baayork lee rebecca luker kurt deutsch backstage at the 2014 tony

Transcription

Director-Choreographer
BAAYORK LEE
Tony Award Nominee
REBECCA LUKER
Grammy Award winner
KURT DEUTSCH
Special Feature
BACKSTAGE AT THE
2014 TONY AWARDS
Off-Broadway
DISENCHANTED!
Master Class
ACTING AS A BUSINESS
Voice
HORMONES AND THEIR
EFFECT ON THE VOICE
Reviews
PETER PAN LIVE!
FORBIDDEN BROADWAY
MOZART IN THE JUNGLE
OpEd: WELCOME TO NEW YORK  State of the Arts: BACK TO THE FUTURE
2014 CAST ALBUM ROUND-UP  READING CORNER  QUOTE OF THE MONTH
Welcome to Season 2 of Musical Theatre Magazine!
Season 1 was filled with amazing guests and informative articles on
the how-to's of performing as well as behind-the-scenes. If you
missed Season 1, you can order the back issues on the website:
MusicalTheatreMagazine.com. Getting a new magazine off the
ground was such a learning experience, and I'm taking what I
learned and putting it into good practice with Season 2.
Look for more great features, more guest writers, and new sections
covering all the possibilities — onstage and backstage — that
encompass the world of Musical Theatre.
trish
...
MUSICAL THEATRE MAGAZINE
Editor-in-Chief: Trish Causey
Layout Design: Trish Causey
Contributing Writers: Trish
Causey, Meribeth Dayme, Ph.D.,
ISSN 2332-1644 (online)
Barbara DeMaio Caprilli, DMA,
Brian O'Neil, Arbender Robinson,
www.MusicalTheatreMagazine.com
and Megan Wrappe
Vol. 2, no. 1
2015
[email protected]
Special Thanks: To all the press
reps, & the MT pros who shared
their time and wisdom.
All content is © 2015 by Trish
Causey unless otherwise noted.
Photos are attributed unless
thought to be in the public
domain. No infringement is
intended.
No part of Musical Theatre
Magazine should be taken as
legal or professional advice.
ON THE COVER
Arbender Robinson, a featured guest in Vol. 1,
no. 6, snapped this pic of fellow Broadway
Les Misérables cast member Kyle Scatliffe,
who plays Enroljas. Robinson also wrote the
great feature in this MTMag issue, “Backstage
at the 2014 Tonys Awards”, page 68.
Issues are released every other month. If you don’t see your email with your link, check your
spam folder first, and if it’s not there, please email: [email protected]
MTMag is a subscription-based periodical and is NOT for free distribution. Do not "give away" your issues or post them online. Instead,
please share the website address: www.MusicalTheatreMagazine.com, so others can subscribe as well. If you have students who want to
subscribe, please contact me about a student's discount.
CAST NOTES
Creative Spotlight
BAAYORK LEE 30
Preserving One Singular Sensation
Footlight Feature
REBECCA LUKER 6
Lucky Leading Lady
Reviews
PETER PAN LIVE! 16
NBC
FORBIDDEN BROADWAY 58
Comes Out Swinging!
MOZART IN THE JUNGLE 62
Sex, Drugs, & Classical Music
Special
BACKSTAGE AT THE 2014 TONY
AWARDS 68
OpEd
WELCOME TO NEW YORK 56
On the Job
KURT DEUTSCH 20
Making Music for Posterity
State of the Arts
BACK TO THE FUTURE 26
Creating New Paradigms from the Old
Off-Broadway
DISENCHANTED! 50
The Princess Posse Is Biting Back
Lagniappe
ON BECOMING A COMPLETE SINGER 66
Part 2. Awareness
Master Class
ACTING 46
As a Business
Voice
HORMONES 42
And Their Effect on the Voice
2014 CAST ALBUM ROUND-UP 14
READING CORNER 61
QUOTE OF THE MONTH 49
#THEATREPROBLEMS 79
Vol. 2, No. 1  MusicalTheatreMagazine.com
“My mom had a beautiful soprano voice, and
she taught me how to do harmonies from a very young
age,” begins Broadway star Rebecca Luker. Most
recently starring in the Kennedy Center production of
Little Dancer, Luker has shone in classic musicals from
The Phantom of the Opera, The Sound of Music, and
The Secret Garden to edgier fare such as Nine. She has
also been nominated for three Tony Awards for her work
in the Broadway productions of Show Boat, The Music
Man, and Mary Poppins.
My mom signed me up
for voice lessons one day
without telling me.
Rebecca Luker's journey to Broadway success
was not a straight-shoot from the artsy city of
Birmingham, Alabama, but her foundation was formed
in music and singing since childhood. “I sang in
church, and I got into every ensemble that I could
because there was no theatre in my life, per se,” she
remembers. “I watched movie musicals on TV and
occasionally saw them out of the [movie] theater. So I
was kind of deprived of the theatre part of my education
until I started studying voice at the local university.
“My mom signed me up for voice lessons one
day without telling me when I was 16. I said, 'Okay,
you did what?!'” she laughs. “As it turned out, it was
the single best thing anybody's ever done for me. She
had this vision that it would be good for me, and she
was right. I learned about art songs, I got hooked on
singing; and then I continued on at university with a
I ask her where she got started in performing,
and she mentions that she is from Alabama. I can't help
but exclaim, “No way! I'm from Mississippi.” She
laughs, “No way! What a small world.” With that, I am
reminded of a comment one of my theatre mentors — a
drama teacher at New York's LaGuardia High School —
once made about actors trying to make it on Broadway,
“No one in New York is actually from New York.”
I somehow got myself to
New York ... and had a
horrible audition for
Michigan Opera Theatre.
Junior Miss scholarship two years later. I got another
teacher there, starred in all the musicals, and got hooked
on Musical Theatre,” recalls Luker.
When describing her journey along the “yellow
brick road” to success, Luker is modest. “Luck played a
big part of how I got to be in New York. I did
community theatre in Birmingham, and occasionally
there were New York people that were hired to work
there. And that's how I made my way to Michigan
Opera Theatre, by working with the director in
Birmingham, who said, 'I want you to play Anne
in ...Night Music.' I somehow got myself to New York
on the train — an Amtrak believe it or not, and had a
horrible audition for Michigan Opera Theatre. But I
somehow got into the intern program.”
I thought this was how it
happened for everybody.
I thought everyone went to
New York with an agent.
“Every year, we would do two operas, and we
would end the season with a musical. So the first
season, I was in ...Night Music, and the second season,
they hired me back again to do Joanna in Sweeney Todd.
That's where I met my agent, Bret Adams — 'Some
Enchanted Evening in Detroit', I call it,” Luker teases.
“It was really a lucky break. Judy Kaye was my Mrs.
Lovett, and she was a Bret Adams client all her life until
he died. She said, 'I'd love my agent to hear you,' and I
said, 'Okay, great.' And I thought this was how it
happened for everybody. I thought everyone went to
New York with an agent.” She adds, “Oh, no, no, no....
So I had an agent when I came to New York, and that
was amazing because I don't know what I would've
done without one. I was really green, and I needed
someone to help guide me. That helped my career get
started with Bret Adams. I moved here in 1985, and I
stayed; and the rest is history.”
I didn't know anything.
I learned by doing.
With show business being notorious for
crushing aspiring actors' dreams, I ask Luker if she ever
encountered rejection along the way. Indeed, she has.
"So many,” she sighs, “so many.... Because I didn't
know anything. I learned by doing. I went in on some
things that I clearly had no idea what I was doing.” She
explains, “My agent was trying to get to know me, so
he would send me up on obscure plays; and my acting
chops were just developing. I didn't have enough
knowledge at that time, so I really bombed on so many
things. But the one thing that got me through it was that
I could sing well. That set me apart much of the time,
and I was able to squeak by. And every now and then, I
would do something that was perfect for me.”
Once she got her foot in the door, Luker
seemed to take off. “My very first year, I had a lot of
successes. I was very lucky. I got my Equity card
doing Jane in Leave It to Jane at Goodspeed Opera —
Jerome Kern, you know, right up my alley,” referring to
her love of the Broadway composer. “I walked into that
audition, and I kind of knew that it was my part.
Sometimes magical things like that happened, and it
gave me enough encouragement to keep going.”
I was in the right place
at the right time with
the right sound.
Because Musical Theatre spans all genres of
music from classical through American standards, rock,
pop, jazz, even hip hop, it can take a singer a while to
figure out where she or he belongs. “Because I had a
semi-classical training and Musical Theatre training, I
was kind of perfect for a large umbrella of Musical
Theatre, I would say,” Luker explains. “Then Phantom
of the Opera came along, and that was my first
Broadway show. I was really ready for that because I
had just come out of college where I was singing arias.
So I was in the right place at the right time with the
right sound. And that's how my Broadway career
started. I was so lucky.”
I ask Luker to what she owes her versatility:
natural talent, or teachers and training, or just the
chutzpah to actually get out there and do it. “With
everybody, I think it's a combination of natural talent,
plus what you've been exposed to in your life. Again, I
grew up in Alabama where I was in to rock 'n' roll. I
love rock; I love pop and folk music. I sang hymns in
church. Then there was the semi-country stuff my
family listened to. I was exposed to a wide variety of
music as a young girl, then I learned about art songs and
Musical Theatre. So I've always had it within me to
sing folk and country and rock. Then I discovered I
have a soprano voice. And for the last 10 years of my
life, I've been experimenting with new music from
young composers. And that's been one of the greatest
blessings of my life.
“Over the years, I've done a lot of classical
stuff with orchestras when I could because I love being
a crossover artist. But I do think it is a combination of
natural talent, letting your voice naturally develop, and
experimenting with different kinds of music. Then go
from there. See where you fit in.” She adds, “But I like
to do it all.”
It's a combination of
natural talent, plus what
you've been exposed to.
Birmingham has a great artistic community,
especially for theatre and opera. “They do,” she agrees
wholeheartedly. I take this opportunity to interject that
we need to promote how wonderful community theatres
and repertory theatres are around the country. The truth
is that New York is not for every body. It's difficult to
get there and more difficult to stay there. Many
Broadway hopefuls leave New York after a few years if
they haven't “hit it big”, and they go back home feeling
like a failure because they were never a Broadway star.
“We have to promote theatre in every city in this
country,” Luker agrees. “Absolutely, we do. We know
for a fact that the arts are very valuable to communities,
they help young people, help get them off the streets,
and it's just vital to have arts everywhere. And there are
some wonderful theatres in so many great cities that are
really excellent.”
I actually love getting
older.... You find your
footing later as a character
person, or you don't go
anywhere.
In the past year, Luker has gone from singing
Clara in the new recording of Stephen Sondheim's
Passion to the exaggerated Fairy Godmother in
Broadway's Cinderella. I was curious to know how
Luker sees herself in her career right now, whether she
is open to anything or if she wants to stick to certain
roles to carve a niche for her career at this point. “I don't
want to box myself in,” she replies honestly. “More and
more in the last decade of my life, I've been doing plays
and more TV and character roles — now that I'm in my
50s. And I'm just loving it. I actually love getting older.
Cinderella was the most fun I've had in a long time. I
got to play this crazy, old lady, and I thought, 'Where
have I been?'
But that's what happens to an
ingénue/leading lady. You find your footing later as a
character person, or you don't go anywhere. You have
to grow with your age. And I say the sky is the limit!
I'm open to any variety of experiences really.”
Variety is certainly the name of the game for
Luker, who has recorded several solo albums and has
been featured on nearly two-dozen cast albums,
including Passion, Death Takes a Holiday, Annie Get
Your Gun, Brigadoon, Wonderful Town, Kiss Me Kate,
Show Boat, Brownstone, Dear Edwina, to name a few.
She must love to stay busy because when she isn't
recording music or performing on a Broadway or
regional stage, she performs her cabaret act, which is
devoted to Jerome Kern.
Balancing life and work seems to be a true
juggling act, especially when there is another Broadway
star at home. Luker quips, "I call Danny the talented
one in the family," referring to her husband, five-time
Tony Award-nominee Danny Burstein. So how do they
make it all work? “Well, we both have similar
schedules and similar careers, so that helps a lot. Our
boys are now grown and out of the house; they're both
in college now. And they're great kids, so we really
don't have to look after them anymore. It's easy for us
because we prioritize time together and relaxation time.
And at this point in our lives, we are able to do that, and
we feel very, very lucky. We know how lucky we are.
No question about it.”
With my Broadway career,
I've really had wonderful
experiences. I know that
sounds boring.
There are always good and bad experiences
behind the scenes in every person's career, so I ask
Luker to share some of those experiences without
naming specific shows or theatres. “Oh, how do I share
that without naming directors and shows,” she laughs.
“You know what, though, with my Broadway career,
I've really had wonderful experiences. I know that
sounds boring. They have really all been great:
Phantom..., Secret Garden, Show Boat. The Music Man
was maybe one of my favorites of all time because it
was a role I had always wanted to do. And when I was
cast in the Broadway revival, I thought, 'Well, it's gonna
be hard to beat this experience.' And indeed, it has been
hard. Nine was a lot of fun, too. I got to play a
character that's completely not me: long dark wig; I had
to speak Italian; and I had to kiss Antonio Banderas —
that's a horrible chore,” jokes Luker. “Show Boat was
great. The Sound of Music was wonderful — to do that
operatic role. Honestly, I've been so spoiled.”
If you have been on
Broadway, you've been
spoiled to death.
It's never like Broadway.
Outside of New York's theatre scene, she
admits, “I've had some weird regional experiences that
were not the most fun. With regional theatre, some of
them are really wonderful. But no matter where you
are, if you have been on Broadway, you've been spoiled
to death. It's never like Broadway. Hardly ever. You
never have the crew that's on top of it, a stage manager
that's on top of it, and you realize how spoiled [you are],
how well-run most Broadway shows are. So when you
get out in the Hinterlands you're like, 'Oh my God.' You
don't feel as safe; you don't feel as taken care of. So it
makes the whole experience a little harder and more
work.”
'Just let go and sing, and
let it come out' … on a
singing level, that was the
best advice I got.
What was the best advice Luker ever received?
“That's tough,” she pauses. “I know this is so silly, but
the first thing that popped into my head was my college
teacher, who said to me one day when I was belaboring
this aria — he sort of yelled at me, 'Just let go and sing.'
He said, 'You do so well when you just let go and sing,
and let it come out.' And so, on a singing level, that was
the best advice I got. I don't remember the best acting
advice I ever got. Geez, I'm terrible. I guess no one's
given me any advice,” she laughs.
You will know if this is the
life you were meant to live.
She does, however, have a few tips for the
young Broadway babies who want to try their turn on
the Great White Way. “I have some advice for them that
I wish somebody had given me at a very young age.
First of all, the young people who want to go into the
theatre are going to learn it the way they're going to
learn it. Everybody's path is different. They ask me,
'How did you do it?' And I go, 'My circuitous path was
really weird.' But I would say, if you want to have a life
If you want to have a life in
the theatre, you have to
immerse yourself in it.
in the theatre, you have to immerse yourself in it. Go
see everything, be in every reading, read every play, go
see every musical.
“Find out about your craft, the history of your
craft. And then do it as much as you can. If you are any
good at it, you will find out. Somebody will encourage
you. I really do believe the cream rises to the top. You
will know if this is the life you were meant to live. It's a
very difficult [life], but it can be so amazing if you have
any success in it, and you're good at it, and you have a
passion for it. Educate yourself when you're young as
best as you can, and do everything you can. Then you'll
find out if it's for you.”
MTM
To learn more about Rebecca Luker, visit her website.
She has recorded dozens of CD's, both cast albums
and solo albums, available on Amazon.
2014 CAST ALBUM
Round-Up
Check out these cast album recordings from 2014 that
cover Broadway, Off-Broadway, London, Film, and
Independent productions.
