Genghis Khan had a mother; so did Amelia Earhart and Dwight Eisenhower. Perhaps Mother of the Maid, starring Glenn Close as the woman whom Joan of Arc called Ma, will start a trend of offering the maternal perspective on historical figures. It should: Jane Anderson’s play, in a wonderfully acted production at the Public Theater, is amusing, moving, incongruous, just plain odd and riveting. What may be most fascinating about it is that, as improbable as many of the scenes may appear, the play is rooted in the historical record.
There was thunderous applause the night I saw “Sunset Boulevard” for Hillary Clinton as she took her seat right before the musical began. It would be snarky to observe it was the greatest ovation of the night, but I was struck by how much was packed into that greeting – admiration, defiance, a shared history, shared emotion, a shared loss.
There was certainly admiration for the revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical, especially for the dazzling encore performance of Glenn Close as Norma Desmond, 22 years after she won a Tony Award for the same role. But this show about a once-famous film star trying for a comeback, and the screenwriter who becomes her boy toy and her victim, carried relatively little emotional weight or complexity.
Click on any photograph by Joan Marcus to see it enlarged.
Glenn Close and Michael Xavier
Michael Xavier and Siobhan Dillon
Michael Xavier
There was one moment in the show that actually moved me. That was when Norma is visiting her old movie studio, ignored by everybody bustling about except for one old member of the crew, who shines a spotlight on her. The actors dressed in Samson and Delilah outfits and the camera operators one by one stop what they’re doing to look at her. She basks in the light, glows in it, but her expression is tinged with something deeper, something close to fear and sorrow. She stands there like that, soaking it in, letting us soak it in, before she starts singing “As If We Never Said Goodbye” — the most effective lead-in to a song I think I’ve ever seen on a stage.
But then the song itself, as melodic and touching as it is, ends with: “We taught the world new ways to dream.”
That is one of the lyrics that drive home what I consider a fatal flaw in much of the remaining 150 minutes of “Sunset Boulevard,” a musical adaptation of the 1950 movie that was directed by Billy Wilder and starred Gloria Swanson. In the movie, Norma Desmond is delusional. But the Lloyd Webber musical shares much of her delusion. Rather than the film’s grim and ironic satire of Hollywood, the stage “Sunset Boulevard” is really an homage to (and embodiment of) big, empty commercial entertainment.
Yes, I know, this production – directed by Lonny Price and originally presented by the English National Opera in London — is being touted as a pared down concert version. This is a, well, semi-delusional claim. There is indeed a 40-piece orchestra placed Encores-like on stage. There is also
a cast of more than two dozen
a new gorgeous costume for Glenn Close in each and every scene
a working antique car (a “Isotta-Fraschini”)
a life-sized dummy suspended above the stage (the murder victim we see at the outset of the show, that is supposed to make it a stage noir, which it isn’t)
and the pool of water where the orchestra pit is normally located, from which emerges Joe Gillis (Norma’s kept man, portrayed by Michael Xavier) in wet bathing suit and glistening pectorals.
Yes, yes, the set is surely less elaborate than the original Broadway production: In that version, Norma is alone on New Year’s Eve in her exquisite palazzo, appointed with a working pipe organ and a majestic staircase, when it is literally lifted up into the air, revealing a crowded party in a cramped Hollywood apartment in the bottom half – a living split screen, one of the most memorable stage effects ever. (I’ll confess that’s one of the few things I remember from the 1994 show, winner of seven Tonys, including best musical.) But James Noone’s set for the revival can be considered bare bones only if the bones belonged to Tyrannosaurus rex. It is an elaborate multi-tiered maze of staircases and catwalks, with the “HOLLYWOOD” sign behind it, and interspersed with the odd gold-and-crystal chandelier.
The large orchestra certainly makes Lloyd Webber’s score sound better than it would have if played by 40 kazoos, but, as tuneful as some of it is, all the violins in the world can’t turn it into Puccini.
