Oscar E Moore

In my recent review of LEAVES OF GLASS at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre – which runs through Feb 8th, I wrote of Euan Morton’s performance –

“Euan Morton is heartbreaking as he sits immobile, staring out after what might have been after we discover their sour secret.  He is at times charming and amusing, volatile and strong with a childlike inner grace that shines throughout.  It is an incredibly honest performance.”

When I reviewed the DVD SHOW BUSINESS – “the road to Broadway” which is an intriguing, behind the scenes look at four high profile musicals – AVENUE Q, WICKED, TABOO and CAROLINE, OR CHANGE – on their rocky road to Broadway – each with the highest of expectations of winning the coveted Tony Award for Best Musical 2004, I was transfixed by Mr. Morton’s portrayal of Boy George – however briefly seen on the DVD.

“What amazed me most was the ill-fated Taboo.  And I am truly sorry to have missed it.  It seems unique and powerful.  Euan Morton and Raul Esparza terrifically exciting.  I hope it gets another chance before we see, yet again, another revival of Gypsy.”  This I wrote, prior to the Patti LuPone production.

This brings me to Euan Morton’s excellent debut solo recording – NEW CLEAR – which was released in 2006.  It’s an eclectic mix of modern love songs.  Each one is chosen with care and sung with the most lyrical, pure and remarkable voice of Mr. Morton who has a natural gift of singing straight from the heart and piercing the heart of whomever is listening.  Even without the printed lyrics (which I missed) the clarity of the words comes through.  More importantly their meaning is felt – passionately.

Singing songs of love to a soft pop/rock or a country western tune or a Kenny G sounding arrangement the repertoire covers a new love, a one night stand, the sweetness, strength and irony of love, the complications – the strange places that love can bring you, victimization, the heartbreaking hurt of love, and the seductive, soaring passion of true love.  It’s a wonderful collection.  And Mr. Morton sings with a magnetism that seems to be making love to the microphone.  Or is it that the microphone is making love to Mr. Morton voice?  A sensational “At This Moment” clearly defines Euan Morton as a major recording personality.

Included are two terrific Boy George songs – “Pie in the Sky” and “Victims”.  I do hope Taboo is revived starring Euan Morton very soon indeed or he is cast in a brand new musical that will show off all his myriad talents.

Please visit www.officiallyeuanmorton.com for more information.

Tags:   Boy GeorgeNo Comments.

A bird in the pants is worth ten years in jail

A twenty three year old Australian returning home on a flight from Dubai was caught with two undeclared pigeons in his pants, some seeds, two bird eggs and some samples of eggplant.  Did he also have a recipe for a really unappetizing omlette?

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Penny Fuller will be Desiree at WPPAC

That’s the White Plains Performing Arts Center www.wppac.com – a theatre that I have been reviewing favorably for the past two seasons.  They do fantastic work, reviving musical classics.  With the most comfortable seats at most comfortable prices.   It’s the new Off-Broadway.  Go.  You won’t be disappointed.

Here is the direct link to my review of their most recent production of OLIVER!

http://talkentertainment.com/c-7356-Oliver!-Lionel-Bart-musical-a-must-see.aspx

Performances of Sondheim and Wheeler’s sophisticated musical in waltz time, suggested by Ingmar Bergman’s “Smiles of a Summer Night” A Little Night Music begin March 5^th through March 22, 2009 as part of the theatre’s Bank of America Broadway Classics series – Starring Penny Fuller, Mark Jacoby, Sheila Smith, Laura Osnes and Rachael de Benedet.

A Little Night Music will be directed by Sidney J. Burgoyne, who helmed this season’s acclaimed Camelot and last year’s sold-out production of Ragtime for the theatre, with Music Direction by James Bassi with choreography by Melissa Rae Mahon and Sean McKnight. 

The cast also includes Laura D’Andre, Eleni Delopoulos, Eddie Egan, Katie Henney, Leah Jennings, Michael Markham, Jonathan Gabriel Michie, Christy Morton and Branch Woodman.

