WEEKEND: THE FEAR-FREE TOUR
It’s reportedly a SOLD OUT affair by the time we post this, but if you scored tickets to Stephen Colbert’s fundraiser appearance for the Two River Theater (hosted, actually, at the TRT’s bigger/older friend, the Count Basie), you know about as much as we do as to what to expect when Aaron Posner interviews this national treasure in an informal public conversation. Continue reading for our own interview of the man who interviews the interviewer…
Earlier this week, we ran down all the many and myriad things to do in and around the greater Red Bank orbit this Halloweekend; a gamut of groovie-goolie goings-on that will have your trick-or-treat bucket overflowing with choices (jump here to the full monsty). Of course, any self-respecting haunted house offers a “Fear-Free” or “Scaredy-Cat” option for patrons who avoid those short sharp shocks to the system — and it’s in that spirit that we’ve scared up this landlubber menu of delights.
Melissa Manchester at Pollak Theatre. A veteran singer on the New York scene since her days backing Bette and Barry in The Harlettes; a sought-after songwriter (betcha didn’t know she penned this), sometimes actress and solid-gold hitmaker (”Don’t Cry Out Loud,” which she didn’t write, and her own Grammy winning “You Should Hear How She Talks About You“), Melissa Manchester returns to Monmouth University’s Pollak Theatre here at the tail end of October — which, being National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, is a peak time to promote her available-online single “The Power of Ribbons.” Reserve tix right here. Friday, 8pm/ $32
Mike Barris & Friends at Red Bank Woman’s Club. Your oRBit editor knows him as a fellow freelancer for the Asbury Park Press and other local media outlets; an unshakable authority on American music and a writer of LONG, packed-with-fact dissertations that remain the first and last word on their subjects. Turns out Mike Barris is also a jazz guitar player who walks the walk he talks so well — and tonight at the historic Woman’s Club of Red Bank at 164 Broad Street, Barris will be jamming with some fairly formidable friends (guitarist Vinnie Corrao, vocalist Jennifer Jordan, trumpeter Tom Bender) in a tribute to some of the immortals of early jazz — Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith and Django Reinhardt. It’s the latest in the Jersey Shore Jazz and Blues Foundation’s monthly series of Reckless Steamy Nights at the club, a last-Friday house party (BYOB, with a $10 donation requested at the door) that allows discerning jazzbos to enjoy some fine sounds in a relaxed, informal setting. You can even hang out on the porch and check out the various rooms of the former Anthony Reckless estate, as long as you do it between the hours of 8:30 and 11pm. Proceeds benefit the scholarship programs of the JSJBF and the Woman’s Club; call (732)933-1984 for more info on this monthly offering. Friday, 8:30pm/ $10
Energizing the Basie: The Capitol Steps as an institution has outlasted scores of partisan revolutions, dynastic careers and permanent majorities.
The Capitol Steps at Count Basie Theatre. In a feature on the Capitol Steps that appeared here in oRBit last year, 15-year Steps veteran (and former lobbyist!) Mark Eaton suggested that “Competence is our greatest enemy — (but) every time we think we’re running short on material, somebody always comes along — a Ronald Reagan, Dan Quayle, Bill Clinton — to save us.” While the constantly touring musical-comedy political satire troupe (born when a group of moonlighting Senate staffers decided to have a little fun with the foibles of their Congressional bosses) searches for their latest meal ticket, we reflect back and find it hard to believe that it’s been just one year since these practitioners of “Forbidden Beltway” rolled into Red Bank on the eve of that momentous election — and what a year it’s been. In a world in which the political class and the media continue to make their own comic gravy — and fellow comedians are making rather than faking the news — it becomes harder than ever to figure the line between parody and clarity, so as this newly minted Halloween tradition unfolds, we look to the Steps, those entertainers from a town where the cabaret arts usually takes a back seat to a much wilder brand of burlesque, to show us the way. If nothing else, we can be assured of seeing a completely different act than they put on last year. Saturday, 8pm/ $19.50 - $35
Pacific Encores at the Axelrod PAC. An interconnected troupe of the Pacific Opera repertory company — founded in Australia and now based in Monmouth County — the international vocalists of Pacific Encore Performances return to the AxPAC for a PEP rally of Broadway standards, Israeli folktunes and operatic arias. It’s another event within a banner year that saw the completion of their own film for public television; a stunningly produced and photographed (at Monmouth U’s Wilson Hall) endeavor that can be seen in snippets on the website. Take it here for tickets. Saturday, 8pm/ $25
With their third discus NEW WAYS TO FAIL finally on the cultural NORAD, the Ribeye Brothers return to West End’s indie-rock incubator for another hearty round of “bar ballads and cautionary tales.”
