Category Archives: Beck Center
Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson – PRODUCTION FOOTAGE!
OK. My blog’s been over-run with video posts related to Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson at the Beck. That’s an acknowledgement, not an apology. So, continuing that pattern, it’s opening weekend, and we’ve got footage from our final dress rehearsal!
BBAJ – Behind the Scenes
Below are two videos put together by our choreographer, Martin Cespedes. Get a glimpse of how things were put together and some thoughts from some of the cast!
Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson Opens at Beck Center for the Arts!
Opening Friday, May 25, 2012
Beck Center for the Arts presents the regional premier of
BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON
Book by Alex Timbers
Music and Lyrics by Michael Friedman
Directed by Scott Spence
Performances
Friday, May 25 – 8:00pm
Saturday, May 26 – 8:00pm
Sunday, May 27 – 7:00pm
Friday, June 1 – 8:00pm
Saturday, June 2 – 8:00pm
Sunday, June 3 – 7:00pm
Friday, June 8 – 8:00pm
Saturday, June 9 – 8:00pm
Sunday, June 10 – 7:00pm
Friday, June 15 – 8:00pm
Saturday, June 16 – 8:00pm
Sunday, June 17 – 7:00pm
Friday, June 22 – 8:00pm
Saturday, June 23 – 8:00pm
Sunday, June 24 – 7:00pm
Friday, June 29 – 8:00pm
Saturday, June 30 – 8:00pm
Sunday, July 1 – 7:00pm
In the Studio Theater
at Beck Center for the Arts
17802 Detroit Ave
Lakewood, OH 44107
For reservations, call the Box Office at 216-521-2540 or order online.
Tickets are $20-$31. Group rates available.
This contemporary musical explores the title character’s life through the unconventional approach of irreverently emotional punk rock music. Meet America’s first political maverick, who kicked British butt, shafted the Indians and smacked down the Spaniards all in the name of these United States. Who cares if he didn’t have the constitutional right? An exhilarating look at one of our nation’s founding rock stars, this show recreates and reinvents the life of ‘Old Hickory’, from his humble beginnings to his days as our seventh Commander -in-Chief.
This show is recommended for audiences 17 years and older.
CAST:
Dan Folino* – Andrew Jackson
Dennis Yurich – Bandleader
Hester Lewellan – Storyteller
Elliott Lockshine - Lyncoya
Male Ensemble:
Casey Cott
Trey Gilpin
Mike Majer
Chris McCarrell
Pat Miller
Gilgamesh Taggett
Sam Wolf
Female Ensemble:
Amiee Collier
Alyssa Easterly
Keri Rene’ Fuller
Lindsey Mercer
*courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association
BBAJ – Plain Dealer Feature
BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON: a Glam-rock Hail to the Chief Cranking Up at Beck Center for the Arts
Andrea Simakis, The Plain Dealer
If you’re a devoted fan of the original cast recording of “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson,” be prepared to adjust your expectations when seeing the show at the Beck Center for the Arts in Lakewood.
That’s mostly because the soundtrack didn’t raise the roof the way Dan Folino, the man slipping into the tight leather pants of the seventh president of the United States, thought it should.
“It’s not rocking hard enough for my taste,” he said. “It sounds like a Broadway musical that they added a guitar and a drum set to.”
Folino is the frontman for Cleveland’s Vanity Crash, “a riff-driven ruckus that combines the pomp of Bowie and T. Rex with punk-fueled aggression and a Radiohead-esque desire for experimentation.” (That’s how Folino and his bandmates describe their sound.)
Vanity Crash guitarist Dennis Yurich and drummer Jason Giaco will be joining Folino onstage in “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson.” So the musical about the heroic highs (“Populism Yea Yea”) and dastardly lows (the Trail of Tears) of Old Hickory, as the politician from Tennessee was known, will feel more Beachland Ballroom than big, brash Broadway.
