I want to pick up with something else Tommy Tune told me. He feels that he is now obsolete and that there isn’t a place on Broadway for him. He also can’t bear to work without his regular collaborators who have passed away. How do you handle loss and what do you do differently than Tommy?

I just stay. I keep my eyes and ears open and say yes. I look forward to tomorrow. I absolutely do. It keeps me young and in it. It keeps my laughing. it keeps me a part of it. Freddy is gone [Fred Ebb – lyricist for Chicago and Kiss of the Spider Woman] but his lyrics have not. His memory is not. If the opportunity comes, why not if you are asked to? Why not? Why not seek another view or way of doing things? I’m always hungry for new things. And I’m loaded with old things. And they are good. You know listening to scores you love that they are still relevant. They are still exciting, beautiful and moving.

With YouTube a lot of people can see some of your old television and stage appearances. For example, I watched you perform “I Got Plenty O’ Nottin'” on Judy Garland’s show. How do you feel about that?

With that hair? Have you ever seen so much hair in your life? You’d think there would be three little people underneath all that hair! I think it’s fabulous. It’s wonderful. I’m not really a part of this new age. I don’t do all that Facebook and all that stuff. It’s great, except sometimes people think they are critics and they are heard now and they kind of go crazy with their opinions. People aren’t nice enough today. They think criticizing is far more interesting than adoring or liking something. They think that darkness is more valuable. I don’t. I think the light is far more interesting and alluring.

Whatever happened to class?

Freddy had it absolutely right But mind you, they are two murderers who sing that song. That’s what’s funny about it. That they had the audacity to ask, but they are the least classy people to ask. But yes, whatever happened to class.

Can you believe the revival of Chicago is still running?

I’m so glad it’s running now and I’m so happy for the kids. But it just doesn’t compare with Tony Walton’s original sets and the show the way Bobby [Fosse] directed it. It just doesn’t compare. You just sort of wish people had seen it in its original state. That big elevator that Velma came up on. Amazing design.

Speaking of class, as a Puerto Rican, I have to believe you are less than impressed with the US Government’s response to Hurricane Maria.

Oh please. [She lets out the biggest sigh.] I made a promise I would wake up every day and not turn on the news. I think it’s disgusting and disgraceful. I’m embarrassed and ashamed and I’m angry. And you know who I’m angry at. I don’t even like to say his name. I don’t understand. I don’t understand that or the people who put him there.

One time when I spoke with your Sweet Charity co-star Shirley MacLaine, she said “I’m so old. But I’m current. If there audience is with you, there’s nothing like being on stage.” Do you agree and, if so, do you still feel that way?

That’s exactly right. I totally agree. I guess I would add with her…it’s just that age brings a whole other fantastic bit of, what can I say, we bring our adventures, our knowledge and our history with us. And so we have a double thing going. We’re current because Shirley is not going to give in. She’s not going to go anywhere. She’s going to go with what’s going on. She has to know. Just like I am. She’s a bit more curious than I am. On top of the years she has been here she has all the other lives before. She’s got a bag bigger than anybody’s. She was the cherry on the top of my adventure of doing the film of Sweet Charity. That’s what’s nice about having all these fabulous people who are my friends. I still have them and I will always have them.

Ever the pro, Chita knew exactly when our allotted amount of time was up. But she one more thing to say which surprised me.

I had an interview just before you. I could not have been more bored. I thank you for saving my day. You have a wonderful sense of humor and great background and questions. Thank you.

Even if I didn’t know what you ask someone who has been so peppered with questions her whole career, I guess it didn’t go too badly after all. Thank you Chita!

Chita Rivera and Seth Rudetsky appear on Thursday, May 10th in two performances of Broadway @ The Wallis: Chita Rivera.

For part one of our interview, please go here.

Main photo: Chita Rivera in Kiss of the Spider Woman. Photo by Martha Swope. Courtesy of the NY Public Library.

The post R.I.P. Chita Rivera Part 2: “I Look Forward to Tomorrow” appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Yesterday was Valentine’s Day. You might be tempted to think that this celebrated day for lovers is bound to be one of the busiest days for procreation. Alas, it ranks 136th according to a 2019 study. But that decision as to when to try to have a baby is a profound one that transcends holidays. It’s a relationship-defining decision for every couple. Which made it perfect fodder for a musical as composer David Shire, lyricist Richard Maltby, Jr., and book writer Sybille Pearson realized.

Their musical, Baby, opened on Broadway in 1983 and received 7 Tony Award nominations including two for Maltby who also directed the production. In 2021 Out of the Box Theatrics produced a revival of Baby. Before it went into production, Maltby and Shire revised their musical to have a more contemporary perspective on parenthood.

To celebrate the musical’s 40th Anniversary, Yellow Sound Label has recorded that production. The new recording features revised lyrics and songs that had never been previously released.

Last week I spoke with Maltby about revisiting his baby, the tradition of re-working plays and musicals and how his perspective on the show may have changed over the four decades since it was first performed. 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.

How did it feel going back and becoming reacquainted with Baby?

When the recording was made and I listened to it for the first time it was like listening to the show for the first time. I kept thinking the lyrics are really good. If you work on a show you go past all the things that maybe are any good and you just concentrate on things that need to be fixed. You don’t pay attention to what an audience is actually following, which is, God willing, the the lyrics.

You don’t come on the show with the freshness that an audience brings to it. What’s remarkable and wonderful and scary about an audience is that they take what you give them. They’re interested in what you tell them to be interested in. If the lyrics are attractive or special they’re taking that in and on their way to understanding and enjoying the story. You forget that sometimes.

Given the intimate nature of the story I’m assuming the audience told you quite a lot when it was first performed.

Baby is an unusual show in that it’s about this incredibly intimate issue about a married couple. It goes to the primal thing that ties one person to another and forces you to go and confront what it is that makes that relationship. Or why you chose that person, what you really feel, what you’re afraid of and you dare not ever speak about it. But maybe forces you to speak about it.

I’ve always felt that we asked the cast of Baby to be more emotionally naked on the stage than any other show. Musicals tend to be a kind of fantasy of one sort or another. Some are real fantasies, but they’re all somewhat romanticized. This show forces you to actually go into the deepest part of yourself. I’m always pleased to hear how much being in a production of Baby has changed people because you suddenly realize you can go on stage and actually use that part of yourself which you are usually never asked to.

