Theater Review – ‘Singin’ in the Rain’

Theater Review – ‘Singin’ in the Rain’

Produced by The John W. Engeman Theater - Northport

Reviewed by Jeb Ladouceur

Danny Gardner & Ensemble (Michael DeCristofaro photo)

It seems almost every successful stage show has a gimmick. ‘Mary Poppins’ floats under her magic umbrella … ‘A Christmas Carol’ scares the (Charles) Dickens out of us with that 15-foot ‘Ghost of Christmas yet to Come’ … a flesh-eating plant inhabits the‘Little Shop of Horrors’ … and of course ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ is famous for its on-stage deluge.

Theatergoers who have come to expect the signature splash-scene from which ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ derives its title, will not be disappointed when at Northport’s plush Engeman playhouse a drenched Danny Gardner steps into Gene Kelly’s soggy shoes and spins around that dripping lamp post. As a friend recently observed when we left the Gateway Playhouse at the conclusion of ‘A Chorus Line,’ “Some things in show business you just never get tired of.” The familiar inundation number made famous by Kelly falls easily into that category.

It was obviously much simpler to choreograph the famed rain scene in the film from which this musical is drawn than it is to present it on stage. Accordingly, the event is a sodden show-stopper. But it should be remembered that there’s much more to this Betty Comdon – Adolph Green book than a few minutes of cute splashing around in a street full of puddles.

Not to be overlooked is the madcap business delivered by a comedic singer/dancer name of Cosmo Brown who is lead actor Don Lockwood’s best friend. Cosmo (unforgettably played in the motion picture by Donald O’Connor and here by the equally talented Brian Shepard) performs an extraordinary version of ‘Make ‘em Laugh’ … a number that is every bit as cleverly original as the title song that Don sings and dances to splendidly. 

Indeed, this show is so replete with memorable ballads that it’s difficult to single out a winner … the score is incredible. ‘Fit as a Fiddle,’ ‘All I Do is Dream of You,’ ‘Make ‘em Laugh,’ ‘You Are My Lucky Star,’ ‘Good Morning,’ … and half a dozen other smash hits keep everyone’s toes tapping. No wonder ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ is almost universally considered the best musical ever filmed.

For you first-timers, here’s the story line: Lockwood is a Roaring Twenties silent film star … and he barely tolerates leading lady, Lina Lamont (performed by Engeman’s brilliant Emily Stockdale). Their Producer, a guy named Simpson, (savvy veteran Leer Leary) noting that the first talking movie, ‘The Jazz Singer,’ is a boffo success, decides to convert his new Lockwood/Lamont film, ‘The Dueling Cavalier,’ into a talkie … and a musical talkie at that. But hold it … Lina’s grating voice is worse than fingernails scratching on a blackboard. This’ll never do.

There’s a disastrous screening … a dubbing over Lina’s screechy vocalizing (by Tessa Grady playing the sweet-voiced female protagonist Kathy Selden) … a conversion of ‘The Dueling Cavalier’ into ‘The Dancing Cavalier,’ … all accompanied by a plethora of related complications.

And would you believe it? … the premiere of ‘The Dancing Cavalier’ is a tremendous success! … until … but what happens next, you’ll have to see for yourself between now and July first. Suffice it to say … as my friend presciently perceived … there’s no getting tired of those really great show biz experiences … thank goodness they’re eternal.

This show is wonderfully directed and choreographed by Drew Humphrey … and Kurt Alger does a bang-up job of dressing the cast in 1920s attire. The hairdos and ‘flapper’ dresses are certain to remind you of those nifty old pictures of Grandma that so lovingly decorate your hall at home. 

But let’s face it, the star of the show is the downpour … (during which hoofer Danny Gardner somehow manages to maintain his footing) … and the ten ‘stagehands’ who mop up at intermission, leaving The Engeman with what has to be the cleanest floor of any theater on Long Island. One woman a few seats to my right was heard to say, “I wonder if they do windows?”

 Award-winning writer, Jeb Ladouceur is the author of a dozen novels, and his theater and book reviews appear in several major L.I. publications. His recent hit, THE GHOSTWRITERS, explores the bizarre relationship between the late Harper Lee and Truman Capote. Ladouceur’s newest thriller, THE SOUTHWICK INCIDENT, was introduced at the Smithtown Library on May 21st. The book involves a radicalized Yale student and his CIA pursuers. Mr. Ladouceur’s revealing website is www.JebsBooks.com

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - What Say You About Bellone's New Suburbia ?

