This week in New York Theater Tweets saw the New York Times offering its Spring Theater Season preview (see Sunday), getting people revved up for the marathon of Broadway openings – six in March and at least 11 in April. “Hair” announced its new cast, Carrie Fisher went public with her fight over “Wishful Drinking,” Lincoln Center announced the arrival of Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar on Broadway (see Thursday). Much is happening Off-Broadway, such as Betty Buckley’s return to the New York stage after seven years and Ethan Hawke directing a Sam Shepard play, and Off-Off/Brooklyn there are two intriguing festivals – the plays of Maria Irene Fornés and the “unknown” Tennessee Williams.
A half dozen gay plays are opening or re-opening, two of them on Broadway.
Theater is not just what’s about to open. Even in America, it contains a rich body of work from which we continue to draw inspiration. So we begin this week recounting a discussion in the Twittersphere over the 10 best American plays ever written. It’s interesting that “A Raisin In The Sun” begins and ends the Week in New York Theater Tweets.
Monday, February 15, 2010
The Denver Post surveyed 177 “theater experts and students” nationwide to come up with the 10 most important American plays
Death of A Salesman by Arthur Miller
Angels in America by Tony Kushner
A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
A Long Day’s Journey Into Night by Eugene O’Neill
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? By Edward Albee
Our Town by Thornton Wilder
The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Fences by August Wilson
Only two of these plays were written in the last 50 years, “Fences” (which is being revived on Broadway this season, scheduled to open April 28, starring Denzel Washington), and “Angels in America” (which is scheduled for a revival at the Signature Theater Company in the fall.)
Were any plays egregiously overlooked in this list?
Richard Sobel (@shonufflives, blogger):
Not sure it’s egregious, but I’d include “Inherit the Wind” by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee ; “A View From The Bridge” by Arthur Miller; “August: Osage County” by Tracy Letts and “Purlie Victorious” by Ossie Davis.
Indira Satyendra (@hudsonette, NYC lawyer, fan of American theater): “True West” by Sam Shepard; “The Adding Machine” by Elmer Rice; “Inherit the Wind” by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee.
Erica McLaughlin (@ezmac99, actress, playwright…) I like the list, but my votes for younger plays are “Topdog/Underdog”by Suzan-Lori Parks and “Proof”by David Auburn.
James Sims (@columbiajames, senior editor, Broadwayworld.com) I’d add “August Osage County” by Tracy Letts; “Of Mice & Men” by John Steinbeck; “Glengarry Glen Ross” by David Mamet; “One flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” by Dale Wasserman (adapting Ken Kesey’s novel); and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” by Tennessee Williams
Did you know International Theatre Day is March 27th? Here’s Dame Judith Dench saying nothing in particular about it
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
“A Behanding in Spokane” is opening on Broadway on Thursday, March 4. It is not the only play by Martin McDonagh you can see in the metropolitan area. Despite the violence in his plays (or because of them?), McDonagh’s work is popular in community theater — example, “The Pillowman” in Jersey City.
The outrageous Tallulah Bankhead has been the subject of no fewer than six stage shows, the latest of which is Looped. Profile of her in the Times calls her “a true theater rebel: uninterested in a movie career, she was a hodgepodge of thrilling talent, ego, drunkenness, bisexuality and drug use.” And eminently quotable. One example: “Daddy warned me about men and alcohol. But he never warned me about women and cocaine.”
Charles Isherwood reviews Measure for Measure: Rocco Sisto ‘terrific’ Jefferson Mays ‘deftly comic’ too many ‘slacker patches’
“The Unknown Williams”, a three-week festival of 12 plays by Tennessee Williams, March 11-27 in Brooklyn
Ground Zero Arts Center, run by the Joyce Theater, gets go-ahead, says Crain’s (I’ll believe it when I’m sitting in it)
Actors Equity and Off-Broadway League agree on new contract including the expanded ability to use recordings in new media outlets
Brian Bedford to don a dress and play Lady Bracknell in revival of Importance of Being Earnest on Broadway in 2011
The Pride And This Season’s Gay Plays
My review of “The Pride” — Gay sad-sacks from two eras
The paragraph in my review that talks about other gay plays this season:
“The Pride” arrives in a season that offers an unusually rich choice of gay plays, including “The Temperamentals” – about Harry Hays and the founding of the 1950’s American gay rights organization The Mattachine Society, with a cast that includes Michael Urie of “Ugly Betty” as fashion designer (and secret activist) Rudi Gernreich — and “Next Fall” – which focuses on the spiritual conflicts in a same-sex relationship — both of which are getting new life after well-received productions, “Next Fall” opening on Broadway next month. There is also “Yank,” a musical about a love affair between two soldiers during World War II, which opens later this month. Then there are the odd one-person shows that pop up with some frequency, the latest to be announced being “My Trip Down the Pink Carpet”, starring Leslie Jordon, best-known as the character Beverley Leslie on “Will & Grace” (one of dozens of television series to feature regular gay characters). These new-generation takes on the subject are supplemented by revivals of familiar oldies, Mort Crowley’s seminal gay play “The Boys in the Band” opening Friday, and “La Cage Aux Folles” bound for Broadway in April.
