Jordan Wright
March 2010
 Ted Deasy, who currently stars in the Alfred Hitchcock-inspired THE 39 STEPS at the Warner Theatre, graciously granted me an interview to share his views on theatre, food and the arts. The two-time Tony and Drama Desk award-winning play will run till March 28th. The following are some earlier reviews. It is scheduled to open Off-Broadway later this month.
Ben Brantley of the New York Times, called the production, “Absurdly enjoyable! This gleefully theatrical riff on Hitchcock’s film is fast and frothy, performed by a cast of four that seems like a cast of thousands. The actors themselves seem to be having a helluva good time. As does the audience.”
 Claire Brownell and Ted Deasy in ALFRED HITCHCOCKS THE 39 STEPS Clive Barnes, of the New York Post, pronounced THE 39 STEPS “Inventively astonishing, riotous & marvelous.”
Joe Dziemianowicz, of the New York Daily News, exclaimed, “Hitchcock probably never imagined his thriller had the makings of a hilarious comedy, but this show is a dizzy delight and an ingenious spoof, inventively directed by Maria Aitken. A fast-paced fun ride!”
It continues to play to sold-out houses in London’s West End.
Jordan Wright – I apologize that I haven’t seen the show as of yet. I’ll be seeing it next week.
Ted Deasy – It’s fairly common to hear that unless you’ve seen it in New York. It’s a gem of a show that most people haven’t yet heard of. It just didn’t get that much attention. But it’s like the little engine that could.
Its success is mostly word-of-mouth. People say, “Ya hafta see it!” It’s an irreverent and fun send-up of Hitchcock. It’s music hall and vaudeville…pure theatricality.
For me it’s a joy to be in a show like this because it’s enjoyable for all generations. It’s an evening full of actors playing multiple roles with a script directly from the 1935 film. It has a great sense of decorum and tongue-in-cheek for the adults as well as kids and teens.
JW – I understand there is a great deal of slapstick and physical comedy?
TD – Our director pulled from everything you can imagine – from vaudeville, from comedia, from slapstick. Also any of the old theatrical styles, like Shakespearean asides. The physical part is done super-fast. In order to create that sense of excitement it moves incredibly quickly and with great style. It captures that sort of breathlessness.
JW – I understand that there are only four actors but dozens of roles. How does that work?
TD – The roles are divided up. I play one role and I’m on stage throughout, but Claire, the classic Hitchcock blonde, plays four different roles. The other two actors play between 130 – 150 different roles, some “roles” are actually inanimate objects. Some of the actors are instantaneously changing characters over and over, often playing three characters simultaneously.
JW – Had you done physical comedy before?
TD – Sure. One of the great treats doing this show was that the casting agents were looking for actors that had had careers doing classical work. I’ve done Moliere and outdoor Shakespeare, as have Eric and Claire, but this was nothing like I’ve done before.
It looked effortless when I first saw the show. But it took a lot of rehearsal to make it look that way. It was a great challenge to make this crazy, mayhem, funny, show look fast and effortless.
JW – I discovered you had a coffee shop and bakery in Jackson Heights, very near Astoria, where actors, Christopher and Glenn Walken grew up and where I met them when they were in their twenties. Their parents owned Walken’s Bakery, where Lydia Bastianich once worked. I wondered if you knew that Queens was an incubator for Hollywood actors and gourmands!
TD – That’s extraordinary! I didn’t know that. My partner, Gina and I started baking for casts and they loved it and we loved doing it. People kept asking us to do more. When we moved to NY we worked for a farm cooperative. We were just doing this on the side.
Three years ago we opened the bakery and coffee shop and we’re still trying to figure out how to make it work – to find the right balance. The store is on hiatus right now since we are both under contract in different parts of the country.
JW – Recently one of the country’s top chefs, Jose Andres, was given an award in the arts by The Vilcek Foundation who included the culinary arts in their definition of the arts. As an actor who is involved in the food arts how do you see the relationship between the two?
TD – That’s great to hear that! I listen to so many people and their issues with food and I think about why we eat and how we eat. And I hope for people to experience, especially if they’re in the arts, sitting down to a meal and thinking of it as if it were an art event. It incorporates all of your senses.
