2012 Interview with Douglas Sills

costars as Gomez in the National Tour of the musical of The Addams Family opening at the Pantages Theatre June 5
interview - soon!

2012 Interview with Elaine Paige

Actress/singer Elaine Paige, having originated Evita, Chess, Piaf and Anything Goes in London, is unquestionably the queen of the West End, and with a Drama Desk nomination securely in place for her Broadway performance in the new Kennedy Center production of Stephen Sondheim's Follies, which opened at the Ahmanson May 9, Paige is fast becoming a theatrical sensation in the US as well. In our chat, she says what she thinks about Stephen Sondheim, Follies, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Barbara Cook, her favorite career highlights including her leading men, as well as her popular radio talk show for the BBC entitled Elaine Paige on Sunday.


I remember seeing you in a concert in Pasadena a decade ago and you spoke of your love for Barbara Cook. Tell me that story.


I've known her work for many, many years. As a young singer, someone that was starting out on the concert stage myself, she was quite an inspiration to me. We had a small club in London called Country Cousins...and they would get many American artists who would perform there. Barbara was one of them. I remember standing at the back of the...I couldn't afford to have a table up front, so I was hovering well at the back of this sort of long, narrow sort of smallish room, and listening to her singing. I couldn't really see much, because there were a lot of people standing in front of me, and being a shortie, that doesn't help either. I could hear that wonderful voice wafting across toward me. In fact, I got thrown out of the place. One of the chaps who worked there came over to me and he looked down on me and he said, "What do you think you're doing?" I was sort of singing quietly along with her. So they told me I would either have to shut up or leave. (she pauses) I guess I wasn't thrown out exactly, but she was very much somebody that I admired as a young concert artist myself.

Ah! You're in Follies! What is it like playing Carlotta and singing "I'm Still Here"?


Wonderful! It's a gift of a song for any actor in musical theatre. And of course it's known, isn't it, as one of the great anthems for a woman in the theatre? It's just a great part to play. As the song says, Carlotta's been around a bit. She's known the ups and downs of life and career, and she has a great sense of humor and must, to have survived. She's always ready and quick with a joke, ready to show humor. As she says, "plush velvet sometimes, sometimes just pretzels and beer". It's been all and everything in the sense that she's known the great times and 'bum' times. I think she's also had a few problems with alcohol. Her career's been on the skids a bit. She hasn't an ounce of self-pity about her at all. She can get over anything that's put in her way; she just pulls herself up by her boot straps and gets on with it. That's the kind of person she is. She never feels sorry for herself. She's always up, moving forward and onward. There's a lot about this character that I can identify with. She's no whimp. She's been through the movies, and then she went to Vegas when the movie roles went away, and she's now a TV star. She kind of reinvents herself, and she's got a great zest for life. So it's an uplifting role to play, full of oomph (she laughs).

Is this your first Sondheim show?

No, no. I played Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd with the New York City Opera. I love Sondheim. I mean he writes so beautifully for women particularly, and he always writes strong women...strong and gutsy and out there. Of course, they're always fun to play.

What else do you find unique about Stephen Sondheim?


He is the most gifted man in terms of lyric writing. His lyrics are just spot on. The rhyming is amazing. He never ever repeats himself. He writes haunting music; his music and lyrics portray character in a way that few other composers can...

What about Sir Andrew Lloyed Webber by comparison? You've done many of his shows.


Andrew is a wonderful melodist. He can write the most beautiful melodies. He doesn't write words as well. That's the thing that Sondheim is so marvelous at. He's in the old school of people like Cole Porter and so on, who wrote music and lyrics. His stuff is often very intricate unlike Andrew's that are very beautiful, sweeping melodies. Stephen's music often to the ear initially is not as melodic. It's very intricate, and yet at the same time, it can be dark and foreboding. Sweeney, for example, is very much like a musical thriller, and so is the music. I think what's great about him as a writer is that he's character-driven with the lyric writing. It's something that I really love, because as a singer, it's the lyrics that make it for me. I can't sing songs that are namby pamby. You want to get your teeth into something lyrically, and this song particularly ("I'm Still Here") is like a three-act play. You're able to move through the storytelling with the character.

Your Broadway debut was in Sunset Boulevard, but do you think that Follies is your greatest American triumph so far?

elaine paige as norma desmond

Oh, it's difficult, that one, because you know in Sunset Boulevard I was playing the leading role, Norma Desmond. That was a different ballgame (laughs) altogether really. That was fulfilling in the sense that it was the leading role and that I was onstage all the time, and for me, it had a beginning, a middle and an end. It felt more of an achievement really by the end of an evening. But this role (Follies) is very much a featured performance. And with that it brings its own... not problems exactly, but it's something else I've had to learn to deal with. This is sporadic, filmactic in the sense that one has little tiny bursts of scenes with a matter of a few lines, then you're not involved for a half an hour or more. It's quite difficult that, because you have to just turn it off., and then come alive and get an awful lot of information over about who you are up there in a very short space of time, with very little dialogue. So, it's tricky.

What I was thinking when I asked this question was your coverage here in the US. Doing this Follies has seemed to generate more public interest in you.


