Here’s a little sneak preview of 37 Notebooks, a new CD by singer/songwriter and musical theater composer, Jeremy Schonfeld being released May 6. Mr. Schonfeld has assembled a virtual who’s who among young musical theatre performers to put life to his compositions. The line up includes:

Shoshana Bean (“Wicked”)
Luther Creek (“A Man of No Importance”)
Julie Danao-Salkin (“Lennon”)
Jarrod Emick (Tony Award Winner for “Damn Yankees”)
Donnie Kehr (“Jersey Boys”)
Lauren Kennedy (“Spamalot”)
Julia Murney (“Wicked”)
Adam Pascal (“Rent”)
Kate Shindle (“Legally Blonde”)
Amy Spanger (“Kiss Me, Kate”)
Tracie Thoms (“Rent: The Movie”)

Here are some audio samples, showcasing the range of musical styles from gospel (“House of Love” with Shoshana Bean and Broadway Dreams Gospel Choir), to country (“Try” with Jarrod Emick), to pop (“Song for New Orleans” with Adam Pascal) to good ol’ musical theatre (“Greta” with Amy Spanger).

Mr. Schonfeld is a musical director and guest performer for Broadway Boot Camp as well as having performed for “Rockers on Broadway.” A portion of the proceeds from his CD release sales will be donated to the Broadway Dreams Foundation.

To celebrate the release of “37 Notebooks,” many of the album’s featured artists will join Jeremy onstage May 5 at Birdland, including: Luther Creek, Julie Danao-Salkin, Jarrod Emick, Adam Jacobs, Lauren Kennedy, Julie Reyburn, Kate Shindle, Amy Spanger, Tracie Thoms, & Natalie Weiss. Music charge of $25 includes a copy of the album, proceeds of which benefit the Broadway Dreams Foundation. For tickets and info, please visit www.birdlandjazz.com or call (212) 581-3080.

Along the lines of Memento, Sliding Doors, and/or Vantage Point, those [tos]sers over at [title of show] have cooked up a super-creative eighth episode of the [title of show] show (which I like to call “Run, Mindy, Run“) to officially announce their upcoming Broadway engagement.

As instructed, I’m doing my best to tell 9 people (or hopefully more like hundreds of people) that [title of show] will begin previews at Broadway’s Lyceum Theatre July 5 with an official opening scheduled for July 17.

Here is the answer to the many inquiries Man In Chair has been receiving about tickets to the upcoming Thea Sharrock-helmed production of Equus staring Daniel Radcliffe and Tony and Olivier Award winner Richard Griffiths:

Opening night at the Broadhurst (where Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is currently playing) is scheduled for September 25, and the production will play a 22-week engagement through February 8, 2009.

According to Broadwayworld.com, tickets can be purchased by American Express Gold Card members Saturday, April 12, 2008 at 9am ET by calling (212) 239-6200 or by visiting www.telecharge.com.

A cursory look at telecharge this morning still lists Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Broadhurst, but no Equus yet. Also not sure when tickets will go on sale for non-Amex holders, and a quick call to Tele-charge gained me no additonal info.

Stay posted to MIC for more Equus ticket news.

Equus comes to Broadway from the West End, where the production received critical praise and played to SRO houses during its five-month engagement at the Gielgud Theatre last year. The production is designed by John Napier, with lighting design by David Hersey, and sound design by Gregory Clarke.

All those episodes of the [title of show] show have finally paid off.

According to playbill.com, “[title of show] — the four-person Off-Broadway musical about the making of a musical — will begin previews at Broadway’s Lyceum Theatre July 5 with an official opening scheduled for July 17.”

The entire original cast — including co-creators Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell as well as Susan Blackwell and Heidi Blickenstaff— will be seen on Broadway, directed by A Chorus Line’s Michael Berresse, who also helmed the acclaimed Off-Broadway run.

I’ve written e-tomes about this show (see links below, or click on the title of this post, and then see links below) about the show’s twoguyswritingamusicalabouttwoguyswritingamusicalabouttwoguyswritingamusical circular plot, so I won’t go on and on. Just wanted to share the big news.

I wonder though, each time this show goes another step–from New York Musical Theatre Festival, to Off-Broadway, and now to Broadway–Hunter and Jeff have to write new material chronicling the show’s progress within the show itself. At this rate, it’s going to be an Angels In America/Mahabharata/Coast of Utopia epic. Not that I’m complaining. I’m just sayin’…

Congratulations to all involved. And here’s to a long and healthy Broadway run.

