First Notice from Backstage.com

Backstage.com is the first to weigh in on the quality of the visit to Bed & Breakfast. Check it out here.

NYTheatre.com also weighs in on the proceedings. Click here to read it.

Look Ma, I'm Dancin'!

...at Carnegie Hall!!!

At long last I have pictures from my appearance last year with Karyn Levitt in "The Age of Romance: From Vienna to Broadway."

My original post is here.

The photos are here.

(All photos by Paul Nickelsberg)

Stills From "The Night Janitor"

The link below takes you to the website of Adam Harvanek, who directed this film. The photographs were taken by Sangwon Jung.

Photo Stills

I'm really looking forward to seeing the finished product.

We have one more sequence to shoot in July. Adam is scouting for rooftop locations with great views of Manhattan.

Another Bit of Self-Promotion

I've just accepted the role of Terrence in Bed & Breakfast, a comedy by Sam Sommer. It's a short run as part of the Fresh Fruit Festival in July.

For tickets, visit Theatermania.com

Our first read-through is set for Thursday of this week.

OK, I'll Play Too!

I've seen lots of blogs post various "memes" but never found any of them particularly interesting. Naturally, that has changed with one I just saw at "Steve on Broadway."

Here's my two cents':

1. The first musical I ever saw on Broadway was (or if you haven’t seen a musical on Broadway): La Cage Aux Folles - It was late in the run with Keene Curtis as Albin and Peter Marshall as Georges. The costumes were tattered and torn, the Cagelles sloppy and seedy - - I was instantly hooked!

2. The musical I would most like to see again is: I have to say that The Light in the Piazza was one of the most complete experiences I've had at the theatre.

3. The musical I never want to see again is: Brooklyn - ugh! I'll never get those 90 minutes of my life back.

4. The best performance in a Broadway musical by a woman I’ve ever seen is: This is a tough one.

• Victoria Clark in The Light in the Piazza
• Christine Ebersole in Grey Gardens
  

5. The best performance in a Broadway musical by a man I’ve ever seen is: John Gallagher in Spring Awakening

6. The person I wish they never cast was: Christian Borle in Legally Blonde - what a waste of talent.

7. The person they should have cast was: Norbert Leo Butz in Young Frankenstein - what a missed opportunity.

8. My favorite Broadway choreography was in the show: Crazy for You

9. The lyric/line that always brings a lump to my throat is: From Miss Saigon, Chris sings in his confession to Ellen: "I just wanted to save and protect her. Christ, I'm an American! How can I fail to do good?"

10. The stupidest lyric/line I’ve ever heard is: Anything from Brooklyn.

11. The first musical I had to go back and see twice was: Les Miserables

12. The first musical I ever walked out of was: It would have been Brooklyn, had there been an intermission. That didn't stop others from doing so.

13. The most under praised and overly deserving show in my opinion is: A tie here for David Yazbek's The Full Monty (overshadowed by The Producers) and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (overshadowed by Spamalot).

14. The most overly praised and under deserving show in my opinion is: Wicked - great production values, a cleverly adapted book, but what a dreadful score.

15. The song show tune I’m most likely to sing while I’m dancing around at home is: Another VERY long list - highlights:

• Love to Me - Light in the Piazza
• All the Things You Are - Very Warm for May
• Modern Major General - Pirates of Penzance
• Master of the House - Les Miserables
  

16. If I could recast any role in a current Broadway musical with a performer of the past it would be: This doesn't quite fit the caption, but I always thought that Judy Garland would have made the most amazing Mama Rose. Ever.

17. If I could recast a current actor in a Broadway musical that was before their time it would be: Isn't that what revivals are for? I did think that Julie Andrews would have made a terrific Norma Desmond had the timing on all that been different, particularly a film version of the musical.

18. The show they should never change a word of because it is already perfect is: Gypsy

19. The show I'd most like to get my hands on and rewrite is: Edward Scissorhands - it's been filmed and presented as dance, but Edward needs to sing!

20. The role I was born to play on Broadway is: There are so many! Luther Billis in South Pacific (it's still not too late, Lincoln Center - call me!). Frederick in A Little Night Music, Uncle Max in The Sound of Music. Amos Hart in Chicago (I'm available, Fran and Barry).

1 in 73,000

(Photo by Susan Wilson)

On her flight to New York, my mother found an ad in a magazine giving that statistic as the odds for a child to perform at Carnegie Hall.

Who'd a thunk it?

My performance last night at Carnegie Hall in Karyn Levitt's "The Age of Romance: From Vienna to Broadway" was one of those magical nights in the theatre that every performer hopes for every time he takes the stage.

There are several people I want to thank for this opportunity. Obviously my thanks to Karyn, and to Terrence Montgomery, our director. He's got such a sharp eye and that amazing skill/talent/intuition to zone right to the heart of a moment. He teaches at a high school here in the city. I hope his school and students know how lucky they are to have him. I also want to thank Tom LaMark, our Pianist, for his attentive and sensitive accompaniment. And great thanks to Greg Schanuel, for making me feel like a real dancer for the first time in quite a while.

Karyn's performance was simply delightful last night. She is a mature singer with a lovely voice and brought out the beauty of many well-known songs that over the years have sometimes fallen victim to camp and derision. The brilliant lyrics of Hammerstein, Young and Harbach have such a timeless quality, matched only by the gorgeous music with which they are paired.

Terry's interpretation of the music for the evening was to encapsulate the life and loves of a woman searching. My role was that of an Everyman, silently presenting several different characters as each appeared in this woman's love life in the various songs.

I began as a waiter serving champagne to her as hostess of a party, then a guest at the party, waltzing her across the stage (Grand Waltz). Her courage and interest piqued, I next appeared as a stagehand (complete with broom, apron and cigar stub), trying to sweep the stage, but instead becoming the object of her unwanted affections (One Kiss/I'm Falling in Love with Someone).

Next I came as a presumptuous dresser who has appropriated her sequined and coined scarves in a frenzied harem dance celebrating my own discovery of love (Rahadlakum/Baubles, Bangles, and Beads/He's in Love).

In Stouthearted Men, I was her dough-boy, headed off to war, then her Latin Lothario seducing her in a tango (Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise).

The stagehand returned as an understudy for the sheik fighting a desert windstorm to get to her, woefully mimicked by a small table fan (Desert Song).

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes brought me a solo dance, kindly, graciously and beautifully choreographed by a very talented Greg Schanuel, evoking the man she loves who is far away.

Then I got to sing.

On the stage.

At CARNEGIE HALL!!

Hundreds of years ago (shortly after I finished college) I took a voice pedagogy at a local college where I lived in South Carolina from a voice major at the school. One of the songs we worked on during that semester was Jerome Kern's All the Things You Are. I have loved that song ever since and had only ever gotten to sing it for others around a piano bar in the Village.

When Karyn offered to make it a duet in the penultimate number, I couldn't have been more thrilled. Top it off with a magical "Fred and Ginger" dance break (courtesy of sweet Greg) and it was quite the climax for the evening.

Karyn's husband (Paul Nickelsberg) took lots of pictures of the brief rehearsal just before and during the performance, which I'll share when I get them.

07/03/2008 UPDATE: The pics are in. Click here to view.

I was home and in bed before 1:00 am, but hardly slept a wink last night.

(I still can't believe I actually performed at Carnegie Hall.)