Broadway To Vegas
SHOW REVIEWS CELEBRITY INTERVIEWS GOSSIP NEWS
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Copyright: December 19, 1999
By: Laura Deni
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ANGELS UNAWARE
MASTER OF AVIGNON The Guardian Angel
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Everybody can use a little help. The power of angels has been documented since the beginning of
time. The word Angel is Greek and means messenger.
Angels are said to be immortal spirits that live in Heaven.
Dionysus the Areopagite in the A.D.
400s set up a ranking of heavenly beings. He believed there were nine orders, of which angels
were the lowest and seraphim the highest.
As St. Augustine put it: "Every visible thing in the
world is put in the charge of an angel."
Many souls are coming forth to proclaim that their lives
have been touched by the phenomenon of angel miracles.
GEORGE JONES
GEORGE JONES
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believes angels were watching over him after he had his life threatening wreck last March in
Franklin, Tenn.
As of way of "thanking the angels" he's recorded a song with gospel queen Vestal Goodman,
called Angel Band.
The bridge abutment on highway 96 in Williamson Country where
George wrecked his Lexus SUV is the setting for the song's video.
Jones opens in Las Vegas in
February.
DONNY OSMOND was in the
shower when he heard an unfamiliar voice clearly tell him - 'Go check on your son.'
Ignoring the
voice Osmond again heard - 'Go check on your son.'
Again, the performer continued with his
shower. The third time a more persistent voice said - Go check on your son.
Osmond got
out of the shower and found that his small son had found an apple, bit into it and was
choking on
the peel. The boy had turned blue. Osmond pulled the peel from his son's throat and saved the
boy's life.
"I know angels exist," strongly stated Osmond. "We all have guardian angels."
CHERYL LADD
CHERYL LADD
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Without a guardian angel the former Charlie's Angels stars declared, "I would
have been
dead."
The angel encounter took place in front of her friend's house.
Cheryl has just walked out of the
house and was at the street curb.
"I was walking to my car and, as I was about to step into the
street, someone said, - Cheryl! - and I turned around. A car zoomed by at about 100 miles an
hour. But, when I looked - no one was there!"
"I went back in the house and asked if someone had
called my name. She said - No!"
The North Dakota native says she "knows there are angels. No
question! An angel saved my life."
RICHARD KARN who played Tim
Allen's Tool Time buddy Al Borland on Home Improvement was living in New York in
1983 when he received the news that his mother had breast cancer. Devastated, he went into
denial.
"One day an angel touched my shoulder. I just stood up and I knew I had to go home. I
discovered that Mom had been trying to shield me from the truth. She'd been telling me she was
going out, meeting people. But she was really bedridden. Three days later, I was with her when
she passed away. I know it was an angel that led me to her side."
DELLA REESE
DELLA REESE
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credits her deceased mother with returning to earth as Della's guardian angel and saving her life.
Reese was nearly killed instantly in a freak accident that happened in 1969. Thinking a sliding
glass door was open, Della actually crashed right through the door, falling on top of the jagged
bottom piece.
The more she tried to changed position the deeper the glass cut.
A remaining piece
broke loose and was about to slice her neck.
"A split second before that top glass plunged down,
my mother Nellie, who died in 1949, reached around from behind me taking hold of my head and
shoulders, and lifted me up onto my feet and told me to sit down in a chair."
RODNEY DANGERFIELD the
comedian who prides himself on getting no respect now feels his new CD He is getting
some angelic respect.
The religious CD which "talks about God," according to the comedian, has
an amazing paranormal quality and something good happens to everyone who hears it.
This time
the comic isn't clowning around.
CY COLEMAN: CAMPAIGNING
COMPOSER
CY COLEMAN.
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Cy Coleman has written scores that have distinguished Broadway musicals for three decades. In
this second of a two-part interview the composer/producer, who is an ASCAP board member,
discusses hot button items on his personal short list including; the Internet, royalties, and the
critics.
"I'm vice president of ASCAP and we're constantly fighting for our copyrights," he
declared.
"What I see is that our rights are diminishing. That is very important, because you're not going to
get anybody to become a writer if they're not be able to make a living," he fumed.
