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Friday, October 16, 2009

    [ P ]  Michael Buckley, Theatre Journalist and Playbill.com Columnist, Dies

    Michael Buckley, a lifelong arts journalist and the author of Playbill.com's monthly "Stage to Screens" column, died Oct. 16 of a pulmonary embolism at St. Luke's hospital in Manhattan, his friend Walter Willison said.

    What a loss. Our condolences to Michael's family and to everyone at Playbill.

  • Posted by Tim Dunleavy at 5:43 PM | Item Link


      • [ NY ]  Just Put on a Happy Face By Scott Brown

      Bye Bye Birdie is as bubbly and sweet as it could possibly be-yet somehow, all its elements never quite rise into the perfect soufflé.

      [ TONY ]  Bye Bye Birdie - Review By Adam Feldman (*)

      Bye Bye Birdie; hello, turkey.

      [ NY1 ]  Review: "Bye, Bye Birdie" By: Roma Torre

      Between the miscasting, the failed direction and wrongheaded designs, this "Birdie" just doesn't fly.

      [ P ]  PHOTO CALL: Broadway's Bye Bye Birdie On Opening Night

      [ P ]  PLAYBILL ON OPENING NIGHT: Bye Bye Birdie-A New Nest for Conrad

      [ B ]  Photo Op: Starry Bye Bye Birdie Revival Comes Home to Roost on Broadway

    • Posted by Tim Dunleavy at 3:56 PM | Item Link


        • CRiveraBirdlandRichardCondeA.jpg

        [ STARS ]  Chita Rivera Shakes, Shimmies, Salsas, Mambos, Sizzles, and Sings: Muchas Gracias by Ellis Nassour

        [ STARS ]  This Week on Broadway for October 12: An Uncut Hamlet

        James Marino, Peter Filichia and Michael Portantiere discuss the week on Broadway.

      • Posted by Tim Dunleavy at 9:24 AM | Item Link


          • [ NYP ]  Dirty 'Birdie' secrets by Michael Riedel

          [ MAIL ]  The hot ticket starring Keira Knightley that's made a million By Baz Bamigboye

          Every theatre owner in London has been studying how the production marking the stage debut of Keira Knightley managed to take nearly £1million in just four days.

          Plus exclusive news of plans for a "Les Miserables" movie, and casting news for "Love Never Dies."

          [ TM ]  Peter Filichia's Diary: The Best-Ever Original Cast Album Ad

          [ P ]  DIVA TALK: She Said/He Said with Tony Winners Victoria Clark and Ted Sperling

          [ WP ]  Adrienne Arsht Gives Kennedy Center $5 Million for Musical Theater By Jacqueline Trescott

          Kennedy Center's Board Treasurer Funds Productions

          [ CT ]  Are 'Shrek' Broadway originals headed to Chicago? by Chris Jones

          [ WOS ]  Henry Goodman Draws Line in Arcola Premiere

          [ V ]  Campbell wins writing kudo

          Writer wins playwriting prize for 'Pride'

          [ NYP ]  PAGE SIX: Punctual Patti

          Patti LuPone is innocent.

          [ LAT ]  Afterword Blog
          Daniel Melnick, film and TV producer: The writer's cut restores his son's words by Valerie J. Nelson

          "Bye Bye Birdie":

          [ NYT ]  Video: 'The Telephone Hour'

          A musical number from the Broadway revival of "Bye Bye Birdie." (Video: Roundabout Theater)

          [ BN ]  Elvis Spoof 'Bye Bye Birdie' Is Back With a Bang: John Simon (***)

          This is a show both for the kid with you and the kid within you.

          [ USA ]  Watch the 'Birdie' for its youth and exuberance By Elysa Gardner (* * * out of four)

          [ BR ]  'Bye Bye Birdie' takes flight on Broadway BY ROBERT FELDBERG

          Longbottom makes a mostly fun evening out of the tale of an Elvis-like rock idol about to enter the Army and the teenage girls who won't let him go without a swoon.

          [ CU ]  Bye Bye Birdie - Review by Simon Saltzman

          To call this revival hopelessly cute and relentlessly wholesome may sound like faint praise, but it is exactly that.

          [ NYT ]  Music to Play, Places to Go, People to See By BEN BRANTLEY

          Flu season appears to have attacked the cast of this revival, with symptoms that include tin ear, loss of comic timing, uncontrollable jitters and a prickly disorientation.

