Michael Imperioli stars in perhaps the most violent television show ever created, HBO’s The Sopranos; but, in real life, he’s no fan of blood-and-guts. “I’m very squeamish about violence,” says the actor. “When you’re doing it for TV, it’s all about smoke and mirrors.” Nevertheless, he put his distaste aside earlier this month and visited New Mexico to watch the very violent “sport” of cockfighting as research for Chicken, the new play he’s co-starring in and co-producing for his Off-Broadway company Studio Dante
“Mike Batistick, the writer, Nick Sandow, the director, and I thought it was important to go see this, since it’s a major theme of the play,” says Imperioli. “New Mexico is one of only two states where cockfighting is legal. It was very interesting, but not what I expected. It’s not a big spectator thing; it’s more like a private club, and the people were very friendly. But yeah, it’s violent — except it’s chickens instead of people getting hurt.”
In Chicken, Imperioli plays Floyd, the protagonist’s wayward best friend. He’s thrilled that his company is doing another play by Batistick, having previously produced his earlier work Ponies. “Mike is a very exciting writer. I loved this play right away; it’s a good representation of the melting pot mentality of New York City. I’m really happy the way things are going with Studio Dante, and that we can have these relationships with writers. The only thing that would be better is if we could get better funding. That’s the most difficult thing.”
March will be a high-profile month for the actor; he’s co-starring in The Inner Life of Martin Frost, a new film by his old friend Paul Auster, which will open the annual New Directors/New Films Festival at the Museum of Modern Art on March 21. “I play a plumber who moonlights as a writer,” he says. “My character is ambitious but not very good. David Thewlis plays Martin, this famous writer; he hires me to fix the heater in his cabin, and I ask him to look at my work. We did the shoot in a beautiful, idyllic house in Portugal last summer. We ate long lunches, and the whole thing was ridiculously smooth.”
Last but definitely not least, the final nine episodes of The Sopranos will begin airing on Sunday, April 8. “I have no idea yet how the series is going to end, though even if I did, I’m sworn to secrecy,” says Imperioli. Does he have a wish as to where his character, the messed-up gangster Christopher Moltisanti, should end up? “I want him to move into the mental hospital with Uncle Junior,” he says sincerely, adding: “This has been the greatest working experience of my life, but I’m happy to see what else is out there. All I can do is take things as they come.”
Marla Schaffel
TALL ORDER The Apple Tree isn’t the only program of three one-act shows presented together. In Brian Harris’Tall Grass, which starts previews on March 3 at the Beckett, former Tony Award nominee Marla Schaffel plays a driven young career woman, a middle-aged woman trapped in a destructive marital relationship, and an 80-year-old who’s determined to keep her husband and herself out of a nursing home. So, which character is her favorite?
“I love the old woman the most, because she’s probably easier for me to relate to than these other two,” says Schaffel. “I don’t relate to the first character at all; it’s been a challenge just to memorize words like ‘spreadsheet’ and ‘Linux.’ As for the second character, I am not accustomed to being in relationships that feed on negative interaction. I had great internal resistance to her until about three weeks into rehearsal, and that surprised me. I’ve known people like her, but I just couldn’t break through.”
Schaffel says that this is some of the hardest yet most satisfying work of her career. “Even though they’re short one-acts, you do just as much work on each as you would on one two-hour play,” she notes. “But it’s so wonderful not to be doing a musical. I trained at the Juilliard drama division; I auditioned for a full year before I got a part, and that was in Les Miz. I ended up focusing on musicals, but I’m not complaining. Musicals have been very, very good to me.”
It takes a lot to get me to see a Broadway show a second time — especially one that I had mixed feelings about — and even more to pay for the actual ticket. But it was worth every minute and every ducat to see my pal, the incredible Julia Murney, tear down the Gershwin with her superbly sung and brilliantly acted take on Elphaba in Wicked. Sure, she’s not a teenager and she can’t quite riff some like of predecessors, but I doubt you’ll ever see a more affecting portrayal of the poor, misunderstood Wicked Witch.
Murney’s is in good company. Her tour co-star Kendra Kassebaum is a very touching Glinda, though she misses some of the first act laughs; Jayne Houdyshell is a properly scary Madame Morrible; and David Garrison, another friend of mine, is a thoroughly charming Wizard.
