New York Observer: Judith Light Is On Three Year Winning Streak!

 

 

In an article by Harry Haun for The New York Observer, he reports that Actress Judith Light is taking New York by storm. The last three years has seen one success after another. First came the Tony Award nomination for Lombardi and then the Tony Award win for Other Desert Cities. The multi-Emmy Award winning actress will appear in The Assembled Parties which opens at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater on April 17.

Here are some excerpts from the article:

It was not the sort of applause that generally greets a star. It was that more rarefied kind reserved for somebody truly beloved. Last December, when Judith Light took to the stage of the New Amsterdam at The 24th Annual Gypsy of the Year competition to do what has become her regular moment-of-silence spot for those lost to AIDS, there was a massive outpouring of affection. A longtime Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS standard-bearer, she couldn’t be better cast for the bit, her voice ringing with dignity and compassion. But that reception set off in me a wave of jealousy, along with the toxic thought, “Damn! They love her as much as I do!”

Bernie Telsey, the casting director and co-founder of Manhattan Class Company, understands my petty feeling well—he doesn’t enjoy sharing Ms. Light either. On the one hand, as he counseled me last week, you’re happy that people see what you see. On the other hand, “she’s not your secret anymore.”

Mr. Telsey, who had almost everything to do with getting Ms. Light back on the Broadway track, having hired her in 1999 to replace the awesome, award-showered Kathleen Chalfant in Margaret Edson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Wit, has cast Ms. Light as the honoree—“for her bold, daring, risk-taking spirit”—at MCC’s annual fund-raising gala, “Miscast 2013,” which will be held March 4 at the Hammerstein Ballroom.

She’s had three shows on the Main Stem in three seasons—pretty good hittin’ in anybody’s book, and worth celebrating—and she was a shoo-in, Mr. Telsey said, when he and his MCC partners, Robert LuPone, Will Cantler and Blake West, threw the bones on the floor. “When we talked of someone who’s touched our lives as an actress, as an ambassador for our arts and education program, it was unanimous. All four of us have that kind of relationship with her.”

Since Wit, he pointed out, she hasn’t stopped working in New York. “She’s so connected with the words that she’s saying, in whatever play, that she touches you as an audience member. When she speaks, it crosses over those footlights and lands in your lap. She’s sharing that character’s story, and you just feel connected with her.”

************************************

TWO WEEKS DEEP INTO REHEARSAL, Ms. Light spoke of The Assembled Parties guardedly and in generalities, perhaps hoping to preserve its surprises. Act I takes place in 1980, Act II in 2000—Mr. Greenberg is fond of generation-jumping (Three Days of Rain)—and the show’s focus is how a well-to-do Jewish family fares over the decades.

“My character, in this particular play, is a woman who has made what she considers to be a terrible mistake and had to get married,” she explained. “This happens around 1949, 1950. And she is cut off by her mother, who denies her the closeness that they once had. The thing that’s happening is that Jessica Hecht’s character—my sister-in-law—does something that transforms my whole life and my whole relationship to her. The Assembled Parties is about making a relationship, and making a family, out of people who are not necessarily family. It’s about connections, making connections.” Her performance promises to be impressive, if her turn in Eric Simonson’s Lombardi two years ago is any gauge. In 244 performances, she played the ultimate in football widows, Marie (Mrs. Vince) Lombardi, who treated her loneliness with stiff drinks.

“I knew from the start—from the first reading—that she absolutely got the character,” Mr. Simonson recalled. “She understood the humor, which was key to understanding the role.””

But it wasn’t just that. “Judith was a consummate professional in rehearsal,” he said, “extremely positive in nature, never said a bad word about anybody—and the cast came to call her ‘Mom.’”

After the curtain falls or the series fails, there is still Light. When America Ferrera, her Ugly Betty co-star, did a stage turn for the Women’s Project recently in Bethany, Ms. Light led the opening-night cheering session. When Lily Rabe, her daughter in MCC’s Colder Than Here, won the Actors’ Equity Callaway Award for playing Portia in The Merchant of Venice, she was the kveller in the crowd. When Danny Pinatauro, her son for 196 Who’s the Boss? episodes, made his stage debut at the Duplex as a street hustler in The Velocity of Gary, “Mom” was down front, beaming.

