The week in New York theater saw news of playwrights becoming TV writers, radio plays staging a comeback (on the Internet) and “Evita” coming back to Broadway, while Patti Lupone, the original Broadway Evita, is asking for a favor and will thank you personally for it. A star of “In The Heights” is moving over to “Wicked,” “Our Town” has its one-year anniversary, as do Twitterplays. Cate Blanchett explains why culture is like gravity, and we ask the Twittersphere: Is it worth seeing a bad play? We then take their advice.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Have a script for a musical? Submit it to the New York Musical Theatre Festival. Twelve will be produced! Deadline: March 1
American Idol On Broadway
“American Idol” was not called “Broadway Idol” and it is unlikely the producers hoped their television show would supply stars for the Great White Way.
That, however, is what has happened.
Fantasia Barrino, American Idol winner for season 3, starred on Broadway in “The Color Purple.”
Taylor Hicks, American Idol winner for season 5 , appeared in “Grease.”
American Idol runners-up have been as, or more, successful on Broadway:
Clay Aiken (number 2 in season 2) had a run in “Spamalot” more
Six Points offers up to $20,000 fellowships for New York artists to develop new projects with a Jewish focus.
Critic-o-Meter has changed its name and address to Stage Grade. It still provides a summary of the New York critics’ reviews of plays and musicals, including my reviews. (Each grade is what the Stage Grade editors think is the grade a critic is giving to the show being reviewed. So they said in my reviews I was giving A+ to “Orphans Home Cycle” and D+ to “Race”)
In a new play, Bass for Picasso, on Theater Row from April 17 to May 23, a disabled New York Times food writer throws a dinner party with recipes from Alice B. Toklas Cookbook. It’s written by Kate Moira Ryan, whose previous plays have memorable titles: 25 Questions for a Jewish Mother, The Beebo Brinker Chronicles, Cavedweller, and Mommy Queerest
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Mandy Gonzalez, who originated the role of Nina in “In the Heights”, will assume the role of Elphaba in Wicked starting March 23
Cheyenne Jackson (@Cheyguynyc, actor and singer): My dentist apologized for not coming to Finians rainbow while he was cleaning my teeth. No fair…I couldn’t retort, as my mouth was busy.
Twitterplays is one year old, the inspired weekly effort organized by the New York NeoFuturists, a theater company (not to be confused with the Chicago Neofuturists) that presents shows off-line as well. This week’s assignment was to write a one-tweet play that has three speaking and one non-speaking role. A selection:
Jenna Stern (@JennaStern):
7am. Mom (pouring coffee)-Did you do it? Dad (grabbing mug)-Do what? Daughter-Take him for a walk! Dad-No, not yet. Dog-(sad face).
Carl Riehl (@C_Winston, composer):
[Lights up: monkey typing furiously] 1: You won’t ever finish it. 2: You won’t even start it. 3: Stupid monkey. [Monkey keeps typing]
Alexander Cherry( @unwyn, poet, mathematician, etc.):
A: “I’m telling you! He moved!” B: “He couldn’t have. Right, doctor?” C: “He’s comatose, so no.” [D’s hand grabs A’s]
Zabeth Russell (@zabsters):
CASHIER: Medium or large popcorn? DAN:Get off my fucking back for a second. GUY IN LINE: Whoa, buddy. DAN’S DATE:(horrified silence)
Here are the NY Neofuturists own favorite Twitterplays
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Arts Day 2010 in Albany – a lobbying day to try to restore funding
Off-Off Broadway advocacy on Youtube: 40,000 artists in 500 theaters putting on 1,800 productions a year! All that is endangered by the governor’s proposal to cut $6.5 million from the arts budget
After 29 years, Ohio Theater in SoHo (where Tony Kushner,Eve Ensler,Philip Seymour Hoffman got their start), will close August 31
Why couldn’t American theatre produce its own “Enron” (the play)? The Guardian
Is A Bad Play Good To See?
Theatergoer’s dilemma: What do you do when you have a ticket to see a show that every critic has panned? Judge for yourself, or spare yourself?
