This week in New York Theater saw the third of what promises to be at least 20 openings on Broadway during the Spring 2010 Broadway theater season, which officially ends on the last day of April (the deadline to qualify for a Tony Award). None of the Broadway openings are planned for February, but there will be new (short-lived) gigs for the casts of the recently-closed Broadway productions of “Ragtime” and “Finian’s Rainbow”, and the month will feature interesting theater not on Broadway, such as a new musical in Brooklyn by the creators of “Passing Strange”, and some 25 shows Off-Broadway available at half off.
A theater company called the New York Neofuturists prove you don’t need a stage to produce some terrific plays; you can do it on…Twitter.
As it turns out, much of the most eye-catching theater news this week — about Carol Channing, Anton Chekhov, and certainly Rip Torn — did not take place on the stage either.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Eight people were inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame today:
Roger Berlind, producer
Jim Dale, actor
Charles Ludlam, playwright and actor (posthumously)
Theodore Mann, co-founder of Circle in the Square Theater
John McMartin, actor
Lynn Redgrave, actress and playwright
Stephen Schwartz, composer
Andrew Lloyd Webber, composer
Review of “Hope” the Obama musical in Germany: “On Sunday evening I sat thumping my chair in a suburb of Frankfurt, accompanying Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton singing “Yes We Can,” and thinking No I Can’t stand any more of this.”
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
The U.S. Department of Justice has cleared the way for the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster. Critics charge that the merger of the concert promoter and the ticketing giant could result in higher ticket prices.
Today in 1996, “Rent” opened at the New York Theater Workshop, the day after creator Jonathan Larson died suddenly of an undiagnosed condition.
The Phantom of the Opera opened on Broadway on January 26, 1988 — 22 years ago — and is still open! More than 9,150 and still counting, a record!
Get two tickets to Off-Broadway hits for the price of one, Feb 8 to 28th, in “On The House” promotion
The cast of the recent “Ragtime” will reunite to sing in ‘Broadway By The Year’ 10th Anniversary Town Hall Concerts Feb 22, which will include a hit song from each of the past 21 years.
The producers of “A View From The Bridge” are talking about trying to extend it past April 4th due to reviews, but Scarlett Johansson has a commitment to promote “Ironman II.”
Soldiering Through Life’s Sorrows my review of Orphans Home Cycle Review Part 3
“How can human beings stand all that comes to them?” Horace asks in “The Story of a Family,” the last of “The Orphans’ Home Cycle.” It is 1918, people are dying of influenza at home or in combat overseas, but the question underlies Horton Foote’s entire nine-play cycle. And the answer, after nine hours watching an ensemble of some two dozen wonderful actors presenting 26 years in the life of Horace Robedaux and his extended family, is: They just do…more
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Stew and Heidi Rodewald, creators of Passing Strange, have a new show, “Making It,” at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn Feb. 17-22.
“God of Carnage” will get its third cast on Broadway starting March 2, including a member of the original cast. Dylan Baker will play Alan, Lucy Liu will make her Broadway debut as Annette, Janet McTeer (who won a Tony for the 1997 Broadway production of “A Doll’s House” and was in the West End cast of “God of Carnage”) will become Veronica, and original Broadway cast member Jeff Daniels will play Michael, the part originally played by James Gandolfini
The idea for AirScript, live handheld subtitling of theater, came when its Argentinian founder saw CATS on Broadway age 12.
AirScript offers an array of languages in British theaters, including English, for deaf and hard-of-hearing. Shouldn’t NY have this device?
David Bradshaw (@davidrbradshaw, product development of Cambridge Consultants, which makes the AirScript): AirScript could be coming to NYC soon …
The Queen’s Company, all-female classical theater co., doing The Wonder Feb 26-Mar 14 at The Kirk, Theater Row
Honor (and hang out with) Angela Lansbury, get 2 tickets to opening night of American Idiot…
Have your portrait painted by John Lithgow, etc. in the auction and gala of the Drama League honoring Angela Lansbury
NY Times critic Charles Isherwood is uncomfortable with Fela! presenting “African culture as a feast of exotic pageantry,” comparing it to minstrelsy. His article inspired much criticism
Steve Loucks( @steveonbroadway, blogger) I think his remarks are incredibly inept and condescending.
