Everything Armistead

Armistead Maupin at work on new 'Tales'

2012-01-28T20:30:00.000-05:00

Author says 'The Days of Anna Madrigal' to be published in 2013
27 JANUARY 2012 | BY GREG HERNANDEZ

Author Armistead Maupin has told his 5,000 Facebook friends that they probably won't be seeing him pop up on the social media site very much for awhile.

He's embarked on writing the ninth book in his popular Tales of the City series.

Maupin wrote on Facebook Friday (27 January): 'Okay, here's the deal, friends. I have to stop indulging myself on Facebook and start writing the next "Tales" book. That means you'll be hearing a lot less from me for a while. This one is called THE DAYS OF ANNA MADRIGAL.

Maupin, 67, began Tales of the City in 1974 as a serial in a Marin County-based newspaper called Pacific Sun. When that paper folded, he began writing the series for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Such characters as Michael Tolliver, Mary Ann Singleton, Anna Madrigal, Mona Ramsey, Jon Fielding and De-De Halcyon-Day are among the characters that became well-known to readers.

This led to a series of wildly popular Tales of the City novels beginning in 1978. Five sequels, including More Tales of the City and Further Tales of the City, were published throughout the 1980s.

The first three books were made into television miniseries and all starred Laura Linney as Mary Ann, Olympia Dukakis as Anna Madrigal, William Campbell as Jon Fielding and Barbara Garrick as De-De Halcyon-Day.

There was nearly a 20-year gap between the sixth and seventh books. Michael Tolliver Lives was published in 2007 followed by Mary Ann in Autumn in 2010.

Maupin wrote in his Facebook message that the new book will be published in the fall of 2013.

'Meanwhile,' he wrote, 'enjoy the first eight books. They'll all be available as e-Books in a week or so.'

http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/armistead-maupin-work-new-tales

"Tales of the City" series ebooks

2012-01-07T18:49:00.000-05:00

The entire 8 volume "Tales of the City" series will be released at the end of this month in the US, the UK will be available soon!

Armistead Maupin on iTunes

Armistead Maupin on Kindle

Armistead Maupin on Nook

Seattle Pride Festival Director Egan Orion interviews Armistead Maupin

2012-01-07T12:25:00.000-05:00

Part One

Part 2

EXCLUSIVE: Armistead Maupin Confirms New Tales of the City Novel

2011-12-02T09:54:00.000-05:00

The author Armistead Maupin has revealed to a So So Gay writer that he has began the process of writing a brand new installment in the beloved Tales of the City series. Through his Twitter account, Maupin announced the novel would focus on the nonagenarian transsexual Mrs Madrigal, the wise and witty mother-figure to Michael, Mary Ann and Mona, and should be expected to become available “within the next two years”.

The Days of Anna Madrigal continues a similar pattern laid down by the two most recent novels in the series – Michael Tolliver Lives in 2007 and Mary Ann in Autumn in 2010 – by returning to focus on one particular central character, as opposed to the multiple-storyline serialised format of the earlier instalments. It seems Maupin is still in a period of creativity regarding the Tales series, after an eighteen year drought between Sure of You in 1989 and Michael Tolliver Lives. The collection remains enormously popular with it’s solid base of loyal readers. Being introduced to the first novel is seen by some as a rite of passage for young gay men and women with its blissfully positive and open-minded portrayal of liberal men and women, young and old, in 1970s San Francisco.

http://sosogay.org/2011/exclusive-armistead-maupin-confirms-new-tales-of-the-city-novel/

Cut and Paste

2011-12-02T07:13:00.000-05:00

ARA JANSEN, The West Australian
Updated December 2, 2011, 12:00 pm

Get ready to redefine what you know about the Scissor Sisters. The band Bono called the best pop band in the world are brash, racy and buckets of naughty fun but they don't have any problem taking a sharp turn each time they make an album.

Known for stomping dance-pop singles like Take Your Mama, Filthy/Gorgeous and I Don't Feel Like Dancin', the Brit-Award winning and Grammy-nominated American quartet's coming fourth album is "very different" from their previous ones, doesn't have as much of a theatrical edge and is driven by beats.

"The last album was very cold and had lots of sex and dark moods, which is why I loved it," frontman Jake Shears says from his parents' home in Virginia, where he spent Thanksgiving last week having a rare few-days break. "This one has a real emotional quality, a real honesty and a romantic and loving feeling. It's summery and sunny and I think connects emotionally."

The lightening up was also reflected in the process of writing and recording which the Scissor Sisters' co-singer and songwriter says came with ease and a sense of joy not truly present since their debut album.

"When you have people around you who have no question that you can do something, it makes you believe it too," he says of the collaborators the band worked with this time around. "Great songs come from that confidence.

"I really think people are going to fall in love with this music. I feel so great about it. We're doing things we've never done before and taking turns which will put jaws on the floor. Be ready for some big surprises."

He vowed to do his "damndest" to get a couple stage-ready for us to hear during the band's Australian visit on the Summadayze bill next month.

Not only have the Scissor Sisters made an album he truly loves, the year has been one of new adventures for Shears, whose real name is Jason Sellards. The band started 2011 by touring with Lady Gaga before Shears worked on his first musical.

He co-wrote the songs for the musical adaptation of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City novels which follow the lives and loves of a group of gay and straight friends living in San Francisco. He worked with playwright Jeff Whitty and director Jason Moore of the Tony- Award winning Avenue Q.

The singer is a long-time fan of the Maupin books and has described them as a rite of passage for gay men, after he was given a copy of Tales of the City as a teenager. Because he "can't act his way out of a paper bag" Shears was totally happy to work behind the scenes writing the score and lyrics with Scissor Sisters collaborator JJ Garden. He did, however, sit in the audience almost every night of the San Franciscan summer season and cry.

"I don't think I have ever been so emotional about something," he says.

"Sitting with a full house and to hear the first notes on stage every night, I cried my eyes out and white-knuckled it to the end. It was a really emotional experience but someday I would love to do it again."

There's talk of another production being staged and he hopes it will make its way to Broadway or the West End at some point.

From there, Shears jumped straight into the new Scissor Sisters album. After taking four years to deliver 2010's Night Work - the follow-up to 2006's Ta-Dah - and shelving one early version, the band's new album is just about finished and will come out in the first half of next year.

Shears' experience with Tales of the City influenced the album. He says that watching from the audience gave him a hint of what fans experience.

"It just reminded me how important that connection is. At the same time as working on the musical I was DJing as Crystal Pepsi with my friend Jeremy Lingvall and we were playing pretty hard and intense dance and squelchy, noisy techno," he says.

"I loved that extreme and that I can live my life in this way and dabble in things that are different from another. That also informed this record."

Scissor Sisters play Summadayze at Sir James Mitchell Park, South Perth on January 3. Tickets from Ticketmaster outlets.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/entertainment/a/-/music/12231670/cut-and-paste/

2011 BroadwayWorld San Francisco Awards

2011-11-30T08:22:00.000-05:00

Congratulations to Wesley Taylor, Judy Kaye, Betsy Wolfe and Mary Birdsong who were all nominated for their works in the "Tales" musical. You can vote for them here. Just enter your email address and follow the instructions. -Armistead on Facebook

http://sanfrancisco.broadwayworld.com/vote2011region.cfm?region=San%20Francisco#

A Good Read

2011-10-26T14:16:00.000-04:00

BBC Radio 4

"Tales of the City" has been featured on "A Good Read" from BBC Radio 4 originally broadcast on October 25, 2011.

BOOKS FEATURED IN THE PROGRAMME
Christopher Frayling's choice: Ill Fares The Land: A Treatise On Our Present Discontents by Professor Tony Judt
Publ. Penguin

Nikki Bedi's choice: The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
Publ. Harper Perennial

Harriet Gilbert's choice: Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
Publ. Black Swan

Listen to the program here

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b016817f

Dear Me: A Letter To My Sixteen-Year-Old Self

2011-10-20T15:45:00.001-04:00

Armistead Maupins is one of 75 contributors to the new book "Dear Me: A Letter to My Sixteen-Year-Old Self" to be released October 25, 2011 (US) by Joseph Galliano.

These nuggets of wisdom are offered by an Academy Award–nominated actor (James Woods), a popular comedian (Aasif Mandvi), and a world-famous novelist (Jodi Picoult) to their sixteen-year-old selves. No matter how accomplished and confident they seem today, at sixteen, they were like the rest of us—often unsure, frequently confused, and usually in need of a little reassurance.

In Dear Me, 75 celebrities, writers, musicians, athletes, and actors have written letters to their younger selves that give words of comfort, warning, humor, and advice. These letters present intimate, moving, and witty insights into some of the world’s most intriguing and admired individuals. By turns funny, surprising, raw, and uplifting, this singular collection captures the universal conditions that are youth, life, and growing up. -Amazon.com

Proceeds from the book benefit Doctors without Borders.

For more information, visit http://www.dearme.org/

Ziemienski named Sonoma Treasure

2011-09-27T07:23:00.000-04:00

BY DAVID BOLLING INDEX-TRIBUNE EDITOR
Sep 26, 2011 - 07:16 PM

Dennis Ziemienski, an internationally-known Glen Ellen artist and prominent supporter of Sonoma Valley art events, has been named the 2011 Sonoma Treasure Artist.

Ziemienski's work is collected across the country and beyond and has been featured prominently in countless Sonoma Valley nonprofit campaigns. He created the inaugural posters for the Sonoma International Film Festival, the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art Wet Paint event and the Sonoma Valley Olive Festival, among others.

Ziemineski has donated numerous paintings for auction lots to raise funds for Valley nonprofits, and organizations his work has benefited include the Sonoma Community Center, Friends of Sebastiani Theatre, Sonoma Plein Air, Sonoma Salute to the Arts, Sonoma Jazz Plus, the Glen Ellen Village Fair and Dunbar Elementary School.

His paintings are featured on many well-known book covers including, "Tales of the City," by Armisted Maupin and several covers for authors James Lee Burke and Elmore Leonard.

He was chosen to create the poster for Super Bowl XXIX, the 2006 Kentucky Derby, the California Railway Museum in Sacramento, the San Francisco Zoo and the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Ziemienski has taught at the California College of the Arts, the Academy of Art in San Francisco, Syracuse University graduate class, Hartford University Masters Program and the Sonoma Community Center. And he has volunteered his time to teach art throughout the Sonoma Valley, including at Hanna Boys Center, Dunbar Elementary School and the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art.

In 2011 he has had three separate solo exhibitions in Santa Fe, Jackson Hole, Wyo., and Los Angeles.

Ziemienski is married to artist Anne Ziemienski and their daughter, Sofia Ziemienski, is a 2010 graduate of Sonoma Valley High School.

http://www.sonomanews.com/News-2011/Ziemienski-named-Sonoma-Treasure/

Alastair Reid obituary

2011-09-09T21:28:00.000-04:00

Director of television drama, including the ground-breaking Tales of the City and Traffik

Peter Ansorge
guardian.co.uk
Friday 9 September 2011 18.42 BST

Alastair Reid, who has died aged 72, was one of Britain's finest directors of television drama. In 1989 he directed all six episodes of Simon Moore's epic drug drama Traffik for Channel 4, which won him both a Bafta and an International Emmy. The Oscar-winning film Traffic (2000) was based on the mini-series; the consensus among critics today is that Alastair's Traffik is the more successful of the two productions.

In 1991 he directed the five-part Selling Hitler, adapted by Howard Schuman from Robert Harris's book, with Barry Humphries as Rupert Murdoch and Alan Bennett as Hugh Trevor-Roper. Then came Tales of the City (1993), an adaptation by Richard Kramer of Armistead Maupin's novel set in the San Francisco of the 1970s, and the only instance to date of an American drama series being entirely funded by a British broadcaster – Channel 4. Tales of the City had always been intended as a co-production – but pre-HBO American television couldn't countenance onscreen kissing between men.

Alan Poul, the American producer, says that when Tales of the City was finally transmitted in the US, with great success, it "forever changed the landscape of American television", paving the way for shows such as Six Feet Under and Sex and the City. It was quite an experience for me, as head of drama at Channel 4, to visit the set in Los Angeles and to be told by both Olympia Dukakis and Laura Linney that Alastair was the best director they had ever worked with.

Alastair was born in Edinburgh. His father was a schools inspector and his mother a well-known antiques dealer. Alastair graduated from Edinburgh College of Art, with the intention of becoming a painter. He then studied directing at the Bristol Old Vic. In 1960 he was taken on as a trainee director by Lew Grade at ATV where he worked on the UK's first twice-weekly evening soap opera, Emergency – Ward 10.

He directed well over 100 episodes, which were broadcast live. By his last year on the Ward, Alastair had become extremely bored and chose to direct a whole episode entirely from the point of view of the characters' feet. Unfortunately, Grade happened to be watching at the time. He rang the studio gallery during the commercial break and demanded that the cameras return to their standard positions for the second half of the show.

Alastair went on to direct highly popular series such as South Riding (1974) and Shades of Greene (1975, from Graham Greene's short stories) for ITV but it was a stint at David Rose's innovative drama department at the BBC's Pebble Mill studios in Birmingham that proved a turning point. There he directed two series of the ground-breaking crime drama Gangsters (1976-77), a highly eccentric musical Curriculee Curricula (1978), with words by Alan Plater and music by Dave Greenslade, and David Rudkin's astonishing futuristic nightmare Artemis 81 (1981), starring Daniel Day‑Lewis and Sting.

Gangsters brought multi-racial Britain to a mainstream audience on BBC1 as never before, or indeed since. At the time BBC drama productions were a mix of studio and outside filming. The joins always showed. For Gangsters, Alastair introduced a handheld camera into the studio that created a seamless match with film.

Alastair planned and storyboarded like Hitchcock, who was his hero. Gangsters contains a brilliant homage to the crop-spraying sequence in North By Northwest, while Vertigo was a crucial influence on both Artemis 81 and the San Francisco of Tales of the City. After Gangsters came Hazell (1979) for ITV, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1980) with David Hemmings and the first episode of Inspector Morse (1987), followed soon afterwards by Traffik.

Nostromo (1996) was Alastair's last major work, filmed for the BBC in Colombia in the midst of a drugs war, during which he befriended the Nobel-prize-winning novelist Gabriel García Márquez and his mentor, Alvaro Mutis.

With his wife Jane, a gifted set designer, Alastair opened a vineyard at their house in Stoke St Gregory in Somerset. Famous names would visit, receiving the same welcome from Alastair and Jane off-set as they had once experienced on it. Day-Lewis spent a famous night there – not in the house, but outside in a tent, calling out to the wilderness, preparing for his 1992 role in The Last of the Mohicans.

Alastair is survived by Jane, his son Alex, his stepdaughters Lucy and Leo, and his two grandchildren.

• Alastair Reid, television director, born 21 July 1939; died 17 August 2011

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2011/sep/09/alistair-reid-obituary

Tour of the Tales

2011-09-01T08:52:00.000-04:00

Larry Rhodes, creator of the website http://www.toursofthetales.com, has added a new "Links" page with a lot of information pertaining to San Francisco, and particularly "Tales of the City". Larry is adding more tours soon. Check out his website, and follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/ToursOfTheTales for the latest updates!

Parker Posey

2011-08-30T09:36:00.000-04:00

By Joel Keller August 22, 2011

The actor: Parker Posey excels at playing prickly, condescending snobs as well as free-spirited ingénues. She made her name in the ’90s in a series of cult-hit independent movies like Dazed And Confused, The Daytrippers, Clockwatchers, and Party Girl, then went on to more memorable roles, including making regular appearances in the mostly improvised Christopher Guest movies. On Aug. 22, she starts a four-episode stint on the Showtime comedy series The Big C, playing a new friend for the teenage son of Laura Linney’s character.

The Big C (2011)—“Poppy”

The A.V. Club: What’s the name of your character and what’s the role?

Parker Posey: Do you have the name? I forgot her name. I just got in from Canada. I just drove a 12-hour drive that should have been 10 hours. So I’m kind of like, rolling around. I’m trying to stretch my back out. I’m gonna say Darlene. [Laughs.] I play a woman with a little bit of arrested development, someone who has someone in her family that is sick, and I meet Gabriel [Basso]’s character in an online chat room for kids with cancer. I still see myself as a kid, I have intimacy issues, which explains why I befriend, a 15-year-old. We have a lot in common. There’s a lot of laughter, a lot of silliness, and it was a good time.

AVC: Any weirdness with playing the girlfriend of a teenager?

PP: No. No, I’m not his girlfriend.

AVC: Then was there any weirdness in the dynamic, or when you read the role, did you think she was a little oddball?

PP: I really didn’t want her to be too weird. I was begging, I’m like, “Please don’t make her too weird.” But I think weird is fine. I think there’s room for some. You know, it’s a half-hour comedy about cancer. There are all sorts of personalities and complexes that these characters have in that show to make them funny and tragic and worthy of the big personality of television. You kind of have to stick out when you’re on TV.

AVC: What is it about the character that spoke to you when you read the script?

PP: Well, I ran into Laura Linney on the street, and my mom’s friends had just been in town and they were just talking about her show. And I said, “You know, my mom’s friends really, they love your show.” And she said, “You should come on and do it.” And that’s how it started. I was pitched the part from the creator, Jenny Bicks, on the phone, so I never read anything. The idea was really interesting to me. There’s certainly a lot of people out there who have family and friends who have cancer.

AVC: The prospect of working with Laura Linney couldn’t have hurt either, right?

PP: Oh my God, I know. Well you see, 20 years ago, one of my very first jobs was with Laura in a PBS show called Tales Of The City that was a six-part show based on Armistead Maupin’s Tales Of The City. Then Showtime picked up the second book, More Tales Of The City. So I worked with her a day on that in Montreal. It was really a long time ago. And I’ve worked with John Benjamin Hickey [who plays Linney’s brother on The Big C] in The Anniversary Party. He played my husband. I’ve never had the honor of working with Oliver Platt [who plays Linney’s husband], but I’ve certainly seen him around. So they’ve got a bunch of great actors. So it felt really good just to get up and go to work not too far from New York where I live. So I really, really enjoyed that.

Tales Of The City (1993)—“Connie Bradshaw”

PP: I played Connie Bradshaw, Mary Ann Singleton’s friend from her hometown, and I believe the only person that she knew in San Francisco when she moved there. I played a young woman who was sleeping around, had a big heart, turned to some bad relationship with a real player, right? And you know, she danced a lot. I remember shooting a disco scene and when I saw Laura, she said, “Do you still have that shirt?” And I do still have it. I have this great, long-sleeved shirt with a horse printed on it. That kind of influenced me for dressing the part on The Big C, where I’m kind of the female version of John Hickey: counter-culture, baggy, bell-bottom jeans, flannel shirt, grubby, drives a Dodge Dart—you know, kind of stuck in the past, or born at the wrong time.

AVC: Tales Of The City was pretty risqué for public television. Was there a feeling around the set of, “Hey, we’re doing something new and revolutionary”?

PP: I know! That was a big deal. Yeah, I remember that. Yeah, you know, there was [that feeling], but to me it felt like an independent movie that was going to be shown on TV. There was a lot of excitement about it because the books are so loved. Armistead was around all the time. We had a great director, Alastair Reid, that was such a sweetheart and so fun. There was just a lot of laughing. We had a really good time. And then there was a big letdown when they didn’t get the second part [filmed], and then there’s also a third part. Eventually, Connie has a daughter and dies [during childbirth], and she gives her daughter to Mary Anne, and her dying words are, “Name her Shawna.” And she leaves us. I’m still looking forward to playing that, although I don’t think it’s going to get produced. But it was such a great serial. Have you read Armistead Maupin? He has a really good book on tape called The Night Listener that’s kind of autobiographical that he reads. I remember listening to it on an airplane and really enjoying it. Working in San Francisco is the best. I love San Francisco. It’s one of my favorite cities. I just had so much fun.

More Tales Of The City (1998)—“Connie Bradshaw”

AVC: What was the difference when you came back to do the sequel for Showtime a few years later?

PP: The big difference was we were in Montreal. That was the really big difference, and going like, “Why Montreal?” Oh, you can’t afford San Francisco. San Francisco’s such a character. So it’s a shame that we couldn’t shoot there. Maybe they did some exteriors there. I only worked a day. And I think Armistead wrote, I think he might have written me into that. I can’t remember what I played. I think it was something like a new-ager, something at a flotation tank or some kind of new age spa.
Clockwatchers (1997)—“Margaret Burre”

PP: That’s a good little movie. You know what’s really good in that movie? The music was really good. I mean, the cinematography was really good. The movie’s by two sisters named Jill and Karen Sprecher. I remember really loving my part in that. There’s this woman in the workplace named Margaret who hates her job. She thinks any job in an office is not the way to live. She thinks she’s invisible. She carves into her desk, you know, “Margaret was here.” There’s a big scandal because someone was taking money from the tip jars. It’s nothing, but it’s a big drama in the office. And because Margaret’s really loud, people start to turn on her and she gets taken away from the premises. I remember having to shoot this scene where I get carried away, and I was so mad—I wasn’t mad, I was upset, because the camera was literally on the floor. And what I didn’t know was that I was really already in it, and feeling like this huge injustice that I was losing my job. I was walking around going like, “I can’t believe the camera’s on the floor” and I’m about to be taken out of here by the police. You do these little movies that are 20 days, you know, they go so fast and you’re so in it. There’s no time to even go to the craft-service table to eat a carrot stick. It’s just fast and focused.

AVC: Were you upset that the movie was ending and trying to use it to get into your character?

PP: No! No! I was upset because I think I was just kind of taken with the part. Margaret wasn’t seen, then I wasn’t seen, and it just kind of all bled together. The camera department became the corporate system that she was so mad at. I remember this one scene, I have a roommate that works for an airline, that I never see. When the Toni Collette character comes over, I offer her something to drink and it’s like a tray of airplane food, and airplane liquor bottles. [It was] a lonely, kind of trickster part. And then I wore my roommate’s flight jacket to work, her stewardess outfit. I was doing all these provocative things. Like, Margaret would steal from the restaurant. I think she stole a bunch of matches or something, like lemon drops, saying this thing, “Well, they take from me, why can I not take from them?” Just this real counter-culture rebel.

AVC: Do you have an affinity for those kind of parts? A lot of your early career was these kind of independent movies.

PP: Well, I think that’s because that’s what was around. I don’t know. I feel like it was also around a time where they could write things for me. Like, people could write a part and then I would do it, you know? Like The Daytrippers or Party Girl was written for me. But I don’t know if Jill and Karen had it in mind when they wrote Margaret for me to play. But also, you know, you couldn’t get someone that demanded a salary. Directors couldn’t go to an agency like CAA and get Winona Ryder for their little million-dollar movie. But they could come to me and my agent, and go, “Is she doing anything, will she work for free?” And I’d say yeah. It’s great. And that’s it. It’s nothing deeper than that. Of course, it’s all changed now.

Party Girl (1995)—“Mary”

AVC: But you said the part in Party Girl, for instance, was written for you.

PP: No, it wasn’t. No. But I remember when they did press for that, people wanted to know, because they thought that it was written for me, right? And then I started making stuff up. Like I said, “Yeah, I was discovered at the makeup counter at Barney’s.” And that’s why. It was a total lie.

AVC: Do you ever read those clips again and just laugh at them?

PP: No! No, but I can tell you, it makes me laugh when you say you’re going to go through my résumé and talk about my movies, because I’ve lied on my résumé and I’ve made up names of movies, I’ve made up certain things about myself. Because it’s just, you know, whatever. I shouldn’t be taken that seriously.

AVC: What are some of the fun things you’ve made up?

PP: I don’t remember. But I know that when I hear them back, I’ll be like, “Oh, I was really bored.”

AVC: This was back in the ’90s, earlier in your career. Do you still do it now?

PP: [Laughs.] I don’t. I think that was early on, when I was doing a lot of press. Because you just get silly and it’s that horrible thing where you’re joking but the other person doesn’t think you’re joking, and there’s no time to clear it up.

Waiting For Guffman (1996)—“Libby Mae Brown”

AVC: Did Christopher Guest know you from your other projects? When did he come and say, “Hey, we want you to come in and do this part”?

PP: I was a dwarf extra on a movie called the Coneheads that Lorne Michaels produced with Dan Aykroyd and Chris Farley and David Spade. That was my first paycheck that was… [Starts shrieking and laughing.] [To someone off the phone.] Can you get me a towel? A spider just crawled on my back. [Back on the phone.] Hello? I’m so sorry! [Laughs.] Um, it was a really gnarly spider. It just scared the shit out of me!

So I guess a year goes by, and I happen to be in L.A., auditioning for a recurring part on Murphy Brown. This is when they would fly me in to audition for things, when TV was still in its narrative form. So I was in L.A. for a week and that’s when I met Chris Guest. Karen Murphy, his producer, had called Lorne Michaels and asked him if he knew anyone who could play 18 and improvise, and Lorne Michaels recommended me. So I went in and I met him, and we hung out for a half an hour. I’m from the South. I couldn’t wait to play that part, and already had so much to give to it. And I just couldn’t wait.

AVC: Was the improvisation something you’d done before?

PP: I hated rehearsing in college. No one wanted to rehearse with me, because I would say, “You’re killing it.” I never wanted to overdo things or even rehearse because it always embarrassed me. I’m not that good at it. I’m not good at auditions either. I’m uncomfortable just being there on set. So no, I hadn’t done it. The first day, I was in the van and I was holding my knees up to my chest and my back was killing me, and Eugene [Levy] said, “That’s from holding in laughter.” Then I went to my room and drew a bath. I took a bath and I cried my eyes out. And I felt like I had been thrown into water that I just didn’t know. It’s not like, “Oh I’m gonna come up with something and say something funny,” for me at least. I think all the actors in that had various ways of improvising. It was really like, find your character and just be in the moment, and it was crazy. Chris would say, “You guys should come watch dailies,” and I said, “No, I really don’t want to.” He’s like, “Come on! What else are you going to do?”
So we watched them, and I couldn’t believe that it was all funny. It was really, really funny. And, you know, you would just talk until the mag rolls out. Everything everyone said, when they weren’t trying to be funny, was funny. It was so strange. I have so many memories from that, like Fred Willard sitting in one of those fold-up aluminum chairs in Lockhart, Texas, smoking a cigar and looking out into the little town. It leaves my mind reeling. I’d take a nap every day at lunch. I’d get so tired, right? But it was so much fun. By the time it was over, I was so sad. I think I felt like I would never see [Guest’s character] Corky again. It was like I lost that world.

Best In Show (2000)—“Meg Swan”

AVC: When he got you back together for Best In Show, did it feel kind of like...

PP: Different world! Different world. That’s dogs, you know? It’s so strange to me, because when I got back to New York [after Guffman], I went to the Joyce Theater and I saw Corky. I saw a gay man that had the same haircut, the same little earring, and I couldn’t believe it. I was like, “Oh my God, there’s Corky.” But Best In Show was totally, totally different. Totally different. I thought Guffman was, because we’d all rehearse and make up silly dances on Monday, on our day off. And oh my God, Chris cut himself out of those movies. That’s the sad thing. He had to edit it, and he was just like, “Ugh, enough.”

AVC: He’d rather show everybody else over himself?

PP: He just got bored. I think he was bored with himself. It’s just really hard to cut, because you have to cut for jokes. And it’s so funny, because, you leave those movies and everyone’s upset. All the actors are like, “Aw, Chris cut that scene,” and they’re really funny. These movies are really funny.

AVC: Which scene that got cut were you most unhappy to see go?

PP: It’s not from me. Do you want to get Fred Willard going? You can just [ask], “Fred, what did Chris cut of you in Best In Show?” But I don’t remember, honestly, I know he doesn’t like anything that gets too mean. Like where the joke is at the expense of someone else.

AVC: And Meg was a kind of prickly, mean character.

PP: Yes, she was. You know, there was a lot of pill-taking and pot-smoking and alcohol with Meg that is not in the movie at all. There were interviews with me and [Michael Hitchcock’s character] Hamilton where I’m taking pills. I smoked, took a puff of the pipe before work, and Hamilton’s like, “Meg, what are you doing?” And she’s like, “What does it look like I’m doing?” He goes, “Do you know what time it is?” And I was just like, “Yes... [Laughs.] It’s like, 7:00.” But there’s other stuff too that was really funny that he cut. Like the dog pooped in [Hamilton’s] slippers, and I’m shouting at my maid. With stuff like that, you’re going, “Oh, why did he cut that?” It just didn’t move the movie along. Fred Willard worked three hours on that. He came in and left. He worked for two days. Isn’t that amazing? And he’s like, the last act of that film. The movie wouldn’t work without him.

AVC: So how was it working with the dogs in that kind of improvisational environment?

PP: I felt like it didn’t really matter, the dog, with Meg. She’s really just talking about herself. So that was something that my husband did. So I wasn’t at the training classes at all with him. We shot together, Michael Hitchcock and I. We had a pointer initially, so we shopped at J. Crew, but then the dog changed to a weimaraner, so we started shopping at Banana Republic. So there was a poodle, the standard poodle—Jane [Lynch] and Jennifer [Coolidge’s characters’] dog got fired because she was misbehaving. So there’s somewhere on tape that has auditions for the poodles that day. It was really funny. In the lobby of the Sheraton. So there’s a scene where we’re grooming PJ—that was her real name, I don’t remember her name, I think it was Bea in the movie. Chris would say, “You know, let’s get the groomer over here, the owner, to come give another little talk, just to refresh how you position the dog on the table, and how you hold its neck and tail and all of that before they’re going to go out and show.” And as we’re just about to start to roll, she came up, she started critiquing the dog’s coat and said the dog would never win the competition, we’d never even be able to compete, that the coat was not perfect. And we’re like, “Well, we weren’t asking for a critique of the dog. We’re just, ‘How do you hold your scissors?’” So it was a really intense scene, and really, really funny and charming. There’s a really funny documentary on PBS about cat competitions and it’s really, really good. You see how different cat people are from dog people.

AVC: What was the difference?

PP: Longer hair. You know, cat earrings. I don’t know. Just more homey. Just a little witchier.

Parks And Recreation (2011)—“Lindsay Carlisle Shay”

AVC: The character you played on Parks And Rec seemed to have that same prickly personality. You seem to play that a lot: snooty, prickly, kind of condescending.

PP: Yeah, society lady. I think because I can look like that, do you know what I mean? And yeah, I get cast as funny, bitchy people. I like them. I think they’re funny.

AVC: Do you have any trepidation when you come in as a guest on an already established show?

PP: I was so happy to land in Parks And Rec. I don’t remember what I was doing. But yeah, what is this world? What’s the town? What’s the vibe? And I’d worked with Amy [Poehler] before, and I just love her. She’s so silly. I love that silly sense of humor. Absurd. And it’s kind of crazy; you shoot in a week. Those people go home at like, 5 o’clock. We shot in the Valley. It was 120 degrees. It was so hot. And Nicole Holofcener directed it. But it’s weird. It’s a different world. Like, the walls could move if they weren’t screwed in enough.

The Return Of Jezebel James (2008)—“Sarah Tompkins”

AVC: Amy Sherman-Palladino was coming off Gilmore Girls at the time, so Jezebel James got a lot of attention. Were you aware of all the attention the show was getting? And had you been a fan of Amy’s work before?

PP: No. I read the pilot and thought it was interesting, and that the writing was really good. We shot it in New York and Amy didn’t like office scenes that had editing in them. So one day out of the week, we would shoot a Steadicam shot. On Wednesday, we’d have a film day, and then on Friday, we’d do it live, and it was a 60-page script a week. It was so hard. I would have these fantasies of words coming out of my tear ducts, or my ears. She was a stickler, too. It was like, “Don’t say ‘and,’ say ‘but.’” So it’s hard to do a seven-page scene and keep it fresh every time. So on Friday night at 1 o’clock, it was really, really hard. I don’t really like to repeat myself, because then it kind of loses the life of it. But TV can be very—you know, it’s so much a writer’s medium. It can just be all about the words. Some TV, it gets to be like that, where every word you say has been approved by the network.

AVC: Because her dialogue is very dense and rapid, how did you prepare?

PP: I had a reader. I had someone that would follow me around with my lines. [I read] every time I could have a little time off. But it was hard, because there’s only a few options when you play someone that talks that fast. And it’s neurotic and crazy, and someone that’s really ahead of themselves. They’re not really thinking when they speak.

AVC: How was it shooting in front of a studio audience?

PP: I did it on Will & Grace a little bit. It’s kind of like, “Why are you guys sitting there?” You know? It’s a little in-between.

AVC: Did you feel when you were onstage with the audience that the timing was off? Or did it feel right when you were filming it?

PP: I think it’s something that people get used to when it’s a half-hour studio audience, the timing of the jokes, so that rhythmic “Someone says this, someone says that, and then you have the punchline.” So anything more in that format, people just aren’t used to. But I wasn’t really thinking about that. I wasn’t thinking about that when I was doing it. It was just a lot of dialogue. It felt like I was at boot camp.

AVC: So there’s obviously not a lot of room for improvisation there.

PP: I kept thinking she should write period plays from the ’40s, you know? There’s something about her jargon that’s very screwball. She’s got a real talent for it. I don’t read anything or follow up on whether it was a success or not. I just kinda take the jobs when they come and see how they turn out. But I’m glad I went through it. I’m glad I had that experience. It was probably one of my most difficult ones.

