Connie Danese
CONNIE CHATS
THE BIZ REPORT: The national tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera (known as the Music Box Company) has been running continuously for 17 years and plays its final performances at the Pantages Theatre with a gala opening on Saturday, Sept. 25. I jokingly called to ask if a trooper phantom existed - someone who had been with the company the entire time. Expecting a “no, of course not” reply, I was surprised to learn that indeed Kristi Patricia, who played a member of the Paris Opera ballet company in 1992 when the tour opened in Seattle, will be doing the same when it ends at the Pantages. Patricia studied ballet at the Royal Academy of London. Kudos to a lady who has been touring “on her toes” in Phantom for 17 years and to a show that reigns as Broadways longest running musical (22 years) and celebrates its 25th birthday as London’s second-longest running musical.
Kristi Patricia
Can you guess which Ms. is London’s number one? …Alice Ripley, who garnered the 2009 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical in the Tony Award winning Next to Normal reprises her performance in a multi-city tour launching at the Ahmanson on Nov. 28, running through the holidays and closing Jan. 2, 2011. The real question is how will Ripley adapt to playing her difficult bi-polar character as she travels all over the country for 36 weeks? Touring time translates into nine months of strange beds in new places with lots of packing, eating out and getting through tech time at each new theatre. In her Tony acceptance speech Ripley said, ”Musical Theatre is a fine art…” Hmm! Is it possible her run at the Ahmanson may lead to some well-deserved offers in the “fine art” of film and television? After the success of Nurse Jackie and United States of Tara, could Showtime be ready for a bi-polar singing mom?
Brooke Berman
THE BOOK NOOK: Brooke Berman has written a delicious novel that will instantly seem familiar to any young person trying to make a life, start a career and find serenity in the big city. No Place Like Home: A Memoir in 39 Apartments is funny, poignant and so real you will relate whether you are an actor, writer, musician or simply a college graduate without a job. Berman is an award-winning playwright who originally trained as an actor and solo performer. The 39 apartments (yes, each address is noted) exemplifies how housing can easily become the number one concern for theatre people whose lives are often wrapped around out-of-town jobs and temporary sublets as they struggle to fulfill their dreams. This wonderful “survival guide,” a lesson in how an abode is often a reflection of one’s life, is published by Harmony Books…Brad Lemack’s follow-up book, The New Business of Acting: How to Build a Career in a Changing Landscape and published by Ingenuity Press, is meant primarily for newbies. It explains how the casting process operates in the electronic age where the 8×10 glossy is a relic and all actors must become familiar with the industry’s new cyber-world environment.
Brad Anderson
CHIT CHAT: LA Times article “Small Theaters: Having Impact” appeared in the Aug. 8 issue of the Calendar as a conversation between LA Weekly critic at large Steven Leigh Morris and Times theatre critic Charles McNulty. They favorably mentioned Son of Semele Ensemble more than once when giving examples of companies doing experimental work. At the end of the article there was a directory of websites for theatres they discussed. Semele was inadvertently left off the list so we offer a bravo! for being noticed by the critics along with their website: www.sonofsemele.org…When Leap of Faith starring Raul Esparza and Brooke Shields opens at the Ahmanson on Oct 3 directed by Rob Ashford, LA local Brad Anderson will once again be appearing in the ensemble. He was also in Ashford’s company of Parade (Aug. 2009) at the Taper. It’s always wonderful for an actor when a talented director selects him for an encore…The Blank Theatre Company’s casting director Scott David was searching for names to appear in its production of fiction writer Edmund White’s Terre Haute. White imagines four conversations that might have occurred between Timothy McVeigh and Gore Vidal who actually were pen pals.
Mike Farrell
The character names are not Gore and Timothy (hence White will not face the legal eagles) however the audience soon realizes the connection. As to the “names” producers got for the roles, they are Mike Farrell (best known as Capt. Hunnicutt in M*A*S*H) and Jim Parrack (HBO’s True Blood). The play is scheduled to open Oct. 2 directed by Kirsten Sanderson… Actress Beth Grant, who I interviewed prior to her delectable appearance at the Colony Theatre in Grace and Glorie, is proud to report her latest film, Herpes Boy, a coming-of-age movie that won Best Comedy at the International ComicCon Film Festival, screened at the Egyptian Theatre and picked up three more awards at the Feel Good Festival in Hollywood. Grant is off to New York for the first reading of her play, The New York Way…We’re told famed film director Robert Altman’s son Michael Altman is directing the world premiere of Danny Darst’s play, Exit 10, scheduled to open at Theatre 68 in December.
CHAT CITE: “Half of the American people never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half.” –Gore Vidal
