lomo drama

So, sadly, Sweeney Todd is closing on Broadway September 3rd. I wanted to get the word out because if you haven’t seen it yet, you should come. It is a pretty spectacular piece of theatre…

I can hook you up with great discounted seats…just email me at molina.lauren@gmail.com.

Also,
If you’re in town on August 27th come to my solo gig at the Laurie Beechman Theatre, Sunday 9:30pm.

It will be a night of good music, good drinking, and good fun….also joining me are special guests: Sweeney Todd’s: Manoel Felciano and Donna Lynne Champlin, Nick Cearley, Ray Fellman, Jason Reischel, Natalie Ross, and Michelle Ricci.

Tickets are $15 and to make reservations call 212.695.6909.

Laurie Beechman Theatre is located in the West Bank Cafe, 407 W 42nd St, at 9th ave.

I hope you are well…stay in touch.
Lauren

Alright folks…it is an event not to be missed…drum roll please…or better yet, a blow of the Sweeney Todd whistle…

On May 22nd at 7pm, I will be performing my first solo show at the Duplex Cabaret Theatre.

Special guests will include Sweeney Todd’s very own Michael Cerveris and Manoel Felciano, as well as Nick Cearley, Natalie Ross, and Michelle Ricci…who knows, there may even be more suprises…

Be prepared for anything…The show is called LoMo in SlowMo…consider it a retrospective of the music that has moved me and/or been a part of my life in the last five years. And for those friends who don’t know, LoMo is my nickname from since I was a wee lass.

Hope to see you there!

Here’s a recap:

Who: Lauren Molina
What: LoMo in SlowMo- a show and tell of music
Where: The Duplex, 61 Christopher Street (at 7th Ave)
For Reservations call: 212.255.5438, Tickets are $20, with 2 drink min.

Don’t forget to check out the show tomorrow at 7pm. It is hilarious and lots of fun….

Nick Cearley, in his cabaret debut, will perform alongside Sweeney Todd’s Lauren Molina in The Most Overdone Songs Ever at the Duplex Cabaret Theatre (61 Christopher Street) on Sunday, March 5th, at 7pm.

The show, which is billed as a “brand new not-so-new revue,” will feature direction by Phil Geoffrey Bond and musical direction by Ray Fellman. “For those who saw it the last time, it has been seriously revised and many changes have occurred including the addition of my good buddy Lauren Molina, who is currently starring on Broadway as Johanna in Sweeney Todd. She will be lugging her famous yellow hair and sturdy cello along for the ride as well,” writes Cearley. The perfomer also promises that the show–and the program of songs–will be somewhat different from show to show.

Cearley recently performed opposite Alice Ripley in the workshop of Bill Russell and Peter Melnick’s new musical The Last Smoker in America (And Other Short Musicals). Regional credits include A Little Night Music, The Music Man and Lost in Yonkers; he also appeared in the World AIDs Day concert of Pippin. Molina makes her Broadway debut with Sweeney Todd. She previously appeared at the York Theatre in Henry, Sweet, Henry and at Musicals Tonight! in Meet Me in St. Louis, among others.

The show will be performed on Feb 5, Mar. 5, April 2, May 7, and June 4. There is a $10 cover and a 2 drink minimum (alcoholic drinks are not necessary). Reservations are strongly recommended; call 212 255 5438.

“How can you jubilate sitting in cages?”

For opening night of Sweeney Todd, a friend of mine gave me a green finch as a gift. Yes, a real live bird in a cage. How crazy, yet poetic and thoughtful…so I named her Johanna Bird. She was he was a rare green Lady Gouldian Finch from Australia. She was beautiful, and would chirp all day. Another friend of mine, who knew they thrived in pairs, bought me a boyfriend bird for Johanna Bird a few weeks later. I named him Picasso because of his bright bold coloring. As soon as they were together, they were so much happier. Chirping all day, scurrying and flying around the cage, they seemed to be content, they seemed like they loved each other…

“Are you discussing, or fussing, or simply dreaming? Are you crowing? Are you screaming?”

Finches are very fragile and delicate. They need special care and attention. They are prone to sickness and must be warm at all times….