The creative team includes Michael Hotopp (sets), T. Michael Hall (costumes), Graham Posner (lighting) and Wallace Flores (sound).  This production is produced by Jack W. Batman for the White Plains Performing Arts Center with Associate Producer Bruce Robert Harris. The Production Stage Manager is Megan Schneid.

The original production of A Little Night Music with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and book by Hugh Wheeler, was produced and directed by Harold Prince. It played for 601 performances on Broadway and was the recipient of six 1973 Tony Awards, including Best Musical and the Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Musical.

A Little Night Music will play the following performance schedule:  Thursdays at 8:00 p.m., Fridays at 2:00 p.m. & 8:00 p.m., Saturdays at 8:00 p.m. and Sundays at 2:00 p.m.  Please note:  there is no 2:00 p.m. performance on March 6^th.  Tickets are $35.00-$52.00.

Two-show subscriptions and gift certificates are available. Next up: Hello, Dolly! (April 30 – May 17, 2009). White Plains Performing Arts Center is located on the third level of City Center at the corner of Main and Mamaroneck in downtown White Plains, just 30 minutes from midtown Manhattan, with plenty of convenient on-site parking. For tickets please call (914) 328-1600 or buy them online at www.wppac.com

Tags:   Penny Fuller · WPPACNo Comments.

When Charles Busch is good he is very, very good, but when he’s bad – yes I know it should read – he’s even better.  But in this case he is unfortunately not.  I am still convalescing over my disappointment with Mr. Busch’s latest effort – “The Third Story”.  It’s complicated, convoluted, too long and not up to his high comic standards.  Both in his writing and in his performance.  Do I dare say it’s boring?

I last saw Mr. Busch in Die Mommie Die! And it was terrific.  He was terrific.  Carl Andress did an absolutely marvelous job directing the comedy.  It was hysterically funny.  Mr. Andress has also directed “The Third Story” – and I wonder what’s happened or not happened as the case may be.

Perhaps it’s the theory put forth by Mr. Busch that the first two ideas for stories are not as good as “The Third Story” – the third being more real and honest.  Then why do we have three simultaneous stories that make up “The Third Story”?  Why not concentrate on the best and forego the first two? 

Perhaps it’s that Mr. Busch has relinquished his role as “the star” to the wonderful Kathleen Turner who plays a 1940’s screenwriter down on her heels, pretty much washed up in Hollywood (even with an Oscar), drinking heavily and has the House Un-American honchos after her while attempting to get her son (a writer also – a very capable Jonathan Walker who doubles as Queenie Bartlett’s son Steve) to help her write a screenplay for the aforementioned Queenie – another down on her Joan Crawford f*** me pumps actress friend in the guise of Mr. Busch.  Kathleen Turner is excellent at keeping the drama afloat while the other crazy tales whirl about her.  Doubling as the Germanic Doctor Rutenspitz, Ms. Turner gets involved, almost against her will, in the twisted plots.

Then there is a sci-fi story with frigid Dr. Constance Hudson (an incredible Jennifer Van Dyck) who has come up with a formula for identical replication of humans.  Of course the formula gets stolen.   She is assisted by Scott Parkinson – Zygote – a lab test tube baby experiment gone awry.  Mr. Busch certainly is not lacking in the imagination department.

Then we have a “fairy tale” with a Russian Princess and a witch (Mr. Busch) who is going to make her into two people so that she can have the Prince.  All three tales meet up somewhere in the middle of Act I and you might be wise to buy a navigational device to help steer you through to the ending.  Clue:  Twins are very important.

Perhaps it’s that Mr. Busch doesn’t get to wear the flashiest outfits.  Sarah Rafferty playing Verna and Princess Vasalisa sports such finery in this production.  Especially a wide brimmed black feathered hat that is to die for!  Costumes by Gregory Gale are knockouts.  I wish the same could be said for the comedy.  It’s sporadic at best.  We get to see Mr. Busch as the movie star Queenie Bartlett do her double takes and double entendres and as the Witch Baba Yaga in fashionable rags but he seems a bit frayed around the edges.  He’s playing with fire when he writes a line like – “Nothing good can come of this.”

