Interview: For The Record, Anderson Davis' Currently Making CRIME Pay Everywhere He Can

For The Record (producer of famed film directors' homages set to pop song mash-ups in an interactive cabaret setting) has come a long way from their humble East Los Angeles small bar beginnings in 2010. With ongoing, full-scale productions in Las Vegas, a permanent venue on the Norwegian Cruise Line's Escape, and shows across the country; FTR has just contracted with dick clark productions and ABC to develop For The Record Live for television viewers.

BroadwayWorld had the opportunity to chat with FTR artistic director and co-creator Anderson Davis as he directs rehearsals for their latest FOR THE RECORD: SCORSESE - AMERICAN CRIME REQUIEM premiering September 21st at The Wallis in Beverly Hills.

Thank you, Anderson, for taking the time for this interview with BroadwayWorld and myself.

It's my pleasure.

How did FOR THE RECORD: SCORSESE - AMERICAN CRIME REQUIEM come about?

We've had plans to bring back the Scorsese chapter of the For The Record series for some time. Then the artistic director at The Wallis in Beverly Hills, Paul Crewes, saw an FTR production in LA and, I believe, saw some connection between the kind of outside-the-box, immersive theater-meets-nightclub style of our shows with what he had been doing for many years in the U.K. with his theater company Kneehigh. He and Shane (Scheel, FTR co-creator) began to explore the possibility of collaboration. Now we are just weeks away from opening the new season at The Wallis. With the incredible opportunity to do FTR: SCORSESE at The Wallis came the chance for me to completely rethink what a rock concert inspired by the cinematic universe of Martin Scorsese would be like. Now in the middle of rehearsals, I couldn't be more thrilled to be in such a beautiful space, working on something totally new.

Please tell our BroadwayWorld readers the storyline of FOR THE RECORD: SCORSESE - AMERICAN CRIME REQUIEM.

Imagine if five of the most notorious characters from Martin Scorsese's modern crime filmography shared one adaptive space: an East Village dive bar, an Italian restaurant, a Las Vegas casino, a Classic Rock concert, and even, at times, a Catholic cathedral all stacked on top of each other. These infamous men have arrived at this nameless bar as a kind of penance. A communion of killers to sing a requiem for the dead. But before they meet their fate, we find out, through the iconic soundtracks of films like Goodfellas, Casino, The Departed, and more; just how they came to arrive at "Marty's Place."

FTR: SCORSESE will include a mixed bag of familiar songs from a range of musical genres including: "Be My Baby," "Chariot," "My Way," "Rags To Riches," "Comfortably Numb," "House Of The Rising Sun," "Gimme Shelter."
Which was the first song that you're using that seemed a perfect fit for FTR: SCORSESE?

Without a doubt, "Gimme Shelter" by The Rolling Stones. The haunted rock style of the song, with Merry Clayton wailing, "War, Children. It's just a shot away!" is like going to the church of Rock n' Roll. We're using the song to bookend the "Wisdom of a Wiseguy" storyline.

What was the hardest song to fit into your adaptation of FTR: SCORSESE?

Luckily for us, there is a wealth of song options when pulling from the soundtracks. Casino, for example, is pretty much a non-stop jukebox of classic rock, 60s Doo Wop, Rat Pack crooners, and Blues tracks from beginning to end. So I was able to comb through and choose exactly the songs, or sometimes a mash-up of a few songs, that best fit the moment.

Describe your first connection with For The Record?

Like a lot of the For The Record acting company, I arrived in LA as a actor transplant from the NY Theater scene. It quickly dawned on me just how much of my life would be spent driving to auditions. No one really tells you this, but it's basically all of it. So it became essential that I find something to do other than listen to "This American Life" while idling, I'm talking completely still for 10 minutes on the 405.
That lifeline came when I met Shane Scheel and discovered that he and a lot of actor friends were doing these cabarets dedicated to the soundtracks of a particular filmmaker's work. So I started my journey with For The Record as an actor, thrilled to discover a group of performers in LA celebrating music and theater.
Cut to two years later. In that time, Shane and I discovered a shared passion for non-traditional theater and for finding the connection between why we love live concerts and why we love theatrical storytelling. With Shane's help, I began to expand the cabaret concept into something that could be both: a conceptual rock concert with a story to tell. That development began when the 60-seat bar where For The Record originated was expanded to a 150-seat supper club, and I adapted the work of Paul Thomas Anderson into a theatrical concert called BOOGIE NIGHTS.

How did those duties morph into becoming artistic director of For The Record?

When we realized this new expanded concept had legs and could really develop into something interesting, Shane, myself, and our partner Siobhan O'Neill formed a company to establish a foundation from which we could develop the FOR THE RECORD series and other hybrid live entertainment.

How do you and Shane pick a show to pay homage to?

