BY DAVE BENJAMIN
Staff Writer
PHOTOSBY DAVE BENJAMIN Jay and Cindy Gutterman explain how, as producers, they help to bring creative works to life. Performing arts students at Howell and Manalapan high schools recently received a firsthand glimpse of how a Broadway show is created.
Direct from the Broadway show “Brooklyn, The Musical,” producers Jay and Cindy Gutterman and book, music and lyric writers Mark Schoenfeld and Barri McPherson visited with students from the two schools’ performing arts programs.
“It starts off with an idea,” Jay Gutterman said. “In this case it took 15 years to get to Broadway. That’s about how old you are. It’s your lifetime that it took them to get to 45th Street and Broadway” to the Plymouth Theater.
Mark Schoenfeld and Barri McPherson explain how the book, music and lyrics for “Brooklyn, The Musical” were created. Gutterman said once someone gets a play to Broadway, he or she wants to stay there. And raising money, which is the job of the producer, is the key.
“There are a lot of people to be paid and a lot of bills,” said Gutterman, who explained that producing is the business side of theater that keeps the show going.
Barri McPherson answers questions about the Broadway show “Brooklyn, The Musical” from Howell High School students (l-r) Jared Isaacson, Samantha Coppolino, Christopher Smith and Christie Dabreau. “When I was a little kid there was one producer per show, and as shows have escalated in price, there is virtually a committee of producers,” said Gutterman. “Cindy and I are two of the six or seven producers for this show.”
Gutterman told the students that each producer has the responsibility to either personally put in or raise $1 million, which is their share of the costs.
“Through (daughter) Sam, we wound up meeting the players,” said Gutterman. “We loved the music. We loved the production and did what we had to do to raise our share of the money.”
A producer is someone who is street smart and has the ability to convince people to believe in him, so much so that they are willing to put their money into a project, Gutterman said.
Schoenfeld took his turn in front of the students and told them he was born in the Red Hook project in Brooklyn, N.Y., and was raised in the Bronx, N.Y., where he was influenced by black culture and black music, although he is white and Jewish.
“My parents couldn’t get me into a synagogue because there was too much talent and joy coming out of those churches,” he said. “That music highly influenced my life.”
Schoenfeld said he was insulated in a world of soul music, Motown and funk. In 1982 he saw a young singer, who turned out to be McPherson, in a nightclub and he asked her to come to his studio to sing some of his songs. She did.
Joining the conversation, McPherson said, “We spent eight or nine hours together in what was supposed to be a two-hour session. We really had a creative connection. We both had dreams for the future, but for some reason after that day, I never heard from Mark again.”
During the next 10 years McPherson continued to write and sing. She also fell in love, got married and had two children.
Meanwhile, Schoenfeld met a woman, had children, was married and then divorced. He raised the children himself and could not fulfill his dreams of a musical career in show business. He took menial jobs and eventually wound up living on charity. After five years he became homeless.
“Strangers would give me money, their second-hand cars and furniture, or let me sleep on their couches when I was kicked out of my apartment,” he said.
McPherson recalled, “I happened to be doing a party with a friend in Brooklyn. On our way to the gig, in the promenade, there was all kinds of commotion, a boom box playing, music and a crowd gathered around. As I got closer I found, to my amazement, it was Mark.”
She found Schoenfeld doing a street performance. The people watching it were loving it, she said.
“A sadness came over me because I realized that something had gone wrong,” McPherson said. “He had become homeless and was out on the streets for three months at that time.”
Schoenfeld came home with McPherson, stayed with her family and together they began writing the story and music for “Brooklyn.”
They went to Hollywood and sold the movie to Orion Pictures, which went bankrupt a month later. The script passed to Disney, which made changes in the screenplay. Eventually, the authors took the play and returned to New York, where they were introduced to Jeff Calhoun, who had directed “Annie Get Your Gun,” “Grease,” “Bells Are Ringing” and “Big River.”
“We knew he was the guy,” said McPherson. “Then we opened on Broadway, but it was a tough road.”
“Brooklyn” is not about the lives of the two authors, but similar things, McPherson said.
“Everything you write is almost autobiographical, because you can only write about what you know. ‘Brooklyn’ is about five homeless street performers who know in their hearts what they were destined for, but have no way in. They know they’re talented and know this is what they want in their lives,” she said. “Every night, under the Brooklyn Bridge, they put on their own Broadway show. [Before them is] an open guitar case and all they say is, ‘Give only what you can.’ ”
During her remarks, McPherson gave students some advice.
“We didn’t take no for an answer,” she said. “You have to believe in yourself. Whatever you feel you have. Whatever you feel you are. If you don’t believe it, why should anyone else? You want to audition as much as you can. Get the art of auditioning under your belt, even if you’re auditioning for a part you know you’re not going to get or you don’t even want. When it comes time for the part you really want, you don’t want to walk in looking nervous. You want to be confident. Go in there and impress somebody so they remember you. They may have other things they’re doing.”
The producers and writers responded to questions from students about casting agents, auditions, résumés, open calls and the writing of their next adventure, “Brooklyn, The Movie.”
“People don’t know how important drama is to growing teenagers,” said Cindy Gutterman. “It helps them to work together as a team. There’s camaraderie. It shows them how to create something together and it’s very important for later in life.”
“If you have a dream,” McPherson said, “go to school and college and learn all you can. Go for it now when you’re young. Don’t wait. Be serious about it and do it.”
The Guttermans are former residents of Manalapan whose children attended Manalapan High School. They told the students it was their pleasure to return and offer a glimpse of the Broadway creative process. They praised the drama department at Manalapan and the performing arts center at Howell.