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.

THE LAST SESSION (2005) - Palm Beach Post Review

MUSICAL 'SESSION' NOT PERFECT, BUT FULL OF POIGNANCY

Palm Beach Post, May 20, 2005 | by HAP ERSTEIN Palm Beach Post Theater Writer

You could see the life-or-death decision facing singer- songwriter Gideon in the musical drama The Last Session as a metaphor for any dire crisis we each must come to grips with. But for composer-lyricist Steve Schalchlin, Gideon's real life alter ego, it is barely fictionalized autobiography, how he weighed the imminent physical ravages from AIDS and became determined to commit suicide.

Gary Waldman stars in THE LAST SESSION Click HERE for video

Prospective audience members who believe that musicals should be about nothing weightier than who gets to take Miss Laurie to the Oklahoma church social have probably already turned the page.

The rest of you should head to the Hollywood Playhouse, where Gary Waldman and his newly created Florida Musicals, Inc. - a spin- off of his quickly closed-down Atlantis Playhouse - has produced another emotionally potent ride, far removed from his original mission of for-profit, entertainment-only theater.

The Last Session, which first surfaced off-Broadway in the late '90s and has slowly been building a national reputation in small regional theaters, is hardly a perfect musical. Schalchlin's score varies from songs of honest, earned anger to mawkish tunes with lyrics that would be at home inside a greeting card. Jim Brochu's script clearly wants to be comic relief from the dark-toned musical numbers, but the strain for laughs is all too evident.

Still, when it works, which is often, its impact is as moving as any area show in several seasons.

The show's premise is contrived, but just go along with it. Long HIV-positive and starting to experience some of the misery that lies ahead for him, Gideon (Waldman, in a touching, well-sung performance) decides to record an album of songs about his life for his longtime companion, the unseen Jack, then kill himself the next evening.

He confides his plan to sound engineer Jim (Jamison Troutman), but not to his ex-wife Vicki (Jeanne Lynn Gray) or friend Tryshia (Lyrehc Jordan), both of whom he hires to be back-up singers on the disc.

Even more of a credibility stretcher is the unexpected arrival at the studio of Buddy, who happens to idolize Gideon until he learns the once-popular troubadour is gay. You see, Buddy is a devout - devoutly bigoted - Christian, a straw dog for Brochu's message machine, who will gain a worthy lesson in tolerance, though his enlightenment seems overly contrived.

Go instead for Schalchlin's songs - driving, insistent compositions with punchy lyrics, in a variety of genres from pop to jazz to gospel to light rock. The Group is a sobering description of a gathering of AIDS therapy patients, Friendly Fire bitterly sings of the hazards of AIDS drugs, which can be as devastating as the disease, and Connected is a forceful ballad of interdependence that Waldman delivers with authority.

Most of his supporting cast comes from the Atlantis production of The Life and they again impress with their impassioned vocals. Waldman takes them over-the-top in their dialogue scenes, where a more understated approach would have been more effective, but theatergoers open to the show's viewpoint are likely to find the experience affecting.

How ironic that Waldman, who used to take pride in valuing commerce over art in the theater, has now produced two shows - The Life and The Last Session - that no other company in South Florida is adventurous enough to touch, and done so with such artful poignancy.

hap_erstein@pbpost.com

REVIEW

The Last Session

B+

Where: Florida Musicals, Inc. at the Hollywood Playhouse, 2640 Washington St., Hollywood.

When: Through June 19.

Tickets: $27.50-$30. Call: (954) 426-2040 or (800) 655-1773.

The verdict: An emotionally potent, musically moving look at a singer-songwriter with AIDS, weighing his options.

Copyright 2005

THE SOUNDS OF SIMON (2005) Broward-Palm Beach New Times

Stagebeat

Capsule reviews of current area stage shows.

