| Current Season | Past Shows | In The News | Company | Staff | Support | Links | Contact Us |
 Home |
|
20082007200620052004200320022000-20011999-2000 |
|
|
|
|
|
New Jersey theater: More local
stages take a bow
12/28/01 BY PETER FILICHIA
Just as National Football League fans have been talking a lot lately about parity -- that no team is dominant and a disproportionate number of clubs are just as good as others -- New Jersey theater fans could say the same about the plays of 2001.
Last year, the McCarter Theatre in Princeton dominated the Top 10 attractions with four entries, but this year no New Jersey stage receives more than two nods in the roundup. While such flagship theaters as McCarter and the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn handily made the list, three others made debuts: Luna Stage Company in Montclair, New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch and even the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark.
Let's not think of this as our old reliable theaters getting weaker, but that our smaller theaters are becoming stronger. The 10 best, in alphabetical order:
"The Belle of Amherst"
New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Newark
Emily Dickinson once wrote, "We never know how high we are till we are called to rise." And though audiences have known for a half-century how wonderful an actress Julie Harris is, how uplifting to have another opportunity to see her as the reclusive poet in William Luce's play. As it turned out, after Harris left NJPAC, she suffered a stroke. She may never work again, so we were lucky to have a chance to see her.
"A Chorus Line"
Paper Mill Playhouse, Millburn
In a year that saw "The Producers" win more Tonys than any other musical, it's refreshing to be reminded about the best musical of all time. This 1975 masterpiece about the rigors of dancers who sweat through the audition process received a carbon-copy staging of the original production -- but it was a welcome sight after having been away from us for more than a decade.
"Funny Girl"
Paper Mill Playhouse
They should have changed the name to "Funny Confident Amazing Sensational Musical Girl" -- and she's a 23-year-old powerhouse from Livingston named Leslie Kritzer. Going up against the legend of Barbra Streisand wasn't easy, but Kritzer created her own Fanny Brice -- and even had a fresh take on "People." Robert Cuccioli, as her wayward husband, provided able support.
"Getting in Touch with My Inner B*tch"
New Jersey Repertory Company, Long Branch
The asterisk couldn't possibly stand for the letter "i," for folksinger Christine Lavin showed herself to be a good-natured charmer, full of inner beauty, in her original one-woman show. Out of her protractor-shaped mouth came witty songs that celebrate everyday life: spotting a celebrity, dealing with nieces and nephews, entering the express line in the supermarket when you've got more than 10 items. It was such an entertaining bunch of numbers, audiences were glad she got in touch with that inner batch.
"La Bete"
Two River Theatre Company, Manasquan
The always adventurous company went out on a limb -- and found something beautiful blooming out there with David Hirson's comedy, set in 1654 France and written in rhymed iambic pentameter. In it, a thinly-veiled Molière must agree to the Prince's demand that he work with an actor-playwright who can't stop talking. (No, really; he goes on for 27 minutes before letting anyone else get in a word.) But Two River got out the word that this was one funny play that nevertheless had a great deal to say about the making of art and artists.
"Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill"
George Street Playhouse, New Brunswick
As superb as Suzzanne Douglas was last season when she appeared at the George Street in "Wit," she trumped her own ace when she portrayed Billie Holliday. Here she had to sing as well as act. Did she ever, showing us a legend on the wane who still had the power to mesmerize.
"My Children! My Africa!"
Luna Stage, Montclair
Athol Fugard's best play was a perfect fit for the cozy confines of Luna's black box theater -- as three characters took the audience into their confidence when delivering their monologues. Eddie Aldredge as a high school teacher in South Africa, and Jamahl Marsh and Nell Mooney as his students, black and white respectively, delivered heartbreaking soliloquies on the evils of apartheid.
"Ragtime"
New Jersey Performing Arts Center
While most touring productions that saunter into NJPAC are second-rate affairs (the recent "Guys and Dolls" is a perfect example), here was one -- finally -- that was genuinely impressive. While it wasn't nearly as opulent as the Broadway original, the songs, stories and performances shone through in this tale of the intermingling of WASPs, Jews and blacks in 1906 New York.
"Romeo and Juliet"
McCarter Theatre, Princeton
Director Emily Mann knows that youth must be served -- especially in a production about these star-crossed lovers. As her leads, she chose Jeffrey Carlson, a recent grad of the Juilliard School, and Sarah Drew, who was still in college. Both young actors served Mann, themselves, and Shakespeare.
"The Three Sisters"
New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, Madison
Director Bonnie J. Monte made Chekhov's 100-year-old play seem wonderfully young. Not only did she turn in a sterling job of direction, but she adapted the text, too, in a version that managed to sound true to the period, yet entertaining to contemporary ears. As for those sisters: Laila Robins, Angela Reed and Caralyn Kozlowski all showed the dreams they had, and the dreams they had shattered.
|
|
Undressing relationships
Published in the Asbury Park Press 10/30/01By GRETCHEN C. VAN BENTHUYSEN In Michael T. Folie''s last play staged at the New Jersey Repertory Theater, Long Branch, "An Unhappy Woman," the characters were worried about holding on to jobs they hated. As the romantic comedy progresses, however, Tim and Peggy
realize their love for each other has to outweigh their
love for work or they will never be truly happy.
