Think Thanksgiving Parade, and visions of marching bands, cartoon characters, balloons, and floats begin to materialize before one’s very eyes.
The obvious isn’t all.
Broadway-level theater, live music of all sorts, ballet and modern dance, every daypart of television, NFL football, and even “Jeopardy!” and “The Wheel of Fortune” join the baton twirlers, cornet players, Disney characters converging on Philadelphia’s Benjamin Franklin Parkway this Thanksgiving to give a special luster to the 6 ABC Dunkin’ Thanksgiving Day Parade, airing live from 8:30 to noon Thursday, Nov. 27, on Channel 6.
I feel compelled every year to remind Delaware Valleyans there wouldn’t be a Thanksgiving Day Parade without Channel 6. The station singlehandedly rescued Philadelphia’s Turkey Day march from likely extinction in 1986 when it took ownership of it as the department stores that once presented fell in domino fashion from prominence.
Look at Philadelphia now. Not one major department store in all of Center City and several suburban emporia shuttered what lookslike for good.
Using its advertising mettle to enlist significant sponsors, a role taken by Dunkin’ in recent years, and starting from scratch every December for the next November’s event, Channel 6 has not only kept the Thanksgiving Day Parade a thriving institution, but it has seen in grow in scope and variety every year.
Thank John Morris, the 6 ABC department heads, and the army of talent coordinators, logistics folks, planners, runners, and volunteer balloon carriers that invisibly but palpably bring you what you see each Thanksgiving.
Sponsors aren’t all. It doesn’t hurt that 6 ABC is owned by Disney and has access to Mickey Mouse and the comic book and live-action icons that charming rodent has spawned.
The talent lineup is a veritable TV Guide of Disney on-air stars as well as luminaries from 6 ABC’s syndicated programs.
Then there’s Ensemble Arts Philly coordinating with Morris and his crew to bring the casts of touring shows at or coming to the Academy of Music, the Forrest, and other venues to the Parkway.
The Philadelphia Orchestra, linked administratively with Ensemble Arts Philly, and others groups associated with the Kimmel Center — Philadelphia Ballet, Philadanco, Philly Pops, A Soulful Christmas among them — will appear on Thanksgiving, all giving tone andcultural diversity to the Parkway march.
Cecily Tynan and Rick Williams once more serve as anchor host for the Channel 6 telecast. Working with them schmoozing amid the crowd, talking to some of the celebrities, and providing color from the sidelines are Adam Joseph, Karen Rogers and Alicia Vitarelli, the last of whom I saw at the opening of “Elf” at Bucks County Playhouse this weekend but couldn’t get across the house to say hello to.
I’m sure there will also be the annual 6 ABC float.
Among the Ensemble Arts Philly cast members greeting and entertaining the Parkway and TV audience are Lucas Hallauer and David Josefsberg who play Marty McFly and Doc Brown in the tour of “Back to the Future: The Musical,” currently at the Academy of Music, and Somerdale, N.J.’s, Jose Contreras who arrives Dec. 3 as Orpheus in “Hadestown” at the Forrest Theatre.
Other productions sending casts to Philadelphia are “Beauty and the Beast,” “Shucked,” and “The Sound of Music.”
The local choruses and choirs appearing 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 9, in “A Soulful Christmas” at Marian Anderson Hall also appear.
Morning, evening, and primetime television will be well represented as Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos from “Live with Kelly and Mark” participate. Ripa’s one-time co-host, Ryan Seacrest, reunites with her at the parade but with his current sidekick, Vanna White, from “Wheel of Fortune.”
I’d like to go the parade just to see if White has the smallest waist I’ve ever seen, something I noticed when I interviewed her ages ago. “Wheel’s” slotmate, “Jeopardy!,” is represented by its host and first long-term champion, Ken Jennings.
ABC’s “Monday Night Football,” broadcast on ESPN but occasionally spilling to Channel 6 and local stations, will have a presence with its announcers, Joe Buck and Troy Aikman.
Quinta Brunson, Sheryl Lee Ralph, and the cast of “Abbott Elementary” are scheduled to appear en masse. “Good Morning America” weather alumnus, Sam Champion, will also be there.
Entertainers abound. They include the current version of The Four Tops, David Archleta, and Jordin Sparks.
New NBC 10 anchor
Lena Tillett joins Channel 10 as an anchor and reporter on Jan. 12.
She takes over some of the anchor roles filled by Tracy Davidson, whose last day on Channel 10 is Nov. 25. Tillett will be paired with Jacqueline London, who was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers Hall of Fame last weekend, at 5 p.m., and with Fred Shropshire at 7 p.m.
She comes to the NBC station from WRAL-TV in Raleigh, N.C., where she is also an anchor-reporter. The D.C. native also worked at WOWT-TV in Omaha and News 12 in Brooklyn and the Bronx, N.Y.
She received a degree from Georgetown University in English and communications and holds a master’s from New York University in documentary journalism.
Preston & Steve Campout results
Preston & Steve’s Campout for Hunger had its usual impact.
During its encampment on the Xfinity Live parking lot, it collected 1.8 million pounds of food and raised more than $1.6 million in donations.