Click image for video

By Rachel Galvin Thursday, Jan 27 2005

The Sounds of Simon cast light on master songsmith Paul Simon's poignant words. Five players on a darkened stage make Simon's music come alive through a mix of defiance and stillness. Songs like "I Am a Rock," "Hazy Shade of Winter," and "American Tune" show frustration at the world's condition. "You Can Call Me Al," "Loves Me Like a Rock," and "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard" are lighthearted; the cast joins in loosely structured choreography with do-si-dos and Latino grooves. But the silent moments are brilliant. Pieces of "The Sound of Silence" are appropriately sung throughout, begging the audience to ponder. Eeriness encompasses the set; gentle fog rolls over sloped hills on an Astroturfed stage. A few benches sit solemnly like gravestones, and a chainlink fence serves as a barrier to a painted sky. This is holy ground, and the performers sing like angels. Abby Lynn Pantalone's operatic melodies and fearful eyes show torment as she portrays a drugged-out hippie in a sunflower dress withdrawing drug paraphernalia from a small, clasped purse -- a mixture of optimism and hopelessness. Don Febbraio, a soldier in camouflage, holds each note tenderly while reflecting fear, regret, and loss of innocence. He lovingly croons "Still Crazy After All These Years" and gives new meaning to "Scarborough Faire" as a woundedVietnam veteran. Gary Waldman's suit and tie would be powerful, but his lost, unblinking eyes show despair. His best moment is during "The Boxer," when anguish overcomes him. But Kenney Green conquers the show. Obviously a trained dancer, Green's passionate performance escalates into the spine-tingling final number, "Bridge Over Troubled Water." (Through February 20 at Atlantis Playhouse, 5893 S. Congress Ave., Atlantis, 561-304-3212.) Now Showing

THE SOUNDS OF SIMON (2008) Pensacola Independent News Review

Simon's Music Retold

by ELIZABETH SHAW MCWILLIAMS 


MUSICAL INTERPRETATION ENTERTAINING IN DARK AND HAPPY WAYS



I must inform those of you who are in fact reading this of a crucial snobbishness of which I am plagued. I don't like musical reviews. Actually, I don't really like musicals or musical reviews.


I adore Paul Simon, though, and have a deep affinity for music itself which has played out with everything from seeing Dylan with my dad when I was little all the way to its culmination in following a band for a few years (yep). So, although I might not be an aficionado of this genre, per se, I am an avid fan of all types of music. I grew up on Paul Simon and the Beatles because I was in Switzerland and this was quite literally the only rock-ish tapes we had.


But I agreed to do a piece on a new theater-"The Garden Street Playhouse"-and review its show-"The Sounds of Simon."


I grabbed my friend who is way less snarky than myself, who was excited about this, and we headed to Garden Street. The room we enter was not what I expected. That's good and bad and weird all in one. The seats were fabulous vintage theater seats with amazingly ample leg room. The stage was right in my lap. And it's sparse, bare, raw, choose your adjective. There's Astroturf on the low stage, a spray-painted park bench, chain-link fencing that goes up to the ceiling, a bottle of pills here, a handle of booze there. That's pretty much it.  


And I loved it.


I was beginning to think that this was going to be some sort of Beckettian interpretation of Paul Simon. Nitty gritty. Real. Dark. Not stagy. And while it was those things at times, it was also the opposite. There were moments of completely dark music that rubbed shoulders with cheerleaderly, happy dancing numbers.  
This was where my snobbishness began to raise its ugly head.


I felt like I was engaged in a tug of war. There were songs that engaged me- choreography that was complete art. The interpretations of several songs blew me away.  The voices were unbelievable. But there were also dance numbers that came right after a dark song that were too bright for me. My notes: "I am emotionally confused This dance number is fun, but is it relevant?...?????...It doesn't mean anything because we don't know who the characters are."


Yet, there were couples who danced out after the show, who genuinely enjoyed themselves.
Who were these characters and why were they singing such interesting renditions of Paul Simon songs?
So, I just had to call Garden Street Playhouse Producer and Director Gary Waldman. I get to ask all these questions lurking in my mind. And here's what I got.


I was correct that there wasn't exactly a story line to follow. This isn't supposed to be a show about the life of Paul Simon through his music, this show is purely about his music.  


"My musical tributes are about the songs, not the person," Waldman says. So, there isn't going to be an underlying story to "get." Instead, it's more akin to a series of one-act plays whose characters are loosely strung together with music and lyrics.  


We discussed the fact that, for Waldman, interpretation is paramount.


