As you can imagine, he was completely charming, self-effacing and downright lovable. With his passing one of our greatest comedy geniuses has gone silent. In celebration of Carl Reiner, who passed away at the age of 98, here is the interview I wrote for Los Angeles Magazine‘s website back in 2015. I think you’ll find the last paragraph particularly moving. It’s pure Reiner.

When Carl Reiner sat down to write Enter Laughing, he had no idea it would become a book. And a play on Broadway. And a film. And a failed musical. And then a revised musical. But that is precisely the path his semi-autobiographical story has taken. The revised musical, Enter Laughing: The Musical opens tonight at the Lovelace Studio Theatre at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts.

“The genesis goes way way back when I wasn’t even writing. I was trying to remember how to use my typewriter,” the 92-year-old Reiner says by phone. “I showed my wife. I had one short story and then I had two dozen stories. I gave them to a friend who said it would make a great book. I got it to a publisher who said, ‘these are wonderful, but do you have a novel?’ I wrote it very quickly. They bought it. I kept writing.”

The novel tells the story of a young star-struck kid from the Bronx, David Kolowitz, who dreams of being a Broadway star. His parents think he should be a pharmacist. It’s a classic “I want to be in showbiz” tale, but with the unique sensibility that only Reiner can offer.

An entire column could be written about Reiner’s accomplishments: co-starring on Your Show of Shows, creating The Dick Van Dyke Show; working with Mel Brooks on the classic 2000-Year-Old Man and directing such films as The Jerk, Oh, God!, Where’s Poppa? and All of Me. He also appeared in Steven Soderbergh’s Oceans movies.

From the book came the play written by Joseph Stein (Fiddler on the Roof) that opened on Broadway in 1963. “[Stein] said this would make a dandy play,” Reiner says. “I was doing the Dick Van Dyke Show at the time. I flew in to see what Joe had wrought. It was a three-act play. Nobody wants to come back to the third act. Cut the show in half.” With those changes the show ran for 419 performances and Alan Arkin won the Tony Award for his performance. Reiner made his feature film directorial debut with the film version that was released in 1967.

The first pass at the musical came in 1976. It was called So Long 174^th Street. Once again Stein wrote the book and the music was by Stan Daniels. “I walked out on it,” Reiner reveals. “Bobby Morse as the kid? He’s 40 years old. They made an abortion out of it.” Audiences agreed. The show closed after 16 performances.

Enter Stuart Ross who revised the show at the York Theatre in New York in 2008. “I never had an experience seeing a show like this,” Reiner says of his very different reaction. “Every celebrity friend was laughing at every lyric. Jerry Seinfeld put his money where his mouth is and put an ad in the New York Times. Stuart Ross put it together. Almost impossible to do but he did.”

Reiner thinks he knows why the story keeps resonating with audiences. “The thrust of the thing is this is a kid who dreams of being an actor and that actor became Carl Reiner who became a writer/producer/director/novelist/autobiograph-ist. It’s never easy to fulfill your dreams, but it takes stick-to-it-ness. If you really feel you have to be what your calling is, you have to go through all the things to take you there. I’m blessed. Every step I’ve taken is a step up. No big jumps, except maybe my jump to Your Show of Shows. All along the way nothing became a tremendous success, but good, not so terrible, so let’s keep going.”

So if it is best to enter laughing, what’s the best way to exit? “Exit smiling knowing that you had a good life,” says Reiner.

Photo: Carl Reiner with Stuart Ross

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When I spoke to Edmunds on Wednesday, March 18th by phone, it would be another full day before the Metropolitan Opera in New York cancelled the rest of their season. Other venues have since started to make similar announcements.

These are edited excerpts (for length and clarity) from my conversation with Edmunds.

Before getting into the practical part of the world in which we find ourselves, after working so hard to put together your 2019-2020 season, how did you and your team navigate the emotional part of seeing it come apart?

It was certainly one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. I think, if I understand the community and our fans and audience enough, as hard as this it, it is a line that at least creates some clarity that allows us to redirect our energy into the things we need to do. Which is cope, keep ourselves healthy and safe and protect the community. Then look out to the future differently. It was really really hard.

