(Scroll down to see pic of Harvey)
More about Harvey: Even though Harvey Fierstein was quite charming, he seemed a bit guarded all evening...from cocktail chatter to the actual Q&A onstage. In fact, they could have re-titled the evening "Harvey Fierstein promotes A Catered Affair" because that's ALL he talked about. I mentioned to Harvey that my tax attorney, Ed, told me last week he had once been an actor--information which shocked me. He then proceeded to tell me he was in one of the pre-Broadway La Mama performances of Harvey's definitive career-making play Torch Song Trilogy! In fact, his name is "Ed" and the character he played was named for him: "Ed". As I mentioned this to Harvey Fierstein he suddenly got much less "distant" and opened up to me. "Oh my Gosh, how is Ed? Where is he? I'd love to see him again! Please tell him I said hello and give him my best." Moments like this always make me realize that New York City, the great metropolis of 8 million people, is SUCH a small town!
(Scroll down to see pic of HARVEY)
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Harvey Fierstein "Conversation" at Zipper Theatre
Attended "A Conversation with Harvey Fierstein" last night at the Zipper Theatre on W. 37th St. sponsored by The American Theatre Wing (the Tony Award folks) of whom I've been a member for years but never get a lot out of my membership except for the occasional celebrity-laden cocktail party. Last night the numbers must have been down for this event...probably less than 100 people showed up, including a few theatre celebrities and bold-face names from the columns. You could tell how many people were no-shows by the enormous number of name tags left on the check-in table.
As soon as I entered I ran into Pia Lindstrom, and across the empty room I saw Harvey Fierstein hanging up his coat. Pia, who always looks fabulous, is on the membership services committee at the Wing, along with Barbara Toy and others. She said the Wing is perceived by many young theatre people as being full of an older, moneyed crowd but that they want to do more outreach to the members, the Off Broadway community, and younger theatre-goers. Informal events with major theatre personalities like Fierstein is part of that outreach. No matter how often I meet celebrities such as Pia, I always remain calm and collected on the outside, but on the inside I'm screaming "OH MY GOD, YOU'RE INGRID BERGMAN'S DAUGHTER!!!!!!"
During the 5:30-6:30pm cocktail hour I chatted with legend Marian Seldes who grabbed me and hugged me after I told her I had seen her for years in everything since DEATHTRAP as well as theatre events and parties, but had been too intimidated to say anything because I didn't want to come off as a "silly fan." She looked at me with a piercing stare, smiled, hugged me and said: "Nonsense...now we are friends...and colleagues!" Such a lovely woman...and still the total pro as she turns 80 this coming August!
I was button-holed momentarily by an elderly queen I knew years ago (and he was boring then) who immediately tried to monopolize me and tell me about the last 20 years. Not meaning to be rude, I simply said "Arthur, darling, I have people to meet! We'll catch up later!" I chatted with a couple of actors and producers and one of them, a major name, said she lived at 88 Central Park West..."Oh," I said..." that's where Lorne Michaels, Sting and Celeste Holm live and didn't Robert DeNiro just move in there?"
"Oh my," she said, "You really know your stuff! Actually we're not supposed to talk about DeNiro being there...the co-op board has informed all tenants to ignore his presence. He abandoned Tri-Beca apparently for Central Park West! But interestingly, DeNiro gets his mail under an assumed name...just like Garbo used to! If a visitor asks the doorman for DeNiro, or if a delivery comes for DeNiro, the doorman is instructed to say he doesn't live there! Totally crazy! The building is full of celebrities and we don't pull that nonsense! Didn't Garbo pull that too?"
After cocktails, we went into the Q&A with Harvey Fierstein and even though the evening was officially called: "A conversation with Harvey Fierstein" they could have re-named it: Harvey Fierstein does non-stop promotion for his new show A Catered Affair. All he did was talk about the show and its journey from film to San Diego's Old Globe Theatre to Broadway. He mentioned Debbie Reynolds (the girl in the film) was present opening night in San Diego and gave the show her blessing.
It was obvious they were trying to control the questions, but it was SUCH a low turn-out they had to take all questions, good or bad. The first question was obviously a plant, from Harvey's good pal, actress-writer Julie Halston, who sat front and center. She basically said "Tell us ALL about A Catered Affair," which gave Harvey license to launch into a lengthy monologue. Actually, I was interested in hearing about the show's progress and it is based on one of my all-time favorite films.
