Dialing in the Holiday Hotline

Trust is an important word in the creative world. In theater, the playwright has to trust the producer, who has to trust the director, who has to trust the actors, and they all have to trust the audience, which has to trust everyone! But then you have the case where a producer says “okay, let’s do it!” and the ‘it’ is hardly past the starting stage, and the expectation of performance is less than six months away. Now, that’s really trust. Make that…TRUST.

On Thursday, December 1 at the Orthodox Theatre (next door to Cleveland Public Theatre) Cleveland experienced the world premiere of a musical comedy revue: HOLIDAY HOTLINE. (It continues through December 23.)

So, just how does this happen, anyway? It’s not often that the world premiere of anything musical happens here. Well, first of all, the two collaborators studied their craft. A lot. They’ve worked together for several years, so they each have some knowledge of what makes the other one tick. They also involved other like-minded individuals. This was a major help considering the short time between concept and happening, but they’d have done it that way, regardless. After all, the larger the team, the more resources you have available.

Such was the case last summer when producer James Levin, founder and former artistic director of Cleveland Public Theater said those fateful words—‘let’s do it!”—to a friend and former collaborator, Linda Eisenstein. (The two of them were responsible for DISCORDIA some years ago.) She’d been working—somewhat—on a possible Holiday show with Michael Sepesy, whose work was also known to Levin. Linda says that “maybe only thirty percent of the show was done” that day in June. When such an offer is made, there’s no time to waste.

Levin, who refers to himself as a ‘passive producer’ says that having worked with Eisenstein and Sepesy in the past, it was a ‘no-brainer’ to commit to this work. Detroit Avenue Arts has only one function and that is to develop emerging artists and emerging works. He likes to challenge the status quo, and is always open to new ideas, as long as they’re high quality. He sees DAA as an ‘oven of new work’ baking up lots of miscellaneous goodies for the community.

“It’s so rare,” Eisenstein adds, “for a new musical to have a full production like this so quickly, with costumes and choreography, etc. It just doesn’t happen!” She’s a veteran of the musical theatre, and she knows whereof she speaks. “This was such a gift. Our budget isn’t huge by any means, but there is a budget. It’s a full production, on it’s feet. Not just a reading or workshop.” While chatting, we calculate that the budget for Holiday Hotline is way less than 1/1000th of the budget for the just-opened Broadway production of the musical version of “The Color Purple”. That budget is 14 million dollars.

Eisenstein, Sepesy and Levin already knew who they wanted as music director—Michael Flohr. They’d collaborated previously. In fact, Flohr had put together the production of Eisenstein’s music for the Ingenuity Festival last September. They also knew they wanted Mindy Childress to direct, and between all of them, they knew some of the better singing actors in town. So, even before the show was all done, composer Eisenstein and lyricist Sepesy had a pretty good idea of just who would be involved.

Knowing that was a big help, they say. Writing for specific talent can make the process easier. They worked busily through the summer heat; singing, whistling, dancing to Christmas season tunes and sentiments. But the finished product “Holiday Hotline” is not just about Christmas. No, there’s Channukah, Kwanzaa and Mithraism that warrant at least a brief look-in. Eisenstein says, “the casting early on really helped. We had the actors before we had the full script. Knowing who you’re writing for made it a lot easier. All too soon, it worked its way to being a show for six people, which is good. It’s much more produceable this way.”

For instance, Eisenstein says "Once we knew we had Kim Aldrich-Ceja, who has such a large range, really almost an operatic voice, it spurred something we otherwise never would have thought of." Sepesy adds, "I had an idea for a little opera, but I don’t write music. It was like writing a long sketch in rhyme." The resulting "Bicycle Opera" tells the poignant story of a single Mom trying to assemble her child’s present—a bicycle—on Christmas Eve.

