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Get One Leg Up On Theater With Joan Pelzer and Tony Sportiello As Heard on Broadway at the Russian Tea Room · OneLegUpAlex Media

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On this edition of One Leg Up with Alex S. Garrett, I just
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want to give a shout out and a happy birthday to the Arthur Idalla Power
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our executive producer Joni Pelzer and Joan and I actually talked about her AMT Theater
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on forty fifth Street a while ago on AM nine seventy the Answer as part
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of a show called Broadway at the Russian Tea Room with host Rob tab Now,
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Rob gave me the chance to interview Joni and Tony Sportiello of the AMT
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Theater as well. So Jony, my birthday give to you as we give
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some love to the AMT Theater on the Alex S. Garrett podcast Network,
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It's curtains up on Broadway at the Russian Tea Room post Rob tab takes you
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backstage with actors, writers, directors and producers that I've shaped theater in New
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York City. Broadway at the Russian Tea Room offers up behind the scenes look
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at the rebirth of the arts in New York City. And now here's your
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host, Broadway enthusiast and devoted advocate of the arts, mister Rob Tau,
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And welcome inside to Broadway at the Russian Tea Room. I'm actually Alex Garrett,
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and I know after that long introduction by Matt Borzi introducing mister Rob Tab
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he will be in a little later, but for now he kind of needed
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me to fill in for the next few minutes, and so because of that,
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I decided to bring on a very good friend. I'm not only my
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life but of the radio station AM nine seventy the Answer. See, when
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you think of Joan Pelzer, the executive producer of The Power Hour with Arthur
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Idalla, you might think of this, But to me, there's so much
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depth that Joan Pelzer offers, and I figured let me bring her on for
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at least the first couple of segments of today's Broadway at the Russian Tea Room.
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Oh my gosh, Joni, it's so good to have you on.
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Hello Alex, nice to see you, to see you. Why not seeing
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you, I'm talking to you. Well, we saw each other multiple times
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during the week, including on a met game, and I believe over the
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week in radio world. But yes, thanks to Rob Table for allowing us
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this time. Because Joanie, see that liner gets played almost every night,
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but they don't really know Joe, meaning the audience that listens doesn't know that
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you have that background in theater, in social media, in public relations.
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I wanted that to shine through today. And who is Joan Pelzer, you
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know on stage in the theater world. Let's start there. Thank you,
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Alex, thank you so much. And first of all, the seeing you
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is a highlight of my week and having you be at the met game,
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which was for me, my networking group going to something to get us out
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and in person together somewhere, and to me, it's all about connecting people
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and bringing people together, which is why I wanted you to come and meet
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everyone because they get to listen to me producing Arthur's radio show, but they
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don't always get to meet the people behind it. So while you're doing this
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for me, I love to do this within for you as well, because
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I think it's wonderful when people really get to know people in person, and
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I think that's partly what Rob's mission seems to be as well with what he's
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doing for the Broadway world. It's a Russ and Tea room, first of
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all, is one of my favorite places. I went there Fred Luncheon,
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right before I left the country and joined the Peace Corps, went to Russia
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years ago. So I was in college, came out of college, got
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a job, was doing theater on the side, acting on the side,
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but never really jumped fully into it. And then got this opportunity to get
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my master's degree, but didn't do it in theater, did it in finance
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and business, and then quit everything, joined the Peace Corps and went to
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Russia. And I was fortunate that my friends took me to the Russian team
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room and I got to experience that grandeur of what it was like, what
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old times were like, what opulence was like. And then I went to
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Russia and one of my sole missions was I wanted to help theater companies in
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the town I was living in, and I was fortunate that I was able
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to do that. They have repertoire in Russia. So the theater, the
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main theater in the big town that I lived in, was a repertoire theater,
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meaning every single evening, as many of you all know, your audience
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notes, every single evening is a different show, and so they change on
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a dime. And I was able to study with them to say shows and
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to help them with marketing, which helped me, of course. And then
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I came back and decided, well, I think that what I want to
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do now is go to acting school full time, and I don't want to
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jump right back into a career necessarily yet. So I started cat raidering on
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the side, which many actors do, and I studied full time at what
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was called New Actors Workshop, which is no longer around unfortunately, and the
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three main folks who ran it are unfortunately no longer with us. It was
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run by Paul Sills, which many people would know from Story Theater and he
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did Broadway as well. George Morrison, who was a big acting teacher.
