What's New with Debra

8.26.08

DEBRA'S 50TH ANNIVERSARY SONG "INSIDE MY HEART"

The Barsha sisters collaborate!!! Composer Debra Barsha (RADIANT BABY) and her sister, video editor/producer Janice Barsha honor their parents' 50th Wedding Anniversary with this song, "Inside My Heart." Home videos of the Barsha family are featured.

Trouble viewing this video? Click here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB3Dl4o5KvI

"I could die here tonight" are the first words of "Songs From an Unmade Bed" at Celebration Theatre. Luckily, they're ironically skewed. In its West Coast premiere, Mark Campbell's intimate solo show about a gay urban romantic prizes self-reflective wit over heavier issues.

Created by lyricist Campbell with 18 composers, "Songs" runs eclectically through the boudoir musings of its archetype (the excellent Dave Barrus). Designer Kurt Boetcher's airy set, the title bed angled within a proscenium of dress shirts, houses a song cycle as wryly evanescent as Tim Swiss' lighting.

Campbell has a librettist's knack for subtext. As when "An Admission" -- "I recall my disappointment / On first seeing you nude" -- cuts against composer Joseph Thalken's sweet melody, or the way Peter Golub's after-hours tune for "I Miss New York" sets up its final zinger. Campbell's best lyrics are gracefully honest, and his distinguished collaborators take their cues from them. Jake Heggie leaves opera for Broadway punch at "The Other Other Woman"; Debra Barsha goes rock-gritty in "He Never Did That Before"; and so on, with Stephen Hoffman's elegiac "Our Separate Ways" perhaps the standout composition.

Displaying the same ingenuity that buoys his bare bones "New Brain" at Rude Guerrilla, director Patrick Pearson rumples the sheets with fetching élan. Music director Jake Anthony and pajama-clad players Stephen Green (cello) and Dylan Campbell (percussion) sustain each stylistic shift, while Barrus makes a suavely engaging protagonist. Pitched directly between Stephen Bogardus and Adam Cooper, he, along with Green, is hilarious in "He Plays the Cello," arch in the post-coital edge of "A Dinner Party" and subtly acute at the melancholy moments.

The lack of a through-line is one liability and the cabaret diffuseness another. Still, if "Songs From an Unmade Bed" is rather more acerbic and accessible than deep or lingering, that hardly impedes its ingratiating charm.

This is a link to the 1984 Boulder Colorado concert that Debra sang and played keyboards on with Thomas Dolby! Check out the duet of her and Thomas on Hyperactive!

This Monday, December 3rd at 8:30 p.m. DEBRA and MARY will present a very special MUST-SEE SHOW. The guest will be Producer/Director Richard Jay-Alexander. The guest has become the “go to” Director to the Stars (STREISAND, MIDLER, PETERS AND CLEERE HARAN!!!)

But, personally we both share history with him. DEBRA and RICHARD JAY- both come from Syracuse, New York…and MARY and “Dick”,as she calls him, starred in the West Coast revival of THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE and were roommates, in their early twenties. “Dick” also just directed her critically acclaimed stint at FEINSTEIN’S, with “Mary Cleere Haran Sings Doris Day.”

Reservations are a MUST this week!!! Call 212-388-7103 to make reservations. We are already being bombarded with reservation requests so be sure to call the hotline as soon as you can!!

Richard's b io is so impressive that we decided to include it all in this week's e-mail, and he said he was bringing along some great "collectibles", so come on down to the Night and Day Room at Biscuit BBQ in lovely downtown Park Slope Brooklyn and see what those could be!!!