I certainly think...who would have thought, the amazing thing is about this...when I was asked if I'd like to do it, it was just going to be a three month run in Washington, and I didn't really know the piece that well, but  I was fascinated by the idea of being able to be part of yet another Stephen Sondheim musical, which again in England is not done that often. We don't do Sondheim as much as you do over here. That's really why I took the role on, but having said that, the journey of this musical has been incredible, from Washington to Broadway for six months and now out here to LA. Just because of that journey it has given me more of a profile here. But that's not really why I'm doing it. It's always about what I'm doing rather than where I'm doing it.  It's wonderful to be here to appreciate the American audiences.

Are they really different from London audiences?


Absolutely, yes, yes. The English audiences are very much more reserved than American audiences. To hear the rafters ring as I have been doing with this role is really fantastic. Of course, English audiences appreciate us too, but it's just much more lively here. So, that is very rewarding. It's lovely to know that one is appreciated.

Of all the wonderful musicals that you've done - Evita, Chess, Cats, Piaf,  Sunset Boulevard, Anything Goes...is there a favorite?

Well, of course, Evita will always be one of my great favorites, A, it was the first one to give me a career in musical theatre, that was my opportunity, and it was a brilliant role, beautifully written...a layered character, wonderful music and lyrics to sing. It really is more of an opera than a musical, and it was a challenge, in fact, musically to sing that every night. So that will always stand out for me because it was the first, and the original production, in London. 
Sunset Boulevard has also been a musical written in the same kind of vein, because it was all sung, pretty much. Again a wonderful character, a wonderful role, a wonderfully layered character to play...tragic... (she laughs) They're all tragic women, but strong women again. Piaf was a play with music that gave me the opportunity as an actress to dig deep yet I was still able to sing as well and it gave my audiences what they wanted. Those three stand out, but I've been very fortunate because I've been able to play comedy in Anything Goes, which was great fun. It's always great to be able to flip the coin and mix and match what you do. It's been an amazing ride with all these musicals, and of course, Chess is a favorite too because it was an original original piece. It wasn't based on a film or a book, a person's life; it was a completely original musical written for me by Tim Rice, who had always wanted to write something for me. And it gave me a number one hit single ("I Know Him So Well"), so there's nothing to beat that either.

Do you have a favorite leading man?

I love John Barrowman, I love Alan Campbell, he's a doll as well. (laughs) Seemingly one always falls in love with one's leading man. Alan was wonderful to work with on Broadway in Sunset Boulevard...just the most generous actor and wonderful singing voice. It was a pleasure to work with him. I discovered John (Barrowman) really when we cast him in Anything Goes in London, which launched his career. He took over from Howard McGillin, who was also a dreamboat, the most lovely man, and gorgeous silken voice.

Is there any role that you haven't played, that strikes your fancy?

I love the film All About Eve, and Bette Davis' role Margot Channing. That's one I keep looking at; I'd love to have a shot at it. Also Desiree Armfeldt in A Little Night Music,"Send in the Clowns"; I saw Judi Dench do that. So, there are a few and people keep asking me to play Gypsy and Hello, Dolly, but the theatre is very demanding of one's time and energy...and the older I get, I think "Oh my goodness, have I got it left in me to do?" But, never say never.

Tell me about your radio show for the BBC Elaine Paige on Sunday, which has become immensely popular.


Huge. I have over two million listeners in England. It's a national show on the BBC. It's basically a two-hour show  on Sunday, which is online now as well. I've got listeners all over the world...fantastic! It's basically all musical theatre songs and film music, and I also interview people as well. It's sort of like a Sunday Brunch kind of, easy-listening show every week. I didn't know anything about broadcasting, but when they asked me to do it, I was having a down time in the theatre, and I thought "That might be fun to do" and of course, it took off.  So now it's become a part of my life that I really rather enjoy to do. It's very relaxed and a fun weekly event in my life.

Any other plans after Follies?

This has been a longer run than one had at first suspected, so I shall take a little time off after this and look for something interesting to do.

Elaine Paige loves to chat...what a charming lady... and fun! She brings such personality and humor to Carlotta Campion and makes her truly memorable.  See her in Follies at the Ahmanson through June 9. It's everything you could wish for in a musical...and more.
visit: http://www.centertheatregroup.org/

2012 Interview with Tony Winning Actress/Singer Victoria Clark

Tony Award winning actress/singer Victoria Clark is currently co-starring in Follies at the Ahmanson in the complex role of Sally Durant Plummer. In our chat, she talks about Follies, Sondheim and some of her other favorite roles.


What is it like playing Sally Durant in Follies?  

It is a complete joy and thrill.  It is one of my all time favorite roles.  She is complicated and wonderful, and I love her.  I understand what she is going through, and I have great sympathy, empathy, and compassion for her.  And she is a puzzle in many ways--lots of exploring and digging to do.

What is different about this role from others you have played?

Every role comes with intrinsic highs and lows.  The joys and challenges for me are making every character I play human and believable.  Sally has beautiful music to sing, to express what she is going through--this score makes this role a particular delight.

And its greatest challenges?

