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This Week on Broadway for July 7, 2025: Mozart’s Don Giovanni – A Rock Opera
01:26:53
Peter Filichia, James Marino, and Michael Portantiere talk about Mozart’s Don Giovanni – A Rock Opera, Father Anonymous @ AMT Theater, Angry Alan @ Studio Seaview, and Out of Order @ East Village Basement. “This Week on Broadway” has been coming to you...
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- [00:00]
James Marino
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance.
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Peter Felicia
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James Marino
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- [00:17]
Michael Portantier
Potential savings will vary.
- [00:18]
James Marino
Not available in all states.
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Michael Portantier
Of all. Me Growing eyes and me therefore.
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Peter Felicia
Hello and welcome to Broadway Radios this week on Broadway for Sunday, July 7, 2025. My name is James Marino and in the broadcast today we have Peter, Felicia and Michael Portantier. Peter is a playwright, journalist and historian with a number of books. Peter's new Day by Day desk calendar, A show tune for today, 366 songs to bright New Year has been released. Peter also has columns at Masterworks Broadway, Broadway select and many other places. Hello, Peter. Hi, Peter. You know that I think we've discussed this before, that I have six brothers.
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Michael Portantier
Wow.
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Peter Felicia
You know, oh my God, I have six brothers. So I am well accustomed to being taunted.
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Michael Portantier
Yeah, I bet you are. My God, what a thing. Anyway, what James is referring to is today's July 6th song is the taunting song, which is courtesy of Aladdin. Now, this is one you're not going to be able to get on the CD, I don't think. But anyway, back in 2016, suddenly some people were singing. How does a Broadway softball co ed team win every single game since they burst upon the scene? And perhaps that scansion reminds you of a different lyric. How does a bastion offered son of a whore and a Scotsman dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot? Because on this date in 2016, the softball players from Aladdin bested their counterparts from Hamilton. We'd been undefeated in the Broadway show league, so this was a big deal. If you really want to see stars in a very different context, you should go to these softball games, which do happen during the summer and they've been going on since 1955. And if you go on YouTube, not only will you hear the taunting song that the cast of Aladdin wrote, but you will also find a softball game in 1961 when Lucille Ball participated because she was in Wildcat and Julie Andrews participated because she was at Camelot. So It's. There's a two minute clip and it's well worth seeing on YouTube. So check it out. But nevertheless, make sure you hear the taunting song because it's great fun, isn't it?
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James Marino
And if my memory is correct, I think there's a fabulous photo of Julie at bat and. And Lucy catching, right?
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Michael Portantier
Indeed. Yeah. Yeah, it's really something. You know, it's so wonderful that they really do this and suddenly everybody is equal here. Now there are no stars.
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James Marino
Right.
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Michael Portantier
Who are stars? Because they are stars. They're stars if they're good at softball.
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Peter Felicia
Right.
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Michael Portantier
That's the extent of it. So. So a lot of times, in fact, this is a true story. Manny Azenberg once hired an actor as an understudy for a show. He thought the kid was a lousy actor, but boy, could he play softball. So he wanted him on his team. That's a true story. That's a true story.
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Peter Felicia
Oh, that is. That is great. No, the Broadway show show league is one of our best kept secrets.
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Michael Portantier
Yeah, it really is.
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Peter Felicia
It really is. I mean, if, you know, on Thursday afternoon four weeks ago, you could have walked right into Central park and watched George Clooney play softball with the Broadway show league, you know, so it's a. And then that's where a lot of Hamill fans got to see a lot of the original cast up close back in the 2016. So, yeah, that's a lot of fun. That other voice that we heard was Michael Portentier. Michael's a theater reviewer and essayist. He's the founder and editor of castalbumreviews.com he is also a theatrical photographer whose photos have appeared in the New York Times and other major public publications. You could see his photography work@followspotphoto.com hello, Michael. Hello, Michael. Eight, nine weeks. I didn't count. It must be nine weeks until celebration, the songs of Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt at The Laurie Beechman, September 9th.
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James Marino
Yes, I've been having fun digging through all the cast albums and Michael Levine, who's going to be with me on the show, seems to have a vast trove of lesser known songs. As he always does.
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Michael Portantier
As he always does.
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James Marino
Yeah, as he always does. So looking forward to hear hear some of those. You know, it's going to be so much to choose. You know, the hard part is going to be editing, eliminating, because the shows that can only be as at 54 below in other places, they really can only be about an hour and 15min, maybe an hour and a half at most. So we're going to have to, you know, be very, very selective.
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Michael Portantier
By the way, Michael Levine is going to be accompanying a show that I'm doing at 54 below on Monday, August 4th. It's a variation on the show that I did in New Jersey in May and June where I tell stories and then people sing songs based on the stories I tell. So it wasn't my idea to call it Peter Felicia and Friends, but that's what they're calling it. And so if you're around on August 4th, you'll hear me tell my war stories and you'll hear people sing songs about them.
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Peter Felicia
My goodness. Peter Felicia and Friends, Aren't you afraid? Aren't you afraid Jamie Deroy is going to come and cut you?
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Michael Portantier
Jamie and I get along splendidly. So. Yes, but I get your point.
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Peter Felicia
Yeah, she's been doing the Jamie Deroy and Friends Forever.
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Michael Portantier
That's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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James Marino
I don't think it's. I don't think it's copyrightable.
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Michael Portantier
No, it. It isn't. But nevertheless, it never even occurred to me that it'll be very interesting to see the next time I see Jamie when we talk about it. So I hope we'll get a flyer.
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Peter Felicia
Made just for her.
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Michael Portantier
That's right. Good idea. So anyway, August 4th, 7:54 below. See you there. And then. Huh?
- [07:14]
Peter Felicia
That's great. So a little housekeeping. Here it is, the beginning a month. And that means that Jan Simpson's series, All the Drama, which is a. A show. Jan puts together episodes that are focused on the Pulitzer Prize for drama winners. And this one this month is how to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. So interesting the all. All the different nuances behind bringing Lesser into the project. And Jan talks about that and talks about what they were up against. Also. She points out that I guess that I knew, but I never really thought of that. Only 10 musicals have won the Pulitzer in. In the history of the Pulitzers, 100 years or so. So, Peter A. Do you have a trivia question? Name all 10 Pulitzer musicals.
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Michael Portantier
But I can say is that I believe how to Succeed was the third I may be missing.
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Peter Felicia
That's what she said.
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Michael Portantier
Oh, yeah. Because of the icing in South Pacific. Had won before that. But how to Succeed means a lot to me for a very different reason. Okay. I got interested in Broadway in 1961. So I was 15 years old. Yes. I'll be. My next birthday, I'll be 80. So anyway, I was 15 years old. And the thing was, I was just getting interested and I didn't have my finger on the pulse. And how to Succeed didn't play Boston as it's tried. It played Philadelphia. Philadelphia. So my point is, when October arrived and how to Succeed opened up Broadway, I wasn't aware of it per se. It was only after the fact that I learned that there was this big mega hit called how to Succeed. In business without really trying. Okay, so this is the big hit. So anyway, my parents are starting to be wondering why I'm getting interested in this world that they know nothing about. And there we are. I can still remember exactly where we were on Ruston Road in Arlington when we were in the car, father driving, mother in the front seat. I'm in the back seat, and the. The radio is on and they're announcing the Pulitzer Prize winners. And for drama. And I immediately said, how to succeed in business without really trying. And the announcer said, how to succeed in business without really trying. And my parents looked at each other and was the first time they thought, my God, he really does know about this stuff. You know, it was such a moment that it was a little different after that when I made pronouncements. But here's the thing. If I had known what the Pulitzer Prize was, I would have never thought that how to Succeed would win it. It's still mystifying to me. The Tony. Absolutely great show. Adore it. It was a wonderful reading last year by the Pan Asian Group. Phenomenal. Reminding us what a great show it is. But a Pulitzer, you know, especially in those days when it was supposed to be the Pulitzer, had a. An emphasis on honoring American life and American values. And I mean, how Succeed didn't do that. It's amazing to me that it won the Pulitzer Prize. And again, every time I have to see it is offered a production, I will definitely go. I adore it. A Pulitzer. It makes no sense to me.
