Everyone was happy and excited for Bailey Hanks, winner of MTV’s Legally Blonde reality competition. She beat out the other legal blondes and landed her leading role, which she premiered last Wednesday. The other contestants went home, heads hung low, bitter and defeated, right?

Well, not so much.

Surprise! You’ve Got Contracts!

As it turned out, the producers had jobs in mind for all four of the top contestants in the show.

• Rhiannon Hansen will play Margot, Elle’s best friend, in the touring company of Legally Blonde
• Autumn Hurlbert will join the Broadway cast as Elle’s understudy
• Lauren Zakrin will not only join the touring company in the ensemble but also act as a second understudy for the Broadway show.

So all four top contestants won contracts, and all four seem to be pretty happy about it. “I couldn’t be at a better place; this is better for me now and this is where I’m supposed to be,” Rhiannon told the Deseret News.

I think this is a piece of brilliance on the part of the producers, and could change the way people get cast in these shows. They came out of this with (I’m presuming) a profit from the MTV show, four solid leads for their main star, and everybody’s happy.

Could this be the end of the Cattle Call?

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Image details: Cast Members From "Rent" Perform At Broadway For Life served by picapp.com

The question becomes, then, why does it have such appeal outside New York? If it’s too unrealistic to people who live there now, what is it that makes it appeal so much to people like my daughters (who in fact introduced me to the songs and story, and who have seen it on Broadway)?

I suppose part of it, at least, is that it’s not an original story – the theme was borrowed directly from La Boheme, and that’s not to impugn the immense talent of Jonathan Larson at all. As Robinson notes in his article, RENT captures the flavor and spirit of New York in a way that makes it, now that the wheel of time has moved on, almost a historical narrative, as accurate as any text by Herodotus. As a cultural memento of the way a microcosm of culture reacted to crisis…it is a monument as well as a work of art.

So I bid it farewell as it leaves Broadway, knowing that while I’ll never see it there, my children have, and so we, too, are a part of that cultural icon.

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I wasn’t able to swing a ticket during my recent trip to NYC, so imagine my crestfallen look when I read that I’m partly to blame for the show closing on July 20th. However, Spike Lee to the rescue! He’s going to be filming the July 19th showing, with an eye towards working it into a larger film project later.

Image details: 2008 Summer TCA Tour – Day 3 served by picapp.com

This bodes well for the future, as people like me can experience it – who knows, maybe Stew will take it on the road? Or perhaps it will simply open the doors to future endeavours. Either way, it’s a nice way for the screen to help the stage and preserve the art for the future.

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© 2008 Michael J. Wallach – Used by Permission of the Author

It used to be simple. You met an agency that you liked and you were presented with an agency contract that you could comfortably sign.  But, it doesn’t work like that anymore. What do I mean by that?  In the old days (not more than approximately five years ago) there was basically just one contract that an actor was given to sign. You were presented with a SAG Franchised Theatrical Motion Pictures and Television Contract. No problem. Signing it was easy because there were safeguards built into the agreement which guarded the actor from giving away important rights. But, it’s not quite like that anymore. Approximately 50++% of all talent agencies are no longer SAG franchised. In fact, as a personal manager of twenty years, I was comfortable allowing my client to sign such a SAG franchised contract without scrutinizing it because I knew that SAG had guidelines built into the contract that would protect my client.

What’s changed?  Most agencies are no longer franchised by the Guild and therefore are not bound to sign a potential client to a SAG Franchised Theatrical Motion Pictures and Television contract. So, what kind of contract does a non-franchised talent agent sign an actor to these days?  The answer is an agreement called a General Services Agreement. Is there a difference in the two contracts?  Absolutely.

Let’s talk about the basic differences. These differences can change your entire relationship with your agency. For example, it can keep you stuck in an agreement that you have learned was a mistake to enter into in the first place.  It can cost you more than ten percent…

So, before being specific about the different agency agreements, let me say that in spite of the agreement you sign, you can still turn a General Services Agreement into a positive move for your career!  (I’ll explain later in the article.)

OK, let’s examine the safeguards that a SAG agreement afforded you. First off, SAG didn’t allow an actor to sign an initial agency contract for more than one year.  This meant, of course, that the agreement’s term was relatively short and an actor knew that if it didn’t work out, after the year was up, he or she could move on to another agency.
But, with a General Services Agreement, an agency can sign you for up to seven years. (Yes, seven years because the state of California controls a general contract and the state rule is that a personal services agreement is enforceable for up to seven years.  It’s the same as signing a personal services contract to perform as a series regular on a series where the producer/network can sign you for up to seven years!)

