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Jewish cast member manages to find a way
to observe holidays while on the road.
BILL CARROLL
Special to the Jewish News
T
raumatized by a rebuke
from a mean music teacher
when his voice broke while
auditioning for a choir at
the age of 13, Lawrence Asher stopped
singing for five years. But his "nice old
Jewish grandmother" kept after him to
take voice lessons and return to singing.
Now, Asher, a bass baritone, plays
two supporting roles, singing four
solos plus parts of other songs,
in The Phantom of the Opera,
Andrew Lloyd Webber's
venerable award-winning
musical that opened last
week for a return engage-
ment in Detroit's Masonic
Temple Theatre. It contin-
ues through
Saturday, May 26.
Phantom, which
premiered in
London in 1986, is
being seen for the
first time by new
Lawrence Ash .:
generations of the-
atergoers,
including
b
even Asher, when he joined the ca.)._ for
the national tour 21/- years ago.
Asher plays the parts of Don Attilio
and Passarino, two featured roles in the
operas performed within The Phantom
of the Opera, which came to Detroit
from Memphis where Asher celebrated
Passover with the only other two Jewish
people connected with the troupe.
"We had a seder in the activities room
of an apartment complex," he said.
"Each of us did some cooking. I brushed
up on my old seder recipes and cooked
up some matzah ball soup. We took
turns davening and had a lot of fun.
"That's the life of an actor on the
road. One year I celebrated Chanukah
in Paris — at a Jewish restaurant with
the traditional Chanukah holiday dish-
es." Observing holidays as a bachelor
will end next month for Asher, when he
will marry Jenifer Shenker, a stage man-
ager, in her hometown of Boston.
A New Jersey native, Asher became a
bar mitzvah at a Reform temple. He
attended Bard College and Ithaca
University in New York State, graduat-
ing with a double major in political sci-
ence and Russian literature.
"We had several lawyers in the fami-
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ly, and my parents wanted me to get
into that field because they felt it
would be more secure for me," Asher
reflected. "They urged me to get a
complete liberal arts background.
Then I chose an acting career."
Asher took accordion, violin and
trumpet lessons as a youngster, before
getting the acting bug while at sum-
mer camp. In his first musical per-
formance at age 11, he dressed up like
an elderly man and played the
Salvation Army-type captain in Guys
and Dolls, singing the show's
only tear-jerking ballad,
More I Cannot Wish You.
"It's the type of song
that brings tears to
the eyes of women,
and that happened
to my family that
night," he said.
"My grandmother
never forgot it and
she spurred me on.
Eventually, I took
some voice and
acting lessons, then
hit the theater cir-
cuit."
After performing some dramatic
roles, Asher appeared in My Fair Lady,
Music Man, Sweeney Todd, The Most
Happy Fella, The Pirate King and some
light opera shows.
"In order to perform in musicals 52
weeks a year, you must have true passion
for the role you're playing," he said.
"You have to give consistent, vibrant
performances all of the time, and that's
what I've always tried to do."
Asher recalls a Yiddish Art Song class
he took in New York City under Jewish
composer-instructor Lazar Weiner: "He
asked us for the musical meaning of the
letters 'MF' and 'MP,' usually standing
for mezzo forte (medium loud) and
mezzo piano (louder).
"`No,' Weiner said. 'MF' means 'mit
feeling,' and 'MP' means 'mit pas-
sion.' ❑
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The Simone
5/4
2001
79