Broadway Love, Cellphone Hate, Absolutely Fabulous Debuts. The Week in New York Theater Tweets, 02/15/10

If February doldrums make you feel like the producers of “Banana Shpeel” (see Thursday below), the week in New York Theater Tweets offers several reasons to be cheered — if you’re a fan of “Dracula” or “Absolutely Fabulous” or Barbra Streisand or Alison Pill or Liev Schreiber; if you like the writing of Jon Robin Baitz or John Guare or Annie Baker (“Circle Mirror Transformation”) or if you’re a playwright yourself (several contests); if you are a theater company looking for funding; if you’re looking for love (or at least some Broadway love songs; that’s where Barbra Streisand comes in). In the words of the title of a new Off-Broadway play, “Happy Now?”
If not, you can always indulge once again in the number one complaint of theatergoers -
cell phones! – and discover that the law is on your side!

Monday, February 8, 2010
An argument against actors (especially British) trying to do accents (especially American) that they stink at, comes from the Guardian in the United Kingdom.

Bloomberg News looks at how the Roundabout Theater Company, a non-profit now in charge of three Broadway and two Off-Broadway theaters, is belt-tightening -- e.g. they are doing a Sondheim revue “Sonheim on “Sondheim” instead of the full revival of Sondheim’s “Merrily We Roll Along” that they had planned.

The producers of Billy Elliot are holding a high school student playwriting contest– the winning 10-minute play gets staged on Broadway!

Broadway Talks with Nederlander Theater head Jordan Roth at the 92ndY:
Liev Schreiber, March 1
Laura Linney, March 28
Nathan Lane, May 23
Sean Hayes, May 24

The Royal Shakespeare Company will set up residence in New York City for the six weeks during the summer of 2011, and bring their theater here with them, piece by piece.

Broadway-bound ‘Enron’ and ‘Red’ score big in Olivier nominations (the British Tonys)

Arts Appreciation Campaign 2010 — recommend a non-profit arts group, help it increase its funding

Tuesday, February 9, 2010
New Yorker critic Hilton Als praises performances of Laura Linney in Time Stands Still and Karen Finley in The Jackie Look (although he doesn’t like the play that Linney is in).

Houston Press, the hometown newspaper of the scandal-felled co., takes a brief look at the forthcoming Broadway play ‘Enron’

Stew and Heidi Rodewald on breaking up as a couple while making “Passing Strange”. New show: “Making It”

Drama League Benefit Honors Angela Lansbury; video interview with her.

Today backstage on Broadway: “American Idiot” starts rehearsals; “Looped” meets the press.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010
“Happy Now?” review in New York Times, midlife crisis of competent career woman “Is this my life? My one and only life?”

The Broadway League has issued a statement that there will be no cancellations of any Broadway show today, despite the inclement weather.
Many offered special inducements – Billy Elliot for $30 at matinee, Hair is offering $40 tix, Memphis $26.50 tix to students for both 2:00 P.M. 8:00 P.M. performances Present Laughter, 21.50

“Avenue Q”s John Tartaglia will have his own show, Imaginocean Musical, to open March 31 New World Stages

John Guare’s “Free Man of Color”, about Louisiana Purchase, planned for Lincoln Center in the fall (The Public Theater had nixed it)

“The Mountaintop” by Katori Hall, reimagining the night before the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., is bound for Broadway in fall. This play, which won awards in London, is the SECOND play to hit NYC imagining the same night with King. Currently there’s “The Man in Room 306.”

It’s a busy time for the playwright Jon Robin Baitz. A new play by Mr. Baitz, “Love and Mercy,” is headed to Broadway next season. Baitz is also working on a play about the Broadway producer Robert Evans, which its producers say is also headed to Broadway in the next year. Incredibly, the playwright, best known for “The Substance of Fire” and the television series “Brothers and Sisters,” has never had a play on Broadway. Now he may have two next season.

Thursday, February 11, 2010
NYC to keep Broadway permanently closed to traffic in Times Square.

Michael Riedel of the New York Post writes venomously about the problems with Cirque du Soleil’s “Banana Shpeel” set to open February 25 at the Beacon.
Chris Caggiano (@ccaggiano, Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals blogger) Riedel writes venomously. Isn’t that redundant?
Update: The first performance of “Banana Shpeel” has been pushed to March 17.

Rockers on Broadway, a benefit for Haiti, will feature Broadway stars Alice Ripley and Constantine Maroulis at the B.B. King Blues Club on March 1st.

Bill Heck, so wonderful as the quiet early 20th century man in Orphan’s Home Cycle, is a fan of Jimi Hendrix!

Theater will NOT be replaced by film, video games, holograms because it has something they don’t have, says Gus Schulenburg.

Details on Annie Baker’s new play, “The Aliens”, at Rattlesnake in April. Everybody loved her “Circle Mirror Transformation.”

Alison Pill: “I’ve never suffered. I’ve never even had a real job! But I understand sadness and striving, and those two things tie into all the roles that I’ve played.” These roles include the cancer patient in “In Treatment” on HBO and, on Broadway, “Mauritius”, “The Lieutenant of Inishmore”, “reasons to be pretty”, and now Anne Sullivan in “The Miracle Worker”

Friday, February 12, 2010

Two Draculas are being eyed, one with F. Murray Abraham playing Dracula’s foe Off-Broadway, the other starring Javier Bardem on Broadway as the vampire himself (itself).
“Dracula” has appeared on Broadway four times, the first in 1927, most successfully from 1977 to 1980 starring Frank Langella.


