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uke Ellington. The Gershwins. Cole
Porter.
D
The 20th century teemed with leg
endary American songwriters. But Irving
Berlin just might take the cake as the most
prolific and stylistically intrepid of all these
great composers.
Bom in Russia in 1888, Berlin immigrated
to the United States at the age of 5. He sang
on the streets of New York City’s Lower East
Side until he scored a hit in 1911 with
“Alexander’s Ragtime Band.” He wrote more
than 1,000 songs, many
of them flat-out classics
like “Puttin’ on the Ritz,”
“White Christmas” and
“God Bless America.”
Not bad for a fellow who
didn’t know how to read
music.
Now Berlin’s music
and lite story get the
deluxe treatment, cour
tesy of Broa<lway Rose
Theatre Company in
;
Tigard. The Melody
y;’y
/
does appreciate the nat
ural environment and
the political climate
here.
Alon^ w*th a danc
ing role in Broadway
Rose’s recent produc
tion of Chicago, he’s
appeared in Northwest
Classical Theater Com
pany’s Twelfth Night,
and he worked on a
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Celebrating
November Ji-6, 2005^«*^^
■T^/J Electric
School
www.bodyelectric.org
/ruing Berlin follows the
: From
503-239-7950
Bod’i
' 7;
I oigcrs ( >n: The Songs of
lunesinifh through his
Enjoy tasty food and drink at The Sipperie, while you knit.
left, Barney Stein. Kirk Mouser and Amy Palomino star in The
early career, his two mar- o Melody
JQ... Lingers
..
On: The Songs of Irving Berlin.
riages and his later suc
cess as a composer for
production of Wade McCollum’s One.
Fred Astaire movies and
Though he’s a seasoned performer with a
the Broadway smash Annie Get Your Gun.
dance degree from Stanford University, Stein
On loan from New York City', gay director
threw in the performing arts towel while living
Abe Reyhold helms The Melody Lingers On.
in New York City. After switching to a 9-to-5
This marks his fourth time working with
schedule and moving to Portland, he found
Broadway Rose, including a 2004 gig directing
that he couldn’t resist the limelight indefinite
Jekyll & Hyde.
ly. “I missed the sense of being seen and having
“I’m a longtime fan of Irving Berlin," he
an -impact on people,” he explains.
says. “In school I studied the great American
Stein has to memorize about 20 Berlin
songbook. When I heard ‘What’ll 1 Do,’
songs for The Melody Lingers On, a task he finds
1 thought it was the greatest song I’d ever
both daunting and exciting. “There’s a huge
heard.”
amount of music and some narration, starting
The director credits Berlin for popularizing
with Berlin’s earliest work.”
dance crazes and helping dissolve class barriers
A big Joni Mitchell fan, Stein started learn
in the United States. “Before the song ‘Every
ing American jazz standards on the piano at a
body's Doin’ It Now,’ ” he says, “only lower-
young age. “Irving Berlin is not a new acquisi
class people danced in restaurants and saloons.” tion for me,” he says. “I will have to learn some
Reyhold, who also admires songwriters Cole
of his more arcane compositions for the show,
Porter and Noël Coward, is a choreographer as
though.”
well as director. This combination, he hopes,
Reyhold will leave it to the music to tell
positions him to milk this musical revue for all
Berlin’s life story in The Melody Lingers On. But
it’s worth.
will longtime fans learn anything new about
“It’s going to be very theatrical,” he says.
the crackerjack composer?
“We’re using costumes to evoke the time peri-
“The revue reveals a lot of historical materi
od. I want the dancers to tell the story, not to
al,” says Reyhold. “Berlin survived several
rely on gimmicks or pnxluction values. The
tragedies. He remained humble through it all,
lighting will be beautiful.”
and he was someone anyone could talk to. He
Asked to respond to the oft-reported theory
was a great American who entertained troops
that Berlin was a plagiarizer, Reyhold says: “He
and believed in this country. His music tells
took music from the lower class and gave it
the story.” JM
words and liveliness. He turned out so many
hits in so many different styles that people
T he M elody L ingers O n : T he S ongs of
I rving B erlin [days through Aug. 21 at Tigard
accused him of keeping a black man in his
closet to help him write. I think it boils down
Deb Fennell Auditorium, 9000 S.W. Durham
to people being jealous.”
Road. Tickets are $l5-$24 from 503-620-5262
or www.broadwayrose.com.
Barney Stein—a multitalented gay Port
lander who works as an actor, a keyboardist,
S tephen B ij MR, a Portland arts unter, thinks the
a software developer and an astrologist—por
new Harry Potter book really stinks. Take that, J.K.!
trays Berlin in the production. He moved from
Manhattan to Portland four years ago. Stump
town is a bit small for his taste, he says, but he
JBF
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