“The theater is not so much a profession as a disease, and my first look at Broadway was the beginning of a lifelong infection.”
So writes Moss Hart in “Act One,” a memoir that, we’re told, is being adapted for the stage.
The Fall 2012 New York theater season has begun – here is my Broadway Fall preview — and is about to intensify. In the meantime, to catch up, some highlights from the past few weeks of my @NewYorkTheater Twitter feed, including a poll, a quiz, and my reviews of “Forbidden Broadway,” Sam Shepard’s “Heartless” at the Signature, “Chaplin,” and Broadway composer-lyricist Jason Robert Brown’s gig at Below 54.
August
21
Howlround’s weekly #newplay chat was on self-producing for playwrights. Here is James Camtois’s guide
Little Jimmy’s Guide to Self-producing
22
Karen Allen, best-known for Indiana Jones, now Bard College theater professor, will star in Jon Fosse’s “A Summer Day” at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater beginning October 10th.
23
Congratulations David Henry Hwang for the $200,000 Steinberg Playwriting Award. That’s four times more than he earned for three years work on Chinglish
24
Profile of Tom Stoppard at age 75
25
Sony Pictures signed five-year deal with Broadway producer Scott Sanders (Evita) to adapt its films for Broadway. First up: Tootsie. Disney has been doing for 20 years.(Beauty and the Beast opened in 1994)
26
Take my poll: Which Broadway Fall 2012 Shows Are You Most Looking Forward To?\
27
Movie star Jake Gyllenhaal is in an Off-Broadway play, Nick Payne’s “If There Is I Haven’t Found I Yet,” hoping to feel “I’ve torn my heart out from acting” Unlike his Hollywood hunger days, Gyllenhaal sees acting as “building little delicate cricket cages, with care and more thought” (Huh?)
“Motown” will star Brandon Victor Dixon (best-known as the original Harpo in The Color Purple on Broadway, and the star of The Scottsboro Boys) as Berry Gordy Jr. The musical by Gordy, the founder of Motown studios, will open at the Lunt-Fontanne on April 14, 2013
My review of Heartless, Sam Shepard’s new woman play.
28
A golden time for New York non-profit theaters this fall: Golden Age at Manhattan Theater Club; Golden Child at the Signature Theater; Golden Boy at Lincoln Center Theater.
29
Ricky Martin is cutting his performances of Che in Evita down to seven a week.
The part will be played on alternate Mondays by Max von Essen and Daniel Torres.
30
First-ever stage adaptation of a book by Jonathan Franzen. House for Sale , Oct 13-Nov 18 Transport Group
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Take the New York Theater August 2012 quiz. Sample Q: Which Broadway show has the advertising slogan “It’s everything Broadway….and more”
September
1
Lyricist Hal David (Promises, Promises on Broadway) has died at age 91. Long-time collaborator with composer Burt Bacharach.
2
Closing today: Clybourne Park, Voca People, One Man Two Guvnors
Best of the Twitter hashtag #FailedMusicals
Out of the Woods, Papa Mia, Next to Nothing, Legally Blind, Legally Bland, Not Very Much Jazz, Joseph and the Beige Housecoat, Greece, A Bank Line, Violinist in the Living Room, 41st Street, 1789
3
Should government fund the arts? Debate in The Economist
4
War Horse is closing at Lincoln Center on January 6. (It will continue in London and on U.S. tour)
Broadway Week begins today. Two-for-one tickets to 19 Broadway shows, & a free dessert from 25 area restaurants. Through September 16
5
“Theater exists all around us and it is the purpose of formal theater to remind us this is so”-John Cage, born 100 years ago today (died in 1992)
A stage version of Nobel Laureate Gabriel García Márquez’s 1985 novel “Love in the Time of Cholera” is opening at Repertorio Espanol October 15
Revival of the late Lanford Wilson’s lovely cross-cultural love story, Tally’s Folly, opens March 5, 2013 Off-Broadway at the Roundabout Theater Company’s Laura Pels Theater.
A Matilda billboard is up already, even though it’s not on Broadway until March
6
“Flashdance,” the 1983 movie about female welder-dancer, will be adapted into a Broadway musical in Aug. 2013, its producers say.
Broadway’s ladies rooms are terrible, says the New York Post. The best is at the Music Box. Worst: Cort, Shubert
For the next 10 days A Christmas Story is holding auditions — online — to find its young lead Ralphie
Cast of 2012 Elf announced: Beth Leavel, Mark Jacoby, Valerie Wright, Adam Heller and Michael Mandell (no relation)
From actor Nina Arianda to producer Oren Wolf, 25 under 35 years old Emerging Broadway Players from Art Info
7
My review of Forbidden Broadway: Alive and Kicking.