Lombardi got her a Tony nomination. The Tony itself came last year for following Linda Lavin’s Off-Broadway act when Jon Robin Baitz’s Pulitzer-contending Other Desert Cities went to Broadway: a visiting relative politically out of sync in a Republican California home, fresh out of rehab and flinging stinging zingers right and right.

Of course, none of it might have happened without Wit. “They believed in me,” Ms. Light said. “I’d done nothing on stage for 22 years, and they gave me a shot. I still remember a review I got that said, ‘This person wouldn’t be your first or your 500th choice for Wit—but, oh my goodness!’

Five Broadway Actors Who Made "OUT'S" 100 Most Eligible Bachelors

 

 

 

Kyle Dean Massey (Wicked)

Out Magazine has published its annual list of the '100 Most Eligible Bachelors'. These are the single gay men that thousands have on their wish list or in their dreams at night. Included in this year's list are a number of Broadway entertainers and actors who are openly gay men. All of them are extremely talented and currently available! Enjoy!

Luke MacFarlane (Normal Heart and Brothers and Sisters)

Gavin Creel (Hair and Book of Mormon)

Sam Barnett (The History Boys)

Matt Doyle (War Horse and Book of Mormon)

THEATER: Alan Cumming Returns To Broadway!

 

 

Last July actor Alan Cumming gave a performance of Macbeth that put him among the Shakespeare legends. In the production, he played every single role in the play. The night was an unforgettable evening of theater.

For those of you who missed it at the Lincoln Center, you can now have a bright smile since the show is coming to Broadway! The producers are bringing Alan Cumming's Macbeth to Broadway for just 73 performances. Directed by Tony Award winning director John Tiffany and Andrew Goldberg, the show will be open at the Barrymore Theater (243 West 47th Street) on April 7th.

People should get their tickets early since it is likely to be sold out.

Here is an excerpt of a review that I wrote of the production at Lincoln Center last year:

"When you reflect on the great Shakespeare performances of all time you immediately mention Sir Lawerence Olivier's "Hamlet", Sir Ian McKellen's "Richard III" and Sir Kenneth Branagh's stirring performance as "Henry V". Now these lions of stage and screen have to make room because another name has been added next to these notable gentleman. Alan Cumming's performance of "Macbeth" at the Lincoln Center Festival has to go down as an extraordinary moment in theater history that will remembered long after this production ends.

For an hour and forty-five minutes the audience sat in stunned silence riveted to the stage as Cumming, committed to a mental institution, unfolds before our eyes every character in the play. The madness that emulates from Cumming in the mental ward as he performs "Macbeth" is as profound as Shakespeare's own words. In the sparse room, the actor used every simple prop in his quest to bring the play alive. On stage, the actor embraces an apple, a doll, his bed or stark chairs that become vital parts of the production. He breathes life into each of them.

He even plays homage to the mental institution with scenes in the tub that brings the "Marat/Sade" as an invited guest to the proceeding. Disappearing into the water of the bath, legs dangling over the side reminds us of the famous painting "Death of the Marat/Sade". Cumming's madness and the mental institution makes us want to run to the stage and save this poor soul.

The most important part of the evening was the actor's body. Every inch of his body, every reflection of his voice and every conceivable gesture was used in the performance in a massive display of energy rarely seen on stage let alone owned by one person. With no intermission, Cumming never once sought relief from the intensity and power of Shakespeare's work. In fact, the last ten minutes of the show was the most remarkable theater that I have experienced in my long life. This was a masterful performance that is already legendary."

Read the entire review here....

VIDEO: Polish Flash Mob Sings "One Day More"

Five Questions For .........Lance Horne

 

 

You know someone is talented when they have played with Kristen Chenoweth for Queen Elizabeth II, entertained the President and Ms. Obama and they have been mentored by Stephen Sondheim. Without question, Lance Horne is an astonishingly gifted composer and lyricist with few peers in America.

Lance Horne is 35 and was born in Sheridan, Wyoming. He father was a construction engineer and his mother a special education school teacher. Horne most likely gets his music genes from his grandmother who was a pick-up singer for the touring big bands in their hey-day.

