ATCA Membership Could Help Grow Richmond Theatre

Posted by Bruce Miller
The American Theatre Critics Association is the national association of professional theatre critics. Its members work for newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and on-line services across the United States. Membership is open to all who "review theatre professionally, regularly and with substance for print, electronic or digital media."

ATCA was founded in 1974 by a group of leading theater critics from around the country. The prevailing wisdom at the time was that the New York Drama Critics Circle was too geographically limiting to meet the growing national need. Daumier’s 1865 cricature, “La Promenade du Critique Influent,” (pictured to the left) has been ATCA’s self-deprecatory logo since its founding.

Prior to 1974, the founding critics had been gathering informally for several years at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford, CT, where Phil Whiteway's nephew, Preston Whiteway (pictured below and to the right), has served as Executive Director since 2007. ATCA’s connection to the O’Neill continues today in the annual National Critics Institute, which many US theatre critics attend as fellows and mentors.

Since its founding, ATCA has provided opportunities for members to explore the remarkable artistic resources of our national theatre. ATCA works to foster greater communication among theatre critics in the United States, to improve the training and development of critics at different stages of their careers, to advocate absolute freedom of expression in theatre and theatre criticism, and to increase public awareness of the theatre as an important national resource.

In addition to the National Critics Institute at the O'Neill, ATCA offers valuable professional and networking opportunities through twice yearly conferences. In a typical year, members gather for a five-day annual conference in a major theatre center outside New York, as well as for a shorter meeting in New York or at some theater festival. In addition to seminars, guest speakers, discussions with regional and national theatre practitioners, and a sampling of the host region’s theatres, there’s ample opportunity to talk shop with others in the profession.

In addition to conferences and meetings, ATCA provides information through email and on its website about current trends in theatre, the ethical dilemmas critics face, and upcoming international seminars and workshops through the International Association of Theatre Critics, of which ATCA is the American affiliate.

ATCA members also join in supporting new plays. Each year ATCA presents several awards for new plays and emerging playwrights. Members make a recommendation to the American Theatre Wing for the Regional Theatre Tony Award (the theatre recommended by ATCA always wins) and vote on inductees to the Theater Hall of Fame.

Currently, the only Virginia critics listed as members on the ATCA website are Maggie Lawrence in Culpeper, Wendy Parker in Midlothian, and David Siegel in Annandale. In days gone by, Roy Proctor was not only a member of ATCA, he served as the association's national president.

As Richmond theatre continues to grow and improve, it would be great to have several Richmond critics join ATCA. Two years ago, Legacy of Light (two RTCCA nominees from Barksdale's production of Legacy are pictured to the left) was one of only three new plays in the US to receive Best of the Year recognition from ATCA after its world premiere at Arena Stage. Legacy received this recognition due in large part to the advocacy of several DC ATCA members. The previous year, Signature Theatre in Northern Virginia won the regional theatre Tony Award, also due to the efforts of the DC critics.

As early as this season, it is possible that a play receiving its world premiere in Richmond might have a shot at the invaluable national recognition awarded by the ATCA, but only if Richmond's critics join the association and participate in its voting. Ten or so years from now, it would be possible for a Richmond theatre to win the regional theatre Tony, (why not dream big, folks) but again, only if Central Virginia's critics join ATCA and serve as advocates for Richmond theatre. Also, it would be possible in the near future to bring the national conference of ATCA to Richmond, significantly advancing our national profile as a theatre city, but only if we have active local ATCA members.

Advancing Richmond as a national caliber theatre city could and I believe should be an important goal for all of us. Encouraging our wonderful critics to join ATCA may be one way to make progress toward this goal. Annual dues are $45, and if critics need help with that, I suspect it could be found.

--Bruce Miller

Anything Goes at the Tony Awards

Posted by Bruce Miller
Part of what makes watching the Tony Awards so much fun is when you know someone involved with a nominated show. The theatre community is relatively small. If you stick around in the business long enough, you wind up knowing a lot of people who work on Broadway. When it comes to Anything Goes, Sunday night’s Tony winner for Best Revival of a Musical, there are at least two representatives of the Richmond theatre community working in the production.

Michelle Lookadoo joined the company of Anything Goes last night, and she was there on Sunday to experience the thrill of victory with the rest of her cast. Michelle is in the ensemble and covers the leading role of Hope Harcourt, the beautiful socialite who wins the heart of Billy Crocker, the dapper hero of the show.

