All three children have grown up and moved out of the family home – leaving Ebersole and Moloney as empty-nesters. It was a topic Ebersole addressed in her return to the Café Carlyle in New York in 2016 in a showed entitled After the Ball. That show serves as the foundation for a record of the same name which finds Ebersole singing such songs as The Way You Look Tonight, Lazy Afternoon, May Baby Just Cares for Me and A Sleeping’ Bee.

Two weeks ago we spoke about this change in her life, the recordings she made for After the Ball and we began our conversation talking about the passing of her colleague in the 2009 Broadway revival of Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit, Angela Lansbury.

What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity.

What is your favorite memory of working with Angela Lansbury?

Angela Lansbury was always an inspiration to me because I just I loved her work. I loved her personality. I loved her persona. When I had the privilege of working with her in Blithe Spirit she really confirmed everything that I felt about her. She really raised the bar in terms of excellence in the theater and she never missed a show. Her energy was always 100% onstage and off. She really kept the bar high. 

She won five Tony Awards and then got a special Tony this year. You, so far, have two. In your 2001 acceptance speech you made a point of thanking your three children. Clearly being a mother has been an important part of your life. At what point did you decide to do a show about life once children have left the nest?

I think that was the inspiration when they left the nest. You’re left feeling where do I go from here kind of thing. That’s really what the inspiration is. How do we continue? It was it was not only the children leaving the nest, but I’m nearing my dotage. So it was really where do we go from here?

Is that something that you had contemplated in advance of their leaving?

No, no, no. You’re too busy in it. You can’t think about the other stuff. You’re hoping that’s a result of good parenting that they can go off and be on their own. But the reality of it is different.

The album was was recorded in 2016 after you had done the show at Café Carlyle. You felt that there was something off with the recording. What changed in your perception about the recording when you revisited those tracks several years later?

During the time that we were we were recording it, there were just things that were happening that made the situation very fraught. One of the players’ wives was very ill, so he was not able to perform on the days that we were supposed to be at the studio. The engineer was new. This just skewed our perception of what we were doing. That’s really what it was about. So I thought, well, we’re going to have to really re-record all this. Five years later we went back and found buried treasure.

What surprised you most when you went back and revisit those tracks?

I think what surprised me most was what I had perceived and how the perception was not true. But it was informed by all these crazy things that were happening around us at the time – the things that we couldn’t control.

Your rendition of Autumn Leaves that appears on the album is the second version you recorded for After the Ball. Is there a fundamental difference between the two versions? 

No, we just kind of re-imagined it. I wanted [guitarist] Larry Saltzman, who was not able to be on the [first] recording. He was originally in the show. That number was always very special with Larry and myself when we performed it live. Jon Bernthal, who came in to take over for Larry, was just amazing. There were incredible things that came out of a very difficult situation. 

How did you find your way and your approach into this song that has been recorded so many times? 

The reason why I wanted to do Autumn Leaves was because it resonates in terms of parents and children, particularly September when you go off to school again. And every year they’re getting older until finally one year they’re going off to college and they’re not going to be coming back for lunch or dinner. It’s a time of reflection. It’s a time of a sentiment and melancholy. You see the brilliance of the leaves, the autumn leaves, knowing that they’re going to be gone soon. So it’s a time of reflection.

You were quoted once as having said, “Family transcends the flesh. You don’t love someone because they look like you, you love their spirit. It’s the soul connection.” What does this album allow us to learn about the spirit and the connection that you and your children have?

Our story is one of adoption. All of our children are adopted and they’re all from different cultures and different races. I believe that they were brought by God. That God has a purpose for our lives. It’s not some random thing that God chose this family. He made this family what it is.

It really is the spirit of who they are that you so appreciate. Think about it in your own family, in a family that’s biologically connected. The personalities can be quite different. Sometimes you think, well, where did you come from? How are you related to any of this? It just really becomes very evident that we’re born of spirit.