 Alfred Hitchcock’s THE 39 STEPS You need to look at what’s in front of you and see the preparation visually and then experience it orally. Then you feel afterwards, like with a play, or an art opening, a dance piece or the opera, that you might have the same satisfaction. You can ask, “How did this happen, why did this happen, where did this come from and where are we going with this?”
I think the best dietary experience that people can have is to not talk about restricting or denying [themselves], but to actually think about, “What this is, how is it made, what is the preparation and why do I want it?”
People just don’t take the time to examine these things. I do think that the theatre and the culinary arts are intrinsically tied together.
JW – Will you reopen your bakery again?
TD – We plan to be back in New York in July and, although we’re not sure what we will do with the bakery, Gina, who is now out West, was experimenting with a new cupcake recipe yesterday. It was a chocolate Guinness cupcake with a milk chocolate malted buttercream icing.
So although we don’t yet know if we’ll continue with baking it’s like Tom Stoppard said [in Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern], “You can’t unstir the jam!”
This interview was conducted, edited and condensed by Jordan Wright. For questions or comments on this interview contact [email protected] or visit www.WhiskandQuill.com.
www.warnertheatre.com
www.39stepsonbroadway.com
Jordan Wright
March 2010
 Korean director/screenwriter Bong Joon-ho at the Ritz Carlton in Georgetown - photo by Jordan Wright Korean-born Bong Joon-ho is one of the most seminal and controversial directors and screenwriters to emerge lately onto the international film scene. With two of the highest-grossing films in his country’s history, “The Host” and “Memories of a Murder”, he has enjoyed critical success at major worldwide film festivals, gaining US notoriety with the release of his latest venture, “Mother”, a grisly murder mystery reflecting deep oedipal themes, that was chosen as a Cannes Official Selection along with such notable directors as Ang Lee, Jane Campion, Pedro Almodovar, Werner Herzog and Terry Gilliam. A brilliant craftsman of the suspense genre his work recalls a number of classic filmmakers, yet he shows a remarkable social consciousness rarely addressed by the old masters.
Jordan Wright – I thought I sensed Hitchcock, Tarantino, Japanese director, Kurosawa, and Roman Polanski in your film, “Mother”. Who would you say are your greatest influences?
Bong Joon-ho – I was always inspired by Hitchcock…ever since I was young. I grew up watching so many of his films. He is a big influence of course. As a matter of fact during pre-production of “Mother” I was thinking of “Psycho” and I couldn’t stop wondering if the mother from “Psycho” had still been alive in the film would a little of that twisted mother/son relationship be similar to that relationship in “Mother”.
JW – There were so many different plots, counter-plots and sub-plots presented in your film. Notwithstanding the complexity of action, in the dizzying array of characters, each one was well developed and presented. Would you talk about the broader themes you conveyed in this film?
BJH – The broader theme of my film was how far would a mother actually go to clear her accused son’s name and the second one was the sexual theme in this film. As you know there is a little girl that is missing and throughout the neighborhood there is a whole history surrounding the disappearance of this girl and the sexual scandals revealed. I really wanted to portray that alongside the sexual hysteria of the crime. I thought of how the characters tried to help each other and I wanted to express how they actually end up hurting one another.
Each simple character in this film is powerless. They do not have money or authority. I wanted to portray how these individuals met and mingled and became tangled up through the very tragic force of their meeting. Case in point, the high school girl who sells her body for money to an older man and also the main character, Crazy JP, who has Down’s Syndrome and who is being accused of this crime. The mother knows all the relationships between these individuals and she is in agony trying to make sense of it. I wanted to show how they wind up hurting each other in a very tragic manner.
JW – The opening scene in which the hit-and-run Mercedes driver was discovered at the local country club seemed to touch on the class system still in place in Korea. How did Korea’s “Old Guard” receive your film?
BJH – There wasn’t really any negative feedback [in regards to that]. I think because my previous movie, “The Host”, was more of a parody on the US and I remember that conservatives were not thrilled with that film. But with “Mother” the core story was not controversial.
