Reel Thoughts Interview: From Business to Broadway

Actor Tim Martin Gleason has gone from being a dashing, rich nobleman to being a hideous, catacomb-dwelling rageaholic with separation issues — and he’s happy about the change. Of course, only in the musical phenomenon The Phantom of the Opera can such progress be called a promotion.

Gleason is renowned for his portrayal of the show’s romantic hero Raoul, a role that he has played more often than any other actor in America. He originated the role for the Las Vegas production and played Raoul on Broadway when the show became the longest-running production in history.


Still, in Phantom, you’re never fully dressed without a half mask and crypt to call your own, so Gleason is thrilled to be playing the title role in the current US tour. From his reviews, it’s clear that the feeling is mutual. Ten years ago, Gleason was pursuing a business career when he made the leap of faith — he put business aside and followed his dream, which culminated in playing the Phantom, one of the most recognizable pop culture icons around.

Gleason is upbeat and jovial about playing the wounded hero. He said it’s “pretty spectacular” to be playing the show’s title character. “I was Raoul for seven years, which is kind of a dubious honor, actually,” Gleason said. “That whole time, I was the Phantom understudy, so I had played the Phantom a bunch of times, so by the time I took over the role, I had about 125 , 150 (performances) under my belt, so it wasn’t exactly brand new when I took over the role. The character of the Phantom’s just so much meatier – Raoul’s a leading man, so you’re kind of limited in what you can do with the role. They’re always very, very supportive and nurturing of you to make the role your own, but you can only do so much with Raoul. The Phantom’s a character, you can basically do whatever you want with him.”


Gleason said the producers never stunt cast or get lazy with the show, which is why the production has maintained its quality over the past 20 years. He loved working with original director Hal Prince when he came in to stage the Vegas production.

Asked what he’s doing to put his own mark on the role, Gleason said, “I’m just doing what feels honest, and I don’t really know how to define it, but a lot of people have told me that he comes off as a wounded child. You see the child in him a lot. I’ve seen 10 or 11 people play the role, and I’ve seen 10 or 11 interpretations. That’s what’s really great about it. It’s almost like there’s nothing you can do that’s wrong, as long as it’s honest.”

The Phantom of the Opera, a Broadway Across America production, will play at Gammage Auditorium in Tempe from October 28 to November 22. For more information on future dates and locations, visit the tour's official website.

Interview by Neil Cohen, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Phoenix's Echo Magazine.

MD News Desk: Girls Just Want to Have Fun

Keep up to date with all the latest from the entertainment world with the MD News Desk:

Hands Off the Merchandise:
- Meet the Barbie "Ladies of the 80's": Debbie Harry, Cyndi Lauper and Joan Jett (available this December from EntertainmentEarth.com.)

And the List Goes On:
- The 50 Most Powerful People on Broadway includes such out theater vets as Nathan Lane, Cameron Mackintosh, Joe Mantello, Jack O'Brien, Thomas Schumacher and Stephen Sondheim.
- A Different View: A Straight Person's Top 10 Guide to Movies About the Gay People.


GLBT Entertainment:
- Watch the trailer and help pick the poster for Do Começo Ao Fim (a.k.a. From Beginning to End), the controversial Brazilian drama about two brothers in love ... with each other.
- Another trailer for you: Oy Vey! My Son is Gay! The new rom com stars Lainie Kazan (naturally), Jai Rodriguez, Bruce Vilanch and (in his film debut) Tony winning Jersey Boy John Lloyd Young.
- ABC's FlashForward has a lesbian FBI agent.

Awards Watch:
- Pixar's John Lasseter to receive the David O. Selznick Achievement Award from the Producers Guild of America.
- Here are the movies to watch in Oscar's expanded Best Picture race.
- Vote now for the People's Choice Awards.


Glee:
- Cover Story: Entertainment Weekly goes for the Glee.
- Is Kristin Chenoweth's April Rhodes returning to New Directions?
- Music Makes the People Come Together: Madonna lends her songs to an upcoming all-Madge episode! Glee's status as the new gayest show on television now officially confirmed.
- Interviews: Matthew Morrison (Will Schuester) and Mark Salling (Noah "Puck" Puckerman).

