This is my interview with Gavin when he was touring in Into the Woods. Thank you Gavin for your time, your artistry and your generosity. You will truly be missed.

Whether that’s intrinsically a part of the characters he’s playing or just who he is as an actor, Ceel is easily one of the most likable people in musicals today. Take his performance as The Wolf and Cinderella’s Prince in Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Into the Woods. Even though The Wolf is menacing (in a dandy sort of way) and the Prince is “raised to be charming, not sincere,” Creel is sincerely charming and, when the role calls for it, charmingly sincere.

Into the Woods is finishing its mini-tour of ten cities with a final stop in Los Angeles at the Ahmanson Theatre. The show runs June 27th – July 30th. Creel, who played the part on Broadway, is joined by many of the production’s Broadway cast including Sebastian Arcelus, Stephanie J. Block, Katy Geraghty, Montego Glover, Kennedy Kanagawa and Nancy Opel.

I recently spoke with Creel who was in San Francisco for the penultimate stop of Into the Woods. In our conversation we talked about Stephen Sondheim, why the cast took this show on the road and about his own show, Walk on Through: Confessions of a Museum Novice, which will have its world premiere in November at MCC Theater in New York. Los Angeles audiences can get a preview of that show when Creel performs at The Hotel Cafe in Hollywood on July 24th.

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: In 2003 you were in Stephen Sondheim’s Bounce [later renamed Road Show] in Chicago and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. What did you learn from that experience of working on Sondheim’s material that perhaps informs the work you’re now bringing to Into the Woods? 

What comes to mind is that I watched the greatest, at that time, living musical theater composer and arguably the greatest living producer director of our musical theater time: Hal Prince. I watched them in the mud. I got to watch them trying to make the lotus blossom. And if I’m honest, it wasn’t successful. Obviously it wasn’t commercially successful, but it was bumpy. 

I did this very foolish innocently enough thing of deciding that they must come out of the womb formed. These ideas must just be hatched in brilliance. And I was like, Oh yeah, this moment isn’t really that great. Sondheim can write something that’s really not that great. And then Sondheim goes, “This is really not that great. How do I make this great or I can do this here and do this, and then watch it become something that went to the next level.” To see that in front of you is very humbling and an encouraging and freeing experience. 

How would you compare the process of working on a musical with Stephen Sondheim to working on one of his most successful musicals, arguably his most successful musical, without him any longer?

It was sad, I have to say. James Lapine, on the first day of rehearsal, we all circled up and everybody and there was a space next to him. He said, “It’s odd to me that there’s a space. I feel like Steve made a space for himself. This is a bittersweet moment because we’re all here to lift this beautiful piece up and I’m honored that you’re doing this piece that I wrote with Steve, and Steve would be standing next to me.”

This is sounds woo woo, but I think Steve was guiding us from the other side. I still feel a presence. It’s a rock concert response to our show in a way that James is like, I don’t understand what’s happening. It’s crazy. I think that is definitely a testament to the show being so beloved for almost 40 years. But I also think we were guided. I think there was a spirit on the other side. The best spirit of all going, “I’m going to help.” It got into all of our hearts. 

When I saw the show at the St. James in New York in December it looked to me like everybody was having the time of their lives, which is not easy to do as an actor. How much of it is the fact that you are all genuinely having a good time?

It is really hard to fake joy in that way. Even if you’re doing a really good job of it, the audience can sniff it out. I’m personally having the time of my life. I did not expect to be a part of this. I was going to go watch my best friend Sara [Bareilles who was the original Baker’s Wife] in the concert at City Center. And then [director] Lear deBessonet called me and was like, “Hey, would you ever consider coming in?” The first time my ego was like, I don’t want to play that part. I want to be the baker. And then I thought about it. Let’s just do the job. I need the health insurance. I’ll have a good time. I’ll get to hang out with Sara again. We had such a good time doing Waitress for that small amount of time together [in 2019]. Here I am, over a year later, still getting to tell the story across the country. We are literally still having fun and I can’t believe this leg of it is going to be done in six weeks. It’s nuts. We’re very sad to let it go. 

Many of you who appeared in this production on Broadway have come together to continue telling this story. That is very rare these days for so many cast members to take a show on the road. Why do you think the mold was broken for Into the Woods? 

I think the world has changed since what we went through. The pandemic changed me. Certainly I can speak for myself of just really appreciating what you have in a new way. I just don’t think we were ready to let it go. What a gift! This just dropped in my lap. Personally, I could save money. I could work. I could see the country. I could take a breath from everything that we’ve been through. I think that story sort of whispered through the building. Gavin’s going to go and hey, you think about going on? Let me tell you why I’m going. When does this ever happen? We could actually all go together. Our show was definitely closing [in New York] because New York, New York needed a theater. We had to close, but we didn’t feel ready to be finished. 

I think one of the one of the main things that Sondheim wanted to get across with this particular work, and he said so in an interview around the time of the release of the film, was that the message of Into the Woods is about community responsibility. There’s obviously a sense of community within Broadway. There’s a sense of community within this company. Do you think that this musical offers any insight into how we perhaps can better serve ourselves by coming together as a community in our regular lives? 

Yes. I think it’s two parts, to be honest. The whole thing starts with “I wish, more than anything.” If we can acknowledge that everybody wants something for themselves then we can see the shared community in that fact. How wonderful it would be if we could help each other get what each other wants. And this musical lays that out so beautifully.

The other I was going to say is when you said that about community, no one is alone. On the surface it seems like it means I’m with you. But also I’m with you in helping you get what you want. We can work together to help you achieve your dreams. There’s always a force outside of you that’s greater than you, that is against you in some way. The giant isn’t bad. “Witches can be right. Giants can be good. You decide what’s right. You decide what’s good.” The giant is just trying to do what they can to survive. We can see the community in that statement, which is what I think the show really illuminates. It means more than just you’re not alone, as in you don’t have to be sad and lonely. It means you’re not alone in your desires, your dreams, your wishes, your hopes. I’ve got them, too. So let’s both dream together.

You’ve been working on Confessions of a Museum Novice for a while and you’ve been performing it a concert version off and on in different places. How has the work evolved since you first started sharing this with the world? 

It continues to evolve. Originally I was invited to have a meeting with Limor Tomer and Erin Flannery at the Metropolitan Museum of Art who run the Live Art series. They said, would you like to come to the Met? We’ll give you a membership card at the museum. Look around. And when you find a piece of art or pieces, anything that you’re inspired by within the building, let us know and we’ll help you produce a show for one night at the Met. I’d never been there. I was an imposter syndrome times a million. I’m not a huge fine art person. Museums tend to overwhelm me, but I went for it. 

We ended up doing it in October of 2021 with a fully masked audience for two shows and it was electric. I have to turn this into a musical. I have to expand this a bit, too. I still play Gavin Creel. It’s still about a man who’s having a sort of a midlife meltdown who for some reason called the Metropolitan Museum of Art to try to figure his life out by walking through and figuring out what’s going on. It’s about love and life and art and loneliness and ultimately forgiveness and love again.

What we’re going to do in L.A. is we’re going to do the first 45 minutes of the show to give people a taste. And then we’re going to do some covers, theater and pop covers to give people some stuff they know.

Let’s go back 17 years ago to when your album GoodTimeNation came out. You have a song on there about what Might Still Happen. What has you most optimistic about what might still happen to you personally and professionally?

I wrote that as a kid 20 years ago on the roof of my studio apartment; 250 square feet. Some of the hardest and happiest times I’ve had. One of the best lessons of living in New York in 250 square feet is you have everything you need in that much space. Anything past that is icing. I have a two bedroom apartment, thank God now, but I could live in 200 square feet if you made me. I might sell it all and just chill. My buddy Robbie Roth, who I made my first two records with, we would crawl up to the roof illegally because the fire door didn’t shut. We would sit up there, put a blanket down and pick around with melodies. That song is ultimately about heartbreak, but it’s hope.

