It started four months ago, this spring-musical season, and now it’s over. Sixty-one high musicals, hundreds of interviews, scores of videos.

I thought I’d offer you a chance to relive the past four months, show by show. I also encourage you to check out www.lohud.com/localtheater and check out the Building Character videos. Look on the right side of the page for the video-camera icon and click on it. Then you can scroll down and see how other actors and actresses approached the roles they played this year. They’ve had challenges, to be sure, but they rose to them.

But just because the Tonys and High School Theater Awards have had their say, with their nominations, don’t think that the theatrical-awards season is over yet. The second annual Pedro de Baca Gutierrez Remember the Alamo Kramer Awards — affectionately known as “The Pedros” — will be handed out very soon. Unlike those other awards, there will be no controversy and no actual award: Merely a mention of gratitude on this humble little blog.

Look for The Pedros here soon. In the meantime, read on about the season that was.

Read more of this entry »

Rachel Formale was sure that producing two shows a year just wouldn’t cut it for theater kids at Mahopac High School.

After all, last year they pulled off “The Odyssey,” “Scrooge: The Musical,” “The Pink Panther” and “Jesus Christ Superstar.”

They did “Beauty & the Beast” last November and “The Hobbit” in February – but the plan was to have no musical this spring.

But what’s spring without a musical?

Formale, a junior, and her drama club friends didn’t want to find out.

“We didn’t think it was fair. We didn’t want to be apart from each other for that long. This is what we love doing, and for us not to be able to do that from February until next September – that’s a long time for us,” she says.

So this weekend, long after other schools have struck their sets and moved on to spring sports and even summer jobs, Mahopac’s thespians will be working.

Tonight is opening night for Mahopac’s production of “Disney’s High School Musical.” It’s the TV movie turned stage play that tells the story of brainy Gabriella Montez, who arrives at Albuquerque’s East High and meets jock Troy Bolton. It’s about breaking down walls between cliques and it’s hugely popular with kids from 4 to 13.

The Disney Channel movie broke all records for the network, and the stage adaptation is one of the most popular shows for youth-theater programs.

Read more of this entry »

On May 19th, Westchester’s arts community gathered to honor the recipients of the Cab Calloway Lifetime Achievement Awards at Westchester Broadway Theatre.

The emcee was Larchmont’s John Treacy Egan (“The Producers”), who is now appearing as Chef Louis in “The Little Mermaid” on Broadway.

George Puello, the mastermind of the awards, says the recipients are recognized for “their body of work, dedication and contribution to the performing arts in Westchester County.” Egan sang excerpts from “The Producers,” which will be the next show to take to the Elmsford stage (in the fall), and songs from his new CD “Count The Stars.”

The 2008 honorees:

ALAN BRAMSON: Founder of the Bramson School of Music, with his wife, Berenice, who was honored posthumously.

JOHN B. COPPOLA: Founding member of the New Rochelle Community Theater, who has served as everything from set designer to director to producer.

SIR MORT CLARK: Honored posthumously for his contribution to amateur theater. He was a professor of speech and theater at Westchester Community College for more than 30 years.

PHIL GABERMAN: In recognition of a lifelong dedication as a music teacher and musical director for more than 40 years. His wife, Judy Gaberman, a children’s book author, was honored posthumously.

SUSAN (RYAN) KATZ: The founder and executive director of Westco Productions. Her father, Seymour “Sonny” Katz, a great supporter of theater, was honored posthumously.

BARRY LIEBMAN: Founder and producer of Yorktown Stage. A longtime director, choreographer and actor in professional and community theater.

JOAN MORENSTEIN: A music teacher and drama director at Port Chester Middle School for 34 years, she was a musical director for many community-theater groups in Westchester.

JO ROBBINS: A dance professor at Westchester Community College for 34 years, and a co-founder of DanceWorks with MollyAnn Franzblau.

She played Golda Meir on Broadway and is about to play her again in London, but Tovah Feldshuh will bring her one-woman show, “Golda’s Balcony,” to Bronxville for a six-show run this weekend.

William Gibson’s Broadway hit comes to Reisinger Auditorium at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, with the following playing schedule: May 29 and 30 at 8 p.m.; May 31 at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.; and June 1 at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.All tickets are $40 with discounts for groups over 20 people, as well as senior and student discounts.

To purchase tickets, you can visit SMARTTIX on the Internet at: http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showCode=GOL3

You can also call SMARTTIX at 212-868-4444.