          [ NYP ]  Birdbrained revival flops By ELISABETH VINCENTELLI (* 1/2)

          [ DN ]  'Bye, Bye Birdie' is guilty of fowl play by Joe Dziemianowicz (*)

          [ WSJ ]  They Can't Sing (Don't Ask Them) By TERRY TEACHOUT

          Not to put too fine a point on it, the Roundabout's revival of "Bye Bye Birdie" is the worst-sung musical I've ever seen on Broadway.

          Plus "Oleanna" and "Let Me Down Easy."

          [ ND ]  'Bye Bye Birdie': No reason to put on a happy face By LINDA WINER

          "Bye Bye Birdie" has not been on Broadway since the original hit in 1960. And on the basis of the busy and boring revival chosen to open the new Henry Miller's Theatre, the absence is easy to explain.

          [ TB ]  Bye Bye Birdie
          Review by Matthew Murray

          Like Roundabout's deadly 2006 revival of The Pajama Game, which bore most of the same hallmarks, this show has become what it's never been before: an almost total loss.

          [ OOB ]  Bye Bye Birdie - Review by Matt Windman

          You leave the theater feeling unsatisfied and angry at the Roundabout Theatre Company for messing up yet another classic musical.

          [ BS ]  Bye Bye Birdie - Reviewed by ERIK HAAGENSEN

          Roundabout Theatre Company's misbegotten revival of this classic piece of Broadway Americana is dead on arrival at the new Henry Miller's Theatre.

          [ TM ]  Bye Bye Birdie
          Reviewed by: Barbara & Scott Siegel

          John Stamos and Gina Gershon are miscast as the leads of the Roundabout's surprisingly mediocre production of the beloved 1960 musical.

          [ V ]  Bye Bye Birdie
          Review by David Rooney

          Robert Longbottom's miscast, over-designed production rarely musters the energy or effervescence its riot of candy color and teenage hormones might suggest.

          [ AP ]  A bumbling 'Bye Bye Birdie' revival doesn't fly on Broadway By Michael Kuchwara

          [ THR ]  Bye Bye Birdie -- Theater Review By Frank Scheck

          This "Birdie" should say bye-bye.

          [ NJNR ]  'Bye Bye Birdie' doesn't fly high with Gina Gershon and John Stamos BY MICHAEL SOMMERS

          More fizzle than sizzle in Broadway revival

          [ EW ]  Review: Bye Bye Birdie By Tanner Stransky (C+)

          [ B ]  Word of Mouth: Did Our Real-People Reviewers Put On a Happy Face at Bye Bye Birdie?

          Features:

          [ WSJ ]  Lunch Special: Stars and Sandwich By JOANNE KAUFMAN

          You've heard of dinner theater; now check out lunch theater with Food for Thought, the only drama series in the U.S. devoted to one-act plays.

          [ NYT ]  ArtsBeat
          The Name's Cookie. Bobby Cookie. By Erik Piepenburg

          [ CT ]  So who's this writer behind the wrestling? by Chris Jones

          "The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity" - the wrestling-themed, politically aware drama that's pumping up audiences at the Victory Gardens Theater - is a red-hot new play. Incredibly, it is also the very first full-length play that Kristoffer Diaz has seen produced.
          So who is this guy who can create a new script that gets theater-loving Chicago so riled up?

          [ AP ]  Leap of 'faith' as Guthrie Theater director takes stage as actor in Friel drama By Jeff Baenen

          Director Joe Dowling is stepping into what could be a scary place at the Guthrie Theater: on stage, facing an audience as an actor for the first time in more than two decades.

          [ TM ]  Video Feature
          After All By: Brian Scott Lipton

          Sienna Miller, Jonny Lee Miller, and Marin Ireland discuss the Broadway production of After Miss Julie.

          [ ND ]  A chat with Michael McKean of 'Superior Donuts' By DANIEL BUBBEO

          [ R ]  One-woman play debates how people live and die By Edith Honan

          Anna Deavere Smith interview.

          [ P ]  Life, Accessorized

          The chick-flick writing team of Nora and Delia Ephron explores women's wear in Off-Broadway's Love, Loss, and What I Wore.

          [ NYP ]  CINDY ADAMS

          Frances Sternhagen on "The Royal Family."