“Sunset Boulevard” is ersatz opera of the outsized and mostly overwrought kind that Broadway audiences have been eating up, on and off, since the 1980s. It’s noteworthy, then, that this production (and the one in 1994) cast Glenn Close, whose voice is, to put it politely, far from operatic. Her power resides in her acting; her Norma manages, at its best, to be both steely and vulnerable, sinking into herself and dominating everything and everyone. Most of the other cast members hardly register by comparison. (One exception is Fred Johanson as the odd Max von Mayerling, her driver and protector, who makes the most of his one song.)
Glenn Close gets seriously into her character. But at the same time, when Joe says on meeting her “Aren’t you Norma Desmond?….You use to be big,” there’s something of an implied wink in her delivery of the most famous line in the musical (and in the movie): “I am big. It’s the pictures that got small.” That’s a moment when the audience can say: I’m with her.
Sunset Boulevard
Book by Don Black and Christopher Hampton; Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber; Lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton; Based on the film by Billy Wilder.
Directed by Lonny Price; Choreographed by Stephen Mear; Associate Director: Matt Cowart
Scenic Design by James Noone; Costume Design by Tracy Christensen; Lighting Design by Mark Henderson; Sound Design by Mick Potter; Original Glenn Close Costume Designs: Anthony Powell; Glenn Close Wig Design: Andrew Simonin; Glenn Close’s Makeup Design: Charlotte Hayward; Hair and Wig Design by Dave Bova and J. Jared Janas; Makeup Design by Dave Bova and J. Jared Janas; Associate Costume Design: Abby Hahn; Associate Lighting Design: Travis McHale; Associate Sound Design: Adam Fisher; Associate Wig Design: Brittany Hartman
Cast: Glenn Close as Norma Desmond, Siobhan Dillon as Betty Schaeffer, Fred Johanson as Max von Mayerling, Michael Xavier as Joe Gillis, Nancy Anderson, Mackenzie Bell,Preston Truman Boyd, Artie Green, Barry Busby, Britney Coleman, Julian R. Decker, Anissa Felix, Drew Foster, David Hess, Brittney Johnson, Katie Ladner, Stephanie Martignetti, Lauralyn McClelland, T. Oliver Reid, Lance Roberts, Stephanie Rothenberg, Graham Rowat, Paul Schoeffler as Cecil B. DeMille, Andy Taylor as Sheldrake, Sean Thompson, Matt Wall, Jim Walton as Manfred
Musical Director: Kristen Blodgette; Music orchestrated by David Cullen and Andrew Lloyd Webber; Vocal and Incidental Music Arrangements: David Cullen and Andrew Lloyd Webber
Musical Supervisor: Kristen Blodgette; Musical Coordinator: David Lai; Conducted by Kristen Blodgette; Keyboard 1: Michael Patrick Walker; Keyboard 2: Dale Rieling; Concert Master: Kelly Hall-Tompkins; First Violin: Katherine Livolsi-Landau, Karl Kawahara, Victoria Paterson, Sebu Sirinian and Svetlana Tsoneva; Second Violin: Mineko Yajima, Elizabeth Nielsen, Louise Owen, Rena Isbin and Patricia Davis; Viola: David Creswell, Mark Holloway, Richard Brice and Jennifer Herman; Cello: Mairi Dorman-Phaneuf, Robert Burkhart and Emily Brausa; Bass/Electric Bass Peter Donovan; Bass: Lisa Stokes; Flute/Alto Flute: Liz Mann; Flute/Piccolo: Kathleen Nester; Oboe/Cor Anglais: Julia DeRosa; Clarinet: Todd Palmer; Clarinet 2/Tenor Saxophone: Rob Jacoby; Bass Clarinet/Alto Saxophone 1: Andrew Sterman; Bassoon 1: Damian Primis; Bassoon 2: Cynde Iverson; Horn 1: Mike Atkinson; Horn 2: Will de Vos; Trumpet/Piccolo: John Chudoba; Trumpet 2: Alex Holton; Trombone: Mark Patterson; Bass Trombone: Jeremy Morrow; Harp: Grace Paradise; Guitar: Nate Brown; Drums: Michael Croiter; Percussion: Daniel Haskins; Synthesizer Programmer: Stuart Andrews; Music Copying: Emily Grishman Music Preparation and Adriana Grace
Running time: 2 hours and 40 minutes, including one intermission.