Now that they are pursuing their dreams, what freedom does it give you to pursue new dreams of your own? 

I’ve just been very blessed my whole life. [I have] been given opportunities to do so many different things. Right now I’m in Los Angeles filming a television show for CBS with Chuck Lorre – Bob Hearts Abishola. Tomorrow I’m going down to New Orleans to do a concert in Riverton and sing at a someone’s private party on Sunday. I have this album that’s been a dream of mine that came true. You don’t know what tomorrow’s going to bring. So it’s good to put your teeth in and put your wig on and keep going.

Do you want to revisit things that you have always enjoyed? Or do you want to experience the things that you haven’t and try to sort out what you want the rest of your time to be? Are those considerations that you have had? 

I think the lockdown of the last three years really kind of informed a lot for me because I’ve been in the business for 50 years and I really kind of was on a fast track, a fast lane and I was taken off that fast lane. If I am not on the fast lane who am I? I only knew myself on the fast lane. But I don’t want to be in the fast lane anymore. I’ve been able to really kind of slow down and just kind of smell the roses in a way that I never really had time to before.

What does it mean to you to be back on stage? 

When everything was locked down it was a very difficult time. I thought, well, I guess I’m not going to do that anymore. Then I was invited to go to Morocco to do a one night concert in Tangier of Follies. The last time I was on the stage with a group of actors was three years prior in Tangier doing A Little Night Music. There was this very defining moment that happened when I was backstage.

I remember having a lot of doubts about it. I sang I’m Still Here. I was having a lot of fears and doubts about it. I thought, I can’t do this. I can’t memorize it. I don’t trust myself. This is something that’s in the past and it’s not going to be in the future and this and that.

The beautiful overture’s playing and the Follies girls are on the stage. All of a sudden I was like this child in my heart. The fear all went away because all I was seeing was the magic. I just thought it’s in my blood. So I can’t turn away what’s already in me. I sang I’m Still Here and it had a resonance because I was still here after everything that everybody’s been through in the last few years. It was God’s way of confirming don’t turn away from it because it’s a part of you.

Let me conclude our conversation, Christine, by taking you back to December 13th, 1977, which was the opening night of Green Pond. That was a show that asked you to imitate the munchkins in The Wizard of Oz. In September of that same year you made your television debut as Pearl Miller in Ryan’s Hope. From those early days of your career to where you are today, what is most important for you about the journey that you’ve had so far as an artist and separately as a mother?

I think it’s face forward because that’s where you’re going to. That’s where the audience is. That’s where opportunity is and that’s where life is. I think that’s the same in career and in motherhood. Never be afraid to learn something new. Never be afraid to change the perception of what you thought was true. Might not be. Truth is around the corner. 

Main photo: Christine Ebersole (Photo by Kit Kittle/Courtesy Club 44 Records)

Update: Cultural Attaché erroneously listed Ms. Ebersole’s husband with whom she adopted their three children. It was not Peter Bergman as originally stated, but rather Bill Moloney. We have updated the story and apologize for the error.

The post Christine Ebersole And Life As an Empty-Nester appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Niv Ashkenazi: Violins of Hope – The Soraya Facebook Page – April 17th – 7 PM EDT/4PM PDT

Violins of Hope is a program celebrating the recovery and restoration of over 60 stringed instruments from the Holocaust. They were restored by Amnon Weinstein, and his son, Avshalom, in Tel Aviv.

The Soraya had scheduled several events around the Violins of Hope, but those have been postponed due to the pandemic. While they have been rescheduled for early 2021, Niv Ashkenazi will give a concert on one of those violins on Friday.

Ashkenazi is the only musician in North America who has been loaned one of these precious instruments. He recently released an album entitled, appropriately enough, Niv Ashkenazi: The Violins of Hope.

For this live streaming event, Ashkenazi will perform the “Theme from Schindler’s List” by John Williams, “The Chassid” by Julius Chajes, an improvisation on Ernest Bloch’s “Baal Shem, II. Nigun” and George Perlman’s “Dance of the Rebbitzen.”

