First, I have one more Thursday event to report on. After that comedy I didn't laugh at, Amber and I went to meet my longtime friend Christine Pedi for a late meal. Some of you may know Christine as a host of the Broadway channel on Sirius XM Radio. Some of you may know her as a frequent performer in Broadway shows, Broadway-style shows and her wonderful cabaret act. I have featured videos of her performing before here like her superb impression of Liza Minnelli…
And she does countless other things to warrant my admiration, including her uncanny mimicry. If she ever took up Groucho, she'd put Frank Ferrante out of business.
So that's Thursday. Friday morn, Amber and I got to the Comic-Con in time to catch the panel for MAD Magazine hosted by its soon-to-retire editor John Ficcara. Also on the dais and in the audience were many MAD contributors, past and present, including also-soon-to-retire art director Sam Viviano, former editor Nick Meglin, MAD's maddest writer Dick DeBartolo and the Energizer Bunny of Cartooning, Al Jaffee. Later, I had a very nice conversation with Meglin and with longtime MAD artist Angelo Torres.
It was a very funny panel, though I would imagine you might not feel that way if you felt the current President of the United States deserved even a smidgen of respect. I will write a long post shortly about the Changing of the Guard at MAD and the many eras that are ending.
Signed books. Talked with people. Had a helluva time finding a cab when we left. But Amber and I eventually made it over to Greenwich Village to meet up with Paul Levitz for an important ritual. Amber, you see, has never been to New York before so we had to introduce her to New York Pizza.
As I'm sure I've written here, I think New York Pizza is waaay overrated. There are some wonderful pizzerias in that city. There would have to be, given how many pizzerias there are. Even if only 2% of New York pizzerias made great pies, that would still be something like thirty great pizzerias — admittedly, more than you'll find in any other city.
But New Yorkers talk about their pizza like every last one made in the 212 area code is the work of angels and it ain't. The average New York Pizza is not John's or Joe's or Grimaldi's or Lombardi's or Totonno's or Paulie Gee's. The average New York Pizza is Sbarro's or Pizza Hut or Villa or Ray's. When someone from this town brags about the pizza here, they don't have Ray's in mind. Their claim of vast New York superiority is based on comparing the best anywhere in New York to the average somewhere else.
I hesitate to tell you where we took her in New York because it's impossible in this world to say any place has good pizza without someone else telling you, "Their pizza is crap! I'll tell you where to get real good pizza!" And then they name some place — usually geographically difficult to get to and not worth the effort — that they swear has the best pizza in the galaxy and you're a boob to deny it.
I don't want all that mail so I'll reveal our dining place in a link but first, you have to promise not to tell me — in person, on the phone, by e-mail or via any other form of communication — of the place you know that's so much friggin' better. By clicking on the following link, you agree you have so promised. Is it a deal? Fine. Here's the link. The pizza there was quite wonderful.
And so was the play Amber and I attended afterwards. Insert graphic here, Mark…
Sweeney Todd, which I've seen several times including once with Angela Lansbury and George Hearn, is usually performed on a big stage with a big cast and big sets. This new production is performed in a pie shop by eight actors.
Well, actually it's the Barrow Street Theater in Greenwich Village but for this occasion, it's been transformed into a pie shop — a working pie shop where a renowned chef actually makes meat pies — presumably not with human fillings — and you can dine on one if you pay extra and come early. We did not do this. We went for another kind of pie.
So you sit in this little pie shop that is small enough that the actors need no amplification. Quarters are cramped and so no latecomers can be seated…or if you absolutely have to leave, you're not allowed back in 'til after the intermission. The play takes place all around you. Depending on where you're seated, Sweeney himself may scream in your face and brandish a gleaming razor. If you're balding, the gent selling Pirelli's Miracle Elixir may apply a dab of it to your head. The actors sometimes walk and dance on the tables so watch where you put your fingers.
A friend arranged for us to get what are probably the best seats in the place so for much of the show, Amber and I were 2-4 feet from the performers. Sweeney tried to strangle one of the actors on our table. Another performer sat with us as she feasted on Mrs. Lovett's infamous, human-flavored meat pies. Some refer to all this as an "immersive" production. You're right in the middle of it.
Effective? Involving? Very much so. Like I said, I've seen Sweeney Todd several times. I don't think I ever understood the show so totally before. I don't think I ever heard every word of it with so much clarity.
Yeah, the nearness of it all can be a bit distracting. I have large feet and a new right knee that can't stay in one position for very long. I always have to keep moving it and there were moments there where I had to relocate my foot hastily so as not to leave it where an actor might stumble on it. One of the actors also tended to project a bit of moisture from his mouth as he projected his louder notes. But Amber and I both loved the whole experience. She had never seen the show in any other form and now wants to see it in all. In the cab on the way back to our hotel, she called up scenes from the Johnny Depp film version on her iPhone.
And hey, let's talk about those eight actors, most of whom play multiple roles. If you're familiar with the show, you might wonder how eight people can fill all those parts and even convey the sense of a crowd where the plot calls for a crowd to gather. They do. Just as you use your imagination to place scenes not in Mrs. Lovett's pie shop in other settings, you fill in for the lack of more bodies on the stage. A mob of four can feel like forty when you're totally immersed in this immersive production. A three-piece band (piano, violin and various woodwinds) can feel like a symphony orchestra.
Hugh Panaro plays Sweeney. Carolee Carmello, whom I've adored in several other shows, plays Mrs. Lovett. Both did fine jobs of making me forget others I've seen in those roles. There is no margin for error here. It's one thing to become a character seen from yards away. It's another to get every gesture, every facial expression perfect when viewed up close and personal. I never saw either of them as anything but the characters they were playing. And Ms. Carmello got every single laugh it was possible to get and only when appropriate…many of them laughs due to a subtle expression or eyebrow raise. Every performance there was perfectly scaled for the venue.
We often go to theater for the "take-home" part — the memories that will linger a long time after. I can still summon up certain moments from certain plays and musicals that have stayed with me for years, even decades later. I took home a lot from this presentation of Hugh Wheeler's book and Stephen Sondheim's songs. If you can get there, get there.
And see if you can get the seats we had, which were D-11 and D-12. You'll feel so much a part of the production, you'll think maybe you should have an Equity card to sit in them. And maybe you'll worry about the Demon Barber of Fleet Street coming by to give you a trim or a tracheotomy.