You may not be familiar with incredible jazz bass player/composer Linda May Han Oh. If so, be sure to check out her own recordings and her collaborations with artists such as Vijay Iyer, Tyshawn Sorey and many more.

We spoke when she was on tour supporting her album The Glass Hours which came out in 2023. In this conversation Oh talks about her relationship to the songs on the record (some of which date back to 2018), the themes that resonate throughout the album and what level of faith she has that things are getting better.

You can read the print version of my interview with Linda May Han Oh HERE. The story includes a video of her performing. Don’t miss it.

I hope you have a great holiday season and enjoy these top 12 interviews.

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TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA – Peter Jay Sharp Theatre at Symphony Space – December 16^th

Shakespeare’s play of the same name was the inspiration for this rock musical from 1971 that was written by composer Galt MacDermot (Hair), lyricist/book writer John Guare (Six Degrees of Separation) and book writer Mel Shapiro. The musical won the Tony Award for Best Musical.

This one night only performance from Red Bull Theater stars Jordan Donica (Camelot) and Jin Ha (Hamilton). They are surrounded by an outstanding ensemble that includes Delphi Borich, Chuck Cooper, Demarius Copes, Coby Getzug, Ben Jones, Taylor Iman Jones, Kelvin Moon Loh, John-Michael Lyles, Alisa Melendez, Mikayla Renfrow, Sam Simahk, Nasia Thomas and Alysha Umphress.

André De Shields and Joy O. Sanders will be special guests. The concert is directed by Zi Alikhan. This is a great chance to hear a rarely-produced musical.

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

ONCE UPON A MATTRESS – Ahmanson Theatre – Los Angeles, CA – Now – January 5^th              

Arguably the best thing anyone can do during stressful times is laugh. You’ll find no better or more joyous place to be than at the Music Center in Los Angeles to see this production of Once Upon a Mattress.

Sutton Foster, Michael Urie, Ana Gasteyer, Daniel Breaker and the entire cast work very hard (without showing it) to wring every laugh out of this totally delightful adaptation of The Princess and the Pea.

This Mary Rodgers/Marshall Barer, Jay Thompson and Dean Fuller musical has been given a new adaption by Amy Sherman-Palladino (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel). The production, which just finished a Broadway run after starting its life at Encores!, will leave you with a smile on your face that will last long after you’ve re-entered the real world.

Take your friends, your family, travel into LA to escape holiday blues and enjoy Once Upon a Mattress.

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

LES BALLETS TROCKADERO DE MONTE CARLO – The Joyce Theater – New York, NY – December 17^th– January 5^th

Also guaranteed to put a smile on your face is the all-male dance company that promises laughs as they interpret some of ballet’s most famous works. 

With this engagement the company celebrates its 50^th anniversary with two different programs.

The first offers the NY City premiere of Durante Verzola’s Symphony (inspired by Balanchine’s Symphony In C). That is paired with Act II of Giselle. 

The second program offers their best-known work: Act II of Swan Lake – Le Lac des Cygnes. Peter Anastos’s Yes, Virginia, Another Piano Ballet and Raymonda’s Wedding round out those performances.

The Trocks are seriously funny and offer up dance that doesn’t take itself too seriously nor allow you to take yourself too seriously either. Again, perfect holiday fare.

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

JENNIFER HUDSON: THE GIFT OF LOVE: AN INTIMATE LIVE EXPERIENCE – Walt Disney Concert Hall – Los Angeles, CA (December 18^th); BleauLive Theater – Las Vegas, NV – December 21^st and 22^nd

I don’t usually recommend holiday shows. But EGOT-winner Hudson is someone for whom I’m obviously making an exception – because she’s exceptional.

The title of the show comes from her holiday album that came out last month. I’d buy a ticket just to hear her sing Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah (which opens the record) live.

There are 15 other songs ranging from Winter Wonderland to Go Tell It On the Mountain to Auld Lang Syne.

Can I tell you she’s not going without a big encore? No, I can’t. But if I were a gambling man….

For tickets and more information, please go HERE for Los Angeles and HERE for Las Vegas.

That’s all for this week’s Best Bets: December 16th – December 22nd. After all, how much fun can you fit into one week? Hopefully a lot!

Have a great week!

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So here are Best Bets: December 9th – December 15th:

WIT & WISDOM – The Tent Theater at The Peter Jay Sharp Theater – New York City – December 9^th

It is said with age comes wisdom. While there are plenty of examples where that isn’t true (and you know who they are), this one-night only reading will offer exactly what the title says: Wit & Wisdom.

Doing readings from various texts that explore what it means to grow older are Quincy Tyler Bernstein, David Cale, Kathleen Chalfant, John Ellison Conlee, Mia Katigbak, Taylor Mac, Alfred Narciso and Mary Testa. Previously announced Estelle Parsons is no longer listed on the event’s website.

I would attend just to see and hear Chalfant, Testa and Taylor Mac. The event includes a reception immediately following the performance.

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

MEOW MEOW FELINE FESTIVE HOLIDAY – Multiple Venues – December 10^th – December 14^th

If you’ve never seen Meow Meow, you owe it to yourself to do so. She’s a one-of-a-kind performer who brilliantly blends new and old material to create something wholly unique. 

So imagine what she can do with the holidays! Audiences in Denver, Stanford, CA and Beverly Hills can find out this week. Meow Meow appears at Denver’s Newman Center on Tuesday, December 10^th; at Bing Concert Hall at Stanford on Friday, December 13^th and at The Wallis in Beverly Hills on Saturday, December 14^th.

Having seen Meow Meow before, I can assure you this Feline Festive will have you feeling festive.

For tickets and more information, click on the name of the venues above.

JEREMY DENK  – 92^nd Street Y – New York, NY – December 12^th (also available to livestream)

One of the best classical music albums to be released this year is Ives Denk which finds pianist Denk performing Charles Ives’ violin sonatas with Stefan Jackiw and the composer’s piano sonatas. 

Ives is scheduled to conclude his concert with Ives’s Sonata No. 2 “Concord, Mass., 1840-60.” Before he gets there audiences will hear Beethoven’s Sonata No. 27 in E Minor; Scott Joplin’s Bethena, Louis Moreau Gottschalk’s The Banjo, Jule Styne’s Just in Time in an arrangement by Ethan Iverson (after Nina Simone), William Bolcom’s The Poltergeist Rag and Beethoven’s Sonata No. 31 in A-flat Major.

It’s an impressive program and one Denk will make seem completely effortless and well worth your time. You can attend in person or livestream the event (which will remain available for 72 hours after the performance).

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

CULT OF LOVE – Helen Hayes Theater – New York, NY – Opening Night December 12^th – February 2^nd

How does any family make it through the holidays? In Lesley Headland’s play, The Dahl family, not unlike any other family, has moments of complete harmony and an equal amount of discordance. Can they navigate the latter to end up with more of the former?

Molly Bernard, Roberta Colindrez, Barbie Ferreira, Rebecca Henderson, Christopher Lowell, Zachary Quinto, David Rasche, Christopher Sears, Mare Winningham and Shailene Woodley star in the play.

Trip Cullman directs.

