THE LIFE (2004)|Boca Raton News Review

Gary Waldman & Jamison Troutman, theater producers, presented The Life, a musical by Cy Coleman, Ira Gasman & David Newman at the Atlantis Playhouse, W. Palm Beach, FL (2004-2005) … the following is a review published in the Boca Raton News, June 18, 2004:

Prostitution takes center stage in ‘The Life’

THE LIFE - (l-r) Miriam King, Jessie Alagna, Nadeen Holloway, Jeanne Lynn Gray, Teandra Morris

June 18, 2004

By Dale M. King

STAFF WRITER

“The Life” is a musical that takes a walk on the very, very wild side.

It has to. It’s a gritty, sometimes brutal depiction of street prostitution in New York City circa 1980. But this is not the world of Heidi Fleiss. And it’s not Ruby Keller’s 42^nd Street. It’s a hard play that marries hard drama, comedy and music. Fortunately, it’s a marriage that works.

“The Life” is playing through July 11 at the Atlantis Playhouse. The Cy Coleman-Ira Gasman collaborative is awesomely entertaining, though occasionally unsettling.

An exceptional cast – and a wonderful keyboard player - Phil Hinton – keeps the show right in the groove.

It’s actually more than a story about ‘the life’ of street hookers on the mean streets of New York before urban renewal, police crackdowns and AIDS put a damper on much of the sex-for-hire trade. There’s a plot—even a love story—tucked in among the unsavory characters who walk the alleys and dirty streets of the Big Apple.

The play opens with the company performing “Check it Out,” a finger-in-your-face entrance number that makes you think “The Life” is just another version of “Chicago.”

Coleman and Gasman have peppered the show with tough songs, uplifting tunes and explanatory songs. The lyrics are well-crafted and creative, but often fallback on clichés. Fleetwood, an up-and-coming pimp, sings about getting “A Piece of the Action,” while Memphis, the toughest pimp on the block, warns one of the girls that “It’s My Way-or the Highway.”

One of the best tunes is Sonja’s rendition of “I’m Getting Too Old for the Oldest Profession,” a song that needs no explanation.

This is a true ensemble work. Everyone in the cast pitches in to make the show work. They’re energetic, with great voices and obvious talents.

But “The Life” is definitely an adult show. The language is not for kiddie’s ears. And the subject on stage means there’s a lot of ‘sexual suggestion.’

The show really focuses on the life of Queen (Jeanne Lynn Gray), a hooker who has fallen in love with her pimp, Fleetwood (Ben Bagby).

When Fleetwood realizes that he can’t really love a woman that he’s…well, “using,” he drops her for a fresh-faced, milk-and-honey brunette who’s newly arrived from Duluth, Minn. An apparent innocent, Mary (Elizabeth King) is not all what she seems. That sets the whole street afire with anger, resentment and fear and the denizens factionalize.

Gray is superb as Queen—for many reasons. She’s tough, but vulnerable; thick-skinned, but with a warm heart.

Elizabeth King is perfectly cast as the apple pie kid from Minnesota whose innocent demeanor hides a sordid interior. It’s not surprising she has played Eliza Doolittle in “My Fair Lady.” But in “My Life [sic],” she doesn’t do a little, she does a lot!

Nadeen Holloway is a definite show-stealer as Sonja, the seasoned prostitute who accepts her own fate, but doesn’t want her ‘sisters’ to end up like her. She’s got a voice that could stand up to Aretha Franklin, and a talent that easily slides from comedy to tragedy.

Bagby, who literally comes to South Florida from Broadway, is terrific as Fleetwood, who has one of the most pivotal roles in the show. He is good at making his character hate able, but there’s a flicker of redemption when his come-uppance arrives.

Carl Barber-Steele is a fearsome presence as Memphis, the most powerful pimp in the hood. He’s one character who pulls no punches—literally—when he pushes his theatrical weight around.

Dean Swann is Jojo, the show’s narrator, who proves himself to be a no-account, backstabbing lout. And those are his good points. I swear I saw him in the Barry Manilow Revue at the Atlantis earlier this year—which is something of a departure from his role in “The Life.”

Alex Danyluk—who is much younger than he appears in the play—is the affable barkeep Lacy, whose character seems to come from the “don’t ask, don’t tell” school.

“The Life” runs through July 11 at the Atlantis Playhouse, in the plaza at the corner of Atlantis Playhouse, in the plaza at the corner of Lantana Road and Congress Avenue (near Rosalita’s) in Atlantis. Tickets are $26.50 and $29. Call (561) 304-3212.

Gary Waldman's new production is a family affair! - Sun-Sentinel Feature Story

Gary Waldman & Jamison Troutman, theater producers, presented the premiere professional production of the musical-comedy Pickles at the Atlantis Playhouse, W. Palm Beach, FL (2003) … the following is a feature story published in the Sun-Sentinel:

:

LISA GODDARD ON STAGE

Production is a family affair

October 17, 2003|LISA GODDARD (link to original article)

The on-again, off-again love affair between Ginger Reiter and comedian Jackie Mason is the subject of Pickles, a new play written by Reiter that will premiere at the Atlantis Playhouse on Wednesday.

Starring in the lead female role is Sheba Mason, the real-life daughter of Reiter and Mason. "I'll be playing my mom starting when she was in her mid-20s and covering about a 10-year span of time," she said.

'Pickles' stage set mimics a Miami Beach delicatessen

Mason, 18, who lives with her mother in Boca Raton, is excited about the opportunity to portray her mother and expand her acting repertoire.