"I change the songs, the feel of the songs," he says. "It's all about interpretation because I would tell the story differently."


Waldman says he believes that music is open to a vast amount of interpretation.  He also says he feels that it is one's right to express their own interpretation of other's music. While sitting in the theater, I encountered songs I once thought slow and sad that were flipped, reversed, inverted.


Reinterpretation can work. And, not only that, it can be a vital part of the life of a piece of music. Music is constantly involved in the art of interpretation. No two members of the audience will have the exact same experience of any artwork.


But it is the responsibility of the artist to lead us into their artwork, to show us the door through which to step, the path towards their meaning. Waldman's piece may open the door into a fantastic variety of musical reinterpretation, but it left me hanging there.  


"I can't say there's a tight story line," Waldman says. "It's really about a lot of people, and I had Jacob's Ladder' in mind-the 30 minutes before you die, life flashes before your eyes. You don't know what's going on, that's sort of what I tried to do here. I wish I could tell everybody, but you can't-that's not entertainment, it's school."


I agree that too much information, or a too tightly led path leaves little to the audience's own interpretation, but too little can do damage as well.


Waldman isn't concerned, though.


"You'll enjoy it whether you get the message or not," he says. "It doesn't matter that they don't get it because it's there and they'll enjoy it."


The more important aspect to Waldman is the entertainment value. He wants to please his customer, entertain his audience. And yes, the music is interesting, but perhaps some of us want the dark treasure hiding underneath.

info@inweekly.net

The Sounds of Simon
When: 8 p.m. Wed.-Sun., 3 p.m. Sat. and Sun. through March 9
Where: Garden Street Playhouse Theatre, 1625 W. Garden St.
Cost: $30

MEET ME AT THE PITKIN (1997) Sun-Sentinel Review

Gary Waldman & Jamison Troutman presented MEET ME AT THE PITKIN, a musical by Gary Waldman at the Hollywood Playhouse, Hollywood, FL (1997) ... the following is a review published in The Sun-Sentinel...

`Pitkin' A Zany Catskills-to-condos Musical Revue

July 14, 1997|By JACK ZINK and Theater Writer

SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL

Meet Me at the Pitkin is a new musical assembled from off-the-shelf parts at a show business warehouse. They snap into place and, when cranked up, spin together as if they were made for each other at the Hollywood Playhouse.

Don't expect anything new or unusual from Gary Waldman's variety package, described as an "English/Yiddish musical revue."But don't expect disappointment, either. Author Waldman and director Andy Rogow bring enough sincerity to the milieu that triteness becomes a virtue.

Pitkin's creative vapors envelop the story of a song-and-dance quartet that starts in a Brooklyn movie house, the Pitkin, in 1951. That initial break is followed by immense success in the clubhouses of the Catskills. National and world tours follow, of course.

The hottest nightclub act of that era, the Pitkin Four, become passe in the '60s and morph into a folk-pop group. After that trend, they play the lounges and cabarets on Miami Beach and, finally, the South Florida condo circuit.

In one bit of clever parody, the entertainers retire to a condo (called Boca Loco), where their stereotypes change from stage guys and dolls to meddling neighbors.

The first half is an obvious knockoff of the musical Follies, focusing on the hopeful young kids. After intermission, Pitkin begins to look a little more like Gypsy - without the feather boas. That's a lot of important baggage in which to tote Pitkin's (often deliciously) hackneyed musical pastiche.

Waldman extends the parody throughout the score, which fractures a collection of familiar, decades-old pop and Yiddish standards. Most of them have new, comic lyrics that identify the troupe as a bright musical comedy team.

Waldman is paying respects to Catskills show business in much the same way that Gerard Alessandrini honors theater with his Forbidden Broadway cabaret acts. Blame it on the Bossa Nova becomes Blame it on the Cosa Nostra; the Yiddish Tumbalalaika transforms to a jazz-swing favorite. Even the Mamas and the Papas' folk anthem Creeque Alley gets an outing as Alligator Alley.