"The Internet is a big problem," continued Coleman. "I feel that we have to find a way of getting
paid. We also have to educate the public to know that this is somebody's effort - and you get
paid.
ADOLPH GREEN, BETTY COMDEN AND CY
Their collaborations included The Will Rogers Follies.
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"You pay - just like you pay for a suit of clothes. Writing is not a whim. We all studied, work
hard and work to support our families.
"Eventually, there will be a lot of lawsuits regarding the free download of music," he
speculated. "Nobody does anything for free. I don't know why intellectual property law is such
a mystery, but it is.
"It's a shame and that's why we have to go to Washington and have some laws passed. We have
laws in place and we have people who are championing us, but we need more laws passed. There
are too many people who want their own salaries, but deny us ours.
"Part of the problem is enforcing the laws. We had a guy from M.I.T talk to us and he said -
"Yeah, we're stealing your work, but that way it gets to a broader range of people so they are
educated.
MIMI QUILLIN, ALLISON WILLIAMS, BEBE
NEUWIRTH, AND STEPHANIE POPE perform Big Spender from the 1986 revival of
Sweet Charity. Coleman wants composers to get their fair share of the
loot.
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"I said - How would you like your work to be done that way? It's very important or this
country is going to be importing one of our biggest exports - music - because our music is all
going to other countries.
"We were talking about coding on the Internet and the man from M.I.T said - Well, you can
code it, but there is no lock that hasn't been picked.
"But they are going to have to find some way of protecting our rights," he
emphasized. "It is a hard problem. You don't want to see the creativity dry up in this country. We
have to protect the creative talents the same way we would protect the steel industry.
"People seem to look at the problem one of two ways: One way is - they don't have any respect
for it. The other attitude is - Oh, they are all billionaires. They look at the Beatles or they look at
Irving Berlin. The average person who is writing is having trouble paying his rent. You know
how far it is in between hits? Even if they get one? That's the important thing!
MICHAEL CRAWFORD takes a tumble performing
"Black and White" from Barnum. Coleman doesn't want writers taking a financial tumble
because they don't get proper royalties.
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"We're trying to safeguard those rights. Writers deserve compensation for their work. Somebody
makes money off of their work and they deserve to be paid."
As for Coleman he doesn't do a project unless he's " in love with it in some way."
He's given his heart to several. "There is one coming with Larry Gelbart and David Zippel, which
is going to be Napoleon and Josephine. Then there is another one - an old one that has
taken a lot of time - 13 Days to Broadway. There is one I wrote with Michael Stewart just
before he died, Nothing But the Truth.
Coleman has developed mixed feelings about the critics.
"Unfortunately, we don't have anybody critiquing the critics," he lamented. "We're getting these
gossipy kind of reviews before we start. The fact of the matter is, not everyone who
critiques is qualified to do it. Anybody that gets up and has an opinion can vilify. There were a lot
of critics that I had a lot of respect for. They have dwindled in numbers. Critics putting in their
own agendas is getting a little boring. People who come in with their own agendas and criticize
according to those agendas are not really equipped to criticize what is on the stage," he
charged.
Recently one of Coleman's efforts, Exactly Like You, received some critical barbs.
"That was a spoof," he answered about the show and the critics that didn't know the difference
between a farce and a musical comedy.
The Life is a great show," said the composer defending his Broadway show that will open
in London. "Some of the critics didn't like it because it was a show about prostitution. We got
criticized because we were showing 42nd Street the way it was. We were doing inter-city life.
And, we called it The Life.
SCENE FROM THE LIFE
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"Some of the reviews were amazing to me. Some were outlandish and some were wonderful," he
recalled. "We won every prize with the exception of the Tony." Quipped the composer, "I guess -
that's life."
As to whether there is a place for new composers, the veteran thinks the up and comers have an
easier time of it than the established tunesmiths.
"There is always room for new composers," said Coleman who began his own career as a child
prodigy. The son of immigrants, Coleman's voice resonated with pride when he discussed his
mother. "My mother was a remarkable woman. She was an immigrant, but she was a business
woman and she drove a car!"
