Gay Lesbian Times
September 15th Marks LGBT Center Awareness Day
National day to celebrate GLBT Centers
BY IVAN GARCIA, ASSISTANT EDITOR
Published Thursday, 09-Sep-2010 in issue 1185

Our community LGBT Center is one of the biggest and best resources for everything and anything community based. They host social programs, outdoor events and it is the gathering point for many GLBT related community events. Such as the Day of Decision march during the Prop 8 trial ruling. Our San Diego LGBT Community Center is an invaluable asset to many in San Diego, just as many other centers are valuable to their respective communities throughout the country.

September 15th 2010 marks the 2nd celebration of LGBT Center Awareness Day, a day dedicated to creating awareness of these valuable centers throughout the country as well as highlighting their services offered for the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender community. This day was also created to promote the central role that GLBT centers play in local communities, as well the growing GLBT political and social movement.

Founded by CenterLink, a member-based coalition to support the development of strong, sustainable GLBT community centers, LGBT Center Awareness Day is dedicated to the promotion of community centers that help to empower the GLBT community.

Founded in 1994, The CenterLink organization has played an important role in supporting the growth of GLBT centers across the country and addressing the challenges they face, by helping these centers to improve their organizational and service delivery capacity and increase access to public resources.

Based in Washington, DC, CenterLink works with other national organizations to advance the rights of GLBT individuals and to provide their respective community centers with information and analysis of key issues.

Launched in 2009, Center Awareness Day saw resounding success and support with celebrity testimonials from the likes of VH1’s Celebrity Fit Club’s Ant and comedians Bruce Vilanch and Margaret Cho. A letter of support from President Barack Obama and varying nationwide events proved to be successful in 2009, LGBT Center Awareness Day returns in 2010 with just as much, if not more support from the nation and the community.

This year’s theme is “Building Our Community From The Center,” a theme that marks the unified effort and hard work of each GLBT center’s respective community and the growth that could arise from them.

San Diego’s own LGBT Center and its San Diego community are sure to gather for this day of awareness and appreciation for The Center and its staff. Since this is a national day of recognition toward centers nationwide, each center will take this day to create awareness of the resources and services each is valued for.

SPEND AN EVENING WITH TAB HUNTER

ORDER TICKETS TODAY!

With special guest Bruce Vilanch
Sponsored by Wells Fargo Foundation

Tuesday | October 12.2010 • 6:30 pm – 9:30 pm

Avalon Hollywood
1735 Vine Street | Hollywood

PAWS/LA is proud to present “An Evening with Tab Hunter” — an up-close-and-personal conversation with this Hollywood icon. The evening, hosted by Bruce Vilanch, one of the most sought-after jokesmiths in the entertainment industry, promises to be a lively look at the life of one of Hollywood’s most popular movie legends.

Get the real, inside-Hollywood story as shared by 50s heartthrob, Tab Hunter. A product of Hollywood’s golden age, Tab was one of one of cinema’s most sought after romantic leads.

Tab will share revelations from his recently published autobiography Tab Hunter Confidential which became a national best seller and garnered critical raves and praise from the New York Times, Daily Variety, San Francisco Chronicle, Washington Post, Vanity Fair, New York Post and dozens more.

Guests will enjoy a gourmet sit-down dinner presented in the intimate theater setting of the Avalon Hollywood.
Come and join us for this special event. Funds raised will help underwrite PAWS/LA’s expenses to provide veterinary care to more than 2,000 animal companions of our clients.

“An Evening with Tab Hunter” is sponsored by: Wells Fargo Foundation; Wallis Foundation; ACMS; PetCo Foundation; Art Laboe Foundation; and David Bohnett Foundation.

For more information contact Pamela Magette via email at pmagette@pawla.org or by phone at 213.741.1950 x 113.

Ticket prices:

General Seating
Individual ticket – $125
Table of 10 – $1,000

VIP Seating**
Individual ticket – $200
Table of 10 – $1,800
**Includes preferred seating and private reception with Tab Hunter.

To order tickets: CLICK HERE

Playbill
Christine Ebersole, Adam Pascal, Bruce Vilanch Will Perform at Queens Theatre in the Park
By Adam Hetrick
25 Aug 2010

Tony Award winner Christine Ebersole, Billy Stritch, Adam Pascal and Bruce Vilanch have been announced to appear during the 2010-2011 season at the Queens Theatre in the Park.