At the Lucille Lortel Theatre  www.mcctheater.org

Tags:   Charles Busch · Kathleen Turner · MCC THEATERNo Comments.

SHE SAID WHAT!!???????????

Fellow Gemini, legendary comedian JOAN RIVERS, brings her live stand-up act to The Lower East Side. Beginning February 3rd, Rivers presents an evening of her newest and most outrageous riffs on Hollywood, pop culture, celebrities, and award show fashions at The Slipper Room, 167 Orchard Street (on the corner of Orchard and Stanton Streets, one block below Houston — accessible from the F&V trains at 2nd Avenue). Rivers performs live every Tuesday at 7:30pm from February 3 – 24. Tickets are $30 with a portion of the proceeds going to Joan Rivers’ favorite charities: God’s Love We Deliver and Guide Dogs for the Blind. For reservations call 212-352-3101 or visit www.SpinCycleNYC.com. Doors open one hour before showtime, with food and a full bar available.

Tags:   God's Love We Deliver · Guide Dogs for the Blind · Joan RiversNo Comments.

Everett's not wearing a dress

I’ve know Everett for a long time.  Ever since his days at The Ridiculous Theatrical Company with Charles Ludlam.  Charles and I attended Hofstra University where we were studying drama.   He was always writing in one of those black and white school note books.  He was a very fine actor and comic even then. 

Our paths crossed many years later when I had a shop on Bleecker Street and somehow Everett began working for me there part time.  He was living with Charles and I happened to mention that the two crested canaries that I had at home somehow had become forty – in three large bird cages.  No one could believe that canaries could mate so prodigiously in the confines of a New York apartment.  But breed they did.  Over and over.  Some birds went to the pet shop, some were kept (males being separated from females) and some given away.  Charles and Everett came over to pick out one.  They named him “Samson”. 

Everett has just opened in a glorious production of CORNBURY- The Queen’s Governor at the Hudson Guild Theatre 441 West 26^th Street 212 352 3101.  Do go.  www.cornburytheplay.com

Here is the direct link to my review posted on Talk Entertainment.com

http://talkentertainment.com/c-8564-CORNBURY%2c-The-Queen%e2%80%99s-Governor-%e2%80%93-Political-drag-race.aspx

Tags:   Charles Ludlam · Everett Quinton · Theatre AskewNo Comments.

Lyric Stage, Dallas County’s only locally produced professional musical theater company, presents Tony Award winning Broadway star Donna McKechnie in her critically acclaimed one woman show “Gypsy in my Soul” January 30 & 31 in the Irving Arts Center’s Carpenter Performance Hall, 3333 N. MacArthur Blvd., Irving, Texas.
CLICK HERE TO ORDER TICKETS ONLINE or order by calling the box office at 972-252-2787.

The Tony Award-winning star of “A Chorus Line,” Ms. McKechnie is regarded as one of Broadway’s foremost dancing and singing stars. In his review of her spring 2005 New York engagement, Stephen Holden of The New York Times equaled Donna with legends Chita Rivera and Gwen Verdon. Her previous cabaret show, “My Musical Comedy Live,” received unanimous raves from New York theatre critics and won The Backstage Bistro Award for Outstanding Major Engagement. Donna enjoyed one of her greatest triumphs as Sally in the acclaimed 1998 revival of “Follies” at Papermill Playhouse. She has starred in numerous productions in London’s West End including “Promises, Promises,” “Company,” “No Way to Treat a Lady” (which she also choreographed), Cole Porter’s “Can-Can” and Steven Sondheim’s “Follies.”

Fort Worth native Eugene Gwozdz will serve as Ms. McKechnie’s Music Director and pianist.

Tickets, priced from $20-$40, are available by calling the box office @ 972-252-2787 or online @ www.lyricstage.org. Performances are at 8:00 PM January 30 & 31, 2009 in the Irving Arts Center’s Carpenter Performance Hall, 3333 N. MacArthur Blvd., Irving, TX.

