April 2010 Archives

The season has come to an end. The mad April scramble to open shows before the season cutoff is over. Noms are pouring in from every imaginable corner. The Tony Award noms will be announced on Tuesday, and Drama Desk's on Monday. The Awards -- Outer Critics, NYDrama Critics, and the DD -- will soon follow. The Tonys, Bway's ultimate honors, are June 13 and will be telecast live in a three-hour spectacular event from Radio City Music Hall on CBS.

Since April 18, eight shows* opened - some so close together, first nighters didn't even have time to have their black tie finest dry-cleaned; with a number of others doing the same a week or two earlier.

[*La Cage Aux Folles - April 18; American Idiot, April 20; Sondheim on Sondheim, April 22; Promises, Promises, April 25; Fences, April 26, Enron, April 27; Collected Stories, April 28; and Everyday Rapture, April 29.]

When the season's shows were announced, the huge roster of Bway and Off Bway attractions puzzled many especially in light of the economic downturn and drop in tourism. It wasn't so foolhardy, after all. In spite of short-lived engagements of the Brighton Beach Memoirs revival, the revue All About Me, the eagerly-anticipated revivals of Finian's Rainbow and Ragtime and ever escalating ticket prices, there's been record-breaking theater attendance.

They're Not Fenced In

Oscar winner Denzel Washington and Oscar nom Viola Davis give such blistering performances in the Fences revival that they can proudly rest their portrayals of Troy and Rose Maxson next to the memorable and Tony-winning turns of James Earl Jones and Mary Alice in August Wilson's monumental 1987 Pulitzer Prize and Tony winning drama.

Several colleagues commented on the fact that they didn't remember so much humor in Act One of this intimate portrait of a black family on the brink of change in 1957 Pittsburgh.

A couple of reasons came to mind: Maybe director Kenny Leon [A Raisin in the Sun has Washington and co-star Stephen McKinley Henderson ratcheting up the humor element; then, too, with 500% more African-Americans now attending theater than nearly a quarter century ago, they may find humor where tried and true, jaded [okay: white] theatergoers don't.

Certainly, some black audience members make their feelings known. They're, shall we say, more vocal than more laid back [okay: white] audience members - every once in a while making a loud comment on the proceedings, akin to shouting "Amen!" in church,

Act One certainly has moments of high comedy, especially with Troy's boasting of his exploits. It only takes a moment for Act Two to take off like an Olympic skier out of the gate and dangerously racing to a climax. It's here Davis really comes into her own, as she reacts to the news that Troy has fathered a child out of wedlock.

Chris Chalk [Ruined] as son Cory and former Soul Train dancer and always watchable Mykelti Williamson [1995's Distant Fires, L.A. Theatre Critics Ensemble Award; film, Forrest Gump; TV, 24] also give outstanding performances.

The Art of Greed

The acclaimed London production of Lucy Prebble's Enron, a docudrama using song, movement, projections, and raptor costumes, tells the story of the collapse of the once fabled energy giant in a most unconventional way.

While still running on the West End, the play opened here with an American cast: Tony winner Norbert Leo Butz, Tony nom Gregory Itzin [The Kentucky Cycle; President Logan, TV's 24, The Mentalist], Stephen Kunken [Our Town, Rock 'n Roll, Frost/Nixon, Festen] and Tony/Olivier nom Marin Mazzie [Kiss Me Kate, Ragtime, Passion] play wrongdoers at the top of the Enron foodchain. Rupert Goold [Macbeth, starring Patrick Stewart], whose Headlong Theatre commissioned the work, continues as director.

Kunken portrays Andy Fastow, Enron's chief financial officer who charts a slide into near dementia, albeit with ingenuity. As the company swallows up smaller companies and becomes to go-to stock for investors, Fastow is the one who finds the "sure-fire" way out of the depths of debt.

"Some have found it strange that an English writer decided to take on Enron's epic rise and equally epic fall," related Kunken, at Sardi's in a break from rehearsals across the street at the Broadhurst. "Lucy really did her research. What impressed all of us, as was my experience in Frost/Nixon [where he played Jim Reston], was that like [playwright] Peter Morgan and [director] Michael Grandage, Lucy and [director] Rupert [Goold] really invested in the American cast. They didn't just take us for granted."

Since the play is about such a famous American scandal, he says Prebble and Goold were interested in cast members' take far beyond the British sensibilities, especially regarding the language and if it had punch to it.

"We were not only quite open," he laughs. "It was a matter of try and stop us. Sometimes we would discuss something as simple as sentence structure, the rhythm of a bit of dialogue, or a British spin of an Americanism."

Regarding the latter, he, Butz, Itzin, and Mazzie gave input on our colloquial way of saying things. "They listened to our feedback," Kunken points out, "and tweaked some things."

He relates that the Brits didn't necessarily know the U.S. part of the story; and Americans didn't know the U.K. part. "On each side, there was much new information to be revealed."

Enron couldn't have opened on Bway at a more apt time. Americans are fed up with all manner of financial world shenanagians and if the headlines aren't screaming about Madeoff and the allegedly dirty doings at Lehman Brothers, it's Goldman Sachs.

Kunken notes that he plays "the good guy who becomes the bad guy. Andy got away with what he was doing for much too long. Interestingly, he may be out of prison next year. So much of investing is built on faith - the company's track record, who's running the comapny. Enron and so many businesses create this idea of groupthink. The bubble is built around spin, but when the bubble bursts, all the spin goes away. It was all perception."

Enron's amazing growth was in the end built on spin. Investors across the board had faith in the company, beleived what Lay was saying. Those who believed, worked there, and invested got really stung and literally lost everything.

Fastow did turn out to be less of a bad guy than the others, explains Kunken. "Some of the money people got back was because Andy, to save his skin, cut a plea bargain and gave back a lot of the $45-million he stashed making those wild deals."

He went on to say, "The Enron fiasco was sort of the first drip in the bucket, but everyday we're reading stories that have that bucket overflowing. There were so many lessons on greed in what was exposed at Enron, but no one seems to be learning from them.

"A lot of the financially-creative things Lucy has Andy doing," he continues, "such as his innovative way of creating numbers, often from thin air, are still being done. It goes on and on and on."

However, the real Fastow, Jeffrey Skilling [the Enron CEO convicted of 19 counts of fraud, conspiracy and insider trading], Kenneth Lay [Enron's ultra-religious chairman and original CEO], and Rebecca Mark, head of Enron's International division [the one top tier executive who wasn't indicted in the scandal; so in Enron, mainly because of certain liberties Prebble took, she's fictitiously-named Claudia Roe and played by Mazzie] didn't have what Tessie Tura, Mazeppa, and Electra so eloquently sung of in Gypsy: a gimmick.

Fastow/Kunken's is a whopper: vicious, red-eyed, miniature dinosaur-like creatures called raptors, who devour, at least in company ledgers, Enron's ever-mounting debt through shell companies.

Ben Brantely, in the NYTimes, wrote, "Come to think of it, it's Fastow's relationship with the raptors, not Skilling, that is the show's most fascinating. The vision of Fastow -- a necktie wrapped around his head -- and his raptors in his inner sanctum, just before Enron goes boom, brings to mind a war-warped, jungle-fevered character out of Apocalypse Now or The Deer Hunter. It's a hilarious, scary image and ... suggests the real heart of darkness meant to be beating at its center."

Kunken said that as an actor, "being in Frost/Nixon, working with Peter and sitting between Frank [Langella] and Michael [Sheen] as they bounced their energy around was akin to a master class. It's that way again with Norbert and Rupert."

What's most interesting about Enron, he explains, "is that even though a majority of our audiences know all the ins and outs of what happened at Enron, perhaps because they were heavily invested and lost everything, Lucy's play still has a lot of thriller elements. You know the ultimate outcome, yet it's still edge-of-the-seat entertainment.

After auditioning for Goold, Kunken didn't know how long the process of a Bway transfer would take. "I was fortunate to have stepped into the Off Bway revival of Our Town [directed by David Cromer], which I loved. It was a fantastic company to work with, a kinder, gentler world than the one I'm in now!"

Lucy Prebble

Playwright Prebble, about to turn 30, says she didn't want to write a conventional docudrama about how tangled finances, superegos, and greed brought down an American energy giant. "I collaborated with Rupert [Goold, an associate director at the Royal Shakespeare as well as Headlong's A.D.] to shape a hyper-theatrical event."