The winner of an Emmy Award for 'Best Original Song', he has composed for and performed with such stars as Alan Cumming, Kelli O'Hara, Cheyenne Jackson, Michael Feinstein and Dwight Yokum just to mention a few. The Boston Pops invited him to their prized stage. The talented composed has released his first album entitled First Things Last

Some of the world's great concert halls have been graced with his presence including the Sydney Opera House, Apollo Theater, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The British National Theater and different venues in Vegas! You can find him entertaining from families at the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade to performing with Meow, Meow! Nothing daunts this much in demand musical genius.

Currently his next major project is the opening of Amandine in January in New York. The story of a 'intersex person'  in 19th century Paris is extraordinary. Having personally listen to it in a workshop, the music is breath-taking.

The Amandine group is currently in the middle of a Kickstarter campaign to raise the final $30,000 and you can obtain all the information by clicking here. I strongly urge you to contribute to this stunning and powerful musical.

Here are five questions for Lance Horne.......

1. When did your love of music develop and what influenced it?

I've always heard music in my head, despite or thanks to having been born deaf in my right ear. The doctors said it may have been caused by my pressing against the side of the womb, so I like to think I was listening. I was born and raised in Wyoming, and worked the ranch with all the music that goes with it; I have a killer mp3 of me singing "Mama, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys" before I could walk. On my second birthday, my Grandma gave me a miniature piano, my Dad gave me a football, I sat on the football and started playing the piano, and that was that. Sondheim pulled a "mon oeil" when I told him, but it's true. I would mow the lawn and listen to my four cassette tapes growing up-- Annie Get Your Gun, Easter Parade, The Sound of Music, and Pacific Overtures. I think someone meant for me to have South Pacific, but there I was with my Sondheim's most ambitious score. I would tune to the Golden Oldies radio at night and slept to Tommy Dorsey and Bennie Goodman. I sang in the Phoenix Boys Choir, and we backed up rockers Mister Mister on the song "Kyrie Eleison", and Bobby McFerrin on "Don't Worry, Be Happy" and "Ave Maria". I went to Interlochen, and that's when everything hit critical mass.

2. You are so talented in some many areas - composer, songwriter, cabaret performer, etc - how do you focus your energy and what is your priority?

Thank you. Someone changed my life when they told me to "schedule my priorities rather than prioritize my schedule." There are times when it's necessary to stay up all night writing or making charts, but there are other times when it's just as necessary to grab a salad at the Glass House Tavern with someone who makes your soul bloom. Whenever possible, I try to exercise different musical muscles in alternation. I love writing for the stage, film and television, and I love performing and mentoring. I'm a Libra, so I'm always an admirer of balance. I'm also haunted by the amount of things in the world that need our help. I am for whatever artistic means can help people awaken to social change.

In terms of focusing energy: I try to do one thing a day that scares me. That could be tackling an arrangement for Alan & Liza or doing the dishes! I try to only touch a piece of paper once, and I'm learning to ask for help. I avoid synthesizers, as they always mess up my body trying to make them sound right. I eat well, drink water, sleep, let my brain entertain itself with puns and mash-ups, and as John Cleese said, allow the creativity as much time as possible to form itself. I have an amazing, loving chosen family, and love collaborating with many of them; when Alan Cumming, Meow, Justin Bond, Ricki Lake, or Alexandra Silber call, I am there. There is enough time to do it all, and there is enough abundance. What is it Judith Light said in her Tony acceptance speech? "Divine choreography." She also told me, "Be where your ass is," and I'm committed to that as well.

Alan Cumming, Lance Horne and Cheyenne Jackson

3. In ten years, what do you want to have accomplished with your incredible talents?

I would like to have composed a few stage works with successful runs in New York and London, have Broadway runs with Alan Cumming & Meow, complete my Tennessee Williams dream piece, likewise with my Stephen King dream opera, have the stars align so Sydney Dance Company and I can create a full work together, put out the album I've been promising with my own vocals, would love to share a small or big screen with Alan (we call each other our musical husbands), reconnect with my parents, gather together our band of artists to claim a space in Manhattan to foster new productions (ideally? reclaim the Mark Hellenger theater for Broadway), give copiously to True Colors Foundation, ASTEP and AMFAR, create something from the ground up with Ricki Lake, score a film that can change people's hearts for the better, and a great team in place to make it all happen and mentor the next generation. I want to have struck a balance between work and private life with my boyfriend, loving each other and supporting each other's dreams.

