Theater Interview: MICHAEL ROTH (Music Director for Randy Newman’s “Faust” at The Soraya, September 28 & 29, 2024)

Post image for Theater Interview: MICHAEL ROTH (Music Director for Randy Newman’s “Faust” at The Soraya, September 28 & 29, 2024)

by Sarah A. Spitz on September 22, 2024

in Interviews,Theater-Los Angeles

LIFE IN THE FAUST LANE

There’s Gounod’s Faust (the opera), Thomas Mann’s Doctor Faustus (the novel), Christopher Marlowe’s Faust (the play), then there’s the classic Faust — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s massive tome, published in two parts in 1808 and 1832, that is both rhymed-verse poem and play, considered by some to be the greatest work of German literature. What they all — and countless other Fausts in their many varied forms — have in common is a man, usually a scholar, who is willing to sell his eternal soul to the Devil in exchange for worldly treasures and pleasures till he dies — after which all Hell literally breaks loose, from which we derive the phrase “Faustian bargain.”

Now meet Randy Newman’s Faust, a concert version which is being produced by The Soraya for the first time in Los Angeles on the campus of Cal State Northridge on Saturday, September 28 and Sunday, September 29, 2024. Stage and Cinema writer Sarah A. Spitz had a chance to speak with Artistic Director Thor Steingraber and Michael Roth, Music Director/Music and Vocal Arranger and pianist for Faust at the Soraya. In this version, Roth said, the eponymously named character is described this way by : “(Henry Faust) is a sophomore in his eighth year at Notre Dame University, so his ambition to be anything is a little dubious. A scholar he ain’t.”

Michael Roth

It’s not just the Devil who’s involved with wrangling Faust’s soul: through Newman’s renowned sense of irony and satire, the story becomes a war of weary wits between The Lord and The Devil, each of whom are attempting to manipulate the outcome of a bet they’ve made with one another. And in 2024, both of them are fatigued.

His first and only musical, Randy Newman’s Faust was staged at La Jolla Playhouse in 1995. That same year, he released a star-studded record album featuring selected songs from the musical sung by James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, Don Henley, Elton John, Bonnie Raitt and Newman himself as The Devil. Chicago’s Goodman Theatre mounted the musical in 1996 with a script by David Mamet, and in 2014, New York’s City Center presented a concert version of it as part of the Encores! Off-Center Series, with Newman playing piano and narrating as The Devil.

Thor Steingraber. Photo by Luis Luque

After more than 20 years directing operas at opera houses around the US and the globe, Executive and Artistic Director of The Soraya Thor Steingraber’s desire to produce Randy Newman’s Faust has been with him for a very long time.

“I’ve had a personal obsession with Randy Newman’s version of this classic story long before I ran the Soraya” (he’s now in his eleventh year). He used to listen to the CD on constant repeat driving around town. “The album had a cult following in the 1990s. One of the first projects I pursued at the Soraya was recreating Faust in concert form; City Center beat me to it, but here we are, 10 years later, and we’re finally getting our crack at it.

“And while we do not have the resources or capacity to produce a full Broadway show (that’s a $15-million-dollar investment minimum), LA audiences still deserve to see this extraordinary piece, so this concert rendition of Faust may be the one and only opportunity for LA audiences to see it.”

Why now? Steingraber says, “Like Romeo and Juliet or any other great timeless story, artists revisit classics because the story is enduring and durable. And there’s something attractive to an artist in taking a classic and bringing it into their own time. I think it’s safe to say that in our time, our perception of The Lord and The Devil is very different from that of the generations preceding us. Randy’s made Faust an American story.”

If you’re familiar with Newman’s music — and how can you not be, he redefines prolific — you know his satirical “Short People,” the anthem of our town, “I Love LA” and “Sail Away,” which, beautiful as it is, is actually about enticing Africans to come to America to be enslaved. His core for The Natural is pure Americana. He’s won two Oscars, three Grammys and seven Emmy Awards, among many other accolades.

