Monday, June 30, 2008

ATW NewsClips - Late Day Announcements


Variety

Sarsgaard flies with 'Seagull'
Production begins previews on Sept. 16

'Little House' breaks bank
Musical sets box office records

Actors' Equity talks are free of drama
Union, producers agree to extend negotiations

Duo set for 'To Be or Not To Be'
Bierko, Maxwell to star in adaptation

Broadway continues to climb
Most productions log gains

Cast set for Chicago's 'Dirty Dancing'
Alums from prior productions round out cast

Playbill

* Seagull, with Kristin Scott Thomas and Peter Sarsgaard, to Play the Kerr
* Bierko and Maxwell Will Be Show Folk in Hitler's Shadow in To Be Or Not To Be
* Broadway's Tale of Two Cities Will Star Barbour, Lazar, Toro, Edelman, Burkhardt
* Anderson, Spiedel, Bell and More to Join Davidson in Surflight's Chicago
* Hopper, Cromer, McDonough to Direct Huff, Wells and Gubbins for Steppenwolf First Look
* Atlanta's Horizon Theatre to Stage World Premiere of Hallelujah Street Blues

TheaterMania

* Kazan, Sarsgaard, Thomas, et al. Set for Broadway's The Seagull
* Bierko, Kazee, Maxwell, Nielsen, Sisto, et al. Set for Broadway's To Be Or Not to Be
* Barbour, Burkhardt, Edelman, Lazar, et al. Set for Broadway's A Tale of Two Cities
* Brown, Cobb, Lazenga to Star in Dirty Dancing

Broadway.com

* Kristin Scott Thomas & Peter Sarsgaard to Headline The Seagull on Broadway
* Craig Bierko, Jan Maxwell to Head MTC's Broadway Cast of To Be or Not to Be
* Barbour, Lazar, Burkhardt & Edelman Among Complete Cast of A Tale of Two Cities
* Broadway Grosses: Numbers Still Up; Sunday and Curtains Depart

ATW NewsClips - Late Day Links - All


Atlanta Journal Constitution ATLArts Blog

Exquisite 'Merchant' @ Georgia Shakes

Miami Herald Drama Queen Blog

So bad it's good
If you're looking for something to do after the fireworks go "pop" this weekend, how about a show built around a soprano who couldn't sing?...

Fort Worth Star Telegram Pop Cultural District Blog

Tammy loves Sammi
Tammy Dombeck, Channel 5's "Gridlock Buster," saw Hip Pocket Theatre's production of Cootie Pancake, in which there is a character inspired by her, Sammi Zoomdeck. Read Tammy's blog...

Chicago Tribune Theater Loop Blog

Chicago theaters in New York: 'Adding Machine' to close, 'The Strangerer' to open
The off-Broadway transfer of the Next Theatre Company's production of "The Adding Machine" is coming to a close. The show will end July 20 after 16 previews and 149 regular performances at the Minetta Lane Theatre. It has been a...

'Dirty Dancing' cast is official
The U.S. touring production of "Dirty Dancing," which premieres in Chicago this fall, has officially announced its principal cast. We already knew about Amanda Leigh Cobb, who is to play Baby. Britta Lazenga, left, the member of the Joffrey Ballet...

New York Observer Culture Blog

Adding Machine to Close July 20

Jim Carroll's Basketball Diaries Gets Workshop Treatment on Stage

New York Times Artsbeat Blog

Spoleto Italy: French Plays, Old and New, in Festival’s First Weekend
The Spoleto festival’s first weekend had a heavy dose of theater, with a Gallic complexion to it. France is, after all, this summer’s theme. Both plays had Italian supertitles for the French language-challenged.

Variety

Review: Superior Donuts
While the process of artistic creation certainly doesn't function this way, it's tempting to believe Tracy Letts sets the tone for a play by selecting the drugs his principal characters choose to ingest.

Back Stage

Fem'¿i¿nä¿zi reviewed by Nicole Villeneuve
In her self-written one-woman show, Suzanne Willett attempts to break down this definition but ends up propagating other damaging labels.

Make It So reviewed by Mark Peikert
You can go home again -- you just probably shouldn't. And there was never a better reason to leave and not return than Southern matriarch Bertha in Make It So.

Playbill

* McKellen to Star in Remake of "Prisoner" Series
* Broadway Grosses: June 23-29
* "Basketball Diaries" Will Bounce Into 59E59 Theaters in Manhattan July 15
* Brown, Cobb and Lazenga Will Be Dirty Dancing in U.S. Premiere; Show Is Broadway-Bound
* Decca to Release "Mamma Mia!" Soundtrack in July
* Lainie Kazan and Robert Davi to Star in Rachel and Julio
* Berman's Perfect Couple, Story of Three Friends, Gets Extra Week Off-Broadway
* PHOTO CALL: Cirque Dreams: Jungle Fantasy Opens on Broadway
* Reichard, Westenberg, Brunell, Cummings and More Cast in Muny's Fair Lady
* ONSTAGE & BACKSTAGE: Andrea, Alexis and Agonizing Auditions
* Phantom's Gussied Up Website Has Video Blogs by Broadway's Cudia
* Ted Chapin Named American Theatre Wing Board Chairman

TheaterMania

* Sally Struthers to Star in Reagle Players' Annie
* Mamma Mia! Film to Premiere in London on June 30; Soundtrack to Get July 8 Release

Broadway.com

* Dirty Dancing Sets Dates, Leads for Chicago Premiere

nytheatre.com

Review: A Devil Inside

Summer Theater Festivals Reviews:

* HOT! Festival
* Summerfest 2008
* Shortened Attention Span Theatre Festival

ATW Review - Gay Rap Opera, Bash'd, Moving, Thrilling

It was bound to happen, and I must admit that it has – much to my delight, both as a gay man and an avid theatergoer. Chris Craddock and Nathan Cuckow have harnessed the anger and power of rap and spun it round to champion gay civil liberties while decrying homophobic prejudice. What's even more impressive is the fact that they use their homo-hip-hop (to use the pair's title from their blog) to tell a remarkably human story that's sometimes hilarious in Bash'd, a gay rap opera that opened last week at the Zipper, after an outing last year at the New York International Fringe Festival and a run prior to that in Canada, from whence Craddock and Cuckow hail.

The story of Bash'd is pretty simple. It's about Dillon (Cuckow), a guy from the provinces, who after a disastrous coming-out to his folks, moves to a big city. There he meets Jack (Craddock), a young man who's been raised by two gay men, and who has spent his teen years immersed in gay culture. Dillon and Jack fall in love instantly one night at a bar, and within a year, they're married. Violence destroys their domestic tranquility one night, though, when Jack's attacked on the streets and brutally fag-bashed by a group of straights, presumably angry over Canada's newly enacted law allowing gay marriage. This gang's violence, and the fear it engenders in both Jack and Dillon, only spawns further aggression, and ultimately, Bash'd ends tragically, but it's told an important story, although, tucked into the art-y confines of the Zipper, it's not necessarily being heard by those who need to hear it most.

