Loar Galore!

Ireland's Broadway Diva Is Searching For A Star!

Ireland's celebrated Broadway Diva and Irish singing beauty Rosemary Loar, whose grandparents originally hail from Counties Cork, Cavan and Mayo, boasts what is termed in Broadway circles a 'High Belt Legit Soprano to High E' voice. She's also a jazz, rock, blues, and pop singer and songwriter, a professional pianist, a ukulele maestro, and a renowned 'theremin' player. (That's an electronic instrument played by moving the hands near its two antennas!) You and I would know Rosemary Loar as critically acclaimed Grizabella in Cats (Winter Garden Theatre), Carlotta and Christine in Phantom, the title role of Mame in Mame, and a host of other Broadway and National performances in big-budget shows like Sunset Boulevard, You Can't Take It With You, Chess (Carnegie Hall), Once Upon A Mattress, Encore (Radio City) and 42nd Street. Loar can also be heard singing on Sting's soundtrack for the movie The Emperor's New Groove, together with the cast albums of Chess and Sunset Boulevard, and a variety of world-class music recordings. Her many songs have been featured on NBC's The Today Show, on The Lifetime Network, at Town Hall, Joe Franklin and Joan Hamburg shows, at the UN Fourth Conference for Women in Beijing and in the documentary 'Our Daughters, Our Future' narrated by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.

With three albums to her name, a new jazz album on the way, a musical in the works called Spoolie Girl, and numerous stage and television appearances behind her, this gifted Irish singer strikes me as a 'rarity' for a Broadway diva, and one who has been belting out hit after hit on the nation's stages for many years now. She's grounded, unassuming, and drives onto Washington Street in Hoboken for our interview in a jalopy! What she calls her workhorse car. "Hi Seán! How's my parking space? I need quarters! Grab my bags baby?"

Wide-eyed and gorgeously Irish, her flock of hair still setting in curlers beneath a fine Celtic silk scarf, Loar carries little of the obvious trappings of stardom as we settle down for a chat amidst "a double-decaf coffee!" Yet the same singer, once on-stage, is the source of tingles up the back of the neck. None dispute her talent, her presence, and that super-human melodic voice of hers. The Kansas Star, The Pittsburgh Press, and The Seattle Times are just a few of the publications all applauding this super-human singer. Lisa? Who's Lisa? Loar Galore!

Rosemary Loar is also a highly accomplished songwriter, applauded in Variety, the New York Post, and other publications across the USA umpteen times. Backstage has described her as having penned "more than a few numbers other singers would do well to look into", with Variety writing: "not to be overlooked is ... Loar's skill as a songwriter". She's also the recipient of the 'ASCAPlus' Award for Popular Music for the past four years.

Rosemary Loar has launched an exciting new ongoing project called the Alternative Torch Series at New York City's famed Symphony Space (95th and Broadway - Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre) with illustrious Broadway collaborators Doug Okerson and Joel Fram. Alternative Torch Series takes place every three months, and is now in its seventh run, with the next grand performance set for September 2006. Rosemary Loar originated the series herself and even hosts this spectacular night of stars as Master of Ceremonies:

Seán McCarthy: How did you become the brainchild of this opportunity? What's the history of your Alternative Torch Series at Symphony Space?
Rosemary Loar: It's part of the New Voices Collective in Manhattan. Doug Okerson and Joel Fram have decided to promote new composers. I went to one of their forums, one of their concerts, and it was all art song and cabaret, and I thought: "Wouldn't this be great with rock singers!" So, since I write rock and pop, I pitched the idea to Doug and Joel to have four singer-songwriters on one bill at the same time. So now, once every three months, we showcase four songwriters who invite a Broadway Singer to sing one of their songs. We have one highly professional band, and the audience enjoys twenty original songs that night and gets to hear a lot of fresh new music! We've had seven concerts so far, and it has been a great success! September 2006 is our next.

Seán McCarthy: Doug, how successful is this series at Symphony Space?
Doug Okerson: There is a growing response to it Seán. The Alternative Torch Series here at Symphony Space provides some of the best session and Broadway 'pit musicians' in the business, all of which provide the backup to those young talents performing. We're delighted to feature four singers/songwriters/composers every three months. They can themselves either engage a Broadway Star to sing their compositions, or indeed we can 'also' team the songwriters up with Broadway Stars. My colleague Joel Fram and I are highly immersed in Broadway, its composers, and its major stars. Broadway is an ongoing tradition, and the Alternative Torch Series is a gift to that tradition. In the event that you cannot find a Broadway Star to perform your own song, we can also assist in that area, and are pleased to do so. Alternative Torch Series gives, every three months in the calendar year, many singers/songwriters/composers, mostly young, an impressive opportunity that they may not usually enjoy when, for instance, they are performing in a club or other venue. Clubs and various venues can oftentimes be noisy. Alternative Torch Series is a grand opportunity for the singer/songwriter/composer to not only be heard, seen, and appreciated, but also to witness a Broadway Star interpret their musical and lyrical composition on stage for the very first time in public. By the way, we also pay the bills for those performing, which gives them a chance to simply get to do the music! Alternative Torch Series takes place here at Symphony Space every three months, and we are now heading into our September 2006 performance. It's been an absolute success, and we're thrilled to have Rosemary Loar onboard.

