Don't Stop Believing...Hold On to That Feeling...

Wow, I just watched the pilot for Glee for the SECOND time...and the more I see it the more I fall in love with it. I was not surprised at all to find out that it was written by the same guys who did Popular on the WB a while back, which was/is one of my favorite shows on TV! The dark humor, interjected with some amazing singing really gets to me! It is so reminiscent of that last scene in Sister Act 2, which I love, and which happens to be my signature closing song when I DJ! My roommate asked me if it took me back to high school, and the truth is that it didn't because I was never truly harassed in high school very much. My freshman year I got the usual faggot, and such but after I joined the cheerleading squad and had all these girls backing me up, it all stopped. Besides I was a bit of a social floater, I hung out with every type of kid there was in high school, so I never felt bullied. I of course felt like an outcast till I came out, but what gay kid doesn't? The passion that these kids have in this show did bring me back to my days at Stagedoor where all these showtune queens were so passionate about musicals, and the weird thing is that most of us were ahead of our times. We were young teenagers that GOT the struggles of the characters in Chess, Nine, Sweeney Todd (well as much as a teenager can) but we were really into the message that musicals have, the social commentary on the war in Hair, the struggles of growing up in Nine, the dark side of the world in Sweeney Todd, they all have deep emotions in them and we got them...that was the passion that I saw in those kids performing in Glee, and the message of doing what you love is what I got out of it, and I fully intend on taking that spirit with me.

Be Italian, you rapscallion, live today as if it may become your last...

So as I was in the middle of rehearsal today, I overheard from all the way across the room the words nine, trailer, Fergie, fabulous all in one sentence which sent me running all the way across the room to investigate.

My wish then came true, I found out the the trailer to the new Rob Marshall movie, “Nine” was out...now let me tell you that Nine is my favorite musical of ALL TIME. I have a nostalgic story to why. As I actually mentioned a couple of days ago, I went to a theater camp in the Catskills called Stagedoor Manor, where I made lots of dear friends. One of which was this beautiful, troubled girl named Joanna Rappaport...and we became the best of friends instantly for many reasons, but what first drove us together was that we had the same last name (though mine is spelled Rapoport) but we were affectionately called The Two Rapoports (people would sing that to the tune of Two Ladies from Cabaret) anyway we became extremely close when we were both cast in Hair. After that show went up, and was over with, I was cast in Chess as the arbiter and she was cast in Nine as Luisa, the main character's wife...I was of course totally focused on my show, and also I had never seen or heard of Nine so I had no idea what they were going through. Both shows shared the same stage, so we got to see each other's dress rehearsals. The moment those lights went down at the end of Act 1 I was amazed and in tears at such a beautiful show. A show which touches me even more now, when I feel like I have to say goodbye to that immature little boy in me, and have to grow up and man up.

There is a tragic part to this story, and that is that about 5 or so years after I last saw her, I got a call from a mutual friend saying that Joanna had committed suicide. It didn't surprise me as she was a very broken woman, but it still killed me to no end that I wasn't more a part of her life after we had finished camp, she was after all the reason why I went to the performing arts boarding school that I went to.

On a lighter note, while I was in boarding school, during one of our brakes I took the train down to NYC to check out the first preview of the new musical Titanic, which is written by the same man as Nine, Maury Yeston, and I had the honor of meeting him and seeing what is another one of my top ten musicals of all time. I told him all about Stagedoor Manor and how much his musical meant to me, he was very gracious and hoped that I would enjoy his new work, which of course I did. So without further ado here is the trailer to the new movie NINE.

P.S. Can I just say how AMAZING Fergie is sounding!? What an amazing vocal performance, and not sure if many people know that Fergie was once a meth addict herself, which she has spoken about in past interviews so it's not like I'm breaking her anonymity. Anyway, enjoy Nine!