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

LETTERS TO A YOUNG POET – Music Before 1800 – NY Society for Ethical Culture – New York, NY – December 15^th  (also available to stream online December 30^th – January 13th)

I believe that Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet is essential reading. It’s a series of letters between Rilke and Franz Kappus. This show pairs their correspondence with the string quartets of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel.

Ravel’s String Quartet in F Major was composed at the same time Rilke was inspiring Kappus. Ravel had been inspired by Debussy’s only string quartet which was completed ten years earlier.

Diderot String Quartet will perform the music and Bill Barclay and David Joseph will play Rilke and Kappus.

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

Those are my Best Bets: December 9th – December 12th. Have a great week and see a show!

Main Photo: Letters to a Young Poet (Photo by Patrick Young/©Britten Pears Arts)

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My TOP CHOICE this week is:

JAZZ: MOTION I – OUT OF/INTO -Blue Note Records

Jazz has had many a supergroup. Out Of/Into is as good as it gets for jazz artists today. They are comprised of vibraphonist Joel Ross, pianist Gerald Clayton, drummer Kendrick Scott, bassist Matt Brewer and alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins. Each of them is a brilliant artist and this album shows how well they work together, too. Not a surprise for five artists who toured extensively earlier this year.

This album has a cohesion and a dialogue amongst the five men that makes for 45 minutes of incredible music. One can only hope that the title alludes to more albums from this incredible supergroup.

Clayton composed four of the seven tracks on Motion I. Brewer, Ross and Scott each contributed one composition. I love all the tracks, but Brewer’s Aspiring to Normalcy really stood out to me. After all, who amongst us doesn’t want to have some kind of normalcy in our turbulent times?

Motion I offers great jazz music that is both of our time and instantaneously timeless. That alone should get us one giant step closer to normalcy.

Here are the rest of my selections for New In Music This Week: December 6th:

CLASSICAL: MESSIAEN: TURANGALÎLA – SYMPHONIE – Yuja Wang, Cécile Lartigau, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Andris Nelsons – Deutsche Grammophon

French composer Messiaen only wrote one symphony and this large composition for orchestra with piano and Ondes Martenot is a doozy. What is an Ondes Martenot you might ask? It’s an early electronic keyboard that sounds a bit like a theremin (see “Good Vibrations” by The Beach Boys) and is played via a keyboard or by the manipulation of wire by a ring.

Yuja Wang is the soloist on piano and Cécile Lartigau plays the Ondes Martenot.

This is an exciting performance of Messiaen’s challenging, important and fascinating work. The 75-minutes of this recording fly by and leaves a listener filled with satisfaction and a lot of questions that will, no doubt, be rewarded with further listenings.

CLASSICAL: MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS: THE COMPLETE COLUMBIA, SONY AND RCA RECORDINGS – Sony Classical

In celebration of conductor/composer Michael Tilson Thomas’ 80th birthday, this mammoth box set has 80 CDs (remember those?) of his recordings from 1973-2005.

There are many of the most popular classical music compositions to be found from such composers as Beethoven, Mahler, Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky. There is also a lot of music by Charles Ives (a composer I’ve always felt Tilson Thomas handles quite well), George Gershwin (including the legendary recording with Sarah Vaughan and the Los Angeles Philharmonic) and Aaron Copland (another Tilson Thomas specialty).

This box set is a tribute to Tilson Thomas and a must-have for anyone who loves him and his approach to music.

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL: SONIC WIRES – Katia Labèque, Marielle Labèque, David Chalmin, Bryce Dessner – Deutsche Grammophon

I’ve long been a fan of the Labèque Sisters who play piano beautifully. On this album (only available digitally), they are joined by composer/musician Bryce Dessner and singer/composer/musician David Chalmin. They perform work by Chalmin, Dessner along with Timo Andres, Philip Glass, David Lang, Steve Reich, Caroline Shaw, Sufjan Stevens and Anna Thorvaldsdottir.

I loved every minute of this album and feel that even those who are afraid of contemporary classical music will find a lot to enjoy here. You will be challenged at times, but never in a way that makes you question the investment of your time. This is 61 minutes of music that will inspire, entertain and move you.

My favorite tracks are Out of Shape by Andres, Ever Present by Lang, Valencia by Shaw and Reflexion by Stevens.

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL: ALEXEY SHOR: COMPOSER’S NOTEBOOK, VOL. 1 – Marc Bouchkov, Anna Ulaieva, Kyiv Virtuosi, John Warner, Dmitry Yablonsky – Naxos

This album from Ukrainian-born composer Shor focuses on two works: Travel Notebook, Suite for Piano and Violin Concerto No.4 in B Minor. Both works are relatively new having had their debuts in the last 3-5 years.

Travel Notebook has seven movements and features soloist Anna Ulaieva. The violin concerto has a traditional three-movement structure and features Bouchkov as the soloist. One of the things I enjoyed most about this recording, and the compositions themselves, is that they are performed with a string orchestra.

Not being hugely familiar with Shor’s work, this is a welcome addition to his recorded repertoire.

JAZZ: LIVE IN BROOKLYN – The Fury – Giant Step Arts

This is the first of two live recordings released by Giant Step Arts this week. Our album of the week is a supergroup and this album features another first-rate ensemble of artists and shares bassist Matt Brewer as a member.

In addition to Brewer, The Fury features guitarist Lage Lund, tenor saxophonist Mark Turner and Pulitzer Prize-winner Tyshawn Sorey. It must have been pretty exciting to be in the audience when this album was recorded live. Not only are these four massively-talented musicians, but their playing on this recording is nothing short of phenomenal.

There are seven tracks on this album – six of them originals written by Brewer, Lund and Turner. All of them showcasing these four musicians who are certainly creating some of the best music in modern jazz.

JAZZ: THE CROSS OVER: LIVE IN BROOKLYN – Jason Palmer – Giant Step Arts

Opening a live performance with solo trumpet is a pretty ballsy way to start a show. That’s precisely what Palmer did on this live recording and it announces straight away that we should expect something unconventional, yet still grounded in classic jazz traditions. After a bit more than two minutes drummer Marcus Gilmore joins the opening track, B.A.M.D. Gradually bassist Larry Grenadier and tenor saxophonist Mark Turner join in and we’re off and running.

Through the nine tracks of The Cross Over, Palmer reveals himself to be an inventive and daring musician. He’s been recording albums for nearly 15 years and I have to admit this is the first time I’ve listened to one of his albums. Suffice to say, I will be listening to a lot more of them moving forward.

The Cross Over is an impressive album that showcases the talent of all four musicians. But front and center is Palmer who composed all nine tracks.

MUSICALS: HADESTOWN: LIVE FROM LONDON – Original London Cast – Arts Music and Sing it Again Records

The Tony Award-winning musical by Anaïs Mitchell gets it London cast recording here with most of the recording coming from the original London cast’s final performance. They sound like they are giving it their all and the audience is certainly responding.

The cast incudes Dónal Finn as “Orpheus”, Zachary James as “Hades,” Melanie La Barrie as “Hermes,” Gloria Onitiri as “Persephone” and Grace Hodgett Young as “Eurydice.”

Given the audience’s response, you’d think this was more than a musical. It’s as if the cast is getting rock star treatment. Like many a live recording (at least those that don’t rely on a lot of overdubs), the high level of energy more than compensates for any imperfections in the performances.

