Theater Talk

[+ Lucky]

Present Laughter, starring Victor Garber, received good reviews both from Ben Brantley in the Times and Terry Teachout in the Journal.

 

The Journal today also has an interesting article on the problems with previews, highlighting the reaction of many theater-goers to mistakes in previews, which now often cost as much as the show would after opening:

 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704320104575015092801295862.html?mod=WSJ_LifeStyle_Lifestyle_5

[+ Lucky]

A View From the Bridge opened to good reviews. The LA Times takes a look at what reviewers said about the performance by Scarlett Johannson- did the movie star make the stage transition well?

 

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2010/01/scarlett-johansson-in-a-view-from-the-bridge-on-broadway-what-did-the-critics-think.html

[Cooper]

Looking forward to seeing it.

 

Lucky, thanks for posting that link. I really appreciated hearing about this play. I have tickets to see it next week, so, it's good to know that the critics liked it. Thanks again... Coop

[uwsman2]

The Myopia

 

The Myopia, a one-man show by a gay actor playing at Atlantic Theater Co's Stage 2 in Chelsea is worth a look. Saw it Sunday night. Intense concentration required, but the payoff is a virtuosic performance. To vastly oversimplify, the "plot" concerns a man struggling to complete a musical comedy started by his father on the life of Warren G. Harding.

[operalover21]

A View From the Bridge opened to good reviews. The LA Times takes a look at what reviewers said about the performance by Scarlett Johannson- did the movie star make the stage transition well?

 

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2010/01/scarlett-johansson-in-a-view-from-the-bridge-on-broadway-what-did-the-critics-think.html

 

I was pleasantly surprised by Johannson. A much more successful Broadway debut that the anemic Katie Holmes All My Sons, although she did get better in the run.

 

I enjoyed Present Laughter only for Victor Garber. The rest of it I thought was just average.

[skynyc]

big show queen

 

New to the Lounge, but this thread is right up my alley. Really thought Garber was marvelous in Present Laughter, as was most of the cast, although I thought Brooks Ashmanskas was directed a bit broad. He was practically in a different play, although the audience loved him.

 

View From the Bridge was very powerful. Schrieber and Jessica Hecht are awesome, and I was pretty impressed with Scarlett Johannson. She held her own pretty well.

 

Monday night I saw a reading of Arms and the Man at the Players Club with Michael Cerveris, Marc Kudisch, George Irving and Jayne Houdyshell. Lots of fun.

 

Tonight is Venus in Fur. A reviewer friend saw it last week and told me it was going to be a huge hit, and I bought tix immediately. Then I spoke to another pal who didn't care for it at all. Oh, well. One of them has to be wrong.

[+ Lucky]

"Monday night I saw a reading of Arms and the Man at the Players Club with Michael Cerveris, Marc Kudisch, George Irving and Jayne Houdyshell. Lots of fun."

 

I am so jealous. The real fun of New York is to see stuff like this, and to be able to go out any night and see a live show. I just may have to go to New York next week to see A View From The Bridge with Cooper.

[+ Lucky]

Here's a story about off-stage drama, involving the actor F. Murray Abraham and a thief:

 

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/f-murray-abraham-action-hero/

[+ Lucky]

Showtime

 

A View From the Bridge was well-acted although for a Miller play it didn't have as much angst as I had expected.

 

 

Gods of Carnage was very good. They advertised it as 90 minutes, but it ended afte 75. Did I miss 15 minutes worth or did they lie?

 

Next To Normal, a musical about a bipolar person, had me asleep for most fo the show. I left at intermission as I was so bored.

 

Today I saw the Pasons Dance Company, and that sure was lively. The closing number had the audience howling with happiness.

 

I decided to see West Side Story again since there is a newTony and the songs that were sung in Spanish the last time I saw it are now (mostly) in English. Hopefully it will be pretty good and end my theater trip well.

 

Tomorrow there is no theater as I have the Hooville dinner and the 20Club. A nice lap dance might leave a fond memory of a short visit to the Big Apple.

[+ sf westcoaster]

When I saw God of Carnage, last year, with the previous cast, it was a full 90 minutes! Your cast either talks faster or they have altered the production.

 

Sorry to hear that you disliked Next To Normal - I didn't love it, but thought that the production was clever, interesting, innovative and that the cast was very good. We will have to discuss this at the Hooville gathering in PS.

[edjames]

Sorry, Lucky, but I hated "Present Laughter." I walked out after the second act. Many folks in the audience around me did the same only they didn't wait as long as I did and left after the first act. I thought it a complete and utter snooze-fest. IMHO

 

On the brighter side, Laura Linney is acting her butt off at the Manhattan Theater Club's presentation of "Time Stands Still." A sure Tony nom for this fine actress is in her future. She plays an injured photojournalist who comes home from the Middle East and is unable to renew her relationship with her lover, Brian Darcy James.

