Broadway, July 23, 2007
Drew Sarich (Valjean), Robert Hunt (Javert), Lea Salonga (Fantine), Megan McGuiniss (Eponine), Adam Jacobs (Marius), Ali Ewoldt (Cosette), Max von Essen (Enjolras), Chip Zien (Thernardier), Ann Harada (Mme Thernadier), James Chip Leonard (The Bishop), Zach Rand (Gavroche), Carly Rose Sinclair (Little Cosette), Michael Minarik (Grantaire)

Want to help me plan the November 24th show? Click on Thanksgiving Show and then offer a suggestion of music you’ve been thankful for this year.  

Talk to you next week!

SONG TITLE  /  Artist  /  CD Or Album Title 

• REMEMBERING TO BREATHE  /  Lorraine Feather  /  “Dooji Wooji”
• DANCING IN THE DARK  /  Frank Sinatra  /  “Come Dance With Me”
• COME SUNDAY  /  Gladys Knight  /  “Before Me”
• MOONLIGHT PICNIC  /  Gelber & Manning  /  “Moonlight Picnic”
• MAKE IT GO AWAY  /  Holly Cole  /  “Dark Dear Heart”
• BABY’S REQUEST  /  Paul McCartney  /  “Kisses On The Bottom”
• IT ISN’T SO GOOD IT COULDN’T BE BETTER  /  Irene Kral  /  “Second Chance”
• LOOK FOR THE SILVER LINING  /  (Mystery Vocalist)  /  Rod McKuen  /  “Jerome Kern: Life Upon The Wicked S.T.A.G.E.
• TAKE FIVE  /  Dave Brubeck/Carmen McRae  /  “Vocal Encounters”
• NO ONE IS ALONE  /  Chip Zien  /  “Wall To Wall Sondheim”
• TOMORROW’S ANOTHER DAY  /  Kristin Korb  /  “In The Meantime”
• SMILE  /  Rickie Lee Jones  /  “It’s Like This”
• LET IT BE  /  The Beatles  /  “Let It Be”
• PARIS MISMATCH  /  (Theme Music)  /  Cody Owen Stine  /  (Unreleased Master)

THEN:

***

NOW:

***

And THAT’s how you do it, folks.

LES MISERABLES
London, December 13, 1988
Peter Karrie, Don Gallagher, Rebecca Storm, Linzi Hateley, Mario Frangoulis, Mary Louise Clarke, Barry James, Gay Soper, Christopher Howard
NOTE: The only known recorded Les Mis audio of Linzi Hateley. (B)

LES MISERABLES
London, Barbican Theatre, 1985
Full original preview version
Colm Wilkinson, Roger Allam, Patti LuPone, Susan Jane Tanner, Alun Armstrong, Frances Ruffelle, MIchael Ball, Rebecca Caine, David Burt, Clive Carter, Ian Calvin, Ken Caswell, Keith Burns, Ian Calvin, Dave Willetts, Colin Marsh, Paul Leonard, Gary Huddlestone, Craig Pinder, Christopher Beck, Clive Carter

LES MISERABLES
London, August 11, 1997
John Owen-Jones, Tim Morgan, Grania Renihan, Mandy Holliday, Chris Langham, Andrew Bevis, Gemma Wardle, Glyn Kerslake, Annalene Beechey, Nicholas Harper, Tara McCallum

LES MISERABLES
Broadway Revival, December 23, 2006, Matinee 
Victor Hawks, Norm Lewis, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Adam Jacobs, Ali Ewoldt, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Drew Sarich, Gary Beach, Jenny Galloway, James Chip Leonard, Matt Clemens, Brian D’Addario, Carly Rose Sonenclar

LES MISERABLES
Broadway Revival, July 28, 2007
Drew Sarich, Robert Hunt, Lea Salonga, Ann Harada, Chip Zien, Adam Jacobs, Megan McGinnis, Ali Ewoldt, Max von Essen, Zach Rand, Kylie Liya Goldstein