Michelle began her musical theatre career in Barksdale’s 1999 production of Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. She moved to New York immediately thereafter, and her career has been going great guns ever since. She was in the Broadway casts of Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, and then Mary Poppins. While in Mermaid, she was the stand-in for the leading role of Ariel and played the role during several performances. Michelle returned to Barksdale this past season to star as Judy Haynes in Irving Berlin’s White Christmas.

On Sunday night, she celebrated the Tony win with the company of Anything Goes, including Tony-winning director and choreographer, Kathleen Marshall. (See the two of them together in the photo above.)

Also working on Anything Goes is Monica Costea (her self-portrait photo is posted to the right). Monica worked for Theatre IV, TheatreVirginia and King's Dominion in the 1980s and 90s. Like Michelle and a large number of Broadway professionals, Monica tends to flow from show to show. She is a hair stylist. She joined Anything Goes this winter, leaving the hair styling department at Billy Elliott, where she had been working since that show opened in 2008.

When Phil and I led our group of theatre patrons to New York last March, both Michelle and Monica came to speak to our hearty troop of Richmond theatergoers about their extensive experiences on the Great White Way.

We wish the two of them, and everyone in the company of Anything Goes, years of success.

--Bruce Miller

Rubbing Elbows with the Tony Elite

Posted by Lizzie Holland
This year, I was fortunate enough to be able to volunteer for the 63rd Annual Antoinette Perry Awards. Last year I attended as a paid ticket holder, and through that experience I learned that is was possible to be a thing called a “seat filler."

Many people wonder what this job actually entails. Well, there is a group of about 200 people of all ages who know someone (or know someone who knows someone who is dating someone, in my case). We all line up at 4:30 at Radio City Music Hall and are escorted into the building.

Once inside, our names are checked off of a list and we are strategically seated in the back of Radio City. Then, we wait. Seriously, we wait there for about an hour. It’s boring, but everyone is nice and chatty so you make lots of new friends.

Then, around 5:45, the “leader” of all the seat fillers gives a spiel about what our job entails for the evening. The rules include things like “Don’t ask for autographs,” “Don’t establish eye contact with the person who actually sits in the seat,” “Don’t go onstage” (seriously…). He also introduced us to his assistants who would actually send us running to fill each and every empty seat the second it is vacated.

Then, at 6:00 (when the doors open), we are split into three groups for each main area in the orchestra. Lucky for me, I was assigned to the audience left section, down front near the “special door." This door is the door through which all the celebrities pass as they prepare to present awards. Also, all the nominees and other celebrities are escorted to their seats not through the lobby and down the aisles, but from offstage right. So there was a continual parade of stars walking about a foot away from me before the show even started.

The luminaries whom I politely did NOT reach out and touch included Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis, Will Ferrell, James Gandolfini, Lauren Graham, Marcia Gay Harden, Anne Hathaway, Colin Hanks, Angela Lansbury, Liza Minnelli, Oliver Platt, John Stamos, and finally Neil Patrick Harris.

Once the “pre-show” starts at 7:00 we begin to fill seats of people who have not arrived yet. I had a seat until about 7:45. I sat right in front of John Glover (nominee for Best Featured Actor in a Play). I was quietly sitting there not asking for autographs or establishing verbotten eye contact when John Glover’s partner tapped me on the shoulder. He told me that my hair was stuck on my earring, and then proceeded to help me fix it!

Then, when the real owner of my seat arrived (shoot!), I moved to the back of the line of seat fillers waiting patiently off to the side for someone famous to have to visit the restroom. Gradually we moved forward in the line as the important people exited for one reason or another. There's a veritable stampede during commercial breaks. I was personally moved into vacated seats 4 times.

Once I sat in the 2nd row near Geoffrey Rush (Winner of Best Actor in a Play), Colin Hanks (Tom Hanks' son), and Jane Fonda (don’t tell me you don’t know who she is…). At the end, I was moved into Chandra Wilson’s seat (Gray’s Anatomy), which was the best! I sat there, in the 4th row on the aisle for the Hair performance, and if you have seen Hair you know what that means--ersatz hippies climbing everywhere and practically sitting in your lap. I sat there near Angela Lansbury, Gina Gerswin, and Raul Esparza for the remainder of the show. Thank you, Chandra, for leaving early.

