Broadway
Broadway Kids Speak Out Against Bullying In I Have A Voice
Broadway Records President Van Dean, Executive Producer Gina Holland and No Bully Executive Producer Michelle Shapiro today launched the charitable recording, I Have A Voice (music by Frank Wildhorn, lyrics by Robin Lerner) with 100% of the profits to benefit www.NoBully.org. The song and videos, which premiered on People.com, feature over 75 Broadway kids from shows such as Matilda the Musical, School of Rock, Kinky Boots, Fiddler on the Roof, The Lion King, On Your Feet! and more.
“In the recording industry, I often work with children and have seen how saddened they are by the increased bullying and intolerance in schools across the country over the past year,” said Van Dean. “The ‘I Have a Voice’ initiative is an opportunity for 75+ child performers from Broadway and beyond to express their own voice and let other children know they too, have a voice. I truly hope this song will inspire others to be more inclusive, tolerant and unite kids to celebrate our differences.”
“I am so honored and grateful for my music to be used for this cause, which as a father, is so very important to me,” said award-winning composer Frank Wildhorn. “I believe music can heal and believe so strongly in its power to communicate. Being in the studio, watching and hearing these beautiful children sing Robin’s beautiful words was a truly inspiring moment, and one I’ll never forget.”
The digital download ofI Have A Voice is priced at $1.99 ($1.29 on iTunes) and is now available for purchase at BroadwayRecords.com.
Participating Broadway kids included: Fabi Aguirre, Spencer Arjang, Gabby Beredo, Paul Luke Bonenfant, Ava Briglia, Beada Briglia, Isabella Burke, Allie Jordan Butcher, Courtney Chu, Olivia Chun, Hana Colley, Ava Della Pietra, Gregory Diaz IV, Andrew DiTusa, Evie Dolan, Cole Alex Edelstein, Tori Feinstein, Hayley Feinstein, Josh Feldman, Carly Gendell, Sophia Gennusa, Zoe Glick, Gabby Gutierrez, Gianna Harris, Nina Howland, James Ignacio, Nicholas Aaron Jenkins, Mia Sinclair Jenness, Luka Kain, Jim Kaplan, Eleanor Koski, Haley Lanzoni, Ashley Lanzoni, Kasey YouMe Lee, Diego Lucano, Eliza Holland Madore, Zoe Manarel, Mehret Marsh, Cayen Martin, Aliyah Mastin, Grace Matwijec, Rileigh McDonald, Dante Melucci, Madilyn Jaz Morrow, Zell Steele Morrow, Callia Muhammad, Angeli M. Negron, Alexa Shae Niziak, Lily Brooks O’Briant, Luca Padovan, Gabriella Pizzolo, Julian Rivera-Summerville, MiMi Ryder, Talia Ryder, Milly Shapiro, Abigail Shapiro, Mavis Simpson-Ernst, Magnolia Strouse, Walden Sullivan, Nicky Torchia, Ava Ulloa, Jonah Verdon, Jeremy T. Villas, Alexandra Vlachos, Aviva Winick, Rocco Wu, Timothy Yang, Graydon Peter Yosowitz, Phoebe Young, Kathryn Zimmer.
The creative team for the 2016 benefit recording of I Have A Voice was led by Michael J. Moritz Jr and Jason Howland (music production; vocal, rhythmic and string arrangements; orchestra) and Jason Milstein (film production) and recorded at the DiMenna Center in New York City. Co-Executive Producers are Mia Moravis and Chris McCartie.
www.BroadwayRecords.com | www.NoBully.org
#IHaveAVoice | #NoBully | Twitter: @BwayRecords, @NoBully_org
Van Dean, president of Broadway Records, has been working with the community of Sandy Hook/Newtown ever since the tragic shooting. He co-conceived and produced From Broadway With Love: A Benefit Concert For Sandy Hook featuring 100 Broadway stars, a 40-piece orchestra and 300+ children from Newtown. From Broadway With Love was a one night only concert that was later aired on PBS and was released on DVD, BluRay and CD with 100% of the profits going to the Newtown-Sandy Hook Community Foundation. Since 2013, Van has been bringing visiting Broadway artists to Sandy Hook Elementary School and several other schools within Newtown to perform for the kids and mentor and inspire them to pursue their passions. He is also deeply involved with Newtown’s “New Arts” (http://www.newartsct.org) initiative.