Lyric Stage will continue its 16th season with Irving Berlin and Moss Hart’s AS THOUSANDS CHEER, April 24-May 9, and the premiere of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s newly restored THE KING AND I, June 19-28, 2009.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER TICKETS ONLINE or order by calling the box office at 972-252-2787.

Tags:   Donna McKechnie · Lyric StageNo Comments.

Thursday evening, January 22, 2009, at 8:00 Canadian tenor Ken Lavigne made his lifelong dream come true by singing at Carnegie Hall.  This is a tenor whose time has come.  A tenor who has all that is needed to soar to the top of his field.  A tenor to be internationally recognized as one of the best.

How thrilling it was.  How fantastic to be able to say, “I was there” when Ken Lavigne made his New York debut – performing a program of classical, folk and Broadway show tunes – conducted by his good friend, Simon Capet with the New York Pops Orchestra.  It was a night to remember and savor long after his final notes were sung.

With matinee idol good looks; with a voice that is confident and powerful Ken Lavigne commenced with a brazen rendition of “Granada”.  Switching gears completely he then sang “Music of the Night” from The Phantom of the Opera.   Do I really have to hear this song again I wondered.  Well, it was a revelation.  Beautifully acted and sung, it was as though I had never heard it before. 

Ken Lavigne can caress a lyric and bring tears to ones eye by the sheer beauty of his lyricism and sweetness.  His diction is impeccable.  He shuns arrogance.  His choice of songs eclectic and wonderfully positioned to make the program extremely interesting and fun.  Oh yes, he is also quite amusing.  He has a natural, casual style despite the formal tux.  He tells some Canadian tales, some jokes and can interrupt the proceedings to down a glass of water while all his newly acquired friends eagerly await the next amazing song.  I say, “friends” because that’s the kind of guy he is.  Friendly.  And he treats every audience member like his best friend.

If he was as nervous as he said he was it didn’t show a bit.  Standing with his feet firmly anchored to the stage, looking up to the Gallery, with his arms spread wide as if he were about to take flight, he did.  Number after number impressed.  The variety.  The calmness.  The timbre of his high notes.  The strength and mellowness of his low tones.  His controlled vibrato and crystal clear falsetto.  What a voice!  What a performer!

Part of the evenings proceeds were being donated to the British Columbia Paraplegic Association and the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation.  Alexandra Reeve spoke briefly and emotionally for the need to find a miracle, to finance the research for permanent spinal cord injuries.  Last July Ken’s brother-in-law sustained such an injury.  He followed Ms. Reeve with the most beautiful and heartbreaking rendition of “Bring Him Home” from Les Miz.

Other highlights – I could just reprint the program as they were all outstanding but I particularly liked “Danny Boy” with solo guitar, “She Loves Me” – proving just how masterful a lyricist is Sheldon Harnick, “To Wordsworth” by T. Francis witnessing its premiere and “Because We Believe” and his own profound composition “I’m Coming Home”.

In his program notes he quotes Goethe.  Whatever you can do or dream you can do, begin it.  Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.  Begin it now.”   Ken Lavigne believed.  He dreamed big.  He proved Goethe right Thursday evening at Carnegie Hall.

At the end of the concert he said he was overwhelmed.  So were we.  He received a standing ovation to which he quipped – “I’m glad you stood up, one more song couldn’t hurt.”  He then sang Nessun Dorma, from Turandot.  Brilliantly.  He was afraid with all the excitement that he voice would crack.  He needn’t have worried.

www.kenlavigne.com

Tags:   BCPA · Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation · Goethe · Ken Lavigne · New York Pops Orchestra · Simon CapetNo Comments.