My question was very simple: "Is the music any good? Is anything memorable?" and the question was of course, dodged. When I finally pressed for an answer, young producer Jordan Roth, wunderkind son of producer Daryl Roth, said something about this being John Bucchino's first effort for the stage, and "the songs being a vehicle for the emotions of the characters to come thru" blah blah, blah. In my experience, this is Broadway double-speak for "unmemorable score." But we shall see when previews begin in late March. I hope I'm wrong. I see EVERYTHING on Broadway and have for the past 20 years...it's one of the biggest problems with big Broadway musicals today...totally unmemorable musical score. You leave the theatre humming the scenery and costumes. It's a shame...it's so obvious....a MUSICal should first and foremost, have good MUSIC! That's why revivals are so popular...because older shows have better songs....standards in many cases.
Just remember the old Richard Rodgers comment: "I don't care what the critics say: if I leave the theatre and hear the audiences whistling my songs, I know I have a hit!"
EXACTLY!
As soon as I entered I ran into Pia Lindstrom, and across the empty room I saw Harvey Fierstein hanging up his coat. Pia, who always looks fabulous, is on the membership services committee at the Wing, along with Barbara Toy and others. She said the Wing is perceived by many young theatre people as being full of an older, moneyed crowd but that they want to do more outreach to the members, the Off Broadway community, and younger theatre-goers. Informal events with major theatre personalities like Fierstein is part of that outreach. No matter how often I meet celebrities such as Pia, I always remain calm and collected on the outside, but on the inside I'm screaming "OH MY GOD, YOU'RE INGRID BERGMAN'S DAUGHTER!!!!!!"
During the 5:30-6:30pm cocktail hour I chatted with legend Marian Seldes who grabbed me and hugged me after I told her I had seen her for years in everything since DEATHTRAP as well as theatre events and parties, but had been too intimidated to say anything because I didn't want to come off as a "silly fan." She looked at me with a piercing stare, smiled, hugged me and said: "Nonsense...now we are friends...and colleagues!" Such a lovely woman...and still the total pro as she turns 80 this coming August!
I was button-holed momentarily by an elderly queen I knew years ago (and he was boring then) who immediately tried to monopolize me and tell me about the last 20 years. Not meaning to be rude, I simply said "Arthur, darling, I have people to meet! We'll catch up later!" I chatted with a couple of actors and producers and one of them, a major name, said she lived at 88 Central Park West..."Oh," I said..." that's where Lorne Michaels, Sting and Celeste Holm live and didn't Robert DeNiro just move in there?"
"Oh my," she said, "You really know your stuff! Actually we're not supposed to talk about DeNiro being there...the co-op board has informed all tenants to ignore his presence. He abandoned Tri-Beca apparently for Central Park West! But interestingly, DeNiro gets his mail under an assumed name...just like Garbo used to! If a visitor asks the doorman for DeNiro, or if a delivery comes for DeNiro, the doorman is instructed to say he doesn't live there! Totally crazy! The building is full of celebrities and we don't pull that nonsense! Didn't Garbo pull that too?"
After cocktails, we went into the Q&A with Harvey Fierstein and even though the evening was officially called: "A conversation with Harvey Fierstein" they could have re-named it: Harvey Fierstein does non-stop promotion for his new show A Catered Affair. All he did was talk about the show and its journey from film to San Diego's Old Globe Theatre to Broadway. He mentioned Debbie Reynolds (the girl in the film) was present opening night in San Diego and gave the show her blessing.
It was obvious they were trying to control the questions, but it was SUCH a low turn-out they had to take all questions, good or bad. The first question was obviously a plant, from Harvey's good pal, actress-writer Julie Halston, who sat front and center. She basically said "Tell us ALL about A Catered Affair," which gave Harvey license to launch into a lengthy monologue. Actually, I was interested in hearing about the show's progress and it is based on one of my all-time favorite films.