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

County Executive Steve Bellone is promoting development that would transform Suffolk County, intensifying density here. “A New Suburbia is Coming to Long Island,” was the title of an essay by Mr. Bellone recently published in Long Island Business News. 

He advanced a vision for Suffolk not welcomed by one planning expert or in online comments by a good number of readers. However, Mr. Bellone’s approach is supported by pro-development interests along with the Long Island Federation of Labor and Building Trades Council of Nassau and Suffolk Counties.

“Long Island is in the midst of historic change,” wrote Mr. Bellone. “Today, a new suburbia is on the horizon, and Suffolk County is leading the way….This is about protecting the suburban communities that we love by adapting to the transformative change happening in our world.”

Mr. Bellone pointed to building projects he is championing led by “the $650 million Ronkonkoma Hub mixed-use project. When this project is fully built out, it will deliver a true walkable downtown and create 18,000 jobs.” 

As described in Newsday, based on a presentation to the Long Island Regional Planning Council in November by Robert Lozcalzo, CEO of Tritec, an East Setauket real estate firm developing the Ronkonkoma Hub project for Suffolk County, “when completed, the hub is expected to encompass about 50 acres, with 1,450 apartments and 545,000 square feet of retail and office space.” It would be, he said, the “Gateway to Eastern Long Island.”

There’s no question that Ronkonkoma, north of Long Island MacArthur Airport and where the terminus of the electrified central branch of the Long Island Rail Road is located is ripe to be a commuter hub. But to create a new small city on top of that is something else.  

Then, last month, the county executive’s office announced it has accepted a proposal to build on 40 acres of county land just south of the core of Ronkonkoma Hub a complex involving a 17,500-seat sports and entertainment arena, a 500-room hotel, two ice rinks, 160,000 square feet of medical research space, and 90,000 square feet of retail stores and restaurants. This is to be a $1 billion project.

A push in recent years by Suffolk County executives for development is not new. Mr. Bellone’s predecessor, Steve Levy, a decade ago promoted a $400 million project in which an arena, hotel, restaurants, retail stores and 1,215 housing units would be built on 225 acres of county land in rural Yaphank. The scheme—dubbed “Levyland”—got nowhere. Perhaps the Ronkonkoma Hub and the adjoining major development might be dubbed “Belloneyland.” 

“Getting Dense with Development Doesn’t Make Sense” was the title of an essay countering Mr. Bellone by Richard Murdocco, who studied under longtime Suffolk County Planning Director Lee Koppelman at Stony Brook University, received a master’s degree in public policy, and is a professor in its Public Policy Graduate Program. He is on the American Planning Association’s Long Island Section Steering Committee.

As Mr. Bellone “touts his record of suburban transformation,” wrote Mr. Murdocco on his The Foggiest Idea blog, “Long Island continues to slowly suffocate under its own weight. It’s not surprising that the county’s chief policymaker who has prioritized economic development over sound community-driven and environmental planning efforts might be a bit too quick to take a victory lap.” 

Mr. Bellone’s “new suburbia…may not be the panacea so often touted when it actually arrives. Our groundwaters are increasingly being tainted by new pollutants, and the Sound and the sea are increasingly at risk…Real estate development, when allowed recklessly, can amplify these impacts even further. In recent years, the traditional model of suburban sprawl is being replaced with merely a new variant: just higher densities and rentals shoehorned in between the existing poorly planned subdvisions and worn-out shopping centers.”

Critical comments on the Long Island Business News website about Mr. Bellone’s essay included one reader, Jan Williams, complaining about “too, too much density. All over the place. Everyone else will suffer except the business elites and the politicians.” Another reader, Theresa, wrote: “This is not a vision of suburbia; this is creating urban centers, crowding, pollution, and congestion.” More development, said Julie, will ruin the “natural beauty of the area and why people originally came to Long Island.”

Suffolk’s first county executive, H. Lee Dennison, five years after he left office after 12 years, called for steps to “strongly limit” Suffolk’s population to 1.5 million people.  This was in 1978 when there were 1.28 million people here. Now we are at 1.5 million.  More than that, he said, would be “too many people for the resources we have.. .fresh water, air and space.”

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books. 

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - Schneiderman "Probably" To Challenge Kennedy For County Comptroller

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

Jay Schneiderman, the Southampton Town supervisor, told me last week he “probably” will be running this November for Suffolk County comptroller.  A Democrat, he would be facing Republican incumbent John A. Kennedy, Jr.

It’s an important position: Suffolk County government’s chief fiscal watchdog.

