Chad Jones’ Theater Dogs

Before we get started, here’s a taste of A Chorus Line with current cast member Mario Lopez and the cast on “Dancing with the Stars”

If you think you’re “uncommonly rare, very unique, peripatetic, poetic and chic” then this contest may be for you.

In preparation for the arrival of the A Chorus Line national tour at San Francisco’s Curran Theatre July 8-27, SHN/Best of Broadway is taking part in a talent competition called “Be the One.”

Head to http://auditions.achorusline.com/san-francisco and create an online audition profile (you’ll also find the rules and regulations there). Then you can show off your talents (nothing dirty) through video clips, photos or blog entries that help explain why you should “Be the One,” or in other words, why you are one singular sensation, every little step you take.

The contest is now through July 13, and once your audition is online, the public will vote on their favorites. The four men and four women who receive the most votes will win a “Be the One” prize package: two tickets to A Chorus Line, a $50 gift certificate for dinner, the new cast recording of “A Chorus Line” and a signed poster from the cast. The only thing better might be joining the famous gold-spangled kick-line at the end of the show.

The eight finalists will also be entered into the next round of competition against finalists from other cities on the Line tour, where they will fight for the national grand prize: a trip to New York City (airfare included), hotel accommodations, tickets to Broadway shows, backstage tours, show merchandise, meet-and-greets and more. (No worries about seeing A Chorus Line again because the Broadway revival that spawned this tour is closing Aug. 18 after what will have been more than 750 performances, a far cry from the original’s nearly 15 years. Even with Mario Lopez in the cast, the show can’t quite draw the crowds.)

A Chorus Line runs July 8-27 at the Curran Theatre, 445 Geary St., San Francisco. Tickets are $25-$99. Call 415-512-7770 or visit www.ticketmaster.com or www.shnsf.com. For podcasts and other backstage tidbits, visit http://shnsf.com/podcast/index.asp.

This Sunday, the Tony Awards will be handed out.
Here’s what you need to know (and get busy organizing your Tony party — we’ve got to get those dismal ratings out of the basement so CBS will continue broadcasting the darn things).

For the first time, there will be pre-ceremony Tony Concert chock full of juicy musical numbers from all the nominated shows. In the Bay Area the concert will be at 1 p.m. Sunday, June 15 on KPIX-TV. Mario Lopez (currently playing Zach in A Chorus Line) hosts, and we’ll see numbers from 10 musicals: A Catered Affair, Cry-Baby, Grease, Gypsy, In The Heights, Passing Strange, South Pacific, Sunday in the Park with George, The Little Mermaid and Xanadu—on stage at the Allen Room at Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, with its spectacular, floor-to-ceiling views of Central Park South visible to viewers of the telecast.

Nominees who perform on the program include Laura Benanti (Gypsy), Daniel Breaker and Stew (Passing Strange), Kerry Butler (Xanadu), Daniel Evans (Sunday in the Park with George), Faith Prince (A Catered Affair) and Loretta Ables Sayre (South Pacific).

“We’ve tried very hard not to cannibalize anything that will be on the actual Tony telecast, but just to whet people’s appetites for June 15,” says The Broadway League’s Jan Friedlander Svendsen, who is an executive producer of the special. “We purposely didn’t want this in costume, we didn’t want big production numbers. We wanted it to feel very intimate. And we wanted to have those up-close-and-personal profiles.”

Actor nominees who are interviewed during the pre-Tony telecast include Laurence Fishburne, who talks about his role as a Supreme Court justice in Thurgood, and Patrick Stewart and Kate Fleetwood, who reveal a touching story from the casting of their revival of Macbeth. Steppenwolf Theatre Company members Laurie Metcalf (November) and Deanna Dunagan, Amy Morton and Rondi Reed from the Best Play nominee August: Osage County celebrate the success of Steppenwolf-ers on Broadway this season—the roster also includes Martha Plimpton and Kevin Anderson—who all told represent six different Broadway shows.

“One of the issues with the Tonys is, often times, not all of our nominees are as well known as, say, Oscar nominees,” says Svendsen. “It’s great to let audiences be exposed to some of those who aren’t as well known. It’s kind of like the Olympics. Many of those athletes aren’t as famous, and one of my favorite parts of watching the Games is getting to know those athletes from a human interest side. Then I have an emotional connection with them and a more rooting interest in who’s going to win.”

The Awards, hosted by Whoopi Goldberg (thank God someone on “The View” cares about theater since Rosie O’Donnell’s departure) begin at 8 p.m. on TV, but watching the tape delay is so retro. Why not tune into the live Webcast? Past Tony winners Michael Cerveris and Julie White host. Log on to www.tonyawards.com for all the details.

On the broadcast, we’ll get musical numbers from all four of the Best Musical nominees (Cry-Baby, In The Heights, Passing Strange and Xanadu) and the four Best Musical Revival nominees (Grease, Gypsy, Sunday in the Park with George and Rodgers & Hammerstein’s South Pacific).

