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Monday, March 2, 2009

    [ P ]  Broadway Shows Will Go On Despite Blizzard

    [ P ]  Hartford Stage Chat with Mockingbird's Modine and Wilson Postponed Due to Weather

    [ CT ]  "Seven Jewish Children: a Play for Gaza," a controversial Caryl Churchill drama, is coming to Chicago. By Chris Jones

    [ TNO ]  GAZA DUST-UP by JOHN NATHAN

    Seven Jewish Children row rumbles on.

    [ CT ]  David Schwimmer, Haiti and Icarus are all on Lookingglass season by Chris Jones

    [ CST ]  Family mythology key to Lookingglass' next season BY HEDY WEISS

    [ TM ]  David Schwimmer, J. Nicole Brooks, Laura Eason, David Catlin Set for Lookingglass Theatre's 2009-2010 Season

    [ P ]  World-Premiere Plays by Brooks, Catlin and Schwimmer Will Fill Lookingglass Season

    [ LAT ]  Culture Monster: Paul Lynde play at Exit Theatre gets pulled over copyright claim by Mike Boehm

    [ TM ]  Julie Gold, Carol Hall, Liza Minnelli, Euan Morton Among 2009 Bistro Award Winners

    [ TM ]  Patty Duke to Be San Francisco Wicked's New Madame Morrible

    [ B ]  Patty Duke to Join Wicked in San Francisco

    [ P ]  Academy Award Winner Duke to Join Cast of San Fran's Wicked

    [ TM ]  Stephen Daldry and David Hare to Present Wall at the Royal Court

    [ HC ]  "Jerry Springer" Enters Film Tax Credit Debate By Frank Rizzo

    [ HC ]  Michael Feinstein Develops New Musicals By Frank Rizzo

    [ P ]  Michael Feinstein Penning Stage Musical Version of "Thomas Crown Affair"

    [ NYT ]  Broadway Traffic Cure Elusive Since the 1800s By DAVID W. DUNLAP

    New York City dwellers have long sought a cure for congestion on Broadway, with little success.

    [ NYT ]  Backed by Green Party, Comic Pastor Runs for Mayor By REBECCA WHITE

    Reverend Billy, a street activist, is known for his tirades against what he sees as corporate intrusions on American life.

    Obituaries:

    [ P ]  Alvin Klein, Longtime Theatre Critic for New York Times, Dies

    Alvin Klein, a long-standing theatre critic for the Sunday regional sections of the New York Times that appeared in New Jersey, Connecticut, Long Island and Westchester County, was found dead over the weekend at his home in Manhattan. The cause and time of death could not be determined at press time. He was 73.

    [ NYT ]  Mary Printz, an Ear for the Famous, Dies at 85 By MARGALIT FOX

    If the long, helpful career of Mrs. Printz, who died on Feb. 21 at 85, sounds a great deal like that of the Judy Holliday character in the hit Broadway musical "Bells Are Ringing," it is no accident.

    [ B ]  Mary Printz, the Inspiration for Bells Are Ringing, Dead at 85

    [ LAT ]  Tom Cole dies at 75; playwright and screenwriter By Valerie J. Nelson

    His 1985 film 'Smooth Talk' was a catalyst for actress Laura Dern's career.

    [ SHT ]  Director made theater 'his life' By Mark Zaloudek

    At 39, he received the Drama Desk Award for directing and choreographing "Dames at Sea" off Broadway in 1968, starring a promising young talent named Bernadette Peters.

    [ IBDB ]  Neal Kenyon's Broadway Credits

    [ V ]  Emmy winner Ed Cotter dies

    'Happy Days' vet was actor, director, editor

    The Arts and the Economy:

    [ HP ]  The Future of the National Endowment for the Arts by Jon Robin Baitz

    [ LAT ]  Culture Monster: If I ran the NEA...

    [ HC ]  $50 Million Arts Stimulus to Be Unveiled By Frank Rizzo

    [ BG ]  Mass. theater needs cash fast or it will close

    WORCESTER, Mass.-The operators of the Foothills Theatre Company in Worcester say they need to raise $200,000 in two weeks or the theater will close.