All seats are general admission, but are excellent due to this theater’s intimate size.

After Sarah Lawrence, Feldshuh is off to the West End, where her run opens June 7.

Got some great news I thought I’d share.

Buchanan’s Hand-To-Mouth Players theatre company won five awards at the Eastern States Theatre Association’s annual festival, ESTAFest08/Original Works, held in Newark, Delaware earlier this month. The awards were given for HTM’s production of the one-act play, “Fostered Ideal,” by Bradley Vile.

Among the honorees were cast members Cathy Jewell, Kurt Lauer, Rose Tavano and David Thompson, director Sally Simon and stage manager Gary Simon. The company won the following awards:

• Original Works Outstanding Production First Place Award,


• Outstanding Ensemble Performance,


• Excellence in Direction (Sally Simon),


• Outstanding Achievement in Set Design, and


• Outstanding Achievement in Acting (Rose Tavano).

The Eastern States Theatre Association is six member organizations from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and the District of Columbia, and is a Member of the American Association of Community Theatres. Its primary function is to hold an annual ESTA Fest/Original Works Festival, and on alternate years to select one community theatre production from among its member states to go on to the AACT National Festival.

Hand-to-Mouth’s production was among 15 plays presented at ESTA Fest, 8 of which were original plays, from which Hand-to-Mouth’s production was chosen.

“Fostered Ideal,” which is a play about a dysfunctional family, was originally presented as part of HTM Players’ 16th Annual Playwright/Director’s Workshop in September 2007 in Buchanan under the artistic direction of Anne Rogers Pearl and Gary Simon.

It won the People’s Choice Award for Best Production at the New York State’s 2007 TANYS Festival.

and-To-Mouth Players is a not-for-profit community theatre, that has been producing plays in the area for over 40 years, including comedies, dramas, one-acts, workshops, musicals, and original works.

The group is dedicated to the promotion of cultural life in the community, and it’s home is the Trinity Boscobel Church in Buchanan.

I went to see “West Side Story” at Antrim Playhouse in Wesley Hills — or Suffern — last week and I was blown away.

First of all, there’s the space itself, a gem of a theater with a balcony and room for about 200. The stage is deep, the staff is friendly and — if the talent on display last week was any indication — it’s right up there with most professional groups in the region.

Antrim has been around for generations, on Spook Rock Road.

Director Randy Accardi faced an uphill battle with “West Side,” with two major hurdles: Men and dancing, two bains of community theater. But the New Jersey-based director choreographer who staged “Fiddler on the Roof” last spring, knew that with the right cast, total commitment and plenty of time, it wasn’t impossible.

Co-Producer Jim Guarasci is one of my new favorite people. He put the creative team together, helped with the program, raised money, sold cookies and coffee at intermission — and appeared in the show as Gladhand! He’s a dynamo!

It’s been a long and varied season for Antrim. The season started with “Last of the Red Hot Lovers,” “Blood Brothers,” “Snow White,” “A Few Good Men,” “Enter Laughing,” “West Side Story,” and closes with Donald Margulies’ “Brooklyn Boy,”which opens June 13 and runs through June 29.

Guarasci, who owns Pasta Cucina and offers a dinner-theater package, approached area high schools, in search of Jets and Sharks. Accardi cast Tommy Hettrick as Riff and Joshua Harry Lindover — both of New City, both students at Clarkstown High School South — and boy did that casting work. Neither considered himself a dancer coming into the show, but five months of rehearsal with Accardi certainly changed that.

Hettrick is a natural, a sinewy ball of energy who draws the eye. When he’s on stage, he’s captivating, ever in the moment. Lindover, billed as Joshua Lind in the program, is an exceptional dancer and has the acting chops to boot.

The choreography was tight, precise and inspired. Accardi resurrected a dance ballet, performed behind a scrim, and it was just stunning. Dancers in all white performed and then were joined, back to back, by dancers in street clothes. It had the effect of finding the inner angel in these street toughs, and it was something to see.

Purchase College Opera Conservatory grad Marisol Cable lent her incredible voice to the role and was convincing as a young Puerto Rican girl, new to America, who falls for an older boy. That, she explains, is because she has Puerto Rican roots and met her husband in high school — at Clarkstown High School North — when she was 14 and he was 17.

Texas native Nolan Muna was no match for Cable vocally — who, but another opera singer, could be? — but he did an admirable acting job. And his dancing was strong enough that Accardi put him in the dream ballet.

