Steve On Broadway (SOB)

RIP Eartha Kitt (1927 - 2008)

RIP Eartha Kitt (1927 - 2008)

Even as I had celebrated the joys of Christmas throughout yesterday, I went to bed last night with a heavy heart after learning that the magnificent, sultry and completely irrepressible Eartha Kitt died of colon cancer.

This triple threat (actor, singer, dancer) who once dared speak her mind at the White House was 81 and one of a kind. Never one to shy away from speaking her mind or living life to its fullest, Ms. Kitt was simply wonderrrrrrrful.

Given how often I heard her 1954 classic "Santa Baby" on the radio this holiday season, it was sadly ironic that this two-time Tony nominee -- for 1978's Timbuktu! and 2000's The Wild Party -- passed away on Christmas Day.

Personally, I had two opportunities to see her perform live on stage, and I'll always cherish those memories.

The first time came in the early part of this decade when she took on the role of the Fairy Godmother as part of a color-blind cast revival that toured with Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella -- the chance to see Ms. Kitt was the sole reason I went, and despite the smallish role, she did not disappoint as she sang, "Impossible."

But the second, unforgettable time came nearly two years ago on Valentine's Day 2007. Ms. Kitt was part of a poetry reading. Not just any poetry reading, mind you, but one that featured the likes of a few other actors of note you may have heard of: Joanna Gleason, Charles Grodin, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Chris Sarandon, Joanne Woodward and the late great Paul Newman. Eartha Kitt and these other fine actors offered their own unique, individual voices on the ecstasy and agony that arguably make love life’s ultimate affection -- all as part of a mega-bite Valentine called Come Be My Love...Love Spoken Here, a fundraiser for Connecticut's venerable Westport Country Playhouse. I can still vividly recall Ms. Kitt's tender, impassioned humanity and humor, thinking how extraordinarily she made every single word dance in my ears.

During a reception after the performance, The Love of My Life and I had a unique opportunity to speak with this legendary diva, and I use that term in its true best sense. Ms. Kitt could not have been more gracious. For us, it was perrrrrrfection.

As my friend Eric in Atlanta has said, may she rrrrrrrrrrrrest in peace.

This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).

Labels: Broadway, Cinderella, Come Be My Love...Love Spoken Here, Eartha Kitt, In Memoriam, Musical, Oscar Hammerstein II, Richard Rodgers, Santa Baby, The Wild Party, Timbuktu, Touring Production

posted by Steve On Broadway (SOB) @ Friday, December 26, 2008 3 comments

Mourning The Loss Of Paul Newman (1925-2008)

Mourning The Loss Of Paul Newman (1925-2008)

I was extremely saddened this morning to learn that legendary actor and humanitar-ian Paul Newman has died. The stage and film icon lost his battle with cancer on Friday.

Newman's Academy Award-winning career on the silver screen is very well known by audiences, who enjoyed his on-screen work beginning in 1956 with "Somebody Up There Likes Me" right through his Oscar nominated turn in "Road to Perdition" (2005).

But like so many great American actors of his time, Newman had his start on the Broadway stage. In fact, Newman received a 1953 Theatre World Award for his portrayal of Alan Seymour in William Inge's Picnic. After his 1964 turn in Baby Want a Kiss, Newman would be absent from the Great White Way until 2002, when he would return in his Tony-nominated role as the Stage Manager in the Rialto revival of Our Town.

Personally, I feel extraordinarily fortunate to have seen this giant among giants, both in that production -- where my front row seat gave me a unique perspective of this actor as he towered directly over me through much of the performance -- and in an early 2007 benefit entitled Come Be My Love...Love Spoken Here for the Westport Country Playhouse. At the time, I wrote:

Miraculously amassed for this one-time-only event, Joanna Gleason, Charles Grodin, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Eartha Kitt, Paul Newman, Chris Sarandon and Joanne Woodward offered their own unique, individual voices on the ecstasy and agony that arguably make love life’s ultimate affection. Wow!

To call this breathtaking would be a major understatement. With the megawatt cast’s refrains reverberating throughout the theatre, this audience member was left reeling as though Cupid had shot another arrow through his heart. Alternately laughing and misty-eyed, I couldn’t help but ponder just how truly blessed I am to have found the love of my life, my own true love.

At the time, I had no idea, of course, that this would likely be one of Newman's last public performances. In fact, looking back at my notes, I mentioned how "it’s a little heartbreaking to know that this night will never again be repeated for wider audiences."

Count me among the heartbroken that we've forever lost this great actor and philanthropist. But I will always cherish my opportunity to have reveled in his amazing presence, and continue to honor his contributions by giving to the Hole in the Wall Camps he helped create.

