February 2010 Archives

Lincoln Center's American Songbook series 12th season finale closes next week with two gifted interpreters of song: Tony nom Rebecca Luker, currently starring in Mary Poppins, on March 2 at 8:30 P.M.; and Tony/Drama Desk winner, Presidential Medal of Honor and Kennedy Center honoree Chita Rivera on March 6 with two shows, 8:30 and 10:30.

Tony and DD-nom'd composer Jeanine Tesori [Shrek, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Caroline, or Change], performs March 4 with guests Tony winner Chuck Cooper [Finian's Rainbow, Caroline..., The Life], Tony and DD nom Daniel Breaker [Shrek, Passing Strange], and the Broadway Inspirational Voices.

Also, appearing next week are baritone/composer Gabriel Kahane, who writes/performs music bridging classical/pop/theater and theatrical worlds, on March 3; and Todd Snider will bring his folk melodies and dry humor to A.S. on March 4.

American Songbook is sponsored by Pfizer and presented in the intimate Allen Room, with its spectacular vista of Central Park and Manhattan skylines. of the Time-Warner Building's Rose Hall. Tickets range from $35 - $95 and are available online at www.AmericanSongbook.org; through CenterCharge, (212) 721-6500, and at the Avery Fisher and Rose Hall box offices.

Additional support for the series is provided by Fisher Brothers, Amy and Joseph Perella, Sara and Maury Rosenberg, Jill and Irwin Cohen, Bank of America/ Merrill-Lynch, and, among others, the NY State Council on the Arts.

Those Pipes Were a Calling

Last Saturday, in the American Songbook series, Tony and Emmy winner, Golden Globe nom, and hometown gal Leslie Uggams gave her first New York concert in 18 years. It was flawless and, as far as the timbre of her voice, as if time had stopped. Where had that voice been? Well, here and there.

She's been doing concerts - just not in NY, and plays. Most recently, she was Off Bway in Signature Theatre Company's revival of Leslie Lee's The First Breeze of Summer; and, prior to that, on Bway, as Ethel Thayer in the revival of On Golden Pond co-starred with James Earl Jones.

The good news is that it appears she's headed back to Bway in Stormy Weather, the musical about Lena Horne.

For Uptown/Downtown, conceived and directed by Michael Bush [who's the director of the upcoming musical Stormy Weather], who Miss Uggams looked back on over a half century in the business. She began with new spin on "There's a Boat That's Leavin' Soon for New York" [from Porgy and Bess], interpolating a section of "New York, New York" to personalize it. She used an autobiographical adaptation of "Born in a Trunk," the Garland showstopper from A Star Is Born, to introduce the audience to her years as a child star and singer in Harlem clubs.

She sang songs made famous by Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Dinah Washington - artists she appeared with at the Apollo [get this, from age 9-16; but, in fact, she'd been recording since age 8, and appearing on radio and in a network sit-com]. She did some high-steppin' jive and had the audience ROTF with stories of what transpired backstage.

As she segued into a mellow mood, Miss Uggams stunned the audience who seemingly had forgotten what she's capable of. Her renditions of "Summertime" and "I Got Plenty o' Nothin' [P&B] brought the house down. As she perched on the piano in a solo spot and rendered "If He Walked into My Life" [Mame], the response was more thunderous. She later reprised songs from her award-winning role in Hallelujah, Baby, "My Own Morning" and "Being Good." Skipping over her Sing Along with Mitch TV days, which made her a household word, Miss Uggams closed with a torch classic, done to perfection, "Stormy Weather."

Miss Uggams was ably abbetted by musical director Don Rebic on piano; Steve Bargonetgti, guitar; Ray Kilday, bass; Walt Weiskopf, woodwinds/brass; and Buddy Williams, drums.

Heading to Broadway and the Carlyle

Stormy Weather, the loosely biographical musical based on the life of Lena Horne, legendary singer, beauty, and star of MGM movie musicals, starring Leslie Uggams as the "older" Miss Horne, in engagements in Phily at the Prince Music Theatre and on the West Coast at the Pasadena Playhouse broke b. o. records.

The musical takes Lena Horne 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.

Conceived and written by Sharleen Cooper Cohen, S.W. is filled with musical gems from the Porter, Arlen and Mercer, Rodgers and Hart and Strayhorn songbooks. Michael Bush, former associate A.D. of Manhattan Theatre Club, is onboard as director, with Randy Skinner as choreographer.

"It takes audiences on the full journey," says Miss Uggams, "the stormy times and the extraordinary ones. Both the younger and older Lena are out there and very much a part of everything."

Among the featured roles are the younger Lena Horne; Miss Horne's first husband, composer, MGM music director, arranger, and pianist Lenny Hayton; and author, actress, and MGM vocal coach Kay Thompson, who's enjoying a huge revival of interest thanks to her goddaughter Liza Minnelli,

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!"

She has Miss Horne partially to thank for her Tony Award. "Hallelujah, Baby" was written for Lena," she explains, "and when she passed on it, I got the role."

Hallelujah, Baby![1967] was a cavalcade of African-American history 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."

Miss Uggams' manager/husband Grahame Pratt and producer Stewart Lane are looking to open for the 2010-2011 season, says Mr. Pratt, "in a theatre West of Broadway."

Asked how she keeps those "pipes" so pristine, Miss Uggams replied, "I just respect them and take care of them."

Miss Uggams will make her Cafe Carlyle debut on March 30. The engagement runs through April 17. For reservations, call (212) 744-1600.

Oscar-winning Tunes

Sunday at 6 P.M. at Birdland, in the countdown to next Sunday's 82nd annual Academy Awards, multi-cabaret award-winner and Bway producer Jamie deRoy's Jamie deRoy & Friends will present a line-up of great voices for her third tribute to Oscar-winning and nominated tunes. The show is a spinoff of her MAC Award-winning variety series.

"We're going to take an entire year," promises deRoy, "and sing all the songs, winners and nominated. And the audience gets to vote for Best Song." One lucky audience member will win a pair of tkts to the Dame Edna/Michael Feinstein revue, All About Me at the Henry Miller.

Headlining will be DD-nom Christina Bianco [Forbidden Broadway Goes to Rehab, Newsical], DD winner and four-time Tony nom Gregg Edelman [1776, Into the Woods]; London triple-threat, Bonnie Langford [Chicago, Bway and W.E. companies]; two-time Emmy winning music director/composer John McDaniel; critically acclaimed cellist Peter Sachon; and show-stopping singer Terri White [Finian's Rainbow].

Special guest will be Grammy-winning hitmaker singer/songwriter, Larry Gatlin, who'll perform "I'm Easy," Keith Carradine's Oscar-winning song from Nashville.

Not to be missed is deRoy's send-up of the Oscars, June Reisner's "At the Academy Awards," which goes, in part:

"The designer of the costumes and the technicolor team.
The editor of dialogue, the editor of edits.
The author of the novel and the screenplay and the credits . . .
The musical director, the arranger of the score,
The boy who went for coffee and the man who mopped the floor . . .
The talent of my leading man and each supporting actor.
My doctor, my psychiatrist, my nurse, my chiropractor . . .
My manicurist, manager, the cinemascopic screens.
The twenty thousand extras and the movie magazines.
But more than all the others and I say this with a tear,
One beautiful human being is behind my being here.
For the courage to do picture the way they ought to be,
I thank the talent and the brilliance and the fortitude of me.
Me! Me! Little ole Me! . . ."

Staging the concert is Barry Kleinbort, with Lanny Meyers as musical director.

Jamie deRoy & Friends has eight multi-artist CDs on the Harbinger and PS Classics labels. The cover at Birdland is $25, $35 for premium seating, plus $10 food/beverage minimum. For reservations, call (212) 581-3080 or visit www.birdlandjazz.com.

Marilyn Maye's in Love

Grammy nom, legendary RCA recording artist, and the artist dubbed "Super Singer" by Johnny Carson [in her 75 + appearances on the Tonight Show] Marilyn Maye continues her conquering of the New York music scene at Feinstein's at Loews Regency, where she opens on March 2 with a new show, In Love Again, through March 13.

Among her numerous RCA hits were "Cabaret," released in advance of the Broadway musical; How Now, Dow Jones's "Step to the Rear," by Carolyn Leigh and Elmer Bernstein which she performed four years on Lincoln Mercury commercials; Lerner and Lane's "Too Late Now," chosen by the Smithsonian for inclusion in its 20th Century permanent collection;and, "probably my most requested songs," Grand and Boyd's torch "Guess Who I Saw Today" from the revue New Faces of 1952.

Ella Fitzgerald called her "the greatest white female singer in the world." New York cabaret aficionados have come to regard Miss Maybe as a national treasure. Now in her 80s, she has the stamina and the crystal vocal pipes of someone half her age. Onstage, she manages to run the gamut of super elegant to super fun.

"This will mark my 14th engagement in New York since 2006," points out Miss Maye, "not including the five appearances for the Mabel Mercer Foundation and cabaret award programs. It's going to be most exciting to spend two weeks singing in that lovely room on Park Avenue."

She brags that New York audiences are the best. "They understand the work. They get it. They know that what I do isn't easy, that it's carefully planned and then honed through the years. The approval, respect, and recognition I've received at the Metropolitan Room has been an overwhelming joy. The awards are so lovely, especially at this time in my life, were so totally unexpected and are so very appreciated."

She explains she feels blessed with her eight Metropolitan Room engagements. "I received enormous recognition for my work. The friendships I made there have enriched my life."

Last April, Miss Maye appeared as guest artist with Michael Feinstein at Zandel Hall "we had such a thrilling experience that he suggested I play Feinstein's. "The opportunity to play Feinstein's was irresistible."

Working New York, she states, has always been not only special but also important to a career. "Years ago there were so many prestigious clubs. I performed at the Copacabana, El Morocco, the Living Room, Michael's Pub. Now, the number has dwindled."

Tedd Firth [Birdland's Cast Party] will be music directing and on keyboards, with Tom Hubbard on base; and Jim Eklof, working with Miss Maye for 48 years, on drums.

"I simply adore Tedd," gushes Miss Maye. "He's totally sensitive to the singer - the lyrics, the singers' phrasing. There's no ego with this young man. He only cares about accompanying and playing what will make the music and the performance the best possible. He's so musically intelligent and knowledgeable."

The right pianist is a necessity, she says strongly. "I'm in a lot of musical bags - Broadway, show tunes, novelty material, and jazz always underlies the feel of every tune. My musicians play in all these styles. The 'rubato' balance is so essential."

The arrangements are a cooperative effort between Firth and Miss Maye. "We coordinate the material, chords, variations on structure, and the unusual rhymic ideas. What most impresses me about Tedd is the depth of his understanding whether the tunes are old or brand new."