And that’s only the latest tally.
Preston & Steve are heard weekdays from 6 to 10 a.m. on WMMR (93.3 FM). They are hosts of the most popular morning show in the market.
One role, then acting bug bit
Christopher Patrick Mullen is one of about four actors I’ve spoken to in recent weeks who owe their career, or at least the experience that led to their career, to his older sister.
In Mullen’s case, his sister, Marie, dragged him to an audition for “The King and I” at her school, Malvern’s Villa Maria Academy, because it was an all-girls school, and the production needed boys for several roles, including the king’s many children.
“At that time, I wasn’t interested in performing at all,” Mullen says by telephone from his home. “All I thought about then was baseball. I knew everything there was to know about baseball, and if anything, I wanted to be a baseball player.
“ ‘What do I have to do at his audition?’ I asked because I didn’t know what an audition was.
“ ‘Just answer any questions the director asks you, sing when he tells you to, read when he tells you to, and see what happens,’ she said. “ ‘It won’t kill you.’ ”
Mullen was given a role, in fact, he played the best juvenile part in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical, the Siamese prince, Chulalongkorn, and was bitten by a different kind of theater bug from most kids.
“I enjoyed performing,” Mullen says, “but what I really loved was working as a professional and being in a company and on stage with adults. I felt part of something and important. I had friends of all ages.
“I was a kid then. Now I’ve gotten to the point where I’m the oldest member of most companies and playing the senior roles.”
Mullen’s current role is the Major General, the military veteran and father of several daughters who are being wooed by pirates that landed near their coastal British home in Gilbert & Sullivan’s “The Pirates of Penzance,” at West Mt. Airy’s Quintessence Theatre through Sunday, Jan 4.
The part was a challenge to Mullen, who undertook it while appearing in a Stephen King thriller, “Misery,” at Ambler’s Act 2 Playhouse, and who has to deliver a complicated G&S patter song “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General,” chocked with tongue-twisting lyrics and performed at high speed.
Mullen laughed as he talked about catching up with his off-book casemates at early “Penzance” rehearsals but said he has the song mastered for the next months of Quintessence performances.
That mastery is no surprise. For more than 30 years, Mullen has been an integral part of the Philadelphia’s burgeoning theater community. He was there at the beginning, and he’s still going.
Known for his versatility and ability to from outright comedy to Shakespearean majesty.
Mullen has been seen in many of the major roles the theater offers and says he has some undone parts in mind for the future.
He talked about the stress of doing the first Gilbert and Sullivan show in his career, saying he was so tense learning the thousand lyrics to his patter song, being tied to a bed waiting to have his ankles hobnailed in “Misery” was a relief from his angst at “Penzance” rehearsals.
“That’s over now. I have the song and the part down, and it’s fun.
“In all of my work, even the most complex of Shakespeare’s monologues (Mullen is a frequent and veteran Mercutio from “Romeo and Juliet) I never had to deal with Gilbert’s level of verbiage. It stymies you at first. Then you get involved with Gilbert’s wit and Sullivan’s pace, and it becomes great.”
It seems natural Mullen would master the language. He has played almost every major Shakespearean role, although he says he looks forward to tackling “Twelfth Night’s” Malvolio some day, and gets real joy from teaching others how to find the poetry and story in Shakespeare.
“Shakespeare is brilliant. He gives you everything in his cadences.”
To think all of this acting started with a yen for baseball and dance.
“I continued in the theater, acting in high school and going on to DeSales College for a degree in dance.
“DeSales doesn’t believe in letting a student limit himself. I could be a dancer, but I was guided to be and maybe prodded to be a full performer. That’s when I fell in love with all of it, not just working as a child with adults and feeling a part of a more mature world but collaborating with other creative people to entertain audiences of yet more people.
“From being hysterical at the prospect of that audition at Villa Maria, I began to look forward to each show and each new group of colleagues.
“Quintessence is a great place to work. Alex Burns, who is directing ‘Pirates’ built in from scratch when he was in his twenties. Alex is like an encyclopedia of theater, plays, acting styles. What I like best is he strives to do what I strive to do, and that is entertain.
“Gilbert & Sullivan take care of a lot, but doing this show is a joy because of a chorus that sounds just gorgeous and the many opportunities it gives to entertain.”
Mullen had a lot of support from his family as he developed his career. Even in childhood, culture was part of his life. His sister no longer performs, but one of her children does.
There’s also a scary mother’s premonition that came true.
“My family was watching Zeffirelli’s 1968 movie of ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ and after Mercutio did his famous Mab speech, my mother turned to me and said ‘you’re going to play that part someday.’ ”
As mentioned, Mullen has played most Shakespeare roles and numbers them among his favorites. But in remembering his stage roles, there’s a lot of comedy and effective acting, as in the Arden production of “Assassins” a few years back.
Mullen galvanized that production with every performance.
Besides his work on stage, Mullen is a teacher who is especially keen on helping young performers find and understand the humanity and scope in their roles.
He also directs and is looking forward to helming a production of Craig Wright’s “The Pavilion,” in which he appeared a decade back.
Source: Berkshire mont
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