“So, are you drunk yet? Are you high?” host Mario Cantone asked near the end of the 35th annual Lucille Lortel Award, which for the first time was presented online. “When this is over, I’m heading for the tequila, because there’s nothing else.”
Actually, there’s quite a lot – more theater than is usual in the month of May, and almost as many theater awards
Of course, it’s different this year, as Rachel Dratch vividly demonstrated.
Below the latest award nominees, winners and ceremonies.
May Calendar of Theater “Openings”
PLUS
plus tonight at Stars in the House on YouTube: The cast of Ryan Murphy’s Netflix series “Hollywood” (many of whom are Broadway veterans): David Corenswet, Darren Criss, Laura Harrier, Joe Mantello, Dylan McDermott, Jeremy Pope, Mira Sorvino, Holland Taylor and Samara Weaving
PLUS
Broadway Does Mothers Day, a star-studded fundraising variety show on — when else? — Mother’s Day (this coming Sunday)
The Week in Theater Awards
(Next up: The Pulitzer Prizes, this afternoon)
Lucille Lortel Award Winners: Octet, Heroes of the Fourth Turning, For Colored Girls
Watch the 85th annual New York Drama Critics Circle ceremony
(and read the speeches)
Drama League Award nominations and watch Gratitude Awards video
Don’t know the difference between the awards of the Drama League and the Drama Desk and the New York Drama Critics Circle? Read my guide to the 2020 New York Theater Awards
The Week in Online Theater Reviews
Trump Lear
In the middle of the new livestreamed version of the satirical solo show “Trump Lear,” David Carl as Donald Trump sips on a long straw that is fitted into a bottle of Lysol. It is a topical moment, and a funny one. But it’s disappointing that this is one of the few obvious changes in a stage play that debuted Off-Off Broadway in 2017…Yet, there remains much to admire in the show – and something especially instructive about its translation online.
What Do We Need to Talk About?
After spending an hour on Zoom with the Apple family in Richard Nelson’s latest low-key play, I was surprised by my reaction, which I could sum up as: Hallelujah! “What Do We Need to Talk About?” is splendid….This fifth play that revolves around a brother and three sisters in Rhinebeck, New York is beautiful and sad, funny and moving, terrifically acted, and perfectly timed – a precise reflection of our sudden new era.
Felt Sad, Posted Frog (and other streams of global quarantine)
“Felt Sad, Posted Frog,” the title of this collection of six new works of online theater by playwrights from six different countries (on three continents), is what one of the characters tells us he did on day 11 of his lockdown alone in Berlin…and day 15, and day 16, and day 26, and apparently many days in-between, because he also tells us that one of his “Facebook friends berated me, said he couldn’t stand seeing any more of these Goddamn frogs. ..”
I sympathized. As striking as I found some specific moments in the show, I started wondering after about an hour whether I was meant to identify quite so closely with these bored, frustrated characters under quarantine.
The Week in Theater News
“Take Me To The World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration” raised more than $400,000 for ASTEP (Artists Striving To End Poverty). The event has been viewed over 1.8 million times.
Why one author believes you’re better off using the telephone than Zoom https://t.co/0exTZNW9yB pic.twitter.com/OawzMPtCdg
— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) April 29, 2020
Broadway Can Learn from South Korea’s Theatre Market During COVID-19 by Dan T. Brink on the website of the Theatrical Wardrobe union, I.A.T.S.E. Local 769
Korea’s approach…elucidates hints of what the Broadway community should expect, or perhaps demand, from theater owners, audiences, producers, and marketing in order to move forward together.
Lesson 1: Invest in Audience and Employee Safety
Lesson 2: Overcommunicate With Audiences
Lesson #3: Brands Will Survive, But Not in the Way You Think
Lesson #4: Take Care of Our Own Backyard First
Listen to Missing Sounds of New York, an album of NYC noises
It’s Springtime!
I’ve added @Derekklena singing “Younger Than Springtime” for @RnH_Org #RnHGoesLive to the South Pacific section of my O is for Hammerstein post.https://t.co/yyqxwU4P8J pic.twitter.com/3f57pdXyQN— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) April 29, 2020
Why theater?
This week, I got the following e-mail:
“My name is Akriti Sharma and I am a journalism student from India. I am working on an article for my blog that focuses on the future of theatre, as social distancing becomes the norm in this pandemic. As I did the research for my story, a question I thought was important to address was this: why is it necessary to preserve this art form?
I have read your theatre reviews on your blog and thought of writing to you to gain insight into the importance of theatre, and why we must, as a society, save this art form, one that is rooted in performing to a live audience, when it is against the basic requirements to be followed in these difficult times.”
What would be your response?
Why is it necessary to have schools, libraries, museums? Its how we exchange ideas, learn about other’s stories & how they reflect our own. Its specifically in coming together they have their best impact. All social gatherings will return at some point. Pandemic is not the Norm.
— specialsmiley (@Ianto_back2_TW) April 29, 2020
Personally, the experience of a group of people in same time, same space living thru an empathetic, emotional experience together is like none other. As community becomes more fragile & fragmented, sitting in a theatre engaged in a communal experience is powerful & healing.
— Patricia Milton (@PatriciaMilton) April 29, 2020
Rest in Peace
Peter Hunt, 81, Broadway lighting designer and director, winner of the Tony Award for directing “1776”
Zev Buffman, 89, producer of 29 Broadway shows
Roger Horchow, 91, mail-order magnate who became a six-time Broadway producer, winning the Tony for “Crazy for You” and “Kiss Me Kate”
