EXTRA CRITICUM

Lady Gaga's been bumped off my iPod by Athena Reich

She's young. She's adorable. She's queer. She's Jewish. She's Canadian. What's not to like? Athena Reich fills the stage with great vocals, catchy pop tunes, easily accessible lyrics and an overall stage presence that makes you feel as though she's reached out and hugged you with her smile, her soul and her wonderful voice. I spotted her first at this cool little cult show in a West Village gay bar. This weekend, this girl will be part of the Girls Rock lineup this Sunday at Webster Hall. Check out this video of her Lesbionic anthem: Love is Love:

The King's Speech Production Design Most Unorthodox

Big thanks to E.C. pal Aaron Mack Schloff for pointing us to this juicy tidbit. Remeber that fabulously distressed studio from The King's Speech, the one in which Geoffrey Rush did his best work? Well... apparently some other men have also done some of their best work there in roles of a different sort. Who knew that that distressed wall (which, you've gotta admit is pretty amazing) also served as a backdrop for naked gay British blokes in a porno shoot?!!

Here's the full story on Queerty.com.

Spider-Man: Turn On the Miracle

While in New York last week, I felt it was my pop culture duty to check out the most expensive stage production in history.

I suspect that every writer carries around in his head a small bag of maxims he has faith in most of the time.  One such nugget in my bag comes from Stanley Kubrick:  “A story that works is a miracle.”  What I take the late director to mean is that telling a good, compelling, emotionally satisfying story is beyond difficult. 

An end to "there's the exit" music at the Oscars

Last night's Oscars marked the end of an era. The end of the "there's the exit" music, which used to swell up so rudely the moment an award recipient droned on just a bit too long. Last night, in its place, the music director had the strings begin a gentle (less obnoxious) tremolo, which, if the speaker failed to take his/her cue was joined only by a bit of non-descript noodling on the piano.

This is a huge shift and a most welcome one.

All the Living Room's a Stage

In January I filed a blog about the playwright Ed Schmidt who is currently performing his own play, with the curious title of My Last Play, to sold-out audiences in his 15-seat Brooklyn living room.  For that blog I interviewed Ed and, while I had him on the phone, made a reservation to attend a month hence.

Last night was that performance.  My short report is it’s well worth seeing.

3 Questions for 4 Directors of The Rubber Room

Because five companies rehearsed The Rubber Room completely independently, I thought it would be interesting to pose a few questions to the five directors about their processes and how they approached the play. Rubber Room continues at the 54th Street Theatre through Sunday. Here's a Q&A with four out of the five directors: Michael Rock, Kathleen Brant (Workshop Theatre), Matt Shepard (Midtown Direct), and Dan Dinero (Emerging Artists Theatre):

"The Rubber Room" Bounces Actors into Unpredictable Territory

Cross-posted on Lapis Loquens blog.

The Rubber Room, a new play now on in New York for a brief run, delights while upending conventional notions of rehearsal and performance.  Written by Gary Garrison and Roland Tec, and produced by Artistic New Directions, this innovative work delivers an exciting audience experience somewhere between improv and rehearsed performance.

Times Op Ed: Intellectual Property and Innovation.

Certainly there’s a place for free creative work online, but that cannot be the end of it. A rich culture demands contributions from authors and artists who devote thousands of hours to a work and a lifetime to their craft. Since the Enlightenment, Western societies have been lulled into a belief that progress is inevitable. It never has been. It’s the result of abiding by rules that were carefully constructed and practices that were begun by people living in the long shadow of the Dark Ages. We tamper with those rules at our peril.

from yesterday's NYTimes Op-Ed "Would the Bard Have Survived the Web?" by Scott Turow, Paul Aiken and James Shapiro.

I watched him read 1.25 pages btwn 14th Street and Times Square

Sitting across from me on the 1 Train this morning was a guy in a suit. His outfit made me think: junior agent trainee. But I may be reading into it. See, he had a bag. And in his bag were scripts. About 6, if I can trust my count from across the crowded subway car.

"Charlie's Angels" and the art of treating viewers like idiots

Cross-posted at Robert David Sullivan.

Jaime Weinman reports on the impending reboot of Charlie's Angels and the decision to recast Bosley as a young hunk instead of the fluttery, frustrated schlub we all remember. (Does every remake of a TV series have to move one step closer to porn?)

Boehner: birtherism :: liberals: Hooverism

Cross-posted at Robert David Sullivan.

John Boehner, the Republican Speaker of the House, yesterday again refused to say that people who believe that Barack Obama is a Kenyan-born Muslim are simply wrong. As Jonathan Chait writes, Boehner always makes sure to add an implicit "I can be convinced otherwise" when he says that he doesn't believe Obama is a Muslim:

A study in directorial approaches

So I've now seen four performances (4 unique casts) of The Rubber Room and it's fascinating. Because each of the five companies involved rehearsed independently, under the direction of 5 separate people, naturally their rehearsal processes focused on different issues and they most likely worked in different ways. As I sit in the theatre watching, I've grown fond of playing a little game with myself. I see if before the 60-min. show is over, I can guess which actor on stage was directed by which director. And, you know what? My batting average ain't too shabby.

You're Script Makes You Look Stupid

File this under rant.  I just read a batch of new playscripts that annoyed the hell out of me.  In recent years I have helped a couple of theatre companies by reading new scripts as a volunteer.  Many theatre companies, particularly the small and nonprofit, rely on an informal pool of trusted readers to help them review submissions.

Sale of Huffington Post a betrayal?

This just in from the folks at Adbusters. An open letter to bloggers everywhere regarding the recent sale of The Huffington Post to AOL:

Sex and Drugs

There are many players in Orgasm Inc. Evil pharmaceutical companies, complicit doctors, good and evil sex therapists, the advertising industry, women’s magazines, sales grunts, me, you, even Oprah. It’s as complex a story as sex is an act, and the genius of Orgasm Inc. is that director Liz Canner tells this story, with all of these players and their motivations, with remarkable lucidity, fluidity, humanity, and where appropriate, humor.