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Side Man

By: Warren Leight
Narrated by: Frank Wood, Garret Dillahunt, Christine Lahti, Kyle Colerider-Krugh, Kevin Geer, Joseph Lyle Taylor, Stephanie Zimbalist
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Publisher's summary

A Tony Award-winner for Best Play, Side Man delves deep into the postwar New York jazz underground through the life of a celebrated musician and his dysfunctional family. Warren Leight used his own experiences as the son of a jazz musician to create Gene, a talented but emotionally incompetent trumpeter whose pure devotion to music comes at the expense of his relationship with his resentful wife, Terry, and their self-sacrificing son, Clifford.

A L.A. Theatre Works full cast performance starring Frank Wood as Gene, Garret Dillahunt as Clifford, Christine Lahti as Terry, Kyle Colerider-Krugh as Ziggy, Kevin Geer as Jonesy, Joseph Lyle Taylor as Al, Stephanie Zimbalist as Patsy, and with live sound effects by Tony Palermo.

©2010 L.A. Theatre Works (P)2010 L.A. Theatre Works
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Editorial reviews

Warren Leight’s drama is an elegy for a dysfunctional family and the end of live jazz as a musical force. Jazz trumpeter Gene, who is distant from everything but music, and his volatile wife, Terry, live through decades of poverty and turmoil, with son Clifford, the narrator, as go-between and family adult. The play has powerful moments as well as humorous lines among its wrenching incidents, black comedy, and harsh swearing. But some performances are too broad, exaggerated, or strident even for this emotionally raw play, while Frank Wood's Gene seems unrealistically impassive. Listeners sometimes miss out by not seeing expressions and actions, and are left to wonder during silences between characters. Nonetheless, some powerful scenes and performances make the experience worthwhile.

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Theatre Masterpiece Preserved-SIDE MAN

I love this play so much, I got to see it on Broadway with Wood & Geer (R.I.P.) and Andrew McCarthy as Clifford. Having this recording with Wood in his star-making Tony Award winning role & Geer who originated Jonesy is a true blessing, Lahti is an intense Terry & Dillahunt makes for a very sharp Clifford, less mercurial than McCarthy but maybe more beaten down & angry. It works in a different way. The rest of the cast is great, the music is all well done, and of course, the writing by Leight is near perfect. I don’t understand why more companies don’t produce this show. I wish I’d played Clifford when I was younger & now want to play Gene. This is a great production to have preserved. A must listen for theatre fans, who want smart, well-written, moving PLAYS.

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