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® Theatre Geek TV: Check out the hotties in this backstage video peek at last June’s Broadway Bares 17, an annual fundraiser for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
® Kenneth Branagh is directing a new film version of Sleuth with as many real-life plot twists as the original Anthony Schaffer play. Michael Cain is portraying the older novelist this time around and Jude Law will play the young actor (played by Cain in the 1972 film). To make the film an absolute must-see, the script is being penned by British playwright (pause) Harold (pause)…Pinter. Thanks to Playgoer for the heads up.
® Steve on Broadway wonders what will be the next Mel Brooke’s movie to be made into a giant Broadway musical. Should we prepare to see 
Megan Mullally as Lili von Shtupp singing “I’m Tired” to critical acclaim?
® Michael Cerveris is EVERYWHERE: This Tony Award winning actor will perform in Shakespeare Goes to the Opera in collaboration with the Metropolitan Opera beginning at 6:30 on Monday, September 17 and will also be seen in a reading of Shaw’s Man and Superman as part of the Shaw Festival beginning at 7:00 on the same night. Talk about a double-threat!
® A couple of benefits concerts that sound intriguing:
- Kevin Earley, Susan Egan, Thomas Griffith, Ty Taylor, Matthew Morrison, Cindy Robinson, and Tom Schmid will star in a special one-night performance of Chess on September 17 at Los Angeles’ Ford Amphitheater. Part of the evening’s proceeds will be donated to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
- Jason Alexander (Mendel), Malcolm Gets (Marvin), Vicki Lewis (Trina), Andrew Samonsky (Whizzer), Hudson Thames (Jason), Kathy Garrick (Charlotte) and Sue Goodman (Cordelia) are the cast for a benefit performance of Falsettoland at the Wilshire Theatre on September 8.
® Since I already gave you the low down on what will be opening on Broadway in the next few months, I thought I would travel a little south and give you a preview (via the Washington Post) of what’s going on in the Washington DC theatre scene soon. If you miss Michael Hollinger’s play, Opus, which was featured in today’s New York Times, it will be playing at the Washington Stage Guild Sept 6-30.
® Golda’s Balcony is Feldshuh-less: The film version of William Gibson’s play, Golda’s Balcony will begin it’s engagement at Manhattan’s Quad Cinemas on October 10, and will be released throughout the US later this year. The film stars Valerie Harper as Golda Meir. Harper played the role in the national tour of the show. Tovah Feldshuh was nominated for a Tony Award for playing the role on Broadway.
® May I Buy a Fork? The Royal Shakespeare Company will be selling over 7,000 Costumes, worn in shows from Beauty and the Beast to Merry Wives: The Musical.
“If you think you can do it, you can do it; Anything is possible if you think it is.”
This advice serves as both a thesis statement for Meredith Wilson’s The Music Man and a last bit of desperate advice from a stage director trying to keep Jeff Goldlum from destroying said production in a quirky film called Pittsburgh (playing on Starz this month and out on DVD next month).
The film is of that confusing genre labeled “mockumentary” to which I never know how to respond. Unlike a true documentary, like Roger and Me, where you know that the crazy characters and situations you encounter are really crazy, and movies like Best in Show, which are so over the top that you know none of it is real, Pittsburgh combines fact and fiction in a way that left me feeling confused as to what it’s intended message really is and how I’m supposed to identify with the characters.
The premise is that Jeff Goldblum (playing himself) has fallen in love with a Canadian stage actress half his age, Catherine Wreford (playing herself). Against his manager’s strong advice, they decide to audition for Harold Hill and Marian the Librarian in the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera’s production of The Music Man in order to secure Catherine’s work visa. Along for the ride come Ed Begley, Jr. (playing himself) and Illeana Douglas (you get the picture).
The piece, for me, ultimately becomes an examination of how the Hollywood set tends to view live theatre with a sort of “wicked stepsister” mentality. There is a theme throughout of Mr. Goldblum’s manager leaving him unanswered messages regarding a four million dollar science fiction film deal that is going to fall through if he doesn’t wise up and pull himself out of this “silly and trivial” regional theatre project. In another section, Mr. Goldblum falls to a secondary slot on Late Night with Conan O’Brien because he only has this musical to promote and not a big movie.
His redemption comes when Goldblum realizes that he really doesn’t have the chops to pull off playing Harold Hill. Of course this doesn’t stop him from performing the role anyway…
Read more »
® Lance Bass will host this year’s free Broadway on Broadway concert in Times Square. This annual event will begin at 11:30am on September 16. Over 50,000 fans are expected to enjoy the concert that includes performances and/or appearances from stars of Broadway’s musicals and plays.
® the nytheatre i treats us to a very well-researched Fall preview of what will be opening on Broadway from now through the end of the year.
