Displaying items by tag: The Apollo Theater

Chicago is just days away from ‘Middletown’ hitting the stage with its nearly four-week run taking place at the Apollo Theater. The play, produced by GFour Productions (Menopause the Musical and Fiddler on the Roof), kicks off on February 27^th and centers around two couples that share the roller coaster of life together – the highs, lows and in-betweens. But Middletown is different than most stage productions in that the actors read directly from scripts with minimal use of a set.

“I wanted to tell a relatable ‘every-person’s’ story in a direct and straightforward manner where human emotions are front and center – without bells, whistles, special effects, or props,” says writer Dan Clancy, best known for his play The Timekeepers, which ran Off-Broadway and in Israel for 13 years. “I wanted the words to speak for themselves.” 

The play also comes with a powerhouse quartet of actors comprised of Sandy Duncan, Donny Most, Adrian Zmed and Kate Buddeke. The talent in this show is undeniable and coupled with a work that has already received such critical acclaim (including a Carbonell nomination for ‘Best New Work’ in 2017), Middletown should be on everyone’s radar over the next couple of months.

A fan of his while growing up, I had the chance to catch up with cast member Donny Most fresh off recording some new tracks in Nashville for his upcoming album. Most, probably best known for his role of Ralph Malph on Happy Days, has not only left an impression with his acting work, he has also worked behind the camera as a director. But perhaps most impressively (this coming from a fellow musician), Most has recorded a handful of albums, his latest ‘D Most Mostly Swinging,’ an ode to the standard singing greats. Most, who began studying music at an early age, clearly has the chops to take on such a monumental task, even taking his act on the road with ‘Donny Most – Sings and Swings’ tour. 

Most’s career is well-rounded, and he really seems to enjoy the change of pace. Looking forward to taking the live stage again and spending time in Chicago, the veteran actor/musician talks Middletown, his path into both an acting and music career and even has some fun stuff to say about his Happy Days pals.  

Ken Payne - Thank you for giving me the opportunity to chat for a few minutes. I’ve been looking forward to this and it’s a thrill to speak with you.

Donny Most - Sure. I appreciate that. Thank you very much.

Ken - Oh, you bet. So, I read that you originally started out studying engineering and then went into business. And then I saw that you landed Happy Days on your third audition and what was that like?

Donny - You have some of it right, but you are missing some key elements so let me expand the picture a little bit. What happened was, I grew up in Brooklyn, New York and at a pretty young age I started really wanting to pursue acting, singing, all that. Initially, I went to a private studio in Manhattan to a class to learn singing and dancing and acting. I was like thirteen, fourteen years old when I got picked to be part of a professional revue they put together with the teenagers and I was singing in the Catskill Mountains one summer at all of those nightclubs up in the hotels for the summer. So, I was really going after it from a pretty young age. Then I switched my gears after that summer and started working at an acting workshop and it was a much more serious class than I had been doing previously. The one prior to that was more focused on music.

Ken – So quite the switch of direction at that point.

Donny – Right. So now I was switching my focus to acting. I was in this class for a couple of years while I was in high school. Through that teacher, I was introduced to a manager and I started going out on auditions in New York and read a lot of commercials. I did about 40 commercials over the next four years, and some of that was while I was going to Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. So, I was involved in a theater club at Lehigh and was driving into Manhattan a lot for these auditions and doing commercials and back and forth a lot. I got my engineering and business degree because my parents wanted me to have a college degree - and something as a backup, as opposed to majoring in theater. After my junior year, I went out to California for the summer to make some contacts for after I graduated. I wanted to expand the possibility because most of TV and film was being done in LA and not in New York, so I wanted to have that as an option as well. So, I went to Los Angeles for the summer, went on auditions and landed a few guest starring roles. I was supposed to go back to Lehigh for my senior year after the summer, but the agents convinced me that I had some good momentum going and that it would be silly to stop that flow. “Take six months off of school. You have something cooking, let’s see where it can go.” So, I did. I decided to take six months off and stayed out in LA and landed another role. And then I got nothing for several months and I thought “oh, I made a big mistake,” but then the audition came up for Happy Days. I think the three that you mentioned is because I went back a second time and then they called me back a third time for a screen test. But I had already landed guest starring roles on three other shows before Happy Days.

Ken – Gotcha. Your Wikipedia page makes it sound like you jumped into Happy Days out of nowhere. I was like WOW, that’s pretty fortunate!

Donny - Yeah, Wikipedia page… I thought I should fill in the blanks.

Ken - It sounds like you were into music at a very young age and I noticed that you tour as a musician with ‘Donny Most Sings and Swings’ - which I thought was super interesting. You cover many standards, which is one of my favorite types of music and I thought that was fascinating.

Donny - Great!

Ken - Is that something you are still doing today? Touring as a music act?

