My dinner with… Steve Rosen

Decades ago, I was too timid to bid on a silent auction item (I don’t recall the charity now) I dearly coveted – dinner with Stephen Sondheim. It didn’t quite go for a song, but I could have afforded the splurge, and I regretted it. As an antiques dealer later admonished me, when trying unsuccessfully to negotiate the price of a Windsor chair, “You never regret an extravagance. You always regret an economy.” So, when the bidding got heated at Geva’s Summer Curtain Call fundraiser two years ago, I didn’t give up, and I “won” the opportunity to dine with Jen Cody, who starred in Geva’s hysterical production of Sylvia. Unfortunately, my dinner date was canceled at the last minute, because her dad was dying. I look forward to her starring in a future Geva production, so I can redeem by voucher. In the meantime…

There was another Summer Curtain Call auction last year for dinner with Steve Rosen that I couldn’t stop bidding on. Luckily, his parents, who live in Pittsford, are healthy, so Charlie and I had our “meet and eat” with him last week at Salena’s, in Village Gate. I was a little intimidated, and worried that we wouldn’t have enough to talk about for an entire dinner, but when he arrived, he put us completely at ease. First, although he did ask us a few questions about ourselves, he seemed perfectly happy to be grilled by me. Second, he turned out to be delightfully unassuming; he grew up in Pittsford, so we chatted about local stuff, like the weather, and how he felt about staying with his parents for the duration of the show, in his old bedroom with show posters and memorabilia from his childhood.

I tried to apologize to him for not letting him eat that much (he took most of his dinner home…) as I peppered him with questions. When he mentioned that he’d gone to summer camp in the Catskills, I asked if it was like Camp (the movie that got Anna Kendrick noticed, and had a cameo by Sondheim), and he said yes, but it wasn’t “that” camp, he went to the “other” camp – French Woods – where he met Zooey Deschanel and other now-famous actors, and formed lifelong friendships.

Since we were in Sondheim territory (he actually met the god when he worked as an audition reader for a production of The Frogs), I asked about The Other Josh Cohen, the show he wrote and is currently starring in at Geva: which came first, the words or the music? Interestingly, he said the music came first – he was in LA pitching TV ideas, and in a moment of distraction, wrote several songs as Neil Diamond riffs. The show started out as a vehicle for him and his writing partner, but has evolved into a full-fledged musical, with the multiple characters being played by any number of actors, from 3 to 30. This sounded extremely sensible for the long-term success of the show – it could just as easily be produced with a small cast, to contain costs, as it could be by a high school drama department. The cast, except for the “Josh” character, which Steve plays, are also the band, so the show requires some multitalented individuals, which many performing artists seem to be these days!

Steve talked a bit about an improv variety show he co-created at Joe’s Pub, and working with the Open Doors Program, initiated by the great Wendy Wasserstein. And about being burgled as a rite of passage in NYC. The evening ended too soon (it would have been impolite to impose further on his time), and I look forward to seeing his show later this month at Geva. And who knows, it might even make it to Broadway? If it does, it’ll be such fun to tell friends I saw it here first! 

For more information on The Other Josh Cohen visit: www.gevatheatre.org