® Theatre Geek TV: I raved about my experience seeing Billy Elliot: The Musical in previews. Now this video of Billy Elliot highlights, and interviews with the two actors who originally played Billy brings it all back.
® SkyCity Theatre in Auckland, New Zealand is presenting Sammy: The Incredible Journey of Mahatma Gandhi through September 1. According to director, Lillette Dubey, the play examines many sides to the once spiritual leader of India, “One is the ordinary man, Mohan, and the other is the Mahatma who provokes him, who makes him question his actions. It is a way to access Gandhi’s inner voice because the aim was always to pull him 
out of history books and make him alive.”
® From David Bell’s Hot Guy Alerts, meet Cory Grant of the former Fringe hit, The Lightning Field.
® The Worst Pies in San Franciso: Judy Kaye kicks off the tour of John Doyle’s Sweeney Todd at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. Kaye won a Tony for her work in The Phantom of the Opera. and filled in one week on Broadway in the Doyle staging of Todd while original star Patti LuPone was on vacation.
® Sir Ian Mckellan will speak at the Guthrie Theater on Oct. 8 as part of the theater’s Global Voices program. The Guthrie’s Global Voices forum annually brings world-renowned artists to its stages for “dialogue, insight and inspiration” the theater’s website said. Sir Ian will later be seen at the Guthrie in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s productions of King Lear and The Seagull.
® Dolly Parton told listeners on radio station Go Country 105.1 in LA that the musical version of 9 to 5, for which she has written the score, will open on Broadway in 2009. According to Playbill.com, the cast of an earlier workshop, with Joe Mantello at the helm, included Allison Janney (in the Lily Tomlin role), Stephanie J. Block (in the Jane Fonda role) and Megan Hilty (in the Dolly Parton role); with Bebe Neuwirth (Chicago) as office snitch Roz; Marc Kudisch (Thoroughly Modern Millie) as the boss, Mr. Hart; and Andy Karl (Legally Blonde), among others, including an ensemble.
On November 13, 2002, Suzan-Lori Parks got an idea to write a play a day for a year. She began that very day, finishing one year later. The resulting play cycle, called 365 Days/365 Plays, is a daily meditation on an artistic life. Some plays are very short, less than a page. Others last forever.
From this creative vision of Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, an international grassroots festival was born. It’s become like a Worldwide Fringe Festival, or, as the 365 Days/365 Plays website describes it, “the largest shared world premiere in the history of the Theater.”
The play is currently in the midst of its year-long world premeire, called the 365 Festival, in 700 theatres across the world. It “opened” on November 13, 2006 and will end on November 12, 2007, with one play being produced every day in regions throughout the world. Participating cities/regions include Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, Colorado, Greater Texas, Los Angeles, Midwest, New York, Northeast, San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, Southeast and the Washington DC Area, as well as Universities and international theatres.
Part of the philosophy of this project is to redefine what is currently considered a World Premiere, that is “one theater in the US or the UK creates the first production of a play written by an English-speaking writer and presents it to a local audience.” Suzan-Lori calls the old-school world premiere the “Me-me-me, My-my-my”. The 365 Festival has put in motion a grassroots collaborative model that blows the top off the single-headed, biggest-theater-wins world premiere status quo.
® Theatre Geek TV: A video of Lone Star Love in rehearsal.This wild west musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor begins Broadway previews November 1 at the Belasco Theatre.
® Michael Feingold of the Village Voice writes an enlightening article on why Grease was such a hit in it’s hey day, and why the reviving of it must stop! “Grease, in its present form, is the theatrical equivalent of an asteroid: a chunk of old rock that, when it was young and hot, broke loose from the reality to which it had been anchored and now, cooled down, drifts aimlessly through space…Unless it happens to collide with you, there’s no particular reason to bother about it.”
® Now THAT’S a Theatre Geek: Man proposes to fiancé onstage at Spelling Bee.
® I don’t usually pay much attention to Broadway grosses, but an article from Ticketnews.com caught my attention, now that there are no plays left 
on Broadway.
® Eve Best, Tony nominee and Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle award winner for last season’s Moon for the Misbegotten, will join the cast of the Broadway revival of Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming. As previously reported, the cast will incude Raul Esparza, Michael McKean, and Ian McShane. The design team will include Eugene Lee (set), Kenneth Posner (lights) and Jess Goldstein (costumes). Daniel Sullivan will direct the play, beginning previews November 23.
® Garrett Eisler, aka The Playgoer, give us an update on the recent brouhaha over the revision of the Actors’ Equity Association showcase code. When coupled with the article from the New York Times the other day on just how little actors’ yearly salaries can be, you can start to get a picture of just how much actors have to struggle to make a sustainable income..