Was it deeply emotional for you to have to come up with what would be appropriate for these characters? I would assume you have to put yourself in their shoes.

There were several moments, quite a number actually, where we as writers hit some kind of a logjam. The answer always was that we were writing in a musical comedy way. We were not going into the service of the song. Why is this wrong? What do we know about the characters? We started by mentioning their age and suddenly realized we were that age. We were always thinking of this couple as the older couple. I was thinking of them basically as my parents. But no, they were a little over 40. You don’t feel old. You feel incredibly young. You feel energized. You don’t feel in any way defeated or downtrodden or that age has gotten to you in some way. We went into what we actually thought about our own marriages and our own lives and the issues and the problems that we had. Suddenly the song could get written.

Both of us being people who would rather be comfortable in a relationship than actually address something that might be a real issue, you know, that hurt our marriages. But it was certainly something we knew profoundly. The answer to the question is yes, we did absolutely go into ourselves all the time. 

Was there a point at which something gets too close to home that it becomes uncomfortable either for a creator or an artist or is that just something you have to face if you’re going to create?

In any relationship, in any marriage, I would say there is some mutually decided upon area you don’t go to. There’s something you just leave alone. Something you’re afraid of. Something that you think is going to be so dangerous. The advent of a child makes you consider that you actually have to go in there and get there. That was true for all of the characters.

We specifically went out of our way to pick three couples that were in good relationships. We wanted to have people who belong together. If we had a relationship that was not a good relationship, the baby comes along and destroys that. No big surprise. Fact is that it is just as daunting, even more so, for a couple that thinks they are fine together and that everything is great. 

This new recording is actually not the first revision you’ve made to the show. Baby was revised for Paper Mill Playhouse in 2004. How have your own personal life experiences changed from when you first wrote it to when you revised it 19 years ago to when it was most recently revised? 

We were writing out of ourselves and we were three authors were white folks. And there wasn’t a Black voice on the stage there. One of the things about writing about who you are using yourself is that you therefore use yourself.

The Paper Mill production was racially mixed. That transformed the show in a wonderful way. What was interesting is you didn’t have to rewrite anything. Gay marriage changed the universe. It seemed that we needed to bring that into it.

Back when it opened my gay friends [had] like two reactions. One was the gay man who said, “I don’t care about children. I don’t care. This doesn’t touch me at all.” The other group was sad about being gay that they wouldn’t have children and so they wouldn’t have families like that. They missed that. I thought, Oh my God, we’re going to have to rewrite the whole score for that. But it turns out that the dynamics of the stories remain the same regardless of the details of the plot.

If you look at the revival of The Music Man that just closed some changes were made to the book. For Funny Girl Harvey Fierstein made some updates to the book. Aaron Sorkin is doing a new book for Camelot. What is your view on the importance of updating works of art to fit contemporary times? If the creators are not around to do that is it important for others to come in and adapt them for their times? 

Well that is all it has ever been. I’m sure it was true of the Greek theater. After you had a show that was a big hit in Athens, you decided to play in Sparta. Somebody in Sparta decided to change the second act. 

They didn’t have lawyers then who could prohibit that from happening.

The restoration comedy plays in the Cromwell period would be done with half the plot removed. It has always been been the case. Shakespeare was cut left and right in different versions. I did a production of A Long Day’s Journey Into Night in which we cut 45 minutes out of the play. I swear to God you didn’t notice they were gone.

But I also think the original is like Silly Putty – you can do whatever you want and you’ll let go and it’ll slowly go back to its original shape. Doesn’t matter how you change the ending of My Fair Lady, My Fair Lady will exist in its full version with that ending. Kiss Me, Kate! will exist with that ending. Every company will have to deal with whether they want that ending or another kind of ending. I don’t know what Aaron Sorkin is going to do with Camelot because that book really did need to be fixed. That didn’t need to be updated. It just needed to be made to work. If there’s anybody who could do that it’s Aaron Sorkin.

Listen, there are a lot of classic musicals that have either racial issues, racism of some sort or sexism or one sort. Sexism, certainly, because the premise of musicals was sexist. I mean, girls were babes. Girls were chorus girls and guys had all the funny elements. A certain amount of updating is to take care of stuff like that. You can’t do Thoroughly Modern Millie with the two Chinese comedy people. You can’t do the Chinese people in Anything Goes. Shows like Showboat you have to look at the original script and change a bunch of things. I think it’s okay so long as it is really thought through by a writer. If you just take something out because you don’t like it, it tends to fall apart, right? Not every character in a musical has to be likable.

Then there’s the whole idea that a lived-in experience is required for an actor to be able to play a role. I think diminishes the power of what acting is, doesn’t it?

I totally agree with you. I don’t really want to get into the the the idea of rehearsals being a safe place for actors. When did that ever start? When has a rehearsal ever been a safe place for an actor or anybody else? The whole point of rehearsal is that it’s not a safe place. It’s a place where you take terrible risks and humiliate yourself in pursuit of something.

Look at look at the rehearsal process that the Joe Gideon puts his dancers through when he’s trying to figure out a musical number in All That Jazz. That’s the process.

That is the process.

Since I brought up a reference to a Bob Fosse movie. You obviously did quite well [as director] with Fosse. His musical Dancin’ is coming back to Broadway this season. Clearly Bob Fosse’s legacy is going to continue for a long time. Have you thought about where your own legacy is going to be in 40, 50 years?

It crosses my mind every now and then. It’s funny, I had an exchange with Sondheim the year before he died when I was sort of complaining about that, saying, “Gee, I don’t know. I look at my work and how good is it?” He wrote me a bunch of very lovely notes saying, “It’s not your job. It’s your job to be as as truthful as you can be.” Then he proceeded to quote a line from an obscure musical that David and I wrote when we first came to New York – which is how we met Steve. He said, “Not a day goes by that I don’t remember that line of the lyric.” It was very moving because, of course, Steve thinks that with the legacy he’s got. He was thinking the same way. What does it add up to? How good am I?

