springfield springsteen
on seeing Hank Azaria and the EZ Street Band
i’m just now coming up for air after a week spent out of space and time pre-and-post election. i don’t have any words for that besides “jesus christ,” and i haven’t processed any feelings about it besides prolific anger — anger at it being this fucking guy again, anger at the right, anger at the democrats, anger at a country hell-bent on debasing itself time and time again. my anxiety is domestic1 and global2. i had a nakedly post-roe stress dream about accidentally leaving a baby in my care alone for days3. the only comfort i’ve found has come from my own community, which has been a lot of people faced with terrifying reality going “yup. yup. i know.” that’s all we can do right now.
in lieu of shaking the country really hard until it resets, my partner and i decided our best option to momentarily forget our troubles and get happy was in live music. after seeing an ad months ago and yes-anding each other through purchasing the tickets, we caught the New York premiere of Hank Azaria and the EZ Street Band at the Brooklyn Bowl. it was a rock and roll ritual before it was a rock and roll show, a one-man play with music (like Springsteen on Broadway, natch) before it was a concert. they started an hour late for what felt like no reason besides method acting rockstar mystique. Azaria reminded us that Springsteen audiences often sing the first verse of “Hungry Heart” by themselves at live shows, but he, Springsteen FAN first and foremost, sang along to the first verse, too.
it was a collapsing of performer into performance, a self-described late midlife crisis that included tactful guest appearances from several of his most beloved Simpsons voices. he did the Bruce voice while he sang and also while told us an off-the-cuff story about his absent, late father; he actually only dropped the voice once during the evening, and only after asking our permission to become Hank Azaria and tell us two (somewhat embarrassing!) stories about meeting The Boss as himself. he name-dropped, Hank Azaria as Bruce Springsteen telling us about Hank Azaria’s conversation with Paul Rudd, and then immediately self-deprecated about name-dropping.
in lesser hands, i don’t think i would have enjoyed this kind of show, especially this week. but this is a Hank Azaria performance we’re talking about! counting the uncountable number of hours i’ve spent watching The Simpsons and The Birdcage, Azaria’s voice must be among the ones i’ve spent the most time listening to. he is a uniquely and expansively talented singer and performer, and he has assembled a great band. beneath the showmanship and the self-deprecation, there was an earnestness and a ready-to-please theatre kid gameness to Hank Azaria and the EZ Street Band that i really ate up. Azaria wanted us to see him, with the caveat that he can only really show himself to us using somebody else’s voice.
i’ve had the pleasure of speaking to a few heavyweight career voice actors, including Yeardley Smith, Rob Paulsen, and Tom Kenney, and i got the same sense from Hank Azaria that i got from all of them: voice actors are both artists and niche craftspeople, and they take pleasure in the joy their gift inspires in others. there is some degree of ego death that must come from making a celebrity acting career out of your voice, from being vocally recognizable but visually more anonymous. Hank Azaria and the EZ Street Band wasn’t about Azaria breaking out the Moe Syzlak or Comic Book Guy voices, but my most joyful moments of the night were hearing him explain how those voices came to life. he described his Moe voice as living somewhere between Al Pacino’s and Bruce Springsteen’s — two performers he respects dearly, distilled down to their voice, and then combined to create something new, memorable, and lovable in turn4. for Azaria, impersonation is a generative act of love. what greater reverence could a world-class voice actor give his favorite musician than an evening spent loving him with imitation?
this is the second time i’ve written about Bruce Springsteen in this newsletter and i want to take a moment to re-up my “Thunder Road” piece because i think it’s one of the best things i’ve ever published.
i have recently finagled the gig economy into three (3) gigs that are keeping me clothed and fed and housed for the time being (!!!!!!), but you can always subscribe for free or for money to support me and my work!
we’re doing the first public NYC reading of my play i can fix him on December 15th — details to come!
and — one last piece of news —
i’m officially a Theatr Insider! i was told i was among those chosen out of 1000 applications so i will be riding that high for a while. i’ll be seeing and reviewing a lot of shows — join me on the app and get access to the coolest theatre resale marketplace around.
my first assignment was Teeth, which i loved:
primarily worried about my trans loved ones and our broader LGBTQ+ community but there are a lot of other things, too.
primarily worried about gaza but there are a lot of other things, too.
primarily worried about abortion access but also as a person with PCOS and endometriosis and PMDD, i am worried about even more limits on reproductive healthcare, and ectopic pregnancy, and so on.
i think i am also writing about playwriting
I love you so much!!!!