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.
SOUTH PHILLY REVIEW - LIFESTYLES – Sep 20, 2007 Woman on the verge
Actress/writer/producer Jodi Letizia returns home to perform her one-woman musical comedy ‘Over the Edge.’ By Caitlin Meals
Jodi Letizia was destined to be in showbiz long before she was even born. Her mother — a traveling professional dancer — married her father, an “advance man” who set up amenities at city stops for Frank Sinatra, in 1963. Letizia, who grew up at 22nd and Wolf streets, may have begun her career with dance at age 3, but at 12 she snagged the part in an Oscar-winning film. Letizia, who describes herself as “forever 40,” was cast as Marie in the first “Rocky,” a role any budding actress hopes would jump-start a film career. Letiza’s father was a liaison for the film, performing similar duties for the crew as he did for Sinatra. Upon noticing the role, he asked if his daughter could audition. Next thing they knew, she landed the part. But “it’s so not who I am today,” she said referring to her character from the 1976 film. Sylvester Stallone’s famous flick may have been her first taste of the limelight, but the stage was what came calling. Letizia can be seen through Sept. 22 in “Over the Edge” at the Shubin Theatre, 407 Bainbridge St. The intimate 40-seater provides the perfect backdrop for her one-woman musical comedy. Her characters — from Aunt Rose, who was influenced by her own kin, to Marie, a young South Philly woman based on a childhood friend — often interact with the audience in an improvisation-type back-and-forth, while a piano takes Letizia from one role to the next through scores and songs. Due to this dynamic interplay, the show may vary night to night, but one element remains: The influence of her roots. It comes across in her on-stage personalities and never fully dissipates her even when she leaves the city. “As a performer, it helped to make me a real person — down to earth,” she said of South Philly. “I don’t really have airs, you don’t get that in South Philly.” After graduating from the Creative and Performing Arts High School, 901 S. Broad St., Letizia danced at the now-shuttered Riverfront Dinner Theater on Columbus Boulevard, followed by a short stay in Miami while touring with a show. She ended up back in the area and, in the early 1980s, moved to New York to work in film and television, including a role in the “Miami Vice” pilot. She began doing off-Broadway, eventually writing her own “club acts” reminiscent of cabaret, including “Love Is A Four-Letter Word.” Her starring role in “Dressing Room Divas” nabbed her an Obie Award in 1995 for Best Female in an Ensemble, an honor Letizia cherishes. Letizia continued working on her own pieces and collaborating with fellow writers. She penned “Edge” several years ago, running it in New York and Philadelphia since 2000. Come the weekends, her audience is mostly New Yorkers, but she said the response to the humor is similar in both cities — except for one thing. “They recognize themselves in a lot of stuff,” she said of the South Philly audience. “The first time we ran the show here, I had a girlfriend come to me backstage and say, ‘Oh my God! That was me, wasn’t it?’ I thought they’d feel as if I was making fun of them, but it’s the opposite feel, like I’m honoring them.” This is the second time this year the show is playing at the Shubin. After its first run in June, the positive audience feedback prompted a fall return. Leitizia said being able to perform in Philadelphia — where she lives when she’s not in New York — is always welcome. “There’s a warmth in South Philly; everybody knows their neighbor,” she said, adding her mother and sister still reside in South Philly with Letizia and husband Andy Redmond now calling Northern Liberties home. “Edge” is compromised of several female characters Letizia described as “people who are almost at the edge,” dealing with how to escape their problems. A bit of the “South Philly attitude” comes out here and there, as several characters are Italian or Jewish with a tough side, Letizia said. “How can I describe it?” she asked rhetorically. “South Philly people are very unique.” She said scenarios of where her characters eat, live and shop and how they interact with their families reflect many of the neighbors she had as a child. Bringing all of those colorful personalities to the stage was a natural step. “That’s my genre,” she said. “I always go right to live theater. To have a live audience makes it more exciting.” Though the footlights beckon, Letizia has been in talks with Comedy Central to adapt her characters to the small screen, something she said she “would love to do,” adding “you can always go back to live theater.” Letizia, who also produces her show, was bitten by the theater bug at first, getting into writing when she moved to New York. For “Edge” she and Ron Seykell, who also directs the show, wrote musical parodies into the arrangements Noah Farber plays on piano. The toll of traveling and performing sometimes weighs on the actress, but when she sees her audience, “I’m like, ‘I’ll do a run for the next couple months,’” she said. Letizia said she plans to visit again in December for a holiday show with characters and plots centered around tradition. The show will feature some “Edge” favorites, but she plans to bring in local talent as well as New York performers originally from Philly. The actress, who draws inspiration from comedy legends like Carol Burnett, Red Skelton and Lucille Ball, continues to write musical comedies — a genre she said she loves because “I grew up with it, it brings me back home” — but will stay with “Edge,” taking it to Chicago, Detroit and possibly Los Angeles in the coming months. Despite the frequent flyer miles or how much time she spends away, her roots will always be a prominent part of her show. “I love New York, but I love that I can step out and come back to South Philly,” she said.
Phliadelphia City Paper - August 14-20, 2003
By Dana Procaccino
As a 12-year-old, South Philadelphia-born actress Jodi Letizia played the part of Marie, the young neighborhood girl in the 1976 film Rocky. Since then, she has had small parts in films like Slaves of New York and Mannequin and performed in the shows Dressing Room Divas, II and Hot Keys. Now, Letizia is writing and performing in her own live musical comedies starring a cast of eccentric characters in shows titled A Big Girl's Blouse, Love is a Four Letter Word and the current Over the Edge. From a Jewish mother to an Italian lesbian prostitute, the characters are all inspired by people she has encountered in her everyday life, and while each is unique and funny in her own way, all are connected in their struggles to escape from and deal with the reality of their lives. Letizia introduces her audience to several characters in her one-woman show, which is part comedy, part cabaret, using their outrageous personalities to involve her audience and make each show distinct and often risque. While there is a script, it is only loosely followed since Letizia prefers to work off the dynamic of the audience. "I basically just do whatever I feel," says Letizia about her performance style. 'I have no boundaries, except that I don't cut anybody or kill anybody."