I just created my own website. Its a little bare bones right now but i plan on upgrading and adding on to it as I go along.
Right now, you can see a couple of my videos as well and photos and links to my resumes and credits on other sites. There's even a link to this blog. So I guess if you click on the link below, you can then click on the link back to this site on that site. Its kind of full circle. It will get you into a continuous loop that you won't be able to get out of!
Not long ago on Facebook I posted picture of me in two different productions of You're A Good Man Charlie Brown. In the comments section, there were references to the incident I am about to share with you.
There are many things that can go wrong in a live stage production. Props that aren't placed. Sound cues that don't happen. Lights going out. Actors forgetting lines or their entrance. I've experienced all of these things. But the single most memorable moment I ever had on stage was the time I threw up in the middle of a performance of Charlie Brown.
Picture it, New York City, December 1993. I was playing Charlie Brown in You're A good Man Charlie Brown. It was our closing performance, a Sunday matinee just a few days before Christmas. We had a cast party the night before at Brice Lloyd's house, (Bruce played Linus). The next morning I got up early to go downtown to pick up some crew gifts from the cast. As I arrived on the subway platform at 86th and Broadway, my stomach started to bother me. So I bought a pack of Tums from the newsstand and ate a few. My stomach still felt queasy.
I continued on my way. Went downtown to the South Street Seaport to a t-shirt shop and bought a couple of Peanuts themed t-shirts. Then up to the upper East Side to a Hallmark shop on Lex to buy some Peanuts cards and ornaments. Then to the theater at 54th and Lex. The Theatre at St. Peter's at Citicorp, which you enter y taking an elevator down from street level. I was early and the first one there. I went toy dressing room which was locked. I was not feeling well by this time. I curled up on the floor waiting to get in.
My friend Jane Southall showed up first. She was our light board operator. She got maintenance to unlock all the dressing rooms and the green room. I curled up not he couch in the green room as the cast crew began to arrive. I got sicker and sicker. I had someone get me ginger ale and saltines.
Me in my dressing room looking pale
Eventually, I went to the bathroom in my dressing room and threw up. I seemed to get it all out of my system. I still didn't feel great, but better. I went through vocal warmups with the cast. I was still really pale. We started the show. Everything seemed fine.
Me and Melissa during vocal warmups. She looks a little concerned.
I got through the Kite Song but I started felling a little woozy. After the song, Patty (played by Melissa Broder) comes out on stage with her Valentines. We have an exchange where I mistakenly believe a card with CB on it is for me. My reaction is supposed to "I can't stand it." Through my dialog with Patty, I'm getting sicker and sicker. Finally, I realize I can't hold it any longer and right at the moment when I act to her last line, instead of saying I can't stand it, I run cover my mouth and run behind Snoopy's dog house and get down all fours and, well...spew.
Poor Melissa is standing there alone and ad libs something like Poor Charlie Brow. I hope you feel better and makes her exit. I get up from all fours and go offstage. (The piano player is playing through all of this). The cast is all back stage looking at me like what do we do? There is no crew backstage. We have no headset to the booth. They're all concerned I'm going to be sick again. I remember Jonathan Bennett (Schroeder) looking for something for me to puke in just i case. I leaned against the SR wall with me head down thinking about to blow again. And then the feeling passes.
I stand up straight. I look at the cast. I say, "Let's go on. I'm fine." We're about to go into the Doctor is In scene between me and Lucy (Lizzie Yawitz). So I walk out on stage from SL. I realize that the stage is not set for that scene. So I walk back off SR. (Steve has not stopped playing underscore music this entire time by the way).
Offstage, I instruct the cast what to do. We go onstage change the set pieces around for the next scene and go on. I mange to get through the rest of the first act without incident.
Lizzie an dme in the green room during intermission. Notice my skin color.
During intermission, our ASM John Henderson as the unenviable task of having to clean up my mess behind the dog house on stage. Fortunately, I had gotten most of it out of my system an hour before the show. So not much came out of me and what did come out was very little, odorless and clear (I'm thinking it was the ginger ale and saltines. That's all that was left in my system.)