The pursuit of happiness appears to be a common thread
in Folie''s works; at least the ones presented at the
NJ Rep, where the former Monmouth County resident is a
playwright in residence.
Much more accessible than the surrealistic "Unhappy Woman,"
Folie''s "Naked by the River" is down to earth, frequently
funny and often surprising -- especially that ending.
Peggy (Stephanie Roy) is a lawyer on the fast track when
she meets up with Tim (Duncan M. Rogers), a paralegal/secretary.
A mutual friend suggested she hire Tim to work on a case
that should help Peggy make partner in her law firm.
Tim sees straight through to Peggy''s insecurities and
coolly pulls out all her secrets. He remains an enigma
to Peggy, although she does discover he is a former lawyer
who walked away from a successful career. This, of course,
confuses her even more because she can not rationalize
why somebody would do that.
When she finds out he dumped law after an out-of-body
experience that suddenly made the meaning of life clear
to him, she is a nonbeliever. A nonbeliever, that is,
until she reads the book Tim wrote about the personal
experience. It, too, changes her life. When she finds
out, though, Tim plans to publish his tome on the internet
rather than land a lucrative book deal, she is flabbergasted.
What she does about that has dire consequences for both
of them.
Both Rogers and Roy turned in fine performances as two
people who are attracted to each other but not sure how
far to go in their relationship.
Liz Zazzi, as book publisher Gabriella, almost steals
the show in the second act. Her line delivery and comic
timing are right on the money. Her character is larger
than life and Zazzi takes full advantage of it.
Director Stewart Fisher keeps the pace of the play moving
along nicely and although some scene changes at last Friday''s
opening night were awkward, they didn''t hamper the play
too much. It may have been the first time since the NJ
Rep opened its doors a couple of years ago that the small
size of the performing space worked against a production.
|
|
New Jersey stage: Leads make 'Naked' revealing 10/30/01 BY PETER FILICHIA
If there were a yearbook for the 2001-2002 New Jersey theater season, Duncan M. Rogers and Stephanie Roy would be unchallenged as "Cutest Couple."
They are the two important ingredients to the success of "Naked by the River," the newest production at the New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch. Playwright Michael T. Folie has given them engaging dialogue, too, which masks the play's one deficiency: a message that seems overly familiar.
Rogers plays Tim Grant, a secretary-paralegal for junior associate Peggy Ryerson, portrayed by Roy. But Tim's preoccupation in his spare time is writing a book that will teach people how to view the ordinary things in the world as really quite extraordinary, and that they shouldn't get obsessive over money and power -- as Peggy does.
Little by little, Tim influences Peggy, and makes her question her ambition. Not that the lawyer doesn't understand the simple things in life; on vacation, she stood naked by the river and felt the freedom.
Nevertheless, old habits die hard, so Peggy tries to change Tim just as much as he tries to change her. Who'll win in this battle of the sexes and ideologies?
How it turns out won't amaze theatergoers, but what will surprise them is the chemistry between the couple. That's the hardest quality for a director and performers to capture, but, under Stewart Fisher's amiable direction, sparks fly between Roy and Rogers. Some theatergoers may be so convinced they're a couple, they'll search the program bios.
Roy wears a dress that's utterly shapeless and a hairstyle that makes her purposely sexless. Yet her face makes clear that beneath her snooty look is genuine humanity. She lets on right away that she likes her new employee, but cannot admit it in order to keep control.
Rogers starts off with a chip on his shoulder the size of a doorstop, and a crooked smile that complements his always-askew hair. He, too, must obfuscate what he's feeling, and does a commendable job.
The third cast member is equally proficient. She's Liz Zazzi, who portrays Gabriella Rossini, a profane and pregnant book publisher. Zazzi is one of the best in the state at delivering a no-nonsense barb, and she certainly is up to her high standard here, with the many laugh-getting zingers provided by Folie. But give the actress a line replete with truth -- like "You give birth first, and only later do you find out what you made" -- and she infuses it with compassion.
From its delightfully wacky first act, "Naked by the River" seems to be going someplace special, so the second act is a bit of a letdown. Ultimately, it's like a journey on which a traveler isn't thrilled when he reaches his destination, but is still glad for the friends he's made along the way. |
|
November 2, 2001
Scene On Stage by Philip Dorian
MIDDLETOWN NATIVE'S NEW PLAY
PREMIERES
New Jersey Repertory Company Stages
Michael Folie's Naked by the River
It the mission of Gabor and SuzAnne
Barabas's New Jersey Repertory Company to encourage and
produce new playwrights. Among the best of their "finds"
have been Brian Mori's Adult Fiction and Mark
Dunn's North Fork. Naked by the River,
by Middletown native Michael T. Folie, ranks right up
there with them.
At the beginning of Naked by the
River, when prim, uptight attorney Peggy (Stephanie
Roy) is forced by her boss to hire unkempt, raffish paralegal
Tim (Duncan M. Rogers), it's soon apparent that the two
will fall in love - or at least into bed. Sometime during
the first act, however, it also becomes clear that Mr.
Folie's play is much more than a predictable sex comedy.
