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Prequels to Upcoming Theater Events and Sequels to Reviews & Features
by Elyse Sommer
Short Term Events |
Title Brouhaha. Two very different shows with very similar titles. Dame Edna Everage is returning to Broadway is back with It's All About Me. So his song historian and performer Michael Feinstein with All About Me. Both Edna and Michael sound a bit irritated by the potentially confusing coincidence. Everage has gone public with this quote: <"i>It's All About Me is my title. While I was saddened to hear that Mr. Feinstein did not heed my sage advice to change the title of his show, I'm overjoyed to hear that he at least took my suggestion to open his show after mine. I'm sure Mrs. Feinstein is very proud of her son." Mr. Feinstein has responded with a statement of his own: "Titles are not copyrightable. I wish Ms. Edna well. I’ve heard of her." Obviously noone's going to confuse Edna with Michael or vice-versa so let's just assume this is all in the spirit of publicity for both shows.
The critically acclaimed and much extended The Temperamentals by Jon Marans will have yet another life next February 18th when it begins another run at New World Stages (340 West 50th Street). Casting and creative team TBA. For a review of the original production go here.
Joe Calarcohas joined the creative team of Playwrights Horizons and /Vineyard Theater's joing production of The Burnt Part Boys by Mariana Elder (book), Nathan Tysen (lyrics) and Chris Miller (music). Calarco succeeds Erica Schmidt, who is not continuing with the production by mutual agreement. He is not new to the musical, having been at the helm when we saw the lab production at Barrington Stage (review). This innovative musical's 2010 debut marks the first co-producing venture for Playwrights Horizons and Vineyard Theatre/ It's still Fall and we have to shiver our way through Winter, but Summer will follow and with it another FREE Shakespeare in the Park season. We can even tell you what's coming up: The Merchant of Venice and The Winter's Tale in repertory which means eight straight weeks of free Shakespeare (June 9 through August 1). Daniel Sullivan will helm Merchant and Michael Greif, The Winter's Tale. Casting and design teams TBA. SohoRep, will launch its 2010 season with the World Premiere of Lear- written and directed by Young Jean Lee and co-produced with Young Jean Lee's Theater Company, January 7th through January 31st. Another world premiere Orange, Hat & Graceby Gregory Moss and directed by Sarah Benson follows from March 11, 2010 through April 4, 2010. A U.S. Premiere, The ruth: A Tragedy written and performed by Cynthia Hopkinand , directed by DJ Mendel follows from May 6 through May 30.
For those who can't wait until 2010 to delve into Soho Rep, there will be a Season Preview party.
Ticketss will be $30 for general admission and $40 for premium reserved seating; and tje Rep will continue its popular 99-cent tickets for all Sunday performances. For more about the plays and other Soho Rep programs see www.sohorep.org The Public Theater's 2009-2010 LAB season, affording audiences to see new plays for only $10, will feature the following:Juan and John (World Premiere), created and performed by Roger Guenveur Smith. From Dec. 1 to Dec. 20th. It’s 1965 and there’s a riot going on. Watts and Vietnam are burning. So is La Republica Dominicana. In San Francisco, it’s the Giants vs. the Dodgers. Juan Marichal vs. John Roseboro. Cain vs. Abel.
Neighbors (World Premiere), by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, directed by Niegel Smith, from Feb. 16 to March 9th, 2010. Have you seen the new neighbors? Richard Patterson is not happy. The family of black actors that has moved in next door is loud, tacky, shameless, and uncouth. And they are not just infiltrating his neighborhood—they threaten his reputation, his family, and his comfortably progressive lifestyle. A debut for the author who's a member of the Public’s Emerging Writers Group.
As if solo shows presented one at a time weren't enough, the Cherry Lane Theate has now cooked up a whole festful to be presented at its 90-seat Cherry Pit theater (155 Bank St) from October 5 to November 2rd. The idea is to highlight the work of women writers. It will be presented under the direction of Gretchen Cryer (I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking it on the Road). The lineup is as follows: October 5 and November 2 — Stayin' Alive by Susan Laubach; Damaged by Jacqueline Santiago; If You Want Me You Can Have Me Right Now by Elizabeth Rose.
