Copenhagen, Kiss Me, Kate revival, Noises Off] directs.

"At this time, with capitalism in a free fall, it's a good time to cheer people," says Blakemore with Cowardian understatement of the revival. "I hadn't read the play for years. I saw it when I was a kid, and not since. When I reread it, it seemed remarkably fresh. Of course, it's Coward. It was a dark time then, He knew what the public wanted."

Written in 1941, Blithe Spirit is one of a string of comedies Coward penned and which continue to be performed. His Present Laughter is slated for revival next season on Broadway.

Even Ms. Lansbury, who plays beloved fortune teller Madame Arcatti, was taken aback once - when she met Sir Noel. "I was awestruck," she smiles. "Awesome. I met him with Marlene Dietrich. They were dear friends. I have such admiration for the amount of work he managed to do. He was an actor. He wrote some of the most important stage works and films of that period."

"Blithe Spirit is one of the great, entertaining plays in the world of theater," offers Everett, who's making his Broadway debut. He's starred in film versions of two of Oscar Wilde's plays and find "many similarities between the two comic masters."

New Allegro

It's been over 60 years since Allegro opened on Broadway. It played over 300 performances but is considered one of Rodgers and Hammerstein's rare failures. It was the team's fourth musical and there was high anticipation and expectation. Ticket buyers lined down the block of the Majestic Theatre to get tkts. But it wasn't to be.

The musical many considered a sort of musical Our Town was controversial, some said even dull. It earned some raves, but was less than a R&H blockbuster. Hammerstein claimed he'd love to rewrite the second act - feeling audiences weren't getting the story. He also worried that the story of Everyman Joseph Taylor's journey from birth, high school, college, marriage, to becoming a country doctor and his infidelity closely mirrored his experiences.

Rodgers stated, "Of all the musicals I ever worked on that didn't quite succeed, Allegro is the one I think most worthy of a second chance."

Now the composers' dream is, in a manner of speaking, coming true courtesy of dedicated producers and a score restoration by the Rodgers and Hammerstein Org. The cast includes Laura Benanti, Judith Blazer, Maureen Brennan, Ashley Brown, Danny Burstein, Norbert Leo Butz, Liz Callaway, Harvey Evans, Nathan Gunn, Judy Kuhn, Audra McDonald; Kathy Morath, Marni Nixon, Kurt Peterson and Patrick Wilson.

Allegro challenged audiences with its unusual storytelling style and groundbreaking approach to musical staging. There were Agnes de Mille's extended ballets. Fragments of song were used as passing thoughts; and melodies flitting by in one scene didn't take hold until the next. It broke new ground, but divided audiences.

The opening night disasters didn't help: scenery fell, narrowly missing chorus members, a dancer's leg got caught in a moving dog track resulting in painful injury and his being carried offstage moaning and groaning. That was just Act One. After intermission, Lisa Kirk [Mack and Mabel], making her main stem debut, got bitten by another dog track and landed in the orchestra pit [real pro that she was even at that young age, she was back onstage in a heartbeat].

[Trivia: Sondheim was a production assistant on the show.]

In the 40s, it was rare for a Broadway score to have a full recording. Many felt R&H's score, presented in such and abstract way, wouldn't work on record. In addition, Act One had 29 song cues, with 15 in Act Two.

That idea has been challenged with the first complete recording of Allegro in a deluxe package [Sony Masterworks/Broadway; two discs, 100 minutes playing time; SRP $25], which is a musical theater lover's must have. It comes with an 80-page book of lyrics, original production stills, recording studio shots and extensive notes. It's produced by Larry Blank, Chapin, David Lai and Bruce Pomahac. Music direction is by Pomahac with Blank conducting a 50-piece orchestra, featuring Robert Russell Bennett's original orchestrations.

"I've long wanted to capture the score in a way that explains how the musical tapestry was conceived and get it as close as possible to the way the composers intended," R&H prez Chapin explains. "It has innovative qualities in the use of songs in dramatic ways and that it's almost all sung through. The stellar group we assembled is icing on the cake."

Broadway Fixer-upper

What's playin' at the Roxy? Nothin' anymore, but there's a whole lot going on at the Nederlander.

The theatre was allowed to become a low-rent wreck during the long run of Rent [in residence for 13 years]. Now that the denizens of the East Village have left [though they are touring and also on film], the Nederlander is getting an extreme makeover in prep for the beginning of previews tonight and in anticipation of a March 1 opening of the fifth revival of the classic Guys and Dolls.

Starring in the production are Craig Bierko as Sky Masterson, TVs Lauren Graham as Miss Adelaide, Kate Jennings Grant as Sister Sarah Brown,Oliver Platt as Nathan Detroit and Tituss Burgess as Nicely-Nicely. Directing is Des Mcanuff.

You may encounter a bit of sticker shock at the box office: the price of orchestra seats have skyrocketed to $126, plus facility fee. That just seems like the wrong direction to be going in during this financial crisis. If the show receives raves, maybe the show can command such a price; otherwise, there'll be some heavy discounting and good seats at the TKTS booth.

Among the featured cast is two-time Tony and four time DD nom Mary Testa as Salvation Army General Cartwright, Tony and DD nom dancer extraordinaire John Selya and Jim Walton [Sweeney Todd revival 1, Merrily We Roll Along].

