Michael Portantier (3:17)

Something is lost in the translation, just in the text. All right, so also with us is Michael Portantier. 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 publications. You can see his photography work@followspotphoto.com hello Michael hello, Michael. Did you feel this morning when you woke up like you did the time warp?

James Marino (3:56)

Well, there are some old shows coming back to Broadway. I didn't say old favorites because some of them are not my favorites, but I do enjoy the Rocky Horror show, so that, I hope, will be fun. Mamma Mia. I will leave to others.

Michael Portantier (4:18)

I think you and I are in total alignment there. Although the Mamma Mia Announcement, like a ship on the horizon, had been coming and coming and coming, and I kept on thinking, maybe it won't happen. And then I heard Matt Tamanini announce it today on Broadway.

James Marino (4:41)

Alas.

Michael Portantier (4:42)

Oh, yeah, alas. But, you know, as they say, limited run.

Peter Felicia (4:49)

Let's see if it brings pleasure to people. Good luck to it.

Michael Portantier (4:53)

Oh, absolutely. Ye. Sure. Absolutely. So, and, Michael, you had a reunion of sorts?

James Marino (5:04)

Yes, I had a little reunion with my latest foster dog who was named Tulsa when I had her, and I've stayed in touch with the people who adopted her, and they live in the Village, so we met yesterday in Washington Square park under the arch, and she seemed to remember me all over me.

Peter Felicia (5:25)

Oh, how nice.

James Marino (5:27)

And the thing is, now her name is Juno, and. And the thing with that is they're both. They're both musical theater names.

Peter Felicia (5:37)

Right.

James Marino (5:38)

Even though the people who gave them those names, I'm sure, have no idea.

Peter Felicia (5:42)

Right.

James Marino (5:43)

But I. I get a little chuckle out of it.

Michael Portantier (5:47)

Yeah. So puppy love. Puppy love. Wonderful. Michael, you had such a. Such a part of bringing up a bunch of. A bunch of young dogs in. Into welcoming families. I love that.

James Marino (6:06)

Oh, thank you.

Peter Felicia (6:07)

I do, too.

Michael Portantier (6:08)

So also this week, the Public got Jan Simpson not once, but twice in all the drama. The 2020 Pulitzer Prize winner, A Strange Loop, was released with Jan's Conversation with Michael R. Jackson was only on Patreon earlier, but has been now released to the general public. And also, Jan Simpson's discussion with Bess Wall about Bess's new play, Liberation, has also been released to the public. So you can pick up those things in our feed. Peter, you headed down to Lafayette street to the Public Theater to see Deep Blue Sound. Can a sound be blue? And were there painted blue men in it?

Peter Felicia (7:02)

No, though it's right across the street.

Michael Portantier (7:04)

Yes, it was.

Peter Felicia (7:05)

Yeah. So this is at the Public Theater, but it's actually a club production renting the Sheba Theater right on the ground floor. And Abe Kugler has written quite a play. Now, there are going to be two plays I'm going to be speaking about today that it may very well be that I have interpreted them incorrectly. But this is what I got from this play. It takes place in a very small town way in Washington State on an island that's contiguous to. Islands be contiguous, right near, ironically enough. I was planning a trip to Tacoma and I was looking to see what was playing and there was a play playing close by on that island. So I was rather familiar with it. So I think. I think the point of the play is that here are people who seem to have a great deal of interest in saving the whales, and yet it'd be very nice if they could save themselves. They're having real problems themselves. Now, one person who's not going to be able to save herself, apparently so is Marianne Plunkett, who is seriously ill in the play, very much so, and with cancer. And, and she is in tremendous denial to others, not to herself. She knows she's in trouble, but nevertheless, to others. I'm fine, I'm fine. Why? Why are you worrying about me? That type of thing. And we also have Arnie Burton, a fond performance by him as a gay man who certainly is interested in a handyman who goes around town always carrying a chainsaw because you never know when somebody's going to need to need wood cut down. And he tries so hard to get him to live with him because this guy is homeless. And yet the point is this guy would rather be homeless than have to endure a gay relationship. So we have that as a problem. Crystal Finn PLAYS the MAYOR now, the thing about the mayor, there's a lot made of the fact that she's not really a mayor. It wasn't like a big election or anything like that, was at a meeting and they would decide and she's really taken this position very, very seriously, especially when it comes to saving the whales. But I do believe. No, I do suspect that's the best I can do. The point of the play is these people would be better off worrying about saving themselves than saving the whales. If indeed I spoke to Mr. Coogler and he said, no, no, no, you got it. All right. No, don't, please, we have to save the whales. That's not what I mean. I would say, okay, but to me it seemed a situation of first things first, and that would mean saving the people before we save the whales. Jan Leslie Harding plays a young woman who is desperate for love, is getting involved with a sort of like a she loves me letter writing pen pal, lonely hearts club type of thing. And he's very moving. Jan Leslie Hardy, by the way, more than 50 years ago, played Ophelia, not in Hamlet? No, no, in Danish Modern, a play I wrote that was a riff on Hamlet when she was in high school. So it was nice to see her still in the game. She's won Obie Awards. I mean, she. She's done well. So it was a delight to see her on a personal level. But I found this tremendously engrossing. And some people have likened it to Our Town. Not in a negative way, but there are similarities here and there. And of course, that's a. A high bar to reach, but nevertheless, on its own terms, Deep Blue Sound is very worth seeing, and I hope we continue to see it.

Michael Portantier (11:16)

Okay, so Club Thumbs. Clubbed Thumbs. Yeah. I Stumble over that is playing at the Public Theater, Shiva Theater, through April 5th. And we'll have a link to that in the show notes.