Indira Satyendra (@hudsonette, NYC lawyer, fan of American theater): I’ve skipped plays with terrible reviews because life is so busy. But if you have the time, you can learn from the bad ones.
Erica McLaughlin (@ezmac99, actress, playwright): You HAVE to watch bad theater to know what makes theater good! “Bad” theater often leaves me more inspired afterwards. And unlike film, theatre can evolve throughout the course of a run. Clarity of acting choices can change a show as it goes
Howard Sherman (@HESherman, executive director of the American Theatre Wing): If I commit to seeing a show, I always go. Always something to be learned; often artists involved I want to support.
James Carter (@jdcarter, “playwright, producer, punk.”): Can you get your $ back? If not, see the carnage. Look at the train wreck and see what you learn.
Kate (@BeeingMissStar, actress): I always want to judge for myself. I don’t always agree with critics, and watching terrible theatre is a great learning experience.
Linda Buchwald (@PataphysicalSci, blogger, StageGrade editor) I went to see Romantic Poetry specifically because it was universally panned. I learned that the critics were right.
But sometimes if you go in expecting a show to be awful, you can be pleasantly surprised.
Nella Vera (@spinstripes, director of marketing, the Public Theater): “Bad” is in eye of beholder. I loved plenty of shows that were panned
Jonathan Mandell (@newyorktheater, that’s me): Name three
Nella Vera: I truly loved The Capeman, Andrew Lippa’s Wild Party and Peter Sellers’ Othello, with Philip Seymour Hoffman, all four plus hours of it.
Esther (@GratuitousV, theater blogger): I don’t think I’d see a show that was panned unless subject or actors really interested me. I just don’t have the time.
My review of “Yank!”.
In less talented hands, such a concoction could have produced a tasteless mix of cliché, camp, and bombast. All three elements certainly exist in “Yank!” (mostly the first two), but here it all works. In the capable hands of the Zellnik brothers and the rest of the creative team, and with a well-chosen cast, “Yank!” is like a gay “South Pacific.” I should say quickly that “Yank!” is not likely to enter the musical theater canon, or be revived in 50 years; the tunes, while pleasing, did not seem especially memorable, and there are some awkward plot devices. But “Yank!” and “South Pacific” share setting, theme and tone (or range of tones, from playful to pointed; soulful to a bit schmaltzy.) And whatever its flaws, “Yank!” is a musical very difficult to dislike. more
@YanktheMusical ooh, this one’s nice. Even if I never heard of the paper 
Thursday, February 25, 2010
“Evita” is to be revived on Broadway starring Argentine Elena Rogers and, as Che (the producers hope), Ricky Martin.
Meanwhile, Patti Lupone, who originated the role of “Evita” on Broadway in 1979, one of the 25 Broadway productions in which she has appeared, is holding a contest to name the book she is writing about “my theatrical life.” If your title is selected, she writes on her Web site, “you’ll win an autographed copy of the book, two tickets to my next Broadway show (or major show in a city near you), and I’ll congratulate you personally at the theatre.”
“Political Theater”
Jonathan Mandell (@NewYorkTheater, me): It’s interesting that everybody’s referring to the health care summit as “political theater.” Does this mean there’s a plot? A happy ending?
Indira Satyendra (@hudsonette): It’s Theater of Hate.
Carli Entin (@carlient): More like theater of the absurd
Isaiah Tanenbaum (@isaiahlt, actor, photographer, twitterphobe): No, if health care reform is political theater, it’s definitely a Problem Play.
Radio dramas, hot for 40 years until they were killed by TV in 60s, are back on the Internet, as audio dramas…or mind movies.
Are you an art hero? Nominate yourself or someone else for one of the six awards from Americans for the Arts, e.g. advocate
Friday, February 26, 2010
Tony Awards schedule for 2010, released today
Eligibility cut-off, April 29
Nominations announced, May 4
The nominees meet the press, May 5
The nominees lunch together privately, May 20
The Tony Awards, June 13
The biggest local story today is, in a word, SNOW. The storm continues today in New York, more than 12 inches expected, and more tomorrow. All Broadway productions will take place today as regularly scheduled, announces the Broadway League (@TheBwayLeague). There are many snow day deals on Broadway.