Comedian Jackie Mason will perform his new solo evening of comedy Oct. 23 at 8 PM and Oct. 24 at 3 PM; Tony nominee Tsidii (The Lion King) will offer her tribute concert to Odetta, Nina Simone and Miriam Makeba, To the Rising Sun, Oct. 24 at 3 PM and Nov. 13 at 2 PM; and Robert Royston’s dance musical One Ride will be presented Oct. 29-Nov. 7.
Rent star Adam Pascal and Larry Edoff will present meandlarry, a concert of original songs and music from Pascal’s stage career, Nov. 13 at 8 PM.

The 1960′s-themed musical The Bikinis, featuring “It’s In His Kiss” and “Under the Boardwalk,” will run Dec. 2-12. Ray Roderick will direct the musical he co-wrote with James Hindman. The Ma Yi Theatre Company will present I_NY, which explores the lives of immigrant New Yorkers, Dec. 18 at 8 PM.

The new musical Slow Dance with a Hot Pickup, with a book by Tony nominee John Pielmeier (Agnes of God) and a score by Emmy winner Matty Selman, will run March 18-27, 2011, under the direction of Nancy Robillard.

Tony winner Christine Ebersole and Billy Stritch will perform highlights from their concert careers and their album “Sunday in New York” April 16, 2011, at 8 PM; Neil Berg will bring offer Broadway Showstoppers April 22-May 1, 2011.

Award-winning writer and Hairspray star Bruce Vilanch will join the Bev Leslies for an evening of comedy May 7, 2011, at 8 PM, and TheatreworksUSA will perform the Lynn Ahrens-Stephen Flaherty musical Seussical May 28, 2011, at 11 AM and 1 PM.

For tickets phone (718) 760-0064 or visit QueensTheatre. The Queens Theatre in the Park is located in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Flushing, NY.

Tickets can be purchased at the Madeira Room /Vixen box office or by calling 508-487-6424.

When: Sun Aug 22 7:30pm – 9:30pm Central Time
Where: Madeira Room/Vixen located at 336 Commercial Street, Provincetown (map)

www.beyondchron.org
HELP IS ON THE BIGGEST SUCCESS EVER
by Buzzin’ Lee Hartgrave‚ Aug. 20‚ 2010

HERE ARE SOME HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS TERRIFIC A.I.D.S GALA

CAROLE COOK COMES OUT IS A MAGNIFICENT RED DRESS. SHE STANDS AND GLARES AT THE CROWD AND SAYS: “You don’t leave the Rolls Royce in the Garage, do you?” Then she quipped “There isn’t a man in this audience that wouldn’t arm wrestle for this dress.” And that is what began a wild and wonderful evening of song, dance and Comedy. The Comedy was by Bruce Vilanch and singing was by dozens, but here are some of the highlights. James Darren called me to tell me how much he enjoyed being in the show. I got kind of confused when he called and said: “Hi Lee – this is Jimmy Darren”. I’ve always known him as James. He’s a really great star and showed the audience (who really went berserk) when he came out and sang a stunning version of “You’d Better Love Me”. And…of course everyone did. He’s coming back to San Francisco to see about doing a few nights at a club here. Maybe, even the Rrazz Room. I’m sure they would love to have him there.

Davis Gaines (of Phantom Fame) sang a wonderful “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” – best I’ve ever heard. Bruce Vilanch broke cracked us with “Everything is Beautiful at the Ballet” – and he looked very fluffy and pink in his Ballet outfit. The fabulous star for all time — Carol Channing wrapped her love around the audience with “Before the Parade Passes By.” Melissa Manchester touched the audience a whole lot with the song “Help is on the Way!” Her and Carole Bayer Sager wrote the song. And with Dream Girls opening soon – it was wonderful to hear a man version of “And I Am Telling You, I’m Not Going!” (Dreamgirls.) This is the most exciting, pulse raising version of the song EVER by Von Smith. You can catch him on You Tube – by searching Von Smith – The View. You’re gonna fall in love with it. There was so much talent on the stage – and I want to thank all of them for helping “Help Is On The Way”. Next up – will be the cast of Dreamgirls singing for REAF.

Well the reason this  fabulous show is here at Glamwire Television is that famous Emmy winning Tv Writer Bruce Villanch wrote the book for this along with Tony award Nominee Will Holt With music By Tony Nominee Gary William Friedman, who composed the theme music for television’s legendary show “The Electric Company” and lyrics by Mr. Holt, this new version features revisions and direction by Ben West (How Now, Dow Jones).

An electrifying story of ambition and survival, Platinum follows Lila Halliday (Larsen), a dazzling Hollywood legend trying to make a comeback in the explosive music industry of the 1970s. Determined to reignite her career, she turns to rock star Dan Riley and finds herself falling for him as they both fight to stay in the game.