Miss Maye is always secretive about the songs she'll be singing, "because I feel it ruins the element of surprise, which is part of the audience's enjoyment. Always with me, the audience is the star." There will be "more than the usual number of positive songs about love than I usually do." She broke tradition by noting that she'll do several songs from the vast songbook of her mentor Steve Allen, who was first to "discover" her and have her as a regular on the Tonight Show. "One of my favorite songs by Steve is this wonderful ballad called 'I Love You Today.'"

"I love uptempo, jazz, songs where I can belt, and ballads," she states. "I can get my teeth and voice into ballads. I find whimsical tunes are fun for me and the audience. With me, it's always a party."

In the 1970s, Miss Maye made the transition from cabaret to theater, starring in
productions of Can Can, Follies, Mame, and Hello, Dolly!

Another transition was to appearances with symphony orchestras, then supper clubs in the mid-West, which have sustained her for several years. Two years ago, she says "in an ironic twist of fate, I was rediscovered here though I've never stopped working! It has been most gratifying."

There's more good news: a new CD is in the works. For ore information, visit www.marilynmaye.com.

The cover for Marilyn Maye In Love Again at Feinstein's..., depending on day and time of show, is $40 with a $40 food/drink minimum. Shows are at 8:30 Tuesday - Thursday, 8 and 10:30 on weekends. $60 premium and $75 up-front seats are available. The weekend late show has and additional $25 minimum. For all shows, there are some seats, based on availability, for $40 and no minimum. Jackets are suggested, but not required. To reserve, call (212) 339-4095 or book online at feinsteinsatloewsregency.com or TicketWeb.com.

TalkOut

Jon Marans' The Temperamentals at New World Stages begins TalkOut Mondays, post play discussions with celebrity guests on Monday. Obie-winning playwright/author/activist Larry Kramer, co-founder of Gay Men's Health Crisis and ACT UP, and playwright/novelist Paul Rudnick kick off the series.

The Temperamentals, a love story set against the turbulent founding of the Mattachine Society, the country's first LGBT rights org, stars Thomas Jay Ryan [In The Next Room] as outspoken labor activist Harry Hay, and Michael Urie [TV's Ugly Betty] as Viennese up-and-coming designer Rudi Gernreich. The director us Drama Desk nom Jonathan Silverstein [The Dining Room], resident director of the award-winning Keen Company.

The title refers to the early 50s slang/code word for "homosexual." According to Marans, "it was part of an underground language used to communicate in their world where danger was always an underlying presence."

Upcoming guests will be Elizabeth Ashley, Charles Busch, playwright Bill C Davis [Mass Appeal, Avow, Judith Light [Ugly Betty, among other countless credits; producer of the gay-themed film Save Me], Terrence McNally, David Hyde Pierce, co-producer Daryl Roth, radio host/activist David Rothenberg, and BC/EFA exec director Tom Viola.

Ticket for The Temperamentals are: $65 and available at the box office, through TeleCharge (212) 239-6200 or (800) 432-7250, and at www.TeleCharge.com. There are mezzanine $25 student tickets, available in advance, which must be purchased at the box office. For performance schedule, TalkOut guest updates, and more information, visit www.thetemperamentals.com.

Brush Up on Half Your Shakespeare

The New Victory Theater will be presenting Reduced Shakespeare Company's The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) from March 5 - 14. One of London's longest running comedies, this production is a 21st century adaptation of the 90s cult classic, which played on the West End for nine years, achieving international cult status.

The Complete Works... features Reed Martin, Matt Rippy, and Austin Tichenor, taking audiences through raucous, fast-paced parodies of the Bard's 37 play canon in 100 minutes - or less. This irreverent romp includes a send-up of Romeo and Juliet, Titus Andronicus as a cooking show, a rap Othello, and, along with many others, and a one-minute Hamlet.

Since its 1981 California origins as a pass-the-hat performance troupe. the RSC has created numerous stage shows, TV programs, even played the White House. The company has been nominated for an Olivier and two D.C. Helen Hayes Awards.

The 7 P.M. performances of March 12 will be sign-interpreted performance with a teen-only, post-show programming [suitable for ages 12-15]. Member tickets are $12.50 - $24.50; non-Members, $12.50 - $35 and available at the New Victory Box Office, online at www.NewVictory.org , or by calling (646) 223-3010. Those purchasing tkts to this and at least two other N.V. prods during the 2009-2010 season become members and save 30% on tickets.

Lea Playa Café Carlyle

Olivier, Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Award-winning actress Lea Salonga
will make her New York supperclub debut at the Café Carlyle in The Journey So Far from March 9 - 27.

The Philippine star was catapulted to international stardom when cast at 17 as Kim in Miss Saigon. She later appeared in Les Miz and was chosen by Disney for the singing voices of Princess Jasmine in Aladdin and the title character in Mulan.

In her 30-year career, Salonga has performed for five Philippine and three U.S. presidents, at benefits for Diana, Princess of Wales, and for HRM Queen Elizabeth II. For more information on her career and recordings, www.leasalonga.com.

In The Journey So Far, Salonga will feature songs that cross the genres of Filipino music, musical theater, film, and the American songbook. She'll be accompanied by a quartet. Larry Yurman will be music director/pianist. Directing will be Daniel Kutner.

For shows Tuesday - Friday at 8:45 P.M., seats are $75, with VIP seating at $125 and seating at the bar, $45; and Saturday at 8:45 and 10:45, $85, $125, and $45. Dinner seatings are at 6:30, 7, and 7:30. For reservations, call (212) 744-1600.

There's the strong possibility that Salonga will soon be back on Broadway. While she's in town, she'll continue in development readings of a musical set in the U.S.'s infamous Japanese internment camps during WWII.

Salonga will play Grizabella in a limited July premiere engagement of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats, to be presented at Manila's Philippine Culture Center mainstage, the Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo Theatre. The international cast will also feature Australia's John O'Hara in the role of Rum Tum Tugger.

Still a stunning beauty at 38, Salonga made her stage debut at age seven in The King and I, which was followed by roles in a number of local productions of Broadway musicals, and she later hosted her own national variety TV show, Love, Lea. She was "discovered" by Cameron Macintosh in the Philippines when casting for Miss Saigon. Salonga went on to be the original Kim on the West End and Broadway premieres. Additional Broadway credits including Les Miserables and Flower Drum Song. She's also the singing voice of Princess Jasmine in Disney's Aladdin, which had the Oscar-winning song "A Whole New World."

Salonga, who had been making her home on the West Coast, returned to her native Philippines about two years ago with her husband and daughter. She recently toured Asian mainstages with Broadway Asia's production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella.

Theatrical Recipe for Good Eatin'?

Food for Thought/Cause Célèbre is presenting the final two performances of Recipe For Life, one-act comedies and dramas by Susan Charlotte, Tandy Cronyn, A.R. Gurney, and Neil Simon on Sunday at 2 and 7 P.M. and March 7 at 7 P.M. at Theatre Row's Acorn. The casts include Kathleen Chalfant, Jake Robards, Miriam Silverman, Frances Sternhagen, Maria Tucci, and Harris Yulin. Directing are Christopher Hart and Antony Marsellis.

Ms. Cronyn's piece is about her mother, theater icon Jessica Tandy, "whose talent," she says, "was not all on stage. She was quite a wonder in the kitchen as well." Simon "explores the art of cooking or not, as it were" in his Tallulah Finds Her Kitchen which he wrote for Tallulah Bankhead. Gurney's The Love Course "mixes two professors, two students, a limited amount of love and a lot of literature are the ingredients in this comic stew." In Charlotte's The Hairdresser, Chalfant "faces a bad hair day as she is about to go to the Tonys on her sixth nomination and suffers an identity crisis."

Tickets are $66.25 and available at the Ticket Central box office on Theatre Row and by calling (646) 366-9340.

Boston Arts Fest in NY

March 4 - 10, for its third annual visit to New York, Boston U's College of Fine Arts' InCite Arts Festival, themed What's Past Is Prologue, is branching out to venues throughout the city. Jim Petosa, director of B.U.'s School, is the Festival A.D.

The festival will feature performances, exhibits, gallery walks, and screenings of the docs I Remember Better When I Paint, on the positive impact of art and creative therapies on people with Alzheimer's, and The Redstones NYC, a festival of short films by grads/undergrads of film/TV studies sponsored by Viacom chair Sumner Redstone.

It will premiere Jenny Rachel Weiner's Diventare, directed by Ellie Heyman; and Marjorie Merryman's one-act opera adaptation of Antigone. There'll be a performance of Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 by the Grammy-nom'd Boston Baroque period orchestra and chorus; and an exhibit of alumni art and sculptures, Reunited.

Some events are complimentary. For schedules, pricing, venue, and other information, visit www.bu.edu/cfa/incite or call (617) 353-3350.

At the Movies

Don Argott's damning The Art of the Steal [IFC Films], a hit at the 2009 New York Film Festival, is a quite intriguing doc with thriller intrigue on how culture has become big business. It focuses, no-holds-barred, on the shameful and determined-at-any-cost quest for tourism dollars by powerful Pennsylvania politicians and normally highly-respected charities as they go about breaking the will of the founder of the prestigious Albert Barnes Foundation museum [established in 1922] and school in order to acquire its beyond-priceless treasure of Post-Impressionist masters. A rough estimate of the value of the Cezannes, Degas, Manets, Matisses, Modiglianis, Monets, Picassos [46], Renoirs [181], Rousseaus, Seurats,Van Goghs [7] is $35-billion!

Their goal, successful in the end, was to move the trove from its jewel box site in the nearby sleepy suburb of Merion to a new multi-million dollar parkway site in central Phily. Worse than the powerbrokers' greed is the silence of America's major museums, including the Met. This is quite an eye-opening film.

On DVD

The award-winning documentary, The Brothers Warner, an intimate family portrait of four legendary Hollywood film pioneers who founded and ran Warner Bros. for more than 50 years, makes its DVD debut March 9th [Warner Home Video, 94 minutes; SRP, $20]. Written and directed by Cass Warner Sperling, long-time studio head Harry Warner's granddaughter, and produced by Warner Sisters, Sperling's independent production company, the documentary has been presented at 33 national and international film festivals.

It traces the history of the studio that brought sound to film and contains film clips, never-before-seen photos, and interviews with Dennis Hopper, Debbie Reynolds, Angie Dickinson, Norman Lear, Tab Hunter, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., and Samuel Goldwyn Jr.

Collaborating with Sperling is Oscar -winning editor Kate Amend; cinematographer Arlene Donnelly Nelson [A Mighty Wind, For Your Consideration], and multi-Grammy-winning composer David Campbell [Brokeback Mountain].