In addition to playing Jack and Dillon, Cuckow and Craddock play a host of other characters during this brisk 65-minute show. Initially, they're simply playing their rap counterparts, T-Bag and Feminem, but as the story begins to unfold, they're also playing Jack's fey dads, Dillon's well-meaning mom and his überly-macho dad. During one hysterical sequence, they also adopt the personae of the various types that one finds in a gay bar – from a flamboyant drag queen to a gruff but loveable bear to a sylph-like crystal meth addicted twink. As they transform into these characters, whom they play with gentle satiric flair and obvious affection, they never miss a beat of their beautifully crafted rap lyrics, which are accompanied by some terrific sampling of gay-centric pop music that's been sampled ingeniously by composer Aaron Macri.

Elsewhere in the show, which has been directed with care by Ron Jenkins, Cuckow and Craddock's creation is supremely touching. Jack and Dillon's first meeting is charmingly delicate and their wedding, which Dillon's parents unexpectedly attend, may induce tears in some theatergoers.

It’s the depth and universality of the emotions evoked during these moments, that makes the show's deliberate anger all the more powerful. During its opening moments, the pair's lyrics delineate their agenda: "Straight people say there's no need for us/But gay folk are sick of sittin' at the back of the bus…Yeah, we don't like 'faggot' when it's said by them/But when we say it, it's like a word that starts with 'n'." Later lyrics cut equally deep into deep-rooted homophobia which all gay men have experienced and still do experience.

The anger and humanity of Bash'd spins out onto a stage that's kept nearly bare and that's backed by light towers, which, as utilized by designer Bradley Clements, give the show the feel of a high-adrenaline concert. Rarely though, do rock events contain so much emotion – this is exciting theater, pure and simple.

---- Andy Propst

---------------------------

Bash'd plays at the Zipper Factory Theater (336 West 37th Street). Performances are Monday at 8pm; Thursday at 8pm; Friday at 7:30 and 10pm Saturday at 8pm. Tickets may be purchased online at www.thezipperfactory.com or by calling 212-352-3101.

ATW Review - A Circus Jungle Fantasy on Broadway for the Summer

With the arrival of summer, one can always count on Hollywood to provide a plethora of light and breezy movies, designed to beguile audiences without straining their minds too much. Broadway got into the act last week with the opening of Cirque Dreams, Jungle Fantasy, a glitzy, often appealing, but ultimately hollow, new age spectacular created by Neil Goldberg.

Divided into two parts, "Fantasy" follows Adventurer (a winning Marcello Ballestracci) as he maneuvers through an enchanted forest where the creatures are ruled, or perhaps charmed, by Mother Nature (played with almost plasticene hauteur by Jill Diane). Each "act" in this represents an animal or group of animals that Adventurer meets. There's a quartet of lizards that are brought to life by contortionists (Uranmandakh Amarsanaa, Buyankhishig Ganbaatar, Erdenesuvd Ganbaatar and Odgerel Oyunbaatar) from Mongolia. The four women are superlatively lithe, graceful and rather amazing as they bend their bodies in heretofore unimaginable ways, often balancing on top of one another.

As the Adventurer makes his way through the jungle (from day to night when black light from designer Kate Johnston transforms scenic designer Jon Craine's Hanna-Barbera-ish forest of loopy vines, rounded trees and mushrooms into something vaguely spooky), other creatures like spiders, frogs, giraffes, and eventually lions, appear on the scene. Each performs an act that feels familiar from previous visits to new age circus events, but each has a specialty within his, her or their sequence that manages to surprise. The giraffes (Vladimir Dovgan and Anatoliy Yeniy from Ukraine and Moldova respectively) balance on rolling tubes in ways I'd never witnessed. Surprisingly, one of the most fascinating comes early on – it's a jump-rope extravaganza that dazzles.

As these acts – which include several aerial acts, including one by a Stefka Iordanova from Bulgaria who's suspended by her hair – unfurl, we watch in amazement, but then, in between, Diane (who's dressed in something that brings to mind some of Cher's most outlandish getups – designed by Cirque Productions, Lenora Taylor and Santiago Rojo) comes onto the scene to sing something. These tunes all have insipid lyrics (from Jill Winters) that theoretically are meant to inspire, but all one can do is cringe as Diane, accompanied by Jared Burnett who plays the Soultree Violinist, a sort of cross between the elves and ents of Tolkien's Middle Earth, sings them and hope that she'll quickly move on to make way for the next set of performers (generally the wait isn't too long).

Actually, time, like the performers, seems to fly during much of "Fantasy," and that's not a bad thing, but somehow, one can't help but wish there were something more substantial, even during the dog days of summer, to be found here.

--- Andy Propst

-----------------------

Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy plays at the Broadway Theatre (1681 Broadway). Performances are Monday at 8pm; Tuesday at 7pm; Thursday and Friday at 8pm; Saturday at 2 and 8pm and Sunday at 2 and 7pm. Tickets are $25 to $95 and can be purchased by calling 212-239-6200 or 800-432-7250. Online ticketing is available at www.telecharge.com. Further information is available online at: www.cirquedreamsbroadway.com.

ATW NewsClips - Mid-Day Links - All


New York Magazine Vulture Blog

Anthony Hopkins to Overact in a Classical Mode
Hopkins Is Learing: Sometimes it takes news a while to travel across the pond, and last week the Guardian confirmed that Anthony Hopkins will play the title role in a movie version of King Lear. Gwyneth Paltrow, Naomi Watts, and Keira Knightley are set to play his three daughters.

New York Times ArtsBeat Blog

London Theater Journal: Two Generations of Travails for Britain’s Wayward Youth
Much ink is spilled bemoaning the sad state of British youth, but it’s all there on the stage, too, in wonderful new productions of “The Chalk Garden” and “That Face.”

Bloomberg.com

Pulitzer Winner Letts Toasts Chicago With `Superior Donuts': Jeremy Gerard
The counter stools at the run-down coffee shop are red leatherette and the sign listing the varieties of donuts looks as if it's been there for decades. The walls are smudged with age and tagged with an obscenity on the morning after a break-in.

Back Stage

Making Your Own Luck
For actor-writers Lacie Harmon and Robin Greenspan, creating their own projects — plays, screenplays, and solo shows — has opened so many doors.

The Playgoer Blog

Ragtime: Too Hot for Wilmette?

