2014: The Bucket List Season

I think all actors have a wish list, a dream lineup of great parts in the repertoire that he or she hopes to  tackle at least once in a career.  I have been chasing a couple of them for the past several years, preparing and performing audition after audition, coming just so close... and never quite getting there.   So imagine my elation that I suddenly get to do two of those cherished parts in one season; in fact, back to back!

1776

There are few roles I identify with as much as I do with John Adams.  I feel like I can get inside this guy's skin.  I relate strongly to his passion, his outspokenness, his commitment to what he believes is right.  We're both from Massachusetts, and both of shorter stature... how many heroic leading roles are there for shortish, middle aged guys?  Adams is for me one of the greatest in musical theatre, a real actor's role... akin, in my view, to roles like King Arthur in Camelot and Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady.  The show is a true ensemble piece with an incredible book, and Adams anchors the show.

I am thrilled and honored to be playing the part at Cape Playhouse, America's oldest summer theatre, on gorgeous Cape Cod,  and to have Tony nominee Christiane Noll as Abigail.  Add to this the fact that James Brennan, one of my favorite directors, is at the helm.  To share the experience of preparing this cherished part, I am doing a video blog series, "Becoming John Adams," which will be posted on my website and as a guest blog on BroadwayWorld.com.  In it, I will capture the process of preparing for, rehearsing and performing John Adams, as well as some research trips to Independence Hall in Philadelphia and the Adams birthplace and farm in Quincy, Massachusetts.

Les Misérables

From the American Revolution to a French Revolution....

If there is one thing I love playing, it's a deliciously evil villain.  And there are some gems that I have been hankering after, with Thénardier right at the top of the list.  Les Misérables has been a part of my consciousness since I saw the show in Boston in the mid-80s.  I became obsessed with it even before that when I got the London cast album.  It had an electricity that I hadn't experienced before.  I did a scene, as Marius, for my senior showcase in college!  Now that I am at the right stage of my career to play that scheming immoral bottom feeder, Monsieur Thénardier, I have done numerous auditions for the role.  I am extremely thrilled that my first production of Les Misérables will be at a Shakespeare festival, the Orlando Shakespeare Theatre, and it will be directed by my Buddy Holly Story director D.J. Salisbury.  More news on Les Misérables as casting is announced etc.  Stay tuned.

Whereas Adams's character is rooted in morality and a sense of his country's good, Thénardier is completely immoral, a nihilist who only looks out for number one.  Whereas Adams is a true hero, Thénardier, for all the comedy in the role, is a repulsive villain.  Playing these kinds of contrasting parts is what I got into acting for!  Two epic roles in two of the finest shows in the repertoire.  I am so excited and extremely grateful.  I am keenly aware that so many actors don't get the chance to play their dream roles,  and how fortunate I am to do two of them back to back!  Watch this space for posts about both productions, and be sure to subscribe on youtube to follow all the segments of "Becoming John Adams," launching in early June.

"Laughter on the 23rd Floor" Opens at Flat Rock Playhouse!

"James Beaman as Milt shines… Although each gets to stand out, the show’s strength lies in togetherness, when the jokes skip from actor to actor like a smooth stone on a placid lake, and ripples of laughter dispel the sadness in our lives, including the loss in February of Sid Caesar, one great funnyman who continues to teach us about laughter and love." --BlueRidgeNow.com

After a joyous two week rehearsal period, we opened this Neil Simon classic to enthusiastic audiences here at Flat Rock Playhouse.  I have to say this is one of the most uniformly talented and lovely casts I have ever been a part of and the result is a show that is a true ensemble effort.  The credit, of course, for the assembling of this terrific group of comedians goes to our director Michael Kostroff.  

In this first professional directing effort, Michael has already proven his considerable gifts. He is a born leader, inspiring great work by bringing encouragement, appreciation and kindness to his keen eye for detail and mastery of what is funny.  Michael is an accomplished actor, having proven himself with his extensive stage work and his unforgettable stint on HBO's "The Wire."  I was already a fan before I landed this job, but now that I have been directed by Michael, my respect and admiration for him is magnified thousandfold.

One of the special things for me about this production is that I am playing the role Michael himself played a couple times, including in a production at San Jose Rep, where he met his wife, Jenny.  This just makes it all the more meaningful to me that Michael entrusted me with the part of Milt.  I am having such fun with this sardonic jokester, a truly authentic New York character, through whom I get moments of brilliant hilarity and touching pathos.  

