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Tuesday, November 24, 2009

    Ragtime-edit.jpg

    [ STARS ]  Many Thanks, by Michael Portantiere

    Here's a big hug of appreciation for Ragtime, Jude Law, The Broadway Series at The Town Hall, and other wonderful things that happened on and Off-Broadway this fall.

  • Posted by Matthew Murray at 9:11 AM | Item Link


      • [ RADAR ]  Cody Linley Is Broadway Bound

      Cody Linley, who celebrated his 20th birthday on Friday, is set for his Broadway debut, RadarOnline.com has learned. He'll be starring in a remake of Over Here! which hopes to open on the Great White Way early next year.... Dick Van Dyke is the intended top-billed star for the World War II-themed Over Here! but the recent death of his beloved companion of 30 years, Michelle Triola Marvin, has made that uncertain.

      [ SN ]  Reprise in works for city theater? By Paul Leighton

      The owner of a theater in Rhode Island said he plans to buy the defunct North Shore Music Theatre and hopes to reopen with Broadway shows and celebrity concerts as soon as next spring.

      [ CT ]  'Christmas Carol' at the Civic Opera House cancels by Chris Jones

      That infamous star-crusted production of "A Christmas Carol" that was to have played the Civic Opera House Dec. 22-27 has been canceled. The whole tour is not happening.

      [ CST ]  Star-studded 'Christmas Carol' canceled BY HEDY WEISS

      [ V ]  Hugh Jackman to star in 'Real Steel'

      DreamWorks greenlights sci-fi movie

      [ LAT ]  Culture Monster
      Marc Shaiman talks about returning as music director of the Oscars ceremony by David Ng

      [ NT ]  Longtime Tri-City actor Fred Dixon dies of cancer at 77 By Dori O'Neal

      In 2007 he returned to New York City for a Broadway's Biggest Fan competition. He was one of thousands of contestants who made the final cut and he took second place.

      "Fela!" - News and Features:

      [ NYT ]  ArtsBeat
      Two Fewer Celebrities to Attend 'Fela!' Opening By PATRICK HEALY

      [ BS ]  Saycon Sengbloh Takes the Stairs By Alexis Brown

      Sandra Isidore enters the Eugene O'Neill Theatre stage atop a staircase, ready to inspire Fela Kuti to stand against the military dictatorship in Lagos, Nigeria.

      [ NYP ]  'Fela' needed more Felas By BARBARA HOFFMAN

      WHY does "Fela!" have two leads on Broadway when it had one off?

      [ LAT ]  'Fela!' and the risks of a firebrand By Patrick Pacheco

      Jay-Z and Will and Jada Pinkett Smith have lent their clout to the new Broadway musical depicting a defiant African pop star-activist.

      [ BR ]  Jones now dancing in concert with Broadway By ROBERT FELDBERG

      [ WSJ ]  "Fela!" Musical Director Aaron Johnson on the Broadway Premiere By Steven Kurutz

      [ NYT ]  Slide Show: 'Fela!'

      "Fela!" - Reviews:

      [ NYT ]  Making Music Mightier Than the Sword By BEN BRANTLEY

      There has never been anything on Broadway like this kinetic portrait of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, a Nigerian revolutionary of song.

      [ V ]  Fela!
      Review By DAVID ROONEY

      Bill T. Jones' wildly loose-limbed journey into the throbbing heart of Afrobeat breaks bold new ground in musical theater.

      [ TB ]  Fela!
      Review by Matthew Murray

      The Shrine may have gotten a lot bigger, but the religion of Fela! has not grown less electrifying.

      [ BN ]  Bill T. Jones Ignites Stage With Afrobeat 'Fela!": John Simon (****)

      [ DN ]  'Fela!': African pop ignites helluva 'Fela' on Broadway, in show inspired by life of Fela Kuti by Joe Dziemianowicz (****)

      [ NYP ]  Plenty of Afro-heat By ELISABETH VINCENTELLI (***)

      [ USA ]  'Fela!': An energetic Afrobeat musical to exclaim over By Elysa Gardner (*** 1/2 out of four)

      [ NJNR ]  Afrobeat music drives Broadway's new "Fela!" BY MICHAEL SOMMERS

      The show will prove a stretch for conservative Broadway tastes, but anybody desiring something more adventurous than the same old musical stuff should check out "Fela!"

