And it's pretty darn good!!! Check it out NOW.
A Woody, Lugosi Christmas!
Where is Tor Johnson in a XXXL Santa suit? Here are Ed Wood, Bela Lugosi and some broad (probably an alcoholic considering the company she's keeping) at a Christmas party at the home of Kelton the Cop!
2010 NYGASP City Center Casts
Here, because you won't find it anywhere else, are the principal cast lists for the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players' 2010 season at New York City Center:
THE MIKADO
The Mikado – Keith Jurosko
Ko-Ko – David Macaluso
Pooh-Bah – Louis Dall’Ava
Pish-Tush - ? [This reminds me of Boris Karloff's credit in "Frankenstein"]
Nanki-Poo – Cameron Smith
Katisha – Joyce Campana
Yum-Yum – Laurelyn Watson Chase
Peep-Bo – Rebecca O’Sullivan
Pitti-Sing – Melissa Attebury
The Axe Coolie - Lucy Rosenberg, daughter of sabbatical Ko-Ko Stephen Quint
THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE
Major-General – Stephen Quint
Pirate King – David Wannen
Samuel – David Macaluso
Frederic – Colm Fitzmaurice
Sgt. of Poice – David Auxier
Mabel – Michele McConnell
Edith – Erika Person
Kate – Amy Helfer
Isabel – Betina Hershey
Ruth – Angela Smith
H.M.S. PINAFORE
Sir Joseph – Stephen Quint
Captain – Keith Jurosko
Ralph – Colm Fitzmaurice
Boatswain – William Whitefield
Carpenter – Quinto Ott
Deadeye – Louis Dall’Ava
Josephine – Michele McConnell
Hebe – Vicky Devany
Buttercup – Angela Smith
RUDDIGORE
Robin Oakapple – David Macaluso
Richard Dauntless – Dan Greenwood
Despard – Richard Holmes
Old Adam – Ted Bouton
Rose Maybud – Sarah Smith
Mad Margaret – Caitlin Burke
Dame Hannah – Erika Person
Zorah – Jennifer Piacenti
Ruth – Katie Hall
Sir Roderic – David Wannen
"STARSHIP PINAFORE" with Village Light Opera
Village Light Opera Group did two performances of STARSHIP PINAFORE last weekend, and will do three more this weekend, Nov 20, 21, & 22. I went Friday night expecting something pretty dismal and was happy to have my expectations thwarted. If you only see one "Pinafore" this year without me in it (January 10 and 12, City Center) this should absolutely be that one. The principals were all unusually acceptable by any standards, especially VLOG (VLOG is an amateur membership company, and must cast what they have). I enjoyed Sir Joseph particularly. The Josephine actually seemed to have been encouraged to be funny. Deadeye (a mutated wreck with a melted face) was a very strange character indeed, with some of the most eccentric line readings I've ever heard. And the VLOG chorus is always delightful: regular people up there doing the best they can - sometimes not that good - and loving it.
This is a production I created in Maine TWENTY-TWO YEARS AGO! Unbelievable. With a summer G&S company called "Popular Opera of Pittsfield" (POoP), Pittsfield being my home town, and the home town of Linwood James. I wanted to keep the text as close to Gilbert as possible but change all the "daughter/water"-type rhymes and whatever else wouldn't make sense on a spaceship. Bill Brooke, who played Sir Joseph then and in every production prior to this VLOG one, which he directed, started by re-writing Sir Joseph's song and has continued to tinker with the text over the decades. We have also had many unsolicited suggestions from Trek nerds over the years. I've become more lenient about changing stuff just to make it funny, but I draw the line at changes just to make Trekkies giggle.
The futuristic "director's concept" is purely a gimmick. I have never pretended that just putting "Pinafore" on the bridge of a starship did anything that would make it more relevant, as if it ever was, to Americans. I wanted to change nothing that didn't need it. My reasoning was that in the
23rd Century, when the British space program transports Englishmen to infinity, Britain will rule the stars the way they once ruled the waves. This will result in a re-evaluation of the Victorian principles that once made England what it was, thus making the outdated attitudes expressed by Gilbert blah, blah, blah, you get the picture and I'm getting tired writing about it.
It's set on the bridge of an Enterprise-type starship: sliding doors, flashing lights, sound effects, Captain's chair in the middle. When we did it in Maine the local chorus people brought all their Christmas lights and we had a TV that displayed the Space Invaders game, which wasn't new even at that time, while crewmen stood around acting like they were doing something significant. This production is great for chorus men who are into providing themselves with motivation. The women all wore sawed-off little mini-things and go-go boots. There were aliens. Sir Joseph enters in a Darth Vader mask, rendering him unintelligible (stolen from Spaceballs, but I have no objection to stealing good gags from such a lame source). Sir Joseph is half Vulcan/half Englishman = 100% impossible windbag. Hebe is an inscrutable real Vulcan. Buttercup started as a green Orion slave girl but over the years became a kind of plant person. The times we did the show in Maine ('87 and '91?) Keith Jurosko played the Captain and delivered all his dialog in beautifully intense, spastic, Shatner style. Colby Thomas was a heck of a space babe as Josephine.