 

I saw "Mr. and Mrs. Fitch" last night at Second Stages. John Lithgow and Jennifer Ehle act up a storm in this sharp, fast paced, ascerbic, gossip columnist romp written by out playwright, Douglas Carter Beane. Some great one liners covering today's world of the internet and publishing.

 

Coming up..."All About Me" with Dame Edna and Michael Feinstein. (was there ever a gayer couple on Broadway?) and "Sondheim On Sondheim" featuring the return to the Broadway stage of Barbara Cook.

 

ED

[Guest greatness]

oh my

 

You are enjoying your life in full. I'm a bit jealous. Have a safe trip back.~~

 

A View From the Bridge was well-acted although for a Miller play it didn't have as much angst as I had expected.

 

 

Gods of Carnage was very good. They advertised it as 90 minutes, but it ended afte 75. Did I miss 15 minutes worth or did they lie?

 

Next To Normal, a musical about a bipolar person, had me asleep for most fo the show. I left at intermission as I was so bored.

 

Today I saw the Pasons Dance Company, and that sure was lively. The closing number had the audience howling with happiness.

 

I decided to see West Side Story again since there is a newTony and the songs that were sung in Spanish the last time I saw it are now (mostly) in English. Hopefully it will be pretty good and end my theater trip well.

 

Tomorrow there is no theater as I have the Hooville dinner and the 20Club. A nice lap dance might leave a fond memory of a short visit to the Big Apple.

[Lankypeters]

I saw "Mr. and Mrs. Fitch" last night at Second Stages. John Lithgow and Jennifer Ehle act up a storm in this sharp, fast paced, ascerbic, gossip columnist romp written by out playwright, Douglas Carter Beane. Some great one liners covering today's world of the internet and publishing.

 

 

 

ED

 

I'm with you on "Mr. & Mrs. Fitch." Absolutely dazzling lines, one after another, and great performances. Brilliant commentary on today's media and communications technology. I predict a Broadway transfer.

 

I see it again this week.

[+ Lucky]

I took my Playbill coupon to the box office for Time Stands Still and they said that they had sold out on the coupon seats, so I saw West Side Story for the second time. Everything I did not like about WSS the first time I saw it had been fixed. I really liked it this time, it was the show I thought it was going to be in the first place.

[+ Cash4Trash]

Four plays with gay themes are about to open:

 

1) Next Fall at the Helen Hayes. (reviewed off-Broadway)

2) The Tempermentals at New World Stages (reviewed off-Broadway)

3) The Pride at the Lucille Lortel Theater

4) Yank at the York Theater - 619 Lexington

[uwsman2]

re-opening

 

I saw The Temperamentals and Next Fall in their original productions. Both are exceptional, but I would especially recommend Next Fall. If the same guys play the leads, it is steaming hot!

[edjames]

I saw the Tempermentals last summer off-off-Broadway and was very impressed. Good show! Great gay historical significance.

 

With little pre-opening publicity,the Transport Group (TG), the winner of a special 2007 Drama Desk Award and a 2007 Obie Award, will present Mart Crowley's The Boys in the Band, directed by artistic director Jack Cummings III, beginning Friday, February 12, and opening Sunday, February 21, at 5pm in a site-specific production at 37 West 26 Street, between Broadway and Sixth Avenue, Penthouse.

 

A short run, it closes March 14. I've got a ticket for next week.

 

http://broadwayworld.com/shows/The_Boys_in_the_Band_329664.html

 

ED

[+ Lucky]

Ed, sometimes I think that you are the luckiest man in the world: all those shows on a whim, travels everywhere, the attentions of Ace at the 20Club...

my life is not worth leading...sigh.

[Guest greatness]

Aww

 

Come one Lucky you lead an exciting life too. It really depends how you look at things. I envy ya~~

 

Ed, sometimes I think that you are the luckiest man in the world: all those shows on a whim, travels everywhere, the attentions of Ace at the 20Club...

my life is not worth leading...sigh.

[+ Lucky]

Has Mr. and Mrs. Fitch sold out? Playbill stopped offering its discount coupon, and the "buy tickets" box in the listings is empty.

[edjames]

Mr and Mrs. Fitch is at Second Stages, a small subscriber-based theater group, so seats are always limited at that venue. It was on TDF (Theater Development Fund) and GoldStar this week, so some discounted seats must be available.

 

Thank you, Lucky. Yes, I am indeed a busy man and I thank God every day for all the wonderful opportunities he gives me. You, too, are indeed "Lucky." It's not everyone who jets in from Palm Springs for a theater week in NYC!

 

Today, I'm off to the box office at The Vineyard Theater to get a seat for the new Kander and Ebb musical, directed by Susan Stroman, "The Scotsboro Boys". It begins previews tonight.

 

I just read that the new venue for the revivial of "The Boys in The Band" is an especailly created theatrical 99-seat space where the audience sits among the cast during the performance. I hope they serve drinks!

 

ED