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WPCNR PHANTOM OF THE THEATRE. By John F. Bailey. March 5, 2005: For one week only, White Plains and Westchester can see the last  great American character actor, the great Jack Klugman, giving a clinic on why you act, how to act, and what a professional is in The Value of Names.

 

 

THE SET of  the new play on the White Plains Performing Arts Center block, launched in L.A.’s Matrix Theatre,  a sellout in its Midwest run, a one night show in Manhattan. It boldly grapples with subjects we don’t like: age, old hurt and forgiveness, father-daughter understanding, hypocrisy, and unforgivable (perhaps) betrayal on the White Plains stage. Jack Klugman, Louis Zorich and Montclair State University graduate, Megan Muckelmann deliver a thought-provoking, amusing examination of the politics of forgiveness through March 13. Photo by WPCNR StageCam.

 

The last great American character actor is of course, the 83 year old Jack Klugman,  television’s Oscar Madison and Quincy, M.E. His voice is raspy from his severe attack of cancer twelve years ago that cost him use of his voice for four years.  Klugman brought back his voice  and is now back on stage perhaps playing his greatest role at The White Plains Performing Arts Center. He is shown signing autographs after the Opening Night Performance. (Where else can you meet the actors after a show but the White Plains Performing Arts Center?) Photo by WPCNR StageCam

 

If the play had  Neil Simon’s or Harold Pinter’s name on it, everyone would write how clever and moving it is, how deep and how many different levels it has, how vivid, painful, and exact its emotional expressions are, and how the laughs make the medicine go down.

 

The Value of Names  though is written by  Jeffrey Sweet, a playwright who has won awards, but  no blockbuster hits yet,  who writes productions for the Chicago theater renaissance and teaches on the faculty of Lehman College. He has written a sharp, stingingly humored work that showsintriguing facets of forgiveness and rehabilitation with a lively script that shows what grudges are made of.

 

The play does not have a lot of uproarious laughs in it, but it’s got enough.  Rather, like so many Pinter/Simon  plays and the Pinter imitation plays like Art,  Sweet combines laughs with pathos, wisdom and a melancholy.

 

The laughs are bursts that take the edge off the keen knife of the play, while it slices up your preconceived notions of forgiveness.

 

It makes you think and feel the pain of  Benny Silverman, the Blacklisted actor who has never gotten over the pain of not working.  It uses a lot of four-letter words, has a lot of tough, off-color expressions.

 

Three on a Gauntlet.

 

Here are insightful, profound understandings and  all-too-stirring portrayals of the depths of human hurt, including very real portrayal of the the heights and depths of father-daughter relationships. They are acted by  three fine protagonists, Mr. Klugman,  Megan Muckelmann and  Louis Zorich to deliver the long one actor (about an hour and fifteen minutes with no scene breaks). They interact with precisely nuanced reactions delivering their hypocrisies, rationalizations and cold hollow hurts that do not go away.

 

Fortunately, Mr. Sweet, the playwright has  the great Klugman.

 

Klugman, the master of  wisecracking, outrage, sensitivity, nuance and sarcasm plays the embittered Mr. Silverman.

 

The play begins with an awkward reunion on a  patio overlooking Malibu Beach with his actress daughter, played “just-young-enough, just-old-enough, just-sassy-enough-to-stand-up-to-Dad” by Ms. Muckelmann, followed by a lively, spellbinding confrontation with Zorich, as the director who betrayed him out to the House Unamerican Activities Committee in the 1950s.

 

Klugman plays the former actor Benny Silverman, whose daughter is unexpectedly about to act in a play directed by the man who cost Silverman those years of work.

 

Muckelmann plays Norma Silverman, who has come out to Los Angeles to explain her name change to her father, because she wants to be on her own, rather than rely on her father (a famous former sitcom actor). The play opens with Klugman painting on his Malibu terrace.  Muckelmann narrates the scene-changes in the play, using the time-honored Our Town Stage Manager device. She did them a little too quickly in the Opening Night performance I felt. She orients the audience as the action takes place over several weeks. A little slowdown and she’ll be fine on those narration bits.

 

A Father-Daughter Relationship Dead Solid Perfect.

 

Muckelmann as daughter and Klugman as Dad, spar in just-dead-on father-daughter disputes at the top of the play.

