Jackie Goldberg The Pink Lady

Jackie Goldberg, the famous Pink Lady, advocates Senior Star Power seminars for people over the age of 60. For her, an incredible 78 years young, seniors need to "Get  up, get out and get a life", with age merely a number and never a hindrance to success. Look at her! She's living proof. Rockin' With the Ages 3 at the Victory Theatre in Burbank is her third hit musical production in the past year and a half with a complete cast of senior talent. This lady continues to do so very much for the senior community in LA to keep them thriving and happy.


Q: Why was it so important for you to make a book musical out of Rockin with the Ages? The revues were very, very good.
 I made ROCKIN a rock type show because in all my shows from now on I want to show all the different ways my senior cast can go and be vital, exciting and entertaining.  Rockin 4 will show a completely new way.

Q: How did you select your creative team, like director, musical director, choreographer?

I always PUT IT OUT THERE and people call and I try to choose those whose ideas are like mine ...to remember that AGE IS ONLY A NUMBER .   

Q: Did you give your input into the storyline?

YES AND NO.  I set the idea about how and where we should be located and a few ideas on songs, but BILL REID was great in writing the BOOK  and MARK (RODRIGUEZ) is fantastic as a musical director and super as a piano man.  

Q: How does the show symbolize your philosophy of living over the age of 60?

 IT'S NEVER OVER TILL IT'S REALLY OVER......AND I BELIEVE THAT THIS IS REALLY THE BEST OF TIMES IN ONE'S LIFE!  

Q: Why were the songs selected rock songs instead of pop or Broadway, as those suited your cast so well?

EACH show is different, as I said.    JUST YOU WAIT TO SEE ROCKIN 4!

Interview with Lee Roy Reams

Triple threat Lee Roy Reams will be performing a song from 42nd Street in this year's S.T.A.G.E. benefit entitled Original Cast 2 at the Luckman Theatre on Saturday April 2. He has been in the original cast of Lorelei and in more productions of Hello Dolly! and 42nd Street than he can remember. In our recent phone chat he reminisced about the shows and the people he's worked with, including late greats Ruby Keeler & Juliet Prowse and legendary Carol Channing and Jerry Herman.



Is this your first S.T.A.G.E. benefit? 


I think for this organization, yes. I've done other events with David Galligan before. We're old, old friends.


You'll be performing something from 42nd Street. Is that your favorite show?

I don't really have one. They're like children. Each one has a special little something. 42nd. Street was certainly the longest run, and certainly the one that brought me the most attention. But I really enjoyed doing La Cage Aux Folles. It artistically fulfilled me because I got to do everything in it. They all have special little things. I love Hello Dolly too.


I saw you do the Hello Dolly revival.


God bless you!  That was in '78! Then I directed Carol's (Channing) last revival in '94.


I'm going to mention a show or a person and say the first thing that comes to mind.
Lorelei.


Too many things come to mind. Mine doesn't work on one path.


Then mention a few significant things.

With Lorelei, I think of the great friendship I had with Dody Goodman. And...it was my first contact with Carol Channing. And it was because of Carol Channing that I met Jerry Herman. When I graduated from high school in Covington, Kentucky years ago, on prom night we saved our money and went to the Beverly Hills Country Club, because that was the thing to do. They had a big night club there where Sophie Tucker and all the big stars used to play. Carol Channing was the attraction, the headliner that night and did "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend". And she tossed out these wonderful rhinestone bracelets with her name copied on the clasp. Of course, I jumped up, ran all over and grabbed two of them. I saved them. On the first day of rehearsal for Lorelei, I brought the bracelet in and said, "Miss Channing, I caught this from you at the Beverly Hills Country Club." Well, that was it, and we had a big picture made where I'm holding up the bracelet and she's pointing to it. And that's how we became friends. Years later, she called me on the phone and said, (with his best Carol Channing voice) "This is Carol, and I'm going to do a revival of Hello Dolly and I want you to play Cornelius Hackel. Jerry Herman doesn't know you, but don't worry, darling, you've got the job." Thus my contact with Dolly and many years with Jerry Herman happened as a result of that.


Tell me more about Dody Goodman. I loved her as Mary's mother in 
Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.

She just was a fabulous person and she and I toured for a year in Lorelei, she played my mother, and we became very close. When we came into New York our friendship endured through the years. In one of her travels to New York, she'd come to stay with my friend Bob and I. Then she decided to move next door, to the apartment building that was built next to our house. She liked being with us so much, she moved back to New York. She was one of the funniest and most delightful people in my life. I loved her with all my heart up to the end. My partner Bob and I had microphones set up in the living room and a player piano. When she'd come to visit, we used to interview each other. Bob would pump the piano, we'd have an opening number and we'd sit and talk to each other with the microphones. People across the way probably looked into my living room and thought "What are those people doing over there? They're crazy!" We'd talk and laugh and tell funny stories and laugh 'til we would cry. I could do an entire evening on Dody Goodman.


