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 CONVENIENCE Role: Ethan/Young Vince Production Info: Nov. 7-Dec. 3, ’00 @ Geva Nextstage (NY) Book/Music/Lyrics: Gregg Coffin Director: Mark Cuddy Musical Director: Michael Gribbin | ||
Convenience at the Geva Theatre was everything that an actor could ask for and more . . . the premiere of a new contemporary musical, a great group of talented and fun fellow actors, an incredible creative team, a supportive community, and wonderfully enthusiastic audiences. Gregg Coffin, the composer/lyricist/bookwriter of the piece, created a heartwrenching yet humorous story centered around a single mother and her 26-year-old son. There were so many different themes, and the plot was so intricate, that it’s almost impossible to summarize, but every single audience member left the theatre deeply moved by this semi-autobiographical tale. The Geva Theatre staff and Producers’ Circle members went out of their way to make our stay in Rochester fun and interesting . . . lots of home-cooked dinners, cool parties, and exciting events kept us busy! On top of all this, we went to the studio on the Monday after Opening Night to create the Original Cast Recording! | ||
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){kind=small} | Tell Her, Tell Him: Liz (Mary Jo McConnell) and Abe (Michael Dantuono) decide to tell Vince about their relationship. |
){kind=small} | Waiting Up: Liz (Mary Jo McConnell) relives the past as she waits for her son to come home. |
){kind=small} | The Revolving Door: Young Liz (Melissa Rain Anderson) and Liz (Mary Jo McConnell) rehash their morning breakfast routine. |
){kind=small} | Mom’s Hotel: Liz (Mary Jo McConnell) solicits advice from her partner Abe. |
){kind=small} | Little Spaceman: Young Liz, Liz and Vince (Jim Poulos) remember their bedtime lullaby. (This photo was taken during dress rehearsals, before Young Vince was added into the number . . . I'm crouched behind the bed!) |
){kind=small} | The Ambush: Vince (Jim Poulos) awakes to discover that he’s sharing a bed with his younger self (me). |
){kind=small} | The Traitor King: Young Vince (me) and Vince (Jim Poulos) become allies in the fantasy war against their absent father. |
){kind=small} | Quintet: Simultaneous epiphanies for the entire cast! (I like this picture because you can see the entire set . . . notice the unfinished plexiglass wall . . . again, it’s a dress rehearsal photo.) |
){kind=small} | Un: Liz (Mary Jo McConnell) pulls herself together and decides to accept Abe’s marriage proposal. |
){kind=small} | Door #3: Vince (Jim Poulos) jokes with his mother (Mary Jo McConnell) about her relationship with Abe. |
){kind=small} | The Offer Stands: Liz (Mary Jo McConnell) begins to accept Abe’s proposal of marriage, only to find out that Abe (Michael Dantuono) has accepted a job in California, 3000 miles away. |
){kind=small} | On the Phone II: Vince’s boyfriend, Ethan (me), finds out what Vince (Jim Poulos) has discovered during the past week. |
){kind=small} | Following Breadcrumbs Back: Young Vince (me) lets his guard down and cries out for his dad to come home. |
){kind=small} | Surrender: Vince (Jim Poulos) beats Young Vince (me) at his own game by making the Traitor King (Michael Dantuono) surrender. |
){kind=small} | Letting Go: Vince (Jim Poulos) confronts his younger self, and he strips Young Vince (me) of his defensive game-playing. |
){kind=small} | Letting Go: Vince (Jim Poulos) comforts the broken child within himself and together, they begin to let go of the past. |
){kind=small} | The Ogre and the Wife: Ethan (me) arrives on the scene to get his boyfriend back, leaving Liz (Mary Jo McConnell) wondering how to react. |
){kind=small} | The Ogre and the Wife: Ethan (me) and Liz (Mary Jo McConnell) face off with “guns” drawn, but eventually agree to a truce. |
){kind=small} | In the Morning: Liz (Mary Jo McConnell) and Vince (Jim Poulos) rediscover the love that used to bind them so closely together. |
){kind=small} | The Production Team: (clockwise from top) Music Director Michael Gribbin, Author Gregg Coffin, Lighting Designer Robert Perry, Sound Designer Lindsay Jones, Director Mark Cuddy, and Set/Costume Designer Louisa Thompson. |
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){kind=small} | It’s one big happy Convenience family: Michael Dantuono, Melissa Rain Anderson, Jim Poulos, Mary Jo McConnell, and me! |
){kind=small} | My Mom and I eating a quick dinner between shows on a Friday night. |
){kind=small} | Natalie traveled all the way from Philadelphia to see the show for her birthday. Here’s the snapshot she sent me. |
){kind=small} | Surprise: It’s Music Director Michael Gribbin’s birthday! |
){kind=small} | At the Recording Studio: the whole gang celebrating the completion of the cast recording, along with our great mix engineer Luke and author Gregg Coffin. |
){kind=small} | Linden Oaks Recording Studios: This place was so cool . . . I just had to take some pictures so I could remember this fun day. |
){kind=small} | The Recording Studio, with our mikes and music stands. |