Playbill

* Amy Ryan Will Be Part of NBC's "The Office"
* Arden, Howard, McCartney, Mauzey, Kudisch and More Set for Summer Broadway Festival
* McDonald, Carroll, Keen, Mackintosh and Morrisey to Be Part of Almeida Season
* Perrin and Betts to Join London's 39 Steps in July
* The Strangerer to Play Off-Broadway's Barrow Street Theatre in July
* Adding Machine to Close July 20
* Kennedy and Campbell Will Host Divas! Benefit; Bessette and Callaways to Perform
* "Mamma Mia!" Film Makes World Premiere June 30
* Mullally, Cumpsty, Cavenaugh, Golden and More Set for Project Shaw's Major Barbara
* Actors' Equity and Broadway League Continue Contract Talks

TheaterMania

* Andreas, Kudisch, Mauzey, McCartney, Woods, et al. Set for Summer Broadway Festival
* Amy Ryan to Return to NBC's The Office
* Adding Machine to Close July 20
* Campbell, Calllaway, Kennedy, et al. Set for Hudson Stage DIVAS Benefit
* Nigel Betts, Alan Perrin to Join London's 39 Steps on July 28
* Actors' Equity and Broadway League Continue Talks Past Deadline
* Cumpsty, Esper, Mullally, Reeder, et al. Set for Project Shaw's Major Barbara

Broadway.com

ASK A STAR: Jane Krakowski

Q & A: Matthew Morrison

* Ted Chapin Named Chairman of the Board of American Theatre Wing
* New York Theatre Workshop Sets 2008-09 Season Lineup
* Adding Machine Sets Closing Date Off-Broadway
* The Marvelous Wonderettes Will Get Off-Broadway Run

CurtainUp

Review: All's Well That Ends Well

The Guardian - Performing Arts Blog

Chris Wilkinson: (Black) Watch again: the verdict
David Ward: Keswick diary: tales of the traverse stage
Jacqui Honess-Martin : Tell Out My Soul: Hymning and hawing

Whatsonstage.com - Off-West End & Fringe

Openings: Rocks, Daisy, Frozen & Unstated
Amongst the openings in London Off-West End and Fringe venues this week are:

London Theatre Guide

Betts and Perrin take 39 Steps
Alan Perrin and Nigel Betts will join the cast of Laurence Olivier Award-winning comedy The 39 Steps on 28 July, to play the character-juggling roles of Man 1 and Man 2.

Wither the ATW Beta?

Well, when it rains it pours....

The server I'd started using for beta-testing what I think will become ATW 4.0 (and change) blew over the weekend. I had a bit of a backup, but not a full one. So, I"m repopulating the beta site, slowly but surely. You'll find that it has almost all of June in there (including the recaps from last week, yesterday's news, and today's news - with the top stories broken out).

Drop by and visit: www.americantheaterweb.info

I'd really like to hear what you think. You can send feedback to me via any of the posts over there, by commenting here, or by emailing me directly.

Hope you're having a great last day of June.

Best,

Andy Propst

ATW News Digest - Letts' Superior Donuts opens in Chicago - read the reviews

New York Times

So, How Would You Like Your Culture Clash? Joke-Filled or Sugar-Glazed?
Tracy Letts’s “August: Osage County” is a full theatrical meal. His new play, “Superior Donuts,” is a much less ambitious repast.

Chicago Tribune Theater Loop Blog

It ain't another 'August,' but Tracy Letts' 'Superior Donuts' is a tasty bite of Chicago
I'm just going to get it out of the way, right at the top. Tracy Letts' "August: Osage County" won the Pulitzer Prize for drama and the Tony Award for best new play. Numerous Chicagoans have been lashing themselves daily...

Chicago Sun-Times

'Donuts' a familiar recipe
Letts' followup to 'August' is zesty and ambitious but half-baked

ATW NewsClips - California, Pacific Northwest Print

Los Angeles Times

'The Puppet Show' at Santa Monica Museum of Art
'The Puppet Show' is a neither-here-nor-there realm in which theater's willing...

Orange County Register

Rough waters ahead for this critic — and that’s a GOOD thing

Back Stage West
[Sorry forgot to pull these late week reviews during the clean-up]

The Blowin of Baile Gall
Director Matthew Cullinan here sharply grasps Ronan Noone's unwelcoming and ultimately uncomfortably violent view of prejudice in our sped-up global environment.

The Who's Tommy
With this production -- enhanced by James Johnson's innovative EXP3D sound technology, complete with headphones for each viewer -- Purcell offers an invigoratingly fresh look at this compelling fable of self-discovery.

The Last Seder
Jennifer Maisel's oddball play cleverly mixes dark, disturbing elements with daffy character comedy, segueing into a bit of magical realism in the Seder, which caps the action.

My Old Friends
This charming and unpretentious 1979 musical doesn't feel dated, because its subject -- the challenges of aging happily and gracefully -- remains timelessly relevant.

Shame
One often sees shows that show promise but need work. It's rare indeed to be present as the pieces fall into place.

Orange Flower Water
Craig Wright's four-person drama of infidelity and the price its participants pay plays out in nine consecutive two-character scenes. Sharyn Case's quartet of actors strikes sparks.

San Francisco Chronicle

'Oh My Godmother!' needs a little polish

Chad Jones' Theater Dogs Blog

Celebrating Strouse with `Possibilities’
San Francisco’s unique musical theater company, 42nd Street Moon, kicks off its 16th season with a celebration of Tony Award-winning Broadway composer Charles Strouse on Monday, June 30: You’ve Got Possibilities: Celebrating the Musicals of the 1960s and an 80th Birthday Salute to Charles Strouse.

Sacramento Bee

Theater Review: 'Effect' heightened by superb use of small, unnamed space
The play with the longest name in town is taking place in the newest and smallest theater in town. "The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds," first performed in 1965, is now playing in the 29-seat, so-far-unnamed theater at California Stage....

San Diego Union-Tribune

'All's Well' indeed at the Globe
'All's Well That Ends Well” can feel as though Shakespeare wrote it in the throes of a spectacular hangover.

The Oregonian

Weekend reviews
'Les Miserables'

ATW NewsClips - Mid-West, Southwest Print

Chicago Tribune

McKean finds life onstage sweet with 'Donuts'
In New York City last year, Michael McKean and his wife, Annette O'Toole, were wowed at a Broadway preview performance of Tracy Letts' "August: Osage County" at the Imperial Theatre.
* Video: "Superior Donuts" - Tracy Letts' new play
* Where you've seen Michael McKean

Chicago theater's secret weapon

LaCario perfected skills at Candlelight

Ask the Critic
-- Q: How do you decide which shows to review?

Chicago Tribune Theater Loop Blog

It ain't another 'August,' but Tracy Letts' 'Superior Donuts' is a tasty bite of Chicago
I'm just going to get it out of the way, right at the top. Tracy Letts' "August: Osage County" won the Pulitzer Prize for drama and the Tony Award for best new play. Numerous Chicagoans have been lashing themselves daily...

