[Broadway Ad Network]

[Broadway Ad Network]

  • The last time I remember reading about a summer of love it was about high-on-Cannabis hippies running around in strange outfits [or nothing at all] flashing the Peace sign [or something else] and professing free love.

    When the New York Shakespeare Festival began proclaiming this would be a summer of "Free Love in Central Park," one might have questioned what they had in mind - especially during this 40th Anniversary remembrance of the age of Aquarius. After all, it was Joe Papp, founder of the Public Theatre and the NYSF, who was first to put that "tribal musical" Hair onstage and spark controversy not only with its anti-war theme but also those clothing optional moments.

    Then NYSF artistic director Oskar Eustis explained it all: "We're taking a theatrical look at the most powerful healing force humans have: the power of love. We hope to revisit the utopian and joyous impulses of that long ago summer of love! - through the medium of two of Shakespeare's greatest plays." Whew!

    The NYSF's summer of "free love" begins with the rallying cry "Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou, Romeo?" as heard in Shakespeare's romantic tragedy about young, star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet and will be followed by the Bard's lyrical comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream.

    Performances, of course, take place in the magical setting of Central Park's Delacorte Theatre and are free on a first come/first served basis..

    R&J stars Oscar Isaac [Two Gentlemen of Verona, the musical] and two-time Emmy-nominee Lauren Ambrose [TV's Six Feet Under; last season's LCT's Awake and Sing! by Clifford Odets].
    The director is OBIE-winning and Tony and Drama Desk-nominee Michael Greif [Rent, Grey Gardens]. He's also an artistic associate at NY Theatre Workshop.

    Casting isn't complete for Midsummer Night, but directing will be acclaimed Tony and Drama Desk winner Daniel Sullivan, who last season helmed the Public's scathing DD-nominated Stuff Happens by David Hare.

    His Broadway credits include the Pulitzer Prize winning and Tony-nominated Rabbit Hole, the recent Prelude to a Kiss revival and, among numerous others, Sight Unseen; Proof; the Cherry Jones Moon for the Misbegotten; Ah, Wilderness!; The Sisters Rosensweig; Conversations With My Father; The Heidi Chronicles; and the original I'm Not Rappaport. From 1981 to 1997, Mr. Sullivan served as artistic director of Seattle Rep, where he established their New Play Program, developing works by Jon Robin Baitz, Herb Gardner, A.R. Gurney, Arthur Miller and Wendy Wasserstein.

    R&J, currently running [weather permitting], hasn't been performed at the Delacorte since 1968. It continues through July 8. MND was last performed in the park in 1991 by Brazil's Teatro do Ornitorrinco in Portugese; the last production in English was in 1983. Performances are August 6 - September 9.

    Shakespeare in the Park plays Tuesday - Sunday at 8 P.M. Tickets are free and are available Day Of, two per person, at the Delacorte [enter the Park at West 81st Street or East 79th Street] beginning at 1 P.M.; and at the Public from 1 - 3 P.M.


    More Free Shakespeare

    If you perform it, they will come - for free Shakespeare. Tim Errickson, A.D. of the award winning Boomerang Theatre Company [now in its ninth season], will have his hardy troupe of actors, minstrels and jesters in Central Park Saturdays and Sundays, beginning June 23, in All's Well That Ends Well.

    Performances are at 2 P.M., weather permitting, on the al fresco "stage" inside the Park at West 69th Street. Seating is on the ground or standing, and audiences are invited to picnic before or even sunbathe.


    Lunch with the Stars

    Drama Desk salutes several Broadway leading men at their June 15 lunch, Men For All Seasons - The Art of Acting in a Show, at 11:45 at Sardi's. Panelists are acclaimed and award-winning actors Michael Cerveris, Ra˙l Esparza and Liev Schreiber and Harry Lennix, currently co-starring in August Wilson's Radio Golf. DD member Elysa Gardner, critic for USA Today, will moderate.

    For a unique opportunity to get up close and personal with these DD and Tony-winning or nominated stars and eat salmon, fish or veggies, contact DD president William Wolf at [email protected] or call (212) 787-7020. A limited number of reservations are available for non-members at $45.


    Have You Got Rhythm?

