#been spending a lot of time with william lately as i write this rock opera thing

[iamthemaestro]

having ocs with backstories you’re emotionally invested in is so strange… I don’t know how to explain to people that I want to cry when I look at images of rural pennsylvania

[jojnews]

“Born in Llanelli and brought up in Burry Port, John Owen-Jones is best known for his lead roles in The Phantom of The Opera and Les Misérables. He talks here about his role as the Third Marquess of Bute in Tiger Bay The Musical.”

“What attracted you to the role of the Third Marquess of Bute in Tiger Bay The Musical at the Wales Millennium Centre?

A: I wanted to be part of the genesis of the show and I was attracted to the idea of working on something new.

And this show is completely new. Wales Millennium Centre has hosted many touring musicals and plays but producing its own theatre is a relatively new venture.

Tiger Bay the musical has an original story that isn’t based on a book or a film or any existing piece of writing. That is highly unusual in this industry and is very exciting.

In fact, I said yes without reading the script or hearing the music because I was so excited by the idea of doing something that was to be created from scratch and to get the opportunity to lend my ideas to the creation of the piece.

The quality of the cast and production team is excellent too of course because people want to work at the WMC and it’s the kind of place that can attract top class talent. I also personally really love working in this building.

Q: Having performed in some of the world’s most famous musicals how does it feel to be involved in something completely original?

A: When I appeared in The Phantom of the Opera and Les Misérables, I took over iconic roles that had already been created and whilst I was able to put my own stamp on them (although I was given the opportunity to totally reinvent them when I appeared in brand new productions of both shows) I didn’t get to set the ‘blueprint’ for the characters.

When it comes to Tiger Bay, I can literally do whatever I want with the character I’m playing. That’s liberating but also a little scary. I’m creating something without the luxury of being able to refer back to what has gone before.

I have also never worked on such a massive new production from scratch and certainly not one that has such lofty ambition.

Melly Still, the director, is great and very reactive to ideas from everyone and the rehearsal room is a fun and creative place to be. We have the ability to completely change and rewrite scenes if we want.

You can’t do that with what we call ‘locked shows.’ I love that aspect of working on something that’s new. Q: How much did you know about the Third Marquess of Bute before the show? A: I didn’t know too much about John Crichton-Stuart, the Third Marquess Tiger Bay the Musical opens this weekend of Bute, before the show. I only really knew that he owned Cardiff Castle. I’m from West Wales, rather than Cardiff, so it’s not part of my immediate heritage or history. But since doing this show I have become more interested in his story. When I first read the script and the background notes from Michael Williams, who wrote the book of the show, I found it really fascinating. I have done further research since then and his life was incredible really – he could have his very own musical telling the tale of his extraordinary life.

What happens to him in Tiger Bay the musical didn’t actually happen in his life however. The use of his character is really a theatrical device to help tell tell the story of one of the main themes of the musical – the divide between rich and poor.

Lord Bute was the richest man in the world at one point. A fact that plays in stark contrast with the poverty in which the street children and the workers of Tiger Bay lived. Q: How are rehearsals going? A: Really well. I did the show in South Africa earlier in the year so although I know the show well there have been extensive rewrites, new dialogue and new music added.

There’s a large ensemble, there are a lot of children in the show too and there are some incredible performances.

The main female lead is Vikki Bebb, (who plays Valleys girl Rowena who comes to work in a shop in Cardiff) and she is incredible. She has a number in Act Two which I always used to watch from the wings when we did the show in Cape Town – and she blew the roof off every night!

Q: As an established star of musical theatre how do you support the younger and emerging performers in Tiger Bay?

A: I lead by example, I suppose. I can’t be a diva and strop around. What kind of example would that set? I’ve also got to let people discover things for themselves. I can’t tell them how to do it. They have to work things out themselves and find out what works and what doesn’t – that way they feel ownership over it and will ultimately deliver a better performance as it’s uniquely theirs then and not a copy of someone else’s idea of what it should be. If someone wants advice, I’ll give it, but I certainly try not to interfere with other people’s work. I also try to be funny and bring a lot of humour into the rehearsal room.

People think musical theatre is easy but it’s not; it’s hard work and you need discipline. Days can be very long and tiring – people can feel under a lot of pressure in our industry as they have to perform constantly before judging eyes. So I try to bring a lot of humour in to the company to keep spirits up on long rehearsal days.

Q:What do you love about performing in musicals?

A: Telling a story through song is uniquely challenging and very difficult to get right. When one gets it right it’s the best feeling in the world. Also, in live theatre things can go wrong and that’s an added thrill to performing live.

It usually doesn’t matter though; it’s not the end of the world. I think the audience quite enjoy the fact that they were there when something happened. It makes their night out even more special.

Q: You have starred in some of the all-time great musicals – but which shows do you personally enjoy watching?

A: I’m a big fan of Stephen Sondheim in particular but I love musicals in

general because of the way music is used to tell a story. When it’s done well, musical theatre can take you on an emotional journey in a way no other artform can. If I wasn’t in it, I’d have a ticket to see Tiger Bay.