CY COLEMAN AND DOROTHY
FIELDS.
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His mother, who owned a building in the Bronx, had a border who skipped out on the rent,
leaving behind a piano. Cy's mother carted the piano into the family residence where four-year-old
Cy instantly became infatuated with those 88 key, displaying a talent what wasn't fully
appreciated by his carpenter father, who nailed the lid shut in order to obtain some quiet around
the house.
The determined carpenter's son managed to get the lid undone. Harmony was restored when the
family milk man suggested piano lessons, and then encouraged the family to permit Cy to turn
pro. Between the ages of six and nine Coleman was performing at the piano in Steinway, Town
and Carnegie Halls. The guy who wrote Witchcraft and The Best is Yet To Come
thinks of himself first and foremost as a piano player.
"There are people who have written wonderful music that don't go to school. I just happened to
go to school and I'm glad I did," said the well-educated composer, who expressed an opinion of
prejudice towards the old guard.
JAMES NAUGHTON AND GREGG EDELMAN as
the gum shoe and the scribe doing the witty You're Nothing Without Me from City of
Angeles. Cy used some of his profits to build a swimming pool
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"There is more room for new composers than old composers," he charged. "There is a prejudice
against the old guard. It's always get the broom and sweep them out - bring in the new - which is
unfortunate, because you can combine the two. When I got started I worked with Dorothy
Fields," he said of the late gifted lyricist who teamed with Coleman on Sweet Charity, and
Two for the See Saw.
"She was quite a few years my senior. And, out of that came Sweet Charity. There is too
much corporate money involved. It's like the rest of the world. It's getting more and more
concentrated in the hands of a few.
That doesn't mean Coleman is crying poor mouth. Those with the hits have perks not
permitted by poverty. He's even named the rewards he's reaped.
"I have a good life. I have a house in South Hampton. I go out to the beach and play tennis. I
have a Sweet Charity pool, a City of Angeles tennis court, a Barnum
hot tub, and The Will Rogers home improvements in my house in the city. If you make a
few bucks, do something with it. Enjoy it."
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LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION
JAMES CAAN AND KIRSTEN DUNST
in Vegas for a five-week shoot of Luckytown an independent
feature.
The storyline deals with the character played by Dunst wanting to track down her father,
played by Caan.
Vincent Kartheiger co-stars.
SHOWTIME brought their
cameras into last Thursday's Los Angeles performance of Bash which stars Calista
Flockhart, Ron Eldard and Paul Rudd.
The taped performance will air on the cable channel in the
spring.
DOLLY PARTON has purchased
the movie rights to the book The Jew Store, a true story about a Jewish family who
relocated from the Bronx to a Tennessee town ruled by the Ku Klux Klan.
Parton would like to
play Miss Brookie, the townswoman who serves as the bridge between the Jewish family and the
anti-semitic town.
Ironically, in 1994 Parton was accused of being anti-Semitic. In discussing a
proposed TV series about a gospel singer who died, Parton was quoted in Vogue as
saying " people in Hollywood are Jewish. And it's a frightening thing for them to promote
Christianity." Parton apologized.
SWEET CHARITY
KAYE BALLARD was roasted at the
Indian Wells, California Country Club in a benefit for the AMC Cancer Research Center in
Denver and the Cancer Center at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, CA.
Those
skewing Ballard included Shecky Greene, Ralph Young, Peter Marshall, V. J. Hume.
The benefit
also honored Dr. Karl Schultz.
CHRISTMAS FROM BROADWAY a
holiday revue benefiting Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS continues at Sam's, New York's
oldest theater bar and restaurant, through December 23.
Christmas from Broadway is created
by Ken Lundie and Michael Davids and hosted by Dale Badway.The holiday show features songs
from Broadway including We Need A Little Christmas, Hard Candy Christmas and
Sing a Little Song of Christmas plus original holiday music by Rick Crom, Bob Ost and Brad
Ross.
