The legendary comedy couple Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara recently took in a performance of Kenny Solms’ new play It Must Be Him, currently playing at Off-Broadway’s Peter J. Sharp Theatre.
The show concerns “Louie Wexler, a whiz kid comedy writer from the heyday of variety television, is now down on his luck. With his devoted agent, and his considerably less devoted housekeeper by his side, Louie finds himself broke, lonely, and on the wrong side of middle age. Desperate to rekindle his fading career, save his posh Beverly Hills home and find the man of his dreams, Louie searches high and low for one last shot at his own real-life happy ending.”
The cast features Peter Scolari (of TV’s “Bosom Buddies,” Broadway’s Hairspray, Sly Fox) and Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award nominee Liz Torres, along with Patrick Cummings (Happiness), Tony Award nominee Stephanie D’Abruzzo (Avenue Q), Harris Doran (Love Jerry), Ryan Duncan (Altar Boyz), John Tracey Egan (The Producers), Tony nominee Jonathan Kaplan (Falsettos), Bob Ari (Bells Are Ringing), Tony Award nominee Alice Playten (Henry, Sweet Henry), Edward Staudenmayer (Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me) and Jessica Tyler Wright (Sweeney Todd).
Here is a shot of Stiller and Meara visiting the company after the show:
Tickets, priced at $65, are available via www.ticketcentral.com and at (212) 279-4200, or in person at the box office.
We are happy to welcome guest celebrity blogger Peter Scolari, the three-time Emmy Award nominee for his work in the situation comedy “Newhart.” Scolari, who is currently in rehearsal for the new Off-Broadway comedy White’s Lies (performances begin April 12 at New World Stages), will blog for Playbill.com all week; his final entry follows:
Some say the world will end in fire, some in ice – I’m so tired today – I think a damn fine cup of coffee would suffice…
Peter Scolari here, your man on the street, in the middle of tech rehearsals for White’s Lies — previews start Monday April 6th, at New World
Stages.
The play stars Betty Buckley, Tuc Watkins, Andrea Grano, Christy Carlson Romano, Rena Strober, and Jimmy Ray Bennett inexplicably, in the role of J.R. Ewing.
White’s Lies is directed by Bob Cline, but from a moving car, which swings by the front of the theater every four minutes, allowing him to
yell helpful suggestions out the uptown window.
He’s very avante-garde, experimental, and afraid to be seen from the waist down, which I think explains the whole car thing…
This blog will be my last for now – But I just asked Ken Jones at Playbill.com to talk to Andrew Gans if I might get to come back ’round
every now and then to stay in touch with my inner pith.
I have many different facets -
Whilst still a young man, I got in touch with my feminine side.
Sometimes I can’t stop touching it at all, and my girlfriend Tracy has to talk about hockey to bring me back out of it.
Got a minute for a sidebar?
“Life’s a funny thing, isn’t it so – that when you think it’s sorted out, you sometimes have to go…”
Take a dirt nap – not be down for breakfast – sleep through the millennium, never laugh again…
ooh, that last one takes the room down, dims the lights, and puts it all out there -
Playwright Louis Philips wrote: “The dead and the living, they’re all mixed in…”, and after I heard it I was never the same…
Wednesday I cited Edmund Gwenn: “Dying is easy, comedy is difficult”, and in the context I’d hope to frame, I disagreed.
So I felt before my blogging stint for Playbill.com drew to a close, I’d like to express my gratitude for this life, for my family and friends, for the powers of example who often cut through ice and iron to improve me -
Please indulge me one more time as I free associate:
Random acts of kindness, civilized disagreement, patience, tolerance, acceptance -
Tinkers to Evers to Chance -
Watkins, Buckley, Grano, Carlson, and the comedy stylings of Strober and Bennett -
“We’re off to see the wizard…”
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain…
What makes the Hottentots so hot – whatta they got that I ain’t got?
The Cowardly Lion replies: “Courage”…
“Do one thing every day that scares you.” (Eleanor Roosevelt)
To which the author replies: “I’ll give it a try” -
One day at a time…
I gotta make like a hockey player and get the puck outta here…
We are happy to welcome guest celebrity blogger Peter Scolari, the three-time Emmy Award nominee for his work in the situation comedy “Newhart.” Scolari, who is currently in rehearsal for the new Off-Broadway comedy White’s Lies (performances begin April 12 at New World Stages), will blog for Playbill.com all week; his fourth entry follows:
Yesterday, the kid gloves came off and I spoke from the heart and
expressed some pretty deep stuff.
But that was yesterday, and now I’m rummaging around the apartment
looking for those damn kid gloves…
Got ‘em. Phew…
I’m a child of the ’50s. I grew up on the poor side of the tracks in
Scarsdale, NY, which only means that we drove Pontiacs, not Cadillacs.
I have two younger brothers and an older sister —
My brother Art designs balloon animals and can whistle out of his nose. Incredible. He was also a three time All-American Springboard diver at Allegheny College in Meadville, PA, back in the mid-’70s.
