Enjoy Thanksgiving Saturday at The Tent!

Please enjoy a special shortened version of The Tent tomorrow night on NBC-10 WJAR from 7:00pm-8:00pm. We are so thankful to Lisa Churchville and the entire WJAR team for their continued support of our project. And we hope you will enjoy this special preview of the Director's Cut version of our film to be released soon. Thanks and Happy Thanksgiving!

DVD in More Stores Now!

In addition to Benny's locations, we are proud to announce that The Tent is now available at ALC Sports Memorabilia at the Warwick Mall, mere miles from where the great Warwick Musical Theatre once stood.

We are easy to find too - dead center in the mall, across from Old Navy and as the photos suggest, we have a great display showcase for the DVD. Stay tuned for times and dates when Larry Bonoff will be on hand to sign posters or DVDs.

Special thanks to our friends Gary and Luka at ALC and we hope you will visit the them soon to pick up The Tent DVD, related merchandise, and lots of other great items for sale there. Thank you!

Cardi Class

Thanks so much to our friends at Cardi's Furniture for the extremely generous inclusion in their recent ad. That was an incredibly kind gesture and everyone here on The Tent production team is so grateful. Thank you NIck, ROn, and PEte!

Tent Director's Cut DVD Edits Are Done!

After a few marathon editing session late into the early morning hours of the weekend, I am happy to report that the final edits for the forthcoming director's cut DVD are complete! Phew. I am very excited about this new version which includes roughly eight minutes of new footage, new interviews, hundreds of new photos, and much more. We have also finished the special features section of the DVD as well and it includes deleted scenes from the theatrical run, our welcome reel from opening night in August, and other bonus materials.

I hope to have these new limited-edition DVDs in the stores soon so stay tuned to see how you can get your copy, the perfect complement to the theatrical version already available in Benny's stores now or online (see link to the right).

Thanks for your continued support of our film!

The Tent DVD is Now Available!

We are very pleased to announce that just two months after its theatrical run, the DVD version of The Tent: Life in the Round is available now. This first limited-edition version is the exact one shown in the movie theaters back in August and September. You can get it at any BENNY'S location or online by clicking HERE.

Thanks very much!

URI Screening This Thursday!

We hope you can join us down at the University of Rhode Island for a screening of the movie at 7pm. All proceeds will benefit the University's Bonoff Theatre Fund. Please check out all the details here in the University's recent press release. Thanks so much!

URI Theatre to Screen THE TENT: Life in the Round

KINGSTON, RI – September 23, 2009 – The University of Rhode Island Department of Theatre will screen the documentary, THE TENT: Life in the Round Thursday, Oct. 1 at 7 p.m. in Room 271 of the Chafee Social Science Center, 10 Chafee Road, Kingston. The 90-minute documentary chronicles the legacy of the Warwick Musical Theatre from inception in 1955 to its final curtain call in 1999. Suggested donations for the evening are $10 for the general public and $5 for students. All proceeds will benefit the Bonoff Theatre Fund, which will provide scholarships for theatre students.

THE TENT: Life in the Round was directed, written and co-produced by Washington, D.C. filmmaker Brian Jones. Jones used archival footage from the Rhode Island Historical Society, local TV stations, and photos from the Larry Bonoff Collection in combination with celebrity interviews featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, Englebert Humperdink, Carrot Top, Howie Mandel, Vince Gill, and Wynonna Judd. The documentary is narrated by WJAR-10 Patrice Wood and edited by Emmy-winning filmmaker Jim Karpeichik.

Viewers will enjoy footage of Howie Mandel when he realizes he is sharing the stage with a large moth. Hear local comedian Charlie Hall recall a phone call during his birthday party one evening from a panic-stricken Larry Bonoff who begged him (with the promise that he would buy them all dinner afterward) to be the last-minute replacement for Jerry Seinfeld’s opening act who didn’t show. Discover why Patti LaBelle left in a huff after her performance.

Rhode Islanders share their memories of the “Tent.” For example, Gov. and Mrs. Donald Carcieri fondly recall their first date at the “tent.” For additional information or directions, call 401.874.5921 or 401.874-5922.

Media Contact: Bonnie Bosworth, 401-874-5922

Last Chance to Catch 'The Tent' in the Theater!

Our very successful run at Showcase Cinemas is coming to an end on Thursday so we wanted to make one final push to urge all of our friends to go check it out on the big screen one last time. Thanks to our friends at National Amusements and to you for your support of our film. Look for more exciting announcements coming soon!

We Got Another Week at Showcase!

Thanks to the continued support of the Rhode Island and Southern New England communities, 'The Tent' has been extended for another week at Showcase Cinemas Warwick! We are so thankful and hope you will come out and watch our film for the first time, again, or with someone who hasn't seen it.

'The Tent' To Screen at the Pawtucket Film Festival!

We are pleased to announce that 'The Tent - Life in the Round' has been selected to appear at the 10th Annual Pawtucket Film Festival next Sunday, September 13 at 12:30pm at the Blackstone Valley Visitor Center Theatre (175 Main Street). Our friend Michael Janusonis wrote a great piece on the entire festival and we hope you will be able to come and support the film and the many other wonderful artists, musicians, and filmmakers who will be showcasing their achievements. Larry Bonoff will be on hand to screen the film and answer questions. Thanks for your continued support!

Pawtucket Film Festival, Something for Everyone
01:00 AM EDT on Thursday, September 3, 2009
By Michael Janusonis
Journal Arts Writer

The Alloy Orchestra will perform for the opening night of the Pawtucket Film Festival at Jenks Junior High School. The three-man ensemble plays live, original scores to silent films using unusual objects as part of their instrumentation.

A classic silent film with a live musical accompaniment, an Academy Award-nominated feature, a short about beekeeping in the heart of New York City, the celebrated documentary about the Warwick Musical Theatre, plus musical guests, complimentary refreshments and a free T-shirt. All these things are some of the draws when the 10th annual Pawtucket Film Festival gets under way Friday night, with shows through Sunday and again Sept. 11 to 13.

Most events will take place at the Blackstone Valley Visitor Center Theatre at 175 Main St., but Friday’s screening of the 1920s-era Man With a Movie Camera, accompanied by the renowned Alloy Orchestra, will be at the William E. Tolman Senior High School Auditorium at 150 Exchange St. because it is expected to pull in a large crowd.