Sometimes though, I like to wash my brain clean of musical theatre [laughs] by listening to heavy metal. I took my son to see Metallica recently and I’ll be taking him to see The Darkness soon too!

I love rock and heavy metal – it is the ultimate antidote to the sometimes saccharine sentiments of certain musicals.

Q: You spend a lot of time touring. How do you cope with the demands of being away from home and family?

A: This year I have been working constantly – so I took the summer off. The first part of the year was spent performing in a show called The Wild Party which required constant rehearsal.

The day after the final performance, I flew to South Africa to work on Tiger Bay for two months and that was followed straight away by a concert tour of Wales and a new album release.

I didn’t have a day off between January and late June – including Sundays. I knew the autumn and winter would be dedicated to Tiger Bay and more concerts (I’m finishing off the year in Barcelona as it happens) so I gave myself the summer off.

We got a hot tub installed instead of having a summer holiday!

My wife is a primary school teacher and works really hard so it was good to have lots of quality family time over the summer; just being at home with my wife and teenage children was brilliant.

Q: Do you have any advice on being a parent to teenagers?

A: Everyone is different of course but I always think it’s best to talk to teenagers like adults and equals and give them the respect they deserve and need.

Of course sometimes one has to lay down ‘parental law’ but I hardly ever have to do that if I can reason and talk with my kids. My wife and I have taught our children that a family is a team and they are part of that team.

Life is better with team mates.”

[the-master-cylinder]

Elisabeth was born on July 2, 1951 in Toronto, Ontario and adopted by William Harrison “Sandy” Luyties Jr. (1927-1996) and his wife Joan (née Brooks; 1935-2010) when she was 6 months old.

Out on the west coast, Elisabeth balanced her career goals with fostering her infant son. While waitressing at both L.A.’s Roxy Club and the then exclusive upstairs affixture On the Rox, she became acquainted with Hollywood high-rollers, including Warren Beatty, Harry Dean Stanton and Jack Nicholson (with whom she claims to have had a wild six-month relationship). While working an onset babysitting assignment, she was discovered by the actor Don “Red” Barry. It was never clear to me what specific contribution he made, but shortly after her introduction to the actor, she made her television debut in an episode of the NBC series, EMERGENCY (1972-1977).

Elisabeth subsequently earned prime time visibility from guest appearances on hits like Starsky and Hutch and made the telefilm Heart to Heart. Brooks also made the rounds at Universal Studios, appearing on The Rockford Files, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman and even The Night Stalker. She played a nurse’s aide on the episode, “The Spanish Moss Murders.”

She tells of her first role in a Universal movie: a small bit in Alfred Hitchcock’s Family Plot (1976). “I had a very small part,” she admits, “and when I first got on the set, I overheard the make-up man and wardrobe people and crew talking about how he [Hitchcock] had not talked to anyone in two weeks. He just wasn’t a friendly person to the crew. He wasn’t rude to them, he just didn’t talk to them. He didn’t spend much time talking to anyone. He didn’t care to get into conversations with actors so he had an Assistant Director give all the directions.

“When I started to do my two lines, he sent the AD over to the guy I was working with to give him some directions and the AD came to me and said, ‘Mr. Hitchcock suggests…’ and way in the corner I hear this booming voice saying, ‘Young lady…’ and he started talking to me and I got very nervous and I was the talk of the set because I was the first actress he had directed on the film directly. I felt really impressed

“And of course the first few times I screwed up. I got him to laugh. I was very nervous and I dropped my purse right in the middle of everything and he started laughing and I said, ‘I’m sorry…’ and he said, “That’s all right, that’s all right.’ This was just a small start.”

For nine months, Brooks lived in New York and played an ex-alcoholic country singer on the soap opera, Days of Our Lives. It also brought Brooks her first fan mail. “She was kind of a spaced-out character,” ‘Brooks says with a laugh. “She wasn’t too sure what was wrong, what was right and what she was going to do next. She ran off to be a rock and roll star.” It was on that show that Brooks began singing, and writing her own music and lyrics. “During the show I opened my own publishing company and I did a couple of my songs on the show. The part I played was not a good singer and so it was easy,” she chuckles. She is now taking lessons and is planning on performing when ready.

Elisabeth was best known for her role as Marsha. the tempestuous werewolf in Joe Dante’s cult classic, THE HOWLING (1981). Brooks had never heard of the novel, The Howling, but she received a call at home, telling her Avco Embassy was making the movie and they wanted her to come in and read for a part. “I went in and I was given a script and I read it and came back. I did a scene for the producer, Mike Finnell, and the director, Joe Dante, and came back again and did another scene, or the same scene for the executive producers, Daniel Blatt and Steven Lane. And then I had to come back with a long, dark wig on.” Brooks was wearing short, blondish hair at the time.

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Marsha is described in the film as “elemental” with vast untapped powers. She’s also a seductress, who has little use for men and even less use for women. She’s accused of taking men and bending them to her will for whatever purpose she chooses and no one can understand her motives.