Richard Jay-Alexander began his theatrical career in 1977 in the original cast of the Broadway play, ZOOT SUIT, appearing thereafter in the original Broadway cast of AMADEUS, which led to his being engaged as Associate Director of the National Touring Companies of that Tony Award-winning Play. He also staged AMADEUS in Santiago, Chile, in Spanish, in which he is fluent. However, he is probably best known for his association with Producer Cameron Mackintosh, having served as Executive Director of Mr. Mackintosh's American company for ten years, running its day-to-day operations in North America. Richard first came to Mr. Mackintosh's attention as stage manager/dance captain of his Broadway revival of OLIVER! and stage manager/assistant director of his Broadway production of SONG & DANCE. Shortly thereafter, he became both Associate Director and Executive Producer of the original Broadway, touring and Canadian companies of LES MISERABLES, staging more than a dozen productions of that Musical. THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA followed, and then MISS SAIGON, for which Richard was Executive Producer for the original Broadway, touring and Canadian companies. He also served as Executive Producer and Associate Director for Broadway's FIVE GUYS NAMED MOE and was Executive Producer of its Grammy-nominated original cast recording.

Richard subsequently produced recordings for Bernadette Peters (LIVE FROM CARNEGIE HALL, RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN, both Grammy-nominated), Johnny Mathis (ON BROADWAY) and Mary Cleere Haran (PENNIES FROM HEAVEN, THE MEMORY OF ALL THAT) and co-wrote the liner notes for Barbra Streisand's THE MOVIE ALBUM and her DVD boxed set, as well as lyrics for several Walt Disney Records projects, including LILO AND STITCH Island Favorites. He has recently been appointed Executive Producer of the newly established Playbill Records and in such capacity, helped to launch the label's debut recording, Brian Stokes Mitchell's first solo offering, as well as the re-discovered Betty Buckley recording titled (and recorded in) 1967.

For film, Richard created the musical staging for Sony Classics' BOSSA NOVA, after having appeared in SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, ALL THAT JAZZ, and a slew of commercials and soap operas.

Most recently, Richard directed the off-Broadway play, A SAFE HARBOR FOR ELIZABETH BISHOP, starring Amy Irving, at the Primary Stages Theatre, as well as concert productions for some of the world's greatest entertainers, including Bette Midler (KISS MY BRASS Tour), Barbra Streisand (TIMELESS Tour and the most recent STREISAND Tour, also serving as a co-writer), Ricky Martin, Polly Bergen, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Lea Salonga, Sam Harris, Hayley Westenra, Mary Cleere Haran ("Sings Doris Day"), Jill Eikenberry and Michael Tucker ("Life is a Duet"), Russell Watson and Bernadette Peters, the latter two having also been telecast on PBS. He also directed the multi-media extravaganza, STORM, at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas and the workshop production of the Broadway-bound musical based on GREAT EXPECTATIONS (starring Cloris Leachman), as well as a number of commercials and videos.

A native of Syracuse, NY, Richard holds a B.A. in Theatre and Music from SUNY at Oswego and is the recipient of that University's first Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts. He is also a proud Board member of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS in New York and has been an active supporter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of South Florida.Richard currently shares his residences in New York, Los Angeles and Miami with his perfect dog, JoJo, who isn't the least bit impressed with any of it."

Debra And Mary's Night On The Town @Biscuit BBQ in The Night and Day Room A live music variety/talk show and more...
it's a night on the town!

Every Monday at 8:30 p.m.
$10 Cover plus $6.00 food/drink minimum
$5 Cover for students

Debra Barsha (composer of RADIANT BABY at the Public Theater) and Mary Cleere Haran ("Cabaret's most literate chanteuse" - The New Yorker) perform every Monday at 8:30 p.m. an evening of song and witty repartee. Each week new songs, a different theme and one very special guest interview!!For

Reservations:
Call the NIGHT ON THE TOWN hotline at 212-388-7103.
Hotline show updates every Friday!

The Night and Day Room
Biscuit BBQ
230 5th Ave. @ President St.
Park Slope, NY 11215
718-399-2161 (R Train to Union Street in Brooklyn)

DANIEL RIECHARD, (JERSEY BOYS, RADIANT BABY) WOWS BROOKLYN AT DEBRA & MARY'S NIGHT ON THE TOWN!

CAP21 presents A Womb with a View, written by Debra Barsha, at CAP21 from 22 May - 3 Jun 2007.

A Womb with a View: Explores a year in the life of a lesbian's journey through the process of alternative insemination. From collecting donor samples in her living room, to having her partner (a NYC police officer) inject her with fertility drugs, to her day-to-day job as a 4th grade music teacher in a Brooklyn private school, this primal rush to beat the biological clock is not your ordinary view of conception. As one fashion conscious 5-year-old put it, 'all you need to have a baby is an egg and a perm.'