Peter Felicia (11:31)

And I should mention Aaron Arbus, one of my favorite directors, is responsible for staging it and staging it beautifully.

Michael Portantier (11:40)

Okay, so, Michael, you got over to a production of Conversations with Mother. So tell us about this.

James Marino (11:53)

I have a. I guess a history with this playwright, and not a. Not a positive one. So let me say that from the beginning, I thought that his past work showed signs of talent, but none of it was really very successful. I suppose the most successful play he has written thus far is called T at 5. That's the one about Katharine Hepburn at two different points in her life. Although. Well, when I saw it originally presented, that's how it was. Kate Mulgrew, the wonderful Kate Mulgrew was in it. And the first part was about Hepburn in really the flush of her career when she was young and vibrant. And then the second part was when she was much, much older and basically living alone in Connecticut, kind of in a, you know, pretty decrepit situation. And I think that, you know, certainly Ms. Mulgrew's performance helped to lift the play, but it did seem to me that there was some grinding in that other plays have not done as well. The play looped about Cholula Bankhead, which starred Valerie Harper, and then that was marred by all of these very unpleasant litigation occurrences that happened during that. And we won't get into that. And then actually, I had to look up the title of the play with Kathleen Turner on Broadway.

Michael Portantier (13:36)

Hi.

James Marino (13:37)

Hi. Thank you. Yes. H, I, G, H. Another relative disaster. So, yeah, not. Not.

Peter Felicia (13:45)

Not.

James Marino (13:45)

Not a great track record. But now he's got this little comedy, mostly comedy, some drama in it. Clearly very, very, very autobiographical. Although the character, the main character is not named Matthew. He's named Bobby. So I guess that was just Done to distance it somewhat and indicate that everything is not exactly as it. But yeah. Bobby Cole Vecchio and his mother, Maria Colo, are the only two characters we see on stage. And it's about their relationship and their conversations over the decades, really over quite a few decades. It starts with when Bobby is quite young and is actually away at camp, and he's. The first time we see and hear him and his mother. They're on the phone together and he's begging to come home from camp, and she's saying, no, no, no, absolute. You have to stay. It's important that you stay. And then there's a rather lame joke and somewhat. Somewhat offensive, I thought, that comes up that causes the mother to say, you pack your bags and you come home right now. So that was the first thing that happened. And it. As a prologue, it was. There was a. An indication on the screen at the back of the stage that called this one little scene a prologue, even though I don't know why, because it didn't seem like that far in advance of the rest of the action. But that. That little homophobic joke in it sort of put me off and. And set me up for maybe not really loving the rest of it. Some of the. The humor is very scattershot. Very, very scattershot in this play, I would say. Some. Some lines were truly, genuinely funny, I thought, and got great response from the audience. But, for example, we have the other end of the spectrum as well. At one point, Bobby has moved out and into the city, and he is living with someone, a man. And he. Apparently the relationship is. Is not going that well at the moment. And so then they. They break up. Well, they had a fight and they break up. And the mother was asking him about what happened. And Bobby says, he said he wanted an open relationship. And his mother replies, what does that mean? He wanted to keep the doors open in your apartment. So I mean that. There's just one line that gives you an indication of the level of some of the humor in this. Plus, there were. I know you're an animal lover, James. You would not have probably been happy. There were several jokes, quote, unquote, about animal cruelty. At one point, the mother threatens Bobby that if he doesn't tell her everything about bad stuff that he's been doing, that she's going to kill the dog. And I thought, oh, that's going to really endear her to the audience. So very weird. So jokes about animal cruelty, jokes about gay sex. Oh, and it's supposed to be kind of funny when Bobby says at one point to his mother, I have something to tell you. And she says. She says, oh, my God, you have aids. And there's this nervous laughter in the audience, and I'm like, really? Do we really want to make a joke about aids? You know? So, on the other hand, there were a few moments, a couple of monologues that Caroline Aaron, as Maria, had that I thought were really quite moving. One was about the death of her husband, and another one was about looking ahead to her own death. But then there were other times when the play tried to be dramatic, and I just thought it failed kind of miserably. It is, as I said, apparently it's extremely autobiographical, including Bobby Matthews, drug problems. But in the context that it's autobiographical, the ending is very strange. And unfortunately, I can't say any more about that because I'm sure it would be considered a spoiler, so let me just leave it at that. Really great performances from Caroline Aaron and Matt Doyle. Tony Award winner Matt Doyle. So they really carried the evening. Oh, was this the play, Peter, that you mentioned last week about how sometimes people say terrible, terrible things to each other, and then somehow the scene keeps going on, you know?

Peter Felicia (18:58)

Yeah.

James Marino (18:59)

I mean, there were a few of those. At one point, the mom has already expressed, you know, her sadness at the death of her husband and how, you know, what a great loss he was. But then she's having an argument with her son because apparently this man he's been seeing has become physically abusive towards him. And so, of course, she wants him to end the relationship, but he is apparently so drugged up and so out of it that he, you know, he can't bring himself to leave this abusive man. And he keeps arguing to stay with him as mom keeps telling him to leave. And at one point, Bobby says to her, you're just mad because I have somebody and you're never going to find anyone again. And mom counters with, the equivalent of my giving birth to you was the wrong choice. So I refer to that kind of stuff as things that are said in O'Neill plays. And, I mean, I personally cannot remember things like that being said in my family. I just.

Peter Felicia (20:11)

Let's hope for the best.

James Marino (20:12)

Yes. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I suppose playwrights would say it's heightened reality.

