This is Gulf Coast Life Arts edition from WGCU.

I'm John Davis.

Thanks for joining us.

Players Circle Theater's summer season continues with a production of the one man comedy Say Goodnight, Gracie by Rupert Holmes, adapted from the remembrances of comedian, actor, writer and singer George Burns.

The play is a love story about Burns extraordinary professional relationship and partnership with Gracie Allen.

Burns and Allen remain one of the most celebrated partnerships in American entertainment history, and their groundbreaking comedy act evolved across vaudeville, radio, film and television.

The radio program The Burns and Allen Show was one of the most popular comedy programs in America in the 1930s and 40s, and the show helped define the conventions of TV sitcoms today, before television even existed.

George Burns often said that Gracie was the true comic genius of the duo, and that their success came through Burns willingness to sacrifice the spotlight so Gracie could shine, and they remained married for 38 years until Gracie Allen's death in 1964, which Burns often said he never fully recovered from.

Say Goodnight Gracie is more than just a comedy, though.

It's George Burns love letter to Gracie Allen.

And to a vanished era of American entertainment.

The original Broadway production became the third longest running solo show in Broadway history, and garnered a Tony Award nomination for Best Play.

As player, Circle Theater's production of Say Goodnight, Gracie opens today.

We're taking a deeper dive into the show and a conversation with actor, director and producer Pasquale LaCorte who stars in this show.

LaCorte seems particularly drawn to character driven theatrical roles.

He's perhaps best known for his extensive work in regional theater in western North Carolina, where he's a mainstay with Hart Theater in Waynesville, and also southern Appalachian Southern Appalachian Repertory Theater.

In fact, he's taken on this role in past productions of Say Goodnight, Gracie with both of those theater companies.

And now audiences here in Southwest Florida will be lucky enough to experience it.

Pasquale, welcome to Gulf Coast Life Arts Edition.

I thank you very much for having me.

And we're also joined by Players Circle Theater Associate Artistic Director Ted Wioncek.

Ted welcome back.

So happy to be here.

So, Ted, given his experience with this role and how well I've seen that he can even physically transform into George Burns.

Pasquale is the perfect choice.

How did you all connect with him?

Well, our dear friend Amanda Ladd, who just performed in Spaghetti, which was a big hit.

You know, she's worked with Players Circle for a couple of years now.

Probably been about on 3 or 4 productions.

She suggested that we get in touch.

She said, you have to meet this guy.

Not only do I think the work that he does would be perfect for Players Circle, but he would be perfect for Players Circle.

And through our many conversations over the past year, it's so evident.

I mean, Pasquale is already a giving actor and he hasn't even been on the stage yet, you know?

And when you say he looks like George Burns, I mean, that was some of the first material that came across our table was a picture of him in the role.

And you just have to stop.

You just go, wait a minute.

That's that's not an actor.

That's George Burns.

I mean, that's who he is.

And I had to do, like, a double, triple take here.

I grew up in a house that celebrated vaudeville and old Hollywood films.

I actually played Groucho Marx for five, seven years.

So this biopic kind of thing particularly appeals to me personally.

I've always loved George Burns, but our audience is absolutely craving this.

I mean, from the moment we announced that they were so excited for this piece, it's the perfect age, the perfect era and we've got the perfect performer for it.

Yes, Pasquale, since this is going to be at least the third production that you will be embodying George Burns in for this show.

I'm curious about what attracted you to this play in this role to begin with.

First of all, the script is one of those scripts where you laugh, you cry, and you think it's an actor's trifecta.

So, so, so attracted to to the script itself.

And then when I realized I can physically transform into a pretty good similarity of George, I said, I have to try this.

And it all came about because of Covid.

Theaters were, when they were looking to reopen, needed shows that that they could do six feet apart.

So here's a one man show.

We don't have to worry about actors being too close to each other.

It was just one of those situations where everything just fell into place.

Tell me a bit about how you initially prepared for the role.

Did you go back and watch George Burns film and TV work to, like, study his distinctive mannerisms or.

I watched lots and lots of films with George.

I also watched a lot of the videos that Frank Gorshin did when he when he had done it on Broadway.

Because for me, it's I didn't want to imitate him.

Right.

I wanted to embody If that makes sense to you.

I don't want it to be just copying what he was.

