The State of My Art

Holiday Letter 2011

2011-12-14T08:23:00.007-05:00

It is that time of year again, my annual holiday letter. I hope that as you read this you are making plans not only for a warm and festive season but also for what I hope will be a successful and joyous 2012.

2011 was, for me, a year of several firsts. The project that launched my year was the Off-Broadway premiere of "The Road To Qatar!", an original musical by David Krane and Stephen Cole. This was my first time originating a role in a new show and I got to play one of the leads! We presented the show at the York Theatre Company and it was, in every way, a love-in for the company, creative team and crew from the very first moment. We just had a blast putting this kooky show together and we all loved working with each other. Unfortunately the press blasted the show pretty badly and it did not go on to have the life it deserved. But we did get to record an original cast album on Jay Records. This was another first for me, and the recording session yielded what I think is an album that's really fun and captures the spirit of the piece. I don't need to tell you how thrilling it was to see my photo in the booklet and to see my name on all those tracks! Click here to visit Amazon.com and read the great customer reviews for the CD.

Following "The Road To Qatar!" I did a showcase with Musicals Tonight of an obscure English musical from 1916--"Theodore and Co." by Ivor Novello and Jerome Kern, playing the randy aristocrat Lord Wye. Great cast of people and much fun. And the best thing that came of it was a friendship with my co-star Amy Arbizzani, a terrific performer and even more terrific person.

Summer brought the opportunity to play another randy aristocrat, Lord Evelyn Oakleigh, in the classic "Anything Goes," which I performed at Merry Go Round Playhouse in upstate New York. Evelyn is one of the great character parts of the musical theatre repertoire and I was lucky to get to play it opposite the super talented Julie Cardia as Reno Sweeney. It was also my first production at Merry Go Round and I look forward to returning there in the future.

In August I did my third Bootleg Shakespeare production with Taffety Punk Theatre Co. at the Folger Theatre in DC, playing Hubert in "King John." These one night only collaborations are such a thrill to do--the acting equivalent of bungee jumping--and I loved playing again with Marcus Kyd, Lise Bruneau and their stellar company.

As summer wrapped up, I went to St. Louis to play the conniving Henri Labisse in "Victor/Victoria" at Stages St. Louis.
This was my first show at the theatre in 14 years and it was great to reconnect with the folks there and do a show that is rarely revived. It was a scrumptious art deco production and I had fun twirling my mustache and speaking in a French accent as thick as gruyere cheese.

I don't think any actor I know could complain about a year in which he played five very different and delightful roles. As often happens in this business, I returned to New York in October and faced a very uncertain future. Finances are tight, auditions few, and it can be difficult to keep a happy face. But I continue to put myself out there. I am trying to initiate some potentially exciting original projects, I am studying new skills, among them doing voice work for animation. I taught my Audition Intensive workshop for the second year at Goodspeed Musicals and am seeking more opportunities to coach and teach. And of course, the dream of finally working on Broadway continues to simmer just below the surface. For most of us, it is a matter of hanging in there, isn't it? And so, as 2012 quickly approaches, I am writing, shopping a project around that I plan to direct, and keeping my hat in the ring whenever and wherever I can. I hope that you will hang in there too and continue to follow your dreams, whatever they may be.

Best wishes to you and yours for a warm and beautiful holiday season and all the best for the new year to come.

"The Road To Qatar!" Original Cast CD Released!

2011-11-15T12:22:00.004-05:00

I am delighted to report that the Original Cast CD of the York Theatre Company's production of "The Road To Qatar!" has officially hit the stores. The album was produced by John Yap and Jay Records and is currently available for purchase and download. I am so thrilled to have made my first album--a real milestone for a music theatre actor-- and couldn't be prouder of the entire "Qatar" family, and especially our writers David Krane and Stephen Cole, who oversaw the recording and production of their 'baby' with a meticulous and loving eye. The recording truly captures the zany spirit of the show and I think you will agree that it brings back the spirit of classic musical comedy!

I encourage you to visit Amazon. com to read the rave customer reviews for the CD, which have been amazingly gratifying to enjoy.
While the album is available for download on itunes, I recommend buying the CD, which contains Stephen Cole's wonderful liner notes, original production photos, and the libretto for the show. It is my hope that this recording will be an important step toward the continuing life of "The Road To Qatar!"

Having completed the very pleasurable run of "Victor/Victoria" at Stages St. Louis, I am back 'at liberty' in New York, making the rounds and pursuing auditions. I am delighted to announce that I will be returning to Goodspeed Musicals next month to teach the second Goodspeed Musical Theatre Audition Intensive, along with my teaching partner Molly Tynes, and special guests, choreographer Kelli Barclay, head of the University of Michigan theatre program Brent Wagner, and Goodspeed musical director Michael O'Flaherty. Last year's Intensive was enormously successful and our students have gone on to gain admission to some of the finest conservatory training programs here and abroad. For more information on the program, visit Goodspeed's website.

Happy Thanksgiving!

"Victor/Victoria Is a Hit!

2011-09-16T18:34:00.004-04:00

JAMES BEAMAN CONTINUES AS HENRI LABISSE IN "VICTOR/VICTORIA" AT STAGES ST. LOUIS THROUGH OCTOBER 9!

"THE ROAD TO QATAR!" ORIGINAL CAST ALBUM NOW AVAILABLE AT ITUNES!

So, it's official. Audience and critics alike are enjoying our production of "Victor/Victoria" at Stages St. Louis:

It's all wrapped up like a tune-filled souffle that's light and delicious and completely engaging and enjoyable. ~Broadway World

We have settled in for the few remaining weeks of our run here, and everyone at Stages is delighted with the way our production is bringing their 25th Anniversary Season to a glittering close. I am having fun with my extended cameo as Henri Labisse, and am scanning the horizon for the next performing opportunity. St. Louis is graced by several top notch professional theatres. Along with Stages, there is the Rep Theatre of St. Louis, which produces a full season of nationally recognized plays and musicals, including new works which have gone on to Broadway; and every summer, Forest Park comes to life with the Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis, performing on a massive stage outdoors in a beautiful natural bowl for thousands of spectators. I had the great pleasure of playing Casca in "Julius Caesar" in 2006 at the festival and am looking forward to auditioning for their 2012 offering, "Othello." These theatres have been very welcoming and I have had the pleasure of meeting members of their artistic staffs and sharing my work with them. I look forward to returning to St. Louis very soon!

"Victor/Victoria" Production Week!

2011-09-05T11:56:00.003-04:00

JAMES BEAMAN OPENS FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 9 AS HENRI LABISSE IN "VICTOR/VICTORIA" AT STAGES ST. LOUIS!

We are launching into tech week here in St. Louis as we prepare to open Stages' ambitious and glitzy production of "Victor/Victoria," the jewel in the crown of their 25th Anniversary season. I must say, the rehearsal process has been a great pleasure; director Michael Hamilton's meticulous approach has yielded a show that already has polish and great style. Adding the costumes, lights, scenery and other elements will take us all to that next level. They have pulled out all the stops at the theatre to make this a lavish and opulent production, stretching the limits of the intimate space to the maximum to create the art deco world of 1934 Paris. For a sneak peek at rehearsals and a look at some of the designs, visit the Stages St. Louis website and click on the video in the lower right corner of the main page.

I am greatly enjoying my role as the conniving weasel, Henri Labisse. Inspired by the comic masterpieces of creator Blake Edwards, I am doing more than a little homage to Peter Sellers' Inspector Clouseau, with a French accent thicker than gruyere cheese! Labisse gets his comeuppance for trying to foil the plans of Victoria and her fairy godfather Toddy by getting completely beat up during the course of the show. By the time the finale rolls around, I have two bandaged hands, a broken nose, a limp, and a head bandage. Being the one genuinely sour note in a show full of sweetness and glamour is a real treat and I'm having lots of fun. In case you don't remember Labisse from the film of "Victor/Victoria," here is a link to the scene in which Julie Andrews auditions for him at Chez Lui. Labisse is played here by veteran character actor and Blake Edwards favorite Peter Arne.

Reviews and production photos to come! "Victor/Victoria," which is already selling like mad, runs through October 9.

Le Jazz Hot

2011-08-23T21:00:00.005-04:00

There are some movies that become not just favorites, but ingrained parts of my life. "Victor/Victoria" is one such. When the film was released I was a freshman in college, and I saw it for the first time with my Mom. We fell in love instantly with the movie and when the credits rolled at the end we just stayed in our seats and watched it through again. It's a perfect thing, a gleaming, multi-faceted gem. Meticulously and joyously directed by Blake Edwards, it features Julie Andrews, James Garner, Leslie Ann Warren and Robert Preston in some of the best performances of their careers. Of course, you know the story: a down-on-her-luck soprano in the Paris winter of 1934 is adopted by a struggling cabaret singer who has the brilliant idea of passing her off as Europe's greatest female impersonator. Against a background of luscious art deco sets and costumes, this romantic comedy sizzles and tickles... a truly satisfying experience. By now I know every line and every frame of the film. Michael Hamilton, the director of our production of the stage musical here at Stages St. Louis, also has a special connection to the movie, which resonated for him as much as it did for me back in 1982, with its message of acceptance and freedom of sexuality and gender. Michael intends to not only put on a glitzy and entertaining show; he also intends to make sure that the heart of the story is there too.

Blake Edwards always intended to make a stage musical of his film but it took many years before it made its Broadway debut in the mid-90s. By then, unfortunately, Julie Andrews' formidable singing powers were beginning to wane, and it was this show that caused the vocal damage which resulted in the botched throat surgery which robbed Ms. Andrews, and all of us, of her glorious voice. The show was plagued with problems... Henry Mancini passed away before completing the score, which was brought to the finish line by Frank Wildhorn, with somewhat mixed results... the press was rather hard on the show, and the Tony Awards gave it only one nod--a sentimental nomination for Julie Andrews, which she, in solidarity with a production she felt deserved better recognition, declined. Nevertheless, I was there, with my Mom, at opening night, and I can tell you that the charm of the story, the wit of Blake Edwards' direction, and the grace and style of Ms. Andrews all made for a lovely evening in the theatre. I am delighted to be a part of a revival of the show which promises to be gorgeously mounted and full of heart and high comedy.

My history with the score of "Victor/Victoria" goes even further. Back in 2002, toward the end of my career as a cabaret performer, I created a revue of the songs of Leslie Bricusse which borrowed its title from the central ballad of "Victor/Victoria," "Crazy World."
Awarded the Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs MAC Award for Revue of the Year, the show, which starred lovely singer Goldie Dver and me, featured songs from all of Bricusse's scores, and we had great fun plucking some of the best songs from "Victor/Victoria" out of context and using them in innovative ways; songs like "Gay Paree," "Paris By Night," "Paris Makes Me Horny," and "Living in the Shadows." It's been really gratifying to express my love of this material, and being a part of this production of the musical is a rare and wonderful opportunity. We began rehearsals this week and I can tell you we have an energetic and gifted cast, and the design plans for the production are ambitious and beautiful. It's gonna be good!

MIDSUMMER UPDATE

2011-07-29T09:22:00.003-04:00

JAMES BEAMAN PLAYS HUBERT IN SHAKESPEARE'S "KING JOHN" WITH TAFFETY PUNK THEATRE COMPANY AT THE FOLGER THEATRE IN WASHINGTON, D.C. MONDAY AUGUST 1!

BEAMAN WILL PLAY HENRI LABISSE IN "VICTOR/VICTORIA" AT STAGES ST. LOUIS FROM SEPTEMBER 9 THROUGH OCTOBER 9!

"THE ROAD TO QATAR!" ORIGINAL CAST ALBUM HAS BEEN COMPLETED AND WILL BE RELEASED LATER THIS SUMMER!

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Greetings friends! I hope you are enjoying your summer. Summertime can either be a busy time or a big slump for an actor, depending on what kind of summer theatre one has lined up for oneself. My summer is a mix of both. After the delight of making my Merry-Go-Round Playhouse debut in "Anything Goes," I returned home to enjoy some extended time off, during one of the slower times of the year for auditions, and I have taken advantage of the time to visit family and reconnect with friends.

Next week I will have the pleasure of doing my third Bootleg Shakespeare collaboration with the innovative Taffety Punk Theatre Company. This time it is "The Life and Death of King John," and I get to play the really powerful role of Hubert, a man who starts out as the henchman of a corrupt monarch and who find his moral center and his humanity by enduring a brutal ordeal. In true Bootleg fashion, this amazing company of actors will gather at 10AM on Monday, August 1 and spend the day staging the play, giving one performance for a packed audience. It is an electrifying experience for all that makes Shakespeare come alive in a way most people never imagined possible. For a look at this year's video preview, showing moments from last year's "Two Noble Kinsmen" click here.

A few weeks later, I will head out to St. Louis to begin rehearsals for "Victor/Victoria," the rarely produced musical based on the fabulous Blake Edwards film of the same name , which just happens to be one of my all time favorite movies. The musical marked the return to Broadway of the great Julie Andrews back in the mid-nineties, and I had the pleasure of seeing the opening night performance. The show is being produced by Stages St. Louis, where I had a wonderful romp playing the role of Jerry/Daphne in the musical of "Some Like It Hot," "Sugar." I am delighted to have the opportunity to return to the theatre to celebrate their 25th Anniversary Season. My role of the scheming Henri Labisse is a delicious character turn for me, a conniving and pretentious little man with an absurd French accent. I am looking forward to this art deco confection of a show, and of course I will blog about the process, so stay tuned!

And finally, I have been told that the final cast album mix of "The Road To Qatar!" is complete and is ready to be released along with a beautiful full color booklet including show photos, and notes and lyrics by Stephen Cole. I am told that it sounds great and I am both nervous and excited about hearing my first ever cast album. If you are one of those geeks who has to be one of the first to add this show to your collection, you can keep track of the release of it at the Jay Records website. And of course, I will eventually be putting tracks from the CD on my website's media page. It's a real joy to know that this fun show will have a continued life through this recording. I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I enjoyed performing and recording it!

Full Circle

2011-06-12T18:03:00.007-04:00

"ANYTHING GOES" CONTINUES ITS SOLD OUT RUN AT MERRY-GO-ROUND PLAYHOUSE THROUGH JUNE 22ND!

The leads highlight the playhouse stage with astonishing charisma, comic timing and vocal talent...Beaman hits his own comedic stride as the cliche-confused Englishman with a deeply buried wild side. ~AuburnPub.com

Wrapping things up here at Merry-Go-Round Playhouse, where our hit production of "Anything Goes" will close on June 22nd. It has been such a pleasure to work here and I look forward to coming back in future seasons! I look to the horizon now and to my next creative endeavors, which include "Victor/Victoria" at Stages St. Louis, and an exciting return to Shakespeare and the great theatre town of Washington, D.C. in a play that started my journey as a classical actor.

The year was 1978, and my Dad was working in the theatre department at Boston University. The graduating class was going to perform Shakespeare's "King John" and the director, who was also the head of the acting program, wanted a young boy to play the pivotal role of Prince Arthur. I was already a pretty precocious little actor, and I auditioned along with a few other faculty brats and won the part. To this day, I can remember everything about the process of rehearsing and performing that play. It was a dream come true to a 12 year old who had already decided he would be the next Laurence Olivier. Arthur is the best of Shakespeare's roles for a child actor and he plays several very dramatic scenes, one in which he manages to talk his jailer, Hubert, out of putting his eyes out with hot irons at the behest of the King; and there is a gripping death scene, in which Arthur leaps from a tall wall and perishes in his attempt. I can say without hesitation that playing Arthur on the Boston University Theatre stage was the catalyst for a passion for fine acting and for Shakespeare that has carried me through the last 30-plus years in my work as an actor.

This summer, I will return to "King John" as Arthur's would-be assassin, Hubert de Burgh, in the next of Taffety Punk Theatre Company's Bootleg Shakespeare productions to be performed at DC's Folger Theatre. I have written before about the great work my friends Marcus Kyd and Lise Bruneau have been doing with their company, and I related the story of the Bootleg series, but for those who don't know... Bootleg Shakespeare is a one day theatrical event. Weeks in advance, director Lise Bruneau assigns roles in the selected play to both company members and actors in the extended Taffety Punk family; the actors do their text work and memorize their lines, and then show up the morning of the scheduled performance for a day of rehearsal, which really is comprised of rudimentary staging and the sorting out of entrances, exits, a few props and bits of business, including any fight sequences or dances. Then the play is presented free of charge to a packed audience. It is a spontaneous and thrilling experience for everyone and a true test of the actor's ability to jump right in and make it work! I have done two of these and am delighted to be asked back to do another.

Hubert is a great character. Based on an historic figure, legend has it that Hubert was covertly enlisted by the usurping King John to eliminate the true heir to the throne, the young Prince Arthur.
In Shakespeare's play, while acting as the young boy's jailor, Hubert becomes attached to the child and when the time comes for him to carry out the execution, he finds he can't go through with it and spares Arthur's life. He lies to the King, putting him off with news that Arthur is dead until he can find a way to free the prince and return him to his mother and the King of France, who are at war with John. Tragically, Arthur takes it on himself to try and escape and dies in his attempt, and the devastated Hubert joins the fight to bring down the usurping King John. A wonderful journey for an actor--to go from hardened mercenary to noble hero in the course of the play. I look forward to savoring every moment of my one night run!

The Gypsy in Me

2011-06-06T13:44:00.006-04:00

JAMES BEAMAN CONTINUES AS LORD EVELYN OAKLEIGH IN "ANYTHING GOES" AT MERRY-GO-ROUND PLAYHOUSE THROUGH JUNE 22!

‎Lord Evelyn is one of those thankless roles, the stuffed-shirt Englishman, but Beaman gradually soars with it to comic heights, eventually tearing his shirt open and doing a Douglas Fairbanks set of leaps, waving a big sword and singing "The Gypsy in Me." ~SYRACUSE.COM

I am not certain I agree with this reviewer that Evelyn is a thankless role, but I will say that the part presents some seductive traps for the actor. It would be all too easy to put on a funny accent and a bunch of tics and mannerisms and call it a day with this thinly written caricature of an Englishman. Adam Godley, in his Tony-nominated turn in the role in the current Broadway revival, circumvents this by giving a somewhat understated performance, by being actually British, and by being so funny looking (tall, gangly, with a long face and outrageously large ears). In my case, I saw Evelyn as being as iconic a figure in this classic show as the brassy Reno, or the gangster Moonface Martin in his signature disguise as a Christian missionary, so I knew he had to fit in with the writers' conception of a foppish Englishman. But the challenge to me was to make the character attractive enough and lovable enough that the audience would accept that he winds up with Reno, the leading lady of the piece.