It is a tightly written, intelligent, witty play about
two complex young people whose contradictory talents and
values bring them together, then pull them apart, and
then just maybe reconnect them after all.
It is more than Peggy's mannerly attitude
and Tim's arrogant sarcasm that separate the two. She's
grounded in her legal career, working toward a partnership
in a prestigious firm, while he's a seat-of-the-pants
sort of guy who appears to be just going along to get
along.
The attraction between the two is ignited
when Peggy reads a book Tim has written. While we never
learn much about the book, it is their divergent attitudes
toward its future that trigger the events of the play.
He wants to post it, gratis, on the web, and she envisions
conventional publication and a smash success. Whose concept
prevails - and does it work? - is the stuff of the play.
Once he gets past the over-the-top first
scene, Mr. Rogers eases comfortably into the role of the
would-be idealist. The character must choose: About his
book, he says he had a vision, "No", Peggy tells him,
"You had an idea." It is to the actor's credit that Tim
appears realistically torn between the two. He's a handsome
devil too, which lends credibility to the romance between
Tim and Peggy.
Not that Ms. Roy needs any help. This
actor is as much a find for NJ Rep as is the play. Peggy
isn't all veneer, but she does struggle with her professional
image, and Ms. Roy captures every nuance of this career
woman's dilemma. Her sensitive performance makes everything
Peggy says (and, it should be noted, does) exactly right
for the time and place. In Ms. Roy's playing, Peggy emerges
fresh and open and perfectly natural.
We have us a three-character play here,
and Liz Zazzi certainly does justice to the acid tongued
literary agent. Tough as nails and a real softy at the
same time, the character isn't easy, and they play would
be harmed if we didn't like her. But we do, thanks to
Ms. Zazzi's way with the wry bons mots Mr. Folie has written
for Gabriella. Not incidentally, she's realistically pregnant
in attitude as well as appearance. Writing her thus, and
carrying her to term before the final scene, is one of
Mr. Folie's most effective conceits.
The play depends on establishing the
personas of several people who never appear, and the playwright
accomplishes this adroitly. Peggy's boss, her parents
and an influential book publisher are fleshed out sufficiently
in dialogue that's not forced exposition, and their influence
on the on-stage characters is believable.
The message of Mr. Folie's play - does
success, like power, corrupt? - isn't new. How many new
messages are there anyway? What's important is communication
that message in an interesting voice, and that the playwright
accomplishes. If "interesting" sounds like faint praise,
try to remember the last time you were truly interested
in the lives portrayed in popular fiction.
It doesn't hurt one bit that it is acted
so sublimely by Ms. Roy, so commendably by Mr. Rogers
and so audaciously by Ms. Zazzi. No hindrance either is
Stewart Fisher's direction, sensitive as it is both to
character and situation. But from now through November
18 at New Jersey Rep, the play's the thing.
|
|
The Coaster |
|
He said, she said: Playwright
finds himself in strong female characters
Published in the Asbury Park Press 10/26/01
"Naked by the River," opening at 8 tonight at the New
Jersey Repertory Theatre in Long Branch, is the third
play from Michael T. Folie in which a strong woman character
is central to the story.
"Naked," receiving its first fully-staged production
here, features Peggy (Stephanie Roy), a rising young lawyer
at a New York City law firm, and Tim (Duncan Rogers),
an unpublished novelist who supports himself with temporary
work as a paralegal. Liz Zazzi plays the pregnant owner
of a small publishing company. Stewart A. Fisher, NJ Rep's
company manager and associate director, helms the two-act,
romantic comedy.
Folie, who is a resident play writer at NJ Rep, had his
"An Unhappy Woman" produced there in February. It is an
Orwellian-like look at the future when terrorism in the
norm, happiness is in short supply and the title character
trusts no one.
His third strong-woman play, "The Adjustment," centers
on a woman with a powerful personality who worked as a
lobbyist in a big city and falls in love with a married
man.
"Naked by the River" came from Folie's personal experiences
as a temporary worker at a law firm during the 1980s when
making money - lots of money - was paramount. Although
he was living a somewhat bohemian actor's life, he hit
it off with a woman lawyer on the fast track to fame and
riches. If both had not been married to other people,
Folie said, they may have grown closer. That made him
think about the stresses such a relationship would encounter.
So he wrote a play about it.
"In the old days (on stage) parents kept (the lovers)
apart," Folie noted. "Now, in romantic comedies, the writer
has to bend over backward to find things to keep people
apart."
In "Naked by the River" the lovers, at first, can't physically
unite because each is involved with someone else. Later,
after moving in with each other, they are divided emotionally.
Each must sacrifice something they hold dear before their
relationship can truly be consummated.
When Folie sits down to write a play, he usually knows
how it will begin and end. The stuff in the middle emerges
after he writes pages and pages of improvisational, non-dramatic
chit chat, he explained.
" I have to do that in order to find the action and it
may be after 20 pages that I discover why a character
said what they said earlier," Folie said. "I know that
sounds psychotic . . . but it's the emergence of my subconscious
that causes these illuminations."
It's all about finding a good balance, he added. And
for serious writers, he said, the tragic events of Sept.
