June 9th, 2008
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 […]
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June 8th, 2008
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 […]
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June 8th, 2008
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 […]
By Gray -- 1 comment
June 3rd, 2008
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 […]
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May 30th, 2008
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 […]
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March 22nd, 2008
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 […]
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March 9th, 2008
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 […]
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March 3rd, 2008
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 […]
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February 27th, 2008
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, […]
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February 21st, 2008
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 […]
By Gray -- 2 comments
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