It was a call to my future self. It makes me emotional to think about the idea of being a young person and feeling really sad but saying there’s good stuff coming, keep going. You can’t know the future, so just sit in the present. Just be. Get yourself a beer, get a friend, get a guitar, get on the roof, look out over the city. There’s possibility everywhere.

Not to bring it back to Into the Woods, but I was really broken before the pandemic, through the pandemic and after. It was just a terrible time in my life. Into the Woods was like this beautiful life raft that not only buoyed me out of storm, but it continued to lift me and set me down on solid ground. I will never forget this time that I’ve had and I just hope that we pack the house at the Ahmanson because I want to go out with a bang.

To see the full interview with Gavin Creel, please go here.

Main Photo: Gavin Creel in the Broadway production of Into the Woods (Photo by Matthew Murphy and Ryan Zimmerman for MurphyMade/Courtesy Center Theatre Group)

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THIS IS THE THIRD OF OUR BEST OF 23 REVIEW OF INTERVIEWS: On April 19th of this year I spoke with Tony Award-winner Stephanie J. Block about her upcoming show with Seth Rudetsky at The Wallis. She was on tour at that time with Into the Woods. But the show with Rudetsky was postponed. It has since been rescheduled for this Sunday at The Wallis. Instead of just one show there are now two.

I held the interview you are about to read until closer to the rescheduled shows. Which means some of the conversation we had is less timely now that it was in April. Discussions of Into the Woods, Funny Girl and her performance as Norman Desmond in Sunset Boulevard at the Kennedy Center aren’t as topical today as they were then.

But Block is not just a great performer – as her roles in Falsettos, The Boy From Oz and The Cher Show (for which she won her Tony Award) can attest – she’s also a great interview. So though slightly dated, this is one thoroughly entertaining conversation. What follows are excerpts from that interview that have been edited for length and clarity. I strongly encourage you to go to our YouTube channel to see the full interview.

You’ve sung on stage with Cher, you sung with Dolly Parton, and of course, you have your Tony Award. When you were tackling the very intense roles of Fifer, Belle, Ariel and Mary Poppins at Disneyland, is this what you imagined your career would be?

First of all, damn you! Secondly, as the story has it and it is true, my mother forged my birth certificate so that I could audition for the Disneyland Summer Parade. I wasn’t yet 16, so she had to forge my birth certificate. So that already tells you enough of what you need to know about the loving show mother that embraced me and encouraged me. But I was serious even back then.

I went to the Orange County, which was the High School of Performing Arts back then, and everything had that high level of stakes and intensity and discipline. So whether I was Fifer the Pig dancing down the parade route at Disneyland, I took as much pride in that as I did with doing Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods.

You were referred to at your church as the little Ethel Merman when you were seven years old. You have since had the opportunity to play Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes, which is a role that Ethel Merman originated. Are there other Ethel Merman roles that you would like to do?

I think with a lot of the classic musical theater pieces there might have to be some reworking. Would I love to play Annie Get Your Gun? Absolutely. I’d love to play Annie. But I think someone like Larissa FastHorse might have to go in there and change a lot of the lines in the material. But does the music still hold up? Yes. Does the sort of crackle in her performance and the indelible performance that she’s left for us still hold true in my heart? Yes. Because in my heart, I’m an old MGM girl. You put on one of those old movies – anything with Judy Garland, anything with Ann Miller – and it just changes the whole course of my day.

I saw you in Falsettos, and frankly, I think you were robbed for the Tony Award because that performance, that whole show, was one I will never forget. I saw 9 to 5 in Los Angeles. I saw The Boy from Oz and I recently saw Into the Woods before it closed in New York. And the first time I saw you was in Crazy for You at La Mirada. 

Oh, my gosh.

Those shows, absent Crazy for You, are a mix of huge successes and less successful shows. Something Hal Prince said that I thought was really interesting was how much he learned more from the shows that weren’t successful than the ones that were. Is there a difference between the lessons you’ve learned on shows that were successful versus the ones that were not?

I think we just have to say that 75% of most Broadway endeavors would be defined as quote unquote, failures. So right off the bat, three quarters of every show that gets mounted is not going to last [long enough to] get their money back. I can’t speak to the producer end of it. I can only speak to the actor end of it. Yeah, I do learn a lot about myself when things don’t go as I hoped, prayed or wished. I will say I always enter a piece 150% because I think you have to love the project with that much in order to dive in.

When it starts falling apart, I’m also very much aware of that. I like to drink the Kool-Aid, but, all of the flags start going up. Or you go, Oh, this may not be going to Radio City to collect all the Tonys. But somehow I look at these artists that always start from scratch, begin again, are willing to put their vulnerable selves on the line for show after show after show. That, to me, is the biggest statement of most artists I know. That we really are willing to accept three quarters of it as failure and a small one quarter as success, and we keep jumping in headfirst.

Your performance in Falsettos of I’m Breaking Down, strikes me as a three-act play in 4 minutes and 48 seconds. What was the process of creating the ever increasingly intense breakdown over the course of that song?

You’re exactly right. You’ve got to have a beginning, a middle and an end. I find it so interesting that [composer/bookwriter] William Finn wrote essentially an 11:00 number in the first half hour of the play. That, in and of itself, is so out of form that it’s kind of wild. [Director/bookwriter] James Lapine said, I’m going to give you your space. I’m going to give you a couple days by yourself with our choreographer. I’m going to give you a whole host of props that you would find in your kitchen. I’m going to let you play and then I’m going to come in to see what you have created. For James, it’s very much simplicity defines mastery. Believe it or not, that epic song had more crap and props and movement to it than what you saw in its final version on Broadway. But I approached him and he said, How do you see this song? And I said, I think I see this song is like Carol Burnett having her own culinary show. And he goes, okay, well show me what you got.

This is Carol Burnett-slash-Trina trying to put on a very composed culinary show. Little by little, her inner voice, all of her demons, just start taking over. I actually went too far and he had to bring me back. Now we’ve got to find the balance between humor, angst and a conversation with the audience. So that was the balancing act.

Carol Burnett has to be a huge influence for you. While you were doing Sunset Boulevard you posted on your Instagram account a picture of Gloria Swanson side by side with Carol Burnett and said that your performance was going to be a combination of the two. How important is Carol Burnett in your life?

She’s wildly important to me. She, to me, being able to stand up as her and have a conversation with her audience to break that fourth wall and to be secure enough to say this is who I am as Carol, let’s banter and talk, then to embody a character in some of the most dramatic things I’ve ever seen. Then to embody humor and to not be so serious about herself that she could absolutely make fun of herself in the middle of a full skit. She’s a genius. I knew that if I could even do a fraction, if I could do one quarter of what Carol Burnett was doing, then there was a place for me in this world. 

Regarding Into the Woods, you said that was a dream role, 30 years in the making. What inspires you most about this show in general and more specifically about the role of the Baker’s wife?

In the beginning of my career I wanted to wear characters as like a costume and take on their shape, their form, their sound. Now as I get older, the goal is to bring myself to a character. To bring my story, my shape, my sound to these characters. The Baker’s wife is very much that. I am playing opposite my husband [Sebastian Arcelus]. So the baker and the baker’s wife couldn’t be more true than I feel is being portrayed now. My husband and I had quite a journey to get a child. It took us well over five years. As you can imagine, from Chinese herbs to shots to geriatric pregnancies, all of the above. When we tell that story, we are them and they are us.

The themes that are interwoven in this piece: it doesn’t matter if you’re in high school or you’re 80 years old or you’re a middle-aged woman, or you have a child, don’t have a child. Everybody’s journey personifies a different stage in someone’s life, and that’s what you’re going to hear. That’s what the audience is going to be attuned to. So right now, my journey as the baker’s wife and having a child is far different than me wanting to play the baker’s wife, like you said, 30 years ago.

You met Sebastian when you were in Wicked together. You got married before a performance, I think it was six years ago, and then you just went on stage. What do you remember most about that performance, particularly when you were singing As Long As You’re Mine?