      [ CU ]  Fela!

      The show is as exciting as before and looks sensational in its Broadway home where it has taken over the interior walls of the theater's auditorium.

      [ TM ]  Fela!
      Reviewed by: Dan Bacalzo

      This bio-musical about Afrobeat founder Fela Anikulapo Kuti is given an exuberant and richly rewarding production from director/choreographer Bill T. Jones.

      [ JN ]  Review: 'FELA!' By Jennifer Farrar • The Associated Press

      "FELA!" is a unique Broadway experience that leaves the audience on its feet and wanting more.

      [ BR ]  Review: "Fela!" on Broadway BY ROBERT FELDBERG

      Go to "Fela!" anticipating a super-stimulating, world-class song-and-dance concert, led by a remarkable performer, and you won't be disappointed.

      [ BS ]  Fela! - Reviewed by DAVID SHEWARD

      Director-choreographer Bill T. Jones has improved this dynamic political musical for a transfer to the Main Stem. But will it survive on star-driven Broadway?

      [ R ]  "Fela!" brings African music legend to vivid life By Frank Scheck (Hollywood Reporter)

      A smash hit Off Broadway, this wildly entertaining show will need all the help it can get to attract mainstream audiences, though the late addition of producers Jay-Z and Will and Jada Pinkett Smith will surely help.

      [ OOB ]  Fela! - Review by Matt Windman

      The show's producers took a huge risk bringing a show with a relatively narrow niche appeal to Broadway. But in spite of its overflowing theatricality, "Fela!" falls short of providing a solid night of drama.

      [ ND ]  'Fela!' misses a few storytelling beats By LINDA WINER

      The songs, with Fela's potent pidgin-poetry in subtitles, are a jubilant, subtle mixture of Afro-Caribbean rhythm, jazz brass, Yoruban chant and R&B. But they were never meant to carry a story on their back, and they do not.

      [ B ]  Was Our Word of Mouth Panel Moved by the Rhythm of Fela!?

      "The Starry Messenger":

      [ P ]  PHOTO CALL: The Starry Messenger at The New Group at Theatre Row

      [ TM ]  So Starry! By: Joseph Marzullo, Tristan Fuge, & Brian Scott Lipton

      Harry Belafonte, Michael Bolton, America Ferrara, Jane Krakowski, George Lucas, Mario Lopez, Debra Messing, Kelly Rutherford, Sherie Rene Scott, and Vanessa Williams are among the celebrities caught by our cameras.

      [ NYT ]  All Those Lonely Souls, Each Under the Same Night Sky By BEN BRANTLEY

      This gentle, compassionate comic drama re-establishes Kenneth Lonergan as a possessor of all the crucial parts of a good dramatist's anatomy.

      [ V ]  The Starry Messenger
      Review By DAVID ROONEY

      While it's frustrating at times and too unhurried, this melancholy, resolutely non-judgmental mid-life crisis drama creeps up on you. It smartly refuses forced epiphanies in favor of quiet contemplation, with an intimacy that reverberates across the night sky blanketing the walls of Derek McLane's set.

      [ TB ]  The Starry Messenger
      Review by Matthew Murray

      Is the final product perfect? By no means... But to grant undue attention to these problems is to overlook a legitimately lovely piece of writing that entertains, enlightens, and engages throughout.

      [ NYP ]  Sky-high praise for 'Starry' play by Frank Scheck (*** 1/2)

      It's sluggishly paced, overflowing with sub plots and nearly three hours long. So why is "The Starry Messenger" so moving? Maybe it's because there's so much empathy for its characters that all of them, even the unseen ones, seem to possess a deep inner life.

      [ DN ]  'The Starry Messenger': Matthew Broderick needs to get the message he's stuck in a rut by Joe Dziemianowicz (**)

      [ TM ]  The Starry Messenger
      Reviewed by: Dan Bacalzo

      Lackluster lead performances from Matthew Broderick and Catalina Sandino Moreno drag down Kenneth Lonergan's new play.