Into the Woods, 2014
Movie Soundtrack
The Bridges of
Madison Country
A Gentleman's Guide
to Love and Murder
Lady Day at Emerson's
Bar & Grill
Beautiful: The Carole
King Musical
Tamar of the River
Herringbone
Hedwig and the Angry
Inch
Big Fish
A Second Chance
Crazy for You
Heathers the Musical
Fun Home
Roberta
Here Lies Love
Peter Pan LIVE!
Yank!
Violet
Love's Labour's Lost
Stephen Ward
Miss Saigon
Murder for Two
If/Then
Rocky
Jersey Boys
The Last Ship
Aladdin
Bullets Over Broadway
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
One Touch of Venus
Venice
Sharknami: the Musical
In December 2013, NBC made television
history by presenting the first live televised musical in
over 50 years with “The Sound of Music LIVE!”,
starring Carrie Underwood. For 2014, NBC tackled the
flying boy-wonder, Peter Pan, for yet another live
television event to bring a Tony Award-winning
Broadway musical into the livingrooms of children all
over the world.
Overnight, NBC's “The Sound of Music
LIVE!” practically perfected the internet bloodsport of
hate-watching. It proved that one wrong casting choice
can have devastating effects on how a Broadway show
is received by an audience who doesn't like its genre
messed with just for the sake of ratings. Casting Peter
Pan was then under even more scrutiny because the
character is a boy but written to be played by a woman.
Peter Pan opened on Broadway in 1954,
starring Mary Martin, who also originated the role of
Maria in Broadway's original production of The Sound
of Music. Martin won Tony Awards for The Sound of
Music and Peter Pan as well as for playing Nellie in
South Pacific. For nearly 30 years, Peter Pan has been
played in various stage productions by Olympic
gymnast Cathy Rigby.
Some Broadway fans find that Peter Pan is an
average show sprinkled with average songs. This is
likely due to the fact that the show's music is pulled
from several different sources rather than an entire score
having been written exclusively for the show itself.
This piecemeal approach leaves only a few standout
tunes and big dance numbers that spice things up
between long dialogue scenes. The stage version can be
thrilling because of the wire-work; and when done right,
the varied characters and the colorful costumes and sets
found in Neverland can make the show magical indeed.
All tallied, NBC's “Peter Pan Live!” employed
46 cast members and over 350 technical crew members
to bring the show to life for television audiences.
Starring in the main roles were Allison Williams as
Peter Pan, Christopher Walken as Captain Hook,
Christian Borle as Mr. Darling/Smee, Kelli O'Hara as
Mrs. Darling, Minnie Driver as Narrator/Adult Wendy,
Taylor Louderman as Wendy, Jake Lucas as John
Darling, John Allyn as Michael, and Alanna Saunders as
Tigerlilly. Nana, the furry “nurse”, was played by
Bowdie, a rescue dog from Utah.
Rob Ashford directed, with Glenn Weiss
directing the live show as he stood in front of a wall of
monitors to watch every camera angle at once. Ashford
also choreographed the show, keeping the movement
consistent with the original choreography by the
legendary Jerome Robbins. For “Peter Pan Live!”, the
lyrics were by Carolyn Leigh with additional lyrics by
Betty Comden and Adolph Green and more recent
additional lyrics by Amanda Green. Music was by
Morris (Moose) Charlap with additional music by Jule
Styne. Music direction was by David Chase, and scenic
design by Derek McLane.
Because the role of Peter Pan is written for an
adult woman and requires dancing, some acrobatics, and
the famous wire-work, singing ability may be last on the
list of requirements when casting. However, “Girls'”
star Allison Williams sang well enough to carry the role
and moved effortlessly whether on the ground or in the
air. Anyone who has done wire-work can tell you that
belting a big note is even more difficult when you don't
have the ground beneath you to support you. Overall,
Williams did a fine job of singing and acting, though
she did look a little old for a 10 year-old boy who
doesn't want to grow up.
Christopher Walken, former Broadway tapdancing actor turned movie star, played Captain Hook.
As his performance began, he was too subtle, and his
energy seemed low; but his energy lifted when he
entered his first musical number, which included
tapping. Though he did not have strong vocal power, he
moved remarkably well for a 71 year-old hoofer, and he
was backed by the best-dressed band of pirates ever
seen on television.
In some film versions of Peter Pan, Captain
Hook is played by the same actor who plays the father,
Mr. Darling. The father, so obsessed with money and
keeping up appearances, makes the obvious villain who
lives to thwart fun and revelry, both of which are
exemplified by his foe, Peter Pan. In “Peter Pan Live!”,
Christian Borle played Mr. Darling and sported uptight
stuffiness in spades, contrasting perfectly with his other
role as Smee, Captain Hook's wise-cracking first mate.
Borle won a Tony Award for his work in another version
of the Neverland story, Peter and the Starcatcher.
Kelli O'Hara was perfect as the mother, and
just having her in the part of Mrs. Darling makes one
wish the role had more songs to sing. O'Hara's most
recent turn on Broadway was as a wistful Italian
housewife in The Bridges of Madison County, singing
the role to perfection; but in “Peter Pan Live!”, O'Hara
played the subdued, proper English lady, without
making the role seem snobbish or boring. The British
accent on O'Hara comes across naturally, though her “o”
vowels have a distinct Julie Andrews flavor.
Some of the blocking was a bit static, possibly
due to the restrictions of camera angles and the space
within the bedroom scenes. The look of the camerawork resembled old-school BBC productions or soap
operas due to the limited space and restrictive lighting
options for filming live TV. That being said, one of the
great achievements with “Peter Pan Live!” was the
camera-work. The crew used cameras in all kinds of
configurations from hand-held steady cams to mounted
cameras to capture the fly-overs of the model sets as
well as the live action on the big sets.
A couple mishaps did occur with panning too
far with a camera in one of the early scenes and then
right at the end when the Lost Boys are being welcomed
into the Darling family. An unnecessary close-up of
Wendy's “kiss” that saved her from an arrow caught an
opening in her gown which revealed her wire hardness.
NBC needs to realize that the audience does not need
these kinds of close-ups; they are unnecessary for the
TV audience, and theatre audiences know how to
suspend belief. But again, overall, the camera-work
was excellent.
Working as a team is important in any
production, and the camera and wire teams exemplified
that in “Peter Pan”. Though the use of wires was
evident, the tech work by the wire operators was topnotch. Except for one really noticeable gaff at the
beginning, Peter Pan and the kids' take-offs and
landings were smooth and believable.
One of the cute things about the show was
seeing the actors sneak treats to Nana, the “nurse” dog,
as inconspicuously as possible. Nana, a.k.a. Bowdie,
was trained for “Peter Pan Live!” by Tony Awardwinning animal trainer William Berloni.
Other casting choices were confusing. Several
of the Lost Boys seemed too old, and most of the
Natives/Indians weren't very native or Indian. If NBC
couldn't find enough native dancers here in the States,
they should have held auditions in Toronto, Ontario, or
Vancouver, as Canada has several theatre and dance
companies run by and for First Nations peoples. On
stage, some of this can be forgiven, but when cameras
are right there in the actors' faces, it is pretty difficult to
ignore. This goes straight to the heart of the problem
for any company doing live, televised theatre; and NBC
has yet to find the right balance between heeding the
ideals of theatre aficionados or playing to TV's realist
audiences.
When NBC announced Peter Pan as its next
live musical, perhaps no one actually knew the show as
some of the material in Peter Pan is questionable. The
grown-woman-playing-a-10-year-old-boy aspect has
always been too much for some people to get their
heads around, but having Wendy, a teenage girl playing
the “mother” while she is obviously lusting after Peter,
who is supposed to be a 10-year-old boy as well as her
“son”, is downright uncomfortable.
Then there's the bit of old-fashioned racism the
creative team had to deal with in regards to the Natives.
Adolph Green's daughter, Amanda Green, worked with
Chickasaw composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate to
rewrite the racist and offensive “Ugg-a-Wugg” into a
song that does not present a negative stereotype about
American Indians. This led to the creation of “True
Blood Brothers”, a big dance number in which Jerome
Robbins' dance influence is the most obvious with
strong, balletic theatrical dancing by the Lost Boys and
the Natives.
In 2015, NBC
will produce The Music
Man for live TV, and
FOX has announced
Grease Live! — which
means the Tony Awards
will no longer be the
only night the spotlight
is on Broadway in
America's livingrooms.
MTM
Peter Pan Live! DVD is
available on Amazon.
Taking time out from running his busy record
label, Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight Records, Grammy Awardwinning producer Kurt Deutsch shared how he and his
wife, three-time Tony Award nominee Sherie Rene
Scott, got into the record business. “We started it as an
outlet for the artists who were of the new generation of
Broadway performers, like Sherie, Adam Pascal, Alice
Ripley.” Even for bona fide stars, getting a record deal
with a major label can be difficult and tedious.
“We wanted to bridge the gap between rock 'n'
roll and theatre,” explains Deutsch. “It started right
after Rent. Sherie and Adam were doing Aida together;
and we got this idea to start this label for Broadway
artists who wanted to expand their horizons and not just
sing showtunes. We thought, let's make these records
and maybe we'll sell them in the lobbies,” of Broadway
theatres. He is quick to mention, “Keeping in mind, this
was 15 years ago — the outlet for music distribution
was very different back then. Amazon was just starting;
this was before iTunes. We thought, there's this whole
new generation of audience from Rent that was younger,
more Internet savvy, and loved theatre. Fifteenthousand people were seeing Sherie and Adam each
week on Broadway [in Aida]; and if we could put their
websites in a Playbill, then [audiences] would maybe
come online and buy their records and be interested in
their music. That's kind of how it all started.”
Broadway actors
are chameleons.
They can do anything.
Being able to step outside the usual Broadway
fare allows singing actors to show their versatility as
well as the other influences that make up the musical
story within themselves. Deutsch puts it succinctly:
“Broadway actors are chameleons. They can do
anything.
They're actors, first, and singers and
performers. Like Audra [McDonald] — she can play
Billie holiday, but she can also play an opera singer and
do many different things. Sherie is the same way. She
can go from playing Amneris [in Aida] to Tommy to
Women on the Verge.... And a lot of the younger
Broadway stars have grown up with rock 'n' roll. It's not
just Rodgers and Hammerstein; it's also singing Green
Day. I think they can do anything, and that's what's
exciting about them. And they can really sing, which is
different from a lot of pop singers.”
Wondering what his average day looks like, I
ask if it's thrilling and exciting to be around all of the
music and incredibly talented singers and musicians …
or if he gets stuck behind a desk mired in paperwork.
“When I'm producing albums, it's a lot of fun,” admits
Deutsch. “During the height of the season, when we're
actually making tons of cast albums, it's amazing. It's
thrilling to be able to preserve the music and work with
my heroes and my favorite performers. It's amazing that
it all comes together in one or two days for something to
last forever. It's incredible.”
Hearing Deutsch use the word “preserve”
really emphasizes the idea that a cast album preserves a
show for posterity. For Deutsch, the goal of this work
has evolved to document shows and artists who might
not otherwise get the chance to have their musical
works preserved. “It became important. I'm from St.
Louis, and I grew up listening to my parents' cast
albums and going to the Muny on Tuesdays with my
mom. So that's when I fell in love with Musical
Theatre. I never went to New York then, but I dreamed
of being an actor and being in shows. Now, I've taken
on this responsibility of the preservation of Musical
Theatre recordings. In 50 or 100 years from now, these
are going to be the documents after all is said and done.
People will remember the shows and take it seriously.
And it's thrilling.”
Gone are the days of the LP, but changing
trends in music distribution have affected the way CDs
and even digital music are bought. Deutsch doesn't
mince words, “The trend is very sad. The way people
are consuming music now is, unfortunately, through
streaming services. So the big way people are listening
is through YouTube or Spotify. If it's a younger show,
they're buying it off of iTunes. iTunes is about 90% of
our digital sales.” Amazon and selling in the theatre
lobby comprise the largest percentage of physical CD
sales. “A show like Beautiful, because of the age-range
of the audience, is selling much more physical than
digital. A show like Next to Normal or one of the
younger-skewing or rock-based shows sells much more
digital than physical.”
Without a recording
of a musical, it's as if
it didn't exist.
I start to think of shows that have gone on to
cult status because of their cast album, such as Side
Show. Then I think about the recent Broadway season
and what happened with Jason Robert Brown's gorgeous
show The Bridges of Madison County, which closed
before the Tony Awards, yet won Tonys for Best Score
and Best Orchestrations. What about those shows that
close early or don't recoup their initial financial
investment on Broadway? Sometimes a Broadway cast
album is the only lasting record that a show ever saw
the light of the stage. Deutsch agrees, “That's the reason
we record [the show], so it can have a secondary life.
Without a recording of a musical, it's as if it didn't exist.
And then a show like Bridges... that has such an
amazing score, and the performances were so incredible
— Steven and Kelli's performances were just beautiful
and soaring and epic! Without that recording, nobody
would be able to have this thought that you're having,
'Hey, I want to do this in a regional theatre, or
community theatre, or London.' The cast recording is
the main instrument for the future life of the show.”
People actively go out
and buy a cast album
when they actually
experience a live show.
The cast album sales can be predicted
according to the success of the show. “If the show is
successful, and continues to run, and people are seeing
the show, then the album will sell, for the most part. A
show like Book of Mormon has multiple companies and
is consistently selling. A show like Wicked sells. Jersey
Boys has multiple companies and consistently sells. A
show like Bridges... was selling until it closed, and then
it dropped. That's what we can predict. If a 1,000
people per night are seeing the show, a percentage of
those people are going to listen to the album. But if a
show isn't running, then it's very hard to get people to
want to listen to it. People actively go out and buy a
cast album when they actually experience a live show
and then want to relive that. Are there students of
Musical Theatre, fans that want to have every new
thing, collectors? That audience is not as huge as you
would hope it would be.”
Rather bluntly, I ask Deutsch if he goes into
some of these recording situations knowing he's going
to lose money or not make his money back. “I'm not a
not-for-profit, so I try not to lose money,” he responds
with a laugh. “I have a unique business model, and I
typically work with the producers and the investors of
the show to convince them that the album is an
important marketing tool and licensing tool for their
show. I try to convince them to dig deep and budget for
the cast album,” when they are raising the capital to
fund the show. Planning ahead when working out the
budget can ensure the show is recorded for the future,
even if it is not successful on stage. “Then they would
hire me to produce and distribute the album. Sometimes
I'll invest in the album if I think it's going to be
successful, but for the most part it's a flexible business
model.”
Have enough money in
your budget so you can
lock down a cast album
no matter what.
This was news to me because I always assumed
a cast album was a given when producing a musical,
especially for the first time it is being produced on
stage. Not so, according to Deutsch. “They don't
budget because, initially, they expect the record labels to
pay for the albums. In this day and age, however, cast
albums cost so much money, and it's less guaranteed to
profit in the first year. They're more long-term
investments, if they're successful. But that's why the
producer needs to have the album. They need to have it
for so many reasons, whether it's for commercials,
marketing the show, the Tonys, or for future licensing.
If you're going to raise $10- or $12- or $14 million for a
musical, make sure you have enough money in your
budget so you can lock down a cast album no matter
what.”
An old adage says, “If you have to ask, you
can't afford it,” but I ask Deutsch anyway. Just how
much does it cost to create a Broadway cast album? “It
really depends on the size of the cast and the size of the
orchestra. It varies. For a small show, like Next to
Normal, or Bridges..., or ...Spelling Bee, it's in the
$100,000 to $200,000 range. For a larger show, it could
be upwards of $400,000. So they're very expensive.”
The number of musicians accompanying a
singer also determines how much a solo independent
album costs for an individual singer. “It depends on the
size of the band and how many favors you can call in,”
remarks Deutsch. “A typical solo album can cost
$10,000 or $25,000 or even $75,000. It just really
depends on what they're doing. You really can't put a
figure on it until you dig into what the needs are, what
the scope of the project is. And every project is
different. You figure out from the artist what they want
to do, and then you figure out how much it's going to
cost.”
