Shoppers Treated to “Baby It’s You” Preview at Playhouse
By Terry Miller
Published: Friday, November 27th, 2009
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. The cast from “Baby It’s You” treats shoppers to a free, sneak preview of the new show at Pasadena Playhouse and then saw a familiar face , Santa Claus paid a visit to ask the cast what they wanted for Christmas. As a way of soothing the savage shopping beasts, these terrific actors and singers were just what the shoppers ordered Friday evening after a rather exhausting first big shopping day of the holiday season. The folks at Paseo Colorado and Pasadena Playhouse put of the free show to help unwind those weary of Black Friday shopping.
Pasadena Playhouse presents (Sheldon Epps, Artistic Director and Stephen Eich, Executive Director) by special arrangement with American Pop Anthology, Jonathan Sanger, Jerry Katell, Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures, Joan Stein, and in association with Universal Music Group, the world premiere musical BABY IT’S YOU!. The new musical is written by Colin Escott (Broadway-bound Million Dollar Quartet) and Floyd Mutrux (Broadway-bound Million Dollar Quartet and the award-winning film American Hot Wax). Directed by Mutrux, BABY IT’S YOU! is about the passion and determination of New Jersey housewife Florence Greenberg, who in the early 1960’s, discovered The Shirelles and built one of the most successful independent record companies with African-American song-writer Luther Dixon. At the dawn of the Civil Rights era, Florence and Luther became partners in more ways than one. Performances run November 6 – December 13, 2009 with the official press opening on Friday, November 13 at Pasadena Playhouse (39 S. El Molino Avenue).
Photos by Terry Miller
“I am very pleased that our theatre will be involved in the next step of development for Baby It’s You!. This fascinating story of one woman’s personal and professional journey is the perfect way to end our cross season celebration of Women on our stage. It promises to be not just a great history lesson about an unknown hero in the development of American popular music, but also a hugely entertaining evening of well-known songs, which have great emotional resonance,” said Pasadena Playhouse Artistic Director Sheldon Epps. “I look forward to working with all of the creative staff as the show evolves into the completely satisfying evening of theatrical and musical delights that I know it can be.”
Overflowing with the greatest songs of the years immediately preceding the British Invasion, BABY IT’S YOU! tells the remarkable and little-known story of Florence Greenberg, as she took on the male-dominated music establishment and revolutionized pop music. Greenberg’s Scepter Records influenced the most important movements in music to come – The Beatles, Motown, even folk-rock. BABY IT’S YOU! is the intriguing story of how classic records like “Baby, It’s You,” “Soldier Boy,” “He’s So Fine,” “Dedicated to the One I Love,” “Tonight’s the Night,” “Twist and Shout,” and many others came to be made, and is the story of one woman’s triumph in a male-dominated world.
Joining the creative team with Escott and Mutrux are Birgitte Mutrux (choreography), Richard Perry (music supervisor/arrangements), Anna Louizos (scenic design), Lizz Wolf (costume design), Howell Binkley (lighting design), Martin Carrillo (sound design), Carol Doran (wig and hair design), Jason H. Thompson (projection design), Adam Irizarry (musical director/additional arrangements), Michael Donovan (casting), Joan Stein (general manager), Ronn Goswick (production stage manager), Lea Chazin (assistant stage manager), and Bari Newport (Assistant Director).
BABY IT’S YOU! is presented by Pasadena Playhouse, by special arrangement with American Pop Anthology and Warner Bros. Theatricals, in association with Universal Music Group. Floyd Mutrux, Jonathan Sanger, Jerry Katell and Joan Stein produce on behalf of American Pop Anthology.
This spring and summer, American Pop Anthology presented BABY IT’S YOU! at The Coast Playhouse in West Hollywood and played to a sold-out run. The limited run was a partnership with LA’s BEST – Better Educated Students For Tomorrow to help fundraise for the esteemed after-school enrichment program. Proceeds from each ticket helped to support visual and performing arts programs for 28,000 low-income elementary school kids.