Applause.

I didn't get the role. I auditioned and it was intimated that I had it. The agent called and said that they were waiting for the offer. I thought I had it, but I didn't. On New Years Eve I was very depressed and the next day the phone call came; they fired Garrett Lewis and wanted me to come in. The show was in run-throughs. I had a lot of time to catch up. But the wonderful thing about that show was my friendship with Lauren Bacall. I know the first day of rehearsal when I came in, I had to do catch up and I said "I should at least fluff Miss Bacall's hair because then they'll know why I'm in the scene. I have to have a line for the end of the scene." And I said "Miss Bacall, I promise I won't mess up your hair." And she said, "My friends call me Betty." That was it; I can't explain it to you. It's as if I had known her in a former life. We really became close that very moment and remained so during the years.


Sweet Charity.

Oh, Gwen Verdon, Gwen Verdon, Gwen Verdon. The best theatre dancer ever! When I auditioned for Fosse, I wore ballet tights, because in those days you couldn't buy dance pants. Dancers made them for one another, but you couldn't go into a store and buy dance pants. I came from ballet school. No one payed any attention to me until I sang and Cy Coleman was all over and said "We've got to have him, we've got to have him!" He and Gwen Verdon were pushing for me, and because of my training my Hispanic accent was better and clearer than the competition. So I got it and Gwen Verdon and I became friendly. Fosse liked me, thank God, later. When we did the film of Charity, Gwen asked me to dance with her on a Bob Hope special. I also did The Ed Sullivan Show with her. I was always so pleased to be a Fosse dancer and to be included
into that little intimate group. To see what Gwen Verdon did on stage was just incredible. Truly one of the great artists of the theatre. I'm such a fan.


The Producers.

It was fun to have that entree with Mel Brooks. When I saw the show and told Mel he would sweep the Tony Awards, he responded, "What part do you want to play?" I was in the first national tour. Lewis Stadlen who played Max on the tour...we'd known each other decades, but had never worked together, and with him I found another best friend. I think that's so important: that you always take friends with you from each show.


Juliet Prowse.

My first audition, my first job in New York...she chose me to be in her act and took me with her as her dancer and when she did Irma La Douce, I was hired. I loved her; she was one of the greats. She always hired me and kept me working.




Carole Cook.

(he laughs)
First day of rehearsal for 42nd Street, Carole came up to me and said "You must be Lee Roy Reams." And I said "You must be Carole Cook." He had so many mutual friends but had never met. Again, I had known her in a former life. We became twins that day and I've laughed decades away with her. Whenever I come to California, she's the first person I run to see. There's never a moment of silence when she's around. Jerry Herman said that one time when they did a salute to the Gershwins, she came out, took center stage and started to sing "Let the drums roll out..." and this big bass drum rolled across the stage in front of her. He said it was one of the funniest things he'd ever seen...her expression as she watched the drum roll off.


Ruby Keeler.

Oh, God, dear Ruby Keeler. When I did my audition for 42nd. Street, I looked into the balcony when I sang "I only have eyes for you." I did. I looked up and pretended I was looking into the face of Ruby Keeler. I loved all those Warner Brothers films. When she came to see the show, days after it had opened, I told her the story, and she said "Well, sing it to me now!" I sang it to her backstage and we became friends. One time when we were out, she told me she no longer owned a pair of tap shoes. Because of her stroke, she had given  all her shoes away to charity. So I called Capezio and had a pair of her shoes made. We had a good cry over that one. A wonderfully warm, lovely human being!


Jerry Herman.

My friendship with Jerry happened during that first revival of Hello Dolly and he said he had written songs for women and had most of his successes writing for women. I told him "That's not true. I sing your songs all the time. Men can relate to your songs, and I'll prove it to you." I did a whole evening of nothing but Jerry Herman and that's when we started our collaboration doing versions of that show all over the place. Jerry and I are entertwined all the time. He's my favorite composer/lyricist. I'm in awe and sometimes when we were doing a show, I'd step back and say "My God, that's Jerry Herman playing for me." I've never gotten over being star struck. When they turn out to be everything you want them to be, that makes it better.


Any of the new crop of musicals that strike your fancy?