My first instinct was to drawn upon the qualities of British actors who I saw as personifying the type of English archetype Lord Evelyn represents. First actor who came to mind was the great Terry-Thomas, whose gap-toothed grin and over-articulated speech made him one of the most popular comedic actors of the '50s and '60s.
This was a good starting place, but even though Terry-Thomas made a career out of being a womanzing 'bounder' I still wanted to evoke a slightly more refined quality. For this I looked to ultra suave and elegant English actor Ronald Colman, whose thin mustache and gentle ways gave him a profound dignity in films like "The Prisoner of Zenda" and "A Double Life." Toying with these two icons as inspiration, I found a way to give Evelyn the guffawing laugh and absurd upper crust accent, but also provide him with a refinement befitting his station and an understated sex appeal that would get Reno's attention.
My last film icon inspiration informed Evelyn's private fantasies of who he'd prefer to be--the swashbuckling rake Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. I had two opportunities to expose Evelyn's secret yearning to be a man of panache--one is the scene where Evelyn is alone in his underwear in his stateroom fencing with himself in the mirror; the other is his big Act Two number, "The Gypsy in Me," where he lets his hair down and finally declares his passion for Reno. By incorporating all these inspirations, I was able, I hope, to make Evelyn more than a stock character, a man of propriety who secretly wants to be a part of the modern world of jazz and fun that was the early 1930s. The other notable quality I drew from the script was the fact that, unlike any of the other characters in the story, Evelyn has no agenda. He is guileless and rather innocent, while Billy employs tricks and deceptions to steal Hope away for himself, while Reno schemes with Moonface to break up the engagement, and while Hope herself carries on a secret amour with Billy as her mother manipulates her into a loveless marriage with the wealthy but hapless Evelyn. I think that the sweet innocence I bring to Evelyn gives the audience one more reason to fall for him.

"Anything Goes" is a classic of the musical theatre. As a classically trained actor, I know that when I approach a character from a Shakespeare play that has been done many thousands of times over the past 400 years, it is my duty not only to give the audience some of the qualities they expect from the character and his story, but also to infuse him with new life and a sense of freshness. This is part of the fun of being an interpretive artist. The material has stood the test of time, so how do I bring myself and my own imagination into play in bringing the character to life? My hope is that while the audience gets to enjoy the familiar tunes and outrageous gags of this iconic musical, they may also make some discoveries they didn't expect along the way. We have just over two more weeks to romp about on the S.S. American. More to come!

Bon Voyage!

2011-05-25T08:02:00.004-04:00

JAMES BEAMAN PLAYS LORD EVELYN OAKLEIGH IN COLE PORTER'S CLASSIC "ANYTHING GOES" AT MERRY GO ROUND PLAYHOUSE IN AUBURN, NY JUNE 1-22!

Summer stock is one of the enduring institutions of show business. Anywhere you find sun and water and vacation homes in America, you might just find a little hard working theatre presenting a breakneck season of light entertainment, mostly musical comedies, for your delectation. It has been a few years since I have done true stock, which usually these days refers to the seemingly impossible task of mounting an elaborate musical in less than two weeks, sometimes even in one, thus allowing the venue to pack a full slate of shows into the all too brief summer season. Merry Go Round Playhouse has been a part of the summer landscape in the lovely Finger Lakes district of upstate New York since the early 1970s, and has been run by Artistic Director Ed Sayles for 30 years. The theatre itself is housed in an old building that once housed a carousel, nestled in a bucolic setting in a local public park. Having endured and evolved over the years, and with major recent upgrades to the theatre facility, Merry Go Round is well established, and continues to grow under Ed's direction. The theatre is creating a new festival of musical theatre which will be performed in four venues in the region, presenting and developing new shows, in addition to their mainstage series. Ed is directing our opening production of "Anything Goes" and it is clear that this man has great affection for, and vast knowledge of, the tradition of music theatre.

"Anything Goes," which is currently enjoying a splendid Broadway revival, is perhaps Cole Porter's most beloved and enduring musical (with "Kiss Me, Kate" a close second).
A bubble of a show, it follows the hijinks of a group of vivid characters as they make their way across the pond from New York to London on an ocean liner. The show is a feast of Porter classics including "I Get a Kick Out Of You," "It's Delovely," "Easy To Love," and "Blow, Gabriel, Blow." In short, it is a delicious little gem that audiences just love. Our cast is made up of seasoned veterans and an ensemble of young performers either still in college or just out of it--summer stock has always been a training ground and a starting place for talented kids and Merry Go Round offers that in spades. I have the pleasure of playing the quintessential dorky Englishman, Lord Evelyn Oakleigh, who is fascinated by all things American and who is continuously attempting to pepper his conversation with American slang, and getting it hopelessly wrong! He ends up marrying the brassy nightclub chanteuse Reno Sweeney, a role created for the legendary Ethel Merman, and here being served up with style and sass by the wondrous Julie Cardia. I could not ask for a more delightful leading lady.

I will be blogging throughout my stay here in Auburn, and will of course offer photos and reviews as they become available. Meantime, if you find yourself in the Syracuse/Ithaca/Finger Lakes region, come on over and set sail with us and "Anything Goes!"

SUMMER'S HEATING UP!!

2011-03-24T09:32:00.006-04:00

JAMES BEAMAN CONTINUES THROUGH MARCH 27 AS LORD WYE IN THE CONCERT STAGING OF "THEODORE AND CO." WITH MUSICALS TONIGHT!

NEXT UP: JAMES WILL PLAY SIR EVELYN OAKLEIGH IN COLE PORTER'S CLASSIC "ANYTHING GOES" AT MERRY-GO-ROUND PLAYHOUSE IN AUBURN, N.Y. JUNE 1 THROUGH JUNE 22.

LATER THIS SUMMER, BEAMAN WILL GO TO STAGES ST. LOUIS TO PLAY HENRI LABISSE IN "VICTOR/VICTORIA" SEPTEMBER 9 THROUGH OCTOBER 9.

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Summer is an important time for performers, especially those of us who do musical theatre. It is high season for reputable companies who produce full slates of musicals, which means lots of jobs, and the months of February and March are hectic and jam packed with auditions of all sorts. As of this writing, I am fortunate to have lined up a couple terrific roles to play, and am still out there hustling to fill the remaining slots in my summer season. While one never knows how things might change as the weeks progress, as of now I can announce two delightful opportunities that are on my horizon.

While I was performing "The Road to Qatar!" at the York, I was fortunate to meet the producer of Merry-Go-Round Playhouse, a reputable summer theatre located in the Finger Lakes district of upstate New York. My work impressed him and I was delighted to audition for the role of Sir Evelyn in "Anything Goes." Evelyn is a 'veddy, veddy British' chap who is making a transatlantic trip to marry his American fiancee when he finds himself in love with the brassy Reno Sweeney. It's a delightful part in a true classic of the American musical theatre (which is currently having a revival on Broadway). I am thrilled also to be doing the show with my "Road to Qatar" cast mate Bruce Warren, who will be playing the rascally Moonface Martin. On a humorous side note: I did play Sir Evelyn once before... in 7th grade in the junior high school musical!! It will be nice to play it again...

The middle of the summer is still uncertain but at the end of August I am slated to go out to Stages St. Louis to perform in the last offering of their 25th Anniversary Season. I had the pleasure of playing the wonderful role of Jerry in the musical version of "Some Like It Hot," "Sugar," back in 1997 at Stages, and I am tickled to be returning to do the stage version of one of my all time favorite movies, "Victor/Victoria." I have a long history with this movie, having seen it for the first time in my college years. It has since remained one of my top ten favorite films--a polished gem with some of the best performances ever given by its stars Julie Andrews, Robert Preston, James Garner and Leslie Ann Warren. When it was announced as a Broadway musical in the 90s, I immediately snatched up opening night tickets and took my Mom (who is equally as obsessed with the movie)--a truly memorable night and the only time I have seen the great Julie Andrews on stage. In the Stages production, I will get to play the oily bad guy of the piece, Henri Labisse, owner of the sketchy gay nightclub Chez Lui. Labisse is a comic character turn in the great tradition of the films of Blake Edwards, the creator of "Victor/Victoria." He is a nasty little man who attempts to expose the toast of Paris, 'Victor,' a drag performer who is in reality a woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman. The character has elements of both Inspector Clouseau of the "Pink Panther" films and his exasperated boss, Chief Inspector Dreyfus. I adore playing villains, and this one will be a real treat, with a thick French accent to boot.

As of this writing, I am finishing up my brief stint as the randy Lord Wye in the Musicals Tonight! concert staging of Ivor Novello's obscure "Theodore and Co.". It has been such fun playing this absurd little English musical from 1916 and I have been fortunate to work with an endlessly fun group of performers on this one (I am pictured here with my vivacious counterpart, Amy Arbizanni, as Mrs. Blissett). The audiences that come to these concert readings, presented by the indefatigable Mel Miller, are populated by people who are passionate about discovering lost musical theatre gems, and we have enjoyed introducing them to this spirited romp through World War I era London. If you haven't seen it yet, you have until March 27 to get there and check it out!

New York continues to be cold and wet, but spring is on the way! I hope that your summer plans are taking shape and that you will have as much fun as it looks like I am going to have.

WHAT'S NEXT

2011-02-23T11:33:00.005-05:00

JAMES BEAMAN CONCLUDES HIS RUN IN THE ROAD TO QATAR! AT THE YORK THEATRE COMPANY ON FEBRUARY 27.

THE ROAD TO QATAR! ORIGINAL CAST ALBUM WILL BE RECORDED FOR JAY RECORDS ON MARCH 7, AND WILL BE RELEASED THIS SUMMER!

BEAMAN WILL NEXT APPEAR IN A CONCERT STAGING OF THE WORLD WAR I ERA BRITISH MUSICAL, THEODORE AND COMPANY , WITH MUSICALS TONIGHT! AT THE MCGINN/CASALE THEATRE IN NEW YORK CITY, MARCH 15 THROUGH 27.
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Every blessed one of you feels better for that burst of laughter.
~Ivor Novello

The day after I complete my run with The Road to Qatar!--a completely brand-spanking-new show--I will start rehearsals for a concert staging of a very old and now forgotten musical comedy called Theodore and Company. The organization responsible for reviving this obscure British operetta is Musicals Tonight, an Obie Award winning company that is dedicated to bringing to life "neglected" musicals at affordable ticket prices. Now in their 13th year, Musicals Tonight has revived over 50 musicals in a manner similar to the Musicals in Mufti series at the York Theatre Company.

I am intrigued and excited about exploring this English musical, which was something of a hit in London in 1916, during the Great War. It ran over 500 performances, alongside such popular frothy offerings as Chu Chin Chow (theatre queens will recall Auntie Mame and Vera Charles reminiscing about their time in the chorus of that show!), at a time when audiences were hungry for escapist entertainment.
The music was written by Ivor Novello, a British stage and film actor who was sort of a precursor to the actor/writer/raconteur Noel Coward. Novello wrote the show in collaboration with a young Jerome Kern, who made his London debut with this piece. Theodore and Company is a rather naughty little jaunt concerning the indiscretions of the upper crust of British society. I will be playing the role of the Right Honorable George Wye, the 'Minister of Movies,' who is a bit of a philanderer, trying to use his position to bed attractive society wives.

Unfamiliar with the works of Ivor Novello, I did a little research and was tickled to find out that Jeremy Northam portrayed Novello in the film "Gosford Park", and recorded a few of his songs for the soundtrack--including one from Theodore and Company entitled, "What a Duke Should Be." You can hear this fun little song here. This ditty epitomizes the witty lyrics and jaunty style of the period. So, I am looking forward to this fun project! Updates and more information to come.

THE ROAD TO QATAR! Critical Mass

2011-02-16T09:00:00.000-05:00

JAMES BEAMAN CONTINUES IN "THE ROAD TO QATAR" AT THE YORK THEATRE COMPANY, NOW THROUGH FEBRUARY 27.

THE ORIGINAL CAST ALBUM WILL BE RECORDED IN EARLY MARCH!

"Drama critics are like eunuchs in a harem. They know how it's done because they see it done every night, but they can't do it themselves." ~Brendan Behan

Lately, I have had a persistent scene playing out in my mind from the brilliant film version of "Amadeus." It's late in the film, and Mozart, whose wife has left him and who is teetering between poverty, madness and illness, is conducting a performance of "Don Giovanni," the Commendatore Scene.
The scene reaches its amazing conclusion, with glorious voices and stage pyrotechnics, and in the silence that follows the last reverberating crash of the orchestra, there is a smattering of applause from the few members of the tiny audience. Mozart, sweating and weak, turns and helplessly acknowledges this meagre reception of his work. You see, Mozart, one of the greatest and now most revered composers who ever lived, was a critical and popular failure in his lifetime. And I guess this scene, and this fact, are haunting me of late as I grapple with the almost universal critical dismissal of "The Road to Qatar."

Being in a show--particularly in New York--that receives negative press is an excruciating experience for all involved. One has to proceed with performances of the show with the same commitment and energy that one employed before the reviews came out, and because many actors try to avoid reading reviews, whether favorable or not, one can't even mention them in the back stage life of the show. Other theatre people greet you with a slightly veiled pity, treating you somewhat as if you had a deadly disease but you don't know it yet... lots of forced smiles and questions like, "Are you having fun?". In short, the actor in a badly reviewed production has to put on a happy face and endure. This has been the modus operandi of all involved in our little production at the York, particularly our wonderful writers, David Krane and Stephen Cole, on whom the critics unleashed the lion's share of their vitriol. Despite the notices, these two men have persisted in a positive and optimistic attitude about the entire project, and all of us have followed suit. Truth is, while this is the first time I have been in a show that has met with this kind of critical disapproval, this has also been one of the most joyous and harmonious creative experiences I have ever been blessed with in my twenty years as a professional actor. Every single artist, crew member and production person has been a complete pleasure to work with and the talent and creativity of this group is something to be marveled at. And while we all hoped for a flood of positive press after our star studded, gleeful opening night, we have all turned to each other in support and in a spirit of fun to see this project through. I don't want you to think that all of our reviews have been negative; they haven't. Here's a positive squib from an online review:

"The musical moves at a swift pace, taking care never to lose the audience's attention as one-liners zip by, clever low-budget set pieces and props magically appear, and Muhammad Ali tap dances... James Beaman and Keith Gerchak, who play Michael and Jeffrey, respectively, bring comedic justice and sweet, natural voices to the lead writing team's self-incarnated characters."

--Matty Daley, OutInJersey.net

Does OutInJersey.net have the same impact as the New York Times or the Associated Press? Alas, perhaps not.

It is considered, for the most part, bad form for an artist to respond to criticism, to challenge an opinion or defend his or her work. I was, however, delighted to read recently that Judi Dench, not too long ago acknowledged as the greatest stage actor of all time, wrote to a critic in response to a negative notice, "You are an absolute shit." I guess you have to be Dame Judi to get away with that. There is a sort of unspoken rule about how artists should respond to criticism: if you want the free benefit of using positive notices to further the success of your work, you have to take the negative ones as sort of 'bad medicine.' The role of the dramatic critic has changed over the years. There was a time when critics were great men of letters who not only assessed the drama of their time in terms of its artistic and socio-cultural relevance, but who also did posterity a service by describing the live performances of actors pre-film or television, adding their own visceral responses to that work. For example, would we have a sense of the greatness of the 19th century tragedian Edmund Kean had his performances not been captured by William Hazlitt or described by the great poet Coleridge as "like reading Shakespeare by flashes of lightning?".
George Bernard Shaw, one of the greatest playwrights in the English language, also shaped theatrical trends and popular attitudes toward theatre with his dramatic criticism. It might be said that great critics like Kenneth Tynan, James Agate, and Alexander Woolcott (himself a frustrated actor) championed the careers of certain actors who went on to become acknowledged titans in the theatre, and that they fostered a lively interest in the art form by creating a social discourse about theatre; one that kept theatre patrons passionate about attending live performance.
Perhaps in our time theatre has become less relevant than it once was. The best assessment of the drama critics of today that I have read is by brilliant screen and stage dramatist Ronald Harwood: "The critics of today do not go in much for describing performances or telling you what it was like to be in the theatre on a particular night. They are more interested, it seems, in writing either a sort of lit crit, as though they were wanting to impress their university tutors, or, more often than not, writing snarling and sneering reviews in the hope of impressing their editors." However, with the proliferation of the internet, theatre reviews, whether positive or negative, are as accessible to the curious theatre patron as the click of a mouse. In New York, at least, this makes the words of the critic exceedingly powerful, resulting often in a devastating impact at the box office. It took a little of the sting out of our bad press when critics both here and abroad, impatient with the numerous delays of its opening, took it on themselves to bludgeon the Julie Taymor multi-million dollar behemoth, "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" before it was officially 'open.' The criticisms leveled at this massive spectacle make our negative notices look like valentines. But ultimately, will such notices affect the box office at the Foxwoods Theatre? It's doubtful, since the show is playing to packed houses during its preview period and posting box office returns that recently beat the Broadway juggernaut, "Wicked." For a quirky little show like "The Road to Qatar" the impact has been somewhat more damaging.

Adversity can be the best teacher; it shows you what you're made of and tests your resolve and your ability to persist in your endeavors. It's difficult not to feel a little discouraged. As you can imagine, getting a leading role in a new show off or on Broadway is something of a feat, and to even get a new work on the boards is something that takes monumental amounts of moxie and the willingness to keep going despite seemingly insurmountable odds. So of course, everyone involved in "The Road to Qatar" has had high hopes that it would do great things for each of us in our careers. And, it still might! This is a fairly whimsical and unpredictable business. You just never know. And from my personal point of view, the critics have not killed this show, although bad press does hurt at the box office. It's the audiences we have had that have taught me the true value of our work. People have been truly enjoying our performances, and entering into the silly spirit of the production, with laughter, cheers and applause. Additionally, some of the greatest stars of the Broadway community have come out to see us and have showered us all with their praise and acknowledgment-- from director/choreographer Susan Stroman to legends like Chita Rivera and John Kander, we have received nothing but support. And what a thrill it has been for us to meet these amazing people. Just one of the incredible benefits of being a part of this production.

While I do have my moments of darkness, and do at times feel like poor Mozart facing the sound of one hand clapping, I haven't a single regret about this adventure. Being entrusted by the writers, director and producers of a new show with the responsibility of originating a leading role is something I have dreamed of for twenty years, and which I was blessed with on this show. I have had the good fortune of showing up for work each day with a cast of some of the dearest, most hilarious and multi-talented actors I have ever known, and I have been directed and choreographed and coached by some of the best in the business. I have been given the gift of returning to a New York stage for the first time in three years. I will also mark another milestone when I take part in recording an original cast album of "The Road to Qatar." The blessings far outweigh the troubles. Ultimately, I have learned about the power of believing in oneself and in the joy, creativity and hard work that give birth to any new project. Mr. Krane and Mr. Cole, both accomplished veterans of show business and fine artists, both singly and as a team, have set the tone: keep on keeping on, with optimism and good humor. I feel so blessed to be a part of their vision and will remember the glow of this experience long after the sting of a few catty reviews has long faded into memory. Come down to the York and make up your own mind about this funny fresh new musical, now playing through February 27!

THE ROAD TO QATAR! Up and Running!