The idea was not to proceed gently down the garden path. Goold took off running, with songs, dance, multimedia, surreal images and stylized action [for instance, homages to Jurassic Park and countless dinosaur flicks and Star Wars] and wrapped them around the dark, dank, often menancing subterranean world of Enron's downfall.

Prebble, now famous as the adaptor of Secret Diary of a Call Girl from a London escort's book of blog postings, grew up in Surrey. Her brother and sister are management consultants, her father works for a software company, and her mother is a state school teacher.

So where did her spin on Enron come from? "The workplace, where most of us spend most of their lives, is quite under-represented in theater," she says, "so it was a road-not-taken. I often think what would have happened if I'd entered that world since I've always found it hard to reconcile the idea of social responsibility with corporate, libertarian perspectives."

She surrounded herself with endless research about Enron and energy companies and contacted many of the people involved, "but not the principal players because some are in prison and one [Kenneth Lay] is dead. I decided there's no point in writing a drama where you condemn everybody and say, 'Isn't making money bad.' The delusion that goes on in all of us is what makes it fascinating."

The one rule she kept in mind was Do No Bore. "Financial trading floors are actually the most theatrical places. Though Enron is about numbers and economics, I thought, 'Let's do it with lots of swearing, hypermasculinity, motorbikes and lightsabers."

Only 238 Days 'Til Christmas

The Radio City Christmas Spectacular kicks off the 2010 holiday a bit early with the Music Hall's first-ever open house tomorrow from Noon to 3 P.M. in the spectacular Art Deco grand foyer and grand lounge. It's free, and you can win prizes, such as a "Holiday Fly-Away," have photos taken with the world-famous Radio City Rockettes, and try on costumes.

If you arrive early, you'll catch Rockette dance classes with aspiring dancers from tri-state area schools from 10 A.M. to Noon.

Tickets for the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, November 5 - December 30, are now onsale, with some bargains for early birds. For more information visit radiocitychristmas.com or our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/radiocitychristmas.

Lotsa Talk

The Temperamentals post performance TalkOUT Mondays series continues at New World Stages this Monday with Massachusetts Representative Barney Frank, recently named #2 in Out magazine's Power 50, an annual guide to America's influential gays.

The outspoken Frank has been in Congress since 1981. In 1987, he became the second openly gay member of the House. Frank chairs the powerful Financial Services Committee. Previously, he was a MA State Representative and an assistant to the mayor of Boston.

Beginning Monday, May 10, when Urie will host TalkOUT guest Cheyenne Jackson, a new performance schedule goes into effect with an addition of a Wednesday 8 P.M. performance and no Saturday matinee.

The Temperamentals stars Thomas Jay Ryan as U.S. Communist sympathizer and gay activist Harry Hay, and Michael Urie as trendsetting Viennese couture designer Rudi Gernreich. The story of their rocky relationship is set against the founding of the Mattachine Society. Jonathan Silverstein is the director.

The play received two Lortel nominations, Outstanding Play and Outstanding Lead Actor [Urie]; a Drama League nomination for Distinguished Performance [Urie]; and OCC noms for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play and the John Gassner Award [Morans].

Upcoming TalkOUT guests include Charles Busch, Terrence McNally, former NJ governor Jim McGreevey, producer Daryl Roth, and political activist David Rothenberg [Fortune Society, WBAI Radio]. For the full lineup of guests and more information, visit www.thetemperamentals.com.

Going Green Today

"Let us try,
Before we die,
To make some sense of life.
We're neither pure, nor wise, nor good
We'll do the best we know.
We'll build our house and chop our wood
And make our garden grow..."
-- Candide, Lyrics by Richard Wilbur, John La Touche, and Dorothy Parker

Recording legend, film star, and proud New Yorker Bette Midler, American Idol top-tier finalists Constantine Maroulis, co-star of Rock of Ages, and Diana DeGarmo, now co-staring in Hair, are taking Going Green seriously.

The New York Restoration Project, launched in 2007 by Midler as a project very near and dear to her heart, celebrates Arbor Day this morning with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation and 100 MillionTreesNYC corporate volunteers [from Home Depot, Toyota and BNP Paribas] planting trees in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

The planting will begin at 10:15 and continuue into early afternoon. There'll be remarks by Midler and Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe at 12:45. Performances from Hair and Rock of Ages will be at 1:15. The location is the Atlantic Plaza Towers, 249 Thomas Boyland Street, Brooklyn, at Rockaway Avenue [best public transport option is the C train].

MillionTreesNYC is an innovative, public-private initiative between NYRP and the City of New York through which one million new trees will be planted and cared for across the five boroughs by 2017.

Roundabout at Studio 54's Sondheim on Sondheim not only brings the master composer back to Bway and is his [sort of] onstage Bway debut but also marks the return of a list of long-time favs.

Welcome back Tony winner Barbara Cook, after an absence of 37 years*; Tony nom Vanessa Williams; and Euan Morton, returning after an absence of some three and a half years. Of course, it's always good to have Tom Wopat, Norm Lewis, and Leslie Kritzer back. Even though they've not been missing that long, welcome back Erin Mackey and Matthew Scott.

[*Actually, you could reduce that to about eight years since Miss Cook, one of the greatest interpreters of. Sondheim's work received a 2002 Tony nom for Best Theatrical Event for her solo, limited Beaumont engagement of Mostly Sondheim.]

And, as is always the case, no matter how often, welcome back Sondheim.

Ben Brantley in his NYTimes review wrote, "In the world of American musicals he is indisputably the best, brightest and most influential talent to emerge during the last half-century. Even when his shows have been commercial flops, they are studied, revered and eventually reincarnated to critical hosannas. No other songwriter to date has challenged his eminence, and it seems unlikely that anyone will in his lifetime. It is even possible, if sadly so, that he may be remembered as the last of the giants in a genre that flourished in the 20th century and wilted in the 21st."

The cast performs new arrangements by David Loud of more than 45 songs [some complete, some with only a verse or a few lines; some cut from shows] from the Stephen Sondheim songbook in the multimedia production, conceived and directed by James Lapine. The director has a long association with the composer beginning with Sunday in the Park...[1984], then Into the Woods [1987], Passion [1994], and four revivals.

Morton performs "Franklin Shepherd, Inc." and "Opening Doors" from Merrily We Roll Along; and duets with Miss Cook on "Beautiful" from Sunday in the Park... In addition, he and the other cast members provide harmony for other solos and are featured in ensemble numbers.

The composer is often blunt assessing his early life in a dysfunctional family in video segments. It wasn't always everything's coming up roses, comedy tonight, or happily ever after. Some incidents in his life give you a window into the man who wrote such bittersweet songs as "Being Alive," "Losing My Mind," "Opening Doors," "Not A Day Goes By," "Is This What You Call Love?" and "Send in the Clowns."

Sondheim on Sondheim marks the sixth Sondheim musical produced by Roundabout*, which in 2005 honored the composer with the Jason Robards Award for Excellence in Theater.

[* Company (1995), Follies (2001), Assassins (2004), Pacific Overtures (2004), Sunday in the Park... (2008)]

When Morton got the call to audition, he drove up from Virgina, where he maintains a home with his family and where he was doing the Signature Sings concert series with Nastascia Diaz at Arlington's Signature Theatre. "The audition didn't seem to go well," he says, "but you never know. So I got back in the car and was returning to Washington. My phone rang, and I pulled over. It was my agent. He told me, 'You have the part.' I couldn't believe it. I cannot tell you how elated I was. I couldn't drive. I just sat there."

"Stephen has been in a very nice place," he states during a light supper break at Restaurant Row's Da Rosina. "Everyone has celebrated his birthday, a theatre is being named in his honor, and he is very happy with our show. It's a fantastic tribute to him. It's a Stephen Sondheim Year!"

He says he's working with the very best: he cannot sing the praises of Miss Cook [nor can she stop singing his]; Williams, and "the, oh, so laid back" Tom Wopat "who just opens his mouths and delivers an amazing sound. Wait till you hear him sing 'Finishing the Hat.'"