The Brothers Warner is based on Sperling's best-selling book. The bros. rose from nothing, overcame personal tragedies, and as the film industry was emerging opened a storefront theater with a sheet for a screen and borrowed funeral parlor chairs. They were among the first to shoot stories that were ripped from headlines. Warner gathered quite the A-list of stars, but didn't take kindly to rebellion. When James Cagney, Bette Davis, and Olivia de Havilland fought the contract system as a way of demanding quality pictures, the bros. fought hard but eventually caved.

In 1967, when "starving" writer Mart Crowley "on the brink of destitution" but sitting in the lap of luxury finished his play The Boys in the Band, he says he intended it to be controversial. But, having distanced himself from gay politics, he didn't set out to be an rights activist. "I probably didn't even know what that meant," he laughs.

He soon found out. When the play opened Off Broadway in 1968, whether he wanted it to happen or not, Crowley and his play became catch words of the gay civil rights movement. Accolades and anger were heaped upon Crowley. Looking back, Crowley says he never thought he'd achieve such acclaim -- or be so reviled. In the matter of the latter, one leading critic termed BITB, "The Uncle Tom's Cabin of homosexual literature."

If you are going to be reviled [even by a segment of the gay community] for something you wrote - a ground-breaking comedy with a very dark side about eight gay men at a birthday party which segues from celebration to bitchy and brutal onslaught among the participants - better it become a world-wide hit and film [which Crowley co-produced in 1970] and provide the good life you always wanted to be accustomed to.

The cherries on top would be 35 years later writing a sequel about those boys [The Men from the Boys] and 42 years later having a second revival, with it's Sunday opening Off Broadway in a 99-seat site-specific production at 37 West 26th Street [between Broadway and Sixth Avenue, Penthouse], produced by the Transport Group and directed by T.G. A.D. Jack Cummings III.

Cummings had a unique idea on the staging. "I wanted you to come in and feel at home with the cast, so our design was going to have to be non-traditional." Sandra Goldmark created a 99-seat apartment setting in a loft space on West 26th Street. At first, Crowley wasn't wowed. "He'd always seen the play proscenium-bound," states Cumming. "He told me, 'This is going to look like a 12-step AA meeting,' and I shot back 'Well, in a way, it is!'"

BITB cast members are Jonathan Hammond [Ragtime] as Michael; Christopher Innvar [110 in the Shade, Floyd Collins] as Larry; Kevin Isola as Alan; Jon Levenson [Irish Rep's The Hairy Ape] as Harold; Kevyn Morrow [Olivier nom, West End, Ragtime] as Bernard; Graham Rowat [Lovemusik, Guys and Dolls, 2009], as Hank; Aaron Sharff as Cowboy; John Wellmann as Emory; and Nick Westrate as Donald.

The Boys in the Band has a disadvantage now. It appears years after an across-the-boards acceptance of just about everything homosexual; and Crowley is considered a pioneer in gay theatricals.

After becoming a worldwide cause celeb, Crowley described the years after the release of the film; the Off Broadway production of, perhaps, his finest work, the autobiographical A Breeze from the Gulf; and his career as a TV producer/writer as "relaxing and dull years."

Now, relocated to New York where it all began when he was living in the Theatre District with late Boys director Robert Moore, just as his career as an acclaimed director was beginning, life is hectic again with non-stop calls, faxes, and conversations with his agent.

Success at age 32 was exhilarating for someone who dreamed all his childhood of writing and making movies; but it also brought its demons: stress, depression and alcoholism. Following the failure of his second play, Remote Asylum, in L.A., he began to ruminate about being a "one hit" playwright. It was a theme that haunted him for years.

At 74, the past is behind him. He admits he went though "tons of money" buying the good life in New York, Los Angeles and throughout Europe; but he's not bad off. During his Hollywood era, he lived in a historic and legendary area of Hollywood where Fitzgerald wrote and Monroe lived -- in a 20s bungalow complex whose architecture typifies the "old" grandiose Hollywood -- where he had a stylish duplex, drove a Mercedes, and mixed with the rich and powerful.

Crowley grew up in Vicksburg, MS, site of a fierce siege that was a turning point in the Civil War and where Coca-Cola was first bottled. He describes his childhood in a dysfunctional family with an alcoholic father and drug-addicted mother as a "Eugene O'Neill nightmare. I was always pissed off that O'Neill had stolen all my material." Not to mention Tennessee Williams.

He attended Catholic school where, interestingly, he was an equipment boy for the football team. His escape was working with the Little Theatre, where he impressed with his set designs. He also spent "endless hours in the dark." Movies were his world and, he reports, where he developed his writer's imagination.

After graduation in 1953, Crowley went West, where he washed dishes in the UCLA cafeteria. In his spare time, he was obsessed with visiting movie lots. His father demanded he attend a Catholic university. "My goal was UCLA's film school, but I found that Catholic University in Washington had an excellent drama department. That led to a compromise."

Over Christmas, 1955, he met director Elia Kazan. Recalls Crowley, "He was shooting Baby Doll [with a screenplay by Tennessee Williams based on one-acts 27 Wagon Loads of Cotton and The Long Stay Cut Short] in the Mississippi Delta town of Benoit. I'd seen On the Waterfront, East of Eden, A Streetcar Named Desire and, onstage, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof , so I was already in awe. I spent days hanging about the locations, gawking at Carroll Baker, Karl Malden and Eli Wallach."

The crew befriended him. It didn't take long for Kazan to take notice. "I asked him a ton of questions," he says. "He seemed rather amused, and we developed a fast rapport. However, when I began talking about working in the movies, he advised 'Go back to school. Get your education, then come and see me.'"

After working on an art degree at UCLA, briefly becoming an illustrator, and majoring in speech and drama at Catholic U., Crowley performed in regional theater and began writing.

On a trip to New York, he got a job as a production assistant on the Mickey Rooney film The Last Mile, which led to jobs on The Fugitive Kind, based on Williams' play Orpheus Descending, starring Marlon Brando, Anna Magnani, Joanne Woodward and Maureen Stapleton, and Buttlerfield 8, starring Elizabeth Taylor.

One night, Crowley bumped into Kazan, who offered him a job as his personal assistant on Splendor in the Grass. He did everything from making the director Greek salads to being the shoulder Natalie Wood cried on. When Wood was cast in West Side Story, she hired him as an assistant.

"She knew I was writing all these screenplays and said if I came to California she'd introduce me to agents. Natalie trusted me enough to read scripts she received. Their relationship blossomed into a lifelong friendship [and continued later with husbands Robert Wagner and Richard Gregson and their children]. Of Wood he says, "She was that extraordinarily rare individual - warm, caring, wonderful. I loved her deeply."

The pressure of stardom and romance led Wood to attempt suicide with an overdose of sleeping pills. It was Crowley who discovered her unconscious and rushed her to the hospital, registering her under a pseudonym and avoiding a Hollywood scandal.

In Hollywood, he wrote scripts, submitted them and received nothing but rejection slips. But in 1967 he was hired to develop projects for Paramount. Shooting began on his screenplay, Fade-In, starring Burt Reynolds. It was an insider's take on how they make movies. Studio heads thought it a little too inside and brought in another writer.

"In the end," notes Crowley, "the film was ruined and deemed unreleasable." He hated it so much that with his first money from BITB, he paid to have his name removed from the credits. It occasionally popped up on TV and was released on video as Iron Cowboy.

At Paramount, Crowley had an office "but nothing to do. On days when I didn't have one martini too many, I'd fall asleep reading or start a project of my own. One of those was the seed for Boys. The idea of setting it among a gathering of gay friends had been rolling around in my head, but the idea of setting it at a birthday party came when I attended one, attended an interesting collection of people. In the end, the characters are based on people I knew."

The title came from a Garland line inA Star Is Born, but he says the stimulus that really got him motivated was a New York Times feature on "closeted drama." "This critic wondered why America's leading playwrights didn't really write what they were really writing about. It stirred lots of controversy and I thought, 'Why hasn't anyone done that?'"

By the summer of 1967, Crowley says, "I had dried up as a Hollywood screenwriter and was so exasperated at being shut out that I considered throwing in the towel." Then he got a call from actress Diana Lynn, who asked him to house-sit her Beverly Hills mansion. "For five weeks," he laughs, "in a state of sheer determination and hysteria, I sat in the library and fought off the servants and wrote."

When he began shopping his play around, doors didn't exactly fly open. Crowley recalls the reaction of a New York agent, who exclaimed "A play about homosexuals at a birthday party! Come back in five years." BITB predated by a year the so-called Greenwich Village Stonewall riot, one of the flash points of gay liberation.

Edward Albee and his producer Richard Barr, no strangers to controversy, presented a workshop through their Playwrights Unit for invited audiences at the Vandam Playhouse [now the Soho Playhouse]. The list must have been long for the lines stretched around the block. With Charles Woodward as co-producer, the play premiered Off Broadway at West 55th Street's Theatre Four, where it ran 1,000 performances.

Co-star Cliff Gorman [Lenny], in the role of Emory, won an Obie for Ditinguished Performance. Other cast members included Leonard Frey, Laurence Luckinbill, Michael Keith, Kenneth Nelson, and Peter White. A later replacement was Tom Aldredge.

Clive Barnes, writing in the Times, noted: "The Boys in the Band is one of the best-acted plays of the season. It is quite an achievement. I have a feeling that most of us will find it a gripping, if painful, experience - so uncompromising in it's honesty that is becomes an affirmation of life." More recently, a critic wrote: "It was a brave play for 1968, vividly juxtaposing societal abhorrence and gay self-hatred against a growing desire to live and love openly."

Crowley and Moore, a longtime college friend, were blessed with the perfect cast. For the longest time, Crowley declined big movie buy-outs because he wanted to maintain control and keep the cast intact. William Friedkin directed the film adaptation [1970].

"My history up to then had been nothing more than one flop or false start after another," says the playwright. "Those failures left me unprepared for the sudden acclaim."

For a time, Crowley had more money than he ever imagined, "but," he says, "it didn't last the way I lived." And after the failure of his next plays, from 1973-1979, "I sort of evaporated, spending time in Paris, Rome, the south of France, so you see where the money went. But, like Edith Piaf, I am regret-free!"

On his return Stateside, desperately in need of money, he was hired by Aaron Spelling as executive script editor and later became a producer for TV's Hart to Hart, which co-starred old friend Robert Wagner. After four years, he left to concentrate on writing Movies of the Week. "I was under immense stress to prove myself again, and had a heart attack. It was a wake-up call to change my diet and stop drinking."

