LIVING IN A MUSICAL!

Rave Review FromThe Village Voice: "Naturally wholesome but nonetheless hilarious, Living in a Musical is plain and simply charming."

2010-03-10T18:51:00.000-08:00

Leslie Minora writes in her article for the Village Voice

Living in a Musical Hoofs into TNC

"Living in a Musical—the sixth collaboration by Mark Marcante (director), Tom Attea (book and lyrics), and Arthur Abrams (score)—is as appealing and enjoyable as the vintage glass bottles of Coca Cola in its lead character's fridge.
Nine years after college, struggling actor Frank (Kyle Fowler) is stuck: stuck waiting tables, stuck in a love triangle with a heavy-metal couple, and stuck in the musical traditions of the early 20^th century. He emulates Fred Astaire, dressing in a gray argyle sweater-vest as he serenades his lady, Angel (Alexandra Grossi), a rock-and-roll druggie and Juilliard graduate, whom he has rescued from her abusive bandmate boyfriend. Angel, clad in jean-colored leggings and beat-up leather jacket, makes a stark contrast to Frank's living room, with its dark-wood record player and mauve couch with fluffed pillows.
An audition to star in the Broadway revival of Top Hat is Frank's long-awaited break. But he's jerked around by Angel in their budding romance and by his old college buddy, a regular restaurant customer who continually pressures him to set aside his dream to enter the corporate world. Propelled by the spirit of Gene Kelly's can-do era, though, Frank perseveres in melding his old-fashioned ideals into modern-day reality. He and Angel make an odd, but oddly convincing, couple. Their voices mingle instrumentally and they dance smoothly "cheek to cheek," suggesting that she may enjoy his version of an alternative lifestyle more than her own. Naturally wholesome but nonetheless hilarious, Living in a Musical is plain and simply charming."

Meet Angela Harriell

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Angela Harriell (choreographer) is director and choreographer of TNC's popular annual "Nutcracker: Rated R" and founder and choreographer of the cabaret dance troupe, The Love Show. Her choreography has been called witty, moving, unique and theatrical with narratives that are simultaneously autobiographical and universal. Richmond Shepard (Seven Lively Arts) wrote, "the brilliant Angela Harriell... could be the next Susan Stroman." A graduate of Fredonia University, where she received The Graduate Scholarship for Ballet, she has worked with Elisa Monte and David Brown dance, Randy James Danceworks and taught ballet at Binghamton University. Her work has been seen at The Flea Theater, HERE, The New York Burlesque Festival, White Wave Dance Festival, The Philly Fringe Festival’s Late Night Cabaret, and different nightclubs throughout New York. She has also set original works for Jerboa Dance of Seattle and Key West Contemporary Dance. Cointreau and Vogue magazine have commissioned pieces from her. Her work has twice been selected to be presented at special galas at the National Arts Club, where she has performed alongside Elaine Stritch, Tammy Grimes, Charles Busch and Julie Halston. Harriell was a Hammerstein Beauty at Simon Hammerstein’s notorious downtown supper club, The Box, and also performs with Brooklyn Ballet, Brooklyn Repertory Opera and Opéra Français de New York. She has been spotted amongst the glitterati in the pages of Patrick McMullan’s website and has appeared in several television and music video spots, including an ABC Primetime documentary on connections in the dance world and an STD awareness video with Alan Cumming.

Meet Kyle Fowler

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Kyle Fowler plays the role of Frank in TNC's Living in a Musical.

Kyle is excited to call this is NYC debut! Most recently, Kyle was in Utah performing at Tuacahn Center for the Arts. He was also seen on the national tour of I Love A Piano as George. Past credits include Snoopy! (Charlie Brown), Seven Brides (Frankincense), A Chorus Line (Al), & The Secret Garden (Dickon). Other favorites include RENT, Myths & Hymns, A Little Night Music, Oklahoma!, Sugar, Sweet Charity, Lucky Stiff, & The Nightmare Before Christmas. Kyle has traveled the world with Holland America as a lead production singer and can be heard as a featured singer on the original recording of the musical Make Me A Cowboy. Kyle proudly holds his BFA from Millikin University. Thanks and love to all my family, friends, fellow cast & crew members, Arthur, and Mark. W2T.

Meet David Slone

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David F. Slone.

