A Dog’s Life: Meet Broadway’s Dog Whisperer

by Gerard Raymond

The audience at the Circle in the Square Theatre goes “Aww!” when, midway through Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Tony nominee Audra McDonald, playing the troubled singer Billie Holliday, brings on stage a Chihuahua, who kisses the star and shares a drink with her. A few blocks away, at the St. James Theatre, a Pomeranian gets almost equal stage time with actress Karen Ziemba, keeping its cool while mobsters and showbiz folk collide in the Woody Allen musical Bullets Over Broadway.

Both Roxie (who plays Holliday’s dog, Pepi) and Trixie (in a gender-crossing performance as Mr. Woofles in Bullets) owe their thespian careers to William Berloni, a veteran animal trainer who received a Tony Honor for Excellence in 2011. Like many of Berloni’s four-legged wards, Roxie and Trixie were rescued from shelters and spend their nonworking days on their trainer’s farm in Connecticut.

“Animals don’t act,” says Berloni. “With humans, we suspend the disbelief and we pretend. With animals, it is reality, which is a good thing and a bad thing. What makes the animal performances so exciting is that you are watching them in real time. You know they are happy and must really want to do it; you will see immediately if the animal’s ears are pinned or if it looks frightened.”

Continue reading here at Broadway Direct.

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Posted by chesliepickett on May 14 2014. Filed under The Buzz. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.