Interview with Cortes Alexander

I first encountered actor/singer Cortes Alexander when he performed his show Swell - also the title of his solo CD - at Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal in August. The man is a whirlwind of talent as a musician/singer. When I heard he was doing a play entitled Dangerous Corner at Crown City Theatre - opening September 27 - I immediately sought him out for an interview. In our chat he talks about the challenges of doing this play and his musical work, including how his group The Tonics skyrocketed to fame.

Tell me about Dangerous Corner.

Oh boy...well, it's a play that was written by J.B. Priestley in the early 30s in England. It's a murder mystery whodunit. Gary (Lamb, director) has updated it to the early 60s. The whole play revolves around my character, who, in the original production physically is never seen.

So you are written in.

He wrote me in. Now, I...I lurk.  I'm the one that is the catalyst for all the action in the play. I can't give away anything else.

How are rehearsals going?

Well. Gary, I have to say, is really talented. He really does know what he's doing. I've worked with a lot of different kinds of directors and seen a lot of different styles, and every day, I see a different thing that he does that is really smart. What he's done with my character is, he's musicalized it. So it's really fun. There are little snippets of music in there, I don't want to say too much, but...

Do you get a chance to sing?

...Maybe. (we laugh) The cast is wonderful, so talented. Matt Williamson plays my brother; he's fantastic. They're all great; it's fun to see how everyone works. Gary gets what he needs out of different actors. It's a hard role for me, though, I have to say, because there's no dialogue, there's a lot of blocking and you really have to pay attention to who's saying what to whom throughout the whole piece. I'm onstage almost the entire time. I've never done anything like this before. It's a challenge for me.

What other roles have you played?

I did a play some years ago with Robert Reed and Florence Henderson. It was his last play. Alone Together at La Mirada that Glen Casale directed. I played their youngest son going off to college. We got extended and were supposed to move to the Westwood Playhouse, but unfortunately Robert got sick, and that was the end of that.

I love Florence.

She's amazing. Gorgeous and smart. Raunchy and fun, in the best possible way.

Any real dramatic plays?

As a kid I did Equus and... Amadeus and was able to play my own piano in that. Now later in life, the music thing is rearing its ugly head, so I've been getting full opportunities to do more music stuff.

Was it your dream to be a musical star?

Not really. I saw myself as just a straight up actor, but I got into Juilliard when I was a kid. I took a left turn there...I was thirteen when I got in and I say it lasted about thirteen minutes because it was not the right place for me. I was born here in Los Angeles and my whole family moved to New York so that I could do this. It just wasn't the place for me at all; it took all the joy of music right out of me, but I went to a professional children's school.  A lot of kids were in the arts: actors, athletes, kids that couldn't attend school on a regular basis, so academics were arranged around your touring or whatever you had going on. A lot of kids were auditioning for Broadway shows, and I found myself playing and arranging songs for their auditions.

You studied piano, correct?

Of course, but I'm not the greatest piano player in the world, by any means. I do well enough so that I can play the parts for my show, and to my Swell girls I'll say "OK, you sing E flat, you sing the G!"
I play well enough. In my little tiny scope of skill, I'm very accomplished.

I loved Swell and your two girl backup singers.

Thank you. We're doing another one at the Federal, a Christmas show on December 12.

With a lot of original Christmas material?

We're working on a couple right now, and Kay Thompson has her Christmas song...how can I not do that? She wrote "Holiday Season". It's a lot of work for one gig, but I love it and the girls are game,so...

Who are the girls again?

Melissa Bailey and Julie Garnier. Wait til you hear Julie; she wasn't in the last show. Melissa I met in my first Broadway show Marilyn: an American Fable. I was playing piano for someone else's audition, we were leaving the studio at Midstock, New York. Just as I was about to close the door behind me, behind the table they said, "Excuse me, do you sing?" I didn't really think of myself as a singer, but I sang to show other people what to do. I said "Yeah". I looked at this piece of music. It was the only time in my life where my Juilliard training helped me, because I was able to sight read the music. I said (he laughs) "Can you put it in A flat?" They transposed it for me right there on the spot, and I sang it. This was a Friday and on Monday morning they called and asked "Are you available to start rehearsals tomorrow?"  Well, what do you know? How about that? That wasn't hard. Here's the thing that I just found out. Kenny Ortega's ( choreographer) assistant Greg Smith, who I hadn't seen since Fable, came to my show at the Federal in August and said to me, "You realize that we wrote that part for you", which I did not know. They said when they saw me, they wrote this role for me. What a nice thing to know!

Let's talk about how The Tonics got started.

What an incredible thing! I had a singing group in the early to mid-nineties called The Tonics. We started out here in LA at open mic every Tuesday night at the Rose Tattoo. I was just starting to sing on my own. It was very cliquish. There were the good people, the cool kids and then there were the novices. I definitely saw myself in that group. The cool group got to go up right away at open mic; the newbes had to wait until 11, 12 o'clock... when there are 2 or 3 people left in the audience. OK, I just wanted to see if I could get up and do it. I met Lindy Robbins, Gene Reed and Brian Lane Green. Gene had just come back from the road with Al Jarreau. Brian had just come back from New York after Starmites had closed. Lindy was sort of the resident diva of the place and asked me if I would sing backup for her. I did it; it was fun. When I saw what our blend (all four) was, I thought "Let me get my hands around this". Around the piano I said, "Hey guys, I have an idea of something that might be really cool". It was an arrangement of "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning" from Oklahoma with "Wouldn't It Be Loverly" from My Fair Lady. I blocked it out for all of us and we made a couple of little adjustments, and we sang it. It stopped the show. Every week we did another one and each week it was huge. After six weeks, Brian got a soap opera job in New York that was a great break for him, so we planned one last show for LA. We did all six numbers that we had learned and tagged four solos and got oohs! and ahs!

