Klea Blackhurst : Secrets of Successful Singing Revealed! A review of MoonSchool’s first Master Class.

Klea Blackhurst (right) with
U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg Ann Wagner

On February 5th, New York’s powerhouse singer, Klea Blackhurst, swooped into MoonSchool and taught an amazing Master Class in singing and song interpretation.  Ms. Blackhurst was the perfect choice to launch the Master Class series at 42nd Street Moon.  Klea is an experienced performer of both theatre and cabaret.  Her singing style is athletic, confident, forceful, grounded and joyous [see video below!].  Throughout the three-hour session, Klea let her skills shine without ever eclipsing the performers or forgetting that she was, indeed, there to teach.  The class was accompanied by Mr. Barry Lloyd, an accomplished musician and performer.  Klea and Barry blended beautifully as teachers and mentors.

from top left clockwise: Eliza Leoni, Julia Baron, Klea Blackhurst
Chelsea Nenni, Barry Lloyd, Jonathan Shue, Buzz Halsing,
Moon Education Director Dyan McBride, and Chloe Condon

The format was fairly simple.  Seven Bay Area performers and MoonSchool students-Seth Michael Anderson, Julia Baron, Chloe Condon, Buzz Halsing, Eliza Leoni, Chelsea Nenni and Jonathan Shue were asked to prepare a musical theatre song.  After singing, they would work with Klea on whatever she deemed important.  The audience was made up of friends, singers, teachers and those interested in learning about the process of singing.

Barry fixing rhythms and arrangements!

Each singer had approximately 15 to 20 minutes with Klea and Barry.  The technique that seemed to get the most play during the class was exploring a physicality in singing that had force and confidence.  If a singer thought they were singing with full emotion or breath, Klea helped them see that there was much more power within themselves.   Singers learned that breath is not just a casual act.  It IS singing. In Klea’s words, “Breath is the umbrella and everything else is underneath.”  Barry fixed rhythms and discussed better/different arrangements or markings in the music.

Chelsea and Klea connecting!

Other techniques that were explored were “ping” singing (forward sound), articulation of consonants for energy, using one’s gestures to help sing with confidence and Klea’s theory of mind, body and spirit as the core of singing.  Her basic philosophy being any “problem” which occurs in singing is a result of an issue in either the mind (artistry, thought, objectives/tactics, lyrics), the body (physicalization, acoustics, what you can and can’t accomplish when singing a certain song) and spirit (performance magic, being in “the zone”).  

Chelea Before working with Klea and during!

Each singer had moments of brilliance.  They were all open and playful.  Klea and Barry both remarked that they were grateful to have singers who were willing to try anything they were given.  All singers were prepared, off-book and knew what they wanted to work on.  Some wanted to connect with their body, while others wanted to re-charge a piece they’d sung for a long time.  Whatever the need, Klea and Barry worked on it and then some.  How wonderful it was to have singers and teachers that reveled in the beauty and fun of music.  Our first Master Class was a success all the way around!

Klea with Buzz

MoonSchool’s next Master Class features the return of Darren Criss. The handsome and talented star of Fox TV's hit show, Glee began his career with 42nd Street Moon!

Stay tuned for all the exciting details!

Everything The Traffic Will Allow - A New York Experience!

Wow! What an experience. Managing Director Lauren Hewitt and I have spent the past week in New York at a Marketing and Development conference for nerdy art administrators (it was more fun than it sounds) and it has been quite a time. There wasn’t been a lot of time for shows, but Lauren and I did get a chance to see our favorite “Madam,” Klea Blackhurst, at the Snapple Theater doing Everything the Traffic Will Allow: the Songs and Sass of Ethel Merman and I’m here to tell you, she blew the doors off the joint! 

First off, we came to NY just in time for some of the worst weather they’ve seen in years, it was cold, rainy, and the wind… oh the wind…  I lost two umbrellas in two days!  Anyway, the point is, as cold and rainy as it was, there was nothing but sunshine coming from that stage. 

The Snapple Theater is a tiny shoebox; in fact, it’s the home of the Fantasticks.  This turned out to be a good thing, because the sound went out just before the show started and Klea had to perform the entire evening un mic’d .  For most performers this would be disaster!  “What no mic?  I can’t go on. They won’t be able to hear me!  How will I hit those Webber high notes?  Nope, can’t be done, send everyone home.”

Not Klea.