2011-02-04T12:01:00.002-05:00

JAMES BEAMAN PLAYS 'MICHAEL' IN "THE ROAD TO QATAR" AT THE YORK THEATRE COMPANY THROUGH FEBRUARY 27!

After an intensive three week rehearsal period and a week of previews, our zany little show opened at the York. During previews, the authors made many changes to the piece, including the cutting of two musical numbers and 14 minutes off our running time. The result is a leaner, faster paced sprint of a show! All of us in the cast are feeling much more in command of our performances, and having such fun working together. Truly, from the York staff, to the creative team, to the writers, to my fellow performers, I have to say this has been one of the most pleasurable and harmonious collaborations I have been a part of to date. And our audiences seem to agree, if their laughter and cheers are any indication!

The opening night crowd was graced by some of Broadway's leading lights and living legends. In attendance were: Chita Rivera, Jo Sullivan Loesser, Celeste Holm, Marni Nixon, Beth Fowler, Danny Burstein, Judy Blazer... you can imagine the thrill I had walking out on to the little York stage and seeing these famous faces smiling back at me. Every theatre performer with an ounce of ambition wants to strut their stuff on a New York stage and show their work to the industry and the discerning New York audience. I can't overestimate how much this opportunity means to me.

Our opening night was further enhanced by the presentation to each of us of a spectacular caricature by the new Hirschfeld, "Squigs," a gift from producer Paul Burchett. As soon as I have a digital version, I will post this delightful piece of art! We were also informed by the writers that, following our last performances at the York, we will record THE ROAD TO QATAR as an original cast album. This is another experience I have yet to enjoy, and I, and the rest of the company, are over the moon about the prospect of preserving the show in a cast recording. As we raised cocktails together and enjoyed falafel, hummus and other Middle Eastern treats at our opening night party at a local Lebanese restaurant, I think we all felt a real sense of occasion. It takes so much to create a new show, never mind getting it produced in New York-- I feel blessed indeed to be along for the ride. Catch us in the wonderfully intimate York Theatre now through February 27!!

THE ROAD TO QATAR! Putting It Together...

2011-01-18T20:42:00.003-05:00

JAMES BEAMAN PLAYS MICHAEL IN THE NEW MUSICAL, "THE ROAD TO QATAR' AT THE YORK THEATRE COMPANY JANUARY 25 THROUGH FEBRUARY 27!

Dear Readers:

My apologies for taking so long to update you on my doings, and the new show I am rehearsing at The York Theatre Company. We have been at work for just over two intense weeks, learning this complex and fast paced musical comedy. The process has been incredibly challenging; not for any other reason but that this is terrific material. It's smart, the lyrics are tricky and clever, the music is complex and there's a lot of it. I think this is most likely the most challenging musical theatre role I have attempted, in terms of the sheer amount of singing and the range it requires. But believe me, I am not complaining!

I have a really great feeling about THE ROAD TO QATAR!. The spirit of everyone involved is completely positive and playful, the cast is uniformly funny and great at spontaneous comedic work, our musical director David Caldwell and our choreographer Bob Richard are super fast and super talented and we are all banding together, under the nimble direction of Phillip George. This is also the first time I have gotten to create a role in a new show and work with the writers through the entire process. And these writers are so gifted, so thoroughly in mastery of their craft; Stephen Cole is equally as bright, clever and outrageous as a lyricist and as a book writer, and David Krane is simply a musical master, who is finally getting meolodies showcased in this big hearted autobiographical flight of fancy. He is also one of the best orchestrators in the business and his arrangements for our five piece band, I have no doubt, will be brilliant.

We launch into tech tomorrow and all the elements will start to be brought together. I look forward to sharing the fun in photos, etc as we gallop towards our first preview next week! Please come and see this great new show! Discounts abound on the internet and we play from January 25 through February 27. You can also participate in a 2 for 1 ticket program that includes all kinds of great Off-Broadway shows, especially ours. For photos from our recent press sneak peek, take a look at Playbill On Line.

My Road to THE ROAD TO QATAR, Part 1

2010-12-26T10:16:00.003-05:00

JAMES BEAMAN WILL STAR IN THE NEW MUSICAL, "THE ROAD TO QATAR," BY DAVID KRANE AND STEPHEN COLE, AT THE YORK THEATRE COMPANY IN NEW YORK BEGINNING JANUARY 25!

I received the best of all possible holiday gifts this year. Just before Christmas, I was offered the leading role of 'Michael' in the new musical, The Road to Qatar, which will have its Off-Broadway premiere in January at the prestigious York Theatre Company. Aside from the enormous blessing of having an actual job in New York (the last time I performed on an NYC stage was the fall of 2007), I will also have the incredible experience of originating a terrific part in a new show.

The Road to Qatar is written by David Krane and Stephen Cole, and is based upon their true life story of a bizarre series of events in which they were commissioned by the Emir of Qatar to create a Broadway style musical to be presented in a soccer stadium in Qatar. The two writers, who had never met nor collaborated before, found themselves whisked away to the Middle East where they wrote the musical Aspire in just five weeks. Check out the two part documentary of their true life adventure here.

David and Stephen took their wild adventure and turned it into the hilarious musical comedy, The Road to Qatar. Fortunately for me, the show is about "two short Jews who write musical comedy!" It is rare that a short, gay, Jewish character actor gets to play a lead in a musical, so you can imagine my delight when I was offered the part of Michael. Michael is sort of the 'Oscar' half of the odd couple of Michael and Jeffrey, based on Krane and Cole themselves. I am also delighted that I will be directed by Phillip George, who was my director in my very first New York show, Howard Crabtree's Whoop-Dee-Doo!, back in the early '90s. Phill, who staged Forbidden Broadway for many years, is a clever and ingenious director and I am excited to work with him again.

We begin rehearsals just after New Year's, so be sure to tune in as I blog the whole adventure. For more information on the show itself, visit the authors' website. For tickets and performance information, visit the York Theatre Company's site. What a great way to start 2011!

My Holiday Letter

2010-12-22T14:37:00.007-05:00

I have friends and relatives who include in their annual Christmas cards a letter, detailing all the events and activities of the year past, sharing the losses and the triumphs, and wishing everyone a great year to come. Since I am spending a quiet Christmas in Manhattan, with plenty of time to ruminate on the many adventures of 2010, I thought I would write my own letter and put it out there to my friends, loved ones and supporters.

What an incredible year it has been. The prior two years were so completely immersed in my journey with the Spamalot tour; this year has been about really getting back into the mix of fine performers looking for work, and making amazing new inroads in the business with extraordinary people. In addition to my artistic and professional growth, I had the chance to explore a new relationship with a loving and wonderful guy after four years of singlehood. And I rediscovered a passion for teaching and coaching young actors through a magical series of powerful events.

The year started with intense activity of all kinds. Challenging auditions were balanced by the extraordinary growth I experienced in the acting classes of Matthew Corozine. I created an entire new career plan with Jodie Bentley, a fantastic career coach and co-owner of The Savvy Actor, which led to a new website and a host of new networking strategies. I also got the chance to return to The Nutty Professor musical in our second backers audition reading of the show, directed, again, by the incomparable Jerry Lewis.

I was delighted to break through with Goodspeed Musicals, winning the role of Charlie Davenport in Annie Get Your Gun.
I had long wanted to work at this prestigious two time Tony-winning regional theatre, and what a great first experience it was. The cast was incredible, led by Jenn Gambatese as Annie, and I enjoyed the changes of season for the many weeks of the show in the beautiful Connecticut River Valley. I also did some exciting educational outreach for the company, finding a terrific teaching partner in triple threat performer Molly Tynes.

I made two trips over the summer to Washington, D.C. in a pair of collaborations with Marcus Kyd, Lise Bruneau and their Taffety Punk Theatre Company. The first was a powerful staged reading of Ronald Harwood's The Dresser. I played the role of Norman, dresser to a rapidly unraveling Shakespearean actor-manager, played, to my great pride and delight, by my teacher and D.C. veteran star Edward Gero. This is a role I have always wanted to play and to get just a taste of it was so rewarding. A week later, I returned to D.C. to play the role of Theseus in Taffety Punk's "Bootleg Shakespeare" production of Two Noble Kinsmen at the Folger Theatre. Exhilarating stuff.

Surprise, surprise. Goodspeed invited me back to join an outrageously talented cast in How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying.
Preempting the forthcoming Broadway production through the generosity of Jo Sullivan Loesser, Goodspeed mounted a stylish and sizzling production and I got to kick my heels up as a dancer again, and play the office womanizer, Mr. Gatch. More educational work was also a highlight of my fall at Goodspeed, and the company commissioned me and Molly Tynes to create the first ever Goodspeed Musical Theatre Audition Intensive, a weekend boot camp in audition preparation and performance for high school students contemplating trying out for college theatre programs. The workshop, which took place earlier this month, was a powerful and hugely successful endeavor. Talks are already underway for the next one!

The year is coming to a close on a truly high note. This week, I was offered the lead role of Michael in the Off Broadway premiere of David Krane and Stephen Cole's new musical The Road to Qatar.
This hilarious piece is based on the authors' own true story of their collaboration on a lavish musical commissioned by the Emir of Qatar. The adventures of "two short Jews who write Musical Comedy" will run January and February at the York Theatre Company. I couldn't be more excited to be finally doing something great in New York--and a wonderful lead role to boot. I've been waiting for my short gay Jewishness to pay off! Happy Holidays to me. So much to be grateful for. Truly, all I have ever wished for is a life in my art. And it is all happening for me. On the most personal level, I was given the incredible gift of trying my sea legs in a relationship this year. A loving, free spirited, challenging, talented guy named David touched my life and my heart. It's hard to try to love again, but what a beautiful thing to know that it's still possible. Thank you, David, with love.

My greatest wish for the season would be for all of us to really try and be in the moment. And realize how incredible, bountiful, and full of possibility our lives are. Releasing the wounds of the past, not being overly obsessive about the future. Hold those you love close to you, and have a wonderful holiday and a Happy New Year!! Love to all.

My Year of Goodspeed

2010-11-28T09:01:00.003-05:00

"Lloyd always said in the theatre a lifetime was a season, and a season a lifetime..."
~"All About Eve"

As actors we all have our wish lists: lists of roles we want to play, lists of directors and prominent actors we'd love to work with, and then there's the list of theatres where we would love to tread the boards. It is part of an actor's ambition; ever reaching for better and better opportunities--desiring this man's art, and that man's scope, as it were. My career is increasingly split between my passion for classical acting and my love of musical theatre, and in each genre we have in the US our leading institutions. On the musical side, Goodspeed ranks at the top. To be asked to perform here twice in one season was a rare opportunity and it has been such a rewarding journey for me.

Eight months of near continuous work has afforded me the opportunity to work with two new directors, two new choreographers; it has put me in the mix with some of our finest Broadway performers, both seasoned veterans and rising young stars. Goodspeed's reverence for the classics they revive and their unflinching determination to present fresh and refined visions of those classics have give me the chance to experience the magic of Irving Berlin and Frank Loesser in two of their finest creations.
I was able to create my own take on a delicious character in Charlie Davenport, and then to join an amazing ensemble of triple threat performers in "How To Succeed...", rediscovering my love of dance and enjoying the process of creating the wacky 1960's world of that show. Throughout these many weeks of work I have also had the chance to get to know this beautiful part of Connecticut, to revel in the changing seasons, to taste of the art and fine food and history that make this area so unique. In short, my year at Goodspeed has enhanced my life and my career, and to be almost continuously employed in my craft during these challenging economic times is a gift that I am truly grateful for.
My deepest thanks to Michael Price, the fearless leader of Goodspeed, and to his entire producing team, the artistic staff, stage management team, and dedicated crew, and people both behind the scenes and in the front of house whom I have had the pleasure to get to know this season. I feel a part of your family.

Today we play our last performances of "How To Succeed..." and then the diaspora begins. Most of us will pack up and head back to New York City; a lucky few of us are slated to begin rehearsals for new Broadway shows; most of us will get back into the hustle of auditions, taking a stab at the next gig before settling in for the holidays. Tomorrow when I return to the city I have two auditions! No time to rest on my Goodspeed laurels--the next thing awaits. I will be back in East Haddam next weekend to lead the first ever Goodspeed Audition Intensive, introducing a new generation of young talents to the process that will become one of the fundamental components of their life in theatre. I discovered, or perhaps decided, at one point in my career that we must love ALL of what we do, the auditions as well as the performing, for truly they are all a part of the thrill ride that is an actor's career.

Say "Uncle!"

2010-11-15T18:55:00.003-05:00

TWO MORE WEEKS OF "HOW TO SUCCEED..." AT GOODSPEED!

This production may prompt audience curiosity about how well the planned Daniel Radcliffe-John Laroquette version will do on Broadway in early 2011. It may be hard to top how well all of the separate components of the Goodspeed production flow satisfyingly together. ~Hartford Arts Examiner

The joys of live performance are sometimes contradictory. Stage actors are, by nature, creatures of habit; we love the athletic repetition of our performances, and the attendant routines of signing in, warming up, donning our disguises--the reassuring daily motions of the working performer. However, one of the realities of theatre is that it is in many ways spontaneous, and indeed, works best when there is sense of danger, of unpredictability. And, no matter how strong an actor's technique or his level of concentration on stage, sometimes something happens to just, well, crack him up. The Brits call this "corpsing" because in the moment those inappropriate giggles arise, one's character dies and the actor beneath is exposed. Last week, regrettably, a mass expiration occurred on the Goodspeed stage, during the rousing 11th hour number, "The Brotherhood of Man." It all began so simply--a small slip of the tongue by our esteemed "president", Ronn Carroll as J. B. Biggley. Brian Sears, as Finch, setting up the number, says, "We're all brothers." Ronn is supposed to glare at Bud Frump and say, "Some of us are uncles." On this night, he mistakenly said, "Some of us are nephews." I know it seems so innocent, so banal, but it took Brian and the rest of us by surprise; by the time Brian had to turn and sing to the group of us executives, a red faced grin had erupted on his face. The rest was a chain reaction--shoulders began to shake, serious expressions gave way to struggling grimaces unsuccessfully masking open hilarity. The first part of the song was broken up by a bunch of performers trying to regain their composure while a mystified and bemused audience watched. Torture!! And of course we were all heartily ashamed of ourselves while acknowledging that it was indeed quite funny and we are human, after all. The next night, when we returned to the same spot in the show, I know more than one of us was gripping his feet, holding his breath until the moment passed without a giggle.

Thanksgiving approaches, as does the conclusion of our run. Dusk falls early now; the nights are cold and dark. Pumpkins and mums are giving way to yule logs and twinkle lights. I watched all the seasons change here at Goodspeed this year: I arrived to start "Annie Get Your Gun" in the frigid cold of March and capered through the Wild West through spring and summer, then returned during the last dog days of that season to take up my position at World Wide Wickets through a blazing New England fall. With the coming of the holidays, I can only feel gratitude that in these uncertain times, I have been gainfully employed as an actor at one of our finest theatres for virtually an entire theatrical season. What a gift. I plan to savor these last performances, even as my eyes turn inevitably to the horizon and the search for that next gig.

How To... HALLOWEEN

2010-11-02T11:29:00.004-04:00

Actors love in-jokes. I think this stems from the joy that we all experience when we are asked to join a temporary family within a production; our little catch phrases and private gags make it feel like a special club of which we are honored members. I also think that the in-jokes are a way of lightening the pressure of the eight show week. We took full advantage of a chance to blow off steam with our company Halloween party this past weekend. The theme of the party was to dress as a line of dialogue from "How To Succeed...". With limited budgets and creative imaginations, we all hit the outlet malls, Wal-Mart, and party stores to find the bits and pieces that would get across, in the wittiest possible way, the line we had chosen to represent. The results were hilarious: everything from a hula girl with leprosy ("an extremely tropical disease"), to a church lady covered in plastic ivy ("Grand Old Ivy"), to my own contribution--a head dress made from two martini glasses, one of them containing a prop olive ("You call this a double martini? It only has one olive in it!"). Here I am wearing my creation, next to cast mate Lianne, who came as "Making a clean breast of the whole thing" (she carried around a Comet can with a revised label on it that read "Boob"). The party was a blast--pot luck goodies, a fire pit and S'more making, jack 'o' lanterns, and much autumnal frolic. This is such a bright and funny group of people. The last month of shows will continue to be great fun.

Goodspeed has also offered me the opportunity to hone my skills as a teacher and coach, through their education outreach programming. I have greatly enjoyed leading workshops with area middle school and high school kids, and have been especially impressed with the talent and motivation of the students from the Community Music School in Essex.
I love coaching young talents; they are eager sponges that absorb everything I throw at them, and their enthusiasm is a reminder of the fresh faced drive that led me to a life in this profession. I am delighted that Goodspeed has collaborated with me and my teaching partner, triple-threat performer Molly Tynes, to create their first ever Audition Intensive for graduating high school seniors preparing to audition for college theatre programs and performing arts conservatories. This exciting weekend seminar will take place December 4 & 5, and Molly and I will be teaching the nuts and bolts of the audition process, and coaching the students on their songs and monologues in preparation for their college tryouts. We will also be joined by a distinguished panel including Brent Wagner, chair of the musical theatre department at University of Michigan, Michael O'Flaherty, musical director of Goodspeed Musicals, and choreographer and master teacher Parker Esse. This panel will view the students' mock auditions and give invaluable feedback. It is truly a remarkable opportunity for young actors, and an exciting project for me and my fellow educators. Visit the Goodspeed Musicals website for more information.

Les Feuilles Mortes

2010-10-21T16:03:00.005-04:00

"HOW TO SUCCEED" OFFICIALLY OPENED OCTOBER 20! REVIEWS TO COME, PLUS PHOTOS, ETC. AS THEY ARE AVAILABLE. WE ARE OFF AND RUNNING AT GOODSPEED OPERA HOUSE!

While I am sad not to be in Manhattan to enjoy the autumn, this best of all possible times of year in the city, I am comforted by the joys of fall in New England here in the Connecticut River Valley. We are at peak foliage time here, and the countryside is ablaze with reds, oranges, golds. I enjoyed a picture postcard of a Columbus Day with apple picking at sprawling Lyman Orchards in nearby Middlefield, bringing home pies and pumpkins to fill my actor's digs with seasonal delight. Bundling up and shuffling through the leaves, poking into the many antique shops that populate this quaint area; enjoying sunsets over the river that would make Maxfield Parrish jealous: pinks and lavenders reflecting off the water as the Opera House rises against the crazy quilt of fall foliage, a fantasy place that seems carved from ice cream. Truly there are many blessings that accompany this autumn sojourn with the rollicking joys of "How To Succeed," if one can put up with the lunacy of Connecticut drivers, who have made me christen this "the tailgate state."