When the show was over and everyone was dispersing to their appropriate parties, I ran into some more “talent” as the Tony crew likes to call them. The best was when I ran into Jill Zarin from the Real Housewives of New York! Once everyone headed to the Gala at Rockefeller Center, I met up with a friend and we began our walk downtown, where we ran into a producer from Billy Elliot who looked confused. We told him congratulations on winning his Tony, and he responded by admitting that he was lost. We gave him directions, and he let us take pictures with his newly received Tony. (They are heavy but also feel cheaply made, as the silver part is not quite securely attached to its base.)

I guess it must be the recession!

--Lizzie Holland

New Friend Grady Bowman Does the Tonys

Posted by Bruce Miller
Our college-bound theatre enthusiast, Lizzie Holland (see the previous blog entry), was not the only one whooping it up at the 2009 Tony Awards. Our new friend Grady Bowman (pictured to the right with his Tony-winning director, Stephen Daldry) was there too, performing on stage with the cast of Billy Elliot, and cheering on his company-mates as the ten Billy Tonys began rolling in and piling up.

I give the Barksdale team way more credit than we deserve when I refer to Grady as our "friend." It's certainly true that we hold Grady in high regard; he's very talented and an all round good guy. But on the flip side, I know that Barksdale and we various personalities involved are just a blip on Grady's radar screen.

When Phil and I led the annual Barksdale theatre trip to NYC last March, Billy Elliot was one of the three shows our group went to see. I had friends in the cast of South Pacific (Jerold Solomon and Christian Carter) who graciously agreed to lead a post-performance backstage discussion with our group when we went to see that show. I wanted to find someone from Billy Elliot to do the same, but I had no friends in the cast.

So I went into research mode and quickly learned that I was, in three ways, only one degree of separation away from actor/singer/dancer Grady Bowman, whom I had yet to meet. I immediately friend requested Grady on facebook, mentioning that:

1. I was pals with Jerold and Christian, two Theatre IV and Barksdale alums, both of whom had been Grady's castmates before he, Grady, left South Pacific to go into Billy Elliot;

2. I was friends with and a professional colleague of David Leong, Chair of the Theatre Department at VCU--David is also fight director for Broadway's Billy Elliot and Grady is the fight captain; and

3. I was friends with and a longtime collaborator of Ron Barnett, who composed the scores for a great many Theatre IV musicals and has, for the last several years, been working at the Fulton Opera House, where he once music directed Grady in Crazy for You.

Grady's had one of those careers that most young professional performers would give their left tapshoe for. He graduated from North Carolina School of the Arts in 2005, worked the regional theatres briefly before being cast on Broadway in The Pirate Queen, South Pacific and then Billy Elliot--one right after the other. In South Pacific he also served as assistant dance captain, and, as mentioned before, in Billy Elliot he leads the troops as fight captain.

When he heard from me out of the blue, Grady thoughtfully accepted my friend request. I responded by asking if he would speak with our group backstage after the Billy Elliot performance. He graciously agreed.

When the big day came, we 40 Richmond theatre lovers waited in the house until the audience cleared and Grady came back on stage. He invited us all down front, and answered everyone's questions for about 20 minutes. There was no practical reason for him to be so kind; he just was. And for that I will be forever in his debt.

Billy Elliot is a great show, and Grady Bowman is a talented and generous theatre artist. He is also, now, an official friend of Barksdale. He and I spoke about his interest in choreographing some day soon, and it's my hope that we at Barksdale will be able to work with him someday in that capacity.

Congratulations on all your hard work, Grady, and on Billy Elliot's many accolades. All of your new Barksdale friends cheered you and your team on while watching from our TVs. We're proud of your success, and hope to work with you again in the future.