Seán McCarthy: Talk to me about your Irish heritage Rosemary?
Rosemary Loar: My mother's parents were both born in County Mayo and County Cork in Ireland, and my father's parents were also born in County Mayo. Absolutely the most beautiful area in the whole world. It was very important to us, as children, to know about all the Irish saints and Irish stories, and very important for us to sing Irish songs. We would all get around the piano and sing and play with all my aunts and uncles. It was just a part of our life.

Seán McCarthy: Your father was James Loar and your mother Anne Marie McCabe. Tell me about the Loars and the McCabe's?
Rosemary Loar: There were eleven Loars from my father's parents, all whom lived in the Bronx. My grandfather Ernest Loar would walk all the way from the Bronx to Wall Street to work! He was a very determined man, and kept his children fed and clothed. He was very hard working, and taught his kids the same. He was married to Anna Giblin, and both Ernest and Anna were from County Cork. My mother's parents were a little bit more laid back, and were lyrical. Her father was James McCabe from County Cavan, and her mother was Annie O'Brien. Annie used to make clothes for the famous Macy's and the Bloomingdale's families in New York. She was a wonderful seamstress. Her father died at a very early age, so she had to support the family with her trade, and some boot legging on the side! There are actual stories of my grandmother Annie making whiskey in the bathtub in her five-floor walk-up on 98th Street and Amsterdam Avenue! Somebody would ring the buzzer when the police would come, and they would put all the bottles on the dumb-waiter and send them up to the fifth floor to their friends the Boyles!

Seán McCarthy: (Lucky Boyles!) Produced by Grammy Award Winning Joel Moss, your recent album 'Water from The Moon' is a heartfelt personal tribute to, among other close-to-the-soul subjects, your own father. Did your father instil music and singing in you?
Rosemary Loar: Very much. He sang all the time. He always sang the old Irish tunes, but he would also sing the songs made famous by Bing Crosby and Perry Como. He would sing in church, in the car, and he taught us. He would cry when he sang, he loved singing so much. And my Mother also sang, and would play the Broadway show albums, besides the Irish songs. We would listen to everything in the house. Singing was a big thing for us, and both my parents sang a lot of the Irish songs, jazz standards and Broadway tunes. That was pretty much what we were brought up on.

Seán McCarthy: How was Producer Joel Moss to work with on this album?
Rosemary Loar: Joel is fantastic, very playful, very organised. He's also very encouraging, and he knows his stuff. Joel has worked with everybody from Rod Stewart to Tony Bennett, Bob Dylan ... you name a name! He loves music, and that's a lot of fun to be around.

Seán McCarthy: How did you work on your songs in the studio with Joel Moss?
Rosemary Loar: I would present him with the music, he would listen to the band, we would rehearse, and then he would give me some ideas. We would try them out. I would give him some ideas and see if he liked them. He was very open. One time actually, we had recorded a song and it was too fast. And we had already done it all, and it was in the can. I came back the next day and said "We have to do this again." And he was fine with that, because he wanted it to be right.

Seán McCarthy: 'Water from The Moon' features, amongst other haunting tracks, 'Irish Lullaby', which you wrote. What is it about this song that inspired you to include it on your album?
Rosemary Loar: It's a song actually about how I wish my father's life would have been. My father had a pretty hard life. I think he spent most of his life actually wishing he could have been a professional singer. He did it as a hobby because he had so many kids in the family. Seven children. I don't think that he felt he could take off and go and become a singing star, so he was frustrated a lot of his life, and I think he worked at a job he didn't care for. 'Irish Lullaby' is a wistful dream for him that maybe his life could have been better if he sang from an early age professionally. My father actually died before he got to hear the song, and I felt very bad about that. But I think he's up there in heaven hearing it now.

Seán McCarthy: Your songs have been described as an intimate conversation about your emotional 'take' on the world, and your singular way of processing events and relationships in your life. Can you reflect on this?
Rosemary Loar: 'Water from The Moon' began as a number of different songs that I had written throughout my life, and I realised that all of them were pretty much about the same thing: my relationship with my father. I had a very love-hate relationship with my father, I think because we were so much alike! He was passionate about music, as I am. He was very volatile, the way I am! Very passionate ... everything is very good or very bad, and that's how my father was too. And I realised that I had written most of my songs regarding him at one point. And I think I needed to 'finish out' the whole song cycle, and that's what I did with 'Water from The Moon'. It's also very musical, and there's a book to it. But even if you listen to the music, you can hear that it's a song-cycle about one theme: my relationship with my father and how we finally became very close and very good friends and learned to accept each other for our foibles.