 

Ms. M. and Mr. Klugman  deliver sharp funny exchanges (the way Oscar and Felix used to do) on why she is changing her name. They argue over the script of the new play she has gotten a part for that has some good chuckles on audience reaction to that scene. A sample funny line: “You think the scene is about ideas and metaphors, it’ll be about tits.” 

 

 Klugman delivers his humorous lines in that classic Oscar Madison style we have always loved. He always gets the laugh, and can go from laugh to serious in an instant. It is a pleasure to watch a personality like Mr. Klugman’s who gives it all he has and nails every line and keeps you rivetted.

 

 

Ms Muckelmann is his worthy, attractive foil, and together the pair paint a typical father-daughter friendly antagonism of daughter seeking approval, dad seeking control that is all too familiar to any father of a daughter.

 

The pair then get into Norma’s unhappiness at learning about the problems her father had had with the House UnAmerican Activities Committee from TV Guide. This exchange between the two explores a lot of those family hypocrisy issues that every dad may very well face some day when discussing their behavior and their child’s need to know. It’s done in a humorous way, and defines the issues about to unfold.

 

It becomes clear through Muckelmann’s narration that after she has gotten the part, the director has fallen ill and has been replaced with Leo Greshen, played by Mr. Zorich.

 

When Zorich comes around to the beach house to convince Ms. Muckelmann to stay in the part, he and Benny meet for the first time since the 1950s. The play then takes on the character of Pinter’s Old Times with the two former friends, and sworn enemies thrashing out the unhealed wound of Greshen betraying  Silverman to the House Committee that cost Silverman years of not acting, because it resulted in Silverman being placed on the Black List. But, this is not simply a Pinter knockoff, but rivals the humanity and reality of the Pinter hits.

 

The Old Protagonists go at it.

 

At first they are shocked to see each other, and the great lines we have heard so far between Klugman and Muckelmann, get even better as the master Klugman and his protagonist, Zorich begin the confrontation for the balance of the act.

 

The lines keep on coming: “Bring the Bastard a beer,” “You collect old injuries,” “You celebrate who died.” “ F—g critics are everywhere,” “the dirty ritual of public cleansings,” “The spirit of  Blacklist Chic,” “We’re starting to die,” and my favorite, the most powerful in the play by Mr. Klugman, “You don’t understand a thing, not being allowed to be what you could.”  

There are a lot of great lines in this play that strike the heart, especially Mr. Klugman’s last line of the play. It is worth hearing him deliver it.

 

The Best Bits.

 

Mr. Zorich has the best  sequences: his description of how he made up with a former colleague; his recount and sendup of “The New Labor Players,” (Klugman’s old theatre group), his hilarious satire (with bite) of his trip to a New Hampshire college where he is asked about his committee testimony, and his rationalization of weakness.

 

The Zorich sequences are parried powerfully  by Mr. Klugman’s refusals  to “buy” the rationalizations. The Zorich rationalizations  will be familiar to those with deeds they have done they would like not to have done or been strong enough not to have done them.

 

Zorich and Klugman circle each other and need each other and the tension and uneasiness gets a hold on the audience.

 

Zorich has the bombast and the giant stature to wilt Klugman’s four decades of bitterness. Will he? How much will be beg? How much will Klugman give? Who will Klugman give in to? Zorich? His daughter? Or both?  The circling of the due the dynamics of the trio fascinate.

 

Megan Muckelman, a redheaded ingénue (what is it about the CitizeNetReporter and redheaded actresses?)  with a BFA from Montclair State university, is versatile as the catalyst between the two volatile creative personalities. She mirrors the pain and anxiety on her face befitting her dilemma (to please her father or follow her own career), something many a daughter has to confront. She delivers her lines confidently, sensitively, and they are not lost in the male testosterone bombasting and strutting their hour on the stage.  For an actress in what appears to be her first really big shot on a national tour, she’s well-cast, has her lines down with inflection, grit, and moxie and is coming into it. I liked her.

 

Zorich delivers high dudgeon director mystique (though some of his long sequences need a stronger polish to blend well),  he delivers the haunting aura of the man who has moved on from a bad moment in his life, and cannot understand why anyone cannot understand why he did what he did when he did it.

 

Jack Klugman is just an inspiration to watch. He is of course the Jack Klugman  with not as strong a voice, but it fits the part. He has a note in the program saying “Mr. Klugman would like you to know that it is not painful to speak. In fact, the more he talks, the stronger his voice becomes. After not being able to speak for several years, he considers it a privilege.”