Around the Fall of 2007, Man In Chair, was Tale of Two Cities Central, as I became somewhat obsessed with Jill Santoriello’s new musical of Dicken’s classic novel. Joe and I thoroughly enjoyed the production at the Asolo Rep in Sarasota and the reviews of that production were good to great to glowing. At the time it was being hailed as the “pre-Broadway” run, though there were no definite plans to bring it to Broadway.Until now.According to playbill.com, Tale will begin Broadway previews Aug. 19 toward a Sept. 18 opening at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre, after Curtains closes there in June. No casting has been announced, but many of the Florida cast are expected to be asked back, and Warren Carlyle, who choreographed the Sarasota production, is apparently on the short list of choices for director.

The leads (and standouts in smaller roles) in the Asolo cast included James Barbour as Sydney Carton, Natalie Toro as Mme. Defarge, Jessica Rush as Lucie Manette, Derek Keeling as Charles Darnay, Nick Wyman, as the wily John Barsad, Alex Santoriello as Dr. Manette and Bruce Compton Merkle whose five minute turn as a dying young man was heart breaking and beautifully sung.

For more information, you can search for “tale of two cities” on Man In Chair, or visit http://www.talemusical.com/.

I had lunch with Evans Haile, artistic director of Cape Cod’s Cape Playhouse, recently, and when discussing their upcoming 2008 season, I secured his permission to publish some very exciting casting news.

This summer, the Playhouse will produce the regional premiere of David Yazbek’s (Composer/Lyricist) and Jeffrey Lane’s (Book) musical, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, with a crazy-talented cast.

Brent Barrett (Phantom of the Opera-Las Vegas, Annie Get Your Gun,Closer Than Ever, Kiss Me Kate) will play Lawrence Jameson, the role originated by John Lithgow on Broadway.

Hunter Foster (Little Shop, Urintetown,The Producers, Frankenstein) will play Freddy Benson, the role originated by Norbert Leo Butz and

Dee Hoty (Will Rogers Follies, City of Angels) will play Muriel Eubanks.

And should pending negotiations pan out, one of these gentlemen will be reunited with a former leading lady to round out the cast of the show.

I saw a top-notch production of Pete ‘n’ Keely at the Cape Playhouse a couple of summers ago with its original cast, George Dvorsky and Sally Mayes (written by a longtime crush of mine, James Hindman—ever since he was Marvin in a tour of Falsettos I played for. But I digress…)

The Cape Playhouse is proud to be America’s Oldest Professional Summer Theatre (Bette Davis was an usher there…) For more information, go to http://www.capeplayhouse.com/index.html

Last Thursday I was in theatre geek heaven as I got the chance to see Broadway, film and television star Malcolm Gets perform up close and personal at a fundraiser for our local chamber orchestra.

Performing for a crowd, most of whom had known him growing up here, he played the piano and told stories of the influence music had on his family (these three links are audio clips), sang songs about the after effects of being on a successful sitcom, and treated us to a variety of classic and contemporary musical theatre tunes.

The day after the concert, I chatted with this charming, intelligent, passionate artist about the evolution of his acting process, being an openly gay performer, his upcoming film roles in Grey Gardens and Sex and the City, as well as a new CD project he has in the works.

Man in Chair: You spoke last night about finding a true connection to a character for the first time when you played Mozart in Amadeus. Can you talk a little more about that first experience, and how your process evolved at Yale and throughout your professional career?

Malcolm Gets: It’s funny, I’ve done so many plays—there are plays I don’t even remember—but I remember lines from Amadeus. That’s how much I love that play.

There’s a scene in the play where we all attend the opening of The Marriage of Figaro, and I remember somewhere early in the run—I was eighteen or nineteen years old—we would just be standing there and they would be playing this recording and I remember more than a few performances, I would just start bawling. The music just got to me. That happened a lot in that show.

In the early days it was luck. It was luck, because I had no knowledge of how to…I had no technique.

So basically what happened was, I was 23 or 24, I’m in New York City, and somebody suggested I go back to school. I auditioned for Yale—didn’t tell anyone I was auditioning—and I was accepted into their Masters program.

I had a lot of great teachers—but I had a great voice teacher. Not singing teacher, but like a Linkletter voice teacher named Virginia Ness Ray. I think about her a lot. Virginia was…mystical. She was one of those really gifted teachers and she affected me on so many levels.

I live a great deal of my life in my head. I get uncomfortable in my own body, but Virginia was the first person who taught me how to stand still, take a deep breath, and start to practice being in my own body. There’s no way of harnessing inspiration. But she was one of the first people to teach me how to increase the possibility of that happening.