Any time a couple, regardless of what stage it is in your relationship, when there’s a secret that just two of you hold, there is that sort of butterflies in the belly. There is sort of the giggle and the unspoken. We know something that nobody else knows. So that excitement certainly carried through. I’m sure we had smiles. [Elphaba] isn’t supposed to smile through the whole show, but internally I’m sure I had an extra sparkle in my eye and a smile that was underneath that green make-up when we did As Long As You’re Mine. It was a defining moment, certainly in my career, because all of those words took on a completely different meaning as husband and wife.

I saw one of the interviews that you did around The Boy From Oz and you said you weren’t doing the Liza Minnelli that we all know and love. This is Liza who was 18. It was before her fame had come to her. If 30 or 40 years from now, somebody wants to do a musical about somebody with whom you collaborated and an actor was going to take on the role of the young Stephanie J. Block, how would you like that character to be portrayed?

I would like her to be hopeful. I would like her to be silly. I would like her to be brassy because I was big and brassy. And I think always kind. Always kind, but ready to play. Those would be the words that I would infuse into the actress. It would be, I think, much like Liza, very difficult to watch that portrayal. Especially if somebody was to play young me but span 35 years of me in 45 minutes. I would feel like there’s a lump in my throat going, Oh, but there’s more. Oh, but you forgot to add that. But I think I would also have an open heart and the grace to accept it and receive it and hopefully lovingly support it.

In a 2006 interview you did with BroadwayWorld, you called the role of Fanny Brice in Funny Girl your “favorite regional theater role.” You went on to say, “It’s time to bring her back to Broadway. What a powerhouse role for any actresses. Producers interested can call 555-Stef!” which I thought was terrific. Fanny is back on Broadway now in a production that has had more rollercoasters than Disneyland. What does this production tell you about the challenges of producing contemporary musical theater and the pitfalls that have to be avoided? 

If I’m going to answer this, my disclaimer is I am taking great liberties because I have no horse in the race as a producer. But what I would like to see happen is that we cast a part based on the merit and the truth and the marriage of an actor and a piece not based on what could possibly sell tickets because of the pedigree of one particular person or one particular thing. It is a collaboration and a marriage and they all have to meet up.

I think we also have to entertain the idea of thinking outside the box. Then step into rehearsal. And then if it doesn’t go as planned, that there is the open-heartedness and the grace that I just spoke about to say, okay, great. You are monstrously talented. Perhaps this is not the vehicle that we all thought it was going to be for you, and that’s not going to service you or the piece. Let’s rethink. How do you feel about that? Let’s re-engage the conversation.

Much like art, live theater, is a living, breathing thing that I wish the creation of a piece can continue to be that without looking at the bottom line. That something is being created for artistry’s sake, and that within that landscape or ecosystem, things change or mistakes were made or gosh, this isn’t working out the way we hoped, or my God, this is working out even better than we hoped, right? But that the conversation can still happen and that grace can surround that. That’s what I feel.

Reviews and audience response to the Kennedy Center production of Sunset Boulevard means you’re giving us all optimism that there might be a Broadway revival. Do you have any new ways to dream, shall we say, about a Broadway production in which you play Norma Desmond?

I have 25% chance, maybe 50% chance, that there will be new ways to dream. The timing is not the timing I would like. There is a project that is in the works for cinema for Sunset Boulevard. That is ALW’s [Andrew Lloyd Webber] focus. That’s The Really Useful Group’s focus. And I can understand that as a business woman. As the artist, I would have loved to have seen a momentum and a transfer.

When I was asked by [Broadway Center Stage] Artistic Director, Jeffrey Finn of the Kennedy Center, what would you like to do in the next year, and I came out with this, I had no idea that this part and I would embrace each other in such a way that it affected me. It affected the audience. It affected the whole piece to be looked at in a completely different way. That was not my goal. But that was one of those times where we were all jumping in headfirst with no expectations, just wanting to create something different. Timely. I am of the school now that if you are going to revive, there needs to be a why. So we shall see what the next couple of years might bring. I’d like to hope that there’s space for it back on Broadway. We’ll see.

There was a Tony Monday last year or the year prior where you posted a video saying to your friends who were or were not nominated, that regardless of that the story continues to be told. What’s the story that’s most important for you to tell through your work today and through these evenings you have with Seth Rudetsky?

For me, right now, the word that is screaming in my head is connection. Absolute connection. If you are putting something out there and it is not being received and then digested and something is being thrown back at you, that’s my ultimate goal. Whether I am playing a part, whether I’m myself, whether I’m beside ridiculous, monstrously talented and smart Seth Rudetsky, for me, the evening was not a win if I did not connect and communicate with my audience. So that’s always the goal.

I certainly think we’ll do that at The Wallis. These intimate nights and spaces, they’re a joy to me. They really fill up my artistic bank. And much like Carol Burnett, it does feel like I’m standing there in my own skin wanting to meet them and wanting them to meet the real me. 

To see the full interview with Stephanie J. Block, please go here.

Main Photo: Stephanie J. Block (Courtesy The Wallis)

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For musical theater fans, the big news came out today that four cast albums from Stephen Sondheim’s musicals have been remixed an remastered in Sony’s 360 Reality Audio and Dolby Atmos. Here are more details in our Top Pick of what’s New In Music This Week: August 11^th

TOP PICK:

BROADWAY:  COMPANY, SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET; INTO THE WOODS and ASSASSINS – Sony Masterworks Broadway

The 1970 production of Company, the 1979 production of Sweeney Todd; the 1987 production of Into the Woods and the 1990 original production of Assassins are the remastered recordings which are available from all streaming platforms that offer either Sony 360 or Dolby Atmos (which means you won’t be able to get them on Spotify.)

Sondheim was consulted on these projects and involved with them prior to his death in 2021. Wouldn’t it be great if vinyl reissues of these would be next?

Here are my other choices of what’s New In Music This Week: August 11^th that you should heck out:

CLASSICAL/CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL:  DEPENDENT ARISING – Rachel Barton Pine – Cedille Records

Sometimes the most fascinating pairings are the most unlikely. Take, for example, violinist Pine’s latest album in which Dmitri Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor is paired with Dependent Arising: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra written by Earl Maneein.

If you don’t know Maneein, let me use words from his own website to tell you about him: “I’m a violinist/violist/composer/arranger whose personal work stands at the somewhat unlikely crossroads of Western Classical music, Heavy Metal and Hardcore Punk.”

I personally am not a fan of heavy metal nor hardcore punk, but I really like this album. Pine plays incredibly on these two very different works and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, led by Tito Muñoz, is equally adept at both works.

This won’t be for everyone, but everyone should give it a try.

BROADWAY (adjacent): HERE LIES LOVE – David Byrne & Fatboy Slim – Nonesuch Records

Some musicals begin as concept albums (Evita) and sometimes the albums serve as inspiration for a musical (Tommy). In 2010 David Byrne and Fatboy Slim recruited  and all-star line-up of talent to sing their song cycle about Imelda Marcos:  Tori Amos; Steve Earle, Cyndi Lauper,  St. Vincent, Florence Welch and more. 

Three years later the album become a hit musical for the Public Theater in New York. That production finally made it to Broadway just recently and that serves as the inspiration for the first-ever release of the original recording on vinyl.

I saw the musical back in 2013 and loved it. This album is just as enjoyable as the show and definitely something new and old fans of the musical will want to hear. (To say nothing of fans of Byrne and Fatboy Slim.)

JAZZ: JUSTIN KAUFLIN TRIO: LIVE AT SAM FIRST – Sam First Records

Sam First is a great jazz club near Los Angeles International Airport. It’s an intimate space in which jazz music is the venue’s top priority. This album by pianist Justin Kauflin is the first in a series recordings the club is issuing on their own label. These are 180-gram vinyl releases and are limited to 200 copies. You can also purchase a download on their website.

Joining Kauflin for this live recording at bassist David Robaire and drummer Mark Ferber. This is a talent musician you’ll want to hear.

For more information on this album, please go here.

JAZZ:  LA STORIES: LIVE AT SAM FIRST – Josh Nelson – Sam First Records

Pianist/bandleader Josh Nelson performed with bassist Luca Alemanno, guitarist Larry Koonse, drummer Dan Schnelle and saxophonist Walter Smith III in two shows that were recorded from February 18^th and 19^thof 2022.  Nelson was also joined by vocalist Gaby Moreno for a brief appearance.

