Some cool pics of David and his Close Up Space castmates from Broadwayworld.com.
with Colby Minifie
with Rosie Perez
with Molly Smith Metzler (Playwright), Colby Minifie, Rosie Perez, Michael Chernus, Jessica DiGiovanni and Leigh Silverman (Director)
Posted in Pictures.
– November 18, 2011
Watch this Close Up Space teaser video with David and Colby Minifie, who plays his daughter.
Digging David’s geek chic look 
Posted in Interviews, Videos.
– November 12, 2011
The hilarious It Shoulda Been You finished last Sunday – next stop Broadway?? – and without a pause it’s straight on to the next project for busy David.
While we’re excited here at DHP.org that David’s directing debut was so well received, as fans we’re delighted to see David getting back where he belongs, on stage (at New York City Center – Stage 1) entertaining theatre-goers in the world premiere of Molly Smith Metzler’s comedy Close Up Space. To whet appetites for the play, which begins in previews on December 1st, we’re posting the snazzy banner we found on the
Manhattan Theatre Club website.
The meaning of the play’s title had intrigued us. The banner explains all. David plays an obsessive book editor – ‘close-up space‘ is an editor’s red ink instruction. Billed as ‘a funny and poignant new play about how hard it can be to communicate… in any language‘, the phrase ‘Close Up Space‘ obviously signifies much more besides.
Official opening is scheduled for December 19th. Further info on the play including performance times and how to get tickets can be found via the New York City Center website.
Posted in News.
– November 11, 2011
David continues to work tirelessly to raise awareness of Alzheimer’s. He will participate in the Alzheimer’s Association New York City Chapter Walk to End Alzheimer’s on Sunday October 23rd. David spoke recently to msnbc.com
For five years, Cause Celeb has been highlighting celebrities’ works on behalf of specific causes. To celebrate the anniversary, we went back to the beginning and re-interviewed our first celebrity, actor David Hyde Pierce.
When we first interviewed Pierce he had already worked with the Alzheimer’s Associationfor 10 years; now five years later, he is still hard at work for the association. The Alzheimer’s Association provides support, knowledge and awareness to those suffering from or caring for people with the disease in addition to raising money for research. On Sunday, Oct. 23, the Alzheimer’s Association will be holding the Walk to End Alzheimer’s at Riverside Park and Hyde Pierce will be participating in.
Pierce is probably best known for his role on the television show “Frasier.” He has also appeared in movies including “Wet Hot American Summer” and “Sleepless in Seattle” as well as appearing in numerous Broadway shows including “Monty Python’s Spamalot.” Recently he made his directorial debut with the musical “It Shoulda Been You.”
Interview by Jesse StrauchQ: What is your involvement with the Alzheimer’s Association and has it changed over the years?
Pierce: Over the years I’ve gotten more and more involved with the Alzheimer’s Association. I started out I think almost 15 years ago just showing up as a celebrity at their memory walk in Los Angeles back when I was on “Frasier” and I got more and more involved. I went to Washington and testified for more funding for research for Alzheimer’s, went around the country doing that. I became a national board member for eight years, now I’m an honorary board member. I’ve been to Washington a lot and most recently I’m a member of an advisory council that’s part of a National Alzheimer’s Project Act, which is a federal law that was passed the end of last year unanimously by both houses to make the fight against Alzheimer’s a national priority in the same way that HIV/AIDS and heart disease has been.
Q: In your 15-plus years how has public perception changed towards Alzheimer’s?
Pierce: Certainly there is more awareness. I think partly because of the work of the Alzheimer’s Association, partly because there is many more appearances in the media on television and film, you start to see characters that are dealing with Alzheimer’s. Unfortunately there is a lot more awareness because there are a lot more people with the disease; there are well over 5 million now and those numbers are growing and the people who are taking care of those people numbers are growing. I would say over the years we have been making progress in research and awareness and taking care of people. But the disease itself is making more progress than we are in the number of lives it’s taken.