Morton has simply fallen madly in love with Cook. "She's 83. Three years older than Sondheim, and she's stunning. And the voice. Simply exquisite. Vocally, you can't help but marvel at how she sounds. Barbara hasn't done this kind of job - eight shows a week, in a long time. Over three decades. She was concerned. Early on, I told her I was nervous, not so much about the show but the fact that I'd been away three-and-a half years. And she admitted she was worried about her physical stamina."

He brought up the mythological powers of "Doctor Theater" and how it cures all that ails you as soon as you go out onstage. "You become another person. That's partly why most actors do what they do. You have to have quite a few ailments to want to become an actor in the first place. What's so wonderful about stepping onstage is that you can have a crappy day or you can be a cripple - physical or mental, is that there's a live audience whether it be a tiny black box or a Studio 54 and the energy just takes over and you flow with it. It's an emotional reaction. Everything you do is influenced by the audience."

Young Scotsman Euan Morton made a memorable Bway debut, earning Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics noms, on reprising the role of Boy George in Taboo, which had earned him an Olivier nom. "Rosie [O'Donnell], bless her heart, is a Boy George fan and really loved the show. She's got balls! How many people I'm going to throw $16-million into something I believe in? There are a lot of people around who have money. God knows where they get it from, but there aren't that many that put up the entire capitalization of a musical.

"It scared me how much money Rosie was spending. There was a kimono that I wore that cost $27,000! It was flown to India to be hand-beaded. I wore it for seven-and-a-half seconds. That was when I realized what a blast it was to be on Broadway! I came to this country on the back of those kinds of financial deals. I thought, 'My God, I've made it!' Little did I know that it was just like back home, and bloody hard making it. I was in Taboo for three years before we came to Broadway. I was resting on my laurels before I even got here."

He observed that Boy George "lived in a squat. The kimono he wore, he stole from Boots [a local pharmacy] and was probably worth no more than $10."

O'Donnell tried everything to keep it going, he states, "but we closed after three months. I'm amazed at the number of people who tell me, 'Oh, you were wonderful in Taboo' or 'I was a big fan of Taboo's.' If all of them had seen it, we'd still be running."

He explains that Taboo was one of those shows that was definitely ahead of the curve. "In five to eight years, it will come back. Not necessarily on Broadway. Maybe it shouldn't. Maybe it shouldn't have been there in the first place. It would have been a great downtown Avenue Qesque thing. I think had Joe Papp been around, it could have had a run at the Public."

The lights went out, and Euan Morton seemingly disappeared.

Following the early closing of Taboo, Morton found himself between a rock and a hard place. Because he had come over on a special Equity waiver to do Taboo, 'I wasn't legally allowed to work, so I became a tourist. Career-wise, it was harmful for a while. It's a strike-while-the iron is hot business." Months went by until he was able to solve his problem. "I literally had to start over."

Looking back on the experience, he says he has no regrets. "In the three years before Sondheim on Sondheim, I've learned how to work hard. My work ethic has gotten better, along with my accent."

Morton observes that with the possible exception of Miss Cook, no one in the cast is someone you would associate with singing Sondheim. "You would expect Bernadette, Raul, Brian Stokes, and, oh my, Elaine Stritch! - not Euan Morton and Tom Wopat. So I admire James for doing something different."

It was a little scary. "I kept asking myself, 'Can I live up to what Mandy Patkin has done?
Can I live up to what Raul has done? There were some big shoes to fill."

The quality he admires the most about Lapine is that "he wants and loves to take risks. He likes to challenge himself as well as others. He cracked me up at rehearsal one day when he told us, 'There are two words I don't use: journey and cute.'"

Of Miss Cook, he states, "She's truly amazing. A national treasure. The light never leaves Barbara's eyes. On and offstage, she's got that cheesy Tinkerbell twinkle. And what a wicked sense of humor! You should hear some of the jokes she tells. Barbara so understands audiences. You pride yourself on wanting to be good for audiences."

Speaking of Williams, he says he's been most impressed that "she's so genuine, sweet and considerate. She brims with talent. No movie star diva there. Several times she's told us how excited she is to be back involved in theater."

In SOS, Morton states that it's the first time he's allowed to go onstage and basically play himself. "It's a revue; and even though we have some book scenes, it's not such complicated and involved work. The songs have come down from those who undertook that. Now, we just go out and be us. It's quite a different experience."

He explains everyone has some big moments. "James has created an ensemble show. Barbara and Tom sing backup for Vanessa," he points out. "We switch around a lot. Then, on 'Happiness' [from Passion], we all sing."

He felt very relaxed singing Sondheim by the time rehearsals began. In his Signature concerts, he'd been doing the composers' songs. He started doing Sondheim when he was 19 in drama school and playing Old Ben in Follies "but I had very little life and musical experience, so I really didn't understand Sondheim. I didn't get it. I came from a little Scottish town. The year before, I was given "Finishing the Hat" [Sunday in the Park...] to do in a concert, and I was so petrified I gave it back to my teacher and pleaded to have something easy."

That fear eventually fell away as he got older. "When the casting director called and suggested I audition, my first thought was 'Me? Sondheim?' Then I thought: 'Broadway, Sondheim, Lapine. Barbara Cook. Broadway. Why not? I should go for this.' The fact that I'd just done Into the Woods [Kansas City Rep, directed by Moisés Kaufman] made going forward a lot easier."

After his audition, he stayed the night, got a call back for the next morning and then got back in his car to head to D.C. "I kept thinking, 'I didn't do well in the call back.' I was really annoyed with myself. I felt like I should hit myself over the head." And then came the call. "I don't mind telling you, I cried."

"But there was a bit of trepidation singing Sondheim, where every lyric, every phrase has to be exact, for Sondheim," he admits. "I haven't worked this hard in my life. I was fortunate to have a session with Stephen. He paid me a visit after a couple of rehearsals and told me to make sure I sing his lyrics, not substitute something. All those tunes are his babies, and he cares.

"Stephen's an artist," he continues, "and to some degree he has issues that celebrity brings - for instance, people who might recognize him in his doctor's office and ask what's the matter, or come up to him while he trying to eat to do chitchat -and the baggage all successful artists carry."

Morton is hoping that the show, "with such a great cast and such a commercial title," will do so well that it might move to a Broadway house. The Studio 54 engagement runs through June 13, but could extend into July. However, if the show extends, Morton may not be able to join the cast. He's set to trade in his Scottish brogue for a Russian accent to play Anatoly in Arlington, VA [where he maintains a home] in the award-winning Signature Theatre's production of Chess, which has a score close to his heart.

"When I was nine years old," he states, "I was singing all the songs from the score. Tim [Rice]'s lyrics are so poignant. Growing up, my Mom and I knew all the Abba songs and we were always singing around the house."

Eric Schaeffer [Million Dollar Quartet; and Signature's A.D. and co-founder] will direct. "One of Eric's talents that doesn't get talked about," Morton observes, "is that he's a great dramaturg, so I know he'll do a great job with the book."

Cirque du Soleil has returned to New York and has pitched its trademark 2,500-seat blue-and-yellow grand chapiteau again at Randall's Island, where it's scheduled to play through June 6.

Things are a bit different with this edition, titled OVO. It's about time. For one thing, at its helm is a woman director for the first time in Cirque's quarter century of shows, acclaimed Brazilian choreographer Deborah Colker. Her much-honored contemporary dance troupe tours the world. And the show has a new beat, very Brazilian.

Montreal-based Cirque has become a huge worldwide entertainment entity. It presents 21 shows throughout the world. Though all are colorful and exciting in various ways, the tented shows have recently been affected with a sameness. Colker was hand-picked two years ago by CduS co-owner Guy Laliberté thought it was time to shake things up. "I think they had been looking for me for a long time," she laughs. "They had been watching for a long time what I have been doing."

A CduS VP met Colker after a performance of her dance company in London in 2006 "and that's how it all began. They invited me to create a show. Guy said he wanted a show about nature and bio-diversity, my first instinct was to choose the insect world. I brought my way to think movement and combined it with all the famous Cirque du Soleil style. I feel I've breathed new breath into Cirque."

It's good to report that OVO is undoubtedly the best CduS in several years - not so much because it's earth-shattering different as far as acrobatic and thrill acts go; but because it dances.