Donny - I am still doing it. I haven’t been doing it quite as much as I was about a year or two ago because I got very busy with film projects and other theater projects. I was doing a movie over the summer in Michigan called Lost Heart with a great production company called Collective Development, Inc. It was my second film with them. I also acted in a film with them a year ago called, MBF: Man’s Best Friend, which was actually just released a month ago on Amazon Prime. It’s a really interesting film. Pretty powerful movie and I play a defense attorney defending a wounded vet in the film. It’s a dramatic role and completely different from my past. After Lost Heart this past summer, I did the play Art up in Canada. And then I came back and did a little more music. I did a show a few weeks ago, a cabaret in New York, for two nights. And this past Friday night, I was a guest with Linda Purl, who I’ve done some shows with. She is an actress/singer, as well. So, I’m still doing music but not as much only because I got busy with a few different projects. And now I’ve got Middletown coming up. On that note, I’m near Nashville and I just came out of a meeting because I’m recording with a producer here. We are having a session tonight. We have done four songs so far and I’m doing another four this week. And after Middletown in Chicago, I’ll do the last four songs. So, yeah, I’m juggling the singing and acting, which I love. I love mixing them up and going from one to another.

Ken – We’re certainly looking forward to having you in Chicago. As far as Middletown goes, what was it that attracted you to work on that project? I know the play has a stellar cast with Sandy Duncan, Adrian Zmed, Kate Buddeke and yourself.

Donny - The play is the thing. I really liked the play a lot. And I’ve also worked with Adrian before. See, we’ve done this play in the spring for the first time at a theater in Las Vegas, The Smith Center for the Performing Arts. I did it with Adrian and then we did it at Bucks County Playhouse in Pennsylvania and now we are doing it in Atlanta for a week and then coming to Chicago. I’ve done a tour with Adrian, a Broadway tour of Grease years ago, and Adrian and I have also played ball together- we are on the same softball team. So, I knew it would be great to work with Adrian. I have not worked with Sandy, but I’ve heard great things about her, as everyone knows with her reputation from people who have worked with her. And the play itself, more than anything, because if you don’t like the material, you know, it’s nice to work with friends and people you like, but you have to love the material. So, it’s really a wonderful play that takes you through so many different emotions. There is comedy and then there are very heartfelt moments and very dramatic moments in the play. I think it’s something so many people will relate to.

Ken – Based on what I’ve read about it, I think you’re exactly right when you say the play will hit home for many theater goers.

Donny – For sure. Middletown is about two couples who have been friends for 30 something years and they have dinner every Friday night. You see them at the beginning when they are a little older, but then you go back to see how they became friends and the audience goes on this journey with them as they go through life whether it be their friendship, and having children, and marriage challenges, and then getting older and dealing with all kinds of things. It’s a real rollercoaster. I love that kind of material where it runs the gamut. It’s not just a comedy. It’s not just a drama. It’s like life is- it combines the two in a way that is very fulfilling. So that’s the main aspect. And also, that they are doing the design of the play was not to do it - you know how Love Letters was done by the actors reading the script. It’s similar in that regard. We are reading. There is some staging and minimalist kind of staging, but it’s pure. It’s pure storytelling with great characters and great words and great vehicles for actors. So that was interesting to me to do it in that manner. It really works. I didn’t quite know what to expect, but it surprised me when I did do the play how powerful it was doing it in this fashion.

Ken - So this story, about two couples meeting together for some 30 years, I looked it up and it looks like you have been married for about 38 years, if I’m right?

Donny - Yeah, it will be 38 in a couple of weeks.

Ken - Congratulations! I was wondering if this play had any parallels in your own life. And maybe that was also something that kind of grabbed your attention when considering this role.

Donny - Um, I would say that I was aware when I was reading it that I was like, “Oh wow, this is sort of uncanny about marriage and something from my life,” but there were enough moments in the play that, yes, I felt like I had experienced this, and I think everybody will have that same kind of feeling and reaction. There is something for everybody, you’ll recognize, it will hit a chord within, and you’ll have a smile on your face, with that recognition, or the pang deep down where you feel the pain and the emotion. It’s that kind of a piece. There wasn’t anything that was like, “My god, this is my story,” but there was enough in there that everybody will feel a connection to it.

Ken - When was the last time you visited Chicago and what are you looking forward to the most? You are going to be here for almost a month.

Donny - Yeah. I am looking forward to it. I was in Chicago, I performed at a place called Andy’s Jazz Club about three and a half, four years ago with the Chicago Jazz Orchestra. I always enjoyed the city very much and I’m looking forward to taking it in and being in the downtown area. You know, I grew up in New York, so it has a similar feel to me in terms of a cosmopolitan kind of a city. There is so much to do and the bustle of it and the variety of it and the food and the music and everything that a great city has to offer. I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to play softball in Wrigley Field a couple of times. Happy Days had a softball team and we played at Wrigley Field before their regular game with the Cubs. We were playing there, twice. And I was with another team called the Hollywood Allstars, a celebrity softball team that played at Wrigley Field, so I think I played at Wrigley like three times. That ballpark holds a special place in my heart, being a huge baseball fan growing up. Unfortunately, I will be there right before the new season begins, so I won’t get to go to a game, but it will just be great to be back in Chicago again. I’m really looking forward to it.