          [ CFR ]  Coming Up Snortland: An Interview on Mothers, Theater and Women's Self-Defense

          After her mother died, Snortland found a New York Times article about undiagnosed adults with Asperger's Syndrome and everything fell into place.

          [ CST ]  Graney finds new life in Shelley's 'Frankenstein' BY MARY HOULIHAN

          [ LAT ]  Culture Monster
          Putting the 'Mac' into Shakespeare's 'Macbeth' by David Ng

          [ NYP ]  A typical New York week By Elisabeth Vincentelli

          [ G ]  The Dublin theatre festival: a community like no other by Mark Fisher

          Not only does Dublin have a surfeit of talented playwrights, producers and actors - the audiences are the best in the world, too

          [ G ]  Live radio theatre? The perfect night out and in by Kat Brown

          Radio theatre lets your imagination run wild, but seeing a live radio play recording makes the form doubly entertaining

          [ TIMES ]  Cape Town Opera brings Porgy and Bess to Europe by Neil Fisher

          The only opera company in South Africa is on the road to Britain with a Porgy and Bess set in the depths of apartheid

          [ B ]  Photo Op: KISS Rocker Paul Stanley Rolls All Night at Billy Elliot

        • Posted by Tim Dunleavy at 9:10 AM | Item Link


            • Variety's Special Section: "The Second City at 50":

            [ V ]  Greats go through Second City Mainstage by Anthony D'Alessandro

            Signature sketch show has launched many careers

            [ V ]  Second City brings funny to business by Steve Hesler

            Laff institute uses comedy to coach clients

            [ V ]  Second City's latest alumni breakouts by Anthony D'Alessandro

            Sampling of comedy enterprise's next talent class

            [ V ]  10 milestones in Second City history by Justin Shady

            Seminal moments since SC's founding in 1959

            NYMF:

            [ NYT ]  ArtsBeat
            NYMF: Five Questions About 'Open the Dark Door' By Erik Piepenburg

            [ NYT ]  ArtsBeat
            NYMF: Five Questions About 'Lighter' By Erik Piepenburg

            [ BS ]  The Toymaker - Reviewed by RUTHIE FIERBERG

            Despite excessive length, this intricate and beautiful musical movingly tells the story of a craftsman in a doomed town and a modern woman searching for herself.

            [ BS ]  Plagued: A Love Story - Reviewed by RUTHIE FIERBERG

            From the first downbeat of "Plagued: A Love Story," Casey L. Filiaci and Zak Sandler's orchestrations ring with enchantment, ushering in the aura of a land far, far away. The show, however, gets bogged down in confused storytelling.

            "Circle Mirror Transformation":

            [ NYT ]  Quick There, Actor, Make Like a Tree By ANITA GATES

            Annie Baker's new play is absorbing, unblinking and sharply funny.

            [ NYT ]  Audio Slide Show: Small Town Drama

            Annie Baker talks about what inspired her to write the play "Circle Mirror Transformation."

            "Children of a Lesser God":

            [ LAT ]  Culture Monster
            'As good as it gets': Gordon Davidson reminisces about 'Children of a Lesser God" by Diane Haithman

            [ LAT ]  Culture Monster
            Review: 'Children of a Lesser God' at Deaf West Theatre by Charlotte Stoudt

            Other Reviews:

            [ MST ]  Pretty cute 'Dalmatians' By ROHAN PRESTON

            The new musical based on the book snaps to life whenever Cruella shows up onstage.

            [ PP ]  See Spot sing By Quinton Skinner

            The musical version of '101 Dalmatians' does some good tricks, but true theatricality is never unleashed.

            [ HC ]  Part Three Of 'Orphans' Home' Mirrors Current Events By SUSAN HOOD

            [ BG ]  A trip down memory lane By Don Aucoin

            Though the show is thin and cliched, "A Long and Winding Road" has surprising potency as a chronicle of Maureen McGovern's up-and-down showbiz career.

            [ BG ]  Make your own 'Macbeth' By Don Aucoin

            In eerie 'Sleep No More,' the audience wanders through the Bard's bloody business

            [ BH ]  'Sleep No More' is a great awakening By Jenna Scherer

            [ PP ]  Tweaked 'Little House' musical still a half-pint short of greatness By Dominic P. Papatola

            Though the topline stars are the same, the version of 'Little House on the Prairie: The Musical' now playing at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts is significantly different from the production that opened at the Guthrie Theater in 2008...

