Mary Cantoni Johhnson Stars in New Cast Album

Photos of Mary Cantoni Johnson and Chip Deffaa courtesy of Chip Deffaa.

Mary Cantoni Johnson--who grew up in Naugatuck, lives today in Thomaston, and teaches in Southbury--stars on the new cast album (available now), "One Night with Fanny Brice." It's a show, written by ASCAP Award-winning playwright/producer Chip Deffaa, that Johnson has performed many times at theaters in both Connecticut and New York, and hopes to perform in many more theaters, in the future.

The cast album is officially being released on September 24th. The album will be launched on that day at New York's venerable 13th Street Repertory Theater, where Johnson long performed the show. The theater will be celebrating "Mary Cantoni Johnson Day" on the 24th. But album may be ordered now from Amazon, CDBaby, and iTunes.

Deffaa notes: "Mary Cantoni Johnson did not originate the role. Another performer played the role for the first five months, at St. Luke's Theater, Off-Broadway in New York. But Johnson, who took over the role when the show transferred to the 13th Street Theater, has played the role far longer. She's become so closely associated with the show--which I hope she'll be playing in various theaters for many years to come--that we decided to make this new cast album, starring her. This way, people who've seen Johnson in the show--or who may see her in future productions--will have a reminder of her powerful performance. I've seen a number of different actresses star in productions of this show--in New York City, New Jersey, Connecticut, Virginia, the Catskills, etc. But no one plays the show with greater warmth, heart, or authority than Johnson. It's a role that Mary Cantoni Johnson seems born to play.

"And while Mary Cantoni Johnson has played most of the great roles available to female musical-theater performers, at one venue or another--starring in productions of 'Gypsy' 'Man of La Mancha,' 'Kiss Me Kate,' 'Jekyll and Hyde,' 'My Fair Lady,' 'Evita,' etc.--this is her all-time favorite role. And I wanted her terrific work preserved on disc. I'm a great believer in Mary Cantoni Johnson," Deffaa says. "She'll also be featured on an album I'm producing, 'Irving Berlin: Ragtime Rarities,' due out in November, and other albums in my ongoing Irving Berlin series. And I hope that the next time someone does a production of my musical comedy 'The Seven Little Foys,' they'll think of casting Mary; she'd make a terrific Mrs. Foy."

Published and licensed by Leicester Bay Theatricals, "One Night with Fanny Brice" is a 90-minute solo show, tracing the career of the legendary entertainer, and featuring songs she made famous, such as "Second Hand Rose" and "My Man." Brice rose from poverty to become America's highest-paid singing comedienne. Johnson, who will be taking the show next to the Square Foot Theater in Wallingford, Connecticut (November 10th-18th), loves playing Fanny Brice.

"She's a real person," Johnson says of Brice. "She had struggles and successes, rewards and the heartbreaks that we can all relate to, even if we aren't famous. And I understand her as a woman--the heartaches she feels, the love-hate relationship with her mother, the tight bond with her father. She said her father was the most handsome man she ever saw until she met the man who became her husband. I'm just like her.

"But oh, my gosh! Every time I do the show, I'm frightened--it's such a humongous endeavor.... But then, you step out on stage and you lose yourself in the role. It's fantastic."

The new album--the 23rd that Deffaa has produced--was made at BeSharp Studios in NYC, with recording engineer Slau Halatyn; Frank Avellino did the graphic design. It is being distributed exclusively by CDBaby.

Like Fanny Brice, Mary Cantoni Johnson (who was born and raised in Naugatuck, Connecticut) began singing as a small child. "My mother says I was three when I began singing, "Johnson notes. "When I was four or five, I used to go to neighbors, give them pieces of paper and say, 'These are your tickets; the performance will start in just a few minutes. They'd come, sit on lawn chairs, and I'd stand on the porch and sing 'People,' and other songs I'd learned from listening to Barbra Streisand." Johnson was--and still remains--a great admirer of Streisand.

She started vocal training at age eight. By the time she was 11, she was studying voice at the University of Hartford School of Music.

Later, as a student at Long Island University, Johnson sang anywhere she could--from the elite chamber choir to a jazz a capella vocal group. After graduation, she found opportunities to perform at theaters throughout the Nutmeg State, including the Seven Angels Theater, the Warner Theater, the Bridgeport Cabaret, Beckley Dinner Theater, the Goshen Players, Tri-Arts Sharon Playhouse, the Thomaston Opera House, and more. She got married and raised a family, and her husband, Theron, and her children, Christian, Theron, and Veronica, all joined her in shows.

"It was director/producer Sharon Wilcox, and her cohorts at Connecticut's Phoenix Stage, Ed Bassett Jr. and Agnes Duggan Dann, who first had the inspired idea of casting Mary Cantoni Johnson as Fanny Brice," Deffaa recalls. They licensed Deffaa's show and presented it at the Phoenix Stage, just before the show was set to open Off-Broadway in New York. "I heard from actor friends Rachel Armour and Jack Saleeby, while the production was in rehearsal, how sensational Mary was, playing Brice. I drove up to Connecticut to catch her performance. Although she's a great favorite in Connecticut theater, I had not seen her work before. From her first entrance, gorgeously costumed by Renee Purdy, I was just knocked out. She was singing the big numbers with the majesty that they deserved, and tearing our hearts out on the tear-jerkers. She played the role the way I hoped someone would play it, when I was writing it--much moreso than anyone else I'd encountered..

I had the pleasure of seeing Mary play Fanny Brice both time she did it with the Phoenix Stage Companyand loved both performances. I can't wait to hear the recording of her fabulous one woman performance.

"I told Mary we'd already cast someone to open the show in New York, but I wanted New York audiences to be able to see Johnson as Brice, at the earliest possible convenience. And we made that happen. Mary played the show a long, long time in New York, then returned to Connecticut's Phoenix Stage for an encore engagement." (And Johnson did all of this while holding down a day job as a teacher at Pomperaug High School in Southbury--where she often manages to sing for students.)

Deffaa adds: "I hope Mary gets to play 'Fanny Brice' in many theaters in years to come. She could command any stage in Connecticut, from Seven Angels to the Westport Playhouse. And I'd love to bring her to Korea someday, too, where we've done other work of mine, produced by KimYou-chul; I know that Korean audiences would love her work. She could take the show anywhere. She's a terrific performer, and the new CD can serve as her calling card."

The new cast album--"One Night with Fanny Brice, Starring Mary Cantoni Johnson"--may be ordered here now: https://www.amazon.com/Deffaas...

Nancy Sasso Janis has been writing theatre reviews since 2012 as a way to support local theatre venues and she posts reviews of well over 100 productions each year. In 2016, she became an associate of the Connecticut Critics Circle. She continues to contribute theatre news, previews, and audition notices to local Patch sites. Reviews of all levels of theatrical productions are posted on Naugatuck Patch and the Patch sites closest to the venue. Follow the reviewer on her Facebook pages Nancy Sasso Janis: Theatre Reviewer and Connecticut Theater Previews and on Twitter @nancysjanis417