Peter Felicia (20:19)

Well, it's also something that we might hear Stephen Sondheim say, too. Yeah, his mother. So, yes, that.

James Marino (20:27)

That thing about my biggest mistake was giving birth. Yeah. Although some people claim that in later years, Sondheim said that his mother never said that.

Peter Felicia (20:37)

Oh, Is that right?

James Marino (20:38)

Oh, yeah. Well, now we'll, now we'll never know.

Peter Felicia (20:43)

Right.

James Marino (20:46)

Anything else? Oh, there's one scene that was rather clever where Bobby, he does want to become a playwright and eventually he writes a play about him and his mother. And we're supposed to think the play he wrote is the one we're watching. And so there is a little scene of the two of them in an audience watching the play. And in that scene I had to laugh because the audience is like screaming in laughter and wild applause. And I said to myself, well, gee, you know, that's not what, what's happening around me right now while I'm sitting here in theater 555. So that seemed like self aggrandizement and maybe delusion. But on the other hand, I do have to give Matthew Lombardo credit because he said at one point he's talking with his mother and he says, for my last Broadway play, I got the closing notice at the opening night party. And I don't know if that's specifically true, but I imagine it might have been because he was probably referring to Holly Lie, which had a very, very short run. So he was honest about that. And he does seem to have been honest about his, his drug issues that he has had in the past. But I found it, I, I, oh, I did make a general note. I think the writing, the quality of the writing is maybe the most inconsistent of any play I have ever seen because some of it is really quite good, but so much of it just seems like corny jokes and cliches and faux drama and a lot of bad stuff going on. I would say if you're a fan, especially if you're a fan of either Caroline Aaron or Matt Doyle, that it's well worth seeing because it's quite a tour de force for both of them.

Michael Portantier (22:49)

Okay. Conversations with Mother at Theater 555 is running through May 11th. We'll have a link to that in the show notes. Peter, you were over at Intar to see the irrepressible magic of the tropics. Tell us about this.

Peter Felicia (23:08)

Another one. I'm not sure that I got in the way. The playwright attended. I think I got it right, but who knows? Fair warning here. When you go to this theater at 52nd street, you will have to climb four flights of stairs. There is an elevator there with an out of order sign. I said to the young man, I got up there breathlessly, needless to say, what's happening with the elevator? He said, it's been out since September. So I don't know if we have any optimism that it's going to be fixed during the run of this show. Well, if maybe the exercise will do you a world of good, so let's hope so. But once you it up there, there's. There's a play that I think is worth seeing. Julian Mesri is. Has written it and it takes place in the 50s. And you'll be able to tell that from Octavia Chavez Richmond's dress, if nothing else, which is the type of dress that June Cleaver used to wear and Leave it to Beaver. Very elegant. And one of the reasons it's elegant and looks as if it was designed during the Truman administration is that she is the wife of a very powerful CEO for a company that makes everything it seems to be. And I think. I think the point of the play is when you're a wife of an executive in the 50s, you don't know anything that's going on in real life because you are protected by this guy who pays for everything and you don't have to give anything a thought. And one of the things that is indicated here is the fact that it. In one scene we see an infant in swaddling clothes being held in arms. And moments later there's a person who claims to be 30 and a half years old who indeed is the son. And she's astonished by that. And I guess that means the time flies quickly and she doesn't even notice that. So that's what I think the play is about. Very, very, very well performed by a terrific cast, a lot of doubling, but in the best sense of the word, takes place in a fictional town, Buenos Cruces. That means good meeting in. In English. And I have to say that such performers, who may not be known to you as Dario Ladani Sanchez and Lilia Ribollo do a wonderful, wonderful job. So this. The setting is more ornate that than one would expect from a small theater on the fourth floor, but it's quite lovely. And the costumes, including hers, of course, are quite nice too. So it's an adventurous evening. And if you go, I'd be interested in hearing if you got out of it, what I got out of it. And I won't be surprised if you say no. This is a play about a woman who wants to be lieutenant governor of Vermont. I mean, it may very well be, but that's what I got out of it. It.

Michael Portantier (26:16)

Okay. The Irrepressible Magic of the Tropics at Intar is playing through March 16th. So you only have seven days left to check it out. We'll have a link to that in the show. Notes tangentially, Lou Moreno is stepping down as the Artistic Director of Intar and June 202015 years. 15 years. So at the end of this season, the producing director and former Associate Artistic director Nadia Medina will succeed him in this role. So Intar, one of the mainstays of Off Broadway here, is going through a little bit of a change. This week on Broadway is sponsored by Factor Meals. Are you ready to optimize your nutrition? This year Factor has made chef made gourmet meals that make eating well easy. They are dietitian approved and ready to heat and eat in two minutes so you can feel right and feel great no matter what life throws at you. Factor arrives fresh and fully prepared, perfect for any active, busy lifestyle. Lose up to eight pounds in eight weeks with Factor Keto Meals based on a randomized control clinical trial with Factor Keto and your results will vary depending upon diet and exercise. With 40 options across eight dietary preferences on the menu each week, it's easy to pick meals tailored to your goals. Choose from preferences like Calorie Smart, Protein plus, or Keto Factor can help you feel your best all day long with wholesome smoothies, breakfast Grab and go snacks and more add ons. Reach your goals this year with ingredients you can trust and convenience that can't be beat. Eat smart with Factor. Get started@factormeals.com FactorPodcast and use the code FactorPodcast to get 50% off your first box plus free shipping. That's code FactorPodcast@factormeals.com Factorpodcast to get 50% off plus free shipping on your first box. We'd like to thank Factor Meals for sponsoring Broadway radio. Michael, you saw a production of as Time Goes by, so tell us about this.