Additional photo credits:
(all photos are the property of Grady Bowman, and used here with his permission)
photo #2 shows Grady in front of the massive Tony set at Radio City Music Hall;
photo #3 is, of course, Grady with Sir Elton John, composer of Billy Elliot;
photo #4 includes Grady in his Billy Elliot costume and hard hat, with fellow cast members including the three young Tony-winners for Best Actor in a Musical: David Alvarez, Kiril Kulish and Trent Kowalik (the three Billy's);
photo #5 is Grady with Gregory Jbara, who won the Best Supporting Actor Tony as Billy's dad;
photo #6 shows a scene from Crazy for You at the Fulton Opera House, with Grady to the far right and Ron Barnett, playing a real bass, to the left;
photo #7 is Grady (in his Billy Elliot wig) with Vice President Biden (ah, the people you'll meet when you're in a hit Broadway show); and
photo #8 is Grady with the woman in his life, Autumn Hurlbert, who many will remember as the talented musical theatre actress who should have won (my opinion) the Legally Blonde TV casting show.

--Bruce Miller

And the Tony for Best Whooper Goes To...

Posted by Bruce Miller
Like many of us, Lizzie Holland—a rising freshman at Dickinson and one of the more enthusiastic theatre lovers in the Barksdale / Theatre IV family—watched the Tony Awards last night. Like many of us, she whooped and hollered when a particular performance or show biz moment met with her approval. Unlike any of the rest of us, her whoop has been preserved for posterity on the Tony broadcast.

While the rest of us kept adjusting the volume on our TVs, Lizzie was there at Radio City Music Hall for the second year in a row! (See her archived post about last year’s Tony Awards: A Richmond High School Theatre Lover Takes Her First Trip to the Tonys, Saturday, June 28, 2008.)

And last night, when Luci Arnaz said, “Maybe one day, who knows, we might see one of you up here on stage at the Tonys,” and an unseen, wide-eyed starlet in the audience let out a cry of approval, prompting Luci to point into the crowd and shout “Yeah!” … that whooping starlet-to-be was none other than our own Ms. Holland. (You can relive Lizzie’s immortalized fervor by clicking http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf-ewioMJv8.)

Lizzie, you see, isn’t shy. She’s kind of like Princess Fred in Once Upon a Mattress. She’s a whooper from way back. In fact, this year at the Trinity High School graduation, they gave a special award for passion for the theatre, and Lizzie won hands down. (That’s Richmond theatre pro Brian Phillips, Lizzie’s teacher, in the photo to the left, giving Lizzie a hug during the Trinity awards ceremony.)

This year, not only did Lizzie attend the Tony Awards, she was one of the approximately 200 theatre aficionados signed on as “seat fillers.” You can read the article from the New York Daily News to learn more about this prestigious appointment: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/arts/2009/06/07/2009-06-07_butting_in_on_tonys_cheeky_seatfillers_get_to_rub_elbows_with_celebs.html

And what seats did Lizzie wind up filling? One in the second row, one in the fourth, and one in the sixth. That’s our Lizzie.

I know little more than what I’ve been able to read on her facebook. When she returns home, I’ll try to persuade Lizzie to write another blog post about her '09 Tony experience. Till then, I’ve scattered a few photos throughout this post: Lizzie in front of the Tony poster, Lizzie holding a Tony (don’t ask cause I don’t know), and James Gandolfini trying the avoid the passionate lady with the camera.

See you at the theatre!

--Bruce Miller

A Richmond High School Theatre Lover Takes Her First Trip to the Tonys

Posted by Lizzie Holland
As most of you know, the 62nd Annual Antoinette Perry Awards were held on June 15th at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. This year I was fortunate enough to attend the awards with my family, and it was so much fun! I am one of Barksdale’s high school theatre enthusiasts (that's me in the picture to the right), and Bruce asked me to write about the experience. So here goes.

(Note: Bruce nabbed all the photos from my Facebook and wrote all the bizarre captions himself, since I left for camp yesterday. All of the photos were taken at stage doors after I went to see the shows. None were taken at the actual Tony Awards. They don't allow you to bring a camera into the awards ceremony. Go figure.)

My dad and I have always joked about going to the Tonys and this year he was actually serious enough to buy tickets the day the nominations came out. (That's not my dad in the photo to the left. That's Mark Rylance, winner of the 2008 Best Actor Tony for Boeing-Boeing.)

I was so excited, but I really didn’t know what to expect. I’ve been watching the Tony Awards on TV ever since I can remember, now I was going to be a part of the whole experience. Here’s what it’s like to attend the Tonys as a non-famous person.

First we bought our tickets, which go on sale each year the day the nominations come out, which this year was May 13th. We got our seats online, but you also can get your seats by calling the Radio City box office. It was easy. We wound up in the front row on the top balcony, which was still close enough to get a good look at all the nominees (including Martha Plimpton, pictured to the right, Best Featured Actress nominee for Top Girls.)