The appealing cast treats Meet Me at the Pitkin as legitimately as The 1940's Radio Hour or any similar nostalgic conceit. Margot Moreland and Louis Silvers take on the important vocal challenges with grace and panache. Heather Jane Rolff and Oscar Cheda dig a little more deeply into the show's comic ribs. Choreographer Jamie Cooper's re-creations of best-forgotten cabaret shuffles are sometimes gruesomely funny in their own right.

Waldman and Rogow's scenic ideas are simple and natural, evoking a variety of locales from the once-famous Pitkin theater, to a Catskills showroom, an airline terminal and a crowded poolside sundeck at the condo.

Meet Me at the Pitkin will never make theater's A-list, but is a cute exercise that shakes off the summer blahs for a couple of hours.

MEET ME AT THE PITKIN (2004) Palm Beach Post Review

Gary Waldman & Jamison Troutman presented MEET ME AT THE PITKIN, a musical by Gary Waldman at the Atlantis Playhouse, W. Palm Beach, FL (2004) ... the following is a review published in The Palm Beach Post ...

'PITKIN' REVIVAL SPRY, CLEVER NOSTALGIA

Palm Beach Post, Feb 14, 2004 | by HAP ERSTEIN Palm Beach Post Theater Writer

Do you break into applause when someone onstage mentions Brooklyn? Have you ever been to, or at least heard of, the long- gone Loew's Pitkin Theatre? Do you yearn for those bygone days and the sound of a good old schmaltzy Yiddish ballad?

If so, then walk, do not run, to the Atlantis Playhouse where artistic director Gary Waldman is serving up another helping of one of his signature shows, Meet Me At The Pitkin. First produced at West Palm Beach's Kaplan Jewish Community Center seven years ago and revived a few times since at theaters across South Florida, the show is cannily geared to entertain the Atlantis' target senior ethnic market.

After a brief, but too long, prologue reminiscent of Waldman's condo comedy Snow Birds, in which two married South Florida couples recall their pre-retirement lives as musical performers, they hear a radio report about the imminent razing of the Pitkin, where they got their starts. The news is enough to jolt them into a major flashback, in which they revert to their former, younger selves and relive the climb - from movie theater ushers to a fill-in act when the headliner keels over dead to stars in their own right on the Catskills circuit to international tour fixtures.

The fictional Pitkin Four - sounds like a group of political dissidents, doesn't it? - are played by a quartet of adept singers who sell hard a string of traditional Yiddish tunes and period standards, often rewritten by Waldman with his own English translation or parody lyrics.

A latter-day Allan Sherman, Waldman does have an ear for spoofery, as demonstrated in the movie theme song Three Cohens in the Mountains and the Fats Waller take-off, This Joint Is Kosher, for example. And when the Pitkins see rock music taking over the industry in the '60s, they get with this new sound, dressing like a California close harmony group, the Mamas and the Tatehs, offering their own version of Creeque Alley, called - what else? - Alligator Alley. Waldman's lyrics can be quite clever, though the acoustics at the Atlantis and the unbalanced sound between the musicians and the singers at Wednesday's opening night performance made too many of the words muddy at best, unintelligible at worst.

Mark Harmon, veteran of several Atlantis shows, leads the quartet as Marty, the originator of the Pitkin Four. He plays well off Don Febbraio as Phil, asked to join the group chiefly because he owns a piano and can double as the act's rehearsal pianist.

They are partnered by Sarah Wolter as Marty's longtime, long- suffering wife, Elly, and the bubbly Elizabeth King as Phil's Molly, an Irish-Catholic lass who learns to master the mouth-contorting sounds of Yiddish.

It helps considerably if you too understand and have a nostalgic love for the mamaloshen - the mother tongue - of Yiddish. But even if you do not, you will probably appreciate how these four performers knock themselves out trying to entertain the Atlantis audience.

hap_erstein@pbpost.com

THE LIFE (2004) 'Talkin' Broadway' Review

Gary Waldman & Jamison Troutman 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 'Talkin' Broadway ...

by KEVIN JOHNSON

The Life

Love, sex, greed and betrayal are a few of the highlights you’ll get to see in The Life, a musical about pimps and prostitutes in 1980s Time Square. However, the real focus is not the story itself, but who actually performs this story. The production going on at the Atlantis Playhouse is not only dramatic but dazzling as well, taking the word “ensemble” to new heights.

