54 Below
Joanna Gleason is something of a legend around New York. Now, I know that is a word that gets thrown around a lot these days, but in the case of Ms. Gleason, it is absolutely appropriate, and well earned. You see, Joanna Gleason is responsible for one of the most iconic and original performances ever to grace the Broadway stage. Many people, when asked the most memorable performance they ever saw on Broadway (trust me, I’ve done it on my social media many a time) will answer ‘Dorothy Collins in Follies‘, ‘Jennifer Holliday in Dreamgirls’, ‘Michael Jeter in Grand Hotel‘. More times than I can count their answer is Joanna Gleason in Into the Woods. Of course, Ms. Gleason has done a lot more since Into the Woods but with that one performance in 1987, Joanna Gleason landed in the Broadway history books.
Well, history is what’s happening at 54 Below with Gleason’s new one-woman musical play Out of the Eclipse, and it’s a very personal history indeed. Performing the show in a cabaret nightclub doesn’t make it any less of a play, because this is a play, one where Gleason stands center stage, backed by The Moontones and a wonderfully full band, and shares with the audience the story of how the (nearly) back-to-back deaths of her parents landed her in the darkest place of her life, and how she moved out of the darkness and back into the light. It is a most personal musical journey, replete with songs and intimate stories to which all can relate, particularly those who have lost either or both of their parents. It would be wrong for anyone reading this story to get the wrong impression, and I want to be very clear: this is a very happy, hilariously funny and extremely uplifting show, because it honors Joanna’s parents, it honors Joanna and her own immediate family, it honors resilience and strength, it honors love and it honors life. What could be more happy and uplifting than all of that?
Having Joanna Gleason onstage doing the heavy lifting.
Out of the Eclipse is not Ms. Gleason’s first foray into the world of nightclub performing, having appeared in an eponymous show with the exceptional Well Strung, as well as an evening of cabaret produced and directed by her son, singer-songwriter Aaron David Gleason, but this is certainly the most soul-baring I have ever seen the Tony Award recipient in an intimate setting, which is exactly what cabaret audiences crave when they settle into their seats in any nightclub venue. Any beautifully skilled artist can walk onto a stage and entertain with a set list of songs we know, but it is a special gift to walk out onto a stage and open a vein, and that is what Gleason does with her 70-minute show. When I caught the show during its’ sold-out run in March, I marveled at the fluidity with which this natural raconteur moves from a moment of pathos in her life to a comical comment made by her entertaining father. The songs, skillfully arranged by musical director Jeff Klitz, meld in with stories amusing and moving, crafting seamless mash-ups of musical poetry and spoken prose. It is rare for me to sit in a nightclub without silently singing along with an artist, but I was delighted to have Gleason performing a set-list from which I knew only a few songs – and, in cabaret, it is as important to allow your audience to hum along as it is to introduce them to new material. A stellar club act wants to open a window into which the audience can peer into a friend’s life while retaining a theatrical structure through which they can admire the performance of the artist. Out of the Eclipse is just such a show, thanks to Joanna Gleason’s expertise as a writer and director. When the audience exits 54 Below during her upcoming shows, they will leave feeling as though they have been entertained by Joanna Gleason while sitting around the parlor in her very own home; they will leave actually knowing the woman behind the artist, the ultimate gift a performer can give their audience.
I spoke with Ms. Gleason, in anticipation for the revised Out of the Eclipse (new material has been added), opening at 54 Below on July 2nd, about this special creation for her.
Joanna, what lead you to create so intimate an evening of theater as Out of the Eclipse?
I was knocked over by a second wave of missing my parents. And I realized that for the four years that they were in decline and I was traveling back-and-forth to Los Angeles every few weeks, I have never really allowed myself to let go.
Acting in a role, as a character, in a theatrical or cinematic piece of storytelling has to differ from sharing such personal stories from your own history — did that vulnerability concern you during the creative process?
I’m always very comfortable playing a well-written character. But I discovered I feel more comfortable when I get to guide the narrative. That’s why I wrote it. And that’s why the stories, the very, very funny and tender stories about them made me feel good as I was doing it. I started to write some other kind of evening thinking it was time just to get back on stage to do something, but nothing worked until I realized what I really wanted to write about.
People who see Out of the Eclipse must be finding your journey relatable to moments in their own lives – has any of your audience approached you with their reactions to the show?
So many. And the other wonderful thing is that people are reluctant to leave the club when the show is over. They end up talking to each other, people who actually only met that night. I love that.
In Out of the Eclipse you share stories about your Grandmother and your Grandson – do you sing the same lullabies to him that she sang to you?
Oh, no! She terrified me! (laughing)
Many writers consider their creation a living, breathing evolution. Do you find new aspects of the story coming out as you continue to rehearse and perform Out of the Eclipse?
The version people will see in July, and then subsequently in Los Angeles and other places, is slightly deeper, with a new, very, very funny story, an almost unbelievable story, and a great big beautiful song gorgeously arranged by Jeffrey Klitz. It’s much more, well, theatrical. We are going to a 700 seat theater in November at the Quick Center at Fairfield University in Connecticut. And there will be an opportunity for different pools of light and for some real moving onstage. And now I have two sparkly shirts from which to choose – one deep indigo, like the night sky, and the other, black, with stars. Well, not stars but tiny little pinpricks of light. Can’t decide.
There are two words that are sung, repeatedly, in the play Into the Woods: ‘I wish’. What is your wish for the future trajectory of Out of the Eclipse?
I wish to take the show around to different venues. We are a very tight, wonderful group, The Moontones, my excellent musicians, and Jeffrey, and I. We love doing the show, it has been built on us, and I would like to get the story out. Because it really isn’t my story, as you intimated, it is a story that so many people can relate to because it is part of an inevitable and shared experience. They laugh, which is important to me, and they are moved, which is important to them. And me.
After signing off with Joanna and sitting down to write this story I found myself remembering something that the great Carrie Fisher once said: ‘Take your broken heart and make it into art.’ I would say that, with the creation of Out of the Eclipse, Joanna Gleason has done just that. I cannot urge readers, with more conviction, to find out where and when this fun, funny and fabulous show is playing and get their bums and their hearts into a seat.
Out of the Eclipse will play New York’s 54 Below July 2, 5 and 6, and is slated for The Renberg Theatre of Los Angeles in early 2020 before embarking on a tour.
Follow Joanna Gleason on Twitter @TheRealJGleason and Instagram @chicksings.
Out of the Eclipse runs about 70 minutes with no intermission.
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