Friday, October 28, 2011
A Shining Love Letter: I LOVE LUCY Live on Stage
It was TV magic when CBS began airing black & white episodes of the I Love Lucy® show in the early 1950s. The lovable redhead known as Lucy Ricardo instantly won the hearts of millions of viewers who tuned in weekly to see her latest antics. Who can forget images of Lucy filming the Vitameatavegamin commercial, stomping grapes, working in the chocolate factory with Ethel, or doing her mirror routine with Harpo Marx?
Now a new adaptation of the show, I Love Lucy® Live on Stage, has come to the Greenway Court Theatre by co-adapters Rick Sparks, who also directs the production, and comedy writer Kim Flagg. It recreates the television taping of two episodes of the iconic series, The Benefit, and Lucy Has Her Eyes Examined, by a quartet of actors who seek not to mimic the original performances but instead honor the essence of The Ricardos and their next door neighbors, Fred and Ethel Mertz.
Sirena Irwin plays Lucy Ricardo and her resemblance to the famous redhead will certainly make you do a double take, styled to perfection as she is with Lucy’s signature red poodle hairstyle and knockout 50’s wardrobe. Credit for the outstanding vintage look of the show goes to Shon LeBlanc and Byron J. Batista for the costume and wig/makeup design, respectively. Irwin pouts and schemes her way through the scenes in typical “Lucy” fashion playing to her charming, and ever-tolerant husband Ricky (Bill Mendieta), who has his own comedic moments and time for plenty of the Cuban bandleader’s signature vocals – “Babalu” included.
Lucy’s sidekick Ethel (a terrific Lisa Joffrey), may have played second fiddle throughout the run of the show, but here she and husband Fred (Bill Chott) get to show off some of their own vaudevillian song and dance skills in “The Varsity Drag” sequence. Both capture the fine points of their characters beautifully.
As with any television show there are some hilarious commercial inserts by notable products of the day; Brylcream, Chevrolet and a dancing Alka Seltzer tablet among them, and musical numbers by The Crystal Tones – think “Glow Worm” in gorgeous six-part harmony. Those beautiful musical arrangements are brought to you courtesy of musical director Wayne Moore, who also leads the Ricky Ricardo Orchestra “live” at the Tropicana and highlighted by Cricket S. Myers' sound design.
Thanks to a top-notch ensemble the show actually begins outside the theatre as costumed cast members interact with the audience while waiting for the doors to open. One excited woman (Amy Tolsky) is just so gosh darned happy to be here that her infectious energy transfers to everyone around her.
Once inside, Aaron Henderson’s set design lit by Jeremy Pivnick welcomes you into the studio and Mark Christopher Tracy takes charge as the host of the show. Audience warm-up is an art and he’s got it down to a T. A few of the other character highlights include Ed Martin’s wildly entertaining turn as Lucy’s eye doctor, Greg Franklin as Broadway producer William Parker, and Tom Christensen as Lucy’s swingin’ jitterbug instructor King Katt Walsh, though it truly is a team effort and everyone in the cast has his or her chance to shine.
I Love Lucy® Live on Stage pays the highest compliment to its namesake sitcom by remaining true to the innocence of the original. In doing so, we the audience have the opportunity to experience a bit of what it was like in those early days when landing a joke was the loftiest of goals and wholesome entertainment was what the country craved. Fresh, lovely, and full of life, Sparks and company have truly created a shining love letter to the one and only first lady of comedy.
I Love Lucy® Live on Stage runs through December 30 at the Greenway Court Theatre. Click Here for tickets and more information.
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The original episodes of The Benefit and Lucy Has Her Eyes Examined were written by Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh and Bob Carroll Jr. I Love Lucy® Live on Stage is brought to you by S. Kahn Presents and the Millrock Company. Executive producers are David George and Steve Kahn. Hyra George and Kim Flagg are producers.
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Monday, August 29, 2011
I Love Lucy® Live on Stage
The world premiere of I Love Lucy® Live on Stage, a musical comedy tribute to one of the most popular television shows, opens at the Greenway Court Theatre on October 1. Travel back to the 1950s and the Desilu Studios where Rick Sparks directs the “filming” of two episodes of the iconic and beloved sitcom, complete with a television studio host and vintage-style live musical commercials. In addition to the classic comedy that takes place in Lucy and Ricky Ricardo’s New York apartment, musical director Wayne Moore conducts The Ricky Ricardo Orchestra live from the “Tropicana Nightclub.