Directed by Frank Ventura, A Womb with a View will feature Debra Barsha.

Malcolm Gets, Joanna Gleason, David Rasche and Chip Zien will star in the CAP21 reading of Ken Levine's Upfronts and Personal Feb. 12.

Levine's comedy is about studios, writers and producers competing to get their television show onto a network's fall schedule. Janet Brenner directs. Levine is a veteran television writer of "Cheers" and "M*A*S*H," among other shows.

The work is the first in CAP21's Dorothy Strelsin New Works Series, which also includes A Womb with a View by Debra Barsha on March 12 and The Cosmopolitan by Lance Horne, Lorin Latarro and Josh Rhodes on April 2.

Gets' credits include Amour, Passion and "Caroline in the City." Tony Award winner Gleason was in Into the Woods, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and "The West Wing." Zien was in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Falsettos and Into the Woods. Rasche was in Speed-the-Plow, Regrets Only and "The Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood."

CAP21 (Collaborative Arts Project21) was founded in 1993 by its executive artistic director, Frank Ventura, to develop new work, talent and audiences for the theatre.

Readings take place on Mondays at 7:30 PM at CAP21's The Shop, located at 18 West 18th Street in Manhattan. All seats are free. To make reservations visit www.CAP21.org or call (212) 352-3101.

THEATER NEWS: GELS, GLEASON, ZEIN, ET AL. SET FOR UPFRONTS AND PERSONAL READING

Malcolm Gets, Joanna Gleason, David Rasche, David Schramm, and Chip Zien will star in a free reading of Ken Levine's new comedy Upfronts and Personal at 7:30pm on Monday, February 12 at CAP 21/The Shop (18 West 18th Street). This will be the first of three readings presented as part of CAP 21's Dorothy Strelsin New Work Series.

The play, to be directed by Janet Brenner, reveals how studios, writers, and producers get their shows on television. Levine is an Emmy Award-winning writer, director, and producer who has worked on such series as Cheers, Frasier, and Everybody Loves Raymond.

The series will continue on March 12 with Debra Barsha and Frank Ventura's musical A Womb With A View, about a lesbian who undergoes artificial insemination; and on April 2 with The Cosmopolitan, a musical by Lance Horne, Lorin Latarro, and Josh Rhodes about a New York City opera company that ends up transplanted to Newark.

CAP 21 will also present a fully staged production of Kander and Ebb's Cabaret, February 15-25, and a two-part reading of the classic Rodgers & Hammerstein musical Oklahoma! on February 26 and March 26.

FOLLOW SPOT: CLEERE SAILING - MARY CLEERE HARAN SINGS HER HEART OUT IN NEWARK, BROOKLYN AND IN A BENEFIT AT THE RAINBOW ROOM.

Cabaret fave Mary Cleere Haran is greatly admired for the unfailingly witty and informative patter that sparks her performances, but let's not forget that the lady can also sing in a rich, creamy alto that hearkens back to the sounds of the great pop singers of the mid-20th Century. That's just what she'll be doing at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark on Saturday, January 27.

"The title of the show is I Love Lyrics -- and I do," says Haran. "We have two performances at NJPAC, and they're both sold out, which is great. I've been doing this program for a while but, of course, I add and subtract." So, whose lyrics will she revel in this time around? "Larry Hart, of course. Dorothy Fields, Johnny Mercer, Cole Porter. I love Al Dubin and Leo Robin. And I'm a great fan of Irving Berlin; he was Larry Hart's favorite lyricist, which is interesting."

Haran had an emotionally rough period a few years back when she was divorced from Joe Gilford, son of the late, great actor Jack Gilford. But she's doing fine now, and so is her son, Jake. "He's 15, and he's doing stand-up comedy," she says. "I tell him to try to keep it clean. He talks about his birds -- he has five cockatiels -- and a lot of his material is about the gentrification of Park Slope, where we live. Jake's very good at comedy, but sometimes he gets tired of it. He says everything in his life turns into a joke and he just can't handle it."

