edjames

The only tune from Evita was "Don't Cry For Me..." She did do numbers from "Women On The Verge, "War Paint," "Sweeney Todd, " Gypsy," "Les Miz," "Robber Bridegroom," "Anything Goes," and of course, "Company" (she still throws the drink at the audience at the end!). Here is a video clip of some of the concert highlights: https://www.broadwayworld.com/videoplay/VIDEO-Highlights-From-the-NY-Philharmonic-2019-Gala-Honoring-Patti-LuPone-20190517 Of interest, for me, was Patti's duet "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" with downtown diva Bridget Everett, who I had never seen sing, but now my interest is perked and I'll look for future Bridget appearances.

A fabulous concert with the NYPhil. Patti sang many of her "hits". At least 5 standing ovations throughout the concert and an acapella encore. I was "surrounded" by celebs. It was a very gay evening. The guys sure do love them some Patti! Seated very close to me were Michael Urie, Andrew Rannells, Andy Cohen, Victor Garber, and a host of other gay men. The bars in NYC must have been empty. Heaven!!!

NYPost reports a new version being debuted in London... fyi...Emerald Fennelll is a wonderful actress and played the "gay" midwife in the series Call The Midwife, and also played Ada Lovelace in Victoria. ‘Cinderella’ musical gives Prince Charming a gay twist By Michael Riedel May 16, 2019 | 7:16pm way’s power brokers took time out from Tony season this week to fly to London to see “Cinderella,” the new musical from Andrew Lloyd Webber. The heat is intense on this one, not only because Lloyd Webber is the most successful composer in theater history, but because his collaborator is Emerald Fennell, the actress (“Call the Midwife”) and writer. (She’s overseeing the second season of “Killing Eve.”) They and lyricist David Zippel (“City of Angels”) have given “Cinderella” a modern twist. It’s still set in the land of castles and fairy godmothers, but the title character doesn’t need a Prince Charming to fulfill her needs. In this retelling, Prince Charming is gay, and runs off with a duke. Cinderella falls in love with Sebastian, an adorable oddball. Lloyd Webber usually premieres his new shows at Sydmonton, his vast estate outside London. But “Cinderella” is being showcased at Lloyd Webber’s the Other Palace, a 300-seat theater just around the corner from the palace: Buckingham. The tight space means that some VIPs are on a waitlist. “Everybody’s dying to get in,” says someone who can usually snap his fingers and get a seat to anything. There were only three performances — Wednesday, Thursday and Friday — and bulletins were arriving as I wrote this. So far, so very good. The score is Lloyd Webber at his most melodic, Zippel’s lyrics are funny and Fennell’s script witty and poignant, evoking, one person says, the best of the classic Disney movies. A five-piece band accompanied the actors, but through Lloyd Webber’s state-of-the-art system, it “sounded like a 50-piece orchestra,” a source says. The VIPs who did score seats include the Shuberts, the Nederlanders, producer Scott Rudin, Disney Theatrical head Tom Schumacher, actor Michael Caine and various producers and theater owners who book shows throughout the United States. “It feels like the Broadway League conference, but with better food and wine,” says a source. In tackling “Cinderella,” Lloyd Webber follows in the footsteps of his hero, Richard Rodgers, who, with Oscar Hammerstein II, wrote the celebrated 1957 TV version starring Julie Andrews. Douglas Carter Beane adapted the old TV show for Broadway in 2013. Santino Fontana, up for a Tony for “Tootsie,” played Prince Charming. The Broadway VIPs are eager to meet Fennell, who’ll play Camilla Parker Bowles on the next season of “The Crown.” She’s so hot right now that when some of the New Yorkers got off the plane Thursday morning, they saw her on the front page of the Times of London. No word yet on the future of “Cinderella.” It could go to the West End and then to Broadway, but I’m also hearing there’s a possibility of a Netflix series. Or how about a live broadcast on one of the networks? NBC had a big hit with its “Jesus Christ Superstar” last year. I envision a reality casting show looking for an unknown to play Cinderella on the live broadcast and then on Broadway. Lloyd Webber would be the über judge, of course, but if he needs to fill out the rest of the panel, I’m available.

Just scored a ticket to tomorrow night's Lincoln Center's Spring Gala Patti is the guest star. This concert is a Special Event of the 2018–19 season. Tony, Grammy, and Olivier Award winner Patti LuPone returns to the New York Philharmonic to perform songs from her Tony Award–winning roles in Gypsy and Evita, as well as her other favorite roles from such shows as Sweeney Todd, Company, Anything Goes, War Paint, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, and Candide.

Broadway’s My Fair Lady Announces Closing Date The Lincoln Center Theater revival will play its final performance in the summer; a West End bow is expected to follow. Lincoln Center Theater’s current revival of My Fair Lady will close at the Vivian Beaumont Theater July 7. Directed by Bartlett Sher, the show stars Laura Benanti as Eliza Doolittle and Harry Hadden-Paton as Professor Henry Higgins. The show had previously announced that Benanti would play the role through July 7 and Hadden-Paton through July 6. The production, which won the 2018 Drama Desk, Outer Critics and Drama League Awards for Best Musical Revival, will have played a total of 548 performances (39 previews and 509 performances). The production will launch a national tour December 19 at the Opera House at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and has plans for an engagement in London's West End production (exact dates and casting to be announced). The current cast also includes Alexander Gemignani as Alfred P. Doolittle, Rosemary Harris as Mrs. Higgins, Allan Corduner as Colonel Pickering, Christian Dante White as Freddy Eynsford-Hill, Linda Mugleston as Mrs. Pearce, and Clarke Thorell as Professor Zoltan Karpathy.