The second time we did the show in Maine - I am not sure of the year - Popular Opera of Pittsfield had become Maine Opera Theatra (MOTHRA), a metamorphosis in title which unfortunately did nothing to make the company any more financially successful. So we had to let it die.
STARSHIP PINAFORE's next incarnation was in 2000, for VLOG, with me directing and Bill Brooke again playing Sir Joseph. And after that, now, with Bill directing and me delightfully uninvolved and typically uncompensated.
See it this weekend. Tickets are cheap from theatermania. Go to the VLOG site at the top for directions. It's at Pace, lower Manhattan. This is VLOG's first production in this really nice but kind of weird theater, having moved from the Fashion Institute of Technology theater, where they had been for decades, and can no longer afford. Be nice to the jolly friendly people in the orchestra picket line (this production is with piano and synthesizer) and read their leaflet about the strike.
The NEW YORK GILBERT AND SULLIVAN PLAYERS' ISAAC ASIMOV AWARD FOR ARTISTIC EXCELLENCE AND EVERYTHING
Right. So the 2009 - 2010 Isaac Asimov Award for Artistic Excellence etc. was presented on Sunday, October 4. Why the award couldn't be given at our annual New Year's Eve concert or one of the City Center performances in January and have it be the much simpler and catchier 2010 Isaac Asimov Award for Artistic Excellence etc., I just don't know. The award is presented as the highlight of one of those free special events for NYGASP contributors. They love these event/shows. They get to eat and drink Sunday afternoon-type stuff (but no Bloody Marys???) and actually interact with the STARS OF NYGASP, and, like most semi-celebrities, we love our fans. Al's favorite part of the program is that he gets to use a microphone. He just loves those things. It has become a tradition at these presentations (because every year Al suddenly announces, over the microphone, that we are going to do it) for each of the past Asimov winners to get up and tell a NYGASP anecdote! At least one or two of us always says how NYGASP is a family, we all really care about and learn from each other, etc. - all absolutely true of course and I am the last to deny it - but that ain't no anecdote.
The only trouble with NYGASP anecdotes is that all the best ones are ALL ABOUT AL. There just isn't anybody in the company who's as interesting as him. And the trouble with the stories being all about Al is that people outside the company don't really know him, and might be a little confused? Appalled? Or just not get it. So this year when Al introduced me and I pried the microphone from his iron grasp I decided to tell a fictitious Al anecdote which nevertheless could seem kind of trueish:
"I'd like to tell you the story of the drunkest I've ever seen Al."
[At this point Al crossed his arms and legs and sat back in his seat. He's not that much of a drinker and it's impossible to guess what he thought was coming...]
"We were on tour and were in a crappy bar attached to a crappy motel somewhere down south. We had done a 7:00 Pinafore so it was an early evening and the entire cast was there. Louis talked Al into doing shots with him. Al got staggeringly drunk on Crystal Light and vodka. Quickly became loud and belligerent. Started harassing rednecks - "Hey, we're an opera company! Yankees! From up north! Want to make something of it?" The bartender asked Al to quiet down and stop bullying the murderous types, but Al responded by making us all stand up and sing "Hail Poetry." The bartender closed the bar and threw everyone out. The rednecks were pissed. Al was scared and wouldn't go back to his room. We blamed the whole affair on 2005 - 2006 Isaac Asimov Award for Artistic Excellence etc. winner Louis Dall'Ava, so Al spent the night snoring in Louis' room. When he left at dawn he found that his Ryder truck had been washed by a secret admirer."
The 2009 - 2010 Isaac Asimov Award Winner for Artistic Excellence etc. is . . .
ANGELA SMITH
Dead Drunken Flunky
Last week was indeed extraordinarily difficult for all of us, with not only the death of Ed McMahon but the total absence of stunned mourners "HEY-O"ing in the streets, any increase in sales of Ed McMahon memorabilia, or even any speculation about who will be America's next guffawing stooge. Budweiser and Alpo, two products which McMahon was proud to represent, have issued no comment of which I am aware. Johnny Carson has said nothing, nor is he likely to.
I therefore urge you at this time to Google Ed McMahon, HE WHO HAWED, read everything you can about him, and consider whether you could possibly waste even more time this week paying attention to the deaths of seriously pathetic celebrities you really won't miss.
