INSIDE EMMY
Having gained worldwide fame (and a Golden Globe nomination) for her portrayal of Christine in the film version of The Phantom of the Opera, Emmy Rossum could have played it safe with her first album and recorded show tunes or what she terms “Josh Groban-like” pop. But she went for a very different sound with Inside Out, which will be released in October by Geffen Records. If any proof is needed, just head to iTunes, where her first three singles are climbing up the charts.
“I wanted to do something young and hip, and I wanted to test the limits of the human voice,” says Rossum. “A lot of people think the harmonies they’re hearing on the song are a synthesizer or vocoder, but sometimes I sit for three days just to work on them; one song has 150 separate tracks in order to create the sound of richness and warmth I had in mind. The CD was a lot like making Phantom; it doesn’t sink in how much work it takes until you start doing it.”
Rossum co-wrote all the album’s tracks, a trial-and-error process that she nonetheless found rewarding. “It took me about six months to find the sound I wanted. I wrote about 20 songs that are good. I like their sentiments, the lyrics, and even the song structure — but they just didn’t end up in the genre I loved, so I didn’t use them,” she says. However, listeners will have to wait until the album’s release to hear Rossum’s favorite song, the CD’s title track. “It’s my most personal lyric, which is why I’m holding it back. It’s about how scary it is to open yourself up and express yourself. It speaks to me because this CD is an expression of me; I’m not playing a character.”
Still, Rossum — who began performing with the Metropolitan Opera chorus when she was just 7 years old — is hoping to do a live concert in support of the CD. “Live performing is such a rush,” she says. “That doesn’t mean I don’t sometimes get nervous. I had to perform the National Anthem at a NASCAR event. And if you mess that up, it’s bad — it’s even worse than messing up Wagner.”
OH, KAYE!
It’s been a little over a year since Tony Award winner Judy Kaye donned Mrs. Lovett’s signature black wig for John Doyle‘s celebrated production of Sweeney Todd, having temporarily replaced star Patti LuPone for five weeks. But she’ll be wearing it again for nine months as the star of the show’s national tour, which unofficially kicks off on August 30 at San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theatre. “I’m astonished how it’s all coming back to me,” says Kaye. “The choreography, the movement; the triangle came right back and so did the tuba. I’ve even gotten a physically smaller one this time, and not only is it easier to play, I’m even getting some tone out of it.”
For the tour, Kaye is reunited with some of the show’s other Broadway cast members, but she has a brand new leading man in David Hess, who plays the Demon Barber of Fleet Street. “He is a joy to work with,” she says. “He’s got a gorgeous voice and he’s putting his own spin on the part, and I’m thrilled to grow with him. He is absolutely different from Michael Cerveris (with whom she starred on Broadway), just as I can’t do what Patti does. Plus, I learned early on in my career that it’s always a mistake to put yourself into someone else’s performance.”
While Kaye has done her fair share of cross-country traveling, most notably over the last year reprising her triumphant performance as singing socialite Florence Foster Jenkins in Souvenir, this show marks her first “road tour” in over 20 years. “In 1986, God help me, I did a bus-and-truck of On the Twentieth Century,” she recalls. “It’s how I met my husband, David Green, but when we were done, we made a pre-nuptial pact that if either of us even thought about doing another bus-and-truck, the other could get a gun and shoot the other,” she says. “But ever since I did my first Mrs. Lovett, years ago with Michigan Opera, I said I would go anywhere to do this part, and that’s just what I’m doing.”
ON THE EDGE
Angelica Torn in Edge
Having spent years playing the tortured writer Sylvia Plath, Angelica Torn would be forgiven for wanting to move on. Instead, she’s back for another go-round in Paul Alexander’s biodrama Edge, which begins a five-week run at the ArcLight Theatre on September 4. “I don’t think Sylvia is done with me yet,” says Torn. “And it’s been fun putting it back together and coming to the part with a fresh perspective. Every time I do it, I have a deeper understanding of what I say. Also, by the end of our run in London, I made a deal with Sylvia, whose energy is much heavier than mine; she’s not allowed to take me down. In some ways, she’s turned out to be the easiest part I’ve every played.”