Also represented will be three other new Broadway musicals: A Catered Affair, The Little Mermaid and The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein. And just for good measure, Rent and The Lion King will also make appearances.

Video memories from past Tony winners, clips from nominated shows and a whole lot more await you at www.tonyawards.com, your one-stop shop for Tony Award information.

To whet your appetite, here’s Passing Strange on “The View.”

News of Broadway just because:

The revival of A Chorus Line will close Aug. 17 after 759 performances. The production, which had its premiere in San Francisco before heading to Broadway, recouped its costs in only 19 weeks.

Fans shouldn’t mourn. The touring production lives on and will play July 8-27 at San Francisco’s Curran Theatre as part of the SHN/Best of Broadway season. Visit www.shnsf.com for information.

And because they’re still adorable, here are the kids from Spring Awakening performing a medley from the show on “Good Morning America” last March. It’s also a chance to say goodbye to Jonathan Groff and Lea Michele who have since departed the show (Groff is starring in Hair in Central Park this summer). Please appreciate the re-working of “Totally Fucked” for television broadcast.

Remember the national tour of Spring Awakening kicks off in San Francisco Sept. 4 at the Curran. Click here for information.

Bay Area audiences were the first to see the most recent revival of A Chorus Line before it headed to New York (where it’s still running at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre).

Now, as the Broadway production moves beyond its 500th performance (celebrated last January), it’s time for the Line to hit the road. The national tour will return to the Curran Theatre July 8 through 27 as part of the SHN/Best of Broadway season. This is the same theater that launched the very first A Chorus Line national tour in 1976.

Michael Gruber, who plays Zach on tour, was actually a member of the line during the original A Chorus Line’s record-breaking, nearly 15-year run on Broadway. He was in the final company playing Mike, who sings “I Can Do That.”

Another notable name in the cast is Nikki Snelson, who plays Cassie. Bay Area audiences saw Snelson in TheatreWorks’ world-premiere musical Kept and again in that company’s Smokey Joe’s Cafe. Snelson originated the role of the accused murderer/exercise guru in Legally Blonde, which had its pre-Broadway tryout at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Theatre.

Tickets go on sale May 4 and will run $25 to $99. Call 415-512-7770 or visit www.shnsf.com or www.ticketmaster.com

OK, people, time to start planning those Tony Award viewing parties for Sunday, June 10 on CBS.

We’ve got to get those dismal ratings up, so if you’re having people over, make sure they’re still setting their TiVos (and VCRs if you’re archaic) to record the telecast. If you’re a Nielsen family, do some creative figuring and say you watched the Tonys on all five of your TVs.

The show’s organizers have begun talking about what we’ll be seeing.

Audra McDonald will sing “Raunchy” from 110 in the Shade, for which she is nominated in the best actress in a musical category.

Christine Ebersole will sing “The Revolutionary Costume for Today,” which happens to be the best song in Grey Gardens, for which Ebersole is competing with McDonald in the best actress category.

The cast of Curtains, featuring David Hyde Pearce, will peform “Show People” and the adorable cast of Spring Awakening (so I’m biased — sue me) will perform a medley from the Duncan Sheik-Steven Sater score. The cast of Mary Poppins will perform — probably the TV-ready “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.”

The revival of A Chorus Line will likely trot out “One” again (we’ve seen that baby everywhere, from the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade to “The View”), and Raul Esparza will probably sing “Being Alive” from the revival of Company.

Fantasia, a recent replacement in the hit The Color Purple, is also slated to perform.

There won’t be a host (sorry, Nathan Lane) this year, but the list of presenters is impressive and includes Harry Connick Jr., Claire Danes, Neil Patrick Harris, Anne Heche, Marg Helgenberger, Felicity Huffman, Eddie Izzard, Jane Krakowski, Angela Lansbury, Robert Sean Leonard, Cynthia Nixon, Bernadette Peters, Christopher Plummer, Liev Schreiber, John Turturro, Usher, Vanessa Williams, Rainn Wilson and the cast of Jersey Boys.

Tony nominations were announced this morning, and to my great delight, Spring Awakening nabbed a leading 11 nominations, including two acting noms for Jonathan Groff (best actor in a musical) and John Gallagher Jr. (best featured actor in a musical).

Grey Gardens received 10 nominations, including one for Christine Ebersole (best actress in a musical), whom many consider the front runner.

In the play categories, Tom Stoppard’s mammoth, three-play cycle The Coast of Utopia snagged 10 nominations. In the acting categories, the best actress slot is filled with Broadway royalty: Angela Lansbury (Deuce), Vanessa Redgrave (The Year of Magical Thinking) and Swoosie Kurtz (Heartbreak House). Tough choice.