Madrid, Teatro Lope de Vega, January, 2011
Gerónimo Rauch, Ignasi Vidal, Virginia Carmona, Talia del Val, Guido Balzaretti, Lidia Fairen, Daniel Diges, Enrique del Portal, Eva Diago

Chip Zien is an award winning actor who has delighted audiences worldwide in theatre, film, and television! Chip created the roles “The Baker” in Stephen Sondheim/James Lapine’s “Into The Woods” as well as the role of “Mendel” in William Finn’s “Falsettos.” His many other Broadway credits include “In Trousers,” “March of the Falsettos,” “Falsettoland,” “The Country Girl,” the revival of “Les Miserables,” “Grand Hotel,” “The Boys From Syracuse,” “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” “All Over Town,” and “The Suicide.” Off-Broadway and regionally, Chip has entertained audiences in “Merrily We Roll Along” (L.A. Drama-Logue Award), “Anonymous,” “An Imaginary Life,” “Isn’t It Romantic” (Drama Desk Nomination), “Split,” “Moonchildren,” “Hot L Baltimore,” “Kaddish,” “A New Brain” (Drama Desk Nomination), “Diamonds,” “Real Life Funnies,” and “Tuscaloosa’s Calling Me.”

Chip has also written several shows for the stage. His one-man show “Death in Ashtabula,” “Travels With My Discontent” (a new musical written with Deborah Abramson, et al), and most recently “The History of War” which was presented at NYMF this past fall.

When not on stage or sometimes at the same time, Chip has been a fixture on television. In addition to being the announcer on “The Caroline Rhea Show,” Chip has appeared in numerous television shows such as “Lipstick Jungle,” “Rescue Me,” “CSI,” “Law and Order,” “Cheers,” “The Bob Newhart Show,” “Thirty-Something,” “Judging Amy,” “Cosby,” “The Cagney and Lacey Movies,” “Chips”, “Son of the Beach,” “Madigan Men,” “Wings,” “All My Children,” “Almost Perfect,” “Now and Again,” “Deadline,” “Shell Game,” “Love, Sidney,” “Reggie.”

Chip has also lit up the big screen in “The Siege,” “Howard The Duck” (the voice of Howard), “United 93,” “Snake Eyes,” “Breakfast of Champions,” “Dorothy Parker and the Vicious Circle,” “Grace Quigley,” “So Fine,” “Hello Again,” “House of God,” “and “The Rose.”

Currently, Chip is reworking “The History of War” for future production. Stay tuned to “Adaumbelle’s Quest” to find out when that will be!

1. Who inspired you to become a performer? Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, and Perry Como. I always thought I’d grow up to be like Frank Sinatra, I thought Dean Martin was the greatest actor I’d ever seen, and I wanted to host a variety show like Perry Como. When I first came to NY, it was really my goal to just sing and host a variety show. Danny Kaye was a big influence on me as well…his songs were the first ones I really learned.

2. Who’s the one person you haven’t worked with that you would like to? Geoffrey Rush. I would have liked to work with Sinatra. You know early on in my career, I was very friendly with Henry Winkler and I was very jealous of Henry because he got to meet Sinatra and I never did. Of course, I would have also loved to work with Jack Lemon and Walter Matthau. I’ve said “Hi” to Angela Lansbury, but never worked with her, though I would love to. I’d like to work with all these wonderful actors in my show (“The History Of War”).

3. If you couldn’t be doing what you are doing now, what career would you choose? I was motoring down two paths when I graduated college…one was to be a lawyer and one was performing. I grew up in Milwaukee and as much as you could have a stage mother in Milwaukee, mine was one. She would enter me in these tiny tot talent shows and I would always sing in them. I’d sing “Down Yonder Someone Beckons To Me” and be dressed up like a cowboy with six shooters and a cowboy hat and at the end of the song I would pull my guns out and shoot off caps. So, I was always singing and be in shows, but performing seemed like an odd thing to do as a profession. A lot of my family were lawyers, so my real plan was to go to college, be a history major, go to law school and then be a lawyer or work on a political campaign. I actually ran a guy’s campaign my first year out of college and he lost by 1/2 a percentage point and if he had won, I would have gone to Georgetown Law School at night and work on his staff during the day and then my life would have changed. The reason I ended up acting, not only because I had been doing it my whole life through college, but because my step-sister was running a theatre in Chicago and somebody got sick, this was right after that campaign ended and I had to wait until January to start law school, so my sister said why don’t you come down here and you could play “Little Chap” in “Stop The World.” We are doing these three shows in this repertory theater and after a few months there the theatre burned to the ground, so a bunch of us got in a car and drove to New York and I got work right away in “You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown.” The rest as they say is history.