Esther (@GratuitousV, blogger) That seems to be the general consensus in the comments.
e.g. biglew: To quote a lyric from the one of the great Fela Kuti’s own songs, Mr Isherwood, “You miss road”. Maybe you should have suspended a certain amount of your hifallutin expectations and enjoyed the play for what it was.
Steve Loucks: And very elitist and insensitive to a rich and diverse culture. With 100s of millions of stories from Africa, audiences are smart enough to know that this was just one man’s story.
Monica Reida (@mreida, blogger, “occasional journalist”): I thought it was very elitist and snobbish and I haven’t even seen Fela!
Esther: Yet in the end, he still encourages people to go see Fela! Which is weird if he thinks it’s so demeaning.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
New York Theater Workshop (@nytw79) will present a new musical in August about Mormonism by “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and Avenue Q’s co-creator Bobby Lopez. I wrote about the musical when I interviewed Bobby Lopez and Jeff Marx last September.
The Enchanted Pig,a “witty, gritty” musical about a princess betrothed to a boar, at New Victory Theater on 42nd St., Feb 5 – 21
Cast of Green Day musical American Idiot will perform on the Grammys on Sunday. The producers simultaneously announced that the Broadway cast is mostly the original from Berkeley Rep, including John Gallagher, Jr. the Tony-winning star of “Spring Awakening.” The musical scheduled to open on Broadway on April 20th.
Want to make it as a NY actor? Apply to the American Theatre Wing’s SpringboardNYC, June 7-18 boot camp. Enrollment is limited to 35.
Ben Brantley reflects on aging after seeing Sam Shepard’s Ages of the Moon and Horton Foote’s Orphans’ Home Cycle
The Orphans’ Home Cycle has been extended six weeks to May 8th. Here are my reviews of this Horton Foote epic theater.
My review of Time Stands Still: Love, War and Glib Metaphor :
For more than eight years, Sarah (Laura Linney) and James (Brian D’Arcy James) have shared love and war and a loft in Williamsburg, Brooklyn: As journalists, they’ve covered conflicts and catastrophes around the world. Now back home after injuries (hers physical, his psychological) caused by the violence they were chronicling, the unmarried couple is about to embark on struggles that are more personal in “Time Stands Still,” which has now opened at the Manhattan Theater Club’s Samuel J. Friedman Theater.
Well-acted with a first-class cast, well-designed, well-directed, even well-lit, this new four-character play by Donald Margulies seemed to me ultimately thinner and less thoughtful than it might initially appear….more
Friday, January 29, 2010
Anton Chekhov turns 150 and a critic explains why he’s so great (and why he would have loved Twitter)
On this day in Broadway history: “All My Sons” opened, 1947, the 2nd of 32 plays or revivals by Arthur Miller appearing on Broadway.
Cast recording of now-closed Finian’s Rainbow will be in stores Tuesday, February 2. Concert Feb 1 at Barnes and Nobles 66th Street. with the stars of the show, including Cheyenne Jackson.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Tony Pontura, former beer marketer, associate producer of “Hair” on Broadway and a producer of “Memphis,” is now focusing on the play ‘Vince Lombardi’ bound for Broadway, about the great football coach.
#Twitterplay Comes To Order
Every week, a theater group called the New York Neofuturists (@nyneofuturists) requests from their followers to put together a “twitterplay” on a specific theme. This week the assignment was a 1-tweet play that takes place in a court. Here are a small sample of the many resulting dramas and comedies (no musicals):
Ross McKeen (@mightytoycannon, managing director of Oregon Children’s Theatre): A: I want the truth! B: You can’t handle the truth! A: You…you complete me. B: Shut up. You had me at “truth”. [embrace]
Johnny Ko (@cycloptiko, San Jose Twitterer): 1: Judge, permission to treat the witness as hostile 2: Granted 1: (Pulls out gun, shoots 3 seven times) No further questions
Tony Faulkner (@tonyfaulkner, Portland microblogger): Lawyer: ZZzzz. Judge: Is someone sleeping? Lawyer: ZZzzZZSCNHik? ZZzz. Judge: Bailiff, put that man’s hand in some warm water.