Starring in the musical revue are Angela Covington, Anthony Galde, Doreen Montalvo,
William Reinking and Sam Riegel with Bryan Gallagher, Christian Stuck and Dawn Ward. There
are also nightly surprise guests including: Rick Crom, Bob Evans, Michael Kubala, Eric Michael
Gillett, Douglas Ladnier, Faith Prince, Ken Prymus, Ernie Sabella, Steven Sein-Granger and
others. All proceeds from the show donated to BC/EFA.
OTHER PEOPLE'S
MONEY
.
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ANDRE AGASSI announced that
there will not be an Andre Agassi Grand Slam Concert next year.
The fund raiser, held in Las Vegas
every September, benefited the Agassi Children's Charities.
The tennis great explained the event
was a massive undertaking, time consuming and it was becoming more and more difficult to "go
back to the same people for the financial support."
He promised he still intends to raise money to
complete a charter school in Las Vegas and indicated "we're halfway there."
LOSS OF CITY FUNDING and
poor ticket sales resulted in the four day - December 29-January 1 Jazz Til January, at Indian
Wells, CA being canceled.
The event would have featured top jazz and blues artists, including
Nancy Wilson, Rod Piazza, Marcus Roberts and La Vay Smith.
SEX
MAE WEST starred at the Sahara Hotel, Las Vegas in
1954.
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was a 1926 play which starred
Mae West, who also authored the work.
It also got the star arrested on an obscenity charge and
she spent eight days in jail.
The Hourglass Group has revived the play, which opened last Thursday in the Living Room of the
Gershwin Hotel, NYC.
Carolyn Baeumler stars in the Mae West role of blonde prostitute
Margy LaMont, who advances from a Montreal brothel to a rich man's Connecticut mansion.
West was born in Brooklyn in 1892. Known for her half-mast eyelids, come hither voice
and no-nonsense seductiveness, she was a living American institution. At 14 she began appearing
in vaudeville and in Broadway revues - it was West who introduced the shimmy on stage.
She was
also a male impersonator.
Her aggressive sexuality and comic genius established her as a diamond
studded star.
She also had a business head. In Las Vegas she purchased about a half-mile piece of
desolate but prime Highway frontage, located between what would become the
Dunes and the Tropicana Hotels.
AMADEUS starring David Suchet as
Amadeus and Michael Sheen as Mozart opened last Wednesday followed by a star studded party
at Sardi's.
Those offering congratulations included; Kate Beckinsale, Elizabeth Berkeley,
Matthew Broderick, Jessica Lang, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Debra Monk.
Peter Shaffer,
considered one of Britain's foremost modern playwrights has been making the talk show rounds,
discussing Amadeus, his Tony Award winning classic, which chronicles the ferocious
conflict between Mozart and his envious rival, composer Antonio Salieri.
Although
Amadeus premiered over twenty years ago, opening November 2, 1979 in the National
Theatre, London, Shaffer has recently made changes to the play for this revival.
THE BUDDY HOLLY STORY
opens December 22 at the Shubert Theatre in Chicago.
The production has enjoyed a long run in
London's West End, where it was nominated for an Olivier Award.
Buddy tells the
18-month story of Holly from his balladering beginnings in Lubbock, Texas, to the fateful dance
party in Clear Lake, Iowa, on February 3, 1959, after which Holly, Ritchie "La Bamba" Valens and
J.R."Chantilly Lace" Richardson (a.k.a. The Big Bopper, died in a plane crash.
Holly is portrayed
by Van Zeiler in this Alan Jones retrospective.
The Buddy Holly Story runs through January 9th. The Buddy Holly Story opens
at the Las Vegas Hilton on February 22th.
CARRIN BEGINNING produced by
the Riverside Stage Co., written by W. August Schulenburg and directed by Brian Feehan has
been extended through January 9, at the Chelsea Playhouse, NYC.
Set in a 1927 Donegal, Ireland
pub, the production stars Norman Allen, Dawn Denvir, Katrina Ferguson, Stephen Guarino, Mary
Jo McConnell, Kevin Kraft, G. W. Reed, and Cara Stoner.
Sets by Jennifer Collins, costumes by
Mira Goldberg, and lighting by Rick Belzar. Choreography by Mary Beth Griffith.
