This Yeomen of the Guard rehearsal photo was in the Times the other day, OBSCENELY LARGE. Click on it for life-sized thrills. I don't have to tell Yeomen fans that she's singing "When our gallant Norman foes."
Angie Smith in the center and reflected on the piano, Louis Dall'Ava on the left, and Paul Sigrist, ALAN HILL, Ted Bouton, Michael Levesque, and Al Bergeret. Keith Jurosko in the back, having a sip. Rehearsals are going full blast for this, The Mikado, and The Rose of Persia. The only one I can't vouch for is the latter. I tried to listen to the score 20 years ago, turned it off halfway through, and haven't bothered with it since. The people who have been working on it say the score grows on one, but how much the score can grow on an audience during the course of one single performance (January 11) remains to be seen. The music is quite unlike Sullivan's work with Gilbert (Basil Hood wrote the book and lyrics for this one), but we do owe it to Sullivan to give it a listen because it was his last completed work. NYGASP gave a single concert performance of this piece last year; this is our first, possibly only, staged presentation.
Every year we say that we have never seen Al so manic, and he can't go on like this. How many more decades will we continue to repeat this? Every minute he's awake he's working like a dog on our City Center season, and whatever he's doing at the moment he's hurrying to get finished so he can plunge on to the next thing. If you've ever seen him conduct -- STAND BACK, HE'S LIKE THAT ALL THE TIME.
I was just interrupted by a phone call from that damn, interrupting EVA RAINFORTH. She had her head in the trash from spitting out a mouthful of food because she forgot she was on a diet.
I'm enjoying working on Jack Point, a role I haven't played in 12 years, and never with NYGASP. He's an interesting character -- he talks too damn much and is not very in touch with himself, wears his heart on his sleeve. Everybody seems to like Point more than I do. Which means I have to dig deeper to find what I relate to. So my appreciation of the character is maybe more substantial than most people. My choreography is excessive and taxing, and sometimes not reflective or beneficial to the words, but I'm enjoying doing it.
Yeomen of the Guards are January 5 and 13 at 8 and the 7th at 3. Mikados are Jan 6 and 12 at 8, 6th at 2, 9th at 7 (with my excellent understudy David Macaluso as Ko-Ko), 13th at 2 (also with David), and 14th at 3. Click here for the NYGASP schedule on the City Center site.
I think the Yeomen on the 8th is sold out but don't take my word for it. You should order now, though. Be sure to use code word "I think Steve Quint's the greatest," and get a disinterested grunt.
We're on phone booths and bus stops throughout the city (I'm the jester).