We go on to Act Two. I start getting sicker and sicker. Light headed. Not feeling well at all. I can't even stand up by the end of the show. I did the Glee Club sitting on a block in front of the cast rather than standing in the group. I barely made it through the how, but I did. I went home immediately after the show and spent the next couple of days in bed. It was bad. Really bad.
But the show went on. And the audience never knew. They had no idea. In fact, the kids were crawling around in the dog house right after the show.
And that is my worst on stage mishap or most memorable moment of all-time on stage.
So today I read yet another article about a Broadway performance interrupted by an audience member on their cell phone. Earlier this year, Patti Lupone stepped off stage and grabbed a cell phone from an audience member's cell phone because they were distracting her with her texting. Within weeks there was someone at the play Hand to God who walked up on stage and plugged his phone into a fake outlet on the set just before the play was about to start. He didn't know and was escorted out by the ushers. Ignorance is bliss in this case, I guess.
This week, during a performance of the play Sylvia on Broadway, a cellphone rang right at the climax of the play. The scene involved Matthew Broderick and Annaleigh Ashford. She spoke with playbill.com about the incident. In the play, she plays a dog. The phone rang, twice. They kept on with the scene. After the second ring, the woman answered the phone and start talking. The audience members started shushing her. Annaleigh's initial thought was concern rather than rage. She thought there must be some emergency she needs to take the call.
The woman left her seat but then stood in the hallway and continued her conversation where she was clearly heard. So Annaleigh did what she does whenever they have a cellphone ring in the house. In character as a dog, she barked at the audience and then said, "I think somebody is having a conversation in another room." It got a laugh and they continued. After two pages of dialogue, they couldn't go on any longer because the audience became really distracted by this woman. A man in the front row shouted, "Throw her out!"
Finally someone helped her get off the phone. So Broderick and Annaleigh told the audience we're going to go back in the play and pick it up if its alright with you and they did. Annaleigh has taken it well. No outrage like Patti Lupone, (who I don't blame for her response). Annaleigh has expressed concern that she hopes that nothing serious came up for the woman on the phone and that everything is okay. Also, that she won't do that again.
Being an actor, this hits home for me. I've never personally experienced this when I've been on stage. What are some of the things I have experienced with an audience? Audience members putting their feet up on the stage like a foot rest. As Lily von Schtupp says in Blazing Saddles, "Tell me Tex ma'am, are you in show business?" "No." Then get your friggin feet off the stage!"
I did show in the round last year. The stage was not on a lift. Same level as the floor. So audience members in the first row have to keep their feet tucked in to avoid tripping actors. One day, a special needs young man was seated point the front row. He kept blurting out periodically. It was off-putting to some of the actors who were getting riled. I could tell quickly that this was a special needs person and was not something he could help. At one point, he got up to go to the bathroom, and walked across the stage..while the entire company was on stage. Cast, not happy. I was thrown, but as I said, I could see who I was dealing with.
Another performance, we had a woman in the front row and get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of one of my scenes. Saw her out of the corner of my eye and it threw me for a second. My timing was a bit off, but I recovered. Later in the scene, she returned down one of the staircases from the lobby. Being a theater in the round, actors make entrances and entrances through the house. At this particular moment, several of the girls join the ensemble were on the stairs observing the scene between myself and my daughter. Rather than wait for them to clear, she pushed her way through the girls to get to her seat. She could have sat in an empty seat in the back and waited for a better moment to go all the way down front. She could have stood in the back and waited. I don't know what was so important that she just had to get all the way down to that seat at hat moment. But she did. And she took us all out of the moment.
It seems to be growing concern, and as Annaleigh said we need to educate audiences. Cell phones are way of life now and are not going away. I can understand younger people not having the courtesy to turn them off. They were practically raised in a society where they are a part of their lives. But older folks, really? You are old enough to remember when they didn't exist and you had no choice but to sit and be quiet.
Parents went out and left their kids with sitters and they didn't have to be connected for those two hours. They were fine. But now because the technology is there, they have to be in constant contact.
Can't it wait until intermission? What's an hour or two? And if you're really concerned about your kids that much, maybe you shouldn't go out and leave them alone.