Frank Wildhorn (Music). Multi-Grammy, Tony, and Emmy Award nominated composer/producer Frank Wildhorn’s works span the worlds of popular, theatrical, and classical music. In 1999, Frank became the first American composer in 22 years to have three shows running simultaneously on Broadway: Jekyll & Hyde, The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Civil War (Tony Award nominated for Best Score). Also for Broadway: Dracula, Victor/Victoria, Wonderland, Bonnie & Clyde (Tony Award nominated for Best Score), and the 2013 revival of Jekyll & Hyde. Frank produced Harlem Song at the famed Apollo Theatre. International: Excalibur/Artus, Cyrano de Bergerac, The Count of Monte Cristo, Carmen, Rudolf, Mitsuko, Never Say Goodbye, Camille Claudel, Tears of Heaven, Death Note, and Mata Hari at the Moulin Rouge. Upcoming: The Man Who Laughs, Song of Bernadette, and Casanova. Frank served as music director for the Goodwill Games in New York City (1998). He wrote the song “Gold”, the opening number for the 2002 Winter Olympics. Received the prestigious Charles Dickens Award from USC, where there is a scholarship under his name. Among the artists who have recorded and performed Frank’s works: Whitney Houston (#1 international hit “Where Do Broken Hearts Go?”), Natalie Cole, Kenny Rogers, Sammy Davis, Jr., Liza Minnelli, Julie Andrews, Hootie & the Blowfish, The Moody Blues, Johnny Mathis, Linda Eder, Freddie Jackson, Trisha Yearwood, Stacy Lattisaw, Molly Hatchet, Blues Traveler, Trace Adkins, Patti LaBelle, Jeffrey Osborne, BeBe Winans, Amy Grant, Anthony Warlow, to name a few. Associate artist at the Alley Theatre in Houston. Awarded an honorary doctorate from Marymount Manhattan College in 2014. Father to Justin Samuel and Jake Ryan.
Robin Lerner (Lyrics). Grammy nominated, Country Music Award winner, and critically-acclaimed lyricist Robin Lerner creates songs for film, theater and recording artists worldwide. A graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts Lerner began her career working as a screenwriter in Hollywood as well as a songwriter in many formats. Under the auspices of producers Steven Spielberg and Cameron Mackintosh, Lerner created animated musical features for Disney, Amblin’ and Warner Brothers, working with composers, Galt MacDermot, Frank Wildhorn, and George Stiles. As her songs found success in the pop world Lerner signed with Maverick Music and started traveling back and forth to Nashville. Over the past 15 years, Lerner’s songs have been recorded by great country artists such as Randy Travis (“Out Of My Bones #1), Tim McGraw (“She’s My Kind Of Rain” #1) and Faith Hill (“This Kiss #1) and multiplatinum artists worldwide including Chaka Khan, Patti LaBelle, Jermaine Jackson, Luther Vandross, The Backstreet Boys, Martina McBride, Linda Eder, Carly Simon, Take 6, Nick Lachey, Girls Generation, and Bette Midler. Lerner has written three musicals for the stage, An Officer and a Gentleman with composer Ken Hirsch which premiered in Sydney Australia in May of 2012, Tears of Heaven with composer Frank Wildhorn, which enjoyed its world premiere in Seoul in February 2011 and Excalibur, which premiered in St. Gallen Switzerland in 2014. She has also written the screenplay for ABC/Wonderful World of Disney’s “Princess of Thieves” (which aired in 2001) starring Keira Knightley and Malcom McDowell about the imaginary exploits of Robin Hood’s daughter.