UPDATE (October 2, 2008, 7:25 p.m.) - As is customary whenever any Broadway great dies, Great White Way theatres will briefly go dark tomorrow in his memory.

This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).

Click here to donate to the Association of Hole in the Wall Camps founded by Paul Newman.

Labels: Come Be My Love...Love Spoken Here, Hole In The Wall Camps, In Memoriam, Our Town, Paul Newman

posted by Steve On Broadway (SOB) @ Saturday, September 27, 2008 5 comments

Newman's Own Admission: That's Enough

Newman's Own Admission: That's Enough

Immediately before I closed down my computer last Friday, I came across a story from ABC News reporting that Paul Newman has given up acting. According to the report, the 82 year old actor told "Good Morning America":

I'm not able to work anymore as an actor at the level I would want to...You start to lose your memory, your confidence, your invention. So that's pretty much a closed book for me....I've been doing it for 50 years. That's enough.

Instead the Academy Award-winning and Tony-nominated legend will devote his time to the Hole in the Wall Camps he created in 1988; thirteen camps strong, they now rank as the world's largest family of camps for children with serious illnesses and life threatening conditions, including cancer, sickle cell anemia, HIV/AIDS.

The esteemed actor and philanthropist will also devote time to the Dressing Room, which is described as a "home-grown" restaurant "designed to reflect the feel of living in the Connecticut countryside and features a fieldstone fireplace, exposed reclaimed barn board walls, and heavy-timber wood columns and beams -- all of which create a warm, updated country setting."

On a personal note, I vividly recall my memorable evening at the Booth Theatre where I saw him and a superb cast perform in the 2002 revival of Thornton Wilder's Our Town. As I was perched in my Row B seat, I was stunned that my knees were literally knocking the stage. Even more astounding was that Paul Newman, as the Stage Manager, was towering right above me throughout much of the performance as he narrated the show's action. It was one of those thrills of live theatre that I'll never forget.

Just last week, I noted how extremely fortunate I had been this past February to be among the relatively few to enjoy Newman in the Westport Country Playhouse's Come Be My Love...Love Spoken Here benefit. There, he and his wife Joanne Woodward -- along with Joanna Gleason, Charles Grodin, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Eartha Kitt and Chris Sarandon -- took my breath away with their beautiful and touching megawatt poetry reading.

Newman first caught the public's attention back in 1952 with his appearance on television's "Tales of Tomorrow" when he appeared as Sergeant Wilson. The following year, he made his Broadway debut as Alan Seymour in William Inge's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Picnic (both Newman and Eileen Heckart earned Theatre World Awards for their performances) -- he would go on to perform in four more Broadway productions. Of course, movies provided the vehicle that transformed him into an undisputed superstar -- his first film role came in 1954 when he portrayed Basil in "The Silver Chalice," but it was his portrayal of Brick in "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof" in 1958 that earned him his first of ten Academy Award acting nominations.

While it's with very mixed emotions that I read the news about his withdrawal from acting, bravo to Paul Newman for deciding himself on when to give up the amazing career that he nurtured for more than fifty years. Not only has he entertained us -- and done that extraordinarily well -- but he's also done it with such finesse and grace, often while making us think about important, vital issues.

With the news of his retirement, I'm even more thankful for those rare opportunities I've enjoyed to have seen him perform in person. Just as we should all be thankful that his legacy will live forever on film and DVD, we should be even more grateful that in his retirement, his continued philanthropy could very well become his most enduring and inspiring legacy. If ever there's a question, that's what becomes a legend most.

This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).

Click here to donate to the Association of Hole in the Wall Camps.
Related Stories:
SOB's Best of 2006-07: Best Special Theatrical Events (May 23, 2007)
Come Be My Love...Love Spoken Here (The SOB Overview) (February 11, 2007)

Labels: Broadway, Come Be My Love...Love Spoken Here, Our Town, Paul Newman, Picnic, Play, retirement, tribute

posted by Steve On Broadway (SOB) @ Tuesday, May 29, 2007 4 comments

SOB's Best of 2006-07: Best Special Theatrical Events

SOB's Best Of 2006-07: Best Special Theatrical Events

In addition to all the great (and not so great) musicals and plays I've seen throughout the 2006-07 Theatrical Season, there are a number of concerts, readings and individual performances that defied neatly fitting into categories. Since the Tony Awards define those types of shows as "special theatrical events," I'll do the same.

In my personal "5 Best" list of the greatest special theatrical events of the past year, you'll notice a vast and eclectic array of acclaimed talent. Here's the list:

1 - Barry Humphries & Friends: Back With A Vengeance! (Arts Centre, State Theatre, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia)

Barry Humphries made a triumphant return to his hometown of Melbourne, soundly disproving the theory that you can't go home again. His new production that stretched a quick three hours not only solidly engaged Dame Edna Everage devotees, but provided first-timers with an outstanding introduction to his most beloved character along with two who are primarily known only to Aussies: Les Patterson and Sandy Stone.