 

Klugman’s range of emotion, expression and sense of timing have not faltered. He is flawless in punching up a laugh from a gagline, or in wringing a wince of pain in the viewer by a just-right delivery of a killer line.

 

The set by Evelyn Sakash evokes that end-of-life place great actors go to on the coast, where they paint, as Mr. Klugman as Benny Silverman is seen doing. The set evokes that “end-of-the-road” feeling and reserve that subtlely reflect the reserve that the Blacklist built into Mr. Silverman’s life.

 

The direction of James Glossman keeps the three-actor play using the set nicely, but the set is simply a showcase for the words and moods set by the play.

 

Mr. and Mrs. White Plains should not miss this chance to see the last great American character actor still acting at 83 and bringing out his best.

 

Thank you, Jack, for coming to White Plains. It’s great to see a new good play again.

 

The Value of Names plays the WPPAC  through March 13. The box office number is 1-888-977-2250. The website is www.wppac.com.

 

 

 

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WPCNR PRESS BOX. March 3, 2005: The White Plains High Womens Basketball rolled on in the State Sectionals Wednesday evening, defeating Kingston, 52-37, in a game described by one fan as not as close as the score would indicate. White Plains pulled away in the second half with a series of defensive stops. Balanced scoring was lead by Liz Flooks with 16 points, 13 from Elise Bronzo, 11 points from Kim Adams, 6 from Jen Osher, and a bucket a piece from Angelei Aguirre, Danica Covington and Nina Johnson. White Plains is three wins away from the State Championship. They play Ithaca Saturday at SUNY Cortland. The Tigers are Section I Women’s Champions and playing with house money in the state tournament.

A word to  Mayor Delfino — please order those “White Plains Tigers Women’s 2004-2005 Section I  Basketball Champions Champions”  signs now to display for all time at the Gateways to the city.

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WPCNR Balustrade Gallery. By John F. Bailey. March 2, 2005: Forty persons attended the Mayor’s Comprehensive Review Committee meeting held on the Central Core (downtown) center of the city Tuesday evening, but it was clear to this reporter that the rank-and-file citizenry has not gotten their arms around the concept of planning their future downtown, thinking of  the possibilities of what it is now,  can be, could be, or should be, or what they the citizens want.

 

THE CORE AREA OF THE DOWNTOWN WAS THE SUBJECT OF LAST NIGHT’S COMPREHENSIVE PLAN REVIEW PUBLIC HEARING.  PHOTO BY WPCNR NEWS.

Other than worry, and wringing of hands,  no citizen, other than merchants,  advanced any ideas for what they would like the downtown to be, except their apprehension about infrastructure, traffic, pollution, and city finances. They brought no ideas. No passion. No creativity. No vision.

 No Guidance from the Administration.

 

The citizenry were not given any graphic idea on how the 1997 Comprehensive Plan would be executed in the future by the Planning Department; what would be promoted or sought by the city or what development would be sought where in the Core Area. No one from the administration said, “we want to put affordable housing here, a west-to-east pedestrian strollway here, a gentrified brownstone Park Slope look-alike neighborhood here,  a casino here, a hockey rink here, and a minor league baseball stadium here.” 

 

The citizenry were not offered any design concepts on how the downtown should grow. They were not presented with any sweeping visions as to how areas of the downtown could be themed, refreshed or redeveloped previously targeted by the Comprehensive Plan.

 

Waiting for Roarks.

 

 Until visionary professional thinking is put into how the downtown should grow, block-by-block,  by the city Planning Department and some design-theme possibilities generated either through independent architects’ competitions and visions, (as New York City did with the World Trade Center), the city will, it appears, continue to develop on a parcel by parcel basis in collusion between developers and city officials with minimal citizen input.

 

Tuesday evening’s Public Hearing on the Core Area, the only meeting on the Core area, featured no such visions, no unveilings of how the Comprehensive Plan might advance.

 

There are likely not to be any, either, unless the Comprehensive Review Committee recommends to the Common Council that a growth and design plan be commissioned to generate concrete possibilities of how the comprehensive plan might be activated from now on in a comprehensive design with organization.

 

One Idea Advanced: March of Apartments Down Mamaroneck Avenue

 

Only two residents made specific suggestions for how the downtown core should be developed of the kind that citizens could have a reaction to.