We opened our show officially this week, with a warm and raucous first night audience. The show has found its legs, and all of us are enjoying our eight shows a week. My creative energy is not reserved only for my performances at Goodspeed. I am also teaching several classes for area high schoolers via Goodspeed's educational outreach programs, and am working on the details for the Audition Intensive I will be co-conducting at the beginning of December; a weekend of coaching for high school seniors preparing to try out for college theatre programs. In addition, I am also enjoying being a part of another artist's creative process by commissioning a piece from an extraordinarily talented local sculptor, Kara Knobelsdorff. I discovered this artist's work while working at Goodspeed over the summer, and have asked her to do a portrait of me as a birthday gift to myself. Some of my friends feel this to be a slightly narcissistic enterprise, but I see it as a way of celebrating this moment in my life while being on the inside of an artist's creative process. My first sitting was this week and I find the whole thing fascinating.

Speaking of fascinating... I must devote some of this post to rhapsodize about the current production at Goodspeed's Norma Terris Theatre, a new musical version of the Roald Dahl classic "James and the Giant Peach." Our company was invited to attend the final dress rehearsal of this workshop of a promising new piece, and I have to say it completely captivated me.
The music and lyrics are by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, a bright, witty contemporary score; the book is by Timothy Allen McDonald. The piece truly captures the simultaneously comic, macabre and touching aspects of this classic story. The cast is energetic and talented, with standout performances by Denny Dillon and Ruth Gottschall as the deliciously nasty Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker. The revelation in this production is the incorporation of the elegant, gravity defying dancers of Pilobolus, who succeed stunningly at bringing to life everything from a man eating rhinoceros to a flock of seagulls, to the peach itself. Graciela Daniele, the visionary director behind this adventure, has returned to the essence of what theatre really means. Using a bare stage and the most rudimentary of props and costumes, she blends the musical and acting talents of her cast with the glorious movements of her dancers to create a world inhabited by insects, carnival creatures, paparazzi, sharks, swiftly moving clouds... the audience's imagination fills in the rest thereby engaging us in the creation of this world and never letting us go. Theatre is storytelling, at it's essence, and it is about the sharing of stories that illuminate the human experience and that touch our souls and our dreams. This show is doing just that. I couldn't stop thinking, as I watched this magical piece, about the daily reports coming in from the multi million dollar behemoth, "Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark"--the technical tangle of incorporating high tech CGI and other technologies with dangerous stunts that have produced injury after injury amongst the cast. Julie Taymor's vision for this new musical is pushing the limits of financing and technology, but only time will tell if her trademark creativity and inventiveness will shine through. Personally I remember Taymor's work at American Repertory Theatre when I was in college; productions that relied upon classic storytelling, shadow puppetry, mask and Commedia dell' Arte--the simplest effects created moments that sent chills down the spine. Graciela Daniele has given us a creative jewel that needs no fancy pyrotechnics or elaborate sets; she trusts the material and she inspires her performers to lead us into Roald Dahl's fanciful world. At the heart of "James and the Giant Peach" is a small and universal story of an orphaned boy searching for a family. I alternately cheered, gasped and wiped away tears as I witnessed this wonderful work. See it if you can!!

It is ironic to me that at this season, most often thought of as a time of decay and dead leaves, that I find myself a part of, and surrounded by, so much art and creativity. Truly, I feel very, very blessed. Fall passes so very quickly and soon we will hunker down for the long winter. Mull some cider, break out those fabulous layers and something spooky for Halloween, and savor this time, wherever you may be.

Merrily Machiavellian

2010-10-04T10:46:00.008-04:00

"HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING" CONTINUES AT GOODSPEED OPERA HOUSE THROUGH NOVEMBER 28!

This week I decided to wax a little dramaturgical, for no other reason but that I am a dork and love to trace the common threads between theatrical works we consider modern or contemporary and those of ages past. I find these classic themes fascinating. There is a reason that pieces like "How To Succeed" endure in the popular repertoire; of course Frank Loesser's witty and timeless score has much to do with it, as does Abe Burrows' well crafted book. But additionally, the story of the rise of the young opportunist J. Pierrepont Finch draws on classic themes that are a part of western cultural consciousness and it's fun to draw those connections.

As you probably know, the musical was adapted from a sharp, satiric best seller by Shepherd Mead of the same title, with the subtitle "The Dastard's Guide To Fame and Fortune." The dictionary defines a dastard as a 'mean, sneaking coward.' While we might disagree with this as a description of young Finch, our hero is a manipulator, a sneak, and will do just about anything not only to get ahead, but to save his own skin. Shepherd Mead drew upon his own experiences at an advertising firm, where he rose from mailroom clerk to vice president, and his witty observations of the corporate world were the basis of his comic 'self help' book, but the book itself didn't have a plot line or a main character. It was Abe Burrows and his collaborators on the book who created Finch and his story, drawing, in my view, upon the classic archetype of the Machiavel.

Machiavelli, the Renaissance philosopher who many consider the father of modern political science, laid out in his treatise The Prince, his proposed guidelines for achieving and maintaining power, mainly through cunning and manipulation.
The Prince was a very popular book during the English Renaissance, during which it formed the basis for many of the great villains of the plays of the era: Christopher Marlowe's The Jew of Malta (in which a character called Machiavelli actually delivers the prologue), Shakespeare's Richard III, and Ben Jonson's Volpone (The Fox). Moliere's Tartuffe and Don Juan also share similar characteristics; they are deceivers, chameleons who can put on just the right facade to fool those they wish to gull or manipulate. And they get where they want to be by their talent for playing on the weaknesses and vanity of others--it is in their astute, albeit cynical grasp of human nature that they find their power to get what they want. Finch plays on the weaknesses and foibles of those he meets at Worldwide Wickets-- J.B. Biggley's desire for his extramarital 'bit on the side,' Hedy LaRue; Bud Frump's lack of subtlety and desperate need to get ahead; Mr. Gatch's lecherous tendencies; the chairman of the board, Wally Womper's, disdain for elitist, college educated men. This is part of the reason that audiences love these merry villains; we don't want to identify with the Machiavel's victims, since they are so fatuous and so weak-- we want to align ourselves, perhaps despite our values, with the master manipulator, with an ego that can lead someone to climb the ladder of success without any concern for who he tramples on on the way up those rungs.

These Machiavellian heroes are attractive, charming, with steel trap minds and infinite ways of escaping the consequences of their actions. And often, like Finch, they not only get away with their machinations, but they triumph. There is something simultaneously thrilling and deplorable about such triumphs, but it is part of our human nature that we fantasize about getting everything we want without hindrance from others and without consequences. We often look askance at those who are so self centered and driven but we secretly wish we had the cahones to be that way ourselves. Eve Harrington in "All About Eve" is a great example of a feminine Machiavel. She is a great actress in every day life, playing on the weaknesses of those she encounters in the theatrical world, with a sophisticated strategic game plan for becoming the leading lady she so desperately wants to become. Would she have risen to such a success without all that conniving? Clearly, she's a talented actress, but going the usual route of working the way up the ladder is too slow for a single minded vixen like Eve. Shakespeare's Richard III isn't waiting for dust to settle on him either; he'd rather kill off everyone that stands between him and the English throne.
And he tells us through soliloquy at the very start of the play that that is his intention--and by confiding in the audience, he makes us complicit in his plots--part of the guilty pleasure for the spectator. Finch does the same thing in "How To Succeed" but it is in the form of a mischievous grin directed at us, checking in with us to make sure we are appreciating the master manipulations he is concocting. Funnily enough, I see a lot of similarities between the hunchback king and J. Pierrepont Finch. It is interesting to me that one of the hits from our show, recorded by many of our finest singers over the years, "I Believe in You," is actually a love song sung by Finch to Finch in the washroom mirror. The ultimate narcissist sings a stirring love song--to himself. In one of Richard III's many soliloquies he has a line that keeps coming back to me: "I am myself alone." Ultimately, while Finch ends up with Rosemary (she herself a sort of Machiavellian secretary striving to manipulate Finch into marrying her), he really is in love with only one person--himself. And in spite of ourselves--with perhaps a secret wish that we were as ballsy as Finch is--we love him for it.

As of this posting, it is Columbus Day and another crisp, sun drenched fall day in Connecticut. We have been blessed with several such days here, and I am reveling in the fresh breezes, falling leaves, and nights of starry skies and cold air slightly tinged with the smell of woodsmoke. Truly beautiful. Our show is playing to enthusiastic houses, and I am enjoying the many pleasures of working at Goodspeed, including teaching some outreach classes for area high school students, and activities with my comrades in the show. "How To Succeed" will play through the fall and I hope that many will make East Haddam a destination, enjoy the foliage and the many pleasures of autumnal New England and come have a good laugh with our merry Machiavel, Finch, and the gang at World Wide Wickets!

Team Wicket

2010-09-29T22:51:00.004-04:00

You, you got me
Me, I got you...
--"Brotherhood of Man"

With the intense activity of getting through technical rehearsals and our opening weekend, I had to neglect you, dear reader, but now that "How To Succeed" is up and running, I can muse upon things a bit. Theatre, as you can well imagine--if you are not one of us nuts who decided to purse this career--is very much a collaborative art form. The putting up of a show has often been likened to the efforts of a sports team, with each individual playing his or her role as part of a collaborative effort with a common goal. The team metaphor definitely has validity, because without every one's committed participation, the organism of the production cannot function. It is an interesting conundrum for the actor to realize that in service to the entire piece, he has to set aside his own personal egocentric needs. You must admit there is an irony there when a person pursues a career which is all about performing for an audience in the search for their approval, validation, and applause--and then has to accept that he or she has to put others first! These challenges were rife during our week of technical rehearsals leading to our preview/opening weekend.

Mounting a complicated musical comedy in three weeks is a monumental task. Add to this the unique challenges that the Goodspeed Opera House itself presents for designers, technicians and performers and crew alike, and the task becomes even more daunting. I don't think Goodspeed patrons realize that in order to build the set, hang the lights, complete the costumes, and work out the sometimes hundreds of sound and lighting cues, there are crews working round the clock for three days. The performers and musicians rehearse ten hours a day. The Goodspeed space is so small, that all the choreography and set moves must be re-rehearsed in order to fit the playing area allotted. In addition, our highly creative director and choreographer have a free form style of working that requires each performer to be at the ready to absorb and integrate dozens of detailed and sometimes minute changes at the drop of a hat. This can all be exhilarating, but it can also be exhausting and deeply trying for all involved. However, it is the adrenaline of that process and the satisfaction of being a 'problem solver' and a quick, skilled artist that keeps us coming back again and again. Tech week is the birthing process, and at the risk of being graphic, all birthing processes can be painful and messy.

Yet none of this effort and struggle showed last Friday night, when we brought a laughing, cheering opening night audience to its feet as we gave our new baby to the world. Jo Sullivan Loesser graced us with her presence, and came on stage at curtain call to hug our leading players and to declare unreservedly that she had a marvelous time and that Frank would have been happy with our production. There was a definite energy from audience, performers and crew that night--an excitement and anticipation that got us through the rough patches. For us, our first performance was really more like a dress rehearsal, but for that audience it was a joyful premiere. Our choreographer calls us "Team Wicket" because we are troupers--we band together and make things work; we finesse moments that are still in a nascent stage, we 'sell' steps that are still being conceived. Even now, we continue to rehearse during previews, as we seek to deliver just the right product for our creative team and producers. Every team has an MVP and ours is Brian Sears, whose character of Finch is the center of the show. Brian must lead us all every night in this mammoth musical comedy star turn, and he is doing one hell of a great job! Truly he sets the standard, ably seconded by Broadway veteran Ronn Carroll, whose deft comedic talent is another anchor in this production. With standards like these, we all can only rise to the occasion and bring this zany ride home.

This weekend I will raise the stakes even higher as I go on for five performances in my capacity as understudy in the role of Bert Bratt, the personnel director. Aaron Serotsky, who is playing the part, is getting married this weekend and I wish him and his bride a wonderful wedding. And so, while we continue to refine the show and perform our previews, I am cramming as much of Bratt as I can in preparation for my first time on in the part Friday night. If you have never understudied before, the only way to describe that first time out in a part is that it's like those dreams you might have had in college or high school: you are about to take a test and realize that you never attended a class and have not studied one thing. It's also like jumping on to a moving train (and clinging on for dear life!). But again, it is the team around you that you count on to support and get you through. I have no doubt Team Wicket will have my back.

The Gypsy In My Soul

2010-09-17T19:00:00.000-04:00

These few weeks of rehearsal in the ensemble of this show have been an enormous reminder to me of just how hard the task of the chorus singer/dancer is. Truly, the ensemble members are the hardest working people in the show and we have to be able to do it all--sing, dance intricate choreography, provide assistance with scene shifts, act as set dressing, and play small roles; sometimes many characters in the course of each performance. It has been a seismic shock to my system to be challenged to rise to the occasion of taking my place "in the line" as it were. And all I can say is that A) my hat is off to the gifted performers working alongside me--their talent, their stamina, (their YOUTH) astonishes me... and B) I intend to prove myself worthy of being in their midst. It's taking a lot of brain strain, sweat, and epsom salts but I'm getting there!

We did have a wonderful glimpse of the show that we are creating this week in an invited run through. The Goodspeed staff and crew, the producers, as well as guests from the current show, "Carnival!" and Jo Sullivan Loesser herself crowded into the studio to watch us do our second only run of the entire show. We are still at a tentative stage with much of the business, and the complicated dances and transitions, but I have to say, our company pulled it out and gave a wonderful early performance! I have been going in early every day and drilling the choreography, and clearly the other performers have also been doing their homework, because we really stepped up and put our all into it, and we now really feel we have a show. And a delightful, fast paced, and amusing show it is. In just two days we rehearse with the orchestra for the first time and then it's an intense few days of technical rehearsals leading to our first performances. Rest, focus, and more epsom salts are in order. Planning to spend my day off out in the beautiful weather and stunning scenery of the Connecticut River Valley. Every day, Mother Nature paints a few more leaves in shades of red and orange, and autumn is beginning to blaze across the region. In just a week or two it will be prime foliage time and I hope many "leaf peepers" will come out to see beauty and stop in to have a great laugh with us at Goodspeed and this terrific show.

Perfectly Frank

2010-09-11T19:38:00.004-04:00

Remarkably, after posting my blog last week, which contained an account of my involvement with a Frank Loesser revue spearheaded by Jo Sullivan Loesser, the lady herself graced us with a visit during rehearsals for How To Succeed...!
Ms. Loesser takes a keen interest in any major revival of Frank's work, and is constantly at work preserving his creations and enlivening interest in revivals and fresh concepts of his lesser known pieces. What a treat it was for us as a company to sit in a circle and listen to Ms. Loesser's tales about her life with this American genius and in particular her accounts of the creation and original production of the show we are working on. Jo is a feisty, no nonsense little lady with a hearty laugh and a shoot-from-the-hip sense of humor. She adored Frank Loesser, even though she amusingly describes him as "a pain in the neck," and from her stories a portrait of Loesser emerges-- of a brilliant musician who talked like a character out of the Damon Runyon books that Guys and Dolls was based upon; a prodigious talent who worked only at night (often pausing for martinis at 4AM), and who created the entire score for How To Succeed in six weeks. Jo related to us the story of the opening of the show, and how Frank hated opening nights; in an early scene of the play, a piece of scenery wobbled when it was moved on stage, and Frank stood up, left the theatre and spent the entire first night in the bar! She talked to us at length about what works best in performance of the material, and how certain pieces of the score came to be created. Frank felt that the satirical nature of the Shepherd Mead book on which the piece was based did not lend it well to the inclusion of a romantic love ballad in the score. When he felt he really needed to add one for the good of the storyline between Finch and his secretary girlfriend, he decided to do a takeoff of the "Maria" number from the then wildly popular West Side Story. The result is the florid and over the top "Rosemary" number which closes Act One. It is tales like this that only someone who was there and witnessed the creation of this classic musical can tell--which made Jo Loesser's visit all the more special for each and every one of us. We truly felt we had been given a glimpse of theatre history through this fabulous little lady, and how grateful we all were for that opportunity!

Rehearsals continue at breakneck speed, as our intrepid director and choreographer push to stage the entire piece in time to allow us a week of refinements and intensive drilling of the material before our technical process begins in just over a week. As of this writing we only have one scene left to stage as well as the finale of the show. Greg and Kelli's work is at once playful and incredibly intense; they ask of us complete flexibility, high energy, and total concentration. The choreography and staging is extremely stylized and detail oriented, requiring a high level of technical ability--this is a true farce in the best sense, and will, in its final form, resemble the whimsical cartoons created by the illustrator "Claude" for the original Mead book, cartoons like the ones found in the classic New Yorker magazines. Each and every gesture and nuance is given special emphasis and the tempos and comedic bits are being intricately worked out. I think that the sheer exuberance, energy and speed of the show are going to take the audience's breath away.

Equally breathtaking will be Gregory Gale's stunning costumes, which are being made completely from scratch for our production. Both of my 1960s slim suits fit me superbly and are sharp as a razor. My fitting this week allowed me a chance to really see what Milt Gatch and my other characters will look like and the style of the costumes is completely in harmony with the snazzy comedy of our performances. I gotta tell ya, this show is going to be a total hoot and expertly crafted on every level. It will be something special not to be missed! Stay tuned for more as we head into week three of the rehearsal process...

"HOW TO SUCCEED..." BEGINS!!

2010-09-03T20:39:00.004-04:00

I am delighted that Goodspeed Musicals invited me back for another great show this season: the Pulitzer Prize and Tony-winning classic, How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying. This time around, I get to join an outrageously talented ensemble of performers and play the very amusing featured role of Mr. Gatch, the office 'grabber,' in this send up of corporate politics and ambition. It's an exciting time to be working on a fresh new production of this piece, as Broadway will soon see a major revival starring Daniel Radcliffe, better known as Harry Potter. After this first week's rehearsals, I can safely say we will be giving any production of this show a run for its money!!

Our How To Succeed... is directed by the talented Greg Ganakas, a Goodspeed favorite, and choreographed by the inventive Kelli Barclay. Greg, in addition to being enormously creative and clever, is hysterically funny, with an outrageous and completely disarming sense of humor. His energy blends beautifully with that of Kelli, whose methods of working are exciting, spontaneous and infinitely skillful. Greg calls this show a "crackerjack" piece and he has absolute faith in this tried and true material, with its witty book by Abe Burrows and timeless score by Frank Loesser; he is being true to the spirit of the piece while applying his imagination and sense of whimsy in some amazing and unexpected ways, using the 1960s swanky style of the hit TV series "Mad Men" as inspiration for the world of the piece. He has assembled a cast of such unique and vivid performers that each and every one--from our leads, to our ensemble singer/dancers--is a standout. I feel fortunate to be of their number.

As I mentioned in a previous post, this is the first time I have been asked to perform as part of an ensemble in literally twenty years, and even though I was daunted by the prospect initially, this week has reminded me how much I love to dance and how very, very hard ensemble performers work. Our 'chorus' provides the personnel, the color and flavor of the World Wide Wicket Company, and is an integral and essential part of the piece. My 'dancer brain'--the one that picks up steps and choreography--is having to be retuned, and my body has to readjust to the rigors of the choreographic rehearsal process, but I have to say, I am having a total ball doing this stuff. While my ambition from the time I was 12 was to be a classical actor, I also grew up in the late 70s, when A Chorus Line and films like "All That Jazz" and "Fame" made jazz dancing a national craze; so I was also obsessed with dance from an early age. I trained in jazz, tap and ballet and performed as a dancer in musicals for many years, and I am reminded every day during these rehearsals how thrilling it is to move. I am really proud and happy to say that...well... I still got it!

