Shea Stadium is so deeply woven into the fabric of New York City's social history that even tearing it down didn't make it go away. New York's equal part loving/maddening relationship with the Mets baseball team is augmented by its profound rock ‘n' roll history. It is, after all, where the Beatles played in 1965. Now it's all immortalized in the unusual film Last Play at Shea. Long Island's own Billy Joel had the honor of playing the last concert at the stadium for two nights in July of 2009, whereas shortly after the lights went down on the stadium, it was torn down to make room for a parking lot. The need to film this historic event became immediately apparent. But Joel, not a fan of the concert film, hesitated. Something more was needed for his beloved stadium.
He turned to those he trusts the most, his professional "family" – including long time LD Steve Cohen – and conversations ensued. What gestated out of it is a compelling, sometimes emotionally raw, always entertaining hybrid that charts the history of the stadium with Joel's life and career. The good, the bad, and the ugly of both New York institutions is weaved through a memorable live performance by Joel that featured special guest stars including Tony Bennett and Paul McCartney, among others. He performed to 110,000 people – both shows sold out in a record breaking 45 minutes.
Cohen was handed the tasks of co-producing the documentary with Nigel Sinclair, who produced such features as Terminator 3 and The Wedding Planner. Paul Crowder (Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who) directed the project with long time Joel friend and former band mate Jon Small directing the concert footage. The writer was Mark Monroe, who wrote the Academy Award-winning documentary The Cove.
The mix of those interviewed about the stadium included Garth Brooks, John Mayer, Roger Daltrey, Mike Piazza, Keith Hernandez, Alec Baldwin, and working class stiffs who shared their own personal memories, including one who declared: "Shea was a dump! But it was our dump!"
"Best Interest at Heart"
It wasn't unusual for Joel to make Cohen chuckle. But the punch line wasn't particularly funny: "Why don't you produce it?"
Cohen, who has worked with Joel since 1974, was sitting across from Joel on a plane, and the two were discussing possibilities beyond the concert film scenario. "Billy thought there was a much bigger story there," Cohen recalls. "He talked about the history of the stadium, how when the Beatles played there it was really the first time a rock act played a stadium. All the great acts that followed through the years – the Who, Queen…" That part of the stadium's history changed his life, and Joel came to the conclusion that the project needed someone who he could not only trust completely, but understood and appreciated what the stadium meant to the annals of pop music.
"Why don't you produce it? You have my best interest at heart."
Cohen just shrugged and laughed. "I was waiting for him to come back three weeks later and say a Coppola or someone like that was going to do it." What happened three weeks later was Joel asked if Cohen if had vetted any directors and production companies. "So you're serious?" Cohen asked him. Joel was serious, and the Parnelli Award-winning lighting designer took the challenge.
As the project progressed, it became apparent to emphasis on the working class nature that is Long Island. "Billy is the bard of Long Island, and when you think his career and what happened at the stadium, the two mirror each other. That became the through line."
For Joel, who is revealed to be relentlessly honest in his filmed interviews, this meant while highlights that his breakthrough albums and events like the "miracle Mets" World Series win of 1969 were featured, they were juxtaposed with the Mets' slumps and the performer's own rocky relationship with women and career pitfalls.
The concert itself is pure Joel. His up-tempo songs seem to topple over the stadium, and his ballads, like "New York State of Mind," turn the place into an intimate nightclub. Creative design played a large part of his ability to do that. In addition to producing the film, Cohen did not shirk from his traditional duties and handled production, lighting, set, and video design. Mark Foffano was the associate lighting designer and lighting director.
Danny O'Bryen was brought in for video work. The stage was 280 feet long from end to end. Brown United created the structure, and Tait Towers provided the stage. The lighting rig was provided by Cohen's own production company and featured a mix of Vari-Lite, PRG, Syncrolite, and Christie Lites. He says he used more than 400 automated lights.
Bobby Thrasher was the production manager, and Cohen says he did an excellent job. The structure had to be built in 40 hours, and the concert itself pulled out all the stops: 22 musicians on stage with eight special guest stars – the highlight being McCartney, who sang "I Saw Her Standing There" with Joel, bringing it all right back to that historic moment in 1965.
"Billy financed the thing himself, and that meant we could take our time and not rush because of a deadline," Cohen says. The disadvantage is they are deep in the challenging world of Indie film making: yes, the film debuted at Tribeca Film Festival in October, but it's impossible for a film like this to get wide spread distribution. They did have a special digital broadcast in 120 theaters nationwide. While it's not on the radar of mainstream movie critics, because it's Joel, it received reviews (and positive ones at that) in music magazines.
Same Skill Set
"The response across the board has been incredible – people say, ‘it's not just a concert film, you've made a real movie,'" Cohen says. "It'll be a legacy piece, and around for a long time, and for that we're all grateful."
{mosimage}So will Cohen be quitting his day job?
"I learned a great deal, though others I worked said I took to producing like a duck to water." As he tells it, it's not surprising – decades in the rock concert business has made him proficient in skills like planning, attention to detail, working on a budget, and general mountain-moving. These are all transferable to film making.
"I'm a visual guy, and I knew the material well," he says. "Would I do it again? In a heartbeat. I had the greatest fun."
Last Play at Shea is now available on DVD.