One of the nice and horrifying things about musicals is that you’re a beginner on every show and no matter what you think, you learn from the last one. If you try to apply that to the next one, it won’t work. You have to kind of reinvent the wheel on every show if you’re doing it right. That means it’s terrifying and that means you’re scared and that means you feel inadequate and hopeless. And that’s fine. That’s just exactly what you should be. 

To watch the full interview with Richard Maltby, Jr. please go here.

Main Photo: Richard Maltby, Jr. at the opening night of Baby (Photo courtesy Yellow Sound Label)

The post Lyricist Richard Maltby, Jr. Revisits His “Baby” appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

“I remember him. He was sort of a Éminence gris. He was in the background all the time in black and white, because that’s what televisions looked like in those days. He was sort of the uncle type – nice and accommodating. He had that sort of Midwestern accent that made him sort of accessible.”

Those recollections will come in handy as Rubinstein is starring in a one-man show called Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground from New LA Repertory at Theatre West in Los Angeles. The play was written by Richard Hellesen and has its world premiere through November 20th.

Rubinstein first gained prominence making his Broadway debut as the title character in the Stephen Schwartz musical Pippin in 1972. The show was directed by Bob Fosse.

While he’s been in many a play or musical, he’s never starred in a one-man show before. When we spoke two days before Eisenhower had its first preview, Rubinstein said it was a lot of work to be the sole performer of a play.

“I’ve never been literally alone on stage all by myself with almost two hours of monologue to deliver,” he said. “To be really honest I’m an old guy. I like having a piece of work in my hands because I owe that to the audience. I owe them the best version that I can possibly deliver to them. So I feel a tremendous responsibility. The part that scares me, it’s not fun. I don’t enjoy it. And I work, work, work, work, work to make it less and less probable that there will be any of those really bad moments. I hope there won’t be one.”

Rubinstein has experienced other actors “going up” as the term is called on stage – not remembering their lines. He tells a story of an unnamed co-star in Children of a Lesser God who completely forget her lines, left the stage and when into her dressing room, leaving Rubinstein on stage alone. If necessary he’ll do what he did at that performance of the Mark Medoff play.

“The risk exists that that happens and that maybe I skip six pages and oh, yeah, here’s where I am. Blah, blah. And I start back. I’ve left out a whole bunch of stuff. Do I try to now double back and get that stuff in or do I just finish and we go home early? The audience isn’t there to see me get out of trouble. They’re there to hear a play about Dwight Eisenhower and hear this actor portray him and see what it’s about.”

Hellesen uses a true story as the foundation of the play. Arthur Schlesinger of the New York Times assembled 75 historians a year-and-a-half into Kennedy’s presidency to rank the men who had been US presidents. Eisenhower was listed as number 22 out of 35.

“He’s pissed and he had a temper. So he’s talking on the phone and then later recording his reaction to being ranked number 22. He talks about what he did, insisting he’d done great things.”

Eisenhower is best known for his battles with General Douglas MacArthur, for setting American on a path towards civil rights without truly becoming a leader and for warning about the military industrial complex. So did he truly do great things?

Rubinstein has his own thoughts, but prefaces them by saying he’s not “really qualified” to give an answer to that question.

“Yes, he did do a lot for civil rights. He did that whole confrontation with (Orval) Faubus, the governor of Arkansas. He got those Black students to get into the school and get the mob taken away. He brought in the the 101st Airborne, the same team that landed in D-Day and did the bombing and the prep for D-Day. The military industrial complex, he realized what was happening and everything that he said is now coming true. To the degree that people are conscious of it, they owe a lot of that to him. So he did a lot.” 

As for his temper, even Eisenhower commented on it in a story he wrote for Reader’s Digest Magazine in 1968 called Some Thoughts on the Presidency. Of himself he said, “I found that getting things done sometimes required other weapons from the Presidential arsenal – persuasion, cajolery, even a  little head-thumping here and there – to say nothing of a personal streak of obstinacy which on occasion fires my boilers.” 

That self-awareness gives Rubinstein plenty of inspiration for his performance, though Eisenhower’s own upbringing helps, too.

“The first act of this play talks a lot about his father who had difficult times financially. His mother was a Jehovah’s Witness and was very, very religious, but not in a sort of crazy evangelistic way; taking the actual lessons from the Bible and using them in her life and bestowing them on her seven sons – one died. Ike learned a great deal of humanity from her and a great deal of do your duty. Everybody has to contribute. It’s all about hard work and dedication. And [he learned] everybody has to put in their two cents from his dad. Those two influences come out in the play and his life and his descriptions of what he did and how he did them. That’s deep within him and it reflected itself in his presidency.”

Presidents, leaders and monarchs have been fodder for writers for centuries. Just check out Shakespeare or what’s streaming on Netflix. Rubinstein has a theory as to why we’re so fascinated by them.

“We are like moths to a flame attracted to power. Some Freudians will always say it’s because it’s what you lack that you seek in the outside world to sort bolster you and help you feel stronger and more ready to take life on – not an easy task. When somebody shows a control over life, at least in some big or small way that you don’t feel you have, that’s attractive. You want to be like them.”

He continues to use that attraction to explain Donald Trump’s popularity.

“It can be voting for somebody like our former president, whose name I can’t say without blistering my tongue, but a guy who made this fake aura around himself of power and success on that stupid show he had where he said, ‘You’re fired!’ People thought there’s a guy who has life where he wants it. He knows what he’s doing. ‘I saw his name bigger than ten feet high in gold letters on some building I just drove by. He must really know what the hell he’s doing.’ So one’s attraction to strong individuals and rulers and leaders is understandable and often justified, but also often mistaken.”

Playwright Hellesen did an interview with Adam Symkowicz in 2013 where he talked about the tendency of American popular culture to embrace and overpraise the new as a salvation to art. He said “There are things you do not know, questions you cannot ask, abilities you haven’t yet refined, until you’ve hiked a pretty good distance up the mountain.”

Rubinstein certainly finds himself with a good view approaching the summit of that metaphorical mountain and agrees with his playwright.

