CARLYLE and SESSIONS Spell Success for Tapper

What's it like to have two of your shows being performed on stage simultaneously? Well, you're about to find out as Al Tapper shares his enthusiasm with us as he talks about his two shows being performed at the Algonquin Theater, An Evening at the Carlyle and Sessions: The Musical, which now features Robert Newman, best known as Josh on GUIDING LIGHT.

Tapper is a true triple threat....writer, composer and lyricist having written three off-Broadway musicals. He wrote his first musical in college. Since then he has written special material for regional productions and has produced two albums of his own songs. He composed the ballet The Seduction of Bathsheba whose premiere performance at Mechanics Hall was presented by the Central Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra. His Off-Broadway show, Imperfect Chemistry for which he composed the music and created the story, opened at the Minetta Lane Theater in New York in April of 2000. From Where I Stand, a musical revue, opened at the Laurie Beechman Theatre in March of 2003.

He has also written numerous books on humor published by Andrews McMeel and Company and MJF Publishing. They include A Guy Goes Into a Bar; A Minister, A Priest, And a Rabbi; A Guy Goes Into a Doctors Office and Flunked. He also wrote a new non-musical play titled, Conversations with Max. He is also a producer having produced the award winning film Broadway: The Golden Age.

TJ:  Hi Al. where did you come up with the idea for Sessons: The Musical? 

TAPPER:  I had written a few musical plays, straight plays and books on humor and thought it might be a good time to write about something I knew about...therapy.  I have certainly had my share of it.  The idea came to me in a romantic way (for lack of a better word) as I was on a cruise with my kids and I was sitting overlooking the horizon in the Gulf of Mexico when I started to think about the project.  By the time I got up from the lounging deck chair I had sketched out the characters and the specific issues that brought them to therapy.  I also realized that every therapist is first a human being and has his or her own problems to deal with

TJ:  How long did it take you to write the show?

TAPPER:  It took about 3 months to write the show, but in theater that is sometimes the easy part. That hard part is mounting a showcase, getting it produced, finding a theater, and finding other creative people who could help with suggestions and would keep my feet to the fire so to speak.  I was lucky and found a great producer who is also the artistic director of the Algonquin Theater---Tony Sportiello. 

TJ:  This must have been a difficult project for you writing the book, music and lyrics for a show?

TAPPER:  Well, I don't plan on doing it again or at least not very soon. :O)  I have 2 shows running where I wrote the entire piece yet I miss the collaboration that comes from sitting down with a co-writer, martini in hand, just to talk things over.  Now I have to talk it over with myself. :O)

TJ:  When did the show have it's first performance and where? Were you happy with the result at that time?  

TAPPER:  The show ran at Playwrights Horizons (The Peter Sharp Theater) in the summer of 2007.  I was pleased with it and it got some terrific notices, but at Playwrights you can only have a limited run, so although we were sold out for every performance, we had to close as another show had been booked.  So we waited until we could get another theater and reopen it.  It also gave me and the creative people an opportunity to look at it carefully and try to improve on it.  Which I believe we did so that the show running now at the Algonquin Theater is, I believe, more grounded... thus stronger.

TJ:  Did you have many rewrites along the way?  

TAPPER:  I never stop rewriting even after a show opens, so if you include a minor change such as a single typo and a major change like the addition of a new character than we are now at about the 207^th draft.  Slight exaggeration, but close.

TJ:  Is there a character in the show that you personally identify with?  

TAPPER:  I am asked that question a lot and have truly reflected on it and my best answer, and I am not trying in any way to deflect, is that there is a little piece of me in every character. The Therapist, his Superego and Id, and his 9 patients. So in a sense we have 12 characters. I suppose that's makes me a bit schizophrenic but hopefully in a dramatic sense only. 

TJ:  How have the audiences been accepting the show?  

TAPPER:  The audiences seem to love the show and respond very favorably to both the humor of the piece and its serious nature.  I believe everyone who sees it can identify with someone on stage.  The interesting part is that every night I am told by the staff that people say "I have seen this show three times or four times" and I find that rather astounding. My own diagnosis is that they come for 2 hours and have therapy and it only cost $50 a ticket and so they save a fortune than if they went to a real therapist.  But, that's only my theory.  Maybe they come often simply because they like it.

TJ:  Might there be an opportunity for the show to move to a Broadway house?

TAPPER:  Yes, we have had interest from both Broadway producers and from larger off-Broadway houses.  Also lots of interest from regional theaters across the country.  Believe it or not, a Japanese promoter saw the show and is seriously interested in bringing it to Tokyo.  Now that I'd have to go see!

TJ:  Has the economy crunch hit off-Broadway to a great extent?

TAPPER:  I think the opposite has happened.  People are struggling to make ends meet and they have cut back on certain luxuries, but it seems as if they need to be entertained and are willing to go to the theater even if it's just to get away from all their trouble and personal turmoil.

TJ:  Do you have any other projects coming up that we can look forward to?

TAPPER:  Well, I have another musical, An Evening at the Carlyle which is also running now and it's doing quite well.  I have a new book out, Conversations with Max, that deals with the lives of two very dear friends and what goes on in their everyday lives. It would be as if George and Jerry (Seinfeld) were talking on the phone and discussing mostly nothing.

TJ:  Speaking of An Evening at the Carlyle, this sounds like quite an entertaining evening.  Had you spent time at the bar that the show is based on?  

TAPPER:   have certainly spent my fair share of time at Bemelmans Bar at the Carlyle.  In fact, I used to think of it as my own person library.  You see, I lived at the Carlyle for 11 years and spent many a creative hour in my "library."

TJ:  Did you draw your characters from people you met or are they caricatures that you just came up with?

TAPPER:  I have met them!!  I won't give up any names, but all the people you see coming into the bar are people I have met over the years.  And of course Bemelmans is one of the few bars that really caters to celebrities.  Some want to be left alone and some will agree to sing or dance at the slightest provocation.

TJ:  I read someplace that one might run into Liza or the Donald on a given night. Care to expand on that?

TAPPER:  I have run into both of them.  And they really are the nicest people.  I poke fun at them, but it's just for fun and I believe they would probably laugh the hardest if they came.

TJ:  What is it like to have two shows running at once in New York? Did you plan it that way?

TAPPER:  I didn't plan it that way.  I didn't think Sessions would have such a long run, but now it looks like it will stay open at least through all of 2009 as it has been received so well.  So, it is a real genuine kick to have 2 shows running everyday in New York.  So now I guess I have to begin on a third.

Special thanks to Al for some great answers. So you can see one or both of his shows now. AN EVENING AT THE CARLYLE, A New Musical Revue presented by Algonquin Theater Productions, will extend its previously announced four-week engagement to an open-ended run at The Algonquin Theater (123 East 24th Street) where it plays in repertory with the musical Sessions, now in its 2^nd year!!!

For tickets to An Evening at the Carlyle, A New Musical Revue, click here or Sessions: The Musical, click here.  So for now, ciao for now as I am off for an evening of margaritas and remember, theatre is my life!