Deutsch wears several different hats at Sh-KBoom/Ghostlight Records, doing several different jobs,
but playing with the knobs on the board in the sound
booth is not one of them. “I am not a sound engineer,”
he says twice, very emphatically. “I co-own the label
with Sherie, and I have various people working with
me. I build a team for each album I produce. A team
consists of an engineer or co-producer. I work
very closely with the musical director and the
music contractor.” Deutsch also employs an
operational manager, who is in charge of budgets
and coordinates the schedules, and a contractual
liaison, who communicates with the producers,
the lawyers, and the composers. “And then I
work with the artist or the producers to figure out
what is it that we want it to sound like from an
artistic and creative standpoint. I have more of an
acting and directing background, so I am more
creative. When it comes to laying down and
mixing the album, I'm really involved in mixing.
Then I'm pretty deeply involved in the marketing
of how we get it out there,” to the masses.
Sherie Renee Scott
Photo from Sh-K-Boom's
Facebook page
I figured out how to do
it by making mistakes
and learning from them.
This label seems to have begun in an
organic process for Deutsch and Scott, but starting
a record label and engineering and producing cast
albums are not skills that are taught in most
university BFA programs. “I didn't learn from
going to college,” says Deutsch. “I just learned
from my experiences in theatre. I found a niche
that I was interested in, and then just went for it.
Over the years, I figured out how to do it by
making mistakes and learning from them. I think
you just go for it.”
What's the biggest thing he's learned
from this process? Without hesitation, Deutsch
states, “Collaboration is key. I try to be like the
United Nations, and I try to listen and understand
what somebody's vision is. Then I try to put the
best team in place to make their dreams come true
and preserve what it could be.” Then he adds
with a wry laugh, “And not to get caught up in all
the politics.”
Wrapping up the conversation, I inquire
what he thinks is the future of cast albums.
Deutsch says matter-of-factly, “As long as there
are shows, there will be cast albums.”
MTM
Learn more about Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight Records
and buy some cast albums at the website:
Sh-K-Boom.com.
We are standing on the edge of unlimited
possibilities for music and singing. There is a new
sense of adventure and creativity entering the scene. We
are in an age of change, and we must be aware and open
to it. To some, it probably seems like a confusing chaos
and a threat to the status quo. It is a threat to the status
quo! What can we do to be a positive part of the change
and at the same time stay centered and learn to dance
and play with the times?
Where have we been?
What has brought us to
our current stage?
We are moving from a singing teaching system
of very private, limited, and limiting local traditions and
oral tradition/hand-me-down information of over 400
years to a very different picture where information
about singing and music is available immediately and
globally. Vocal performance is changing because our
exposure to singing has become global and offers us so
many possibilities.
The old classical system of teaching gave us
some wonderful singers for their time. It also gave us
some ideas that became more and more fixed and at the
same time distorted as the hand-me-down information
continued — much like the game of “gossip” where
original information becomes distorted as it moves from
person to person. This resulted in teaching that was
highly reliant on what was thought to be the way to train
voices for the music of the time — such as church and
opera. Whole methods evolved based on perceptions of
what was taught before we had adequate records and
information. You could even call them “hearsay”
methods of singing. Sadly, this continues today in a
number of cases.
The old system was elitist with differentiation
of music of the court and high society from that of the
“people”. Singers were associated with the court, the
church, or opera. Oral tradition and popular music
came from street entertainers and traveling minstrels.
Interestingly, I have seen many street entertainers
singing opera today — especially in the London tubes.
Over time, singers and musicians began to
leave the security of royal courts, at first, with the help
of benefactors and patrons. They were exposed to ever-
widening audiences. The most popular singers of the
day traveled from town to town. As transportation
grew, so did the possibilities of new audiences for
singers. The new awarenesses of other cultures and
tastes began to show in the singing and the teaching of
singing. Famous singers developed huge followings
and the “groupies” of their day.
Teachers like Garcia had a great curiosity about
the voice, and he was determined to find a way to see
what was happening. And he did! He spawned a new
generation of singing teachers who wanted to know.
That movement has reached a peak today — almost 175
years later. How could he possibly know that vocal
pedagogy would become a valuable part of singing
courses in universities throughout the world? Colleges
and universities in the USA have had these courses in
their curricula since the 1940’s, while Europe is only
now beginning to catch up. The tradition in European
countries has been to favor specific methods and
teachings of known teacher/gurus. As a result, teachers
there have been reticent to trust universal pedagogical
information until recently. Now, there is a big demand
for it.
Meanwhile, the singers were still singing, with
or without the knowledge of how they were doing it.
They were guided by their perceptions of what they
thought they were doing and pleasing audiences. What
they were actually doing was more important to the
pedagogues who wanted to help their pupils become
great singers.
That brings us to the question: Where are we
now? It is not taking us 175 years to change. It is all
happening much faster.
Where are we now?
There is an unprecedented interest in singing.
Singing is blossoming around the world. The numbers
of programs featuring singing have exploded, and
hundreds of thousands of young singers are auditioning
for their moment of fame. Internet sites like YouTube
have encouraged anyone and everyone to contribute.
New stars have been born over the Internet and not
through the usual channels. Teachers are finding their
studios full, even in times of austerity. It seems that
many, many people of all ages want to sing. Teachers
regularly tell me that they get requests for lessons from
every age, from 5 to 85.
Musical and vocal tastes are changing as our
ears, eyes, and other senses become global — not local
or national anymore. Global access to information
means that we can hear any kind of music from the far
corners of the planet. The Internet and television truly
have made us “one world”, especially where music is
concerned. The singers of today and future singers are
exposed to all these new musical experiences on a
regular basis. Singers of the current generation are not
comfortable or patient with the old traditions of singing
and learning. Not only are the singers searching for
new horizons, teachers also must find new, creative,
authentic ways of meeting the needs of this generation
and their music. To that end, there are numbers of new
vocal pedagogies being developed for different styles
and genres of singing.
There is a new sense of adventure in singing.
Teachers are beginning to look outside of the box for
bringing new elements into teaching.
Interest in the science of voice is continuing
and growing. It is perhaps the best way we think we
know, at the moment, to give us an answer to “why”.
To teach in university, you need to accomplish research.
This, in itself, has created an unprecedented interest in
the science of the voice and vocal health. The demand
for scientific answers has given us better analytical tools
and acoustic machinery. Only time will tell if it has
really helped us to become better teachers and
performers? We think we know more, but also we know
at the same time that thinking does not make the best
performers. What appears to be happening at this time
is an imbalance that is weighted heavily on the side of
science. It will be interesting to see how we redress the
balance.
Research in singing has been somewhat
hampered by our perception of the meaning of scientific
method. Thus far, we have, in the majority of the cases,
been proving scientifically what we already think we
know to be true empirically. Most research has been
done to prove the accuracy of traditional methods
without providing other parameters that might prove
even more useful for singing. We are finding out how
often we have repeated what we have heard, read, or
been taught without ever sourcing it for ourselves. This
is changing as teachers become more willing to accept
that there are many ways to explore and ask questions
like “what if” and “why”.
Singing is not just for performing. This has
always been true, but we are beginning to realize just
how unlimited our possibilities are currently and for the
future. We know that not everyone can be on stage, and
we are beginning to realize that there is no need to
discourage people from learning to sing when it helps in
so many ways. When we foster creativity, people find a
way to use what they have got.
Programs like “El Sistema” in Venezuela and
many other grassroots efforts in education, therapies,
and healing are using music to aid in learning, healing,
self-development — and life!
Venezuela has more than 400 youth orchestras
that have successfully taken children off the streets and
given them instruments. It is a veritable spawning
ground for musicians that is being copied in other parts
of the world. We are now experiencing numbers of
conductors and other musicians that have come through
that program to international fame. While that was not
the original purpose, it is one of the huge numbers of
results. The program and the principles it espouses are
spreading rapidly around the globe, benefiting
thousands of children.
Music therapy and healing is growing rapidly
as research shows the improvement of health, emotional
stability, and learning. Every week, a new, exciting
article appears on the vast advantages and improvement
of those who are experiencing, learning, and performing
music.
Educators are using music for learning many
different subjects. Have you heard of the “Cern Rap”?
Physicists at the huge particle accelerator in Switzerland
have created an explanation of their work using rap to
get their message across. And, the concept does not
stop there. Subjects such as algebra, geometry, and
languages are using rap and improvisation to facilitate
learning. Children have been taught using singing as a
way to learn for years. Now that this approach to
learning has been so effective, teachers in many schools
have begun to use it. The result has seen remarkable
improvement and interest by children, especially those
considered slow learners and underachievers. Suddenly,
they are shooting to the top of the class and loving it.
There is even an online library, www.flocabulary.com,
that specializes in Educational Hip-hop.
Then there are the Flash Mobs singing and
dancing in public places such as shopping malls and
train stations. The fun and joy of this “surprise music”
has delighted and amused many on their way to and
from work or shopping. It is fascinating to see an
unsuspecting audience suddenly smile, become
energized, and even get in on the act.
Music and singing are being brought to the
world in creative, exciting, and enjoyable new ways.
How great is that?!
So where is all of this taking us? What might
we look to for the future?
Where do we go
from here?
How do we take the teaching of singing
forward this century and into the next? Which of the
current trends will influence teaching and singing?
Here are a few thoughts.
The
hugely
popular
self-development
movement has been gathering momentum for the last 50
years.
Teachers of singing, in general, are just
beginning to find ways to bring this into their own
teaching. As a profession, they have tended to rely
more on past teachings, often following a pre-
prescribed pattern of those they perceive to be
knowledgeable. They err on the side of the cautious,
rather than having the confidence to push the boundaries
as much as they might. As more and more teachers
become personally involved in their own development,
they are discovering that it is related to singing as well
as life. This is creating a new confidence in which there
is more willingness to explore, experiment, and
enhance the teaching of singing.
Large areas of self-development have come
from ancient Eastern concepts and philosophies that are
now globally accessible. The “old” has become ”new”.
What are we gaining from exploring these concepts?
The Eastern qualities gained from studying Qigong and
Tai Chi are a sense of flow, the awareness of the life
force, and a new way of being balanced and grounded
for singing. Emphasis on being grounded, flow of
energy, and the variety of techniques to achieve it will
give singers a new sense of strength, a more authentic
sound, and a quiet confidence. It is fascinating that
many of our “sacred cows” in teaching singing —
including posture and breathing — actually interfere
with the flow of energy, making everyone have to work
very hard to find something that is relatively easy.
Old-style dictatorial teaching and reliance on
prescriptive teaching methods are giving way to many
more experimental, exploratory, and creative adventures
in learning to sing. This follows new patterns in
education, in general. New directions in learning are
emphasizing elements of fun, adventure, cooperative
work with other students and teachers, involvement with
the whole person and not just the intellect. These
patterns will be reflected in the teaching of singing, too.
Teachers will begin to be more adventurous once they
realize that new directions in learning are integrally
related to learning to sing.
There is a lot of talk about healthy singing — it
is the vogue at the moment. While this is important, the
attention to compelling performance has gotten
somewhat lost in the teaching. There is also an
interesting paradox occurring. Teachers have become
more “scientific” and intellectual in their approach to
singing. In turn, so have their students. Interestingly,
those same teachers cajole their students to get out of
their heads and feel the music. We can’t have it both
ways. Teachers are beginning to understand that they
must set different examples in order promote
compelling singing.
But, you say, how does this relate to the huge
movement and interest in the science of the voice? Ask
the physicists and cell biologists. They are discovering
amazing things about life and energy. At some point,
these discoveries will begin to make their way into the
science of the voice and the progress will be enormous.
Science is not going to go away — but we may find we
are putting it into a difference context.
When people talk about science today, the
discussion is around the topic of energy. We know that
we are all made of energy, and our knowledge of it is
only at the baby stage. Understanding even a tiny bit
about how energy works can begin to make one
question the vast majority of answers we have been
given in the past. Physicists are finding this out on a
daily basis. They are discovering that there are
unlimited possibilities in any given situation. We are
changing from a “one answer provides the truth” kind of
science to understanding the context and then searching
out any number of possibilities for direction. For
anyone who has put confidence in finding THE answer,
this is confusing and scary. It is something we are
living through in order to progress — it is not always
comfortable. However, it can be exciting if we allow it.
Physicists are fascinated by what they are
finding. For example, particles can be in two places at
the same time (and we know already that people on
different sides of the planet can have the same idea at
the same time) and that the observer influences energy.
In other words, the observer can affect the outcome of
the research. In the same way, thoughts — being a form
of energy — can also be sensed by others and have an
influence on the energetic communication of teacher
and pupil. The big shocker is to realize that thoughts
count and that each person is responsible for what they
think in the presence of another. When teachers of
singing understand that their thoughts can truly
influence the singing and reactions of their students,
they will take on the responsibility of being supportive
in obvious and subtle ways and find a more positive
means of communicating what they want.
Intent is more than important — it is vital in
teaching and singing. The East has known this for
thousands of years. It is time to include this as integral
to learning, practicing, teaching, and performing. It will
become part of the new education.
To move into the future we deserve for singing
and the arts, we must dance with the times. Here are a
few suggestions:
A. Embrace change. Get out of the
box. The information in singing tends to be
incestuous; that is, it is based on knowledge
contained within the world of singing without
looking elsewhere for useful tools and
information. Look around to see what we can
glean from other performance-based professions
such as sports. From a young age, these people
are taught focus and intent. It is not an extra — it
is crucial to performance success. It is easy to
teach this to singers; we just need to include it.
B. Broaden our definition of
“technique” by embracing all aspects of
performance as part of it, not just what is
happening in the vocal tract or with linguistic
and musical aspects. Technique and performance
no longer need to be separated in the minds of
teachers and pupils. Singers will be far more
confident and grounded with a more wholistic
view of “technique”.
C. Teach singers how to practice —
believe it not, they do not know how. Establish
guidelines for them and help them find a way to
bring joy and fun into every lesson, practice, and
performance.
D. Learn about energy. It has always
been here — we just could not see it, so we
dismissed it as being unimportant. The anatomy
of the human energy field is every bit as exciting
as physical anatomy and acoustics.
E. Understand that we are influenced
energetically by anyone with whom we come in
contact, and take responsibility for the thoughts
and the space in which we teach and learn. Be
open to new directions and avenues in education
and healing for those involved in singing. The
more we train the “whole” singer, the more
creative and exciting possibilities exist for how
that training is used. Not everyone can be a
performer, but everyone can be a healer —
especially singers. We don’t really know what is
around the corner.
The future of singing is the singer who knows
herself or himself and is grounded and authentic in
presentation. The future of teaching is the same. We
have an exciting time of new developments, discoveries,
and teaching ahead of us. Let us enjoy every minute of
the journey.
© 2014 by Meribeth Dayme, Ph.D.
MTM
Learn more about Dr. Dayme on her website.
Baayork Lee takes a break from rehearsal with
her company to talk about the work she has done for 40
years: preserving A Chorus Line with its original
choreography and its original intent with performers
around the world. Lee probably never envisioned that
her life would take this route, especially since she was a
Broadway veteran when she was a child. Performing
was her natural calling, but opening night of A Chorus
Line on Broadway changed her life in more ways than
she could have imagined.
“I was very blessed opening night,” Lee
begins, as she shares her experiences working with
Michael Bennett, the director and choreographer of the
Tony Award-winning A Chorus Line, a show that
changed the Broadway musical. “He said, 'It's all
yours.' And I took the baton and no longer performed.”
Lee met Bennett when they attended
LaGuardia High School, a special arts high school in
New York City. She had begun her Broadway career
several years earlier in the original production of The
King and I, starring Yul Brenner. She also appeared in
George
Balanchine's
original
production
of
Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker. She went on to appear
in more Broadway shows, three of which were
choreographed by Bennett: A Joyful Noise; Henry,
Sweet, Henry; and Promises, Promises. He then asked
her to participate in a series of workshops that would
become the basis of A Chorus Line.
A Chorus Line opened on Broadway on July
25, 1975, and ran for 6,137 performances. The show
won nine Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best
Book, Best Score, Best Direction, and Best
Choreography. It also won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama
as well as the Olivier Award for Best Musical.