Friday’s show at Tolman, which begins at 7 p.m., will open with a performance by the Alloy Orchestra’s Roger Miller, who also is a singer, guitarist and keyboardist and who also performs with the groups Mission to Burma and The Binary System. The entire Alloy Orchestra (which actually consists of only two other members) will then play for Soviet director Dziga Vertov’s experimental Man With a Movie Camera, which is billed as a day-in-the-life portrait of a city from dawn to dusk. The film grew out of Vertov’s belief that the true goal of cinema should be to present life as it is lived, but although it is supposed to reflect life in a single city, he actually shot footage in Moscow, Kiev and Odessa, emphasizing buildings and machinery.

The Alloy Orchestra works with an assemblage of peculiar objects pulled from what they call a “rack of junk,” plus electronic synthesizers to thrash and grind their original musical score. So far this year they have accompanied Man With a Movie Camera at screenings in Baltimore, New York City, Washington, D.C., and St. Petersburg, Russia.

The Pawtucket Film Festival, which is part of the broader ongoing Pawtucket Arts Festival, continues Saturday with a 12:30 p.m. program at the Blackstone Valley Visitor Center Theatre that seems designed to bring together two very different groups. On stage, Hope Roth will sing her melancholy and deeply personal songs of loneliness and heartbreak, followed by an interactive video folk art presentation by Jacqueline Schnabel that is designed to appeal to children.

In this portion of the program kids will choose stories, create characters out of recycled materials, rehearse and star in a video folk art film. Several movies will be made; at the end they will be turned into a DVD that the children can take home. It is suggested that participants bring recyclable material with them, such as cereal boxes, plastic, cardboard and old magazines that can be used to make characters for the video folk art films.

At 6:30 p.m. Saturday the tone will shift with a performance by Preacher Jack, who will play boogie-woogie piano and tell “honky-tonk” tales. He will be followed on screen by Melissa Lohman’s documentary short Rooftop Bees, about a man who maintains three beehives on his Brooklyn rooftop, and the feature film Frozen River, for which Melissa Leo was nominated for a best actress Academy Award earlier this year. In Frozen River she plays a struggling abandoned wife and mother who joins forces with a Mohawk Indian woman to smuggle illegal immigrants in from Canada across the frozen St. Lawrence River.

On Sunday Jeremy Lyons, a New Orleans singer-guitarist who has relocated to Massachusetts, will perform on the Blackstone stage at 12:30 p.m., followed on screen by director Gita Pullapilly’s feature-length documentary The Way We Get By, about three senior citizens who gather every day at a small airport to thank American soldiers who are departing for and returning from Iraq. As it follows the three, who are struggling with their own futures, the film turns into a meditation on aging, loneliness, war and mortality.

At 6:30 p.m. Sunday singer-kazoo player Ed “Moose” Savage will deliver his one-of-a-kind cult songs, such as “Bread Is Dangerous,” “Clove Cigarettes” and “Rrrats.” He will be followed on screen by director Elika Portnoy’s Tricks of Love feature film in which a fashion photographer accepts a bet that he can transform any girl into a fashion model and sets out to remake a fishmonger into a knockout.

The film festival will continue the following weekend with programs that include Bronx Princess at 7 p.m. Sept. 11, about a headstrong young woman who follows her father to Africa where he is a tribal chief, and THE TENT: Life in the Round, the story of the Warwick Musical Theatre, which goes on screen at 12:30 p.m. Sept. 13.

Tickets for all programs are $10 at the door.

mjanuson@projo.com

Only 3 More Days at Showcase

Well folks, they say that all good things must come to an end. And that's true, because our wonderful run at the Showcase Cinemas Warwick will finish this Thursday with a final round of shows. We are so grateful to all of our friends at National Amusements who have so supportive of our film project - we are forever in your debt. We are also thankful to everyone who has come out to see the film at Showcase.

We can't say 'thank you' enough but we will try - thanks again!

Thanks to You, Showcase Has Extended Our Run!

Thanks to everyone who came out and saw 'The Tent' at Showcase Cinemas this weekend. We had steady crowds, so steady that our film finished 3rd among ALL movies for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday! We are so grateful and urge you all to tell your friends and family about the movie.

We are also excited to announce that our friends at National Amusements notified us this morning that because of your gracious response, they are extending our run at Showcase until September 10. So if you have already seen the movie, please go enjoy the fun again and if you haven't, make sure you get out there and experience the magic. Thank you all again!

Top Billing at Showcase!

We are so thankful to Rick Davies and Steve Cooper of National Amusements who have been incredibly supportive of our film project. To have 'The Tent' show at the movie theater that I grew up going to (and just down the street from where the Warwick Musical Theatre used to stand) is exciting. But to have our movie receive the top spot on the marquee is humbling. Thanks again to our friends at Showcase Cinemas Warwick, and to everyone who went to see 'The Tent: Life in the Round' this weekend! (Our run goes through this Thursday!)

Another Great Review for 'The Tent!'

SEE IT AT THE MOVIES
by Joyce & Don Fowler
Aug 28, 2009

THE TENT: LIFE IN THE ROUND
(Priceless Warwick memories)

The Warwick Musical Theatre, aka The Tent, was an important part of the Fowlers’ lives from 1965 until its closing in 1999. I covered “The Tent” for the Warwick Beacon and the Cranston Herald from 1977 until its final concert. I cried when Vince Gill sang his final song, well after midnight on that warm summer evening. Like most Rhode Islanders, Joyce and I have fond memories and a barrel full of stories about the best entertainment Rhode Island ever had to offer.

Thanks to Larry Bonoff and Brian Jones for making this wonderful documentary that recalls the highlights of the Warwick Musical Theatre, from the first shovel-full of dirt removed from the cow pasture on Route 2 to the night the revolving stage stopped spinning. While the movie is a nostalgic look back at the building and its evolution from a tent to a more permanent structure, plus a look at many of the “stars who came out at night,” it is primarily about people: the people who ran it, the people who worked there, the people who sat in the uncomfortable canvas chairs in the sweltering heat, and the people who performed.