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Peter Felicia
They talked about just exactly that. Peter, how was a. Oh, is that right? A strange. A strange choice among the competition there. Oh, in that year.
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Michael Portantier
So Jan agrees.
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Peter Felicia
Well, we'll ask her next week.
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Michael Portantier
Okay. All right, fine.
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Peter Felicia
So. But I think that she agrees, but I don't want to put words in her mouth, you know, fine. I don't want to be like Angry Alan putting words and people's will. We'll talk about that a little later.
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Michael Portantier
Yeah, I want to hear about Angry Alan.
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Peter Felicia
Michael, so what do you. What's your experience with how to Succeed?
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Michael Portantier
Were you in it? Were you in it once?
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James Marino
Well, I know. No, but I directed. It was one of the three high school shows I directed.
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Michael Portantier
How wonderful. Directing in high school. What a wonderful compliment At a girls.
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James Marino
School, believe it or not. And you may say, well, why pick how to Succeed? But actually it has four really good female roles. And I don't know, at the time, I just was trying to think of something to do that. That all the other schools hadn't done. Recently, and I don't recall exactly how I came upon how to succeed. I guess I had just started to become aware of it, and I really loved the score and I thought it was clever. But the first thing I'd like to say is I think it's fair to consider it a satire of the business world. And so I would like to think that when the Pulitzers awarded it, they were certainly well aware of that. And it was almost an ironic choice because in satirizing the. The worst parts of the business culture, you know, maybe they're pointing out. They're. They're thereby pointing out that things could be better. And this is. This is an aspect of American life, like it or not.
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Michael Portantier
Indeed.
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James Marino
Yeah, sure. So, I mean, that's. That's what I've always thought when I. When I wondered why they. How to Succeed won the Pulitzer. You know, they can't always give it to a. A play that's uplifting and inspirational. Right. So those are my thoughts on that. I mean, I wasn't on the committee, so I can't say. But it's so brilliantly written.
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Michael Portantier
Oh, yeah.
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James Marino
From. And a great adaptation from the source material, which is really written in the form of just a guidebook.
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Michael Portantier
Right.
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James Marino
You know, so. So the bones of it were there, but then they had to create. I mean, I suppose characters are mentioned in the book, but there's no dialogue in the book. There's no linear story. All of that had to be created, and it was done brilliantly. And to this day, people debate. Just recently, I was reading online people debating whether that show could still be done or if it's too hopelessly dated, because some people can't seem to make the distinction between when characters in a show are behaving politically incorrectly. And sometimes when that happens, people reading it or watching the show think that that means that that's the way the author thinks. Of course not, you know, or at least not always. Certainly not always. So you could have a problem with how to succeed if people don't realize that it was meant as a satire. Even in the 60s, with songs like A Secretary Is Not a Toy, et cetera, and the portrayal of Hedy LaRue as this sex pot secretary, you know, who's trying to get ahead by use of any means necessary, things like that. So I personally think the show still works like gangbusters and would be just fine if it's done with the right tone. And I thought it went over very well in the Matthew Broderick revival. Not so well in the more Recent revival, which I thought was in that case, it was totally due to some questionable casting and very, very, very poor direction. But I'm sure that if someone brings it back and does it right, it would be a big hit again.
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Michael Portantier
Well, with regard to so much of what you said, it's very interesting that Hedy LaRue is portrayed as a bubble head until. Until near the end of the first act when she realizes that Finch is going to be involved with Rosemary and not with her. And she says, I guess I'll have to wait for that pigeon until after he's married. That's a very smart line that shows us she knows what she's doing and she's no dummy. And that she's had this experience many times that some. That with men who are married are suddenly looking for outside extracurricular activity. So.
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James Marino
And maybe that points forward to Promises. Promises.
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Michael Portantier
Yeah. You know, at the time that was often said that it was a variation on Promises, Promises. And ironically, how to Succeed came out around the same time as the Apartment, the movie that of course, promises Promises.
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James Marino
Right.
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Michael Portantier
Inspiration. Very similar time, so. And if the Apartment, after all, won the biggest prize, it could win the Oscars Best picture. So that's kind of interesting as well.
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James Marino
Yeah.
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Michael Portantier
And had 1776 open two days later, promises, Promises would have won best musical. But it got in right under the wire and started influencing people saying, wait, let's open right before the Tonys, you know, and that really has turned out to be almost a guidebook principle.
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Peter Felicia
We have them to thank for this.
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Michael Portantier
That's right.
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Peter Felicia
Oh, oh, well, none of us. Yeah, none of us like the big rush at the end. Yeah, none of us who need to vote like the big rush at the end. Some catch up here. Steve Bell in our chat room said Fiorello how to Succeed was the first fourth.
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Michael Portantier
Oh, yeah, that's right. That's right.
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Peter Felicia
Thank you, Steve. And Tony Janicki brings up something that's interesting. I have to. We'll have to run it by Jan. Next week if we can get her on. I'm gonna try to get her on. Tony Janicki says 10 Broadway musicals won the Pulitzer for drama, but two other Broadway shows won the Pulitzer for music. So what two were they? Peter, do you know Phyllis and Tony in the chat room? And also Rob Johnston in our chat room brings us the very important news that Rock of Ages won the Broadway Show League three out of four years during their run. So.
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James Marino
Which.
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Peter Felicia
I don't know if Constantine played, but he seems like a very adept athlete. So all right, so. Oh, so Tony Jonicki says the console and the Saint of Bleecker street both by Manati.
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Michael Portantier
Right?
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James Marino
Oh, wait, one is by Manati.
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Michael Portantier
Oh, I think they both are, yeah.
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James Marino
Stain of Bleecker street is the one I wasn't sure about. Yeah, but I think it is.
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Michael Portantier
I think it is. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I have the two LP set and have never listened. Yeah, so. No, I did. No, I did, I did. It came out on CD and I had to review a Finesse Works Broadway. No, I did listen. Okay. But I never listened to the records and I had the records, so it.
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Peter Felicia
Looks like these were in the 50s.
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Michael Portantier
Yeah. Santa Blika Street. Santa Bleacher Street. Ran a very short time, I think. Or am I thinking of. No, I think. I think it was. Ran a very short time. Like five performances. Rings a bell. Unless I'm thinking of another opera that didn't do well. Imagine that happening today. Yeah, I doubt that it would.
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Peter Felicia
So the console won in 1955. 0 and Saint Obliquer Street, 1 55.
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Michael Portantier
No, I was wrong. It ran 92 performances. Saint Obliqua Street. What's the. Oh, Maria Golovin, or however it's pronounced. How is that pronounced, Michael? You must know.
- [19:43]
James Marino
I. I think that's close.
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Michael Portantier
Yeah. All right, fine. Yeah, that's the one that David Merrick produced it and it ran five performances, I think so that's what I was thinking of.
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Peter Felicia
All right, so something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. Michael, you got over to the cutting room, which I always forget about, to see a. Is it just a concert version or is it staged of Mozart's Don Giovanni as a rock opera?
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James Marino
I would say it's a semi staged concert.
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Peter Felicia
Semi stage concert or a simply staged.
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James Marino
Full production.
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Peter Felicia
Okay, so what did you think about this simply staged full production?