It has been nearly 40 years since that opening
night, but Lee remembers the journey vividly. “I have
preserved his choreography, and the way I do that is to
teach as many dancers the work in as many shows as I
can to pass the choreography on.
“What they used to do in the olden days —
when they didn't have film and they didn't have
Labanotation, they would teach the ballet. Anna
Pavlova would teach her 'Dying Swan' to the next
generation, and that's what I've been doing. We opened
in 1975 on Broadway, and by 1976, Michael had
already had the idea to get this around the world. So we
set out to teach and have an international company, a
New York company, a Los Angeles company, and an
Australian company by 1977. I was in charge to take
care of all of those companies. I did all their casting. I
would do the auditions. Then I would put the actors in
the show. For three years, I would go from London to
Australia to L.A., San Francisco, Chicago, wherever. At
that time, Michael was very much alive, and the show
just took off like wildfire!” exclaims Lee.
“When you're doing something and you're
involved in it — creating it, you don't know the effect
you have on the public. Because I'm on stage and I'm
doing my thing, I was very insulated. Michael didn't
like to travel that much, so I got to see the effects of
what he had created in Stockholm and Berlin and
Sydney and in Korea and Japan.
It was just
phenomenal! And here it is 40 years later, and I've been
back to Australia two years ago; I was in Korea and
Japan. We had a company going over every summer for
two years. And we opened in London last year. So it's
just unbelievable that he continues to inspire young
dancers and the old Gypsies. It just does so much for
people who love theatre.”
Our stories are in the
show. I felt a responsibility
to them also.
Lee was around 29 years old when A Chorus
Line came into her life, and she knew the life of the
Broadway Gypsy very well. In fact, she collected her
first unemployment check when she was only eight
years old. Bennett certainly must have trusted Lee
completely to turn his show over to her, but wasn't it
difficult to give up performing when she was such a
young woman?
We coined the term 'triple
threat' because that's what
A Chorus Line needs.
“I had already done 12 Broadway shows, and I
had already done the film Jesus Christ Superstar. I had
done 'The Ed Sullivan Show'.” But A Chorus Line was
different. “Because I was one of the authors, I really
felt a sense of responsibility to carry this on, to teach it
the way Michael developed it. And also, all of us who
are the authors, our stories are in the show. I felt a
responsibility to them also.”
Moving from on-stage to behind-the-scenes
seemed to be a natural progression for Lee. She
explains, “I became a teacher — not only a director, but
a teacher. When we started [years ago], dancers danced;
they didn't act, but they could dance. And actors
couldn't dance, and singers didn't act. So we coined the
term 'triple threat' because that's what A Chorus Line
needs.” Bennett gave the performers what they needed
to do the show. “We had workshops. We gave them
singing lessons, gave the actors dancing lessons because
we do need actors in the show. But here it is 40 years
later, and I don't have to do that because we have all
these Musical Theatre schools now, especially in the
United States.” Schools and college programs dedicated
to Musical Theatre have sprung up in other countries as
well. “We have triple threats now. The dancers do sing,
dance, and act. That's because of A Chorus Line. And
when I go back to these countries to remount the show,
the auditions are a breeze now, whereas before I had to
go, 'I will take him, but he can't even turn or stand on
his feet, so how is he going to dance for two hours?!'”
she laughs. “I don't have that problem anymore because
they're really studying, and they're taking American
Musical Theatre very seriously in Europe.”
In fact, American Musical Theatre is very
popular in Japan and Korea. “In Korea, they do 125
musicals per year! When I was doing A Chorus Line
there, we could only do it eight weeks at one theatre
because something else was coming in. We had to
move to another theatre. They are crazy for musicals in
They are crazy for musicals
in Asia! They absolutely
love our musicals.
Asia! They absolutely love our musicals. Of course
there's The Phantom of the Opera and Miss Saigon —
they all came from England. But they're doing
Oklahoma!, Carousel, and The Music Man, and all the
icons — as well as Spring Awakening. They're mixing
it all up. They're making up for lost time.”
For A Chorus Line, the show has never really
stopped and for good reason. “We opened a 2006
revival, and it didn't run that long, but from 2006 until
last year, we had national companies out. We'll be
back,” reassures Lee. “It's a show that will not die. It's
all about heart, and love, and dreams. Follow your
dreams. I hear patrons say, 'Oh, Baayork, I saw you on
the stage, and I knew I could do it.' Not only that, it's
the dream to be up there,” on Broadway. “People go
back [home], and they start performing in their local
theatres because they want to be onstage, and I'm so
glad to be a part of it. I have been so blessed to have
been in Michael Bennett's life. Other people are
preserving [Bob] Fosse and Peter Janero. But I really
think it's important that we preserve Michael's work.
This is his legacy.”
Bennett's style was influenced by his own
training coupled with the popular dance styles seen at
nightclubs in 1970's New York City. “You have to go
back to his background,” Lee explains. “He was a
fantastic tapper, and his mentor was Jerome Robbins.
He did West Side Story and played Baby John, when he
was very young. So with his background, it was Jerome
Robbins,” that influenced Bennett the most. Then Lee
brings up Promises, Promises, which Bennett
choreographed. “When Burt Bacharach created that
show, it was just Broadway dancing. We went to the
discotheques at night, and we would dance and come
back and do those steps as the dancing in the show.”
The then-modern 1970's music and dance styles were
finding their way to Broadway, revising the look and
sound of the traditional musical. “To have Burt
Bacharach on Broadway and have Dion Warwick
singing all the songs — that was the new sound on
Broadway coming from the recording sessions. It wasn't
Lerner and Loewe or Rodgers and Hammerstein. It was
Burt Bacharach and Hal David. They were the new men
on the block, and Michael Bennett was right on that tail
with that music and the new styles of dancing.
'One' is very stylized, but it
was the connective tissue
of all that dancing within
the stories.
“For A Chorus Line, he created this low,
lunging dynamic kind of dancing that came from West
Side Story and a little bit of Bob Fosse. 'One' is very
stylized, but it was the connective tissue of all that
dancing within the stories. And the stories are not just
about dancers: they talk about our families, alcoholism,
abuse, and incest. All of these things are talked about in
the show.”
Lee goes on to explain the meaning behind the
simple, yet very famous white line that cuts across the
center of the stage. “There are 17 people on that line for
two hours, and each one comes out and tells their story.
What happens in front of the white line is in the present,
and what happens above the white line is in the past.
We start looking at the past, and Michael did that
through dance as that person is speaking down front.
Just the genius of how he constructed the show —
they're teaching the lighting plot in universities now and
how that white line is so important. It's a wonderful
show as a show, but when you start teaching it and
people know about it, it's really textbook. The way it's
structured will be in books and universities forever.”
Teaching the show to the next generations of
dancers is exactly what Lee has dedicated her life to for
the past 40 years. “It's a great show, and I love teaching
it. I think that's why I don't miss dancing or being
onstage because I'm onstage every time I teach the
show. I talk about all the characters that I knew then
and played on the line with me and the process that we
went through to get the product on stage. And I put [the
new dancers] through all of that as I am teaching the
show. Every time I direct and choreograph the show or
do a seminar, they get a piece of Michael Bennett, and
that's what's important.
“The one thing that Michael said to me when
we started out auditioning dancers, 'You only need 27
dancers, but you're going to get 500. So those other
people have to go away with hope, so we must give
them something. We must give them hope.' A Chorus
Line is always going to be around. And that's what I
always say to them, 'Thank you for coming. I can't hire
all of you.' But whatever I teach at that audition, I take
the time for them to learn it so when they leave that
audition and they go home and go on YouTube, they
say, 'Oh, my goodness, I did that combination! That's
exactly what I did. And oh, yes, I got my hand exactly
right on the pelvic bone.' So I teach a class when I
audition. And that's really important.
We're all waiting for
that one person to come
along and modernize
A Chorus Line, and it
hasn't happened yet.
“The kids in United States grew up with A
Chorus Line. The kids in Germany, Stockholm, and
Japan haven't grown up with the musical. So when I go
out and teach auditions, they do go away with
something. They do go away with a piece of A Chorus
Line. And I always say, 'I'll be back, so you better be
ready. Work on your pirouette.' So everybody leaves as
though they've won. They didn't get the contract, but
they came away with a piece of the show, and that is
what's important.”
With Lee the helm, A Chorus Line has a long
future ahead of it, and she knows why it is still relevant
40 years after it opened. “We're all waiting for that one
person to come along and modernize A Chorus Line,
and it hasn't happened yet because we were so ahead of
our time,” she says frankly. “Marvin Hamlisch's music
and orchestrations were so ahead. That fourth montage,
it's out of the '70's, but it's still relevant now, and I still
teach that. Those boogie steps still work!” Lee laughs.
“As far as the choreography goes, I really think if we
continue to pass it on, it will survive for the next 100
years. It's like with Fosse's work. Somebody will come
along and do Chicago or some other show [of his]. But
those fingers on the hat and those hips rolling are
Fosse's. Fosse's work will be around forever. And I do
believe that Mike's work in A Chorus Line will be also.”
What we teach young
dancers when they go into
A Chorus Line is how to
get through life.
Even without asking, it is pretty obvious which
Broadway show is Lee's favorite. “Out of everything
I've done, it's A Chorus Line. It has to be A Chorus Line
because it's my life. My life is in the show; I'm one of
the authors. And I've spent more than half my life
teaching it around the world, and talking about it, and
lecturing about it. I found my own company, National
Asian Artists Project, for Asian artists to perform in
shows like Oklahoma!, Carousel, Hello, Dolly! We've
just done Oliver! And I love all those shows! I love
what I'm doing for my community, and eventually, I will
do an all-Asian cast of A Chorus Line. But A Chorus
Line is a lesson in life.
“What we teach young dancers when they go
into A Chorus Line is how to get through life. We are in
a straight line, and elbows have to be just right; and
when you change position, you have to really be in sync
with those people next to you. That teaches you how to
work with one another. We also have numbers on the
stage, and it teaches us that you have to be on your
number or else. It's like driving: you've got to stay in
your lane. There are so many lessons to be taught when
you're standing on the line and you're watching
somebody else tell their story. You can't be thinking
about what you going to have for dinner or 'I need to do
my laundry.' You have to be immediate. You have to be
present every single moment. You have to not think that
you've heard those stories for the past year. How do you
do that? And has anybody written the book on how to
be in a show for 15 years or how to do it every night and
be fresh?
“A Chorus Line teaches you that because we
give you the tools. We say, 'Change your motivation
tonight. I know you're doing a monologue the same
way every night, but you can't be a robot.' Because we
weren't robots as the originals performing our own lives.
Because we lived them, and I went through everything.
I saw Maria Tallchief dancing The Swan Lake. So when
I'm singing about her, those pictures are in my head.
When I'm directing the show and I say to the girl who's
playing Connie, 'What was the first ballet did you see?
And who inspired you?' She might say Gelsey Kirkland
or whatever ballet company. So we'll use her, and we
go to the Internet, and we print out pictures of that
ballerina. And we put them all over her dressing room
just so she understands, 'Oh, that was my idol.'”
Lee recounts her own experience of idolizing
Maria Tallchief, an important facet of Connie, who is
based on Lee's own life when she performed in
Balanchine's Nutcracker. “I used to go downstairs and
steal her all her pointe shoes when everybody was gone
and get them out of the garbage can and sleep with them
— that's how obsessed I was. That girl who's playing
Connie Wong has got to be obsessed with somebody. If
it's Gloria Stephan, then it's Gloria Stephan, even
though she's singing about Maria Tallchief. But it has to
be someone she's obsessed with.”
When you come to the
audition, be prepared to
do everything.
Since it is such a
well-known show, the requirements for
auditioning for a role are varied. Lee lists
several tips on how to get ready for one,
singular audition. “A Chorus Line is not
only about dancing,” Lee reiterates. “We do
dance you first, and you do need to be in
shape. You need to have some kind of
training, so that's the first thing. We ask if
you can do double pirouettes. There are actors, and we
need singers. Maggie has to hit that note. She may not
be able to do a double pirouette, but she's got to get that
note, 'At the ballet, at the ballet!' She's got to soar. And
of course, Zack has to be an actor. So were talking
about a triple threat. You have to be a singer, dancer,
and actor. When you come to the audition, be prepared
to do everything.”
Lee adds general advice for a life in musicals
along with her recommendations for A Chorus Line.
“If you want to be in the theatre, you have to be around
it. If you want to be in film, you gotta get to
Hollywood. If you want to be in the theatre, you have
to come to New York. Usher at the shows and sell Tshirts; go to the dancing schools and talk to them about
it and be with it, and then it will happen. It will happen,
but you've got to be around it. And you've got to take
your acting lessons, and your singing lessons, and your
dancing lessons.
“What's so wonderful is that all these Musical
Theatre schools such as Carnegie Mellon, Cincinnati
Conservatory: you've got four years to prepare, so that
when you come out, you're ready to hit the pavement.
You got your pictures, your songs, your résumé; you've
got your music books; you know where to take your
lessons. Years ago, we weren't encouraged to go to
college because they didn't have Musical Theatre
There was no tap dancing
or any Musical Theatre
singing; you were going to
be an opera singer.
courses. You were either a Martha Graham dancer, or
you're going into the ballet. There was no tap dancing
or any Musical Theatre singing; you were going to be an
opera singer. But now, they've got wonderful Musical
Theatre courses,” at colleges around the United States.
The success of Broadway wonders such as A
Chorus Line have helped change the curriculum
Stateside and abroad. “I just love to see what A Chorus
Line has inspired for the past 40 years. When I was in
Australia in 1975, they had nothing. I had to get the
dancers to act and the singers to dance. But they have
some incredible Musical Theatre schools now. And I
went back, and it was a breeze! They can act and tap
and sing. They have incredible companies there.”
Because A Chorus Line is such a legendary
show, it can seem overwhelming to the newbie. Does
the average Musical Theatre performer have what it
takes to be in A Chorus Line? Lee responds flatly,
“They don't in the beginning.”
Forty years of
experience auditioning dancers for the show has
perfected her radar. “They come in, and I can assess
immediately if they've had any kind of training or if
they understand anything about dance. Their résumé
might say they played the lead in Oklahoma!, and I will
keep them because I might need that voice; I might need
that actor. Then, if they blow me away as singers, I will
see how much it will take for me to train them to at least
look like they got through the audition. But there are so
many performers in A Chorus Line. As I said, Maggie
has to hold that note, and if she's not a fantastic dancer,
that's fine. She'll give us that note. But then I start
working with her on her dancing.
“It's a constant learning process when you enter
the world of A Chorus Line. You go back to the
beginnings, and you learn to work with one another.
And I'm so happy when somebody says, 'Oh, this is my
first show!' And I say, 'That's great because you're
It's a constant learning
process when you enter the
world of A Chorus Line.
going to learn so much here. And you're going to take
this with you for the rest of your life.'”
For A Chorus Line, Lee has very specific
requirements for performers. “You have to warm up
before the show, and that's in the contract,” she begins,
describing the process of working with dancers and nondancers. “You have an hour's warm-up. I do a special
warm-up to get your thighs and quads in shape and your
legs nice and long — because people aren't taking ballet
class anymore. I don't know why. But we do have a
ballet combination because you have to have long lines;
and those arms have to be flowing. And they'll say,
'Well, I've never had a ballet class.' At the end of this
rehearsal, it's going to look as though you had,” Lee
counters.
“[A Chorus Line] is lesson in theatre. They
should teach it in universities. When Michael Bennett
says, 'You're on the line,' it doesn't mean I'm standing on
the line. It means the dresser who helps change us in
the back, they are on the line also because of that quick
change; and the dresser has to have the shoes and the
costume and the zip up and the hat ready — she's on the
line. And then in pitch black, the spot man is on the line
Everybody involved in A
Chorus Line is on the line.
because in the middle of the show, they have to just put
the light on, and the actor has to be there. He can't be
searching for them. So they are on the line every single
night.” Every person on the crew and sitting behind the
boards is on the line. Even the musicians in the pit.