From Screen to Stage:
- It's Not Easy Being Green: Shrek the Musical to close on Broadway in January.
- Watch This: Rehearsal montage for Nine ... love Judi Dench's wig.
- Around the World: The Lion King in Singapore and Grey Gardens in Japan.
- Ragtime, featuring a Tony Award-winning book by Terrence McNally and Tony-winning score by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, is back on Broadway.
- Meanwhile, Mommie Dearest herself, Faye Dunaway, takes on another real life diva, Maria Callas, in the film adaptation of McNally’s Tony-winning 1995 play Master Class. The movie, which the Academy Award winning actress is also directing, is now filming in Detroit.
- London to see a new adaptation of Ingmar Bergman's Oscar-winning film Through a Glass Darkly.
- La Cage aux Folles star John Barrowman dishes on being a 'Big Old Queen' ... onstage and off.
- Ladies and gentlemen, the Mr. Broadway 2009 Beauty Pageant.

Women We Love:
- Stocking Stuffer: Kathy Griffin's new comedy CD Suckin' It for the Holidays, available November 3 (click hereto pre-order from Amazon.com).
- And now for the bad Madonna news of the week: she'll direct again.
- Laurie Metcalf returns to Broadway in Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs and Broadway Bound.
- Casting About: Angelina Jolie in the thriller The Tourist, Laura Dern in the Meet the Fockers sequel Little Fockers and Vanessa Redgrave in the political drama The Whistleblower.
- Kim Cattrall to take on Noël Coward's Private Lives in the West End.

RIP:
- Beloved comedian and TV host Soupy Sales passed away Thursday at the age of 83.
- Collin Wilcox Paxton, best known for her pivotal role in the classic To Kill a Mockingbird, died October 14. She was 74.

Coming Soon:
- Sex and the City 2 Watch: Miley Cyrus joins the long list of cameos.
- J.J. Abrams hints about his plans for Star Trek 2.
- Daniel Craig reveals that the next James Bond will start shooting late next year.
- Anne Hathaway and Neil Patrick Harris to lend their voices to the animated Rio, from the folks behind the Ice Age movies.

Ride the Movies:
- Princess Tiana and her Prince Naveen, stars of The Princess and the Frog, will have their own "Showboat Jubilee" at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom starting Monday.


Out in Film:
- Paul Reubens' Pee-wee Herman rides again.
- Jane Lynch returns to Party Down and joins the Off-Broadway hit Love, Loss and What I Wore.
- Wicked author Gregory Maguire examines the enduring magic of Maurice Sendak's Where The Wild Things Are.
- Mike White talks about Gentlemen Broncos and the possible School of Rock sequel.
- Lisa Kudrow and Dan Bucatinsky are developing a Showtime comedy based on Craig Chester's memoir Why the Long Face?: The Adventures of a Truly Independent Actor. Don Roos is on board to direct.
- Power Up names their "10 Amazing Gay Women" and "10 Amazing Gay Men in Show Biz".
- Queer as Folk's Peter Paige has signed on to direct the indie drama Sex Crime Panic.
- Alan Cumming joins Christina Aguilera, Cher and Cam Giganget in Burlesque. OK, OK will go see it!

Reverend's Reviews: Apocalypse Now Playing

The Bible and other religious texts identify several elements that will foreshadow the end of the world: earthquakes, wars and fires raging out of control, the dead rising to life, plagues and pestilence, and Woody Harrelson. Ok, I added that last one, but I find it oddly significant that the actor has roles in at least two new movies out of a growing number that deal with the apocalypse and/or its aftermath.

In the current Zombieland, Harrelson plays the leader of a small group of survivors struggling to make it in a world that has been overrun with the living dead. Roland Emmerich's 2012 (in theaters November 13) casts Harrelson as one among billions trying to outrun an impending global cataclysm some allege was predicted long ago by the Mayans. Did the Mayans similarly anticipate Harrelson's 21st century standing as would-be savior of humankind?


Between now and the year 2012, I foresee a raft of apocalypse-themed movies. 9 (the animated, post-human adventure, not the Rob Marshall-directed musical) is already playing (read my review here), and The Road, based on Cormac McCarthy's stunning novel, is due by year's end. Gloom-and-doom is increasingly the rage in our cultural zeitgeist, which in turn feeds the Hollywood moviemaking machine.

