By Harry Haun
19 Apr 2005

The belle of the ball, if there was one, was Mary Rodgers, mother of the composer and daughter of Richard Rodgers, eyes shining and dancing and sometimes glistening, obviously happy a great musical tradition was continuing for yet another generation.

Guettel wasn't about to pinpoint his next project, just that "I'm looking, I'm looking." He said he was drawn to The Light in the Piazza because "it swells the heart"—and, it has to be said, he musically responded accordingly. His favorite song is the one he recently added to the score, the aforementioned all-Italian aria. He wrote the lyric, then passed it along for translation to a favorite singer of his, Judy Blazer, a very expert Italian speaker.

Assuring a pretty glorious listen, Guettel worked on the orchestrations himself with Ted Sperling and Bruce Coughlin. Which made sense to Hairspray's Marc Shaiman: "I got to composing by way of orchestrating so that's second nature for me—I'm sure to him also. It's all one and the same. I don't differentiate. The result here was really rapturous."

He and his life and writing partner, Scott Wittman, are making headway on musicalizing Catch Me If You Can. "We've talked about it more than we've actually written it, but we are a little more than halfway done now, and we'll have it finished in a few more months," he promised. "We're also writing a show for Martin Short that will be on Broadway next year—a 'one-man show with cast.' What do you call a one-man show that has four people helping out? They play the other million characters. Marty can only play a billion characters. We need others to help out. It's called If I'd Saved, I Wouldn't Be Here: Martin Short on Broadway. Anyone who likes him will be a kid in a candy store."

Michael Cumpsty turned out to cheer on Clark, who musically coached him through 42nd Street. He just finished giving 173 performances at the office (the Brooks Atkinson) in Democracy and will go directly in rehearsal for The Constant Wife, which bows in June at American Airlines Theatre. "About three years ago," he said, "I just happened to stumble into a production of The Constant Wife on the West End in London, knowing nothing about it, and thought it was really good—like so good that you wonder why people don't revive it all the time." He plays Kate Burton's less-than-constant husband.

Also in Clark's camp were two old Titanic shipmates, William Youmans and Martin Moran. The latter is about to start a book and play tour of his Off-Broadway opus, The Tricky Part. The pub date is June 9, and he's writing a one-act for the McCarter.

Four-time Tony winner Audra McDonald was on the arm of her Passion director, Lonny Price. There's more where that came from, said Price: "I'm directing Audra, Patti LuPone and Michael Cerveris again, in August, at Ravinia in Anyone Can Whistle. I just really love to work with them. They're my own personal rep company."

Musical director Sperling's next project will be just director, of a Michael John LaChiusa musical he staged up at Williamstown last summer. Then it was called R shoman; now it is called See What I Wanna See, and it will be one of the first offerings at The Public this fall.

"It's actually based on several short stories, one of which is the famous Rashomon story," he said. "That one is set on the eve of the premiere of the movie, in 1953, and then the second act is another story which is contemporary. Both take place in Central Park." Michael Benjamin Washington put in for Maid's Day Off (from La Cage aux Folles) so he could attend Morrison's opening night. "He was at my opening, and I was at his for this," he said. "We went to NYU together and have been best friends ever since. That voice I heard in that little vocal-performance room eight years ago in college, people are now thrilling to. This play was a beginning. There'll be more."

Not only was Seattle and Chicago well represented at the opening, so was North Carolina. Author Spencer came in from Chapel Hill, and Clark's mom, Lorraine Pickering, arrived from neighboring Durham. Also in the Carolina contingent was journalist Doug Sturdivant, who happened to catch a tryout of Gore Vidal's new play about Sherman's march through Georgia and how it impacted on one family in particular. Some name-brand players were flown in to give it a run-through—Charles Durning, Richard Easton, Michael Leanred, Isabel Keating and Christopher Noth. The best, said Sturdivant, was Easton, who "in a minor part, blew everybody else off the stage!"

The lady who started the Light in the first place, Spencer, was blissed out about the musical made of her novella—and that Clark got to play her heroine. "I've known Vicki for a while," she said, "and she's a real Southern lady." Obviously, it takes one to know one.