The music on this album was written with little-known stories of Los Angeles as its inspiration. Nelson also wrote the music with these specific musicians in mind.

For more information on this album, please go here.

JAZZ:  WORLD TRAVELERS – Joe La Barbera Quintet – Sam First Records

Fans of pianist Bill Evans should immediately recognize drummer La Barbera’s name as he recorded multiple albums with Evans late in his career.

For this album, also recorded at Sam First, La Barbera is joined by pianist Bill Cunliffe, trumpeter Clay Jenkins, bassist Jonathan Richards and tenor saxophonist Bob Sheppard.

For more information on this album, please go here.

Late summer is traditionally a bit slow for new releases, but in the weeks ahead there will be more new music than you’ll know what to do with.

In the meantime, enjoy these selections that make up New In Music This Week: August 11^th.

Have a great weekend.

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The Tony Award experience is a lofty one…particulalry when you win one. Jessie Mueller won her Tony Award for her portrayal of Carole King in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. That was Mueller’s fourth Broadway show and her second Tony nomination.

She had previously been nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical for her turn as Melinda Wells in the 2011 revival of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever.

She’s received two additional Tony Award nominations for her performances as Jenna in the musical Waitress and as Julie Jordan in the 2018 revival of Carousel. Most recently she appeared on Broadway in the play The Minutes by Tracy Letts. Not bad for someone who got their start singing The Wiggly Worm in a school production.

When Mueller takes to the stage of The Wallis in Beverly Hills on June 16th and The Smith Center in Las Vegas on June 17th with Seth Rudetsky, she’ll have plenty to talk about and to sing. I spoke with Mueller last week about various aspects of her career, new musicals on the horizon and finding a way to accept all that she’s accomplished. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. To see the full interview (which does include some singing), please go to our YouTube channel.

17 years ago when you were playing Lady Mortimer in Henry IV, a character that doesn’t have any printed lines. A character that only sings in Welsh that nobody can understand. What were your thoughts then about what your career might be from that moment and how much does your career look like what you expected or hoped it might be? 

That was 17 years ago. I’m still stuck on that. So I was only four. [She laughs.] I mean, it’s incredible. That is wild. 17 years. That is so fun that you brought that up. My experience of that show, I remember, because I got to do it at Chicago Shakespeare Theater in Chicago. And then we got to do it at the RSC [Royal Shakespeare Company] in Stratford-upon-Avon. They were doing a festival of the whole [Shakespeare] canon and our show was chosen to represent the Henry IVs. 

It was just a magical experience for me personally. I remember feeling like I was starting to be treated like a real adult actor, because there were some folks in the cast that I knew because my parents are actors in Chicago. I’d seen them doing shows growing up, but I felt like everyone was treating me like a peer. I wasn’t the little kid of the actors, friends or whatever. 

I remember that really being a moment for me about thinking maybe I’m really doing this. But as far as what was in my mind of where my career might go, nowhere near what has occurred. I don’t think I could have imagined it. I don’t think I had that kind of scope. My model had sort of been a career in Chicago, which is what I was after. I wanted to be a working actor. Sometimes life takes you in different directions. It certainly did for me.

I know that Into the Woods has been published as your favorite Sondheim show. You’ve played Cinderella in that show. You played Mary Flynn in Merrily We Roll Along and Anne Egerman in A Little Night Music. You’ve done three Sondheim shows, but you have yet to do one on Broadway. Given that Into The Woods was just on Broadway, it’s unlikely that opportunity will present itself any time in the near future. So is there another Sondheim show that you would like to do on Broadway?

I feel like the music from Passion was going through my head the other day, but honestly, that’s not a show I know super well. Maybe I’ll have to wait until Into the Woods rolls around again. Maybe I could “witch” this time around. And then I could play Jack’s mother. That’s the thing about that show, you could just sort of cycle through all the roles. I don’t know. It’s very ironic that Sweeney is happening now. That’s one I’d like to do at some point.

Your career, for the most part in terms of musicals, has been revivals, re-imaginings of shows. Obviously Beautiful is a jukebox musical. But in terms of new musicals, with the exception of Waitress, most of your work in new musicals has been with recordings. You have the recording of My Heart Says Go that’s out right now. Upcoming is the recording for Diary of a Wimpy Kid. What do these recordings tell us about what your passion is for doing new work in addition to doing the work you’ve done already?

I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for new stuff just because I guess I find it so exciting. I mean, it also can be infuriating when you’re working on it in the room. Yes, Beautiful was a jukebox. So you had the music already written. We knew that was golden. Working on something like Waitress was so exciting because it was a story that had been conceived, of course, from the film by Adrienne Shelly. But the music was original, so it had never been staged before. It was an adaption.

There’s just something exciting about being in that incubator, being in the process of trying to figure out what’s working, what might not be working. But that’s also the part that can be infuriating is you don’t know. Do we trust what we’ve got? Have we just not cracked it yet? Or is it that we’ve tried everything? I find that stuff exciting depending on who you’re working with. I’ve gotten to work with very generous people that are very open to what you bring to it. There’s that openness about bringing yourself and your perspective and I think it’s a real privilege to originate a role and put your stamp on it.

It’s not often that that an actor gets to revisit a role. Eleven years ago you first stepped into the shoes of Miss Adelaide in a production of Guys and Dolls. You got to do it again at the Kennedy Center last fall. How did your professional and life experiences inform who Miss Adelaide is more recently than who she was when you performed that role 11 years ago?

It’s funny because the process is so quick for the Broadway series at the Kennedy Center. So I think in all honesty I was relying a lot on what do I remember. What is in my muscle memory of who this gal is? But sure, I’m older now, I have more life experience. I’ve been in the business for a while. I’ve been an entertainer for a while. Miss Adelaide has been an entertainer and she takes pride in that.

Half the fun, too, is getting in the room with all the new people. This is how this changes this. This is who this Adelaide is because of James [Monroe Iglehart] being my Nathan and all this stuff. So that’s half the fun of it. But it was a joy to revisit it. I wasn’t sure I would ever get the chance to revisit it again.

Honestly, I felt like I was a little young the first time. But I was like, I’m game. Let’s do it. It was my buddy Matt Raftery who was directing that production in Chicago. I went in for Sarah initially. Then he was like, “Would you like to take a stab at Adelaide? Would you go look at the sides and come back?” I was like, sure. I just always wanted to be the character actress with the fun costumes and the big funny songs. I loved doing it again.

It’s been 14 years since Guys and Dolls has been on Broadway. So you know what the math says. It could be time for a revival. 

There was a lot of chatter after we did it in in D.C. We were so glad that it was so well received. And Philipa [Soo], Steven [Pasquale], James and I, we were totally game. We would explore this, but rights were tied up in the [Nic] Hytner production in London which I’ve heard incredible things about. It has just been so well received, so I don’t know what would happen. I don’t know if they’d bring that over here. I know that it might be a challenge just because of the space and with their immersive production which seems so cool. But if the opportunity came around again, I would totally float that idea, especially if I could do it with those three. We just had a ball. 

Most people associate with musicals, but you also got to do Tracy Letts’s play The Minutes. Is it a challenge for you to be seen as somebody who can act as well as somebody who can sing?

That the perception from the outside that hey, I can act too? That sort of thing?

When you come out singing the songs a lot of audience members, I would guess, don’t necessarily think that was also a great acting performance.

Because you’re supposed to make it look easy. It’s not. There’s a difference between someone who can sing and has a great instrument, which is amazing, but someone who’s also a communicator. Then you have those people who have both who have the glorious instrument and the communication tool. I feel like Hugh Jackman says it a lot. It’s the idea of in some ways it’s almost harder to act in a musical sometimes because you have to make it seem believable that you’re breaking into song. You have these very heightened experiences, which is why the characters are breaking into song. I think actors, especially musical theater actors who appear in musicals, don’t get the credence sometimes they deserve for the acting that they’re doing.

