Theatre

[oilgun]

This should be fun!

Almodóvar Musical to Open on Broadway
By Advocate.com Editors

There will even more unbalanced actresses on Broadway this fall as a date has been confirmed for the opening of the stage musical version of gay director Pedro Almodóvar’s cult film Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.

The musical is based on the popular 1988 Spanish comedy about a much put-upon soap opera actress. Women will begin previews October 2 before a November 4 opening at the Belasco Theater as part of Lincoln Center’s 2010-11 season. A workshop production of the musical featuring Salma Hayek, Jessica Biel, and Glee’s Matthew Morrison was performed last year, but the cast for the full-scale production hasn’t yet been announced.

http://advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2009/02/19/Almod%C3%B3var_Musical_to_Open_on_Broadway/

[canmark]

I'm excited about that Almodovar musical. I'm also wondering when the play version of All About My Mother, which played at the Old Vic in London a few years ago, will get its North American premiere.

http://www.allaboutmymother.com/

NY Times article mentions the musical: Lincoln Center to Stage an Almodóvar Musical

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/19/theater/19lincoln.html?hpw

[canmark]

There's a play version of E.M. Forster's Maurice playing in London. Interesting that they synopsis alludes to, but doesn't explicitly state, that that Maurice is a same-sex love story.

A tale of passion, bravery and defiance, Maurice is adapted from E.M Forster’s intensely personal novel.  Completed in 1914 it remained unpublished until after Forster's death in 1970. Compellingly honest and beautifully written, it offers a powerful condemnation of the repressive attitudes of British society, and is at once a moving love story and an intimate tale of one man's erotic and political self-discovery.

Maurice is a plea for emotional and sexual honesty, and it criticises the repressive attitudes of British society.

http://abovethestag.com/page6.html

[oilgun]

There's a play version of E.M. Forster's Maurice playing in London. Interesting that they synopsis alludes to, but doesn't explicitly state, that that Maurice is a same-sex love story.
http://abovethestag.com/page6.html

Was the synopsis written in 1914? 

[Lyle (Mooska)]

The film is one of my favorites, so a stage version sounds
immensely appealing.  If you find anything else about it, please link.
There doesn't seem to be much else online about it yet.

A couple years after the film opened, I visited London and saw a
play called A MADHOUSE IN GOA.  It was two one-acts written by
Martin Sherman (BENT) and starred Vanessa Redgrave and the
enchanting Scudder, from Maurice, Rupert Graves.   There was a
scene on a seaside lounge chair, right in front of us, where Rupert
gets jerked off by another handsome lad, albeit under a beach towel.
I often wondered if the actor actually ever did fondle Rupert, or were
they only acting!

Aah, memories light the corners of my mind...

[Rosewood]

I don't get out to the theater much, but I like to read about it.
Have you guys seen this from the Times?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/23/theater/23gaytheater.html?hp

[garyd]

I don't get out to the theater much, but I like to read about it.
Have you guys seen this from the Times?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/23/theater/23gaytheater.html?hp

Yes, I have read this article and am aware of the unusually large number of gay themed plays
being presented in the second half of the Season.
I think the overall phenomena as well as the individual productions offer
a huge amount of grist for discussion.  I only wish more DC forum members might have the
opportunity to see some of them.  It might offer a welcome respite, well welcome to some I suppose,
from using BBM as a basic reference for all discussion.
YANKS is already receiving a complete spectrum of comments, at least from the theatrical community
regarding content, lack of a political angle, as well as the merits of the book and score and how both fit, or don't fit,
into the American musical lexicon.
"The Pride", is a good piece of theatre, well acted, a bit more political than some of the others, but not very
well structured or directed so it could have some problems.
The "yet another, and so soon" revival of "La Cage" which is an imported London production,
might break through as a major hit.  It is much more along the lines of the successful revival of "Cabaret"
a few years back and,imo, gives some punch to a rather weak book.

[Rosewood]

I wish I could get out to the theater too.

[fritzkep]

I don't get out to the theater much, but I like to read about it.
Have you guys seen this from the Times?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/23/theater/23gaytheater.html?hp

Enjoyed this article a lot! And I never get to the theater either, it's way beyond my budget, especially in NYC. I'd really like to see Yank though, sounds like something I'd really enjoy.

[garyd]

Enjoyed this article a lot! And I never get to the theater either, it's way beyond my budget, especially in NYC. I'd really like to see Yank though, sounds like something I'd really enjoy.

Many of these productions are off-broadway and offer rather significant discounts which can be found on-line.  Tickets can be purchased in a range from around $35 to $60.  Hardly cheap, I know, but far below current egregious Broadway prices.  Still, one must get to NYC and perhaps spend the night.  Combined, the whole thing can certainly be overwhelming.  Some, however, will merit tour and regional productions so keep a list and watch for those that might come your way.

[fritzkep]

I remember the last time getting tickets at TKTS, amazed at how expensive even half-price was (early 00's)! But you're right, off- and off-off-Broadway is quite a bit more reasonable.

[garyd]

I remember the last time getting tickets at TKTS, amazed at how expensive even half-price was! But you're right, off- and off-off-Broadway is quite a bit more reasonable.

You are absolutely correct, Fritz.  Even TKTS prices are insane because Broadway prices are totally insane.
There are many reasons for this, but I have certainly learned my lesson and will not be discussing them here. 

[killersmom]

I hope that "Yanks" may still be playing in August as I will be heading to the East Coast ans would love to see it.

[Lyle (Mooska)]

YANK! is a limited run, part of a season, and will be gone
before you get there, Linda!  My friend is going to New York
this spring and it'll be gone before he even gets there!

[Lyle (Mooska)]

This friend I speak of went to a production of
a new musical called Whisper House.  It's by the
makers of Tony Award winner best musical Spring
Awakening.  He wrote an amusing review of it:

Oh for the days when musicals were actually constructed, the music
revealing character, insight and advancing the plot, WHISPER HOUSE,
Duncan Sheik’s (Spring Awakening) new musical having it’s premiere at
San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre, has none of this, it  just seems like
laziness.

There’s a maudlin story set inside a lighthouse on the New England
coast in the 1940’s involving a spinster, an orphan and a Japanese man
(what a Japanese man is doing unnoticed on the brink of World War is
anyone’s guess).  The characters are all stereotypes and not one sings.

It’s revealed that a decade or so earlier there was a shipwreck because
the lighthouse was not illuminated.  Nine musicians drowned, but for an
unknown reason only two are now ghosts and haunting the lighthouse,
supposedly if they kill someone they will be set free, but they never even
try, they just sing.  These two punk ghosts randomly walk around the set
throughout scenes making faces and moving objects.  Only the orphan
boy can sometimes see them, why him and why only sometimes, who
knows.  Then at any given moment they pick up instruments and sing
bland contemporary pop songs.  The songs don’t reveal character
development or move the story along and just showing projections on a
scrim behind them during these songs doesn’t cover up that nothing is
happening.  Mr. Sheik, this is an album concept, have a concert, this isn’t
musical theatre.

WHISPER HOUSE makes one appreciate the stage craft of SPRING
AWAKENING even more.  The theatricality of the combined staging,
colorful moody lighting, exciting choreography, youthful cast & teen angst
captured as part rock concert of the contemporary score.   None of which
is apparent here.

The cast is across the board adequate.  Celeste Ciulla who has
replaced Mare Winningham midway through the run just seems like the
understudy.  The two ghostly singers, David Poe & Holly Brook, are quite
good but the music is repetitive and unmemorable.

There’s nothing haunting in WHISPER HOUSE, but you might  succumb
to boredom.