The biggest challenge is not to make Sally a victim.  I don't think she is.  I don't like to see women onstage who are victimized.  I prefer to see and play characters in such a way that we see them pull through their set of circumstances and obstacles with dignity and as much poise as they can muster. Another challenge are the short scenes.  They are snapshots of a much bigger picture of characters with a 30-year history.  That back story has to be in place as well as details; then, the scenes themselves are like eavesdropping into seismic personal rifts and discoveries.

What do you like about Stephen Sondheim's work?

Sondheim 's work has a complexity and depth that are a dream for me and most actors.  The more you dig, the more your find. He is the goldmine of thinking actors, and has made our whole world so much better for the work he has produced.  He has given us permission to look at ourselves in an honest and unflinching way, which can be both a comfort and a catalyst.

Was it difficult stepping into this role just for this LA engagement?

Yes, it was difficult in the most joyous way imaginable.  With colleagues onstage beside me like Danny Burstein, Ron Raines, Jan Maxwell, and Elaine Paige, how could this experience be anything but remarkable?  Eric Schaeffer, Warren Carlisle, and James Moore  allowed me the space and time to truly create, and that was an immeasurable gift.  The creating is still ongoing--there is always more to solve--the learning never stops.  And life itself should be a constant process of educating ourselves--rehearsal and real life walk hand in hand.

Talk a little about Light in the Piazza.

as the mother in Light in the Piazza

The role of a lifetime in the most beautiful musical ever written.  What more can I say?

Talk a little about Sister Act and your role in that.

A wonderful journey with long-time friend and director Jerry Zaks, and my first time working with Alan Menken.  Also a joy.

What is your most favorite role to date? Why?

Well, of course Margaret Johnson in The Light in the Piazza will always be at the top of my list.  She is soulful, funny, complicated, resilient, and romantic. And a Southener!  Everything I personally strive to be.  Playing that part made me a better mother and a better person.  The whole experience was filled with a kind of grace for me. Piazza taught me a lot about forgiveness and letting go.  And I was introduced to the remarkable Adam Guettel, Craig Lucas, and Bartlett Sher who all showed me the way and gave me their trust.

Is there a part you're itching to do?

Not really.  I go with the flow.  There are several projects on the stove.. Life and work have to be balanced; I have learned that.  My life has been blessed.  It seems that the right roles find me at just the right time in my life when I can provide the insight  and skill set needed to allow the character to jump off the page.  I have worked with so many of our business' greatest writers, directors, and actors, and learned so much from each one--my life has been  nourished and blessed by each person.  I just have enormous trust that I will end up where I need to be to make the biggest difference possible.

And that she does! In every single role she plays! Don't miss Victoria Clark in Follies now until June 9!


visit: http://www.centertheatregroup.org/

2012 Interview with Barbara Bain

Actress/director Barbara Bain, three time Emmy Award winner for playing Cinnamon Carter in TV's original Mission Impossible from 1966-1969 still loves to be challenged by the work she does whether it be in the fields of acting or directing. She is currently doing a little of both in an evening of one-acts entitled Love Struck to open May 11 at the Beverly Hills Playhouse. She is also getting ready to close in the successful run of Why We Have a Body at the Edgemar Center for the Arts. I caught up with the busy Ms. Bain at a rehearsal for Love Struck in NoHo. It is clear that she is highly opinionated, loves what she does and is justifiably proud to be involved in the creative process of bringing good intelligent theatre to LA audiences.

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                               Tell me about Love Struck.

It's a series of one-acts, and they're lovely, lovely observations of life...pretty funny, pretty not so funny, but there's a giggle probably in every one, at least. So each of them has merit in terms of reflecting life as we find it, which is always somewhat surprise, disappointment, joy, pleasure, and all the rest of it. 

And you are directing a piece as well as acting, correct?

I am. In fact, I haven't started with it yet, so I don't like to take full credit for that, yet. I'm meeting about that this afternoon for the first time, and if I feel like I can bring something to it, then I will. I don't want to just say I'm directing something without really knowing what I'm doing.

How are the plays structured? Are they monologues?

No. They're two characters, three characters. There are two monologues, and they're brief and lovely. Most of them engage us with at least two people struggling. There are a lot of nice twists and turns. She's (Dale Griffiths Stamos) a good writer. I had worked with her last year at the Promenade Playhouse in Santa Monica. We did six of them, and of those, I did three. Each one was very different, each of the women, and I really loved doing it. When they asked me if I'd do it again, I said "Oh, OK!" and here we are.

But this time around the plays are different, right?

Totally different material and different theme.

Are you still running in Why We Have a Body at Edgemar?

as Cinnamon Carter in Mission Impossible

I am. Tanna Frederick has directed it, and it's really, really fun. It's totally different work that I'm doing there than this material. That's why it intrigues me.

You like to be challenged?

Absolutely, absolutely. Why We Have a Body is an interesting piece that's written somewhat straightforward. Even though the play itself is not linear, the characters are written rather straightforward. The woman I'm playing is an unusual woman. When I first picked it up, I thought, "I don't know what to do with this", which is why it intrigued me, and I knew Tanna was a first time director, and I went in to meet with her... and the first thing she said opened the door on how to proceed. She said, "We're going to do this like a Terry Gilliam movie, like a cartoon." I said, "Woo! So we can do all kinds of things!" And that is what we're doing. It's great fun, a different reality than what I usually play. Now I'm rehearsing this while doing that, so what could be better?

in quirky why we have a body

You're doing what you love to do.