My question was very simple: "Is the music any good? Is anything memorable?" and the question was of course, dodged. When I finally pressed for an answer, young producer Jordan Roth, wunderkind son of producer Daryl Roth, said something about this being John Bucchino's first effort for the stage, and "the songs being a vehicle for the emotions of the characters to come thru" blah blah, blah. In my experience, this is Broadway double-speak for "unmemorable score." But we shall see when previews begin in late March. I hope I'm wrong. I see EVERYTHING on Broadway and have for the past 20 years...it's one of the biggest problems with big Broadway musicals today...totally unmemorable musical score. You leave the theatre humming the scenery and costumes. It's a shame...it's so obvious....a MUSICal should first and foremost, have good MUSIC! That's why revivals are so popular...because older shows have better songs....standards in many cases.
Just remember the old Richard Rodgers comment: "I don't care what the critics say: if I leave the theatre and hear the audiences whistling my songs, I know I have a hit!"
EXACTLY!
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Sarah Jessica Parker & Jennifer Hudson on the set of Sex & the City movie
Saw Sarah Jessica Parker the other day in Greenwich Village, while doing a Rich & Famous walking tour near her townhouse. Of course I don't show people where she lives....I show them the approximate area of the Village and then talk about various stars who reside nearby. Every time I see her I want to go up and say "hey!" but of course I don't. You see, I knew Sarah Jessica Parker when she was a kid and starring in ANNIE on Broadway...I wasn't much older and was working in the lobby selling ANNIE dolls, records and souvenirs. I became familiar with her Mom, some of the other kids in the show and their Moms, and some of Sarah's brothers and sisters. Her last day as Annie (when she had grown much too tall and develped to believably play an 11 year old), I was invited into her dressing room by her Mom and brother to hang out and to help fill boxes and load the car with tons of memorabilia from her nearly 2 years in the show, first as an "orphan" in the chorus and then as the star when Shelley Bruce, the second Annie after Andrea McArdle, was diagnosed with leukemia and left the show for treatment.
While setting up my souvenir stand in the lobby before and after the show I met all the stage mothers and siblings as well as the people in the show. Since Annie was a show with so many kids, birthdays and other events were celebrated with a regular routine of parties in the downstairs lounge of the Alvin Theatre (now the Neil Simon) on W. 52nd St.
Anyway, I was leading a Rich & Famous Tour a couple of months ago for a group of English ladies and when we reached Madison Ave. near E. 76th St. by the Carlyle Hotel we were stopped in our tracks by the entire film crew of the Sex and the City movie and the attendant horde of paparazzi. My English ladies did not want to budge so we stayed and watched all the hubbub for awhile until Sarah Jessica Parker and then Jennifer Hudson both emerged from their trailers to film scenes in the Carlyle Hotel. Everyone went crazy! The only autograph Sarah Jessica Parker stopped to sign was for a little girl who was walking by with her Mom and had her pen and paper ready!
Again, I almost said "Hi Sarah! Remember me?" but of course I knew she wouldn't and would probably call for her bodyguards to punch me out. So I stood behind the barricades with all the other people watching the situation.
These pictures were snapped by one of my English ladies, Shauna Harper, and emailed to me only recently.
While setting up my souvenir stand in the lobby before and after the show I met all the stage mothers and siblings as well as the people in the show. Since Annie was a show with so many kids, birthdays and other events were celebrated with a regular routine of parties in the downstairs lounge of the Alvin Theatre (now the Neil Simon) on W. 52nd St.
Anyway, I was leading a Rich & Famous Tour a couple of months ago for a group of English ladies and when we reached Madison Ave. near E. 76th St. by the Carlyle Hotel we were stopped in our tracks by the entire film crew of the Sex and the City movie and the attendant horde of paparazzi. My English ladies did not want to budge so we stayed and watched all the hubbub for awhile until Sarah Jessica Parker and then Jennifer Hudson both emerged from their trailers to film scenes in the Carlyle Hotel. Everyone went crazy! The only autograph Sarah Jessica Parker stopped to sign was for a little girl who was walking by with her Mom and had her pen and paper ready!
Again, I almost said "Hi Sarah! Remember me?" but of course I knew she wouldn't and would probably call for her bodyguards to punch me out. So I stood behind the barricades with all the other people watching the situation.