Bay Area theater fans got the first peek at several nominees:

Legally Blonde scored seven nominations: best book (Heather Hach); score (Music & Lyrics: Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin); actress (Laura Bell Bundy); featured actor (Christian Borle); featured actress (Orfeh); choreography (Jerry Mitchell); costume design (Gregg Barnes).

A Chorus Line received two nominations: best musical revival and featured actress (Charlotte d’Amboise).

Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me received one surprising nomination: featured actor (Brooks Ashmanskas).

One of the two nominees for special theatrical event is Kiki & Herb Alive on Broadway, which comes to San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater this summer. The other “special” nominee is the ventriloquism show Jay Johnson: The Two and Only.

For a complete list of nominations, visit the American Theatre Wing Web site.

The Tony Awards will be broadcast on June 10 on CBS. Start planning the party now.

Steve Kluger, a friend of Theater Dogs (FoTD), was so impressed by A Chorus Line in San Francisco (see the Aug. 25 entry) that he bought a ticket for a preview performance in New York.

Well, seems like the kids in the Chorus are poised to become a big hit…again.

Here’s what Steve has to say about his recent Broadway experience:

So I was at the first Broadway Chorus Line preview on Monday. Oh God, Chad. It was everything I wanted it to be. The applause and cheering were so consistent, it must have added 25 minutes to the running time. At the end of “I Hope I Get It”, when the cast is downstage with their headshots covering their faces, there are supposed to be four beats from the orchestra before Paul sings, “Who am I anyway? Am I my resume?” On Monday, there were 23. The audience just wouldn’t let the show go on.

My favorite part was afterward. The stage door is right on the street, so barricades were set up that would allow people to crowd against them but still permit the cast to have a narrow alley to get through. There were at least 75 people clamoring for autographs, and as each kid came out, he/she got an ovation. It generally took them each 10-15 minutes to get through the line. Stars are born. Just like in ‘75.

Sounds pretty exciting. Glad we got to see it first.

Received a fantastic e-mail from Steve Kluger, a novelist/playwright I’ve been corresponding with since I reviewed his play After Dark at the New
Conservatory Theatre Center. Kluger’s a wonderful writer — check out his novels Almost Like Being In Love and Last Days of Summer – and he brought his 9-year-old niece up to San Francisco recently to see the Broadway-bound revival of A Chorus Line at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco.

Here’s what Kluger wrote about the experience:

Having seen various productions of varying quality in the years since the originals took over Broadway, I was hoping for a workmanlike production that would at least stand on its own and honor the legend. What I clearly wasn’t prepared for was having the top of my head taken off just like it was in 1975, when the same 19 characters left me equally incapable of speech once the curtain had come down.

Is this production as good as I think it is? … This is the first time in my musical theatre life that a revival actually defied the axiom “You can’t go home again.” It also confirmed that this f** show’s got a kind of magic that’s never going to be duplicated again.

Hard to disagree with that.

Kluger also mentioned that his new book, tentatively titled The Year We Grew Up, will be released next year by Penguin in hardcover.

Had two amazing experiences in one on Monday.

1) They actually let me into Skywalker Ranch in Marin, George Lucas’ incredible special effects compound where the biggest special effect of all is Mother Nature in all her Northern California glory.

2) They actually let me into the recording studio (Lucas’ scoring stage to be more precise) to observe the recording of three songs for the new cast recording for the revival of A Chorus Line, currently having its out-of-town tryout in San Francisco.

For a show tune enthusiast such as myself (if I ever slip on this blog and use the phrase “show queen” please know I use it with love), it was H E A V E N.

Just standing next to the 30-strong cast while they belted “Hello Twelve, Hello Thirteen, Hello Love,” “What I Did for Love” and “One” was incredible and the closest I’ll ever get to feeling what it’s like on a full-throttle Broadway stage.

But watching the process of musical director, producer, orchestrator, composer doing their thing to make a classic recording for the ages in a SINGLE DAY was extraordinary.

The cast members seemed remarkably relaxed and were only told by producer David Caddick once to keep their “go-to-it energy” up.

Charlotte d’Amboise, who plays Cassie, is probably the biggest star in the bunch (along with Tony-winner Michael Barresse, who plays Zach), and her husband, Broadway star Terrence Mann (seen here in “Lennon” but more famous for his Javert in Les Miz and Beast in Beauty & the…) was lurking about lending moral support.

Between takes the cast members joked around, stretched, lounged on the floor, chomped lozenges and sipped from water bottles.

Jessica Lee Goldyn, who plays Val and sings the big number “Dance: Ten; Looks: Three” about, ahem, “orchestra and balcony,” clamped her headphones around her bosom and said: “Sing, boobies!”

The Chorus Line cast is writing up a storm on the show’s official blog. If you haven’t seen it, you must. A Chorus Line Blog

The crew from Broadway.com has made a terrific video of the recording session. Check it out
here