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THE LEADING MEN: Angel of Music
By Wayman Wong
02 Aug 2004
GREAT SCOTT : WHAT A SINGER!
Scott Coulter has such a sweet, sky-high tenor that Broadway and cabaret composers love to sing his praises. Stephen Schwartz raves, "It’s not just Scott’s amazing vocal instrument, but how he uses it to paint vivid pictures and evoke complex emotions." Tim DiPasqua adds: "Scott brings a great sense of humor and joy to everything he sings." And Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich concur that "Scott’s one of the world’s most gifted tenors; he’s spoiled us and even gives fantastic back rubs."
Coulter is opening Cinema Toast, a salute to magnificent movie songs, and his first solo show in four years. Backed by the marvelous musical director Michael Holland, he plays Aug. 2, 9, 16, 23 and 30 at 7 PM at The Duplex. Many of the Tinseltown tunes, such as "Footloose," "It Might Be You," "Let the River Run" and "Nine to Five," send Coulter’s mind reeling back to his youth in the 1980s in Tennessee. There, he grew up obsessed with "Smokey and the Bandit," "The Color Purple" and "Grease" ("I’ve seen it over 30 times and can recite it backwards and forwards").
Though he loves Wynonna Judd and Trisha Yearwood and grew up around Nashville, it’s surprising that Coulter didn’t become a country singer. He says, "I often kick myself in the butt and wonder why I didn’t stay at home, but I wanted to come to New York because the movies made it look so glamorous." Always a Broadway buff, the 5-foot-11 tenor says his favorite theatre score was, and is, Stephen Schwartz’s The Baker’s Wife. Coulter has since toured in concerts with Schwartz, singing his "Chansons," and recorded four of his songs on his own award-winning CD.
In Cinema Toast, he sings "Colors of the Wind" (from "Pocahontas") and says Schwartz’s work always moves him: "His melodies are soaring, and his lyrics are poetry. I also identified with his main characters, who have always been misfits: Jesus in Godspell; Pippin, who’s looking for his own "corner of the sky"; Quasimodo in Hunchback. Growing up in the South as a kid who loved the movies and showtunes, I felt like a misfit, too. I always knew I was gay. My favorite movie was ‘The Sound of Music.’ Anyway, Stephen’s music always spoke to me about that dream that somewhere ‘Out There’ there’s a place for people like me."
Coulter attended the University of Cincinnati’s Conservatory of Music, toured in Forever Plaid and appeared in the world premiere of Floyd Collins. And though his dream part would be Jean Valjean in Les Misérables, he says, "It’s very tough for me to find theatre jobs because my voice isn’t low enough to sing most tenor roles." Luckily, he found a place for his soulful voice in the clubs, where he’s championed brilliant new tunes by Heisler and Goldrich and DiPasqua, and won four MAC Awards ("You’re really able to touch people in cabaret"). More recently, he’s received raves at the "Broadway by the Year" concerts at Town Hall.
Besides singing, Coulter, 34, enjoys reading John Irving novels, watching "Celebrity Poker" on TV and spending time with Dave, a mortgage broker and his partner of ten years. Asked if they’re getting wed, he says, "I think about it all the time. I joke that Dave is going to have to vote for Bush just so he doesn’t have to marry me!"
For more information, visit www.scottcoulter.com.cnchost.com.
WHERE THE GUYS ARE
There’s so much to see in New York: Savion Glover has tons of talent on tap, and he brings his fancy footwork on Aug. 4 at 9 PM to Opia, one of the city’s classiest new rooms, 130 E. 57th St. (212-688-3939). Also headlining there: Michael Arden, the boyish star of Bare and a sensational songwriter, on Aug. 15 at 9 PM. Maybe the talented Mr. Arden will premiere a piece from his new musical project, Ripley. . . . Top pop tenor David Gurland covers terrific tunes from Billy Joel’s Grammy-winning album "52nd Street" on Aug. 9 and 10 at 9:30 PM at Mama Rose’s, 219 Second Ave. (212-533-0558). . . . Gavin Creel and Laura Benanti strut their stuff "Front & Center" as stellar singers and songwriters, directed by Jamie McGonnigal, on Aug. 9 at 7 and 9:30 PM at Joe’s Pub, 425 Lafayette St. (212-239-6200). (P.S. Another Tony nominee is playing the Pub on Labor Day weekend: John Tartaglia will debut his latest show, directed by Alan Muraoka, on Sept. 5 and 6 at 7 PM.)
Remember Matt Cavenaugh, the honkytonk hunk of Urban Cowboy? He’s starring in Larry Lee and Ben Silliman’s Jonestown: The Musical Aug. 20-28 at Pace University, 3 Spruce St. (212-279-4488). He’ll play Samuel Foreman, the righthand man to the cult leader Jim Jones (J. Mark McVey). Cavenaugh also can be seen as Mark, a gay college student who came out to Marcie (Kathy Brier), on ABC’s "One Life to Live." He says, "Mark’s quiet, but once I come out, I come out swinging." Asked if he had any reservations about playing the only gay guy currently on daytime drama, the straight actor quips, "I come from the world of musical theatre. How could I have any reservations?" Next, it looks like Cavenaugh, 26, is set to play the young heartthrob in the new David Zippel musical Princesses this fall at Goodspeed. As for Urban Cowboy, Cavenaugh is proud to have earned his spurs (and this column’s "Leading Men" award): "I had a lotta fun, and it was a great cast. We worked our asses off. And even with all the troubles we had, I’d saddle up again and do it in a heartbeat!"
Got comments or questions? E-mail me at waymanwong@hotmail.com.
Until next month, let’s hear it for the "boys"!
Wayman Wong edits entertainment for The New York Daily News. He has been a movie and theatre critic for The San Francisco Examiner, a writer for The Sondheim Review and a Drama-Logue Award-winning playwright.
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Barrett Foa (left) and Scott Coulter
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| photo by Ben Strothmann |
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