4. What’s your most embarrassing on-stage moment? I’ve had a few…but one of the worst was when I was doing “Grand Hotel” and I took over for Michael Jeter, who was fantastic. My wife was a dancer in the NYC Ballet and now she teaches at the School of American Ballet and she said to me, you know when you kick your leg up to do those big fan kicks, you’re leg is just not going anywhere. She said what really makes it terrible is that you keep looking at it. So don’t look at your leg, look up instead. I was determined to be a better dancer, so when I went on stage that night I looked up and fell backwards on my head (like doing a back flip) and everyone on stage just gasped. The first thought I had was I hope that I’m still standing, and that everyone else had fallen and turned upside down, so I was momentarily convinced that I was okay and the rest of the cast had fallen. Eventually the cast was hysterical laughing and dancing around me. Another time in “Into The Woods,” the fog machines wouldn’t turn off. The stage became so filled up that we couldn’t see anything and we all had to grope our ways out of the stage door onto 45th Street. We stood on the street hysterically laughing. The orchestra was stuck in the pit, the actors are out on the street, and the audience was trying to get out. Oh that night was a complete disaster. I’ve had a bunch of them…

5. What’s the best advice you’ve ever received? It was actually from James Lapine who said to me: “Stay focused on what you are doing. Just do your job. Don’t project too far ahead. Try not worry.” It’s the old cliche of “Staying in the moment.” My mom told me years ago when I was at camp, which I think she heard someone had said to James Cagney (I played all the great female roles in summer camp shows, I was “Lola” in “Damn Yankees,” I was “Liza Doolittle” in “My Fair Lady”), “You know you’re wandering all over the place. Stand still until you have a reason to move.” Wynn Handman, a great acting teacher in New York once said to me “Go to LA and make lots of money, then come back here and I’ll fix you.”

6. What’s your proudest moment? The birth of my children is probably the most amazing thing that’s ever happened to me. I also have to say driving by the Martin-Beck Theatre (now the Hirschfeld) when the big boot from “Into The Woods” went up on the marquee. I stood on the corner with Joanna Gleason and I never thought this would happen to me. We stood there together and thought “Wow, this was awesome.” It was this realization that something I wanted to do my whole life had happened and it happened at a very high level which I probably would have never imagined. One of the really cool things was when we taped that show for “Great Performances,” I had a moment with Sondheim after it was over, and we had a really great audience that night. It was one of those audiences who knew every line in the show and Sondheim said to me, “This is as good as it can get” and I just started to cry.

7. Do you have any strange or unusual talent that nobody knows about? Not really, but I think the one thing that is different is that I build my own computers. I’m technically pretty sophisticated. I was president of my high school AV squad and I mean old school when you had to thread the 16mm film. As the years have gone by, I was thinking, the things that interested me when I was 12 are the same things that interest me today. I’m also really good at Photoshop…I think it’s the 8th wonder of the world. It’s amazing what you can do. I’m also an excellent Yo-Yoist. I can do really complicated Yo-Yo tricks and that is because there was a Yo-Yo champion in “Grand Hotel” who used to practice back stage.

8. Favorite play/musical? My favorite musical is “Sweeney Todd.” My favorite play I’m stumped on, but I would have to say “Death of a Salesman.” I would love to do that show. I’m old enough to do it. I know they are doing it again, but it’s not with me. Me: Well that’s a mistake. Chip: I also love “Waiting for Godot.” The army scenes in this show are kind of modeled after “Waiting for Godot” at least in my head.

