We all left our last workshop with Stephen Sondheim with our head full of information and feeling very immersed in our craft. There wasn’t much time to process it all since we needed to be at the theatre for How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying by 2:00 pm. I like this show a lot and was looking forward to seeing what the revival (of a revival of a revival) looked like, especially after hearing about the history of the show from Jo Loesser.
I don’t think I’ve ever approached a theatre and been physically blocked by hundreds of day campers (in matching T shirts) squealing with excitement over seeing Harry Potter in a show. I suppose this is where I need to confess a dirty, personal secret that only my family knows: I have never seen or read any of the HP books or movies. I think I was the only person in the theatre who was able to take Daniel Radcliffe at face value-I had nothing to compare him to.
So far, this is the best show I’ve seen. It was well directed, quick pace, terrific design elements (especially costumes and sets) and took what can be a dated show and made it fresh and fun. It is definitely not a show for ten year old campers as the director really played up many sexual elements that aren’t in the script, but they worked great for the rest of us.
The creative team made some great new choices in adding the ensemble to the fight song, the love duet at the end of Act One, and worked in more dancing to Coffee Break. It was all so well done that I had to ask friends who had directed it since my last production (1996ish)
if those additions were in the script and I had just forgotten about them.
An added bonus of the show was seeing that it is another production of Juniper Street Productions so I would be able to ask Ana Rose some technical questions later in the week.
The cast was a full of seasoned pros. John Larroquette was a riot, as was Tammy Blanchard as Hedy and the great character work of the head secretary Daniel Radcliffe did a good job. He held his own vocally, was a strong actor and is a heck of dancer for a performer with little dance background. At the Q & A after the show all of the leads gave a shout out to Daniel who spent two weeks learning choreography before he came to any rehearsals. They also mentioned that he came to the first rehearsal knowing the name of every cast and crew member and has been an excellent ensemble member of the company.
Between the theatre and a quick dinner (because we had another show) Carolyn Greer, one of her alumni, Heath, and I went for a quick visit with our good friend Joe Norton. Joe is the Associate Director of Education and Outreach at Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (BC/EFA). I met him years ago at an Educational Theatre Association conference, and have been lucky enough to have him attend and guest direct at the CA State Thespian Festival. Broadway Cares is the charity that The International Thespian Society has adopted and both Carolyn (with Kentucky Thespians) and I (with CA Thespians), and The International Thespian Festival has raised over $678,000.00 since 1999 for BC/EFA.
It was great for us to meet so many of the staff members who we had heard about, read about and corresponded with over the years. What a friendly group of people-especially since it was Broadway Barks Week and the day before their huge Fire Island Fundraiser. How cool that Joe’s office window looks out over Times Square. We heard great insight from Joe about the theatre community’s response to AIDS education and the power of young theatre students and their volunteer efforts. As a matter of fact the young Thespian with us, Heath, had volunteered for BC/EFA when he first moved to NY. Most of the staff recognized him and talked about the IMPACT project he spearheaded.
One of the items Joe shared with us is that whenever a resume comes into the office and it is from a Thespian that paperwork goes to the top of their pile. Thespians + BC/EFA has been an amazing partnership that continues to teach students the importance of volunteering and community activism.
That quick dinner gave me an opportunity to watch Carolyn and Heath catch up. What a great teacher she is to have produced a young man who is taking the daring path of founding a Theatre Company in New York.
From dinner we went on to our last BTW show-Sister Act. After the underwhelming Pasadena Playhouse world premiere a few years ago I wasn’t too excited about seeing the BW show. I love the movie and didn’t want to see the story butchered in front of me.
So I went in with low expectations and was pleasantly surprised. It was a nice adaptation with a fairly tight story. I always love Fred Applegate and the nun’s ensemble was full of veteran character actresses. Victoria Clark was amazing as the Mother Superior, and brought more humor to the role than I remembered from the movie role.
I spent a great deal of time looking at the sets and lighting. This show had huge sets-and was surprisingly high tech (didn’t expect that). The turntables with the church arches on it enabled four to six units to move in different combinations in order to create the various church interior locations-very cool and innovative. The best part was the rafter high statue of the Virgin Mary. It was on stage a great deal and, when the nuns, church and walls got a makeover at the end, Mary turned into a disco mirror ball covered statue. I have photos-taken during the Q & A of the two statues.
After the show we enjoyed meeting Fred Applegate, Victoria Clark and many members of the cast and crew. Their Stage Manager is a former dancer who discussed her transition from performer to SM. She neglected to mention that she had done 15+ Broadway shows (Fred told us that), and she was a wealth of information about the history of the show. Victoria Clark (Tony winner for The Light in the Piazza) gave us her bio and talked about performing, teaching and raising a kid as well as the Broadway work. She also talked about how she was still learning how to structure her day, how much sleep she needed and the process of performing in 8 shows a week. They premiered in April and she is still figuring out what she should eat when and how much in order to have the most energy for the show.
Following the performance we had a BTW reception at Sardi’s. What a great choice for theatre teachers. Luckily, I had spent lots of time there looking at the caricatures on the wall last September during the EdTA Hall of Fame, so I got to spend time visiting and saying my good byes. I left relatively early since the next few days were going to be crammed with lunches, meetings and visits with alumni.
No comments:
Post a Comment