Prior to the performance, The Soraya’s Executive Director Thor Steingraber will conduct a conversation with Ashkenazi about Violins of Hope and his recording.

Celebrating 25 Magical Years of Disney on Broadway – BroadwayWorld – April 17th – 7 PM EDT/4 PM PDT

Last November, Disney celebrated a quarter century of musicals on Broadway with a concert at the New Amsterdam Theatre in New York. The event was a fundraiser for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

That concert, which featured veteran cast members from Disney’s many shows, is being streamed as an additional fundraiser for BC/EFA, but this time for their Covid-19 Emergency Assistance Fund. There is no charge to watch the show, but they are asking for donations.

As you probably know, Disney has had many a blockbuster musical on Broadway. Their shows include Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, Mary Poppins, AIDA and Frozen.

Amongst the performers at this concert are Sierra Boggess, Norm Lewis and Sherie Renee Scott from The Little Mermaid, Christian Borle and Ashley Brown from Mary Poppins, Kerry Butler and Susan Egan from Beauty and the Beast, Merle Dandrige, Mandy Gonzalez and Adam Pascal from AIDA, James Monroe Iglehart, Adam Jacobs and Michael James Scott from Aladdin plus a reunion of cast members from Newsies.

Additional participants include Gavin Creel (Hello, Dolly!), Whoopi Goldberg (the original film version of The Lion King), Ashley Park (Mean Girls) and more.

Soft Power Listening Party – Public Theater NY YouTube Channel – April 17th – 8 PM EDT/5 PM PDT

When Jeanine Tesori and David Henry Hwang’s musical-within-a-play Soft Power played the Ahmanson Theatre in 2018 it proved to be a wholly unique way of telling a story through both a play and a musical. I loved it.

The show was reworked and opened at The Public Theater in New York and that cast recored the show. Soft Power was just made available on Ghostlight Records in the digital and streaming formats.

To celebrate the release, some of the cast and the creators of the show are holding a listening party on The Public Theater’s YouTube channel. They are also raising funds for both The Public Theater and the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

The Phantom of the Opera – The Show Must Go On YouTube Page – April 17th – beginning at 2 PM EDT/11 AM PDT for 48 hours

Andrew Lloyd Webber continues to make performances of his musicals available for 48 hours with this version of his blockbuster musical The Phantom of the Opera.

This production stars Ramin Karimloo as the Phantom, Sierra Boggess as Cristine Daaé and Hadley Fraser Raoul. Nick Morris and Laurence Connor directed this 25th Anniversary performance at the Royal Albert Hall.

Attaca Quartet performs Caroline Shaw’s Orange – The Greene Space YouTube Page

If you aren’t familiar with composer Caroline Shaw, this is a great opportunity to get introduced to her work. Orange, performed here by the Attaca Quartet, is one of Shaw’s highly-acclaimed works. Their recording of Orange won the Grammy Award for Best Chamber Musical/Small Ensemble Performance.

Shaw is the youngest recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music for her Partita for 8 Voices.

This performance comes from a 2019 performance at WNYC/WQXR’s The Greene Space.

TCM Classic Film Festival: Special Home Edition – Turner Classic Movies – Now – April 20th

The annual TCM Classic Film Festival had to be canceled due to the ongoing crisis. However, they have moved the festival from Hollywood to your living room. For fans of theatre and jazz there are a few options worth checking out (whether you have never seen them or want a chance to revisit them!) Note that some are not showing at convenient times (unless you are an insomniac) so set your DVR.

Grey Gardens – April 18th 1:30 AM EDT/April 17th 10:30 PM PDT

This is the documentary that inspired the Tony Award-winning musical. The Maysles Brothers (Albert and David) made an utterly compelling film about Jackie Kennedy’s aunt, Edith Bouvier Beale (79) and cousin, Edith ‘Little Edie’ Bouvier Beale (56). They live in a completely rundown mansion on Long Island with no running water that is filled with multiple animals including numbers cats and raccoons in the attic.

