Willy Wonka Musical

This should show my true colors as far as how much I enjoy performing. Maybe test my limits. I'm Mr. Salt in the musical version of "Willy Wonka" running from June 5th to June 22nd. That's 15 performances.  Is that a lot for a community theater? It is in my experience. The most performances of a show I've been in was 9.  And that's only happened with 5 shows -- out of the 41 I've been in before "Willy Wonka".  In fact, more than 5 is pretty rare.  Here's how many shows I've been in broken down by number of performances.

Number of performances	How many shows had that many performances
9	5
8	2
7	2
6	3
5	13
4	8
3	8

Shakespeare

I haven't had any reason to update my auditions list in a while, but I did last week.  And so this summer I'm going to be in another Shakespeare production, "Twelfth Night".  Not having brushed up on my Shakespeare, I don't really known much about this play, other than it's one of his standard "A loves B who loves C who loves D who loves A who's actually a woman pretending to be a man" deals.  Based on the character list, my character, Fabian, is not part of the big love polygon. He's a "gentleman" (servant?) of a main character's house and they were looking for someone 16-60 to play him.

As always, I don't think I need to remind you (as laid down by the Furious Five), that I'm like Shakespeare, I'm a pioneer. Because I made rap something people wanted to hear.

And then I got my Ph.D. in Phunk.

Tiger on Broadway

My second cousin, Rajiv Joseph -- I'm sure we wouldn't know each other if we were trapped in an elevator together -- wrote "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo", Robin Williams' Broadway debut.  I'm not sure if it's still in previews or if it's had its official opening yet.  It sounds like it's attracting enough audience to be successful, based on what I saw in the NY Times.  Here's one glowing review, and another, well, not so much:  Zap2It couldn't wait for it to end, but the LA Times thinks it's brilliant.

We're All Salesman

You know how they say the worst thing in an interview is when they ask if you have any questions, and you don't?  It wasn't really an interview, just a face to face meeting with a headhunter, but I didn't.  Actually, this is the first time a headhunter ever wanted to meet in person.  And since he wasn't representing an employer/job, I didn't think it appropriate to go with the standard-questions-to-ask-in-an-interview-even-though-I-really-don't-care-what-the-answers-are.

And speaking of selling yourself, I just started rehearsals for "Death Of A Salesman" at the Bowen Park Theatre Company.  (Opening night is Rocktober 8th.)  Last night I read the play for the first time. You know, at the read-through.  Wow, that's some depressing tale.  And so relate-able.  Probably more so today than 60 years ago when it was first produced.  But I'm sure I don't have to tell you.

(And now those bits on "Seinfeld" when Jerry would refer to George as Biff start to make a little sense.  But, um, don't ask me to explain how.)

A Leading Woman

Did I mention I got cast in another show somehow?  It'll be my 35th.  "A Leading Woman" is being done by Waukegan Community Players and it opens in only two weeks.  It's the world premier of "the happy true story of how a band of struggling actors stood up to the mighty Broadway producers in the summer of 1919."  George Gershwin, George M. Cohan and the founder of Variety are all in the show.  I play Benjamin Brookings, a "young" director excited about the new theater of Chekhov and Ibsen .It's not a musical, but there are a couple songs, including one with a solo for me.

Admission is 12 bucks (sorry, no credit cards).  Shows are at the Dr. Lynn Schornick Theater in the Jack Benny Center in Bowen Park at the north end of Waukegan:  39 Jack Benny Dr., Waukegan, IL.

Shows are May 7, 8, 14, and 15th at 8:00 pm; May 9th at 3:00 pm.

Hansel & Gretel

My next show -- with the Round Lake Area Park District Community Theater -- opens in a week:  The Story of Hansel and Gretel.  That's me in the role of "Father".  Shows are at the Robert Rolek Community Center in Round Lake:

Friday, Apr. 16, 7:30 pm
Saturday, Apr. 17, 2:00 pm
Saturday, Apr. 17, 7:30 pm
Sunday, Apr. 18, 2:00 pm

It was all Mother's fault that the kids got lost in the forest, you know.