Somewhere That's Breen

Patrick Breen has appeared in the original Broadway productions of Brighton Beach Memoirs and Big River, in such top-rank Off-Broadway fare as Fuddy Meers and The Substance of Fire, and in films ranging from "Galaxy Quest" to "Men in Black" to (wait for it!) "Ishtar." Now he's starring in the Broadway transfer of Geoffrey Nauffts' lauded play, Next Fall, as Adam, an out gay man and an atheist in love with Luke (Patrick Heusinger), a devout Christian who considers his own homosexuality a sin.

Dame Edna's Back - and Michael Feinstein's Got Her

There is nothing like a dame, goes that familiar refrain from Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific, and there's nothing like Dame Edna Everage. And there's nothing like an evening of soothing Michael Feinstein. So, put them together and what do you have? All About Me, the new revue which opened last night at the Henry's Miller's.

What's it about? "It's really all about me!" claims Dame Edna emphatically. Says Feinstein, always a gentleman and much less emphatically, "It's really all about me."

Yank! A WWII Love Story to Soldier On

 It's your last chance to catch one of the stand-out gay-themed productions in this season of numerous gay-themed shows, Joseph and David Zellnik's Yank! A WWII Love Story, Lortel nominated for Outstanding Musical - at the York Theater Company's Saint Peter's home. (Lexington and East 54th Street). It's been one of the company's biggest box office bonanzas but finally must close on Sunday.

Everyone Can Whistle

 Get thee to the City Center box office. Don't walk, run!

Encores! season finale of the eagerly awaited concert of Sondheim and Laurents' unconventional musical satire, Anyone Can Whistle, with only five performances (April 8-11, 2010), appears to be a hit before it opens. Already there's talk of a Broadway transfer. Ticket sales have been brisk. Buzz is international. There've been ticket requests from as far as the U.K., Germany and France!

Men of Broadway

 Men of Broadway

It's springtime in New York City, and gala benefits are coming at us fast and furious. One that should definitely be on your calendar is "The Broadway Beauty Pageant," an annual event in support of the Ali Forney Center, which provides housing and other services for homeless LGBT youth. The 2010 edition of this all-male pageant will be held on Monday evening, April 19, 2010, at Symphony Space (2537 Broadway at 95th Street).

Euan Morton Sings the Praises of Sondheim

Roundabout at Studio 54's Sondheim on Sondheim not only brings the master composer back to Broadway and is his (sort of) onstage Bway debut but also marks the return of a list of long-time faves.

Welcome back Tony winner Barbara Cook, after an absence of 37 years*; Tony nom Vanessa Williams; and Euan Morton, returning after an absence of some three-and-a-half years. Of course, it's always good to have Tom Wopat, Norm Lewis, and Leslie Kritzer back. Even though they've not been missing that long, welcome back Erin Mackey and Matthew Scott.

The Art of Greed

Playwright Lucy Prebble, about to turn 30, says she didn't want to write a conventional docudrama about how tangled finances, superegos, and greed brought down an American energy giant. "I collaborated with Rupert [Goold, an associate director at the Royal Shakespeare as well as Headlong's A.D.] to shape a hyper-theatrical event."

Stephen Kunken Pulls a Fastow One

The acclaimed London production of Lucy Prebble's Enron, a docudrama using song, movement, projections, and raptor costumes, tells the story of the collapse of the once fabled energy giant in a most unconventional way.

Why I Hate Rolin Jones

 I have a Rolin Jones death fantasy.

It takes place in the near future. Always in the near future. Rolin is leaving the Emmys or the Oscars or the Tony's in his smart but sloppily worn tux. I am shuffling by in my holey stocking cap and urine-reeking pants. I recognize him, as you, reader, must certainly also, by his cool glasses and knowing smirk, both of which I'd like to knock right off his face.

But just as this thought is formulating in my fists, he is whisked away to glamorous afterparties as I am bludgeoned by police nightsticks. Blackout. Curtain.

Banyan's Second Becoming: April 2010

"Banyan Becoming" held what was billed as its second annual "Workshop Productions of New Plays" at the Cook Theater in the FSU Center for the Performing Arts in Sarasota. But the second of three plays, Karen Zacarias' Legacy of Light, was not new. By the time it reached Banyan, it had received full productions not just in the Sarasota area. It had also won a Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award.

Legendary Writer Norman Corwin is Alive and Well at 100!

Norman Corwin, the poet laureate of radio, celebrated his 100th birthday recently, at a bash sponsored by California Artists Radio Theater and the Writers Guild. Corwin, now in his 85th year as a working writer, came to fame in the middle of the 20th century, thanks to his radio dramas and comedies, most of which were broadcast over CBS and attracted huge national audiences.

