After a 3 1/2 year absence
thanks to the pandemic,
the Norma Terrace Theatre in Chester
is back open and what a way to open
again with a show with Dolly Parton
music that is not about Dolly Parton.
Well, not directly.
I got to sit down with Bruce Valanche. You
probably have seen him or seen his
work without actually knowing
what Bruce Valanche has done.
And it's a lot. Take a look.
You're pretty darn well known
and pretty darn well respected.
I've worked a lot.
I want a bunch of Emmys.
I've written the 25 Oscar shows,
good ones. And you know,
I started on Broadway.
So I, you know,
there are many different
ways to access my legends.
You are probably, in terms of
Hollywood, the most well known
anonymous person there is.
Well, I wasn't entirely anonymous.
I was on Hollywood Squares for
six years to the left of Whoopi,
if that's possible.
And when that happened, I got known.
I've been there 20 years and,
you know, working behind the
scenes and everybody knew me,
but then America knew me.
When you're on TV every night for,
you know, for many years,
they all know who you are and then
you're off TV and there's nothing colder.
But still, I mean,
I go through airports and there'll be crowds
of people around getting selfies and like,
some guy will walk by and say,
who's he?
But So it's humbling.
Let's talk about why you're here.
I mean, reopening the Terrace
Theater is for the first time,
3 1/2 years is in the feet.
But we're coming back
to your love of theater.
Is that your first love or.
Oh, yeah, the thing. Super.
It's, it's the first thing.
I mean, I love the movies, too,
but that theater was, it was live.
And I I grew up in New Jersey,
which is very near New York,
for those of you who don't remember.
And I would go in when I was a
kid and see shows and that was
what I really wanted to do.
I really wanted to be on stage.
And still there's nothing like
being on stage and getting a
reaction from the audience from,
you know, living humans.
It's fun to write movies.
It's fun to write in the room
and all that kind of stuff.
But it's great to see it actually
worked out on on the stage.
So yeah,
theater is my first love.
Bruce Blanche the the young man in
New Jersey wanted to be on stage.
Yet you've kind of become
very well known in Hollywood
for being behind the scenes.
What do you prefer?
Oh, being on stage? Absolutely.
With a body like this, who wouldn't be?
Want to sit in the room with a bunch
of writers and stale pizza And
he's modest too.
You've written for every big
star that wanted to be funnier.
I think they they relied on you.
But when talking about this new show,
we'll talk about it more in a second.
Here you come again.
You're not writing for Dolly Parton,
because this is not a show
about Dolly Parton. So
now I'm writing this.
It's a story about a guy who has
an imaginary Dolly Parton who
is his best friend, and he's in.
He's on lockdown and all alone in the
attic of his parents home in Longview,
TX and he has this intense,
intimate relationship with
his imaginary friend Dolly.
So Dolly steps out of a poster and she
talks like Dolly and she does a lot
of stuff that the Dolly's actually
said to me and has said in print,
coupled with the, you know,
kind of guesses about how what
how she would feel about things.
And when we send her the script
hoping that she would say yes
and give us some music rights,
I thought, well, she's not going to
like this because this is not it.
She loved it.
What do you hope people
take away from this show?
What we say in the show actually
is get over yourself, get moving,
take the ride that we all have.
You know, we all have trouble and no
matter what's happening and you just
have to get over yourself and put 1
foot in front of the other and go.
And it's as when we did an
early reading of it,
a shrink came to me afterwards and said,
you know, you can't tell a depressed person
just to put 1 foot in front of the other,
you have to give them concrete steps.
And so I'm very mindful of that
And we did a rewrite in which we
added her giving him concrete steps,
things he can do and a funny way,
you know, but but that's just only the
idea is that it's that you can get out
of yourself and and into a new place.
So here you come again.
Is going to be at the Terrace Stage
in Chester through August 27th.