® Thanks to Steve on Broadway for the shout out. I have been a fan of SOB for many months now, and Steve has given me great support as I begin to find my way into the blogosphere.
® STELLLLLA!!! Indian theatre group has to shut down after being sited for noise pollution.
® Thanks to Broadway Abridged for these hot promo pics of the remixed, newly reimagined Rent opening at the Duke of York’s Theatre in London this fall.
® The Warner Brothers execs got over their squeamishness and Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd film will be released December 21. From Theatermania.com: “As previously announced, the film stars Johnny Depp in the title role, Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett, Alan Rickman as Judge Turpin, Sacha Baron Cohen as Pirelli, Timothy Spall as Beadle Bamford, Laura Michelle Kelly as the Beggar Woman, Jamie Campbell Brown as Anthony, Jayne Wisener as Johanna, and Ed Sanders as Toby. All of the actors will do their own singing.”
® It Was Inevitable: Harry Potter Musical in the works.
® No Publicity is Bad Publicity: From Michael Dale’s Broadwayworld.com review of Grease: “…the score is juiced up with four songs from the movie…glued together by a sluggish book that only lightly touches its Boy Meets Girl/Boy Ignores Girl/Girl Dresses Slutty And Gets Boy plot for most of the first act.” The great quotes just keep comin’…
® Follow Harvey Fierstein’s every move during the rehearsal process of his new Broadway-bound musical, A Catered Affair.
® Hey, guess what. Not all theatre happens in New York City. Check out this handy (and well organized) guide to regional theatre courtesy of Broadwayworld.com.
® Bolshoi ballet goes for the spectacle in Le Corsain”: “…A storm bursts forth. The characters on the ship scurry back and forth as the ship itself rocks dangerously. Lightning and thunder rattle around the theatre. A huge rock, ominously, and rather charmingly, suddenly pops out of one of the wings at the front. The villain falls overboard and vanishes into the blue sheeting. Finally the ship gives a final lurch and breaks entirely in half on the 
rocks.” Oh yeah, there’s dancing too.
® Theatre Geek TV: Check out this sneak preview of the ginormous musical version of Lord of the Rings.
® Neil Bartlett discusses bending gender in Twelfth Night, “If a theatre company announced that Shakespeare’s Antony was going to be played by a woman, everyone would want to know why. ‘It was written for a man,’ they’d say, ‘by one of the greatest playwrights who ever lived.’ But if Cleopatra is played by a woman, nobody thinks to say, ‘But that role was written for a man, by one of the greatest playwrights who ever lived.’ Yet those are the facts. So we shouldn’t ask ‘Why cross cast?’; what we should really be asking is ‘Why not?’”
® Warner Brothers suits objected to “human body parts being fed into a meat grinder to make meat pies” in dailys of the Tim Burton Sweeney Todd film. Did they read the SCRIPT before they gave it the greenlight? Thanks to The Playgoer for the heads up.
® The Sunday comics provided some insight on how adventurous theatre goers take what they get in this, the season where every city in the world is celebrating it’s Fringes. Cosmo (in Jeff Macnelly’s Shoe), ponders frame after frame after frame what to say in his review of the Treetops Mime Festival. Finally in the last frame, he types his succinct review: “It was the best of mimes; it was the worst of mimes.” Long live the Fringe.
A little puzzle thanks to Jeff Bowen at [title of show]. I’ve found the answers, but I’m still unscrambling. If you get stuck, use some of the Theatre Resources on the side bar. (Internet Broadway Data Base is particularly helpful).
Have fun. I’l post the answers when Jeff does. UPDATE: Answers are posted at [title of show]’s [blog]. (It’s a good thing I like them, cuz all these brackets get tedious…)
Answer the following ten trivia questions. Then, take the first letter of each of the one-word answers and unscramble them to find the name of a long-forgotten musical…
- What’s the only Broadway musical that “The Beverly Hillbillies” star, Irene Ryan, appeared in?
- In what show did Nancy Opel make her Broadway debut?
- What song follows “Far From the Home I Love” in Fiddler on the Roof?
- What role did Roger Bart win a Tony Award for in 1999?
- What month did Rags open (and close) in 1986?
- After A Chorus Line, what was the next musical to be moved from The Public Theatre to Broadway?
- What show does Jeff call out as being an original musical in “An Original Musical”?
- What was the last musical to win The Pulitzer Prize?
- What musical did Rosie O’Donnell step into in 2001?
- What color is mentioned between red and green in the lyrics of “Joseph’s Coat”?
Number 7 is a [title of show] reference, so if it stumps you, either a) get the Cast Album of [title of show] cuz it’s great, or b) search for Agnes De Mille on the Internet Broadway Data Base. That’ll give several options, one of which is the correct answer.
Have fun!