Sirena Irwin stars as Lucy Ricardo; Bill Mendieta is Ricky Ricardo; Bill Chott plays Fred Mertz; and Lisa Joffrey is Ethel Mertz. Also featured in the cast, playing multiple roles, are Noel Britton, Tom Christensen, Steven Connor, Gregory Franklin, Ed Martin, Denise Moses, Cindy Sciacca, Amy Tolsky, Gina Torrecilla and Mark Christopher Tracy.
“There will never be another television character like Lucy Ricardo,” acknowledges Sparks. “We recognize that there was only one original cast, so we’re not going to attempt any impersonation of their immense talents. Our plan is to honor and celebrate this iconic show, and that experience will begin the moment audiences step onto the sidewalk in front of the theater.”
I Love Lucy® Live on Stage is staged and directed by Rick Sparks. The stage adaptation and additional new material are by Kim Flagg and Rick Sparks. Set design is by Aaron Henderson; lighting design is by Jeremy Pivnick; sound design is by Cricket S. Myers; costume design is by Shon LeBlanc; wigs and hair are by Byron Batista; and the production stage manager is Justine Baldwin. I Love Lucy® Live on Stage is presented by S. Kahn Presents and Millrock Company.
Rick Sparks (Director, Co-Adaptor) is the winner of 16 Los Angeles theater awards. He most recently directed the Ovation-recommended Daddy at the Hudson Mainstage and Trio at Lounge 2.
Kim Flagg (Co-Adaptor) is currently writing on ABC’s new 2011 fall comedy Last Man Standing. Kim was a writer and story editor for the Tim Allen series Home Improvement and has collaborated with Allen for fifteen years as his ghostwriter, head comedy writer, speechwriter and creative design director, developing and writing a wide array of material for his stand-up comedy, award show appearances, comedy concerts, public engagements, hosting events, and talk show appearances.
I Love Lucy® Live on Stage opens on October 1 and continues through December 30. The Greenway Court Theatre is located at 544 N. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90036.
Click Here for tickets and more information or call 800-595-4TIX (800-595-4849).
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Tuesday, April 3, 2012
David O., The Man Behind The Music
Among his credits as musical director are Jason Robert Brown’s 13 at the Mark Taper Forum, The Cradle Will Rock, The Wild Party and Little Fish at Noah Wyle's The Blank Theatre Company, and Little Shop of Horrors at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. As a composer, he has written music for shows like South Coast Rep’s Imagine, Powerhouse Theater’s Atalanta, Center Theatre Group’s The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip, and Toy Story: the Musical.
His quiet intensity belies his penchant for a good joke and he is a musician who truly loves to collaborate with other artists. When he’s on board a project, its participants breathe a sigh of relief. Around here, you know you’re in good hands with O. Now working with A Noise Within writing original music for Molière’s play, The Bungler, we talked about his ongoing partnership with the classical theatre company and how music came to be such a big part of his life.
David, you first collaborated on an unusual piece at A Noise Within about seven years ago called Ubu Roi which brought a lot of attention to your work. Do you remember how you originally met Julia Rodriguez-Elliott and Geoff Elliott, A Noise Within’s co-artistic directors?
I don’t remember how we were first introduced but it’s a small world in the L.A. Theatre community so we already knew of each other’s work. Julia approached me when they were looking for a composer for Ubu in 2006. She was directing the piece and we really hit it off creatively.
We were able to create a unique aesthetic with Ubu that we’ve drawn on in two of our other collaborations - The Bungler and Oliver Twist. We designed a musical palette that uses the actors as singer/actor/instrumentalist/Foley artists combined with traditional musical instruments and found objects to create a live soundscape. For Ubu I was the primary musician and sound artist on stage but the actors also contributed a great deal musically. With Oliver Twist we continued that exploration but with the actors doing all of the music and sound effects themselves. We’re doing a similar thing with The Bungler, however with this show we have a unique luxury in that, among the interns working at A Noise Within this season, is an excellent classical tuba player who’s part of the cast (Kabin Thomas). I jumped on that opportunity and he’s become a big part of the music of the show.