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He taught at Purchase for a long time and I have to actually ask Arthur
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if he ever knew him at Purchase. And then the great Mike Nichols,
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Mike Nichols, the famous director, and Mike Nichols would teach a weekly class
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and he would bring in some sort of a famous guest, and someone would
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show up in being the audience and you'd be like, oh my god,
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I can't believe I have to do my scene in front of so and so
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or so and so. But for him it was also all about connecting people.
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And for me, I know, I keep saying that word. But
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I think Arthur is that as well, And so I'm drawn to people that
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are all about connecting people, and you're one of them. Rob is clearly
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one of them. The radio connects people in ways that other mediums can't always
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connect people. And then the people I surround myself with tend to be those
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connectors who really want others to have that benefit of being together, you know,
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Joni, And that is so true, and that's why this show exists
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to bring Broadway together, bring him on the air, and I feel like
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you're a perfect fit. But Mike Nichols, did you ever see spam a
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lot on Broadway? Because I've got a quick story, Oh my god,
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yes, when Hannah watting him was actually I think Lady of the Lake,
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if I'm not mistaken. She you know, she throws the bouquet at the
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end of the show, and we have been gifted this honor of going on
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the show thanks to Gerald Schoenfeld, who used to be the head of the
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super organization, and she threw that bouquet right in my lap at the end
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of the show of spam alot. So I don't know if you got to
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see though that whole thing, but it was just funny. I was literally
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side splitting, to be honest with you, I saw a spam alot a
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number of times. Yea, we were we Mike would gift us tickets when
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we were working with him in our acting school to all different types of shows.
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There was a show downtown in an old like abandoned church flash facility.
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And while we Sean did this show and it was I believe a three or
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four person show, and you moved from room to room. I cannot I
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wish I could remember the name of it. But Mike was an invite only
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kind of a show, and I think there were thirty people at a time
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that could go, and Mike Nichols got us in to see it. It
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was one of the most interesting experiences because it was completely different and it took
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you by surprise and you didn't know. And I think that you know,
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Alex. You and I have talked about this so many times. Things in
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life that take us by surprise and in a way shock us in a good
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way, sometimes in a negative way, but things that take us by surprise
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and shot, like sitting here with you right now, I didn't expect this
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to be going on right no, who knew this is where the conversation would
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go. But this is what life is all about. We don't always get
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these moments, but when we do get these moments. I had a moment
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with someone at the Met game the other night which was just shocking to me
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because I didn't expect this from this particular person. I didn't know this person
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in that way. But I also think for me, there's something unique and
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different about being in person with people, which is what live theater to me,
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becomes when you and I'm actually physically getting excited about this, like I
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want to stand up, I want to like cheer. Right now as I'm
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even talking about it, I can feel a whole difference in my body.
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I can feel a difference in my voice, in my face. I feel
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more alive, And I think that that's what being together in a room with
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people does to us. You know, movies. I love movies as well,
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and I love TV. I love all mediums that share our movies.
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I like a movie when I'm in a theater with people, and during the
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pandemic that it was one of the biggest things that I think we're all missing.
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I applaud Tom Cruise for not showing his film Maverick except in the theaters,
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and waiting through COVID to show it in a theater so that people could
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have that joint experience together in a room. We've got about a minute left.
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But your parents, they called Arthur show a lot. But you know,
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when I saw them at the brand new AMT Theater by the way on
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West forty fifth Street between eighth and ninth, I asked him, did you
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know Joni would be this social this much, you know in the theater world,
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like acting. They're like, yeah, we knew from a young age.
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So did your parents encourage that? Oh yeah, yeah, oh yeah,
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Because I got the lead in a play when I was in grade school,
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and we were shocked that I got the lead. But I got the
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lead, and I was so good at it, and I actually was the
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Queen of Hearts and my scepter came off and hit someone on the head in
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the audience. But I was so powerful, and I felt so powerful being
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on stage and saying words and having people listen to me. It was pretty
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amazing. When I went to college, I actually wanted to be a newscaster,
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but I didn't really want to lead New York and leave my family.
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So I went a different route a few times. But it seems like what
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I originally in and did and what was meant for me is coming full circle
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in many ways. I'm Alex Garrett with Joe Pelzer. By the way,
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what's your social Joe Pelzer NYC on Instagram? Is that right? Yes?