This new one-act version of Platinum will be performed by a cast of five and feature two new songs (”This One’s for Me”, “Moments”), with four other musical numbers and eight characters having been eliminated. The productionis choreographed by Rommy Sandhu (How Now, Dow Jones, Mary Poppins) with musical arrangements by Mr. Friedman (”The Electric Company”) and musical direction by Fran Minarik (Sessions, The J.A.P. Show).

Said director Ben West: “Platinum is an extraordinary project on which I began working four years ago. In addition to focusing the story, we have redefined the musical language of the show by eliminating four songs and adding two new numbers, one which was cut prior to and another which was written after the original run. The time has also shifted to 1976, the year in which the Recording Industry began issuing platinum certifications. With its unique concept and its exhilarating original material, I am thrilled to be further developing this project as part of the New York International Fringe Festival and look forward to returning Platinum to the stage.”

Theatre, dates and additional casting for this FringeNYC developmental production will be announced shortly. Tickets are available starting July 23 by visiting www.FringeNYC.org or calling 866-468-7619. For more information, visit: www.PlatinumTheMusical.com. FringeNYC 2010 runs August 13 – 29.

The original Broadway production of Platinum opened at the Mark Hellinger Theatre on November 12, 1978 starring Alexis Smith under the direction of Joe Layton. The production played 33 performances and received two Tony Awardnominations for Smith and co-star Richard Cox. It has not been seen since. An earlier version titled Sunset was directed and choreographed by Tommy Tune at the Studio Arena Theatre in 1977. The authors, Holt and Friedman, revisited their original Sunset in 1983 at the Village Gate. The cabaret production starred Tammy Grimes.

LIZ LARSEN Broadway: Hairspray, The Rocky Horror Show, The Smell of the Kill, The Most Happy Fella (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle noms; LA Drama Logue Award), Damn Yankees, A Little Night Music, Starmites, Fiddler on the Roof, Blues in the Night, Annie. Other NY: Such Good Friends (NYMF – Outstanding Performance Award), A New Brain, Bingo, Him and Her (FringeNYC Excellence Award), Newyorkers, Loman Family Picnic, Personals, Little By Little. Regional: Sunday in the Park with George (Helen Hayes Award), Baby (Helen Hayes nomination), Falsettos, Guys and Dolls, The Value of Names. TV: “My Guys” (series regular), “Law & Order“, “Law & Order: SVU“, “Third Watch”.

SARAH LITZSINGER is Broadway’s longest running Belle in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. Other Broadway credits include Marilyn: An American Fable, Oliver!, Les Miserables and Amour. Sarah also played Eva Peron in the 25th anniversary tour of Evita and starred as the Narrator opposite Donny Osmond in Joseph…. Some of her other favorite roles are: Cathy in The Last 5 Years, Susan in Tick, Tick…Boom! and Cordelia in Falsettos (George Street Playhouse). Sarah is also the recipient of the 2007 Breakout Award at the HBO Aspen comedy Festival (for her comedy act she wrote and starred in with partner, Kate Reinders). She also performed this act at the TBS Comedy Festival at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas in 2008.

WILL HOLT Broadway: Come Summer (Agnes de Mille, Ray Bolger), The Me Nobody Knows (Gary William Friedman; Tony nomination, Drama Desk and Obie Awards), Over Here! (The Andrews Sisters; Tony nomination, Best Musical), Me and Bessie (Linda Hopkins), Music Is (George Abbott), Platinum (Alexis Smith). Off-Broadway: Taking My Turn (Outer Critics’ Circle Award; PBS Great Performances Series), Signs Along the Cynic Route, That Five A.M. Jazz, A Kurt Weill Cabaret. Other work: A Walk on the Wild Side (L.A. Dramalogue Award), Jack (Goodspeed Theater). Mr. Holt is a member of ASCAP and the Dramatists Guild.

BRUCE VILANCH has written for the Oscars, the Emmys, the Tonys and the Grammys, winning six Emmy Awards in the process. He has starred on Broadway in Hairspray and has graced the cover of his book, Bruce! My Adventures in the Skin Trade and Other Essays, and his documentary, Get Bruce! He is also appeared on “Hollywood Squares” for four seasons and in his one-man show as well as “It Nearly Wasn’t Christmas”, “The Morning After”, “Bosom Buddies”, “The Ice Pirates” and “Call Me Claus”. He devotes endless hours working with such charitable organizations as the Anti-Defamation League, National Foundation for Jewish Culture and numerous AIDS organizations.

