INTERVIEW: ‘Brooklyn’ comes to Brooklyn for 15th anniversary
Photo: Eden Espinosa originated the role of Brooklyn in Brooklyn: The Musical. Photo courtesy of the artist / Provided by Vivacity Media Group with permission.
Brooklyn: The Musical was a rare phenomenon on Broadway when it opened 15 years ago. An original musical — remember those?
To celebrate the continued influence and legacy of this small show with the big heart, original cast members Eden Espinosa, Karen Olivo and Ramona Keller will reprise their roles for a one-night-only concert Monday, Oct. 21 at Brooklyn Steel in, appropriately enough, Brooklyn, New York. Proceeds will benefit Covenant House Foundation.
In the original show, Espinosa played Brooklyn, a Parisian singer who travels to New York City in search of her father. Her story comes to life thanks to the “City Weeds,” five homeless musicians who stage Brooklyn’s story beneath the Brooklyn Bridge. Keller played Paradice, and Olivo portrayed Faith.
The original musical, directed by Jeff Calhoun and featuring music by Mark Schoenfeld and Barri McPherson, ran for more than 300 performances at the Plymouth Theatre in 2004 and 2005. (The Plymouth is now called the Schoenfeld Theatre.)
This anniversary concert has been considered for a number of years, but it took some time to get the gang back together.
“Karen, Ramona and I had discussed it five years ago for the 10-year anniversary, and we were having a couple phone meetings with Jeff Calhoun,” Espinosa said in a recent phone interview. “Schedules were too crazy. Life got in the way for many of us, so we kind of let it go. A few months ago, actually earlier this summer, I posted a throwback Thursday picture of me in Brooklyn on Instagram, and it was one of my highest likes, with comments on the show and how much it means to people.”
Espinosa, who has also starred in Wicked, Flora the Red Menace and RENT, figured that because 2019 is the 15th anniversary, why not resurrect the idea and see if they can pull it off. Well, pull it off they did.
“Maybe it’s time to get this idea kicking again, so I contacted Ramona and Karen,” she said. “They both said they would be interested. Oddly enough, one of our old producers, Scott Prisand, contacted me because he had seen the picture [on Instagram]. I ran the idea by him, and then he and I had a meeting in L.A. It just kind of grew from there. We originally were going to have it at the Schoenfeld Theatre, but that got too complicated. Oddly enough, the date that we opened, the exact date, 15 years later happened to fall on a Monday, which made it good for Karen because she’s in the middle of Moulin Rouge! So it kind of seemed like this meant-to-be thing. All the stars were aligning, and here we are today.”
Olivo is currently performing in the critically acclaimed stage adaptation of Moulin Rouge!, and Keller has appeared in a great number of projects, including Smokey Joe’s Cafe, Caroline or Change and Little Shop of Horrors. For each of the performers, it seems like Brooklyn was a special bullet point on the résumé.
“I think at the time we knew it was special because several of us had been with it from the very beginning,” Espinosa said. “At the time when we opened, to be honest, our reviews weren’t good. The reception was lukewarm, but we loved doing it. We loved each other and the piece. What’s been interesting and a blessing is over the years hearing the influence of the show or the music had on people, and people sharing stories with me. I remember hearing, ‘My parents had been in New York, and we were in line for TKTS. And we took a chance on this little show, and it was Brooklyn. And it blew me away.’ Now looking back in hindsight, I think we recognized the influence, even though it might have been subconscious.”
She added: “I think it was a little bit ahead of its time. No one was really singing on Broadway like that at the time, and I think if it were to have opened on Broadway now, it might have been a little bit more of a commercial success than it was at the time. It really is heart-warming to hear how much it still means to people and how much they still love the music so much. That means everything.”
Espinosa has crafted a musical theater career that stresses originality. One only has to look at her many roles to realize that as a performer she enjoys the challenge of carving out a new character for audiences. One of the reasons she likes the challenge: It doesn’t come around too often in the theater business.
“When you’re attached to a project from the very beginning, it takes years and years of that project to actually come to fruition and make it to New York,” she said. “It means a lot to me because you get to put your stamp on it, and things are tailor-made to you. And you get to be involved in the creation of the character, and the payoff, when it actually gets to open in New York, no matter how long the run is, it just feels good. You put years of your life into it — workshop upon workshop upon readings upon labs upon out-of-town tryouts — before it gets to Broadway. Sometimes that’s three to five years. To be that original, it means a lot because it just means you put your fingerprint on the role. I also love doing roles that have also been done, putting my own interpretation on it. I enjoy that as well, but I think because it’s so rare to have a role that you’ve originated make it to Broadway and to have a cast album and to have people remember the show and love the show, it’s a big deal to me. It means a lot.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Brooklyn: The Musical, starring Eden Espinosa, Karen Olivo and Ramona Keller, will celebrate its 15th anniversary with a special one-night-only concert at Brooklyn Steel in Brooklyn, New York. Proceeds will help Covenant House Foundation. Click here for more information and tickets.