- [20:38]
James Marino
Well, I really enjoyed it. I. When I read the press release, I thought this is an intriguing idea that could go either way, depending on obviously how well the adaptation is done. It did occur to me as soon as I read it, if you think of. If you know Don Giovanni in its original form through recordings or live performances or whatever, and if you think of even. Just think of the overture that. Those first chords of the overture, the kind of scary, arresting chords that Mozart wrote, and then think of them with the same chords played in rock style, you know, with guitar. Guitar and drums, and you can imagine that what it would sound like would be kind of similar to the overture to Tommy the. Who's Tommy, really? You know, so you start from a good place with that. I mean, great music, I think we all would agree, is timeless. The question is that the styles change, and sometimes they change so much that you can't always easily adapt one form to another. But I have to say that this one was very, very well done. Let me just read because it has a bit of a history that I wasn't aware of. This Adaptation Mozart's A Rock Opera Gets New York premiere with an English adaptation and rock orchestrations by Adam B. Levovitz. That's Le V O W I T C beginning June 16 and opening June 30 at the celebrated Cutting Room. It was done in Atlanta and it got a review that said, the score catches fire and let's see, this is described as a thrilling adventure of the irresistible bad boy who lives fast, loves hard and laughs in the face of danger until his past comes knocking. Don Giovanni is a classic tale of desire, morality and karma. This bold, brand new production is sung in English with a thought provoking, hilarious libretto and backed by a full throttle orchestra that breathes new life into one of opera's greatest scores. Opera has never been this hardcore, while Don Giovanni will return to the stage of the Metropolitan Opera this September. And that's true. So if you see this one, you can then go and see that one and compare them. This summer's production of the Cutting Room Office, an electrifying alternative, a raw, rebellious reimagining that trades velvet seats for electric riffs and operatic convention for rock revolution. And then the guy who did the adaptation and the orchestrations and the new lyrics, Adam B. Levovitz writes, the power of Don Giovanni has always been the story that hasn't changed. What I change is some of what the characters say and how they reveal themselves. My new libretto gives them voices that connect with the 2025 audience in a way that speaks directly to today's world. The cast, that's another reason I wanted to attend, because Don Giovanni, the title role, is played by Ryan Silverman, whom many of our listeners will know from his work in musical theater and operetta. And so he's Don Giovanni. Then there's Richard Coleman as Leporello, Rachel Zatkoff, who was in Phantom on Broadway as Donna Elvira Anchaldear, who was in, well, it says nyc, the Baker's Wife. I wonder which one she was in. Maybe the recent one as Donna Anna Felipe Bombanato, also from Les Mis, as Don Ottavio and Edward Jamal Davis as the commander. Those were the main singers. One of the characters, one of the main characters In Don Giovanni, actually, two have been cut. Those who know the opera, there's love. The character of Zerlina, who's a young. A very young woman whom Don Giovanni tries to seduce among the many of the women he tries to seduce and usually succeeds. So she is cut along with a male character, Mazzetto, who sort of her. Her boyfriend, but they kept the rest of them. And a full production of Don Giovanni runs at least four hours. This one was. Yeah, yeah. This one was two with one intermission. And I didn't feel like much was lost. I mean, it does. I suppose it does help to see him with one more woman, because then that really gives you the idea that he just. He'll just sleep with anything, basically. But there's still much discussion of all of the other women that he has seduced. And there's a famous aria that Leporello, his manservant, sings where he lists them all, and there's a whole lot of them. So all of that is intact. I thought the English adaptation of the original Italian libretto that Adam B. Levovitz has, that Lebowitz has done, I thought it was overall excellent. There were some questionable moments, but I really think it was very, very successful overall. Very witty, very clever. For the most part. The stresses were. They were supposed to be, and the rhymes were correct. And so it's not easy to translate an opera libretto. I know because I did it once ago for a production of Madame Butterfly that I directed. So hats off to Mr. Lebowitz in that sense. And also, as far as the way he adapted the music, I really think it was amazing to hear all of these tunes that I know so well and to hear how well they adapted to some kind of rock style. The only one song that he basically left alone is There's a Serenade that Don Giovanni sings at a window when he's serenading one of his conquests.
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Peter Felicia
And.
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James Marino
And the Italian title of it is De Villeni, Excuse Me, De Vienni alla finestra Come to the Window. And that was performed here with what sounded like a. A mandolin, which is what basically how it is done in the original. And I think it was wise of him to leave that alone because it wouldn't have it adapted very well, but really just very well done on a small stage. They ma. They managed to make it work. The musicians stage. The musicians were phenomenal, and they include some brass, which. Adam Levowitz made a point that he. That Mozart introduced trombones to that. You know, to music of that type. And so they definitely had a trombone or two. So that was that. All of that sounded really great. And I, I, as I say, this has been kicking around for a while. In fact, there was a recording of it that was made in 22 with at least some of the original cast. Ryan Silverman is, is the star of that recording as well. And it's been done elsewhere as I mentioned. But this is its New York premiere and it's here until, I think.
- [29:08]
Peter Felicia
August 20th, August 26th. There they have roughly, they have roughly two performances a week and it varies throughout the schedule. Varies, but it is through August 26th. And I have a link to that in the show notes.
- [29:26]
James Marino
Yeah, it says it will initially play on Mondays and Tuesdays at 7 and then the schedule may change. But I really recommend working it out. I did have a thought. All of the singers are singing in traditional operatic style and it works better in some things than in others. I think it works better maybe for the men than for the women, generally speaking, because we don't, it's very rare, if ever, that we hear a legit soprano voice singing rock music. So I guess our ears aren't used to it. But I wondered if he ever even considered having rock type singers cast in a production of this. That might be really fascinating. If you were to do that. You would have to take, you would have to transpose the women's songs to a whole nother key because there's no way that that would work in opera. I was even thinking maybe they could have sung them in the octave down, but then that would have been too low. So I wonder if that's. Maybe if I meet Adam Levowitz someday I'll ask him if he ever considered doing that. In the meantime, I just have to say that the singing was really superb from everyone, including Ryan Silverman, but also these two women, Rachel Zhatkoff and Anchaldear. And, well, by their credits again, one was in Phantom on Broadway and the other one, well, her credit is the Baker's Wife somewhere. But I would say they were both ready to step into those roles at a major opera company. I was thrilled by the quality of the singing in this production and the acting as well. So a high, high, high recommendation.
- [31:37]
Michael Portantier
Now, Michael, opera to me is Phantom of the Opera and Threepenny Opera. How am I going to do with no knowledge of this property at all?
- [31:45]
James Marino
Oh, I should also mention that it has titles very clearly projected, even though it's in English. And I think I would have gotten most of the lyrics anyway. I mean, it's sometimes the balance between the the singers and the amplified. Everyone's amplified. I should say that in case that's not clear. But you're talking about the story, following the story.
- [32:11]
Michael Portantier
Well, I mean, just the idea that I'm coming to it completely cold. Am I going to enjoy it?
- [32:18]
James Marino
Oh, I think so, yeah. I mean, it's just the old Don Juan story. He just moves from woman to woman, and some of them react. They react very differently to him. There's one who remains devoted to him even though he's a bastard, and then there's another one who wants to take revenge on him. And then he winds up meeting a very unpleasant end.
- [32:43]
Michael Portantier
Huh?
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James Marino
Yeah. Yep.
- [32:48]
Michael Portantier
So he pays for his sins.
- [32:50]
James Marino
Yeah, well, that's the way they used to do it in the theater, in opera.
- [32:58]
Peter Felicia
Okay, so Mozart, Don Giovanni, a rock opera at the Cutting Room, as we mentioned, is running through August 26th with a varied schedule. We'll have a link to that in the show notes so you can check it out. Let's hand off the show for a minute to Matt Tamnini so he can talk about this week's sponsor.
