Archive for the 'Workshops' Category

The Essential Alice Workshop

All of last week (July 24 to 28) I was cast in a workshop of a new musical The Essential Alice. Des McAnuff, my Jersey Boys director, was directing and he assembled a stellar cast. The book is by Annie Weisman and the lyrics and music by Michael Friedman..Dan Lipton was the musical director and the cast included..Mary Testa, Denis O”Hare,Steve Rosen, Henry Stram, Don Stephenson, Derrick Baskin and Rebecca Kaasa

Usually you have four to six weeks to prepare a show…We had 4 days and had to do our Broadway shows at night. It was gruelling, exciting, scary and rewarding when all is said and done. It should be done full scale at LaJolla Playhouse sometime soon…but it was an honor to be asked to do it and work with this creative team. I played the mouse initially but was than added additional roles of the Duchess and Rosebud when we lost our first Alice(Celia Keenan-Bolger) to tonsillitis and brave Rebecca was moved up.

The story is from Alice in Wonderland so needless to say I had to reread it. I got to sing two nice solos and a lot of challenging quartet and trio songs…Actually more of a load than in my nightly portrayal in Jersey Boys…I hope to do more of this while in NY.