11 created a richer environment for writing. Of course,
Folie said, he would prefer the World Trade Center tragedy
never happened.
"It's nice to live in a safe and secure time," Folie
said. "But it's not good for the artist.
"It's hard for a serious playwright to make headway when
people are satisfied, content and secure, and don't feel
like questioning anything," Folie explained. "During dangerous
times people are more aware and it's a better time to
be an artist."
As examples of this, Folie cites George Bernard Shaw,
whose best plays were written between the two World Wars;
Anton Chekhov's major works were penned during the declining
days of the last Russian czar, and Shakespeare's plays
were born during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, which
saw the restoration of the Protestant faith, the defeat
of the Spanish Armada, at least one serious threat of
rebellion and a series of Parliamentary conflicts.
"It's a different world we live in now," Folie said.
"In some ways I feel mentally more prepared for that world
. . . that it's a rough place . . . and people might be
more responsive to plays that reflect that sense of danger
and, in a way, find they are doing OK."
Published on October 26, 2001
|
|
Actress
reveals her 'Secret' to theatergoers BY PETER FILICHIA Katharine Houghton is going to tell her best kept secret. But she's doing it by way of the play she wrote and performs, called "Best Kept Secret," opening Friday at New Jersey Repertory Theatre in Long Branch. In a way, some theatergoers will probably think that
Houghton herself is a bit of a secret: After she made
a much-heralded film debut in 1967 as the Being reminded of this doesn't unnerve Houghton in the
least, as she sits in her dressing room. At 56, her hands
are prematurely gnarled and her face "I was put under a three-picture contact,"
she says, "but the films they offered me were all
B-pictures. I preferred to play great roles in regional
It wasn't the career she envisioned when she was majoring
in philosophy at Sarah Lawrence College. But events took
a turn after her sophomore year, when Little did she know that she'd someday write a play about her experiences there and the years that followed. Houghton went to such big cities as Leningrad (now St.
Petersburg), Moscow and Kiev and smaller towns like Tashkent
and Yalta. There, one of the people "I was reluctant to meet any Russian," she
says, "because by then, we'd all had trouble with
KGB. They wanted to know to whom we were talking, were
we Yet she agreed to meet Andre -- "who turned out
to look like a Russian Liam Neeson," she says. "He
was irritating and challenging. His first question Houghton calls the four days they spent together a watershed
event in her life. "Not because of the sex, though
there was sex. He changed me from an Though they were together only four days before she returned
home, they continued to write. Four years later, Houghton
had big news. She'd Suddenly Houghton's letters to Andre told of her whirlwind
fame. Best of all, she'd be coming to nearby Czechoslovakia
for the Eastern European Film But during the première, as Houghton desperately
searched for him, he was nowhere to be found because he
couldn't leave the country, she recalls. "But The letter writing continued. Houghton estimates there were 200 correspondences between them, though some were intercepted by censors. Yet it would be 23 more years before Houghton and Andre
met again face-to-face in 1990. "That was very romantic,"
she says. "I'd had other Andre moved to America in 1993, but lived only two more years. "I told him that I would someday write our story based on the letters," says Houghton. "Now I have." |
|
Center stage 08/16/01
'Secret' revealed
Guess who's coming to Long Branch?
It's Katharine Houghton, who a third of a century ago captivated moviegoers as the daughter of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn -- and the fiancée of Sidney Poitier -- in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner."
Houghton -- who actually is Hepburn's niece -- will star in her own play at New Jersey Repertory Company. In "The Best Kept Secret," she writes of an American woman who falls in love with a Russian man during the height of the Cold War.
Co-starring with Houghton is Anthony Newfield, who appeared on Broadway in "The Grapes of Wrath" and off-Broadway in "It's Only a Play." Directing them is John Going, who staged Tony LoBianco as Fiorello H. LaGuardia in "Hizzoner!" on Broadway.
"The Best Kept Secret" plays Sept. 6-30 at New Jersey Repertory Company, 179 Broadway, Long Branch. Performances are Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $27.50. Call (732) 229-3166. |
|
|
CurtainCall: No reason to b*tch about Christine Lavin
Published in the Islander 08/24/01ByStaff Writer I ended up listening to some folk song that caught my attention right away. It was a "disaster movie in a song," which dealt with an office romance gone horribly wrong. The words were so catchy that by the end I was singing along. The singer had created an intensely vivid scene that was incredibly easy to imagine, and comedy played an essential role. I had forgotten the song until last week when I heard Christine Lavin, who, as it turns out, was that voice on the radio, perform that song as part of her performance, "Getting In Touch With My Inner B*tch." Don't let the title fool you: "Getting in Touch With My Inner B*tch," the show currently in its run at the New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch, has nothing to do with feminist angst. Instead, it's a fun sing-along -- an interactive experience that is just plain enjoyable. While seeing the show last week, I couldn't help but find myself laughing and relating to the material Lavin sang about in her folk-music drama/concert. The show takes participants -- who are truly that, participants -- on an emotional journey through the serious, comical and contemplative. Special effects abound at certain times, and their purpose is clear, and well-planned. Director SuzAnne Barbaras has done a wonderful job guiding Lavin in order for her to make the most of her performance space. Watch Lavin's feet: She employs a Boomerang, an instrument that echoes music and voice, during the show as an additional effect, which she uses repeatedly to achieve different moods. The capabilities of the instrument are amazing, and Lavin's ensures the authenticity of the live sounds it creates. Lavin's songs are as diverse as the Boomerang. In one song, a couple of men were invited up on stage to help Lavin sing a song about "sensitive New Age guys" who embrace Volvos and women's feelings. And to demonstrate her range, another song helps Lavin sort out her feelings about the Kennedy assassination. And of course, don't forget about the "disaster movie in a song." Attendees to last week's performance also had a special treat in seeing Irvin Blake perform, in addition to Lavin. The writer of such songs as "A Room Without Windows" and "Cuando, Cuando," Blake wowed audience members with hits and stories to accompany them. There's still time to join in the musical revelrie. "Getting In Touch With My Inner B*tch" will run at the New Jersey Repertory Company at 179 Broadway until Sept. 2. Tickets are $25. For more information or to order tickets, call (732) 229-3166.