THE LIFE at the Atlantis Playhouse (2004-2005)

Click image for video

Let's get a back story first. The Life is Cy Coleman's (Little Me, Sweet Charity) least produced musical. In 1997, it won the Drama Desk, Outer Critics, and Drama League Awards for Best Musical. It also won Tonys for best featured actor and actress. Not only did Coleman write the music, he collaborated on the libretto with Ira Gasman and David Newman, while Gasman wrote the lyrics. This all adds up to a powerful journey that should be more recognized, thanks to Gary Waldman (Producing Artistic Director) and his cast of 13 talented performers.

Now the story itself: Hustler Jojo narrates this chronicle about four people with different dreams who are about to be sewn together by fate and fatality. Queen and Fleetwood moved from Savannah to New York to live a better existence. Somehow, they ended up on the skids. Fleetwood, an ex-soldier who served in Vietnam, became a pimp while he used Queen as his “lady of the night.” Queen spends her time on the streets and sometimes in jail, while Fleetwood spends their money on his coke habit.

Sonja is the elder lady in the stable of prostitutes. She laments her plight in “The Oldest Profession,” as she talks about how she is tired and weary of her 24/7 occupation. Sonja plays mother hen to Queen, advising her to wake up to Fleetwood’s con games.

Straight off the bus from Duluth comes Mary, a wide-eyed innocent (or so it seems) in awe of the big city. When Fleetwood explains to Jojo that his financial situation is not all that he has hoped for, Jojo gets an idea and leads him to Mary. Fleetwood uses Mary as his new muse, explaining to Queen that Mary will make enough money to get them out of their current level of survival, so the couple can move on to happier days. Unfortunately, Queen isn’t too hip on the idea, and she tells Mary to “Go Home.”

Somehow, Mary melts Queen’s hard heart and shacks up with the couple. But things aren’t always as they seem. While Queen gets caught on the streets again, Mary reveals her true colors to both Jojo and Fleetwood. She gets hip to their con game and gets in on the take, becoming Fleetwood’s new lady. But nothing they do can compare to the weight that Memphis is bringing in. Memphis is the king pimp with a stable of “pros” that includes Sonja. He always wanted Queen as one of his own, and now that she knows of Fleetwood’s deception, Memphis can slide in and “save” her.

The collaboration of Cy Coleman, Ira Gasman and David Newman takes us back to a time when Times Square was ruled by money, power, and sex. Before Disney came in and cleaned up, it was a pimp’s paradise. The shadow of AIDS was looming in the air, but no one yet knew what they were dealing with. (The librettists were nice enough to put that hint out there in the story.) Four people are dealing with their own problems and are willing to wheel and deal to get what they want - not even betrayal can inhibit their stride. Fleetwood betrays Queen by creeping with Mary, who dumps Fleetwood to join up with an adult filmmaker. Jojo also jumps into the betrayal circus, leading up the most powerful climax of all.

Dean Swann is excellent as Jojo, a hustler who has seen it all and knows the ropes. Swann is not afraid to show the snake in Jojo; he looks like a friend, but can easily wield that knife, too. Swann moves like a cobra, but never shows when he is ready to strike - a good balance between charmer and reptile. As Memphis, Carl Barber-Steele’s stature is overwhelmingly good. He makes Memphis into a slick über-villain, creating the ultimate pimp with his neatly dressed suit and shining shoes. Singing “Don’t Take Much,” Barber-Steele resembles Isaac Hayes as he croons about changing a lady into a tramp. Barber-Steele also reveals Memphis' true colors to Queen - and they're not pretty!

Nadeen Holloway is terrific as Sonja, the elder hooker with the good heart. With her motherly instincts on point, her pipes show authority in selections like “The Oldest Profession” and “My Friend.” As Mary, Elizabeth King is believable as a Polly Pureheart, while her vixen shines in the number “People Magazine.” King has the right balance between victim and criminal, but the two leads resonate the most.

Ben Bagby shines as Fleetwood. Bagby handles Fleetwood as a man who not only wants a life for his lady, but wants the finer things to go with it. Unfortunately, Bagby also has to show Fleetwood’s darker side. As his addiction to power grows, Bagby has to show his man leaving behind the one who stood by his side the most. With that, Bagby never strays away from Fleetwood’s goal as another rogue who becomes remorseful - too little, too late.

