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Wednesday, March 10, 2010

    [ RADIO ]  This Week on Broadway for Mar. 9, 2010: Love Sometimes Dies

    Peter Filichia, James Marino, and Matthew Murray discuss A Behanding in Spokane, The Miracle Worker, Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers—A Radio Play, Andrew Lloyd Webber's Love Never Dies, Anything Goes at the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, the appeal of Ethel Merman, and more!

  • Posted by Matthew Murray at 1:11 PM | Item Link


      • News:

      [ NYP ]  'God' of a different color by Michael Riedel

      All-black 'Carnage' may sell more tix

      [ NYT ]  'Miracle Worker' Keeps the Faith By PATRICK HEALY

      [ TM ]  Evan Rachel Wood Departs Forthcoming Spider-Man Broadway Musical

      [ B ]  Evan Rachel Wood and Broadway's Spider-Man Part Ways

      [ P ]  Evan Rachel Wood Won't Swing With Broadway's Spider-Man

      [ LAT ]  In New York, Variety stage critic's departure is seen as 'a great loss to the theater community' by Karen Wada

      [ LAT ]  Variety lays an egg: Is firing its critics really 'economic reality'? by Patrick Goldstein

      [ CT ]  Letts, Morton in 'Virginia Woolf,' 'Sex With Strangers' at Steppenwolf for 2010-11 season by Chris Jones

      [ CST ]  Steppenwolf Theatre announces its 2010-2011 season BY HEDY WEISS

      [ B ]  Amy Morton and Tracy Letts to Star in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre

      [ TM ]  Tracy Letts, Amy Morton, Sally Murphy, et al. Set for Steppenwolf's 2010-2011 Season

      [ P ]  Morton and Letts Will Be George and Martha in Virginia Woolf for Steppenwolf; Season Announced

      [ BN ]  Warren Spector Seeks $7 Million for Expanding Public Theater By Philip Boroff

      [ TM ]  Public Theater Formally Announces Renovation Plans

      [ B ]  Photo Op: Stars Help the Public Theater Break Ground on Massive New Makeover

      [ P ]  Rhodes to Direct Broadway Bares XX: Strip-opoly

      [ B ]  Broadway Bares Announces Date and 2010 Theme: Strip-opoly

      [ TM ]  Broadway Bares to Present "Strip-opoly" and New Editions of Solo Strips

      [ TM ]  Ming Cho Lee, Albert Wolsky, et al. to Receive Irene Sharaff Awards

      [ P ]  Wolsky, Lee, Vietti and Ridge Are Sharaff Design Award Recipients

      [ TM ]  Simon McBurney, Bill T. Jones, Yukio Ninagawa, Ivo van Hove, et al. Set for Lincoln Center Festival

      [ P ]  Shows by Jones, McBurney, Van Hove and More Announced for 2010 Lincoln Center Festival

      [ P ]  Watts to Join Cast of Off-Broadway's The Fantasticks

      [ TM ]  Craig Bierko, Julia Murney, Brad Oscar, et al. to Join Valley of the Dolls Benefit Performance

      [ P ]  Anderson, Bierko, Halston, Murney and More Join "Valley of the Dolls" Reading

      [ P ]  Peter Hall's Revival of Ayckbourn's Bedroom Farce Will Transfer to West End's Duke of York's Theatre

      [ TM ]  Nigel Gore, Rocco Sisto, John Douglas Thompson, et al. Set for Shakespeare & Company's 2010 Season

      [ P ]  San Jose Rep Hopes to Weather Financial Hardship

      [ P ]  Abingdon Theatre Company to Present Real-Life Shavian Romance, Engaging Shaw; Cast Announced

      [ TM ]  Amazing Race Winner Reichen Lehmkuhl to Star in My Big Gay Italian Wedding

      [ TM ]  Diana DeGarmo and Hair Cast Participate in Love Out Loud Fundraising Auction

      [ TM ]  Holly Twyford, Jay Sullivan to Reprise Roles for Two River's Orestes A Tragic Romp