from the Islander |
|
Get in touch with Christine Lavin
Published in the Asbury Park Press 8/15/01 By GRETCHEN C. VAN BENTHUYSEN Folk singer Christine Lavin is calling her new show, "Getting In Touch with My Inner Bitch," but she can't fool us. She says all her songs are based on some kind of reality
and since she lives in New York City, need we say more.
Her second song of the evening concerns the subway and
a woman crying for help because a dog is lying on the
tracks ... or is it? Another song is about Ray, a guy
who owns a store that makes copies on 72nd Street just
off Broadway. He has fallen in love with Linda Eder and
turned his store into a shrine to the singer who starred
in "Jekyll & Hyde."
Because Lavin tours the country much of the year, her
songs are not limited to Manhattan. She sings about her
reaction to encountering Harrison Ford, "The only living
movie star I adore," in the Rocky Mountains and how she
is so lucky he doesn't carry mace.
Then there is an out-of-world experience, a song about
the controversy of whether Pluto is a planet or a comet
or what?
This is Lavin's first time performing in one spot
for more than one night and working with a director. SuzAnne
Barabas, artistic director of the NJ Rep, has done an
excellent job setting the scene.
Lavin, with her acoustic guitar, roams the small stage.
Her feet, which push levers on an electronic device that
repeat her words and music, are almost as busy as her
hands. And as the seating is only three rows deep, she
makes frequent forays into the audience.
She plucks several men out to sing backup for her song,
"Sensitive New Age Guy." You know, the kind of man whose
dream car is a Volvo, his favorite song is "Puff, the
Magic Dragon," and he doesn't mind hyphenating his
last name. It's to die for.
The closest Lavin comes to being a bitch is a song about
a woman who is having the worst day of her life and finally
loses it in the 10-item line at the supermarket because
she has 13 items and the cashier won't check her out.
But even this story has a happy ending.
Lavin's show is a delightful oasis, especially for
baby boomers whose life experience may echo her own. And
she is sharing the stage with some musician friends who
will offer post-show performances. Scheduled are:
THURSDAY: Composer Ervin Drake, who authored
such hits as "It Was A Very Good year" for Frank Sinatra,
"I Believe" for Frankie Laine, as well as "Good Morning
Heartache" for Diana Ross.
SATURDAY: Singer and song writer Julie Gold,
who penned the 1990 Grammy Award-winning song of the year
"From a Distance," recorded by Bette Midler. Her songs
have been recorded by by Judy Collins, Kathy Mattea and
Patti Lupone. She tours with her own night club act.
AUG. 24-26: Singer and song writer Red Grammar,
who performed with the Limeliters from 1981 to 1991, but
best known as a successful childrens' musical performer.
AUG. 30-SEPT. 2: Folk singer and song writer
Tina Lear.
Published on August 15, 2001
|
|
New Jersey stage: Letter perfect -- Christine Lavin is just too nice for title of her play 08/14/01 BY PETER FILICHIA
That asterisk in the title of Christine Lavin's play can't possibly stand for the letter "i." Even though the folksinger calls her show at New Jersey Repertory Company "Getting in Touch with My Inner B*tch," she shows herself as a good-natured charmer full of inner beauty.
The rotund, owlish-looking Lavin may be dressed in basic black, but, unlike Masha in Chekhov's "The Seagull," she's hardly in mourning for her life. Occasionally she flashes a grin that shows impishness, but never b*tchiness. For that matter, Lavin has gone on record to say that she chose to use the asterisk because "I don't want to offend." What does that tell you about her potential to be a shrew?
Out of her protractor-shaped mouth come perceptively witty songs that celebrate everyday life. Accompanying herself on acoustic guitar, she sings of the thrill of spotting longtime hero Harrison Ford while she was vacationing in Colorado. She expresses relief that her nephews don't have pierced navels or spiky purple hair. Not only does she sing a loving tribute to a favorite aunt, but she shows some sympathy for St. Christopher, who was demoted from sainthood.