I got more and more excited as we waited for the day when it was finally time to fly up to New York. We arrived at Radio City Music Hall at 6:30 pm. If you are a ticket holder, you must be in your seat by 7:00. The down side to having a ticket is that you have to enter the theatre on the opposite side of the building from the red carpet, so you can’t see any of the celebrities before the show. (After the show, however, you might be lucky enough to spend some time with Raul Esparza, Best Featured Actor nominee for The Homecoming.)

The whole theatre is two-thirds full by 7:30, when the pre-show starts. The pre-show is when the “not glitzy enough for prime time” awards are given out, such as Best Book, Best Lighting, Best Sound, and Best Costumes. True theatre fans know that these awards are just as important as Best Actor or Actress, but they explain that there’s no possible way to fit all of the awards and performances into the three-hour TV time slot. (That's Laurie Metcalf in the picture above and to the right, Best Featured Actress nominee for November.)

Personally, I thought the pre-show was the best part. Michael Cerveris and Julie White hosted the pre-show and they were hysterical. (That's Daniel Evans in the photo to the left, nominated for Best Actor in a Musical for Sunday in the Park with George.)

At 8:00 pm, the doors closed and the televised Tony Awards began. This year, the prime time show kicked off with the opening number from The Lion King. It was fantastic (and that means a lot coming from a girl who doesn’t prefer Disney musicals). Then Whoopi Goldberg took the stage and began hosting the awards!

If you have the right Broadway connections (like Brian d'Arcy James, pictured to the right, 2002 Best Featured Actor nominee for Sweet Smell of Success), I'm told, you don’t need to buy tickets to be inside Radio City on the big night. You can sign up to be a “seat filler,” which is free! The producers never want the TV audience to see an empty seat in the theatre, and Radio City is HUGE. Every time someone gets up to accept an award or go to the bathroom, a “seat filler” rushes in and temporarily fills the vacated seat. This is an awesome opportunity because you may get to sit next to some hotshot actor, director, etc., or perhaps their significant other.

However, from the top balcony, the job of "seat filler" looked very tiring. You get tired just watching the next-in-line “seat filler” jog down the aisle the second someone who was seated gets up (someone like Eve Best, Best Featured Actress nominee for The Homecoming, pictured to the left), and then have to leave the seat minutes later when the seat holder returns and taps them on the shoulder. At that point, the “seat filler” runs back up the aisle and gets in line all over again.

Ironically, once the TV cameras turn on, everything starts happening so fast … the cameras roving and the “seat fillers” running and the scenery shifting … the awards themselves became a blur. After it was all over, I couldn’t even remember who won what. On TV, it’s definitely about the awards and speeches. But in person, it’s all about watching the crew run around at the last second to make the magic happen. (Speaking of "magic," that's Jonathan Groff above and to the right, Best Actor nominee last year for Spring Awakening.)

Something that a lot of people keep asking me is, “What happened during commercials?” The answer is clips--lots and lots of clips! We saw many old Broadway commercials for past mega-hits, featuring the original casts of Rent, Gypsy, and Equus. My favorite clip was one about the “Broadway League.” This is a baseball league for the members of Broadway shows. The clip was a little dated because it had interviews with Mathew Broderick when he was still in The Producers.

When there were no clips being shown, everyone seemed to realize it was an impromptu “stretch break.” Lots of people, including stars (like Norbert Leo Butz, pictured above and to the left, 2005 Tony-winner as Best Actor in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels), rose from their seats and greeted their colleagues while also stretching their legs. We in the galleries gazed down upon them.

It was very cool being able to see everything that went on off camera. Since there were three connected stages, something was always happening on one or both of the side stages while the crew was taping a performance on the main stage. (That's Mary McCormack, above and to the right, Best Featured Actress nominee for Boeing-Boeing, and star of the new hit TV series In Plain Sight -- is she having a good year or what?!)

All in all, the Tony Awards were great fun—a once in a lifetime experience. (And who better to experience it with than Christine Baranski, pictured to the left, two-time Tony winner for Best Featured Actress in The Real Thing - 1984, and Rumors - 1989, and currently hysterical in Boeing-Boeing.)