Strode on the stage without a care in the world and launched into her first number. 

OH MY GOD, what an absolute delight! 

Just like our own shows, nothing but purity of voice and clarity of emotion.  Don’t worry Mama Rose—I mean Ethel—she sang out!

I’m not going to review the show song by song, I want all of you to be surprised when you come see her April 21 thru April 25.  But I did get a chance to talk to Klea after the show and she had a little message for all of you!

So come check it out for yourself.  Klea Blackhurst returns to the Eureka Theater for a one-week direct from broadway engagement of Everything the Traffic Will Allow: the Songs and Sass of Ethel Merman.  April 21-25, all shows start at 8pm, except Sunday April 25 starts at 3pm. Click here for tickets, or call (415) 255-8207.

Lady, Be Good! In Context

With the exception of a few very notable shows, most of the names of the Gershwins’ musicals have become forgotten to the vast majority of Americans, but the songs that came from these shows are as ingrained in our collective knowledge as the advertising slogans “Just Do It” or “Reach Out and Touch Someone.” Take our current offering, Lady, Be Good! I have to admit, I wasn’t familiar with the title before we started to produce it… but “Fascinating Rhythm”?  Well, I have 13 versions of it on my i-Pod. 

This is what I love more about Moon than anything else.  I don’t just have the opportunity to listen to “Fascinating Rhythm”, but I get the chance to understand WHY it was written.  This was made ever so clear during our run of Call Me Madam.  Watching Klea Blackhurst and Charlie Levy complete the entire scene that included “You're Just In Love” brought a meaning to that song I never had before: the original intention.

With each new production here at Moon, I look forward to understanding the original emotions and motivations behind some of my favorite songs.  That is not to say that I won’t still enjoy my Ella Fitzgerald Songbook, on the contrary, I’ll enjoy them even more.

Are you sure you really understand “Fascinating Rhythm”?  If not, come see 42nd Street Moon’s Lady, Be Good! at the Eureka Theater.  Previews start March 31, for tickets call (415) 255-8207 or click here to buy online and avoid a box office fee. 

– Update March 31^st is SOLD OUT.  There are a few seats remaing April 1 - 4, but best seating is available April 7-17.

The Show Must Go On

Wow!  What excitement last night.  There is nothing like live theatre, you never know when something is going to happen.

And something certainly did happen!

A truck jack-kniffed on the Bay Bridge and trapped three of our actors on the other side!

What to do?  What to do?

Do we cancel the show?  Has Moon ever cancelled a show before?

Of course not!  Sure we might have started a *wee* bit late.  But we did go on!

For a few minutes there, it looked like 42nd Street Moon Board President J. Patterson McBaine was going to fill in for one of the actors. He even got on stage, but just to assure all the lovely Moonies in attendance that the show would go on!

Sarah Kathleen Farrell (pictured left) stepped into the role of Sebastian Sebastian and we were short one part of our trio for the opening number, and some of the lines were going to be divied up amongst some of the other actors.

But our fearless company started the show to a very appreciative crowd; a crowd that included our guest host from I Feel a Song Coming On, Tony-winner Cady Huffman (pictured below right).

Luckily, two of the actors were able to make it about 10 min after curtain and slipped seamlessly back into their roles. And by the second act, our cast was once again complete.

I can't tell you how proud I am of this cast.  They had no intention of letting the audience go home empty handed, and the standing ovation at the end proved that the audience had a ride they won't soon forget!

Kudos to all the cast and crew last night, and to Director Dyan McBride and Artistic Director Greg MacKellan for their leadership;  they took the reins and directed us into a harried, but successful evening.

Showbiz, there's nothin' like it.

Six Reasons to See I FEEL A SONG COMING ON

So I have a few people here who would like to tell you why you should join us for our first salon, I Feel a Song Coming On.  Here they are... in their own words.

So there ya have it, do you have your tickets yet?  If not purchase them by clicking here.  Or call us at the Box Office at (415) 255 - 8207.  Any don't forget you can meet ALL these guys PLUS Tony Award-winner Cady Huffman by joining us for the "Sweet Treat" reception after the show.

Hello Twelve, Hello Thirteen, Hello Donna - Donna McKechnie to Host Ira Gershwin Salon

There are Stars among the Moon this season.

Internationally renowned cabaret sensation and MAC-award winning Klea Blackhurst begins the second half of Moon's Call Me Madam this week, while our own home town star and chanteuse Connie Champagne begins rehearsal's of Destry Rides Again.

