The Casino File By Chuck Darrow
If you’re expecting “Three American Troubadours,” the acclaimed celebration of the words and music of James Taylor, Carly Simon and Carole King that comes to Resorts Casino-Hotel Nov. 12 to be just another run-of-the-mill tribute-band affair, it’s producer would like you to alter your expectations.
“I really don’t like calling our show a ‘tribute’ act because I think we’re so much more than that. It’s more a telling of kind of a musical love story [shared by] James Taylor, Carly Simon and Carole King,” advised producer Franke Previte during a recent phone chat.
“Each song has its own little projection and story. And sometimes the songs become more like the soundtrack to the projections, which tell how and why the songs were written and the meaning behind them. I think people love hearing the behind-the-scenes stories about the making of these songs.
“And so, it’s more than just, ‘Oh, let me go up and sing a James Taylor song.’ ‘Let me go up and sing a Carly Simon song, a Carole King song.’ It’s about the romance of the music and how the music has a power that drew them together.”
As an example, Previte cited the backstory of one of Taylor’s signature tunes, “You’ve Got a Friend,” which was composed by King.
“James Taylor was at the Troubadour [a famed Hollywood nightclub] when he first heard the song,” explained Previte, who, as the lyricist of the Oscar-winning “(I’ve Had) the Time of My Life” from “Dirty Dancing,” knows a thing or three about hit songs.
“He was sitting in the back of the room during a sound check and Carole King started playing it. And he said, ‘That’s like the best pop song I’ve ever heard.’ And she goes, ‘Well, why don’t you take first crack at it?’
“It’s those little inside stories that are told that I think, makes the public embrace the songs even more.”
The gem of an idea
While Previte — who led the Central Jersey-based rock band Franke & The Knockouts in the early 1980s; they had a hit with “Sweetheart — was the one who constructed “Three American Troubadours,” his wife of five years, Lisa Sherman, who handles the Carly Simon end of things, came up with the idea of saluting the trio of hitmakers.
Sherman, recalled Previte, was “in 2015 or 2016, sitting around with a bunch of people one Saturday night having some wine. They were all musicians and one girl started singing Carole King songs and then Lisa did a Carly Simon song and then a guy with a James Taylor vibe about him sang and Lisa said to them, ‘You know what? With these three having such an intertwining history together, what a great show this would make!’
“And I said, ‘It’s great that you wanna go up and sing the songs, but you have to do more than that. You have to tell the story, and you can do that through the projections.’
“So, I sat down with Ryan Ward, who is a filmmaker, and we started designing and building each song in its story and projecting it behind them. And it started to take hold.”
But then the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020 and, like every other live production, “Troubadours” had its plug pulled. But when a semblance of normalcy returned, so did the show, which has, since then, thrilled and delighted audiences from coast to coast.
A work-in-progress
According to Previte, the presentation, which also stars Alice Leone and James Gedeon, constantly undergoes revisions and alterations.
“In the beginning, when we would see the reaction of an audience — or maybe no reaction — we would go back to the drawing board and tweak,” he advised. “And, you know, even last week I was tweaking ‘Nobody Does It Better,’ which is the song written by Marvin Hamlish for the James Bond movie, ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ that Carly Simon sang.
“There’s always the development of the production in terms of what song goes where, how we connect them and what are we saying about this song to give the audience the educational value in addition to the entertainment.”
Still ‘Dancing’
“Three American Troubadours” is not the only pea on Previte’s career plate these days. Even though it’s been almost 40 years since “Dirty Dancing” became a pop-culture phenomenon, it’s still very much part of the show business realm, and it currently occupies a significant part of his life and career, as two separate projects are on the horizon.
On Feb. 13, “Dirty Dancing—The Musical,” which has had success as a touring production, will make its Broadway debut at the Lena Horne Theater.
“I got a call from Eleanor Bergstein [the writer-co-producer of ‘Dirty Dancing,’] along with Lonnie Price, who played the nerd nephew of the owner of Kellerman’s [the fictional Catskill Mountains resort at which the movie is set], who is now the director of the stage play,” he explained. “They said, ‘We wanted you to know we are going to do ‘Dirty Dancing — The Musical.’
“I told Eleanor, ‘Don’t change it too much because people are in love with the story and with [the film’s late co-star, Patrick Swayze]. My advice to you is to stay true to the story. You may want to add a tweak here and there, but I wouldn’t sway too far away from what it is.
“And having Lonnie Price, who lived it as an actor will keep some of that element of the original movie happening.
“I have a third song in there, ‘Someone Like You,’ along with ‘Hungry Eyes’ and ‘Time of My Life. I can’t wait to see it.”
Also on the docket is a film sequel by Jennifer Gray, who played Baby in the original.
“It’s an interesting concept,” offered Previte, who has submitted a number of new tunes for the project, among them “I Had a Dream,” which Sherman sings, and a duet called “Are We in It Together.”
“It takes place in the 1990s, so Baby will be in her late-40s or 50s. I think she’s an attorney whose sister’s getting married at Kellerman’s, and they’re all going up for the weekend. They’re going to have flashbacks of Patrick and stuff like that.”
Of course, you can expect Previte’s two chart-topping hits to be included in the sequel.
That “Time of My Life” is, as he described it, “evergreen,” is something for which Previte is eternally grateful.
“I have been,” he admitted, “truly blessed.”
For tickets to “Three American Troubadours” go to ticketmaster.com.
Chuck Darrow has spent more than 40 years writing about Atlantic City casinos.