These pictures were snapped by one of my English ladies, Shauna Harper, and emailed to me only recently.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Broadway, Encores!, Fantasticks and the Reagans
"Broadway...! Broadway...! How Great Thou Are....I'll Leave the Farm...With All It's Charm...To Be A Broadway Star......!"
-- Baby June in GYPSY.
Loved seeing GYPSY last summer at ENCORES with Patti Lupone...sat in the front row and applauded madly. Lupone is the right age and completely the right person to play Mama Rose...very tough...very street smart. I was thrilled to see GYPSY coming back to Broadway (they've already put up the marquee at the St. James Theatre on W. 44th St.). My friend Hilary Knight (Eloise books) knows the real Baby June (actress June Havoc).
This has been a real week for theatre...on Saturday Feb. 9 I attended the ENCORES Production of APPLAUSE at City Center. It's the 1972 musicalization of All About Eve...this one starred Christine Ebersole as Margo Channing and although she always puts in a good, professional performance, everything else was wrong. The gossip at the theatre was that she had the flu during rehearsals and was still weak. The consenus of my friends was that Ebersole comes off too "nice" to play the Broadway diva bitch originated by Bette Davis and played in 1972 by Bacall. I've met Christine Ebersole at American Theatre Wing events and she was always snooty and aloof to me, but onstage she comes off "too nice." If the show moves to Broadway, we all agreed the perfect choice would be Glenn Close, who is a lovely, charming woman in real life but comes off as a perfect "bitch" onstage.
Yesterday, Wednesday, they had free tickets at Actor's Equity to see The Fantasticks Off Broadway at the Snapple/Jerry Ohrbach Theate for the 2pm matinee, so we grabbed a couple. This is a fairly new Off Broadway theatre located on the third floor of a former office building at the corner of 50th Street and Broadway. Even though I saw The Fantasticks 100 times probably (with my tourists) Off Broadway downtown at the Sullivan Street Playhouse (gone) in the West Village, I figured what the hell...its free....its a rainy, snowy, terrible day...might as well see it again. Plus my next door neighbor, Nick Spangler--a former NYU grad who is 22 ( http://www.myspace.com/spangleyman ), is in the show playing Matt (the boy). Nick and I live in twin apt. buildings next door to each other. The funny thing is we both live in Apt. 37 in our respective buildings and we sometimes get mail for each other. The other day I got a huge box for him delivered to my apt. instead so I called him and when he came to pick it up, we chatted a bit and he said he was doing The Fantasticks but it was closing soon. Wouldn't you know that yesterday Nick was NOT in the show! The show, closing in 10 days, is FULL of understudies! The production was just so-so, mostly because the piano was too loud to hear the un-miked performers. The black box theatre has poor acoustics because it was a converted office. In such a space, the piano needs to play SOFT instead of pounding away during the softly sung, unmiked vocals.
Today is Valentine's Day and I'm going to see COME BACK LITTLE SHEBA at Manhattan Theatre Club's Biltmore Theatre with my elderly friends Marilyn & Bob Reagan. They have been friends since just after I moved to New York "from the farm"...lovely people in every way, except now Bob, who is past 80, is showing the beginning of Alzheimer's and Marilyn, who loves theatre and New York as much as I do, is trying to keep him alert, active and interested in things. Marilyn is originally from Utah, loves theatre and joins many groups and is always hearing about special ticket offers, etc. She invites me many times because: 1. we always have fun, 2. it helps her with Bob to have another person there (in case there are issues where a men's room is needed or another pair of eyes to watch or a strong pair of arms to assist). Bob is very ambulatory but its a progressive illness and he has good days and bad days. I met Marilyn over 20 years ago in an Upper Westside tap dancing class taught by the great Bob Audy. In our class we had a mix of aspiring Broadway chorus kids, housewives (Marilyn), the occasional star or celeb like Judy Blume the children's book author (I'll blog about her tomorrow), Mary Tyler Moore (bitch), Tom Hulce, Mandy Patinkin, and others. After I became acquainted with Marilyn & Bob, they invited to their weekend home in Connecticut a few times and we all became friends. Then one day Marilyn told me about this murder that happened in Utah which affected her. It seems a multi-millionaire businessman had been shot in cold blood in a long-unsolved murder. Then it finally came to light that Mark (the man's grandson) had shot his grandpa...the strange twist: young 16 year old Mark had been directed by his mother to do the murder. And the revelation: The woman was a New York Eastside socialite named Frances and this was Marilyn's sister (her evil sister)! I had followed the whole thing in the news but didn't realize this was Marilyn's FAMILY!! Anyway, Marilyn & Bob were telling everybody because the whole thing was back in the news, books and mini-series were being written and they wanted their personal friends to hear it from them FIRST. I even accompanied Marilyn to the Phil Donahue Show one day when Bob was at work so she had somebody to "lean" on in the Green Room.
