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‘Millburn Short Hills Monthly’ Feb 2023 newspaper features Amogh

February 2nd, 2023 – The local newspaper ‘Millburn Short Hills Monthly” featured Amogh’s achievements and community service in their February issue (Page 6). Online portal link here!

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[papermoonstheatricaldiary]

THE TALE OF THE ALLERGIST’S WIFE

February 8, 2004

THE TALE OF THE ALLERGIST'S WIFE is a play by Charles Busch in which he explores the Upper West Side life of aspiring intellectual Marjorie Taub, a middle-aged upper class woman who lives comfortably with her doctor husband Ira and spends her days and evenings pursuing culture. Following an emotional outburst in a Disney Store, Marjorie wallows in a mid-life crisis. Unexpectedly invading her depression is flamboyant childhood friend Lee who becomes a seemingly permanent house guest, not only drawing Marjorie out of her dark mood, but affecting her marriage as well.

The play premiered off-Broadway at Manhattan Theatre Club in February 2000 before transferring to Broadway, opening in November 2000 starring Linda Lavin (Marjorie), Tony Roberts (Ira), and Michele Lee (Lee). Later in the run, Lavin was replaced by Valerie Harper and Rhea Perlman.  The play was subsequently produced in regional (see below) and community venues.

THE TALE OF THE ALLERGIST'S WIFE ran at New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse (Millburn) from January 7 to February 8, 2004.  The production was directed by Carl Andress, with settings by Michael Anania, costumes by Miguel Angel Huidor. The cast was Robin Strasser (Marjorie), Lenny Wolpe (Ira), Meg Foster (Lee), Shirl Bernheim (Frieda) and Ariel Shafir (Mohammed).  The production was shared with Florida's (now defunct) Coconut Grove and Royal Poinciana Playhouses.  

When I heard that Paper Mill was to produce a Charles Busch play, I was thrilled.  I had followed Busch's work ever since Vampire Lesbians of Sodom and was a bona fide fan.  This was his most mainstream play to date and would appeal to our Short Hills matrons, many of them had a lot in common with Marjorie.  As the coordinator of our “Breakfast at Paper Mill” series (for local seniors), I presented an introduction to Busch's work complete with live monologues from his plays performed by staff members.  It was a great deal of fun.  

Adding to the attraction was that the play was directed by frequent Busch collaborator Carl Andress and starred Shirl Bernheim as the mother. Bernheim was one of a kind, and we were lucky to have her repeat her role.  She was joined by Mill regulars Lenny Wolpe (The Baker's Wife), and Meg Foster (The Dinner Party).  Marjorie was played by soap star Robin Strasser, Emmy winner for playing Dorian Lord on “One Life to Live.” The swanky Manhattan apartment was designed by Michael Anania and made a great “touch tour” for our blind and visually impaired audiences.  I'm still reminded of this show every day because I own a ceramic shopping bag souvenir that I use as a pencil holder!  

THE TALE OF THE ALLERGIST’S WIFE rates 3 Paper Moons out of 5

[papermoonstheatricaldiary]

THE DINNER PARTY

February 6, 2002

THE DINNER PARTY is a one-act comedy by Neil Simon, his 31st play. Six unknowing guests have RSVP'd to a dinner at a private dining room in a first-rate restaurant in Paris. They eventually realize they are three divorced couples. After the shock wears off, the characters inevitably begin to analyze and emotionally process their past marriages, and the play ends on a hopeful note.

Simon later said that he was trying to write a play very different from anything he had done before, and that he had the concept of creating a farce up to a certain point, and then instead of continuing the farce, to make a turn to where it becomes quite serious.

The play had its world premiere in Los Angeles in December 1999 and then ran at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC in the summer of 2000.  It opened on Broadway in October 2000 and closed after 364 performances and 20 previews. It was directed by John Rando with sets by John Lee Beatty. It has since been produced in regional (see below) and community venues.

THE DINNER PARTY ran at New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse from January 9 through February 10, 2002.  As on Broadway, it was directed by John Rando with scenery by John Lee Beatty.  It starred Michael Mastro, Meg Foster, Steve Vinovich, Greg Mullavey, Elizabeth Heflin, and Catherine Lloyd Burns.  The show was a co-production with the (now defunct) Coconut Grove Playhouse in Florida.  

At one time, Neil Simon plays were popular “filler” at Paper Mill, providing the mid-winter slot with some levity.  Especially when not producing farces.  THE DINNER PARTY is part farce and since the Mill had already produced Rumors, Simon's one true farce, this was a logical choice. It was also a smart choice for other reasons.  The play had just closed on Broadway and the director and scenery  were available to recreate the show in Millburn for those who hadn't gotten across the river to see it (me included).  They shared the production with Coconut Grove, which was always a good cost-cutting measure.  