Jeanne Gray gives a superb performance as Queen, a woman who just needs to be with a man who will love her right back. Gray has the most challenging role of all, that of a woman who is tortured, but empowered in the end, a role that Gray accomplishes with flying colors. Gray penetrates the surface of Queen giving her character depth and resonance. In selections like “He’s No Good” and “I’m Leaving You,” Gray makes Queen believable, letting the audience into her soul.

The design team has captured the essence of Times Square, with its graffiti-laced walls and dark, sinister colors. Matthew Decker’s set is pure New York City. Jamie Cooper assists Decker with lighting, creating a colorful, sinful design filled with reds and blues. Even the costumes are stunning, thanks to Kevin Black, who also did the choreography.

Cy Coleman’s score is contained inside a keyboard played by Phil Hinton. His musical direction creates the sounds of the '80s with syncopated drums and R&B grooves relevant to the times. Black’s choreography is dazzling like a cruise spectacular, making every player extend body parts they never knew that had.
Director Gary Waldman has chosen the right ensemble to bring this musical to life (pardon the pun). With all the right moves in place, this is a superior production. Let’s hope this story gets more renditions in the future; it's a gem that no one should miss.

The Life was to conclude on July 11th, but due to critical acclaim and popular demand, it has been extended indefinitely. The Life goes on at Atlantis Playhouse, 5893 S. Congress Avenue. For more information, please call the box office at (561) 304-3212.

ATLANTIS PLAYHOUSE - The Life
Book by David Newman, Ira Gasman, and Cy Coleman
Music by Cy Coleman
Lyrics by Ira Gasman
Producers: Jamison Troutman & Gary Waldman, Atlantis Playhouse, Inc.
Featuring Jeanne Gray, Ben Bagby, Nadeen Holloway, Dean Swann
Carl Barber-Steele, Elizabeth King, Alex Danyluk, and Jonathan Horvath
Ensemble: Miriam King, Jessie Alagna, Teandra Morris, Lorenzo Guitierrez,
and Adam Simpson
Musical Direction: Phil Hinton
Choreography: Kevin Black
Set Design: Matthew Decker
Lighting Design: Jamie Cooper and Matthew Decker
Costume Design: Kevin Black
Sound Design: John Wade
Directed by Gary Waldman

THE LIFE (2004) Broward-Palm Beach New Times Review

Gary Waldman & Jamison Troutman 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 Broward-Palm Beach New Times ...

They Work Hard for the Money

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mufYACmb5SA

Atlantis Playhouse's plucky production of The Life conjures the poetry of the lower depths

By Ronald Mangravite Thursday, Jun 17 2004

 

All hail irrationality! And Wayne Gretsky too (hold on a minute -- we'll get to that). Irrationality is the only explanation of why the Atlantis Playhouse's Gary Waldman decided against all logic to present The Life, a stark, gritty musical about pimps and prostitutes that's a 180-degree change from the Playhouse's usual safe, soft fare. The Life is daunting at every level -- its story line is rough and downbeat, its language often harsh and sometimes profane, its multiracial cast a decided departure from typical Playhouse ensembles, its production demands far beyond the theater's modest resources, and, most unsettling of all, the show is virtually unknown (this is the absolute first regional theater production). All of this should, by any sense of logic, be sending the Playhouse's regular, older audiences headed for the exits, if they come at all. Instead, these audiences are standing up not to clear out but to cheer. Sometimes lunacy is the best policy.


The Life is a sort of musical Lower Depths, a multiplotted look at the denizens of the Times Square district in the bad old 1980s, before the area got Disneyfied. Back in the day, Eighth Avenue and 42nd Street was a churning cauldron of low-life action, a mix of hookers, hustlers, dealers, and con men, all preying on and preyed upon by the upright society that flowed around and through it, like a parallel universe. One story from this naked city concerns Queen, a soulful singer from Savannah who has hit hard times in Manhattan. To make ends meet, she began hooking, but her earnings are always snorted away by her boyfriend, Fleetwood, a drug-addicted Vietnam vet who has become her pimp. Trouble arrives to this romance in the person of wide-eyed Mary, a Minnesota cutie who steps off a Greyhound at the Port Authority and into the clutches of Fleetwood, who plans to pimp her too. Queen is furious at Fleetwood and seeks help from an even bigger pimp, Memphis, who promptly ensnares her into servitude. While Mary finds her way into porno stardom, Queen desperately tries to flee "the life," the world of sex for sale that's really a living death.


