W eehawken resident and theater director Frank Licato won’t get too many bad reviews for his play “The Lamppost,” opening Nov. 7 at the ArcLight Theatre in Manhattan.
With a cast full of former Soprano stars, “Lamppost” is one reunion that theatre fans can’t afford to miss.
In fact, every member of the cast once acted in the hit HBO series, including: Vincent Pastore, who played Salvatore “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero, and Anthony Rubistello, who played Dante Greco, among others.
“They all know each other really well,” Licato said. “It’s like a fraternity. Being on a TV show that exploded has connected them, which helped [the show] tremendously.”
Most of the cast members even knew each other before the show’s success.
According to Licato, Rubistelli, who plays the bodyguard Jobby in Lamppost, was a bouncer at Pastore’s old bar in upstate New York called The Crazy Horse.
With long-standing friendships between cast and crew, Licato said, “it was certainly fun to go to work.”
Ol’ Blue Eyes
Set in Hoboken in 1975, the play tells the story of a big-time singer who comes back to his hometown barroom hangout to visit his former bandmates.
“It’s a thinly veiled story about the Hoboken Four,” Licato said, recalling Hoboken native Frank Sinatra’s old group before he made it in the industry on his own. “[La Russo] imagined if Sinatra just came back to the bar at two in the morning one night – what would happen.”
After friendly conversation over drinks, the group of old friends seems to have never missed a beat, until emotions flare over past feuds.
The lead character, Fred Santoro, played by Frank Pellegrino, comes back to the bar, Licato said, “but the life of the bar and the people in it, have changed.”
A Hoboken legend
The play originally premiered on Broadway in 1975 and was written by the late Hoboken playwright, Louis LaRusso II. Born in Hoboken in 1935, LaRusso lived in Hoboken most of his life before dying of cancer in 2003 at the age of 67.
With an intimate knowledge of hard-working Hoboken, La Russo set the story at a bar on 11th and Madison, formerly known as the Lamppost.
“Louie really appreciated laborers who broke their backs everyday,” Licato said. With rising cost of living, the working class “is something that is almost unrecognizable in Hoboken today,” Licato said.
Even so, it is important for Hoboken to remember its working class roots.
“With the election coming up and everyone talking about Joe Six-pack or Joe the plumber,” Licato said, “this play truly depicts the lives of hard working people.”
Small town charm
Born in Brooklyn, Licato lived in Hoboken before moving to Weehawken 15 years ago.
“I’m not a conceptual director,” Licato admits, “I like to bring the best out of the actors and let the audience make up their own minds about the play.”
Licato is less concerned “about the articulation, and more about the space between people and how we bridge those gaps.”
The Lamppost will play at the ArcLight Theatre, located at 152 West 72 St., in Manhattan, Nov. 7 through Nov. 24. To purchase tickets or for more information about the play visit: www.myspace.com/lamppostreunion.
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