This is an exciting document of this wholly original musical.

Today’s release is solely on digital platforms. Next week the CD will be available and one week later a limited-edition pop-up vinyl version will be released. The traditional vinyl release will happen next year.

That’s all for New In Music This Week: December 6th.

Enjoy the music! Enjoy your weekend!

Main Photo: Part of the album art for Motion I (Courtesy Blue Note Records)

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Sands is back on Broadway in the new musical Swept Away which is now playing at the Longacre Theatre. The musical, set in 1888, tells the story of four men (Sands, John J. Gallagher, Adrian Blake Enscoe and Wayne Duvall) who survive a shipwreck in the middle of the Atlantic. What happens to them after the shipwreck is a tale of courage, fear, sacrifice and family. Swept Away is inspired by the Avett Brothers’ 2004 album Mignonette and Neil Hanson’s book (that inspired the album) The Custom of the Sea.

John Logan (Red) wrote the book for Swept Away which had its debut at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in 2022. A stop at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. preceded the Broadway run. Through it all director Michael Mayer kept the same four actors in the roles they created…including Sands.

In this interview Sands talks about the themes of Swept Away, the brotherhood that the four actors have forged and the thrill of originating new roles on stage. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. To see the full interview, please go to our YouTube channel.

Q: I want to take you back in time to the fall of 2001. I’m guessing that was about when you first appeared on the set of Six Feet Under to play the character of Toby for two episodes. It’s your first real professional gig. What do you think that young man from 23 years ago would say about where you are in your career right now and the choices that you’ve made to get there?

It’s a really lovely thing to think back to that time. That was my first job out of college. I was so lucky to get it and grateful to be on a show that happened to be a big hit from season one. All of a sudden I get these two episodes on season two when all these people are tuning in because it’s just won the Golden Globes.

I think he’d be very proud. I think I’m exactly where I hoped I would be and dreamed that I would be. I had a lot of confidence coming out of drama school. I went to USC. I was in the BFA program there. It’s a very selective program and I came out of college with a lot of confidence. I think it served me well.

You’ve been able to originate roles in several musicals: Tunny in American Idiot, Charlie Price in Kinky Boots and now Older Brother in Swept Away. What do you find is the greatest challenge and the greatest benefit of being the first person to bring a character to life on stage?

I feel honored that I have the sort of stamp of originality on some of these roles. I love that I don’t have to think about anything but whatever’s coming out of me. There is a real sense of pride because, if the show runs and people take over and then the show gets licensed and goes out to colleges and high schools, I hear kids singing riffs that I made up. It is magic to know that’s me; because something that I did in the moment is now cemented as part of the history of that show.

You told Talkin’ Broadway in 2010 that you can’t play a character “unless you can find a shade of yourself in it.” What are the shades you found in Older Brother that unlocked the character for you in Swept Away? 

He is fiercely loyal to his family. The first time we did the show, we did it in Berkeley, California, during Covid. It was started in December 2021 through March of 2022. Because I have two kids, my wife and kids had to stay here in New York and I had to leave them behind. In the show a large part of it is missing your loved ones and wishing you could be with them. That was very reachable for me and the rest of us as we were sort of stuck in Berkeley, isolated, without any ability to go out and socialize beyond our little cast. I think it was ultimately a huge benefit for the show because we bonded so strongly on that experience that the work we’re able to do now is incredibly detailed and really benefits from that.

Jesse Green wrote in his review for the New York Times, that Swept Away was “amongst the darkest, most unsparing musicals ever to anchor itself on Broadway.” Do you feel the darkness of this show and what are the steps necessary for you as an actor or for the company to get through eight shows a week of such intense material? 

I feel the darkness. Part of the sacrifice of committing yourself to doing this as an actor is you have to believe it while it’s happening. You have to actually go there mentally. I have to face my own death. These are things that normally, if we have these thoughts in the middle of the night, like someday I’m going to die, you push it away.

When I became a parent the idea of losing one of them to some tragedy is really not something you want to think about. I have to do it every night because my little brother in the show is at risk of passing away. That is something that I have to just deal with. It is dark, but there is salvation at the end, which is really important for people to know. It’s not just a total bummer. I hope it makes people cry and I hope it makes people ask questions of themselves and to wonder what they would do if they were put in this situation.

Director Michael Mayer said that he would only continue with the show after Berkeley if the four of you were going to be allowed to remain with the show. That’s a level of commitment that not a lot of people offer. What did that commitment that he made to the four of you mean to you? That’s pretty rare in this business.

It really is. I have never done a show that had an out-of-town run and then the exact same people went to Broadway. We did two out-of-town runs. In the original run there were the four principals, the same four guys, and there were only four sailors. Over the runs they have multiplied that. Now we have, I believe, ten onstage sailors and four principals and a few swings who come on and support it in some certain moments. 

We all understand what a magical thing we have here; what an original piece of theater and art this is. So I would say that it was all for one and one for all. We fought for each other as well; the bonding that we did in Berkeley and in D.C. I had the luxury in the out-of-town runs to just live in the show. If we had to start over with someone else, it just wouldn’t be the same. You wouldn’t have that level of detail and trust. 

Scott Avett told Alan Light in the New York Times that “The whole concept of Mignonette was a commitment to truth because they hung themselves on truth when they were rescued.” How does that perspective inform the truth that you and your fellow cast mates bring to this show? 

Ultimately, this is a story about three ghosts. You learn that in the first moment of the show. We are haunting Gallagher. Asking him to tell the truth about what happened and he doesn’t want to because he’s ashamed of it. I think that we gain a lot from admitting our faults and expressing the shame that we might feel about the things that we’ve done. You can narrow that down to an individual or you can make it about a country and the choices that a country has made over time.

I don’t think that the show is a political commentary at all. But people can take what they want from it. I think we are living in a time when some people just don’t want to acknowledge mistakes that we’ve made in the past. And I think that is a mistake to not acknowledge those things.

It wasn’t just Mignonette that inspired this, but there was also Neil Hansen’s The Custom of the Sea. Now, we don’t need to go into what that custom was, but how do you think that custom today resonates in terms of just pure survivalism? Is there a metaphor about survivalism that we can get from this story?

I have read all of the shipwreck survival books now. I’m the kind of actor who really dives in and wants to really provide as much context for my imagination as possible. When I get a role I want to read the original, obviously, and then I want to read anything else that might help. I’ve been with this project for five years now, I’m going to have read it all.

If you’re stuck on a lifeboat, you have no food, you have no water. At a certain point, there is an option that you can take. It’s not something people want to think about. But it was the reality of life at sea in the 1600s, 1700s, 1800s. It just happened whenever there was no hope left. There’s a moment when Johnny faces the audience and says, before you turn away too quick, you ask yourself, what would you do to see your family again? To see your wife or your sweetheart? How far would you go? I do think it’s important to ask that question sometimes. I’m a parent and I can say to you right now there’s nothing I wouldn’t do to save the life of my children. That’s easy. It’s not even a second thought.