Is the music primarily instrumental or have you written vocal parts as well?
We’re using live tuba, live guitar and mandolin, a number of handheld percussion instruments, and an array of found objects that are also being used as percussion instruments, along with the actors’ voices. The influences come from a lot of different places, but the melodies primarily sound like folk tunes, for lack of a better comparison. The actors are really attacking the music with gusto and we get to play a lot stylistically. One of the things I love doing is defying the audience’s expectations so when we set up one moment in the play in a certain musical style, we then purposefully in the next moment do a complete U-turn to keep everybody a little bit off their guard.
Did you write any of the music before you started rehearsals or has this mainly been a collaborative process in rehearsals?
When I was first approached about doing the show I was up in Ashland at Oregon Shakespeare Festival working on Animal Crackers so I was steeped in the world of the Marx Brothers. I sketched out some initial melodies that are now part of the show but they were pretty basic sketches. More of the music has been developed in improvisation and through the inspiration of the actors themselves in the rehearsal room.
It sounds like you really like the process of collaboration.
I do. I think working directly with other artists is an inherent part of the performing arts for me.
Have you ever thought about why you write music?
I happened to come across a great quote by the British choral conductor Sir Thomas Beecham recently. He said, ‘The function of music is to release us from the tyranny of conscious thought,’ which I found really inspirational. I realized that’s a big part of how I think about creating music and how I think about listening to music. Part of why I write music is that I like to, for lack of a better term, mess with people’s heads. I enjoy surprising people with sounds. I enjoy catching people off guard and unexpectedly making them laugh or cry; giving people a cathartic experience through a combination of notes and rhythms as they tie into a story in the theatre or in the concert hall.
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| Having a bit of fun with Beethoven. "I said I like your music!" |
Since you’re working with a Molière piece you really have the perfect situation to explore the unexpected.
Absolutely. It’s madcap, mayhem, and made up of some purposefully completely random and disparate elements. One thing that strikes me about The Bungler is that it’s about a step and a half away from a series of “I Love Lucy” episodes because of its episodic nature. Each of the five acts has a very similar story in which there’s a plan that the idiot title character of the show manages to screw up in some completely unexpected way. For that reason, Julia and I realized that the music was very important. Traditionally in Molière’s day they would have had some sort of music/dance interlude between each of the acts so we decided to use the interludes as a sort of a palette cleanser.
How did you go about developing them?
We started by brainstorming about what those interludes might sound like and we used a combination of melodies with non-verbal lyrics, la-la-la, doo-doo-doo, to get into the nonsense world. Since Molière wrote the text in verse, and Richard Wilbur has translated it so artfully, it really lends itself to being adapted into songs.
Did the purpose of the interludes change as you began to work with them?
The original thought was that the interludes would be completely separate entities; a completely different kind of performance than the rest of the play. As it has turned out, each interlude either functions as a tail of the previous act or an introduction of the next act. Most of them use text from the script as lyric and some of them echo text that has just been spoken or foreshadows text that is about to be spoken.
How do you know when you’re moving in the right direction?
What I’ve found is a really important part of my work is defining the box in which I’m playing. In this case, the box was the text of Molière. In other cases the box might be the outline of a story we’re writing ourselves. Whatever box it is, it then gives me a vocabulary in which I can work and in which I can then hopefully break as many rules as possible.
Does music always represent work for you or do you ever listen to it for pleasure?
Often I try to clear my head of musical ideas so in my leisure time I tend to do more listening of podcasts and talk radio rather than listening to music. More recently though I’ve been listening to a lot of music I haven’t heard before. I’m primarily self-educated as a musician and as a composer so stretching my imagination has always been important to me.
Was music a part of your background?
I did a lot of studying of music as a child. I grew up in a musical family. My parents were part of a quintet of singer/instrumentalists that performed folk music and madrigals and original songs that they had written around the Central Coast of California where we lived. I played trombone in band and sang in choirs as a kid and as a teenager, and it was always part of the culture of the house in which I grew up. It was a language that we spoke. It was normal to me that people rehearsed in their living room every Sunday night to prepare music they had written for performance. (Laughs) I mean, I was aware that not everybody did that but I grew up in an environment in which it was a perfectly normal thing to do. This was in Salinas, California up near Monterey in the 70s and 80s.