I have an interesting history with the incredible genius of Frank Loesser, best known for How To Succeed... as well as the immortal Guys and Dolls and Most Happy Fella, not to mention the countless songs he wrote for the musical movies of the Golden Age of Hollywood, songs that became an indelible part of our collective American culture: "Baby, It's Cold Outside;" "Heart and Soul;" Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition;" and so many more. A number of years ago, I was asked to be a part of a revue of Loesser's songs created and directed by Richard Sabellico, entitled Heart and Soul. Loesser's widow, the Broadway singer/actress Jo Sullivan Loesser, had long wished to commission a successful retrospective of Frank's work, and this project was intended to fulfill that objective. All the text for the revue was quoted from things Frank Loesser actually wrote or said, and it was chock full of his greatest songs. At the time, I was still a well known female impersonator, specializing in portraying Marlene Dietrich, for whom Loesser wrote what became signature numbers, most notably the saloon song "The Boys in the Back Room." So in the revue I appeared as Dietrich and as Bette Davis (singing "They're Either Too Young or Too Old" written for Davis for the wartime flick "Hollywood Canteen"), then led the finale as myself in the wonderful Guys and Dolls number "Sit Down You're Rockin' the Boat." The show was presented at a regional theatre but never made it to New York; however, it was such a great experience, and to this day I still use the Tiffany key chain Jo Loesser gave each of us performers on opening night, with a heart shaped charm on it engraved with "H&S" for Heart and Soul. I understand Ms. Loesser is coming to see our production, as she is passionately dedicated to the preservation of Frank Loesser's works. It will be nice to be reacquainted with this legendary lady.

So we are off and running, and I look forward to giving you a peek at the inside of this process. Stay tuned!

"HOW TO SUCCEED" CASTING ANNOUNCED!

2010-08-19T11:48:00.003-04:00

Goodspeed Musicals has announced the cast of "How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying." I am excited to have the chance to work with such a talented cast, led by Ronn Carroll, a veteran actor and Goodspeed favorite who is reprising his role of Mr. Biggley, having performed it in the last Broadway revival starring Matthew Broderick. Playing the lead role of J. Pierrepont Finch is Brian Sears, whose Broadway credits include the recent "Lend Me a Tenor", "Finian's Rainbow" and "Grease."

The cast will also feature Natalie Bradshaw as Rosemary Pilkington (Natalie and I did "The Nutty Professor" readings together and she is adorable!); Nicolette Hart as Hedy LaRue; Erin McGuire as Smitty; Jennifer Smith as Miss Jones; Richard Vida as Mr. Twimble/Wally Womper; Aaron Serotsky as Bratt; plus, Jerry Christakos, Lianne Marie Dobbs, Sara Marie Hicks, Matthew Kilgore, Natalie Newman, Brian Ogilvie, Kristin Piro, John Scacchetti, Drew Taylor, Micki Weiner, and--ME. Tom Deckman, another "Spamalot" alum who was so brilliant on tour and on Broadway as Prince Herbert, will play Bud Frump. He has incredible comedic talents and I am looking forward to working with him!

I leave for East Haddam in about a week and a half and am looking forward to getting down to work!

Goodspeed Redux

2010-07-29T13:44:00.005-04:00

JAMES BEAMAN RETURNS TO GOODSPEED OPERA HOUSE FOR "HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING"

In a surprising turn of events, Goodspeed Musicals has invited me back to perform in their fall production of "How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying." This is a classic of the musical theatre repertoire, a Tony and Pulitzer Prize winning hit, with a fantastic score by Frank Loesser. It is interesting timing that Goodspeed is producing the show, as it is going to have a Broadway revival next spring starring Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame.

I found it kind of ironic that I was offered the show, after having discovered (as detailed in an earlier blog post) that one of my costume pieces from "Annie Get Your Gun" had been made for Robert Morse, who was the original star of "How To Succeed...!" Maybe the vest was a magic talisman of sorts! However, I am not coming back to play J. Pierrepont Finch.
I am going to be playing the role of Mr. Gatch, one of the executives, and dancing and singing with the ensemble. This will be an interesting experience for me. 2010 marks my 20th year as a professional actor, and it will be exactly 20 years to the month I begin rehearsals for "How To Succeed" that I last performed as ensemble! It was 1990, and my last non-Equity job before I joined the union. I was in the ensemble and had a feature as Tommy Tucker, the cabin boy, in Huntington Theatre Company's production of "H.M.S. Pinafore."

So, this should be an interesting adventure. I went to be measured for the custom made 1960's menswear that will be built for me, which is kind of cool. I understand our director, Greg Ganakas, is inspired for this production by the hit TV series, Mad Men, so I expect we will be a snazzy lot. Stay tuned, more details, casting etc to come!

RECENT, CURRENT AND UPCOMING!

2010-07-22T13:43:00.005-04:00

JAMES BEAMAN PLAYS 'DUKE THESEUS' IN THE RARELY PERFORMED "TWO NOBLE KINSMEN" AT THE FOLGER THEATRE WITH TAFFETY PUNK THEATRE COMPANY, MONDAY JULY 26TH.

GOODSPEED MUSICALS INVITED JAMES BACK TO PERFORM IN "HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING!" THE PRODUCTION RUNS SEPTEMBER 24 THROUGH NOVEMBER 28 AT GOODSPEED OPERA HOUSE, EAST HADDAM, CT.

BEAMAN STARRED AS 'NORMAN' IN A STAGED READING OF RONALD HARWOOD'S "THE DRESSER" ON MONDAY, JULY 19 IN WASHINGTON, D.C., PRODUCED BY TAFFETY PUNK THEATRE COMPANY, AND CO-STARRING FOUR TIME HELEN HAYES AWARD WINNING ACTOR EDWARD GERO AS 'SIR.'

STAY TUNED TO THIS SPACE FOR MORE UPDATES AND JAMES' BLOG...!

ANNIE GET YOUR GUN: Finale

2010-06-30T13:10:00.000-04:00

"In my end is my beginning."
~T.S. Eliot

And so our journey with "Annie Get Your Gun" comes to a close. What a great opportunity to rediscover a classic, and what a great way to make my debut with Goodspeed Musicals. Anybody who performs in musical theatre in this country knows the standard that Goodspeed represents, so to be invited to work here is truly a special honor and I have greatly enjoyed my time. I want to take this opportunity to give my thanks to our great director, Rob Ruggiero, the brilliant musical director Michael O'Flaherty and our talented choreographer Noah Racey; to the wonderful stage management team of Brad, Derek and Alicia, and their phenomenal crew, who bring so much heart and so much integrity to what they do; to Bill Thomas and our exceptional band who make eight musicians sound like a full orchestra! Thank you to Kristan and her splendid company management team! And heartfelt thanks to Mr. Michael Price, to Donna Lynn Hilton, and to Bob Alwine for producing such fine theatre and for inviting me to be a part of it all. And of course, much gratitude to Dave and Lucille Viola, our show's sponsors, who treated each of us like gold and who redefine the phrase "patrons of the arts."

From here I will get to enjoy my first summer in New York City in more than three years, and I am looking forward to being in my own space and planting out my first terrace garden. On July 19, I will participate in a very special reading of a brilliant play in Washington, DC; for various reasons I can't say much about that yet, but a full report will follow... On July 26, as I have announced previously, I will return to my classical roots and play Duke Theseus in the rarely produced Shakespeare and Fletcher classic, "The Two Noble Kinsmen." This is one in a series of "Bootleg Shakespeare" productions that my gifted friends at Taffety Punk Theatre Company mastermind. The company received the first ever emerging theatre award at DC's prestigious Helen Hayes Awards this year and they do exciting work; adding to the excitement is the venue for this production, the stage of the Folger Theatre, a gorgeous recreation of an Elizabethan playhouse in the historic Folger Shakespeare Library. Should be thrilling stuff, and of course, I will blog about the event.

In closing, I will say that every production I am a part of teaches me something new--about myself, about the work, about the virtues and foibles of all us human beings. I take away a couple of good friends who I hope will remain good friends; and there are one or two people to whom I genuinely wish good fortune and long life, but with whom I do not share the same values and sensibilities, something I deem essential if one is to use the word friendship. We managed to work together in an intense, fairly close environment for four months and to do our jobs to the best of our abilities and give the audience the best show possible. For that we must all walk away proud and with a sense of accomplishment. I want to give a shout out to the company of "Carnival!" and wish them all a splendid run in this charming theatre. I've no doubt they will bring great pleasure to the lucky audiences who will enjoy the fruits of their labors.

During my first weeks here, as I was exploring the small, charming towns that surround East Haddam, I ventured into a fancy ceramics shop in nearby Chester. The store sells brightly colored majolica style ceramics imported from Tuscany, and on one wall they displayed hand painted plaques portraying various Catholic saints. I enquired with them if they had one for St. Genesius. Now, I'm Jewish myself, but I rather like the idea of patron saints; special envoys dedicated to specific professions or fields of endeavor who accept special prayers.
St. Genesius is the patron saint of actors. His story is that he was an actor in ancient Rome and was hired to perform a propaganda play against Christianity for the Emperor. While he was enacting his role, which required him to reject a proffered baptism, an image of angels appeared to him and, essentially, he improvised a new script, declaring himself a Christian convert and asking to be baptized right there on stage. After the enraged Emperor had him tortured to force him to renounce his conversion, Genesius refused and was beheaded. I leave the Connecticut River Valley in possession of my new talisman commemorating brave St. Genesius. Hopefully, he will hear the prayers of an itinerant actor 'at liberty' in New York, and send me a great new opportunity.

Stay tuned for all the happenings to come in my little corner of the theatrical world, and best wishes for a grand Independence Day celebration and a glorious summer!!

ANNIE GET YOUR GUN: Week Fifteen

2010-06-25T09:24:00.009-04:00

"ANNIE GET YOUR GUN" CLOSES ON JULY 3!

JAMES BEAMAN WILL JOIN TAFFETY PUNK THEATRE COMPANY AT THE HISTORIC FOLGER THEATRE TO PLAY THESEUS IN "THE TWO NOBLE KINSMEN" ON JULY 26.

We are moving into the final stretch with "Annie Get Your Gun," and the entire company is feeling the first pangs as we watch the calendar wind down on this special production. Summer is in full flower here in the Connecticut River Valley, the boaters and bikers are out enjoying the fine sultry weather, and the lovely air conditioned Goodspeed Opera House has been full to capacity. We all hear exciting things about "Carnival!", the next Goodspeed offering, which promises to provide chills and thrills with its diverse company of acrobats, singers and dancers. The show is based on the 1950s film, "Lili," which was one of my favorites as a kid. It's from a novella by Paul Gallico ("The Snow Goose," "The Poseidon Adventure") about a disillusioned dancer who returns wounded from the war and is forced to take up work as a puppeteer in a traveling carnival; an innocent waif wanders into the world of the carnival and brings love and wonder back into the wounded dancer's life. Quite a beautiful story. We are hoping we will get a chance to see a run through of the show before we pack up and leave East Haddam.

I thought I would devote my blog this week to a subject that has been very much occupying my thoughts of late: an actor's ambition. I don't think there has been an actor, since time immemorial, who has not entered upon his career with thoughts of glory. No one sets out as a performer with the dream of being a supporting player, or of filling out a crowd scene. No dancer labors daily at the barre without a passionate vision of him or herself thrilling audiences from center stage. No singer runs through their daily scales thinking, boy, would I love to sing backup! It takes big dreams and a lot of guts to commit to a career as a performer and the fuel for that fire is a dream of greatness and success on the highest levels. Of course, as one matures, these dreams become tempered by experience, hard knocks and a realization of the hierarchical and whimsical nature of the profession. One then finds oneself perhaps shedding one's glorious visions of stardom, and scaling one's ambition back to a simple wish: Please, Lord, just let me be hired to do something.

I was a precocious child, and my early exposure to the theatre was through my brilliant artist parents, so I had a more intense and informed notion of the theatrical profession than most kids.
I became obsessed with the idea of greatness, and I learned that the great actors of history were those that assayed the great roles of Shakespeare and the classics. I began, at the age of 12 or 13, to read voraciously about the grand traditions of British theatre; I collected books about Laurence Olivier, who, in my youth, was the acknowledged 'greatest living actor.' I devoured the plays of Shakespeare and I produced tiny paper spectacles of his plays on my little toy theatre stage, playing all the characters as I recorded the voices, with suitably dramatic musical accompaniment, on my cassette recorder. I saw myself as being the American inheritor of the legacy of the great classical actors: Garrick, Kean, Macready, Gielgud, Olivier.

It was a strange sort of bewilderment that overtook me when I got into undergraduate drama school and realized that my teachers had a very different idea of what my trajectory as an actor would be. A 5'6" actor playing the great heroes of Shakespeare?? Pish posh, my boy. You are a character actor!
(Never mind that Edmund Kean, one of the greatest actors the theatre has ever known, was shorter than I). I spent four years playing walk ons, old men, and bit character parts, all the while hungering to tackle the great parts. When I graduated and pursued training in London, the head of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art auditioned me and told me that my vocal instrument was not dramatic enough to speak Shakespeare and I should pursue other avenues of expression. Devastating criticism such as this further eroded my confidence and I began to cultivate other, more marketable skills--like singing and dancing. Musical theatre requires enormous technical prowess, larger than life presence, and great skill, and, in our country, the highest level of the theatrical profession, Broadway, is dominated by musical theatre. My young ambitions were not limited to being an interpreter of the great classical roles, but also performing in lavish Broadway shows that would take their place in the annals of theatre history.

Over the years my ambitions continue to burn within me. And often, I have struggled to get the profession to see me as I see myself; one of the great frustrations is to know, with greater and greater certainty as one develops as an actor and matures as a man, the astonishing things one is capable of and to find oneself frustrated by the vagaries of the profession. It appears one can't get on Broadway without Broadway credits; one can't get hired to play leading classical roles at major theatres unless one already has such credits, or unless one attended one of three elite acting schools. The business is hierarchical, it is a sort of ladder--and one's importance and value are tied up inextricably in what opportunities have been thrown one's way, regardless of the years of training, effort and persistence. The leading actors get the best housing, they get the highest salaries, they get the standing ovations, and their names are mentioned in the reviews. It can be a demoralizing experience to know with the certainty of every cell in one's body that one is a leading actor, and stand upstage watching someone else get the glory.

I do not, for one moment, devalue the work that has come my way. I have not had the easiest road as an actor and have had to log in more than my share of hours at thankless day jobs, year in and year out. Few actors I know appreciate and revel in the simple wonder of being EMPLOYED as an actor more than I, and I always apply my best efforts and the highest level of commitment and skill to each role I play, large or small. It is what gives my journey meaning. Knowing that I have given my best helps me to look in the mirror each morning with a sense of pride and self respect. But there are times when I wonder if I will yet fulfill that 12 year old's grand dreams of success. Over the years, I have produced my own work in an effort to be in the leading position. I created six different shows for the cabaret stage, two of these intended to become a full length theatre piece. I tailored my shows to my unique talents, I hired musicians and designers and press agents and financed all of it with my earnings from a retail job and an inflated VISA card. I went back to school at the age of 38 and earned a master's degree in classical acting in order to reclaim my original goal of doing the great roles of Shakespeare. And I have had the chance to play a few: Macbeth, Mercutio, Talbot. And even now, I am in the process of motivating a couple of projects just so I will have the opportunity to play meaty, challenging roles that the profession may not ever give me the chance to play. I wonder, sometimes, in the dark silent hours, whether or not I will ever achieve what I set out to achieve; whether or not this profession--so whimsically and stubbornly attached to the trappings of fame and success and so cowardly about taking risks on extraordinary talents and ideas--will ever give me the chance to shine my true light and unleash my true power. Perhaps the only thing to do is not to wait. To make it happen myself. I am reading a fascinating book right now about little known British actor Donald Wolfit, who was one of the last great actor-managers, touring his own Shakespearean company and playing all the great roles in the canon. He was not the ideal of the leading actor of his time, but he knew what his destiny was, and he seized the reins of his own career unequivocally and undeniably. I will close with a quote from that book that inspires me these days and helps fan my inner flame.

"'I must back myself or not be backed at all,' he wrote. All his life, this ambition had been constant. From bitter experience, he must have realized how little he conformed to the fashionable ideal of leading man; he was, by nature, too impatient to wait to be asked to play the great roles which he longed to encompass." ~ Ronald Harwood, "Donald Wolfit"

ANNIE GET YOUR GUN: Week Fourteen

2010-06-18T08:00:00.000-04:00

TWO MORE WEEKS OF "ANNIE GET YOUR GUN" AT GOODSPEED OPERA HOUSE!

JAMES BEAMAN WILL PLAY THESEUS IN "THE TWO NOBLE KINSMEN" AT FOLGER THEATRE IN WASHINGTON, DC ON JULY 26.

This week I decided to do a special Father's Day blog post. After five or six years not having seen each other, my Dad and I recently reunited for a nice visit at his remote country home in the Berkshires. Due to his advanced age and numerous health challenges, my Dad doesn't venture far from his place out in the woods. Consequently, it can be difficult to visit with him unless one drives out there, and in recent years, what with touring and other commitments, I have not had the opportunity. So it was a special treat to use my day off this week and drive out to beautiful Charlemont, MA to see him and catch up.

My father was a scenic designer and master scenic artist for over 30 years, and taught design in the theatre department at Boston University.
He is one of the last exponents of the traditional manner of scene painting (which he jokingly refers to as "18th century" scenic art), creating multi-dimensional tromp l'oeil illusions with only paint on canvas. It would not be an overstatement to say that Don Beaman is a genius, and that his brilliant talent inspired numerous successful designers and scenic artists over the course of several generations. His work is in scene design text books; designers like Eugene Lee credit him with providing formative training for them. You can imagine the kind of colorful childhood I enjoyed, spending hours with him in his basement paint studio at home, at his drafting table at BU, and in the various paint studios where he created his magic, painting enormous theatrical sets and backdrops. Dad is an expert on art history, theatre history, architecture, life drawing and numerous other disciplines related to his art. He has an extraordinary mind and a wealth of knowledge at his fingertips.

In addition to his work in the theatre, he has also applied both his intellect and his artistry to the study of ancient civilizations, esotericism, and spirituality, and he has written multiple volume texts on ancient symbolism, as well as created his own Tarot card deck, The Tarot of Saqqara, inspired by ancient Egypt. This latter project resulted in a series of enormous canvases he painted for each of the major Tarot cards. Has has also painted numerous works reflecting his interest in the occult, pagan ritual and ancient spiritual rites. In short, my Dad is a brilliant man, and it was so good to reconnect with him. He has promised me a couple of his large paintings for my bare walls in New York City and I plan to get back up there before "Annie Get Your Gun" closes to claim these masterpieces.

