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.

SOPHIE, TOTIE & BELLE (1999) | Sun-Sentinel Review

Gary Waldman & Jamison Troutman, theater producers, presented SOPHIE, TOTIE & BELLE, a musical by Joanne Koch & Sarah Blacher Cohen in several regional productions and off-Broadway… the following is a review of the 1999 S. Florida production as published in The Sun-Sentinel …

It's An R-rated Act Made In Heaven

October 04, 1999|By JACK ZINK Theater Writer

What's the best R-rated act at the Friar's Club, heaven branch? The Drama Center thinks it has the answer with Sophie, Totie & Belle, a play that's been kicking around in limbo the past few years.

Deerfield Beach's petite theater has opened a revised version of the play-with-music, which posits that "groundbreaking" entertainers Sophie Tucker, Totie Fields and Belle Barth are in heaven's waiting room. There, God auditions each one of them for a special engagement at his club.

Sophie, Totie & Belle had some promising tryouts earlier this decade in the area. The current edition is billed as a total rewrite, with better pacing and focus, but all the old hardware is back.

That includes whole sections of each star's act, songs that have become cult classics and jokes that have been copied so often they're like wallpaper. When resung and retold as originally done, all of this material still has a lot of punch. And when the actresses are good enough to evoke some of the aura of the real-life characters, the punch lands right on target.

Authors Joanne Koch and Sarah Blacher Cohen do a good job of weaving personal reminiscence around the stars' onstage material to flesh out each character, without getting overly sentimental. And the writers build a relationship among the backstage personalities that, while predictable, serves the plot well.

Gwendolyn Jones is Sophie Tucker, who left her son with his grandma and went onstage, eventually becoming the diva's diva of vaudeville and variety entertainment. Jones is in good voice, with a regal bearing that projects both the confidence and the ego of a star who's beaten all her detractors.

Kathy Robinson portrays Totie Fields, the comedian and singer who spent a career making fun of her own body in joke and lyric. Robinson's handling of Fields' self-parody is at times nearly mirror-like; like Fields herself, nearly grotesque. Yet there's poignancy in the dramatization of Fields' relationship with her devoted husband, and the manner in which she dealt with her personal health problems.

Stacy Schwartz tackles the role of Belle Barth, variously billed "the Hildegarde of the underworld" and "Miami's answer to Lenny Bruce." Schwartz, her lips curled in a scowl that looks set in stone, fires some material that still can redden ears and cheeks in semi-polite society. Schwartz has just the right posture needed to deliver that material, plus the instincts and timing of a veteran comic.

But perhaps the best job onstage is being done by Stephen G. Anthony as "all the men in their lives." He embodies husbands, lovers, chiselers, agents and the voice of God. Anthony, who has excelled in similar assignments before, makes every cameo unique.

Think of Sophie, Totie & Belle as a celebrity one-woman show, in triplicate, with a supporting cast. And a music director (Phil Hinton).

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

THE SOUNDS OF SIMON (2008) Destin/Ft. Walton Beach Beachcomber Review

EDITOR’S JOURNAL

A tender moment from "The Sounds of Simon"

SOUNDS OF SIMON is more than up to the challenge ...


By Leah Stratmann

March 6, 2008 

As a fan of live theater in general, I was pleased when I got a press release about a new theater opening in Pensacola. I duly listed the opening show in our theater section, even though, in truth, Pensacola is a bit out of our distribution area. However, many from this area routinely travel to Pensacola for events, so it wasn’t totally out of the ordinary either.


Then I got a thank you email note from David Gerson, one of the partners in the Garden Street Playhouse venture. He thanked me for listing the event and invited me to a show and suggesting I might be moved to do a review. I explained our every two-week publishing schedule and that I had not planned on inserting a theatrical review and the best I could do for him was to come see the show and talk a bit about it in my column.