You made your Broadway debut in Journey’s End which is a story about sacrifice. Here you are 17 years later in Swept Away where sacrifice is also a part of the story. What does sacrifice mean to you personally, and what do you think we as a society can learn about sacrifice in a time when most people seem obsessed with self-promotion?

I think of sacrifice and I think of the sacrifices that my wife and my kids have made for me to be able to do this job – this specific job. The life of an actor is one that is in direct conflict with family time. I’m gone on evenings and weekends. That’s when most people see their kids. I’m fully available right now, but my kids are in school. It’s not easy. That’s a sacrifice that they have made for me. I get to do what I love. I miss my wife and my kids, but I there is benefit to it because I get to be on Broadway doing this show eight times a week. But they have given up many, many months of having Dad around because of my job. That is not lost on me. I miss them dearly when I can’t be with them. But I recognize that it’s not just me making that sacrifice. Primarily it’s them. That’s what I take with me moving on through this. And if I’m lucky enough to keep working in this business on projects that I passionately care about, there is a sacrifice on both sides.

Do you think that we as a society need to learn a little bit more about what sacrifice is?

Yes. I think that we are living at a time when immediate gratification is becoming a real problem. People can get whatever they want by tapping a few buttons on their phone or their computer and it’s delivered to you later that day or the next day. So there is very little sacrifice being made, at least in terms of that gratification. I remember a time when even just wanting to watch something on TV, you had to get there and sit in front of it. I’m old enough to remember that and I worry about the direction we’re going; where everything is available all the time.

I kind of hate social media. That’s not a secret. I’m barely on it. I find it to be a huge distraction from real life. I’m grateful that we can do this because I’m talking to you in real time. I know we’re on our devices and we’re having this conversation, but at least it’s a real conversation and it’s not some cultivated, curated version of my life that I’m trying to show off.

To watch the full interview with Stark Sands, please go HERE.

UPDATE: SWEPT AWAY has announced it will be closing on December 29th. A two-week extension has been added since the original closing date of December 15th was announced.

Main Photo: Stark Sands in Swept Away (Photo by Emilio Madrid)

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GAVIN CREEL: WALK ON THROUGH – MetLive Arts YouTube Channel 

When I spoke with Gavin Creel last year he was so excited about putting a production of his musical Walk On Through in New York. He performed excerpts from it while in Los Angeles on the Into the Woods tour, but this would be the first full production. He had high hopes for its future.

Unfortunately, his life was cut tragically short this fall. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, who commissioned Walk On Through, has posted an early version of the show performed in 2021. It’s available for all to see and is a great reminder of how bright a star Creel was.

You can find the video HERE.

Also, a memorial service is taking place on December 2^nd at 4 PM ET/1 PM PT. MCC Theater, where Walk On Through: Confessions of a Museum Novice, will livestream the service. You can watch it HERE.

2024 YEAR OF CZECH MUSIC – Carnegie Hall – New York, NY – December 2^nd – December 7^th

Any concert celebrating Czech music is certainly going to feature the work of Dvořák and this is no exception. There’s also music by Janáček, Smetana and more to be seen and heard.

The festival kicks off with a free concert at Bohemian National Hall featuring Young International Stars from the Czech Philharmonic Orchestral Academy, National Youth Orchestra of the US, Royal Academy of Music and the Czech Philharmonic. The program features two works by Dvořák plus music by Wynton Marsalis and Elgar.

Tuesday, December 3^rd has cellist Yo-Yo-Ma joining the Czech Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall for a performance of Dvořák’s Cello Concerto in B Minor. Selections from Smetana’s Má vlast are also on the bill. Semyon Bychkov conducts.

On Wednesday, December 4^th violinist Gil Shaham performs Dvořák’s Violin Concerto. Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 follows. This is also performed by the Czech Phil with Bychkov.

Thursday, December 5^th pianist Daniil Trifonov is the soloist for Dvořák’s Piano Concerto. That is followed by Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass. Bychkov heads the Czech Philahrmonic for this show.

There are additional concerts as part of this fascinating program. And no performances of Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 are on the bill making this an opportunity to hear much more of his music than is usually performed.

For tickets and more information for any or all of these concerts, please go HERE.

SCHOENBERG AT 150 FESTIVAL – Los Angeles Philharmonic – Los Angeles, CA – December 3^rd – December 15^th

If you know Arnold Schoenberg’s music, it is probable that you know him for his twelve-tone compositions that required the use of each of the 12 notes of the scale equally rather than relying on just one or two notes to drive the composition.

His work was much more than that.

The breadth of his work will be on display in this festival that features an evening of his chamber music on December 3^rd.

Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4 for string sextet opens the concert. His String Quartet No. 1 closes the concert.

Ten members of the LA Phil will be performing this including Bing Wang on violin. For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

December 13^th and 15^th, Zubin Mehta will conduct the LA Phil performing Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder, a three-part oratorio for five soloists, narrator, orchestra and chorus. This is one of Schoenberg’s most impressive compositions and runs approximately 1 hour and 48 minutes.

The soloists are baritone Gabriel Manro, mezzo-soprano Violeta Urmana, soprano Christine Goerke and tenors Brandon Jovanovich and Gerhard Siegel. Dietrich Henschel is the narrator.

They will be joined by the Los Angeles Master Chorale.

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

Note: Schoenberg at 150 Festival resumes in February

INGRID JENSEN QUARTET – SFJAZZ at Home – December 6^th and 7^th

This concert by trumpeter Ingrid Jensen originally took place at SFJAZZ on November 9^th of this year. Members of their SFJAZZ at Home subscription can watch the concert on Friday, December 6^th at 10:30 PM ET/10:30 PM PT and also on December 7^th at 2:00 PM ET/11:00 AM PT.

Membership can be purchased either annually for $75 or monthly for $7.50. This gives you access to their library of live recordings from the SFJAZZ archives.

Jensen may be best known as a member of Artemis. She’s also performed with the Maria Schenider Orchestra and Darcy James Orchestra (if you don’t know them, stop what you’re doing an find their music now) and more.

For more information and to explore membership to SFJAZZ at Home, please go HERE.

REBEL WITH A CAUSE: THE ARTISTRY AND ACTIVISM OF NINA SIMONE – 92^nd Street Y – New York, NY – December 7-December 9^th

For any fan of legendary singer/songwriter/activist Nina Simone, this is too good to miss. Amber Iman, who was nominated this year for her performance in the musical Lempicka, has teamed up with playwright Jocelyn Bioh (Jaja’s African Hair Braiding) for this show that is part of the 92^nd Street Y’s Lyrics & Lyricists series.

Michael O. Mitchell, associate conductor of MJ The Musical, is the music director here for a show that will feature such Simone classics as My Baby Just Cares For Me, Feeling Good and Mississippi Goddam. Reggie D. White directs.

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

That’s it for this week’s Best Bets: December 2nd – December 8th. Have a great week and go so a concert or a show!

Main Photo: Conductor Semyon Bychkov (Photo ©PetraHajska/Courtesy Enticott Music Management)

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He’s appeared in multiple Stephen Sondheim shows (including Merrily We Roll Along, A Little Night Music and Sweeney Todd). In fact, his list of credits is far more robust than you might think. But it’s Phantom for which he’s best known. Which is why his cabaret show is called Hugh Panaro: The Man Without the Mask.