A Mighty Wind (2003)—“Sissy Knox”

PP: I think Eugene Levy’s work in that is so brilliant. He’s so good in that movie. So committed as a damaged guy, you know? I think what I took away from that was traveling and going on tour, and watching Catherine [O’Hara] and Eugene every night sing to each other. There’s a punk club in Washington, D.C., I think it begins with an S. I don’t remember. Well, we played there, and there were bands in the audience who knew those songs by heart. Watching Catherine and Eugene every night sing those love songs to each other was amazing. So moving.

AVC: How was the tour experience?

PP: I think we did seven or eight cities, maybe. I remember we went to Canada. We were in San Francisco, we did Town Hall, that was really amazing. Because there was a lot of singers in the group that just loved to harmonize. Like Jane Lynch and John Michael Higgins and Catherine O’Hara, those three especially: When we were in the arena for Best In Show with the dog competitions, they were always harmonizing. People would just stand in groups and just be singing during breaks. I think that’s why Chris got that idea. He’s like “Oh wow, we should do something about music.”

AVC: How confident were you in your singing for the movie?

PP: I can carry a tune, but I am not a harmonizer. But I loved her. The Main Street Singer, it’s like they just found God. Everybody’s laughing all the time. I remember we did this exercise, I don’t know if it made it into the movie, but we would all stand in a circle and sing a song of the colors of the rainbow that Jane and Higgins made up. It was, [Singing up the scale] “Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet!” But we’d have our hands just inches away from each other’s crotch. [Laughs.] And that was the exercise we did. And that was part of our vocal warm-up.

AVC: The crotch part?

PP: Yeah, it’s just the vibrations. [Laughs.] It’s so silly. I loved how competitive Higgins and Jane were. They were really into practicing. Fred Willard had a moment that that didn’t make it into the song that I thought was so funny, where he had a bottle of Vermont’s Own Maple Syrup, in those little moonshine jars. You know those jugs that maple syrup comes in? And he’s holding up a shot glass and holding up that maple syrup, and he says, “I don’t drink and I don’t smoke, but every now and then, I just pour myself a shot of some of this stuff!” And he pours himself a shot of maple syrup and drinks it. [Laughs.]

AVC: It does seem like Fred Willard was the life of the set in those movies.

PP: It just doesn’t stop. And he’d be like, “One more Chris. One more.” Chris would be like, “I think that’s fine. I think we got it.” [Laughs.] The big thing on set is that it’s very real. He’ll come up and he would say, “This could really happen. This isn’t too far from the truth. This is it. This isn’t really funny. This is how people are.” I get so many comments about, [how] people really relate to those characters, because they really see people who are really like that.

AVC: When you come off those movies and then you go back to doing scripted stuff like The Big C, is there an adjustment there?

PP: Yeah. There’s so much trust that you’re given as an actor. There’s so much freedom. When you go into something that’s scripted, especially in movies, sometimes there’s just more pressure and there’s an energy around it: “Will we be a success?” or, “We only have this amount of time to do it,” or whatever the pressures are, that never make their way into a Christopher Guest movie. Because it’s like the cameras aren’t even there. The main focus is what’s going to happen in front of camera, and it’s just kind of seamless. That’s what you strive for when you go on set. I think those movies are so special because of all of the people involved. It’s a huge group, but I feel like I’m still getting over the privilege to work like that. When you think about just the amount of faith and trust that Chris gives in everyone… Chris told me, “I had no idea Jennifer Coolidge was going to open her mouth and talk like that. I had no idea.” Isn’t that amazing? When you go into a situation in Hollywood and you have to read what’s in front of you on a piece of paper in a room full of other people, it’s hard. It’s a bummer. It can be so free to see that it could be so much more loose, and when it’s loose like that, people are free to have fun and take their time. I feel really lucky that I’m in that group.

But I got spoiled, creatively. I got really spoiled. And who knows. I don’t even know if he’s going to do another one. That’s the other thing. When I was in Canada, I ran into Catherine. And we were both talking, “I wonder if Chris is going to do another one?” Every time we see Bob Balaban, [we ask], “When’s he going to do another movie? When’s that gonna happen?” I mean, we all love each other. I love those people. I have a lot of love and respect for their intelligence and their sense of humor and their kindness. We need more of that.

As The World Turns (1991-1992)—“Tess Shelby”

AVC: A soap opera must be the opposite experience, because you’re pushing through every shooting, right?

PP: [Laughs.] They bring the kids in at the crack of dawn. We’ll be in a rehearsal hall at 6, and then around 7:30 you’re in the works. You’re in hair and makeup. I had a great time on that. That was great training. I remember sitting on a rock, or banging my foot against a rock on set, like on the lake, and it making a hollow sound. Like, “Oh, it’s not real.” Even the grass is plastic. Some of the directors were easy, kind of, “Camp it up and have fun with it,” and some of them took it really seriously. I remember when I first showed up on set, my first day, I took a nap in my dressing room and my [character’s] Aunt Barbara knocked on the door and she came in, and she was like, “Be careful what you say around here, because the walls have ears.” I thought that was so fabulously funny, especially since I was probably 21 years old. I just ran into her four or five years ago. Her name is Colleen Zenk. And she hadn’t aged a bit. She looked amazing. It was so good to see her. I remember learning lines and sitting on them. Unless [the actor] started screaming or cursing, that was what ended up on television. It was like, “That was great! Moving on.” You get two takes and you would move on, and you’re like, “What?” [Laughs.] It was just bad, like, “Wow, I’m doing really bad acting.” I was straight from drama school, so I was projecting. But I had fun.

I did Dazed And Confused during that time. They wanted to give me a three-year contract, but I just got out of drama school and I told As The World Turns that I didn’t want to be anywhere for three years after being in school, so they gave me a year and a half. After a year, when they saw that I was getting a lot of independent work, the producer, Laurence Caso, came up to me—and I’ll never forget, it was so cold in the studio. It was like a meat locker. You’d put on your wardrobe and your pantyhose and everything else, and then I’d wear two robes and just walk around shivering, and go to the green room and talk on the phone. And he came up to me and he says, “Parker, if it’s all right with you, I’d like to get Holden in a coma before Labor Day. And that would have your contract be cut short. Is that all right?” I was like, “That’s amazing Laurence. Thank you so much.” He goes, “You’ll always have a place here if you ever want to come back. Just keep in touch.” And I cried. I thought he was so sweet. [Laughs.] “Holden needs to be in a coma by Labor Day.” So funny. I got my first couch and TV, and my first apartment that I lived in for 13 years, during my soap days. Then I did all those independent movies through the ’90s.

Dazed And Confused (1993)—“Darla Marks”

PP: That movie is so popular. The Christopher Guest movies and Dazed And Confused are huge. I’m talking like, from bikers to strangers in a grocery store. That movie is so loved by so many people. This woman that I just worked with said that her autistic son who’s 11 knows every word to Dazed And Confused. I was like, “Come on set and be an extra.” So she was an extra. We had a 10-year reunion in 2004 or something. It showed at a drive-in in Austin to like, 6,000 people. We were all sitting down in the grass and people were standing up during the screening and quoting lines and singing songs to the screen, and drinking beer and smoking, and I crawled over to where Rick [Linklater] was sitting to just nudge him and say hi. He started laughing. He’s just giggling, and he goes, “I made a drive-in movie!” That’s genius. Because he did, and he didn’t know that’s what he was doing, but that’s exactly. That movie’s a drive-in movie.

AVC: And people have been quoting it, especially Matthew McConaughey’s character, for almost 20 years now.

PP: They’re still quoting me too, okay? [Laughs.]

The Daytrippers (1996)—“Jo Malone”

PP: I think The Daytrippers was a really special one, because it seems to capture what the independent film scene was like in New York in the ’90s. I had done a reading for Greg Mottola, that Campbell Scott and Liev Schreiber were in, about an MTV network. Investors came and said, “This movie’s going to be too much money. You can’t make this movie.” And Steven Soderbergh and Campbell Scott [tell Greg], “Just go and write a movie that you can shoot for a couple hundred thousand dollars.” So Greg said, “Okay, um, I’ll write something that shoots at my parents’ house, I’ll use my parents’ car, I have my apartment, I have my friend Andy’s apartment, we have Seth, we can use his apartment in Brooklyn, we can shoot in Campbell’s place.” And he pulled in all these favors. It was a 16-day shoot, 16 or 17 days. The production company was called Fiasco Productions, and the camera got stolen the first day. We brushed our own hair. We shot in film so it was like, we only had this amount of film and the sun is going down. Shooting in New York City. We were stealing shots. Anne Meara was hysterical. I just love her so much. I remember her in her bra and underwear getting dressed in Greg’s little apartment on Sullivan Street. Stanley Tucci and Hope Davis fighting in the apartment below when [her character] finds out, you know, when the end of the movie comes. It’s such a perfect movie. It took Greg almost 15 years to make another movie, which was Superbad.

After that, I remember doing, I think it was You’ve Got Mail. Meg Ryan had just read one of Greg’s scripts, and it’s a really, really good script. She didn’t know if she was going to do it or not. That was kind of when everything changed. At first, he could make movies with whoever he wanted. And then all of a sudden, the whole thing got co-opted by the studio system. So Greg moved out to Hollywood, and it took him forever just to make a movie again. And he’s so talented. It’s kinda sad. It’s kind of a bummer story, I’m sorry. But I think it’s interesting.

AVC: Is it because the independent system became less independent at that point?

PP: Yeah, it got co-opted, you know? It became something that was viable and could make even more money if it was made a certain way. So the budgets inflated, right? And once they got more money, then they became less dirty, then they became a little watered down. Less creative. But that’s a perfect little movie.

http://www.avclub.com/articles/parker-posey,60698/

"Tales of the City" Merchandise

2011-08-08T07:28:00.000-04:00

After three extensions and a record-breaking run, this wildly acclaimed world premiere production closed on July 31.

Thank you for your incredible support and enthusiasm!

It's your last chance to order your souvenir from Barbary Lane—many items now 50% off!

Exclusive merchandise, including a limited-edition hardcover reprint of the original Tales of the City novel, is available online and at the A.C.T. Box Office. From shirts and posters to the infamous Mrs. Madrigal rolling papers, don't miss your chance to own a piece of Tales history at an incredible price.

http://www.act-sf.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=14122.0&dlv_id=17322

Staying Local With Tales Of The City

2011-08-03T07:42:00.000-04:00

Carey Perloff
8/2/2011

After an unprecedented sold-out run at the American Conservatory Theater, the new musical of Tales Of The City closed on Sunday July 31. As I was sitting in a packed and tearful house watching the final performance, my mind kept returning to a subject I have been wrestling with for some time now: the power of what I like to call "locavore theater." Here's the paradox. Because we have become such a global culture, and because the American media tends to value theatrical work primarily if it is connected to New York or to London, the term "local" has always been a derogatory one in the regional theater. Indeed, when Bill Ball founded his acclaimed company in 1968 and then brought it to San Francisco, he deliberately called it the "AMERICAN Conservatory Theater" rather than the "SAN FRANCISCO Conservatory Theater", and made sure that his Board of Directors was incorporated in Delaware, not in the Bay Area. He felt strongly that his theater should be viewed through a national lens, with oversight from people outside of the city of San Francisco, because his goal was to create a significant artistic alternative to the Broadway commercial theater. Yet A.C.T. succeeded precisely because the creation of Ball's work at A.C.T. was intensely "local", performed by a remarkable standing company of actors who lived and worked fulltime in the Bay Area and had the opportunity to explore great classical plays as well as new plays in the attempt to both sustain the past and nurture the future. Over many decades, the audience in San Francisco came to view those actors as their own, watching them transform from role to role with dexterity and panache.

What's happened to the American non-profit theater in the interim is interesting. In a desperate attempt to feel relevant in an increasingly digital universe and to remain solvent at a time of huge decreases in arts funding, the regional theater has all but abandoned its alternative stance (the whole notion of a permanent company of actors being one of the first ideas to go) and now actively pursues commercial success and a presence in New York. It has become standard operating procedure for regional theaters to accept significant "enhancement money" from commercial producers in exchange for the use of their theater and their subscription audience to try out Broadway-bound material. While this has allowed large-scale musicals to be developed and previewed across the country, it has also sapped the regional theater of its artistic muscle and its individuality. Since he who pays the piper plays the tune, it is inevitable that the artists working on an enhanced musical are far more likely to take direction from their Broadway producers than from the non-profit theater's artistic team, with the result that the work is "local" in name only. Is this what an artistic pioneer like Bill Ball had in mind when he struggled to found the maverick theater that became A.C.T.?

For whom should this matter? Does an audience care who calls the shots in creating a show, as long as the show is good? And what impact does this "farmed out" procedure have on the vitality of arts communities across America? These are question I kept pondering as we worked on Tales. Contrary to all expectations, we decided to produce Tales completely on our own, without enhancement from or collaboration with commercial producers. We did this mostly because we wanted to be in control of how the story got told. It worried me that this most beloved of local stories would end up getting watered down and perhaps betrayed in the attempt to make it palatable for a Broadway audience. So we raised the considerable cost of the show (over $2 million) ourselves, and produced it on our own.

I was fascinated by how puzzled our theatrical colleagues were by this choice to "stay local" with Tales. Which led me to think about debates going on in the food industry. Here in the Bay Area, we have become obsessed with locally grown food. Not only does it taste better, it makes sense from an ecological perspective for us to partake of what is delicious and near to hand rather than flying in goods from across the globe whenever they strike our fancy. We don't view this as a compromise but as a challenge and a gift: to creatively embrace that which is grown and nurtured in our own backyards. In a similar way, while Armistead Maupin's stories belong to the world, they began here in San Francisco and in a sense they are part of our cultural DNA. Even people who never read the newspaper columns or the books have a deep-seated affinity for the wide-eyed outsider (Mary Anne from Cleveland) who arrives in the magical city by the Bay to try to create a new life for herself. Mary Anne strikes a nerve because she epitomizes the reason many people continue to relocate to San Francisco, a city that seems to promise a degree of release from, and experimentation with, the cultural norms of the rest of the country. So the fact that a local theater company decided to tell a story about its own local universe for a local audience who was part of that universe held great appeal. Yet over and over again in the press, the production was primarily viewed as a stepping-stone to New York. Despite the fact that it grossed $4.3 million (far surpassing any other show in A.C.T. history) and attracted a rapturous audience of over 70,000 people, in the eyes of many the success of the production will not be measured by the impact it had upon its own community but by whether it has commercial traction in the future.

Perhaps this is why audiences are less engaged with theater around the country than we would like them to be. Perhaps if we trusted our own standards of excellence and our own individual artistry enough, we would resist the media pull to evaluate our work through the fickle lens of commercial success. Perhaps in an era in which anyone can find their content of choice at the click of a mouse, the best way to get people to experience the collective joy of a live theatrical experience is to make them feel that what they are seeing is NOT easily replicable but has been created especially for their own communities by distinguished artists who are part of their world. If it's brilliant locally, it will inevitably resonate more broadly. Just as foodies from around the world travel to San Francisco to sample the anchovies that Judy Rogers fishes out of Monterey Bay in order to make her perfect Caesar salad at Zuni Café, perhaps audiences can be encouraged to revel in vigorous and delicious work that is nurtured closer to home. It might be an experiment worth taking.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carey-perloff/keeping-the-commercial-ou_b_916287.html

Three Secrets About the A.C.T.'s Orchestra Pit

2011-07-26T11:37:00.000-04:00

By Erik Verduzco, Queena Kim
July 24, 2011

Here are a few things you might be surprised to learn about the modern orchestra pit.

First off, there's no "orchestra" and the name might be a bit outdated. At least that's the impression we got from our night in the pit at the American Conservatory Theater. Instead of violins and french horns, we saw a six-piece rock band with each member playing multiple instruments.

"Orchestras are getting smaller and smaller," said “The Tales of the City” Music Director Cian McCarthy. That's "mainly because shows are becoming more pop rock."

That's certainly true for the A.C.T.'s musical Armistead Maupin's "The Tales of the City," which was co-written by Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters fame. The score, for the most part, riffs off of 70s glam and disco rock.

The second surprise is that the pit is very quiet or in other words, none of the music you hear in the theater actually comes out of the pit.

The drummer is enclosed in a plexi-glass-like isolation booth, which muffles his big sound. So too are the horns. You can’t even really hear the guitar and keyboards. All the sound from the instruments is fed to a booth where sound engineers fiddle with it and pipe it onto the speakers in the theater.

The third surprise? Well you’ll have to watch the video to find out. By the way, it’s the closing week of “The Tales of the City” so if you want to check it out, buy your tickets now. (Pst... if you use the code word "citizen" you can get a discount) (- Queena Kim)

http://www.baycitizen.org/blogs/frequencies/tales-city-musical-american-13/

Will the Tales of the City Musical Leave Behind a Legacy in San Francisco?

2011-07-20T09:37:00.000-04:00

Greg Archer
Posted: 7/19/11 11:33 AM ET

These are certainly wonderful times for Armistead Maupin -- and imagine the tales he'll be telling a year from now. For starters, the musical stage adaptation of his beloved Tales of the City literary saga -- combining his first two books, Tales, and More Tales of the City -- has surpassed expectations in its world premiere this summer. It's become the hottest thing to hit San Francisco during its fog-ridden summers since, well, the hottest thing to hit San Francisco during its fog-ridden summers.

The good news: It's shattered all sales and fundraising records for a single A.C.T. production. Beyond that, more than 58,000 people have seen the show--that's the size of a nice suburb--and generated the largest advance sale and the highest gross sales in the company's history. The opening night gala in June, in fact, raised nearly a million dollars for A.C.T.'s revered, award-winning conservatory and expanding educational programs.

"I'm so delighted that I have been able to create a lore that can survive; that can translate into so many different realms of art," Maupin recently told me about the Tales mystique and its longevity. "I don't know what to say. It's a tremendous tribute, not so much to me, but to the story I have been telling. This is a terrific third act of my life."

One that's not about to end soon. Even though the show closes July 31, Broadway may beckon.

The genesis of the musical project began more than three years ago and soon began generating buzz. Some of that had to do with Jake Shears and John Garden of the Scissor Sisters, who would eventually give birth to the music here. (Sassy and, at times, emotional romps kept audiences invested.) But the production seemed charmed from the get-gos when writer Jeff Whitty and director Jason Moore, both of Avenue Q, arrived at the helm.

Maupin first began penning Tales more than 35 years ago. After turning heads as a serial column in the San Francisco Chronicle, and later as an award-winning mini-series, his characters -- from naïve the Mary Ann (played by Laura Linney on the small screen) to the mysterious Barbary Lane landlady Mrs. Madrigal (Olympia Dukakis in a powerful performance) -- warmed readers' hearts and continue to do so.

(Maupin's latest "Tales" jaunt, Mary Ann in Autumn, met with stellar reviews upon release last fall.)

"The story seems real to people," Maupin notes. "The characters seem to real to people and become integral to their lives. It had become more about people's own excitement living in San Francisco. Throughout all that, I was merely expressing my own love for the city and the humanity that was changing my own life."

So why does he think the novels were embraced so marvelously worldwide?

"I think that it appeals to the growing notion that one's family is more often than not, invented," he says. "Mrs. Madrigal in the recent Tales novels, talks about the logical family versus the biological family. We no longer feel quite so enslaved to people who brought us into the world. Some of us are lucky enough to have biological family members that are also logical family members. It doesn't always work that way and I think Tales celebrates the notion of finding love and family amongst your friends. The general notion of self realization -- who you are."

This isn't the first time Maupin's work went nuclear. His many books have been well received and back in 2006, he was the creative fuel behind the screenplay for The Night Listener, starring Robin Williams. When asked about what it takes to be a "dedicated" if not "good" writer, he says it has a great deal to do with self-awareness.

"You have to be able to see your own foibles as clearly as possible in order to record them and celebrate them as universal," he muses. "People who are not willing to admit the worst about themselves are not going to create characters that are fully human."

Now the the musical is reaching its final stretch and the buzz circulating over where, if anywhere, it will head next, Maupin seems content in sinking into the simple moments life has to offer.

"I value the love that I share with my husband [Christopher Turner] above all other things," he says. "It's just the truth. It's more important to me than all things happening to me career wise. Christopher Isherwood, when he was in his seventies, told me years ago about his partner Don Bachardy -- that life is so much simpler when you've narrowed it down one other person. That's what old age is telling me ... and that's not a bad thing to hear."

In the meantime, I trekked behind-the-scenes for some banter with the Tales of the City crew and actress Pamela Myers. Take a peek:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-archer/tales-of-the-city-musical_b_902250.html?ir=Arts

'Tales' designer Douglas Schmidt lets space speak

2011-07-13T08:39:00.000-04:00

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Douglas Schmidt was the set designer for ACT's
production of "Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City."

The interior of Douglas Schmidt and Stephen Martin's hillside home in San Francisco looks like the set for a 1950s urban comedy. The interior of their weekend home above Stinson Beach looks like a set from the plays and operas that Schmidt, 68, has designed during a long career in New York, San Francisco and points in between. His work can be seen in "Tales of the City" at ACT.

On set design: The way I approach any design project is that I let the space speak. It wants to express in a subtle, almost subliminal way the emotional climate of the piece, the characters' needs and anxieties, the relationships that are being played out on the stage. All of these intangible elements have to be expressed.

On interior design: Somebody said once that "a beautifully designed and well-ordered interior is the sign of an inferior mind." I subscribe to that. You look for a feeling. Does it express the people who live there? If it doesn't have a comfortable feeling of being lived in, then it doesn't succeed.

On putting it to practice: The house in Stinson Beach is populated with bits and pieces from old shows. In the early part of my career, I did a lot of traveling around, and I would be propping in all these strange places. I'd see stuff that might not work with the show but was a nice piece of furniture, so I'd buy it.

On floor space: There is a gigantic Chinese rug in the living room. It's like 20 feet long. It was a major piece of scenery from a show when I was the resident designer at the repertory theater at Lincoln Center in New York. I've been dragging it around for 35 years until it found a home in Stinson Beach.

On effect: When someone walks in, they're pretty gob-smacked. It's not like most of the beach houses out there, which tend to be open and austere with tons of light. Our place looks like a barn. We describe it as "the Adirondacks meet Malibu." It's perfect for my collection of old furniture and props.

On getting started: I grew up in Cincinnati. In high school I was overly ambitious and adapted a stage version from a James Thurber book called "The 13 Clocks." I not only adapted it, I directed it and cast it and designed it and starred in it. My megalomania started early on.

On direction: I've been a set designer for my entire career. My very first trip to San Francisco was an aborted production for ACT when Bill Ball was running the company. It was right after the White Night Riot. The production manager put me into the hotel under an assumed name because I just happened to share the name of the lawyer who defended Dan White successfully.

On "Tales of the City": There are 50 scenes and 32 locations. The first time I read the script, I said to the director, "Do you know there are six beds in this script? How are you going to fit six beds on the stage?" In one case there was a love scene on two beanbag chairs because the bed issue was just impossible to deal with. You always have to compromise, but we ended up with very good props.

On tales in the city: People have asked me to do it (home interiors). It's such a labor-intensive process. You're dealing with personal tastes that might not be your own, and I find it extremely difficult to have to submerge my own aesthetic and buy a piece of furniture that I just wouldn't have on a bet.

- Sam Whiting,

swhiting@sfchronicle.com

This article appeared on page V - 3 of the San Francisco Chronicle

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2011%2F07%2F03%2FCMUQ1JK8HA.DTL

Olive Reader's "Tales of the City" Read Along updated schedule

2011-07-07T11:37:00.000-04:00

6/30/2011

Late last week, I began to panic. I was deep (or really, not as deep as I would have liked) into reading Game of Thrones, which is nearly 800 pages long, and I suddenly realized that I had less than a week left to not only finish that chunkster but also re-read Tales of the City for the readalong. So I buckled down, managed to finish GoT on Monday and still do tons of freelance work, and started Tales on Tuesday night. I was on track to finish by today if I tried hard, but . . . I fell asleep!

So I was all set to come here today and write a post about what I was enjoying so far and confess my sin of not finishing. I took a look at the schedule and realized that, as usual, I have been soundly defeated by math. Somehow, I set the first book for discussion today, and then put the second book almost four weeks later. And yet all of the other ones are two weeks apart. What did I do here? I still don’t know. Therefore, I’ve adjusted the schedule so that it actually makes sense now.

7/7 – Discussion of Tales of the City
7/19 – Discussion of More Tales of the City
8/4 – Discussion of Further Tales of the City
8/23 – Discussion of Babycakes
9/8 – Discussion of Significant Others
9/27 – Discussion of Sure of You
10/13 – Discussion of Michael Tolliver Lives
10/27 – Discussion of Mary Ann in Autumn

And we now have a lovely tile ad that you can include if you’re participating!
And, since there’s another whole week for you all to read Tales and since I have more copies on my shelves, I’ll give some more away! I’ll pick five random commenters (please put your email address or twitter handle in the comments so I can contact you.)

Tales of the City: A New Musical

2011-07-06T07:26:00.002-04:00

After extending this incredible show an unprecedented three times, it is time to announce that TALES will officially close on July 31 at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. There's still time to get your tickets & make your way to the city for the must-see event of the summer!

http://www.act-sf.org/1011/talesofthecity/index.html

Behind the Scenes at Tales of the City in San Francisco

2011-07-06T07:21:00.000-04:00

By Whitney Spaner

Still hyped up from an amazing Gay Pride weekend and the news that everyone can now get married in New York, we were excited to see this video made by one of our former Beautiful People Wesley Taylor. It captures all of the backstage madness at the new musical Tales of the City, which recently opened in San Francisco and is based on Armistead Maupin's novels with music by Jake Shears (whom you might also know as the lead singer of the fabulous disco-indie band, The Scissor Sisters). Taylor, who now sports a very bushy '70s-style mustache, plays Michael Tolliver in the musical, which the New York Times describes as "men and women searching for sex, love and themselves." He's put together a very sweet ode to his Tales colleagues with tons of behind-the-scenes action of what looks like a very fun production. Check it out! (Our favorite part is 2:09. 'Honey, you don't have any clothes on.') We can't wait till the show comes to New York.

http://www.papermag.com/2011/06/behind_the_scenes_at_tales_of.php

Eye On The Bay: Summer Entertainment 2011 – 6/29/11

2011-07-02T09:27:00.000-04:00

Liam Mayclem
June 29, 2011 4:09 PM

TONIGHT we have our eye on entertainment. Meet the stars behind this summer’s Bay area produced movies, music and stage shows.

Up close with writer Armistead Maupin, the man behind Tales of the City. His words have been lifted from the page to the stage and is now a sell out musical at A.C.T. in San Francisco.

Enjoy soul food lunch with Grammy nominated Ledisi at Brown Sugar Kitchen, Oakland.

The talented lads of Billy Elliott yes, all five Billys join Liam for Tacos at Tacolicious at the ferry Plaza Farmers Market, San Francisco.

And Liam does a little shoe shuffle with Wolverine – Hugh Jackman.

See the video here.

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2011/06/29/eye-on-the-bay-summer-entertainment-2011/

Embodying Michael 'Mouse' Tolliver

2011-06-30T13:42:00.002-04:00

by Richard Dodds
Published 06/30/2011

It was three days before the Pride parade, and Wesley Taylor was happy that the event was skewing audience demographics at Tales of the City. "We love nothing more than a theater full of gays," said the young actor who plays Michael "Mouse" Tolliver in the new musical based on Armistead Maupin's stories. "It's a warm and embracing energy that you can actually feel."

Only 24 years old, Taylor has already been featured in two long-run Broadway hits – Rock of Ages and The Addams Family – and he turned down several lucrative offers in New York to sign up for the summer run of Tales of the City in San Francisco.

He landed the role of uber-gay Franz, the son of a dastardly real estate developer, in Rock of Ages only six months after graduating from college, and then found more steady paychecks from 18 months with The Addams Family.

"I think it's important when you're young and not starving and don't have a family to support to make decisions based on what you believe in," said Taylor, sporting a tank top, a casually arranged mop of hair, and the 70s moustache he grew for the role of Mouse. "I'm doing projects that excite me."

Taylor had previously auditioned for Tales director Jason Moore for other projects, and sensed a potential camaraderie. "Then I heard Jason was directing Tales, and someone said there was a part that was perfect for me. But I didn't know anything about the books or Armistead or the mini-series, but I auditioned and when I got called back, I started reading the books and got hooked."

Then came the waiting game. "I auditioned in front of Jason and Jeff [Whitty, the librettist], and they taped that and then had to send the tape to [songwriters] Jake Shears and John Garden, and to Armistead. Everyone had final casting say, and that become very frustrating."

But the waiting paid off, and Taylor had the chance to help mold his character in an entirely new musical. "I think you have to keep moving to keep yourself sane," said Taylor, who has already encountered the performer's brick wall. "Sometimes after you've done 400 performances, you have panic attacks on stage because you think, I cannot say this fucking line one more time. It's a real challenge to keep yourself awake and alive."

That shouldn't be a problem with Tales of the City during its ACT run, currently announced to end on July 31, though the actors are contractually committed to play through August should the run be further extended. Speaking of contracts, the male actors had to sign a nudity clause agreeing to bare all if requested. But a brief glimpse of Taylor's backside is about as naked as the show gets. "There was a lot more and it was cut down," Taylor said, "because we didn't want to seem like we were pandering to the gay community."

As Michael "Mouse" Tolliver, Taylor plays a young man enjoying the sexual freedoms of 1970s San Francisco, though fretting how his conservative parents will react when they find out he is gay. One of the most touching moments in the show comes when Mouse sings the coming-out letter he has written to his mother.

Though it can moisten theatergoers' eyes, Taylor says it's far from his favorite moment in the show. "Sometimes it's a moment I don't look forward to at all," he said. "It's a gift of a song, but it's hard, and sometimes after that scene I'm exhausted."

Taylor came out to his own parents, Southern Baptists living in Orlando, several years ago, and there has been muted acceptance. Although he was out of the closet with everyone he knew, he wasn't sure what his professional stance should be. "When I would come out of the stage door at Rock of Ages, people were asking me if I was really gay. I didn't say yes or no, but was just shocked by the audacity of the fans. I finally decided life is too short, and I want to celebrate my life and be part of the movement."

Taylor's experiences with Tales of the City and the city of San Francisco itself have further strengthened his sense of a gay fraternity. "To be completely honest with you," he said, "I did not use to agree with things like Pride or something like the BET channel. Here we are fighting for equality, but at the same time it felt like a step backwards to emphasize your differences. Now I see we are celebrating a community that has gone through a lot of hardships. It's about standing tall and saying this is who we are."

From the inspirational to the tabloid-ial, since there is time for one last question. What's his relationship status? It was well-known, at least in chat-room circles, that he was dating a popular young television star. "You have to be very careful when you're dating another actor who is also in the spotlight because fans want to know everything about your relationship. And after we broke up, that's what people wanted to hear about at the stage door, and that was the last thing I wanted to talk about."

Is he dating now? "Yes, I'm seeing someone in New York. And he's not an actor. Yeah!"

http://www.ebar.com/arts/art_article.php?sec=theatre&article=758

Video: Armistead Maupin On Pride

2011-06-28T07:38:00.000-04:00

By Frequencies Citizen Reporter Brigade
June 26, 2011 6 a.m. |In Literature

With Pride coming up this weekend, we're capping Pride Month off with an interview with Armistead Maupin, author of “Tales of the City.” The book has long been ensconced in the gay literary canon and was recently turned into a musical by the American Conservatory Theater.

We caught up with Maupin at the theater on Geary Street, and he shared his first memories of the city and how he came to chronicle gay San Francisco.

“Tales” (as it’s affectionately referred to by fans) was first published in 1978, and its overarching theme is that of misfits trying to break free of societal constraints. San Francisco is the safe haven that beckons them. It's one of those books that fans feel a cultish ownership over and has been reissued over and over again.

Of course, gay culture is an important part of Maupin’s writing. Tales of gay characters grappling with homophobia, coming out to their parents and finding true love abound. Today, those subjects are common fodder for made-for-TV movies and Oprah, but when "Tales" was released, Maupin was considered brave.

“I cringe a little at that,” Maupin tells us in the video. “Because honestly, what I realized was that I was onto something really big."

The video was produced as part of a partnership between the American Conservancy Theater and the Bay Citizen's Citizen Reporter program. As such, this video was edited by Citizen Reporter (and Bay Citizen summer intern) Erik Verduzco.

If you want to check out the musical, the A.C.T. is offering a discount for Bay Citizen readers. Get 40 percent off of orchestra and mezzanine tickets by using the code CITIZEN online, or call 415-749-2228.

http://www.baycitizen.org/blogs/frequencies/armistead-maupin-pride-tales-city/comments/#comments

EXCLUSIVE interview: Armistead Maupin for SGN

2011-06-27T07:00:00.002-04:00

By Miryam Gordon, SGN A&E Writer

Seattle Pride was graced this year by the inclusion of a special Grand Marshall: San Francisco's favorite Gay writer Armistead Maupin. The irreverent and frank Maupin gave an intimate talk on Saturday to lucky patrons at the Seattle Public Library (focusing on his brand new book Mary Ann in Autumn) and a keynote speech to the throngs at Seattle Center after the Pride Parade made it way there, Sunday afternoon.