This is a team of people who are doers, as all of us are in the arts. Part of it is scrambling to go, “there must be something else we can do; there must be something can do for our fans, our artists,” so you start sequencing that. We realized we were heading to the whole of the season. I had a chance to prepare my team so that announcement was something we can do with less chaos.

You were the first performing arts organization in Los Angeles to announce the suspension of the entire remaining part of your season. What, if any, conversations did you have with other institutions about their long-term plans and is there a consensus amongst other venues that this is the inevitable path going forward?

I’ve been in conversations with colleague organizations small, medium and large; locally, statewide, West Coast, nationally and internationally. Because I am at UCLA, an institution that has academics, research, a hospital and more, we were part of preparedness planning. I felt it was imperative to speak with colleagues who wouldn’t have that information about what the government – state or city – would be doing. Everyone will speak to what their own duty of care and community is needed and to their operating models. But we try to be in touch regularly.

Beyond suspending the season, what does this do to your artists, many of whom are on tours?

When a performance project cancels or when it is suspended, and I’m now speaking broadly, it tends to be in the contract that the performers are paid when they complete the performance. Wanting to get on the front foot to address that, let’s begin rescheduling. If everyone is up for that, that’s what we’ll be doing. We’re already involved with protecting and structuring dates. However uncertain future dynamics will be, it allows a future time we can work towards. On an emotional and structural level that is important.

There are some other things that are probably not unique to us, but there is a sequence of determinations that had to do with international performers about to land in the United States or were already here and they were working their way to Los Angeles. We had Ladysmith Black Mambazo returning back from their memorial services in South African for the death of their founder (Joseph Shabalala). They are in grief, but feel it is an absolute duty to carry on their music as he wanted. When they returned to the United States, they landed in Cincinnati who announced urgently they were cancelled. They didn’t even know the venue they were headed to had cancelled. I said to the tour manager, “You’re coming here, whatever you need.” On Monday we had them on the Royce Hall stage performing and we filmed it and will get it to people. It was a way to let them do spiritually and structurally what their mentor and founder had asked them to do. They are now in transit back and they have not yet landed as I speak to you now.

How do you see the role of the arts once this crisis has passed?

How do I say it? Artists and theatre makers and musicians and performing arts and visual media and everything, essentially we’ve always been working on some way to give form to an essentialness that we offer. We do that out of a professional call to our practices. I keep thinking about we’re all going to experience these new contours when we get back together as a community as very differently ravaged and all impacted human beings. And in that time period, I feel like then it is going to be our turn to support that essentialness that the arts have provided far differently than we ever have before.

Playwright George Bernard Shaw said, “Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable.” In our world today, what would you suggest those of us who love the arts do while we all wait this out?

I don’t want to sound too esoteric, but honestly, the arts have always helped us practice who we are in relation to it. It helps us practice who are with that which is other or like in the moment that we are there. We can still practice that before we needed to understand ourselves in this moment. I feel like reflecting on that artistry that mattered a lot to us and talking about it and using it for its inspiration and resilience and prescientness is useful to us. We practiced how we encountered that feeling in a fictional environment and now in a very real set of environments. And that’s useful. It’s useful to communicate hither and yon the importantance the arts play in our national fabric.

The other thing is we are going to need all matter of shekels to come forward, wherever possible, to get on the other side. You want to make sure people are in place when we come roaring back with a community that is going to be differently attenuated and hopefully craving our offer.

Photo of Kristy Edmunds by Reed Hutchinson (Courtesy of CapUCLA)

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Well, I would like for the American people to realize that over half of their tax dollars are going to war. While our representatives, alleged representatives, who are supposed to do what we say, are telling us that universal health care system can’t work here. It works in almost every other country. There may be a slight increase in taxes, but there will be no monthly premiums.

There are think tanks set up by the pharmaceutical companies and medical companies and politicians to tell us Medicare for all is not viable in the US. We have to stop calling out those liars. They’ve been paid to lie. Even after Obamacare’s meager reforms, a great boom to people with pre-existing conditions, it did not go nearly far enough. Health care costs are still the number cause of bankruptcy.

We are exploring space, but we’re killing people in other countries who never attacked us, but we can’t bolster our own people with a system that works in most of the industrialized world. We need to wake up and start demanding stuff of our representatives. If they don’t hear from you, they know to take that check from various industries. They are being paid. They are meant to represent us. We have one time to hold their feet to the first and that’s our vote and half of us don’t vote.