James Marino (28:44)

Yeah, I just became aware of it, but I was immediately interested because one of the two actors in it is Ephraim Burney, who I really think has emerged in the past few years as one of our great actors. And I just, just can't wait to see what he has to do in the future. I didn't know the other actor, Joel Myers, who also turns out to be excellent. And the let's see, it's written by Danny Brown and directed by Noah Eisenberg. I don't think those names are familiar with to me so, so the primary reason was to go see Ephraim, but also the subject matter sounded like it could be interesting. It's set in a studio apartment overlooking Riverside Drive, it says in the Upper west side. I don't think Manhattanites would ever say in. So maybe whoever wrote that line is not a Manhattanite on the Upper west side. And it's about two guys who have a grinder hookup, two gay guys who have a grinder hookup. And as the play opens, it's dark and completely dark, and they're both in bed and we hear some climactic noises. And then the lights go up quite low to a quite low level immediately after. And it's supposed to. We're supposed to think it's right after the, you know, they have finished their. Their lovemaking. And then the question is, what's going to happen next? And immediately becomes apparent that it has. A blizzard has begun. So it's not going to be easy for David, the one who is the. The guest, to find an Uber or. Or a Yelp. And did he try not Yelp. Lyft.

Michael Portantier (30:47)

Lyft, yeah.

James Marino (30:48)

I'm sorry, I only use.

Michael Portantier (30:49)

It'd be funnier if he did a Yelp review right then and there.

James Marino (30:56)

As you could tell, I use neither Yelp nor lift. Anyway, he can't find one. And it's supposed to be a real blizzard, so he's kind of like stranded there for a while because, of course, we have to have a reason to keep him there. Kind of like in who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? And Adam, the host, Ephraim Bernie, has very, very mixed feelings about this. And then for about an hour and a half, there's discussion back and forth of various, various subjects. This was a very gay week for me between this play and of course, there was a lot of gay content in Conversations with Mother, you know, which is fine. But it's. When you see two things so closely together, it can maybe seem that some of the subjects are a little repetitious. And in this case, I hesitate to even bring it up. But one of the subjects of discussion in both plays was oop. Peter reminded us that in Conversation with My Mother, there's this very strange conversation about how the Bobby character, apparently for all his life, every time he defecates, he takes a shower afterwards because he feels like that's the only way he can become completely clean. And in this play, without getting too graphic, the David character is apparently a quote unquote, bottom. And he goes on at length at some point about how he tries to be aware of what he's eating and not eating a lot or anything before he knows he's going to be in that. That position. And because he wants to be clean for the other person. Which, first of all, I had never heard that anyone goes to that. That extent. But also, it was like I didn't know if this was the kind of discussion that we necessarily needed to have in this play. So I, as I say, I'm unfamiliar with Danny Brown, the playwright. I would say that this is another. Yet another play that is extremely inconsistent. Some of the dialogue, some of the monologues were. Were really good, really well written, and others, there seemed to be a lot of padding in the play, a lot of unnecessary stuff just to keep it going because they felt it had to be a certain length. And again, only about out, only about 90 minutes, no intermission. But. So if you put it on a scale, I, I think it would maybe balance out pretty well between very good playwriting and not so good playwriting. You will, if you do see the play, aside from reveling in the performances of Ephraim Bernie and Joel Myers, I think you might find the ending, the very ending, kind of interesting because it's not exactly what you think was going to happen. So points to playwright Danny Brown for that as well. And this was at. Oh, this is interesting. It was a production of out of the Box Theatrics in association with Iceberg Productions. But the location was what is now called Theater 154 at 154 Christopher Street. So if I'm sure that many of our listeners have been there before, but probably not under that name. I don't know how long it's been called that. This is the theater. It's like a block. No, excuse me, two blocks further west from the Lucille Lortel Theater and on the other side of the street. And it's in that building that I think either used to be called or is still called the Archives Building. And there a gay play company that used to perform there all the time. The theater's actually in the basement, or not quite the basement, but as you walk in, you walk down a flight of steps to get to the theater. And I had not seen anything there, and I'm going to say maybe 15 years. So it was fun to be back in that space. Although like many of those little spaces, it had a sight line problem in that the stage was not raised. And so in some cases, people who were sitting in front of me, their heads were blocking my view of some of the action, especially because the director, Noah Eisenberg, had made the choice to have one or both of the characters sitting on the floor at several points during the Action. And I thought, gosh, you know, I guess he just didn't sit around and realize that. But he would have had to sit around with an audience present because it was the heads blocking that was the issue. And so that is a note that I would give to them. You know, it's not going to be the end of the world if those two guys sit on the bed rather than on the floor. And then we'll be able to see both of their faces clearly all the time.

Peter Felicia (36:38)

So I'm going to take issue with something else with the play. And that is the fact, as people with a few years on them will immediately associate as time goes by with Casablanca, the famous Oscar winning movie. And that is indeed the case. That does come up. And the older character, who's established to be 33 years old, is astonished that the younger man, 24 years old, has no knowledge of Casablanca. It's funny, my buddy Rick Thompson has written a play with people substantially older dealing with Casablanca. And I said, I'm not even sure these older people would even know what Casablanca is. Especially since we're in an era where many young people will not watch black and white movies. They will not do it. That's all there is to it. And I was very surprised that somebody 33 was so interested in Casablanca. I would like to think that's true. It's one of my favorite movies of all time. I've seen it, it well over 50 times. But I'm just not sure that somebody of 33 would be so attuned to site chapter and verse of Casablanca. So it might have been wise for him to pick a more recent movie or have the character be older. But it seemed to me an odd fifth.