Tickets: $79-$250
“Sunset Boulevard” is scheduled to run through June 25, 2017 (which is an extension of its original run.)
Yes, Glenn Close, Sally Field, Jake Gyllenhaal, Kevin Kline, Patti LuPone, Bette Midler, and Cynthia Nixon are all returning to Broadway in Spring 2017, and Cate Blanchett and Danny DeVito are making their Broadway debuts. But Broadway is more than its divas and hunks.
The Spring 2017 season begins with a new play based on Chekhov and ends almost four months later with a new play based on Ibsen. Frequently revived plays by Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller and Lillian Hellman are all back again, while the one play by August Wilson that was never produced on Broadway finally gets there. Pulitzer Prize winning playwrights Lynn Nottage and Paula Vogel make their Broadway debuts with serious new works that were hits Off-Broadway. And the 41st Broadway house is being inaugurated this season with a Sondheim revival.
Or, yet another way to look at the season, three big beloved Broadway musicals are back, and seven new musicals (four of them based on movies) are making their debuts.
Below are the plays and musicals opening on Broadway from January through April, 2017, going chronologically by opening dates. Things are likely to change — additions, subtractions, rescheduling — in the weeks and months ahead.
JANUARY
The Present
Theater: Ethel Barrymore
Playwright: Andrew Lipton
Director: John Crowley
First preview: December 17
Opening: January 8, 2017
Closing: March 19
Cast: Cate Blanchett and Richard Roxburgh
A new play based on Anton Chekhov’s Platonov, with the action transposed to the 1990s.
Theater: MTC’s Samuel J. Friedman
Playwright: August Wilson
Director: Ruben Santiago-Hudson
First preview: December 28, 2016
Opening: January 19, 2017
website
Tweeter feed: @MTC_NYC
Broadway premiere of Wilson’s first play, the only work from his The American Century Cycle never previously seen on Broadway. Set in the early 1970’s, the story follows a group of men who drive unlicensed cabs or jitneys.
Theater: The Palace
First Preview: February 2, 2017
Opening: February 9, 2017
Written by Christopher Hampton and Don Black (book/lyrics), and Andrew Lloyd Webber (music)
Director: Lonny Price
Cast: Glenn Close
Revival of the 1994 musical based on the 1950 Billy Wilder movie about a faded Hollywood silent film goddess who tries to make one last comeback. This production was seen in a spring 2016 revival in London.
Theater; Hudson
First Preview: February 2, 2017
Opens: February 23
Closes: April 23
Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim; book by James Lapine
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal and Annaleigh Ashford
Transfer of the New York City Center‘s fall 2016 concert version of the Pulitzer-winning 1984 musical about pointillist painter George Seurat.
Previews: February 14, 2017
Opens: March 2, 2017
Playwright: Joshua Harmon
Director: Trip Cullman
Cast: Gideon Glick, Barbara Barrie and Lindsay Mendez
Transfer of the Roundabout Theatre Company’s 2015 Off-Broadway hit about a gay bachelor looking for love in the big city.
Theater: John Golden
Playwright: Tennessee Williams
Director: Sam Gold
First preview: February 14, 2017
Opening March 9, 2017
Cast: Sally Field, Joe Mantello, Finn Witrock, Madison Ferris
The eighth production of Tennessee Williams play on Broadway.