But will we soon experience the actual end of days? That's a question that, in my experience, quite a few people are asking themselves but are afraid or embarrassed to discuss openly. As tsunamis decimate coastal communities, as world economies decline, as the ice caps melt, as new viruses or new strains of existing viruses infect us, and as Iran and North Korea strive to arm themselves with nuclear weapons, some believe the initial signs of impending Armageddon are already upon us. Who can say with certainty that any of us will still be here a mere three years from now?


As a Christian, I have long tried to take Jesus' admonition in the New Testament to "Be prepared" for the end seriously. Whether "the end" will translate ultimately as the end of my own life or the end of all life as we know it is murky if not completely unknowable. Other world religions have their own messages and practices regarding the seemingly inevitable end of the world.

Keeping the end of life in mind doesn't translate for me into a fearful, depressed mindset. Rather, it helps me to appreciate each day — indeed, each moment — all the more. I regularly try to impress this on the patients I serve daily who have been diagnosed with a terminal illness and are under hospice care. No matter what their religious background, virtually all respond positively, even eagerly, to my encouragement to live in the now and make the most of it.


Please don't get the wrong impression; I'm not about to start pacing the streets, carrying a placard reading "Repent! The end is nigh!" However, even country-western singer Tim McGraw has proclaimed the mantra "Live Like You Were Dying" to great success, indicating that many people do understand the wisdom in such an approach. With it comes the invitation to apologize to those we have hurt, forgive those who have offended us, and accomplish to the best of our ability the goals that we consider most important.

I can't tell you whether the world is going to end in 2012 or not. I wish I could. Frankly, I hope it doesn't. There's likely little we can do about it one way or the other, so there's no point in worrying about it. Let's all live like we are dying and make the most of the precious time we do have. Besides, if the end is that close at hand, Woody Harrelson might still be around to save us.

By Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Orange County and Long Beach Blade.

Reverend's Reviews: Hannah-Do

Sharon Gless of Cagney & Lacy and Queer as Folk fame gives a fine performance as a salty old lesbian confined to a nursing home in Hannah Free, an otherwise schmaltzy movie that is hard to swallow. It begins a national roll out today in Los Angeles.

The screenplay, adapted by Claudia Allen from her play, focuses on Gless' fierce title character. Now in her 70's — although it is hard to get a read on the film's timeline and Gless doesn't look that elderly — Hannah is unable to use her legs and is largely confined to bed in a skilled nursing facility.

As fate and the strained plot would have it, Hannah's longtime lover, Rachel (Maureen Gallagher), lies in a coma another wing over. Hannah is understandably anxious to see her, but Rachel's fundamentalist Christian daughter won't allow it. As Hannah schemes ways to sneak into Rachel's room with a young, mysteriously sympathetic visitor, Greta (Jacqui Jackson), she also chats with the spirit of Rachel's younger self and relates stories from their past to Greta.


These flashbacks are the best-directed scenes in Hannah Free. Director Wendy Jo Carlton drenches the actors playing younger Hannah (Kelli Strickland, who doesn't resemble Gless so much as young Gary Busey) and Rachel (Ann Hagemann) in golden sunlight and post-coital sweat. Their exchanges are more natural and realistic than much of the dialogue between the story's more contemporary characters.

As someone who regularly visits patients in skilled nursing facilities, I can attest that the movie also depicts many of the details of nursing home life accurately. While it seems cruel, a person in Hannah's situation currently doesn't have the right in most US states to visit their same-sex partner in the absence of a legal document (power of attorney, civil partnership or marriage license) granting them that right.


The film's various, mostly female performers do the best they can with the so-so material, but only Gless transcends it. She captures the frustration and righteous anger of someone who has been denied too much too long due to their "deviant" sexuality. Her scenes with Gallagher as the older Rachel ring with emotional truth even as their lines are by and large cliché.

While I can't recommend Hannah Free in general, I expect some lesbian women will find much to appreciate in its scenario. If nothing else, they have a new hero in Sharon Gless.

Click here to watch the trailer for Hannah Free.

UPDATE: Hannah Free is now available on DVD from Amazon.com.

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Orange County and Long Beach Blade.