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COMMENTARY With Alison Fraser, Tom Hewitt Premieres In NYC 2/1

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:57:54 -0500

COMMENTARY, the latest film by playwright/independent filmmaker Aaron Mark, which features an ensemble of Broadway veterans, will officially premiere on Wednesday, February 1st at 7:15 PM at Anthology Film Archives (32 Second Ave. at 2nd St.) as part of NewFilmmakers New York. Tickets are $6 at the door.
The 86 minute comedy stars Tony nominee Alison Fraser (March of the Falsettos, The Divine Sister), Tony nominee Tom Hewitt (Jesus Christ Superstar, The Rocky Horror Show), Tony nominee Liz Larsen (A New Brain, Starmites), Chip Zien (Into the Woods, The People in the Picture), Leslie Kritzer (Sondheim on Sondheim, A Catered Affair), Gerry McIntyre (Once On This Island, Enter Laughing), Katie Klaus (Bonnie and Clyde, A Catered Affair), Peter Vack (MTV’s I Just Want My Pants Back), and Zachary Isaacson (Random Unrelated Projects).
COMMENTARY documents nine people as they record a DVD commentary for a film-within-the-film that is never seen, called Waste. In Rashomon fashion, the film follows four groups as they record their commentaries: The writer/director of Waste (Isaacson) and the film’s Oscar-winning star (Fraser), three supporting actors from Waste (Kritzer, McIntyre, and Vack), the producer (Hewitt) and his assistant (Klaus), and the parents of the recently deceased starlet of Waste (Zien and Larsen).
Written, directed, and produced by Aaron Mark, with Michael Lavine and Diana Glazer as executive producers, the film features Jason Robert Brown’s rarely heard song “The Blues Have Got the Best of Me”, performed by Kristine Zbornik (A Catered Affair, Forbidden Broadway). A trailer can be found at aaronmark.net and newfilmmakers.com.
Aaron Mark is the writer/director of three independent feature films, Random Unrelated Projects (Best Experimental Feature, New York International Film Festival), Zbornik Developing (starring Kristine Zbornik), and most recently, Commentary. As a writer, he has had readings of his plays, Failed Suicide Attempts, Fucking Wagner, Plays With Landline Phones, Smoke, Dead Agenting, Cirque du Mental, and Subject, the first of which was presented by The Blank Theatre in Hollywood as part of their Living Room Series. He directed David Colbert in Hedwig and the Angry Inch at New World Stages for BC/EFA twice, Sarah Mucho in Space Oddity/Ziggy Stardust, and worked as an assistant on the national tour of Brooklyn the Musical and Leslie Kritzer is Patti LuPone at Les Mouches at Joe's Pub.
COMMENTARY 86 minutes Wednesday, February 1st at 7:15 PM NewFilmmakers New York (newfilmmakers.com) Anthology Film Archives (32 Second Ave. at 2nd St.) Tickets $6 at the door

New Film "Commentary," Featuring Alison Fraser, Tom Hewitt, Chip Zien, Leslie Kritzer, Will Debut Feb. 1

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:51:48 -0500

By Kenneth Jones
Mamie Gummer, Hamish Linklater and two-time Tony Award nominee Alison Fraser star in David Ives' new comedy The School for Lies, inspired by
The 86-minute comedy stars Tony nominee Alison Fraser (March of the Falsettos, The Divine Sister), Tony nominee Tom Hewitt (Jesus Christ Superstar, The Rocky Horror Show), Tony nominee Liz Larsen (A New Brain, Starmites), Chip Zien (Into the Woods, The People in the Picture), Leslie Kritzer (Sondheim on Sondheim, A Catered Affair), Gerry McIntyre (Once On This Island, Enter Laughing), Katie Klaus (Bonnie and Clyde, A Catered Affair), Peter Vack (MTV’s "I Just Want My Pants Back") and Zachary Isaacson (Random Unrelated Projects).
"Commentary," according to production notes, "documents nine people as they record a DVD commentary for a film-within-the-film that is never seen, called 'Waste.' In Rashomon fashion, the film follows four groups as they record their commentaries: The writer/director of 'Waste' (Isaacson) and the film’s Oscar-winning star (Fraser), three supporting actors from Waste (Kritzer, McIntyre, and Vack), the producer (Hewitt) and his assistant (Klaus), and the parents of the recently deceased starlet of 'Waste' (Zien and Larsen)."
Written, directed, and produced by Mark, with Michael Lavine and Diana Glazer as executive producers, the film features Jason Robert Brown’s “The Blues Have Got the Best of Me," performed by Kristine Zbornik. A trailer can be found at aaronmark.net and newfilmmakers.com.

Alison Fraser, Declan Bennett & More Featured in Season 2 of WIENER & WIENER Web Show

Thu, 3 Nov 2011 13:14:34 -0400

IMAGILAND PRODUCTIONS has announced the Season 2 Finale of the original web series WIENER & WIENER premiering November 7th, 2011 on www.wienerandwiener.com.
Written and directed by Dante Russo, WIENER & WIENER follows the story of a chronically underachieving hot dog named Oscar and his endlessly awkward, human roommate Peter Wiener as together they search for love and purpose in New York City.
WIENER & WIENER features series regulars Liz Fye ("Kings", "One Life to Live"), Sabrina Jacob, Marjorie LeWit, Patrick O'Neill (On A Clear Day You Can See Forever), Kelly Ross, Dante Russo (Newsies Readings, High School Musical), and Katherine Tokarz (Leap of Faith, Rock of Ages).
In addition to TONY Nominees Alison Fraser (The Secret Garden, Romance/Romance) and Liz Larsen (The Most Happy Fella), Season 2 featured a slew of New York talent including Bill Bateman (Gypsy with Patti LuPone, The Fantasticks), Declan Bennett (American Idiot), Patrick Boll (Mamma Mia), Christian Coulson ("Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone"), Edward Davis (2010 Glammy Nominee), Brian Char Les Johnson (American Idiot), Olivia Oguma (Mamma Mia), Chase Peacock (American Idiot), Tracey Petrillo (Candy Slice Comedy), Colt Prattes (How to Succeed..., West Side Story), Stacey Sund (Radio City Rockettes), Carrie Walsh, Jason Weston (Mamma Mia), and Amy Wren among others.
The first season of WIENER & WIENER was an official selection at The NYC Downtown Film Festival and 2010 Out of the Box Festival at New World Stages. The single "Someone Help Me", written and performed by Chase Peacock, is currently available on iTunes and Amazon.com.
Dante Russo (Writer & Director) is the creative force behind IMAGILAND PRODUCTIONS, a digital media Production Company based in New York and Los Angeles. Dante is currently a proud member of Actors' Equity Association and Writers Guild of America.
Episodes, music, merchandise and more available at www.wienerandwiener.com