Both men have long experience in Suffolk government. Mr. Schneiderman was first elected a county legislator in 2003. Between 1991 and 1996 he was a member and then chairman of the Town of East Hampton Zoning Board of Appeals, was elected East Hampton supervisor in 1999 and from there went to the legislature. He served five two-year terms as a legislator before being term-limited under the panel’s rules. So, in 2015, he ran for and was elected supervisor of Southampton Town, having moved from Montauk to Southampton. He is the only person in county history to be supervisor of two of Suffolk’s 10 towns. 

He has long been interested in being Suffolk County comptroller. In 2014, while a legislator, Mr. Schneiderman spoke about running for the position saying: “I think I’d make a good comptroller. I’m a numbers guy.” However, the Democratic Party nominated instead James Gaughran of Huntington, then and now chairman of the Suffolk County Water Authority, who was defeated by Mr. Kennedy

Mr. Kennedy, of the Smithtown community of Nesconset, started working for the county in 1986 under County Executive Peter Cohalan in the executive’s Office for the Aging. He went on to serve a succession of county executives, two Republicans and Patrick Halpin, a Democrat, before becoming an official in the county clerk’s office in 1995. He ran for the Suffolk Legislature in 2003. Between 2012 and 2014, he was its GOP minority leader. He was also term-limited after five two-year terms.

In running for comptroller, Mr. Kennedy, an attorney, stressed how he “streamlined” operations in the clerk’s office where he was official examiner of title.

There would be a geographical issue in a Schneiderman-Kennedy race. Although well- known in East Hampton and Southampton towns—and in the somewhat wider area covered by the legislative district he represented including Shelter Island after it was added to the district in 2014—how would Mr. Schneiderman fare in a countywide race? Mr. Kennedy is, as is said on Suffolk’s East End, from “up the Island”—where most of the county’s 1.5 million people reside. Will Mr. Schneiderman have the name recognition he might need to run a county race decided by voters in western and central Suffolk.

There is a wrinkle to this, however. He has ties to the west. Although Mr. Schneiderman’s folks owned a motel in Montauk, and the family spent summers in Montauk, during most of the rest of the year they lived in Hauppauge. He is a graduate of Hauppauge High School. Interestingly, Ed Romaine, now Brookhaven Town supervisor, was Mr. Schneiderman’s seventh grade social studies teacher in Hauppauge. (Former teacher and student served together on the Suffolk Legislature. Messrs. Schneiderman and Kennedy also served together as legislators.) 

Then there’s classic politics—involving personality, conflict and future plans.

 The current county executive, Democrat Steve Bellone, has had a contentious, sometimes bitter relationship, with Comptroller Kennedy. Meanwhile, Mr. Schneiderman and Mr. Bellone have been friends. It’s personal, not based on some party line allegiance, because Mr. Schneiderman has been on a winding political road. He was a Republican as East Hampton supervisor and Republican, too, for years on the county legislature, but then joined the Independence Party in 2008 and only changed his enrollment to Democrat last year. However, while an Independence Party member he ran for legislator and Southampton Town supervisor endorsed by Democratic Party. 

If Mr. Schneiderman can knock out Mr. Kennedy as comptroller, he would help Mr. Bellone when, as expected, Mr. Bellone runs for re-election to a third four-year term next year.  If Mr. Kennedy is re-elected this year, he’d be a likely Bellone opponent. Mr. Schneiderman does not have to give up his Southampton supervisor’s post to run for county comptroller.

Messrs. Schneiderman and Kennedy have interesting histories before getting into government. Mr. Schneiderman, with a B.A. in chemistry from Ithaca College and an M.A. in education from SUNY at Cortland, was a teacher, and he is an accomplished musician, trained and adept as a drummer. Mr. Kennedy worked at Kings Park Psychiatric Center while attending Stony Brook University, where he received a B.A. in psychology, and after graduation became a counselor and administrator at a State Office of Mental Health outpatient treatment program. Before getting a law degree from St. John’s University School of Law, he received an MBA with a concentration in capital budgeting from Adelphi University.

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books. 

Theater Review - 'A Chorus Line'

Theater Review – ‘A Chorus Line

Produced by The Gateway Theater – Bellport

Reviewed by Jeb Ladouceur

    

When seventeen desperate-for-work dancers make the first audition cut for an upcoming Broadway musical, the Director and his Choreographer inform the survivors that they’re looking for a chorus line of (oh dear!) only eight members … four boys and four girls. “Tell me about yourselves,” says ‘Director Zach’ … and that’s how he and ‘Larry’ (his Choreographer) will determine who stays, and who is summarily excused.

