Don't Play Us Cheap! 1972 - Articles Page 3

Theater suffered a huge loss this week when the playwright Terrence McNally died at 81, of complications of our current plague, the coronavirus. It was a sad irony since many of McNally's plays dealt with the effects of a previous plague, AIDS, in the 1980s.

For playwright Max Posner, sitting down to write The Treasurer must have been a feat of de-centering oneself. The narrative takes a dusky, balmy look back at the relationship between his father and his grandmother, a wealthy, New York socialite who lived with dementia in her old age. While the story is, in a way, indirectly autobiographical, it offers few mentions of the playwright himself, uplifting the perspective of the protagonist, his father. In shouldering the role, Ken Cheeseman seems to push Posner's language further into the periphery. His ambulatory addresses to the audience and stoic musings seem to be conceived of in real time, not memorized from a written source. However, Lyric Stage Company's production of The Treasurer is not the standard a?oeI hate my fathera?? solo performance you are likely to see at any undergraduate institution's annual student festival. In fact, though the text is dominated by Cheeseman's character, the production is upheld just as much by him as it is by Cheryl McMahon in the role of Ida, his mother.

In David Mamet's book On Directing Film, he breaks down the way a linear narrative can be conveyed by placing images in direct contrast to each other. a?oeThe dream and the film are the juxtaposition of images in order to answer a question.a?? Certainly, with a majority of the action taking place upstage of a scrim and the fusion of filmed and live material, ArtsEmerson's Detroit Red, an original play by Will Power about Malcolm X's early adult life in Roxbury, leaves one feeling more as though one has watched a movie or woken from a dream than sat through a performance. Recently, I also saw Gloria: A Life, which is playing at the American Repertory Theatre. While I admittedly found the show to be trite and pandering, it obtusely fused projection effects with live performance in a way that felt cheap, gimmicky, and more like a new SnapChat filter than anything else. Contrast that with Ari Herzig's film work for Detroit Red, which snaps the audience effectively between viewpoints in black and white and splays broad images across the haziness of Adam Rigg's nondescript set. The success of the production lies in the success of the filmed elements, which establish a framing device, pinpointing the action to an exact moment in time. Additionally, the projections act as effective abstractions, allowing the actors to waver between realism and poetry as photos of their faces appear as oversized watermarks in space. Lighting designer Alan Edwards equally contributes to the cinematic feel of the piece. Sharp shafts of light slice through open space and act, ingeniously, as the camera lens might in film, focusing our attention on specifics and the relevant details. Aside from a few extraneous hat changes for the three actors who take on all the roles in the piece, between the work of Herzig, Rigg, and Edwards, the performance seems to be a study in the logistics of jump-cuts or cross-fades in real time. Adding to the film-instead-of-theatre feeling in the space, the performance actively roused and engaged the audience, which had a huge swathe of Boston school groups present. The crowd felt comfortable verbalizing responses, in part, because of our physical separation from the action presented to us, and to be able to laugh, cheer, gasp, and grimace in solidarity with those around you is a rare treat.

PRIMARY STAGES presents The Confession of Lily Dare, written by and starring Charles Busch (The Tribute Artist, You Should Be So Lucky) and directed by Carl Andress (The Divine Sister, The Tribute Artist). 

Magnet Theater presents The Eleventh Annual New York Musical Improv Festival from March 12 - 15, 2020 at 254 W. 29th Street, ground floor (between 7th and 8th Avenues), NYC. Most tickets are $5-$15 and feature performances by two to four different musical improv acts per show. Festival Workshops are also being offered to people of all levels of experience! Tickets and Workshops will available for purchase at www.nymif.com.

GLAAD, the world's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) media advocacy organization, announced today the nominees for the 31st Annual GLAAD Media Awards. The GLAAD Media Awards honor media for fair, accurate, and inclusive representations of LGBTQ people and issues. The 31st Annual GLAAD Media Awards are presented by Gilead, Hyundai, and Ketel One Family-Made Vodka.

Each year, the Phoenix Rock Lottery features a lineup of musicians from diverse backgrounds and musical styles. These musicians deliver a totally unique experience for fans due to the unpredictable nature of the event. The participating musicians show up on the morning of the Rock Lottery each year with no idea who they will be in a band with, what style of music they will play, or what songs they will perform, since the songs will be written that day. 

'Even if you haven't seen HAMILTON, you can still have a wonderful time at our show.'

The first phase of exciting shows heading to Storyhouse in Chester for spring 2020 have been announced.

This Month, FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club & Private Event Destination, presents some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz, and beyond. To purchase tickets or for more information, visit www.54Below.com/Feinsteins or call (646) 476-3551.

BWW met with Lyric Theatre's own Frank-N-Furter, Eric Ulloa, for an in-depth look beneath the layers of glue stick and glitter at Ulloa's physical and mental transformation into the cult classic's sweet transvestite.

Prologue Theatre is putting its own stamp on a play that has acquired a huge cult following over the years, especially within the LGBTQ+ community. Bristling with edgy, memorable performances, the cast takes you right back into the hell of those teenage years, when hurting people, both physically and emotionally, is done as casually as ordering a latte or chucking a tater tot across the cafeteria.