Q: Do you think the future looks brighter for ending Alzheimer’s?
Pierce: I think it’s entirely up to us. If we don’t make more rapid progress than we are currently making then we’ll go from 5 million people now to 16 million people by the middle of the century, and that doesn’t account for all of the people who are taking care of those people and the stress and illness and the mortality rate of those people. It’s a particularly devastating disease for those family members and caregivers.
We have now before us a great opportunity with this National Alzheimer’s Project Act. It is an opportunity for us to confront this disease and make the kind of progress that has been made with HIV/AIDS and heart disease and cancer in the past years. Ultimately, though, it is up to us, to all of us, to the American people and to their representatives about whether we face the challenges and make all the effort necessary or if we ignore it and just let this sort of tidal wave crash over us.
Q: What would help us defeat Alzheimer’s? Are there new medicine and treatments coming or do we still need a lot of research? What would help us move forward in the best way?
Pierce: Right now funding for most major disease is in the billions of dollars. Federal funding for research, federal funding for Alzheimer’s is in the millions. Alzheimer’s at this point — this is a change in the last five years since I first talk to you guys — has advanced to become the sixth-leading cause of death in the country. So we’re in a time where people are not interested in the government spending more money and there’s great concern about the deficit, there’s great concern about health care and the cost of health care and social security, Medicare and Medicaid. All of those concerns will be effectively wiped out if we don’t focus resources, our attention and also finance resources on more research and more access.
We already know great ways to help take care of people to help make their lives easier when they have the disease and to help their family’s along but there’s an astonishing number of people in this country who have no access to this, who aren’t aware. It’s such a lonesome disease if you don’t know about the resources of the Alzheimer’s Association, the support groups and the outreach, and the referral services they have. I’m shocked that working so many years on this that it is still such an isolated disease that so many people aren’t aware of what it is and what treatment and services are available. That to me is not a huge expense. We still need billions of dollars for research. We can only fund about 25 percent of the proposals that we get now.
It’s unbelievable, we would never in a million years go to fight a war and say, “hey that’s great but we’re only going to pay for about 25 percent of it, we’ll just hope it turns out OK.” But in terms of loss of life and devastation to the economy this is a war with a lot of collateral damage and I’m very hopeful that because the disease is so terrible and because it is so widespread and because we already started to make breakthroughs in early diagnosis and better care for people with Alzheimer’s, the country as a whole will start to see that there is hope and see that there is potential, that there’s a chance to turn Alzheimer’s into what polio now is. It was at one time the scourge of this country and now is a disease at least in this country we don’t really talk about or think about. That is the potential, that is the hope but as with polio we have to as a nation face it together and do what must be done.
Q: Is there anything you’d like to add?
Pierce: Just that all over the country we have the Walk to End Alzheimer’s, which is a national fundraiser that happens different times with different chapters. It raises money locally to help support services and research. It helps raise awareness, it bring people together to get information about clinical trials and the support services that are necessary. This Sunday I’m going to be doing the New York City Walk to End Alzheimer’s but I would encourage people to look for that in their area and support it if they can. You don’t have to have had someone in your family who has had Alzheimer’s to be a part of this because the sad statistics are, that you one day will, if we’re not able to slow it down or stop it.
Posted in Interviews.
– October 20, 2011
Here as promised is a round up of reviews we’ve found for It Shoulda Been You. 
Click links for the full reviews.
“Fresh and funny” is Patch.com‘s verdict.
Curtain Up speaks of David’s “breezy and accomplished direction”.
Peter Filichia for The Star-Ledger praises David’s slick direction and notes that “he has yet another talent”. (How can he find room for them all in just one person? )
Variety.com‘s review veers towards “ouch”, so carries a health warning for those of a sensitive disposition, but does praise all 13 actors and notes that David “has a knack for farcical staging”.