The hopefuls aren’t nuts about this unusual method of measuring talent but what’s a hoofer to do when at the end of his or her rope? Five – six – seven – eight… If you’re a professional dance aspirant, you don’t tell Directors and Choreographers how to gauge ability … not if you expect to stick around long on stage, you don’t. So, one by one, the candidates start to reveal even intimate details about their lives, invariably beginning with their earliest dance experiences.

After the first two young men have fessed up to what can only be termed confidential childhood information, the other contestants begin seriously to wonder whether agreeing to this strange audition technique was a good idea after all. I mean, how much should the performers tell these guys? To say that the odd process makes one uncomfortable is an understatement. But, what the hey … that’s show business, right? Five – six – seven- eight…

I’ve always thought this story-line device is more than a bit thin. After all, if it’s truly required, there are ways to extract an individual’s innermost feelings apart from flat-out demanding to know chapter and verse about one’s life story. Accordingly, it’s this critic’s view that one should approach The Gateway’s snazzy production of ‘A Chorus Line’ with total disregard for the contrived ‘personal revelation’ premise right from the outset. Because it really doesn’t matter, folks. There’s plenty of glitz in this production to bring the show gloriously across the finish line without all the unnecessary psychological nonsense.

How successful was ‘A Chorus Line’ after it opened at New York’s Shubert Theatre in 1975? Well, not only was the boffo musical nominated for a dozen Tony awards (winning nine), but Broadway theatergoers kept the Marvin Hamlisch show in demand on The Great White Way for more than six thousand performances. It became the longest-running production in The Big Apple’s history until surpassed by the iconic ‘Cats’ in 1997. Indeed, ‘A Chorus Line’ remains the 6^th longest-running show ever to light up Broadway!

Many theater patrons assume that this musical is a takeoff on the familiar theme wherein a stageful of eager young performers dance their hearts out in pursuit of that one big break that will bring them fame and fortune. Not entirely. ‘A Chorus Line’ is largely about veteran hoofers who are approaching the culmination of their careers and are desperate to achieve one more success while they still possess the necessary terpsichorean tools. It’s this novel twist on an otherwise everyday stratagem that saves the James Kirkwood Jr. – Nicholas Dante book from mediocrity. Though it must be acknowledged that in 1976 Kirkwood and Dante did, in fact, win both the Tony and Drama Desk awards for Best Book of a Musical. Go figure.

One thing is a lead pipe cinch, however: when regional theaters like The Gateway, Theatre Three, and The Engeman want to send audiences home tapping their toes and humming a familiar refrain, they can’t go wrong treating them to ‘A Chorus Line,’ or any other Marvin Hamlisch production. Long a favorite of the great Barbra Streisand, Hamlisch (who died at 68) was one of but 12 people to win Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards. What’s more, only Richard Rogers joins him in having added a Pulitzer Prize to that impressive lineup.

The Gateway never disappoints … never! Whether the show they’ve mounted is performed at the sumptuous Patchogue Theater, or the ultra-comfortable playhouse in Bellport. And that’s true of the current offering at the latter venue. It’s hard to imagine a more impressive production than the ‘…Chorus Line’ being staged there thru May 26. The single hope from this quarter is that readers will take advantage of the unforgettable experience that awaits them there.

________________________________________________________________  

Award-winning writer, Jeb Ladouceur is the author of a dozen novels, and his theater and book reviews appear in several major L.I. publications. His recent hit, THE GHOSTWRITERS, explores the bizarre relationship between the late Harper Lee and Truman Capote. Ladouceur’s newly completed thriller, THE SOUTHWICK INCIDENT, was introduced at the Smithtown Library in May. The book involves a radicalized Yale student and his CIA pursuers. Mr. Ladouceur’s revealing website is www.JebsBooks.com

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - Bamboo Once Unleashed Extremely Difficult To Control

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

Long Island “has been a hotbed of anti-bamboo sentiment going back several years,” declares the industry website “Landscape Management.”

The website outlines the hope for bamboo and the big problem involving it. “Bamboo has often been used as [a] landscape ‘problem solver.’ Certain species of bamboo grow quickly forming a dense screen that can reach 40 feet or more [high.]….Bamboo becomes a problem when some species do not stay where they are planted. Bamboo in the genus Phyllostachys, commonly called “running” bamboo, seems to cause the most problems. Unchecked, running bamboo can easily invade a neighbor’s yard, popping up through asphalt driveways and dislodging sidewalks, as much as 30 feet from where it’s intended to be grown.”