“No matter how old or young you are, you are the sum total of what you’ve been through that far. That’s true when you’re two years old. The words you have, the habits you form, the things you love and the things you hate when you’re two. When you get to my age those are just multiplied by the hundreds of people you’ve known, met and lived with and experienced life with them. Through seeing children being born, watching them grow up and participating in that process, for better or for worse. All these professional engagements of different kinds.

“I guess the word that jumps to mind, and I don’t feel that I’m lying, is humility. You learn humility. You don’t necessarily become all grateful all the time. But you learn. You learn strength. You learn how to trim the fat. You get to a place where you sort of know who you are. You don’t like a lot of yourself, but you’re able to accept it and maybe counteract the parts of yourself that you know are going to get you in trouble or are going to hurt you or people around you.

“I’m lucky to be here. I’m so lucky to get to know all these people and work with them or live with them. I’m glad I’m here and and I’m going to make the best of it that I can. Not just for myself, but to try to do something good for other people, even if it’s just acting on a stage and giving them something that that lifts them, that makes them think differently than they thought as they walked into the theater. It’s not just about us. I’m humble in front of the task of living a long life.”

To see our complete interview with John Rubinstein, please go here. You can find other interviews with artists and creators in the performing arts on our YouTube channel.

Main Photo: John Rubinstein in Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground (Photo by Pierre Lumiere/Courtesy New LA Repertory)

The post Tony Winner John Rubinstein Goes Solo appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

If Cilento’s name sounds familiar to you it is perhaps because you know him as the original “Mike” in A Chorus Line or as the choreographer of the musical Wicked.

His latest role is as Director and Musical Stager of a revival of Dancin’ which now has the name Bob Fosse’s Dancin’. The show is running at The Old Globe in San Diego through June 5th. The production has already announced it will open on Broadway at a theatre and on a date yet to be determined.

Cilento appeared in the original production of Fosse’s dance-musical Dancin’. The show ran for 1,774 performances and was nominated for seven Tony Awards including two for Fosse (he won Best Choreography) and one for Cliento as Best Featured Actor in a Musical.

Recreating Fosse’s work and bringing into a 21st-century focus was an enormous undertaking for Cilento as he revealed when we spoke via Zoom earlier this month. 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.

For seventeen years Fosse’s daughter, Nicole, has been trying to get a revival of Dancin’ off the ground. Why did all the pieces come together now?

I think maybe it’s probably the best time after the pandemic; celebrating him in a different way. My whole approach was getting him back out there the way he was as a dancer, what inspired him and what drove him to create what he created. So I did a lot of research and I went back. I know that Dancin’ was something that was out of the ordinary in 1978. He did it in a dance format, three acts, which was unheard of. There was no plot and no storyline and no particular reason to do it. But he wanted to explore and express different styles of choreography and music. I have to hand it to him. It’s a rough thing to do.

If anyone could do something like that it could only have been Bob Fosse.

Exactly. He was always pushing the envelope. Always looking for something new and fresh and innovative; pushing buttons, politically, socially, whatever. Just do it.

Even though you were in the original production, re-assembling his work from 44 years ago must have been an enormous challenge.

I can’t tell you how complicated it is. The big thing with this show was reconstructing Bob’s work. And it wasn’t about me as a choreographer or anyone as a choreographer filling in pieces and making the show work. It needed to come from Bob’s work and I was adamant about that.

Without any complete film of the original production to rely upon, how much did your own personal muscle memory allow you to recall what you had done before?

I was in every number in Dancin‘. It was very complicated. But there’s parts of my body that will just fall right into it. I didn’t do Crunchy Granola, so I have no body awareness. I sang it so I knew what I did up on the ladder, on the sides. I did Percussion, too, so I know what that was. I didn’t know the specific steps. Christine Colby [Jacques], who was in the original company, helped reconstruct all of the dancing material.

Then there’s a whole other part of this show that I wanted to insert viewers in this 21st century kind of world. So we can update it and lift it up into a place where, if Bob was doing this today, what would he do? So that was going on in my head. Corinne McFadden Herrera is my associate and Lauren Cannon is the assistant dance captain/assistant choreographer. They got into it and did the reconstruction, like looking at film work and looking at pieces of choreography and figuring it out. It’s such a long process. So first you have to identify what we want to reconstruct.

Did Fosse leave behind any archives with material you could access?

No. We’d identify the pieces that I wanted to dig into. The girls went and they pulled out the work and started. Then we started picking out pieces of the choreography or steps from the pieces of choreography that we want to string together to represent the number without doing the whole number. Needless to say it’s a very complicated job to take on. But when it’s done correctly, it’s completely rewarding because it’s the essence of him and the essence of his work as a choreographer and as a performer. I hope I managed to capture that and put it on the stage.

The original production was notorious for how strenuous it was on the dancers. There were countless stories of injuries. Is Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ just as difficult to do as the original?

I didn’t water down the the project at all. But the choreography is the choreography. And the dancers today are amazing in their training. They’re so rounded in technique: street dancing and hip hop and all of that stuff. I think their capability of picking up stuff is a little bit faster and easier for them. It’s just the specific style that slows them down because he’s very unique. He had a posture. He was very technical, but yet he wasn’t turned out like a ballet dancer. He was turned in. He wore a hat. He wore his head down, which brought you his vocabulary. He was a little bit hunched over, so it rounded off his shoulders. He had a built in mechanism that kind of like identified his style. It depended how far he wanted explode and how far he wanted to really pull it in.

The revival of Chicago has been running for so long, is there a built-in expectation amongst dancers that what that show presents is textbook Fosse?

It’s very successful and Annie [Reinking] did a really great job. But again, her building was in the style of Bob Fosse. Does that mean that’s Bob Fosse? Kind of, but not really. I think she created a format and a style within Bob’s style. And it became very specific. And I think the derbies and the black clothes and very exaggerated, beautiful body posture moves and stuff like that became iconic in itself. I think it misled a lot of people in thinking, oh, that’s Bob Fosse. This is what he does. And yes, he does that. But he also does 100 other things. And he’s an explosive dancer that wants to fly and he flies. And that’s a complete contradiction to what you see in Chicago. Everything’s very still, very isolated, very perfect. It’s beautiful, but that’s a different part of him.

