13th Street Rep to Welcome Special Guests for Talkbacks

ASCAP Award-winning writer/director Chip Deffaa will be joined by special guests, including noted showbiz biographer Herb Goldman, writer/entertainer Brian Gari, and actor Michael Townsend Wright, for special audience "talkback" sessions, following select performances of Deffaa's shows "One Night with Fanny Brice" and "The Irving Berlin Ragtime Revue," which are playing in repertory this fall at the 13th Street Theater (50 W. 13th Street, NYC).

Joining Deffaa in a talkback for the November 10th performance of "One Night with Fanny Brice" will be Herbert Goldman, author of the definitive biographies of legendary entertainers Fanny Brice ("Fanny Brice: The Original Funny Girl"), Al Jolson ("Jolson: The Legend Comes to Life"), and Eddie Cantor ("Banjo Eyes")-and all three of those entertainers are referenced in Deffaa's show. "No one loves early Broadway more than Goldman," Deffaa says. "We're glad to welcome him back. Herb Goldman first came to see 'One Night with Fanny Brice' way back in 2011. No one living knows more about Brice than Goldman does; he's a fount of information, he's very generous with his time; and he'll be happy to answer any and all questions audience members might have. Our star, Chloe Brooks, will be fielding questions that night, as well. We want to give people a night that will entertain, as well as inform."

Deffaa, joined by special guests and all 14 cast members, will hold talkbacks after the following performances of his new "Irving Berlin Ragtime Revue": Sunday November 9th at 3 p.m., Sunday November 9th at 7 p.m., Sunday November 16th at 3 p.m., and Sunday November 16th at 7 p.m.

The author of eight published books and 15 published plays, Deffaa has spent eight years researching the life of Irving Berlin; he and his cast members will be glad to answer any questions audience members might ask. Joining them for the 7 p.m. performances of "The Irving Berlin Ragtime Revue" on November 9th and 16th will be singer/songwriter/author Brian Gari, co-creator of the Broadway musical "Late Nite Comic," and author of assorted books, the most recent being "Close Encounters of the Celebrity Kind." Gari's grandfather, famed song-and-dance comedian Eddie Cantor, introduced a number of Berlin songs. He actually gave Berlin his first million-selling record, when he introduced "You'd be Surprised." (In "The Irving Berlin Ragtime Revue," Gari will get to hear his grandfather's early hit reprised by Emily Bordonaro and Michael Kasper.) Cantor scored memorable success performing Berlin's "Mandy" on screen, too. Veteran actor Michael Townsend Wright (whose career has encompassed everything from burlesque to stage and screen, and who's served as a consultant on Deffaa's Irving Berlin Project) will be a special guest on the 16th.

"Berlin was famously reclusive and wary of the press," Deffaa notes. "In our talkbacks, we'll try to shed a little light on this extraordinarily talented-and extraordinarily private-person."

According to Edith O'Hara, the 97-year-old founder/artistic director of 13th Street Rep, talkback sessions have long been a popular feature at the theater; perhaps the most memorable session occurred when master playwright Tennessee Williams took the stage, after a production of one of his dramas at the theater, to informally answer questions. And, O'Hara notes, in recent years Deffaa has periodically hosted talkback sessions following performances at the theater of his shows, including "Theater Boys," "Irving Berlin's America," and "One Night with Fanny Brice."

"The Irving Berlin Ragtime Revue," which opens November 9th, will include some Berlin rarities and rediscoveries unheard in a century, including some never-recorded Berlin numbers. According to O'Hara, the new full-length show-one of the biggest productions mounted at the theater in years--features no less than 42 Berlin songs, performed by a cast of 14. The show, O'Hara notes, mixes Berlin favorites that everybody knows (like "I Love a Piano" and "Alexander's Ragtime Band") with equally fascinating "unknown" songs of Berlin's (such as 'The Syncopated Walk" and "Everything in America is Ragtime."), staged by Deffaa, with the help of choreographers Alex Acevedo, Tyler DuBoys, and Rayna Hirt.

"The Irving Berlin Ragtime Revue"--which will run in repertory at the theater with Deffaa's long-running "One Night with Fanny Brice" and Israel Horovitz's "Line"-is the fourth production of Deffaa's to open at the theater this year. (And Deffaa's next production, "Mad About the Boy," is expected to open in February of 2015.) The theater's mission, according to O'Hara has always been to nurture up-and-coming American playwrights, such as Deffaa (who's become the theater's defacto playwright-in-residence), and to nurture up-and-coming performers.

"The Irving Berlin Ragtime Revue" will feature Michael Czyz, Maite Uzal, Michael Kasper, Rayna Hirt, Jonah Barricklo, Emily Bordonaro, Ken Adams, Missy Dreier, K.W. Andersson; Andrew Lanctot, Ann Marie Calabro, Brandon Pollinger, Timmy Thompson, Marisa Budnick, Rachel Hundert.

Carolyn Montgomer-Forant, who's won every major award a cabaret singer can win in New York--including the MAC Award, the Bistro Award, and the Nightlife Award--will be a special guest star at select performances. She has a long association with Deffaa. She was featured prominently, for example, in Deffaa's "Johnny Mercer Jamboree" at the Chashama Theater on 42nd Street, a dozen years ago, and may be heard on the original cast album.

"In our talkbacks, we encourage audience members to ask any questions they wish of any members of our cast or creative team. We never know what to anticipate. Sometimes aspiring performers in the audience have questions for veteran pro's in our shows. And we've got some pro's, like K. W. Andersson and Carolyn Montgomery-Forant, with lots of years of experience. But I'm proud of every member of our company, and hope some people may have questions for the promising younger people, like Emmie Bordonaro and Brandon Pollinger, in our production, too. Someday, perhaps, you'll be saying you saw them here when they were just starting out."

Music director Richard Danley, co-choreographers Alex Acevedo and Tyler DuBoys, stage-manager Kate Solomon-Tilley, assistant director Peter Charney, and production assistant Gina Colisimo, who've served on Deffaa's "Irving Berlin's America" and "Theater Boys," have returned for this production, according to producer Sandra Nordgren. (Assisting in varying ways with production are 13th Street Rep mainstays Nick Linnehan, Joe Battista, June Rachelson Ospa. And Peter Charney will design lighting.)

Nordgren, who also produced Deffaa's "One Night with Fanny Brice," "Theater Boys," and "Irving Berlin's America," encourages patrons to order tickets online in advance, rather than wait to buy them at the door, since Deffaa's past productions at the intimate theater have tended to sell out.

The 13th Street Repertory Theater had such a successful run with Deffaa's previous show about Berlin, "Irving Berlin's America," co-starring Giuseppe Bausilio and Michael Townsend Wright, that Edith O'Hara gave Deffaa the green-light to present other shows about Berlin.

This is the second of five shows, examining Berlin's legacy from different perspectives, that Deffaa intends to stage at the 13th Street Rep over the next two years. Deffaa's first show about Berlin, "Irving Berlin's America," has enjoyed various productions, with such actors as Matthew Nardozzi, Giuseppe Bausilio, Jack Saleeby. .(Andrew Higgs hopes to present the show next in Albany.) And the cast album of that show includes some real rarities. Deffaa hopes a cast album can someday be made for this show

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