JW – In American culture we share many of the same social issues you have in Korea. Why was it important to you to highlight societal themes of malaise, lack of education, disenfranchisement, poverty, and the increase of youth violence?
BJH – Even in the past my films would always try to portray these individuals as outside the scope of government assistance. I hoped that by my focusing in on them I could bring attention to the faults or shortcomings of the system and bring awareness to a greater audience. I address this in my previous film, “The Host”. But in “Mother” I feel it is purely about the mother and her relationship with her son.
JW – Talk about your style of directing. Is it hands-on? Do you vary from the script or use the actor’s emotions in a scene to drive the result?
BJH – In my case I always write my own script and then do a storyboard. My storyboard has many details and I already have fixed the set-up position of the cameras and frames. But I always try to do something new and different on set and when I shoot I always hope to give the actors some kind of freedom.
I love the improvisation of the actors and also in regards to lighting and production design. I try to allow as much freedom and vitality for the actors to bring their characters to life. In my opinion the relationship between the actor and director is much more intimate and personal than that between cinematographer and actor, and you can never predict what is going to happen. I like to get to know the actors personally to discover what they’re really like.
JW – In future how do you see bringing your films to the US?
BJH – I enjoy the stable relationship that I have with Magnolia Pictures even though my films are not yet in wide release. Actually they [Magnolia] have recently purchased the copyrights of my very first film.
In my opinion there is currently a limit of how far foreign films can be widely received and appreciated. Hopefully in due time there will be a greater audience for subtitled foreign films and I really want to be a part, even if it is small, of how viewers in the US receive foreign films.
This interview was conducted, edited and condensed by Jordan Wright. For comments or questions contact [email protected].
Jordan Wright
December 7th, 2009
 striking 12 Valerie Vigoda, Gene Lewis, and Brendan Milburn in Striking 12 at Arena Stage December 2 - December 13, 2009 (photo by Joan Marcus) Groove Lily etched a new groove at Arena Stage last night with their performance of Striking 12. Based on Hans Christian Andersen’s story of ‘The Little Match Girl’ this rock musical, co-written by band members, Valerie Vigoda, on electric violin, keyboardist Brendan Milburn and playwright, Rachel Sheinkin, is an enchanting, heart-wrenching, comedic avenue into the soul.
Set in modern-day New York, with flashbacks to Copenhagen, all roles are played by the three musicians…add blow-out drummer and record producer, Gene Lewin, who channels a Jewish grandma better than Estelle Getty. It’s a knockout show by a rock band with multi-dimensional talents.
I was introduced to Groove Lily seven or eight years ago by a good friend who has now made it a sideline to book acts for Focus Music (an all-volunteer org that presents folk and acoustic music around the DC area). I fell for their tight power-packed sound and well-enunciated lyrics but even more so by the force-of-nature haunting violin strains of Vigoda, who grew up in McLean, VA. If you’ve never heard her play you are missing a piece of your heart.
Around that same time the Army used her image in a recruiting print ad that was featured in every mainstream mag across the nation. There was red-hot Valerie in her camo fatigues and combat boots, wailing on her violin and urging future rock stars to join Uncle Sam. She got some flak for that…not the ammo type.
She was a part timer, ROTC in college, with an 8-year commitment in the reserves as a weekend warrior and then four years with the IRR. She says it gave her the skills and stick-to-tiveness she needed for show biz, though she never once played in an Army band.
I spoke to Vigoda this week as she and husband, Milburn, were en route to New York’s Lincoln Center to receive ASCAP’s Richard Rogers New Horizons Award. (Tiny disclosure here: I am a 40-year member of ASCAP. My sister a 25-year member of New York’s prestigious Outer Critics Circle.)
Jordan Wright – What was the first instrument you played?
 striking 12 Valerie Vigoda in Striking 12 at Arena Stage December 2- December 13, 2009 (Photo by Joan Marcus). Valerie Vigoda – I used to sit on the piano bench with my father [Bob Vigoda, noted jazz musician] and learned to play with him. I wanted to play trumpet but I never could have sung and played had I chosen that.
JW – Do you play any other instruments?
