Fame or Famine

I swear, I couldn’t make this stuff up.
In the category of “stage to screen” I could probably somewhat justify Al Gore’s famous slideshow, An Inconvenient Truth. After all, it went on to become not just a book but also a Nobel-Peace-Prize winning movie. Well, ok, Mr. Gore got the prize, but it wasn’t for his work as V.P.
Turning It Up to Eleven
Now, however, it’s going the other way, as Giorgio Battistelli of Milan’s La Scala opera house is going to undertake to turn it into an opera, set to debut in 2011. Yes, that’s right, an opera about global warming.
Battistelli …read more

Comments Off

I’m very excited to read that the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis is going to host the premiere of the new musical Little House on the Prairie. Directed by Francesca Zambello, it’s a re-telling of the classic 70’s television show.
Melissa Gilbert: Typecasting or Resource?
I find myself questioning the casting of Melissa Gilbert in the role of “Ma Ingalls” – not because I doubt her abilities as an actress, but more because there is quite a difference between acting – even on a stage – and performing in a musical. She has more than enough cred with “straight plays”: A Shayna Maidel …read more

Comments Off

In the tradition of the Daily Show and the Colbert Report, the new David Mamet play, November, is set just a few days before a presidential election. While having the site be a pseudo-official campaign site, complete with “Vote Now!” buttons, it’s also very entertaining. You also don’t have to watch too much to be able to tell which particular president is the model for Nathan Lane’s role, but again, they do it in a lighthearted way.
I’m sure I won’t get to see it on Broadway, but I’m also sure it won’t be far from a movie, probably with the …read more

Comments Off

In looking over my various Google Alerts, I was pleased to see yet another celebrity apparently heading to Broadway: Sarah Jessica Parker, of Sex & the City fame, was slated to appear in the U.S. version of Boeing Boeing, a comedy about three airline attendants who get engaged to the same man.
Currently playing in London, it’s supposed to open in the Longacre Theatre in NYC. Parker has been quoted as saying, “…this will be a fantastic new challenge.” But it may be more of a challenge than she thinks: according to ContactMusic, representatives from the show have vehemently denied her …read more

Comments Off

Actually, they are five people, stars that you’ve seen on stage and screen but who are coming instead to Broadway to show that they’re not just pretty faces in edited footage – they have the chops to get on a stage and command your attention.

Stephen Rea in Sam Shepard’s “Kicking a Dead Horse,” a one-man, one-act, one-horse play opening at the Public Theatre on July 14.
John Turturro, who you may have seen most recently in “the Bronx is Burning“, will be tackling a Beckett play, “Endgame”, April 25th. While he’s known for a lot of roles and directing triumphs, my …read more

Comments Off