Fame or Famine

Two nights of erotically themed performance art will be accompanying the Art Space festival in Baltimore this Friday and Saturday. The Baltimore Erotic Arts Festival, the brainchild of Suzannah Gerber (aka Klawdya Rothschild in the burlesque world) takes place on Friday the 18th and Saturday the 19th.
All Around the Edge
Friday night’s theme is “Before the Edge”,  with art and performances with sexual themes that are playful and teasing, such as a Atomic Cheesecake Pinup Pageant and performers such as

Eliza Charming
ShortStaxx
Lee Luscious/Lee Harrington
Coco Mource
Dix Washington

and other art and performances on the site. The headliner is the famous sex educator, performance artist, …read more

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It’s only a preview, but it’s a breath of great things to come: the review of the premiere of “Another Evening: Serenade/The Proposition,” by Bill T. Jones seems to hint at a magnificent work to come. Commissioned to create a work celebrating the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth, it’s a pretty tall order for anyone but Mr. Jones.
He assembled, along with his usual fantastically talented company, an amazing creative team: Janet Wong on video, singer Lisa Komara, score by Jerome Begin and Christopher Antonio William Lancaster, Liz Prince’s amazing costume design and a set consisting of moveable columns by …read more

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There’s a fascinating article in the Times right now about the closing of RENT. The writer, Campbell Robinson, talks about how he came late to RENT and late to the city, too, since the musical is set in a very narrow, very specific time and place.
Image details: Cast Members From "Rent" Perform At Broadway For Life served by picapp.com
The question becomes, then, why does it have such appeal outside New York? If it’s too unrealistic to people who live there now, what is it that makes it appeal so much to people like my daughters (who in fact introduced me …read more

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This smoking ban thing becomes more and more interesting…Chicago seems pretty much set in its ways, with no hope in the near future of th Jersey Boys getting to light up again.
The problem lies in the fact that there is both a state law in Illinois and a city of Chicago law, and the latter is forbidden from making the former any weaker. This means that an exemption for theater can be tricky – lest Chicago fall to the thespian hedonism currently infesting Minneapolis.
Before the Ban, With a Cast of Thousands
Thanks to a comment by Karl, I learned that in …read more

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From the same city that banned foie gras recently (and then suddenly repealed it) comes the news that even in theatrical productions where cigarettes and other smoking is an “integral part” of the play – it’s not allowed.
That’s right. Jersey Boys, currently playing in Chicago, had portrayed the doo-wop singers accurately – that is, singing on the street corners with cigarettes hanging out of the their mouths. But since Chicago has a city-wide smoking ban, an “irate theatre goer” complained to…well, to someone, but no one seems to know who, or where the complaint originated. However, the play has removed …read more

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Steve on Broadway (SOB) has a very poignant column out today about George Carlin. It’s sweetly memorable with a personal touch, and he notes that unlike contemporaries like Robin Williams, Carlin never did a Broadway show. Kind of surprising, when you think about it, for such a big name.
However, a little research reveals a CNN interview which may explain why. Carlin never wanted to do the traditional “[insert name of comic] on Broadway!” schtick. Like many of his acts, he wanted a bigger picture to be there. “That’s not really a Broadway show. That’s kind of using Broadway as a …read more

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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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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 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

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What better way to kick off the start of So You Think You Can Dance tonight but with an announcement of another opportunity to dance with some stars?
Li Chiao-Ping is a choreographer and dancer originally from San Francisco, now living in Wisconsin. Her dance company has toured all over the world, and she has dedicated her company to “offering programs of emotionally charged and athletic works, with striking visual design and the music of contemporary composers.” She has been the chair of several dance departments and is the wife of award-winning video artist Douglas Rosenberg.
The auditions will be held June …read more

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