Colker brought aboard award-winning Brazilian film composer Berna Ceppas, an old friend who composed for her dance company. The OVO score is a fusion of samba, forró [the traditional music of Brazil's Northeast], carimbó [Latin and Afro rhythms], reggae, Rio fun [the electronic beat favored in the city's favelas [shanty towns], and unique "Cirquephonic."

The exuberant Colker, who also choreographed and wrote, speaking in deeply accented English but with a Portuguese lilt describes OVO as "a headlong rush into a colorful ecosystem teeming with life, a sort of rain forest, where insects work, eat, crawl, flutter, play, and fight. I love to work on a large scale and create a big impact with tons of energy and excitement.

"The world created for this show teems with contrasts," she continues. "The hidden, secret world at our feet is revealed as tender and torrid, chaotic and tranquil. With each new day, the vibrant cycle of insect life begins anew. It was important to me to bring to audiences the feelings and different movements of each insect group."

The name translates as "egg" in Portuguese and "it's this timeless symbol of the life cycle that's the underlying thread of the show. When a mysterious egg appears in the rain forest, the insects - everything from dragonflies, soldier ants, and the segue from cocoon to butterfly to spiders, scarabs, and never-before-seen-or-heard-of "monsters" - are awestruck and intensely curious about this iconic object. And, yes, there's a love story - between a gawky, quirky insect and riotous ladybug.

The cast comprises 54 performing artists from 16 different countries. None were dancers, reports Colker. "And that's the way I wanted it. My decision was to not have dancers attempt to be acrobats, but to train acrobats to be dancers. I wanted to make all these acrobats move and dance to tell my story through body language."

Rehearsals began in Montreal in October, 2008 and ran through April, 2009. "Those seven months allowed me by Cirque du Soleil gave me the opportunity to create an original work set against a particular theme."

OVO has clowns, singers, and all manner of acts that combine such circus disciplines as banquine, Russian swing, and swinging chair.

They include hand balancing, foot juggling, aerial silk, Spanish web, and contortion.
There are three supreme highlights: the Act One finale, Scarabs Valant, a six-person Russian troupe who fly high, high, high [40 feet, in fact] in and through the air - doing triple and quad somersaults - often sans trapeze [in free fall into the hands of the catcher]; an edge-of-the-seat slack wire act; and the grand finale, Trampo-wall, an extended, thrill act featuring 20 multi-national artists running, jumping, and leaping on trampolines and landing atop a 24-foot vertical climbing wall.

For a video preview of OVO, click here:
http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/ovo/media/official-video.aspx

Artistic guides are CduS owners Laliberté and Gilles Ste-Croix. Chantal Tremblay is director of creation, with scenic design by Gringo Cardia. Colorful, often Felliniesque costumes and unique makeup are trademarks of every Cirque show; and that's certainly true of OVO. Costumes are by Liz Vandal, with make-up by Julie Bégin.

The OVO score, currently available on iTunes, will be available as a CD on April 27.

Tickets are $55-$140 for adults; $38.50-$98 for children 2-12 years old; and, weekdays only, $49.50-$117 for senior and students. They are available at www.cirquedusoleil/ovo or by calling (800) 450-1480. CduS's VIP Tapis Rouge packages are $225 for adults and $178.50 for children and includes premium seating, and access to Champagne, wine, and beverages, as well as a variety of food choices and desserts during the half-hour intermission. The on-site box office opens two hours prior to showtime. Visit the site for directions and transportation options.

The U.S. presenting sponsor is iShares. Sun Life Financial, CGI, Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, Infiniti, and American Express are also participating sponsors.

Deborah Colker

As a child in her native Brazil, Deborah Colker, who is now a vibrant, energetic 49 who keeps the pace of a 20-year-old, grew up in a creative environment. Her father was a violinist and conductor and she played piano from age eight. "I was quite good," she notes, explaining that by age 14 she was playing with an orchestra. "But I soon realized I needed to express my emotions physically."

She also became quite adept at sports, which segued into an interest in movement and dance. "I was very passionate and intense and contemporary dance gave me the chance to fit physical and intellectual emotion together."

Colker became a member of Uruguayan choreographer Graciela Figueroa's Coringa company in 1980. In 1984, she began choreographing and directing musicals, TV programs, movies, and working with high intensity in Rio's famed samba schools.

Wanting to create a choreographic language of her own, Colker in 1994 founded her company, Companhia de Dança Deborah Colker, now a company of 20 dancers [on a two-month tour in the U.K. beginning April 23]. "We say we are a contemporary dance company, but the basis for my choreography is classical ballet. My work is like Brazil," she says, "the mix of colors, rhythms, happiness, and discovery. I was fortunate to be born in such a beautiful, creative, and musical country."

Working with Cirque was a departure from Colker's customary way of working. While she develops concepts during the rehearsal process, for OVO she had to come up with concepts a year and a half before rehearsals began.

"I have a very physical choreographic language," says Colker. "The world of insects is one of constant movement. OVO reflects my background in dance, of course, but it also represents my lifelong love of music, the inspiration I draw from sport and the liveliness you can discover in every aspect of life."

Another Opening of Another Cirque

After much anticipation, much delay, and a complete reworking, Cirque du Soliel's new show Banana Shpeel begin previews April 29 at the Beacon Theatre. It's set to run through the end of August.

Like the touring OVO, this has a different feel. In story and concept, instead of thrill acts, it harks back to the glory days of vaudeville. While there are some outstanding acts, the emphasis is on comedy and dance.

The show introduces "producer extraordinaire" Marty Schmelky, who has a larger-than-life personality. He showcases a colorful array of slapstick comedy, eclectic dance, and acrobatic acts from around the world. It doesn't take long before some of the zanier characters are spreading mayhem and chaos.

Schmelky is played by Danny Rutigliano, best known for his role as Timon in Disney's The Lion King. Assisting Schmelky are three slapstick sidekicks, Daniel Passer, Wayne Wilson, and Shereen Hickman. They are backed by comics Claudio Carneiro, Patrick de Valette, and Gordon White.

Hand balancing, hat juggling, foot juggling, and contortionists are among the featured acts by an international cast of 38. The large dance ensemble features brother-sister tap dance duo Joseph and Josette Wiggan. Music director Petros Sakelliou and six musicians perform an original score.

CduS founder Guy Laliberté was very hands-on in guiding the revamping of B.S., assisted by Gilles Ste-Croix. Former clown and Bway vet David Shiner [Kooza] is writer/director. Choreography is by Jared Grimes. The score is composed and arranged by Simon Carpentier. Cirque's Serge Roy is director of creation.

Through May 18 Banana Shpeel tickets are $35-$89. From May 21 to August 29, they are $45-$110. Tickets, and VIP premium seating, are available at the Beacon box office, online at www.schmelkyproductions.com or www.ticketmaster.com, or by calling (866) 858-0008.

The Tonys are Coming, The Tonys Are Coming

The 64th annual Tony Award nominations will be announced on May 4 by Lea Michele [Spring Awakening; TV's Glee] and Tony nom Jeff Daniels [God of Carnage]. It all happens at 8:30 A.M. at the Bruno Walter Auditorium in the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center of the New York Public Library for Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.

Sponsored by IBM, the nominations can be viewed in their entirety at www.TonyAwards.com. The road to the June 13 Tony Awards can be followed on Twitter [Twitter.com/TheTonyAwards] and Facebook [Facebook.com/TheTonyAwards]. The Awards will be emanate from Radio City Music Hall in a live three-hour CBS telecast,

Zero Hour Extends

Some may remember him as Father James on All My Children; and from his years of regional theater. Still others may recall him Off Broadway in The Big Voice: God or Merman. However, from now on Jim Brochu will be remembered for his vivid, spot-on impersonation of the irresistible, irascible, legendary, and famously volatile comic actor Zero Mostel in his one-man play Zero Hour.

Brochu gives the performance of his lifetime - one of the best ever, On or Off - in this vastly entertaining play that's a must-see for theaterlovers.

Following its acclaimed run Off Bway,Zero Hour is now at the DR2 Theatre [103 East 15th Street, east of Park Avenue South]. .

The play is 90 minutes of edge-of-the-seat explosive theater. The concept is built around a 1977 NYTimes interview with Mostel at his West 28th Street artist studio. The ensuing session leads to an explosion of memory, humor, outrage, and juicy backstage lore.

Z.H. has earned across-the-board raves for Brochu's crisp writing and animated portrayal of Mostel.