    [ OS ]  Colorado theater closes by Elizabeth Maupin

    Lots of you know Tim Muldrew, the former Orlandoan who has been working as company manager for the Colorado Festival of World Theatre in Colorado Springs. I got a sad note from him last night saying that his theater is closing -- another victim of the economy.

    "Guys and Dolls":

    [ NYT ]  Word for Word
    Guys, Dolls and Busted Dreams: A Damon Runyon Sampler By PAT RYAN

    In Damon Runyon's short stories of New York in the Great Depression, times are tough on the street, banks are busted and there is very little scratch anywhere.

    [ TS ]  On opening night, let luck be a lady by Richard Ouzounian

    Des McAnuff returns Guys and Dolls to its roots in the Dirty '30s for a high-stakes Broadway revival

    [ G+M ]  Stratford's master juggler

    The artistic director of the festival is set to pull the trigger on his Broadway revival of Guys and Dolls - but it's not the only show on his mind, Simon Houpt writes

    [ DN ]  Stars of Broadway's new 'Guys & Dolls' revival kiss and tell BY Joe Dziemianowicz

    [ HC ]  'Guys And Dolls' Comes Full Circle For Grant By FRANK RIZZO

    [ P ]  PHOTO CALL: More From Broadway's Guys and Dolls

    [ TM ]  Dolls Night Out By: Joseph Marzullo; Text by Dan Bacalzo

    Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick, Matthew Broderick, Valerie Harper, S. Epatha Merkerson, Alice Ripley, Geoffrey Rush, and Ben Vereen help Lauren Graham, Oliver Platt, and company celebrate the opening of the Broadway revival of Guys and Dolls.

    [ FOX ]  FOX411 By Roger Friedman
    Guys, Dolls, and Stars

    Forget the snow, and even a lousy review in The New York Times. Last night's Broadway opening of "Guys and Dolls" was a hit no matter how you slice it, with plenty of star power to applaud the underrated revival.

    [ HC ]  Revival of 'Guys and Dolls' Recalls Damon Runyon's New York By MALCOLM JOHNSON

    It's a joy ride back to the '50s with the splashy, jam-packed revival of "Guys and Dolls."

    [ TNO ]  A FABULOUS FABLE by ROGER B. HARRIS

    This revival of Guys and Dolls offers the best of all possible worlds. A technical marvel that still brings out the best of a classic musical

    [ THR ]  Review: Guys and Dolls By Frank Scheck

    The show's still great, but this "Guys and Dolls" should have been a whole lot better.

    [ TM ]  Guys and Dolls
    Reviewed by: Andy Propst

    Des McAnuff's uneven production of this classic Frank Loesser musical is a simultaneously razzmatazz and tawdry affair.

    [ G+M ]  Resilience saves McAnuff's Dolls by J. KELLY NESTRUCK (**1/2)

    [ BR ]  'Guys and Dolls' review BY ROBERT FELDBERG

    The version directed by Des McAnuff, which opened Sunday at the Nederlander Theatre, is, for the most part, a joyless perversion of the buoyant 1950 musical.

    [ TB ]  Guys and Dolls
    Review by Matthew Murray

    Is anything more dispiriting than knowing within the first minutes that the revival you're watching of a traditionally hilarious musical comedy isn't going to be funny?

    [ NY1 ]  Review: "Guys And Dolls" By: Roma Torre

    Every high school in the United States has probably put on the great Broadway musical "Guys And Dolls," and I would wager a bet that a number of those student productions have more life and charm than the lackluster revival that just opened on Broadway.

    [ AMNY ]  Review of Guys and Dolls by Matt Windman

    You know that a production of "Guys and Dolls" has gone terribly wrong when a minor character like General Cartwright makes a bigger impression than Sky Masterson, Sarah Brown, Nathan Detroit and Miss Adelaide put together. And if anyone is to blame, it is director Des McAnuff ("Jersey Boys"), whose new Broadway revival is a misconceived fiasco.

    Features:

    [ P ]  THE LEADING MEN: Cavenaugh and Shulman

    Matt Cavenaugh from West Side Story and the busy Michael Shulman are our Leading Men for March.

