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Taking a bite out of Broadway
'Neil Berg's 100 Years of Broadway' at the BCPA
By Dan Craft
dcraft@pantagraph.com
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Who is Neil Berg? And why are several dozen shimmering alumni of Broadway musicals constantly orbiting around him, like planets around a sun?

It's very simple, actually: Neil Berg is a working composer of off-and-on Broadway shows like "The Prince and the Pauper" and the impending musical adaptations of "Grumpy Old Men" and "The Man Who Would Be King."

Neil Berg is also one of the world's biggest Broadway musical buffs, scholars and all-around cheerleaders.

Voila: "Neil Berg's 100 Years of Broadway," a nationally touring musical revue whose claim to fame is that it packs more bona fide Broadway musical alumni per stage than anything going.

And it races through a century in around two hours flat.

Berg can freely run that gauntlet because he's amassed a talent pool of around two dozen veterans, stars and singers whose resumes boast everything from "Phantom of the Opera" to "Les Miserables."

All of them, notes Berg, are seasoned star performers who seize on this opportunity as a way to productively bide their time during the down time between shows and tours.

As "100 Years" wends its way from venue to venue, he chooses a maximum of five stars from that pool for each engagement, including the one coming next weekend (7:30 p.m. Oct. 3) to the stage of the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts.

Even though the BCPA stage is a long, long way from the Great White Way, we're getting everyone from a former "Phantom" diva -- Rita Harvey, who played Christine Daee on Broadway for two years -- to two ex-Jean Valjeans from "Les Miz" -- Charles Bergell and Erick Buckley.

"It's funny," says Berg, "because there are two parallel worlds colliding here."

On one planet, Berg is the hard-working composer of Broadway shows and veteran producer of concerts who knows all the ropes when it comes to putting together a show and packing it off on its merry way.

On the other planet resides the nerdy fan-boy version of Neil Berg -- the one who emerged from the womb fully formed as an all-singing, all-dancing, all-geeky theater buff.

When these worlds collide, "100 Years of Broadway" is the result.

So even though he has major shows like "The Prince and the Pauper" to his composer credit, at heart "I'm a lover and historian who's dedicated my life to representing the history of Broadway and theater."

If you doubt that, just ask Berg how he feels about, oh, say, "Jersey Boys," and get set for an impassioned dissertation running around 10 minutes.

In the best impassioned-10-minute-dissertation sense, by the way.

Berg's producing partner, Adam Friedson, who swears to this day that "100 Years of Broadway" is one of the most entertaining things he's ever encountered on a stage, laughs a bit about the circumstances.

"Here you have this short, balding, Jewish guy, who is not particularly egocentric," begins Friedson. "And he comes out and welcomes everybody and then tells them what a pleasure it is to be here. Then he'll add, 'I've written every great Broadway show of the last 100 years,' which gets big laugh."

Ba-rump.

At that point, the ice is cracked, and an audience that doesn't know Neil Berg from Adam Friedson gets to warm up to the guy who sits down at the piano and begins to turn the ice to vapor as he starts hauling out his cast of "belters," "super tenors" and other secret weapons.

"The reason we call it 'Neil Berg's 100 Years of Broadway' is not because I wanted my name on top of the show; it was because we wanted people to understand that any time they see a Neil Berg product (there are other branded tour shows, too, including 'Neil Berg's 101 Years of Hollywood,' etc.) they understand they are getting these stars from these shows."

Because he's well-connected in the musical theater community, he gets to hold true to his credo: "I only work with people I like and who play well, as they say, with the other children."

So there are no battling egos among each of the five-star constellations assembled for each show. And no one is duking it out for marquee supremacy.

"The buck has to stop somewhere," Berg says. "And they all know that we're looking out for them as performers while trying to create the best show possible."

And, adds Berg, he knows his proper place on stage amid this starry configuration.

Hence, "I'm not one of those Broadway composers who tries to sing, too, because I know that I sing like a Broadway composer."

Instead, Berg sees his role as our tour guide through a carefully measured stroll (not breathless sprint), through a century of musical theater.

