The Theatah

we have tony award winning local theater in my home town. its ok... all these movie stars and their entourages hang out and you get sick of them after a while. campbell scott was in a one man show last year which was ok. i was front row center and i could have sworn he was giving me "the eye"

I saw Peter Dinklage doing Richard III with the Public Theater, and I got to see Will Ferrell's Bush show. Both were fantastic.

Phillip Seymour Hoffman is playing Iago in an upcoming off-Broadway production of Othello in NYC. So much want.

oh peter dinklage was here this summer too for our theater. he is so far at least the only midget i've ever seen in town. how cool is it that the first midget/little person our town ever gets is the worlds most famous, and probably the funniest? ( he was so great in 'in bruge'). i did not see what he was in though. i'm protesting our theater for jacking up the prices so much.

Peter Dinklage wasn't the little person in In Bruges.

Eh, they all look the same.

I've not seen any shows featuring famous people, but I will be seeing a production of "As You Like It" performed at the Globe Theatre about three weeks from now, and I'm so excited I might just burst.

Here's the relevant info:

Directed by Thea Sharrock
Designed by Dick Bird
Composed by Stephen Warbeck
Choreographed by Fin Walker

Cast
Michael Benz Silvius
Philip Bird Duke Senior
Sophie Duval Audrey
Naomi Frederick Rosalind
Peter Gale Amiens/Sir Oliver Martext
Gregory Gudgeon Le Beau/William
Brendan Hughes Duke Frederick
Sean Kearns Charles the Wrestler/Corin
Jack Laskey Orlando
Trevor Martin Adam
Tim McMullan Jaques
Jamie Parker Oliver
Laura Rogers Celia
Dominic Rowan Touchstone
Ewart James Walters Hymen
Jade Williams Phoebe

Not entirely sure. This is my first trip to London, so I'm not really familiar with the area. The address on the website is:

Shakespeare's Globe
21 New Globe Walk
Bankside
London SE1 9DT

Thanks...I'm pretty excited. Just glad I'm going with someone who has been there before.

The Donmar helped Jason Robert Brown fuck up Parade, which is now the "official" version of the show. And it sucks. So I have a grudge.

I wish I could go back in time and check out the Abbey Theater in Dublin circa late 1920s/early 1930s, when Barry Fitzgerald and Arthur Shields were there and there would be riots every time there was a new Sean O'Casey play, usually culminating in somebody like Yeats jumping up and making a loud angry, incredibly verbose speech off the top of his head decrying them.

Next I'd crank that time machine over to the late 1940s/1950s to check out some Richard Burton plays. Critics always said his worst performances were on the camera, strangled in take after take of repetitive coverage, whereas his live performances on stage were mindblowing powderkegs of intensity. Now that I'd liked to have seen.

Also, I heard Nicol Williamson did one of the best Macbeths of all time, and considering his twitchy off-the-wall take on Merlin in Excalibur it would have been something truly special.

My go to Best Ever production was The Pillowman on Broadway. It's a play you need to know about if you don't already, and it starred Jeff Goldblum, Billy Crudup, Zeljko Ivanek, and star of the Coen's newest Michael Stuhlbarg (who I had a beer with once).

I've seen tons of stars in plays. They lose their luster pretty quick. But they're still fun to brag about.

I saw Julius Caesar with Denzel Washington as Brutus (SUCKED!), Colm Feore as Cassius, and William Sadler (!) as Caesar. Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Tim Curry, David Hyde Pierce, and Alan Tudyk (!) in Spamalot, Ethan Hawke, Wallace Shawn, Parker Posey, and Bobby Cannavale in Hurlyburly, Alan Alda, Liev Schreiber, and Jeffrey Tambor in Glengarry Glenn Ross, David Schwimmer (actually very good) and Tim Daly in The Caine Mutiny, Liev again in Macbeth, John C Reilly and Natasha Richardson in Streetcar Named Desire, Brian Cox and Rufus Sewell in Rock 'n Roll, Ciaran Hinds and David Morse in The Seafarer (incredible), Ian McShane in The Homecoming, and Frank Langella and Michael Sheen in Frost/Nixon. Off the top of my head. Fun as that is, I find the best performances are usually unknown actors. There are exceptions, most of them named Liev.

I've been too poor for the theater lately. Hence, no Equus or God of Carnage happening for me, though I might break down for that Philip Seymour Hoffman Othello. I would like to see him.

The worst major show I've ever seen is Evil Dead: The Musical. Fucking awful.

The L.A. production of Oleanna with Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles was pretty good. It was amusing to hear folks actually cheering when Stiles eventually gets the shit beat out of her. That's a crazy screed of a play, anyway.

I saw the revival of Glengarry Glen Ross with Liev Schreiber, as well. Liev was absolutely fantastic, and the entire production was electric.

