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WASHINGTON CITY PAPER
March 11, 2005

BETTY does rule, in case there's any doubt about the title of the autobiographical vehicle the D.C.-born trio has ridden back to its birthplace for a 20th-anniversary engagement. BETTY is Alyson Palmer and the Ziff sisters, Amy and Bitsy (now calling herself Elizabeth), possessors of the tightest harmonies this side of the Roches and the funniest act this side of....well, let's just call it the funniest.
BETTY RULES is subtitled "The Exception to the Musical," but it fits pretty neatly into the off-Broadway genre previously inhabited by Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Like that plot-driven rock concert, BETTY Rules chronicles a musical rise to fame, in this case, from humble beginnings in the Ziff family's Fairfax, Va., garage. "I only know one chord, but we wrote a song around it," says Elizabeth at the outset of Alyson's audition to join their sisterly girl group. Then they start blending voices in the ethereal harmonies that tend to make instant fans of anyone who hears them. Though the story proceeds chronologically from the 9:30 club to HBO and off-Broadway, it does take a few side trips--through past-life regressions, and visits with boyfriends, children, and a rock-group analyst--always returning to the road they've traveled as a trio.
Palmer is the group's designated Amazon, tending to occupy stage center (or perhaps making the center follow her around). She claims to be 6-foot-2 and looks at least a head taller than that when she's belting out a song, but she has a deftly delicate way with a lyric. Of the Ziff sisters, Elizabeth claims the title of exhibitionist (which she proves early on by flashing the crowd out front) and seems the team's social conscience, bouncing at her microphone with enough energy to power the band to the moon and beyond. Amy, meanwhile, lets the audience come to her during an airy, Mae West-ian offhandedness, only to explode zanily in the sketches and in between. Her coked-to-the-gills riffs are priceless, her boozy rants breathtaking. Providing backup from high atop a scarlet staircase are the capable Tony Salvatore on guitar and Mino Gori on drums.
Though BETTY has a loyal fan base hereabouts, on opening night the band mingled oddly with the older, more staid Theater J audience. But the show the group has assembled around it's still-rising career arc is entertaining enough to make believers of first-timers, and by curtain call the crowd was pretty unified in its cheers. As I say, the D.C. theater scene will be a bit less bright when 'BETTY Rules' closes up shop next month.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

'Betty Rules': Punk-Pop Women Know the Score
By Peter Marks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 8, 2005; Page C01


"Betty Rules" is an anomaly in the annals of loud entertainment. It's a rock musical that levels with you. The exuberant 90-minute show recounts the story of Betty, a feisty punk-pop-alternative-rock trio formed 20 years ago in the basement of the Ziff family manse in ol' Virginny -- Fairfax to be exact. And wonder of wonders, it's not all up in your face about platinum-record glory.
No, the rollout of Betty's sumptuous harmonies and raucous storytelling on the stage of Theater J is an occasion for an invigorating showbiz confessional. The show is a sassy reckoning, an authorized biography of the heart. Two decades into their musical collaboration, the middle-aged members of Betty -- Amy Ziff, Alyson Palmer and Elizabeth Ziff -- are bound to one another as only a team can be whose fortunes are umbilically linked. All for one and one for all, in sickness, in health and in the corrosive amount of rejection the music business can mete out to tough-but-fragile artists.
The work is a candid distillation of the entwined and combative personalities of the three musicians, and part of the show's allure is reveling in the unexpurgated feminine chutzpah. You have no doubt why these women choose to sing to the rest of the planet, and why they stay plugged into their amps long after it becomes clear their address will never be easy street. The theater piece is a valentine, of sorts, to an irrational imperative, to the joy of performing, even when that joy is tempered by time and disappointment.
First produced off-Broadway, where it was directed by Michael Greif -- also the director of a little bitty thing called "Rent" -- the musical traveled to Chicago and now at last has come home. Like the Ziff sisters, Palmer is from the Washington area. Betty, launched in the Washington club scene of the 1980s, eventually moved its base to New York. The intimate Goldman Theater in the D.C. Jewish Community Center, where Theater J is quartered, proves to be a happy shelter for "Betty Rules." Working from the blueprint of the New York production, director Sarah Bittenbender stages it as a kind of therapeutic club gig.
Backed by a drummer (Mino Gori) and electric guitarist (Tony Salvatore), the women intersperse numbers from their songbook with a chronology of Betty's ups and downs. The group apparently confounded record executives. Its eclectic style has roots in everything from hard rock to musical theater. Though Betty has recorded several albums, the trio by its own account has been more interested in making the music it wanted than filling a niche dictated by industry mandarins.
In the anarchic style of a Beatles movie, "Betty Rules" skips along from song to fantasy sequence and back again. The idea here is of three misfits who can't live with or without one another. A series of funny scenes in the office of their shrink -- being a girl group, the girls go in for group sessions -- has them trying regression therapy. In one past life, all three find themselves tied to a stake with a smoky smell in the air. The time is the 1600s and the place is Salem, Mass. Though the odor sets off in one of their band a craving for a little weed, it's clear they'll all be burning soon enough.
As witchy as the women can be to one another, what's gleaned over the course of the production is that the members of "Betty Rules" are both rockers and, at heart, good girls. The show is reminiscent of a cult-hit TV program of the 1970s, "Rock Follies," about a fictional British girl group, the Little Ladies. In the tradition of the rockumentary, the band members come across as lovably idiosyncratic. Amy Ziff, with her bugged-out eyes and blond dreadlocks, is the zany extrovert. Her sister, Elizabeth, a proud, tattooed lesbian, is crankier, more foulmouthed. Palmer is the group's sexy amazon, the anguished diplomat between the sparring sisters.
The group's music flows rather easily out of the vignettes, and some of the best numbers, such as "Jungle Jane," "It Girl" and "Kissing You," are dynamically and moodily melodic. A couple of times, Betty trots out its harmonies a cappella, in short, silky interludes.
At some other times, the group's actory exertions, the need Team Betty exhibits to win your affection, feel a little overdone. It's at those moments you're reminded that the women are musicians first.
But there's also an admirable reluctance here to cloak Betty in the ill-fitting wardrobe of mythology. Betty's trajectory does not resemble that of a rocket launch. It's more like the oscillating line on a cardiogram. "We were broke then. We're broke now," one of the women laments toward the end of the show. One of the pleasures of "Betty Rules" is being reminded that even in a culture of winner-take-all, staying true to oneself is a thrilling consolation.

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Girl band sets 'Rules'
By Jayne Blanchard


" Betty Rules" throws a bright estrogen halo over Theater J.


This girl-powered tribute to 20 years of harmony, discord and uncategorizable independent music — is the rock band Betty a cappella rock, spoken word, techno or an amalgam of all three? — will re-energize Washingtonians who remember the lively punk/new wave musical scene of the 1980s.
It also stands on its own as an evening of funny, pun-filled songs and frank insights into what it's like to be a girl band on the road.
The trio — Alyson Palmer, Amy Ziff and Elizabeth Ziff — began collaborating in 2000 with Michael Greif, director of "Rent," on an autobiographical theatrical piece with music that would be part memoir, part showcase filled with two decades of Betty's idiosyncratically gorgeous harmonies and compositions. (Think the Andrews Sisters on Red Bull, or the Go-Gos after taking in a marathon performance of "The Vagina Monologues" at the Michigan Womyn Festival.) The show was a hit, running off-Broadway for seven months before embarking on a tour.
Now, for a month, Betty is back where it all began. The Ziff sisters jammed in their father's basement in Fairfax and note during a segment in this funky-beat, grin-inducing show that their dad would flick the lights on and off when it was time to stop.
The Ziff sisters found bass player Alyson Palmer after putting out a call to the newly relocated WHFS-FM, the District's once-mighty alternative rock station, which moved to Baltimore last month.
Many of the local places mentioned in "Betty Rules" are gone: the recently-departed WHFS, DC Space, the original 9:30 Club on F Street NW, the Bayou, the Crazy Horse saloon in Georgetown. Yet Betty has survived 20 years together, even indulging in "band group therapy," a hilarious bit in the show in which the three fuss and feud, each clamoring to take turns with the "talking stick" — a familiar staple to those in group therapy, who pass the stick around to obtain permission to speak.
The two Misses Ziff and Miss Palmer have plenty to say. Since its beginning in 1985, Betty has defied predictable musical genres, remaining true to its distinctive, daredevilish style. The group never conformed to the stereotype of girl-bandom — or any kind of pop-music rules, for that matter.
Betty was always a quirky hybrid of snaky rock beats, exquisite harmonies and smart-alecky lyrics that dealt with procrastination, infidelity, ticking biological clocks, food issues and male groupies. The women proudly used the F-word (feminism) as well as the L-word before it became fashionable.
Though it never became the flavor of the month, Betty has always had a cult following, and the group's music has shown up on HBO, Comedy Central, the Food Network, MTV, Nickelodeon and numerous commercials. In one scene, titled "Betty Pays the Bills," the group sings zealously about the food court at Tyson's Corner Center.
"Betty Rules," directed at Theater J by Sarah Bittenbender, takes audiences through the land mines and triumphs of being a female rock band during the new-wave 1980s all the way up through the hip-hop era.
"I can't believe I spent all these years sleeping my way to the middle," cracks Amy Ziff, the wisecracking, flamboyant clown of the group. She's the one with all the crazy voices and the manic energy, while her sister Elizabeth is more the cool, edgy guitar chick, tense and intense. In the middle — literally and figuratively — is Miss Palmer, possessing supermodel height and playing her bass with laid-back glee.
Betty has two men in the band, drummer and percussionist Mino Gori and guitarist Tony Salvatore, who preside over the show on a platform at the back of the set. The men provide meaty beats and guitar riffs, but the women are front and center, the way it should be.

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Pop Rocks
BETTY returns home in triumphal musical form

By Jolene Munch
Published on 03/10/2005


Remember those black packets filled with the sugary-sweet concoction of tiny stone-like candies that you pop in your mouth and they sizzle, fizzle, crackle and explode all over your tongue? Believe it or not, that’s exactly what the ladies of BETTY deliver: a delicious and naughty little treat to satisfy your musical sweet tooth. Not that the three musicians rocking BETTY’s world -- Alyson Palmer, Amy Ziff, and Elizabeth Ziff -- are docile enough to leave you aching with a cavity. On the contrary, Palmer and the Sisters Ziff are real women with real stories of tragedy and tribulation. The group is much more than the sum of its parts, more than a cabaret or novelty act, more than just another girl group gone wild. The women of BETTY are bona fide rock babes. And BETTY RULES: The Exception to the Musical is more than just another concert.
On the heels of a seven-month run Off-Broadway and a subsequent production in Chicago, BETTY returns home to the D.C. area to share the story and glory of the group’s roots. In 90 intermission-less minutes, the members of BETTY reveal their history together through colorful montages, music and memories ripe for theatrical retelling. From group therapy sessions to a stint at the ultra-liberal Womyn’s Music Festival, BETTY’s life has always nurtured its fair share of drama.