We decided to go to New York, so off we went. We sang at a little club called 88s, downtown West Village cabaret at the time. On a Friday, it was packed with people. I was at the piano, we were sharing mics... and it was difficult. On "Beautiful Morning" the place fell to a hush, and the owner of the club ended up giving us a gig at 12: 30 on a Monday night for four weeks. We took it because we wanted to be able to say we did it and get it out of the gate. We started singing in the street, passing out fliers and going to every open mic in town trying to get people to come. We met Jason Robert Brown, and he became our musical director. Amazing! He became such an integral part of our development. Anyway, we sold out the place and on the fourth week, the owner came to us and offered us Friday nights at 8 pm. The Times, the Post and Daily News came and gave us half a paragraph in each paper, saying we were the next Manhattan Transfer. From that point we never looked back. Daisy Prince, Hal's daughter came the first night and said "I'll introduce you to everyone you need to know!"

What luck! You were in!

Yes. Billy Stritch came, Liza (Minnelli) came and it completely steamrolled. We sang at the Prince's annual Christmas party and didn't know what to expect. We were so undisciplined. We would get into fights onstage. We would tell jokes, insult each other. We were four friends talking. I've watched tapes and now know what people were responding to. Somehow we would go from these fights into this incredibly disciplined, detailed harmony, that we were all fussy about. At the Christmas party, we walked into this great townhouse and there's Stephen Sondheim, there's Liza, there's Carol Burnett, Linda Lavin. All these incredible people! We did our thing, and Steve (Sondheim) came up to me afterwards and said, "Look, if they're doing another one of those God forsaken benefits honoring me - they make me so anxious and nervous - we're trying to get a group in there. Would you guys be interested and available?" Wow! When we got the list of songs, they were all ballads. This is how self-serving we were. We made them all up tempo. That was the idea for "Good Thing Going" and "Company", which we ended up doing at Carnegie Hall the following summer. I stayed with the group for 4-5 years, and we had a great deal of success.

I know you became great friends with Liza. How did this germinate?

She came to all of our shows; we would go to her shows. We sat in the front row at Carnegie Hall. She said she wanted to put together a new vocal trio and call it the Cortes Alexander Trio. She asked me to pick two guys and told me we'd go all around the world and do our thing. She didn't want the guys from The Tonics; she wanted it fresh, brand new. I auditioned and got Clarke Thorell and Jonathan Dokuchitz, who were just out of Tommy, and we did it. We went out on the road with her and went all over the world. The tour was crazy. We played the Kremlin in Moscow and then on to Michigan State University, to Bloomingdale's in San Francisco and then to Paris. An incredible, wild time! When the tour ended, I came out here to California, and Liza and I stayed in touch on the phone and at Christmas and New Year's. And when I'd go to New York, we'd have lunch. Then five years ago, I bumped into her on the way from the dentist, literally in the street, at the time I was starting my record Swell. She asked what I was doing, I told her about the CD, and she told me she wanted to do Kay Thompson's show in her show and asked me to be a part of it. I knew a lot of the material, but was starting to do my own thing, so I had to think about it. But I ended up saying yes, just like doing this play. I haven't done a play in a while and it's better to say yes to stuff and see what happens. It sure beats waiting around for the next thing. Jump in and see what happens! That's how I got Liza's show and that went on for 4 years. We played in Uruguay and Belgium, all over the place and ended up winning a Tony Award on Broadway: Liza at the Palace.

What do you think is Liza's greatest attribute?

Her loyalty and her sense of humor. Those are two things that few people get to see. She's had the same group of people around her for 20 years. I've known her 21 years, and it's the same core people. Even though I could go months and months without seeing her, when we get together, it's as if we had seen each other last week. In August I was back stage at the Hollywood Bowl trimming her bangs and she was supposed to come with Billy Stritch to see my show at the Federal, but unfortunately that was the week that Marvin Hamlisch passed. By the way, when I was 16, Marvin came to my high school and spoke. He came up to me after I performed and said "If there's one person that I can think of that's going to put me out of business, it's you. If you love this, stick to it, and I promise you good things will come!" He was a very sweet man.

As is Cortes Alexander! He's nonstop talkative, confident yet humble and oh so super talented. See him in his musical show Have a Swell Christmas on December 12 at Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal! And, with his mouth closed ...opening September 27 at Crown City Theatre in Dangerous Corner.

http://www.crowncitytheatre.com/

http://www.cortesalexander.com/

Interview with Steve Jarrard

Steve Jarrard is the Managing Director of Collaborative Artists Ensemble.  He has directed 7 of their 10 previous productions including Nicky Silver's The Food Chain, How I Learned to Drive, Eleemosynary, and Lucia Mad.   Some of his other directing credits include Civilization, Doubting Thomason, and Noel Coward’s Present Laughter at the Edgemar Center for the Arts. 
He is currently directing The Square Root of Wonderful, which is being revived from September 14-October 14 at the Raven Playhouse in NoHo.