I actually do go to the acting first, which is funny when I’m working on something; when I’m learning something. Or as you spoke of earlier, working on something new. I have to remind myself you can’t act it yet. You don’t know it. You have to learn it. You have to do the technical stuff first of learning it and then you can do the acting work because then it’s in your body. Then you can really get inside of it to deliver. Then go back and fix the technical things and all of that again and kind of go back and forth between those processes.

One of the things I love most about your collaboration with Seth Rudetsky is the social impact component of it. You did What the World Needs Now after the pulse shooting in Orlando. You were involved with him with the Concerts for America. What do you feel is your role as an artist in helping to bring about social impact and social change?

If I’m going to be honest, I’m still figuring that out; coming to terms with the idea that I might have a platform that people might be listening to. So if that is the case, I might as well use it for good. I think I’m starting to crystallize this idea more. I really appreciate people like Seth and his husband, James Wesley, because they are doers. I feel like I’m a helper. I like to help. I like to be of service, but I’m not necessarily the first person who’s going to say I will lead the charge. I try to come in and do my thing and do what I can to help.

You did an interview with Patrick Healy of the New York Times just after winning the Tony Award for Beautiful. You said, “I thought I’d get wrapped up in all the wrong things” of your move to New York from Chicago. You continued to say, “Now look what’s happened. It feels like a wonderful accident.” I love that expression: wonderful accident. Nine years later, does your career still feel like a wonderful accident? Is there perhaps something more complex going on?

I think so. I don’t think it matters how quote unquote, successful you are, whatever the heck that means. It’s hard on your heart. It’s personal. Even when it’s not personal it is personal because the work is personal. You bring yourself. That’s the job. You’re supposed to feel and think and move and act and talk in front of strangers sometimes as someone else, sometimes as yourself, and hopefully create an exchange of meaning and maybe memory and maybe a spiritual flow and all these things. That is hard.

But I think it’s not an accident. I’m working on owning my achievements and I’m proud of them. But the moment you hook into that and give that too much meaning you are often very quickly reminded that it doesn’t hold in a storm. It’s this constant evaluation of what I put importance on and not diminishing an accomplishment or achievement or how hard I have worked. But acknowledging that it’s not the most important thing. God has been so good about where I’ve been led and who I’ve been led to and the opportunities that have been put in front of me. But also I’ve worked my ass off with the gifts I’ve been given.

I think also at that time in my life I was really trying to figure out where I fit in the whole scheme of things. I mean, I still am. What is humble? What is self-deprecating? Where are those lines? How do you stay true to yourself, who you are and what you believe in, but also have the grace and humility to just keep it real.

To watch the full interview with Jessie Mueller, please go here.

Main Photo: Jessie Mueller (Photo by Jacqueline Harris for The Interval/Courtesy The Wallis)

The post Jessie Mueller And Her Beautiful Career appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

CABARET

Two shows stood out for us this year. The first was Kim David Smith’s Mostly Marlene which we saw at Joe’s Pub in New York City. His gender-bending tribute to Marlene Dietrich was massively entertaining. This performance has apparently been recorded and will be released next year. Check it out. He’s got a great voice.

The other show was Eleri Ward‘s concert – also at Joe’s Pub. Her lo-fi renditions of Stephen Sondheim‘s songs seemed like just the tonic we needed during the pandemic when she first started posting videos filmed in her apartment. Ward ultimately received a recording contract and has her second album coming out next year on Ghostlight Records. She also opened for Josh Groban on his tour this year.

CLASSICAL MUSIC

This was a year in which Duke Ellington was acknowledged as being more than a jazz musician and composer. With that acknowledgment came long overdue recognition of Billy Strayhorn. The Los Angeles Philharmonic performed two different Ellington concerts in January called Symphonic Ellington and Sacred Ellington in January (with Gerald Clayton – whose Bells on Sand was one of the year’s best jazz albums – appearing as a soloist for the first and a member of the ensemble for the latter). In December the perennial holiday classic The Nutcracker was performed. But rather than playing just Tchaikovsky’s music, the LA Phil also performed the Strayhorn/Ellington arrangements of music from the second half of the ballet.

J’Nai Bridges singing Neruda Songs by composer Peter Lieberson was also a highlight at the LA Phil. So, too, was seeing Maestro Michael Tilson Thomas performing Prokofiev’s 5th Symphony and also his own Meditations on Rilke was a great way to have begun 2022.

Composer Osvaldo Golijov‘s Falling Out of Time had a COVID-delayed LA debut when this staggeringly powerful work was performed at the Wallis in Beverly Hills.

JAZZ

Easily topping our list this year are Cécile McLorin Salvant’s concerts at Blue Note in New York City. We saw two shows and had we had the time and the ability we would have seen them all. Salvant performed music by Handel, original songs, a song from Gypsy and more. It was a truly memorable show. Her most recent album, Ghost Song, is one of the year’s best.

A close second were the two shows we saw Dee Dee Bridgewater and Bill Charlap perform. We first saw this remarkable pair at Catalina Jazz Club in Hollywood. We caught a second show at the Oasis Music Festival in Palm Springs.

Terence Blanchard at the Ford Theatre and Wynton Marsalis performing All Rise at the Hollywood Bowl also easily make our list.

MUSICALS

You might quibble with us about one of these, but here goes:

Our favorite musical of the year was the Tony Award-winning musical A Strange Loop at the Lyceum Theatre in New York City. Bold, adventurous, thought-provoking and moving, this is everything a musical should be – at least to us. The show is still running but only until January 15th. We strongly recommend seeing it. For tickets and more information, please go here.

The revival of Little Shop of Horrors was absolutely delightful. Two hours of entertainment that makes you forget about everything else going on in the world. When we saw the show Lena Hall was playing “Audrey” and Rob McClure was “Seymour.” Hall is still in the show and her new Seymour is Tony Award-winner Matt Doyle. The show has an open-ended run. For tickets and more information, please go here.

Into the Woods, which began its life at New York City Center’s Encores series, was pure pleasure from the first note to the last. If you are or will be in New York, you can still catch it at the St. James Theatre until January 8th. A US tour begins in February. For tickets and more information, please go here.

David Byrne’s American Utopia doesn’t quite qualify as a musical per se, but it was another utterly enjoyable show. We also saw Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story at the Hollywood Bowl with live orchestral accompaniment by the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. That performance made Spielberg’s under-seen film even more powerful than when we first saw it in theaters.

OPERA

For the first time we finally saw a production at the Metropolitan Opera. Ariadne auf Naxos is not necessarily our favorite opera, but soprano Lise Davidsen’s powerfully strong voice could probably be heard in the lobby of the Met even with the doors closed. It was a staggering performance we will not soon forget.

Countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński gave an incredible recital at Broad Stage in Santa Monica. It was our first time seeing him and we can’t wait for the opportunity to see Orliński in an opera production. We also have to give him special mention for his patience. Someone’s cell phone alarm went off and either the owner was oblivious to the noise or didn’t care. Orliński stopped the show, sat downstage and said he’d wait it out.

Getting the opportunity to revisit the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Tristan Project late this year was a treat. We had experienced it when it first happened and its return was more than welcome (and perhaps a bit overdue). This collaboration with Bill Viola, Peter Sellars and the LA Phil remains breathtaking.

Kevin Puts and Greg Pierce turned Michael Cunningham’s novel The Hours into a mesmerizing and emotional new opera. Written for Renée Fleming, Joyce DiDonato and Kelli O’Hara, this is an opera we experienced through the Met Live in HD simulcast.

Intimate Apparel by composer Ricky Ian Gordon and librettist Lynn Nottage was absolutely first-rate at Lincoln Center. Nottage did a wonderful job adapted her own play for this opera. Gordon wrote a stunning score. The end result is an opera that is equally as powerful as the play.