James Marino (37:51)

That's interesting. I mean, I always say that God loved them there. There are some young people who. Who do just become old film buffs for. For whatever reason, maybe their parents introduced them and they. I'm not saying there's a lot of them. I have no idea what the percentage is, but when I mentioned that the Paris theater has been showing classic films, and I've gone to several recently and I'm happy to report that there are quite a few young people there.

Peter Felicia (38:21)

Good. I want to be wrong about this.

James Marino (38:23)

Yeah, well, I mean, no, I mean, you're certainly right that many, many young people have no interest in that, but I can't say the percentages.

Peter Felicia (38:33)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right.

Michael Portantier (38:37)

All right. So, Peter, next up, you were at the Soho Playhouse for production of After Endgame, a comedy show about chess. So tell us about this.

Peter Felicia (38:58)

That's the problem. It really isn't.

James Marino (39:01)

It isn't what?

Peter Felicia (39:03)

A play about chess. It really isn't. I mean, I wish it were, but it starts out that way. It's about 80 minutes and we hear about Kevin James Doyle talking about his expertise with chess and how good he is at it and how he teaches and how he makes a lot of money from it and so on and so forth. I really expected it was going to be a history of chess. What to do when you're playing chess, what the right move would be, what not to do, so and so forth. He slightly touches about what not to do, but I'm telling you, after the first five minutes he goes off in a completely different direction. And I didn't find it terribly interesting. He does consider himself a stand up comic and that's the type of thing he's doing. It's stand up comedy rather than instructions on chess. And you might say, well, people come out to laugh, they don't want to get a chess lesson. But I'm sure that it could be made fascinating. He does have a very fascinating piece of information on what the French word for chess is. And it's also another word for something very different. I won't give it away, but. But the more he strayed from the subject, the less interested I was. So. And as is often the case with so many stand up comedians, I didn't find him terribly funny. So. So this was not a shining hour for me. And I have to say the audience did seem to be on his side in a way that I wasn't. So if you go, I hope you're on his side as well.

Michael Portantier (40:42)

Okay. After Endgame, a comedy show about chess is playing through March 8th. So it's closed.

Peter Felicia (40:49)

Oh, it's over. Yeah.

Michael Portantier (40:50)

All right. Unless their website is wrong. Yeah, so. And it seems like he's been doing this around the country. So I'll have a link to it in the show notes. And maybe there's, there's other places you can't catch up with it. Michael, I just wanted you to know that I'll be here tomorrow. Oh, wait, no, that's the name of the show. Michael, you went over to 54 below to see I'll Be Here Tomorrow the music of Jerry Herman. So tell us about it.

James Marino (41:25)

This was a very fun show that apparently worked really well despite lots, lots of last minute changes, not all of which I'm aware of. But it seems like as sometimes happens with these one night shows, there was a lot of very last minute Reshuffling due to people being unavailable or other reasons, and including the fact that it's billed as producer host Robert W. Schneider co host, Charles Kirsch, which is a setup I've seen before. But as it turned out, Charles Kirsch was the only onstage host for this show. Rob Schneider was there very much in the audience, but he never actually. Well, there was one brief moment where he. He came on and to fill a stage weight, but I would not describe him as a co host. What are you laughing at?

Michael Portantier (42:26)

I feel a stage weight.

James Marino (42:29)

Well, that's what happened. That's what some these things happen, you know, And. And. Oh, I. I want to mention.

Michael Portantier (42:37)

Oh, you meant like the state. They had open time and they. I thought you meant an actual stage weight, like a counterweight system, like.

James Marino (42:45)

No.

Peter Felicia (42:48)

For a second I thought that too, and then I realized it was W A I T. Yeah.

Michael Portantier (42:53)

Stage weight. Not stage weight.

Peter Felicia (42:55)

Right.

Michael Portantier (42:56)

Okay.

Peter Felicia (42:59)

We all did the best.

Michael Portantier (43:00)

Yeah.

James Marino (43:01)

Well, that must have been very confusing. Anyway, I want to mention early on, because I do not want to forget him, they found somewhere this fabulous new pianist named Kanan J. Harris. I didn't ask his age, but he looks quite young. And I can't tell you how beautifully he played, just seamlessly, gorgeously. Didn't miss a trick, didn't miss a cue, didn't miss a note. And one can only imagine, you know, how. How invaluable he's going to become on. On the cabaret scene and in similar situations. It's just. And. And on top of all that, as I said, you know, that. That he dealt with such grace, even though there were these last minute changes being thrown at him. So remember that name if you are doing a show or if you're going to see a show and you see him listed because he was absolutely amazing. This was a celebration of Jerry Herman music and lyrics of Jerry Herman with some names we're very familiar with and others maybe not. So a woman named Mary Callan, who I'm not familiar with.

Peter Felicia (44:25)

She's terrific.