Seeing as I'm majoring in musical theatre when I go to New York I usually try to hit up the musicals seeing as they're great learning tools for me. But I did see God of Carnage which was just fantastic.

Best show I saw during my last trip to NYC? I kid you not - Mary Poppins. It's the first of Disney's musicals that takes all of the technical flourishes and puts it to use towards the story and characters. Not to mention the choreography was fantastic. Billy Elliot's choreography was (not surprisingly) incredible, as well.

oh wow, who was? they all look similar i guess. i am shocked to discover it was not him

How short-sighted of you.

pun intended, i am sure

I dropped a hefty chunk of change to buy front row seats to Three Days Of Rain because I have had an unhealthy crush on Julia Roberts for 20 years now. At one point she sat on a bed not ten feet from me, it wasn't exactly what I had always imagined, but it was close enough.

Dinklage isn't a midget, either.

I saw a pretty great production of Anthony and Cleopatra many moons ago (1993?), with Jim Bergerac himself, John Nettles playing Julius Caesar. He was stellar. And that was my first exposure to serious theatre. The showstopper was the moment they lift Caesar's corpse up a great wall into someone's chamber (i'm not very familiar with the text, as you can tell). Nettles was lying on a stretcher on the stage and Mark Anthony was on a raised ledge at the back of the stage. As he tugged on the ropes to lift the stretcher, the backdrop and ledge sank into the stage, rather than Nettles being lifted up. A simple solution to a staging problem, but one that really made an impression on me at that age (12). Sadly, it drew laughs from the student crowd.

I've seen Ian McKellen play Prospero in a modern telling of The Tempest. He was phenomenal, but unfortunately he was trapped in a sub-par production. Aside from McKellen, though, it did have an interesting silent prologue of Prospero bashing about a toy boat in a pond, prefacing the storm that opens the play. Of course, it gives away that Prospero caused the whole thing, but it was about as elegant as the production got.

Also saw The Producers when it came to town two years ago, the production that had Peter Kay in drag. Hilarious show and the Springtime for Hitler sequence lifted the roof off. Such a cleverly pulled off setpiece, I dare say it rivalled the Brooks film just for sheer ingenuity.

Most recently (last year) I got to the Old Vic for Speed the Plow with Spacey and Goldblum, which was, of course, a delight. Everyone left with a big smile on their face, but I must that the Old Vic has some pretty crappy seats to the sides of the stage - half the action isn't visible from the cheap seats. I've never had that problem at any other theatre.

what is he??

Daniel Craig is rocking the awesome facial hair in Steady Rain, I tell you that much.

I can't seem to find it, but there is a great clip out there of Patti LuPone flipping her shit during a performance of Gypsy for the same thing.

Being a NYer I try to go to the theater a few times a year. But my favorite star-headlining play of recent years was a revival of Glengarry Glen Ross starring Alan Alda, Jeffrey Tambor and Liev Schreiber. Tom Wopat had a bit part as well. I had pretty decent seats so it was a blast.

Ignore Kate, people. Pretty please with a cherry on top.

Amazing news! My mom bought me tickets to the Daniel Craig Hugh Jackman Theater Spectacular! I think the seats suck, but whatever, it's going to be amazing. I'm going November 25th, the day before Thanks Giving.

Hopefully by the time I go they'll have been able to perfect their performances so I'll see the best possible version of the play

Any other Chewers going on this day?

The word is that Craig is phenomenal, Jackman is...Hugh Jackman.

Craig is one of my favorite actors. The election of Barack Obama as President and the selection of Daniel Craig as James Bond stand as rare moments in my life where what I most wanted to happen in the entire world actually happened.

Jackman can be very strong and I like him alot as a movie star, but I am not sure that is the same thing as being an actor on the level of talent as Craig

When I was in Russia, I was at the theater, I forgot what show it was. During the show two old ladies got into a loud fist fight in the hallway leading to the lobby. Totally messed with the atmosphere.

I don't know if that was my best theater experience, or the worst.

A highlight for me was seeing Baz Luhrman's La Boheme on Broadway. Epic.

The Bunk follows Cutty to Broadway:

http://theater2.nytimes.com/2009/10/...theaterreviews

Pierce is apparently a phenomenal talent on stage -- he was responsible for doing a production of Waiting for Godot in New Orleans' Ninth Ward after Katrina.

Rickles, Saget and Stamos together on stage?
That sounds like a better show than Bye Bye Birdie.
http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2009/...saget-rickles/

I have tickets to the STEADY RAIN play with Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig for November! I am sooo excited Should be awesome. I'll let you guys know what I think once I've gone

On Broadway now: A Behanding in Spokane, by Martin McDonagh (of Pillowman and In Bruges fame). Starring Christopher Walken, Sam Rockwell, and Anthony Mackie.