      [ BS ]  The Starry Messenger - Reviewed by David Sheward

      Matthew Broderick repeats his performance from last season's "The Philanthropist," as another dull midlevel academic with a stalled career, in Kenneth Lonergan's disappointing new play.

      [ BR ]  Review: "The Starry Messenger" off-Broadway BY ROBERT FELDBERG

      Running nearly three hours, it's as agonizingly dull as any evening of theater in recent memory.

      [ NJNR ]  'The Starry Messenger' represents bad news for Matthew Broderick BY MICHAEL SOMMERS

      A nearly three hour-long yawn, "The Starry Messenger" is a dull play about a dull man, duly and dully played by Matthew Broderick.

      [ CU ]  The Starry Messenger
      Review by Elyse Sommer

      If only Kenneth Lonergan had written a less overstuffed, overambitious and underwhelming play for his friend Matthew Broderick.

      [ YN ]  A soggy 'Starry Messenger' sinks off-Broadway By MICHAEL KUCHWARA, AP Drama Critic

      There's enough material for several plays in "The Starry Messenger," Kenneth Lonergan's sluggish, soggy, mid-life-crisis tale starring Matthew Broderick as an ineffectual astronomy instructor, husband, father and lover.

      Features:

      [ NYP ]  Finger-pointing time By Elisabeth Vincentell

      To the series of annoying things people do at the theater, I'd like to add one: checking the time on your phone. Repeatedly.

      [ G ]  How I fluffed my exit lines by Mark Lawson

      It was not boredom but anger that tempted me to leave a play in mid-show - but I lacked the courage

      [ G ]  Inside the mind of an actor (literally) by Stuart Jeffries

      How does an actor engage with the part they are playing? Fiona Shaw undergoes a brain scan while reciting TS Eliot to help shed some light on the mystery

      [ P ]  ONSTAGE & BACKSTAGE: Crazy for Ana - and Shoshana By Seth Rudetsky

      [ TDF ]  New Directions for Theatre Directors - Part I: I'm Sticking With the Union By MARK BLANKENSHIP

      [ TIMES ]  Alfred Molina - a Spaniard in the works by Alan Franks

      British-born of Spanish and Italian stock, the actor has never felt at home in England. Why, then, is he so good in English roles?

      [ G ]  James Earl Jones: confessions of Big Daddy

      James Earl Jones has been breaking down barriers since the 1950s. As he prepares to star in an all-black Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, he tells Maddy Costa about his absent father, elderly sex - and why his stutter was his salvation

      [ P ]  Ruhl and Benanti Discuss the "V" Word

      The play with the quirky name, In the Next Room or the vibrator play, touches upon some serious subjects.

      [ P ]  PLAYBILL.COM'S CUE & A: Maria Dizzia

      [ CST ]  Race against time BY HEDY WEISS

      'SOUTH PACIFIC' | Cast meets veterans of both World War II and war in Iraq

      [ NYP ]  'Gleek' goddess By MAXINE SHEN

      Who fakes a stutter? Ask T-T-Tina

      [ B ]  Q&A: From Broadway Babe to Supermom and Back with White Christmas Star Melissa Errico

      [ P ]  PHOTO CALL: White Christmas Celebrates Opening Night

      [ DI ]  Brimming with seasonal cheer By: NAILA FRANCIS

      For star Stephen Bogardus, "Irving Berlin's White Christmas" is a timely celebration of the generosity of spirit that can be a salve for life's struggles.

      [ NYP ]  Beauty on botox By CINDY ADAMS

      Vanessa you-can-hardly-ever-get- any-better-looking Williams. She's everywhere.

      [ BN ]  'Mary Poppins' Writer Embraces Posh, Likes Hollywood Sucking Up
      Interview by Michael White

      [ BS ]  Right Out of the Gate By Dany Margolies

      Troian Bellisario goes from student to working actor in two not-so-easy steps.