My relationship with my Dad has been like many others--complicated, fraught with some disappointment, disillusionment, and disconnection. Perhaps it is the gift of getting older, but as the years pass I remember the good more than the negative, and acknowledge the incredible influence he has had on me creatively, aesthetically, and the degree of appreciation he has imparted to me for history, tradition, art, and culture. Because of my Dad I have a working knowledge of many periods of art and architecture; I possess facts and trivia about the history of the theatre and the many personalities who peopled it over the centuries; due to his love of music, particularly the American Songbook and the musical theatre traditions, and his extensive collection of albums, I have a deep appreciation for the traditions of American music. He inspired me to strive for artistry and excellence in my work, insisting on the best in myself, and leaving no stone unturned in my thirst to know and understand everything I can about my profession. The legacy he has provided me with is priceless. A theatre artist could not have chosen two more brilliant creative spirits as my parents and I am about as lucky as any actor could be. Happy Father's Day, Dad. I will continue to be the best I can be.

ANNIE GET YOUR GUN: Week Thirteen

2010-06-13T12:10:00.002-04:00

ONLY THREE MORE WEEKS OF "ANNIE GET YOUR GUN" AT GOODSPEED!

When I was blogging my two years on the road with "Spamalot," there were times when I would sit down to write and would struggle trying to come up with something interesting to fill my weekly blog post. Often, just writing whatever came to me would yield some surprisingly good stuff; so as I sit down to a blank screen with a blank mind, I am hoping for the best!

Our show continues to play to enthusiastic audiences and the press to date has been nothing but rapturous about the production and performances, if not, alas, for Peter Stone's adapted book for the show. The script has gotten the brunt of the negative commentary, and, while I agree it is not the strongest book, and it contains some rather hokey humor, it is definitely an improvement on the original. I must say it has not gotten in the way of the audience's enjoyment of the show. I have had visits from a few friends who have come in to catch the production, and this weekend Rebecca Watson's friend Peter Marx, who played Charlie Davenport in the Broadway production of this adaptation of "Annie Get Your Gun," was here and had some very complimentary things to say about my performance. Phew!

We are beginning the inevitable winding down of this show. Next week, the cast of "Carnival!," the second offering of the Goodspeed season, arrives to start work. Our performers are redoubling their efforts on the audition trail and hustling to secure the next gig; some are preparing for the role that they have waiting for them beyond our closing on July 3. Along with the nerves about what comes next is a renewed enthusiasm for our show and a more conscious enjoyment of the last remaining performances. My next thing is somewhat up in the air. I have a couple interesting one night events in Washington, DC next month, but beyond that nothing firm has been secured. In my younger days I would have been pacing the floor in anxiety and stressing about this nebulous future, but now I accept it as par for the course, and am confident that the next right thing will appear for me.

Meantime, I continue to enjoy the lush and beautiful summer landscape of the Connecticut River Valley, despite persistent and torrential rains, and am using the handy rental car I have out here to make visits to family and friends on days off and to shuttle back and forth between here and New York for auditions and callbacks. Whenever I may be tempted to stress about the future, I remind myself to savor the present moment and the good fortune of being a working actor in a splendid production. Being in the now and expressing appreciation and gratitude for one's blessings is the surest way to a happy life. I hope that this finds you cherishing your present moment. More next week.

ANNIE GET YOUR GUN: Week Twelve

2010-06-05T07:31:00.006-04:00

ONLY FOUR MORE WEEKS OF "ANNIE GET YOUR GUN" AT GOODSPEED OPERA HOUSE!

"After one of the most lackluster Broadway seasons in recent memory, "Annie Get Your Gun" is a welcoming tonic... notable performers include James Beaman as Buffalo Bill's right hand man, Charlie Davenport." --Stu Brown, Stu on Broadway

JAMES BEAMAN WILL PLAY DUKE THESEUS IN "THE TWO NOBLE KINSMEN" WITH TAFFETY PUNK THEATRE COMPANY AT THE FOLGER THEATRE, WASHINGTON, D.C., JULY 26!

As I mentioned in my last blog post, I have been offered a chance to participate in the latest Bootleg Shakespeare production with Taffety Punk Theatre Company. They've offered me the hefty leading role of Theseus in Shakespeare and Fletcher's rarely produced "The Two Noble Kinsmen." Once I have learned all 324 lines of this central character, I will show up at the legendary Folger Theatre on July 26 for a breakneck few hours of rehearsal and then perform with the company for a packed house. Theatre at its edgiest!

And now for a little blogging from Goodspeed...

This week's post is about the temporary family that every production gives birth to. Theatre is a collaborative form, requiring intense creative exchange between all of the participants in a production, from actors, to design team, to stage management, to crew and musicians. In the course of rehearsing and performing, friendships--some of them to last a lifetime--will form; inevitably, the demands of the work and the intensity of the process will give birth to squabbles, misunderstandings and compromises. This is true in any family, but even more so amongst a bunch of dramatic theatre types! The longer the run, the more complex and dynamic the company's internal relationships become, and it is a testament to Goodspeed Musicals that for the most part, they gather together people of like minds and temperaments who not only work well together but who enjoy their off time communally as well.

Many who have worked here fondly call this place "Camp Goodspeed." While this is a top notch, Tony Award-winning regional theatre, part of its charm is that it retains a feeling of old fashioned summer stock, from the quaint New England town of East Haddam, to the charming Opera House with it's communal dressing rooms, to the various company houses--many of them from the 18th and 19th centuries--which we all share. I'll level with you: I am not the greatest at communal living. I am, by nature, a loner. I crave quiet and privacy, and am also a fastidious neat freak, which makes sharing a kitchen with five other people a sometimes less than delightful experience for me! I am at an age when I'm a bit set in my ways, and sometimes it can be a challenge to accommodate the habits of an assortment of people with whom one must share a space. That said, we do manage to have some good times, whether it be group game nights or poker tournaments, or cookouts, or "American Idol" viewing gatherings. Goodspeed does all it can to make us comfortable and provide each of us with a private room and bathroom; to that end, they are working diligently, in cooperation with the town of East Haddam, to construct a charming 'village' of brand new actor houses which they expect to be completed, at the very least, in time for next season. A very exciting development for all who work here.

This week, I enjoyed the benefit of my temporary "Annie Get Your Gun" family with a delightful day of barbecue, sun and fun, celebrating Memorial Day At gorgeous Harkness Memorial State Park in nearby Waterford. I was invited by our adorable star, Jenn Gambatese, who had planned the cookout with some of her friends from the area, and a few of us actors joined her, her sweet little girl, JoJo, and husband Curtis at the park.
Harkness is a sprawling state park, complete with grassy lawns and a small stretch of rocky beach, crowned by the summer mansion of the wealthy Harkness family, Eolia, a beautiful 1906 edifice surrounded by colonnaded terraces and lush gardens, which is open during the summer season for all to enjoy. It was a truly wonderful and quintessentially American holiday that we enjoyed, catching rays, watching the babies practice their wobbly new walking skills, feasting on burgers and franks, not to mention a spontaneous and entertaining whiffle ball game which attracted an entire group of rough-and-tumble little boys from all around the park. I reveled in the fun of meeting new people and of getting a chance to get to know Jenn and her family, as well as the other actors who shared the day with me.

A view of Eolia, the Harkness Mansion

While we all love the work of the theatre, and spend the majority of our time as actors hustling and auditioning for the chance to do that work we love, it is an added benefit far and beyond the joy of creative endeavor to live and work with such fine and loving people as Goodspeed has gathered to do this production. It says a lot about the values of our employers as well as the supporters and community that embrace the theatre, that "Camp Goodspeed" is as joyous an experience as it is for all involved. As we embark on our final month of performances, I already am hopeful that I will get a chance to come back and work in this unique environment again.

WHAT'S COMING UP NEXT

2010-05-28T23:07:00.009-04:00

JAMES BEAMAN CONTINUES AS CHARLIE DAVENPORT IN "ANNIE GET YOUR GUN" AT GOODSPEED OPERA HOUSE THROUGH JULY 3!

The show was warmly received by the press, and was nominated for six Connecticut Critics Circle Awards, winning two: Best Actress in a Musical: Jenn Gambatese, and Best Choreography: Noah Racey.

No blogging this week from Goodspeed, but wanted to share what's coming up for me beyond "Annie Get Your Gun."

JAMES BEAMAN WILL PERFORM IN SHAKESPEARE'S "TWO NOBLE KINSMEN" WITH TAFFETY PUNK THEATRE COMPANY AT THE FOLGER THEATER IN WASHINGTON, D.C., MONDAY, JULY 26.

I am happy to say that I will be participating in one of the most exciting projects of the Taffety Punk Theatre Company, the next in their Bootleg Shakespeare series.
I was lucky enough to be in the very first of these events, a production of "Cymbeline" which was one of the highlights of my career to date. The Bootleg concept is simple: assign a cast of talented, classically trained actors roles in a Shakespeare play, instruct them to learn their lines and report to the performance space the day of the show for a few brief hours of staging rehearsal with director Lise Bruneau, then perform the play before a packed house of enthusiastic Bardolators who got in for FREE. It is like being shot out of a canon. And the play comes magically and vitally to life. The next of the series will be "The Two Noble Kinsmen" and will be at the Folger Theatre in D.C. Monday July 26. More details to come! For more information on Taffety Punk Theatre Company: http://www.taffetypunk.com/

ANNIE GET YOUR GUN: Week Ten

2010-05-23T12:00:00.001-04:00

"James Beaman plays Charlie Davenport with a New Yorker's wily acumen." ~Hartford Courant

"ANNIE GET YOUR GUN" PLAYS THROUGH JULY 3 AT GOODSPEED OPERA HOUSE!

This week, for several reasons, I chose to stay in East Haddam for the days off. It's amazing how long and luxurious those two days can feel when I'm not motoring back and forth to New York, hustling to auditions and various appointments in the city. During my free time I spent a few hours exploring the extraordinary archives of the Scherer Musical Theatre Library at Goodspeed. This great facility is the only library in the U.S. solely devoted to the preservation and advancement of musical theatre through the collection of performance materials for research and study. Its collection of scripts, scores, sheet music, playbills and other materials is second only to that of Lincoln Center's Performing Arts Library in New York. You can just imagine what a boon this place is for the performers who work here. Not only am I always committed to expanding my knowledge of the craft and the history of my work, but as an actively auditioning performer, I am forever seeking great songs and monologue material for use in auditions--preferably material that is more obscure and not as commonly used by other actors. The Scherer Library provides unfettered access to a wealth of material that may be completely unavailable elsewhere.

I had an audition this week for a prominent Shakespeare festival, for which I was required to perform two monologues, one classic and one contemporary, as well as a song from a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta.
I selected a tune from "Patience," one of the lesser known G&S shows, which lampooned the aesthetic movement in the Victorian era. The Scherer Library had a complete score and libretto of the piece, and librarian and education director Josh Ritter was able to take an old LP of a British recording of the operetta and transfer my song from an analog to a digital track right there, sending me away with a CD of the music I needed to study! While I was waiting, I looked through the library's extensive collection of play scripts, and happened to find a very, very funny comic monologue which completely captivated me, and which I have spent my days off memorizing and working up for this audition. While I admit I am a theatre dork, the discovery of a new and workable comedic monologue that can serve me in auditions for years to come is a real find.

I was also able to help out one of my performer friends who needed a song from a rather obscure contemporary musical. The song is not available in published vocal selections from the show, even though it is included on the original cast album, and my friend had searched the Lincoln Center Library for the score, to no avail. Wouldn't you know the library here had the entire score, in a copy of the original, unpublished manuscript? I was able to take the song and fax it to my friend, who will be able to use it for his own audition next week. While I want to toot the horn of this amazing resource center, it's so wonderfully managed and so easily utilized here at Goodspeed, I rather selfishly don't want to see it get too popular! I am only kidding. Really, folks, if you are a lover of the musical theatre genre, or a scholar or performing professional who desires access to some really valuable material, the Scherer Library is something to know about. Goodspeed Musicals truly gives back to us all by dedicating space, manpower and resources to this great institution.

Another way Goodspeed gives back is through educational outreach programs, and they offer all us visiting artists the opportunity to participate. These opportunities can involve anything from pre- and post-show discussions with audiences and school groups, to classes and workshops with area students.
This week, the talented Molly Tynes, one of our ensemble dancers, and I devised a workshop on auditioning for a group of ten students from the Community Music School in nearby Essex. These kids study voice and music and theatre and every summer participate in a musical production with the school, so they have a passion for musical theatre. Auditioning is an integral and essential component of the actor's career, and requires a set of skills that need to be developed above and beyond the training a performer receives in their craft. Auditioning draws upon one's interpersonal skills, one's ability to improvise, and challenges the performer to develop methods of relaxation and of presenting one's best self in an intense and concentrated encounter with potential employers. Through question and answer and a series of exercises, Molly and I encouraged the students to focus on their strengths, both as performers and as people, knowing who they are and the unique combination of qualities they project.
Then we asked the kids to present 16 bars of a song and set things up like an actual audition. We were not only impressed by the abilities of these talented teenagers, but by the way in which they took our direction and coaching. The results in just a couple of hours were really inspiring. It reminded me how vital it is for older, established artists to provide encouragement and positive reinforcement to budding young talents, and I felt so grateful for that reminder. Revisiting the wonder and excitement of a young performer finding his or her self expression helped me to realize that I need to keep those same energies alive in myself as I pursue my own work. Thank you to Josh and the education department at the theatre for a stimulating classroom opportunity, and best of luck to our ten young aspirants! Carpe diem!

ANNIE GET YOUR GUN: Week Nine

2010-05-14T09:12:00.019-04:00

Left, as Charlie, with David McDonald, Jenn Gambatese and Kevin Earley (photo: Diane Sobolewski)

THE SHOW OFFICIALLY OPENED MAY 12! REVIEWS TO COME! JAMES BEAMAN CONTINUES AS CHARLIE DAVENPORT THROUGH JULY 3.

My Mom and I are Facebook friends, and recently she got hold of a scanner and posted a bunch of photos from the days when she ran her acting company and school in my hometown of Beverly, MA. It was there that I really started my journey as an actor and received all my early formative training.
At the age of 13, I was taking acting, singing, mime, and all forms of dance, as well as playing roles in children's theatre and in the adult productions whenever there was a part for a precocious kid! Seeing those photos of me as a child actor made me think of the three talented youngsters who are playing Annie Oakley's siblings in "Annie Get Your Gun," and I thought I would devote this week's blog to profiling the littlest "Goodspeeders."

I was bitten by the acting bug very early, and my childhood was full of creativity and grand dreams of playing on Broadway. The first Broadway show I ever saw was "Annie" (which, as you may know, began its life here at Goodspeed), and I was so elated to see kids my age on that stage singing and dancing in a glittering Broadway production. I idolized the show's star, Andrea McArdle, and played the original cast album until it was worn out. As far as I was concerned, my life's path was set--I would be an actor, and one day star in a Broadway show myself. I see the same passion and starry eyed enthusiasm in our three talented junior cast members, Marissa Smoker, Joy Rachel Del Valle, and Griffin Birney, who play Nellie, Jessie, and Little Jake, respectively.

Marissa Smoker, Joy Rachel Del Valle, Griffin Birney with Jenn Gambatese (photo: Diane Sobolewski)

Marissa, who is our resident firecracker--a real ball of energy-- started her theatrical career in community theatre alongside her Mom, who is a lover of show biz and has been coming to Goodspeed shows since she was a kid. In fact, Marissa's stage debut was at the age of one in her Mom's arms in a production of "Dearly Departed." When one of her young friends was cast in the Broadway production of "Mary Poppins," Marissa, 12, begged her parents to get her a New York agent. She has been auditioning in New York for a couple of years, and taking dance, acting and voice lessons. She recently played Young Dorothy in a feature film, "Witches of Oz," with Sean Astin and Christopher Lloyd. Ultimately, Marissa wants to attend FIT and become a fashion designer. No doubt her spunk and bubbly personality will take her far, wherever her creative aspirations lead her.

Joy, who, at 15, is really more a young lady than a kid, is extraordinarily talented and mature for her age. She has a quiet sweetness about her and has truly been like a big sister to her younger cast mates. She possesses a strong and beautiful singing voice and speaks passionately and articulately about her love of theatre and her ambition to get good training at a reputable college theatre program and pursue a career in musical theatre. She has already performed at several professional regional theatres in this area, including the highly respected Hartford Stage. Citing "Glee" star Lea Michele as one of her idols, Joy is well on her way to becoming a lovely singer/actress.

Griffin, a diminutive and serious little actor, who one day hopes to be a lawyer (smart kid!), is incredibly bright and inquisitive. He recently underwent intense training in dance as part of a 'camp' that develops young performers to potentially take on roles in the musical juggernaut, "Billy Elliot," which features exceptionally gifted kids and has multiple companies around the US and abroad. As of this writing, Griffin has been cast in the national tour of the show! What an amazing adventure awaits this lucky ten year old. Griffin reminds me so much of myself at that age--clever, precocious, talented, and full of personality.

My Mom always said I was "born in a trunk," a reference to my being brought up in a theatre family, and I would say that it is definitely in my blood. I was so lucky to have been brought up by two such talented theatre artists as my parents. The same can be said of our littlest Goodspeeder, Jenn Gambatese's enchanting daughter, Josephine, who turned one year old this week.
Jenn threw an adorable birthday party in the theatre's green room between shows on Wednesday to celebrate the occasion. JoJo is a gorgeous little creature, who seemed fascinated by all the attention. Who knows? She may follow in her Mom's talented footsteps someday. I guess the thing all theatrical kids have in common are the unsung heroes: the parents. They recognize the budding talent, they encourage those grand dreams, and they make all the sacrifices: paying for dance lessons, driving to auditions, drying tears when the role goes to someone else, leading the standing ovations on those happy opening nights.
I believe that it's important for kids to be well rounded, even if they find professional success as young actors. The best 'stage moms and dads' know this and find ways to give their talented youngsters a grounded, normal childhood. We should never forget that much of the early inspiration and nurturing that creative kids receive is in public school drama and music programs. We should do all we can to help preserve these programs, which are ever on the verge of extinction, and always the first to go when budgets are being cut. Those school plays and recitals could be the training ground for the fine performing artists of tomorrow. I am crazy about our little stars in "Annie Get Your Gun" and look forward to watching them grow and succeed.

ANNIE GET YOUR GUN: Week Eight

2010-05-07T07:30:00.001-04:00

with Rebecca Watson as Dolly Tate (photo: Diane Sobiewski)

JAMES BEAMAN CONTINUES IN "ANNIE GET YOUR GUN" AT GOODSPEED THROUGH JULY 3. OFFICIAL PRESS OPENING MAY 12!