Theater: Schoenfeld
Previews: February 18, 2017
Opens: March 12, 2017
Book, music and lyrics by the Canadian husband-and-wife team Irene Sankoff and David Hein.
Director: Christopher Ashley
Cast: Chad Kimball, Jenn Colella, Joel Hatch, Rodney Hicks and Caesar Samayoa.
New musical that explores the lasting connection forged between a group of travelers whose planes were diverted to a small Newfoundland town on Sept. 11, 2001.
The show had its world premiere at the La Jolla Playhouse in summer 2015,
Theater: Roundabout’s American Airlines
Playwright: Arthur Miller
Director: Terry Kinney
First preview: February 16, 2017
Opening: March 16, 2017
Cast: Danny DeVito, Jessica Hecht, Tony Shalhoub, John Turturro
website
Tweeter feed: @RTC_NYC
Theater: Broadway
Previews: March 1, 2017
Opens: March 23, 2017
Written by Claude-Michel Schönberg (music), Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg (lyrics), Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg (book)
Director: Laurence Connor
Cast: Jon Jon Briones and Eva Noblezada
An American soldier named Chris marries Kim in Vietnam before departing for the US. Three years later, he returns to find Kim still alive and raising Tam, a boy he fathered. With the Viet Cong closing in on the city and two women wanting the only place in his heart, Chris has big decisions to make.
Theater: Studio 54
First previews: March 4, 2017
Opens: March 26, 2017
Playwright: Lynn Nottage
Director: Kate Whoriskey
Cast: Carlo Albán, James Colby, Khris Davis, Johanna Day, John Earl Jelks, Will Pullen, Miriam Shor, Lance Coadie Williams, and Michelle Wilson
Broadway transfer of the hit Public Theatre production of Nottage’s drama about blue-collar workers in a Pennsylvania town at the turn of the millennium.
Theater: Lyceum
First preview: March 9, 2017
Opens: April 2, 2017
Written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields
Director: Mark Bell
Cast: Matthew Cavendish, Bryony Corrigan, Rob Falconer, Dave Hearn, Henry Lewis, Charlie Russell, Jonathan Sayer, Henry Shields, Greg Tannahill, and Nancy Zamit.
Olivier Award-winning comedy about an amateur university production that goes hopelessly awry
Theatre: Walter Kerr
First preview: March 9, 2017
Opens: April 3, 2017
Written by Dan Messé (music), Nathan Tyson (lyrics), Craig Lucas (book)
Director: Pam MacKinnon
Cast: Phillipa Soo and Adam Chanler-Berat
A musical adaptation of the 2001 film, which starred Audrey Tautou as a shy waitress with a wild imagination.
Theater: Nederlander
Previews: March 7, 2017
Opening: April 6, 2017
Writers: Book by Doug Wrights; music and lyrics by Scott Frankel and Michael Korie
Director: Michael Grief; choreographer: Christopher Gattelli
Cast: Patti LuPone and Christine Ebersole
Musical based on the rivalry of cosmetics titans Helena Rubenstein (LuPone) and Elizabeth Arden (Ebersole)
Premiered at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago in summer 2016.
Theater: Vivian Beaumont
Previews: March 23, 2017
Opens: April 13, 2017
Playwright: J.T. Rogers
Director: Bartlett Sher
Cast: Jennifer Ehle, Daniel Jenkins, Jefferson Mays and Daniel Oreskes
Transfer of Lincoln Center Theater’s Off-Broadway production of the play about the top-secret, high-level meetings between the State of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization that culminated in the signing of the historic 1993 Oslo Accords.
Theater: August Wilson
Previews: March 2017
Opening: April 17, 2017
Music and lyrics by Tim Minchin, book by Danny Rubin
Director: Matthew Warchus
Cast: Andy Karl
A musical adaptation of the 1993 Bill Murray film about a cynical Pittsburgh TV weatherman who is sent to cover the annual Groundhog Day event in Punxsutawney, PA, when he finds himself caught in a time loop, forced to repeat the same day again and again…and again. Will he ever unlock the secret and break the cycle?
