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Wednesday, May 7, 2008

    [ TONY ]  Glory Days
    Review by Adam Feldman

    The 2007-2008 season of new Broadway musicals came in like a circus lion with the exuberant Xanadu; with Glory Days, it goes out like a lamb to the slaughter.

    Adam sent us this review at 4:31pm, adding "Quick! Before it closes!"
    Just a few minutes later, the official announcement came in...

    [ P ]  New Broadway Musical Glory Days Has Closed After One Performance

    [ TM ]  Glory Days Closes on Opening Night

    [ B ]  Opening Night Becomes Closing Night for New Musical Glory Days

  • Posted by Tim Dunleavy at 5:00 PM | Item Link


      • [ CNY ]  Tough times hit Great White Way by Miriam Kreinin Souccar

      With 18 of the 37 shows currently on Broadway less than 70% full, the theater world is looking for a boost from the Tony Awards and the summer tourist invasion.

    • Posted by James Marino at 3:35 PM | Item Link


        • Features:

        [ TM ]  The Book (and Song) of Bernadette By: Brian Scott Lipton

        Bernadette Peters becomes an author and songwriter to create Broadway Barks.

        [ PArts ]  City Center: West Coast Whiz! By Liz Smith

        Columnist Liz Smith recently chatted with New York City Center Board member Douglas S. Cramer, who will be honored at City Center's 2008 Gala with the Fiorello LaGuardia Award for distinguished service to New York City and to New York City Center.

        [ B ]  PHOTO OP: Diva Diana Ross and Family Heat Up Roof

        [ B ]  PHOTO OP: Everything's Coming Up Roses for Patti LuPone and a New Gypsy Recording

        "Glory Days":

        [ B ]  Photo Tease: Moment of Glory

        [ LAT ]  Gold Derby by Tom O'Neil
        Tonys 2008: No 'Glory Days' ahead for new Broadway musical

        [ B ]  WORD OF MOUTH REVIEW: Ellen, Matt & Georgette on the New Musical Glory Days

        Other Reviews:

        [ TB ]  Pest Control
        Los Angeles Review by Sharon Perlmutter

        [ TNO ]  A GLIMMER OF HOPE by MATT WOLF

        Harper Regan is a devastating play about the unknowability of humankind and the trust and faith that's required by the human heart.

        [ TNO ]  COFFEE, TEA OR... by BILL STEVENSON

        Boeing-Boeing is such a good time at the theater that it may single-handedly make farces bankable on Broadway.

        News:

        [ TM ]  Lopez, Tomei to Join Camp, Harris, Merkerson, Marvel, White, Whitford at 2008 Obie Awards

        [ P ]  LuPone, Ebersole and Baranski to Present Drama League Awards May 16

        [ TM ]  Baranski, Busch, Ebersole, LuPone, et al. to Present Drama League Awards

        [ B ]  LuPone, Baranski, Busch & More to Present Drama League Awards

        [ P ]  The Sound and the Fury Extends Off-Broadway Run at NYTW

        [ P ]  Emelin Postpones Remainder of Pure Heaven Run Due to Williamson's Illness

        [ TM ]  Pure Heaven, Starring Ruth Williamson, Postponed Until November

        [ B ]  Megan Sikora Joins Carnegie Hall Show Boat; Casting Complete

        [ P ]  Principal Casting Complete for Carnegie Hall Show Boat

        [ P ]  Anderson, Rapp, Tveit and More Join Line-Up for NEO4 Concert

        [ TM ]  Anderson, Arden, Noll, Rapp, Steggert, et al. Set for York's NEO4 Benefit

        [ P ]  Wopat, Merkerson, Plimpton, Tomei, Cannavale and More Set for MTC Benefit

        [ TM ]  Cannavale, Merkerson, Mullally, Wopat, et al. Set for MTC Gala

        [ TM ]  Full Cast Set for Jeff Whitty's The Hiding Place at Attic Theatre

        [ TM ]  Rosemary Prinz to Star in Voices of Swords

        [ TM ]  Shlomo to Return in August, Record Cast Album

        [ P ]  Skinner Will Be Marian to Jacoby's Music Man in June Concert

        [ P ]  Adams, Depp and Blonsky Nominated for MTV Movie Awards

        [ P ]  Menzel, Brightman, Durning, Sinise and Mantegna Will Be Part of PBS' "National Memorial Day Concert"

        [ P ]  Creative Team Announced for Rare Revival of Harburg and Arlen's Jamaica in Philly