I haven't had a chance to do any of those shows. Unfortunately, there haven't been parts for me. I loved The Light in the Piazza. I also loved Jersey Boys. It was a beautiful concept, and even though I grew up during that period, I had never related to those songs because I was always listening to Ella Fitzgerald and music like that. I never listened to that genre and Elvis Presley and all that stuff. It just wasn't my taste. But I thought that show (Jersey Boys) really captured  a good story plot and the songs fit. Really a great show! I also thought Billy Elliott was a well done show. Not that it was my musical taste either, but I enjoyed Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson when I saw it. I didn't think I would.


Still directing?


Mostly events now. But people thought I had given up performing when I was directing shows. I like to do it all, but it seemed like people were getting confused. I like to perform; it's just something that's in my soul. So I have to get up and get in the spotlight.

Thank goodness for our sake that he does. Catch Lee Roy Reams perhaps doing "Lullaby of Broadway" or some other song to be determined from 42nd. Street... and many, many other great singers/dancers like Carol Channing, Rita Moreno, Sean McDermott, Dale Kristien, etc on April 2 in Original Cast 2 for S.T.A.G.E @ the Luckman Theatre.
visit:
http://www.stagela.com/home.php  for more info

Interview with Jim J. Bullock

Actor/singer Jim J. Bullock, best remembered for the role of Monroe in the 80s sitcom Too Close for Comfort will be appearing @ Sterling's Upstairs @ Vitello's Saturday March 5 with his all new cabaret act. Jim has had a varied career in television over the last twenty-five years, also making regular appearances on Hollywood Squares and doing a talk show with Tammy Faye Bakker. He has always gone back to his theatre roots and recently did the Broadway and cross country tour of Hairspray. In our chat he talks about what inspired him to do the club act at this point in time and his overall love of the theatre. His great off-the-wall sense of humor is still in tact, as he had me laughing throughout.

Tell me what inspired you to do a nightclub act at this point in time.

My relationship with show  business started in the church when I was a teenager, and I sang and I was a church soloist. I actually was pretty good at it, and I was going to become an evangelistic singer. But in college I got bit by the theatre bug, and I came to Hollywood. So my past made a turn and I came out here.I started off showcasing with Skippy Lowe. I watch American Idol and I go, "That would have been me, and I would have not been accepted!" ...Then an agent saw me in a production of Godspell and she said, "You need to do stand-up if you want a series". She was right; I did stand-up, and I got a series. My journey that was music stopped, and even though I would sing when I got the chance, there was a giant veer. Over the years I've sung, done musicals; I did Hairspray, and so I've sort of come back around to that. What really catapulted me into doing this, to get to your original question...three years ago I started studying, taking class with Carole D'Andrea...singing class and acting class and I discovered a singer in me that I never knew how to get out. I learned to find my way to that person and started exercising it, and then, a little over a year ago, a friend approached me and said "You need to do an act!" I said "Yeah, I do need to do an act, but how?" That was Michael Lorre who has since become my musical director. I premiered it last June at my little gay church in WeHo, and we've been doing it here and there, and now we'll be @ Sterling's on the 5th and then Blame It On Midnight in Palm Springs the 19th and 20th of March.

You're doing a combo of stand-up and singing, right?


Oh no, honey, there ain't no stand-up here! Stand-up was horrifying and something I didn't care for. It got me from point A to point B, but this is...I'm finding my footing each time I do it. The title of my show is Different.
It has many different meanings. One of the things it means is that I'm really different from what people expect to see. They're going to come, expecting to see whacky, zany and they're going to get kind of a mature actor who is a good actor and a good singer. I don't care what it sounds like, but I am good! When I started putting the show together, it was heavy; I dropped my humor and I have to put that back. So, I've been adding comedy songs -which are really hard to find, good comedy songs anyway. Each time I do it I'm finding the balance and getting it better, more comfortable... all that good stuff!

Great! I'm looking forward to seeing it!  I see that you have a recurring role on The Bold and the Beautiful. What's up with that?

(laughs) What's so funny about that, Don, is that I did two episodes in 2003 of this giant, over-the-top, gayer than gay character called Serge (he pronounces it Sir gay), then I got Hairspray, so I sort of left for four years and did my Hairspray journey, and when I came back here last summer, my agent called and said,
"B & B called. They want to have you come back." I went back and did 12 episodes. They haven't killed me, but they haven't had me back since then. It may be another five years, but at this stage of the game, it's gay and I'm gay, and I'm happy to have the work. I'm a wedding planner, and it sort of sets the movement back, but you got to get the work when you can get it.

What else is new?


I'm fixing to start a web series called Old Dogs and New Tricks. I've never done one and I think it's very clever about guys around 50. And you never know where that stuff may lead... Justin Bieber!!


You did Wilbur in Hairspray in New York and on the road for a long time. You also a few years ago played Peanut in a favorite play of mine Del Shores' Southern Baptist Sissies. How did they get you to do that, as physically you're so different from Leslie Jordan, the original Peanut?