Richard Seff at DCtheatrescene.com had a good time. He calls David’s directing “solid” and is sure he’ll be back in charge of other works in the future.
Saving the best for last, let’s just quote Charles Paolino in MyJersey.com,
“A musical play like this comes along once in a blue moon. The smart writing and fresh humor and the nimbly constructed songs make “It Shoulda Been You” irresistible.” Wow!
An update – just had to add this stunning review from Centraljersey.com
Stand out performance form Lisa Howard
Posted in Reviews.
– October 18, 2011
It Shoulda Been You got a great review in the
Northern New Jersey Theater Examiner. Rick Busciglio describes the show as a “bright, fun-filled musical” and “a remarkable production”.
As well as a mention for that “impressive first-time director” David, he has high praise for all the cast, the supporting players as well as the stars.
Your admin particularly likes the line by the father of the bride, “Your Mother and I had words….I just didn’t get to use any of mine.”
Let’s hope this show has a life after George Street Playhouse. Sounds as though it deserves it. More reviews as and when we get them.
The show runs until November 6th. Tickets from George Street Playhouse
photos by T.CharlesErickson
Posted in Reviews.
– October 16, 2011
In advance of tonight’s official opening of It Shoulda Been You
we found a couple of great interviews, not with David, but we’re posting links because we know David Hyde Pierce fans will enjoy reading them.
In the first, from Centraljersey.com the show’s two mothers, the incomparable Tyne Daly and the delicious Harriet Harris have some sweet things to say about first time director David.
In the second, in Culture Vultures – the official JerseyArts.com blog, Brian Hargrove, It Shoulda Been You book writer and David’s husband, talks the show and its history, working with your significant other and everybody getting back to their theatre roots.
Note – we may never forgive Centraljersey.com for “Miles Crane” (sic)
Posted in Interviews.
– October 14, 2011
The show won’t be finally set until its official opening on Friday (October 14th) but DHP.org found this rave review of the almost finished article on Gil’s Broadway Blog.
“The Broadway Beat” It Shoulda Been You, George Street Playhouse, October 9
I can’t recall the last time that the three major New Jersey Theatre companies have all started their seasons with new musical productions that all could ultimately end up on Broadway or at least Off Broadway. McCarter Theatre opened their season with Ten Cents a Dance, which has been speculated as a possible Roundabout Theatre production this season which was followed by Newsies at Papermill which has a clear shot at opening on Broadway next Spring.Now comes It Shoulda Been You at the George Street Playhouse. With an A list comical cast, a plot with some original and unseen twists and turns, a very funny script and a nice score, I can honestly see this doing good business at one of the smaller Broadway houses.
Led by the comic duo of Tyne Daly and Harriet Harris and directed by four time Emmy Winner David Hyde Pierce, It Shoulda Been You tells the story of one day in two family’s lives. It is the wedding day of their children, the bride is Jewish, the groom isn’t, the two mothers clearly don’t get along and then there is the bride’s former boyfriend who just found out about the wedding and shows up to possibly derail the whole event.
Now while that plot seems like something you might have seen many times before, let me just say that It Shoulda Been You throws in plenty of twists, a couple of which you clearly don’t see coming and there is plenty of warmth and love behind the comedy. Those elements elevate it to make it more than just your typical wedding day comedy.
Lisa Howard is the older, heavier and less pretty of Daly’s two daughters. Of course it isn’t her wedding day but her younger and prettier sister’s. Howard is the star of this production and gets the most to do and she is more than capable of handling the duties. She has a great voice and gets some nice songs to sing. It is nice to see Howard, who had a decent size part in the original Broadway cast of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, taking center stage here and showing she is more than capable of starring in a musical.
Daly and Harris are the two mothers and they are simply perfect. Daly rings every possible bit of angst and guilt out of the Jewish mother character and she delivers the comical lines spot on. She also gets a couple of nice songs and her voice is warm and clear, even better than when we saw her in Cabaret last Spring. She also looks fantastic. Harris is pure comical genius. Her face, voice, body language and a bottle of gin combine to deliver a whirling dervish of a character. Like Daly, she also gets some nice songs to sing and delivers them perfectly.