If A Chorus Line gave an identity to the dancers in a Broadway show who heretofore didn’t have much of an identity, what did Dancin’ do? 

What Michael [Bennett] did was an idea from dancers that I danced with like Tony Stephens and Michon Peacock. They were at a point where they were disgusted that we as ensemble dancers in the show do production numbers, the thing that is carrying the show forward. It could be a horrible show, but the choreography could be amazing. So they wanted to do a show about dancers and they got Michael involved with that to get some dancers in a room. And I think he did an amazing job, too. To have dancers have a voice and a life and a history; where we were coming from and how we got to Broadway and were auditioning on the line.

I think what Bob did with Dancin’ was he made 16 of us principal dancers that were going to do an evening of dance. And we did everything. We sang, we read, we danced. We held the whole show together. So he put us up on another level. When Annie [Reinking] and I got a Tony nomination for Best Supporting Actors in a musical that was completely unheard of. But that’s what he did. He made the world recognize that we were as talented as principals in Broadway shows. We were a principal in a Broadway show, so he really pushed it over the edge for us.

I urge you to watch the full interview to hear stories of how Wayne Cilento got cast by Fosse in Dancin’, the big name star (and former collaborator with Fosse) whom he left to join the show, his experiences performing one of the most emotional parts of Dancin’ – “Mr. Bojangles” and how he chose to reinterpret that number for the new production. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable conversation.

Main photo: The company of Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ (Photo by Julieta Cervantes/Courtesy The Old Globe)

The post Wayne Cilento Can Still Do That Fosse appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Hair – 1969 Tony Awards

Nominated for Best Musical and Best Direction of a Musical, Hair opened on Broadway at the Biltmore Theatre and ran for 1,750 performances. The show, directed by Tom O’Horgan, did not win any Tonys. Amongst the original cast members were two of its creators Gerome Ragni and James Rado, Diane Keaton and Paul Jabara. The 2009 revival of the musical won the Tony Award for Best Revival.

Purlie – 1970 Tony Awards

Purlie was nominated for five Tony Awards including Best Musical. Cleavon Little and Melba Moore won Tony Awards for their performances. The show, directed by Philip Rose who co-wrote the book, first opened at the Broadway Theater and later moved to the Winter Garden and the ANTA Playhouse.

Chicago – 1976 Tony Awards

The original production of Kander and Ebb’s musical Chicago was nominated for 11 Tony Awards. It won none of them. Directed by Bob Fosse and starring Gwen Verdon, Chita Rivera and Jerry Orbach, the show ran for 936 performances at the 42nd Street Theatre.

A Chorus Line – 1976 Tony Awards

This is the reason Chicago didn’t win any Tony Awards. Michael Bennett’s show, with music and lyrics by Marvin Hamlisch and Edward Kleban, was nominated for 12 Tony Awards and won nine of them. Its run of 6,137 performances made it the longest running Broadway musical. It is now number six on that list. Ironically, the revival of Chicago, still running in New York, is currently number two on that list with 9,692 performances so far.

The Act – 1978 Tony Awards

This is also a Kander and Ebb musical with the unique distinction of being the only Broadway show directed by Martin Scorsese. The show received six Tony nominations with the only win being for Liza Minnelli. The Act played at the Majestic Theatre and played for 233 performances.

Sweeney Todd – 1979 Tony Awards (though I have no idea who is sitting in as Sweeney)

Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s musical was nominated for nine Tony Awards. The show won eight of them including Best Musical, Best Actress for Angela Lansbury and Best Actor for Len Cariou. Directed by Harold Prince, Sweeney Todd played at the Uris Theatre (later renamed The Gershwin Theatre) for 557 performances.

Evita – 1980 Tony Awards

Evita, written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, was nominated for 11 Tony Awards. The show won seven including Best Musical, Best Actress for Patti LuPone and Best Featured Actor for Mandy Patinkin. Directed by Harold Prince, Evita played at the Broadway Theatre and ran for 1,567 performances.

Dreamgirls – 1982 Tony Awards

Dreamgirls was nominated for 13 Tony Awards and won six of them. The show, directed by Michael Bennett, played the Imperial Theatre and ran for 1,521 performances. The Henry Krieger and Tom Eyen musical featured the staggering Tony-winning performance by Jennifer Holliday as “Effie White.”

Cats – 1983 Tony Awards

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical inspired by T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats was nominated for 11 Tony Awards and won seven including Best Musical. Trevor Nunn directed Cats which played the Winter Garden Theatre. The musical broke A Chorus Line‘s record for longest-running Broadway show with 7,485 performances. Betty Buckley won a Tony Award for her performance as Grizabella who sings the show’s best-known song.

Angela Lansbury and Bea Arthur – 1988 Tony Awards

Jerry Herman’s musical Mame opened in 1966 and was nominated for eight Tony Awards. Amongst the three winners were co-stars Angela Lansbury (as Mame Dennis) and Bea Arthur (as Vera Charles). 22 years later they reunited on the 1988 Tony Awards and performed their classic duet from the show. (This was the year The Phantom of the Opera won Best Musical.)

Grand Hotel – 1990 Tony Awards

Grand Hotel was nominated for 12 Tony Awards and won five including two for director and choreographer Tommy Tune and one for Michael Jeter as Otto Kringelein. The show opened at the Martin Beck Theatre and later transferred to the Gershwin Theatre. Grand Hotel ran for a total of 1,017 performances

Kiss of the Spider Woman – 1993 Tony Awards

Kander and Ebb won yet another Tony Award for this musical based on Manuel Puig’s novel (which also inspired the Academy Award-winning film.) Kiss of the Spider Woman received 11 Tony nominations winning seven of them including Terrence McNally for Best Book of a Musical and for the performances by Chita Rivera as “Spider Woman/Aurora,” Brent Carver as “Molina” and Anthony Crivello as “Valentin.” The musical, directed by Harold Prince, opened at the Broadhurst Theatre and ran for a total of 904 performances.

Passion – 1994 Tony Awards

The film Passione d’Amore by Ettore Scola was the inspiration for this Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine musical. The musical opened at the Plymouth Theatre near the end of Tony season and ran for only 280 performances. Donna Murphy, Jere Shea and Marin Mazzie starred in Passion. All three were amongst the 10 Tony nominations the show received with Murphy taking the Tony for Best Performance by an Actress. The musical won Best Score, Best Book and also Best Musical.