Ken - So, as far as Middletown goes, after the Chicago run, are there any plans to continue this play with the same group of actors in other locations?

Donny - They are talking to other theaters in other cities and I know they are lining them up. I think there will be a break after Chicago. There will be a bit of a break until they have coordinated them all. But the plan is to do it. The cool thing about it is when I did it in Las Vegas last spring and in Buck County, Cindy Williams played my wife and Didi Conn was playing Adrian’s wife. But they weren’t available, so in Atlanta, Didi is going to be able to do it, but then she’s not available after that. That’s why they brought Sandy [Duncan] in and a local actress that has done a ton of stuff in Chicago and stuff on Broadway, Kate Buddeke.

Ken – Sure. Kate is great. We are very familiar with her work here.

Donny – Kate is playing my wife. I’ve met her on Skype and she is lovely and I know she has done a ton of theater so I’m looking forward to working with her. What I was getting at, is that I think they will have some select pool of actors that work for this, but if some aren’t available, then you have this group doing the play in this city. And then it might be a mix and match for the next one. That kind of thing. Keep doing it and who knows, maybe it will go Off-Broadway. It’s all kind of fluid right now. I know they are lining up other theaters as we speak.

Ken - That is great to hear because it sounds like a terrific show and we are excited to have it run here in Chicago’s Apollo Theater. So, back to Happy Days because I have to ask for all the Chicago fans of that show - I was curious if you are you are still in contact with any fellow cast members at all, and it sounds like you have been with Cindy Williams.

Donny - Yeah, Anson [Williams] and I are tight, maybe tighter than we have ever been. We see each other and talk to each other all the time. As a matter of fact, he filled in for me, after Bucks County Playhouse. They had a production in Delaware, and I couldn’t do it, so Anson filled in for me for that particular run. Anson and I, we are in constant communication. And then the others - I happened to see Scott Baio just the other day. And Ron [Howard], he’s a very busy guy, but we will stay in touch by email and I’ll see him once or twice a year, that kind of thing. I had lunch with him about eight, nine months ago out in LA. And Henry [Winkler], I spoke to just about two, three weeks ago, and we are supposed to get together for lunch once I get back from Chicago.

Ken - That’s always good to hear because you watch these shows, we grow up with them, and sometimes you find out later that the cast never speaks to each other afterwards and it pops the bubble a little bit.

Donny - Yeah, we were very lucky that we had such a great relationship - and got along so well - and it was a very fortuitous casting, whatever you want to call it. You must give the Happy Days’ producers and the casting people a lot of credit. It was one of those things that happens occasionally where you bring a group of people together and they just hit it off professionally and personally - and we really did become a family. It sounds like a cliché, but it totally was the case with our group. So, we will always have that. I saw Marion Ross not that long ago and she is still doing amazingly well. I think she is 91-years-old and she looks like she could be my age. She’s amazing. We will always have that feeling. It’s almost like when we see each other, it’s like seeing your cousins and aunts and uncles, that kind of feeling. You could be away from each other for a while, but you still have that bond and you have all those feelings for each other.

Ken – Fantastic! So, I’ll just finish with one more question, I wanted to backtrack since you mentioned that you are recording in Nashville and are currently laying down some tracks and will be recording some more after this run. Are these standards that you are doing? And, when can we expect to hear the new music?

Donny - Good question. There are some standards that are going to be on this one, but not quite as much, it’s a little different. I have a CD that is out now called “D Most: Mostly Swinging” and those are all great standards with a big band and it’s “mostly swinging”. Those are all jazz standards that [Frank] Sinatra’s done and Bobby Darin and all the people that I loved growing up and listening to. What happened is I was introduced to a producer in Nashville and he saw what I was doing, and he really liked it. And when we talked and he came out to LA for something and we met, he said he thought I should do something more in his wheelhouse, but he also thought it would be a good move for me. It wouldn’t be just strictly the jazz kind of thing and that style. It’d be a little more contemporary, but we could still maintain some of the jazz feel while maybe including songs that weren’t jazz standards but were standards to my generation - songs that they were well known songs from the late sixties, maybe seventies, from  the classic rock era - open it up a little bit more so it wasn’t just the jazz standards. So, it’s a whole new thing, it’s a little different, but I’m enjoying it because we are still able on some of the songs to put in some of the jazz feel that I love. But I also love a lot of the other music. I have an eclectic kind of taste. It was a renaissance of music in the late sixties when after The Beatles and after classic rock. People were doing all kinds of mixing rock with jazz, or rock with folk, or rock with blues, progressive rock, all kinds of things. It was so experimental. So, I grew to love a lot of that music as well. It’s kind of fun for me to integrate some songs that are not part of the old jazz standards and do some of the stuff from a different era of my life. I’m enjoying that. ***

Be sure to catch Donny Most along with Sandy Duncan, Adrian Zmed and Kate Buddeke in Dan Clancy’s Middletown during its run at The Apollo Theater (2540 N. Lincoln Ave) February 27^th through March 22^nd. For tickets and/or more information visit www.apollochicago.com.