Jake O'Connor & Renee Felice Smith

Wildflower, a new play – and I use the term loosely – by Lila Rose Kaplan, which has recently opened at 2econd Stage Theatre UPTOWN at the McGinn/Cazale Theatre could use a double dose of Miracle-Gro to help it along.  It is merely an outline for what could become an interesting drama.  It’s not put together very well.  It’s melodramatic and not very funny.  Characters are underdeveloped.  Plot, hard to believe.  And what’s with the ending?

In a series of quick scenes, rather situations with some stock characters, we are taken into the lives of generic, overprotective mother, Erica – who has left her husband, a botanist with her genius son Randolph who has “social problems” in tow to Colorado where there is a Festival of Wildflowers.  She knows no one there but within minutes of arriving at an inn run by Mitchell, a sympathetic ex-drag queen who likes to cook – she finds a room and a job in a local shop run by an intelligent beyond her years and on the prowl for sexual enlightenment teenager, Astor – or is it Aster?  It’s her grandmother’s shop but grandmother never makes an appearance.  The final member of the cast is hunky, unhappy red neck forest ranger James with an intense attitude who seems not to be very busy in his tower but on the prowl for some hanky panky with the new mom in town.  He too is successful within minutes.

The director, Giovanna Sardelli has the characters all over the set which represents the inn (inside and out) the shop with the Wildflower Hot Line and other locales including a beautiful midnight meadow meeting for a “first kiss”.  Can’t say any more than that or else I’ll reveal the not very convincing ending – which verges on the incredible.

I found it difficult to accept Nadia Bowers as the mother.  Jake O’Connor fares much better as her son who is called upon simultaneously to be a dunce and a genius – although we never see any apparent genius genes.  What genius doesn’t know about sex?  He talks to a plant that he has planted from seeds he has brought from his dad, whom he misses and reads from a thick book about Botany and how certain plants can kill.  He doesn’t know quite what to make of Astor or what to do with her.  As the hot to trot teen Astor, Renee Felice Smith, is precocious and daring and vulnerable.  She’s fine.  Quincy Dunn-Baker as James the Ranger is on the verge of caricature but that’s how it’s written.  He does a nice job and looks the part.  As the ex-drag queen, Ron Cephas Jones handles his difficult role of trying to explain about kissing and sex to Randolph with just the right amount of empathy and control.

There is some interesting music between the many short scenes (situations) and we get to hear Sarah Vaughn on the radio and Mitchell gets to strut with a feather boa and make soup with what seems to be a single stalk of celery.  Miracle-Gro where are you when we need you?

www.2ST.com Photo:  Joan Marcus

Tags: Comments Off on Wildflower –Summer Lust in the Rockies

Some reviews are much more difficult to write than others.  If a show is sensational, that’s easy.  If it’s a bomb that’s even easier.  But when a show falls somewhere in the middle between sensational and bomb – like Vanities, a new musical, now playing at 2econd Stage Theatre – it’s much more difficult.

A “new” musical based on an “old” play, by Jack Heifner also called Vanities.  A huge Off-Broadway hit in 1976, running for five years.  One would imagine that Mr. Heifner would be very happy with that accomplishment.  But he had David Kirshenbaum add some nifty tunes and lyrics that he has made room for in his play and we now have a very pleasant show about three women – best friends in high school – cheerleaders, in fact who all share the same desires about being popular and living the American Dream.  Of course they go about it in different ways.

The best aspect of Vanities, the musical is that we get to see three extremely talented actresses portraying best friends Mary (Lauren Kennedy) the liberated, Joanne (Sarah Stiles) the traditionalist and Kathy (Anneliese Van Der Pol) the planner.  These three should be nominated as one as were the three Billy’s in Billy Elliot for an Obie Award – they are that good.  Without them, I’m afraid the show would falter even with the fine direction by Judith Ivy.

Things start off in Texas 1963 where they are in high school.  Then five years later they are sorority sisters.  Six summers hence we find them having a reunion in a penthouse apartment in Manhattan.  Then, years later, back in Texas.  All this is done with a very clever set by Anna Louizos (who never disappoints with her designs) that enables our three heroines to change styles on stage depicting the years flying by.