      [ TM ]  Kate Shindle, Shayna Steele to Lead Broadway Impact's New York City Marathon Team

      [ TM ]  Hair Cast Members to Perform at U.K.'s Latitude Festival in July

      [ P ]  Connington Brings Oates' Zombie to Life in NYC Starting March 10

      [ P ]  Lage, Early and Frey Will Grasp Dead Man's Hand in NYC Reading

      Features:

      [ TM ]  PHOTO FLASH: Lucy Liu, Liev Schreiber Attend Robert Whitehead Award Presentation

      [ TM ]  PHOTO FLASH: Ace Young and New Cast of Hair at First Broadway Performance

    • Posted by Tim Dunleavy at 12:19 PM | Item Link


        • "Love Never Dies" - Features:

        [ TIMES ]  Mastermind behind 'guerrilla campaign' to destroy sequel emerges from dark by Penny Wark

        [ NYT ]  Down Once More to the Dungeon: The Phantom Prepares for His Return By DAVE ITZKOFF

        [ NYP ]  Zombie love by Elisabeth Vincentelli

        [ LVS ]  Sierra Boggess set for world premiere of Love Never Dies in London By Robin Leach

        [ NPR ]  Phantom Sequel Argues That 'Love Never Dies' by Jeff Lunden

        [ CBS ]  Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Love Never Dies"

        Neil Sean: Long-Awaited "Phantom" Sequel's Premier Pleases London Audience, That's Enough for Lord Webber

        [ NYT ]  Slide Show: 'Love Never Dies'

        [ B ]  Photo Op: Phantom Lives On As Love Never Dies Lights Up London on Opening Night

        [ P ]  Love Never Dies Launches Coney Island Experience

        "Love Never Dies" - Reviews:

        [ WOS ]  Love Never Dies - Review by Michael Coveney (*****)

        Phantom "phans" and bloggers who have been bitterly pronouncing their rights in the original should instead be counting their lucky stars we have one genius at least in the British musical theatre who, virtually single-handed, is keeping the genre alive and creating new landmarks.

        [ I ]  First Night: Love Never Dies, Adelphi Theatre, London (*****)

        'Phans' of the original are outraged that Andrew Lloyd Webber has written a sequel to the most successful musical of all time. But Love Never Dies - which opens in London tonight - is phabulous, says Paul Taylor

        [ T ]  Love Never Dies at the Adelphi Theatre, review By Charles Spencer (****)

        Love Never dies is Andrew Lloyd Webber's finest show since the original Phantom of the Opera.

        [ G ]  Love Never Dies (***)

        The design, direction and performances are good, but Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom sequel lacks narrative tension, writes Michael Billington

        [ MAIL ]  Stodgy Phantom sequel not quite a hit... but Lloyd Webber's operatic music lifts it to a higher plane By Quentin Letts

        [ BN ]  Phantom's Love Gets Messy in Sequel 'Love Never Dies': Review by Warwick Thompson (***)

        [ STAGE ]  Love Never Dies - Review by Matthew Hemley

        I suspect Love Never Dies will undergo several changes over the next few months and it will probably make these before it opens on Broadway later this year, where the show's American setting will undoubtedly boost its appeal. But until then, Love Never Dies, unlike The Phantom of the Opera itself, will remain a once is enough show, though not the car crash some had been forecasting.

        [ SUN ]  Opera Phans By BILL HAGERTY

        Sets and special effects cannot be faulted, the singing is terrific. Director Jack O'Brien cranks up the melodramatic tension to a stunning ending. But phantastic? Afraid not.

        [ NYT ]  Same Phantom, Different Spirit By BEN BRANTLEY

        Andrew Lloyd Webber's belated sequel to "The Phantom of the Opera" feels as eager to be walloped as a clown in a carnival dunking booth.

        [ TM ]  Love Never Dies
        Reviewed by: Natasha Tripney

        This muddled sequel to The Phantom of the Opera is unlikely to please that musical's fans or attract new audiences.