How did you first get involved in theatre?

About a decade ago I was walking through the NOHO Arts Festival and, on a whim, signed up for an acting class. As luck would have it, the class was taught by Michael Holmes, who appeared in the original Broadway production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, who is an award-winning director, and who is a master acting coach. Turns out I could act a bit and was asked to join his company, The Action/Reaction Theatre Company. I fell in love with theatre then and have been involved in theatre ever since.

How did Collaborative Artists Ensemble come to be?

Meg Wallace has been making theatre all of her life and when she moved to Los Angeles, she wanted to keep making theatre. But she kept running into the lets-do-a-play-to-get-an-agent mentality. And she wanted to make theatre for theatre’s sake. So she and a few like-minded people started a company that would put on plays that are challenging to the actors and meaningful to an audience. A company where actors could be actors.

Member of the Wedding is the play that Carson McCullers is best known for. How did the rarely produced The Square Root of Wonderful come to your attention?

Meg is a big fan of Carson McCullers and was looking up Carson online when she came across the title. And the title, the beauty of it, grabbed her. She had to read anything titled The Square Root of Wonderful.

What drove you to choose this particular play for production?

When Meg and I read the play, we found it to be this beautiful mixture of funny and sad, of heartbreaking and heartwarming, of tragic and life affirming. We wanted to find out why this play that moved us so much was not well received in 1957. Digging into it, we felt that the mixing of tone along with the issues of suicide and spousal abuse, things that were not talked about in Eisenhower’s America, were the reasons. We also felt that those very things would resonate deeply with modern audiences. And the only way to find something out in the theatre is to do it. So we decided to give it a go.

You directed this play last spring and are now reviving it. What have you learned from having directed the play the first time around?

What I learned is that audiences today do respond to it; that they are moved by it. One person who saw it emailed us to say that she had to walk around NOHO for a half-hour before she could drive home. We also had High School students, who came as a class assignment, stay and talk to us after the show because they loved it so much.

What do you want your audiences to experience and come away with having seen the play?

We want them to experience the Joy and the Heartbreak that was Carson McCullers. We want them to come away wanting more of Carson McCullers, to discover, or rediscover her.

Is there anything else you’d like readers to know about The Square Root of Wonderful?

That this was her most personal work. Her life echoes loudly throughout this play. She wrote it in response to her husband’s suicide and her mother’s death. She poured her heart and soul, her life really, into this play. And when it didn’t do well on Broadway, it devastated her.

What is up next for Collaborative Artists Ensemble?

We have produced five plays a year for the past five years and next year we will do the same. We have several balls in the air at the moment and are trying to work out various things like rights, schedules, etc., for the spring and fall. One of the plays on our radar, that we’re very high on, is a musical version of They Shoot Horses Don’t They?

-guest interviewer Steve Peterson

2012 Interview with Maxwell Caulfield

Actor/singer Maxwell Caulfield became an instant heartthrob in 1982 when Grease 2 hit the big screen. He also created a sensation in TV's Dynasty and The Colbys and has essayed countless MOWs on TV and stage plays internationally. Without question he has turned into a fine dramatic actor over the last 30 years. Originally from Great Britain, Caulfield has been married to actress Juliet Mills since 1980. He is currently rehearsing Euripides' Helen as King Menelaus at the Getty Villa in Malibu which opens September 6. In our chat he talks about Helen, some of his recent stage roles and those he would like to play.

Are you rehearsing this morning?

Actually we're teching so we start the day quite late so that we can take advantage of the twilight hours.

That's right. You're performing in the amphitheatre in Malibu.

Yeah...fantastic venue. It's really a privilege to be there, I can tell you.

I'm really looking forward to seeing Helen there. I've never been to the Getty Villa before.

Oh, haven't you? Well, the trick is to come early, 'cause from 6 o'clock on the Villa is available to the audience members - it's actually built into the price of the ticket - the galleries are open so you can steep yourself in that ancient culture, and then settle down and watch a high camp interpretation of Helen of Troy.

Talk about this adaptation. What has been changed in the adaptation?

Director Jon Lawrence Rivera has collaborated with playwright Nick Salamone to take Euripides's tale, which is not done very often...Trojan Women is done a lot, but Helen is not...even though we're talking about centuries, millenia of years that it could have been done...and so they unearthed this ancient story and have given it a degree of a Hollywood spin ...they haven't transplanted it to Hollywood but they have  given it this shift where she is a major movie star who's gone into exile. It's very funny, but to try to explain it doesn't make sense, because it's still set in the ancient world. So you go, "How does that work? Celluloid didn't exist." But, for example, her Greek chorus is comprised of Marilyn Monroe's character Cherie from Bus Stop and Vivien Leigh's Blanche du Bois from Streetcar Named Desire and Elizabeth Taylor's Cleopatra. Historically, you go "Wait a minute, this is completely up the spout." It's very bold, certainly not like doing Shakespeare in modern dress. You could say that's convoluted as well. Somehow, they've pulled it off. We did a workshop of it about two months ago. The Getty goes in for a real development process. Jon Lawrence Rivera is a super guy and such fun to work for. He's a very generous director who's constantly amused by what we do. He's actually a very funny performer himself. To illustrate a point sometimes he will get up and show us what we're presently doing and what he'd rather we did do. He does it in such a charming way, you can't help but fall off your chair laughing. He's so spot on. And he's encouraged us to develop these characters from the beginning and to go with our gut instincts. He's let me basically barnstorm this role, and I'm having a field day with it. I don't want to give you too many preconceived notions but you have to fill that space, and it's a very big venue.