9. Favorite website? I’m a political junkie. I would say The Huffington Post, Talking Points Memo, and I sneak onto some of the theatrical websites.

10. Mary or Rhoda? Mary.

BONUS QUESTIONS:

11. If you could dream about anyone while you sleep, who would it be? I used to have a recurring dream where I would drink coffee around a camp fire with John Wayne and he would say “Kid, it’s gonna be okay.” Then that dream mutated to Jack Gilford as I got older. It’s kind of really funny because they are opposite ends of the spectrum. I crossed paths with John Wayne at one moment in my career because at one point we had the same agent, obviously it was late in his career and early in mine, and I was sitting in a lobby across from John Wayne and I thought to myself “Wow, this is really the yin and yang of show business right here.” I said, “Hi” and he said, “Hi, how are you doing kid?”

I would also love to dream about having dinner with Bill and Hillary or President Obama. I liked to dream about being at some of those big meetings they have, like health care. Those dreams can be exciting because you can’t be at them in real life.

Photo by Ben Strothmann

I am so honored to be celebrating my 2nd Anniversary here at “Adaumbelle’s Quest.” It has been very exciting to have the continued opportunity to bring my love of entertainment and interviewing to so many people. I’m very humbled by the growth of “Adaumbelle’s Quest” in this second year and hope that this expansion continues.

I may be the face of this site, but “Adaumbelle’s Quest” would not be without each and everyone of you:

Every performer and artist I have had the opportunity to interview. The fact that you took time out of your lives to answer my questions is truly a dream come true for me.

Every press agent who has taken the time to help me get so many of my participants. I would not have been able to interview them without your assistance!

Each and every person who takes the time to read “Adaumbelle’s Quest,” whether it’s on a daily, weekly, monthly, or a whenever I can basis. I’m thrilled to have your support and the reality that I have fans is another dream come true for me.

My many friends who provide me with guidance and support, allow me to talk their ear off about ideas, always there to answer my infinite amount of computer questions, and those who help me with my logos, business cards, and buttons. How would I manage this all on my own? I’m so lucky to have you in my life!

ITBA for your support and giving me a place to meet other theater bloggers.

My family for their constant love and support.

Photo by Ben Strothmann

So once again, thank you everyone from the bottom of my heart for all of the time, support, and love you give to me and this site. I’m amazed by these two years, not only of the growth of this site, but how this site has affected my personal growth. I’m so fortunate to have it and I don’t take anyone who has ever had an interaction with this site for granted. Thank you for sticking by me and I hope you all continue to do so!

This year, I’ve decided to interview myself again as a special anniversary treat (click here for my 1st Anniversary celebration). I hope you enjoy getting to know me a little bit more.

1. How do you decide who you want to interview? Initially it was artists and performers I have been a long time fan of, but it quickly became an outlet to also promote new talent I’m introduced to.

2. Who has been your best and worst interview? You’ll have to wait for the book on this one! (hahahaha)…Seriously though, I just feel fortunate I’ve gotten to interview everyone I have because it’s been a dream of mine to be part of the entertainment community and I finally feel like I’m starting to move in.

3. What are some of the most popular answers? That’s really tough because everyone is so individualized in their answers, but if I had to choose, many people answer Meryl Streep when I ask “Who is the one person you haven’t worked with that you would like to?”

It’s pretty divided between Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts or they don’t like corporate coffee places when I ask “Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts?” It’s also pretty divided between “Superman” or “Wonder Woman,” though every now and then someone gets upset I only give choices for DC Comics. The reasoning behind that is growing up I wasn’t a big comic book fan, so when I watched superhero cartoons on TV, I didn’t know one was DC and one was Marvel. To me it was just a superhero. Plus, when I was thinking of these questions, I thought if two superheros were to have it out, it would be “Superman” and “Wonder Woman.”