Produced in London in summer 2016.
Theater: Barrymore
Target Opening: April 2017
Playwright: John Guare
Director: Trip Cullman
Cast: Allison Janney and John Benjamin Hickey
Revival of the 1990 drama about a young con man who is embraced by wealthy New Yorkers after passing himself off as Sidney Poitier’s son.
Theater: Cort
Opening: April 18, 2017
Playwright: Paula Vogel
Director: Rebecca Taichman
Cast: TBA
A behind-the-scenes look at the true story of the controversial 1923 Broadway debut of Sholem Asch’s “God of Vengeance” — “a play seen by some as a seminal work of Jewish culture, and by others as an act of traitorous libel,” in part because of its lesbian lovers.
Theater: MTC’s Samuel J. Friedman
Playwright: Lillian Hellman
Director: Daniel Sullivan
First preview: March 29, 2017
Opening: April 19, 2017
Closing:
Cast: Laura Linney and Cynthia Nixon
The fifth Broadway production of the 1930 drama about a ruthless Southern belle.
Theater: Shubert
Authors: Music and lyrics by Jerry Herman, book by Michael Stewart
Director: Jerry Zaks, choreographer Warren Carlyle
First preview: March 13, 2017
Opening: April 20, 2017
Closing:
Cast: Bette Midler and David Hyde Pierce website
Tweeter feed: @HelloDollyBway
The fifth Broadway production of the 1964 musical about a matchmaker who sets out to find a match for herself at the turn of the 20th century.
Theater: Lunt-Fontanne
First Preview: March 28, 2017
Opening: April 23, 2017
Written by David Greig (book), Marc Shaiman (music & lyrics), Scott Wittman (lyrics), Roald Dahl (novel)
Director: Jack O’Brien
Cast: Christian Borle as Willy Wonka
When Charlie wins a golden ticket to the weird and wonderful Wonka Chocolate Factory, it’s the chance of a lifetime to feast on the sweets he’s always dreamed of. But beyond the gates astonishment awaits, as the five lucky winners discover not everything is as sweet as it seems.
Theater: Broadhurst
First Preview: March 23, 2017
Opening: April 24, 2017
Music by Stephen Flaherty, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, book by Terrence McNally
Director: Darko Tresnjak
Cast: Christy Altomare, Derek Klana, Ramin Karimloo, Mary Beth Peil, John Bolton, and Caroline O’Connor
Inspired by the 1997 film about a young woman who may be the last surviving member of the Russian royal family. The score includes songs from the movie, including the Oscar- nominated “Journey to the Past,” plus an entirely new score from the Tony Award-winning team.
The musical had its world premiere at Hartford in 2016.
Theater: Bernard Jacobs
First Preview: March 31, 2017
Opening: April 26, 2017
Music by Richard Oberacker and book and lyrics by Robert Taylor and Richard Oberacker
Director/Choreographer: Andy Blankenbuhler
Cast: Laura Osnes and Corey Cott
This “big-band musical” chronicles a mismatched band of WWII veterans who join forces to compete in a radio contest.
The show debuted in 2015 at Paper Mill Playhouse
Theater: Golden
First Preview: April 1, 2017
Opening: April 27, 2017
Playwright: Lucas Hnath
Director: Sam Gold
Cast: Laurie Metcalf, Chris Cooper, Jayne Houdyshell, Condola Rashad.
Sequel to Henrik Ibsen’s play, following up after Nora has left her husband and children.
Somebody should launch the New York Dramamine Awards — for shows that put us to sleep?
That’s about the only *theater award that hasn’t been thought up yet — most of them having had announcements or ceremonies or parties this month — or, in the case of the Tonys, whose ceremony will take place on June 8th, one promo after another.
It’s enough to twist some people out of shape — a weak segue to this truly disturbing dance sequence from a movie musical. (Could they do that eight times a week on Broadway?)
