Interview: Dorian Woodruff of THE LYRICS OF ALAN AND MARILYN BERGMAN at Pangea

A musical storyteller so respected that almost every time he puts out a new show he is nominated for an award, Dorian Woodruff is one of the industry’s most stalwart singers.  Known for producing shows of elegance and sophistication in which the music is beyond compare and the tales told eloquent and erudite, Mr. Woodruff has spent his life dedicated to his craft.  Well, not all of his life, for the gentleman behind such shows as Welcome Home: Everyone Has A Story and Studio Musician: The Music Of Manilow works in arts and antiquities for a major corporation, as well as in his own home, where his collection of fine furnishings and art is an indication of his impeccable taste.  This job and this homelife sometimes keep Dorian away from the clubs, and in 2022 he made only one on-stage appearance all year, to the disappointment of his admirers.  Fortunately, Dorian Woodruff is set to return to Pangea with that show from 2022.  One week from today Woodruff’s fans and followers will be able to enjoy THE LYRICS OF ALAN AND Marilyn Bergman, opening at Pangea at 7 pm, with an encore on December 9th.  

As the charming crooner puts the final touches on his Bergman tribute show, he was kind enough to take a call from Broadway World Cabaret to talk about deconstructing lyrics, the need for longtime professional relationships, and owls, lots and lots of owls.

This interview has been edited for space and content.

Dorian Woodruff, welcome back to Broadway World!

Hello.

How are you today?

I am well! How are you?

You won't hear me complain.  (Dorian laughs heartily) You are coming back to Pangea with your Alan and Marilyn Bergman show.

Yes.

Which I did not get to see the last time. I apologize, and I'm going to be there this time. 

We all have busy lives.  It’s all good.

Tell me about your relationship with the artistry of the Bergmans.

It is very personal because some of these songs, my grandmother taught me when I was very young, some were taught to me by one of her dear friends who was also a singer. So I grew up with these songs, listening to these songs, but when you're young you don't have a full understanding, a full appreciation of lyrics. You're more drawn to the hook of a melody or something catchy. But as you get older and listen to these lyrics, you think, oh my. There's really something deep and almost bordering on life-changing in some of these lyrics.

You are one of the industry’s singers who really takes a deep dive into the lyrics. You deconstruct them, and you make sure that you're always telling a story. At what point in your trajectory did that become a primary focus?

When I was, I think, a freshman in high school, I saw an interview with Liza Minnelli, and she said that she takes a notebook, and, down the center of the notebook, opens it up - she writes the lyrics as full sentences.  On the right-hand side of the page, she's answering the questions for each one of these sentences, as if she's having a conversation with someone; and on the left-hand side, she's writing the full backstory, the subtext. And I thought, “Oh, that's it!” And so I journal every song. The first tune I sat down and journaled was “Why Did I Choose You?” and I wrote everything out as full sentences, and started answering the questions, as I was having a little snippy fight with my lover, saying to him, I don't know why you're with me. Why did I choose you?  Or him saying (it) to me, and I'm saying, “Why did I choose you? I will tell you.” And you answer every one of those questions. It's the same with Alan and Marilyn Bergman, especially tunes like “Summer Me, Winter Me” - it's all about making love with your lover.

I once heard a story that Barbara Cook was teaching a masterclass, and on the subject of what is the song about, she said, “Every song is about sex.”

Every song is about sex. Absolutely true. 

You agree with that.

Absolutely. 

To that end, it's about the relationships.

Full relationships - whether they're completely realized or in the beginning stages, or you are doing this one for fun, you're doing this one to be serious. This was my long-term one. This is the one I want for the forever one.  Every one of these songs can be about any of those stages, and that's the good thing about working with Lina Koutrakos because she pushes me to get inside and behind and underneath that lyric.

You have been with Lina for a very long time, not just as a director and a teacher, but as a friend.

Yes.

Tell me the benefit of finding that professional relationship that's like a marriage, and staying in that relationship for a long time.

I think Lina is one of these people that does not blow smoke up your ass. She'll get right in your face and say, “That ain't it. Now let's get to work.”   When I'm writing patter for a show, I sit and I write and I write and I write, and I'll send Lina 50 to 60 pages of patter, and she has to condense that to three. It's giving her all of that, giving her all the backstory, giving her all of the questions answered for the songs, and letting her work.

You have an extensive background as a musician.

Not as extensive as some but  I have a little.

When you go into clubs and see your colleagues, do you find that, as an audience member, there’s a discernible difference in the mood between book shows and sets?

I do find a difference.  When I go to a show, I'm going there because of the performer, and I want to know why you're singing these songs. Even though the tunes may be incredible, and you sound amazing, I don't know why you're doing it. And I want more.

You are one of the cabaret artists that won’t work without a director.  Is that something for which you would advocate, across the board?

Absolutely!  Because your director is non-objective.  I can sit at my piano and play 12 tunes, and think, “I've got the 12 songs for my show,” then I'll meet with my director and, all of a sudden, through a little conversation, those 12 songs aren't working. The director has an eye that they're not caught in. I'm guilty of this - I will get something stuck in my head, like, this is it. This is the way it's gotta be. Then I'll present it and we'll work on it, and we’ll do a discussion and analysis, I can be completely wrong. My director is there to keep me on the right path. Directors are essential.  I think you can go to shows and you see which shows have directors and which don’t.