Exactly.

Do you have a favorite role?

No. Once you embrace something, that's who you're with for a time. I've done some extraordinary plays...I've played Mary Tyrone in Long Day's Journey...I've done Ionesco's The Chairs, Neil Simon's Broadway Bound...extraordinary women, incredible people. I couldn't pick one.

What about playwrights?

Again, it's hard to say. If I am going to do something, I have to have a certain kind of attachment to it. These playwrights are alive, which is kind of exciting, because I mostly grew up with dead playwrights. Williams, O'Neill, Miller...Miller wasn't dead yet, but he certainly wasn't rewriting a play for me (she laughs), so he was part of my heritage as a theatre person. I did have the opportunity to work with Paddy Chayefsky, who was extraordinary. (big smile) I just love it all, what can I say.

So how do you go about choosing a role?

At this point it treats me as something that makes me say in an odd way, "I don't know how to start with this; where do I start?"  There's almost a mystery to it, and in front of it is finding that mystery.  You know what I say to myself? "When the play is well written, you can stay home and read it. Why am I here? I better bring something to this." I love to read, always have since I was a kid. I used to make up my own pictures. Although I didn't know it at that time, wasn't I playing all those parts? Wasn't that part of the reading experience? Wasn't I Anna Karenina standing in the train station waiting for Count Vronsky to come, but he didn't (voice expressive and full of emotion) and he broke my heart? Therein the actress was probably born, unbeknownst to me.

And when you direct, is it the same feeling?

70s TV sci-fi work

Oh, definitely. The question is, what can I bring to this? And if I don't, I'm not directing just to direct. I'm directing, because I go "Oo, what about directing it that way?" I have been involved in the last few years with the Young Playwrights Festival at the Blank Theatre. It's marvelous, and the kids are so young. We need new playwrights. So, number one, that's important. And to go through the whole process with them, where they've written it; they have a professional director with professional actors and they're up: it's not a reading; it's a production.  For them to see that realized is wonderful. I've had a really fun time with everyone I've directed there. It runs on weekends the whole month of June, and I'll be there this year at the Adler; they use the Adler Theatre.

I know you have a dance background. Do you have fond memories of Martha Graham?

Fond memories? I loved it. Dance was my first love; if truth be told, to get out of P.E. I absolutely loved the whole feeling of going through space. It turned me around, so I got on a plane and went to New York to study with Graham. It was kind of interesting, because I was a smart-ass kid who thought she was terribly intelligent; little did I know what I had to learn. I knew she was extraordinary but I wasn't going to fall under her spell. I didn't need a guru. The first day in the studio she walked by, I hit the ground. I just nearly fainted. She was tiny, but such an extraordinary persona. She walked past, you couldn't talk. It was an incredible experience. I wish every dancer and every actress, because then I worked also with Lee Strasberg as a teacher, to work with a master teacher. It's so important in an art form to have exposure to somebody who really has something to offer.

What about Lee Strasberg? Did you like him?

He was a wonderful teacher for me. And I worked with a lot of other marvelous teachers. Lonny Chapman, for one, was extraordinarily generous and kind to me, as I began working and didn't know what I was doing. He was an incredibly loving teacher; Lee wasn't. He was very removed, an academic; he knew his stuff, but he didn't want to talk. You said hello, and he looked at you like you were a nut. He didn't have time for a hello, he would  just dismiss you. What he did have, amongst everything else, because he certainly had it, was...he knew how each actor was getting in their own way, where they were, in a particular point in development. He could give you exercises that would help you take that next step. He was an incredible diagnostician. He was not a shrink but he did help you find that instrument that you had, access it and then what to do with it. A lot of teachers will have you get up and cry... and now what? How does the character in that material behave with all that going on? When does it get revealed? A lot of really wonderful stuff, so Lee was a very important teacher for me, and I've been in some class my whole life.

Are you a lifetime member of the Actors Studio?

Oh, yeah. I took dance class up until three years ago. I love it all. I took David Craig's singing class, even though I can't sing at all. I learned an extraordinary kind of discipline about..."You've got to do it now!" Music has a rhythm; it's now, now, now (she slaps her hands). The now kind of demand on some of us method actors can get a little loose, and that was really important. 

Crossing over to TV, do you think Mission Impossible could be produced today the way it was in the beginning?

It could never be produced the same way after Bruce Geller died. Bruce Geller created it; he had a vision that was clean and pure and strong - he knew just what he wanted about everything. There wasn't anything that was unknown to him about that show. In fact, when it all fell apart after the third year, and I left, Martin (Landau) left, and Bruce was asked to leave, they never really understood the fabric of the show. It kind of got pulled apart. It wasn't the actors' or directors' fault, it was that Bruce wasn't there. Little kinds of things were different. Even in that apartment scene...we didn't ask a question, we didn't say, "You mean there's a 10 megaton bomb there?" We just stated it and knew the danger. The minute you put the question in...then why are you in the room? Now that's a tiny thing, but it's a big thing. We were a team, and it was a whole different thing. The movies today are just ... something else. We did it well, we knew it and we felt good about it... I have no complaints about anything in terms of career; I enjoy what I do.