Some of the tunes by David Kirshenbaum are really good.  It’s hard though to identify them as they the songs are not listed in the Playbill.  Why?  My favorite is the “can’t-get- this-tune-out-of-my-head” song that Joanne sings – could it be called “Same Old Music”? Whatever it’s called, it’s wonderful.  But the rest of the very pleasant score, nicely arranged by Bryan Perri and Lynne Shankel doesn’t really define character or the changing times. 

As good as the girls are I was hoping for another character to intervene.  One does late in the show.  It’s the corpse of Mary’s mother.  Be careful what you wish for.  In any event, Vanities – a very pleasant little musical now with three phenomenal performances by the gifted Lauren Kennedy, Sarah Stiles and Anneliese Van Der Pol – is closing in two weeks.  Final performance is August 9^th.  I urge you to see these three outstanding women and wish them better opportunities in the near future to strut their stuff in a big fat Broadway hit.

www.2ST.com

Tags:   Anneliese Van Der Pol · David Kirshenbaum · Jack Heifner · Judith Ivey · Lauren Kennedy · Sarah Stiles · Second Stage TheatreNo Comments.

Pre-BroadwayVideoTrailer

Go To
www.RedRoseGirlsTheMusical.com

PRODUCER / ENTREPRENEUR
 BRIAN DORSEY
HAS COMMISSIONED A CAPTIVATING MUSICAL BIOGRAPHY
OF
“THE RED ROSE GIRLS”

PHILADELPHIA’S TURN-OF-THE-CENTURY
RENEGADE ARTISTS

THREE OF THIS COUNTRY’S MOST REVERED
CREATIVE GENIUSES

AND

THEIR WIFEBEING READIED FOR BROADWAY’S 2011-2012 SEASON

Inspired by Alice A. Carter’s acclaimed and luminously illustrated Biography,
The Red Rose Girls,
producer/entrepreneur Brian Dorsey
has commissioned a musical event based on the lives of four of the most fascinating,
rule-breaking, determined, acclaimed, accomplished and renegade artists of the early 20th century.
Also entitled, “THE RED ROSE GIRLS”,
the project’s music and lyrics are being written by Jeff Blumenkrantz
whose wondrous assignment involves the musical foundation and interpretation
of the combined lives of four women who turned “turn-of-the-century”
Philadelphia upside down in their undaunted quest for the abject right to create immortal art.
 
            The first three were called Violet Oakley, Jessie Wilcox Smith and Elizabeth Shippen Green.  
They were about to become the most acclaimed artists and illustrators in the country; against all odds.
 
            The fourth was called Henrietta Cozens.

Tags:   Alice Carter · Brian Dorsey · Jeff BlumenkrantzNo Comments.

They can’t be serious.  I mean, the folks over at the OHIO Theatre on Wooster Street. A while back they were threatened with losing the space because they could not renew their lease.  Well they’ve got a new lease on life but I would surely evict their current tenant, the revisionist, cross-gendered retelling of Victor Herbert’s Babes in Toyland.

As presented by The Little Lord Fauntleroys, it is a children’s show not for children.  Nor is it for adults.  Directed by Michael Levinton with an assist by Jose Zayas, it is adapted by Michael Levinton from Glen MacDonough’s 1903 libretto.  Michael Levinton also partakes in the overindulgent, silly activities on stage.  I did some research as I wondered how this toy train wreck could have survived all these years. 

The operetta opened on Broadway in 1903 and ran 192 performances.  Due to the elaborate sets and costumes and two of Victor Herbert’s songs that became standards – Toyland and March of the Toys.  A Disney movie version was made in 1961 and was an “abject failure” at the box office.  I am not surprised.

In this version, I suffered through what I thought would be one act.  Only to be informed that a short break was to occur and that we could stretch and watch a vintage cartoon of Mary Had a Little Lamb on a TV screen.  It wasn’t any better than what had just witnessed.  A few audience members not only stretched but escaped into the humid night air.  Just in case you do want to see this show make sure that you are well hydrated as there is little, if any, air conditioning.  Beer is available.

If  interested, you can Google the inane plot.  We are instructed to use our imagination while watching “live” theatre.  But this show is almost comatose and you’ll need more than imagination and beer to get through it.  Some of the costumes (Asta Bennie Hostetter) are clever, within the limited budget of the production.  But the evening is a flat as the painted sets (Jason Simms) that cleverly represent the house of The Old Woman who lives in a shoe, the spider forest and Toyland itself.