Campbell Robertson penned a very enlightening article in yesterday’s New York Times profiling five working New York actors and what keeps them at it, despite fluctuating employment status, uncertain health care and the rising costs of living in the Big Apple.
I offer you the highlights before it disappears into the NYT archives and you have to pay to read it…
The Journeyman: Chet Carlton
AGE: 67
YEARS WORKING: 40
AVERAGE INCOME: $20,000 to $25,000
LAST SEEN IN: “Of Mice and Men” at the Studio Arena Theater in Buffalo, N.Y., and the Cleveland Play House
IN HIS OWN WORDS: “I probably spent most of the first 10 years saying, ‘You know, if I don’t make it in 10 years ….’ But then what’s ‘make it’? It’s difficult to define unless you become a star. As I got older, I was pushing my 30s, I had no other skills. So in some ways I locked myself into being an actor.”
The Character Actor: David Greenspan
AGE: 51
YEARS WORKING: 29
HIGHEST INCOME IN THE LAST 10 YEARS: $50,000 in 2002, which included an award from the California Institute of the Arts
LEAST IN THE LAST 10 YEARS: $25,000
LAST SEEN IN: “The Argument,” which he also wrote, for the Target Margin Theater
IN HIS OWN WORDS: “I don’t know of a period where people, except for a very lucky few or talented few, have not had to constantly struggle to make ends meet, and/or subsidize themselves, while having a theater career.”
The Critics’ Darling: Roslyn Ruff
AGE: 34
YEARS WORKING: 6
MOST LUCRATIVE YEAR: $30,000
LEAST: Under $20,000
LAST SEEN IN: “Two Trains Running” at the Old Globe Theater in San Diego
IN HER OWN WORDS: “He [her father] just says: ‘You know? I just really would have thought doing some of the things you have done and being as good as you are, you would have made it by now.’ And it just broke my heart. It broke my heart. Because he worries.”
The Earner: Damian Baldet
AGE: 36
YEARS WORKING: 6
MOST MADE IN A YEAR: $140,000
CURRENT INCOME: $506 a week
LAST SEEN IN: “Gone Missing,” now playing at the Barrow Street Theater
IN HIS OWN WORDS: “I have said to her [his wife] ‘If we have children, I’m quitting.’ And she said, ‘If you do that, you will crush your soul.’ The gist of it was: ‘If you do that, you wouldn’t be you, and then what’s the point? Why would you have a family at all?’ ” So, he concluded, he wouldn’t quit.
The Comeback: Joan Macintosh
AGE: 61
YEARS WORKING: 40
CURRENTLY EARNING: $506 a week
CURRENTLY REHEARSING: “The Misanthrope” at the New York Theater Workshop
IN HER OWN WORDS: “I have to tell you, I really learned the power of faith and trust. I can’t count how many times I felt like I was up against it, and the phone would ring, and it would be a job offer.”
® Ibsen’s The Doll’s House has been re-envisioned by avant-garde company Mabou Mines. “In the final act, the performance metamorphoses into opera, sung by a naked, shaven-headed Nora; and the men in the cast are all played by actors between 3 and 5ft in height, while the female actors are all about 6ft.”
® Theatre Geek TV: Here are some video highlights from Xanadu featuring Kerry Butler’s lovely voice and Cheyenne Jackson’s beautiful thighs voice also.
® With the closing of The Year of Magical Thinking, Broadway’s boards are straight-playless until September.
® With shows like Arsenic and Old Lace in its upcoming season (again), The Houston Chronicle wonders if the Alley Theatre is losing its edge.
® Candid Q&A with Rent boy, Adam Pascal.
® Theatre in the Cemetery brings new meaning to “site specific.”
® Broadway favorites Christiane Noll (B’way Jeckyll & Hyde;Nat’l tours of Urinetown, Grease, Miss Saigon & City of Angels) and Steve Blanchard (Three Musketeers, Camelot, Beauty and the Beast) will join the previously announced Hunter Foster this fall in the new Off-Broadway musical Frankenstein.
® From the mad-dash-to-blog-the-most-shows site, Show Showdown, David Bell presents a glowing review of Playwrights Horizons’ 100 Saints You Should Know, with Lois Smith and Janel Moloney.
® Speaking of David Bell, his Hot Guy Alerts page is always featuring new eye candy from the New York theatre scene. Latest entry: Michael Zahler (Leaf Coneybear in the Nat’l Tour of Spelling Bee).
® Randy at Bloggedy Blahg Blagh offers the funniest review of Grease I have seen to date: “After “Summer Lovin’”, a few people in the audience began feverishly text-messaging NBC, trying to change their votes, but by then it was too late.”
We are led to those who help us most to grow
If we let them. And we help them in return.
Minor successes are not the stuff
Of which history is made.
All changes come from small changes.