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Saturday, March 30, 2002 Check out the typo in their headline. I guess the folks at Playbill have never been to Ireland... Karen Akers, who will be honored at the MAC Awards on Monday, discusses the importance of the cabaret art form in a post-9/11 world. Al Pacino is among the Angels, The Music Man is on the way, Chris Durang is tuning up a tuner, and an actor’s dream is about to come Tru. The Siegels weigh in on Monica Mancini's tribute to her father, Henry. Performance artist Tim Miller shows off his great Body of work. posted at 3/30/2002 07:54:48 AM by Tim Dunleavy | Item Link Friday, March 29, 2002 This is the Williamstown Theatre Festival's snazzy website, which summarizes their 2002 schedule better than either of the online articles below. The site also has box office information and directions. And if you're going to Williamstown, don't forget to get tickets for the late-night cabaret. Readers respond to Filichia’s "Time Machine" column with their own wish lists of historic performances they'd love to have seen. Musical theater and soap opera star Ron Raines visits Chicago. posted at 3/29/2002 01:35:39 PM by Tim Dunleavy | Item Link Blind item received:
posted at 3/29/2002 12:48:47 PM by James Marino | Item Link To benefit Stray From the Heart Canine Rescue posted at 3/29/2002 12:27:21 PM by James Marino | Item Link When Things Aren't What They Seem (Are They?) By BRUCE WEBER Naomi Iizuka's dispassionate, cagey and absorbing drama is about the relationship between a thing, whether tangible or ethereal, and its representation. By ALJEAN HARMETZ Billy Wilder, the writer and director who won six Academy Awards and international acclaim as one of the world's great filmmakers, died on Wednesday at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif. • Billy Wilder: A Retrospective Naomi Iizuka paints a captivating portrait of the art world's seamier side in "36 Views," an intelligent, intricate and imaginatively designed drama about the discovery of a priceless Japanese artifact. By CLIVE BARNES 'CHICAGO," that toddlin' Kander and Ebb musical, keeps on toddlin', even though its Broadway cast changes are getting to be almost as regular as the Changing of the Guard outside Buckingham Palace. By DONALD LYONS THE play "36 Views" is an arty and artsy piece about forgery and falseness in the painting world. By MICHAEL RIEDEL BARBADOS, West Indies - To the roster of one-person shows that are all the rage these days, add "An Evening With Sir Tim Rice," which had its world premiere here last week. By DONALD LYONS THE Mint Theatre, a generally trustworthy excavator of old theatrical gems, is staging S.N. Behrman's 1939 "No Time for Comedy." By DONALD LYONS IN "The Godfadda Workout," performer Seth Isler re-enacts, with a few comic additions, some scenes from "The Godfather, Part One." It's evidence of Isler's obsession with a classic movie 30 years old, and of little else. Rookie writer worked with him briefly but unforgettably by Richard Ouzounian
posted at 3/29/2002 09:45:53 AM by James Marino | Item Link Thursday, March 28, 2002 Naimo Iizuka, author of 36 Views, talks about making art onstage. There's a dull, rusty haze on the meadow, and the drabness of the resulting picture, which will probably leave a lot of people unhappy, has only one virtue: It marks the end of a decades-long misunderstanding. Thanks to Chandler on All That Chat for the link. Sometimes, the nosebleed section is just as good as the front row. Our intrepid reporter checks out the sight lines and sounds in town. posted at 3/28/2002 01:29:56 PM by Tim Dunleavy | Item Link Call it the year of the women on Broadway. Playwrights Michele Lowe, Suzan-Lori Parks, Heather McDonald and Mary Zimmerman are collectively setting something of a record. All have plays on Broadway this season, and theater experts can't remember when this many women had works running at the same time. Uptown 'Guys and Dolls' set to open The critically acclaimed "Little Ham" goes to the John Houseman, with an Off Broadway opening set for Sept. 12. Melbourne's arts center gets funds, partners Broadway tuner wins critical kudos, hopes for B.O. boost 'Sweet Smell' faces critics Beloved funnyman Milton Berle died in his Los Angeles home earlier today, according to the Associated Press. Warren Cowan, Berle's spokesperson, said the comedian, who had been suffering from a lengt...