So…War Horse.
It’s a juggernaut. It won six Oliviers. It won five Tonys. It won Best Play on both sides of the pond. It has been made into a giganto new movie by Steven Spielberg that was nominated for two Golden Globes. It didn’t win any, but hey, you can’t have everything.
“Jooooooooooooooeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!”
Continue reading "A Boy Who Really, Really Liked His Horse" »
John Hurt, the superb British actor, gave an entertaining and enlightening interview this week on the “Charlie Rose Show.” Hurt is currently appearing in Samuel Beckett’s play Krapp’s Last Tape at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. For a taste of his performance see this 90-second New York Times video. The Times review was a rave.
This production comes from Britain’s Gate Theater and is directed by Michael Colgan. Hard to believe but this is Hurt’s debut on a New York stage. He also stars in a movie just coming out, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.
Saw The Cherry Orchard at Classic Stage Co. the other night. The production is a lot of fun. Most of the performances are stellar. Especially outstanding (no big surprise) is Alvin Epstein in his third turn as Firs, the loyal elder servant who ends the play by falling asleep in the abandoned house he has called home for most of his life. There aren't too many seats in this Off-Broadway house. It's a great venue. The three-quarter thrust makes for intimate theatre. I was seated in the back row of the center section which is Row F. That should tell you all you need to know about just how intimate this space is. Sam Waterston was seated directly in front of me -- his daughters are in the cast. The cast features a lot of star power and it got me thinking.
If producers pack casts with famous names to sell tickets, perhaps there ought to be an agreed-upon star to seating capacity ratio. For example, if, say, Dianne Wiest can by herself fill a 500-seat house to capacity, maybe the rest of the cast should be peopled with the un-famous. Otherwise what we have is a waste of a valuable asset: star box office power. Let's do the math.
Continue reading "What would be a reasonable star to seating capacity ratio for theatre?" »
Today I had my first rehearsal pretty much for anything (except maybe a board meeting) since 2002. It is for the first play in which I have been cast since 2002.
And I am thrilled.
Just got back from trudging through sleet and snow in October to see the single performance given by storyteller extraordinaire, Antonio Sacre at the United Solo Festival at Theater Row. This festival is amazing. That they somehow manage to gather and program 66 unique shows into a single festival space over a span of just a few weeks is in itself an amazing feat and possible fodder for a future post. But right now I want to talk about the incredible show I just enjoyed. In fact, I have to say this was the first time in recent memory that I have stood at the end of a show because I was honestly moved to do so from the bottom of my heart and soul. Even if no one else had been standing (but of course everyone was) as Antonio made his way to the final brilliant moment, there was not one single part of my being not moving in the same direction, up, up, up to cheer this brilliant artist on. It's a shame the United Solo fest only gives each show one shot. But then, when you're programming 66, that is, perhaps, understandable.
Continue reading "Antonio Sacre. Standing Ovation Earned. " »
I saw a Russell Brand standup comedy show in a tiny LA theater (capacity: 150) last night. I'd seen him one other time in a similar scenario, so I knew what to expect: the scripted standup wouldn't be good, but I would just have to wait for Russell to get distracted and derailed, and then the real show would begin.
And true to form, Russell came out with a flipboard of newspaper headlines and notecards of factoids and statistics, none of which were terribly fascinating, revealing or funny. But they gave the guy - who I think is a charming, intelligent, and witty linguist - a springboard from which to launch into tangential diatribes and follies including rummaging through an audience member's purse and using another audience member's cell phone to call the psychics and sex workers who advertise in the back of the LA Weekly.
This arrived in my INBox today. First of all, I should just say up front that, I don't know playwright Thomas Higgins' work and I make no judgments about it 'til I see this play... which, by the way, I intend to. Nevertheless, this promotional copy did catch my eye for its vaguely pornographic hue. What do you think? Am I just an uptight prude? (It's okay. You won't hurt my feelings.)