“The Temperamentals” about gay activism in the 50′s opens Feb 28. Every Mon there will be guests after the show in what they’re calling a talk-out (rather than a talk-back). March 1 – Larry Kramer & Paul Rudnick
Matt Crowley talks about his seminal gay play The Boys in The Band, written in 1968. A revival is opening Sunday night.
Complete list of new Hair cast members which includes Ace Young and Diana DeGarmo, ex American Idol contestants and a former cast member of “Spring Awakening,” Kyle Riabko. The current cast will be performing the show in London.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
The Times praises Pearl Theater production of Charles Dickens’ ‘Hard Times,’ “vintage Dickens, with heart, humor and twists”
Carrie Fisher on her fight w/producer of Broadway hit “Wishful Drinking.” She made $2,500 a week, compared to, say, Daniel Craig’s $100,000 a week
On her blog, though, Carrie Fisher is not talking about her producer, but ECT (electroconvulsive therapy) for depression http/
Michael Shannon, creepy performer in “Bug,” “Revolutionary Road,” is the next Stage Manager in “Our Town” on Barrow Street.
Twitterers Speak Their Minds
Jaime Green (@jaimealyse) Dear playwrights: Can we PLEASE have a moratorium on using Whole Foods as a joke/synecdoche for silly liberals? Thank you.
Linda Buchwald(@PataphysicalSci): I must try harder not to let life interfere with theater going. My want-to-see list is getting very long again.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
South Pacific is ending at Lincoln Center August 22
A musical adaptation of Pedro Almodovar’s “Women on the Verge of A Nervous Breakdown”is slated for the Belasco in October, a production of Lincoln Center. According to the Times, the musical’s director Bartlett Sher (“South Pacific”) worked with Almodóvar for more than a year in workshops along with the book writer Jeffrey Lane (“Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”); and the composer and lyricist David Yazbek (“The Full Monty”).
Sam Shepard’s “A Lie of the Mind” opens tonight. Here’s a Q and A with director Ethan Hawke, Laurie Metcalf etc
Ben Brantley rave of ‘Sam Shepard’s gorgeous play’ Lie of the Mind, w/’top-flight’ 8-member cast.
My favorite play of the season, Orphans Home Cycle, has been extended all the way to May 8.
“The Irish Curse” begins on St. Patrick’s Day at Soho Rep starring Dan Butler (Frasier) about a support group for men w/small penises (!)
Kelly Cameron (@broadwaybabyto, “Broadway nut” in Canada)haven’t heard of Irish Curse, is their music? Support group for men with small penises + music means trip to NYC 
Jonathan Mandell (@newyorktheater, that’s me): It’s a comedy by Martin Casella that was at the Fringe festival. More info.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Quoth rocker The Edge on “Spiderman Turn Off The Dark”: “It will open before the end of the year…The music is just about finished, too.”
Lance Carter (@dailyactor): If it was supposed to open in February, shouldn’t the music have been done already? I can’t wait to see this!
What do you do when you’re banned from television, as Conan O’Brien is. Answer: Do a stage show! Maybe at Radio City
Betty Buckley, in her first appearance on a New York stage in seven years, is to star for eight weeks in White’s Lies, comedy by Ben Andron
Betty Buckley (@BettyBuckley): So excited about being a part of “White Lies” @NewWorldStages! Previews start March 22 & opens April 12. 4 more mos. in NYC!!! Yaaaay!
Betty Buckley has been on Broadway nine times starting in 1969, Off-Broadway six times, returning to New World Stages starting April 12
The 2010 New York Maria Irene Fornés Festival March 25 to April 5 to mark the Cuban- born playwright’s 80th birthday.
A View From The Bridge, w/ Scarlett Johansson and Liev Schreiber, is closing April 4th as scheduled. There had been talk of extending it Too bad. My review
Arts Advocacy Day in Albany Feb 24 How you can help (you don’t have to go to Albany, though it’s a cool train trip)
Theater producer Michael Roderick links to favorite theater blogs-Ken Davenport, Seth Godin, Leonard Jacobs, Fractured Atlas
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Christine Jones, designer of Green Day musical ‘American Idiot,’ says it feels like Spring Awakening, Chapter 2. Jones , who is also doing “Theater for One” (300 10-min. performances), speaks with my colleague at The Faster Times, Davi Napoleon.