After my Mother's death and obituary in the local newspaper I received many unsolicited offer to sell her property. Be careful about how much information is listed in the obituary as Identity theft even applies to the dead. Write your obituaries with identity theft in mind because the deceased's identity is an irresistible target for thieves. There are tips that you can follow to avoid identity theft. Con artists will scan the obituaries in their city or town and watch for valuable information that they can use to access bank accounts and personal credit. Long obituaries that give many details give these scam artists more valuable information that they can use to steal the identity of the deceased. The deceased doesn't have to worry about their credit rating, but the family is caused undue emotional stress. Sometimes the thieves want to steal the identity to avoid immigration, legal or financial problems of their own. The best way to avoid identity theft from your loved ones obituary is to take care of financial and credit issues before the obituary is published. Close accounts, and notify all creditors, banks and credit reporting agencies of the deceased's passing. The next best thing is to limit the information on the obituary so that there isn't a resume of details that list every occupation, award and detail of the person's life. If you do all of these things you will ensure that your loved one will not be a victim of identity theft after he or she has passed away. It is even better if you do all of this before you publish the obituary: Close accounts and credit cards. Notify Equifax, Trans Union and Experian of the deceased's passing. Contact Social Security and have them deactivate the social security number of the deceased. If you've already published the obituary and you notice unusual activity on the deceased's accounts, you can assume there is some sort of identity theft and so you must do the following: Notify the police immediately. Contact your bank and freeze accounts. Contact credit-reporting agencies. The police and credit reporting agencies will have more suggestions for you to keep you safe. Writing obituaries need not be a daunting task, especially if you have all your financial affairs in order. If you've taken all the steps to avoid identity theft from obituaries, you can rest assured that your obituary can be as long or as short as you would like it to be. You can find out more about writing an obituary at ObituariesHelp.org

Brava Coco! Actually, a Bronx born and raised guy from City Island! I myself spent 18 yers trying to get off that damn island and away from the Bronx. We met years ago at his show at Joe's Pub and I met his Mom that night who was still living on the island, and of course we knew a lot of the same families from da hood! Anyway Coco's points are well taken and should be obeyed.

Sorry folks, that post got away from me and before I had a chance to edit it and spellcheck it, it went out!

the final season production at NY City Center encores! series was high Button Shoe. ben Brantley's review was good, and provides some background information on the original production. it has outstanding credits. Julie Styne and Sammy Cahn wrote the music. Jerome Robbins did the choreography. Phil Silvers was the star. Despite all this, I said "meh" after seeing last night's show. The music is nice, but nothing great. The choreography was disappointing. The cast was good but aside from the ever delightful Michael Urie (who should have toned down the Phil Silvers imitation!). Kevin Chamberlein ws a bit disappointing. Review: A Con Man Without a Sting in ‘High Button Shoes’ Were you left feeling chafed by those harsh, hot winds sweeping through this season’s revisionist, Tony-nominated production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!”? Are you longing for a revival that lets a cheerful old American musical remain its cheerful old self, with any inner darkness undisclosed? Theatergoers of this mind may well find solace in the twinkly “High Button Shoes,” a nearly forgotten frolic from the late-1940s that is occupying New York City Center this weekend, with a cast led by the indefatigable Michael Urie. The last of this season’s Encores! musicals in concert has the approximate fizz and flavor of a vanilla egg cream. That’s perhaps as it should be for a show that was regarded as a chipper, mindless throwback even when it opened in 1947. This was four years after “Oklahoma!” first startled audiences with its visions of brave new possibilities for psychological depth in the American musical and two years after the brooding “Carousel,” also from Rodgers and Hammerstein, opened on Broadway. “Eschewing progress in the arts for the moment,” the critic Brooks Atkinson wrote in The New York Times, “the producers of ‘High Button Shoes’ have put together a very happy musical show in a very cheerful tradition.” For Atkinson, this “affable” work summoned the high jinks of vaudeville, burlesque and peppy college-themed fare of yore, and he described the score — by the Broadway neophytes Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn — as “very pleasant to hear, like a well-oiled hurdy-gurdy.” That’s not an assessment to make the heart beat faster, but it captures the escapist, anodyne appeal that “Shoes” must have had for Americans still recovering from World War II. Directed by the veteran hitmaker George Abbott, with an episodic, joke-packed book by Stephen Longstreet, it was the longest-running show to open that year, outstripping “Brigadoon” and “Finian’s Rainbow.” This tale of a hapless but relentless con man, played by the brassy comic Phil Silvers, was set in 1913, before America had entered its first World War. It was a time, according to “Shoes,” when to do the tango was considered the height of sensual abandon. The good news for dance lovers was that such a tango — along with other numbers that included a ballet in the rambunctious vein of a Mack Sennett silent comedy — was choreographed by Jerome Robbins. Robbins’s early style has been dexterously channeled by the choreographer Sarah O’Gleby in the City Center “High Button Shoes,” which is directed by John Rando. And that “Bathing Beauty Ballet” — a Keystone Kops chase sequence of meticulously calibrated frenzy, set in Atlantic City, which is recreated here as a near facsimile of the original — remains a vivifying, showstopping delight. Otherwise, the charms of this “Shoes” are of a hazy strain, despite its detours into antic sequences involving bird watchers, Texas cowboys (and a chorus line of winsome cows) and the Rutgers football team. The entire production seems to take place under a double glaze of nostalgia — of remembering a more innocent time’s remembrance of a more innocent time. Designed by Allen Moyer (sets), Ann Hould-Ward (costumes) and Ken Billington (lighting), the production creates a bright, daytime world in which sunshine comes in shades of ice-cream parlor pastels. Its plot was already a staple of American entertainment and would be recycled many times on Broadway, perhaps most successfully in “The Music Man.” A captivating con man (here named Harrison Floy) descends on a guileless American town (New Brunswick, N.J.), charms and fleeces its inhabitants and (spoiler alert) is forgiven by the final curtain because he is, after all, so darn irresistible. Floy must have been a perfect fit for Silvers, a graduate of burlesque who had . Mr. Urie — the winning comic actor who starred in the recent revival of Harvey Fierstein’s “Torch Song” — offers a bright, tooth-flashing facsimile of the Silvers grin here. He also has the rim-shot-inspiring vaudeville delivery down cold, and he remains as Gumby-like as ever. It must be said that he has only a touch-and-go relationship with a melody line. More crucially, he lacks the streak of shiny malice that gave an edge to Silvers’s clowning. Mr. Urie gives a characteristically skillful performance, but it feels pasted on. Kevin Chamberlin brings his always welcome, sheepish air of bonhomie to the part of Floy’s sidekick and accomplice, Mr. Pontdue. And the talented crew portraying their patsies includes Matt Loehr, Chester Gregory, Mylinda Hull, Aidan Alberto and, as the fresh-faced, sweet-voiced young lovers, Marc Koeck and Carla Duren. Playing the young suburban matriarch Sara Longstreet (a role originated by Nanette Fabray), Betsy Wolfe creates a precise and surprisingly subtle comic portrait, a mix of self-effacing gentility and aggressive ambition. She’s delightful leading an ensemble of fine-feathered local ladies in “Bird Watcher’s Song,” or dancing a deft soft shoe with Mr. Gregory in “I Still Get Jealous” (the other number, along with “Bathing Beauty Ballet,” that replicates Robbins’s choreography). That ballet aside, none of the musical numbers land with the impact that makes audiences clap their hands raw, although I enjoyed Mr. Loehr’s and Ms. Hull’s artfully awkward take on the tango. And the jokes are more likely to make you smile politely than laugh out loud. (When Pontdue says that cockatoo mate for life, Floy answers, “They must be exhausted.”) The music is genially, forgettably melodic, featuring no songs that have gone on to immortality as cabaret standards. This was the first Broadway outing for Styne, who would later create far more memorable songs for shows that included “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and the deathless “Gypsy.”</p><p>His score for “Shoes” is rendered here with a swoony lushness by the wonderful Encores! orchestra, conducted by Rob Berman. But it seems to evaporate even as you listen. Like the production as a whole, it somehow reminds you of a generic host of golden-age musicals without ever staking a claim to its own unassailable identity.</p></div></div>