Broadway Records is one of the preeminent theatrical record labels to produce original cast albums for major Broadway and Off-Broadway shows including the Grammy® nominated Matilda The Musical, Grammy® nominated Fiddler on the Roof (2015 revival), Tony Award-winning and Grammy® nominated The Color Purple (2015 revival), Allegiance and Disaster! among others. Recent releases include The Visit, Doctor Zhivago, Side Show (2014 revival), Bonnie & Clyde, Big Fish and NBC’s television events, The Wiz Live! and Peter Pan Live!. The label’s critically-acclaimed “Live at Feinstein’s/54 BELOW” series features top Broadway stars including Patti LuPone, Aaron Tveit, Annaleigh Ashford, Norbert Leo Butz, Sierra Boggess, Laura Benanti, Emily Skinner & Alice Ripley, Frank Wildhorn and Friends, Micky Dolenz and many others. Most recently, Broadway Records launched the Broadway for Orlando initiative (in partnership with creators Seth Rudetsky and James Wesley) as a response to the Pulse nightclub mass shooting. The all-star benefit single, “What the World Needs Now is Love” (recorded at NYC’s Avatar Studios on Wednesday, June 15, 2016) has been downloaded more than 65k times and raised over $100k to date and counting, with 100% of the proceeds benefitting the GLBT Center of Central Florida. Additionally, the song reached No. 1 on the iTunes song chart in its first week of release and broke into the Billboard Top 100 with no commercial radio play. A special charitable CD/DVD recording, From Broadway With Love: A Benefit Concert For Orlando, will be released in December. To learn more, visit www.BroadwayRecords.com.
NO BULLY® is a US based non-profit organization that trains schools how to activate student compassion to stop bullying and cyberbullying. The non-punitive No Bully System® has created bully-free campuses for over 100,000 students. No Bully began in San Francisco in 2003 as a collaboration of educators, psychologists and lawyers committed to preventing the current generation of students from enduring the bullying that they experienced when they were in school. To learn more, visit, www.NoBully.org
Lolita Chakrabarti’s Life of Pi, the new drama adapted from the novel by Yann Martel. opens tonight at the Gerald Schoenfeld theatre. T2C sat down with Rajesh Bose who plays Pi’s father.
Rajesh Bose is an actor whose work includes regional and Off-Broadway. He worked for Bedlam in The Crucible andPygmalion . Played Henry VI for NAATCO), Against The Hillside at Ensemble Studio Theatre, Indian Ink at the Roundabout, Oslo at St. Louis Rep, Mary Stuart at Folger Theatre, Guards at the Taj at Capital Stage, Disgraced for the Playmakers Rep, Huntington Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre – Connecticut receiving Critics Circle Award and IRNE Nomination. The Who & The What atGulfshore Playhouse, and The Invisible Hand at both Westport Country Playhouse and Hartford TheaterWorks.
His film and television work includes “Quantico”, “Blue Bloods”, “Elementary”, “Blacklist”, “Damages”, “Nurse Jackie”, “Madame Secretary”, “The Good Wife”, “Law & Order: SVU”, “Criminal Minds”, the series finale of “The Sopranos”, and the Academy Award nominated film Frozen River.
Tonight he makes his Broadway debut.
Video by Magda Katz
Stephen Sondheim birthday was March 22nd and somehow I missed it. His masterpiece Sweeney Todd opened on Broadway originally March 1, 1979, at the Uris Theatre (now the Gershwin). His newest revival opened Sunday, March 26th at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. So here’s to you Steve.
With a blast of bright white light, the Broadway revival of Parade marches itself forcibly onto the stage, surging from the sidelines once the love-making center stage comes to an end. It’s a compelling beginning, one that, as it turns out, doesn’t really add a whole lot to the proceedings. But the show finds its strong footing soon after. No doubt about it. I didn’t really understand the full need for the sexual interaction between the young soldier (Charlie Webb) and his pretty young companion (Ashlyn Maddox) that takes place in those first few moments, as well as the consistent reappearing of that same soldier, 50 years later, as an old man (Howard McGillin) throughout, other than to remind us that the old Confederate way of thinking still flies its flag strong and true. Even if the flags they are waving in this production of Parade make us feel uneasy and unsure.