It was terrific being able to see everything that went on that was not televised. But beyond all the hubbub with cameras etc, there was not that much extra to see. I do recommend going though, especially if you can get cheap(er) tickets and don’t mind sitting in the nosebleed section. Next time I go, I plan, of course, on being nominated!

Now will someone please cue Kelli O’Hara singing Cock Eyed Optimist.

--Lizzie Holland

Word of the Week - BROMIDIC

Posted by Hannah Miller
This week’s theatre artist is the late and luminous Broadway orchestrator ROBERT RUSSELL BENNETT, who won a posthumous Tony Award last Sunday, which was the 114th anniversary of his birth. Bennett was born on June 15, 1894, and survived a sickly childhood to live to the ripe old age of 87. His posthumous Tony Award recognized his incomparable contributions to many of the greatest musicals of the 20th Century, including the current Tony-winner for Best Revival, South Pacific.

His Word of the Week is from the lyric of one of the South Pacific songs he so memorably arranged. The song is A Wonderful Guy, and the Word of the Week is BROMIDIC.

If he knew prior to his birth that he wanted to be an orchestrator, then Bennett picked the right parents. His dad was a violinist with the Kansas City Symphony, and also an accomplished trumpeter. His mom was a piano teacher. As a toddler, Bennett contracted polio. His parents filled his hours with music. At the age of 3, he surprised everyone by picking out on the piano the tune to a Beethoven sonata that his mother had recently played. At the age of 4, Bennett and his family moved to a farm south of Kansas City because the doctor suggested that the rural environment would benefit his recovery.

While living on the farm, his father started a band and engaged his son as a sub whenever one of the other musicians was unable to play. Through these gigs and rigorous home schooling, Bennett learned to play pretty much any instrument he could get his hands on. When he was 15, the family moved back to Kansas City where Bennett found work as second violinist with the Symphony. He also played piano for silent movies, and various instruments with the pit orchestras of live theatres. When he turned 22, he collected all his savings and moved to New York with a total of $200 in his pocket.

Once in Manhattan, Bennett earned his keep playing in dance halls and restaurants. He also landed a job as a copyist with the music publishing house of G. Schirmer. At the start of WWI, he volunteered for the Army. Due to a crippled foot (the last vestiges of his childhood polio), he was not sent overseas. He was assigned to Camp Funston, Kansas, and named director of the 70th Infantry Band. When the war ended, Bennett returned to New York.

In 1919, he was hired to provide music lessons at one of NYC’s prestigious finishing schools. He applied for work in Tin Pan Alley, the center of New York’s world-famous music publishing business. He was given the chance to audition at T. B. Harms, the firm that sat at the top of the Tin Pan Alley heap. The orchestration he created during his “audition” was for Cole Porter’s An Old Fashioned Garden. It wound up becoming the biggest pop music hit of 1919.

As might be expected, Bennett won the job of orchestrator at T. B. Harms. That same year, he married Louise Merrill, the daughter of the prominent society woman who was the headmistress of the finishing school where he worked. Bennett and his wife had one daughter, Jean, born in 1920.

Early in his career at T. B. Harms, Bennett was asked to orchestrate not just single songs, but entire musical theatre scores. Over the subsequent 45 years, he would work with almost every major Broadway composer of his lifetime, contributing to over 300 shows.

His credits included orchestrations for Rose Marie (Rudolph Friml – composer, 1924), No No Nanette (Vincent Youmans, 1925), Show Boat (Jerome Kern, 1927), Of Thee I Sing and Porgy and Bess (George Gershwin, 1931 and 1935), Anything Goes (Cole Porter, 1934), Annie Get Your Gun (Irving Berlin, 1936), Lady in the Dark (Kurt Weill, 1941), Oklahoma and Carousel (Richard Rodgers, 1943 and 1945), Finian’s Rainbow (Burton Lane, 1947), Kiss Me Kate (Cole Porter, 1948), South Pacific and The King and I (Richard Rodgers, 1949 and 1951), My Fair Lady (Fritz Loewe, 1956), Bells are Ringing (Jule Styne, 1956), Flower Drum Song and The Sound of Music (Richard Rodgers, 1958 and 1959), Camelot (Fritz Loewe, 1960), and On a Clear Day … (Burton Lane, 1965).

About Bennett, Richard Rodgers wrote, “I give him [the credit] without undue modesty, for making my music sound better than it was.”