What else does a SAG franchised agreement protect you with? It protects your right to get out of the agency contract if it’s not working and you’re not satisfied.  Specifically, you can get out of the agreement if you haven’t worked 15 days in the first 151 days.  How is this different than with a General Services Agreement?  Since such an agreement is only regulated by state law, you can only get out if you haven’t worked one day in the last four months!

Another important distinction between the two contracts that you may be presented with involves the type of representation that the agency will have over you. Simply put, when you sign a SAG franchised agreement, the only kind of representation is for theatrical motion pictures and television (and sometimes commercials). However, if you sign a General Services Agreement, you will likely be represented as not only an actor but also as a director, producer, writer, choreographer, and many more capacities!  So, you will not only be paying a commission as an actor but also for other fields should you happen to produce or write something that gets sold. In other words, was it your intention to give an agency a commission for something other than as an actor?

And another distinction is that the SAG franchised agreement limits the commission one pays to ten percent.  A General Services Agreement (controlled by the state of California) does not limit your commission to ten percent!

There is a positive way to approach the above situation. Let’s discuss. What is one to do when presented with a General Services Agreement?  Do you sign it out of desperation? Or, do you try to negotiate the terms with the agency trying to sign you?  The answer is the latter.  When an agency wants to sign you, the playing field has leveled out. While it may seem that they have all the cards, the fact is that you are wanted and needed by the agency that wants to sign you. So, discuss the terms. What do I specifically mean by that?  For example, tell the agency that you only want to sign for one year; that you want the same out clauses that a SAG agreement gives you; that you only want to be represented as an actor; and that the commission should not exceed ten percent.
Remember, the agency wants you – probably as much or more than you want the agency – so negotiate!

Michael J. Wallach, a manager and attorney for more than twenty years has written a book entitled “How To Get Arrested®”: A Motivational Story For Actors Breaking Into Hollywood. It answers many questions and does it in story form as opposed to it being written in text book style. Wallach also created and teaches a course for UCLA Extension called “This Business of Acting” which was offered in the Winter Quarter ’08.

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Even though it’s technically still the 19th here at Fame or Famine Central, I’m starting the Blog Off now because in England the clock just ticked over to the 20th, the day we are going for one blog post per hour. We have a few different bloggers set to guest post here, including a wonderful in-depth article about the Screen Actors Guild.

But let’s start with something completely different: a backstage tour of the London production of Spamalot! Nina Söderquist takes you on a tour similar to the one that Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Nina is the Swedish singing waitress who plays the Lady of the Lake in the London production (yes, ironic, that). Here’s a hilarious excerpt from a BBC tv show about her:

Blog-off posts: one down, twenty four to go (three, sire) twenty three to go!

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Visit the Heights

Broadway.com has a charming little video where Lin-Manuel Miranda takes you backstage of In the Heights for a very personal tour backstage. He doesn’t do the normal “We’re so happy to be here, blah blahblah.” Instead he shares the video games he likes, the personal notes from people, his own personal image issues (“I think this mirror makes me look fat!”).

Some of it’s heart rending, such as the tragedy he found out about opening night (no, I’m not going to tell you, go watch it yourself!), the difficulties of doing 8 shows a week and basically living in the theatre.

He talks with some of the cast like Olga Merediz, who seem a little less natural than he does…but let me tell you, it’s making me really want to see the show. I think that he goes a little overboard in talking about bits and pieces of the set – at times it seems that he’s really stretching for material – but it’s all authentic, and that’s what counts.

Check it out. Tell me it doesn’t make you want to be there too.

 image courtesy of newscom

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Here are the quotes, and who said them:

1. “She’s a pro and I’d say to be herself,” John Lithgow, her co-star in All My Sons
2. “She’s going to be wonderful.” That would be John Lithgow again.
3. “We haven’t worked together yet but it’s going to be great.” Once again, Mr. Lithgow, beginning to sound a little rationalizing, in my opinion.
4. [She] “will be so happy. There is nothing like it. It’s the Olympics. It’s the college of theater,” Brooke Shields, who did not say, as a writer friend of mine suggested, “C’mon! All the other girls are doing it!”
5. “Get a lot of sleep and stay healthy. It takes so much energy to be on stage 7 days a week so she needs a good night’s sleep everyday,” said Kristin Chenoweth, who gets my vote for the hardest working woman in show business and knows whereof she speaks.
6. “I’m sure she will do just fine.” also Kristin Chenoweth, and of them all, I think that her saying this would be the most comfort to Katie Holmes as she starts her journey on Broadway.