        [ TIMES ]  Love Never Dies at the Adelphi, London - Review by Benedict Nightingale (**)

        [ ES ]  Love never dies...it just fades away By Henry Hitchings (**)

        [ NYT ]  Love May Die but Its Phantoms Play Enduring Roles in London By MATT WOLF

        Temperatures rise in "Ghosts" and irony betrays "Sweet Nothings," as Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Love Never Dies" opens.

      • Posted by Tim Dunleavy at 11:45 AM | Item Link


          • This Morning's Peter Filichia:

          [ TM ]  Peter Filichia's Diary: I'm Not Annie Get Your Gun Shy

          [ MWB ]  What Cast Albums Give That Soundtracks Don't, Part II

          Features:

          [ CFR ]  A Vision: Arena Stage Permitting Tweeting During Performances?

          Do institutional theaters, asks one prominent arts marketer, "expect audiences to disconnect and remain in a dome of silence"?

          [ TONY ]  Q&A: Kristin Chenoweth and Sean Hayes By Raven Snook; Photographs by Dale May

          The stars of Promises, Promises on drinking, American Idol and tweeting on Ambien.

          [ NY ]  Jeff Daniels on Switching Roles in God of Carnage and Getting in Hockey Brawls

          [ P ]  CELEB PlayBlogger John Tartaglia: March 9

          [ JSTGY ]  Quick Q&A: Sam Underwood by Patrick Lee

          Playing Marchbanks opposite Melissa Errico in "Candida" at Irish Rep

          [ T ]  Simon Russell Beale and Fiona Shaw interview for London Assurance By Dominic Cavendish

          Two of theatre's biggest stars have rarely shared a stage, which is why they're so delighted to be starring together at the National.

          [ G ]  Simon Russell Beale: A question of character

          Some actors merely learn a role; Simon Russell Beale lets it engulf him completely - which can be painful. But he wouldn't have it any other way, he tells Aida Edemariam

          [ P ]  PLAYBILL.COM'S BRIEF ENCOUNTER With Terrence McNally

          Terrence McNally has been writing plays for 45 years. So the only surprising thing about the current festival of his work at the Kennedy Center is that it's taken this long for one to happen.

          [ P ]  A Day in the Life of Abigail Breslin

          Abigail Breslin, currently starring as Helen Keller in Broadway's The Miracle Worker, gives Playbill.com a peek at the hours leading up to her first preview.

          [ P ]  Anika Noni Rose Gets Ready for the Oscars in Special Online Video

          [ CFR ]  ART/NY Mobilizing Against Bloomberg Arts-Funding Cuts

          If the community cannot get its act together, who will it blame if Bloomberg guts culture funding? Itself.

          [ CFR ]  5 Questions I've Never Been Asked: Matthew Freeman

          Says the "Glee Club" playwright, ""We just know that you're either on the team, or you're not, you're either for the team, or you're on your own."

          [ WP ]  Backstage: 'The Light in the Piazza' at Arena; Sherri Edelen in 'Sweeney Todd' By Jane Horwitz

          [ B ]  Videos: Barbara Cook, Vanessa Williams and More Chat About Sondheim on Sondheim

          [ B ]  Normal Life Video Blog with Kyle Dean Massey #10: Getting High (Above the Booth Theatre)

          [ P ]  PHOTO CALL: Inner Voices: Solo Musicals With Blazer and Blickenstaff

          [ P ]  PHOTO CALL: Looped on Broadway

          [ TM ]  PHOTO FLASH: Broadway's Fela! Records Cast Album; Release Date Set for June 8

          [ P ]  MARQUEE VALUE: American Idiot at the St. James Theatre

        • Posted by Tim Dunleavy at 11:03 AM | Item Link


            • Kander and Ebb:

            [ B ]  Before Opening, The Scottsboro Boys Extends for Two Weeks at the Vineyard Theatre

            [ TM ]  Scottsboro Boys Extends at the Vineyard Through April 18

            [ P ]  Kander and Ebb's Scottsboro Boys Extended Off-Broadway

            [ P ]  Scottsboro Boys, Kander & Ebb Musical About an American Shame, Opens Off-Broadway

            [ TM ]  Total Kander By: Tristan Fuge and Brian Scott Lipton

            Liza Minnelli, Kristin Chenoweth, David Hyde Pierce, Chita Rivera, Karen Ziemba, Debra Monk, John Cullum, Mario Cantone, Norm Lewis, and more stars come out for the Vineyard Theatre's benefit salute to composer John Kander.