Once unleashed, it is extremely difficult for control to be gained.

The anti-bamboo beat on Long island continues. The Town of Riverhead is currently considering joining with other Long Island jurisdictions which impose restrictions on bamboo. 

Riverhead would make it illegal to plant or replant bamboo or allow the spread of existing bamboo on a neighbor’s property or onto public land. The property owner or occupant would be liable for “the direct and indirect costs of abating the nuisance and all expenses incidental thereto,” says the town’s proposed code. The code, however, is being redrawn after a public hearing last month at which landscapers and bamboo growers said the town should exclude “clumping” bamboo. Clumping bamboo doesn’t spread dramatically like running bamboo. Rodney Anderson, a member of the Suffolk County Planning Commission, testified at the hearing that the proposed Riverhead law “will hurt growers like myself and retailers.” 

There’s been a varied approach to dealing with bamboo in this area.  

The first bamboo ban here came in 1981 with Ocean Beach on Fire Island passing a law 

stating that “no owner of any land within the Village of Ocean Beach shall permit any plants or any weeds known as ‘poison ivy’ or bamboo or any other noxious weeds…or invasive growth…to be grown upon such property.” There was no provision for clumping bamboo. 

Similarly, the Village of Malverne in 2013 prohibited the “planting, growing or maintaining” outdoors of all bamboo. 

In many Long Island jurisdictions, after battles between bamboo opponents and bamboo supporters—landscapers and growers largely—no restrictions were enacted. 

That’s what happened in Sag Harbor in 2011. State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele, Jr., then also the village’s attorney, drew up a law outlawing bamboo but, he recalled last week, there was “no agreement” on it by the village board after a hearing. Also in 2011, a bamboo ban got nowhere in East Hampton Village.

In other jurisdictions, restrictions have been applied to running bamboo but not clumping bamboo—as was the plea at the hearing in Riverhead.

The first of the 10 towns in Suffolk County to act on bamboo was Smithtown which in 2011 enacted a law providing that “no owner, tenant or occupier of property anywhere in the Town of Smithtown shall cause, suffer or allow bamboo to be planted, maintained or otherwise permitted to exist within 10 feet of any property line, street, sidewalk or public right-of-way.” The Village of the Branch, in Smithtown, followed the town with its own prohibition. 

Since, the towns of Huntington, Babylon and Brookhaven have all adopted restrictions on bamboo. The Village of Northport in Huntington followed the town and passed a ban. And the Village of Lindenhurst in Babylon Town enacted its own prohibition. On Fire Island, Saltaire followed Ocean Beach.

In Nassau, the Village of Roslyn Harbor adopted a ban this past June and the Village of Flower Hill enacted one in August. The towns of North Hempstead and Hempstead in Nassau and the cities of Glen Cove and Long Beach and also Garden City have restricted bamboo.

New York State moved into the situation in 2013 adding two varieties of running bamboo to its list of invasive species and banning their sale, transportation or planting in the state.

The Brookhaven law, passed in 2012, prohibits new planting of running bamboo. But it permits existing running and clumping bamboo, however directing that “the owner or occupant of said property confine such species to prevent the encroachment, spread, invasion or intrusion of same onto any other property or right of way.” The town’s environmental analyst, Michael Albano, is responsible for policing its law. “It’s really easy for bamboo to take over,” Mr. Albano says. And control of running bamboo is a major project that includes placement of a a “root barrier” 18 inches deep with a two-inch lip—“ideally made of plastic; metal rots away.”         

Brookhaven’s penalties are tough. Its law states that violators are subject to “a fine of $500 or $2,000 or by imprisonment not exceeding 15 days, or by both such fine and imprisonment; upon a second or subsequent conviction, by a fine of $1,000 to $3,000 or by a maximum period of imprisonment not to exceed six months, or by both such fine and imprisonment.”

On Shelter Island a ban on bamboo was considered in 2012 but not enacted because of the imminent arrival of the state prohibition. Further, notes town building inspector Chris Tehan, the town code includes a “wetland” provision that says in a “vegetation buffer…planting, seeding, cultivating or maintaining a previously disturbed area is allowed” but, as to any “replacement plantings,” they must be “native vegetation.” Also, bamboo is listed on the Shelter Island Conservation Advisory Council’s list of “invasive species” and that body states on top of its list that includes bamboo: “We recommend you do NOT plant these.” 

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books.