What does it take to survive in this business?

(laughing) You've got to have the soul of a poet and the skin of an armadillo. It doesn't usually happen in the same person, so...it's not easy. It's not an easy turf.

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It may not be, but Barbara Bain has made it work for her, and  in our favor, she's still going strong.

Catch her in Why We Have a Body at the Edgemar Center for the Arts through May 6 and then, opening May 11, in Love Struck!

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Love Struck also co-stars Peter Van Norden and Nick Ullett

Runs Fri, May 11 – Sun, May 27 / Fri & Sat 8:00PM / Sunday 3:00PM and 7:00PM / $32.00 General Admission / $25.00 Seniors 

MOTHER'S DAY SPECIAL: May 13th @ 3PM & 7PM: All Moms get in for Half-Price on Mother's Day! 

Reserve in Advance - Bring Your Mother to Beverly Hills Playhouse / 254 S. Robertson Blvd. / Beverly Hills / call (323) 960-7787 for reservations

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Update on Barbara Bain since the interview: In July Miss Bain will direct  the world premiere of a play called To Quiet the Quiet by 29-year-old Christy Hall. It opens July 13th at The Elephant Theater in Los Angeles, starring Lisa Richards, Stephen Mendillo and Michael Friedman.  Currently Hall is writing the book for Home, a new musical with music and lyrics by world renowned composer/lyricist Scott Alan, and includes Scott Alan's hit songs "Never Neverland," "Home," and "Goodnight."  Alan and Hall are joining efforts with commercial Broadway producers StylesFour Productions in heading to Broadway.

Interview with Billy Elliot's Rich Hebert

Actor/singer Rich Hebert will open Thursday April 12 at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood for Broadway LA in the second national tour of Billy Elliot, playing Billy's dad. Other credits on stage include in Vegas: We Will Rock You. Broadway/Tours: The Life, Sunset Boulevard, Les Misérables, Cats, Saturday Night Fever, and Rock and Roll the First 5000 Years. Other: Captains Courageous, Elaborate Lives, Annie. TV: Brotherhood, Law and Order SVU, NYPD Blue, The Sopranos, Deadline, Line of Fire, The Oldest Rookie, 21 Jump Street, The Young and the Restless, Loving. In our talk, he elaborates on the changes in Billy Elliot onstage since the first national tour and his challenges in playing this role and others.


How long have you been playing Billy's dad?


About a year and a half. We started in Durham, North Carolina. There are two aspects of this tour. This is the second. At one point we closed down for a while when we were in San Francisco last summer. We got new producers and they started rehearsing us again about a month later in New York. We basically brought together from the first national tour the people that wanted to come back or were asked to come back and merged with the newer actors who were cast. We resumed November 1 in St. Louis. There was a rehearsal down time period of a couple of months.


I understand that the latest production is much scaled down. Is that true?


It is scaled down, and ultimately it is to the benefit of the show. They took out automation, some lights; they took out the dancing dresses, that were these exaggerated giant things in the first national tour and on Broadway. When director Stephen Daldry, who also directed the 2000 film, came and saw this scaled down production, he said "This is the way it was supposed to be. This is the best production of the show I've seen." You see the community on stage because we're moving things around ourselves. It creates much more of a community effect, which is what the show is really all about. It's still the same amount of people. We have four Billys right now and they alternate every night.

How challenging is it to play Billy's dad?


It's challenging emotionally more than anything else. I played Valjean (Les Miz) for a couple of years in the nationals and that was physically, vocally and emotionally challenging. This is as emotionally challenging but not as physically or vocally challenging. I only sing one song. It's an arc and a growth. Responsibility, growth, arc, because he really comes from one place. It's not even that he's prejudiced or homophobic or anyhting like that; he doesn't know what's going on. He's trying to make do. He's a miner who's uneducated to a certain degree about a lot of things. He comes from a small town and what his dad did, that's what his oldest son does. Basically, it's providing. And that's being taken away from him. His wife died and he really doesn't know how to raise this second kid who's all over the place. He tries to send him to boxing to toughen him up and give him something to do. Billy decides to be a ballet dancer. It's all off the charts to him (his father), who says "You're not going to do that. It's the opposite of what I'm trying to do for you." And then there's the grandmother who's almost in Alzheimer's land; she's got a bit of dementia going on. So, there's no book for him; he's trying to do it all on his own.


Is this one of the hardest roles you've played?


Had I not become a father myself six years ago, I don't think I would understand the amount of commitment that is involved in trying to raise a child. The father in the play is the local head of the union that's on strike and he decides to cross the picket line, so that he can get some money to send his boy to a ballet audition at the Royal Academy. I stopped acting for about four years, I thought it wasn't steady enough money, although I've been an actor for 30 years. I tried to do other things. I sold cars, I taught, I worked at a bank, I taught college, so I made compromises in my life...and he has to do that. Having gone through it, I totally understand.