Maupin reported to SGN (prior to arriving), 'When the invitation came to participate in Seattle Pride I jumped at the opportunity. I'm happy I'm speaking at both places because the library appearance can be more intimate and leisurely. Pride will be more festive and it's too different types of speaking talking to a large crowd in a park and in an auditorium and I enjoy both types.'

Maupin spoke about the 35 year span of writing his now eight-book opus Tales of the City, the brand-spanking-new musical based on it that opened in June at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco to huge box office and at least three extensions in the run, and a bit about the current look of politics and California's Prop 8 ban on Gay marriage.

You might not know that one of Maupin's characters, Mona Ramsey, moved to Seattle for a few chapters, at one point. Maupin's been here a number of times and has great affection for the city. He said, 'I have wandered all over the place in literary fashion, sometimes to places I know quite well. Some of the places I've written about in Tales have been places I went on vacation.

'I wanted to be able to call myself a Lesbian, so I went to the Island of Lesbos. I ended up living in a little village called Molyvos which is the family seat of the Dukakis family, and this was before five years before we hired Olympia Dukakis as Mrs. Madrigal. I didn't know at the time (that I would have a connection with the Dukakis family).'

Asked if he could see writing about living in Seattle, he chuckled, 'I'd never want to fake it about Seattle because I'd get called on it immediately.'

Maupin is clearly thrilled about the success of his new musical even though he said he's 'only a sort of senior advisor.' The people behind the musical are book writer Jeff Whitty, the Tony Award-winning book writer for Avenue Q, and music and lyrics by Jason Sellards (AKA Jake Shears) and John Garden (JJ) of the disco and glam rock-inspired pop group Scissor Sisters. Jason Moore (Avenue Q and Shrek) directed.

He said, 'It was very bold of A.C.T. to take it on. It's a $2.5 million production! But the public is really turning out. We've had a lot of people seeing the show two and three times now and there's a high percentage of out-of-town audience members. It makes for a very good feeling in the audience. It's almost interactive. I've seen the finished production nine times now, but I've been watching it develop in workshops for the past five years.'

Musicals are particularly difficult to get right and usually take a number of years to fully ripen. Maupin agreed, 'You don't know what you got until you see it in front of an audience, so there are a lot of incarnations. The creators are amazing guys who know how to throw things out and put things in and not be too vain. It's been an impressive thing to watch. The show runs a little under three hours and it was 40 minutes longer than that during previews. They had to perform a kind of surgery on it to make it shorter.'

And were there some great songs that got cut? He said, 'I could probably sing some ballads I really loved, but they weren't moving the story forward and they had to go. Some were replaced by even better songs.'

Of course there are hopes and possibilities for the musical to play elsewhere, but Maupin said, 'I have a private fantasy that it could go to the West End in London because I think they would get it. I have no idea what's coming up next, but the success might be very encouraging for people who want to produce it elsewhere. The story has worked as a miniseries and a book, and it's universally true, about a bunch of people who are trying to find love and security and home.'

The musical focuses on the era of Maupin's first two books in the series, the pre-AIDS time of 1976 and '77. The big focus was singer and 'orange juice queen' Anita Bryant's anti-Gay screed from Florida. Maupin chose to come out in response to that, as did many others, and he said, 'The sad thing is that a lot of GLBT people don't take action until someone says something ugly about them and then we rise to our own defense. Much like young people today are responding to hate groups like the National Organization for Marriage.

'My husband (Christopher Turner) and I were among the 18,000 couples who were legally married (in California) before Prop 8 banned marriage. They can't take that away from us. We file taxes as a couple. We can't file on the federal level. But the rest of the GLBT people in California have that right taken away. It infuriates me that I have to pay (federal) taxes and I'm not allowed the same rights as my straight brother and sister.

'Half the money given to Prop 8 was from the Mormon Church, which is one of the last institutions that should be passing judgment on marital institutions. The side in support of marriage equality was far too timid and should have been quite clear on a personal level (about) what it meant to millions of Californians.'

Maupin is clear that he is not a huge fan of Democrats over Republicans, necessarily. 'I don't look at any party of being our savior. If it had been up to elected people to make progress we wouldn't have made any at all.'

But he does, of course, feel strongly about the way Republicans have used homophobia to gain political advantage. 'Republicans have a real dilemma on their hands because they've used homophobia to get elected and they're not going to be able to do that much longer. The American public is less and less willing to demonize Gay people. There are still a few pockets in the south where they can play on suspicion and hatred, but most people have openly Gay people as family and friends these days and that's made all the difference.'

And he's glad to see a positive focus in the 'It Gets Better' campaign, started by Dan Savage. 'Dan Savage was brilliant, insofar as he appealed to our better instincts, pointing out our responsibility to lend a hand to young people who are suffering.

'For some reason we have to keep delivering this to every generation. I find that terribly frustrating. There's a song in the musical based on my own coming out letter to my own parents and essentially (the character) says that you're the ones who made me the way I am, so thank you because it's the light and joy of my life. That's my way of saying it gets better - 35 years ago.'

http://www.sgn.org/sgnnews39_25/page43.cfm

Scissor Sisters On "Tales of the City," Personal Theme Songs, & Lady Gaga

2011-06-23T07:07:00.000-04:00

Any band that garners applause from Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour for their disco cover of “Comfortably Numb” is one worth watching. Since the release of their self-titled debut album in 2004, Scissor Sisters have been churning out glam-pop beats and satisfying dance urges across the globe with hits like “Any Which Way,” “Filthy/Gorgeous,” and “I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’,” all of which are impossible to take sitting down.

The NYC band with the Elton-John-meets-Bee-Gees sound has topped charts throughout Europe, but they’re about to make a serious mark stateside with their latest and most unexpected project yet. After five years of work, front man Jake Shears (left) and touring keyboardist John Garden completed the lyrics and score for the musical adaptation of Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City, which made its world premiere at San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater in May. Grab your tickets before the production leaves the stage (it plays through July 10). The Scissor Sisters are about to become a household name.

What was your reaction when librettist Jeff Whitty asked you to write the music for Tales  of the City?

Jake Shears: I was thrilled because I’ve been a huge fan of the books since I was a teenager, and Jeff is a great friend of mine. We had thrown around the idea of doing a show together for a while, so it was a no-brainer when he asked me.
John Garden: When Jake first asked me to do a musical with him, I didn’t know what it was about. I just knew that the answer was yes.

How is writing songs for a musical different from writing an album?

JS: It wasn’t that different because I write in character for a lot of Scissor Sisters songs. In some ways, it’s easier since you have a more limited set of tools.

JG: It’s almost like every song is a commissioned piece of work. You know who the music is for and what the whole story is about.

How did you make modern music for Tales while keeping a ’70s vibe?

JG: I think if Depeche Mode had been asked to write this musical, it would have been more of a challenge. But Scissor Sisters already has such a ’70s influence. It’s part of the band’s DNA. The sound palette has ’70s references, but we worked really hard to make the orchestration for the show as timeless as possible.

You have such stage presence when you perform. Any chance you’ll try your hand at acting?

JS: I’ll admit that I get jealous of the Tales’ actors every once in a while. Maybe someday I’ll be in a musical. When Judy Kaye is over it, I’ll step in.

Do you think Tales will make it to Broadway?

JG: I hope it has a long run here, and if that’s all it ever does, we’ll be so proud. It’s great to see how San Franciscans react to lyrics like “share it with the bag lady on Geary.” I’m glad it opened in the right city.

Any hot spots you’ve discovered while staying here during production?

JS: I hang out more at gyms than I do bars. I like the Equinox here. I also love Books, Inc. I probably go in there every other day. But I’ve actually been throwing house parties more than going out. The lesbians downstairs don’t love that.

JG: I like quiet bars where we can just go and be—like Minx and High Tide. Does this mean they won’t be quiet anymore?

You’ve collaborated with Elton John and Kylie Minogue, to name a few. Who else would you like to work with?
JS: I’m a huge Beck fan, and then there’s Josh Homme from Queens of the Stone Age and Dave Grohl from Foo Fighters. Also, Trent Reznor. Those are my strange rock music collaboration fantasies.

Lady Gaga: brilliant freak or soul sister?
JS: Both. We just got off tour with her, and it was such a blast. I was nervous about it because we hadn’t opened for anyone in a long time, but we ended up getting tons of new fans. And Lady Gaga is lovely. She’s effusive, funny, and warm, and she made us feel so welcome.

What are your personal theme songs?
JS: Lately, mine’s been “Cocaine Blues” by Escort. It’s the best disco music you’ve ever heard. Also, “Nightlight” by Little Dragon and Holy Ghost!’s “Wait & See.”
JG: The first track from the Tame Impala album, “It Is Not Meant To Be,” and John Grant’s “Marz.”

You’re so popular in the U.K. that you’ve become mainstream. Why hasn’t the U.S. caught on?
JS: The last year has been good for us in this country. We definitely got new fire. So many people discovered Scissor Sisters with the latest record [Night Work, June 2010].
JG: I have this hoodie from our 2007 Ta-Dah tour, and there’s a little black Scissor’s logo on the breast. I’ve never had so many people come up to me in San Francisco and say, “Cool sweater. I love that band.”

Is there any other glam-rock band today that compares to Scissor Sisters?
JS: I don’t think so. I think any band’s dream is to be its own unique entity. You say something like Nine Inch Nails, and it conjures up a singular world. I want people to say Scissor Sisters and not think of 10 other bands.

http://www.7x7.com/arts-culture/scissor-sisters-tales-city-personal-theme-songs-lady-gaga

Life after Mrs. Madrigal

2011-06-23T07:01:00.000-04:00

Olympia Dukakis returns to SF for LGBT Pride
by Richard Dodds Published 6/23/2011

Olympia Dukakis is an old pro at grand marshaling. A celebrity grand marshal in this Sunday's Pride parade, the Oscar-winning actress previously presided over a Columbus Day parade in Bloomfield, NJ, in the late 1980s.

"It was after Moonstruck came out, and they asked me to do the parade. I said, 'But I'm not Italian,' and they said, 'It doesn't matter, because everyone thinks you're Italian.' So I did the parade, and they took me to a great bakery afterwards, and I came home loaded down with stuff."

Dukakis won her Oscar for playing Cher's tart-tongued Italian-American mother in Moonstruck, which was good enough reason for Bloomfield to extend an invitation – Dukakis, husband Louis Zorich, and their three children then lived in a nearby Jersey suburb – despite her unmistakably Greek given and family names. But Dukakis' ties to San Francisco, and to its gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community, are long, rich, and deep.

Through serendipity, and the astute assistance of Brandon Miller and Joanne Jordan of Jordan, Miller & Associates, Dukakis' Pride appearance will dovetail into events tied into ACT's musical version of Tales of the City, which means she can also host a benefit evening for the theater where she has so often worked and for the Richmond/Ermet AIDS Foundation. And she'll get to see for the first time how someone else is playing the role that first brought so many San Franciscans into her bosom.

That, of course, would be the sexually mysterious Anna Madrigal, the landlady at 28 Barbary Lane, the nexus of a straight-meets-LGBT world that Armistead Maupin created in his series of stories of San Francisco in the 1970s. What began as a newspaper serial became a collection of novels that, in turn, inspired three TV mini-series in the 1990s. In the musical adaptation at ACT, Broadway veteran Judy Kaye is playing Mrs. Madrigal, a performance that Dukakis will see on June 24 as part of the evening of fund-raising events that include tickets to the musical with Dukakis joining the cast at the curtain call, followed by a cocktail party at the Clift Hotel with the actress and the cast of the show. (Info at www.act-sf.org.)

"I scared the shit out of Armistead," Dukakis said. "When the idea of the musical was starting, I said, 'You know, I can sing.' I saw his eyes widen in panic. I can sing, but eight times a week? Give me a break. Besides, I'm too old for the role. But I'm very interested to see what Judy Kaye does with it."

And then there's the matter of riding up Market Street as a grand marshal in the Pride parade. Dukakis had a lot of questions. "What do you do as a grand marshal?" "Will people know it's me?" "What should I wear?"

If she has questions about details of her duties, despite the Columbus Day antecedent, she is approaching it with one certainty. "My whole attitude is that I'm going to have a great time," she said. "And putting it all together with the show at ACT, which is a theater I love, how much better could it be?"

There is also a serious side to her involvement. "Like many people, I have friends who have gone through the difficulty of trying to adopt children or get married or getting the other legal protections most of us have," she said. "These are not just issues to me, they all have faces."

Dukakis recently completed a film that speaks specifically to many of these very issues. In Cloudburst, she plays half of a long-term lesbian couple who loses her home when her partner's daughter has her mother declared incompetent and takes over the property. "So my character goes to the hospital and kidnaps Brenda Fricker's character, and we drive to Canada and get married."

Dukakis was back in the studio a few weeks ago for post-production dubbing for a version that can be shown on airlines. "You have to change 'ass' to 'arse.' Why if you say it like the Brits you can get away with it, don't ask me. And I'm hard-pressed to see how they're going to show it on planes anyway. There are romantic scenes, and in one scene I go after her with a dildo, and our characters laugh and carry on about it."

That a movie like Cloudburst is being readied as in-flight entertainment is a long journey from the time when the first season of Tales of the City so rankled people like Senator Jesse Helms that PBS let one of its most popular programs pass to Showtime for its two subsequent seasons.

Sen. Helms probably didn't watch long enough to learn Mrs. Madrigal's big secret, and if you don't know what it is and plan to see the musical, you should stop reading at the end of this sentence. But by now, both through the popularity of the books and the television adaptations, most people know that Anna Madrigal is a transsexual who previously had fathered a child. It was a twist that only made Dukakis want the role more.

"Anything that stymies me or scares me is always of real interest to me," she said. She had not read Maupin's books, and was advised by the director not to do so until finishing the series. "But I read everything I could about transsexuals, about the operations, and the psychiatric involvement," Dukakis said. "I needed to find out what made it possible, even necessary, for a person to go through such a painful process. I told one of the producers I needed to talk to someone who has gone through this, and he introduced me to this woman, 6-foot-2 but with a very soft voice, and I asked her what was it that made it matter so much. And the first thing she said was, 'All my life I yearned for the friendship of women,' and I tell you, I started to cry. I didn't know what the hell she was going to say, but this was such a human thing."

The meeting, which went on to cover other aspects of the decision to transition, convinced Dukakis that she needed to avoid any sensational or stereotypical spins on the role. "What I had was the option at any given time to come from a more masculine or more feminine place in myself," she said. "It was a very special time in my life."

On Dukakis' upcoming agenda, she has a three-episode run as Zach Galifianakis' much older paramour in the HBO series Bored to Death, an appearance at the Festival of the Aegean on the Greek isle of Syros in the one-woman play Rose, and a return to her sly but mostly mute role in Morris Paynch's Vigil at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. Her co-star again is Marco Barricelli, with whom she first performed the play at ACT in 2010. It was her sixth ACT appearance; they date back to 1995.

She first met ACT Artistic Director Carey Perloff in New York, when Perloff was still running the Classic Stage Company. "She asked me to do Clytemnestra in Agamemnon, and at the time I thought it was politically disgusting to be in a play that said women should give up trying to be more valued in society and go back to being wives. I said I'd try to find a play for us."

It turned out to be Hecuba, by which point Perloff had moved to San Francisco to take over ACT's top artistic slot, and Dukakis performed the Greek tragedy while the theater was still in temporary quarters following the 1989 earthquake. The roles that Dukakis takes on are never the easy ones, even with her 80th birthday now in the rearview mirror.

"I do theater because you know who you are when you're on that stage," Dukakis said. "You know you're alive."

http://www.ebar.com/arts/art_article.php?sec=theatre&article=755

Ten Percent 100 Episode - David Perry interviews Armistead Maupin

2011-06-21T07:54:00.002-04:00

Armistead Maupin ("Tales of the City") speaks with David Perry for the 100th episode of "10 Percent" -- now the longest continuously running LGBT show in Northern California history. Original airdates: June 13-17, 11:30am & 10:30pm; June 18 & 19, 10:30pm. Comcast Channel 104.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp_afzuSZUs

Armistead Maupin at Microsoft Auditorium, Seattle Public Central Library

2011-06-21T07:45:00.002-04:00

There’s no shortage of festivities to go along with this year’s Pridefest, and this appearance by Armistead Maupin, author of the famous Tales of the City series, is just the cherry on the top. Take a moment away from the dancing, singing and celebrating to pop by the library for Maupin’s free talk about his latest novel, Mary Ann in Autumn. Also, show your love by embracing some of the other Seattle PrideFest events as well—www.seattlepridefest.com should fill you in on the details—and Maupin will also be the Seattle PrideFest keynote speaker at the Seattle Center on the 26th.

Saturday, 3 p.m. // Microsoft Auditorium, Seattle Public Library // Free

http://seattlest.com/2011/06/20/this_week_in_lit_7.php

WORLD PREMIERE EXTENDED!

2011-06-21T07:42:00.000-04:00

Playing now–July 31

Libretto by Jeff Whitty Music and lyrics by Jake Shears and John Garden
Based on Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City and More Tales of the City
Choreography by Larry Keigwin
Directed by Jason Moore

On the bustling streets of 1970s San Francisco, neon lights pierce through the fog-drenched skies, disco music explodes from crowded nightclubs, and a wide-eyed Midwestern girl finds a new home—and creates a new kind of family—with the characters at 28 Barbary Lane.

Three decades after Armistead Maupin mesmerized millions with his daily column in the city's newspapers, his iconic San Francisco saga comes home as a momentous new musical. Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City unleashes an exuberant celebration of the irrepressible spirit that continues to define our City by the Bay.

"Sparkling . . . instantly addictive"
—San Jose Mercury News

"Tantalizing . . . [a] celebration of sex, love, and all kinds of coming out" —San Francisco Chronicle

"Crisp and witty . . . [with a] richly
talented cast" —TheaterMania

"It's as if you had been to a happening party and met lots of fabulous people"
—The New York Times

"Radiates real joy" —SF Weekly

"Delicious . . . out-and-out good, rousing fun" —The Examiner

"This shining, shimmering A.C.T. musical delivers on every front."
—CBS San Francisco

"Joyous . . . a major aligning of the musical theater stars" —SFist

"A home-turf hit . . . playful yet heartfelt" —Variety

"Exuberantly captures the sweeping current
of transformation in Maupin's work . . . a happy blur
of flares, gay saunas, and bongs" —The Guardian (UK)

"Whether you are a Mona or a Mary Ann, a Mouse or a Mrs. Madrigal, this show illuminates the colorful, crazy, complicated, wild times of our fabulous city. A gift to San Francisco and all of us who love it!"
—Jan Wahl, KCBS/KRON-TV

Running time: 2 hours and 50 minutes, including one 20-minute intermission.

Click here to download the performance program (PDF).

Please be advised: This production contains brief nudity, drug use, adult situations, and disco lights. Parental guidance is suggested.

Afraid of commitment? When you purchase ticket exchange insurance for an additional $5 per ticket, you can easily exchange your tickets for another performance if you can't make the show. Simply add it to your order at checkout.

http://www.act-sf.org/1011/talesofthecity/index.html

Make Tales part of your Pride weekend—for less!

2011-06-21T07:38:00.000-04:00

Great seats available Friday and Sunday.

Save $25 off Orchestra and Mezzanine seats at select performances.
Use code TALES25 online or call 415.749.2228.*

Get your group into the groove! Groups of 15 or more save up to 20%.

Call 415.439.2473 for details.

Lock in your tickets to the must-see show of the summer, and check out these dazzling upcoming events!

Friday, June 24, at 8 p.m.
Experience the show with Olympia Dukakis—who played Anna Madrigal in Tales of the City television miniseries—and witness her onstage meeting with Tony Award winner Judy Kaye, who plays the role in the musical. This special performance benefits A.C.T.'s arts education programs and the Richmond/Ermet AIDS Foundation.

Saturday and Sunday, June 25–26
Swing by the A.C.T. booth at Pride for fabulous giveaways, Tales merchandise, and more! Look for us in front of the Asian Art Museum. And don't miss a special performance by the Tales cast on the Pride mainstage—beginning Sunday at 12:45 p.m.

Tuesday, July 5, at 7 p.m.
Join us for OUT with A.C.T.—the best LGBT party in town! This special preshow event begins an hour before curtain, and entry is free with your ticket to the performance. Enjoy sizzling drink specials, fabulous music, and a chance to win spectacular prizes! Sponsored by SF Weekly.

Taking Muni this weekend?
Plan a stop at the Castro Street Station, where Tales has taken over! Pose by the iconic artwork and post your photo to our Facebook page for a chance to win prizes—and show off your Tale.

*Limit 6 tickets. Not applicable to previously purchased tickets or with other offers. Subject to availability.

http://www.act-sf.org/site/R?i=Bxj3TgYMI3UTB0-aj8o9zw..

A conversation with Wesley Taylor of “Tales of the City" by Armistead Maupin

2011-06-20T10:10:00.000-04:00

Thursday, June 16, 2011
Jamie Freedman

I have had the good fortune of having gone to school with some fabulously talented people. Many of these people have fabulously talented friends. And it was with pure glee that I emailed former classmate Lauren Molina whom I have written about here and here when I saw her friend and Rock of Ages co-star Wesley Taylor appear on the stage of A.C.T. a couple weeks ago.

Starring in Armistead Maupin’s staged production of Tales of the City: A New Musical" at the American Conservatory Theater has changed Wesley. He is 24 and has been out of college for three years. During that time he has worked continuously on Broadway, landing central roles in a handful of enormously successful shows including Rock of Ages and The Addams Family alongside Nathan Lane. He has also become known through his satire YouTube series Billy Green.

But it wasn’t until being cast as a Michael “Mouse” Tolliver, a young hopeless romantic gay man in San Francisco during the early 70s, that Wesley really began to feel a greater responsibility than to just the art of theater itself. Not only does he feel a connection to an older generation of men who have come to love and identify with Mouse, but also responsibility to the next generations that continue to struggle for gay rights.

Below is part of an interview I conducted with Wes yesterday about three weeks into the run. We talk about the magic of San Francisco (even today), the responsibility of playing Mouse, where the show might go from here, Armistead Maupin, Jake Shears, the process of being part of a new production, marriage equality, mustaches and on-stage nudity.

To see a shorter version of the interview, click on the examiner.com article here. I am also hoping to eventually post an audio file of the interview, so check back.

Tales of the City is now running through July 24th. Buy tickets here.

-------------------------------------------------
Jamie: First things first, so I see that the ‘stache is real. You could walk down Mission Street and no one would know the difference.

Wes: I went to New York for twenty-four hours last weekend which was crazy, and for the first time I was a little embarrassed about the mustache and was noticing people looking at me funny. It’s interesting because San Francisco is so embracing of every kind of oddball. Like that’s what this city kind of stands for, it doesn’t matter what you look like, it doesn’t matter what you wear. And that’s why there’s so much personality in this city. It’s really a sanctuary of people who are different. Which is really special, it makes this city so magical.

And yeah, my friends at home keep making fun of my mustache in all the pictures. But I love it. For the last three years I’ve been playing eighteen-year-old characters and I’ve been shaving my face every single day and it sort of sucks. So I’m really jazzed about the fact that I can do something different.

JF: Yeah, you look normal to me, but I live in the Mission.

WT: Exactly! When we first started the rehearsals, (director) Jason Moore wanted us to grow facial hair. And I didn’t know if Mouse should have a mustache. Marcus D'amico in the miniseries didn’t have one and I wanted him to stay twinkie and innocent. Sometimes when I grow facial hair I have the tendency to look sinister or edgy.

But Armistead said, “Mouse has a mustache. I had a mustache in the 70s, Mouse has a mustache.” And it was at that moment that I realized Mouse was Armistead. And I actually didn’t know that before. I had read the books and watched the miniseries, but it just hadn’t dawned on me that he was telling his story mostly through Michael. It was pretty surreal when I figured that out, and it was very intimidating.

I was also really intimidated when I first got the part because I didn’t know what a huge deal the books were। But when I started telling people that I got it, every middle-aged gay man in New York freaked out. It really scared the hell out of me that so many people identified with this character. But what made me feel really comfortable was that Armistead had the final say on the casting. He gave us his blessing.

JF: I love how involved he's been in making this production; I mean how often does that happen?

WT: It doesn’t। I mean on the first day of rehearsal, he said that this is one of the happiest days of his life. He was so excited and such a part of it. But, still kept his distance respectfully to the writer Jeff Witty who made Armistead’s books into a musical. He couldn’t have been better to me through this whole process.

JF: Did he offer up any other words of wisdom that you can share?

WT: He told me once that there’s something about Mouse that’s hard for some people to get: which is this quirk that he is both light and dark. He said that I was really embodying that. And because as an actor you can really get neurotic about getting into a character, it was really comforting to hear from its creator that you’re on the right track.

JF: You’ve said before that playing reserved characters, like the one you played in The Addams Family, is more difficult for you than playing really crazy characters, like Franz in Rock of Ages. What was it like to play Mouse then, who is definitely on the more reserved side?

WT: The thing I love about Michael is that he’s a little of everything. He’s very much like who I am, which can sometimes be the hardest thing to play on stage because it’s the most exposing. You can feel naked and horrified because at the end of the day it’s about telling the truth. And telling the truth can be the hardest thing in the world.

But yeah, Michael is a lot like me: we’re both from Orlando, Florida, we both have conservative parents, I grew up very religious in the Baptist world just like him, it took us both a while to come out to our parents, we’re both hopeless romantics and we both like our vices.

JF: My brother, who’s straight, said he got really emotional during Michael’s coming out scene. It’s a really amazing number.

WT: I like how simple and subtle that scene is. I kept wanting to make it more dramatic, but the director kept telling me to stop and just read the letter. Just love your mother. I was also playing the scene kind of defensive, you know, ACCEPT ME GODDAMIT! And he kept saying, no, you love your mother. You feel for her and you get it. It’s more, Thank you for making me who I am, which is more heartbreaking because it’s killing them with kindness. I feel like that song is a gift and the character has been a gift. I’ve been so lucky to stumble across it.

JF: And I’d imagine people have been reacting very strongly to your performance?

WT: Yeah, it feels really great. I’ve never been in that position before. I mean Franz was super gay but I’ve never been in the position of having gay men telling me how I’ve helped and affected them. That’s been very special to me and it means a lot. And I didn’t care about that stuff before. I don’t want to say I was selfish, but I was really focused on being an actor on my own terms. I wasn’t really interested in being a role model or helping other people’s lives. I was just interested in doing good art, but the older I get I realize what’s the point of that ?

Like when I first moved to New York my agents told me that it’s probably better off that you don’t come out for television and film. But I think that’s changing dramatically; you know with people like Neil Patrick Harris, I mean things are changing in a great way.

JF: That couldn’t have even been that long ago, what 3, 4 years?

WT: Yeah, I got out of school three years ago. But they did say that they would be completely open to it if I wanted to.

JF: But they were just recommending…

WT: Yeah, and they’re all gay too. It’s just one of those hard decisions to make as an actor, deciding weather or not you want to sacrifice the possibility of putting you into a box as a gay guy. But I think it’s getting easier to be a gay man and being able to do it all. But I started to realize that if I wasn’t going to get cast in something because I’m gay, I don’t want to be part of that project. You start growing up and you start seeing these things. And now I’m trying to be as active as I can in the gay agenda. I mean we are so close in New York to getting marriage equality right now. This is such a big deal! It’s made me really passionate, it has to get done! So yeah, it’s affected me. I love how it’s affected other people. I love that it’s made a difference, I think this piece is really special in that way. Even though it’s dated, it takes place in the 70s, but we’re still dealing with the same issues.

JF: It’s from the 70s, but I think the San Francisco in this show is still here. Have you felt that?

WT: Yeah, you can feel it. And everywhere you go in this city is research for the show! All of these locations are all over the books and the lyrics. Even the street names, it’s everywhere. I love working on a show and being in the world of the show while you’re working on it. I’ve never had that experience before.

JF: Everyone is talking about if they’ll be able to take this show out of San Francisco and on the road. What do you think?

WT: Because of all the inside jokes? I think that the show has the heart and I think it’s good enough to be able to transfer anywhere and work. Sure, you might have to tweak some of the lines and jokes. I actually think it would go over really well in London it would be super successful. The books are huge; Armistead is very popular over there. And the Scissor Sisters are everything in the UK! They’re way more known there than they are here. The demographic in London is right up our alley. But we won’t know what’s going to happen for a while. I mean, we got extended here until July, and it might even get extended until August. We just don’t know and as an actor is a little scary. Do you look for more work? Can you rely on the show?

JF: It’s like dating two people at once, and geez! Everyone should have these problems!

WT: It’s exactly like that! It’s awful! And yet exhilarating and great.

JF: What was it like working with Jake Shears (Jason Sellards)?

WT: He sort of became my big brother while he was here. We got along really well. We partied like rockstars, The Scissor Sisters don’t fuck around! They had a concert here and the whole cast went, it was really fun. He’s never written a musical before, but he’s such a natural at it. And he was so not precious about anything. He was cutting songs left and right. He probably wrote over fifty songs for the show and there are only nineteen or twenty in it. There are so many great songs that got the chopping blog. There was a song that Mona and I sing together called “Who’s your Mama?”, and after one week of previews, it wasn’t working for them, so he wrote another one called “Everything Gets Better” in twenty-four hours and put it in. I mean, that’s previews. It’s pretty stressful.

JF: They should make a B-sides album.

WT: Yeah, like bonus tracks. There was another song called “Show Me How to Love You” and it was so gorgeous. My verse was my favorite thing that I got to sing in the show, and they cut it! People need to hear this stuff!

JF: So this was all in two months? You guys learned double the amount of material?

WT: When we started previews, the show was something like four hours long. I mean it’s three hours right now, which is also too long for a musical comedy. But they’ve taken a lot out and changed even more.

I remember the first time Mary and I sang our new song for an audience, we were shaking because there were people sitting there hearing a song you had only sung three times. It’s terrifying. I think putting up a new musical is one of the most terrifying things you could ever do.

JF: Earlier you mentioned that playing the role of Mouse is “revealing” makes you feel “naked”. You like getting naked don’t you?

WT: As soon as they made us sign that nudity clause…

JF: There was a nudity clause?

WT: There was a nudity clause that all of the men signed. There was supposed to be a lot more nudity in the show. But, I mean, obviously you have to show flesh in the show, it’s Tales of the City, it’s a big component of the show. But Jason didn’t want it to look like an excuse to please to the gay community.

JF: So all we get it is your butt.

WT: Yup, that’s it. I’ve never gotten to even take off my shirt in a show, I love it. As soon as I signed that clause I stopped eating fried food and starting hitting the gym every day and doing five hundred sit-ups. It’s a fun challenge to be working on something outside of the show, whether it is growing out a mustache or going to the gym more! It’s a cool experience to have to change something about your appearance for a show, it really makes you feel like you’re earning your paycheck.

http://www.alwaysmoretohear.com/2011/06/conversation-with-wesley-taylor-of.html

Tales of the . . . Cast! Meet Patrick Lane

2011-06-11T05:11:00.000-04:00

Meet recent M.F.A. Program graduate Patrick Lane, who plays Brian Hawkins. Click here to read his official bio.

NAME Patrick Lane.

CHARACTER Brian Hawkins.

HOMETOWN Louisville, Kentucky.

FIRST THEATER EXPERIENCE Well, my father was a preacher and my mother directed the children's choirs, so my first experience performing was as one of the lions in Noah's ark. I suppose constantly performing in church, coupled with my middle-child syndrome, left me completely defenseless against the alluring theater.

FAVORITE THEATER EXPERIENCE My favorite experience would have to be when I played Horace Robedaux in a college production of 1918. It was my first experience delving into the deeply complex family relationships that are so common in plays by Horton Foote and Arthur Miller and Sam Shepard. It also calls to mind a kind of interesting phenomenon that many actors go through when they find “their playwright” or their “style,” so to speak. Being from Kentucky, and coming from a long tradition of deep rural roots and close family bonds, made it easy and very fulfilling to play Horace. In a way, I suppose coming into contact with that material taught me a lot about who I am and the traditions I come from.

FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH TALES I actually didn't know much about Tales until I heard A.C.T. was doing it. Being the obnoxiously over-prepared grad student that I am, I immediately went out and got the book and couldn't put it down. I was shocked that I had never encountered it before, and from that moment on I was searching for a possible avenue into this process.

HOW ARE YOU LIKE BRIAN HAWKINS? Brian is a man's man who seems driven by some kind of energy—sometimes sexual—that he cannot control. I grew up playing sports, so I guess that classifies me as a "jock"—and that, paired with the fact that I drink beer and watch football, probably moves me into the man's man category. Like Brian, I've always been very driven by my passions, but I suppose what I hope to bring to the role is an energy that isn't just cro-magnon in its need to satisfy innate desires, but also genuine in the pursuit of digging deeper and discovering what's underneath the strong, cad-like facade.

FAVORITE MUSICAL Always a tough choice, but if I had to choose I think it would have to be Sondheim's A Little Night Music.

FAVORITE SONG TO SING “It's Hard to Speak My Heart” from Parade by Jason Robert Brown.

EDUCATION B.F.A. in theater performance from the University of Evansville; M.F.A. in acting from A.C.T.

PERFORMANCE RITUAL Arrive to the theater an hour before curtain, hot tea, warm-up in the Garrett, head up to the stage.