He’d have been a four-time All-American Springboard diver but lost his swimsuit at Nationals.
I was close by and offered him a cut-off pair of clown pants I’d bought
at a rummage sale in Sarasota, FL.
In his haste he put them on backwards —
On a double-twisting, inward one-and-a-half somersault, the trick
flower prop exploded from the front with confetti, temporarily blinding
him, and after losing control, he hit the pool in a fetal position.
To the shock and amazement of all, he then climbed out of the pool,
approached the judges table, and sang a medley of show tunes.
He’d always had pitch problems, and the Judges seemed okay with that,
but his Jazz Hands looked like he was hitchhiking on a roller coaster.
Nowadays, he swims in a evening gown, or not at all…
We are happy to welcome guest celebrity blogger Peter Scolari, the three-time Emmy Award nominee for his work in the situation comedy “Newhart.” Scolari, who is currently in rehearsal for the new Off-Broadway comedy White’s Lies (performances begin April 12 at New World Stages), will blog for Playbill.com all week; his third entry follows:
Whoever said, “Dying is easy, comedy is difficult” was a clever one, but most likely still alive at the time of his utterance.
I’m Peter Scolari, and I’d prefer not to test the merits of such a comparison…
Greetings from New World Stages, where we are soon to enter the limbo of tech rehearsals for White’s Lies, a new comedy by Ben Andron, which begins previews this April 12th. Check your local listings.
I have blogged herein for a couple of days now and yesterday’s already infamous “Designer Run-through” blog was a comedic near-death experience for me. I survived, but some who read it and enjoyed it are now feeling ashamed and unclean.
To them and to their families, I can only offer my heartfelt condolences and warm wishes for a speedy recovery.
Are you ready for a segue?
I’m working through stuff today – the trusting of comic instincts, a hideous chore; the search for different solutions to age-old problems in staging and writing.
And sometimes, if you’ve been around as long as I have as an actor (36 years this fall, Oy! Such a child star), then you may find yourself in the unenviable position of quarreling with what seems to be going well…
My mother sent me a card at a propitious moment in my young life: “When your cup runneth over, watcheth out”…
I don’t think it came from Hallmark…
And it’s just that sort of wry comment that both warns and encourages -
The first great encouragement I received as a young actor was from my mentor Michael Lessac: “Have the courage to fail.”
A warning from the late Jack Albertson, who said after praising an early Off-b’way performance of mine: “You seem like a nice kid – If you can do something else for a living, do it. Its a terrible business.”
I was so disheartened I decided I’d never give up, and I’ve wondered many times since: “Was that his intention, to trick me, so that I might have greater incentive?”
I never saw him again and he passed some years back, so I’ll never know…
And now with White’s Lies we are at the first of what may be more than a few critical junctures -
Questions in our hearts and minds about what works, what do we have here, and the most dreaded of all pondering: “Is it funny, am I, are we,” and by the way, “How’s that whole ‘courage to fail’ thing working out?”
George Burns once said something along the lines of: “Tragedy is when something terrible happens to you, comedy is when it happens to somebody else.”
Its a funny thing to say, but for me, its relevance ends with that -
I’m not unique among those who have more than once made their living in comedy in conceding that it is from a brooding, moody core, a restlessness, that I originate what I do.
And I believe that analyzing comedy is like dissecting a frog: “You learn a lot, but it doesn’t go very well for the frog” (possibly paraphrased from E. B. White, I’m not really sure, I heard it so long ago…).
What do you get when you combine two water fowl?
“A paradox” -
(Don’t worry, that hurt me more than it hurts you now..)
And therein lies the heart of the matter:
“It’s the heart that matters”… (Counting Crows – I’m fairly sure about that one)
I guess the truth of why I’ve stalled today my homage to S.J. Perelman and Woody Allen, who have inspired my previous two postings, is to tell
you of another inspiration:
Yesterday, as a cast of would-be fools and text-pirates, we bonded -
And it began with the passion of a person who surely has the “courage to fail,” but who would rather not, and to that end proposes we do what
we can do as a team, and that nothing else will serve as a substitute.
