[NEohioPAL] What Were They Thinking: Got To Be There

Sat Nov 1 07:32:01 PDT 2014

What Were They Thinking:  Got To Be There

Bob Abelman

Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning Journal

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics

This interview is the lastest installment of the "What Were They Thinking" Cleveland arts series.

The name Elliot Willensky, which belonged to a middle-class songwriter from Bayonne, New Jersey, never achieved national recognition.  But his songs certainly did.  During the 1970s and '80s, Willensky penned hit tunes for top artists, including Whitney Houston, Gladys Knight, Smokey Robinson, Chaka Khan, and The Fifth Dimension.  "Got to Be There" - a song that appeared on Michael Jackson's solo debut album - was released in 1972 and sold nearly 900,000 copies in the U.S. and over 3 million copies worldwide.  Elliot wrote that.

Elliot died in 2010 at the age of 66, and Steven Willensky is hoping to bolster his older brother's legacy with a new musical called "Got to Be There."  The show will get a staged concert reading on Monday, Nov. 3, at Westfield Insurance Studio Theatre in PlayhouseSquare.  

The CJN caught up with Steven during early preparations.

Willensky:  My brother was every Jewish mother's worst nightmare: He dropped out of medical school with one year to go to write jingles for Hertz, Fresca, and Chrysler and R&B songs for Detroit's Motown Records.  Elliot was incredibly talented and lived life to the fullest.

CJN:  When did the actual writing of the show begin?

Willensky:  My brother and I were extremely close and, back in 2009, we began kicking around the idea of putting together a two-man show where we would tell funny stories about growing up and, in between, perform his songs. even though neither of us had a great singing voice.  Tragically, he passed away from a stroke.  About 6 months later I decided I was going to write the show and stage it, with me doing the narration of the stories and several great singers performing his songs.  In September 2011, "Elliot and Me" premiered to a SRO audience at Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

CJN:  Why the Cleveland Institute of Music?

Willensky:  In 2002, I came back to Cleveland from Southern California to work for American Greetings.  My wife Judy was born and raised in University Heights.  "Elliot and Me" was performed as a fundraiser for the recently opened Maltz Hospice House at Montefiore, where I had been Chairman of the Board.  We netted over $125,000 at the performance and the audience reaction was absolutely incredible.

CJN:  I would imagine that most of the audience knew either you or Elliot personally.  What made you think that the show could reach a broader audience? 

Willensky:  One of the benefactors of that evening's performance was Mark Pedowitz who, at the time, was President of Touchstone Television. He was extremely moved by the story and hooked me up with theater folks in New York to help nurture the project along. I hired Scott Coulter to take my random vignettes and write a script with a beginning, middle and end.  In the new show, "Got to Be There," actors play out the scenes rather than having me narrate the stories. We had a well received reading in New York last summer and have been refining the script since.

CJN:  Have you taken yourself out of the show completely?

Willensky:  Oh no.  But I now have an actor playing me.  For the upcoming staged reading, local performer Connor O'Brien is "Steven."  I get to be younger, thinner, better looking, and sport a great singing voice.  Ah....the magic of musical theater!

For more of this interview, go to: 

http://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/features/leisure/arts/article_f7a8e374-5a17-11e4-9c4d-d7f79d9a320b.html
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