Overall, the compounding effect is captivating and intense, as this musical, with a book by Alfred Uhry (Driving Miss Daisy), music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown (Songs for a New World; The Last Five Years), and originally co-conceived by Harold Prince (West Side Story), stands strong, taking on race, antisemitism, and prejudice in “The Old Red Hills of Home” South. It dutifully dramatizes the disturbing but true story of a 1913 trial of a Jewish factory manager who was wrongly accused and convicted of raping and murdering a thirteen-year-old young girl and employee of the factory. The musical revival is as timely as can be, and as surefooted as one could hope for. And as directed carefully and artistically by Michael Arden (Broadway/Deaf West’s Spring Awakening), Parade delivers on all fronts.
After a well-received short run as part of New York City Center’s Encores! series, this tense and sharp musical finally has made its way back. I didn’t really know much about this musical, but I was surprised to hear that it first premiered on Broadway in December 1998 starring Brent Carver and Carolee Carmello in the two lead roles. It won Tony Awards for Best Book and Best Original Score (out of nine nominations), not surprisingly, and six Drama Desk Awards. And I’m guessing the accolades will come pouring in once again when the Tony Award nominations are announced.
Portraying that doomed factory manager, Leo Frank, Ben Platt (Broadway’s Dear Evan Hansen) once again finds power and passion in abundance, striding back onto the Broadway stage both sheepishly and strongly. He grabs hold of the part, demanding justice and the truth for the man who tried his imperfect best to live a dutiful life. Married to his loving wife, Lucille, played spectacularly by Micaela Diamond (Broadway’s The Cher Show), the pair seems well-matched, both in their characterizations and their vocal expertise. Their singing and emotionality soar, especially in Lucille’s “You Don’t Know This Man” and Leo’s captivating Statement, “It’s Hard to Speak my Heart“, as the piece gets darker and darker, breaking apart our collective hearts as it marches to the end. We all know this is not going to end well for this innocent man, but we are drawn in completely as the two begin, quite quietly, finding a simple and tender, yet complicated connection in their marriage.
We feel their bond as Leo gets ready and makes his way to the office on this odd day of celebration in Atlanta. He sidesteps the parade, which is oddly celebrating the confederacy and a war lost, leaving his wife to picnic alone. We collectively wish he’d stay home, giving in to the gentle pleas of his wife. Things might have turned out so differently if he had. But this is the tale that must be told, to be witness to, as we are simultaneously given a glimpse into the soon-to-be shortened life of Mary Phagan (Erin Rose Doyle), being flirted with by a young boy (Jake Pedersen) about “The Picture Show“, as she rides a trolley car on her way to the factory to collect her wages, at ten cents an hour. The white balloon floats above her head, just like her spirit, simple and buoyant, until it escapes her hand, and floats away from her into the heavens above.
“The Dream of Atlanta” isn’t so true, fair, or right, as it doesn’t take long for that Jewish factory manager to be accused of the raping and murdering Mary Phagan, even as we see clearly that it wasn’t, and couldn’t possibly be Leo. The “Hammer of Justice” isn’t honest, that becomes obvious, but it is the way it works, as we watch the unhonourable Hugh Dorsey, an ambitious politician with a “lousy conviction record,” played to perfection by Paul Alexander Nolan (Broadway’s Slave Play) decide, regardless of proof, to convict, at least one of the two men who were around the factory at the time. Would it be the simple black man, Newt Lee (Eddie Cooper), the night watchman who discovered the body, or the Jewish man who wrings his hands and looks down at his feet? This is “Real Big News“, we are told, by the opportunist reporter, Britt Craig, dynamically portrayed by Jay Armstrong Johnson (NYCC Encores’ A Chorus Line), as we watch the spin gets spinning. Dorsey, with the blessing of Governor of Georgia, John M. Slaton, as played strongly by Sean Allan Krill (Broadway’s Jagged Little Pill) with his wife, Sally (Stacie Bono), standing at his side, turns the accusing finger towards Leo Frank, for no other reason than not wanting to hang another black man. “We gotta do better.“
“A Rumblin’ and A Rollin’” towards the trial, this wrongly orchestrated circus is sensationalized by the newspapers and arouses some pretty disturbing antisemitic hatred across the stage, and the whole state of Georgia that sometimes, as a whole, gets a bit lost inside the jumble of the large cast of characters. Yet, despite the messiness of grieving mothers (Kelli Barrett) and observing servants (Douglas Lyons, Courtnee Carter), the “That’s What He Said” testimonies are a thoroughly uncomfortable parade to bear witness to, as a musical game of justice chairs is performed, most fascinatingly by the cast that includes Sophia Manicone, Maddox, and DeMartino, as members of the community, the factory, and another one straight from Frank’s own home, Minnie McKnight (Danielle Lee Greaves). It’s played out strong and deliberate, particularly and most strikingly when Platt’s Leo takes on the alternate guise of the evil Jewish man-character that is being portrayed by the witnesses, orchestrating the murder and rape of a young girl, untruely formulated by the ambitious Dorsey.