Do you save your journals after a show?

I've saved every journal I've ever written, since the third grade.

But you are a collector. You love to collect things.

My mother says I'm a hoarder. I am not a hoarder. A hoarder doesn't know where everything is. I know where every one of my collections is.

When did your passion for collecting begin?

I remember being around three years of age, and we went to this aviary, and I remember being fascinated by the owls, and falling in love with the owls. That was the moment I started collecting owl figurines, stuffed animals, pictures, and books about them. That kind of morphed into collecting jewelry and artwork and clothing and furniture. (Laughing)   I think that's when it started. I think I was three years old, seeing the owls.

Do you ever go back and revisit your journals?

Occasionally, when there's something I don't think I'm remembering correctly, I'll go back. The ones that I wrote when I was much younger, I read what I wrote, and I think, “If only my issues and concerns at this age were the same when I was 12.”  Life would be peachy keen.

Tell me about your upcoming album and how it relates to the show.

I had made a list of tunes that I wanted to put on an album, and I started to get in the studio with Lina and this amazing engineer named Nick, and with Tedd Firth on piano and Sean Harkness on guitar, and we would record tunes and they would get mastered and everything. And I realized the majority of the tunes on this album are Alan and Marilyn Bergman. It wasn't planned that way - some songs that I thought I wanted to record when we would get in the studio just didn't work. And Tedd would say, “What about this?”  We would just do a recording off the cuff, and it worked.   We have one tune called “Alone in the World” from a film called Russia House. Tedd had never heard it, and I handed in the chart, and in one take, we had the recording. It was one of those moments where I had never heard Tedd play it before, Tedd had never heard the song, and it was a first-time moment, and it just was perfect.

So the album led to the show?

I started working on the album after the show. The entire wall behind my piano is one big tack board - I have four by six index cards, and I have the album project on here, I have the tunes written, and, next to it, I have the Bergman Show. And I thought, “Oh, there's all of this crossover…” Looking at it, it's interesting how things start to crossover and gel when your mind's not even aware that it's happening. Everything in the show, every song in the show is all Bergman.  They're incredible songs, they're incredible lyrics too. Like, there's one lyric that says, “The joke November makes of May.” Who thinks of that? You know, November… it's fall. Everything's turning, it's a beautiful time. It's one of my favorite times of the year. And April showers bring May flowers, but this lyric is saying the end of the season coming to fruition and dying down and turning all those amazing colors is more important than everything blooming. I just find that fascinating, how they do that.

The Bergmans were very well known for all of their ballads. Were you worried about your show being ballad-heavy?

No.  Not at all.

Because you're not afraid of a power ballad.

I am not. In this show, there are not a lot of power ballads. There's "Summer Me, Winter Me," which gets big on the end. "Nice and Easy" is medium swing. There's kind of a circus theme song called "Leave It All To Me."  I start off with a bossa called “Cinamon and Clove.”

You are one of the last people to record with Mike Renzi.

Yes.

Will those recordings be on your album?

I know that one of them will be - (I’m) trying to decide on the second one. I recorded with him “The Nearness of You” and “Something To Live For.”

Do we have a release date for the album yet?

I am hoping the end of December or early January.   I still have four tunes to finish and get back in the studio to do.

When did you debut the Bergman show? 

This month, one year ago.  That's all my schedule allowed.

Last year it was a one-off but this year you have given yourself the luxury of two shows.

October 24th and December 9th. 

Do you find it more rewarding to get to do a show more than once, or does a one-off take the pressure off?

I find it rewarding to do multiple shows but I think it's important for me - I've realized, recently - to do them closer together (rather) than waiting another year because I'm kind of having to relearn some things all over again. 

But the benefit to doing a one-night-only thing is you sell out every seat.

Yes. And I did. And I was extremely grateful for that.

If you were put to the task of having to do this, what would you say is your favorite Marilyn and Alan Bergman song?

Oh, really? You're gonna throw that question out? 

Well, let me put it this way. What is your favorite Marilyn and Alan Bergman song to listen to? And what is your favorite Marilyn and Alan Bergman song to perform?

To perform, it would be “Nice and Easy.”

I love that song.

And a close second to that performing would be “Summer Me, Winter Me.”  To listen to, I think, “What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life?” And there are two other fun ones that I really like. One's called “The Trouble with Hello is Goodbye” and one that I think only two people have ever recorded called “Mozart In the Dark.”

Let me double down on this topic. If I were somebody who only listened to rock and roll music, and I'd never been exposed to Marilyn and Alan Bergman, and you wanted to give me a sort of starter kit, what four songs would you say I should start with?

The Way We Were, Alone in the World, Summer Me, Winter Me, and Nice and Easy.

It's a great tune.

It is a great tune, and it's in the show.

I'm really excited that I get to actually come see you this time.

I'm excited you're going to be there. 

Thank you, Dorian, for chatting with me today. I really appreciate it.

Absolutely. 

Dorian Woodruff presents: The Lyrics Of Alan And Marilyn Bergman will play Pangea October 24th and December 9th.   Get information and reservations on the Pangea website HERE.

 

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