WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER SETS RECORD VISITS FOR YEAR 7,017,658 VISITS! 2,098,003 VISITORS MADE 6 VISITS A DAY EVERY DAY. 63,330 UNIQUE VISITORS MADE 133,730 VISITS IN DECEMBER. WPCNR AVERAGED 17,284 VISITORS A WEEK, VISITING 31,270 TIMES.

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“Bravos” for  Bobby Cassell’s  Quasimodo! He Brings Audience to its feet!

Jenna Dallaco’s Esmeralda a Beauty for the Ages and Heaven as WPPAC Mounts  “Spectacula” Show. Not a broken heart in the house.

WPCNR STAGE DOOR. First Rushes Theatrical Review by John F. Bailey.  Opening Night December 23, 2017:

If any time you needed an underdog to root for and inspire you it is now.

Bobby Cassell is that underdog—the WPPAC roared at his blockbuster solo before swinging into the square like Tarzan to rescue Esmeralda in the emotion-wrenching, heart-pounding climax of this over the top show.

The audience rose as tall as they could when the company of The Hunchback of Notre Dame joined in  their  Finale Ultimo. The gentleman next to me to leapt to his feet, then another, and another, clusters, in a wave of a thundering standing ovation for the performance they had just seen at the White Plains Performing Arts Center Opening Night last night.

This is a must-see show. It is seamless!

In a relentlessly escalating intensity of a production of this ages old story of Quasimodo, the hunchback befriended by the gypsy Esmeralda in 16^th Century Paris, WPPAC has mounted a seamless message of the rewards of doing good and rising to the occasion when action is needed. Christopher  and Justin Swader the scenic designers have created the most detailed and haunting set every a Gothic masterpiece of Our Lady of Notre Dame, with massive bells that Mr. Cassell rings with such joy, he even has names for them. The lighting designer Jamie Roderick uses a gazillion spots to create the doorway to Heaven and portray the back streets of Paris at night.

Choreographer Lexie Frare sets Ms. Dallacco’s Esmerala’s dancing feet and slender hips swaying making Ms. Dallacco’s Rhythm of the Tambourine dance on All Fool’s Day just the thing that sets the deliciously evil James Zannelli into sanctimonious hatred of the gypsys.Zanneli  steals the show with his lurking booming cleric’s pomposity and hypocrisy as Dom Claude Frollo.

Zannelli’s character Frollo raised Quasimodo  in the cathedral, never letting him out because of Quasimodo’s deformity.  Frollo hates the gypsies because they lured away his brother who had a child, Quasimodo with a gypsy women. This show is about the destruction of hate and the redemption of the good.

Cassell as Quasimodo is on target portraying a disabled person very realistically, and showing the feelings that every disable person feels which those of us not sensitive to them do not realize. Quasimodo’s existence is made palatable because he talks to the gargoyle statues in the cathedral, who come magically to live.

The gargoyles  have  a great moment in Act Two singing to Quasimodo  that he “is better than this,” trying to get him to intercede and rescue Esmeralda. Cassell answers them in the powerful song Made of Stone

Esmerald befriends Quasimodo when the gypsies mock him as the King of Fools and beat him. She takes pity on him…and takes him into the cathedral.

Ms. Dallacco’s Esmeralda is feisty and a good person. But, of course Mr. Zannelli’s Dom Claude Frollo  is furious at Quasimodo because Esmeralda is a gypsy.

Esmeralda meets Captain Phoebus, Matthew Billman, a guard of the cathedral who is smitten with Esmeralda’s independence after going out for Rest and Recreation and meeting the Gypsies. When Phoebus is stabbed by Frollo, and Frollo blames Esmeralda, she brings Phoebus to Quasimodo for help. Twice Esmeralda escaples Frollo’s clutches with a flash of explosives, and Frollo takes her to be a witch.

Phoebus and Esmeralda combine a wonderful song when things are dark for their love. That song is Someday. It is a song that will tear you up.  In a voice as clear as the bells of Notre Dame she and Quasimodo duet on Top of the World  and God Help the Outcasts.

Everybody stands out in this cast—Jarrad Biron Green, who is the leader of the Gypsies. He narrates the action and orients you to a lot of what is happening. A technique now very popular in Broadway musicals.

There is a choir assembled for this show which rachets up the emotional toll of the show. They sound well, spectacular!

Kudos for the softspoken director, Fran Portanova who has crafted a wonder of a show, motivating every actor and technical expert to create this perfect show. It may be his crowning achievement. This is a tough show to do.

But he and WPPAC did it.

THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME plays through January 14. There are matinee performances and evening performances. You can see it today at 2 PM and 7 PM. Go to the WPPAC website www.wppac.com for more information or call the box office at 914-328-1600

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WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. From the Westchester County Board of Legislators. December 21,2017:

The Board of Legislators voted 17-0 this afternoon to confirm the budget they passed 12-5 two weeks ago and defeat the County Executive’s veto of that budget.

At 4:15 PM today they issued this statement:

“After years of fiscal mismanagement in the name of ideology, we believe the unanimous (17-0) support of this budget speaks for itself. We are putting Westchester back on a responsible financial path by working to plug the roughly $100M budget hole left by the outgoing administration while funding vital services all Westchester taxpayers rely on.”

The budget, approximately $1.84 billion increases county property taxes by 2%.

Eight Republicans voted to override as did the 9 Democrats.

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WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. December 20, 2017:

County Executive-Elect George Latimer announced to the Journal News today that Kenneth Jenkins, the former County Legislator from Yonkers would be his Deputy County Executive.