She knows who she is, and so do the rest of us…
So whether or not we score with the critics, and sell out regularly because or in spite of them, I can assure you we will make you laugh if
you are ready, willing, and able…
Dying is easy? Maybe…
I wouldn’t know and I won’t be able to tell you after -
But comedy is fear and insight that by luck and love, sometimes by hook or crook, converts to absurd joy…
We are happy to welcome guest celebrity blogger Peter Scolari, the three-time Emmy Award nominee for his work in the situation comedy “Newhart.” Scolari, who is currently in rehearsal for the new Off-Broadway comedy White’s Lies (performances begin April 12 at New World Stages), will blog for Playbill.com all week; his second entry follows:
Wow, it’s only my second blog and I’ve already figured out how to use the spell-chick…
Peter Scolari here, giving you the latest news from White Lies rehearsals over at the New World Stages:
We had a designer’s run-through today — I’d actually not heard of such a thing before, but it looked as though Donna Karan really enjoyed the
show…
I think it was Donna Karan…
Bruno Magli talked throughout the first three scenes but settled in nicely after someone brought in thin-crust pizza from across the street…
Betsey Johnson blew bubbles from some contraption she’d probably bought from the kid’s show next door to us — She’s really cute and everything,
but you know I thought about it later and in retrospect, I think it was maybe a tad inappropriate…
That being said, her shoes were fabulous…
Apparently Tommy Hilfiger was a no-show, but Eileen Fisher made it, ditto Ann Taylor — Ralph Lauren sent his ten-year-old nephew in a Spider-Man costume, but the chaps didn’t work for me…
Too busy…
Anyway, everyone agreed that Diane Von Furstenberg was stunning, but I felt she’d only come to see Betty Buckley and couldn’t have been less
interested in the rest of us…
Cole Haan loved me, but thought Jimmy Ray Bennett was a little too butch…
John Varvatos left with Rena Strober, but you didn’t hear it from me…
Christy Carlson Romano signed a lucrative deal with Guess Jeans and may leave the show…
After the run-through, I saw Andrea Grano chatting up Calvin Klein, and he clearly had no objections, but having never seen him up close, I guess
I’d not been aware that he was a tall African-American man.
It’s crazy.
You think you know a person because you’ve seen them on stage or in a movie and yet as it turns out, sometimes they’re right in front of you – and if you don’t look closely you could walk right past them and never know…
I was trying to get through the turnstile at the IRT and my card wouldn’t swipe -
A very kind, somewhat bedraggled looking man took my card and with his one good hand, swiped me through –
Chris Walken
I gave him fifty cents…
I stopped in for a calzone at La Famiglia on the corner of 50th and B’way. I looked closely at the guy who served me and I saw greasepaint
on his collar –
Anthony LaPaglia, helping out between shows…
He’s a great guy, I’d met him years ago in Pittsburgh, but he’s really let himself go…
Tuc Watkins and I had coffee today after the run-through. He had a regular cup of “joe.” I had a tall, half-caf, cherry mocha, with a twist of
mint.
As I went for the chocolate sprinkle powder, I was hip-checked by what I’d first thought was a crazy person: “My powder,” she said, “mine, mine, mine,” and poured it in the front of her open-toed shoes…
We are happy to welcome guest celebrity blogger Peter Scolari, the three-time Emmy Award nominee for his work in the situation comedy “Newhart.” Scolari, who is currently in rehearsal for the new Off-Broadway comedy White’s Lies (performances begin April 12 at New World Stages), will blog for Playbill.com all week; his first entry follows:
Playbill.com has asked me to blog for them. It took a while for me to decide, I’d thought blogging was some kind of competitive winter sport. Turns out it’s not…
I’m Peter Scolari – I’m currently rehearsing White Lies, a new comedy by Ben Andron, at New World Stages. We open in previews this April 12th, with a May 6th opening that’s bound to be fun, because we’re told the cue lights will be fully operational by the 5th.
It’s Off-Broadway, my friends – We’re wearing our own clothes and make all our entrances and exits through the same door…
The play stars Tuc Watkins and Betty Buckley as Joe White and his mom. Tuc is so handsome we have to rehearse with our eyes closed. He’s also very funny. And generous. I’m not sure how much more of him I can take…
Betty Buckley is equally beautiful and a much better singer than Tuc. But she doesn’t sing in White Lies. Apparently, the producers were willing to spring for the sheet music but refused to pay for lyrics. Betty handled the entire snafu with aplomb, because no other fruits were available…
The cast includes Christy Carlson Romano as “Michelle,” Andrea Grano as “Barbara Edwards,” her mom, and in numerous but distinctly different male and female characters are Rena Strober and Jimmy Ray Bennett.
Christy is sexy and funny, but she seems too tall for me…
Andrea is a gifted character actor and comedienne, also beautiful and sexy, but reminds me a little bit of my first ex-wife. I have a strange compulsion to buy her a house. I need to work through that without having to pay a lawyer…
Rena Strober is painfully funny – It’s distracting, maybe even an Equity violation. I’d check into it but it turns out that she is also the Equity Deputy. So for now, my hands are tied. I’m typing this blog with my thumbs, which is why it’s taking so long…
Jimmy Ray is from Tallahassee, Florida, so you can pretty much write your own joke here…
Bob Cline is directing the show wearing a different pair of trousers every day – not easy for a guy who has to be back in lockdown every night by nine. I’m kidding, of course. He has till 9:30…
On a lighter note, I’m being treated beautifully by everyone. Just today the entire cast got together and told me that I didn’t have to come back tomorrow, you know, just like take care of anything I needed to, make an audition or something…