It was suggested to me that I devote this week's blog to some thoughts about what makes a great audience. We had a house full of school kids at our Wednesday matinee, and it became obvious to all of us on stage that these youngsters had not been properly instructed as to how to behave at a live performance. The steady stream of chatter, restlessness and texting was extremely distracting to the performers and the rest of the attendees. Granted, most young kids don't get to experience live theatre all that often, and their attention spans have been formed watching TV or movies, or surfing the web. I feel that the live theatre experience is a unique and indispensable one and one that we need to keep alive by exposing kids to it and educating them on how to make it as enjoyable and exciting as it can be.

I guess the single most important thing to impress on a young audience is that they are as visible and as audible where they sit as the actors are on stage.
This seems so obvious, but when the house lights are down and the show is in progress, kids forget that the people up there are not on a screen and can see and hear everything coming across the footlights. We want to hear their reactions and their laughter, which fuel our performances, but there are certain behaviors that can be disruptive and distracting, especially in an intimate space like the Opera House. I think something that is almost never communicated fully to kids is that their responses to what we are doing become an integral part of the performance and contribute to the overall experience of the show. I feel that once they have embraced this fact, they will feel like they are making the show happen with us and might enjoy the added responsibility of that contribution.

Then there's just the issue of etiquette. And these things apply not just to youth audiences but to all live audiences. There was a time when people found themselves in social settings with large groups of people more than we usually do nowadays; whether it be church, or the theatre, or in public situations like on planes or trains, there were certain codes of behavior and social expectations that we no longer give much weight to. Still, I feel that going to the theatre, like dining in a fine restaurant, is an opportunity for us all to enjoy a little bit of formality, lending to the occasion a certain dignity and a sense of consideration for our fellow patrons and the live performers on stage and in the orchestra pit. There was a time that we didn't need someone to make a speech over the PA system before the curtain to remind people to turn off their cell phones or not to unwrap candies wrapped in cellophane during the show. People just knew what was proper and what wasn't. I am not saying that live theatre should be a stuffy affair; rather I feel like the sense of decorum adds to the specialness of the event, again, like going out for a fancy meal in a nice restaurant.

To that end, these would be my suggestions for how to educate kids to go to the theatre.

Think of the performance as a conversation between the actors and the audience. Everything we do elicits a response, whether it be audible or not. Kids should know that we want their laughter and enjoyment of the show, but they should also be aware that the people on stage have feelings, and that jeering and ridicule have no place in any social situation.

Theatre is a place to maybe put on your Sunday best, in terms of dress and behavior. Sure, I wear jeans to the theatre, but I always feel like I need to wear a nice shirt or jacket, and a decent pair of shoes. Just as I wouldn't wear flip flops and a t shirt to a fine restaurant, I wouldn't go that casual to a nice theatre. I think it's a good lesson for kids to make some extra effort in how they present themselves at the theatre--these habits can be carried over to job interviews, to family and church events, and will come in handy when the kids are grown and start dating.

Just as one wouldn't sit in a pew in church or synagogue texting or chatting on a cell phone, one shouldn't do it in a theatre. To me that's basic. And for kids, it's part of teaching them maturity and appropriate social skills. They shouldn't carry on like that in movies either. It's not just about their enjoyment of the experience, it is about every one's enjoyment.

And finally, here's a big pet peeve of mine. The curtain call is the time that the actors not only get to receive the audience's thanks and appreciation in the form of their applause, but is also the time when we can engage directly with the audience, and by bowing, express our thanks for their attention and patronage. The curtain call is not the time to leap from one's seat and race to the exit in order to be the first one out of the parking lot. Again, we can see you out there! And it's very disheartening to perform for two and a half hours and then, in the moment provided for us to share the enjoyment of the job well done with the audience, to see the backs of people leaving the theatre. Stay, everyone, and enjoy the curtain call with us. I promise you, even if it adds a few minutes to your exodus from the theatre (and the parking lot), it will enhance not only your pleasure in the experience of the show, it will give all of us on stage a feeling that what we did really mattered.

Live theatre endures, despite technological advances, streaming videos on the web, 3-D digital movies in stadium theatres; the reason for this is that human beings have an innate desire to connect and mingle and share our common humanity. And the theatre, since the days of ancient Greece, has been the place where we can do that. In an era where technology and an increasingly casual popular culture have served not to unify us, but further distance us from each other, institutions like live theatre continue to provide us with a place where we can experience the cooperative and collaborative energy of the communal moment. I love to think of patrons leaving our show feeling like they shared something special not only with us, but with each other, in a spirit of joy and satisfaction. Let's continue to expose our kids to this unique experience and educate them so they can really appreciate and enjoy the live theatre experience for many years to come.

ANNIE GET YOUR GUN: Week Seven

2010-04-29T12:43:00.000-04:00

photo by Diane Sobolewski

JAMES BEAMAN CONTINUES AS CHARLIE DAVENPORT IN "ANNIE GET YOUR GUN" AT GOODSPEED OPERA HOUSE THROUGH JULY 3!

This week's post is about Broadway dreams. I don't know a stage actor who doesn't hold Broadway as one of his or her ultimate goals. Broadway represents the highest level of achievement in American theatre, and it is the place where a stage actor can accomplish the most visibility and best income. I decided to be a Broadway star at the ripe old age of twelve! And what's interesting as I look back is that the people I went to school with, my teachers, everyone who has known me and my lifelong obsession with succeeding in this profession, have all expected that one day I would achieve that dream. It continues to be a motivator for me and a goal that feeds my ambition and my persistence in this precarious business.

Working at Goodspeed, as on the National Tour of "Spamalot," has given me the opportunity to work alongside performers who have already achieved their Broadway dreams and, in some cases, have been back to the Great White Way many times. Nearly all of my fellow principal players in this show have trod the boards on Broadway; this realization makes me feel simultaneously thrilled to be working with people of this calibre, and all the more eager to make my own Broadway debut a reality. Doing this production at Goodspeed feels like another vital step toward that achievement--this theatre represents the best of musical theatre and draws upon the rich pool of talented artists that have earned their stripes on Broadway. A handful of friends have made their Broadway debuts in the past year, most recently a very talented and dear pal who is part of the cast of the hit new revival of "La Cage Aux Folles." Sean Patrick and I met doing a production of that very show together and to see him realize his own Broadway dream fills me with great hope (and a twinge of jealousy!). I feel like I am getting closer and closer to being a part of this wonderful Broadway community of great performers doing new and exciting work.

I got a marvelous taste of this community when I attended the 24th Annual Easter Bonnet Competition at the Minskoff Theatre in New York on my day off this week. This event is the culmination of a season of fundraising by Broadway and touring companies for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, an organization that provides funds and services to people living with HIV and AIDS, and many other worthy causes. At the Easter Bonnet Competition itself, representatives from various shows put on skits and musical numbers created for the event, and each company creates an elaborate 'Easter bonnet' as part of their presentation. Celebrity judges then vote for the best performances and best bonnets, and awards are presented to those Broadway and Off-Broadway shows that raised the most money for BC/EFA. The performances were both hilarious and deeply moving and the spirit on either side of the footlights was one of love, caring and celebration. I was alternately roaring with laughter and fighting back tears, and before and after the show I was able to mingle with so many friends that I have made over my years in New York and particularly in the last few years, with my work on the "Spamalot" tour. I felt like I was already a part of the Broadway community I so want to join, and was proud and happy to be there. By the way, the annual fund drive raised over $3,000,000, a testament to the commitment of the theatre community and the generosity of its patrons.

I had a very magical experience last week while doing one of my costume changes in "Annie Get Your Gun." Goodspeed has one of the most extensive and best quality costume collections in the country; in addition to creating brand new costume creations for each production, they also acquire entire Broadway productions. It is not unusual for an actor to find him or herself wearing a costume piece that was created for a Broadway show, or that was part of the stock of one of the legendary costume rental houses in New York. I was dressing for my scene at the Brevoort Ballroom, where all of the men wear elegant white tie and tails, and I noticed an old label in the back of my cream colored waistcoat. The actor's name on it was none other than Robert Morse! I was disappointed that few of my fellow performers knew who Bobby Morse is, but personally I was excited. Morse is one of my idols, and one of the actors I feel I have strong kinship with in terms of type and personality. He was the original Finch in "How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying," for which he won a Tony and went on to make the motion picture. He also starred in the musical version of "Some Like It Hot," "Sugar"--I had the thrill of playing his role of Jerry and hope one day to get a chance to do it again. Morse won a Tony for his one man show about Truman Capote, "Tru," which was also filmed for PBS, and recently appeared in a recurring guest role on the smash hit series "Mad Men." Morse is one of those brilliant, funny, short actors that I have always been inspired by. I don't know what show the vest I wear came from, but knowing that Robert Morse wore it on Broadway makes it a lucky talisman for me. Someday, hopefully not too far in the future, an ambitious actor full of dreams will find himself wearing a costume made for me for a Broadway show, and will point to the label and exclaim, "Look! James Beaman wore this!" Well... I can dream, can't I?

ANNIE GET YOUR GUN: Week Six

2010-04-24T00:00:00.001-04:00

The show is really starting to settle into a nice groove, and our audiences have been having a ball along with us. What great, responsive crowds Goodspeed attracts! The production also continues to be refined and finessed by our director and choreographer; refinements to the staging, adjustments to the lighting. Since we are officially still in 'previews,' these kinds of tweaks are a natural part of getting it all just right before the press is invited. Those of you who followed my travel blog during my "Spamalot" tour know that I like to do some travelogue-ing along with all the back stage stuff, and share some of my adventures and photos. So...

After the rigors of tech week and the opening weekend of performances, I elected to stay back here in Connecticut for the days off Monday and Tuesday. And what a great decision it turned out to be.
The weather became pleasant and temperate, and the countryside here is in full flower--magnolias, dogwood, the lushness of lilacs, the blaze of forsythia. East Haddam has many beautiful 18th and 19th century homes, lovingly restored and expertly landscaped. A walk in almost any direction around here yields new charms to enjoy. I decided to make a visit to the Devil's Hopyard, a state park just down the road. I took a leisurely hike along a few of the circuitous trails running through the unspoiled woodlands of the park, enjoying the quiet. Had a bag lunch at the foot of the gorgeous Chapman Falls. A visit with the natural world is always so restorative and I needed it.

Tuesday I impulsively jumped in the car and drove to Old Lyme, to visit the Florence Griswold Museum. The galleries themselves were regrettably closed for an installation of a new exhibit, but I was more interested in visiting the Griswold House itself.
This old sea captain's mansion was a boarding house run by Florence Griswold, where American Impressionist artists lived and painted—often directly on the walls and doors of the house. Leading artists of the Lyme Art Colony who stayed at the boarding house were Henry Ward Ranger, Childe Hassam, and Willard Metcalf. The ground floor of the house has been restored and staged to evoke the early 20th century when the house was in its heyday.
The upper floor is a gallery displaying some magnificent works by the various artists who stayed in the house and painted the surrounding landscapes. It was such a pleasure to be able to go right up to a Childe Hassam painting and examine it, and take some photographs. The grounds around the house are beautiful, as is the riverfront in the rear of the complex. William Chadwick's artist studio, a small but charming shack, was placed here and evocatively arranged inside to really feel the way it might have back when the artist worked there. The tableaux of objects made it feel like Chadwick had just stepped out and might return any moment.

That evening, I drove to New Haven to see a play at Yale Repertory Theatre. While I was on tour, I tried often to see theatre in the various cities I played, but our performance schedule always made it difficult. At Goodspeed I have Tuesday off, and can take in a play at a regional theatre. As it happened, it was also restaurant week this week in New Haven, so I had a wonderful pre fixe meal at Zinc, a chic and popular eatery near the theatre. Yale Rep is a stunning state of the art space housed in what was the Calvary Baptist Church. I saw a dark, violent play called "Battle of Black and Dogs," by French playwright Bernard-Marie Koltes, which explores the sublimation of Africans by French profiteers. It is a raw and relentless look at racism, paranoia and inhumanity that was a bit hard to take at times, but beautifully acted. Yale represents the highest level in the training of actors and the Yale Rep is a professional artistic extension of the school's standard. I was delighted to finally see something there and enjoy the charms of New Haven for an evening.

My favorite part of this week was a visit from my Mom.
She drove down from Massachusetts to see me in the show and spend some time with me. My Mom is my biggest fan and was my first acting teacher. She owned a company called The Acting Place, Inc. in my hometown of Beverly, MA when I was a preteen and teenager. It was an incredible education that provided me with a foundation and inspired my passion for theatre. Mom's a great lady and I really enjoyed sharing the fun of "Annie Get Your Gun" with her. Nothing like sharing what you love with those you love.

ANNIE GET YOUR GUN: Week Five

2010-04-18T12:06:00.007-04:00

Me in Charlie garb with leading lady Jenn Gambatese

"Yesterday they told you you would not go far...
That night you open and there you are..."

We are officially up and running! This past Friday was our first public performance, technically the start of previews (our official press opening is May 12), and if the audience response thus far is any indication of what we can expect going forward, we will have one heck of a fun run. What a blessing to finally have that infusion of energy that comes with the connection to a live audience! This past week of technical rehearsals was brutal and tedious. I don't mind writing that, since the results were well worth the hours of tedium! Our director, Rob, is meticulous and exacting and his attention to detail is extraordinary, and at times, utterly maddening. Nothing escapes his eye, and everything matters. This is probably why we felt so able to grab the show and run with it when that first performance came. Rob's unflinching perfectionism created a strong and solid foundation for us. Thanks also have to be given to our stage manager, Brad, his assistants Alicia and Derek, and the entire crew. Goodspeed Opera House is a charming venue but it has more than its share of challenges and idiosyncrasies. The primary issue is the plentiful lack of back stage space. There are virtually no wings in this theatre--one walks off stage and has to duck behind a narrow curtain or plaster oneself up against a wall to avoid being seen. Consequently, in a big musical where multiple people, props and set pieces are being hustled on and off the stage, an elaborate system of traffic management has to be devised. The stage managers and crew, by now so expert at this game, have mastered these challenges admirably--I doubt anyone out front (except perhaps those on the very far sides of the house) have any clue how truly shallow it is back stage, or that the movement of bodies back there is more intricately choreographed than any of the show's dance numbers!

The limitations of the theatre also pose challenges to the designers, inspiring ingenious and brilliant solutions. Our set designer has used forced perspective and other artistic applications to create an illusion of depth and space, and employed old fashioned roll drops (rather like enormous window shades) that seem to "fly" in and out; our lighting designer has broken up the space with layers of light and color; and our costume designer has capitalized on the rich fabrics and flowing skirts of the 1880's to transform a small ensemble into a teeming crowd. Our orchestrator, together with our brilliant musical director, have given the sound of a full orchestra to our talented band of eight. Now I know why Goodspeed's productions have always been so acclaimed and respected. It takes extraordinary talent and creativity to present such detailed and spectacular shows on this stage. But don't get me wrong--the Opera House is a wonderful place to perform. Acoustically it is very bright and resonant, and there is something really terrific about performing a show set in the same period in which the theatre was built. It's like stepping back in time. Magical. Musical theatre, like jazz, is a true American art form, and to see a classic like "Annie Get Your Gun" performed in a theatre steeped in history and Americana, in a charming old New England town, must be a unique and thrilling experience for our audiences.

Knowing the pressures being brought to bear upon the company this past week, Goodspeed's staff took very good care of us all, providing meals to the hardworking crew, and making sure that all of us had what we needed. We were feted right royally at a party to celebrate our first performance at the Gelston House next door to the theatre. I am sure I speak for most of my fellow artists when I say that I feel very much appreciated here and it really makes it easier to do the work. I must say that my admiration for our star, Jenn Gambatese, is limitless. This is Jenn's first role since having her gorgeous baby, Josephine, and she could not have chosen a more demanding part to tackle for her comeback! Annie sings at least ninety percent of the music in this show and is rarely off stage. Jenn is not only handling the demands of a challenging part while struggling with seasonal allergies (we are all coping with the onslaught of Spring!) and the full time job of being a new mom, but she is doing it all with grace, sweetness and true humility. She is an inspiration, on stage and off, and I am so happy to be working alongside her. I really love our company of artists, and have a special soft spot for my counterpart in the show, the talented Rebecca Watson, who plays opposite me as Dolly Tate. Becky has worked at Goodspeed twice before and is an accomplished actress, singer and superb comedienne. We have become fast friends and greatly enjoy the caustic relationship between our two scrappy characters, and the audience shares our delight when Charlie and Dolly discover a buried passion for each other at the end of the story!

And so, we can now settle into our run here in East Haddam, and enjoy the deepening and finessing of the show as we perform it eight or nine times a week for the next couple months. Now that we are up, I can also explore the area, see some sights, and enjoy the summer to come. I have heard from many of you, and am delighted that you are enjoying my blog. It's a pleasure to share it with you--stay tuned!

ANNIE GET YOUR GUN: Week Four

2010-04-10T10:00:00.000-04:00

It's was a jam packed week here at Goodspeed, as we readied the show for the addition of the orchestra and all the technical accouterments that await us next week. We really maximized every possible hour at our disposal, refining the staging and choreography and doing our all important run-throughs of the entire piece. Moving through the show after working on it piecemeal is our only way as performers to really understand the arc of the story and to get used to the physical demands of our individual performance "tracks."

On Easter Sunday, we gave our first such run-through, with an invited audience including our designers, some of our crew people, our producers and some special guests, including the head of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization, Ted Chapin, who gave our production two enthusiastic thumbs up!
My housemates and I decided, since we were working on a holiday, to host a luncheon for the entire company at our cast house, the "Stonecroft." The night before I went into a culinary frenzy and cooked three large pots of jambalaya with andouille and chicken, as well as some good old fashioned potato salad. The lunch gathering was warm and joyful, everyone basking in the warm sunshine and the bonhomie of each other's company. Truly, there's no people like show people.

As the week progressed it became clear to us all that, not only did we not have a whole lot of time left before the move into the opera house, but that we do indeed have a show.
I find myself, while observing scenes and numbers I am not in, experiencing goosebumps and being genuinely choked up by the sweetness and heart of the story and the performances. Jenn Gambatese gives Annie the requisite pluck and gumption that one would expect, but tempers it with a sincerity, sweetness and vulnerability that give the character beautiful colors. Her leading man, the able Kevin Earley, brings a rich, mellifluous baritone and a wry sense of humor to his Frank Butler. I am truly blessed to have a superb comedienne as my Dolly Tate, the talented Rebecca Watson, with whom I have become fast friends; our scenes together are going to be wonderfully funny and full of surprises. I find myself more and more comfortable in Charlie's skin, and am having a ball being the source of much of the comedy in the show.

I cannot tell you how very appreciated and cared for we all are here at Goodspeed. The efforts of many kind and enthusiastic people make our jobs possible. It is we who get all the applause, but it is because of people like Dave and Lucille Viola. This extraordinary couple are patrons of the arts in the classic sense. Not only are they sponsoring the production, they are also gracious hosts and treated the company to an elegant dinner at the Gelston House. They seemed to really know how very welcome a genteel evening of drinks, dancing and putting on the dog would be to a company of people so intensely engaged in the creative process. Grateful thanks!

