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| carrobin |
 Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2010 4:31 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| I got a Playbill.com discount e-mail last week that said "Last Fall" is closing on July 4. I'd love to see it but I'm not sure I can manage it that soon. (Discounts are available on line, starting at about $60.) |
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| inlareviewer |
| Posted: Wed Sep 29, 2010 10:47 pm |
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Joined: 05 Jul 2004
Posts: 1949
Location: Lawrence, KS
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| Deleted for conflict-of-interest issues |
_________________
"And take extra care with strangers/Even flowers have their dangers/And though scary is exciting/Nice is different than good." --Stephen Sondheim |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 7:35 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Been having something of a theater binge this week. And all of it positive. Saw three shows and loved them all.
Love, Loss, and What I Wore, which has been running for over a year with a rotating cast of stars, is a Vagina-Monologues-style show--which means five women sit on stools and indulge in what used to be called "girl talk" about their history with clothing. This reads as history with everything. It's funny, touching, and quite wonderful, and proves again that Nora Ephron (who wrote it with her sister Delia) is an excellent writer and should stick to that and stop ineptly directing movies.
The fine cast I saw included Alexis Bledel, Nikki Blonsky, Anita Gillette, Pauletta Washington, and a terrific stand-up comic named Judy Gold, whose work I was not familiar with but who comes off as a kind of female Jim Carrey. She's side-splitting and I will keep up with her career from now on.
The Divine Sister is a Charles Busch epic. For those who don't know, Busch is a drag performer of great skill and charm. Here he plays a mother superior who gets involved with a Restoration-comedy-type plot too complicated to detail, but the whole evening is hilarious.
Just last night I saw Good People, the new play (not yet opened) by David Lindsay-Abaire, the writer of Rabbit Hole. A superb cast headed by Frances McDormand plays out the story of a South Boston woman in severe financial straits who sees a possibility of rescuing herself by connecting with an old friend from the neighborhood who is now a successful doctor. Tate Donovan (of Damages and, much earlier, Clean and Sober) plays the doc. Estelle Parsons is also on hand.
The first act is riveting but somewhat uneventful. Each scene is like a beautifully constructed and crafted short story on stage, with a beginning, middle, and end in which people have objectives that are either met or thwarted--mainly the latter. It's all a set-up for a longish three-character scene in the second act which is the play's centerpiece.
This scene is powerful, profound, and stunning. It's also often hysterically funny. What an achievement for the writer, the cast, and the director. Said director is Daniel Sullivan, who has long since proved his chops, but special mention must be made of the actors. McDormand and Donovan are pitch-perfect in their microcosmic depiction of the class warfare America is going through right now. But the third member of the cast more than holds her own. This is Renee Elise Goldsberry, currently a regular on The Good Wife, who plays the very educated African-American wife of Donovan. She's outrageously good. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 9:33 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| On Tuesday night I went to see Brian Bedford's "The Importance of Being Earnest," first time I've ever seen it on stage. Bedford directs and also plays Lady Bracknell in powerful drag--and I can't blame him for snapping up the role, any more than I can blame an actress for stepping into Hamlet. It's one of the all-time great comic roles, after all, and if a guy can do it, give him a chance. I'd seen the old movie several times, and found the play surprisingly bright and funny, having assumed that the film had condensed all the good stuff into its shorter time span. (The lines about the stupidity of the upper classes were quite apt for today, now that America has its own version of a class system.) My friend Chitra, who grew up in India, had never even seen the film, so I think she enjoyed it even more than I did. A truly delightful night at the theater, for anyone who is in NYC before the end of its run in July. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 10:39 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| My friend David is in town for a short spell at his apartment (he also has a condo in South Carolina), and he wanted to see "Arcadia," even though we had seen it in London way back when it was "the new Stoppard." He didn't remember anything about it, but I recalled that I enjoyed it, so we saw it tonight. Wonderful, clever, literate, witty, complicated enough to make one feel smart for following the entwined stories and the descriptions of scientific theories and literary history. Billy Crudup is the biggest star in it, but Grace Gummer (yes, another daughter of Meryl) showed herself as a spirited beauty, and all the actors were excellent. Well worth seeing twice. Even three times, if I had the money and the time, and if there were nothing else on at the moment that I want to see... |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 3:08 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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Am I the only one going to the theater around here?