The Collected Plays of Mart Crowley is available from Alyson Books. Boys film adaptation is available on DVD. A doc, entitled Making the Boys, about the original production, was an official selection at last year's Tribeca Film Festival.

One criticism consistently leveled against The Boys in the Band is that it depicts only guilt-ridden self-hating gay men who wish they weren't gay. Maybe, but thousands of young gay men claimed their lives were changed as a result of seeing the play and/or it's immense worldwide success. One young fan wrote Crowley: "I am 19 and I know why these men are so guilt-ridden and self-hating. It's still tough to be gay in America. If The Boys in the Band seems a bit narrow for focusing only on that, it's remarkably deep in spite of that."

Through the years, Crowley's been asked if the character of Michael is based somewhat or in whole on himself. He says, "I'm not ashamed if anyone wants to make an association between Michael and me. It's obvious he's based on me more than on anyone else."

Notes Crowley, "The themes of The Boys in the Band and The Men from the Boys - self-loathing and self-destruction -- fascinate me and are what I was hung up on for years. I've learned we do not have to be our own worst enemies. After all this time and a number of very expensive psychoanalysts, I've changed about as much as I'm going to change. The most amazing thing about life is that if you can come to grips with yourself, you can be a lot happier. I've finally been able to achieve happiness!"

Crowley appeared in the docs The Celluloid Closet (1995), about homosexuality and its depiction onscreen, and Dominick Dunne: After the Party, a biography of his and co-producer of the film, late author Dominick Dunne.

The Collected Plays of Mart Crowley is available from Alyson Books. Boys film adaptation is available on DVD. A doc, entitled Making the Boys, about the original production, was an official selection at last year's Tribeca Film Festival.

Crowley was also hand-picked by Kay Thompson's heirs to carry on the tradition of her Eloise books with her long-time collaborator [and long-time Crowley friend] illustrator Hilary Knight.

[BITB tkts are available at www.transportgroup.org or by phoning TheaterMania at (866) 811-4111 or (212) 352-3101. The venue box office opens one hour before curtain.]

Transport Group is sponsoring several special events connected with their production of The Boys in the Band: Thursday, March 4, at 8 P.M. tickets will be half price for buyers under 30 and there will be a post show reception [photo ID required]; and Friday, March 5, 7 P.M. , T.G. joins with the Matthew Shepard Foundation for a special intergenerational post show dialogue on equality. For tickets and information, visit www.transportgroup.org.

The company's "Dark Nights" series will give theatergoers a rare opportunity to experience readings of Mart Crowley's theatrical body of work. Sunday, February 28, following the 5 P.M. performance, there will be a reading of Crowley's BITB sequel, The Men From the Boys, set as the "boys" meet again at Larry's wake; and on Monday, March 8, 7 P.M., For Reasons That Remain Unclear, the autobiographical play, set in Rome, of "the chance meeting that brings a man face-to-face with the priest who abused him when he was nine years old." Tickets for the series are $19 each and may be reserved at www.transportgroup.com.

On dates TBA T.G. will present readings of Crowley's critically acclaimed A Breeze from the Gulf, about a 15-year-old Mississippi homosexual "suffering through adolescence with a drug-addicted mother and alcoholic father and how he grows into success as a writer"; Remote Asylum, the playwright's first post BITB work which focuses on a group of "bruised souls forced to deal with fears of loneliness, mortality, and emotional wounds not yet healed"; and Avec Schmaltz, which tells of "a perilous, smug, comfortable family, on the brink of dissolution," as they experience Christmas in Connecticut and New Year's Eve in California.

[N.B. - In the spirit of full disclosure, I'm a native of Vicksburg, MS, and have long known Mart Crowley.]

A Review

The Boys in the Band, Transport Group, 37. West 26th Street, Penthouse, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. Set to run through March 14, but now with the likelihood of an extension.

For a long time, Jack Cummings and his Transport Group have been known for innovative, award-winning revivals. The tradition continues with the current revival of Mart Crowley's The Boys in the Band.

BITB takes place in a NY UES apartment where Michael, an alcoholic on the wagon who lives way above his means, and friend Donald ready to host a birthday party for long-time friend Harold, who has issues with his looks and who seems to know exactly how to push Michael's buttons. They are joined by seven friends: Bernard, an African-American who allows himself to be denigrated by best bud, the ultra flamboyant Emory, who's always on; bi-sexual Hank and promiscuous Larry, who disagree on relationship monogamy; and Cowboy, a prostitute who has been hired as Harold's present. The unexpected arrival of Michael's college chum Alan, as the "boys" do a Fire Island line dance, upsets the apple cart and turns the party topsy turvy.

Cummings concept of staging the play in a non-traditional site which 99 seats placed throughout Sanda Goldmark's evocative set was an idea that has paid off handsomely. The staging intimately involves audiences as spectators very close by the sidelines and, often, right in the middle of the action. This intimacy gives the play even more blistering bite.

Beginning in 1961, Neil Simon gradually built a rep as king of the comic one-liners. He had a brilliant skill of being able to craft these jolts that elicited great audience laughter into a coherent whole. You might say that Crowley, some seven years later, could have easily inherited the crown.

Amazingly, some 42 years later, 99 99/100% of his groundbreaking BITB holds up extraordinarily well not only as absorbing storytelling [much of it very autobiographical] but also as black comedy with almost two hours of slung one-liners that still elict mighty laughter. Perhaps one reason is that many of Crowley's zingers have found a home in hip vernacular - not only gay, but also straight.

The revival is sharply focused by Cummings' direction in a work that doesn't seem the least bit dated [though younger audiences might not understand a time when some had two phone lines or, when dialing Information, getting a human voice who miraculously and immediately has the number you're looking for at her fingertips. Often, and very powerfully, the director's deft hand is even felt in moments of silence when the "boys" are caught by surprise or standing, heads bowed.

The staging, as effective as it is overall, can be a disadvantage at times to those not seated close to a particular sequence - particularly true of those moments in Michael's bedroom, an elevated area at the far end of the loft space.

The Boys in the Band, with its black comic overtones that mask bitchiness, hostility, revenge, and tones of self-hatred, is a play not only dependent on excellent writing but also on perfect casting.

The original cast of the play is so indelibly set in many people's minds because of the work's inital long run and the fact that the film adaptation, though immensely opened up in early moments, starred - thanks to Crowley's insistence - the original cast. It's hard to forget those portrayals.

However, to a great extent, Cummings' cast is incredibly well chosen. Jonathan Hammond, in the pivotal role of Michael, covers all the camp and minefield of emotional bases excellently except in a prolonged breakdown that's just a little too hysterical and prolonged for its own good. He receives steady and able support especially from Graham Rowat as Hank, Nick Westrate as Donald, Kevyn Morrow as Bernard, and, as the unexpected guest, Kevin Isola as Alan.

It's never fair to make comparisons with actors in an original cast, but the performances of Clff Gorman as Emory and Leonard Frey as Harold are still so memorable and the characters so vital to making the play work that, respectively, John Wellmann and Jon Levenson have big shoes to fill.

In a clever touch, which especially adds nuance to the fadeout, Dane Laffrey has lit the playing area with assorted lamps and a light fixture.

It would appear that a lot of producers are taking their cue from Mel Brooks. Remember [how could you forget?] that song from The Producers?

"...The theater's so obsessed
With dramas so depressed,
It's hard to sell a ticket on Broadway [and Off Broadway].
Shows should be more pretty,
Shows should be more witty.
Shows should be more--
What's the word? ... Gay?...
No matter what you do on the stage
Keep it light, keep it bright, keep it gay!
Whether it's murder, mayhem or rage
Don't complain, it's a pain
Keep it gay!
People want laughter when they see a show
The last thing they're after's a litany of woe
A happy ending will pep up your play...
Keep it gay!..."
-- Mel Brooks, The Producers

How true some of the large roster of gay-themed plays are to Brooks' lyrics, and if they'll keep Strindberg and Ibsen at bay, is questionable; but it appears it will be a season of keeping it gay.

Either playing or announced for the On or Off boards are The Temperamentals, The Pride, The Boys in the Band revival, the musical Yank, Next Fall, and the La Cage Aux Folles revival.

Forget Sally. When Harry Met Rudi -- Harry Hay, emerging fashion designer Rudi Gernreich -- there was no Viennese waltzing about; no boating on the Danube. The sparks flew as they fell in love. That's the story according to playwright Jon Marans as presented in The Temperamentals; and he's sticking to it.

They say opposites attract. It sure was true of Harry and Rudi. The Temperamentals, however, is far more than a love story. The affair ignited during revolutionary times as awareness for gay rights was awakening.

Marans points out that coverage of gay rights in American history books has been "egregious - with most making gays invisible. This is a story that deserves to be told. It's a relatively unknown chapter in gay history."

The first of the season's gay-themed plays, The Temperamentals, which premiered as a showcase last April in a 40-seat black box, directed by Drama Desk nom Jonathan Silverstein [The Dining Room], resident director of the award-winning Keen Company. The play received across-the-board raves for Marans and the five member cast. As its audience base grew, it moved into a 99-seater. Still, they had to turn away customers.

That intrigued Carl White and Paul Boskind of Martian Entertainment, who produce and GM. They did something rare in show biz. "We came aboard without even reading the script or seeing the play," says Boskind. "We got into producing with [2008's] Bash'd [A Gay Rap Opera]."

"That was a great experience of how we could invest in something that could affect change," states White. "And like that show, this had the type of message we look to support."

It didn't hurt Boskind had seen Marans' hit Old Wicked Songs and that both were friends of the playwright. Phone calls went back and forth between them and veteran producer Daryl Roth, who told them that she was getting involved to help facilitate an open-ended run Off Bway. They joined producer Stacy Shane, a board member of the Barrow Group Theatre Company, and his plans went forward for the move to New World Stages where the play just began previews in a 199-seat proscenium theatre. The opening is February 28.

Marans is thrilled with the critical response, but says, "What's been even more heartening - and what has separated this show from others I've written, is the close collaboration with Jonathan. Maybe it's because he went to Quaker schools which stressed family. It was all of us working, arguing together as a community for the play. That's apt for a play about a group of difficult, opinionated men working for a common cause."

The title refers to the early 50s slang/code word for "homosexual." According to Marans, "it was part of an underground language used to communicate in their world where danger was always an underlying presence."

Thomas Jay Ryan [In The Next Room], who plays firebrand Hay, and Michael Urie [TV's Ugly Betty*], who portrays the elegantly, always stunningly-dressed Gernreich, found the ultimately doomed affair all the more fascinating because H and G were the unlikeliest of couples. [* He plays the always fabulously dressed Marc St. James, hilariously vacillating between good guy/bad guy.]

