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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Coming together to celebrate Schwartz are three performers: Nikki Renée Daniels, Sean Hartley and Gabrielle Stravelli.

Daniels was just about to open in the revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Company when the pandemic forced the closing of theatre. She appeared as Clara in the 2012 production, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess and has also appeared in The Book of Mormon and the 2011 revival of Cole Porter’s Anything Goes.

Hartley is the producer and host of Broadway Close Up and also serves as director of the musical theatre division at Kaufman Music Center. He’s written lyrics for multiple musicals including Love and Real Estate with one of my favorite composers, Sam Davis.

Stravelli is no stranger to my columns at Cultural Attaché. She’s a wonderful vocalist and jazz singer whose old soul and song stylings betray her age. She’s insanely talented.

In addition to his theater credits, Schwartz has composed songs for Disney’s Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. He collaborated with Alan Menken on both films. A stage version of Hunchback has been for several years with a well-received production at New Jersey’s Paper Mill Playhouse in 2015.

With songs like Meadowlark, Magic to Do, Day by Day, Popular and Colors of the Wind, there will be plenty of material to choose from and opportunities for the cast to shine.

Tickets are $15 and allow for viewing for 48 hours. After the performance there will be a Q&A with Hartley.

Photo of Stephen Schwartz by Ralf Rühmeier/Courtesy StephenSchwartz.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Speaking of Fosse, did you watch Fosse/Verdon?

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

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

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

For tickets on Friday go here.

For tickets on Saturday go here.

Main photo by Isak Tiner.

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

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

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

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

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

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

For tickets on Friday night go here.

For tickets on Saturday night go here.

Photo courtesy of BenVereen.Info

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Amaluna had its premiere seven years ago, so when I spoke to Paulus by phone about the show, she had the advantage of perspective, but retained the same passion she seems to have had when she was first approached doing the show.

“This was one of those no-brainer situations,” she says. “I had been a super fan of Cirque du Soleil watching their shows and marveling at them. I got an e-mail asking, ‘would you ever be interested?’ When I heard the follow-up that Guy Laliberté [co-founder of Cirque] thought it should be an homage to women, that kind of sold me immediately.”

As a director keenly interested in storytelling, Paulus thought about what framework would be best for a show that turns out to be 70% women and 30% men and, like all Cirque shows, does not rely on language. So she turned to Shakespeare and Mozart as anchors for her story.

“It was almost like creating a story ballet,” Paulus says of her approach to Amaluna. “I was interested in putting these archetypes on stage that were given an internal sense of the world. What I took from The Tempest was the island where there’s a figure who has magical powers. I made it a woman – Prospera, and she has a daughter, which was also interesting to me. And a coming of age when Miranda meets Ferdinand and goes through the rite of passage. It’s really a mash-up of The Tempest, The Magic Flute, in particular the trials that go on in The Magic Flute. The young couple goes through tests of their love and, back to The Tempest, the men arrive due to a shipwreck.”

What she had to figure out was how to weave the kid of acts Cirque is best-known for within the narrative she had written.

“A Cirque show is not a tent show without incredible acrobatics, so that’s a real base-line thing,” she says of her process. “It’s how you lay up the acrobats. You understand that they are characters with a thru-line. To give you an example, we have a sequence where Miranda is lifted up all the way to the center of the tent and the young lover is trying to catch her. He does the Chinese pole act and it’s a metaphor of reaching up the pole and then at the end of the act he levitates after her. It’s not like the acrobatic act is going to tell the story the way choreography does in a musical, but there are ways to set the act and it is adding to the characters you’re learning to love.”

When she was first asked to “join the circus,” the idea of a female-centric show probably seemed radical. After all, it was 2012. Today it feels completely topical. And Paulus thinks that’s as it should be.