BETTY
It was 1985 when sisters Amy and Elizabeth met rocker Alyson after reaching out to a local radio station for a talented bass player. Born in the Ziff family’s Fairfax basement, BETTY would soon learn the ins and outs, ups and downs, and highs and lows of the music business, from playing local venues to avoiding the brands of high-end record execs who couldn’t land a finger on the pulse of BETTY’s core.
A fickle blend of lovely ballads and catchy rock hooks, the music of BETTY is not easily defined. From soft punk rock numbers to bubbly pop with bite, you get the sense that no matter how you categorize their style of music, the women of BETTY will react with disapproval and find ways to defy any label affixed to their sound. But beyond such dexterous music, what is most surprising about BETTY is not their unlikely mature image or even the fact that they’ve lasted nearly twenty years. The most surprising element of BETTY is how polished they are, particularly for such animated characters.
The women of BETTY might have been described during their early years as a real-life Josie and the Pussycats, only with brains and brattitude. Now their act feels more solidified and stable, blowing away any notions of cobwebs clinging to the strings of their electric guitars. What anchors the three is an evident sense of respect and genuine concern for each other. There’s Alyson, the statuesque guitar goddess; Amy, the quirky comedienne whose unexpected instrument of choice is the violin; and younger sister Elizabeth, a solid force of sound and fury, the active advocate in the threesome.

They’re not actresses, but the members of BETTY perform their own material with comfortable ease under the guidance of Sarah Bittenbender. Originally directed by Michael Grief (who also helmed the original Broadway production of Rent), Bittenbender’s version is a breezy affair bathed in hot club-scene lighting by Lisa Ogonowski. The stage recycles Dan Conway’s staircase from a recent Theater J production, and a large platform at the top features BETTY’s band -- Tony Salvatore blazing his guitar, and Mino Gori on drums.
It’s obvious that Palmer and the Ziffs love what they do, and consequently, the audience does, too. BETTY RULES is a fun night of organic music led by three thoroughly entertaining muses.
BETTY rules, alright. But more importantly, BETTY knows how to rock.

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Hard rockin', 'girl power' trio tells good, old-fashioned story
by Lisa Traiger


Special to the WJW Hot rock chick trio BETTY is back in town. It's not your mother's sisterhood. Or your auntie's musical girl group. But BETTY, an infectious cross between the 1980s girl power new wave band the Go-Go's, D.C.'s own hard rockin' grrrl Joan Jett and the 1940s harmonic powder puffs, the Andrews Sisters, has got the beat and more.
Birthed in 1985 by good karma and a whole lot of gumption, this D.C. musical trio started in the basement of Amy and Elizabeth Ziff's dad -- the late Irv Ziv, a career army lieutenant and later beloved character actor, who appeared many times onstage at Theater J and the now-defunct Washington Jewish Theater.
The Ziff sisters plus one penned a 75-minute roller coaster ride of a rock 'n' roll musical, BETTY Rules: The Exception to the Musical, which is bringing down the house at the Washington DC Jewish Community Center through April 3, courtesy of producer -- and BETTY groupie -- Theater J.
The Washington gig, at the more staid Goldman Theater, a step up from the dive bars and smokey clubs BETTY is accustomed to, comes on the heels of a seven-month off-Broadway run and an extended gig in Chicago last year.
A wild and woolly admixture of the underground music scene, vaudeville and Broadway, BETTY Rules is a sister act with heart, soul, plenty of sibling rivalry and enough dysfunctionality to make this autobiographical story ring ever true.
The Ziffs, funny-girl diva Amy and middle-class feminist radical Elizabeth -- formerly known as Bitsy -- found sanctuary and salvation in their dad's Fairfax County garage in the '80s.
Weaned on playground feminism, "Hava Negila" and teaching Chanukah to the non-Jewish classmates -- they live proud and loud. Ignoring schoolyard taunts that girls don't play guitar, they taught themselves chords, licks and rock stylizations.
Wearing their post-feminist, post-denominational Jewish bravado on their sleeves, they inculcate liberal, feminist ideals in their lyrics drawn from the tail end of the feminist consciousness-raising era of Gloria Steinem and Ms. magazine.
Anthemic "It Girl," sung with spunk and pride and a go-go beat, sets the tone. Once the Ziffs hooked up with 6-foot-2-inch bass-playing supergirl Alyson Palmer, a leggy Amazon with her own untamed tough-chic attitude, BETTY was on its way.
BETTY Rules tracks the group's 1985 debut at the old 9:30 Club, when pregentrified F Street was still a seedy dive. Soon, the women were riding the feminist wave into rock and New Age post-punk alternatives, trying to get noticed and signed by a music executive.
Original BETTY Rules director Michael Greif clearly knew from rock musicals -- he left his mark on the now-and-ongoing rock-opera phenomenon, Rent. This production staged by Sarah Bittenbender, shares hallmarks with its more prominent peer: The principals live on the edge, partaking freely of the accoutrements of rock 'n' roll, namely sex and drugs, not to mention big hair (Alyson), tattoos (Elizabeth) and a black bustier (Amy).
At its heart, BETTY Rules is a family story, a theme central throughout the canon of Jewish theater; it's just that this family -- two Jewish sisters and their African-American friend -- is untraditional, but no more so than William Finn's gay and lesbian couples in Falsettoland or even Tevye and his independent-minded daughters in the quintessential Jewish family musical, Fiddler on the Roof.
But BETTY Rules is first and foremost about the music and how these women have lived and fought, created and cried, together over the course of their band's nearly 20-year trajectory. The opening, "Ups and Downs," with its edgy guitar licks provided by virtuoso Tony Salvatore, with drum back beat by Mino Gori, becomes a theme song of sorts as these women set out to build their reputation.
BETTY Rules has its share of conflicts, which these women play out in hilarious vignettes subtitled "Band Therapy." Satirizing therapeutic jargon, sister vs. sister rivalry and just plain graspy, bitchy women, the three go at it, bickering about men, money, career goals and gigs.
Their "Past Life Regressions," small but amusing skits, prove this musical partnership was b'shert -- meant to be. Other insightful moments include an interlude where the three attempt to write a song but each woman's inner thoughts keep taking center stage from the incessant ear worms of Amy's TV ad jingles, to Alyson's obsessive inner to-do lists and Elizabeth's detour into Carole King-dom.
These women are musicians more than actresses and while they mostly play themselves, zaftig Amy -- with her over-bleached dreadlocks -- captures solid laughs with her gift for odd accents and hyperexaggerated mimicry, most especially her own tenure as a coked-up insurance clerk with the rabbit-like nose twitch.
With the poignant tear-jerking ballad, "Broken," Amy pays touching tribute to her dying mother. And, amid fights, break ups, boyfriends and reconciliations, BETTY Rules plays it blue with language and a tad of female nudity, but in its heart is an old-fashioned tale of working hard and making it within a close sisterhood of friends.

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“BETTY” STILL RULES
By Gary Tischler


At the end of the rock-and-angst fueled musical, "Betty Rules," which practically levitates the usually more dignified Aaron and Cecile Goldman Theater in the DC Jewish Community Center, people (those that are able) jump up and cheer and clap.
On opening night, one man, thinning hair, thin mustache, gets up slowly amid the raucous noise around him, pulls out what appears to be a Zippo lighter, and, in the tradition of rock concerts of yore—back in the days—lights it in tribute and appreciation.
Now, he may be a plant, or he may be just one beguiled audience member tripping on a rock reflex, but the gesture seems entirely right.
Betty, the three-woman rock band which has its roots in the DC rock scenes of the 1980s, really does rock out. The girls are loud, the guitars are louder and it deserves a hundred lit lighters. The fact that there was only one lighter lit is cool, too, because it speaks to the fact that while Betty is a really terrific rock group, somewhat impossible to categorize, it is also a band that is as much local legend as anything else. "Betty Rules," a wonderfully entertaining and original gig nabbed for Theater J’s season, is also a personal kind of show about three women and how their lives got all wrapped up in the band and before they knew it, 20 years had gone by.
Betty—that would be the sisters Ziff, Amy and Elizabeth, and their partner in crime, the amazing Alyson Palmer—formed in 1985, practicing in the Ziff basement in Fairfax, a couple of "Jewish chicks and a tall African American woman." They got noticed at the 9:30 Club, DC Space, Birchmere, and other local-legend clubs. They made records and albums. They toured with big and not-so-big groups. They moved to New York. They made more records and played the clubs and wrote music for HBO children’s shows and much later, the current "The L Word" on Showtime.
They were a success, and they were not. Partly because they wanted to play and sing and perform the music they liked, they never quite conformed to any of the boom-and-bust girl bands of the time. They weren’t hard rockers like the Wilson Sisters of "Heart" and they weren’t the "Go-Gos"; they were a little and a lot punk, a little and a lot harmonic, and they could scream, but they were also tight, high-energy, no wasted notes.
And they were a little crazy because their personas and their lives made them that way. After all that time, as Amy points out in the show, the record stood: "We started out broke and we’re still broke." So did they despair? Yeah. Did they kvetch endlessly? Damn straight. Did they love and lose and lose and love? Of course. Did they give up? Hell no. They made a show out of a career path that was the ultimate zigzag. The result was "Betty Rules," which WAS an unquestioned success in New York, Off-Broadway, and now here. That’s probably fitting, too, because it’s about performing, about being "Betty."
The three are not the same girls they were 20 years ago. They’re 20 years older and with an attitude, and the unflinching need to rock, to sing. That’s what makes the show fun, the way they kick musical butt. What makes the show funny is their personas.
There’s Amy, who looks like the smart one, the practical one, but she’s a screaming ninny, a bundle of over-think and over-analysis. There’s Elizabeth, the raging lesbian, who’s got a scream in her voice and does those stage jumps like the third guitarist for a heavy metal band or a rugby player, and incidentally, flashes the audience right off the bat.
And there’s Alyson Palmer, tall, big-boned, and, of course, vulnerable. That is, until she slings the strap of a pink electric guitar over her shoulder and takes up the position. There’s something about an attractive female rocker with a guitar that’s both scary and enticing for guys of almost any age—at least I hope it’s not just me. Remember those Robert Palmer backups? And Joan Jett, who would just as soon shove "I Love Rock and Roll" down your throat?
It should be said that Betty, as a rock band—with male backup guitarist and drummer—is slick and tight. So is the show. It aims to please, to make the lives of the women just fascinating. The music—from the invigorating "Ups and Downs" to the "I Met Someone" ballad—is bracing and engulfing. Musically, they accomplish the original trick of sounding both hard-core rock/punk and melodic.
Betty still rules.

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NEWSWEEK May 24, 2004
BETTY RULES
BETTY


The off-Broadway musical “BETTY RULES” (which just opened in Chicago) is the autobiographical tale of a 17-year-old unsigned girl band from New York. The alterna-rock show, directed by “Rent’s” Michael Greif, is performed by original BETTY members Alyson Palmer and Amy and Elizabeth Ziff. Now the soundtrack is out, which, like the show, follows BETTY through dingy venues, lame boyfriends, drug addiction and hysterical group-therapy sessions. There’s even a brush with a major-label exec: “You think someone else should write our songs? You clueless creep with comb-over hair, say what you want, we just don’t care.” Edgy performances, catchy pop-punk melodies and sweet-‘n’-sour lyrics paint a vivid picture of life just under the radar.