            [ MST ]  This 'Little House' is road-worthy By ROHAN PRESTON

            The musical has returned, this time to the Ordway, with tightened tales of sisterhood, romance and fire.

            [ NYT ]  Theater Review | 'The Playboy of the Western World'
            What Becomes a Hero? A Bit of Merry Patricide By WILBORN HAMPTON

            The ponderous tone that permeates this revival robs the play of much of its sparkle and wit.

            [ NYT ]  Theater Review | 'My Life in a Nutshell'
            Tales of Death in Suspended Animation By RACHEL SALTZ

            Hanne Tierney's evocative puppet play is at once death-obsessed and jaunty, abstract and full of geometric precision.

            [ BS ]  The Playboy of the Western World - Reviewed by GWEN OREL

            J.M. Synge's comic, lyrical 1907 masterpiece about a man who enchants a village by claiming to have murdered his father shines in a solid production by the Pearl Theatre.

            [ NYT ]  Pain, Old and New, With Glints of Hope By KEN JAWOROWSKI

            Even in the saddest moments of "The Traveling Players Present the Women of Troy" a tiny glimmer of hope endures.

            [ HC ]  Riz' Blog Review: "The Fantasticks" at New Haven's Long Wharf Theatre By Frank Rizzo

            [ V ]  The Lady With All the Answers
            Review by Marilyn Stasio

            This diverting showpiece has more on its mind than nostalgia for yesteryear.

            [ NYP ]  Not the promised Landers By FRANK SCHECK (** 1/2)

            [ NYT ]  Music Review | Chita Rivera
            Broadway Baby Paints the Town By STEPHEN HOLDEN

            Ms. Rivera is the pied piper of razzle-dazzle challenging you to shake off your workaday blues, join the carnival parade and rejoice in life.

            [ TM ]  John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey: Lost and Found
            Reviewed by: Brian Scott Lipton

            The couple's very fine new cabaret show at the Cafe Carlyle once again demonstrates their great chemistry and superb musicianship.

            [ TT ]  Review of Hamlet at Broadway's Broadhurst by Anne Siegel

            [ WSJ ]  The First of the Red Hot Mamas By WILL FRIEDWALD

            Sophie Tucker's recordings from 1910-22, just reissued on CD, show why she was the original Red Hot Mama.

            News:

            [ P ]  Zelda Fichandler Award Will Honor Regional Theatre Directors

            [ TM ]  Margaret Colin, Isabel Keating, Larry Pine, Michael Urie, et al. Set for MCC's PlayLab Readings

            [ TM ]  Lynda Carter, S. Epatha Merkerson, Alana De La Garza, et al. Set for Complexions Contemporary Ballet Gala

            [ TM ]  John Astin Set for Visible Theatre Fundraiser

            [ HC ]  Another Brian Dennehy Blog. Really. No, Really. By Frank Rizzo

            [ P ]  Today In Theatre History: OCTOBER 16

            [ P ]  An Evening with Joan Collins Plays Long Beach Oct. 16

            [ P ]  Taccone Directs West Coast Premiere of Tiny Kushner, Short Plays by Pulitzer Winner

            [ P ]  Kiss Me, Kate Concerts, with Christine Andreas, Presented Oct. 16-18

            [ P ]  Wendy Hammond's Absence, a Tale of Secrets in a Marriage, Opens in PA Oct. 16

            [ P ]  Broadway Cabaret Festival Plays Town Hall Oct. 16-18

            [ P ]  World Premiere of Palomino Opens at KC Rep Oct. 16

            [ P ]  Sharif's The Rise and Fall of Day Opens Brand:NEW Fesitval in Hartford

            [ P ]  Gruesome Playground Injuries, with Blair and Fleischer, Begins Houston Run Oct. 16

            [ CFR ]  Frances You Sanderson Cast as Lady Macduff in 'Macbeth' Film; Kickstarter Funds Rise

            [ CFR ]  Creative Capital, NYFA Present "Internet for Artists" Workshop

            [ P ]  Disney's "Snow White" Concert Presentation to Feature Brown

            [ B ]  London Buzz: Pamela Anderson Pops Out of the Lamp for Theatrical Debut

            [ TM ]  Doug Kreeger, Randy Harrison, Leslie Kritzer, Brian Charles Rooney, et al. Set for Yale Rep's Pop!