“The idea of an all-woman show was kind of exciting and interesting instead of how necessary,” she says. ” I feel we’re necessary now. The topicality of all-women, in this moment, has expanded. It’s representation. I’ve always felt the theatre and the arts is where we confront the world. That there were top women across the world we could feature, of course, we needed to do that. The stats show us things are getting better, but not always. We have more women in Congress and women of color, but we have more work to do. It’s great to have these moments when things change, like the first time Cirque du Soleil does this. You do have to recognize it and bang the gong so people notice it and then we can move on.”

Paulus, who has two daughters, is passionate about the lesson they learned from the show and the point Amaluna can make to other girls.

“I feel that no one should tell you what you limits are. Cirque is an art form about pushing your limits. That’s what you really learn. It’s extreme performance. That beauty of seeing people at the top of their game because they worked hard and they have passion and they will not accept the limits of what they can achieve. It’s not just a fun show, it has a deep power.”

There was a time when people used to dream of running away and joining the circus. Laliberté even said of Cirque du Soleil that “inside every adult there’s still child that lingers. We’re giving people the opportunity to dream like children.” Did that sensibility find its way into Paulus?

“I don’t think of my experience as dreaming like a child,” she says after pondering the question for a moment. “It’s more like a welcome to a complex world of how it all happens. You go to Montreal and you are invited into the creation room. You put research and pictures and trees and goddesses and everything on the wall. I sat and cut budgets. There’s always the nitty gritty work you have to do. But the idea of letting your mind go anywhere…that’s the dreaming. And the rigor of how you translate that, that was the dream realized.”

For tickets go here.

Featured photo by Markus Moellenberg/(c) 2016 Cirque du Soleil

The post Director Diane Paulus Conjures Up a Female-Centric Cirque appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

The following musicals all have one thing in common:  Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar, Pippin, Grind, Jelly’s Last Jam, Fosse and Wicked. At one time or another, they all had Tony Award-winning actor Ben Vereen as part of their cast. The man who also charmed people with his performance as Chicken George Moore in the original television miniseries Roots, will be performing for two nights at Catalina Bar & Grill in Hollywood. The shows are on Friday and Saturday.

Vereen won his Tony Award for his performance at the Leading Player in Pippin. The musical was written by Stephen Schwartz and Roger O. Hirson. Pippin was choreographed and directed by Bob Fosse (who won Tony Awards in both categories for the show.)

Vereen has been highly acclaimed for his cabaret shows. He’s had an amazing career and has also suffered some real setbacks including a very bad day in 1992 where he crashed his car and six hours later was hit by a car and critically injured while walking in Malibu near his home.

Ever-resillient, Vereen made a complete comeback and returned to film, television and the Broadway stage. In other words, he still has plenty of magic to do.

Main photo courtesy of BenVereen.info

“Pippin” photograph by Martha Swope. Courtesy of the New York Public Library.

The post An Evening with Ben Vereen! appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

An Evening with Stephen Schwartz: A Writers Circle – Wallis Annenberg Center

February 9

In this one-night only event, Stephen Schwartz, the composer behind such shows as Pippin, Godspell and a little ditty called Wicked, celebrates the work of writing partners he has mentored. The evening will feature a concert of that work and amongst the performers is Megan Hilty (Smash). I’m imagining the advice he might give:  “If day by day you find magic to do you’ll be popular.”

Henry V – A Noise Within

Opening Night February 10

Kenneth Branagh made a great film version of Shakespeare’s Henry V. But like any film based on a play, it’s often best to see the source material. And the source material here is rich indeed. How to lead in a time of war and crisis confronts the title character during the 100 Years War. He becomes King and then considers whether England is enough for his kingdom or whether he should rule France, too. The photos on the A Noise Within indicate this is a modern telling of the story. I wonder what inspired them?

Berlin Phil Wind Quintet & Stephen Hough – Wallis Annenberg Center

February 10

To call Stephen Hough just a pianist would be to do a disservice to him. He’s also a composer (one of his works, “Was mit den Tränen geschieht,” is part of this program); he’s a painter and as if that wasn’t enough,  a novelist (his new book, The Final Retreat, comes out next month.) And he’s not just a pianist, he’s one of the finest pianists playing today.