    Are you ready to relive those great old times before you really got into show business and realized what a "business" it really is? Yes?

    Ah, those good ole days, those great old songs! And you can travel back to that time with Jeff Harnar and Shauna Hicks Saturday night at 8 P.M. in Town Hall's I Got Rhythm, a musical and multi-media salute to Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney and all those ab fab "Let's put on a show" kids.

    Multi-award-winning cabaret performer Harnar and Broadway's Hicks, also an award-winning cabaret performer, and the I Got Rhythm Orchestra will showcase such classics as "Embraceable You, " "I Wish I Were In Love Again," "But Not For Me," other memorable songs by GeorgeGershwin, Rodgers & Hart, Harold Arlen and Burton Lane and, of course, "I Got Rhythm."

    Broadway conductor/arranger Barry Levitt is musical director.Making a guest appearance is the man who knows something about all those classic Garland and Rooney films, Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne, who's also a columnist for the Hollywood Reporter and author of many books on film, including 75 Years of the Oscar: The Official History of the Academy Awards.

    Garland and Rooney starred together as pals or love interests in 10 lighthearted musicals from 1937 to 1949, which premiered songs that still endure. Their films include Babes in Arms, Strike Up the Band, Girl Crazy, Thousands Cheer, Life Begins for Andy Hardy and Babes on Broadway.

    Tickets are $37.50 and $40 and available from TicketMaster.com, (212) 307-4100,or at the Town Hall box office. For more information, go to www.the-townhall-nyc.org.


    Upcoming at Town Hall

    Town Hall will be presenting the 2006-2007 season finale in Scott Siegel's Broadway By the Year series on June 18 at 8 PM. It will be The Broadway Musicals of 1964, Part II, featuring songs from Hello, Dolly!, What Makes Sammy Run?, Funny Girl, Anyone Can Whistle, High Spirits and, among others, Fiddler on the Roof.

    The performers will include Stephanie J. Block [Pirate Queen], Liz Callaway, Joyce Chittick [Pajama Game, Sweet Charity, Wonderful Town], Nightlife Award-winner Scott Coulter, four-time Tony nominee and DD-winner Gregg Edelman, Tony and DD winner Beth Leavel [Drowsy Chaperone], and Tony and DD-nominee David Pittu [LoveMusik] Dan Foster will be directing, with musical direction by Ross Patterson, appearing with his Little Big Band.

    Siegel promises there will be no repeats of songs from 2002's Broadway Musicals of 1964, Part 1; and, of course, there will be "unplugged" moments.

    Tickets are $40 and $45, available at the Town Hall box office, through TicketMaster, (212) 307-4100, www.ticketmaster.com or at www.the-townhall-nyc.org.

    You won't have to wait until next season for more of Siegel's fascinating theatrical history and wry comments. Catch his Summer Broadway Festival, produced in conjuction with Town Hall, featuring A Night at the Operetta [July 16], Broadway's Rising Stars [July 23] and All Singin', All Dancin' [July 30], choregraphed and directed by Noah Racey. Tickets are $35 and $40 and available now as above.


    Upcoming at the York

    In its first summer Musicals in Mufti series, the DD-winning York Theatre Company [Theatre at Saint Peter's, 54th Street, off Lexington Avenue] will present five performances each of Charles Strouse and Lee Adams' It's a BirdÖIt's a PlaneÖIt's Superman from June 15-17. The musical has a book by David Newman and Robert Benton, who collaborated on the Christopher Reeve Superman films; the American premiere of Strouse and Adams' I and Albert, with book by Jay Presson Allen [Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Tru] from June 29 - July 1; Ernest Kinoy and Walter Marks' rousing Bajour from July 13 - 15; and the rarely performed much less heard of Lerner and Lowe shortlived 1945 musical The Day Before Spring from July 27 - 29.

    Tickets are $35 [$20 for students] and available by calling the York box office, (212) 935-5820 or online at www.yorktheatre.org.


    Are You In a Brady Frame of Mind?