In rehearsal for Faust in New York

Michael Roth first connected with Newman on a New York cabaret revue of his songs directed by Joan Micklin Silver in 1981. He orchestrated the musical’s premiere at La Jolla Playhouse, where he had been composer in residence, and he’s edited Newman’s songbooks. They’ve been professional colleagues and friends for many decades. Michael’s many collaborations with Randy Newman as music director, orchestrator, arranger, and pianist, include musical direction for Disney’s The Princess and the Frog, the music of which will be on the new ride at Disneyland, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, which opens this year.

I asked him what he thinks Randy Newman’s appeal is.

“That’s a complicated question. To my mind, as much as he is a standard popular artist, he’s also a subversive one who writes in a distinctive American way, that’s often critical of who we are. I think that people who get on that wave length encounter a really interesting mind, that’s also wonderfully musical and very, very funny.

“There’s this sophisticated and intellectually curious nature of his music that keeps you on your toes as a listener. He’s capable of doing all the work he’s done for Pixar, at the same time as having written songs like ‘Political Science,’ ‘Rednecks’ and ‘Putin Puttin’ on his Pants.’ He is very well classically-trained at the same time that he’s a rock ‘n’ roller.”

In rehearsal for Faust in New York

What sets Newman’s Faust apart from others, says Roth, is that, “Randy gives very serious thought to religion and the presence of it in the universe but makes no secret of the fact that he is not religious himself. He’s interested in the big philosophical questions, like if the Lord exists, what the hell’s going on, why are such horrible things happening.

“The bones of the story are there. In his version, the Devil’s been banished from Heaven but he wants to move back up because it’s nicer in heaven than it is in hell. And after 4,000 years, the Lord is a little bit bored with Heaven. But the Lord doesn’t want the Devil to move back up. So they make a bet. The Devil says, I can find somebody to sell me their soul and if I do, I can move back up. And the Lord says, if you don’t you can never come back here again.

“In Randy’s vision of Faust, the way the Lord and the Devil manipulate each other to get what they want makes for a very interesting contemporary conundrum. They both break the rules in the name of winning the bet. The irony of Randy’s Faust has to do with making both the Lord and the Devil characters of a certain level of moral ambivalence.”

To bring the concert version to life, Steingraber has reached to Broadway for stars. “There’s Javier Muñoz as The Lord, who’s well-known for In the Heights, and took over for Lin Manuel-Miranda as Hamilton on Broadway. He’s a younger generation artist, not an old white dude, playing the Lord.

Reeve Carney is The Devil, he starred in the original Broadway production of Hadestown and Spiderman. I didn’t know this before but he is a musical savant who brings exceptional musical versatility along with his own rock ‘n’ roll sensibility.

Jordan Temple, best known as a writer on Abbott Elementary has worked on the script and will narrate.

“And as the slacker/gamer Henry Faust, we have Ryan McCartan, who’s had multiple Broadway roles, a recurring role in Disney’s Liv and Maddie, and is perhaps best known for his lead role in the 2016 Fox musical TV film, The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do the Time Warp Again.”

Roth will be onstage, on piano, and music directing a 9-piece band. “With Randy Newman’s music, you have to be faithful not only to the rock ‘n’ roll but the classical music thinking, paying attention to both. Our band is a very solid rhythm section but also a small orchestra that includes two reeds, a violin and a trombone. You can’t just have a synthesizer playing synth patches.”

With 1700 seats, The Soraya — open for 14 years now — is both grand and intimate all at once. It has the best acoustics of any venue in SoCal and it is also home to extraordinary programming, everything from an annual jazz festival to an extensive series of Spanish language programs, to great orchestras and chamber music and dance. And they’ve hosted the greats of Broadway musical theatre, from Leslie Odom, Jr. to Patti LuPone to Megan Hilty and more. Renowned for producing programs that aren’t just on tour or a concert, there are things you can only see at The Soraya. Like Randy Newman’s Faust.

photos provided by The Soraya

Randy Newman’s Faust
Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts (The Soraya)
18111 Nordhoff Street, Northridge
Saturday, September 28, 2024 at 8
Sunday, September 29, 2024 at 3
for tickets ($41 to $86), visit The Soraya

Sarah A. Spitz is an award-winning public radio producer, retired from KCRW, where she also produced arts stories for NPR. She writes features and reviews for various print and online publications.

Leave a Comment