FAVORITE ’70s WARDROBE ITEM Not one thing I own is ’70s. I know . . . blasphemous.

http://blog.act-sf.org/2011/06/tales-of-cast-meet-patrick-lane.html

2011-06-10T07:05:00.000-04:00

See Tales with Olympia Dukakis!

Join us on Friday, June 24 for an official San Francisco Pride event! Olympia Dukakis—who played Anna Madrigal in the Tales of the City television miniseries—hosts a special performance of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City benefiting A.C.T.'s arts education programs and the Richmond/Ermet AIDS Foundation.

Select tickets include a VIP afterparty and an exclusive preshow dinner with Dukakis and special guest "Top Chef: Just Desserts" winner Yigit Pura at celebrated San Francisco restaurant Fleur de Lyse.

Order tickets online today!

Join us!

Tales of the . . . Cast! Meet Alex Hsu

2011-06-10T06:55:00.002-04:00

Meet Alex Hsu, who plays Lionel. Click here to read his official bio.

NAME Alex Hsu.

CHARACTER Lionel.

HOMETOWN Born in Taipei, Taiwan; grew up in Hayward and Fremont, California.

FIRST THEATER EXPERIENCE My mom took me to see a production of Promises, Promises! at the college where she worked, and I remember being absolutely mesmerized by Turkey Lurkey Time. I can probably trace many aspects of my personality to that experience, such as my love of musical theater, my affinity for mid-century design and fashion, and my appreciation of go-go dancing.

FAVORITE THEATER EXPERIENCE Seeing Les Misérables on Broadway in 1996. I basically wept for three hours. It was absolutely transcendent and spiritual.

FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH TALES Watching the TV miniseries on DVD many years ago.

HOW ARE YOU LIKE LIONEL? We are both second-generation Bay Area Chinese. Well, I imagine that Lionel is second-generation. And I did spend one summer in college delivering frozen yogurt to office ladies who would call me “Yogurt Boy.”

FAVORITE MUSICAL A Chorus Line. A close second would be Irving Berlin’s White Christmas (for personal reasons, of course).

FAVORITE SONG TO SING Right now, it is “I Wish I Could Go Back to College” from the musical Avenue Q.

EDUCATION B.A. in linguistics and anthropology from UCLA. Dance training at Dance Arts Center in San Carlos.

PERFORMANCE RITUAL Pre-: putting on makeup. Fewer and fewer men seem to wear stage makeup in professional theater, especially when the production is in a realistic style. But I still do it because to me it is part of the transformation into my character. I don’t feel completely present until I go through that. Post: EAT!

FAVORITE ’70s WARDROBE ITEM I owned a pair of rainbow “Mork from Ork” suspenders as a kid. LOVED them. Also any pair of tight bell-bottoms that make my ass look good!

http://blog.act-sf.org/2011/06/tales-of-cast-meet-alex-hsu.html

Olympia Dukakis to Host TALES OF THE CITY Benefit, 6/24

2011-06-09T09:26:00.002-04:00

Wednesday, June 8, 2011; Posted: 06:06 PM - by BWW News Desk

Academy Award-winner Olympia Dukakis will be hosting a benefit performance of American Conservatory Theater's (A.C.T.) world-premiere musical, Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City on Friday, June 24, 2011, at 8 p.m. The evening is being hosted by San Francisco-based Jordan, Miller & Associates, which specializes in comprehensive financial planning for the LGBT community, as a benefit for A.C.T.'s education programs, and the Richmond Erhmet AIDS Foundation (REAF) of San Francisco. Attendees can choose to participate at different levels, all available at www.OlympiaHostsTales.Eventbrite.com:

"Olympia's Guest Tickets" ($1,500) include an intimate dinner with Dukakis and special guest "Top Chef: Just Desserts" winner Yigit Pura at celebrated San Francisco restaurant Fleur de Lyse, premium orchestra tickets to the show, and access to the VIP postshow party held at Clift Hotel.
"Barbary Lane VIP Passes" ($200-$235) include the best mezzanine or orchestra seats for the performance and the VIP postshow party at the Clift Hotel.

"Performance Only Tickets" ($55-$125) include seats at all seating levels for this once-in-a-lifetime performance.

Says, Dukakis: "I am thrilled that my first viewing of this momentous new musical is being made into a fundraising event for A.C.T., who so boldly took on the challenge of bringing Armistead's work to the stage, and the Richmond/Ermet AIDS Foundation, whose tireless fundraising for HIV/AIDS service organizations over the last 17 years has made a significant impact in my beloved city of San Francisco. It will be a weekend-long celebration, and I cannot wait to arrive in San Francisco to become Grand Celebrity Marshal of the Pride celebration."

Dukakis, who has appeared on the A.C.T. stage numerous times (most recently in last season's Vigil), has gained international recognition for her roles in television and film, including her turn as the iconic Anna Madrigal in the television miniseries versions of Tales of the City.

"We're excited about bringing this unique opportunity to fruition," says Brandon Miller and Joanne Jordan of organizing sponsor Jordan, Miller & Associates. "The June 24 event is a terrific way to celebrate Pride, support our local charities, and see this world premiere staging of San Francisco's most beloved story in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for fans of Armistead's work. Thank you, Olympia and Armistead, for making this night one we won't soon forget!"

The world premiere musical production of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City features a book by Tony Award-winning writer Jeff Whitty (Avenue Q) and music and lyrics by Jake Shears and John Garden of the glam-rock band Scissor Sisters; is directed by Tony Award winner Jason Moore (Avenue Q and Shrek: The Musical); and is choreographed by Larry Keigwin. The world premiere production has been breaking sales records for the company and has just been extended again through July 24, 2011. For tickets and more information, please visit act-sf.org/tales or call 415.749.2228.

http://sanfrancisco.broadwayworld.com/article/Olympia-Dukakis-to-Host-TALES-OF-THE-CITY-Benefit-624-20110608

Opening Gala for ARMISTEAD MAUPIN'S TALES OF THE CITY Raises $950,000

2011-06-09T09:24:00.002-04:00

Tuesday, June 7, 2011; Posted: 03:06 PM - by BWW News Desk

American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.)'s Opening Night Gala celebrating the world premiere of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City took place on Wednesday, June 1, 2011, and raised $950,000 to support the production and A.C.T.'s educational programs. The attendees, including many San Francisco philanthropic luminaries along with author Armistead Maupin, Laura Linney (who played Mary Ann Singleton in the television miniseries adaptation of Tales of the City on PBS), Jake Shears of the glam-rock band Scissor Sisters (who composed the music for the show), and Mayor Edwin Lee, walked down the red carpet for a cocktail reception and gala dinner at Union Square in a clear tent elegantly designed in deep purples and reds by Stanlee Gatti, followed by the performance at the theater and a dance party with the cast at Ruby Skye nightclub after the show (sponsored by ABSOLUT). The gala, chaired by A.C.T. Trustee Marilee K. Gardner and Barbary Lane Committee Co-Chairs JaMel Perkins and Roselyne C. Swig, was the culmination of A.C.T.'s two-year effort to bring Armistead Maupin's famous San Francisco stories to the stage as a new musical. The Opening Night Gala Honorary Chairs included Olympia Dukakis, Laura Linney, and author Armistead Maupin. The Revelers were entertained by members of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and wildly dressed cast members from the Thrillpeddlers's production of Vice Palace during the cocktail reception. The presentations during the dinner included an exclusive, one-time performance of a Beach Blanket Babylon show created by BBB producer Jo Schuman Silver specifically to honor Tales of the City and Armistead Maupin, as well as Maupin's acceptance of a surprise gift-a framed copy of his first Tales of the City column in the San Francisco Chronicle-from Chronicle editor Ward Bushee.

The world premiere musical production of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City features a book by Tony Award-winning writer Jeff Whitty (Avenue Q) and music and lyrics by Jake Shears and John Garden of the glam-rock band Scissor Sisters; is directed by Tony Award winner Jason Moore (Avenue Q and Shrek: The Musical); and is choreographed by Larry Keigwin. The world premiere production has been breaking sales records for the company and has just been extended again through July 24, 2011. For tickets and more information, please visit act-sf.org/tales or call 415.749.2228.

A.C.T.'s production of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City is presented by AT&T. The world premiere musical is sponsored by American Airlines, The Fairmont San Francisco, Foggy Bridge Winery, the Koret Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, with additional support by Pillsbury Winthrop; The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Fund for New Works, an endowed fund of The Next Generation Campaign; and ValueAct Capital. Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City is also made possible by commissioning sponsors Priscilla and Keith Geeslin, Ambassador James C. Hormel and Mr. Michael P. Nguyen, Nancy Livingston and Fred Levin, The Shenson Foundation, Kathleen Scutchfield, and Jeff and Laurie Ubben; production sponsors Ray and Dagmar Dolby, Burt and Deedee McMurtry, and Susan A. Van Wagner; music sponsors Lesley Clement, Michael G. Dovey, Ken Fulk, Nion McEvoy, Lorenzo Thione and David Palmer, Jack and Susy Wadsworth, and Carlie Wilmans; choreography sponsors Stephen Belford and Bobby Minkler, Carla Emil and Rich Silverstein, Marilee K. Gardner, Jo S. Hurley, David ibnAale and Mollie Ricker, Byron R. Meyer, Mr. Milton J. Mosk and Mr. Thomas E. Foutch, David and Carla Riemer, Anne and Rick Reiley, Laila Tarraf, Larry and Robyn Varellas, and Nola Yee; casting sponsors Anonymous, Paul Angelo, Lucia Brandon, David and Carla Crane, Carlotta and Robert Dathe, Jerome L. and Thao N. Dodson, Drs. Caroline Emmett and Russell Rydel, Kirke and Nancy Hasson, The Reverend and Mrs. Alan Jones, John Osterweis and Barbara Ravizza, Carey Perloff and Anthony Giles, Toby and Sally Rosenblatt, Gerald B. Rosenstein, Jeff and Maria Spears, Frank Stein and Paul May, Bert Steinberg, Jack Weeden and David Davies, and Beverly and Loring Wyllie; scenic sponsors Jacqueline and Christian Erdman, Robert Spoor, Brian and Ayn Thorne, Dr. Damon M. Walcott, and Tim M. Whalen; and supporters Anonymous, Lloyd and Janet Cluff, Julia and Kevin Hartz, Jason M. Surles, Mr. and Mrs. Bruce White. A.C.T. would also like to acknowledge its 2010-11 season company sponsors: Priscilla and Keith Geeslin; Ambassador James C. Hormel and Mr. Michael P. Nguyen; Nancy Livingston and Fred Levin, The Shenson Foundation; Burt and Deedee McMurtry; Patti and Rusty Rueff; Mary and Steven Swig; Jeff and Laurie Ubben; and Susan A. Van Wagner. Development of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City was supported by the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center during a residency at the National Music Theater Conference of 2009.

http://sanfrancisco.broadwayworld.com/article/Opening-Gala-for-ARMISTEAD-MAUPINS-TALES-OF-THE-CITY-Raises-950000-20110607

Tales of the . . . Cast! Meet Manoel Felciano

2011-06-08T15:25:00.000-04:00

Meet A.C.T. core acting company member Manoel Felciano, who plays Norman Neal Williams. Click here to read his official bio.

NAME Manoel Felciano.

CHARACTER Norman Neal Williams.

HOMETOWN San Francisco.

FIRST THEATER EXPERIENCE Playing Micaela’s gypsy guide in the San Francisco Opera production of Carmen with Placido Domingo.

FAVORITE THEATER EXPERIENCE Playing George in Sunday in the Park with George.

FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH TALES Being cast in the production.

HOW ARE YOU LIKE NORMAN? Hopefully very little! Though I’ve been known to rock the clip-on tie.

FAVORITE MUSICAL Ooh, tough one . . . right now, Floyd Collins.

FAVORITE SONG TO SING “Use Me,” by Bill Withers.

EDUCATION B.A., Yale University; M.F.A., NYU; and lots of informal teachers along the way.

PERFORMANCE RITUAL Pre-: vocal, physical warm-ups. Post-: walk the bat-pig, aka our dog.

FAVORITE ’70s WARDROBE ITEM Probably a giant corduroy goose down–lined winter coat from my dad.

http://blog.act-sf.org/2011/06/tales-of-cast-meet-manoel-felciano.html

"Tales of the City" ebook

2011-06-07T07:03:00.000-04:00

"Tales of the City" is now released in ebook format! You can pre-order on apple iBook , Amazon Kindle, or the Nook.

Get your copy now!

Tales of the . . . Cast! Meet Mary Birdsong

2011-06-06T21:55:00.000-04:00

NAME Mary Birdsong.

CHARACTER Mona Ramsey.

HOMETOWN Long Beach Island, New Jersey.

FIRST THEATER EXPERIENCE Doing “the bump” while dressed as a turkey leg in a Thanksgiving recital in grade school because Mia Michenzi chickened out.

FAVORITE THEATER EXPERIENCE Accidentally peeing onstage during the tech for my last solo show. I’d love to say I was five years old at the time. I wasn’t.

FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH TALES Being asked to do a cold reading at 10 a.m. at [director] Jason Moore’s house two years ago on my one day off, and saying no because I thought it was for a musical version of A Tale of Two Cities. I hate Dickens. Okay, I don’t really hate Dickens. But still . . . the idea of doing anything involving bonnets just did not appeal to me at the time. Sleep appealed to me.

HOW ARE YOU LIKE MONA? I’m all bark and no bite—a real softie. But hell if I’ll let you see that just so you can use it against me later. ☺

FAVORITE MUSICAL This one. Godspell is a close second.

FAVORITE SONG TO SING In this show: “Seeds and Stems.” Other than that? Probably “Hallelujah,” by Leonard Cohen, or any gut-bucket gospel-type stuff.

EDUCATION It’s overrated. Okay, for reals? Ethel Jacobsen Elementary School. Long Beach Island Grade School. Southern Regional Middle School and Southern Regional High School. Then NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where I got to study with the great Stella Adler. And Gotham City Improv for sketch comedy and improv.

PERFORMANCE RITUAL Pre-: big cup of hot tea with lots of skim milk and two Sweet’N Lows. One chocolate mint Zone protein bar. Lots of quiet time to get focused. I also try to walk a good distance or run before the show, to get everything moving. Post-: I use my long walk home to sort of act like a martini—to calm me down and help me go to sleep.

FAVORITE ’70s WARDROBE ITEM Bell-bottom pants are awesome, especially for chicks like me with big booties—they’re very flattering. Big platform heels are also awesome, because I’m short. Oh, and I love those handkerchief shirts. I think that’s what they were called.

http://blog.act-sf.org/2011/06/tales-of-cast-meet-mary-birdsong.html

announcing . . . the Tales of the City readalong!!!

2011-06-06T07:38:00.000-04:00

From "The Olive Reader" - A Harper Perennial Weblog

EB

I’m not a big series reader, but there is one series to which I have always been faithfully devoted . . . even though it’s been about twelve or thirteen years since I read the first book!

I first heard about Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City series way back in the late 90s when the miniseries of More Tales of the City, the second book in the series, aired on Showtime. At the time, my family didn’t have cable, so I never actually watched the series, but the publicity surrounding it was enough to make me want to read the books. If you’ve never dipped into Tales of the City before, all you have to know is that it’s about the residents of an apartment building, 28 Barbary Lane, in San Francisco in the 70s. Though there are many characters, our entry into the series is Mary Ann Singleton, a young, naive woman just arrived in the city whose life changes once she moves into 28 Barbary Lane.

Looking back on my initial obsession with Tales, it seems somewhat strange. I was an 18-year-old girl living in Brooklyn who was endlessly fascinated by the comings and goings of a group of people of various ages (though most, except for the landlady Mrs. Madrigal, are in their mid to late 20s at the start of the series if I remember correctly) in 70s San Francisco. But that’s what Armistead Maupin’s writing does—it sucks you in. Tales was originally written as a series of newspaper serials, and it shows. The chapters are short and leave you dying to know what comes next. It’s like a soap opera, and anyone who reads this blog regularly knows that I consider that a high compliment.

After Tales of the City, Armistead wrote five more books in the initial series—More Tales of the City, Further Tales of the City, Babycakes, Significant Others, and Sure of You—and then returned to the world of Barbary Lane years later with Michael Tolliver Lives and, just this past fall, Mary Ann in Autumn. I’ve ALWAYS wanted to re-read these books—partly because I loved them so much and want to see if they hold up for me, and partly because they’re so fun and quick to read that I know it won’t take up a ton of time—and I’ve decided that the upcoming paperback publication of Mary Ann is the perfect time. And (obviously) I want as many of you as possible to join me!

Here’s the schedule I’ve come up with:

6/3 – Today! Announcement!
6/30 – Discussion of Tales of the City
7/28 – Discussion of More Tales of the City
8/11 – Discussion of Further Tales of the City
8/25 – Discussion of Babycakes
9/8 – Discussion of Significant Others
9/22 – Discussion of Sure of You
10/6 – Discussion of Michael Tolliver Lives
10/20 – Discussion of Mary Ann in Autumn

Of course, when I say “discussion,” I mean that we’ll talk about it very informally in the comments. No pressure! And the books are all spaced two weeks apart, but we won’t start until the end of this month, so feel free to skip ahead.

To entice you to join me in this, I’m giving away TEN copies of Tales of the City! The first 10 people to sign up below will get one. Just write a post saying you’re signing up and then link to your post using the Mr. Linky below. (If you don’t have a blog, announce it on your Facebook and link to your status update). While you’re reading, tweet using the hashtag #talesofthecity.

And for more on Armistead, including the Tales of the City musical, check out his website, facebook, and twitter.

http://olivereader.com/perennial/article/announcing_._._._the_tales_of_the_city_readalong/

Theater Review: ‘Tales of the City’ – It was worth the wait

2011-06-06T07:25:00.001-04:00

This is a wonderfully edgy, quintessential San Francisco experience, embracing its eccentricity with a singular charm and an irrepressible, incandescent spirit.

by Gregory M. Alonzo
06.05.11

I’m happy to report that Tales of the City: A New Musical, the long anticipated musical adaptation of Armistead Maupin’s serio-comic, albeit occasionally bittersweet, love letter to San Francisco was worth the wait. It’s a triumph in virtually all facets of its production, marred only by a glaring narrative misstep in the second act and a less than satisfying dénouement.

Based upon the first two installments of the popular eight novel series, the inter-woven stories of its many characters remain, for the most part, faithful to the source material. And while librettist Jeff Whitty does dilute or even excise certain elements in an attempt to simplify the intricate plotting, with over twenty songs and six connected story lines it would benefit from some more trimming.

Set in 1976, the scenario involves 25 year old Mary Ann Singleton (Betsy Wolfe), who after a brief visit falls in love with the City and decides to leave her life in Cleveland behind. She winds up in a Russian Hill apartment located on the fictitious Barbary Lane with occupants of assorted genders and sexual proclivities, all of whom with a past they’re desperately trying to escape. Anna Madrigal (Judy Kaye) is the enigmatic, cannabis-loving landlady who oversees her surrogate family with an earth mother’s wisdom and devotion.

Ms. Wolfe is perfectly cast as the wide-eyed, straight Midwesterner whose impaired judgment about men is almost tragic – and strains credulity. Her ability to deliver a line with the just the right note of comical naïveté is utterly charming, and she can belt-out a tune with a clarion voice that nearly brings the house down with her dramatic rendition of the poignant “Paper Faces.”

Her superb performance is short-changed, however, by a script that goes astray in the final act by hastily pairing her with a superfluous suitor, Norman Neal Williams (Manoel Felciano), and a story line that leaves Mary Ann’s fate with too many lose ends. She’s left literally standing around in the final sequence with little to do! A potential relationship with her womanizing neighbor, Brian Hawkins (Matthew Saldivar), is suggested – and would make sense – but is never explored

This flaw may be due to Mr. Whitty’s apparent reluctance to deviate far enough from the original story to allow for an ending that doesn’t anticipate a continuing saga. Otherwise, with a little ingenuity the devilishly wicked Beauchamp Day (Andrew Somonsky), with whom Mary Ann has an affair early on, could readily subsume the role of the gratuitously evil Norman.

Notwithstanding those limited concerns, the entire company of players is uniformly excellent. And the tunes, while not always memorable, are often quite fun and successfully capture the period and the mood of their respective scenes.

The performing highlights are simply too numerous to mention, but one must recognize the contribution of the inimitable Judy Kaye, who exudes a vulnerability and pathos of someone who’s born a heavy secret for most of her life. Her heartfelt vocal interpretation of “The Next Time you see me” provides a genuine show-stopping ending to the first act. And Wesley Taylor, as Michael “Moose” Tolliver, scores as a sweet young man who comes out to his parents in a heartbreaking and inspirational missive written to his mother (“Dear Mama”).

And all are well served by an ingenious multi-leveled set (Douglas W. Schmidt) that magically transforms before our very eyes. The overall effect is beautifully enhanced by exquisite lighting (Robert Wirzel) and top-notch sound (John Shivers) design.

Together, the entire design team creates a setting that evokes the ambiance and energy of San Francisco and gay culture in the ‘70s, providing a fitting backdrop to the many whimsical and impeccably produced song and dance numbers by choreographer Larry Keigwin and musical director Cian McCarthy. And the splendid, colorful costume design by Beaver Bauer completes the stylized artistic tableau.

This is a wonderfully edgy, quintessential San Francisco experience, embracing its eccentricity with a singular charm and an irrepressible, incandescent spirit. The American Conservatory Theatre and director Jason Moore must be congratulated for bringing to the stage a highly entertaining show that does justice to the city in which it is set. Bravo!

http://www.starkinsider.com/2011/06/theater-review-tales-of-the-city-it-was-worth-the-wait.html

Tales of the City: Scissors, sex and sideburns

2011-06-06T07:21:00.000-04:00

Tales of the City, Armistead Maupin's love letter to gay San Francisco, is now a musical – with songs by Scissor Sister Jake Shears. Hadley Freeman watches it come together at rehearsals

Hadley Freeman
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 5 June 2011 21.30 BST

One day in 1991, when Jake Shears was 13 years old and so far from being "Jake Shears of the Scissor Sisters" that he was Jason Sellards and as yet unaware he was gay, he was hanging out with a gay couple, who had taken the youngster under their wing. "I think they knew I was gay before I did," he recalls. "So, you know, they would turn me on to cool music." One of them handed him a book, saying: "I think you'll like this."

It was Tales of the City, Armistead Maupin's much-loved saga set in 1970s San Francisco, involving a hugely diverse group of characters who are all (often unknowingly) linked, and many of whom live in a large guesthouse run by the mysterious Mrs Madrigal. The book is full of stories of bath houses and break-ups, all told in Maupin's genial tone. "It was the first thing I'd ever read that had a positive gay perspective," says Shears, "and two years later, I came out. Make of that what you will."

Twenty years later, Shears is repaying his debt to Tales. As he relates this story, backstage at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, rehearsals are going on across the hall for the musical version of Tales of the City, for which he and fellow Scissor Sister John Garden have written the music and lyrics. The libretto is by Jeff Whitty, who won a Tony for Avenue Q, and it's directed by Jason Moore, who also worked on the coming-of-age puppet parable. "Yes, your name has to begin with J to work here," the press officer dryly confirms.

The four Js make a charmingly symmetrical double double act, with the bright-eyed and loquacious Shears and the quieter Garden in one corner; and the adorably excited Whitty and the calmer Moore in the other.

"It's been extraordinary to see the books come to life on stage," says Maupin, "but the really moving thing has been to see how well they all get along – they are 28 Barbary Lane." This was the address of Madrigal's house, where the characters meet, fall in love and form lifelong friendships.

In fact, the genesis of the musical could have come from the pages of Tales itself. Whitty came up with the idea five years ago on a flight to London. He called Moore who instantly said yes. "Jeff was passionate about it, and that's all I needed." Whitty then made a mixtape of songs that sounded like the kind of music he and Moore wanted; the only contemporary piece was by the Scissor Sisters, so he called up Shears. How did he get his number so quickly? "Oh, we met about 11 years ago when we were both go-go dancers," Shears recalls airily. "He enjoyed pulling his clothes off and dancing on bar tops. The first time we met in New York, I was probably off my face and we both had half our clothes off."

"That," Whitty says, "pretty much describes it. And we've turned it into art! No regrets ever!"

The other person Whitty had to convince was his literary idol, Maupin. "I read Tales when I was 21, when I first moved to New York," he smiles. "I was so lonely. Those characters were my company." So, nervously, he flew to San Francisco, where the writer lives. But instead of the "big box of crazy" he was worried about finding, "Armistead was so welcoming. We just got stoned within the first five minutes and that was it."

Maupin puts it somewhat more euphemistically: "Oh, we instantly clicked and spent about five hours gabbing." Maupin took to Shears right away, "although it took a while to get past the eyes". Had he been a Scissors fan? "Well, I'd heard Filthy/Gorgeous before, which I thought was grabby and fun."

On the day we meet, Shears happens to be wearing a loose vest top featuring a design by Tom of Finland, inventor of the macho gay image; he looks more like a Tales characters than the currently dressed-down actors do. "It's always been my ambition to make a musical," he says. "When Jeff said Tales, my heart started racing, and I thought, 'I don't know what I'm doing but let's do it.'" He then grabbed his bandmate Garden and said: "Get your keyboard – we're writing a musical!' They sat down and, in one day, wrote a song that's still in the show.

Later, we go to the rehearsal room to watch the opening of the second act. Here's Mary Ann fighting with creepy Norman; there's Mrs Madrigal and Edgar enjoying a romantic moment. The songs are excellent: melodic, emotional and catchy; the only one that sounded recognisably Scissor Sisters-esque is the one from the disco scene. The four Js watch carefully, and Shears even puts down his iPhone for Mrs Madrigal and Edgar, visibly moved.

Even though it's their first musical, as they chat over a snack, Garden politely eating a salad, Shears chomping on a chicken burrito as big as his thigh, the two men come across like a modern-day Rodgers and Hammerstein, talking about "making use of the 'real estate' of a song to tell the story" and "sacrificing top-drawer ballads for the rhythm of the show".

Shears is, characteristically, devoid of self-doubt. No nerves about taking on a book with which he has such an emotional connection? Never. Is he worried how San Franciscans will react, since it is the unofficial book of the city? Of course not. "But then, maybe I'm too confident," he muses, making Garden splutter with laughter.

One need only look to the SpiderMan musical in New York to know that it's not enough just to take a popular story and a successful pop group and assume it will all work out. And this project presented very specific difficulties: there are as many plotlines as there are characters – and there are a lot of characters. What's more, Whitty didn't make things easier by mashing together Tales of the City and its sequel More Tales of the City. "There were some things I just couldn't leave out," he says.

'The show queens out MAJORLY'

Maupin originally wrote the books as newspaper articles, so the books have an episodic feel, rather than the flowing rhythm that musicals need; and, even though it's set in the 70s and is full of gay characters, they didn't want to make a camp pastiche. "That said," Whitty adds, "at times, the show does queen out MAJORLY."

And how much do sex and drugs feature in the musical? "About 38%," says Garden.

If the show goes well, the plan is to bring it, not to New York, but to London. At the opening last week, according to the San Francisco Examiner, the "audience went wild. After all, they were privy to plenty of inside jokes as well as captivated by the broad and witty characterisations." It added: "This love letter to countercultural San Francisco is neither deeply emotionally engaging, nor nuanced – it's just out-and-out good, rousing fun, with some poignant moments, such as Mouse's affecting coming-out song, Dear Mama."

Whitty and Moore remember how audiences in London took to Avenue Q, and there's a big Scissor Sisters fanbase there. Maupin, too, feels "the books were really discovered in England", thanks to Patrick Janson-Smith, the British editor who was a champion of Tales. Plus, Whitty points out, "It took Channel 4 to make a TV show out of Tales. American networks wouldn't take a chance on it. London audiences are much less shockable than American ones, they're less prudey-sue. We had to make the sex scenes in Avenue Q filthier for the London audiences. That could be fun with Tales."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2011/jun/05/tales-city-musical-shears-maupin

Armistead Maupin reads from 'Mary Ann in Autumn' at The Seattle Public Library June 25

2011-06-06T07:17:00.002-04:00

The Seattle Public Library and PrideFest welcome author Armistead Maupin for a reading of his latest book, "Mary Ann in Autumn," and a conversation on the world of "Tales of the City" from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, June 25 at the Central Library, 1000 Fourth Ave., Level 1, Microsoft Auditorium.

The program is free and open to the public. Free advance tickets are required. Limit of two tickets per person. Tickets are available beginning Wednesday, June 1 at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/. Limited parking is available in the Central Library garage at the $6 weekend rate. Seating is not guaranteed after 2:45 p.m.

"Mary Ann in Autumn" is the eighth book in the "Tales of the City" series.

Three television miniseries starring Olympia Dukakis and Laura Linney were made from the first three "Tales" books. Maupin has also written "Maybe the Moon," "The Night Listener" and "Michael Tolliver Lives." He lives in San Francisco with his husband.

This event is supported by The Seattle Public Library Foundation and Seattle PrideFest and presented in partnership with The Elliott Bay Book Co. Books will be available for purchase and signing.

For more information, call The Seattle Public Library at 206-386-4636 or Ask a Librarian.

For more information contact:

Andra Addison, communications director
206-386-4103

http://www.spl.lib.wa.us/about-the-library/library-news-releases/armistead-maupin-625

Armistead Maupin Feted @ ACT "Tales" Premiere

2011-06-06T07:14:00.000-04:00

Miss Beglow's Social City

Photo by Catherine Bigelow

The many, colorful tales of one beloved city starred as a heartfelt love letter to San Francisco Wednesday during the opening-night gala and world premiere of Armistead Maupin's "Tales of the City" at the American Conservatory Theater.

Prior to curtains-up, some 700 gala guests (a joyful sartorial mash-up of black-tie, face-paint and peacock feathers) arrived at Union Square Park where Tales Gala chairwoman Marilee Gardner (with able assists from Barbary Lane Committee co-chairs Cissie Swig and JaMel Perkins, and Tales honorary gala co-chairs Laura Linney and Maupin), guaranteed a good time for ACT stalwarts, super supporters, city swells and diehard "Tales" fans.

"This is like an Armistead story come to life," observed composer Jake Heggie, with a joking aside. "It's the kind of parties he used to write about and make fun of!"

Inside joke or not, the gala's unbridled merriment was shared by all. Which also raised a hefty $950K in support of ACT's education programs. And was deeply appreciated by those who labored on this work of love.

"This has been hard. We"ve been working 18 hour days for weeks now," admitted ACT Artistic Director Carey Perloff. "But director Jason Moore and choreographer Larry Keigwin have been delicious -- they're intrepid, sexy, talented. Armistead has been to every preview and is over the moon about the production."

Cocktails and canapes were served beneath a clear Classic Party Rentals tent tricked-out by designer Stanlee Gatti with swags of theatrical purple curtains framing red and purple linen-draped tables atop which was served a masterful McCall Associates, '70s-era inspired meal: Crab Louis salad with Green Goddess dressing, filet mignon with potatoes Diana, and a nostalgic slice of McCall's to-die-for version of the old Blum's Coffee Crunch cake.

"Now this is what we call a San Francisco treat," enthused ACT Board President Rusty Rueff, prior to the post-dinner presentation. "Tonight is an historic celebration, adapted from Armistead's 'Tales,' of this magical place we call home."

And with that, cast members from Steve Silver's Beach Blanket Babylon trooped onstage to present a signature song, created by BBB producer Jo Schuman Silver, which honored Maupin (in a fabulous BBB-created "Tales" book hat) and thanked key ACT supporters, sponsors and ACT Producing Director James Haire, who after 40 years, just retired from the stage.

One such clever stanza, set to the Beatle's "Penny Lane," paid homage to Maupin's beloved "Tales" characters:

28 Barbary Lane is where the action is/ When Mary Ann arrives from Cleveland/ Quite the lass/ Meets Mrs. Madrigal, who's smoking grass/ It will kick your ass.

Chronicle Editor Ward Bushee then presented Maupin with a framed copy of the author's very first "Tales" column which debuted in The Chronicle on May 24, 1976.

"What a journey it's been for all of us. Tonight, a lifelong dream of mine is now realized," toasted Maupin. "If I die and go to heaven, I know it won't look like this."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/missbigelow/detail?entry_id=90315

CBS San Francisco Review

2011-06-03T13:29:00.001-04:00

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/category/watch-listen/video-on-demand/?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=5912800

Tales of the . . . Cast! Meet Diane J. Findlay

2011-06-03T07:26:00.000-04:00

Tales of the . . . Cast! Meet Diane J. Findlay

NAME Diane J. Findlay.

CHARACTER Mother Mucca.

HOMETOWN Suffern, New York. It’s about 25 miles north of New York City, up the Hudson River.

FIRST THEATER EXPERIENCE Hello, Dolly! on Broadway.

FAVORITE THEATER EXPERIENCE That’s a hard one. There’s been soooooo many. You see, I love what I do and each project brings along something exciting and interesting and new; something to take home with me and remember, hopefully with laughter.

FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH TALES My first audition for Tales of the City was a wonder. At first I thought perhaps I shouldn’t go to the audition because I felt our director Jason Moore would never buy me as Mother Mucca, and I knew I’d be disappointed, but my agent talked me into it. So I decided to go for broke and have myself a ball, which I did, and look what happened! The entire creative team was wonderful and they made me feel as if couldn’t fail. I felt safe, and that’s rare at an audition. My second audition was even better, because by then I really knew “Ride ’em Hard,” the dirtiest song in show business, and I couldn’t wait to dazzle them with my take on the song. And apparently I did. Lucky me!