11:11
Follow her there and stay tuned with us. After some words from you know,
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probably the Russian Tea Room, mister Kelly, you know gumas, all
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We return now to Broadway at the Russian Tea Room. Here's your host,
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Robtow. Welcome back to Broadway at the Russian Tea Room. I'm Alex Garrett
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and normally on the other side of the glass engineering, but today a Robtab
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give to me the chance to talk with my one of my friends in radio,
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Joan Pelser, the executive producer of the Arthur Idella Power Hour, which
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you can hear Monday through Friday six to seven. But she's got a big
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theater background, including helping promote this new theater on West forty fifth Street between
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eighth and ninth AMT Theater. Jony, I know you wanted to get to
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Tony Sportsiello, the artistic director at AMT, but you also want to share
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your background first, just a little longer to how you got to AMT Theater.
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Yeah, so it's really amazing that Tony's able to join us today.
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Alex and you firsthand got to see the brand new theater and our very first
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production and unbalanced mind. How I met Tony was my friend Sharon Osowski and
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I who's now our general manager for the theater. We formed our own theater
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company right out of acting school back in two thousand and it was called Liquid
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Productions, and we did a show and the show was so much fun,
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and Tony came to say it because we knew people in it, and hence
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the relationship ship with Tony began. He asked us to come and do the
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show at the Workshop Theater, which he was running at the time, and
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then he left the Workshop and decided to form a new company so that he
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could give other artists a chance and take shows from stage to the next level.
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And we were able to successfully do that with Algonquin Theater Productions, and
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our very first show that we took to the next level was called Sessions the
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Musical, and we became the general managers with Al Tapper as the writer and
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Tony Helming as producer. And I am so excited every time Tony says let's
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do this, you say yes, because Tony is that magical person that we've
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been talking about this whole time, Alex Tanta Connector, he's somebody that you
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want to follow and you want to go and work with him because you know
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it's going to be amazing. So this new venture that we're in now,
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we've had several theaters, and I'll let Tony mention those, but this new
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venture, the AMT Theater on forty Street on the west side, is the
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regional theater from Midtown, New York. And I'm so delighted that you've asked
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Tony to join us today. You're also in the Baseball Hall of Faming Cooperstown.
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Now. Rob tib who hosts Broadway at the Russian Tea Room, is
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a huge fan of baseball, so I know he'll get a kick out of
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that. And your script National Pasttime is in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
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That's always a starting point for me when when baseball gets talked about, my
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ears perk up, as Joe knows. So if you want to get into
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that, and then your role as the artistic director of AMT Theater on what's
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forty fifth between eighth to ninth, great, well, Actually I have two
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scripts in the Hall of Fame. I wrote a one act play probably in
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about nineteen ninety four or something called Contract Time that was first presented up at
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Cooperstown, and that was the script that got me into the Hall of Fame.
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And then we did National Pastime later on the musical, and we performed
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that up in Cooperstown and that got it also put into the Hall of Fame.
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So that was really one of the highlights of my life, I have
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to tell you. And then you Emani with Joni and all of this becomes
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a thing for the AMT Theater and you were just telling us that National Pastime
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might be coming to this theater. Oh yeah, pretty much. Al and
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I have written about seven shows, and I've written shows on my own.
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Al's written shows on his own, Al Tapper for the audience to know exactly
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Al Tapper who basically built and designed and created AMT Theater. Here. We
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had been doing a number of productions outside on our own. We did Playwrights
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Horizons, the Peter J. Sharp, We did the Fourteenth Street Why,
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we did over at the Old Blue Heron. We built our space where we
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did sessions and all really want and I really wanted a home and I live
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in forty third Street and we're in and around community here. So we found
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this space on the forty fifth Street which used to be the old Davenport Theater
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and before that Primary Stages and before that, I think forty fifth Street Theater
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whatever, it went on for like forty five years. And we found this
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space which was open because of COVID in all likelihood, and we negotiated with
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the landlord and that took about six months, and then we moved signed to
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lease August seventeenth, and here we are ready to go for ten years at
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least. That's really awesome. And the reception has been incredible. As Johnnie
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mentioned, I did see an Unbalanced Mind just a couple of weeks ago,
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and the crowd was packed. So you guys are filling that theater out nearly
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nightly. Yeah, we had eighty seven in here last night, which is
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really a tremendous how to have in this small theater. But you know,
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it's one of the things that the location has just been dynamite for us.