The play is set in a beautiful Parisian private dining room which featured a classical mural which took up the entire back wall of the set.  Luckily, it was saved from the incinerator after the show closed on Broadway by merely making one slit down the center.  As on Broadway, director Rando stacked the cast with A list TV stars.  While Broadway had the Fonz (Henry Winkler) and Jack Tripper (John Ritter), we got Mary Hartman's husband (Greg Mullavey) and the first Cagney (Meg Foster) – B listers, at best.  

I found the combination of farce and drama awkward and not completely successful.  I prefer the sentimental Simon, as with his Brighton Beach plays and Lost in Yonkers, all of which were produced by the Mill. The best part about THE DINNER PARTY was that it was only 90-minutes long.  

THE DINNER PARTY rates 2 Paper Moons out of 5

[papermoonstheatricaldiary]

FOREVER PLAID

February 5, 1995

FOREVER PLAID (originally titled "Butchwax") is a juke-box style musical revue written by Stuart Ross.  It presents four wholesome young men singing close-harmony standards from the American song-book such as "Three Coins in the Fountain", "Moments to Remember", "Sixteen Tons", "Chain Gang", "Perfidia", "Heart and Soul"; "Lady of Spain", and "Love is a Many-Splendored Thing". The fictional quartet met in their high school's audio-visual club. In early 1964, just as they were about to establish themselves professionally, they were killed in a collision with a bus full of teen-age Beatlemaniacs. Their posthumous appearance is attributed to a warp in the astral plane combined with a hole in the ozone layer.

The show premiered in a New York City supper club in 1989 after previous engagements in regional theatres and cabarets.  The full production moved off-Broadway in 1990.  It has been extensively produced in regional (see below), community, and educational theatres worldwide. A film version was released in 2009 and is available on DVD.  A holiday sequel called Plaid Tidings appeared in 2006.  

FOREVER PLAID was produced at New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse (Millburn) from January 4 to February 5, 1995.  It was directed and choreographed by Stuart Ross with musical direction by David Gursky, scenery by Neil Peter Jampolis, lighting by Jane Reisman and costumes by Debra Stein. It starred Jonathan Brody, Roy Chicas, David Engel, and Robert Lambert.  

Sometime in the late 1980s, long before I joined the staff of Paper Mill, I went to New York City to see a friend perform in a new cabaret act called “The Four Plaids.”  Little did I know then it would become a mega-hit and a worldwide theatrical franchise.  It is interesting that FOREVER PLAID had an early version that played in Teaneck, New Jersey and here it was coming to the State Theatre of New Jersey, Paper Mill Playhouse, a venue more suited for golden age musicals than four-person cabaret acts.  But this was the Mill's mid-winter slot, so a small-cast play or musical was the usual fare.  It was fine enough, if a bit lost on the big Paper Mill stage.  The show originally contained some funny double entendres, most of which fell flat in Millburn.  Most memorably, there was a scene in which our head usher (who had also had cameo roles in a few shows), came down the aisle to present the Plaids with a big gift-wrapped package.  One of the Plaids accepts the package then turns to the audience and says “Nice box.”  Had our head usher been a sexy young lady instead of a grandmother, the joke might have gotten a smile.  It is reminiscent of Nunsense, a show which lost much of its double-entendre when it left the night club stage for world domination.  Oddly, Mother Superior still sniffs Rush.

Of the Paper Mill's FOREVER PLAID, the Catholic League later issued a report which cited the lines which refer to a bus filled with young Catholics girls that hits a car, killing the Plaids: 

"This incident triggered a barrage of insults aimed at the Catholic teenagers, such as 'What a way to die--being slammed by a bus of parochial virgins.’"  

Oh, well.  You can't please everyone.  Especially the Catholics. 

FOREVER PLAID rates 3 Paper Moons out of 5

[papermoonstheatricaldiary]

THE MASK OF MORIARTY

January 29, 1998

THE MASK  OF MORIARTY is a comic play by Irish playwright Hugh Leonard that includes the characters created by Arthur Conan Doyle created for his Sherlock Holmes books, including Holmes, Watson, Inspector Lestrade and Professor Moriarty.  The renowned detective is enlisted to prove the innocence of a young man accused of murder on the Waterloo Bridge. The trail of clues and red herrings leads him to his arch rival, Professor James Moriarty.

The play's premiere was in October 1985 at the Gate Theatre in Dublin starring Tom Baker (”Dr. Who”) as Sherlock Holmes. The play had its American premiere at the Williamstown Theater Festival in 1994 directed by John Tillinger starring Paxton Whitehead as Sherlock Holmes. Although never produced on Broadway, the play has had a healthy run in regional theatres (see below), many starring Whitehead.  It has also become a favorite of community theatres.  

