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04/25/2012
12/29/2011
Best Female Solo Show of 2011
Spider Saloff Makes Los Angeles Theatre Critic's Pick as Best Female Solo Show of 2011 for THE ROAR OF THE BUTTERFLY (the one-woman musical)
grigwarereviews.blogspot.com
Anyone can Vote but... Deadline is Dec 30, 2011
VOTE for Spider Saloff TODAY on BroadwayWorld Los Angeles -
Her one-woman show is nominated for Best Leading Actress in a Musical (Touring)... Go to this link and cast your vote!
http://losangeles.broadwayworld.com/vote2011region.cfm?region=LosAngeles
07/14/2011
Roar of the Butterfly Plays L.A. August 17-20
Celebration Theatre is thrilled to announce the Los Angeles premiere of THE ROAR OF THE BUTTERFLY, with book, music and lyrics by Spider Saloff. An award-winning artist, Ms. Saloff also stars in this one-woman play which is produced by Matthew Oltman of Chanticleer. This limited-run production will take place Wednesday, August 17 - Saturday, August 20, 2011 at Celebration Theatre, 7051B Santa Monica Blvd. in Hollywood.
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
Direct from the show's Australian tour, THE ROAR OF THE BUTTERFLY is a one-woman play with original music starring Spider Saloff. The book, music, and lyrics are also by Spider Saloff. Based on a true story, this musical comedy is a tour de force with characters everyone will fall in love with.
In the tradition of Lily Tomlin and Tracey Ullman, Ms. Saloff portrays eight different gender bending characters in this hysterical and moving new show. The scene of the show revolves around a memorial service for Butterfly, an Asian drag queen who has been a colorful and inspirational character in the lives of the attendees-an unlikely and diverse group, all of whom are portrayed by Ms. Saloff.
THE ROAR OF THE BUTTERFLY is a comedy with a message and contains poignant moments touching on subjects of diversity, human loss and dysfunctional relationships. This show is not suggested for children under 13 years old without an adult.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Heard world wide as the co-star and co-creator of the internationally syndicated Public Radio series Words and Music, Spider Saloff has received critical acclaim nationally and internationally. Recently, Ms. Saloff was featured with the prestigious Chicago Jazz Orchestra in a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald. And as one of the rare officially sanctioned acts of the Gershwin Centennial, her concert, Spider Saloff Sings Gershwin, toured the U.S. and headlined the St. Petersburg Gershwin Festival in Russia. Spider has played such renowned jazz and night club venues as New York's Jazz at Lincoln Center, Iridium, Joe's Pub, Birdland, The Russian Tea Room, Michael's Pub, and The Algonquin, as well as other leading venues include symphony orchestras and concert spaces such as; The Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, Wilmington Grand Opera, Wallingford Symphony, The Castro Theater in San Francisco, and Town Hall.
A five-time winner of the prestigious MAC Award, including one for Best Female Jazz Vocalist, presented by the Manhattan Association of Cabarets, she also received a special citation for her musical contributions from NARAS (presenter of the Grammy Awards). Saloff also has 8 solo CDs released nationally on Kopaesthetics Records. Television and radio credits include: The Bonnie Hunt Show (CBS), The Steve Baskerville Show (CBS), Centerstage (PBS), Artbeat (PBS), Words & Music (syndicated series), a one-hour feature on the Noteworthy Women series (Public Radio), and Studs Terkel (WFMT).
WHAT THE CRITICS SAY ABOUT Spider Saloff:
"She is dynamic, a powerhouse of passion!"
-San Francisco Examiner
"A wicked way with a lyric and a glint of well-controlled mischief."
-The New York Times
"Slyly sophisticated, easily accessible, Saloff stands as a kind of ideal."
-Chicago Tribune
ABOUT THE SCHEDULE AND PRICING
Performances are:
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 17, 2011
THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 2011
FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2011
SATURDAY, AUGUST 20, 2011
All performances are 8:00PM.
Ticket prices are $35.00 for Wednesday, Friday and Saturday performances.
Tickets price is $30.00 for Thursday performance.
This show is not suggested for children under 13 years old without an adult.