Yesterday afternoon, I returned home from running errands and my birds weren’t making any noise. I thought it odd, but continued my routine. After a few more minutes, I walked up to the cage to find them both dead in the bottom of the cage. They were laying close together. Head to toe, facing each other. Johanna’s eyes were open and Picasso’s were closed. It was so poetic and sad. I began to cry, thinking that maybe the finches were sick and I had no way of knowing. Or maybe the changing temperatures from my apartment heater made them die. It is still a mystery. I wondered if Johanna died first, and then Picasso refused to hold on for life. I wondered if they tried to help each other up, chirping to each other, staring at each other. It was such a Romeo and Juliet moment…starstruck lovers, trapped in a caged existence.

“If I cannot fly, let me sing.”

Looking at the place where the cage used to sit, I am strangely at ease. Birds aren’t supposed to be in cages. Though beautiful and seemingly content, living in a small cage in a west village apartment is not where a bird should live. They are free now, to sing and fly, somewhere. When I sang “Green Finch and Linnet Bird” last night at the show, my thoughts of confusion, death, freedom, rest, and sadness for the birds surfaced. They will always be in my mind now when I sing this song…

For the next 3 months, on the first Sunday of each month, at 7pm at the Duplex, I am performing as the special guest in Nick Cearley’s cabaret titled “The Most Overdone Songs Ever”. I will be singing with Nick, playing cello, singing while playing the cello…you get it. So come check it out!

Here are the deets:
Feb 5th, March 5th, and April 2nd
7pm
Duplex (61 Christopher St. at 7th Ave)
For Reservations: 212-255-5438

We’ve already hit our 100 performance mark. The days fly by, yet it seems like I have been doing the show forever. I am still trying new little things to keep my performance fresh. I have never had such an opportunity to get inside of a character over such a long period of time. Sometimes I feel a little like Johanna in my daily life.

I also love the range of emotions I get to play. My daily emotions really influence how my performance will be; if i am in a funk, johanna will be pissed off at the birds she sings to, if i am having a happy day, johanna will sing joyously to the birdies. Seriously though, long running shows are like nothing else in the chance to explore character.

As for the monotony of doing an 8 show week, I still love the show, but I am a bit exhausted. If the show itself isn’t tiring enough, I have been doing benefit concerts and other performances. Last week, I performed at the Culture Project (an off-broadway theatre) for a benefit to raise money for a new play called “Godot has left the Building”. I played guitar and sang my own arrangement of “Lazy Afternoon” and I also sang Fiona Apple’s “Paper Bag”. On New Years Eve, I performed with Michael Cerveris at Joe’s Pub. We performed a mix of Michael’s original music and some covers. Starting in February, every first Sunday at 7pm at the Duplex, I will be Nick Cearley’s special guest performer at his cabaret of “The Most Overdone Songs”.

In this new year, it’s my goal to work on writing and performing as much new and different material for voice, cello, and guitar as possible. Give me a shout out if you want to make music with me!

I also love the fact that so many people from my past have come out to see Sweeney Todd. Friends, family, old co-workers, classmates, friends of friends of friends have travelled from anywhere from California, Michigan, Chicago, Florida, Texas to show their support and love. If you are one of those people reading this- I LOVE YOU! THANK YOU SO MUCH! It means so much that you are staying in touch. And hey, if it takes getting in a Broadway show to get you out to New York, I will do my damnest to be in another one after this.

Alas, during the first week of previews, my penny whistle playing met an untimely death. It has been cut from the show. So, Johanna now plays only the cello. I will miss that silly little bugger. It was fun to learn, and I get to keep the whistle! It is a fancy one, costing around $150!

We made it through the first week alive…so to speak. 9 shows in 6 days. Today is our day off. Time for some yogercising.

The crowds have been loving the show. Signing autographs is fun and cute. Yesterday in between shows I went with some castmates for dinner midtown. As we were leaving the restaurant a group of 20 high schoolers from Tampa, Fl entered the restaurant. Instantly, jaws went agape and there were gasps and shouts of “Oh My God!” “You were amazing!”. The students and teachers had all just seen our matinee, and were flipping out to see the actors up close. It was one of the cutest things ever.

On Monday, we had an invited dress rehearsal in the afternoon, then our opening night preview for a sold out crowd. The adrenaline could not have been any more intense. At the end of the evening, I felt like I had been hit by a train. That feeling of, “is this really happening, yes this is really happening, i can’t beleive this is really happening”, was the rollercoaster ride in my brain.