To make matters worse none of the actors are identified in the program as to what characters they are portraying.  Self-protection, I wonder?   I can only say that the major reason I wanted to see this show was that David Greenspan was cast.  I had seen him and loved him in the incredibly imaginative and funny Cornbury.  Here he is the Widow Piper and the evil toymaker.  He gives a wonderfully professional performance which adds some levity to the heavy handed proceedings but that is not enough.  I also enjoyed Mother Goose who doubles in a tutu in Toyland and plays piano and organ for the show.  The guy in a diaper, Wee Willie Winkie who also plays a little lamb and the hot pink moth Queen comes off quite well.  They’ll know who they are even if no one else does.

www.SohoThinkTank.org

NOTE:  I had requested and have just received an e-mail with the Babes in Toyland cast and roles.  Mother Goose and Toyland Doll is Rodney Pallanck and John Kurzynowski is Wee Willie, Fleecy and Linda the Fairy Moth Queen.

Photo:  Yi Zhao

Tags:   David Greenspan · John Kurzynowski · Rodney Pallanck · SoHo Think TankNo Comments.

Poor Nina von Schliess (Kerry Fitzgibbons).  The Baron von Schliess, her dad, has just died and she is left holding the sword so to speak.  She is the rightful heir or heiress if you will.  And the Savages are invading.  Only in 10^th century Germania where this epic poem of a play, The Sword Politik, takes place on stage at the Dorothy Streslin Theatre (312 West 36^th Street) women could not bear arms, nor be in control of their lives.  A forceful, competent male has to be found for Nina.  She must be married to him so that he can protect the Barony.  She will lose all control.  And so all those suitors available, fight for her hand (literally) and for control of The Sword Politik.

Among those are:  Ulrich Nachtenzeit (Jon Crefeld) who vows he will marry Nina and save the Barony.  Otto von Brochol (Billy Weimer) who has Nina writhing on the floor in chains, kicking and stomping our heroine and wanting full control.  Maximillian von Murligstein (Paul Bellantoni) a sort of Sir Lancelot.  Nina is torn between Ulrich and Max’s castle.  She does try to gypsy dance her way to safety and tries her best to negotiate and to wield a sword but she is just a woman after all.  

This ultra complicated Medieval tale (the names alone are an earful) written by Jon Crefeld who also stars as the besotted and vengeful Ulrich is best described as heavy handed – except for the incredibly good fights and swordplay staged by Michael Hagins very ably performed by the Blackguard (Ryan McCabe).  However, I thought at times that I might just be decapitated if one of those weapons flew off into the very close quarters.  Director Jon Ciccarelli tries his best to clarify but due to the story line that is a lot to ask for.

The dialogue is a cross of modern jargon and rhymed soliloquies where a very serious speech can be followed by “and away we go”.  Unintentional humor is rampant.  One wonders if this is really meant to be serious or a satire on those types of cult films where everyone is vying for power and poison and intrigue, death and disguises are the plat du jour.  We are told over and over that “the world is a terrible place to live” and that “the Duke is coming” and that the “wilderness” is what poor Dirk von Schliess (Patrick Long) cousin to Nina von Schliess, who has a significant hawk hand signal, has to endure.

Well, we all have our crosses to bear, especially we critics.  Likewise Katherine McDonald who is called upon to portray Madame von Brochol, a witch and Oaf.  Two of the better aspects of The Sword Politik are the actresses that play a variety of roles both male and female who  bring on some very needed comic relief:  Bethany James and Sharon Hunter.  At least they get to laugh at the proceedings while we have to sit there transfixed, trying to figure out who is who and what is what.

www.midtownfestival.org    Tickets $18.00  www.swordpolitik.com

Tags:   Hudson Shakespeare Company · Jon Ciccarelli · Jon Crefeld · Michael Hagins1 Comment

Love is in the air at the Dorothy Streslin Theatre – 312 West 36^th Street.  Only most of the characters in this rehashing of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, hate love.  Love makes us stupid.  It just causes too many problems.  It’s humiliating.  It’s painful.   Methinks they protest too much.  If the truth be known, the entire point of I HATE LOVE is that love is certainly worth all the bother.

In this very loosely directed production written by Jon Crefeld and Kyle Baxter, Beatrice and Benedick become Tom Lawrence (DR Mann Hanson looking like a fey Clark Kent) and Commander Gerald Bennett (a fine Blaine Pennington).  Will they be outed?  Will they be accepted?  Will they admit their love for one another?  Will they ever stop fighting? 