For that reason, don't come expecting to be smacked with one over-stuffed medley after another, a concept Berg abhors.

"I believe that a song was written to have a beginning, a middle and an end. So you shortchange the audience by doing snippets in a medley. That's a copout."

In lieu of going the Marvin Hamlisch route, Berg presides over the event as a casual but astute historian, putting every moment into its context without intruding on his performers' turf.

"The whole idea is to make any theater we're in, no matter how big it is, feel like I'm sitting at a piano and you're in my living room, and I'm bringing over some of my friends, who just happen to be some of the best Broadway singers in the world."



At a glance



What: Neil Berg's 100 Years of Broadway

When: 7:30 p.m. Oct. 3

Where: Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts, 110 E. Mulberry St.

Tickets: $22.90 to $34.50

Box office number: (866) 686-9541

Additional area performance: 8 p.m. Oct. 4, Sangamon University Auditorium, Springfield



5 stars, 100 years



Following are the five Broadway musical alums joining impresario Neil Berg on the stage of the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts next weekend:

1. Danny Zolli

• Broadway street cred: Played Judas in the most recent Broadway Tour (2004) of "Jesus Christ Superstar"; has starred in more roles in more productions of "Superstar" than any other performer, the never-ending Ted Neeley included.

• Neil sez: "He's a super-tenor, and he can sing in a way not too many tenors can. Beyond 'Superstar,' it gives me someone who can sing 'Jersey Boys,' and that's not normal."

2. Rita Harvey

• Broadway street cred: Played Christine Daee in "Phantom of the Opera" for two years on Broadway; also took over the role of Hodel in the Broadway revival of "Fiddler on the Roof."

• Neil sez: "With Rita, we really get to do 'Phantom' justice, and since it's the longest-running show in Broadway history, if any show should get a little extra attention, it's this one."

3. Andrea Rivette

• Broadway street cred: Starred as heroine Emma Carew opposite David Hasselhoff in the original Broadway production of "Jekyll and Hyde" (also filmed for HBO and DVD); also played Ellen in "Miss Saigon."

• Neil sez: "She's simply one the great contemporary belters." Period.

4. Charles Bergell

• Broadway street cred: Played leading man Jean Valjean in the Broadway and national touring companies of "Les Miserables."

• Neil sez: "A wonderful baritone." Neil should know, because "he also starred for me in my own 'The Prince and the Pauper.'" Enough said.

5. Erick Buckley

• Broadway street cred: Played Roger in the all-star Broadway revival of "Grease" opposite Sheena Easton, John Secada and Rex Smith; has played Marius AND Valjean in "Les Miserables."

• Neil sez: "He's recognized as one of the loveliest lyric tenors, and he is -- he soars."



Decade by decade



Since "Neil Berg's 100 Years of Broadway" is Berg's baby, it only makes sense that he should be able to play favorites. Following are his on-the-spot, off-the-cuff picks for his favorite American musicals of the past 100 years:

1900s: George M. Cohan's "Little Johnny Jones"

1910s: "Any of Irving Berlin's shows, which weren't so much musicals as song revues"

1920s: Tie, "Show Boat" ("which revolutionized theater"), "No, No Nanette"

1930s: Tie, "Pal Joey," "Girl Crazy"

1940s: ("The '40s ... ah, so many great shows ...") Tie, "Brigadoon" ("because it showed me beauty"), "Carousel"

1950s: Tie, "West Side Story," "Gypsy" ("the most perfect musical!")

1960s: ("Ah, the '60s, my personal favorite decade of musicals ...) Tie, "Fiddler on the Roof," "She Loves Me" ("even though it's not all that well known")

1970s: Tie, "Sweeny Todd" ("my all-time favorite musical, the one that changed my life"), "Ain't Misbehavin'"

1980s: Tie, "Dreamgirls," "Baby"

1990s: "One that you may not know: 'Falsettoland'"

2000s: "Jersey Boys" ("the perfect jukebox musical because it understands the importance of the storytelling")

Take a look
Broadway performers will join Broadway expert and composer Neil Berg when he comes to the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts on Friday, Oct. 3.
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