Spring has sprung here in this lovely part of North Carolina and when I am not performing on our stunning set in the playhouse, I have been hiking in the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site park.  It's such a gorgeous place.  There have also been jaunts to nearby Asheville, a funky and welcoming little city with great food and lots of fun shops and galleries.  Two more weeks of fun in this show, and I plan to savor every moment!

In the midst of this gig, I am also making plans for my highly anticipated engagement at Cape Playhouse, where I will play my dream role of John Adams in "1776" later this summer.  As part of the journey, I am going to be doing a video blog which will capture the process of researching, preparing, rehearsing and performing this iconic character.  BroadwayWorld.com has invited me to be a guest blogger as well!  Looking forward to sharing the adventure with you all!

A Neil Simon Comedy and an American Classic! 2014 Begins!

On March 17, I will fly out to Flat Rock, North Carolina to begin rehearsals for the hilarious Neil Simon play, Laughter on the 23rd Floor, at Flat Rock Playhouse, the State Theatre of North Carolina.  This will be my first time at the theatre and my first non-musical play in years.  Laughter on the 23rd Floor is drawn from Neil Simon's memories of being a young writer in the 50s on Sid Caesar's "Show of Shows," one of the pioneering television comedy programs.  The play is populated by hysterical, one of a kind characters including the manic genius, Max Prince, based on Sid Caesar himself.  I will play the part of Milt Fields, a dry, down to earth jokesmith who gets to deliver many of the play's best punch lines.  I am excited to bring to the part my love of classic comedy and the flavor of my Jewish heritage, so much a part of this character and the piece itself.

Laughter on the 23rd Floor will be directed by Michael Kostroff, a talented actor whose work I have admired for many years now and who is best known to audiences as lawyer Maurice Levy on HBO's "The Wire."  Michael has played Milt Fields in a few productions of this play, so it will be a really special thing to be directed by him and I am greatly looking forward to digging in!  Laughter on the 23rd Floor plays from April 5th through the 19th.

I am also excited to announce that I will get to play one of my dream roles this summer.  I don't think there is an actor alive who doesn't hold in his heart a list of parts he dearly wishes to play before his career is over.  For me, John Adams in the Tony winning musical 1776 tops the list.

In 2007, while working at Alabama Shakespeare Festival doing a repertory of the War of the Roses plays, I was offered an audition for the role of Adams for Goodspeed Musical's production of 1776. I flew myself home and threw myself into the audition process with abandon.  I have so much in common with Adams, as depicted in the play: small of stature, from Massachusetts, with a bellyful of passion and determination, this central part just speaks to me in a way that few roles do.  The part was originally played by the great William Daniels, an actor I have always admired.  Needless to say, I had high hopes for the Goodspeed production, but alas, they 'went another way.'  In love with the part as I was, I pursued every production I could get seen for, from Ford's Theatre to American Conservatory Theatre, from Pittsburgh Public to Paper Mill Playhouse.

This year, the legendary Cape Playhouse is producing the show, under the direction of James Brennan, who was the wonderful director of North Shore Music Theatre's The Sound of Music last season, for which I have been nominated for an IRNE Award for my performance as Max Detweiler (another role on the bucket list).  I feel so incredibly lucky to have won the part of John Adams at last for this production, and to be guided by Jimmy Brennan, who has had his own considerable success playing the part.  The Cape Playhouse production of 1776 runs from July 7-19 and I intend to savor every performance!

2014 Starts With Honors!

Audition season is in full swing, and I am hard at work securing work for the spring and summer seasons.  In the midst of all this activity I was delighted to receive two honors in January and February!

Last month, I was informed by the Beaux Arts Society that I have been chosen as one of a list of Distinguished Artists honored by the society; a list that includes such luminaries as Charles Busch, Donna McKechnie, and Bruce Vilanch.  So thrilling to be included in these ranks!  For a complete list of the honorees, click here.

The IRNE Awards are presented each year by the Independent Reviewers of New England for the best in theatre in the Boston area and throughout New England.  I was delighted to learn that I was nominated for an IRNE Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical (Large Theatre) for my performance as Max Detweiler in The Sound of Music last season at North Shore Music Theatre.  Also nominated, in the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress categories are my cast mates Lisa O'Hare and Jacquelynne Fontaine.  This production was truly exceptional and it is an honor to be recognized with this nomination and to represent the theatre and the show in this way!  For all the IRNE nominees, click here.