- [33:20]
Matt Tamnini
All right, thank you, James. I am dropping into this Week on Broadway to tell you about our sponsor for this week, Surfshark vpn. Have you ever felt like the Internet is watching your every move? Like you Google how to fix my WI Fi and suddenly your social media feeds and all of the ads on every website that you go to are filled with stuff about routers or conspiracy theories about how WI fi signals are rewiring your brain. There's a reason for this. Your browser is able to watch and store your digital activity. And that's why it thinks that just because of one simple search that you are somehow fascinated with all things WI fi. But you can put an end to that using our sponsor, Surfshark vpn. Surfshark encrypts everything that you do online. So snoopers, trackers, even sketchy coffee shop WI Fi hackers can't see what you're up to. Plus, when you travel, or when you need to pretend you're traveling so that you can watch something on a streaming service that's not available in your area, you can just change your virtual location via Surfshark and boom, you're watching all of these shows and sports from around the world. World or from home, like you're sitting on the couch. Also, one thing that I love about Surfshark is that one account secures all your devices. Laptop, phone, tablet, even your smart tv. There's no juggling a bunch of subscriptions. It's just one click and you're done. And you get all of the benefits across every single device that you use to get online. So it's time to take control of your online security. Try Surfshark risk free today and enjoy their 30 day money back guarantee. Go to surfshark.com tob for four extra months of Surfshark. That's codetobsurfshark.com the URL and code can be found in our show notes. All right, James, back to you and the rest of this week on Broadway.
- [34:59]
Peter Felicia
Thanks, Matt. Peter, you were over at the AMT Theater to see a production of Father Anonymous. Tell us about this.
- [35:10]
Michael Portantier
Well, this is a play about a guy named Joseph Warren, Dr. Joseph Warren, a little more respect. Who according to the playwright, was a very important figure in the beginnings of the Revolutionary War. And beginnings is an interesting point to bring up because what happens in this play, this happens in so many, is that it starts with a flashback. And what we're doing. No, that's not fair. It's not, it's not a flashback. It gives away the ending right away. So anyway, it starts out with the Battle of Bunker Hill. Now, I don't know how much people know about the Battle of Monkey Hill. I'm from Massachusetts, so, you know, I've heard a lot about it during my years in Massachusetts. But anyway, the famous expression that came from that battle is don't shoot until you see the whites of their eyes. And that's said right at the top. It's one of the first lines of dialogue, if not the first line of dialogue. And you know, I was reminded of the fact that 1776, which after all deals with the same period of time, is so smart in having Ben Franklin in the first scene. We see him make a statement about treason that sounds like one of his famous expressions. And John Adams takes issue and says, I, I have more to do than here. You quote yourself. And he says, no, that was a new one. And the thing is, that way de the show, deep in the show, he comes out with, if we do not hang together, we'll hang separately. And that's when he comes up with the remark to say, oh, is that where that came from? Oh, that's when that was said. Because that was a reasonably famous quotation, at least by the time 1776 was done. So I, I hate when people make this mistake about coming up with famous expressions too early. For example, did you notice that leaping lizards and Annie comes very deep in the show. And you know, if people were of Less talent. They would have had her say right away as she came on, leaping lizards, blah, blah, blah, you know, and. And I think that Baker Street, a musical by Sherlock Holmes, made a big mistake in the first song, having him say it's elementary. It would have been so much better if he never said it until the end of the show when he solved the case and said it's elementary, people would have applauded. And, you know, but at the beginning, people use this sometimes to establish a situation or a character and show some marathons, they're. They're essentially 26 miles in length. And as a result, you have to save. You know, you need to have that final sprint. So I think that was a big mistake to have that happen. I'm. I didn't quite like that at all. But also, must you. Must writers do this? Have the last scene shown first and then later? I mean, can't you tell the story from the beginning? And I always resent that. So I don't mind flashbacks in the middle of a property. I have to admit, I don't buy them there. Like, for example, in the famous movie Casablanca. Yeah. Then we hear, because the guy is reminiscing. That's a different situation than starting with nobody we know showing us a scene. So I think that's a big mistake. I found the acting quite bad in this show, quite bad. And the worst offender was John Hancock, who was played as silly and a feat. Now, it's entirely possible the playwright, who is a historian, will say to me, no, no, no, no. That's what John Hancock was like. He was silly, he was a feat. That's all there is to it. What you're seeing is real life. Of course, you know, it has less to do with what's really true. And again, it may not even be true, but it has less to do with what's true than what you can make people believe. And it's hard to believe that John Hancock would be that way. Now you might say, hey, you can't blame the actor. After all, he was directed to do that. He's only following if the. To do that doesn't hold water here because the director played John Hancock. So as a result, we know that that's the situation. So this was quite the slog, I'm sorry to say, and we really needed a very charismatic actor to play Joseph Warren, and we didn't get that at all. The actor playing Samuel Adams was good, and the Paul Revere was good, too, too. But nevertheless, the rest were quite amateurish, I thought. And One of the greatest sins of all to me is when directors decide to use actors, as the expression goes, this is a theatrical expression, tools in a box. And what I mean is, through the entire show, the cast was surrounding the stage and they were always there sitting. And when they had an entrance, they simply came on. The problem with doing this, and I think this is a very bad theatrical convention, is that you do not, not relate to the characters as characters. You relate to them as actors. And as a result, you don't really bond with them as characters. You only see them as actors coming on stage and doing their part. So it does definitely undercut what could be happening dramatically, because suddenly it's not. You don't get engaged in that way because you're seeing a theatrical stunt. So I think this is a very bad directorial choice and I hate when directors do it, and I certainly hated it with Father Anonymous.
- [40:46]
Peter Felicia
Directorial stunts. People do that.
- [40:50]
Michael Portantier
At the St. James Theater eight times a week.
- [40:53]
Peter Felicia
They're doing it on the West End too now.
- [40:56]
Michael Portantier
Yeah, yeah, right.
- [40:57]
Peter Felicia
Yeah, I, I think that we're going to see that Evita.
- [41:02]
Michael Portantier
Yeah, I think we are. You know, but one of my friends made a very interesting point. He said, you know, this Jamie Lloyd stuff and these stunts, will, will they last? Because don't forget when John Doyle came on the scene, you know, an actress playing Instru and all that, that became something we saw quite a bit for a while and then suddenly that faded away. So who knows, maybe this type of theatrical convention will fade away too. I'm not predicting, I'm only saying that's an observation that made sense to me.
- [41:29]
Peter Felicia
Peter, you, I know I'm gonna go see some sort of other theater production where all of a sudden everybody starts to adapt Jamie Lloydisms into their production.
- [41:41]
Michael Portantier
Yeah, well, it's happening at Mackinac. I'm not saying that. For all I know, the director of Mackinac has no knowledge of Jamie Lloyd. But there is enough there to make you suspect that the director saw Jamie Lloyd productions. To suspect, that's all. That's the best I can do.
- [41:58]
Peter Felicia
Have we ever seen a non professional production of Sunset? I don't know. Was Sunset ever released for, for regionals, community theaters, things like that? That, but I, I fear, yeah.
- [42:14]
Michael Portantier
Music theater witch did I know if so I, I imagine that the rights are available. I, I, I don't recall ever being offered a community theater or high school. Well, I guess it wouldn't be done in high school. Well, you never know. But, but I can't recall being offered A community theater production of Sunset Boulevard.
- [42:34]
Peter Felicia
Yeah. Paul Witty says music theater Witch Time did it with Anne Morrison.