James Marino (44:25)

Yeah. Opened with a fantastic rendition of It's Today. Ladonna Burns did miss. What's her name from one of the more obscure Jerry Herman projects, Miss Spectacular, which has never actually been produced, although there's a quote unquote concept album of it. Our friend Robbie Roselle did just go to the movies from A Day in Hollywood, A Night in the Ukraine. Eric Michael Gillette performed two songs, but there was some. This is one of the things I was alluding to. There was some issue there because apparently One of the songs he thought he was going to perform turned out not to be written by Jerry Herman because Jerry Herman ghost wrote two songs, I believe, for Ben Franklin in Paris. And there was some confusion over that, so he didn't explain it fully. But. But whatever it was, he. He sang from that. And then also take a good look around from Madame Aphrodite, another very, very obscure Jerry Herman piece. Wonderful. Kurt Peterson was there from the original cast of Dear World and he did a medley from that. Aside from sharing some beautiful reminiscences of his interactions with Angela Lansbury during the show, Christian Noel, who I've not seen for quite some time on stage, did almost young from Mrs. Santa Claus and lots of other really wonderful stuff. Richard Skipper sang World Take Me Back, which is one of the two songs from hello Dolly that I think were originally written for the show by Jerry Herman when he was hoping that Ethel Merman would open in the show. And then when she declined, I think it was felt that that song and Love look in My Window were not quite appropriate for Carol Channing. So they were dropped. But both were put back in when Ethel Merman did the show, which I was lucky enough to see. Gerard Alessandrini in, really a major highlight of the evening, sang his parody of George Hearn in In La Cage Fall called I Ham what I Am, and the audience just erupted. It really gratified me to see and hear Gerard get such a fantastic response. Mark Waldrop, who was in several Jerry Herman shows, including the Grand Tour, a big flop that I also saw, saying I'll be here tomorrow from that score. And the cleanup spot was Leroy Reams, the fabulous Leroy Reams, who has a long history with hello Dolly as both a director and a performer. And so he did a medley from that show. But then the final person I want to mention is, and this was apparently like ridiculously last minute, someone had to drop out of the show for whatever reason. And so this fellow named Kurt Owen Kemper apparently is a friend of Rob Schneider. And so he got a call, I believe he said, the morning of the show and said, can you please come and bail us out and sing something? And what he wound up singing on that, you know, on less than what, 12 hours notice, was your hand in mine from Parade. And it's funny, he came on, and it wasn't initially announced that he was a last minute fill in. So he came on this young handsome guy and he came on with it with an iPad and he put the iPad on a. On a music stand and Then started reading the lyrics from it. And my first reaction was really, this young guy, you know, having his 54 below debut, couldn't memorize the whole song. And I, you know, I thought that was a little disappointing. But then when I heard the. The story, the backstory, I was like, oh, my God, that is incredible. I mean, I don't know how familia familiar he was with the song going in, but the point is he didn't get the call until that morning that he was going to be singing it. And they. Presumably they had one rehearsal in the green room upstairs. I mean, I don't know about that. Anyway, another name to keep on your radar. Kurt Owen Kemper. Kemper, as in Ambrose Kemper? I didn't get to ask him if he has had a chance to play that role, but that's not much of a role and maybe more of a dancing role than a singing role. Whereas Kurt has a beautiful, beautiful voice. So if anything, you'll probably see him as Cornelius rather than Ambrose.

Peter Felicia (49:44)

And speaking of Gerard Alessandrini, we decided to get together and meet in a hotel lobby at 11 o'clock on Monday. And he mentioned that he did the song. He didn't mention that he got a tumultuous response, God love him. He was very modest about that. Anyway, we sat down at 11 o'clock, we parted at 5 o'clock, and we never had anything to eat. And nobody said, are you hungry? Should we get something? Did you want to go? It never came up. Because if show music be the food of life, we played on. I'm telling you, we had. So this is the first time we ever spent any significant time together. And I'm telling you the stories just flew back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and forth. So a good time was set by both.

James Marino (50:30)

Yes, he told me that. That you got. Oh, he didn't tell me those details of no food.

Peter Felicia (50:35)

But yes.

Michael Portantier (50:39)

Peter, I. I have to. I have to put a bug on your lapels so that I can record everything that you do. All those stories lost to the ether.

Peter Felicia (50:50)

You know, we had plenty. Yeah.

Michael Portantier (50:55)

Oh, to hear me. To hear you say that, Peter. Wounded.

Peter Felicia (51:00)

Gotcha. Yes, we're talking about Jigs Burgess's new play, which is also at the Soho Playhouse. And at the beginning of it, one would think about Mary Jane, the excellent play that was at the Friedman Theater earlier this year that God said, because it is about a woman who's tending to her grown daughter who was terribly, terribly affected by an accident and now cannot speak and do much of anything. And yet the mother insists on speaking to her as if nothing bad had happened. She knows that. She knows what she's doing. It's not like she's mentally ill or she's in a fantasy world as much as she just feels that she just wants to keep the daughter as much alive as she possibly can. And this is the way she does it. Carol shows up, that's two Rs and one L. And that's played by Craig Taggart, who is a stereotypical gay, over the top, that type of character. And certainly Craig Taggart did the job splendidly in portraying this type of character as well as Kristen McCullough. Phenomenal performance, really. And yet I was perhaps most affected by an actor named Shaw Jones who came in in the second act. Now the second act, we're still with Carol. We never see Christa McCullough character Katie again until the curtain calls. But now we're at home with Carol. And it turns out that he over the years was friends with Robert, played by Shaw Jones. And Robert has had some tough times. I'm not going to tell you why. Why, it's very skillful in the way that Jigs Burgess has set this up. Very skillful indeed. But what a performance as this desperate guy who needs money so badly and decides that maybe he can get a few bucks by prostituting himself with Carol, who certainly is interested. The story goes deeper than that, much deeper. And we got to give credit to Del Shaws for doing such a good job in directing these three people. These three performances like this don't come together accidentally. Sure, of course the actors have native talent, but nevertheless, the way they interplayed with each other, really very impressive because each of them is indeed wounded. And while this play hasn't been on very many people's radar, I do think it's worth a visit down to the Soho Playhouse, which is on Van Damme Street. Not hard to get to the E train and the C train if you're in town. Get you there quite easily. Easily to Spring street, and it's right there. So as a result, I do think Worth Wounded is worth a trip. And I am looking forward to seeing all three of these people, especially Shaw Jones, in the future.