It's fucking spectacular. The play is not one of McDonagh's greatest. It's something of a light lunch next to Pillowman's steak dinner, but it's absolutely hilarious throughout. And really, the man cannot write a bad play. But the real draw is the performances of Walken and Rockwell. Both are beyond great, but Walken in particular is revelatory. I've always liked him quite a bit, but seeing him performing live I was struck by how well chosen and present his famous speaking pattern truly is. It's one of the best performances I've ever seen. If you're in New York, check this bitch out post haste. It closes June 4th.

Last week I was sitting around on Monday whenI got a call from one of my professors. It was spring break and as wondering what I was doing for the week. I said the titular "nothing." Well, he offers and we whisk off immediately for the week to New York for an "academic research trip" together. Which basically means as many shows as we can pack in. I'll be back with a rundown of some of the great stuff I saw once I have time. Until then, if anyone is in NYC and has the means: See A View From the Bridge before it closes. See it. Now. Run. Don't walk. SEE IT.

The New Yorker called McDonaugh out on his use of the n-word and the portrayal of Mackie's character. Thoughts?

Also, Mr. Cellophane, we're not friends anymore. Patrick Wilson as the narrator of your posts = REVOKED.

Also, the greatest musical theater composer of the post Rogers and Hammerstein era, Mr. Stephen Joshua Sondheim, is eighty years old today. He's still sad and will probably die soon, but he also wrote some of the greatest musicals of all time, has won an Oscar, mulitple Tonys and Grammys, and a Pulitzer Prize. Also, he boned Neil Patrick Harris. I almost started a thread about this in music, but maybe I'll blab about the best Sondheim works and interpretations (the original Company is best, followed by the Doyle Sweeney Todd) later.

Sondheim is gay? Okay, okay, the mother issues don't seem so out-of-left-field now.

Also, you sort of have to love the way he learned to write musicals. That's every lonely kid's best dream come true.

Sondheim is big-time gay, although he was closeted for years. Also, his mother was fucking insane.

I was actually really upset. Coming out to New York I was wanting to contact you, and tried finding your email or any contact info in the emails we've exchanged, but I couldn't even find the emails on my phone. We left in such a rush (it really was a spur of the moment thing) and I didn't even bring my computer with me. I was not pleased.

It's all good. I was just busting your balls.

The girlfriend is dragging me to NEXT TO NORMAL in like a month or so. I don't know how I feel about this.

Also, I don't know if anyone saw, but A TIME TO KILL is being adapted for the stage.

I've heard good stuff about Next to Normal. I opted not to see it because I listened to the recording of it constantly while building sets with my summerstock company last summer and was never too impressed.

I'm going to look for the article calling out McDonagh for his use of the n word, because I'm curious what they'll say about Mackie's character. The writing of the character is fine, it's the acting that could be considered one-dimensional or over stereotypical.

I think the article was either in last week's or two weeks ago, so it should be available online now.

I'm skeptical of Next to Normal, because I'm skeptical of anything that emo theater high school kids like. See also, in chronological order: Rent, Wicked, Spring Awakening.

You could string some valid points together on that, if you wanted to be a pussy about it. 'Nigger' gets thrown around a good amount by Walken's character, but it's sort of akin to, say, Pulp Fiction. And other characters call him out on it, even though he's clearly a violent psychopath. The Mackie character, I mean, I guess if you're looking to be offended, even though the actress playing his girlfriend is white, and they're presented in pretty much the exact same way. McDonaugh was way meaner to midgets in In Bruges, but then we're not in a cultural tizzy about midget relations.

Ultimately, it wasn't something I even really noticed, especially amidst all the casual racism happening on the news every day. Although really, if I'm going to respond to this review, I should probably read it.

Mackie has a bit about how much black people love Yoda that I laughed pretty good at.

Next to Normal always sounded like warmed over Spring Awakening mixed with the worst things about Rent to me.

Let me know what you think!

Alright, this last weeks rundown, in chronological order of what I saw:

A Behanding in Spokane: Like Arjen said previously, it's a lesser McDonagh work, but it's typical McDonagh through and through. The beginning of the play, the surprise reveals, the language and the racial/class politics are very prevalent. It never fully coalesces to me, though, as a text, though there are a few fantastic monologues and good scenes throughout. Sam Rockwell has a monologue given in direct address to the audience where that acts as an "intermission" that is just stellar. Christopher Walken is Christopher Walken. The New Yorker review nailed it -he's playing the Chris Walken character- and so I guess it boils down to if you like it. I did. The New Yorker also nailed Mackie, as well. There is nothing inherently racist about the character as written, but Mackie delivers a one-note, one-dimensional character who has no other subtle nuance than "yelling black guy."