Jason Zinoman, in the New York Times, wrote, "Singularly captivating. Zero Hour is a success. Brochu is the spitting image of the bearish Mostel, down to the strands of hair barely covering his head. His wildly expressive gestures are particularly spot on. It brings Mostel back to life, just the way his fans want him."

The interview, given shortly before Mostel left for Philadelphia for the pre-Broadway tryout of The Merchant of Venice. He played one performance as Shylock before his sudden death at age 62.

Z.H. won numerous honors in regional engagements including L.A.'s Ovation Award for Best New Play.

Brochu traces Mostel's early days growing up on the Lower East Side as the son of Orthodox Jewish immigrant parents, through his rise as a stand-up comedian, from the Borscht Belt to Manhattan's most exclusive supper clubs, and from the devastation of the blacklist to his Broadway triumphs - most memorably in A Funny Thing... and as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof.

Brochu relives the devastation the blacklist had on careers such as Mostel, Jack Gilford, and hundreds more in one of America's darkest, most shameful eras, In the late 40s into the mid-50s the buffoonish but powerful senator from Wisconsin, "Commie Hunter" Joseph McCarthy, who headed the Congressional House Un-American Activities Committee. House, seized headlines wildly accusing high profile actors of stage and screen of being "reds." These actors were exiled, with some of the accused committing suicide.

The one person Mostel despised above all others was choreographer/director Jerome Robbins, who went before the committee and named names. In an odd set of love/hate circumstances, it was Robbins, a.k.a. "Loose Lips" by Mostel, who led the actor to two of his most memorable portrayals, that of Pseudolus in Funny Thing... [1962], and Tevye in FOTR [1964]. Before those two landmark performances, the three-time Tony-winner received great acclaim playing John in Ionesco's Rhinoceros.

Then came his triumph onscreen: Mel Brooks' The Producers, which co-starred Mostel as Max Bialystock opposite Gene Wilder as Leo Bloom. It was a role and picture he despised. Mostel's last role in New York was as Leopold Bloom in Ulysses in Nightgown, which garnered him a DD Award and Tony nom.

"Zero had a great influence on my life," says Brochu. "I was fortunate to get to know him when I was starting out. His life was filled with great laughter, drama, and life lessons. Few in show business had more obstacles to overcome than Zero. Drama is about overcoming obstacles - the protagonist and the antagonist. Zero had a lot of antagonists in his life. He said, 'I've been excluded as a man. I've been excluded as an entertainer. I've been excluded as a Jew.'

"He was disowned by his parents when he married a Catholic," continues Brochu. "There was the blacklist; and just when then things were going great, he was hit by a bus and, had he not spoken up with great determination, would have had a leg amputated. That's a pretty dramatic life."

Mostel tried to heal the rupture with his mother when she was dying by bringing his son Josh to the hospital so she could meet him; but what was broken remained broken. When she raised up from the bed and saw them in the doorway, she screamed, "No! No! No!"

Zero Hour is directed by one of the 50s most popular movie sweethearts, Piper Laurie, who segued to three Oscars noms [Hustler, Carrie, and Children of a Lesser God], a Golden Globe nom [TV's Twin Peaks], and nine Emmy noms [including a nod for the live TV broadcast of Days of Wine and Roses, directed by John Frankenheimer] with a 1986 win.

She appeared on Bway in revivals of Morning's at Seven as Esther; and The Glass Menagerie as The Daughter; Off Bway in Larry Kramer's The Destiny of Me and MTC's revival of Biography. She has toured extensively in William Luce's one-woman show, The Last Flapper, based on the writing of Zelda Fitzgerald. Ms. Laurie also directs film and, still works in them. She just wrapped a featured role in her 61st, Hesher with Natalie Portman and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Producers are Edmund Gaynes and Kurt Peterson [who, in his acting career, starred in the Lincoln Center revival of WSS, opposite Angela Lansbury in Dear World, and as Young Ben in the original Follies ] .

For more information, visit www.ZeroHourShow.com.

What a Gift!

Now Jim Brochu has a piece of Zero Mostel. Last week, Paulette and Ira Buch were so impressed with Brochu's impersonation and the play that they returned to present the star with an authentic oil-on-canvas 1960 Mostel, in the style of Marc Chagall.

Mrs. Buch's father, Alex Segal, a successful businessman who knew Mostel and several up-and-coming painters from his days at City College, purchased works from Mostel in the 60s.

"If Zero was in need of money," said Mrs. Buch, "which given the blacklist and his being called before the congressional committee and then his near fatal injury [when the actor was slammed by a careening bus, which literally shattered one of his legs],was no doubt the case, my father would buy a couple of paintings to be of help."

Brochu was floored. "What an incredible legacy to possess paintings by Zero Mostel and what amazing and kind thoughtfulness to present me with one of them. This will be something I'll treasure the rest of my life."

Gotta Dance! Gotta Dance!

Anticipation is building for Career Transition For Dancers' 25th Anniversary star-studded Silver Jubilee and it's not until November 8. CTFD galas are always star-studded and this one already has quite a star line-up. Among those joining host, five-time Tony-winner [perhaps soon-to-be six-time, with the acclaim heaped upon her co-starring role in the Little Night Music revival] and three-time DD winner Angela Lansbury will be Tony and DD winners Bebe Neuwirth, Ann Reinking, and Chita Rivera.

The always spectacular show, to be produced/directed by Ann Marie DeAngelo, will feature artists from dance, theater, and film to highlight memorable moments from past galas. The presenting sponsor is Rolex.
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CTFD, with offices and programs in New York [the Caroline and Theodore Newhouse Center for Dancers, 165 West 46th Street at Broadway, Suite 701], L.A., and Chicago, has helped over 4,300 professional dancers identify their unique talents in preparation for establishing careers when dance is no longer an option. It annually awards millions of dollars in scholarships for education, entrepreneurial grants, and certification programs. For more information,visit www.careertransition.org

It's time to begin planning. Patron tickets are $600, $750 and $1,200. Tables of 10 for the after-concert dinner dance start at $7,500. These include premium seating, post-performance dinner dance, and live auction. To purchase, call Marjorie Horne, McEvoy & Associates, (212) 228-7446 X.33. Show only tickets will go on sale soon at the City Center box office.

Writing Toward Broadway's Future

Kurt Deutsch and Noah Cornman of Sh-K-Boom and Ghostlight Records will present NewMusicalTheatre.com, a one-night concert at Le Poisson Rouge [158 Bleecker Street at Thompson Street], on Monday at 10 P.M. The show will celebrate the label's recent website launch and the future of musical theater by bringing together a large group of young songwriters.

The concert will bring together the next generation of musical theater writers, featuring the six composers on the site - Nick Blaemire [Glory Days], Adam Gwon [Ordinary Days], Joe Iconis [The Black Suits], Kait Kerrigan and Brian Lowdermilk [The Unauthorized Autobiography of Samantha Brown], Ryan Scott Oliver [Mrs. Sharp], and Benj Pasek and Justin Paul [Edges]. The concert with this generation's most celebrated performers -- with a starry lineup of performers. The roster of 15 performers will include former South Pacific/Pajama Game star Kelli O'Hara and Addams Family co-star Krysta Rodriguez. Tickets are $22 and available online at www,lepoissonrouge.com.

Season of Benefits

Primary Stages kicks off their 25th Anniversary celebration at 59E59 with a week of special concerts, "each one a gem." April 25, Julie Halston and Charles Busch are center stage, followed on the 27th by Mario Cantone. On April 28, Penny Fuller and legendary composer Charles Strouse [Bye, Bye, Birdie, All American, Golden Boy, Annie, Applause] headline. Gregg Edleman and Karen Mason are April 29. Larry Gatlin will make a rare appearance on the 30th with his Gatlin Brothers and will be joined by Billy Stritch. On May 1 Jamie deRoy & Friends - Loni Ackerman, Christopher Fitzgerald, Anita Gillette, Bonnie Langford, Christiane Noll, and Kevin Spirtas - saltue songs from Tony-winning musicals with special guest, legendary lyricist Sheldon Harnick [Fiorello!, Fiddler, She Loves Me, The Apple Tree]. Showtimes are 8 P.M., except April 25 at 7. Tickets are $20 and $30 and available at www.ticketcentral.com or by calling (212) 279-4200.