MATTHEW BRODERICK AND PARKER POSEY will co-star in Taller Than a Dwarf, a new comedy by Elaine May.
Dwarf, about a man who refuses to work, opens this spring at the Longacre Theater,
NYC, with Alan Arkin directing.
THE SOUND OF MUSIC starring
Richard Chamberlain opens at Jones Hall, Houston Texas on December 21 for a six night run.
SPLASH
UNDARMAA DARIHUU doing the ultimate stretch
looks like a modern art sculpture.
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the production show at the Riviera hotel in Las Vegas reopens on December 25 with a completely
renovated version.
Three specialty acts will be featured including contortion artist
Undarmaa Darihuucu.
Born and raised in Mongolia, Undarmaa toured with the Mongolian State Circus before joining
the world-famous Ringling Bros.' Barnum & Bailey Circus.
The five foot-four inch
artist began her study of contortion at the age of ten.
WHO'S WHERE
THE COLORS OF CHRISTMAS
PEABO BRYSON
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stars Peabo Bryson, James Ingram, Dionne Warwick and Deniece
Williams.
This Stig Edgren production has become a holiday tradition.
With six successful tours of the
United States, the show spawned a holiday album of the same name, on the Windam Hill label.
The four superstar performers unite to sing traditional Christmas classics and feature solo
spotlights of their hit singles.
The unique concert, which attempts to show what life would be like if the spirit of Christmas was
kept alive year round, features a 21-piece orchestra. Riviera Hotel, Las Vegas December 22.
MICHAEL CRAWFORD will
spend Christmas in the Holy Land, singing O Holy Night as part of Dr. Robert Schuller's
multi-denominational Bethlehem church service.
SUSAN LUCCI who was set to
make her Broadway debut on her birthday, December 23, isn't having an easy time of it. The soap
opera diva missed so many rehearsals because of the flu that her Broadway gig in the 1999 Tony
winning Annie Get Your Gun has been pushed back to December 27. Lucci will perform
through January 16. The vacationing Bernadette Peters returns to her role on January 18.
ALLY SHEEDY who had been
staring in Hedwig and the Angry Itch at the Jane Street Theater, NYC, has suddenly left
the production after a showdown last Wednesday with the producers. Sheedy had been slated to
play the transsexual German rocker until February 4. Kevin Cahoon has assumed the role in this hit
off-Broadway musical.
KATHLEEN TURNER will
make her London stage debut next spring in The Graduate. The play - about a young man
who is seduced by a middle-age woman and falls in love with her daughter - opens at the Gielgud
Theatre in London on April 5. The 1967 movie starred Anne Bancroft and Dustin Hoffman as
Benjamin Braddock. In the London stage version Braddock will be played by Matthew
Rhys.
GABRIEL BYRNE will make his
American stage debut in Eugene O'Neill's Moon for the Misbegotten at the Walter Kerr
Theater in March.
BIG BAD VOODOO DADDY
House of Blues, West Hollywood, Calif, December 20.
GARTH BROOKS in limbo. The
poor guy doesn't know if he's performing or not. Periodically he feels compelled to announce that
- he's retired, will retire or might retire. Frankly, we don't care. We just wish he'd stop talking
about it. And, this PR stunt is getting old. If Garth feels he repeatedly needs to take the
audience's temperature, think up a different gimmick.
THIS AND THAT
MADONNA'S OLD LAME' BUSTIER is one of the items on display in a glittering array of rock star fashions.
Arranged by the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC and the
Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, the exhibition runs through March 19 at
the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
SIEGFRIED AND ROY
who are usually surrounded by white tigers and lions are surrounded by Santa's helpers
Celebrating the 40th anniversary of when Siegfried and Roy started performing together, the
illusionists, who perform at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas, send magical, mystical millennium
and Christmas greetings.
We at Broadway To Vegas may not be magical or mystical but we also send - Seasons Greetings!
Mention BROADWAY TO VEGAS for Special Consideration
Call (800) 942-9027
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Next Column: December 26, 1999
Copyright: December 19, 1999 All Rights Reserved. Reviews, Interviews, Commentary,
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