Rather than allowing his "gigastar" housewife to call the shots, Humphries was clearly in charge with plenty of biting humor involving the audience. Yet this production also featured the ribald, spitting satire of Humphries' Les Patterson skewering Aussie politicians, along with the poignant subtlety of the "deceased" Sandy Stone, whose watchful eye on his wife from above provided an insight into today's Australian psyche one never quite learns from the Great Dame -- but then, there she was in all of her glory.

Despite the nearly three hours running time, this was one must-see show that I didn't want to end thanks to the ingenious wit and wisdom from one of Australia's true treasures, Barry Humphries. And fortunately, Humphries himself took the final curtain call bow.

Click here for The SOB Review of Barry Humphries: Back With A Vengeance!


2 - Come Be My Love...Love Spoken Here (Westport Country Playhouse, Westport, CT)

Just before Valentine's Day, I was thrilled to be among the relative few fortunate enough to enjoy one of the loveliest, tastiest confections to come along in a long, long time. Bigger than the largest chocolate kiss, this mega-bite Valentine was served up at Connecticut's venerable Westport Country Playhouse in the form of romantic poetry written by such giants as Maya Angelou, Noël Coward, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Dorothy Parker and William Shakespeare, among others.

The romantic in me wondered what could have been any tastier than Come Be My Love...Love Spoken Here, which came in a luscious seven course benefit at and for the Westport Country Playhouse. Indeed, the evening’s generous, heaping helpings of amore would have sated practically every kind of lover thanks in large part to its seven stellar cast members, who made each work come alive with humor, humility, lots of humanity and most of all, heart.

Miraculously amassed for this one-time-only event, Joanna Gleason, Charles Grodin, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Eartha Kitt, Paul Newman, Chris Sarandon and Joanne Woodward offered their own unique, individual voices on the ecstasy and agony that arguably make love life’s ultimate affection. Wow! To call this breathtaking would be a major understatement. With the megawatt cast’s refrains reverberating throughout the theatre, this audience member was left reeling as though Cupid had shot another arrow through his heart.

Click here for The SOB Overview of Come Be My Love...Love Spoken Here.

3 - An American Icon: Kitty Carlisle Hart (El Portal Theatre, North Hollywood, CA)

Eight months prior to her April death, I had one of those truly unique opportunities to see the doyenne of Broadway society for most of the 20th Century: Kitty Carlisle Hart, an astonishing film, stage and television figure whom I’d admired from the days of her long stint as a panelist on TV’s “To Tell the Truth” during my childhood.

In the sold-out An American Icon, Mrs. Moss Hart (then nearly 96 years of age) remained sharp as tack, graceful as American theatrical royalty and the epitome of class and sophistication. There she stood, poised on the stage of North Hollywood’s El Portal Theatre for more than one hour, regaling the enthusiastic audience with an erudite cross-section of her illustrious, captivating life including vivid recollections of her friendship with a veritable “Who’s Who” of the Great White Way’s Golden Age: Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Kurt Weill, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Lowe, and of course, the great playwright and director whom she’d marry in 1946 until his death in 1961, Moss Hart -- and each fascinating vignette included a song or two.

Perhaps most touching, especially considering that this was one of her final performances, was Mrs. Hart’s rendition of the Kurt Weill/Maxwell Anderson classic “September Song.” Kitty Carlisle Hart's descriptions of her personal relationships with the legends who made Broadway such a powerful medium proved a testament to the amazing life she herself led with such style and dignity. I was honored to have one infinitely memorable opportunity to bask in her glow (and even meet her in person when I took the above photo) -- I continue to feel all the richer for the experience.

Click here for The SOB Review of An American Icon: Kitty Carlisle Hart.


4 - Pet Shop Boys (Orpheum Theatre, Minneapolis, MN)

Given the unusually high theatrical quotient in last October's amazing, entertaining concert by electronica-pop duo Pet Shop Boys -- right down to elaborate set, lighting and projection design to choreography, as well as to an intermission during a performance on a stage typically reserved for Broadway productions -- it seems entirely apropos to include their show here.

In this case, through the assistance of three outstanding back-up singers and two breathtaking dancers, their music of the last twenty years came to life. While there's more cheekiness than bite to their lyrics, the Pet Shop Boys delved into fertile political satire with fare like “I’m With Stupid,” which lampooned the unflinchingly blind support of British Prime Minister Tony Blair for the policies of U.S. President George W. Bush through an engaging video backdrop of whirling imagery including the Union Jack, Stars and Stripes and close-up shots of both leaders’ eyes and mouths.