After I graduated from high school I went to California Institute of the Arts as an acting major and got my BFA in Theatre. I’m glad I got that education in theatre because it gave me a really good grasp of how actors and directors function. It also gave me a handle on story structure. After graduating from CalArts I pursued acting for a little while but rather quickly I became the person who was called in to play piano for a show or to write a tune for a show. That, in turn, evolved rather quickly into a career as a composer and musical director primarily in the theatre.
Did you have any ‘Aha’ moments along the way?
My career path has always been a process but there was also a major change that happened in 1997 – The A.S.K. Theater Project. They had created a composer/librettist workshop run by Ben Krywosz of Nautilus Music Theater in St. Paul and what Ben did was get together a group of 5 composers, 5 librettists, and 5 performers into a kind of think tank for two weeks. It was sort of a collaboration camp. Everybody was given writing assignments working with each other, and by the end, each of the composers had worked with each of the librettists creating 25 short pieces of music theater.
Participants were really encouraged to stretch the limits of what they considered their work. My friend and collaborator Matt Almos was working at A.S.K at the time and said he thought I should apply…but not as a performer, as a composer. I hadn’t really thought of myself seriously as a composer then but I looked back at the work that I had done in the previous several years and I realized he was right. So I did the workshop and it was a big part of me redefining myself as a composer, particularly in avant garde or boundary breaking work.
Shortly after that experience, my wife and I worked on cruise ships for a couple years. I was the piano player but quickly became the musical director of the band and of the ship, and that’s where I honed my skills as a band leader. A new entertainer would come on board in the afternoon; we’d have a half hour rehearsal with them and then do a 45-minute show that night. You have to get everything together really quickly. I think I can trace a lot of what I do back to that composer workshop and also to my experience on the ships.
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David’s time in the trenches has certainly paid off. He continues to be one of the most sought after composer/musical directors in Los Angeles and has been honored with numerous awards, including Ovation, Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, L.A. Weekly, and Backstage West Garland Awards.
Later this year he’ll be writing original music for and musically directing The Getty Villa’s production of Euripides’ Helen. Jon Lawrence Rivera directs the new adaptation by Nick Salamone, which will be presented in the villa’s outdoor theatre in September. For now, we can’t wait to hear what delicious nonsense he’s created for The Bungler.
The Bungler is currently in previews, officially opens Saturday, April 7, and is scheduled to run through May 27 at A Noise Within in Pasadena. For more information go to www.anoisewithin.org.
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Labels: a noise within
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Upcoming March Musical Events
From the studio of Dan Callaway: Dan’s special guest for his March Musical Theatre Workshop is director/choreographer Kirsten Chandler. Kirsten brings years of experience as a working actor to the table and most recently directed a great production of Little Women for the Musical Theatre Guild. The workshop will run Tuesday evenings, March 6, 13, 20, and 27, 7-10 pm at Dan’s studio, 4922 Vineland Ave., NoHo 91601. The cost is $300 and payment can be made by cash, check, or credit card. Class is limited to 8 people. For more info and to register email dan@MyLAVoiceTeacher.com.performances à la carte presents Winter's Thaw, A Benefit Concert for Elizabeth House on Sunday, March 11, 7:00 pm at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 1757 N. Lake Avenue, Pasadena 91104. A mesmerizing and ethereal musical, literary and visual journey from the icy shroud of Winter to the warm rebirth of Spring, Winter’s Thaw, is a multimedia concert weaving literary, musical and visual arts to feature music written by composers including Eric Whitacre, David Downs, Carole Bayer-Sager, and Ennio Morricone and made famous by such renowned artists as Josh Groban, Andrea Bocelli, Celine Dion, Celtic Women, Sarah Brightman, Sissel, and King’s Singers. Based on a series of three poems, the concert will feature solo, choral, and instrumental performances set to stunning original imagery. Click Here for tickets.