Larry Bonoff pays a loving tribute to his parents, Buster and Barbara, who were more than theatre managers and booking agents. They were friends to Rhode Islanders and to the entertainers that visited Warwick, played golf with Buster, and dined with family and friends at the much-missed Golden Lantern. Bonoff and Jones have uncovered vintage television and video footage of performances, from Jack Benny to Johnny Carson, to a plethora of singers, comedians, actors and musicians who were truly “up close and personal.”

We see Liberace holding out his ring to be kissed by a lady in the audience. We’ll always remember his remark, “Go ahead. Take a good look. You paid for it.” The funniest sequence shows Howie Mandel at one of his many Warwick performances, chasing a moth around the stage. It lands in a precarious spot on his body. Then he spots a huge bug on the leg of a young lady sitting in the front row. What happens next is worth the price of admission. Mandel, a close friend of the Bonoffs (as were most of the performers), did promos for the movie, taped a special opening night welcome, and played an important part in the movie.

If you go online to http://www.bonoff.net/, you can follow the history of the Warwick Musical Theatre, with photos and program covers from every year. But if you want to feel the excitement, caring and love for the entertainers and patrons that Barbara and Buster displayed, you must see the movie. Bonoff, in addition to showing many highlights, takes the time and effort to pay tribute to the employees, many of whom admitted that they would have worked for nothing. The movie is interspersed with “talking heads” reminiscing about their favorite stars, funniest moments, meeting and falling in love at The Tent and experiences behind the scenes.

There are great interviews by Wynonna, Vince Gill, Huey Lewis and dozens of others. It is interesting to see footage of their performances and then see them as they are today. Carrot Top has grown up. Engelbert has grown old (the audience gasped when they saw him being interviewed). Wynonna has grown. And Howie Mandel has lost his out-of-control head of hair.

There is so much more that can be said about this wonderful movie. Even if you weren’t one of the thousands fortunate enough to have the “tent” experience, go see the movie and get a feel for why people still wish it were still here. One of the main reasons was the Bonoff family. Larry and Brian (who started as an usher at the theatre) have captured the spirit of Barbara and Buster, who must be looking down on them with their sincere humility, saying “Great job!”

“The Tent: Life in the Round” will be shown at the Warwick Showcase for a week, opening this Friday. Hopefully, there will be more showings scheduled in the future. Note: This is the first “biased” review I have ever written. I had my 15 seconds of fame near the end of the movie, where I am interviewed for my comments on reviewing Vince Gill’s closing night performance. The film is not rated, but it is OK for all ages. Bring the children and show them what the good old days of quality entertainment was like.

Premiere Weekend Was a Smash!

Well folks, after months of preparation, hard work, and planning, the premiere weekend of 'The Tent: Life in the Round' is in the books. And what an exciting few days of festivites we had. Our friends at the Providence Performing Arts Center rolled out the red carpet for us, literally, and helped us throw one heck of a party.

It was amazing to see years of work finally come to life on the big screen. We had a packed house of theater-goers and Warwick Musical enthusiasts who came to watch the world premiere of our film. 630 WPRO's very own Ron St. Pierre and Buddy Cianci kicked off the evening as our emcees and introduced Larry Bonoff and me for a few quick words. Once we were done, the lights went down and we were off.

After the show, many of the audience members attended the post-show reception in the PPAC lobby and got to meet the filmmakers, those in the movie, and catch up with so many faces from Warwick Musical Theatre's past. It was an incredible night of fun and memories and we are so grateful to everyone who was able to be a part of the magic.

And last night, the film was shown at the Stadium Theatre in Woonsocket for an exclusive one-night engagement and the reaction there was extremely positive as well. Thanks to everyone who came out last night also.

Our film takes a break for 4 days until it begins a week run over at Showcase Cinemas Warwick (Quaker Lane) on Friday, August 28. We hope to see you there and look for some exciting announcements in the coming days too. Thank you again for all of your support!

One Final Push!

Larry Bonoff continued the frenetic marketing push for one final day today as we make the final turn toward the finish line of the premiere tomorrow night in Providence. He made the rounds on local television and radio (seen here with 630 WPRO program director Paul Giammarco this morning) affiliates talking about the film and what promises to be a wonderful and memorable premiere night. We want to thank all of our media friends who have been so supportive and helpful throughout this entire project!

The Stars Are Shining!

We are so excited to announce that our film, 'The Tent: Life in the Round' received the highest rating possible by Providence Journal movie critic Michael Janusonis - 5 stars. We are humbled and honored by this review (check it out below if you haven't already) and hope you will feel the same way after you see the movie. Less than 24 hours to go! Hope to see you tomorrow night at PPAC. And for those that cannot be there, please subscribe to my twitter feed (wmtmovieguy) for real time updates throughout the night!

Great Video Piece on WJAR Tonight!

Thanks to our friends at WJAR-10 in Providence, Rhode Island who produced a wonderful piece that appeared tonight on their newscast. Included was footage from our film, an interview with Larry Bonoff, and narration from our movie's narrator, Patrice Wood. Please check it out here.

As we head into our final day of media blitz (Larry is on so many television and radio stations tomorrow I can't keep them all straight), we pause to thank everyone who has sent us positive messages of support and has purchased tickets to the premiere Saturday night. If you haven't, we hope you will because it will be a very special and memorable evening to be sure.

3 Days to Go!

It's amazing to think we are mere hours away from the premiere of our film on Saturday night at 7pm. But here we are. As I write this, the final final final cut of the film is being encoded and processed. Jim Karpeichik and I made changes and tweaks literally up to the end, and we are pleased to report that a surprise appearance made it into the film. We hope you enjoy. Lots going on but just to remind everyone, our premiere weekend of events includes:

• The Premiere at Providence Performing Arts Center, 7pm, Saturday, August 22. VIP tickets for $35 are still available which will get you into the film, to the post-show reception, and a few collectible trinkets to commemorate the night. $10 tickets are also available. (How cool does the marquee at PPAC look?)
• On Sunday, August 23, the film will be shown at the Stadium Theatre in Woonsocket, tickets are $12.50. VIP tickets which include dinner at Chan's are also available.

After this weekend, the film will move to the Showcase Cinemas Warwick movie theater for a week run beginning Friday, August 28 and running through Thursday, September 3 which coincides with the 10th anniversary of Warwick Musical Theatre's closing in 1999.

Beyond that, stay tuned to wmtmovie.com for information about upcoming showings at various film festivals and other venues. We hope to see you at the movies!

