Jason Danieley

We are happy to welcome guest celebrity blogger Jason Danieley, who is currently starring opposite wife Marin Mazzie in the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway musical Next to Normal. The singing actor, who has also appeared on Broadway in Curtains, Candide and The Full Monty, has blogged for Playbill.com all week; his final entry follows.

“You be good… and I’ll try.”

As this is my last blog of the week (of which I’ve had a grand time), I’m reminded of a consistent salutation from my great grandfather, Martin Harrison, “You be good… and I’ll try.” It always made me giggle to myself (yes, I giggle… occasionally). My little sisters and I would often engage in an act of one-upmanship, “No, grandpa. You be good and I’ll try.” The message was clear. A great grandfather trying to impart words of encouragement to his great grandchildren; strive to be a good person and to be good to others, at the same time acknowledging the fact that we are human and fallible.

One of my favorite guilty pleasures to help me unwind, although there’s not a whole lot of guilt accompanying this pleasure, is watching copious amounts of the Food Network and the Travel Channel. When those worlds collide in a show with food and travel, adding a heaping handful of hysterical and cynical statements, I’m one sated singer. Anthony Bourdain’s show, “No Reservations,” is the perfect prescription for coming down after an intense Broadway performance. He recently celebrated his 100th episode. Congratulations, Tony! That episode was a return to the city of his first episode, Paris.

Marin and I have never traveled to Paris. We intend to remedy this within the year. We both are celebrating milestone birthdays and figure what better way to celebrate than a trip to “The City Of Love.” So we are soaking up anything and everything Parisian, particularly our share of Cotes du Rhone. This Paris episode (redux) touted a celebrity co-host in the restaurateur superstar Eric Ripert.

Mr. Ripert can be seen as a guest judge on “Top Chef,” hosting a new show on public television (”Avec Eric”), as well as running one of the world’s best restaurants (Le Bernadin). He’s a very busy guy and at the top of his game. He’s considered, in some circles, like the earth, as the greatest living seafood chef. This guy’s good, real good, and if his television persona is any indication of his normal everyday demeanor, he’s a considerate and kind person. Without knowing the man, I’d say he was striving to be, consciously or unconsciously, good.

This perception of mine, while watching the episode, reminded me of conversations I’ve had with Marin about performers we know who are also good people. The really great ones tend to be really great people. There are exceptions in every case, but this is no exception, the people/performers I particularly admire are good people. It’s a part of the package as far as I’m concerned. There are those, who shall remain nameless in this blog (only for fear of unconsciously omitting a few), whose enormous talents have the potential of being overshadowed only by their enormous ability to be giving and kind.

I don’t pretend to be flawless (don’t tell my agents I said that), but I strive to be good as an artist, fellow cast member and person. Sidebar: Don’t confuse being a nice person with the ability to play a bad guy or to inhabit a character of questionable character. That’s called acting. Good actors can act being bad. You don’t have to have a life full of strife to be able to tap into something/someone inside of you who is capable of wielding a knife (he says, carefully trying to avoid proverbially cutting his own throat).

I hope, in parting ways from our little Playbill.com experience together, to impart those words from Grandpa Harrison to you. “You be good… and I’ll try.” God knows it’s not an easy thing to do and it takes a lifetime of practice, but let’s try.

Now please open your hymnals to page 666 and let us sing Kumbaya. Oh, and please pass the Gin.

Jason Danieley

We are happy to welcome guest celebrity blogger Jason Danieley, who is currently starring opposite wife Marin Mazzie in the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway musical Next to Normal. The singing actor, who has also appeared on Broadway in Curtains, Candide and The Full Monty, will blog for Playbill.com all week; his fourth entry follows.

For the Record

“Records”? My, what an outdated term, Mr. Danieley. Whether you call them records (still), albums, CDs, downloads (I doubt if anyone is mentioning 8-tracks or cassettes today), these are still a necessary and vital source to get the music of young, and not so young – but new to you, songwriters, out to the rest of the country.

The days of Tin Pan Alley are long gone. The “headquarters” of the music business has flitted from New York to Nashville to Los Angeles to, now, pretty much anywhere where anyone has a soundproof room and Pro-tools. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I know the next Cole Porter or John Mellencamp is growing up in Indiana and getting ready to upload some great tunes to their Facebook or MySpace page. But as Tin-Pan Alley no longer exists as it once did, there are a few stalwart record labels trying their damndest to keep you up on what’s going on in the New York theatre and cabaret scene.