Forbidden Broadway: Alive and Kicking” is the 21st edition of the revue that Gerard Alessandrini created 30 years ago, using the actual songs from Broadway musicals, but supplying his own affectionately caustic, witty lyrics, and hiring talented performers who could sing, dance, mimic and make funny faces….
No figure no matter how hallowed on the Great White Way is safe from “Forbidden Broadway”: Among the current no-holds-barred targets are Stephen Sondheim, Manny Patinkin and Patti LuPone, Bernadette Peters, and Audra McDonald. But each of these are rendered in such exact imitation – with an amusingly demented twist just a few degrees away from reality — that, like the caricatures in Sardi’s, Forbidden Broadway is more homage than assault, and just as much a theatrical tradition.
In honor of tonight’s Props Summit, the fourth annual gathering of prop masters: When has the absence of a prop stopped a show?
In Play it Again Sam, says director Daniel Bourque, “we almost stopped performance when phone was misplaced. Whole scenes won’t work without it.” In 12 Angry People, says director Robert Falls, “no coffee machine or cups killed only possible blocking for actors”
Anthony LaPaglia to star as Richard Nixon, Kathryn Erbe as Pat Nixon in Checkers. (Anybody as dog?) Opens Oct 28
8
Not again! The opening of Rebecca is being delayed because one of its major investors has died. http://nyti.ms/Rx1fyz
Jason Robert Brown (@MrJasonRBrown): Having had 2 Bway shows postponed this year because of funding problems,I’m acutely sensitive to Rebecca delay
Wondering if such delays in coming Broadway shows are more common these days because of tough economy, or has it always been hard?
My Backstage review of The Eyes of Others. An absurdist comedy by a young Bulgarian Beckett
9
Broadway on Broadway, a concert in Times Square sampling 11 Broadway shows, including two opening this season, Scandalous and Motown
These Spider-Men in Times Square are actually part of the show (not hanging out for tourists)
My Backstage review of Adam Szymkowicz’s The Why Overhead, comedy about office life, at Zootopia Theater
10
Michael John LaChiusa’s Giant,based on the James Dean/Elizabeth Taylor/Rock Hudson film,opens at The Public Theater November 13, with a cast including Brian d’Arcy James and Bobby Steggert.
Chaplin opens on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore
Rob McClure as Charlie Chaplin walks a tightrope, plays the violin, roller skates with a blindfold on, does backflips into a handstand, and — most dexterous of all — carries “Chaplin: The Musical” on his twitchy shoulders….Despite the time, talent and experience that went into the making of “Chaplin,” there are some startling stumbles, cringe-worthy missteps. But there are several smart choices as well – the smartest being the casting of Rob McClure.
11
Fun Home, new musical by Jeanine Tesori (Caroline or Change, Shrek) Sam Gold, dir, will open @PublicTheaterNY Lab. Oct 17-Nov 4
12
My TDF Stages article on the art of adaptation. How Rebecca Lenkiewicz transformed Ibsen’s Enemy of the People
“If you’re going to adapt something, you have to dive in and get under the skin,” she says. “Presumably you love the work you are adapting, so you don’t want to distort it. But you want to inhabit it. Your job is to find your own rhythm and a truth in the psychology.”
The National Theatre has been “HDcasting” its plays in US moviehouses for years. Now Shakespeare’s Globe will do so too
13
NYC benefits from Broadway, which supports 86,000 jobs, injects $11 billion into local economy. NYC gov has launched http://www.SpotlightonBroadway.com
For the first time in their 20-year marriage, Boyd Gaines & Kathleen McNenny are performing together, playing Mr & Mrs in Enemy of the People
Invitation-only Marvin Hamlisch celebration Sep 18 Peter Sharp Theater with Barbra Streisand, Aretha Franklin, Minnelli, Itzhak Perlman etc
14
My review of Jason Robert Brown at Below 54
15
Michael Jackson, Tommy Tune shopped there. Now Colony Records, 64-year-old sheet music store on Broadway and 49th Street, is closing today.
Lewis Black on Broadway: My Playbill interview with him
16
Broadway Week 2-for-the-price-of-1 tickets ends today, Use code BWAYWEEK
Off-Broadway Week,2-for-1 tickets begins tomorrow. Sept 17-30 http://bit.ly/AdWWre