(Klea Blackhurst and Connie Champagne)

Megan Cavanagh, star of hit films A League of Their Own and Robin Hood: Men in Tights -- not to mention the voice of Jimmy Neutron's mom -- will be joining us this holiday season for Cole Porter's Jubilee.

(Megan Cavanagh)

As if that wasn't enough Tony-winner Cady Huffman just sent us a note telling us how much she loves the script for I Feel a Song Coming On: A Dorothy Fields Salon (which is this Tuesday, Oct 13th).

(Cady Huffman as Ulla in The Producers)

How could this season get better?

How about Donna McKechnie joining us for the Ira Gershwin Salon this January? (Thursday, January 28th at 7:00PM to be exact.)

(Donna McKechnie)

Yes, once again all my devoted Moon Blog readers you get the scoop.  Donnie McKechnie who changed Broadway forever by helping shape A Chorus Line and then went on to win the Tony-award with her role as Cassie will be hosting the Ira Gershwin Salon. 

We are so excited here at Moon we've decided to re-introduce the Salon Series pricing.  See Cady Huffman and Donna McKechnie for only $100 dollars. Click Here for the special rate.  Hurry, this is a limited time offer.

The Movie in My Mind - Call Me Madam Promotional Video

What lies before you is my first attempt at creating a "best of" clip for all you Moonies. I hope you enjoy it and leave plenty of comments.

The Host with the Most - Consul General of Luxembourg Throws His Own Party

Relationships...

Like the Hokey-Pokey "that's what it's all about."

(Photo: Charlie Levy)

(Photo Giana DeGeiso)

Call Me Madam is no exception. There is the relationship between the dashing young press attaché (Charlie Levy) and pretty princess (Giana DeGeiso); a handsome Prime Minister (Rob Hatzenbeller) and a brassy confident Ambassador (Klea Blackhurst).

 (Photo: Rob Hatzenbeller)

(Photo: Klea Blackhurst)

But these aren't the only relationships in the show. There is also the relationship between the people and their government officials; a nation and their traditions; and of course the relationship between "two mythical countries. One is called Lichtenburg, the other the United States of America."

If you know the show, or have been following the blog for the past month, you know that Call Me Madam is based somewhat on the very real relationship between the European Country of Luxembourg and the United States of America. What you may not know is that Call Me Madam is still strengthening the relationship between our two countries!

(Taken during Klea Blackhurst's trip to Luxembourg to star in a concert version of Call Me Madam produced by the Hon. Georges Faber, former U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg Ann Wagner and Klea Blackhurst hold a picture of the first U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg Perle Mesta.)

Tonight the Honorable Georges Faber, Consul General of Luxembourg, is hosting a reception after our final preview performance. In keeping with the show's themes, it will feature wine and cheese. The Consul General has also generously donated a number of photographs of Perle Mesta, which will be on display at the Eureka for the duration of Call Me Madam's run.

(The Hon. Georges Faber, Consul General of Luxembourg and his wife, Barbara Faber-Mohr)

Moonies, audience members, and friends of the Consul General will be mingling, discussing the show, and enjoying wine from Luxembourg's wine growing region along the Moselle river. The region produces some lovely whites and a sparkling Crémant.  The wines featured tonight will be a creamy-textured medium bodied Pinot Blanc (2007) with hints of apricot, apple, and pear; and a Crémant made from mostly Chardonnay and Reisling grapes, giving this well structured bubbly good acidity and a crisp, fruity finish.

The cheese selection is a traditional cheese from Luxembourg, Kachkeis. It is a cooked cheese best spread on country bread with Luxembourg mustard.  The spouse of the Consul General, Mrs. Barbara Faber-Mohr prepared both the cheese and a special pistachio hors d'oeuvres.

For those of you who have tickets to tonight's performance, you are encouraged to join in the festivities and help cement the friendship that Perle Mesta began some 59 years ago. Then come back to the blog and leave a comment about the party!

If you don't have your tickets for tonight, I'm afraid we are sold out. But don't forget, 42nd Street Moon also hosts a champagne and hors d'oeuvres reception after Opening Night (tomorrow), and there are still some good seats available. For tickets call (415) 255 8207 or click here.

Cheese, hors d'oeuvres, and wine for "Luxembourg Night" generously provided by the Hon. Georges Faber and Mrs. Barbara Faber-Mohr.

