INTERVIEW: ‘No One Called Ahead’ features many theater luminaries
Photo: Lora Lee Gayer stars in the new movie No One Called Ahead, which was shot in a theater. Photo courtesy of No One Called Ahead / Provided by Emily McGill Entertainment with permission.
The new cinematic comedy No One Called Ahead, written by Paul Gordon and directed by Tim Kashani, follows Ben (Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark’s Justin Matthew Sargent) as he is visited unexpectedly by several astonishing women from the great beyond. The film stars a bevy of Broadway stars in addition to Sargent. Among the cast members are Storm Lever, recently of Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, and Lora Lee Gayer, of Holiday Inn at the Roundabout Theatre Company. They are joined by Ann Harada, Morgan Weed and Pamela Winslow Kashani.
Gayer said the experience of filming No One Called Ahead was an interesting combination of her cinematic and theatrical work. For starters, the film is an original musical, which Gayer is very comfortable with, and secondly, the film was recorded in a theater. The experience reminded Gayer of her time in Holiday Inn, when the production was filmed for BroadwayHD.
“They filmed that as a theater experience,” Gayer said in a recent phone interview. “There were some closeups, but not too much. … And there was an audience, so we performed it as we normally did, eight shows a week. Whereas as this, it was more of a steady cam following us along, so it was very close to us. But because we were performing on a stage, there was still some theatricality to it, and because they wanted it, from my understanding, to be a show that people could produce in their theaters, they wanted to have some of that theatricality there. So it was sort of dipping into both places. It was kind of a mixture of both, which was very interesting.”
The filming for No One Called Ahead took Gayer approximately two to three days, which speaks to the efficiency of the cinematic world and the go-get-’em attitude of theater professionals. They were arduous days, but overall the filming process didn’t take her away too long from her theater career.
The actor has found much success in the theater world, and she credits her choice in this profession to some amazing teachers when she was a young girl.
“I was just one of those lucky people who had really great teachers who started noticing things in music classes when I was really young,” she said. “I want to say at 6 or 7 … my music teacher at that point brought my parents in for a meeting and said, ‘Lora Lee has a lot of musical talent, and she’s very performative.’ And my parents were sort of shocked by this because I wasn’t a shy kid, but I wasn’t a center of attention. I liked to draw and things like that, and they kind of chalked it up to being a little girl. And then I think it was the following year I had another music teacher, a totally different music teacher, and I was at a different school that did the same thing. And that’s when they were like, ‘Oh, maybe we should keep going,’ and so within a couple of months, there was some audition. … And then I went on that audition and booked it, and my parents then said, ‘Oh, OK, I guess there is something there.’ And then I just kept going with it.”
Gayer’s career has brought her to Broadway three times. In addition to Holiday Inn, there were also roles in Doctor Zhivago and Follies. She has clearly found much success, but it only comes after hard work and some well-earned luck in such a competitive field.
“It’s very, very difficult,” she admitted. “I think especially when I was younger, people would say, ‘Well, that’s a really hard career to go into,’ and I would almost become offended. ‘Well, you don’t know how talented I am, so it’s not going to be hard for me.’ Now, it doesn’t matter what level you’re at — you can be a movie star — and still it’s a career of uncertainty and not knowing. And I think especially we’re seeing more and more today that people are creating their own production companies and creating their own work so they can have some sort of control over their career and over their life. It’s very up and down. You just never know, and I think the biggest lesson that I’ve learned is that it really isn’t about you. You can be the most talented person that walks into that room, but there are so many factors at play that can be really frustrating. It’s hard. I’ve been very fortunate. I’ve done a lot of great things, and to some other people, that would be very successful. But at the same time, it’s very hard to not know when the next job is coming. It’s hard.”
Performing in a movie musical has also given Gayer the chance to see her work from the audience’s perspective. At first, she was skeptical about watching the movie, but she decided to cave in and attend the premiere of No One Called Ahead, which was produced by Apples and Oranges Studios, Judith Manocherian and Streaming Musicals.
“Another actress in the movie, we’re very good friends, so we were going to the screening,” Gayer said with a laugh. “There was going to be a reception and stuff before the screening, and then so I asked, ‘Are you going to stay and watch?’ And she texted back, ‘LOL. Are you joking?’ I said, ‘No, I do not want to watch myself.’ She said, ‘No, I’m going to stay.’ So I sort of went being like, well, I’ll feel it out, and then because I was mingling with people, there was kind of no way of sneaking out. I did try. I tried to sit in the back and then kind of sneak out when it started, but, of course, I walked into the movie theater and Justin Sargent, who plays the lead Ben, was like, ‘Lora Lee, I have a seat for you.’ So there was no way for me to get out.”
Luckily, Gayer enjoyed her performance — and so are theater fans who have started streaming the movie and checking out these theater stars as they combine two mediums with their love for singing and acting.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
No One Called Ahead, featuring Lora Lee Gayer, is now available to stream. Click here for more information.