BWW Interviews: Alison Fraser, Belle of Off-Broadway

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 12:14:11 -0400

Alison Fraser was one of musical theater's breakout stars of the 1980s, following up parts in William Finn's off-Broadway hits In Trousers and March of the Falsettos with a Tony-nominated starring role on Broadway in Romance/Romance, and following that with a Tony nomination for her performance in The Secret Garden.
Fifteen years would pass, however, between The Secret Garden and Fraser's next Broadway musical, the 2008 revival of Gypsy, directed by Arthur Laurents and starring Patti LuPone. Rather than becoming a Broadway fixture, Fraser for the past two decades has been performing mostly off-Broadway and regionally, in both musicals and straight plays. They include Dedication, or The Stuff of Dreams at Primary Stages in New York; Tom Stoppard's Rough Crossing, costarring Tony Randall and Jack Klugman, at Florida's Coconut Grove Playhouse; Lady in the Dark, with Andrea Marcovicci, in Philadelphia; and the 2009 world premiere of Arthur Laurents' Come Back, Come Back, Wherever You Are at New Jersey's George Street Playhouse, where Fraser has appeared frequently.
Currently, Fraser is acting in A Charity Case, a new play by Australian writer Wendy Beckett that's in previews off-Broadway at the Clurman on West 42nd St. (it opens Wednesday). Fraser moved over just one block from her last stage, the Westside Theatre on 43rd St., where she was in the cast of Love, Loss, and What I Wore during the summer. Next up, she'll be in the Theatre for a New Audience production of The Broken Heart, a 17th-century verse play by John Ford ('Tis Pity She's a Whore), in February. British director Selina Cartmell, who's worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Abbey Theatre and is making her American debut with Broken Heart, offered Fraser a part after seeing her last spring in The School for Lies, another period piece, at Classic Stage Company.
In addition to theater, Fraser lends her talents to videogames (doing both motion capture and voice work) and audiobooks. She read The Night Strangers, a novel by Chris Bohjalian that's just out on CD, and recently completed her first lead role in a movie, an indie named Commentary. Fraser is also the proud mother of Nat, a 21-year-old senior at Chapman University in southern California. She raised her son on her own after the death of her husband, composer/performer Rusty Magee, in 2003.
BWW caught up with Fraser over breakfast in a midtown diner while A Charity Case was in rehearsals. We talked about single motherhood on and off stage, the link between her current and past roles, and some of her famous theater friends, among other subjects.
A Charity Case is described as the story of an "adoption triangle." What side of the triangle are you? I play Faith, the adoptive mother of a girl named Deidre—whom I call Dee, Deedee or Deidre, depending on how mad I am at her. I am the adoptive mother of this troubled 17-year-old girl, and I am also a single mom. This girl is searching for her identity and she definitely feels that something is missing in her life because she has not had this relationship with her birth mother, who was a troubled teen and is now a troubled adult.
Do you have any close connection to adoption in your real life? Not really adoption, but there's a movie that just came out called Oranges and Sunshine. It's about this hidden horror in the British Empire, that a lot of children were sent out of the country into servitude. They were called "home children" and sent to Canada, South Africa, a lot to Australia. I found out recently, because my niece has been doing a lot of genealogical research, that my father's mother was a home child up in Canada. My grandmother was a very taciturn woman, with a very grim visage, and we always wondered what went on. She never talked about her upbringing. It's not the same as adoption, but it's people being wrenched from their natural environment, and I'm sure the natural environment she came out of was heinous. So it was displacement, and I think this show is about trying to mend that displacement.
What else can you tell us about the play? It takes place in 1961, '62, which was a very male-oriented society. This is a woman that tries to please men—she has a lot of boyfriends. The reason she got into this adoptive situation was because the man she was married to insisted on having a child, and after they had the child, boom! he's gone. So all of a sudden this good-time gal who, for her time, is quite independent—she's a designer, she does make her own living—is saddled with a child that it was not her sole decision to bring into her household. And now her household has become a difficult one, because she's a single mother with a troubled child, and her livelihood is being threatened by chain stores, mass-produced clothing.
Is it true your character in A Charity Case reminds you of your Gypsy character? I liken her so much to Tessie Tura. Everybody thinks, "Tessie Tura—oh, she's the funny stripper." But Arthur Laurents let me find the really deep emotional core of this woman, who I did not see as funny at all. I found her very much a woman in tragic circumstances: She is aging in a business that does not look kindly on aging women; she is a woman in the Great Depression who has no schooling, and no training to do anything else. What she wound up doing in real life—because Tessie Tura was indeed a real person—was make dresses. She did make dresses for the real Gypsy Rose Lee. If you read Gypsy Rose Lee's biography, she said, "I regard Tessie Tura as more of a sister to me than my own sister." Tessie went on the road with Gypsy Rose Lee after she stopped being a burlesque performer and was basically her dresser. And here I am [in A Charity Case] playing a woman who is facing her own fading sexuality and trying to make her way in the world by doing exactly the same thing: She's making dresses. So there is an odd corollary there. I never thought of Tessie as that funny old broad. I always thought of her as a deeply troubled emotional character. We got the laughs, but I can't just go for laughs. I have to find what's underneath it.
Do you draw on your own experience as a single mother, albeit under much different circumstances, in your portrayal of Faith?  The dynamic in my household when Nat was entering adolescence was turbulent because my husband had been diagnosed with cancer. So from age 9 to 12, my son was living in a house with sickness, grief, loss. The troubles Nat had to live with were very different from the troubles that are more inwardly formed by the character of Deedee. But I can bring my experience dealing with a child who needs a certain kind of attention. I would like to think I am more patient than my character is. But I had an incredible support system, and Faith is really all alone.
This is the fourth show you've done in New York in 2011. I've had a very, very busy year. The greatest thrill in my career has always been originating roles, and this is my third original play this year: The first was Charles Busch's The Divine Sister—a crack comic team—and then David Ives' brilliant adaptation of The Misanthrope called School for Lies. That's really one of the finest shows I've ever done, a real thrill to originate that role under the inspired direction of Walter Bobbie. Charity Case has been done in Australia, but Wendy is considering this a brand-new play because there's been so many changes.
Would you say you've been the heavy in all those plays? I don't think Faith is the villain in this piece at all. I think that she could be perceived as such, because she can be very harsh. But I'm hoping I can make people understand her and the dire circumstances she is in socially and emotionally. She's trying to make it on her own, she's rapidly aging, she has a difficult kid. Something that's very important when you're playing a villain is you can't think of yourself as a villain. Villains think of themselves as heroes. All of the great villains have a passion, have a need, have an urge to do something great; it just so happens that their idea of greatness is not what society thinks of as great. So that's how I try to approach my villains. Arsinoe in School for Lies—she thinks of herself as the moral arbiter of her society, she doesn't think she's the villain. My Sister Maria Walburga in Divine Sister...of course, in the eyes of the world, she's crazy. She's a religious fanatic. Does she think she's a villain? She does not. If we're going to label her as such, in the pantheon of villains [I've played], that would have to be top drawer.  One of my very, very favorite shows in the world was Lizzie Borden. I did that out in New Jersey, at the American Stage Company—which doesn't exist anymore. I played Lizzie Borden, and a lot of people would think Lizzie is a villain. It's pretty much assumed that she did indeed hack her parents to death. But what were the extenuating circumstances? Was there child abuse? There's nothing to back that up in the books, but it could have happened. Nobody talked about it. How do we know it didn't? Why else would she do it? She was also a woman in corsets—not only was her body corseted, her entire emotional being was corseted by the constraints at the time of what the feminine should be. And who knows, maybe she was a little crazy.
Last week you performed in Abingdon Theatre Company's benefit gala with The Book of Mormon star Andrew Rannells. How did that come about? I had met Andrew socially through Zuzanna Szadkowski, his dear friend—who I had done Love, Loss, and What I Wore with—and I was utterly charmed by him. Then I went to see Book of Mormon and fell madly in love with him on stage. That was just a revivifying piece of theater to me...what musicals are supposed to be. They're supposed to be entertaining and smart and deep. When I had met Andrew, he knew me from the early Finn stuff I had done—March of the Falsettos and In Trousers. He told me he warmed up to me sometimes, listening on his iPod. This brilliant performer warms up to me! We were both asked to do this benefit [honoring] Charles Busch and Julie Halston that Abingdon Theatre was throwing; they asked us to sing together. It turns out that a lot of our musical sensibilities gel. When we were trying to figure out what to sing, I sent him a few things and he said, "I love this Elvis Costello song 'Everyday I Write the Book.'" It all comes full-circle, because I love Elvis Costello—whose most famous song is "Alison." It's ["Everyday I Write the Book"] on my second album, called Men in My Life, and Andrew's now a man in my life, because he's my new friend. About the full-circle thing...about a year ago I was supposed to do a cabaret with Michael Rupert, but that show never happened because Michael had to pull out to do another show. At that time I was working with Brian Lowdermilk, who wrote a great arrangement for the Elvis Costello song. With Andrew I am singing the Brian Lowdermilk arrangement, under the musical direction of Chris McGovern—who had done my arrangement on my album of the song!
While we're sitting here talking, I'm remembering how you were labeled "a young Angela Lansbury" when you were in Romance/Romance—because you still resemble her. I think she's a spectacularly attractive woman, so whenever anybody says to me, "You look like Angela Lansbury," I'm like, "Oh, my God, I wish!" I regard it as a huge compliment. I can only hope that I have a quarter—an eighth—of the career that Angela Lansbury's had. What I love about Angela Lansbury is she does keep reinventing herself. I do so admire that she just dove into musicals after the first part of her career, and then she just dove into television and became the biggest star on TV. And then she becomes the biggest thing in animation with Beauty and the Beast! I remember the scathing review I got from John Simon, who, funnily enough, is now my Facebook friend. He requested me to be friends on Facebook...which is a funny coda to that horrible review he gave me, in which he called me some sort of horrible combination of Angela Lansbury and Bernadette Peters, without any of the good qualities of either of them.
What do you remember most when you look back on Romance/Romance? Heavenly, heavenly. Again, it's all about originating material. You're given this spectacular gift of a smart, funny, passionate, emotional, deep love story—a double love story—and you have a really smart guy directing it, Barry Harman, who happens to be the same guy who wrote it. And you're given this lush score by Keith Hermann. It's a gift, and you have to treat that gift with tender loving care. Every time I am handed an original script, it's like you're being handed a really, really precious object. You have to give everything you've got to it.
How does the career you've had compare to what you were expecting back then? I have to say I regard myself as the classic overachiever. And I don't mean that I'm ambitious. I think I have achieved so much more than I thought I was ever capable of. There are hundreds of people out there that are incredibly talented that have not had the great good fortune that I've had. I do know I have an unusual voice, and I think that has worked in my favor. I think that's why Billy Finn said, "That's an interesting voice, let's sing with her." Romance/Romance, they cast me very fast. I know that's why I got cast in The Secret Garden, because Lucy [Simon, the composer] thought that my voice was quite right for the sort of folky thing that she was doing initially with The Secret Garden. I know that she saw something in the individuality of my voice. I don't sound like a lot of people. That's going to work not in my favor a lot—I'll go in for an audition, and it's like, "Yeah, buh-bye." But this is what I tell my students: Individuality has got to be embraced. It's all well and good to have your belted F's or the tap chops—which I don't have—but what you have to do is say, "This is me, and that's something that nobody else has." There's nobody that can be you. These past few years of my career, I've had the happiest time in the theater that I've ever had. The cluster of work that has come to me is very exciting. At a time when a lot of actresses are saying "I'm getting too old to get great parts," I'm not for some reason having this problem. I'm riding a really fantastic wave, and I'm also witnessing my great friends like Mary Testa and Julie Halston riding the same kind of wave. There's a great energy going on out there about women in our age group.
With The Secret Garden, Love, Loss, and What I Wore and now A Charity Case, you've done a number of shows with all or nearly all female casts and creative teams. I think that whole female power thing can be very palpable. When you get a lot of strong, smart women in a room together, it can be a really creative and nurturing environment. In this past year, I have also been so lucky to work with Carl Andress and Walter Bobbie, and they are the most evolved type of director, in that they're secure. They're not threatened by powerful women. The first thing I look for in a good director is that he's secure, because if he's not secure enough to accept the fact that an actor has opinions and ideas and brings their own personal sensibility to their character—if you're dealing with a director that's threatened by the fact that an actor might know something—then you're in trouble.
Did you take a break from performing when your husband was ill? No, I was still working. I did a lot of voiceover work, and that was how I made sure my [health] insurance was covered. That's something artists are always struggling with: How do I make my insurance? And because Rusty's sickness was a million-dollar sickness, I had to make sure I had my SAG coverage.
How did you recover from losing him? After he died, I went back to college. I had quit when I was a kid. After he died, I thought, "What is the next phase of my life going to be?" I went to Fordham University and earned my degree in English, with a minor in theater. And then they asked me to start teaching there. So I am teaching a course called Song and Scene, which is bringing a dramatic sensibility to musical numbers. It's something that Arthur taught me a lot about—you know, walking out of the scene, into the song and then back into the scene. It's really the sum total of my career: This is what I've learned, and now I will impart it to you. That has been a big part of my grieving process, 'cause I knew once Nat went to school, I'd have empty nest syndrome. My nest has never felt more full. I did a lot of work out at George Street Playhouse, and thank God for David Saint [George Street's artistic director], for keeping me busy and saying, "Yeah, you can learn these lines. You can do this, Alison." 'Cause I didn't think I would be able to learn lines anymore. I did Lips Together, Teeth Apart, Terrence McNally's great play. This was a daunting part. And it was a great success, and Terrence came to see it, and then he asked me to do Dedication... with Nathan Lane and Marian Seldes. David Saint is a huge theatrical and personal influence in my life, and of course we have Arthur Laurents in common. Arthur came out to see Gunmetal Blues at the George Street Playhouse, and that's how my friendship with Arthur started. Arthur's partner had also been diagnosed with cancer, and he had the same doctor that Rusty had had.
For many years, in concerts and cabarets you performed a song you wrote about being probably the only New York actor who was never on Law & Order. But then you finally were on an episode of Special Victims Unit. I played a terrible, terrible homophobe on that—basically, endangered the loyalty of my fanbase! I did keep singing the song because, I said, SVU didn't count 'cause it wasn't the "mothership." It got to be embarrassing. I had auditioned, like, nine times. It was like, Donna Hanover Giuliani gets to be on and I don't? You know what's hilarious about that song? I sang that song at Birdland, at Jim Caruso's show, and there was a guy there that was putting together a benefit honoring Dick Wolf and Sam Waterston [creator and star of L&O]. So I did this benefit, and I sang it. I do not want to be blamed for the loss of Law & Order for New York City, but that benefit was on a Monday or Tuesday and Law & Order was canceled on that Friday! (Watch Alison perform her Law & Order song here.)
Photos of Alison, from top: at right, with Alysia Reiner (left) and Jill Shackner in A Charity Case; as Faith in A Charity Case, with Jill Shackner (right); as Arsinoe in The School for Lies; with Andrew Rannells at the Abingdon Theatre Company gala on Oct. 25; with Anita Gillette (left) and Aisha de Haas in Love, Loss, and What I Wore. [Charity Case and Rannells photos by Kevin Thomas Garcia; Love, Loss photo by Carol Rosegg]