I agree. This show is a most delightful and entertaining evening of theater. It is a laugh-out-loud experience. The jokes fly fast and furious. It is so well written. The cast is great but alas, the music is "meh". Don't get me wrong, it's OK but no numbers to hum on the way out of the theater. Still it well worth the experience to sit back and enjoy an evening of theater that takes you away from all the troubles outside. HIGHLY recommended!

This is definitely a "love it" or "hate it" show. I got a great seat through TDF, so no problems there. The seat next to me was vacant, so plenty of room to man spread. Even better, the old guy next to me disappeared at intermission, so Act 2 was very comfortable! I'm calling this "Oklahoma...Unplugged". This is not the classic musical grandma saw. I've saw the 1979and 2002 revivals. Of course the score is a mainstay at most gay piano bars. This score has been orchestrated in a C&W style. The orchestra is 7 musicians, and the cast is small, too. Gone is the Agnes DeMille choreography. What remains is clunky. The second act opening number, a solo dance, is like something out of an MTV video. The dancer wears sequined tee shirt, and when you have to add vast amounts of smoke, you know its in trouble. It definitely could have been cut. But the rest of the show is very intriguing and enjoyable. In short, I liked it very much, but at 2 hours and 45 minutes, it was just a bit too long.

The Musical ‘1776’ Will Return to Broadway in 2021 A revival of the musical comedy “1776” will come to Broadway in the spring of 2021, the Roundabout Theater Company said Monday. The revival, directed by Diane Paulus, will begin next May at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass., where Ms. Paulus is the artistic director. It will then be presented at several other theaters around the country, including in July 2020 at the Center Theater Group in Los Angeles, before arriving at Broadway’s American Airlines Theater. The musical will be a coproduction of the A.R.T. and the Roundabout, both of which are nonprofits. Ms. Paulus won a Tony Award for her direction of “Pippin,” and is currently represented on Broadway with “Waitress.” She is also directing an Alanis Morissette jukebox musical, “Jagged Little Pill,” that is scheduled to open on Broadway in December. The musical “1776” is about the Continental Congress and the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The show, featuring songs by Sherman Edwards and a book by Peter Stone, first ran on Broadway from 1969 to 1972; a previous Roundabout revival ran on Broadway from 1997 to 1998. The Encores! program at City Center presented a brief run of “1776” in 2016.

FYI...The Wall St Sauna CLOSED decades ago. Look into The East Side Club on East 56th between Third and Second Avenues is still around. Same owner at the west Side Club on West 22nd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. Not much else available in Manhattan.

During warmer weather Fire Is is the closest resort location to NYC. Other options are a 2-3+ hour drive from town. The Catskills is the best for nature locations. Try this site for recommendations. I cannot personally recommend anyplace in particular. https://www.purpleroofs.com/usa/newyork/nycatskills.html It's been awhile but PA has some gay resorts: https://rainbowmountain.net https://traveltips.usatoday.com/gayfriendly-resorts-poconos-103335.html and New Hope has been a gay destination town for decades: https://www.tripsavvy.com/new-hope-gay-guide-1417410 Good luck. Enjoy.

