Monthly Archives: January 2014
SONGBOOK: “LIFE’S A FUNNY PROPOSITION AFTER ALL” FROM ‘LITTLE JOHNNY JONES’ · Jan 30th
Visit Stage Voices Publishing for archived posts and sign up for free e-mail updates: http://www.stagevoices.com/ . If you would like to contribute a review, monologue, or other work related to theatre, please write to Bob Shuman at Bobjshuman@gmail.com .
SAPPHO: TWO PREVIOUSLY UNKNOWN POEMS FOUND–PLUS, READ “NEW” POEM · Jan 30th
(Charlotte Higgins’s article appeared in the Guardian, 1/29.)
Sappho is one of the most elusive and mysterious – as well as best-loved – of ancient Greek poets. Only one of her poems, out of a reputed total of nine volumes' worth, survives absolutely intact. Otherwise, she is known by fragments and shards of lines – and still adored for her delicate outpourings of love, longing and desire.
But now, two hitherto unknown works by the seventh-century lyricist of Lesbos have been discovered. One is a substantially complete work about her brothers; another, an extremely fragmentary piece apparently about unrequited love.
The poems came to light when an anonymous private collector in London showed a piece of papyrus fragment to Dr Dirk Obbink, a papyrologist at Oxford University.
(Read more)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/29/sappho-ancient-greek-poet-unknown-works-discovered
READ ‘NEW’ POEM BY SAPPHO:
[ … ]
But you always chatter that Charaxus is coming,
His ship laden with cargo. That much, I reckon, only Zeus
Knows, and all the gods; but you, you should not
Think these thoughts,
Just send me along, and command me
To offer many prayers to Queen Hera
That Charaxus should arrive here, with
His ship intact,
(Read more)
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jan/30/read-sappho-new-unknown-poem-papyrus-classical
Visit Stage Voices Publishing for archived posts and sign up for free e-mail updates: http://www.stagevoices.com/ . If you would like to contribute a review, monologue, or other work related to theatre, please write to Bob Shuman at Bobjshuman@gmail.com .
SONGBOOK: “FORGET ABOUT THE BOY” FROM ‘THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE’ · Jan 29th
THOMAS F. FLYNN: ‘BIKEMAN–THE 9/11 THEATRICAL EXPERIENCE’ (STARTS 1/26) · Jan 22nd
(via Nancy Reardon and Brett Oberman at Keith Sherman & Associates)
“THE REPORTS OF THE JOURNALIST AS POET, OR POET AS JOURNALIST… THE STORY OF A JOURNEY INTO A MODERN UNDERWORLD, AND OF THE ESCAPE THAT MADE IT POSSIBLE TO TELL THE TALE.” — Dan Rather
“BIKEMAN BRINGS COMPASSION, HUMANITY AND UNDERSTANDING TO THE MEMORY OF 9/11.”– Alice Greenwald, director of the 9/11 Memorial Museum.
BIKEMAN
THE 9/11 THEATRICAL EXPERIENCE
A NEW PLAY BY THOMAS F. FLYNN
BASED ON HIS ACCLAIMED BOOK
DIRECTED BY MICHAEL BUSH
FEATURING ROBERT CUCCIOLI
IRUNGU MUTU ANGELA PIERCE
ELIZABETH RAMOS RICH TOPOL
PERFORMANCES BEGIN JANUARY 26
AT BMCC TRIBECA PERFORMING ARTS CENTER,
199 CHAMBERS STREET
Marc Agger and William Brown proudly present Bikeman: The 9/11 Theatrical Experience, a new play by Thomas F. Flynn based on his acclaimed book. Performances begin January 26. Opening night is
February 18. Directed by Michael Bush, Bikeman features Robert Cuccioli, Irungu Mutu, Angela Pierce, Elizabeth Ramos, and Rich Topol. For information, go to www.Bikeman911.com.
Bikeman: The 9/11 Theatrical Experience is a recounting of one man's experience of that unforgettable day and chronicles the morning of September 11, 2001 through the eyes of a veteran journalist reporting live from the shadows of the Twin Towers. Tom, an award-winning writer and producer for The CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, was outside his Greenwich Village home when the first plane flew directly over his head. Tom immediately called into the news desk to tell them he was headed downtown. He jumped on his bicycle and began his ride to the towers. His harrowing story recounts his transition from reporter to participant as he battles for survival at the fall of the south tower, ultimately coming to terms with the events of the day.
***** ‘SCOTCH AND SODA’: SYDNEY FESTIVAL, CIRCUS RONALDO TENT (REVIEW PICK, AU) · Jan 18th
(Van Badham’s article appeared in the Guardian, 1/16.)
In a festival program heavy with circuses and circus acts, finding an elevating distinction can be an onerous challenge. But Scotch and Soda meets it – and gloriously – by locating their tumbles and tricks within an immersive, theatrical dreamworld of a bawdy circus party.
The "party" is located within a total design aesthetic that imagines the event in some kind of dusty parallel universe to America's depression-era travelling circuses and Europe's 19th century carnival past. Every visual detail of the production is perfectly judged – from the brocade on the bruised military jackets of the band, to the wax tips of a moustache or two, to the flounce on the female acrobat's leotard.
The dirty suitcases, crappy card tables and beer bottles used in the tricks are subject to a production vision that understands the true audience appeal of velvet-curtained canvas tents like the Circus Ronaldo space – a dreamy nostalgia for the spit-and-sawdust miracles of old-fashioned proletarian entertainment.