HOW ARE YOU LIKE MOTHER MUCCA? Well, Mother Mucca runs a whorehouse, sooo how much am I like my character??? I’m afraid to think. However, and this is true, my apartment in New York, on the Upper West Side, was once a whorehouse for the 79th Street Boat Basin. Isn’t that funny!

FAVORITE MUSICAL A Little Night Music, Mame, The Spitfire Grill, Dear World. I could go on and on and on.

FAVORITE SONG TO SING “If He Walked into My Life.”

EDUCATION High school and then right into the business. I couldn’t wait to step foot on a stage. I’m HOPELESS but HAPPY.

PERFORMANCE RITUAL I start to settle down around 4:00 in the afternoon. Have a bite to eat around 5:00, take a little snooze, exercise, vocalize, and get to the theater an hour before curtain. This has been my routine from day one, and it has always worked for me.

FAVORITE ’70s WARDROBE ITEM Who can remember?!!! I pass on that one.

http://blog.act-sf.org/2011/05/tales-of-cast-meet-diane-j-findlay.html

The city stops to listen to its 'Tales'

2011-06-03T07:19:00.002-04:00

Leah Garchik
Friday, June 3, 2011

The press kit contained a package of rolling papers, a box of matches and a condom. That sums up the era of "Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City," the musical version of which was welcomed by American Conservatory Theater on Wednesday with dinner in Union Square, a performance and an after-party at Ruby Skye.

With the notable exception of a couple of the Scissor Sisters, most of the 700 or so partygoers converging on tented Union Square had forsaken their bell bottoms for tuxedos and gowns - Charlotte Shultz notably in Alexander McQueen - and the only non-cast member sporting a salute-to-the-'70s mustache was Mayor Ed Lee. He'd been living in Berkeley, a law student at Boalt during that era, he said, and as a member of the Asian Law Caucus, "making trouble with the city" over evictions at the I-Hotel. He knew about "Tales" but "I didn't know people like that."

"Here we have the panoply," cracked Armistead Maupin at the sight of couture-clad Joy Bianchi next to a gaggle of Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and cast members from "Vice Palace: The Last Cockettes Musical." The mix caused a chic-to-cheeky dilemma: Arriving partygoers wrestled with kissy-kissy technique while greeting pals wearing aggressive makeup (palm frond eyelashes, rainbow-striped faces augmented with patches of facial hair).

Just inside the front door, Ken McNeely, California president of AT&T California, a major supporter of the production, beamingly described his company as a "bold leader" sponsoring a "bold production." Required gala preliminaries - thanking everyone who provided creative and financial support - were handled cleverly by "Beach Blanket Babylon" cast members, who "mentioned every sponsor you could think of," said Jo Schuman Silver. (Artistic Director Carey Perloff, who'd spent the weekend at her daughter Lexie's Harvard graduation, said Silver had sung her the thank-you song on the phone while she was at the airport.)

The plane of Maupin's special guest, Laura Linney, was delayed by three hours, but she made it to the stage in time to pay touching tribute to the writer who'd changed her life; Jim Hormel and Michael Nguyen were just back from Luxembourg, where the San Francisco Symphony was playing Mahler. And the excited hum at dinner went up a few octaves when McCalls served dessert, a re-creation of Blum's coffee crunch cake.

Maupin reminisced to tablemates about former Chronicle Managing Editor Gordon Pates, so fretful over the gay content of "Tales" that he made a chart listing homosexual characters and heterosexual characters. After one episode in which a dog was described as having humped a socialite's leg, Maupin persuaded the editor to put the dog in the hetero column.

P.S.: At the after-party, star Judy Kaye said playing Anna Madrigal is "the time of my life. I was starting to think that the really great roles were over, that I'd be playing grandmothers. But here I am, in one of the greatest roles I've ever been asked to play." There's no guarantee if the show goes to Broadway, she'll be in it, but "if they want me, I'd do backflips. I'd do anything. I'm not shy about it. I'd like to ride this little puppy."

P.P.S.: ACT raised something like $980,000 from the event. And in a kind of nonprofit piggybacking, Nextcourse, a food education program for low-income groups, conducted an eBay auction for a pair of tickets to the opening gala. They made $3,000.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/06/02/DD211JNJA5.DTL

"Tales of the City," The Musical: Looking Good in Previews

2011-06-03T07:14:00.001-04:00

Posted by BriOut, June 2, 2011

Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City, a seminal novel chronicling the misadventures, scandals, betrayals and free loves of the 70’s era cohabitants of San Francisco’s fictional 28 Barbary Lane, is one of my all-time favorite pieces of literature. From the deceptively light prose, to its beloved creations such as Mrs. Madrigal, Michael “Mouse” Tolliver, Mona Ramsey, and Mary-Anne Singleton, to the practically magical, Dickens-esque coincidences that occur between them, the book is a flat out masterpiece.

So it was with more than a little trepidation that I approached a musical adaptation of such an important and beloved book.

On one hand, I’d already gone through this once with the groundbreaking 1993 PBS adaptation starring Laura Linney, Marcus D'Amico and Olympia Dukakis, and I consider the effort to be among the best examples of getting an adaptation right -- keeping enough of the story to appreciate it in its new medium while not being a slavish and staid recreation of the book.

And the stage version counts Jason Moore and Jeff Whitty of Avenue Q as their director and libretto author and (in a rather inspired idea) Jake Shears and John Garden of Scissor Sisters as the architects of the show’s musical score.

But on the other hand… Carrie: The Musical.

Fortunately, this latest incarnation of Tales gets it right… mostly.

The story begins with twenty-five year old Mary-Anne Singleton (Betsy Wolfe) phoning her mother in Cleveland to informs them that her vacation in the city would be a permanent one. When Mary-Anne searches for a place to live, she meets Mrs. Anna Madrigal (the incomparable Judy Kaye), the landlady and mother-figure of 28 Barbary Lane.

“Do you have an objection to pets?” – Mary-Anne
“Dear, I don’t have an objection to anything.” – Madrigal

Indeed, when Mary-Anne moves in, she finds a joint taped to her apartment door and a complex filled with strange and colorful characters -- Mona Ramsey (Mary Birdsong), a carefree bisexual woman still reeling from her father's long ago abandonment of her, Brian Hawkins (Patrick Lane) a straight guy happy to be among gays -- less competition for women -- yet still longing for something deeper than Continental Baths, and Michael "Mouse" Tolliver (Wesley Taylor) a gay man looking for love and romance, living out and open in San Francisco but closeted to his Anita Bryant supporting parents.

Through Mary-Anne's job, we meet the wealthy Halcyon family, including patriarch Edgar (Richard Poe), daughter DeDe (Kathleen Elizabeth Monteleone) and her slimy husband Beauchamp (Andrew Samonsky).

Together, these two odd families somehow help Mary-Anne transform from naïve Ohioan to a real live San Franciscan.

The stage version ups the humor factor considerably, sometimes at the risk to the more poignant moments of the material. But, when it really matters, the production manages to step out of its own way to allow the more affecting moments to shine. As he did with Avenue Q, director Jason Moore proves he's skilled at getting great theater out of comparatively limited production and lighting design.

Those going in expecting the involvement of Scissor Sisters to yield boundary-pushing, glam-rock musical results, prepare to be slightly disappointed. The songs are almost aggressively traditional, at least in the context of modern stage musicals. But once divorced from loftier expectations, you discover that the musical numbers are mainly strong, effective and skillfully composed, which may be a more impressive feat when you truly think about how the songwriters stretched their skills and stepped outside of their comfort zone. You might not be humming songs after exiting the theater (I didn't), but you'll want to hear many of them again.

The performances are all uniformly good. Some of them are great. Kaye brings just the right touch of stage theatricality to Anna without veering into precious quirk and she has a wonderful stage partner in her scenes with Poe.

But the MVP's of the show are clearly Birdsong and Taylor.

Mona's "D'orothea" subplot, wonderfully weird in the novel, is dropped as the stage version puts the focus on Mona's wildly comic self-destructive streak and her complicated past with her father. But we aren't allowed to mourn it much as Birdsong's fearlessness and sharp comedic timing ramps up the energy level every time she's on stage. She's equally adept in selling (but not overselling) the dramatic requirements of the role.

And adorable doesn't even begin to describe Taylor's performance as Mouse. While given less comedy to perform than his cast mates, he brings the warmth and charm that is absolutely pivotal to the role and his performance of the letter Mouse writes to his mother is the most touching moment in the production.

Also enjoyable is watching the unfolding of Mouse's relationship with Dr. Jon Fielding, played by Josh Breckenridge with considerable magnetism.

Casting an African-American in the role of Jon was a great choice as it sidesteps the need to suspend disbelief – namely, that in 1976 San Francisco, a group of people this involved with the city’s goings-on’s would somehow not know anyone of color. Casting Breckenridge specifically was a great choice because he's simply wonderful in the role.

Also outstanding is Diane J. Findlay who plays Mother Mucca (who didn’t appear in the series until the second book). Mucca appears only in the second act but Findlay nearly steals the whole show. Her song, “Ride It Hard and Put Away Yet” has to be seen and heard to be believed.

If Mother Mucca's appearances breathes new life into the second act, then unfortunately the subplot involving the character Norman Neal Williams (Manoel Felciano) threatens to kill it. Felciano does what he can in the role but he's not nearly awkward enough to make Norman off-putting or dark enough to make him creepy -- two things his character is supposed to be. And as while the novel supplies him with a truly loathsome extra-curricular activity, for some reason this is dropped in the adaptation -- thereby making his ultimate fate seem needlessly cruel instead of the just reward we're supposed to feel.

The later moments also fall victim to what I call Second Act Syndrome -- when all of the various subplots are racing towards conclusion so fast, you feel it's at the expense of genuine emotional truth. Sometimes you want to marinate in a moment before being hurled across the finish line.

Yet these are minor quibbles. Tales of the City is a very difficult story to tell on stage but this production succeeds at telling it very well. And while it isn't perfect, it is fun, affecting, and contains performances that give me more than a small measure of joy just thinking about them. That is what musical theater is all about.

Tales of the City: The New Musical is playing from now until July 10th at San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater (ACT). You can visit their website for more information.

Please note: this is a review of a show in previews. The cast, scenes and songs described in this review are subject to change.

http://www.afterelton.com/theater/tales-of-the-city-musical-preview-review?page=0,1

Frothy, fun at ACT’s ‘Tales of the City’

2011-06-03T07:11:00.002-04:00

By: Jean Schiffman 06/02/11 2:45 PM
Special to The Examiner

Nobody is exactly who they seem to be, even to themselves, in the much-anticipated world premiere of “Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City” at American Conservatory Theater: not wide-eyed new-girl-in-town Mary Ann Singleton (buoyant, blond Betsy Wolfe); not her new boss, the dying mover-and-shaker Edgar Halcyon (Richard Poe); not his super-slick son-in-law Beauchamp (an appropriately dastardly Andrew Samonsky); not mysterious, bohemian landlady Anna Madrigal (Judy Kaye, familiar to ACT audiences from, among other musicals, “Sweeney Todd”); not free-spirited fag hag Mona Ramsey (petite Mary Birdsong); certainly not Mary Ann’s seemingly shy suitor, Norman Neal Williams (ACT ensemble member Manoel Felciano).

Even Michael “Mouse” Tolliver (a charmingly vulnerable Wesley Taylor) isn’t who he appears to be to his cartoony, homophobic parents, and the brazen, tough-as-nails Mother Mucca (a hilarious Diane J. Findlay) has a hidden and devastating loss in her past.

The fun of following the lives of the denizens of Barbary Lane, that fictional aerie on Russian Hill, as they party and pine, dance and sing, laugh and cry, open and close their troubled hearts, is in discovering their shocking secrets.

On opening night of the three-hour (including intermission) musical version that conflates two of Maupin’s books —“Tales of the City” and “More Tales of the City ”— both originally serialized in the San Francisco Chronicle in the 1970s, the San Francisco audience went wild.

After all, they were privy to plenty of inside jokes as well as captivated by the broad and witty characterizations, delivered by a crack ensemble, and by Jake Shears’ and John Garden’s (aka Scissor Sisters) truly delightful songs — 23 including reprises — in a delicious variety of musical styles and moods.

In Maupin’s “Tales,” set in 1976, a group of lost souls tests the bonds of love and friendship, and Jeff Whitty’s libretto, as well as Jason Moore’s direction, are perfectly calibrated to the local author’s joyful, storytelling sensibility, with the action, on Douglas W. Schmidt’s clever, multilevel set, moving swiftly and clearly among several plot strands.

This love letter to resolutely countercultural San Francisco is neither deeply emotionally engaging, nor nuanced — it’s just out-and-out good, rousing fun, interspersed with some well-earned poignant moments, such as Mouse’s affecting coming-out song, “Dear Mama,” beautifully rendered by a tremulous Taylor, and a touching parent/child reconciliation at the end.

With musicians led by keyboardist Cian McCarthy, and Larry Keigwin’s busy and sometimes complex choreography, the show is a light-hearted charmer.

http://www.sfexaminer.com/entertainment/2011/06/frothy-fun-act-s-tales-city

Tales of the City Is Now an Extended Hometown Hit at San Francisco's A.C.T.

2011-06-03T07:08:00.002-04:00

By Kenneth Jones
02 Jun 2011

The San Francisco-set musical Tales of the City, based on Armistead Maupin's novels, will get additional performances July 12-24 due to demand at American Conservatory Theater in the City by the Bay.

The world-premiere musical prompted the largest advance sale in A.C.T.'s history prior to its first preview performance on May 18 and has continued to break sales records leading to the June 1 opening. Variety gave the show an encouraging review.

The added performances are July 12-24: 8 PM performances Tuesdays through Sundays (Sunday, July 17 performance is at 7 PM) and 2 PM matinees on July 13, 16, 23, 24. American Conservatory Theater is at 415 Geary Street in San Francisco.

According to A.C.T., "Three decades after Armistead Maupin mesmerized millions with his daily column in the city's newspapers, detailing the lives and (multiple) loves of Mary Ann, Mouse, Mona, Brian, and their beloved but mysterious landlady, Mrs. Madrigal, his iconic San Francisco saga comes home as a momentous new musical from the Tony Award–winning creators of Avenue Q (librettist Jeff Whitty and director Jason Moore) and the musical minds behind the glam-rock phenomenon Scissor Sisters (composers Jake Shears and John Garden). A.C.T.'s world-premiere musical adaptation of Tales of the City unleashes an exuberant celebration of the irrepressible spirit that continues to define our City by the Bay."

For more information and to purchase tickets, contact the A.C.T. Box Office at (415) 749-2228 or visit the A.C.T. website at www.act-sf.org.

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/151447-Tales-of-the-City-Is-Now-an-Extended-Hometown-Hit-at-San-Franciscos-ACT

SFist Reviews: 'Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City' at A.C.T.

2011-06-03T07:06:00.000-04:00

By Jay Barmann in Arts+Events on June 2, 2011 4:20 PM

It's not often that San Francisco gets to see a potentially Broadway-bound new musical have its world premiere here, and when it's a musical about San Francisco based on a beloved serial that first appeared in the Chronicle in the 70s, well, that's a major aligning of the musical theater stars. Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City, which is the centerpiece of the season at A.C.T. and the biggest scale new work ever produced there, will not disappoint lovers of the books or the PBS mini-series from the early 90s. It's a joyous and almost fully realized piece of theater, with a terrific cast and at least three great musical numbers, and it is, by any stretch, a glorious celebration of the San Francisco of the mid-70s, in that moment of liberation and drug doing just before things turned darker with assassinations and Jonestown and such.

We'll start with the music. Don't get us wrong; it's pretty good. There is a bevy of disco-influenced writing, a ton of lovely melodies and some pretty themes. But there are remarkably few satisfying hooks and stirring ensemble numbers. There are three great and satisfying songs that show off Jake Shears' and John Garden's collaborative musical talent: "Atlantis" and "Mary Ann" are both showstoppers in the first act, but both feel a little short, and even shorter is the would-be closing number "No Apologies," which is a great song we wish we had more of. But we'll get back to the somewhat truncated ending moments in a minute. A couple of other songs "Love Comes Running," and "Seeds and Stems" were solid ballads, but we were left with an impression of a lot of disposable music that Shears and Garden likely struggled to shoe-horn into the needs of the play. Overall it feels as though the score is in a second draft, with some clunkier, storytelling-type songs that need rewriting, and some filler numbers that could probably be cut to allow for some slowdowns elsewhere.

The set is one of the best and most versatile we've seen constructed in Bay Area theater, with three levels of interconnected wooden platforms and stairs, all built to look like the warren of walkways in a big San Francisco apartment house like 28 Barbary Lane. And Jason Moore's direction is fast-paced and nuanced at times, and he's clearly shown the performers how to have fun in every scene.

The cast comprises a talented and professional bunch of performers, most of whom were imported from New York. Betsy Wolfe plays central protagonist Mary Ann Singleton, and she most recently appeared in the Tony-nominated Everyday Rapture on Broadway. She has a great voice and excellent comic timing, and cuts a believably innocent and Midwestern profile in this role. She's also a plucky member of the ensemble, and shares some of her best moments on stage with others, like the adorably limber and sympathetic Wesley Taylor as Michael "Mouse" Tolliver, the solid and confident Patrick Lane as Brian, and the hilarious and versatile Mary Birdsong as Mona, who steals the show multiple times in song, dance, and line delivery. Most vital to the casting choices of course was the character of Anna Madrigal, and in this production, Broadway vet Judy Kaye does an incredible job of giving a soulful and empathetic voice to this iconic woman.

We were also amused and delighted by supporting performers Julie Reiber as affable flight attendant Connie (notably played by Parker Posey in the PBS series); Kathleen Elizabeth Monteleone as DeDe Halcyon-Day; the handsome Andrew Samonsky as Beauchamp Day (though Beauchamp's role in the story has been much reduced); Pamela Myers as the elder, drunk Mrs. Halcyon; Diane J. Findlay as the crassly pragmatic Mother Mucca; and Stuart Marland's multiple funny turns in the ensemble.

We have very little to criticize in Jeff Whitty's clever and witty condensation of a ton of material into two acts that come in under three hours (if you subtract intermission). A second act protest scene encouraging voter absenteeism in the wake of Watergate, and a brief appearance by Anita Bryant, stand out as the sole time markers in the script and we wish there were a few more. Some editing will likely occur as the show evolves, and we'd recommend trimming some of the awkwardness surrounding Mary Ann and her relationship to Norman — the character who tries to blackmail Edgar Halcyon — and the choice to have him become Mary Ann's first real steady boyfriend in S.F. (which was not part of the original books) feels a bit forced. This ultimately leads into the final climactic "No Apologies" number, a song that's meant to sum up and solve Mary Ann's growing cynicism and loss of faith in humanity, and her acceptance of the problematic freedoms of bohemian life in general. It's also a song about San Francisco and its vigorous embrace of personal freedom, no matter where that leads, and that's an idea that holds some more potential than the song has currently realized we think. This perhaps gets at some larger ideas that Maupin himself didn't care to grapple with in his original writing, and which could make this play, and the music, all the more interesting to a broader audience if it were more fleshed out.

Yes, it's a story about newfound freedoms, equality, sex, family, class differences, and political awakening. But it's mostly a personal story about a beloved set of quirky characters, and that was all Maupin ever seemed to want it to be, with a few nods to the political thrown in. For this to be a great show with national appeal, we'd love to see it break down a few more of the limitations of the source material, and come alive as more than just an amusing period piece, and for the music to find a bit more of its soul. It's not quite there yet, but it's still an enjoyable romp in Atlantis, ca. 1976, and one of the best things we've seen A.C.T. pull off in eons.

Tales of the City has just been extended through July 24 due to popular demand. Get tickets here or call the box office at 415.749.2228.

http://sfist.com/2011/06/02/sfist_reviews_armistead_maupins_tal.php

Tales Of The City Debuts (Video)

2011-06-03T07:02:00.000-04:00

Written by Instinct Staff
Thursday, 02 June 2011

The world premiere stage musical of the beloved book series Tales Of The City is taking San Francisco by storm! Catch the first glimpse of video from the recently debuted show and get the news on its new extended run, after the jump.

Armistead Maupin's Tales Of The City floated around theater-queen dreams for decades, but after a nearly five-year effort the musical has made its world premiere is San Francisco. And the reception has been so great that the theater has already extended the play's run—again!

Here's our first glimpse of the show via a short teaser, and you can always revisit what the man behind the music, Scissor Sisters frontman Jake Shears, had to say about the creation of the play in his Instinct Soapbox, here!

Catch Tales Of The City before it closes in S.F. on July 24. Ticket details can be found here.

http://instinctmagazine.com/blog/tales-of-the-city-debuts-video?directory=100011

OUT in America

2011-06-02T10:21:00.000-04:00

A new PBS special explores gay life from the city to the heartland

Posted by Natalie Hope McDonald on 6/2/2011 at 9:31AM

Tales of the City author Armistead Maupin, country star Chely Wright and humorist Kate Clinton are all featured in a new special to be broadcast on PBS June 8 (8 p.m.). The one-hour special OUT in America – directed by Emmy winner Andrew Goldberg - spotlights famous and ordinary LGBT folks around the country, discussing what it means to be gay in both the heartland and big cities like New York and San Francisco.

“The first of its kind, OUT in America is a more realistic portrait of LGBT life than almost anything seen on TV before,” says Goldberg, who has also recently produced Jerusalem: Center of the World. “So often, media coverage of LGBT life in America is polarizing or exploitative of controversy and homophobia, or alternatively LGBT individuals are presented as caricatures of a stereotype. OUT in America however focuses on empowerment, diversity and relationships.”

The LGBT people featured in the special weaves together diverse stories about everything from first crushes and coming out to self-discovery, community and pride in time for Gay Pride month.

In addition to some of the star power featured in the film, other folks are also included – like Puerto Rico’s first openly gay political candidate, a transgender police officer, a Muslim lesbian, a gay rancher, a queer prom organizer, West Point grad, drag queens, a great-grandmother and a biracial couple who have been together for almost 50 years.

Check out a preview:

Watch the full episode. See more PBS Specials.

http://blogs.phillymag.com/gphilly/2011/06/02/out-in-america/

'Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City' review

2011-06-02T09:07:00.000-04:00

Robert Hurwitt, Chronicle Theater Critic
Thursday, June 2, 2011

Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City: Musical. Book by Jeff Whitty. Music and lyrics by Jake Shears and John Garden. Directed by Jason Moore. Through July 10. American Conservatory Theater, 415 Geary St., San Francisco. Two hours, 45 minutes. $40-$127, subject to change. (415) 749-2228, www.act-sf.org.

Judy Kaye is a delightfully down-to-earth Anna Madrigal, spicing her anything-goes bohemianism with tantalizing twinges of a troublesome secret. Betsy Wolfe is a bright Mary Anne Singleton, Wesley Taylor a beguiling Michael "Mouse" Tolliver, Mary Birdsong a vibrant Mona Ramsey - and that just scratches the surface of the many deftly sketched characters onstage.

The creators of "Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City," the much-anticipated musical that opened Wednesday at American Conservatory Theater, haven't tried to squeeze in all the characters, incidents, secrets, coincidences and sly commentary from Maupin's first two novels. Not even the TV series could do that. But adapter Jeff Whitty and his collaborators have adopted enough of the serial's interconnected plots and people to fill two musicals. Or more.

That's too much of a good thing at times, not enough at others and just right at many points in the almost three-hour show. As seen at Tuesday's critics' preview, ACT's world premiere is a blithe, comic and pleasantly tuneful celebration of sex, drugs and all kinds of coming out in freewheeling, pre-AIDS San Francisco circa 1976.

It hits a richly rewarding high point in Taylor's poignant delivery of a lovely setting of Mouse's coming-out letter to his homophobic parents. But if it has New York aspirations, as implied by the many Broadway credits behind and in it, it needs to hone its storytelling and develop a more distinctive musical voice. The cast is fine as it is.

It's still a pretty impressive achievement. Whitty, who wrote the ever-popular "Avenue Q" (and Broadway-bound "Bring It On"), has done a great job of boiling down the many stories to a few primary ones and retaining the empathy and comic flair of Maupin's serial.

He's also rearranged incidents to enhance the central role of Kaye's Madrigal, her big secret and her romance with dying ad executive Edgar Halcyon (a crusty-buoyant Richard Poe).

Longtime "Tales" fans will miss some characters, but more get cameos than you'd expect. Director Jason Moore ("Avenue Q," "Shrek: The Musical") and choreographer Larry Keigwin keep highlighting the individuality of the many players on a many-leveled set (by Douglas W. Schmidt) that looks like a warren of Russian Hill back staircases.

But Whitty plays down the blossoming of Wolfe's central Mary Anne, making her a bit monochromatic (the too delayed appearance of Manoel Felciano as her creepy lover Norman doesn't help). He also reduces Birdsong's vital Mona to plot-connective tissue between Madrigal, Mouse and Diane J. Findlay's tough Mother Mucca (a showstopper on the brothel breakout "Ride 'em Hard"). Mouse's relationship with Josh Breckenridge's fine Jon Fielding could be better developed as well.

The songs, by first-time musical writers Jake Shears and John Garden of the Scissor Sisters, are performed with terrific verve and talent by the entire cast and music director Cian McCarthy's hot septet. A country-Broadway "Homosexual Convalescent Center," drag-show Anita Bryant protest, Birdsong's in-your-face "Crotch" and Kathleen Elizabeth Monteleone's torchy DeDe Halcyon-Day numbers are particular delights.

But none of the songs are particularly memorable and some could be cut. Shears and Garden's period-pastiche approach - drawing on everything from "Hair" and disco to soul, bubble-gum pop and overblown ballads - doesn't provide the musical with a sound it can call its own nor evoke the period very well.

It's the dance styles sampled by Keigwin's choreography and Beaver Bauer's memory lane of everyday and outlandish costumes that bring back the '70s, mostly for the better. And the actors. Even when "Tales" meanders, Kaye's warm, vulnerable Madrigal and the company provide a pretty rich contact high.

Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City: Musical. Book by Jeff Whitty. Music and lyrics by Jake Shears and John Garden. Directed by Jason Moore. Through July 10. American Conservatory Theater, 415 Geary St., San Francisco. Two hours, 45 minutes. $40-$127, subject to change. (415) 749-2228, www.act-sf.org.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/06/02/DD5S1JMOKL.DTL&type=performance

Channeling Armistead Maupin

2011-06-02T08:30:00.000-04:00

Jeff Whitty on bringing 'Tales of the City' to the stage

by Richard Dodds

The man most responsible for transforming Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City into a musical was only five years old when the serialized story began its newspaper run in 1976. But Jeff Whitty, a Tony Award-winner for Avenue Q, doesn't look back on those days as either nostalgia or a benighted period when gays and lesbians had scant social acceptance.

"In a weird way, it feels like we've taken a huge step backwards," Whitty said during a break in a fine-tuning rehearsal before one of the preview performances at American Conservatory Theater. "In many ways, Tales of the City feels like my ideal possible future. There's almost something utopian about it."

It's been more than five years since Whitty convinced author Maupin that his vision for a musicalized Tales, which had already had several previous unsuccessful startups, was worth his trust. "I feel like I'm sort of channeling Maupin as if he were a musical book writer, and he and I share a certain sensibility so sometimes I can't remember if the dialogue is Armistead or if it's me."

Maupin, an iconic SF figure, was writing about contemporaneous life when he began the Tales series in the 1970s. The initial impetus was a possible feature story on the Marina Safeway's popularity as a heterosexual meeting ground. But in the Tales series, Maupin introduced characters not only straight, but gay, lesbian, transgender, black, white, filthy rich, dirt poor, and even a whorehouse madam.

"One of the things Armistead has issues with is that bookstores always put Tales of the City in the gay fiction section even though more of the characters are straight," Whitty said. "I think the reason is that he put gay characters on an equal footing with the straight ones. They're just as flawed, funny, interesting, damaged, and yearning as straight people, but I think it was such a shock that it overrides what people see in the other characters."

At times, Whitty himself gets frustrated at being filed into a gay niche. "But then again, I don't want to be like everybody else. I think straight people need to get their shit together and realize how much we bring to the table."

Maupin's newspaper columns evolved into a series of novels, and Whitty is using Tales of the City and More Tales of the City for his libretto. "We do stick with what works in musical theater," Whitty said of the structure of the piece. "But at the same time, what makes Tales different is the multi-storyline, and I didn't even know for five years until the first preview if that would work."

Though the Tales of the City series is often cast in gay terms, the lead character, Mary Ann Singleton (Betsy Wolfe), is a young straight woman just arrived in San Francisco with the intention of reinventing her life. Her quest is accelerated when she rents an apartment on Barbary Lane, modeled on Macondray Lane, where landlady Mrs. Madrigal (Judy Kaye) is a mysterious but motherly type who believes in the affirmative properties of pot, and whose tenants notably include Michael "Mouse" Tolliver (Wesley Taylor), who is exploring his gay sexuality with gleeful abandon. There are more interweaving subplots and characters too numerous to mention here.

The first preview came in at three hours and 20 minutes, and Whitty expected the show to be running at two hours and 55 minutes by opening night. "For me, it's a blessing to have to cut the show down," Whitty said, "because the goal is always to stay one step ahead of the audience."

Since he was the prime instigator of the project, Whitty was in the position to choose his collaborators. For director, he asked Jason Moore, with whom he so successfully collaborated on Avenue Q. For the songs, he strayed from Broadway veterans to ask flamboyantly out Jake Shears, songwriter and lead singer for the Scissor Sisters, to write the score, and Shears in turn brought in bandmate John Garden.

"One of the incredible things about working with Jake and John is that the Scissor Sisters are such chameleons," Whitty said. "If you listen to their albums, very often their songs will sound like they were written in the 70s, but it's still entirely fresh. These guys get under the hoods of the characters, and the fact that they're not from the musical theater has given them a certain degree of risk-taking that I'm not even sure they're aware of."

When Whitty roughed out his script, he indicated places where he thought a song would be appropriate, but he also worked backwards from the songwriters' passions. "They wrote a song called 'Paper Faces' for the end of the show, and it's a scorcher. For me it was about building backwards from the top of Act II to give Mary Ann justification to sing it. And Jake said he really wanted to write a song for the A-list gays in the book, and he turned it into 'Homosexual Convalescent Center,' which is this huge burst of energy in the middle of Act I."

While the high-profile producers of Rent and Avenue Q were associated with the project when it had a workshop at the O'Neill Theatre Center in 2009, according to Whitty, they amicably parted ways shortly thereafter. The entire $2.5 million budget – high for ACT, a pittance on Broadway – was raised locally by donors as opposed to investors.

"It was a mutual agreement to let us develop the show without commercial pressure," Whitty said. "Within 48 hours of them stepping off the project, [ACT Artistic Director] Carey Perloff had snapped us up. We wanted the show to be homegrown, and it's better for it."

The future of Tales of the City after its summer run at ACT is uncertain. "It would break my heart if this was the only shot it got," he said, "but that doesn't mean it has to head straight to Broadway. I just want it to have a life. People always look at me like, 'Oh, you're holding out on us' when I say that about the show's future."

In fact, after Tales is up and running, Whitty soon heads into production for a new musical based on the cheerleading movie Bring It On. It begins a tour in Los Angeles in November, and will play SF in December without a Broadway stop on the itinerary.

There was time for a final question before Whitty had to head back into rehearsals: Have you been sleeping well? "Not for the past few weeks, but that's what July and August are for."

http://www.ebar.com/arts/art_article.php?sec=theatre&article=745

Review: A sparkling 'Tales of the City'

2011-06-02T08:25:00.002-04:00

By Karen D'Souza

kdsouza@mercurynews.com
Posted: 06/01/2011 10:00:00 PM PDT

The gospel according to Mrs. Madrigal, the bohemian goddess cum landlady in "Tales of the City," has very few commandments. Among the most sacrosanct: Pot brownies are the ideal party favor, the b-word can be the highest of compliments and under no circumstances share a joint.

Just because you're a degenerate, dahling, that doesn't mean you shouldn't act like a lady.

Wryly delivered by the inimitable actress Judy Kaye, Madrigal's sage bits of weed-infused wisdom sparkle like diamonds in the delectable new stage version of Armistead Maupin's love letter to the city by the bay. The iconic tale of '70s San Francisco as an anything-goes Shangri-La of disco balls, bathhouses and polyester-clad divas has been reborn as a yummy musical with a tartly buoyant libretto by Jeff Whitty ("Avenue Q") and an instantly addictive retro-chic score by Jake Shears and John Garden of the glam-pop band Scissor Sisters.

While the show has its flaws, musicals are -- in the end -- a lot like people. If they're charming, it's pretty easy to brush off their weaknesses. Certainly some polishing and tightening is called for before the almost three-hour-long show moves on from its world premiere at the American Conservatory Theater. But there's also no question that this age of Aquarius flashback deserves to be seen on a Broadway stage.

In the parlance of the piece, this "Tale" has more than its share of fantabulous moments. From the jockey-shorts dance contest to the roller-disco pickup scene, rubbing elbows with the denizens of 28 Barbary Lane is far out, man.