In addition to his own composition, this concert with the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet also features works by Mozart, Ibert, Barber and Poulenc.

Craft in America Concert – Plaza Kiosko at El Pueblo Historical Monument

February 11

This six-hour free concert at Olvera Street celebrates the 10th anniversary of the PBS television show, Craft in America. The show celebrates the wide array of things made by hand in America. This concert is tied to the (very timely) exhibit Borders and Neighbors: Craft Connectivity Between the U.S. and Mexico. On the bill for this all-day concert are banjo player Tony Ellis, jazz trumpeter Scotty Barnhart, the Alexander Noice Sextet who mix modern and classical in a unique way, bass player/vocalist Maggie Hasspacher, psychedelic punk band The Withers, Colburn School Double Bass Ensemble (students from downtown LA’s music school,) singer/songwriter duo Katie and Ezra and, of course, the Craft in America House Band.

Water By the Spoonful – Mark Taper Forum

Opening Night: February 11

This is the second play in the trilogy by playwright Quiara Alegría Hudes. The first play, Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue opened last weekend at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City. The third play, The Happiest Song Plays Last starts previews next week and will be on at the Los Angeles Theatre Center.

In Water By the Spoonful, four recovering addicts in four different parts of America try to conquer their respective demons – all in an online chat room. The relative calm of their conversations is upended when an Iraq War veteran’s demons join the online conversation.

Photo Credit: Craig Schwartz

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While panto can be defined several ways, this production falls squarely in the tradition of the English Christmastime spectacle known for characters who sing, dance and tell jokes. “I’ve never done panto before,” Vereen said during a recent conversation. “What’s so wonderful about it is the kids that come to see it. I love to see the faces and the excitement. There hasn’t been one show that hasn’t been over the moon for the kids. It’s a gas.”

Panto allows the audience to hoot, holler, and sing along while the cast gets to do some improv. “I do my bit. The thing about panto is that if you do too much, the show could stretch out for five hours,” Vereen says. “I try to keep it condensed.” As for his performance on the Travie McCoy/Bruno Mars track “Billionaire,” he says, “The rapping is a whole new thing. I’m just getting into the groove of that.”

Finding his groove has sometimes been challenging for a man who has experienced remarkable highs and lows, both personally and professionally. In 1987, his daughter Naja was killed in a traffic accident. Less than five years later, Vereen was critically injured when a car driven by music producer David Foster hit him. Despite these tragedies, he remains inspired. “I can’t explain it. I know there’s something inside of me that says ‘Get up.’ Whatever has gone on the outside, there’s something inside that has compelled me to go on. Angels guide me. You get up, one foot in front of the other. You gotta show up for the blessings to happen. You have to be present in the now. If they can’t see you, then they pass you over.”

That spirit infuses his performance in Aladdin and he couldn’t be happier doing a Christmas show. “If we an keep the idea of Christmas every day of the year, we’d be better off. Giving. Caring. Loving. It’s in your heart. You are the Christmas you seek.”

Before ending our conversation, Vereen mentioned Bob Fosse, who directed him in Pippin and All That Jazz. “He was a wonder. He was a good friend,” Vereen says. “People ask me to describe him and I say look at the scene [in All That Jazz] with Joe Gideon and the angel where Gideon says ‘When I see a rose, that’s perfect. I mean that’s perfect. Why the hell can’t I do that?’ That was Bob in a nutshell. He was a tenacious worker towards perfection. He was a cat.”

As for the future, Vereen is open to suggestions but has a few ideas of his own. “Bring it on. Bring it on. I’d like to do Shakespeare, Moliere, August Wilson. There are a lot of plays I’d like to do as the universe opens them up to me. I’m a working actor and that’s a blessing.”

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