The second act of the Pet Shops Boys’ dazzling concert included a steady stream of some of their biggest hits, including “West End Girls” and “It’s A Sin,” along with anthemic turns on such borrowed hits as “Always On My Mind,” “Where The Streets Have No Name/Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You,” and their rousing finale, “Go West.” Each number was brilliantly staged with eye-popping choreography against a versatile backlit series of white boxes that framed movement with a visually arresting projection design. Because the set, lighting and projection design, as well as choreography, were so innovative, about my only regret with this oh-so theatrical presentation was that there was no Playbill to tell us who was responsible for each component.

Click here for The SOB Review of Pet Shop Boys.


5 - Sandra Bernhard IS Plan B From Outer Space (Rossi's Blue Star Room, Minneapolis, MN)

In Sandra Bernhard IS Plan B From Outer Space, it wasn't so much not knowing where the Flint, Michigan native was coming from, but it was wondering where she was taking you. Just when you thought she'd whirled you out of orbit, she suddenly came back to the original point with style and finesse. It was quite a ride.

Her voice has certainly come a long, long way from its rather raw beginnings. Most of her music, accompanied by a tight three piece band, served to bookend her nearly non-stop two hour performance, starting with playful R&B takes on a memorable Jennifer Holliday tune -- along with Monica and Brandy's "The Boy Is Mine" and a poignant tribute to Nina Simone -- and concluding with her rocking out to Guns N' Roses ("Welcome To The Jungle"), Led Zeppelin ("Whole Lotta Love") and Prince ("Little Red Corvette").

Along the way, Bernhard easily swayed from the irreverent to the reverential. With riffs on everyone -- from Madonna and Malawi babies to Angelina Jolie's adoption addiction to the Britney Spears/Paris Hilton/Lindsay Lohan/Nicole Richie capers to designer Tom Ford's new ad campaign to, of course, President George W. Bush -- and everything, including her own study of kabbalah, her Manolo Blahnik shoes and Larry King's 50th anniversary party, Bernhard packed it all in with her biting trademark humor. While the title of her act may suggest she's from another planet, Ms. Bernhard thankfully came back down to earth to entertain us once again.

Click here for The SOB Review of Sandra Bernhard: Plan B From Outer Space.

What were the best special theatrical events you saw over the past year? I invite you to join the conversation by sharing your theatre experiences with me.

Labels: An American Icon, Barry Humphries, Come Be My Love...Love Spoken Here, Kitty Carlisle Hart, Pet Shop Boys, Sandra Bernhard IS Plan B From Outer Space, SOB's Best of 2006-07

posted by Steve On Broadway (SOB) @ Wednesday, May 23, 2007 0 comments

Come Be My Love...Love Spoken Here (The SOB Overview) - Westport Country Playhouse, Westport, CT

Come Be My Love...Love Spoken Here (The SOB Overview) - Westport Country Playhouse, Westport, CT

Last evening, I was thrilled to be among the relative few fortunate enough to enjoy one of the loveliest, tastiest confections to come along in a long, long time.

Bigger than the largest chocolate kiss, this mega-bite Valentine was served up at Connecticut's venerable Westport Country Playhouse in the form of romantic poetry written by such giants as Maya Angelou, Noël Coward, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Dorothy Parker and William Shakespeare, among others.

What could possibly be any tastier than Come Be My Love...Love Spoken Here, last night's luscious seven course benefit at and for the Westport Country Playhouse. Indeed, the evening’s generous, heaping helpings of amore would have sated practically every kind of lover, including those not typically prone to enjoying liberal portions of the poetic verse.

Come Be My Love was no ordinary interpretation of poems and sonnets. No, what made this brilliant offering of both classic and modern odes to loves -- both requited and otherwise -- so jaw-droppingly spectacular was the way in which the seven stellar cast members made each work come alive with humor, humility, lots of humanity and most of all, heart.

Miraculously amassed for this one-time-only event, Joanna Gleason, Charles Grodin, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Eartha Kitt, Paul Newman, Chris Sarandon and Joanne Woodward offered their own unique, individual voices on the ecstasy and agony that arguably make love life’s ultimate affection. Wow!

To call this breathtaking would be a major understatement. With the megawatt cast’s refrains reverberating throughout the theatre, this audience member was left reeling as though Cupid had shot another arrow through his heart. Alternately laughing and misty-eyed, I couldn’t help but ponder just how truly blessed I am to have found the love of my life, my own true love.

Although it’s a little heartbreaking to know that this night will never again be repeated for wider audiences, this lovely evening will long be remembered by my Valentine and me as we toast how fortunate we are, in life and in love.

This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).

Labels: Benefit, Come Be My Love...Love Spoken Here, The SOB Overview, Westport Country Playhouse

posted by Steve On Broadway (SOB) @ Sunday, February 11, 2007 3 comments