Theatre

[canmark]

Saw a good production of the play Red, which had won the 2010 Tony Award for Best Play. It's a two character play about the abstract expressionist artist Mark Rothko as he's preparing a series of paintings for the Four Seasons restaurant in the then-newly built Seagram Building in NYC. He talks about his art with his young assistant, lecturing and berating him. But there's also an element of the master/apprentice in their relationship, and the assistant is ultimately able to call Rothko on his own egotism. The play is intelligent, but not intellectual, and does make you think about art, particularly non-representative art, like Rothko's, which I would think most people stay away from.

[canmark]

Saw the touring production of the musical Memphis. It's about a quirky white guy who somehow finagles his way into a job as a DJ playing black music on the radio in segregated 1950's Memphis. He also falls in love with a black singer, and their forbidden romance threatens their careers (and lives). Although one may want to dislike the show for being hokey and somewhat inauthentic, it's actually quite entertaining (a dramatic alternate to the more comic Hairspray, which is also about white kids listing to black music during segregated times). The characters are likable, but the songs are mostly ordinary (although I like the 11 o'clock number, Memphis Lives in Me).

http://www.memphisthemusical.com/

[canmark]

Kim's Convenience is a delightfully funny play about a Korean-Canadian family in Toronto that runs a convenience store in Regent Park (a low-income part of town). Appa, the father, is full of wonderfully non-PC comments about the perfidy of anything Japanese, and the likelihood of certain types of customers to steal or not steal. His unmarried, 30 year old daughter lives at home and works as a photographer... and rekindles a flame for a Black police officer, a former friend of Appa's estranged son. Appa worries that neither of his children will want to take over the store, and toys with the thought of selling out to a real estate agent who sees profit in the gentrifying neighborhood. While some of the humour is hilarious in a sitcom-my way, the ending is tender and touching.

http://www.soulpepper.ca/performances/12_season/kim's_convenience.aspx

The touring production of American Idiot the musical, is a youthful, high-energy production featuring songs from Green Day's American Idiot album. I thoroughly enjoyed the music, but was left wanting slightly with the overall production. Some good performances, but some of the actors were a bit average.

http://americanidiotthemusical.com/

[BayCityJohn]

Bobby, Dana and I went to see Phantom at the Venetian in Las Vegas tonight.

I was really impressed with the opening. The chandelier is quite impressive compared to the other productions I've seen, and I was expecting that from the few reviews I read when the show first opened. I didn't read any more reviews after that because I never expected to be in Las Vegas.

I was not prepared for the transformation when the curtains were lifted off the side walls revealling the side balconies of the opera house filled with the audience in period costumes. They were mannequins and there must have been at least 84 sitting in the boxes on 2 levels almost the entire length of the main floor of the theater. I was a bit blown away by that. It's very cool.

The rest of the sets and costumes were outstanding.

I can't say the same for the performance. It was average. I've seen better in road shows. It wasn't bad but I was just expecting better.

[BayCityJohn]

I'm going back to Las Vegas believe it or not. I'm going to see the final performance of Phantom at the Venetian on Sept. 2. This time we're not sitting under the balcony overhang so we'll get the full effect of the chandelier. I'm hoping ALW and Cameron MacKintosh will be there. For me, Phantom is the Brokeback Mountain of Theatre. That is until someone breaks down and allows Diana Ossana to create a stage version of Brokeback

[garyd]

Theodore Mann has died.
A genius, an eccentric, a wonderful, talented, person.

http://www.talkinbroadway.com/allthatchat/d.php?id=2049795

[Marz]

Going to see Wicked on Thursday Night, as my friends cousin is in it, I am going with my friend and his family we are going for a meal first and then seeing the show, havent seen 'Wicked' before so can't wait
we went to see him in 'WWRY' last year and he was amazing, I will let you know how it goes!

[beingalive27]

Finally saw Billy Elliot the Musical in the West End - it's a fantastic show with great music, an engaging and heartwarming story, and a really strong cast. I highly recommend checking it out if you haven't already.

http://www.victoriapalacetheatre.org/

[Lyle (Mooska)]

^^^^^^^^^^^^

That's good that you got to see it!  I thought sure it would come to
Los Angeles far sooner than it has -- it's coming next month.

[Dave Cullen]

Just saw ClybournePark in previews on Broadway. (It debuted off-Broadway, then played London and LA, I think.)

Sadly, it was limp. An ideas play w no fresh ideas. How did it win a Pulitzer or London's Olivier Award for Best Play?

The website calls it "the wickedly funny and fiercely provocative new play about race, real estate and the volatile values of each." Wow. I'd say occasionally funny toward the end in a tame sort of way. Provocative? Maybe in 1972.

http://clybournepark.com/

[Dave Cullen]

BTW, average age in the audience looked around 72.

I'm not sure what to make of that.

[Lyle (Mooska)]

BTW, average age in the audience looked around 72.

I'm not sure what to make of that.

They can afford tickets.

[canmark]

Just saw ClybournePark in previews on Broadway. (It debuted off-Broadway, then played London and LA, I think.)

Sadly, it was limp. An ideas play w no fresh ideas. How did it win a Pulitzer or London's Olivier Award for Best Play?

The website calls it "the wickedly funny and fiercely provocative new play about race, real estate and the volatile values of each." Wow. I'd say occasionally funny toward the end in a tame sort of way. Provocative? Maybe in 1972.

http://clybournepark.com/

BTW, average age in the audience looked around 72.

I, too, saw a preview performance of Clybourne Park, although in Toronto--not New York. I had read the play previously and quite like it.

