Theatre

[canmark]

I know a few of us here have seen "Clybourne Park"  . (Canmark and Dave)
Here is an op-ed piece by Frank Rich, former head drama critic for the NYT now and op-ed contributor.  
It is an op-ed piece, not necessarily a "review of the play.
Thought you might find it interesting and would be interested in your thoughts.

http://nymag.com/news/frank-rich/racism-2012-5/

I like Frank Rich, and I liked that piece.

I liked Clybourne Park, but have no problems if others did not. Also, I didn't find the play as bleak as Rich seems to think (he asks the playwright, "I asked Norris if he really is as pessimistic about America’s capacity for change as his play would indicate"). I didn't find it pessimistic. It was like an editorial cartoon that holds up an outrageous mirror to society, and asks you to recognize what's really going on. And I don't think the play says America has no capacity for change. I think it clearly shows that there has been change. But change doesn't mean that we are living in nirvana, either.

[tfferg]

We saw a staged one-off reading of Dustin Lance Black's 8 in Melbourne last night at the large Her Majesty's theatre. It was sold out. The cast and crew all volunteered their time and profits are going to Australian Marriage Equality.

Thanks to posters on our forum I knew the main arguments, evidence and Judge Walker's reasoning. What the gay plaintiffs said was new to me. I realised that although same-sex couples in Australia don't (yet) have the security of legal marriage and Australian citizens don't have the constitutional rights that US citizens do, we have since 2008 had the same rights and responsibilities as opposite-sex couples in areas such as social security, immigration, inheritance and property, superannuation, taxation and so on. (Opponents of same-sex marriage use the fact to argue that we don't need the right to marriage and that we should be content with civil unions.)

The Prime Minister and the Leader of the Federal Opposition were invited but said they couldn't attend. Perhaps they had been advised that the experience would make rational mincemeat of their opposition to equal marriage.

The performance was followed by a forum with Australian Marriage Equality advocate, Rodney Croome, Greens Party Senator Sarah Hanson-Young who has a marriage reform bill before the Senate, ALP Senator Gavin Marshall who campaigned to have equal marriage made Labor Party policy, and the minister of the Collins Street Baptist Church. AME speakers said equal marriage has now reached a tipping point, though it may still take some time to be legalised. They talked about how to keep campaigning.

8 will be performed in Sydney tonight.

[Dave Cullen]

it was cool to see a banner ad for Venus In Fur running on the last forum page i was on. i'm going to see the penultimate performance saturday night. (the director of my columbine film project is good friends with hugh dancy, and coming for the closing, and taking me. i'll get to meet hugh saturday night, but not sure i'll be able to squeeze into the closing party saturday.)

it should be interesting for lots of reasons, though. tommy assures me that hugh is really smart and really funny. i'll try not to spend the whole night talking about claire danes, who i adore.

i imagine they are all excited that arianda won the tony last night, which was apparently a big upset.

[garyd]

it was cool to see a banner ad for Venus In Fur running on the last forum page i was on. i'm going to see the penultimate performance saturday night. (the director of my columbine film project is good friends with hugh dancy, and coming for the closing, and taking me. i'll get to meet hugh saturday night, but not sure i'll be able to squeeze into the closing party saturday.)

it should be interesting for lots of reasons, though. tommy assures me that hugh is really smart and really funny. i'll try not to spend the whole night talking about claire danes, who i adore.

i imagine they are all excited that arianda won the tony last night, which was apparently a big upset.

What fun.  I hope you enjoy the night and I look forward to your reaction.  I did not see the Broadway incarnation having already seen the Off Broadway production back, whenever, 2010 i guess.  Wes Bentley had the Hugh Dancy role at the time but Nina was the female lead.  I thought her performance was, well, spectacular.  I suppose last night was a bit of surprise but not really.  Interesting to see if you agree.

[garyd]

I don't know if anyone here watched the Tonys last Sunday evening but, if you did, you might remember a segment which featured a scene from "Hairspray" that was basically a live "satellite" connection from the onboard theatre of a Royal Carribean cruise ship.  (RC is a sponsor).
The scene was pretty dreadful but the big hoopla/backlash from the NYC/Broadway theatre community revolves around the fact that the show is "non equity" and, therefore, a big no no as far as many are concerned.

