DAVID STALLER's theatrical company!
GINGOLD THEATRICAL GROUP.
520 Eighth Avenue #312
NY, NY 10018
212-355-7823
www.ProjectShaw.com
Join us, once a month, at New York's legendary Players Club for PROJECT SHAW. Every play Shaw ever wrote for the stage, performed by great actors as a conert reading.
Tickets are all $20: available the first of every month by phone -- 212-352-3101 or online at Projectshaw.com
The Players is located at 16 Gramercy Park South.
DAVID STALLER
In the look-alike world of show business he stands alone. Particularly in the nocturnal world of cabaret. A remarkably strong presence though vulnerable and funny, he presents a modern male point of view with a bow toward a more romantic era. "A master at evoking the heyday of popular romantic music and at the same time giving it his own contemporary spin," claimed the NEW YORK MAGAZINE. In addition, his 'matinee idol' brand of looks and charm are invariably written and spoken of.
His first solo album, "Easy To Remember: the songs of Rodgers and Hart" has been aired on numerous radio stations across the country and in London. It includes such standards as "My Romance", "Isn't It Romantic", "Bewitched"; as well as the lesser known "Over and Over", "Glad To Be Unhappy" and "The Girlfriend." Along with his musical director, Dick Gallagher, he continues to be his own arranger as well as playing the 'cello on the recording.
Coming from the tiny Glencoe, Illinois (a North Shore suburb of Chicago) David began his professional career while still a student at the famed New Trier High School. Among the many other performers who graduated from there are Rock Hudson, Ann Margret, Bruce Dern, and Charlton Heston. (Yes, they were all there many years before him.) David actually graduated between the matinee and evening performances of the Goodman Theatre production of Rodgers and Hart's "Pal Joey." While attending various universities across the country he continued appearing on TV commercials and even taking a semester off to make his Broadway debut in one of the revivals of "Hello Dolly", this one starring Pearl Bailey. He was one of the very few non-Black actors in the company, understudying the role of 'Cornelius' and going on many times. He proceeded to play doctors in three ABC Soaps: "All My Children", "Loving", and "Ryan's Hope" after acting in the original Broadway company of the Andrew Lloyd Weber and Hal Prince production of "Evita." He later worked, once again, with Hal Prince in the Broadway revival of "Cabaret" starring Joel Grey. He collected impressive notices in the colorful and controversial role of Ernst Ludwig. As The Phantom in "The Phantom of the Opera" his performance was taped by PBS in Miami and was shown on the big screen at the 57th Street Playhouse in New York for four weeks before being aired around the country. "As impressive in his way as Michael Crawford was in the Lloyd Weber musical. A superb singer who's vocalizing carries an undercurrent of feverish emotionality," wrote Stephen Holden of the NEW YORK TIMES. He was seen last season opposite JoBeth Williams in the Universal/ USA Cable film "Sex, Love and Cold Hard Cash." Recenly he finished filming two new movies, 1000 YEAR REICH and MISSED OPPORTUNITES.
His studies as an actor took took him to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, after which he was in the master classes of Lee Strasberg, Uta Hagen and Stella Adler.
Never one to avoid a challenge he began his cabaret career at the top, in the legendary Oak Room of the Algonquin Hotel. After literally stopping the show at Carnegie Hall in an all-star gala to Cole Porter singing the lustful "Where Is The Life That Late I Led" (the NEW YORK POST's Clive Barnes wrote that he was, without question, "the surprise hit of the evening.") he did it again for Noel Coward in the same illustrious hall. After bringing the house down in the glittering Prince Edward Gala in London, again with Cole Porter, he put the two song writers together and created his acclaimed "Noel & Cole" show for his first season at the Oak Room. "A one man tour de force", wrote Donna Coe of the NEW YORK POST. As a result of his success there he was invited to perform it in an expanded two hour version for his solo debut at, once again, Carnegie Hall. The performance was completely sold out.
For his return to the Oak Room he chose the witty and romantic songs of Richard Rodgers and Larry Hart in a show he called, Easy to Remember. "A breathtaking cabaret act, both for the range of the material it presents and the impeccable way it is performed. Astonishing. Emotional. A consummate nightclub performer," exclaimed Howard Kissel of the NEW YORK DAILY NEWS. He has since performed all over the country, including Chicago, Washington D.C., Nashville and Los Angeles, where Robert Osborne of the HOLLYWOOD REPORTER wrote, "What first class cabaret is all about...the genuine article: classy, witty, vastly entertaining and most emphatically, melodic."
