Video: In Rehearsals for PAL JOEY with Ephraim Sykes, Aisha Jackson & More
May 16, 2024
In this video, watch as we meet with the cast of New York City Center's Gala presentation of Pal Joey!
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nhiều, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World
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City Center's annual Fall Gala presentation this year is a new revised version of Pal Joey
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which will run from November 1st through the 5th, and we dropped by the rehearsal room to bring you a sneak peek and to meet the company
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That's why, baby. You know, it's suggested to me by our partner, Carrie Barden
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what about Pal Joey? And I didn't really know it that well other than a few of the great songs, you know
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and maybe I'd seen the movie, but I went back to that novel, and there's a rawness to that book
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and a rawness and a dirtiness to those characters. And I thought, well, we can get back to that
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And then years later, you know, like now that our collaboration has evolved
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we also realized that we want to jazz to be the musical conduit to that
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And so that's been our kind of thing. And like what you were saying about jazz the other day
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about it being jazz is a series of mistake. What was it you said? Yeah, precisely
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know, just music. Cats were just improvising. Improvisation is just natural things. Natural things
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are maybe considered mistakes. So here we are exploring the possibilities of mistakes
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through, you know, through the form of jazz and putting it together and expression
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Yeah, and giving the both all the actors and the band permission to improvise. I mean, we have a beautiful
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script, but also there's a sense of you bring you, you know, Sabian's like choreographing
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I'm not teaching you to dance. You got to express yourself. And what is it today? Do something, right
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Yeah yeah yeah It like with this kind of material this kind of piece we trying to create creation We trying to create momentum We trying to create organic
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So this is the attempt, and we are achieving. Come. I love Joey and I feel very closely related to him because for me and him both, music is my first love
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It's his first love. It's almost driving force in life. He's just like, God, family, and music
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It's just, you know what I mean? And his quest and his ups and downs, he's so flawed
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He's so, you know what I mean? And he's run up against so much in his life that he's just trying to make his way
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But his North Star continuing to be the music and the calling and his ancestors that
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that are speaking in his body to get this sound out. Comhella High Water and not lose himself
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keep his authenticity, especially as a black man in that time. So I just very much relate to this man
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It comes from the South, you know, out of the church and has found his way through music and jazz
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And just, yeah, I'm living that way, sort of. So you're about to play Vera
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Talk about what you love about her already. She's complicated. You know, she kind of feels like the villain for a part of it
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So that's a really fun challenge as an actor to find, well, what's really motivating this person
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It's probably not evil. It's probably they need something. What is that
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So that's been fun. And then personally for me I feel like when we did the first lab of this last summer I felt like I was still crawling out of the trenches becoming a new mom So I just like had been living in that world So it really fun for me to play a woman who is you know she doesn have mom energy right
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She has, she's really in touch with her power and her sexuality
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And that's been so fun. Talk about this incredible woman you're getting ready to play and what you love about her already
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Yes, I think she's a little snarky, but she has a lot of heart
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And she's just been scarred. and she has the courage to get back up
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And so that's very inspiring to me. And just to remember, like, your gift has so much power
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And so don't sleep on that. Okay. Singing this Rogers and Heart score and the new songs
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what that means to what that's been like? I like to sing, y'all
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It's been really cool. I didn't sing a lot of jazz. Like, I would sing God bless the child growing up
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But this is allowing me to sink my teeth into some jazz
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And I'm having a lot of fun with that. It's a challenge, but a fun one. And this music, I mean, it's already, it's classic, it's iconic
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But then I get to put a little eish on it. I'm excited. I like that. Yeah
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Okay, I play Lucille, and she was a famous singer, sort of hoof her back in the day
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And she's running a club in Bronzeville. And Joey comes in and sell her a load of whatever
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And she's a smart woman, but she's not a smart woman. but she's not smart enough to handle all of the things that he has planned for the future
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And so I love the fact that she's in love with show business
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She's been in show business her entire life. And even when she was younger, there were people in her family that were in show business
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And so this is just an exciting thing because she thinks that he going to save her It a love story that comes up in the show that I think is going to be a surprise for everyone
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because there's love everywhere in Pale Joey. Well, we've been struggling with it for many years
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Then when Koa came on, what really unlocked it was bringing in spirit
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was bringing in a whole other level to the character and the story
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that Sabian then took and expressed this through dance in a way that I've never seen, I think anyone's seen before
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Yeah, absolutely. I think what unlocked it for me is really looking at the journey of a black artist
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a young black artist, and a time and a place that does not have space for him
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And what's his journey to have hope, to have belief against strong odds
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And the realization that, you know, for me, it has been spirit
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It has to be belief that there are forces of good that have our facts and that wants the best for us and that we come from
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And again, the presence of that, which we are probably the ancestor of Rios and the peace, it energizes him
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It energizes the peace. It's energized all of us as collaborators. and, you know, we're super excited about it
#Jazz & Blues
#Broadway & Musical Theater