Anyway, here is a pretty funny response to the whole thing. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qOe6uhlKBOU#!

[Lyle (Mooska)]

I did see the Tony's and that segment.  My first thought was "that's interesting," but then I
thought, who cares, really that it's on a ship, it looks like it could be in any theatre anywhere,
so...so what!  They shoulda thought about the non-Equity aspect, duh!

[canmark]

Last month, on a brief visit to New York and Washington DC, I had a chance to see a Broadway musical, an off-Broadway musical, and a play. The two musicals were both based on independent films which I had not seen at the time, but have subsequently seen (and enjoyed). The play, a revival, I had seen locally several months ago.

Once, based on the film of the same name, concerns an Irish singer/songwriter (a marvelous Steve Kazee) in Dublin who has recently broken up with his girlfriend and is encouraged in his music by a Czech woman (the winsome Cristin Milioti). They and fellow cast members all play their instruments (mostly acoustic guitar, violin, mandolin, cello, drums) onstage in a set resembling a bar/pub. The story is simple and intimate, following closely to the film (which starred the songs' composers, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova), a charming love story where the lovers remain apart--yet more closely bonded than in your typical Hollywood romance. Great performances and great music throughout. Before the show audience members can go up on stage and order a drink from the bar and see a pre-show musical performance from some of the cast. So I can now say I've stood on the Broadway stage.  

http://www.oncemusical.com/


Dogfight is similarly about an unexpected couple whose relationship is tender, and yet there is no Hollywood ending. Derek Klena plays young Marine Eddie Birdlace in the early 1960's who's about to be sent to the South Pacific with his buddies. Their last night on the town (in San Francisco) is to partake in a cruel game where they compete to see who can bring the ugliest woman as a date to a bar. Birdlace picks up Rose, a plain Jane girl who is reminiscent of Ugly Betty. While she is outwardly insecure, she is revealed to have inner strength. Conversely, Birdlace's outward confidence hides inner vulnerability. After Rose discovers the "dogfight's" cruel joke, Eddie apologizes and they spend the night together getting to know each other and maybe falling in love.

This is a show I came to like more after I had seen it. I really like the two main characters, and I like their situation. How they fall in love. How they grow and change in the course of one night. I hope this production is successful and the show gets remounted either on or off-Broadway (or regionally). I would certainly like to see it again.

http://www.2st.com/index.php?option=com_plays&task=viewPlay&Itemid=0&id=162
Article on the young composers of Dogfight: http://playbill.com/news/article/168807-A-Song-Coming-On-Meet-Benj-Pasek-and-Justin-Paul-the-Next-Generation-of-American-Musical-Writers

In Washington DC, I was able to see a production of Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart, based on last year's acclaimed Broadway revival. Chronicling the early days of the AIDS crisis in NYC, the play has gained potency through time. When it was first produced (during the AIDS crisis) it was seen as too polemical. Now it's a sobering documentary of the time. This production will be remounted (with some cast changes) in San Francisco in September. Although I quite enjoyed this production, I think I preferred the simpler, in-the-round staging of the play in Toronto by Studio 180 (being remounted this fall).
 
http://www.playbill.com/multimedia/video/5125/Highlights-From-the-Tony-winning-Production-of-The-Normal-Heart-on-the-Road

The movie version of The Normal Heart is in development, with Ryan Murphy (Glee) directing and starring Mark Ruffalo as Ned Weeks.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1684226/

[killersmom]

A Chorus Line' Composer Marvin Hamlisch Dead at 68

Another big loss in the theatre world this morning:

Marvin Hamlisch, who achieved theatre immortality as the composer of the iconic musical A Chorus Line, died Aug. 7 following a brief illness. He was 68.

Mr. Hamlisch's other theatre works included They're Playing Our Song, Jean Seberg, Smile, The Goodbye Girl and Sweet Smell of Success. His latest musical, The Nutty Professor, recently opened in Tennessee. But it was with the groundbreaking A Chorus Line, which told of the frustrations and worries of a group of anonymous dancers trying out for a Broadway musical, that he made his mark as a theatre figure....

..Mr. Hamlisch is one of only 11 people to have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony award. On top of this, he also won the Pulitzer Prize for A Chorus Line.

Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/#ixzz22tawXAfB

[tfferg]

We saw Tchaikovsky choreographed by Boris Eifman and performed by the Eifman Ballet of St Petersburg.

People in the US and the UK and elsewhere had the luck to see it years ago, but this is the first tour by the company to Melbourne and Sydney.

The ballet opens as Tchaikovsky struggles on his deathbed with images of his repressed homosexuality in conflict with his religious beliefs. With wonderful stagecraft, his  homosexual alter ego rises on the bed  as if literally the inner man and there are many pas de deux with the two Tchaikovskys. The other main male dancer performs the roles of the Ideal Youth, the Joker and the Prince. Other main roles are the composer's patron Countess Nadezhda von Meck and and his wife Antonina Miliukova.

Images of characters of the Tchaikovsky ballets and operas figure – the wicked fairy Carabosse from Sleeping Beauty, Drosselmayer from the Nutcracker, the Queen of Spades and the evil sorcerer von Rothbart and Prince Siegfried from Swan Lake. A corps of (female) White Swans and Black Birds (danced by the male corps) are pitted against each other.

Eifman doesn't use any of the music of the Tchaikovsky ballets, but rather the Fifth Symphony, the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, the Serenade for Strings and of course, the Sixth Symphony.

The choreography is based on classical ballet extended in an original modern style. The dancers are tall and slim. They dance with an expressive emotional intensity and the corps dances with a disciplined precision I associate with the great Russian companies of the Soviet era.

The several pas de deux of Tchaikovsky and his wife and one with Nadezhda von Meck and the wedding scene are agonizing and several other scenes absolutely heartbreaking.

It was great to see a production with so many original pas de deux and other scenes for men.

It was unusual too in that the choreography for the orgiastic scenes and the repressed erotic scenes were so convincing without recourse to any conventional sexual moves at all.

I read that Tchaikovsky was well received in Russia, but watching it was heartbreaking not only for its depiction of the composer's misery, but also knowing that gays are being violently persecuted in Russia now.

[suelyblu]

"The Spice Girls" musical  "Viva Forever"is a big hit tonight in London.......and still "Posh"..couldn't/wouldn't  smile.What is it with this woman ?

[bubba]

Maggie the Cat!

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2251309/Scarlett-Johansson-reclines-slip-Cat-Hot-Tin-Roof-poster.html

[garyd]

Maggie the Cat!

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2251309/Scarlett-Johansson-reclines-slip-Cat-Hot-Tin-Roof-poster.html

Well she is a remarkably talented actor and the entire first act is basically a "Maggie" monologue which makes the role so very demanding, and the original, Elizabeth Ashely, was iconic.
I wish Ms. Johansson the very best. 

[bubba]

She is beautiful, no doubt about it.  I have never had the privilege of seeing it live, so to me Maggie will always be Liz.


But I would love to see this production!

http://perezhilton.com/2012-12-21-scarlett-johanssn-cat-on-hot-tin-roof-wardrobe-malfunction


more pictures!

[garyd]

She is beautiful, no doubt about it.  I have never had the privilege of seeing it live, so to me Maggie will always be Liz.


But I would love to see this production!

http://perezhilton.com/2012-12-21-scarlett-johanssn-cat-on-hot-tin-roof-wardrobe-malfunction


more pictures!

Agree, Taylor is quite good.  However, no matter who plays Maggie, the play belongs to Jack Straw and Peter Ochello,so, see some version of the play if you can.

[garyd]

One more thing and then, maybe, I will shut up.  BBM is quite beholden to "Cat" as well as "Streecar" as Proulx would readily agree.

Both Streetcar and Cat focus on the gradual self-destruction of characters failing to mourn their losses rather than the mourning process intended to ease the transition into the frontier beyond loss. The characters demonstrate fear at the prospect of beginning the work of mourning. As a result, the plays provide no guidance for the mourner; rather, they tell us what not to do. Denial does not become a viable option for mourning the loss of the dead, but no other option is provided. By default then, denial and a closeting of the mourning process itself constitutes these plays' understanding of loss.

BBM reinforces this idea that denial is not a viable option.  "I swear..."  lets us know that denial of mourning is not an appropriate option.