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'BETTY' for everybody
BY BARBARA VITELLO Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted Thursday, May 13, 2004
"BETTY RULES"
***
out of four

Countless rock bands have lived BETTY's story. Beloved by indies, teased by major labels, they skirt the edge of obscurity as they flirt with success outside the mainstream.
They begin when post-adolescent outsiders, dreaming of multiplatinum records and sold-out stadium tours (achieved without compromising sound or vision), form a band.
They write songs that they rehearse in basements and garages until they're good enough to play clubs. Their shows generate a buzz. The band releases a CD. The airplay it gets on alt.rock and college radio stations translates to regional success.
A&R reps take notice. Everyone's very excited. The band signs a contract and tours as the opening act for a national headliner.
Then nothing.
The record fails to chart. The label drops them. The band disbands. The story usually ends the same.
But not for BETTY, the band Alyson Palmer (vocals and bass), Amy Ziff (vocals and cello) and Elizabeth Ziff (vocals and guitar) formed in a Washington, D.C., suburb nearly two decades ago, and the subject of the feisty, entertaining "BETTY RULES," the mostly true, loosely defined musical that opened this week at Chicago's Lakeshore Theater.
Encompassing the trials, tribulations and triumphs of rock life, the brisk and bold "BETTY RULES" plays like a club set with back story.
Backed by guitarist Tony Salvatore and drummer Mino Gori, BETTY takes audiences on a 90-minute retrospective of their career, depicting the success, setbacks, squabbles and split-ups; romantic failures and financial ruin; excess and unmet expectations, grief and joy that make up their 19 years together.
Besides showcasing the band's music - sharp lyrics sung in sweet, well-matched harmonies layered over a vigorous alternative rock accompaniment - "BETTY RULES" effectively incorporates humor, insight and sorrow.
The show's most poignant moment occurs when Palmer and the Ziff sisters reminisce about the loss of their respective mothers in individual monologues interspersed with a beautifully plaintive a cappella version of their song, "Broken".
In addition to playing themselves, the women take on the roles of fans, roadies, ex-lovers and strangers they've encountered. Highlights includes Palmer's comic turn as a childhood friend e-mailing an ersatz fan letter; Amy Ziff's bold caricature of her younger, cocaine-snorting-travel-agent self and Elizabeth Ziff's endearing rebel who observes that "success is like a slinky, sometimes you slink up, and sometimes you slink down."
Scenes play out against a screen projecting dates, places and subtitles like: "Backstage," "BETTY on the road" and "Therapy." Not every moment works, however. The "BETTY through history" scenes feel forced, and those in which the characters' solo musings evolve into a trio - while provocative, feel a bit self-conscious.
The show, written by Palmer and the Ziffs and directed by Michael Greif, fares best when BETTY does what it does best: play themselves and play music.
Songs like "It Girl," a winning celebration of girl power; the ska-inspired "Mr. Music"; the working woman's anthem "Put it Off"; and the working woman's lament "Overwhelmed"; and the brooding "Played Out" make this a rock musical worth seeing.
Near the end, Amy Ziff asks, "if at last you don't succeed, what then?"
"BETTY RULES" is the answer.

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Daily Southtown
Betty Mohr

Keen 'Betty Rules' rocks with music, laughter


Do we really need another rock band bio? Yes, if it's as much fun as "Betty Rules," in its Chicago premiere at the Lakeshore Theatre.
Taking center stage are three female rockers who make up the group named Betty, and who belt out their original songs and personal memoirs, accompanied by two male musicians (Tony Salvatore on guitar and Mino Gori on drums).


Review


Betty includes two Jewish sisters, Amy and Elizabeth Ziff, and an African-American woman, Alyson Palmer. Amy has a zesty neurotic touch and plays electric cello. Her younger sister, Elizabeth, is a spitfire of anger who wears a tattoo and opens the show by giving a hint of bare chest as she plays electric guitar. Alyson is statuesque and sweet and plays a sassy bass guitar.
We follow the bandmates through an 18-year roller coaster ride on their road to fame and fortune. Along the way, we learn of their humiliation when they had to open for a better-known band, when they were brushed aside by recording studios and how they had to tour on a shoestring budget.
While the women had a tough time getting their band noticed, they also had a difficult time getting along with each other, which almost caused the group to break up many times since it was first formed in a basement in Fairfax, Va., in 1985.
During the course of this 90-minute show without intermission, directed with great comic flair by Michael Greif, we hear all about Betty's personal and professional troubles along with cabaret-style bits, sketch comedy and the group's original songs.
Yet this band really stands out with the group's harmonious singing. Separately, each woman has a good voice, but put the trio together and you get a beautiful, harmonious blend that really makes Betty's music come alive.
The concert is often interrupted with recollections of quirky, very funny therapy sessions. And the songs weave into narratives about how the group came together, how its songs developed from personal experiences and how the group almost broke up because of flashing tempers.
In the course of the presentation, we also hear that one woman had difficulties with deep depression, another had an abortion, and all had constant money problems. While those seem to be pretty tough subjects, Betty overcomes the negatives with a bouncy, upbeat spirit.
The highlight song of the production is "Broken," a poignant ballad that eulogizes the women's departed mothers, and the funniest sketch is that in which Amy Ziff plays a cocaine-sniffing travel agent who gets feverishly high.
When I went to see the show, my first thought was that with a name like "Betty Rules," it had better be good. I wasn't disappointed. It was rockin' good.

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HERSTORY RULES

Reviewed by Web Behrens
Contributing writer


In 1985 the Eurhythmics' Annie Lennox and Aretha Franklin released "Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves." While that hit was garnering radio airplay, Amy and Elizabeth Ziff and Alyson Palmer were proving its sentiment too true-which is why you're probably not familiar with the titular band in the aptly named "Betty Rules."
Part concert, part musical, this rocking good time at the Lakeshore Theater features the trio of women telling their own tale as a struggling indie band. Although they've been together almost 20 years you've probably only heard of them if you're plugged in to the progressive music community or an avid viewer of HBO's educational "Encyclopedia." (You can imagine how a corporate record exec might react to a band composed of two poor white Jews-one, a dyke!-and a black chick.)
But living well is the best revenge and now Betty's finding wider acclaim with their own version of their story, written and performed by them. (It lands in Boystown after a seven-month run off-Broadway.) In one of many amusing touches they sprinkle in snippets of songs from women who found mainstream success over the years (Heart, Pat Benatar and, shudder, the Spice Girls), providing an interesting counterpoint to their own musical attraction. While wafting tight harmonies, they play guitar, bass and cello, abetted by drummer Mino Gori and guitarist Tony Salvatore (Palmer's partner).
Standout tunes include the smoking "Slap Bang" and "Jungle Jane" and the poignant "Broken." The contrapuntal delight of "Noise" is so rich you wish you could press rewind as soon as it's over. Meanwhile, if the clever book isn't flawless, it does keep things moving briskly with its amusing depictions of band therapy and whimsical past lives. Especially funny is how they do (or don't) find the goddess at the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival.
Seasoned performers, Betty already knows how to hold an audience's attention. Beyond their musicianship, they wear the hats of several different characters quite well-particularly Amy Ziff, whether she's sending up a flight attendant who witnesses one of Betty's signature tiffs or sending up herself as a coke-fueled dervish. And Palmer has a great moment (alas, too brief) in which she plays a jaded drag queen whose discovery of Palmer-a real life, 6'2" Amazon-revives his own show.
This quirky genre mélange might alienate some, but it ought to double Betty's audience. Musical lovers who embraced "Rent"-directed, like "Betty Rules," by Northwestern alum Michael Greif-should check this out too. Paging you boys at Sidetrack: Now you can add a new show tune or two to your repertoire.

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NEW CITY CHICAGO

Nina Metz

There are certain live music shows that only work in the confines of a small club, where the crowd is standing--this is key--and the energy from the band can ripple down and back over the audience in heavy waves and you feel like you've formed an important relationship with everyone in the room. Too bad "Betty Rules," the concert-confessional that ran Off-Broadway for seven months last year, is booked at the Lakeshore Theater, where everyone is trapped in their seats, sitting like good little children while the band rocks out on stage. (You can't escape the sinking feeling that the $20-$39.90 ticket price would be closer to $15 if the show took place in a club.) Having said that, Betty does a damn fine job of it in a less-than-ideal setting. Three women front the band--bass player Alyson Palmer and sisters Amy and Elizabeth Ziff--and they are a likable, talky bunch. They've achieved moderate success since their inception in 1985, but they're still pretty obscure. And middle age is just around the bend. "Here's to fucking my way to the middle for this band," says one of the women as she downs a shot. The band describes itself as "kind of like the Go-Go's, but with more edge," which is pretty accurate, especially their boppy "If I Had It Over to Do." But they also bring to mind a defanged version of Heart--there's none of the dangerous energy of "Barracuda" in their music, but the sisters Ziff sisters seem to have much in common with the Wilson siblings. The statuesque Palmer has a fun, earthy sexuality, a gracefully dominating presence as she plucks that shinny pink bas--the color of Bubble Yum--with her right pinky sticking up like she's drinking a cup of tea.

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Theater and Music: Betty Rules
by Rick Reed
2004-05-19

What do I know about performing on the road as a rock band, or know about the “trials and tribulations of an unsigned band in a signed world” (as the press materials put it)? Not much, it turns out. Luckily for me, two of my friends happen to head up a phenomenal acoustic rock band, The Locals (more about them at www.localsrock.com ) that performs on the road for the better part of the year and know all about what it’s like to be an unsigned band in a signed world.
So, when I went to review Betty Rules, the off-Broadway smash directed by Michael Grief of Rent fame, I invited lead singer Yvonne Doll and bass guitarist Christy Nunes along to get their expert opinion on this hybrid concert/ play that has just touched down in Chicago after a seven-month engagement at New York City’s Zipper Theater. The New York Times called the show, “one of the very best off-Broadway plays” of the 2002 season.
The three gals who head up Betty Rules (Alyson Palmer and sisters Amy and Elizabeth Ziff) have crafted a riveting, rocking story of how three women (and two males … drummer Ted Gori and guitarist Tony Salvatore) created a band and took their act on the road. The play chronicles 20-some years of travel, disputes, disillusionment, joy, failed and successful relationships, pregnancies, abortions, and financials ups and financial downs. In short, Betty Rules takes us on the journey of a talented and dedicated rock and roll band whose music is too smart to get them pigeon-holed and perhaps too smart to make them the kind of performers that could win them big acclaim in America.
Along the way, we learn how moderate success and a love of art can bring joy to one’s life, and how it can seriously fuck it up. Betty Rules gives us an insider view on what it means to be dedicated to art and how such dedication can impact lives. We get humor (I challenge you not to laugh at the sequence exploring Betty Rules performing at a “Womyn’s” festival). We get poignancy (I challenge you not to get choked up when the three women talk about their dying mothers’ pride at their work). And we get three distinct women, each amazing and lovable in her own way.
I was glad when Betty Rules ended that Yvonne and Christy turned to me, amazed, and said, “That’s exactly what it’s like. I felt like this was an inside joke.” But Betty Rules, with its wisdom, humor, sympathy, and a righteously rockin’ edge, is an inside joke we can all enjoy.