For “Boxers or Briefs”…most people answer boxer briefs, but briefs do seem to win out more over boxes, unless they go commando.

4. Favorite place to write? My apartment and sometimes on vacation, but anywhere that can just allow me to be with my thoughts and little distraction.

5. What’s the best advice you’ve ever received? “The impossible is something that hasn’t been tried”–Ernst Bulova. “You can’t get a yes without asking the question.”–Bob Trautman.

6. What’s your proudest moment? The moment I realized I am finally living the life I always dreamed for myself, just in a completely different way than I imagined.

7. Favorite way to spend your day off? Sleeping in, going to the gym, catching up on TV shows, hanging with friends, taking a nap, going for a walk, or drinking a vanilla chai tea latte.

8. Favorite skin care product? Origins…Perfect World Toner, Perfect World for Eyes, Matte Scientist (which they recently discontinued…please bring it back!), Never A Dull Moment, Skin Diver, Checks and Balances, and Firefighter. I also used to love Susan Lucci’s hair care products and her Youthful Essence Microdermabrasion.

9. Favorite TV Show? I’m sure there are many more, but this is what I could remember. Now: “90210,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Brothers and Sisters,” “Modern Family,” “Glee,” “Cougar Town,” “Mike and Molly,” “Hot in Cleveland,” and “Raising Hope.” Then: “The Golden Girls,” “Family Ties,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Saved By The Bell,” “California Dreams,” “Beverly Hills 90210,” “Melrose Place,” “Donna Reed,” “Bewitched,” “Punky Brewster,” “Mr. Belvedere,” “Diff’rent Strokes,” “Silver Spoons,” “He-Man,” “She-Ra,” “GI Joe,” “Superfriends,” “Wonder Woman,” “Ellen” (TV sitcom), “The Class,” “Gobots,” “Jem and the Holograms,” “Bette,” “Sordid Lives: The Series,” “It’s All Relative,” “Strong Medicine,” “Any Day Now,” and “The Practice.”

10. Favorite Comedian? Ellen DeGeneres, Wendy Liebman, Sandra Bernhard, Jessica Kirson, Leslie Jordan, Chelsea Handler, and Julie Halston.

BONUS QUESTIONS:

11. Favorite kind of sundae? Cookies & Cream ice cream with rainbow sprinkles.

12. Peanut Butter: Crunchy or Smooth? Smooth, so it spreads perfectly when I make my yummy peanut butter and cheese sandwiches!

According to press notes, “The History of War” is spun from the imagination of a 12 year old boy-a megalomaniac in training. As he struggles with homework assignments and peculiar visions, he conjures up seven of the most famous tyrants of all time. They did horrible things. He wants to do horrible things. His parents are worried…and everybody sings!…well, almost everybody. Reality and pathology neatly converge in this terrifyingly subversive new musical.

“History of War” plays at the ATA Chernuchin (314 West 54th Street)

Friday, October 8 at 7pm

Saturday, October 9 at 1pm

Tuesday, October 12 at 8pm

Friday, October 15 at 7pm

Saturday, October 16 at 1pm and 5pm

Christmas Eve, the beloved, opinionated, heavily-accented therapist from Avenue Q, makes her holiday fantasies come true in this evening of song and comedy that both skewers and pays tribute to the great romantic duets and iconic moments of Broadway. No lyricist will be spared as she re-interprets the modern songbook with the help of some of Broadway’s most talented, hilarious and gorgeous leading men. Scheduled to help Harada “haul out the holly” are Paul Castree, Jeremy Davis, Raul Esparza, Andy Karl, Michael Mindlin, Christopher Sieber, John Tartaglia, Chip Zien and a “very special appearance” by Norm Lewis. Conceived and written by Gary Adler, Ann Harada and Alan Muraoka, the evening will be directed by Alan Muraoka with choreography by Michael Mindlin and musical direction of Gary Adler.