Today Shoreditch Town Hall announces their 2020 cultural programme which opens with the London premiere of This Time by award-winning circus company Ockham's Razor, presented as part of London International Mime Festival. In February, Tim Cowbury returns with his bold response to the migration crisis, The Claim, following its run in Edinburgh as part of the British Council Showcase; the piece is directed by Mark Maughan.

Cataldo is thrilled to announce the upcoming release of Literally Main Street, due out September 27th. The John Vanderslice produced LP is the follow up to the critically praised album Keepers, which in addition to kudos from American Songwriter, The Stranger, and Brooklyn Vegan, won attention from Stereogum for bridging “pensive indie rock stylings with rhythmically complex pop worthy of an '80s teen movie's closing credits.” Today Cataldo, the moniker for Seattle musician Eric Anderson's creative output, is sharing the music video for the new single “Ding Dong Scrambled Eggs”, which Flood Magazine praises as “stormy and evocative.” This fall, Cataldo hits the road for dates up and down the east and west coasts. All upcoming tour dates are below.

BWW catches up with Dave Bibby to chat about bringing Crazy Cat Lad-y to the 2019 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

FIREHOUSE THEATRE BARKS UP THE RIGHT TREE

Woody (voice of Tom Hanks) has always been confident about his place in the world, and that his priority is taking care of his kid, whether that's Andy or Bonnie. So, when Bonnie's beloved new craft-project-turned-toy, Forky (voice of Tony Hale), declares himself as “trash” and not a toy, Woody takes it upon himself to show Forky why he should embrace being a toy. But when Bonnie takes the whole gang on her family's road trip excursion, Woody ends up on an unexpected detour that includes a reunion with his long-lost friend Bo Peep (voice of Annie Potts). After years of being on her own, Bo's adventurous spirit and life on the road belie her delicate porcelain exterior. As Woody and Bo realize they're worlds apart when it comes to life as a toy, they soon come to find that's the least of their worries. 

THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG is a farce about a whodunnit that keeps going in spite of itself. It begins at 'funny,' blazes past 'hilarious' and 'side-splitting' straight to 'uproarious,' then ramps it up in Act II. The award-winning script includes slapstick, repetition, mispronunciation, callbacks, prop comedy, crowding, unexpected entrances, pantomime, reversals, costume malfunctions, role switching, overacting, inappropriateness and an astonishing number and variety of spit-takes. The eight cast members are in every way awe-inspiring and terrific. Get it right and go to THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG. Being left out of the fun would be an awful shame.

Moliere said that the duty of comedy is to correct men by amusing them. And this is exactly what happens in Teatr Polski during play I Cannot Get Married. It's a funny time worth to spend in a theatre and maybe get some lesson from it. You will experience some celebrities facing cameras, trying say something valuable (not easy thing to do if there is nothing to say).

1969 marked a year that was full of both trepidation and excitement for Stax Records. Just one year before, the Memphis soul outlet ended its relationship with musical giant Atlantic Records, effectively leaving the label as an independent entity, without a music catalog (which had previously included a formidable collection of hits by Otis Redding, Carla Thomas and Sam & Dave, among others). Under the guidance of co-owner Al Bell, the label proceeded to rebuild and release an impressive collection of 27 albums and 30 singles in just a handful of months—a period known as “Soul Explosion.” The gamble paid off, and at the 1969 Stax sales summit—themed “Getting It All Together”—the label reaffirmed its place as a soul powerhouse. Craft Recordings celebrates the 50th anniversary of this prolific, make-or-break moment for Stax—and its enduring legacy—with a wide selection of physical and digital reissues. Additionally, Craft will pay tribute to the label throughout the year with a series of playlists, original content, contests and more.

Dallas Theatre Center's Real Women Have Curves is indeed about female empowerment and the immigrant experience- but more importantly, it's about sisterhood. It's about the way women interact with each other, talk about themselves, tear each other down and build each other up again.

Ben Forster has had one of the most varied stage careers in recent years, having played the roles of Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar; the Angel of Music in Phantom of the Opera; and Buddy in Elf the Musical amongst others. He now brings his first solo concert, Me, Myself and Musicals, to the Theatre Royal Haymarket.

The 2019 National tour of Lincoln Center Theater's production of FALSETTOS has already begun in San Francisco, with its next stop the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles (beginning April 16, 2019). I was afforded the most opportune chance to chat with Nick Blaemire in between shows at the SHN Golden Gate in San Francisco. A produced Broadway writer at the early age of 23, Nick now portrays shrink/husband/step-dad/friend Mendel, the connecting link between FALSETTOS's myriad of characters created from the fertile meetings of the artistic minds of William Finn and James Lapine.

Eric Vetter, co-founder of the No Name Comedy/Variety Show ("NYC's Best Damn Comedy/Variety Show"), celebrates its 25-year anniversary with what else, a comedy/variety show: Today, February 26th, 7:00pm at Word Up Community Bookshop/Libreria Comunitaria in Washington Heights (corner of 163rd Street & Amsterdam Avenue). Free admission, donations welcome. For more 'No Name' information, contact (347) 885-3466; NoNameNYC@hotmail.com