Our First Review is In!

COURTESY THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL

Liberace, right, played The Tent for 16 straight years, from 1964 to 1980. He’s shown here on the Warwick Music Theatre stage in 1979 with Alexander Tomasso III of Providence. (Providence Journal files)

THE TENT: Life in the Round Is An Ovation to Warwick Musical Theatre

01:00 AM EDT on Friday, August 21, 2009

By Michael Janusonis

Journal Arts Writer

If you lived in Rhode Island at any point in the second half of the 20th century, The Tent was more than likely a part of your summertime life.

The Warwick Musical Theatre, which was known to most Rhode Islanders as “The Tent” even long after it was replaced by an actual building in 1967, was where from 1955 to 1999 you had the chance to sit in uncomfortable canvas seats, swelter in the un-air-conditioned sultry heat and be entertained by the likes of Mitzi Gaynor, Paul Anka, Bobby Vinton, Mel Tillis, The Beach Boys, Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Johnny Carson, Buddy Hackett, Joan Rivers, Victor Borge, George Burns and too many more to mention. And all for a ticket price that now seems like peanuts compared with what’s charged today.

The Tent itself has been gone for an entire decade, the victim of performers fleeing to bigger amphitheaters and better-paying casino venues. But the memories linger and come alive again in THE TENT: Life in the Round, which will have its world premiere at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Providence Performing Arts Center. It’s a feature-length documentary tribute to the theater, the Bonoff family that ran it for all those years, the many artists who played there and the crew that worked tirelessly behind the scenes, more for love than money, to make sure the show did go on.

You may not realize just how many memories you have stored about the place until you sit through THE TENT, which was directed, written and co-produced by Washington, D.C., filmmaker Brian Jones. He used a treasure trove of archival footage from local TV stations, the Rhode Island Historical Society and memorabilia and photos from the collection of Larry Bonoff, son of the theater’s founders, all flawlessly edited by Emmy-winning filmmaker Jim Karpeichik and narrated by Patrice Wood. It’s a warm-hearted, endearing portrait of a place where everyone who worked there came together every summer, year after year, as one big happy family to present the kind of performers one could only see at the time on television or in the movies.

There are shots of the crew putting up the tent and of the two-poled tent itself surrounded by what were then cow pastures on Route 2 in Warwick. There are memories of the early summer stock shows, which went big-time in August 1963 when the theater finally brought in a real star — Anna Maria Alberghetti — to perform in West Side Story. There’s singer Gisele MacKenzie arriving at the theater in a helicopter. Betsy Menders, daughter of Buster and Barbara Bonoff, recalls that on rainy days they’d go over the canvas seats (“The most uncomfortable seats in the world”) with hair dryers to get out the dampness. There are shots of after-show parties at the nearby Golden Lantern restaurant with the likes of Tony Bennett, Bob Newhart, George Burns and Liberace, who became a houseguest of owner Rose Farina and built her a piano-shaped swimming pool. Huey Lewis talks about trying to get used to the revolving circular stage and eventually loving it. Engelbert Humperdinck talks of playing the revolving stage and hating it. Wynonna Judd speaks about the intimacy of the place that allowed her to connect with the audience.

Audience members fondly recall how they could get up close to the stars who would sign autographs before the show and later run up and down the long aisles to make their entrances and exits. Betsy Palmer recalls running up those aisles in hoop skirts on a steamy night during a performance of The King and I and wondering in frustration, “What am I doing here?”

In one of the film’s funniest moments, Howie Mandel is seen on stage realizing that he’s suddenly co-starring with a large moth that has landed on his pants leg. Amusingly, local comedian Charlie Hall recalls getting a phone call at 6 o’clock one evening during his birthday party from a frantic Larry Bonoff, who pleaded with him to come be the last-minute replacement for Jerry Seinfeld’s opening act who didn’t show. Bonoff promised to buy Hall and his friends dinner afterward. The kicker to this story turns out to be even more amusing.

There’s the flap over Willie Nelson’s appearance when he was picketed by local police protesting his support for a cop killer and the flap Patti LaBelle caused when she felt she was shortchanged by the theater staff, leaving the stage in a huff.

THE TENT is brought to life in interviews with many of the people who worked there, many of the performers who played there, and many of the Rhode Islanders who were in the audience — including Buddy Cianci; Gov. and Mrs. Donald Carcieri, who talk about their first dates at The Tent, and Arlene Violet, who remembers when she was a nun digging in her habit for coins to buy a ticket for another sister when owner Burton “Buster” Bonoff came by and gave her freebies.

The documentary is a charmer that brims with nostalgia and fond memories. When it’s over, one will only probably wish there were more.

THE TENT: Life in the Round will be shown at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Providence Performing Arts Center. Tickets are $10. It will be shown Sunday at the Stadium Theatre in Woonsocket where tickets are $12.50. It will open Aug. 28 for a limited run at the Showcase Warwick Cinemas, just down the road from where The Tent once stood.

*****THE TENT: Life in the Round

Featuring: Larry Bonoff, Betsy Menders, Bobby Vinton, Carrot Top, Engelbert Humperdinck, Howie Mandel, Huey Lewis, Louis Anderson, Mel Tillis, Vince Gill, Wynonna Judd.

Rated: Not rated.

mjanuson@projo.com

The Tent is Getting Great Press!

COURTESY THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL

Larry Bonoff, whose family operated the Warwick Musical Theatre for more than four decades.

Filmmakers, Celebrities and Years of Memorabilia Bring Back ‘The Tent’

01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, August 16, 2009

By Michael Janusonis

Journal Arts Writer

Barbara Bonoff never threw anything away.

And not just stuff from the 45 seasons that she and her husband ran the Warwick Musical Theatre. She saved mementos and historical records and playbills and costumes from a family show business line going back to 1919, when her mother was the lead dancer in a vaudeville act’s chorus line that toured “the entire country, as far west as Pennsylvania.”

Larry Bonoff, the 60-year-old son of Barbara and Burton “Buster” Bonoff and a leading concert promoter in his own right, is sitting in the star dressing room backstage at the Providence Performing Arts Center, recalling fondly that “Mother was a pack rat. Anytime anybody died in our family she would take everything that no one else wanted and put it in her cellar. She had a cedar closet built to store the most valuable stuff. A lot of it she kept at her home in Arizona where the dry heat preserved it.”

