Dark Monday -Wicked

Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth starred in the Broadway musical Wicked. They were both beyond spectacular. Wicked essentially gives you the backstory to The Wizard of Oz. But it is much more than that, for it is about being different, not fitting in, and how the majority can injure the minorities.



Idina Menzel play Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, and shows how a green young girl goes from innocence to wicked through life's trials. Idina must have really had to act here, since that lucky woman is beautiful, has a gorgeous voice, and is married to Taye Diggs, who she met while both were in the original cast of Rent on Broadway. She gave girth to a son in September. Here she sings the amazing song Defying Gravity.



Kristin Chenoweth played Glinda, the Good Witch. Glinda's path is one of redemption, as she starts out a rather shallow and self-involved character and grows to become so much more. Kristin is immensely talented, as could be seen on both Pushing Daisies and Glee. She won the Emmy this season, and just went to Washington, DC, to participate on the March for Equality. In this clip, she sings Popular.



The show is an incredible show, and has opened throughout the world. In the Melbourne production, Anthony Callea [a favorite of mine] played Boq, the munchkin in love with Glinda, the same role American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert played in the American touring company. It is still running on Broadway, as well as touring. To find out if it might be playing near you, you can check out the official website here.

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Dark Monday - Evita

It was 1979, and the musical Evita was all the rage. The music and lyrics were written by the hot young duo of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. And by hot I am meaning professionally, because there is no way at any given point in time Webber could be considered physically hot. It starred a young woman who had many roles on Broadway prior to this, but used the role of Eva Peron to skyrocket to fame. Patti LuPone was a tour de force in the role, and earned endless praise. Another breakout star was Mandy Patinkin in the role of Ché Guevara, with his amazing voice and vocal range, and an acting ability that saw no bounds.



Evita was the story of Eva Peron, and her rise from commoner to the first lady of Argentina. It is thought she slept her way to the top, chewing up and spitting out many on her way, and this musical doesn't disagree with that point. But with her booming voice and amazing charm, LuPone keeps the story interesting and the character human. Here is Patti singing Don't Cry For Me Argentina in a special event.



The production won 7 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Lead Actress In A Musical for LuPone, and Best Featured Actor In A Musical for Patinkin. It opened in September 1979, and closed in 1983 after more than 1,500 performances.

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Dark Monday - Applause

In 1970, the Broadway musical Applause had all the makings of something special. It was based on the story and movie All About Eve, the Bette Davis vehicle many still consider a classic, and one of Davis' best films. The story centers on maturing superstar Margo Channing, who takes in a young actress, Eve, to offer her a helping hand. What Margo didn't realize, but figures out, is that Eve is a ruthless, self-centered wannabe who will let no one and nothing stand in her way. The following clip is the song But Alive, when Margo visits a gay bar in Greenwich Village.



In the role of Margo Channing, actress Lauren Bacall gave a bravura performance which won her the Tony Award, and the show also took home the statue for best musical. A decade later, Bacall would appear in another Broadway musical, Woman of the Year, and Bacall picked up her 2nd Tony for Best Actress in a Musical.

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Dark Monday - Ain't Misbehavin'

Indeed, I was lucky enough to see this as well. It was magical. You were transported to another time, the time of Fats Waller. There were just five performers on the stage, and they were all incredible. They were André DeShields, Armelia McQueen, Ken Page, Charlayne Woodard and the showstopping Nell Carter. This was before she had that awful sitcom.



The cast performed Ladies Who Sing With The Band on the 1978 Tony Awards broadcast. Here it is.



Nell Carter brought down the house every night with her outstanding version of Mean To Me. I believe it is this number that garnered her the attention and the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.

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Dark Monday - Sweeney Todd

George Hearn and Angela Lansbury in the Original Broadway production.

I saw this show in previews, and it was just magical. This was back in 1979, and I was already a fan of composer Stephen Sondheim, one of the most brilliant minds the theater has known. I went with a college theater group I was part of, and we went for a four-day trip, seeing 6 shows in that time. It was an insane schedule, but also amazing, seeing Broadway and Off-Broadway productions. Back then, when I was working in the theater, there were basically two camps when it came to musical theater - you were a fan of Sondheim, or you loved Andrew Lloyd Webber - and never the twain shall meet. We Sondheim fans believed the Webber fans were just populist, non-thinking idiots who went for spectacle over content. Webber fans thought we Sondheim fans were intellectual elitists, and I think both groups were correct.

A variety of people have played in Sweeney Todd, from famous to not-so-much.

I you saw the movie with Johnny Depp, it was well done, but the Broadway show was oh so much better. I remember sitting in the audience that first time [I saw it more than once], and the orchestra started playing...

That damn factory whistle nearly had me jumping out of my skin. That opening created a tension that held fast throughout the show. Later in the show, Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett had to figure out what do do with the dead bodies, since leaving them lay around wouldn't be good as she ran a meat-pie shoppe. So here is Angela Lansbury and George Hearn coming up with a solution in A Little Priest.

The show was just brilliant.

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Dark Monday - Pippin

This was the first Broadway show I ever saw. While in high school, we took our sophomore class trip to NYC to do dinner and a play. We went to Mama Leone's [tourist trap that impressed kids form Smyrna, DE] for dinner, and then to see Pippin. I was astounded by this wonderful musical, directed by the icon Bob Fosse.

Scans from my Original Cast Album

The cast was amazing. They were Eric Berry, Jill Clayburgh, Leland Palmer, Irene Ryan (Granny from the Beverly Hillbillies), Ben Vereen, and John Rubinstein. Ann Reinking was in the chorus. Music and lyrics were by Stephen Schwartz, who also gave us Godspell and Wicked, as well as several Disney annimated flicks. There was lots of skin showing, at least for a boy from Delaware. And John Rubinstein delivered a line I will never forget, 'Why'd the Goddamned duck have to die.' He cussed! And was often without a shirt!