And now I teach. I teach part time at Julliard and at NYU. And I always have these conversations with the students, like how many times have you heard a tenor or a soprano with an absolutely technically perfect voice, and for two seconds you’re dazzled and then a minute later you’re trying to remember if you left the refrigerator door open.

And then you hear Tom Waits, or Bette Midler or Carol Channing—people whose voices are damaged, or they have five notes but they have the most compelling, interesting sound.

And it’s something I always have to remind myself too—I can get very self conscious about what I sound like, and I just try to tell myself, “No, just tell the story.” Because ultimately I think that’s what the audience wants. They want to have the experience.

MIC: You talked about being more comfortable in your head than in your body, and it seems that a lot of the musicals you are known for—Hello Again, Amore, A New Brain—are a little more heady, more dark or edgy. How much as an actor do you choose what you’re in and how much is just how you are cast?

MG: Well, it’s interesting that you say that because in the last few years, I actually have done a lot of lightweight projects, albeit short runs. The Apple Tree at Encores, Boys of Syracuse at Encores, Finnian’s Rainbow. It was a lot of fun at first, but now I’m realizing I think people are starting to pigeonhole me that way, as this sort of Danny Kaye lightweight song and dance guy.

Even recently they had lost a director at NYU for a Shakespeare project in the program I work in, so I went to the head of the program and I said “Hey, what if I direct the project?” And he was like, “Have you ever done any Shakespeare?” And I thought “I won an Obie for Shakespeare. My first two years out of school I did Shakespeare, Shakespeare, Shakespeare, Moliere.”

So the business very quickly can forget what you did five, six, seven, ten years ago. Another thing I say to the students—because I know it’s true for myself—is you have to every now and then “re-remind” the business of what you can do.

If I just sit back and let people tell me what to do, I’ll never ever do anything different. I’ll keep doing the same thing over and over and over. So it’s challenging but you have to somehow find a way to keep reinventing yourself. If that’s what you want. If you want to have a varied career, which I certainly do.

MIC: And you certainly have.

MG: I have, but it’s interesting that we’re talking about this now because I feel like I’ve come to that point again, and so I actually just said to my manager, “What’s up with Shakespeare in the Park?” I’m really putting that vibe out there again because I feel like it’s time to take a break from the song and dance thing, just for a little while.

It’s twofold. First of all I want to remind people that I can do the other things, but also creatively I want to do some things like that again.

MIC: One of the songs you sang last night, Way Ahead of My Time by Peter Mills, has sort of become one of your signature songs, about a fictional caveman who makes several allusions to the fact that he might be gay without quite saying it.

MG: Well, he doesn’t know that he’s gay, because there’s no word for it.

MIC: Have you felt like that caveman in your career, having to talk around the issue, or have you always been fairly straightforward—so to speak—about being gay?

MG: I was always out. I was out when I was in high school. So I never hid who I was. I’d always lived my life openly, I always took my partner to the big Hollywood events, everybody knew my partner. It was not a big deal.

Read more »

I had been noticing of late how many stories have been popping up about new musicals and plays that are in development or receiving their premieres. Then I got this lovely comment from Lou who stumbled upon Man In Chair looking for information about premieres at Pasadena Playhouse. A little research uncovered several projects in the works which sounded interesting to me, and hopefully will to you as well.

Tales of the City
There have long been rumors of a collaboration between Scissor Sisters, Jason Sellards and John Garden, and Avenue Q writer and director, Jeff Whitty and Jason Moore creating a musical adaptation of Armistead Maupin’s San Francisco-based epic, Tales of the City.

According to a press statement, Moore (as librettist) and Whitty (as director) are currently at work on a musical version of Maupin’s 1978 novel, which concerns the fictional Mary Ann Singleton — a naive young woman from Cleveland, OH, who moves to an apartment in San Francisco’s Russian Hill — and the lives of the other tenants of 28 Barbary Lane. Sellards and Garden will supply the music and some of the lyrics.

Whitty’s book will cover the first Tales of the City novel and also touch on story lines that were continued in the sequel, More Tales of the City.

The project is aiming for a Broadway bow in the 2009-2010 season.

Mask
The real-life story of a disfigured boy, his tough mom and the biker community that embraces them, is told with songs opened March 12, when Mask — the new musical inspired by the 1985 film — begins performances at the Pasadena Playhouse.