The Wild Party – 2000 Tony Awards

Composers Michael John LaChiusa and Andrew Lippa wrote musicals called The Wild Party. Both were based on Joseph Moncure March’s poem of the same name and both were produced the same year. LaChiusa’s show, directed by George C. Wolfe, made it to Broadway’s Virginia Theatre where it was nominated for seven Tony Awards. It did not win any and closed after a run of only 68 performances. The cast featured Toni Collette, Mandy Patinkin and Eartha Kitt.

Caroline, Or Change – 2004 Tony Awards

Playwright Tony Kushner (Angels in America) and composer Jeanine Tesori teamed up for this 2004 musical (also directed by George C. Wolfe) that received six Tony Award nominations. Anika Noni Rose was the sole winner for her performance as “Emmie Thibodeaux.” Caroline, or Change was scheduled to have a revival this season, but those plans have been postponed until next season. For anyone who saw the show at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre during its brief 136 performance run, Tonya Pinkins‘ performance of “Lot’s Wife” will stand as one of the greatest performances in modern Broadway history.

Fela! – 2010 Tony Awards

Fela! electrified audiences when it opened at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre in 2009. The musical was nominated for 11 Tony Awards and won three (including Best Choreography by Bill T. Jones). Jim Lewis collaborated with Jones (who also directed) on the book of this musical about legendary Nigerian musician Fela Kuti. The show ran for 463 performances.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch – 2014 Tony Awards

It took 16 years for this Stephen Trask and John Cameron Mitchell musical to finally make it to Broadway. The show began its life off-Broadway at the Jane Street Theatre in 1998. Directed by Michael Mayer and starring Neil Patrick Harris and Lena Hall, the show was nominated for eight Tony Awards. Harris and Hall both won and Hedwig and the Angry Inch was awarded the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical. The show ran for 507 performances at the Belasco Theatre.

The Color Purple – 2016 Tony Awards

Alice Walker’s novel inspired this musical by playwright Marsha Norman and composers/lyricists Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray. This revival, directed by John Doyle, opened at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre and was nominated for four Tony Awards. It won for Best Revival of a Musical and for Cynthia Erivo’s performance as Celie. The Color Purple ran for 450 performances.

Hamilton – 2016 Tony Awards

Much like A Chorus Line (which also began its life at The Public Theater), Hamilton was the juggernaut at the Tony Awards that couldn’t be beaten. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical was nominated for 16 Tony Awards and won 11 of them. The show, directed by Thomas Kail, is still running at the Richard Rodgers Theatre with 1,919 performances so far.

What makes this performance particular emotional is that the Tony Awards took place just after the mass shooting at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando. Given the recent events the cast opted not to use the prop guns that are usually seen in the show.

Those are 18 of my favorite Tony Awards performances. Let me know what your favorites are by posting your thoughts in our comments.

The post My Favorite Tony Award Performances appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Which makes her the perfect actress to play the role of the Dowager Empress in Anastasia. The character has to be convinced that a young woman may actually be her long-lost granddaughter, the only survivor of the brutal murders of the Romanov family. This is a woman who has been through a lot and has seen a lot. As has Franz.

Recently I spoke with Franz by phone about Anastasia and about her experiences working with artists who need no first names:  Sondheim, Fosse and Prince. But first, Flaherty and Ahrens (composer/lyricist of Anastasia.)

What inspires you most about the songs they have written for Anastasia?

What inspires me most, besides the gorgeous melodies, are the lyrics. They are very poignant and very current with the messages that Lynn has written. It is very inspiring for anyone: girls, boys, adults. It’s very inspiring and empowering. And, of course, Terrance McNally’s book! I just love him.

You said in an interview with the Kare Reviews podcast that Anastasia was the most perfect show you’ve ever been involved with. What makes the show more perfect than some of the legendary musicals in which you’ve appeared?

Oh dear, did I say “the most?” (She then laughs very broadly.) Actually Into the Woods is the most perfect and this is right up there with it. Not only does it talk about love and hope and family, it’s also saying never give up on your dreams. Perseverance, strength, courage, that’s what I feel is the very important message this show provides. 

Let’s talk about some of those shows. The first show you saw was also your first show: Sweet Charity. What do you remember most about your first night?

Oh my gosh. Am I going to be able to swing my leg over that? I wasn’t a dancer. Am I really going to get my leg over that dance barre? I didn’t know how to move my hips back then. I was so naïve. People apologized for swearing in front of me and now I cuss up a storm.

Fosse/Verdon depicted a not very charismatic Fosse. With your experiences in Sweet Charity and Pippin, what do yo think is most misunderstood about who Fosse was as a man?

He went through all the things he went through, with drugs and stuff. I think there’s always something that one wants to escape from their own reality. Maybe he totally didn’t accept himself as the great master that he was. I don’t know.  

He was a charmer. He was electrifying to watch and be around. Kind of like Lenny Bernstein (with whom she worked on Mass,) everyone fell in love with him. Bob was such a genius.

From Company through to Assassins, you had a front row seat and a perspective on how Sondheim evolved through his career. Why do you think revivals of some of the shows you’ve been in are being far more warmly received than the original productions?

I think the audiences have been educated and have become more aware with the sensibilities and insights that Steve has. He’s just so progressive and was just way ahead of his time in writing. I mean no one else really wrote like him with shows that depict or went into the psychology of the people that he wrote about – which was all part of him, I believe. And what he was going through in looking for love and acceptance.

Producer/director Hal Prince passed away recently. What set Prince apart and what do you think current producers can learn from him?

He could paint that stage and the way he directed he was visionary. He could paint like Picasso and coming from being a stage manager, he was one of the greats, if not the greatest.

Apart from musicals you played the role of the mother in Marsha Norman’s ‘Night Mother. That couldn’t be further from what most audiences know of you. How did that experience challenge you?

I loved doing that play. That was a really wonderful experience and challenge. The depth and the desperation to try to save her daughter. I could relate to the desperateness of wanting to save someone or one’s self from going deeper. 