 

 Leon Silverman an owner of 13 parcels of land in the downtown, proposed the only solid idea for development that emerged from the audience. He advocated the city continue to bring more residents to live in the downtown, specifically suggesting lowrise apartment dwellings proceding down either side of Mamaroneck Avenue.  (By low-rise, Mr. Silverman meant 5 to 6 story buildings.)  Silverman said he did not know how many more residents the city needed to generate revival of the Mamaroneck Avenue corridor. He threw out the figure of 6,000 to 8,000 residents. Silverman said the downtown needed “a concentration of people.”

 

Silverman said he has a business acquaintance living in another city who has owned property for years, who has confided that he is now making money that would have his father “roll over in his grave.” Silverman said his friend gave the reason: the gentrification of his downtown that has brought thousands of new residents, and service establishments have come to town to service those residents.

 

Strong Merchant Support

 

Rick Ammirato, Executive Director of the BID (Downtown Business Improvement District), earlier had started pounding the tom-toms for continued residential growth in the downtown core. “We forget where we were (7 years ago),” Ammirato said, crediting the administration for “creating an environment that made things happen.”

 

Ammirato said that “We need more residents in town. We need more development downtown.”  Mr. Ammirato said that the present 1,600 new residential units and 3,000 new residents (at Bank Street Commons, JPI, City Center, and 221 Main) “was not the saturation point,” and that that saturation point for new residences in the downtown had not been reached. He said the downtown (with the new residents to come),  would make it “as vibrant as good as the rest of the city. You should not stop us now.”

 

Mr. Ammirato’s boss, Jeffrey Stillman, Chairman of the BID also said his organization and merchant owners supported continued downtown residential growth, and said the city should continue to “partner” with developers.

 

Two business owners along Mamaroneck Avenue praised the way the city is going, and encouraged more residencies in the downtown, and said they were making more money than they were seven years ago thanks to the development.

 

A resident of Lake Street took to the podium and called for doing something about Mamaroneck Avenue roundly criticizing it as a shadow of what it used to be. (“It looks as if we’ve thrown it away,”) Another resident, too, called for making “Mamaroneck Avenue what it really can be.”

 

Complaints, Caveats and Counsel.

 

A number of other citizens spoke about issues they wanted the Comprehensive Plan Review Committee to watch out for and analyze. 

 

Marc Pollitzer urged that the Review Committee hire an independent consultant to analyze the effects the new development on the city’s revenues, and citizen’s property tax, (property taxes going up, certioraris being lost, assessments down)  and why resident’s property taxes continue to go up. Pollitzer also urged the Committee have the consultant, if hired, look into the feasibility of sharing sales taxes with the City School District.  

 

John Martin assured Pollitzer this would be accomplished in the fourth public hearing on “Community Resources and Implementation.”

 

Glen Hockley spoke up on behalf of his incentive density bonus plan for creating more affordable housing in the downtown. He hoped that would be incorporated in the Committee’s recommendations. He asked that police and fire departments be given the resources to hire and train personnel to bring both departments up to full strength.

 

Hockley also suggested expansion of the city’s Economic Development Office budget to promote the city locally and nationally to attract residents.

 

Hockley added that the city needed to communicate better to its citizens, informing them of events through media in more timely and widespread, aggressive fashion, so events would be better attended. He advocated creating an electronic bulletin board downtown.

 

The former Councilman, Mr. Hockley, also called for more trains from White Plains past midnight to accommodate patrons to stay at city restaurants to 2 A.M. in the morning. He wants to run a shuttle bus to move patrons of these late night establishments to the train station.

 

Other residents complained about traffic, pollution, and an unfriendly parking environment, and infrastructure issues. One resident was very negative on the development characterizing the last seven years as increasing the number of malls in the city from 3 to 5.  Another resident raised concerns about pedestrian safety.

 

No residents raised any visions of what they saw happening to the downtown after the 221 Main Street development is completed, where they saw it going, what they wanted to see, they just fretted.

 

At the outset of the meeting John Martin, Co-Chair  said that the Committee would be very tolerant of comments on other areas of the city at the next three public hearings scheduled for March 22 (Close-in Areas), March 29 (Other Areas, Major Properties, and Gateways/Major Corrirdors), and April 5 (Community Resources and Implementation).

 

He said the places where those hearing would be held would be school buildings, but they had not been confirmed yet.

 

After Mr. Martin had completed his remarks, he turned it over to Susan Habel, Commissioner of Planning, who presented a 30-minute presentation on the downtown core showing its delininetions which run North to Park Circle, South Southeast to Rochambeau School, East to Bloomindale Road, and South to Post Road.