Allen E. Read, a graduate of the Yale School of Drama, plays teen Rocky in the Pasadena Playhouse production of the Richard Maltby Jr.-directed show, which was penned by the picture’s screenwriter Anna Hamilton Phelan (book), Barry Mann (music) and Cynthia Weil (lyrics).

According to the Playhouse, “Mask is a musical based on the true story of an unusual looking boy and his unconventional biker mother. She shows him how to embrace life. He shows her how to choose it.”

The musical’s official opening is May 21.

Monsters
Tony Award winner Cady Huffman, Sandra Bargman, Joy Franz, Ann Harada, Nicolette Hart and Carlos Encinias will be featured in a free reading of the new musical Monsters March 20 in Manhattan.

Part of the York Theatre Company’s Developmental Reading Series, the 5 PM reading will be held at the The Theatre at Saint Peter’s. Steven Yuhasz will direct the evening with musical direction by Jason Loffredo.

Monsters features book and lyrics by playwright Gail Phaneuf and music and lyrics are by composer Ernie Lijoi.

The musical, according to press notes, is described as such: “On her 40th birthday, Samantha [Huffman] meets her demons. A successful, single, Wall Street stockbroker living in Manhattan, she has decided to quit her job and strike out on a soul-searching adventure.”

York Theatre Company productions play The Theatre at Saint Peter’s, which is located in Manhattan on 54th Street, just east of Lexington Avenue. Admission to the reading is free, but reservations are required by e-mailing Jeff Landsman at Jlandsman@yorktheatre.org or by calling (212) 935-5824, ext. 24.

Last month at the American Airlines Theatre, many of Broadway’s best gathered to present Broadway Backwards III. The evening featured male singers performing songs traditionally sung by women and women singing tunes written for men. Recent Ritz star Seth Rudetsky hosted the evening, which benefited New York’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender (LGBT) Community Center.

I stumbled across this video of highlights which, at around ten minutes long and featuring thirtysome performers might be a nice break for theatre geeks at work (or at play). The snippets include:

® Andrea McArdle being groped by a gaggle of chorines in “All I Care About Is Love”
® Liz Callaway, in great voice, singing “Pretty Women”
® Kerry Butler singing “When I’m Not Near the Girl I Love”
® Malcolm Gets, handsome as ever, singing “Dancing on the Ceiling”
® Julie Halston, Ann Harada, Charis Leos and Kathryn Kendall in a very funny rendition of “Everybody Ought to Have a Maid”
® Karen Mason belting out “How to Handle a Woman”
® Gary Beach working a little too hard at “Fifty Percent”
® Sierra Bogges and Jessica Lee Goldyn turning Disney upside down with “Kiss the Girl”
® Jose Llana, Gavin Creel and Brook Ashmanskas (pictured) camping it up in “I Want it All” (with a Margaret Cho reference I don’t recall in the original)
® Kate Reindeers and Sarah Litzsinger are TastiSkank, singing about their vajayjays
® Len Cariou singing “Send in the Clowns”
® The betowled Men of Broadway Backwards “Wash That Man” right outta their hair
® The Girls of Spring Awakening, jumping on those chairs in “The Bitch of Living”
® Cheyenne Jackson and Anthony Rapp singing “Suddenly Seymour” with sweet understanding
® Charles Busch longing for “The Music That Makes Me Dance”
® Neil Patrick Harris defying David Burtka to “Take Me or Leave Me”
® Tony Yazbeck and Aaron Lazar dueting in “A Boy Like That/I Have a Love” (a better clip is in here if you can find it)
® Michelle Blakely and Jenn Colella in an interpretation of “Hello Little Girl” that is pure genius
® Lanie Kazan grinding her way through “The Gal That Got Away”
® Titus Burgess bringing down the house in “Maybe This Time”

Video Highlights of Broadway Backwards III

Where else can 20 bucks buy you a ticket to see Meryl Streep, Candace Bushnell, Katie Couric, Jonathan Demme, John Guare and Liz Smith all on the same stage?

On April 1, all of these luminaries and more will be reading the works of some of this country’s most beloved poets at Avery Fisher Hall as part of the Academy of American Poets’ Poetry and the Creative Mind.

The 2007 version of this Benefit featured Alfre Woodard reading Emily Dickinson, Dianne Wiest reading Sylvia Plath, and Jules Feiffer reading e.e. cummings and Ogden Nash.

Regular tickets go as high as $75, but you can purchase tickets in the rear orchestra (normally $40) for a mere twenty bucks.

Follow the links for more info:

Twenty dollar tickets to Poetry and the Creative Mind

Full price tickets to Poetry and the Creative Mind

More information about Poetry and the Creative Mind