Hors d'oeuvres for Opening Night are generously provide by L'Olivier Restaurant.

The Klea Chronicles - An Interview with Klea Blackhurst in Three Parts (Part 3)

(Photo: Billy Stritch and Klea Blackhurst)

This is the final installment of our conversation with the star of 42nd Street Moon's Call Me Madam, Klea Blackhurst. We delve into the beginning, and I do mean the beginning, of her career as well as discuss her concert and singing career.

_________________

On your website, you have a great story about Ethel Merman's first (and last) audition. Can you tell me about your first audition?

I do remember the local theatre company - Pioneer Theatre Company in Salt Lake City - was doing Romeo and Juliet. I was so into it that I just wanted to be Peter, the page, or anything they would let me do. So, I went and they said I needed a picture. I used my 7th grade school picture, you know the wallet sized one.

(Klea in 5th Grade)

I want on the stage and they told me to find the light. Which I thought was very good [pause] advice, in general. I went up on the stage and I did the entire Queen Mab speech, because I had memorized [Laughs] it of course, "Oh that I see Queen Mab..."

Now I think back to being a 7th grader and the director of the piece - who also ran the theatre company - came out in the lobby and said "we work with... you know we are affiliated with the university, so we cast students in these things. But I hope when you're ready to go to college you'll consider coming here and working with us."

He really took the time to let me know that it was not me - he'd be perfectly happy to let me be Peter, the page - but to come back. And I did go to school there and I did work for him many times in many musicals.

We Moonies know you as one of our favorite stage stars, but you do concert work too, don't you?

I do a lot of concerts; it's my favorite thing. I've actually invested a lot in that recently, in terms of taking a piece that has been arranged for my trio in the past-you take that and have someone orchestra that into something that's played by 70 pieces. I have a "Sam and Delilah," which is from Girl Crazy, that I do.

It's one thing to hear that on a piano, but to hear that coming out of trumpets, a trombone, and an entire brass section. It's unbelievably exciting. It's what I hope to do more of.

It's in the spirit of what I think performing that Broadway stuff is. You don't get 36-piece orchestras on Broadway anymore, you get 9, 10, 11 - 6 in some cases. That sound, you can still get that with an orchestra.

I love it. I love it.

Is there a difference between the intimacy of cabaret and large concert halls?

I think that it's important to fill the space you're in. If you're in a relatively small room with 70 people and we're being sort of intimate, that's one thing. I don't have to pretend there's a person there, when there's not a person there. If there's a person there, I play to them.

On the other hand, if you're in a 2000 seat concert hall and you really try to include everybody, just including them takes care of the difference.

You've created shows around Vernon Duke and Hoagy Carmichael. Why these composers?

I had had this great success with my Merman show, and then I was like "What do you do after that? Merman at the movies, Merman.... Maybe you just ought to leave her alone for a second."

In 2003 it was the Vernon Duke centenary: the 100th anniversary of his birth. So, I was doing a show at the Algonquin about all kinds of anniversaries that were happening that year. I thought, "Well I'll get three or four Vernon Duke songs so I'll have them and I'll perform them in this show."

I fell in love with him. Mostly this idea that every famous Vernon Duke song - cause people don't know who he is, but they know "April in Paris," "Autumn in New York," "Taking a Chance on Love," "I Can't Get Started" - these great songs that are standards, well I found out that every single was from a Broadway flop. Not just a flop, but big enormous tragic story flops. Then I started looking into it. It's a dangerous angle [for a performer] to come at a show [from the point of view of] "I want to explore failure. I want to celebrate failure." But it comes off a lot more fun that than that.

I used Bob Grimes here in San Francisco: Mr. Sheet Music. I sat with him for days. I took home three feet of Vernon Duke songs. If Bob and I liked the lyric, we put it in that stack. I took it home to see if I liked the melody.

[Billy Stritch and I] built a show like that. So we did a studio album with strings; it's beautiful

That's unsung about what I do. That needs a little more attention actually, the Vernon Duke. So go buy that one, that's a gorgeous album. [To purchase the album, click here.]

Then with Hoagy Carmichael, [pause] I have a good friend Barry Day. He likes me and he loves Billy Stritch. And he said, "You guys would be great together and you'd be great doing Hoagy Carmichael material." He took us to lunch and gave us Hoagy Carmichael songbooks. Miraculously, we opened our calendars and penciled in some dates about nine months in the future. We put a show together. And we loved it; that's been a couple of years.