Whitty, who came up with the idea for the adaptation, clearly has an affinity for Maupin's universe and its kaleidoscopic sense of character and quirkiness. If the production sometimes feels a tad too faithful to the novel, with the episodic nature of the story gumming up the flow of the evening, this is an all-you-can-quip buffet of period gags and Bay Area nods.

Some of the local punch lines are zingers. When Mary Ann Singleton (Betsy Wolfe), the wide-eyed heroine from Ohio, gets weirded out by all the subversiveness in her midst and she longs for the land of the bland and the bored, one of the let-it-all-hang-out crowd helpfully suggests: "Have you tried Marin?"

Wolfe is an old-fashioned leading lady type who is quite fetching as our girl Mary Ann, but she misses the sass that ought to be hiding behind all that sweetness and light. Of course, it's hard not to upstaged by Mary Birdsong's white-hot turn as the pill-popping hippie chick Mona Ramsey, who is up for trying anyone once.

Birdsong captures the trip-adelic power of pharmaceuticals in "Seeds and Stems." She also gives off palpable heat in the breezy "Everything Good Gets Better" duet with Mona's best pal Mouse (Wesley Taylor), a scruffy cutie in search of true love. Taylor, for his part, delivers the goods dancing his, um, end off at the End Up.

For the record, there is some nudity in this show, which is absolutely necessary to tap into the boogie nights vibe. But, despite the assortment of drag queens and fab jeans, there is little that's super outrageous here, which is sort of too bad. Indeed, if the production turned the decadence up a notch in the early scenes, it might make Mary Ann's primness a tad more compelling as she ricochets from the rich boy cad Beauchamp (Andrew Samonsky) to the furtive Norman (Manoel Felciano).

In general, if the show didn't try so hard to pack everything in, the character revelations would have more raw emotional power. But make no mistake, there is so much to savor here -- Beaver Bauer's funky couture and Larry Keigwin's witty choreography -- that the running time flies by. Quibbles lose their bite in light of the fire burning within Wolfe's rendition of "Paper Faces," the chipper raunch of Mother Mucca's "Ride 'Em Hard" mantra (Diane J. Findlay is pricelessly deadpan as Mucca), the hot-pink flamboyance of "Homosexual Convalescent Center" and the nonstop electricity generated by Jason Moore's staging.

If the creators edit the detours (an Anita Bryant aside is snarky but slows things down) and punch up the finale, the musical's many attributes will be even more alluring.

One caveat: It would be hard to improve upon Kaye's high-wattage performance as the priestess of pot, Mrs. Madrigal, who has quite a secret lurking under those Mrs. Roper ensembles. There's such a hunger to Kaye's voice that she makes even the lesser songs (such as "Atlantis") shine, and when the Tony winner gets her hands on a showstopper ("The Next Time You See Me"), watch out.

Let's put it this way: The brownies aren't the only things that are habit-forming.

http://www.mercurynews.com/theater-dance/ci_18183806

Tales of the City

2011-06-02T08:20:00.000-04:00

By Dennis Harvey

An American Conservatory Theater presentation of a musical in two acts with libretto by Jeff Whitty and music and lyrics by Jake Shears and John Garden. Directed by Jason Moore. Choreography, Larry Keigwin.

Mona Ramsey - Mary Birdsong
Jon Fielding - Josh Breckenridge
Norman Neal Williams - Manoel Felciano
Mother Mucca - Diane J. Findlay
Anna Madrigal - Judy Kaye
DeDe Halcyon-Day - Kathleen Elizabeth Monteleone
Edgar Halcyon - Richard Poe
Connie Bradshaw - Julie Reiber
Brian Hawkins - Patrick Lane
Beauchamp Day - Andrew Samonsky
Michael "Mouse" Tolliver - Wesley Taylor
Mary Ann Singleton - Betsy Wolfe

ACT's track record with musicals has been sparse and uninspired. So it's a particular pleasure to see "Tales of the City" -- an extremely rare venture into a full-blown, potentially Broadway-bound, world-premiere musical -- turn out very nicely indeed. Lesser results would probably still have given the company a home-turf hit given lingering affection for local scribe Armistead Maupin's beloved San Francisco-set books. But as is, prospects for a commercial future are promising, especially if the ingratiating show finds a way to maintain buoyancy through a second act that lays on melodrama and sentimentality a bit thick.

The "Tales of the City" books (the first two tapped here) didn't necessarily seem a natural fit for this form. Originally serialized in local newspapers, they put a witty contemporary spin on cliffhanger soap operatics with a combination of light satirical wit and constant narrative twists that might well have defied musicalization.

But Jeff Whitty's book and the score by clever alt-rock act Scissor Sisters' Jake Shears and John Garden mostly translate the books' playful yet heartfelt flavor with aplomb.

It's the Bicentennial in 1976, and after five days' vacation in S.F., corn-fed Midwesterner Mary Ann Singleton (Betsy Wolfe) calls her parents in Ohio to say she's not coming back. Her wide-eyed enchantment with the City by the Bay at its height of Me Decade hedonism -- though the latter takes some getting used to -- is abetted when she's taken into the home of landlady Anna Madrigal (Judy Kaye), a pot-growing Earth Mother who clucks over her tenants like a hen over chicks.

Mona gets Mary Ann a job at her firm as secretary to cantankerous CEO Edgar Halcyon (Richard Poe), whose family is "like the Kennedys of S.F., except without all that basic common decency stuff."

She's promptly hit on by the boss's son-in-law Beauchamp (Andrew Samonsky), a seduction chronicled in the sharp "Bolero." But that proves only her first disillusionment.

Ninety-minute first act takes a little while to find its feet on Douglas W. Schmidt's set of snaking S.F.-walkup back staircases.

But Whitty's sharp book and the pleasantly diverse if infrequently memorable songs (referencing '70s disco, Top 40 soft rock and "Hair"-like Broadway "rock" as well as mainstream show-tunery) admirably thread a crowded narrative agenda in terms both spoken and sung. Helmer Jason Moore keeps things brisk, fluid and frequently funny, if not particularly stylish (apart from Beaver Bauer's flashback costumes). Larry Keigwin's choreography, not always distinctive enough, excels in celebration of upmarket gay snobbery "Homosexual Convalescent Center."

After intermission, however, progress bogs down a tad as a pileup of less humorous crises (mostly from Maupin's first sequel tome, "More Tales of the City") trigger several more conventional, heavy-handed scenes and songs. It all ends in multiple reunions and hugs, reminding us that a chorus of hugs is never a good way to end a musical.

Nonetheless, "Tales of the City" is always diverting and never worse than merely imperfect. In its casting, ACT reached well beyond its usual bounds toward experienced Broadway (or at least Broadway-aspirant) personnel, with winning results. Wolfe's Mary Ann, especially, is a naif with a heart, a brain and a big voice. A seven-piece pit band sounds larger than life, and amplification for the singers was terrific on press night.

Set, Douglas W. Schmidt; costumes, Beaver Bauer; lighting, Robert Wierzel; sound, John Shivers; orchestrations, Bruce Coughlin; music supervisor, Carmel Dean; arrangements, Stephen Oremus, Dean; music director-conductor, Cian McCarthy; dramaturg, Michael Paller; casting, David Capartelliotis; assistant director, Travis Greisler. Opened, reviewed May 31, 2011. Running time: 2 HOURS, 55 MIN.

With: Keith A. Bearden, Jessica Coker, Kristoffer Cusick, Kimberly Jensen, Alex Hsu, Stuart Marland, Jeff McLean, Pamela Myers, Josh Walden.

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117945368

"Tales of the City" Opens at ACT; Interviews With Armistead Maupin, Jeff Whitty, Carey Perloff

2011-06-01T15:40:00.000-04:00

June 1, 2011, 12:03 pm • Posted by Jon Brooks

Mary Ann Singleton, Anna Madrigal, and the rest of the inhabitants of 28 Barbary Lane leap off the page and onto the stage tonight when Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City opens at ACT as a big-budget musical. (Check out a .pdf of the program here.)

The series of books by Maupin, the first few of which were serialized in the San Francisco Chronicle, follows the goings-on of a motley group of San Franciscans in the mid-1970s. The stories hooked many more fans with a 1993 television adaptation.

KQED's Cy Musiker interviewed librettist Jeff Whitty, composer Jake Shears, and Armistead Maupin about the book series and the theatrical production. Listen to that below:

Cy Musiker interviews Jake Shears, Armistead Maupin, Jeff Whitty

http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/2011/06/01/tales-of-the-city-opens-at-act-interviews-with-armistead-maupin-jeff-whitty-carey-perloff/

WATCH: Armistead Maupin and Jake Shears Queen Out Over Tales of the City Musical

2011-06-01T15:14:00.001-04:00

Oscar Raymundo
Jun 1, 2011

Armistead Maupin and Jake Shears sat down with Queerty to talk about why gays love musical theatre, which song from the new Tales of the City musical made Armistead tear up, and what it takes to make Jake’s heart race.

Plus, we got our hands on exclusive footage from the musical, premiering tonight and running until July 10 in San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theatre.

http://www.queerty.com/watch-armistead-maupin-and-jake-shears-queen-out-over-tales-of-the-city-musical-20110601/?utm_source=wordtwit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=wordtwit

Enjoy a Lavish "Tales of the City" Experience at The Fairmont San Francisco

2011-06-01T07:43:00.000-04:00

Publish Date: 26/05/2011

The Fairmont San Francisco is proud to serve as the official hotel sponsor of the American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T) world premiere musical production of Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City, offering unprecedented opportunities for fans to create memorable tales of their own through special package options and exclusive access to show tickets.

Three decades ago, Armistead Maupin first captivated millions of readers with Tales of the City, his iconic San Francisco saga that began with a wide-eyed Midwestern girl moving to a new city and forming a new kind of family with the characters at 28 Barbary Lane. Beginning May 18, Tales of the City will come to life in the form of a musical adaptation from the Tony Award–winning creators of Avenue Q and the musical minds behind the glam-rock phenomenon Scissor Sisters.

The Fairmont San Francisco has partnered with A.C.T. to offer two exciting package choices for guests attending Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City.

TALES OF THE CITY PACKAGE
Guests can enjoy an unforgettable stay at The Fairmont San Francisco and watch as the lives of Mary Ann, Mouse, Mona, Brian, and their mysterious landlady Mrs. Madrigal unfold onstage amid disco music and 1970s flair in Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City.
Starting at $299 (price does not include tickets) and available May 18, 2011 through the run of the production and subject to availability:
• One night's luxurious accommodations at The Fairmont San Francisco
• Breakfast for two in the Laurel Court Restaurant & Bar
• Overnight valet parking for one vehicle

28 BARBARY LANE TALES OF THE CITY
SUITE PACKAGE

The 28 Barbary Lane Tales of the City Suite Package is a dream-come-true for fans of the beloved Armistead Maupin series looking to reminisce about the San Francisco of another era, while enjoying the best of the city’s current offerings at its most renowned hotel.

The 28 Barbary Lane Tales of the City Suite, a 10th floor, corner Tower suite with stunning panoramic views of the bay and city has been specially customized to capture an authentic Tales of the City ambience, with décor that includes A.C.T. production memorabilia plus an in-room 1970s music soundtrack and complimentary take-home copies of Tales of the City and official behind-the-scenes of the production booklet.

Book this unforgettable, one-of-a-kind package and create your own special tale in this marvelous city!
This package is available at $869 (price does not include tickets) from June 1, 2011 through the run of the production and subject to availability:
• One night's lavish accommodations in the 28 Barbary Lane Tales of the City Suite
• A Chef’s special amenity
• Breakfast for two in the Laurel Court Restaurant
• Overnight valet parking for one vehicle
To book the Tales of the City Package or the 28 Barbary Lane Tales of the City Suite Package and to purchase tickets that have been reserved exclusively for guests of The Fairmont San Francisco, please visit: http://www.fairmont.com/sanfrancisco/HotelPackages/
Located atop exclusive Nob Hill, The Fairmont San Francisco offers 591 newly renovated guest rooms and suites, two distinctive restaurants and a new European-style café, a health club and easy access to the city’s most popular attractions. For more information or reservations, please call 1-800-441-1414 or visit www.fairmont.com.

FAIRMONT HOTELS & RESORTS
A leader in the global hospitality industry, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts is a celebrated collection of 59 distinctive hotels, which includes iconic landmarks like The Fairmont San Francisco, Fairmont The Norfolk, Nairobi and Canada's Fairmont Banff Springs. Fairmont hotels are one-of-a-kind properties where sophisticated travelers can discover culturally rich experiences that are authentic to the destination. Situated in some of the most exclusive and pristine areas in the world, Fairmont is committed to responsible tourism and is an industry leader in sustainable hotel management with its award-winning Green Partnership program.
Fairmont is owned by Fairmont Raffles Hotels International, a leading global hotel company with 94 hotels worldwide under the Raffles, Fairmont and Swissôtel brands. The company also manages Fairmont and Raffles branded Residences, Estates and luxury private residence club properties. For more information or reservations, please call 1-800-441-1414 or visit www.fairmont.com.

http://www.fairmont.com/sanfrancisco/Articles/ReferenceMaterial/TalesoftheCity.htm?DisplayType=print

Tales of the . . . Cast! Meet Diane J. Findlay

2011-06-01T07:23:00.000-04:00

Meet Diane J. Findlay, who plays Mother Mucca. Click here to read her official bio.

NAME Diane J. Findlay.

CHARACTER Mother Mucca.

HOMETOWN Suffern, New York. It’s about 25 miles north of New York City, up the Hudson River.

FIRST THEATER EXPERIENCE Hello, Dolly! on Broadway.

FAVORITE THEATER EXPERIENCE That’s a hard one. There’s been soooooo many. You see, I love what I do and each project brings along something exciting and interesting and new; something to take home with me and remember, hopefully with laughter.

FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH TALES My first audition for Tales of the City was a wonder. At first I thought perhaps I shouldn’t go to the audition because I felt our director Jason Moore would never buy me as Mother Mucca, and I knew I’d be disappointed, but my agent talked me into it. So I decided to go for broke and have myself a ball, which I did, and look what happened! The entire creative team was wonderful and they made me feel as if couldn’t fail. I felt safe, and that’s rare at an audition. My second audition was even better, because by then I really knew “Ride ’em Hard,” the dirtiest song in show business, and I couldn’t wait to dazzle them with my take on the song. And apparently I did. Lucky me!

HOW ARE YOU LIKE MOTHER MUCCA? Well, Mother Mucca runs a whorehouse, sooo how much am I like my character??? I’m afraid to think. However, and this is true, my apartment in New York, on the Upper West Side, was once a whorehouse for the 79th Street Boat Basin. Isn’t that funny!

FAVORITE MUSICAL A Little Night Music, Mame, The Spitfire Grill, Dear World. I could go on and on and on.

FAVORITE SONG TO SING “If He Walked into My Life.”

EDUCATION High school and then right into the business. I couldn’t wait to step foot on a stage. I’m HOPELESS but HAPPY.

PERFORMANCE RITUAL I start to settle down around 4:00 in the afternoon. Have a bite to eat around 5:00, take a little snooze, exercise, vocalize, and get to the theater an hour before curtain. This has been my routine from day one, and it has always worked for me.

FAVORITE ’70s WARDROBE ITEM Who can remember?!!! I pass on that one.

http://blog.act-sf.org/2011/05/tales-of-cast-meet-diane-j-findlay.html

Olympia Dukakis and Laura Linney Chair Gala For TALES OF THE CITY 6/1

2011-06-01T07:19:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/WM Photos

Wednesday, June 1, 2011; Posted: 12:06 AM - by BWW News Desk

American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.)'s Opening Night Gala celebrating the world premiere of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City will take place today, June 1, 2011.

The black-tie event begins with a cocktail reception and gala dinner in a tented Union Square, followed by the performance at the theater and a dance party with the cast and special guests at Ruby Skye nightclub after the show.

The gala is the culmination of A.C.T.'s two-year effort to bring Armistead Maupin's famous San Francisco stories to the stage as a new musical. The Opening Night Gala is chaired by A.C.T. Trustee Marilee K. Gardner and Barbary Lane Committee Chairs JaMel Perkins and Roselyne C. Swig.

Honorary chairs include Olympia Dukakis and Laura Linney, who both starred in the television miniseries adaptation of Tales of the City on PBS, and author Armistead Maupin. For more information and to purchase tables or tickets, please visit act-sf.org/gala or call A.C.T. Manager of Special Events Luz Perez at 415.439.2470.

"A.C.T. has brought us amazing stories for more than 40 years, and I can think of no better place to stage this musical production of Tales of the City," says celebrated author Armistead Maupin. Longtime A.C.T. supporter Marilee K. Gardner adds: "Tales of the City is the quintessential San Francisco story, and we want to celebrate this production with a classic San Francisco party. Attendees will experience this once-in-a-lifetime event beginning with dining in a tented Union Square, then attending the amazing production, and finally celebrating our success into the night. All proceeds go to support American Conservatory Theater-the quintessential San Francisco theater company."

In addition to those who purchase tables and tickets to the gala, members of The Tales of the City Circle, an exclusive group of theater lovers who have already contributed more than $1 million to bring this momentous new musical home to San Francisco, will be A.C.T.'s special guests at the gala celebration. Chaired by Ambassador James C. Hormel, A.C.T. Board Chair Nancy Livingston, and trustee Lorenzo Thione, the Tales Circle has provided vital support for the development of the production and the world premiere of the musical based on Armistead Maupin's celebrated books. A.C.T. Artistic Director Carey Perloff speaks to the resources needed to bring an ambitious project like Tales of the City to life: "This new musical is going to be an extraordinary valentine to our entire community, and it will take the support of the entire community to make it happen. A.C.T. is a nonprofit organization, and we are shouldering a considerable financial risk by taking on this enormous and truly thrilling new production. But we believe that Tales will be a major addition to the American musical theater canon, as well as the theatrical event of the season in the Bay Area. Supporters will get a wonderful inside look at the unique and complex process of bringing a new musical to life, as well as the opportunity to celebrate our city by giving Armistead Maupin's moving and hilarious stories new life for new generations. We hope you will all join us on this adventure!"

With their tax-deductible contributions, Tales Circle members will get a chance to revel in the spark of the creative process, going behind the scenes to witness the creation of an epic theatrical event. Exclusive benefits include invitations to attend rehearsals-all leading up to a thrilling walk down the red carpet as A.C.T.'s honored guest at the opening night gala celebration. Those who give $1,200 or more will be recognized in the performance program and enjoy numerous other benefits, including a ticket to the opening night gala. The Tales Circle gives A.C.T. supporters a unique chance to get inside access to the creative process of a production truly conceived in celebration of San Francisco, where, as Maupin reminds us, "everyone-gay, straight, and traveling-has learned to recognize . . . the infinite possibilities of humanity." For more information and to join The Tales of the City Circle, visit act-sf.org/TalesCircle

The world premiere musical production of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City features a book by Tony Award-winning writer Jeff Whitty (Avenue Q) and music and lyrics by Jake Shears and John Garden of the glam-rock band Scissor Sisters; is directed by Tony Award winner Jason Moore (Avenue Q and Shrek: The Musical); and is choreographed by Larry Keigwin. The world premiere production takes over the American Conservatory Theater May 19-July 3, 2011. The press and subscriber opening for Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City will take place Tuesday, May 31, 2011, at 8 p.m.

A.C.T.'s production of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City is sponsored by American Airlines, The Fairmont San Francisco, Foggy Bridge, the Koret Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Kenneth Rainin Foundation. Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City is also made possible by commissioning sponsors Priscilla and Keith Geeslin, Ambassador James C. Hormel and Mr. Michael P. Nguyen, Nancy Livingston and Fred Levin, The Shenson Foundation, Kathleen Scutchfield, and Jeff and Laurie Ubben; production sponsors Ray and Dagmar Dolby, Burt and Deedee McMurtry, and Susan A. Van Wagner; music sponsors Lesley Clement, Lorenzo Thione and David Palmer, Jack and Susy Wadsworth, and Carlie Wilmans; choreography sponsors Stephen Belford and Bobby Minkler, Marilee K. Gardner, Jo S. Hurley, Byron R. Meyer, Mr. Milton J. Mosk and Mr. Thomas E. Foutch, David and Carla Riemer, Laila Tarraf, Larry and Robyn Varellas, and Nola Yee; and casting sponsors Lucia Brandon, Carlotta and Robert Dathe, Jerome L. and Thao N. Dodson, Drs. Caroline Emmett and Russell Rydel, Mr. and Mrs. Kirke Hasson, Toby and Sally Rosenblatt, Frank Stein and Paul May, Bert Steinberg, Jack Weeden and David Davies, and Beverly and Loring Wyllie. A.C.T. would also like to acknowledge its 2010-11 season company sponsors: Ray and Dagmar Dolby, Priscilla and Keith Geeslin, Ambassador James C. Hormel and Mr. Michael P. Nguyen, Nancy Livingston and Fred Levin, The Shenson Foundation, Burt and Deedee McMurtry, Patti and Rusty Rueff, Kathleen Scutchfield, Mary and Steven Swig, Jeff and Laurie Ubben, and Susan A. Van Wagner. Development of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City was supported by the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center during a residency at the National Music Theater Conference of 2009.

http://sanfrancisco.broadwayworld.com/article/Olympia-Dukakis-and-Laura-Linney-Chair-Gala-For-TALES-OF-THE-CITY-61-20110531

Tales of the City "Bites Into That Lotus" As New Musical Opens in San Francisco May 31

2011-05-31T13:53:00.000-04:00

By Adam Hetrick
31 May 2011

Judy Kaye
Photo by Kevin Berne

A Midwestern transplant named Maryann Singleton answers an ad to rent a secluded one-bedroom apartment on Russian Hill and is handed the keys to a new life at the mythical address of 28 Barbary Lane. So begins Armistead Maupin's San Francisco-set work Tales of the City, which takes on a new life of its own as a world-premiere musical opening May 31 at the American Conservatory Theatre.

Tony Award-winning Avenue Q book writer Jeff Whitty adapted the stage production, based on the first two novels in Maupin's series, which trace the intertwining lives of colorful San Francisco residents in the 1970's. Jake Shears and John "JJ" Garden, of the glam-pop band the Scissor Sisters, authored the score for Tales of the City.

Tony Award nominee Jason Moore (Shrek, Avenue Q, Steel Magnolias) directs the production that began previews May 18 and will play an extended run through July 10. Choreography is by Larry Keigwin.

Playbill.com spoke with Shears and Garden on their process for writing Tales of the City. "I think both of us made a conscious decision not to limit ourselves to a kind of '70s pastiche," Shears said. "My view on the books is that they are very timeless and that's why we're making this show now. It's also why people still read them and they're still in print. It's just a timeless story. I wanted the music to feel timeless as well. Our songwriting already leans into that sort of '70s song craft as it is. So, I thought it was really necessary not to overthink that aspect, and to just set out to write songs naturally and that's what we've done."

Tony Award winner Judy Kaye (The Phantom of the Opera, On the Twentieth Century, Souvenir) leads the cast as enigmatic pot-smoking landlady Anna Madrigal, with Betsy Wolfe (Everyday Rapture, 110 in the Shade) as Ohio native Mary Ann Singleton, Mary Birdsong (Martin Short Fame Becomes Me, "Reno 911") as the free-spirited Mona Ramsay and Wesley Taylor (Rock of Ages, The Addams Family) as Michael "Mouse" Tolliver.

Both Wolf and Birdsong have been part of Tales of the City since its early development during the 2009 Eugene O'Neill Theater Center Musical Theater Conference.

Josh Breckenridge and Wesley Taylor
photo by Kevin Berne

Tales of the City also features Tony Award nominee Manoel Felciano (Sweeney Todd) as Norman Neal Williams, Matthew Saldivar (Grease) as Brian Hawkins, Richard Poe (Cry-Baby) as Edgar Halcyon, Kathleen Monteleone (Legally Blonde) as Dede Halcyon-Day, Andrew Samonsky (South Pacific) as Beauchamp Day, Josh Breckenridge (Scottsboro Boys) as Jon Fielding, Diane J. Findlay as Mother Mucca and Alex Hsu as Lionel.

The ensemble includes Keith Bearden, Kris Cusick, Kimberly Jensen, Stuart Marland, Pamela Myers, Julie Reiber and Josh Walden.

Check out Playbill.com's photo gallery of the colorful denizens of 28 Barbary Lane.

The production has scenic design by Douglas W. Schmidt, costume design by Beaver Bauer, lighting design by Robert Wierzel, sound design by John Shivers, orchestrations by Bruce Coughlin and arrangements by Steven Oremus. Carmel Dean serves as music supervisor, with Cian McCarthy as music director and conductor.

Here's how ACT bills the work: "On the bustling streets of 1970s San Francisco, neon lights pierce through the fog-drenched skies, disco music explodes from crowded nightclubs, and a wide-eyed Midwestern girl finds a new home — and creates a new kind of family — with the characters at 28 Barbary Lane. Three decades after Armistead Maupin mesmerized millions with his daily column in the city's newspapers, detailing the lives and (multiple) loves of Mary Ann, Mouse, Mona, Brian, and their beloved but mysterious landlady Mrs. Madrigal, his iconic San Francisco saga comes home as a momentous new musical."

"Tales of the City" has also been adapted into several television miniseries featuring performances by Olympia Dukakis, Laura Linney, Chloe Webb, Parker Posey, Marcus D'Amico, Donald Moffat, Thomas Gibson, Barbara Garrick, Nina Foch, Paul Gross, Stanley DeSantis and Philip Moon.

The cast of Tales of the City.
photo by Alessandra Mello

For tickets call (415) 749-2228 or visit ACT-SF.

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/151275-Tales-of-the-City-Bites-Into-That-Lotus-As-New-Musical-Opens-in-San-Francisco-May-31?sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4de4fb7cc6cb9ac1%2C0

Tales of the . . . Cast! Meet Andrew Samonsky

2011-05-29T08:50:00.001-04:00

Meet Andrew Samonsky, who plays Beauchamp Day. Click here to read his official bio.

NAME Andrew Samonsky.

CHARACTER Beauchamp Day.

HOMETOWN Ventura, California.

FIRST THEATER EXPERIENCE My earliest theater memories are when my parents would take me to see musicals at PCPA Theaterfest’s outdoor theater in Solvang, California. Great memories.

FAVORITE THEATER EXPERIENCE In Verona, Italy, I got to see Rigoletto in an ancient 35,000-seat coliseum. I can only compare it to a Yankees game. It was the grandest production I’ve ever witnessed, and the voices were unbelievable. Those Italians love their opera.
FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH TALES Honestly, the first time I heard of Tales of the City was when I got an audition for this production. Now, I constantly see Armistead Maupin’s books everywhere!

HOW ARE YOU LIKE BEAUCHAMP? We’ve both lived in San Francisco. That’s all I’ll admit to with Beauchamp Day.

FAVORITE MUSICAL Sweeney Todd

FAVORITE SONG TO SING In the car? Anything on the Stranger album by Billy Joel.

EDUCATION B.A. in music from Cal State Northridge. M.F.A. in acting from UC Irvine.

PERFORMANCE RITUAL Pre-: a cup of coffee before the show (lots of cream and sugar). Post-: a big bowl of cereal when I get home (currently Frosted Mini-Wheats).

FAVORITE ’70s WARDROBE ITEM Do wide collars count?

http://blog.act-sf.org/2011/05/tales-of-cast-meet-andrew-samonsky.html

Readers contest: 'Chronicles of the Bay'

2011-05-27T11:57:00.000-04:00

May 22, 2011

More than 30 years ago, Armistead Maupin invented a bunch of characters who depicted the richly colorful life of San Francisco in his singular "Tales of the City" books. This month, those magical books will take on a new dimension as the basis for a world-premiere musical at the American Conservatory Theater.

Imagine if you were to write a novel about characters in your Bay Area town or city whose lives reflected what life is like today in Oakland, Orinda, Santa Rosa or Los Gatos, to name a few. Maybe you'd call it "Chronicles of the Bay."

We are asking readers to write an opening chapter of a novel set in your own city or town in the 21st century, with characters who reflect what makes your community unique. It should be in your own voice - not an attempt to imitate Armistead Maupin, who, after all, is inimitable.

The entries should be 250 to 300 words and must be submitted online only by June 13. The first-place winner will receive a voucher for a pair of tickets to "Tales."

Please e-mail your entries to pinkletters@sfchronicle.com or datebook@sfchronicle.com. We cannot accept entries submitted by mail.

http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-05-22/entertainment/29580170_1_chronicles-magical-books-armistead-maupin

Tales of the . . . Cast! Meet Kathleen Elizabeth Monteleone

2011-05-27T08:24:00.000-04:00

Meet Kathleen Elizabeth Monteleone, who plays DeDe Halcyon-Day. Click here to read her official bio.

NAME Kathleen Elizabeth Monteleone.

CHARACTER DeDe.

HOMETOWN Portland, Oregon.

FIRST THEATER EXPERIENCE Best Christmas Pageant Ever in sixth grade.

FAVORITE THEATER EXPERIENCE Coming home to Portland with the national tour of Legally Blonde. I loved performing for my hometown.

FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH TALES Reading the script for the audition.

HOW ARE YOU LIKE DEDE? I’m married :) and I would also eat donuts at a low point.

FAVORITE MUSICAL Not a musical, but I love August: Osage County.

FAVORITE SONG TO SING Anything country. Country music always makes it seem like its sunny outside.

EDUCATION B.A. in acting with a minor in musical theater from Marymount Manhattan College.

PERFORMANCE RITUAL Pre-: work out and steam (pretty normal). Post-: depends on the night!

FAVORITE ’70s WARDROBE ITEM I have a bracelet I got at a shop in my neighborhood in Brooklyn. I always think, “I would have worn this to Studio 54.”

http://blog.act-sf.org/2011/05/tales-of-cast-meet-kathleen-elizabeth.html

ACT Presents TALES OF THE CITY, 6/1 - 7/10

2011-05-26T12:46:00.000-04:00

Thursday, May 26, 2011; Posted: 12:05 PM - by BWW News Desk

According to the SF Gate, San Francisco audiences are excitedly anticipating the arrival of the musical, ARMISTEAD MAUPIN'S TALES OF THE CITY that will open June 1 at the American Conservatory Theater. First serialized in The Chronicle, Armistead Maupin's bittersweet novel "Tales of the City," is set in San Francisco and consists of interlaced stories of dewy-eyed newcomers and dissolute social climbers, gay coming-out stories and paisley-clad hippies. The story captures the era of the mid-'70s in San Francisco, complete with disco and drugs, fern bars and pickup night at the Marina Safeway, as well as feelings of hope, heartbreak, innocence and laughter.

The ACT production, aimed at Broadway but with no up-front commercial backers or specific New York plans at the moment, is a big-budget undertaking at $2.5 million. Jeff Whitty, author of the ebullient "Avenue Q," wrote the book. Fellow "Avenue Q" alum Jason Moore ("Shrek: The Musical," an early collaboration on "The Book of Mormon") is directing. The glam-rock band Scissor Sisters signed on to write the music and lyrics. The set, which features a lofty set of stairs and landings at 28 Barbary Lane, is by Broadway vet Douglas Schmidt. The cast includes plenty of names with major theatrical street cred. They include Judy Kaye as Anna Madrigal, Betsy Wolfe as Cleveland transplant Mary Ann Singleton, Wesley Taylor as the book's gay lead Michael "Mouse" Tolliver and Mary Birdsong as bisexual Mona Ramsey.

ACT artistic director Carey Perloff committed to the project after attending an early workshop. "I loved Armistead's book so much," she told SF Gate. "There are so many Mary Anns who come here from Cleveland and everywhere else and say, 'This is my story.' "

Whitty, 39, had what he calls his "lightning-bolt moment" when he watched the "Tales" miniseries on a plane to London almost five years ago. "This is how a musical begins," he said of the book's opening, in which 25-year-old Mary Ann arrives in San Francisco. "You put a character into a new environment and see what happens to her." Director Moore, 40, agreed, comparing the story's musical-friendly premise to that of "My Fair Lady" and "Thoroughly Modern Millie."

Songwriters Jake Shears, 32, and John Garden, 36, said they jumped at the chance to write their first musical. "Especially this one," said the voluble Shears. "I read the book when I was 13, before I even knew I was gay, and loved it." He and Garden got to work right away, writing "Tales" songs between Scissor Sisters shows in London, New York, Berlin and elsewhere. The first number they wrote, "Plus One," is still in the show.

Whitty had the daunting task of whittling his 180-page script down to something that could be managed on stage and enjoyable to an audience. "The hardest part was getting the flow," Whitty told SF Gate. "I see this as one 2 hour and 40 minute song."

To view this story in full, click here

ARMISTEAD MAUPIN'S TALES OF THE CITY's previews end next Sun. The show will run from June 1 to July 10 at the American Conservatory Theater, 415 Geary St., San Francisco. $40-$127. (415) 749-2228. For more information, please visit: www.act-sf.org.

http://sanfrancisco.broadwayworld.com/article/ACT-Presents-TALES-OF-THE-CITY-61-710-20110526

PHOTO CALL: Tales of the City, With Judy Kaye, Wesley Taylor, Betsy Wolfe, Premieres in San Francisco

2011-05-26T12:38:00.000-04:00

By Matthew Blank
26 May 2011

Armistead Maupin's novel series Tales of the City, about the eccentric inhabitants of the enchanting San Francisco residence of 28 Barbary Lane, comes to life as a new musical at the American Conservatory Theatre.