I just want to get what his energy was.

Yeah.

You don't want it to be a caricature?

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, yeah, I did study him, and it took me a while to be able to use my left hand because he was left handed, and he always had this guy on the left hand.

That took me a lot of work.

Yes.

I'm curious if you did much in the way of biographical research or if any of that understanding is just sort of included within the context of the play itself?

I did read on on his background and all, and there's, there's some contradictions, just nothing greatly serious but contradictions, as even with his parents names were I did read two of his books, and that's because people had seen the show, came back and and brought me a book of his, as, as a gift for, for having done the show.

So, yeah, I've read up on him and, and I enjoyed the, the books that he wrote.

All right.

And I'm curious about, do you think this show was going to be accessible maybe to younger audiences because, you know, George Burns died in the mid 1990s.

I'm in my mid 40s.

I primarily remember him as, you know, the older guy with the black rimmed glasses and the cigar, but but, you know, there's people who are like in their 20s today who were never alive when he was alive.

Are they going to be able to connect with the show?

They do.

And I was very surprised by that.

But I guess with the with TV being what it is now, they get to see all the old movies and they they've all known him.

I've had teenagers there who have known him from the Oh, God!

movies.

Yeah.

That's that's my first introduction.

It was really fun in preparation for today, going back and seeing old clips and even photos of just what he looked like when he was a young man.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, even outside of this specific play, as an actor, do you feel any additional kind of pressure when your character is a real person compared to interpreting a character who's wholly fictional Theres I don't I wouldn't call it a pressure.

It's more a responsibility.

Yeah.

Yeah.

People come in with an expectation when you're when you're portraying a known celebrity.

So they come in with an expectation.

And I have the responsibility of fulfilling that expectation as best as I possibly can.

I'm curious if you've been able to draw on your own experiences to help, to relate to George Burns like There is so much of this show, this, this whole story that I relate to.

I everything from he was a shoeshine boy as I was a shoeshine boy.

Growing up in New York, I grew up in New York.

Oh, was so many things I can relate to.

I know my experience where identical to his at all, but they were they were relative.

And so yeah, that's why this is such a wonderful play for me because I truly feel it.

I'm not.

I don't have to look for it for the emotions I, I feel it.

Yeah.

Also a very early childhood love of the stage and performing.

I heard another interview you gave a few years ago.

Your mother was a dance teacher.

She taught you tap, and when you were seven years old, you were up on the stage regularly like you were.

You were.

That was it.

That was that was it.

Yeah.

I always say my mother was a dancer.

I was a disappointment.

But yeah, yeah, my brother and I did tap dancing and.

And she would do shows all over Jersey and New York, you know, for, for church groups and for VFW and things like that.

And we probably did 30, 40 shows a year.

And it was it, I guess, in a way, it was like, boy, Bill.

Yeah, yeah.

And it was a wonderful time in my life, and I relate all that to this show.

Well, if you're just tuning in today on Gulf Coast Life Arts Edition, we're speaking with actor Pasquale LaCorte, who stars and Players Circle Theater's production of the one man comedy Say Goodnight, Gracie.

We're also joined by the company's Associate Artistic Director, Ted Wioncek.

So doing a one man show is no small feat.

Does it feel more like acting, storytelling, or having a conversation with the audience?

Or maybe just some kind of combination thereof?

It is a combination thereof.

I don't find it so much as of acting.

It's being aware as an actor of what you're doing.

Yeah.

But I'm the acting is there, but it's a natural kind of acting, and there is no fourth wall.

The way it's written.

I'm telling a story to an audience.

So.

There's no make believe there.

I'm talking to the audience.

And in the right setting, there's times I've gone into the audience and.

Borrowed a drink from the table.

Oh, that's.

You know, this is a good opportunity to say there's no better venue for this piece, because the way that we are already set up is the most immersive and most intimate theater in Southwest Florida.

But on top of that, the way that we are doing this production and my way this summer is with table seating.

So there's a select area that's VIP that seats about eight tables of four, and this gives an opportunity to even kind of get even more.

It almost feels a little bit like the old Copacabana days a little bit.

And we.

Are like that and I love that.

Isn't that wonderful?

I mean, it works so beautifully for peace.

Like this.

Now, listen, it's wonderful to be a fly on the wall as it was for same time next year.