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Tuesday, April 11, 2017
Meet the Producers of A LITTLE NEW MUSIC
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| L-R: Producers Peter Welkin, Amy Francis Schott, Luke Klipp, Corey Lynn Howe, Christopher Maikish, and Kila Packett |
It takes a village to create a new musical. And it takes a village like A Little New Music to give musical theatre writers a place to showcase new material while their Broadway-hopeful shows are in development. It’s an important part of the process, getting your songs in front of an audience. For the last four years, A Little New Music has presented quarterly concerts that offer the best new songs musical theatre has to offer and audiences can’t get enough of it. Neither can those behind the scenes.
The producers of the series readily admit they love what they do and each one brings his or her own unique perspective to the process of “putting on a show.” Meet Peter Welkin, Christopher Maikish, Luke Klipp, Amy Francis Schott, and Kila Packett from A Little New Music. In this interview, they discuss their roles as producers and what musical theatre means to them. I hope you enjoy this window into their world.
Peter Welkin (Executive Producer) A relationship evolves
For many years I thought that the only way to be part of musical theater was to work really hard learning to sing, act and dance and then jump at any chance to take the first paid gig that came along. That taught me a lot about the trials and tribulations of being a performer but I was always chasing the tail of the business, trying to fit into the mold of the established musicals and the previously-defined characters that were required.
When I got involved with the Academy for New Musical Theater, I had a revelation – a nearly spiritual one. I realized that there was a whole new world of possibilities when it came to being in on the ground floor of developing new musical theatre works. I wanted to be part of the bleeding edge of this new musical theatre world, and ever since then, I’ve been involved in innumerable shows, readings, presentations, and more recently, concert productions, showcasing exciting new musical theatre material.
Early on, an ALNM concert attendee remarked that she “loved what we were doing and that she was so excited to feel like she was getting a sneak-peek at the future of Broadway.” Something fresh, something new, something exciting, that’s what keeps me motivated to do to this. Answering this need for our audience makes them more like an insider, and puts them closer to the cutting edge of the musical theatre art. I love to be able to say, “Oh yeah, Come From Away is on Broadway now, but we presented a song from that show almost two years ago, before most people had ever even heard of it.” That’s super exciting to me!
Holding the vision
Luckily, I’m not the only person who needs to maintain the vision for what we do. Our team is composed of people with really different backgrounds who are all dedicated to volunteering their time to bring our shows to fruition. We often rotate the producing roles when we build a show to avoid burnout. As an entirely volunteer group, each of us makes the choice to spend our free time working on this. That means we’re each dealing with our various jobs, relationships and family obligations, which can easily distract us. It’s not always easy to keep everyone moving in the same direction. But, knowing that we have a team of people who care deeply about the quality, freshness, and excitement factor in the new material makes my job that much easier.
There’s nothing like the feeling of sitting in that audience, and hearing and seeing how these new songs connect with people. That’s what makes it all worthwhile, knowing that we consciously created something an audience has never seen before, and given them a glimpse into a world of musical theater possibilities they didn’t know existed. Which reminds me of a famous Sondheim lyric…
“White, a blank page or canvas. The challenge: bring order to the whole, through design, composition, tension, balance, light and harmony.” – Sunday in the Park with George
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L-R:
Mitch Glaser, Kila Packett, Peter Welkin, Amy Francis Schott, Luke Klipp, and
Christopher Maikish in an ALNM producers meeting |
Christopher Maikish (Founding Producer/Artistic Producer) Collaboration is key
Because our production structure encourages rotation of roles for each concert, I think it breeds empathy amongst the team and also allows us an opportunity to engage intellectually with varying parts of “putting on the show.” Most of us have volunteered more than 500 hours each since 2012, encompassing 14 LA concerts, a special San Francisco engagement at Feinstein’s, and two years of presenting the “ALNM Outstanding Songwriting Award” at the Hollywood Fringe Festival.
The hats I’ve worn in my own professional life have been as performer, graphic designer, marketing manager, hospitality, and museum administration. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that this project would end up being a great unifier of those experiences. And the time I’ve spent collaborating with writers, performers, and producers has given me the confidence to lead, and to lead with purpose.
Shaping the show
In the early days, we discussed having themed concepts for each show, but we decided that the idea of the “NEW” was more than enough. We really just want to share the songs we are most excited about. What generates that excitement? It might be a world premiere, an underserved storyline, a sophisticated melody, an unexpectedly clever lyric, an amazing new writer LA needs to meet, a show with momentum, the opportunity to break from tired casting tropes, a damn-funny song, or simply an unforgettable moment.