October 12 and November 9: Alice and Elizabeth's One Woman Show"by Alice Barden; To Carry On (Laura Nyro) by Mimi Cohen
October 19 and November 16: The Seagull's Lament by Betsy Parrish; You Want me to do What? My Life as a Nurse by Mary Lou Shriber; Falling Apart Together by Kathryn Grody.
October 26 and November 23: Step Sistah by Renita Martin; Black Girl You've Been Gentrified by Nichole Thompson-Adams
Performances are Monday nights at 6pm a nd tickets and affordable $10 (cash only) 30 minutes prior to the performance at the Cherry Pit box office or in advance by credit card by calling 212 989 2020 ext. 21
Steinberg Distinguished Playwriting Awards Announced. Bruce Norris, Tarell Alvin McCraney and David Adjmi are the first recipients of the Steinberg Playwright Awards that were established in 2008 by The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust to recognize up-and-coming playwrights at various stages of their early careers whose professional works show great promise. They will be presented at a ceremony on October 26th, at Lincoln Center.s Vivian Beaumont Theatre. This year's recipients were announced byTony Kushner, the very first recipient whose award carried a cash prize of $200,000, making it the largest award ever created to encourage artistic achievement in the American theater. As previously announced, the Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award’ (for established playwrights) and the ‘Steinberg Playwright Awards’ (for playwrights in earlier stages of their careers). In their selection process this year, the Advisory Committee voted to award playwrights at various stages of their early careers, none of whom have yet achieved the national recognition and success of a mid-career playwright. Mr. Norris is being honored for his body of work and outstanding potential (for which he will receive a $50,000 cash award), and Messrs. Adjmi and McCraney for being promising new voices in the theater (for which they will each receive a cash award of $25,000). The playwrights will also be presented with The Mimi, a statue designed by Tony Award-nominated scenic designer and architect David Rockwell.
With the another Encores! concert production about to move to Broadway, the next season of staged concerts have been announced: First up Nov 19-22nd will be Girl Crazy, with music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin and a book by Guy Bolton and Jack McGowan. Next, from Feb 4-7, 2010 will be Fanny, based on a French trilogy by Marcel Pagnol, with music and lyrics by Harold Rome and a book by Josh Logan and S.N. Behrman. Completing the season from Apil 8-11, will be Anyone Can Whistle,a Stephen Sondheim-Arthur Laurents. Sounds like a great season.
Naked Angels will be in residence at the Cherry Lane Theatre (38 Commerce Street) and the Cherry Pit (155 Bank Street) this autumn. To kick off their 2009 – 2010 season, the company invites artists and theatergoers to its Naked Incubator Series which will include the following as part of the company’s unique creative process:Tuesdays@9, beginning September 22, writers are invited to bring in a ten-page sample of current projects and cast the pieces on the spot. This program, serving over 200 writers each year and drawing audience members and volunteer artists, allows writers to hear their work in front of a live audience in its rawest form. The Naked Angels’ most recent production, Next Fall began as part of Tuesdays@9.
1st Mondays, beginning September 14, writers submit to our monthly, full-length reading series, which unveils a brand new play every month, giving playwrights the invaluable opportunity to hear his or her words lifted from the page to the stage in its entirety for the first time.
Angels in Progress (October 22-24, 8 pm at the Cherry Pit). A workshop series that gives several plays (TBA) an intensive rehearsal period and performance in whichever setting best serves the needs of the piece, be it a reading, staged reading, or performance.
Naked Angels’ season will continue for two energizing weeks this winter in late January 2010 with Naked Footprints: An Issues Project at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre (416 West 42nd Street). Embodying the company’s highest artistic aspiration this two-week eventchallenges the disparate talents of the Naked Angels’ membership, rallying writers, directors, actors, musicians, and filmmakers to speak out against a pressing social or political concern. For over 20 years the company has taken on controversial issues from gun control to the Iraq war, faith to human rights, in what very well might be the signature work of Naked Angels.