- [42:38]
Michael Portantier
Morrison, yeah. Yeah. I wish I had seen that, you know, because I'm a big admirer of Anne, both as a performer and a person. She's a lovely, lovely lady.
- [42:49]
James Marino
And so Anne Morrison, who. Do we know what her next project is?
- [42:54]
Michael Portantier
Yeah, she's in Kimberly Akimbo, right?
- [42:56]
James Marino
Yes.
- [42:57]
Michael Portantier
The tour, Right?
- [42:58]
James Marino
Yes. Cannot wait. I hope it. A friend of mine did research and said it comes somewhere near New York.
- [43:05]
Michael Portantier
Oh, good.
- [43:06]
James Marino
Gonna have to do a field trip.
- [43:08]
Michael Portantier
To very good casting, actually.
- [43:10]
James Marino
She's very good.
- [43:11]
Michael Portantier
Yeah. Yeah, I think so, too. Yeah.
- [43:14]
James Marino
So she does have a little girl quality.
- [43:18]
Peter Felicia
Rob Johnson in the chat room says Concord Theatrical licenses it. And Tony Janicki says there's been tons of local productions of Sunset in the Chicago area.
- [43:28]
Michael Portantier
Oh, good, good.
- [43:31]
Peter Felicia
Paul Witty mentions they built the sets and costumes to send out as rentals, but later destroyed it because no one was producing it. Huh. But my point being is that now every time you see a sunset, are you going to see a top of Act 2, where Jose breaks the fourth wall or every. You know, in the new productions of Evita? You know, lots of people do Evita. I'd imagine after it comes back to Broadway and closes that people will do this and take the balcony scene outside of whatever theater that they are in and do it. But what. Anyway, got sidetracked there that we were talking about Father Anonymous at the AMT. It's playing through June 2nd. July 2nd. So it's closed already?
- [44:20]
Michael Portantier
It's gone.
- [44:21]
Peter Felicia
Yeah, closed a couple days ago. We'll have a link to that in the show notes. Michael, you got over to the newly named Space Studio CV View, which was. We'd seen many, many shows at the second stage. Have you been to Sea View since the name change or is this the first show there? I don't remember.
- [44:47]
James Marino
This was my first. And I was trying to think if it's the first. I think maybe it is.
- [44:53]
Michael Portantier
I think so.
- [44:54]
James Marino
Yeah. And. Yeah, let's start with that. The. Structurally, everything is the same. You walk in and they, they. They seem to be even playing up the, The.
- [45:10]
Peter Felicia
The.
- [45:10]
James Marino
The fact that it was a former bank because, well, that was that still there. I. I didn't know.
- [45:21]
Peter Felicia
Yeah, the safe was there previously, but I did notice they sort of more or less invited you in to take a look inside the safe in the lobby. Lobby.
- [45:31]
James Marino
Oh, okay. And also, did it always say teller over the box office? Because it does now.
- [45:40]
Peter Felicia
Interesting.
- [45:42]
James Marino
Anyway. Yeah. And then. Yeah. And Then you walk. You walk up the stairs as usual, or I think there's an elevator. And then. Oh, they're trying to. They seem to be trying to make a. A destination of the bar area, you know, not only. Only at intermission, but before and after the show. And, you know, you can hang out there even if. I guess, even if you don't have a ticket, you know, if you. After the show. And it's called Bar Petra now. And they seem to have changed that a lot as far as the decor and everything. But once you're in the theater, you know, the. The seating is exactly the same in terms of the. The very nicely raked seating, which on the one hand, I guess it does. The people towards the back are relatively far from the stage. But on the other hand, the rake means that you're never going to have a head blocking you in front of you. So I like the sight lines in that theater. I always have no major shocking changes in that regard. For those who are. Are wondering what. What happened there? All right, so we've been talking about directorial. What was the word you used? Gimmicks. This one is directed by Sam Gold, but I guess he's not so much known for gimmicks, quote unquote, as for reinventing things when it. When they're old shows or coming up with very creative ways to present material. This one is pretty straightforward, actually. Angry Ellen. There are basically two sets that revol. Revolve one into. The other one is the. The main room of the house where the. Where the main character lives. And by the way, the main character's name is not Alice. His name is Roger. And he is a guy who had been doing really well with a really Great job at, AT&T, which he lost somehow. And we never hear exactly why. But as the play proceeds, we can start to maybe guess because Roger is very. Well, gosh, what words would you use? First of all, he seems very misogynistic, to say the least. And just one of those angry white guys who are angry about a lot of things that they feel that they're not appreciated or that others are getting more than them. And he has fallen under the spell of an internal Internet personality who goes by the handle Angry Alan, and fallen under his spell to the point where he really just listens to him constantly and also is. As the play begins, he's about to attend a life. What would you call it, conference or whatever, at which Angry Allen, among other people, is going to be speaking. So, yeah, he's becoming part of that Culture. And it's so well written, this play by Penelope Skinner and also so well acted by John Krasinski. Because at first it seems that Roger is just this nice guy, very, very, very charismatic and friendly and you'd really like to spend some time with him. But then little things start to peep out. He tells a joke that, that just is the tip of the iceberg of oh well, gosh, you know, maybe this guy is not so nice. And then later on he, he says something else which he, it's not exactly a joke, but he says something else which is, is a thousand times worse. And so also, but then we get other little breadcrumbs like he is divorced from his wife, his first wife, and it seems he's pretty much estranged from their son. Although currently the plans are afoot for the son to visit. And so Roger is looking forward to that because he'd like to reconnect. There's problems there. And he then we also learned that Roger's current job is a relatively very low level one. So he, that's another thing for him to be angry about that he used to work for AT&T and drive BMW and now maybe neither of those things is true. And, and it's one of the best things about the play I thought was that it does turn out to have two actors in it, but it really keeps you guessing as to who the other one is going to be or if there is going to be another one. The bulk of the play is just John Krasinski on stage talking to the audience. When the set changes to the conference, the Angry Allen conference, convention, whatever, there were two dummies on stage, two male dummies facing upstage to, you know, just to indicate the, the audience. And that's the extent of that. And so it's still one actor. It's one actor. It's one actor until a certain point when someone else shows up. And I was wondering who it was going to be because I thought it might be, be his ex wife, it might be his current girlfriend or I think it's girlfriend, I don't think they're married, whose name is Courtney and who is living with him. And he refers to her many times. We have not, we don't see her through the first part of the show. So I thought it might be her or I thought it might be his son, you know, who is supposed to be coming to visit, but I really didn't know who was going to be. And it was. So therefore it was a surprise when that person turned up and of course, I'm not going to reveal it, but it really gave the play a jolt for John Krasinski to be able to act off of someone for the final portion of the play. And don't get me wrong, he's just great on his own talking to the audience, but of course, a whole other dimension enters when someone else is on stage. So I really, really. I have nothing but good things to say about Angry Allen. I thought it was great. I bow down to John Krasinski for not only doing live theater after his great success on television, but picking something that's really challenging and can't be very easy in sheer memorization alone, as I always say, but also the acting. The role requires him to frequently speak as his first wife and as Courtney and as other characters that he mentions. And he does that flawlessly. So really, really, really. Through August 3rd, angry Allen @ what is now called Studio seaview on West 43rd Street.
- [53:52]
Peter Felicia
So I saw it last night. Night. And a couple of things were that I sort of knew in my consciousness of John Krasinski. I didn't. I didn't know or think that he was as. As big of a star as I have since found out that he is. Because what. What happened here was that, you know, we often in smaller venues as reviewers and voters will get invited. And for this one, we only. I only got one ticket because of the size of the venue, and I was about to. Yeah, and you. You got one, too. And as I was about to. To head out to go see the show, my wife said, where are you going? I said, oh, I'm going to see an off Broadway show. I got a single ticket. And she said, what is it? And I said, Angry Allen. And she says, with John Krasinski. I said, yeah. She's like, why are you going without me? I'm like, well, they only gave us one ticket. And she was like, well, you can stay home and I'll go.