The Ribeye Brothers at the Brighton Bar. It’s not a “record release party” — the Sons of Mrs. Ribeye would never do anything that crass and commercial — but it surely couldn’t be kismet that Tim Cronin, Jon Kleiman and meaty mates have returned to their favorite local venue concurrent with the availability of their long-delayed third album, New Ways to Fail. Released (after a Voyage of the Damned that took it through the brackish backwaters of the fast-fading indie record industry) on the band’s own This Is You imprint, the set of 14 listed songs (plus a worth-sticking-around-for bonus title cut) would seem to tread familiar lush/ loner/ loser/ layabout territory via titles like “Far Side of a Bad Thing,” “Shit Car,” “Crashing the Ambulance” and “Wrong End of the Leash” — we’ve maintained that these guys know more ways to spin a booze-basted yarn than anyone this side of the big Bukowski. But there’s something different here in the strong production (by Kleiman and fellow Monster Magnet veteran Phil Caivano); a mastery of the sixties garage template (by Jon, Jim Baglino, Matt Forman and Neil O’Brien) and Cronin’s growlin-guts vocal salvos smack of something akin to confidence, even when the narrator of the song is about to lay down his low-rent life on the road. Or is confidence an alien concept in the world of the RBs? You decide, during a Saturday night Brighton set that further features The Anderson Council. Scream your requests — they actually played “DWI” for us last time (although not even the Make-A-Wish Foundation can get them to revive “Steak Hat”) — and make sure to check Tim’s near-daily updates to his howlingly Proustian diary of a madman, succinctly entitled ugh!. Saturday, 9pm/ $10
Stephen’s Birthday at the Stephen Crane House. We don’t mean Stephen (”who’s honoring me now”) Colbert, but Stephen Crane, the great 19th century fiction writer, poet and journalist (he was an early editor of what would become the Asbury Park Press) who in his all-too-brief 28 years left us with a hidebound classic American novel (The Red Badge of Courage), some unjustly overlooked stories (The Monster being a prime example) and some cutting-edge newspaper work that may even have pointed the way to Hunter Thompson if you squint hard enough. On Sunday, the historic Stephen Crane House in Asbury Park hosts a special 138th birthday party in honor of its famous former resident and namesake, with a featured screening of John Huston’s 1950 film of Red Badge; preceded by a reading of Crane’s 1899 war correspondent story “The Lone Charge of William B. Perkins.” Donations will be accepted for the Asbury Park Little League (as Crane House owner-curator Frank D’Alessandro reports, Crane was a baseball fan who was said to be “able to catch any ball without a glove”) and THERE WILL BE CAKE. Reservations are recommended at cranehousereservations@gmail.com. Sunday, 4pm
I Am Stephen Colbert (and So Can You) at the Count Basie. It’s a “rare, out-of-character interview” (and a benefit for Two River Theater Company) with Stephen Colbert, last seen ’round these parts in the role of dramatic actor, in a script-in-hand play reading at New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch. On Sunday, November 1, the author of the best-selling I Am America (and So Can You) comes to the Count Basie Theatre to appear onstage in his greatest role — that of The Real Stephen Colbert, a man not to be confused with “Stephen Colbert,” a guy described as “one of the most intensely theatrical, bitingly satiric, genuinely important and totally original characters on television today.” That last according to Aaron Posner, TRTC’s Artistic Director and the man who will be sharing the stage with Colbert in a candid conversation about…well, only their hairdressers know for sure. We’re reasonably certain that you’ll find the event sold out as you read this, but it wouldn’t hurt to inquire to the Basie box office at (732)842-9000. And if it’s any consolation, stick around and Continue Reading for our own interview of the interlocutor Posner, regarding his “who knew?” history with Colbert.
RED BANK oRBit: The question has to be, how’d you score Colbert for your fundraiser? And donating his services, yet?
AARON POSNER: It’s incredibly generous of him, as a gift to the theater. I’ve actually known him 20-something years, ever since we met at Northwestern University — we were in the same acting class there, as was Denis O’Hare. And David Schwimmer was there at the time also, although not in our class.
I directed Stephen in a show called “Terry Won’t Talk,” and so this event will be the first time we’ve worked together formally since then — not counting the time that I invited him to do some workshops when I was with the Arden Theatre Company in Philadelphia.
So you guys have stayed in touch with each other over the years?
As much as possible — I remember going to a taping of his TV show, pretty early on in its run. It was only the third or fourth week of the show, and at that time there was no guarantee that it would have any long-term commitment from the network. I was there when he found out that he was renewed for a whole season, which was a happy occasion, and ever since then he’s just hit the ground running, working as hard as he can on this thing, developing and maintaining this cultural phenomenon.
Now, the Colbert that you’ve known all these years, the guy that you’ll be talking with on the stage, is a different person than what’s called the “character of Stephen Colbert…”
I have such a tremendous respect for what he’s accomplished. His character is a sustained performance; something that he’s able to work with as a scripted creation and also in an improvisational context…nobody has as fast a mind as him. Stephen’s remarkable for both intelligence and speed, so it makes sense that he and Jon Stewart became friends and partners in this project. They’re both among the best interviewers in the media, although they each have their own approach to things.
You could say that since Colbert does what he does in character, it’s like Ginger Rogers doing what Fred Astaire did, “only backwards and in heels.” You’re aware, though, that a number of people have been said to take everything that Colbert says at face value?
I’ve heard that, yes. Well, I guess P.T. Barnum had a quote for that…
Say no more. Let’s talk instead about how exactly it came to pass that the Two River fundraiser is taking place at the Count Basie.
We enjoy a great relationship with the Basie people, and of course the Basie has about five times the capacity as Two River Theater, so it made sense to hold the event there. The tickets have sold very well, and we expect to have a sellout by the time it turns to November. Of course, 99.99% of the people will be there to see Stephen. The other .01% is just my mother — and it’s possible that she’s there for him more than for me!
Well, you’ve always conducted yourself well on both sides of an interview — but Colbert, as we said, is something else entirely; a sly master at turning the situation around to his advantage. How does one prep for a one-on-one with such a formidable opponent? And what can we expect to be seeing up there on the stage?
Well, I can only hope I have questions that he’s interested in answering. I guess I can say that I’ll go wherever he takes us, but it’s ultimately his show.
There could be a little bit of a theatrical bent to what we’re doing; we’ll go broad and wide in places, and we might do some kind of funny bit — but I wouldn’t box with Ali, and I certainly won’t try to out-funny Stephen Colbert!
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October 30, 2009
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