When Del Shores asked me to guest star and do it, I said "Are you crazy? I'm a good-looking man." This was 10 years ago, and I had a really nice physique, I was cut and looked really, really good. I had worked on my body and I said "I don't know how this could work!" Del said "Leave that to me!" He said he was going to make it like someone whose vanity is in their hair. They got me a really bad wig, because a lot of bald men...their self-image goes right down the drain if they don't have hair, and that was my niche, what hooked me in to the character. I made a valiant effort, I did my best with it, but I'm not right for it and I shouldn't have been cast in it.

I'm sure you were great. I wish I had seen you do it. I did love you in When Pegs Fly and you sang in that!

Funny you should mention that because half of my show Different is from When Pegs Fly. I loved those great torch songs to Rush Limbaugh and Strom Thurmond. I called Mark Waldrop who wrote it and he was thrilled and said he would love to write me new lyrics to replace Strom (Thurmond), who died.

Terrific! What's the favorite show you've done?

I finally got to do A Tuna Christmas two years ago in Kansas City, Missouri. I fell in love with that show the first time I saw it and always wanted to do it. I played 18 characters. I'm from Texas; those people are my family. It came from such an honest place in me. What a challenge that is to do!

Is there anything you really want to do?


I would love to be in an original Broadway cast. Start something in workshop, form it and create it, be on the cast recording, get to have that initial run on Broadway. Everyone who does that part for years and years and years after me will go, "Well this is how it was originally done with Jim J. Bullock!"

Maybe Different will be the start of just that and Jim J. Bullock will return to Broadway in a new show all his own. He's got the comedic talent and drive to do it! Remember Sterling's Upstairs @ Vitello's March 5. Make reservations, as the show will sell out! Call: (818)754-8700

Old Interview with Betty Garrett

The following interview with the great lady, Betty Garrett, who we miss already - passed away on Saturday, Feb 12 - was printed in NoHo LA in the January 18-31, 2005 edition. We did it prior to the opening of Nunsense @ Theatre West.

Right after my interview with singer/comic actress Betty Garrett, I had a delightful surprise. I turned on TCM (Turner Classic Movies) and came in on a screening of the 1948 film Big City with Margaret O'Brien. Lo and behold playing nightclub chanteuse Shushu appeared the very beautiful Garrett singing up a storm with "OK'l Baby Dok'l" by James Miller. Garrett, beloved from film, TV (All in the Family and Laverne & Shirley), and Broadway (most recently in a revival of Stephen Sondheim's Follies) teaches a weekly musical comedy workshop at Theatre West and is about to sing and kick up her heels live onstage in Nunsense, opening there January 20. She finally has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and is a recent recipient of the Cinecon Award, the Professional Dancers Society Award and the Ovation Award for Lifetime Achievement.


Any special reason for mounting Nunsense at this time?

Well actually, Lee Meriwether kind of put it together. She was out on the road in it for ten months and became friendly with the writer/director Dan Goggin. Before she went, she enlisted a group of actors at Theatre West to help her learn the show and workshop it. On the road, she expressed the wish to Dan of doing the show at Theatre West so that all the people that worked so hard could perform it. His response was "Why not?" He gave her the rights to it and not only that, he generously agreed to come here to direct.
Lee and I have been friends for over 40 years now, and she said "I wish we could find a part for Betty", because all the other parts were assigned. He said, "I'll write her a part." So he wrote in another character (before now the cook was only mentioned), and a song. I'm Sister Julia Child of God. I'm in the tap dancing number and I also get to read from my cookbook that I've written in order to raise funds. It's just outrageous. (She laughs heartily.)

Do you prefer musical comedy to drama?

I love any kind of theatre, as long as it's good. But, somehow when I started out, I was doing things where I had to learn to sing, and musical comedy seemed to be where I was the most successful. As a matter of fact, my next project is going to be working on a revue of all the songs that I've written over the years.* I discovered in my trunk about 50 different popular songs. I've been doling the songs out to people in my musical comedy workshop to try them out and see how they work.

What advice do you give young actors?


Get yourself hooked up with some group where you can work all the time, because it's a waste of time to sit around waiting for your agent to call you.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
* This became Betty Garrett Closet Songwriter, performed at Theatre West in November, 2007.


Betty Garrett worked hard and always delivered. What a gal; what a performer! Your passion for the theatre should never die, even in moments that are, as we say, less than favorable to you. Garrett is certainly living proof, as she worked at Theatre West and attended theatre around town and the country right up until shortly before her death this year. Young actors can learn a lot from her tireless dedication and lifelong service to the arts. She will be sorely missed!
Godspeed!