Kira Lawrence, Tom’s cousin (a bitchy Sarah Barry) is in love with Lieutenant Cruz Galvan (Andrew Stephen Johnson) and indeed they become engaged and plan a speedy wedding as the rest of Cruz’s Naval squadron have limited time before they return to duty.  Boris Sagitov (Anthony Gargano) has the hots for Margaret Frank (Danielle Beckmann) and vice-versa.  There are others in the cast to help complicate the complicated plot.  Too many actors (13) for the cramped space at the Dorothy Streslin.  Director, Mark Duncan faces many obstacles in the staging and rarely overcomes them.

There are some fun moments (a scene between the gay Bennett and the straight Cruz is well written and performed) but too much is happening in the otherwise uninspired script.  It all goes awry when Deputy Verges (Austin Elmore), Father Frank (Roi King) and Sheriff Boone Doggleberry (Duncan Pflaster) arrive on the scene in their over-the-top portrayals with some pseudo Shakespearean speak.

Everyone seems to accept the fact that Tom and Bennett are gay and belong together.  They just have to get Tom and Bennett to admit their love for each other. Will they?  Is the Pope Catholic?  There are Southern drawls, text messaging between characters (a first for me) and a solicitous ad on a lap top that attempts to derail Kira and Cruz’s nuptials placed there by Lieutenant Sean Peterson (Dan Belmont – who is one of the best of the bunch here).   And, of course, a happy ending which evoked a collective aaah from the audience.  Presented by The Collective Objective.

www.shakespeare-remixed.com    Tkts $18.00  www.midtownfestival.org

Tags:   Midown Int'l Theatre Festival1 Comment

There are a few famous biographical musicals that come to mind – Gypsy, Funny Girl and Annie Get Your Gun .  Tin Pan Alley Rag which has just opened at the Roundabout at Laura Pels Theatre at Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre is not in their league.  It’s in a league of its own.  It’s a double bio-musical.  If Irving Berlin were marketing this show he’d say that you were getting two shows for the price of one.

As written by Mark Saltzman, Tin Pan Alley Rag brings together two very different but very similar men – Irving Berlin and Scott Joplin – both considered to be a musical genius.  Both considered the King of Ragtime.  Did they ever meet?  Chances are they did not.  But it’s a very interesting way of telling their stories, using their own music and lyrics.

There is no denying the fact that Mr. Berlin liked to write hit songs and to make a lot of money.  Mr. Joplin had loftier goals.  He wanted to write an opera.  It is his desire to get Treemonisha published that brings him to Berlin & Snyder music publishers in Tin Pan Alley where he pretends to be Joplin’s agent.

In a series of flashbacks, where the scenery shifts on turn tables (a very elaborate set by Beowulf Boritt) to take us back to the various locales of where the two men got started we see how each developed his art.  It’s done in a somewhat scholarly way.  So much information has to be given that the show resembles a Reader’s Digest version of the lives of these two outstanding musicians.  But it is very enjoyable.

Before the show started, I overheard a couple of people sitting behind me.  They had read some of the reviews and were off put in coming.  Perhaps they wouldn’t stay for the second act.  Well, they stayed and they were pleasantly surprised.  I think you will too if you’d like to invest your time in a different sort of musical.

Michael Therriault as Berlin does a star turn as Irving “Izzy” Berlin.  He is confident, brash, funny, charming and sings better than Berlin ever did.  He also is called upon, as is Michael Boatman as Joplin, to feign playing one of the two upright pianos on stage.  Which they both do magnificently culminating in the Act I finale of Play a Simple Melody – which is pure magic.  Mr. Boatman finally lets his stiff façade down to fool someone into thinking he is the black boy that actually writes Berlin’s songs.

Both men suffer the loss of their wives early on and this prompts guilt and sadness and the desire to use those emotions to write “inspired” music.  It’s a very humbling and moving aspect brought out about these two giants.

