Almost every one of the performers pictured here was in the news this past week — this is not just a naked scheme for ratings, as some might accuse Peter Pan Live of having been.
Below find the list of nominees for the musical theater album Grammy award and for the Clive Barnes awards, announcements of new shows and new casts, a video introduction to Larry David’s Fish in the Dark, and links to my reviews of Elephant Man and The Illusionists, and to the entire Peter Pan Live, now no longer live.
The Week in New York Theater Dec 1 – 7
1
The New York Times list of 100 notable books in 2014 contains only one by a playwright, and it’s Sarah Ruhl’s book of essays, not one of her plays.
Can’t plays be “notable books”? Some are surely literature, no — as pleasurable to read as to see staged (sometimes more so.)
284,569 people attended a Broadway show last week, the highest number for any Thanksgiving week in history, says The Broadway League.
2
Richard Thomas (The Waltons) and Anna Chlumsky (Veep) to join You Can’t Take It With You in January (replacing Mark Linn-Baker & Rose Byrne)
MT @Adam___Green
Happy 100th birthday to my dad, Adolph Green, who I miss every day. pic.twitter.com/w85AHlJeqF— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) December 2, 2014
Actually, Comden & Green live on, with FOUR shows this season: On The Town, Bandwagon, On The Twentieth Century #PeterPanLive
Among Adolph Green’s contributions to musical theater was his fathering songwriter Amanda Green and critic Adam Green.
@NewYorkTheater @Adam___Green thank you! And Adam is an incredible writer too!
— Amanda Green (@amanda_green) December 2, 2014
@amanda_green @Adam___Green Are you making a distinction between "writer" and "critic"? #fightingwords
— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) December 2, 2014
@NewYorkTheater @Adam___Green Not at all! Just meant he also writes essays films TV book etc.
— Amanda Green (@amanda_green) December 2, 2014
@amanda_green @NewYorkTheater Thank you, Mandy. Make me sound like a reg'lar renaissance man, you do.
— Adam Green (@Adam___Green) December 2, 2014
It’s a weird year for comedy. We lost Robin, we lost Joan, and we kind of lost Cosby.~Chris Rock. Q&A
3
Nina Arianda (Venus in Fur) returns to Broadway in MTC’s revival of Sam Shepard’s “Fool for Love, with Sam Rockwell. September 2015
Broadway irony via @SideShowBway (pic by @chloejfogel) pic.twitter.com/vHDdu7jCBD
— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) December 3, 2014
4
Anthony Edwards,Elizabeth Franz, Annabella Sciorra join Peter Dinklage,Taylor Schilling in CSC’s A Month in the Country by Turgenev.
The seven magicians in “The Illusionists” perform tricks we’ve all seen before, but a kinder way of saying this is that they deal in classical magic. What they do is hyped up with a live video cam (essential for the card tricks), the live rock/rap band Z, some dozen dancing “magician assistants” and about the same number of volunteered audience members, as well as dramatic lighting, and the sort of suspenseful music we’re used to hearing from “So You Want To Be A Millionaire.” The show is reminiscent of the big-arena magic show as presented in last year’s film Now You See Me, but without anything close to a bank heist as a payoff.
Full review of The Illusionists
#PeterPanLive
Sing along to Peter Pan Live (lyrics)
RETWEET If You Believe #PeterPanLive
— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) December 5, 2014
So, all snark aside, #PeterPanLive was fun — well-acted, competently choreographed, no obvious miscasting. The dog was great too
— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) December 5, 2014
5
2015 Musical Theater Album Grammy nominations:
Aladdin, Beautiful, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, West Side Story with Cheyenne Jackson and Alexandra Silber.
Almost 20 month after it opened, Matilda has recouped its $16 million investment.
The way to grow an audience is to take more risks, writes Lyn Gardner,not fear alienating the audience you have.
Taking immersive theater to the next level, via technology. Q&A w/ Bertie Watkins of CoLab Theatre
Seeing the Klinghoffer opera led arts consultant Michelle Wright to ponder the ethics and politics of art and fundraising
6
This is @nicrouleau, now Elder Price in @BookOfMormon on Bway, soon in same role in @bookofmormonldn (UK) pic.twitter.com/omMmrtVfU5
— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) December 6, 2014
This is @gavincreel (Hair, Millie, etc) taking over as Elder Price in Bway's @BookofMormon beginning Jan 6 pic.twitter.com/uClBrSR8fA
— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) December 6, 2014
Requirement for Elder Price, originated by @AndrewRannells, is really good teeth & a Twitter account. pic.twitter.com/bvCJPjjuH4
— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) December 5, 2014
This is @MattfDoyle,super singer once of @BookofMormon soon in @bklynitemusical at @vineyardtheatre pic.twitter.com/y1WwzNbyGn
— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) December 6, 2014
This is #JonathanGroff, last on Bway in 2008 in Spring Awakening, once on #Glee, currently in @LookingHBO pic.twitter.com/b8D0ouW63g
— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) December 6, 2014
This is @JohnGallagherJr,also Spring Awakening,last on Bway in Jerusalem(2011),now in @HBO's #TheNewsroom pic.twitter.com/C1dmxtoUsY
— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) December 6, 2014
You’ll notice enough similarity among the performers that they could star in a musical about sextuplets.
— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) December 6, 2014
7
Congrats to the four #CliveBarnesAward theater nominees:
1. Jay Armstrong Johnson (On The Town)
2. Alexander Sharp (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time)
3. Will Pullen (Signature Theater’s Wayside Motor Inn. Pullen is currently giving splendid, scary performance in Punk Rock.)
4. Collin Kelly-Sordelet (The Last Ship)
Recipients of the award and its $5,000 prize will be announced during a ceremony at the Walter Reade Theater on Jan. 26.
https://twitter.com/alexandersharp/status/541772932109058049
The Broadway production of Fun Home has earlier dates than originally announced – previews now begin March 27, opens April 19
Rita Wilson Ben Shenkman, Lewis J Stadlen join Larry David in his Fish In TheDark, comedy about a death in the family, which begins February 2 at the Cort
— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) December 6, 2014
Bradley Cooper is shirtless and in boxer shorts when we first see him on stage as John Merrick in director Scott Ellis’s competent production of Bernard Pomerance’s play “The Elephant Man” that has opened tonight at the Booth Theater. There is Cooper, a movie star with impeccable pecs, People Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive in 2011, portraying a historical figure who was so grotesquely deformed that he was at first exhibited as an “elephant man” in freak shows…. Cooper, contorting his body and speaking haltingly out of the side of his mouth, offers a fine performance as Merrick, one likely to satisfy those who got their tickets specifically to see him in the flesh. But it did not strike me as an extraordinary performance, which comes as something of a surprise…
Full review of The Elephant Man
Broadway Bolter –> Banned on Broadway