Two books and two mini-series based on these books were the result: At Mother's Request by CBS News reporter Jonathan Coleman and NUTCRACKER by Shana Alexander. I'll mention more about these friends later.
I may see another show tomorrow...still deciding. There are SO many mid-winter shows that I want to see and for once I have the time and the money and almost everything good is on the half=price discount booth in February.
Happy Valentine's Day!!
-- Baby June in GYPSY.
Loved seeing GYPSY last summer at ENCORES with Patti Lupone...sat in the front row and applauded madly. Lupone is the right age and completely the right person to play Mama Rose...very tough...very street smart. I was thrilled to see GYPSY coming back to Broadway (they've already put up the marquee at the St. James Theatre on W. 44th St.). My friend Hilary Knight (Eloise books) knows the real Baby June (actress June Havoc).
This has been a real week for theatre...on Saturday Feb. 9 I attended the ENCORES Production of APPLAUSE at City Center. It's the 1972 musicalization of All About Eve...this one starred Christine Ebersole as Margo Channing and although she always puts in a good, professional performance, everything else was wrong. The gossip at the theatre was that she had the flu during rehearsals and was still weak. The consenus of my friends was that Ebersole comes off too "nice" to play the Broadway diva bitch originated by Bette Davis and played in 1972 by Bacall. I've met Christine Ebersole at American Theatre Wing events and she was always snooty and aloof to me, but onstage she comes off "too nice." If the show moves to Broadway, we all agreed the perfect choice would be Glenn Close, who is a lovely, charming woman in real life but comes off as a perfect "bitch" onstage.
Yesterday, Wednesday, they had free tickets at Actor's Equity to see The Fantasticks Off Broadway at the Snapple/Jerry Ohrbach Theate for the 2pm matinee, so we grabbed a couple. This is a fairly new Off Broadway theatre located on the third floor of a former office building at the corner of 50th Street and Broadway. Even though I saw The Fantasticks 100 times probably (with my tourists) Off Broadway downtown at the Sullivan Street Playhouse (gone) in the West Village, I figured what the hell...its free....its a rainy, snowy, terrible day...might as well see it again. Plus my next door neighbor, Nick Spangler--a former NYU grad who is 22 ( http://www.myspace.com/spangleyman ), is in the show playing Matt (the boy). Nick and I live in twin apt. buildings next door to each other. The funny thing is we both live in Apt. 37 in our respective buildings and we sometimes get mail for each other. The other day I got a huge box for him delivered to my apt. instead so I called him and when he came to pick it up, we chatted a bit and he said he was doing The Fantasticks but it was closing soon. Wouldn't you know that yesterday Nick was NOT in the show! The show, closing in 10 days, is FULL of understudies! The production was just so-so, mostly because the piano was too loud to hear the un-miked performers. The black box theatre has poor acoustics because it was a converted office. In such a space, the piano needs to play SOFT instead of pounding away during the softly sung, unmiked vocals.