PLAYS

We’ve always loved Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. But until the new Broadway revival, we never had such a visceral and emotional response to Willy Loman’s story. That’s largely attributable to the impeccable performances of the entire cast including Wendell Pierce, Sharon D. Clarke, McKinley Belcher III, Khris Davis and André De Shields. By now you know this is a Black Loman family. That gave Miller’s piece an added resonance that no doubt contributed to the tears streaming down our faces. The use of music was brilliant. The show is still running at the Hudson Theatre in New York through January 15th. For tickets and more information, please go here.

Perhaps nothing moved us as much as the last 15 minutes of the first half of Matthew López’s The Inheritance at the Geffen Playhouse. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. If the second part of this mammoth work doesn’t end up resonating as strongly as the first, it was still a powerful day in the theater (It’s nearly 7 hours long).

Watching Holland Taylor as the late Ann Richards (former Texas governor) at the Pasadena Playhouse was an opportunity to watch a master class in acting.

That’s our complete list of the Best of 2022! What will inspire and move us in 2023? Come back to find out and to meet the artists, creators, performers and more who make it happen.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Photo: Cécile McLorin Salvant at Blue Note New York (Photo by Craig L. Byrd)

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13: THE MUSICAL – Netflix – Starts August 12^th

Tony Award-winning composer Jason Robert Brown (Parade, The Bridges of Madison County) had the world premiere of his musical 13 at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles in 2006. The musical tells the story of a Evan Goldman who desperately wants the cool kids at his new school in Indiana to attend his Bar Mitzvah so he can avoid being forever labeled a geek.

Tamara Davis directed this film version that has a script by Robert Horn (Tootsie: The Musical). The cast includes Eli Golden, Gabriella Uhl, Debra Messing and Rhea Perlman.

I saw the musical in 2007 in Los Angeles and thoroughly enjoyed it. 

2:22 – A GHOST STORY – Ahmanson Theatre – Los Angeles – Now – December 4^th

We might as well start Halloween week with this supernatural thriller written by Danny Robins. It’s a simple premise: Jenny (Constance Wu) believes she hears footsteps coming from her baby’s room every morning at 2:22 AM. Her husband Sam (Finn Wittrock) doesn’t believe her. They invite Lauren (Anna Camp) and Ben (Adam Rothenberg) over for dinner and vow to wait up to see whether Jenny or Sam is correct.

Of course, it wouldn’t be much of a play if Sam is right, would it? 

2:22 – A Ghost Story earned rave reviews when it opened in London. This production is the first US production of the play. Matthew Dunster directs.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

DEATH OF A SALESMAN  – Hudson Theatre – New York City – Now – January 15^th STRONGLY RECOMMENDED

Arthur Miller’s classic play features an all-Black Loman family in this production from the Young Vic in London. Wendell Pierce (The Wire; Clemency) stars as Willy with Tony Award nominee Sharon D. Clarke (Caroline, or Change) as Linda. Khris Davis and McKinley Belcher III play sons Biff and Happy with Tony Award-winner André De Sheilds (Hadestown) as Willy’s brother Ben.

Miranda Cromwell, who co-directed the UK productions with Marianne Elliott, directs.

Ben Brantley, in his opening sentence of his New York Times review of the London production said, “The tired old man has had an unexpected transfusion. And he has seldom seemed more alive – or more doomed.” In other words, attention must be paid.

This is the most emotional production of Death of a Salesman we’ve ever seen.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

EVERYTHING FOR DAWN – All Arts – Now Available

Fifteen different composers and/or librettist have combined forces to create this 10-part opera mini-series. Dawn is a teenager dealing with the aftermath of her artist father’s suicide. Set in Detroit, the first three episodes take place in 1997 when Dawn her mother find a box of paintings. Episodes 4-7 go back two years prior and depict the father in a mental health facility. Episodes 8-10 take place in 2001 as Dawn’s father becomes widely acknowledge as a master of outsider art.

Clarice Assad, Jason Cady, Adrienne Danrich, Lauren D’Errico, Melissa Dunphy, Miguel Frasconi, Paul Kerekes, Pauline Kim Harris, Phil Kline, Krista Knight, Jerry Lieblich, Jerome A. Parker Kamala Sankaram, Aaron Siegel and Matthew Welch are the composers and lyricists.

Episodes 1-6 are already available. Episodes 7-8 get released on October 28^th and the final two episodes will be released on November 4^th.

There is no charge to watch Everything for Dawn which can be found on the ALL ARTS app or at AllArts.org. here.

INTO THE WOODS – St. James Theatre – New York City – Now – January 8^th STRONGLY RECOMMENDED

This often-produced musical by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine was such a hit at New York City Center’s Encores series that it was inevitable the show would transfer to Broadway…and it has and the reviews and ticket sales are proof that was a great idea.

If you don’t know the musical, multiple fairytales are all taking place in the same forest at the same time. We’re big fans of Act II where not everything is as happy as it first seems. Most people love the first act and don’t know what could happen in that second act. Ah…the surprise!

Lear deBessonet directs. The current cast includes Stephanie J. Block as the Baker’s Wife, Gavin Creel as Cinderella’s Price and the Wolf, Brian D’Arcy James as the Baker, Andy Karl as Rapunzel’s Prince (Joshua Henry returns to the role beginning November 24^th), Patina Miller as the Witch on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays with Montego Glover performing the role on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursday and Krysta Rodriguez as Cinderella (Denée Benton takes over the role beginning on November 21^st.

Katy Geraghty practically steals the show as Little Red Riding Hood and Kennedy Kanagawa gives enormous life to the Milky White puppet.

Tony Award-winner Joaquina Kalukango (Paradise Square) will take over the role of The Witch beginning December 16th and remain with the show for the rest of the run.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

KIMBERLY AKIMBO – The Booth Theatre – New York City – Opening November 10^th

When this musical by David Lindsay-Abaire and Jeanine Tesori opened at the Atlantic Theater in December of last year, critics and audiences recognized immediately this was something special. 

Based on the play of the same name by Lindsay-Abaire, it tells the story of Kimberly Levaco  (Victoria Clark – Tony Award winner for The Light in the Piazzai) who is aging far faster than she is growing old. She seems to be north of sixty, but still is in high school.

As Jesse Green said in his New York Times review, “Kimberly Akimbo is realdy the rare example of a good play that has become an even better musical.”

Kimberly Akimbo will definitely be a priority on our next trip to New York City.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS – Westside Theatre Upstairs – New York City – Now running STRONGLY RECOMMENDED

Howard Ashman and Alan Mencken’s delightful musical about a man-eating plant gets the perfect revival in this production directed by Michael Mayer.

Currently starring as Seymour is Tony Award-winner Matt Doyle (Company). He just replaced Rob McClure who finished his run on November 13th. Lena Hall, Tony Award-winner for Hedwig and the Angry Inch, stars as Audrey. Andrew Call is her abusive boyfriend Oren Scrivello; Brad Oscar is Mushnik and Aaron Arnell Harrington is the voice of Audrey II.

This is a thoroughly enjoyable production. As Audrey, Hall has created a woman who isn’t as fragile as is traditionally depicted. She’s a tough-as-nails survivor with a vulnerable streak that is heartbreaking. We saw McClure in the show and thought he was perfect. Doyle will certainly put his own spin on the nebbish young man who provides sweet understanding. After all, Seymour IS Audrey’s man. But don’t feed the plants!

For tickets and more information, please go here.

A STRANGE LOOP – Lyceum Theatre, New York – Now – January 15^th  STRONGLY RECOMMENDED

The 2022 Tony Award for Best Musical and the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for drama went to Michael R. Jackson’s musical A Strange Loop. It’s an aptly named meta-musical about a gay Black man who’s writing a musical about a gay Black man who is writing a musical about…You get the picture.  

Stephen Brackett directs A Strange Loop. The ensemble features Antwayn Hopper, L Morgan Lee, John-Michael Lyles, James Jackson, Jr., John-Andrew Morrison, Jaquel Spivey and Jason Veasey.