Ann Harada (Christmas Eve) originated the role of Christmas Eve in both the Broadway and London productions of the Tony Award-winning musical Avenue Q. Her other Broadway credits include 9 to 5, Les Miserables, Seussical The Musical and M. Butterfly. She was also featured in the Actors Fund productions of Chess and Hair. Recent TV work includes “Lipstick Jungle” (as Victory Ford’s mother), “Cashmere Mafia,” “Johnny and the Sprites,” and “The Electric Company.”

Alan Muraoka‘s New York Theatre credits include Falsettoland for the National Asian American Theatre Company (Vineyard Theatre), the world premiere of Karaoke Series for the IMUA Theater Company, four Leading Men benefit concerts for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, Empty Handed, a benefit concert starring the puppeteers of Broadway’s Avenue Q, and cabarets for Tony-nominated actresses Stephanie D’Abruzzo and Ann Harada. He directed the Tony-nominated actor John Tartaglia (Avenue Q) in his one-man show, John Tartaglia AD-LIBerty, which ran at Joe’s Pub at the Public Theatre, and won numerous cabaret awards.

Date: Monday, December 14, 2009
Time: 7:00pm – 8:30pm
Location: The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space @ WNYC
44 Charlton Street at Varick
New York

$50 for General Reserved Seating
$75 for Preferred Reserved Seating ($75 ticket buyers will also receive a poster autographed by the cast).
ORDER TICKETS ONLINE
To order tickets by phone, please call 212.840.0770 x268

Lia Chang is an actor, performance and fine art botanical photographer and an award-winning multimedia journalist. Lia’s portraits and performance photos have appeared in Vanity Fair, Gourmet, German Elle, Women’s Wear Daily, The Paris Review, VIBE, TV Guide, Daily Variety, Interior Design, American Theatre, Life & Style, OUT, New York Magazine, InStyle, Timeout.com, Villagevoice.com, Playbill.com, Theatermania.com, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, USA Today, The Boston Globe, New York Times and Washington Post. A former syndicated arts and entertainment columnist for KYODO News, Lia is the New York Bureau Chief for AsianConnections.com. She writes about culture, style and Asian American issues for a variety of publications and this Backstage Pass with Lia Chang blog. As a photographer and videographer, Lia is frequently tapped to collaborate with artists, organizations and companies in establishing their documentary photo archive. She has been documenting her colleagues and contemporaries in the arts, fashion and journalism since making her stage debut as Liat in the National Tour of South Pacific, with Robert Goulet and Barbara Eden.

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BD Wong and Wayne Barker will be performing a selection from Noel Coward’s The Coconut Girl, in Symphony Space’s Wall-to-Wall Broadway, a twelve hour marathon of performances celebrating  a century of musicals, on Saturday, May 16 at 9pm. From 8pm-11pm, Tony and Emmy Award winner Paul Gemignani will conduct a full orchestra playing Broadway musical classics featuring performances by Michael Cerveris, Alexander Gemignani, George S. Irving, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Raúl Esparza, Martha Plimpton, Loni Ackerman, Terrence Mann, Randy Graff, Kate Baldwin, Leenya Rideout, Gregg Edelman, Julie Wilson, Debbie Gravitte, Ivy Austin, Isaiah Sheffer, Melissa Errico, James Naughton, Lisa Flanagan, Kathryn Markey, Amy Vice, Jonathan Hadary, Jeffrey Schecter, Liz Callaway, D’Ambrose Boyd, Chip Zien, and Donna Murphy.

The marathon of performances begins at 11am. Admission is free and seating is on a first come, first serve basis. Symphony Space is located at 2537 Broadway @ 95th St in New York.