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You can't ask for much better. We're right down the street from Mulan Rouge,
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you know, we're around the corner from Restaurant Row and close to the
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theater district and such and that's really why we picked this location. We really
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believe that this is a place where we can bring in people, not just
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tourists or Broadway people, although those as well if we get lucky, but
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we really want to make this a quote unquote regional theater, community theater for
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this area from forty first Street till fifty first Street, from here to the
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water. That's our focus. That's where we're doing the majority of our marketing
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and our advertising. Alex Garrett here talking with miss Joan Pelzer and mister Tony
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Sportello on Broadway at the Russian Team Room. They are part of the AMT
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Theater West forty fifth Street between eighth and ninth. I want to ask you
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both of this. I noticed that you guys partnered with the Broadway Equity Fund,
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and what's that meant to AMT Theater to have that partnership. Joni first,
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Yeah, let's Tony take that one. Well, every time, most
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of our actors, if not all of our actors, are members of Equity
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JOONI is, I believe, and Sharon who is our general manager, and
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my wife Kelly, who I've been win since two thousand and three. Everyone
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is a member of the Equity, and we understand how the times, especially
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lately in the last two years, the times are just a killer for anybody
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who's doing theater. So whatever we can do in any small way, we
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will will jump to do. Broadway Equity does tremendous things for their actors and
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tremendous things for New York and so so you know, we we're looking to
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actually increase that relationship as we go forward. Well that's very special. And
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Joanie, I know that you're doing the social media side of things. So
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how's the growth been on there? I mean, AMT Theater has been grown
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followers by day right. We are we're trying to build up our community and
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we want it. Like Tony said, we don't just want it to be
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the Broadway community and tourism. We want it to be the local community.
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We want to be the theater for the local community, be affordable for them
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to be able to come in, but the wonderful shows that they want to
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see and shows that have the potential to move to Broadway. So we are
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ingrained in that community. We are looking for all sorts of folks to get
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involved with us. We want seniors involved. We want seniors both in high
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school and in life. We want both sides of the house to come into
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the house on a regular basis and work with us. We're also looking to
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partner with folks in the community to do good. Like Tony said, equity
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is very important because it protects the actors and it helps keep them eating and
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drinking and living in New York City, and we want that. We want
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New York to come back. Just like Mayor Adams says all the time,
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get stuff done, AMT and Tony and Al. We're about getting stuff done,
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all right, Jony, I know that you know you're known as the
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executive producer of the Arthur Adalla Power Hour weeknights six to seven pm. So
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the sixty four thousand dollar question is will Arthur go to a show? Will
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you invite him out? Absolutely? Absolutely, Arthur's been gallivanting off in Paris
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and he got to see The Rolling Stones. But Arthur is and always will
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be a Broadway guy as well. You know, he majored in acting at
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Purchase Suny Purchase. He wanted to be an actor and then decided to become
22:37
a trial attorney, which is acting. Also he does his performance in the
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courtroom. You have to keep them entertained, so he absolutely will come.
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His parents are actually coming next week. Very cool. Well, we'll look
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forward to that. And I know that his parents are well known around these
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halls as well, if not just on radio, you know, Marianna,
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they show up in person too, they do. And in fact, they
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have a mutual friend of Tony and Our's named Jamie de Roy, who does
23:03
amazing cabarets bowl around Manhattan. All Right, I can't not end this conversation
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with one question. Tony, you're obviously a big baseball fan. Jonie,
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you love going to games. Can we just say what a great season this
23:15
has been for both teams and any predictions you want to make as to where
23:18
these teams end up. I mean, the Yanks maybe getting off the skid
23:22
here, we'll see, the Mets are on fire. What are your thoughts?
23:25
Well, my thought is if the mis can keep de Grama and Chairs
23:32
are healthy, they are the team to beat. I think they are a
23:33
better team than the Dodgers. I think they're the better team than the Yankees
23:37
if they've got those two guys going. But you know they are injury prones
23:41
and that's the that will be the key factor as you're hit into October.
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I think any thoughts, sir, So I'm gonna give you a little Tony
23:52
background. Tony, we produced a series of plays called the Derek Jeter Plays
23:59
Way and when we had a theater space at the South Street Seaport, and
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Tony wrote one of those plays. And yet I don't believe Tony's a Yankee
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fan. Baltimore Orioles. Oh wow, the Orioles are on fire also this
24:15
year. That's really awesome. All right, guys, yes, but before
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I let you go AMT Theater, what's the social what's the website? Where
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can people find you? Guys? Sure, it's AMT Theater dot org.
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You can go there for the website. You can go there for information,
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you can go there for tickets. It's AMT t e a t er dot
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org. That is the best place to keep up to everything that's going on
24:41
over here at forty fifth Street. And please connect with us, follow,
24:45
like, and share to help us grow our community. And Jony, thank
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you for helping us m feel part of the community of ABK Law and your
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community. And by the way, for actually coming to the memorial of my
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dad. That was really special that you were there on May sixth, and
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so thank you Jonie, Happy birthday, and just keep listening to the Alex
25:12
Garret Podcast Network