Online auction bidding for a vast array of gift items begins on April 29 [and continues until 10 P.M. that day] in connection with Playwrights Horizons' annual Spring gala benefit, to be held on May 3 at awesome Guastavino's in the arches of the 59th Street Bridge. Register at www.playwrightshorizons.cmarket.com, then place your bids. Among the "opportunities" are dinners with Stephen Sondheim, Craig Lucas, Christine Ebersole, and composer Scott Frankel; dinner with director Michael Mayer before attending a performance of Green Day's American Idiot , which includes a backstage visit; a backstage visit to the 30 Rock set that includes a photo with the cast, signed script, DVD set and attendance at a taping with director Don Scardino; horseback riding with Jonathan Groff; having a song written for you by Avenue Q's Tony and DD-winning composer/lyricist Robert Lopez; a seven-night stay in Argentina at spectacular Casa al Reves; tickets for the 2011 Sundance Film Festival; sitting in the orchestra pit during a performance of Mamma Mia!; and, among numerous other items, attendance at a P.H. opening night with Kelli O'Hara and Greg Naughton.

The gala, In Quarter Time, honors Playwrights' A.D. Tim Sanford, celebrating 25 years with the company and will feature a performance by Tony and DD winner Victoria Clark. Co-chairs are nine notable P.H. vets: Joan Allen, Christopher Durang, Craig Lucas, Michael Mayer, Cynthia Nixon, Lynn Nottage, Mary-Louise Parker, Theresa Rebeck, and a, hopefully, fully-clothed Marisa Tomei. Raffle prizes include two round-trip coach airline tickets for a week in Palm Springs in a mid-20th century, three-bedroom, three-bath manse with mountain views, garden, heated pool and spa. [Hey, if you're staying in a pad like that, shouldn't the tkts be First Class? Maybe you'll get an upgrade!]Tickets start at $800. Reserve by calling Michelle Kiefel, (212) 564-1235 X. 3143.

New to DVD

Joan Allen, sporting a makeover that might make you wonder what happened to the "old" Joan Allen, gives the performance of a lifetime as iconic American painter Georgia O'Keefee [Sony Pictures Home Entertainment; SRP, $25]. The shattering and much-nominated made-for-TV film [for Lifetime], landing on April 27, costars Oscar winner Jeremy Irons as O'Keeffe's husband, charismatic master photographer Alfred Stieglitz. The film chronicles the couple's turbulent 20-year-relationship and O'Keeffe's nervous breakdown on learning of Stieglitz's infidelity and her eventual self-discovery in the painted desert of Taos, New Mexico. Tyne Daly as renowned Taos society doyenne Mabel Dodge Stern, wife of painter Maurice Stern, is featured along with Linda Emond, and Kathleen Chalfant. Michael Cristofer [Pulitzer Prize winner, The Shadow Box] did the teleplay. Bob Balaban directed. The package includes the featurette, Portrait of an Artist: The Making of Georgia O'Keeffe.

Get thee to the City Center box office. Don't walk, run! Encores! season finale of the eagerly awaited concert of Sondheim and Laurents' unconventional musical satire, Anyone Can Whistle, with only five performances April 8 - 11, appears to be a hit before it opens. Already there's talk of a Bway transfer. Ticket sales have been brisk. Buzz is international. There've been ticket requests from as far as the U.K., Germany, and France!

This Encores! has special relevance, coming on the occasion of the composer's 80th birthday and amid numerous salutes such as the renaming of the Henry Miller's to the Sondheim.

ACW, termed "an experimental satire," took aim at every target on the American cultural scene -- conformity, psychology, race relations, greed, religion, and politics.

Tony and DD-winner Sutton Foster, three-time DD and two-time Tony winner Donna Murphy, and three-time DD-winner and multiple Tony-nom Raúl Esparza fill the roles played by Lee Remick, Angela Lansbury, and Harry Guardino in the original 1964 production, with an original book by Laurents, who directed. Choreography was by the late Herbert Ross [House of Flowers, Finian's Rainbow, I Can Get It for You Wholesale, On a Clear Day...]. His sole Tony nom was for ACW, and also was the show's only nom.

Sutton plays uptight nurse Fay Apple; Murphy portrays corrupt mayor Cara Hoover; and Esparza is town sanitarium second in command Dr. J.Bowden Hapgood.

This is the first remounting of the musical, originally done in three acts. Three-time Tony and Drama Desk nominee Casey Nicholaw [up next with Minsky's] is directing/choreographing.

At the recent Drama League gala saluting Miss Lansbury, Murphy stopped the show, as Miss Lansbury did early in Act One, with her saucy rendition of "Me and My Town." She was very excited to discuss playing the role. "It's such an incredibly well-written role, with lots of bite, in such a legendary show that, perhaps, was simply way ahead of its time."

As fate would have it, Murphy is in the cast, but there was a brief moment as casting began when it didn't look as if she would be. "There were some things in the works," she said, "and I kept pushing for an answer, It didn't come. So I didn't think I'd be able to do this Encores! and made my regrets. Then, for the next two nights I couldn't sleep and all I did was cry. Shawn [her husband] said, 'What's wrong with you?' and I explained I thought I'd made the wrong decision. He said, 'Then make the right one!' So here I am. It will be a memorable experience, and getting to work with Steve again [Passion on Bway; Follies at Encores!] is just the icing on the cake."

ACW had pedigree, especially with Laurents famous for Gypsy, not to mention Sondheim who was following not only WSS, but also Gypsy, and Funny Thing... The late Miss Remick was a major movie star and making her return to the stage 13 years after her Bway debut in the three-nights-only comedy Be Your Age [written by Mary Orr, who wrote the story that became About Eve.

Miss Lansbury, a major movie star since her early teens, had just wrapped almost a year in Shelagh Delane's hit A Taste of Honey. Sondheim has often said that Laurents had had his one on Miss Lansbury for a long time, and really pushed for her. But who knew she could do farce and sing?

The wild card was Harry Guardino, not known to be a singer but who was a noted film character actor who had played featured roles on Bway since 1953.

Anyone Can Whistle opened nearly a half century ago, April 4, 1964, at the Majestic, closing after nine performances. The critics were divided, some baffled. The masses didn't line up at the box office. But a legend was instantly born. The title song and "With So Little to Be Sure Of" survived as theater classics. "There Won't Be Trumpets," cut from the show and, if you can believe, replaced by a dramatic monologue. It later became a classic Miss Remick, Barbra Streisand, Bernadette Peters, and Mandy Patinkin. It was included in Craig Lucas and Norman René's Sondheim revue of songs from S.S. shows that landed on the cutting room floor, Marry Me a Little.

The rarely heard complete score is a riot of jazzy, show-biz razzmatazz, waltzes, gospel numbers, and Bway pastiche, as full of variety and surprise as the show that gave birth to it. Songs include "A Parade in Town," "Miracle Song," "I've Got You to Lean On," "Simple," "See What It Gets You," "Come Play Wiz Me," and "Everybody Says Don't."

The story, trimmed by a fourth for Encores!, takes place in a town so broke, only a miracle can save it. Its politicos scheme to bring back prosperity - and kickbacks from businesses. The town's booming business is Dr. Detmold's Sanitarium for the Socially Pressured, called "The Cookie Jar." Mayoress Cora Hoover Hooper, the town's richest person and wildly unpopular, laments the situation. To save the town, the politicos stage a miracle, which results in a latter-day Lourdes, with "pilgrims" flocking there for a cure from a spring flowing out of solid rock, or so it seems. Hooper promises they'll be anything except themselves - with payment of a fee.

That the miracle is fake doesn't bother many. However, Nurse Apple bristles at the scheming and brings her "Cookie" charges to the spring for a cure. When they are refused, pandemonium breaks out and they are arrested. Apple escapes and returns in the guise of a French sexpot and falls for the sanitarium's new shrink, Dr. Hapgood. She longs for a miracle of her own -- to be able to whistle. Will the hero actually come to her rescue and save her and the rest of the town just in the nick of time?

Rob Berman, celebrating three seasons with Encores!, is music directing with the original orchestrations of the brilliant Don Walker [numerous shows from The Ziegfeld Follies of 1936, By Jupiter, and A Connecticut Yankee..., to Carousel, Finian's Rainbow, Call Me Madam, Pajama Game, and Fiddler] and the full compliment of the Encores' orchestra.