- [55:12]
James Marino
We ended up house.
- [55:14]
Peter Felicia
Yeah, we ended up buying a ticket.
- [55:17]
James Marino
Oh, great.
- [55:19]
Peter Felicia
We ended up buying a ticket. So we. We often do that when. When Laura wants to see something that I only get a single to. And we both loved it. It was really, really wonderful. What I was really thinking was that, wow, this. This author really had. Has their finger on the pulse of what's happening in, you know, in American men. And it's a British woman that wrote this. So I was like, wow, this is.
- [55:53]
James Marino
Yes.
- [55:54]
Peter Felicia
So Penelope Skinner from Wikipedia is a British, British playwright. She came to prominence after her play Fucked was first produced in 2008 at the Old Red Lion Theater in Edinburgh to critical acclaim and has other staged in London including the British National Theatre, National Theatre and the Royal Court Theatre. And so I was like, wow, this, this was really insightful. And there is a small little section within the show where it. There is a woman character who was at the conference, at the Angry Allen conference. And I thought that that was really insightful and handled well. I'm being obsequious on purpose because I don't want to spoil anything and I think that this could have a longer life elsewhere on a larger stage. So I have to see what's going to happen here. It was, it was totally sold out. You know, the people product, the, the performance that I went to was in glancing through the tickets the other day yesterday to get a ticket for Laura. It's heavily, heavily sold. So it's running through August 23rd. So if you're in New York City, I would go see this highly recommended.
- [57:24]
James Marino
You're lucky that it was July 4th weekend or you might have not gotten the ticket at all.
- [57:28]
Peter Felicia
All and I wouldn't have gotten to seeing it. Right. So. So in the press materials it says it's the inaugural production at Studio siu. So it is the first, first thing there. And there's a little video I'm going to throw into the show notes so you can check it out and we will talk about it again. Hopefully Peter will get a chance to see it soon and I'll to have Jan Simpson on talk talk about this. So we're going to try to get Jan on to. To do this as well. So that's Angry Allen. Peter, you made your way through to the East Village.
- [58:15]
Michael Portantier
I did.
- [58:17]
Peter Felicia
To see something called out of Order. I hope that this wasn't on the fourth floor and the elevator wasn't out of order.
- [58:27]
Michael Portantier
No, though certainly I've had that experience. No, this is actually in a basement. So you have to walk down about 10 stairs to get there. It's a room, it's not a theater. I've been there once before to see something. But you're going to be sitting cockpit style, if you don't know that term for the theater, that is. You're on one side of the stage lined up and on the other side of the stage you're lined up two rows of seats on one side. I think only one row of seats on the other side. And in the middle of this is stage. And here's Carl Holder who has written the show and is performing the show. Though he did get Some help from Skyler Fox, who directed but also developed it, too. So, you know, sometimes people say you really got to watch out what you name your show because some people will make something of it when they review it. For example, there was a play called A Short Happy Luck Life. Well, you know that some critic is going to say, this show deserves a short, happy life, because it's not. Well, anyway, what am I bringing out? Out of water? No, it's presented by most unwanted productions. I don't know if. I don't know if I'd call my theater company that. But anyway, you know, we all have our values. So. So what is this? What is this? Okay, now, some people know that Spalding Gray did a show called A Personal History of the American Theater, where he sat down at a table with index cards, pulled him at random. On each was the title of a show that he had been in, seen, directed, wrote, whatever, and he would tell stories. Every show was different, and I begged him to do it again. He then died. And so. So I've been doing it. But when I heard that Carl Holder was doing something where he would pull cards at random out of a bowl, of course I was going to be more than moderately interested. He's not talking about shows at all. Some of the cards really are almost affirmations or advice. You know, one is ask, you know, that type of thing. And he's a very frenetic performer. Um, you would think that a good dose of Ritalin would really help because he's running around back and forth and back and forth, needlessly, in fact. Needlessly. There's no reason for him to be frenetic. And. And he must be exhausted by the end of the show. Sit, relax. Tell us your stories. Why do you have to run around? I have no idea. He gets the audience involved from time to time. It's not terrible audience participation. And somebody did refuse, and that was fine. So he could tell from expression on my face, I'm sure that I was going to play ball with him because I wasn't responding to this at all. At all. At all. But. But anyway, he just. For about 90 minutes, he pulls these pieces of paper out of a bowl. One of them says curtain call. So as a result, he takes his curtain call whenever that happens. So he doesn't take his curtain call at the end of the show. And he did about 60% of the way through, though when you go, you may see 10% of the way through. And as a result, he did not take a curtain, as we know. It at the end of the show. So I can't say that I was interested for a tenth of a second at anything he was doing. He told us a lot about his life that I wasn't particularly interested in. But it did give me pause because I thought, you know, here I am doing the same thing, pulling cards, telling stories and thinking they're fascinating and maybe they're not, you know, so, so it was a sobering wake up call for me to wonder if indeed what I'm doing is worthwhile. And indeed I can say that looking at somebody else who's doing a similar. Though again, the fact that he's dealing with feelings more than anything else made it less interesting to me. So, yeah, I, I thought this was pretty awful.
- [62:34]
Peter Felicia
Okay, so out of the out of Order at the East Village Basement is running through 7-22-25. We'll have a link to that in the show notes. Okay, so coming up at Hudson river park, we have a number of outdoor performances that anybody can go to for free at the Hudson River Park. It's called Broadway by the Boardwalk. Coming up tomorrow, Monday, July 7th, is Jennifer Holiday. On July 14th, Max Von Essence and Max Von Essen and Billy Stritch. On Monday, July 21, John Lloyd Young from Jersey Boy. July 28, Jasmine Amy Rogers. August 4, Zachary Noah Peyser. And then August 11, Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal together again and again and again. So, Michael, have you ever been out there before? This is the first year of this series or no.
- [63:43]
James Marino
And I'm not clear actually what even the venue is. It's called Clinton Cove. Yeah, Clinton Cove is located in Hudson Riffin park near Pier 96 at West 55th Street. Guests are encouraged to bring blankets for seating on the grass. I think I've been there, but I don't know if there's any kind of a stage quote unquote or if they build one. It's right near all of the, the, the piers for the cruise ships. Yeah, it's somewhere like right. I guess after that those, they have.
- [64:26]
Peter Felicia
They have a graphic here. It's could be AI, I'm not sure. It's sort of very generic and I can't see, you know, I can't see if anybody's got six fingers, but it's got a little tiny 10 foot wide stage and maybe six feet back or something like that in the graphic. I don't know if that's what it is, but I'll throw that in the show notes as well. And as well as a map to how to get There they certainly have.
- [64:57]
James Marino
A very nice lineup. And by the way, it's just that this series is produced and curated by Eric Bergen, who was just in Boop. So maybe that partly explains the presence of Jasmine Amy Rogers. And I'll tell you, I would, you know, I would go if only for her. I'm gonna have to see if I have anything that day. I'm gonna have to clear my schedule. I would just love to see her perform again as herself, you know?
- [65:27]
Peter Felicia
Yeah. I don't know. Did I mention they start at 6:30pm so just as sunset's coming up.
- [65:35]
James Marino
Yeah. So actually that's good because even theoretically, if you're seeing a show that night.
- [65:40]
Peter Felicia
Yeah, exactly.
- [65:41]
James Marino
Well, if it' you might be able to do both. And yeah, Jennifer Holiday, she's seemed quite of a comeback, I think seems like quite a comeback for her and Zachary and Anthony and Adam and Sounds like a really wonderful thing and I hope the weather cooperates.