Chicago Sun-Times

'Donuts' a familiar recipe
Letts' followup to 'August' is zesty and ambitious but half-baked

Louisville Courier-Journal

'Beauty' a beastly good show
The tale is old as time, as the song says, but "Beauty and the Beast," Derby Dinner Playhouse's lavish, luminous production of the classic Disney musical, makes it enjoyably clear that it has never lost its relevance.

Dallas Morning News

It's all about the sardines in Stage West's uproarious 'Noises Off'
Get yourself to Stage West forthwith, if for no other reason than to see Jerry Russell's inspired, scene-stealing performance in the current production of Michael Frayn's Noises Off...

ATW NewsClips - Mid-Atlantic, New England, and Southern Print


Washington Post

'Inside/Out': Riveting Tales of Disabilities -- Firsthand
Compelling true stories were promised and delivered in "Inside/Out . . . Voices From the Disability Community," presented over the weekend at the Kennedy Center's Family Theater...

Boston Herald

Cole Porter revue feels flat
Like a teenage boy sprouting his first chest hair, the American Repertory Theatre is going through an awkward...

‘Tip’ speaks to today’s war, politics
I don’t know much about politics, and I know even less about Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill....

Orlando Sentinel Attention Must Be Paid Blog

Primus Prize winner named

Miami Herald

TV greased the wheels of success
Q: Could you give an update on what happened after the reality show Grease: You're The One That I Want? How did the Broadway show do? Are the TV winners still playing the roles of Sandy and Danny?

Sun-Sentinel

Career of Zero Mostel recreated in one-man show
A volcano explodes nightly in the Broward Stage Door theater, spewing flame and lava over the audience without benefit of special effects.

Revival of 1992 comedy suffers from overwrought staging
Wendy Wasserstein's 1992 comedy "The Sisters Rosensweig" seemed to affirm, among other things, that the playwright took over the mantle of what passed for American boulevard comedy from Neil Simon. An Outer Critics Circle Award winner, it moved to Broadway in early '93, extended its hit status and was nominated for several Tonys, among which Madeline Kahn snared Best Actress.

ATW NewsClips - Tri-State Print


New York Times

So, How Would You Like Your Culture Clash? Joke-Filled or Sugar-Glazed?
Tracy Letts’s “August: Osage County” is a full theatrical meal. His new play, “Superior Donuts,” is a much less ambitious repast.

Chicago Shows, Going and Coming
“Adding Machine” is closing and “The Strangerer” is opening.

Jozef Szajna, 86, Writer of Quiet Protest in Poland, Dies
...a Polish playwright, set designer and theater director who through often nearly wordless...

New York Post

In the end, 'Palace' just isn't a very big deal
most shocking thing about Judith Thomp son's "Palace of the End," about the horrors of the Iraqi war, is how not shocking it is. The play is a triptych of monologues inspired by three real-life figures: Lynndie ...

New York Sun

Lincoln Center Festival Lights Up
The Lincoln Center Festival, which starts Wednesday, has done a bit of a juggling act this year. Ongoing renovations ruled out the New York State Theater and Alice Tully Hall, while Avery Fisher Hall is operational for only one week of the festival's…

Lincoln Center's Face-lift

The New Yorker

Hilton Als: Off Broadway takes on war, gender, and race.

Star-Ledger

Irish drama looks unflinchingly at aging
With talk of aging, bed-wetting and broken hips, "The Way You Look Tonight" is not, to be frank, standard summer entertainment. What it is, though, is an honest and well-written play that's getting an impressive production at Shadow Lawn Stage.

Albany Times-Union

Many well-cast clowns add 'Ladies Man' chaos
Hercule Molineaux is not home. His bed is empty. And his wife -- his young, pretty wife -- is sitting at the breakfast table wondering where he could be. ..."The Ladies Man" is a fun, five-door farce freely adapted from Feydeau. Alliterations abound. Identities are mistaken. And entendres are doubled.

ATW NewsClips - National, Industry Pubs


Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

Hayes, Krakowski bring "Damn Yankees" to NY stage
There's an unwritten rule: Major stage shows just don't open in this town in the summer, which makes this coming New York weekend sound particularly inviting.

Variety

NYTW sets next slate
Weller's 'Beast' to open season

Gillian Anderson keeps 'House'
Actress returns to London stage

Almeida Theater unveils lineup
Slate includes 'Dark House,' 'Nocturne'

Feldshuh set for 'Irena's Vow'
Actress to star in new play by Gordon

Chapin tops American Theater Wing
Board of directors names new chariman

Wall Street Journal

Getting It Right the First Time
Shattered Globe Theater in Chicago has resurrected "A Taste of Honey," a show that deserves to be seen again and again -- and has given actress Helen Sadler the chance to show her stuff.
[From Friday, but I figured that it hadn't made it to the wrap-up newsclips over the weekend]

ATW NewsClips - Online Sources & Select Blogs


Playbill

* Ayers, Donegan, Perlman and Young Sing Songs of Acquisto and Buck June 30
* Trevor Project Honors Tony Winner Cumming at June 30 New York Gala; Menzel Performs
* Maroulis, Anderson, Von Essen and More Sing Radio Hits June 30
* Butler, Crowley, Rogers, Collier, Kernan Open in Misbehavin' at Goodman
* Dora Awards Are Doled Out in Toronto June 30; Dirty Dancing, Top Girls, Fire Among Nominees
* Performers from Spring Awakening, Jersey Boys, Wicked and More Will Sing at Taste of Chicago June 30
* Hampstead Theatre's Fall Season to Include Brecht's Last Play
* All Bob's Women Closes in West End After Six Performances

TheaterMania

Queen of the Night
TheaterMania gets a special look at Sarah Silverman's One Night Only concert for Project A.L.S. and goes backstage with celebrity pals Katie Couric and Rob Morrow.

Peter Filichia's Diary: June Leftovers

Review: According to Tip
Ken Howard perfectly captures former Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill in Dan Flavin's straightforward solo play.

Mamma Mia! Film to Premiere in London

Talkin' Broadway

Re-review: A Chorus Line
Come for the star, stay for the show. . . .

Superfluities Redux Blog

Tidying
In an attempt to more conveniently arrange my work to see just what it is I've got flung about this World Wide Web, I posted a new page of all my writings, on and off line, at my personal Web site today....

ATW NewsClips - London


The Independent

Blade runner: Zorro on stage
As the original caped crusader swashbuckles his way on to the West End stage, Rhoda Koenig revisits the many guises of Zorro, from pulp fiction righter of wrongs to musical man of mystery

Review: The Mighty Boosh, Cargo, London
The forthcoming Mighty Boosh Festival on 5 July is the logical extension of this year's abundant comedy programming at the summer festivals. Like the notion of a "summer of love", "comedy as the new rock'n'roll" has consequently had a second outing.