NYPost opines today: The 2019 Tony nominations are packed with burns and snubs And here I thought “Mean Girls” opened last season! The 2019 Tony Award nominations were announced Tuesday morning, and instead of its usual Celebration of Theater mood, we were treated to a series of catty snubs and wrist-slaps. The shocks were in such abundance that the announcement event’s host Gayle King went rogue and began asking actors Bebe Neuwirth and Brandon Victor Dixon how they felt about “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Network” — two major contenders — being left out of the Best Play category. As Oprah would say, “GAYLE!” The exclusion of “Mockingbird” from the top spot was the cruelest page ripped from the Tony Committee’s Burn Book. Aaron Sorkin’s drama, which before 8:30 a.m. was the favorite to win, otherwise managed a hefty nine nods including Actor (Jeff Daniels), Featured Actor (Gideon Glick) and Featured Actress (Celia Keenan-Bolger). The most likely Best Play winner is now the British import “The Ferryman.” The next cold shoulder was for Glenda Jackson — the British stage legend who won Best Actress in a Play last year — going unrecognized for taking on the title role in “King Lear.” That production’s only nom was Ruth Wilson for Featured Actress. The revival of a play race is now between “The Waverly Gallery” and “Torch Song,” both of which closed months ago, and a different icon, Elaine May, should go home with the trophy for Leading Actress in a Play. On the warpath, the committee then decided that the bulk of the fall season never happened: “Head Over Heels,” “Straight White Men,” “Gettin’ The Band Back Together,” “The Nap,” “American Son,” “Lifespan of a Fact” and most glaringly, “Pretty Woman: The Musical,” the only show still running, got zero nominations. The situation isn’t much better for the struggling $35 million behemoth “King Kong,” which scored nods only for Set, Lights, Sound and a special award for its monkey. Can’t exactly slap those up on the marquee. The teen musical “Be More Chill” got a shout-out for Joe Iconis’ score, but the committee much preferred the season’s other high school-themed show, “The Prom,” which got seven nods including Best Musical. The Best Revival of a Musical race became a bit clearer — director Daniel Fish’s revisionist “Oklahoma!” got 11 nominations, while the standard “Kiss Me, Kate” only received four. But a victory for the controversial Rodgers and Hammerstein show is not a certainty: The 48-member Tony Committee is not the most indicative sampling of the 800 or so Tony voters nationwide. One show that’s laughing at its haters today is “Beetlejuice.” The show received a critical drubbing when it opened last week, but is now a Best Musical nominee, as is “Ain’t Too Proud – The Life and Times of the Temptations.” Its brilliant nominated Featured Actor, Jeremy Pope, also snagged a nod in the Best Actor in a Play category for “Choir Boy.” He’ll be up against Daniels, Bryan Cranston (“Network”), Paddy Considine (“The Ferryman”) and Adam Driver (“Burn This”). Joining “The Prom,” “Beetlejuice” and “Ain’t Too Proud” is the musical “Hadestown,” which didn’t get a single nomination at the British Olivier Awards in April, but led the Tonys pack with 14 nods. It’s in a close battle with the more traditional comedy “Tootsie,” which got 11, including nods for its terrific actors Santino Fontana, Sarah Stiles and Andy Grotelueschen.

I can't disagree with Ben. I blame the uneducated, rude, disrespectful ticket holders who lessen the joy of watching Iive theater. But, I preserver because sometimes it all works and the experience is worth it. Other times I wish I was packin'. I broke down, bought a $179 seat ($195+ with fees!) for Moulin Rouge in ROW R, center orch in August..

snubs and surprises.... Tony Award Nominations 2019: Snubs and Surprises You know who was nominated. But who got left out? And who might have been startled to find his or her name on Tuesday morning’s Tonys list? Here’s a guide to the day’s snubs and surprises: A Prolific Producer’s Imperfect Day Scott Rudin brought a remarkable five plays to Broadway this season, and the nominators were not wowed by all of them. The shock was their decision to leave out “To Kill a Mockingbird,” a costly and heavily promoted production that has been selling strongly at the box office, for best new play. It did get nine nominations, including for three of its performers, but Aaron Sorkin, whose adaptation of Harper Lee’s novel prompted a brief legal battle, was snubbed. Lucas Hnath’s “Hillary and Clinton” received only one nomination (for Laurie Metcalf as its star) and the revival of “King Lear” Mr. Rudin produced received only one, too — and not for 82-year-old Glenda Jackson in the title role. Instead, the riskiest of Mr. Rudin’s productions — the bloody vaudeville “Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus,” by the downtown favorite Taylor Mac — did surprisingly well, scooping up seven nominations. And Kenneth Lonergan’s “The Waverly Gallery” earned nods for best revival of a play and for Elaine May as lead actress. Not Everyone’s a Media Critic The stage adaptation of “Network” is, like “Mockingbird,” a commercial hit, but scored no nod for best play. The kinetic, video-heavy production has been celebrated mostly for its central (and Tony-nominated) performance by Bryan Cranston. The show’s polarizing director, Ivo van Hove, was nominated as well. “Ink,” another play about the news media that originated in London, fared better, however: This drama by James Graham about an early chapter in Rupert Murdoch’s career received five nominations, including best play and best director. “The Lifespan of a Fact,” which starred Daniel Radcliffe as a magazine fact checker, didn’t get any nominations. Limited Love for ‘Cher’ “The Cher Show,” a jukebox musical about you-know-who, scored notice for its leading lady, Stephanie J. Block, its glittery costumer, Bob Mackie, and its lighting designer, Kevin Adams, but not for the show itself or for other figures on its creative team. The musical, backed by the “Hamilton” lead producer Jeffrey Seller, has been selling well but not amazingly, and this is a show that could benefit from a strong musical performance on the awards broadcast. A Split Verdict on Topicality “What the Constitution Means to Me,” Heidi Schreck’s autobiographical reflection on gender and American law, has benefited from perfect timing, arriving on the scene amid the #MeToo movement and the contentious battle over President Trump’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. But “American Son,” a Kerry Washington-backed play about the fraught relationship between young black men and the police, got no nominations. Zeroed Out Nine shows were completely overlooked by the nominators. The immediate commercial implications are significant only for “Pretty Woman,” a stage adaptation of the film, with music by Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance, that has been doing reasonably well at the box office despite unfavorable reviews.

Openning on Broadway June 28th, yet ticket prices are through the roof. Orchestra seats are in $299+ range. Cheaper(!) $179 seats in rear orchestra!