4. What is the most embarrassing moment for you on stage?

Halloween a few years back in Connecticut at a fancy dress ball in a bank. I was on keys with the brilliant Stephen Brinberg (Simply Barbara) and Tommy Femia (a killer Judy Garland). You can imagine the stage set for great duets of Happy Days/Get Happy, etc. Unfortunately: Firstly, it was in a bank. Secondly, the husbands of the wives who had booked the act were incredibly conservative, and confused. Only they were allowed to dress in drag on Halloween, not two talented gender illusionists. And so it began-- during the opening number, members of the audience came up, insisting I stop playing. Barbara was coming down the stairs to Don't Rain on My Parade, and I had no intention of doing so. And so it began, a systematic war with the audience in which people dismantled the piano's mic, removed my sheet music (like I can't play The Man That Got Away by heart!), slammed down the keyboard cover as I was playing, and eventually cut off the lights and sound entirely, leaving Stephen and Tommy blinded halfway up the stairs. I ran up and got them, and we literally hid in the basement. The woman who booked us came downstairs with the news that she didn't have our payment (we were in a bank), and they had forgotten to book return travel to the city. As Dina Martina says, "The hits just keep on comin!"

And, come to think of it, there's a tie for this question. Meow Meow and I were playing at the Sydney Opera House, and the construct of the show was that the stingy producers had cut the budget, rendering comedic moments as we tried to make do without the Rockettes, a revolving stage, and the like. In my defense, no two Meow shows are alike, and I had simply mixed up which show we were likely to do that night. That said, when Meow ordered the band to strip to our underwear to save on dry cleaning costs, I suddenly realized it was near laundry day on the tour and I was wearing nothing but an incredibly skimpy bright green number leaving little to the imagination. I resisted and she recapitulated, in German, and as gave in to her and the audience's insistence and dropped trou, she and I both had to look upstage lest we break character. Hello, Sydney Opera House! And that may answer an unasked question-- as to why there are so many clips on the net of me accompanying Meow Meow in my skivvies.

5. Who are your musical heroes and mentors?

Stephen Sondheim

Heroes:

Benjamin Britten "War Requem", Leonard Bernstein "Mass", Mark Blitzstein "Cradle Will Rock", Jonathan Larson "Rent", John Adams "Fearful Symmetries", and the complete works of writer-performers Marvin Hamlisch, Nadia Boulanger and Annie Lennox.

Mentors:

Stephen Sondheim wrote me letters back in High School and told me to study with his teacher, Milton Babbitt. I took his advice and it changed my life, on top of the mentoring he has offered ever since. Hal Prince took me under his wing the day after I graduated high school. I interned for him before going to Juilliard, and he taught me integrity and attention to detail. Mary Rodgers Guettel was the President of the Board at Juilliard and looked out for me above and beyond the call of duty, giving me my first ASCAP prize and sneaking me in alongside her to her revival of Once Upon a Mattress as well. Adam Guettel and I met thanks to his mom and Public Theater's Wiley Hausam. Wiley gave me my first break at Joe's Pub during its opening week, and Adam produced my demos that ended up receiving the Jonathan Larson Prize. Throughout my Bachelor's and Masters in Composition at Juilliard, Milton Babbitt taught me composition with equal time spent on serialism and musical theater, working me through his own unpublished musical and reviving the lessons he'd taught Sondheim. My first day at Juilliard, the air conditioner had broken. I walked in to my first lesson with Milton, and he was at the piano, belting out "We're havin' a heat wave... a tropical heat wave!" and I knew I'd met a mentor for life. Mary Anthony Cox took me under her wing at Juilliard, putting me through the paces Nadia Boulanger had put her through, as did Phillip Lasser in Paris. Stephen Schwartz gave me a lesson while I was interning for Hal, and continues to call me on my birthday. It's my favorite call of the year. Diane Borger puts together new work at ART in Boston, and straddles the line between a hero and mentor. Likewise, Michael John LaChiusa, who always writes the right thing at the right time on every level.

Here is Alan Cumming with Lance Horne singing Lance's "American" at a benefit for Obama this past September.

Impressions.....by David Mixner

 

 

-Adele is singing the title song for the new James Bond movie "Sky Fall" and you can hear it by going to Towleroad.com. Daniel Craig (above) once again hits the water in the new movie! Thank God.

