All Entries Tagged With: "Pal Joey"

Pal Joey Video Review

Broadway .com has a section titled “Word of Mouth” that allows real theatergoers the opportunity to give their opinions on what’s hot and what’s not on Broadway. In this segment, panelists Mark, Mary and Steven discuss their thoughts on Pal Joey. (The video also includes several clips from the show.)

Click here to watch the video in a new window.

Today Show–Stockard (Jan. 27)

In case you missed it - here’s Stockard Channing on the Today Show, Tuesday, January 27. Enjoy!

Richard Greenberg, “Revived” Again

PLAYBILL.COM’S BRIEF ENCOUNTER With Richard Greenberg
By Robert Simonson
14 Jan 2009

Rare among his generation of American playwrights, Richard Greenberg is seeing major New York revivals of his works before he is eligible for senior citizen discounts.

In 2006, Julia Roberts starred in a Broadway revival of his 1997 play Three Days of Rain. And now, Manhattan Theatre Club has brought back his 1990 work The American Plan — which, incidentally, had its New York premiere at MTC. Mercedes Ruehl and and Lily Rabe star as a mother and daughter of the early 1960s who have different reactions when a young man comes to call at their summer house in the Catskills. Greenberg is also represented on Broadway right now by his long-aborning libretto adaptation of the Rodgers and Hart musical Pal Joey. The prolific and always-busy writer spoke to Playbill.com about the difference between young Richard Greenberg and old Richard Greenberg.

Playbill.com: This is the second time in the past few seasons when a play of yours, which had its debut Off-Broadway several years ago, has been given a revival on Broadway — the first being Three Days of Rain. When you reexamine these works many years after having written them, do they seem like different plays than what you remember?
Richard Greenberg: I can’t say the experience has really been the same for the two. Even though The American Plan was written only six years before Three Days of Rain, they seem like significant years. American Plan seems much further away. American Plan had been done twice at Manhattan Theatre Club, in 1990 and 1991, and then I saw another production of it a year ago in San Diego. So I’ve been gradually pulled back into its sphere. It was very clear to me that it was a play by someone else. I felt a continuity as a writer more with Three Days of Rain. When I went back and made some revisions on The American Plan, I had to stop myself because I realized that I was very different then and that I could compromise the style of the play. I thought, “Well, I wouldn’t write the scene that way now, but that’s the point. Leave it alone.” It is its own play and works on different terms than I work on now.

Playbill.com: How were you different as a writer back then?
RG: Younger. I was younger.

The Reviews Are In….

Although opening night for Pal Joey was three weeks ago, the reviews just keep coming. And boy, are they mixed. We see comments all over the board, from “There is a lot to praise and be thankful for in this smartly refreshed and snappily staged production” (Total Theater); to “The new book… does little harm…Almost everything else, however, is just plain awful” (Village Voice). It’s hard to know who to believe. Why are the reviews so mixed? I believe Robert Hofler’s Variety article helps to put it all into perspective.

‘Pal Joey’ gets mixed response
1940 musical resists a definitive production
By ROBERT HOFLER

The new Joe Mantello-helmed revival of “Pal Joey” has received the kind of reviews that should send any serious theatergoer running to the Studio 54 box office. Not that those notices have been universal raves — such positive critical response is usually reserved for productions that meet expectations rather than challenge them.

Mantello’s “Joey,” on the other hand, is a defiant “Joey,” and the reviews have been all over the map — a fact that should serve as an indicator to legit avids that the material is gutsy enough to warrant attention.

In theory, theater people love this 1940 Rodgers & Hart tuner, but in practice it is one of those flawed shows (like Stephen Sondheim’s 1971 outing “Follies”) that resists a definitive production. Besides, the story of Joey the gigolo, out to bilk an older married lady named Vera, has always been one of the darkest tales to inspire a Broadway tuner. It makes Sondheim’s oeuvre look positively upbeat.

Still, it’s bizarre to see Mantello’s staging pejoratively described as “ruthless,” “joyless” and “unhappy” — as if such qualities don’t compute in musical theater.

One of the controversies of this “Joey” is that its leading man, newcomer Matthew Risch, the understudy who replaced Christian Hoff in the eleventh hour, fails to deliver the requisite dollop of charm to his catting around. Reviewers have compared him with actors they never saw in the role, namely Gene Kelly, or men who have never essayed Joey onstage, including Hugh Jackman, Harry Connick Jr. and, yes, Frank Sinatra, who insisted, among other woeful ideas, that he sing “The Lady Is a Tramp” in the misconceived (and far happier) 1957 film version.