Interview with David Campbell

Australian actor/singer/director David Campbell, whose recent CD On Broadway is fast approaching  international success, was in New York this past weekend as an ambassador for G'Day USA and to promote his family album Floodlight to be released in stores in Australia February 1 and already a hit on iTunes. The album is a $4.95 contribution to aid the flood victims in Australia. In our conversation Campbell talks about the album, his background and his busy schedule in Australia as artistic director of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival.


Let me start by saying that I really enjoyed your performance here in LA in November at the Catalina Jazz Club.
Thank you. I had a great time doing it, and I'm going to come back within the next year or so, in more of a cabaret room.

You might like the Inner Circle of the Magic Castle for its size and Hollywood location.
I know, and it's got my favorite...magic. I wish I were a magician.

Really?
Oh, yeah. I think magic's really great, and now I have a kid to learn magic. A lot of kids have fathers that are singers, but to have a father that does magic, that's a singular thing, really cool. So maybe I'll try and get some tips if I come back there.

You're in New York to sing tonight (January 28) at G'Day USA. Tell me about that.
It's sort of an Australian/American tradition now that helps get Australian people together here. I've done this a few times here...we've done it at Carnegie Hall, at Lincoln Center and now we're doing a smaller version at Cipriani's. It's myself, the cast of Priscilla (Queen of the Desert), and also the Qantas Choir is performing as well. 

You'll be singing selections from your album On Broadway?  
Yes, a song from my 60s album Good Lovin' with the Qantas Choir, and I think we're all singing "I Still Call Australia Home" together, another Peter Allen song.

Let's talk about the Floodlight album. Terrible tragedy befalling Australia!
Yeah...obviously, these terrible things happened...and for an Australian performer...we go to those areas that were affected by the floods all the time. Toowoomba, Bundaberg, Maribor, Ipswich. The mayor of Ipswich sent my wife (formerly Lisa Hewitt) and me towels. I have all these gifts from him. He's a very generous man; it's a great town. These are all really good people that support artists going through there touring, and my father (Jimmy Barnes) and I felt very strongly.

I was performing at a telethon in Australia for the flood victims; I was singing "You'll Never Walk Alone" and he called me up that night and said "Announce on TV that we are going to release an album!" We had nothing. We had no agreements from any record company or anything like that. But I announced it and within a week we had it on iTunes and within 24 hours it was Number 1. It's 16 tracks from all of our albums. I have many family members and in-laws that perform. So, we all put tracks on the album. It all goes to the Flood Relief Victims. Both record companies got all the rights waved, and we made it very cheap so that people can get 16 tracks. It's done very well, and we're releasing the CD. The interesting thing on there from my dad and I... He, myself and my sister (Mahalia Barnes) did a cabaret show at the Festival in our first year (2009). My dad, in an acoustic mode, sang things like "Around the World", the old Matt Monro song and "Love Me Tender". You get to hear us do harmonies and live stuff together, special stuff that you can't get anywhere else. We just took it off a desk tape and mixed it. But, really for us, it's about giving back to these people who support us around the world. A lot of people tour through there, so I think it's very important that we are there for our fellow people. Queensland is a very large state, the second largest in Australia, and 75% of it was considered a disaster zone.

Being Jimmy Barnes' son, how did you get the name David Campbell?
My maternal grandmother, who brought me up, was married to a man named Peter Campbell, her second husband. I was a kid and he was only around for 4-5 years. He left before I found out who my father was. I kept his name, and when I found out who my dad was in my teenage years, there was a lot of talk of whether I should take his name. It didn't feel right; I had grown up as David Campbell. I guess in a way it's kind of a stage name really; I have no emotional connection to it. My grandmother never had any emotional connection to it, but it felt right and I never changed it. Now it seems great, like starting my own legacy. How many times do you get the chance to do that unless you're making up a name completely for yourself?

Tell me more in detail about the variety of music you grew up appreciating.
I didn't know about my mother being my mother. I thought she was my sister for 11 years. When I found out about my father, I found out about my mother. I was brought up with all these older women. My grandmother was very English, but she loved Nat King Cole...Johnny Mathis is a big favorite of hers. She loved Scott Walker; she loved swing singers as well. And she loved the old movies; we used to watch movie musicals, so I had this sort of connection to that as a kid. And my mother and her sisters would come in on a Saturday night and bring in some wine and would play Motown and the popular stuff of the day, 80s tracks. And I grew up in a very rough area and with my dad being a very rough rock 'n roller too, I had to have all of that as well. It's a really wide gamut of music that I love and listen to. I guess Johnny Mathis was a big vocal influence on me when I was starting out in cabaret. Watching movie musicals, listening to people like John Raitt, Gordan MacRae and hearing that sound a lot - to my grandmother that was the proper way of singing - these are the people I look up to. As I got older into cabaret and found my own voice, I found Bobby Darin, Sammy Davis Jr. Peter Allen, the sort of big showmen that I have an affinity to and work hard to aspire to.

