Attention Pennsylvania! I鈥檓 taking you by storm! And/or performing in your state twice (two times).
First of all, tonight I鈥檒l be with the great Michael Cerveris doing a show to support the Pittsburgh CLO. Get thee to PittsburghCLO.org for tix (and get thee fast!) to the 7:30 PM show! Then I鈥檒l be with . I was just at the Kimmel Center last week with Megan Hilty who, as usual, sounded fantastic. She has such a big voice. I鈥檓 dying for her to do a Broadway show where she gets to really belt up a storm. In Wicked she sang soprano, in 9 to 5 she sang country, and in Noises Off she had the nerve not to sing at all. Get thee to an all-Judy Garland musical!
P.S. Speaking of Noises Off, she was completely surprised to be nominated for a Tony Award. On the morning of the announcement, she and her husband were awake and watching the nominations鈥ot because she thought she鈥檇 get one, but because she hoped some of her friends would. Her baby wanted to go into another room so she followed and soon Brian yelled 鈥淗ey! Your show was nominated!鈥� She was super happy. Then he yelled, excited but slightly incredulously, 鈥�You were nominated!鈥� And when she says she wasn鈥檛 expecting to be nominated, she鈥檚 not just saying it out of false modesty. She actually planned a trip out-of-town throughout the awards season. And I don鈥檛 mean a trip to Boston that she can cut short to get back in time for the Tony Awards. I mean a trip to Australia! She was sure she鈥檇 be available, she booked concerts in multiple cities鈥ncluding one concert that would make her miss the actual Tony Awards. She鈥檚 performing in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, which also sounds like the names of three girls who go to an Upper West Side private high school.
Anyhoo, the concert producers were very accommodating to her and moved her final concert to the afternoon so she can begin her 30 hour trip home early enough to make the awards. Yes, she lands at 3 PM on the day of the Tony Awards! I told her she needs those 鈥減retend you鈥檙e awake鈥� glasses that Homer wears on The Simpsons.
I had John Breglio on Seth Speaks, my SiriusXM talk show, and I asked him about his fabulous new book I Wanna Be A Producer. It鈥檚 a really great guide to how to actually be a producer on Broadway, filled with great information and really amazing Broadway stories. If you don鈥檛 know, he began as a huge entertainment lawyer (starting with working for Michael Bennett, with whom he grew up with, on A Chorus Line!), and then he started producing Broadway shows.
One of the stories I loved from the book was about the original La Cage Aux Folles. Alan Carr, who was a big Hollywood producer, saw the French film La Cage Aux Folles and told John to leave his office and go to the Paris movie theatre and see it ASAP. John left during the afternoon, saw the film, loved it and agreed it could be a great musical. Alan Carr wanted to buy the rights, so John called the original playwright and found out that another producer was vying for the rights鈥�David Merrick! They got into a bidding war鈥ut David Merrick finally dropped out. Why? Because most rights could be bought for around $10,000 in those days, but Alan Carr kept bidding higher and higher til he got to $100,000! P.S. That鈥檚 $328,000 today. (Thanks, Google!)
Alan really believed in the story and knew it could be a great musical. That鈥檚 why he engaged a great team to write the show; Maury Yeston for the score, Jay Presson Allen for the book and Mike Nichols to direct. Now, you may know that these folks didn鈥檛 wind up doing the show. That鈥檚 because the famous agent, Sam Cohn, was representing them and kept doing his signature agent wheeling and dealing by asking for more and more money (in royalties). John Breglio advised Alan Carr that he鈥檇 have great difficulty paying back his investors if he also had to pay that amount in royalties. So, one day they went to Sam鈥檚 office, and Sam was gearing up to negotiate. Instead, Alan told him that he was withdrawing the offers entirely! John told us that Sam used to chew on Kleenex during meetings (!) and Sam was so shocked by Alan鈥檚 statement that he spit out the Kleenex! P.S. I immediately interrupted and told John that my dog Mandy also chews Kleenex. I鈥檇 rate his level of interest in that fact at a 3 (out of 100).
Anyhoo, Alan was able to let the creative team go because he knew that Jerry Herman was very interested in writing that score so he already had a back-up in place (adding Arthur Laurents as director and Harvey Fierstein as book writer). The nice part of the story is that the show went on to be an enormous hit! The sad part is the story John told about Australia; the show barely ran due to the fact that people were afraid to come to the theatre because they knew the show attracted gay people to the audience, and they didn鈥檛 want to sit in seats gay people might have sat in because they thought they could give them AIDS.
This is the kind of bull that gay people and people with AIDS have had to deal with and continue to deal to this day. If you are so inclined, feel free to channel your outrage into making a donation to Broadway Cares at .
And finally, if you鈥檙e looking for some summertime reading, don鈥檛 forget I have and Kindle!
Here鈥檚 Stephanie J. Block reading a section from the book and recreating the message she left for Shoshana Bean where she gave her a full coaching on how to sing Wicked. Hilarious and a brava!
Peace out and enjoy the (finally) nice weather!