The Man with the Golden Arm – April 18th 6:00 AM EDT/3:00 AM PDT

This 1955 film by Otto Preminger makes our list because Elmer Bernstein’s score is so driven by jazz. Not the first film to use jazz as the style of a film score, but certainly one of the best.

Frank Sinatra stars as an ex-junkie who returns home after half-a-year in prison. While in prison he not only got clean, but learned to play drums. Upon his return he has to face the real world and whether or not he has fully recovered from his heroin addiction.

Both Sinatra and Bernstein were Oscar-nominated for their work on this film. Another reason to check out the film is Saul Bass’s amazing title sequence.

Mame – April 19th 3:30 PM EDT/12:30 PM PDT

This is the classic Rosalind Russell film from 1958 that is truly essential viewing. Mame tells the same story as Jerry Herman’s musical (and the subsequent disaster of a film of that musical with Lucille Ball), but Russell’s performance here is superb. Fans of the musical will want to check out this film. In our troubled times perhaps we can all take some sage advice from our dear Auntie Mame.

Singin’ in the Rain – April 19th 6:00 PM EDT/3:00 PM PDT

One of Hollywood’s best musicals ever and recently on the list of best films to watch during the pandemic. Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor and Debbie Reynolds star. Watch this film and you’ll be singing “Good Morning” on Monday.

Victor, Victoria – April 20th 3:30 AM EDT/12:30 AM PDT

Blake Edwards’s 1982 film musical was, of course, the basis for the Broadway musical. Julie Andrews stars as a woman, pretending to be a man, pretending to be a woman, who becomes a singing sensation in Paris. But she has to maintain the disguise just as she falls in love with a gangster played by James Garner.

The film also stars a phenomenal Robert Preston, Lesley Ann Warren and Alex Karras.

The songs were written by Henry Mancini and Leslie Bricusse.

The Verdi Chorus: The Force of Destiny – The Verdi Chorus Website and Facebook Page – April 18th – 10:30 PM EDT/ 7:30 PM PDT

Forced to cancel their planned April 18th concert, The Verdi Chorus is going to stream their first online concert: The Force of Destiny. This was their 2018 concert that featured selections from Verdi’s La forza del destino, Nabucco and La Traviata. It also included music from Strauss’s Die Fledermaus.

Joining the Verdi Chorus are Shana Blake Hill, soprano, Karin Mushegain, mezzo-soprano, Alex Boyer, tenor and baritone Ben Lowe.

Treasure Island – National Theatre Live’s YouTube Page – Now – April 23rd

Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novel has been given a couple twists for this 2014 stage version. First of all, Jim, is played by actress Patsy Ferran. There is music and songs by Dan Jones with additional songs by John Tams.

But the reviews were extraordinary. Arthur Darvill (of Dr. Who) plays Long John Silver. Polly Findlay directed the play. Tim van Someren directed the film. Treasure Island runs 1 hour 50 minutes.

Buyer and Cellar – Broadway.Com – April 19th – 8 PM EDT/5 PM PDT

Actor Michael Urie has performed Jonathan Tolin’s Buyer and Cellar countless times. It’s a perfect role for him as the man who attends to Barbra Streisand’s personal shopping mall in her Malibu home. Of course, this isn’t a true story, but what if it was?

On Sunday Urie will perform the show from his own home as a fundraiser for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS Covid-19 Emergency Assitance Fund. The performance will stream on Broadway.Com.

This is a thoroughly entertaining show and well worth your time.

***Don’t forget there is also Madama Butterfly on April 17th, Adriana Lecouvreur on April 18th and Der Rosenkavalier on April 19th – each available for 23 hours beginning at 7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PM PDT at the Metropolitan Opera’s website.

Another reminder that WNET is making five different Great Performances available. For details you can go here.