“There are only eight minutes that they do not play in
the show because Marvin Hamlisch underscored the
entire show.” Hamlisch's score was unique to Musical
Theatre at the time. “He had just won his two Oscars
underscoring film. So he treated it like a film.
Everybody is underscored; everybody has their theme
song. And it's only Paul who starts out with his theme
song, and then there's nothing. It gives a chance for the
first time for the musicians to at least take a break.”
Keep in mind, A Chorus Line does not have an
intermission.
The musicians “have been playing
nonstop! So they are on the line also,” says Lee.
“Everybody involved in A Chorus Line is on
the line. So when they finish the show, it's like, 'Whew!
I didn't miss that cue,' or 'Boy, I didn't have the shoes in
the right position, and she didn't make her entrance.
That person didn't do that well. That's when I say,
'You're fired!'" Lee exclaims, laughing. Or perhaps not.
"Because you have to be at your best, at the top of your
game if you're doing A Chorus Line, and there's no
slouching off. That man who turns the mirrors — he's
got to turn it, turn it, turn it, and it's got to hit right on
the beat when we're jumping. The effect is turn it, turn
it, turn it, and when we start jumping — boom! So he's
on the line, too, that stagehand in the back.”
Forty years has not diminished Lee's love for A
Chorus Line or for Bennett. “I love the genius of
Michael Bennett. When I'm teaching the show, I love it
more and more and more. I make sure that I talk about
these things that I'm talking with you about.” She
mentions an example when Bennett referred to Tony
Award-winning lighting designer Tharon Musser, who
designed the light plot for A Chorus Line. “When
Michael said to us, 'Now look, kids, Tharon wants to do
this with the lights,' and the singers and dancers were
going like, 'Yeah, yeah, whatever.' Michael said, 'Look
at what the dressers are doing because one day
you're going to be doing this.'” Bennett clearly had
intentions for the performers to take the show out to
other companies, to spread A Chorus Line far and wide.
Lee remembers one incidence in particular when
Bennett's words came true. “I was in Italy putting on A
Chorus Line, and they didn't buy the lighting package.
And I said, 'No, that's the wrong color!' And I realized
that I knew the lighting plot by heart.”
Do you want to survive in
this business or do you
want to do a couple of
shows and go away?
“I tell every company — though they might be 19 or 20
years old — I say, 'Watch everything, listen to everyone,
and understand what the show is about; and you will
survive in this business.' Do you want to survive in this
business or do you want to do a couple of shows and go
away? If you want to survive in this business, you have
to take care of your body. We give you a one-hour
warm-up, and then we vocalize you for 15 minutes.
And then, you do the show for two hours. If you're on
the road, you go to the gym, and you keep in shape.
That prepares you for New York.
“That song — 'another hundred people just got
off of the plane' — from Company by Sondheim, it's the
truth.” Every summer, another round of university
graduates descends upon the Big Apple to make their
dreams come true. “They are coming to New York to
try their luck. So if you graduated last year, you are old
hat because you've got a fresh new bunch coming.” Lee
finishes with some sage advice. “What's going to make
you different? You've got to be at the top of your
game.”
MTM
Lee's final tips to anyone performing in A
Chorus Line ring true for all performers in every show.
Find Baayork Lee on Twitter: @BaayorkLee, and check out
her company, National Asian Artists Project.
Hormones affect all of us at some point, whether on a
monthly basis or during a major life event such as
puberty, pregnancy, or menopause. Hormones can
also be a health factor in certain diseases, such as
Diabetes. And yes, men can also feel the unwanted
effect of hormones run amok. I asked Dr. Barbara
DeMaio Caprilli to shine some light on hormones and
how they affect singers' voices, since that was the basis
of her DMA research.
Trish Causey
TC: What lead you to choose hormones as the focus
for your work?
BC: I am a post-hormonal elite opera singer who went
through vocal changes due to menopause.
TC: What exactly is a hormone? How does it get
created? Why are hormones important to the body?
BC: Webster's Dictionary defines a hormone as “a
product of living cells that circulates in body fluids (as
blood) or sap and produces a specific often stimulatory
effect on the activity of cells, usually remote from its
point of origin.” Hormones have many different “jobs”
and come from different places in our body; they are
present in all cellular organisms. Estrogen, which is
created principally in the ovaries, is just one of a family
of hormones known as estrones. Interestingly, our body
fat can turn andrones into estrones which is why the
researcher Jean Abitbol believes that women with a
“Rubens” body will fare better in menopause than
women with a “Modigliani” body.
TC:
How specifically do hormones affect the
physical parts of the vocal anatomy and/or vocal
production?
BC: There are estrogen receptors on the vocal folds;
once these receptors pick up andrones (male hormones
such as testosterone) rather than estrones, vocal changes
occur, including the thickening of the epithelium
(covering) of the vocal folds and heightened
calcification of the laryngeal cartilage.
TC: How does puberty affect the voice since that is
a major hormonal change for the body (the first
major hormonal change)? How are girls and boys
affected similarly as well as differently by the
hormones of puberty?
BC: During puberty, the larynx grows larger in both
men and women; the female larynx lengthens instead of
growing outward, which is why men have an “Adam’s
apple” and women don’t. As estrogen leaves the male
body, testosterone and other andrones hit the estrogen
receptors on the vocal folds and cause a thickening of
the epithelium (covering) of the vocal folds, as well as a
lowering of the voice. This is much like what happens
when women go through menopause. The estrogen in
the female helps the larynx stay more supple than the
male larynx. If men stop singing in a crico-thryroid
dominant falsetto as they go through puberty, the larynx
will begin to lose its suppleness; it’s a “use it or lose it”
proposition. This is also true of menopause; once the
change starts to happen, the crico-thyroid muscle will
begin to weaken if women don’t keep exercising it.
TC: How are women's voices affected by the regular
hormonal fluctuations of the monthly menstrual
cycle?
a natural process. As we age, the cartilage in our body
slowly turns to bone. When we are born, our larynx is
like rubber, and that flexibility helps us get through the
birth canal. As we get older the larynx begins to harden;
not always a bad thing, by the way. Dr. Ingo Titze, a
renown voice scientist, believes that the hardening of
the larynx is one of the reasons why big voices mature
later. The ossification, or hardening, of the arytenoid
cartilages create a better “hold” for the tissue, which
would explain why dramatic voices mature more slowly
— the larynx needs to be harder in order to support the
stress a big voice puts on it without deforming.
However, the ossification that appears after menopause
can be so severe that it begins to impede the movement
that needs to happen for the larynx to operate properly
in singing. The "cornu" at the bottom are a type of
hinge, and when the cartilage hardens, that hinge can
malfunction.
TC: What effect does hormone-influenced health
issues (such as being overweight due to high-cortisol
levels and/or slow thyroid) have on a singer's voice?
BC: There are entire dissertations and studies written
on this one question, but in brief, the hormonal
fluctuations can cause vocal swelling, hoarseness, and
even loss of the voice.
BC: Once again, this is outside of my realm of
expertise. However, since estrones are stored in fat
tissue and since fat tissue turns andrones into estrones,
the bigger issue here is when singers lose weight too
quickly; that can set off a virtual “hormonal storm” in
the body.
TC: We women joke about men having a monthly
period, but do men experience regular hormone
fluctuations as well? If so, how does that affect their
voices?
TC: When women are in peri-menopause or full-on
menopause, what challenges do they experience
BC: This is not in my realm of study, however, an
excess of testosterone can cause a
permanent lowering of the voice.
One of the Singing Voice Specialists
in my study told me about a study that
had been done where women were given
testosterone; it permanently lowered
their voices, but none of the women
wanted to stop because it gave them so
much energy.
TC: What other natural hormonal
issues (i.e., pregnancy, breastfeeding,
post-partum, etc.) affect the voice and how?
BC: All of these things can cause hormone
fluctuations. Once again, it is because
of those pesky estrogen receptors on the
vocal folds, as well as the effect that hormones
have on the ossification of the cartilage in our
body. Our cartilage is always ossifying. I like to say,
“If you’re not ossifying, you’re dying.” Ossification is
vocally in addition to the physical side effects of this
major hormonal upset?
BC: I wrote many pages on this in my dissertation.
The condensed version is that every woman is different.
Everyone experiences perimenopause and menopause
differently. The vocal symptoms included the lowering
of the voice in sopranos and the loss of low notes in the
operatic mezzos. Almost all of the participants in my
study reported issues with their primo passaggio.
Some women in my study had a much rougher
time with perimenopause than they did menopause.
Others, including myself, noticed nothing at all until
they were post-menopausal. The women in my study
reported fewer hot flashes and night sweats than I
expected after reading the literature on this subject.
Mood swings, depression, and weight gain are common
symptoms and showed up in my study as well.
TC: Are there noticeable hormonal differences or
hormonal issues between the vocal fachs, i.e.,
soprano vs. alto/contralto, or tenor vs. bass?
BC: Men are outside of the parameters of my study.
The only difference between sopranos and mezzos in
my study was that the sopranos lost high notes and the
operatic mezzos lost low notes. The Musical Theatre
mezzo/belter in my study reported no vocal change. I
theorized that the operatic mezzos, having always sung
in a head-dominant mix, were affected because their
chest notes are now much more on the chesty side. In
simple terms, I think they don’t know where those notes
“live” anymore, and for that reason, they find them
more difficult to reproduce.
TC: Are there some general tips for maintaining
healthy hormone levels for singers? Food/drink
recommendations and/or restrictions?
BC: All singers, male and female, should follow
standard vocal health guidelines throughout their life.
Normal aging affects the dryness of the vocal folds, so
hydration is more important than ever. As a general
rule, anything that has ever been a problem in life will
get worse during normal aging, so the control of reflux
is crucial throughout life.
Since some reflux
medications can worsen osteoporosis, the singer must
work closely with his or her doctor and get regular
check-ups.
TC: What are some signs of hormonal issues that
would indicate a singer needs to get checked out by a
medical professional?
BC: All of the voice professionals and many of the
participants in my study recommended that female
singers should get their hormonal levels checked at an
early age and continue to monitor them as they get
older. This will help the doctor and the singer to
identify when perimenopause begins and aid in the
decisions about HRT (hormone replacement therapy).
TC: Are there ENT's or other medical doctors who
specialize in helping singers experiencing hormonal
health issues?
BC: Yes! There are many gynecologists that specialize
in hormonal issues. There are several outstanding voice
centers in the United States who work closely with
singers for all vocal issues. Here is a short — and by no
means complete — list that I recently put together for a
friend:
• Cleveland Clinic: Dr. Benninger
• Duke Voice Center in Raleigh, NC: Leda
Scearce
• Emory Healthcare in Atlanta, GA: Marina
Gilman
• New York Eye and Ear
• Dr. Peak Woo
• ProVoice Center in Cincinnati, OH: Wendy
LeBorgne, Ph.D.
• University of Michigan: Marci Rosenberg
• UT Southwestern in Dallas, TX: Dr. Mau and
Dr. Childs
• Vanderbilt in Nashville, TN: Bill Wilkerson
MTM
Dramatic Soprano Barbara DeMaio Caprilli, DMA, is
Assistant Professor and Director of Voice Pedagogy at
the University of Central Oklahoma. She has
performed the great roles of Puccini and Verdi in some
of the greatest theatres in the world, including La
Scala, Verona, and Torre del Lago Puccini. She
teaches both opera and Contemporary Commercial
Music styles at the University of Central Oklahoma, is
Artistic Director of the American Singers' Opera
Project, and is a Level III Certified Somatic
VoiceWork© teacher. She completed her DMA in
Vocal Pedagogy at Shenandoah Conservatory with her
dissertation entitled “The Effect of Menopause on the
Elite Singing Voice; Singing through the Storm.”
Learn more about Dr. Caprilli's work and workshops at
her websites: www.barbarademaio.com as well as
www.asop-inc.org.
“Sex Hormones and the Female Voice”
Research findings of Jean Abitbol and his team
“[T]he authors examine the relationship between hormonal climate and the
female voice through discussion of hormonal biochemistry and physiology and
informal reporting on a study of 197 women with either premenstrual or menopausal
voice syndrome. These facts are placed in a larger historical and cultural context,
which is inextricably bound to the understanding of the female voice. The female
voice evolves from childhood to menopause, under the varied influences of estrogens,
progesterone, and testosterone. These hormones are the dominant factor in
determining voice changes throughout life....
“The vocal instrument is comprised of the vibratory body, the respiratory power
source, and the oropharyngeal resonating chambers. Voice is characterized by its
intensity, frequency, and harmonics. The harmonics are hormonally dependent. This is
illustrated by the changes that occur during male and female puberty: In the female,
the impact of estrogens at puberty, in concert with progesterone, produces the
characteristics of the female voice, with a fundamental frequency one third lower than
that of a child. In the male, androgens released at puberty are responsible for the
male vocal frequency, an octave lower than that of a child.
“Premenstrual vocal syndrome is characterized by vocal fatigue, decreased
range, a loss of power, and loss of certain harmonics. The syndrome usually starts
some 4-5 days before menstruation in some 33% of women. Vocal professionals are
particularly affected. Dynamic vocal exploration by televideoendoscopy shows
congestion, microvarices, edema of the posterior third of the vocal folds and a loss of
its vibratory amplitude. The authors studied 97 premenstrual women.... We obtained
symptomatic improvement in 84 patients.
“The menopausal vocal syndrome is characterized by lowered vocal intensity,
vocal fatigue, a decreased range with loss of the high tones, and a loss of vocal
quality. In a study of 100 menopausal women, 17 presented with a menopausal vocal
syndrome. To rehabilitate their voices, and thus their professional lives, patients were
prescribed hormone replacement therapy and multi-vitamins. All 97 women showed
signs of vocal muscle atrophy, reduction in the thickness of the mucosa and reduced
mobility in the cricoarytenoid joint. Multi-factorial therapy (hormone replacement
therapy and multi-vitamins) has to be individually adjusted to each case depending on
body type, vocal needs, and other factors.”
Jean Abitbol, Patrick Abotbol, and Beatrice Abitbol. “Sex Hormones and the Female Voice.” Journal of Voice,
13, No. 3. September 1999: 424-46.
The Journal of Voice is a publication of the Voice Foundation.
Brian O'Neil is the author of New York's #1
selling performing arts book, Acting As a
Business: Strategies for Success, which won a
spot on Entertainment Weekly Magazine's Top
Ten "Show-Biz Industry Bibles." His books are
required or recommended reading in many
conservatory training programs, including Yale
and Juilliard. Actors who have worked with
O'Neil have become the stars of major motion
pictures, recipients of Emmy Awards and a
Golden Globe, have become the stars of
“Orange Is The New Black” and “HBO's True
Blood”, among others, as well as landed leading
or supporting roles in the Broadway productions
Once, Peter and the Starcatcher, Ching-lish, Al
Pacino's The Merchant of Venice, American Idiot,
Enron, and Next Fall, to name a few.
TC: Tell me about your new book, Acting as a
Business, which just entered its fifth edition.
BO'N: Well, the first edition came out in 1993, so a lot
has changed. I've made this version more bi-coastal, so
there is a of focus about the agent/actor relationship.
How to get a meeting, how to prepare for the questions
they'll ask you, how to research projects so you can
have effective communication, how to follow-up. A lot
of focus in those areas.
TC: What does an agent do as opposed to what a
manager does? How does a performer know if an
agent is a legitimate professional in the business and
not a scam artist?
BO'N: Most agencies are union franchised and listed in
a publication called Call Sheet — at least in the big
cities. Also, ImdbPro.com is a wonderful service to
research an agency or a manager. Who the agent's
clients are, what jobs the clients are booking are found
on ImdbPro.com. These are indicators as to the quality
of the agency or management. No agent or manager
gets a dime until the actor has worked, and the work is
then commissionable by the agent and/or manager.
An agent's primary function is to be an
employment agent. Seek auditions to help find actors
work. A manager oversees all aspects of a performer's
career, which often includes getting the performer an
agent. Technically, a personal manager is not a licensed
employment agent. But many mangers are former
agents and have kept their contacts with the casting
world. So, whatever the legalities may be, many
managers, do in fact, seek employment for their clients.