How have they changed Menelaos ( ancient Greek spelling or Menelaus)?

Not a lot. I'm not like some big shot studio chief or anything like that. It's not like you've gotta live with all this affectation as it were, it's not like that. I am still staggering back from 10 years of siege on the Trojan shore, 7 years lost in the Mediterranean. I'm trying to find Helen. It's hard to explain, but watching it, I think the audience will be amused.  This pastiche, this veneer that's been added to it, somehow it does not only give it a more contemporaneous viewpoint but it also provides a lot of humor.

Are you doing it in original dress or are the costumes contemporary?

We haven't gotten into wardrobe yet, as limited as mine is. I spend half the show walking around with a sort of a shred of a flag from my armada wrapped around my waist and not much else. I've been shipwrecked.

It's just an excuse to get you shirtless onstage, that's all!

I know, but at the same time, it is written in the script. Frankly, I'm flattered that I'm still being asked to drop trou, as it were, or whatever the expression is.

You did Cactus Flower off-Broadway last year. How was that?

I really appreciate being a part of that cast and I also appreciate the ambition of the creative team. 2011 was a hot season in New York of really great innovative work, so the competition was great. We gave it a straight ahead production and it should have been stood on its head, reinvented. We played the Westside Theatre, which is really a premiere off-Broadway house, and we gave it the college try. Each time I go back to New York, I want to do something with a bit more of a bite to it. The role was a fun part for me on paper, and I should have made it work, and to an extent I did, but it's not top of my CD.

You also did Billy Flynn in Chicago on Broadway a while ago, correct? Did you have fun with that?

I had a ball. I also had had a glorious 8 week run in London prior to Broadway. It was one of the most memorable experiences of my career. My two leading ladies were absolutely sensational and I got to do West End Live, which is an annual summer promo they do in Lester Square on the West End. You play to the tourists, to the people and I got a chance to sing Billy's trademark tune, so I felt like a rock star.

in New York, in Tryst a couple of years ago

Is that the first musical you've done in a while?

Yeah. I've not done enough of it. You can work and scratch out a living in the theatre, but, if you want to make money, you've got to hit the road. You've got to play big houses of 2, 3 thousand seaters with your name above the bill, do popular fare and reach out to the audience such as it is.

Do you have a dream role that you want to play?

There are several. The first one that comes to mind, in the classical world, would be to play Coreolanus,
and in the musical theatre world, Henry Higgins (My Fair Lady)...and if any major regional theatre like the CTG downtown (Michael Ritchie) does Jerusalem, it's a fantastic part, you can really fill a proscenium arch, you can really go for it. That's my style; I'm no shrinking violet on the stage (we both laugh)...That's one of the reasons I don't work in front of the camera more, not that I give outsized performances - I like to think I can make that shift between the two media, but...

Hang in there! You and Juliet (Mills) are terrific actors!

Thank you. I had the extreme pleasure of working with Geraldine Page a few years back on a couple of occasions and she was talking about her relationship with Rip Torn, which was a complex one. "Rip just wanted to bring home the log". (laughs) I couldn't agree more, as I would like to bring home the bacon more. But I'll tell you, Don, it's bizarre, our profession is fraught with uncertainty, always has been, but now it's literally nationwide. There isn't a single business where anybody feels secure. Even the postal workers...let's hope we don't make any rash decisions this November...

See Maxwell Caulfield in Helen! Performances of Euripides’ Helen will be held Thursday through Saturday, September 6 through 29, 2012 at 8:00 p.m., with previews from August 30 through September 1. Tickets are $42 ($38 for students and seniors, $25 for preview performances). Tickets and further information are available by calling (310) 440-7300 or online.

with Rachel Sorsa as Helen

2012 Interview with Helen Reddy

Actress, singer, activist turned hypnotherapist Helen Reddy was named the Queen of 70s Pop. In 1973 she had three # One hit tunes, including of course "I Am Woman", which she co-wrote herself, not finding at that time a single song to record that satisfied her feminine wiles. Now living in Australia, Reddy seems relaxed, content, but still eager, like Norma Desmond, to 'return' to the biz , singing. In our chat she explains why, and talks candidly about the high ... and low points of her life.

What prompted the comeback now?