THE MASK OF MORIARTY ran at Paper Mill Playhouse (Millburn NJ) from January 7 to February 15, 1998.  The production was shared with the Old Globe Theater in San Diego and Stamford Center for the Arts in Connecticut. Scenic design was by James Joy, costumes by Michael Krass, and lighting by Jeff Davis.  The production was directed by Nicholas Martin and starred Paxton Whitehead, who first starred as Holmes in Crucifer of Blood on Broadway in 1978. Tom Lacy played Dr. Watson, with Elizabeth Roby (Alice / Mary), John Patrick Walker (Bunny), Susan Knight (Gwen), David Pittu (Lestrade), John Seidman (Lord Melmoth), Paul Fitzgerald (Herring), Julian Gamble (Travesty / Landlord), Henny Russell (Lily), and Amelia White (August Personage).  

While I'm not a big Sherlock Holmes fan, I am a big fan of Paxton Whitehead. He seems to me the ideal Holmes.  I later saw him in a string of Ayckbourn plays at Westport Country Playhouse, as well as on Broadway in Ayckbourn's Absurd Person Singular.  This production was a lot of fun and had its share of twists and turns – and even some drag!  

During this production the Paper Mill Education Department staged a free symposium about mystery writers which featured local TV personality Amber Edwards and Priscilla Ridgeway (The Mystery Writers of America) interviewing Carol Higgins Clark and Justin Scott. To supplement the interviews, I was asked to write a mini-murder mystery to kick things off!  Not only had I been moonlighting performing in murder mystery dinner theatre, I had also written a few as fund-raising events for local organizations.  I was thrilled to be asked.  It would take place on the set of THE MASK OF MORIARTY and I managed to get Paxton Whitehead himself to record the solving of the mystery (under the conceit of the detective reading a letter from Holmes). So it was that my playlette “The Strange Case of the Victoria Diamond” was written and directed by me on the Paper Mill stage starring Tony nominee Paxton Whitehead!  Oh, it also starred Gil Brady as the detective, who is now doing similar chores off-Broadway in SHEAR MADNESS.  For many years I had a cassette tape of Paxton reading my lines, but time and travails have made it a mystery to me where it went.  I'd look for it, but I am no Sherlock Holmes.  

THE MASK OF MORIARTY rates 3 Paper Moons out of 5

[papermoonstheatricaldiary]

UP, UP AND AWAY

January 27, 1999

UP, UP AND AWAY (subtltled) THE SONGS OF JIMMY WEBB is a musical revue consisting of 27 of the songwriter's most popular tunes sung by a cast of four. The songs include “MacArthur Park,” “Where's the Playground, Susie?” and the title tune, “Up, Up and Away.”  It was conceived and directed by Robert Johanson.  It premiered at Paper Mill Playhouse in 1999.  

UP, UP AND AWAY played at New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse (Millburn), from January 6 to February 7, 1999.  It was directed by Robert Johanson with choreography by Rob Ashford, scenery by Michael Anania, lighting by Jack Mehler, and costumes by Angelina Avellone.  The cast consisted of Mr. Johanson, Kelli Rabke, Judy McLane, and Darius DeHaas.  Back-up singers were Emma Lampert and J. Robert Spencer, who also understudied.  

Let me start out by saying that I think Robert Johanson is a brilliant director. But... UP, UP AND AWAY was terrible.  Record numbers of audience members left at intermission (there shouldn't have even been one).  It was often laughably bad.  The song “Paper Cup,” sung peeking out of the rim of a huge Dixie cup, was memorably awful.  Not the vocals, mind you, just the concept. The cast was full of the most incredible talent.  Rabke had been Dorothy in Paper Mill's The Wizard of Oz and then went on to appear in Children of Eden, alongside DeHaas.  McLane was one of Paper Mill's favorite leading ladies. She was one of several talented 'Judys’ to grace the Millburn stage.  This was a stellar cast – just trapped in a 'paper cup' of a musical revue.  

My favorite story stems from another staff member whose office was in earshot of the stage.  Every time our Education Director Susan, heard the line “Where's the playground, Susie?” she would stifle the urge to shout back “I DON'T KNOW!”  

Despite the very talented artists and really good material, this was one of those shows that just didn't work.  Luckily, in regional theatre, it was soon ‘up, up and away’ – on to the next project.  Luckily, a first rate production of Crazy for You, which would also air on PBS, was waiting in the wings.  

UP, UP AND AWAY rates 1 Paper Moon out of 5