Photo Coverage: Andrew Rannells, Alison Fraser, et al. at Abingdon Theatre Company's 2011 Gala

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 12:47:59 -0400

Photos by Kevin Thomas Garcia
The fabulous Lypsinka, Tony Award-winner Alan Cumming (CABARET, "The Good Wife"), and Tony nominees Alison Fraser (SECRET GARDEN, ROMANCE/ROMANCE) and Andrew Rannells (BOOK OF MORMON) all made appearances at Abingdon Theatre Company's 19th Annual Benefit Gala yesterday, October 24 at Espace, honoring Charles Busch, Julie Halston and Timothy P. Speiss. Beth Leavel, a Tony winner for THE DROWSY CHAPERONE emceed the gala. Carl Andress, who helmed Busch's THE DIVINE SISTER, THE THIRD STORY, DIE MOMMIE DIE! and SHANGHAI MOON, directed.
The evening honored playwright and actor Charles Busch (THE TALE OF THE ALLERGIST'S WIFE, THE DIVINE SISTER, THE LADY IN QUESTION, VAMPIRE LESBIANS OF SODOM); actress Julie Halston (THE DIVINE SISTER, HAIRSPRAY, GYPSY, THE WOMEN, OLIVE AND THE BITTER HERBS); and businessman Timothy P. Speiss, who currently serves as Abingdon's Chairman of the Board.
Proceeds benefit Abingdon Theatre Company's mission to develop and produce new plays by American Playwrights.
Since 1993, Abingdon Theatre Company has developed and produced 64 new plays by American Playwrights exclusively. Their actors, directors, designers, producers and dramaturgs have collaborated with more than 200 playwrights to develop original plays. Under the guidance of Artistic Director Jan Buttram and Managing Director Samuel Bellinger, the company provides a safe home in which playwrights collaborate with other theatre artists and receive audience feedback through the utilization of a four-step development process: Page 2 Stage, Staged Readings, and Workout Labs, which culminate in Studio and Mainstage Productions. Currently at Abingdon Theatre Company is John Morogiello's new play BLAME IT ON BECKETT, set to open October 16, directed by Jackob G. Hofmann.

Photo Coverage: Judith Ivey, Charles Busch, et al. in SUPER SHAW 2011!

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 13:31:01 -0400

SUPER SHAW 2011, a lively and irreverent evening of George Bernard Shaw, took place yesterday at 7pm at The Players Club (16 Gramercy Park South) in Manhattan.
David Staller produced and directed SUPER SHAW 2011, which presented Charles Busch as Eliza Doolittle, Judith Ivey as Saint Joan, Alison Fraser as Cleopatra, and others in scenes from PYGMALION, CANDIDA, MRS. WARREN'S PROFESSION, CAESAR AND CLEOPATRA, ARMS AND THE MAN, MAJOR BARBARA, THE APPLE CART and more.
The cast included Charles Busch (THE LADY IN QUESTION, VAMPIRE LESBIANS OF SODOM), Judith Ivey (THE LADY WITH ALL THE ANSWERS, THE GLASS MENAGERIE) and Alison Fraser (THE DIVINE SISTER, ROMANCE/ROMANCE), Josh Grisetti (BROADWAY BOUND, ENTER LAUGHING), Daniel Jenkins (BILLY ELLIOT, MARY POPPINS) and Simon Jones (BLITHE SPIRIT). David Staller produces and directs all of the PROJECT SHAW readings. For more information, visit www.PROJECTSHAW.com.

Super Shaw 2011 to Feature Charles Busch, Judith Ivey, Alison Fraser, Josh Grisetti, Simon Jones

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 20:03:11 -0400

By Andrew Gans
Gingold Theatrical Group's Project Shaw will present Super Shaw 2011, which is billed as "a lively and irreverent evening of George Bernard Shaw," Oct. 17 at The Players Club.
The 7 PM event will feature the talents of Charles Busch, Judith Ivey, Alison Fraser, Daniel Jenkins, Josh Grisetti and Simon Jones.
David Staller produces and directs.
For Super Shaw 2011, press notes state, "beloved actors converge on The Players Club to take on some of their favorite roles: characters they've never had a crack at before, or ones they want to play again... Charles Busch as Eliza Doolittle, Judith Ivey as Saint Joan, Alison Fraser as Cleopatra."
The Players Club is located in Manhattan at 16 Gramercy Park South. Tickets, priced $25, are available by calling (212) 352-3101. For more information visit www.projectshaw.com.

