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Entertainment

Broadway is starting to look like Pasco North

By BARBARA L. FREDRICKSEN
Published March 25, 2006

It's happened again. Another Show Palace Dinner Theatre alum has gone on to Broadway.

This time it's Lucas Steele, the dreamy singer in the Show Palace Christmas Show in 2002 who out-synched 'N Sync on I Never Knew the Meaning of Christmas.

He'll be doing his vocal gymnastics in a revival of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera at Studio 54 Theatre at least through June 11. Previews started Friday, with opening set for April 20.

The show stars Cyndi Lauper (Time After Time) as Jenny the Whore, the role that originated in Berlin and was later played in America by the late Lotte Lenya, who was married to Weill off and on during her life.

Ana Gasteyer, perhaps best known for her stints on Saturday Night Live, co-stars in the show, as does Alan Cumming, who played the nerdy supersuccess with his own helicopter in Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion.

Perhaps Steele will run into other Show Palace alums now playing on the Great White Way: Kissy Simmons (Narrator in the Show Palace's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat) as Nala in The Lion King, Jason Edwards (Will Rogers in Will Rogers Follies) in Ring of Fire or Meredith Inglesby (Roxy in Chicago) as Babette the Maid in Beauty and the Beast.

Another frequent Show Palace performer, Sara DelBeato, soon will be coming home to Pasco County after a six-month stint at the Naples Dinner Theatre in Naples.

While there, she performed in The All Night Strut, La Cage aux Folles and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

Ms. DelBeato has done lots of Show Palace shows, but my all-time favorite was her turn as Doatsey Mae, the bawdy house-wannabe in Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.

Once she's back, she'll do at least three performances in Viva Vegas to fill in for another performer with still another gig somewhere out west.

Oh, boy, these performers do get around.

Fans of the hit NBC drama Medium should be on the lookout for a familiar face in an upcoming episode of the Monday night show (10 p.m. local time).

Sam Petricone, who lives in Spring Hill but spends lots of time in California to be closer to the TV and movie industry, landed a one-time shot as a detective in the popular mystery drama based on the true story of a woman who says she can talk to the dead and see the future.

Mary, Sam's wife and the owner of Your Arts Desire studio in Spring Hill, says Sam's guest shot will air sometime in the next three weeks, but she's not sure which Monday.

Sam played in several shows at Richey Suncoast Theater and at Stage West - an out-of-work actor impersonating a Jewish doctor in Beau Jest at the New Port Richey venue, a Jewish cab driver in The Day They Kidnapped the Pope, a Chicago hood in Victor/Victoria, and a cranky old guy in The Gin Game at Stage West, to name a few.

Even in weak vehicles, Petricone could make the stage come alive just by being there. He acted in television and movies when he was fresh out of pharmacy school, but he took a hiatus from professional theater to pursue what he called his "fall-back career."

But a couple of years ago, the acting bug got the best of him, and he headed west to try his luck again. Since then, he has gotten several small parts, but this is his first really big show.

On a very sad note, we note the passing of the elegantly gracious Charlotte Murrin, who founded this area's first violin school, Miss Charlotte's Suzuki Strings, 14 years ago and taught hundreds of aspiring musicians the ins and outs of playing the violin both there and at Chocachatti Elementary School.

There is little doubt the tiny woman who spoke with a soft French-Quebec accent (she was "Miss Shar-LOT," if you please, not Miz SHARlit) changed the entire face of the Hernando County area music scene.

The south is noted for its marching bands and snappy brass sections, but few schools have orchestras with stringed instruments. This dear, sweet French-Canadian lady single-handedly changed that around here for all time to come.

She will be sorely missed by family, friends, students, admirers and most of all, music itself.

[Last modified March 25, 2006, 01:51:17]