Following the success of last summer's Next Fall, Naked Angels will produce the world premiere of another new work in spring of 2010 at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre. Details of this production TBA. The company website: www.nakedangels.com
NTLive, the National’s initiative which launched last June with the broadcast of Phèdre with Helen Mirren, was seen by 50,000 people in 19 countries around the globe. The program continues with a worldwide broadcast of the National’s production of Shakespeare's All's Well that Ends Well directed by Marianne Elliott. In the New York City area, screenings can be seen at Brooklyn Academy of Music, Cinema Arts Centre, City Cinema 123, Skirball Center for the Performing Arts/NYU, Kew Gardens Cinema, Fairfield University (CT), Monmouth University (NJ) and the Shakespeare Theatre Company (DC). The broadcast will also be shown on screens across the United States including the Mann Theatre in Hollywood (October 1), the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Boston (October 1 & 5), the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis (October 24), and many more.
For a complete list of U.S. dates, times & locations, please check: www.ntlive.com Ticket prices vary by venue but average $20.
Five notable productions, among a total 21, will r eceive their New York and world premieres beginning next week as part of The five-week all-Irish theatre festival will feature five plays by contemporary Irish playwrights with casts consisting of Irish and American-based actors of Irish descent: Walking the Road by Dermot Bolger; The Good Thief by Connor McPherson; Trad by Mark Dohert; Blood Guilty, by Antoine Ó Flatharta; Cell by Paula Meehan. Performance schedule is as follows:
Walking the Road at The Players Loft Theatre, 115 MacDougal Street September 10, 11, 12, 19 & 25 at 9pm, September 17, 23 & 24 at 7pm, September 13, 20, & 27 at 2pm, October 2 & 3 at 7pm, and October 4 at 2pm. $18.
The Good Thief also at The Players Loft Theatre, September 10, 16, 18 & 19 at 7:00 pm, September 23, 24, 26 & 30 at 9:00pm, September 13, 20 & 27 at 5:00pm, October 1 & 2 at 9:00pm & Oct 4 at 5:00pm. $18.
Trad Manhattan Theatre Source, 177 MacDougal Street September 6, 13 & 20 at 3:00pm, & September 7, 8, 14, 15, 21 & 22 at 8:00pm $20.
Blood Guilty The Players Loft Theatre, September 11, 12, 25, 26 & 30 & Oct 1 at 7:00pm, September 16, 17 & 18 & Oct 3 at 9:00pm, September 13, 20 & 27, & Oct 4 at 3:45pm. $18.
Cell at the Gene Frankel Theatre, 24 Bond Street September 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17 & 18 at 8:00pm, September 13 at 2:30pm & 7:30pm, September 19 at 3:00 p.m. & 8:00pm, & September 20 at 5:00pm. $18.
Since its inception in 2004, The New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) has premiered more than 175 new musicals— some like Altar Boyz and title of show have had a lively post-festival life. The 3-week Festival has now announced this year's line-up. For details and to order tickets check the festival web site at www.nymf.org.
TDF launches off-Off @ $9-- a new online service building off-Off Broadway audiences by providing $9 advance eTix to TDF members. This allows TDF members to explore the smaller stages, beyond Broadway and Off Broadway, where innovative artists are creating new and adventurous works. There will be no handling fee. The program begins at an opportune time as we are in the midst of the many play festivals around the city. (most listed in Curtainup's Off-Broadway Listings
To learn more information: www.tdf.org.