Today is Valentine's Day and I'm going to see COME BACK LITTLE SHEBA at Manhattan Theatre Club's Biltmore Theatre with my elderly friends Marilyn & Bob Reagan. They have been friends since just after I moved to New York "from the farm"...lovely people in every way, except now Bob, who is past 80, is showing the beginning of Alzheimer's and Marilyn, who loves theatre and New York as much as I do, is trying to keep him alert, active and interested in things. Marilyn is originally from Utah, loves theatre and joins many groups and is always hearing about special ticket offers, etc. She invites me many times because: 1. we always have fun, 2. it helps her with Bob to have another person there (in case there are issues where a men's room is needed or another pair of eyes to watch or a strong pair of arms to assist). Bob is very ambulatory but its a progressive illness and he has good days and bad days. I met Marilyn over 20 years ago in an Upper Westside tap dancing class taught by the great Bob Audy. In our class we had a mix of aspiring Broadway chorus kids, housewives (Marilyn), the occasional star or celeb like Judy Blume the children's book author (I'll blog about her tomorrow), Mary Tyler Moore (bitch), Tom Hulce, Mandy Patinkin, and others. After I became acquainted with Marilyn & Bob, they invited to their weekend home in Connecticut a few times and we all became friends. Then one day Marilyn told me about this murder that happened in Utah which affected her. It seems a multi-millionaire businessman had been shot in cold blood in a long-unsolved murder. Then it finally came to light that Mark (the man's grandson) had shot his grandpa...the strange twist: young 16 year old Mark had been directed by his mother to do the murder. And the revelation: The woman was a New York Eastside socialite named Frances and this was Marilyn's sister (her evil sister)! I had followed the whole thing in the news but didn't realize this was Marilyn's FAMILY!! Anyway, Marilyn & Bob were telling everybody because the whole thing was back in the news, books and mini-series were being written and they wanted their personal friends to hear it from them FIRST. I even accompanied Marilyn to the Phil Donahue Show one day when Bob was at work so she had somebody to "lean" on in the Green Room.
Two books and two mini-series based on these books were the result: At Mother's Request by CBS News reporter Jonathan Coleman and NUTCRACKER by Shana Alexander. I'll mention more about these friends later.
I may see another show tomorrow...still deciding. There are SO many mid-winter shows that I want to see and for once I have the time and the money and almost everything good is on the half=price discount booth in February.
Happy Valentine's Day!!
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Announcing Rich & Famous Tours and Jim Dykes' Blog
I'm one of the co-founding tourguides for Rich & Famous Tours....NYC's newest "niche" experience tour...Although I've been guiding groups and individuals around New York for YEARS and YEARS, it was time to start a real tour with a connected website that people (individuals, families, groups of 2, 3, 4, etc.) could sign up for a tour. My tours around the Big Apple have always been full of celebrity info ---in fact most of my established guide friends bow to me as the "expert." On her local New York show Joan Rivers introduced me as "the celebrity tourguide" because of my "inside info". I've been an actor for years and my business partner Mike and I have both worked on many tv and film sets so consequently, showbiz is our LIFE and the tours are a secondary love and a way to live while we persue other dreams. For me, my love of showbiz and the "wicked stage" and my love of showing the REAL New York to starstruck visitors and locals co-exist.
Today I'm on my way out the door to do a special Rich & Famous Tour for a group of lawyers and their spouses...more on this later. I'll let you know how it goes and what famous people we spotted. This is what makes our Rich & Famous Tour so special...over the years we've spotted Bette Midler (3 times), Mary Tyler Moore (2 times---she snarled at us), Sarah Jessica Parker (5 times!), Vanessa Redgrave, Denzel Washington, Jennifer Hudson, Demi Moore, Meg Ryan, John Lithgow (walking his dog and later riding the subway), Dustin H0ffman (walking his dog), Jerry Springer, and MANY more celebs. In this blog I'll mention frequently who we are seeing on the Rich & Famous Tour and where we are spotting them.
Also check You-Tube....some of my TV commercial clips are now on there. Check Jim Dykes Commercials. Also www.jimdykes.com
More Later, blogging pals....
Today I'm on my way out the door to do a special Rich & Famous Tour for a group of lawyers and their spouses...more on this later. I'll let you know how it goes and what famous people we spotted. This is what makes our Rich & Famous Tour so special...over the years we've spotted Bette Midler (3 times), Mary Tyler Moore (2 times---she snarled at us), Sarah Jessica Parker (5 times!), Vanessa Redgrave, Denzel Washington, Jennifer Hudson, Demi Moore, Meg Ryan, John Lithgow (walking his dog and later riding the subway), Dustin H0ffman (walking his dog), Jerry Springer, and MANY more celebs. In this blog I'll mention frequently who we are seeing on the Rich & Famous Tour and where we are spotting them.
Also check You-Tube....some of my TV commercial clips are now on there. Check Jim Dykes Commercials. Also www.jimdykes.com
More Later, blogging pals....
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