Review: Grand Slam, King's Head Theatre, London

Financial Times

Drama with a sporting chance
For England sports fans, June brings an annual outbreak of twitchiness. Two new London plays, ‘Grand Slam’ and ‘Running the Silk Road’, start promisingly but find their legs won’t go the distance, writes Sarah Hemming

The Times UK

Grand Slam, King's Head, London
This should have been the ideal play for Wimbledon week, but unfortunately there's never much at stake on stage

Richard III, Ludlow Castle
It may be a tragedy, but the villainous central character in this Richard III relishes his wickedness

The Guardian

Chester Mystery Plays, Cathedral Green, Chester
If the Wakefield Mystery Plays are known for their ribald humour and the York cycle for its touching realism, the Chester plays are noted for their completeness. They are a daunting prospect considering that, when originally...

Trade It?, Bristol City Centre
Bristol's Show of Strength company specialises in performances that move beyond formal theatre spaces. In this trade-themed show, they take this approach to new ambitious levels, guiding audiences on a walk through ...

The Guardian - Performing Arts Blog

Lyn Gardner: Whiteread and Stephens: South Bank serendipity

Daily Telegraph

When theatres are alive to the sound of children
Jon Swaine reports on a scheme to get more youngsters watching West End shows

Neither comedy nor thriller - just feeble
Charles Spencer reviews Grand Slam at the King's Head, London N1.

Whatsonstage.com

Opening: High School, Two & Only, Rocks & Name

Interview: Sanjeev Bhaskar On ... King Arthur’s Crown

Whatsonstage.com - Off-West End & Fringe

Review: Torn
This complex question, underlying the play’s main subject of the prejudices existing in the black community between those of African and West Indian origin, is tackled beautifully by an astonishing cast in Femi Oguns’

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Hal Leonard Company Announces Its Fall Titles

The Hal Leonard Performing Arts Publishing Group has announced that it will be releasing through its Applause Theatre & Cinema Books and Limelight Edition imprints, a host of theater-related books this fall. Here's the lineup, along with descriptions and expected publication dates:

Applause Theatre & Cinema Books:

Defying Gravity: The Creative Career of Stephen Schwartz from Godspell to Wicked (October 2008) by Carol de Giere is the first career biography about the composer. Through several interviews with Schwartz, his family, friends, and colleagues, Carol de Giere truly conveys the creative processes of the creator of Wicked. The book will be released in October, just in time for the 5th anniversary of Wicked’s Broadway debut as well as a revival of Godspell this fall.

One on One: The Best Men’s Monologues for the 21st Century (September 2008) edited by Joyce E. Henry, Rebecca Dunn Jaroff and Bob Shuman, who also compiled the previously published One on One: The Best Women’s Monologues for the 21st Century, covers a wide range of monologues from Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional, and experimental theatre writings.

Screen World Volume 59: The Films of 2007 (October 2008) edited by John Willis with Barry Monush is the newest, up-to-date edition of the annual film reference book series including a color selection of highlights, over 19,000 entries, and over 1,000 film stills.

Theatre World: Volume 64 2007-2008 (November 2008) edited by John Willis and Ben Hodges is the most complete annual record of the Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway, and regional theatre scene.

I’m the Greatest Star: Broadway’s Top Musical Legends from 1900 to Today (November 2008) by Robert Viagas is survey of forty musical theatre stars including full-page photos that accompany each chapter.

The Best American Short Plays 2005-2006 (January 2009) edited by Barbara Parisi is an excellent collection of fifteen one-act plays.
tick, tick…BOOM!: The Complete Book and Lyrics (January 2009) by Jonathan Larson, the creator of Rent, is a three-character pop rock musical that was first produced off Broadway in 2001.

Limelight Editions:

The Great American Book Musical: A Manifesto. Monograph, and Manual (November 2008) by Denny Martin Flinn is a celebration and analysis of classic American book musicals as well as a practical guide to creating a book musical.

The Entertainment 2009 Sourcebook (September 2008) by The Association of Theatrical Artists and Craftspeople is a great reference for finding any prop or tool imaginable. It is an indispensable source for those working in the arts.

For more information visit: www.applausepub.com

ATW Breaking News - Mamma Mia! film review in the Holywood Reporter, and More

This just wandered into my email box and it fits nicely with something that I had wanted to post today.

Film Review: Mamma Mia!
No matter how many blockbusters there are, Universal Pictures' screen version of the global hit stage musical Mamma Mia! is the most fun to be had at the movies this or any other recent summer, Ray Bennett writes.

As for the other post, if you drop by Modern Tonic, you can do a quick entry and win a trip for two on an Atlantis Events all-gay cruise from London to Barcelona, plus a special Mamma Mia! The Movie prize package. Drop by: www.moderntonic.com for the entry form. You'll also find that the site has an exclusive, a stream of "Money, Money, Money," sung by Meryl Streep, Julie Walters, Christine Baranski, from Mamma Mia! The Movie soundtrack. Click here to listen.

ATW NewsClips - An Update

Well, I'm back and you'll see that I've done all of the news for today, and backlogged all of the clips for the previous week. For the online sources, I did by day, for the regions, an aggregate of Tuesday through Saturday.

Additionally, I've begun working on the updates for the sister site (which is moving because of server issues). I hope that I will have the beta mode of ATW 4.0 (or whatever it is at this 10 year mark) in stable condition for everyone to enjoy and commment on come Wednesday. Also, expect reviews of 'Cirque Dreams', 'Bash'd' and 'Palace of the End' within 24 hours along with some original news and digests.

Thanks for all of your patience this summer, and if you're celebrating Gay Pride, happy that too!

Best,

Andy Propst

p.s. All of the wonky, cranky posts from the past week have been demoted to a year ago, just for cleanliness' sake right now.

ATW NewsClips - California, Pacific Northwest Print


Los Angeles Times

Reviews are in: B'Way cast recordings

San Francisco Chronicle

A gay Cinderella story: 'Oh, My Godmother!'
Yes, "Oh My Godmother!" is a gay musical. Yes, it stars a handsome young gay man in the Cinderella role and a drag queen as his fairy godmother. And yes, much of the dialogue includes high-pitched lisps. But, as "Oh My...

Robert Hurwitt's YouTube picks

San Jose Mercury News

Gadzooks! Charming trio's puns make for fun in 'The Great Books'

Seattle Times

Being Blanche: Intiman's "Streetcar" production offers King Lear of roles for women
A case study: Female, 30-ish. Daintily dressed in a "white suit with a fluffy bodice," white gloves and a hat — the perfect attire...

The Oregonian

Portland's arts funding should increase
For arts and culture lovers, there is perception and then there is reality.