Natalie Douglas Celebrates Lena Horne

The wonderful singer Natalie Douglas's celebration of Lena Horne has been acclaimed at both Birdland and Feinstein's at Loews Regency. She's bringing the show, titled, To Lena: A Tribute to a Lady and Her Music, back to Birdland this coming Monday, May 17 at 7pm -- a performance that will be all the more affecting with the passing of the legendary Lena on Sunday, May 9, 2010 at age 92. I called Natalie to talk about the show a few days before Ms. Horne's death, and then I called back the day after to offer my condolences. Here's some of what she had to say:

 

Alabama Shakespeare Festival's Southern Writers Project 2010

 Four plays at varied stages of development elicited reactions from audience and presenters of Alabama Shakespeare Festival's 2010 Southern Writers' Project, May 14--16. Three of the works explored Black-White race relations.

Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder's The Flagmaker of Market Street -- her third play commissioned by ASF -- is now ready for listing on next season's bill. Like her best known Gee's Bend, her play about the "Confederacy's seamstress" was polished after two years of SWP staged readings.

The Best & Worst of 1993

THE BEST AND WORST OF 1993 ON AND OFF BROADWAY

((c)1993 David Lefkowitz. This article was first published as the cover story for the December 23, 1993 issue of Performing Arts Insider.)

THE BEST

1. Angels in America
It took both parts of this epic to convince me, but so much of Tony Kushner's fantasia is fantastic, Angels dwarfs nearly everything else around, not because of the scope, but because of its power. And Ron Leibman's Roy Cohn is the kind of miracle we'll tell our kids about.

If It Only Even Runs a Minute

 If you live in New York City and you adore flop musicals, there are several options available for your entertainment dollar. The "Closing Notice" series of piano-only concert revivals, presented by Opening Doors Productions at the Duplex, is specifically dedicated to shows that failed to find an audience in their day.

Theater Museum Honors the Sherman Brothers

 Last Monday at the Players Club in Gramercy Park, the Theater Museum honored Disney film musical legends Richard M Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, with its Theater Museum's Career Achievement Award, the Mint Theater Company for Theater Preservation in their mission to revive long ago classics; and Samuel French, the publisher/licensee of countless plays, for Theater Arts Education.

2009-10: A Starry, Starry Season!

 An economic downturn, rampant unemployment, home mortagemania, terrorist plots, and a drop in tourism must have happened in a Dallas-type dream. It certainly hasn't affected theater attendance with Broadway and Off Broadway boasting their best season yet.

Douglas Sills Gets the Hook

His musical theater roles have ranged from the dashing pretend-fop Percy Blakeney in The Scarlet Pimpernel to the strutting peacock Carl-Magnus in A Little Night Music to the over-the-top-theatrical Oscar Jaffee in On the Twentieth Century. He also played a villain, in the creepy person of the masochistic Orin Scrivello, D.D.S. in Little Shop of Horrors. And now, Douglas Sills is taking on the iconic mantle of the villainous Captain Hook in Peter Pan at the Paper Mill Playhouse, opposite the wonderful Nancy Anderson in the title role.

Words to Defend and Deplore the Image: On David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow

Style is a funny thing with writers, often portrayed as the opposite of substance, as though the two can't happily co-exist. One could argue - and one will - that the style of a David Mamet play is its substance; imagine his work without the staccato chatter, the pauses, the repetition, the doubling-back fragments, the New York-infused vulgarity sweetened with a drop of Los Angeles gloss. His characters talk fast, think fast, and invariably all sound the same. A Mamet play remains an exercise in speed. Speed, I believe Mamet would say, kills.

Venice Theater Brings AACT International to Florida for "Festival in Paradise" 2010

Ten countries performed traditional theater to circus and dance drama in the International "Festival in Paradise" 2010 hosted by Venice Theatre, FL, June 22-26. Murray Chase, VT's artistic and administrative leader, coordinated the event.

Off-stage classes and workshops covered Clowning, Suzuki Theatre, Senior Theatre, Commedia and Travel to Theatre in addition to traditional performance techniques, design, and rehearsing and
auditioning.

Austin Miller Finds Life After Grease

MILLER: Last year, I did Joseph [and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat] at the Arkansas Rep for a long stint, and I did 42nd Street at Goodspeed and on tour. I didn't sleep in my own bed at all last year. I was supposed to go into Joseph in London, but then the show closed. I was really upset, because that's another one of my dream roles, so I'm glad to get to do it in Little Rock.

Critics Be Damned?

 "I have to say, I'm happy The Addams Family and a few other shows that got bad reviews are selling out week after week. I love it when people ignore the critics and just go see what they want to see."

As you might imagine, I was taken aback when a friend of mine expressed this sentiment, especially because he works in the theater industry. It's not unusual to hear regular theatergoers badmouth the critics, but when people in the business do so, it gives me pause.

Peter Filichia Chronicles 50 Years of Broadway Hits and Flops

There's a huge problem in reading theater historian and critic Peter Filichia's "Broadway Musicals: The Biggest Hit & the Biggest Flop of the Season, 1959 to 2009" [Applause Books; 277 pages; trade softcover; SRP $20]. It's all but impossible to get past the table of contents. Anyone who loves theater and reads Filichia's columns on Theatermania.com is aware of his amazing knowledge, always presented in an engaging way, of everything theater and his witty way with words.