Julie Andrews talked about doing tours of musicals as being “lonely, but it does give you some kind of spine, I think it does give you some kind of grit.” At this point in your life and career, what does touring give you?

She’s quite right because sometimes it really is lonely. But to know that I can do this, that I can take care of myself. Although our company manager, Denny, he takes care of all of us, but I can make do with almost any situation. I can survive on my own.

Did you know you had those skills?

I would think so. Coming from Kansas City, Missouri and going to New York City with only 500 dollars. But I knew that was where I was supposed to be.

Anastasia is currently playing at Segerstrom Hall in Costa Mesa through November 17th.

Main Photo: Victoria Bingham and Joy Franz in Anastasia (Photo by Evan Zimmerman – MurphyMade)

Archive Broadway photos by Martha Swope/Courtesy of the New York Public Library Archives

The post Joy Franz From “Sweet Charity” to “Anastasia” appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Hal Prince passed away today in Iceland a the age of 91. His last show on Broadway was The Prince of Broadway, a show that celebrated his legendary career. It only ran for 76 performances, but gave audiences a look into the career of a man who made the theatre his home.

Prince collaborated with everybody. That’s no exaggeration. Bob Fosse, Leonard Bernstein, Kander & Ebb, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Jerome Robbins, Cy Coleman, Tim Rice, Terrence McNally, Arthur Laurents, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Jason Robert Brown and perhaps most famously, Stephen Sondheim.

Prince was the producer of West Side Story and A Funny Thing Happened… before adding director for Sondheim’s shows from Company through to Merrily We Roll Along. He also produced all those shows along the way with the exception of Sweeney Todd.

Simply put, Hal Prince was theatre royalty. And he kept working. His philosophy was always keep an eye on the future . He once said, “I don’t look back. I look forward and plan new shows. That’s really feeding the most important part of working in the theater.”

I never met Hal Prince. I saw many of his shows. As readers might know, when I saw Sweeney Todd it was like finding religion. I did, however, sit next time him once at a performance of David Mamet’s The Old Neighborhood in 1997. He wasn’t involved in the show. I assumed he was there to support Patti LuPone who played Evita.

The play was not particularly memorable. In fact, I remember finding it dull and uninspired. I don’t know what Prince thought of the play. I do firmly recall that when the cast came out for a third curtain call he said to his guest, “Oh Christ, they are coming out again!!!!” That made the entire evening for me.

Hal Prince, for better or for worse, gave us musicals as events. As spectacles. Some of them much better than others. What sets him apart from most producers today in the theatre is that he actually was passionate about it for artistic reasons, not just financial. He was a creature of the theatre. The likes of him are unlikely to be seen ever again.

“I always had a good time in theatre, even when shows don’t turn out as well as I’d like.” – Harold Prince

So did we, sir. So did we. Thank you..

Photo of Harold Prince during a rehearsal of Merrily We Roll Along by Martha Swope/Courtesy of New York Public Library Archives.

The post Remembering Harold Prince appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Besides winning the Tony for his performance in the original production of Pippin, Vereen has appeared in the musicals Jesus Christ Superstar, Grind and most recently Wicked. He was also one of the stars of the original miniseries Roots where he played “Chicken George.”

The challenges he’s faced include the death of his 16-year-old daughter in a car accident in 1987. Then in 1992 he had the worst trifecta of a day possible. He hit a tree with his car. Later that day he suffered a stroke while walking on Pacific Coast Highway and veered into the street. Vereen was hit by a car driven by music producer David Foster. Last year he had to apologize after accusations of sexual harassment from 2015 became public.

But he’s still here. Last month I spoke with Vereen by phone about his ability to maintain a positive attitude.

One thing that has always been a hallmark of your point-of-view is gratitude. When you hear people saying how grateful they are on a regularly basis, do you think there is more genuine gratitude today or has it become a platitude?

That’s part of this particular show. I’m looking back. How many songs did we sing about growing older and now I am older. And that Beatles song – When I’m 64 – I’m passed it, but I’m grateful to be. The whole idea of this show is let’s have gratitude for life. Let’s show how great this can be. All the aches and pains, which will come to you, but we’ll show you how to deal with it. This is how I’ve lived for so long. I’ve learned gratitude over the years. You don’t just wake up with it, you learn it.

You’ve been through such radical highs and lows. How do you maintain that positive attitude?

I don’t know that I’ve had lows more than anyone else, but it’s how you maintain the attitude. You can choose the good or the not-so-good. I sit in meditation and if I get to a place where I’m rattled, I stop. I go to a place of gratitude and move from that perspective. At any point I could have said, “I can’t go on, this is too much.” The Creator doesn’t give you more than you can bear. Myself it’s about spirituality and the breadth of life and the gift of life. Stop taking it for granted.

I watched your performance of Everything Must Change from earlier this year. Why does that song resonate with you and how does that choice of material reflect your way of looking at the world today?

Because everything must change. We must go in the way of that change with an open heart and realize life is about changes. That’s how we grow. If everything was the same, we’d be stagnant. I’ve never been stagnant.

You regularly did post-Pippin nightclub performances in the 70s and you said in one that “dance is moving through space to the rhythm of life to the beat.” That was 40 years ago. What is your definition of dance today and has your perspective changed?

That statement is true. If that stops we’re finished. In the beat of the heart is the rhythm of life.

If I had known what I know now. Would I go back and change some things, I probably would, if I had that gift. First of all I wouldn’t be here because I would have been wiped out on the highway. (He follows that statement by letting out a big laugh.) I can laugh at it now. I don’t remember that accident. All I remember is the recovery.

There’s one more thing about dance, once you learn how to dance. Bob Fosse (director of Pippin) told me “you learn this way you’ll dance it the rest of your life.”

Speaking of Fosse, did you watch Fosse/Verdon?

I have not yet and I will. I’m too close to it right now. They missed the kindness from what I’m hearing; him as a character and as a person. He was strict, but he wanted the best out of you. That’s the thing, it’s about the work. It’s not about who he slept with. The man was a genius. He gave us style. I guess television has its way of doing what it does. 