    [ AMNY ]  Prop 8: The Musical at Defying Inequality Concert

    [ CT ]  'Strange Interlude': Greatest bad play or worst great play? By Sid Smith

    Robert Falls, who arranged for The Neo-Futurists to stage the play Friday through March 8 to conclude the Goodman Theatre's O'Neill festival, talks in a string of oxymorons when discussing it.

    [ LAT ]  Anthony Neilson keeps to the dark side in 'Stitching' By David Ng

    The controversial play heads to Hollywood's Lillian Theater, where local audiences will get a taste of the playwright's graphic explorations of intimacy.

    [ NY ]  Patrick Wilson, Superstar By David Amsden

    Thanks to sex and a comic book (Watchmen), the actor is about to blow up.

    [ NY ]  Influences: Angela Lansbury By Katie Charles

    The Broadway legend on her London childhood, including nude models and Greek tunics.

    [ P ]  A Life in the Theatre: Michael Blakemore

    Meet director Michael Blakemore, whose eclectic resume includes Copenhagen, City of Angels and the current Blithe Spirit.

    [ NY ]  John Cullum on How to Lead a Double Life By Jesse Oxfeld

    He's doing two shows at once, playing the dad in August: Osage County and an old veteran in Heroes. What's his night like?

    [ BR ]  'Carnage' puts Daniels in very good company By ROBERT FELDBERG

    [ HC ]  BLOOMFIELD'S OWN
    Anika Noni Rose Of "Dreamgirls" At Bushnell In Hartford On Saturday By OWEN McNALLY

    [ DN ]  Stars of 'West Side Story' prepare to heat up the stage BY Patrick Huguenin

    [ BG ]  Historian scripts his own power play By Megan Tench

    Galileo and pope square off in Goodwin's debut

    [ NJ ]  Newark playwright Tracey Scott Wilson's work on race, class reaches the Public by Linda Fowler

    [ DN ]  Jane Fonda sees herself as 'old' and 'matronly' in '33 Variations' photos BY Nicole Lyn Pesce

    [ JN ]  A visit from Cosette By Peter D. Kramer

    Last month, Pleasantville's Ali Ewoldt, who played Cosette in the recent Broadway revival of "Les Miserables," dropped in on director Michael Limone's rehearsal to offer tips about acting in general and "Les Miz" in particular.

    [ NYP ]  OUT, DAMNED BART! By LARRY GETLEN
    'MACBETH' TAKES SPRINGFIELD TURN IN 'MACHOMER'

    [ BR ]  Wayne's Uncle Floyd ushers in the good old days By JIM BECKERMAN

    "Garden State Jubilee," a weekly radio variety show taped before a live audience in Teaneck and airing 9 p.m. Saturdays on WRCR-AM (1300), is to some extent a retooled edition of "The Uncle Floyd Show," the UHF TV show that ran from 1974 to 1986 and became his ticket to not-quite-underground fame.

    [ LAT ]  Gold Derby by Tom O'Neil
    Here's how Meryl Streep might've made a killing at the Oscars

    Thanks to American Theater Web for the following features!

    [ LCJ ]  Humana Fest
    Actress-turned-playwright has script in her genes By Judith Egerton

    Like the characters in her new play, Zoe Kazan is forging her own identity in a world where her name is already famous.

    [ DP ]  Chasing Molly Brown By John Moore

    "It's an invention," said actor Kerry O'Malley.

    [ AAS ]  STEVEN DIETZ: PLAYWRIGHT AT WORK
    Being prolific yields its own kind of fame By Jeanne Claire van Ryzin

    Playwright's hard work finds its way onto stages in Austin.

    [ SHT ]  A tribute to a man and his musicals By Jay Handelman

    You could probably write a story about Stephen Schwartz's Broadway and Hollywood musicals simply by using titles and lyrics from his songs.

    Other Reviews:

    [ WSJ ]  And They Could Sing, Too By TERRY TEACHOUT

    Demo recordings originally made for rehearsal purposes in which composers can be heard singing and playing their own songs were recently released.