            [ TNO ]  THE EVE OF DESTRUCTION by ROGER B, HARRIS

            New cast of God of Carnage- Lahti, Potts, Smits, Stott - to take over November 17.

            [ TONY ]  Casting news: God of Carnage by David Cote

            [ NYT ]  Arts, Briefly: Cast Overhaul for 'God of Carnage'
            Compiled by Dave Itzkoff

            [ NYT ]  Arts, Briefly: Sutton Foster Joins 'Anyone Can Whistle'
            Compiled by DAVE ITZKOFF

            [ NYT ]  Theater Listings: Oct. 16 - 22

            Selective listings from theater critics of The New York Times.

          • Posted by Tim Dunleavy at 7:53 AM | Item Link


              • Good morning! Let's begin this busy day of theater news with a roundup of major new shows from London.

              "Endgame":

              [ ES ]  The reinvention of Mark Rylance

              [ WOS ]  Brief Encounter With ... Miriam Margolyes

              [ I ]  First Night: Endgame, Duchess Theatre, London By Paul Taylor (****)

              Apocalypse wow! Rylance triumphs again

              [ G ]  Endgame (***)

              Beckettian world edging into darkness, marred by self-indulgence, writes Michael Billington

              [ WOS ]  Endgame - Review by Michael Coveney (***)

              [ MAIL ]  Bells, whistles...and the big sleep in Endgame By Quentin Letts (*)

              Mr Rylance delivers a performance of characteristic commitment - mercurial and full of distinctive tics. But otherwise this show is a dog of tedious self-pretension.

              "Life Is a Dream":

              [ ES ]  Dominic West: My opening night in the West End was for my mum

              Just two weeks ago, the mother of The Wire star Dominic West died after a battle against leukaemia.

              [ MAIL ]  The Wire's West taps into his inner savage By Quentin Letts (*****)

              [ T ]  Life Is A Dream at the Donmar Warehouse, review By Charles Spencer (****)

              Dominic West captures Segismundo's baffled confusion and pain in Pedro Calderon de la Barca's Life Is A Dream at the Donmar Warehouse.

              [ G ]  Life Is a Dream (****)

              West mesmerises in a tale of betrayal, vengeance and murder, writes Michael Billington

              [ WOS ]  Life Is a Dream - Review by Michael Coveney (****)

              [ TIMES ]  Life is a Dream at the Donmar Warehouse, London by Dominic Maxwell (****)

              Dominic West impresses throughout in this unusual and hugely appealing display of classical acting with a twinkle in its eye

              [ I ]  Life is a Dream, Donmar Warehouse, London - Reviewed by Paul Taylor (***)

              [ ES ]  Dominic West is Wired in Life Is A Dream By Henry Hitchings (***)

              [ BN ]  Dominic West of 'The Wire' Brings Passion, Poetry to Murder
              Review by Warwick Thompson (***)

              [ V ]  Life Is a Dream
              Review By DAVID BENEDICT

              Escalating tension between truth and illusion -- and fear made painful by hope -- governs the surprising plotting of "Life Is a Dream" thanks to the vise-like grip of Jonathan Munby's production for the Donmar Warehouse.

              [ STAGE ]  Life is a Dream - Review by Ben Dowell

              "Raoul":

              [ TIMES ]  Raoul - Review by Sam Marlowe (***)

              James Thiérrée blends clowning, acrobatics and dance to tell fluid stories that are disorientating and delightful

              [ ES ]  A comic clash of alter egos in Raoul By Sarah Frater (***)

              [ T ]  Raoul at the Barbican Theatre, review By Dominic Cavendish (**)

              James Thiérrée's Raoul at the Barbican Theatre is based on a dreamy, threadbare scenario.

              "My Wonderful Day" (Alan Ayckbourn's 73rd Play):

              [ TIMES ]  My Wonderful Day at the Stephen Joseph, Scarborough - Review by Jeremy Kingston (****)

              Ayckbourn himself directs with intense precision.

              [ STAGE ]  My Wonderful Day - Review by Kevin Berry

              What a remarkable performance.

              [ FT ]  My Wonderful Day, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, UK By Ian Shuttleworth (***)

              It's not classic Ayckbourn, but there's certainly life in the old dog yet.

            • Posted by Tim Dunleavy at 6:54 AM | Item Link


            • « October 15, 2009 | Main Index | Archives | October 17, 2009 »

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