“I was told not to read the novel,” Brooks explains. Marsha may be one of the few elements to remain similar to the book’s depiction. Marsha Quist is also the toughest role Brooks has undertaken. She describes Marsha as an animal. “And in being an animal, she has no compassion or desire to be associated with human beings. She has very definite points of view on the human race and being an animal, she finds them extremely threatening to her unless she can control them. And she does control the humans.” To her, it was an extremely challenging role and she feels she accomplished what she set out to do: create a complex character and make her believable.

What disappoints her is the final cut of the film. She describes working with Director Dante as being very easy. “We really didn’t have any trouble until I saw the film–and then we really didn’t have any trouble. I had a meeting with him to voice my complaints, I felt he didn’t leave enough substance to my character. He just centered on the sexually stimulating parts of her which are fine. Those are just actor’s and director’s opinions. He had to make his movie work. That’s the way he said he could make the movie work. I am upset as an actress because I worked very hard on developing a character that I spent a lot of time and energy trying to develop. It’s a little disheartening when you work so hard on something and you see so little of it up there except something that you were told wouldn’t be the substance of the character and all of a sudden that’s the substance and everything else you worked on isn’t there anymore. I know how much was not left in and I’m a little upset but it’s ok,” she says.

“For Marsha,” Brooks continues after taking a breath, “I was told to think of a cat. A very sexual, soft and feminine cat but very dignified. The type of thing a cat is. A cat gets it victims through sex-they have a very sexual outlook. I think a lot of that was left out of the film. A lot of the power was left out. The power that was left in was sexual power. So that’s ok. Joe and I had many talks about it but by the time I found out about the cuts, it was too late to go back and change anything.”

Part of the sexual nature of Marsha is also very visual since Brooks had to do a scene with full frontal nudity. “It was freezing,” she remembers. “It was done very late at night and it was extremely cold. We did it very quickly. It was my first such experience and hopefully one of my last.”

What made the love scene so difficult was not just the cold. Both Brooks and Christopher Stone had to go through partial transformation into werewolves while supposedly making love. Both wore fangs in their mouths that slid into place when wires were tripped with their tongues.

Thinking about Marsha, the young actress goes on to discuss her, “In the film and the character and the script I read, my character had a lot of substance and credibility to it. And this person I played had a lot of dimension that in the actual cut of the film, I feel, has been diminished. I think The Howling is a cartoon brought to life. In looking at it as a cartoon, my character is a cartoon character, totally different from me as a person. I think it will be a very, very big hit.

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“It is fun and it doesn’t gross you out. They didn’t put a lot of traditional horror elements in it, yet it encompasses all of it. I’ve heard it’s almost a classic type of film. I think it will reach for more than the horror audience. Everyone has a good time.”

She was very vocal in her objections to scenes that required full-frontal nudity. “I was signed to do the movie on my acting ability alone. I was told the sex shots would be smoke screened by a bonfire and that you wouldn’t be able to see anything.” Playboy published the nude footage, without Elisabeth’s approval, in the magazine’s annual “Sex in the Cinema” retrospect. With no heat waves nor smoke, she disrobed near the embers of a modest blaze. Elisabeth was further quoted, “In the past, I’ve always refused to do nude magazine work because I believe in the Bible and have morals.” Elisabeth later told me that she had a reputation to consider as a single mom; she was referring to Jeremy, who was seven years old when THE HOWLING was released. Elisabeth refused to marry the boy’s father.

To make Marsha come alive, and turn into a carnal werewolf, Rob Bottin worked with her. Brooks says of him, “He’s a sweetheart, really easy to work with. They put a mask on my face when I turn into a werewolf. My face gets all distorted. They put a plaster cast over your whole face and it’s a total freak-out, totally blows you away because you can’t breathe. The whole time I was there, knowing Rob was there … he never stops talking, never. He has a soothing voice and you get comfortable and you don’t get scared. Anytime I started to get scared, he would sense it and he’d say, ‘It’s ok Elisabeth, sit still … He explains every step that he is doing so you know what’s going on. He’s fabulous to work with and he’s like that with everyone.”

While THE HOWLING cleaned-up at the box office, Elisabeth required a hysterectomy to recover from PID (pelvic inflammatory disease). The illness was one reason that she backed-out of THE HOWLING II, though initially agreed to do the sequel. But there was another reason. Friend Kristy McNichol, an actress formerly tied to a popular TV series (FAMILY, 1976-1980), had wielded some influence on HOWLING II’s failed salary negotiations.

Elisabeth said she had met Kristy while babysitting on movie sets. They actually performed together in a movie aptly titled THE FORGOTTEN ONE (1990). It was reported in the Star tabloid (Dec. 1994) that McNichol, upon learning about Brooks’ diagnosed cancer, “ran to her side.” Their relationship, while sometimes tumultuous, was very close.  After a 33-month struggle with brain cancer, Brooks died in Haven Hospice near her home in Palm Springs, California at the age of 46.

CREDITS/REFERENCES/SOURCES/BIBLIOGRAPHY Fangoria#12 Femme Fatales v07n02

Elisabeth Brooks: Sexy She Wolf Elisabeth was born on July 2, 1951 in Toronto, Ontario and adopted by William Harrison "Sandy" Luyties Jr.