When the house lights were dimmed to signal the start of the show, there was a wall of cheering and applause. As I sat behind the curtain, I had to bite my cheeks to keep the grin from forming on my face.

The clincher was performing for an audience. During my duet with Anthony, “Kiss Me”, there was tons of laughter. I loved that people thought this song was funny! I was not expecting it at all! Also, at the end of the second act you could hear a pin drop from the silence and suspense that overcame the crowd. It is amazing to see an audience so captivated.

I must also take this opportunity to say how fucking brilliant my castmates are….
Patti LuPone, playing the tuba, not missing a single joke, bringing a new darkness to the character of Mrs. Lovett. Mano Felciano, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, plays violin, piano, clarinet, with a grasp on Toby’s lunacy and despair so complex and daring, and “Not While I’m Around” is gorgeous. Donna Lynn Champlin, couldn’t be more spot on with her intricate facial expressions, comic genious, accordion playing chops, and her Pirelli is utter spectacle. Ben Magnuson, my sweet Anthony, gorgeous voice, awkward and cute, so wonderful to work with. Alex Gemignani, the talent to end all talents, what can’t this man do? Diana DiMarzio, soaring voice and deserves to be in this show more than anyone. Mark Jacoby, a hilarious coot, but you’d never know it from his creepy character, Mark is so good at what he does. and of course John Arbo, as Mr. Fogg, is the bass God.

I am still exhausted, when we aren’t performing afternoon shows, we are rehearsing and making changes for the next evening show. We are constantly tweaking and refining for clarities sake.

Even though we are just in previews, it is a solid show. COME SEE IT! There has never been anything like this on Broadway before and you have to see it to beleive it. People will love or hate it. I am convinced everyone will be blown away by the performances no matter if they like the concept or not.

If you want to get discounted tickets, check this out:
$70 tickets*
> > if you order by Oct. 31. Valid for performances
> Oct.
> > 3-Nov. 20
> > Online: BroadwayOffers.com Use code STTCE46.
> > Phone: (212) 947-8844 Use code STTCE46.

This is the week when all of the stage magic happens. Lights, sound, makeup, hair, costumes…
We begin everyday at 1pm, and are potentially at the theatre until midnight everyday. So far, the director has let us out early everyday- around 10:30pm. He knows how exhausted we all are.
The show really takes on a new body with the technical elements.

As far as the sound goes, we are keeping it as natural and unamplified sounding as possible. It really is a thrill to hear live instruments in a broadway house. They truly sing out in the space without the distortion of jacked up microphones.

The makeup is sort of heroin chic. Not too gothic, nor mime like with white face. It just looks like we haven’t seen daylight in a while and haven’t had sleep in days. My makeup makes me feel like I am in a Prada ad.

It is also very exciting that I have my own dressing room. I am stocking it with wine glasses for anyone who comes to visit! This is all still pretty surreal.

Overall, I couldn’t be more thrilled with the production or the talented cast. Everyone is stepping up and putting out so much energy. This show is fierce, and everyone needs to see it to believe it.

The director and music director recently told the cast that the tears of fear and overwhelming doom happen during week three. Fortunately, there have no emotional breakdowns yet. There have been, however, mild fits of frustration and the impending and ever sardonic “are you fucking kidding me” melt down.

For me, I find most of my frustration stems from trying to learn choral harmonies that make no fucking sense. Thanks, Mr. Sondheim. Somehow every vocal part fits together, but when you break it down, it is like trying to do a Friday crossword puzzle in the Times. Not to mention, I have to remember my cello line at the same time. For those who know the show, my most difficult moments are found in God that’s Good, Epiphany, and of course, the City on Fire Sequence.

I also have to say that this process is EXHAUSTING. I leave rehearsal everyday feeling like I was just hit by a train. The amount of concentration and physical labor I have to put into my character, learning music, and singing out (over the orchestra) over the 9 hour day wears you out.

Donna Lynn, the woman playing Pirelli has to play the accordion all day long. I do not envy her at all. She does kick ass though, so I do envy her for her brilliance. Because she carries that box around all day, it is freaking out her back and she actually had to already go to a physical therapist.

I was told on Friday that we are actually getting a physical therapist to come to shows and give massages twice a week!!!

Fortunately, I find comfort in a nice post-rehearsal cocktail to ease my tension.