He pulls out all stops to get what he wants and needs from the jury in a masterclass of duplicity and dishonesty. But the final blow comes from the dynamic and magnetic coerced testimony by Jim Conley, as portrayed magnificently by the super talented Alex Joseph Grayson (Broadway’s The Girl From…) that brings the musical theatre roof down on the audience in the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre. The hypnotizing performance of Grayson is completely unstoppable. It’s clear. There is no other way this trial would go in front of the complicit Judge Roan, portrayed by McGillin (Broadway’s Gigi), and as we sit and watch Act One swing its way horrifically toward the verdict, we cannot help but feel the sickness in our stomachs grow. And the disgusting smell of injustice fill the interval air.
The “Pretty Music” and “The Glory” lyrics spiral out as strong and true as the cause, delivering the ideals forward beautifully and emotionally thanks to the fine work of music director/conductor Tom Murray (Broadway’s Anastasia) and music coordinator Kimberlee Wertz (Broadway’s The Music Man), is laid out bare. The sound is magnificent, pushing out the intricate story with a rhythmic and complicated style that contains so much meaning within the array of numerous complimentary musical genres. The formula is intense, enhanced by the strong straight-shooting choreography of Lauren Yalango-Grant and Christopher Cree Grant (OBS’s King Kong). As the stage is crowded to the rim with benches and chairs, infused with impeccable tension by scenic designer Dane Laffrey (Broadway’s Once on This Island), with solid costuming by Susan Hilferty (Broadway’s Funny Girl), deliberate lighting by Heather Gilbert (Broadway’s The Sound Inside), and a clear sound design by Jon Weston (Broadway’s Paradise Square). The large squared statement at the heart of the piece gives a strength to the sentencing, which is only enhanced and elevated by the stellar work of projection designer Sven Ortel (Broadway’s Thoughts of a Colored Man), who gives a historic face to the profiling and to the proceedings.
But the true heart of this intricate and wise musical lies in the very capable and talented hands of Diamond, who takes charge of the stage, even as her character’s husband insists he needs to “Do It Alone.” It’s her under-estimated passion and incredible voice that drives this story to its history-making conclusion, as we rally behind the determined Lucille as she pushes on the departing Governor Slaton to commute Frank’s death sentence to life in prison after a further, and more fair, investigation. Leo Frank is transferred, thankfully, to a prison in Milledgeville, Georgia, and even though that is where the story should have found a more peaceful ending, the most tragic part of this true-to-life tale comes knocking, somewhat due to the hate-mongering of a writer for The Jeffersonian, an extremist right-wing newspaper, by the name of Tom Watson, played strongly by Manoel Felciano (Red Bull’s The Alchemist). Leo Frank, the wronged and innocent man, pulled from his life by antisemitism and racial hate, was hanged from an oak tree in the hometown of Mary Phagan. For no other reason than being a Jewish man who happened to be working on a holiday in the same building on the day this young girl was killed.
On a side note, the events surrounding the investigation and trial led to two very different groups emerging from the fray; the revival of the defunct KKK and the birth of the Jewish Civil Rights organization, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Parade, the revival musical that has stormed onto Broadway, brings all of that complicated energy to the forefront, expanding and enlightening, while not shying away from the horror of the events. “Where Will You Stand When the Flood Comes?“, the musical asks. And in the hands of Arden, its director; its fantastically talented two lead players, Platt and the incomparable Diamond; and the entire cast and crew, Parade marches ever-so strong and true. A masterpiece and master class, not to be missed. Thanks again, Encores! You’ve delivered once again.
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