ATW NewsClips - Mid-West, Southwest and Mountain Print


Chicago Sun-Times

Breakfast with Tracy Letts
After monster hit 'August,' Steppenwolf playwright serves up 'Superior Donuts'
* Billie Letts: A tale of broken homes and circus folk
* Michael McKean, still rocking stage and screen
* Chicago doughnuts duke it out in the ring
* 'August: Osage County' will tour beginning late summer

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

A tighter bond with ex-UWM acting teacher

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

'Noises Off' staging is spot on
During the course of most theatrical runs, the performance tightens the longer the actors have had with the show.

Denver Post

Rebounding Theatre Aspen promises to astound in season 25

Cabaret Dinner Theatre closes, for good

ATW NewsClips - Mid-Atlantic, New England, and Southern Print


Washington Post

A Roaring Success and Its Effects on Broadway
'Lion King' Changed Everything, and the Stampede Isn't Over

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Stage review: Kander & Ebb musical pays 'Visit' to D.C.
A project with a long history, the musical version of "The Visit" by John Kander and Freb Ebb is now being staged with Broadway-level credentials at Arlington's handsome new ...

Richmond Times-Dispatch

On the aisle - Theater notes

Providence Journal

A revival of bare-bones sets
With tough economic times staring him in the face, Ed Shea, creative head of Warren’s 2nd Story Theatre, decided something had to go. So for his summer season, which gets under way Wednesday, he is putting on a couple of plays without sets, using just two intersecting boardwalks to create a stage.

Charlotte News & Observer

'Mamma Mia!' what a location

Amanda Seyfried did not want to jump off that cliff. "Everybody was scared," says the 22-year-old actress, referring to herself and co-stars Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard in the screen version of the hit Abba musical "Mamma Mia!"

Ready, Abba nuts?

If you've already seen the stage version of "Mamma Mia!" you know what you'll be getting. If you haven't, you may wonder. These Abba songs are featured on the film soundtrack, along with the original Abba album, release date and peak on Billboard's Hot 100.

ATW NewsClips - Tri-State Print


New York Times

The Greeks Hoist the Dramatic Flag of Scotland
The National Theater of Scotland is bringing Euripides’ “Bacchae” to New York.

Theatrical Families Aren’t All Onstage
The theater’s family businesses stretch well beyond those who put on the shows.

Review: A ‘Forbidden’ Update With a Broad Appeal

Review: Where King John Gets His on the 10-Yard Line

New York Daily News

5 open-air theaters besides Shakespeare in the Park
Here are five tips for outdoor theater events. "Much Ado About Nothing" by Hudson Warehouse is one of the choices.

New York Journal-News

'Insight' turning ideas into theater
Anna Becker's "Insights & Revelations series" is helping stage gets its seed ... one of her produced plays has moved Off-Broadway.

Hartford Courant

Theater Season Wrapup
A colorful Connecticut season included a few stars, several classics and plentiful premieres, including a homegrown "The Music Man" in Hartford that really starred the community. So what was the best - and worst - of the season?
Photos: 2007-08 Connecticut Theater Wrapup

Bergen Record

Feldberg: A musical about writing a musical

Albany Times-Union

Bard's tale
SummerScape turns focus on single artist into a summer destination

ATW NewsClips - Online Sources


Playbill

* STAGE TO SCREENS: Phyllida Lloyd and Dominic Cooper Talk About "Mamma Mia!" Movie
* Curtains Meets Its End on Broadway June 29
* Broadway Premiere of Top Girls Ends June 29
* O'Neill's National Music Theater Conference Kicks Off June 29
* Sunday's Disappearing June 29 at Broadway's Studio 54
* Workplace Comedy Superior Donuts, by Tony Winner Tracy Letts, Opens in Chicago
* With World at War, Civil Rights Are on Hold in New Play Of Equal Measure

nytheatre.com

Review: A Brush with Georgia O'Keeffe
Review: Prometheus Bound
Review: Marko the Prince

ATW NewsClips - London


The Independent

Review: Divas Apollo Theatre, London
Reviews: Black Watch, Barbican, London; The Diver, Soho, London; The Merry Wives of Windsor, Globe, London

Financial Times

Meet the cast
No one is excluded from the performing arts at Chickenshed theatre, where the teenage truant mixes with the middle-class boy and the girl with Down’s syndrome to produce socially groundbreaking work

Simon Callow’s last opera production
The director’s production of ‘The Magic Flute’ for Holland Park Opera will be measured against his conviction that he alone knows how to stage this difficult Mozart piece, writes Anna Kythreotis

Black Watch, Barbican Theatre, London
Gregory Burke’s topical piece about the conflict soldiers face is a superb, multi-faceted political and social drama that explores the male psyche with sympathy and wit, writes Sarah Hemming

Candide, The Coliseum, London
This staging of the wayward masterpiece about America in the 1950s is not just a satirical punch-bag: it is a show with bags of theatrical know-how and razzamatazz, writes Richard Fairman

The Times UK

Joan Rivers heads for Edinburgh
She’s just been thrown off TV chat for saying the f-word. Yet with a new play and a stand-up show, is it all good publicity?

The hidden cost of a night on the town
That theatre or concert ticket might seem good value but, when you arrive, there’s the pricey programme, food and drinks

Shakespeare's Globe at The Frontline
Ché Walker brings the tang of contemporary London street life to Shakespeare’s Globe. Sacrilege or spot-on?

Black Watch - the Sunday Times review
A more moving portrait of war would be difficult to find. Get a ticket to see Black Watch any way you can

The Merry Wives of Windsor - the Sunday Times review
This is a masterful performance: bullish, warm-hearted, frisky, never condescending

The Observer

In bed with the boys from Fife
Theatre review: Black Watch, the tale of the historic regiment's service in Iraq, has been hailed as a theatrical milestone. So how would it strike someone who has reported from the region?

Turning the tables
Rebecca Lenkiewicz once worked as a table dancer in a Soho club. Now she is the first woman ever to have a play performed on the main stage at the National Theatre

Saturday, June 28, 2008

ATW NewsClips - California, Pacific Northwest Print - The Week's Clips


Los Angeles Times

'Shipwrecked!' at the Geffen is a literate romp
Victorian hoaxer Louis de Rougemont captivated England with his supposed true adventures as a castaway...

'Proof's' staging adds up
Also reviews of "My Old Friends," "The Last Seder," and "The Boychick Affair:...

Review: 'Louis & Keely: Live at the Sahara'
The small Sacred Fools Theater leaves the actors no room for error. Jake...

Review: 'It's Only Life'
Brimming with intimate character portraits, sophisticated intelligence and emotional sincerity, the...

Review: 'The Voice of the Prairie' at the Colony Theatre in Burbank
John Olive's play recalls the golden age of radio and the uproar it caused in...

Los Angeles Daily News

Tommy, can you hear me? The audience definitely can

'Shipwrecked!' sets sail for wonderfully charming adventures

Orange County Register

'Shipwrecked' gets better in the retelling
Donald Margulies' intriguing play about a teller of tall tales, which debuted at SCR last fall, improves in a Geffen Playhouse production.