Well, I don't call it a comeback as much as a Renaissance. I retired ten years ago and went back to college and got a degree in clinical hypnotherapy at the age of 60. I went back to my native Australia and lived a very different life. Anyway, the genesis of going back to singing was my sister's 80th birthday in March. She asked if I would sing a duet with her, and I said OK...and it was so much fun, and it was so appreciated, and I thought, "I miss singing, I used to love doing this". So, that was kind of it. My sister's son, by the way, Tony Sheldon, who was in Priscilla Queen of the Desert in London and New York - we're very, very proud of him - he's just been back in Oz and visiting his mother and all his friends. He's back in New York now.

I hope he does the show when it comes here.

I don't think so. He did the show for five years and The Producers for two years before that...and he's had it with the high heels. He's beginning to appear in trousers. (we laugh)

Talk about the venues where you'll be appearing.

I'm at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano on Friday, August 10 and the Canyon Club in Agoura Hills on the following night. I had chosen three nights before that, a few weekends ago. The first was at Croce's in San Diego, and not having sung in 10 years, I wanted a small cozy kind of venue to break in. The first thing I said to the audience was, "I haven't done this in 10 years. If I make a mistake, cut me some slack." They were wonderful. The following two nights we were at St. Genevieve High School in Panorama City, and I booked those three nights from Australia. Dan Horn, who was the principal of the school, is a long time friend of mine, and that was another perfect spot to sort of 'get back on the horse'.

And how do you feel? Do you feel good again?

I do. I enjoy it, while I'm doing it. It's a long wait, though, in between (engagements)...

Will you give us a little preview of what you'll be singing?

Well, it won't be the greatest hits, although I will do some of them. I wanted to sing the songs I wanted to sing. I'm not a nostalgia act. However, there are a lot of album cuts (they didn't get any airplay, but fans will be familiar with them) that I still remember and love, so I'm doing a lot of those ballads. I'm doing "I Am Woman", but in a different way. I feel much more relaxed.

Who are your favorite singers? Did any one in particular inspire you?

There are so many wonderful, wonderful singers...when I was young, Peggy Lee was definitely a very big influence on me. And then I realized I was imitating her, and that wasn't a good thing, so I started listening to more male vocalists. This was in my teens, and I also listened a lot to big bands, because there was so much music in them. I didn't have to listen vocally; I could listen to the orchestra. I don't know if that makes sense.

Yes, because the whole thing works together. The musicianship is so important because it dictates what you're doing.

Exactly right.

You've done Broadway. Tell me about Shirley Valentine.

I didn't do that on Broadway. The only show I did on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre was Blood Brothers. I also did it on the West End of London and on tour in the UK. I've done four productions of Shirley Valentine, but regional.

How did you like doing those shows?

Totally. I mean Shirley Valentine, what a wonderful leading role! You play 14 characters just in Act I, Scene I. It is a true tour-de-force, and I loved every second of it. I'm a huge fan of Willy Russell. Blood Brothers is a different type of role from Shirley, but it's still done with a Liverpool accent, although Shirley's is a little more upmarket than Mrs. Johnson's.

Did you like performing in theatre more than on the concert stage?

It's apples and oranges. I enjoy both.

Do you keep up with musical trends and how things have changed?

Quite honestly, I've been out of the music business so long now, I really couldn't say. The only music I listen to is music that I've got, the CDs that I can play for myself. A lot of what's on the radio is unintelligible for me. But there are stations that play songs from certain eras...I'm OK with that. A lot of today's music is simply voice and drum. And the voice usually isn't singing, it's talking.

Is your favorite music from the 30s and 40s?

Well, for me, it's the 70s. But, there were some wonderful songs written in the 1930s. I'd say the 20s through the 50s, there was some wonderful music written.

When you made it in the early 70s was it overwhelming for you to accept the tremendous success?

In 1973 I had three Number One hits on the charts. I had my own TV show The Helen Reddy Show on NBC. There was a tremendous amount going on. It was also the same year my son was born, in December of 72, my mother died in July of 73, my father died in September of 73; then an aunt I was very close to, I was named for her, she virtually raised me - she died in January 74, so there was a lot of private grief going on at the same time as the success. Work is work, and I'm glad I had all the opportunities that I had, but I think living life to the full is the most important thing.

You're a hypnotherapist. What kind of work does that entail?

I practice clinical hypnotherapy in Australia, not on a regular basis, but it's something I enjoy very much. I particularly specialize in past life regressions and reuniting people with loved ones who have passed over. It's very rewarding.

You wrote a book in 2006, correct?

Yes, The Woman I Am. It's available on my website. It's a good read. I did it all myself.

Are you getting psyched about the two concerts next weekend?

Yes, I'm really looking forward to them. I'm also flying up to Oakland tomorrow (Saturday, August 4) for an AIDS benefit. I'll do "You and Me Against the World" and "I Am Woman".

What a down-to-earth woman! Helen Reddy remains a true champion and great human being! Catch her next week.

Visit her website for further info and tix:

circa 1971

www.helenreddy.com

http://www.songkick.com/artists/19982-helen-reddy

see my review of the evening at the Canyon Club:

http://grigware.blogspot.com/2012/08/review-helen-reddy-in-concert.html

composer alan o'day, helen reddy and son jordan sommers

2012 Interview with Gregg T. Daniel

Gregg T. Daniel has a diversified and well-known career as stage director/actor and television/film actor. His stage direction includes 2009's critically-acclaimed production of Tom Stoppard's Heroes at the Group rep and Sybyl Walker's Beneath Rippling Waters presented by the Company of Angels @ the Fremont Center in Pasadena in 2006. More recently he helmed Group rep's critically acclaimed Cobb.
In this chat, conducted by guest interviewer Steve Peterson, Daniel discusses his latest directorial work Elmina's Kitchen for Lower Depth Theatre Ensemble (LDTE), opening August 11 at the Lost Studio on La Brea in Hollywood.

