For over 40 years, Syracuse Stage has been a part of David Lowenstein’s DNA.
In 1981, while he was a sophomore at the Syracuse University Department of Drama, Lowenstein was cast in the Syracuse Stage production of “A Christmas Carol” – directed by Stephen Willems – appearing as, among other roles, a beggar child denied charity by the miserly Ebeneezer Scrooge. It was the first time the theatre staged an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ beloved novella, and it was Lowenstein’s first professional show at Syracuse Stage, a huge win for the young performer who had grown up doing summer-stock in the Hudson Valley. That same season, as a work-study assistant for Syracuse Stage founding artistic director Arthur Storch, Lowenstein was tapped to develop choreography for “The Merchant of Venice,” an opportunity that would lead him to pursue creating his own work through a decades-long career in New York City. And Lowenstein even helped christen the Archbold Theatre at its opening gala, becoming one of the first actors to perform on its now storied stage.
Audiences will of course know Lowenstein from his many memorable roles that have graced the Archbold stage over the years, from “The Wizard of Oz,” and “Matilda The Musical’' to “Beauty and the Beast” and last year’s dazzling “Disney’s The Little Mermaid.” (Ask him what his favorite role has been, and he’ll tell you about his award-winning performance as Edna Turnblad in 2014′s “Hairspray.”) Now, for the 50th anniversary season at Syracuse Stage, Lowenstein can be seen in a new production of “A Christmas Carol” – directed by Melissa Rain Anderson and featuring the spectacular 2 Ring Circus – that will play in the Archbold until the end of this year.
This season Lowenstein portrays several of Dickens’ lively creations in “A Christmas Carol” – including serving as the understudy to Sam Gregory’s Scrooge – but none are more appropriate than Fezziwig, a character that is uniquely synchronous with another of his starring roles: professor of practice of Musical Theatre in the Syracuse University Department of Drama. In the novella, as in the play, Fezziwig inspires the older Scrooge to remember, as he looks onto a generous holiday scene during his spectral journey, that mentorship costs nothing, yet pays men back more than any fortune; ask any drama student about Lowenstein as a teacher and artistic role model, and the comparison will be immediately apparent. To hear Lowenstein describe his time in the department, it’s clear the feeling is mutual: “Every time I get to work with the students, it’s a joy,” he said.
Lowenstein enjoyed the kind of early career trajectory that students can wide-eye aspire to, one that seems straight out of a vintage showbiz memoir: After graduating, he worked at the Guthrie in Minneapolis and on a few national tours before landing an audition for “Jerome Robbins’ Broadway,” which celebrated the famed director-choreographer’s almost impossible output, from “On the Town” and “West Side Story’' to “The King and I” and “Fiddler on the Roof.” He didn’t get the part, but behind the scenes things were playing in his favor. A friend – soon to be Broadway legend Jerry Mitchell, who was then serving as Robbin’s assistant on the show – suggested Lowenstein for a role they were having trouble filling. Lowenstein went into the audition room for the second time, alone, and danced for Robbins, who sat silent behind the table.
“All the mirrors were covered in muslin, because Robbins didn’t want any dancers looking at themselves,” Lowenstein recalled. “He got up from behind the table, and he ripped a strip off the bottom of the muslin, winding it around his wrists and making it like a twist. And he’s coming at me with it. No words. And I literally am thinking to myself: He’s gonna choke me because I was so terrible.”
Robbins, of course, didn’t choke him, but rather tied the muslin around Lowenstein’s head, considered him for a moment, and returned to the table. Later that afternoon Lowenstein got the call, and the part, and made it to Broadway with the kind of once-in-a-lifetime show that most could only dream of: “I worked with Stephen Sondheim, I worked with Leonard Bernstein. It was just crazy,” he said.
Lowenstein remembers that show as an important milestone for another reason, as well: It gave him a sort of professional clarity, reinforcing the work he had done as a choreographer at Syracuse Stage, and solidifying his desire to be more than just a performer.
“Opening night happens, and I’m getting out of my costume, I’m crying,” he said. “And I just took a breath. And I thought: What do I do next? Because I couldn’t imagine another Broadway experience being anything like this. And honestly, I thought, the next thing for me to do is to create my own work.”
And create he did. In addition to performing in the Broadway casts of such shows as “Seussical,” “The Frogs,” “1776,” the revival of “On the Town,” and in Alan Menken’s Musical adaptation of “A Christmas Carol” at Madison Square Garden, Lowenstein maintained a steady choreographic career, including the drama-desk winner “Howard Crabtree’s Whoop De Doo!” It was on that show where Lowenstein met Phillip George, co-creator of the irreverent long-running revue “Forbidden Broadway,” and began work on what would become “Shout! The Mod Musical,” a show featuring the songs of 60′s pop divas that premiered off-Broadway in 2006 and has since enjoyed success in theaters across the country.
The same summer “Shout!” premiered, Lowenstein left his big city life and made his way back to Central New York, “without a job,” as he describes it: “The decision had nothing to do with show business or theater. It had to do with my family. My husband and I have two boys, and we knew that once our first son was school aged, we wanted to move back up here. Because we wanted to live in the country and have a house, and a backyard,” he said.
And in a turn of events as tidy as a Broadway ending, Lowenstein was, by chance, cast in director Rodney Hudson’s 2006 Syracuse Stage production of “A Christmas Carol,” portraying – in another moment of synchronous casting – Bob Cratchit, a man who values his family’s happiness well above his own.
In this year’s “A Christmas Carol,” Lowenstein has an opportunity that is unique to the annual Syracuse Stage and Department of drama co-productions: To work alongside those he mentors in a professional setting, and allow for the teaching to go both ways. In a cast of over 3 dozen performers, some 21 are students from the department of drama, many making their Syracuse Stage debuts, just as Lowenstein did in that ghost of holiday shows past.
Reflecting on it all, Lowenstein doesn’t so much sound like Fezziwig, or Cratchit, but rather the reformed Scrooge himself; understanding of what has come, grateful for what is now, and hopeful for what is not yet known: “It really is an honor. To be able to be a working actor, as I get older, and have this theatrical home. I had 25 years in New York, and then arrived here to build this second act. It’s magical.”
IF YOU GO:
What: “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens
Where: Syracuse Stage, 820 E. Genesee St. , Syracuse
When: Nov. 24 through Dec. 31, 2023
Length of Performance: 2 hours, 15 minutes, including a 20-minute intermission
Tickets and info: 315-443-3275 and syracusestage.org
READ MORE:
‘Christmas Carol’ soars with acrobatic, circus-style theatrics at Syracuse Stage (review)
Syracuse playwright mines effective comedy from serious conflicts in ‘Co-op(erative)’ (review)
Enchanting ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ in Syracuse grounds a community onstage and off (review)