Seán McCarthy: Together with the book to the album 'Water from The Moon', there's also a show of the same name that you perform. Did you write the book before you wrote the album?
Rosemary Loar: No. I wrote the album first, and the book to the show happened throughout three years of writing. First it was going to be a one-woman show, but I don't enjoy doing monologues on stage, so I wrote a couple of other characters in there.

Seán McCarthy: Your first five years in New York City were spent performing your critically acclaimed jazz cabaret act. Tell me more about this period in your career?

Seán McCarthy: So you're returning to jazz in your forthcoming album?
Rosemary Loar: Yes I am. I can't help it. I recently performed my Jazz Cabaret at a charitable concert in Weehawken NJ and in Washington D.C. this past year, and the response was just so fantastic, I really got hooked again.

Seán McCarthy: You're well known for performing for a variety of different charities and foundations. Which are closest to your heart?
Rosemary Loar: Well, I dedicated the proceeds of one of my albums 'Through Women's Eyes' to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, not only for obvious reasons, but also for a dear friend Ellie Durek who passed away many years ago. Ellie's death hit home in a very singular way. The other organisations are Equity Fights Aid (Broadway Cares), for which I have done many benefits, the Alex Tava Hope Benefit which is for students who have cancer and who are in college but have no way to help pay their bills. Also, Polaris, which focuses on human trafficking of, not only children, but also women and some men who are slaves in the world, and here in the United States. These are things that I believe in, and these are the issues that I like to do benefits for.

Seán McCarthy: You headlined for the PBS special, 'New Years Eve with Guy Lombardo', during which your colleague Rosemary Clooney was rushed to the hospital. You came to the rescue, delivering all of Clooney's planned performance, but a fourth octave higher. Tell me about that experience?
Rosemary Loar: It was wild. I got a call at 10.30 pm asking would I be interested in taking Rosemary Clooney's place, and of course I said "Yes I'd love to." And they said, "Okay, here are the songs you have to sing." They gave me the list and then said "we'll pick you up in a limo tomorrow at 11.00 o'clock". Part of the list they gave me was a song that I'd never heard before, so they taught me the song over the phone actually! The next day I got over there into the studios at the Hammerstein Ballroom and did a rehearsal of the 'New Years Eve with Guy Lombardo' show. When they realised I was a Soprano, and Rosemary Clooney is an Alto, they had to take everything up a fourth. It was a lot of fun!

Seán McCarthy: You regularly perform the role of Christine in The Andrew Lloyd Webber Tribute internationally at different venues. You have also performed as Carlotta in Phantom of The Opera. How difficult or otherwise is it to perform Lloyd Webber on stage?
Rosemary Loar: The music for Christine (Phantom) is very hard because he (Andrew Lloyd Webber) wrote that for his wife, and she actually pre-recorded some of the high notes in it. But when you do it live of course, singing the High E in concert is very hard. The role of Grizabella (Cats), which I performed over 500 times across the country and on Broadway, isn't as hard. The music to Phantom of The Opera is much harder, for Christine.

Seán McCarthy: You have been critically applauded by, amongst other national publications, Variety magazine that has written: 'not to be overlooked is Loars' skill as a songwriter'. Where is it you first look, when writing a new song?
Rosemary Loar: Usually I get my ideas when I'm riding on a bus! Or washing the dishes, or weeding in my gardens! Suddenly an idea comes up, if I'm writing a letter to someone, or if I utter a phrase out loud. Or when I'm reading. I'm reading a book right now by Sue Monk Kidd 'The Mermaid Chair'. Her prose is so spectacular, it inspires me to write.

Seán McCarthy: The New York Post has described you as: 'impressive, inventive ... an accomplished songwriter'. Where, do you think, does the line between a songwriter's enjoyment of simply writing a song, and the public's perception of the song itself get drawn?
Rosemary Loar: Is there a line? (Rosemary laughs with shear Irish charm!)

Seán McCarthy: What was your first professional job as a performer?
Rosemary Loar: Godspell, the National Tour. It was actually my first audition in New York City. And it gave me such a false sense of theatre! I thought, "This is a great thing!" I was modelling furs, and I was a total vegetarian at the time ... modelling furs! Okay? (Loar giggles). I took a long lunch-break, and I went and auditioned for the show, and got it. That was my first professional job and I toured the country for six months with it.

Seán McCarthy: When did you make your Broadway debut?
Rosemary Loar: That was 'You Can't Take It With You' in 1983 at the Plymouth Theater (45th and Broadway) with Jason Robards and Colleen Dewhurst. I was a singer; I could sing and dance, but I had never had an acting credit on my resume. Director Ellis Rabb had seen my jazz cabaret act and was very impressed and asked me to come and audition. So I auditioned alongside Broadway actresses who had all these credits, and I got the show over them!

Rosemary Loar now lives in secluded, quiet surroundings in the leafy Borough of Trees, Rutherford, New Jersey, where the acclaimed singer and her husband Robert Atwood, a professional ballet master and world-renowned dance tutor, continue to collaborate on their endeavours, which include a new jazz album, a new musical in the works Rosemary Loar has herself written called 'Spoolie Girl', and more.