When his mother died in 2003, Bonoff became heir to more than 10,000 items relating to four generations of showbiz. A good portion of it came from what most Rhode Islanders called “The Tent,” even after his father put up a permanent theater building in 1967 to replace the green-and-yellow-striped circus tent where the likes of Danny Kaye, Jane Russell, John Raitt and Ginger Rogers had performed on a revolving circular stage in a season that ran from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Bonoff says his sister, Betsy Menders, “wanted nothing of the archives. But I wanted it all.”

The treasure trove included tour jackets, ticket stubs, family photos of the stars with the Bonoff family, theater programs from Warwick and from the shows Buster promoted in Phoenix from 1964 to 1988. There are the original manuscripts from the Broadway shows that once played there, including written instructions by Johnny DeSantis, who later became the vice president of production at Walt Disney Studios, on how to light the shows and run them in the round. There are notes from Jimmy Hammerstein, son of fabled Broadway composer Oscar Hammerstein II, who once was the theater’s musical director.

Happily, all that material is not sitting in some basement getting moldy. Bonoff has donated the historical collection to the University of Rhode Island, where he is in the midst of cataloguing it for an online site that he expects won’t be completed for another two years.

But Saturday night the public will get a peek at some of the Warwick Musical Theatre portion of the collection when it takes the starring role in THE TENT: Life in the Round, a feature-length documentary that will have its world premiere at the Providence Performing Arts Center. (It will be followed by a screening the next night at Woonsocket’s Stadium Theatre and then a one-week run at the Showcase Warwick Cinemas, just up the road from where the WMT once stood, beginning Aug. 28.)

Included will be footage from local TV stations going back to the early days, footage from the Rhode Island Historical Society, archival photos from nearly a half-century of summers with the stars under The Tent.

Some of the stars who once performed there were eager to give interviews for the film, says Bonoff, including Mel Tillis, Engelbert Humperdinck, Wynonna Judd, Bobby Vinton, Howie Mandel and Vince Gill, who was The Tent’s last musical act on the Saturday before Labor Day 1999.

“Vince Gill was thrilled to do it,” says Bonoff, “and Wynonna gave me a personal phone call and said, ‘Anything I can do.’ A lot of the stars said they wanted to be in the film because ‘You gave us our breaks, our inspiration.’ This is history told by the people who were there, as they saw it then, as they see it now.”

The idea was hatched, says Bonoff, when Thomas Zorabedian, professor of film studies at URI, was sifting through Bonoff’s donated collection and said, “Let’s do a film.” Zorabedian was no stranger to the Warwick Musical Theatre, having appeared on stage at the age of 5 in a production of The King and I. Bonoff had said the idea of doing a film had been kicked around earlier — a broader idea that looked at summer theaters in general and their imprint on the American theatrical landscape — though nothing had come of it.

The ball started rolling again when Brian Jones, a lawyer in Washington, D.C., who once had been a speechwriter for President George W. Bush, wrote a script outline for a documentary about summer theaters in the round. Jones, who grew up in East Greenwich, had started as an usher at The Tent at age 14 and worked his way up to be Larry Bonoff’s assistant “to the end.” So his idea for a film struck a chord with Bonoff.

Jones is sitting in the editing room/office of documentary filmmaker Jim Karpeichik’s house in suburban Cranston where the two are putting the final touches on THE TENT. Karpeichik is at a computer monitor, editing down what had turned out to be 42 hours of footage and more than 2,500 archival photos. Channel 10 anchor Patrice Wood is expected within the hour to record the film’s narration.

Karpeichik was Channel 10’s chief cameraman when he left in 1999, the same year the Warwick Musical Theatre closed and was torn down to make way for a Lowe’s home improvement store. Since then he has made several award-winning documentaries, including one about Rhode Island’s lighthouses and one that followed some of the state’s World War II veterans back to Normandy where they had landed on D-Day. Some of his 14 Emmys sit on a shelf.

Occasionally Karpeichik pulls up a piece of footage on the monitor — Larry Bonoff at age 10 in the mid-1950s lifting chairs off a pickup truck for theater seating; Channel 10 reporter Jay Kroll in the late 1950s interviewing entertainer Victor Borge at the swimming pool of the Yankee Motor Inn on Post Road where Bonoff remembers spending summers when the theater rented half the place for actors and crew members; color footage of Buster and Barbara Bonoff on their wedding day.

There’s even footage of The Tent being raised, film that not even Larry Bonoff remembers seeing — “stuff that has been buried for 50 years,” says Jones, who had written a book about the theater — Under the Green and Yellow Tent.

Jones, who wrote the film’s script and is its director and co-producer with Bonoff, had been working long-distance with film editor Karpeichik, sending clips back and forth via e-mail. But for this final push, Jones has come up from Washington for firsthand guidance. Bonoff, working on putting together the details of the film’s premiere, has yet to see a completed cut.

Back at PPAC, Bonoff has wonderful memories of The Tent, some of which may make it onto the screen. There are stories about how his father sometimes waited for the day’s box office receipts so he would have enough money when he drove to the Providence train depot to pay the freight for the costumes that had arrived for that night’s show. About how singer Gisele MacKenzie once arrived for a show in a helicopter that landed in the theater’s parking lot. About how the theater used to rent an entire hotel in Narragansett for the summer for the actors, who would rehearse in the basement.

Story follows story: how his father bought the AT&T pavilion from the New York World’s Fair, turning it into the permanent structure that replaced the tent. How in the early years the theater’s permanent company of supporting players would do one Broadway show a night on stage for a week while rehearsing another one by day. How the headline star would play in a show in Warwick for a week with one cast, then go down to the Oakdale Musical Theatre in Wallingford, Conn., to do the same show, but with the Oakdale’s permanent company — a cast he or she had never seen before. (Not such a good idea, says Bonoff.)

Bonoff has memorialized those years in a drawing of his father, beaming over The Tent like the Wizard of Oz, which he had tattooed on his thigh a week after his father died in 2000. “At the age of 30 he started the theater. Age 75 he closed it and he died. Was that the American Dream or what?” asks Bonoff. And now with THE TENT: Life in the Round, he has memorialized those years for all to see.