- [66:03]
Peter Felicia
Yeah.
- [66:05]
Michael Portantier
But you're right about Mrs. Rogers, who is so terrific and it will be interesting to see what she's like when she's not Betty Boop. However, if you're around for this next week, please do go see Boop. I think you'll be tremendously impressed by her much of the show. So I'm very sorry. It's closing and I had hoped that with so many other shows closings, that would pick up the business that obviously, you know, tourists come to town, they look at tkts, what can I see? And with three musicals closing in the last few weeks, obviously some tourists will say, I got to see something. So. And I thought, boop. My might profit from those other closings, but apparently not enough.
- [66:46]
James Marino
A friend of mine who's in town briefly scored a ticket for the final performance of Old Friends. And so that was great. He had this is that I might have spoken with him. He. He is basically from Albuquerque and couple of years, not too many years years ago, Leah did a concert there and she does a thing where she always pulls someone out of the audience to sing A Whole New World with her from. And she pulled him out and. And he's got a really good voice. So the audience went crazy. And he fortunately has a video of it that someone else took.
- [67:30]
Peter Felicia
So.
- [67:33]
James Marino
I maybe. Maybe I'll see if I can share that with you all. It's really adorable.
- [67:38]
Michael Portantier
Yeah, my buddy Josh Ellis was the final performance and thought it was terrific.
- [67:44]
James Marino
Of Old Friends.
- [67:44]
Michael Portantier
Yeah. Had a wonderful time at it. So he was very impressed.
- [67:48]
James Marino
Yeah.
- [67:50]
Peter Felicia
All right. So in the last seven days We've gotten some extraordinary news of legends in the Broadway and theater business passing away. First one I wanted to mention is Paul Libin. Peter, any thoughts about Mr. Libin?
- [68:10]
Michael Portantier
He was very good to us, the Theater World Award, because we were at Circle in the Square many, many times, and he was certainly a big reason why. In fact, we were going to give him a lifetime achievement award this year, but alas, we found out that he really wasn't up to attending. And so. So he. He said, why don't you give somebody else? And I thought that was quite gr. So. But he was very, very good to us, a very complimentary, and did everything he could to make us feel very welcome at Circle in the Square. So I remember him fondly for that.
- [68:49]
Peter Felicia
Michael, any thoughts about Mr. Living?
- [68:52]
James Marino
Well, I, too, mostly associate him with Circle in the Square, which, yeah, you know, is well known not only as a theater venue that has been considered problematic over the years, but when it has a hit, it sure has a hit, doesn't it? And then, of course, they have. The Circle also has a school attached to it, right?
- [69:19]
Michael Portantier
Yeah.
- [69:21]
James Marino
So it's not just a theater. And I think that's. Yeah, I think that maybe that's a large part of his legacy.
- [69:29]
Peter Felicia
So, also, Ronald Ribbon passed away. He's an author, a playwright. He was 92. Peter, any thoughts about Mr. Redman?
- [69:42]
Michael Portantier
Well, yeah, I never met Ronald Ribbon, but the thing was that by the time I was voraciously following theater in the 60s, and that included Off Broadway as well, so there was a play in 1965, and then there was a musical in 1967, Hair. And when I got the cast album of the Off Broadway production of Hair, there was that lyric, I'm Harry Noon and Night. And I knew that Ronald Ribman had written a play called Harry Noonan Night. So I thought, I wonder if one thing has anything to do with the other. Well, Hair was revived for a very short period of time in 1977 at the Biltmore was now the Friedman. And I was walking up the Galvan, there was Jerome Ragny. And I said to him, listen, I have this question. You know, I. I really. It's been bothering me for a long time, and I just. I can't believe this. Just a coincidence, you know? So my question becomes, is indeed, Harry Noon at Night have anything to do with Harry Noonan Night, the famous play by Ronald Ribbon? And he said, you are the first person. I've been waiting so many years for somebody to ask me that question, you know. But no, what originally I was casted Harry Noon at Night. It was supposed to be done in 1964. And then I got a chance to be Horatio understudy in the Richard Burton Hamlet. So I said to Ronald Ribbon, listen, I got to take this job. It's Broadway. It'll be my Broadway debut. And Ronald Re was very gracious about it. And this was my way of paying tribute to him by including the lyric Harry noon and night in. In Hair. So that's the reason for that lyric.
- [71:19]
Peter Felicia
Third on our list is Richard Greenberg. Greenberg, Tony Winning, author of Take Me Out. He passed away at the age of 67 the other day. We've talked endlessly about Take Me out and the. And the different productions that have existed. Peter, have you ever talked with Mr. Greenberg?
- [71:45]
Michael Portantier
Yeah. What I asked him after Take Me out with the fact that he had mentioned in interviews that he was a baseball fan. Now, as a result of this, he hadn't been, but he really got into it and became quite a fan. Not as much as the fans in Take Me out, as it always does, amuse me when people say we won, you know, and he dealt with that issue in the show. It's always interesting that we won, and if they don't win, they stink, you know. You know, it's very interesting to me. That's the. The wordage. So anyway, I said to him, all right, this is a variation. What if I ask every. I always ask everybody, if there were a time machine, what would you go back and see in theater? So I said to him, if there were time machine, what would you go back and see in baseball? He said, oh, you know that famous thing about Babe Ruth pointing before he hit the home run that he was going, Was it really the case? I mean, it's hard to see from the. The filmage of it is really serious or not, but I would have liked to have been close to home plate on the first bayside to see if indeed that pointing was just something that was a gesture or if indeed he really was saying, I am going to hit this one out of the park. So that is my one and only memory of Richard Greenberg in terms of actual interaction.
- [73:16]
Peter Felicia
Michael, how about you?
- [73:19]
James Marino
Well, I. I've always, I guess, had mixed feelings about Richard Greenberg's writing in an odd way, within the plays and also from one play to the next. I think there's, for example, I think Take Me out is pretty much a great play, but I think it is a little overwritten in certain places, and there's elements of the plot that kind of strain Credibility for me. So I, I have that mixed reaction to that. I think one of his best plays, as I recall experiencing it, was, was one of the earliest that I saw, which was Eastern Standard. And actually, yeah, yeah, I'd really like to revisit that one again, either reading it or seeing it staged. I also enjoyed the Babylon line. His adaptation of Breakfast at Tiffany's was not considered a success. The Violet Hour is a very good play. And so, yeah, he. And Peter, what were your thoughts on his adaptation of Palace Joey?
- [74:41]
Michael Portantier
Oh, I thought it was terrific. I liked, was first done at the Huntington in Boston, where I did see it with a terrific cast, including Judy Blazer and just so many wonderful people in it. But the thing I thought was very, very smart and I was sure that it was about to come to New York immediately. As it turned out, it took years before it did come here. But I thought it was really solid. Did you like the it?
- [75:06]
James Marino
I did. I had again, mixed feelings. I thought it was solid work overall. I just, I guess I someone who feel that the original doesn't need that much done to it to fix it, whereas this was a major rewrite. So I liked what he did, but I guess I'm not sure that I felt that it was completely necessary, if that makes any sense.
- [75:32]
Michael Portantier
No, it does. I feel that way about Camelot, so. I understand. I know you. You don't. But nevertheless, I do.
- [75:38]
James Marino
Yeah. Yeah. I remember Gerard Alessandrini told me how much he loved Richard Greenberg's book for Pal Joey.
- [75:48]
Peter Felicia
So finally this morning, just before we started recording last week, we heard that Mark Brokaw had passed away as a theater director, 66 years old with such amazing productions. So, Peter, tell us about, about Mark.