Its that time of year again. Holidays. Time to go out with friends for drinks. Go to holiday parties and drink and eat food. Lots of of food. Oh, it doesn't look like much because all the foods are small. That's how it gets you. Its not going out for dinner or a meal. Its a cocktail party at a friends house or maybe visiting old college friends or family.
Stop by for a bit. And there's always cookies and snacks and cheese and crackers and appetizers. Small stuff. Finger foods as they say. How innocent sounding...finger foods. Light snacking. I'll just have a couple of these. Oh! So good. Let me have another. Oh! And what are these. OK. I'm done. No more. So I'm good. I don't eat anything for a bit. But now, Oh look! Shrimp! I got to get me some of those! Yes! Mmm. Oh! And look Aunt Wendy just showed up with three platters of fresh baked Christmas cookies!
Before you know it, you're feeling bloated. Because at the same time, you had some drinks and you need something to absorb the alcohol. So now you've been noshing for over three hours. And none of it is health food. Yes, you didn't gorge yourself on a meal. Because that's being served in 5 minutes! What!?
See? That's how they get you. Your tricked into thinking you're not cheating because its all just small foods. But its all fattening and sweet and bad for you but soooo good! Personally, I can't stay away from cheese and crackers. And shrimp! Which I really need to steer clear of because of my cholesterol. And then cookies. Oh boy! I have a HUUUUGE sweet tooth. Seriously HUUUGE! I eat chocolate every day. Can't get enough of it.
Oh God, just hoist me on the couch in front of the TV and play the old Christmas specials. I am done.
And just this past couple of weeks I was being better about getting to the gym more and increasing my cardio. I've been trying to get to the gym at least one night during the week in addition to my Saturday and Sunday workouts. But now, well Friday night have drinks with the girls and then Sunday I'm going to Disneyland followed by a cocktail party. Maybe I should skip the cocktail party and go to the gym instead since I won't be able to go in the morning cause I'll be in Disneyland.
Oh shoot! I just remembered theres a work luncheon Friday and then Monday my team guest for lunch and then the company party is on Thursday. Yeah, keep it coming. Don't even give me chance to work out. Maybe if I take a couple of weeks off from work, I can get to the gym every day. Yeah, that sounds like a plan.
Or, I could just be motivated enough to make the time to go in between work and sleep and parties. Nah! I'll just go after New Years.
I like game nights. I host occasional game nights at my house. They are usually pretty low key. Just a small gathering of us. I am better at certain types of games over others. I am better at trivia games. Not as good at games that involve some sort of strategy. I can be pretty lazy when it comes to those. I don't want to spend too much time thinking.
When we play word games like Taboo, Catchphrase or Dictionary, I have a tendency to shout out one word after another until I get the correct word. But trivia games, that's my area. If we have teams, you want me on you team.
I have been on a couple of game shows over the years that involve trivia. Several years ago, I was on a show called Clash! which was on the HA! network. What's that you say? What's the HA! network? Remember before Comedy Central both MTV Networks and Time Warner had their own comedy networks, one was called HA! and the other was called Comedy Channel? Well they didn't do so well on their own so they merged and became Comedy Central.
Anyway, I was on Clash! as part of a team of three. Our team won, but I was not the leading scorer eon our team so I didn't get to go for the final round. But I did answer all the questions in the speed round which is how the team won. The speed round went like this, they give you three categories (kind of like Jeopardy), you don't know exactly what they mean but you can get a fair idea. And then they give you three dollar amounts, $50, $100 and $150. You decide based not the titles which value you want to give to which category. Mine were Cops Shops and Flops. I knew immediately, Cops was probably TV cop shows, Flops was probably movie failures and Shops might have something to do with retail. All three ares of expertise for me. So I jumped right in assigned the dollar amounts and then the questions came and I answered all of them correctly.
Shops for $50, What NYC department store hosts the annual Thanksgiving Day parade?
Flops for $100. What 1980 box office failure was directed by Michael Cimino?
Cope for $150. What 1970s cop show featured three young officers?
Macys
Heaven's Gate
The Rookies
Bam! We each won a set of luggage, crystal ware (which I still have), and an electric typewriter (yes, typewriter that s how long ago this was).