Even if it's only to the point where they can take a client
who's now "on the map" to a good agency, where the
combined synergy, ideally at least, can be of benefit to
all parties. Some actors get an agent and a manager
from the get-go — a team that is working for them.
TC: When does a performer know when it's time to
get an agent and what is the process of finding an
agent who will take on a performer as a client?
BO'N: I think the time to seek an agent is when you
feel you are ready to compete at a professional level that
actually might get you work. For some, it's the age of
five (this is almost always decided by the parents!); for
others it's twenty-five. .School showcases, referrals,
mailings of pictures and resumes, and having the good
luck of just happening to be in something that someone
in the audience who is in representation sees are the
main ways actors get agents. For example, Tom Cruise
got his first manager because the manager happened to
go out to a high school production of Guys and Dolls
that Cruise was in in New Jersey. Next thing you know,
she was getting him professional auditions.
TC: When you give guest lectures at universities
such as NYU, what are the main concerns of young
performers looking to break into the Broadway/
professional theatre business?
BO'N: I'd say the big bazooka is the "agent" thing.
The students know that the agents have access to
auditions that they won't get on their own. And it's all
very mysterious to them. My job is to break it down
and show them that it's far from mysterious. If they are
Musical Theatre performers, they should be concerned
about their repertoire, or song book. Making sure
they've got the right stuff for the right shows when those
auditions come around. They're also often confused
about their type because in an educational environment,
they've often been cast out of their actual age range and
playing characters they won't be considered for in the
real world. So we do a lot of talking about how the
performers "see themselves" to get it on the same page
as the way the industry will probably also perceive
them. I especially enjoy that. It's kind of funny how
some students just don't know how young they are! So
they'll name a role they want to play that they wont even
be considered for in the "real world" for possibly
another 10 or 15 years. I tell them not to worry, time
moves very swiftly and the day will come when they
may be considered for those roles. It's just not "now".
TC: Getting your name out there has always been
important for an actor and was typically done
through resumes, headshots, even business cards and
postcards. Are business cards and postcards still
relevant today? What kind of marketing tools does
an actor need to have in their possession at all times?
BO'N: Yes, actually the business cards thing is the
newest of the three (when we include headshots and
résumés). And it's become increasingly important to
have a demo reel available for viewing online. Mostly,
the business cards are used at networking events or
sometimes paper clipped into a thank you card.
Postcards are still relevant because many agents and
casting directors will delete unsolicited email.
However, if a photo postcard lands on their desk, they
can see it when they see it. And the visual image is
there without having to "open" anything. Some industry
people find email an intrusion unless they've
specifically given their email address to the performer.
One huge commercial agent recently said, "I look at
every piece of hard copy an actor sends in the mail to
me. It takes some time, a stamp, the visual image is
there, and I'll be honest, I delete most emails, which cost
nothing, take no time, and overload my inbox." Also,
actors who are using email follow-ups need to know
how critically important the subject line is if they want
the email to be opened. For example, "December
Update from Joe Smith" doesn't at first glance look
much different from "November Update from Joe
Smith" or "Great to meet you at Actors Connection".
But if your subject line says: "Final callback for B'way
replacement in Wicked", well it has a better chance of
being read.
TC: How has the internet changed how actors
network themselves to prospective agents, directors,
casting teams? Even Broadway shows have taken to
YouTube to cast leads and feature performers.
BO'N: Some smaller agents and managers do welcome
email submissions and say as much on their websites.
Also, a lot of actors "follow" casting directors without
expectation of reciprocation on Twitter where they
sometimes put out a link to an immediate casting need.
And now there's an Internet service that constantly feeds
updates all day! Such as: "The EPAs for the National
Tour of Jersey Boys replacements are now up to number
103". And actors get wind of what's going on all around
town in this fashion!
It's wise for anyone who teaches or has a
service for actors to have integrity, because actors make
comments on instructors and coaches as well. And it's
wonderful that you can put up an audition on YouTube,
or a clip, because you can control the content by doing a
few takes. Something you don't get to do in the "room."
Also, I would say the major effect of the
Internet and casting is the speed at which things happen.
When I was an agent, a messenger came to my office,
picked up the envelopes of submissions, got on a
bicycle, and rode them to their destination. Or you
physically sent over your reel, which was a plastic
contraption which usually ended up getting lost. Or, for
film and TV auditions? You were always sent to the
network to "pick up your sides with the security guard
who will be at his desk in the lobby." Wow!
TC: Should actors only do paid gigs or are non-paid
gigs such as a new musical workshop or a cabaret
event at a local venue conducive to a performer's
emerging career?
BO'N: Oh, I think it's crazy to have a "no pay" rule. I
mean there are times when it's not feasible or takes
energy away from something else that has priority. I go
to a lot of readings at theatres. They're almost always
free, and you never know who might be in it because no
real actor is "above" a reading. I can't tell you how
many readings I've seen Bobby Cannevale in. When
you're that successful, you're always mining and looking
for good material. You have many offers, but you want
to see what's out there that's of real interest to you. And
readings and workshops are wonderful networking
events for performers. People mingle, sometimes
refreshments are served. Sometimes there are
talkbacks. And then, of course, you can put in a Google
Alert to track the future progress of the project.
TC: When should an actor say “no” to a job or
performance gig?
BO'N: I would say that if they can see that things are
warming up for them and it could set them back. Like if
they're getting final callbacks for Broadway or being
tested for pilots, it might not be wise to accept a six
week gig at a regional theatre somewhere in the middle
of the country right in the middle of such high potential
stakes. Sure you can often put the audition on tape, but
they often want to meet you too. Especially for the big
stuff. So the logistics of travel and timing and expense
can complicate things at times.
TC: Does going to college really matter?
BO'N: It can. So many young actors get picked up by
representatives after a college showcase. Of course
there are many who don't. In "my day", the academic
environments weren't as much of a feeding frenzy for
young talent as they are today. And agents like students
from the top programs because often the casting
directors have also seen the performers work at said
showcase, and that makes the whole process an "easier
sell" for the agent. And yet … there are no rules. I just
saw a fantastic 17-year old in an Off-Off Broadway
play. I personally think he should just go for it, get in
on the "youth market" because he is ready! But I think
he wants to go to college, and far be it for me to
discourage anyone from getting a good education.
That's his call to make for himself.
TC: What has surprised you about how the business
has changed since you first started out as an agent?
BO'N: Well, certainly the rampant rise of the pay-tomeet venues! They're not as controversial as they once
were. In my agency days, we were absolutely not
allowed to participate in any event where we got paid.
Not teaching. Nothing. The only acceptable way to
receive payment from an actor was through a legitimate
commission. And the complete demise of the soap
opera world in New York! It was such a great way to
break in, because the small speaking roles were almost
always cast without an agent and actors could get them
through postcards. And yet, we now are exploding here
with prime-time, but it's not as "self-accessible" as
daytime was. And I miss that.
TC: Any final tips on “Acting as a Business” in the
unpredictable world of Broadway?
BO'N: Well, Broadway is flourishing, whether people
are happy with the offerings or not! Again, I come from
a time when Broadway was really dying and most
industry people thought it couldn't be saved. In the late
1970's you could walk around the theatre area and see
theatre after theatre empty. Not so now! And that
excites me. It's different, but it's there and vital. And
that makes me very happy! And I think with shows like
"Glee" and TV specials like "The Sound of Music" and
"Peter Pan", Broadway is gaining strength. It was once
a very big part of the national entertainment scene, what
with hit songs from shows on the "radio", Broadway
talent on variety shows, and original cast recordings
way up on the charts. I mean, in early 1964, the original
cast recording of Hello, Dolly! was right up on the top
of the charts with the Beatles. So there's a new "gust of
wind" with Broadway, and it thrills me. Just walking in
that area that, 25 years ago, one avoided at night, and
now it's lit up, and bustling, and ticket sales are strong
(despite their expense!). Except for the expense part, it
thrills me. And you know, having seen Broadway
shows for decades now, I realize the younger
generations don't have a great sense of history. People
actually think seeing names from film and television on
Broadway is new. I've been seeing 'em my whole life!
MTM
Order Acting as a
Business: Strategies for
Success,now in its 5th
printing and is now
available on Amazon:
To work with Brian O'Neil
or check out his
upcoming teaching
schedule, contact him for
a consultation:
ActingAsaBusiness.com
Disenchanted! is a new musical determined to turn the
tables on the old “princess story” that is regurgitated
in film and pop culture. Dennis T. Giacino wrote the
Book, Music, and Lyrics, creating a Princess Posse of
strong women who are taking back their stories and
proving that there's nothing wrong with being strong
or with being different. Fiely A. Matias, the director,
was kind enough to chat via phone about this
irreverent, funny, campy, and yet very important show.
TC: I'm loving what I've seen about Disenchanted!
so far. Tell me how the show came about.
FM: The show was started by my co-creator Dennis.
He wrote the book, music, and lyrics; and I threw some
jokes in there. He was a history teacher, and he used to
teach about Pocahontas — the real Pocahontas. It was
around the same time that the Disney version of
Pocahontas came out. And in the real story, she was 10
years old when all this happened. But when the Disney
version came out, she was this voluptuous, miniskirtwearing, hair-throwing supermodel. He thought, “What
would the real Pocahontas think of Disney's version of
Pocahontas?” So he wrote the song “Honestly”, which
asks can we honestly talk about what really happened
instead of the Disney-fied version? And from then on,
he thought, “What would Snow White and all the other
princesses feel about how their stories were exploited
and redrawn to be more sexy and to wait for their prince
to come? So that's when all these other songs came to
him. We put a cabaret together of the songs, and it was
such a big hit that we kept exploring how much we
could turn it into a show.
TC: Since the creators of the show are men, one can
only assume both of you identify as male feminists....
FM: People ask that of us a lot. We are surrounded by
very strong women. Dennis was adopted, and if you
meet his family, his mother is very strong. But our
fathers died when we were in our early 20's, so we were
raised by very strong women who had to make do with
the circumstances they were given. I have three sisters;
he has twin sisters. They're all very strong influences.
TC: But your empathy goes beyond that....
FM: I'm gay. Dennis is gay. So we both come from a
standpoint of understanding what it feels like to be a
minority, what it means to be bullied, what it feels like
to have body image issues — to be what society thinks
we should be as opposed to what the reality is.
TC: I've seen this meme that says, “Cinderella
wasn't looking for a prince, she just wanted a pretty
dress and a night off.” If you look at the core of the
princesses' stories, even the Disney versions, these
were all independent females, looking to find their
own path — only to have the other people in the
story try to shoehorn them into preconceived roles
according to society's mores.
FM: The Disney-fied versions are just as crazy as the
original fairytales. In the original “Little Mermaid”, the
guy doesn't fall in love with her, so she becomes a foam,
committing suicide, in a sense, so she can watch over
who the guy ended up with. We were like, this is crazy!
And yet, these are the stories that have been handed
down the line. And then Disney created all these new
fairytales, and we were like, Hey that's not reality.
Our show is about self-acceptance, and that
“happily ever after” isn't all that it's cracked up to be.
You could reach for happiness and for balance in your
life — your self-acceptance and knowing that you are
all you really need. All the other stuff is icing, but the
cake of your life has to be self-acceptance of who you
are, what you look like, and celebrating what you have,
not what you don't have.
TC: What were the princesses you both chose for
Disenchanted!, and what are their journeys?
FM: We have six actors portraying 10 princesses.
Snow White is the leader of the pack, and we chose her
to be the leader because it was the first fairytale that was
Disney-fied. The basic premise of the show is that the
princesses are incensed as to how society has portrayed
them through pop culture and how their images were
used to tell stories that were untrue. They were so
incensed, they went to Cinderella's Fairy Godmother
and said, “Please bring us to life so we can create a
show to tell the truth!” If you're familiar with the Three
Stooges — Larry, Curly and Moe, Snow White is Moe;
and her cohorts are Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty.
The show has very feminist ideas and things
we want to say. We wanted to create a show that was
very funny and spoke the truth through comedy. We
want to preach through comedy. We thought that was
the best way to get our message across. If people laugh,
there's a slight message underneath. If you see the show
two or three times — which a lot of people do, the first
time they see it, they say, “Oh, that's really funny, I
really enjoyed it.” But the second and third time, if you
listen to the lyrics and what we're really saying, there
are messages that are deeper. We
tackle sexual identity. We tackle
body image and more.
So Snow White has
gotten the show together, and
she is a strong, controlling,
alpha female. She realizes that
in trying to get the message
across, “I've been overcontrolling people to the point
that I'm not
letting them be themselves.” She wanted the show to be
perfect, but she realizes she was trying to make Sleeping
Beauty into something that wasn't organic to her.
Sleeping Beauty is a bull in a China shop. She
doesn't fit into the princess mold at all! She says, “I
want to be who I am.” Throughout the whole show,
she says, “Why can't I do this? Why do we have to tell
it this way?” As Snow White says, “Because it has to be
perfect. Because we have to get this message across.”
By the end of the show, Sleeping Beauty sings a song
called “Perfect”, saying, “I am perfect the way I am.”
Cinderella is with the gang, the Princess Posse.
She's the most “princessy”. At one point, she throws
her glass slippers
because they're so very
uncomfortable, and she
wears flats. She then
realizes that being a
princess isn't all it's
cracked up to be. She gets
more grounded during the show.
TC: The other princesses are
no less fierce in their
pursuit of
story equality,
are they?
FM: Tiana, the one who kisses the frog, her statement
basically is, “When I was finally introduced to society
as a cartoon, I was a frog for most of the movie. So
that's not gonna happen anymore.” She sings a song
called “Finally” and says, “If I'm going to be here, I'm
going to be myself.” Even in the Disney version, she's
still very homogenized. There is an aesthetic that has
been stripped of them. She looked very homogenized,
very Caucasian.
TC: For Pocahontas, they combined the “looks” of
three different ethnicities rather than focus on an
American Indian woman. And with Tiana, the
African-American princess, she was a frog for half of
the movie. What does that say about America's
standard of beauty as placed on “princesses”, which
heavily influence our young girls?
FM: Beauty comes in all shapes, sizes, and colors.
Desigual put a woman with [the skin condition] vitiligo
on as a model, and I thought that was beautiful. We are
all part of this. There is not just one set of beauty
standards. We are all beautiful in our own kind of way.
So that's when a “frog” comes in and says, “If I'm going
to be an African-American princess, then I need to be an
African-American princess, not a watered-down
homogenized version.”
We have another actress who plays three roles.
She plays Mulan, and in her song “Without a Guy”,
expresses that she's the only princess without a guy.
And she comes out as a lesbian in the song. She also
plays Princess Jasmine, but Jasmine is the name in the
Disney movie; the real name of the princess is
Badroulbadour. She sings a song called “Secondary
Princess”, which — in a lighthearted way — talks about
“Why is my story secondary to Aladdin's?” It's our
comment on Middle Eastern misogyny. In her song, she
talks about how women are secondary in cultures like
the Middle East, but she says that in a very funny way.
But we also say, “Why are all the stories in a lot of
Disney movies where the women are secondary? They
fall in love with a guy, and then they're supporting the
guy's story.
TC: I remember watching Mulan, a film that was
supposed to be about a young, independent woman
finding her own way via honor and respect. But
what was important to her was secondary to what
was important to the men around her.
FM: In the sequel, Mulan falls in love, and I thought,
“Why? Why does she need a guy?” So in our show,
she sings the song “Without a Guy”. We thought, we're
going to attack it head on. She was a military girl, but
she was also alone. So what's wrong with being a
lesbian?
TC: Shows like Disenchanted! help rewrite some of
the stereotypes of women in pop culture as well as
old fairytales. These stories need to be re-told and
need to be re-told more often. Audiences need to
experience them.
FM: We've had parents bring their teenagers, even as
young as 12. The kids today are experiencing even
more bullying at an earlier age over more issues because
of social media. [The parents] are bringing their 12 to
16-year-olds, their fathers and sons, and opening up a
conversation about body image and sexual orientation.