VV – I played mandolin in the Cyndi Lauper band and I’ve just learned the banjo.
JW – I understand you are writing for Disney now. What’s that like?
VV – We have written the theme song for Pixar’s TinkerBell and the Lost Treasure, a prequel to Peter Pan, being released direct to Blu-Ray and DVD. It sold 2 million copies in its first week. It’s our first song for a movie. I can’t believe how big it is! They now have Pixie Hollow attractions at Disneyland and in Disney Paris. All these little girls go crazy to meet TinkerBell and her fairy friends. They love TinkerBell! There will be six of these movies. So now we are writing songs for the second, third and fourth one.
Also we have written the music for Toy Story: The Musical – an adaption for the stage of the movie that came out in 1995 with Randy Newman songs. This new version will be live on stage at the Hyperion Theater at Adventure Park next year where it will be presented four times a day. It’s currently on the Disney cruise ships.
At the theme parks it will have a giant orchestra with puppets made by Michael Curry [who did the phantasmagorical puppets for Cirque de Soleil, The Lion King and the Olympic Opening Ceremonies]. It’s a spectacular multi-million dollar Broadway-type production with a big cast, about 25 people, and we are so excited because we have loved Toy Story since we saw it when Brendan and I first started dating.
JW – Do you record at the Disney studios?
VV – We go there around once a week and work song by song.
JW – Will you perform at Lincoln Center the night you receive your award?
VV – We’ll play “Only a King” from our show Sleeping Beauty Wakes.
JW – Will you be doing any solo work?
VV – Ernest Shackleton Loves Me is my one-woman show. I’m playing the banjo in it. For a long time we’ve been planning to do a show just for me. I love a live audience and get twitchy without it. Whereas Brendan is not as interested in performing. So we’re writing this show together with Joe Di Pietro who wrote the current Broadway hit MEMPHIS and I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change.
JW – Did I hear that you’re doing Striking 12 at Imagination Stage in Bethesda next week?
VV – Well, we won’t be in it. Actually Striking 12 is currently in production on over a dozen stages worldwide. We were able to license the show – adapt it for others to do with larger casts. It will be in Korea this coming year.
JW – What’s on the immediate horizon for you?
VV – Sleeping Beauty Wakes is another show we’re really excited about. It’s in development at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, NJ. We are very hopeful that we are going to take the show to Broadway. We wrote it but won’t perform it. It’s a fairy tale with a twist about Sleeping Beauty oversleeping for a thousand years and waking up in a modern-day sleep clinic. It’s another collaboration with Rachel Sheinkin who won a Tony award for The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.
Bob Vigoda, who had initially been apprehensive about his daughter’s career choice, still lives in McLean, VA, no longer afraid of her following in his footsteps.
Conducted, edited and condensed by Jordan Wright. For comments or queries contact [email protected] or visit www.WhiskandQuill.com .
Striking 12 will be at Arena Stage in Crystal City until December 13th.
www.ArenaStage.com
www.GrooveLily.com
www.FocusMusic.org
Jordan Wright
December 7, 2009
 Sarah, The Duchess of York discusses her film, The Young Victoria at Neiman Marcus - photo by Jordan Wright The strikingly disarming Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, familiar to us as ‘Fergie’, stood in a black and red wool suit at Neiman Marcus today and told the story of Queen Victoria and her great love, Prince Albert. She called it, “A contemporary love story in an historical setting.”
 The rare and signed Clive Christian perfume 'No. 1' - photo by Jordan Wright In her role as co-producer, along with seasoned filmmakers Martin Scorsese, Tim Headington and Graham King, the Duchess of York was the driving force in getting the film made. The film stars Emily Blunt and Rupert Friend and opens on December 18th.
The Duchess, whose own difficulties are long behind her, described the travails of Victoria before she became Queen of England, “Her mother was extremely strong-willed and kept her in her tummy,” she said, “withholding delivery throughout a six-week drive over unpaved roads, all the way to London, so that she that she could be born in England.
“Oh, I thought that was interesting!” she quipped. “In order to get the Regency from her uncle, the King, Victoria was kept in a gilded cage for 17 years. She never saw anybody, never talked to anybody and wasn’t allowed to read. The King was furious!” she said. She said the story had so touched her that she became committed to making the film which was started six years ago.