- [76:06]
Michael Portantier
You know, really, it's amazing to me how many people are going at such an early age. And I, I was when you brought it up last week and I hadn't seen anything on it, I was flabbergasted and I was really, of course, hoping that you were wrong, that you had read the wrong thing. But, but really it's, it's just amazing to me how many people are dying at an early age. I, I, I didn't see Reckless when it was first done. I did catch it when it came to Broadway at the, what was then the Biltmore, again now the Friedman. But I thought it was terrifically directed and this, this was the first time I think I really saw anything by him. But I also, I was very much in admiration of the Constant Wife that he did, which was done at the Roundabout at the American Airline Theater. I remember being so impressed both with Kate Burton and Michael Kumsty and John Dawson and Lynn Redgrave. And I thought to myself, well, with a cast like this, it must be very hard to be a director, because these are people who certainly have a lot of credits. And it's very easy for an actor or an actress or performer, I should say, to really flex muscles and saying, excuse me, I've been around longer than you have, and I know what I'm doing. So. And it may very well be that he did just do what they wanted him to do, but I don't think that's really true. I had heard that he really was very. Well, Carol Channing used to refer to GAWA Champion as a benign despot, and I heard similar things about Mark Brokaw. But I get the impression from what I heard, he was more benign than GAWA champion, less of a despot, but nevertheless, he did have a good reputation of working with actors. And certainly when I saw the Constant Wife, that really made an impression on me. Like so many others, though, I will have to say, if we're going to look at both sides of the ledger, that I thought that Crybaby was not well directed at all. And I thought there were a lot of mistakes that the director should have brought up, especially because I thought the vocabulary of the Crybaby character was much too Ariadne erudite. He used the word lachrymose at one point, and I mean, really, his. His peers, you know, glorified juvenile delinquents would have said to him, talk English, will ya? If he said lachrymose, you know, so. So I think he should have suggested something there. But I was very glad to see him do the Lions. That certainly came to Broadway, not for a long enough time, but to give Linda Lavin a chance. And I remember talking to her at that time, and she said, you really feel like you're in a safe space with. With Mark Brokaw. So I like that very, very much. And that's what I remember.
- [79:03]
Peter Felicia
Michael, how about you?
- [79:05]
James Marino
The thing that strikes me, and this hit me the other day, is that maybe one exception, every show that I saw that he directed, I really loved. Not one, except this one example I'll give, and I think that simply amazing. And I realized he didn't write them. But, you know, I. I can't think of anyone else, any other director or playwright where that has a track record like that. I didn't see everything he did. I didn't see. I I did not see the Rhymers of Eldritch, Nor did I see the Good Times Are Killing Me. But listen to this. As Bees and Honey Drown How I Learned to Drive Ra Demon, the Dying Gall. He did a glass menagerie revival. 2.5 minute ride. This is our Youth Lobby Hero. The Long Christmas Ride Home. Reckless, Constant Wife, Pop the Lions Heisenberg. And the only one that. That I did not like, but it was certainly not his fault was because I really did not like the adaptation at all was the Cinderella, the Rogers and Haverstein Cinderella that was on Broadway. And that seemed. I think a few of the Obitz noticed that mentioned that that show seemed very uncharacteristic for Mark Brokaw to direct. And I guess one could say the same about Crybaby. So maybe he was a little out of his element for those two. But really, what a track record. He's given me so much pleasure over the years watching these shows with all these great performances in them. And a lot of people have come out of, you know, online to make a point of tributing him, including I. I saw testimonials from Santino Fontana and Randy Graff.
- [81:20]
Michael Portantier
Yeah, and.
- [81:21]
James Marino
And yes, and. And several other. I mean, he worked with amazing people and they all seemed to have loved him. And they. Yeah, it sounds like his directorial style was very calm and very supportive and not maybe not tremendously hands on in an obvious way, but. But very helpful. And not. Not drum. Not.
- [81:52]
Peter Felicia
He.
- [81:52]
James Marino
He didn't sound like something somebody who would fly into rages at rehearsals. You know, everyone really seems to have loved him. So that's a huge, huge loss.
- [82:04]
Michael Portantier
This is almost irrelevant, but when you talk about a director, you know, losing control of himself. I was just reading the other day again about David Belasco, who with the first day of rehearsal, would take out a watch and say, my mother gave this to me on her deathbed. You know, that type of thing. And during a rehearsal period, he would take it out, stamp on it and destroy it, you know, and everybody would feel so terrible. They do exactly what he would do for the rest of the rehearsal period. And he used to buy these for a dollar at a cheap store, you know, but every. Every show he would do that. So, yeah, there's no people like show people.
- [82:50]
Peter Felicia
All right, so that wraps it up for this week. Before we get on to our brain teaser and our moment, I want to remind everybody that you can subscribe to these broadcasts by going to the front page of broadwayradio.com there's a subscribe link. That way each and every time we have a new episode of this week on Broadway, it'll be automatically downloaded to Apple Podcast for you. Of course, you don't have to listen to us on Apple podcast as many ways to get us. One way is Patreon P A T R E O n dot com broadwayradio. You can get all the Broadway radio shows early. Plus Matt is scheduling up a storm of all sorts of bonus content for Patreon members and you can support all of the Broadway radio shows. Contact information for Peter from Michael and me can be found in the show notes@broadwayradio.com as well as links to some of the things we've talked about today. So Peter, do you have an answer to last week's brain teaser?
- [83:48]
Michael Portantier
I do. The title of a song from a Charles Strauss and Lee Adams flop musical could be sung or said by and Juan Perron, Gaston and Gigi, Kayama and Manjiro, as well as Kringlein and Flemchin. What's the song in the show? Well, Avery and Juan speak Spanish, Gaston and Gigi speak French, Kayama and Manjiro speak Japanese, and Kringlein and Flemchen speak German. So all could say to each other, we speak the same language. Which indeed is a song from Strauss and Adams. All American Tony Janaki vaulted back into first place, followed by Josh Israel, Sean Logan, whose name I admitted last week. I do apologize. I'm many of you may know that I'm in chaos with my apartment and as a result I'm having a lot of problem putting things together. So I apologize to Sean Arthur Robinson, Ray Ustra, Juliet Green, Brigad Igram Gaberman, and Fred Abramowitz. This week's question 1 21st century musical dealt with a super superstar. 1 21st century play dealt with cross dressers. The entire title of one can be found within the title of the other. What are the two shows?
- [85:02]
Peter Felicia
Okay, if you have an answer for that, email us@trivia broadwayradio.com we'll let you know if you're on the right track. So Michael, what do we have in this week's musical moments?
- [85:13]
James Marino
Well, we have two brief excerpts from Don Giovanni Arachno Cop Bra and I think it'll give you a taste of how really clever this adaptation is of this show which is currently playing at the Cutting Room. And you do have an opportunity to see it from now through August. So I I highly again recommend it. I I I think it's very well done and incredibly well sung and a really nice, affordable entertainment that you will very much enjoy. And of course, your enjoyment of it will be, I think, will be much greater if you know the original opera. But even if you don't, I think you'll get a lot out of it. And you're likely to recognize some of the tunes anyway because the arias from that opera are so popular.
- [86:12]
Michael Portantier
So.
- [86:13]
James Marino
So, yes, Don Giovanni, a rock opera. And this, by the way, these excerpts, the opener and the closer, are from a 2022 recording of the piece that I mentioned before.
- [86:26]
Peter Felicia
Okay? So on behalf of Michael Portantier and Peter Felicia, this is James Marino saying thanks so much for listening to Broadway radios this week on Broadway. Bye bye.
- [86:37]
Michael Portantier
Bye bye.
- [86:38]
Peter Felicia
Sam Foreign.
- [87:14]
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