(Read more)
Visit Stage Voices Publishing for archived posts and sign up for free e-mail updates: http://www.stagevoices.com/ . If you would like to contribute a review, monologue, or other work related to theatre, please write to Bob Shuman at Bobjshuman@gmail.com .
ORLANDO BLOOM’S BROADWAY ‘ROMEO AND JULIET’ TO HIT MOVIE THEATERS ON VALENTINE’S DAY · Jan 15th
(from Entertainment Weekly, 1/14; via Pam Green.)
Content provider Screenvision and the new company BroadwayHD teamed up to record the recent Orlando Bloom-led production of Romeo and Juliet and broadcast it to movie theaters across the country.
Before it closed in December, high definition cameras recorded the show on Nov. 27 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre under the direction of Emmy Award-winning Don Roy King. That recording – the first time in over 36 years Romeo and Juliet had been on Broadway – will be available in more than 2,000 movie theaters in all 50 states from Feb. 13-19.
“It’s so great to capture it because who knows when it will be on Broadway again,” said Darryl Schaffer, an executive vice president at Screenvision. “It’s just such a great production. We’re excited to bring it to movie theaters.”
(Read more)
http://popwatch.ew.com/2014/01/14/romeo-and-juliet-orlando-bloom-movie-theater/
Visit Stage Voices Publishing for archived posts and sign up for free e-mail updates: http://www.stagevoices.com/ . If you would like to contribute a review, monologue, or other work related to theatre, please write to Bob Shuman at Bobjshuman@gmail.com .
KATE TEMPEST: ‘BRAND NEW ANCIENTS’ (REVIEW PICK, NY) · Jan 15th
(Charles Isherwood’s article appeared in The New York Times, 1/14.)
The gold-plated cliché that a picture is worth a thousand words is flipped on its head in “Brand New Ancients,” the thrillingly good, genre-bending show from the young British writer and performer Kate Tempest, at St. Ann’s Warehouse through Sunday. As Ms. Tempest’s gorgeous streams of words flow out, they conjure a story so vivid it’s as if you had a state-of-the-art Blu-ray player stuffed into your brain, projecting image after image that sears itself into your consciousness. Both as writer and performer, Ms. Tempest stitches together words with such animate grace that language acquires an almost tactile quality, and the drama she unfolds — of betrayal, disappointment and violence among a handful of not especially special London dwellers — soars to operatic dimensions.
Finding the majesty and mystery in ordinary lives is precisely the aim of “Brand New Ancients,” which is being presented as part of the Under the Radar festival after winning acclaim at the Battersea Arts Center in south London, and at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. (Ms. Tempest, whose writing straddles the line between spoken-word verse and solo drama, won the prestigious Ted Hughes Award last year. ) In the lyrical prologue that precedes the central narrative, Ms. Tempest invokes the “plight of a people who have forgotten their myths, and imagine that somehow, now is all there is.”
(Read more)
Visit Stage Voices Publishing for archived posts and sign up for free e-mail updates: http://www.stagevoices.com/ . If you would like to contribute a review, monologue, or other work that is related to theatre, please write to Bob Shuman at Bobjshuman@gmail.com .
ROBERTO AGUIRRE-SACASA/DUNCAN SHEIK/MATT SMITH: ‘AMERICAN PSYCHO’ (REVIEW PICK, UK) · Jan 14th
(Michael Billington’s article appeared in the Guardian, 1/13.)
It sounds improbable: a musical thriller about a serial killer. But Sondheim did it in Sweeney Todd. And, although this version of Bret Easton Ellis's notorious 1991 bestseller, is a very different bucket of blood, it works superbly thanks to Rupert Goold's stylish production, Duncan Sheik's music and lyrics and Matt Smith's beautifully defined performance as the deluded hero.
Credit also belongs to the book by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa which captures the satire at the heart of the dark, Dostoyevskian story.
In Easton Ellis's novel the hero, Patrick Bateman, is a 26-year-old Wall Street investment banker who eventually realises that "surface, surface, surface was all that anyone found meaning in".
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/dec/13/american-psycho-musical-review
Visit Stage Voices Publishing for archived posts and sign up for free e-mail updates: http://www.stagevoices.com/ . If you would like to contribute a review, monologue, or other work that is theatre-related to Stage Voices, please write to Bob Shuman at Bobjshuman@gmail.com .
IDINA MENZEL AND KIDS’ NIGHT ON BROADWAY–FROM FEBRUARY 24 TO SUNDAY, MARCH 2, 2014 · Jan 9th
(from Broadwayworld.com, 1/8; via Pam Green.)
The Broadway League has announced that Idina Menzel from Broadway's new musical If/Then will serve as the 2014 KIDS' NIGHT ON BROADWAY National Ambassador. The 18th KIDS' NIGHT ON BROADWAY will take place Monday, February 24, 2014 to Sunday, March 2, 2014.
"When I first went to Broadway, it was a life-changing experience. There's something magical about walking through the theatre district and seeing the marquees and the lights. Nothing compares to a live Broadway performance! As an adult, I still have that nostalgic feeling I had as a child. It's important that kids come to theatre because they get to see life through different characters. The arts are so important in general," said Idina Menzel, "and I'm so grateful that my career awards me with so many special opportunities to connect with young people. I'm honored to be the Kids' Night on Broadway National Ambassador and extra thrilled that this year's cause-related component is our arts-centered foundation, A Broader Way, which enables expression, empowerment, and enlightenment. As does Broadway."