Meanwhile, Hugh Jackman, Glenn Close, Kristin Chenoweth all announced in May their return to Broadway next season.
Peter Maloney (Outside Mullingar) Mare Winningham (Casa Valentina) win *Actors Equity Foundation’s Richard Seff Award. (Seffies?)
Whitney Bashor (Bridges of Madison County) and Steven Boyer (Hand to God) win *Actors Equity Foundation Award for most promising performances
“The two things you cannot do effectively on stage are pray and copulate”-Orson Welles, 17-time Broadway veteran, who would have been 99 today. “The enemy of art is the absence of limitations” ~ Orson Welles
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Dozens of celebs call for expanded arts education in letter to NYC Schools Chancellor Farina pic.twitter.com/13pKTBWzJE
After he’s host of the Tonys in exactly one month, Hugh Jackman will return to Broadway in The River by Jez Butterworth (Jerusalem), beginning October 31 at the Circle in the Square.
*2014 Outer Critics Circle Award Winners
Steve Bakunas will interview AND paint the portrait of Linda Lavin (his wife) over 90 minutes on stage at Vineyard Theatre June 16
What’s the next live musical on NBC after Peter Pan (set for December 4th)? The Music Man, NBC honchos announced today. (no date yet)
“Hamilton,” Lin-Manuel Miranda’s new musical, at the Public Theater in January (and Broadway after?) gets terrific buzz
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Kristin Chenoweth is coming back to Broadway in a revival of “On the Twentieth Century.” Opens March 12 2015 American Airlines Theater
Marcyliena Morgan, head of the Hiphop Archive writes about Tupac Shakur and new musical Holler If Ya Hear Me. Tupac Shakur is remembered as a rapper. But he was also an actor (debuting in Raisin in the Sun as a child) and a lover of Shakespeare.
Fran Drescher will remain the wicked (or maybe just misunderstood?) stepmother in Cinderella through June 29th.
“@NewYorkTheater: @JoshLJohnston (Can you convince your Mom to go on Twitter too?)” haha she can barely work Gmail! I don’t see it happening
Answer: This long-time Broadway costume designer is getting entire category on Jeopardy Friday. Question: Who’s William Ivey Long?
If Miss Saigon gets good reviews when it opens next week in UK,producer Cameron Mackintosh reportedly will bring it to Broadway 2015
Daphne Rubin-Vega in her dressing room at “Streetcar Named Desire,” showing a picture of her mother, who died when the actress was ten. “I’m older now than she ever was.”
Original Rent-er Daphne Rubin-Vega is joining in June Eve Ensler’s Spanish-language Los Monologos de La Vagina, Westside Theater
Here’s TV ad for cryptic The Realistic Joneses that makes it look like a roly-poly sitcom
Glenn Close returns to Broadway in revival of Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance. Also starring John Lithgow,Martha Plimpton. It’s set to open November 20 at The Golden
Power Plays, with new short works by John Guare, David Henry Hwang, Neil LaBute,etc TBTB Theater (disability advocates) June 12-29, Theater Row
New Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, adapted from Jack Black film “School of Rock,” may debut on Broadway,because child labor laws are looser in th US than UK
A comedy tonight! James Corden “in talks” to return to Broadway in 2015 as the slave in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Carrie Robbins designed the costumes for the first play that Meryl Streep performed on Broadway, for the original production of Grease, and for more than thirty other shows on Broadway. But there came a time, shortly after her husband died, when she felt costume designing just wasn’t enough.
“Sometimes,” she thought, “the most important decision I make as a costume designer is: ‘Should I make this out of silk charmeuse or should I make it out of silk crepe?’” Now she says, “I began to see that what my husband did was better than what I was working on.”
