WHAT I LEARNED IN FALLSBURG |Palm Beach Arts Paper Review

‘Fallsburg’ a personal, poignant look back at Borscht Belt

Written by Palm Beach Arts Paper Staff on 09 October 2014.

By Dale King

Gone, sadly, are the nostalgic “Borscht Belt” days when visitors to the Catskills used to roar with laughter at comedians named Red, Lenny, Rusty, Mort, Zero and Herschel, among others. Yes, even The Three Stooges and Joan Rivers.

Delray Square Performing Arts Center partner Gary Waldman remembers that era well – because he lived it. He and his family were part of the bungalow brigade that made the annual summer trek to north New York for Jewish humor, fun and food. Inspired by those legends, he took to singing and dancing on stage at the age of 6. And he only looked back once — to say goodbye to those kitschy lodgings in the late 1970s.

As the self-proclaimed, fourth generation “American-Jewish kid from Queens” approached 50, he gathered up recollections of his 35-plus years as a producer, director, performer and composer in a mélange of musical memories called What I Learned in Fallsburg. The show opened for a two-week run in September and has been extended through Oct. 19.

The autobiographical production gives Waldman a musical license to hit the high notes of his career that extends from Fallsburg, N.Y., in the heart of the Catskills, to South Florida, in the heart of Dixie. The combination of songs and skits includes Yiddish melodies, yuk-able song parodies and a few smooth tunes with pinpoint harmony, with help from other performers. Songs from recent Waldman-written revues that drew from the noteworthy portfolios of Barry Manilow and Paul Simon are also staged.

Joining him are Aminah Cox, a Brooklynite and dance student, and Michael Wallace, who has already notched a few musicals.

Waldman weaves stories about his life into this very personal pastiche. The Yiddish tunes catch fire with many of the New York transplants in the audience. And while the words may not mean much to you, the singer who spent 18 months learning the Germanic-sounding tongue modulates his voice to evoke laughter, sadness, sorrow and joy. In this way, the music truly tells the tale.

One thing is clear. Waldman’s got powerful lungs. His tunes sometimes threaten to overpower the sound system. But in typical showman style, he is controlled, but still passionate about pleasing the gallery.

Before he enters the Yiddish vein, Waldman delivers a well-heeled tune from Cab Calloway’s binder, “Minnie the Moocher.” As he walks the sparsely decorated stage, he comes up with another old-timer, “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?”

Before he leaves the Catskills, he invokes audience participation, asking folks who were also part of that era to recall some of the towns and hotels that once populated the mountain resort. He’s not finished with New York yet. This time, he heads for Brooklyn, specifically, the Loew’s Pitkin Theatre on Pitkin Avenue. He mentions more historic names, to the crowd’s delight, and recalls his first musical, which he wrote at age 29,Meet Me at the Pitkin.

He then offers up a parody that gets his audience laughing. It’s a tale about a comedian who gets whacked by the mob. Called “Blame it on La Cosa Nostra,” it’s sung to the tune of “Blame It on the Bossa Nova.”

The show’s conclusion is an interesting mix. Waldman talks of his own arrival in Florida where he has written shows and songs. He skewers property associations with his song, “Al Shapiro, the condo commando.” He also vocalizes tunes from his Manilow revue and “Sounds of Simon,” reprising his role as the homeless man from that production.

Waldman’s look-back becomes particularly poignant with his tender rendition of “Yesterday When I was Young.”

Music for the show comes from the Delray Square Band, a talented trio that includes musical director Phil Hinton on piano, Roy Fantel on drums and Dave Tomasello on bass. Like Waldman, all have musical roots that touch many big-name performers.

The show runs for two hours with no intermission, so plan accordingly.

What I Learned in Fallsburg will be performed the weekends of Oct.10 and Oct. 17 at the Delray Square Performing Arts Center, 4809 W. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach. For tickets, call 561-880-0319.

ME & JEZEBEL (2000)|Miami Herald Review

Gary Waldman & Jamison Troutman presented ME & JEZEBEL, a play by Elizabeth Fuller at the Wilton Playhouse, Fort Lauderdale, FL (2000) ... the following is a review published in The Miami Herald:

Monday, May 22, 2000

Funny ‘Jezebel’ Captures Bette Davis

BY CHRISTINE DOLEN

cdolen@herald.com

Our great stars have long been a character actor’s dream. Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand, Liza Minnelli, Carol Channing: Their gestures, appearance and vocal tics make them instantly recognizable to adoring fans, irresistible to the transformative performers, who idolize and pay tribute to these dazzling ladies by “becoming” them.

Tops among these icons—and how this late, great star would love it—is Bette Davis. That swathed-in-cigarette-smoke “what a dump,” big-eyed, impossibly feisty Bette Davis, who is doubtless devoting herself in the Hereafter to tormenting the longtime object of her derision, Joan Crawford.

It seem only natural, therefore, to find …Jim Bailey playing Bette Davis in Elizabeth Fuller’s Me & Jezebel at the Wilton Playhouse in Wilton Manors. What is pleasantly surprising, though, is how thoroughly Bailey serves the play with his honest, nuanced performance.