Sheldon Epps with some of the cast Friday night. Photo by Terry Miller
BABY IT’S YOU! plays at Pasadena Playhouse, 39 South El Molino Avenue in Pasadena .Extended By Popular Demand Thru Dec. 20th. Performance schedule is Tuesday through Friday at 8:00 p.m.; Saturday at 4:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.; and Sunday at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. Subscriptions may be purchased by calling the Pasadena Playhouse at 626-356-7529 or by visiting the Pasadena Playhouse Box Office, open from 12:00 p.m. until 6:00 p.m. daily excluding holidays and online at www.Pasadenaplayhouse.org. Group Sales (15 or more) are available by calling 626-737-2851.
Santa, I'd love you to see the show
BIOGRAPHIES:
COLIN ESCOTT (Co-Writer) was born in England and currently lives near Nashville, Tennessee. He collaborated with Floyd Mutrux on Million Dollar Quartet (running in Chicago since September 2008, and heading for Broadway) and other American Pop Anthology musicals currently in preparation. He received a Grammy for writing and producing “The Complete Hank Williams.” He also wrote the BBC series “Lost Highway—The Story of Country Music” and the PBS/BBC documentary “Hank Williams—Honky Tonk Blues.” Recently, he scripted the PBS show “Let Freedom Sing—The Music of the Civil Rights Movement.” He is a consultant to Time Life Music in Washington, D.C.
FLOYD MUTRUX (Co-Writer / Director) apprenticed at the Alley Theater in Houston, Second City, Chicago, studied theater in New York for five years while working at Second City, and attending Columbia University, returned to Los Angeles, created the idea for, wrote, directed, or produced fifty plus films in the last twenty-five years (floydmutrux.com), American Hot Wax (multiple Best Picture and Best Director, Village Voice, etc.), Scarecrow, (best film, Cannes), Hollywood Knights, Urban Cowboy, The Untouchables, American Me, Hillside Strangler, Freebie and the Bean, Up in Smoke, Dick Tracy, etc… along with Colin Escott, has developed a series of rock ‘n’ roll driven bios for the stage (The Fat Man Sings, Alan Freed Show, Boy From NYC, Lonesome Town with John Kaye, etc.) under the overall title, American Pop Anthology. First show, Million Dollar Quartet, had sold out runs in Florida and Seattle, and now breaking records in Chicago, reviewed as the best rock ‘n’ roll musical ever made. In development at four studios, Dancing with Myself, Teenage Idol, Brother D (with Ice Cube), Inside Out (Donner Co.), and with Colin Escott, a rock n’ roll Field of Dreams, called Moon Over Memphis.
WARNER BROS. THEATRE VENTURES (Producer) is the live stage play division of Warner Bros. Entertainment and is responsible for developing and producing first-class musicals and other stage productions for the Studio. The division currently has 15 licensed properties in production worldwide and more than a dozen other projects in various stages of development, including co-productions with award-winning Broadway and film producers. WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT, a Time Warner Company, is a fully integrated, broad-based entertainment company and a global leader in the creation, production, distribution, licensing and marketing of all forms of creative content and their related businesses, across all current and emerging media and platforms. The company stands at the forefront of every aspect of the entertainment industry from feature film, TV and home entertainment production and worldwide distribution to DVD, digital distribution, animation, comic books, licensing, international cinemas and broadcasting.
UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP (Producer) is the world’s leading music company with wholly owned record operations or licensees in 77 countries. Its businesses also include Universal Music Publishing Group, the industry’s leading global music publishing operation. Universal Music Group’s record labels include A&M/Octone, Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Disa, Emarcy, Fonovisa, Interscope Geffen A&M Records, Island Def Jam Music Group, Lost Highway Records, Machete Music, MCA Nashville, Mercury Nashville, Mercury Records, Philips, Polydor Records, Universal Motown Republic Group, Universal Music Latino, Universal Records South and Verve Music Group as well as a multitude of record labels owned or distributed by its record company subsidiaries around the world. The Universal Music Group owns the most extensive catalog of music in the industry, which includes the last 100 years of the world’s most popular artists and their recordings. UMG’s catalog is marketed through two distinct divisions, Universal Music Enterprises (in the U.S.) and Universal Strategic Marketing (outside the U.S.). Universal Music Group also includes eLabs, its new media and technologies division; Bravado, its merchandising company; Twenty-First Artists, its full service management division; and Helter Skelter, its live music agency. Universal Music Group is a unit of Vivendi, a global media and communications company.