I don't think of myself as a great interpreter, or "Oh I'm so important as an interpreter of American song." But I do think I have a unique take of putting things in context, and I find that people enjoy having these songs put in context that makes it mean more to them; because a lot of this is getting left behind.

I get amazed when I go around and do my Merman show. People don't know who Ethel Merman is anymore.

That used to freak me out.

Then I would find out they didn't know George Gershwin. I say, "You know what? This isn't their fault."

I'm not going to get antagonistic towards them. I'm going to get really cheerful about bringing all of this into a very fun, funny, smart retelling of some of this [music] and setting it in a context so people can find it. That's certainly what happened with the Vernon Duke.

The famous [songs] are all there [on the CD]; but then there are lots that sound as if they should be famous, that you kind of know; then ones you really don't know and [you think] "why don't we know that one." I enjoy that. It's a detective story, putting it all together.

_____________________

Call Me Madam begins previews Wednesday September 23 and opens September 26 at the Eureka Theatre. For tickets click here, or call us at (415) 255 - 8207.

The Klea Chronicles - An Interview with Klea Blackhurst in Three Parts (Part 2)

(Photo: Klea Blackhurst)

Part two of our conversation with Klea Blackhurst, Star of 42nd Street Moon's production of Irving Berlin's Call Me Madam.

______________

Not many Moonies will probably know this, but you play the Ukulele?

               

I do play the ukulele, I do.  I’m glad you know that.  Yeah I do play the ukulele.

I grew up in a house that we loved ukulele.  We had this box with 30 ukuleles in it.  When people came over… we were weird. We played songs on the ukulele.  We had a big flip chart of like “Froggy Went a Courtin’’” and we just all played along.  We knew our C and our G our D7…

So I sort of incorporated that into my acts as I grew up.  My very first song I did – professional, in an act – was a version of “Mountain Greenery” with my ukulele.  I liked it so much that every show I did, I put it in.

For my Merman show, Everything the Traffic Will Allow, I chose to do, “Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries.” 

It’s kind of a fun thing.  I actually only play well enough that it takes me a long time to learn a song, so I really only work myself up to one for every show.

Tell me about your Ukulele Collection.

Once people know you like things, you better like what you think you like.  You say, “I love owls” and you’ll get every figurine of an owl. 

A lot of people let their little ukuleles find their way to me. My friend just gave me a gorgeous one from… it must be from the 30’s.  I think she had it when she was a little girl.  It’s beautiful.  I get them kind of cleaned up professionally, you know give them the once over. For my birthday this year, a couple of my friends gave me this fabulous ukulele that is really made out of a cigar box, like you can open up the back.  This guy makes these amazing ukuleles. I have all kinds of different ones.

Will Sally be strummin’ a tune for the people of Lichtenberg?

I can’t imagine that Sally will be pulling out a ukulele, although we’re very early in the rehearsal process and you never know what will change.  I won’t put the final ix-nay on that, but I can’t imagine anyone… it’s already got an ocarina in the show.  I mean come on, you don’t need a ukulele after the ocarina has taken center stage.

(Yes ocarinas do exist)

Where does your characterization of Sally Adams come from?

It’s all kinda there. I think Call Me Madam is a little more evolved, in a way, from the golden age of musical comedies. I mean there’s some kind of like baddy-bing badda-boom lines. You say what’s there and be present in the moment.  It’s just written.

In the Irving Berlin score it’s really clear who she is and the cadence in which she speaks.  Like CALL ME MADAM, you know what you’re supposed to do there.

And [the characterization] is sort of new. I did a concert version of Call Me Madam, but I’ve never got to play the part and do the full script and everything.  So, I’m finding her. I try it out.

I let the script… and also a little bit of work on Perle Mesta, who this is based on.  But you know, I think it’s really more Merman than Mesta. It’s the concept of an Ambassador going to a tiny country – which was Perle Mesta – but I think Call Me Madam is definitely Ethel Merman as an Ambassador to a small country.

I just do what’s on the paper.

Can you tell me more about the Concert version you did?

It was so exciting.  I was asked in the late 2007 [by] The Rodgers and Hammerstein Company, which also handles the Irving Berlin catalogue. There were doing this concert that was going to Luxembourg – which is the real country that Lichtenberg is based on – they were going to do this concert version of the show and they invited me to come and play Sally Adams.