Cristina Farruggia, another Clarkstown South graduate, was pitch perfect as Anita, Bernardo’s girlfriend. She was able to find the comedy and the pathos in the character, and was just riveting. It wasn’t just the red dress. Farruggia, the daughter of opera people, draws every eye when she takes the stage. Her accent was perfect.

The set was minimal in the extreme, with two rolling scaffolds put to use as everything from Doc’s Drug Store to Maria’s fire escape and the highway. The spinning scaffolds and Zack Spitzer’s lights had a dizzying effect — and made the 50-year-old musical seem as fresh as ever. Even the chainlink fence under the highway rolled on and off.

An EXCELLENT ensemble, a lot of work and a fascinating design approach made Antrim’s production of “West Side Story” the most exciting community theater show I’ve seen in years.

I now have another must-see theater season, Antrim’s.

Next year’s spring musical? “Miss Saigon”

Up next at Antrim:

“Brooklyn Boy”
When: June 13 through 29. Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Sundays at 2 p.m.
Where: Antrim Playhouse, Spook Rock Road, Wesley Hills.
Tickets: $16; $2 discount for students and seniors for Friday and Sunday shows only.
Call: 845-354-9503.

Rose Ann DiGennaro, who directed Sacred Heart High School’s production of “Damn Yankees,” called me today, obviously upset that Sacred Heart was one of only two schools not nominated for a High School Theater Award this year.

I invited her to write “an acceptance speech” (my words) for me to post here. Here’s what she wrote: Read more of this entry »

There’s now a Web site for the High School Theater Awards.

http://www.hstheaterawards.com/

On it, you’ll find information about judges, nominees and other FAQs. Might be worth a look.

Also, you can find out about getting tickets to the event, at Peekskill’s Paramount Center for the Arts, on June 10.

(The nominations aren’t there yet, and it still lists last year’s categories — some of which were cut this year.)

Of the 39 schools that entered the High School Theater Awards, two received no nominations today: Sacred Heart School in Yonkers, which did “Damn Yankees,” and Kennedy Catholic High School in Somers, which performed “Footloose.”

The loss of some of the categories — from 27 last year to 23 this year — might be at the root of the problem. There will be no statues given out for duos or production numbers, which made it more likely that someone would be shut out.
I’ve been to both schools — I’ve been to 60 musical rehearsals this spring and go to my last one, Mahopac, tomorrow — and I’ve talked with kids and directors and choreographers there. They all work hard. It’s a shame that Kennedy and Sacred Heart are left out of the party. Sadly, it’s the nature of this kind of affair. It’s why some directors decided long ago not to put their kids through it. Nyack—a powerhouse program that this year presented “The Phantom of the Opera”—doesn’t enter it. (This year, they were precluded from entering because they were chosen to be one of just six schools to put on the Lloyd Webber musical.)

Read more of this entry »

There have been changes at the High School Theater Awards, this year.

They’re not called “The Helens” anymore, because Washington, D.C.’s theater community hands out awards with that name and there was a big brouhaha.

Judges were paid $75 for each show they judged and the forms were posted online. The schools that were judged will receive the judges’ forms as feedback.

Categories have been eliminated this year but may, producer Danielle Rudess says, be reinstated next year. There are 23 categories this year; there were 27 last year.

“We left out comic, featured instrumentalist (my favorite category) and cameo this year since we didn’t know how the reporting from the new online evaluation form would work for those smaller categories. We’ve ironed out the kinks and will be adding those categories back next year,” she says.

Here are the nominees, from Rudess, producer of the High School Theater Awards, to be presented Tuesday, June 10, at the Paramount Center for the Arts in Peekskill.

Outstanding Overall Production of a Musical
Archbishop Stepinac: “Singin’ in the Rain”
Pleasantville: “Fiddler on the Roof”
Ramsey (N.J.): “Once Upon a Mattress”
Rye Neck: “Cats”
St. Joseph Regional (N.J.): “West Side Story”

Outstanding Achievement by a Director
Archbishop Stepinac: “Singin’ in the Rain,” Frank Portanova
Blind Brook: “Fiddler on the Roof,” Christine Colangelo
Fair Lawn (N.J.): “Merrily We Roll Along,” John Giresi
Pleasantville: “Fiddler on the Roof,” Kathleen Donovan-Warren
Ramsey (N.J.): “Once Upon a Mattress,” Doug Gipple
Rye Neck: “Cats,” Patricia Rinello

Read more of this entry »

It started four months ago, this spring-musical season, and is one show away from being over.