Take one landmark hotel – the Algonquin, add one world famous cabaret showcase – the Oak Room, mix in six elegant, talented singer/actors, a jazzy, bubbly period 20’s score, some dapper dances, lots of gorgeous costumes, a great pianist, the wit of Edith Wharton and a guest artist who gets to sing a wonderful song “Right Here, Right Now” and what do you get?… Glimpses of the Moon, a delightful frothy evening of idle rich fun. – Oscar E Moore, Talk Entertainment.com

GLIMPSES OF THE MOON premiered exactly one year ago at the Oak Room of the Algonquin Hotel to rave reviews and quickly sold out its limited run. The show returned this fall with an expanded production and received more enthusiastic reviews. The run has now been extended through the end of March, with performances every Monday night. Starting in February, in partnership with the Algonquin Hotel, the production is adding alternating Thursday lunch matinees.

The following special guest stars confirmed to appear in the show, Monday nights at 8pm in the Oak Room of the Algonquin Hotel:
January 26 – ANDREA MARCOVICCI (Mabel Award Winner/Back Stage Bistro Award Winner)
February 2, 5 & 9 – NATASCIA DIAZ (Jacques Brel)
February 16 & 23 – TOM WOPAT

Future guest stars to include: Leslie Uggams (Tony and Emmy Award-winning), Robert Cuccioli (Tony Nominated), and Gay Marshall (Jacques Brel).

GLIMPSES OF THE MOON, a Jazz Age musical with book & lyrics by Tajlei Levis and music by John Mercurio, choreographed by Denis Jones, and directed by Marc Bruni, plays in the Oak Room at the historic Algonquin Hotel (59 West 44th Street, between 5th and 6th Ave.)

www.glimpsesofthemoon.com

Tags:   Jessica-Snow Wilson1 Comment

From the very first double page, black and white photograph of the first anniversary of The Show Off’s original run at the Playhouse Theatre (February 5, 1925) written by George Kelly – uncle of Grace Kelly – where we see some audience members covering their faces with their programs, trying not to be photographed we become aware that this new book published by Turner Publishing Company – Historic Photos of Broadway – New York Theater 1850-1970 will have some very special and intriguing images.

And we are not disappointed.  Not by one of the 240 large-format photos that have been selected with extreme care by Leonard Jacobs from the Billy Rose Theatre Division, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.  In an easy to read style that is knowledgeable, fascinating and chock full of humor Mr. Jacobs has written the text and captions with some wonderfully original insights into the history of New York Theater.

Historic Photos of Broadway may very well be subtitled “the disappearance and demolition of New York Theatres” – the Eltinge Theatre with orchestra seats labeled slender, medium and stout!  The Morosco, the Helen Hayes and the Bijou – gone.  And the 5,000 seat Hippodrome.  What an experience it must have been to see the extravaganza “Jumbo” starring Jimmy Durante and a live elephant! (pg.174).

The Booths, the Barrymores, Bankhead, Berlin, Bernstein, Bernhardt, Belasco, Bailey, Balanchine, Barrie, Beckett, Blaine, Blake, Brando, Brice, Brecht, Burrows, Burton and Blitzstein are just some of the B’s.  There’s a whole alphabet of photos to savor… including Doris Eaton who at the time of the writing of this book was 104 years old – the youngest-ever Ziegfeld Follies girl. 

Reading this book was such a treat, enabling me to relive a surprising series of firsts and lasts: “The Rivals” first acting role at Hofstra University.  The Alvin Theatre my very first professional, disastrous audition – in a cattle call for the chorus of “Wildcat”.   Ethel Merman, my first equity job in a revival of “Call Me Madame” (We were both from Astoria and I told her so.  You can imagine the reaction.) – “Susan and God” written by Rachel Crothers – one of the first plays I reviewed for Talk Entertainment.com – The Winter Garden where I saw the final performance of Streisand in “Funny Girl” and “No, No Nanette” one of the last shows I auditioned for before retiring from the stage at the ripe old age of 25.

I’m sure that anyone connected with the theatre will have similar responses to many of the stories and images shown in this amazing, remarkable and hard-to-put-down book.   To quote Mr.  Jacobs – “It’s ogle-worthy!”

www.turnerpublishing.com

NOTE: to see Doris Eaton dance – http://laurenredniss.com/century_girl/doris/

Tags:   Doris Eaton · Leonard Jacobs · Turner PublishingNo Comments.