Stay tuned to this space for an announcement of my first role of 2014, still under negotiation!  A terrific role in a wonderful play, opening in April!

Holiday Letter 2013

As the year draws to its close, I take the opportunity, as I do every year, to look back on the creative adventures I was fortunate to enjoy, and look ahead toward the year to come.

2013 was a year of new creative connections and partnerships, and a return to a few of my favorite theatre companies for more fulfilling endeavors.  The year started in Norfolk, VA, where I had the good fortune of playing the role of King Frederic in the world premiere production of the smart and sassy new musical, Frog Kiss.

This fresh new show by Charlie Leipart and Eric Schorr swept the awards at the New York Musical Theatre Festival in 2010, and was no less rapturously received in our glittering production at Virginia Stage Company in January and February.  I was blessed to play opposite the extraordinary Aisha DeHaas, and to share the stage with talents like Curtis Holbrook, Stephanie Rothenberg, Preston Truman Boyd, and Katie Lee Hill, under the direction of Broadway veteran Kenny Roberson; and all of us were blessed to work for a truly visionary producer, Tamara Tunie.  While I don't know what lies ahead for Frog Kiss, I do know that it is a joyful, irreverent and entertaining new musical, NOT based on a movie, and deserves a Broadway production.  Hopefully with me in it! Click here for the show's official website, with production photos and video.

Come spring, I was welcomed back to my home town of Beverly, MA and North Shore Music Theatre, to play one of my 'bucket list' roles--the charming opportunist Max Detweiler in the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic, The Sound of Music.  There are certain roles that I am passionate about playing before my time on the planet is over, and Max was one such.

 The real gift was to play him in a production of such taste, beauty and brilliance as the one I did at NSMT under the direction of gentle genius James Brennan.  Everything about the show was top notch, and that included a cast of true stars: from the beguiling Maria of Lisa O'Hare, to the elegant Von Trapp of David Andrew MacDonald, to the thoroughly lovely Elsa of Jacquelynne Fontaine and the majestic Mother Abbess of Suzanne Ishee. I very much expect to play Max again in future, but those future productions will have much to live up to!  See video glimpses of the show here.

In August, it was time for the annual Bootleg Shakespeare production by Taffety Punk Theatre Company at the Folger Theatre.  This was my fifth time performing in this theatrical event, and this year's play was Love's Labour's Lost, in which I was given the rakish and witty Boyet to play.

 As with every other Bootleg production, we actors were assigned our roles weeks in advance, did all our text work and memorization, and arrived at the Folger at 10AM on the day of the one public performance for a dizzyingly fast day of rehearsal and staging.  The SRO crowd was treated to a fresh, spontaneous and electric rendition of this classic battle of the sexes, performed by T-Punk company members supported by artists from the talented DC theatre community and a few out of towners like me.  As always, it was a fulfilling, joyful and satisfying affirmation of the power of the Bard and the collaboration possible between theatre artists.

Right after I returned from DC, I auditioned for the wonderful DJ Salisbury for a production of Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story.  DJ had helmed a record-breaking production of this jukebox musical for Ogunquit Playhouse the season before, and the theatre was bringing it back, in a co-production with Gateway Playhouse on Long Island.

I was cast in the dual role of 'Hi-Pockets' Duncan, Buddy Holly's mentor, and the Clear Lake Emcee, an over the top queen who hosts the final concert wearing a red pompadour and a plaid tux jacket.  We ran the show first in lovely Bellport, L.I. at the Gateway, an old school summer theatre that even resembles a red barn.  I immediately fell in love with my fellow castmates, all of them incredibly talented actor/singer/musicians and we had a great time playing to sold out houses in between barbecues, beach trips and bowling tournaments (click here for a video feature on the Gateway production).  At Ogunquit, we enjoyed the same rapturous audience response and watched the seasons gloriously change in that magical part of southern Maine.

In the midst of all this performing activity, I also had the pleasure of directing a cabaret act for talented singer Lianne Marie Dobbs, which had great runs at the Metropolitan Room throughout the season.