The concert co-stars Jeff Blumenkrantz [Tony nom'd for his musical contribution to Urban Cowboy] as treasurer Cooley; John Ellison Conlee [Tony nom'd for The Full Monty, playing police chief Magruder; Edward Hibbert as Comptroller Schub; and an ensemble of 24.

Encores! sponsor is Newman's Own, with major support from Perry and Martin Granoff, Mary Jo and Ted Shen, and the Stephanie and Fred Shuman Fund for Encores! Jack Viertel is Encores! A.D.

Tickets for ACW are $25 - $95 and available at the City Center box office, through CityTix at (212) 581-1212, and online at www.NYCityCenter.org.

Old is New Again

Roundabout has an Off Bway winner in Gordon Edelstein's acclaimed production from New Haven's Long Wharf Theatre of Tennessee Williams' groundbreaking and haunting memory play, The Glass Menagerie, which has received a Lortel Award nom as Outstanding Revival, Play.

It's hard to imagine Judith Ivey topping her recent portrayal of Ann Landers in The Lady with All the Answers, but she takes the classic character of Amanda Wingfield and dusts off the cobwebs to breathe new life into it.

From its auspicious Bway premiere in 1945, directed by Eddie Dowling - the sometime writer, lyricist, composer, and designer who also played the role of Tom - and Margo Jones, who directed the playwright's Summer and Smoke and produced Inherit the Wind, the esteemed Laurette Taylor has maintained ownership of the definitive portrayal for 65 years. That might all change now.

Her critically-acclaimed performance, and the performances of the excellent co-stars - Patch Darragh, Keira Keeley, and Michael Mosley, not to mention Lortel nom'd Outstanding Director Edlestein's reimaging might become the measure by which future productions are judged.

Ivey had big shoes to fill: Miss Taylor, Maureen Stapleton in the first and second revivals [1965 and 1975], Jessica Tandy [1983], and Julie Harris [1994]. Each of the revivals was terribly short-lived. Some may wish to include Jessica Lange's 2005 portrayal in the longest-running revival, 120 performances. However, Ivey's performance and this Glass Menagerie could have a long Bway run in the right theatre.

While the writing is bittersweet, often very dramatic, often very funny, in most productions it feels stilted. Here, in the hands of Ivey and company, it's quite real. And though you may not have had a mother like Amanda Wingfeld, you probably knew someone who did - especially if you are from the South.

Ivey, a Lortel nom for Outstanding Actress, is so grating as the much too doting mother, that you want to wring her neck to shut her up; however, and with great panache, she brings Amanda to life as she has rarely been brought before. Notice her never subtle mannerisms, particularly the small things [for instance, the way she purses her lips when she emits those stares of death; and the way she wipes the coffee cup after every sip just like all genteel Southern belles of a certain age still do].

At times, with all her talk of gentleman callers, she even seems to take on the persona of Blanche Dubois, especially in her ruinations about the ole Blue Mountain, Mississippi, plantation of old, even a little Scarlett O'Hara and Mama Rose.

It's good to have Ivey back onstage has been sorely missed. She directed last year's short-lived Second Stage production of David Kirshenbaum/Jack Heifner's VanitiesThe American Dream and The Sandbox, and her Sally Durant in Roundabout's 2001 Follies are still memorably etched.

Hers isn't the only dazzling performance in this perfectly-cast revival. Patch Darragh, a Lortel nom for Outstanding Actor, as restless son Tom who's mad as hell and can't take it anymore and who's on the reckless path to repeat the mistakes of his father, is a revelation. His last major role was Doc Porter in Roundabout/Kathleen Turnner's 2008 bombastic revival of Beth Henley's Crimes of the Hearts. There wasn't a hint then that he could give such a performance of pent-up frustration and often silent rage that's eating him alive.

Michael Mosley as Jim O'Connor, the long-awaited Gentleman Caller, and arrives in what would have been Act Three with some much-needed change of pace, energy, and comic relief in a classic that runs on much too long. It could easily have been trimmed by the master by 20 minutes.

In her first major role, it would appear that a star is born in Keira Keeley. Her heartbreaking portrayal of crippled, disastrously shy daughter Laura, who lives in a fantasy world and is as fragile as her glass menagerie collection, will be forever etched in your memory. Many times, especially doing quiet and silent moments, she reminds so much of the very young Cherry Jones as Kitty Chase in her second credited Off Bway role in Michael Weller's short-lived 1984 The Ballad of Soapy Smith at the Public. You have to wait a long time for all her pain to go away and for her to smile, but her Act Three reaction to a compliment from her Gentleman Caller emits a radiant beam that uplifts her [and our] heart which is no longer a lonely hunter.

Barring further extensions or a move, this Glass Menagerie plays through June 13 at Roundabout's Laura Pels Theatre/Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theater on West 46th Street.

This Sunday

There'll be a festive 2:30 P.M. Easter Bonnet contest prior to Easter Sunday's matinee of Jon Marans Lortel-nom'd for Outstanding Play, The Temperamentals at New World Stages. Tickets are $29 [available only at the box office using the code: TERAD310] and include a cocktail and chances to win prizes, such as tickets to Love, Loss and What I Wore. Thomas Jay Ryan and Lortel nom Michael Urie star, respectively, as homosexual activist and Communist sympathizer Harry Hay and his lover, innovative Viennese couture designer Rudi Gernreich.

The TalkOUT following this Monday's Temperamentals performance headlines David Hyde Pierce and TV writer/exec Brian Hargrove. Lortel nom'd playwright Jon Marans will moderate.

Urie and Marans will participate in the free New Directions for Gay Theater seminar at the Snapple Theatre Center's Jerry Orbach Theater [210 West 50th Street at Broadway] on April 11. Doors will open at Noon for networking and complimentary continental breakfast and coffee. There will be panels from 12:30 - 2 P.M. The Off Broadway Alliance, an organization of producers, general managers, venue owners, press agents and marketing personnel, is presenting the seminars focused on the culture, business and history of Off Bway theater. The panel will feature Christopher Sieber, Leslie Jordan [author/star of My Trip Down the Pink Carpet], and Joseph Zellni, composer of Yank!. Patrick Healy, NYTimes theater reporter will moderate. Reservations are mandatory and can be made until April 9 by going to www.april11obaseminar.eventbrite.com/.

Free Dancers Seminar

Career Transition for Dancers [CTFD] is sponsoring Stepping into Hope and Change, a free all-day career development seminar for dancers, Thursday at Actor's Equity audition center. Registration begins at 9:30 A.M. The first program, at 10, features James Fayette, former principal dancer with NYC Ballet, who's currently American Guild of Musical Arts NY-area dance exec. Breakout sessions will follow, exploring such topics as survival work and exploration of new careers. Lunch will be provided.

The afternoon sessions begin at 2:15 with speaker Karen Giombetti, former Bway hoofer dancer who recently opened a PR firm. Additional breakout sessions will follow. Reservations, for the day or individual sessions, can be made by calling (212) 764-0172 and online at [email protected]. For more information, visit www.careertransition.org.

Partner organizations for the event include Actors Fund-Dancers' Resource, Dance/NYC, Dancers Over 40, the Harkness Center for Dance Injuries, NY Foundation for the Arts, Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, and Actors' Equity. CTFD has offices in NY, L.A., and Chicago with resources "to assist professional dancers in identifying their unique talents in preparation for establishing new careers when dance is no longer an option."

Last Chance

It's your last chance to catch one of the standout gay-themed productions in this season of numerous gay-themed shows, Joseph and David Zellnik's Yank! A WWII Love Story, Lortel nom'd for Outstanding Musical - at the York Theatre Company at Saint Peter's [Lexington and East 54th Street]. It's been one of the company's biggest box office bonanzas, but finally must close on Sunday. The good news is that the dedicated work of a number of producers has resulted in the news that this show with great heart - and it's right-on 40's era score and 12-member cast - will have a second life on Broadway.

Yank! chronicles the off/on, rocky relationship between two servicemen against a backdrop of fear, prejudice, courage and survival. It took the Zellnicks 10 years to get their show up at the 2005 NYMF, then regionally, and to the York. Longtime festival play/musical and regional director Igor Goldin is at the helm.