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.

PAL JOEY RUN EXTENDED

…………………………………………………….
Great news for Pal Joey fans:

Roundabout Theatre Company has announced a two-week extension for its Broadway revival of Pal Joey, which will now play through March 1 at Studio 54.

Martha Plimpton In Newsday

Fast Chat: Martha Plimpton stars in ‘Pal Joey’
January 4, 2009

When last we saw Martha Plimpton on Broadway, she was romancing a Russian revolutionary in “The Coast of Utopia.” Now, she’s making her musical theater debut as sexy chorus girl Gladys Bumps in Rodgers & Hart’s “Pal Joey.” Gladys is a hard-bitten dame with an ax to grind, and hips that follow - she delivers “Zip,” the burlesque send-up of Gypsy Rose Lee made famous a half-century ago by Elaine Stritch. Plimpton, a native New Yorker, sat down recently with Newsday’s Robert Kahn at Studio 54.

After the “Utopia” trilogy, we had you pegged as a dramatic actress. Now, a musical?

It’s newness on a grand scale, so it’s big and dramatic and scary, but that’s what I like. Some friends thought that I could sing, people I work with, like ["Utopia" director] Jack O’Brien. Jack was talking to Joe Mantello [who directs "Joey"] and said “You should think about Martha Plimpton for this.” I don’t know why Jack thought that - he’d never heard me sing.

But it was something that had been percolating?

When I was a kid I started in musical theater, avant-garde downtown stuff with Elizabeth Swados ["Runaways"]. … A few years ago, I met Lucy [Wainwright Roche]. I sang with her at one of her gigs and she asked me to do a song on her EP, so we did a cover of “Hungry Heart.” Then we decided to put together a whole evening based on performing with friends. We did it at the Zipper Factory in August.

So “Pal Joey” is your official coming out.

People will say that, but I’m not a calculator of the things I do. I don’t plan my career. Every time I’ve tried to strategize for success it’s led to nothing. And every time I’ve simply allowed my life to take its natural course, it’s led to a kind of success that is more valuable to me than the kind you get when you “work at it.”

Pal Joey Curtain Call - November 18

I’ve said it before, and find it true again - you can find anything on YouTube! Here is video footage of one of the few curtain calls that included Christian Hoff.

Bill Diehl, ABC News Radio, Interviews Matthew Risch

Click HERE to visit the ABC News site and listen to Diehl’s interview.

Stockard Channing “Bewitches” in ‘Pal Joey’

Michael Riedel Can’t Get Enough of Pal Joey

I just can’t resist posting another gossipy article from Michael Riedel’s NY Post column Broadway Matinee (Thursday, December 17). I just have to wonder, how in the world is he privy to someone else’s e-mail unless he has a) hacked into their computer; b) made it all up; or c) been leaked the information by someone desperate for publicity.

UNFRIENDLY WORDS OVER ‘PAL’
POST LEAK LEADS TO E-MAIL BATTLE

ON the eve of the opening of the troubled revival of “Pal Joey,” a war of words has broken out between the head of the Roundabout Theatre Company and the head of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, which controls the rights to the show.

In a series of blistering e-mails, Todd Haimes, who’s shepherded the Roundabout for nearly 20 years, accused Ted Chapin, who oversees the Richard Rodgers estate, of badmouthing the production to - who else? - The Post!

Jimmy Merrill Interviews Steven Skybell, Robert Clohessy and Daniel Marcus

In our fifth and final installment of interviews from the Opening Night Celebration, contributing correspondent Jimmy Merrill talks with the featured actors of Pal Joey — Steven Skybell (Ernest, Joey’s tailor), Robert Clohessy (nightclub manager Mike) and Daniel Marcus (Chez Joey tenor Ludlow Lowell).

Pal Joey’s Official Opening Night, December 18th

I’m just back from a fantastic trip to New York for the “official” opening night of Pal Joey at the Roundabout Theatre Company’s Studio 54. In case you’re wondering, the difference between the show on December 11th, which was the original opening night, and December 18th, the “official” opening night is that now the press is allowed to write reviews. That’s right, all that stuff you’ve read in the press the last month wasn’t “reviews”, but just “opinions” - officially.