The Adelaide Cabaret Festival is a very popular event. You and your wife Lisa are currently artistic directors of it. Tell me more about that.
It's in its 11th year this year and takes place in June. But we work on it all year. This is our third and final year as artistic directors. Last year we had Natalie Cole, which was wonderful and Bernadette (Peters) the year before. We get big acts like that and we also create a lot of young cabaret. It's been very difficult in Australia, because cabaret has sort of painted itself into a corner. People just doing regular shows like a Cole Porter show, and no one really wanted to see it anymore, and when we got to the Festival, the numbers were dwindling, they were not reaching out to big people anymore, so we were very cognizant that we wanted to change it. We wanted to bring cabaret into the 21st century, make it relevant. While we were bringing in Bernadette Peters or Donna McKechnie or Liz Callaway to do that classic New York cabaret style, we were also bringing in fabulous French performers from London like Sarah Louise Young or Frisky & Manish (School of Pop), and then going to Australian performers and saying "Give us something different!" like doing a show with my dad and making him sing something he'd never do live or going to other Aussie rock performers and saying "Do your shows, but do them in cabaret style!" Everyone would embrace that and then that would filter down to really young artists now, from drama schools or musicals. We have this girl who's the lead in Xanadu, Christie Whelan who's incredible. We approached her and said "Britney Spears and cabaret: perfect for you! We're going to get a director. Let's write it and do it." She's done that all over the country to great acclaim.

We try to encourage and build shows around people. We've gone one step further. Last year and this year, we're going to high schools, teach kids about cabaret and I direct two high schools in their professional debuts of cabaret. We're seeing kids that are relating to shows like Glee and dip their toe into this musical theatre/American popular song. I try to make it relate to them, make them tell their stories and we get through it. It's emotional, dangerous, but so exciting to be out there introducing it to the next generation. There was certainly a time when I was coming up, where I didn't feel supported. The support that I got in America I didn't have in Australia when I was staring out. Now the new generation's coming through, as it is here, making it their own.

You are so funny on stage. Is there a role that you really yearn to play?
(laughs) I don't know that there's anything funny that I've always wanted to do. I've always wanted to be goofy and wacky on stage. Actually, the less I try, the funnier it starts to get. But I'd love to do Carousel and the other classic musicals. They don't write men's roles any more. Outside of cartoons or people flying around the room... (we laugh)

David Campbell will find an original of his own, he's so creative and fun. Don't miss him when he plays LA, New York, San Francisco in the future and order a copy of On Broadway @ Amazon.com It's a must for serious theatre lovers. And listen to Floodlight on iTunes!

Interview - Matt Cavenaugh

Soap heartthrob and Broadway star Matt Cavenaugh has done Urban Cowboy (photo below) and more recently Tony in the 2009 revival of West Side Story. He will costar in Reprise's Gigi opening @ The Freud Playhouse at UCLA on February 16. He took time from his hectic schedule of rehearsals to speak briefly about Gigi, his other work and his new CD.

How do you feel about the short run of A Catered Affair? 

A Catered Affair was a great show. What John Doyle, Harvey Fierstein and John Bucchino were attempting to do was quite bold and risky. Perhaps it was a show not quite large enough to compete on the Broadway commercial landscape, but I was very proud to be a part of it. 

What is your favorite musical of all time?   

I’ve been fortunate to be a part of so many great shows it’s hard to pick just one.  Of course I have a special affinity for Grey Gardens and West Side Story.


What was it like to do soaps? 

It was a great change of pace to work in the soap opera world. When I was doing As The World Turns I was also doing Grey Gardens – so those were some very long days! But it was terrific by day to be in front of the camera and by night to be in the theater, onstage in Grey Gardens – one of the most fulfilling artistic experiences I’ve has this far. 


Let's talk more about Gigi. Tell me about your role and how it differs from others you've played. 

The role of Gaston is vastly different from any role I have played in my career this far. In some ways Gaston might share some similarity to Joe Kennedy in that Gaston is rich and has a lot of class. Gigi is a comedy of manners of sorts, different from other things I’ve done – which are more American – emphasis on the hard “r “– and there is a quality that we’ve been trying to capture with top hats, canes and gloves and how that changes your behavior. The social norms and etiquette involved in this world are something we are all learning, and something that has informed Gaston – and I get to fall in love with the incredible Lisa O’Hare, who is just so charming and hilarious. I am having a terrific time! I didn’t know Lisa before, I just met her ten days ago, and I fall in love in this show at every performance, which is always terrific.

