Around her neck, Debra Monk wears a silver Tiffany Co. locket in the shape of a heart, a gift from lyricist Fred Ebb five or six Decembers ago. She has put it on it every day since the premiere in Los Angeles final joint efforts with John Kander, his writing partner on such landmark hits as "Chicago" and "Cabaret.
" "It's not really my style," said the actress one morning last week at an Upper West Side Starbucks. "But I was going through my jewelry box shortly after Fred passed away and I thought, 'I'm going to wear this, and I'm not taking it off until 'Curtains' opens on Broadway.' It's my way of having him with us for the show.
" "Curtains" arrives Thursday at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre, having overcome storied lyricist, but also the passing 18 months earlier of librettist Peter Stone. For a lighthearted romp, "Curtains" comes with enough backstory to Set in 1959, toward the end of the golden age of musicals, "Curtains" stars to solve the murder of a leading lady during a curtain call. Monk portrays a Hood of the Old West," the show-within-a-show.
The ensemble also includes Tony McCormick and Ernie Sabella, whom many know as the voice of Pumbaa in the Monk, who along with McCormick and Hibbert did the first reading of "Curtains" six years ago, thought the project would come to a halt after the 2003 death of Stone, a Tony winner for "Woman of the Year," "1776" and "Titanic." Director Scott Ellis swiftly brought in Rupert Holmes, the composer, lyricist and book writer of "The Mystery of Edwin Drood," to complete Then came Ebb's death in September 2004, and again, Monk assumed "Curtains" begun with Ebb, starting with "Curtains." Kander completed two songs on his own.
One of them, the ballad "I Miss the Music," can only be interpreted as an "Steel Pier" in 1997 and joined "Chicago" for a while last year. She steps out early on as foul-mouthed producer Carmen Bernstein, a calculating animal of the theater. In announcing the death of the leading lady to the "Robin Hood" cast, Bernstein deadpans: "In terms of future performances, Jessica Cranshaw now has called "It's a Business," in which she dances - a novelty for her.
Says the native Ohioan: "Carmen's just a real broad, a woman who loves the theater with a passion and who has the will to survive." Much the same could be said of the 58-year-old Monk, a successful Broadway performer and writer with similar bona fides in TV and film. A former waitress and rockabilly singer, Monk co-authored and starred in 1982's "Pump Boys and Dinettes," based on her early adulthood.
It started off Off-Broadway, transferred up and ultimately scored a Tony nomination for best musical. Later on, it was produced around the country. play "Redwood Curtain," and received Tony nominations the next year for a revival of William Inge's "Picnic," and then again in 1997 for "Steel Pier," Monk has known co-star Pierce since the late 1980s, when they teamed to play mother and son for a reading of "For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls," a parody of Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie," by their mutual friend Christopher Durang.
Monk also appeared once on "Frasier," where Pierce famously ago in "Monty Python's Spamalot." In the "Frasier" episode, Niles visits a sperm bank hoping to retrieve an old donation before his wedding. Monk portrays the nurse who denies Niles the vial, saying: "We threw it out.
It wasn't any detective Pierce plays in "Curtains," because so many theatergoers share his fantasy of being up there in the spotlight. "David plays nothing for the laugh," she says. "I think all the great comedians play the reality of a scene, the truth of it, which is what makes them endearing and real.
" religious person who likes a good dirty joke." "I've had the chance to see Debra over time," he says. "Every performance becomes better in layers and layers and layers.
" In joint interviews while in Los Angeles, Pierce said comic pacing like the watching the geniuses of the past - Steve Allen and Bob Newhart, for instance. "Part of good timing," he told Back Stage West, "is not letting the audience know you're doing a joke." Monk, he emphasized last week, "has that comedic Sipowicz, the troubled ex-wife of the cop played by Dennis Franz.
The L.A. run of "Curtains," to her amusement, advanced her TV career.
One night, the audience included Marc Cherry, creator of "Desperate Housewives," and T.R. Knight, who plays med student George on "Grey's Anatomy.
" They both lined up at Monk's dressing room door afterward with job offers, as the result of which "I wasn't planning to stay in Los Angeles," says Monk, who also filmed a stay out west. For all her stage and TV work, Monk says she is most often With "Curtains" and its associations, Monk spends much time awash in memories. Looking around at neighboring theaters heightens her sense of nostalgia, given that two of her other successes - "Prelude to a Kiss" and "Robin Hood" is running its out-of-town tryout.
Scribbled in chalk on it is a handwritten message to Ebb and Stone: "Fred and Peter: We Love You," as well as a note to actor Daniel McDonald, the "Steel Pier" star who died last month at Says Monk, "We can see the notes on stage the whole night.
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