    Join beloved TV legend Florence Henderson at Joe's Pub at 7 or 9:30 P.M. on Monday [June 11] for All The Lives of Me...A Musical Journey, which will feature a guest appearance by Jersey Boys' Christian Hoff. Henderson's journey was quite a journey. She was the youngest of ten children of a Kentucky sharecropper. When her mom discovered she could sing, she had young Flo singing, literally, everywhere and passing the hat so the family could put food on the table. From poverty to NYC, RADA, Broadway and then Hollywood, where everyone eventually knew her name because of a little show that could. Wow! What a story, and from one of show business' most personable artists.

    Afterwards, you can join Miss Henderson help raise funds and awareness for LIFEbeat, the Music Industry Fights AIDS, at an event at 10 P.M. at Chinatown Brasserie [380 Lafayette Street at Great Jones, former site of Fez/Time CafÈ].

    Fans who know Miss Henderson as America's favorite mom Carol Brady in five seasons on the classic sitcom The Brady Bunch [or numerous TV commercials! And TV guest appearances] may have forgotten that she not only was a popular recording artist but also starred on Broadway in the 50s and 60s in the musicals Wish You Were Here, Fanny and The Girl Who Came to Supper. She had deep friendships with Rodgers and Hammerstein and Noel Coward. Her later career included tours of Oklahoma! and The King and I and the 1967 Lincoln Center revival of South Pacific.

    Miss Henderson has more than a passing connection with Hoff. Twenty years ago, she starred in the Just a Regular Kid: An AIDS Story, an ABC Afternoon Special, playing a mom whose son contracted the virus through a blood transfusion. The boy who played her son is now a Tony-winning star on Broadway.

    LIFEbeat's AfterParty Series, now in its 15th year, gives a limited number of fans the opportunity to join stars at an official post concert events where they can mingle "and party like a rock star - while making a difference in the fight against AIDS."

    Tickets for the Joe's Pub concert, presented in association with r/j Productions, are $25 and available at the Public Theater box office, by phone at (212) 967-7555 and 24/7 at Joe's Pub Tickets. [For dinner reservations, call (212) 539-8778.]

    The minimum donation to attend the LIFEbeat AfterParty is $10 in advance/$15 at the door. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.SpinCycleNYC.com.


    Jerry Orbach Honored

    One of show business' most loved and versatile actors will be honored when on June 21 Stage One of the Snapple Theater Center will be renamed the Jerry Orbach Theatre. The ceremony, hosted by Orbach's widower Elaine Cancilla-Orbach, will be from 5:30 to 8 P.M.

    His namesake theatre is fittingly currently housing the revival of Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt's The Fantasticks, in which Orbach was the original El Gallo in 1960 - memorably introducing the now-classic "Try to Remember."

    Orbach, who died in December, 2004, went on to become a Tony and DD-winning Broadway star and, as everyone's favorite TV detective Lennie Briscoe, became a household word on the original NBC series Law & Order, created by Dick Wolf, who is personally underwriting the Orbach honor.

    The original Chicago and 42nd Street, Promises, Promises, Carnival! and a 1965 revival of Guys and Dolls were among Orbachs starring roles. Prior to The Fantasticks, Orbach made his debut Off Bway in the long-running Threepenny Opera.

    Cancilla-Orbach is a veteran of Broadway musicals including Sweet Charity and the original Chicago, where, as standby for Velma Kelly, she first met Orbach.


    Stuff Happens [Backstage]

    Tom Rowan's The Second Tosca takes place backstage at Opera California during rehearsals for Puccini's imposing, quasi-tragic and dark opera. Director Kevin Newbury describes the play as "part romantic comedy, part ghost story and part juicy soap opera. There are divas, rivals, a controlling maestro, a lurking ëEve Harrington,' even a dog. It's smart, sexy highbrow humor in the spirit of Noel Coward and Moss Hart." And it features music from Puccini, Verdi and others.

    TST plays June 8 - July 1 at the 45th Street Theater [354 West 45th Street]. Previews begin June 8th for a June 13th opening.

    Cast members include Rachel deBenedet [Adrift in Macao, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Nine], DD-winner and two-time Tony nominee Vivian Reed [Marie Christine, Bubbling Brown Sugar, The High Rollers Social and Pleasure Club], Melissa Picarello [Dog Sees God] , opera singer Eve Gigliotti and Carrington Vilmont [Phantom of the Opera].