Torn has received numerous off-stage comments from audience members about Plath, the author of The Bell Jar, and her husband, the award-winning poet Ted Hughes. But one lady from London made a particularly distinct impression on the actress. “She was white as a ghost, and she said to me ‘We all hated her, you know, and we all loved him. And I still don’t like her. But now I understand her.'”
Adds Torn: “I think Sylvia is completely understandable and I feel very compassionate towards her. She didn’t feel the need to be likable or popular, but she ended up being popular because of her work. What Sylvia wanted was to be truthful. And like her, I’ve learned to be true to myself, even if it might upset people. And it has.”
Torn learned a lot about being truthful — and popular — from her parents, actors Rip Torn and the late Geraldine Page. She also recalls her parents’ reaction when she announced at age 14 that she wanted to be an actress. “My mother knew it would happen, but she never suggested it, because she knew then I wouldn’t do it,” she says. “My father got very upset, but the next day, there was this stack of Stanislavski books outside my bedroom door. My father always says, ‘if you grew up in a bakery, you’d know how to make a cake.'”
IT’S A DATE! Smuin Ballet will present four works, “Scubert Scherzo,” “Obrigado, Brazil,” “Bells of Dublin,” and “Shinju,” during its run at the Joyce Theater, August 13-18; playwrights Warren Leight and Quincy Long will read from their new works at Mo Pitkins on August 15; The Wire‘s Melanie Nicholls-King and Obie Award winner Antwan Ward will star in the Snapshots trilogy to be presented at Theatre Row, August 16-September 1.
Moving on, comedian Bruce Vilanch will join singer Shawn Ryan at San Francisco’s Herbst Theater on August 24; Tony Award winner Mandy Patinkin will perform a benefit concert for Fort Worth’s Casa Manana Theatre on August 25; Kathy Deitch and Asmeret Ghrebremichael will pay tribute to rock band Heart in All Heart at the Zipper Theatre on August 27; that same evening, Tony Award nominee Emily Skinner will perform in concert at the Provincetown Theater; and Rosemary Prinz and Mel Johnson, Jr. will star in Hartford’s Theatreworks’ production of Driving Miss Daisy, August 31-October 14.
Looking way ahead, the National Alliance for Musical Theatre’s 19th Annual Festival of New Musicals will be held October 7-8 at New World Stages. This year’s eight selections for presentations will be Lori Scarlett and Patricia Cotter‘s The Break Up Notebook: The Lesbian Musical; Gordon Goodwin and Tom Child‘s Casey at the Bat; Marshall Pailet and A.D. Penedo‘s The Chocolate Tree; Randy Rogel and Kirby Ward‘s The Gypsy King; Ian Williams and Aaron Jafferis’Kingdom; Neil Bartram and Brian Hill‘s The Story of My Life; Mark Allen and Thomas M. Newman‘s Tinyard Hill; and David Austin‘s Writing Arthur.
Film buffs, theater fans, and especially fans of Laura Linney can all mark their calendars for August 24. The Nanny Diaries, the film version of the national best seller starring Linney, Scarlett Johansson, Donna Murphy, and Paul Giamatti, and The Hottest State, Ethan Hawke‘s film adaptation of his debut novel, also starring Linney, both open that day.
The Nanny Diaries tells the story of Annie Braddock (Johansson), a young college graduate from a working-class neighborhood in New Jersey, who gets tremendous pressure from her nurse mother (Murphy) to find a respectable position in the business world. Through a serendipitous meeting, she accepts the position as a nanny for a difficult and wealthy couple (Linney and Giamatti). The film’s supporting cast also features such familiar theater stars as Tina Benko, Nathan Corddry, Kaitlin Hopkins, Cady Huffman, Isabel Keating, James Urbaniak, and Julie White.
The Hottest State stars Mark Webber as a young actor from Texas who tries to make it in New York while struggling in his relationship with a beautiful singer/songwriter. In addition to Linney, the cast features Oscar nominee Catalina Sandino Moreno, Frank Whaley, Jesse Harris, and Lynn Cohen.