Michael Portantier (54:11)

Okay, so Wounded at the Soho Playhouse. We'll have a link to that in the show notes. Michael, we heard that there's a concert of the. I want to say recent, but maybe it's a few years away when was.

Peter Felicia (54:29)

Swept away just this past season.

Michael Portantier (54:32)

Swept away just this past season.

Peter Felicia (54:34)

Yeah, this Last.

Michael Portantier (54:35)

Are you thinking of another show? I've lost all track of time. So there's going to be a concert of Swept Away. Tell us about it.

James Marino (54:45)

Well, I don't have all the details, but it's going to be at the Bowery Ballroom on April 28th. 8th. And all the details feature. Well, well, not all. I think since it was announced, I think it said they added another performance. I'm not sure if it's the same. We should look it up here, guys. I'm not sure if it's the same day or, you know, or the following.

Michael Portantier (55:07)

Day after selling out in three hours. Swept Away reunion concert and second late show.

Peter Felicia (55:14)

Wow.

James Marino (55:15)

Yeah, that show really has its adherence. And I, I did like the score. Very.

Michael Portantier (55:20)

I love.

Peter Felicia (55:22)

Me too. Me too.

James Marino (55:23)

And also there's three fabulous leading performance. Well, four fabulous leading performances. And the ensemble was so great. I hope they get some role of the ensemble guys back too.

Michael Portantier (55:38)

Yeah, I'd. So I guess the first one is sold out. I don't know if there's still tickets. The second one. Let me click through and see if I can buy some tickets.

James Marino (55:52)

Oh, that would be helpful.

Michael Portantier (55:54)

Swept Away musical dot com. Oh, can't buy tickets here. All right.

James Marino (56:07)

So I just, I just wanted to say I, I feel like for me personally, and not just for me personally, but the spring is really heated. Meeting up now, like maybe a little earlier than usual. For example, just for me, this past Friday, I saw Ghosts at the new House. And then yesterday I did a double header, which I don't like to do, but I had no other choice. So I saw as Time Goes by in the Village in the afternoon. And then I saw a philharmonic concert in the evening. And then today I have a double header of the Jonathan Larson Project project at the Orpheum. And then. And then tonight at 7, Platinum Dreams, which is on the Upper east side. And then Monday, Rob Capolo has a what makes it great show at Merkin hall with, with Ben Jones, one of my favorite singers. And actually, and then, I mean, Wednesday I have American at 59 East 59. And Thursday I have another Roll of the Dice. And Friday I have the New York Pops. And Saturday I have Streetcar at Bam. So I'm just trying to conserve my energy, you know.

Michael Portantier (57:28)

You know, this is why I carb load all year long to get ready for this. So, yeah, so there are tickets available and $65. Not, not very expensive at all.

James Marino (57:41)

That's great.

Michael Portantier (57:42)

Yeah. So. And well, I got the Ticketmaster link in the show notes if you want to just Click through and, and check that out. So there are tickets still available.

James Marino (57:55)

Wonderful.

Michael Portantier (57:57)

So Tony Janicki, one of our listeners who is listening to us live here on Sunday morning, asks us, James, Michael and Peter, have you heard that Chicago's Victory Gardens Theater is going to reopen in April, at least tentatively. So, Peter, what have you seen at Victory Gardens?

Peter Felicia (58:19)

I believe I saw Shopping and there. And that's the name of it. So I, I believe I saw Stupid Bird. Geez. It said, maybe I'm confusing them. Maybe I saw only one Stupid Bird. I believe I saw there and very intimate space and in, in the neighborhood. Doesn't look as if it would be sporting a theater at all. But boy, the, the, the shows that have come out of there, really, and I mean, wonderful playwrights like Jeffrey Sweet certainly have worked there. And I believe, Darl Mar, I think it was an important building block. I could be wrong, but I think it was an important building block in his career, too. And he has a new play that's coming out that we'll see, his signature, which is always good news because, boy, he's an excellent, excellent writer. So, so it's very nice. Dennis. I think Beau Gest started there. I associate Jim Sherman with that theater and Dennis Yacek, who I think directed Beau Gest and certainly was artistic director there for a while, I'm guessing. But memory may be faulty here because I have spent far less time in Chicago's theater than I would like to. But, but yes, it is wonderful. The Victory Theaters Victory Gardens Theater is coming back.

Michael Portantier (59:39)

So the Victory Gardens Theater was founded in 1974. Since then, it has produced more world premieres and Chicago premieres, worked for more, worked with more living playwrights, and exported more new plays for production elsewhere than any other theater in the region, they say. In 2022, after more than two difficult years with canceled abbreviated seasons, low turn artistic leadership and staffing challenges, the board of directors transitioned the organization to a foundation. While there are no planned productions at future Gardens Theatre, Board of directors working on new ways for the theater to achieve its mission, to nurture relevant new theatrical work to diverse stories of the world and contributing to the vitality of American theater. And on the front page of its website, it says the Victory Gardens is thrilled to partner partner with relentless, relentless theater group for the Chicago premiere of Henry Johnson by Chicago's own David Mamet, featuring Thomas Gibson, the star of Criminal Minds and Dharma and Greg. This event is a special celebration of our 50th anniversary and we invite you to be a part of this momentous occasion. That's Henry Johnson April 9th through May 4th. And so I will put a link to that in the show notes so y'all can check that out if you'd like. All right, so that wraps it up for this week. Before we get on to our brain teaser and our musical moments, I'd like to remind everybody that you can subscribe to these broadcasts by going to the front page of broadwayvideo.com there's a subscribe link. That way each and every time we have a new episode of this Week on Broadway be automatically downloaded to Apple Podcast for you. Of course, you don't have to listen to us in Apple Podcasts has many ways to get us Patreon P-A-T-R-E-O-N.com BroadwayRadio is one way that you can get Broadway radio's offerings and get not only support all of the Broadway video shows, but get us a little bit earlier than everybody else. Contact information for Peter, for Michael and for 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 we have an answer to last week's Brain T teaser?