Me & Jezebel, which co-stars Carbonell Award-winning actress Kim Cozort (so engaging here she seems to be glowing from within), is playwright Fuller’s recounting of the time in mid-1985 when Davis really did bunk and the Fuller household for “a few days”--and stayed and stayed and stayed. Fuller, a lifelong fan, is initially thrilled to have the star of Jezebel and All About Eve under her roof. But the celebrity tenant, who gives no indication of a firm departure date, quickly plunges the household into chaos.

Fuller’s cozy Connecticut house starts smelling like an ashtray. Her husband notes that Davis is conspicuously failing to pay for anything, and that she needs to move on pronto. Fuller’s 4-year-old son Christopher begins using language that no preschooler should even hear.

And yet this “Woman Who Came to Dinner” tale, played out on Barry Axtel’s skeletal yet evocative set, is often hilarious, tender and moving.

Under the direction of Gary Waldman and Mark Graham, Bailey shines, whether zinging one more dig about Crawford’s moral vacuity or feeling the sting of the Mommie Dearest-style expose written by Davis’ daughter. Cozort, who plays Fuller as well as evoking Christopher and others, keeps us a happily captive audience as her funny tale of wonder and woe unfolds.

The Wilton Playhouse itself is undergoing “renovation”—it looks, especially from the outside, like an uninviting mess—but it would be a mistake to let that keep you from Me & Jezebel, the little gem that Fuller, Bailey and Cozort are polishing within.

Christine Dolen is the Herald’s theater critic.

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.

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.

THE LIFE (2004-2005) – Miami Herald 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 Miami Herald, June 12, 2004:

 Sing a song about a prostitute

A musical melodrama recalls the seamy years before New York’s 42^nd Street got it’s tourist-friendly makeover

BY CHRISTINE DOLEN

cdolen@herald.com

ALL HANDS: The cast of THE LIFE sings ‘Use What You Got.’

First, the caveat: The brassy musical that has just opened at the Atlantis Playhouse isn’t one of the Jewish-themed shows the company’s audiences have come to expect. Not by a long shot.

The Life, a 1997 Cy Coleman-Ira Gasman Broadway hit, is a down-and-dirty singing soap opera, an ode to the flashy hookers and slick pimps who worked on the edge of Manhattan’s theater district before Rudy Giuliani and company made the 42^nd Street neighborhood safe for Disney shows, chain stores and restaurants.

Crucial to the success of any production of The Life are actors who can sick the heck out of Coleman’s score, a beguiling (if lyrically blunt) blend of jazz, blues and Broadway. Director Gary Waldman has found a killer 13-member cast, one that belts, brays and coos under Phil Hinton’s fine musical direction. They dance well too, working the Kevin Black-Jamie Cooper choreography with a tongue-in-cheek, provocative sass.

The quality of the acting is more erratic, though the melodramatic tone of the show’s script (by Coleman, Gassman and David Newman) makes both the weaker and over-the-top performances easier to forgive. The Life is an amusing, ultimately sobering fantasy about gals who work hard for the money and guys who never treat them right.

The show’s focal characters are Queen (the charismatic Jeanne Lynn Gray), a Georgia gal who’s turning tricks only until she can buy a better life, and her man, Fleetwood (Ben Bagby), a drug-addicted Vietnam veteran who’s increasingly (and exploitatively)pragmatic when it comes to his women.

Jojo (Dean Swann), the weasel of a narrator, is in cahoots with Memphis (Carl Barber-Steel), a fly pimp who works his girls hard and answers any rebellion with violence. Sonja (the wonderful Nadeen Holloway), his main gal, brings down the house with The Oldest Profession, an amusing take on just how wearying years of streetwalking can be. And Mary from Minnesota (Elizabeth King who makes way too many distracting faces), the just-off-the-bus “innocent,” proves that sleaziness comes in many guises.

As Queen, Gray turns her many solos (He’s No Good, I’m Leaving You, We Had a Dream)into aural gold. Her voice has ahoneyed warmth, and she projects the inherent dignity that makes Queen seem different from the other women.

Though it’s simple in design, with the actors moving against a graffiti backdrop on the raised platform of a stage, The Life at the Atlantis is an effectively escapist – if gleefully raunchy – piece of musical theater.

Christine Dolen is the Herald’s theater critic.

THE LIFE (2004-2005) - South Florida Tribune 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 South Florida Tribune, June 23, 2004 ...

Sensational New Musical showing at Atlantis Playhouse

By Al Price - TIMES ENTERTAINMENT WRITER

One of the great musicals of this -- or any -- season is the Broadway musical, "The Life," now showing at the Atlantis Playhouse. This 13-time Tony Award nominated musical was the hit of the Broadway 1997 season and earned accolades from the critics. At the time it was beaten out by “The Titanic” and “Chicago” but deserved to win as Best Musical – which it got from the Drama League and the Outer Critics Circle.

Producers Gary Waldman and Jamison Troutman fulfilled a dream for this show and have taken a giant step forward with this significant production for their small theater. The show never toured and has never been seen in South Florida.