Directed by Tony Award nominee Jason Moore (Shrek, Avenue Q, Steel Magnolias), the musical is based on the first two novels in Maupin's series, which trace the intertwining lives of colorful San Francisco residents in the 1970's. Tales of the City will officially open May 31 and play an extended run through July 10.

Here's how ACT bills the work: "On the bustling streets of 1970s San Francisco, neon lights pierce through the fog-drenched skies, disco music explodes from crowded nightclubs, and a wide-eyed Midwestern girl finds a new home — and creates a new kind of family — with the characters at 28 Barbary Lane. Three decades after Armistead Maupin mesmerized millions with his daily column in the city's newspapers, detailing the lives and (multiple) loves of Mary Ann, Mouse, Mona, Brian, and their beloved but mysterious landlady Mrs. Madrigal, his iconic San Francisco saga comes home as a momentous new musical."

Here is a first look at the show:


Best friends Mona Ramsey (Mary Birdsong) and Michael "Mouse" Tolliver (Wesley Taylor)move back in together at 28 Barbary Lane. Photo by Kevin Berne

View the entire gallery here

Tony Award winner Judy Kaye (The Phantom of the Opera, On the Twentieth Century, Souvenir) leads the cast as enigmatic pot-smoking landlady Anna Madrigal, with Betsy Wolfe (Everyday Rapture, 110 in the Shade) as Midwestern transplant Mary Ann Singleton, Mary Birdsong (Martin Short Fame Becomes Me, "Reno 911") as the free-spirited Mona Ramsay and Wesley Taylor (Rock of Ages, The Addams Family) as Michael "Mouse" Tollivar.

Tales of the City also features Tony Award nominee Manoel Felciano (Sweeney Todd) as Norman Neal Williams, Matthew Saldivar (Grease) as Brian Hawkins, Richard Poe (Cry-Baby) as Edgar Halcyon, Kathleen Monteleone (Legally Blonde) as Dede Halcyon-Day, Andrew Samonsky (South Pacific) as Beauchamp Day, Josh Breckenridge (Scottsboro Boys) as Jon Fielding, Diane J. Findlay as Mother Mucca and Alex Hsu as Lionel.

The ensemble includes Keith Bearden, Kris Cusick, Kimberly Jensen, Stuart Marland, Pamela Myers, Julie Reiber and Josh Walden.

"Tales of the City" has also been adapted into several television miniseries featuring performances by Olympia Dukakis, Laura Linney, Chloe Webb, Parker Posey, Marcus D'Amico, Donald Moffat, Thomas Gibson, Barbara Garrick, Nina Foch, Paul Gross, Stanley DeSantis and Philip Moon.

For tickets call (415) 749-2228 or visit ACT-SF.

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/151212-PHOTO-CALL-Tales-of-the-City-With-Judy-Kaye-Wesley-Taylor-Betsy-Wolfe-Premieres-in-San-Francisco

Tales of the . . . Cast! Meet Richard Poe

2011-05-25T20:54:00.000-04:00

Meet Richard Poe, who plays Edgar Halcyon. Click here to read his official bio.

NAME Richard Poe.

CHARACTER Edgar Halcyon.

HOMETOWN Pittsburg, California.

FIRST THEATER EXPERIENCE Playing Scrooge in the eighth grade (magnificent!).

FAVORITE THEATER EXPERIENCE Hard to choose. Journey’s End on Broadway: nine guys in a dark World War I dugout talking for two and a half hours, and everyone dies . . . then winning every available award in New York, including the Easter bonnet competition. 1776 on Broadway: more guys, more talking, more light, same result. Cyrano de Bergerac at A.C.T. in 1973, playing Second Musician/Third Cadet, being a novice in the middle of all that wonderfulness. There’s more. Just ask me.

FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH TALES I lived in San Francisco until about 1977 (graduated from the University of San Francisco [USF] and started acting at A.C.T.). I had never read the books until this show came up. What a walk down memory lane! I had no money then and was always scrambling for odd jobs, but what a city! It’s really exciting and a little unnerving to come back for a while—like I’ll see my old self passing in the street.

HOW ARE YOU LIKE EDGAR? Though I’m told in the business that I have a patrician quality, I’m pretty far from the manor born. But I like to think I can fake it when need be, and Edgar knows he’s been faking it when he realizes his number’s up and that he’s denied himself so much. I have lots of me that would like to bust loose in new ways. I just hope I don’t suffer Edgar’s plight before I do it.

FAVORITE MUSICAL Sweeney Todd; 1776; The Drowsy Chaperone.

FAVORITE SONG TO SING Whatever’s in my head driving me crazy at the time: “My One and Only Love”; “Scarlet Ribbons (For Her Hair)”; “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.”

EDUCATION B.A. from USF; M.A. candidate at UC Davis. Some acting gurus: Erich Morris, Milton Katselas, Lee Strasberg.

PERFORMANCE RITUAL Pre-: stretch, vocal warm-up, speaking the entire first scene aloud (don’t ask me why—it’s a habit of 15 years that I can’t break for superstitious reasons). Post-: whatcha got?

FAVORITE ’70s WARDROBE ITEM Having witnessed the ’70s, I once owned a pair of shimmering blue velveteen pants. Hell in the rain.

http://blog.act-sf.org/2011/05/tales-of-cast-meet-richard-poe.html

Locating “Tales of the City”

2011-05-24T21:02:00.003-04:00

By: Drew Bourn
May 24, 2011

Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City is a series of eight novels set primarily in San Francisco, spanning from 1976 to the present. The stories recount the lives of a broad cross-section of the city’s denizens, and the transformative impact that the characters and the city have on each other. The first five novels were originally published as serials in The San Francisco Chronicle and The San Francisco Examiner; the first installment appeared in the Chronicle exactly thirty years ago today. Beginning in 1993, the first three novels were adapted as three television miniseries starring Laura Linney and Olympia Dukakis (the entire first miniseries can be seen for free online). This year, the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco is premiering a new musical based on the first two novels. When San Francisco mayor Dianne Feinstein installed a time capsule under the Benjamin Franklin statue in Washington Square Park in 1979, the small collection of items intended to represent San Francisco’s most recent past included a copy of the first Tales novel.

Larry Rhodes first moved to San Francisco in 1982 – when Maupin was still publishing Tales of the City as a serial in The San Francisco Chronicle. However, it wasn’t until three years later, when Rhodes was living in Atlanta, that he began to read Maupin’s work. Rhodes became so engrossed with Maupin’s writing that he subsequently developed a website featuring Tales-related self-guided walking tours, Tours of the Tales, which launched in July 2010.

Rhodes’ initial impulse to create the tours came around 2001, when he was again living in the Bay Area and wanted to take out-of-town friends to sites mentioned in Tales of the City. At that time, Maupin’s website included a walking tour of locations mentioned in Tales, but the tour focused almost exclusively on the Russian Hill and North Beach neighborhoods. Rhodes was interested in developing something more comprehensive.

In 2003, Rhodes began in earnest to research the locations that appeared in the first six Tales novels and the first two television miniseries. Because some of the businesses mentioned in Tales had moved or closed by the time Rhodes began his investigation, he relied on telephone directories and Polk’s city directories going back to the 1970s at the San Francisco Public Library to establish their correct locations. He also sought information online, using sites such as Mister SF by journalist Hank Donat and Film in America by location scout Scott Trimble. Based on his findings, he made excursions to find and photograph the sites as they exist in San Francisco today (selected photographs can be found on a dedicated Flickr site). As Rhodes commented to me,

“ I want to place the locales not only in the context of the books or movies, but in San Francisco itself. I want the people who take the walking tours to have a feel for San Francisco – somehow capture the essence of the City that captured me.”

So far, Rhodes has created four self-guided walking tours that are available as PDFs on his website. These cover Acquatic Park and Fisherman’s Wharf, Alcatraz, Russian Hill, North Beach, Jackson Square, Telegraph Hill, Chinatown, Nob Hill, the Tenderloin, and Union Square. He plans on extending the scope of his tours; additional areas for future tours might include the Castro, Noe Valley, Civic Center, South of Market, the Haight, and Golden Gate Park. He is also considering tours that cover sites outside San Francisco that are mentioned in Tales, including locations in Oakland, Marin County, Mendocino, Los Angeles, and Reno.

Because Rhodes provides these tours as PDFs, they can be printed out or read on e-book readers such as Kindle and Nook. Although he is considering a map-based presentation such as Google Maps would provide, it is not an option that he is actively pursing at present. He plans to lead occasional free group walking tours, but the primary focus has been on developing a means by which fellow Tales enthusiasts could explore the sites mentioned in the series at their own pace and on their own schedule. Rhodes’ website also includes a guestbook, which provides an opportunity for those using the tours to respond not only to Rhodes’ work but also to connect with one another.

To learn more about Larry Rhodes’ project, and to download the tours, visit his website: Tours of the Tales.

http://usingsfhistory.com/2011/05/24/locating-tales-of-the-city/

Tales of the . . . Cast! Meet Josh Breckenridge

2011-05-24T20:32:00.000-04:00

Meet Josh Breckenridge, who plays Jon Fielding. Click here to read his official bio.

NAME Joshua Breckenridge.

CHARACTER Jon Fielding.

HOMETOWN Fallbrook, California.

FIRST THEATER EXPERIENCE The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas at Circle Bar B Ranch Theatre in Santa Barbara, California . . . at age 14!

FAVORITE THEATER EXPERIENCE The Scottsboro Boys. From our very first reading to our closing night on Broadway . . . what a journey!

FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH TALES Being cast in the original workshop at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Connecticut.

HOW ARE YOU LIKE JON? I’m very focused and career driven, much like Jon . . . oh yeah, and I’m a hopeless romantic.

FAVORITE MUSICAL Crazy for You.

FAVORITE SONG TO SING “On the Wings of Love” (I sang it for my Tales of the City audition).

EDUCATION B.F.A. in musical theater at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music (CCM).

PERFORMANCE RITUAL Pre-: gym. Post-: food!

FAVORITE ’70s WARDROBE ITEM Afro pick.
http://blog.act-sf.org/2011/05/tales-of-cast-meet-josh-breckenridge.html

Tales of the . . . Cast! Meet Betsy Wolfe

2011-05-24T08:52:00.003-04:00

Friday, May 20, 2011

Meet Betsy Wolfe, our Mary Ann Singleton. Click here to read her official bio.

NAME Betsy Wolfe.

CHARACTER Mary Ann Singleton.

HOMETOWN Visalia, California.

FIRST THEATER EXPERIENCE At ten I played Kenickie in my church’s basement production of Grease, and Artful Dodger in Oliver! the following year. Apparently I played smooth-talking boys really well.

FAVORITE THEATER EXPERIENCE Having the rain pour down on me at the end of Act II in 110 in the Shade. It was freeing, healing, and my first time on Broadway.

FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH TALES Two years ago the casting director for Tales of the City came up to me at an opening night party and said, “There is this part that is perfect for you, but no one knows who the hell you are. You read the books and I’ll get you in the room.”

HOW ARE YOU LIKE MARY ANN? Let me count the ways . . . BUT I will say I’ve never dated a child molester.

FAVORITE MUSICAL Into the Woods.

FAVORITE SONG TO SING “Colors of the Wind.” My two-year-old niece is obsessed with Pocahontas. And it makes me the “favorite” when I sing it!

EDUCATION B.F.A. in musical theater from the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music (CCM).

PERFORMANCE RITUAL The cucumber gimlet from Bourbon and Branch is delicious and will need to be a ritual while in San Francisco.

FAVORITE ’70s WARDROBE ITEM I have no clue, but I’m sure I’ll be wearing them all during the show!

http://blog.act-sf.org/2011/05/tales-of-cast-meet-betsy-wolfe.html

Tales of the . . . Cast! Meet Judy Kaye

2011-05-24T07:56:00.004-04:00

Thursday, May 19, 2011

We know you’re counting the days until Tales of the City officially opens on June 1, so to hold you over till then (and to whet your appetite) . . .

We are pleased to introduce to you the cast of Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City: A New Musical!

Today, meet Judy Kaye, who plays Anna Madrigal. Click here to read her official bio.

NAME Judy Kaye.

CHARACTER Anna Madrigal.

HOMETOWN Phoenix, Arizona.

FIRST THEATER EXPERIENCE Seeing Damn Yankees with Gwen Verdon on Broadway.

FAVORITE THEATER EXPERIENCE The first night I went on as the understudy for Madeline Kahn in On the 20th Century. I don’t remember every detail, but it was a magical night. An out-of-body experience.

FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH TALES When my cell phone rang as I was about to tee off on a golf course in Phoenix, barely a month before rehearsals started!

HOW ARE YOU LIKE ANNA MADRIGAL? I love my life!

FAVORITE MUSICAL Oh, God. How could you ask that?! I have so many for so many different reasons. And, now I have a new one to add to the list—Tales of the City!

FAVORITE SONG TO SING I’ve a whole list of those, too. For every mood: “Simple Song,” “Desperado,” “Some Other Time,” “Move On,” “Our Love Is Here to Stay,” “All the Things You Are,” “Blow, Gabriel, Blow,” etc., etc.

EDUCATION UCLA on and off for five years. No degree. Showbiz was calling.

PERFORMANCE RITUAL Rest—eat—workout—stretch—hum—paint my face—GO!

FAVORITE ’70s WARDROBE ITEM I had an M&Ms t-shirt . . . and bell-bottoms, of course.

Tales of the City, May 24, 1976

2011-05-24T07:36:00.001-04:00

Tales of the City, May 24, 1976
Armistead Maupin
Sunday, May 22, 2011

This is the first installment of the original "Tales of the City" series. It appeared in The Chronicle on May 24, 1976.

Mary Ann Singleton was 25 years old when she saw San Francisco for the first time.

She came to the city alone for an eight-day vacation. On the fifth night, she drank three Irish coffees at the Buena Vista, realized that her Mood Ring was blue and decided to phone her mother in Cleveland.

"Hi, Mom, it's me."

"Oh, darling. Your daddy and I were just talking about you. There was this crazy man on 'McMillan and Wife' who was strangling all these nice young secretaries, and I just couldn't help thinking ..."

"Mom ..."

"I know, it's just your silly old mother, worrying herself sick over nothing. But you never can tell about those things. I mean, look at that poor Patty Hearst, locked up in that closet with those awful ... "

"Mom, this is long distance."

"I'm sorry, sugar, I'm such an old worry-wart. You must be having a grand time!"

"Oh, Mom, you wouldn't believe it! The people here are so friendly. I feel like I've ..."

"Have you been to the Top of the Mark like I told you?"

"Not yet, but ..."

"Well, don't you miss that. You know, your daddy took me there when he got back from the South Pacific. I remember he slipped the bandleader five dollars, so we could dance to 'Moonlight Serenade' and I spilled Tom Collins all over his beautiful, white Navy ..."

"Mom, I called to tell you something."

"Of course, dear. Just listen to me rambling on. Oh, one thing, before I forget it. I ran into Mr. Lassiter yesterday at the Ridgemont Mall, and he said the office is just falling apart with you gone. They don't get many good secretaries at Lassiter Fertilizers."

"Mom, that's sort of why I called."

"What do you mean, honey?"

"I want you to call Mr. Lassiter and tell him I won't be in on Monday morning."

"Oh, Mary Ann, I'm not sure you should ask for an extension on your vacation."

"It's not an extension, Mom."

"What? I don't ..."

"I'm not coming home, Mom."

For a moment, the line seemed to go dead. Then, dimly in the distance, a television announcer began to tell Mary Ann's father about the temporary relief of hemorrhoids. Finally, her mother spoke: "Now you're being silly, darling."

Mary Ann tried to stay calm. "I'm not being silly, Mom. I really feel comfortable here. I mean, it seems like home to me already."

More silence.

"Mom, I've thought about this for a long time."

"You've only been out there five days."

"I know, Mom, but I'm really sure about this. It's got nothing to do with you and Daddy. I just want to start making my own life, have my own apartment ..."

"Oh, that. Well, of course you can, darling. As a matter of fact, your daddy and I thought those new apartments out at Ridgemont might be just perfect for you. They take lots of young people, and they've got a swimming pool and one of those sauna things, and I could make some of those darling curtains like I made for Sonny and Vicki when they got married. You could have all the privacy you ..."

Mary Ann's voice was gentle but firm. "Mom, you aren't listening to me. It isn't the privacy or living with you and Daddy or ... any of that. It's just me. I love it here. I'm grown up now and ..."

"Well, you certainly aren't acting like it! I've never heard such a thing! You can't just run away from your family and friends to go live with a bunch of hippies and mass murderers!"

"Oh, Mom, that's just a lot of TV crap!"

Her mother lowered her voice reproachfully. "Don't you talk nasty to your mother, Mary Ann ... and it's not a lot of TV ... stuff. What about those Giraffe Killers?"

"Zebra."

"Well, whatever. And what about those earthquakes? Your daddy took me to see that awful movie, and I nearly had a heart attack when Ava Gardner ..."

"Mom. I've made up my mind about this. Will you just call Mr. Lassiter for me?"

Her mother began to cry. "Something terrible is going to happen to you. I know it."

"Now who's being silly? What could possibly happen to me, Mom? San Francisco is a lot safer than Cleveland, and the people are so mellow."

Her mother stopped sobbing for a moment. "What does that mean?" she asked suspiciously.

When it was over, Mary Ann left the Buena Vista and walked through Aquatic Park to the bay. For several minutes, she stared at the Alcatraz beacon, drunk with the prospect of an undefined future.

"What could possible happen to me, Mom?" The words came back to her on a chill wind, nibbling uncertainly on a corner of her mind.

Back at the Fisherman's Wharf Holiday Inn, she looked up Connie Bradshaw's phone number. Connie was the only person she knew in San Francisco. Mary Ann had heard that she was a stewardess for United but hadn't spoken to her old high school friend since 1968.

"Oh, God, I can't believe it!" squealed Connie, when Mary Ann identified herself. "How long are you here for?"

"For good, " said Mary Ann, savoring the words.

"Oh, super! Have you found an apartment yet?"

Mary Ann decided to be direct. "Not yet. I was wondering if I might be able to crash at your place for a couple of days. My savings account isn't holding out too well."

"Sure, " said Connie, without hesitation. "No sweat. That is, if you don't mind an occasional sleep-in."

Mary Ann was thrown for a moment. "Oh ... you mean guys?"

Connie uttered a throaty laugh. "Do I ever, honey!"

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/05/22/PKEM1HKVCH.DTL

Tales of the City

2011-05-24T07:16:00.000-04:00

The iconic novels finally get their musical due.

Mon May 23 2011

Though it's certainly poised to make a run at Broadway, diehard fans will have to charge San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater this summer to catch the long-awaited stage adaptation of Tales of the City, Armistead Maupin's famous serialized novels. With Tony-winning Avenue Q playwright Jeff Whitty and Avenue Q director James Moore onboard, and Scissor Sisters front man Jake Shears and John Garden writing the score, hopes are Golden Gate Bridge high. Fortunately, the creators have secured an impressive cast, with Wesley Taylor (left) and Josh Breckenridge (right) taking on the roles of Michael 'Mouse' Tolliver and Jon Fielding, one of literature's most memorable gay couples. On a break from rehearsal, Whitty and Shears discuss how they first discovered the Tales books, the difficulty casting the show, and the musical's filthiest moment.

Jake Shears: When did you first read the Tales books?

Jeff Whitty: I read them when I moved to New York City in 1993 and didn't know anybody. My sister gave me the first three, and I tore through them in just a couple of weeks, and it felt like the characters became my temporary New York friends. It was like my dream'to fall in with a group of people like that.

Shears: When did it dawn on you to write the musical?

Whitty: I was on a plane trip back to London, watching the Tales [PBS] miniseries. This was April 2006.

Shears: I still haven't watched the miniseries.

Whitty: You haven't?

Shears: Not since I was a kid. I wanted to steer clear since we started this show.

Whitty: Yeah, watch the miniseries. My partner encouraged me to watch it. How did you first experience Tales of the City?

Shears: I was probably about 13 or 14 (it was before I was out), and these two guys, Larry and Sean, introduced me to it. I know Larry has since passed away, but I always wondered what happened to Sean. He worked at the gas station, and there was a video store there, and I would come in and yap my head off. And I think they spotted a young gay teenager. Sean gave me a copy of TOTC and told me it was fantastic and I should read it. I remember completely falling in love with it. I was so impressionable, and it was just a perfect time for me to read these books. There's a real universality to those characters even now.

Whitty: Totally. I still think it could be relevant to a small-town boy somewhere else in 2011. The characters are so distinct, and whether you know them or not they have to be played by singular actors. Josh Breckenridge (Jon) has been with us for all of the workshops since New York Theatre Center. I was surprised that Mouse was so hard to find. I thought we'd have this embarrassment of riches with actors. There are two sides of Mouse. One is very open and vulnerable and trusting. But then there's also this wonderful irony he has that's a little dark. Actor after actor would come in and not quite hit both those levels until Wesley walked in. It was one of those auditions where he left the room and I knew we'd found our Mouse.

Shears: Yeah, my inspiration for writing the songs came straight from the characters. I didn't want to make a period pastiche with the music. Yes, the books are set in the '70s, and there are constant references to things in 1976, but the story has stood the test of time.

Whitty: Yeah, it's not really comparable to anything. The only slim comparison would be Into the Woods with its interweaving story lines, but that show has the advantage that they're well-known fairy tales. When Rapunzel appears onstage you already know her backstory. The challenge has been to introduce an audience member who doesn't know TOTC to these characters and get them onboard for a story this epic.

Shears: How many scenes does the show have?

Whitty: There are 60 locations and 120 scene shifts. There are like 50-odd characters and more than 250 costumes. It's huge.

Shears: What is the gayest moment in the show?

Whitty: You pick yours, but mine is when we go from seeing the real Anita Bryant to an incredibly over-the-top drag version of Anita Bryant singing a disco song at the Jockey shorts competition.

Shears: There's also the song 'Homosexual Convalescent Center.'

Whitty: Oh, my God! Absolutely! I take that back!

Shears: It's the very snooty upper echelon of the San Francisco gay world singing a song about where they're planning to retire and how they see their future. It's really filthy, too. It's like 'Delta Dawn' meets Blueboy magazine. One line in the third verse goes, 'My saving grace/ Will be a slower pace/ And a parking space/ On the end of my face.'

Whitty: I think that's the moment where the gayness is turned up to an 11 in the show. There's always a steady drumbeat, but that's when the brakes go off, and the car falls over the cliff.

WESLEY'S HOT LIST
1. 'Sunshine. I'm from Florida, so summer and sunshine feel like home.'
2. 'I'm excited about rocking' my 'stache for the show' and scaring my friends and family with it.'
3. 'So You Think You Can Dance. Guilty pleasure.'
4. 'Nudity. Not really, but I'm a fan of wearing fewer clothes than I need to.'
5. 'The Dark Knight Rises. Pumped!'

JOSH'S HOT LIST
1. 'I'm excited to explore San Francisco and Napa and Alcatraz.'
2. 'The iPhone 5. It's time for me to join the rest of modern culture.'
3. 'Sporting my mini-afro, sideburns, and goatee around town.'
4. 'X-Men: First Class. I love a big blockbuster with a big Diet Coke and a big ol' bucket of popcorn!'
5. 'The premiere of a new indie film I did called Finding Me: Truth, which started in the festival circuits in late spring. Can't wait to see it!'

http://www.out.com/detail.asp?page=1&id=30248

Judy Kaye takes role of Mrs. Madrigal in 'Tales'

2011-05-23T07:31:00.000-04:00

Leba Hertz, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, May 22, 2011

Judy Kaye has starred on Broadway in such shows as "Ragtime" and "On the Twentieth Century," as well as performing on national tours in almost every iconic role, including Rose in "Gypsy" and Julie in "Carousel." She won the 1988 featured actress Tony award for her work in "Phantom of the Opera." And she has been nominated two other times for roles she took on in San Francisco: Rosie in "Mamma Mia," and in American Conservatory Theater's production of "Souvenir."

Kaye, who also played Mrs. Lovett in ACT's "Sweeney Todd," returns to the repertory theater to star as the nurturing and mysterious Anna Madrigal in the world premiere musical "Tales of the City." The always down-to-earth Kaye, 62, took time out from her busy rehearsal schedule to talk to The Chronicle.

Q: How did you get involved with this production?

A: I read the script last fall. I got a call about the possibility of doing it. Then I got a call saying no, it wasn't going to work. Then I went off to Arizona to do "Lost in Yonkers." I was on a golf course at the end of March in Tucson when I got the offer to do it. I had met with Jason (Moore), our director - we had a lovely hour together just chatting and reading the script just a little bit without any expectations. Although as soon as I read it I thought, "Oh my God, I would love to play this part." There are not many parts at my tender age that a woman reads that: (a) I'm right for this. I'm really, really right this, and (b) it's so well written. So complete.

Q: Why do you think you're right for this role?

A: I'm the right age. Vocally, it's perfect for me, speaking in technical terms. And I immediately felt a kinship with this character, and frankly who wouldn't? She's so open-hearted. She' s so loving and inclusive in her circle of friends, and encouraging to these kids she kind of mothers. And she's got a secret. Every human being on the planet has a secret of some sort. And that's what I was drawn to. This great open-hearted character who goes through a change. She learns something and becomes a better person and has a fuller life because of it.

Q: How has it been working with the younger cast?

A: These are all glorious professionals. To say they are talented is a real understatement. They are all powerhouses. And because of the many stories in this piece, we need fantastic people to play all these major, major parts - iconic parts. And every one of them is so fully realized. Pow! Wow! We really have a deep bench here. I'm in awe.

Q: How familiar were you with "Tales of the City" before this show?

A: Not hugely. I knew it existed. I knew generally what it was about. And I have not read the books. In some ways, that's good, because I come to this completely objective. I have no preconceived notions about any of this. I bought the book and I started to read, and I thought you know, I'm not going to do this right now. My bible is this script, because that's the story I have to tell. Once we're up and running, and trotting along, I'll pull them out and start reading them again. I was really enjoying what I was reading. I was almost enjoying it too much.

Q: How about the TV series?

A: I'm glad to say I never saw it. I will see it eventually, because now I really want to, but I don't want to be swayed. I started to watch - it wasn't a scene that my character was in - and I fell right into it. I mustn't do that. For in order for me to be effective, I just have to try and inhabit this.

Q: Did you know the secret of Anna Madrigal while you were reading the script?

A: I actually went to the end.

Q: What did you think?

A: The whole thing blew me away.

Q: How's the score?
A: Fabulous!

Q: And how's the score compared with other scores you have performed?

A: It's fabulous!

I'm serious. Everyone keeps pinching ourselves. Is this score as good as I think it is? I haven't heard a score like this for a show in I don't know how long. I don't remember hearing a new show in recent memory that was this good. It's fun, uplifting, beautiful in places. Absolutely breathtaking. I had never heard of the Scissor Sisters. I'm old, you know. (laughter) I went to see them the other night. It was glam-rock fun party music. It did not prepare me for what the score sounds like. It can be that, but it can also have great depth, wonderful harmonic structures. There's very surprising melody turns and very good lyric writing.

Q: How has the score been for your voice?

A: That was the crazy thing. This was not written for me. I didn't come along until very late in the game. And I was saying to Jason the other day, this thing is sitting in the meat of my voice. How did that happen? It feels really, really good for me. And I got some great stuff.

E-mail Leba Hertz at lhertz@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page P - 17 of the San Francisco Chronicle

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/05/20/PKC61JFFCR.DTL

'Tales of the City': ACT puts on final touches

2011-05-23T07:24:00.000-04:00

Steven Winn, Special to The Chronicle

Sunday, May 22, 2011

San Francisco audiences are about to enter a theatrical time machine with the dial spun back 35 years. Where they land, in a warmly awaited musical "Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City" that opens June 1 at the American Conservatory Theater, will feel very familiar to many, including some who weren't even born in 1976.

First serialized in The Chronicle, Armistead Maupin's buoyant and bittersweet novel "Tales of the City," set in San Francisco, drew an indelible new map of the city for readers here and everywhere. With its interlaced stories of dewy-eyed newcomers and dissolute social climbers, gay coming-out stories and paisley-clad hippies, "Tales" captured the mid-'70s San Francisco of disco and drugs, fern bars and pickup night at the Marina Safeway, a fog-scrimmed age of hope, heartbreak, horniness, innocence and laughter.

The book established 28 Barbary Lane - where Russian Hill landlady Anna Madrigal offers marijuana, maternal love and wisdom to her improvised family of tenants - as one of the most beloved addresses in modern American fiction. It spawned a series of sequels and a much-loved 1993 TV miniseries that starred Olympia Dukakis and Laura Linney. The novels continue to find ardent new readers.

Now, with two of Broadway's bright young names as writer and director, and two musical theater novices from the glam-rock band Scissor Sisters signed on to write the music and lyrics, "Tales of the City" is finally getting the musical treatment that's proved elusive over the years. A previous attempt ran aground a decade ago.

This time a "Tales" musical has plenty of tailwind. The ACT production, aimed at Broadway but with no up-front commercial backers or specific New York plans at the moment, is a big-budget undertaking at $2.5 million. Jeff Whitty, author of the ebullient "Avenue Q," wrote the book. Fellow "Avenue Q" alum Jason Moore ("Shrek: The Musical," an early collaboration on "The Book of Mormon") is directing. The set, which features a lofty set of stairs and landings at 28 Barbary Lane, is by Broadway vet Douglas Schmidt. The cast includes plenty of names with major theatrical street cred. They include Judy Kaye as Anna Madrigal, Betsy Wolfe as Cleveland transplant Mary Ann Singleton, Wesley Taylor as the book's gay lead Michael "Mouse" Tolliver and Mary Birdsong as bisexual Mona Ramsey.

ACT artistic director Carey Perloff committed to the project after attending an early workshop. "I loved Armistead's book so much," she said. "There are so many Mary Anns who come here from Cleveland and everywhere else and say, 'This is my story.' "

Led by an anonymous lead gift, ACT assembled a circle of individual and corporate donors to bankroll the show. "We've done big musicals before," said Perloff, "so we knew what the band would cost and what the scenic costs would be. Not that there aren't surprises." Perloff praised director Moore as a "pragmatic and flexible collaborator. If he has a great idea and we can't afford it, he comes up with something else." Perloff is hoping for a summer-long extension of a show that's had a long but steady gestation period.

Whitty, 39, had what he calls his "lightning-bolt moment" when he watched the "Tales" miniseries on a plane to London almost five years ago. "This is how a musical begins," he said of the book's opening, in which 25-year-old Mary Ann arrives in San Francisco. "You put a character into a new environment and see what happens to her." Director Moore, 40, agreed, comparing the story's musical-friendly premise to that of "My Fair Lady" and "Thoroughly Modern Millie."

The 1970s San Francisco that Maupin evokes with such bright, deft strokes is another intrinsic asset. "There's this idea of the city itself as a force that brings people together, pulls them apart and transforms them," said Moore, who first encountered the novel during his gay coming-out phase in college. "That became a unifying principle for us."

But if "Tales" seemed like a musical theater natural in some respects, it also posed substantial challenges. One of them has to do with the book's multiple, overlapping storylines and large cast of characters. Whitty decided that all of the musical's narrative threads would lead to 28 Barbary Lane and/or to the Halcyon family, a wealthy clan with plenty of problems that money can't solve. To make his stories play out, Whitty had to draw on the next novel in the series, "More Tales of the City."

Even with a number of characters and episodes excised, his initial draft came in at an unwieldy 180 pages. A first reading took place at Moore's apartment in 2008. Subsequent workshops at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Connecticut and at ACT helped winnow and refine the libretto. Whitty's sustaining intention was to avoid a "bell-bottom period piece" and instead capture "an amazing time of longing and a sense of people really searching, whether it was through est or smoking pot or sex."

For Moore, "Les Miserables" and "Rent" were touchstones for his staging. Both shows employ multiple story lines and are "about community." He knew he wanted to keep the set light and suggestive, "so one scene could bounce to the next. I'd be a fool to represent San Francisco literally in San Francisco," he said. "I'd rather evoke it." Costumes and the choreography, which draws on everything from the Cockettes and disco to roller-skating and drumming circles, would have to carry a lot of the period flavor.

Songwriters Jake Shears, 32, and John Garden, 36, said they jumped at the chance to write their first musical. "Especially this one," said the voluble Shears. "I read the book when I was 13, before I even knew I was gay, and loved it." He and Garden got to work right away, writing "Tales" songs between Scissor Sisters shows in London, New York, Berlin and elsewhere. The first number they wrote, "Plus One," is still in the show.

"Then when we started getting into it," said Garden, "there was so much to explore in terms of musical styles from the period."

"But we didn't want it to sound like a '70s pastiche," added Shears. "The book is timeless, even though the time when it's set in is important." Garden, who shares an enthusiasm for "The Who's Tommy" and "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" with Shears, said there's everything from Elton John to Debussy in the spectrum of the "Tales" score. "Not that you'll necessarily hear any of it overtly," he noted.

For a rehearsal visitor, the warm-hearted, crowd-pleasing character of the show comes across immediately. Working in a cramped space in the ACT complex, the company was polishing a big ensemble number that came right on the heels of a tenderly liberating love scene for Anna Madrigal (Kaye) and her secret suitor, Edgar Halcyon (Richard Poe).