After moving to Los Angeles, I was on Merv Griffin's Crosswords. It only last one season and I still can't believe I passed the test to get on. It was hard! Proven by the fact that I only attempted to answer a question once and I was wrong.
A year later, I was on Trivial Pursuit America Play hosted by Peter Brady himself, Chris Knight.
I went all the way and won $13,100. I was unstoppable! I could have gone for double or nothing and made $26,200 but I made a decision before filming began that if I made it to the final round and I had the chance to double or nothing, then I would take what I had and go.
So I know trivia. Especially, TV shows, movies, sports figures, Broadway theatre and popular music of my generation and the generation before mine. If you were to ask me about current things, I'm not so knowledgeable.
Anywho...all this to preamble. my game nights. For Christmas 1996, I was given a game called Nick at Nite TV Trivia game. It's a board game that looks like the different rooms in a house. Each player has a figure that goes around the room and you answer questions read off a card, each representing a different room in the house. If yo get the answer right, you get a section to place in your TV dinner tray. The first person to fill up their TV dinner tray wins. (See below picture)
No one ever wants to play this game with me. Why? Because its all about classic TV shows of the 1950s though the 1970s. The game came out in 1996 when Nick at Nite was airing shows from those eras. They hadn't even started airing 1980s TV shows yet.
I haven't played this game in years. I've never played it enough so that I even have read all the cards. But no one will ever play it with me because they know I'm going to win. It's not like I'll gloat or be ungracious about winning. Just no one wants to play because I WILL win. There's no contest so why bother. Jeez, if I felt that way about games, I would never play anything but this one. But I don't do that. I play whatever game my friends want to play.
Except Ticket to Ride. Cause my friend Tom always wins at that. Its too complicated for me. LOL
I enjoyed it. It was much better than Peter Pan Live! and Sound of Music Live! I thought it was an excellent choice. The Wiz is not as well known as the other two. People know of it, maybe know the songs but have most likely never seen the show. I am one of those. I had the Original Broadway Cast Recording and loved it. In fact, I got it when I joined the Columbia House record club when I was in the 9th grade.
So that is reason one why I think it was a smart choice. It exposed the mainstream audience to a little performed classic Broadway show as opposed to another production of one of the most produced shows ever (like Sound of Music and Peter Pan).
The second reason, they cast an unknown in the lead role of Dorothy and surrounded her with a cast of names. And she was wonderful, like the wizard! (Get it ? Because the original book is called The Wonderful World of Oz). Great choice. Smart choice. And it paid off. Oh! And brining back Stephanie Mills to play Aunt Em? Yes! My musical theatre geek heart nearly exploded.
Reason number three, diversity, diversity, diversity. An all black cast in an all black musical! Yes. Smart NBC. Very smart. And in this day and age...necessary.
Now, most of what I have read online has been positive. It was an improvement from the last two years but of course not flawless. Personally, I thought that Queen Latifah's songs should have been taken up into a more comfortable area in her vocal range. They were too low for her. Yes, the songs were written for a man, but c'mon. This is a major network show. Change the keys for her.
Some of the negative comments I've read are that its still not as good as a live stage production. Well yes. It is a stage show and its being performed without a live audience so it does lack that aspect. However, its for a television audience. It's sort of a hybrid of a musical theater production and a television show. It was staged and designed for a TV audience, not a live audience. It's been staged on a huge sound stage in a movie studio and staged for the cameras as opposed to a live audience.
There were complaints that there were too many commercial breaks. Agreed. But perhaps necessary so that actors could change costumes or run from one set to another for the next scene. Because while it is a TV production, its live and its of a stage show which means you keep going. No stopping. It has to flow. Unlike a movie where you cut and shoot multiple takes. Its live TV. All the editing is done in the booth as we are watching it. And that lends to the excitement of a live TV show. So we lose the energy and the heightened performance you would get in front of a live audience. But being live, things can still go wrong.
While nothing went wrong here, there were some camera shots that were questionable. But I think that was more on the TV director and the cutting. Some of those shots in the big numbers should have been wider. But that's being picky.
The costumes, set design, choreography, makeup all so awesome.
