his father`s son - Indian River Magazine

PERFORMING ARTS
SEASO N O F T H E ART S
HIS FATHER’S SON
BY L. L. ANGELL
THOMAS WINTER
John Loesser, The Lyric Theatre’s executive director for the past 15 years, relaxes in the landmark venue.
The son of a Broadway legend, John Loesser has
translated the business lessons he learned from
his famous father into a formula for success for
Stuart’s newly renovated Lyric Theatre
J
ohn Loesser remembers piggyback rides with author
John Steinbeck and playtime with Liza Minnelli and
Candice Bergen. Loesser, executive director of the
Lyric Theatre in Stuart, is the son of composer-lyricist
and Broadway musical giant Frank Loesser, whose hit
shows include Guys and Dolls and How to Succeed in Business
Without Really Trying.
“My dad was the last of the heyday, the golden age of
Broadway composers,” Loesser says.
Loesser’s showbiz savoir-faire, plus the financial acumen
he learned from his father, has served Loesser well. As
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executive director for the past 15 years, he has transformed
The Lyric from a seldom-used landmark to one of the leading
performance and concert theaters in South Florida.
Born in 1950, Loesser lived in Hollywood until age 5, when
his family returned to New York City and Frank’s first love:
Broadway. John’s mother, singer Lynn Garland, co-wrote
Baby, It’s Cold Outside, with Frank. The song employed the
overlapping conversation style of two people talking. The
couple initially performed the song at parties. In 1948, Frank
Loesser sold the song rights to MGM, which included it in
the 1949 Esther Williams’ movie Neptune’s Daughter. It went
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PERFORMING ARTS
CHANCE AT STARDOM
Loesser remembers his one shot at being a child star. Alfred
Hitchcock visited one day and “He took one look at adorable
little me, age 4, and told my parents he wanted me in a new
film he was making called The Trouble with Harry. The plot calls
for the little kid to discover a dead body. Well, my parents told
Hitch, ‘No way,’ ’cause it might make me cry. Years later, I wondered, ‘What’s the big deal? My parents made me cry all the
time anyway. I might have become the next Shirley Temple.’ ”
Instead of an overgrown child star, Loesser is a regular guy.
Sitting at the Osceola Café on Flagler Avenue in the heart
of Confusion Corner in downtown Stuart, he greets many
passersby by name.
Never mind that work crews are racing to finish the
theater’s big face-lift in time for the first show of the season
― Lorrianna Colozzo performing A Night at the Opera on
Nov. 14. Or that The Never Everglades, part of The Discovery
Series, is slated for the morning of Nov. 18. Or that two
days later is An Evening with Clint Black, on Nov. 20 and 21.
Hopscotching from the opera to children’s theater to country
and western music is typical of Loesser, who wants The Lyric
to be everybody’s theater.
“I pay a lot of attention to who lives in this area,” he says.
“I want to offer a broad spectrum of entertainment and keep
ticket prices affordable.”
An early riser, Loesser starts his days with a drive from
his island home in Vero Beach. En route, he listens to a wide
range of music on satellite radio, including Top 40, classical
and whatever is on NPR. He scans pop stations “tracking
what’s up and coming,” arriving like clockwork for a 7 a.m.
breakfast at the Osceola Café. He is dressed in his trademark
baseball cap, tie, oxford shirt and blue jeans. As he enters the
café, Loesser remembers an endless stream of Who’s Who
in America.
“John Steinbeck was my dad’s best friend,” Loesser says
over coffee. “And the guy talking to me and tugging his
beard? That was Mitch Mitchell, the creator of Sing Along
with Mitch.
Loesser calls his parents’ frequent parties “huge affairs
filled with important people and boisterous, opinionated
conversations. Everyone talked to me like I was an adult,” he
says. “But really, I was a nebbishy kid.”
There’s nothing nebbishy about Loesser now or about the
Lyric Theatre.
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SEASO N O F T H E ART S
on to win an Academy Award that year for Best Original
Song. Frank also won Tony Awards for Guys and Dolls and
How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, for which he
also won a Pulitzer Prize.
The couple divorced in 1957, when John was 7. Two years
later, Frank married Jo Sullivan, one of the leading performers in the musical Most Happy Fella. Frank died of lung cancer
in 1969 when he was 59 and John was 19.
“My father lived very well,” Loesser says. “Massive quantities of scotch, cigarettes and food. He could do anything he
wanted and was really good at it.”
Loesser says that when his father wasn’t composing he was
drawing cartoons and making furniture.