What have you been up to recently?

Most recently, I performed in a production of August Wilson’s Jitney at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa. The production transferred in its entirety to the Pasadena Playhouse for another month long run. Prior to that, I directed a critically acclaimed production of playwright Lee Blessing’s Cobb for the Group Repertory Theatre. I’ve also been a visiting Guest Director at USC’s School of Theatre. I’m returning to the school in early October to begin rehearsals with the undergraduate class on Flyin West by Pearl Cleage.

How did Elmina's Kitchen come to your attention? 

Earlier this year, I was invited to take part in a presentation at USC titled “Voices from the Black Diaspora.” We presented selected staged scenes from three international playwrights. One of the plays was Elmina's Kitchen by British playwright, Kwame Kwei-Armah. I was exhilarated by the two scenes we read from his play. The next day, I ordered a copy of the play from Amazon. After reading it, I knew our company had found its next production.  

LDTE's first production, Three Sisters After Chekov, was well received. You directed the play, and the other founding members were in the play. With Elmina's Kitchen you are directing, but the other company members are not in the production. How did that weigh in LDTE's decision to choose this play?

While I was convinced Elmina’s Kitchen was artistically right for our company, I recognized none of the six roles in the play suited the company’s founding members. This situation presented us with an interesting dilemma. Does LDTE only mount plays which has roles for its core members?  It was a difficult choice to make but in the end, the decision was unanimous.  Every one of our members felt we needed to mount this work. The compelling nature of the piece made it a story we wanted to tell.

What is the play about?

Elmina’s Kitchen deals with three generations of black men and their struggles to survive in a highly volatile area of London known as “murder mile.” I think the play is about choices. What conditions influence our choices and the ramifications of those choices. The decisions we make not only affect our immediate family, it affects our community as well as the society we live in.

What are the challenges in directing this play?

One big challenge in directing the play is to not make it feel foreign to our theatergoers even though the world it’s set in (inner city contemporary London) is culturally specific. There are amazing parrarels within the play to our own country’s troubles with gang violence, broken families and racism. 

What is the take away - - what do you want the audience be thinking about or feeling after the play as they leave the theatre?

I welcome a situation where our audience feels a variety of things when leaving the theatre. I never want to dictate how the audience should feel since aspects of the story will affect each theatergoer in a different way. I only hope they find within the material some aspect of their humanity which would make the experience resonant for them.    

The playwright currently resides and works the United States.  Any chance he might be in attendance at any point?

Yes, our playwright, Kwame Kwei-Armah, has expressed an interest in attending the West Coast premiere of his work. Kwame is currently the Artistic Director of a major regional theatre, Centerstage in Baltimore, Md. We’re trying to work out the details that would allow him to visit.

For LDTE, is there something in the planning stages for your next production?

LDTE is interested in fulfilling our commitment to developing new works, which is part of our mission statement. To that end, we’re planning a workshop in January 2013 where we will work with a playwright (s) in the early stages of his (their) work.  

What's up next for you?

Next up, I will be directing a staged reading of Alice Childress’s Wedding Band for the Antaeus Theatre Company’s annual Classicsfest. It’s a bittersweet story that examines the relationship between a white man and a black woman in 1914 when our country’s miscegenation laws were in effect.

 (interview conducted by Steve Peterson)










For further info or tix, visit:
www.lowerdepththeatreensemble.org

2012 Interview with George Hamilton

Legendary actor George Hamilton, a major film star since the late 50s, is currently treading the boards in the national tour of La Cage Aux Folles, opening July 11 at the Pantages Theatre. Known for such film hits as Love at First Bite, Zorro the Gay Blade, All the Fine Young Cannibals, Light in the Piazza, Where the Boys Are, Your Cheatin' Heart,  and Crime and Punishment USA, Hamilton has been referred to as more "famous for his debonair style and his perfect and perpetual suntan". He admits to it himself and in our chat, with his self-deprecating sense of humor,  jokes and tells very amusing anecdotes.


Good morning. How are you?

(talking from his car) It's amazing. I think I'm in Los Angeles. I'm right near my star on Hollywood Boulevard. I sit there sometimes and sell star maps to homes. You could make a good living just sitting there on that star. The people that move on don't know what they're missing. (he laughs)


Let's talk about La Cage Aux Folles. How long have you been on tour?

For nine months, I think. I've had stretch marks for nine months. Let me think about it. In October we started, and I started rehearsals in August.

Are you having a good time playing Georges?


I try to make it fun. Work is always work, but I've never worked with a group of people I like as much. The cast and chorus, the understudies knock me out, I mean their ability, the swings, to go on...it's just like me going to school is what it is. Every one of them has been incredibly nice to me. It's a really interesting adventure. I never thought about doing it, and then I did it, and it was so physically demanding, I pulled my achilles (tendon) the very first show...but...256 shows later... it's your attitude about a lot of the stuff. I like the challenge. Doing Dancing with the Stars, I had to have a knee replacement after that. This is just an achilles. I don't know what other organs I can give up. (laughs)

Are you enjoying working with Chris Sieber?