THE ROAR OF THE BUTTERFLY is performed at Celebration Theatre, 7051B Santa Monica Blvd. in Hollywood. For Tickets, please visit the Celebration Theatre website at www.celebrationtheatre.com or call 323-957-1884.
ABOUT Celebration Theatre
Starting its 29th season, Celebration Theatre is a community of artists dedicated to presenting innovative, provocative and relevant work that examines the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer experience. We endeavor to challenge society's perception of this community and give a vibrant voIce To its evolving identity.
The theatre is located at 7051B Santa Monica Blvd. (1/2 block east of La Brea Blvd.) in Hollywood. For more information, please visit www.celebrationtheatre.com.
05/26/2011
'Spider Saloff prepares for her next big move'
The Butterfly with Roar in Melbourne, Australia & Los Angeles, CA This Summer!
Here is an article published by The Chicago Tribune
Howard Reich, Arts critic - May 26, 2011
When the accomplished Chicago jazz singer Spider Saloff takes the stage at Katerina's on Saturday night, she'll be bidding the city farewell — but just for awhile. "It's really a bon voyage party," says Saloff, who soon will be spending a month in Melbourne, Australia, where she'll unveil her long-in-gestation one-woman show, "The Roar of the Butterfly."
Though Saloff had done previews of the piece last fall at the Wilmette Theatre, when she called the evening "Entertaining Guests," she regards the Melbourne premiere as the official launch of a show that marks a major change of direction in her art.
Or at least a dramatic expansion of it. For though Saloff has devoted her career — until now — to interpreting what's often termed the Great American Songbook, "The Roar of the Butterfly" is built around nine songs she wrote. Moreover, Saloff also penned the book, in which she plays fully eight characters.
"It's based around a (fictional) memorial service for an Asian drag queen named Butterfly," explains Saloff. "But the people attending the memorial all know him from completely different walks of life. It's about how one person's life changes so many others."
This may sound like a far stretch from Saloff's life as a veteran Chicago jazz singer, but the piece — from which she'll sing some excerpts at Katerina's — carries more than a little autobiography. For inasmuch as "Butterfly" examines the after-effects of a life that has ended, it gives Saloff an opportunity to address the sudden, unexpected death of her husband two years ago, of a heart attack.
"In this play, I talk about human loss, and I was able to express the loss of my husband — but through the eyes of someone else," says Saloff, who had been married to Bob Drake for nearly 19 years. "There's a song (in the show) about loss that I'm very happy with. It's called 'Deep Inside the Rain.' "
The beautifully crafted ballad shows Saloff grappling with the pain of losing someone, but also trying to transcend it, through music.
When Saloff began creating her one-woman show, in 2001, she of course had no idea she eventually would be dealing with such heady issues. Back then, the conception of the piece was much more explicitly about her life as a jazz singer and, more important, it was built on well-known songs she had performed for years
Eventually, she put the piece away, only to come back to it in 2008, at that point deciding that she wanted to write her own songs (two of them were penned in collaboration with other musicians). Moreover, she wanted to remove herself as a character in the drama. Ironically, the story she invented better enabled her to probe her emotional inner life, she says, through the guise of characters she has created.
Saloff expects the show to play in Los Angeles late this summer, with a hoped-for run in Chicago in the fall. Until then, Chicago listeners will be hearing her in club and concert settings, such as this weekend's Katerina's date.
How's life on the jazz circuit for Saloff, who moved here from New York with her husband in 1993 and never looked back? "I'm doing fantastic," she says, though getting past the recent second anniversary of her husband's death was challenging.
Apart from that, "I love everything about my life. Yes, I wish I had more money, but who doesn't? "Everybody wishes the jazz business was more lucrative than it is. But that's why I have felt compelled to use my talent in other ways." As in "The Roar of the Butterfly," which later this year should give us a deeper look in to Saloff's art and life.