"It's a very interesting experience, playing my mother," said Mason, who attends classes at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. "It's easy in some ways because I'm just like her. She has shtick, and I have an inclination toward that as well. It's fun."

Mason, who has appeared in Little Shop of Horrors at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts and Godspell at the Creative Stage of the Lake Worth Playhouse, says her father is supportive of the effort.

My father knows about the play, but he's not going to be able to be here because he'll be opening on Broadway about the same time," Mason said.

Reiter, who also wrote Solomon's 700 Wives, says she has mixed feelings watching her daughter rehearse.

"It's a real trip watching her play me. On the one hand, I want to hug and kiss her and tell her she's wonderful, and sometimes I want to tell her to sit up straight," says Reiter, who likes to say she's older than Brooke Shields, but younger than Goldie Hawn. "She's a natural actress."

The play, whose title is based on the legendary Wolfie's Restaurant in Miami Beach, is a piece Reiter has worked on for years.

"It's been a work in progress for a very long time, but this is the brand new, finished version. Jackie has always been encouraging of it," said Reiter, who is now married to the cantor for Temple Beth El in Hollywood. "There's comedy and music and a lot of drama, and we have original music with live musicians. Gary [Waldman], the director, and the whole crew have been incredible. It couldn't be better if it was on Broadway."

Reiter "fictionalized everything; she didn't want a Jackie Mason impersonator," Waldman said, "but you do see hints of him and the essence of his personality."

Local actor "Mark Harmon plays the role as a character actor, and that's good."

Singing and entertaining on the South Florida condo circuit with her mom and comedian Frankie Man since the age of 6, Mason hopes to make the theater her career.

Reiter, who performs Women of the Bible, a show featuring belly dancing and comedy, is optimistic about the show.

"It could play elsewhere, you can never tell what will happen," she said.

Previews run through Sunday. Opening night is Wednesday, and the show runs through Nov. 30. Preview tickets are $21.50, $24 for Saturday evening and Sunday matinee. Regular performances are $26.50, $29 Saturday evenings and Sunday matinees. Performance times are 8 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday; 7 p.m. Sunday; and 2 p.m. Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday.

The Atlantis Playhouse is at 5893 S. Congress Ave. in the Shoppes of Atlantis. 

E-mail Lisa Goddard at ladygatr8@aol.com or fax 561-272-3189.

SOPHIE, TOTIE & BELLE (2003) - Sun-Sentinel Review

Gary Waldman & Jamison Troutman presented SOPHIE, TOTIE & BELLE, a musical by Joanne Koch & Sarah Blacher Cohen at the Atlantis Playhouse, W. Palm Beach, FL (2003) ... the following is a review published in The Sun-Sentinel ...

Three Old Gals Get Another Run
Sophie, Totie & Belle Still Funny After All These Years.

July 22, 2003 | By Jack Zink Theater Writer

The best R-rated act at the Friar's Club, Heaven branch, is still Sophie, Totie & Belle, though the old gals need a bigger push to get rolling than in the past.

Director Gary Waldman and producing partner Jamison Troutman have revived the show for its fifth local outing at their new Atlantis Playhouse in south-central Palm Beach County. The musical revue that puts Sophie Tucker, Totie Fields and Belle Barth together in heaven's waiting room is now more than a decade past its world premiere here in South Florida (and had its off-Broadway certification in New York in '02). (Note: the off-Broadway production was actually in 2000)

STB is among a few celebrity musical tributes that's a little more than a revue but still less than a full-blown musical -- dubbed a revuesical by some marketing types. Joanne Koch and Sarah Blacher Cohen bring the three late comedians together at heaven's doorstep to audition for a show that the Almighty is putting together. He only needs one act, so the girls are forced to compete for a place in the upper kingdom.

The conceit allows the show to roll out each character's original jokes and routines, including some of Barth's purpler prose. Whole sections of the original stars' acts are reprised. If the material seems dated and corny at first, it's because the performers don't warm up fast enough. By the end of the show, the suburban mall playhouse is rollicking like the old Miami Beach clubs that Fields and Barth frequented, and Tucker was known to visit.

SOPHIE, TOTIE & BELLE at the Atlantis Playhouse
Pictured: Sharyn Bingham as Totie Fields

Angela Thomas is in her best voice to date as Tucker. She peels off Some of These Days, My Yiddishe Mommeh, Red Hot Mama and others with elan. Sharyn Bingham is the relentlessly cheery Totie Fields, and Raquel Marmor the relentlessly relentless Barth. Bingham also is an accomplished singer, and Marmor has more than enough chutzpah to deliver Barth's blue material. Just don't expect them to be celebrity look-alikes; the actresses are in character, not impersonators.

The downside is that their voices tend to be light and bell-toned, becoming shrill when going for broke (which is often) in the Atlantis Playhouse's acoustically lively environment. Another disappointment is Floyd Nash in the multiple roles of the men in the ladies' lives; he never rises above the level of a doormat.

Accompaniment is provided by Phil Hinton, a top-notch musical arranger and director, on keyboards, with Tom Hinton on percussion. Sets and lighting are by David Sherman and John Wade, respectively, but the show's eye-appeal is in Floyd Nash's cabaret-garish costumes.

Jack Zink can be reached at jzink@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4706.

THEATER REVIEW

Sophie, Totie & Belle

Musical revue, through Aug. 17 at Atlantis Playhouse, 5893 S. Congress Ave., Boynton Beach. Shows 8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday; 2, 7 p.m. Sunday. Tickets $26.50-$29. Call 561-304-3212 or toll free 800-690-1863.