Does this fit the profile of a difficult woman? Here's someone who tells her audience, "You've got to leave something beautiful in your wake" and "We all have beauty in our own way." When the crowd responds with enthusiastic applause, she coos, "You're so sweet!" Later, she gives a present to the person who scored the highest grade in astronomy in college. When someone in the crowd sneezes, she interrupts her song to say, "God bless you." Then she sings a number for audience members who have recently celebrated a birthday.
The closest Lavin gets to validating her title occurs when she sings about a contretemps with a cashier in the supermarket express line who won't deal with 13 items. It's a veritable morality play in which revenge is exacted. Another song ostensibly has a sad ending, but after the applause, Lavin adds a section that shows the tale had a happy ending after all. That may be a bit devious, but it's nothing more severe than that.
Indeed, Lavin is capable of complaint. She grouses that she had to attend the opera and later went skiing simply because her boyfriend likes those activities. "Is there anyone here," she asks her audience, "who's in love with someone you have nothing in common with?" She knows the answer is yes, but she isn't defeated by the reality.
Though she's sunny in outlook, Lavin is no Pollyanna. At the end of the show, she asks a tough question of herself and her audience: "What can you do when it's clear to you that dreams will not come true?" But even here, she avoids bitterness and faces reality with a square jaw: "Adjust your dreams" is her advice.
Maybe that asterisk in "Getting in Touch with My Inner B*tch" really stands for the letter "a" and Lavin is giving audiences a chance to get in touch with her inner batch of feelings and songs. It's a chance theatergoers should embrace. |
|
Getting in touch with Christine Lavin
Published in the Asbury Park Press and the Home News Tribune 8/10/01Theater Writer Christine Lavin is doing things at the New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch she's never done in her 17 years as a folk singer and songwriter.
SuzAnne Barabas, artistic director of the NJ Rep, is directing Lavin in a theatrical evening of song called "Getting in Touch With My Inner Bitch," opening tonight. During an interview on the first day of rehearsal, Lavin, 49, sounded like a kid loving every minute of summer camp. "Usually, it's just been me and my guitar -- and I'm self-taught," said Lavin, who learned to play as a child by watching a guitar teacher on a PBS TV series. "SuzAnne has already given me some wonderful ideas that never occurred to me to do, just because I'm so used to just standing there and playing." Although Lavin has been "wireless" for three years, she still feels tethered to a microphone and hasn't fully adjusted to being mobile. But don't think her two-hour show is static. "I do things other folk singers don't do," she said. No kidding. Besides playing several acoustic guitars, she walks into the audience, uses technology that reproduces her voice as her own backup singer and twirls batons, glow sticks and ribbons. "What I always liked about folk music is it is a very inclusive music," said Lavin, who counts Judy Collins, Bob Dylan and Dave van Rack as influences. "And what I've felt for a very long time is my work would be very at home in a theater." And NJ Rep's intimate cabaret setting will make audiences feel like Lavin is singing in their living room. She opens each show by including the names of audience members in her song. As the evening progresses, she'll ask some personal questions relating to an upcoming song, all of which are drawn from real life. As she gets older, Lavin noted, she writes more for her peer group. For instance, "The Kind of Love You Never Recover From," her most requested song, concerns the great love of one's life that, for whatever reason, got away. "Everyone has someone in their background they never quite got over," she said about the song she wrote in 1990. "They may not have talked about it in 30 years, but it's something they carry with them." Then there's "Good Thing He Can't Read My Mind." It concerns doing things one normally would not do just to make a relationship work, she said. "One woman (in the audience) said she took country line dancing for two years and you could tell by the way she said it she hated every minute of it," Lavin related. Then there's "I Want to Make Friends With My Gray Hair." But we won't go there. "People tell me it's like I'm writing a musical sound track for their lives," Lavin said. Also at each performance, Lavin will be joined by some musical friends who, following each show, will entertain about another 45 minutes "for people who don't want to go home," she said. While not exactly a household name, Lavin has recorded 13 solo albums and produced 12 compilation records. She travels the country, mostly doing one-night stands. When folk singers get air time on the radio, she said, it's on the far left of the dial inhabited by college and public radio stations. "Pop radio is locked in with the big record companies," she said. "If (folk singers) sell 10,000 CDs, that's a successful album that makes money. "Big record companies have to sell at least 100,000 CDs, because their overhead is so different," she explained, adding she thinks the music business is in a calamitous state and songwriting by most pop artists is poor. "People like me are holding on for dear life, because we don't get air play, we don't have sales anything near what the big companies can do," she said. "I felt for a long time if our music was put into a theatrical setting, it would be a natural fit because . . . our songs tell stories and that's what theater is all about -- story telling." These days she produces all of her own CDs and sells them at concerts or on the Internet at www.christinelavin.com. Each NJ Rep performance will be recorded live and a CD burned that night will be auctioned off to the highest bidder. The proceeds will go back to the nonprofit theater.
Published on August 10, 2001 |
|
Folksinger offers a one-woman musical 08/05/01 BY PETER FILICHIA
Folksinger-songwriter Christine Lavin wants her club-hopping fans to know that her one-woman show at New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch is not her first gig in a "gen-u-ine theater."
In fact, when she enters the spotlight to sing her songs in "Getting in Touch with My Inner B*tch," it will be all of her second appearance on the legitimate stage.