Performance Schedule:

11 am Performances by the casts of The Lion King, Mary Poppins, The Little Mermaid, Wicked, and Shrek

11:45 am Excerpts from Adelphi University’s production of Rent

12 pm Great songs that never made it to the Broadway stage, featuring performances by Kevin Burdette, Loni Ackerman, Leenya Rideout, Amy Vice, Marion Cowings, and more

2 pm Robert MacNeil and Frank Rich discuss the musicals that changed their lives, with performances by Jonathan Hadary, Kevin Burdette, Loni Ackerman, and Lisa Flanagan

2:30 pm Composers Jeanine Tesori, Jo DiPietro, and William Finn pay tribute to works that inspired them, accompanied by Theodore Chapin

3 pm Successful songs from shows that flopped, featuring performances by Mary Cleere Haran, Martin Vidnovic, D’Ambrose Boyd, Loni Ackerman, and Lisa Flanagan

3:50 pm Harold Prince in a one-on-one discussion with Rob Marx about the making of musicals

5 pm A pre-centennial salute to Frank Loesser, with performances by Emily Loesser, Jo Sullivan Loesser, Debbie Gravitte, and Gregg Edelman

5:30 pm Songs from new musicals in the works: Ever After and Dear Edwina by composer Zina Goldrich and lyricist Marcy Heisler; and The Kid by composer Andy Monroe and lyricist Jack Lethner

6pm Performances from the current and recent shows South Pacific, Girl Crazy, The Who’s Tommy, In the Heights, Avenue Q, and Next to Normal performed by Andrew Samonsky, Rebecca Luker, Michael Cerveris, Carrie Anderson, and others

6:25 pm A sampling of side-splitting songs from Broadway reviews, featuring performances by Loni Ackerman, Kevin Burdette, Mary Brienza, Kathryn Markey, D’Ambrose Boyd, Leenya Rideout, Ivy Austin, Sidney J. Burgoyne, and more

7pm Lyricist Sheldon Harnick in discussion with composer and lyricist Lin-Manuel Miranda

8pm See first paragraph for lineup

Directions: Take the subway #1, 2,3,9 to the 96th St Station and walk one block south on Broadway

www.symphonyspace.org

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Sweeney Todd is generally considered Sondheim’s best work, and it’s well performed by Patti LuPone and George Hearn (reprising his role as the demonic barber almost 20 years after he played it opposite Angela Lansbury in a 1982 video recording). Follies in Concert was an attempt to right a wrong created by a truncated original cast recording, so it’s ironic that roughly half the program is backstage material combined with only 47 minutes of concert footage. There are some brilliant moments, though, from such performers as Barbara Cook, Hearn, Patinkin, and Lee Remick. A Celebration at Carnegie Hall is another all-star cast performance of both Broadway stars and operatic voices peppered with comedy from Bill Irwin. Highlights include the ensemble numbers, Daisy Egan’s “Broadway Baby,” and Patrick Cassidy and Victor Garber’s “The Ballad of Booth,” which is about as close as you’ll get to an original cast performance of Assassins. All in all, this invaluable set preserves and celebrates an important body of work that may never again be documented this well. –David Horiuchi

The Stephen Sondheim Collection (Into the Woods / Sunday in the Park with George / Follies in Concert / Passion / Sweeney Todd in Concert / A Celebration at Carnegie Hall) is available at Amazon for $107.99. To Order click here
Amazon Product Pages contain a lot of other details on this product as Customer Reviews, Sales Ranking, Special Offers, Alternate products that customers are going for and much more.Want to read these details? click here

Want to get some other Format / Binding / Version? You can search for them from here

Other Products of Interest

• Company
• Sweeney Todd – The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Broadway) (Keepcase)
• Original Cast Album – Company
• A Little Night Music
• Sweeney Todd – The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

L.A. Theatre Works’ radio theater series, The Play’s the Thing, airs locally every Saturday night from 10 pm to midnight on 89.3 FM KPCC Southern California Public Radio, and is streamed on the KPCC website (www.kpcc.org) for one week following each broadcast.  The series can also be heard on 89.7 WGBH in Boston; 91.5 FM WBEZ in Chicago; 94.9 KUOW in Seattle; 93.5 FM KRTS “Marfa Public Radio” in Texas; 90.5 FM KUT in Austin; 88.9 FM KUNM in Albuquerque; 91.5 FM, Interlochen Public Radio in Northern Michigan; 94.1 KPFA in Northern California; 91.1 FM KRCB in Sonoma County; 89.1 KUOR in Redlands; as well as on many other public radio stations nationwide and XM Satellite Radio.  Selected programs from LATW are also heard internationally over BBC World Service, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Radio Telefis Eirann (Ireland), Radio Hong Kong, and Radio New Zealand.  The L.A. Theatre Works Audio Theatre Collection is available in bookstores, libraries, through their catalog, digitally on itunes, overdrive.com, audible.com, and on the L.A. Theatre Works website at www.latw.org.