Believe me, selling records of a new Off-Broadway show or the first solo album of an up-and-coming young actor doesn’t rake in the dough. It’s a tough sell to a country that doesn’t have the same passion for theatre that preceding generations did. But those few who take the chance on recording, and investing in the recordings, of “Love on a Summer Afternoon” or “(Sorta) Love Songs,” are extremely important to the livelihood and encouragement of musical theatre and traditional songwriting. (more…)

Jason Danieley

We are happy to welcome guest celebrity blogger Jason Danieley, who is currently starring opposite wife Marin Mazzie in the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway musical Next to Normal. The singing actor, who has also appeared on Broadway in Curtains, Candide and The Full Monty, will blog for Playbill.com all week; his third entry follows.

Theatre Therapy

I woke up this morning [Sept. 11, 2010] thinking of New York. A bright, beautiful New York and at the same time a battered and bruised New York. I won’t blog about the travesties and heartache of 9/11/01. People who were directly and profoundly affected by the day’s events have written about it quite elegantly and eloquently. I count myself extremely fortunate to not have lost anyone on that day. But I was fortunate to be in New York in 2001, on Broadway, in a funny and touching show called The Full Monty . And today, nine years later, I’m in a heartbreaking and wrenchingly beautiful musical called Next to Normal. The shows couldn’t be more different, but they do have something in common, and that is to play a part in the healing process of the audience in their respective years, in different ways.

The day started off in 2001 as crisp and calm as anyone could hope for in an early fall day. The minutes, hours and days that were to follow were obliterated by smoke and sadness. What can you do? Give blood and plenty of it. Wait to hear what is needed by way of assisting anywhere and everywhere in the city. But the call to arms, as it was, for the theatre community was to go back to work. We needed to get back up on the stage in order for people to have a place to go, a place to go and escape, a place to go and be entertained, and a place to go and live life, if even for a brief two-and-a half-hours. (more…)

Jason Danieley

We are happy to welcome guest celebrity blogger Jason Danieley, who is currently starring opposite wife Marin Mazzie in the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway musical Next to Normal. The singing actor, who has also appeared on Broadway in Curtains, Candide and The Full Monty, will blog for Playbill.com all week; his second entry follows.

Play it Again, Gram

Theatre is an extraordinary way to make a living if you are fortunate enough to make a living at it. But even when you do there are the “down” times, the times between gigs where you are trying to keep yourself afloat financially and to challenge and grow in different ways artistically. Whether it’s through writing, painting or performing in a different medium, it can be a great opportunity of self-exploration that ultimately feeds you as an actor and a performer.

But finding your own voice is a tricky thing. You have to clear away preconceived notions of what you think other people think they want to hear from you. (Get that?) No one knows where you’re from and what outside influences have marked your life and character. It’s a journey into your essence, a fun, sometimes therapeutic and occasionally cathartic exploration… but mostly fun.

My earliest memories of music emanate from a spinet piano, circa 1950s, which sat in the front living room of my fraternal grandparents. The tinkling tones of the felt hammer to string were usually accompanied by the thwacking of a tortoise shell pick to a Gibson guitar, a finger-plucked four-string Washburn banjo, a hand crafted one-string washtub bass thumped with garden-gloved hand and various pots and pans or Tupperware bowls tapped with utensils. There were the occasional vocal solos by the pre-pubescent boy soprano “Jas” or “hotshot” Danieley. And the unofficial bandleader was the pianist Ruth DeGuire, or grandma, a.k.a “Snooks.” (more…)

Jason Danieley

We are happy to welcome guest celebrity blogger Jason Danieley, who is currently starring opposite wife Marin Mazzie in the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway musical Next to Normal. The singing actor, who has also appeared on Broadway in Curtains, Candide and The Full Monty, will blog for Playbill.com all week; his first entry follows.

A Labor (day) of Love

Howdy! Hope you all had a great weekend. I’ll be your celebrity blogger for the week. Please sit back, put all your own thoughts out of your mind and let me blog your brain with my own benign bent on things.

As a rule, entertainers are exempt from any and all holidays, “weekends” and most familial affairs. That is one of the occupational hazards of being an actor. You are there to provide entertainment on those days of the year that are on either side of Monday and Friday and that are highlighted in red on our calendars. It’s a pleasure and an honor to do so, but it also makes you feel slightly like an outsider. Occasionally we do break out and do something daring like going out to be entertained ourselves. So, late after our own Sunday evening performance on Labor Day weekend, Marin and I scurried down to the Blue Note jazz club to revel in the romantic notes of another husband and wife team.

(more…)