As for Jake's mom, she's keeping herself busy. Every Monday night, Haran hosts a variety show with her good pal, composer/musical director Debra Barsha, in the Night and Day Room at the Biscuit Barbecue restaurant in Park Slope. The guest list thus far has been impressive, to say the least: "We've had Michael Feinstein, Rupert Holmes, Terry Jones from Monty Python, Tim Gunn from Project Runway, and Tituss Burgess, who's going to be playing Sebastian in The Little Mermaid. Coming up, we have Dale Soules, who stands by for Mary Louise Wilson in Grey Gardens. We're also going to have Steve Buscemi and John Ventimiglia, who plays Artie on The Sopranos. Some of those Italian guys can really sing!"

In addition, Haran is very much looking forward to singing at the Bay Street Theatre's winter benefit gala on February 26 at the Rainbow Room. "I love Bay Street," she says of the well regarded Sag Harbor theater. "The first time I worked there was in a kooky play by Charles Busch called Home Fires, which became Swingtime Canteen; I played the part that was later played by Alison Fraser, and then by Charles."

She's happy to return to one of her favorite venues, as well. "The Rainbow Room is such a great place to perform," she enthuses. "When I was doing my Rodgers and Hart tribute at Rainbow & Stars, I got to sing with the band in the Rainbow Room between shows. I felt like I was in a screwball comedy, racing through the kitchen to get from one room to the other. It was so much fun!"

A live music variety/talk show and more...it’s a night on the town every Monday at 8:30 pm @ the Night and Day Room at Biscuit BBQ.

Debra Barsha (composer of RADIANT BABY at the Public Theater) and Mary Cleere Haran (“Cabaret’s most literate

chanteuse” - The New Yorker) perform every Monday at 8:30 p.m. an evening of song and witty repartee. Each week new songs, a

For Reservations call the NIGHT ON THE TOWN hotline (updated every Tuesday) at 212-388-7103. $10 Cover plus one drink

minimum. $5 Cover for students. Biscuit BBQ is located at 230 5th Ave. @ President St. in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn.

The production will run March 1 - March 10 with show times Wed-Sat at 8:00 pm and Sat/Sun at 3:00 pm.

Located at THE SHOP at 18 West 18th St. - 6th Floor, New York, NY 10011. All Tickets are $15.00.

.....Some of the newer songs are downright funny. "He Never Did That Before," with lyrics by Mark Campbell and music by Debra

Barsha, describes a post-coital anxiety attack in which a satisfied lover suddenly wonders where her partner learned the surprising

"new twist on our bedtime story" he introduced to their lovemaking and begins to fret over possible infidelity.

This summer at the Unitarian Universalist Meeting house in Provincetown, MA, Lance Horne and Debra Barsha will join forces in a tour-de-force performing their original songs in a bold eclectic mix of pop, rock, and Broadway styles. Their cutting-edge material explores the human condition through the ever-evolving perspectives of love and relationships. There will be two performances only, scheduled for August 1 & 2, 2005 at 9PM. Tickets are $22.50 and are available at www.ptowntix.com (look for the listing under "How Love Goes")

Excerpt: A BEDTIME LYRIC WORKOUT BY A GAY URBAN ROMANTIC IN "SONGS FROM AN UNMADE BED"

"...Most of the composers were able to put a song across, and almost no one fell into the trap of trying to make too large a statement in an evening aimed at lightness. Debra Barsha turned to rock for 'He Never Did That Before'..... "

The show continues through June 26 at 79 East Fourth Street, East Village; (212 )239-6200.

Download the song "He never did that before" featured in "Songs from an unmade bed". (Music by Debra Barsha, Lyrics by Mark Campbell). Vocals by Michael Winther.

"...A great blues (song), a charming love ballad and some really hot disco numbers..."

"....Debra Barsha's pulsating rock-punk-disco score with its occasional pause for a pop ballad suits the art and the disco club scene of the period. It's especially effective in a show-stopping hedonistic inferno in which a manic male and female diva (Angela Robinson and Billy Porter) sing about "Paradise/ Instant Gratification" à la clubs like the Paradise garage...."