On XM Satellite Radio, The Plays the Thing now airs on Sonic Theater three times a week.  Each broadcast premieres on Friday evening at 8 pm eastern/5 pm pacific and repeats the following Monday in the same time slot.  On Wednesday, XM offers an encore performance of a previously-broadcast program.

To get a full schedule,  go to the L.A. Theatre Works website at www.latw.org and follow the link through the “Radio Theatre Series” heading and then “Episode Guide” or go directly to www.scpr.org for KPCC.

Additional support for the series is provided by AudioFile Magazine.  Listeners can visit their website at www.audiofilemagazine.com to view 65 reviews of LATW plays and hear sound clips from them.  The Beverly Hilton hotel is the official hotel for The Play’s the Thing.

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Howard the Duck has absolutely nothing to recommend it. Casting Richard Kiley as the Voice of the Cosmos aside, it’s worthless. All I could think, as the terribly acted Duck got to Earth and met Thompson was–these people wrote American Graffiti. The duck planet scenes at the beginning, which should have been amusing and inventive is more instead tired. There’s no exuberance to the scenes, they’re mundane. As a director, Huyck is never willing to acknowledge Howard the Duck‘s idiocy. It’s about a talking duck who gets it on with a human girl. It ought to be dumb, fun and outlandish–and aware of it. Instead, it’s all about not selling out the music for the man. It’s embarrassing to watch it, much less to imagine having participated in its making in any capacity.

I’m not real familiar with the comic books, but the movie Howard is a unfunny whiner who’s mad he had to get a job. I can only figure the comic book Howard is probably a funny whiner. The occasional promises of a smoking and drinking duck are never realized (he gets whisked to Earth before he lights his cigar and his beer later magically disappears into PG-land). Sadly, Howard the Duck probably isn’t even the worst of the atrocious teen-minded sci-fi movies on the mid-1980s, just the most famous.

The acting is unspeakable. Lea Thompson has never been really good so her inability to act opposite a guy in a costume who talks (the cast of “Alf” did far better) is no surprise. But Tim Robbins? Robbins is awful. Jeffrey Jones is awful. Some of the blame has to fall on the script and direction, but good acting might have made it a little less unbearable.

As for the costumed Howard the Duck… the costume’s not detailed enough to be convincing in regular shots. It looks like a television commercial. And Chip Zien’s vocal performance as Howard might be the worst thing in the movie, which is a hard thing to be.

The only other thing worth commenting on is John Barry’s score. When I saw his name in the opening titles, I figured at least the music would be good. It isn’t. It’s John Barry trying to be zany. It’s a metaphor for the whole movie–a bunch of squares pretending to be zany and not even managing to make an unconventional failure.

CREDITS

Directed by Willard Huyck; screenplay by Huyck and Gloria Katz, based on the Marvel Comics character created by Steve Gerber and Val Mayerik; director of photography, Richard H. Kline; edited by Michael Chandler and Sidney Wolinsky; music by John Barry; production designer, Peter Jamison; produced by Katz; released by Universal Pictures.

Starring Lea Thompson (Beverly Switzler), Jeffrey Jones (Dr. Walter Jenning), Tim Robbins (Phil Blumburtt), Paul Guilfoyle (Lieutenant Welker) and Ed Gale & Chip Zien (Howard T. Duck).

Related posts:

• King Kong (1976, John Guillermin)
• American Graffiti (1973, George Lucas)
• Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984, Steven Spielberg)
• Heaven’s Prisoners (1996, Phil Joanou)
• Superman II (1980, Richard Lester)