This is a wholly original musical that challenges everything we imagine a Broadway musical to be. Jackson does it in all the best possible ways.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

DANIIL TRIFONOV RECITAL – Multiple Venues – November 10^th – December 7^th

Pianist Trifonov performs a solo piano recital featuring works by Tchaikovsky (Children’s Album); Robert Schumann (Fantasy in C Major); Mozart (Fantasia in C Minor), Ravel (Gaspard de la nuit) and Scriabin (Piano Sonata No. 5).

He’ll be at The Royal Conservatory in Toronto on December 2^nd; Shriver Hall in Baltimore on December 4^th  and Carnegie Hall in New York on December 7^th.

For tickets and more details, please click on each venue’s name.

Main Photo: Joshua Henry and Gavin Creel in Into the Woods (Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade)

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MUSICALS:

AMERICAN PROPHET – Arena Stage – Washington, D.C. – July 15^th – August 28^th

The writings and speeches of abolitionist and statesman Frederick Douglass serve as the inspiration for this new musical from composer/lyricist Marcus Hummon and director/creator Charles Randolph-Wright.

This show was a recipient of the Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards prior to this world premiere.  Cornelius Smith Jr. stars as Frederick Douglass with Kristolyn Lloyd (original Broadway cast of Dear Evan Hansen) as his wife, Anna.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

BETWEEN THE LINES – 2ndStage – New York – June 14^th – October 2^nd

This musical is based on the young adult novel by  Jodi Picoult (Wish You Were Here) and her daughter, Samantha van Leer, from 2013. The story surrounds, Delilah, a young girl infatuated with Prince Oliver in a book she loves. Her world and his in the novel come together when he starts speaking to her.

Timothy Allen McDonald collaborated with Picoult and van Leer to write the book. Kate Anderson and Elyssa Samsel wrote the the music and lyrics. Jeff Calhoun (Newsies) directs with choreography by Paul McGill (Hedwig and the Angry Inch).

For tickets and more information, please go here.

FUNNY GIRL – August Wilson Theatre, New York – Open-ended run

When this musical opened this spring on Broadway it was the fact that it had been 58 years since the musical Funny Girl opened on Broadway and turned Barbra Streisand into one of the world’s greatest stars. Then came the whirlwind of controversy about whether Beanie Feldstein was miscast in the role.

She is no longer in the musical. Her understudy, Julie Benko, will be taking over the role until Lea Michele (Glee) assumes the role of Fanny Brice on September 6^th. 

Enter Beanie Feldstein who is tackling the role of Fanny Brice. Like Streisand, Feldstein has only played a supporting role in one musical before this one (Hello, Dolly!). Joining her are Ramin Karimloo as love-interest Nick Arnstein and Jane Lynch as Mrs. Brice (through September 4^th). Tovah Feldshuh will assume the role on September 6^th.  Jared Grimes, the sol recipient of a Tony nomination for this production, dazzles in the role of Eddie Ryan.Michael Mayer directs the show which has a revised script by Harvey Fierstein.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

INTO THE WOODS – St. James Theatre – New York – Now – October 16th

This often-produced musical by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine was such a hit at New York City Center’s Encores series that it was inevitable the show would transfer to Broadway…and it has and the reviews and ticket sales are proof that was a great idea.

If you don’t know the musical, multiple fairytales are all taking place in the same forest at the same time. We’re big fans of Act II where not everything is as happy as it first seems. (Our favorite act is the second act.)

Lear deBessonet directs an all-star cast including Sara Bareilles as the Baker’s Wife, Gavin Creel as Cinderella’s Price and the Wolf, Joshua Henry as Rapunzel’s Prince , Brian D’Arcy James as the Baker, Patina Miller as the Witch and Phillipa Soo as Cinderella.

The recent announcement of an extension means there will be some cast changes that have yet to be announced.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

MJ THE MUSICAL – Neil Simon Theatre, New York – Open-ended run

It was, of course, inevitable that there would be a jukebox musical showcasing the countless hit songs by Michael Jackson. What may set this musical apart from failed attempts to use songs by The Beach Boys, Cher John Lennon and more is that the book is by two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Lynn Nottage and the show is directed and choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon.

Myles Frost makes his Broadway debut as MJ and was the recipient of a Tony Award for his performance. The show also won Tony Awards for Lighting and Sound Design. The other Tony Award recipient was Wheeldon for his choreography. (Kudos to the outstanding company of dancers that perform this show.) 

We’ve seen the show and while it does gloss over much of the controversy that surrounded Jackson, it is wildly entertaining. Based on the audience response, this show is likely to run for a very long time.

For tickets and more details, please go here.

MOULIN ROUGE! THE MUSICAL – Al Hirschfeld Theatre, New York/Touring Company: Currently at The Pantages Theatre, Hollywood – STRONGLY RECOMMENDED

Why turn Baz Luhrmann’s ground-breaking film into a musical? Because you can can can. It might seem impossible to out-Baz Baz, but director Alex Timbres has done exactly that. This is bigger, louder, more song-filled than Luhrmann’s film. Surprisingly it loses nothing in translation.

The musical won 10 Tony Awards including Best Musical. The Broadway production currently stars Ashley Loren as Satine and Derek Klena as Christian. The touring company stars Courtney Reed and Conor Ryan (with Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer as an alternate in the role of Satine).

For tickets and more information on Broadway, please go here. For touring dates, tickets and more information, please go here.

A STRANGE LOOP – Lyceum Theatre, New York – Open-ended run STRONGLY RECOMMENDED

The 2022 Tony Award for Best Musical and the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for drama went to Michael R. Jackson’s musical A Strange Loop. It’s an aptly named meta-musical about a gay Black man who’s writing a musical about a gay Black man who is writing a musical about…You get the picture.  

Stephen Brackett directs A Strange Loop. The ensemble features Antwayn Hopper, L Morgan Lee, John-Mihael Lyles, James Jackson, Jr., John-Andrew Morrison, Jaquel Spivey and Jason Veasey.

This is a wholly original musical that challenges everything we imagine a Broadway musical to be. Jackson does it in all the best possible ways.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

OPERA:

SANTA FE OPERA – Now – August 27^th

Isabel Leonard as Carmen; Mitchell Harper choreographing The Barber of Seville; Quinn Kelsey as Falstaff; the first-ever Santa Fe Opera production of Tristan Und Isolde and the world premiere on Saturday of M. Butterfly by composer Huang Ruo and librettist David Henry Hwang are all good reasons to attend this year’s season at Santa Fe Opera.

If you’ve never been, you owe it to yourself to experience this amazing venue. And be prepared to tailgate!

For tickets and more information, please go here.

PLAYS:

HERE THERE ARE BLUEBERRIES – La Jolla Playhouse – La Jolla, CA – July 26^th – August 21^st

Anytime Moisés Kaufmann and Tectonic Theater Project have a world premiere, it’s a reason to go to the theatre. They’re the team behind The Laramie Project Cycle, The Tallest Tree in The Forest, I Am My Own Wife and more.

This new play is an investigation into the Hoecker Album of photographs from Germany during World War II.  They are named after Karl-Friedrich Hoecker who was an SS officer for the Nazis. Most of the photographs were taken in the summer and fall of 1944.

As the webpage for this production asks, “What hidden secrets can a photograph reveal?” Kaufmann (who co-directs with Amanda Gronich) and Tectonic Theater Project will make it mesmerizing.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

ORESTEIA and HAMLET – Park Avenue Armory – New York – Now – August 13^th

Director Robert Icke received an Olivier Award as Best Director for Oresteia, an adaptation of the three Greek tragedies written by Aeschylus. The show was a critical and commercial success in London.

Equally acclaimed was his production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet at The Almeida Theatre in London. Alex Lawther stars as the conflicted prince. 

Both shows appear in repertory. For tickets and more information for Orestia, please go here. For tickets and more information for Hamlet, please go here.

PRIMA FACIE – National Theatre Live – Beginning July 21^st (check local listings)

Jodie Comer (Killing Eve) stars in this play by Suzie Miller as a young lawyer whose main clients have been men accused of sexual assault. Her perspective on what she’s doing gets challenged when she gets assaulted herself.

It’s a powerful role for Comer and she is considered a front-runner for the Olivier Award next year. She’ll also potentially be up for a Tony nomination as the play is scheduled to open in New York in the 2022-2023 season. So, too, might director Justin Martin.