"Is there anybody alive without paper faces?" sang Wolfe's plaintive Mary Ann, the cast fixed in a frieze around her. Soon they joined her in a rueful anthem: "This is how people survive - behind paper faces." Moore stepped in when they were finished to restage their exits from the staircase. A prop master took note of the fact that someone needed a martini glass.

Moments later, the mood shifted, first to a defiant Anna leading the way in "No Apologies" and then to a rousing, skin-baring jockey-shorts competition at a gay bar. "Defending My Life" came off as a kind of disco-beat answer to "I Am What I Am" from the Broadway hit "La Cage aux Folles." The musical "Tales" seems poised to strum a lot of heartstrings.

"I get real teary in rehearsal," Shears said. "I don't know if that's my big gay heart or what."

Freely as the feelings may flow in ACT's big season-ending musical, the show has been rigorously and sometimes ruthlessly managed along the way. Songs that Garden loved but called "too vague" or musical interludes that were "too heavy" were cut as Whitty pruned his 180-page script down to something that would seem fleet and light-footed onstage. Musical reprises, traded freely from one character to another, stitch the story lines together.

"The hardest part was getting the flow," Whitty said. "I see this as one 2 hour and 40 minute song." It remains to be seen whether "Tales of the City" will take flight as a musical.

But this much is guaranteed: A big part of the audience will come in humming the story when they take their seats. {sbox}

Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City: Previews end next Sun. Runs June 1 to July 10. American Conservatory Theater, 415 Geary St., San Francisco. $40-$127. (415) 749-2228. www.act-sf.org.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?type=gaylesbian&f=/c/a/2011/05/20/PK9K1JEUCD.DTL

This Week: Tales of the City

2011-05-22T22:37:00.000-04:00

Thirty-five years after Armistead Maupin's iconic newspaper serial Tales of the City, the eccentric residents of 28 Barbary Lane are back in an ambitious new musical making its world premiere. Learn how Maupin's Tales inspired the creative team behind this adaptation and catch a preview of some of the songs from members of the glam-rock band Scissor Sisters. The play runs until July 10, 2011 at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco.

From KQED, with thanks to Lori Halloran, Segment Producer, KQED-TV San Francisco

Visalia's Betsy Wolfe stars in 'Tales of the City' on San Francisco stage

2011-05-19T08:38:00.002-04:00

6:50 PM, May. 18, 2011 |
Written by
Choices

Visalia’s Besty Wolfe will get a chance to shine in the spotlight when the musical “Tales of the City” makes its world debut at San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater.

A 2000 graduate of Golden West High School, Wolfe will star as Mary Ann Singleton, a Midwestern transplant who moves to 1970s San Francisco, where she meets an eccentric assortment of characters and finds romance. The musical is based on Armistead Maupin’s best-selling books. (“Tales” famously first appeared in 1976 as a serialized novel in the San Francisco Chronicle.)

“Tales” is now playing in previews and officially opens May 31. It is scheduled to run through July 10.

The musical features a score and lyrics by Jake Shears of The Scissor Sisters, a book by Jeff Whitty (a Tony Award-winner for “Avenue Q") and is directed by Jason Moore (“Shrek the Musical” and “Avenue Q”).

Choices wasn’t able to connect up with Wolfe to talk about the show — ACT public relations representatives said she wasn’t availble for interviews because of rehearsal schedules — but did talk to Wolfe about “Tales” back in January when she was in town preparing for a fundraiser concert.

For the last several years, Wolfe and the creative team behind “Tales” have been developing the show in theater workshops, she said.

“I’m just thrilled it’s going to finally get a full production,” Wolfe said back in January. “And to have the show debut in San Francisco is just going to be magical.”

During the grueling early “Tales” audtion process two years ago, Whitty said Wolfe was “electrifying” and left the creative team with an “A ha!” moment.

“She’s not only a wonderful actress, funny and intelligent, but can break your heart too. And as we always say, Betsy ‘sings her face off’ — her rangy, expressive voice is to die for,” Whitty said. “Her Mary Ann Singleton is, for me, definitive.”

In addition to Wolfe, the cast will include Tony Award-winner Judy Kaye as Maupin’s iconic pot-smoking landlady Anna Madrigal, Mary Birdsong as Mona Ramsay and Tony Award-nominee Manoel Felciano (“Sweeney Todd”) as Norman.

Fans of PBS might remember the 1993 television adaptation of “Tales,” which starred Olympia Dukakis as Madrigal and Laura Linney as Mary Ann.

The big question with “Tales” is if the show is a hit in San Francisco will it move to Broadway? Shows frequently open outside of New York City to work out tweaks in plot and music before moving to New York. “Wicked,” for example, had a 2003 pre-Broadway run in San Francisco.

Does Wolfe think “Tales of the City” will make it to Broadway?

“I would think with all the talent behind the show, it will,” said Wolfe back in January. “But right now I’m just focusing on the show in San Francisco and where it goes from there we’ll see.”

Wolfe is familiar with Broadway, of course. She has appeared in the Tony Award-nominated musicals “Everyday Rapture” and “110 in the Shade” with Tony Award-winner Audra McDonald, who grew up in Fresno.

At least one of her biggest fans from Visalia will make the trek to San Francisco to see Wolfe in “Tales.” Longtime Golden West drama teacher Mike Wilson is excited to see his former student in the production.

“I have had dozens of great performers come through our program over the past 30 years, but Betsy is the best,” Wilson said. “Her work ethic was so amazing and her talent was unsurpassed.”

Aside from her Broadway performances, Wolfe appeared in the national touring company of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” performed with symphonies in Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Detroit and Baltimore, sung at Carnegie Hall and was the lead soloist singer for the New York City Ballet.

http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/article/20110518/ENTERTAINMENT05/110518005

'Tales of the City' a San Francisco treat

2011-05-17T22:56:00.000-04:00

By: Greg Archer 05/17/11 4:00 AM
Special to The Examiner

Oh, these are wonderful times for Armistead Maupin — and imagine the tales he’ll be telling a year from now.

But on the eve of the world premiere of the lavish “Tales of the City” musical, based on the author’s seminal literary works, Maupin’s emotions are, quite naturally, high.

“I’m so delighted that I have been able to create a lore that can survive; that can translate into so many different realms of art,” Maupin says. “I don’t know what to say. It’s a tremendous tribute, not so much to me, but to the story I have been telling. This is a terrific third act of my life.”

And a much-anticipated act at that.

“Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City,” the musical amalgam of the first two books in his “Tales of the City” series, finally comes to life, opening in previews Wednesday at American Conservatory Theater in The City.

Already generating buzz are Jake Shears and John Garden of the Scissor Sisters, who birthed the music. But the production seemed charmed from its genesis years ago when writer Jeff Whitty and director Jason Moore, both of “Avenue Q,” arrived at the helm.

Maupin first began penning “Tales” more than 35 years ago. After turning heads as a serial column in the San Francisco Chronicle, and later as an award-winning mini-series, his characters — from the naive Mary Ann Singleton to the mysterious Barbary Lane landlady Mrs. Madrigal — warmed hearts. Maupin’s latest “Tales” jaunt, “Mary Ann in Autumn,” in fact, met with stellar reviews upon release last fall.

“The story and the characters seem real to people and have become integral to their lives,” he says. “Throughout all the works, I was merely expressing my own love for The City and the humanity that was changing my own life [at the time].”

About that, Maupin, now in his 60s, credits his grandmother as a prominent influence.

“I was about 14 at the time when she said … ‘that any man that was all man and any woman that was all woman was a complete monster unfit for human company,’” he recalls with a chuckle.

“We were walking behind a very thin woman in a cloud of perfume in spiked heels,” he adds. “But it was quite a radical thing to say in 1958 — to suggest that a person had elements of male and female. I think it provided a great deal of strength for me over the years, and as a writer, it really helped me.”

What's what

The story: The show combines two novels: “Tales of the City” and “More Tales of the City.” “I couldn’t be happier with what Jeff Whitty has done,” Maupin says. “He’s taken a story line from ‘More Tales’ and made it integral to the first book and it creates greater fulfillment at the end of the piece.”
The music: The Scissor Sisters’ influence is notable. “‘Tales’ is a proper musical ‘musical,’” Shears says. “It’s not a ’70s pastiche. The story and the books are timeless and we wanted the music to be timeless.”
The surprises: Audiences’ emotions may run wild — the work swims in deep waters. Bring tissue.

Who's who

Anna Madrigal: Judy Kaye, a Tony Award winner, fills the shoes of Barbary Lane’s favorite landlady.
Mona Ramsey: Mary Birdsong, the comedian from “Reno: 911,” plays the city hipster.
Mary Ann Singleton: Betsy Wolfe portrays the wide-eyed newcomer to San Francisco.
Michael “Mouse” Tolliver: Wesley Taylor of “Rock of Ages” takes on the iconic gay character.

Notable quotes

“The biggest challenge of the show has been just finding out how it flows. We’ve just been chipping away at it. I think some of us, at some point, want to move onto Barbary Lane — the sense that the family you are born into isn’t the family you are meant for.” — Jeff Whitty, librettist

“The interweaving of the two novels does make for an extraordinarily raunchy and funny whorehouse scene, which ... I think every good musical requires.” — Armistead Maupin

IF YOU GO

Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City

Presented by American Conservatory Theater

    Where: 415 Geary St., San Francisco
    When: Wednesday through July 10
    Tickets: $40 to $130
    Contact: (415) 749-2228, www.act-sf.org
    Note: A gala opening is scheduled for June 1.

http://www.sfexaminer.com/entertainment/2011/05/tales-city-san-francisco-treat

Tales Spinning

2011-05-17T22:20:00.000-04:00

Tony award–winner Jeff Whitty tackles the musical adaptation of a modern gay classic with Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City.

By Jason Lamphier
The Advocate

“I’m scared shitless about this show,” says playwright Jeff Whitty. On May 18 he is scheduled to unveil this season’s riskiest, most ambitious, gayest stage production not starring a web-slinging superhero: his long-awaited musical version of Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City. With opening night looming and Tales fans champing at the bit, Whitty, who’s been working on its libretto for four years, isn’t in the mood to mince words about his anxiety. “I’m not going into this with any sort of bravado,” he says. “We’re not going to know what we have until we put it in front of people. That’s what’s exciting and terrifying about it.”

Sitting in front of a plate of eggs and toast in the back corner of a café in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, Whitty is a safe distance from the critical daggers he fears he’ll have to dodge after the show premieres at San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater. His jitters seemingly in check, Whitty, 39, is detailing his vision for the project and holding forth on the legacy of Maupin’s popular novels as only a true Tales lover can. “I want to write for a new audience and give them a big, crunchy epic musical,” he says. “At the same time, I think of a classic like Les Miserables, which is a triumph of structure. It’s so engaging on a very primal storytelling level. If they were able to pull that off, then we can pull this off. That is my hope for Tales.”

Amused by the effusive, drama-geek grandeur of this declaration, Whitty does an about-face and clarifies: “I want to make sure it doesn’t come off like I’m saying we’re going to redefine musical theater.” He chuckles before offering a comical, catty analogy: “You know, Bono said this thing about Spider-Man where he’s like”—Whitty shifts his voice into an exaggerated, pretentious accent—“ ‘It hearkens to Walt Whitman and all these deep thinkers and ama-a-azing musicians.’ I was just like, ‘Oh, honey.’ ”

Given the precious, expansive source material, a Tales adaptation would be a daunting venture for any playwright. But if someone can translate Maupin’s complex characters and interlacing plotlines to the stage, why not Whitty? This is the writer who, in 2004, won the Tony award for Best Book of a Musical for the peppy Sesame Street–inspired puppet spectacle Avenue Q, arguably the most inventive, unexpected, and relatable Broadway production of the last decade (it also netted Tonys for Best Score and Best Musical, stunning many theatergoers when it beat out that year’s front-runner, Wicked). Conceived by composers Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, Avenue Q, like Tales, featured disenchanted post-collegiates sharing a building, their dreams, and their angst against a hip, urban, pansexual backdrop. Also like Tales, Q tapped into the uncertainty and headiness of the 20- and 30-something generations but still managed to go down real easy thanks to its uplift and humor.

Whitty first discovered Tales of the City in 1993, three years after the Coos Bay, Ore., native came out to his family. He’d just graduated from the University of Oregon and decamped to New York City, where at 22 he moved into a tiny studio apartment on the Lower East Side. He hadn’t yet begun his studies in New York University’s graduate acting program and was waiting tables at the popular theater district restaurant Joe Allen. Alone but starry-eyed, he found solace in Maupin’s novels. “Those characters became my temporary friends because I didn’t know anyone here,” Whitty recalls. “I wasn’t in school yet. I didn’t have any way of meeting people, so Mary Ann and Mouse and all those folks became my buddies when I tore through those six books.”

He devoured the collection in a month, but when the first novel was made into a television miniseries — produced by Channel 4 in the U.K. that same year, then picked up by PBS in the U.S. in 1994 — he refused to watch it, not wanting to taint his own mental picture of 28 Barbary Lane. Showtime eventually coproduced and aired More Tales of the City in 1998 and Further Tales of the City in 2001, but Whitty continued to ignore the persistent efforts of his longtime partner, writer Steven Schmersal, to get him to watch the show, which included career-defining performances by Laura Linney, in her breakout role as Mary Ann, and Olympia Dukakis, who played pot-growing trans matriarch Anna Madrigal.

It wasn’t until April 2006 that Whitty’s Tales remake began to take shape. After completing Avenue Q, his first musical libretto, he was reluctant to jump back into writing, underwhelmed by the new offers coming in. “Avenue Q was truly a draining, exhausting experience,” he says. “I took a ton of meetings and said no to everything because there was nothing that felt worth the struggle to write a musical.” Then one day, on a plane ride to London to cast the West End production of Avenue Q, he popped in a DVD of the first Tales installment. “It’s Mary Ann on the phone to her mother saying, ‘I’m not coming back to Cleveland. I am embarking on this exciting new journey,’ ” he says, remembering the opening scene, in which the naive heroine arrives in San Francisco’s Russian Hill. “I thought, That’s how a musical starts — you plunge someone into this new world. They’re bringing their old way of living into this new environment.”

Upon landing, Whitty checked on the rights to the story (Maupin has collaborated on several smaller Tales-themed musical projects) and found they were available. By July he was on a flight to San Francisco to pitch his idea to Maupin. “I was super nervous to meet him for the first time,” Whitty says. “But when I got to Armistead’s he said, ‘Do you get high?’ We got baked and laughed for a few hours, and I don’t think I got all the way through my presentation. How could I say no? It was like being asked by Mrs. Madrigal herself!” After that, his Tales musical was a go. Though Maupin has made a few suggestions, contributing some of the show’s song titles, the novelist has taken a mostly hands-off approach to the production.

The stage version of Tales reunites Whitty with gay Avenue Q director Jason Moore and features a score by Scissor Sisters front man Jake Shears and the band’s touring keyboardist, John “JJ” Garden. Divided into two acts and clocking in at two hours and 45 minutes, it primarily mines the first Tales novel, originally published in 1978, while also touching on a few choice moments from its 1980 sequel, including the memorable scene in which Michael “Mouse” Tolliver, now played by actor Wesley Taylor (The Addams Family, Rock of Ages), comes out to his mother in a letter. For Whitty, telescoping Maupin’s work was a difficult but necessary decision. “Most musicals have the A story and the B story. This has the F story and the G story,” he says. “But we’ve done a ton of slenderizing because people don’t want to sit through a 17-hour musical.”

Though Tales follows a recent spate of gay-themed adaptations and revivals — Priscilla Queen of the Desert, La Cage aux Folles, Angels in America — Whitty insists he isn’t simply waxing nostalgic or cashing in on a trend. For him, the themes and underlying message of Tales couldn’t be more relevant today. “From a gay perspective, it’s shocking how little has changed,” Whitty says. “Act 2 of Tales of the City opens with Anita Bryant giving a speech to the audience, and the things she says are the same arguments that Maggie Gallagher is pulling out now. And I think there’s something universal about characters who want to find family, manifest who they are, and be open and free. That’s the struggle of most of the characters in this show.”

Shears, who discovered Tales while in his early teens, agrees: “It’s timeless, like a Greek myth or something. The characters are so ingrained in your psyche; they’re so strong.” Since jumping on board when Whitty told him about the project four years ago, the musician has composed more than 20 tracks for the production. (Whitty describes the songs as “the 1940s via the 1970s via now.”) Shears exhibits a particular fondness for Anna Madrigal, one of the first positive portrayals of a trans character created for a mainstream audience. He’s so enamored of the character that he wrote “Next Time You See Me,” a revelatory, roof-shaking ballad for Madrigal (played by Judy Kaye) to close the first act.

While Tales revolves around the self-discovery of Michael and San Fran newcomer Mary Ann (played by Betsy Wolfe in the musical), Whitty also has a soft spot for Mrs. Madrigal — and these days, for trans characters in general. “I think transgender people haven’t had their turn yet in the public eye in the way they deserve,” he says. “I guess part of me is just so bored with gay people. I’m all about transgender people.” The playwright’s recent musical Bring It On, based loosely on the 2000 cheerleader film and set to start its national tour in the fall, also features a trans character, a fierce queen bee of an inner-city high school named La Cienega. She seems different from her peers, but she never explicitly addresses her gender. “I saw her most often as the ‘straight woman,’ the voice of reason amid the more eccentric characters around her,” Whitty says. “I didn’t want to go in the ‘sassy black’ direction because it’s been done, done, done.”

When Bring It On premiered in Atlanta in January, Whitty says the performance was met with glowing reviews: “Her curtain call always got one of the biggest ovations. The audience completely loved her throughout the show and appreciated that we weren’t sermonizing about it. For once we weren’t getting a sob story. There was something utopian about it.”

This time, Whitty doesn’t backpedal or try to tone down the grand idealism of his statement. “That’s the world I live in,” he adds. “You’re not always explaining who you are. You just are.”

http://www.advocate.com/printArticle.aspx?id=202600

Scissor Sisters' Jake Shears and John Garden Talk About Musicalizing Tales of the City

2011-05-16T07:20:00.000-04:00

By Adam Hetrick
16 May 2011

Somewhere between the Bee Gees, Elton John and Peaches you'll find the Scissor Sisters, the glam-pop band with downtown New York City roots, whose songs "Take Your Mama," "Filthy/Gorgeous," "I Don't Feel Like Dancin'" and "Invisible Light" have grabbed fans' ears with their insistent hooks since their self-titled debut album was released in 2004.

Though two more albums have followed to acclaim, "Ta-Dah" in 2006 and "Night Work" in 2010, the Scissor Sisters still tiptoe around the mainstream music scene in the U.S., enjoying a cult status and leagues of fans ranging from the downtown scene to Elton John, who has also collaborated on a couple singles. When they opened for Lady Gaga at Madison Square Garden earlier this year, they introduced themselves by saying, "We're the Scissor Sisters and if you don't know who we are, then you're probably not gay, or not British."

That might be about to change. With a host of No. 1 hits in the U.K., platinum albums, sold-out concert tours and an ever-growing U.S. following, the Scissor Sisters' front man Jake Shears and keyboard player John "JJ" Garden have set their sights set on the realm of musical theatre.

Collaborating with Tony Award-winning Avenue Q book writer Jeff Whitty and Tony-nominated director Jason Moore (Avenue Q, Shrek), Shears (music/lyrics) and Garden (music) have scored a musical adaptation of Armistead Maupin's beloved fiction series "Tales of the City."

The 1970s-set saga — mysterious, touching and comical — centers around the inhabitants of a small San Francisco boarding house (the magical manse at 28 Barbary Lane) run by the enigmatic pot-smoking landlady Anna Madrigal.

Playbill.com caught up with Shears and Garden, who are putting the finishing touches on Tales of the City prior to its world-premiere May 18 at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco.

As big fan of both the Scissor Sisters and Armistead Maupin's "Tales," this project is sort of my musical theatre dream. How did it come about for you?

Jake Shears: About five years ago Jeff Whitty sent me an e-mail wondering if I'd be interested in working on a musical; we had known [Jeff] for about five years at that point. I asked him what it was about and he said it was "Tales of the City." I was in. I was thrilled. Scissor Sisters were on the road at the time and I asked John to start writing songs with me.

Were either of you fans of the book or miniseries?

JS: I had been a fan of the books, but JJ had never read them.

John "JJ" Garden: I knew the miniseries from when it aired in the U.K. but I got to discover the books for the first time as we wrote, which is exciting.

How about musicals? You guys have downtown roots, but Broadway show tunes don't strike me as something on your iPods.

JS: I've always been interested in that style of writing. I've definitely had my own kind of taste, and I don't necessarily like, or respond to, a lot of musicals. But, I've always been a fan of certain musicals and have loved the idea of telling stories and narratives through music. That's kind of a device we use a lot in Scissor Sisters music. In my head there are songs that we've written as a band that are kind of like mini-musicals unto themselves.

JG: I think it was interesting once we started the writing process, we became sort of hyper aware of musical theatre as a form we were working in, and to go discover how many shows there are that actually influenced both of us throughout our lives from childhood onwards. Also things that aren't always considered musicals, things like Bugsy Malone, Tommy and Quadrophenia, some of those things that still have the storytelling aspect to it, but haven't necessarily been staged or are associated with Broadway. I think we both made a lot of discovery of things that are in our musical DNA.

Was it a challenge to adapt your writing process — as songwriter-performers you can essentially riff on whatever inspires you — to create character-driven material that drives plot and explores character?
JS: There are certain songs that were real challenges, that we took lots of stabs at until we got it right. But when I'm writing lyrics, and songs for Scissor Sisters, I sing in character a lot of times and I write songs in character with the band. It's a device we use on a regular basis with Scissor Sisters, so it felt really natural for me to write songs as characters who provide new information and move the story along.

How do the two of you write? Lyrics first, music first?

JG: The best situation is that we are in the same room and work it out together. Sometimes Jake will come in with a whole melody already worked out and no lyrics, and just a concept. Other times lyrics first. It's really been different for every song.

JS: We have no formula. I'm still mystified as to how to write a song. We've written most of the show on piano. Tossing ideas back and forth.

What can Scissor Sisters fans expect the score to sound like? You've got a throwback groove going already, are we getting some disco?

JS: There's a bit of disco in it. I think both of us made a conscious decision not to limit ourselves to a kind of '70s pastiche. My view on the books is that they are very timeless and that's why we're making this show now. It's also why people still read them and they're still in print. It's just a timeless story. I wanted the music to feel timeless as well. Our songwriting already leans into that sort of '70s song craft as it is. So, I thought it was really necessary not to overthink that aspect, and to just set out to write songs naturally and that's what we've done.

JG: There's definitely some surprising stylistic moments that fans of the band and Jake's writing with the band will be surprised by. There's some unusual turns.

This is a really ambitious piece to tackle for the stage. It's sort of Dickensian in scale — the subplots all intertwine and the characters are all somehow connected to one another.

JS: That's a big challenge of Tales of the City, adapting it in that way. I mean right off the top, you've got to be merciless and make big decisions about what stays, what goes and what's going to be the real center of it. Those are big decisions that we had to start making off the top.

JG: There was even a moment where someone suggested that we pick one character and make the show about them, but I think we've avoided that quite well. The show still works with a kind of multiple focus. All these characters are so well loved and you don't feel that anyone of them is suffering because one character is being pushed forward.

Novelist Maupin has also been pretty hands-on in the process, I understand. Is it intimidating to adapt his work and then have him view it?

JS: He's been amazing. So helpful and open-minded. He's just so happy that this is happening and he's been a real asset to us. I don't know if we could have really done it without him. I wouldn't have wanted to do it without him. He's been a real rock and always has great insight. It's a pleasure to be friends with him and be around him and work with him. Actually, that's the thing about adapting and what's been so great about Armistead Maupin being a part of this process. There have been liberties taken. You have to do what's going to be best for the musical instead of being married to the original text. But, that said, I think we've been very faithful to the characters.

What were some of the first moments you wrote? Anything in particular that jumped out at you in the story as a first inspiration?

JS: The first song we wrote was a song called "Plus One," which Dede sings as she finds out that she's not only pregnant, but pregnant with twins. That was the first bit of the story we musicalized. It was just a matter of finding moments at first that felt like they lent themselves to song. This was before there was a script and we just took moments from the book. Other early songs were "Where Beauty Lies" and "Homosexual Convalescence Center."

"Homosexual Convalescence Center." I love that title already.

JS: It's this party of the "A-Gays," the upper echelon of homos who are singing about where they plan on spending their retirement and the rest of their lives. It's a very funny song, but it's an important song in the show because underneath it — I wanted to acknowledge the fact that this is 1976 and all these men who were singing the song about what they're going to do in their old age — in actuality, a lot of them won't reach their old age. That's something that the audience knows that the characters don't necessarily. There are some left field ideas like that and subject matters that I wanted to broach. I thought it was necessary. There are interesting little pathways that come out in the story like that.

You've been working on the piece for about five years now, right? Theatre folks are pretty used to the workshop process, but that must be a kind of new thing for you guys.

JG: The first workshop at the O'Neill [Center's Music Theatre Conference in 2009] was the first time we had heard anyone else sing the songs from the score and it was so exciting and inspiring. We started writing new material during that workshop because we also started to realize what was possible. It was sort of the first time we saw the potential for all the directions [it could go].

Are the two of you still actively writing during rehearsals?

JS: Unless there are any major surprises coming up, everything's written. Now it's just scalpel work, clarifying every little thing and going through every line. Just shaping and doing all the detail work. It's been really fun. There are still a couple lines I'm stuck on, I have no idea what the hell they'll be. But that's a fun part of it. It's gratifying because you plug stuff like that right into the show and you see it work right away.

It's also pretty special that Tales of the City should debut in its hometown. What are the chances that we'll see it in New York?

JS: There couldn't be any other way [than San Francisco] and I think there probably will be [other productions]. The goal is to make this show the best show it can possibly be for San Francisco. I will be satisfied and happy even if I never saw the show again after San Francisco. It's been such a blast and we're so proud of it. I just want it to be the best show right now. Hopefully it will go on and have a great life.

Tales of the City will begin previews May 18 at A.C.T., prior to officially opening May 31. It will play an extended engagement through July 10. The cast features Tony Award winner Judy Kaye (The Phantom of the Opera, On the Twentieth Century, Souvenir) as Anna Madrigal, with Betsy Wolfe (Everyday Rapture, 110 in the Shade) as Midwestern transplant Mary Ann Singleton, Mary Birdsong (Martin Short Fame Becomes Me, "Reno 911") as the free-spirited Mona Ramsay and Wesley Taylor (Rock of Ages, The Addams Family) as Michael "Mouse" Tollivar.

Click here to read Playbill.com's story about the Tales cast.

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Creative team has high hopes for musical version of 'Tales of the City'

2011-05-16T07:11:00.000-04:00

By Karen D'Souza

kdsouza@mercurynews.com
Posted: 05/12/2011 12:00:00 PM PDT
Updated: 05/13/2011 05:39:18 PM PDT

Welcome back to 28 Barbary Lane.

Once again, mysterious landlady Anna Madrigal will hold court over the bohemian denizens of her iconic Russian Hill boardinghouse, dispensing equal portions of wisdom and weed as she watches over her flock of dreamers, swingers and misfits, all looking for a sense of family amid the tumult of San Francisco in the '70s.

Only this time, Madrigal and the other "fantabulous" characters in Armistead Maupin's now mythic "Tales of the City" -- from wide-eyed Mary Ann Singleton to Michael "Mouse" Tolliver and hippie-granola bisexual Mona Ramsey -- will also break into song.

"What makes a story sing?" asks director Jason Moore during a rehearsal for the new "Tales of the City" musical, which makes its world premiere at San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater on Wednesday. "Love or loss or emotions so intense that you just have to break into song. In this case, it's people looking for love and trying to find themselves in the big city, trying to find their way in the world, trying to make a family for themselves."

It was lyricist Jeff Whitty of "Avenue Q" fame who first believed "Tales" -- which will continue in previews until its official opening May 31 -- was dying to be reborn as a musical.

The Tony-winner enlisted a top-notch creative team, including Moore ("Shrek the Musical," "Avenue Q") and Jake Shears and John Garden of the glam-rock band Scissor Sisters. In an email to Shears, to pique his interest in the project, Whitty described the musical this way: "From a storytelling perspective, it's 'Les Misérables' in scale, but with polyamory, drugs, joy and death."

Obviously the pitch worked, and now "Tales" is on the verge of coming home to the city of its birth, a prospect that thrills and scares the librettist.

"It's terribly intimidating to be in San Francisco but also wonderful at the same time," says Whitty, who has been working on this project intermittently since 2006. "No production will ever be as cool as this one. This is the home of the books."

Maupin, for one, instinctively felt that this valentine to the city, which began as a serial in the Chronicle in 1976, belonged at ACT, where the $2.5 million production ranks as the most expensive show in the company's history. "I have always had a lot of respect for ACT," Maupin says, "and I felt that the musical should be homegrown, just as the original serial was."

"Tales" came to define not only the zeitgeist of 1970s San Francisco as a freewheeling mecca of disco balls and sexual liberation, but also the enduring spirit of the city as a place where fabulousness is a state of mind and eccentricity trumps conformity every time. Maupin's episodic soap opera fueled the lore of the city as an oasis where quirkiness never goes out of style.

—‰'Tales' is very close to our collective hearts, and it has been a joy to watch the characters we all know and love come to life," says Carey Perloff, artistic director of ACT. "I guess you could say it's ACT's gift to our city, and to Armistead, who has given all of us so much pleasure and recognition."

Indeed, though the stories always had a pop-culture impact, they have grown in critical estimation over time. As one reviewer put it: —‰'Tales' contains the universe, if not in a grain of sand, then in one apartment house."

Maupin, 66, is quick to play down his accomplishment, even though the wildly successful "Tales" franchise now includes eight books (the first published in 1978), three hit TV miniseries starring Laura Linney and Olympia Dukakis and now the ACT musical.

"I have been tremendously happy to create a mythology that has been so personal for so many people," he says. "I always wanted to create a fictional address that took on a sort of geographical reality for people, like Tara in 'Gone with the Wind.' "

(For the record, Maupin once tried to find Tara, unsuccessfully, just as many tourists try to make a pilgrimage to Barbary Lane, to no avail.)

Sitting in on rehearsals, the author says he has gotten a real kick out of watching ACT's cadre of young bucks transport his characters into the world of musical theater. He has become close pals with Whitty, and trusts him to channel the essence of his work.

"They are honoring the characters completely," Maupin says. "There's something very flattering about watching a new generation interpreting your work."

Indeed, as he ages, he finds himself identifying with the older characters in the tales, instead of the young ones.

"When I first wrote them I was young; now I know what it is like to be in your 60s and be in love," says the novelist. "I have been all of these characters at one time or another over the last 35 years."

Whitty has tried hard to remain true to the spirit, tone and scope of the book and its characters.

"There's such a love of humanity in Armistead's work," Whitty says. "That's what I want to capture. The storytelling is so rich. I think for all of us in the creative team, this has been a real labor of love."

Encompassing a campy daisy chain of nearly four dozen characters, the jampacked plot distills the action of the first book, as well as some aspects of the sequel.

"The musical really knows what it wants to be," Whitty says. "There's nothing I have cut that shouldn't be cut. All of the story lines always have to lead us back to Barbary Lane."

Some songs come straight out of the books, such as the "Dear Mama" number, which is based on the words in Mouse's coming-out letter to his family. Other songs that Whitty loved, but that didn't drive the action, had to be cut.

"I am slicing it and slicing it and slicing it," he says, "but with a scalpel, not a hatchet."

Whitty also hopes to use audience reactions to help shape the adaptation. "When I was working on 'Avenue Q,' I had no idea what I was doing, so I learned to listen to the audience and think on my feet," he says.

The Bay Area audience, in particular, comes with high stakes, since devotees of the material are likely to be out in full force. As Whitty puts it: "How do you keep things fresh and surprising for an audience that knows the story inside out?"

"There's a lot of goodwill here, but there are also very high expectations," Maupin says, "But from what I have seen, they are going to be met. I know theater folk have this superstition about talking about how well something is going, but the mood is reservedly optimistic."

"Tales" is the latest high-profile musical with Broadway buzz to be born in the Bay Area, following on the heels of such hits as "Memphis," "American Idiot" and "Wicked."

However, Maupin is not overly concerned about Broadway after the musical's ACT debut.

"Personally, I'd be more interested to see it go to the West End" in London, the author says. "I have a higher profile with the British than I do here, for some reason."

Right now, Whitty and his collaborators say all they want is to give San Francisco the "Tales" it deserves.

"We want to do justice to Armistead's creation," Whitty says. "In all honestly, even the simplest musical is impossible. They are hard to pull off. But if they can do 'Les Miz,' then we can do 'Tales!' "

Contact Karen D'Souza at 408-271-3772. Check out her theater reviews, features and blog at www.mercurynews.com/karen-dsouza.

'Armistead Maupin's Tales
of the City'

Libretto by
Jeff Whitty,
music and lyrics by Jake Shears and John Garden, based on the novels by Armistead Maupin

When: Wednesday through July 10
Where: American Conservatory Theater,
415 Geary St.,
San Francisco
Tickets:
$40-$130;
415-749-2228, www.act-sf.org

http://www.mercurynews.com/entertainment/ci_18044078?nclick_check=1