05/16/2011
"A wicked way with a lyric and a glint of well-controlled mischief." – The New York Times
"Slyly sophisticated, easily accessible, Saloff stands as a kind of ideal." – Chicago Tribune
"Spider Saloff is a gifted and polished song stylist. A most enjoyable musical outing!" – NY Observer
SPIDER SALOFF BIO
Spider Saloff has performed in such nationally recognized venues as New York's Jazz at Lincoln Center, Birdland, Chicago’s Green Mill, San Francisco's Castro Theater, Yoshi's and the Jazz Heritage Center. As one of the rare officially sanctioned acts of the Gershwin Centennial, her Gershwin concert, The Memory of All That, continues to tour the globe including Russia where she headlined the St. Petersburg Gershwin Festival. In addition to her famed Gerhswin concert, Ms. Saloff also tours with own one-woman show entitled The Roar of the Butterfly, which performed in Melbourne and Tazmania, down-under to sold-out crowds, and then on to a successful run in Los Angeles and will open for a limited run in Chicago Spring 2012. Spider Saloff will also tour again with acclaimed biographer, James Gavin, in a show about Chet Baker, called Deep In a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker, which will tour the Midwest fall and winter of 2012/2013.
As a guest artist Ms Saloff has performed at The Smithsonian Institution, Denver Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Jazz Orchestra the Willingford Symphony and at the Wilmington Grand Opera.
Ms. Saloff received a special citation for her musical contributions from the presenter of the Grammy Awards and also is A five-time MAC Award Winner, including one for Best Female Jazz Vocalst.
Discography includes 1938; Sextet; The Memory of All That; Cool Yule; A New Set of Standards; and Like Glass. Her Christmas CD entitled Cool Yule was a finalist for the Indie Awards. Her latest recording, Cole Porter Live at Maxim's, was released in 2008. Spider Saloff and the shows mentioned above are exclusively represented by KMP Artists. More on Spider can be found through kmpartists.com.
MP3 File of a song written and performed by SPIDER SALOFF:
Youbetterwatchyourselfwiththatone
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Exclusive Booking Contact for Ms. Saloff 310.734/7079 Los Angeles |
05/15/2011
03/28/2011
The celebrity next door: Famous neighbors mean bragging rights, extra security
This Week's Crain's > Business of Life >
From this week's Business of Life
By: Shia Kapos March 28, 2011
When Tom Pauly's neighbor practiced an important speech in their shared backyard, Mr. Pauly listened and offered a suggestion or two.
He was thrilled when the neighbor—then-Congressman Rahm Emanuel—included the edits in the speech, which he delivered at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.
Mr. Pauly, 51, doesn't expect to have such easy access to Mayor Emanuel when he reclaims his home on Hermitage Avenue in mid-June. (In case you missed it, he's been renting it out.) But he does like the idea of having the Emanuel family back on the block, notable for Victorian homes with expansive porches and decks. “Friends are more amazed than we are that the mayor is going to live next door,” says Mr. Pauly, an equestrian painter.
Broadcaster Phil Ponce and his portrait-painter wife, Ann Ponce, live a few doors down. (On the day of the big snowstorm last month, the Ponces invited a few neighbors over for a potluck dinner.) Illinois Supreme Court Justice Mary Jane Theis and her husband, defense attorney John Theis (he represented mob hit man Nicholas Calabrese), also live on the block. So do jazz singer Spider Saloff and Chicago Symphony Orchestra musician Bill Buchman (he usually opens his home to the annual neighborhood holiday party).
“I remember another big snowstorm when Phil Ponce, Bill Buchman, Rahm and I were shoveling snow on our street,” Mr. Pauly says. “We're a close-knit neighborhood. A lot of us have lived here a long time. We knew Rahm before he was mayor or chief of staff. I don't see it as being much of a difference.”
Still, he does think “it will be kind of cool” to see a regular security presence.
Though Chicago doesn't have many full-time residents tailed by paparazzi—except, perhaps, when they're under indictment—some neighbors of famous folks relish their brushes with celebrity. A resident with a notable name brings a certain cachet, too—as long as it's not Mr. T trying to clear-cut trees. Bold-faced names and publicity can bolster a neighborhood's identity as a desirable place to live.
As for living right next door, luxury real estate broker Nancy Nugent says, buyers seem split on whether famous neighbors are a good thing. “People wonder, ‘How is it going to impact my life? Does it mean my right to quiet and enjoyment—the real term is living peacefully—will be impacted?' “ she says.
Stars in sports and entertainment draw special notice.
