Photo of Corine Cohen, Joe Stein and Elisa Loti Stein by Brad Balfour
All About Joe Stein part 3!
Written by Corine Cohen
CC: How did you two meet? Can you tell the story of how this all came about? How you actually got involved in the production.
JF: We met at [Broadway producer] Stewart Lane's Christmas party? Do you remember that? I think that's the first time we met.
ES: Melissa was in my house and she said something about how wonderful you are, and Joe said, "Well, why can't we meet her?" And, then, we met you at Stewart Lane's party.
JF: I said, "Let's go to lunch or something."
JS: Once we met, I introduced her to the material. And, obviously, she reacted positively. And, she loved it from there running.
JF: I was intrigued going to Princeton [for the first reading]. It really changed everything when I got there.
JS: At that point we really had the show. We had more work to do, but we knew that the show was marvelous.
JF: Watching their faces and watching them work, I could see their vision.
JS: It was after McCarter [Theater, at Princeton University] we knew we had something very special and unique and very exciting.
JF: It was a test. It wasn't the cast yet.
Joe and Elisa Loti Stein.CC: Are you going to do a new recording of the new cast?
JF: When we get there. We're going to Westport.
JS: And then we'll see.
ES: Step by step.
CC: And you probably have to get more investors to go to Broadway.
JF: We will be surprised at Westport. People really need to see it. It's not a show you can explain.
JS: It's not kind of a simple story line. Boy likes girl. Boy loses girl. It's nothing like that.
CC: It's a tough year too because there are two Kander and Ebb shows this year, yours and "Curtains."
JS: I really wish them well. I really love John. Everybody connects with that show. That show's loaded down with probably wonderful people. But, they're good friends of mine. A lot of them. A lot of the cast. Listen I've heard they're going to do very well. I think it's a fun show. And I think the audience is going to have a good time.
CC: So you're going to have two Kander and Ebb shows running at the same time. That's quite an experience.
JF: That'll be interesting.
ES: One should help the other.
JS: It's not an unusual experience. "Fiddler" had a very long run, and during that run, I had other shows at the same time. "Zorba" was running when "Fiddler" was running.
CC: Is there anyone you haven't worked with that you want to work with at this point? And what was it like working with Mel Brooks?
JS: Well, Mel is just one of four or five or six of us. Listen, what can I say? Mel is very funny. He is always a little crazy. But we had a group of awfully bright guys. we were all very lucky because it was like a school for comedy writers.
In his early comedy days, Stein worked with Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks as they developed their long-running skit "The 2,000 Year Old Man."CC: Right, "The Show of Shows."
JS: "Your Show of Shows" with a great teacher. [Neil] Simon was there. Carl Reiner. Myself. I have to think of who else.
CC: That is amazing. Were you around with the 2000-year-old man because that's one of my favorite short films.
JS: Why sure. The 2000-year-old man was actually born from kidding around in the writer's room. They would come to my house for example, and Mel and Carl would perform.
CC: You actually watched them do that?
JS: Why sure. They were just kidding around. They never thought anything would happen with it. That's the way they'd kid around.
CC: What was they like? Just always that naturally funny?
JS: They both have enormous sense of humor. They were real. They talked about what everybody else talks about. We're still friends. I'm very good friends with Carl. I speak to Carl at least once a week.
CC: Tell me all about him. I adore his work!
JS: Well, Carl is the most well-liked man in this business. Everybody adores Carl. He's still working. He writes novels, children's books.
ES: You adapted one of his novels.
JS: Well, actually the first thing I ever did more or less on a dare was make a play out of a novel Carl wrote. The most hilarious thing you ever saw. You know who was the star of that play? Alan Arkin. It was his first show. It really was hilarious.
CC: "The Show of Shows". I love that kind of humor. 15 years ago, they released it as a video with Mel Brooks speaking as the 2000-year-old man. Have you ever seen the video? It's adorable. And it's Carl Reiner doing the recording, but they put it through the video. "A lion is eating my foot off. Somebody call a cop." It's very funny. So, you were actually in the room when they conceived of that. But Carl was the voice of the announcer. He wrote it with Mel?
JS: They didn't write it. They kind of ad libbed it. They were just kidding around sitting in the living room.
ES: Just guys having a good time.
JS: We went to somebody's house. They would entertain with us sitting around. But they were much dirtier.
CC: Oh yes? Well, it wasn't dirty at all. Just funny.