Orange County Register Theater by Paul Hodgins Blog

Itamar Moses to be playwright in residence at the Old Globe

Overheard at the Geffen: some bad news for Mike Myers…

Weinsteins are poised to take over Broadway

Laguna Playhouse offers two summer workshops for aspiring young thespians

India.Arie to make her Broadway debut

‘Tommy’ mocks its critics — especially me

‘Tommy’ better heard than seen

Eden Espinosa, in O.C. and unplugged

Orange County Weekly

Theatre Out's 'Small Domestic Acts,' Staging in Fullerton, Is a Small Step in the Right Direction

L.A. Weekly

Theater Reviews: Showgirls, As You Like It
Also, Outbursts, The Last Seder, and more

San Francisco Chronicle

War's Mirror
In the play "The Journeys of the Angels," Roy Conboy draws parallels between Vietnam and the war in Iraq.

A Thought-Provoking Affair
Love and faith collide in "The Busy World Is Hushed" at Aurora Theatre.

San Francisco Examiner

Theater: Broadway by the Bay goes ‘Modern’
New York City in 1922, where the Roaring Twenties are going full speed, is the setting of “Thoroughly Modern Millie.” Broadway by the Bay presents the musical in San Mateo; the show runs July 10 to July 27.

Chad Jones' Theater Dogs Blog

`Chorus Line’ seeks next singular sensation

Cabaret review: Andrea McArdle

Creepy and kooky: An Addams Family musical!

My fair Julie: Ms. Andrews recalls `Home’

`Blonde’ boredom begins

Jeune Lune closes shop

Guest critic Leslie Ribovich reviews `Busy World’

Review: `Snapshots’

San Jose Mercury News

Theater review: Reduced Shakespeare Company - fun from Tolstoy to Tolkien

Obama's historic run provides comic fodder with race as punch line

San Jose Mercury News Karen D'Souza Blog

MAMMA MIA! Voulez-vous?

Contra Costa Times

Pat Craig: Charles Strouse honored; 'Kiss Me Kate,' 'Pericles' slated

San Francisco Weekly

'Tis Pity She's a Bore
John Ford's 1630 revenge play, 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, rages with enough blood, lust, and retribution to make the dictator of a small Third...

Also Playing

San Francisco Guardian

Beyond belief
The Queer issue: The Busy World Is Hushed questions love, family, and faith

San Diego Union-Tribune

'We have to use all of ourselves'
...and so she does – Charlayne Woodard pours heart into 'The Night Watcher'

Seattle Times

The wheels are off, but musical "Zanna, Don't" still makes do

Aqua Theatre not soon to be forgotten

Camano Island's Caitlin Kinnunen, 16, cast in Broadway's "Spring Awakening"

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

A 'fairy tale' that turns the tables on homophobia
Contemporary Classics presents the musical fairy tale "Zanna, Don't!" in which being homosexuality is the norm, and men and women attracted to each other are subject to heterophobia.

ACT Theatre's party for Noel Coward is absolutely 'Marvelous'
ACT puts on the sort of Noel Coward party we'd all want to be invited to.

Seattle Weekly

Extraordinary Gentleman
ACT gamely celebrates a master quipmaker.
It's refreshing to catch a show that neither hides nor apologizes for its anachronisms. A Marvelous Party: The Noël Coward Celebration...

Price Lines
The pay-what-you-can movement picks up some key converts.
Back in the mid-'90s, a number of Seattle's professional theaters began experimenting with a new pricing model during preview weeks: They took...

The Stranger

Cowards Versus Drag Queens
ACT Theatre’s Bipartite, Very Gay Noël Coward Extravaganza

Circus Contraption
A Messy New Circus Play at Live Girls! Theater

Theater News
A Disney Musical at Intiman

ATW NewsClips - Mid-West, Southwest and Mountain Print - The Week's Links

Chicago Tribune Theater Loop Blog

Cirque du Soleil and "Kooza": Exceeding expectations

Tony winner coming to the Goodman
Adriane Lenox has been cast in the Goodman Theatre's production of 'Ruined'...

"Gutenberg! The Musical!": A spoof you can't quite believe

You're off the hook and on the doughnuts, Tracy
If you ran into the playwright Tracy Letts at the recent Tony Awards, you could see he had that unsettled look of a student out partying despite a paper due the next morning. Even as Letts was accepting the myriad...

Nathan Lane headed back to Chicago? And Bebe Neuwirth?
New York Post columnist Michael Riedel reports this morning that Bebe Neuwirth will play Mortitia in the upcoming musical version of "The Addams Family," ...

Second City to expand to Apollo
Beginning July 12, Second City will be performing at the Apollo Theater. The one in Chicago, not Harlem. Longtime Second City director Mick Napier, left, is putting together a new, all-improv show featuring a rotating group of alumnae from the...

Madame Morrible, replete with Tony
Effective Friday, the Chicago company of "Wicked" has a freshly minted Tony winner back in place as Madame Morrible. Rondi Reed, left, who won the Tony Award for best featured actress for her Broadway work in Steppenwolf's "August: Osage County,"...

'Wicked' anniversary party moves to Millennium Park
Tuesday is the third anniversary of the Chicago "Wicked." As in past years, the first 365 people to show appropriately Elphaba-fied (i.e. green and bewitched) will get a free pair of tickets to an upcoming performance of the hit musical....

Chicago Sun-Times

Razzle dazzle abounds in 'Kooza'

'Gutenberg!' is bible of shopworn musicals

It's curtains for 'Ragtime'

Puppeteers lend their hands to 'A Rabbit's Tale'

'Global Warming' stage show urges kids to go green

Production of Noel Coward's 'Hay Fever' worth catching

Wilmette cancels 'Ragtime' due to language

Stage notes

Charming 'Elephant' better as small-scale production

Stage show lets us go 'Walking With Dinosaurs'

Time Out Chicago

Gutenberg! The Musical!
Who'd write a musical about the printing press? Exactly.

Review: Bloody Bess @ Backstage Theatre Company
Review: The Mysterious Elephant @ Strange Tree Group
Review: Relatively Close @ Victory Gardens Theater
Review: The Nebraska Project @ Bruised Orange Theater

Spotlight on...Strange Tree Group
Emily Schwartz and her gleefully macabre storefront troupe make murder fun again.

Time Out Chicago Blog

Banned if you do, banned if you don’t
As has been reported, the outdoor production of Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens’s Ragtime that was supposed to play Wilmette’s Gillson Park has been scuttled because ...

Free beer. Also, $7 improv from SNL alums
Former SNL cast member Nora Dunn will be performing with some Chicago improv pups tomorrow night. ...