[Read More] Dudley Moore died this morning at his home in New Jersey from pneumonia, which developed as a complication of progressive supranuclear palsy, according to The Associated Press. He was 66. By BARBARA HOFFMAN SHE'S 47, he's 23. Put Kathleen Turner and Jason Biggs together as lusty Mrs. Robinson and her boy-toy Ben and they make box-office magic. By CHIP DEFFAA THOUGH Melissa Errico has an uneven act, it is, ultimately, a winning one, filled with the promise of early spring. posted at 3/28/2002 07:56:18 AM by James Marino | Item Link Wednesday, March 27, 2002 posted at 3/27/2002 04:20:20 PM by Tim Dunleavy | Item Link Moore and Cook teamed again in 1971 for a comedy review titled "Beyond the Fridge," which was a success in London and a smash on Broadway in the 1973-74 season, with the pair winning a special Tony award for their "unique contribution to the theater of comedy." posted at 3/27/2002 03:39:14 PM by Susan Heim | Item Link 'The Dazzle' at SCR is based on the true story of two brothers found dead amid tons of junk in their apartment. A.R. Gurney, whose new play "Buffalo Gal" runs through April 21 at Studio Arena Theatre, is a dramatist of dying ways of life. Thanks to Janet for the link! posted at 3/27/2002 01:05:47 PM by Tim Dunleavy | Item Link posted at 3/27/2002 10:21:49 AM by Matthew Murray | Item Link Three Dissatisfied Wives Consider a Chilly Calculus By BRUCE WEBER This black comedy, about three suburban women who are handed the opportunity to bump off their crummy spouses, never rises (or sinks) to the level of satisfying farce. By DINITIA SMITH The original version of Louisa May Alcott's last completed work is being offered to publishers to raise money for the restoration of the Alcott family home, where "Little Women" takes place. Revamped Symphony/Thalia site sets gala The Symphony Space and the historic Thalia repertory movie house on Gotham's Upper West Side reopen next month after extensive redesign and renovation. Program gives funding to young performing artists Throughout Michele Lowe's relatively short "The Smell of the Kill" (which lasts a mere 71 minutes by the calculations of my guest, a railroad man), the only thing that engaged my mind was whether I had ever seen anything stupider. By DONALD LYONS RICHARD Nelson's "Franny's Way," which he directed himself, is the dramatic equivalent of a so-so short story, an instance in which a good writer exercises his muscles in a manner he's done better elsewhere. By CLIVE BARNES WHAT do you call a situation comedy that has only one situation and very little comedy? Playwright Michele Lowe calls it "The Smell of the Kill," and it opened last night at the Helen Hayes Theater. By MICHAEL RIEDEL THE splashy, full-page ad in last Sunday's New York Times featured sexy chorus girls, scantily clad in black slips. By DONALD LYONS 'THE Carpetbagger's Children," by Horton Foote, is a small masterpiece in which three sisters sit and reminisce in the tiny Texas town of Harrison. Mayor Mike gets a million back from Broadway and turns it over to the non-profits. posted at 3/27/2002 07:25:05 AM by James Marino | Item Link Tuesday, March 26, 2002 L.A.'s tiny stages rely on persuasion and compromise to get playwright permission, but rejection is common. The major performers' unions are urging members to contact their New York state legislators, asking them to support a proposed law to subsidize entertainment industry health insurance. LONDON (Reuters) - Hollywood superstar Robert De Niro and British rock legends Queen on Tuesday pledged "We Will Rock You" with a futuristic new musical packed with the supergroup's greatest hits. posted at 3/26/2002 03:05:01 PM by Tim Dunleavy | Item Link Hello, Merrill Lynch? Get me 100 shares of OK right away! Melisssa Errico talks to Jim Caruso about her full plate of scheduled appearances in New York, in D.C., on film, and on TV. A Fractious Family's Decline, With Vintage Mustiness By BEN BRANTLEY A heady aroma, as specific and elusive as childhood memories, seems to rise from the monologues that make up "The Carpetbagger's Children," the new play by Horton Foote. Gotham Mayor announces redeployment of coin Gotham small arts orgs will be the recipient of Broadway's $1 million giveback to the city.... 