You feel like you're in your room, but you're not a participant.

You know, in this case, the audience adds so much energy.

It's symbiotic.

And the same goes for my way.

We're really excited to be presenting material this summer that is both full of love, heart, and nostalgia because our audience is really looking for that little trip back down memory lane, and this piece is the perfect peace to kind of kick it off.

I mean, really, we're so the overwhelming response and you asked about the young people too.

They might not even know.

They know George Burns, but they know George Burns, just like some people know Groucho Marx, they don't know Groucho Marx, but they know the classic pickle guy.

Well, there for you there was a line, I think, in the first episode of Will and Grace where at the end of the episode, he says, say goodnight, Gracie, she says.

Good night.

Great people know that line, but they don't know where.

Yeah.

So this gives an opportunity to give a whole new audience, a whole new generation, this material that holds up so beautifully.

I mean, if you know it, you're going to love it because you know it.

But if you're not familiar with it, you'll be surprised how jokes that are 80 plus years old hold up today.

In fact, rival or better than what's being written today.

It's deeper than that too, though, Ted.

I mean, even just things we see in television shows all the time now that we're just used to like an actor breaking the fourth wall and making directly at us or speaking to us.

Right.

George and Gracie did that?

Yes.

Yeah.

I'm curious.

Pasquale, have you discovered new things about the character over successive performances and productions of the show?

You you discover with every performance something that's somewhat the job of an actor.

There's.

And that's what keeps it fresh is.

Yes, you do discover something and you find a different way to say something sometimes, and you find a different meaning in some of the lines.

Sometimes that's what keeps it fresh, and that's what keeps it real for the audience.

Is there a particular story or moment in this play that you feel gives audiences, or maybe even yourself, like, has given you a deeper understanding of who George Burns like really is?

Like, is there a line or a scene in the play that just has this special meaning for you personally?

There, there's several lines in there that, that I just relate to so strongly.

One, one of them that I love so much is when he was talking about when he first started with Gracie, where he wrote all of the material, it was all his idea, but it was Gracie's magic that made it work.

So that being humble like that is not something you think of with George Burns.

Well, tell them a little bit about the multimedia aspect, because I know they all think they're going to see George Burns, but they're going to see more than that, right.

Oh, it shows pictures of him in his youth.

It shows pictures of him.

They're their first films that they made.

The short films, you know, used to run about nine minutes.

There's it shows where he came from and pictures of Gracie when she was young and.

And pictures of him when he was part of a trained seal act.

So there's.

Yeah, there's a whole picture story that goes with the words.

And one just has to hope that when I'm not looking at the screens, that I remember the right words.

Okay.

And you look at.

And we're also going to hear Gracie Allen's voice, or at least someone playing Gracie.

there's there's no of Gracie in there.

And by the time you get to the end of the show, Gracie is as much on that stage as as George Burns as I am.

She really becomes part of the show in an invisible way.

It's really neat the way it's done.

Ted, are you directing Pasquale?

I wouldn't say I'm directing, but I'm going to be his best friend for a couple of days.

You are technically.

And what do you bring to the table?

Yes.

Not much.

John.

No no no, no.

The truth is, is that we are bringing him in from out of town, and we have a limited amount of time to prepare.

We have a very busy summer, as you know very well, we just shut down Love Letters, which was a huge success.

We're on our way to opening Dare to Dream Junior, which is our education programs production starring our stars tomorrow, ages 8 to 15, singing all of Disney's classic for the whole family.

And then right after that, days later, we have a Thursday matinee, which is new for us, but we seem to have a need for it, especially for this material.

Yeah, we're going to ask about that.

Yeah.

So we you know, there's only so many days in the week in so many weeks in the year.

But we there's a need for this piece and the audience is clamoring for it.

So we've added a lot of daytime matinees for our audience that play perfect for this material in the age demo that it, you know, massively appeals to.

But so there's a small turnaround time there.

And then, of course, as you know, just to promote for a moment, then we go into South Pacific in concert Into the Woods.

No, no, let's go ahead and like, just remind folks about what this South Pacific production.

Well, well, I don't want to take away from today's material, but South Pacific is going to be really unique as well.

That is going to be the concert version of South Pacific.

Not only does it feature our stars of Players Circle that the ensemble that the audience is very familiar with, but the full ensemble of the piece is made up by our Players Circle Studio, Education Wing.

