McKean,
O'Toole Perform In New York May 24-June 4 For
years, friends of Michael McKean (Perry White from the
Smallville episode "Perry") and Annette
O'Toole (Smallville's Martha Kent) have known that
the couple is apt to pick up instruments and break into song
when things get festive and parties heat up around their house.
Now,
the pair is taking their act uptown with a two-week stint at
the tony New York nightclub Feinstein's at the Regency, where
from May 24 through June 4, 2005, McKean and O'Toole will be
performing a show they've dubbed "An Evening with Michael
McKean & Annette O'Toole: No Standards."
"These
shows," promises McKean in a press release, "will
be like coming to our home for a party." Adds O'Toole,
"Except that we'll be wearing makeup."
Married
since March, 1999, McKean and O'Toole have in recent years made
room for songwriting in schedules that were already jammed.
McKean (a multi-talented actor, comic, writer, director and
musician who might be best known as Lenny on Laverne &
Shirley and as David St. Hubbins in Spinal Tap) has
recently appeared on the New York stage in the world premiere
of Woody Allen's A Second-Hand Memory and as Edna Turnblad
in Hairspray. O'Toole (a former dancer whose varied resume
ranges from Smile and 48 Hrs. to The Kennedys
of Massachusetts and Nash Bridges) has since 2001
played young Clark Kent's mother Martha in the WB series Smallville.
Though they are frequently on opposite sides of the country,
the pair have collaborated on numerous songs since late 2001.
Three of their compositions were featured in the 2003 Christopher
Guest comedy A Mighty Wind, including the Oscar®-nominated
ballad "A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow." (McKean
contributed an additional seven songs to the project, including
the Grammy-winning title track.)
The Feinstein's
engagement was spurred by a fundraising show Michael and Annette
participated in for Planned Parenthood. On a bill with the likes
of Moby, Lou Reed and Joan Osborne, they performed a couple
of songs accompanied by Annette's daughter, Nell Geisslinger,
an actress, dancer and musician who has spent the past three
years working with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. "We
weren't going after this gig or even thinking about doing a
nightclub show," says O'Toole. "But the morning after
the benefit we got a call saying that somebody from Feinstein's
had been at the show, and they wanted us to do two weeks there.
Their only condition was that Nell had to do it with us."
At Feinstein's,
Geisslinger will be supplying, in Annette' words, "piano,
guitar, vocals, beauty and exuberance." The repertoire
will include songs from A Mighty Wind, the occasional Spinal
Tap ditty ("the gentler side of the canon," promises
Michael), songs from a full-fledged musical that the pair has
been writing for a few years, a cover or two, and other "unusual,
unclassifiable stuff," according to McKean.
"The
show is still taking shape, but it's nice to have Feinstein's
as a peg where we can hang all this work of ours," says
Michael. "I feel as if this show has just grown out of
what we naturally do, even when there's no one looking."
"We're
songwriters," adds Annette with a laugh. "And by now
we have so much stuff that the hardest part is picking what
to put in and what to leave out."
Still, the
pair expects a freewheeling evening designed for open-minded
patrons who aren't expecting the usual Manhattan cabaret act.
"I'd like to hope that our audience is ready for some surprises,"
says Michael of two weeks that may bring songs like "Potato's
In the Paddy Wagon" and "Banjo Daddy" to a room
accustomed to hosting more sedate excursions through the Great
American Songbook. "If nothing else," he says, "I
think we'll be the first act to play Feinstein's without singing
'New York, New York.'"
FEINSTEIN'S
AT THE REGENCY will play the following schedule: Tuesday through
Saturday at 8:30 PM with late shows on Friday and Saturday at
11:00 PM. All shows have a $60 cover and a $40 minimum. Jackets
are suggested but not required. FEINSTEIN'S AT THE REGENCY is
located at 540 Park Avenue at 61st Street in New York City.
For Ticket reservations and club information call (212) 339-4095,
or log on to TicketWeb.com.
And
here's a new photo of the couple to promote the new event:
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McKean,
O'Toole Perform In New York May 24-June 4
