“I Love Lucy Live on Stage” is a new stage show that will take you back to 1952, when the hit TV series starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz was in the works. If you go, and we recommend that you do, you’ll be a part of the show, becoming a member of the studio audience awaiting the filming of two memorable “I Love Lucy” episodes complete with retro commercials and the rocking Cuban conga beats of “The Ricky Ricardo Orchestra.”
Out, talented performer Mark Christopher Tracy helps to hold the whole production together. We caught up with him just before the San Francisco run of the show, which is now underway at the Curran Theatre. Tracy originated the role of Maury Jasper in the Los Angeles production. What, you say you don’t remember Maury from the old TV show? We’ll let Mark explain!
San Francisco Bay Times: Please describe your character Maury Jasper for us. It sounds like a very important one for this show. Was there a Maury in real life who was part of Desilu?
Mark Christopher Tracy: My character, Maury Jasper, is kind of an amalgamation of several personnel on a typical TV show set. He is primarily what we’d call a warm up guy these days, keeping the audience apprised of what’s going on between the scenes and keeping their enthusiasm up. He’s also kind of a floor director, counting in each scene: “Five, four, three…” etc. Interestingly, there was a man named “Maury” who worked on the “I Love Lucy” show, but his last name was Thompson. His wife was the camera coordinator and she worked in the booth. Even more interestingly, Lucy had a cousin named “Jasper.” How bout that?
There was a guy who interacted with the audience at Desilu Playhouse named Roy Rowan. He can be seen introducing Desi Arnaz in the behind the scenes, never-released “I Love Lucy The Movie.” Roy also did a lot of voice over for the show, doing the tags at the end of the reconstructed episodes: “This has been a Desilu production.”
San Francisco Bay Times: What have been some of the favorite moments for you doing the show?
Mark Christopher Tracy: We do a quiz show between our two episodes that asks for audience members to come up on stage and test their “I Love Lucy” knowledge. It’s a bit of a wildcard and has become my favorite part of the show! First, I never know what the contestant is going to be like. When we were in Toronto (during the) last tour playing the lavish Royal Alexandra Theatre, I had one woman who may have, let’s say, made a few visits to the bar in the lobby. When she was up on stage, she apparently didn’t like that she didn’t answer the question correctly and exclaimed to 1,800 people, “S*it!” Now, this is, for all intents and purposes, 1952, and a person—let along a lady— would never say something like that out loud! So, after waiting about a full minute for the audience to calm down, I looked at
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