The box office is open and previews begin tonight, even as a bevy of intense activity that, according to the Nederlander Theatre org, will leave no stone untouched. The work began on the 1,200-seat house as the Rent set was struck and was scheduled to take 10 weeks. Can this miracle renovation and restoration be accomplished in less than three weeks? More I cannot wish you. Luck be a lady tonight.

Nederlander VP James A. Boese [also prez of the League of Historic American Theatres] reported that new signage would go up, restrooms would be totally replaced, tech systems upgraded to state-of-the-art and the roof repaired after long neglect. He said that new seating, carpeting and wall and fixture paint would reflect the original 1921 decor of the venerable venue, which began life as a mill.

Originally the National, then the Trafalgar and later the Billy Rose, it debuted works by Albee, Hellman, Lerner and Loewe, O'Casey, Odets, Pinter, Stoppard, Welles and Williams. Among it's long-run hits was Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.

Jukebox Sunday Nights

Siegel Expands Empire, the headlines should read, but that's not the Siegel style. However, Scott Siegel's amazing ability to conceive vastly entertaining projects that haven't been mined in a while or really need to be mined again is mindboggling. Does the man ever sleep? He must wear IMDB, IBDB and every other kind of data base out doing research; and without a staff. Well, he does have an accompanist in wife Barbara.

He's good in getting powers-that-be behind his ideas, such as Town Hall with his Broadway by the Year and, among others, Broadway Unplugged series. And some generous sponsors who believe he's doing something that just isn't done anymore have come aboard. He probably could have single-handily kept the Miss America Pageant in Atlantic City!

Now, Birdland joins the venue list with the Broadway Jukebox series where the audience selects the songs, that begins Sunday night at 6:30 and goes forth, probably, for eternity. Kerry Butler, extraordinary-voiced William Michals [a South Pacific Emile] and Jill Abramovitz [Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me] top the bill [and just try and stump 'em]. Scott Coulter directs, with music direction by the superb Tedd Firth.

Admission is $25 and $35. For reservations, call (212) 581-3080.

The Lion Roars

The movies changed forever in 1924 when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer opened in Hollywood and began assembling, as they often boasted, "more stars than there are in the heavens." The three-part Emmy winning series MGM: When the Lion Roars [Turner/Warner Home Video; two discs; SRP $30], now available on DVD and hosted by Patrick Stewart, brings the story of this legendary Dream Factory up close and personal, the rise and fall of a mighty empire [so to speak].

The much hated and beloved Louis B. Mayer signed such luminaries as Crawford, Clark Gable, Garland, Harlow, Hayes, Hepburn, Kelly, Loy, Rooney, Shearer, Taylor, Tracy and Williams. No first names needed, since they not only lit up the dark movie palaces with their talent but also became an integral part of our lives. Grandpa or curmudgeon, you have to give the old man credit. He knew talent, and not just the on-screen kind. Cukor, Donen, Fleming, Freed, Kanin, Minnelli, Schary, Thalberg and Thompson are some of the behind-the-scenes geniuses he employed to bring magic to the screen.

Filmdom's most famous studio is mainly known as the site where Jeopardy! tapes, but in a mother lode of clips from landmark films - drama, comedy, adventure, lavish musicals; interviews; and doc footage the once mighty lion is not asleep but roaring "ars gratia artis" [art for art's sake] again.

The Fan[ning]s Have It

Another acting dynasty surfaces this weekend as Dakota Fanning, seemingly all grown up ["Many still think of me as seven or eight, but I will be 15"] and, in a career move that will surely push her into new territory, she's going "Miley Cyrus" as a clairvoyant, angry teen tossing her pink-streaked hair strutting around in mini skirts in Push.

On other screens, with a lot less hype, younger sister Elle Fanning is opening in Phoebe in Wonderland, the indie that was a Sundance nominee for Grand Jury Prize and a wonder of a film that should be shared with all the family.

Daniel Barnz has done an admirable job as screenwriter and director, but Elle [11 in April] delivers one of the best performances of any age group is a troubled girl with Tourette's Syndrome. She displays acting chops way beyond her age. This is a role she'll be wildly acclaimed for but, opening now, it'll be long forgotten or at least in the DVD bins by the next awards season.

Felicity Huffman, save for a horrendous wig or hairdo she's stuck with for the entire film, as the overprotective mother delivers a capable performance. She does what she can, but, hey, she' up against quite a powerhouse in Fanning. To her credit, she doesn't try to steal the movie from her young co-star but rather embraces her. Toward mid-picture, they share a long, intimate, continuously-shot scene that will certainly be one of the great tearjerker moments of the year.

For years, Patricia Clarkson has been a fav character actress. In PIW, she adds magic and sparkle to what could be a forgettable role at a grammar school theater teacher. Campbell Scott can do no wrong, but here, playing very much against type, he's a hoot as the school principal. Last but not least, the always reliable Bill Pullman gives a laid back performance that builds to powerful moments. Even with star billing, he knows he's not the star of this movie and he moves aside and lets Elle astound and amaze. Ian Colletti, another junior actor, does a memorable turn as one of Elle's classmates. Bobby Bukowski's cinematography is a standout.

Phoebe in Wonderland is a poignant film, one worth of your support.

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