The Garden Street Playhouse is only performing musicals and the first one was an ambitious undertaking called The Sounds of Simon featuring the songs of Paul Simon and those of Simon and Garfunkel. Much of the music was re-arranged from the original by Phil Hinton and Gary Waldman. Waldman is one of the three owners of the theater and also will be a frequent performer.


The theater is a black box type, with red walls, which I liked for the brightness. The seats were probably bought from a movie house going out of business and were comfortable, which isn’t always the case with small theaters. There literally isn’t a bad seat in the house, and I would estimate the theater holds about 50 people.


The show is billed as Paul Simon’s Music in Vision & Light. Gerson and Jamison Troutman ably handled the lighting chores and punching up the pre-recorded musical accompaniment from a good sound system.


When the five performers were singing together, the result was a harmonious an energetic mix of voices, particularly on numbers such as Keep the Customer Satisfied and You Can Call Me Al. However some voices were better than others and each was given an opportunity to solo, to greater and lesser degrees of success. It is challenging to reach those high notes of Art Garfunkel and some of the performers just couldn’t put a bridge over that troubled water.


Yet a very few misses in a show that’s about an hour and a half and features more than 20 of the familiar hits, did not ruin the venture and should not keep you from going. The choreography by performer Kenny Green was perfectly suited to the small stage area and performed with great gusto by the entire cast. Standout performances by Pensacola natives Camille Perillo and Katrina Washington alone were worth the price of admission. These performers are tasked with practically miming some drama, sans dialog, into a non-stop musical production. All proved more than up to the challenge with just a few props and by using subtle body language.


There will be two more shows in this initial abbreviated season of The Garden Street Playhouse. The current production runs through this weekend. Visit www.gardenstreetplayhouse.com for upcoming shows, a map, and more.

MOLLY PICON'S RETURN ENGAGEMENT (1998)|Sun-Sentinel Review

Gary Waldman & Jamison Troutman, theater producers, presented the premiere professional production of the musical-comedy Molly Picon’s Return Engagement at Queens Theatre in the Park, New York, NY (1997), the Drama Center, Deerfield Beach, FL (1998) & the Kaplan JCC (1998), The Hollywood Playhouse (1998) … the following is a review published by the Sun-Sentinel:

Molly Picon's A Star Again _ In Spirit

May 11, 1998|By BILL VON MAURER Special to the Sun-Sentinel

She's tall, has long hair with red highlights and is beautiful in a Helen Hunt sort of way. A Molly Picon look-alike she's not.

What Joanne Borts does have is the warmth, the comic flair and the emotional range that endeared Picon to generations of Yiddish theater fans.

Picon, who died in 1992 at the age of 93, was an icon of New York's famed Second Avenue theater district, later a Broadway and international star and a success in television and films. Any attempt to clone her would have been impossible and the result, no doubt, a travesty.

The producers of Molly Picon's Return Engagement wisely decided to focus on Picon's talent rather than her appearance. They cast Borts to send the message, and she does so with great style and verisimilitude.

Molly Picon's Return Engagement, a two-character musical play by Sarah Blacher Cohen at the Drama Center in Deerfield Beach, is a celebration of its subject rather than a tribute, a revue of Picon's songs and comedy etched against the background of her troubled marriage and the turning points in her career. Her husband of more than 50 years, the controlling playwright Jacob Kalish, is played by Oscar Cheda in a remarkably conflicted performance of love and domination.

Return highlights Picon's struggle for stardom, from her youth as the daughter of immigrant Ukrainians. Amazingly, as a youngster, she couldn't speak Yiddish.

We learn of the remarkable diversity of her career as she worked with such disparate talents as Godfrey Cambridge and Sophie Tucker. She became known as the Yiddish Helen Hayes and tells of a touching backstage encounter with that luminary.

Although her rise as a beloved entertainer under Jacob's iron guidance is the show's focus, Picon's songs light up …Return Engagement. Sung by Borts with great spirit and often with poignancy, they will stir anyone who ever loved Yiddish theater.