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Illinois Wire

'Betty Rules': A nostagalic, autobiographical musical adventure
Dan Zeff
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE

CHICAGO — Suddenly we don't lack for shows in Chicago theater about all-female rock bands. The Lookingglass Theatre is presenting its exciting production about a New Hampshire band called the Shaggs. Now a lady combo called Betty is visiting the Lakeshore Theatre with a concert/autobiographical musical simply called Betty Rules.
The components of Betty are sisters Elizabeth and Amy Ziff and Alyson Palmer. During an intermissionless 80-minute program, they sing their songs and act out events in their turbulent and often hilarious history.
The group makes a striking visual appearance — the statuesque and voluptuous African-American Palmer flanked by the petite and edgy Elizabeth Ziff and the stocky and outgoing Amy Ziff. The group's musical strength resides in its attractive close harmony singing. Instrumentally, Palmer plays electric bass, Elizabeth Ziff the electric guitar and Amy Ziff the electric cello and tambourine.
Betty plays accessible music, sometimes hard rock, sometimes old time rock 'n' roll, and sometimes Broadway musical pop. First rate rhythmic accompaniment comes from drummer Mino Gori and guitarist Tony Salvatore perched on a platform above the stage.
Betty was born in 1985 in a basement in Fairfax, Va. The group has been together ever since, in spite of periodic internal stresses that threatened to tear the band apart. Betty has recorded several CDs and been on the road almost continuously, leading to a successful six-month engagement of Betty Rules in New York City in 2002 and 2003. Curiously, in spite of its longevity, Betty doesn't rate a single mention in any of the five rock music reference books I consulted before the show's opening.


Intimate show


Betty Rules is a direct and intimate show. The three women line up in front of microphones and sing and sometimes talk. Occasionally they move to other parts of the stage for brief sketches, especially therapy sessions that explore the tensions among the performers and also provide much of the evening's humor. The show's narrative moves in a jerky manner back and forth in time. A screen above the stage projects titles that inform the audience about where and when the next bit will happen. The three woman are musicians and singers first and actresses second, but Amy Ziff does show a real flair for comedy. She just needs to slow down her delivery at times to keep herself intelligible. But she struck some hilarious comic moments with brief monologues as a wired flight attendance, a hick clerk at a Kentucky convenience store, and herself as a coke-sniffing travel agent at the time of Betty's birth as a working band. The ladies cover the miseries of struggling in the music industry — lack of respect from audiences, the thankless assignment of opening in concerts for major acts, trying to land a decent recording contract, and being broke most of the time. There are personal problems, like a pregnancy, the death of a mother, difficulties in their love life, and the periodic emotional explosions when the gals just get on each other's nerves too much.
Fortunately, the women don't take themselves too seriously, and their self-deprecating humor and all round sass are easy to take. Some of the language is R-rated (and Elizabeth even flashes the audience early in the show). But director Michael Greif keeps the mood light to capitalize on the group's unpretentious "we're having fun up here" attitude.


Original songs


So basically this is a straightforward show about three attractive people trying to make it in the rugged music business and letting us in on their life and hard times. Factor in the agreeable and sometimes pungent original songs and you have an enjoyable, if not earthshaking, evening.

The show gets a rating of 3 1/2 stars.

 

 

'BETTY' embraces new stages of life
May 7, 2004
BY MARY HOULIHAN


Alyson Palmer, the statuesque bass player for the pop-rock band BETTY, recently became a mother. Along with that new responsibility came the long-avoided but now inevitable cell phone. Those are two big changes for the woman who wrote the anthem "Put It Off," one of the highlights of "BETTY RULES," the rock musical written by Palmer and twin sisters Elizabeth and Amy Ziff.
" Yes," admits Palmer, with a laugh, "a lot of the things we talk about avoiding because of our rock 'n' roll lifestyle have come to pass. The key is to adapt to the changes. We're basically doing the same things but they're much richer experiences since the baby came along."
No, these life changes aren't going to slow down Palmer or the Ziffs, who together are the band BETTY. Seven-month-old Ruby will simply join the rock 'n' roll life while the New York-based trio performs the musical for a six-week run at the Lakeshore Theater.
Since 1986, the band has built a substantial cult following, which only grew larger when "BETTY RULES" opened Off-Broadway to great reviews in the fall of 2002. It was a well-deserved moment in the spotlight for a band that has toiled in the underground rock scene for nearly 20 years. The show chronicles the musical journey of these outrageously colorful women in a frenetic sensory assault that balances a rock message with the best structural elements of musical theater.
Writing "BETTY RULES" opened up new avenues of expression for the women, whose rock tunes have a feminist bent. In the mid-'80s, they had become friends with Broadway director Michael Greif ("Rent") when he asked them to compose music and perform in a staging of Caryl Churchill's "Cloud Nine." Later, they went to him with an idea for a wacky screenplay about mysteriously disappearing pop stars and BETTY's role in filling in the widening gap.
" They had ideas that reminded me of 'Help' and 'A Hard Day's Night,' " said Greif, referring to the quasi-autobiographical movies starring the Beatles. "I encouraged them to get more personal. To theatricalize their version of how they formed the band and how they've managed to stay together for so many years."
Palmer remembers wondering: Who would want to hear about that? But it turned out to be a serendipitous suggestion, as the women discovered they really did have a story to tell.
" We realized our story could resonate for any group of people who come together and try to achieve a goal," said Palmer. "It's a piece about how hard that is and how you modify your version of success along that journey."
The result is an eclectic new-wave vaudeville show, part musical and part rock concert, that creates a patchwork story of the band's history. With their edgy and intelligent material, the trio have always come across better onstage than on their recordings. Their outrageously colorful rock shows always have been part vaudeville, so the move to a staged show was a natural for the group, said Greif.
" They've always had stories and their own point of view to go along with their songs," he said. "It's very appropriate material for a concert/storytelling setting which is basically what this is. There is something immediate and wonderful about them playing these versions of themselves."
Existing on the fringe of the music world has a long list of challenges that never seem to go away, but Palmer admits she's known no other sort of existence. While BETTY is not currently signed to a label and is going the independent-release route, the band members, all self-described "rabid radical feminists," continue to back a list of causes they are passionate about, including equal rights, the pro-choice movement and cures for AIDS and breast cancer.
" It's challenging but also loads of fun, and we meet the most incredible people," said Palmer. "And to use our talents to raise money for causes we believe in is very rewarding."
Over the years, BETTY has played a handful of shows at local clubs, including the now-defunct Lounge Ax, as well as Park West and even that bastion of frat-boy annoyance, the Cubby Bear. Palmer offers a knowing laugh when asked about the show at the Wrigleyville venue.
" Chicago is open-hearted in ways that other urban areas aren't," she said, diplomatically. "It seems no matter where you perform in this city, it's always a different experience. And that's good for a band with an underground reputation."
The Chicago dates for "BETTY RULES" are the first since the run at New York's Zipper Theatre. Palmer says they conducted a poll of their fan base through their Internet site (www.bettyrules.com) and got a great response from Chicago fans.
" One of the reasons we wanted to bring the musical here is that Chicago is such a lively music town," said Palmer. "In the past, we've always gotten a great response here. It's a sort of petri dish for us where we can continue to grow and build on our fan base. So we figured as long as it's not winter, let's take the show to Chicago."

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Double your pleasure
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
By Betty Mohr


Daily Southtown theater critic Musical theater fans in Chicago get a chance to double their pleasure with the presentation of two rocking shows—"Rent" and "Betty Rules" — both of which have been directed by Michael Greif and both playing almost back to back in different theaters.
" Rent," which runs through Sunday at the Shubert Theatre, is a touring production of the show that won the 1996 Tony Award for best musical and the Pulitzer Prize for drama. Though the dramatic musical first played here in 1998, it has returned every few years for encore presentations.
The rock musical centers on a group of artists — struggling to survive AIDS, drugs and artistic rejection — who have a tough time making ends meet and coming up with enough money to pay their rent.
" Betty Rules," which until recently was playing off-Broadway, makes its Chicago debut on May 11 at the Lakeshore Theater. It features the real-life story of the five-piece pop-rock band, Betty, that's made up of three woman vocalists who are backed up on guitars and drums by two guys.
" The only similarity between these two shows is the wonderful music and the way both are accessible to today's audiences," Greif said by phone from New York, where the Brooklyn-born director lives.
While "Rent" was inspired by the Puccini opera "La Boheme," Jonathan Larson wrote the script, music and lyrics of the modern rock-concert production to reflect the contemporary lifestyles of today's young rebels and artists.
" 'Betty Rules,' on the other hand, isn't a made-up story as was 'Rent,'" Greif said. "It's a true autobiographical story about a group of women — now mature in their 40s — who overcame problems within themselves and with each other."
No one in the group is actually named Betty. Greif said the women chose that name for their band because it suggests an everywoman quality. When you think of Betty, you recall American icons such as Betty Crocker, Bette Davis, Betty Boop, Betty Grable, Betty Ford and Betty White.
" 'Betty Rules' is a 90-minute show filled with lots of music and lots of comedy. There's satire behind the music, and the story of these women is presented with a lighthearted touch. 'Rent' is a much darker show," Greif said. "I've come to see 'Rent' as an opera and 'Betty Rules' as a nightclub kind of show."
Working closely with playwright/composer Larson, Greif took a couple years to shape up "Rent," while the gestation of "Betty Rules" took almost 15 years.
" I first worked with the women in 'Betty' in the mid-80s while I was doing a play, 'Cloud Nine,' in the Berkshires. The group already had a great fan base, and we talked about doing a stage play. We talked on and off for years about the idea of focusing on how the women got together and how they stayed together. The final staging of the show works on two levels, which alternate with a musical concert and behind-the-scenes sketch comedy."
While most directors find a specific niche directing either comedy, drama or musicals, Greif has tried his hand on all genres of theater. The 45-year-old director has gone from doing serious works such as "The Seagull" to farce such as "What the Butler Saw" to old fashioned musicals such as "How to Succeed in Business" and to his recent song-and-dance comedy, "Never Gonna Dance," which closed in New York in February.
Greif said that he thrives on variety.
" I'm happy to be able to move from one kind of project and one theater style to another. It's been such a joy to have been able to work on 'Rent' and 'Betty Rules' because both these shows allow me to communicate with the audience in different ways."