In South Pacific, Bennett orchestrated Richard Rodgers’ beautiful score, capturing the exotic harmonies of the Pacific islands and the corn-fed American exuberance of the young men and women stationed there with the U. S. Navy during World War II. The brilliant lyrics were by Oscar Hammerstein II.

In A Wonderful Guy, Ensign Nellie Forbush, a Navy nurse, sings about her unabashed love for the expatriate French planter Emile de Becque. The photo to the right shows Kelli O'Hara singing A Wonderful Guy in the current Broadway revival.

"I'm as trite and as gay as a daisy in May,
A cliché coming true!
I'm BROMIDIC and bright as a moon-happy night,
Pouring light on the dew!"

BROMIDIC seems to have firmly entered the language by 1913, at least that’s when the word BROMIDE first appeared in Webster dictionaries. In the war era of South Pacific, BROMIDE was readily recognized to have three related but different definitions:
1. any of the salts of hydrobromic acid, used as a sedative; or
2. a person who is conventional and commonplace in his habits of thought and conversation; or
3. a conventional or trite saying, a boring cliché.

The root syllable brom means dullness of mind. Based on the above three definitions, BROMIDIC would mean:
1. like a medicine that causes dullness of mind, or
2. like a person who has a certain dullness of mind, or
3. like a saying that prompts dullness of mind in the listener.

In his 1906 book, Are You a BROMIDE?, the author, art critic and social commentator Gelett Burgess wrote, “The BROMIDE conforms to everything sanctioned by the majority, and may be depended upon to be trite, banal, and arbitrary.”

Nellie Forbush, when she refuses to marry Emile de Becque because he is older and “foreign,” certainly fits Burgess’s definition of BROMIDIC.

Robert Russell Bennett, never BROMIDIC in the least, lived a full life, continuing to orchestrate and compose until his death. He was commissioned to write several symphonic pieces for our nation’s bicentennial in 1976. He died of cancer in 1981. The great choral director Robert Shaw wrote, “And it is just as certainly because of his kindness, honesty, humor, and wisdom that our hearts are warmed to see Robert Russell Bennett without peer in his field.”

--Posted by Hannah Miller

The Solomon Islands

Posted by Bruce Miller
So did you see Jerold Solomon on the Tony Awards last Sunday? He was there, singing and dancing his heart out as one of the Navy SeaBees in South Pacific, which won a whopping seven Tony Awards including Best Revival. Jerold has been in South Pacific since it began previews on March 1 and opened to rave reviews on April 3. South Pacific is playing on Broadway at Lincoln Center. Jerold plays the role of Seaman James Hayes.

In the last few years, Barksdale and Theatre IV were privileged to feature Jerold’s talents in several casts. At Barksdale he appeared in Gross Indecency and starred in Olympus on My Mind (pictured below and to the right with Richard Travis). With Theatre IV, he starred in King Island Christmas and You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown (pictured above and to the left with his cousin-in-law Susan Sanford).

Best of all, God bless him, Jerold lists all of his Richmond credits in his Broadway bio.

Since moving to NYC, Jerold’s credits have included the national tours of Big River, Ragtime and Annie. South Pacific is his Broadway debut.

Jerold’s a good man and a very talented actor, singer and dancer. If you’re planning a trip to NYC this summer or next fall, why not order your tickets for South Pacific NOW. The show is a mega-hit, selling out every performance. And if you go, after curtain call, hurry down to the stage door and give Jerold Richmond’s fondest regards.

--Bruce Miller

Where Are They Now - Steve Richardson

Posted by Bruce Miller

Steve Richardson is perhaps the only Barksdale/Theatre IV alum to step on stage to collect a Tony Award. I can think of at least three other Tony nominees (Pat Carroll, Emily Skinner and Elisabeth Welsh), but at 6:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning, he's the only one I can recall actually joining the "winners" circle. Please help me remember if I'm forgetting someone.

Steve's Tony encounter occurred when Theatre de la Jeune Lune of Minneapolis won the coveted 2005 Outstanding Regional Theatre Tony. Steve was Producing Director of Jeune Lune at the time, and a lot of his friends in Richmond watched the Tony broadcast closely that year to see Steve standing on the stage of Radio City Music Hall with his artistic coworkers to accept the award. The Regional Theatre Tony, regrettably, is one of the ones awarded before the TV broadcast begins, and so you see it only in those recaps that they flash across the screen.