Hay was a teacher/labor advocate and passionate for causes. In 1950, drawing on his background in the U.S. Communist Party, he co-founded the Mattachine Society, the country's first enduring LGBT rights org. In the same vein as another later prominent organizer, after he built up the org into a powerful lobby for gay rights, he was ousted. Unlike the other more contemporary person, he withdrew from mainstream activism. However, following the infamous and landmark Stonewall riots [1969], he was on the scene again as co-founder of Radical Faeries.

Gernreich was an elegant Viennese refugee and dancer. Urie discovered he left gay politics before he became the fashion rage of the rich and famous with his headline-making, futuristic designs in the 50s on into the 70s of the topless swimsuit, thong, unisex and vinyl clothing and sheer no-bra bra]. While Fashionistas hailed him, others derided him.

The story of Hay and Gernreich fascinated Urie from first read. "Six years ago, we did a reading and I was sold. Every time there's been an opportunity to do, I've been there."

When his TV sit-com relocated to shoot in New York, he jumped for the opt to perform in the showcase. "Rudi Gernreich is a role I don't want to let go of, It's too good, too rich."

He credits working with Silverstein for helping him to keep finding new insights into his character. "Jon has written a play you can sink your teeth into. That doesn't happen often." He added that what has impressed him is that audiences, whether gay, bi, or straight, have been moved."

Joining cast members Matthew Schneck, and Sam Breslin Wright is Arnie Burton, an original cast member of 39 Steps, which following its Bway run ironically soon will be in residence at NWS.

The Temperamentals has been nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding New York Theater: Broadway & Off-Broadway.

Starting March 1, The Temperamentals will begin "TalkOut Mondays." The first panelists are Obie-winning playwright/author/activist Larry Kramer, who co-founded the Gay Men's Health Crisis and ACT UP, and playwright/author Paul Rudnick [Jeffrey].

March 8, guests will be Derek & Romaine [Sirius Out Q109 hosts] and cast. On March 15, playwright Bill C Davis [Mass Appeal, Avow] will be joined by Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids exec director Tom Viola.

Further down the line, panelists will include Elizabeth Ashley, Charles Busch, author Charles Kaiser, Judith Light [Ugly Betty, among other countless credits; producer of the gay-themed film Save Me], Terrence McNally, David Hyde Pierce, co-producer Daryl Roth, and radio host/activist David Rothenberg.

For schedules, ticket purchase, and panel updates, visit www.thetemperamentals.com.

The boys are back. The Boys in the Band, that is. The Drama Desk-winning Transport Company has mounted a revival of Mart Crowley's controversial, groundbreaking gay black comedy in a site-specific production at 37 West 26th Street [between Broadway and Sixth Avenue, Penthouse], It officially opens Sunday [and is set to run through March 14] .

In 2008, T.G. A.D. Jack Cummings, who directs the revival, received a call from an agent who represented playwright Mart Crowley. His goal, especially since the playwright had just relocated from the West Coast to the City, was to get the Drama Desk-winning company to present a 40th anniversary production of the play. "The stars weren't exactly aligned to do that," says Cummings. However, the idea intrigued him.

In June, 2008, T.G., presented and Cummings directed, An Evening With...The Boys in the Band, a star-studded staged reading with Malcom Gets, Jonathan Hammond, Christopher Innvar, Norm Lewis, and Manoel Felciano. Late best-selling author/writer/producer Dominick Dunne, exec producer of the film adaptation and a long-time Crowley friend, was on the panel with original cast members Laurence Luckinbill and Peter White. Shortly after, Cummings began discussions with Crowley "on developing the work for a new generation of theatergoers."

Cummings and Crowley got on well. They benefited from their mutual friend Dunne.
Cummings worked on the side as Dunne's assistant. "Dominick kept asking me, 'When are you going to do The Boys in the Band? And that got Mart and I talking."

Their conversations led Crowley to reexamine his play, which after its 1968 debut ran Off Bway for 1,000-performances went on to productions worldwide. Cummings suggested cutting the intermission to keep the momentum at a high level. Then came script discussions.

For the reading, Crowley put back cuts that director Moore had suggested taking out. "When the play was published," explains Cummings, "Mart put the material back. When we began looking at the script, he realized Bob was right and made some trims. So we are doing the streamlined version, with a few snippets in some of the monologues." Running time is just under two hours, no intermission.

Cummings had a unique idea on the staging. "I wanted you to come in and feel at home with the cast, so our design was going to have to be non-traditional." Sandra Goldmark created a 99-seat apartment setting in a loft space on West 26th Street. At first, Crowley wasn't wowed. "He'd always seen the play proscenium-bound," states Cumming. "He told me, 'This is going to look like a 12-step AA meeting,' and I shot back 'Well, in a way, it is!'"

Casting was a challenge, Cummings admits. He states that many of those who read came with no knowledge of the play, its impact, or an understanding of the characters. "I was hoping they'd done their homework. Though there's a very campy and a very bitchy character, the 'boys' actually represent a cross section. Not all are flamboyant, bitter, or self-loathing. Mart deftly mixes sharp humor with emotional revelation. It's a story told on a very human level about people we all know."

In the end, Cummings feels he put together the perfect cast: Hammond [Michael] and Innvar [Larry] are back and joined by Kevin Isola [Alan], Jon Levenson [Harold], Kevyn Morrow [Bernard], Graham Rowat [Hank], Aaron Sharff ["Cowboy"], John Wellmann [Emory], and Nick Westrate [Donald].

Information and tickets for BITB are available at www.transportgroup.org or by phoning TheaterMania at (866) 811-4111 or (212) 352-3101.

Alexi Kaye Campbell's The Pride, a heartfelt, sometimes brutal Brit import about sexual repression and promiscuity issues. In a clever concept, both are the same named but with their story set in different decades. Hugh Dancy [Journey's End; numerous movies] portrays a 30-something Londoner, both named Philip - one, living in the late 50s, who cannot accept his homosexuality; the other, in 2008, who's openly gay and seeking love. It's being presented by MCC Theater, in residence at the Lortel Theatre, and just opened to mostly raves. Co-starring are Adam James, Andrea Riseborough, and Ben Whishaw. Directing is Joe Mantello. One critic observed the play has "thought-provoking observations about cultures of repression and openness."

Yank! , a musical set to the popular tunes of the '40s, is set during World War II and chronicles the relationship between two servicemen who dare prejudice with courage in order to survive. Thousands of gay men and women served their nation, some even rose to high rank, but under very deep cover. It's presented by the DD-winning York Theatre. Music direction is by John Baxindine, with choreography by Jeffry Denman. The large cast includes Nancy Anderson [Wonderful Town], Jeffry Denman, Ivan Hernandez, and Bobby Steggert [Ragtime, 110 in the Shade]. Honors for Yank! include a GLAAD Media Award nomination, a NYMF Audience Award for Best Musical and the New York Innovative Theater Award for Outstanding Musical Production. For information and tickets, visit www.yorktheatre.org or call (212) 935-5820.

The Naked Angels company is moving Geoffrey Nauffts' intriguing and complex Next Fall , from Off to On, with a March 11 opening. It's "an intellectual stealth bomb" dropping on a gay couple [Christian and atheist], Adam and Luke [Patrick Breen, Patrick Heusinger], agonizing over religious differences as one of the lies in hospital in a coma as a result of an auto accident. Ben Brantley wrote in the Times, that it "proceeds with the stinging breeziness of a cosmopolitan comedy. You can imagine its concept being pitched to a television producer as a sort of Will & Grace with an ontological conscience." Co-starring are Patrick Breen, Maddie Corman, Sean Dugan, Patrick Heusinger, Connie Ray, and Cotter Smith. Sheryl Kalleron is the director.

On April 18, Emmy-winning Kelsey Grammar of Fraiser and Cheers fame returns to Bway for the first time in 10 years to co-star as Georges with Douglas Hodge as Albin in the revival of Jerry Herman/Harvey Fierstein's La Cage aux Folles. Featured will be Nick Adams, Christine Andreas, and Veanne Cox. The director is Terry Johnson, with choreography by Lynne Page.

A Great Lady, a Great Voice Silenced

Kathryn Grayson, whose beauty and lilting soprano brightened M-G-M's golden age of classic musicals in the 40s and 50s - in such films as Anchors Aweigh, Show Boat, and Kiss Me Kate, died peacfully at her Pacific Palisades home Wednesday. She turned 88 on Februrary 9. Besides being a great beauty on the outside, she was beautiful inside.

I first met Miss Grayson on location when some riverboat shots were being filmed for Show Boat. She was rather surprised a "youngster" knew so much about her career. We corresponded and later we did a number of interviews about her career and years at Metro.

Miss Grayson, who rarely uttered an unkind word, was beloved by "old school" Hollywood. Her image onscreen was elegant and genteel, but she had a devilish sense of humor. However, she was well known for her positive outlook on life and immense graciousness. Her kindness to those in need was vast.

On visits, she sat at her magnificent concert grand and told of José Iturbi coming over to play; and regaled with stories of Mario Lanza singing from her small Spanish balcony "with his gorgeous voice echoing out over the Pacific." Though she and Lanza were often paired in film, it took a while for them to become such devoted friends. "When we met," she said, "I found his ego and temper tantrums intolerable. Typical tenor!" After Lanza's sudden death, with his family in great debt, Miss Grayson took the entire family into her home.

Oddly, at a time when opera wasn't in fashion with the masses, Miss Grayson was as popular as Betty Grable -- even to military men, though she was never a Grable-like pin-up girl. Her mainstay was the girl-next-door image.

Miss Grayson spoke fondly of Howard Keel and revealed that Howard Hughes and Sinatra pursued her "but I was vigilant." Since her screen image was so elegant, some of them most enjoyable and surprising stories she told were the behind-the-scenes ones: for instance, how the studio, not wishing for her to appear sexy onscreen, would do all sorts of tricks to conceal her ample bosom.

One quite memorable afternoon, her assistant and devoted friend and assistant of many years Sally Sherman goaded Miss Grayson into telling how a Metro director, "a family man and infamous skirt chaser," was absolutely determined "to have me. At first, I was terribly insulted, but eventually I found his persistence flattering - and then I'd realize all the gals he bedded."

Miss Grayson, who passed on a possible career with the Metropolitan Opera to make movies, in later years was very much in demand for opera master classes.

For a full list of Miss Grayson's credits, visit www.IMDB.com.

BBTY at 10

Broadway by the Year kicks off its 10th Anniversary season at 8 P.M. on Monday at Town Hall with a salute to a truly golden era of classic shows, Broadway Musicals of 1927. The lineup includes some ragin' hot stars and BBTY audience favs.