OFFICIAL BIG GAY ICE CREAM MAN!
Look what just came in the mail for Doug!
It's THE BIG GAY ICE CREAM TRUCK!!!
THE BIG GAY ICE CREAM TRUCK, Douglas Quint and Bryan Petroff, proprietoresses, comes out at noon this Saturday, June 13! At BROOKLYN PRIDE, Brooklyn's comparatively sedate gay thing, located in Prospect Park at Bartel-Pritchard Circle, 15th Street and Prospect Park West. Doug (my tiny little brother) still, as of this writing, has not received his overdue food vendor's license from the incredibly lardass, waddling behemoth Department of Consumer Affairs. Doug's ice cream vendor guru will be there to actually pull the soft serve handle in case someone demands to see a certificate. Among the toppings to be offered: TRIX cereal ("Trix ARE for kids, but adults can have 'em too. It's queer, colorful, and youngster-friendly, like us!"); Cayenne pepper ("It makes the chocolate into something really surreal."); Fresh berries du jour; and maple syrup.
There will also be a GAY PARADE that night at 7:30! So much gaiety stuffed tightly into one day! Can you bear it? The truck might be in the parade, but come to the park in the afternoon, before 4. It's supposed to be the first decent weather we've had in a week.
Doug on the right.
All sizes and styles! Choice of BIG GAY ICE CREAM TRUCK logos!
Nerd is the Word
I have taken part in the first of my Three Known Nerd Events of the Summer: I saw and loved Star Trek. For extra Nerd Karma bonus points I saw it the day before it opened officially, with a crowd of approving Believers. I always like to see a movie I know I want to see as soon as I can see it, see? Before the reviews come out. I like to read reviews but they always spoil too much. Suffice it to say that nothing about the movie failed to satisfy. Kirk fights, humps an alien (female), and hangs from three different cliffs. Spock says "Fascinating" and talks to himself. All the old "Star Trek" TV sound effects are heard again. There are thrills, laughs, and mind-numbing plot twists. WARNING: time travel and parallel universes are involved, so set your logic on "stun." I saw it a second time with the family. Maggie loves Kirk (Chris Pine)! She was surprised to learn that WILLIAM SHATNER played him on TV!
This weekend: my final G&S performances of the summer (and second Nerd Event): NYGASP's The Pirates of Penzance at The Filene Center, Wolf Trap Foundation for the Arts, Vienna, VA. Our FIFTEENTH consecutive appearance at this Tanglewood-type outdoor amphitheater. May 29 & 30 at 8. "Pirates" is my favorite of the NYGASP stagings - no topical gags (except "Department of Homeland Security"), only three quick encores, the chorus is encouraged to act and is therefore extremely funny, the choreography looks somewhat professional and fun, limited buttinski stuff from the pit. The infallible Michele McConnell is a great Mabel, Colm Fitzmaurice is a rugged-looking, completely charming Frederick, and David Macaluso as Samuel, the speaking pirate who isn't the Pirate King, usually hits his interpolated high G#. I am still enjoying playing the Major-General, which is still not yet an age-appropriate role for me. The principals wear body mics - a lovely thing. Only a real sourpuss wouldn't enjoy our Pirates of Penzance.
Event of the Nerd the Third: June 3 & 4 I will be attending two days of the annual International Horn Symposium in Macomb (near Chicago), IL. Every year, in a different international location, several hundred hornplayers from EVERYWHERE get together for a week of concerts, lectures, exhibits and geeky socializing! I have done full weeks of this thing in the distant past but will only be attending Wednesday and Thursday because two days are cheaper. People who don't know me, and/or have never clicked on "ABOUT ," in the upper left of this page, may not know that I spent several years of my professional life, such as it is, as a hornplayer in and around New York and on tour in various ensembles. This part of my life got phased out due to imposed physical limitations and my simultaneous success as a thespian. But I have found - I am surprised it took me this long - that I can still play extremely well on a lighter instrument. There are all types of configurations of French horns, using more or less tubing, though the standard full double F/Bb horn is OVERWHELMINGLY the most popular on this continent. I am switching to a single Bb horn. Single Bb.
Double F/Bb:
As you can see, the double horn has lots more metal, and certain advantages for which I think I can compensate. A couple of weeks ago I played my first horn solo in about TEN YEARS, at a NYGASP function. "Over the Rainbow," on Al Bergeret's old double horn. It went very well - like one nicked note, and I was not overcome with nerves, as used to be the norm. Professional-quality single horns are rare in America, but the Symposium is an international event, and manufacturers will have them on exhibit and ready to be sampled and possibly bought.