A revised incarnation of the 1978 pop musical Platinum, starring Donna Bullock and Sarah Litzsinger, begins performances Aug. 17 as part of the New York International Fringe Festival.

Ben West, who directed and adapted the streamlined production of How Now, Dow Jones for the Fringe last summer, has also revised Platinum, which he also directs. Performances will take place Aug. 18, 19, 20 and 21 at the Lucille Lortel Theatre.

Platinum has a book by Will Holt and Bruce Vilanch, with music by Gary William Friedman and lyrics by Holt. Rommy Sandhu choreographs with musical direction by Fran Minarik.

Jeff Award winner Bullock (Take Me Along) stars as Lila Hallidy opposite Litzsinger (Beauty and the Beast, Amour) as Crystal Mason. The cast also features Bruce Sabath (Company), Wayne Wilcox (Coram Boy) and Jay Wilkison (Rent).

The one-act Fringe production features two new songs, “This One’s for Me” and “Moments.” A cast of five (down from the original 13) performs the latest version that has excised four songs and eliminated eight characters.

According to producers: “An electrifying story of ambition and survival, Platinum follows Lila Halliday (Bullock), a dazzling Hollywood legend trying to make a comeback in the explosive music industry of the 1970s. Determined to reignite her career, she turns to rock star Dan Riley (Wilkison) and finds herself falling for him as they both fight to stay in the game.”

Platinum ran only 33 performances on Broadway at the Mark Hellinger Theatre in 1978. The musical garnered Tony Award nominations for Smith and her co-star Richard Cox. The musical was revived Off-Broadway in 1983, reverting back to its original title Sunset, and ran for 14 performances.

Holt and Friedman are also the writers of the Tony Award-nominated musical The Me Nobody Knows.

Visit FringeNYC.

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Theatermania
Ben West Is Polishing Platinum
by Peter Filichia’s Diary
August 16, 2010

Ever hear of Platinum? It was a 1978 musical with book by Will Holt and Bruce Vilanch, lyrics by Holt and music by Gary William Friedman. New Yorkers had 45 chances to see it, thanks to 12 previews and 33 official performances.

With a run such as that, you might be surprised to hear that it even got two Tony nominations. One went to Alexis Smith, in her first musical since you-know-what, for playing Lila Halliday, a faded Hollywood star who was trying a pop music comeback. The other was bestowed on Richard Cox as Dan Danger, a rocker who might become her boy toy. Both lost.

Even if you have heard of Platinum, you probably haven’t heard the score, because it yielded no official original cast album. Still, it was a show that caught the interest of Ben West. Once he learned of it, he wanted to read it, hear it and savor it. Once he did all of the above, he wanted to rework it. The fruits of his labor will be seen in FringeNYC for five performances this Tuesday through Saturday at the Lortel.

Last year, West adapted another underappreciated Broadway musical, but one that ran seven times as long and did get recorded: How Now, Dow Jones, the 1967 tuner about a false stock market report. Still, you wouldn’t expect that show to interest a guy who wasn’t even born when Platinum debuted. West is a mere 27, but his heart is in musicals of yore.

He knows he’s atypical for his generation. “Some years ago when I was an actor and auditioning,” he says, “it’d drive me crazy when I mentioned Comden and Green to the other auditioners and so many wouldn’t have a clue who I meant. Many people of my generation don’t understand that Spring Awakening happened because somebody else laid the groundwork for it 50 or 60 years ago.”

West was born out west in Minneapolis, then spent some time in Chicago where in kindergarten he staged his own puppet show. “The Weisslers were considering moving it,” he jokes.

After he moved to Miami, he of course did school plays; favorite roles include The Emcee in Cabaret and Mrs. Drudge in The Real Inspector Hound. He studied at NYU’s CAP 21 for a couple of years, and later appeared in Paper Mill’s Of Thee I Sing. Later he became assistant director to Gordon Greenberg for Breaking up Is Hard to Do, a Neil Sedaka jukebox musical.

All the while, however, West was reading every book he could on musicals, with Steven Suskin’s and Ken Bloom’s ranking among his favorites. They led him to Cy Coleman, whose music greatly delighted him. Once he decided to track down every Coleman score, that led him to Wildcat and Little Me. Through them, he became even more entranced with Coleman’s lyricist on those projects, one Carolyn Leigh.

“She’s the best!” West exclaims, with the exuberance of youth. “I made a vow to track down everything she wrote, too, and that led me to How Now, Dow Jones. I loved her lyrics and Elmer Bernstein’s music, too.”