    [ TM ]  The Widowing of Mrs. Holroyd
    Reviewed by: Barbara & Scott Siegel

    The Mint's New York premiere of D.H. Lawrence's play gives us an early glimpse at an artist of great stature in the process of finding his voice.

    [ CU ]  The Widowing Of Mrs. Holroyd

    The invaluable Mint Theater recreates the atmosphere of D. H. Lawrence's own suffocating youth in a mining village

    [ TM ]  Gates of Gold
    Reviewed by: Dan Bacalzo

    Frank McGuinness' frustrating new play is inspired by the gay male couple who founded Dublin's Gate Theatre.

    [ TB ]  Tales of an Urban Indian
    Review by Matthew Murray

    Once he warms to the show's rigors, his laid-back talent and grace with the audience do shine through. If he and Barnes can tighten up the script and shed additional light on the larger meaning of Simon's struggles, the rest of Tales of an Urban Indian could prove to be every bit as engaging.

    [ TNO ]  THE TROUBLE WITH MAUDE by MATT WOLF

    Toyer is a mess a scaremongering two-hander that wastes the talents of actress Alice Krige.

    [ CU ]  Fire Throws

    A very pretty show and technically almost brilliant. But it ultimately felt cold

    [ TE ]  KASPAR HAUSER - at the Flea with The Bats by OSCAR E MOORE

    As Kaspar Hauser, Preston Martin turns in a sensitive, touching and totally enthralling performance.

    [ TB ]  To Kill a Mockingbird
    Connecticut Review by Fred Sokol

    [ LAT ]  'Rent' at Pantages Theatre By Charlotte Stoudt

    'Rent' relives heady days of youth in pre-9/11 New York.

    News:

    [ B ]  Catch Me If You Can to Kick Off Season at Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre

    [ P ]  High School Musical 2 to Tour U.K. Beginning Summer 2009

    [ TM ]  High School Musical 2 to Launch UK Tour August 22

    [ HC ]  "Jersey Boys" Ends Bushnell Run With Big Bucks By Frank Rizzo

    [ [ P ]  CA's Marin Theatre Will Premiere Sunlight in 2009-10

    [ P ]  HBO's "No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency," with Rose, Scott and Kani, to Debut March 29

    [ P ]  Atlanta's Theater of the Stars Season to Feature Legally Blonde, Jersey Boys and Grease

    [ P ]  Talk Show Watch: Marcia Gay Harden on "The View," Cynthia Nixon on "Regis"

    [ P ]  Foa Will Guest on CBS' "Numb3rs" March 6

    [ P ]  Understudies from Shrek, Avenue Q, Spamalot and 13 Set for At This Performance

    [ P ]  South Coast Rep Gives Voice to The Happy Ones in March 2 Reading

    [ TM ]  Broadway for a New America Benefit Postponed Until April 13

    [ P ]  Barbour Will Welcome O'Malley for Love Songs at Sardi's

    [ NYT ]  Award Winner Returns to Her Cabaret Show By STEVEN McELROY; Compiled by PATRICIA COHEN

    The Metropolitan Room will present a return engagement of "Strings Attached," the cabaret show starring Anne Steele.

    [ P ]  Brakefield Company Will Produce New Film "Uncredited-The Marni Nixon Story"

    [ TM ]  Kathleen Chalfant, Nikki Renee Daniels, Linda Emond, Stephen Spinella, and More Set for Guthrie's Kushner Celebration

    [ B ]  Chalfant, Spinella & Emond to Star in New Tony Kushner Play at the Guthrie

    [ NYT ]  Kushner Play Is Cast
    Compiled by PATRICIA COHEN

  • Posted by Tim Dunleavy at 2:39 PM | Item Link


      • Some additional news:

      [ P ]  Broadway for a New America Benefit Postponed Until April

      [ P ]  Minnelli, Aznavour, Fraser, Testa, Morton and More Among Bistro Award Winners

      [ P ]  Marans' Temperamentals to Play Off-Broadway's Barrow Group Studio Theater

      [ P ]  Skinner, Desare, Fernandez, Egan and McCartney Set for Castle's Cabaret Series