Joe Gideon, the character played by Roy Scheider in All That Jazz, meets his maker to the tune Bye Bye Love which he sings with your character, O’Connor Flood. If you could, as Fosse did, stage your own farewell, what would it look and sound like?

Wow…Wow. Hmmm. That’s a good question. What would it sound like? What would it look like? It would have a love of Fosse in it for sure. That’s a good question. What comes to mind if Life’s a Bowl of Cherries. As I say when I sing it, don’t forget to spit out the few pits. But the cherries sure are sweet. Just don’t swallow the pit.

For tickets on Friday go here.

For tickets on Saturday go here.

Main photo by Isak Tiner.

The post The Simple Joys of Ben Vereen appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

For those unfamiliar with Vereen and the characters he has played, “Chicken George” is the memorable character he played in the original mini-series Roots. O’Connor Flood is the television show host who introduced all his guests in Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz as “A great entertainer. A great humanitarian. And my friend of 17 years…” Well, all except one. (If you haven’t seen All That Jazz you should.) Judas is, of course, the character he played in the original production of Jesus Christ Superstar on stage. And the Leading Player is the character he played in the musical Pippin on stage that earned him a Tony Award.

In other words, this man has a lot of great music and stories in his back pocket. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. His other Broadway appearances include such musicals as Hair, Wicked, Grind, Jelly’s Last Jam and Fosse.

Vereen is a classic song-and-dance man. He has the ability to take songs you know and breathe fresh air into them making you think you are hearing them for the first time. You should check out his take on “Mister Bojangles.”

Over a year ago Vereen appeared for two sold out nights at Catalina Jazz Club. It seems reasonable to assume he will do the same for these two shows. If you are interested in attending, I recommend buying your tickets as soon as possible.

Check back later this week for our interview with Ben Vereen here at Cultural Attaché.

For tickets on Friday night go here.

For tickets on Saturday night go here.

Photo courtesy of BenVereen.Info

The post Steppin’ Out with Ben Vereen appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

If you attend Lights Out: Nat “King” Cole at the Geffen Playhouse you’ll see his work as co-writer of the show (with director Patricia McGregor). In other words, Domingo is a true multi-hyphenate with a lot on his mind and a wide range of skills.

Lights Out imagines what might have been going through singer Nat “King” Cole’s mind during his 1957 Christmas special. Dulé Hill (The West Wing and Suits) plays the singer. If you don’t know Cole by name, you probably know his many recordings and his silky smooth voice. Amongst his best known songs are Unforgettable, Mona Lisa and Nature Boy.

I recently spoke with Domingo about Lights Out, Cole and his battles with racism and where America is in 2019.

When I read the script for Lights Out it reminded of the real-versus-the surreal found in Bob Fosse’s All that Jazz. Is that kind of balancing act what you were going after?

I think All That Jazz, The Scottsboro Boys, Passing Strange are all influences because I’m trying to be a bit sly about deconstructing an icon, the United States, race, gay rights and women’s rights. It’s to use this framework of this final show and pulling the rug out.

How and why did you choose Nat “King” Cole?

Anything 1950s is seductive: line dresses and gentlemen in well-structured suits and slick hair. We want to surprise you. This definitely has been written with a fervor and fire and passion. The beautiful thing is this commission allowed me to do whatever was on my mind and this was it. This is one of those pieces of theatre that if I left the theatre tomorrow, this is everything I want to say. It takes a long time to clarify what is our voice. This is mine.

What makes Nat “King” Cole still relevant today and why should people who don’t know of him be interested?

I think because of where we are right now with so much unrest and interrogating exactly who we are. Which is why James Baldwin (author of If Beale Street Could Talk) was always the conscious of America and who we are. We are trying to examine who we are in America and we have to go backwards because we can’t go forward. By examining an America icon through the lens of 2019, hopefully we can come to some answers.

Though subjected to racism himself (including attacks on his home in Hancock Park), Cole performed for segregated audiences in the South. He was chastised in the mid-50s by the NAACP for not being a crusader. Was that fair and do you think he could have and should have done more?

It’s funny the term “crusader.” As I examined what he was doing, he was being a crusader in a more subversive way. I think there’s a necessity for people to be out there and marching in the street. And there are also people who should be standing with grace and love in the face of terror. Everything Cole represented knew it wouldn’t seem like he was crusader. Not everyone was barking loudly and holding signs. But he was showing his face. Some are sitting quietly doing their work and showing up day after day. I am a man and I stand up and put on a suit and sing better than anyone else. I think that was what he did. I think he was criticized unfairly.

Cole once said, “The Supreme Court is having a hard time integrant schools. What chance do I have to integrate audiences?”

Cole had a lot of incredible thoughts, but he understood. I think he was always looking at the bigger picture and not the immediate. I read an article for Ebony in 1958 about why his show wasn’t a success – because he couldn’t get sponsors. He said, “Madison Avenue is afraid of the dark.” He had one of the most successful records ever. But he had to call in favors and use his own money. But by his being there, he made a difference.

How far do you think we’ve come since Nat “King” Cole’s time?

Our country is so separated. We have to be smart. We’d like to think we live in a country of the free, but it’s only for a certain group of people. These days white and black alike should talk about this. Let’s do this. Let’s affect our friends, cousins and others who don’t think like us. We have to reach across and understand why you feel the way you feel and I feel the way I feel. If we approach more with love, there’s no idea where we can go. When I write what I’m actually trying to do is bring people together. We raise the question. Now what will you do? It’s your turn.

What do you think Nat “King” Cole would think of American in 2019? (Domingo takes a long pause before answering the question.)

I don’t know. I think that he would recognize how far we’ve come by looking at the great representations of our ancestors and everyone who is benefitting and overcoming great obstacles. But I think he would also recognize how far we had not come. I think he’d be torn. He was very astute about recognizing what he was and what America was.

Lights Out: Nat “King” Cole continues at the Geffen Playhouse through March 17th.

Production photos by Jeff Lorch/Courtesy of the Geffen Playhouse

Nat “King” Cole photo by Avery Willard/Courtesy of the New York Public Library

The post Colman Domingo and His Sly Deconstruction of Nat “King” Cole appeared first on Cultural Attaché.