Theatre

[Lyle (Mooska)]

I just got an email from him!  He wrote:

Was just looking at tickets online.  The Spiderman ticket I have has almost 
doubled in price from when I orignally bought it a hundred years ago.   
I paid $150.00 face value. It is now $289.00   Wow!  Since all the trouble
they need $65 million quickly to stay open!   T-shirts are $40!

My first thought was $150!  To see a show?  Yikes.  I can't even
imagine $289.00.  Also, wouldn't you look for Spiderman tickets
on the web?  Heh!

[Lyle (Mooska)]

I went to the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood on Friday and saw a production
of WEST SIDE STORY.  It's the new version they revived on Broadway recently
where some of the Puerto Rican scenes and songs are spoken (sung) in Spanish
to give it some more authenticity.  I understand it was toned down a bit from
the original idea.  I had never seen the show on stage before so it was a real
treat. 

Another treat is just going to the Pantages theatre.  The lobby is huge and
an art deco lover's dream.  You can stare at things for hours if one had a mind
to.  I always marvel that most people just stand around and don't take in the
atmosphere they're in.  A couple years ago the lobby was restored--all the
fictures and walls etc. were cleaned and I've never seen it looking so good!
They did take out the circular bar that was in the center, so it feels more wide open.
I liked the bar there, though.  The Pantages was not built as a legit theatre, it was
built as a movie theatre, so there is always a problem with acoustics there.  Even if
the actors are miked.  It's just that kinda place.  It became a theatrical venue in 1977.
(The Oscars were held there for ten years, from 1950-1960.)  I've seen alot of great
performers on that stage since 1977--Mickey Rooney and Ann Miller, Shirely MacLaine,
Glenn Close,  Lena Horne, Jo Anne Worley (lol!) and even Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady!
Two regrets--in the 80's Richard Burton did Camelot and Yul Brynner The King and I.
Missed those.  I did see Marie Osmond in The King and I in the 90's!

That area of Hollywood is now a happening place!  They just built the new W Hotel
across the street, which also features apartments and restaurants and a nightclub or
two, one of which, Drai's, is so exclusive even celebrities wait outside to get in.  (TMZ's
always hangin' out there.)  It's also built over the Hollywood and Vine subway stop!
I've never seen that are so filled with people before!

[oilgun]

'Far From Heaven' gets musical treatment
Todd Haynes' 2002 drama heading Off Broadway

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118029255

[canmark]

Little Miss Sunshine has also been turned into a musical:
http://www.playbill.com/news/article/145967-Hunter-Foster-Dick-Latessa-Malcolm-Gets-Jennifer-Laura-Thompson-Will-Star-in-Little-Miss-Sunshine

[Cally]

Couldn't think where to put this, so here it is - gets mouth-dropping by around 1:30.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sMc-p19FIk&feature=player_embedded

[killersmom]

WOW!!!!!

[Lyle (Mooska)]

I can't pull up that youtube link, it says not active or something.
What is it supposed to be?  (If people put the subject matter
of the youtube links they post, sometimes you can find it in another
link if you know what you're looking for...)

[MaineGirl]

Couldn't think where to put this, so here it is - gets mouth-dropping by around 1:30.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sMc-p19FIk&feature=player_embedded

Wow!

[Cally]

I can't pull up that youtube link, it says not active or something.
What is it supposed to be?  (If people put the subject matter
of the youtube links they post, sometimes you can find it in another
link if you know what you're looking for...)

This was the original link I was given - it's a Chinese production of Swan Lake.

http://www.nzwide.com/swanlake.htm

Strange - the youtube one seems to work for others

[canmark]

Let's see Natalie Portman try that!

Who knew? Ballet meets Chinese acrobatics...

Meanwhile... China is adapting Western 'art' in other ways. Anybody remember the Mel Gibson/Helen Hunt movie What Women Want (where Mel gains the power to hear womens' thoughts)? Well, there's now a Chinese remake starring Andy Lau and Gong Li.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1kCo-sAO08

[canmark]

Julie Taymor/Bono/The Edge's Broadway musical Spider Man: Turn Off The Dark has postponed it's opening a number of times. The Toronto Star's theatre critic Richard Ouzounian couldn't wait and has written a review that basically says: Fail.

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/theatre/article/929874--spider-man-turn-off-the-dark-epic-comic-book-musical-a-65-million-disaster

[canmark]

Clip of rehearsals of Little Miss Sunshine the musical: http://broadwayworld.com/videoplay.php?colid=207038

The Book of Mormon (God's favorite musical!) sounds like fun: http://www.bookofmormonbroadway.com/  http://broadwayworld.com/videoplay.php?colid=207094

The touring production of Billy Elliot has rolled into town for an extended run (from Chicago). I had seen the show before in London, and was quite pleased with this version. Very solid cast. The songs are not Elton's best, and overall I prefer the film to the musical. Still, it's a good family-friendly show and deserves its success.

http://www.billyelliottour.com/

[Lyle (Mooska)]

The touring production of Billy Elliot has rolled into town

What town?

[BayCityJohn]

Thief River

February 2-27, 2011
Theater! Theatre!
3430 SE Belmont Street, Portland, OR




    Thief River has often been compared to Annie Proulx’s Brokeback Mountain, which was written at almost exactly the same time, by two straight writers, without knowledge of the other’s existence. In both works, the resonance of the main characters’ stories persists over the course of an extended period of time, and echo prejudices against the LGBTQ community that persist today.

    In Thief, Gil and Ray (the eldest manifestations of both characters being portrayed by celebrated Portland actors Shelly Lipkin and Tobias Andersen, respectively) are men with whom the decision to acknowledge their sexual bond with each other is not easily realized. With every scene in the play taking place in an abandoned farm house, non-sequentially through the years 1947, 1973 and 2001, the play explores evolutionary foci in terms of progressive gay tolerance, juxtaposing that with the progressing decay of the environment in which the play unfolds.

    What is ultimately taboo and frightening in the scenes portrayed in the post World War II Midwest, appears not entirely so in the scenes portrayed in the beginning of the 21st Century. The farm house, as metaphor for the old way of thinking, is crumbling, while at least the spirit of the love of these two aging gay men endures.

http://profiletheatre.org/current-season/thief-river

[Oregondoggie]

Saw Thief River Sunday here in Porland.  John told me someone said it is Brokeback Mountain without sheep.  Well... not quite.  More like a fan-fiction sequel to Brokeback set in rural Wisconsin.  Andy Lee-Hillstrom plays a relentlessly loving young Gil (the Jake character).  He pulls at the heart very much like Jake Gyllenhaal.  However, the play's structure flashes back and forth between three time periods.  It was a needless conceit.  And a bit confusing.  Still, there is a "happy" resolution between the two lovers... sadly, though, in their old age.  Am going again in a few days.