The outstanding cast is headlined by Bobby Steggert's Stu, who's totally love-smitten for barracks bud Mitch, portrayed by Ivan Hernandez. In a stunning omission, neither were nom'd by the Lortels. The all-purpose woman in the soldiers' lives is marvelously essayed by multi-talented Olivier and DD nom Nancy Anderson. And there's a surprise in the show: Jeffry Denman, straight out of White Christmas on Bway and on tour, plays against type and isn't so straight anymore as wayyyyyyy out there gay 'n proud - and tap dancing - Yank Magazine writer Artie. Denman is also Lortel nom'd as choreographer.

The York engagement has been visited by numerous military veterans who've told their stories of coming out under fire in the long ago era before Don't Ask/Don't Tell. However, as an aside, if some of the composited events and characters in the musical are to be believed, it appears gays not only weren't so closeted but were not only designing those Navy whites and literally running Uncle Sam's Army! But, then, that's the nature of theater. Ironically, in spite of the military's policy then, there were few generals and ship captains, not to mention, battle filmmakers that didn't have a gay onboard in a top position or in command.

However, lights will go out following Sunday's matinee of the Bway revival of William Gibson's classic Helen Keller biographical 19th-century period drama, The Miracle Worker. It closes a $2.6-million loss after 38 performances and a valiant struggle to survive. Some questioned director Kate Whoriskey's in-the-round staging at Circle in the Square, but it worked for me. Oscar nom Abigail Breslin [Little Miss Sunshine], in her Bway debut, gives a monumentally moving performance uttering guttural sounds and two syllables. Alison Pill [Reasons to be Pretty] stands her ground as Annie Sullivan, the teacher with a troubled past who comes to Alabama to do battle royal with Helen to teach her sign language. Veteran actor Matthew Modine is making a memorable Bway debut as Helen's father. They receive excellent support from Jennifer Morrison as Helen's mom and the delightful Yvette Ganier as family retainer Viney. Tony and DD-nom Elizabeth Franz [Brighton Beach Memoirs] is featured as Helen's aunt.

Y'all Come, Y'all Hear

How about some Southern Food for Thought on Tuesday at the Paley Center [25 West 52nd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues] as FFT takes theatergoers on a journey to the Deep South of Tennessee Williams, Horton Foote, and soul fixin's?

The appetizer, at 2 P.M., will be rare footage from the Paley Center's archival collection of Lillian Gish in Foote's acclaimed The Trip to Bountiful and an interview by FFT's A.D. Susan Charlotte with the playwright about the film adaptation. The main course, at 2:15, will have a lot of good ole Southern-style revenge on the plate: Foote's one-act The One-Armed Man, set in 1928 in a Texas cotton gin; and Williams' rarely performed 27 Wagons Full of Cottton [brought to the screen as the controversial Baby Doll], set in Blue Mountain, Mississippi, where a cotton gin has been burned to the ground.

At 3:15, wine and hors d'oeuvres - but no mint juleps, fried chicken, or collards - will be served and there'll be a meet and greet with the cast members Lisa Bostnar, Michael Citiriniti, Sam Coppla, Kevin Stapleton and director Antony Marsellis. Tickets are $65 [$55 for new members, who, in the spirit of good, old-fashioned Southern hospitality, can also bring along a guest to this event] and available by calling (646) 366-9340.

A-List Artistry

New York Festival Of Song will present its 2010 gala, Let Yourself Go, a celebration of the musical legacy of Irving Berlin, April 12 at 7 P.M. at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall. Headliners will include Kate Baldwin, NYFOS regular and Tony-winner Judy Kaye, Howard McGillin, Terri White, NYFOS A.D. Steven Blier, and associate A.D. Michael Barrett. The concert will be followed by dinner at the Russian Tea Room.

Gala tickets are $750 - $1,000, with some individual tickets based on availability, can be purchased at www.nyfos.org or by calling NYFOS at (646) 230-8380.

Recycling with an All-Star Line Up

More stars than there are in the heavens, as M-G-M used to describe its studio roster will be on hand for Hand Theatre Company's Broadway Recycled, an Earth Day concert, benefiting the group and the Broadway Green Alliance, at Joe's Pub, April 18 at 7 P.M. Among the headliners will be Mario Cantone, Erin Davie, Jeffry Denman, Jerry Dixon, Kathy Fitzgerald, Josh Grisetti, Ann Harada, Tyler Maynard, Kerry O'Malley, Anthony Rapp, and composer Joseph Zellnik.

The event showcases artists performing songs cut from musicals, "songs that shouldn't go to waste!," from such shows as Altar Boyz, Avenue, Company, High Fidelity, A Little Night Music, Next to Normal, 9 to 5, Once on This Island, Rent, Taboo, Yank!, and numerous others sung by actors who appeared in the shows.

At Hand Theatre, founded by A.D. Daniel Horrigan and exec director Justin
Scribner, has a mission to produce "green," using environmentally friendly means and as few materials as possible. Tickets are $30 [$35 at the door] and $100 [premium seating] and available by calling (212) 967-7555 or at www.joespub.com. For more information, visit www.athandtheatre.com.

Musicals Revisited

Sony Masterworks has launched MasterworksBroadway.com, a comprehensive site "where show tunes take center stage." the site celebrates America's unique art form and documents the history of cast albums from Finian's Rainbow [1947] to 2009's Grammy-winning CD of the Tony and DD-nom'd revival of WSS.

Columbia and RCA Records, now Masterworks Broadway, has preserved musicals winning 265 Tonys, 450 Tony noms, and 27 Grammys. Elements of the site will include hundreds of never-before-seen recording session photos, a weekly blog by Peter Filichia, a streaming library of cast recordings, and podcasts with such notables as Stephen Sondheim, Jerry Herman, Angela Lansbury, and Bernadette Peters.

The Masterworks Broadway catalog includes, among numerous Bway and Off Bway shows: Annie, Anything Goes, Cabaret, Camelot, A Chorus Line, Fiddler on the Roof, Gypsy, Hello, Dolly!, A Little Night Music, My Fair Lady, Nine, Oliver!, The Sound of Music, South Pacific, Sweeney Todd, and Sweet Charity.

Throughout April, register for prizes in the "You Gotta Get A Gimmick" sweepstakes.
Daily giveaways include a trip for two to NYC for a Broadway show, the entire Masterworks Broadway catalog of over 275 CDs, signed copies of Kristin Chenoweth's A Little Bit Wicked and her CD A Lovely Way to Spend Christmas, and a framed pigment print of Gwen Verdon from Sony's archives/ICON Collectibles. Tuesdays and Fridays, the site will feature prizes related to the work of Herman and Sondheim, including an autographed CD collection of their works.

Museum Extravaganzas

Circa 1780: An Imperial Silver Service Rediscovered will be on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art from April 13 - November 7. This is a magnificent and rare surviving imperial silver service used in the Vienna court's lavish banquets featuring elaborate settings.

Just as the glories of King Tut's burial chamber arrive again after 30 years - King Tut in NYC: Return of the King, opening April 23 [through January 2] at the Discovery Times Square Exposition center [joining the massive Titanic exhibition], the Met is displaying objects unearthed by American archaeologist Theodore Davis in 1908 in Egypt's Valley of the Kings in The Funeral of Tutankhamun , through September 6.

Drama Desk Nominations

Tony and Drama Desk winners Brian Stokes Mitchell and Cady Huffman will announce the Drama Desk noms on Monday, May 3 at 9:30 A.M. at a press conference at the New York Friars Club. William Wolf is DD president, Robert Blume of Blume Media Group is exec producer of the DD Awards; and Barbara Siegel is Nominating Committee chair.

Mitchell, serving his fourth term as Actors Fund president, won Awards for the Kiss Me, Kate revival; and was Tony and DD-nom'd for Ragtime, King Hedley II, and the Man of La Mancha revival. Huffman won Awards for her role as Ulla in The Producers; and was Tony nom'd for her role as Ziegfeld's Favorite in The Will Rogers Follies.

Nominees will be feted to a reception on May 6 at Plataforma Churrascaria Rodizio, the famed Brazilian steakhouse at 316 West 49th Street. The Awards will take place on Sunday, May 23 from the Concert Hall of the LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. TheaterMania.com will webcast the event.