ATW NewsClips - National, Industry Pubs

Associated Press

An overly agitated Hamlet stalks the stage in Central Park

`Oz, ' `2001, ' `Vertigo' among AFI top genre flicks
Snow White, Dorothy Gale, the HAL 9000 computer, Charles Chaplin's Little Tramp and Marlon Brando's Godfather share top billing among the American Film Institute's best genre movies.

Cyd Charisse, Dancer, Dies at 86
Ms. Charisse, a long-legged Texas beauty, danced with the Ballet Russe as a teenager and starred in MGM musicals with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

Broadway gearing up for fall season
Congratulations to all you new Tony winners. It's a tradition that had a noble start: When the coveted prizes for Broadway's best were handed out for the first time 61 years ago, it was not at the 5,933-seat Radio City Music Hall but rather at a festive dinner in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria, with only eight categories saluted, compared with 21 these days.

Back Stage

Hamlet reviewed by David Sheward
There is a manic excitement in this Hamlet's mercurial mood swings, but these flashes of fire fail to ignite his overall soggy, sobbing presence.

East Village Chronicles, Vol. 5 reviewed by Sam Thielman
Like most short-play fests, attending East Village Chronicles is a lot like being 5 and eating a bowl of Lucky Charms: You spend most of the time wondering why it isn't all marshmallows

Revival! The Gospel According to the Fabulous Pink Flamingos reviewed by David Finkle
Go ahead and ask what the best act of the year's first half is. Why, it's the Fabulous Pink Flamingos, those perpetual senior-class cutups.

Variety

Tony winners get post-awards boost
'In the Heights' scores $1 million haul

Neil LaBute play to hit Broadway
'Reasons to Be Pretty' moves to Main Stem

'All My Sons' to open on Oct. 16
Revival sets date at Schoenfeld Theater

'Hairspray' holds well in London
Musical recoups costs in 28 weeks

Review: Hamlet
Oskar Eustis' bloodless retelling of "Hamlet" awkwardly reshapes an intimate tale of death and revenge into one of political conflict and disillusionment with the military-minded ruling class. As reasoned as the interpretation may be, it dulls the melancholy human heart of the play -- a problem exacerbated by Michael Stuhlbarg's inconsistent characterization as the brooding Dane.

Relocated, Royal Court, London
Has Anthony Neilson finally gone too far? The playwright whose previous subjects include bipolar disorder and pornography has turned his imagination to stories of missing children, including one that apparently references Austrian basement captive Elisabeth Fritzl.

Review: Unbeatable Harold at Ruskin Group Theatre
A capable ensemble underscores every absurd nuance in "Unbeatable Harold," a promising, if incomplete, two-hander that spotlights the inept but comically endearing exploits of socially challenged Harold (Maury Sterling) as he attempts to court less-than-enthusiastic Wanda (Austin Highsmith).

Review: The Burial at Thebes at Long Wharf Playhouse
...Sophocles' 2,500-year-old drama of Oedipus' daughter Antigone and her defiance of King Creon to bury her slain brother, the rebel Polynices, has a strikingly contemporary resonance in "The Burial at Thebes."

Review: This Beautiful City at Studio Theatre in Washington, D.C.
The latest docu-theater project to emerge from the inventive minds of the Off Broadway company the Civilians is a treatment of the evangelical Christian movement headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colo. Following initial exposure earlier this year at the Actors Theater of Louisville's Humana Festival of New American Plays....

USA Today

Shakespeare in the Park gets a stylish celebration

Bloomberg.com

Clown Genius Irwin Pumps Laughs Into Philadelphia's Downtown Arts Revival
Fresh from winning a Tony Award for that famous laugh riot ``Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' Bill Irwin made a choice that W.C. Fields might have appreciated: Irwin said he'd rather be in Philadelphia.

Disastrous (If Funny) Hamlet Growls and Howls in Central Park: John Simon
Oskar Eustis's Central Park revival is the most misguided ``Hamlet'' I have ever seen. If there existed a booby prize for consummate demolition of Shakespeare, Eustis would win it hands down.