When Broadway star Rebecca Luker passed away last December of complications from A.L.S. (commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease), colleagues and journalists struggled to find enough superlatives to describe her incredible talent.

The New York Times hailed her “crystal clear operatic soprano.” Playbill recalled her “innate warmth, infectious joy, and gorgeous voice.” Broadway’s Laura Benanti called her “humble, loving and kind. So much so that you would sometimes forget her otherworldly talent, until she would sing, and her golden voice would wrap you in peace.” And Kristin Chenoweth, who called Luker an inspiration described her voice as “soprano heaven. I love you, Rebecca.”

On Tuesday, May 4th, Becca, a streaming show of music and stories from her three-decade career will take place at 7:30 PM ET/4:30 PM PT. The event is a fundraiser for Target ALS with all proceeds going to ALS research.

Participating in the concert will be Benanti, Sierra Boggess, Michael Cerveris, Chenoweth, Victoria Clark , Santino Fontana (they appeared in Cinderella together), Judy Kuhn, Howard McGillin, Norm Lewis, Kelli O’Hara, Tam Mutu and Sally Wilfert.

Wilfert and Luker recorded All the Girls, an album of songs about women and their friends, that was released late last year.

Luker originated the role of “Lily” in the musical The Secret Garden.

The show’s composer, Lucy Simon, is acting as honorary producer for this event. Frank DiLella, who hosts On Stage for Spectrum News in New York, will serve as the host. Mary-Mitchell Campbell and Joseph Thalken serve as co-music directors.

Luker was nominated for three Tony Awards: Best Actress in a Musical for her roles as “Magnolia” in the 1994 revival of Show Boat and as “Marian Paroo” in the 2000 revival of The Music Man and for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her role as Winifred Banks in Mary Poppins.

Her other Broadway credits included The Phantom of the Opera, The Sound of Music, Nine and Fun Home.

She was married to Danny Burstein who is a Tony nominee this year for his role as Harold Zidler in Moulin Rouge The Musical.

I was only lucky enough to see Luker in one show: The Music Man. She was glorious. She truly sang like an angel.

It’s tragic that she was taken from her family, friends and colleagues at such a young age (she was 59).

Becca will be filled with joy, beautiful music and certainly a few tears. But could anyone help you feel better are such a tragic loss than Rebecca Luker herself?

Tickets for Becca begin at $20 and go higher based on your ability to pay.

All photos courtesy Rebeccaluker.com

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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)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The songs were written by Henry Mancini and Leslie Bricusse.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Gaines and Kristien performed together in Phantom longer than any two leads during the Los Angeles run of the overwhelmingly popular musical.

Kristien also appeared on Broadway in a revival of Show Boat and a revival of Camelot with Richards Burton & Harrison. Gaines also appeared in a Broadway revival of the Lerner and Loewe musical with Burton. (See they have stories to tell from more than just Phantom.)

Locally we’ve seen more of Gaines than we have of Kristien. Both appear as guests for local concerts.

This show will find them performing separately and together and sharing stories of their many years on the stage.

But can we finally discuss one reality about The Phantom of the Opera? Isn’t the title character ultimately a bit like Judi Dench in Shakespeare in Love? His role only requires an actor to be on stage for 27 minutes of its performance time. Whereas Christine is on stage for two-and-a-half hours. Not to take anything away from the fine actors who have played the part of the Phantom, but behind every great masked character is clearly a very strong and very visible woman.

Photos of Davis Gaines and Dale Kristien courtesy of the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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“What I love about Madame Giry and Norma Desmond is that they are women who see what they want to see and they go after it.” So says Karen Mason who should know. She’s played both parts in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musicals. She is currently on stage in Love Never Dies, the sequel to The Phantom of the Opera. The show continues at the Hollywood Pantages through this Sunday. Next week the musical begins a two-week engagement at Segerstrom Hall in Costa Mesa.

I spoke to Ms. Mason after she completed a rehearsal for the show. In Love Never Dies Christine (Meghan Picerno) and Raoul (Sean Thompson) have a son, Gustave. One of the actors who plays the son is going off to high school and a new Gustave has to learn the blocking.

Mason made her Broadway debut in a show called Play Me a Country Song. The show closed on opening night in 1982. “It wasn’t a huge surprise when we closed,” she recalls of that experience. “I think the bigger surprise was how unorganized it was and how sad it was that so much money was put into something and it wasn’t as prepared as it should have been. During that time I auditioned for Torch Song Trilogy when it was moving from off-Broadway to Broadway and I had actually gotten the role of the torch singer. But Play Me a Country Song wouldn’t let me out of my contract. Luckily Harvey Fierstein [the author and star of Torch Song] used me for vacation “Lady Blues” when Susan Edwards couldn’t do it.”