        [ P ]  Pearl Theatre Company to Offer Oedipus, Twelfth Night and Vieux Carré in 2008-2009

        [ P ]  Casting Announced for Old Globe's Summer Pleasure and Sight Unseen

        [ P ]  Passing Strange's Stew to Perform at Alice Tully Hall's Opening Nights Festival

        [ TM ]  Diaz, Kreeger, et al. Set for MetroStage's 2008-2009 Season

      • Posted by Tim Dunleavy at 2:51 PM | Item Link


          • [ NYP ]  ARMS AND THE MAN By MICHAEL RIEDEL
          A RIGHT TO BARE ARMS LOPEZ'S HUNKIER FLUNKY COVERS UP

          [ P ]  Passing Strange Song Cut from Pre-Tony Special

          [ P ]  Ebersole, Ross, Gillett and More Win MAC Awards

          [ TM ]  Black, Caruso, Douglas, Ebersole, Essman, McGovern, et al. Win 2008 MAC Awards

          [ V ]  Livent's trial bows By RICHARD OUZOUNIAN

          [ P ]  Livent's Drabinsky and Gottlieb on Trial in Ontario

          [ NYP ]  PAGE SIX

          TRICIA Walsh-Smith, the loopy British playwright in an ugly divorce battle with Shubert Organization president Philip Smith, is trying to sell her $5,000 Yumi Katsura silk wedding gown on eBay - and getting nowhere.

          [ TM ]  Peter Filichia's Diary: The Wizard and West Side and I

          [ NY ]  Elaine Stritch Doesn't Understand Beckett Any Better Than You Do

          "Glory Days":

          [ YN ]  In 'Glory Days,' 4 best friends deal with trying to grow up By MICHAEL KUCHWARA, AP Drama Critic

          "Glory Days" is the opposite of slick. The show is a bit gawky and unsure of itself, much like the youthful characters it celebrates.

          [ CU ]  Glory Days

          There's plenty of movement and, being much older than these agile performers, I felt a twinge of envy watching the easy leaps up and down those bleachers. However these are athletic rather than choreographic moves, so don't mistake this for a dance show (there's no listing for a choreographer in the program).

          [ TM ]  Glory Days
          Reviewed by: David Finkle

          This new musical about four friends reuniting after their first year in college will strike some audience members as valiant and relevant and others as laughably inconsequential.

          [ NYT ]  Four Chums Grow Up but Still Meet in the Bleachers By BEN BRANTLEY

          "Glory Days," a callow portrait of four friends on the cusp of manhood, manages to seem fresh and seriously stale at the same time.

          [ WP ]  'Glory Days' Graduates Too Soon To Broadway By Peter Marks

          Plus "Thurgood."

          [ TB ]  Glory Days
          Review by Matthew Murray

          But if this show is an almost complete failure, it's not a travesty you can take perverse pleasure in watching implode. That it's so full of promise and so empty of everything else isn't just the breaks - it's heartbreaking.

          [ TS ]  Glory Days - Reviewed by Michael Portantiere

          Glory Days presents a challenge to reviewers: How to clearly convey the show's level of achievement without being downright cruel? Here is one attempt.

          [ ND ]  Review: Nick Blaemire's 'Glory Days' on Broadway BY LINDA WINER

          As a first effort by bright newcomers, the piece has youthful promise. As a grown-up offering in a Broadway house (not to mention at Broadway prices), this little-show-that-can't is so far in over its sweet head that we fear for its safety.

          [ NJ ]  'Glory' has its price by Michael Sommers

          If that adage regarding the proper thing to do when there's nothing nice to say was applied to the new musical "Glory Days," then the rest of this space would be blank.

          [ NYP ]  PRICE OF 'GLORY': 1.5 HOURS LOST by CLIVE BARNES (1/2 *)

          [ DN ]  It's hard to care about 'Glory Days' by Joe Dziemianowicz (*)

          [ HC ]  Little To Crow About In Puerile 'Glory Days' By MALCOLM JOHNSON

          [ AMNY ]  No glory in 'Glory Days' By Matt Windman

          After enduring all 90 painful minutes of this undercooked, horribly amateurish show, you'll be wondering how the hell it got to Broadway.

          [ BS ]  Glory Days - Reviewed by LEONARD JACOBS

          "Glory Days" has two stories. The first is contained within this poorly written excuse for a musical. The second is how the show ever got to Broadway to begin with.

          [ V ]  Glory Days
          Review By DAVID ROONEY

          The producers have done an extreme disservice to the inexperienced creative team by shoving them into the spotlight with what's likely to be a commercial embarrassment.