"Yes," she says in a self-deprecating voice. "I've appeared onstage with Julia Roberts, Joanne Woodward, Paul Newman and Nathan Lane."
Though it wasn't planned that way. Four years ago Lavin, who plays acoustic guitar while singing her perceptive songs ("Blind Dating Fun," "I Bring Out the Worst in You"), agreed to perform her best-known composition, "Sensitive New Age Guys," at a benefit for Paul Newman's Hole-in-the-Wall-Gang Camp. She was the opener for author A.E. Hotchner's spoof of "Cinderella," starring Roberts as Cinderella, Woodward as narrator, Newman as the Fairy Godfather and Lane as the Fairy Godmother.
But three days before the opening, Lavin was told that Sarah Jessica Parker, cast as one of Cinderella's evil stepsisters, canceled -- and would Lavin replace her?
"I'd never acted," Lavin says, with awe surging through her voice. "Never anywhere, anytime. And this was going to be for 300 people who paid $1,000 each to see real stars."
Yet she donned a lime green plastic jacket, black leggings and a blue rhinestone-studded beret. "And," she says, "when we got to the scene before I go to the ball, where Julia Roberts was to clean my shoe, I ad-libbed, 'You missed a spot.'"
She chortles with glee. "Making her shine 'em again was, I guess, my inner bitch showing."
Actually, a visit with Lavin suggests that there's little "b*tchiness" to be found in the stout songwriter with short-cropped locks (a look that's prompted her newest tune, "I'm Becoming Friends with My Grey Hair"). In her small New York apartment, where CDs are piled in every corner and most of the floor, Lavin, dressed in a plain black shirt and slacks, is quick to laugh and talks a mile-and-a-half a minute.
While some of her songs are complaints, they're usually benign whining. "Oh, No" describes her problem of locating lost glasses with less-than-optimum vision. "Big Bug" tells of an insect of inordinate length who pays a visit to her apartment.
"Almost everything I've written in the last 10 years is musical non-fiction -- stories about real things or real people," she says.
What about the song of a woman who misses her boyfriend's call and presses *69 -- only to get a woman on the line who turns out to be his wife? ("That happened to a friend," Lavin insists.) "Waiting for the B-Train," in which subway commuters fear an injured dog is on the tracks, but discover it's a wig? ("Oh, yes, that happened, too.")
While most of her songs are funny or bittersweet, some take on weightier issues. "The Sixth Floor" relates how the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas has morphed into a Kennedy assassination tourist trap.
"After I saw it, I got on a plane and wrote the song with the pen I bought there that said 'The Sixth Floor' on it," she says. "And after I finished the song, I threw the pen away."
Last spring, SuzAnne and Gabor Barabas, respectively the artistic director and executive producer of New Jersey Repertory, saw Lavin in concert in New York and asked her to appear at their theater.
"I went down there to see one of their shows, 'Immortal Interlude,' the same week I went to see '42nd Street,'" Lavin says, "and I thought their show was much better. So here I am."
Lavin cites an unlikely influence in her desire to play a theater: Barry Humphries' Dame Edna Everage, who appeared in "her" own Broadway show last year.
"Seeing Dame Edna totally changed my life," she says. "I saw it in previews and walked out saying, 'This is the gold standard of performance.' I went 25 times -- and at $65 a ticket, I almost went broke. I had to go to a place where the price of soup was cut in half at 5:30 p.m., and had dinner there just so I could afford to see Dame Edna."
Dame Edna is a confirmed Christine Lavin fan as well. "This girl has got the goods," she relates. "There aren't many so-called funny women who make me laugh, other than Joan Rivers and Laura Bush, both for different reasons. When they make a movie about my life and career, I've always said I want little Christine Lavin to be me as a teenager -- only in nicer clothes."
The Peekskill, N.Y. native, now "491/2," says that her parents encouraged her -- to be a nurse. "Well," Lavin concedes, "I'm one of nine kids, so I understood their need for practicality."
In high school, she was a cheerleader, when it wasn't "as hard as it is now." "Today, they throw these girls up in the air and they sometimes get killed," she says, quieting her voice in fear. "I'm glad I learned to twirl a baton, though, because I use that in my show."
Lavin taught herself guitar by watching educational television. "Years later," she recalls, "the TV teacher read this in an interview and came backstage afterwards. She told me I was the best guitarist in the show. It was so untrue!" she says, laughing and slapping her knee. "She was just blinded by her pride."
No question that Lavin is a maverick. How many performers have a nun for an agent?
"Not an ex-nun," she emphasizes, "but a nun right now. All the money she makes goes to support the convent. I tell all the presenters to watch their language when they deal with her, but I add that at least you know she's not going to lie to you."
Lavin is a favorite of many songwriters, even those who write in a much different vein. Ervin Drake, composer of "It Was a Very Good Year" and the inspirational "I Believe," calls Lavin "a one-of-a-kind social commentator."
"Somebody who was writing an encyclopedia of important 20th century songs called me to ask what should be in there, and I immediately recommended 'Sensitive New Age Guys' because it tells of the important changes in our society," he says.
"My songs are often the stories of the strangers I've met in my travels," Lavin explains. "Everyone has a fascinating story. If you sit and talk long enough to them, you'll find it out. I hope I get people to think differently about the cab driver or the waitress, and maybe get them to talk to each other."
