Posts tagged as Theater
The Musical About Grizzly Adams And His Bears
In 2008, Ars Nova, a small theater and development space on the far west side of Manhattan, staged a pirate/puppet rock musical called Jollyship the Whiz-Bang. The play was given a limited run, but was extended several times, revived in 2010's Under The Radar festival, and shot its co-creator, Nick Jones, into the peculiarly theater notoriety of someone who's been praised in The Times for "demented brilliance." First disclaimer: I was friendly with some Ars Nova people, and have a deep, weird love for puppets, so volunteered to spend a day helping paint puppets for Jollyship. Second disclaimer: I eventually saw Jollyship, I think, five times. Third disclaimer: I was working at an off-Broadway theater at the time, one that had no idea what to do with this sort of wonderful weirdness, but I ended up reading some of Nick's other plays. One was a musical about an architect that falls in love with his building (or maybe it was vice versa). There was also Straight-Up Vampire, a story of vampires and the American Revolution, set to the music of Paula Abdul. READ MORE
52 Terrible Titles Of Plays That Were Actually Produced And Published
52. The King of the Kosher Grocers
51. Onion Heads
50. Aspirin and Elephants
49. Bashville in Love
48. Aren't We All?
47. Schmulnik's Waltz
46. James Skipworth and the Catfish Colonel
45. Jump, I’ll Catch You!
44. I Think You Think I Love You
43. Tod, the Boy, Tod
42. Maiden's Progeny
41. Grandma Sylvia's Funeral
40. Criminals in Love
39. Six Who Pass While the Lentils Boil
38. The Juice of Wild Strawberries
37. Ding Dong Dead
36. Deflowering Waldo
35. How His Bride Came to Abraham
34. Dying for Laughs
33. Daughters of the Lone Star State
32. Southern Baptist Sissies
31. Daddy’s Dyin'… Who’s Got the Will?
30. Doing Time at the Alamo
29. Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
28. Golf: The Musical
27. Thataway Jack
26. Mr. Rickey Calls a Meeting
25. Death Bed
24. The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker
23. A Little Quickie
22. Sin, Sex and the C.I.A.
21. Hot Bed Hotel
20. The Lone Star Love Potion
19. When the Cat’s Away
18. The Curse of Ravensdurn
17. Are You Sure?
16. Death in England? Another Inspector Mirabelle Adventure
15. Ciao, Baby!
14. Valentines and Killer Chili
13. The Lucky O'Learys
12. Don’t Hug Me
11. First Baptist of Ivy Gap
10. Shady Business
9. Post-Oedipus
8. Position Available
7. Back of the Throat
6. Two Wives and a Dead Guy
5. Snacks
4. A Mother, A Daughter, and A Gun
3. A Town Called Shame
2. The Sensuous Senator
1. Who’s in Bed with the Butler? READ MORE
The Tony Awards Live Chat Extravaganza
Ladies and gents, it's America's most important and most revered awards show for the most important and revered arts! Tonight, literally all of America will stop and join—what's that you say? It's the Heat-Mavericks game six? Oh. Well then... tonight, some of the gays and theater ladies will come together to hide from basketball and indulge in the not-at-all rigged awards system that heaps praise upon select, very expensive productions at a very small number of designated New York City theaters; awards are nominated by literally a couple dozen people and then chosen by all of 750 professional voters. This system serves to make almost everyone feel bad, except a very few rich people! (And yes, also some fine young actors and creators who have exciting new plays.) But also: Neil Patrick Harris is hosting! Who is still only 37. So let's come together in the comments and celebrate this hot mess, right here with our own theatrically inclined hostess Jaime Green!
The Anticipation List
Good People with Frances McDormand, the Manhattan Theatre Club. READ MORE
Tony Awards Get Third Consecutive Gay Dude Host
BREAKING: Gay Man To Host Tony Awards. Let's see: this year it's Sean Hayes, and before that, Neil Patrick Harris, and before that, Whoopi Goldberg. When will the tyranny of gay guys hosting theater awards end?
Showed Up: Young@Heart at St. Ann's Warehouse
The Young @ Heart Chorus is that group of old people who sing rock songs. A couple years ago somebody made a documentary about them, but it's not very good. Instead, see their new revue, "The End of the Road," at St. Ann's Warehouse. They are there through Saturday. It is the #1 recommended way to see these old people sing. READ MORE
Showed Up: Sam Mendes Does 'The Tempest' and 'As You Like It' at BAM
The second of three seasons of The Bridge Project, a partnership of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Old Vic and Neal Street, is closing at BAM this week. Last year, Sam Mendes staged The Winter's Tale and The Cherry Orchard here; this year it's The Tempest and As You Like It. Two of those plays are romances, involving love but also magic, sadness, and personal redemption. One, written as a comedy, is regularly performed as a tragedy, which means that audiences see it as a little of both. As You Like It is a straightforward comedy, but here Mendes has added a torture scene, which isn't very funny. READ MORE
Flicked Off: 'When In Rome'
Somehow, we ended up at this movie over the weekend, just us and some girls who were really lonely. And a few really angry boyfriends. You guys. Little Kristin Bell, barely there. Josh Duhamel, a lunk with a nice brow. A plot (magic love fountains!) that not even Annie Hathaway could paste together with her face. And, what's more, a ghostly drive-by from Judith Malina. Born in the 20s, the daughter of German rabbi who emigrated to America in 1929, the twice-widowed avant-garde theater superstar has not had a film or TV role since the 69th episode of The Sopranos, broadcast in April of 200-as Paulie's nun-aunt who reveals that she is actually his mother, causing him to flip out. (Then she dies.) READ MORE
"Show me a happy homosexual and I'll show you a gay corpse."
You know what we needed most of all, in the year 2010? A revival of The Boys in the Band. Thuper! It opens February 21! Let us turn the clock back to 1968, when Clive Barnes wrote in the Times: "As the conventional thing to say about Mart Crowley's 'The Boys in the Band' will be something to the effect that it makes Edward Albee's 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' seem like a vicarage tea party, let me at least take the opportunity of saying it first." Duly noted. And 1969, the headline: "'The Boys in the Band' Is Still a Sad Gay Romp." And 1970: "THE BOYS IN THE BAND" has just entered its third year at Theater Four on West 55th Street, and the damndest thing has happened to it. It has become a period piece." Other interesting Times pieces on the same subject: "More Homosexuals Aided To Become Heterosexual," February 28, 1971.
Showed Up, with Seth Colter Walls: Robert Lepage's "Lipsynch" at BAM
Late one evening last week, while seated on the Wall Street 2/3 subway platform, a 30-something Caucasian woman in glasses and sweatpants interrupted my reading of Taylor Branch's The Clinton Tapes. READ MORE