Alison Fraser and Jill Shackner Will Be Part of Cast of Off-Broadway's A Charity Case

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 19:40:40 -0400

A Charity Case, a new play about adoption by Australian playwright and director Wendy Beckett, will begin performances Oct. 28, with an official opening Nov. 2, at Off-Broadway's Clurman Theatre.
The new work, also directed by Beckett, is the third in her series of plays. Playbill.com has learned that joining the previously announced Alysia Reiner will be two-time Tony nominee Alison Fraser and Jill Shackner.
A Charity Case, according to press notes, "examines the adoption triangle between a birth mother, the relinquishing mother and a 17-year-old daughter. Our most sacred of relationships is the one we have with our mothers and the journey is blessed, cursed, mysterious and tender. When a child is adopted, a whole layer of complexity is added to that relationship. In A Charity Case, Beckett explores this parallel world."
Other members of the creative team include scenic designer David L. Arsenault, lighting designer Travis McHale and costume designer Theresa Squire. A Charity Case is produced by Peter Walters for Pascal Productions.
Alison Fraser, who played Tessie Tura in Gypsy, received Tony nominations for her performances in Romance/Romance and The Secret Garden, and her other Broadway credits include The Mystery of Edwin Drood and the 1996 revival of Tartuffe. She created the role of Trina in William Finn's In Trousers and March of the Falsettos and reprised that role in the anniversary concert for Playwrights Horizons. Her other Off-Broadway credits include roles in Love, Loss, and What I Wore; The School for Lies; The Divine Sister; Dedication or the Stuff of Dreams; Up Against It; The Green Heart; Beehive; and Swingtime Canteen. Fraser also starred in the national tour of High School Musical as well as in productions of Come Back, Come Back, Wherever You Are; Lizzie Borden; Honk!; Lend Me a Tenor; Gunmetal Blues; and Lips Together, Teeth Apart. Her screen credits include "Law & Order: SVU," "Third Watch," "The Thing About My Folks," "Jack and His Friends" and "In the Blood."
Reiner has been seen Off-Broadway in the New York premiere of Pentecost and has also appeared on stage in An Oak Tree at the Barrow Street Theatre. She is best known for her film work, which includes "Sideways" and television appearances on "The Sopranos," "Law & Order," "30 Rock" and "White Collar."
The Clurman Theatre is located at 410 West 42nd Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues. For tickets call Telecharge at (212) 239-6200 or visit www.Telecharge.com.

Alison Fraser Will Join Michael Urie for Dirty Shorts in Provincetown

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:44:30 -0400

By Adam Hetrick
Tony Award nominee Alison Fraser will step in for JoAnne Worley in Dirty Shorts, a selection of short stories by Tennessee Williams, Sept. 25 in Provincetown, MA.
Dirty Shorts explores "two bawdy stories [Williams] wrote that celebrate sexual fulfillment as political expression." Williams wrote the short pieces in the 1970's. The event begins at 5 PM.
Fraser (The Secret Garden, Gypsy, The Divine Sister) joins previously announced Lortel Award winner Michael Urie (The Temperamentals, Angels in America, "Ugly Betty"). A reason was not provided for Worley's departure from the event.
Fraser will read "'Miss Coynte of Greene,' the tale of a scandalous Mississippi Delta spinster crossing the color line," while Urie is slated to read "'The Killer Chicken and the Closet Queen,' about a staid Wall Street lawyer who meets his match in a teen-aged boy fresh from the Ozarks."
The Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival runs Sept. 22-25. For more information and tickets visit TWPTown.org or call (866) 789-8366.

Alison Fraser Is in Love: The celebrated actress discusses her current gig in Love, Loss, and What I Wore and other projects.

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 15:37:46 -0400

Alison Fraser is one of the theater world's most consistently busy -- and consistently entertaining -- actors. This year alone, audiences have already seen her in two major Off-Broadway hits, The Divine Sister and The School for Lies, and she's currently part of the cast of the long-running Off-Broadway show, Love, Loss, and What I Wore at the Westside Theatre. TheaterMania recently spoke to Fraser about these projects, her dislike of department stores, and her future plans.
THEATERMANIA: Are you enjoying being part of this show? ALISON FRASER: It's really a lot of fun and such a terrific group of performers. Each one of them is magnificent in her own way. Marla Maples is so beautiful and so nice, and it's been a real exercise in self-confidence walking up Broadway with her. I've looked up to Anita Gillette for years. In fact, I once went to Halloween party dressed as her. It was a game-show themed party so I put on a red wig and a 1970s outfit. Aisha de Haas is a fantastic comedienne, and I love Zuzanna Szadkowski. We've all really bonded in a short time. I really have to thank Daryl Roth for asking me to be part of this sisterhood.
TM: It's a change of pace from your last two shows, isn't it? AF: It is. I am thrilled to not play a villain for the first time this year -- and not to wear a corset, wig, leather skintight boots, or my trademark beauty mark. I had to remind myself that I could be nice and normal. And for the first time this year, I'm not screaming on stage; the other two shows were quite difficult on my voice. It's almost like being on vacation while on stage, which to me is the best of both worlds.
TM: How is being in the show most different from being an audience member of Love, Loss? AF: I've seen the show four times. And the first time when I saw it, I noticed it was a very female audience. But up on stage, I am noticing there are a lot of men in our audience -- and they seem to be enjoying it. I bet it's because of Marla.
TM: Let's talk about your relationship to clothing. Can you define it for me? AF: I try really hard to dress the French way, which is not to have a lot of clothes, but to have clothes I like to wear over and over. I like things that look expensive and tailored, and I like rich colors. But I only buy cheap clothes for summer.
TM: Do you go out and shop a lot? AF: I hate going shopping in department stores. Sometimes, I'll go to this sample sale place on Madison and 27th, or I'll do shopping on the Internet. My rule is if it doesn't fit, I will go to the tailor or send it back. I just hate being in dressing rooms; they're anathema to me. In fact, the hardest part of the show was that I had to set foot in Bloomingdale's. It's a nice store, but it was my first time there in over 20 years. I went with our costume coordinator, and I chose the very first outfit she picked out for me.
TM: I was a bit surprised School for Lies didn't have a longer life. Were you? AF: Yes. It was wicked, smart, sly, and hilarious. When I first got the script I said to myself "Oh my God, what a gift it would be to say the words of David Ives, to work with Walter Bobbie, to be clothed by William Ivey Long, and to act with Hamish Linklater." And when I got it, I knew I had to say goodbye to The Divine Sister, and even though it killed me, it was the right decision.
TM: What's coming up for you. Are you going to take a break? AF: I have no idea what I am going to do next. I just finished voicing a book on tape called The Night Stranger, which is very scary and disturbing and psychological. It was a real honor to be asked. I'll do some concert work here and there. And because of The School for Lies, I was asked by Theatre for a New Audience to do A Broken Heart, which is another verse play, later this season. But right now, I'm just enjoying this delicious experience in Love, Loss. It's like someone handed me a piece of candy.

DIVA TALK: Two-Time Tony Nominee Alison Fraser Chats About Love, Loss... and Arthur Laurents

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 14:10:22 -0400

By Andrew Gans
Alison Fraser, the Broadway favorite who received Tony nominations for her performances in Romance/Romance and The Secret Garden and who brought much warmth and humor to the role of stripper Tessie Tura in the Arthur Laurents-directed revival of Gypsy, is currently delighting audiences Off-Broadway in Nora and Delia Ephron's Love, Loss, and What I Wore through Aug. 7. Fraser, whose recent theatrical credits also include the critically acclaimed Charles Busch comedy The Divine Sister and Classic Stage Company's production of David Ives' The School for Lies, is featured in a cast that also boasts Anita Gillette, Aisha de Haas, Marla Maples and Zuzanna Szadkowski at the Westside Theatre. Earlier this week, I had the chance to catch up with Fraser, one of my favorite gals, who spoke about her jam-packed year appearing in three very different productions. That interview follows:
Question: How does the rehearsal process work for Love, Loss…? Alison Fraser: You get the script with the part assignments I'd say about a week before, so you can go in there familiarized with your material. Then there are two very, very intense days of 10 out of 12 rehearsals, which means you're there from like 10 until 10 at night with a break, and you sit around the table and go over the text, and then at night—I believe on the first day—you get on to the stools and in your costumes. You try on your costumes for the powers that be, and they approve it or say, "No, we have to change. We have to make sure everybody is complimenting everybody else…" It's a very accelerated version of a rehearsal process, but it's no less daunting, and what you have to do is you have to really, really figure out a way how you are going to be a team—how you are going to interact rhythmically and energy wise and volume wise with the four other people on the stage. You have to get to know your cast mates, and my cast mates—Zuzanna and Aisha and Marla and Anita—are all amazing women, so it's been a great pleasure learning how to become a part of that team. And, Karen Carpenter, the director, just does a crack job putting it together.