I think we’ve really lost the notion that the democracy that we claim to spread through bombs around the world in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, we’ve got to remember that they are working for us. In fact they are working against us due to the prevalanece of bribes. I’ve seen so many people posting about how cute it is that Michele Obama handed George W. Bush a cough drop. Or so many passionate posts for or against Kevin Hart. Do you not care anything about the world’s worst humanitarian crisis in Yemen? Which is Trump’s war. But Obama started that.

Please don’t tell me you support the troops if you can’t point to where they are on a map. If you can’t tell me what the mission is in Afghanistan, the longest war in US history, which Obama campaigned to end by 2013, you do not support the troops for reason no one can understand now. Even generals are saying let’s get out of the war. They joke that Atilla the Hun and Alexander the Great couldn’t conquer Afghanistan.

I’m Southern, I was brought up as a Christian. Christmas was time we celebrated the prince of peace, Jesus Christ, could we think a little bit more about peace around Christmas time when we’re trying to spread good cheer. Sorry to go so heavy on this, but they are taking the vote on this today.

In March the Senate tried to urge us to get out of Yemen. They don’t mention it was Bernie Sanders and Chris Murphy saying we need to stop this. There are not a lot of principaled peole in our government. I don’t believe in God, but I do believe in good and it’s not good what we’re doing. I feel a little freaked out not by “Baby It’s Cold Outside.” This war has gone on unbeknownst to Americans until it’s Trump war…it’s not. Peace on earth, goodwill to men.  That’s dead.  

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A full run-down of the events can be found at the REDCAT website here. Highlights include Astrid Hadad, Raul Baltazar, Teatro Linea de Sombra and Colectivo AM.  There are a mix of indoor and outdoors events and many of them are free.

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PERSONA – LA Opera at REDCAT

November 10-12

The work of Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman has inspired a musical (Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music), a Woody Allen comedy (Love and Death) and now an opera. Persona is one of Bergman’s most memorable films and now LA Opera is presenting an opera written by Keeril Makan with a libretto by Jay Scheib (who also directs.) The work, like the film, focuses on the relationship between a young nurse, Alma and a stage-actress, Elisabet Volger, her non-speaking patient. This is another production from Beth Morrison Projects. 90 minutes, no intermission. There will be a talkback with the creative team after each performance.

Photo Credit:  Larry Ho

JEAN-YVES THIBAUDET PERFORMS RAVEL – Walt Disney Concert Hall

November 10-11

Friday and Saturday mark the final two performances of an all-Ravel program at the LA Philharmonic. Charles Dutoit is conducting the LA Phil. The performance features Ravel’s Pavane for a Dead Princess, L’heure espagnole, and the very popular Piano Concerto in G. The soloist for the piano concerto is Jean-Yves Thibaudet, who is an artist-in-residence at the Colburn School for 2016/2017. If you were at the Hollywood Bowl in July you might have seen his passionate performance of the Lizst Piano Concerrto No. 2.

AteNINE: calling glenn – Royce Hall

November 11th

AteNINE is a Los Angeles-based dance company. It’s artistic director, Danielle Agami, is a former Batsheva Dance Company member. In this new work, calling glenn, they have teamed up with the percussionist from the rock band Wilco, Glenn Kotche. He will be performing live on stage with the dancers for this one-night only performance at Royce Hall on Saturday at 8 PM.

KING CHARLES III – Pasadena Playhouse

Now-December 3rd

This Tony-nominated play by Mike Bartlett is finally being produced in Los Angeles…well Pasadena…at the Playhouse. Bartlett imagines what would happen if Prince Charles were to ascend to the throne after Queen Elizabeth has died. The play is Shakespearean in tone and utilizes blank verse for its dialogue. Opening night is Sunday and the show continues through December 3^rd.

WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN – Alex Theatre

November 12th

This musical, adapted from Pedro Almodóvar’s beloved movie, didn’t last long on Broadway. It was written by the creators of another film-to-musical adaptation, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (David Yazbek and Jeffrey Lane.) Yazbek’s new musical, The Band’s Visit, just opened on Broadway to rave reviews. This musical depicts the 48 hours immediately following the end of a relationship for a well-known actress in Madrid. Musical Theatre Guild’s one night only concert performance takes place at the Alex Theatre in Glendale on Sunday.