Des McAnuff, director of hit Broadway musical “Jersey Boys,” has been since 2008 the head of Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Canada. McAnuff’s not sticking to Shakespeare, though, at Stratford: Another hit musical would be nice

2010 Tony Awards committee met yesterday for 2nd time and made eligibility decisions on 9 shows. Not everybody’s happy.
One of the complaints about Tony decisions via the blogger Esther of Gratuitous Violins (@GratuitousV) — why were three actors eligible for “Billy Elliot,” but only one of the two leads in “Fela!”?

Joanne Lumley of “Absolutely Fabulous” is slated to make her Broadway debut in a revival of La Bete. Also starring will be David Hyde Pierce, formerly of Frasier, and Mark Rylance.

Howard Sherman (@HESherman, executive director of the American Theatre Wing): So startling to see Enron logo, symbol of corporate greed, looming over Broadhurst Theater (for the new play, of course).

The American Theatre Wing is offering ten $10,000 grants to theater companies that are 5 -- 15 yrs old. Apply here

My review of “Fat Bitch,”: At the end of “Fat Bitch,” a stand-up routine that left me more embarrassed than any 90 minutes I remember since the ninth grade, Erica Watson went to the videotape, in order to prove that every single story she had told was true. The video she projected onto the back of the Laurie Beechman Theater in the basement of the West End Cafe was of her 21st birthday party and, sure enough…more

Erica Watson (@ericawatson, “Stand-up Comedian and aspiring stripper!”): thanks for the review! He totally didn’t get it, but it’s ok lol! Next time send a young black female reviewer! lol

Saturday, February 13, 2010
Cell phones
Did you know cell phones are legally banned from theaters? A local law was passed today in 2003, with punishment of up to a $50 fine and eviction from premises.

As I leave for the theater (cell phone off!) read the comments on Ben Brantley’s cell phone confession, all harsh
Jamie Peterson (@paperindustry, artistic director, Paper Industry Theater Co.) I was at that performance of “Gatz.” The phone ran interminably.
Adam Magazine (@adammagazine, lawyer, lighting designer): If you don’t answer the phone “Yes, Mr. President” there is no excuse.
Michael Dale (@MichaelDale, BroadwayWorld.com’s chief theater critic) The law was passed despite Bloomberg’s objection that it’s an unenforceable law, which is probably why it’s never enforced.
Jonathan Mandell (@NewYorkTheater, that’s me): If you don’t think the cell phone law is enforced, then you’ve never had one go off in a crowded theater.

Sunday, February 14, 2010
Profile in the New York Times Magazine of David Cromer, high school & college drop-out, “terrible homosexual” (no fashion sense), hottest theater director (“Our Town,” “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” “When The Rain Stops Falling.”)

A theater-related Valentine’s Day story, via Dennis Baker (@dennisbaker): 9 Reasons Why Dating Actors is a Bad Idea.
Jonathan Mandell: But somebody dated (in fact married) you, no?
Dennis Baker: Yes, but then again, when most people meet me they are surprised I am an actor.
Aubrey Saverino (@AubreySaverino, actress and grad student): Worse or better if an actor dates another actor?

Broadway Love Songs
BroadwayGirlNYC asked her followers; BroadwayWorld asked famous singers, composers etc.: What are your favorite/most romantic Broadway love songs?
Barbra Streisand: “If I Loved You” from Carousel

Streisand: “It’s just about the most perfect love song written for the theater. I admire the intelligence of the lyric’s premise — two people each too shy to express their love, so they couch their true feelings in the form of a question, and then pretend it hardly matters…when of course they know it does. With its heart swelling melody, it never ceases to touch people.”
Jeff Spencer (@j_spencer, concierge, student) A Summer in Ohio, from The Last Five Years, a one-act musical by Jason Robert Brown.: “Look at me, look at him; son of a bitch, I guess I’m doing something right. I finally got something right!”
Susan Boyle: “Music of the Night” from “Phantom of the Opera”
Jen Bender (@jenbender76, artistic director of Broadway in South Africa): “Bewitched,” “So in Love,” and “My Funny Valentine” are my favorites. The most angst-ridden of all time, but there you go.
Rachel Julia (@fabalafae): “Being Alive” from “Company.” And while I’m on Sondheim, “It Takes Two” from “Into the Woods” is lovely and much cheerier than most Sondheim.
Idina Menzel: “One Hand, One Heart” from “West Side Story”
(song doesn’t begin until about 3:20)

Audra McDonald (@AudraEqualityMc, four-time Tony Award-winning actress and singer): Bedtime story 2nite was telling my Valentine’s Day baby about the day she was born 9 yrs ago! I feel like singing “Sunrise Sunset” right now.

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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 the past week’s 140-character Twitter messages by Jonathan Mandell. To sign up to the New York Theater Twitter account, click on this link.

Past issues:

Jackie O, Jersey Boys/Jersey Shore, Picking (On) Playwrights. 02/08/10

Avenue Q/South Park 2? Time Stands Still. American Idiot Doesn’t. 02/01/10

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

Ragtime and Rainbow Shockers; The 2010 Season; What’s Wrong With Waltre Krre (Theater vs. Theatre)1/04/10,

From Arthur Miller to Catherine Zeta-Jones 12/28,

12/21, 12/14, 12/07