Her husband was a physician, then a writer. Carrie Robbins decided to adapt his short stories for the stage. Robbins, who began working as a costume designer on Broadway nearly half a century ago, is now making her debut as a playwright at HERE, with two one-act plays entitled Sawbones and The Diamond Eater, running May 21 through June 7.
Kelli O’Hara,Julie Andrews, Raul Esparza,Jan Maxwell, Danny Burstein,Stephen Schwartz have all NEVER WON a Tony, although each has been nominated multiple times.
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Broadway supports 87,000 jobs and generates $500 million in taxes annually to NYC. Kiss a Broadway tourist: Their ticket buying etc. contributed $9.6 billion to the NYC economy in 2012/13, according to a new economic report from the Broadway League.
Director Jim Cameron is teaming with Cirque de Soleil to develop an “Avatar” stage show. (Coming to NYC? Would you go?)
Elisabeth Moss of Mad Men is in talks to star in a Broadway revival of Wendy Wasserstein’s The Heidi Chronicles next season
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In what is shaping up as a trend, the US arena tour of Jesus Christ Superstar has been canceled at virtually the last minute.
Maya Angelou, the well-known poet and memoirist, died on May 28th at the age of 86. Few recalled that she co-starred on Broadway in 1973 with Geraldine Page in a play about Mary Todd Lincoln entitled “Look Away.” Although the play closed on opening day, Angelou was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress.
Still I Rise
by Maya Angelou
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own backyard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”
Lin-Manuel Miranda briefly danced with Rita Moreno, and interviewed her about her Oscar-winning role as Anita in “West Side Story” before a screening Sunday of the 1961 movie at the United Palace of Cultural Arts in Washington Heights, attended by some 1,600 people! At 82, Moreno, who published a memoir last year, is still working; she told Miranda she is making a TV pilot for Amy Poehler.
The United Palace began life in 1930 as an improbably elegant vaudeville house and movie theater. It is one of the few surviving gems of its era, and Manhattan’s fourth largest theater, just blocks from the George Washington Bridge. It was turned into a non-profit cultural center in 2012, and what they’re doing there, helped along by “Sunday Movies at the Palace with Lin-Manuel Miranda,” feels like an effort to create a few bridges — between screen arts and live performing arts, between uptown and downtown.
This is a week for bridges, I suppose. A musical adaptation of The Bridges of Madison County opened on Broadway. James Franco, who is about to debut on Broadway, wrote an essay in the New York Times defending the recent erratic antics of Shia LaBeof, who was going to debut on Broadway last year — trying to create a bridge between actor and audience? Bronx Bombers, a play about the New York Yankees, announced it will close after only 29 performances on Broadway, its producers yet again unsuccessful in their attempt to create a bridge between sports and theater fans.
While well-meaning, Gwydion Suilebhan has some very scary suggestions for using tech to measure theater audience’s response. Gwydion Suilebhan (@GwydionS) Boo Jonathan Mandell: Hey I don’t want to be wired for “galvanic skin response” when I go to see a show, thank you very much. Howard Sherman (@HESherman): I’d submit, for test purposes. Just so long as you don’t force my eyes to stay open, as in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE.
Sleep/ I can’t sleep/ Hot milk/ I hate it now/ Book?/ I don’t have one I like./ Just lie there and breathe./ My head’s too full of stuff. Are you asleep?/ No, no, what it’s fine. You can’t sleep?/ I think I’ll get up and go on Facebook.
At the end of Caryl Churchill’s dazzling experimental play “Love and Information,” theatergoers have spent two hours watching 15 actors portray 100-plus characters in more than 60 scenes, some as short as a few seconds, none longer than a few minutes — each scene, no matter how brief, with its own costumes and props: Two characters elaborately dressed as Elvis Presley impersonators, both looking as if they stayed up too late and drank too much, slouch silently in their seats, until one says: “The difficulty of getting the Israelis and Palestinians to…” Blackout. That’s the whole scene….At around the point where the intermission would have been, I started feeling “Love and Information” overload. I loved it anyway.