What remains your favorite role to date?


I have to say Valjean is my favorite. I've worked with kids a lot; I played Daddy Warbucks (Annie) a couple of times. I did it at Papermill in Jersey with Sarah Hyland who's now on Modern Family. I love working with kids. I did Captains Courageous at the Manhattan Theatre Club. When you work with kids, you always learn. It takes so much imagination.

Where did you do Sunset Boulevard? You understudied Max, correct?


I was in the original company here in LA and then went to Broadway with it. I played Max a lot; it was great. I got to work with some divas: Glenn Close, Betty Buckley and Elaine Paige. It was a lot of fun, and I got to learn so much from George Hearn (Max). I got to learn so much about how he would make himself invisible on stage. To be such a domineering presence while being invisible. He's the greatest guy any how. 


Do you enjoy doing musicals more than plays?


I like to sing. I don't get to sing that much in this show but I like to sing. But, I like to work, so it doesn't matter.


What do you tell hopeful kids who want to become actors?


(He laughs) I met Ruth Gordon once. I'm from her hometown, Quincy, Massachusetts. We had a mutual friend, who was like a grandmother to me. She and Garson Kanin (her husband) were sitting at a table signing books. When I walked up to her, I explained who I was, how I had just gotten out of Boston University and I asked her if she had any advice for an actor going to New York.  She said, "Kick ass!" (we both laugh) I'm not sure that that's what I'd tell the kids, but just learn everything you can about every aspect of doing what you can possibly do. Listen to people, listen a lot. Just get involved in classes, in every kind of class. I've been in musical theatre for a long time, but I'm not a dancer. I was in Cats and played Rum Tum Tugger. I walked out of the final call, because I said, "I can't do this!" These are the best dancers in New York. They said, "We'll teach you, we'll teach you." So, if you can get ahead of that and learn. The kids in this show are prime examples of that. They are constantly learning, and they are smart to learn from. Joel Blum, who is in the show, is a two time Tony Award nominee, and he showed the kids some steps that will be great for them for years to come.


We wish Rich Hebert and the entire cast of Billy Elliot the best of luck in their run in LA.

For ticket info, visit:
http://www.broadwayla.org/production/show.info.asp?ID=55

Pantages Theatre

April 10 – May 13, 2012

Five Weeks Only

L.A. Premiere

Interview with Deathtrap Star Burt Grinstead

Actor Burt Grinstead may have a short theatrical resume at this stage, but he has been working consistently over the past couple of years essaying plays in New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. Since coming back to LA last summer, he has been in the highly successful Esther's Moustache at Sidewalk Studio Theatre this past fall and is currently treading the boards once more in the all new critically acclaimed production of Deathtrap at the Gay and Lesbian Center in Hollywood. In our chat he discusses Deathtrap and the other roles he's played, his focus as an actor, and those actors who have had the most influence on him.

Tell me where you're from and how the whole acting thing got started.


I'm was born in the Worchester area of Massachusetts, and then I grew up here in Thousand Oaks. From 10-16 in school I started doing plays, and then it started branching out into that whole entertainment world; I started doing commercials and going out on auditions for movies, soap operas, and then I hit puberty and it flatlined. I moved back east to Massachusetts again, and fell out of the acting world in my high school years and into the whole sports thing.

Was there one play that you did that made you say, "Yes, this is for me"?


I studied with Stu Levin who did repertory theatre in Agoura Hills, and from that time, the one role that I wish I could do over is Hal in Picnic. The other play is Hello Out There by William Saroyan. When I did those two plays, I was too young to develop any real sense of character, and Hal is a very modern man. He's very specific to my type and I'd love to play him again. Picnic is an Inge play and it's got that teen, soap opera kind of feel to it, the sex and the dynamic character thing, so it's very in all the time.

Didn't you study at AADA (American Academy of Dramatic Arts) in New York?

ladies in retirement

Yes. I did the two year program and graduated from there. I decided against auditioning for their company. I just went out into the world of New York and tried to book as much theatre as I could.

What did you end up doing?

deathtrap

It went really well. Coming right out I did A Midsummer Night's Dream with a great little company called the Pulse Ensemble Theatre, headed by Alexa Kelly. She had strong faith in me and always kept bringing me back. I also did a great murder thriller called Ladies in Retirement at the Mint Theatre. Then in Pennsylvania I did Julius Caesar for a Shakespeare company that tours high schools. Then in Boston at the Speak Easy Stage I did Neil LaBute's Reasons to Be Pretty, in which I played the ultimate jerk. All the reviews said Burt Grinstead is the biggest douche bag. He plays the most chauvinistic male. It was definitely an intense experience to play that. My testicles got stomped on at the end of the play; that was the defining climax. Every time the other character would do that, he got a standing ovation. I played such a jerk.

Tell me about Esther's Moustache that you did out here last fall.

esther's moustache

It was incredible. Laurel Ollstein is the writer/director of it. It was a fun experience, a very comedic, farcical kind of play but with real family issues. I played a German messenger that would deliver cartoons to the magazine...it's a complex story, and I became an Orthodox Jew by the end of it because I was so in love with the main character. I got a chance to do a very intense German accent, so it was great fun.