When they “plugged in and turned up” during a recent rehearsal, “the show became a whole lot more rock ‘n’ roll than I think Scott was even ready for,” Folino says.
“It’ll be loud,” director Scott Spence concedes, sounding like a super-tolerant dad. Though the intimate space of the Studio Theater is perfect for the material — a fast, irreverent, quirky musical — it also presents an acoustic challenge.
How do you balance the voices of 15 actors and the punk, emo and rock score? How do you keep the lyrics crisp? It’s basically “electric guitars and drums in a closet,” Spence says. “But we’ll get there.
“It’s a wild piece — it’s comin’ atcha at 150 miles an hour, and before you know it, it’s over. If we’ve done our job, it should just move. And it’s exciting to do musical theater in our small theater where it’s just right in your face.”
Teasing out the technical issues is nothing compared with the logistics of being the first in the region to land the hot show.
In his 21 years as artistic director of the Beck Center, Spence has perfected the art of cornering the “offbeat” musical. In seasons past, he has produced “Jerry Springer: The Opera,” “Reefer Madness,” “Zombie Prom” and “Evil Dead: The Musical,” one of the Beck’s biggest hits.
“We did 12 weeks of ‘Evil Dead’ ” in 2009, Spence says, sold-out shows “with blood flying all over the audience.” (That campy stage take on Sam Raimi’s campy horror flick also starred Folino as Ash, a heroic but hapless ghoul magnet. Folino was responsible for those blood effects, too, and is currently hard at work on some FX for “Andy Jacks” as well, but more on that later.)
Spence first took notice of “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson” when it was still winning raves off-Broadway, and he started pursuing it in February 2011.
The show lost steam when it moved from New York’s Public Theater to the larger Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre in September 2010, closing after only 120 performances. “They put it in a big house, and it killed it. It needed the intimacy of the Public in New York,” Spence says.
“It took a little bit of doing” to bring the still-hot title to Lakewood, he says. But Spence has made it his job to make friends with “the New York people” who license properties once they leave the Great White Way.
“They know us really well,” he says. “They know what I’m gonna ask for.” (After years of amorous pursuit, Spence just landed “Spamalot” for next season. See the accompanying story for the rest of the Beck’s 2012-13 offerings.)
But Spence might not have asked for “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson” had it not been for Folino.
Spence first cast Folino as Hero in “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.” Folino was 17, a junior at Berea High School. (He’s now 34.)
Folino started coming to the Beck Center when he was just “a kidlet,” says Spence, tagging along with his mom, an actress and choreographer.
“My sister would typically end up in the show as the young cute girl who can dance and sing, and I was the fat kid with the mullet annoying everybody backstage,” Folino says.
That chunky, annoying kid grew into a sought-after leading man, scoring dream parts throughout Northeast Ohio. He played Che in “Evita” at the Beck, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street in “Sweeney Todd” at the Lakeland Civic Theatre and the title role in “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” for Cleveland Public Theatre.
Then, Folino left town for a while. From 2009 to 2011, he was a member of the resident acting company at the prestigious Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Va.
When Spence heard Folino was coming back to Cleveland, “I picked this show with him in mind — it’s a really tough role. It requires some real rock ‘n’ roll chops vocally, ideally a guy who plays electric guitar and is really charismatic — and Dan’s all of those things,” Spence says.
“He’s one of the most talented musical theater guys in town, and we got him.”
But it’s Folino who’s thankful. “I feel like I’m the luckiest actor I know,” Folino says of the rich roster of characters he’s played.
It was only a matter of time before Folino took on the role of commander-in-chief as rock star in “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson.”
“He’s a really exhilarating historical figure because he was so divisive,” Spence says. “Abraham Lincoln is pure hero, unless you’re from Alabama, and even Kennedy [is, too] — I guess if you get killed, that helps.”