If you missed this sold-out production at the Park Avenue Armory in NYC and cannot go to London this summer. National Theater Live is offering several "simulcast" productions in selected theaters. Check the website for more information: http://ntlive.nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/72252-the-lehman-trilogy

And the nominees are: BEST PLAY Choir Boy The Ferryman Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus Ink What the Constitution Means to Me BEST MUSICAL Ain't Too Proud - The Life and Times of the Temptations Beetlejuice Hadestown The Prom Tootsie BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE IN A PLAY Paddy Considine, The Ferryman Bryan Cranston, Network Jeff Daniels, To Kill a Mockingbird Adam Driver, Burn This Jeremy Pope, Choir Boy BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE IN A PLAY Annette Bening, Arthur Miller's All My Sons Laura Donnelly, The Ferryman Elaine May, The Waverly Gallery Janet McTeer, Bernhardt/Hamlet Laurie Metcalf, Hillary and Clinton Heidi Schreck, What the Constitution Means to Me BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE IN A MUSICAL Brooks Ashmanskas, The Prom Derrick Baskin, Ain't Too Proud - The Life and Times of the Temptations Alex Brightman, Beetlejuice Damon Daunno, Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma! Santino Fontana, Tootsie BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE IN A MUSICAL Stephanie J. Block, The Cher Show Caitlin Kinnunen, The Prom Beth Leavel, The Prom Eva Noblezada, Hadestown Kelli O'Hara, Kiss Me, Kate BEST REVIVAL OF A PLAY Arthur Miller's All My Sons The Boys in the Band Burn This Torch Song The Waverly Gallery BEST REVIVAL OF A MUSICAL Kiss Me, Kate Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma! BEST BOOK OF A MUSICAL Ain't Too Proud - The Life and Times of the Temptations , Dominique Morisseau Beetlejuice, Scott Brown & Anthony King Hadestown, Anaïs Mitchell The Prom, Bob Martin & Chad Beguelin Tootsie, Robert Horn [*]BEST ORIGINAL SCORE (MUSIC AND/OR LYRICS) WRITTEN FOR THE THEATRE Be More Chill, Music & Lyrics: Joe Iconis Beetlejuice, Music & Lyrics: Eddie Perfect Hadestown, Music & Lyrics: Anaïs Mitchell The Prom, Music: Matthew Sklar, Lyrics: Chad Beguelin To Kill a Mockingbird, Music: Adam Guettel Tootsie, Music & Lyrics: David Yazbek [*]BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A FEATURED ROLE IN A PLAY Bertie Carvel, Ink Robin De Jesús, The Boys in the Band Gideon Glick, To Kill a Mockingbird Brandon Uranowitz, Burn This Benjamin Walker, Arthur Miller's All My Sons [*]BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A FEATURED ROLE IN A PLAY Fionnula Flanagan, The Ferryman Celia Keenan-Bolger, To Kill a Mockingbird Kristine Nielsen, Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus Julie White, Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus Ruth Wilson, King Lear [*]BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A FEATURED ROLE IN A MUSICAL André De Shields, Hadestown Andy Grotelueschen, Tootsie Patrick Page, Hadestown Jeremy Pope, Ain't Too Proud - The Life and Times of the Temptations Ephraim Sykes, Ain't Too Proud - The Life and Times of the Temptations [*]BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A FEATURED ROLE IN A MUSICAL Lilli Cooper, Tootsie Amber Gray, Hadestown Sarah Stiles, Tootsie Ali Stroker, Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma! Mary Testa, Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma! [*]BEST SCENIC DESIGN OF A PLAY Miriam Buether, To Kill a Mockingbird Bunny Christie, Ink Rob Howell, The Ferryman Santo Loquasto, Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus Jan Versweyveld, Network [*]BEST SCENIC DESIGN OF A MUSICAL Robert Brill and Peter Nigrini, Ain't Too Proud - The Life and Times of the Temptations Peter England, King Kong Rachel Hauck, Hadestown Laura Jellinek, Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma! David Korins, Beetlejuice [*]BEST COSTUME DESIGN OF A PLAY Rob Howell, The Ferryman Toni-Leslie James, Bernhardt/Hamlet Clint Ramos, Torch Song Ann Roth, Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus Ann Roth, To Kill a Mockingbird [*]BEST COSTUME DESIGN OF A MUSICAL Michael Krass, Hadestown William Ivey Long, Beetlejuice William Ivey Long, Tootsie Bob Mackie, The Cher Show Paul Tazewell, Ain't Too Proud - The Life and Times of the Temptations [*] BEST LIGHTING DESIGN OF A PLAY Neil Austin, Ink Jules Fisher + Peggy Eisenhauer, Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus Peter Mumford, The Ferryman Jennifer Tipton, To Kill a Mockingbird Jan Versweyveld and Tal Yarden, Network [*]BEST LIGHTING DESIGN OF A MUSICAL Kevin Adams, The Cher Show Howell Binkley, Ain't Too Proud - The Life and Times of the Temptations Bradley King, Hadestown Peter Mumford, King Kong Kenneth Posner and Peter Nigrini, Beetlejuice [*]BEST SOUND DESIGN OF A PLAY Adam Cork, Ink Scott Lehrer, To Kill a Mockingbird Fitz Patton, Choir Boy Nick Powell, The Ferryman Eric Sleichim, Network [*]BEST SOUND DESIGN OF A MUSICAL Peter Hylenski, Beetlejuice Peter Hylenski, King Kong Steve Canyon Kennedy, Ain't Too Proud - The Life and Times of the Temptations Drew Levy, Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma! Nevin Steinberg and Jessica Paz, Hadestown [*]BEST DIRECTION OF A PLAY Rupert Goold, Ink Sam Mendes, The Ferryman Bartlett Sher, To Kill a Mockingbird Ivo van Hove, Network George C. Wolfe, Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus [*]BEST DIRECTION OF A MUSICAL Rachel Chavkin, Hadestown Scott Ellis, Tootsie Daniel Fish, Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma! Des McAnuff, Ain't Too Proud - The Life and Times of the Temptations Casey Nicholaw, The Prom [*]BEST CHOREOGRAPHY Camille A. Brown, Choir Boy Warren Carlyle, Kiss Me, Kate Denis Jones, Tootsie David Neumann, Hadestown Sergio Trujillo, Ain't Too Proud - The Life and Times of the Temptations [*]BEST ORCHESTRATIONS Michael Chorney and Todd Sickafoose, Hadestown Simon Hale, Tootsie Larry Hochman, Kiss Me, Kate Daniel Kluger, Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma! Harold Wheeler, Ain't Too Proud - The Life and Times of the Temptations [*]

