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NEW TODAY: Friday, 3 July, 2009
CURRENTLY RUNNING SHOWS
REVIEWED below
"Breaking Legs"
"Crazy for You"
"Shh!"
"42nd Street"
No More at The Moment
* Also reviewed in QUICK TAKES
CURRENTLY RUNNING SHOWS
in QUICK-TAKES
No More at The Moment
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CURRENTLY RUNNING SHOWS
"Breaking Legs"
* Also reviewed Above in QUICK TAKES
* Also reviewed in REVIEWS
REVIEWED below
"Crazy for You"
"Shh!"
CURRENTLY RUNNING SHOWS
in QUICK-TAKES
"Keely & Du" *
Practically none of us wants to venture out of the house in this never ending, soggy soup. Here’s reason to suit up the raingear and head over to the Boston Playwrights’ Theatre next weekend. Shh! is a hilarious revue of scathing satirical sketches on a truly vital subject: Why we swear (at the blasted weather, for instance)…Who says we shouldn’t….Is it really for our own good….and shouldn’t we decide that for ourselves? Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the constitution (You know, the one that’s been trampled by “executive privilege” of late) is given a comic going-over by the “New Exhibition Room” theater, named for the very first theater company in Boston.
It takes guts and a LOT of talent to upstage a legend. Kathy St. George has both.
The second show of Theatre-by-the-Sea's 76th season is the 1992 musical "Crazy For You" an adaptation of the Gershwin's 1930 musical "Girl Crazy" which starred Ginger Rogers and Ethel Merman in their stage debuts. The show is about pampered playboy, Bobby Child who wants to be in show business but his domineering banker mother wants him to be in charge of her business and sends him to Deadrock, Nevada to foreclose on the mortgage of a long closed theater. Since this is 1930's, it's rich boy meets poor girl, falls in love with her at first sight but girl hates boy because he is taking away her father's beloved theater. However all is not lost because there is much singing and dancing to erase everyone's troubles and as one of the song's says "Who Could Ask for Anything More?". The direction by Amiee Turner and music direction by Andrew Smithson is topnotch in this well cast show but it is the dancing by this multitalented cast and the choreography by Barbara Hartwig who recreates Susan Stroman's original choreography that will have you cheering in the aisles.
The current show at the Newport Playhouse is the very funny, "Breaking Legs". The setting is an Italian restaurant in a small New England university town where the worlds of the Mafia and theatre clash hilariously with each other. A professor/playwright seeks funding for his new play from a former student's family. The former student is a lusty, unwed woman who has a major crush on and is hot for the professor. Her ''family'' turns out to be three Mafia godfathers who are involved with the untimely death of a thug associate. When the playwright learns about the "accidental" killing, his bubble is burst when he finds out his backers are gangsters.The hilarious antics of all the characters under the direction of Matt Siravo will lead the audience in gales of laughter from start to finish when you finally find out the woman of the house really rules the roost.
10:16 p m Wednesday 24 June '09
Who WAS it gave her the tip, Joanna wondered, carefully scraping the age-lines off her cheeks, staring into the dressing-room mirror. Was it Ted Kazanoff? "If you've got to think about a performance, spend as much time taking off your make-up as you did putting it on. Don't become yourself again until your character is completely gone." Would Ted have said that? Probably not. He was always insistent on Being the character, In the moment, REacting not Acting. Don't THINK before you Act.
Well, I blew that tonight, didn't I? And not ON stage but Backstage! Damn it, why did I listen to Meggan again, that damned air-head! "Where's my purse!" she said, "I've got to find my cell-phone in it, and it's not here!" And I was scouring the damn props-table when she ran on-stage, and of course there it was on her night-table, where it Always Is every ghoddamned night! And so I missed MY final entrance --- AGAIN!
Anita will kill me, she knew, as she re-applied a great gob of cold-cream to her forehead and grabbed up a handfull of kleenex. Or no. No, Madame La Stage Manageress just calls the show from the light-booth --- and keeps notes of every little mistake. She uses her Assistants as her hatchet-men --- and How many ASMs have we had, just since I joined the show alone? Three? Two? They're so eager to show they're ready to move up they just Love to draw blood with "notes" and leave at the drop of a hat whenever an SM slot opens anywhere. But damn it it's true! I lurched on-stage After my cue like a deer in the Leko's, and Harry gave me My line and answered with his. It was a nice cover --- you'd have to be one of those adoring idiot-fans who've seen the show half a dozen times to spot it. But Anita did, I'm sure, and noted it down with a pen-full of poison.
Meggan is Always dithering about her props, and they're Always right where they should be. The ASMs see to that; why can't she trust them? Why can't she trust Herself??
And why do I have to drop concentration to help her, when it's my own damn entrances I ought to be worried about. This is the second --- no by Ghod the Third time something's thrown me off before that same damn entrance. Last time was Months ago, but it happened my first week in the show. I remember everyone was So supportive of the silly Newby: "We've All had a lapse or three over the years dear. Let us tell a few War-Stories on ourselves. You'll be Fine once it's Routine. Relax!"
