A few years back, actor Alan Palmer was facing a career dilemma.
The North Ogden native and Los Angeles resident was aging out of the romantic male lead roles, but wasn't aging into the mature, craggy-faced "dad" roles.
"The older I got, the harder it was for me to fit a role," said Palmer, who graduated from Weber High School in the 1980s. "My voice was still really high, but my face was too young for the father parts. I was in limbo."
Palmer, who has a talent for mimicry and was always inspired by the powerhouse leading ladies of the New York stage, came up with an unexpected solution.
He stars in a one-man show, "Fabulous Divas of Broadway," coming to the Wagner Center for two shows next week. It's a tribute show, not a drag show, he said, although he hopes to have fans of both kinds of performances in his audience.
Palmer impersonates 23 female legends, including Ethel Merman, Carol Channing, Liza Minnelli, Angela Lansbury, Julie Andrews, Judy Garland, Patti LuPone and Kristin Chenoweth, all while performing songs in each lady's trademark style.
"Ethel Merman has a brassiness to her voice, and she's incredibly honest and boisterous, which comes from an East Coast mentality," Palmer said of the late star. "You don't mince words as Ethel Merman."
Julie Andrews, in her signature "Victor/Victoria" performance, has a deep, rich tone, a trill to her delivery, and she moves her bottom lip more than any other feature, Palmer said.
Colorful costumes, stories
The actor's first vision was to perform the songs while wearing a nice tailored suit. To make the show more entertaining, he ultimately elected to make star-inspired costume, hair and makeup changes on stage, telling stories from behind a neck-high dressing screen before emerging as the next diva. At one point, he makes eight costume changes in three minutes.
One of the audience's favorite stories is a personal one about Palmer and a performance of "The Miracle Worker" decades ago at Park City's Egyptian Theatre. The cast had local actors, ski bums and a star who was passing through town.
"We had one gentleman who had to have a few drinks before the show in order to act better," Palmer said, with playful sarcasm in his voice.
(Let's just say, the actor's name rhymes with "Dick Dolte," and he's best known for his co-starring role in the 1982 film "48 Hours" and for a wild-haired 2002 DUI mug shot.)
"So he's playing the doctor, and he tells Mrs. Keller, 'I'm sorry to tell you your daughter is dead.' Well, the actress looked horrified, and said, 'Do you mean deaf?' and he said, 'No, she's DEAD.'
"We had to close the curtains," Palmer said. "What do you do? There's no story if she's dead."
Palmer said he looks forward to playing Utah because some in the audience will remember the event.
"Some of this stuff is so good, you couldn't make it up if you tried," he said.
Diva destiny
It's not a story you hear every day: Small-town Utah boy grows up to star as 23 Broadway divas.
Well, blame it on Peter Pan.
"My parents have basically no interest in the arts," Palmer said of dad Gene and mom Maxine. "My father is a fisherman and sportsman, and my mother was vice president of a company and really had no interest in theater, but took me to see a production of "Peter Pan" when I was very young," Palmer said. "I was in awe.
"They were always so supportive," he continued. "They used to drive me hours to rehearsals, and come pick me up late at night. They didn't understand why I liked it, but they supported me. My father built me a dance studio in the basement, with a stage, and fixed three theater seats to the floor so I could perform there for friends. My parents always did everything they possibly could to nurture that side of what I loved."
Maxine Palmer said it was easy to support her only child's interests.
"You love your son more than you love what he does," she said. "We were not really theatergoers, but we went to all of his shows.
"He's worked so hard at what he does," the North Ogden woman continued. "He's just such a go-getter, and we are so proud of him it is unreal."
Another source of early support was Weber High drama teacher Joyce McKean, now retired.
"Alan was a pleasure to teach," said McKean, a Roy resident, now funneling her creative urges into hours of daily line dancing. "His voice was exceptionally beautiful. He just stood by himself. He was Alan. He could sing. He could act. He knew what he wanted to do, and I knew he could do it. He always gave it his best. He's just an outstanding person."
Palmer attended Weber State briefly, then the University of Utah. It was his parents who encouraged him to follow his dream.
"They were the ones who told me I needed to get out of Utah," Palmer said. "There wasn't really a way of making good money at what I did in Utah. They pushed me and helped me get out there."
Limelight life
His life in the arts has been interesting, Palmer said. In the late '90s, he portrayed Corcus, Black Aquatian Power Ranger, on television's "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers." He performed on USO tours, entertaining in the Far East.
He found himself homeless in Chicago for several weeks after a production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" that promised to pay actors on opening night closed before the first curtain.
"I ended up losing my apartment, and I lived in a laundry room of a building I had lived in before," Palmer said. "I knew it was open, and it was January and so cold."
The experience gave Palmer a new empathy for homeless street musicians, many of whom he suspected were suffering in part because of their passion for their art. When his circumstances improved, Palmer produced an album of Christmas music by street musicians, with profits used to help bring tutors into homeless shelters, to break the cycle of homelessness, he said.
"Good things can always come out of negative experiences," he said of the CD. "I always try to stay positive, and I try to surround myself with people who are positive."
Palmer has directed, acted, produced and done countless jobs in show business. He is currently recording the album for "Fabulous Divas of Broadway," and he's raising son Aaron, 12, and daughter Haley, 3.
During his off hours next week, when he's not meeting with friends, family and his former drama teacher, Palmer hopes to pick up son Aaron from the airport and take in some Utah haunted houses.
"I used to love them when I was a kid," he said. "I want my son to see how cool they are. I can't wait to go to my favorite restaurants, like The Soup Kitchen in Salt Lake and The Utah Noodle Parlor in Ogden."
Palmer will fit in as much as he can, but he's a professional, so it's "ladies" first.
"I hope people will like the show," he said. "I've had a 10-year-old girl tell me she was dying to be a performer, and she knew she could because she listened to my stories and she was going to follow the same path. I've also talked to a 92-year-old man who came to see the show 12 or 13 times in New York, who was enthralled because he used to see theater all the time with his late wife, and he remembered all the real divas.
"Between those and the stories of things that go wrong in the workplace, I'm pretty sure this show has something for everybody."
Maxine Palmer seconds that.
"I just think the show is cute," she said. "It's unreal how Alan can change into all those different women, sing a song and sound just like them. It's a really cute show. It's nothing elaborate, like Las Vegas, but it's fun to see. But then, I am prejudiced."
PREVIEW
l WHAT: 'Fabulous Divas of Broadway'
l WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Oct. 30
l WHERE: Wagner Center, 138 W. 300 South, Salt Lake City
l TICKETS: $22, through ArtTix, (888) 451-ARTS or www.arttix.org.
Comments