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BETTY Really Rules: Amy, Elizabeth and Alyson of BETTY
by Gregg Shapiro
2004-05-12

A longtime fan of BETTY, I first attended a performance by the all-female trio, consisting of Alyson Palmer and sisters Amy Ziff and Elizabeth Ziff, when I lived in Washington, D.C., in the mid-1980s. I was instantly hooked by their live shows, which incorporated rock, pop and dance elements, comedic and spoken word segments and the gayest sensibility since Bette (Midler), and became a devotee. I own all six of their CDs (including the expanded edition of Limboland and the Kiss My Sticky EP) and recently added their seventh, the wonderful cast recording to their acclaimed stage musical BETTY Rules: The Exception to the Musical (BETTY Rules). More information about BETTY is at www.bettyrules.com .
New mother Alyson, with seven-month-old Ruby Lucca in tow, and Amy and Elizabeth sat down with me in the green room of Chicago’s Lakeshore Theater to catch up on the last 18 years.


Gregg Shapiro: It wasn’t planned this way, but this morning I interviewed SONiA, who, like BETTY, also performed at the March For Women’s Live in Washington, D.C., at the end of April 2004. What can you tell me about your experience at that event?
Elizabeth Ziff: It was our fourth Pro-Choice March. We’re sad to say that we have to keep singing for these. For me, it was an incredible experience to be around that many like-minded people. To be not only performing, but also to be one of the people that was counted, because there were so many people there and it’s so clear now that there’s going to be some kind of revolution in this country if the administration doesn’t start taking notice of what the people actually want.
Alyson Palmer: The other thing that was fantastic about the Pro-Choice March was that it was basically a convention for feminists. It was so fun; it was like being in Las Vegas. All these people who hadn’t seen each other, except on the frontlines, were able to get together and celebrate. We hosted an event the night before that had people from Kate Clinton to SONiA to all different kinds speaking and performing. There was a lot of love and support and hope and positive feelings, which I thought was great ...
Amy Ziff: People getting rejuvenated to keep fighting the fight.
GS: Which is so important, with the election coming up so soon.
EZ, AP and AZ: (together) Absolutely!
GS: BETTY Rules asks the musical question, “When is just enough enough?” The expression on Alyson’s face at one point during the song seems to say it all. And yet you stuck it out. Is it hard to believe that so much time has gone by?
AP: Yes, sometimes. And I think that’s the true test of a great relationship. All of a sudden you wake up one day and you say, “Eighteen years?! It feel like it was just last Friday.” And that’s how it is with BETTY. Sometimes, when we’re in the van together, driving a long way, it seems like 48 years. But, generally, it feels like even shorter than that. That’s the great thing about our relationship, I think.
EZ: I think that to stick with any relationship that long is crazy. But, for me, it’s gotten better. We went through therapy—everything in the play is true. We’ve grown as people and I we’ve grown together and separately as artists. It’s been a really good ride.
AP: The tools that we’ve used to further this really intense creative relationship have helped us in other relationships, which is wonderful.
AZ: You just don’t know whether it’s co-dependency or challenge or love …
EZ: (laughs)
AZ: …or far-sightedness or near-sightedness or …
AP: …joy.
AZ: Joy.
GS: She’s a little peacemaker.
AZ and EZ: Yes!
AP: Little Ruby Lucca is seven months old and it’s really exciting to have a relationship as we’ve had for all these years, as a creative endeavor, and then have someone like Ruby come in with fresh eyes, fresh spirit and a fresh life.
EZ: And she likes our singing, which is helpful. That’s a good thing!
AP: Whenever she’s crying, if we harmonize it always makes her feel better.
GS: There has long been a theatrical edge to BETTY live performances. Is that how you arrived at BETTY Rules?
AZ: Yes. We did. We’ve always been theatrical. We’ve always been more than just a band. We’ve always done monologues, triptychs, and all sorts of things. But we wanted something that would be more of a document about our journey.
EZ: Actually, we didn’t want it at all. (Director) Michael wanted it.
AP: Michael Greif, the director of Rent, saw us and said, “You guys have to do your own story.” We wanted to do a different story. We had a kind of Austin Powers Super Diva thing in mind, which we think we’re still going to do because it’s fabulous, but he said, “Bands don’t stay together three times longer than your average relationship. There’s a story there that you need to perform.”
AZ: Especially if you’re independent.
EZ: And sisters and friends.
AP: Jewish and Black working together.
EZ: Gay and straight.
GS: You should be held up as an example.
AP: Exactly, right?
EZ: We are America.
AZ: (Sings) “We are the world …”
GS: Amy, I’m glad that you mentioned the monologues, because another thing I remember from having seen BETTY concerts was the use of spoken word, something that is in more common usage these days. How does it feel to have been so ahead of your time?
AZ: I don’t know whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing. It certainly seemed fresh and people really enjoyed it. Maybe that helped or hindered us as far as being categorized in American visionless pop music. But, I’m happy that we did it.
EZ: The three of us are very different creatively. We all have different styles and we needed to incorporate everything, and that took a while. We always thought, “If a song calls for a cello and it sounds good with just the cello or the bass” or if somebody had written some spoken word, which has written the most of over the years by Amy, we felt we should be able to do that in the context of music, as well. There’s a long history of that. We always call ourselves “show-folk,” because we’re much more than musicians.
AP: The most important thing to us has always been to be entertaining, to put on a great show, whether there are a million people out there or four people and Aunt Freddie, which unfortunately happens once in a while. We want those people to feel so rocked and entertained.
AZ: And take them away from what’s happening in the world. Not so that they forget about their responsibilities, but so that for an hour and a half they’re brought into another context, they see things a little bit differently, they’re re-energized, they’re galvanized and they can go back out to the frontlines of their lives.
AP: We’re glad that we have those elements in BETTY Rules. It’s exciting that people can laugh and they can cry; they can be moved. And then they can go home and have sex. That’s very important to us.
GS: It was also great to hear Amy still doing voices and characters ... .
AP: Amy’s been doing great characters all along and it was wonderful for her to be able to do characters in this show for us, because it’s always been entertaining to do that.
EZ: And in a way that made the through line come alive more. There’s certain things that we couldn’t say as ourselves. To have the characters say them makes people understand the journey that we’ve been on.
GS: In addition to the songs written for the show, you have included previously recorded tracks.
EZ: What fit lyrically. “Jungle Jane” explains the joyous part of the Michigan Women’s Music Festival to us, and also to the director. “It Girl” explains three people coming together and realizing their strength. “Kissing You” explains when you get off the road and somebody’s screwed you over, and “Well, I don’t really want to kiss you.” Contextually it worked, because of the lyrics.
AP: Although there were other songs that we tried to put in there, that just didn’t fit (laughs). ... Then there were things actually written for the piece, such as “Put It Off,” which is very specific to how you feel.
EZ: “Mr. Music.”
AZ: “Gravity,” “Overwhelmed.”
EZ: There are a lot of them.
AP: We hadn’t really collaborated with somebody else and [Michael] really had to put on his black-and-white striped shirt and be a referee, as well as being a judge in his robes, and a lot of other things in addition to being a director.
EZ: We were really lucky to be able to work together. We’ve been friends for years and had worked with him in other ways. But to be able to have somebody who is that good with insane women and also with storytelling.
GS: BETTY has been consistently building a following via music festivals such as Michigan Women’s Festival, and you make reference to the fest in the show.
AZ: The first time we played (Michigan) was pretty shocking for them. We were very different from anything that they’d seen.
EZ: It was sort of at the beginning of the transition from folk to riot grrrl.
AP: They had a processing session after we left, because so many people were offended (laughs) by our show.
EZ: But you know what? So many people loved it.
GS: What do you think the folks out on “the land” would think of your dig at the fest in BETTY Rules?
EZ: They saw us in New York. They loved it.
AP: Because it’s not really a dig. It’s not about how bad the festival is. It’s about how these three New Yorkers with attitude respond to the loving festival.
AZ: And how you get acclimated. Elizabeth feels great kind of right away and is just energized. It takes Alyson a little longer, but she gets the whole transformation. And I get there, too.
EZ: It’s just important because Michigan is a myriad of emotions. Not only Michigan—(the scene in the play) is supposed to represent all of the women music festivals that we played at.
AZ: We’re lucky to have been part and parcel of the gay community for a while. To be able to support things that we really believed—to play gay pride festivals when nobody did it.
EZ: To do AIDS benefits when it was bad for your career.
AZ: When you were stigmatized. And people were really appreciative.
GS: In addition to an abundance of laughter, there are a couple of powerful dramatic moments in the show. You talk about seeing a BETTY Rules t-shirts on a panel of the AIDS quilt.
AZ: God, we’ll never forget that day.
EZ: When we saw that BETTY t-shirt, I literally dropped to my knees.
AZ: Me, too.
EZ: It was one of the most effecting things that ever happened to me. It was the last time the quilt was shown because it became too big.
AP: It was between the Washington Monument and the Capitol.
EZ: We were able to perform for it, which was nice. We did a song that we wrote about a friend who had died of AIDS.
AP: Literally, it’s the greatest thing that could happen to you in your career.
EZ: Being in D.C. when AIDS did hit, they’d have the obituaries every week in the (Washington) Blade and we would see it a lot. He was a BETTY fan, things like that. We all lost so many wonderful people, friends.
AZ: Senselessly, horrifically. These beautiful, bright, wonderful stars. But we’ll find each other next time.
GS: The piece about mothers during “Broken” is an especially heart-wrenching moment in the show. Is it difficult to perform that every night?
AP: Yes (laughs).
EZ: It really is. You can’t just walk through it. You have to be brought into that moment.
AZ: You remember it. It’s your life.
EZ: For me it was harder because I’m not really an actor at all. The first couple of times we did it, when we were showcasing it, I was sobbing.
AP: Sobbing every night. We’re basically talking about our mothers, who were important to us, dying.
EZ: We’re talking about how we’ve been through that together and why that’s such a reason for us to also stay together.

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Friday, January 3, 2003

Reviews

BETTY RULES - They're hot (if not Maxim material); they harmonize (take that, TLC); they play guitar, bass, cello, and tambourine; and they've been doing it for around 15 years. Still, you've probably never heard of Betty, so get acquainted with this trio of fab femmes at midtown Manhattan's Zipper Theatre. As you guzzle wine in cushy car seats, Alyson Palmer, Amy Ziff, and Elizabeth Ziff embark on a riotous, rockin' autobiographical journey chronicling Betty's basement beginnings, bathroom breaks, even therapy sessions. Lots of therapy sessions. Plus, they provide their own soundtrack, flush with addictive pop-rock-alterna tunes like "It Girl" and "Jungle Jane." Peppy recorded interludes by the Go-Gos and Spice Girls inject a note of irony into the evening: Mainstream success may have eluded Betty, but the band plays on. Forget Destiny's Child. These are the real survivors.

