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When you come right down to it,
every person is really a cast of thousands. Or, to put it Bob Ost's way,
"Everybody's Gettin' into the Act."
The talented composer-lyricist knows the score - and not just the one he's written for this lively revue. He's been around long enough to discern that people act the way they think they should, instead of how they really feel. "All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players." Shakespeare meant it as an observation, but Bob Ost wonders why so many of us take it as advice. Why do so many of us put on an act?
So Ost decided to put on an act - a contemporary vaudeville, if you will - in which two men and two women would play the players who had plenty of exits and entrances, for every one of them would play myriad parts: Loners, losers, and lovers. Blondes, babes, and bitches. When "Everybody's Gettin' into the Act" opened at the Actors Playhouse on Sept. 27, 1981, Ann Hodapp, Ross Petty, Leilani Mickey, and Tuck Milligan were the foursome who engaged in a good deal of fourplay with music director William McCauley. But for this recording, Ost embellishes his theme that absolutely everybody's getting into the act by getting everybody in to act out his songs.
There aren't too many albums that sport six Tony-nominees, but here's Robert ("Jekyll & Hyde") Cuccioli, Marc ("Thoroughly Modern Millie") Kudisch, Rebecca ("Show Boat," "The Music Man") Luker, Nancy ("Urinetown") Opel, Emily ("Side Show") Skinner, and Mary ("On the Town," "42nd Street") Testa on one. Here are also plenty of others who'll inevitably join their ranks: Bryan ("Beauty and the Beast") Batt, Danny ("A Class Act")Burstein, James ("The Scarlet Pimpernel") Judy, Karen ("Sunset Boulevard") Mason, Christiane ("Jekyll & Hyde") Noll, Evan ("My Favorite Year") Pappas, Stephanie ("Jelly's Last Jam") Pope, Jana ("Gypsy") Robbins, David ("Chicago") Sabella, and Mary ("Jane Eyre") Stout. The new generation of musical theater performers is heartily represented by the solely-named Delisco, Francine Lobis, Steven Stein-Grainger, and cabaret star Mark Nadler is on hand as well.
Maybe vaudeville died for Rose and Baby June and Dainty June, but it
certainly is alive and it thrives through these 20 phenomenal
performers.
-Peter Filichia
Peter Filichia is a columnist for www.theatermania.com, a critic for the
Star-Ledger, and the author of "Let's Put on a Musical: How to Choose
the Right Show for Your Theater."
COMPOSERS / LYRICISTS:
Bob Ost
PERFORMERS / VOCALISTS:
James Judy;