Here are only a few of them (some of which Cheda, who has a good voice, sings along with her): Yom Pom Pom; Du Shaynst Vi Di Zun; Hei-Digga-Lai; Vos Zol Ikh Ton Az Ikh Hob Im Lib? and Yidl Mitn Fidl. Many are in English: Steam, Steam, Steam, Busy, Busy, Busy and Chin Up, Ladies!, the latter from Jerry Herman's musical Milk and Honey.

Gary Waldman, who directs with zest, wrote new English lyrics for some of the songs; Michael Larsen accompanies on piano.

Bill von Maurer covered theater for more than a decade for The Miami News and is a frequent contributor to the Sun-Sentinel.

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.

I WRITE THE SONGS (2007) Biloxi Sun-Herald Feature Story

Gary Waldman & Jamison Troutman, theater producers, presented I Write the Songs - A Celebration of the Music of Barry Manilow at the IP Casino Resort & Spa in Biloxi, MS (2007) … the following is a feature story published in the Biloxi Sun-Herald:

IP CASINO RESORT & SPA PRESENTS

INGENIUS MUSICAL TRIBUTE

TO BARRY MANILOW

Biloxi, MS—If you are looking for a romantic summer songfest and happen to be a fan of one of the most romantic composers in show business, then come to Club IP beginning June 8 – July 22. I Write the Songs, a unique musical celebration, will make you laugh, cry, sing and dance and it’s just the show for you and your family when you visit your one stop resort destination, IP CASINO RESORT & SPA in Biloxi, Mississippi. The 5-person stage production creatively showcases one of the most prolific and award-winning composers of this generation, Barry Manilow. 

I Write the Songs is a much deserved honor rarely bestowed on a contemporary singer-songwriter,” according to its originator, nationally acclaimed musical theater artist, Gary Waldman.

Manilow has written hundreds of songs and performed around the world, thrilling millions of fans, picking up a Grammy, an Emmy, Tony Awards, and an Oscar nomination along the way.

To make the Manilow musical that much more exciting, Waldman has cast disco legend Jeanie Tracy as the star of I Write the Songs. Coined by megastar Whitney Houston as “one of the 10 best singers in the world,” Tracy is certain to add additional glitter and glam to the already spectacular 90-minute audio-visual extravaganza.

Tracy has partnered with Barbra Streisand, Aretha Franklin, Patti Labelle and Celine Dion on various musical projects, including, My Heart Will Go On, the title track from Academy Award winning film Titanic.

Reviewers of the original production were stunned at how Waldman and longtime musical collaborator, Phil Hinton, re-arranged and re-structured the best of Manilow’s work into an entirely new form of entertainment.

Vigorous research led the pair to an amazing repertoire consisting of classic pop, jazz, swing and virtually every other style of 20th Century music that will appeal to the entire family. IP is hosting the smash-hit summer musical on stage in Club IP as an incentive to promote much-needed, family-oriented live entertainment on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The theater boasts a 500 seat capacity, with reserved private booths available for parties of four or more. Tickets are on sale NOW and may be purchased at IP’s Tour & Travel Desk in the IP lobby or by calling toll free, 1-888-WIN AT IP.

Additional information available at www.ipbiloxi.com.

CREDITS

Producers: Gary Waldman & Jamison Troutman in association with IP CASINO RESORT & SPA

Created & Directed by Gary Waldman

Music Director: Phil Hinton

Set Design: Matthew Decker

Sound & Lighting Design: John Wade

Production Stage Manager: Patricia Causey

Performers:

Jeanie Tracy – Los Angeles, CA

Kelly Briscoe – New York, NY

Ryan Flanigan – New York, NY,

Lady Patrice Green – Pascagoula, MS,

Garrit Guadan – New York, NY

Rachel Klein – Hollywood, FL

Like everything else about IP, www.ipbiloxi.com is definitely MORE THAN YOU EXPECT!

1 888 WIN AT IP (1.888.946.2847)