My Fillum

So, this little epic we're shooting is a period piece and the cast is positively littered with brilliant performers in roles large and small.

Diane Louise Salinger is best known as a cinema actress and will forever be remembered by devotees of PEE-WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE as Simone, the small town girl who longs to go to Paris. In fact, there is a rock band named after Pee-Wee's final line to her, "Au Revoir Simone", and Diane spends every year attending conventions packed with devoted Pee Wee fans (of which tt and I are but two). 

Terrence V. Mann is a Broadway legend having created the leading roles in BEAUTY & THE BEAST, CATS, LES MISERABLES, THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL and RAGS. He also plays Larry in the movie of A CHORUS LINE, is the baddie in the Angela Lansbury tv musical MRS. SANTA and is currently rehearsing Diane Paulus's new production of PIPPIN in which he will play Charlemagne opposite his wife Charlotte D'Amboise as Fastrada. He is doing a royal wave in the picture, not giving me the finger.

Bill Nabel was on Broadway in A CHORUS LINE (replacing Don Percassi as Al), HOME SWEET HOMER, 42nd STREET, AIN'T BROADWAY GRAND, SWEENEY TODD, THE MOST HAPPY FELLA, and in BEAUTY & THE BEAST from its first workshop to its closing thirteen years later.

It was a great thrill for me to discover Phyllis Bash in the cast. Phyllis played Bess in the Australian tour of PORGY & BESS in 1965 and I remember her performance vividly to this day. Her daughter Erica Gimpel played Coco in the tv series FAME.

 

Jan Neuberger, who was in the original cast of WICKED and a longstanding cast member of FORBIDDEN BROADWAY, helps Diane with her lines while Akeesha hovers

Still cramming, Diane tromps the moors like Charlotte Bronte

Extras mingle with crew members

Or hurry up and wait

Finally, a call to action

let's get this funeral on the road!

This man has no sense of period

 

Diane, dressed for her next scene, obliges the papparazzi

The always dignified Jan Neuberger

 Terrence in a state of collapse. Heigh Ho, the glamorous life!