    Newbury has directed at NYCity Opera, Boston Lyric and Chicago Opera. Producer Sorrel Tomlinson's first production, Dog Sees God, was one of the breakout hits of the 2004 NY International Fringe Festival and went on to an Off Broadway run.

    Second Tosca tickets are $18 and can be purchased by calling (212) 868-4444 or at www.thesecondtosca.com.


    Help for Katrina Victims

    After the Storm, a non-profit film and theatre project, will present two performances of the award-winning musical Once On This Island on June 18 at 5 and 8 P.M. at Playwrights Horizons to benefit and increase awareness to the lives of New Orlenas children affected by Katrina. The performers will be young artists, eight to 18, from Louisiana who have rehearsed the show for two months with theater professionals.

    PH is where the Lynn Ahrens/Stephen Flaherty musical premiered in 1990. Directing and choreographing the benefit performances will be Gerry McIntyre, one of the original Broadway cast members. Musical director is Randy Redd.

    After the Storm is a 501 (c) 3 foundation offering assistance and support by collecting and channeling donated funds to the community and underwriting projects and relief organizations devoted to the community's youth.

    "People say theatre has the power to heal," said Ahrens. "We hope that this production of our show and the efforts of After the Storm will remind all of New Orleans - especially the children -that love, community and the sharing of our stories can help heal hearts and rebuild lives."

    Through fund-raising efforts of several Broadway shows, the cast will be flown to New York for a five-day program of rehearsals, master classes, Broadway activities and sightseeing.

    Those shows include ACL, Drowsy Chaperone, Spamalot, Spring Awakening, ...Spelling Bee and Wicked with additional support from Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

    Tickets for the 5 P.M. show are $50; for the 8 P.M., $100 [which will include a post-show reception with Ahrens, Flaherty, cast and producing team]. To purchase, call (212) 255-3684 or visit http://www.afterthestormfoundation.org/.


    Multi-national Entertainment

    Postwar Paris comes to life June 12 - 24 at the Richmond Shepard Theatre [309 East 26th Street] on a bill pairing Jean-Paul Sartre's No Exit with Paris CafÈ, a song revue associated with the celebrated Left Bank bohemian icon Juliette GrÈco.

    The Sartre is a new translation by Nicholas Wolfson and Richmond Shepard. The star is German actress/singer Micaela Leon, who during her sojourn here, has earned lavish praise for cabaret performances that earned her 2007 Nightlife and MAC Award nominations.

    The controversial [but what Sartre play isn't?] No Exit, first performed in occupied Paris in May 1944, centers on an army deserter, narcissistic society woman and a conniving lesbian who are detained in a room - for eternity. GrÈco, one of the stars of the Bohemian crowd of post-WWII France, embodied the disenchantment of French intellectuals in her songs.

    Greco was a friend and confidante of Sartre and Left Bank writers and artists and had a tempestuous affair with Miles Davis. Later, involved with 20th Century-Fox studio chief Darryl Zanuck, she was groomed for film stardom.

    Tickets are $25 [includes one drink]. For reservations, call (212) 684-2690.


    West Side Story Celebrated

    The Leonard Bernstein/Stephen Sondheim/Jerome Robbins landmark production of West Side Story opened on Broadway in September, 1957. To mark the Tony-winning musical's 50th Anniversary, the North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem recently presented an all-student SRO production. Over 15,000 attended the 12 performances at the Roger L. Stevens Center.

    In an unprecedented move, Chicago's Ravina Festival has invited the NCSA production for an encore performance on Friday night. More than 3,000 seats have been sold. Because of ticket demand, Ravinia has opened the June 7 dress rehearsal to the public.

    The production, with a cast of 46 and a 40-strong orchestra, was reported to be Broadway-caliber. It had an excellent pedigree. Directing was Gerald Freedman, WSS assistant to Robbins and co-director of the 1980 Broadway revival. He's Dean of NCSA's drama department. Musical supervisor was renowned conductor John Mauceri, who worked closely with Bernstein and is now NCSA Chancellor.

    The production was a school-wide collaboration, involving the dance, design and production, drama, filmmaking and music departments. Guests of honor were the Bernstein children, Jamie and Alex.