Tom Pauly's neighbors include Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel and broadcaster Phil Ponce. "We're a close-knit neighborhood," he says.
Photo by: John R. Boehm
Smashing Pumpkins rocker Billy Corgan paid $6.8 million in 2003 for his Highland Park home. Actress Joan Cusack paid $5.3 million in 2007 for a 125-year-old mansion in the Gold Coast (her brother, actor John Cusack, owns a condo in the area, too). Coincidentally, both Ms. Cusack and Mr. Corgan lived at different times on Greenview Avenue on the city's North Side, where neighbors enjoyed having celebrities next door but grumbled about gawkers. The griping is louder with athletes, agents say.
“Young ballplayers are known to have parties. When neighbors see a newly signed athlete move in, they worry about security and noise,” says Melinda Jakovich, a luxury residential consultant at Coldwell Banker.
Some buy homes nearby for their moms, too. Ms. Jakovich notes their entourage while looking at homes. “If they've got 16 people and an agent and girlfriends at a showing, you can tell they'll probably be an issue,” she says. “Athletes are like everyone else. If they're young, they're likely to have parties. But most live their lives quietly.”
That seems to be the case for those who move to places like Glencoe, an enclave for athletes (the Bulls' Kyle Korver), entertainers (actor and director Harold Ramis) and business executives (Groupon Inc.'s Brad Keywell).
HEY, THAT'S . . .
At Chicago's Trump Tower, Blackhawks star Patrick Kane is a resident, and the hotel expands the celebrity presence. “It's exciting. When you find out celebrities are open and nice, it's a feel-good thing,” says resident Tim Christen, 52.
Mr. Christen, CEO of Chicago-based accounting firm Baker Tilly Virchow Krause LLP, has run into Cubs legend Ernie Banks in the elevator (“He's the nicest guy!”) and seen Donald Trump and members of the hip-hop group Black Eyed Peas (“There were cameras everywhere!”) when they've stayed in the hotel.
Mr. Christen recently moved from a single-family brownstone and says the touch of glamour is just what he'd hoped for in moving to the city. “You expect that in a building like Trump,” he says.
Not every big name in town wants to be so noticeable.
Oprah Winfrey is seldom seen near her Water Tower Place condo. A few years ago, she purchased an apartment in 199 E. Lake Shore Drive but decided the building lacked the level of security she wanted, a resident says. Camille Grejczyk lives near chef Charlie Trotter, who classes up the block party.
Actor Vince Vaughn is reserved but friendly when neighbors run into him in the Palmolive Building—he purchased his penthouse for $12 million. But at the Palmolive, celebrity is relative. It's home to former Cubs Manager Lou Piniella and corporate stars Louis Gries, CEO of Washington, D.C.-based James Hardie Industries (manufacturing); Jeffrey Sprecher, CEO of Atlanta-based IntercontinentalExchange Inc., and Lauren Ukman, CEO of Chicago event-sponsorship company IEG LLC.
Peter Bynoe says he and his Palmolive neighbors make a point not to invade each other's privacy.
“I'm cordial to everyone I meet, and I give people space because I want space,” says Mr. Bynoe, 60, partner of Loop Capital Markets LLC and a former owner of the Denver Nuggets.
Still, Mr. Bynoe acknowledges a little excitement in spotting Mr. Vaughn. “I've seen him in the hallway, in the garage, on the street. He's always very friendly. My wife is a little irritated because she still hasn't had the pleasure.”
In Lincoln Park, chef Charlie Trotter adds a bit of class to the summertime block party. “He brings a staff and sets up tables with tablecloths and flowers and cooks for hours. He's served crepes, shish kabobs with gourmet meats. It's just amazing,” says Camille Grejczyk, 63.Come Halloween, “everyone knows if you go to Trotter's house, you get regular-size candy bars,” she adds.
Out walking his dogs, Mr. Trotter isn't one to stop and chat, Ms. Grejczyk says, and “that may be because of his line of work” (meaning that he's a busy guy).
“It's fun to talk about when people visit,” she says. “It's fun to say, ‘Charlie Trotter lives there.' “
A REGULAR GUY
Neighbors of Ryan Dempster marvel that he is a regular guy, along with being a star pitcher for the Cubs.