Fraser at a party for Love, Loss... photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN
Question: What was it like the first night performing with not all that much preparation? Fraser: Well, the first night in front of an audience, for me, is always the most informative because you realize, "Oh, okay, I've got to wait for that laugh. Oh, okay, I'm losing them here. Oh, okay, why did I lose that? Oh, maybe they can't hear me." As far as I'm concerned, for any show, I really am missing a huge part of my package until the audience is in the room. And, this show, particularly, because it is so audience-friendly: The audience is the sixth character of our play, so until that sixth character is with us, all we can do is really the technical stuff. The really emotional stuff comes when we can share it with the audience.
Question: For people who haven't seen the show, how would you describe the experience of Love, Loss…? Fraser: I think Love, Loss, and What I Wore is this enormously gratifying personal memoir by Ilene Beckerman and then adapted by Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron and produced by the great, great producer Daryl Roth—thank you for this great job, Daryl Roth—and mentored by Karen Carpenter, the director, who also really helped put the piece together. It's a personal memoir that becomes personal for everybody in the audience because we can all relate to the stories that are being told on the stage. I mean, we all have articles of clothing that bring back visceral memories of certain events. I know I've thrown out clothes because they remind me of boyfriends I don't want to think about. I know I'll keep my late husband Rusty Magee's show clothes—I'll never wear them, but I would never, ever throw them away. Shows that have logos of shows that he was involved with—I have a whole bag of them. I remember my opening-night dresses for Romance, Romance and Secret Garden—I'll probably never wear them again, but I can't imagine throwing them away, or giving them away, and I was always stunned by the concept of borrowing a dress for the Tony Awards. How could you bear to give it back? How can you bear not to be able to take it out of your closet and go, "Oh my God—that's when I was nominated for a Tony!" I just couldn't bear it. I have a real problem letting go of costumes at the end of a show. I hear that Glenn Close keeps all her costumes from movies, and I totally understand that because for me… once I put those costumes on, that's when I decide, "Oh my God! Now I know who I am!"

Fraser, with Daisy Eagan, in The Secret Garden. photo by Bob Marshak
I remember when I did Gypsy, Arthur Laurents and I had such a wonderful relationship, but it got peppery at times, and he was clearly not happy in my initial stages of my doing Tessie Tura, which was odd because I didn't even audition for it. He just offered it to me, and then it was like, "Oh my God, I'm not pleasing him." I didn't quite get what he wanted me to do, and then once the great Marty Pakledinaz showed me the costume sketches, I'm like, "Oh! [Laughs.] Now I get it! Now I know what a bumper is. Now I know who Tessie Tura is. Awesome." And from then on it was clear sailing, but clothes to me are definitely emblematic of what is going on underneath. I try to keep telling my son, I'm like, "Nat, you are getting into the job market. Make sure you are not walking in to a job audition with tattered jeans and a t-shirt with stains on it because people do judge you according to what clothes you're wearing." They just do. If you see a woman who shouldn't be wearing a mini-skirt—oh God, that could be me—walking down the street, you go, "Oh, geez. That woman shouldn't be wearing a mini-skirt." If you see this gorgeous little girl walking around like a schlump, you're like, "Woah. Dress up a little bit. Take advantage of your fabulousness." Clothes to me are a real fashion statement. You are making a statement about who you are at that moment, and that doesn't mean you have to be that same person all the time, but you have to know that when you are putting on clothes, you are making a statement. Is this the statement you want to make?

Fraser in Gypsy. photo by Joan Marcus
Question: You mentioned Arthur Laurents before. What shows did you work on together? Fraser: I worked on Gypsy with him, and that was just an amazing experience to be at the table with Arthur Laurents and Patti LuPone and Boyd Gaines and Laura Benanti. It was just like a master class in acting, and he required that the nine principals were there at every table reading. I thought, "Oh, this is how it's done. This is how you examine text. This is how you get to the core of whatever urgency it is, whatever need your character has. This is how you do it." And, I will forever be grateful to Arthur for giving me that opportunity, and also we were great friends. We shared the death experience together—my husband Rusty had the same cancer doctor that Arthur's partner Tom had, and Rusty passed away before Tom, but Arthur and I really bonded over the death experience, and we became friends before I started working for him. I think he saw me in Gunmetal Blues at George Street Playhouse, which is run by David Saint, who was, of course, Arthur's great and best friend, and now I believe he handles his theatrical estate. I have worked at the George Street many, many times—it's really my theatrical home—and Arthur saw Gunmetal Blues and said, "I'd like you to be my Tessie Tura," and I'm like, "Great, that would be wonderful," and I didn't think twice about it because so often when you are offered these things, it goes away, but I had underestimated the power of Arthur Laurents, and it did indeed happen. After it closed I got a call from David Saint. I was up on the Cape thinking, "I'll never work again," and I think Bernadette Peters had some scheduling conflict, [so] she couldn't do a part in Arthur's largely autobiographical—emotionally autobiographical piece—and what turned out to be his last produced play—Come Back, Come Back Wherever You Are… It's a beautiful, beautiful play about a woman who is trying to get over the loss of her beloved husband, and that was a great experience, not only because I had the honor of originating this part in Arthur's last play and to work at the great George Street Playhouse again, but I also got to be onstage with the incandescent and unbelievably wonderful actress Shirley Knight, who has become a great, great friend. She came to Love, Loss… last night, and I'm like, "Tell me what to do. Tell me what to do." And she was just incredibly supportive and said, "You're doing fine," but she did give me a couple of really good notes. To share that experience with Shirley and Arthur and David was really terrific—it was really, really great.

Fraser in School for Lies. photo by Joan Marcus
Question: You seem to manage to go back and forth between musicals and non-musicals. Does that keep your career more interesting for you? Fraser: I've got to tell you—I regard myself as the luckiest actor on the planet. In the past two years I got to originate a part in Arthur Laurents' Come Back, Come Back Wherever You Are and then go to The Divine Sister, by Charles Busch, and work with Julie Halston under the direction of crack-director Carl Andress, who really helped to get that show on its feet, and play this wild, wild character Sister Walburga/Domino, this deranged Catholic international hit woman, and wear these wild S&M costumes and a nun outfit and have this incredible German accent. And, to go from that into originating the part of Arsinoe in David Ives' brilliant, brilliant version of The Misanthrope called The School for Lies down at Classic Stage under Walter Bobbie's direction and to work with Hamish Linklater, it was just stunning. It was a stunning run of events, and then to go into this piece… after spending a year being a tortured villainess. [Laughs.] You couldn't get a more evil person, although I really don't think they're evil, but I think the world would definitely consider Domino/Walburga not a particularly nice person, although I do think she would get off of all of her crimes for reasons of insanity and wind up in a straightjacket. That was a hugely fun experience, and still I think that Charles' material is still very grounded. I don't regard it as camp material. I regard it as this very highly stylized genre comedy. It's very intense, and you really have to believe in everything you say. You don't just make goofy faces and do a funny accent—you really have to be totally, totally committed, and then to go to School for Lies, which is the same thing. I played this horrible woman, Arsinoe, who was a gossip and she was a backstabber, and at one point she gets so angry that she has a ballistic fit. I think one of the reviewers called it a "wordless aria," in which she winds up on the floor, barking like a dog, and climbing up ladders, and stealing letters and screaming. So for a year my voice has been [tested and I thought], "Oh my God, thank God this isn't a musical because I've been screaming for a year." And, also, Arsinoe was in a corset with a huge gown that weighed a lot and a big, huge wig, so my costumes for the past year—my villainous costumes—have been daunting. Under the nun costume, I wore that tight leather skirt and the five-inch stiletto knee-high leather boots that Domino became because I wanted to be tall as Walburga, and Julie and Charles are taller than I am, so I just said, "Well, you know what, she would be in disguise under her habit because she has to be ready to be Domino."… I wore the stilettos through the whole thing, but the leather skirt I put on later. But the stilettos—definitely—for the whole show, and it's not a comfortable thing. I'm wearing stilettos now, but I get to sit for the whole show, so to be able to be in Love, Loss, and What I Wore, wearing this fabulous little cocktail dress, and light makeup—no beauty mark—I usually wear a beauty mark on stage, but this time I said, "No, I am going to be as normal and street-worthy as possible." It's like glorified street-makeup, and somebody does your hair and it has to be nice and neat, and get rid of the frizz, and I'm like, "Just go for it." I only have one tiny, tiny, tiny little scream in this one, so vocally, it's a lot easier on me… I have done some concerts and I hope to do more—I did a concert at the Engeman a couple of weeks ago, and I did a wonderful concert up in my hometown in Natick, MA, and I did that while I was doing The Divine Sister and I managed just fine, vocally. That concert was called You Can Go Home Again because I was going home, and it was just a terrific experience.
I'm looking forward to doing a musical again. I mean so far on my roster I think I am going to be doing Theatre for a New City's The Broken Heart. I got asked to do that, and I am dying to work at TFANA because oh my God, their Othello and their Hamlet a couple years ago were just so amazing! I'm like, "Really, I get to work there? I'm thrilled!" And I had so hoped that I had a chance at that Candide in Boston because Candide is my favorite show ever, but damn, that didn't work out. [Laughs.] I did not get that part, but that's okay, something else will come along. I am really looking forward to my next musical. I don't know what it is. I do think that I will be doing another album soon. Chris McGovern, who wrote the wonderful Lizzie Borden musical that I was in, wants me to do another album. He, of course, produced "Men in My Life," my second album, so I believe that we start work on that very, very soon, so if you have any suggestions, send them along!