L. Ron Hubbard could not be reached for comment, as he’s not alive, and I really don’t have much to say except “Good luck!” to the mother, wife, actress, and soon-to-be Broadway star…

image courtesy of Newscom

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1. “She’s a pro and I’d say to be herself,”
2. “She’s going to be wonderful.”
3. “We haven’t worked together yet but it’s going to be great.”
4. [She] “will be so happy. There is nothing like it. It’s the Olympics. It’s the college of theater,”
5. “Get a lot of sleep and stay healthy. It takes so much energy to be on stage 7 days a week so she needs a good night’s sleep everyday,”
6. “I’m sure she will do just fine.”

And here’s your choices for the quotes:

1. Kristin Chenoweth
2. Oprah
3. L. Ron Hubbard
4. Brooke Shields
5. John Lithgow
6. Gray  Miller
   

Put in your matches in the quotes; the answers will be revealed tomorrow!

image courtesy of Newscom 

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Passing Over Passing Strange

One award: best book of a musical. Now, don’t get me wrong – Stew is probably quite pleased to have gotten that. He’s on record as saying that he considers himself first a musician, and that the idea of getting a Tony is pretty far removed from most musicians.

Maybe that’s why I wanted him to sweep the Tony’s. Something to do with the underdog, the newcomer, something capturing the imagination rather than dominating to distraction with some huge Disneyesque production. Yes, yes, I know that Miranda winning Best Musical for The Heights is also an underdog, a tale of a young kid coming out of nowhere making it big on the Great White Way…but The Heights was a more traditional musical, and I was kind of rooting for something new to shake things up. Must be my performance art background.

Living in the Past

I have to confess that I’m also quite disappointed that the lion’s share of the awards (and some of the performances, to boot) went to established, safe musicals. Look, it’s all well and good to have Gypsy and South Pacific still playing – though I really dislike the latter, Gypsy has lots of charm. But the thing is: they’ve both been done for decades. It’s not that there isn’t anything new to do with them – I fully respect the art of the Revival. But because they’ve been around so long, a lot of the dead ends and mistakes have been made. In some ways, putting these actors and crew in the same race as some new piece like August: Osage County (which didn’t too shabbily, either, adding Best Play and four other awards to the Pulitzer already on the shelf) seems like having a high school basketball star playing alongside Kobe Bryant – no matter how good the kid does, experience will tell.

I did take secret delight in Katrina Lindsay winning best Costume Design- Play for her work on the period piece “Les Liaisons Dangereuses.” I know, that completely makes the previous paragraph hypocritical – but I dated a costume designer who specialized in that period of costume, and it holds a soft spot in my heart.

Taking Suggestions

Then again, I’m just grumpy because the Tonys – always a great advertisement for Broadway – is a reminder of the shows I wish I were seeing. But I’ll get my chance…in a few weeks I head out to NYC for a couple of days. If I could only see one show: what should I see?

Image Courtesy of Newscom

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The Long Tail of the Cat in the Hat

However, being produced on Broadway is not the only way to make money from a musical. Licensing a musical to be performed by smaller troupes can also be a money maker (as Disney has found to its joy with High School Musical). And for some reason, many, many theatre groups all over the country have wanted to produce their own Suessical, making it one of the most-produced shows there is. My daughters have even been in a local production of it.

Horton Hears a Revival

Something about that popularity made producers think that it might deserve a second chance, and so in 2007 Theatreworks took a revised Seussical off-broadway and on tour. “Several subplots have been eliminated — [including] General Genghis Kahn Schmitz and the Butter Battle, the Whos’ Christmas pageant with the Grinch, the ‘Havin’ a Hunch’ sequence…” says Stephen Flaherty, one of the composers (and I have a hard time believing I just quoted that particular sentence seriously). The revisions paid off, and several critics and organizations nominated it for Best Revival of 2007

It looks like the revised Broadway cast is gearing up for a recording session, as well, as JAY Records prepares to give the Theatreworks/USA cast their own shot at immortality. Will this be called a “RBC” as opposed to “OBC” recording? Either way, it will surely be interesting to contrast and compare the two, and maybe some other musical blunders (Frankenstein?) can learn from their example.

image courtesy of Newscom

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