 

Some items that WPCNR noted were items of interest but not discussed were the Gateway II lot that was never built, and the 10 Main Street lot, and what use could be made of those office space approved parcels.

 

Ms. Habel’s presentation which gave an excellent look at where the downtown stands and what has been done is scheduled to be placed on the city website within a week, according to Mr. Martin.

 

A total of 10 of the 15 members of the Mayor’s Comprehensive Plan Review Committee attended the meeting. Only Councilman Tom Roach attended from the Common Council. Mr. Hockley was the only other politician to attend.  Several members of the Citizens Plan Committee that challenged the city to hold these hearings were in the audience but did not speak on any subject.

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WPCNR’S ADAM IN ALBANY. By 89th District Assemblyman Adam T. Bradley. March 1, 2005: Assemblyman Bradley in the following column attacks Governor George Pataki’s budget as cutting health care severely and raising taxes. Here is his column:

Governor Pataki’s proposed budget will seriously damage our already ailing health care system and raise taxes on New Yorkers trying to save money.

 

Taxing New York’s struggling hospitals

 

      Despite the fact that New York hospitals have lost money six years in a row and more than half the state’s hospitals failed to break even, the governor has proposed a $264 million “sick tax.” Already, Westchester families have faced the closing of St. Agnes Hospital in White Plains in 2003. Most recently, New York United Hospital Medical Center in Port Chester – a 116-year-old institution – announced it too is shutting down.

 

       Under the governor’s recent budget proposal, funding for hospitals in our community would be cut by over $68 million in the first year and $273 million in the next five years. These cuts and taxes will jeopardize the health and well-being of our families; we cannot sit back while the governor threatens access to quality health care.

 

Hitting Westchester families with hidden taxes and fees

 

      While the governor’s proposal is promising a $200 tax rebate in 2011, it does nothing for those who have to pay more than $2.5 billion in higher taxes and fees he is once again proposing, including:

 

·        a sales tax on clothing – replacing the permanent clothing exemption with two, one-week exemptions per year;

·        a 40 percent increase in the state’s mortgage tax, a more than $700 increase for the average Westchester homebuyer;

·        new and increased DMV fees totaling $290 million, including hiking registration fees by 33 percent for most passenger vehicles and as much as 75 percent for certain vehicles;

·        a more than 32 percent increase in camping fees; and

·        a whopping 450 percent increase in ATV registration fees.

 

      The governor’s administration proposes increasing tolls on the New York State Thruway by as much as 35 percent, and increasing tolls on other highways. And, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) also intends to again increase fares and tolls, while cutting jobs and services.

 

      Unfortunately, the governor has also proposed a plan to privatize some public roads. The plan would allow private companies to manage and charge tolls on the roads, while receiving tax benefits through depreciation. Simply put, the management of New York’s infrastructure must remain accountable to taxpayers and not handed over to a private company with a handful of taxpayer dollars.

     

Attack from Washington

 

      To put further strain on our pocketbooks, the Bush Administration has proposed eliminating the deductibility of state and local taxes as part of its broad overhaul of the federal tax system. Westchester families already pay an extraordinary amount of property taxes and state income taxes, but the deduction of state and local taxes has been a major benefit for us. However, it has been estimated that eliminating this deduction would cause New Yorkers to pay an additional $39 billion in federal taxes.

 

      We need strong leadership from our governor; he needs to use his influence with Congress and the president to lobby against this costly measure. Balancing the budget, either on a state or federal level, on the backs of New York families is not a viable option. Finally, failing to invest in New York’s health care facilities and picking the pockets of families is not the way to build a better New York. I’ll continue to fight the attempt to balance the budget at the expense of our own health and well-being and will continue to oppose misguided tax policies that will be detrimental to all New Yorkers..

 

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WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey. February 28, 2005: The City School District has announced that information from the city on the current state of PILOT payments that the school district can expect for 2005-06 and into the future, which was expected to be talked about at length by the City Assessor, Eyde McCarthy, this evening will be delivered to the district in writing in time for Wednesday evening’s meeting with the Annual Budget Committee.

 The Assessor, according to the Clerk to the Board of Education, Michele Schoenfeld, has no plans to address the board or the ABC Committee on PILOTS or assessments  in the near future. This evening’s meeting with the Board of Education was cancelled as of 10 o’clock this morning due to the inclimate weather expected this evening.

Schoenfeld said the information has not been delivered to the District as of midday Monday.