 

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NEW YORK TIMES 10-16-2002

THEATER REVIEW | 'BETTY RULES'
Women of Rock With a Tale to Tell
By BRUCE WEBER

Like a lot of rock bands, the female trio Betty has had its disappointments on the road to stardom. What with shortsighted record company executives, the rigors of low-budget touring, the humiliations of opening for bigger-name bands, not to mention the internal rivalries and personal crises that arise with long association and not-so-good times, Betty has nearly come apart more than once — evidently as recently as last year — since it was formed in a suburban basement in Fairfax, Va., in 1985.
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Still, out of dedication to the music and to one another, the three women — Alyson Palmer and the sisters Amy and Elizabeth Ziff — have persevered long enough to tell their story onstage, which they are now doing with driving energy, blunt self-deprecation and lovely three-part harmony at the Zipper Theater.
The show, titled modestly without an exclamation point, "Betty Rules," is an odd grab bag of cabaret act, stand-up and sketch comedy, roadhouse rock and Broadway savvy. And even though the narrative may be familiar, the education of these young women has a a refreshingly uncynical conclusion. Their roller coaster ride takes them back largely to where they started: that is, in love with the music and with the rewards of playing it in public. In the end they're innocent again, which isn't exactly the tradition of rock 'n' roll, though it is of musical theater.
The music of Betty has always been a curiosity, a cross between strident rock and show music. One strength of the band is its song writing, which, on one hand, can attach inventively dissonant melodies and stinging lyrics about the lives of women to pounding rhythms, and on the other, make a feminine plaint into a sad or yearning ballad that reflects on life's eternal disappointments and could easily be scored for a Broadway orchestra and Melissa Errico or Donna Murphy. It's music as thoughtful as it is fun.
But the band's signature is its singing; no one of the three women is a great soloist, but their voices meld sensationally. Their harmonies are sprightly and, well, gorgeous, with an oddly nostalgic feel. Betty's sound is more reminiscent of the Andrews Sisters than, say, the Go-Go's.
The show consists of a number of quick-hitting scenes, some witty, some sincere, played under projected supertitles like "Betty on the Road" or "Betty Pays the Bills," and punctuated by songs for which Ms. Palmer sometimes plays bass, Elizabeth Ziff rhythm guitar and Amy Ziff electric cello. (They are accompanied by a drummer, Colin Brooks, and another guitarist, Tony Salvatore.) The narrative is only semi-coherent; there are numerous digressions, like the intermittent therapy sessions the three undergo together that make you think the show grew out of an exercise prescribed by a shrink.
But most of the scenes are directly connected to the band's history, explaining how they first got together, how certain songs grew out of real events, how they met their lovers, how they nearly disintegrated in an explosion of tempers onstage. There is a bout of depression, a pregnancy and an abortion, the deaths of their mothers, perpetual money woes.
Sounds grim, doesn't it? But as directed by Michael Greif ("Rent"), the show has a generally light tone, pleasingly angled in the ain't-life-a-hoot direction, perhaps a function of the band's unusual visage. Ms. Palmer, a striking black woman, is a full head taller than the Ziff sisters, who are both light-skinned and blonde. They appear to have great fun with the Mutt and Jeffs odd-trio effect, and their great chemistry onstage gives the show a good-natured glow.
A few quibbles. The script could use some polishing and pruning. (Even at only 90 minutes, the material feels a bit stretched.) And because one of the most appealing things about the show is that the women don't seem to take themselves too seriously, the eulogy that they perform for their mothers to the aching ballad "Broken," however poignant, feels like a jarring interruption.
Finally, the three are not particularly deft actors, though mostly they're playing themselves, for which they are perfectly cast. And Amy Ziff, at least, is a remarkable caricaturist. In the course of the show she does the yokel clerk at a Kentucky convenience store and a flight attendant who seems to be on Ecstasy.
In perhaps the show's funniest sequence, she plays herself as a coke-sniffing travel agent 17 years ago. It's a marvelous depiction, fraught with if-I-could-go-back nostalgia and if-I-knew-then-what-I-know-now self-mockery.
The subtext of this scene, as of all of "Betty Rules," is that however robustly these women give in to the outlaw spirit of rock 'n' roll, they're good girls at heart.

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WACKY WOMEN, AS A RULE, MAKE 'BETTY' ROCK
By DONALD LYONS
------------------------------------------------------------------------
October 16, 2002 --
IN the recent vein of performers telling us, on stage, about their lives, "Betty Rules" rules.
Three female rockers who call themselves Betty tell their story over the years since 1985, when the group got together. While this could be a trite, self-congratulatory trip, "Betty" breaks out of the usual boxes. It's lively, it's candid, it's funny and - in every sense - it's electric.
The director, Michael Greif of "Rent" fame, had a lot to do with shaping the show. The three women had wanted to stage a script they'd written about three sexy spies, but he suspected they had a much better and fresher tale to tell: their own.
So, under a sign reading "Betty" and on a stage featuring two non-speaking, male musicians above and the central trio below, the saga of Betty unfolds. It's shaped as a concert; the band intercuts their songs with short, hilarious, sad vignettes from their wacky lives. It makes for the most innovative rock autobio since "A Hard Day's Night."
The three vivid personalities play themselves with savvy ease. There are two Jewish sisters, Amy and Elizabeth Ziff, and an African-American woman, Alyson Palmer, all from Fairfax, Va.
Amy, a zaftig, sharp type, provides the chatty continuity; she plays an electric cello and seems neurotically grounded.
Her little sister Elizabeth is a piece of work: small, beautiful, angry, tattooed and dynamite on electric guitar, she flashes her chest at one point and doesn't suffer fools gladly. Alyson is a tall, funky, black goddess who fights and plays fiercely on bass guitar.
All in all, this is a touching and fun show.
BETTY RULES
At the Zipper Theatre, 336 W. 37th St. Telecharge, (212) 239-6200.

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The Daily News

Joyous bios and rhythms

October 16th, 2002

By ROBERT DOMINGUEZ
DAILY NEWS FEATURE WRITER

BETTY RULES
Written and performed by Alyson Palmer, Amy Ziff and Elizabeth Ziff. Directed by Michael Greif. At The Zipper, 336 W. 37th St. Tickets: $29.90 to $44.90. (212) 239-6200.


A joyous, humorous and entirely engaging "alterna-musical," "BETTY Rules" chronicles the often-rocky history of the all-girl trio. Deftly directed by Michael Greif ("Rent"), the fast-paced show is part rock concert, part tell-all memoir and all fun as the members of BETTY take the audience on an occasionally hilarious foray into their personal and professional 17-year relationship.
For the uninitiated, BETTY consists of sisters Amy and Elizabeth Ziff and "honorary" sibling Alyson Palmer. Their intricate harmonies, feminist leanings and outrageous performances - filled with bawdy humor - have created something of a cult following by a decidedly female fan base.
The women wrote this show themselves, and the rapid-fire series of biographical skits allows each personality to emerge. Elizabeth is the rebel. A guitar-playing lesbian with a heap of attitude, she delights in flashing the audience mere minutes into the show. The zany, rubber-faced Amy, who plays cello, is the natural comedian. The bass-playing Palmer, who towers over her bandmates at 6 feet, shows a stage persona that is alternately sexy, sweet and sarcastic.
The story encompasses BETTY's origin in Washington, and its bumpy rise as a popular, if financially struggling band. Backed by a guitarist and drummer, the women show off their musical talent with a large selection of familiar BETTY songs, including "Jungle Jane" and "Slap Bang."
But the show's real appeal lies in the way the women tell their stories. By playing themselves broadly, they soften the edges of subjects as serious as drug abuse and abortion.
Ultimately, "BETTY Rules" is as tight and pleasant as the group's beautiful harmonies.

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BETTY RULES
by Adam Feldman


There is no one quite like BETTY. For nearly two decades, this idiosyncratic musical trio has carved out a niche in the overlap of a sprawling Venn diagram of genres: Go-Go's rock meets womyn's music meets close harmony meets musical theater. So it comes as no surprise that the group's new show, BETTY RULES, does not fit easily into any single category. Is it a musical? A nightclub act? A concert with comic sketches? A Behind the Music rockumentary? All and none of the above: It is BETTY.
BETTY RULES, subtitled "The Exception to the Musical," inhabits the straddle zone between rock and musical theater that has been bravely colonized in a handful of other recent shows. Having both opened for Joan Siberry in concert and celebrated Sondheim at Carnegie Hall (where they offered a chipper take on "I Never Do Anything Twice"), BETTY is unusually well suited to the task. Structurally, BETTY RULES' alternation of storytelling and harmony-driven rock recalls that of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, an association bolstered by the show's alternative-rock-venue set and zippy lighting, both designed by Hedwig's Kevin Adams. And its director Michael Grief has his own history in the straddle zone, having helmed Broadway's Rent, notoriously pitched in subway ads as a cool option for people who "hate musicals."
But don't let the hip hedging or the capital letters put you off. The women of BETTY are assertive--"an all-girl, in-your-face, come-and-get-it, listen-to-me-or-else band"--but not shrill. BETTY RULES, which traces the trio's largely horizontal trajectory since forming in 1985, is appealingly candid about the frustrations, disappointments, and tensions that come along with being a cult taste. The women take turns playing other characters in short comic monologues, but for the most part they unassumingly play themselves. Amy Ziff, who sometimes plays cello, is the funniest of the group, with a comedienne's face and anxious rhythms that strongly recall those of the former "Saturday Night Live" performer Melanie Hutsell. Her guitar-playing sister Elizabeth (no longer Bitzi) is more of a Laraine Newman type, wiry and slightly glassy-eyed; her tattoo and leather pants mark her as the trio's edgiest member. The Amazonian Alyson Palmer, who towers over the sisters Ziff on stage, sings alto, plays bass, and has a mellower energy than her volatile companions.
BETTY's funky and personal rapport with the audience is half of the pleasure of BETTY RULES. The other half consists of the songs, many of them culled from the group's past albums. Backed by a drummer and guitarist, Ziff, Ziff and Palmer twine their voices into surprising and frequently lovely combinations. Their lyrics are clever, if sometimes a bit on the nose, and their music is eclectic and engaging, from the punky pop drive of "Kissing You" to the plaintive, a capella "Broken," with a neat take on Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit" thrown in for good measure. "Why should we change?," asks one of the women as the group confronts its future, "We like what we do." And what they do is awfully likable. BETTY plays by its own rules, and includes you in the game.

