From Attorney to Arts Advocate: Jan Friedman Constantine Smells Success

There’s no business like show business as your second act.

Jan Friedman Constantine held the esteemed position of News Corp. deputy general counsel from 1991 to 2004 and was the lawyer for the New York Post from Rupert Murdoch’s rescue of the paper out of bankruptcy until 2004.

Today, she is semi-retired and pursuing her passion for the arts. Along with 140 other volunteer singers at the nonprofit musical troupe MasterVoices, Constantine performs an eclectic repertoire—Broadway, classical, contemporary music, and baroque pieces—in venues throughout New York, such as Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Alice Tully Hall, and Cooper Union. MasterVoices, which was called the Collegiate Chorale for the first 70 years of its existence, also performs at special screenings of films, such as Lord of the Rings movies and Studio Ghibli productions, where live presentations of the soundtrack are featured.

The 80-year-old company’s first production of the fall season is Sweet Smell of Success, based on the 1957 movie inspired by infamous gossip columnist Walter Winchell, and starring Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis.

When it opened on Broadway in 2002, the show was credited to three theater greats: music by the late Marvin Hamlisch (A Chorus Line), lyrics by Craig Carnelia (Working), and book by John Guare (Six Degrees of Separation).

MasterVoices Artistic Director Ted Sperling, known for revitalizing works for today’s audiences along with Guare and Carnelia, is refreshing the show. So far, the cast includes Raúl Esparza (“ADA Rafael Barba” in Law & Order SVU) and actress-singer-writer Lizzy McAlpine.

Straus Media sat down with Jan Friedman Constantine to detail her life at the (in)famous tabloid, her second act as a performer, and the show that depicts the very competitive and often ruthless newspaper world she knows too well.

What was it like to be the lawyer for such a renowned tabloid?

I never had so much fun in my life. It was one of those places where every day was amazing, and the people who work there from the top to the bottom were all wonderful people. They all had interesting personalities. And they were receptive to legal advice. As long as you didn’t say, “You can’t do it,” and told them how to do it and were there when they got in trouble, they were cooperative and very easy to work with. Even Rupert [Murdoch]. He was very hands-on, and it was good to have somebody who loved newspapers, because I was a big fan of media and newspapers myself. I still have The Post delivered every day.

And now you’re performing with MasterVoices. Has music always been your passion?

Music and theater, yes, from when I was in elementary school, where I played Pinocchio. I’ve been in choruses all my life. City Bar chorus, acappella at Smith College, and I’ve even done cabaret at Don’t Tell Mama, Broadway Baby, and various other venues.

Yet you didn’t pursue it professionally.

The reason is that, though I love music and acting, I wasn’t great. It’s a very hard profession to succeed in. I thought it was too much of a stretch for me to succeed and too little money if I didn’t. The next best thing was being a litigator, where I could basically perform before a judge and jury. It satisfied my performance proclivities. I’m still very involved with the law on a pro bono basis. I do it for nothing because I want to give back at this point in my life.

What brought you to MasterVoices?

I was doing community theater with my synagogue, and two members were also performing [with MasterVoices]. There was a lot of participation by the chorus members, and that’s what I wanted . . . to sing, but be able to perform. I auditioned and joined in 2016. The first year, I was standing [onstage] next to [Tony-winning actress] Kelli O’Hara. That made my millennium. But I’m so lucky to have five grandchildren and something I love to do on the side. It’s a nice second act.

You’re also the chair of the board of directors. How do you balance the artistic and the business sides of MasterVoices?

It’s tricky. I love to sing, but I want to keep the company, which is a not-for-profit, alive. I am doing something that I never thought I would do, and that is helping with development of patrons and trying to get board members to join us, and sustainability is an initiative that we’re working on.

How was Sweet Smell of Success chosen?

Ted [Sperling] is the artistic director. I am such a passionate fan of his, and what MasterVoices is in terms of musical experience. He brought a couple of shows to us and decided upon this, and I went to the performing arts library and saw it. I’m very excited because it brings two parts of my life together.

What do you hope the audience takes away after seeing this production?

First, I really hope they take away that MasterVoices is a brilliant chorus, and they should act accordingly by coming to our shows and donating money to keep us in the picture. Number two, I think it’s important to see that everybody has to have a conscience and has to try to do the right thing, and it can go very, very bad when that doesn’t happen. And I think that’s a universal truth.

For tickets and more information about MasterVoices’s Sweet Smell of Success visit https://www.mastervoices.org/events/sweet-smell-of-success/

Performances at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall are on Nov. 21 at 8 p.m. and on Nov. 22 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Lorraine Duffy Merkl is the author of the novel “The Last Single Woman in New York City.”