David Josefsberg is the ex boyfriend of the bride. Like Howard, it is nice to see Josefsberg get a big part to play after seeing him in the original ensemble casts of Altar Boyz Off Broadway, in a small part in The Wedding Singer on Broadway and in the ensemble of The Toxic Avenger at George Street a few seasons back. He has a nice stage presence, a good singing voice and perfectly plays the comic and drama parts of the script required of him.
Edward Hibbert is the wedding planner, and as can be expected he delivers every moment in the high end comic fashion he is known for. The rest of the ensemble cast include Richard Kline as Daly’s husband and Howard McGillin as Harris’. While they are reduced more to secondary characters, Kline has some great lines to deliver. It is too bad that McGillin isn’t given much to do, as he has the biggest Broadway pedigree of this cast, having starred in the Broadway productions of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Anything Goes, The Secret Garden, She Loves Me, Kiss of the Spider Woman and holding the title of having played the most performances as the Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera. So, the fact that he is only given a few lines in one song to sing solo is one drawback of the evening. However, if he was given a solo song to sing it might have slowed down the high paced antics of the show.
The groom is Matthew Hydzik, with Curtis Holbrook as the best man and Carla Duren as the maid of honor. They all hold their own against the rest of the more seasoned pros in the cast and even though their characters aren’t as well defined as the rest, they all have some moments to shine, especially in the second act.
The show has a book and lyrics by Brian Hargrove and a score by Barbara Anselmi, with a few songs having lyrics by a couple of other individuals. They’ve created a score with plenty of character songs, songs that move the action forward as well as some beautfiul and introspective inner monologue pieces. There is a simple yet elegant set direction by Anna Louizos that creates various rooms and locations in a 5 star New York hotel and costumes by Willian Ivey Long that include beautiful wedding attire including killer dresses for Daly and Harris.
Hyde Pierce has clearly gotten a lot of his friends together for his musical theatre directing debut, with Harris and Hibbert having starred on Frasier with him, and Hibbert and choreographer Noah Racey having been in Curtains on Broadway with him. He moves the evening along at a fast pace, even at some moments approaching farce and is more than capable of directing the cast in both the high end comic scenes as well as the more dramatic ones. Hyde Pierce introduced the show last night and was in the audience taking notes, so I’m sure there might be some changes made before it officially opens on Friday. However, with the thunderous audience reaction both during the show, after several of the songs and at the curtain call, I don’t think there is much that needs to be tweaked.
While It Shoulda Have Been You might at first appear to have a basic story that has been done many times before, it really is a very modern story with up to date issues. It also has many laugh out loud lines and scenes and has an extremely gifted cast led by the powerhouse duo of Tyne Daly and Harriet Harris and a truly star making turn for Lisa Howard. With an effective score that gives everyone plenty to do and beautiful sets and costumes I can’t imagine that this show won’t have a life after the George Street. And even with all of those great things going for it what really stands out in this musical is the heart at its center and that is what makes this into a show that I have to believe could end up in New York City this season.
Posted in Reviews.
– October 12, 2011
The new musical, book and lyrics by Brian Hargrove (David’s partner), music by Barbara Anselmi and directed by the one and only David Hyde Pierce, opens to the public tonight in previews at George Street Playhouse, New Brunswick, New Jersey. Tickets for all performances are selling out fast, so be quick.
DHP.org would like to send very best wishes to David and the whole company.
It Shoulda Been You
October 4 – November 6, 2011Book and Lyrics by Brian Hargrove
Music by Barbara Anselmi
Based on a concept by Barbara Anselmi
Directed by David Hyde Piercewith Tyne Daly, Tom Deckman, Carla Duren, Harriet Harris, Jessica Hershberg, Edward Hibbert, Curtis Holbrook, Lisa Howard, Mylinda Hull, Matthew Hydzik, David Josefsberg, Richard Kline, and Howard McGillin
A musical comedy for anyone with parents.