We did it in the “Carnegie Hall” of Luxembourg, then we did it in Perle Mesta’s house – which is still the Ambassador’s.  We did it there… a command performance with Marines and guests… her honored guests. Then a third performance, we did at the air force base for the troops stationed over there and it was… it was fantastic! It was really a once in a lifetime thing.  

We were guests of Luxembourg. So, we were taken here and there and got to go to their concert halls and museums.  It was really fun. 

It was a big honor to do it. 

Call Me Madam had never been done in any form in Luxembourg; I guess that’s kind of a badge of distinction… 

Who produced that evening concert?

[The Honorable Consul General] Georges Farber and he’s doing a Luxembourg night for us right? 

He’s handsome and adorable and the Consul General, and he’s stationed here in San Francisco now.  But he was in NY for a long time.  He is exactly what you’d want – like this fantasy.  He’s dashing and charming and a wonderful guy. He gave us a fantastic trip through his country.

________________________________

Check back on Friday for the rest Klea about her concert career and her first audition!

Do you have any questions for Klea?  Leave them in the comments section and I’ll make sure to ask her!

Call Me Madam begins previews Wednesday September 23 and opens September 26 at the Eureka Theatre.  For tickets click here, or call us at (415) 255 - 8207.  

The Klea Chronicles: An Interview with Klea Blackhurst in Three Parts (Part 1)

(Photo: Klea Blackhurst)

Klea Blackhurst, the Star of 42nd Street Moon’s production of Call Me Madam, sat down with me yesterday for a great conversation about Moon, Merman, and much merriment. The next three blogs will include excerpts from that chat and next week you’ll be able to view the entire interview on YouTube.

PART I

You and 42nd Street Moon have a similar take on your work, can you tell us how you feel your work is similar to Moon’s and tell us about your experiences with working with Moon?

I love it… You know, what I do - as a solo artist - [is] seek out the rare the obscure. The stuff... you want to bring back, and show people “look how fabulous this is!”

That’s what 42nd Street Moon is; they’re the same thing on a much bigger scale with a much broader mission statement and it gives me a chance to go be somewhere and work with a great group of people. Cause I do a lot of stuff by myself.

But here, you’re in a show with other people dedicated to the same sort of goals. And wanting to show that stuff off. It’s fabulous. I couldn’t be happier, I’m really happy to be back.

And you are back in Call Me Madam playing Sally Adams, a role originated by Ethel Merman. Your first role with Moon in Red Hot and Blue was also originated by Merman. What other Merman shows have you been in?

I have done Anything Goes, twice. I did it at the Shubert in New Haven and then and also the Cape Play House. That’s another Cole Porter.

(Klea Blackhurst singing "Blow Gabriel Blow" from Anything Goes, introduced by Rosie O'Donnell)

Red Hot and Blue was really fun to do here [at Moon], because that script really hadn’t had a scrubbing in a long time. Like, Anything Goes was revamped for Patti Lupone, so that script is a little more modern… up to date… other songs interpolated into it.

[Red Hot and Blue] is very silly. I thought it was just as much fun as Anything Goes. I loved it. And it certainly… you could see this really big gap between the musicals of the 30's of Ethel Merman and Call me Madam, which is 1950… I feel like musicals have really grown up. [Call Me Madam] is just that much clearer, and cleaner.

But I loved Red Hot and Blue. I thought it was fun.  It was a lot of run around and going “Have you seen Bob?” and “What are we going to do?”

I think I must have said those two lines 600 times. So, that’s a pretty good day at the office, when that all you need to deliver is fun.

You also have a much acclaimed one-woman show of Ethel Merman music and stories entitled Everything the Traffic Will Allow: The Songs and Sass of Ethel Merman. What draws you to Merman?

I’m a belter, my voice… it’s the alto with a little bit of the extra… We just love to project. And if that’s the kind of voice you have – you know there are two types of women in this world, there is a Laurey and then there’s an Ado Annie [characters from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma]. They’re both in the show, but you gotta be one or the other. And there’s a Miss Sarah and a Miss Adelaide [characters from Frank Loesser’s Guys and Dolls] and you want to be one or the other, I’m just that other.

Merman is kind of the great… she’s just it, you know? If you have that kind of voice and you love musical comedy, eventually… as a kid, you’re going to end up knowing about her and loving her.