A gay icon. His clubs were an important part of my misspent youth! Also, according to the pics included in the NYTimes obit, quite a handsome and sexy man! The Ice Palace in Key West was a particular favorite of mine. They had a legendary Hurricane Party every year to celebrate the end of the season. Not nay did he own and operate the Ice Palace in Fire Island but he also opened one on West 57th St in Manhattan for awhile. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/26/obituaries/michael-fesco-dead.html?searchResultPosition=3 Michael Fesco, Whose Gay Clubs Were Trendsetters, Dies at 84 Michael Fesco, whose trendsetting clubs on Fire Island and later in Manhattan gave gay men a place to gather, dance and explore sexually at a time when homosexuality was largely unwelcome in mainstream society, died on April 11 in Palm Springs, Calif. He was 84. His friend Tony Powell, who worked for Mr. Fesco on Sea Tea, a gay party cruise around Manhattan that he began organizing in the 1990s, confirmed the death. Mr. Fesco gave a jolt of energy to the gay scene in 1970, when he opened the Ice Palace in Cherry Grove, a gay community on Fire Island. He had recently visited the Sanctuary, a discothèque on West 43rd Street in Manhattan with a largely gay male clientele. “I said, ‘I’ve just got to do something like this!’ ” Mr. Fesco said in an interview for “Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture, 1970-1979,” a 2003 book by Tim Lawrence. “I sat there in the rafters mesmerized by the people on the dance floor.” Mr. Fesco borrowed the name Ice Palace from an F. Scott Fitzgerald story. “It was always so damn hot in there that I thought a nice, cool name would be psychologically appreciated,” he said. Certainly gay men appreciated having such a place to go. “We had a line outside that ran all the way to the beach,” Mr. Fesco recalled of the first night, on Memorial Day weekend in 1970. “I believe 1,800 people came to the opening. We charged five dollars admission, and my rent for the season was assured.” For several years the Ice Palace did booming business. But competition from a nearby establishment, the Sandpiper, made 1973 a rough year for Mr. Fesco, and he began turning his attention to Manhattan; management of the Ice Palace, which is still a popular gathering spot, passed to others. In December 1974 he opened Flamingo in a 10,000-square-foot space in SoHo. Flamingo was a membership club: Purchasing a membership card (the initial price was $35 — about $190 today — though a black market is said to have developed) entitled you to enter and bring a guest. Certainly gay men appreciated having such a place to go. “We had a line outside that ran all the way to the beach,” Mr. Fesco recalled of the first night, on Memorial Day weekend in 1970. “I believe 1,800 people came to the opening. We charged five dollars admission, and my rent for the season was assured.” For several years the Ice Palace did booming business. But competition from a nearby establishment, the Sandpiper, made 1973 a rough year for Mr. Fesco, and he began turning his attention to Manhattan; management of the Ice Palace, which is still a popular gathering spot, passed to others. In December 1974 he opened Flamingo in a 10,000-square-foot space in SoHo. Flamingo was a membership club: Purchasing a membership card (the initial price was $35 — about $190 today — though a black market is said to have developed) entitled you to enter and bring a guest. Mr. Fesco employed various theme nights — a “black party,” where everyone would dress in black, a “white party,” where that was the color of the evening, and so on. More important was what was coming out of the speakers. “It was his use of music that set the club apart from the competition,” Get Out! Magazine wrote in 2012. “Flamingo was a Cathedral of Sound and the D.J. led the parishioners through nighttime services.” Flamingo dominated the scene for seven years, until the Saint, an even bigger and flashier club, opened in the East Village. About the time Flamingo closed in 1981, the gay club scene was beginning to be disrupted by AIDS. But Mr. Fesco would resurface with other ventures over the years, perhaps most prominently his Sea Tea cruises, which he began in 1997. Michael Eugene Fesco was born on May 24, 1934. Friends interviewed for this obituary were not sure where but knew that in his youth he lived in the Seattle area and spent time as a lumberjack. (Information on his survivors was not immediately available.) His real interest, though, was dance, and in 1958 he moved to New York to study at the Ballet Arts school. Mr. Fesco made his Broadway debut in 1958 as a dancer in the musical comedy “Goldilocks,” which was choreographed by Agnes de Mille, and he accumulated three more Broadway credits over the next four years. In the summer of 1969 he took a job helping to manage the Beach Hotel and Club on Fire Island. “The friend who gave me the job turned out to be a heavy drinker,” he told Mr. Lawrence years later, “and after a month I found myself running the entire complex.” He set about revamping the hotel bar, lining the walls with tinfoil and replacing the jukebox with a sound system. The Ice Palace opened a year after the Stonewall uprising, a turning point in the gay-rights movement in which protesters rebelled against a police raid at a gay bar in Greenwich Village. On Fire Island, at least, police interference was relatively light, and patrons could be uninhibited.