Right now, we're focused on the filmmakers who have defined the art of the movie soundtracks. The directors who have perfected the art of marrying a scene to just the right song from pop culture's collective memory. For me, it creates the feeling of shared experience. Like you're in the car with this character (probably stuck on the 405) and a song comes on the radio which you both know. The character looks back and says, "You a Stones fan, too?" Or it could be a psychotic mass murderer and the knowledge that the psycho is big fan of 60s Doo Wop is particularly disturbing. These are the core points of inspiration for the FOR THE RECORD series. So, of course, that includes Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, John Hughes, and Baz Luhrmann; but it also includes other directors like The Coen Brothers, Sophia Coppola, and Wes Anderson.

What criteria in a project do you look for?

What I'm particularly interested in, at the moment, and I think this is true for our company in general as well, is again, where the common ground lies between rock concerts and theater. There's something almost transcendental about the best live concerts. It's probably the closest I get to being in church. Part of finding that experience in a theater piece is about letting the music speak for itself, and not always forcing the songs into a traditional narrative. Conversely, taking the concert and guiding it through a conceptual narrative is also really fun. It gives the epic sweep of a big rock concert a sense of purpose and takes you on a journey. That particular area of concert-meets-theater is what I'm excited about right now.

You earned a BFA in Drama from Carnegie Mellon University and started your theatrical career as an onstage performer. Did you always want to direct?

Yes, even in college while studying acting, I was always interested in creating my own theater pieces. Also... I have a hard time being told what to do. I bet that played into it as well, as I'm sure it does for a lot of actor-turned-directors.

As one who's performed, do you feel you are 'nicer' or more empathetic to your performers when you're directing them?

That's funny because it's absolutely true that directors fall on a huge spectrum of "niceness" - from wanting to be everyone's best friend to lacking the most basic human empathy. I'm guessing I fall somewhere in the middle and I do think it has a lot to do with being an actor myself. Yes, I have a lot more understanding for the process of acting and how emotionally exposing it can be. But I'm also keenly aware of the typical actor traps - faking it, self-consciousness, laziness, etc. - that I have fallen into many times myself.

This year you opened a show at The Palazzo Theater in Las Vegas - BAZ - STAR CROSSED LOVE and a show on a cruise ship - THE BRAT PACK on the Norwegian Cruise Line's Escape. What have been the challenges or hurdles of producing/creating a Vegas show and a show on a cruise ship?

Maybe this is no surprise, but the challenges of making theater on a cruise ship and in Las Vegas are strikingly similar. The essential difference between theater in LA or NYC, and theater in these places is that a show on a cruise ship or a casino is not the end game. In LA or NYC, you might go to dinner before going to the theater, but usually the play is the thing for the evening. On a cruise ship or in Vegas, often the show is just a pit stop on the way to other entertainment just steps away. This is why the industry almost religiously upholds the 90-minute rule, where shows are expected to not run longer (with some exceptions). Those slot machines are calling and who am I to deny Lady Luck. Of course, this kind of environment changes the energy of a typical audience to something much more transient, like they are just passing through. However, I've come to appreciate this challenge as a great motivator. The casino can entertain, but even in Sin City; the theater is there to inspire. If we can make live entertainment that's creatively complex, and intellectually stimulating, and condense it into 90 jam-packed minutes of inspiring art; then we've really done something. I certainly have much still to learn about this type of show business, but I've come to appreciate the challenges.

You've recently struck up a deal with ABC and dick clark productions to televise your immersive theatrical-concert experiences. Is there anything you can tell us of the progress of For The Record Live?

Only that it's an incredibly exciting opportunity, probably the biggest thus far in the life of For The Record. We are currently in the development process where we decide which chapter of the series is best to adapt for TV first. We are already collaborating with several massive figures in the live TV industry. It's a bit surreal to be in conversations with the heads of both ABC and dick clark productions when we began just a few years ago in that 60-seat East Los Angeles bar.

What do you want your audiences to leave with after experiencing one of your shows?

I'd love for them to leave with an entirely new, or freshly rejuvenated perspective. Whether it's a new found appreciation for the work of a certain filmmaker and the songs that made their soundtracks iconic, or it's a newly discovered interest in non-traditional live entertainment, like "I didn't know theater could be like a nightclub or like a rock concert." Or a realization that theater in places not commonly known to produce Art with a capital "A," like casinos or cruise ships, can be entertaining on surprisingly deep levels and, maybe even inspire.

Thanks again, Anderson! May your immersive entertaining experiences take the world to church, making them smile and tapping their feet.

For a killer interactive experience á la Scorsese, go investigate FOR THE RECORD: SCORSESE - AMERICAN CRIME REQUIEM at The Wallis. It would be a crime not to!

For tickets for their September 21 - October 16, 2016 run, log onto TheWallis.org

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