The Pearl Theatre Company is leaving its downtown location to move into City Center Stage II this fall. One of their last "events" is not a play but a moving sale of Props - Knickknacks - Backdrops - Lamps - Office Supplies - Books - Scripts - Fabric - and More. Everything is priced to go! Saturday July 18 from 9am to 4pm and Sunday July 19 from 12pm to 4pm at
80 St Marks Place. The season in the Pearl's new home will feature the following: THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD By J.M. Synge, directed by incoming Artistic Director J.R. Sullivan. October 2 – November 22, 2009. . . MISALLIANCE By Bernard Shaw, directed by Jeff Steitzer December 4, 2009 – January 24, 2010. . .HARD TIMES By Charles Dickens, adapted by Stephen Jeffreys and directed by J.R. Sullivan February 5 - March 28, 2010. . . THE SUBJECT WAS ROSES By Frank D. Gilroy directed by Sheldon Patinkin April 9 - May 9, 2010
59E59 Theaters 2009 Fall Season Programs: September 1 – October 4 THE PRIDE OF PARNELL STREET Written by Sebastian Barry Directed by Jim Culleton and Starring Aidan Kelly and Mary Murray.
September 2 – September 20 SPINNING THE TIMES featuring 5 World Premiere One Acts by Geraldine Aron, Lucy Caldwell, Rosalind Haslett, Rosemary Jenkinson and Belinda McKeon. Directed by M. Burke Walker.
September 23 – October 11 LUCK, d evised by Megan Riordan, Dodd Loomis and Shawn Sturnick and performed byRiordan --direct from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and based on performer Megan Riordan’s own life as the daughter of a professional Las Vegas gambler.
October 8 – November 8 GOOD BOBBY Written by Brian Lee Franklin and directed by Pierson Blaetz. Recounts the formative adult years of Robert F. Kennedy.
October 14 – October 31 GHOST LIGHT Written by Desi Moreno-Penson and directed by Jose Zayas. About 2 artists who arrive at a motel room for an afternoon of clandestine sex. One is successful, the other is struggling. Their tryst is interrupted by a security guard with alarming news about the room they’re in.
The Atlantic Theater's lineup for the next season is as follows:
Keep Your Pantheon and School by David Mamet, directed by Neil Pepe, Sept. 9-Nov. 1 at the Linda Gross Theater. A farce that follows the fortunes and misfortunes of an acting troupe in ancient Rome.
Ages of the Moon by Sam Shepard, directed by Jimmy Fay, Jan. 9-March 7, 2010, at the Linda Gross Theater. Dark comedy about Byron and Ames who are old friends re-united by mutual desperation.
Oohrah! a world premiere by Bekah Brunstetter, directed by Evan Cabnet, Sept. 1-27 at Atlantic Stage 2. In Fayetteville, North Carolina, home to one of the South's largest military bases, practically everybody has somebody 'Over There.' Sara is relieved when her husband Ron returns home from an uneventful tour in Iraq, but he's finding it difficult to settle back into the domestic bliss that is 'home improvement' and 'Rachel Ray's 30-minute meals.' Sara's sister Abby has set herself up for an uneventful life with a civilian fiancé who's more interested in PlayStation than the battlefield. Then a hot, mysterious Marine walks into their lives.
MCC Theater's 2009-2010 season at Off-Broadway's Lucille Lortel Theatre will include the following (mcctheater.org): 9/16/09 to 11/01/09, the world premiere of Still Life directed by Will Frears about photographer Carrie Ann who inexplicably shuts down at the pinnacle of her career, too lost, and afraid to even pick up a camera. 1/27/10 to 3/14/10. Joe Mantello ) will direct the American premiere of Alexi Kaye Campbell's The Pride, snpiy Oliver, Philip, and Sylvia [who] are caught in a kind of erotic time warp.
4/07/10 to 5/23/10 Beth Henley's Family Week helmed by Jonathan Demme about a woman whochecks into a recovery center in the desert, searching for a way to cope with her son's death. When her mother, daughter and sister arrive to participate in 'family week,' long-dormant traumas collide with recent tragedies. For more information visit .
With a new Williamstown Theatre Festival season lined up, I'm happy to note that one of last summer's standouts, Broke-ology , will be produced by Lincoln Center Theater next Fall, again directed by Thomas Kail. Hurrah!. The other new play which will precede it is Sarah Ruhl's
In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play directed by Les Waters will open at a TBA Shubert theater, with previews scheduled to begin 10/22/09 and the opening set for 11/19/09.