Anything else of note happening in your life at present?


I’ve got a new CD – something my wife Jenny Powers and I have been wanting to do for a while. We are in the final stages of mixing and mastering, and we will have an official release date to announce soon. Jenny is currently starring in Dangerous Beauty, the new musical premiering at the Pasadena Playhouse.

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Gigi, which is directed by David Lee and also stars William Atherton, Lisa O'Hare, Jason Graae and Millicent Martin plays @ The Freud Playhouse UCLA from February 15-27.

UCLA Central Ticket Office:  310/825-2101

www.reprise.org

Interviews - Robert "Bobby" Moresco/Pedro Antonio Garcia

Playwright Pedro Antonio Garcia will bring his fascinating Firehouse, based on a real-life incident, in a World premiere, to the Whitefire Theatre, with artistic director Bryan Rasmussen as director, opening Friday, February 4. The piece will play Fridays only at 8 pm. In our conversation Garcia talks about his Puerto Rican roots, how the play developped and its prospects for the Los Angeles audience.

How did you become involved in writing this project?

I was raised in the projects in the South Bronx, and during my lifetime I personally witnessed the conflagration of the neighborhood, as buildings were torched day after day while fire engine sirens wailed throughout the night.  Inevitably, people were killed in these fires, including innocent children.   Along with the devastation caused by gangs and drugs, the Bronx was also physically devastated, often compared to Dresden after the bombings.   When I began my career as a criminal defense lawyer, I represented the community when the city tried to close a South Bronx Firehouse.      Later, I attended the Amadou Diallo rallies following his shooting, and I personally knew members of Diallo’s entourage.   I had discovered afterwards that two of the policemen acquitted in the killing of Diallo are now firemen.    I created the issue of the death of the little girl and the fireman’s choices from my experiences.   When I began writing plays, these matters kept haunting me, so I decided to put them together in a story.   

How long ago did this happen?  Did you change any facts for dramatic purposes?

Although every issue raised is true, the play is an amalgamation of them.   Amadou Diallo was an unarmed African street salesman who was shot and killed by four cops in the South Bronx on February 4, 1999, which happens to be the opening day for this play.     I believe the cops-turned-firemen are still on duty, and the community did protest one of the firemen as a result of the Diallo issue.    I added the fictionalized account of the death of the girl to spark the debate of police abuse and underlying currents of racism within the Police and Fire Departments.   In New York City, about 90 percent of the fire department is white. 

Tell me in detail about  the process of developing Firehouse.

I began writing the play as a playwright with the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater in New York City under the tutelage of Allen Davis III.    A workshop presentation was held for a five show run at the 47^th Street Theater in 2009.   I arrived in Los Angeles in January 2010 to write for the screen.   In October,  I visited a friend, Kamar de los Reyes, the owner of Jo’s  Fitness Center in Sherman Oaks,  adjacent to the Whitefire Theatre.  I asked Kamar to introduce me to the theater’s executive, Bryan Rasmussen, whom Kamar did not know.   Bryan and I began talking, we discovered our similarities, and I gave him Firehouse to read.   He liked it, we spoke about producing it, and he suggested I attend Bobby Moresco’s Writers/Actors Gym, which is held at the Whitefire on Saturdays.  Bobby began reviewing the scenes in his Gym,  giving me the opportunity to sharpen it.   In December, Laura Coker – Bryan’s friend  – attended auditions for Firehouse and decided to produce it.     Thus, a series of fortunate, random events, beginning with a visit to see a friend, led to this production.     It was Bryan’s foresight that opened the possibilities.

           

What do you think audiences will take away with them or what do you want them to take away?

I believe art has a dual purpose:  to dramatize moral truths through creative expression and to examine society.     For the Firehouse audience, I want them to leave profoundly affected by the work of firemen, their humanity, the culture of the code of silence, the adversity that affects the poor in ravaged neighborhoods, and the moral choices that they face daily.    I want their lives broadened by this experience.so that they feel satisfied and moved at the end of the evening.

Do you see a parallel with this story and any of those in Bobby's Crash? 

As in Crash, this work examines moral truths, right and wrong, and the convergence of different sociological aspects of similar events, all reaching a crescendo.    Crash is a tremendous work of great importance.  If this play reaches a sliver of the magnitude of Crash, I’ll be eternally grateful.   As a writer, I derive satisfaction from putting my words on paper – er, computer – and watching the interpretation of the work on stage or film.    


Would you consider adapting the work for the screen?