-Politico's Scott Wong is reporting that Arizona Republican Congressman Jeff Flake could be in a surprising tight races with Democrat Richard Carmona for United States Senate. If the Dems win that would be a pick up seat!

-AARP lists the ten worst states for retirement and Mike DeSenne picked Maine as number one with Michigan a close second.

-Busy week at the West 47th Street Glass House Tavern. Watching from Mixner's Corner the place has filled with celebrities. The last week has seen Tate Donovan, Bobby Cannavale, Judd Hirsch, Cotter Smith, Tony Award winner Judy Kaye, four time Tony Award winner Boyd Gaines, Kathleen McNenny, Ty Burrell, Gerry Bamman, Tony winner Christian Borle and Tony winner Kelli O'Hara (picture above)!

-The Boston Herald which last night sponsored a debate between Republican Senator Scott Brown and Democrat Elizabeth Warren had requests for 15,000 tickets!

-President Obama has set an all time record with a total of 10 million donations his campaign. That figure is absolutely astounding. I have made another contribution, have you? Click here.

-Thomas Roberts and Patrick Abner tied the knot (below) on Saturday night in a beautiful rooftop wedding officiated by California's Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom with music by country music star Chely Wright.

-Thanks to a tip from Ed Kennedy of AfterElton.com's 'Morning MeMe' there is a great story about the life of soccer player David Testo in the closet. This is a powerful and moving article.

-Did you know Hitler had a plan to invade Ireland and Scotland? Recent documents released revealed "Operation Sea Lion" which would have made those nations part of the Third Reich.

-Speaking of Ireland, former Irish President Mary McAleese has ripped the Catholic Church for its discrimination against the LGBT community.

-President Clinton will help raise money with the President in Los Angeles this coming weekend. Expect that he will be very busy between now and election day.

-President Bill Clinton said on CNN's Piers Morgan Show that if he moved to Ireland and brought a house, he could run for President of Ireland in 2018. Kinda like that idea.....

-Far be it for me to tell a person how to raise their child but I really have problems with Congressman Paul Ryan buying his ten year old daughter camouflage gear and a high powered rifle for Christmas.

-ForeignPolicy.com has released a list of what will be the most dynamic cities in the year 2025. Of the entire list, 40% of the cities are in China. Welcome to the new world!

-Gadling.com gives us a peek at Princess Cruise's huge new ship, the Royal Princess, being built to be one of the largest in the world. The ship will carry 6,000 passengers.

-While I don't agree with the assessment, Walter Shapiro writes for Yahoo!News that top Republican operatives in Ohio have written off Mitt Romney's chances in the Buckeye State!

-Congressman Paul Ryan lashed out at marriage equality saying it was neither an 'American' or 'universal human value'. Is this the compassionate conservatism they have been preaching?

-The new Kaiser Foundation poll showed that by an overwhelming majority that seniors trust President Obama more with Medicare than Mitt. In Florida, 65% of seniors trust the President more than Romney.

-The Hubble Telescope has penetrated deeper into space than ever before. It recently sent back a photograph of 5,500 new galaxies. Read about it in National Geographic!

-"Mother Jones" has a spectacular article on the United States Senate race in Montana which is tied at the moment. Democratic Senator Jon Tester is defending his seat from Republican Denny Rehberg. It is a old west fight!

-Architizer.com has a photograph essay "Top Ten: Amazing Green Roofs Around The Globe".

-As always, BuzzFeed.com has the most amazing animal videos online. Here is one of a dog watching himself on a computer screen. Love it!

VIDEO: Broadway Voices Sing 'One Term More'!

 

 

"A Youtube.com video with Broadway performers who perform a parody of "One Day More" from "Les Miserbles" calling for another term for President Barack Obama. (Thanks to Sally Fisher).

Please Share With Your Friend!

"Broadway and musical theatre performers Sean Smith, David Burnham, Kim Huber, Christina Saffran Ashford, Damon Kirsche, David Engel, Jennifer Shelton, Emma Ashford, Matthew Ashford, Ali B. Olmo, Johnny Pastor, Bubba Dean Rambo, William Martinez, Flora Rubenhold, Takako Gregg, Teri Yates, Mason Keane, and Paula Keane sing from their heart with the lyrics of Don DeMesquita, in a parody of One Day More from "Les Miserables". For more info and facts, go to www.OneTermMore.com"