Continue reading "Off-Broadway Promo or Porno DVD Box Cover Copy?" »
Back about 25 years ago when I was just in the throes of coming out, I worked for a few months doing coatcheck at a Minneapolis club called Norma Jean's. It was the kind of bar where straight college kids danced and partied all night and jumped up and down to "Mony Mony" and chanted "get fucked, get laid" in between chorus's. It was good money although the coat check system sucked. We'd take coats in through a half door in the kitchen, tie them to a rope and the person on the other end on the second level would have to haul the rope up and hang the coats up there. Given that people had to go to the bathroom once in awhile, there would be times when one would be getting the coat ticket and then climbing up on a chair through the cut out in the floor, getting the coat and then climbing back down. When you have a coked up patron demanding their coat back, they don't care that the other coatcheck person is taking a whiz.
If you're going to be in Pittsburgh in the next few weeks, you absolutely must run and see Tammy Ryan's play, Lost Boy Found in Whole Foods. Below, I'm posting a little promotional video of the playwright being interviewed about her play. The odd thing about the video is, it's very calm and centered and rational, just as the play's writer, Tammy Ryan tends to be. The promotional video discusses themes in the play and the origins of its creation. What the video cannot capture is the velocity of the play, the energy and pathos and fear and terror and love and heart of this wonderful play. For that, you'd have to go see the play.
But it makes me wonder in general about this mode of promoting new plays online. Sit the playwright and/or director down for a sensible chat about the work and videotape it and post it on the web to sell tickets. But if the tone of these very reasoned measured videos is so completely at odds with the tone of the play, are these promos going to bring in the right audience? When I read Tammy's script, I wept, almost from beginning to end. And I also laughed quite a bit too. But the overall effect of the play is to rip your heart in two. Makes me wonder. What's the smartest way to promote a beautiful and painful new play? What do you think? Here's the video:
I’m in New York this week for meetings and plays. As I always do here, I gorge on plays. Somehow I’ve managed to cram eight plays into five days. I stay at the YMCA and what I save on lodging I spend on play tickets. I love visiting New York!
Saw Nabucco last night at the Met, thanks to a generous dear friend visiting from out of town. Now, it's not one of Verdi's best. But the chorus in Act III is a showstopper. It made me wonder though: isn't 2+ hours a long time to sit through just to hear one of the all-time great choral numbers? I'm not sure. Verdi was famous for being able to accurately take the measure of his own music's popularity. And the chorus sung by the Israelites in Act III is no different.
Here's some video from the current Met production. Notice that no one moves on stage during the entire number. And yet, with this particular number, it doesn't seem to matter. Not so with the rest of the opera, I'm afraid.
Continue reading "Two hours is a long time to wait for one show-stopper" »
Recently, I saw a couple of plays that made me wonder: does a good play matter? Does it matter if a play is well written? Does it matter if a play is well acted? Are these TRULY important to a good theater going experience?
I’m beginning to think, no. They aren’t as important for most of the theater going audience.
The first play… (and I want to say I’m not going to mention names, as I didn’t really like the plays)… was a realistic comedy, set in an apartment, about a widow rediscovering life. Well, that’s what eventually it was about, the first 30 minutes are about something else. In fact, that was one of my major complaints about the play. It wasn’t sure what it was about sometimes. It wasn’t sure of it’s tone. It wasn’t sure of itself. And then wrapped the story up in two scenes… and the stuff of those two scenes could’ve been a whole act. Personally, it SHOULD have been a whole act, the time required to really unpack the story and to earn the ending.
I recently read The Abominable Showman (by Howard Kissel, 1993), a biography of legendary Broadway producer, David Merrick (1911-2000). Merrick was Broadway’s foremost producer in the thirty odd years of roughly 1955-1985.
The stereotype I held was that he was a difficult producer who put drek on stage, pushed people around and made lots of money. This biography reveals that “difficult” doesn’t begin to describe the man. Merrick was a cauldron of neuroses who easily could have kept a cast of psychiatrists working overtime. He ruled by bullying, intimidation, bluster, withholding payment and filing lawsuits. The writer Tom Jones said, “We had the feeling we were working with a deranged person, but also someone who could use derangement for his own amusement and his own purposes.” Jones attributed Merrick’s eagerness to upset his creative team to a “basic theory that creative people were too often too easy on themselves.” A longtime employee remarked that Merrick was “incapable of a non-volatile relationship.”
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