      [ P ]  Felder's Beethoven, As I Knew Him to Launch Cleveland Play House's 2009-2010 Season

      [ P ]  Wife Slips Into Hepburn's Shoes in Musical Being Audrey, With Stern, Sutherland, Ledbetter

    • Posted by Matthew Murray at 11:05 AM | Item Link


        • This morning's Peter Filichia:

        [ TM ]  Runyon Doesn't Land

        I'm a little surprised by Des McAnuff. I would have thought that a few weeks into rehearsal, he would have been dissatisfied with his reconceived opening of Guys and Dolls. Why didn't he admit to himself, the cast and crew, "No, it doesn't work. Let's try something else."

        This morning's news:

        [ P ]  Chalfant, Spinella, Emond, Oglesby and More Cast in Guthrie's Kushner Celebration

        [ P ]  Love, Loss, and What I Wore Reading, with Danner, Baranski, White, Posey, Presented March 2

        [ P ]  We're Kind of a Big Deal, Featuring Wicked and Rent Stars, Plays the Beechman March 2

        [ P ]  Tony Nominee Hewitt Returns to Broadway's Chicago March 2

        [ P ]  Sweeney's Felciano Plays Joe's Pub March 2

        [ P ]  Cheyenne Jackson Makes NYC Nightclub Debut March 2

        [ P ]  The First 80 Years Are the Hardest, with Carol Channing, Plays Hollywood's Magic Castle March 2-3

        [ P ]  Parsons Among Women's Project's Women of Achievement Honorees March 2

        This morning's features:

        [ NYT ]  What Is a Guy?

        An interactive look at craps, Automats, and other references in the revival of Guys and Dolls.

        [ TS ]  Television's Gilmore Girl is reborn a Doll

        Lauren Graham swooped into the opening night party for Guys and Dolls yesterday evening with the radiant air of someone who had come home again, and in a way she had.

        [ P ]  Today In Theatre History

        This morning's reviews of Guys and Dolls:

        [ NYT ]  It's a Cinch That the Bum Is Under the Thumb of Some Little Broad, by Ben Brantley

        The uninspired new revival of Guys and Dolls provides a valuable lesson in the importance of chemistry by demonstrating what can happen without it.

        [ NYP ]  This Revival is a Bad Bet, by Elisabeth Vincentelli

        At the Nederlander Theatre, where Des McAnuff's glitzy revival of the 1950 classic opened last night, they dazzle us with their handsome costumes and their clever projections. They serenade us with an 18-piece orchestra firing on all cylinders. We start believing: This time, it's really going to happen! But whereas Adelaide eventually gets her ring, we're left at the altar once again, wondering how things went wrong.

        The first review written by the Post's new Broadway critic.

        [ DN ]  Guys and Dolls Tries and Falls, by Joe Dziemianowicz

        "Take back your mink, take back your pearls," fumes the fed-up fiancée Adelaide in Guys and Dolls. Des McAnuff, who directed the flatfooted new Broadway production, needed to take some things back, too.

        [ ND ]  Reviewed by Linda Winer

        In the crapshoot called Broadway, Guys and Dolls is as close as the theater gets to a sure thing. Or at least it seemed that way until Des McAnuff's tarted-up and dumbed-down revival opened last night at the handsomely remodeled Nederlander Theatre.

        [ AP ]  A Disappointing Guys and Dolls Hits Times Square, by Michael Kuchwara

        Director Des McAnuff has put together a perpetual-motion, high-concept, high-tech revival of Guys and Dolls. Unfortunately, the curiously bland results don't translate into high entertainment.

        [ USA ]  Guys and Dolls Broadway Revival Isn't Exactly a Sure Bet, by Elysa Gardner

        Imagine having dinner in a fabulous restaurant with two couples. One pair is delightfully witty and has sizzling chemistry; the other two seem so awkward that it's almost painful to be with them. That's something akin to the uneven, frustrating experience offered by the new revival of Guys and Dolls that opened Sunday at the Nederlander Theatre.

