THEATRE UNDER THE STARS
www.TUTS.com
Frank M. Young, Founder and Producing Artistic Director
John C. Breckenridge, President and CEO

 

September 8 - 20, 2009
Hobby Center for the Performing Arts

GREASE

Platinum-Selling Recording Artist

And "American Idol" Winner TAYLOR HICKS

Extends Run in Houston as "Teen Angel"

Emily Padgett, Eric Schneider and Company sing "Summer Nights"  in GREASE presented by Theatre Under The Stars from September 8-20, 2009.  TUTS is located at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts 800 Bagby & Walker, Houston Texas.  Photo by Joan Marcus.

The Company perform "You're The One That I Want" in GREASE presented by Theatre Under The Stars from September 8-20, 2009.  TUTS is located at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts 800 Bagby & Walker, Houston Texas.  Photo by Joan Marcus.

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Interview with Dominic Fortuna
Starring as Vince Fontaine in the new
Broadway Touring Production of GREASE

By Theresa Pisula
theresa@houstontheatre.com
Thursday   September 3, 2009

DOMINIC FORTUNA who stars as Vince Fontaine in Theatre Under The Stars’ 2009 touring production of GREASE is fresh off his Broadway debut playing the same role as Vince Fontaine.  He has worked in numerous capacities on stage and off with such greats as Dean Martin, Martha Walsh and Barry Manilow – just to name a few.  He is an associate director and former member of the Young Americans as well.  His television appearances include Dick Clark’s “Your Big Break” and NBC’s “Grease: You’re the One That I Want.”  Dominic currently writes, creates, directs and produces his own shows for his dinner theater, The Williamsburg Showcase Dinner Theater in Michigan.

As I conducted this phone interview, I found him very warm and engaging and he speaks with that distinctive Italian-American accent.  I also made the mistake of thinking he was already in Houston.  But being in a multi-city tour of the Number One Musical of the year GREASE, Dominic Fortuna is still the on-the-road entertainer.

Dominic Fortuna stars as Vince Fontaine in GREASE .  Photo courtesy of TUTS.

Theresa:  How do you like Houston so far?

Dominic:  I’m not actually in Houston yet.  We’re in Fort Worth right now.

Theresa:  You’re kidding!  I thought you’re already in Houston (laughs).

Dominic:  No I’ll be in Houston on Monday.  But I am in Texas.

Theresa:  Wow, it didn’t dawn on me you’re still in the middle of traveling.  I guess I should have known since you are in this big touring production.

Dominic:  Correct.  This is the 25^th city right now and Houston will be the 26^th.

Theresa:  How long have you been in Fort Worth?

Dominic:  We got here on Monday.  We came from Orlando, Florida to here.

Theresa:  Is this tour exciting for you?

Dominic:  Oh it’s great!!!  I’m loving it!  It’s one of those jobs that you don’t have to do it.  You get to do it.

Theresa:  (Laughs).  And in this musical production you play Vince Fontaine, which is a role made famous by Edd Byrnes in the movie.  I’m sure you remember the movie right?

Dominic:  Yup.

Theresa:  We must have been teenagers when Grease came out. 

Dominic:  I’m 27.

Theresa:  Are you really?

Dominic:  No, I’m not (laughs).

Theresa:  I know you’re kidding (laughs).  I get on the internet, you know.  I got your number.  I did all this research on you so I know how old you are.

Dominic Fortuna (center) and the Company perform "Born To Hand Jive" in GREASE presented by Theatre Under The Stars from September 8-20, 2009.  TUTS is located at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts 800 Bagby & Walker, Houston Texas.  Photo by Joan Marcus.

Dominic:  We don’t talk about age, come on (laughs).  But I do remember the movie, yes of course.  The movie came out in the ‘70s.  So many different ages remember it in different ways.  You know, we remember it in certain ways.  Kids nowadays remember it in certain ways.  That’s what’s so cool about GREASE.  It’s just like comfort food, you know?  Any generation can come see it and have a different play on it.  People come to see it, they’ve come to see who will play the John Travolta part, who is gonna play Sandy, who’s gonna play Rizzo…..

Theresa:  Right.  Growing up as an Italian-American in Michigan…

Dominic:  Correct.

Theresa:  You were John Travolta all the way.

Dominic:  Yeah, at a young age, it was amazing how much the story line goes…where it starts off at the beach and all that.  I was raised on the beach by Lake Michigan.  When I was younger, my grandma used to tell me, “You know on that show GREASE you look like that guy!” 

Theresa:  (Laughs).

Dominic:  I didn’t even know what she was talking about, you know?  When it first came out in the 1970’s when I was just a young lad, it was a great hit.  Lots of people think of GREASE as John Travolta and Olivia Newton John.  But the original Broadway musical with the original script on it is a little bit different.