“But Jackson, he’s the father of modern democracy and talked about bringing the government to the people and giving the people a voice. Then, he’s a real villain when it comes to setting up the Indian migration to the West and taking away their lands. . . . So he’s fascinating.
“He’s really kind of a heroic, tragic figure, and I think the musical does a good job of showing us his arc and his journey.”
To help audiences really see that journey, Folino, a gifted special-effects technician, stayed up into the wee hours last week working on a giant Twinkie that doubles as a phallus, and a weasel with bulging eyes and tongue lolling from its mouth.
“As if it’s been choked out,” Folino says helpfully.
The roadkill is for the character of Henry Clay, a political and personal nemesis of Jackson’s.
“Henry Clay strangles a weasel in order to kill it and add it to his weasel frock that he wears,” Folino says.
No, this is not your daddy’s U.S. history. It’s a glam-rock rewrite for a jaded age.
Cleveland Loses Beloved Director
Revered director and amazing talent, Paul Gurgol, passed away on March 24 at Cleveland Clinic. He was 55.
I first met Paul at Kalliope Stage, of which he was the founder and Artistic Director. I tried out for their final season in 2007 with what was easily my worst audition of all time. It was, I believe, only my second audition in the area. I had absolutely no experience, no repertoire, and no preparation. It was mortifying. He did not call me back, and was kind enough to have forgotten about the instance when he later cast me in Sweeney Todd at Cain Park in 2010. Later that year, we worked together again at Beck Center for the Arts in My Fair Lady, which was to be his last directorial effort in Cleveland.
He was widely well-known as a talented director and a pioneer in new musical theatre. I knew him as a man who gave me amazing opportunities and who was overly generous to me as an artist and as a friend. Not only did he trust me enough to put me in two of the biggest shows in two of the most respected theatres in town, but he also went out of his way to help me succeed. His recommendation helped get me into the SETC’s.
The most profound example of his generosity towards me has already become one of my go-to stories, and I want to share it here.:
In My Fair Lady, I played Zoltan Karpathy, but since he appears for such a short amount of time, I spent the rest of my time playing various parts in the ensemble. When the time came to block curtain call the week before we opened, Paul told me there was no time for my own bow (he was very meticulous from curtain up to curtain down), but he wanted to recognize me as a stand-out from the rest of the ensemble. I was happy just to stay in the background, but for the final bow Paul insisted that I step forward out of the ensemble line and join hands with Eliza and Pickering for the final bow, so center stage we had Eliza (of course) flanked by Henry Higgins and …me. It’s a seemingly silly little thing, but it meant a lot to me. Every single performance, I was overwhelmed with embarrassment, humility, and gratitude when that moment came. I have carried that feeling with me in every show I’ve done since, and that’s my unique gift from Paul.
I only knew Paul for a short time. That’s one of my stories. Go to Memories of Paul to see many others’.
Donations in his memory are being left to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
You can also read more skilled obituaries here and here.
His absence will be palpable for a long time, by those who knew him and by those who enjoyed his work.
We love you, Paul.
My Fair Lady Reviewed! (6)
Beck Center Gives ‘My Fair Lady’ a Few Fun Twists
“My Fair Lady,” a production of which is running at the Beck Center for the Arts in Lakewood, has quite a pedigree.
It is most remembered as a thoroughly delightful 1964 film, made during an era when many Broadway musicals were turned into elaborate Hollywood productions. It won eight Academy Awards, including best picture.
The film is based on a classic piece of American musical theater that emerged in 1956 during one of the great heydays of musical theater. It won six Tony Awards, including Best Musical.
First and foremost, however, “My Fair Lady” is the play “Pygmalion,” written in 1912 by George Bernard Shaw, with songs inserted.
Shaw’s play tells the tale of a high-handed, high-brow British phonetician named Henry Higgins, who places a wager with his priggish sidekick Colonel Pickering that he can transform a young, Cockney guttersnipe into a duchess simply by improving her vocabulary and manner of speech. The guttersnipe is Eliza Doolittle. Like the playwright himself, Higgins is a firm believer in the power of the poetry in the English language.