“He's a nice guy,” says a former, starstruck neighbor who recalls Mr. Dempster seeming to appreciate that he didn't bring up baseball in chance encounters in the neighborhood or taking out the trash. “Can you believe that?” he says. “A guy like that—taking out the garbage!”
' I've seen (Vince Vaughn) in the hallway, in the garage, on the street. He's always very friendly. My wife is a little irritated because she still hasn't had the pleasure.'
— Executive Peter Bynoe,
on life in the Palmolive Building
The Lincoln Park neighbors of Penny Pritzker, who hosts President Barack Obama and other Democratic dignitaries for large fundraising parties, bristle at the inconvenience of having traffic diverted in front of their $2-million to $3-million homes for such events but also brag about having the president hanging out nearby.
They might think differently if they had the president's security detail on hand 24-7. Jacky Grimshaw, who until recently was the president's Hyde Park neighbor—she and her husband moved because they needed a place without stairs—says living next to Mr. Obama's home had its downside.
“The challenge was getting people to my house,” says Ms. Grimshaw, vice-president of policy at Center for Neighborhood Technology, a Chicago-based think tank. When her mom and daughter stopped by every Sunday to pick up Ms. Grimshaw for church, they couldn't get through the gate unless she had called ahead of time. “People couldn't just stop by on a whim.”
It wasn't all inconvenience. “I never locked my car door or house the whole time they were there,” she says. “I didn't feel at all stressed about coming home late. And they looked after my cat, who likes to wander around outside because she thinks she's a dog.”
Being a neighbor to the president made it easy to get publicity when it came time to sell their home, too.
THE MEDIA'S WATCHING
Neighbors of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich say it was the media—not any security detail—that was most bothersome to them.
Tom Leo, 73, recalls pretending not to speak English when leaving his home during the drama surrounding Mr. Blagojevich's corruption trial. “They would yell out a question, and I would say something in Italian,” he remembers. (The tactic worked.)
Then there was the issue with the shredder.
Mr. Leo and his wife, Mary Leo, 69, were family counselors with an office in their Ravenswood Manor home. They regularly hired a document-shredding firm to eliminate files older than seven years.
“On one of those days, when there was a lot going on with the trial, the media crew saw the shredding company come in,” says Ms. Leo, who shares a sidewalk with the Blagojeviches near the back of her home. “Reporters rushed up and yelled, ‘He's shredding documents!' “ she recalls.
As for the Blagojeviches, “they're our neighbors. We wanted to treat them the same way we'd treat any neighbor,” Ms. Leo says. “I think we've succeeded in that. They're friendly and they say hello, and we do, too. It must be hard to always be in the spotlight.”
© 2011 by Crain Communications Inc.
Read more: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20110326/ISSUE03/303269987/the-celebrity-next-door-famous-neighbors-mean-bragging-rights-extra-security#ixzz1HuNobfVU
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03/09/2011
Recent Reviews! Raves from Cabaret Scenes Magazine & Chicago Jazz Magazine
Ricky Ritzel & Spider Saloff
Don't Tell Mama
New York, NY
It was S.R.O. at Don't Tell Mama on December 20 — that stands for both Standing Room Only and the Saloff/Ritzel Outrageousness, also spelled LOL. It was the reunion of two who've been longtime friends and musical partners, through shtick and through thin. Reprising some of their sly and daffy routines from yore, newer bits, plus jazzy takes on Christmas songs and the score of Porgy and Bess, it was a pre-holiday feast for fans. The season to be jolly brought many laughs, beginning with their ludicrously languid version of "This Joint Is Jumpin'" with (temporarily) straight-faced pianist-singer Ricky at a pace a snail could beat wherein Spider simply falls aleep. Zzzzzzz. Contrastingly, energy could be wonderfully frantic later. Donning costumes to play nutty characters—like a turban-wearing lady of big ego and very questionable pitch—Spider gamely and glibly played things broadly, bringing broad grins from the crowd. Guest "Babe" Robinson also came on as a wacky woman looking more like a human Christmas tree. Just as silly in his own way, Ritzel did a dramatic reading — Dr. Seuss's Grinch!! The audience also ate up his bit where the chipper, twinkling-eyed entertainer pluckily plunks out "You Can't Have Everything" and self-interrupts to burst into wonderfully corny jokes, like the one about cannibals eating a clown, asking "Does this taste funny to you?" It all tasted plenty funny. And, all kidding aside, Spider was in splendid voice for the serious ballad "You Go to My Head." Denise Andersen on lights and sound made it all look and sound like an old vaudeville show. And the friendship felt onstage and among returning fans and cabaret regulars in the audience was evident. Marvelous stuff! Maybe you CAN have everything.