Theresa:  So the musical you’re doing right now, is it based on the movie or the original Broadway show?

Dominic:  It is a combination of both, which is unique to GREASE.  Because this is the first time that they’ve ever taken some of the songs from the movie and put them into the musical.

Theresa:  Wow.  Well, I loved GREASE when I was growing up I loved Olivia Newton-John.  I was Sandra Dee all the way.  I loved her song, Hopelessly Devoted To You.  I memorized all the words and used to sing it all the time.  Do you remember that scene where Rizzo and the girls were making fun of Sandy….”Look at me I’m Sandra Dee....lousy with virginity”

Dominic:  Olivia Newton-John is wonderful, as a matter of fact.  I got to meet her one night.  When I was doing the show on Broadway, she came backstage during intermission and came over to meet me.  She said, “I cannot believe how much you remind me of John (Travolta)."

Theresa:  No way!!!  Did she really?

Dominic:  Yeah, and we took some pictures.  Her stylist actually invited me to go do Vegas to do a little TV show with her.  She’s got a little Fox show and we’re working on that. 

Theresa:  Awesome!!!  I love her, she’s amazing.  She actually came to see you after the show to say hi.  She’s so famous.

Dominic:  She’s just a little tiny thing.  She’s just cute.  She’s just a little cutie.  She came over after intermission and then after the show, we got together for pictures.

Olivia Newton-John as Sandy in the smash hit 1978 motion picture GREASE.  Photo courtesy of www.dailymail.co.uk

Theresa:  Wow.  So tell us about the part that you’re playing in GREASE.

Dominic:  Vince Fontaine is a great part.  Vince is like an ex-greaser and now what he’s done is start his own radio show in town.  Everybody, all the teenagers know him.  He’s on the air, that’s the radio station they listen to and he plays all the new rock songs that are coming out.  We added something a little different to this production, which a friend of mine Joe Piscopo did originally.  And also, Mitch Dolan played the part too.  We do a pre-show that starts before the show where Vince Fontaine comes out with his WASF DJ booth and he spins some tunes.  He gets the audience going and he gets them into the vibe of the 1950s.  So that’s the way I start the show.

Theresa:  Oh, so you come on before the actual show starts.

Dominic:  Right, about 15 minutes before as Vince Fontaine and we get the audiences going into the 1950s mode with the 50’s dances, songs and some of the lingo. 

Theresa:  That wasn’t in the movie, was it?

Dominic:  No, it wasn’t.  But in the trailer before the movie starts when they’re doing all the credits.

Theresa:  So when I go to the show on Opening Night, you come on when it starts at 8 o’clock…..

Dominic:  Actually 13 minutes before the show starts while people are still getting on their seats, I’ll be out there.

Theresa:  How exciting!  I can’t wait to see you.  What do you have to do to prepare for this role?

Dominic:  I took the role on and I tried to add a little bit of my own personality.  And yet I also tried to be the kind of Chicago-type-street DJ and drop that into the part.  He’s also kind of a creep in a way.  The part of Vince Fontaine was originally (and there’s some dispute on this) written about a real DJ out of Chicago who all the kids knew.  But he got in trouble because he used to say all of the wrong things.  Kind of like a Howard Stern.  And in that day, he used to say the wrong things on the radio about girls, you know.  He was known as a little creep because he had the young girls on the high school dance.

Dominic Fortuna and Company in GREASE presented by Theatre Under The Stars from September 8-20, 2009.  TUTS is located at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts 800 Bagby & Walker, Houston Texas.  Photo by Joan Marcus.

Theresa:  That’s how it was in the movie.  He was sort of a shock-jock and all the teenagers loved him for it.  But then, he would hit on the young teenage girls as well.

Dominic:  That kinda hangs in the balance with some of the script and dialogue.  But yet of course, I tried to add to it with kind of a rat pack charm to the part which is most different from when it was played before.  And it’s really fun doing it that way.  It feels good out there.  And we got a great cast around it.

Theresa:  You write, produce and direct your own show for the Williamsburg Showcase Dinner Theatre in Michigan.  How do you manage your time to be able to do all this?

Dominic:  I’ve actually put the summer show together at home up there in Michigan.  I hired somebody else out there to do it.  I got a lot of time on the side.  As a matter of fact, I was just doing some stuff for our Christmas show coming up.  Getting together writing that, getting it set, getting the cast together for it.  It’s not really that difficult.  You know, it’s what I do.

Theresa:  How long have you been doing this?

Dominic:  For the dinner theatre we’re on our sixth year.  I’ve written 25 different shows for it. 

Theresa:  Wow, you’re a true entertainer.  In 2003 you were voted “Best Northern Michigan Entertainer” in the Northern Express Magazine People’s Choice Awards for the 2^nd year in a row!