Programming always feels a little bit like winemaking – you’re never fully in control of what the audience will experience, but you’re after the right balance of ingredients. We lean towards keeping the night upbeat, crisp, and fun. We program an eclectic blend of musical styles and we do seek a few name performers per concert. The hard fact is that it helps create momentum for filling the room, but we love local, new talent. We look for a balance in representation for both writers and performers regarding gender, race, age, life experience, etc. Logistics don’t always let us achieve that perfectly, but these are transparent and active conversations.
A commitment to diversity
That ethos has been front and center for me since the beginning. A Little New Music is in pursuit of a future artistic world and I believe diverse representation starts with the decision makers. Female, Trans, and POC writer friends – know that we want to hear from you. If our evening of songs is serving a singular idea, for me it’s this: You are not alone and you are welcome here. All of you. Let’s celebrate.
At a time when society is receding into the numbing safety of technology, bringing the LA theater community into the same room to reflect on human life, to find an entertaining escape, or to make new connections feels more important than ever. I know performers who have found agents and lucrative projects from singing at our concerts. I know people who literally met and fell in love. And I know emerging writers now within earshot of producers we’ve had in our rooms. It’s intensely satisfying to have helped facilitate that.
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| Christopher Maikish and Luke Klipp |
For me personally, performance and politics have generally been separate, and the challenge in straddling two very different worlds has made committing wholly to either of them virtually impossible. What I hope people are starting to recognize within the current political climate is that there is more to life than its mere existence, and that we also need to consider what makes life worthwhile.
Musical theatre – and the arts more generally – are an invaluable element to that idea of what makes life worth living. Every single show that we have done has had moments that brought me to tears, moments that made me laugh out loud, and moments that caused me to think about my life and my role in the world. Every single show.
Amy Francis Schott (Managing Producer) Getting it done
For this particular show, I’m the utility player. Whatever needs to be done, I’ll do it. I’m a longtime stage manager so it’s natural for me to take on that role with ALNM. My other role, and the one I love the most, is writer outreach. Writers are the rockstars of my world: what they do, creating words and music which come together into more than the sum of their parts. That is the coolest thing I can imagine.
Music, music, music
We get a lot of song submissions – over 80 this last round – and there are songs we carry over because we love them and want to present them but, for whatever reason, they don’t fit into the current show we’re doing. Sometimes it’s because we can’t find the right casting or because another song we’ve chosen has too much similar DNA. We’ve held songs over 3 or 4 times, sometimes even a year, until it finds a place in the right show.
A story behind every song
Tim Rosser and Charlie Sohne are NYC writers and we’ve featured them a number of times in our concerts. When their show The Boy Who Danced on Air had its world premiere at Diversionary Theatre in San Diego last year, we were able to get the two leads to come up to LA the week after it closed to sing a duet from the show. Now the musical is about to make its Off-Broadway premiere at Abingdon Theatre Company in May.
A few years ago I met the writers of Come From Away at NAMT (National Alliance for Musical Theatre), Irene Sankoff and David Hein. We ended up having lunch together and we became Facebook friends. The next year, Come From Away was featured at NAMT. It was one of the most extraordinary musicals I’d ever seen and everyone was talking about it. Through that connection, we were able to present “Me and the Sky” from the show in our September 2014 concert. Since then, I’ve had the joy of seeing it brought fully to life at La Jolla Playhouse in 2016 and now the world can see it on Broadway!
We’ve programmed songs by established writers like Kate Kerrigan and Brian Lowdermilk (their new show The Mad Ones is about to go up Off-Broadway) and also up-and-comers like Michael R. Jackson. The first time we featured Kerrigan and Lowdermilk was an unusual situation. They have a friend who is an opera singer, Zach Altman, and I had seen him sing this amazing song “One Last Prayer” from their musical Republic, based on Shakespeare’s Henry VI, Parts 1 & 2 and set in Northern Ireland in the 1970s. It was stunning. Turns out, Zach was going to be in LA and we were able to make arrangements for him to come and perform with us.