Fraser and Charles Busch at opening night for The Divine Sister photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN
Question: The last time we spoke I know you were still in school. I'm wondering if you are still in school or if you finished. Fraser: That's done—but I teach there now. I thought about going for my MFA, but all of these shows came up, and I thought, "Well, you know what, I think I have to really take advantage of the fact that I'm wanted right now," so I had to put that off, but the schooling experience is so fantastic. You can change your life at any juncture of it, and that's what I did. I turned my life around four years ago by deciding to go back to school, and now I'm a professor at Fordham. I teach a course called "Song as Scene," and what I get to do is I get to talk to these wonderful students about my philosophy of performing, of conversational singing, of making sure that there's honesty behind every syllable, of making sure that you're not just singing for the sake of making noise, which I see so often, especially on things like "American Idol."… I just say, "When you are in my class, I want to know exactly why you are singing it," and that to me is much more important than vocal-pyrotechnics, even though vocal-pyrotechnics I admire tremendously—I wish I could do it—but my proudest moments are when I have kids that walk in that think they can't sing, and I'm like, "You know what, you can sing and this is what we are going to do for you. We are going to choose exactly the right material, and we’re going to make sure that you understand every syllable of what you're saying. We're going to make sure that you are comfortably musically—if it's too high, we're going to take it down. If it's too long, we are going to shorten it. We are going to find you a beginning, we are going to find you an ending, and we are going to make damn sure that the urge—the need—that you have to sing this song is evident, that your intention is completely clear." Matthew McGuire, the head of the theatre department at Fordham, just gave me this wonderful opportunity, and I've taught three semesters now, and I'm really having a great time. I'm going to be teaching again in the spring, and that's daunting, too, because that's on my plate, so it's more difficult for me to go out of town, but I really feel strongly about teaching and I feel like I have a peculiarly individual approach to it… This young girl came in singing "Everything's Coming up Roses," and she's a spectacular singer—a great, great singer—and a beautiful young girl. But you have to say, "This isn't a happy song. This song is not happy, and I have some background here. I sat in rehearsal for many, many weeks, and I know what this song is about, and I know how Arthur Laurents directed it, and I know what he meant when he was writing it, and I saw what Patti LuPone did with it, so let's try this one again." If they come in with something that I have a personal relationship to, it's fantastic. I think I had two kids sing "Hold On," and I can say, "Well, I know that last note is really hard, but here is a way of approaching it." Bringing my personal experience to the classroom is fun, but also, I love it when the students bring in material I had no idea about, and one of my other things I say is, "Make sure that the singer is worthy of the song." For example, if you are not a particularly skilled singer, don't come in with something that was written specifically for Kristin Chenoweth because there is one of the great voices of our time. Pick something that is a little less vocally challenging. Also, make sure that the song is worthy of the singer—don't come in with a minor song and expect me to be impressed, unless you really knock my socks off. Start with a good song. Make sure the singer is worthy of the song and that the song is worthy of the singer.

Fraser with Love, Loss... castmate Zuzanna Szadkowsi
Question: So it sounds like you're busy. Fraser: Yeah, you know, I am. I have some free time coming up, after Love, Loss… ends, because Love, Loss… is only five weeks, and I think that's what really keeps it so fresh and fun—the fact that it's a rotating cast. And, what an honor to be part of this parade of magnificent women. You look at the women that have been in it, and I'm like, "Oh my God, I get to be in this incredible club." It just feels like an embrace from the world of theatre, and again, I have to thank Daryl Roth for that, along with bringing The Divine Sister to life, and the incredible Through the Night, and The Normal Heart. She is the most wonderful producer, and I feel really lucky to be in her incredibly capable hands.
I just have one more thing to say—it's a salute to my cast members. The first four times I saw Love, Loss, and What I Wore—because I kept having my friends go in to it, and it was really fun to see how different the show is with different casts—I noticed that the audiences were largely female. There were maybe a few guys there. I don't know if it's the combination of Anita and Zuzanna and Aisha and, obviously, Marla, [laughs], but it's like all of a sudden I'm looking out, and there were so many guys in the audience and they were having a great time. Afterwards there were a bunch of guys waiting around for autographs. Maybe I'm totally wrong—maybe it was an aberration, maybe I just happened to be there the nights that the audience was largely women, but there were so many guys, and they were having a great time, so my suggestion is: Girls, come again, and guys, come for the first time because you are going to have a great time.
[For tickets phone (212) 239-6200 or visit Telecharge. The Westside Theatre is located at 407 West 43rd Street in Manhattan. Visit LoveLossonStage.]

Alison Fraser, Aisha de Haas, Anita Gillette, Marla Maples, and Zuzanna Szadkowski join Love, Loss, and What I Wore

Fri, 8 Jul 2011 15:03:49 -0400

Alison Fraser, Aisha de Haas, Anita Gillette, Marla Maples, and Zuzanna Szadkowski joined the Off-Broadway production of Love, Loss, and What I Wore, at the Westside Theatre on July 6. They will perform through August 7.
The show, which is written by Nora and Delia Ephron and directed by Karen Carpenter, is based on the best-selling book by Ilene Beckerman, as well as on the recollections of the Ephrons' friends. It uses clothing and accessories and the memories they trigger to tell funny and often poignant stories that all women can relate to.
The production features a series of five-person casts that will play in four-week cycles. Updated casting will be announced shortly.
For tickets and more information, click here.

Variety Review of The School For Lies

Mon, 2 May 2011 20:30:38 -0400

By Marilyn Stasio
Classic Stage Company presentation of a play in two acts adapted by David Ives from "The Misanthrope," by Moliere. Directed by Walter Bobbie.
Philinte - Hoon Lee
Celimene - Mamie Gummer
Arsinoe - Alison Fraser
Frank - Hamish Linklater
Oronte - Rick Holmes
Eliante - Jean Gambatese
Dubois, Basque - Steven Boyer
Acaste - Matthew Maher
Clitander - Frank Harts

Whenever hard-working theater people just want to play, the famously permissive CSC is sure to indulge them. "The School for Lies," David Ives' clever meta-spoof of Moliere's "Misanthrope" (rhyming couplets! anachronistic language! bawdy jokes!) is the kind of playground game that observes its own rules while rewarding players for spontaneous sport. The talents of a bright ensemble and fun-loving tech team flourish under Walter Bobbie's sharp direction; and if the verbal witticisms of Ives' satire ultimately feel strained and overly precious -- well, this game was always more for the exclusive amusement of the court.
The elaborate artifice of the play is gorgeously articulated in the language of the production design. The simplicity of John Lee Beatty's white-on-white drawing room set and the elegance of Peter Kaczorowski's lighting design are the tasteful background for the outrageous behavior of this 17th-century social set -- behavior the characters quite literally wear on their satin and velvet sleeves, in William Ivey Long's rich and sumptuous period costumes.
Hamish Linklater, the quick-witted young thesp who catches all eyes whenever he does Shakespeare, is ever-so smartly cast as Frank, the cranky social critic who stands here for Moliere's misanthropic Alceste.
The bright and shiny Mamie Gummer (not lost to the boards, it seems, despite her starring role in ABC's "Off the Map") is also pretty irresistible as that arch coquette, Celimene. She's also irresistibly pretty as coiffed by Paul Huntley and poured into a stunning champagne gown.
Hoon Lee ("Yellow Face") makes a self-assured spokesman for the mannered production style as the chatty Philinte, who earns the first big laugh by delivering the scribe's tongue-in-cheek declaration that the world has reformed itself since Moliere's day. With all the buffoons, dunces, and hypocrites banished from society, "What use for satire, now our lives are placid / And all our ills are solved by techno-fix?"
The three buffoons and dunces played by Rock Holmes, Matthew Maher, and Frank Harts (all costumed to garish perfection) quickly appear to give the lie to this disingenuous claim. As for those hypocrites, Alison Fraser plays the mother of them all in her viciously funny portrayal of the treacherous Arsinoe, whose knockdown with Celimene is studded with "such terms as tart, whore, floozy, trollop, slut," as well as "prostitute, strumpet, baggage, hussy, slattern" and the odd "fornicatrix" and "lesbian."
As far as it goes, Ives' mashup of period vocabulary and contemporary slang works well in conflating two historical periods, the 17th and 21st centuries, that prize blatant stupidity, buffoonery, and hypocrisy. And whenever rhyme and reason coincide -- as is the case with Arsinoe's lines: "Don't think I'm gossiping. I'm not the sort. / I never gossip, dear. I just report" -- the effect is delicious.
But it goes too far, this egg-beater poetics; and if the anachronistic terminology ("dude"? "flip-flops"?) weren't delivered in rhymed couplets, much of it wouldn't seem the least bit funny.
Set, John Lee Beatty; costumes, William Ivey Long; lighting, Peter Kaczorowski; sound, Acme Sound Partners; hair design, Paul Huntley; production stage manager, Terri K. Kohler. Reviewed April 29, 2011. Opened May 1. Running time: 2 HOURS, 15 MIN.