Royal Shakespeare Company And New York
Theater bloggers @clydefitch @theplaygoer et al vs. critic Isherwood over having a permanent Shakespeare theater in NYC
Wall Street Journal drama critic Terry Teachout on Lincoln Center’s Royal Shakespeare invite: pro-Brit snobbery at expense of American regional theater
Sidney Poitier turns 83 today. His Broadway debut at age 22 was in Lysistrata and he appeared in 2 others, most notably “A Raisin in the Sun”
Broadway Tears and Sneezes
The anonymous BroadwayGirlNYC, who provides “news from a Broadway fan’s perspective” is always thinking of ways of keeping her Twitter followers engaged. Her latest — what has made you cry in the theater?
Broadway Girl herself volunteered one: The most crying I’ve personally witnessed was at the final performance of title of show. I think every single audience member was sobbing.
Alli Houseworth (@AlliHouseworth) I cry every time the baby elephant walks down the aisle in The Lion King. Every. Time.
Jose Becerra (@josescritorio): My first show was “Phantom” and I cried like a little girl! Then during Defying Gravity in Wicked!
Abby B (@1AbbyRoad): My mother and I cried a lot at the “Sunday In the Park with George” revival
Kati Houk (@KatiHouk) I have a lot of #bwaytears so many good, moving, powerful shows and actors, sometimes just walking in theaters does it.
Ok, a little of this went a long way, and there wasn’t a little of it.
I decided to make my own inquiry, and put a hashtag on it and everything: What moments in the theater have made you sneeze?
Jonathan Mandell: I sneezed at Fuerza Bruta #bwaysneezes
James Sims: I tend to sneeze every time an actor lights a cigarette on stage
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Spring Theater Preview
Spring and Summer theater listings from the New York Times
Christopher Walken on A Behanding in Spokane: ‘It’s a good-natured piece, if you look past the rough language and subject…”
The story of “Enron” by Lucy Prebble, London hit beginning on Broadway April 8. Enron is only the third show by Prebble, just 29. Says an ex Enron executive “It brought a dry subject to life.”
Broadway newcomers to watch:
1. Tony Vincent, one of the stars of the Green Day musical American Idiot, got his start in Christian pop.
2. Nina Arianda, an overnight star as a result of her performance in “Venus in Fur”: “What makes an actor is a combination of a deep curiosity about life and a case of the crazies.”
3. Karine Plantadit, “sizzling” dancer in “Come Fly Away,” Twyla Tharp-Frank Sinatra show starting March 25. On working with Tharp: “I thought to myself: ‘You’re like Muhammad Ali in the ring. You asked for it, so shut up.’ ”
4. ‘Newcomer’ Stanley Tucci, Hollywood actor, first-time Broadway director of “Lend Me A Tenor.”
5.Patrick Breen and Patrick Heusinger, actors portraying the gay couple (one atheist, one Christian) in “Next Fall.”
6.Ellen Fairey, “violent underachiever” who hates sunshine, is having a sunny time: her play “Graceland” opens in May.
My review of Clybourne Park: White Update of Raisin In The Sun
It is one of the most moving scenes in American theater, that moment in “A Raisin in the Sun” when Walter Younger, originally played by Sidney Poitier, tells Karl Lindner of the Clybourne Park Improvement Association that he and his (black) family are moving into their (white) neighborhood, that they can’t be bought off.
Lorraine Hansberry’s play ends shortly afterwards on a hopeful and inspiring note.
“Clybourne Park,” a new play by Bruce Norris at Playwright’s Horizon, audaciously takes up where “Raisin” left off, first in the immediate aftermath of the house’s purchase and then 50 years later. You need not know the older drama, widely considered one of the most important American plays ever produced, to appreciate “Clybourne Park,” which, while unsurprisingly a lesser work than Hansberry’s, is far from being merely derivative. Largely a comedy, “Clybourne Park” is superior to other current fare with which it can reasonably be compared – subtler, shrewder and less self-righteous in its dissection of race relations than David Mamet’s “Race,” for example, and more sophisticated in comparing two eras half a century apart than “The Pride.”… more
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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:
Broadway Love, Cell Phone Hate, Absolutely Fabulous Debuts. 02/15/10
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
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 ...
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More on these topics:
A Long Day's Journey Into Night, A Raisin In The Sun, A Streetcar Named Desire, Angels In America, Arthur Miller, August Wilson, August: Osage County, Carrie Fisher, Christopher Walken, Death of A Salesman, Edward Albee, Ethan Hawke, Eugene O'Neill, Fences, gay plays, Inherit the Wind, International Theatre Day, Jonathan Mandell, Lincoln Center, Maria Irene Fornes, Martin McDonagh, Our Town, Pedro Almodovar, Tennesse Williams, The Crucible, The Glass Menagerie, Thornton Wilder, Tony Kushner, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Wishful Drinking
