Palisades’ Broadway Star, Luba Mason
These days, the bright lights of Broadway and Hollywood Blvd are reflected in the treetops on Swan St. where Luba Mason, the daughter of Rudy and Ellen Gregus, grew up dreaming of a career in the footlights in the big city nearby. Luba’s dramatic singing voice, radiant beauty, and acting talents have already propelled her into starring roles in many major musicals (Jekyll and Hyde, The Capeman, How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, and The Ten Commandments) on both coasts. She has also appeared on hit TV police dramas and soaps and has sung on cast albums alongside stars such as Kristen Chenowith. Now she has a solo CD, just released, called Collage.
Luba is a classically trained musician with a keen interest in shaping her own musical persona who has long dreamed of a solo singing career. Her voice is warm, strong, and full of dramatic expressiveness; it’s every inch a Broadway sound, with a huge range and incredible technical control and precision. In 2003 she made a guest appearance on Ruben Blades’ Grammy Award winning album Mundo. Building on this experience, her debut solo CD features many artistic contributions from Ruben Blades and was produced by Jeffrey Lesser.
Collage draws together an eclectic group of songs ranging from the powerful, emotional anthem by Lou Reed The Calm Before the Storm, commemorating the 9/11 attack on the twin towers, to romantic love songs by Tom Waits and Gerry Mulligan that come right off the musical stage like a solo in the spotlight. Her cover of Elvis Costello’s Shamed Into Love evokes the sophisticated lounge music of Linda Ronstadt’s 1983 album What’s New with Nelson Riddle, while on other tracks, she spices things up with Latin, jazz and honky tonk arrangements. The album’s highlights are surely her cover of Van Morrison’s Moondance, which creates a seductive atmosphere of love in a tropical paradise, and Six Degrees of Azimuth, which could be a spectacular stand-alone pop hit. Another great song is the Latin, cha cha cha, country, twist & shout version of Neil Diamond’s Cherry Cherry—who would have imagined that back in the 60’s when it first came out?
Well, here’s how it happened. Growing up in Palisades, Luba already dreamed of a career as a singer and performer. After starting piano lessons at the age of six with Sue Friel, she switched to Victor Powell, who she credits with laying the foundation of all her musical skills during the ten years she studied with him. “Oh Luba, you like to sing!” he observed one day and so began to give her voice lessons at the end of each piano lesson and to have her to sing in his choir at the Tappan Reformed Church. She also remembers performing in Charlie Brown, directed by Val Hendrickson, at the Palisades Presbyterian Church, and in between, managed to find time to swim at the Palisades Swim Club and be in the Girl Scouts. At Tappan Zee High School, she performed in each year’s musical, starting with Anything Goes, Cabaret, Kismet, and finally, as a senior, she starred in Gypsy. She went on to earn a BFA in drama at NYU, and was part of Circle in the Square.
Her Slovakian heritage plays an important role in her life—in fact Slovak was her first language at home growing up. She chose a haunting Slovakian folk song that tells of joy mixed with bitter tears called Materinska Moja Rec (Motherland) as the final track on Collage because of the deep emotional connection she feels with the country of her parents’ birth.
What’s happening in the future for her? In January and February of 2005, she played the role of Fastrada in Steven Schwartz’s Pippin, at UCLA’s Freud Playhouse –Mr. Schwartz attended both the opening and closing performances with an eye to reworking the musical and the show now seems headed for revival on Broadway. Look for Luba to appear soon in our area!
To obtain a copy of Collage, visit any major website music seller, or Luba’s own website, www.lubamason.com