LAST CHANCE:  The View UpStairs at Celebration Theatre

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Mozart’s Final Piano Concerto at Walt Disney Concert Hall (Fri-Sun)

After opening the 2017-2018 season with early compositions by Mozart, Gustavo Dudamel turns to Mozart’s final piano concerto which is being performed by Javier Perianes. Also included in the program is music from La Clemenza di Tito featuring four soloists and the Los Angeles Master Chorale.

Stupid Kid at the Road on Magnolia (ongoing)

In this play by Sharr White, a son returns him after serving 14 years in prison. He continues to profess his innocence. When he returns to his family, he finds a very different dynamic than he remembered. The highlight of this production is that it is directed by Cameron Watson who has proven himself to be one of the most adept stage directors in town.

Our Town at the Pasadena Playhouse (ongoing)

Deaf West Theatre, best known for their recent production of Spring Awakening (a production that ended up on Broadway), performs Thornton Wilder’s classic play.  In the pivotal role of the Stage Manager is Jane Kaczmarek. The cast, as per Deaf West tradition, is comprised of both deaf and hearing actors.

Monk Centennial Celebration at the Ford (Sunday)

One week after celebrating the 100th anniversary of Ella Fitzgerald, the Ford offers a centennial celebration for jazz pioneer Thelonious Monk. Presented by Angel City Jazz Festival, singer Dee Dee Bridgewater will be heading the celebration. And perfectly suiting a man whose music has regularly been sampled by contemporary artists, the second part of the evening will be a DJ celebration with DJ Logic and others. MONK’estra records will also be incorporated in the performances.

Last Chance this Weekend:  The Red Shoes (at the Ahmanson Theatre) and Carmen (LA Opera production at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion)

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Friday:

Brad Mehldau and Chris Tile at The Theatre at the Ace Hotel (Season opening event for CAP UCLA). Check out my interview with Brad about collaboration elsewhere on these pages)

Avishai Cohen Quartet at the bluewhale (also Saturday night) Check out my interview with Avishai elsewhere on these pages.

Saturday:

Big Night at the Kirk Douglas Theatre (Opening night) a new comedy by Paul Rudnick (“In and Out”)

Amadeus Live at the Valley Performing Arts Center (live accompaniment of Mozart’s beautiful music performed here by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra)

Coco Peru’s Taming of the Tension at the Renberg Theater (Saturday and Sunday)

All weekend:

Of course, you can always try to go see a little musical called Hamilton at the Pantages Theatre…if you can get tickets. (If you can, you should. It really is that good.)

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It was a great line destined to please those who look down on LA. But it wasn’t true then and it is even less true now. In fact, many people involved in the performing arts have moved here already or are moving here for the simple fact that Los Angeles is the epicenter of what’s going on in the performing arts in America. How do I know this?

For the better part of the last two-and-a-half years, I had been interviewing playwrights, composers, directors, dancers, songwriters and performers from across all aspects of the performing arts for Los Angeles Magazine. It was in the course of those conversations that two things occurred to me:

First: Los Angeles can take its place amongst the great cultural centers of the world.

Second: While we have a robust and exciting city where the performing arts are thriving, we don’t have a definitive resource that informs us, on a regular basis, what’s going on in town.

Thus CULTURAL ATTACHÉ was born. My goal is to share with you all that makes this city exciting for anyone who wants to attend concerts, plays, musicals, recitals and more. In this rapid-paced world in which we live, the ability to turn off our devices, tune in to someone else’s story, drop out of the hustle and bustle of daily life, even if for just an hour, is like taking a mini-vacation without leaving home.

Sometimes we leave home, too. So amongst these pages you will soon discover what’s going on in San Francisco, San Diego and La Jolla and also in New York City.

Throughout the days, weeks and months ahead, I will bring you conversations with major names in the performing arts. I will expose you to artists just under the radar that are shaking things up. And I will share with you my personal journey through 21^st century culture. As I get this site up and running, I’ll be posting many of the columns I did for Los Angeles Magazine’s website.

So whether you like plays, musicals, jazz, classical, opera, cabaret or dance, CULTURAL ATTACHÉ will inspire and excite you. Perhaps even more than the ability to make that right turn.

*Annie Hall

Photo Credit:  Jeremy Bishop

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