Jenny Fellner as Dorothy Goetz, Berlin’s non-Jewish wife, brings a warmth and humor and fine voice to her portrayal.  As Berlin’s partner, Teddy Snyder Michael McCormick has just the right punch.  And Mark Ledbetter, playing a variety of roles delivers song and dance in a very likable, professional manner.  Rosena M. Hill is a delight.  As is Idara Victor.  The rest of the cast is winning and they all deserve to be seen in this informative and entertaining duo bio musical skillfully directed by Stafford Arima.  The Act II montage of Berlin aging to a medley of his hit tunes is especially noteworthy.

www.roundabouttheatre.org

Tags:   Irving Berlin · Mark Saltzman · Michael Boatman · Michael Therriault · Scott Joplin · Stafford Arima · Tin Pan AlleyComments Off on Tin Pan Alley Rag – Scott Joplin and Irving Berlin Compare Notes

How can it be that this new play – MOTHER – having its world premiere at The Wild Project (195 East Street – between Avenues A & B) starring Buck Henry who is a well known actor and writer (The Graduate) and Holland Taylor who is well known for her wonderful, caustic portrayal of Charlie Sheen’s mother on Two & a Half Men can be so disappointingly odd?

Written by Lisa Ebersole who also portrays Kate Leroy, daughter of Joesph (Buck Henry) and Kitty (Holland Taylor) and sister to Jackie LeRoy (Haskell King) MOTHER is a small, intimate, eavesdropping affair of the Leroy’s yearly traditional celebration of the Christmas holiday at a high end West Virginia Resort.  They are there for the weekend.  Having dinner at eight.  It is Dec 29, 2009.  According to the extremely clever program designed as a menu.  That’s about the cleverest thing you’ll get all evening in this 75 minute sans intermission dining experience directed by Andrew Grosso. 

The theatre itself is a nice size and it has been festooned with garlands and Christmas trees to add to the spirit of the holiday.  Welcoming and charming.  Spirits are also available with Premium On-Stage Seating ($30.00) at the six small café tables as part of the hotel décor and include a complimentary glass of Prosecco, an Italian Champagne – which gets very good product placement within the play itself.  You may need a refill to get through this short evening, however.

So it was with great and high expectations that I awaited the start of Mother.  The decorations and the cast and the background musak, aka “elevator music” put me in a very nice mood.  And then it started.  And then I thought “What is this?”  And then I thought of those lucky people drinking their Prosecco, served by the attractive waiter (David Rosenblatt).  And then I thought “what time is it?”  Then the entrée was served.  And then it was over.

In between the four family members spend most of the time leaving the dining area to look for one another.  Mother has forgotten her shoes and dad wants to drink and son wants to talk about “the birds and the bees” and daughter wants to go to Uruguay (that’s after she returns after they think she’s been kidnapped) and these are kids in their 30’s mind you.  Their dinner orders are taken by Chester (Keith Randolph Smith) who has been on staff forever and knows the family for years.

The underlying tension and lack of communication is self evident and nothing really new is brought up that we all haven’t seen and heard before.  We’ve all had holiday dinners with relatives that we would rather have just sent a card to.

Without the very excellent acting of all involved this play would be immediately dismissed.  As it is, it is barely digestible.  Even with all that Prosecco just within reach.   Through August 1^st.  Tickets $25.00 www.mothertheplay.com

Tags:   Buck Henry · Holland Taylor · The Wild ProjectNo Comments.

There is lobster and then there is monk fish.  What this has to do with Perfect Wedding written by Robin Hawdon that is currently running at Theatres at 45 Bleecker Street through August 2^nd in conjunction with Vital Theatre Company is this – If you desire lobster and want to see a first rate farce “The Norman Conquests” should be your destination; if you desire monk fish (a poor man’s substitute for lobster) then you might be pleased by this mild mannered bedroom farce, wobbly directed by Teresa K. Pond.

Taking place is a nondescript hotel suite two hours before the impending nuptials of Bill and Rachael, Perfect Wedding has all the right doors to be slammed.  All of the over-the-top characters thrust in a somewhat ridiculous situation, mistaken relationships and identities, some witty word play, slapstick and some fun moments but the plot is paper thin and as act two rolls around it becomes even thinner.

Suffice it to say that Bill (Matt Johnson – a fine actor in the wrong play who looks as though he is in a lost episode of Three’s Company, desperately wanting to be John Ritter and almost succeeding to the detriment of the character’s image) is to marry Rachael (Amber Bela Muse).  The previous night, at a bachelor party, he somehow winds up in bed with another woman and a bump on his head after falling off a bar stool.  His bride to be is to arrive momentarily.  What to do?  How to explain it all?  There is the hotel housekeeper, his best friend Tom (a maniacal Fabio Pires), the bride’s mother (Ghana Liegh) and her off stage husband involved in the frantic and not very authentic events that follow.