I didn’t realize how geeky I was, and how much more I knew than the average kid in Salt Lake City. I think she’s really fun to hear stories about.

She was so singular in her approach to life that she makes for a good story. And from a historian’s point of view – cause I kind of think of myself as a musical theatre historian who performs rather than writes. I write my own show, but I don’t write books, I perform what I find – from that point of view, she’s fascinating.

She comes right at the beginning... working with the Gershwins; and then you can go right through the rest of the 20th century.

You can go from 1930 to 1984 and find her working or connecting with everybody important in theatre from Cole Porter to Jerry Herman to Stephen Sondheim to Jule Style to the directors she worked with, to the designers she worked with, and on and on…It's just a unique place and career that she had.

It's just fun to study. I think she’s great.

She’s been very good to me. I try to be very good to her, but she has been, her career has been really good, my exploration has been really great for me. And I really love her.

_______________________

Check back early next week for more from Klea about Call Me Madam, Luxembourg, and a certain small, stringed instrument.

Do you have any questions for Klea? Leave them in the comments section and I’ll make sure to ask her!

Call Me Madam begins previews Wednesday September 23 and opens September 26 at the Eureka Theatre. For more information click here, or call us at (415) 255 - 8207.

Moon Spotlight

( Moon Actress Giana DeGeiso)

I know the summer is a difficult time for us Moonies. While there are still many things going on here at the office, our beloved fans have limited opportunities to interact with the Moon family.

Never fear! I wanted to let all of you know about a few Moon-actor sightings.

Putting It Together

For those of you who saw Ben Franklin in Paris and High Spirits last season, you might have noticed an adorable blonde playing Yvonne in Ben and a Beatnik in Spirits. Giana DeGeiso lent her beautiful mezzo-soprano to Moon with her roles last season and if you’d like a chance to catch her again, she is currently starring in the Stephen Sondheim revue Putting it Together at the Custom Made Theater.

I had a chance to see this production last week and I can tell you, it’s very cute. Anthony Luke was the strongest of the males with an amazing performance as the Observer. Luke’s use of manic energy rivals Mandy Patinkin to great effect, further his voice fills out the theatre in a way that would make Ethel Merman proud!

It was the ladies, however, that commanded my attention. Amy Dondy’s seasoned Leading Lady role was dripping with irony and a scathing heartache that was perfect for a range of Sondheim’s most notable 11 o’clock numbers (“Could I Leave You,” “Getting Married Today,” “Ladies Who Lunch”).

Giana’s turn as the Ingénue was hilarious. This girl has some chops and when she belted out “The Miller’s Son” the audience paid attention! She also spun her silvery tones through “Sooner or Later” and “Lovely” so seductively, it was hard to imagine any straight man getting away from her (she may have even ensnared a few gay ones too).

If you are like me, once you’ve seen what Giana can do on stage, you’ll be hooked. And like me, you’ll want to see her turn as Princess Maria in Moon’s production of Call Me Madam with Klea Blackhurst (Sept. 23 – Oct. 18^th). Single tickets will go on sale August 15^th.

Connie Champagne Sings Songs to Make You Gay

I also saw Connie Champagne’s Songs to Make You Gay at the New Conservatory Theatre this weekend.

The show is about as eclectic as you can get, with songs taken from pop, musical theatre, country and even novelty. While a number of these songs may not be our normal 42ND Street Moon fare—they include music by Madonna, David Bowie, and Cyndi Lauper—there are a number of Moon gems, including Noel Coward's "Mad About the Boy," Cole Porter's "Primitive Man,” and favorites by Bernstein, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Warren and Dublin, and many others.

Connie is charming, with a quick wit, and an obvious fervor for entertaining. She engages the audience throughout the evening, especially during the highlight of the show, an impassioned "If I Loved You" from Carousel.

“If I Loved You” connected the audience, performer, and song in the best traditions of theatre. She will make a superb Frenchy in 42ND Street Moon’s Destry Rides Again, coming to the Eureka this fall.

Help Is On The Way

Moon’s favorite redhead Maureen McVerry will be one of the many headliners at the 15^th Annual Help Is On The Way AIDS Benefit at the Herbst Theatre this Sunday, Aug. 2^nd. Tom Orr, Juliet Heller, Lisa Hensley, Carly Ozard, and Dave Dobrusky will also be lending their voices in the opening number, “There’s No Business Like Show Business.”

There you go Moonies, plenty of Moon-sightings to help you through this summer!