Friday Miscellany - Mainly NYTW's New Series

So, two days without entries here. What gives you might ask? Well, with a partner who's not completely laid up, but bad enough to require a drive to the office every morning, and two shows on Wednesday, time just sort of flies. You can find the reviews of those shows, Crimes of the Heart and The Jazz Age on ATW and TheaterMania, respectively. (Also, there are quick links below.)

Today, I hope to get round to finally writing about The Slug-Bearers of Kayrol Island - a musical that's just opened at the Vineyard Theatre, and that's now been extended for a couple of weeks through March 2. I had a pretty complex reaction to this musical and with time constraints, I've just not gotten there. The other theatergoing of the week has been Catherine Filoux's Killing the Boss, which is reviewed in Back Stage.

Looking ahead, it's quite the musical weekend ….tonight's The Blue Flower, tomorrow's "Sunday in the Park…" and Sunday's Talking Band's Imminence at La MaMa. (Expect a review of the latter in "The Voice," the others will appear on the site.

In terms of other things, I will get to catch up to Patrick Stewart's Macbeth next week and I'm at work on a feature on New York Theatre Workshop's Liberty City for Back Stage.

And speaking of NYTW – I was thrilled yesterday to read about their new "Encores!"-like program for off-Broadway musicals. According to the "Times" yesterday, the first two shows for a three show series have been chosen: Al Carmines and Maria Irene Fornes' Promenade and "Iphigenia in Concert" from Doug Dyer, Gretchen Cryer and Peter Link. A third is still to be announced.

The announcement got me to thinking…..will NYTW dust of relatively recent off-Broadway shows? For instance, can we expect a concert version of The Knife seen at the Public the mid-80s, about a man undergoing a sex-change operation? It's an intriguing score. What about another show from the Public….William Finn's Romance in Hard Times. Looking back to the rock era, I'm sort of hoping that NYTW artistic director James C. Nicola will be considering Your Own Thing, that rockin' Twelfth Night.

Whatever the choices, the new series will be quite welcome on the horizon.

Have a great weekend.

Andy

Quick links:

Crimes of the Heart review: http://www.americantheaterweb.com/news/ind.asp?id=192863
The Jazz Age review: http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm/story/12855
Killing the Boss review: http://www.backstage.com/bso/news_reviews/nyc/review_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003710811
New York Theatre Workshop: http://www.nytw.org/

It's Only February and Summer's Heating Up

Officially, spring doesn't begin for another 45 days or so, and summer's three months after that, but it's still not too early for announcements about summertime programming here in New York and beyond.

Just look at the announcement yesterday that the Public Theater would be presenting Hamlet and Hair in Central Park this summer. Michael Stuhlbarg and Richard Easton are lined up for the former, and Jonathan Groff, of Spring Awakening, is slated to star in the latter, the musical that opened the institution's downtown home over 40 years ago.

Another announcement yesterday came from Town Hall where we'll find a tribute to Cole Porter, on the occasion of his 117th birthday come June. KT Sullivan and Mark Nadler will be offering up A Swell Party: RSVP Cole Porter on June 9, an evening that will include such Porter hits as "It's Delovely," "I've Got You Under My Skin," "Let's Do It," "Brush Up Your Shakespeare," "Every Time We Say Goodbye," "Night and Day," "Begin the Beguine," and "Experiment."

As if this isn't enough activity in the city, today, Variety is reporting that Doug Hughes will direct Farragut North, Beau Willimon's play about a young man who is a staff member for a rising presidential candidate. No dates or theater are known yet for this Broadway-bound play, but it too is looking at sometime over the summer

Looking beyond the city, the Berkshire Theater Festival has announced its season that will include classics like Shaw's Candida and Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and new ones such as Karen Zacharias' The Book Club Play, currently being produced at the Round House in Bethesda MD, and Matthew Wilkas and Mark Setlock's The Pageant Play, which will be getting its world premiere at BTF.

Nearby, in Pittsfield, Barrington Stage Company will be offering up revivals of things like Noel Coward's Private Lives and a return of William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin's "Spelling Bee" (which began its life with the theater).

A note from the Weston Playhouse in Vermont has alerted me to the fact they've set their season. They've got two musicals on tap: Les Miserables and The Light in the Piazza and plays like Nilaja Sun's No Child… and John Patrick Shanley's Doubt.

I'm already starting to plan the swing through New England, but making sure I leave enough time for things here in New York too.

Have a great weekend!

Andy

Quick links:
Public Theater - www.publictheater.org
Town Hall - www.the-townhall-nyc.org
Berkshire Theatre Festival - www.berkshiretheatre.org
Barrington Stage - www.barringtonstageco.org
Weston Playhouse - www.westonplayhouse.org

Reinvigorating (Resuscitating?) the ATW Blog

It's hard to believe that the last time I posted to this, was just as the Tony Award nominations were to be announced last May. How time flies. A trip to Beijing, a move out of the five boroughs, and so much more has happened since. We're actually well over half way through the new season and, in fact, the Tony Awards committee has met several times to determine eligibility for this year's awards.

So, a New Year's resolution (better late than never, right?) for myself and the ATW Blog….a post a day – a comment on the news clips or perhaps some thoughts on the disc (or discs) that are playing while I work.

Today, beyond the "I'm Back" aspect to this post …I was heartened to see not only the positive review in today's "Times" about Fabrik, playing at Urban Stages through February 17, but also the swell picture that, combined, I hope will get audiences to this show that I described as "must-see" when I reviewed it for Back Stage last week.

For those of you who've missed it – the "Times" review can be found here:

http://theater2.nytimes.com/2008/01/30/theater/reviews/30fabr.html?ref=theater

Here's my Back Stage review:

http://www.backstage.com/bso/news_reviews/nyc/review_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=100370118

Thanks for your patience if you've been a subscriber to this and wondered what's happened. Remember – comments are always welcome.

Best,
Andy Propst

An update from Andy / Reviews of recent openings

So what's become of Andy you might ask? The blog hasn't been updated in over a week and the reviews on AmericanTheaterWeb have been slight. All that I've written for the site itself is the review of Cymbeline that's playing at BAM through Saturday (Full Review). Despite what you might have read elsewhere, this is a truly effective and affecting production. If you've got time tonight or tomorrow, take the trip out to Fulton Street.

Meanwhile, an outline of some of my theatergoing and the reviews that have been appearing elsewhere: I quite enjoyed Memory at >59E59 (expect a full review in "The Voice" next week). This week, you'll find my thoughts on Harold Prince's excellent work on LoveMusik in the paper (Full Review).

Elsewhere, my review of Rachel Dickstein's Betrothed at the Ohio Theater has been posted this morning on backstage.com (Full Review). Also, while you're looking at that site, take a look at my review of Jenny Schwartz' God's Ear, this is one of the most exciting pieces of theater I've caught in a long time (Full Review). You should check it out. Finally, expect a review of An Octopus Love Story next week in Time Out. This quirky love story that's also a shrewd bit of commentary on what makes a marriage took me by surprise. It's funny and touching and well worth a look. (For quick reference - here's their website: http://www.kidswithguns.com/.

And with that, we're truly off and running in the 2007-2008 season.

Until next time,

Andy