Fame or Famine

Broadway’s full of failures. Putting on a show, any show, is going to be a gamble. So it wasn’t terribly surprising when the original Suessical, based on the work of Theodore Geisl (Dr. Suess) failed to recoup its original investment. Unlike some other shows – like Donny Osmond’s Yankee Doodle Dandy, which closed opening night – Suessical had a good run, 198 shows in 2000. But a bad investment is a bad investment, and it was put away.
The Long Tail of the Cat in the Hat
However, being produced on Broadway is not the only way to make money from a …read more

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It may finally happen. I may be able to go and see a performance of a dance piece I’m writing about. Best of all, it features my homeboy, Ethan Steifel, who started his stellar career right down the road from me at the Monona Academy of Dance.
Twyla’s Interpretation of Heaven & Hell
Ethan works with Herman Cornejo and other dancers from American Ballet Theater at Lincoln Center’s Opera House to convey a balletic journey through a “post-modern idea of the world.” Bloomberg News called the latter part of the ballet “too long and too diffuse” and concluded there was “nothing new.” …read more

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If you’re in the Chicago area, you could do a lot worse than to get to the Bohemian Theatre Ensemble’s rendition of Jekyll & Hyde. Now, some of you who have heard about this musical version of one of the more terrifying stories ever told might be sceptical, and rightly so. The original musical (with David Hasselhoff) suffered some…well, let’s be generous and just say that it wasn’t all that it could have been.
OK, actually it (reputedly) suffered reviews such as “pervasive lack of characterization” or a score that “doesn’t enhance the story.” It had a “try-out” period that was …read more

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On my shelf sits a book, a black book with a picture of a curly-haired smiling lady on the back. It’s called “Improvisation for the Theater” and is written by drama pioneer Viola Spolin.
Her son, Paul Sills, died of pneumonia today at age 80, having continued his mother’s work and shaped theatre as we know it today.
Paul Sills, the “Orson Welles of Improv”
Maybe you’ve heard of some of the places Paul Sills’ influence was felt. Second City? The Kids in the Hall? OK, how about Saturday Night Live? 30 Rock? Broadway’s Ragtime? Or how about one of his students, a …read more

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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

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In what has got to be the oddest venue I’ve ever heard of, a group of actors are performing an award-winning play in the Bethesda Terrace bathrooms in Central park.
The appropriately-named Ladies & Gents, by Irish playwright Paul Walker, is actual more topical than it had expected to be. It’s about pious politicians who dally in prostitution on the side – set in Dublin of the 1950’s.
 Why a bathroom? Well, why not? The space is “intimate, unpretentious, and uncomfortable,” which I guess is a good thing…”There’s a reason plays aren’t put on in bathrooms all the time — you have …read more

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I’m indebted to Paul Thompson of the Broadway blog for his series on “My Times Square“. A Chicago native, his documentation of wandering around the Big Apple brings back the same kind of memories that this midwesterner has.
They’re Showing WHAT, WHERE?
He comments on the amazing fact that Studio 54 is now a theatre, something that I was not really all that surprised at when I saw the revival of Cabaret there a few years back. That’s a musical that suits the scandalous history of the place, and the fact that I could only afford nosebleed seats was eased by the …read more

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I find it fascinating that “fine artists” – people with serious high-falutin’ credibility in the fine arts – are lending their talents to stage productions these days. Julie Taymor directing the Lion King is a good example. Latest case in point: Isabel Allende is directing, of all things, Zorro: the Musical.
“I am a serious writer!”
That’s what she said when she was approached by John Gertz and Sandra Curtis, from Zorro Productions, who asked her to write the story of how Diego de la Vega became Zorro.
Looking at the story, though, she fell in love with the tale all over again. …read more

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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

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It’s getting scary.
I was fine – excited, even – when the Lion King came out. Even though it took until last month for me to actually see it, the fact that it was directed and designed by Julie Taymor was more than enough to make me forgive Disney for taking a cartoon and using up valuable stage space – space that could have been used by the next Neil Simon or Stephen Sondheim.
Then came Beauty and the Beast. Haven’t seen it, but I hear it’s impressive. The costume of the candlestick alone was pretty cool, and I raised four daughters …read more

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