How did Deathtrap come about?

deathtrap as cliff anderson with brian foyster as sidney bruhl

I auditioned for Ken (Sawyer) and Jon Imparato. It hasn't been produced in LA for years, and Jon really wanted this to be successful...and Brian (Foyster) has been involved from square one too. It is so easy to act with him on stage; it's one of the easiest things I've ever done.

There's not one slouch in that cast and what a great set by Joel Daavid!


I was so thrilled by everything about this play, and the fact that we got to work on the set from day one! It had been designed, built and everything was underway when we came in. It's been a fantastic rehearsal process, and Ken (Sawyer) is an incredible director. He just knows how to tell you to do things without you realizing that he's telling you.

Was the nudity a new experience for you onstage?

esther's moustache

Yes and no. Every play I've done, I've definitely had to be shirtless. I guess they use what they have, but this was the first time I've had to be fully nude.

Does it bother you as it does some actors?

No, I mean...one of my focuses is to be comfortable with who I am, and I think that's something that a whole lot of actors have trouble with. You have to be comfortable with yourself.

Good and that shows in your performance!  Who are your acting idols?


I have quite a few that I look up to. Christopher Reeve is an incredible actor. I saw the movie of Deathtrap when I was in high school, and he's the reason I wanted to do this project. I haven't watch it recently because I don't want to be influenced by it. But Christopher Reeve is an idol human being as well as an idol talent. I really, really love Robert Redford. I've been compared to him looks wise, but I don't think I'm anywhere close to him talent wise. He is just one of the more natural artists. The way he brings a role to the screen. I did a scene from Barefoot in the Park, and I had seen that movie a hundred times, just 'cause I love him so much, but I could not do it, I couldn't do it because it's a Neil Simon, quick banter...it's so hard to do. To keep up that energy and to keep up that pace as well as to hit the lines while keeping it serious and real; he could do it...Jeramiah Johnson is one of the best performances I've ever seen onscreen, and he speaks maybe three times in that movie. In modern times, maybe not as a human being, but I have a lot of respect for Jude Law as an actor. He picks and chooses his career very specifically so that he gets to do these really kind of cool roles. I saw him do Hamlet on Broadway and he was incredible.

Anything you want to add about Deathtrap or anything else?

Just to put in good words for the rest of the cast. They're all incredible - and the director - and the design team.

Burt Grinstead is no slouch. He knows who he is, what he's got and how to use it. I predict great things for him. Tall and handsome - and he can act too! - he's the perfect soap type: producers, take note! I wish him the best of everything!

2012 Interview with Donna McKechnie

Tony Award winning triple threat Donna McKechnie will always be remembered as Cassie in A Chorus Line, and of course for her solo within it "The Music and the Mirror". This vet of Broadway, TV and film is currently teaching a musical comedy class at HB Studio in New York and in our chat offers some choice anecdotes from her career. She will appear in Original Cast 3, this year's S.T.A.G.E. (Southland Theatrical Artists Goodwill Event) benefit for APLA (Aids Project Los Angeles) Saturday April 28 at the Saban Theatre.


Tell me what you are doing in Original Cast 3.


I'm going to do material from A Chorus Line. It's kind of a secret, a surprise, but essentially I'm recreating "Music and the Mirror".

That's great! Do you go way back with director David Galligan?


OMG, way back, and David was my first champion out there in Los Angeles when I cam out in the early eighties. I did a show early on... I was kind of breaking down some material into cabaret, try-out things and I worked with Tom Rolla at the Gardenia. David did a beautiful story for Dramalogue. He was a great champion and introduced me to a lot of wonderful people. I became a part of that community and of course when he started producing, especially for APLA, it's really been an effort of love for many years. Whenever you do a show, there are happy reunions of people; it's very familial. When I was out in LA doing (choreographing) Guys and Dolls (at the Hollywood Bowl in 2009), I was able to cast many of the roles from all the people I've met and worked with, who live there.

Let me give you the name of a show or film or TV show you did and tell me an anecdote or some kind of memory that has stayed with you.


The Little Prince. (1974)

It was a thrill of a lifetime, really, because, as a little girl, when I first started ballet, The Red Shoes was the movie...we even talked about it in A Chorus Line...the character of Sheila was my inspiration, Moira Shearer. All these years later, I was in the same studio where they filmed The Red Shoes, and I'm working with the same cinematographer and the same makeup artist, who had put makeup on Moira Shearer...It was a private kind of "I can't believe this!" series of events. And of course Stanley Donen (director of The Little Prince) was a great film director to be able to work with the first time out. It was thrilling. It wasn't always fun to make because I was without music and dancing with a black background; it was a challenge, but that's part of it, the magic of movies. You do it in a hole and all of a sudden you're in a beautiful atmosphere in the film.

Dark Shadows. (1969-70)

Dark Shadows is one of those unique experiences. I wrote in my book Time Steps (My Musical Comedy Life), a very funny story...those were the days when they would lift the cables and go tape live from set to set. You had to get out of the way with your big hoop skirt. Before I went into Company, I had to leave and on my last day, they left me on the ground underneath all these Styrofoam rocks and peat moss. The lights went out and there I was. That's show business!

