Monthly Archives: January 2011

OLYMPIA DUKAKIS IN ‘THE MILK TRAIN DOESN’T STOP HERE ANYMORE’ BY TENNESSEE WILLIAMS ·

(Charles Isherwood’s article appeared in The New York Times, 1/30.)

Total fearlessness is not a requirement for embarking on an acting career. But it is definitely a necessity for essaying the role of the dying gorgon Flora Goforth in “The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore,” a curious, rather curdled 1963 play by Tennessee Williams.

In Olympia Dukakis, the star of the new Off Broadway revival directed by Michael Wilson at the Laura Pels Theater, the Roundabout Theater Company has found an actress with the fortitude to risk ridicule in this fitfully moving, patchily eloquent but often preposterous drama about the loneliness and fear that can attend our going forth into the great unknown. Fortunately, Ms. Dukakis also possesses the talent to make the effort worthwhile.

via theater.nytimes.com

‘NEW YORKER’ THEATRE LISTINGS, 2/7 PLAYDECK ·



 

Openings and Previews 

Event: Apple Cove

Venue: Julia Miles Theatre

Giovanna Sardelli directs Lynn Rosen’s comedy, presented by Women’s Project, about the . . .

 

Event: Black Tie

Venue: 59E59 Theatres

A. R. Gurney premières a new comedy centered on the father of . . .

 

Event: Compulsion

Venue: Public Theater

Oskar Eustis directs a play by Rinne Groff, based on the story . . .

 

Event: Good People

Venue: Samuel J. Friedman Theatre

Manhattan Theatre Club presents the world première of a new play by . . .

 

Event: Hallway Trilogy

Venue: Rattlestick Playwrights Theater

A trilogy of plays by Adam Rapp, set in fifty-year intervals, directed . . .

 

Event: Interviewing the Audience

Venue: Vineyard Theatre

Zach Helm (who wrote and directed the film “Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium” . . .

Get Tickets

 

Event: Lost in the Stars

Venue: City Center

“Encores!” presents Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson’s 1949 musical based on the . . .

 

Event: Lysistrata

Venue: Ellen Stewart Theatre

La MaMa presents Theodora Skipitares’s multimedia adaptation of the Aristophanes play about . . .

 

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DAVID GREIG: ‘DUNSINANE’ ON BBC RADIO—LISTEN NOW UNTIL 2/6 (LINK BELOW) ·

A thrilling sequel to Shakespeare's Macbeth by the award-winning playwright David Greig

Paste into your browser or link at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00y233t

Macbeth is dead. Under cover of night, an English army has swept through the landscape, killed the tyrant and taken the seat of power.

Attempting to restore peace and put in place a new ruler, the commanding officer is beset by a brutal guerrilla uprising and simmering discontent amongst his own inexperienced troops. Struggling to grasp the alien customs and politics of this harsh country, he finds himself drawn towards the tyrant's powerful widow in search of someone to share his burden of responsibility. Increasingly isolated from his own men and Scottish allies alike, his efforts to restore order appear futile as the situation spins out of control.

David Greig's exhilarating play is a vision of one man's attempt to restore peace in a country ravaged by war.

CAST:
Siward ….. Jonny Phillips
Gruach ….. Siobhan Redmond
The Boy Soldier ….. Jack Farthing
Malcolm ….. Brian Ferguson
MacDuff ….. Ewan Stewart
Egham ….. Alex Mann
Edward ….. Daniel Rose
Eric ….. Joshua Jenkins
Lulach ….. Sandy Grierson
Hen Girl ….. Lisa Hogg

Other parts were played by members of the company.

Original songs and music composed by Nick Powell
and performed by Alex Lee, Sarah Wilson and Lisa Hogg.

Director, Roxana Silbert
Producer, David Ian Neville.

NEW BRITISH MUSICALS DUEL: ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER VS. CAMERON MACKINTOSH ·



 

(Michael Coveney’s article appeared in the Independent, 1/28.)

Creatures great and small will take to the stage in the coming weeks as the two meatiest musicals of the year go head-to-head in theatres owned by their respective, and rival, producers. More than vanity is at stake; this showdown marks a turning point in our musical-theatre history.

via www.independent.co.uk

***** ‘DU GOUDRON ET DES PLUMES’ (U.K. REVIEW) ·



(Lyn Gardner’s article appeared in the Guardian, 1/27.)

There is a moment in this extraordinary, exhilarating circus-theatre piece, from Mathurin Bolze and Compagnie MPTA, when you can't help thinking of the Titanic and the story of the band playing on as the ship went down. The performers, who are more like athletes, seem to always play on: they are restless creatures of astonishing beauty, stranded on what may be a raft, a platform, or planet Earth itself. We watch as they are tossed upon the sea of life, which constantly threatens to destroy them. They willingly walk the plank as if endlessly testing themselves, they become human metronomes caught between planks, and they are transformed into ghostly shadows spinning through time and space.

via www.guardian.co.uk

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LUIS ALFARO: ‘OEDIPUS EL REY’ WINS WILL GLICKMAN PLAYWRIGHT AWARD ·

 

 

(From the San Francisco Chronicle, 1/28.)

"Oedipus el Rey," Luis Alfaro's gritty and passionate modern barrio retelling of Sophocles' classic tragedy, has won the Will Glickman Playwright Award for the best new play to premiere in the Bay Area in 2010. Alfaro will receive a $4,000 prize. A commemorative plaque will be given to the Magic Theatre, where the play premiered in February.

via www.sfgate.com

JUILLIARD, ‘BLACK SWAN,’ AND PINA BAUSCH ·



 

(Anne Backhaus’s and Marc Pitzke’s article appeared in Der Spiegel, 1/28.)

Brutal competition and merciless drills: The world of ballet portrayed in the movie thriller "Black Swan" is horrific. For ballerina Daphne Fernberger in New York, however, reality looks quite different. SPIEGEL ONLINE peeks behind the scenes of the legendary Juilliard School.

Daphne Fernberger has been awfully tired lately. On some days, she says, it's hard to get up and go to a ballet class where she exerts herself to her limit. Yet those are also the days that teach her what truly matters in life.

via www.spiegel.de

WINTER MILLER: ‘IN DARFUR’ (CHICAGO REVIEW) ·



 

(Hedy Weiss’s article appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times, 1/26.)

It begins with one of those harrowing car rides through a war zone — the kind where sniper fire can come from any angle, a land mine might be set off at any point, and for varying reasons, each occupant of the vehicle might be prime prey for “the rebels,” or “government forces,” or whoever is carrying an automatic weapon.

via www.suntimes.com