Ed Asner as FDR at Stockton

NEWS & VIEWS

Plus HERO Walk in Ocean City, Album of the Week and DrewToonz on 'Boardwalk Empire' Season 3

By ACW Staff

Add Comment | Comments: 0 | Posted Oct. 19, 2011

Ed Asner as FDR at Stockton 

Ed Asner is an iconic figure and multi-Emmy winner for his work on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Lou Grant. For the last three years he has been bringing another iconic figure to life in the one-man show FDR, about Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The play will be presented at the Stockton Performing Arts Center on Saturday, Oct. 22, 7:30pm. Tickets are $30 and $45. In a phone conversation Asner talked about his career and playing FDR. “I didn’t do any research initially other than my constant worship of FDR,” says Asner. “Subsequently, I’ve read a number of books and I’m delighted to say that the script is not butchering the facts. There was a vast and huge ego there but most of the time he used it benevolently.“ Asked what the biggest challenge was learning to play FDR, Asner says: “Well, I don’t look like him and I don’t sound like him. Those are a couple of big hurdles I have to get over, but I’m glad to say most people don’t have any complaints by the time they see the show. ... When I first started with the show I’d be out there for 10 or 15 minutes, I’d think, ‘Jesus Christ, I’ve got to be out here alone for another hour and a half!’ Then I buckle up and continue on. Finally, Asner talks about how his perception of the importance of FDR in American history has changed: “They’ve only been reinforced. As a sophomore coming home from high school I heard the news [that FDR died]. You thought, ‘What will happen to America?’ How will America ever be as great as it was under Roosevelt?’” For more of this interview click here. — Lori Hoffman 

Inaugural HERO Walk Sunday, Oct. 23 

Sunday, Oct. 23, marks the start of an event intended to become an integral part of the Ensign John R. Elliott HERO Campaign for Designated Drivers — an organization founded 11 years ago in memory of a young man killed by a drunken driver in July 2000. The HERO Walk is a 5K walk along the Ocean City Boardwalk from 6th Street to 20th Street and back. Registration will be at 6th street from 8-10am, or you can go to herocampaign.org or call 233-4787 to pre-register. The walk will take place from roughly 10am-noon, and there will be family activities and entertainment from 8am-noon. “We’re hoping for 1,000 people to come out and help us raise $100,000 for the HERO Campaign and its life-saving message, ‘Be a hero, be a designated driver,’” says Bill Elliott, chairman of the HERO Campaign and Ensign John Elliott’s father. “We hope that this will turn in to an annual event for many years to come, so we hope you’ll come out and join us.” According to Richard Stockton College’s associate dean of students Stephen Davis, the college hopes to assemble the walk’s biggest group of supporters in its inaugural year. “Stockton College plans to have a team made up of several student organizations and student leaders, and we look forward to having the biggest team there of hopefully 45 to 50 students,” says Davis. This year David Talerico, a junior Stockton, was selected the outstanding Designated Driver of the HERO Campaign as nominated by his fellow students. If you cannot participate in the walk but would like to contribute, mail a check to: HERO Campaign, P.O. Box 700, Somers Point, NJ, 08244. Make checks payable to the John R. Elliott Foundation. — Ray Schweibert

Andy Statman 

‘Old Brooklyn’ (Shefa) 

Bluegrass played with sonic accents of Klezmer, swerving its way into jazz and, at times, slipping into an old-time country rag is a musical route prevalent on Old Brooklyn, the new 2-CD record by the ultra-talented Andy Statman. The composer, mandolinist and clarinetist, along with his crack bass-drum-guitar-fiddle band line-up (in addition to guests such as Ricky Skaggs, Bela Fleck and Paul Shaffer) considers several different (but related) roots-music traditions throughout the dazzling set. “It draws from jazz and improvised music,” says Statman. “You know, every genre has its own emotional and structural categories.” And several are well-represented and magnificently explored on this daring set, which at various points conjures up the ghosts of Bill Monroe, Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band, Charles Mingus, Vassar Clements and the history of Ellis Island. Both the original tunes and traditional selections here tell a story — about the evolution of music, America seen through the eyes of early immigrants and the extraordinary power that surfaces when different cultures come together as one. —Jeff Schwachter