          [ BR ]  Theater review: "Glory Days" BY ROBERT FELDBERG

          Whatever resonance their show, which opened Tuesday night at the Circle in the Square, might have for them, it doesn't offer anything fresh or interesting.

          [ BN ]  Teen Lust, Angst Rock Out in Sullen 'Glory Days': Jeremy Gerard

          In a field, however, that also includes "Passing Strange," "In the Heights" -- hell, even "Cry-Baby" -- "Glory Days" looks hopelessly amateur.

          [ SUN ]  Failing to Let the Good Times Roll By ERIC GRODE

          "Via Galactica." "Rockabye Hamlet." "Dude." These names ring any bells?

          [ TNO ]  YOU CAN'T GO HOME AGAIN by ROBERT CASHILL

          Glory Days, a transfer from the D.C. area's Signature Theatre should have been held back.

          Features:

          [ INQ ]  'Opus' earns N.Y. award for Phila. soundman By Howard Shapiro

          [ P ]  Girl On Top

          Former teen movie misfit Martha Plimpton is now one of the Top Girls of the Broadway stage.

          [ B ]  FIRST PERSON: Cyrilla Baer: Life Inside the Adding Machine

          [ BR ]  Questioning their existence BY EVELYN SHIH

          "Bordertown."

          [ DN ]  Hopefuls kick it for the Rockettes By BROOKE NAYLOR

          [ TM ]  Show and Lortel By: Joseph Marzullo; Text by Brian Scott Lipton

          Anika Noni Rose, Brian d'Arcy James, James Royce Edwards, Joanna Gleason, Cheyenne Jackson, S. Epatha Merkerson, Alice Ripley, Stew, Tamara Tunie, and Julie White add some star power to this year's Lucille Lortel Awards.

          [ P ]  PHOTO CALL: The 2008 Lucille Lortel Awards

          [ ND ]  "August: Osage County" and "The 39 Steps" change locations

          News:

          [ WP ]  Backstage: Bethesda's 'Smokey Joe' Awash By Jane Horwitz

          Musical Canceled After Water Pipe Break Damages the Theater

          [ CT ]  'Jersey Boys': Now playing at the Bank of America Theatre by Chris Jones

          On Wednesday afternoon, the name of the LaSalle Bank Theatre bites the dust. Behold, Chicago, the Bank of America Theatre, 18 W. Monroe St.

          [ BG ]  Two plays coming to Boston before Broadway next season By Megan Tench

          [ P ]  Revised Brigadoon Will Premiere at Colonial in Boston Prior to NYC

          [ B ]  Broadway-Bound Brigadoon Sets Boston Dates

          [ TM ]  Broadway-Bound Brigadoon Sets Boston Dates

          [ TM ]  Dirty Dancing to Play Boston's Opera House in February

          [ P ]  Dirty Dancing's East Coast Bow Will Be in Boston; Connick, Chorus Line, Awakening Also Slated

          [ P ]  Mellencamp and King's Musical Ghost Brothers Postponed by Atlanta's Alliance

          [ NYT ]  King-Mellencamp Musical Postponed
          Compiled by LAWRENCE VAN GELDER

          [ TM ]  Atlanta's Alliance Postpones King-Mellencamp Musical

          [ P ]  Welcome Home, Marian Anderson to Play Off-Broadway's St. Luke's Theatre

          [ P ]  Wilson to Star in Noel Coward 101 at the Algonquin; McClanahan Directs

          [ P ]  Public Theater to Present The Bacchae at the Delacorte in September

          [ TM ]  Cast Set for Joe DiPietro's World Premiere of F***king Men in London

          [ TM ]  Thorson Joins Martin, O'Hare, Topol, et al. in London Revival of Gigi

          [ P ]  Shaw to Join London's Chicago in June

          [ P ]  Talk Show Watch: Melissa Errico on "Martha," Patrick Stewart on "The View"

          [ P ]  Shields to Present Tune with Watt Lifetime Acheivement Award

          [ TM ]  Brooke Shields to Present Tommy Tune With Douglas Watt Lifetime Achievement Award

          [ WP ]  MetroStage's New Season

          [ TM ]  McAndrew, Page, Shimono, et al. to Appear at Old Globe This Summer

          [ P ]  LaChiusa, DeLaria, Kurtz and Rubin-Vega Will Be Part of 13P:Undone Benefit

          [ TM ]  DeLaria, Kron, Kudisch, Kurtz, Rogers, Rubin-Vega et al. Set for 13P Benefit