Eisenstein and Sepesy are two of eight local writers in the Playwright’s Unit, housed at the Cleveland Play House, under the direction of Seth Gordon. Of course, Eisenstein has had many productions of her work during the last twenty years—literally, all over the world. She is a free-lance writer, conducts workshops and teaches and occasionally produces or directs a play. Sepesy has had productions in Ohio and Texas, as well, and currently is working on a book in addition to more plays. They’d been familiar with each other’s work for fifteen years.

There are varying methods used in the Playwright’s Unit. Although they meet every other week, members may also bring in longer pieces on other occasions, when they serve as audience for each other. Holiday Hotline had two such run-throughs, with music, and even some of the performers who are in the show. Generally speaking, the Unit works on straight plays, as Eisenstein is really the only active composer. The other writers involved quickly saw the potential in HH, as a fun way to send up the holidays. They did make a few suggestions here and there, normal for a work-in-progress. Gordon adds, “The object is to narrow the distance from where the project is when it’s first brought in, to it’s becoming a finished product.”

“Holiday Hotline” came about because friends saw a similar-type of event last year and said, “you guys should do something like this. You could do it so much better.” It’s hard to ignore such commentaries, even if the tendency is not to believe it, either. So, they started working on tunes and jokes and punch-lines. Eisenstein had an idea ‘in the trunk’ (the temporary resting place of non-working script or music fragments) and brought it out for another look.

Sometimes the lyrics come first, sometimes it’s the music. Sometimes you think you have it, and another group of words appears out of the ether and you end up discarding all the previously developed material and starting all over again. That happened more times than either of them cares to recall. And then, of course, it still isn’t carved in stone. It might not work at all when it finally reaches the final collaborator—the audience. They’ve never seen this before, have no idea, really, of what to expect, and what seems funny in rehearsals can fall flat in performance. Or vice versa. And then, it’s back to the keyboards for more inspiration.

So, every other week they took the new pages to the Playwright’s Unit for a reading. And every month, from April on, they tried out new material at the Dark Room—a cabaret-type program at the Parish Hall sponsored by the Cleveland Theater Collective (another advocacy/workshop group) just across the parking lot from the Orthodox—where all writers are encouraged to come and bring works-in-progress for a reading in front of other live bodies. Sometimes the result is “Oops! Scrap that last bit. That does so not work!” Other times, they might hear, “That’s a funny scene. Does it have music? If so, what kind?” Back to the keyboards again!

Eisenstein says, “You get the idea first, maybe—trying to think of things about Christmas. Is this a sketch or not? What kind of song goes with this? It’s a different approach. Sometimes you get the scene first, then you have to figure out a title for it, and then maybe the lyrics or the music will follow.“ Sepesy adds, “If the song comes first, then what kind of scene goes with it? Or the other way around.”

Originally, there was a song called “Mandatory Merriment” but it didn’t have a scene to go with it. Then when the scene developed, the music didn’t match. So, out went the old music (to the trunk, of course) and a new song appeared. This is the polka version that’s in the revue now.

The commercialization of Christmas was always a major theme. When the idea of objects selling themselves to the customer appeared, it was a sort-of ‘gotcha’ moment. “You know you want me, baby!” became a torch song, to the rhythm reminiscent of “The Stripper”. It’s a very effective moment in the show as the store mannequins try to outdo each other demonstrating themselves. It helps that Denise Astorino can belt it.

It’s not everyday you have an opportunity to see a production before the rest of the world gets a chance at it. As Eisenstein says, “It’s difficult enough to even get a play done. But a musical? If you’re not Sir Elton John, or have a really huge track record, it’s a miracle. That’s what it is. A miracle.”

Holiday Hotline runs through December 23, at the Orthodox, part of the Detroit Avenue Arts complex originated by James Levin, who produced—and made possible—this wonderful gift to Cleveland. Tickets may be ordered by calling (216) 491-1709. There’s a web-site: http://www.holiday-hotline.com and after December 15, there will be an original cast recording available on CD for $15. It’s the perfect answer to the age-old question: What do you give the person who already has everything?

From Cool Cleveland contributor Kelly Ferjutz artswriterATadelphia.net (:divend:)