){kind=small} | More CD Recording: MJ and I goofing around after completing “The Ogre and the Wife.” |
){kind=small} | It’s me, finishing up the end of “On the Phone II,” also known as “Ethan Packs!” |
){kind=small} | Don’t I look like I’ve been caught doing something naughty??? Actually, I’m in the girls dressing room on business . . . putting my signature on some Convenience merchandise! |
){kind=small} | If they ever do Convenience and need a TALL Ethan, here’s the guy! Joe Lomonaco is an announcer at WHAM radio in Rochester. |
){kind=small} | Our last Geva photo! Here’s the whole gang with the Giambrone’s after the final show. Notice Melissa’s authentic Pink Catawba Wine! |
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| THE ROCHESTER DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE, 11/11/2000 by David Lee [Convenience] may seem a bit more character-driven than a typical musical, but writer Gregg Coffin often handles that challenge adeptly. Flashes of wit pepper the show, making it much more than palatable. It is substantive, but not overbearing; self-conscious, but not obnoxious. The show’s other highlight is Ethan, played by Ron DeStefano. Ethan is Vince’s partner -- something Mom eventually accepts, but only after some comic results. While Ethan might seem like an offensive stereotype of the effeminate gay man, he is played with such exuberance and affection that he becomes the strongest character. A smart set design plays up the conflict between Vince, played by Jim Poulos, and his mother. A stark, modernist backdrop contrasts beautifully with the overdone, Martha-Stewart-on-crack feel of Mom’s kitchen. The result is a minimal but versatile environment that works well with the small Nextstage. |
| THE CITY NEWS, 11/22/2000 by Herbert M. Simpson In an accessible, ingratiating style, Convenience manages to explore the crippling effects of family breakups; a child’s escape into a fantasy life; a single mother’s need to recover her youthful openness to love, while her son, “the man of the house” since six, needs to recapture his childhood. The strongest element is the central theme of a gay son’s coming out to his judgmental mother. How’s about all that for a load to carry? And it’s all fun, too. [Author Gregg] Coffin’s insightful autobiographical book and lyrics break through beyond the merely entertaining but retain the appeal of his tuneful music [Liz and Ethan] are the two most crowd-pleasing roles, and it’s gratifying that they’re cast with such bright performers. Mary Jo McConnell brings mature beauty to Liz in looks, voice, and manner. I can understand why she was cast in New York as Shaw’s bewitching Candida. Ron DeStefano has to play Ethan and also a six-year-old Vince. He’s a terrifically quirky physical comic and has either a high-range speaking and singing voice, or an astoundingly controlled falsetto. Jim Poulos brings a handsome, male ingenue presence and fine tenor voice to Vince, whom he plays romantically . . . . Michael Dantuono uses his strong baritone voice for a solid, virile Abe, and lets Abe’s vulnerability emerge gradually for good emotional effect. An accomplished actress, Melissa Rain Anderson also builds Young Liz as a sympathetic character. I like the comfortable way that she relates to others onstage. The five singer-actors are accompanied by Music Director Michael Gribbin, percussionist Primo Mussameci, and Tom Ellison on winds. Designer Louisa Thompson’s abstract set suggests locales including a star-studded outer space, and details Liz’s house, its ugly yellow kitchen and a fancifully constructed bed that is part playground. Behind a transparent wall, characters seen outside the main scene are pinpoined by Robert Perry’s helpful lighting. Though it’s hard to underestimate director Mark Cuddy’s contribution to Coffin’s musical, he too has provided lucid visualization onstage for what are often purely emotional or imaginary elements of the script. And he keeps it lively. I suspect that this creative, appealing show may attract a cult audience. There is much less dialogue than singing in this mostly sung-through chamber musical. But before I get too carried away about special appeal and limited audiences, let’s not forget that the most successful musical in theatre history, Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones’ The Fantasticks, has a cast of eight, an “orchestra” of a piano and a harp, a mostly bare stage, and has been playing in New York now for 40 years. |
| SHOW MUSIC MAGAZINE, Spring 2002 (Cast Recording Review) Coffin has a sense of humor that keeps his score from being one-note serious in its barbed exchanges between mother and son, as each comes to understand they have to let go of the past by reconciling their younger selves in order to move their relationship forward. This story is told through Coffin’s varied rhythms, with lyrics that . . . don’t betray his characters. Jim Poulos, Mary Jo McConnell, Melissa Rain Anderson (Encores! Babes in Arms and Tenderloin), Ron DeStefano, and Michael Dantuono perform the material with passion and polish. |