Dominic:  Yeah, I got great people around me.  I got great tech people, my musical arranger and my office, the people who work for me.  I have really good people, my partner.  Everybody does their job real well so they basically asked me to make sure that I take care of the artistic end of it.  Everybody else, they helped me out and we put together a great product.

Theresa:  Is this something you started on your own?  You got people together to support your project?

Dominic:  That’s it.  That’s the way it works.  People I’ve worked with over the years with different bands and shows.  People that were living in that area that I knew were there.  And some people that I bring in and put together the dinner theater.  It’s been going pretty good.  I mean the economy took a dive so we’re struggling a little bit but theater always struggles when you’re a profit organization. 

"American Idol" Taylor Hicks appears as Teen Angel in GREASE through the end of the show's run here in Houston.  TUTS presents GREASE at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts September 8-20, 2009.  The Hobby Center is located at 800 Bagby & Walker, Houston Texas.  Photo by Joan Marcus.
 

Theresa:  Tell me the most memorable experiences you’ve had when I mention the following people.  American Idol Taylor Hicks who stars as Teen Angel. 

Dominic:  Taylor is a great guy, very smart and has probably one of the most memorable voices that we’ll ever hear. 

Theresa:  He’s great.  My husband actually voted for him in American Idol.  And he also plays the harmonica.  He’s very talented.

Dominic:  Great voice. 

Theresa:  What’s it like being on the tour with him right now?

Dominic:  Taylor and I hang out quite a bit.  We’re closer in age than a lot of the cast.  I think we’re both kind cut from the same cloth, you know.  We’ve been doing gigs most of our life.  We’ve had bands.  We’ve been in the music industry for the long time.  We like sports, we fish and hunt.  So, we’ve got a lot in common.

Theresa:  Do people follow you around when you hang out?  I mean, you’ve both been on TV…..

Dominic:  You know I used to notice it but not anymore.  I don’t recognize it.  We’re just trying to do our thing (laughs).

Musical legend and movie star DEAN MARTIN.  Photo courtesy of www.ifco.org

Theresa:  You’ve also performed alongside the legendary movie star Dean Martin….

Dominic:  He was a great guy.  I remember sitting in his dressing room before one of his shows and watching the football game with him.  And he was just being so focused on me like “What do you do, how about your family?”  He was so outside of himself.  It was not about him.  He really was interested in who he was about to do the show with. 

Theresa:  This is the Dean Martin show?

Dominic:  Actually we were in Sacramento, California doing a convention show and I got hired in to do a couple of his warm ups for him along the way.  And we were doing a warm up for one of the governors.  I was doing the warm up for him before he came out.  This was in the '80s and he was going to do a couple of numbers. 

Theresa:  You went on tour with Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band….

Dominic:  Actually I toured with his guitar player with the Silver Bullet Band but I have worked with Bob.  He’s got one of those personalities (I can also say the same thing about Dean) in that he notices everybody in the room.  He will come over and say hi.  If you’re backstage with Bob, he wants to know how you’re doing.  How’s everybody going?  What are you doing afterwards?  He’s very friendly, always smiling and really, really creative.  He’s just a great writer, very Michigan.

Theresa:  How did you come to work with Joe Piscopo?

Dominic:  Joe is a great story.  My girlfriend at the time, who worked for a TV station and she had tickets for the Joe Piscopo show.  And I was in the audience.  Joe asked if there were Italians in the audience as part of his comedy routine.  He included this whole skit he was going to do.  And my girlfriend said to me, “Raise your hand.  Raise your hand!”  And I was not gonna raise my hand.  So, he came over to me and started singing an Italian song that I happen to know.

Theresa:  (Laughs)

Dominic:  So he’s serenading me in Italian and I don’t know what came over me.  I grabbed his hand with the mike and finished the song.  And it was a piece of opera.  And he just looked at me and said, “Come here.”  And he took me up onstage and we spent 15 minutes with his band taking requests from the audience and singing back and forth.  He whispered in my ear as I left the stage, “I’ll have somebody grab you.  I want you to come backstage.  I want to talk to you.”  So I met him backstage and talked to him. 

We’ve been friends since.  He came to see me on Broadway and out in L.A.  We stay in touch.  Whenever he’s doing a show, I try to stop by and see him.  When I do one, he tries to come see me.  But Joe’s a great guy, I mean if you get to know him, really.  He’s very smart and a very great person.  He’s done a lot of good things for the Italian American actors in this country.  He represents us in a good way.  He’s a great talent.

Theresa:  You also worked with Arsenio Hall….

Dominic:  I didn’t work directly with him, but we did go up for one of the same parts.  It happened to be that I landed it.  Boy, this was back in the 1980s in California.  He is just really funny, very outgoing.