He's an incredible professional. I only have to look at Chris to say, "Well, you do the next line". He knows both parts and all the music; I some times feel like a ventriloquist.

You also did Chicago, right?

Yes. When I came into Chicago, I thought the trick was, it's nice to have a good director. I went to Walter Bobbie and asked him who the character (Billy Flynn) was. He said, "He just never bends over for anybody". That was all the direction I got from Walter. I went back and got the real word from my dresser. "You have to pop up over here. You have to pop up there. You have to say this line, and do it this way." I thought, this is perfect. The dresser knows more than anybody. I mean Bobbie's advice was as good as Jessica Lange's  line here about Hollywood, "Take Fountain!" You know that's the street that very ingenue, every star gives to get to their apartment or so as not to miss their callback audition or whatever, "Take Fountain". (he laughs)

What other stage work have you done?


Chicago was my first Broadway show. I've done maybe 26 plays...dinner theatre and summer stock. I used to make people think I was in the south of France while I was actually trying to learn to act. I went on the road. I did Funny Girl with Barbara Cook. We had such a great time together. (he laughs) I'll never forget...we were in Westbury, theatre-in-the-round. (He sings) "I want to be seen, be seen with you, with you on my arm..." All of a sudden I remember seeing a vertically challenged fellow, nowadays, we'd say a dwarf or little person...he was walking across the stage as we were singing this. I realized he must have had to go to the bathroom on the other side of the stage. Barbara's in the middle of "People", and he's coming back across the stage. I went over to him and said, "Forgive me, but since you missed it, I want to do that number for you again." So I repeated "I want to be seen, be seen..." Fun! It was as much fun as what happened recently in Orlando during Cage when all the lights went out. The lights went out, the air conditioning went off , and out there was... me, singing a duet...I'm singing away and all of a sudden I realize it's completely pitch black, there's no sound, and all I hear is my voice. I turned around, and everybody had left the stage. I looked at the audience and said, "I always wanted to do a one-man show." It was the moment of my life. I never enjoyed anything as much. I had such fun and the audience saw that I had fun, and I got more applause for that than anything I had done. Finally, it came back to normal. It was about eight seconds, but in my mind it seemed like eight minutes. This is an experience of acting on the stage. But it's amazing, and the Cagelles (dancers) are spitfires, they're fun, and I really like them. I'm going to stick with it and see what happens. I have fun every time I do the show.

Your role is a difficult one. Your partner Albin (Chris Sieber) has all the comic stuff and you really have to react off him. You're a genuinely funny actor, so it has to be challenging for you to play straight. How do you make it interesting for yourself?


You put your finger on it. It's strange because you go in and you think you're doing a comedy. It's your job like a caddy to set up the ball so that they can hit it out of whatever. I looked at the lines written on the t-shirts and I thought mine should say, "It's hard to be the straight man". The line of direction for this one is "He's in control". For me initially this was a huge learning curve. I am the adhesive storyteller, listener, reactor, and my character is the bookend too. When fans come to see me, they expect me to be maybe what I was in Zorro the Gay Blade or Love at First Bite, but the trick in this is that Terry Johnson (director) really wanted it based on real emotions and not on camp lines. So what I had to do was connect. You have a moment of presentation, then you have a scene that's fairly fiery. Slowly you must realize that there is an organic relationship and there are moments that do not include the audience. And this show has so many footprints of the hands of others on it. You find an old Roman road that leads somewhere. At some point somebody turns out to the audience and reads the line to them. He makes a comment on it, breaking the fourth wall. An actor doesn't know whether he really wants to do it or not, because where does it go? It sort of disappears. Then at the beginning of the second act, the play turns slightly into a farce. There are organic moments and then it again becomes presentational in a cabaret. It's very deceptive and difficult.

Switching over to your movie career, what is your favorite film role to date? 

There are five or six films that I produced that I like. People would never cast me in certain things; I'd have to produce it and do it myself, as I did in producing Love at First Bite and Zorro the Gay Blade. I'm a suit with perfect hair and a tan, and that's what I joke about. Sometimes they take my jokes seriously. Part of the problem for me as an actor is that I've always seen myself wanting to do the things Peter Sellars did. I had nothing in common with him, and that's why I wanted to do it. I've been somewhat of a mimic my whole life. I found a role that seemed just south of Cary Grant and I liked it. I held onto it for a while because I got good wardrobe and I'd get a good table (in a restaurant), so people thought that was me. You have to break that mold all the time. I liked that little movie that I made back in '63 about Hank Williams called Your Cheatin' Heart. I loved the film.

I thought I really hit it on the head. I was playing an alcoholic, a 29 year-old country singer, nothing to do with me, yet it had everything to do with me. Little did they know I grew up in a little town in Arkansas and went to military school in Mississippi. I knew all about country music but that was not my character. You get type cast, and I like being type cast. It's like walking into a poker game where they don't know how to play.

I know you are going to be great in the show. Look forward to seeing you on Wednesday night.