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CurtainUp

A CurtainUp Review
Betty Rules
by Jerry Weinstein

If you're a record label or a radio programmer, the rock group Betty will confound you. But if you’re looking for music that will make you lose control of your groove thang, Betty will rock your world. Betty Rules is the name of a new self-described "alterna-musical" and the moniker speaks truth to power. For nearly seventeen years the band has successfully staved off Top 40 success, while creating a musical niche that is equal parts rock, cabaret, pop, a cappella, and spoken word. In the process, Betty has earned a cult following, while maintaining a core trio of bassist Alyson Palmer, electric cellist Amy Ziff, and her sister guitarist Elizabeth Ziff.
Details of their first meeting seem to be given to dramatic license. Some of their press materials insist that they have been "friends since an unfortunate incarceration," while their Web site marks their first gig as a birthday party for 9:30 Club owner Dodie Bowers. Perhaps they sang for their bail; in any case, one month later they were touring with Jane Siberry.
Flash forward to the summer of 1999. Michael Greif, best known as the director of Rent, and then Artistic Director of the La Jolla Playhouse, has invited them to workshop a play based on their lives. After fine-tuning the material and playing a sold-out seven week run at San Francisco’s Magic Theater last summer, Betty has taken up residence at New York City’s Zipper Theater. The end result is sparkling, and it is apropos that the Zipper is their venue of choice. The theater is a casual, urban affair with car seats for lounging and a full bar for lubrication. Kind of like a fringe theater offering, but with aisles.
Greif has done a superb job in showcasing Betty. The set is unadorned but for microphone stands, three clear Starck chairs that the players squirm in during band therapy, and supertitles that give us a needed context as the trio shuttles back and forth across the land mines and triumphs of their musical lives. Rather than be immobilized by the usual in-between song patter, there is a strong narrative thread in the band’s journey from post-adolescence to wizened-not-jaded thirtysomethings. Their journey is festooned with countless auditions (i.e., rejections), the release of five albums (Carnival, their latest, broke Amazon’s Top Ten!) endured breakups and makeups, and yes, band therapy (where they "experience mind blowing co-dependency").
Just as Betty are fearless musicians, they are whimsical where narrative devices are concerned. While there are flashbacks to an assemblage of "firsts" – first meeting, first gig, first White House inaugural, there are also unexpected bits like a past life regression to December 31, 1600. Naturally, our heroines are being burned at the stake – as witches, natch. Occasionally, each of the band members performs a vignette as a roadie or a shopkeeper that has crossed paths or swords with the band. When these pieces work, they are caustically funny – the Texas owner of "Guns and Pizza" comes to mind, as does a less-than-Mensa flight stewardess. (Sadly they were only able to tell, not show, of sharing the green room with icons Wayne Newton and Charo at the Jerry Lewis Telethon.) Amy Ziff, she of the blonde dreads, clearly loves these comic interludes as much as the music. Her manic energy is a hybrid Monty Python meets Lea Delaria. Speaking of which, their reenactment of the Michigan Womyn’s Festival is an in-the-know diatribe, written more out of love than cynicism. The threesome (one of which is lesbian-identified) have difficulty hanging out as there are distinct areas at the festival: the "chat-free zone", the "Little Diva diaper-changing zone," and, least tasty for these Bettizens, "the chem-free zone." Try as they might to lampoon the memory, they find both a record deal during one of their stands, as well as love.
For the most part, the song titles are a window into their idiosyncratic minds, but you’ll have to head to the theater and/or their Web site to enjoy "You Clueless Creep with Comb-Over Hair," bask in the post-romance of "I Don’t Even Like Kissing You," and marvel at the stunning spoken-word of Amy Ziff’s composition "Pins and Needles."
Betty’s inspirations are like found art; they’ll make a French rap out of a Joni Mitchell composition, and will cop to exploiting their lives for material. Elizabeth, when interviewed by NPR’s Scott Simon offered that "the song completes the emotion." What comes across above all is their talent, wit, and intelligence. There is nary a note of sentimentality here (if you’re looking for a Baby Boomer’s version of Bette Midler’s "You’ve Got to Have Friends" here, you’ll be rushing for the exits). If I were forced at gunpoint to say what the band sounds like, I might suggest The Roches on Acid with a splash of Martha and the Muffins. But I would be doing the ensemble an injustice. Betty is bigger than Alyson, Amy, or Elizabeth. Although the trio are given to camp in their press materials and overall persona, in this case I take them at face value when they speak of their band and their commitment: "We serve her. Yeah. She is our vole. She’s madam."
The stellar efforts of guitarist Tony Salvatore and percussionist Conlin Brooks are not to be underestimated. They anchor the Betty sound, and give the T hree Sistas the freedom to take no prisoners. Betty Rules opens with a voiceover of Bette Davis (from All About Eve) warning us to: "Fasten your seat belts; It’s going to be a bumpy ride." I looked down at my seat for a split second; the seat belts had been removed. No doubt it has been a hard road to tow for the group these last seventeen years, but for this audience member, it was better than a ride on the Cyclone.

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The Theatre
Issue of 2002-10-28
Posted 2002-10-21


BETTY RULES
A kinetic alterna-rock musical, directed by Michael Greif ("Rent"), chronicling the nearly two-decade-long career of a real-life girl band called Betty and its members' long battle to keep the group and their sanity intact on the road, at home, onstage, and even in therapy. The group was formed in 1985 in the D.C. suburbs by two Jewish sisters—Elizabeth (an angry-funny redhead who looks like Laraine Newman) and Amy Ziff (zaftig, with blond dreads)—with Alyson Palmer, an African-American singer, bassist, and all-around bombshell. For an hour and a half, the women create a collage of scenes and songs that would resemble a good night on "Saturday Night Live" if the guest band were also to perform the skits. The ultra-mod Zipper is outfitted with car seating (complete with seat belts), and the set designer, Kevin Adams, has lit the place to perfectly reflect the group's energy. (Zipper, 336 W. 37th St. 239-6200.)

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Lively Arts

October 14, 2002


BETTY RULES, written and performed by Alyson Palmer, Amy Ziff and Elizabeth Ziff, the trio who make up the extremely entertaining singing group BETTY, and directed by Michael Grief, is a terrific, personal musical show about the struggles, setbacks, successes, and, indeed, the lives of the three women singers as they showcase their talents, individually and as a
group. Each is a strong singer, actress and musician, each a unique personality-- together they soar. Filled with humor and charm, the show is a feast for the eyes (they're sexy) and the ears (good, toe-tappin' contemporary music that cooks). The venue, the new Zipper Theatre on West 37th St., is the most comfortable performance space in town- the seats are the back seats of cars; the design of the whole place is colorful, tasteful, cozy.


***1/2

Richmond Shepard-- Performing Arts INSIDER

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Betty Rules

Girl rock band Betty are so damned unique that you can’t compare them to any single band. You need to reference two at least, and wildly divergent ones at that; I think they’re like Joan Jett and the Blackhearts crossed with the Andrew Sisters, but I’ve heard several other combinations. And they’re nothing if not theatrical: They wrote new songs for a California production of Caryl Churchill’s Cloud Nine, and they count Alan Cumming as one of their more vocal fans. No surprise then, that we now find them performing in an autobiographical musical Off-Broadway, at the appropriately rough ’n’ ready Zipper Theater. No surprise, either, that the show is as unique - and fabulously entertaining - as the band.
Betty Rules relates the story of their early idealism and later infighting and growing pains, interspersed with songs delivered rock- concert-fashion and cameos of the multitude of odd characters they’ve encountered along the way. Sisters Amy Ziff (dynamo - and control freak) and Elizabeth Ziff (laid back - and foul-mouthed - lesbian) came up with the idea for the band in the mid ’80s and drafted the unsuspecting Alyson Palmer to be their bass player. All three have their particular strengths as stage performers: Amy is the pro, both as actress and career-oriented band leader, Alyson has a wry wisecracking quality and Amazon presence, and Elizabeth brings the punk rock energy and attitude with a vengeance. This is a joyous roller coaster of a show, and the title doesn’t lie: Betty does, in fact, rule! —Jonathan Warman

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October 11, 2002

Seen Off Broadway:

BETTY Rules, at Off Broadway’s Zipper Theatre, features the members of BETTY, the trio of punk-harmony singers and satirists—sisters Amy and Elizabeth Ziff, and the astoundingly tall and vivacious Alyson Palmer—as they relive their lives and hard times. Now in their 17th year of cult success, they’ve survived boneheaded record executives, womyn’s music festivals, hostile audiences, and their own internal conflicts. Indeed, they portray themselves as riotously feuding neurotics—at one point, the Ziff Sisters even compare themselves to Blanche and Baby Jane Hudson--and some of the show’s most hilarious scenes are set in "band therapy" sessions, with the girls gleefully trading savage home truths. At any rate, the combination of bitchy humor plus distinctive song stylings results in a fast and funny 90 minutes .

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Burning Blue &
Betty Rules

by David Hurst
Equally smart and compelling-but in a completely different context-are Alyson Palmer, Amy Ziff and Elizabeth Ziff as 'Betty' in Betty Rules currently running at The Zipper Theatre. If you've enjoyed following their career as a rock band since 1985, you'll love this funny, smart and condensed Behind The Music story of their lives. The music remains an eclectic mix of mid-80s pop/rock-think the B-52's as sung by The Manhattan Transfer, except with an edge. Their harmonies are as crisp and tight as their self-deprecating banter with direction by Michael Grief (Rent) that is efficiently entertaining. Colin Brooks (drums) and heartthrob Tony Salvatore (guitar) provide Betty's excellent musical back-up. Rock on, girls.

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"Betty Rules" Chronicles The Life Of An Independent Band
NOVEMBER 06TH, 2002

Musicals based on songs by popular artists like ABBA and Billy Joel have become all the rage on the Great White Way. Now, a new off-Broadway production is offering its own take on the trend. NY1's Donna Karger has more on "Betty Rules" in the following report.

by Donna Karger

For the past 17 years, the women of Betty, an all-female pop/rock band, have had many ups and downs and highs and lows. Now, they're sharing their story in a new autographical work called "Betty Rules."
"Hopefully our little journey and our struggle and our successes and our ups and downs is more of a, I guess, a universal struggle of anyone who is following their dreams," says band member Amy Ziff.
"Betty Rules" chronicles the birth and life of Betty, which was formed by sisters Amy and Elizabeth Ziff and Allison Palmer back in 1985. Since that time, the band produced several albums, performed at venues all around the world, and eventually developed a dedicated following. But Betty never achieved mainstream success.
This often stormy, rhythmic journey of perseverance and passion is what director Michael Greif, of "Rent" fame, felt would be an attractive and telling theatre piece.
"Their experience as a band and as performers over the years really equipped them for working in this venue, and finding out what really landed with their audience what was working better or less," says Greif.
While "Betty Rules" was conceived for the theatre, the production moves very much like a concert. Between small breaks of dialogue, the trio breaks into song, performing several numbers from their repertory, as well as ones written specifically for the show.
The group says the process has been demanding, but also fulfilling and cathartic.
"The experience of telling the story over and over again has given me insights I never even knew I had," says Palmer. "It’s been an epiphany, and it generally happens onstage."
And for many audience members, the show can be an awakening too, as it introduces them to the Betty sound.
"So many shows are popular because they're including popular music, so they already have a basic hit," says Elizabeth Ziff. "The thing about our play is, unlike ‘Mama Mia’ and the Queen thing in London, and the Billy Joel piece by Twyla Tharp, our music was not hugely popular, so that's a different challenge. It’s also so exciting for us, because people are coming to the show and being as involved as if they've always known our music."
"Betty Rules" has an open-ended gig at the Zipper Theatre in the Garment District.