Bronx Bombers will play its final performance on Broadway March 2, less than a month after opening Feb 6.
The producers’ first sports play, Lombardi, (about football) ran seven months, the second, Magic/Bird (about basketball) 37 performances. This one about baseball will be closing after 29 regular performances.
Broadway vet Christopher J Hanke (Rent, Cry-Baby,etc) will be replacing Michael Urie in Buyer And Cellar starting March 18th.
And what will Michael Urie be doing? He’ll be touring with Buyer and Cellar — Chicago in May, DC in June, LA in July.
As an actor, you’re often the most visible part of a project while having the least amount of say over its final form~James Franco
In his will, Philip Seymour Hoffman asks that his son be raised in a city so he can enjoy “the culture, arts and architecture”
Apollo Theater, amateur no more: On its 80th birthday, “the legendary Harlem theater doubles programming and plans to launch its first international tour.”
The costs of running a theater. Cape May Stage turns their budget into a scene.
Opening tonight at Quad Cinema: The Standbys, a documentary film about performers like Merwin Foard, the current standby for Aladdin, who never perform.
“Unlike understudies or swings.. standbys only get onstage if there’s been a disaster” Announcements of their performance are often greeted by boos
Well-argued, but I disagree.
Anybody here have personal experience of arts education making a difference in your theatergoing or theater-making? #artsed
@NewYorkTheater My high school #artsed removed my fear of Shakespeare. It made me want to his plays done professionally onstage.
Maria von Trapp, the last surviving member of the Trapp Family Singers that inspired the Sound of Music, has died at age 99.
“Before you have any resources, before you have anyone who’s willing to give you a shot, you have your own gut of what you think is good…
I was enormously frustrated as a young director by the fact that I am a very visual thinker; I always had design ideas and I had no money, and so it was very frustrating. It was like this wants to be 4,000 feet of snow, but we’ll settle for this paper bag.” ~ director Lear deBessonet
The Glass Menagerie: There is one magical moment in The Glass Menagerie that I don’t want to talk about since the surprise of it is part of what makes it magical. (For those of you who’ve seen the show – the couch moment.) The rapport between Laura and the gentleman caller is a sustained magical moment, thanks to the performances of Celia Keenan-Bolger and Brian J. Smith.
There was thunderous applause the night I saw “Sunset Boulevard” for Hillary Clinton as she took her seat right before the musical began. It would be snarky to observe it was the greatest ovation of the night, but I was struck by how much was packed into that greeting – admiration, defiance, a shared history, shared emotion, a shared loss.
The Present
Theater: MTC’s Samuel J. Friedman
Sunset Boulevard
Theater; Hudson
Theater: Booth
Theater: John Golden
Theater: Roundabout’s American Airlines
Theater: Broadway
Theater: Studio 54
Theater: Lyceum
Theatre: Walter Kerr
Theater: St. James
Oslo
Theater: August Wilson
Theater: Barrymore
Theater: Cort
Theater: Shubert
Theater: Lunt-Fontanne
Theater: Broadhurst
Theater: Bernard Jacobs
Theater: Golden
The Month in New York Theater
*2014 NY Drama Critics’ Circle Award Winners:
Kristin Chenoweth is coming back to Broadway in a revival of “On the Twentieth Century.” Opens March 12 2015 American Airlines Theater
The 5 best things to do in Times Square while waiting to see a show
While well-meaning, Gwydion Suilebhan has some very scary suggestions for 
New exhibition at the Main Library on 42nd St. on Raisin in the Sun, including Hansberry’s manuscript, pictures of cast, Tennessee Williams telegram
Angela Lansbury, with a career spanning 70 years, will be honored by the American Theatre Wing at its annual gala September 15th.
My review of Love and Information 
Broadway vet Christopher J Hanke (Rent, Cry-Baby,etc) will be replacing Michael Urie in 
James Franco in defense of Shia LaBeouf