Panaro brings the show to Feinstein’s at the Hotel Nikko on November 29th and 30th; Catalina Jazz Club in Hollywood on December 5th and the Palm Springs Cultural Center on December 7th.

Given his vast career, we had plenty to talk about earlier this week. What follows are excerpts from that conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. To see the full interview, please go to our YouTube channel (where you’ll be able to hear many more stories, his impersonation of Mandy Patinkin and get his recipe for the perfect Negroni).

Q: Andrew Lloyd Webber told Charles Spencer in The Telegraph in 2013, “What strikes me is that there’s a very fine line between success and failure. Just one ingredient can make the difference.” What do you think is that one ingredient that you have that has made a difference for you in your career?

That’s a great question. I think if I have one good trait, I think I can be objective. I’ve always known when I’ve done a bad audition and I usually know if I’ve done a good audition. I’ve gotten better at it, as I’ve gotten older, I think, to be more objective and hopefully not be too delusional. Really kind of see myself, hopefully, the way other people can see me.

As an actor this far into your career, can you own that you did the best in any given situation and not worry about the result? 

That’s where I would put my money where my mouth is. Whenever I do masterclasses with young people, I always tell them the same thing. The best thing you can do is be the most authentic version of yourself so that people see you. Don’t try to be somebody else that you’re not. When I first moved to New York, Mandy Patinkin was it. I was obsessed. I thought he’s just best thing on two legs. I thought they wanted Mandy Patinkin. So I would go in a lot of times and do my best, what I thought they were looking for.

It wasn’t until this really smart piano player, musical director, I should say, Michael Biagi. [He] didn’t know me from Adam. He saw me out and he said, “You know, if they want Mandy, they’re going to get Mandy. You need to figure out who you are. Bring that to the table and some people are going to like it. Some people are not. But at least they’ll know who they’re hiring.” It was the best advice anyone ever gave me.

The Man Without the Mask started in New York at 54 Below. How has the show evolved since you first did it?

It is definitely evolved. I will take you back another 2.0 version. The first time I had done something like this was actually in Palm Springs. My musical director, Joseph Thalken, and I put something together and we were having fun. My friend, and now director, Richard Jay Alexander, came to see the show. He did say, “You know, I think you need a director. And if you’re interested, I’d like to talk to you.”

He goes, “You have a career and you need to really focus on that and bring people up to date of your own musical journey.” There were a lot of things that we just didn’t put in the show because, I don’t know, I guess I thought it was not interesting or people would think it was old fashioned. That was when Richard hopped on board. Then Joseph and I and Richard went into a rehearsal studio and just sang through everything you can possibly imagine. There were so many songs that just didn’t make the cut, because you can’t keep people there for 4.5 hours. 

You have a recording of the show. Do you think fans come to see you hoping to hear that in person or do you want to offer them more?

I always say that the CD we released is a very good template for what people are going to see, but it always changes a little bit based on a couple of things. I do like to sing everything and stay all night and sing them, but some venues are very strict with [time]. I also had guest stars. So we had to go, what two songs from Man Without a Mask can we live without? We would change the show every single night.

For instance, at Catalina, my dear friend Lisa Vroman has said yes to singing with me. We’re going to get to do a reunion moment together [they were both in Phantom of the Opera]. Obviously we can’t go all night, so we’ll probably have to trim some numbers. But with Catalina, I believe there’s only one show that night, so I might go long.

The musical Annie introduced you to the world of professional musical theater. I believe that Sweeney Todd introduced you to the world of musical theater as religion. You tell a great story about Len Cariou doing “Epiphany” and jumping down with his knife right to the lip of the stage when you saw the show. When you have a memory as profound as that, how does that influence how you approach a role that many decades later you performed (at Barrow Street Theatre off-Broadway)?

Len Cariou was my Sweeney. He’s who I saw. I was taken to see that show. My mom said, “Hughie, you need to see this woman. Her name is Angela Lansbury.” I don’t know how she pulled it off, but we had house seats and I was about the fourth or fifth row on the aisle. Len literally leapt. I mean, he didn’t leap. He flew from Mrs. Lovett’s pie shop down to the lip of the stage and looked at me with his razor and scared the heck out of me. 

I couldn’t just imitate Len. I had to find my Sweeney. What can you bring to the role? It was very interesting because Bill Buckhurst was our director. He started it in London at the little pie shop and came to New York. I had auditioned for Bill on Zoom because he was in London. They sent a lot of videos to him because I lobbied for this role. It was not something that they were beating my door down to hire me. I said, I am willing to trust you completely.

He’s like, “Hugh, you’re very goofy, gregarious and very quick to smile. That does not work for my vision of Sweeney. Every time I see Hugh, I’m going to clock you if I can see even like the beginning of charm or the beginning of smile.” One of the greatest compliments I got was from a friend of mine that said we didn’t recognize you in this role because you were so dark and dead inside. It’s kind of fun playing a crazy person.

As long as you can leave it at the stage door and go home and not take it home.

I only played the role for about six months and they asked me to renew and I probably would have. But one of the things I had to do to really embody this character, I had to get my voice so low and a real bass baritone. For six months I lived down there. I would go around literally growling and keeping my larynx in a really low position. I realized by keeping my voice down there for so long, I started to lose a lot of my top notes. That is kind of my bread and butter. I had a really honest talk with them. I said, I would love to stay as long as you would have me, but I don’t want to get into a situation where I have vocal issues from doing this. I’m really struggling with my high notes that used to fall out of my mouth easily. So I was smart and I did six months. Okay, onward.

Let’s talk about some of your high notes, because I want to ask you about three songs and have you tell me which is the most challenging for you as a singer and as an actor to perform. One of them is obviously “Music of the Night” [from Phantom of the Opera]. There’s also “Kiss Me,” which becomes the quartet in Sweeney Todd,. And then there is “Later” in A Little Night Music. Which of those is the most challenging and why?

Henrik [in A Little Night Music] was one of my favorite roles I ever got to do. I will tell you right off the top of my head, that is so hard and exposed. That’s a B-natural. It’s similar to “24601” in Les Mis in “Who Am I?” When I was playing Henrik, I would obsess over that note every night in my dressing room because that’s just something you don’t want to wipe out on. So for me, I would say that was the hardest of the three.

Bruce Springsteen’s best known song is probably Born to Run. Over the course of a 50-plus year career he has sung that song 1,861 times. He can do different arrangements. He might have different band members. You’ve sung Music of the Night more than 2000 times. I know it’s your job to make each performance fresh for you and for the audience. But we all have those moments where we’re going, God, I have to do this again. Or, my God, I have to go to this meeting or whatever it is that we do in our daily lives. How did you overcome those moments where the idea of singing Music of the Night was something that you just thought, I just don’t have it tonight. I don’t have the passion for it?

I don’t want to sound like Pollyanna. The passion never been the problem. As I talk about in the show and on the CD, I couldn’t stand that song until I got in rehearsal in a little room with Hal Prince and he broke it down for me. It’s loaded with sex. I literally have every note Hal Prince ever gave me in my brain, in my ear. I want to say, that’s not the hard part.