THE TENT: Life in the Round will have its world premiere at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Providence Performing Arts Center. Tickets are $10 and are on sale at the PPAC box office, by phone at (401) 421-ARTS and online at ppacri/org. A limited number of VIP tickets ($35) include a post-show party and donation that will be split between a breast cancer charity and the URI-Bonoff Theatre Fund. The film will be shown at 7 p.m. Aug. 23 at Woonsocket’s Stadium Theatre. Tickets are $12.50 at the box office, by phone at (401) 762-4545 or online at stadiumtheatre.com. VIP tickets for $30, including dinner at Chan’s and a charity donation, are also available. The film begins a limited run Aug. 28 at the Showcase Warwick Cinemas.

mjanuson@projo.com

We Have a Film in the Can!

What began with an email nearly two years has ended with a documentary! I am so pleased to announce that our film is finished and is ready for primetime! And that's a good thing too considering the premiere is 8 days away. But we have been killing ourselves fine tuning it, adding little pieces here and there, and doing our best to make it great as it can be. It has been an amazing ride so far and I want to thank everyone who has sent along expressions of support, they are all appreciated. We are doing some previews next week for press and then the big night on Saturday. Hope to see you all there!

Getting Close!

Hello all! Been a crazy few weeks. After all of the work, we pared down 43 hours of footage to 3 hours of a rough cut. And then for 4 straight 12+ hour days, Emmy-award-winning editor Jim Karpeichik and I wittled that down into roughly 90 minutes of watchable film. What a journey this has been. I am now taking a badly needed break for a few days before we put the final touches on the movie. But what we have right now has been testing positively and everyone seems to like it. So I hope you do too. Tickets are on sale for the premiere at PPAC on August 22. Hope you can join us, and will come to the after-show party as well. All in all, this incredible project is almost ready for primetime and we all hope you will be there with us when we unveil it to the world. Thanks again for your interest!

Great Early Movie Buzz!

COURTESY THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL

Burton “Buster” Bonoff hams it up with Sammy Davis Jr. in a photo that once hung in Bonoff’s office at "The Tent." (Photo by Soozie Sundlun, EG Photo)

‘THE TENT: Life in the Round’ Offers Celebrity Memories and More

01:00 AM EDT on Friday, July 31, 2009

By Michael Janusonis

Journal Arts Writer

Between 1955 and 1999, the summertime place for stargazing in Rhode Island did not involve looking skyward, but heading over to the Warwick Musical Theatre.

There you could get up close — and sometimes even shake hands — with the likes of Ginger Rogers, Jane Russell, Liberace, Engelbert Humperdinck, Tom Jones, Anne Murray, Jack Benny, Bob Hope, Paul Anka and so many more. When Larry Bonoff, son of theater founder Burton “Buster” Bonoff, went looking for film footage of his family’s showplace, he wound up with 42 hours of material for his documentary film — THE TENT: Life in the Round — which will go on screen Aug. 22 at the Providence Performing Arts Center and Aug. 23 at Woonsocket’s Stadium Theater. Tickets for the PPAC show go on sale Saturday.

There’s footage of some of the stars on stage, footage of the tent that went up every summer on Quaker Lane in Warwick before a permanent structure was built, footage of the Bonoff family working behind the scenes and new interviews with some of the stars who played there — Vince Gill, Howie Mandel, Carrot Top and Engelbert among them. There are also interviews with some of the people who worked at “The Tent” or who covered the shows for the press or who were just regular customers, such as Governor and Mrs. Donald Carcieri.

THE TENT, says Bonoff, will not only be about the history of the theater and his family’s involvement with it over 4 1/2 decades, but also about the effects such venues had on show business. The “tents,” primarily an East Coast phenomenon, gave fading film stars a second chance, up-and-coming musical stars an opportunity to get out among their fans, and TV stars a crack at doing Broadway-style shows on the road during the summer.

All that footage is being edited down to a (more or less) 90-minute running time this week by Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker Jim Karpeichik and writer/director Brian C. Jones. Tickets for the Aug. 22 screening of THE TENT: Life in the Round at the Providence Performing Arts Center at 7 p.m. go on sale Saturday at the theater’s Web site —ppacri/org. On Monday they also will be available at the PPAC box office and by phone at (401) 421-ARTS. Seats are $10 with a limited number of VIP tickets ($35) that include a post-show party and charity donation. Half the money will go to a breast cancer charity and half to the URI-Bonoff Theatre Fund.

Tickets for the 7 p.m. Aug. 23 screening at the Stadium ($12.50; $30 VIP tickets with dinner at Chan’s and a charity donation) go on sale Monday at stadiumtheatre.com, at the box office or by phone at (401) 762-4545.

mjanuson@projo.com

A Date Has Been Set!

At long last, I am pleased to announce that the world premiere of 'The Tent: Life in the Round' will occur on August 22, 2009 at the Providence Performing Arts Center. We are very excited for a special night of fun and memories! Oh yeah, I guess we need to finish the film first. The sprint is on to the finish but please stay tuned for details on how to a be a part of this incredible night to come!

The Stars Are Shining Bright!

As my partner Larry Bonoff recently reported on a few radio shows recently, we have been so fortunate with the wonderful kindness of WMT's past celebrity performers who have been willing to appear in our movie. Their thoughts and insights will no doubt delight audience goers and fans of the theatre alike. We thought you might enjoy learning about some of the great personalities (more will be announced soon!) you can look forward to seeing in August in the film. So without further adue, look for the likes of:

• Vegas Legend Bobby Vinton
• Comedian Carrot Top
• Rock Sensation Huey Lewis
• Comedian Louie Anderson
• Country Legend Mel Tillis
• Country Legend Vince Gill
• Country Legend Wynonna Judd

Stay tuned for more exciting celebrity announcements soon!

Almost in the Can!

I am so pleased to announce that we have completed all of our Rhode Island filming! It has been a long six months, but we have incredible footage to show for our efforts. And for me personally, it has been beyond rewarding to reconnect with old friends from my Warwick Musical Theatre days.

Special thanks to the great people PPAC for hosting us, once again, all day long. Alan Chile and the crew there (thank you Matt) always take care of us in the most incredible ways. From providing us with everything from internet access to an amazing venue to film our interviews, the PPAC team members is top notch and we appreciate their kindness and generosity so much.

