Wednesday, September 10, 2003
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Wednesday, September 10, 2003 |
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Not Monkeeing around Dolenz to perform hits at "The Fred" By MICHAEL
BOYLAN Who was your favorite Monkee? If you said Micky Dolenz, the humorous drummer for the band, you're in luck. Dolenz breezes into the Frederick Brown Jr. Amphotheater this weekend, fresh off a national tour of "Aida" to perform a number of hits from his days with The Monkees as well as his solo career. Dolenz started off as an actor. He was bitten by the acting bug at an early age as his father was an actor on the television series "The Count of Monte Cristo." Dolenz got his acting career started when he appeared as Corky on the NBC series "Circus Boy" under the name Micky Braddock from 1956-58. After "Circus Boy" Dolenz did some guest appearances on other programs, learned the guitar and played with a band. In 1965 he auditioned for "The Monkees" and got the role of the singing drummer, which meant that he would have to learn how to play the drums. Dolenz sang lead on The Monkees debuted single, "Last Train to Clarksville," which became a number one hit. Two days later the show debuted and that became a hit as well. The Monkees had two more consecutive number one singles with "I'm a Believer," which was also sung by Dolenz, and "Daydream Believer." The first four Monkees albums reached number one on the charts and later, after most of the band reunited and had all of their albums re-released, there were seven Monkees albums in the Billboard Top 200. Not only were The Monkees successful on television, but they starred in the film, "Head," which was written by Jack Nicholson and remains a cult classic to this day. After " The Monkees," Dolenz did voice work on some cartoons, including "The Funky Phantom," "Devlin" and "Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kids." Later in his career, Dolenz would go back behind the mic for stints on "Batman The Animated Series" and the first season of "The Tick." In 1977, Dolenz moved to London to star in Harry Nilsson's musical "The Point." Dolenz liked London so much that he stayed there for 12 years and started working behind the scenes of television programs as both a producer and a director. He also was at the helm for the film "The Box" which starred Monty Python alums Michael Palin and Terry Jones. His time as a director served him well as he has also has directed episodes of the program "Boy Meets World" as well as several other films including "Mom, Can I Keep Her." Dolenz started recording again in the early 1990s, releasing two children's albums, "Micky Dolenz Puts You To Sleep," and "Broadway Micky" before releasing "Demoiselle" in 1998, which featured a number of original tracks accumulated over the years. Some of the songs on that album include "It's The Season," "Beverly Hills," and "Since I Fell For You." Lately, he has appeared in the national touring company production of "Aida" as Radames' father Zoser. He will perform that role on Broadway beginning next year. He will take the stage at 9 p.m. after the opening act, The Allen Goodman Band performs at 8 p.m.
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