            [ B ]  Photo Op: All Hail John Kander! The Stars Come Out to Salute a Broadway Legend

            [ P ]  PHOTO CALL: Vineyard Theatre Gala Honors Kander and Ebb

            "Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers":

            [ LAT ]  L.A. Theatre Works to open 'Top Secret' in New York and 'RFK' at the Skirball Cultural Center by Karen Wada

            [ NYP ]  Scoop up this one about the Pentagon Papers By FRANK SCHECK (***)

            [ TM ]  Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers
            Reviewed by: Barbara & Scott Siegel

            Geoffrey Cowan and Leroy Aarons' crackling drama about the publication of the controversial documents receives a brilliantly acted production at New York Theatre Workshop.

            [ NJNR ]  'Top Secret' Pentagon Papers story gets staged as a radio play BY MICHAEL SOMMERS

            By wisely devising "Top Secret" as a radio play with the actors seemingly reading from scripts, the authors and director create a distancing effect that gives both fluidity and credence to their chronicle, which might not seem quite so compelling were it weighed down by more realistic production values.

            [ YN ]  'Top Secret' lifts veil on Pentagon Papers fight By PETER SANTILLI, Associated Press Writer

            The "write what you know" maxim couldn't be more apropos in this case, evidenced by Cowan and Aarons' clear presentation of the facts and splendidly nuanced dialogue, which consistently rings true.

            [ V ]  Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers
            Review by Sam Thielman

            Nixon-era radio drama has a lot going for it.

            [ CU ]  Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers

            To add show biz muscle to this docu-drama, director John Rubinstein has assembled close to a dozen well-credentialed thespians to inhabit the real life role models.

            [ NYT ]  Fighting a War of Words About a Lot of Words About a War By CHARLES ISHERWOOD

            While "Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers" offers a cogent, informative peek into a historic chapter in 20th-century journalism, as an evening of theater it is static.

            [ BS ]  Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers - Reviewed by ERIK HAAGENSEN

            The undeniably dramatic true story of a great struggle for American freedom of the press seems awfully dry, coming across as theater that's good for you rather than good theater.

            [ TB ]  Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers
            Review by Matthew Murray

            If you find your eyelids drooping during this new production at New York Theatre Workshop, don't blame any turkey you might have eaten at your pre-show repast - the culprit is undoubtedly tryptophan of a marginally more theatrical kind.

            "The Nose":

            [ NYT ]  Regarding 'The Nose': And the Eye, and the Ear

            Today on ArtsBeat three New York Times critics - Anthony Tommasini, chief classical music critic; Roberta Smith, art critic; and Dwight Garner, book critic - are discussing the music, the art and the literary threads of "The Nose."

            [ NYT ]  Regarding 'The Nose': Kovalyov Gets Some Love

            [ NYT ]  Regarding 'The Nose': Consider the Prig

            [ NYT ]  Regarding 'The Nose': Distraction From the Music (in a Good Way)

            [ NYT ]  Regarding 'The Nose': Whose Nose Is It, Anyway?

            [ NYT ]  Regarding 'The Nose': And Taymor, and Mozart

            "When the Rain Stops Falling":

            [ P ]  PHOTO CALL: When the Rain Stops Falling Opens Off-Broadway

            [ EW ]  When the Rain Stops Falling (2010)
            Reviewed by Tanner Stransky (B-)

            Other Reviews:

            [ NYT ]  Caricatured Commentary: Minstrel Meets Modern By CHARLES ISHERWOOD

            "Neighbors" is a simultaneously overheated and undercooked new play that sacrifices cogency and meaning for pure sensation.

            [ TM ]  Lenin's Embalmers
            Reviewed by: Andy Propst

            A top-notch ensemble enlivens Vern Thiessen's mostly merry fantasy about life in the early days of the USSR.

