It Together, which was a Sond-
heim revue starring Julie An-
drews at a piano with five more
singers. Later that evening, I
went to see a Rodgers and Ham-
merstein revue, which had five
singers and another piano.
"The same bunch of songs I
heard all afternoon at the audi-
tion I was happy to hear all
evening."
Among the many musicals Mr.
Blake has brought to Detroit in
his three-decade career is last
year's revival of 42nd Street.
`There hasn't been a big, pro-
fe,ssional production of The King
and I for about six years," said
Mr. Blake, whose touring shows
are part of his own production
company, GFI, and whose re-
cent summers have been spent
as executive director of the
MUNY in St. Louis, the largest
theater in the country with
12,000 seats.
"We find that with these
classic revivals, six is the mag-
ic number. After that period,
there seems to be an interest
again.
Paul Blake:
Three-decade career In the theater.
ents. Donna and I were both kids
starting out in the business then."
Mr. Blake knew he wanted to
go on stage after seeing his first
Broadway show at age 4. Al-
though his education seemed to
be heading toward law school at
his father's urging, he changed
his focus as a student taking the-
ater classes at New York City
College.
"My government teacher said
he didn't think I should go to law
school because I didn't seem to
care about that," Mr. Blake re-
called. "He noticed I was much
more focused on theater and sug-
gested I go ahead with it. I was
off the hook.
"I starred in all the school
shows, and I'd already done lots
of summer stock by the time I
was a senior.
"My first job after graduation
was in a Missouri production of
The Fantasticks. At the time I
was just about done with that,
my girlfriend was working in an
off-Broadway revue, and they
were having trouble with one of
the guys in the show. She asked
them to wait until I got back be-
fore casting someone else. I sang
for them and got the job."
After seven years of acting, he
Bringing Theater
To Detroit's Stages
Producer-director
Paul Blake has
seen every side
of the theater—
and he loves it all.
ixing business with
pleasure comes natu-
rally to Paul Blake,
producer/director of
The King and I, which
will be at the Fisher
Theatre July 12-24.
He is both a presenter
and fan of musical
theater and revues.
"I love to have theater people
sing to me," said Mr. Blake, who
will be in Detroit for the opening
days of the play in which he cast
Shirley Jones as Anna and John
Saxon as the King of Siam. "Get-
ting paid for walking into a room
where people are singing 'Whis-
tle a Happy Tune' and 'Hello,
Young Lovers' is a good deal for
me. I spend days hearing noth-
ing but great theater music and
really having a good time.
"Last year I was in New York
auditioning singers for an entire
afternoon. Then, in the evening,
I went to see a show called Play
"The King and/ originally was
written as a star vehicle for
Gertrude Lawrence, and I went
Lack to the original concept and
put a big star in the leading role
of Anna before even thinking
about casting the King."
Mr. Blake's list of recent, trav-
eling productions include Meet
Me in St. Louis with Debbie
Boone, She Loves Me with
Theodore Bikel and Pam Daw-
ber andAnnie Get Your Gun with
Donna McKechnie, a former De-
troiter and old friend.
"I've been to Detroit many
times with shows," said Mr.
Blake, whose career went from
acting to directing to producing,
with each move taken on some-
one else's advice. 'Detroit's a very
good theater town. People are
very savvy and very smart.
"I was a Disney character the
first time I was in Detroit. I
played in a huge stadium, and I
stayed with Donna and her par-
SUZANNE CHESSLER
SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
was recommended as a director
for a synagogue drama-workshop
in New York. One of his theater
teachers came to see the results
of his directing Pajama Game,
and she was impressed, advising
him to think about changing his
professional path. He liked the
idea.
"I started going after directing
jobs and found them more quick-
ly than acting roles," recalled Mr.
Blake, who earlier had appeared
with Bette Midler in a show that
toured the Catskills. "I could hire
people who could look better or
sing better. Then I could dream
the dreams and encourage every-
body to live out my fantasy."
Part of that fantasy was real-
ized during eight years as resi-
dent director of the American
Conservatory Theatre in San
Francisco.
Along the way, he directed
Mass Appeal with John Travol-
ta, who made another career-
changing suggestion. The actor
thought Mr. Blake would be a
top-notch producer, particularly
since he already was taking on
many of those responsibilities in
Mass Appeal.
"I started a theater festival in
Santa Barbara, and for five years
we got a lot of stars," he said.
"Out of all those shows, She Loves
Me was reviewed with such glow-
ing praise that we were invited
to bring it into Los Angeles, and
then I started producing these
tours."
Mr. Blake tries to present
shows the way he thinks the au-
thors would like to see them.
"I put all my attention on let-
ting the actors shine," he said.
"My shows usually win lots of
awards for best performance by
actors. Only once did I win as a
director. I try to make it a lot of
fun for all of us because it's a
dream come true for me."
Mr. Blake has had special fun
Fourteen local young
actors will appear in
The King and L
bringing composers such as Jer-
ry Herman and the late Sammy
Calm to the tour circuit.
"Sammy would talk about his
bar mitzvah and how he discov-
ered people could be performers,"
recalled Mr. Blake, who likes to
sprinkle his language with Yid-
dish terms as he directs.
"Sammy told how his mother
came up to him toward the end
of the party and said it was time
to pay the musicians. Sammy
would reminisce how he an-
swered, Tay? They've had more
fun than anyone at this party!'
"Then Sammy told how he
went to open his (gift) envelopes
so there would be money for the
musicians. Sammy said he al-
ways knew how many Jews were
in the audience by how big a
laugh that got."
On a serious note, Mr. Blake
reported that he gives money to
the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
"I'm just so outraged that the
Holocaust happened, and I real-
ly don't know what to do about
the outrage," he revealed. "My
contributions are a way I found
of expressing my rage."
Mr. Blake, who is single,
makes a concerted effort to pro-
vide children with theater op-
portunities. In each of the cities
where The King and I is per-
formed, he will hire 14 young ac-
tors to be in "The March of the
Children of Siam."
THEATER page 75