Rob Lester
Cabaret Scenes
---ALSO---
Chicago Jazz Magazine And Along Came Spider Saloff By Randy Freedman And Along Came Spider Saloff By Randy Freedman Date Posted: March 08 2011
Written By: Randy Freedman
Chicago resident Spider Saloff has a well-deserved reputation as one of Chicago’s most talented and versatile entertainers. Any of her career accomplishments as jazz singer, actress, cabaret performer, composer, radio host, or recording artist would be impressive individually, and together form an extraordinary resume. With the highest of expectations, I braved the freezing single-digit January outside temperature to hear Saloff, accompanied by veteran Chicago pianist Tom Muellner, give a Saturday night jazz performance at Katerina’s Supper Club. Nationally and internationally known, Saloff has won five MAC awards from the Manhattan Association of Cabarets, which included one for Best Female Jazz Vocalist. She has headlined the St. Petersburg Gershwin Festival in Russia with her concert “Spider Saloff Sings Gershwin,” and has appeared at prestigious national venues like New York’s Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Russian Tea Room, in addition to San Francisco’s Plush Room, Chicago’s Green Mill, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, and recently M Bar in Los Angeles, with Grammy-winning pianist, Bill Cunliffe.
Saoff has received a special citation for her musical contributions from NARAS, The National Academy of Recording Arts and Science (presenter of the Grammy Awards). Jazz fans and musicians love to endlessly speculate and discuss who is really a “jazz singer” and who is not. Not once however, have I ever heard a clear cut, and practical definition given during any of these discussions. The words improvisation, scat, and interpretation are often bandied about as defining terms, but seldom with same meaning or intent twice. Even when these terms are clarified, if only for the purpose of a particular discussion, there is often no objective agreement as to how “jazzy” a particular singer performance is in those three categories. Someone as versatile as Saloff is almost assured to be included as a subject for these discussions, but Spider prefers to be known first and foremost as a “jazz singer,” which is exactly how I think of her. Saloff and Muellner began their Saturday night performance at Katerina’s, as well as the musical highlights of the evening with a rendition of “Day In, Day Out,” that featured Saloff’s audience capturing exuberance punctuated with a thought provoking Muller piano solo. Other highlights included “The Very Thought Of You,” a mood lightening “‘Deed I Do” and “Honeysuckle Rose” (which began slowly and methodically, then progressed into a lively fast dance hall-style performed perfectly by Muellner).
These three songs all offered a showcase for Saloff to show her ability to scat.n”Makin’ Whoopee” was clearly sung by Saloff to draw laughs from the audience, and she got them in bunches. Saloff varied her phrasing from soft and romantic on “Prelude To A Kiss” all the way to sexy and sultry on “Caravan.” In addition to her clever manipulation of voice and phrase common to the best jazz singers, Saloff adds body language, facial expression, hand gestures and a provocative verbal jazz narrative delivered as much for humor as for historical perspective. This is probably why some snooty self-styled “jazz purists” might like to affix Saloff with a “cabaret-only” label, but the basic uncomplicated high quality of her vocal performance keeps it from sticking and leaves Saloff regarded by many critics, including this one, as one of the most outright enjoyable female jazz vocalists working today.
Spider's performance proves that the phrases ‘jazz singer” and “consummate entertainer” are not mutually exclusive. For more information contact: spiderjazz.com or katerinas.com.
Chicago freelance writer Randy Freedman is a jazz connoisseur, photographer, food critic, humorist, and devoted music fan. He is a regular contributor to Chicago Jazz Magazine. Don't miss anymore Chicago Jazz Information. Subscribe to Chicago Jazz magazine / Get A Free CD.
