Original Cast plays one night only, Sat., May 1, at 7:30 pm. Luckman Fine Arts Complex on the campus of California State Los Angeles, 5151 State University Dr., Los Angeles. A VIP reception for Premium and Most Preferred ticket holders precedes the performance at 6 pm at which time the silent auction will also open. For ticket or sponsorship information, visit www.stagela.com, call 866.679.0958 or email mcacciatore@apla.org.
Have you ever wished you could have been in New York to see Broadway shows from years ago? Wouldn’t it have been great to see stars such as Patricia Morison in Kiss Me Kate or Karen Morrow in I Had a Ball or Nancy Dussault in Do Re Mi? Perhaps you saw the Los Angeles versions of the revival of Gypsy that starred Tony Award recipient Tyne Daly as Mama Rose or Jersey Boys with Tony winner John Lloyd Young originating the role of Frankie Valli.
How about Betty Garrett in Call Me Mister, Bill Hutton in Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Dale Kristien in Phantom of the Opera and Vicki Lewis in Damn Yankees? You can see all of them plus many more when S.T.A.G.E.-the annual Southland Theatre Artists Goodwill Event-marks its 26th presentation with a change in concept and a return to a familiar venue, the Luckman Fine Arts Complex, to be held Sat., May 1 at 7:30 pm. Rather than its traditional salute to the music of a particular composer, this year’s benefit, entitled Original Cast, will feature artists performing songs from musical productions.
David Galligan
David Galligan, who has directed and produced the show since its inception, says, “I changed the format because I was running low on box office draw composers and lyricists. There are plenty of worthwhile subjects but I’m not sure if the ticket buyers would plunk down donations to hear them. I know it sounds tough but it’s really a matter of dollars and cents at the box office.”
Galligan feels, “Each of this evening’s recreations should be an event unto itself.” Who does he think will be a big surprise? “Patricia Morison reprising her Kiss Me Kate role. She is 95 now.”
Other highlights will include numbers that didn’t make it to Broadway. Donna McKechnie, Tony Award-winner for her role as Cassie in A Chorus Line, will sing a song that was cut from the show and replaced by “The Music and the Mirror.” She says, “The number I am performing is a recreation but with special material, showing the moment I heard my song for the first time.”
Donna McKechnie
She enjoys doing the benefit because, “I’ll see people I’ve worked with before and some I’ve never worked with but admired from afar. And it’s not just the performers that make it special for me; the people backstage who, year after year, have given their time and talent to get this up in what seems like way too brief rehearsal time. Everyone has their job to do and they do it professionally and efficiently.”
McKechnie’s looking forward to being with Ron Dennis again. Her fellow Chorus Line cast mate originated the role of Richie. “I wrote the melody for ‘Gimme the Ball’ song at Michael Bennett’s direct request,” Dennis recalls. “It’s the one song in the show Marvin [Hamlisch] did not write. Michael gave me permission to use it forever when I asked him if I could do the song in my club act I was working on at the time.”
Dennis will perform the song “Confidence,” written as a duet for A Chorus Line. “It was cut early on,” Dennis recalls. “Baayork Lee, who played Connie Wong, and I were told it was ‘too musical comedy that early in the show.’ It was the first number after the opening line-up when we say our names. I will share more with the audience when I do the song for the benefit.”
Ron Dennis
How did he recover the song? “I had to find the piano line. I had the lyrics in our original script that I’ve kept in a storage box in a closet at home. When David urged me to find the music I got in touch with Fran Liebergall who was our original rehearsal and orchestra pit pianist back then. She lives in New Jersey and it took about three weeks to get it. The music was not found in the boxes in Fran’s attic and Marvin Hamlisch’s music library did not have the song either.
“Anyway, Fran remembered the underscore piano line since she had done a great deal of incidental music for the show, uncredited, by the way. I got out my old walkman and put the call on speaker phone and Fran plinked out the song while I recorded it. Mind you, Fran has been dealing with MS for three years now and only has the use of her right hand but she was determined to help me get the song down plus she has been a good friend all these years. My having survived AIDS and cancer twice in the past 25 years, I know something about illness and we share that bond of health woes and how to deal and keep on keeping on.