Brady (@bamoon, “passionate performer”, blogger) Your honor, I believe that marriage should be expanded to include all. Will you do me the honor of marrying me? (Gavel slams)
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Rip Torn, 78, star of 11 Broadway shows (1st, 1959; latest, 1997), arrested for drunken bank burglary
Carol Channing turns 89 years old. Her Broadway debut was in 1941, and she has performed in 13 Broadway shows (Hello, Dolly 3 times)
Queen Esther (@queenesther, “Negropolitan, artist,” singer) oh – and yes, Carol Channing is black!. What’s astonishing is the career she would NOT have had if the world knew that she was black. That’s the REAL story here!
Tallulah Bankhead, star of 23 Broadway shows, was born today in 1902 (died, 1968). Will be reborn in “Looped” w/ Valerie Harper opening March 14
The new Broadway cast recording of West Side Story won the 2010 Grammy Award as Best Musical Show Album. The other Grammy nominees for Best Musical Show Album were Hair, 9 to 5, Aint Misbehavin, Shrek.
Nina Howard (@broadwayninja, Texas, “Theatre, Choir, and Dance pretty much contain my life. Oh and saving the world”): West Side Story is an OLD show & had its time to shine. Shrek the Musical should have won Best Musical Album.
Devin Kennamer (@DvnMichael, Alabama, “I work in the theatre”): I think @n2nbroadway ["Next to Normal"] should’ve won. They weren’t even nominated.
Saul Young (@saulyoung, “connoisseur of the high life, photographer with bad eyes” Knoxville): Gangs probably don’t snap their fingers like they did in West Side Story. Though there’s plenty of clicking from a gun’s hammer.
Megan Dubray (@megdubray, Oklahoma, “information dissemination.”) A West Side Story never gets old.
John Gallagher Jr. (@JohnGallagherJr, star of the forthcoming Broadway musical “American Idiot”): A truly surreal joy performing with my cast and Green Day on the Grammys. Now I can breathe.
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The Week in New York Theater Tweets appears every Monday in The New York Theater section of The Faster Times, a selection (and enhancement) of my past week’s 140-character Twitter messages. To sign up to the New York Theater Twitter account, click on this link.
Past issues:
Scarlett Johansson’s First Time; Victor Garber’s 15th; A Nasty Bye Bye. 1/25/10
Antonio Banderas Back On Broadway? Angels Back In America. 1/18/10
Sinatra, Elvis, Green Day, Bono Coming To Broadway 1/11/10
From Arthur Miller to Catherine Zeta-Jones 12/28,
Jonathan Mandell
Jonathan Mandell, who tweets as New York Theater, is a native New Yorker and third-generation journalist with diverse experience on newspapers, magazines and websites.He has ...
Read more about Jonathan Mandell ->
More on these topics:
A View From The Bridge, Airscript, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Angela Lansbury, Anton Chekhov, Arthur Miller, Avenue Q, Bobby Lopez, Broadway, Broadway By The Year, Cabaret, Carol Channing, Charles Isherwood, Charles Ludlam, Drama League, Fela, Finian's Rainbow, God of Carnage, Hope the Obama musical, Horton Foote, Jeff Daniels, Jim Dale, John McMatin, Live Nation, Lucy Liu, Lynn Redgrade, Matt Stone, New York Theater Workshop, Passing Strange, Ragtime, Rent, Rip Torn, Roger Berlind, Show Boat, Stephen Schwartz, The Orphans' Home Cycle, The Phantom of the Opera, The Queens Company, Theater Hall of Fame, Theodore Mann, Ticketmaster, Town Hall, Trey Parker, Wicked
