All Entries Tagged With: "Lisa Gajda"

Lisa Gajda, Gypsy of the Month for February

When Eric Sciotto was announced as Pal Joey’s Gypsy Robe recipient (see archives) it was mentioned that Lisa Gajda had previously won the honor three times. This made me wonder why it was Eric, and not Lisa, who received the honor for Pal Joey. Well, a recent article on Broadwayworld.com (GYPSY OF THE MONTH: Lisa Gajda of ‘Pal Joey’, by Adrienne Onofri) not only answers that question, but makes it clear what a “Pal” Lisa truly is:
“‘Pal Joey’ would have been Gajda’s fourth time receiving the Gypsy Robe - presented on opening night to the ensemble member with the most Broadway credits - but she decided to forgo the honor so it could go to her friend Eric Sciotto, who’d never received it in his previous seven shows. Gajda received the robe for her last two shows, Cry-Baby (which Sciotto was also in) and The Times They Are A-Changin’, as well as for 2003’s Taboo.”

Broadway was not always Gajda’s (pronounced Guy-da) life. When she was around 20, she and a friend took a road trip to California and she ended up staying for several years. She started getting work right away and danced in awards shows quite regularly. At the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards, she danced with Paula Abdul to “Vibeology”. She worked on videos, commercials, movies, AND the 1990 and 1991 Academy Awards. But New York is where she really wanted to be, and she moved back in the mid-90’s. Within six months, she was cast in the tour of Tommy, playing the Nurse and other ensemble roles. In the spring of 1995, she made her Broadway debut as a swing in Tommy (see archives).

By the time she auditioned for Pal Joey, Lisa had learned how to make herself into whatever type was needed. “My look is pretty contemporary,” she says, “so I went to the audition with big fake boobs and tried to make myslef look soft.” She obviously did something right!

In Pal Joey, Gajda is one of the two ladies who dance with Joey (Matthew Risch) in the opening ballet, and she is the lilac in the comic Act 1 song “The Flower Garden of My Heart.” And although she understudies for Martha Plimpton (Gladys Bumps), she isn’t yearning for speaking parts. “I’m a real dancer. It’s not very interesting to me to pursue doing roles. I grew up loving to dance, so that doesn’t mean that I wanted to act and sing.” And her sage advice for other gypsies? “If you’re dancing in the chorus, don’t spend you entire life waiting to do something else, because it’s an honor and a great gift to dance in the chorus.”

Click here to read Broadwayworld.com’s article.

“Gal Pals” Out On The Town

I came across this New York Times article and had to share with my Pal Joey pals. It’s always nice to see a cast having fun outside the theater.

A Night Out With | Martha Plimpton
Old Hand, New Hands
By MERVYN ROTHSTEIN
Published: January 30, 2009

A HALF-HOUR after finishing her night’s work in “Pal Joey,” Martha Plimpton walked into the Grill at the Players, a private club across from Gramercy Park.

With her were four “Pal Joey” colleagues — Lisa Gajda, Kathryn Mowat Murphy, Abbey O’Brien and Krista Saab — the female dancers from the Roundabout Theater Company revival of the 1940 Rodgers and Hart musical, in which Ms. Plimpton is starring at Studio 54.

Ms. Plimpton planned a session of poker — a game some of the dancers had never played, but which she was eager to teach. “We’ve gone out quite a few times,” she said of the group. “We call each other the Tribe. They’re my protectors and guides.”

Ms. Plimpton, 38, has received two Tony nominations — as best featured actress in “The Coast of Utopia” in 2007 and “Top Girls” last year. This season the critics have been more than kind to her portrayal of Gladys Bumps, a singing and dancing floozy with a grudge. She has also been taking some days off and flying to the West Coast to film a comedy pilot for Showtime — “The End of Steve,” with Matthew Perry of “Friends” as an egomaniacal television talk show host and Ms. Plimpton as his producer.

The Players, founded in 1888 by Edwin Booth and Mark Twain, among others, has long catered to what it calls “members of the dramatic profession.” The Grill’s wall is crowded with portraits of the likes of Lauren Bacall, Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart. Ms. Plimpton pointed to a picture of the actor John Carradine. “That’s my grandfather up there,” she said. “That’s pretty cool, huh?” (Her parents are the actor Keith Carradine and the actress Shelley Plimpton.)

“The club’s history is special to me,” Ms. Plimpton added later.

Eric Sciotto; Pal Joey’s Gypsy Robe Recipient

Tradition has always been a huge part of the theatre. The Gypsy Robe is one of these traditions, and is reserved exclusively for the singing and dancing chorus in a Broadway musical. Members of the singing and dancing chorus, if they are lucky, go from one show to another, never staying in a show forever, reminiscent of the gypsies of old.

GYPSY ROBE HISTORY

The Gypsy Robe tradition started in 1950, when Bill Bradley, in the chorus of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (the long-running smash hit of the day), persuaded a chorus girl to let him have her dressing gown. As a lark, he sent it to a friend on opening night of Call Me Madam (starring Ethel Merman), telling him it had been worn by all the Ziegfeld beauties. The friend added a rose from Ethel Merman’s gown and sent it to a chorus member on the next opening night. It was then passed from show to show in a haphazard way and was often presented to a friend of the previous recipient, or awarded to a chorus member based on popularity. Through the years the passing of the Robe became a specific ceremony with official rules stating how it is presented, worn and paraded on stage.

The ritual begins appropriately, with a cue from the stage manager: “On stage for the Gypsy Robe.” All members of the production (although one story I read stated only members of the chorus – no principals in the “circle”) - some already in make-up and costume - take a place forming a circle on the fringes of the stage. In the center of the circle stand two people; one is a representative of Actors’ Equity, the other, a performer, an honored gypsy, from the previous musical that opened on

Broadway. Those on the fringe listen and watch; for some this is their first experience; for others, it is a ritual they have participated in many times before as they listen anxiously in the event they will be the night’s honoree.