          [ TM ]  Bond, Buscemi, Cale, Lauper, O'Donnell, et al. Set for PS122 Gala

          [ TM ]  Pearl Theatre Company Announces 2008-2009 Season

          [ TM ]  Full Cast, Creative Team Set for Monsterface

          [ TM ]  Lucas, Murphy, Page, Pullman, Sarandon to Film Peacock

          [ TM ]  Tovah Feldshuh to Star in Golda's Balcony at Sarah Lawrence College

          [ TM ]  Brandauer, Reich, Stew, et al. Set for Lincoln Center Opening Nights Festival

          [ TM ]  Joey Arias and Basil Twist to Collaborate on Arias With a Twist

          [ TM ]  Jones, Kolvenbach, Nottage, Wright, et al. Set for WHAT's 2008 Summer Season

          [ P ]  Milwaukee Rep Plans Eurydice, State of the Union, Trouble in Mind, Musical Dogpark

          [ P ]  Cry-Baby's John Waters to Offer The Filthy World June 26 in Manhattan

          [ P ]  Hairspray Cast Will Take Part in Free Creating the Magic Event May 29

          [ P ]  Durang and Adrift in Macao Cast Set for Barnes and Noble Appearance

          [ P ]  Howard, Rashad and Rose Will Be Honored at Sardi's May 8

          [ P ]  KT Sullivan Sees Colored Lights in Chicago June 2-5

          [ P ]  Masters Will Be Out On a Limb at the Bailiwick Studio

          [ P ]  Tony Winner Neuwirth Will Sing Songs by Weill, Porter, Sondheim, Waits and Kander and Ebb at Feinstein's

          [ P ]  Rita Gardner Will Be Part of Artist's Crossing Benefit Concert

          [ P ]  "The View" to Welcome LuPone, Peters and Ramirez Plus Passing Strange and In the Heights Casts

          [ P ]  Last Chance to Get in the 2007-2008 "Playbill Yearbook" - See If Your Name Is on the List

          [ P ]  Free Reading of Matthew Passion to Be Presented June 18

          [ P ]  Talk Show Watch: Melissa Errico on "Martha," Patrick Stewart on "The View"

          [ P ]  Today In Theatre History: MAY 7

          [ P ]  Garrison, Hurt, Marvel, Tomei, Reeder, Plimpton and Ikeda Are Broadway's Top Girls

          [ P ]  Greenspan Rewrites Aristophanes for World Premiere, Old Comedy, in NYC

          [ P ]  Ivoryton's Glass Menagerie, with Phantom's Lockyer, Begins May 7

          [ P ]  "Follow Me": Philharmonic's Camelot, with Kudisch, Mazzie, Byrne and Gunn, Begins

          [ P ]  Old Milwaukee: Musical Happy Days Opens at CT's Goodspeed

          [ P ]  Daniele, Leguizamo and Miranda Set for TeatroStageFest

          [ P ]  NYTW Names William Russo New Managing Director

          [ NYT ]  New Musical for Harry Connick Jr.
          Compiled by LAWRENCE VAN GELDER

          [ NYT ]  Further Travails of Scarlett and Rhett
          Compiled by LAWRENCE VAN GELDER

          Pummeled by the critics, the London production of "Gone With the Wind" will have its running time trimmed by 15 minutes to three and a quarter hours.

          [ B ]  Robert Petkoff Joins Spamalot, Replacing Clay Aiken

          [ P ]  York to Present Staged Concerts of Three Musicals in NEW2NY Series

          [ B ]  Adding Machine Wins Four Lortel Awards, Including Best Musical

          [ LAT ]  Obituary: Beverlee McKinsey, 72; veteran soap opera star By Mary Rourke

          [ NYT ]  Alvin Colt, Broadway Costume Designer, Dies at 91 By DENNIS HEVESI

          [ SUN ]  Alvin Colt, 91, Doyen of Broadway Costumers By STEPHEN MILLER

          "Boeing-Boeing":

          [ B ]  VIDEO: Opening Night: Boeing-Boeing

          [ B ]  PHOTO OP: Bradley Whitford and Co. Soar at Boeing-Boeing's Opening

          [ NYP ]  LIZ SMITH

          Second item.

          [ WSJ ]  Air Farce One: A Trans-Atlantic Flight By TERRY TEACHOUT

          "Boeing-Boeing," "Endgame."

          Other Reviews:

          [ DCTS ]  Politics, Sexual Intrigue and Lost Souls By Richard Seff

          November, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, and a preview of Port Authority.