After today sessions, we only have a few more celebrity interviews to complete and then we are done. Well at least until the editing process that is! Thanks again to everyone who came out today and who continues to support our film.

Onward we go, but first a little sleep in short order after a very long day. Stay tuned!

A Glimmer of Light Can Be Seen!

Hello from the production team! So it's been a crazy few weeks of shooting, editing, and planning and it looks like we finally have a handle on the remaining work we need to do to get our filming done. We will be back over at PPAC next week for our final interview session and on the road visiting some of the great celebrities who have graciously agreed to be in our feature also. So stay tuned for exciting announcements, many of which will come during a June 12 appearance by Larry Bonoff on the Buddy Cianci show (630WPRO). More details coming soon on that one. Thanks for all your support!

AND THE WINNER IS...

Today, Larry Bonoff appeared on three of Rhode Island's top radio stations and heard from an incredible number of WMT enthusiasts eager to tell their favorite theatre story and win a spot in the film. It was a tough decision to pick winners, but after the dust settled, the following individuals were recognized as victors in the "Go Under the Tent Movie Contest":

• 92PRO-FM: Michael Stravato for his story about meeting the legendary man in black, Johnny Cash.
• Lite 105: Donna Houle for her story about performing onstage as a child actor.
• 630WPRO-FM/AM: Anthony Del Toro for his hilarious anecdote about Tom Jones' drinking glass.

Each winner will now be invited to our next filming session sometime next month. Thanks to EVERYONE who called in to the shows and participated in our contests. Thanks to our friends at 92PRO-FM, Lite 105, 630WPRO-FM/AM (especially the good folks at the Buddy Cianci Show). And congratulations to Michael, Donna, and Anthony!

Tune in to WJAR 10 Tonight!

Please tune in to our friends at WJAR Channel 10 News for some exciting announcements about the film tonight at 6:00pm, 10:00pm and/or 11:00pm.

More Information on the Contests This Week!

Check out the official notice of our WMT movie contest from our friends at 630WPRO FM and AM. Only 3 days to go! CLICK HERE.

Be a Part of the Film!

Been a busy, but exciting few weeks for the film. Lots going on, plenty to announce in time. For now though, thought you would be interested in a contest going on this week on April 16 with our friends at WPRO FM and AM, and the Buddy Cianci Show.

The “Go Under the Tent Movie Contest” is your opportunity to listen and win a chance to be in the forthcoming WMT documentary film. We asked for this in October at our press conference but we are making it official again now, and asking anyone and everyone who has a special memory or story about WMT to enter a contest, and possibly end up on the big screen! Maybe you met your future spouse, saw an incredible performance, or even graduated at the Tent. Whatever your connection to it may be, now is your chance to let the world know about it.

RULES
The rules for the “Go Under the Tent Movie Contest” are simple:

1. First, between now and noon on April 16 dust off your favorite Warwick Musical memory and turn it into a 2-minute story.
2. Then, tune in to the Buddy Cianci show on 630WPRO AM/FM starting at 10am on Thursday April 16.
3. When prompted, call in to Buddy’s show and a panel which will include Buddy and Larry Bonoff will listen to your story. At the end of the hour, the panel will vote, the story with the most votes (based on presentation and story quality) will be declared winner, and that individual will have his/her story filmed at the next production shoot in Rhode Island (date and location TBD).
4. Contestants should be available to call into the designated radio show on April 16 beginning at 10am.
5. While every effort will be made to include the winner’s story, final inclusion in the finished production will ultimately be at the discretion of the filmmakers.

Final thing to keep in mind is that if you submitted a story to me at brian@wmtmovie.com, it has been received and is being considered in another contest to run next week as well. More details on that contest will come shortly. But you can certainly try to call into Buddy's show as well.

Good luck!

Follow WMT's Movie Progress on Twitter

We added a new Twitter feed to keep everyone updated in real time on things happening with the film.  Please follow us through the link to the right.  Hope you enjoy and please stay tuned!

Exciting Times and Exciting Announcements

Hope everyone is doing well and getting geared up for some great things coming over the next few months. We continue to get amazing footage from our old friends, former employees, and past patrons of the Tent. Things are shaping up nicely as we try to get everything together, each day brings with it positive developments and as our production man Jim Karpeichik says, "Every bit of footage is another piece for the puzzle." We hope to wrap principal photography in the next two months - stress on the word 'hope.'

Also, I wanted to let everyone know that Larry Bonoff will begin a series of monthly appearances on the Buddy Cianci show on 630 WPRO AM starting tomorrow at 1pm. Larry will be talking about the work currently underway with the Bonoff Family Collection at the University of Rhode Island and the latest on the WMT film currently in production. He will also take your calls and answer your questions through 401-438-WPRO or 1-800-321-WPRO. Make sure to tune in for an exciting announcement at the end of Larry's hour as well!

TO LISTEN LIVE, CLICK HERE.

Thanks for the continued support!

WMT Movie Sneak Peak - CLICK BELOW

Please take a minute and check out the first of a few teasers that will be produced about our documentary. The response to it has been so positive and we want to thank everyone for their support and kind words of encouragement. Looking forward to our next round of interviews which is happening soon. Our film is progressing along nicely and we will have many more exciting announcements so check back to Behind the Camera, Under the Tent often!

TO VIEW THE TRAILER, CLICK HERE.

And then, please give us your feedback at brian@wmtmovie.com. Thanks!

I Hope All of Our Interview Days Go Like This One!

Yesterday was an incredible first day of shooting for the WMT documentary. Special thanks to all the good folks who took time out of their busy days to come down to PPAC and offer their thoughts and memories about the theatre. Everyone was articulate, interesting, and passionate about WMT and that passion was evident and contagious.

It's quite a feeling to see what was once simply an idea now beginning to take on a real face. We got 11 interviews in the can and will look to do 4-5 more of these interview days in the next 3 months with the same ambitious schedule. Thank you to Alan Chile and the entire PPAC staff for rolling out the red carpet for us once again, we really appreciate your friendship. And thanks to our Emmy-award winning videographer Jim Karpeichik for making our first round of interviews look so professional.

Please continue to send your stories in to us at brian@wmtmovie.com and check back to http://www.wmtmovie.com/ for updates. Have a great week and Happy New Year!

Cameras Roll Tomorrow!

