Making It at the Drama Book Shop

Had a good time moderating a panel discussion at the Drama Book Shop about Making It on Broadway, David Wienir and Jodie Langel’s sensational new trade paperback. It’s a collection of quotations that the two authors got from 154 stage performers, ranging from Tony-winners to swings. And, oh, did they spill the beans on what it’s like dreaming of Broadway, struggling for Broadway, and making it to Broadway — which is profoundly different from Making It on Broadway. Who knew that A Chorus Line actually sugar-coated the strife-filled life of performers?

“This book,” I told the crowd, “shows that Irving Berlin was lying when he wrote ‘There’s No Business Like Show Business’ — for ‘everything about it is’ NOT ‘appealing.’ On the other hand,” I said, “maybe we should give Berlin the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he wrote ‘everything about it is appalling’ but his secretary mistyped it.”

Though the lion’s share of stories inluded here aren’t sunny, I wouldn’t call the book negative. “Realistic” is a better word. Wienir was on hand for the discussion but Langel was not, for though she appeared in Les Miz, Martin Guerre, Cats, and Joseph, after all that she still found herself performing “Memory” at a children’s birthday party in New Jersey one day. So she returned to graduate school, and she missed the Drama Book Shop event because she had to stay in California and study.

Daniel C. Levine understands Langel’s point-of-view. The actor told us that he dreamed of being in Les Miz from the moment he heard the score but decided that he’d be better off at Tufts Dental School. Yet when the opportunity arose for him to audition for the show, he took it — and his dream came true when he was cast. Or so he thought. “Fast forward two years,” he said dully, telling us how bored he became with the show.

According to Wienir, many actors felt the same way about that British mega-musical and plenty of the others; they felt like cogs in a machine rather than actors. I nodded, for I’d learned that after reading the harrowing stories — each of them a Michael Riedel wet-dream — in which they told of going through the motions on stage or playing pranks on each other in view of the audience. Anything to keep their sanity. Jim Walton, also on hand for the discussion, admitted that he fell into much the same mindset when he was in the first production of 42nd
Street for months on end. He said it was a tough adjustment after growing up in community theater, where you did a maximum of, say, eight performances and you didn’t have the chance to grow tired of a show. (Don’t forget, he didn’t get many more performances than that when he played the lead in the original Merrily We Roll Along.) Walton admitted that he’s had some lean times lately and I was too much of a gentleman to bring up Chef’s Theatre, in which he opened but from which he quickly parted company. He reminisced on the recent revival of The Music Man, wherein he played Charlie Cowell but understudied Harold Hill. So there were Wednesdays and Saturdays when he played the lead at the matinee and came out the stage door to fans begging for autographs but then did the small part at the evening show and was totally ignored upon leaving the theater.

That brought up the subject of fans — and stalkers. Walton made it clear that he has a lovely booster named Polly in Canada but Dave Clemmons told of Catherine, a San Franciscan who pursued him vigorously from city to city when he played Valjean on tour. He knew that she was bonkers when she said she was moving to Little Rock because the end of the world was nigh but she’d be saved because of the crystals found in abundance there. (Don’t ask.) She disappeared from his life for a while — “and then we played Little Rock,” he droned. The entire sordid story can be found among the pages of Making It on Broadway. (No wonder that Clemmons abandoned performing and is now one of the town’s best casting agents.)

Kelli Rabke had better luck with a fan she made after doing Children of Eden at the Paper Mill Playhouse, for she married him. Given that she recently had a baby with him, she hasn’t performed much lately; but she did for us, singing “On My Own.” Even Daniel Levine, who deep in his heart probably hopes never to hear that song again, seemed moved by her rendition. Walton said that, since jobs haven’t been forthcoming, he’s been concentrating on songwriting; then he played for us a delicious tune of his. It tells of a young man, a music major, who’s been dating a young woman, also a music major — but she’s recently been flirting with another music major. “B-minor Be His,” went the song, with a B-minor chord a big element of the piece. When Walton mourned “Gee,” he played a G, and when he claimed that his rival was “E-ffeminate” or even “AC/DC,” I’m sure you can guess what notes he played there.

Levine said that he still wants to perform but that he’s always had a dental-related business for security’s sake. (Guess he took Orin’s advice in Little Shop of Horrors). Then he proved that he can still cut the mustard as a singer, giving us a warm welcome to Falsettoland by performing Mary Sunshine’s big number from Chicago with ear-splitting accuracy. After he pointed out that “There’s a little bit of good in everyone,” I asked Clemmons if he thought there was a little bit of good in Catherine.

There’s a great deal of good in Making It on Broadway. Anyone who’s considering a career in the theater absolutely, positively must read this book. It may not discourage anyone from pursuing the dream but it will let him know what kind of life is in store for him even if all goes splendidly.

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[To contact Peter Filichia directly, e-mail him at pfilichia@aol.com]