Photo: The company of Treasure Island (Photo by Johan Persson/Courtesy of National Theatre Live)

The post Culture Best Bets at Home: April 17th – 19th appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Ebersole created the role of Elizabeth Arden in War Paint (starring opposite Patti LuPone as Helena Rubinstein). She won her second Tony Award (and a plethora of Off-Broadway awards) for her dual roles as Edith Bouvier Beale and “Little Edie” Beale in Grey Gardens. Guenevere is, of course, the object of two men’s affections in Camelot. Ado Annie is the girl who just can’t say no in Oklahoma! Dorothy Brock was her first Tony Award-winning performance from a revival of 42nd Street.

All of those credits mean that Ebersole has a vast catalog to pull from for these show. And this doesn’t include her two albums with Billy Stritch, her 2010 recording Christine Ebersole Sings Nöel Coward and her 2013 record, Strings Attached.

Helping her to shape the show is another Tony Award winner, Scott Wittman (Hairspray) who directs. The music director is Lawrence Yurman, who served as Music Director and Conductor for War Paint and Grey Gardens. Scott Frankel, who wrote the music for those two musicals, will be her special guest.

In other words, there are a lot of talented people making An Evening with Christine Ebersole possible. But it is Ebersole whose name is on the ticket and it is Ebersole who will enchant. As anyone who has seen her in one or more of those musicals above will agree.

For tickets go here.

Photo of Christine Ebersole by Kit Kittle (Courtesy of The Wallis)

The post An Evening with Christine Ebersole appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

The “them” she refers to are Edith Bouvier Beale and her similarly named daughter who went by “Little Edie.” They lived in an unmaintained East Hampton mansion overrun with cats, and though they were Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’s aunt and cousin, they lived in total squalor. Naturally, the story is perfect fodder for a musical. York plays Edith in the first act and plays “Little Edie” in the second act, which takes place 32 years later. (Betty Buckley plays her mother in act two.) We spoke with York ahead of the show’s opening tonight at the Ahmanson Theatre:

What makes the dynamic between mother and daughter so compelling?
There was competition between Big and Little Edie. They would use the Maysles as their intermediaries. Sometimes they would perform—they felt they had to for the camera. They were doing a movie. They weren’t that familiar with documentaries. They thought, “We’re the stars of the movie,” which they were. You see a little of their nutty behavior. It’s all genuine.

This production started at Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, not far from the real house where Big and Little Edie lived. Did you get a chance to visit Grey Gardens?
We were there for a little cocktail hour on the porch. We sang a couple songs and did some lines from the show. It was really, really eerie and cool to be saying those lines in the actual place where it happened.

You and Betty Buckley seemed baffled as to why such a wealthy family wouldn’t take better care of these women. Have you come to any conclusions?
I don’t think the sons came and visited enough or helped out enough. They claimed they didn’t have enough money to support them. I have trouble understanding—if your mother is living like that, you find a way to get a new mattress. You get a cleaning lady.

In act two, Little Edie has a song called “The Revolutionary Costume for Today.” Can you talk about her fashion sensibilities?
[They are] a conglomeration of everything she is and her situation. She was losing her hair and she didn’t have any wigs at her disposal—they were going to be filming her as an actress, so she started wearing these scarves on her head to cover her thin white hair. She was using whatever she had in the closet to become a stylish actress in the film.

Why has this story resonated through so many iterations?
With reality television being so prevalent, you can see how this was one of the first reality shows there was. There is just this fascination: How in the world did these two women end up in this circumstance? They were brought up to be socialites. How could they live like this? How could they stand it? The great thing about the musical is I find the music really enhances the poetry of the documentary.

They lived with 52 cats. What do you think life with that many cats would be like?
I will tell you the difference between me and Little Edie is I’m a little fastidious. If I had no money, I would still find a way to keep it clean.

Photo Credit:  Craig Schwartz

The post The Women of Grey Gardens Were the Kardashians of Their Time appeared first on Cultural Attaché.