People the world over know tomorrow as Christmas. But Les Miz fans know it as the U.S. release of the movie Les Miserables. My review of the movie.

It is never too late to give a gift for theater-lovers

I finally completed the top 10 list of top 10 theater in 2012 – including three lists of my own

David Lawson ‏(@dtlawson):Glad to see a wild card in a best theatre of ’12 list: Fringe show AN INTERROGATION PRIMER

Julia Murney (‏@JuliaMurney, star of Falling): Thanks for the shout-out
Winner (so far) Worst Show on Broadway 2012 poll is Scandalous. First runner-up: The Anarchist

The week in New York Theater:

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‘Glengarry Glen Ross revival, with Al Pacino and Bobby Cannavale and top ticket price of $350, recoups on Broadway.

Lydia Diamond’s Stick Fly, a regional theater favorite that made it to Broadway. will be adapted into an hour presentation on HBO

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Tonight Chicago became the third-longest running show on Broadway, playing its 6,681st performance, one more than Les Miz.

Wow. Cuba Gooding Jr, Vanessa Williams, Condola Rashad join Cicely Tyson for A Trip To Bountiful at Broadway’s Sondheim Theater beginning performances March 31

Sunset Boulevard team (Lloyd-Webber, D Black, C Hampton) reuniting for Profumo,new musical about 1960s political sex scandal

Answering Flavorpill’s “50 Up-and-Coming New York Culture-Makers To Watch in 2013”

I’m shocked that Flavorpill’s list  includes NOT A SINGLE theater artist. Let’s help them out. They seem to prefer Brooklynites under 30.

So how about playwright Joshua Conkel. Brooklynite: check. Under 30: pretty sure (He acts kid-like)

Mac Rogers ‏(@macwrites) Josh looks a good 20 years younger than he is. Dunno if it’s beet-juice or what. He actually has 1 grandkid.

Joshua Conkel ‏@JoshuaConkel THANK YOU! That’s so sweet. (I turn 32 tomorrow. [sad face])

Jonathan Mandell: I still think you’d qualify for Flavorpill’s culture-maker list since you live in Brooklyn.

James Carter (@jdcarter):  Katori Hall. ..Timeless: Bastard Keith and Madame Rosebud

Annie Baker, author of Circle Mirror Transformation, Aliens, Uncle Vanya translation. Annie Baker is just turning 31,maybe too old for Flavorpill and I don’t know if she lives in Brooklyn, but she DID get her MFA from Brooklyn College

Kari (‏@inflammatorywrt): She’s only 31?!?! *headdesk*

Sarah Bishop-Stone ‏(@sbishopstone): It’s not even an under-30 list!

Jonathan Mandell: Not overtly — covertly. Look how they apologize for including an author who’s 39!

James Carter : Yeah, if it was a 50 under 30 list, maybe; but that apology was rude.

Terry Martin ‏(@TerryMartinWTT)  May I suggest Brian J. Smith? (He played Andrei the Russian hustler-spy in The Columnist on Broadway, but is better known for his TV and movie roles)

Sarah Bishop-Stone:  I nominate Caleb Hammons to this list. Also the founders of Jack (@jackartsny), the arts center in Clinton Hill.

Caleb Hammons ‏(@computersays_no):  I try to, not sure it’s making an impact. (not claiming I’m important)

Amy Herzog, Sam Gold — she playwright, he director, they married. Gold (Seminar, Look Back in Anger,etc.) and Herzog (4000 Miles, After The Revolution, Great God Pan) are young AND they even live in Brooklyn.

Also, directors Thomas Kail and Alex Timbers

Director and playwright Young Jean Lee. She lives in Brooklyn and has “young” in her very name

Not young enough? Jonathan Draxton just graduated from Williams,has solo show at Here.  Samantha Payne Garland is an actor who has become a producer; and works with Jen Ponton

Up-and-coming culture-making theater artists #9-50: the playwrights of Youngblood at Ensemble Studio Theater (@YoungbloodNYC ) and the actors (performing as “The Bats”) of The Flea Theater (@TheFleaTheater)

Up-and-coming culture-making theater artists #50-100: the theater makers — performers, playwrights, designers etc of the independent (aka Off-Off Broadway) shows honored by the New York Independent Theater Awards

Joshua Conkel: I think we should really take a hard look and ask ourselves if we deserve to be.

James Carter: So, no theater makers – in the entire city – have a cultural impact on New York?

Sarah Bishop-Stone: There ARE theater up-and-coming culture makers who work in theater/performance. I’d argue that the important ones are working to de-ghettoize “theater” as a form

Mac Rogers: I think if someone thinks not, they should make that argument. But make it straight up, not by omission.

Jonathan Mandell: Oh please.The Flavorpill list includes a publicist and a maker of restaurant mugs. But no room for theater artists?

Suzan Eraslan ‏@SuzanEraslan No dancers or choreographers on the Flavorpill list either.

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Good news/bad news day: Berry Gordy made a commercial for both Chrysler & Motown musical. The good news is world may end today

Things I won’t miss about this world: cruelty, gout, envy, Mamma Mia.

Disney hadn’t even planned to bring it to Broadway, but Newsies has recouped its investment in little over 9 months.
I am always happy to hear that a show has “recouped.” (like the sound of that word.) I wish ticket-buyers could “recoup” too.

The end-of-show cameo by Estelle Parsons in Nice Work If You Can Get It is being taken over by Blythe Danner.

Here’s an ENTIRE top 10 list of theater in 2012 YOU CAN STILL SEE 

17 of 20 current Broadway musicals feature grads of University of Michigan or Carnegie Mellon, writes Pia Catton. in

Yes Silence will end its run December 30 at Elektra Theater. BUT then it will RETURN there January 18 for another open run

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Another Broadway video by Raymond J Lee:, this one a tribute to Sandy Hook victims, one by one.

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Jessica Chastain is the Lon Chaney of our age. From The Help to The Heiress to Zero Dark Thirty, she’s nearly unrecognizable

Jesse Hutchison (@JesseHutchison) loves The Mystery of Edwin Drood says “All theater should be choose your own ending.” What show would you give a new ending. In Death of A Salesman, we can decide whether Willy Loman dies, & which character dies instead. (I’d pick his boss)

Q&A with John Kander on how he and Fred Ebb hated movie of Cabaret at first, & why Chicago was a hit only when revived

Listening to Tony Kushner talking to Bill Moyers on 13 about Lincoln and Obama.

In top picture

Left: playwrights Annie Baker and Joshua Conkel; Anne Hathaway in Les Miz.
Center: theater director and playwright Young Jean Lee, playwright and actor Jonathan Draxton; director Sam Gold and his wife playwright Amy Herzog.
Right: Samantha Barks and Eddie Redmayne in Les Miz; playwright Katori Hall