Appearing will be Alexander Gemignani [Road Show, Sunday in the Park..., Sweeney Todd, Assassins], who's also directing, Chad Kimball [showstopping star of Memphis], and the indefatigable Marc Kudisch.

Kate Baldwin and Christopher Fitzgerald of the gone-too-soon revival of Finian's Rainbow will be onstage, with a quartet of stars from the also gone-too-soon Ragtime: Ron Bohmer, Quentin Earl Darrington [the much acclaimed Coalhouse Walker], Christiane Noll, and the much acclaimed Bobby Steggert [who was yanked from the Neil Simon stage door and cast into Yank]. Also on the roster are Melinda Sullivan [High School Musical], Bway-bound in Frank Wildhorn's Wonderland; and cabaret artist Carole Bufford.

Some of musical theater's classic songs came to light in 1927: George and Ira G's ethereal "S'Wonderful" [Funny Face]; Izzy Berlin's "Shaking The Blues Away" [introduced by Ruth Etting in Ziegfeld Follies of 1927]; Kern/Hammerstein's "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man of Mine," "You Are Love," and "Ol' Man River" [ from Show Boat]; and Brown/DeSlyva/Henderson's "The Best Things in Life Are Free" and "The Varsity Drag" [Good News]. Ross Patterson is back as musical director/arranger with his incredible Little Big Band.

Darrington [wanna bet he's singing a particular classic from Show Boat? And "unplugged"?] and Kimball are making their BBTY debuts. Also appearing will be will tapper/hoofers/choreographers extraordinaire Jeffry Denman, Kendrick Jones, and Noah Racey. Denman and Racey will perform the long forgotten "The Babbitt and the Bromide" from the '27 Follies in tribute to Astaire and Kelly who performed it in the 1946 film adaptation.

Upcoming at BBTY: 1948, March 22; 1966, May 10, and the anniversary season finale spectacular, Broadway Musicals of 1990-2010 with a bigger-than-usual star lineup, June 14.

Tickets are $45 and $50 and available at the Town Hall box office, through TicketMaster, (212) 307-4100 or www.ticketmaster.com.

This Just In

The 55th Annual Drama Desk Awards will take place Sunday, May 23 at 9 P.M, at the F.H. LaGuardia Concert Hall at Lincoln Center. Nominations will be announced May 3 at a Friars Club press conference. Watch Theatermania.com for DD Awards ticket availability. Awards exec producer Robert Blume will soon announce who's hosting. Can't tell. It's top secret!

How About Some Opera?

The unusually-named Glenn Seven Allen, who for a long time has easily transitioned by the musical stage to opera, will portray the Duke in New York Lyric Opera's concert production of Verdi's Rigoletto on February 27 at 8:30 P.M. at Symphony Space. Valentina Fleer will play Gilda. Stephen Crawford conducts.

Allen has appeared on and Off Bway, City Center Encores! Girl Crazy [directed by Jerry Zaks], and at major regionals but it's in opera where he's made not only a name for himself but also received luminous raves in various company's productions as Rodolfo in La Boheme, Romeo in Romeo et Juliette, Alexis in The Chocolate Soldier, and Rodolpho in William Bolcom's A View from the Bridge.

Allen was a finalist in the San Francisco Opera's 2009 Merola competition, one of the most prestigious American opera training programs. Onstage, he covered the roles of Fabrizio and Giuseppe.in LCT's hit production of Adam Guettel/Craig Lucas' The Light in the Piazza; and, prior to the NY production directed by Bartlett Sher, he originated the role of Giuseppe in LITP at Chicago's Goodman and, under Lucas's direction, in the Seattle' premier at the Initman. He was nominated for a Helen Hayes Award, Best Actor, for his Clifford Bradshaw in Arena Stage's Cabaret. Allen also runs a voice studio with many A-List Bway performances among his clients.

For more information and tickets, visit www.symphonyspace.org.

Battle Fatigues

The Metropolitan Museum's uptown, scenic Cloisters museum, the branch devoted to the art and architecture of the Middle Ages, will host 30 citizens of the Netherlands wearing historically accurate attire based on medieval designs from 15th Century illuminated manuscripts. On February 28, at 1 and 3 P.M., they'll participate in a lecture demonstration with costume historian Desirée Koslin. The costumes are those that would have been worn by dukes, duchesses, ladies of the court, and merchants, as well as the hoi polloi. The event is free with Museum admission.

At the Movies

Move over Vertigo, Mulholland Drive and Antichrist, Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese's ultra psychological thriller/puzzler Shutter Island [Paramount Pictures], arriving in theatres today, will be the subject of endless "watercooler" debates. Based on the 2003 best-selling suspense novel by Dennis Lehane [Mystic River], it's set against the backdrop of a hospital for the criminally insane on a rugged island of towering cliffs - out in Boston harbor!

Starring is three-time Oscar nom Leonardo DiCaprio as a U.S. marshal haunted by the sights of WWII German death camps, who may or may not have an identity problem brought about by a traumatic incident. Trauma plays a large role in the proceedings. As dozens of psychopaths roam, there's a lot of psychiatric mumbo jumbo from Oscar winner Ben Kingsley as the asylum head DiCaprio butts heads with.

In a convoluted story, DiCaprio stands out in probably his best role to date. Even if at times he looks like the spitting image of Jack Nicholson in The Shining, It's a nomination-caliber performance.

No doubt heavily-influenced by Hitchcock and David Lynch, Scorsese doesn't mind going out on the proverbial limb. So pay very close attention. The film switches more gears than an old Buick. There are clues everywhere, especially at the very beginning and about 20 minutes later. It takes another 20 minutes to really get going, but then buckle up because it's a bumpy ride. It's intense! Never turn away from the screen, and don't believe anything you see or hear.

Shutter Island co-stars Mark Ruffalo; Michelle Williams; Oscar nom Max von Sydow, who can chew the hell out of scenery even while sitting in a wingback chair [he wins the prize for the most elegantly dressed doctor in his priceless pinstripe suit]; Emily Mortimer; Oscar nom Jackie Earle Haley [Little Children; TV's Human Target and Watchmen]; and, in one of the most mind-boggling performances of her mostly quite distinguished career, Oscar nom and Emmy winner Patricia Clarkson, who bravely portrays her real or unreal character sans make-up.

Audiences will have to take several leaps of faith, because you can't count on reality. There are enough holes in the pic to fill a doughnut factory, but that didn't hurt Vertigo. Even if the film might not be everyone's cup of tea, there are many standout things: Rob Legato's visual effects, editing by Scorsese vet Thelma Schoonmaker, Robert Richardson's incredible cinematography, and the ominous score [with lots of lilting Polish classical music to boot] by Bernard Herrmann wannabe rock composer Robbie Robertson.

An aside: Overheard at the media screening, Friend to film critic: "Did you think it was cerebral?" Film critic: "The only thing cerebral about it was Marty Scorsese having his head up his cerebral xxx!"

Though all the season's headliners haven't been announced, look at the star power coming in: Two-time Tony and three-time DD-winner John Lithgow, making his frequent transition from screen to stage roles, this season co-starring at Second Stage in Douglas Carter Beane's Mr. and Mrs. Fitch; Two-time Oscar-winner Denzel Washington, returning five years after his Brutus in Julius Caesar, in the Fences revival; and Kelsey Grammar is back after 10 years and roles in Shakespeare classics for a total change of pace as Georges in the La Cage revival.

Joining them are Vanessa Williams, Sondheim on Sondheim; Oscar nom Abigail Breslin, above the title in The Miracle Worker revival; Valerie Harper, absent almost 10 years, as over-the-top Tallulah Bankhead in Looped.; and the multi-talented Megan Mullally will co-star in Roundabout's Lips Together, Teeth Apart revival, with Lili Taylor, who returns to theater after 13 years apart. Let's not forget Hugh Dancy upcominging in Pride; and Michael Urie [Ugly Betty] returning in The Temperamentals.

In addition to the long list of revivals, there're new works, such as former hoofer Christopher Walken returning to his stage roots in Martin McDonagh's black comedy A Beheading in Spokane, playing a man searching for his hand; and he'll b e joined by Anthony Mackie [The Hurt Locker]. In the revival of Noel Coward's Present Laughter, Victor Garber, after transitioning from stage to film to TV [co-starring or with recurring roles in seven series, including ABC's smash Alias], headlines.

There'll be the revival of Lend Me a Tenor , fully- loaded with star power: Tony Shalhoub [back after 18 years], [his wife] Brooke Adams [absent since the late 80s], Justin Bartha [from The Hangover]. Directing is Oscar nominee and Golden Globe/Emmy winner Stanley Tucci, absent from the NY stage for almost eight years.

But there's already megawatt star power on the boards: Oscar-winner [as Velma in the screen adaptation of Chicago] Catharine Zeta-Jones, in her Broadway debut in the Little Night Music revival; and Liev Schreiber and Scarlett Johansson, making her Bway debut in the role of Beatrice, in the revival of Arthur Miller's sizzling noir View from the Bridge .

Stage vets Meryl Streep, Stockard Channing, Kevin Kline, Glenn Close, Richard Thomas, Swoosie Kurtz, and Kristin Chenoweth rode the early wave from East Coast to West Coast, with frequent or occasional trips back East. Thomas is back on Broadway in David Mamet's Race, with James Spader and Kerry Washington, making their Bway debuts. Chenoweth will join Sean Hayes in the revival of Promises, Promises.

Among the stars who made the leap from stage to screen, and whom we may not be seeing here for a while, are: Cherry Jones, after coming up the Off Bway ranks to Tony and Drama Desk Awards, is now the first female president of the United States on Fox megahit 24; Michael Emerson from his acclaimed performance as Oscar Wilde Off Bway has become one of the best - or maybe just misunderstood - villains of all time, Ben Linus, on ABC smash Lost; and Matthew Morrison, from Light in the Piazza, and Lea Michelle, from Spring Awakening, are full of Glee on their new Fox hit.

Tony and DD-winner Tonya Pinkins made the transition to daytime TV with her role as attorney Livia Frye on All My Children, and more recently in a recurring role on 24. The actress with a hundred different looks, the amazing DD-winner and Tony nom Kathleen Chalfant [Angels in America, Wit] has been in transit for years between stage, TV, and film. Spamalot's Lady of the Lake Sara Ramirez was cast in TV smash Gray's Anatomy after 11 months on Bway. Patrick Wilson, who returned last season for All My Sons, made it known he wanted a film career and, since exposing himself to good effect in some hot hump sequences in Little Children, seems to be on a movie roll.