The hard part is, especially in performance, if you’re sick or have a cold and you’re trying to get through it. I sound like trash tonight and you know that there is some fan out there going, he doesn’t sound very good. It’s inevitable the one night you’re having vocal trouble, somebody has their tape recorder and puts it on the internet.

Having done it a lot now in symphony concerts and doing it in my show, I think I’m singing it still with the same intention that Hal gave me, but maybe a little bit more like Hugh than Erik. Because I’m not doing eight shows of Phantom a week, singing “Music of the Night” is a bit more in my voice. But still with Hal’s subtext and interpretation.

How much more challenging is it for you to be Hugh Panaro on stage as opposed to being the characters you’ve played?

I love it because for so many years, I think I was afraid of Hugh Panaro’s shadow. I think that’s why it’s so comfortable for actors to hide behind roles. Most of us, our parents are probably the two most influential people in our lives. For so many years, I realized that I was performing to please my mom and dad. I wanted their approval. I wanted them to think I was good. I don’t know that I was always the most authentic me because I was performing for someone else for the wrong reasons. Now I am doing it completely for me.

I think a lot of us have gone through that journey of trying to please our parents. We hopefully wise up about how impossible that is and how it’s not good for us.

I did an independent film called Broadway Damage and they gave me a haircut. Right after that, I did a show called Sweet Adeline at City Center. My mother went off on my hair. She didn’t care about my performance. She said, “you look ridiculous with that Ish Kabibble haircut.” When I opened as Marius on Broadway in Les Mis, I missed my dad. I think I cried through the whole show. My mom gave me notes afterwards. That was pretty much normal for me.

The crazy thing is that was born out of love. 

Absolutely. When I was 15, I was the Artful Dodger [in Oliver!]. I wore Husky Plus from Sears. I was quite bullied for my weight and being pigeon-toed and being the church organist. I was [called] fatso, faggot, Fat Albert, Baby Huey, you name it. It was really not fun. So opening night of Oliver, I thought I was pretty darn good at 15 with my little Cockney accent. I was very pleased with myself. And on the car ride home, my mum said, “You know that scene in Act two before It’s a Fine Life reprise?” I said, Yeah, of course. She goes, “Well, in those straight pants, bent over the fireplace, your ass took up that whole stage. If you’re going to be an actor, Hughie, you got to lose weight now. You can gain some more weight and just be a fat character actor. The choice is yours.”

She would call that tough love. I’m sure I’ve told it to many a therapist in my day and everyone has their take on it. But I also do believe that all of that does form who we are and what we can bring to these characters. And believe me, a lot of that bullied tormented child was brought to Phantom and served me quite well for that show.

To see the full interview with Hugh Panaro, please go here.

For tickets and more information for these West Coast tour stops, please click on the date for each above.

Main Photo: Hugh Panaro (Courtesy Catalina Jazz Club)

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JASON MORAN & THE BANDWAGON – Village Vanguard – New York, NY – November 26^th – December 1^st

It’s Thanksgiving week and time for the annual series of shows by Jason Moran & The Bandwagon at the Village Vanguard in New York City. Moran is once again joined by Tarus Mateen on bass and Nasheet Waits on drums.

I haven’t seen Jason Moran & The Bandwagon at the Vanguard during Thanksgiving week, but having seen him (and them) before, it’s no wonder this is an annual event. They are terrific.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

LESLIE ODOM, JR. – THE CHRISTMAS TOUR – Multiple Venues – November 29^th – December 22^nd

Tony Award winner Odom, Jr. take sot the road to celebrate the holiday season with sixteen concerts starting in San Francisco and concluding in Detroit.

His 2020 The Christmas Album probably serves as the foundation for these concerts.

He’ll be at the Golden Gate Theater in San Francisco on November 29^th; Jacobs Music Center in San Diego on November 30^th; Walt Disney Concert in Los Angeles on December 1^st; Benaroya Hall in Seattle on December 3^rd; Elsinore Theatre in Salem, OR on December 5^th; Boettcher Concert Hall in Denver on December 7^th; Delta Hall at The Eccles in Salt Lake City on December 8^th; Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville on December 11^th and 12^th; Atlanta Symphony Hall on December 13^th; MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill, MD on December 15^th; Hershey Theatre in Hershey, PA on December 17^th; Paramount Theatre in Charlottesville, VA on December 18^th; Southern Theatre in Columbus, OH on December 19^th and 20^th and Orchestra Hall in Detroit on December 22^nd.

Click on each venue’s name for tickets and more information.

GREAT PERFORMANCES: HENRY MANCINI 100 AT THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL – November 29^th (check local listings)

Moon River, Days of Wine and Roses, Peter Gunn Theme and The Pink Panther Theme are just four of composer Henry Mancini’s best-known works. They are amongst over a dozen songs performed in this celebration of the composer’s 100^th birthday at The Hollywood Bowl.

Performing Mancini’s songs are Michael Bublé, Dave Koz, Monica Mancini, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra led by Thomas Wilkins. Also appearing is Cynthia Erivo. 

If Wicked Part One had you flying high over Erivo’s performance, you won’t want to miss her heartbreaking version of Days of Wine and Roses plus two songs from the musical Victor, Victoria: Crazy World and Le Jazz Hot. The concert is hosted by Jeff Goldblum (who is also in Wicked).

You can watch this show on your local PBS station and/or on the PBS website. 

DIE FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN – Metropolitan Opera – New York, NY – November 29^th – December 19^th

Richard Strauss’s 1919 opera is a showcase for a trio of sopranos and the Met has three terrific women lined up for this production: Elza van den Heever, Lise Lindstrom and the incomparable Nina Stemme.

Joining them are bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green, tenor Russell Thomas and baritone Michael Volle. Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts.

The production is directed and has sets, costumes and lighting design by Herbert Wernicke. His production debuted at the Met in 2001 approximately 4 months before his death.

Die Frau Ohne Schatten is a complex and challenging opera. With a cast this good, it’s impossible to miss. This marks the first time the opera has been performed at The Met since 2013.

For tickets and more information, please go here. If you won’t be in New York, you can listen to the November 29^th and December 7^th performances live on Metropolitan Opera Radio on SiriusXM.

Those are my Best Bets: November 25th – December 1st.

For those celebrating this week, Happy Thanksgiving.

Enjoy your week!

Main Photo: Jason Moran and The Bandwagon at The Village Vanguard (Courtesy Music Works International)

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Salina is the drag persona of Jason De Puy. De Puy is someone I first met while he was in college working on his degree in musical theater. He did book a few gigs: two runs as Don in local productions of A Chorus Line and also a role in Celebration Theater’s production of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. The opportunity to do drag soon appealed to De Puy, though he was a bit reluctant, and thus Salina was born.

Salina is one of the cagelles in La Cage Aux Folles. That is the ensemble of queens who perform at the nightclub owned by George (Cheyenne Jackson) and Albin (Kevin Cahoon). The musical, written by Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein and inspired the film The Birdcage , tells the story of George’s son (Ryan J. Haddad) who has invited his girlfriend’s very conservative politician father and his wife over for dinner. In order to not destroy his shot at marrying his girlfriend, he wants all signs of homosexuality and drag queens removed, including Albin, from the dinner and their home.