    Broadway cast members attending the event included Carol Lawrence [Maria], Mickey Callin [Riff] and Grover Dale [Snowboy]; orchestrator Sid Ramin;; Tony-winning costume designer William Ivey Long; producers Fran and Barry Weissler and reps from the Shubert Organization and Columbia Artists Management.

    The production grossed in excess of $940,000 from tickets and the sale of memorabilia, corporate donations and underwriters. After production expenses, the school netted $325,000 for student scholarships.

    Among NCSA cast members repeating their roles at Ravina will be Paul Baswell and Jordan Brown [Tony], Kathraine Elkington and Anna Wood [Maria], Jenna Fakhoury [Anita] and Nathaniel Mendez [Bernardo].

    Original lithographs by artist Christopher Pullman signed by Freedman, Mauceri, and WSS's Lawrence, Callin, Dale and Ramin are being sold for $1,000, with proceeds benefiting student scholarships.

    For the June 7th and 8th Ravina performances, NCSA has a limited number of tickets at $500, with proceeds going toward the school's Arts' Whole School Fund. To purchase, call the Chancellor's office at (336) 770-3201. For remaining Ravina lawn tickets, go to http://www.ravinia.org/. For more on NCSA's production of West Side Story, visit www.ncarts.edu/wss.


    Will Everything Be Coming Up Roses for You, For You?

    Not if you don't act fast.

    Tickets for the special NY City Center Encores! production of Style and Sondheim's Gypsy July 9-20 starring Patti Lupone as, of course, Mama Rose are disappearing quite rapidly.

    Laura Benanti will co-star as Louise and three-time Tony- and two-time DD winner Boyd Gaines, returning to musical theater after several drama roles including his much acclaimed performance in Journey's End, will play Herbie. Directing will be the musical's book writer Arthur Laurents.

    If you don't want to be left out of what will undoubtedly be one of the most talked about events for a while to come, get thee to the City Center box office, call CityTix at (212) 581-1212 or purchase online at wwwNYCityCenter.org. Tickets are $25-$110. While you're at it, renew your Encores! subscription or purchase one.


    Indulge in Impressionism at the Met

    For the first time more than 60 celebrated masterpieces once owned by rival brother collectors Robert Sterling Clark, founder of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA, and Stephen Carlton Clark, a former trustee and donor to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, are being exhibited through August 19 at the Met in Impressionist and Early Modern Paintings: The Clark Brothers Collect.

    Works include those by 19th-century masters as CÈzanne, Degas, Homer, Matisse, Monet, Picasso, Pissarro, Remington, Renoir, Sargent and Seurat.

    The brothers, native New Yorkers, were heirs to the Singer Sewing Machine fortune. Sterling Clark, when he wasn't traveling and breeding racehorses, assembled painting by Impressionist and their American contemporaries. He established the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in 1955. Stephen Clark was actively involved in politics, philanthropic projects and establishing museums, including the New York State Historical Association and the Baseball Hall of Fame, while serving on the board of, among others, the Met and MOMA, where he was board president from 1939 to 1946.

    The exhibition, organized by the Clark Institute in collaboration with the Met, is made possible by the Janice H. Levin Fund and The Philip and Janice Levin Foundation with additional support provided by the Gail and Parker Gilbert Fund.

    Impressionist and Early Modern Paintings: The Clark Brothers Collect is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue [$65, hardcover; $45, soft] published by the Clark Art Institute and distributed by Yale University Press.

    While at the Met, don't miss the recently-opened Greek and Roman Galleries and the costume exhibit Poiret, King of Fashion.


    Katharine Hepburn on Acting

    Columnist Ward Moorehouse III has compiled interviews of his and those of his father, Ward Moorehouse, a theater columnist and critic in the book Broadway After Dark [Bear Manor Media, SRP $25], which was also the name of the Moorehouse's columns.

    The cast of characters the Moorehouses profile include William Gillette, Laurette Taylor, Gloria Swanson, Vanessa Redgrave and various later columns of III from The New York Post. Included is a fascinating excerpt from an interview by Moorehouse Senior with Mary Martin where she talks about work, her travels and her years of wedded bliss to Richard Halliday.

