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Completely 'Naked': Actor and songwriter David Pevsner
by Gregg Shapiro
2001-08-08

This article shared 15597 times since Wed Aug 8, 2001
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I'll never forget the day that I got the original cast recording of Howard Crabtree's When Pigs Fly and opened the CD booklet to discover that someone with whom I went to high school was in the production. David Pevsner, with whom I did theatrical productions at Niles East High School in Skokie, was a famous actor! In addition to doing theater, television and film, he is making a name for himself as a songwriter. Some of his songs can be heard in the controversial musical Naked Boys Singing, which is currently creating a stir in Provincetown and is about to have its premiere in Chicago. David recently revealed himself to me in an interview.

GS: In what year did you perform in the play Party?

DP: Party, I think, was '95. Regionally, I started just doing plays and I read for Party and the Chicago connection is totally a coincidence. ... I didn't even know what Party was, but somebody heard about the show and said, "David, you need to be a part of this." I was in Party in New York for 10 months, and it ran for about a year. I left it to go do a show somewhere else and then, after that I got When Pigs Fly. When Pigs Fly, I did both in New York and Los Angeles.

I came to L.A. in '98. I did Pigs Fly from '96-'98, two years worth. Then, I came out here in '98 and six months later in '99 I did When Pigs Fly in Los Angeles.

GS: You are actually one of those rare examples of a working actor.

DP: Yeah, I mean, I've worked a lot. I go through my dry periods certainly, but I have worked a lot. Right now, in Los Angeles, I've started doing a bunch of little TV things, getting some episodic T.V. work, a couple of little movie things. I continue to write all through it.

GS: I would like to talk about Naked Boys Singing.

DP: Naked Boys Singing was staged in Los Angeles, I think, in March of '98. I came out here for the opening and I was surprised because I was sort of vilified for sending songs to Naked Boys Singing. By everybody ( laughs ) . I had written these couple of songs I just wrote simply to amuse me. A friend of mine came to see me in When Pigs Fly and he said, "Well, what are you doing with the songs?," and I said, "I'm singing them in the shower." He goes, "You should get them down on tape and send them to my friend Bob Schrock, who's doing a review at the Celebration Theatre." ... I didn't intend for these songs to necessarily be a part of something like that. ... That show opened in '98. It ran in L.A. for, I think, 18 months. It's been in New York now for over two years. There have been productions in Sydney, one in Portland now, it was in San Francisco, it was in Houston—it's all over the place.

GS: Let's talk about To Bitter and Back. For how long did that run?

DP: We did it for ten weeks in Los Angeles. It started out as just as an evening of my songs and stories, and then I realized ( that ) I sort of write about the same three things in everything that I write about. I got the germ of each thing and started combining numbers and making arcs and it ended up turning into this piece that had a very specific, universal theme to it: what do you do when your life has essentially shut down and you can't get out of bed in the morning? I think it's a funny show and it's very clever and universal in it's theme. There's a lot of gay-oriented material in it, but I think a lot of it is universal stuff. ... I have somebody in New York who is going to help me get my show to New York. I would ( very enthusiastic ) love to do it in Chicago. ...

GS: You mentioned television and film work. Do you plan to do more?

DP: I would love to. It's one of those things where you have to hit your niche—you have to find your market. I don't think I've really found it yet. It's really hard to place me. I'm sort of like a character leading man. I'm not good looking enough to be a leading man, but I'm charactery enough to be the best friend. So, you sort of fall into the cracks quite a bit. On television you really have to have a strong sense of what your type is. ... It's like what happened when I did NYPD Blue. I had a really nice little feature thing on NYPD Blue and it's because the casting director came to see me in When Pigs Fly.

GS: What can you tell me about your screenplay?

DP: My screenplay is called Dog Days and I wrote it a few years ago. It started out as part of my one-man show. It's essentially about a struggling actor in NYC who turns to escorting to make ends meet and it becomes like a gay Sweet Charity. It's very sweet, very funny. It's got a sexuality to it that I think has made people uncomfortable in the past, but it's all for humor's sake.

GS: Do you think that there is an album in your future of you performing cover tunes or your own material?

DP: I don't really think I'm a recording artists type. I can do original cast albums because it's more about the actor—the person behind the voice. But, when it comes to doing cover tunes, or even my material, I would do my material as an original cast album-type thing. To do a pop album—I don't have pop voice. To be honest, I'm one of those '70s queers. I love the Go-Gos and I love all of that stuff. Music today, I just don't get. I think everybody sounds exactly the same. I'm sort of mystified by music [ today ] . There's not a lot I really listen to, so I wouldn't even know what it would be I would record except for my own stuff.


This article shared 15597 times since Wed Aug 8, 2001
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