Nominations for the 2019 Drama Desk Awards Announced; Oklahoma!, Tootsie, Rags Parkland Lead the Pack BY RYAN MCPHEE APR 25, 2019 The 64th annual ceremony will take place June 2. The nominations for the 2019 Drama Desk Awards were announced April 25 by NY1's Frank DiLella and Roma Torre. As previously reported, Michael Urie will host the 64th annual ceremony, set for June 2 at Town Hall. The Broadway revival of Oklahoma!, seen earlier this season at St. Ann's Warehouse, led the pack with 12 nominations, including nods in Outstanding Musical, Outstanding Director for Daniel Fish, and for five of its stars. Tootsie and Ars Nova's Rags Parkland Sings the Songs of the Future followed closely behind with 11 and nine nominations, respectively. The Drama Desk is an organization of writers, editors, publishers, and broadcasters covering theatre in New York City. The Awards are one of few major theatre honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off Broadway compete against each other in the same categories. Outstanding Play Fairview The Ferryman Lewiston/Clarkson Usual Girls What the Constitution Means to Me Outstanding Musical Be More Chill The Hello Girls The Prom Rags Parkland Sings the Songs of the Future Tootsie Outstanding Revival of a Play Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine Henry VI: Shakespeare’s Trilogy in Two Parts Our Lady of 121st Street Summer and Smoke The Waverly Gallery Uncle Vanya Outstanding Revival of a Musical Carmen Jones Fiddler on the Roof Kiss Me, Kate Merrily We Roll Along Oklahoma! Outstanding Actor in a Play Jeff Biehl, Life Sucks Edmund Donovan, Lewiston/Clarkston Raúl Esparza, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui Russell Harvard, I Was Most Alive With You Jay O. Sanders, Uncle Vanya Outstanding Actress in a Play Midori Francis, Usual Girls Zainab Jah, Boesman and Lena Elaine May, The Waverly Gallery Laurie Metcalf, Hillary and Clinton Heidi Schreck, What the Constitution Means to Me Outstanding Actor in a Musical Brooks Ashmanskas, The Prom Andrew R. Butler, Rags Parkland Sings the Songs of the Future Damon Daunno, Oklahoma! Santino Fontana, Tootsie Steven Skybell, Fiddler on the Roof Outstanding Actress in a Musical Stephanie J. Block, The Cher Show Beth Leavel, The Prom Rebecca Naomi Jones, Oklahoma! Anika Noni Rose, Carmen Jones Stacey Sargeant, Rags Parkland Sings the Songs of the Future Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play Charles Browning, Fairview Arnie Burton, Lewiston/Clarkston Hampton Fluker, All My Sons Tom Glynn-Carney, The Ferryman Brandon Uranowitz, Burn This Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play Harriett D. Foy, The House That Will Not Stand Megan Hill, Eddie and Dave Celia Keenan-Bolger, To Kill a Mockingbird Ruth Wilson, King Lear Alison Wright, Othello Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical Corbin Bleu, Kiss Me, Kate André De Shields, Hadestown Sydney James Harcourt, Girl from the North Country George Salazar, Be More Chill Patrick Vaill, Oklahoma! Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical Stephanie Hsu, Be More Chill Leslie Kritzer, Beetlejuice Soara-Joye Ross, Carmen Jones Sarah Stiles, Tootsie Ali Stroker, Oklahoma! Mary Testa, Oklahoma! Full list of nominations at: http://www.playbill.com/article/nominations-for-the-2019-drama-desk-awards-announced-oklahoma-tootsie-rags-parkland-lead-the-pack

Foxy is correct. I saw it last night. This is a light-weight comedy made better by the presence of Metcalf. She is always a revelation to watch. However it avoids current politics and we are treated to a fictional flashback of the 2000 primary election in New Hampshire. Still, I was entertained and enjoyed it very much.

