Christmas In Paris Touches Outcasts in Kathie Lee Gifford Musical, Under the Bridge, Starting NYC Run Dec. 1
By Kenneth Jones
01 Dec 2004
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Kathie Lee Gifford
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| photo by Aubrey Reuben | A selfish Parisian career hobo finds a family occupying his space along the Seine in the new musical, Under the Bridge, starting a world premiere run Dec. 1 at Off-Broadway's Zipper Theatre.
Ed Dixon stars as Armand, who bonds with Madame Calcet (Jacquelyn Piro) and her three children, who have lost their home, their hope and the man in their lives. Florence Lacey adds flavor as the gypsy Mireli in the new Christmastime show by lyricist-librettist Kathie Lee Gifford and composer David Pomeranz.
Eric Schaeffer, who directed Gifford in Broadway's Putting It Together, shepherds this first musical theatre-writing project for the actress, singer and TV personality. Gifford told Playbill On-Line that beyond the 12-week Off-Broadway engagement, she hopes the show will find a wider audience, perhaps on Broadway.
For the fable about community, family and hope, Gifford has enlisted Broadway talent on stage and behind the scenes.
The cast includes Dan Cooney, Alexa Ehrlich, Thursday Farrar, Eleasha Gamble, Tamra Hayden, C. Mingo Long, Greg Stone, Bethany Tesarck, Maggie Watts and Andrew Blake Zutty.
The creative team includes James Kronzer (scenic design), Anne Kennedy (costume design), Chris Lee (lighting design) and Kai Harada (sound designs). Orchestrations are by Brian Besterman. Paul Raiman is musical director.
Gifford said the script and score are not yet set in stone. The preview period Dec. 1-Jan. 5, 2005, will likely see refinements and changes before the Jan. 6 opening night.
"I'm sure we'll be doing all kinds of freshening and touch ups as we go along," Gifford explained. "This is a new experience for me. So far it hasn't been the mind-boggling experience I thought it was going to be. The book that I adapted this story from, 'The Family Under the Bridge,' was such a well crafted little gem that the characters were quite defined. They were a joy. We're telling the story of what happens over 10 days in Paris in 1953."
With Pomeranz, Gifford also wrote additional music for the show, which is produced by her Lambchop Productions.
The book by the late Natalie Savage Carlson won the Newbery Honor and has been a favorite children's story since it first appeared in the 1950s (HarperCollins published it in 1958).
"I'd never heard of it, or its author," Gifford admitted. "Three years ago my daughter was learning how to read and every night for homework she had to do a half an hour of reading. We were encouraged to read with her. It was something we both enjoyed very much because my daughter has a flair for the dramatic — I don't know where she got it from. We tend to really enjoy that time. We ran out of books and she went to her bookcase and said, 'What about this one, mom?' ...We started reading it. It took us about two days and we loved it so much we read it again, and then we went on to other books. I just couldn't get this one off my heart."
Pop and theatre composer David Pomeranz is known for such songs as "Tryin' to Get the Feeling Again" and "The Old Songs."
The Zipper, at 336 W. 37th Street, is the funky, adaptable venue that uses automobile seats — some with seat belts still attached — in its auditorium.
Les Misérables veteran Ed Dixon is the barrel chested character actor praised for his presence and his potent baritone in the Kurt Weill entertainment Here Lies Jenny at the Zipper. He's also a respected writer whose own musical, Fanny Hill, is aiming for a 2005 run Off-Broadway.
Kathie Lee Gifford is the widely-known actress and talk show host ("Live With Regis & Kathie Lee") who appeared in Broadway's Putting It Together. With Pomeranz and songwriter David Friedman, she has also written the developing musical, Hurricane Aimee, about the controversial evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson. Schaeffer has directed developmental readings of the piece and a full staging is expected in 2005.
The performance schedule for Under the Bridge will be Tuesday-Friday at 7 PM, Saturday at 2 PM and 7 PM, and Sunday at 1 and 6 PM.
The final scheduled performance is Feb. 20, 2005.
Tickets are $55. Call Telecharge.com at (212) 239-6200 or visit the Zipper Theatre box office, 336 W. 37th Street.
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A concept album of Under the Bridge has been recorded and is on sale at Gifford's website (www.kathieleegifford.com) and in the Zipper Theatre lobby. Proceeds benefit the Association to Benefit Children (www.a-b-c.org).
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Did Gifford reinvent the plot of the book, or was it all laid out in print?
"I had to reinvent enormous parts of it," she said. "To transfer a classic little children's tale to a full, fleshed out musical, it needed to be heightened, needed depth, lots of back story. We're approaching this in a very Dickens fashion. He often wrote on the theme of children in peril, and what the love of a child could do to a hardened human heart. Universal theme, brand new story."
Talking to the author's granddaughter, Gifford learned the genesis of the story. "Natalie and her husband and another couple were all dressed up in their finery going to a Christmas party one day, driving along the Seine River in Paris, when they saw a commotion on the side of the river," Gifford said. "Being a writer and an interested person, she said, 'Stop the car, I want to see what the hubbub's about.' She got out of the car with her friend, in their high heels, and climbed down the ravine, and right there were hobos and gypsies having a Christmas feast. She was so moved by it that they lost themselves watching the goings-on: the merriment and their meager little dinner. This heavy-set very crotchety old hobo started chasing them up the ravine. She based the story right after that on this hobo, whom she named Armand."
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