Whew!
It's been a while since I posted, sorry.
I've had 2 big concerts since Laura Benanti's show at Feinstein's-The Embrace Concert for the Matthew Shepard Foundation and Unexpected Songs:The Lesser Known Songs of Andrew Lloyd Webber at Joe's Pub.
Embrace was amazing. Judy Gold stepped in at the last minute to be what turned out to be, the PERFECT host. She always knew when I was stressed backstage making announcements and would glance over at me, smile and say "You're so fuckin GAY." And my stress DISAPPEARED!
The concert overall was such a great evening-Laura Benanti and her Mom, Linda kind of proved to be a crux for me for this one. They sang Sondheim's NO ONE IS ALONE as a duet, and it was magical. Linda hasn't appeared onstage since the 1981 revival of Brigadoon, so it was indeed an honor to have this be her return. We also learned that day, that Laura's pitlo for the sitcom, STARVED was picked up for FX. While she was doing the pilot, I coached her on some of her scenework and I have to say this show is going to be brilliantly funny. As unfunny as a support group for people with eating disorders may sound.........
Laura's song, The Waitress, which she also performed in EMBRACE, will be featured in an upcoming Drew Barrymore film as well...exciting. And I don't know anyone who deserves it more.
The amazing Emily Skinner performed WILL THE SUN EVER SHINE AGAIN from the Disney movie HOME ON THE RANGE, sung by Bonnie Raitt. I met Emily in a Chelsea Cafe a few weeks back, at midnight as I was about to get on a train, and now she's SINGIN in my benefits. She was amazing. Patrick Wilson reprised BREEZE OFF THE RIVER from Full Monty and Matthew's mother, Judy, truly enjoyed having the opportunity to meet him.
My friend Christine Rowan dropped by and sang A Trip to the Library from She Loves Me. I love this girl. She's not really known in NYC yet, but she is such a kickass performer and an even better person. And of course Kate Pazakis of THE SEXLESS YEARS, belted her tits off-brilliant. I want to go through everyone, but my hands are tired from typing.
And onto the Andrew Lloyd Webber Concert at Joe's Pub, as produced by Robert Diamond of BroadwayWorld.com and devised by Eddie Varley.
I was TERRIFIED. I knew Rob had a deep love for the Webber, and when I was 18, I did too. I'd moved forward with my musical tastes however and Rob continued to sing Music of the Night in the shower, car, street, bedroom...Anyway. the concert was amazing and I'm certain converted a large number of us back over to the side of the hyper-accessible melody! The magic moments of that evening were for me, of course, my new boyband, UPSTAGE singing No Matter What from Whistle Down The Wind, Tina Maddigan and Joe Machota (period), Eden Espinos belting her tits off with the title number from Whistle Down The Wind, hell there wasn't really a weak moment. The concert was a huge success.
It AMAZES me how many incredible performers we have in our industry that have no problem donating their time for some incredible causes. This is indeed a tight-knit community. Don't get me wrong, it has it's ups and downs and certainly has the people who clearly are only looking out for themselves, but for the most part, it's a group I'm really proud to be a part of.
It also AMAZES me that there are so many out there who claim to be for the betterment of Broadway and the support of live theatre and do everything in their power NOT to be. Websites that refuse to show up to an event because someone they don't like will be there or because they can't have exclusive backstage photos. Other websites that remove posts by fans and reviews by members of audiences, simply because they don't like the people who put together the event. I just feel that we are all working towards the same thing. Yes, there is competition, even in the world of musical theatre coverage on the internet, but when you boil it down...we're talking about plays. musicals. people that about 12 of us may recognize walking down the street. This is a COMMUNITY. A COMMUNITY by definition needs the support of all it's members to survive-the sooner some people realize this, the better off the entire community will be.
with love from Jamie at 12:10 PM
So last night I put up Laura Benanti's show "Blame It On My Youth" at Feinstein's at the Regency.
In putting together the show with Laura, Chris Barron and James Sampliner (music director), we discovered what a great joy true collaboration can be. Laura, the consummate professional was a joy to work with. She has been a very close friend for some time now and having this opportunity to work with her so closely was just fantastic. So often, working so closely can mean the end of a friendship, but for us, it just made it stronger.
Everytime I work on a show of this nature, I learn more, and kind of come up with my own rules for putting it together. I have no great desire to direct a big broadway show, at least not at this point in my career, but putting together these concert evenings is such a blast.
Laura was fantastic. The night before the show we were rehearsing, just running through the show at Ripley-Grier studios and I realized that the dialogue and patter that we'd worked on wasn't coming across as natural. It wasn't Laura, not the Laura I knew. And summing up how I feel about this kind of evening-it has to feel like you're sitting in the performer's living room with them...except this living room has a grand piano and a two-drink minimum. In order for that to occur, the actor has to give the audience reason to laugh (and often that means making fun of oneself). Luckily most of the people I've worked with have a great sense of humor and have no problem with poking fun at who they are. I think that was the magic that took place last night with Laura.
She was terrified all day about the show, because as many times as someone may appear on a Broadway stage in a Tony-Nominated role, there is NO comparison that can be made to doing a show in a room full of 100 people that are there to see YOU, not a character you're playing. It really is a frightening thing to do, especially for the first time. So Laura and I discussed it at length and ended up cutting a good amount of the dialogue we'd come up with. We kept the main arc of the show of course, but added in some more times where she could really check in with herself. Long story short, she was comfortable to now be the Laura that I knew and loved. And she was marvelous...Everyone in that room could not have been more proud of her.
So now we are discussing when her next club engagement might be...so stay tuned.
with love from Jamie at 9:13 PM