Theresa:  So you worked a lot out in California……

Dominic:  I used to live out there.  I lived out in Orange County and worked with the Disney Corporation for awhile, also worked with a group called The Young Americans.

Theresa:  Oh, that’s right you were the Show Director for The Young Americans on a 10-day multi-state tour.

Dominic:  That’s where I went to school, a Performing Arts School.  So I lived out there for about 8 years back in the late 80s and 90s.

Theresa:  What’s it like working at the happiest place on earth Disneyland?

Dominic:  Disney’s a great corporation.  It’s fun to work for them.  I grew up a lot working for Disney.  Some of the people that I worked with there have been working there for years.  I’m talking in Production and Choreography.  And they have really been on the frontier, on the front edge of a lot of great work that Disney has put out.  And they treat their employees great. 

Disney’s a fun park, it’s wonderful.  I did the Main Street Parade, a 1950s show.  I was also the Anniversary host where during the late 1980s there was a 35^th Anniversary of Disney.  And I was their host in the main hub.  I would interview people that would win these little tickets.  They’d win a car and I find out where they’re from and what they’re doing at Disney.  And I was also a DJ for Videopolis which was the American Bandstand at Disney.

Barry Manilow.  Photo courtesy of www.sidesalad.net

Theresa:  You also worked with the legendary Barry Manilow in the creative production of the musical “Could It Be Magic?”

Dominic:  I have.  I would say the first thing that comes to mind about Barry is he’s a genius.  He’s a genius.  He’s a very reserved, careful genius musician.  He knows how to market himself.  He knows how to write music.  He knows what kind of music works for him.  The first time I met him, I sang and I auditioned for him.  There was a really uncomfortable silent pause.  He looked at me and he said, “Kid, you got chops!”  And I just almost melted right there….I’m like, Barry Manilow!  I loved Barry Manilow since I was very young (laughs).

Theresa:  (Laughs).  Was this in the middle of a show when he told you this?

Dominic:  I was actually auditioning for the show and he was writing it.  I ended up landing it.  It didn’t go anywhere though at the time, it was right before 09/11 when we were putting it together.  And then everything kinda fell apart.

Theresa:  Can you describe to us a regular work day in this touring production of GREASE?  Is it a lot of work?  Is it very tedious?

Dominic:  It can be.  You know, you work with a cast.  If you have to put somebody in like a new cast member you have to work with them.  All the rehearsals were done in New York back in November and October.  So there are really not a lot of rehearsals left.  We’re pretty much up and running.  The only time you really do rehearse is if you’re putting in a new cast member or another study needs to go in. 

Theresa:  So for instance, you’re coming in to Houston this week and Opening Night is Tuesday evening at 8pm.

Dominic:  We come in on Monday.  And on Tuesday you arrive early and we do a sound check, you meet all your backstage people, your dressers and everybody who’s gonna take care of you.  You kinda have a meet and greet with everybody.  Get the vibe of the theater.  I myself, I do a lot of research on every town I go to.  I’d like to find out who the DJ was in the 1950s, where people hung out, where they went to, the best beach to swim at.  I go through it all so I come to warm up and I’m talking to the audience, I’d like to know who they are and where they come from.  And some of the surrounding cities, I do a little research.  So that’s what I do when I arrive. 

Theresa:  Wow.  I can’t wait to see it. 

Dominic:  Yeah, I like to know the audience and know where they’re from.  It’s good to know even if I don’t use it.

Robert De Niro and Samuel L. Jackson in Quentin Tarantino's movie Jackie Brown.  Photo courtesy of www.totalfilm.com

Theresa:  Who are your most favorite actors / directors?  And who influenced you the most?

Dominic:  My favorite director is Quentin Tarantino.  I love him.  I think he’s great.  My favorite actor would be Val Kilmer or Robert De Niro.  I think he’s great.  Actresses, there’s a bunch of them I like (laughs).  The most influential in my life, I would say, is a singer from South America from Chile and his name is Oscar Feliu.  Not a lot of people know him but he’s been around a long time.  He was my very first voice coach and performing coach when I was 13 years old.  And he has been working all over the world.  As a matter of fact, he’s heading to Italy here soon.  He went from pop music to opera.  Now he’s singing opera.  But he’s just a big influence in my life.  If you ever get to see him in concert or hear him, you will see why.  He had a great stage presence, charisma and humility that I think goes a long way.  It shows the proper essence of an artist that’s trying to give to his audience. 

Theresa:  What would you like to say to the Houston theatre-going audience?

Dominic:  I’m really looking forward and excited.  I hope they’re as excited as I am and the rest of the cast to come to Houston.  We hear that it’s gonna be a great audience.  Just hold on because here we come.  This is GREASE and you’re just gonna love it!!!  You really are gonna love it.  I’m looking forward to it.  I’m excited. 

Oscar Feliu.  Photo courtesy of www.ifco.org