Nadeen Holloway in THE LIFE at the Atlantic Playhouse

“The Life” was written by Cy Coleman (“Sweet Charity” fame) with lyrics by Ira Gasman and has some 25 driving songs about the degradation on Times Square and 42^nd Street in the ‘80s when pimps and prostitutes worked the streets. The music is brassy, jazzy and luscious and has a multi-ethnic cast of spectacular performers with exceptional voices that will thrill you.

The story is performed with stunning power and musicality. It’s about Sonja (Nadeen Holloway), a veteran hooker, who has seen better days and bemoans the wear and tear of her life with “The Oldest Profession” and her 15,000 tricks. Then there’s the younger Queen (Jeanne Lynn Gray) with her lover and pimp, Fleetwood, who dreams of power as he sings “A Piece of the Action” and she sings “Oh, Daddy, You Got Me.” He picks up the destitute Mary (Elizabeth King) with the help of hustler Jojo (Dean Swann) who sings “Easy Money” and the provocative “Use What You Got.” They’re at the bus station looking to turn Mary into a hooker.

Queen, resentful of Mary taking her man, Fleetwood, falls under the spell and control of Memphis (Carl Barber-Steele), a mean abusive pimp who sings the earlier dynamic showstopper “Don’t Take Much” and demands Queens work off $6,000 for a dress he gave her. He brutally sings and threatens her with its “My May or the Highway.”

Meanwhile Mary is being groomed for pornography and prostitution, which she readily accepts. It all comes to a tragic confrontation between Fleetwood and Memphis that Queen and Sonja can’t stop.

The show is full of show-stopping numbers that has audiences jumping out of their seats. Every song moves the action forward, and few musicals have the guts and grit of this production. The dark graffiti wall staging by Matthew Decker and the excellent accompaniment by Phil Hinton’s synthesized piano and recorded brasses give the production its full due.

The show has everything in humor, pathos and defiance. Waldman should tour it to other regional venues where a great show like this deserves to be seen.

“The Life” is at the Atlantis Playhouse, 5893 S. Congress Ave., Shoppes of Atlantis at the intersection of Lantana Road and Congress Avenue. It runs through July 11. For tickets, call (561) 304-3212.

FIVE GUYS NAMED MOE (2006) South Florida Tribune Review

Gary Waldman & Jamison Troutman, theater producers, presented the Five Guys Named Moe at Carmen's Supper Club, Boca Raton, FL (2006) … the following is a review published in The South Florida Tribune.

“Five Guys Named Moe” to delight with humor

By Al Price

SPECIAL TO THE TRIBUNE

There’s a new dinner theater in town – at the “Bridge Hotel” rooftop restaurant overlooking the Intracoastal. What a great atmosphere to see an enjoyable musical and eat sumptuous food by an award-winning chef.

Five Guys Named Moe was one of the most popular shows in cabaret history. Its off-Broadway show totaled 445 performances. It takes you back a bit, especially if you remember the big band sound. Six dynamic guys take off on Louis Jordan’s music from the ‘40s with high-powered song and dance. His musical style was called “The Big Bounce.” It took the swing-era jazz style, mixed it with rhythm and blues, and pushed it toward rock ‘n’ roll.

The five guys are Eat Moe, No Moe, Little Moe, Four-Eyed Moe and Big Moe, who sing and dance around the stage in an exuberance rarely seen on any stage in this area. It opens with a lovelorn Nomax (Gary Waldman), whose lady love is moving out of his life. The Moes suddenly appear to help Nomax out of his depression.

Carl Barber-Steele (“The Life”), Lorenzo Gutierrez, David Hughes, Christopher George Patterson and Dante Sterling dance and sing up a storm, performing some 24 of Jordan’s work’s including favorites like “Let the Good Times Roll,” “Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby” and “Caledonia.”

They are an extraordinary group of performers, and as the show moves forward, each one is in perpetual motion, and each has the opportunity to sing a song and show his stuff. There is a distinct personality to each Moe as he sings and dances, which gets the audience toe-tapping – it’s infectious!

Choreographer Christopher George Patterson ahs his cast not only energetically dancing but has turned the show into an interactive event with audience members who participate with the performers in humor, dance and sing-alongs.

The Moes are costumed in classical striped Zoot suits that add to the hilarity of the evening; and the cast also seems to enjoy every moment on stage. Phil Hinton, who is the musical director, is a former Carbonnel and Curtain Up nominee for last season’s “The Life.”

Each one of the Moes has his own Louis Jordan specialty number with the others dancing around him. At one time Sterling leads the group with “I Like Them Fat Like That.” In “Safe, Sane and Single” each takes his turn in stanzas directed at the audience. And when Carl Barber-Steele has the audience prompt him in “Caledonia, Caledonia, What Makes Your Big Head So Hard,” the audience is suddenly part of the show.

Other fun songs are “Ain’t nobody Here But Us Chickens,” and “Choo Choo CH’Boogie.”

“Five Guys Named Moe,” directed by Gary Waldman, is a great way to spend an evening and enjoy a good dinner as well.

“Five Guys Named Moe” is playing at Carmen’s Rooftop Restaurant at the Bridge Hotel, 999 E. Camino Real in Boca Raton. Open ended. For tickets, call 561-392-2744.