“He was a master furniture maker and could recreate Chippendales in his home woodshop. He was also a cartoonist,
using Pointillism in his doodles. We still have his huge collection of ballpoint pens and drawings,” Loesser says.
SEASO N O F T H E ART S
PERFORMING ARTS
S T .
L U C I E
B A L L E T
P R E S E N T S
The Nutcracker
Two venues,
three performances.
A Colorful and Spectacular
Full Length Production.
A perfect winter’s evening
spent with your family.
JOHN LOESSER
John took this photo of himself and his father in 1968 when he was 18.
Frank Loesser died the following year of lung cancer.
Despite seating only 500, the theater boasts a growing
annual attendance of more than 50,000 and a calendar of
more than 300 events. Loesser calls it “a baby concert hall.”
Built in 1926 as a silent movie house, The Lyric operated
until the Depression. For the next 50 years, it was bought and
sold by various interests. During downtown redevelopment
in 1987, local citizens rescued the historically significant
structure. In 1993, it was added to the National Register of
Historic Places. Still, it was underused until Loesser took over
in 1999.
RIGHT TIME
The Sunrise Theatre
December 12 & 13 at 7:30 p.m.
For tickets go to SunriseTheatre.com
or call 772.461.4775
The Lyric Theatre
Dec. 26 at 7:30 p.m.
For tickets go to LyricTheatre.com
or call 772.286.7827
— Tickets are $25-$35 —
For much more information
visit st-lucie-ballet.com
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Loesser was the right man in the right place. In his early
20s, he had run the west coast office of Frank Music Corp.,
the family publishing company before its sale to CBS.
Launching his career in theater management and producing,
Loesser formed his own company to manage the Westwood
Playhouse in Los Angeles, winning four Los Angeles
Dramalogue Awards. His producing credits include Album
with Kevin Bacon at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York
City and Danny Elfman’s Boing Boing in San Francisco. In
the early 1980s, he returned to the East Coast as executive
director of several theaters, including The Civic Theatres of
Central Florida in Orlando, where he produced 20 productions a year as well as two regional tours.
Loesser’s in-laws had lived in Stuart for more than 20
years, so he was familiar with the area, settling in Vero Beach
with his wife and two children.
“I gave the theater a vision, programmed it differently, and
today it’s pretty substantial,” he says.
True enough, thanks to a successful capital campaign raising $3 million, Loesser and the board of directors were able
to buy the land in back of the theater and expand the stage to
accommodate symphony orchestras and dance concerts.
COMMUNITY SUPPORT
The theater receives neither government funds nor
subsidies from state or national organizations. Box office
sales seldom cover production costs, so The Lyric relies on
private funds from corporations and individuals. Loesser
admits being pleasantly surprised by how quickly those
contributions came in.
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PERFORMING ARTS
SEASO N O F T H E ART S
That was exactly what Ethel Christen expected. Christen
has been the president of The Lyric’s board of directors for
11 years. The Pittsburgh native and her husband moved to
nearby Palm Bay in 1999. She discovered The Lyric via a
French film series showing there.
“The movies were wonderful, and I wondered why they
weren’t better attended. Here was this lovely gem in our
backyards that nobody knew about,” she recalls.
When she moved to South Florida, Christen planned to
relax, but Loesser changed all that.
“John had wonderful ideas and he certainly had the background, but he needed help within the community. Over
lunch, he convinced me to join the board. It was the perfect
marriage because we spoke the same language,” Christen
says. “The big thing was getting more community involvement.” As one of the founders of the Pittsburgh Marathon,
Christen knew what to do.
While making basic annual memberships available at $35,
they structured perks for those who could afford to pay more.
“We created events like dinner on stage after a performance
with the artist,” says Christen. “My favorite was Lily
Tomlin, who stayed throughout the entire party, mingling
with everyone.”
Ultimately, Christen believes, downtown Stuart and The
Lyric Theatre have grown up together.
“The Lyric has become downtown’s anchor. When there’s
a show, the streets are bustling. It’s hard to get dinner
reservations. When there are no shows, downtown’s pretty
dead,” she says.
Kia Fontaine Hamill, assistant executive director to John
Loesser, agrees. “On nights when we have two performances,
JOHN LOESSER COLLECTION
Frank and Lynn Loesser, front, with John and Lynn Steinbeck in the 1940s.
1,000 people come downtown,” says Hamill. “They eat in restaurants, hire baby sitters, buy gas, stop for a nightcap. What
would happen downtown without The Lyric?”
LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON
When Loesser talks about his father, it’s easy to see how
similar they are.
“Dad loved words and music. He tied those together in an
incredibly successful career. He was also a good businessman, starting the first music rights theater, Musical Theater
International. Anyone wanting to do one of his songs or >>
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SEASO N O F T H E ART S
PERFORMING ARTS
Composer Frank
Loesser at his desk
in Beverly Hills.
JOHN LOESSER COLLECTION
musicals had to pay for it. Taking Irving Berlin’s advice, he
was one of the first composers coming out of Hollywood to
start a publishing company, too,” says Loesser. “That’s how
he launched many other composers’ careers.”
Frank Loesser’s parents, German emigrants who prized
classical music, considered him a hack. Never mind that he
would write more than 700 songs and win top awards.
“Even though dad was keeping everybody alive financially,
when he won the Pulitzer for How to Succeed in Business his
mother only said, ‘That’s nice.’ It was always unrequited for
dad,” Loesser says.
He’s especially proud of his father’s ability to write quickly
without much fuss.
“He was called ‘the most versatile composer in American
theater’,” says Loesser. “A lot of people treat his work with
reverence, but that’s not how he operated. When he was
working in Hollywood, they suddenly needed a song for
Fred MacMurray in The Forest Rangers and dad wrote Jingle
Jangle Jingle like that.” Loesser snaps his fingers.
Finally, just as everyone (but his parents) appreciated
Frank for his music, everyone appreciates John for The Lyric.
Hamill, who’s worked for him six years, calls him “an incredible mentor.”
“He develops people. His irreverence, passion and
creativity make him a visionary. He’s got some of the most
remarkable stories and interactions with world-renowned
performers, but he never boasts,” says Hamill in a torrent
of enthusiasm.
Pat Downing, a board member since 2006, appreciates
Loesser’s work with schools and nonprofits.
“John reaches out to the nonprofits and gets visiting artists
involved with the schools,” Downing says. “Last year, when
Nestor Torres, the amazing Miami flutist, performed here, he
spent an entire week working directly with kids.”
Christen visited one of the schools herself and saw Torres
play drums with boys who’d given up free time on the
basketball court.
Talking about The Discovery Series, a theater program for children, Christen adds, “It’s so great watching them go into the
theater for the first time. When they come out they’re so alive,
shouting ‘Awesome!’ Live theatre is a unique experience.”
This season, Loesser hopes to get tap dancer extraordinaire
Savion Glover to the schools. Making that happen requires >>
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PERFORMING ARTS
SEASO N O F T H E ART S
more underwriters.
“It’s getting harder and harder to bring kids to the theater,”
says Loesser. “They have tests,
or buses aren’t available. Making live theater available is the
right thing to do, particularly in
a small county. We have a leadership role in the community.”
Christen has watched Loesser
grow and calls him a visionary.
“He’s more like his father
now. He feels a responsibility to
the community to keep the quality top-notch. In other words,
ALEX SERB
he’s been here long enough that For the Lyric’s 2014-2015 season,
he really cares. Walking down
Loesser has crafted a star-filled
line up of shows with something
the street, people want to talk
to him. He could be the mayor,” for everyone.
Christen says.
Married for 31 years and the father of two, Loesser knows
something about love and commitment. He’s proud of his
two children. Son Jordan 31, lives in Costa Rica, where he’s a
real estate agent and surfer and plays guitar in bars. Gracie,
22, is a graduate student in museum studies at the University
of Washington. She writes all the copy for The Lyric Magazine.
After 15 years on the job, Loesser is also father to a thriving
theater. His immediate focus is on the renovation, “tending to
the comfort and aesthetics of our audience.”
His bigger vision — making the theater available to the
kids in the community, discovering new talent, and making
The Lyric exciting for everyone — takes optimism, an insatiable curiosity and perseverance, qualities he inherited from
his father.
THE FRANK LOESSER SONGBOOK
Notable Musicals
Guys and Dolls
How to Succeed in Business
Without Really Trying
The Most Happy Fella
Where’s Charley?
Notable Songs
Baby It’s Cold Outside
Heart and Soul (lyrics)
Two Sleepy People (lyrics)
On a Slow Boat to China
Spring Will Be a Little Late this Year
What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve
A Bushel and a Peck
Standing on the Corner
I Don’t Want to Walk Without You
Can’t Get Out of this Mood
Let’s Get Lost
I Wish I Didn’t Love You So
Inch Worm
Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition
The Ballad of Rodger Young
Never Will I Marry
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