TWO Tennessee Williams festivals in March to mark the playwright’s 99th birthday: The Unknown Williams and Tenn99 free marathon reading
@OurTownOffBway: Today the 1 yr anniversary of Our Town’s Opening!!
Learning from A Bomb: my review of “Mr. & Mrs. Fitch”
The show to my surprise struck me initially as not half-bad..But ultimately I agreed with (almost) everybody else that “Mr. & Mrs. Fitch” was far less witty than it was pretending to be, the characters fake and hammy, the enterprise pretentious and pointless. Given my Twitter mandate, I tried to make this a learning experience. So:
How to Turn “not-half-bad” Into A Bomb:
1. Don’t edit
2. Strain to be unoriginal
3. Sound sophisticated without being so.
Details
Another view from Nathan Collins (@nmcollins, playwriting grad student): I thought it was fun. not life changing theater but enjoyable, well-acted and crafted.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Cate Blanchett gives a speech on why the arts are important:
“The arts operate at the core of human identity and existence…Countries with strong cultural identities demonstrate greater social cohesion…We change people’s lives, at the risk of our own….We change countries, governments, history, gravity. After gravity, culture is the thing that holds humanity in place.”
‘Theater is now viewed as a way of getting a staff writing job on TV’ e.g. Keith Huff (“A Steady Rain”) writing Mad Men. Other examples of playwright–>TV writer: Marsha Norman, Theresa Rebeck, Warren Leight (Side Men), Tracy Letts,
After “Superior Donuts” was staged, CBS began pursuing playwright Tracy Letts to repackage it as a TV sitcom
Remember how I said Superior Donuts seemed like a sitcom (Tracy Letts and the Shock of the Sitcom). Maybe Tracy Letts was auditioning!
Producer Ken Davenport (@kendavenport) explains 5 Broadway box office terms, wrap,advance, gross,net, nagbor, but not why we should care.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has given the Soho Rep in Tribeca a $200,000 grant.
The Case Against Abortion — my review of Girls in Trouble at the Flea Theater
To call “Girls in Trouble” provocative is to understate the degree to which the play is sure to antagonize anybody who feels strongly one way or another about the issue of abortion. This is where somebody would typically say: Well, the playwright must be doing something right if he offends both sides. But the two sides will be aghast for different reasons. more
The Mad Fashionista (@madfashionista, blogger, “truly chic New Yorker): Dear Lord, that play sounds ghastly.Thank you for an excellent review. My abortions were so undramatic…Oops…there go half my followers.
My review of “The Temperamentals”
Harry Hay was an ex-actor turned teacher who was married with two children and a member of the American Communist Party. Rudi Gernreich, a Viennese-born Hollywood costume designer whose family had died in Auschwitz, would go on to become one of the most celebrated designers of the 1960’s, the creator of the topless bathing suit. Together they formed the Mattachine Society, at a time when “homosexual marriage” meant men marrying women to disguise their identity, touching hands could result in arrest, and there were code words like “temperamentals” for what is now known as the LGBTQ community.
The key to appreciating this play by John Marans is to think of it as community theater, in a good sense — a look at the origins of a community. On a spare stage with lighting that at times seems to mimic the glare of an interrogation room, a cast of five, three of whom play a large range of characters, bring us back to an era full of fear and the first efforts to do something about it. 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:
Best Plays Ever, Gay Plays Now, Spring 2010 Theater Preview, 02/22/10
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:
abortion, American Idol, American Theatre Wing, americans for the arts, Broadway, Cate Blanchett, Cheyenne Jackson, Clay Aiken, Evita, Fantasia Barrino, Girls in Trouble, John Morans, Jonathan Reynolds, Mandy Gonzalez, Mr. & Mrs. Fitch, New York Musical Theatre Festival, Ohio Theater, Patti Lupone, radio dramas, Ricky Martin, Soho Rep, Stage Grade, Taylor Hicks, Tennessee Williams, The Broadway League, The Temperamentals, Tony Awards, Tony Awards schedule, Tracy Letts, Twitterplays, Yank