Yes, routine. They all have routines. Like Harry rolling in drunk out of his mind for two nights right after payday, and so hung next night he can hardly see. Never loses a line though --- but so wooden it's like talking to a brick wall all night. And so sheepishly apologetic to everyone the rest of the week it's embarrassing even to talk to him. So he talks about A A, but never does anything about it, and next month Whoopsie! Off the wagon again. Routine.
We all adjust to everyone else's routines, don't we? I mean, at first I thought it was just I was the New Kid on the Block when Andre put the moves on me. Want a ride home in my Porsche? Want to stop for a little night-cap before hitting the sack? How'bout running lines at my place before the show? Need help with that zipper, gorgeous? Jeez! Come to find out he's that way with everyone in the cast --- even Meggan, who's old enough to be his Gradmother almost! Oh, I felt a little flattered at first --- I'm that insecure when it comes to men --- but "Don't shit where you eat." Who said that? Lenny Bruce? And Andre Never scores! First, he's so damn Obvious --- and I'll bet if any of us took him seriously he'd run screaming for the door.
Then there's Lori and Don, both of them leaping at every damn audition comes along, embarrassed to tell their friends they're Still in this pitiful commercial warhorse instead of doing anything Serious. They Hate the show, and the subtext in their every line is that We must be dunces or second-rate no-talents to stick with it as long as we have. Oh it's a good credit when you're young --- a few months in the longest-running show in town --- but it's not a Career, darlings, it's more a Sinecure! We're just here for the beer.
Well, maybe that's a little more realitsic than poor Myra. She's Method to the Eyelids, and always searching in herself for a new clue to her role, a new through-line to experiment with, a bit of backstory she's just discovered or found a new way to explore. It isn't Just a murder-mystery to her, there are motivations on motivations on sub-sub-subtextual nuances yet to try. It'd be a little easer to take if she wouldn't insist on talking them all to death with everyone else.
Joanna finally ran out of face. Even her ears emerged pale and pure and hiding not a fleck of obstinate greesepaint. She dabbed on a puff of powder and, before facing the outer-world, picked up her lipstick and made a mouth to smile at it with.
Of course (she sat back and contemplated her real face a moment) the true problem isn't the play --- it's trying to live with the other people in the cast! I mean, Gregory's gay, and Andre is Probably gay or would be if he'd admit it, and there are cat-fights and spats and insults and gangings-up and offense- takings and tears, and in a backstage this small it's easy to see all the invisible bloodstains on the walls. Didn't Sartre say "Hell is Other Actors!"? Or was it Hell is a Long Run? Are we all damned to stay in this show for all Eternity? What were our sins, I wonder...
Well, she sniffed, flinging on a coat and finding her Charlie-Card, if this is Hell, at least it pays Equity Minimum!
12:21 a m "Wednesday, 24 June, '09"
The Music Man For information call 781-871-2787
The Company
Theatre
July 24 - August 16
"One of America’s musical theatre treasures!…"
30 Accord Park Dr.
Norwell, MA 02061
(781) 871-2787 (ARTS)
Productions and Classes
The Music Man For information call 781-871-2787
The Company
Theatre
July 24 - August 16
"One of America’s musical theatre treasures!…"
30 Accord Park Dr.
Norwell, MA 02061
(781) 871-2787 (ARTS)
Collected Wednesday, 22 April
SWAMP MEADOW COMMUNITY THEATRE Foster RI
The CABARET Website
" The Rep is the first and largest community theatre group in Connecticut to own its own theatre. "
Piano and Musical Direction … Janette Mason
Bass … Kendell Eddy
Drums … Austin McMann
Singer-comedienne Lea DeLaria brought her jazz and hilarity to the BCA’s Deane Hall for three evenings, kicking off the Huntington’s new cabaret series, “Upstairs at the Calderwood” --- the Old Girl, of all companies, is out to prove to Beantowners that, yes, there is life at an hour when most local theatergoers head home after applauding a curtain call and how wise, good and clever to begin with Ms. DeLaria who makes me laugh heartily as no one else can, onstage or off, and whose every note of scat is a well-hammered nail on the musical line. Twice have I seen Ms. DeLaria perform in Provincetown where she alternated in-your-face monologues with clear, sparkling vocals --- “Chords of steel!” she proclaimed to me, afterwards --- but Boston is not Provincetown and I wondered how this bull(dyke) would fare in our china shop. Happily, Ms. DeLaria is so layered an artist that, like a starfish cut in half, she could regenerate herself into a jolly big sister that the whole family could love, with just enough naughtiness to make her audience squirm with delight (i.e. walking amongst the women, with mistletoe, while singing “Christmas Kisses”) --- in Provincetown, Ms. DeLaria is a comedienne who sings; here, she was a singer who made us laugh which is comforting to know for not only will Boston always be Boston but the political winds are shifting to more hopeful, optimistic ones and Ms. Delaria, like many a stand-up comic, may find herself passing from Old Comedy to New (a year from now, who would want to be reminded of our outgoing President?). But even a Lea-Lite is better than no Lea, at all, and may Ms. DeLaria always find time for Boston within her busy-busy schedule and, of course, there is always Provincetown in the summer should you want to experience her in full, unleashed merriment.
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