Promises, Promises. (1968)

mckechnie at far right in "turkey lurkey time"

It was record-breaking...first of all, it was a landmark in two ways. This is theatre trivia. Burt Bacharach hired Phil Ramone a famous producer/engineer for the sound and it was the first covered pit on Broadway. And the first computerized set on Broadway. I'm working with Margo Sappington (danced "Turkey Lurkey Time" with her) again; she's putting together a company called American Dance Machine, and I'm training some of the ballet dancers, original Broadway choreography, to be always kept alive and accurate, in an accurate way.

How to Succeed (in Business Without Really Trying). (1961)

That was in some ways my favorite experience because it was my first Broadway show. I was just a kid and looked up to all these incredible people I was really lucky to work with...George Abbot, Abe Burroughs, Cy Feurer and Ernie Martin. Frank Loesser was a beautiful soul. I didn't know how great he was when I met him, but I just adored him. He was a sweet man. Robert Morse was incredible, a great star. Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon intimidated us all because she walked in and was going to be the dance captain. She was a great star, but she loved that kind of work, as his assistant.

Company (1970)

It was great...it was Michael Bennett. I had a great success with Michael; he was my other major champion, I guess. He was a great director/choreographer, and we had a challenge to create a dance number for that show. He did a great job. I just loved the set, the company...it was the first really adult cast I had been with, when you think of an adult ensemble. It was really the first adult-themed show about relationships, and even though some did more than others, it was an ensemble piece, a story that was told by all of them.

Mack and Mabel. (2000)


I did that in LA and again at Goodspeed. They keep trying to get it back to Broadway. We had a great company and Jerry (Herman) was with us every step of the way. He was a great mentor also.

A Chorus Line. (1975)

It never ceases to amaze me how far-reaching the show is. You only know that when it becomes real after all these years. It's always playing somewhere. I'm training two different Cassies right now. It's wonderful, it's like when Gwen Verdon took me by the hand and taught me every step of Sweet Charity, of Charity Hope Valentine,  a role that was written for her. I took it as a great gift. And to be able to do that now, I keep thinking of Gwen, when I'm able to train these other Cassies, to make it not my version but their version, giving them Michael Bennett's intention. It feels bigger than me; in a way, it feels significant and wonderful to
be able to pass it on.

Were you happy with the documentary film Every Little Step?

Yes, I thought they did a great job with it. When you think of all the hours they had, and they didn't have a script. They didn't really know their point of view. They kind of put it all together, and I think the filmmakers did a really great job. I think Michael (Bennett) would have loved it, because it has a desired effect that I know he always wanted the film to be, that would create the emotion in the viewer the way that it did in our live audience, in the theatre...that they would really get caught up in the emotion of the story. They captured something real and quite wonderful. It's another valentine to dance, so I loved it.

Girls' Room. (2008)


I thought it had some really wonderful aspects. I can't judge it, but I enjoyed doing it...I love Carol (Lawrence) and Lynne Taylor (director). When you're able to work with people again and again, some things are successful, some not, but you keep making the effort. We had a great time. Any time I can come to LA, because I live in New York... when I go to LA, it really is about the people, having reunions and seeing my friends I don't see enough.

Inside the Music. (1995)

I don't do that show anymore 'cause that's a theatrical show. I've done another version of it called My Musical Comedy Life, which has the core material but it's a different show. I have some original stuff. I opened it in my first Australian tour two years ago and I continue to do it all over this country.

Who are your dancing idols?

It's so boring because I have the same ones that everybody has. Fred Astaire to me is the perfect dancer with line and taste and style. Anna Pavlova was my first favorite ballerina, and Margot Fonteyn came a close second.

Great choices! What else have you been doing besides My Musical Comedy Life?


I just did a movie called Thirty Six Saints. It's an independent film and I had a ball making it with these wonderful filmmakers in New York. That'll be out in November. I also did a TV pilot. Who knows what'll happen to that? But I like the activity. And I just got back from Little Women in Naples, Florida. We had a great company. And I have some wonderful concerts coming up. Marvin Hamlisch and I are putting a show together. I would love to do a Broadway show, but I love the concerts, the time when you can go out and work for a couple of days and have the rest of the week off. (she laughs) I'm getting kind of spoiled.


What do you tell kids that want to be dancers?


Keep dancing, go to class, get a good ballet technique. Those are the basic things, and if you want to be on Broadway, you have to do everything, which includes singing and acting. It's not easy, but it's a total..., that's what theatre is. I teach a course at HB Studio on Bank Street; it's a noble school. I teach what I'm able to for any length of time... my class is called Musical Theatre Performance but it's acting based. I get so much inspiration and satisfaction. I'm inspired by the talent I see; it's tremendous.

What a talented lady, Miss Donna McKechnie! She is a true inspiration to us all, and we can see her perform in S.T.A.G.E.'s Original Cast 3 on Saturday April 28 at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills.
Visit their website for ticket information, and remember you are supporting one of the greatest charities APLA and the fight against AIDS when you purchase tickets.
http://www.stagela.com/home.php