The bride is Jewish. The groom is Catholic. Her mother is a force of nature, his mother is a tempest in a cocktail shaker. And when the bride’s ex-boyfriend shows up, the perfect wedding starts to unravel faster than you can whistle “Here Comes the Bride!” Plots are hatched, pacts are made, secrets exposed – and the sister of the bride is left to turn a tangled mess into happily ever after!
We are thrilled to welcome Tony Award and four-time Emmy Award winner David Hyde Pierce (from TV’s Frasier) to direct this exciting new musical comedy.
Produced in Association with Scott Landis, Michael Hanel, and Daryl Roth
sponsored by The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation
Special dates for this production
10/4/2011 Post Performance Talk-Back
10/5/2011 Post Performance Talk-Back
10/6/2011 Post Performance Talk-Back
10/13/2011 Audio Described Performance
10/20/2011 Marriage Equality Pride Party; 6:30pm
10/23/2011 Sunday Symposium; 2pm
11/5/2011 Open Captioned Performance
Posted in News.
– October 4, 2011
Well, we did tell you David was busy!
As reported in Playbill.com in Spring 2012 David will star in the Vineyard Theatre’s Developmental Lab production of John Kander and Greg Pierce’s The Landing.
DHP.org very much likes the sound of this. Sadly for David fans it might be difficult to get tickets as Developmental Lab Productions at The Vineyard are limited runs for which only Vineyard members are guaranteed a seat.
Fun fact: Greg Pierce, emerging writing talent and John Kander’s new collaborator is David’s nephew.
David Hyde Pierce Will Appear in Developmental Test of John Kander’s New MusicalBy Kenneth Jones
06 Sep 2011Tony Award winner David Hyde Pierce will perform in Vineyard Theatre’s spring 2012 Developmental Lab production of The Landing, the new musical by John Kander and Greg Pierce.
Scott Ellis, who directed Hyde Pierce to a Best Actor Tony win for Curtains, will direct the lab staging. David Loud (The Scottsboro Boys) will be music director.
The Landing is “a collection of three related one-act musicals” with music by Tony-winning composer Kander (Chicago, Cabaret, Zorba, Kiss of the Spider Woman) and librettist-lyricist Greg Pierce.According to the Sept. 6 announcement by Vineyard Theatre, “Based on stories written by John Kander and Greg Pierce, The Landing — which will mark Mr. Kander’s first full new theatre collaboration with another writer since the passing of his long-time collaborator Fred Ebb in 2004 — is comprised of three one-act musicals thematically-linked and performed together by an ensemble of four. These gripping and soulful pieces invite audiences into richly imagined worlds, in which characters must confront what it means to get what they think they want.”
Additional cast and information will be announced at a later date. Developmental Lab Productions at The Vineyard “are limited runs for which only Vineyard members are guaranteed a seat. Developmental Lab Productions have minimal production values and are not open for review by critics.”
Kander’s relationship with The Vineyard dates back to 1987 with the theatre’s revival of the Kander and Ebb musical Flora The Red Menace. Most recently, Vineyard Theatre presented the world premiere of Kander and Ebb’s musical The Scottsboro Boys, with book by David Thompson, in March 2010.
Greg Pierce is a playwright and fiction writer. His stage adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s novel The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (co-written with director Stephen Earnhart) premiered at The Ohio Theatre in New York City, and was performed at the 2011 Edinburgh International Festival. His plays include Slowgirl, Kickstop, Odyssey Room, Smack the Wagon and The Suburbanoids.
The Vineyard, an Off-Broadway resident not-for-profit theatre, presents at 108 E. 15 Street.
For more information about The Vineyard, visit www.vineyardtheatre.org
Posted in News.
– October 1, 2011
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