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Show Business Weekly

Review by Jen Hendricks


Billing a show as an exception to anything can be a slippery slope. True to form, Betty Rules: The Exception to the Musical, often–but not always–proves the rule. Patterning itself after countless preceding tales of the road about rock bands suiting up, breaking up and making up, Betty is comprised of a series of songs loosely organized around the haphazard alchemy that keeps musicians in the groove over the years. The good news is that Betty gleefully parts company with all predecessors at several stops along the way by offering up good music and mixing in some humor, an unexpected and always entirely welcome accompanist.
According to the band's own program notes, Betty came into being as the result of an 80s birthday party for "9:30" club owner Dodie Bowers. This accidental happenstance has resulted in both cult popularity as well as some well-earned, higher profile success for this all-women group. (They're the featured band for HBO's educational series Encyclopedia; they're also featured on Comedy Central's Premium Blend and wrote and performed the theme song for HBO's Real Sex series.) That said, they've pretty much been just about music, from start to finish–and they come across as a solid rock band, full stop. But, for better or worse, this trio of musicians assumed that, for the stage, a more cohesive, "from-the-beginning" format would be more palatable to theater ticket holders who may expect some sort of narrative structure to tie things together. In keeping with this formula, in Betty Rules, it's established that Elizabeth and Amy Ziff, the singing-songwriting sisters behind Betty, first began to jam in their Dad's blue collar garage somewhere in the backyard of the Washington D.C.-Maryland district. From there, a series of auditions for a third recruit ensued and the sisters stumbled upon that special extra something in the form of Alyson Palmer, a bassist and vocalist who forms a solid one-third of this trio.
The skeletal story vignettes linking Betty together vary in terms of effectivenesss, ranging from sometimes hilarious to overly familiar to cloying cuteness. Each narrative lapse, however, is more or less trimmed back for music at just the right moments.
The music itself may put you in mind of Elvis Costello, Siouxsie and The Banshees, The Police and The B-52s. You can even hear a little Roy Orbison when it comes to some of the band's haunting ballads. Far flung influences should not come as a surprise, based on Betty's overall inventiveness and richness of sound. Indeed, the better the musicianship, the more audiences are able to project like crazy, hearing the rock that influences and speaks to them on a most personal level. And few things are as downright personal than what directs popular music purchasing choices. But whatever the case may be in terms of who Betty's own musical heroes and heroines are, what matters is that ultimately this band has its very own sound, a rare thing in a market that particularly prides itself on trend-injected safety. Memorable lyrics also propel Betty ahead of the pack. "I'm the queen of the rodeo/b-starlet at the drive-in show/rock goddess on the radio/the next door neighbor that you want to know...I can love who I want/love what I want/love where I want/and I want, I want, I want, I want."
Blue ribbon musicianship also provides the ballast behind some of the show's best unplugged moments where the a cappella magic that fuels this trio's sound often literally sends shivers up and down the spine. Only the trio's best known song "Broken" breaks the spell, perhaps because it's the only song in the show that's wrapped around an outright personal moment in the sister's own lives (the heartbreaking account of their mother's last days.) So specific a dedication somehow diminishes the neutrality of popular music and therein its very power to invite audience members to unpack their own emotional baggage.
Director Michael Greif (Rent) truly gets what makes Betty special and knows just how and when to step back and let things happen. With the exception of Amy Ziff, who exhibits a certain polished comedic flair (as she is an accomplished actress as well), the women in Betty are musicians first, actresses second. Greif doesn't merely work with their rawness, but also helps orchestrate the magic. As a result, the audience is left with a warming, winning certainty that he truly enjoyed working with these women.
The intimacy of the Zipper Theater space at first gives one pause, since the audience is som close to the stage. High-quality engineering talent, however, reels you in with crisp and clear sound. The lighting, too, always seems just right. Altogether, Betty is a memorable evening spent with three rather remarkable musicians (with an additional salute in the direction of Tony Salvatore and Colin Brooks lending skillful support on guitar and drums). Talent more than makes up for occasionally derivative moves.

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Theater2K.com

"betty rules"
zipper theatre
nyc
25 november 02


reviewed by
brook stowe


If there was any lingering doubt out there, let us here and now make it official: Betty does indeed Rule.


And not just because they say so. We've got hard evidence as to this veteran pop/rock/performance trio's total Ruledom, a goodly portion of which is now on display 8 times a week at the Zipper in the form of their 90-minute rollercoaster through the ups and downs and ins and outs of rocking and rolling, "Betty Rules".


This is one very cool show.


And, the longer Betty eludes the fickle scrutiny of mainstream adulation, the cooler they get. Mainstream bands come along like seasonal fashions, like new car models, to be fawned over by those whose job it is to commodify, label and compartmentalize art into easily palatable product. Such bands are usually gone just as quickly.


Betty is here to stay.


Notice how that "/" shows up a lot when we try to describe Betty. Betty is not just a "pop" band. They are not just a "rock" band. They are not just a "grrrl" band. They are not just "performance art".


Betty is a lot of this/that/and the other thing.


And "Betty Rules" showcases members' Elizabeth Ziff, Amy Ziff and Alyso
n Palmer's varied and estimable talents at their best.


We saw an early version of their music/comedy sketch vehicle workshopped up at Vassar's Powerhouse a couple summers ago. Then, the music was top-notch, but their acting and improv were tentative and self-conscious.
No more. Betty's collective ease with the wide-range of emotion and character demanded by the myriad vignettes that drive "Rules" provides the special delight that both makes "Betty" Betty and makes them so/damn/hard/to/pigeonhole.


To dramatize their near-two decade three-way marriage as a band, Betty has assembled an eclectic offering of career-retro bonbons, ranging from "past-life experiences" to snapshots of former roadies, groupies, lovers, roadies/groupies/lovers, fans, and some guy in Kentucky who pretty much speaks his own language. Amy Ziff's manic recollection of her mid-1980s day job as a coked-up travel agent is alone worth the price of admission (which is a very affordable $10 for weekend late shows).


Elizabeth (guitars), Amy (cello) and Alyson (bass) have chosen wisely having director Michael Greif to guide this music/theater/memoir concoction at just the right mix of manic and reflective. And, speaking of mixes, they are equally fortunate to have sound guru Dave Arnold making it all sound great. Onstage, axman extraordinaire Tony Salvatore supplies the chunky guitar riffs and the dapper Colin Brooks spanks that tom-tom till it hurts.


"Betty Rules" is spiced and seasoned with an amazing 17 continuous years in the rock and roll stew, but it is never sour, spoiled or flat. It is, above all, a celebration of making art not for the fame and the glory and the seat on the couch next to Leno, but simply because they must.


That alone is enough to make Betty rule. But there is more. Betty is involved with a number of causes and organizations trying to make our too-often fucked-up world a better place to be. Following the show we saw, instead of being whisked into waiting limos by a flying wedge of no-neck goons, Betty took their "big buckets" out into the Zipper lobby to collect donations for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.


And/that/is/truly/why "Betty Rules".

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'Betty' late than never for rock chick trio

Friday, November 29, 2002
BY MICHAEL SOMMERS
Star-Ledger Staff

NEW YORK -- Aside from "Hairspray" and "Far Away," the season this fall is not terrifically noteworthy, but it's been very active. What with plenty more openings than nights in the week, sometimes not every promising new show can be viewed right away.
So that's why it's taken a while to catch up with "Betty Rules," which hit the stage in mid-October.

An exhilarating concert-style memoir by a kicking real-life trio of female rockers, this fast, funny entertainment follows the zigzag fortunes of Betty, a band described as "like the Go-Gos with more of an edge."
A zany Amy Ziff, her flintier sister Elizabeth and their sarcastic Amazonian associate Alyson Palmer formed Betty 17 years ago in the Ziff family's suburban basement.
Despite obvious talent, the band's far from platinum career has involved years of touring tank towns, too many alternative music festivals to count, thankless appearances as the opening act for more famous groups and coping with the whimsies of the recording industry.
Along the bumpy way to minor fame, they have also coped with personal conflicts -- men, relationships, family -- that sporadically threatened to split up them up.
All of this is related in quick, punchy scenes, usually humorous, which intersperse the high-octane cascade of songs delivered so smashingly by Betty. Honeyed by lovely three-part vocal harmonies and backed by two other musicians, the band pumps out classic punk chick rock 'n' roll. A slightly self-mocking quality to the band's in-your-face style saves them from stridency.
Actually, the women register as genuine darlings whose abiding love for making music overcomes all obstacles. Without meaning to be such, the unpretentious "Betty Rules" proves to be something of an inspirational charmer that affirms the saving grace of having music in one's heart.
Director Michael Greif (who did so nicely by that little event known as "Rent") smartly shapes the various songs, scenes and stories into a 90-minute whirlwind concert. Kevin Adam's purposefully grungy concert setting and torrid lighting design suit the show's rough and ready atmosphere.
"Betty Rules" further benefits from being in residence at the Zipper Theatre, one of off-Broadway's cooler performance spaces. Purchasing drinks in the adjoining lounge, folks can take beer or wine to their locations, which more often than not happen to be on the couch-like rear seats from old cars.
The 240-seat theater's casual yet comfortable circumstances enhance the informal nature of "Betty Rules." The stage's audience-to- artist proximity makes the show all the more intimate. A hearty sense of partying soon arises as Betty celebrates a life in music.
Finally, a mention to bargain hunters: Tickets to the 10 p.m. Friday late show can be had for a mere $10. That's may be the best theater deal in town. Grab it.

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BETTY RULES

by Julie Altebrando

When Betty Rules, they rule with heart, talent, and a universal empathy that seems to shine like a beacon throughout the theater.
The true story of the all-woman band spans a 15-year period of comical--and not-so-comical ups and downs. From musings on the evils of the recording industry to well-timed flashbacks of their neophyte attempts at fame and the cost to their personal lives, the story moves swiftly from laughs to tears and back again.
The three women, who wrote and perform the musical, act as the witty and insightful protagonists in their own story--oftentimes with hilarious results. Their group therapy sessions bemoaning the state of their relationship are some of the show's best moments.
But Betty Rules isn't just about the road to girl-band stardom. It drives home the rough road to the self-actualization, sacrifice, and finally acceptance that comes with the search for one's true desire--whether the instrument is a guitar or cradle. Their lamentations of time passed, lives and loved ones lost, and roads not taken strike a resonating chord. 
But the women constantly reclaim their dynamic comedic talent throughout the show. Amy Ziff commands the stage with her diabolical mimicry and booming voiceovers. Elizabeth seems so fragile that you fear a stiff wind from an off-stage fan might blow her away, until you watch her grab that rhythm guitar, giving it a racy run for its money. Alyson Palmer, the Amazonesque bass player has a riveting stage presence and a voice to match.
Musically, the band's talent is obvious both in its creative lyrics and their execution. The sound is a mix of 80s throwback punk, splashed with some Andrew Sisters-like harmony and a bit of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy rhythm that seems to work just right in the confines of the low-rent, but cozy theater.
Depending on what your particular quest in life may be, you may leave Betty with the knowledge that acceptance may bring you true happiness--or dismay. Betty's rule is simple: you know that while few achieve nirvana in life, sometimes the act of acceptance becomes nirvana itself. 
If only the Go-Gos had been Betty, they'd still be around today.

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