The first time I heard Michael’s music was in a late night concert after NYMF (New York Musical Festival). He wrote a song called “Miss Lucy” that I fell in love with and I asked him about it after the show. Cut to later when he submitted “Bathtub At The Beverly Hills Hotel” for ALNM and we found the amazing Jasmin Richardson (who’s on tour with The Bodyguard right now) to perform it. The song is sung from Whitney Houston’s point of view in her final moments. Jasmin gave an incredible performance and it ended up becoming one of the high points of the series.
Kila Packett (Marketing Producer): Every village needs its people
There are a lot of ways we bring the people to our village. Our website, designing posters, emails, press releases, videos showcasing our writers and performers, social media posts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram; college outreach, musical theatre clubs, and word of mouth; returning patrons, and of course name talent!
For example, on social media, I want our followers to join us in the day-to-day journey of how we piece a concert together. Similar to how celebrities post stories on their Facebook Live and Instagram, I like to be transparent with our audience by giving them a real behind-the-scenes view of our process.
We have followers from all around the country who seek out musicals and, if we can make our routine a little more personal, it gives them a sense of being part of our community – a vibrant and constantly growing family of artists and art lovers. We are always trying new approaches for our promotional videos, and because music is such a great part of what we do, we want to challenge the listener to hear us in exciting new ways.
Can’t help falling in love
I grew up loving musicals from watching movies and TV specials, records, and cassette tapes. I remember seeing Annie in the movie theater, The Mikado on PBS, my aunt played Guinevere in a production of Camelot, and my mother owned the recording of Funny Girl but I never saw a Broadway musical live until later in life. I know there are people just like me who want to hear the newest material so it makes promoting our work that much easier. There is a huge audience out there and social media not only brings our work to the masses, it helps us find new talent. That’s what I love about being at the forefront of cutting edge musical theatre. I get to be an ambassador for lovers of this art form and help bring people together. It doesn’t get better than that.
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A Little New Music’s producing team also includes Corey Lynn Howe, Mitch Glaser, Katherine Washington, Katie Porter, Chelsea Rae Bernier, Eran Scoggins, Michelle Lane, and musical director Gregory Nabours. Their next concert is April 24th at Catalina Bar & Grill, 6725 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028. Doors open at 7pm for the 8:30 pm curtain. For tickets and more information, call (323) 466-2210 or visit www.alittlenewmusic.org.
Since 2013, A Little New Music has featured over 170 songs by writers such as Sankoff & Hein, Pasek & Paul, Miller & Tysen, Ryan Scott Oliver, Carmel Dean, Kerrigan & Lowdermilk, Milburn & Vigoda, Adam Gwon, Joe Iconis, Drew Fornarola, Zoe Sarnak, Erik Przytulski, Michael Finke, Rollins & Levine, and Gregory Nabours. More than 200 performers have appeared in ALNM concerts including Daisy Eagan, Jeff Marx, John Tartaglia, Shoshana Bean, Barrett Foa, Nicole Parker, Krysta Rodriguez, and Michael A. Shepperd.
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Saturday, December 6, 2014
MUSICAL NEWS for Saturday, December 6, 2014
This year’s competition will once again be judged by a live audience and an overall panel of LA musical theatre’s most creative forces. Judges will give a live critique to each contestant every week. Audience members and Judges will also vote on vocal and acting ability, stage presence and personality. Interested talent may call Michael Sterling Publicity and Production at (818) 623-7300 x 2 to request an audition appointment on Sun. Dec. 14 from 10:00 am – 4:00 pm at Van Nuys’ Performing Arts Center, 7735 North Sepulveda Blvd. Auditions are by appointment only. A musical accompanist will be provided.
Directed by SparkleBlob founder Julianna Parr, the show is proof that puppets aren’t just for kids but for everyone. Children and adults of all ages delight in the show’s witty humor, satire, and sparkly action. The show includes before and after Chinatown sightseeing rides on the famed ‘trike’ plus delicious pre and after show treats and libations. Many of Los Angeles’s best known puppeteers and performers will be on stage - including Shannon Dedman, Rosalind Helfand, Monica Howe, Julianna Parr, Linda Santiman, Andrew Oropeza and Scott Russell Cheek. The DingleBell Hollies rock out this year with musicians Jason Myers, Coral Lobera, Joshua Fielstra, and Eric Potter. Tickets: www.sparkleblob.org.