Peter Felicia (62:05)

What character first seen in a 1950s musical and only on Broadway during the century has the longest name? Well, I'm talking about His Royal Highness Christopher Rupert Windermere, Vladimir Karl Alexander Francois Reginald Lancelot Herman Herman Gregory James, who marries Cinderella in the 1957 TV musical and in the 2013 stage version that played Broadway theater. Steve Bell was first and in fact was right up there the week before with the Mazeppa answer. But I negle to mention him. So I'll to paraphrase another Hammerstein lyric, I'll offer 100 million apologies. Following him was Sean Logan, Ingrid Gammerman, Greta Bramowitz, Brigadude, Tony Janicki, and Paul Witty. So people found this one kind of hard. We usually hear from more people. So my point is that if you found that one hard, this one may strike you as much harder. In fact, while I concocted it, I thought this is almost as hard as the questions the Queen Agravane gives at the beginning of Once Upon a Mattress, hoping that the would be princesses would fail. But if you know where to look, if you know where to look, it's not hard at all. Here we go. He sang one number in a famous movie musical. Consider the word number a clue too, in answering this question. That said, the first of his three marriages gave him a father in law with the same first name of the character that he played in the film. Not only that, his mother in law had the same first name as his girlfriend in the film. Who is he, what's the film, what's the number and what are the names of the characters and the in laws? I swear it's easier than it seems.

Michael Portantier (64:05)

Okay, if it's easier than it seems to you, you can email us@trivia broadwayradio.com Let us know if you're if we will let you know if you're on the right track. So Michael, what do we have in this week's musical moments?

James Marino (64:20)

Well, James pointed out to me that Nathan Lane, you said he just had his birthday or is it just had.

Michael Portantier (64:26)

His birthday March 3.

James Marino (64:29)

Yes. And so Nathan Lane is also in the news because he is one of the stars of the new TV sitcom Mid Century Modern which by the way one of his co stars is Linda Lavin in her final work. So she was working on that when she died rather unexpectedly. So that's at least two reasons to watch this show. And also for those of you who are unaware, this Tuesday night at 6:45 the lights of the Broadhurst Theater are going to be dimmed for Linda Lavin. And the Broadhurst was chosen because that was the site of Linda's triumph in Broadway bound. So that's something to put on your calendar if you choose to commemorate that in that way. And let's see. So a lot to choose from for Nathan Lane. You know, as far as a musical selection, I thought only appropriate that we open with comedy tonight from Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. And for the Closer I thought, well, you know, Timothy Chalamet did not win an Oscar despite great performances in two phenomenal movies last year. The one he was nominated for was the uh, was the Bob Dylan movie. But uh, he is obviously a very very talented person who grew up in a theatrical family and went to the High School of the Performing Arts where my friend Steven Brinberg who sees everything, including, including school shows, saw Timothy as Oscar in Sweet Charity and not that long, long ago. It's so wonderful when a really young person just, just becomes a major movie star, you know. So our closer is a clip from. I always forget the title because I don't like it. What's the title of the Bob Dylan movie?

Michael Portantier (67:01)

I have no Rob Johnson. What's the title of the Bob Dylan movie? He's like our own personal Rob GPT T. A complete unknown.

James Marino (67:12)

A complete unknown. I do not like that title. But. And that's why I can never remember it. So it is a clip from a complete unknown of Timothy as Bob Dylan, I guess, demonstrating, supposedly for the first time, a song he has written. And the song is Blowing in the Wind. And I do think. I do think and hope maybe that Timothy will be on Broadway at some point. I had the pleasure of seeing him in Off Broadway in Prodigal Son at Manhattan Theater Club right before everything started to happen and he blew up and he went off to do Call Me By My Name. And then one thing led to another. But, I mean, certainly it's going to be hard for him to clear his schedule given the incredible demand he must be in. But I think he probably, you know, given his parentage and his background and where he went to school, and I think he. I imagine it will be important for him to come back to Broadway occasionally, at least. So we can hope for that. James was saying earlier a fantasy would be to see Timothy as Frank N. Furter in the new Rocky Horror. I don't know if that'll happen, but. But it would be great casting. And if now we can. We can all. Maybe we can send him suggestions as to what we'd like to see him in and write to his agents and his managers who all. Well, don't write to his agents and managers because they were going to say, are you out of your mind? He can do a movie and make 10,000 times the amount of money. But maybe write to Timothy himself if you can get to him.

Michael Portantier (69:05)

All right, 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.

Peter Felicia (69:15)

Bye bye. The answer, my friend is blowing in.

James Marino (69:22)

The wind the answer is blowing in.

Peter Felicia (69:26)

The wind.

James Marino (69:29)

How many years must a mountain exist before it is washed to the sea? How many years can some people exist.

Peter Felicia (69:45)

Before they're allowed to be free?

James Marino (69:51)

Yes, and how many times can a man turn his head Pretend that he just doesn't see the answer, my friend is blowing in the wind the answer is blowing in the wind.