The Beat Goes On

SARATOGA SPRINGS - Talk show host and comedienne Rosie O’Donnell calls her the funniest women she’s ever met, and Ray Romano - from “Everyone Loves Raymond” - thinks she's "fantastic."
On thi day, the object of so much affection is seated at a sidewalk café that overlooks Broadway. She sips carbonated water from a tall bottle; its blue glass matches her outfit nicely.
The table where she sits is bathed in a harsh shaft of summer sun, and covering her eyes are a pair of big, diva-like shades.

“I’m not trying to look like a diva or anything,” says Nancy Timpanaro-Hogan, right up front, removing the eyewear.

Yeah rrrright.

“These are prescription shades,” she offers, holding them up as proof. One quick glance through the looking glass reveals the visually enhanced universe of Timpanaro-Hogan’s world.
“There are wigs and costumes and people flying in and out,” she says, steering the conversation away from the glasses and onto her newest show, “The Beat Goes On,” which she describes as a “sketch comedy/variety with great music,” likening it to the classic style of Carol Burnett.

“It’s not cutting edge, but it is cutting up,” she says.

“The Beat Goes On” is rooted in the 1960s “Feelin’ Groovy” era of pop, and covers ground originally trod by the Mama’s & Papas, Burt Bacharach and Bob Dylan, among others.
“We’re spoofing ‘60s people like Cher, and the outfits are of everything from the hippies to glam,” Timpanaro-Hogan says.
“I wanted to do some 1960s stuff, but a lot of the cabaret (you see) is very dramatic and not really suited to pop music. So I brought (director) Martin Goeller in, and with the characterizations and the costumes, it’s more fun. There are some incredibly poignant moments in it as well.”
Goeller relocated to New York from Germany six years ago and has a background in theater, opera and film. Recently, he directed Luciano Pavarotti in a European open-air tour of “Carmina Burana.”
“It was interesting to see how this show (‘The Beat Goes On’) has all fallen together,” Goeller says. “There is a James Bond medley which is just hilarious and a Sinatra Medley that is a real shining moment. In my opinion, it is one of the highlights of the show. It’s so heartfelt and brings everything together beautifully.”
Timpanaro-Hogan grew up in Mechanicville, then relocated to New York City, where she set roots for 25 years. During her time there, the singer/comedienne received numerous cabaret and musical comedy awards. She co-hosted Manhattan Cable TV’s “Cabaret Beat” for three years and her nightclub act received rave reviews from The New York Times, the New York Post and the Daily News.
She also co-wrote and starred in the off-Broadway one-woman show “Adorable Me! The Totie Fields Story.”

“Adorable Me!” is an Off-Broadway, award-winning musical based on the life of Fields, the talented and often outrageous comic who died in 1978.
Timpanaro-Hogan first discovered Fields as a teen-ager.

“I saw her a couple of times when I was a kid growing up,” recalls Timpanaro-Hogan, but it was one particular performance that sticks in her mind.
“When I was 15 years old, I went to see her at the Colonie Coliseum - the former Starlight Theater in Latham - and during the performance I got up to go use the bathroom,” she laughs. “When I got out of my seat, Totie Fields targeted me from the stage. She started busting on me for leaving. You could say that made a lasting impression.”

“A lot of what I did (in “Adorable Me!”), was improvisational, and responding to what the audience was feeling at the time,” she says. “It was fly-by-the-seat of your pants cabaret. This year’s show is more structured. So the spontaneity is within the structure. It’s a big departure from what I was doing before,” she says. “It’s about making a connection with people and about being present. It’s pure fun and participational. And it’s about having a sense of openness.”

It is a lesson learned when as a 9-year-old, she went to see “West Side Story.” It was a moment, she says, that changed her life.
“Cabaret is about people talking to people. A piano. A singer. It’s simple, and I think that’s what people respond to - the simplicity of it all,” she says, pulling back up on her divinely diva-esque dark-colored shades.

by Thomas Dimopoulos
The Saratogian and The Pink Sheet, July 31, 2003.