Mason was in rehearsals for Jerome Robbins’ Broadway at the time The Phantom of the Opera was nearing the end of its first year. Of course she had to see that show. “Here’s the weird little caveat,” she says with a laugh. “I saw it when I got standing room. I never saw the chandelier coming down. I kind of missed a big portion of it. I’ve always been a song person. I love a three-and-a-half minute beautiful melody and song, so to have the continuity through the entire show was new and jarring for me and yet very satisfying. I thought it was magnificently beautiful.”

Like everyone else, it never occurred to her that the show would be running 30 years later. “When shows a long time ago stayed open a couple years they were considered wild successes. Now thirty years of consistent audiences, obviously there is something there that really speaks to a lot of different types of people. And not just one generation.”

Which lead, of course, to the sequel in which she appears, Love Never Dies. The show had a troubled start. It opened and closed rather quickly in England. It has never played Broadway. Only after an enterprising production in Australia was new life found and thus the tour was born.

“I’m happy that we have people who come to see the show who loved Phantom. The younger generation is the one that are the biggest fans of Love Never Dies. Every generation likes to discover something for themselves and I think Love Never Dies is going to be their discovery, their mythology and what they compare the next thing to.”

The character she plays is Madame Giry, the woman who in the first show suggested Christine for the lead in the opera once Carlotta walks out. In Love Never Dies, Giry is doing whatever she can to help her daughter, Meg, capture the Phantom’s attention and therefore the lead in his new work. She’s protective, stern, a bit harsh and the polar opposite of Karen Mason.

“Beneath the soul of every young girl who grew up in the 50s is a lot of sturm and rage,” Mason says. “Growing up as a young Catholic girl I had very strict and efficient nuns who taught me over the years. It’s easier than it should be for somebody as perky as I am to mimic that. Madame Giry is almost like a wounded animal. In her mind she is carving out this piece of the world for herself and for her daughter with the Phantom as her…well muse isn’t the right word, but maybe as the motivator. She’s taking advantage of his skill set. When that blows up in her face I don’t think she totally knows how to deal with that.”

Though she has played Mama Rose in Gypsy, Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard and now Madame Giry in Love Never Dies, she tweeted a suggestion to Hamilton‘s Lin-Manuel Miranda asking for him to write her in the part of “the lost oldest daughter” in his juggernaut of a show.  It’s a great joke, but it does reflect a certain reality she is facing.

“The thing about it looking a little bleak on Broadway for a woman my age and skill set is it may force me to really push for this show I’m really proud of and want to get produced. It’s a show about my relationship with my music director Brian Lasser. It is called Unfinished Business. It’s a one-person musical for me and somebody at the piano. I was a young woman who didn’t know how to get where she wants to get and she meets this guy who turns her life around. When he dies, how do you keep moving? It’s a beautiful statement about artists and humanity and I get to showcase Brian’s music. Because let’s face it, I will probably not find my way into a Go-Go’s musical.” [She’s referring to Head Over Heels which is currently playing at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco with an eye to Broadway.]

Whether she gets cast in new shows on Broadway or does Unfinished Business or both, Mason remains hopeful for the future. “I do have great optimism about the arts. Because when I first moved to New York in 1979, cabaret and theatre were dying. But we’re still here and we’re still growing and changing. As long as we have the option of having a Lin-Manuel Miranda come along and have a big blockbuster hit, I think there will always be space for these beautiful new voices who have different ways to say things. It’s always going to change. This new generation has shown themselves to be fighters. I think we’re going to be okay.”

And you know that Karen Mason will, too.

Production Photos by Joan Marcus

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While sequels are often sure bets for motion pictures, they are less likely to work well for Broadway musicals. Do you remember The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public? Bring Back Birdie? Annie 2: Miss Hannigan’s Revenge? For quite some time it was thought that Andrew Lloyd Webber’s sequel to The Phantom of the Opera would find itself in the same dustbin of theatre history. But an enterprising Australian director, Simon Phillips, has brought new life to Love Never Dies. The show just opened at the Pantages Theatre where it will continue to play through April 22nd. Then the touring production heads to Costa Mesa where it will play at the Segerstrom Center for the Performing Arts from April 24 – May 5.

It is now ten years after Phantom when Love Never Dies begins. Christine (Meghan Picerno) is now a bonafide star. She is married to Raoul (Sean Thompson) and they have a son, Gustave (Casey Lyons and Jake Heston Miller rotate in the role.) As for the Phantom (Gardar Thor Cortes), he fled Paris for New York and has taken his place amongst the denizens of Coney Island. When Christine accepts an invitation to perform a concert in New York, the Phantom, who has never gotten over her, tries one more time to seduce her and get her to leave her family for the man who wrote the music of the night. Her relationship with Raoul has hit some rough spots due to his drinking and gambling problems. Torn between two lovers, which one will Christine choose? And what of her son who seems preternaturally intrigued with Coney Island?

Photo Credit:  Joan Marcus

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