Dorothy Fields: The Pioneering Female Lyricist of Countless Musicals

  "Pick Yourself Up: Dorothy Fields and the American Musical" by Charlotte Greenspan [Oxford University Press, Broadway Legacy Series; 298 pages; 16 pages of vintage photos; Index, Song index, 17-page section of source notes; SRP $28] is a lively biography of one of the most prolific and pioneering lyricists in American popular music history.

Ringling International Arts Festival, 2010

 The success of the first Ringling International Arts Festival, in 2009, meant to be a bi-annual event, led to an "on demand" follow-up October 13-17, just a year later. The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art and Baryshnikov Arts Center partnered to present 11 theater, music, and dance pieces under Mikhail Baryshnikov and BAC's artistic direction. Venues included the Ringling's Historic Asolo Theatre and Circus Museum as well as Mertz and Cook Theatres in the adjoining Florida State University Center for the Performing Arts.

Shaping Up with Craig Ramsay

Originally from Canada, Craig Ramsay has lately been spending most of his time on the Left Coast, working as Jackie Warner's co-fitness trainer on the hit Bravo TV reality series, "Thintervention." (I know, the title is silly, but the show is awesome.) Before that, Craig was a pumped and ripped presence in the New York theater community, training actors and other clients even as he was appearing on Broadway in such shows as Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Fiddler on the Roof. I recently caught up with him at a Starbucks in Hell's Kitchen while he was in town for some meetings.

For Kelli O'Hara and Will Chase, The Party's Just Beginning

 A new Broadway musical written as a vehicle for a star who was not known for her singing and had never before done a musical, with a story and characters created completely from scratch rather than adapted from a well known play, film, or novel? Sounds like a recipe for disaster.

David Campbell: Take Two

In the mid 1990s, David Campbell hit New York like fireworks launched from Australia, making a big splash in the cabaret world and snaring lead roles in the long delayed New York City premiere of Stephen Sondheim's early musical, Saturday Night and the City Center Encores!

Lorna Luft Remembers Mama with Songs and Memories

Songs My Mother Taught Me, at Feinstein's at Loews Regency, is Lorna Luft's tribute to mom Judy Garland. It's a magical trip down the yellow brick road.

Luft early on says that mom JG kidded her about preferring "the loud songs." Evidently, mama knew this gal was a belter.

The show, penned by TV variety sketch veterans Ken and Mitzi Welch [Carol Burnett shows, a Streisand TV special], opens on a poignant note: Garland on her TV variety series singing to her young daughter a song specially written for her by Johnny Mercer, "Lorna."

Remembering Ellen Stewart, Founder of La MaMa

Off and Off-Off Broadway pioneer and champion Ellen Stewart, died Thursday, Jan. 12, 2010, at Beth Israel Hospital of natural causes after an extended heart-related illness. Ms. Stewart, 91, was founder and artistic director of La MaMa E.T.C., the theater that began in 1961 and became a major multicultural force of performance art and avant-garde theater.

Jim Caruso - Party On

A really fun party always seems shorter than it actually is, so I shouldn't have been surprised to hear that Jim Caruso's Cast Party has been going on for eight years. Stop in at Birdland (315 West 44th Street) any Monday night around 10pm, and you'll be part of a unique open-mic event that showcases some of the world's top entertainers alongside talented newcomers.

Veteran Actresses Loni Ackerman and Lorraine Serabian in Rep and with a Vengeance

 For their inaugural season, Lenny Leibowitz and Amy Estes' Marvell Rep took a giant leap by becoming NY's only professional theater company producing new and classic plays in rotating repertory. Joining a double bill already "in progress" at the Abingdon Theatre Arts Complex [312 West 36th Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues] are Gabriel Garcia Lorca's rarely performed Blood Wedding, beginning performances tomorrow [through April 2, 2011]; and the NY premiere of Joseph Landis' translation of S. Ansky's The Dybbuk, beginning performances
Sunday [through April 3].

Have You Met Miss Jones?

 What a career! As a teenager, Shirley Jones was taken under the wing of Rodgers and Hammerstein, no less, and ended up starring in the film versions of their musicals Oklahoma! and Carousel when she was still barely legal. In 1960, she did a complete turnaround, playing a prostitute in "Elmer Gantry" and winning an Academy Award for her efforts. Her next plum movie role was Marian the Librarian in The Music Man, one of the best-ever stage-to-film transfers.

Catch Tom Wopat if You Can

Although Tom Wopat is probably still best known as the co-star of the wildly popular 1979-85 TV series, "The Dukes of Hazzard," he has ten Broadway shows to his credit -- six of them within the past 10 years. He's currently co-starring as Frank Abagnale, Sr. in Catch Me If You Can, playing papa to Aaron Tveit.

2010-2011 A Season of Power Performances

It has been a season of powerful theater crammed with ultra-outstanding performances - some of which are guaranteed to garner award nominations.

Pages