A few days before opening, I spoke with Salina about her path to this show, the significance it has for her and whether being on stage in this musical is as scary as being on the runway facing down criticism from RuPaul, Michelle Visage and the judges. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. To see the full interview, please go to our YouTube channel.

Q: When I first met you, you were going to drama school in Los Angeles. This was 11 plus years ago. I remember our having conversations about how much musical theater meant to you and how you wanted to really pursue that. What does it mean to you, this many years later, to be part of this production of La Cage Aux Folles? 

It’s a dream I forgot about because I started doing drag about ten years ago and that kind of took over. Drag became my own version of theater for myself. I got to self-produce, create and play any role that I wanted. Drag Race, of course, happened. The universe has brought me back into this realm of musical theater. It feels so wild to be back in the musical theater world in this way, combining drag at the same time. So it’s kind of like full circle.

For people who only know you as Salina, this truly was the dream. 

Ultimately, it really was. Being a part of this production of La Cage definitely awakened that dream in me and has opened up ideas of new dreams for me. This is actually a road I can walk down again. I’m thinking about that because people at the Pasadena Playhouse told me we’ve worked with Alaska [Thunderf*ck] before [Head Over Heels]. I was like, Whoa. Alaska’s trajectory literally brought her to Pasadena Playhouse and now she’s off-Broadway in New York City with her own musical [DRAG: The Musical at New World Stages]. The possibilities are endless, you know? 

What makes this production of La Cage compelling for you?

I absolutely am honored to be working with [director] Sam Pinkelton and Ani Taj, the choreographer. Them together are creating such a beautiful, joyful, fun, quirky rendition of the show that we’ve never seen before. Since Drag Race I’ve gotten to travel the world and visit many different drag scenes in the country and beyond. What they’re doing with this is really getting to the core of what the show is about and presenting it in a very real way that’s true to what drag is. 

You are being billed as Salina in instead of your real name. Is Salina any part of this show? Like, for instance, are we going to see Salina’s identity as part of what you bring as a cagelle?

My character’s name is Bitelle and it’s definitely inspired by Salina. Salina will be on that stage and you’ll see her pop out because there’s no denying the crazy personality that I am when I’m dressed up.

What do you think La Cage has to say about the world we live in today?

It’s wild because we had Tuesday/Election Day off from rehearsals. Wednesday we came back with the news of who had won and we are all so exhausted from rehearsing and from the chaos of the world. To have been there together with each other on that Wednesday after the election results and then to do the show; the show flourished in a very interesting way because it became a lot more real to our experience. Something shifted. Art reflects life and imitates life. Here we are putting on a production that is so much fun and so much joy, so much love, so much like chosen family, real family, love and community.

La Cage is, for me, is my version of how I would love America to be. Not even drag queens, glitter and glam, it’s more just the love and joy that we’ve created in the show is how I wish we were in the country.

Cheyenne Jackson has always been impressive in each show I’ve seen. What’s been your experience of working with him?

When I was in college and I was 18 years old they said pick a leading man on Broadway right now that you would love to model your career on. I had picked this photo of Cheyenne in his blue booty shorts and skates from Xanadu. This guy is talented, gorgeous and what I want to be like. Here I am, 20 years later, in a show with him, and it’s been so cool. He’s the sweetest and most talented and most sincere.

His take on George, the father in the show, is so funny because he’s also a father, a husband and has two kids. I used to make protein shakes for him at my gym I used to work at. Watching his father journey in real life now translated into the show where he is the ultimate father of the Cagelles…he is daddy.

Is his is still a career you’d like to see Salina have or you as Jason have? 

Yes. Part of me had let go of the musical theater dreams because I’m a drag queen performing in drag bars. But drag queens, especially from RuPaul’s Drag Race, have shown us there is endless possibility for where we will show up. Alaska is on her way there. There’s no reason why I couldn’t be there. I would love to say if there’s ever a musical of To Wong Foo, to play Chichi Rodriguez would be a dream role. I don’t know if anyone’s writing it, but that would be the perfect role for me.

If you were asked to finish the sentence, I am what I am and what I am is… What would you say?

An illusion.

Yes, but that’s the lyric.

I think I am what I am. And I’m present right now. I’m in my body. I’m experiencing what needs to be experienced. I’m showing up and I’m stepping up to the plate. As scared as I am, I’m excited. And I’m here, as Cynthia Erivo sang.

You threw a little Color Purple there. Is it more daunting getting on stage in front of an audience to do this than it is to get on stage in front of the judges at RuPaul’s Drag Race? 

They’re two very different worlds, of course. Here we’re rehearsing every single day to create a work of art. And on Drag Race you have one shot on that runway to show off something you made in two days. You’re just walking the runway in an outfit. Here I’m getting to explore and showcase every aspect of my talents from drag to my singing, my dancing and my acting. I’m very much more excited right now in this moment.

This is a bit of a RuPaul question. But if you could go back to when you had the first inklings of this is what I want to do to where you are today, if Salina today could give you advice, what would it be?

I think it would be trust the process. When I graduated musical theater college, my final performance song was Today for You, Tomorrow for Me, which is sung by Angel in Rent – who presents as the drag queen. At that time, I never thought I would be a drag queen. I did not want to be a drag queen. I was trying to be Cheyenne Jackson. To have gone today for you, tomorrow for me, as my final song, somehow the universe knew where I was headed before I did.

And look at me today. So I would say just trust the process. Step into those heels, honey. I resisted the heels for a long time. I would quit drag and go back and quit drag and go back because I’m like, no, I’m a boy who performs this way. But like, no, honey, you’re a queen, be a queen.

To watch the full interview with Salina EsTitties, please go here.

La Cage Aux Folles continues at the Pasadena Playhouse through December 15th.

Main Photo: Rhoyle Ivy King, Salina EsTitties, Sun Jade Reid and Kay Bebe Queue in La Cage Aux Folles (Photo by Jeff Lorch/Courtesy Pasadena Playhouse)

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One of South African writer/director Lara Foot’s earliest memories of being creative is of staying up late after seeing a movie and rewriting the story in her mind to have a happier, or at least a better, ending. That instinct for storytelling at such a young age has no doubt served Foot well as she has had a remarkably successful career in the theater.

This week her adaptation of the Booker Prize-winning novel Life & Times of Michael K, written by JM Coetzee, opens at The Wallis in Beverly Hills on November 21st. She uses only the first half of Coetzee’s story of a young man’s journey through his war-torn country to return his mother to her home before she dies. Michael K must come to grips with his mother’s imminent passing and find a place for himself in this dystopian world.

Rather than a traditional play, Foot collaborated with Cape Town-based Handspring Puppet Company to create a different way of telling this story through puppets.

Foot is the head of Cape Town’s Baxter Theater. She has written multiple plays and directed even more. But Life & Times of Michael K is special to her. I learned this when speaking with her recently about the play, her instinct for storytelling and whether or not we can rewrite our own story to have a happier ending in our troubled times.

What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. To see the full interview, please go to our YouTube channel.

Q: I love the idea that as a young girl that you would stay up trying to rewrite a better or happier ending for the movies you saw and wouldn’t be satisfied until you figured out how to do so. That had to allow you develop a great storytelling skill. How does that way of thinking still live within you? Not just with the work that you do, but how you live your life? 