Read more: http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117945134?categoryid=33&cs=1&cmpid=RSS%7CNews%7CLatestNews
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The New York Times Review of The School For Lies: Glittering Opprobrium in Iambic Pentameter

Sun, 1 May 2011 20:21:04 -0400

By Charles Isherwood
Perhaps a cautionary note should be inserted in the program for “The School for Lies,” David Ives’s delightful period comedy at the Classic Stage Company. When you emerge from this impish comic playwright’s glittering tribute to Molière, written entirely in verse, your head will be so dizzy with syncopated rhyme that you’ll almost expect to find yourself speaking and thinking in chiming couplets.
In this freewheeling rewrite of “The Misanthrope,” directed with ample comic finesse by Walter Bobbie (who also directed Mr. Ives’s “Venus in Fur”), gushing geysers of opprobrium — satirical, pedagogical, scatological — pour forth from squabbling French aristocrats rustling around the stage in silk bustles and pantaloons. But this antic babble of trash talk is transformed into beguilingly silly music by rigorous fidelity to the strictures of meter and rhyme.
Mr. Bobbie’s production, which mixes the classy and the crass in finely judged proportions, stars Hamish Linklater as Molière’s truth-telling man hater, here called Frank. (Get it?) An unlikely name for a Frenchman of 1666, true, but Mr. Ives takes lavish liberties with his model. He adds farcical flourishes to Molière’s trim plot and blends generous helpings of up-to-the-minute vulgarity into verse that mostly mimics the prancing gait and more decorous tone of the original.
In the splenetic screeds delivered with tortured relish by Mr. Linklater, whose very hair seems to be curling with contempt for humanity, Mr. Ives’s version also nods gently in the direction of topical satire. Among the horrors Frank cannot abide are the hordes of the overweight in flip-flops blocking sidewalks: “Each one upholding our most sacred law:/The people’s right to suck a soda straw.”
The acid-etched impersonations performed by the object of Frank’s affection, Celimene, played with delicate glamour and wit by Mamie Gummer, may be familiar to aficionados of reality television. One is a sleazy lawyer who talks like a beef-brained lunk on “Jersey Shore,” and another could be any of the coddled blondes from “The Hills,” a girl so deficient in vocabulary that all 10 syllables of her last line of verse consist of the word like.
Still, Mr. Ives’s Molière mockup is played in exquisite 17th-century costume, whipped up with customary meticulousness by William Ivey Long, a master of sumptuous chic from any period. And despite the funny, disorienting outcroppings of contemporary slang (“LOL”), all but one of the characters are called by their original names. Back-stabbing schemers circling the French court, they remind us with every lyric salvo that malice, self-righteousness and duplicity are timeless human diversions.
As in the original Frank’s inability to abide the canting hypocrisy of his fellow men lands him in the legal soup when he insults the puerile love poems of Oronte (Rick Holmes), one of the widow Celimene’s many suitors. Frank is a little late in joining this throng in Mr. Ives’s version: Man scorner and man trap meet cute by exchanging bubbling streams of poisonous verse. And Celimene’s attraction to Frank is incited only by her (false) belief that he has influence at court that can help her in her own case.
But soon they are embroiled in passionate clinches, to the dismay of Frank’s friend and apologist Philinte (Hoon Lee), who adores Celimene’s cousin Eliante (Jenn Gambatese), who pines for the righteous Frank. Meanwhile the prudish Arsinoé (Alison Fraser) plots to wreck her rival Celimene’s reputation, exposing her as a scandalous flirt even as Arsinoé thrusts her own ample décolletage before Frank’s dumbfounded eyes.
Mr. Ives cheerfully descends a few notches below the comic refinement that Molière achieved in “The Misanthrope,” which is considered the pinnacle of his art for the nuance of its portraiture and the sharpness of its satire. In its more Hogarthian characters and emphasis on lewd sexual humor, “The School for Lies” often evokes the bawdy roistering of British comic playwrights influenced by Molière rather than the French master himself. While the title harks back to earlier Molière plays, it also naturally evokes Sheridan’s “School for Scandal.”
There is also a fine sprinkling of Shakespeare allusions that culminate in a startling (and hilarious) denouement inspired by his comedies turning on disguise and revelation. A running joke centers on a man in drag, also more a staple of British comedy than of French, although it allows Mr. Ives to concoct a new ending to Molière’s play that echoes the beneficent interference of the king in the conclusion of “Tartuffe.”
Not all of Mr. Ives’s inventions are pleasing. A gag that has a plate of canapés continually being flung skyward exhausts its appeal quickly, and some of Mr. Ives’s language is too exuberantly coarse for my taste. I laughed but once at the repeated joke that finds everybody referring to the character Clitander as Clitoris, and if there really is such a thing as a “fecophile,” I don’t want to know about it. But Mr. Bobbie’s agile cast members handle the lowbrow antics with the same deftness they bring to the demanding language.
Mr. Linklater and Ms. Gummer trade their barbed words and hot caresses with buoyant conviction. The puckish comedienne Ms. Fraser, late of Charles Busch’s divine “Divine Sister,” makes heavenly sport of the simpering Arsinoé’s thwarted ambitions. Mr. Lee’s exasperated Philinte makes a robustly funny drag queen out of a British pantomime, and Ms. Gambatese’s wide-eyed Eliante exudes an innocence that somehow remains unsullied by the more debased antics she’s required to engage in. Matthew Maher stands out among the supporting players for his complacently doltish Acaste, preening himself on his own stupidity like a cat licking its fur after lapping up a saucer of milk.
In the end Mr. Ives’s coruscating wordplay is really the star of the show. (As Richard Wilbur did in his unmatched version of “The Misanthrope,” Mr. Ives employs iambic pentameter in place of the French alexandrines.) Such is the ingenuity of his verse making that you find yourself anticipating with pleased excitement the arrival of the next rhymes, many of which are stuffed inside the lines in addition to at the ends.
“Cannikin” and “mannequin”! “Junior Mints” and “human blintz”! “Supercilious” and — really? — “atrabilious”! (It means melancholy, by the way.) In a witty prologue to the play Mr. Ives credits Molière with having mixed “the batter for tonight’s soufflé,” but it is his own inexhaustible verbal dexterity that makes it rise so deliciously high.
THE SCHOOL FOR LIES
By David Ives, from Molière’s “Misanthrope”; directed by Walter Bobbie; sets by John Lee Beatty; costumes by William Ivey Long; lighting by Peter Kaczorowski; sound by Acme Sound Partners; hair design by Paul Huntley; production stage manager, Terri K. Kohler; production manager, Production Core; general manager, Jeff Griffin. Presented by Classic Stage Company, Brian Kulick, artistic director; Jessica R. Jenen, executive director. At the Classic Stage Company, 136 East 13th Street, East Village; (866) 811-4111; classicstage.org. Through May 22. Running time: 2 hours 15 minutes.
WITH: Steven Boyer (Dubois/Basque), Alison Fraser (Arsinoé), Jenn Gambatese (Eliante), Mamie Gummer (Celimene), Frank Harts (Clitander), Rick Holmes (Oronte), Hoon Lee (Philinte), Hamish Linklater (Frank) and Matthew Maher (Acaste).

Alison Fraser, Mamie Gummer, Hamish Linklater Star in School for Lies; Class Begins April 13

Wed, 13 Apr 2011 23:16:11 -0400

By Kenneth Jones
Mamie Gummer, Hamish Linklater and two-time Tony Award nominee Alison Fraser star in David Ives' new comedy The School for Lies, inspired by  April 13 at Classic Stage Company's Off-Broadway home.
The Walter Bobbie-directed world-premiere production officially opens May 1.
Gummer (Mr. Marmalade, TV's "Off the Map") plays Celimene, Linklater (TV's "The New Adventures of Old Christine," Shakespeare in the Park's The Merchant of Venice, The Winter's Tale) plays Frank, Fraser (Broadway's The Secret Garden and Romance/Romance, Gypsy starring Patti LuPone, Charles Busch's The Divine Sister) plays Arsinoe, Jenn Gambatese (Tarzan, All Shook Up) plays Elainte, Steven Boyer is Dubois/Basque, Frank Harts is Clitander, Rick Holmes is Oronte, Hoon Lee is Philante and Matthew Maher plays Acaste.
Opening night is May 1. Performances play to May 22 at CSC's home at 136 E. 13th Street.
Ives and Bobbie are longtime collaborators. They worked together last season at CSC on the acclaimed sold-out production of Venus in Fur and in 2008 on the acclaimed New Jerusalem. The two have collaborated for more than 15 years on numerous productions as writer/producer, writer/director, co-authors, writer/actor, and writer/dramaturg. Their productions together range from Broadway, Off-Broadway, City Center Encores! and Carnegie Hall to public television.
The creative team includes scenic designer John Lee Beatty, costume designer William Ivey Long, lighting designer Peter Kaczorowski, hair designer Paul Huntley and sound designer Acme Sound Partners.
The School for Lies will perform Tuesdays through Fridays at 8 PM; Saturdays at 2 PM and 8 PM; and Sundays at 2 PM.
Tickets are $70 for weekday performances and $75 for weekends. For tickets and information, visit www.classicstage.org or call (866) 811-4111, or (212) 352-3101, or visit the CSC box office weekdays noon to 6 PM.