Paul Gurgol understands and appreciates “My Fair Lady’s” literary heritage, and is not the kind of fellow to direct just another production of this now iconic work. In his Beck Center rendition, he calls attention to the play’s Shaw-manship.
Some innovations are small. The show opens with a statue coming to life — a nice, albeit highly obscure homage to the work that inspired Shaw’s play. In “Metamorphoses,” written by ancient Greek poet Ovid, a sculptor named Pygmalion falls in love with an ivory statue he has made. She comes to life and they marry.
Some innovations are more substantial. The huge ensemble typically assembled in productions of this grand musical has been limited to nine individuals, several of whom also play small character roles. By reducing the scale of the typically big production numbers, the story and its wordplay are accentuated.
The show closes with another obscure twist concerning Eliza’s fate after Higgins has achieved his goals. The script calls for the two to come together at the end. The Beck rendition implies a potentially different ending, based on the Afterward written by Shaw upon the publication of his play.
Gurgol’s vision is delivered very effectively by performers capable of developing rich and interesting characters to sustain the story line and not just deliver the show’s songs.
Bob Russell has turned the stiff, erudite and fairly one-dimensional Higgins from stage and screen into a round, pampered and petulant man-child in this production. Gone is Higgins’ charm, replaced by playfulness. Gone is the sexual tension between Higgins and Eliza; only the tension remains. These are intriguing trade-offs.
Higgins’ lack of charm is more than made up for in Dana Hart’s enchanting rendering of Pickering. He is the perfect playmate for Russell’s Higgins — the voice of what is proper but a pliable and willing accomplice in what is not. Charming is not as easy to play as it would seem, and Hart is wonderful.
Veteran actor George Roth dons the tattered wardrobe of Alfred Doolittle, Eliza’s ne’er-do-well father, and does so in fine fashion. Roth’s very presence on stage and the warmth he exudes improves the show’s climate and showcases the richness that can be found in Shaw’s words.
Of course, at the end of the day, “My Fair Lady” is a classic American musical and not just a Shaw play with songs inserted.
The songs are brilliant, comprised of the irresistibly hummable music by Fredrick Loewe and memorable lyrics by Alan Lerner. Rather than interrupt the play’s cleverly conceived conversation and its linguistic rhythms, the music and lyrics are intended to be a natural and harmonious extension of the conversation. Musical Director Larry Goodpaster and his orchestra deliver Lerner and Loewe’s songs with the sumptuousness they deserve.
Most of the best songs, including “I Could Have Danced All Night,” belong to Eliza, performed to perfection by Valerie Reaper. Establishing herself as an ideal ingénue with a pure soprano in her portrayal of Johanna in “Sweeney Todd” at Cain Park, Reaper has added gumption and spirit to her repertoire. Hers is a joyful performance that is a pleasure to watch.
There is some collateral damage to Gurgol’s innovations.
“With a Little Bit of Luck,” “Embassy Waltz” and “Get Me to the Church on Time” are rather underwhelming affairs as musical production numbers go due, in large part, to the small albeit impressive ensemble. They are given a minimal amount of choreography that is both gimmicky and inorganic. The performers are well appointed in Sarah Russell’s magnificent costuming and play on Russ Borski’s rich and spacious set, but this only creates the impression that everyone is all dressed up with nowhere to go.
True to the work’s heritage, Beck Center’s version of “My Fair Lady” is delightful. With its Shaw-centric sensibilities, audiences will be thinking as they head for the parking lot and not just humming the show tunes. This is an atypical but welcome exit strategy for a classic piece of American musical theater.
“My Fair Lady” runs through Oct. 17 at the Beck Center for the Arts in Lakewood. For tickets, which range from $10-$28, call 216-521-2540, ext. 10 or visit www.beckcenter.org.