          [ CU ]  All Eyes and Ears

          This new play commissioned by INTAR Theater takes a look at the fate of a Cuban family that was on the right side of the revolution.

          [ BS ]  All Eyes and Ears - Reviewed by JERRY PORTWOOD

          The narrative of Rogelio Martinez's new play, set in Cuba in 1961, shortly after Fidel Castro came to power, quickly becomes muddled with too many competing viewpoints, subplots, and biases to create a coherent story.

          [ NYT ]  Theater Review | 'Steve & Idi'
          A Lesson Before Writing, Courtesy of Idi Amin's Ghost By CARYN JAMES

          David Grimm's annoying new play is a self-indulgent work about how hard it is to be a writer.

          [ NYT ]  A Thoroughly Modern Oscar and Algernon By CARYN JAMES

          Deep in the third act of the Pearl Theater Company's entertaining production of "The Importance of Being Earnest," I realized how much the sitcom "Frasier" owes to Oscar Wilde.

          [ BS ]  A Year in the Life of Twenty-Five Strangers Living in a City by the Lake - Reviewed by A.J. MELL

          The title pretty much sums it up. Although the quick scene changes, dynamic cast, and vigorous direction from Shaun Colledge ensure that the results are never tedious, the end result is somehow less than the sum of its numerous parts.

          [ BS ]  Me - Reviewed by RONNI REICH

          Through the filter of Kirk Wood Bromley's demented, genius brain, a story that has a placenta as a protagonist becomes all at once a witty musical, a lesson in Chinese mythology, and a dense philosophical journey.

          [ BS ]  The Hey You Monster: Pokin the Bears in a Zoo and Bring Us the Head of Your Daughter - Reviewed by JERRY PORTWOOD

          Playwright Derek Ahonen's perspective on the family unit seems to be both sanguine and deeply cynical.

          [ BS ]  Cherry Docs - Reviewed by JERRY PORTWOOD

          The neo-Nazi skinhead evokes both fear and fascination in popular culture. David Gow's two-person play Cherry Docs confronts this revulsion and attraction head on.

          [ CT ]  'Ballad' fails the legacy of Emmett Till by Chris Jones

          [ V ]  Playwrights fest yields thrifty magic By BOB VERINI

          COSTA MESA --The working motto for the scribes featured in this year's Pacific Playwrights Festival seems to have been: Dream big, but plan small.

          [ TM ]  Stretch (a fantasia)
          Reviewed by: Patrick Lee

          Kristin Griffith gives a bravura performance as former Presidential secretary Rose Mary Woods in Susan Bernfeld's structurally ambitious drama.

          [ CU ]  One of a Kind

          This family play incorporates music, dance and video. But what is most fascinating is the way it melds Jewish and African traditions of family, song, dance and storytelling.

          [ CU ]  Dear World

          Dear World remains thin fare in a too large package, a musical in search of a raison d'etre. It died on Broadway almost 40 years ago, and I'm afraid it should have been tagged "do not resuscitate."

          [ TNO ]  THE CLANG OF IMPENDING DOOM by Bernard Carragher

          This production of Endgame still stands up as original and unique as it was when it first premiered in 1957.

          [ CU ]  Substitution

          According to the the press materials, Anton Dudley wrote this play especially for Jan Maxwell who has repaid this questionable favor with a wonderful performance.

          [ VV ]  John Turturro's Does Beckett Hamm I Am by Alexis Soloski

          [ VV ]  Vengeance Can Wait: A Short-Lived Joy
          Sightlines: by Alexis Soloski

          [ VV ]  Yellow Moon's ADD Drama by GARRETT EISLER

          [ VV ]  Deb Margolin's Time Is the Mercy of Eternity Sparkles by John Beer

          [ VV ]  Three New Productions Tackle Color Lines by Michael Feingold

          Race and history trouble The Country Girl and Sound and the Fury; Thurgood gets them right.

          [ TNO ]  LAW IN ORDER by DAVID LEFKOWITZ

          Thurgood Marshall was a towering figure in our legal history. But this one-hander Laurence Fishburne is more history by the numbers than flesh and blood drama

          [ CST ]  Pair of one-woman shows capture turmoil and trauma of Mideast life BY HEDY WEISS

          Politically based portraits of Meir and women of Iraq share vitality, pain, complexity

        • Posted by Tim Dunleavy at 10:20 AM | Item Link


        • « May 6, 2008 | Main Index | Archives | May 8, 2008 »

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