“We had some good laughs getting the song down. I then took my walkman tape to Bill Schneider who is my long time musical director/coach here in LA and he copied ‘Confidence’ to a chart and made a CD of it. Bill then talked me through making my first MP3 to send to John McDaniel who will be conducting this year. He lives in New York. That was a chore we got accomplished so Saturday night the cut ‘Confidence’ will be resurrected for the benefit.”
Dennis has done STAGE at least a half-dozen times. “The first time was back in the ’80s when I sang with a group of men who were all HIV Positive. I’m the only one of those men in that group still alive,” he sighs. “Every time I do STAGE it is always emotional and mystifying that I am still alive when the vast majority of men who were HIV positive who then came down with full blown AIDS, are long deceased. I dance and sing to honor those who are gone, who did not have my good fortune to live to see the year 2010. I’m just a ‘lucky so and so’ as the lyrics go in a well known song. I’m always humbled by my good fortune of surviving AIDS and my other health hells. Life springs eternal!”
Carole Cook
Carole Cook has appeared in all of the STAGE benefits except two. One time she was doing 42nd Street and the other she was touring in Steel Magnolias. She thinks the change of format is, “Exciting because the audience can hear the performers who are identified professionally with those songs and it will bring a new energy to both the audience and the performer.” She was the first actress to play Dolly Levi after Carol Channing when she did Hello, Dolly! in Australia.
On May 1 she will sing “Before the Parade Passes By.” Why not the title song? She replies she would never sing “Hello, Dolly!” without the help of 20 fabulous dancers to trot her down the runway! Besides, she adds, “I always felt ‘Parade’ was the heart of the show.”
Others participating this year are David Engel (La Cage Aux Folles), Davis Gaines (One, Two, Three, Four, Five), Ilene Graff (I Love My Wife), Jonathan Hadary (Gypsy), Michele Lee (Seesaw), Melissa Manchester (Song and Dance), Pat Marshall (Mr. Wonderful), Sharon McNight (Starmites), Valarie Pettiford (Fosse), Charlotte Rae (The Littlest Revue), Joan Ryan (Ruthless), Sally Struthers with Julie Johnson (Always…Patsy Cline) and Constance Towers (The King & I).
John McDaniel
John McDaniel will serve as music director with Mary Ekler as associate music director and choreography by Lee Martino and Dan Mojica. Jon Maher will do sign language interpretation. This is McDaniel’s first STAGE as music director although he says, “I did play in the orchestra many years ago for the Jule Styne evening at Variety Arts.”
He thinks this year’s format will be a good change of pace. “These are some incredible performers doing songs that are near and dear to them – and to us, as well.” He’s looking forward to working with Michele Lee who he has not worked with previously. “Also I saw Constance Towers in The King and I with Yul Brynner years ago so that’ll be fun.”
McDaniel says, “We’re only using original orchestrations for some things. We are creating some new arrangements as well. We only do one runthrough and that’s the night of the concert. No dress rehearsal at all so what you see is the one and only time we’ll ever do the show. We’re truly excited to pull this together. It’s gonna be a fun night!”
Net proceeds from S.T.A.G.E., the longest continuously running AIDS fund-raising event in the world, will benefit AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA), an organization now in its 27th year of providing direct services and HIV/AIDS prevention education throughout Los Angeles County.
This year’s S.T.A.G.E. Producers Award will be presented to Craig E. Thompson, Executive Director of APLA, for his long-standing commitment to the worldwide battle against HIV/AIDS. Additionally, Continental Airlines will receive the 2010 Community Involvement Award in recognition of its long-time support of S.T.A.G.E.
McKechnie says, “These benefits are ideal reunions with the people you admire and love, being together in support of a wonderful cause. To share the stage with some of the most talented actors, singers and dancers in our business has always been thrilling to me. And to know, always, you are in such good hands with David Galligan. He brings us all together and his artistic sensibility never lets you down.”
The excitement and spontaneity the benefits have are, Cook says, “Because there are NO rehearsals…ha, ha. But our Fearless Leader somehow is able to pull it off and our special audiences are always the icing on the cake. They make it happen!”
Galligan adds, “I’d like to thank everybody for their continuing support to STAGE and our fight against this dreadful disease. We are the longest running AIDS benefit in the world. We continue. We are committed. There most definitely will be a Part II next year.”
Article by Lee Melville
Feature image of Carole Cook and Jon Maher-Kane