I am very excited to announce that the cameras will be rolling tomorrow as we capture our first round of interviews for the WMT documentary. It's going to be a long day but an exciting day and I want to thank everyone who has agreed to come by and share his (or her) memories of the theatre. I also want to thank our friends at the Providence Performing Arts Center who have graciously agreed (once again) to let us use their facilities. I will provide a full report once our day is done but wish us luck as we take the official plunge into the filmmaking process.

New Slideshow Added!

Please check out the brand new wmtmovie.com slideshow which is made up of images from the Bonoff foundation's archives. These incredible photos help tell the story of the Bonoff family and the Warwick Musical

The Official WMT Movie Site Has Launched!

Thank you so much for visiting wmtmovie.com and for your interest in the forthcoming Warwick Musical Theatre documentary. The response and interest our October press conference generated has been amazing! We love hearing from you. Right now, we are continuing to compile stories from the people who made the theatre so special - the stars who performed on the circular stage, the employees who worked the aisles and the snack bars, and the loyal patrons who attended the many performances year after year.

If you have a special memory from the theatre, I want to hear from you. Maybe you were at the famous Patti Labelle show. Maybe you proposed to your spouse in the mezzanine. Maybe you went to wrestling 10 years in a row. Maybe your child just loved those Tuesday morning kiddie shows. Whatever your story is, let me know. As we announced in October, our filmmaking team will review all submissions and decide which stories best capture the character and history of the Tent. And if your story is chosen, you will appear in our documentary. So make sure you check out all of the wonderful pieces of theatre history here at bonoff.net to spur those memories and then fill out the form below. Or if you prefer, simply drop me an email at brian@wmtmovie.com. When sending in your story, please include your Name, Address, Phone number(s) and best time to contact you.

Also, this website will be constantly updated with information about the production so make sure you check back often for exciting announcements. Thanks again for visiting wmtmovie.com and I look forward to hearing from you!

Brian

The Spotlight Shines Once Again on the Warwick Musical Theatre - Official Press Release

Larry Bonoff, Former General Manager of the ‘Tent,’ Announces Two Major Projects To Chronicle the Rich 45-Year History of Rhode Island’s Premier Entertainment Venue.

Bonoff partners with the University of Rhode Island, the Providence Performing Arts Center, Michael Corrente, and Southern New Englanders to document and preserve the legacy of the Warwick Musical Theatre through an online museum and a documentary film.

PROVIDENCE , R.I. – OCTOBER 21, 2008: On September 4, 1999, the lights dimmed for the last time at the Warwick Musical Theatre after an impressive, and unprecedented multi-decade run. As the ‘Professionals of Summer Entertainment,’ the theatre provided theatre-goers in Rhode Island and Southern New England the rare opportunity to see the biggest stars and the biggest performances in show business.

The theatre may be gone, but its proud tradition lives on. To celebrate that legacy, Larry Bonoff today announced an exciting partnership with the University of Rhode Island which will house and catalog thousands of artifacts from Bonoff’s personal collection. The items represent 85 years of theatre history and span four generations on one side of his family (the Bonoffs) and three on the other (the Wassermans). All of these items, which document the history of the families’ involvement in theatre, will be available to scholars and enthusiasts alike. Scholars can access the processed archives for research purposes immediately through the Special Collections Unit of URI’s University Library. A web portal accessible by the public will be available in 2009, but a sneak preview of some of those items can be found at www.bonoff.net. In addition, the Bonoff Theatre Fund has been created through the URI Foundation’s Dean’s Excellence Fund to help provide scholarships for URI theatre students and financial support for university theatre productions.

“The University of Rhode Island is honored to accept Mr. Bonoff’s very generous contribution,” said URI President Robert Carothers, “The Bonoff and Wasserman family collections, which feature the Warwick Musical Theatre, are an important part of Rhode Island history and now that history can be preserved and studied for generations to come.”

In addition to the archives collection and in coordination with the 10th anniversary of the theatre’s closing next year, Bonoff also announced the production of a documentary film about the 45-year history of the Warwick Musical Theatre, the longest-running theatre-in-the-round ever owned and operated by the same family. The feature will be produced over the coming year and will premier at the Providence Performing Arts Center sometime in late 2009. That venue was selected because of its status as a leading center of arts excellence and because of the tireless efforts of President J.L. “Lynn” Singleton to preserve and celebrate the arts in Rhode Island . The legacy of WMT also lives on at PPAC through the work of Betsy Bonoff Menders, Larry’s sister and the former director of operations at the Tent, who currently serves as PPAC’s events manager.

This project will be spearheaded by Brian C. Jones, who served as Bonoff’s chief assistant for eight years and worked at the theatre for twelve seasons. He will lead a filmmaking team which will include some former theatre employees and will be advised by Rhode Island film stalwart Michael Corrente, who will serve as a creative consultant on the project.

The film will chronicle the theatre’s impact on the Rhode Island , New England , and the broader show business communities. It will also highlight the incredible story of the Bonoffs, a theatre family spanning four generations. Archival news footage will be intertwined with new interviews from the people who made the theatre so special – the talented performers who graced the stage, the dedicated employees who worked the aisles, and the loyal patrons who came summer after summer. In conjunction with the film, Jones announced that former theatre-goers and employees will be given the opportunity to come and recount their favorite WMT memories in person at a time and place to be announced in the future, or they can submit them electronically at www.wmtmovie.com. Many of those stories will become part of the final film.

“I am so excited that the incredible story of both the Warwick Musical Theatre and the Bonoff family will be immortalized on film,” said Bonoff, “This documentary will be a proud and lasting tribute to the vision first held by my grandfather 85 years ago. I hope it will also evoke some found memories of how things used to be.”

The feature will be produced by a partnership entity formed by Bonoff and Jones earlier this year. All profits from the film’s theatrical run will go to the Bonoff Foundation and charitable organizations which fight diabetes and cancer, diseases that took the lives of Bonoff’s parents, Buster and Barbara. In coordination with both of these projects, Bonoff also announced that a 2009 Warwick Musical Theatre commemorative calendar is now available with a $10-minimum donation to the Bonoff Foundation at select locations throughout Rhode Island. The calendar is packed with photos direct from the Bonoff family archives. For more information about the where and how to get the calendar, please visit www.bonoff.net.