Numerous NY actors have established bulging retirement annuities for their guest roles in NBC's Law & Order franchise; and, HBO's Sex and the City.

Following Oscar winners Susan Saradon, away 37 years, and Geoffrey Rush, in his Bway debut, who co-starred last season in the Exit the King revival, among the screen names who came or returned to the stage were Hugh Jackman, in his second Bway outing, and Daniel Craig, making his Bway debut, in A Steady Rain; Jude Law as Hamlet; and John Stamos in Roundabout's revival of Bye, Bye, Birdie after a gap of over six years following stepping into three revivals [Nine, Cabaret, How to Succeed...]. More recently, Kristen Johnson delivered a rollicking characterization Off Bway in the long-forgotten So Help Me God!

Last season also saw Jane Fonda, after 46 years, on Bway in Beethoven's Ninth; Allison Janney, after almost seven years and stardom on and Emmys for TV's West Wing, receiving a Tony nod and DD win for 9 to 5; and Daniel Radcliffe from Warner Bros. blockbuster fantasy franchise Harry Potter delivering a sizzling Bway debut in the Equus revival.

Sadly, after winning raves for a month in a tiny Off Off Bway house in The Starry Messenger, Matthew Broderick will be exiting theater for a while to follow in his wife Sarah Jessica Parker's footsteps in NBC's sitcom Beech Lane, his first TV series. He'll play a famous writer trying to run a Hamptons' newspaper.

Drama League Fetes Angela Lansbury

A galaxy of stars will honor theater legend and five-time Tony winner Angela Lansbury at the Drama League benefit gala, A Musical Celebration of Broadway, Monday night at the Pierre Hotel.

Scheduled to appear or perform are James Barbour, Charles Busch, Ann Hampton Callaway, Len Cariou, Will Chase, Edie Falco, Beth Fowler, Victor Garber, Alexander Gemignani, Malcolm Gets, Dee Hoty, Cheyenne Jackson, Chad Kimball, Donna Murphy, Bernadette Peters, Christopher Sieber, Will Swenson, and, among others, Catherine Zeta-Jones.

There will be surpries, too: 1966 Tony winner, Featured Actor, Frankie Michaels, young Patrick in Mame, his only listed Bway credit; and 1979 Theatre World Award winner Sarah Rice, Johanna in Sweeney Tood, her only listed Bway credit.

Callaway will honor Miss Lansbury with a tribute song composed on the spot, using descriptions of the star shouted out by attendees. A duo of Broadway leading men will reprise "Bosom Buddies" in tribute to Miss Lansbury and Mame co-star, the late Bea Arthur. Murphy, DL board member, will salute with "Me and My Town," which Miss Lansbury, as corrupt mayor Cara Hoover, stopped early in the first act of all 12 performances of Sondheim's unconventional satire Anyone Can Whistle.

The evening begins at 7 P.M. with cocktails and a silent auction/raffle in the hotel's Cotillion Room. It will be followed by dinner at 8 in the grand ballroom. The tribute and entertainment portion of the gala will include selections from Miss Lansbury's prolific career, including Anyone Can Whistle, Mame, Dear World. Gypsy [revival], Sweeney Todd, Blithe Spirit revival, and the current revival of A Little Night Music in which Miss Lansbury co-stars opposite Zeta-Jones.

Drama League President Jano Herbosch announced there will be a salute to her long film career, which included many age-stretching characterizations. They include Disney's Beauty and the Beast, for which she provided the voice of Mrs. Potts, and her celebrated long-run [1984-1996] as Jessica Fletcher on CBS/Universal's Murder She Wrote TV series. Fans of Miss Lansbury will know that as a precursor to playing Ms. Fletcher in MSW, she portrayed Jane Marple in the 1980 film, The Mirror Crack'd.

Among her acclaimed film roles are the servant Nancy in Gaslight [her 1944 debut, opposite Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, and Joseph Cotten]; Sibyl in The Picture of Dorian Gray; Em opposite Garland in The Harvey Girls; and her celebrated portrayal of sinister Mrs. Iselin in The Manchurian Candidate .

Miss Lansbury also appeared opposite June Allyson, Bette Davis, Jane Fonda, Kathryn Grayson, Katharine Helpburn, Lee Remick, Maureen Stapleton, Elizabeth Taylor, Esther Williams, and, among numerous others, Joanne Woodward. Male co-stars included Peter Finch, Anthony Franciosa, Laurence Harvey, Paul Newman, Christopher Plummer, Elvis Presley, Spencer Tracy, and, among numberous others, Orson Welles.

After 16 films as a major contract player at M-G-M, Miss Lansbury easily made the transition to the "Golden Era" of TV. She made her Broadway debut in 1957. For a complete listing of Miss Lanbury's Broadway roles and awards/nominations, visit www.ibdb.com. For a complete listing of film and TV roles/appearances, visit www.imdb.com.

The DL entertainment program will be co-directed by Tony winner Michael Mayer [Spring Awakening] and Beatrice Terry [his SA associate director].

Among the prizes for the auction are opening night tickets to Broadway's upcoming, groundbreaking new musical by rock band Green Day, Mayer and Tom Kitt, American Idiot ; a backstage chat with Miss Lansbury following a performance of A Little Night Music; a watercolor portrait by two-time Tony, three-time Drama Desk, and Emmy winner John Lithgow, currently starring Off Bway in Mr. and Mrs. Fitch; and a California "Wine Lover's Tour."

Founded in 1916, the Drama League funds artist education and audience development programs designed to strengthen and enhance professional theater in America. Through key programs, such as the Audience Project and the Directors Project, the org annually serves 100,000 theatergoers, artists, industry professionals, and students.

$200 performance-only tickets are still available. To reserve, call special events manager Roger Calderon, (212) 244-9494, X. 5. For more information, visit www.dramaleague.org.

Encores!

For Encores! milestone 50th concert adaptation, the City Center series is presenting a musical considered one of Broadway's greatest love stories, Harold Rome/S. N. Behrman/Josh Logan's 1954 Fanny, based on Marcel Pagnol's classic film trilogy set in Marseille.

There are four more opportunities to catch this romantic musical, the story of Fanny's passion for Marius, who leaves to sail the seven seas, little realizing that she's pregnant. Her marriage of convenience to Panisse, a wealthy older man desperate to have an heir, is complicated by Marius' return years later. But, in the end, love, as always, conquers all.

Fred Applegate [The Producers, Sound of Music revival] is Panisse, Elena Shaddow [Clara in the national tour of Light in the Piazza; soon to be seen as Anne in the La Cage revival] is Fanny. James Snyder [Crybaby] is Marius, and two-time Tony and a DD-winner George Hearn is his father Caesar.

David Patrick Kelly, Michael McCormick,Tony and DD-winner and ACL legend Priscilla Lopez [In the Heights], and Ted Sutherland are featured witrh a spirited chorus/dance ensemble of 20 +.

Rome's score contains some ardent and sweeping melodies, including "Restless Heart"; "Never Too Late For Love"; "The Thought of You," a duet for the lovers; "I Have to Tell You," which is beautifully rendered by Shaddow in a warm soprano; the poignant "Welcome Home," a showstopper for Applegate; and the poignant title tune sung with passion by dashing tenor Synder.

Attending tonight's performances will be TV legend Florence Henderson, the original Fanny. Other stars of the show were Walter Slezak as Panisse, William Tabbert [South Pacific's Lt. Joseph Cable] as Marius, and opera star Ezio Pinza [of SP fame] as Caesar. In spite of being quite controversial for its themes at the time, it played 888 performances.

Directing is Marc Bruni, with choreography by Lorin Latarro. Encores! music director Rob Berman conducts the large Encores! orchestra, using the original vocal arrangements by the celebrated Lehman Engel and Philip Lang's lush orchestrations.

Encores! is made possible by support from Newman's Own Foundation and the Stephanie and Fred Shuman Fund. Jack Viertel, is Encores! A.D. The series is the recipient of a 2000 Tony Honor for Excellence in the Theatre.

Remaining performances are tonight and Saturday at 8 P.M.; Saturday matinee at 2; and Sunday at 6:30. Tickets for the 2009-2010 Encores! season are available at the City Center box office, through CityTix at (212)581-1212, or online at www.nycitycenter.org. Individual tickets are $25-$95.

Broadway by the Year Opens 10th Season

Town Hall will present the 10th Anniversary Season of the Broadway By the Year series, created, written and hosted by Scott Siegel. This season's concerts showcase Broadway musicals of 1927, 1948, 1966, and for the season finale there will be a big surprise.

The season opener, on Monday, February 22 at 8 P.M., will be Broadway Musicals of 1927 with tunes from Good News, Hit the Deck!, Rio Rita, Showboat, Ziegfeld Follies of 1927, and many others. As almost always, there'll be a much-anticipated "unplugged" moment, when a cast member performs, as Siegel loves to say, "with sound by God." Since Showboat is one of the musicals, can you just wonder what song that will be?

BBTY takes audiences on a musical journey through the best of the Great White Way, featuring show-stopping numbers as well as lesser-known gems and little-known facts and humor about our favorite shows. The NY Times called the series "an event that is treasured by Broadway babies."

"It is our intention to make this 10th Anniversary season as special and memorable as possible," said Siegel. "To that end, we are assembling casts for each of our four concerts that will make each a must-see event for fans of Broadway musicals. We have cast a combination of Broadway regulars, as well as the stars, who are currently in Broadway shows.

"For our final show of this season [June 14]," he continues, "we'll got something spectacular and very special planned - something we've never done before. The cast members will perform one song from each show we've celebrated from 1990 to 2010. That's going to be 21 great showstopping tunes."

The BBTY season: March 22, Broadway Musicals of 1948 - Kiss Me, Kate, Lend an Ear, My Romance, Love Life, Where's Charley?, more. May 10, Broadway Musicals of 1966 - The Apple Tree, Cabaret, I Do! I Do!, Mame, Sweet Charity, others. June 14 - Broadway Musicals of 1990-2010 - highlights: Aspects of Love, Falsettos, Jersey Boys, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Ragtime, Wicked, many more.

Subscriptions for Broadway By the Year are available at www.the-townhall-nyc.org. Single tickets, $45-$55, are available at the Town Hall box office, through Ticketmaster, (800) 982-2787 or their web site, www.ticketmaster.com.

Zero Hour Back on the Clock

Some may remember him as Father James on All My Children; from his years of regional theater; still others may recall him Off Broadway in The Big Voice: God or Merman; however, from now on Jim Brochu will be remembered for his vivid, spot-on impersonation of the irresistible, irascible, legendary, and famously volatile comic actor Zero Mostel in his one-man play Zero Hour.