David recently co-starred with the Tony Award winning actress, Liliane Montevecchi in the cabaret show, "April In Paris." They then brought this show to London's well-known cabaret, Pizza-On-The-Park for an entire month.
Mr. Staller was also recently in London where he was starring in the London premiere of the original musical play "The Great Big Radio Show" at the prestigious Bridewell Theatre. The show was written by Philip Glassborow and directed by Angela Hardcastle. It has been optioned for an extended run on London's West End. While appearing as bandleader "Blue Woodward' at the Bridewell he was simultaneously appearing in an elaborately staged reading of the new play about Franz Mesmer, "A Path Apart." He played Mesmer, aging before the audience from seventeen to seventy, supported by some of London's most accomplished classical actors.
A director and writer, as well, Mr. Staller has produced many special events in New York, Los Angeles, London and in France. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences flew him to the Deauville Film Festival to direct the unique "Hollywood Goes To War," commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Allied landings during W.W.II. The production starred Maureen O'Hara, Maxine Andrews, Roddy McDowall and Van Johnson.
Striving to find a balance between his cabaret/concert life and the theatre, David acts regularly in theaters around the country This past year he co-starred in the off-Broadway four character play, AFTER THE FAIR, which has been recorded on the Sarabande label. He has also starred in the title role of CYRANO at the York Theatre in New York. Acting in many of the country's top regional theatres, he recently appeared as Pastor Manders in the critically acclaimed IRT production of Ibsen's GHOSTS. He has also shared the stage with Tony Randall, Jack Klugman and Paxton Whitehead in Tom Stoppard's ROUGH CROSSING in Miami's Coconut Grove Playhouse. He's played the demanding role of Henry Higgins in PYGMALION at the IRT and in four huge productions of MY FAIR LADY where his performance was described as "breathing new life into a role that has become fossilized in the image of Rex Harrison." He has also been a staff script writer for Turner Entertainment and is a proud member of T.A.C.T., The Actors' Company Theatre of New York where he regularly performs the works of Shaw, Coward, Thorton Wilder and S.J. Perelman, among others.
As a cellist he studied with Rostopovich and has won many awards including a national competition playing the Bach Suites.
An unusual young man - described by the venerable VARIETY as having that ultimate rarity, "an aura of real star quality."
Some critical observations:
VARIETY
"An aura of real star quality"
NEW YORK TIMES
"A superb singer who's vocalizing carries an undercurrent of feverish emotionality"(Stephen Holden)
HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
"What first class cabaret is all about...the genuine article: classy, literate, witty, vastly entertaining and most emphatically, melodic" (Robert Osborne)
NY DAILY NEWS
"A breathtaking cabaret act, both for the range of the material it presents and the impeccable way it is performed. Astonishing. Emotional. A consumate nightclub performer." (Howard Kissel)
NY MAGAZINE
"David Staller is a master at evoking the heyday of popular romantic music and at the same time giving it his own contemporary spin"
NY POST
"A one man tour de force!" (Donna Coe)
ABOUT DICK GALLAGHER
He's accompanied a wide variety of vocalists in New York City at all of its top cabaret rooms including the Oak Room at the Algonquin, Rainbow & Stars, the Russian Tea Room, Town Hall and many cabaret rooms around the country. He's even traveled as far as Cairo, Egypt to perform with his cabaret friends. Aside from being a regular at Carnegie Hall, on Broadway he was Patti LuPone's musical director during her extended successful run. He is the recipient of more than seven MAC awards including the '92, '93, '94 and '95 MAC Award for Outstanding Musical Director. He was also awarded the 1990 Richard Rodgers Production Award for his score of "What-Not.". His much acclaimed score for the Off-Broadway production of "Whoop-dee-doo" won him a 1994 Drama Desk award. The cast album for "Whoop-dee-doo" is a top seller world wide. He wrote the words and music for "Have I Got A Girl For You: the Frankenstein Musical" and was recently represented off-Broadway by the title song of the Charles Busch comedy, "You Should Be So Lucky." A graduate of Northwestern University, he speaks fluent French. In fact, he recently produced a debut album for Lina Koutrakos that was recorded in Paris. His arrangements and piano playing and even his singing can be heard on various recordings including David Staller's, "Easy To Remember: songs of Rodgers and Hart"
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