Well, maybe ...  it depends on the energy. We'll see. (he laughs)

George Hamilton is such an amusing man, I'm curious to see how he makes straight man Georges his very "own special creation". I'm sure there are lots of surprises in store. La Cage Aux Folles previews on Tuesday July 10 and opens on the 11th at the Pantages and plays through July 22 only.

http://www.broadwayla.org/index.asp

2012 Interview with Roger Bart

Comic actor/singer Roger Bart won a Tony for playing Snoopy in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown and a SAG Award for portraying George Williams on TV's Desperate Housewives. His versatility has also led to voice over work singing as Hercules in the Disney film of the same name. Bart will reprise his Tony nominated role of Carmen Ghia in The Producers at the Hollywood Bowl July 27-29. In our chat he talks about The Producers, Mel Brooks roles and other theatrical tidbits.

How many times have you played Carmen in The Producers?

Only twice. The first year and a half of the run on Broadway and then I went away and did a comedy series here in LA, and I came back seven months later and did it again for three months with Matthew (Broderick) and Nathan (Lane). when they came back to the show. And of course the movie, so three!

How do you approach a role that you've played before; how do you keep it fresh?

Of course, it's at the Bowl this time and the Bowl is huge. Honestly, Don, it may be the only time in my life doing this show that somebody doesn't accuse me of being broad. I could have an esoteric conversation with you about technique which is just to talk, listen and respond, which in some ways is analogous to playing jazz with other great musicians. In The Producers, the material is so fun and so delightful to do...the relationship between Gary Beach and me...it's no fun unless I'm doing it with Gary Beach. 

We created a relationship that was so multi-dimensional that there was always something to discover there about their great happy partnership. Like jazz musicians in this kind of show, there's a myriad of ways to play the tune, and if those you're playing with, play it well, it is an exchange, an experience that is unique every night. In the perfect world of Mel Brooks we make Max and Leo as uncomfortable as possible with our liberal behavior...it's really fun.

What about Young Frankenstein? Of course, again Mel Brooks! Apart from the size of the roles you're playing in each, as you have the lead as Victor Frankenstein and a supporting one in this, how would you compare the two?

Young Frankenstein was really a sendup of the genre of horror movies. The Producers is really about putting on a Broadway musical. By virtue of that, it works better as a musical than maybe Young Frankenstein did.

But that also worked great as a musical. My responsibility particularly...I did Leo Bloom for about two years altogether...the great thing about Carmen Ghia is he can be very flashy and silly and people get excited... but, I'm not onstage very much. I go out there and be a little eccentric or a lot eccentric, and I'm not onstage long enough where I have to sing a song explaining why I am eccentric. There are advantages to having a fun small part in a show. It's my job to be the driver, surrounded by all these wonderful character people, to be moving and buoyant and help everybody else so that they can come on and do what Carmen Ghia does.

Talk a little about director Susan Stroman.

She's extraordinary to work with. This is my third or fourth endeavor with her. She's a good friend and an extraordinary talent both as a choreographer and a director. We've always had a great collaboration as she has with most everyone she works with. The people that she hires around her are all great, and I don't think there's anyone I love working with more than Susan.

You seem to have a wonderfully unique comedy style. Do you emulate anyone in particular? Where does it come from? 

Gary Beach would probably answer this the same way. I'm a huge fan of Warner Brothers cartoons. I would spend many hours alone after school watching Daffy Duck. I think Daffy Duck is one of the great comedic villains. I also have a great uncle who was a comedian in the vaudeville circuit, who worked with George Burns and Gracie Allen. With that DNA running through my veins...I come from ...my parents are MIT scientists...they're very bright, I don't know what happened to me. It's your sense of mathematics, music, the science of designing a role so that you are surprised onstage, and my influences that include watching the Marx Brothers and the math that went into designing that slapstick comedy, and all the training with the commitment to being truthful, can hopefully make for fun work.

What is your favorite role to date?

I love Carmen Ghia. I loved doing Leo Bloom, which was a fantastic part. I've also enjoyed having the opportunity to be fun and then suddenly make everyone cry. Like in Falsettos, I loved doing years and years ago; I loved doing The Who's Tommy. A great part in like a music video almost. I also loved doing How to Succeed in Business, the Charles Nelson Reilly part. They're deliciously comedic and  conniving, and those classic shows like Business ares structured so perfectly, and the music, which I love, is swing and jazz...those roles I think are my favorites.

Any role that you really want to play?

Not off the top of my head. I think Danny Kaye would be an interesting person for me to try to work on...you don't know those until they come along. Hopefully they'll come along as I get older.

I'm sure of it! How many weeks of rehearsal do you have for The Producers?

I think about two. I could get back and do this in three days, provided she (Susan Stroman) doesn't give me too many hard dance steps. It's in my blood, this one. (he laughs)

Roger Bart is bound to be fantastic in The Producers at the Hollywood Bowl, Friday, July 27 at 8pm, Saturday July 28 at 8 pm and Sunday July 29 at 7: 30 pm Note the performances no longer start at 8: 30 pm!

For more info and tix:

http://www.hollywoodbowl.com/tickets/producers-new-mel-brooks-musical/2012-07-28