'Producers' slips, still tops Bundy helms satire on poets Plath, Hughes NEW YORK — When you play Movie Star Roulette, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Nowhere is this more evident than in the revival of Arthur Miller's The Crucible, currently at the Virginia Theatre NEW YORK — She's the gal who put the "broad" in Broadway. I'm talking about Elaine Stritch, whose last Toronto appearance was in Hal Prince's memorable production of Showboat. For the last 15 years, we've seen Robin Williams trying to shoehorn his Titanic-sized wit into seven-minute talk-show appearances and the occasional flight of fancy in an overblown Hollywood film. Margaret Colin, Patricia Conolly, Michael Countryman, Veanne Cox, John Curless, Laura Marie Duncan, Carson Elrod, Daniel Gerroll, Bryce Dallas Howard, Ellen Parker, James A. Stephens, Olga Sosnovska,...[Read More] By DON KAPLAN This year's Academy Awards telecast turned out to be anything but beautiful for ABC. The era of awards shows is coming to an end. Broadway should take this opportunity to change the Tony's before someone changes it for us (ie: CBS closes the door.) Yikes! Who carries the insurance on Millie? I got this email after yesterday's column went up:
Other email of interest received:
And the bombshell of the day: HELEN @ The Public has everyone running for high ground. Talk around town has that Tony Kushner is not in agreement with the writer, Ellen McLaughlin, and is not very happy with her input -- or the material for that matter. This doesn't quite jive with me, why doesn't he just quit then. Didn't he read the play before taking it? Anyway, the rumor is that he re-wrote 15 pages of the script, unsolicited. When McLaughlin went to John Dias (Public's Literary Manager) and George Wolfe they both sided with Kushner. With a cast of strong women (Donna Murphy, Joanna Day, Marion Seldes, Phylicia Rashad) it will be interesting to see how this plays out. Perhaps the writer can enlist The Dramatist Guild and the women in her cast to support her position. Surely something is wrong on Lafayette Street. There is a long line of distinguished women who are no longer working with The Public: Shirley Fishman, Rosemary Tischler, Shelby Jiggerts, and Morgan Jenness. Can all of them be wrong? We welcome any comments regarding this issue. posted at 3/26/2002 07:26:27 AM by James Marino | Item Link Monday, March 25, 2002 A specialist in adapting period works, playwright Jeffrey Hatcher zeroes in on the English Restoration for a story about theater and change that's surprisingly modern. posted at 3/25/2002 12:19:57 PM by Tim Dunleavy | Item Link By RICK LYMAN "A Beautiful Mind" won the Oscar for best picture in ceremonies that also included the first Oscar for a black actress in a lead role in Academy Award history. • Complete List of Academy Award Winners • Slide Show: Academy Award Winners • Go to Oscars 2002 It wasn't all sock hops and T-Birds, as two new Broadway productions remind us In 1971, when I began a brief stint at Gentleman's Quarterly, one of my first tasks was to work with the fashion editor on an article about the 1950s revival. Naif that I was, I couldn't imagine the revival of a decade so recently ended. The fashion editor, however, was right. Ken mentions Boyd Gaines is a possibility for one of the Antipholus twins, I heard it was going to be Doug Sills... Ken also mentions national tour casting of The Producers. Something that I have not read from him is the possibility that Norbert Leo Butz will be Bloom. I read that over on Talkin'Broadway's All That Chat. |