I am not by any means, a Broadway critic. So the thoughts you are about to read are just that - my random thoughts as I watched the show. And as always, I invite, even encourage you to share your thoughts.

This was not my first visit to Studio 54, but it certainly wasn’t the same place I remembered. Well, it was 25 years ago and a very different venue! The theatre is gorgeous, with old ornate woodwork and a very intimate feel to it. The orchestra was located in balconies on either side of the stage and sounded beautiful. I don’t imagine there was a bad seat in the house.

I forced myself to put all thoughts of Christian Hoff out of my mind…no comparisons, no what-could-have-beens…just watch the show and enjoy. I thought it would be hard to do, but when Joey (Matthew Risch) entered (or was thrown onto) the stage, I was captivated by him. He’s good looking, sexy, and he could really dance. I noticed I had a huge smile on my face at the end of “Chicago”. Off to a good start. I even found myself believing he was falling for Linda (Jenny Fellner), and really enjoyed their duet of “I Could Write A Book”. Jenny’s voice is flawless, and I could sense the innocence, as well as the desperation, in her character.

Stockard Channing’s portryal of Vera Simpson was harder for me to categorize. Yes, Vera is supposed to by cynical and hard, but I couldn’t decide if Ms. Channing was playing the part to perfection, or was just a little bored with the whole thing. Either way, the audience loved her, and Joey’s first encounter with Vera in the nightclub was quite entertaining. I didn’t totally buy into her passion for Joey, but her rendition of “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” gave the audience a glimpse into her “troubled soul”. The talk-singing I had heard so much about fit beautifully with her voice and her character, and I thouroughly enjoyed it.

The audience favorite, by far, was Gladys Bumps, played superbly by Martha Plimpton. Her sultry, smoky voice and great comedic timing made for a terrific “Zip”. I only wish we could have had more Martha, as the second Act dragged a little bit for me. My husband was very entertained by the “chorus girls”, who I suspect were his favorite part of the show. And we both enjoyed the voice of Daniel Marcus (as Ludlow Lowell). Wish we could have had more Daniel Marcus. Besides “Zip”, my favorite song of the second act was “Take Him”, performed beautifully by Fellner and Channing.

The costumes by William Ivey Long were perfection. Linda English was suitable dowdy, the chorus girls were just tacky enough, Joey was smashingly handsome in his well tailored suits, and Vera’s gowns and pant suits were beautifully rich without going overboard.

The stage was dark and smoky, which I suppose was appropriate for the gritty Chicago setting, but was a bit disctracting to me. And I thought the cast managed the stairways with great agility - not an easy feat. And Chez Joey was just tacky enough!

The show is helped along by a very strong supporting cast. Robert Clohessy and Steven Skybell (Mike and Ernest, respectively) could have handled parts with a little more meat to them, but both actors got the most out of their characters, and gave terrific performances.

I give Matthew Risch a great deal of credit for coming as far as he has in such a short time. He wasn’t quite the “leading man” this show needed, but I can certainly see it in his future. I found myself singing several of the songs in my head the next day, which is a good sign. I suspect that Pal Joey will have a great run, despite (or perhaps because of) all the drama surrounding it.

Jimmy Merrill Interviews Lily Rabe, Mary Rodgers, Mario Cantone, Margaret Colin, Denis O’Hare and Jenny Fellner

Here is our fourth installment of interviews from the Opening Night Celebration. It features Lily Rabe (Steel Magnolias), composer and author Mary Rodgers (daughter of Richard Rodgers), Mario Cantone (Sex and the City), Margaret Colin (A Day in the Death of Joe Egg), Denis O’Hare (The Changeling) and Jenny Fellner (Linda English in Pal Joey). Contributing correspondent Jimmy Merrill hosts.

Jimmy Merrill Interviews Chita Rivera, Nathan Lane, Rachel Dratch, Cherry Jones and Stockard Channing

The third installment of interviews from the Opening Night Celebration features Broadway legend Chita Rivera, The Producers’ Nathan Lane, TV and film comic actress (and former Saturday Night Live cast member) Rachel Dratch, multiple Tony winner Cherry Jones and Pal Joey’s very own Vera, Stockard Channing. Contributing correspondent Jimmy Merrill is your host.