JONATHAN SANGER (Producer). Academy Award-winning Producer, Jonathan Sanger, began his career in theater by founding a theatrical production company, Off Broadway Westchester, producing plays in which he sometimes performed as lead actor. He built a career in the motion picture industry receiving a total of 3 Academy Awards, 21 Academy nominations, the British Academy Award and the French Cesar. Films he produced include The Elephant Man starring John Hurt and Anthony Hopkins, Frances, starring Jessica Lange, The Producers starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, Without Limits, starring Billy Crudup and Vanilla Sky, starring Tom Cruise. Sanger has directed more than 15 episodic television shows including “Twin Peaks” and “L.A. Law.” He also wrote and directed a short film entitled Peacemaker with Lucas Haas for PBS American Playhouse which won the Houston International Film Festival Prize for Best Short Subject . He directed “Down Came a Blackbird” starring Laura Dern, Raul Julia and Vanessa Redgrave for Showtime Networks which was nominated for three Cable Ace Awards. Most recently, Sanger Executive Produced Paraiso Travel, winner of the L.A. Latino Film Festival Best Picture and Audience Award. Jonathan received a BA and Masters from the University of Pennsylvania. While attending Poly Prep High School in Brooklyn, he met Richard Perry. He is delighted to return to his love of theater and work with an old friend.
JERRY KATELL (Producer). After a successful career developing over five million square feet of office and industrial and commercial projects in Southern California, Jerry Katell embarked upon a career in the entertainment business. His Katell Productions, LLC entity has several completed projects under its belt such as Love & Suicide, Tease and Trailer Park of Terror and a number of projects in development including The Palio, Wild Blue, Night Witches, Puss in Boots, Executioner’s Daughter, Catchcan and For Rent. He is proud to be part of the team presenting Million Dollar Quartet and Baby it’s You and the musicals from the American Pop Anthology developed by Floyd Mutrux. He has spent most of his business career in Los Angeles and then lived in Rome, Italy from 2006 to 2008 and moved to London in early 2009.
JOAN STEIN (Producer) is a Tony Award-winning Producer with over 80 plays and musicals to her credit, including Table Settings, Forever Plaid, The Elephant Man, The Miss Firecracker Contest, The Nerd, The Middle Ages, Ruthless!, The Last Night at Ballyhoo, Bash, Forbidden Broadway/London Edition, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Back to Bacharach and David, Side Man (Tony Award), and Steve Martin’s Picasso At The Lapin Agile. Her productions have won 10 Tony nominations, 22 Drama Desk Awards, 7 Outer Critics Circle Awards, 2 Obies, and 2 Ovation Awards. She operated the Canon Theatre in Beverly Hills from 1990-2000 where she presented over a dozen shows including the internationally acclaimed production of Love Letters starring over 100 celebrity couples over two years, and became the leading commercial theatre producer and general manager in Los Angeles. In 2000, she and Steve Martin created the Martin/Stein Co., where they developed and produced television programming for all of the major networks including HBO and Showtime. Current theatre projects include Motherhood Out Loud, and a Broadway musical based on the award-winning documentary Mad Hot Ballroom. Ms Stein also manages Center Stage Fund with investments in a portfolio of plays and musicals.
PASADENA PLAYHOUSE (Sheldon Epps, Artistic Director and Stephen Eich, Executive Director), the State Theater of California, is one of the great institutions of the American theatre since 1917. Pasadena Playhouse remains committed to the development and presentation of a diverse variety of theatrical productions at the highest level of artistry. By cultivating and utilizing the unique resources inherent in our greater community, Pasadena Playhouse will preserve and amplify the powerful voice of theatre, assuring its vitality for generations to come. Pasadena Playhouse’s commitment to cultural and theatrical diversity is reflected in seasons featuring Tony and Pulitzer award-winning plays, as well as in outreach and artistic programs, which have doubled in size in the last two years. In recent years, the Playhouse has become instrumental in launching new works and landmark revivals for the American theatre. Highlights since 2005 include the launch of the national tour of Purlie (with the Goodman Theatre), the world premiere of Sister Act the Musical (with the Alliance Theatre, which opened this Spring in the West End), the world premiere of Ray Charles Live! (opening on Broadway in 2010), and Vanities, a new musical (opened Off-Broadway at Second Stage Theatre this Summer).
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