Last night I went to see "War Horse," at the Lincoln Center theater that used to be so convenient when I lived on West 71st. I had seen the "horses" on a TV news show and also heard that it had been a record-breaker at the National Theatre in London. Sure enough, the horses were fabulous--full-size "puppets" that could carry a rider, operated by several men who were in full view--although the plot was very basic, about a teenage boy who goes looking for his beloved horse that has been sold to the military at the beginning of World War I. Both boy and horse go through hell, but it doesn't take long to figure out that it's not the kind of play where a hero or his horse dies, though it looks inevitable sometimes. It's a tearjerker and a heartbreaker, but well done throughout, with lovely mournful songs and puppet birds and, of course, those uniquely beautiful horses. (If a film is ever made, they'll surely use real horses--so it's worth seeing the play just for the incredible "puppets.") |
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| Marj |
| Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 10:25 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 10497
Location: Manhattan
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| Carol, that you're the only one going to the theater lately is definitely not by choice. *sigh* |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 10:28 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| It's very frustrating what finances keep me from. A movie? Yes. A play? No. Grrr.... |
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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
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| Marj |
| Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 10:34 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 10497
Location: Manhattan
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Exactly what Joe said.  |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 11:05 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| And Saturday I see Billy's play. I think I've seen more theater in the last couple of months than I did all last year. (And I really want to see Daniel Radcliffe and John Larroquette in "How to Succeed in Business etc." if I can find the time--which I didn't have for "War Horse" either, so I stay up late to finish the freelance job.) |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Sun May 01, 2011 10:40 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| "The Un-Marriage Project" was both funny and touching. Billy was, of course, excellent in all his roles (I liked the rabbi best). There seemed to be a full house--I arrived at the last minute, having gotten lost after exiting the subway (I caught a taxi when I realized I'd been walking in the wrong direction), and was lucky to get a seat. Glad I saw it--thanks for alerting me, Billy, because I'd never have known about it otherwise. |
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| inlareviewer |
| Posted: Sat May 07, 2011 2:26 pm |
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Joined: 05 Jul 2004
Posts: 1949
Location: Lawrence, KS
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| RIP, Arthur Laurents, Marian Mercer, Sada Thompson. |
_________________
"And take extra care with strangers/Even flowers have their dangers/And though scary is exciting/Nice is different than good." --Stephen Sondheim |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon May 09, 2011 2:33 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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inlareviewer wrote: RIP, Arthur Laurents, Marian Mercer, Sada Thompson.
Hadn't heard about Mercer or Thompson, both of whom I saw in their marvelous performances in Promises, Promises and Gamma Rays/Marigolds respectively. Great women both. And Laurents? What can one say that Charles Isherwood didn't already say, eloquently, in the NYTimes this week? |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2011 9:54 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| Gotta say I'm enjoying the Tony Awards, and Neil Patrick Harris is truly the Tonys' Billy Crystal. I do wish they'd paraded the War Horses around a little more. Bono and the Edge were pretty funny. Nice to see Stephen Colbert up there. Some of the acceptance speeches were great. And I was happy to see bits of some musicals and plays I missed (or will miss)--like "Good People." And Mark Rylance's acceptance was bizarre, but unique. Looks like it might even end on time, maybe... |
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| Marj |
| Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2011 10:28 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 10497
Location: Manhattan
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| I agree with you, Carol. I thought it was a terrific show. I loved Neil Patrick Harris' opening number and the one he did with Hugh Jackman. Btw, I noticed that Harris produced this show. I don't know if the Beacon Theater worked for the in house audience, but it worked nicely on TV. |
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