Gary Waldman and Jamison Troutman, purveyors of mostly feel-good ethnic theater for much of the last decade in South Florida, have wanted through most of that time to shake things up with a wickedly jazzy musical called
The Life, which is about pimps and prostitutes in Times Square.
The Life is not about the midtown Manhattan of
Guys & Dolls. It's set in the 1980s during the roughest hours of Times Square and 42nd Street's history. With co-writers
Ira Gasman and David Newman,
Cy Coleman musically evoked the same grit and snarl of movies like
Superfly, Shaft and
Coffy.
- THE LIFE at the Atlantis Playhouse - Click for video
"It's got stuff in it that nobody would ever expect to see in here, like switchblades and shooting guns," director
Waldman says. "Generally, someone's having a bowl of chicken soup.
"But as far as the style of music, I always go for the brassy stuff, and I think the score is totally something that people are going to go for."
Waldman and
Troutman insist that their regular groups and subscribers like the brassier material that's shown up at the
Atlantis and their previous venues in Wilton Manors and Deerfield Beach. Last summer was their best on record, with a revised version of Sophie, Totie and Belle -- about the three tart-tongued comedians, and an engagement by illusionist
Jim Bailey that was held over three times.
"That's what led us to say to ourselves that, since we always wanted to do this, you know what? You like brassy? Well, we're gonna give you brassy like you never saw in your life."
The first week's preview audiences seem to confirm the owners' suspicions, and hopes. Although the critics hadn't arrived yet, enthusiastic crowds in the 150-seat pocket-sized playhouse have calmed some of Waldman's nerves, and lightened Troutman's normal poker-faced expression into a wisp of a smile.
"We're the first people on the entire planet earth in seven years who've risked a dime on this show. It got 13 Tony Award nominations and won two. Since then, this little cocky theater is the first one that's had the guts to do it," Waldman says.
The Life also was named 1997's best musical by the Drama Desk and the Outer Critics Circle. That was the year
Titanicupset the Tony's new musical categories and the revival of
Chicago aced most of the rest.
Steel Pier did almost as well as The Life in the nominations but got totally blanked on awards night. It closed early, went on tour and has had a few regional productions since then.
The Life ran for another year on Broadway. But except for a college production shortly after its New York closing,
The Life has remained in the vaults at the Tams-Witmark Musical Library. Troutman says the company's representatives have been eager to help the show find another audience.
Composer Coleman and lyricist Gasman have also offered advice.
Carl Barber-Steele portrays Memphis, the show's totally evil underworld overlord, the role for which Chuck Cooper won the Tony on Broadway. He played the same role as a guest artist in the New Jersey collegiate production and is happy to finally be able to tackle it again.
"I was elated when I got the call and asked if I was available. I would've walked here," Steele says. "This show is so real in so many respects. It's not your true musical comedy but there are some moments where you see glimpses of it.
"There's tragedy, depth, lightness, sorrow. That's all part of the beauty about how it was written."
Barber-Steele was in another show and arrived when the rest of the cast was heading into its second week of full rehearsals.
Among the others in the 13-member cast is Nadeen Holloway as Sonja, whose song
The Oldest Profession helped give Lillias White the Tony in the Broadway production. Holloway commuted back and forth briefly from Germany, where she was wrapping up a European tour that played to audiences totaling a half-million people.
In
The Life, Holloway says she interprets
The Oldest Profession for its comic overtones, some of the only ones in the show. It's perhaps the lightest moment, and at times one of the brassiest, in the story.
Jeanne Gray, in the central female role of a young hooker trying to get away to a new life, was rehearsing
The Life days and performing the lead female role in
Ragtime at the Pembroke Pines Theatre of the Performing Arts. Ben Bagby, as her "man" Fleetwood, has appeared on Broadway in
My One and Only.
Dean Swann, who appeared in the
Atlantis' recent
I Write the Songs, covers the role of JoJo, the conniving white hustler played on Broadway by Sam Harris.
The cast has been whittled down to 13 from the 33 on Broadway, which featured large chorus numbers. The authors shortened the story and removed some of the harsh language to make it more appealing for regional productions. But Waldman says it became a little too timid for South Florida, and he put back in some of the tough talk.
The Atlantis treatment of Coleman's score includes recorded performances of the brasses and other instruments, augmented by musical director Phil Hinton's piano and synthesized accompaniment.
"This show is melodically strong, but Coleman is a composer with a strong jazz background," Hinton says. "You can hear it in the harmonizing, the chords he uses.
"Where others would go for a straighter harmony, Coleman goes for jazzy, spicy chords. I'm terrible for jazzing up scores but this time, it's all there already."
Waldman says that a playhouse the size of the Atlantis could never afford such a show if live musicians had to be used. But unlike some theater and supper club operations that only use recordings, he says he insists on some live accompaniment to provide energy for the performers as well as the audience.
And that's the main thing he wants this unique production to re-create.
"I've never heard this kind of a mix of styles in a musical before or since," says Waldman, who saw the Broadway production. "It has everything from disco to gospel, standard show tunes and heart wrenching ballads, a very eclectic mix.
"I kinda get the feeling when he wrote this show, he wrote all the songs he ever wanted to write in his life."
THE LIFE
Where: Atlantis Playhouse, 5893 S. Congress Ave. (Shoppes of Atlantis at intersection with Lantana Road), Boynton Beach.
When: 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays; 2 p.m. Saturdays; 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays.
Tickets: $26.50-$29; 561-304-3212.