      [ TIMES ]  Dr Frank-N-Furter requests that you stay silent by Anna Burnside

      The Rocky Horror Show has been stripped back. 'It's no panto - we want people to listen,' says its star David Bedella

      [ TIMES ]  The odd friendship of Marilyn Monroe and Ella Fitzgerald by Bonnie Greer

      Monroe helped to kickstart Fitzgerald's career, but these Fifties icons shared more than a love of jazz

      [ TIMES ]  Abi Titmuss hits the stage in Macbeth by Ed Caesar

      Abi Titmuss has put her clothes back on to play Lady Macbeth. And it looks like the lads' mag favourite really can act

      [ NY ]  The Missing Person's Michael Shannon on Noir, 9/11, and Working With Herzog

      [ INQ ]  Singer Nellie McKay, sweetness and fight By A.D. Amorosi

      [ B ]  Photo Op: Showtime at the Apollo! Dreamgirls Celebrates Opening Night

      [ NYP ]  PAGE SIX: Scarlett Johansson's NYC birthday

      [ P ]  PHOTO CALL:This at Playwrights Horizons

      [ B ]  Photo Op: Gossip Girl Queen Bee Leighton Meester Parties at Rock of Ages

      "Bonnie & Clyde":

      [ TM ]  Bonnie & Clyde
      Reviewed by: Rob Stevens

      Laura Osnes and Stark Sands give perfect performances as the 1930s outlaws in this excellent new musical.

      [ SDUT ]  'Bonnie & Clyde' witty, tuneful to its grisly end By James Hebert

      The story of the doomed young outlaws is told with considerable wit and heart, bolstered by an inventive visual sense, strong performances and a score that bewitches in fits and starts.

      [ LAT ]  Culture Monster
      Theater review: 'Bonnie & Clyde' at La Jolla Playhouse by Charles McNulty

      The creators find little to say about the romantic robbers that hasn't been said more compellingly elsewhere.

      [ OCR ]  'Bonnie and Clyde' musical makes crime boring By PAUL HODGINS

      "Bonnie and Clyde" feels slight and predictable, its hot-button issues concerning the Depression's deep societal injustices left largely unplumbed.

      "As You Like It":

      [ P ]  As You Like It, American Style

      The director of The 39 Steps puts As You Like It in the conceptual setting of a Hollywood sound stage.

      [ WP ]  'Like It'? Well, more if not such a Hollywood shuffle By Peter Marks

      Although the visual wit is apparent, it's too much in service of a work that might be titled "As She Likes It."

      Other Reviews:

      [ NYT ]  Back to the Vermont Inn Where the Snow Must Go On By NEIL GENZLINGER

      At "Irving Berlin's White Christmas," you're mostly just waiting for the next song to come along, and more often than not when it does, you're disappointed.

      [ TIMES ]  Robin Williams at New York's Town Hall by James Bone (***)

      [ INQ ]  'Snow White' panto fun but not the fairest By Wendy Rosenfield

      [ CT ]  Hershey Felder a one-man maestro in 'Beethoven' by Chris Jones (***)

      [ HC ]  Riz's Blog Review: "August: Osage County" Tour By Frank Rizzo

      News:

      [ CT ]  Second City adds names to anniversary bash by Chris Jones

      [ BS ]  Bid On Brunch with Broadway's 'Birdie'

      [ P ]  Wildhorn's Wonderland Unveiled in Florida; Dacal, Mason, Llana Go Down Rabbit Hole

      [ P ]  A Little Night Music, With Zeta-Jones and Lansbury, Begins on Broadway

      [ P ]  Today In Theatre History: NOVEMBER 24

      [ P ]  New Hair Cast Recording Spins On Vinyl Nov. 24

      [ P ]  Fugard's Have You Seen Us? Premieres at Long Wharf Nov. 24

      [ P ]  NEWSical the Musical, with Pedi, Begins Previews Off-Broadway Nov. 24

      [ P ]  Glory Days Cast Recording Due in Stores Nov. 24

      [ TM ]  Michael Cristofer, Santino Fontana, Jessica Hecht, Corey Stoll to Join Liev Schreiber and Scarlett Johansson in Broadway Revival of A View From the Bridge

      [ NYT ]  Arts, Briefly: 'Jerusalem' Wins Award By ERIK PIEPENBURG; Compiled by DAVE ITZKOFF

      [ V ]  Broadway sees box office slip

      'God' drops but 'Race' wows

    • Posted by Tim Dunleavy at 8:52 AM | Item Link


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