And bottom line for those negative Nancies out there who think the show was bastardized or dumbed down or just plain didn't like it because it was not an exact duplicate of the stage production...think about all the people who were exposed to a musical theatre piece that might not otherwise ever go see a show in the theater. Think of all the young kids out there, who will see this and be inspired to pursue acting or singing or dancing.
As I said with Carrie Underwood in The Sound of Music two years ago. Yes, there are far better stage actresses who could have played Maria in that. However, bringing in a name like Carrie Underwood brought in an audience that might not otherwise want to see a musical. Carrie Underwood fans, Country Western and Pop music fans. Bottom line, NBC is a major broadcast network and they are in the business of making money. You cast a name in the lead role, you're going to get a bigger audience. It's smart business.
However, this year. They took chances and those chances paid off. The Wiz Live on NBC. Did I like it as much as listening to the Original Broadway Cast album I grew up with? No. But did I like it as TV? Yes.
Two thumbs up to The Wiz Live! Can't wait to hear what they do next year. Let's hope they stick with this formula and not the Peter Pan, Sound of Music formula.
In an earlier blog, I spoke of my love and devotion to television. Today, I reveal yet another obsession of mine...Peanuts. The comic strip by Charles M Schulz. I love it. And in recent years, I have begun collecting Peanuts books, prints, decorations and other objects.
The Complete Peanuts (so far)
I always liked Peanuts, even as a kid. My elementary school had an annual book fair where we could buy books and I would buy the paperback reprints of old Peanuts comics. I remember going to Clapp's Bookstore on Madison Avenue next to the old Madison movie theater in Albany and buying a couple there.
When I was in the seventh grade, I bought a paperback edition of the script to You're A Good Man Charlie Brown at Waldenbooks in Colonie Center. I always loved Charlie Brown. I identified with him. But it didn't really become apparent until my junior year of college just how much. That was when I was cast as Charlie Brown in my college production of You're A Good Man Charlie Brown. Here's the thing, not only did I identify with Charlie Brown, I truly believed that I was a real life Charlie Brown. In my mind, I could do no right, no one really truly cared about me, they just felt sorry for me and I would never win at anything, ever. This is how I saw myself...really!
The published script bought in the Seventh Grade
Years later, I had the opportunity to play Charlie Brown again. At the auditions, the director asked if I would be interested in playing Snoopy. I said no. He thought I was nuts. "It's the best part!", he said. I replied, "I know and someday I would like to play Snoopy, but I really need to play Charlie Brown." Why? Because I felt that when I played him in college I wasn't acting. I was just being me. I wanted another shot at it so I could try acting it this time. I was cast as Charlie Brown and it was a great time. And in fact one of the most memorable on stage moments of my life took place. But that's a story for another blog.
That's me under the bag in my college production
This blog is about my love of Peanuts and the art of Charles M Schulz. It started about 10 years ago when Fantagraphics began publishing the Complete Peanuts, every single strip ever published in the newspapers from the very first strip in October 1950 through the last one in February 2000 just before Charles M Schulz's death. Two volumes every year, each containing two whole years worth of strips. Every two volumes combined in a nice box set. The second to last just came out (1995-1998) last month. I got my copy today.
That means there is only one volume left 1999 -2000. Then its over. I read that strip every day in the NY Daily News right up until the last. It was a constant in my life. When he died, it was like part of my childhood was gone.
I've become a fan of Schulz's art work. Simple. If you look at the backgrounds, the trees, the grass. It's actually great graphic art. Each volume of the series features inside covers with nothing but background art, a page of rain drops, or a field of daisies. So simple and compelling. It's almost like a comfort food that brings me back to my childhood and all those books and the TV specials.
This year at Comic Con I bought some original sketches from one of the TV specials. I have books on the making of the Christmas special (one hard cover and one paperback), a book of art and special collectibles, the Broadway revival show card, a stuffed Charlie Brown, some limited edition Christmas ornaments and a couple of collectibles from Comic Con.
So now that I have the latest volume I plan to read every single strip in there. I don't collect anything else other than TV shows on DVDs. It's like I'm hanging on to a part of my childhood. I can go back and pick up a book anytime and read some of my favorite strips and it will bring me back to lying on my bed reading those old paperbacks.