Friday brought one of the great treats of doing a musical--the long awaited arrival of the orchestra. If you have ever performed with live music, you will know what a scintillating experience it is.
When I was performing my nightclub acts, I had a small four piece combo with me and I considered them a living, breathing part of my performance, wholly connected to my heart and my thoughts. The thrill of singing with an orchestra is one of the things that brings me back to musical theatre again and again. The company gathered for what is called a wandelprobe, which basically means a rehearsal with the orchestra while doing our usual staging and physical business. It excited and energized all of us to hear the talented eight piece band expertly performing Dan DeLange's special orchestrations for the Goodspeed production. I wish audiences could truly grasp the painstaking attention our director, choreographer, and our musical director, the great Michael O'Flaherty, give to every detail of the sound of this classic score. Every high kick is given special percussive emphasis, every tender moment is crafted and modulated for the most delicate and moving effect. Observing the process of collaboration between the directors, arranger and musicians was like watching a team of gourmet chefs concocting a one of a kind banquet resplendent with exquisite delights. Truly, theatre-- and musical theatre in particular--is one of the most satisfying collaborative experiences there is.

Next week's post will include back stage photos at the Opera House, including first glimpses of the costumes and sets for the show, as we forge on toward our opening on the 16th. Until then!

ANNIE GET YOUR GUN: Week Three

2010-04-01T18:36:00.006-04:00

Jerry Orbach as Charlie Davenport, 1966

How does an actor create a character? Each has a different approach, a unique alchemy with which he or she puts the pieces together, but we all start from one place: the words on the page. Really, they are all we have. An author has imagined this person, woven him into the fabric of the story, and placed within the lines on the page all the information we need. This is where I start, no matter how classic the piece is, no matter how many times I have seen it performed, or seen the movie adaptation. In the case of Charlie Davenport, as imagined by Herbert and Dorothy Fields and the adaptor Peter Stone, I wanted to know who this guy is, what is his importance to the story, and as much as possible about where he comes from and his personal quirks and qualities. Charlie is the guy who keeps the Wild West Show together, he's the manager, the boss... but he is also, in this adaptation, an important part of the framing device of the show--the play within a play. Charlie introduces every scene, ordering the roustabouts to set up whatever locale is necessary for the next event in the story. So right away, I know that this guy has a certain energy--he gets things done, he issues orders, and he will do whatever he needs to do to keep the show going.

The text also told me how Charlie speaks, the rhythms and the peculiar idiom of his speech. With lines like, "We're waitin' 'til midnight, so's we can sneak ashore without no one seein' us make our triumphant return on a cattle boat," I was able to gather two things: he's no Rhodes scholar, and he probably comes from New York. He also sounds like those guys in the classic Hollywood films of the '30s, like "42nd Street"-- the harried stage manager, chomping on a cigar, barking orders, and shooting off zingy one liners. The picture starts coming together. Archetypes and cliches are a part of the fabric of our collective culture. While we never want to settle for a two dimensional stock character type, we can't ignore the potency of those familiar creatures with which the audience can form an instant rapport.

So here's this guy with sort of snappy energy, a working class New York accent, and a spicy sense of humor. He's starting to take on a shape. That's where the costume designer becomes the actor's best friend. Traditionally, Charlie has always had a very specific look. He represents New York show business, vaudeville, and as such, has to have an entirely different appearance from the western characters like Buffalo Bill or Frank Butler.
Looking at pictures of say, Jerry Orbach in the 1966 revival, or Keenan Wynn in the MGM film, one sees a template emerging--flashy checked suit, bowler hat. Our costume designer, Alejo Vietti, in line with our director's vision of creating a more realistic, textured world for the show, has given Charlie a slightly more elegant look, with stylish suits and brocaded waistcoats. These vests have truly informed my physicality for this guy, and I find myself in rehearsals hooking my thumbs into my vest pockets and showing off my gold watch chain. And there's that classic bowler hat. Just as there are archetypes for character, there are certain articles of clothing that speak to our embedded cultural consciousness.
A bowler hat evokes many things to me: the surrealist paintings of Magritte, Charlie Chaplin's little tramp, Monty Python's "Ministry of Silly Walks," the stuffy father in "Mary Poppins," Mr. Banks. All of these associations lend subtle, almost imperceptible color to the way in which I wear and use the hat. It's a wonderful prop, incredibly fun to work with, gesture with, and use to punctuate my dialogue.

At last, when I look in the mirror, I want to see Charlie looking back at me. Our costume designer has given him a pair of wire rimmed glasses, which to me give him a rather sweet, vulnerable side that works wonderfully at odds with the snazzy suits and wisecracking dialogue. And to add that last bit of period flair that to me really evokes the late 19th century, I decided to grow a mustache for the role. Part of the reason for this decision was purely selfish. I hate gluing false beards and mustaches to my face. The spirit gum (a mixture of liquid resin and toxic spirits) stinks and burns the skin, and no matter how fine the quality of the hairpiece, inevitably, with facial movement and sweat, that thing will come loose on stage at some point and no one wants to have to deal with trying to keep a fake mustache from dropping off in the middle of a scene. Besides, actors love to transform themselves, and while I must say I feel rather self conscious in my daily life wearing a 'stache that might have been fashionable in the 70s but is completely outre now, I love it for Charlie.

So, am I an "outside in" actor, or an "inside out?" My answer is: both. You can't help but be, really. Your imagination has a life of its own--the script suggests things that evoke memories and images stored in the deep recesses of the brain; the historical research of the period the play is set in tells you things about your character's lifestyle; the clothes make you feel and move a certain way; the other actors will tell you about who you are in relationship to everyone else who populates this imaginary world. This is what makes an actor's art-- largely an interpretive art form-- so creative and exciting. Ultimately, the character is ME. Me in imagined circumstances. Until the actor grasps this concept, his work will be superficial--pasted on, like that fake mustache. All of Charlie's emotions, his needs and wants, are mine, emanating from me as a result of the way the imagined circumstances play on me. The accouterments, like dialect and costume, are the finishing touches, the cherry and the whipped cream on the sundae. It's my hope that my Charlie will be a delectable treat in the smorgasbord of theatrical delights the Goodspeed audience will enjoy in "Annie Get Your Gun."

ANNIE GET YOUR GUN: Week Two

2010-03-28T08:45:00.008-04:00

How do you take an old fashioned musical comedy from another era, and make it relevant and meaningful for a new generation? This is the challenge that a show like "Annie Get Your Gun" presents for today's theatre artists. In 1946, when this piece was first produced, it was not only created for the Broadway audiences of its time, it was also created by artists who came out of a tradition completely different from ours.
People like Ethel Merman and Irving Berlin came from a live theatre steeped in the traditions of vaudeville: where big personalities, specialty talents and broad performance styles were the accepted norm. The books of shows like "Annie Get Your Gun" were frequently light on character development and emotional truth, and heavy on the one liners and preposterous plot lines. These pieces were also designed to appeal to a generation of older theatre goers who remembered with nostalgia the vaudeville pleasures of an earlier time; so they were even more stylized and, by our standards, 'cornier' than the more realistic dramas that populated the theatre of that era. All one has to do is watch Betty Hutton's brassy, over-the-top performance as Annie Oakley in the MGM film to realize how much styles have changed.

And one must also think of the time in which "Annie Get Your Gun" was written. World War II had been fought and won, and our culture was going through profound changes as America struggled to adjust to the new world it faced. It was a time of optimism and a return to the traditional roles expected of men and women in our country. When the men were off at war, women had to take on more 'masculine' roles: pursuing new careers, working hands on in industries hitherto unknown to women, and providing a stronger, more forceful foundation for a country in crisis.
Even the shoulder pads that were popular in womens' fashions spoke to the more masculine qualities expected of the gentler sex. And so when we look at a story like the romance between Annie Oakley and Frank Butler in that context, we see a strong, independent woman who can shoot a rifle as well as any guy, in conflict with her desire to be a soft, desirable woman for her man. Annie's famous lament, "You Can't Get a Man With a Gun," speaks not only to the plight of a pistol packin' frontier gal, but also to the woman who worked in the munitions factory who now had to provide a soft, supportive housewife for her returning soldier husband. It is not surprising that in the original storyline for the musical, Annie throws the final shootout between her and Frank in order to play the feminine role and give him his masculine authority, facilitating that walk into the sunset in matrimonial bliss. For women of our time, this kind of sublimation would be unthinkable, but for an era in which the men had made the ultimate sacrifice in a foreign war, it was considered proper that the woman, strong as she may be, should step aside and take her place as the supportive wife and mother.

Look also at the treatment of Native Americans in the original script of this show. Racial sensitivity and political correctness were not a part of the cultural attitudes toward minorities in this era. Consequently the Native American characters in the show were inarticulate, thinly drawn stereotypes, and when Annie was adopted as a daughter by Chief Sitting Bull in the story, she launched into a comic number called "I'm an Indian Too." In its time, this big colorful production number would have been hugely entertaining, but for our time, lyrics like

Some Indian summer day
Without a care
I may run away
With Big Chief Son-of-a-Bear

truly smack of racial insensitivity.
Consequently, when the show was being reworked by Pulitzer prize winning author Peter Stone for the 1999 Broadway revival, this number was removed from the piece. While some may miss this classic Irving Berlin tune, the potential offense that may be given to Native Americans in our time is something that can't be taken lightly. In this revised version of the script, Chief Sitting Bull and the other American Indian characters have a dignified presence more palatable to today's audiences.

Our talented director, Rob Ruggiero, has become identified with providing productions of traditional musicals with an emotional depth and human texture more suited to our modern sensibilities. He focuses on story, and on the relationships between the characters; the songs and dances come from the narrative threads of the story and from the characters' need to communicate and connect with each other. This approach challenges us as performers to simultaneously honor the traditions from which "Annie Get Your Gun" was born, while infusing the piece with a humanity and sense of truth that will allow our 21st century audience to identify with the characters and the tale we are telling. My character of Charlie speaks in one liners and comic zingers, like an old borscht belt comedian. It's my task to make this wisecracker a fully fleshed out human being. As you can imagine, our director must have a steady hand and be continually aware of where the comedy and the old fashioned musical styles of the piece serve the play and where they need to be given texture, simplicity and realism for our modern day tastes. Rob is supremely skilled at this task, bringing a highly detailed eye and a sophisticated aesthetic to the table. What the Goodspeed audience will get in "Annie Get Your Gun" will be a rich, entertaining experience that simultaneously brings to life the great old fashioned pleasures of this classic piece, and a human story of a man and a woman finding each other, and themselves, against a colorful crazy quilt of Americana steeped in history. So... does Annie still throw that final shooting match to give Frank the upper hand? Or does she take a stand for her own abilities in a way that a 21st century woman can relate to? You'll have to catch a performance at Goodspeed to find out!

ANNIE GET YOUR GUN: Week One

2010-03-22T14:00:00.000-04:00

Goodspeed Opera House is a renowned Tony Award winning theatre, and the place where some really great American musicals, like "Annie", had their genesis. It is also dedicated to preserving and rediscovering the rich heritage of musical theatre. So of course, I have long wanted to work here. What I hadn't realized was how charmingly tiny and jewel-like the theatre is. With an extremely small stage, no fly rigging, and a house of around 350 seats, it must take enormous ingenuity and creativity to present the lush, beautifully mounted productions the company is famous for. In addition to the modest size of the theatre, it is also located in a quaint but rather removed part of central Connecticut. The nearest shopping is a half hour's drive away and with the exception of a handful of restaurants, a liquor store, a post office and a public library, Goodspeed is the only reason to visit little East Haddam.

I joined a handful of performers on the vans that the company provided to shuttle us, on a windy, rainy day from midtown Manhattan to East Haddam. We were all taken to our accommodations, mostly in charming, well worn old houses within walking distance of the opera house. In the evening the theatre's volunteer guild treated all of us to a welcome dinner, served buffet style in a room below stairs at the venue. It was a lively gathering, sort of like a boisterous first night at summer camp, and we were able to mingle and introduce ourselves. On Tuesday, the weather cleared, the sun came out, and we got a first touch of Spring for our first rehearsal day. The cast, crew, and staff of the theatre gathered in the rehearsal hall and we did our first day introductions, received information from company management, and met our director, Rob Ruggiero, who gave us a brief overview of the concept of his production and a viewing of the set and costume designs. Rob approaches plays and musicals with the same commitment to authenticity, truth, and a desire to tell the story in a human way that audiences can relate to. To that end, "Annie Get Your Gun" will feature sets inspired by the weathered big top tents and colorful antique posters of the original Buffalo Bill's Wild West. The costumes promise to be rich and sumptuous, providing a textured and dazzling glimpse of the 1880's. It's always exciting to come together on that first day and get a look at the creative journey that lies ahead.

My first rehearsal week was fairly light. Our talented choreographer, Noah Racey, used his time to tackle the more intricate and demanding dance numbers with our amazing ensemble of dancers, and there were calls for learning music, table sessions to discuss character and story with our director, and a really exciting first read/sing through with the full cast toward the end of the week, attended by designers, Goodspeed producers, and invited guests. Our generous sponsors treated the entire company to a sumptuous meal at the elegant Gelston House, adjacent to the theatre, and we all felt very special indeed. The energy here is very positive, enthusiastic and nurturing.

My character, Charlie Davenport, seems to be modeled after the real life general manager and owner of Buffalo Bill's Wild West, Nate Salsbury.
I did some on line research this week during my free time and discovered that he was quite a guy: an actor, singer, director, writer, and producer of vaudeville and large scale extravaganzas. He was a Civil War vet who survived the brutal Confederate prison camp of Andersonville, he singlehandedly turned Buffalo Bill's operation into a money making venture, and his accomplishments as an impresario inspired none other than the great showman Flo Ziegfeld. In "Annie Get Your Gun" Charlie represents the show biz side of things and as such, he is more slick and citified than the Western characters in the story; always wheeling and dealing, and full of one liners and funny punchlines. I worked with our dialect expert this week on creating an authentic Brooklyn accent for Charlie, thus providing further contrast. I also had a preliminary costume fitting which helped to shape even more of Mr. Davenport's snappy image. Sharp suits, elaborate vests, bowler hats, and watch chains will give him that city slicker vibe, as well as a pair of 19th century wire rimmed spectacles. I am growing a mustache for the role and hopefully, by our first performance, it will have grown enough for me to wax it up and give it that barbershop quartet style! Character work has always been one of the great joys of acting for me, so this guy will be fun to inhabit for the next few months.

Spring has finally arrived and the weather here in the charming Connecticut River Valley has been spectacular, giving everyone an infusion of hopefulness and good cheer to start our musical adventure with. The crocuses and jonquils are starting to bloom and the air is fresh and warm. I will be blogging weekly as we roll along here, and hope to include rehearsal photos, profiles of our talented cast and creative team, and a little bit of travelogue-ing about this charming part of Connecticut. Meantime, please become a follower of my blog here on blogspot.com, and if you are on Facebook, I encourage you to join my fan page as well as the Goodspeed Musicals fan page for all kinds of fun updates on "Annie Get Your Gun." Happy Spring!

"ANNIE GET YOUR GUN" UPDATE

2010-03-09T12:47:00.003-05:00

MARCH 9, 2010

Goodspeed Musicals announced today the complete cast of "Annie Get Your Gun." Kevin Earley will play Frank Butler opposite Jenn Gambatese as Annie Oakley April 16-June 27 at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, CT.

Gambatese, of Broadway's "Tarzan and All Shook Up, was previously announced. Goodspeed producer Michael P. Price revealed the entire cast on March 9. Opening night is May 12.

Earley, who'll play the baritone show rival/love interest to Annie, appeared in Broadway's "A Tale of Two Cities", "Thoroughly Modern Millie" and "Les Misérables."

Buffalo Bill Cody will be played by David McDonald (Broadway's "Bye, Bye, Birdie"; "Mamma Mia!"; "Side Show"; and "Les Misérables"); Dolly Tate will be played by Rebecca Watson (Goodspeed's "1776" and "Me & My Girl"); Tommy Keeler will be played by Andrew Cao; Chelsea Morgan Stock (Broadway's "The Little Mermaid") will play Winnie Tate; yours truly will play Charlie Davenport; Michael Nichols (Broadway's "November" and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest") will play Chief Sitting Bull.

The ensemble will include Brandon Andrus, Sean Coughlin, Orville Mendoza, Pilar Millhollen, Bill Nabel, Con O'Shea-Creal, Natalie Ryder, Dorothy Stanley, Molly Tynes, Amos Wolff and Aaron Young. The swings will be Noah Aberlin, Hartleigh Buwick and Jake Poulios.

The creative team features choreographer Noah Racey, scenic designer Michael Schweikardt, costume designer Alejo Vietti, lighting designer John Lasiter, music director Michael O'Flaherty, assistant music director William J. Thomas and orchestrator Dan DeLange.

I go into rehearsal on March 16, and am very excited to be a part of this talented group!

FEBRUARY 2010

2010-02-11T11:00:00.000-05:00

JAMES BEAMAN WILL PLAY CHARLIE DAVENPORT IN "ANNIE GET YOUR GUN" AT GOODSPEED OPERA HOUSE
April 16 through June 27, 2010

I am thrilled to announce that I will be making my debut with Goodspeed Musicals this spring in Irving Berlin's classic "Annie Get Your Gun." I have long wanted to work at this prestigious theatre and I am really delighted to be playing Charlie Davenport, the manager of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show (if you've seen the movie with Betty Hutton, Charlie was played by Keenan Wynn). The production will be directed by Rob Ruggiero, who has directed several productions at the theatre and is at the helm of the new Broadway comedy, "Looped," starring Valerie Harper as Tallulah Bankhead. Jenn Gambatese, who has played leading roles on Broadway in "Tarzan," "Hairspray," and "All Shook Up," will play Annie Oakley.

Stay tuned for more information on the production, cast, and other news!

JANUARY 2010

2010-02-07T18:52:00.000-05:00

"THE NUTTY PROFESSOR" MUSICAL READING

The year started with a great treat, as I was invited back to participate in the second reading of the new musical, "The Nutty Professor," with music by Marvin Hamlisch, book and lyrics by Rupert Holmes, and directed by Jerry Lewis. The brainchild of star and co-producer Michael Andrew, this new show has a projected fall 2010 Broadway opening. I put on my best 'radio voice' as the narrator of the reading, and sang with the ensemble. The cast was stellar, including Kerry Butler, Danny Burstein, Jamie Ross, Klea Blackhurst, as well as Andrew himself, giving an amazing dual performance as Professor Kelp and Buddy Love.

Just being in that room for the week was an honor and a pleasure. Rehearsing with Marvin and Rupert, being a part of their creative process, and then performing the reading with Marvin at the piano right beside me was indescribable. Mr. Jerry Lewis is every inch the star and a man of true heart, generosity and greatness. His stories and jokes were priceless and the kindness he showered us all with, not to mention the great joy he is having, at 84, of directing his first Broadway show...
believe me, I felt like I was witnessing theatre history in the making.