For those who don't know, the first act takes place at the same time as A Raisin in the Sun. In that play, a black family is about to move into a house in a white neighborhood in Chicago. Clybourne Park takes place in the house in question, as a white couple is about to move out. They are discouraged from selling to a black family by a racist neighbor. Their black maid and her husband are also in the house at the time.

The second act takes place decades later. The same cast plays different characters. Now the neighborhood is predominantly black, and a white family wants to buy the house and build a bigger house on the property. A discussion, which turns to confrontation, ensues with the new owners, a black couple from the neighborhood, and others.

I found the play resonated well in Toronto, not just in terms of the racial issues of the play, but in terms of neighborhoods changing and of people being resistant to change. For example, the gentrification of certain neighborhoods in Toronto (such as the gay neighborhood, which is becoming more affluent and less gay), of a revitalization of a neighborhood (Regent Park) that is part of a gov't housing project that is now attracting young professionals to mixed income condos, or the issue of people buying older houses in order to tear them down and replace them with "monster" homes. These things have happened (or are happening) in Toronto, and the play made me think of them. In fact, the company that produced the play had some exhibits in the lobby of the theatre looking at the socioeconomic changes in Toronto over the past few decades. Despite gentrification, lower income communities may actually be increasing in this 1%/99% world. So, I think the play, while specific, is good in that it makes you think of issues in your local context.

Too, it also looks at issues of race in a way that mocks what might be called "white liberal guilt." Particularly funny is the white woman who goes out of her way to prove how non-racist she is in front of the black couple. "Half of my friends are white" and "I used to date a black man," she says, while disavowing her husband's perceived racist comments and jokes. There is a bit where everyone is offended for some reason or another--as a woman, as a black person, as a gay person, as a relative of someone who was raped, etc. And it seems like the heterosexual white guy is to blame. But this guy is not some horrible Rush Limbaugh-ish character, despite the fact that he was played by the same actor who played the racist guy in the first act. I found him likable and sympathetic--and I found that rather sly. Because I should be one of those white liberal guilt people who are offended for some reason or other and want to blame everything on white heterosexual males... yet, why do I not want to condemn this particular white heterosexual male?

So, anyways, I thought the play was well done. It raises issues, but offers no solutions, no answers. But it does make you think. And it makes you laugh. Good stuff.

Side note: my audience was 90% white, and mostly older.

[dejavu]

I don't get to see too many plays, but I went up to NYC yesterday to see "The Best Man," and thought it was really great.  It was written by Gore Vidal and originally staged in 1960, then was revived once before in 2000.  I thought it was funny; sad and true; great lines, really super acting.  James Earl Jones, Angela Lansbury and Candice Bergen were all good, but so were the actors who played the other roles. 

I knew that the title "The Best Man" referred in some way to an election, as in "may the best man win," but I wasn't sure, beforehand, exactly what the connection was.  It turns out that the play took place during the last three or so days before and including the presidential nominating convention for a fictitious American political party in 1960.  There are two main candidates, neither of whom has quite enough votes to get the nomination (sound familiar?) and they each threaten to "smear" the other with dug-up scandalous material in order to force the other candidate out of the race.  The ending comes as somewhat of a surprise.   

There are clues about the 1960 setting: the play mentions Eisenhower (the president at that time); there's also a remark about a possible Catholic presidential or vice presidential candidate (1960 was the year that Kennedy was elected as a Democrat in real life).  There are a few remarks about Red China possibly getting a U.S. ambassador.  So the play does reflect the era in which it was written, but nevertheless, it doesn't seem dated.  The types of broad issues, especially concerning political mid-slinging and scandal, are just as true now as ever.  And there are other themes as well, about what is really important in life.

I had a special reason for enjoying this play since the 1960 convention portrayed here takes place in Philadelphia, the "cradle of liberty," which is the city where I live (I'm in a suburb, but Philly is my town, in a broad sense).  Before the actual curtain rises, there is a piped-in soundtrack which has typical political speeches and references, including references to many of the historic landmarks in Philadelphia from the nation's founding.  In the play itself, one of the minor characters appears wearing a Phillies baseball cap.

I'm glad I went when I did, because the play has a very short run.  It happens that last year, I bought a ticket to see James Earl Jones in "Driving Miss Daisy," but as family events turned out, I was out-of-town and had to give that ticket away.  I am grateful to finally have a chance to see him in person.  I had seen Angela Lansbury several years ago in "Blithe Spirit"; her role in "The Best Man" is not as substantial as her role in "Blithe Spirit" was, but she was in best form once again.

[Dave Cullen]

I'm totally there with you on the relevance of the topics in Clybourne Park, including the gentrification of neighborhoods, and race, and all that. I was just incredulous at the execution.

Particularly funny is the white woman who goes out of her way to prove how non-racist she is in front of the black couple. "Half of my friends are white" and "I used to date a black man," she says, while disavowing her husband's perceived racist comments and jokes.

(To clarify, I think you meant, "Half of my friends are black ..." right?)

That a great example of why I disliked the play so much. That's perhaps one of the biggest cliche remarks in existence about race. The show is filled with these clunkers that might have been envelope-pushing in 1972, but seem incredibly dated and rim-shot level humor today.

It felt painfully unfunny and also one of a zillion moments where the play rang so false. She was a pretty bright, educated character, and while it's easy to imagine her having internalized race issues, it was hard to hard to imagine like her not knowing that had become a rimshot statement a few decades ago--and that she would be clueless enough to say it out loud, or be surprised by the reaction.

The whole play operated at that level. All the "white liberal guilt" mocking just felt like rehashes of topical sitcoms and films starting with All In The Family nearly 40 years ago. The friend I went with turned to me and said, "haven't we heard all this before?" About a zillion times. Usually funnier. If this had a new take on any of it, great, but it didn't advance the conversation, just recycled really over-used material.