West doesn’t add that he loves Max Shulman’s book for the show. He obviously didn’t, for he soon started making changes. “I got in touch with Samuel French,” he says, “just to see if they could point me in the direction to get the rights so I could really do something with it. They didn’t answer for months, but somehow I never ever thought it wasn’t going to happen. Eventually they contacted me and told me how to reach June Silver, Carolyn Leigh’s surviving sister; Eve Bernstein, Elmer’s widow; and Max Shulman’s agent. They all gave me the go-ahead to do an adaptation.”

West eliminated some songs, added others that had been dropped from the original 1967 production, wisely moved “Step to the Rear” to the rear of the show as an eleven o’clock number – and staged the show as a taut 90-minute presentation. The result was one of the major hits of last year’s FringeNYC — “although,” West concedes, “nobody from any of the estates decided to attend.” Nevertheless, the response was so successful that West says that we just might just see How Now again. “Oh, not at the Shubert,” he admits. “but the Little Shubert isn’t out of the question. That’s what I want for these shows. Maybe a summer run in an off-Broadway house.”

That goes for Platinum, too, which has a less-than-platinum history. It started out as Sunset at the fondly missed Studio Arena Theatre in Buffalo in 1977, and then morphed into Platinum at the more fondly missed Hellinger. In 1983, it was revamped and revised without Vilanch and returned to its original name. But Sunset rose and set on Nov. 7 at the Village Gate.

Still, it got a cast album, a copy of which West saw one day in the also fondly missed Tower Records. “After doing extensive research,” he says, “I’ve been able to combine the first Sunset with Platinum and have come up with something that I believe works.”

What he’s also done is pare down the 13 characters Platinum had to a mere five. Lila and Dan (now surnamed Reilly) are joined by Jeff Leff, the recording studio head with whom Lila has shared a professional relationship and perhaps a romantic past. Also on hand are Crystal Mason who used to be Dan’s back-up singer, but who has now broken out on her own – as Dan is becoming broken-down – and Jamie, who runs the recording sessions but wants so much more from life.

West’s other future projects include Seesaw — “although no one from any of the estates knows I’m working on it,” he says. “It’s just what I do in my spare time” — and Barefoot Boy with Cheek, the 1947 musical that Max Shulman adapted from his own hilarious novel about fraternity life. “It got great reviews in Boston,” reports West, “and while the New York reviews were favorable, they suggested that everybody had seen this life-in-college musical before. Well, I say we now haven’t seen one for a while, so the time is right for it again.”

If West really has his way, we’ll eventually see an unproduced Leigh show, too. “I have June Silver’s permission to do The Great Gatsby and an okay from the Hugh Wheeler estate, too. What I don’t have is clearance from the F. Scott Fitzgerald estate — but I’m working on that.”

Don’t be against him. He’s a young man with his feet firmly planted on the stage. When I asked him what he’d go back and see if there were a time machine, he gave me an answer I’ve never heard from the hundreds of people I’ve asked that question. “I wouldn’t want to see any of these shows as they were originally done,” he says, “because then I’d know for sure that I couldn’t begin to top what was originally put on stage.”

Then he pauses. “Though I guess I would like to see the original Follies.” Pause. “And any Ziegfeld production,” he adds with a little more excitement in his voice. Pause. “Oh, and Little Me – and …”

You may e-mail Peter at pfilichia@aol.com. Check out his weekly column each Tuesday at www.masterworksbroadway.com.

An electrifying story of ambition and survival, Platinum stars Donna Bullock (Ragtime, City of Angels, A Class Act) as Lila Halliday, a dazzling Hollywood legend trying to make a comeback in the explosive music industry of the 1970s. Determined to reignite her career, she turns to rock star Dan Riley and finds herself falling for him as they both fight to stay in the game.

Written by Emmy Award winner Bruce Vilanch (Hairspray, “Hollywood Squares”) and Tony Award nominees Will Holt and Gary William Friedman (The Me Nobody Knows), this new version features revisions and direction by Ben West (How Now, Dow Jones). The musical is choreographed by Rommy Sandhu (How Now, Dow Jones, Mary Poppins) with musical arrangements by Mr. Friedman (“The Electric Company”), musical direction by Fran Minarik (Sessions, The J.A.P. Show), costume design by Janine Marie McCabe (Waiting for the Moon) and lighting design by Joe Hodge (Perfect Crime).

The original Broadway production opened November 12, 1978 at the Mark Hellinger Theatre starring Alexis Smith under the direction of Joe Layton. The musical played 33 performances and received two Tony nominations for Smith and co-star Richard Cox.