Dayna Grayber (Julie the housekeeper) eats so many mints that you fear that her stomach will have to be pumped post performance.  But she is very funny.  Kristi McCarson (Judy) is Tom’s girlfriend and she has to be able to handle the farcical elements and at the same time be part of a serious love story which she does carry off expertly.  Without her, I’m afraid the play would be at a loss.

Every time someone new enters the suite they all scream.  There is a lot of screaming going on.  But it is hardly uproarious.  At the onset we hear Oh My God! uttered so often that one of the characters exclaims ” I wish you would stop saying that.”   Eventually it stops only to be replaced by some more mundane dialogue.  Go for the lobster.

www.vitaltheatre.org  Tickets $25.00  212 579 0528

Tags:   Robin Hawdon · Vital TheatreNo Comments.

On Saturday night July 11th, 2009, for a one night only Benefit Performance – Steven Brinberg will be starring in Funny Girl as Barbra Streisand portraying Fanny Brice at the Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park, New Jersey with a special guest appearance by Lainie Kazan.  Here is a preview of the extremely talented cast directed and choreographed by Connor Gallagher and an interview with both Brinberg and his alter ego Barbra…

For tickets www.ReVisionTheatre.org   732 455 3059

OEM:  WHO OR WHAT WAS YOUR GREATEST INFLUENCE?

Steven Brinberg:  Barbra Streisand

Barbra Streisand:  Lena Horne, Diahann Carroll and Lee Wiley – for their phrasing.

OEM:  GREATEST FEAR?

SB:  Insects.

BS:  Forgetting lyrics.

OEM:  GREATEST WISH?

SB:  To live in a warm climate.

BS:  World peace.

OEM:  GREATEST INSECURITY?

SB:  Everything!

BS:  Forgetting lyrics.

OEM:  WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE CHILDREN’S STORY?

SB:  The Little Prince.

BS:  Cinderella.

OEM:  IF YOU COULD CHANGE ANYTHING ABOUT YOURSELF WHAT WOULD THAT BE?

SB:  I’d be taller…but then my act would be ruined…I’m already a little taller than Barbra!

BS:  More time to do everything.

OEM:  IN A WORD DEFINE SUCCESS

SB:  Success (in show biz anyway) is not having to wait for the phone to ring for the next job.

BS:  Success is having a honeydew melon and only eating the sweet part on the top.

OEM:  IN A WORD DEFINE HAPPINESS

SB:  Music.

BS:  Happy?  I’d be miserable if I were happy.

OEM:  WHAT WAS YOUR WORST AUDITION?  FOR WHOM?  FOR WHAT?  DID YOU GET THE PART?

SB:  Merrily We Roll Along.  The chorus.  Didn’t get it.

BS:  The Fantasticks.  Didn’t get it and later was first to record the songs.

OEM:  WHAT WAS YOUR BIGGEST BREAK?

SB:  Sondheim’s birthday concert in DC…pretty cool having him SING into my answer machine!

BS:  I CAN GET IT FOR YOU WHOLESALE.

OEM:  ULTIMATE DESTINATION?

SB:  The Moon (pretend woman in the moon).

BS:  The moon.

OEM:  FAVORITE FOOD?

SB:  Old fashioned NY-Jewish Cantonese Chinese (an endangered species).

BS:  Coffee Ice Cream.

OEM:  LUCKY NUMBER?

SB:  21.

BS:  24.

OEM:  LUCKY DAY?

SB:  Monday.

BS:  Tuesday.

OEM:  LUCKY CHARM?

SB:  My dad’s ring, previously my grandfather’s.

BS:  Any of my little white dogs from Sadie onward.

OEM:  WHAT WAS THE FIRST SHOW YOU EVER SAW?

SB:  FIDDLER ON THE ROOF.

BS:  THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK.

OEM:  IF YOU HAD A BILLION DOLLARS WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITH IT?

SB:  Produce musicals on stage and screen that no one else would, like COCO and WILDCAT!

BS:  I do have a billion dollars.

OEM:  WHAT’S THE ONE QUESTION YOU ARE REALLY TIRED BEING ASKED?

SB:   Have you ever met her and what does she think?  I haven’t and I’m still not certain how much she knows about me!

BS:  Are you difficult to work with?

Tags:   Barbra Streisand · Lainie Kazan · ReVision Theatre · Steven BrinbergComments Off on Meet the cast of Funny Girl starring Steven Brinberg