August: So Gay County
There’s been plenty of post-hoopla debate about the literary nature of Tracy Letts’s August: Osage County. Is it high tragedy? Base melodrama? Ethnic comedy for white people?

Five new Neos

Daily Herald

Chicago playwright serves up 'Donuts'

Cirque's new show still dazzles

Too 'Much Ado About Nothing'?

Local director revives once-popular love tale

Minneapolis Star-Tribune

Assessing Jeune Leune
The news that Theatre de la Jeune Lune would close was a shocker. How could it happen? And what are the implications for theater in the Twin Cities?
* A curtain of debt falls on Jeune Lune
* A Jeune Lune timeline

Tickets go on sale today for 'Little House' musical at Guthrie
Single tickets go on sale at 10 o'clock this morning for the Guthrie Theater's new musical production of "Little House on the Prairie."

Showboat theater is back with "The Count of Monte Cristo"
Fifty years have passed since Frank Whiting had an old paddle boat dragged upriver to start a University of Minnesota theatrical tradition.

'Charlotte's Web': A classic story, well staged

St. Paul Pioneer Press

Jeune Lune recalled: Our theater scene will be darker when we can't bask in the Lune light
Memory is the most potent legacy of live performance, so as Theatre de la Jeune Lune wanes, it seems apt to recall some of the company's best moments from its three decades of sometimes brilliant, sometimes turbulent life.

Ticket sales for 'Little House' drew crowds, jammed phones
Guthrie Theater officials reported lines out the door and around the block Friday morning as tickets for "Little House on the Prairie: The Musical" went on sale.

Minneapolis City Pages

After a Hundred Years delivers little philosophical insight
If the Guthrie wants to explore Big Ideas, it'll need a bigger play

Theater Spotlight:The Play My Mother Hates

Detroit Free Press

Purple Rose hosts a Western comedy directed by Jeff Daniels

Ann Arbor News

Jeff Daniels' new play to open
Actor/playwright Jeff Daniels has gone country, at least for the new comedy he's written for the Purple Rose Theatre in Chelsea.

Patinkin promises classics and more
It's not every Monday morning that starts with the likes of Mandy Patinkin reciting Shakespeare over the phone. The singer and actor, who performs Saturday night at Power Center, spoke to The News recently about what he's been up to lately, which includes a foray into the world of The Bard.

Encore Michigan

Timely political satire at The Abreact
Mike McGettigan's second chapter of his Desperate Losers series couldn't have come at a more opportune time for the playwright.

* Tipping Point Theatre extends run of Don't Dress for Dinner
* Michigan Shakespeare Festival awarded grant

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

‘Triptych’ is an assortment of surprises — mostly good

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Review: Ladyhouse Blues
Review: High School Musical

* Orange Girls plan cabaret benefit
* Midnight Company will open 'Mass Appeal' at Christ Church Cathedral

St. Louis Riverfront Times

Postwar Always Rings Twice: Act, Inc. resurrects a pair of bygone scripts
After 55 minutes of mostly static discourse about the dullness of life in post-World War I England, magic happens late in Act One of A.A. Milne's...

St. Louis Stage Capsules

Louisville Courier Journal

Staging, cast make 'Caesar' memorable
A Samurai-influenced production of "Julius Casear" in Central Park borrows elements of Kabuki theater.

Cleveland Plain Dealer

Ohio Light Opera performs The Mikado' and Czarevitch'
As someday it may happen that a record must be found, Ohio Light Opera's got a little list. Actually, a long one.

The Wiz' may be last musical at Evans Amphitheater in Cain Park
"The Wiz," which opened last weekend in celebration of Cain Park's 70th anniversary, ironically might be the last musical to be staged in the park's Evans Amphitheater, a Cleveland Heights landmark.

Cleveland Plain Dealer On Stage Blog

Flash slide show by Roger Mastroianni of Cain Park's "The Wiz"

New videos: Fourth Wall Productions' "Dog Sees God" and Cameo's "Thoroughly Modern Millie"

The Cleveland Play House and Actors' Summit extend successful summer shows

The arts center formerly known as Playhouse Square is now PlayhouseSquare

Video of Olmsted Performing Arts upcoming 'Singin' in the Rain'

Cleveland Scene

Frankie Valli and his Seasons are brought to life in Playhouse Square’s Jersey Boys

A spotty storyline undermines the magic of Cain Park’s The Wiz

Capsule reviews of current area theater presentations

Cincinnati Enquirer

Review: Jerry Springer: The Opera
'Springer' loses its fire.

Good vs. evil? That's 'Springer'
New Stage's largest production to date is a fascinating mix of a high art and low culture

'Jitney' wins Acclaim
Queen City Off Broadway's Jitney, receives Acclaim for scenic design.

Cincinnati CityBeat

Curtain Call: Theaters, Actors, Etc.
Good Theater Is Good Theater

Review: Jitney
QCOB's Jitney brings August Wilson's play to Madisonville

Dallas Morning News

'Hairspray' keeps its bounce at Fair Park Music Hall
Nearly six years after it debuted on Broadway, Hairspray is turning out to be the most influential musical of the decade. To figure out why, check out the touring version that the Dallas Summer Musicals opened Tuesday.

Dallas Morning News Over The Top Blog

Tammy Dombeck provides inspiration for Hip Pocket Theatre

July 4 'Oldest Living Graduate' performance canceled

Hairspray pulls in a young crowd

Whoopi joins Oprah on Broadway

Denise Lee to Jubilee

Joanna Schellenberg in All's Well

Sad news from the Minnesota theater scene

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Theater group gets 'The Little Mermaid' from audition to showtime in no time

'Monty Python’s Spamalot’ is hilarious

Houston Chronicle

Review: Strauss meets Poe in Lone Star festival opener
Ovations in the Rice Village was a great space for Orlovsky's Opulent Affair, the opening show in the 2008 Lone Star Lyric Theater Festival.

Lyric Theater fest is a feast of light opera

Houston Chronicle About Last Night Blog

``I'm Not Making This Up'' Department

Houston Press

Tamarie at Target
The Tamarie Cooper Show has arrived at Stages Repertory Theatre, and what a tangy tonic it is. It helps to know a little bit about the history...

Capsule Stage Reviews: Electile Dysfunction, Exit the Body, Gilligan's Island, Moments in a Decade

Austin American-Statesman

Review: 'Pirates of Penzance'
Review: 'Altar Boyz'

Arizona Republic

Review: 'High School Musical'

Denver Post

Longmont actor held in child-molestation case

Gory "Macbeth" pulls wagonload of meaning

Rocky Mountain News

In 'Macbeth,' Shakespeare fest stirs the cauldron with skill

Friendship's a funny thing in 'Matt & Ben'

Daily Camera

Review: Colorado Shakespeare Festival's 'Macbeth'
Artistic director Sneed takes center stage in impressive CSF staging.