To My Theatre Coaches, Mr. Cosby & Mr. Carlin
May 22nd, 2013 § 0 comments § permalink
My parents were not theatergoers and my youthful memories are not filled with reveries of family trips to New York to see shows. I can remember being taken to the theatre only twice as a youth by my parents, once in 1969 in New Haven (Fiddler on the Roof, national tour) and once in about 1975 on Broadway (The Magic Show). Yet there was something embedded in my DNA which made me interested in performance; I was writing plays (almost all adaptations of existing works) in elementary school with very Continue reading...
Etcetera: Allan Sherman, the “Overweight Sensation”
May 20th, 2013 § 4 comments § permalink
As a teen in the 1970s, I kept testing a small sociological phenomenon. When visiting a Jewish home, I would peek at the record collection of the adults in residence to see if they had the album “My Son, The Folk Singer.” If the family was Catholic or Protestant, I’d look for “The First Family” featuring Vaughn Meader. To my recollection, I never failed to find the anticipated album in the expected home, even though both records were already at least a decade old before I began my study. Continue reading...
Please, Just Tell Me What It’s About!
May 13th, 2013 § 5 comments § permalink
Mind you, there’s only so much one can squeeze into a TV spot, but the ad I just watched managed the following in its voiceover: 1) play title; 2) key award nominations; 3) names of three lead actors; and 4) quotes from reviews. The name of the playwright, and the director, photos of the stars (not in costume), the logo for the not-for-profit theatre that produced it, and ticket ordering information appeared on screen. The piece runs only 15 seconds.
Now this is a Broadway show and it’s Tony Continue reading...
A Cast Recording, In Just No Time At All
May 8th, 2013 § 4 comments § permalink
I keep expecting to get jaded. Even though the actuarial tables tell me that I’m more than halfway through my life, I can still be a teenaged drama club kid, over and over again, with only the slightest provocation. Yesterday was one of those days.
Like so many in “the business,” I started out as a performer in my high school shows, both plays and musicals. But as practical considerations like finances and family, as well as negligible talent, took hold, I shifted over to administration, Continue reading...
A Theme Of My Own, On London Stages
May 3rd, 2013 § 0 comments § permalink
Going on a theatre binge in a city other than the one in which you reside provides, inevitably, an imbalanced view of that city’s theatrical ecology. Unless you have unlimited time and an unlimited budget, you can barely scratch the surface of all that’s going on, with the possible exception of an intricately strategized Edinburgh visit in August.
For a variety of reasons, both professional and personal (plus free accommodations), I’ve taken to “helicoptering” into London a couple of Continue reading...
Etcetera: Bob and Ray, Keener Than Most Persons
April 30th, 2013 § 1 comment § permalink
Though I've occasionally written about topics outside of theatre and the performing arts, with this post I'll be titling them as a distinct series, affording me the opportunity to stray wider in my writing while noting when I'm "off-topic." So here's the first "Etcetera."
If I tell you that I fondly recall coming home from junior high in the mid-1970s and huddling up to my radio for the verbal entertainment found there, I hope you will be struck by the incongruity of the date and the medium of Continue reading...
Critical Eye On “Hard” Marketing
April 17th, 2013 § 2 comments § permalink
Let’s be honest. If you didn’t follow documentary filmmaking or live and die by theatre news, Hands on a Hardbody would sound like something that might play late at night on Cinemax. Those of a certain age might think it was a belated sequel to the 1984 teen sexploitation comedy Hardbodies (think Porky’s, with less class). But the fact is, that title was very likely a deterrent to audiences, even with “a new musical” appended to it, which is seemingly de rigeur these days, Continue reading...
Beyond The Valley Of The Galas
April 9th, 2013 § 1 comment § permalink
A couple of weeks back, the social media director at Cirque du Soleil reached out to me. He offered the opportunity to watch One Night for One Drop, their online video of a one-performance event the company had mounted in Las Vegas for One Drop, the water and famine charity founded by Cirque’s mastermind Guy Laliberté. The video was being streamed for only seven days and one needed to make a minimum $5 contribution to the charity to view it; I had already been importuned to do so, separately, Continue reading...
Standing On An Important Stage
April 8th, 2013 § 6 comments § permalink
I have seen Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd many times over the years, probably more than any single show. It has thrilled me, scared me, impressed me, made me laugh. I mouth the words, I bob my head, I conduct in imperceptibly small movements of my hands. But until this past Friday night, Sweeney Todd had never made me cry.
Let me back up.
About a month ago, a threatened protest against a production of Sweeney at my old high school, Amity Regional in Woodbridge CT, sent me rushing headlong Continue reading...