The show has opened that conversation between
families, so we're proud of that.
MTM
To learn more about the show, the songs, and the
characters, as well as to order tickets, visit the
Disenchanted! website.
For as long as I can remember, I knew what
New York City was. I did not know exactly where it was
or why everyone talked about it. All I knew was I
wanted to be there.
As someone who grew up in Winston-Salem,
N.C., a mid-sized city in central North Carolina, I was
not lacking in artistic exposure. There was an art
museum literally in my backyard where I attended
shows on a regular basis. I was the girl who knew what
Broadway was, knew a few musicals' names, and could
rattle off a few Broadway actor’s names. Then the film
adaptation of Rent came out, and everything I knew
literally went up in smoke.
Sitting in the movie theater on Thanksgiving in
2005 with my mom and dad waiting for the movie to
start, I had absolutely no idea what I was about to
watch. Two hours later, I was forever changed. I
walked out of that theater wanting to know anything and
everything about the musical I had just seen. I didn’t
even know that Rent was a Broadway show at that point
— all I knew was the story I had just seen and music I
had just heard resonated with the trials and tribulations I
was going through at the time in a way I never knew
existed.
Over the next few months, I became obsessed
with Rent. I would come home from school and do my
homework while blasting the movie soundtrack then the
Broadway album, one after the other. I couldn’t talk
about anything else with my friends either, so they
kindly put up with my blabbering on and on about it.
And I may have talked my parents' ears off about finally
visiting New York City and possibly seeing Rent while
we were there. After one of my infamous pleadings at
the dinner table for a New York trip, my mom finally
laid down the law, in no uncertain terms: we were not
going to New York anytime soon, and that was that.
You could say that I was crushed for a few
days, but thankfully, my family knows me a little too
well. Soon after the dinner battle, my aunt surprised me
not only with a trip to New York to celebrate my 15 th
birthday but orchestra seats to Rent.
On July 14, 2006, I walked through
the doors of the Nederlander Theatre
with my mom and immediately
started crying. To say that seeing the
show was a religious experience
would be an accurate description, and
I will go as far as to say it decided
what my future career goals would
be. I may never have been a drama
kid, a dancer, or an actor, nor was I
the kid who was handed CD after CD
of cast albums. But I was a writer.
And local companies were always
putting on their own productions, plus
the two major universities in
Winston-Salem opened their doors to
the public on a regular basis. For
whatever reason, none of this was
enough to make me forget about New York City.
I knew after that night of seeing Rent at the
Nederlander that Broadway and theatre were all I
wanted to write about. I saw Rent almost ten years ago,
but the decision I made to be a theatre journalist that
night is one that I never looked back on. Now, I am a
recent college graduate, who like many other recent
graduates, made the bold decision to move to New York
City right after graduation. So after accepting an
internship position at American Theatre Magazine, I
arrived in the Big Apple on August 31, 2014, with two
suitcases, reservations for a two-week sublet, and not
very much in my bank account.
To say the path of getting here and making it
here has been like running a gauntlet is not far off.
Finding an internship and receiving an offer was hard
enough, especially in the limited field of theatre
journalism. Living the life of a New Yorker was a
different game altogether! No one ever tells you how
unrealistic any episode of “Sex and the City”, “Friends”,
or “Seinfeld” is from actually living in New York. The
poor, starving artist life is far from the high-end outings
that Carrie Bradshaw goes on; and being in the city can
be scary, exciting, and amazing all at once. If you know
you are meant to be here, though, you find ways to
make your dreams a reality. That is when New York
truly becomes one of the most amazing places on earth.
Over the past four months that I have been in
the Big Apple, I have come to love theatre more than I
ever thought I would. I have had the internship where
the job description was much more glamorous than the
coffee runs or the dry cleaning drop-offs I had to do.
Now, I am actually doing what I have always wanted to
do — write about theatre. I sit in an office where people
talk all day about who acted in what show, what they
thought of the most recent Broadway opening, or how
they know a certain someone, and that is completely
normal. I have had the opportunity to write stories
about small theatres and their world premiere shows
they could not stop talking about. I have interviewed
someone who was having their first professional show, a
show that took three years to put together and finally got
on a stage. (I have even been able to write a story that
included Frozen references.) After all of this, I can
honestly say I have seen the true impact of theatre and
the performing arts, and I realize just how vital they are.
To be only 23 and have the job I have always
dreamed about is a feeling that I cannot even begin to
describe. I never thought it would actually happen.
This goes back to when my college professors would
ask what I wanted to do with my journalism degree once
I graduated. When I said I wanted to be a theatre
journalist, the responses I received were, “Oh, that’s
nice. Good luck with that.” Or my favorite: “Theatre
journalism? Is that an actual job?” So it was nothing
short of thrilling when I emailed a few of them as my
byline appeared in the most recent issue of American
Theatre Magazine!
To say that I am lucky to have the opportunities
I have been given in the past few months is a drastic
understatement.
Occasionally, I still find myself
walking around in wonder. When I see one of the iconic
New York City landmarks, I have to say to myself,
“This is your backyard. The city is yours.” That
newness might wear off soon, but what I never want to
forget is how this city taught me how to be me. I have
been here just four short months, but I know that I am
not the same person who walked off that plane at the
Newark Airport on August 31st. The energy that comes
from living in New York brings out the version of
yourself you were always meant to be. And for the first
time in my life, I’ve found that.
MTM
Photos by Megan Wrappe
The irreverent musical comedy troupe,
Forbidden Broadway, has struck again, going straight
for the Broadway industry's jugular with a sharp, witty
harpoon of scathing lyrics and madcap bafoonery. Their
latest album, Forbidden Broadway: Comes Out
Swinging!, pulls no punches when it comes to
skewering everything that did and did not work in the
previous Broadway season.
With 33 years of laughs in the bag, this most
recent album spoofs the recent Broadway productions
Aladdin, Annie, Bullets Over Broadway, Cabaret,
Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Kinky Boots, Les Miz 2014,
Matilda, and Rocky, plus NBC's “The Sound of Music
LIVE!” television special, and individual entertainers
Liza Minnelli, Idina Menzel, Jason Robert Brown,
Cyndi Lauper, and Mandy Patinkin, to name a few.
Produced by John Freedson and Gerard
Alessandrini, the performers include Carter Calvert,
Scott Richard Foster, Mia Gentile, and Marcus Stevens,
who each take turn singing lead. They sing rather
unabashedly, “Forbidden Broadway comes out
swinging... / but we've inserted lyrics perverted / to put
producers through hell.”
Don't think that children's musicals are given
special treatment because they involve kids. Matilda,
Annie, and Billy Elliot are grilled, with the “Director”
calling the pint-sized performers: “Vermin with Equity
cards”, and referencing a former Broadway show: “I
will squish you like a Spider-Man hydraulic.”
Rodgers and Hammerstein's belle of the ball is
the center of attention in “Cinderella”, as the leading
lady is accused of being a “plastic duplication of a
Beauty and Beast ingenue.” They laud the diversity of
having had a Hispanic Prince Charming, but found the
show itself to be less than adequate, according to
Forbidden Broadway: “No one here has the goods /
We're not Into the Woods / and we'll never get work on
stage again.”
The Bridges of Madison County spoof is one of
the best and has to be heard to be truly appreciated.
(And it's not for young ears.) In “Idina – Let It Blow”,
not even the original Elphaba is spared. “I am the queen
at last. / Streisand is in the past.... / For some reason I
caught on.” The (almost) title song “Bullets Under
Broadway” takes note that musicals set in the 1920's are
staged frequently on Broadway and tend to pull various
songs from the time period rather than offer an original
score — or as the Forbidden Broadway cast sings,
“Composers just get in the way.”
For the Cyndi Lauper schtick, a very important
fact is front and center: the lack of female composers on
Broadway. As “Cyndi” sings, “Female composers don't
win Tonys for fun, / and girls just wanna win one.” Of
course, the real Lauper did win the Tony for Kinky
Boots, but Broadway definitely needs more female
voices on the creative end of new musicals. That is, if
Broadway would actually support new musicals —
another point heard frequently on the CD as they lament
Broadway's habit of presenting revivals of revivals of
revivals.
The CD contains pictures from the revue, and it
is clear the show's costumes purposely have an elevated
“homemade” look to them, which makes the songs even
funnier. The songs are not only perfectly executed for
the characters, but the singers' voices are eerily wellmatched to the performers they satirize. From Sylvester
Stallone to Idina to Liza, the remarkable similarity in
vocal quality, nuances, and quirks is uncanny.
Interestingly, another theme that appears
repeatedly is the commercialization of Broadway and
the high cost of Broadway, both for the productions and
the audiences. The song “Juke Box Medley” is a pointed
condemnation of the “Broadway nickelodeon”. “Stale
nostalgia” is getting creepy. / It's like Madame Tussaud's
with an axe. / Broadway is a House of Wax.” And in
“Aladdin”, the Forbidden Broadway team squares off
with Disney head on. “Disney cheese... / It's a trend,
never to end permanently.”
If you kept up with the Broadway season, then
you will gasp in disbelief at some of the things they say
on this album. If you only halfway paid attention, you
will still laugh out loud at the audacity of the fearless
bunch at Forbidden Broadway. Even though we love
our Broadway shows and entertaining icons, it's okay to
step back and have a good-hearted laugh at this crazy
business. With Forbidden Broadway, mocking show biz
doesn't get any better.
MTM
“Forbidden Broadway:
Comes Out Swinging!” is
available on Amazon.
Check out these new releases and updated editions on the art and craft of Musical Theatre,
plus books of monologues to help with auditions. Available on Amazon.com.
If you had a love-hate relationship with NBC's
“SMASH”, be brave and get back out there on the
scripted art-imitating-the-arts scene and watch “Mozart
in the Jungle”. Amazon, the online shopping giant, has
moved into Netflix's territory and created a new online
scripted series for Amazon Prime members. Based on
the book of the same name, Mozart in the Jungle: Sex,
Drugs, and Classical Music by Blair Tindall, the series
takes a dramatic-comedy approach as it explores the
trials and tribulations of being a professional musician.
Unlike “SMASH”, which came across as a
fairytale-cum-1980's-after-school-special about making
it on Broadway, “Mozart in the Jungle” is based on
Tindall's 25 years of experience as a professional oboist
in New York City. Playing in the pits of Broadway
shows and top orchestras as well as the lowliest dives
just to earn a living provided Tindall with a unique
insight into the behind-the-scenes world of music: the
sex, drugs, and backstage dramas audiences never see.
For Amazon Studios, an excellent cast of Alisters and twenty-somethings was assembled to play the
old guard and the new at the fictitious New York
Symphony. Lola Kirke stars as the young oboist Hailey,
whose dream is to play in the symphony while living the
less than ideal life of taking low-paying music gigs and
teaching snot-nose rich kids.
She laments to a friend
that during her time in NYC, scraping by to live and
find real work in the music world, she has learned,
“None of it is about the art.” She quickly discovers that
playing in a professional orchestra is more about
politics, ageism, and sexism than music. Her saving
grace, and quite possibly her downfall, is the newlyhired eccentric conductor, Rodrigo.
The passionate Rodrigo is played by Mexican
actor Gael García Bernal with all the spice and flare one
would want from a hotblooded Latin artiste. His arrival
at the symphony as the new maestro is meant to infuse
new life into the stagnant orchestra but causes quite the
shake-up instead.
Bernal's top-notch performance
ranges from the expected exuberance to sensitive
introspection, as a former child prodigy trying to find
his way as a man who lives and works by his instincts in
the rigid, often claustrophobic world of classical music.
Golden Globe nominee Malcolm McDowell
plays Thomas, the aging resident conductor whose
position has been moved laterally to unimportance as
Rodrigo's star arrives to boost the symphony's image
and financial donors. McDowell takes well to the baton
and huffiness of a spoiled conductor being sent out to
pasture. As the season progresses, Thomas' attitude
changes considerably and is well-played by McDowell.
Tony Award winner Bernadette Peters hits the
mark as the president of the symphony and tireless
fundraiser Gloria. Peters does an excellent job of
balancing her portrayal of the chilly elite board member
with her trademark timing and subdued comical
reactions.
Tony Award winner Debra Monk shines as the
acerbic oboist Betty, a long-standing and stalwart
member of the symphony who takes umbrage at the less
experienced Hailey moving in on her territory. Betty
accuses Hailey of sleeping with Rodrigo to land her spot
with the orchestra, and she is in no mood to help the
newbie settle in to her turf.
Other characters who round out the 10-episode
season include the wise-cracking, f-bomb queen Lizzie,
the savvy but ailing cellist Cynthia, Hailey's Juilliard
dancer-boyfriend Alex, and Bob, the union rep who is
obsessed with bathroom breaks. Throughout the
episodes, the quirks of the individual artists is subtly
highlighted, whether it is the way a dancer naturally
tendus or rolls through the feet while simply standing or
an oboist sucks on her reed when not playing or talking
or how a cellist or pianist unconsciously stretches their
fingers. All in all, each character is realistic and wellwritten, even if some of the drug-related antics seem
far-fetched. (And yet, author-oboist Tindall knows best,
so perhaps it is all true.)
One aspect of the show that is very real is the
difficulty in earning a living as an artist in the classical
fine arts while society-at-large increasingly prefers
everything to be digital, sampled, and auto-tuned rather
than performed by a live artist. In one scene in the third
episode, a reporter asks Thomas, “Is classical music
dead?”, to which the maestro replies, “That is sheer and
utter nonsense.” The life of the artist is never easy, but
it seems to get harder as time goes by, as music is being
stripped from school curricula and the requisite years of
devoted training in the fine arts is further perceived as
archaic and irrelevant in today's culture. This coupled
with the unwillingness of many classical companies to
adapt to modern tastes and interaction with audiences
has hurt even large symphonies and opera companies,
especially since the economic recession of 2008.
“Mozart in the Jungle” tackles this head-on from several
angles throughout the season.
Another theme repeated throughout the 10
episodes deals with unions and their unique binary role
as the champion in the musicians' lives as well as the
unapologetic thorn in the company's side. The character
Union Bob spends a good bit of his time announcing the
required bathroom breaks that must be taken in a timely
manner according to union rules and lamenting the state
of the breakroom fridge. While this may be written to
add some comic jabs, unions are extremely important to
professional artists. Unions exist to protect the artists in
a myriad of ways, from negotiating contracts to
ensuring the working conditions are safe for the
performers and technicians. When one of the older
musicians is in the hospital, he remarks that even the
jello on his food tray will cost him because meals are
not covered under his insurance plan. In one, all too
brief scene, Union Bob, Cynthia, and a couple of other
musicians bring up the issues they face: symphony
management wants to gut their pensions and insurance
while cutting their pay and laying off musicians. The
older musicians fear for their jobs as less experienced
and lower-paid newcomers, such as Hailey, represent
the new guard taking jobs away from the old guard —
whether by auditioning the old-fashioned way or by
sleeping their way to job security.
“Mozart in the Jungle” features cameo
appearances by virtuoso violinist Joshua Bell and Rock
of Ages alum Constantine Maroulis. Best of all are the
real faces in the symphony — actors playing roles and
actual symphony musicians, all of whom look like real
people, not Hollywood types who need hand-doubles to
fake the instrumentation during the music scenes.
The series is geared toward a mature audience
for language, sexual content, and the portrayal of drug
use. This backstage drama of sex, drugs, and politics in
the arts is familiar to anyone who has spent enough time
in a professional company or a busy non-profit
performing arts group. Overall, “Mozart in the Jungle”
encompasses the believability and vulnerability of the
professional music world that most Broadway fans
wished had been written into “SMASH”. “Mozart in
the Jungle” is not Musical Theatre (yet), but it is a very
enjoyable, entertaining, and heartfelt look at the
hardships faced by professional artists. Better yet, there
is no waiting to watch episodes because Amazon
released the entire season December 23, 2014, for all
your binge-watching pleasure.
MTM
To watch "Mozart in the Jungle”, join Amazon Prime.