            [ BS ]  Lenin's Embalmers - Reviewed by KARL LEVETT

            Playwright Vern Thiessen cleverly plays with history in this entertaining tale of the two Soviet scientists who in 1924 successfully embalmed the body of Lenin-forever.

            [ VV ]  Equivocation and The Tempest Show a Weak Will; The Miracle Worker Works No Wonders By Michael Feingold

            [ VV ]  The Duchess of Malfi and A Behanding in Spokane By Alexis Soloski

            John Webster and Martin McDonagh seek some revenge

            [ VV ]  Living in a Musical Hoofs Into TNC By Leslie Minora

            [ PW ]  Family Feud By J. Cooper Robb

            The Arden Theatre Company continues their season with director Matt Pfeiffer's exhilarating production of Romeo and Juliet.

            [ BSR ]  Romeo and Juliet: The dream and the nightmare by JIM RUTTER

            Matt Pfeiffer's direction of the Arden's Romeo and Juliet bathes us in emotional intensity. He also strips the young lovers' tragedy of any romance in order to cast a disapproving glare on Shakespeare's text itself.

          • Posted by Tim Dunleavy at 8:56 AM | Item Link


              • News:

              [ HC ]  Oh, Mommy! Randy Graff in "Motherhood Out Loud" at Hartford Stage on Crutches By Frank Rizzo

              [ P ]  CHART TOPPERS: Best-Selling Theatre Recordings

              [ TM ]  American Idiot Receives 12 San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics' Circle Nominations

              [ TM ]  Mark Horowitz, Peter Marks, Eric Schaeffer, et al. Set for Signature Theatre's Sondheim Birthday Weekend

              [ TM ]  Sutton Foster to Bring Solo Show to Berkshire Theatre Festival

              [ P ]  Berkshire Theatre Festival to Spend An Evening with Sutton Foster

              [ P ]  Kushner to Deliver SVA Commencement Address

              [ P ]  Backwards in High Heels and African-American Trip to Bountiful on Cleveland Play House Bill

              [ P ]  Hunt-Ballard Will Be Mary Poppins in Australia; Lee, Quast, Byrne Also Cast

              [ P ]  Wojewodski to Direct Beckett's Endgame at Dallas' Undermain Theatre; Casting Announced

              [ P ]  Goodman Musical Rooms Will Get Philly Premiere in April

              [ TM ]  Dennis Miller to Play Vegas' Orleans Showroom

              [ TM ]  Steve Martin to Perform An Evening of Bluegrass and Banjo at Hennepin Theatre Trust's State Theatre

              [ TM ]  Lainie Kazan to Guest Star on FOX's 'Til Death

              [ P ]  Today In Theatre History: MARCH 10

              [ P ]  Daradich and Peluso Join Wicked Tour March 10

              [ P ]  Barlow's The 39 Steps Opens at the Alley Theatre March 10

              [ P ]  Carrasco and Valdez Enjoy Sunsets and Margaritas at Theatreworks, Starting March 10

              [ P ]  Hangman School for Girls Makes World Premiere March 10

              [ P ]  Language Rooms, Dark Comedy About a Mysterious Workplace, Gets World Premiere March 10 in PA

              [ P ]  Maura Tierney, Frances McDormand and More Revive Wooster Group's North Atlantic in NYC March 10

              [ TM ]  John Malkovich, Rufus Wainwright, et al. Set for Luminato Festival

              [ TM ]  Jenn Gambatese, Kevin Earley to Star in Goodspeed's Annie Get Your Gun

              [ P ]  Graae, Margherita, Carpenter, Ojeda and Solomon Will See What I Wanna See at the Blank

              [ NYT ]  For New York City Opera Season, Bernstein, Strauss and New Works By DANIEL J. WAKIN

              The struggling New York City Opera, operating with a slender financial cushion, announced plans on Tuesday for another stripped down, five-production season.

            • Posted by Tim Dunleavy at 7:03 AM | Item Link


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