Edge of Reason

Jodi Letizia's Rocky road led her to the cabaret stage.

by A.D. Amorosi

Life isn't so bad for all kid entertainers. They don't all become child molesters or reality-show fodder. Take South Philadelphia expatriate Jodi Letizia. She could've just fallen by the wayside after appearing in locally filmed flicks Rocky — she played 12-year-old Marie, Balboa's cocky nemesis — and Mannequin. Instead, she kept the gun from her head and aimed it, metaphorically, at audiences in the Manhattan cabaret/comedy scene, tackling full-blown revues like Hot Keys and Merry Christmas, Mommie!, as well as her monologue-driven one-woman cabaret showcases Love is a Four Letter World and A Big Girl's Blouse. And the last few seasons have found the booming blonde insistently refining her Over the Edge, whose outrageous assemblage of lost souls seeking solace through comedy and musical interludes is simultaneously original and familiar.

Jodi Letizia: What do you need, sweetie?
City Paper: With Michael Jackson getting off — pardon the pun — there's this lingering question about the dire straits kids go through when pushed into a career. Were you pushed?
JL: Not at all. I couldn't wait. I was in the Pennsylvania Ballet as a kid. I did a lot of local theater. Sang with The Carpenters. It was absolutely in my blood. My mother was a professional dancer. My dad worked for Sinatra as an advance man. You know how my folks met? Through Frank Fontaine.

CP: Crazy Guggenheim from The Jackie Gleason Show?
JL: Yeah. He introduced them. He was good friends with my dad. He gave away my mom at their wedding.

CP: You left Philly 20 years ago. Rocky was filmed 30 years ago. Yet when I was with you the other day, you got approached for Rocky. Is that uncomfortable?
JL: No stalkers. I only get Rocky recognition in Philly. Everybody who knows me from New York knows me from kid theater stuff. The only creepy thing that happens is when people sing the Rocky theme behind me while I'm walking down the street.

CP: So who are these people you're talking about in this version of Over the Edge?
JL: They're different people I've known my entire life, all of whom happen to be in different degrees of escape — wanting to escape, needing to escape. Everyone wants to get out. These are certainly "characters" that people know — which makes it all so much easier for audience participation. Like my "Aunt Rose." The character certainly started out as my Aunt Rose — youknowhatImean — but eventually she became the same Aunt Rose that everyone has. And everyone does have one. Do you have an Aunt Rose?

CP: No. Ha. Wait. Dag. You know — yes. I actually do have an Aunt Rose. Coffee-grind eye circles. Big nostrils. Hair in a bun. Like everyone in my family older than 40. God forbid. I'm sorry, Rose.
JL: (Laughs) The guy who directs my show has an Aunt Rose. The lady I lived with in Brooklyn not only had an Aunt Rose — she's an Aunt Rose. Aunt Rose is my New York boroughs character, an out-to-lunch sort, still lovin' Sinatra, still the party girl who never grew up. She's the room enterer. Even when I do private events, she's who the event planners want. She's the one who'd tell you how sharp you look, how pretty your girl is. She's very much from the top of my head.

CP: I know you got South Philly broads in your show. I know you've got a Sicilian lady.
JL: Yeah. But she's a Sicilian lesbian. A hooker. I knew her for years. She was crude — no editing process, no social skills. I aspired to her level of brusque. And the "Maria" I remember from South Philly was always in a state of planning for her son's Holy Communion. She was deeply into barbiturates.

CP: You got hold of musical director Marc Janus — a big deal what with him being a protégé of Leonard Bernstein's. What gives?
JL: We've known each other for years. We've been collaborating with my director, Ron Seykell, honing the material. He's currently arranging the score of Finian's Rainbow at Joanne Woodward's theater in Connecticut for next year's Broadway season. These guys are the best that Broadway, that cabaret, has to offer.

CP: So what's funniest about the evolution of Edge now?
JL: That after doing Edge a few times, my level of spontaneity and involvement with the audience has become the huge part of the setup. That's what's made the word of mouth so strong, what's made people tell and bring their friends. I may not be serving dinner on stage, but I think it's become like Dame Edna's show. It's an audience's show.

Jodi Letizia's Over The Edge, Fri., June 24, 8 p.m., $25, Ebe Showcase Theater, 1020 N. Delaware Ave., first floor, 215-498-0219.