Firehouse, like Crash, is a perfect fit for the screen:   the relationships of Firefighters and their fights and conflicts among themselves; the fireman whose loyalties are ripped apart as he balances his duty to firemen, the community, and his lover;  the lawyer siding with the community while fighting the firehouse and her fireman-lover; the junkie’s world inside a crackhouse and the savagery of life on the outskirts of law; the politics of racism and police abuse;  the riots in the wake of governmental intrusions; the obligations of the church and its neighborhood; and the daily struggles of the community.        

How was Bobby Moresco's work most helpful to the play?    

 I am fortunate to be part of Bobby Moresco’s Actors/Writers gym, where I was able to run six of the nine scenes of Firehouse for the gym participants.   He further suggested that I fine tune the moments that mean something, to get the most out of them, to raise the stakes.  As a result, the play became clearer and more focused.  

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Academy Award-winning screenwriter Bobby Moresco (Crash) serves as consulting producer of Firehouse. In our interview he discloses his artistic reasons for encouraging the production of Garcia's riveting work.


How did you react to Pedro Garcia's Firehouse when he first brought it to the Actors Gym!


The first thing that I liked about it...it felt to me that this is a playwright who is trying to understand something, not only about the human condition and how people deal in situations, which is what we all look for...but I felt that he was after bigger issues and dealing with them in a small human way. I think that's what good writing is always about. If we get inside of people's heads and put them into situations that are pressure-cookers and we find out who they really are, that reflects, for me anyway, a bigger issue about the world around us. That's a cool thing to be involved in. I remember clearly the Amadou Diallo situation...and if you know anything about the work I've been involved in, I'm attracted to the idea of moral complexity: you're not quite sure who's right or who's wrong; there's no black and white. Pedro was after "what the hell really happened?" in a case like that.


Give me the details of the case of Amadou Diallo, upon which the play is based.


A black man in New York City coming out of his house, evening or might have even been dark...there was a mugging or shooting nearby and the police were looking for a suspect. He was described as an African American, and this kid, who was a vendor, coming out of his house...the police thought he fit the description and they took out their guns...he didn't speak English all that well; they told him to keep his hands up; he thought they were asking for his identification; he reached into his wallet; one of the police thought he was reaching for a gun, and they shot the man...41 times. 41 times. On the surface of that, one would think "those sons-a-bitches, they shot an unarmed man 41 times, there is no excuse". On the other hand, if they really thought that there was a gun, then that one shot led to more shots makes it a more complex situation. They could have shot the man 41 times because they hated black people or it could have been a more complex situation, an untenable crisis that led to Amadou Diallo's death. Having said all that, understanding that in a dramatic context is a cool endeavor. I don't think Pedro is looking to point fingers at anybody, and I like that.


Tell me more about your Actors' Gym.


The Actors' Gym is a company I opened in 1978 in Los Angeles and then moved it to New York when I moved there, and brought it back here when I moved back to LA. It's essentially a group of  actors, writers and directors who come once a week, bring in work put it up on stage...not unlike the Actors Studio, we talk about the work. We examine ways and try to offer help to each other to take the work to a better place. We developed Crash there. Paul (Haggis, co-screenwriter of Crash and writing partner) and I brought the script in, we read it with the members who gave feedback and we made changes that we thought were helpful. The Actors Gym is for people who have been around and who don't need a teacher. They've done their studying; they just need to keep working to hone their craft. If you can't sit and listen to a piece of criticism about your work and throw away the 80-90% that is not going to help you, and take the 10% that is going to help, then it's not a good place for you. We meet once a week currently at the Whitefire Theatre.


As consulting producer of Firehouse, what did you do?


I helped to develop the writing of the play at the Actors Gym. Bryan (Rasmussen) and Pedro have done everything. I've done, quite frankly nothing except offer whatever help I could in terms of the writing. I was happy to do that. I think this a playwright with a voice. The human being is complex. He contains multitudes. It's not always what we think it is. That's what interests me about drama and I think Pedro explores deep and is trying to get there. I hope it all goes well.


What's up next for Bobby Moresco? What are you working on?


A movie for Universal that I've written that Todd Field is directing called Hubris that I'm really excited about and a new pilot that I've written that I'm supposed to direct for Fox. Also there's a play by Bill Hoffman that we developed at the Actors Gym and are doing a reading of soon. Some of the actors involved are Michael Stahl David (Cloverfield), Saverio Guerra (Curb Your Enthusiasm), Patrick Brennan (The new Twilight movie), and Maggie Siff (Sons of Anarchy). New play, new playwright. Important stuff!
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Firehouse:

Opens:  Friday, February 4, 8pm

Runs:  February 4 – April 29, 2011

Plays:  Fridays ONLY, at 8pm

Whitefire Theatre,  13500 Ventura Boulevard, Sherman Oaks

Tickets:   www.theatermania.com or (323) 822-7898