Lend Me a Tenor: The script is perfect. It is a minutely constructed farce that is perfectly conceived. The cast does well - Tony Shalhoub is fantastic - but the pacing in the first act was so slow it killed me at times. I'm imagining the oace will improve as they move out of previews and actually open, but as it was the slow pace killed a lot of good comedic bits. I saw this one mostly for a little bit of academic analysis seeing as I directed it over the summer for a company.

West Side Story: The choreography is incredible. Absolutely stunning. The acting by the principals, except for Karen Olivo as Anita, was completely mediocre. Maria was alright and has a decent voice (while constantly falling flat during the duets) and Riff and Tony were flat out terrible actors. The ensemble, on the other hand was full of exciting and engaging actors. The show has minor updates from the revival director and original librettist Arthur Laurents, and these updates give a very nice new sense of vitality and urgency to a story that's been done hundreds of times before. The spanish worked only intermittently for me, not because I didn't understand (anyone who knows the story can follow it clearly through the spanish sections) but rather because it's use never felt natural to me. The only exception was the Sharks' use of spanish in the Tonight reprise leading to the rumble. The highlights of the show were definitely Olivo (phenomenal) and the numbers America and Cool. The "Somewhere Dream Ballet" was also very well conceived and executed.

A View From the Bridge: The best show I've seen in New York, beating out the revival of Glengarry Glen Ross. I sat at the very back of the theatre. I know this story frontwards and backwards. Yet still this production touched me very deeply. There are no real "actor-y" moments. No grand scenes of yelling or furor and great "emotion." It is simple and subtle and human. It felt voyeuristic in a sense, almost like peeking into someone's private life. Again, I was very moved by this production, but I was moved by the subtle humanity of it all, and never by any strong "acting." The acting as it is is absolutely stunning and electrifying. Liev Schreiber proved again why he's one of my hero actors. Jessica Hecht is absolutely fantastic, and Scarlett Johansson strips away all of her raspy sexuality in order to play a fully formed character completely different than anything else I've seen her do. Most surprising, though, was screenwriter Michael Christofori as Alfieri: he was absolutely heartstopping. This production is something special: it's subtle and truthful and revealing in a completely human fashion.

A Little Night Music: The best musical theatre acting I've seen on Broadway. Angela Lansbury is great (of course) and Catherine Zeta Jones does very well. (though her singing felt very pushed and forced) The woman playing Petra was fantastic and her solo at the end (The Miller's Son) is the best in the show. Trevor Nunn creates a very brisk feeling show from a lengthy Sondheim piece, and creates some fantastic symbolic musical staging. The entire ensemble is filled with wonderful singers, and Sondheim's music sounds beautiful.

Billy Elliott: I saw it for the second time, just because I love it so. Not much to say on it. The use of danc ein the show as storytelling is the best I've seen on broadway.

Red: My biggest disappointment. Red is by John Logan, and stars Alfred Molina. It's about artist Mark Rothko and was absolutely intellectually stimulating. On that level I loved it. I would love to get my hands on Logan's excellent script and read it repeatedly. It's an examination of creativity and art and its meanings, very interesting stuff, but the production itself lacks any humanity and sense of need. Mamet would despise the actionless, conflictless script. The script can work, but the acting makes it seem even more actionless and conflictless. The play becomes a lifeless mass of pontificating and yelling. The lighting, however is stunning, and I loved the scenic transitions they used. There is also one sequence where Molina and his costar Eddie Redmayne furiously paint a canvas which is exciting and breathtaking. But then all of that excitement and energy is squandered.

Anyway, go and see A View from the Bridge if you can. It is worth it. It closes April 4. Also, John Lithgow is live in a show called Mr. and Mrs. Fitch at the Second Stage theatre on (I believe) 45th between 8 and 9 ave. I didn't see it but friends have said it's very funny. Anyway, they do 15 dollar student rush seats starting at 7:00 for 15 bucks. If you've got any form of student id that's a great deal. It's whatever tickets they haven't sold for the day and box office told me they haven't been selling out, so rush tix are always available.

To quote the not-so-dearly departed Domingo, Next to Normal shattered me to the point that I was shaking. The opening number made the hair on the back of my neck stand up, and by the end of the first act, I had tears running down my face. See also: the end of the show, where I cried for pretty much the last 40 minutes.

It's not an epic show -- it's a suburban drama set to music, although there are certain numbers that feel big and sweeping -- and I can see how a lot of the criticisms would be that this is a White People with Problems Musical. (There's even a red door reference!) But it really taps into so much of what's in the American mindset right now, from our obsessions with overmedication to the recurring "everything's perfect, but it's not" theme. That's one of the reasons why I can see it deserves the Pulitzer, and then some.

It's also an amazingly staged, amazingly acted, astonishingly lit and produced show. This might be an odd compliment or comparison, but there are moments/numbers that feel very cinematic (the film I would compare it to is ALL THAT JAZZ). It kicked my ass. See it.