But the real star of the show was the choreography of Fosse. It wasn't really dancing as I knew it as much as movement of the body. It was completely something I had never seen, and blew me away. Here is the opening number, Magic To Do.

There was also Glory, a show-stopper with the choreography only Fosse could deliver.

From this experience, I was hooked on live theater. Now, I can't sing worth a damn, but I appeared in high school musicals, my biggest role as the mute king in Once Upon A Mattress. I worked behind the scenes in college, and moved to NYC and worked for 4 seasons at the off-Broadway theater Circle Repertory Theatre Company in the Village. And got to work on some great theater, as well as go to many shows before I left NYC after 10 years.

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Dark Monday - Rent

In 1996, a little musical opened that might very well have changed the landscape on Broadway forever. It was named Rent, starring a cast of relative unknowns, most of whom went on to much more. They were Taye Diggs, Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Jesse L. Martin, Idina Menzel, Adam Pascal, Anthony Rapp, Daphne Rubin-Vega and Fredi Walker. The show ran for 12 years, until 2008.

To quote Wikipedia, Rent is a rock musical with music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La Bohème. It tells the story of a group of impoverished young artists and musicians struggling to survive and create in New York's Lower East Side in the thriving days of Bohemian Alphabet City, under the shadow of AIDS.

The first video clip is video of the opening night performance of Today 4 U, featuring Wilson Jermaine Heredia, who won a Tony for his portrayal of Angel. The quality isn't great, but it was the opening night!

The second clip is when the entire original cast flew to Chicago for the 1996 Democratic National Convention to perform Seasons Of Love, a truly great song. The lyrics are so beautiful I used them at my sister's wedding when I made the toast at the reception, as I was her 'maid of honor.'

Just amazing!

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Great Music - Cheyenne Jackson

OK, so Cheyenne Jackson doesn't have a CD of his own out, but he is gorgeous, talented, and very out, and that is enough for me. He is 6'3" and built, with striking good looks, a beautiful voice and he can act - what's not to love? I saw him in Damn Yankees last year at New York's City Center, and he was great. He played in a cast that included Sean Hayes and Jane Krakowski.

Jackson has also roller skated in Xanadu, starred in Thoroughly Modern Millie, Altar Boyz, and played openly gay hero Mark Bingham in Flight 93. This year, he has teamed up with Michael Feinstein in a nightclub act called The Power of Two and I would kill to see it. He has also appeared in Ugly Betty and will be in the premier episode of Glee in the fall.

The above clip was Cheyenne Jackson performing the song I've Got Your Number at Broadway Under the Stars in Bryant Park, June 14, 2005. The song is from the Neil Simon musical Little Me, with music and lyrics by Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh.



The following is Cheyenne Jackson performing Surrender on January 7, 2008. The song was written by songwriter Scott Alan. This performance was at a CD Release Party for Scott Alan's Dreaming Wide Awake CD.

On a personal note, Cheyenne and his partner have been together for 10 years. To find out more about Cheyenne, visit his website here. He also has music available for purchase on iTunes.

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Dark Monday - Neil Patrick Harris in Cabaret

Monday is usually the day off for Broadway shows, following a work week of eight shows in 6 days, Tuesday thru Sunday. It was the one night a week the marquis lights would be turned off, which was known as Broadway being 'dark.' I don't think that is as true now as it once was, but out of my old-fashioned sense of tradition, I will offer up my little tribute to Dionysus, the God of theater and, interestingly enough, of wine and excess. In 2003, Neil Patrick Harris was a replacement for the Broadway revival of Cabaret, the musical most remembered for the movie version with the riveting direction of Bob Fosse and the amazing performances of Liza Minnelli and Joel Gray. Based on the book The Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood and the play I Am A Camera by John Van Druten, the story is about the fall of the free-wheeling times in Germany of the 20s and 30s, and the rise of the Nazi movement.

Liza Minnelli, Liza & Joel Gray, Natasha Richardson & Alan Cumming

The revival opened in 1998 and originally starred Alan Cumming as the Emcee and Natasha Richardson as Sally Bowles and played most of its run at Studio 54. Harris received rave reviews for this role in Cabaret, and went on to do more musical theater, including Sondheim's Assassins and Rent in Los Angeles. He sang several songs, including Two Ladies, Money (Makes The World Go Round), and I Don't Care Much. Here is an audio-only clip from the show, I Don't Care Much.

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Worth Another Listen - Duncan Sheik

Back in the old days, Duncan Sheik was a hot guy, singing some cool pop songs. I loved his stuff, and thought he was adorable. In later years, he filled out a bit, and became kinda bearish, which is really hot! And besides getting sexier, Duncan also wrote the music for the Tony Award winning musical, Spring Awakening. But first, there was Barely Breathing.

Then, there was Spring Awakening. I saw this on Broadway, and it was one of the most incredible shows I have ever seen. It is on tour now - if it comes to a city near you, go!

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Defying Inequality - The Cast of Hair

In February of this year, there was a fundraiser in New York City to raise money for Defying Inequality: A Celebrity Benefit for Equal Rights. They raised over $400,000 for five separate groups promoting marriage equality in New York, California, Massachusetts, Vermont and New Jersey. In the following amateur video, Tony nominee and out star of Broadway's Hair, Gavin Creel, sings The Flesh Failures and is joined by the cast for Let The Sun Shine In.



Countless stars as well as the cast of about 15 shows performed in concert to raise the funds. Gay, Bi and Str8 alike, performers came out to raise their voices for marriage equality. Well done!

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