        [ V ]  Reviewed by David Rooney

        The opening image in Des McAnuff's strangulated revival is of Damon Runyon pounding his typewriter, framing the production unequivocally in a fictional world. But the unintended effect has been to process the author's richly slangy, flavorful valentine to a vanished New York demimonde of hustlers, gamblers, floozies and gangsters into a cartoon of manufactured colors. Fronted by four likable leads whose collective charisma never rises above medium wattage, the production sucks the personality out of an American musical-theater classic. The consolation is that even in this misconceived presentation, the show itself is too good not to be at least minimally entertaining.

        [ BS ]  Guys and Dolls Returns With Spectacular Crap Game, by Jeremy Gerard

        Guys and Dolls is a crack gadget whose only purpose is to give pleasure. Des McAnuff's uneven, charm-challenged production doesn't entirely kill that pleasure, no matter how hell-bent on wreckage it sometimes seems to be.

        [ EW ]  Reviewed by Thom Geier

        The trouble with director Des McAnuff's Broadway revival is that too often it plays like a very good community theater production, albeit one with considerably pricier sets.

        [ TS ]  Luck's an Inconsistent Lady, by Richard Ouzounian

        Des McAnuff's revival of the classic musical Guys and Dolls that opened on Broadway last night has everything we've come to expect from this razzle-dazzle showman, both for good and for ill.

        [ CT ]  Survival may be a long shot for Guys and Dolls, by Chris Jones

        The first Broadway revival of the musical Guys and Dolls since Nathan Lane and Faith Prince cracked up the Rialto with their follies nearly two decades ago offers a sense of what it must have felt like to have been one of the victims during the St. Valentine's Day massacre.

        [ BS ]  Reviewed by Adam R. Perelman

        Did someone forget to baptize Guys and Dolls? Seems unlikely—but how else to explain why a nigh-perfect musical entertainment has been plunged into limbo, suspended between cartoon and noir in director Des McAnuff's appalling revival?

        [ CU ]  Reviewed by Simon Saltzman

        While many musicals tend to lose their luster, appeal, and popularity with future generations, Guys and Dolls has only to re-validate itself by right of its wit and charm. One can only wonder why acclaimed director Des McAnuff wasn't able to inspire his four key players to give more than merely perfunctory performances.

        This morning's reviews of The Widowing of Mrs. Holroyd:

        [ NYP ]  D.H. Lawrence Play is in Mint Condition, by Frank Scheck

        Like "The Daughter-in-Law"—another play by D.H. Lawrence that was presented by the Mint Theater Company—The Widowing of Mrs. Holroyd demonstrates that the author never got his proper due as a playwright.

        [ V ]  Reviewed by Sam Thielman

        The ultra-literary Mint Theater's latest project is the New York premiere of D.H. Lawrence's strange, unjustly forgotten play The Widowing of Mrs. Holroyd, about a mistreated wife at the end of her rope. Helmer Stuart Howard gives the compact piece a delicate staging that accentuates its characters' depths, and fine performances by Julia Coffey and Eric Martin Brown flesh out its central troubled marriage. The production is a major get for bookworms and theater buffs alike, repping a rare chance to see Lawrence's world alive on stage.

        [ BS ]  Reviewed by Karl Levitt

        In the Mint Theater Company's sterling production of this early D.H. Lawrence drama, it's immediately evident that D.H. Lawrence was a natural-born playwright.

        This morning's reviews of Kaspar Hauser: A Foundling's Opera:

        [ V ]  Reviewed by Marilyn Stasio

        Elizabeth Swados has always gone her own way, and her new music-theater piece is stamped with some of her familiar idiosyncrasies: the childlike perspective; the atonal operatics; the surreal dramatic landscape; the thematic obsession with abused and abandoned children. It's a sensibility that fits right in at the Flea Theater, which maintains a resident ensemble of nimble young actor-singers, the Bats, happy to show off in anything remotely experimental—like the composer-scribe-director's reworking of the Wild Child legend.

        [ BS ]  Reviewed by Ronni Reich

        The word "opera" doesn't mean singers roaring at the top of their lungs in stock roles and sustaining fever-pitch drama without respite.

      • Posted by Matthew Murray at 4:19 AM | Item Link


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