Ben Brantley in the NYTimes was kinder, but still panned the show: Review: In ‘Beetlejuice,’ the Afterlife Is Exhausting The dead lead lives of noisy desperation in “Beetlejuice,” the absolutely exhausting new musical that opened on Thursday at the Winter Garden Theater. This frantic adaptation of is sure to dishearten those who like to think of the afterlife as one unending, undisturbed sleep. Because as directed by a feverishly inventive Alex Timbers, and starring Alex Brightman as the manic ghoul of the title, this production proposes that not being alive just means that you have to try harder — a whole lot harder — than you ever did before. Otherwise, you’ll wind up invisible, with nary a soul to acknowledge your starry self. And in today’s world of chronic self-advertising, this may be the true fate worse than death. Invisibility is definitely not among this show’s problems; overcompensating from the fear that it might lose an audience with a limited attention span is. Though it features a jaw-droppingly well-appointed gothic funhouse set (by David Korins, lighted by Kenneth Posner), replete with spooky surprises, this show so overstuffs itself with gags, one-liners and visual diversions that you shut down from sensory overload. The sum effect suggests (and, hey, I’ve spent some very happy moments there) as occupied by an especially competitive meeting of the Friars Club. The industrious cast keeps spitting out spoken and sung jokes — good, bad and boring — at the velocity of those armies of bats that regularly swoop over the audience, summoned by the projection designer Peter Nigrini. Mr. Burton’s original film, which cemented his reputation as a Hollywood moneymaker, divided critics when it first came out. (“About as funny as a shrunken head — and it happens to include a few,” Janet Maslin wrote in her review in The New York Times.) But moviegoers swooned for Mr. Burton’s stylized blend of morbid darkness and cartoon brightness, and it remains a cult favorite. Certainly, no one complained that it was understated. The biggest objection from its fans was that Michael Keaton’s Beetlejuice — the scurrilous phantom who wreaks havoc among both the living and the dead in a haunted middle-class home — didn’t get enough screen time. The creators of this musical adaptation — led by Eddie Perfect (songs) and Scott Brown and Anthony King (book) — apparently concluded that everything people liked about the film should be multiplied ad infinitum, starting with Beetlejuice himself. But, oh dear fans, be careful what you wish for. Let me say that after Mr. Korins’s set, Mr. Brightman is the best reason to see “Beetlejuice,” which also stars the talented but misused Sophia Anne Caruso as his arch-frenemy, a living teenager with a death wish. Mr. Brightman, who received a Tony nomination for the Jack Black part in the stage version of “School of Rock,” again faces the unenviable task of reinventing a memorable madcap screen performance. But moviegoers swooned for Mr. Burton’s stylized blend of morbid darkness and cartoon brightness, and it remains a cult favorite. Certainly, no one complained that it was understated. The biggest objection from its fans was that Michael Keaton’s Beetlejuice — the scurrilous phantom who wreaks havoc among both the living and the dead in a haunted middle-class home — didn’t get enough screen time. The creators of this musical adaptation — led by Eddie Perfect (songs) and Scott Brown and Anthony King (book) — apparently concluded that everything people liked about the film should be multiplied ad infinitum, starting with Beetlejuice himself. But, oh dear fans, be careful what you wish for. Let me say that after Mr. Korins’s set, Mr. Brightman is the best reason to see “Beetlejuice,” which also stars the talented but misused Sophia Anne Caruso as his arch-frenemy, a living teenager with a death wish. Mr. Brightman, who received a Tony nomination for the Jack Black part in the stage version of “School of Rock,” again faces the unenviable task of reinventing a memorable madcap screen performance. I felt a thrill of relief at that point, a sense that this show might not be a chore to sit through, after all. (I was on guard, as “Beetlejuice” had been roasted to a crisp in an earlier incarnation in Washington.) What follows is an extremely lively introduction to the premise that death is indeed a laughing matter, punctuated with dark, rib-jabbing asides. (“If you die during the performance, this show will not stop.” Still, Mr. Brightman is so electrically, relentlessly on here that you wonder if he can sustain that level of all-out energy. As it turns out, Mr. Brightman and “Beetlejuice” can indeed sustain this anything-for-a-laugh intensity. And it is not a trait that benefits from prolonged exposure. Nearly everything appears to be operating on the principle that it must somehow top what came before. So at the drop of a punch line, the show is suddenly crowded by throngs of ghostly cheerleaders, gospel singers, a dead football team (for a sequence set in hell), not to mention really big puppets (by Michael Curry). There’s even (no, please, make it stop!) a phalanx of cloned, dancing Beetlejuices. (The hyper choreography is by Connor Gallagher.) This being a Broadway musical, “Beetlejuice” has been given a freshly broadened sentimental streak. There’s an enhanced treacly through line, at odds with the prevailing frat-house high jinks, about the search for family. At its center is the lonely, mom-missing Lydia, who resents that her dad, Charles (Adam Dannheisser) has taken up with Delia (Leslie Kritzer, taking zany to the max), a perky but insecure life coach. In parts charmingly originated onscreen by Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis, the house-haunting, newly dead young couple Adam and Barbara (the talented Rob McClure and Kerry Butler in thankless roles) are shown mourning the absence of the child they never got around to having while they were alive. Ms. Caruso, the precocious teenage actress who was an incandescent presence in the David Bowie musical “Lazarus,” lacks the devilish, deadpan piquancy that Winona Ryder brought to the same role in the film. When this Lydia sings about a place called home, you can imagine what Britney Spears might have been like in the title role of “Annie.” The music mostly exists in a loud, undifferentiated blur. That includes, I am sorry to say, “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song),” in which the denizens of a dinner party find themselves possessed by a calypso spirit. , the incongruity of stuffy, dressed-up philistines making like Jamaican backup dancers was a hoot. Here, everybody, including every member of the support cast, has already gone so far over the top that there’s no room for comic contrast. The disheartening moral of “Beetlejuice” is that when anything goes, nothing much registers in the end.

The reviews are not good. NYPost HATED it! ‘Beetlejuice’ review: Musical is a coke-snorting, F-bombing disaster If we say his name three times, will he go away? I’m not talking about the title character of “Beetlejuice,” which opened Thursday night, but Eddie Perfect. Fresh off his heinous music for “King Kong,” the Australian composer’s dismal soft-rock score fuels one of the worst Broadway musicals in years. Make that dismal and gross — like having his 15-year-old heroine sing about her love for “creepy old guys.” The teenager burdened with that schlocky, long song is Lydia (Sophia Anne Caruso), a role made famous by a young Winona Ryder in the 1988 film that starred Michael Keaton. Lydia, her father, Charles (Adam Dannheisser), and his girlfriend, Delia (Leslie Kritzer), have just moved into a house they unknowingly share with the ghosts of the Maitlands. Barbara (Kerry Butler) and Adam (Rob McClure) perish after falling through the floor of their fixer-upper, only to return as novices in the afterlife: inexperienced and dumb. Indeed, if the actors took their scripts, threw them into the air, picked up the pages and performed them in their new order, Act 2 would be about the same. Director Alex Timbers’ hyperactive staging and David Korins’ huge-but-ugly set don’t help matters much. The musical’s best and clearest moments happen to be the excellent movie’s best: “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)” when the Maitlands attempt to scare the living by making them sing and dance; and the upbeat “Jump in the Line (Shake, Señora).” And so ends the largely awful 2018-19 season. This summer, Broadway needs an exorcism. The couple loathes the new tenants — Delia, an obnoxious life coach, is turning their charming country home into the Museum of Modern Art — so they call on Beetlejuice, a “bio-exorcist,” to do his dirty work and chase the interlopers out. Trouble is, we met Beetlejuice some 40 minutes before, so there’s no buildup or suspense. Alex Brightman arrives in the opening number as an annoying, lowbrow narrator who lacks Keaton’s sly, unwashed trucker charm. You get sick of this Beetlejuice fast, especially since Brightman plays him like a drug-addicted Krusty the Clown — snorting cocaine off his forearm, making erection jokes and dropping F-bombs. Leave the kids at home. The other wrong turn the show makes is Lydia’s motivation. Here, her goth attire and obsession with the supernatural are a direct — and oft-stated — response to her dead mom. She even sings a song about it called . . . “Dead Mom.” The Maitlands and Beetlejuice, Lydia thinks, can bring her to the netherworld to see her mother once more. This sappy subplot robs the musical of macabre and fits the story as well as O.J.’s glove. Most of the cast overplays (Butler, Kritzer) or underplays (McClure, Dannheisser), but the talented Caruso, with a Cyndi Lauper-like voice, strikes the right balance. This is a challenge for all involved, especially in the second half of Scott Brown and Anthony King’s jumbled book.