The NYGASP thing for which I played was the annual Asimov Awardee concert, this year presented by winner Michael Galante. Next Spring I have to give you warning about this concert. NYGASP singers who aren't often heard in solo roles with the company - like CHRIS-IAN SANCHEZ - get to present themselves, and "stalwarts" like me get to do something different. The concert is free and a regular riot!
Also, my brother Doug will, at a time yet to be announced, come out with THE BIG GAY ICE CREAM TRUCK! Click on it! And stand by circa this site!
MORE Japanese operetta; the Scottish play (badly)
Tomorrow night, Friday April 3, NYGASP will be doing "Mikado" at the Community Theatre at Mayo Center for Performing Arts, Morristown, NJ. This will be my last NYGASP Ko-Ko for, well, indefinitely. I am listening for your involuntary "Thank God!"
In other urgent news, last night I went to the New York debut of Edinburgh's REALLY TERRIBLE ORCHESTRA. It was pretty good. I went with PETER HIRSCH. As we
were walking up 43rd to Town Hall we heard BAGPIPES, which
never ever sound any good however well they're played. I guess these
were played OK but it still sounded like the worst possible
oboe-playing combined with screaming cats. It was from kilted guys standing outside Town Hall. Because the RTO is
from Edinburgh.
PETER HIRSCH as Hoppy the French Horn Frog in the "Teach Your Retarded Child What A Brass Instrument Is!" video (VHS only).
It was a good-sized audience, with some empty sections. Quite a few people followed them over from Scotland. The orchestra
was 45 - 50 white people, all dressed nicely and sometimes a bit
eccentrically, but not at all uniformly. The principal cellist was a
bald woman. The flutes were a beaky-faced middle-aged
woman, a girl with fabulous knockers, and
an old bald coot with wild bushy eyebrows. An ancient crone was one
of the percussionists. There were two euphoniums, one played by a woman
who was either blind, deaf, or probably dyslexic. She had a girl
sitting beside her the entire time conducting her, counting out loud,
and pointing at her music. Everyone in the orchestra was a character.
They very obviously enjoyed themselves all the way through. It's the thing I love most about community theater productions. Their
performance stinks but you never get tired of watching the individuals.
The music they chose was frequently kind of a drag. They did stuff that
was SUPPOSED to be funny. They had a real
Scottish Major-General sing a not particularly ingenious rewritten Major-General
song, there was a pointless Sound of Music singalong, a Scottish thing with
solo bagpipes, some original
pieces composed for the RTO - a brief African-ish tone poem and an arrangement of "Over the Rainbow" for
musical saw. Along the more entertaining lines for which I had hoped they
also gave a miserable performance of "Pizzicato Polka" in which no one
could get their attacks together, a couple of noisy marches, and the last 4 minutes of 1812
Overture, because the first 10 are much too difficult. We were given
paper bags to inflate and explode for the canon cues.
There was also a lot of talk,
mostly pretty amusing, from the conductor and the famous and prolific author Alexander McCall Smith (The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, 44 Scotland Street, Isabel Dalhousie), who is a founding member and first euphoniumist (I've got him on the list).
You should have seen the orchestra's faces when we gave them a standing
ovation! They were thrilled to death.
The Japanese operetta
NYGASP goes off to New Hampshire tomorrow (Saturday, March 21) to the Colonial Theater in Keene and then on Sunday to the Lebanon Opera House. For The Mikado. Mikado. MIKADO.
I have nothing to say.
"Why, he's my little ol' dream boat"
Just trying to perk things up around here with this particularly enticing photo of Shemp. Click on the "WALL OF SHEMP" webpage and see actual items OWNED BY SHEMP!!!
Online Reviews for NYGASP Cabaret
Here are links for online reviews FOR YOU TA HAVE, SEE?
http://www.nytheatre.com/nytheatre/showpage.php?t=ive7819
http://talkentertainment.com/c-8214-Gilbert-Sullivan-with-a-twist-at-the-Triad.aspx
Get a load of this review from "Backstage," a national showbiz newspaper. Is this a positive or a big thumbs down? What a mess! By David Finkle. How much would you pay a critic who doesn't tell you clearly whether he thought the show was any good?
http://www.backstage.com/bso/news_reviews/nyc/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003929195
NYGASP Cabaret (actually see me nervous!)
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Recent Posts
- It's a Big Gay Ice Cream Truck MUSIC VIDEO!!!
- A Woody, Lugosi Christmas!
- 2010 NYGASP City Center Casts
- NYGASP 2010 TV commercial
- "STARSHIP PINAFORE" with Village Light Opera
- Nimoy
- Youtube Quint patter
- The NEW YORK GILBERT AND SULLIVAN PLAYERS' ISAAC ASIMOV AWARD FOR ARTISTIC EXCELLENCE AND EVERYTHING
- LOOK OUT! SPREAD THE WORD!
- Dead Drunken Flunky