David is pleased, as always, to return to TNC, where he's produced and performed in four seasons on Nutcracker: Rated R with the fabulous Love Show, as well as having performed in David “Zen” Mansley's A Christmas Carol, Evan Laurence's My Inner Mark Berman and Suck Sale, two runs of Jack Bump's Sportf*ckers and numerous festivals. He has also had the honor of having attended his surprise 40th birthday show, produced by Angela Harriell, at TNC. He's excited to finally be directed by Mark Marcante, with whom he's worked so often in the past. www.davidslone.com

David Slone plays the Director in Living in a Musical.
Don't forget to buy your tickets: http://theaterforthenewcity.net/musical.htm

Actor Spotlight: Meet Alexandra Grossi

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Alexandra Grossi received her BA in Theatre Performance from Western Michigan University and trained at the British American Drama Academy in London, England. Recent Theatre Credits: Amateurs, The Importance of Being Earnest; Simple- New Orleans Fringe Festival; Romeo & Juliet; Twelfth Night
and Othello. Film Credits: Crumble, Intruder, Life Lessons, The Sheol Express, SubterraNYa and John Hook. Thank you Mark! Love being part of the Theatre For The New City family.

Alexandra Grossi plays Angel in TNC's Living in a Musical.

Buy tickets: http://theaterforthenewcity.net/musical.htm.

Spotlight on the Director

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Mark Marcante. Photo by Jonathan Slaff
Mark Marcante (director) is Executive Production Director of TNC and a prolific designer, actor and director there. This is his fifth production with Tom Attea and Arthur Abrams. His other TNC directing credits include "Okechobee Split," "British Music Hall," "Ruzzante Returns from the War," "Betty's Barbershop" and "Strangely Wonderful." He also co-directed "One Director Against His Cast" with author Crystal Field. Mr. Marcante hails from Pennsylvania and worked as technical supervisor and workshop instructor at the Allentown Arts Center. As an actor, he has led TNC's award-winning Annual Summer Street Theater ensemble since 1986 and played lead roles in several critically acclaimed productions at TNC.

Spotlight on the Composer

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Arthur Abrams. Photo by Jonathan Slaff.

Arthur Abrams (composer) is a veteran Lower East Side composer, music director, arranger and pianist. His recent theatrical scores include "The Iron Heel" based on a novel by Jack London, with book and lyrics by Elizbeth Ruf-Maldonado; "Ludlow and Broome," with book and lyrics by Ruthy Rosen; and "The Further Adventures of Uncle Wiggily: the Windblown visitors," with book and Lyrics by Laurel Hessing, all presented by TNC. His other scores for TNC shows include"Abstinence" and "Lincoln Plaza" with book and lyrics by Tom Attea; "The Golden Bear" and "Sketching Utopia," both with book and lyrics by Laurel Hessing, directed by Crystal Field; "Master and Margarita" from a novel written by Bulgakov, adapted by Jean Claude van Itallie and directed by David Willinger; "The Open Gate," based on the novel, "The Manor" by Isaac Bashevis Singer, adapted and directed by David Willinger; and "The Glory that Was" and "Library Love" with book and lyrics by Walter Corwin.

Mr. Abrams has also composed scores for several musical revues, among them "Dropping In On The Earth," "A Little Old, A Little New," "It's An Emergency, Don't Hurry"and "Axis of Evil Vaudeville Revue." Abrams was composer, pianist,and music director for "The Golden Age of Second Avenue," a documentary film about the golden age of the Yiddish Theater produced by Arthur Cantor. The piece is often shown on PBS. (In the film, he accompanied Molly Picon.) He was music director and pianist for the recent Lambs Club presentation of "Yankel in America," starring Theo Bikel. His awards include a DAAD music fellowship to Mannheim, Germany, a scholarship to the Orff Institute at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria and a "Meet the Composer" grant for the score of"The Golden Bear."

Spotlight on the Playwright

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Tom Attea
Tom Attea (book and lyrics), when a member of the Playwrights Unit of the Actors Studio, had a ten-year apprenticeship in musical theater with Charles Friedman, the original director of the stage classics "Pins and Needles," "Sing out the News," the musical version of "Street Scene," "Carmen Jones" and other shows. At that time, Friedman had been collaborating with Oscar Hammerstein (who had died). Charles also found a young composer to work with named Arthur Abrams, who would become Attea's long-time musical collaborator.

The trio collaborated on the revue,"Brief Chronicles of the Time," which premiered at the Actors Studio in 1982. This is Attea's fifth musical with Arthur Abrams to be presented by TNC, which has also produced one of Attea's plays, "Life Knocks" ("Great humor and ebullience ... good, genuine laughs ... Attea's talent as a playwright is evident." -Kessa De Santis, PunchIn International, now with electroniclink.com). Attea has received a TNC/Jerome Foundation emerging playwright grant and is an active member of The Dramatists Guild. He wrote a feature film that was produced by Showtime and created a sit-com that was optioned by CBS, but he has opted to devote himself primarily to the theater. He holds a doctorate in the healthcare field but has always made his living writing copy for pharmaceutical and consumer advertising and now writes websites, too. He lives in New York and Connecticut.

Production Stills

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Alexandra Grossi and Sal Mannino, as the rocker girl and her abusive boyfriend, rocking on in a music club scene. Photo by Zita Bradley.