Following its acclaimed run earlier Off Bway, Zero Hour returns for an open-end engagement February 23 at the DR2 Theatre [103 East 15th Street, east of Park Avenue South]. Opening night is March 7.

The play is 90 minutes of edge-of-the-seat explosive theater. The concept is built around a 1977 NYTimes interview with Mostel at his West 28th Street artist studio. The ensuing session leads to an explosion of memory, humor, outrage, and juicy backstage lore. It's earned across-the-board raves for Brochu's crisp writing and animated portrayal of Mostel. Brochu, who even without makeup bears a strong resemblance to Mostel, like the character he is impersonating has the most expressive eyes.

Jason Zinoman, in the New York Times, wrote, "Singularly captivating. Zero Hour is a success. Brochu is the spitting image of the bearish Mostel, down to the strands of hair barely covering his head. His wildly expressive gestures are particularly spot on. It brings Mostel back to life, just the way his fans want him."

The interview, given shortly before Mostel left for Philadelphia for the pre-Broadway tryout of The Merchant of Venice. He played one performance as Shylock before his sudden death at age 62.

Z.H., which won numerous honors in regional engagements [including L.A.'s Ovation Award for Best New Play], is a must-catch for anyone interested in the origins of a true theater legend.

Brochu traces Mostel's early days growing up on the Lower East Side as the son of Orthodox Jewish immigrant parents, through his rise as a stand-up comedian, from the Borscht Belt to Manhattan's most exclusive supper clubs, and from the devastation of the blacklist to his Broadway triumphs - most memorably in A Funny Thing... and as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof.

Brochu relives the devastation the blacklist had on careers such as Mostel, Jack Gilford, and hundreds more in one of America's darkest, most shameful eras, In the late 40s into the mid-50s the buffoonish but powerful senator from Wisconsin, "Commie Hunter" Joseph McCarthy, who headed the Congressional House Un-American Activities Committee. House, seized headlines wildly accusing high profile actors of stage and screen of being "reds." These actors were exiled, with some of the accused committing suicide.

The one person Mostel despised above all others was choreographer/director Jerome Robbins, who went before the committee and named names. In an odd set of love/hate circumstances, it was Robbins, a.k.a. "Loose Lips" by Mostel, who led the actor to two of his most memorable portrayals, that of Pseudolus in AFT... [1962], and Tevye in FOTR [1964]. Before those two landmark performances, the three-time Tony-winner received great acclaim playing John in Ionesco's Rhinoceros.

Then came his triumph onscreen: Mel Brooks' The Producers, which co-starred Mostel as Max Bialystock opposite Gene Wilder as Leo Bloom. His last role in New York was as Leopold Bloom in Ulysses in Nightgown, which garnered him a DD Award and Tony nom.

"Zero had a great influence on my life," says Brochu. "I was fortunate to get to know him when I was starting out. His life was filled with great laughter, drama, and life lessons. Few in show business had more obstacles to overcome than Zero. Drama is about overcoming obstacles - the protagonist and the antagonist. Zero had a lot of antagonists in his life. He said, 'I've been excluded as a man. I've been excluded as an entertainer. I've been excluded as a Jew.'

"He was disowned by his parents when he married a Catholic," continues Brochu. "There was the blacklist; and just when then things were going great, he was hit by a bus and, had he not spoken up with great determination, would have had a leg amputated. That's a pretty dramatic life."

Mostel tried to heal the rupture with his mother when she was dying by bringing his son Josh to the hospital so she could meet him; but what was broken remained broken. When she raised up from the bed and saw them in the doorway, she screamed, "Out, out, out!"

Zero Hour is directed by one of the 50s most popular movie sweethearts, Piper Laurie, who segued to three Oscars noms [Hustler, Carrie, and Children of a Lesser God], a Golden Globe nom [TV's Twin Peaks], and nine Emmy noms [including a nod for the live TV broadcast of Days of Wine and Roses, directed by John Frankenheimer] with a 1986 win.

She appeared on Bway in revivals of Morning's at Seven as Esther; and The Glass Menagerie as The Daughter; Off Bway in Larry Kramer's The Destiny of Me and MTC's revival of Biography. She has toured extensively in William Luce's one-woman show, The Last Flapper, based on the writing of Zelda Fitzgerald. Ms. Laurie also directs film and, still works in them. She just wrapped a featured role in her 61st, Hesher with Natalie Portman and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Producers are Kurt Peterson [who, in his career as an acclaimed Broadway actor/singer, starred in the Lincoln Center revival of WSS, with Angela Lansbury in Dear World, and as Young Ben in the original Follies ] and Edmund Gaynes.

For more information, visit www.ZeroHourShow.com.

Valentine's Day

Have you bought your special loved one(s) a gift that has love written all over it. If roses are red but not quite enough, what about tickets to a Bway or Off Bway show. There's plenty of romance and passion in shows currently on the boards.

The TDK booths offer half-price or heavily discounted tickets to 90% of shows. Theatrical web sites offer incredible discounts. If you plan ahead to the February 18 start of previews, tickets for The Temperamentals at New World Stages are $19.52, cheaper than two dozen long-stems. [Call (212) 947-8844 or go to the box office; use the code TEPPRV12.] And NWS features others shows and the Time Out cocktail lounge. You couldn't go wrong with a series subscription to Town Hall's acclaimed Broadway by the Year series, priced quite reasonably.

For romantic musical intimacy, there's always the Metropolitan Room. There'll be a Valentine's eve rare performance by Melba Moore. The roster for "Love the One You're With Day" will be Jenna Esposito, Gianni Russo, and Craig Pomranz. Later in the month, Tom Wopat headlines. For reservations and more information, visit www.metropolitanroom.com.

Betty Buckley presents For the Love of Broadway at Feinstein's at Lowes Regency, the height of a romantic supper club, through February 27. The good news is the cover for her shows is a bargain $40 when booked directly though the club. Gregg Edelman is Back In Town Sunday and Monday. He'll be followed by Ashley Brown, Ryan Silverman, Michael Urie [The Temperamentals] and Becki Newton, co-stars of Ugly Betty. Minimums may apply. To book, call (212) 339-4095 or visit online at www.feinsteinsatlowesregency.com.

New to DVD

Nip/Tuck series creator Ryan Murphy certainly writes from one extreme to the other.

This is certainly evidenced by the hit Fox sitcom Glee, the vastly dysfunctional and entertaining adolescent soap opera with big musical numbers that's pure feel-happy delight. Season One, The Road to Sectionals, is now available on DVD [20th Century Fox Home Entertainment; four discs, nine hours and 40 minutes; widescreen; SRP, $40].

The background story of teen angst and the ups and downs of a high school glee club lures you in, but what makes the series a standout are the amazingly talented cast and the musical numbers, which mix Bway with classic pop and rock.

Series anchor Will Schuester [Matthew Morrison, Light in the Piazza], the earnest Spanish teacher of McKinley High School, who's determined to guide the glee club to regional and national victory. He sees this collection of overemotional misfits as heroic, but they're looked down on as losers by the rest of the school dudes, H.S. queen, and outrageous Sue Sylvester [Emmy nom Jane Lynch, The 40 Year Old Virgin]].

Glee is abetted by one of the standout ensemble cast in decades. Morrison exhibits talents no one ever imagined he possesed. Lea Michelle [Spring Awakening], as the "really, really talented" H.S. diva everyone hates and whose self-obsession, is as uninhibited as she's annoying. Lynch, the ruthless cheerleading coach who stops at nothing to destroy the glee club in order to save her extravagant budget, is never less than memorable.

They aren't alone. Other standouts are germaphobic guidance counselor Emma [Jayma Mays], who's hopelessly in love with Morrison; sassy, big-voiced [think Jennifer Holliday] Amber Riley; Jessalyn Gilsig [the memorable Gina on Nip/Tuck], as Morrison's never-satisfied wife; and cherubic, flamboyant, never-been-kissed Kurt [Chris Colfer], who becomes immensely popular on discovery that he possesses a fantastic football kick. Then there are such guest stars as Kristin Chenoweth, Victor Garber, Josh Groban, Idina Menzel, Deborah Monk, Stephen Tobolowsky, and John Lloyd Young. Zachary Woodlee's choreography and the music rock.

The package features include Rachel and Mercedes audition pieces, Dance Boot Camp, and the short Deconstructing Glee with Murphy.

Director Mira Nair [Vanity Fair, Moonsoon Wedding] creates screen experiences. She loves tales of epic romance, struggle and triumph. So she was the right choice to helm Amelia, the factual and not-so-factual biopic of legendary flying ace Amelia Earhart, as she lives her dreams - and chases love across the horizons. The film lands this week on DVD and Blu-ray disc [20th Century Fox Home Entertainment; 111 minutes, widescreen: SRP, $30/$40; Blu-ray comes with a digital copy].

Hailed as "The Queen of the Air," Earheart boldly flew into the history books with her solo flight across the Atlantic. The film, starring two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank [Million Dollar Baby, Boys Don't Cry], is equal parts drama, documentary, romance, and adventure as Earheart balances ambition, marriage, and a passionate affair [only one is presented in the film]. In 1937, in quite the bold move, Earheart began an attempt to fly around the world. Her plane disappeared over the Pacific, and has never been found.

Richard Gere portrays husband Gene Putnam and Ewan McGregor plays probably the best-know of Earheart's affairs of the heart in her open marriage, Gene Vidal [father of Gore]. Cherry Jones, keeping very close to the White House these days, is featured as Eleanor Roosevelt. William Cuddy portrays young, sensitive Gore.

The film, told in flashbacks as Earheart undertakes her great adventure, isn't exactly a potent epic. It takes it's time getting started; and, very much like in The Spirt of St. Louis, it has difficulty holding interest with reaction shots of Swank's face as she pilots from continent to continent. The flying sequences by cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh are breathtaking and could send your spirits soaring. Gabriel Yared contributes an excellent score rooted in leitmotifs of Spanish composer Joseph LaCalle "Amapola," which Ennio Morricone beat him to the punch and to much greater effect in Once Upon a Time in America.

Amelia's bonus material is really a bonus. You don't often want to question a director's judgement in cutting material from a film that's too long, but Amelia would have immensely benefited from some of the 13 + minutes Nair deleted - especially the sequences involving Virginia Madsen as Putnam's wife that show their marriage dissolving. Though it's only a bit, there's another interesting sequence featuring Mariska Hargitay [in a rare outing from L&O], looking absolutely the spitting image of her mother Jayne Mansfield as rival aviatrix Mabel Boll.

In addition, there are a making-of feature and docs Making Amelia, The Power of Amelia Earhart, and The Plane Behind the Legend.