"Two and a Half Men" Star Conchata Ferrell, Alison Fraser Set for Love, Loss...Off-Broadway

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 18:00:08 -0400

Two-time Tony Award nominee Alison Fraser has joined the cast of David Ives' new comedy The School for Lies, inspired by Molière's The Misanthrope, Classic Stage Company announced on March 15.
Ferrell and "90210" cast member AnnaLynne McCord will be part of the April 27-May 29 cast which will also include Anne Meara and B. Smith, while television personality Emme will join the production June 10-July 3.
Fraser, who currently appears Off-Broadway in The Divine Sister, will appear alongside Marla Maples July 5-Aug. 7.
Love, Loss, and What I Wore currently feaures Sonia Manzano, Donna McKechnie, Annie Starke, Freddi Walker-Browne and Rumer Willis through April 24.
Karen Carpenter directs Nora and Delia Ephron's production based on Ilene Beckerman's book of the same name that "uses clothing and accessories and the memories they trigger to tell funny and often poignant stories that all women can relate to."
The design team includes Jo Winiarski (scenic design), Jessica Jahn (costume design), Jeff Croiter (lighting design), Walter Trarbach (sound design) and Maria Verel (make-up design).
Carpenter also directed the Monday night readings of Love, Loss, and What I Wore that were presented last winter and spring as a benefit for Dress for Success. A portion of the proceeds from the current run benefits Dress for Success.
For tickets phone (212) 239-6200 or visit Telecharge. The Westside Theatre is located at 407 West 43rd Street in Manhattan.
Visit LoveLossonStage.

Alison Fraser Completes Cast of School for Lies, David Ives' "Misanthropic" Comedy

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 17:14:09 -0400

Two-time Tony Award nominee Alison Fraser has joined the cast of David Ives' new comedy The School for Lies, inspired by Molière's The Misanthrope, Classic Stage Company announced on March 15.
Performances of the Walter Bobbie-directed production begin April 13.
Fraser, who will play Arsinoe, recently appeared on Broadway as Tessie Tura in the revival of Gypsy starring Patti LuPone. She also originated the role of Sarah in the world premiere of Arthur Laurents' Come Back, Come Back, Wherever You Are co-starring Shirley Knight at The George Street Playhouse. She originated the role of Sister Walburga in Charles Busch's critically acclaimed Off-Broadway play The Divine Sister. She is a two-time Tony Award nominee for The Secret Garden and Romance/Romance.
Mamie Gummer, Hamish Linklater and Jenn Gambatese are among the previously announced players in the CSC world-premiere production of The School for Lies. The cast will also feature Steven Boyer as Dubois/Basque, Frank Harts as Clitander, Rick Holmes as Oronte, Hoon Lee as Philante and Matthew Maher as Acaste.
Opening night is May 1. Performances play to May 22 at CSC's home at 136 E. 13th Street.
Gummer (Mr. Marmalade, TV's "Off the Map") will play Celimene, Linklater (TV's "The New Adventures of Old Christine," Shakespeare in the Park's The Merchant of Venice, The Winter's Tale) will play Frank, and Gambatese (Tarzan, All Shook Up) will play Elainte.
Ives and Bobbie are longtime collaborators. They worked together last season at CSC on the acclaimed sold-out production of Venus in Fur and in 2008 on the acclaimed New Jerusalem. The two have collaborated for more than 15 years on numerous productions as writer/producer, writer/director, co-authors, writer/actor, and writer/dramaturg. Their productions together range from Broadway, Off-Broadway, City Center Encores! and Carnegie Hall to public television.
The creative team includes scenic designer John Lee Beatty, costume designer William Ivey Long, lighting designer Peter Kaczorowski, hair designer Paul Huntley and sound designer Acme Sound Partners.
The School for Lies will perform Tuesdays through Fridays at 8 PM; Saturdays at 2 PM and 8 PM; and Sundays at 2 PM.
Tickets are $70 for weekday performances and $75 for weekends. For tickets and information, visit www.classicstage.org or call (866) 811-4111, or (212) 352-3101, or visit the CSC box office weekdays noon to 6 PM.
*
CSC is the award-winning Off-Broadway theatre "committed to re-imagining the classical repertory for a contemporary American audience." It is led by artistic director Brian Kulick and executive director Jessica R. Jenen. It recently produced the sold-out run of Chekhov's Three Sisters, featuring Maggie Gyllenhaal, Josh Hamilton, Jessica Hecht, Juliet Rylance and Peter Sarsgaard, directed by Austin Pendleton.
The company is currently presenting William Shakespeare and John Fletcher's Double Falsehood, directed by Brian Kulick.

Project Shaw's Overruled to Feature Alison Fraser, George S. Irving, Daniel Jenkins, Karen Ziemba

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 15:27:56 -0500

By Andrew Gans
The Project Shaw series will continue Feb. 14 with a reading of George Bernard Shaw's Overruled as well as a special Valentine's Day collection of songs and poems.
The reading at the Players Club in Manhattan will feature the talents of Daniel Davis, Tony nominee Alison Fraser, Tony winner George S. Irving, Tony nominee Daniel Jenkins, Tom Viola and Tony winner Karen Ziemba. Show time is 7 PM.
David Staller, the acclaimed singer-actor who has produced and directed all of the Project Shaw offerings, will continue to do so for the upcoming reading.
"One of Shaw’s most wicked one-act comedies, circa 1912," Overruled, press notes state, " follows two couples. Each pair has decided to take a trip away from their mate, to go around the world to reawaken their romance when they reunite. On the journey, each meets the partner of the other couple with surprising results."
The Valentine's Day celebration will feature a selection of poetry and songs by Noel Coward, Irving Berlin, and Frank Loesser. Jonathan Monro will be featured at the piano.

Past participants in the Project Shaw series include Blair Brown, Mark Kudisch, Kerry Butler, Tyne Daly, Jonathan Hadary, Daniel Jenkins, Rebecca Luker, Michael Cerveris, Karen Ziemba, Michele Pawk, Bruce Vilanch, Jack Gilpin and George S. Irving.

The Players Club is located in Manhattan at 16 Gramercy Park South. Tickets, priced $25, are available by calling (212) 352-3101. For more information visit www.projectshaw.com.

Emily Skinner, Alison Fraser, Mary Testa Set for Project Shaw's Heartbreak; Season Announced

Mon, 20 Dec 2010 15:32:50 -0500

By Andrew Gans
The Project Shaw series will continue Dec. 20 with a reading of George Bernard Shaw's Heartbreak House, which is billed as a "comedy about life, love, longing and laughter."
The reading at the Players Club in Manhattan will boast the talents of Jim Brochu, Alison Fraser, Elizabeth Inghram, John Martello, Brian Murray, Elena Shaddow, A.J. Shively, Emily Skinner, Mary Testa and Lenny Wolpe as well as David Belcher of the New York Times and David Cote of Time Out NY. Show time is 7 PM.
David Staller, the acclaimed singer-actor who has produced and directed all of the Project Shaw offerings, will continue to do so for the upcoming reading.
In Heartbreak House, press notes state, "an English country house is crammed full of revelations, romance, light comedy and earth-shaking adventure--just before WW1 changes everything."
Past participants include Blair Brown, Mark Kudisch, Kerry Butler, Tyne Daly, Jonathan Hadary, Daniel Jenkins, Rebecca Luker, Michael Cerveris, Karen Ziemba, Michele Pawk, Bruce Vilanch, Jack Gilpin and George S. Irving.

The upcoming season will include the following readings:
Jan. 24, Androcles and the Lion Feb. 14, GTG Special Valentine Day Event March 28, Great Catherine April 25, Shaw & Shakespeare May 23, You Never Can Tell June 20, Getting Married July 18, Fanny's First Play Sept. 26, The Millionairess Oct. 17, Super Shaw! Nov. 21, Passion, Poison & Petrification Dec. 19, The Shewing-Up Of Blanco Posnet
The Players Club is located in Manhattan at 16 Gramercy Park South. Tickets, priced $25, are available by calling (212) 352-3101. For more information visit www.projectshaw.com.

American Theatre Wing - Downstage Center

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 14:41:00 -0500

With: Alison Fraser
The Divine Sister's Teutonic nun Alison Fraser talks about her role, her prior work -- and sharing a dressing room -- with playwright/actor Charles Busch. She also discusses her musical theatre roots in high school in Natick MA, where she met prior graduate William Finn, leading to her creating the role of Trina in both In Trousers and March of the Falsettos; how being cast in Beehive gave her her first opportunity to show she could be funny; the pleasure of performing in the two one-act musicals known as Romance, Romance; how having her own child informed her role as Martha in The Secret Garden; her longstanding connection with David Saint and his George Street Playhouse; the experience of working with Arthur Laurents on shows both old (the most recent Broadway Gypsy) and new (Come Back, Come Back, Wherever You Are); and she reveals, despite her oft-stated affinity for creating roles in new works, the roles from the classic musical theatre canon she'd most like to play.

Original air date - November 17th, 2010 Running Time - 1:01:32