To that end, Lavin encourages mingling at "Getting in Touch with My Inner B*tch." (The asterisk, by the way, is her idea: "It's my Catholic upbringing.")
"Live theater brings people together, but I'd like to see them make a greater connection," Lavin says. "So we're setting up a telescope in the parking lot, so people can meet each other while looking at the nighttime sky."
Julie Gold, who wrote the Grammy-winning hit "From a Distance" -- and recently appeared with Lavin at the Bottom Line in New York -- says, "For 25 years, I have seen the world through Christine's eyes and have heard the world through her songs -- and I'm happy to report that the world will never be the same for me. But she's also one of the most generous people in the business, helping her friends to succeed."
Lavin has presented new songwriters' showcases on Martha's Vineyard. "People think it's this altruistic thing," she says, "but to me, there's room for everyone who's good. You don't have one CD on your shelf, you have many-many.
"When I was younger and heard someone really good, I used to be a little jealous, but now that I have my foot in the door, I want to let them in, too. Who knows? Maybe because of my eight brothers and sisters, I just like to have a lot of activity around." |
|
Say 'I do' to 'Harry and Thelma'
"Harry and Thelma in the Woods" is not unlike "The Odd Couple" in Manhattan. The new comedy by Stan Lachow, receiving its state premiere
through Aug. 5 at the New Jersey Repertory Company in
Long Branch, centers on a couple married for 25 years
who have outgrown each other. It is smoothly directed
by Mark Graham on a sylvan setting designed by Andy Hall
and nicely lighted by John Demous. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In a series of one-liners, Harry (John Lombardi) tells Thelma (Susan G. Bob) it's all over -- except for the shouting. Their performances are flawless. An author, Harry wants to write like Hemingway and publish the "great American-Jewish novel." Instead, he authors animal training books. Even that has become difficult and depressing lately: "I'm all bottled up," he tells Thelma. "Ill pull the plug," she responds.
"You're a rainmaker," says Thelma, who is prone to sing songs to illustrate human emotions. Thelma has put up with Harry's allergies. She had cooked for him, cleaned for him, mended his clothes. As a matter of fact, she has packed a gourmet picnic lunch and surprises him by returning to the site in the woods where they first made love. Harry jumps back from the wooded clearing in horror: "Site of the original sin!" he exclaims. Soon afterward, Harry reveals he wants a divorce: "I can't stand living with you anymore!" Harry screams at Thelma. "What else?" Thelma asks. "That's it," he responds. "You mean you're going to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start all over again?" Thelma inquires.
At the end of the first act of this two-hour show, they arm-wrestle to decide if Harry will leave Thelma. He wins, and he does. This light comedy falters in the second act, mostly because it is too predictable. We know Harry will never be happy with Choo Choo. We know Thelma is too strong to just wither away. But could there actually be people like Thelma, who, after going through so much pain and humiliation, instantly forgive the person who caused it all? A year later, a whole new Thelma returns to the woods to celebrate her liberation. She lost weight, restyled her hair and wardrobe, read all those great novels Harry always wanted to write and took singing lessons. She's become such a good singer she is now a cabaret artist. Harry also returns, but in a disheveled state, with a bandage on his nose, a bad toupee on his head and gun in hand to shoot himself. Choo Choo left him. He realized dumping Thelma was a big mistake. He still has writer's block and even the suicide note pinned to his coat is badly written. Why on Earth would Thelma want him back? Nicely produced, wonderfully directed and performed, "Harry and Thelma in the Woods" is one of the better offerings at the New Jersey Repertory Company, a professional troupe devoted to new works. Published on July 17, 2001 |
|
Thelma & the leaves: Divorce gets comic treatment in 'Harry and Thelma in the Woods'
Published in the Asbury Park Press 7/13/01Playwright Stan Lachow didn't exactly know where his
characters were going when he began writing "Harry and
Thelma in the Woods."
"Harry and Thelma," which is being staged at the New
Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch, began as a serious
play. It's now a comedy, Lachow said, or maybe even a
farce.
The spark for the plot came from a friend who confided
what it had been like when he told his wife he wanted
a divorce.
"He said they were taking a walk in the woods and his
wife was pointing out the beauty of the day and he was
going in the bushes and throwing up because of what he
was going to do," Lachow said.
"Harry and Thelma," a two-character play, features John
Lombardi of Hoboken as Harry, a disillusioned author of
animal-training books who longs to write the great Jewish-American
novel. Susan G. Bob of Teaneck is a happy homemaker who
loves cooking, singing off-key and misquoting authors.
They have been married for 20 years. The play takes place
as the couple revisit the woods where they first consummated
their relationship.
Lachow, who grew up in Brooklyn and moved to the suburbs
in Rockland County, N.Y., to raise his family, now lives
in the West Village of Manhattan with his wife, a psychotherapist.
He has written five full-length plays, plus several one-acts.
He also works as an actor.
Lachow is still refining "Harry and Thelma," which previously
was produced in Florida.
He has been working closely with his director, Mark Graham,
who lives in Connecticut.
Both men came to theater later in life.
|