But, if you didn't blink, there Steve was standing alongside Jeune Lune's designated speaker, winning a Tony for the theatre he had managed for the previous ten years. All of us in Richmond couldn't have been more proud. Jeune Lune is an artistically innovative, highly respected theatre that has earned international acclaim. Their current production of The Deception is pictured to the left.

Steve graduated with a BA in Philosophy from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota in 1986, and came to Richmond after graduation to intern for a year at TheatreVirginia. For three years beginning in '87, Steve worked as Marketing Associate and then Marketing Director at Theatre IV. In 1990, he won his dream job when he was hired as Marketing Director of Theatre de la Jeune Lune, taking him back home to the frozen north. In 1995, he was promoted to the top management position of Producing Director.

This week, Steve left Jeune Lune after 17 years to accept his new position as Director of the Arts at his alma mater. He is charged with developing the arts at Carleton, promoting arts outreach to local schools, the Northfield arts community, and the Twin Cities area arts community and beyond. He is responsible for management of the new interdisciplinary arts center, coordinating major art events, and performance and exhibition series, along with managing curricular and co-curricular arts activities. He’s also in charge of arts publicity and work with Carleton’s career center to connect students with internship opportunities.

As if that weren't enough, Steve will serve as the liaison between the College’s faculty and building design team for the new arts center that will be located in the former Northfield Middle School. He will work with faculty and students to develop innovative collaborations in the arts, seeking ways to integrate the arts across the College’s curriculum.

Throughout his distinguished career, Steve has always included his Theatre IV affiliation in his resume--something we've greatly appreciated. The one aspect of his work here that he never claims is his brief foray into acting. During our Summer Lights Festival in the late 80s, Steve played the dashing young man opposite Jan Guarino and Tye Heckman in George Bernard Shaw's How He Lied to Her Husband.

We wish Steve the greatest success in his new position, and continue to be proud of his outstanding accomplishments.

--Bruce Miller

Wepplo, Carter Todd and Wagoner Succeed as Fools

Posted by Bruce Miller

Great news from our friends in Idaho! Richmond actress Aly Wepplo (the shy daughter in Smoke on the Mountain at Hanover Tavern and Older Patrick's wife at the end of Mame) was such a hit in this summer's Spitfire Grill in Hailey that she's been invited back for Company of Fools' Fall Season opener, Doubt by John Patrick Shanley. She'll be playing Sister James. The show runs in Idaho Oct 17 through Nov 3.

Barksdale will be staging Doubt (winner of the 2005 Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize) this season as well on our Signature Season at Willow Lawn, February 15 - March 16, starring Irene Ziegler under Keri Wormald's direction.

Adding icing to the Idaho cake, the four person cast of Doubt at Company of Fools will also feature another of Richmond's talented alumnae, Michelle Carter Todd (Fairy Godmother in Theatre IV's Cinderella) as Mrs. Muller. Michelle and her husband Cliff have been living in L A for the past several years, and doing quite well. It's been a pleasure to keep up with them as their careers have continued to flourish.

The only actor already cast in the Barksdale production of Doubt is Irene Ziegler.

A final congratulation goes out to Debra Wagoner (Glenda in Theatre IV's most recent Wizard of Oz). After her many roles at Company of Fools, she was named a Company Artist this summer in Idaho, an honor she shares with world-famous Demi Moore and Bruce Willis, and Richmond-famous Dennis Rexroad, Laine Satterfield, Robert Throckmorton, and Joel Vilinsky.

You can learn more about the wonderful work at Company of Fools by visiting http://www.companyoffools.org/ . As always, we're so happy for their continuing success.

--Bruce Miller

Thinking Inside the Box: What Goes on Behind That Little Barred Window

This is a wonderful article from playbill.com that goes in depth into what it entails being a box office professional. It was brought to my attention by Billy Christopher Maupin, one of our distinguished box office personel.

Click here to read "Thinking Inside the Box: What Goes on Behind That Little Barred Window"

For more information on theatre beyond our fair River City take a peek at these websites:
Playbill
Broadway.com
Broadway World
Theatre Mania
IBDB
Tony Awards

***American Theatre Wing's Tony Awards June 10

-Russell Rowland