The book is available in paperback and on Kindle.
Look for Season 2 of “Mozart in the Jungle” in 2015.
When we left Chanteuse, she had just
experienced a lovely, warm, tingly feeling when she was
describing the kind of voice she wanted to produce.
Intrigued by this feeling, she was eager to discover what
else Mr. Wisesong would say about becoming a
complete singer.
Chanteuse thought to herself, When I had the
idea to seek out some sages of singing, I never imagined
the variety of answers I might receive. And, now I am
in the most unlikely of places, having tea with a kind
teacher who has already begun to take me into a whole
new realm of thinking about singing. WOW!
Mr. Wisesong, while peering intently at
Chanteuse, began to ask more questions. “Tell me,” he
said, “what do you sense around us at the moment?”
My, she thought, he is certainly good at taking
me in directions that never crossed my mind. Ooookay,
here goes — I think that I am feeling....
At that point, Mr. Wisesong smiled kindly. He
was used to singers not being sure about what they felt.
Many began by saying what they were thinking—a
common response of people educated to be
analytical/critical in their approach. He said gently,
“Are there any sounds you hear?”
“Oh, yes,” she said, “I hear lots of birds, the
wind in the leaves, an airplane over head.”
“Great,” said he. “What else?”
Hmmmm, he wants even more, she thought.
Okay....
Straining to hear, she added the sounds of
people talking in the distance, some construction going
on further down the road and a barking dog. She soon
realized there was a whole lot of sound of which she
had had little awareness until that moment. She was
suddenly alert to an amazing cacophony of sounds.
“Well done,” said Mr. Wisesong. “That is only
the beginning. What other things might you be sensing?
For example: Are there any smells or aromas? What
colors are you seeing? How does the air feel to you?
What happens when you engage all of your senses?”
Chanteuse didn’t dare to say it, but she was
certainly thinking, Isn’t this supposed to be about
singing? What am I to do with all that information
coming at me? I should concentrate on what I am
doing when I am singing, not losing my focus and
becoming aware of everything around me.
Finally, taking her courage in hand, she said,
“Tell me how I would use all this information in
singing.” She thought that focusing on the words and
the music should be more than enough.
What followed was, to Chanteuse, a completely
unexpected response.
Mr. Wisesong began. “Everything around us is
vibration — sounds, colors, odors, even the air we
breathe, and you as well. We learn this in elementary
chemistry and physics. Your whole being is imbued and
nourished by these vibrations. As they are invisible, we
tend to put our attention on what we can actually see,
which is only a tiny percentage of the whole picture.
We feel some of our own vibrations and rhythms in our
breath and heart beat. However, there is so much more.
In a way, you could look at singing as a conduit for all
these sounds. All the vibrations around you are, in
effect, a kind of orchestra that backs up your singing.
When you are so focused on the act of singing that you
lose all awareness, you cut out a large contribution to
your sound. Learning to use all of your senses and a
heightened awareness is essential to becoming a
complete singer. You are song itself. Tapping into that
understanding will change your voice in ways you never
dreamed.”
“Oooohh,” she said. Of course, we all know
that music is a vibration. But we tend to forget that it is
really just one kind of vibration. We isolate it and
expect it to work with no help from its “family”.
Hmmm. This gave her much to contemplate.
At this point, Mr. Wisesong suggested an
experiment. “Sing a verse of a song you know well for
me. First, sing it with your full concentration on your
voice and the text.”
Chanteuse sang in her best “I must get this
right” voice and was moderately satisfied with how she
performed. After all, this was her normal habit in
singing.
“Now,” he said, “become aware that every
single sound — even those that seem like noise — and
all other sensory elements are part of you and your
song. Allow them to become your song and
accompaniment. Take a moment to tune in to this and
then sing again.”
Chanteuse was good at concentrating, and she
proceeded to sing again with full sensory awareness of
her surroundings. What came out so stunned her that
she had to stop for a moment to recover. She had never
experienced her singing as part of the whole. What a
difference it made! Her voice became much more
resonant and the ease with which she sang simply
astounded her. She wanted to sing and sing and never
stop. This is bliss, she thought.
Still in shock, she turned to Mr. Wisesong and
asked how this would work in a performance. “This
was fine in a natural setting, but what about an audition
or a gig, or a concert? Surely, it is not the same
situation. I can feel how I was cutting out much of my
sound and quality without awareness, but do I really
need to include, the audience, and all the extraneous
things going on in that circumstance?”
“Yes,” he said. “You are all in it together. It’s
not just you. Singers tend to want to block out most
everything but their singing and maybe the
accompaniment. When they do that, they also block out
the audience they are intending to reach — no matter
what kind of audience it is. By including all that is
going on in the performance space, your sound will fill
it, and it will be a win-win situation for you and the
audience. The audience wants to be part of it as well.
“Learn to do the same in an audition. All the
whispers and paper shuffling can be part of your song. I
dare you to experiment with this. You are not alone on
stage with no support. That feeling of being naked does
not need to exist.”
This was so much food for thought that she
was now completely overwhelmed. Sensing this, Mr.
Wisesong finished with the following suggestions:
“Wake up! And become aware…. Your whole being
and your singing are fed by your awareness. Awareness
in nature. Awareness in practice. Awareness in
performance. Awareness in the theatre!”
On leaving, Mr. Wisesong said to Chanteuse, “I
want you to go and live with this for a few weeks before
you return. Live as a vibrating human being who is
sharing all the other vibrations of the moment — in your
daily life, and of course, in your singing. Don’t try to
make it happen, just have the intention of becoming
aware.”
By now, Chanteuse was completely captivated.
She could not wait for her next visit to Mr. Wisesong.
“What’s next?” she asked.
“Play,” he said.
MTM
To learn more about Meribeth Dayme, her courses,
and her books, visit her website, CoreSinging.org.
My name is Arbender Robinson, and I am
a very lucky individual. For as long as I can
remember, I used to sit at home with friends and
family and watch the Tony Awards year after year.
This was my only chance to catch a glimpse into
the world that I loved and hoped to one day to
be a part of. Watching the two-minute clips from
each show would provide me with a full year of
enjoyment as I studied every note, nuance, vocal
styling, and acting choices of my new favorite
Broadway Stars. I took every acceptance speech
to heart and convinced myself each actor was
speaking to me, encouraging me, and
empowering me to keep hoping and wishing to
one day be on that stage at Radio City Music
Hall. My poor VCR would get quite the workout
as I played the video over and over again
throughout the year. That day of the Tony
Awards was just as epic to me as the Super Bowl
was for my father or the March Madness NCAA
Basketball tournament was for my brother.
You may be asking yourself what makes
me so lucky? On June 8, 2014, was that
glorious day on which viewers from around the
world tuned in to watch the Tony Awards. Here is
my story from that incredible day....
This marks the 68th year of this annual tradition
of the Tony Awards, and once again, I am as excited as
ever. I say “excited” because — believe it or not — I
am now one of those actors on stage. Yes, I will be
performing on the Tony Awards with the Les Misérables
company as we hope to be the lucky cast to take home
the Tony Award for best revival. This year we have
tough competition with Hedwig and the Angry Inch and
Violet. These shows were very well received and led by
the amazing talents of Neil Patrick Harris and Sutton
Foster.
It is 6:00 a.m., and I spent the last ten minutes
staring at my alarm clock, amazed that the morning has
come so quickly. I feel like I just crawled into bed after
a long week of press events and shows. In fact, last
night was a two-show day, and my body is used to doing
a matinee on Sunday, but instead my body is very upset
that five hours of sleep is all we will receive as we head
into this epic day.
We do not know who the
winners are ahead of time.
While getting ready for a long day, a frantic
vocal and physical warm-up is followed by a mad dash
to the theatre. My call is 7:30 a.m. to get into costume,
hair, microphone, and makeup in order to gear up for the
run-through of the entire awards show. Let me say now
that we do not know who the winners are ahead of time.
Even in rehearsal, nothing is revealed. I have to say that
now because I know that is what most of the readers are
questioning.
A few actors, including myself, Heidi
Giberson, and Max Quinland are the early birds and
arrive to the theatre. Heidi comments, “This is what
five hours of sleep feels like.” The smile on her face is
confusing me; is she delirious, genuinely happy, or
smiling to hide the pain of just coming off of our
seventh Les Mis show of the week? (We later learn, she
actually had a little time to spend with her cat this
morning and that, during this awards season, is a
luxury.) We walk into what we think is a deserted
theatre only to hear music and noise coming from the
basement. Who could it be? Well, it’s our company
management, and they have set up a continental
breakfast buffet. As we peer around the corner, we see
our hair department deep into their work, prepping wigs,
setting hair pieces, and tweaking facial hair.
I wonder if they have even been home or to bed
yet. It just seems impossible when I do the math. Last
night, our show ended at 11 p.m., and most actors are
out of hair, makeup, and wigs by 11:30. I know the prep
for the next show, today at 3 p.m., takes a good hour, if
not longer. If we assume they exited the Les Mis
building between 12:30 and 1:00 a.m., and their call
here at Radio City was 6:30 a.m.... Well, that does not
leave much time for sleeping at all.
I guess now would be a great time to explain
why we are here so early. Today, the day of the Tony
The day of the Tony
Awards is our only day to
rehearse the telecast.
Awards, is essentially our only day to rehearse the
telecast. There are so many logistical things that
actually make this night happen! Camera angles, great
vocals, sound quality, lighting, and transportation. Lots
of it. This full dress rehearsal had to happen before the
matinee performances of most of the shows. I never
knew this until I was asked to be part of the telecast
with the Les Misérables Company.
We look at the callboard and see this is our
schedule for the day:
7:30 a.m.: Call to the theatre to get dressed.
8:30 a.m.: Board a bus from the theatre to
Radio City Music Hall.
11:00 a.m.: Board bus to return to the theatre.
11:30 a.m.: Get out of microphone, costumes,
hair, and makeup.
This is very important because we need to
allow some time for our wardrobe staff and hair staff to
prep for the show. When I say “show”, I mean the
eighth show of the week of Les Misérables — not the
Tony Awards. Most of us will grab a quick nap if we
can, and the rest of us will make last-minute trips to
clothing stores to be sure that our personal wardrobe for
the day is completed.
A short two hours later at 1:00 p.m., we begin
prepping for the 3 p.m. Les Mis performance. Vocal
warm-ups, physical warm-ups, and for me personally,
it’s my 45-minute workout at the gym to get my body
ready for the show. At 2 p.m., our fight-call happens
onstage, and at 2:30, the house opens for the show. I am
praying that the audience is a good one. I am already
sleepy, so their energy will hopefully help me get
through the show. The next thing we hear is, “Five
minutes to curtain. This is your five-minute call!”
At this time, the entire cast gathers in Wardrobe
Village. Wardrobe Village is where the entire male
ensemble essentially lives and changes during the show.
Our dressing rooms are too far away, so our entire act is
spent rushing in and out of our “Wardrobe Dugout.”
The cast gathers, and we have a major dance party for
five minutes. Today was a special Tony Awards edition
of our “Dance Party”. The theme song was “New York,
New York”, and the disco ball was lit and spreading its
pixie dust on the cast as we danced as hard as we could.
The song filled us with emotion as we all recalled being
that kid waiting by the television for those Tony Awards
to begin. “Places” is called, and the party comes to an
end. It is time to work.
The audience cannot know
that we are all working on
five hours of sleep … that
we have already been
working for seven hours.
The audience cannot know that we are all
emotional, the audience cannot know that we are all
working on five hours of sleep or less, and the audience
cannot know that we have already been working for
seven hours; almost a full workday for most.
The time is now 6 p.m. and the show just
ended. We have now been working nearly 11 hours, and
it's only half over.
Now things get a little interesting. The Les Mis
audience leaves, and we have an hour before we have to
be dressed again for the Tony Award performance. Our
leads that will be featured on the “Red Carpet” are
whisked away to get dolled up for the cameras. The red
carpet event begins promptly at 7:00 p.m., and that is
exactly one hour after our show ends. The cast has a
little extra time, and at 7:30, our bus arrives to take us
over to Radio City. I always wondered how the leading
players looked so great on the red carpet. I knew that
most just finished a performance, the eighth
performance of the week. I guess this is a great
testament to the wonderful work that our makeup and
wardrobe personnel do on a daily basis.
As we exit the theatre, we see fans with
cameras waiting to wish us luck, share their love and
Photos by Arbender Robinson
support for the work we do, and give us that last boost
of confidence we need before performing for the rest of
the world.
We arrive at Radio City and wait on the bus
until a stage manager comes to get us. More fans line
We have no idea who
just performed before us,
and we have no idea
where we are going.
the streets as they try to get a sneak peek into
the windows of the bus. All of a sudden, we
hear, “You are on in 10 minutes,” and we
quickly exit the bus and head into Radio City.
The energy is overwhelming, and our nerves
begin to intensify. We have no idea what’s
happening in the show. We have no idea
how many people are inside. We have no
idea who just performed before us, and we
have no idea where we are going.
We find ourselves in a stairwell that looks like
a fire exit. We stand in silence, collecting our thoughts
and calming our nerves. Then we hear another call from
a stage manager. We follow that person to the next
holding area and notice that we are now backstage. We
are joined by our “red carpet” friends that left the
theatre an hour ago. I was shocked to see them also in
full costume. It was strange to me that they left the
theatre, got all dolled up, just to remove the glamour
and get into costume. Before we knew it, they were
introducing our number, “One Day More”, and we gave
what felt like the performance of a lifetime.
We all realize that this
performance is “forever.”
The final note of the music ends, and
something unusual happens. The cameras have to pan
and get a view of the audience clapping. In order for
this to happen, they turn on the house lights, and we see
how vast Radio City Music Hall actually is. We also see
the 5,000 people on their feet, cheering for us. We see
cameras swirling around us and over the audience, and
we are overtaken by emotion. It was quite amusing
because the rough and determined characters that would
fight the French Revolution were all smiling and
holding back tears of joy. As the curtain comes down,
we all realize that this performance is “forever.” Kids
like me may have recorded it, and more fans can now
watch it online.
The lights go down, and we are quickly herded
out the fire escape stairs and back onto the bus. Our
“red carpet” friends are taken to get back into their
“glamour look”, and the Tony Awards continue.
For us, the time is now 8:30 p.m., and we have
been going for 15 hours straight. We travel back to the
theatre, quickly get out of costume, frantically get
dolled up, and head to our “Tony viewing party”. This
is where the rest of the cast, crew, staff, and company
gather to watch the show. Our party was at the House
of Brews, and we cheered and watched the Tony Awards
just as we did as children. The only difference is we
were rooting for co-workers, not just actors we admired.
By now, you are tired,
seeing double, wishing you
were home in your
pajamas and slippers.
We were nervous about our own show, if we
would win or not, and held our breath as our category
was announced. Unfortunately, Hedwig, starring Neil
Patrick Harris, beat us, but we were still overjoyed to
simply be nominated.
The time is now 11:00 p.m. — 18 hours into
the work day. The Tony Awards ends, and we then head
to the After Party. This event is where you are reunited
with your family that actually went to the Tony Awards
and those “red carpet” performers, who were
nominated. This is when you congratulate the new
Tony winners or share love and support for your
colleagues that did not win an award. By now, you are
tired, seeing double, wishing you were home in your
pajamas and slippers. Instead, you still have a few more
hours of duty and celebration. Our After Party was at
Capitol Grill, and I must admit, the steak was amazing.
I won’t go into too much detail here because the After
Party was really our private time. It was our time to
spend together as a full company and celebrate our work
so far.
Twenty-one hours after waking up this
morning, the After Party is complete. It is now time to
go home and back to reality. Lucky for us, Monday is a
day off. However, there are a number of shows that
have performances today as well….
As I write this and reflect, I am filled with
emotion. I just performed on the Tony Awards.
MTM
To learn more about Arbender Robinson and his
Broadway career, visit his website: Arbender.com.

baayork lee rebecca luker kurt deutsch backstage at the 2014 tony

Transcription

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