For laughs, host becomes guest

By BARBARA FREDRICKSEN Arts & Entertainment
Published November 24, 2007

When comedian Pat Cooper is on the stage around here, Show Palace Dinner Theatre co-owner Nick Sessa is the host, going from table to table to make sure all the patrons are happy.

The tables were turned, so to speak, a month ago, when Sessa and his wife, Mirel, flew to New York to be guests at the famed Friars Club, where Cooper was honored with a rowdy and often risque roast.

Among the jibes suitable for a family newspaper:

"It's amazing," one roaster told the crowd. "(Pat is) the only Italian who was never on The Sopranos. I called the producer and asked why. He said, 'Because Pat would give the Mafia a bad name.' "

Over the years, the Sessas have become close personal friends with Cooper, who likes to come to the Show Palace or Palace Grand to try out new material and visit with other locals who have become his pals in the last decade.

The Sessas were given ringside seats for the giant, star-spangled show, where they rubbed elbows with people like Jerry Adler, The View's Joy Behar, Norm Crosby, Al Roker, boxer Michael Spinks, Mike Wallace, Jerry Stiller, sports artist LeRoy Neiman, Danny Aiello and roastmaster Lisa Lampanelli, comedy's "Lovable Queen of Mean."

Cooper will be back in Hudson on Jan. 21 and 22 for two shows at the Show Palace Dinner Theatre (a few prime seats are still available, I'm told).

And Sessa will once more be doing his thing as gracious host.

Also in the Big Apple

Lou Marcus, who helped put together the lighting and sound systems a few years ago at Stage West Community Playhouse, is now doing techie stuff at the recently remodeled John W. Engeman Theater in the picturesque city of Northport, just outside New York City, but he still has time to keep me up on the NYC theater scene.

His latest coup was scoring tickets for Mel Brooks's newest musical, Young Frankenstein, one of only eight shows that didn't go dark because of the stagehands' strike.

This classic is my second-favorite movie of all time (Waiting for Guffman is my absolute favorite) and I can't wait to see what the musical is like.

Marcus liked the show, especially Andrea Martin's Frau Blucher (horse whinnies), Shuler Hensley's The Monster and Christopher Fitzgerald's Igor ("that's 'Eye-gore', sir") but he couldn't get over the animations and special effects - "or the reported $20-million this show cost, they should be," he wrote.

It's a big stage (proscenium is about 44 fee wide and looks to be almost as high, Marcus said), and imaginative use of scrims, front-of-house ultra-violet lights, animated projections that give a 3-D look, electrical sparking in the laboratory and lighting design that give the feel of those old 1930s horror movies turn it into pure magic.

Marcus' favorite number is the Puttin' on the Ritz duet The Monster and Dr. Frankenstein do at the live theater, where a light pops and Monster goes nuts. "It was great to watch Hensley's Monster dance in top hat and tails."

One of the biggest applause lines came during the finale ultimo, when the cast makes reference to the possibility of Blazing Saddles coming to the stage, Marcus said.

My knee-jerk response: "Where do I get in line for a ticket?"

Our own celebrity

Congratulations to world-renowned Pop artist and Aripeka resident James Rosenquist on his election to the board of trustees of the American Friends of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.

This is one impressive honor, believe me.

Rosenquist was given the museum's Artist of the Year Award in 2006 for his tireless work and fundraising efforts on behalf of the largest collection in the world of Israeli art from the 1920s to the present.

The museum is currently adding 195,000 square feet to its already large exhibition space and has raised $41.5-million to pay for it.

Its permanent collection includes work by almost every major artist of the 20th century and the most prominent of the modern masters, Renoir, Monet, Cezanne, Matisse, Chagall, Pollock and Kandinsky, to name but a few.

Despite his fame and celebrity status, Rosenquist is a really nice, down-to-earth fellow who always seems genuinely happy to see people he's met when he runs into them out in the community.

[Last modified November 23, 2007, 20:34:05]