The show, "Everything Old Is New Again," features fresh takes on the American Songbook by this polished singer/actress who channels the spunk and smolder of the great ladies of yesteryear.  I am very proud of the collaboration with Lianne and her musical director, Bill Zeffiro, and I am thrilled to announce that Lianne is completing work on her debut album of songs from our show! Visit Lianne's website for reviews and to download preview tracks from the new album.

Ever on the search for a better way to bring in the bucks during the downtimes between shows, I have been building a business as coach for performing artists.  My coaching work runs the gamut from helping actors build a repertoire of audition pieces, to coaching audition sides and songs, to assisting college hopefuls with their audition presentations.  I have also had the pleasure of working with actors on the shows I do out of town, coaching their audition videos and helping them prepare for callbacks on their days off.  I am so excited to contribute to other artists this way, and to bring together the many strands of experience and training I have gathered over the last 25 years.  Many of my actors have booked roles, achieved admission to conservatory training programs, and been invited to callbacks on Broadway productions.  I have become one of a stable of top notch coaches on the new web resource for performers, Coach Me NYC.  There, performers can view profiles of coaches, read reviews from satisfied clients, and book sessions.  Watch this space for the launch of my new website exclusively for my work as coach and director!

As of now, 2014 is a blank.  Some might view this uncertain future as scary;  I prefer to think of it as rife with possibility.  Having dedicated the past several years to building a strong career as a stage actor, I am pursuing ways of breaking into film, TV and web series.  With the help of some wonderful mentors within the college theatre community and with resources from the Actor's Work Program at the Actor's Fund, I am gathering my credentials as a theatre educator while coaching performers and gaining valuable experience.  And along with this activity, I am doing re-writes on my feature length screenplay, and shopping around a musical which I have high hopes of directing in the near future.  Expanding my creative outlets and job opportunities is priority one for the new year, and I look forward to the possibilities!  For now, may I wish you and yours a warm and joyous holiday season, and an abundant and exciting 2014!

Rave On! "Buddy" Rocks The Gateway!

I never really knew anything about this show until I began working on it a couple weeks ago, but what I have learned is that audiences LOVE "Buddy!"  The story is one of a true American original and music pioneer, and the show is chock full of classic rock and roll performances, brought to the stage by actors who are also superb musicians.  It's no wonder the piece breaks box office records wherever it plays, like in Ogunquit, where we will be performing in October, and where the show exceeded sales for every production in the theatre's 80-year history last season.

As 'Hi-Pockets' Duncan, with Kurt Jenkins as Buddy Holly

I am delighting in my dual roles of good ol' boy country DJ 'Hi-Pockets' Duncan, and the MC for the climactic Clear Lake concert at the end of the show.  The MC is a mashup of Charles Nelson Reilly and Paul Lynde, a snarky queen with a red pompadour and a repertoire of groaner jokes.  To have such contrasts to play in one evening is such fun, and these multi-character 'tracks' are something I have become a bit of an expert at executing.

We have two more weeks of shows here at Gateway, in lovely Bellport, NY.  For more information, visit the Gateway website.  After a two week hiatus, we will open October 2 at Ogunquit Playhouse, where I have not performed since starring in "La Cage Aux Folles" in 2007.  To return to this fabulous theatre in beautiful Maine in a production that has already had such a huge success there is something I eagerly look forward to!

Oh Boy!

Well, the theatre is an unpredictable animal and sometimes things change on a dime!  Just as I was announcing my participation in "Bless You All!" with Unsung Musicals Co., I received an offer to come in as a last minute replacement in the role of 'Hi-Pockets' Duncan in "Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story."  This will be a joint production between Gateway Playhouse in Bellport, NY and Ogunquit Playhouse in Maine, and will be directed by DJ Salisbury.

'Hi-Pockets' was Buddy Holly's first manager, a Texas D.J. who discovered Buddy and helped him find his first record deal with Decca.  "Buddy" is one of the most successful shows in West End theatre history and has proven enormously popular in the U.S.  It was so successful at Ogunquit the last time it was presented there, this will be an encore engagement.  I am delighted to return to Ogunquit, having starred in the exceptionally wonderful "La Cage Aux Folles" there in 2007 for the theatre's Diamond Jubilee.

I will post news and reviews from "Buddy"over the next couple months!  As of this writing, I have three days to pack up my luggage, tra la la, and get ready to dive into a new part.  That's show biz.