“At eighteen she took the throne as the youngest reigning sovereign ever. She and Albert had nine children in 25 years. A very passionate love story!”
I asked her about the costumes displayed around her, “Are they costumes from the film?”
 Emily Blunt as Queen Victoria in The Young Victoria - photo by Jordan Wright “Yes they are and look at that tiny waist! They wore corsets. Albert wore corsets too!” she let on.
 Victoria Christian and Sarah, The Duchess of York at the Neiman Marcus signing - photo by Jordan Wright Accompanying the Duchess was Victoria Christian, there to introduce Clive Christian ‘No. 1’, described as one of “the rarest and most expensive scents ever created”, only 1,000 bottles are produced annually and retail for $2350.00.
Twenty-five years ago a young Victoria discovered an original bottle beneath the floorboards of their family’s Victorian manor home. Her father, Clive Christian, founder of the noted British Design House, was so inspired by its association with Queen Victoria, that he bought the 1800’s Perfumery to the Queen in 1999 in order to revive the line.
Later the pair sat together in the store while the Duchess graciously signed boxes of the perfume and posters of the upcoming film.
No gaffes were sighted and the Duchess appeared to have a splendid time among the excited photo-snapping shoppers.
For questions or comments write to [email protected] and visit www.WhiskandQuill.com.
Food Inc. Clips
By Jordan Wright
In his new documentary “Food, Inc.,” scheduled to premiere here on June 19, producer Robert Kenner lifts the veil on the shameful underbelly of food production in this country. Kenner is the director of the Academy Award-winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” narrated by Al Gore. It’s now the fourth largest-grossing documentary of all time. After the screening I wondered, could “Food, Inc.” have the same radical, policy-changing influence on business as usual in the food production world as “An Inconvenient Truth” did when it challenged and informed us on climate change? Could we continue to ignore the realities of an industry gone haywire?
Featuring interviews with the iconic food author and activist Michael Pollan (“The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and “The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s Eye View of the World”), Eric Schlosser, author of “Fast Food Nation” and Joel Salatin, real-life farmer of Polyface Farms, a sustainable, organic model farm in Swoope, VA, and author of “Holy Cows and Hog Heaven”, the directors have proffered the reality of agri-business in this country. This is an inconvenient truth of a different kind. It reveals how our nation’s food is being raised, produced, slaughtered, cloned, genetically modified, seed patented and engineered, and co-opted and controlled by a few mega-conglomerates. Monsanto, Smithfield and Con-Agra top the list of eco-villains. Continue reading FOOD, INC. REVIEW OF FILM BY ROBERT KENNER
April 2010
 Paul Scott Goodman in Son of a Stand Up Comedian - Photo credit: Chris Mueller Paul Scott Goodman’s edgy solo show opened at MetroStage last night. Set in 1980’s Manhattan counter-culture, it is a time capsule itinerary of a hip rocker’s life…a soul-baring, self-analytical musical voyage with the Scottish-born Goodman at the helm. At turns sarcastic and heart-warming, the monologue-set-to-music is Goodman’s chance to bat back at the travesties, injustices and sheer bad luck that befell his early musical career.
While he rails at mega Broadway productions, “Broadway is dead!”, and a failed fling as a catering waiter who joined the party and then was given the bum’s rush (he expresses surprise at this), there is no doubt that Goodman, an inspired and award-winning songwriter, accomplished guitarist and tale-spinner, puts forth raw energy in this semi-autobiographical piece.
Tender memories of meeting his wife, Miriam Gordon, the show’s collaborator, conversations with his stand-up Jewish comedian father and an unexpected sidelining off the Forest Hills “N” train to make a “mikvah” with strangers during the birth of his first child; save the show from total self-absorption. It remains to be seen if it will translate outside the New York City, Woody Allen brand of one-therapist-per-resident culture. But in the end it is Goodman’s sanguine, Scottish-accented, musical introspection that keeps the audience humming and toe-tapping along with him.
www.metrostage.org
For comments or queries on this article contact [email protected].
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