On December 20 and 21, T.U. Studios will be filled with music, as the venue plays host to the musical revue, Liquid Love, just in time for the holiday. The show features love songs performed by established vocal stars including Lucy Walsh (daughter of The Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh); Chad Doreck (of the upcoming musical Serrano); and Gloria Gifford (WB recording contract singer plus national TV shows). Musical director is Stuart Elster who will also appear on keyboards along with Armando Compean on bass and Robert May on drums. T.U. Studios, 10943 Camarillo St. North Hollywood, CA 91602. Saturday, Dec. 20 at 8:00 pm and Sunday, Dec. 21 at 7:30 pm. Admission: $20. For reservations, call (310) 366-5505 or go to www.tix.com.
INTERVIEW: Episode 144 of Dizney Coast to Coast’s Disney Podcast includes a terrific interview with Patrick Page who is currently starring as Frollo in Disney Theatricals Hunchback of Notre Dame at La Jolla Playhouse. The interview begins at approximately 9:00. Enjoy!
INDIEGOGO: Doug Haverty (book/lyrics), Adryan Russ (music/lyrics), and Bruce Kimmel (director) have started a fundraising campaign to mount an anniversary production of their musical Inside Out (a musical about giving and getting support in an all-girl “group”) to commemorate the 20th anniversary and re-release/re-mastering of the Original Off Broadway Cast Recording. A portion of the proceeds will go to the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation (for a Future Without Breast Cancer). The show will be a celebration of women supporting women with an all-female cast and all-female band. You can check out their campaign HERE and help them make it happen.
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Tuesday, November 4, 2014
MUSICAL NEWS for Tuesday, November 4, 2014
California Lutheran University will present a free musical theater production of Jason Robert Brown’s Songs for a New World in the Samuelson Chapel on the Thousand Oaks campus at Nov. 18 and 19 at 7:00 pm. The highly theatrical song cycle transports the audience from the deck of a Spanish sailing ship in 1492 to a basketball court in urban America to a ledge featuring an array of fascinating characters 57 stories above Fifth Avenue. It explores the universality of life in transition, including the choices people make and the challenges they face. Heidi Valencia Vas, an adjunct music faculty member, is directing the production. The forum is located south of Olsen Road between Campus Drive and Mountclef Blvd. For more information, call (805) 493-3415.
Entertainment on The Music Center plaza begins at noon and patrons may come and go throughout the three hour performance. A live broadcast of the show airs from 3:00 – 6:00 pm on PBS SoCaL. The show will also stream live at www.pbssocal.org and will be repeated from 9:00 pm and again on Dece. 25 at noon. Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at The Music Center, 135 N. Grand Ave, Los Angeles 90012. For more info, call (213) 972-3099 or go to www.HolidayCelebration.org.
CABARET: Rockwell Table and Stage has announced a new monthly collaborative series with Sirius XM Radio as they will be presenting “Sirius XM: The Stage Door Supper Club Radio Hour: Live From the Rockwell! Up next in the series is Magic To Do! An Evening of Music and Prestidigitation on Thursday, Nov. 13 at 8:00 pm. Join Sirius XM host Benjamin Schrader and performers including Carly Jibson, Jared Gertner, Eric Petersen, and Jill Marie Burke as they perform songs celebrating the art of prestidigitation with live stage magic from magicians from the world famous Magic Castle in Hollywood. Tickets are $15- $25 Rockwell Table and Stage is located at 1714 N. Vermont Blvd. in Los Feliz. For reservations, call (323) 669-1550 x 20 or visit www.rockwell-la.com.
Pasadena Opera is also currently casting for its first production, Leonard Bernstein’s Candide, based on the novella of the same name by Voltaire. Performances are scheduled on January 9 & 10, 2015, at A Noise Within in Pasadena. Founded by Pasadena local Dana Sadava, a former engineer and a working conductor, and Indre Viskontas, a neuroscientist and working soprano, the initiative is based on a shared vision of creating high-quality productions that capitalize on the unique character of Pasadena, and melding cutting-edge science and technology with a traditional art form. For more information, visit http://pasadenaopera.org/.
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