    The following, courtesy of Moorehouse III, is an excerpt from a 1995 encounter with the film legend:

    "I'm generally taken to be an intellectual," she said as she sat cross-legged in the rear garden of her home in New York's Turtle Bay section, "but I do nothing but go on hunches. When I'm appearing in a play all I do is to do the play ó and rest and eat. I'm always so terrified on opening nights I wish I could be dead drunk through the first performance. I still think it would be a good idea to open plays with a matinee performance and then the poor bloody actor would have less time in which to do a complete freezeÖ

    "I've had seven or eight plays in New York. Those first nights, brother! They do get steadily worse. They're terrifying; they're horrifying, honestly. I'd like to own a theater in Brooklyn and just never open on Broadway. ... I'll never forget the first night of The Philadelphia Story. Dear Phil Barry protected me in that playówith the writing, I mean. And on the opening night the Lord came down and helped me get through. During the first performance of As You Like It I felt much easier. In that play I could change things aroundónot the words, but the movement."

    Miss Hepburn, wearing an old white sweater, brown gabardine pants and thick-soled shoes, accepted the challenge offered by As You Like It, which gave her first Shakespearean role. She was triumphant.

    "I always wanted to play Rosalind and I always knew I was going to do it," she said. I had a good time and learned a lot. Somehow, before trying that play, I often thought that audiences were just sitting out there waiting to lynch me, but Rosalind got me to believing that people had come to the theater to have a good time and that there was great friendliness out front."

    Ö "When I was trying to learn Rosalind," she said, "I got to wondering to myself what the hell acting really is. I like to act but I also like to do many things ó to clean a room, to walk, to ride my bike, to play tennis, to fiddle around in this garden. I don't like to do anything unless I really like to do itÖ"

    The afternoon sun slanted into Miss Hepburn's garden. Caught in its rays her lean and freckled face took on a curious beauty. [She} lit her second cigarette and chattered on: "Hell, I like seeing plays. Death of a Salesman has been my favorite for sometime. I think Elia Kazan is the best damn director there is. George Cukor is wonderful ó I've been with him a thousand times. I loved working with John Huston on The African Queen and it's always been fun doing pictures with Spencer Tracy. Spence is a great, great actor. He has such simplicity. I respect him and I love him..."


    Remembering Kitty Carlisle Hart

    Society doyenne, arts and culture champion, philanthropist and star of stage, opera, screen and cabaret Kitty Carlisle Hart will be fondly remembered on Tuesday [June 12] at Noon at the Majestic Theatre. Among those recalling Miss Hart will be Mayor Bloomberg, former Governor Mario Cuomo, MOMA president emerita Agnes Gund, Shubert Organization chairman Gerald Schoenfeld, Anne Kaufman Schneider, Barbara Walters and the Hart children, Christopher and Cathy. Kristin Chenoweth, Michael Feinstein and KT Sullivan will be among those performing with David Lewis, Miss Hart's longtime accompanist. The event is open to the public, but seating will be limited so arrive early.

    Remembrance

    The public is invited to the 10th Annual Celebration of Their Lives taking place Sunday, June 17 at 7 P.M. at St. Clement's Episcopal Church [423 West 46th Street, between Ninth and Tenth Avenues].

    The event is a service of song and meditation remembering and celebrating the lives of those in the theater community who died during the past year. There will be music, readings, a tolling of the names and a signing of a memorial parchment.

    [Orbachs photo: JULIE JACOBSON/AP Photo]

    --------

    Ellis Nassour is an international media journalist, and author of Honky Tonk Angel: The Intimate Story of Patsy Cline, which he has adapted into a musical for the stage. Visit www.patsyclinehta.com.

    He can be reached at [email protected]





    Why are you looking all the way down here?
    For more articles by Ellis Nassour, click the links below!

    Previous: 2007 Drama Desk Awards Utopia 7, Spring 4 As Win Streak Continues, Gasp! A Tie for Actress, Musical; Tony Nominees' Reception FutureStage Playwrights; Comedy Every Night; More

    Next: Remembering Kitty Carlisle Hart

    Or go to the Archives

[Broadway Ad Network]

[Broadway Ad Network]