So this is your once in a lifetime chance to see Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific in concert with a live pianist playing the full score.

All the lines, historical dramaturgical facts and all star cast an ensemble of 40 in a theater that seats about 100.

So it's absolutely going to knock you over with sound.

And and it's beautiful, you know?

But and then, of course, we have My Way, which is backed by popular demand.

But as far as with this production, it's really about making this actor feel at home at Players Circle Theater, which is so important, giving him the stage and giving him the materials to bring what he has really done so well time and time again to Fort Myers Theater.

And so we're going to work.

We're going to do if you run through is we're going to do some tech rehearsals, of course.

And of course, I'll be there to offer any feedback he desires.

But this guy is coming and ready made.

I mean, this is George Burns to the tee.

You could even hear in his voice and some of his humor.

It's already in him, you know.

It's already it's already there.

I know it is.

And that was so fascinating.

The first few conversations that we had was talking about bringing a piece like this to an audience.

How nice it feels to give something that is nostalgic to an audience that's clamoring for it, to let them disappear into an hour or two and just be in a different era, in a different time, to feel like George Burns is right there in front of them.

You know, that is really powerful.

Theater transports, it transforms.

You know, you go on a journey and it's an escape to a degree, you know?

Yes, we're going to think we're going to feel, but it is an escape.

And in today's time, it's nice to give our audience an opportunity to go back in time.

Yeah, yeah.

And I know you're primarily an actor.

That's where you're comfortable, but you relatively recently made your directorial debut, is that right?

did, yes, I just I came across this wonderful piece called The White Chip.

It's a three man play.

And I had the three perfect actors that I've worked with over at Flat Rock Playhouse out in western North Carolina, and we played it together in two weeks and had a it's just a show that is just incredible to me.

It's about addiction, Which the White Ship.

I get it now.

Yes, yes, yes.

Yeah.

And I've had addiction in my family.

My brother passed away from alcoholism and a nephew had passed away from drug overdoses.

And, and as I read this play, I just it doesn't it doesn't teach you anything, but it just makes you aware.

And it's very powerful.

It's very, very funny.

And then it rips your heart out.

And is this role you're doing as George Burns exemplary of, as I may have mentioned in my introduction, like an interest in like, truly character driven theatrical roles, because I know you've also played God in that famous David J. Verbum play.

I wasn't playing God.

I wasn't playing okay.

The difference between God and an actor is God doesn't think he's an actor.

Oh, you sound just like David J. Verbum.

I had him on the show a few years ago.

He only agreed to do it.

If we could be God, we would put reverb on his voice.

And if I had a panel including a priest, a rabbi, and a mom so he could talk to all leaders of all the Abrahamic religions as God.

So, yeah.

And you have that in common with George Burns.

One of his final film roles was playing God.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh, God.

Yes.

Yeah, I forgot the question now, but I agree.

I think it's so wonderful the humor he brings.

I think the audience listening to this can already tell this is George Burns.

Yeah.

You know, I mean, what a what a great evening they're going to have.

You know what George Burns the most interesting to me with George, if you look at his jokes, they're not belly laughs.

They're not real big laugh out loud jokes.

It was always his delivery.

He he said more without saying anything than he did with words.

Well sad.

Well, that is about all the time we have for today's show.

But I want to thank my guest.

We've been joined by actor, director and producer Pasquale LaCorte who will star in Players Circle Theater's production of the one man comedy Say Goodnight, Gracie, which runs through July 5th.

Pasquale, thank you so much for taking the time.

Oh my pleasure.

And I'm so looking forward to being down there soon.

And we've also been speaking with Players Circle Theater Associate Artistic Director Ted Wioncek, who's also directing this production.

Ted, always a pleasure.

Thank you so much for having us.

Evening performances will start at 730.

Matinees begin at three.

For more information or to secure your tickets to this show or any of the summer offerings coming up at Players Circle Theater, visit PlayersCircleTheater.org call the box office (239) 800-3292.

And if you missed any of today's show, you can always here episodes in their entirety on our website wgcu.org Or subscribe to our podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts.

For now, thanks for listening.

I'm John Davis.

This is WGCU-FM Fort Myers 90.1 MKO Marco Island 91.7 FM NPR for Southwest Florida.