I also loved seeing some very enthusiastic audience members enter the theater in Elphaba hats, which I’m pretty sure they took off during the performance. But I did NOT love the Japanese tourist seated in front of me. Not only did he text message throughout the show, he appeared to be filming some of the performance!
THE DOCTOR IS IN Bill W. and Dr. Bob earned much acclaim in its production last year at Boston’s New Repertory Theater and has already amassed a healthy advance for its current mounting at NYC’s New World Stages, but don’t think of authors of Stephen Bergman and Janet Surrey as overnight sensations. This long-married couple, both of whom have thriving careers as psychologists and writers, first started working two decades ago on this play about the founders of Alcoholics Anoymous, played by Robert Krakovski and Patrick Husted.
“I was treating a lot of addicts and alcoholics in my practice, so I started going to AA meetings to understand them,” says Bergman. “Then one day, Janet came to me with the idea of doing a stage play about Bill W. Our first thought was that someone must have already done it, but they hadn’t. We called AA to see if they would have a problem if we did one, and their only rule is that you have to footnote any quotes from the organization in print. So then we contacted every living member of Bill and Bob’s families, and went to all the places they did.”
One piece of the puzzle fell into place in a very unexpected way. “We did an early public reading of the play and, after the show, this guy came up and told us he knew Bill,” recalls Bergman. “He told us that Bill was a man who could talk a dog off a meat wagon, and that was a really valuable piece of information.”
Make sure your checkbook is handy, because once March hits, benefits and galas will be on us like a swarm of flies. Here in New York, TItuss Burgess, Constantine Maroulis, Christine Pedi, and Daniel Reichard will take part in the 3rd Annual Broadway Purim Shpiel on March 4 at the Hudson Theatre to benefit Tagalit- Birthright Israel. On March 5, there are three appealing options: Victoria Clark will perform The George Gershwin Songbook at the New York Historical Society for the American Musicals Project; Kristy Cates, Leah Hocking, and Andy Kelso will be among the participants at Friends With Benefits, a concert for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS at the Metropolitan Room; and Nancy Opel, Nicole Parker, Thom Sesma, Elizabeth Stanley, and other notables will lend their talents to Broadway Sings Waterwell at Joe’s Pub.
Two of the most star-studded benefits are scheduled for March 12. Broadway for Medicine at City Center will feature such performers as Charles Busch, Manoel Felciano, Malcolm Gets, Joanna Gleason, Deborah Gibson, Debbie Gravitte, Julie Halston, Mimi Hines, Andrea McArdle, and Donna McKechnie. Meanwhile, MCC Theater’s annual Miscast benefit, at the Hammerstein Ballroom, will star Norbert Leo Butz, Raúl Esparza, Ana Gasteyer, Jane Krakowski, LaChanze, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Josh Strickland, and a host of other luminaries. Not too shabby either is The Gallery Players’ 40th anniversary gala on March 22, A Theater Thrives in Brooklyn, which will honor Harvey Fierstein and will feature entertainment by Annie Golden, Michael Hunsaker, and Brian Charles Rooney.
Outside the Big Apple, Avery Brooks, Helen Carey, and Patrick Page will be among those feted at the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s 20th Annual Gala in Washington D.C. on March 4; Liz Callaway and Malcolm Gets will star with a host of Chicago favorites in The Actors’ Fund of America’s benefit concert presentation of Working on March 5 at Chicago’s Harris Theatre; and Susan Sullivan and Talia Shire will star in a benefit reading of Agnes of God at Long Island’s Hofstra University on March 24.
Looking further ahead, Harry Connick, Jr. and His Big Band will entertain at The 15th Annual Kennedy Center Gala on April 29; Jason Alexander will host the Huntington Theatre Company’s Spotlight Spectacular! on April 30 in Boston; Adam Pascal and Tracie Thoms will headline the CenterStage Annual Benefit Gala on May 12 in Baltimore; Tony Award winner Betty Buckley will perform a benefit concert at Allentown’s Civic Theatre on May 18; Oscar winner Olympia Dukakis will be honored at Trinity Rep’s Pell Awards Gala in Providence on June 2; and legendary Broadway composer Jerry Herman will be feted at the Goodspeed Musicals Gala in East Haddam, Connecticut on June 16.