But you can watch the play in a theater near you as it is part of National Theatre Live’s programming. To locate a theater near you and to get tickets, please go here.

For our weekly Best Bets, please check every Monday for that week’s selections.

Main Photo: Conor Ryan and Courtney Reed in Moulin Rouge The Musical Touring Production (Photo by Matthew Murphy/Courtesy Broadway in Hollywood)

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So this column is dedicated to anyone who might want to go on Jeopardy! one day, or anyone who wants to deepen their knowledge of musicals, musical-comedy and the men and women who have created them.

Option #1 is The Contemporary Broadway Musical being offered by the Pasadena Playhouse.

This is a ten-class series presented by Broadway producer Adam Epstein. He’s a five-time Tony Award nominee who took home the trophy for Best Musical when Hairspray won in 2003.

Here is the schedule for the ten classes:

February 22nd: High Flying Adored: Eva Peron delivers a Broadway coup de thé·â·tre; Gower Champion dies

March 1st: Michael Bennett’s Dreamgirls vs. Tommy Tune’s Nine

March 8th: The Empire Strikes Back: Andrew Lloyd Webber, Cameron Mackintosh and the “colonization” of Broadway: Cats, Les Miserables, The Phantom of the Opera and Miss Saigon

March 15th: La Cage Aux Folles and Into the Woods

March 22nd: Americans vanquish the British (again!): City of Angels, Crazy for You, and the return of the musical comedy

March 29th: Falsettos: William Finn and his Tight Knit Family move uptown

April 5th: Broadway in the 1990’s: Disney conquers Broadway; Rent and Ragtime conquer hearts

April 12th: From Celluloid to Greasepaint: The Producers, Hairspray and the changing face of Broadway in the 21st century

April 19th: Avenue Q and Wicked: a theatrical tale of David and Goliath

April 26th: Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, and the future of Broadway musicals

All of the dates above are the live presentation of each week’s topic. However, those who sign up for the classes can catch up even if you start halfway through the series. The classes will remain available to you beginning 24 hours after the conclusion of each live class. The 10-series course costs $179. (Members at Pasadena Playhouse receive at 20% discount).

Option #2: What Makes It Great?

Gershwin. Berlin. Arlen. Rodgers. Bernstein. You don’t need to add first names to the list of composers in this title. They are all legends whose work has catapulted them to the upper echelon of composers.

Rob Kapilow, the author of Listening For America: Inside the Great American Songbook from Gershwin to Sondheim, is conducting a five-episode series of classes called What Makes It Great? Celebrating the Great American Songbook beginning on February 23rd and running through March 30th.

Kapilow has teamed up with the Kaufman Music Center and JCC Thurnauer School of Music to lead explorations of these five men and their work. The classes stream on Tuesdays at 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST and include a live Q&A afterwards. For those for whom that schedule doesn’t work, the classes will remain available through April 15th.

Here is What Makes It Great‘s line-up:

February 23rd: George Gershwin

March 2nd: Irving Berlin

March 9th: Harold Arlen

March 23rd: Richard Rodgers

March 30th: Leonard Bernstein

Tickets for the five classes are $50.

There is a bonus attraction on April 6th. Kapilow will be joined by Nikki Renée Daniels (the upcoming revival of Company) and Michael Winther (the upcoming Flying Over Sunset) for a performance called What Makes It Great? Stephen Sondheim. Tickets for that show are $15 and will allow ticket purchasers to watch the show through the middle of April.

With either or both of these classes, I assure you you’ll not just learn about musicals. You’ll also improve your trivia games, impress your friends who thought you knew nothing about the subject and more importantly you’ll know the difference between August Wilson and Stephen Sondheim when it’s your turn to play Jeopardy!

Photo: Broadway’s Shubert Alley (Photo by Christopher Firth/Courtesy New York Public Library Archives)

The post Want to Learn About Musicals and Their Composers? 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.

Miller won her Tony Award as Best Actress in a Musical for the Broadway revival of Pippin. She won for the role as the Leading Player – the same role that garnered Ben Vereen a Tony Award in the original production.

But Miller hasn’t been on Broadway since her run in Pippin ended in 2014.

“To be honest I haven’t been back on stage because I’ve been doing Madam Secretary for the past five years,” she says by phone earlier this month. “That was a blessing to go into another medium that I hadn’t done before. That’s the honest truth. And I also had a child. I’ve been taking this time – she’s almost two, to be in motherhood and experience this. It’s the newest thing in my life.”

Miller admits to missing the stage so when the opportunity to play The Witch in Into the Woods came her way, it was irresistible.

“Knowing the original and listening to the soundtrack and being a Sondheim-head,” she reveals, “I think Into the Woods happens to be one of his most beautiful works. I think the witch is super-complicated. It’s one of those roles where I get to roll up my sleeves and dig into this. Now that I’m a mother I’ll understand her and the show in a different way. The message in the piece is really beautiful. You can take what you want from it, but as a mother it means a lot to me.”

Her experience as a mother these past two years gives her more compassion for the witch and her journey.

“I get wanting to protect Rapunzel. I get wanting to keep your baby locked away from the world. As a society, as world, as a country, there’s a lot of bad stuff that as a parent you want to protect your children from and what does that make you do? I keep reading Into the Woods over and over again to see how we can make this relevant for the time. I don’t think we have to work that hard because the piece lends itself to what’s going on right now.”

While the witch is usually seen as the evil character in most stories, Miller agrees with Bernadette Peters, the actress who played The Witch on Broadway, that the witch is the voice of reason.

“She is the truth-teller. She has all the wisdom. She’s teaching the lessons. She sings ‘I’m the witch, you’re the world.’ You think I’m the bad one? You’re all liars and thieves! She’s pushing everyone to get the things she wants. She has selfish reasons to get what she wants, but she’s also trying to save the kingdom.”

Part of that truth-telling comes in the pivotal song, “Last Midnight.” This is the moment where the witch has to challenge the other characters and come to terms with her own decisions.

“It’s a warning,” Miller says of the song. “She’s been warning them all through the show. One midnight. Two midnights. Up until this point everybody has been tested on will and how they will survive. It’s not a F-U to them, but a warning. You’ve had to want what you want. I plan to attack it the only way I know how, with honesty and truth.”

In August of 2018, Miller posted to her Facebook account “If it’s both terrifying and amazing, then you should definitely pursue it.” No doubt putting together this insanely complicated show in three works qualifies.

“Yes God it does!” (She lets out a beautifully infectious laugh.) “I’ve never done something so fast, so challenging in my life. This is going to be a whirlwind, but I think it’s going to be fantastic. It’s great to throw yourself into the work. This is really difficult material and you want to get it right. These are all characters you know and love and three-dimensional characters that have a life and a quality to them. It’s exciting and thrilling and amazing.”

There are so many ways in which any musical, but Into the Woods in particular, can go wrong. Miller both understands and accepts the challenge of getting it right and why the entire company must do so.

“When you step back and examine what the creators are trying to say, it is a comedy. But there’s so much darkness under the comedy. We’re talking witches, ghosts, giants and wolves, but they are metaphors for life and how chaotic this world can be. The thing you think you are doing right by trying to protect your children isn’t doing them any good because things will happen anyway. What this music requires and what the pieces requires is for people to sort of think through all of that and get under the surface.

“Just to play the witch as a villain is not interesting. I get the witch. She wants to be beautiful and accepted in a world that has told her she isn’t those things and she wants to be perfect for her daughter.”

As if on cue, it was time for her to go back to her own daughter, Emerson Harper Mars. It seems as though the last midnight had chimed for our interview as well.

Into The Woods is being performed at the Hollywood Bowl on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings.

Main Photo:  Patina Miller as “The Witch,” Shanice Williams as “Little Red” in “Into the Woods” photo by Craig T. Mathew and Greg Grudt/Mathew Imaging/Courtesy of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association

Update:  This post has been updated to include a photo from the Hollywood Bowl production of “Into the Woods”

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