The Life began as a concept that songwriter/lyricist Ira Gasman pitched to master tunesmith Cy Coleman. Coleman is a Broadway legend, a multiple Tony, Emmy, and Grammy winner whose résumé reads like a laundry list of Broadway hits --Sweet Charity, Barnum, and City of Angels among them. Coleman's rich melodies span an array of styles, from snazzy Broadway numbers to soul, gospel, and funk, aided and abetted by Gasman's witty, pointed lyrics. It's easy to see why this tale of marginal dreamers would appeal to Coleman -- his body of work is full of heartache and aspiration, centering on American dreams, illusions, and rude awakenings. The show began modestly at the off-off Broadway Westbeth Theatre, then moved uptown to Broadway, where it received critical acclaim, two Tony awards, 11 Tony nominations, and a run of more than a year from 1997 to 1998.


At the Atlantis, the show goes back to its low-rent roots. The Playhouse, co-existing in a nondescript strip mall with a Mexican eatery and a billiards emporium, is a 150-seat house with a wide walkway of a stage and a light grid with fewer instruments in the air than many hair salons. Still, sweet are the uses of adversity; in assaying this big musical, director/producer Waldman and company have pulled off something of a pocket miracle. Liabilities are turned into assets: Matthew Decker's set, a bar balanced by a graffiti-smeared brick wall, is decidedly low-rent, but it suits the story.


The Broadway company's cast of 21 is pared down to 13, but this makes the show more intimate, less a spectacle, and more a character study, all of which better suits the performance space. There's a range of skill and vocal effectiveness in the cast, but all bring a fierce commitment that's impossible to resist. As the imperiled Queen, Jeanne Lynn Gray is particularly effective, offering an intriguing combination of sultry appeal, wounded vulnerability, and a soulful, expressive singing voice. Her renditions of "I'm Leaving You" and "We Had a Dream" are memorable. Ben Bagby is also strong and affecting as her prevaricating swain; Bagby and Gray make this sweet-and-sour relationship work. You can see why Queen loves the man and why he's toxic for her. Other notables include Dean Swann, whose slick, sinewy turn as narrator/hustler Jojo adds a corrosive charm, and Carl Barber-Steele as the menacing Memphis. Barber-Steele starts off slowly, a preening clothes horse who's a frightening predator when he needs to be. As Queen's best pal, Sonja, Nadeen Holloway has several showstoppers, including "The Oldest Profession." The rest of the ensemble all bring energy and character detail, helping to conjure up a seedy society that's repellent yet compelling. With crisp, efficient staging from Waldman and his Fosse-influenced choreographer, Kevin Black, the result is a dynamic musical adventure that seethes with life, sex, despair, and hope.


This isn't a perfect show by any means. While the music and songs are superior, the weak, typical book by David Newman, Gassman, and Coleman is a decided drawback. These characters lack much true detail or the specificity of real lives lived. The production itself has its weaknesses. The orchestration, using recorded music and musical director Phil Hinton doing good service on piano and keyboards, must be low cost by necessity, but the sound levels are so high, many of the lyrics are drowned out, despite the tiny theater space and the performers' body mics. The several acts of violence in the show are amateurishly staged and cry out for a competent fight director.


Never mind, though, because this Life is a big, gutsy gamble for the tiny Atlantis and a one-of-a-kind chance for area playgoers to catch a fine show in a fine production. If audiences turn out for The Life, perhaps the Atlantis may find a new identity as a purveyor of neglected musical gems. They certainly have got one going on now. Oh, right, about Wayne Gretzky? The Hall of Fame hockey great is credited with a wise epigram we all should keep in mind: "You miss 100 percent of the shots you don't take."