John Nonna, the former County Legislator would be County Attorney.

Latimer’s selection for Director of Operations is Joan McDonald, former Commissioner of Transportation for the State of New York.

Mr. Latimer also announced Catherine Cioffi, formerly a reporter for WCBS Radio would be his Director of Communications.

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WPCNR VIEW FROM THE UPPER DECK. By Bull Allen. Originally published in August 15, 2008, Updated with the Retirement of Mike Francesa of WFAN SPORTS RADIO yesterday.December 18, 2017 :

The Sports Pope has abdicated his microphone festooned pulpit. The faithful are bereft. No longer will we hear his catechism in New York drive time on WFAN.

Mike Francesa: unique, more New Yawk than New York, hardest working, hardest-talking engaging sports analyst ever, king of drive time for 30 years, Savior of the Sports Radio format when he and Chris Russo invented Mike and the Mad Dog in the late 1980s, replacing Pete Franklin. Mike retired yesterday doing his last program.

So now New York’s Number One Sports Therapist is no longer. He leaves the New York sports fan all alone. Who will take his place? Who can?

No one could get your through a tough loss, or make you feel better about a win for your team than Mike Francesa on WFFFFFFFaNNNNNNN, Sports Radio 66.

You learned so much from him. He asked coaches and managers and management the tough questions. And the coaches and managers and management had so much respect for him they took his calls and came on with him. That is respect.

Francesa should cover the White House. We need a reporter with guts down there and brains, with a thick skin.

Mike and Chris Russo made WFAN Number 3 in the New York market for years behind the boring all-news stations. They last about 20 years together before Mr. Russo left the program. Then Francesca did 4 and 1/2 hours himself for 9 years, plus the NFL program on Sundays. He just got better and dominated the drivetime slot as no other personality had since MusicRadio’s legendary Dan Ingram.

New York’s Number One Sports Therapist has left us. What a unique voice and personality he was. Thanks Mike.

I wrote the following when Mr. Russo left the Mike and The Mad Dog program, back in 2008. I think it celebrates them both. Mr. Russo has gone on to success elsewhere in sportstalk.

As Bob Hope used to say, “Thanks for the Memories,” Mike and Chris

New York’s sports therapists are no more. Monday afternoons will never be the same in New York.  When the Giants blew another game on Sunday afternoon, you tuned in to Mike and The Mad Dog to round up the usual suspects.

When the Knickerbockers had another debacle, you tuned in to hear Francesca and Russo light them up. You delighted in it.

When the Metropolitans let another lead slip away, M&TMD  made it better as fans listened  to their blunt knowledgeable criticism, they made the hurt and the heartbreak go away.

Being a rat dog dick of a reporter, who loves exposing the fallacies and poor judgments and conspiracies of life, it was more fun when New York had a big sports loss, or a ball club was in trouble, because then Mike and Chris just shown. The negative sports talk that they allowed sportscallers to call in and blast, and let the “professionals” have it, was cathartic.

When WFAN announced that Mr. Russo would not be returning to the program in September of 2008 when Mr. Francesa will be soloing alone, pending a new partner, a new format, whatever– I wondered how Mike would do. He did better.

I stopped listening a number of years ago, but still the program was unique. It pioneered. It made sports radio. Even ESPN Radio with all its money has never equaled the spontaneity and the feel for what the fans want to talk about that Mike and Chris brought out, and Mr. Francesa solo brought out all by himself.

Widely imitated, their format of two guys talking sports was humorous, kept things in perspective, and immensely knowledgeable bringing up parts of sporting events with blunt honesty and drawing out analysis that expanded the average fan’s knowledge of the game. They entertained. They educated. But kept things in perspective for both the sport-obsessed and casual fan.Every city in the country took up the Sports Radio Format.

Francesa when solo was just as interesting to listen to. So is Russo. But together as so many bereft sportscallers were calling in on the last day of the Mike and the Mad Dog program in 2008, together they were special.

Not since Bob and Ray had a radio team been so unique together. We’ll miss them. Like Bob and Ray, who were a humor team, when you stumbled on them on the dial, you could not move past the dial, you had to keep listening to hear in B and R’s case, the gist of the comedy bit.

With M & C, their unique New York-accent voices were compelling unlike the canned, modulated professional announcer droning sound of most of the nondescript sports announcers and other imitators.

Listening to M & C, and for the last nine years, Mike Francesa, your buddy on the radio was like talking sports in a bar  with your best buddy.

No other sportstalk show duplicated that.  Even the Mike and the Mad Dog clone shows that FAN has put together cannot hold the clean-up talkers’ mikes. Imitation of the original is never the same. They were never profane–but they were tough.

I will particularly miss Mike and remember when Mike and Chris would review a Giant loss or inability to handle a varsity NFL schedule. No one can light up sports management like Francesa, and in the Mad Dog Days, Russo could as a team.

When postmorteming losses, the mourning was never complete until you got the Mike Francesa “take.” He always surprised you.

I’ll miss Mike next spring when the Yankees try and sell you on their 2017 changes.  Francesa told it like it was.

Neither was better than the other. Neither tried to dominate the other as many team sportstalkers do.

Francesa, like Howard Cosell before him told it like it was.

But Mike was more: he was the voice, the glamour, the significance of sports in the way he sounded, his strong passions, his voice of authority.

Like Mel Allen on play-by-play, there will never be another sportstalk guy like Mike Francesca. He was unique and still is.

Thanks Mike.

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