And then come next month’s High School Theater Awards, to be handed out in Peekskill.

So I thought I’d offer you a chance to relive the past four months, show by show.

Hastings: “City of Angels”

North Salem: “42nd Street”

School of the Holy Child: “Children of Eden”

Read more of this entry »

Apparently, the posting about the high-school theater awards has some kids a bit on edge. I heard from Danielle Rudess that the nominations might not be released till over the weekend, but as soon as I get them, they’ll be right here, so keep checking back. But, really, you have to go to class, Scott, and study hard.

To be honest, though, the high-school theater awards are a few of my favorite things.

I saw an incredibly inventive production of “West Side Story” at Antrim Playhouse in Suffern last night. Those people know how to put on a show. Really, really impressive stuff.

Neil Simon can write jokes.

He did it for Sid Caesar’s “Your Show of Shows” and for himself in two dozen original plays.

But the play that won him the Pulitzer Prize – and elevated him beyond simply a gag-meister – put those jokes alongside heart-rending family dysfunction. The laughter meant more when it followed tears – as it does in “Lost in Yonkers,” the final show of the season at The Schoolhouse Theater in Croton Falls.

“Lost in Yonkers” plays through June 1, in a production directed by Pamela Moller Kareman.

Teenagers Jay and Arty are left with their stern grandmother in a small apartment over the family’s candy store in 1942 Yonkers. Their father, a widower, is on the road, selling scrap metal, a wartime commodity.

He hates to leave them. They hate to be left. Their grandmother hates having to help.

In true Simon fashion, there are odd relatives who appear.

“There’s something wrong with everyone in Pop’s family,” one of the boys says.

Read more of this entry »

I ran into Danielle Rudess at Riverspace Arts today — the former Helen Hayes Theater Company, where the Helen Hayes High School Theater Awards were created — and we chatted about a few things, not the least of which was her work on a brand-new workshop production of “Rugrats, A Live Adventure!” that she’s been working on for Nickelodeon and Theatrical Rights Worldwide. The “Rugrats” were the focus of a huge truck-and-bus tour, but Danielle and her talented kids have been paring down that over-the-top extravaganza into a show that kids in elementary and middle schools can put on.That’s meant cutting about 45 minutes out of the show, adjusting some keys for the kids to sing in, and coming up with props and small set pieces that can be presented on a small budget.The results of all that work will be on display Saturday (May 17) at noon, 3 and 7 and Sunday at 5 p.m.Rudess is a seasoned pro at this sort of thing, having helped to develop the school edition of “Les Miserables” and last year’s workshop of “Blue’s Clues Live! The Most Spectacular Place.”Tickets are $15 for adults and $12 for children under 11.Oh, and after we chatted a bit, and before she headed off with a giant yellow balloon in the back of her car — don’t ask — she told me the High School Theater Awards nominations should be out later this week. Keep checking back here to find out who’ll be up for honors this year on Tuesday, June 10 at the Paramount Center for the Arts in Peekskill.There are some big changes in the awards, so give a look at this earlier post for details.

Pamela Moller Kareman has been laughing a lot lately.That’s not to say that the director at the Schoolhouse Theater in Croton Falls isn’t taking her work seriously.It’s just that she’s working on Neil Simon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Lost in Yonkers,” a story that mixes heart-rending scenes of familial dysfunction with laugh-out-loud comedy.“Lost in Yonkers” comes at the end of a successful season at the Schoolhouse: from the world premiere of Todd Susman’s “Locked and Loaded,” about men making life-changing choices, to a stunning production of Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” that transferred to Manhattan for a month-long run to “Appointment with a High-Wire Lady,” about memory, love and loss, to Neil Simon.“Lost in Yonkers” opens tonight and runs weekends through June 1 at the tiny theater in Croton Falls.Neil Simon? At the Schoolhouse?“We have discovered that this time slot for us, in the warmer, nice weather, brings in lots of interest from groups,” Kareman says.“It’s a balance that everybody has in theater,” she says. “We want to do work that we’re interested in exploring, but we also want to please the crowd. It really was a lesson we learned with ‘The Last Night of Ballyhoo’ a few years back.”“I reread it and thought it was Neil Simon at his most poignant and it’s still so funny,” she adds. Read more of this entry »