Playwrights Horizons has announced 4 of the 6 shows that will make up its 2009-10 season. All are world premieres. Among the 2 other shows, one of them is promised to be a new musical: 1. THE RETRIBUTIONISTS a new play by Daniel Goldfarb will be the first production of the season. 2. CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION by Annie Baker). 3. THIS by Obie Award winner Melissa James Gibsondirected by Obie Award winner Daniel Aukin. 4. CLYBOURNE PARK a new play by Bruce Norris , directed by Pam Mackinnon.
The new musical and a sixth and final production, as well as all casting information and dates for all six shows TBA. While we didn't re-review Enter Laughing now that it's back at the York for a second 8-week run, readers who went back to see this fun show again have sent numerous emails assuring us that, good as George S. Irving was as Marlowe, Bob Dishy is a worthy replacement. ditto for the one other actor on board: Marla Shaffel who now plays Angela.
The Roundabout's Fall-into Winter season will bring the following shows to Broadway:AFTER MISS JULIE by Patrick Marber directed by Mark Brokaw and starring Sienna Miller making her Broadway debut. The play transposes August Strindberg's 1888 play about sex and class to an English country house on the eve of Labour's historic landslide in 1945.
A new production of BYE BYE BIRDIE, Book by Michael Stewart, Lyrics by Lee Adams, Music by Charles Strouse. Directed and choreographed by Robert Longbottom. The musical comedy takes place in 1960 and centers around an Elvis Presley-type rock 'n' roll superstar named Conrad Birdie. Conrad's Agent Albert and his long suffering secretary/love interest Rosie plan a publicity stunt in which a lucky teenager gets to bestow a farewell kiss upon their idol. It features songs such as "Put on A Happy Face."
PRESENT LAUGHTER by Noël Coward, another new production which will be directed by Nicholas Martin and will star Victor Garber as matinee idol Garry Essendine.
Besides all the shows that closed this past week and the week before, it was a surprise curtains for the funky Zipper Factory which shut down without prior notice on January 13th.
Cate Blanchett, the Academy Award Winning, film star who, with her husband, Andrew Upton, is running the Sydney Theatre Company, will be starring in the company's production of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire. The high profile production will play at the company's home base from September 1 to October 10, 2009. From there the Streetcar will ride to D.C's Kennedy Center (October 29-November 21) and then to the Brooklyn Academy of Music (November 27-December 20). The production will be directed by another famous film star, Liv Ullman. Blanchett, best known for films like The Aviator and Elizabeth: The Golden Age, and I'm not there, is no newcomer to the stage, having appeared in works like Hedda Gabler and Plenty. Her work at the Sydney Theatre Company also includes directing (currently The Year of Magical Thinking). Second Stage Theater Company expands into a Triple Stage company. The nonprofit Off Broadway company currently operating out of a 299-seat space in a west 43rd Street building formerly houseing a bank and the McGinn Cazalle venue in Zabar country, has acquired the right to purchase 5970-seat Helen Hayes Theater on West 44th Street. Once the $35 million needed dollars are raised and the 44th street theater is renovated, you can expect a new name on the marquee. When the company's third venue opens (some time in 2010) it will be the fourth nonprofit with a Broadway presence (Roundabout Theater Company /American Airlines Theater, the Manhattan Theater Club/the Biltmore) and Lincoln Center Theater (the Vivian Beaumont). The landmarked Helen Hayes is the smallest house on Broadway but will give Second Stage a larger and broader canvas for new and experimental dramas that would be too risky to try out in Broadway's much larger other venues. Actually, the Helen Hayes had only 300 seats in its original location on 46th Street when it was known as The Little Theater, and was named after the legendary acress in 1983 when it made way for the Marriott Marquis Hotel and relocated to 44th Street. This is an expensive risky enterprise for Second Stage but given their past successes, which included successful Broadway transfers for shows like The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Metamorphoses, this company has a better chance than most to succeed with this risky new venture in an always risky business.|
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