I’m fascinated by biography and what you bring with you. What you bring as an actor to the stage, how you relate to other people, how you relate to family, are essentially biographies. Who you are. And when biographies meet, then drama happens. I would rewrite movies in my head from when I was probably 4 or 5. Frame by frame. Not only for happy endings, but also because sometimes I didn’t find them credible. So that is who I am. How we change, how we are affected by our context, our politics, all that might change your path – which fascinates me. 

Which would make Life & Times of Michael K a perfect story for you, because the protagonist is trying to figure out his place in the world and how to change his story, isn’t he?

Yes. I mean, he goes on a journey through this dystopian war-torn country. He works his way through this country as a refugee, which, of course, resonates worldwide. And really trying to find his freedom or a semblance of freedom. So not having to live under somebody else’s rules on either side of the fence and find a little piece of land where you can live and grow vegetables. So this is searching for his purpose; the place we can live, finding his own freedom in this war-torn country. 

When you read through the book, you must have been a little bit surprised when you came across a passage that says “Your past does not define your future. You have the power to rewrite your story.” It’s as if he tapped right into what you’ve been thinking since your youth?

I didn’t think of it in that way, but you’re absolutely right. When I started adapting it, it’s a thin book. It’s not even probably 200 pages, if that. I thought I’d do it quite quickly. I knew what I wanted to do with it. It took me so long because these layers of philosophy and so much can happen within sort of five or six lines. What to keep and what to let go of was really difficult because of the denseness of his thinking.

Coetzee wrote about his lead character in the book, “He did not seem to have a belief or did not seem to have a belief regarding help. Perhaps I am the stony ground, he thought.” How does a description like that inform how you go about adapting and creating this work and bringing this life to the stage? 

That’s the magic of a puppet – especially a puppet carved by Adrian Kohler [of Handspring Puppet Company]. You can imbue a puppet with philosophy in a different way to say how an actor would have to deliver those lines on stage. It might be not that credible or self-conscious from an actor, but when it’s spoken through a puppet, the audience leans forward and starts to imagine and engage in these thoughts in a very different way. It’s almost like the landscape of Coetzee is etched into the puppet and he into the landscape.

What is the art of getting that total expression of a character through the combination of the puppets and the actors who bring that character to life?

The most important thing is breath. So those three puppeteers on Michael K have to breathe pretty much at exactly the same time so that they work in unison. You know, I’m a theater director. I’m not a puppet director. Well, maybe I am now, but I wasn’t. I have puppeteers that are also very good actors and there’s a sense of imbuing the puppet with real feeling and character. So it takes some time.

That was a big challenge for me when I was directing it because a scene that could take me half an hour to create on stage with actors might take a full day to create with the puppet. So it’s very painstaking in terms of how detailed the movement is. Then the puppeteers understanding the body of the puppet like where do they hold weight and where do you hold feeling in your body. There’s a lot of synergy and working together, but always breath because a puppet is only alive when it’s breathing. Of course, it’s the puppeteers that breathe life into the puppet. As you let go of the puppet, it’s dead. It doesn’t live. 

I read an interview that Coetzee gave in 1983 about Life & Times of Michael K. He said about his novel, “It didn’t turn out to be a book about becoming, which might have required that K have the ability to adapt more of what we usually call intelligence. But about being, which merely entailed that K go on being himself, despite everything.” It feels like there’s a good lesson to be learned in that basic approach.

It’s really about essence, you know, and how little one needs to survive. Really cutting through the greed and politics that’s out there. The darkness kind of leaning into the darkness as well, which Coetzee always does. But I think in our play it’s the way we hold the darkness that gives us a little glimmers of hope around humanity – although it’s hard to find these things.

In an interview that gave Sarafina Magazine in 2016 you said you “believe very much in storytelling as a means to healing, as a means to integration, and I suppose some sense of a healthy society in the future.” One could argue that the society that you grew up in and came out of certainly required healing. You could also argue that the society we live in now – and we’re having this conversation the day after the presidential election in the United States – that we’re maybe globally reaching some really unhealthy moments. What do you see as your main priority in a world on fire, to develop and present stories that can do precisely the healing you talked about?

We go back to biography. I’m telling you stories. We had the Truth [and Reconcilliation] Commission [in South Africa] after democracy. It was an extraordinary thing. There’s some criticism of it. But the ability to come and tell your story and also to look into the eyes of your perpetrator, that’s empathy. That’s empathy from the storyteller. It’s one thing to say I will forgive, but, you know, you can’t really forgive. It’s not in your power to forgive and everything will go away. But you can have empathy. 

I’ve talked with some academics about maybe finding a different voice for the future where we combine academic research with storytelling in a way. That we try and articulate things differently because we have so many academics doing research papers that might be on violence or crime, war or rape. Then we as artists to do plays about that. They’re frustrated that the world is not changing and we’re frustrated that the world is not changing. Maybe there’s another way to articulate what we feel.

Michael K cuts ties with the world. He doesn’t want to deal with what the world has become, particularly after the death of his mother. There are a lot of people who don’t want to deal with the world now. They don’t vote as in yesterday because the voting [numbers were] down considerably in this country or they don’t want to worry about it because it doesn’t affect them personally. Do you think there is an additional layer of topicality that this story is going to have now, particularly in the United States, that it might not have had the election gone a different way?

I would think so. When we started [the play] the war in Ukraine just started. That resonated when we came on the stage, especially internationally. And something else will resonate now, that’s for sure. Just in terms of our group, who’s telling the story, that’s going to be interesting, I think. This search for freedom…There’s slogans from the Democratic campaign that you hear in the play, not because we wrote them in. It’s just this search for freedom, although he doesn’t necessarily use the word freedom. It’s more a concept around freedom. Free from all the gatekeepers. Free from being a servant or being told what to do by somebody, anybody. [Michael K] was judged so badly when he was a child for having this hairlip that he has to find a freedom from that cruelty.

Given everything we are facing down as we near the start of 2025, how do you think we can collectively rewrite the plot of our lives right now and come up with a happier ending than it appears we’re facing as a possibility right now? Can an artist, can the arts, help us get there?

One has to pray to whoever you pray to for empathy. Only when you put yourself in someone else’s shoes can you feel the cruelty all round. Until people can see themselves in others. It’s a miracle what happened in South Africa, you know, absolute miracle. It wasn’t just Mandela. Somehow there was a bigger sensibility or a vision. Such an extraordinary vision of what hope looked like, of what the possibilities looked like. It wasn’t just verbalized. It wasn’t just a slogan, but put into practice. Thought through.

We’ve still got major issues with poverty. But there was a philosophy that everyone worked towards and it was about goodness. It wasn’t about the other. It wasn’t about division. It was about coming together.

When I first saw plays at the Market Theater when I was 17, I didn’t know what was going on in our country. I saw these plays and I was like, okay, I’m a part of it. I’m part of making something better. So I think that it does do that.

To watch the full interview with Lara Foot, please go here.

Life & Times of Michael K runs November 21st – November 24th at The Wallis. For tickets and more information, please go here.

Main Photo: Craig Leo and Carlo Daniels in Life & Times of Michael K (Courtesy The Wallis)

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