Monthly Archives: November 2017

ARTHUR MILLER: ‘DEATH OF A SALESMAN’ WITH DAVID SUCHET, ZOË WANAMAKER (LISTEN NOW ON BBC RADIO 3—LINK BELOW) · Nov 29th

Listen at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06gpwk4

Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller

David Suchet, Zoë Wanamaker and director Howard Davies, who all won awards for the sell-out production of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons in the West End in 2010, reunite to create a new production for Radio 3 ofMiller’s 1949 classic about the American dream and his second big Broadway success. The original won The Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award and Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play. This new radio production is part of the celebrations across BBC Radio 3, 4 and 4 Extra to mark the centenary of the birth of one of the most important American playwrights of the twentieth century.

Willy Loman is a 63-year-old travelling salesman worn out by a life on the road. His wife Linda has supported him throughout and borne him two sons, Biff and Happy. Biff is working away and has returned home for the first time in years, so the whole family are reunited. But there is a secret between Willy and Biff, which has destroyed what was a mutual hero-worshipping relationship when Biff was a star athlete in High School, and still haunts them both.

Penny whistle, Wilf Dalton
Technical presentation, Eloise Whitmore

A Watershed production for BBC Radio 3.

ON THE PARIS STAGE, PLAYS GET PERSONAL AND POLITICAL · Nov 28th

(Laura Cappelle’s article appeared in The New York Times, 11/23; via Pam Green.)

PARIS — On Nov. 16, 2015, three days after a terrorist attack that killed 90 at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris, an open letter by Antoine Leiris, whose wife Hélène was among the victims, went viral on Facebook. “You Will Not Have My Hate,” as it became known, was pithy and defiant; in 2016, Mr. Leiris expanded upon it in a book of the same name. This fall, on the two-year anniversary of the attack, a stage adaptation was presented here in the city where it took place.

If it all seems fast, that’s because, as theatrical treatments of real events go, it is. There is a good chance many of the Parisians at the Théâtre du Rond-Point, where “You Will Not Have My Hate” had its premiere, still remember the panicked messages they received from friends and relatives as news of the attack broke. In the first scene, Mr. Leiris mentions the ones he got, too, as his 17-month-old son Melvil slept in the next room — the prelude to a desperate night spent dashing from hospital to hospital in the hope of finding his wife.

Photo: The New York Times

IVO VAN HOVE AT BAM : ‘THE FOUNTAINHEAD’ BY AYN RAND (ONLY 11-28–12-2) · Nov 28th

(Andrew Todd’s article, from the Avignon Festival, appeared 7/16/14 in the Guardian.)

Olivier Py‘s first outing as Avignon festival director has been hobbled by bad weather and strikes, in the context of a bitter national renegotiation of theatre workers’ contract status; it has also been dismissed as humdrum and wordy. He might be relieved then, by the awesome, air-clearing thunderclap brought about by Ivo van Hove‘s mammoth production of Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead.

Van Hove puts on stage the philosophical storm surrounding the collective and the individual. He provides a fresh and complex rereading of Ayn Rand’s novel, which has been in danger of becoming a one-line footnote to the neocon revolution. He also creates electrifying theatre in which word and spectacle find a perfect, symbiotic balance.

NO LAUGHING MATTER: NEW YORK COMEDY CLUBS ARE FLOURISHING · Nov 26th

(Charles Passy’s article appeared in The Wall Street Journal, 11/26; via he Drudge Report.)

AFTER OVEREXPANSION, MORE SPOTS ARE OPENING AND ESTABLISHED ONES ARE TURNING AWAY PATRONS

New York is getting serious about joking around.

The city is enjoying a comedy boom with the opening of several new clubs in the past few years. West Side Comedy Club, a 100-seat venue on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, is one of the latest additions to the scene, launching in early October.

And other venues are adding comedy to the mix. Fishbowl, a bar and lounge at the Dream Midtown hotel, has launched a monthly comedy program, with the next one slated for Wednesday night.

Established clubs say their business has been growing as well. Case in point: Carolines on Broadway, the 284-seat Times Square club that has a roster of such familiar comedians as Tracy Morgan, Kathy Griffin and Dave Chappelle.

Owner Caroline Hirsch says attendance has increased by about 50% during the past 25 years to a current figure of about 150,000 a year.

Comedy is “bigger than ever right now,” Ms. Hirsch said.

Photo: Wall Street Journal

RESURRECTING MAYAKOVSKY (BBC RADIO 3—LINK BELOW) · Nov 25th

Listen at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09fmkh5

Vladimir Mayakovsky was THE poet of the Russian Revolution.

A revolutionary in his personal life as well as in his art, Mayakovsky sought to overthrow traditional practices and became the spokesperson for a radical new society. But the tensions and demands of speaking on behalf of the state would take its toll. In 1930 a nation went into mourning when Mayakovsky took a pistol and shot himself through the heart.

Ian Sansom has been reading Mayakovsky since he was a teenager, inspired by Mayakovsky’s uncompromising example as a total artist, prepared to sacrifice everything for his vision.

Ian travels to Mayakovsky’s birthplace in Georgia and speaks to poets, translators and academics who are seeking to keep Mayakovsky’s legacy alive. With rare archive recordings of Mayakovsky reading his own work, a Russian Futurist soundtrack from the period and on-location recordings from Moscow, Georgia and London, Ian attempts to resurrect the spirit of Mayakovsky.

Producer: Conor Garrett.

HOW TO MEMORIZE SHAKESPEARE · Nov 23rd

(Malia Wollan’s article appeared 11/22 in The New York Times; via Pam Green.)

“Get up on your feet, and speak the words aloud,” says Jacqui O’Hanlon, the director of education at the Royal Shakespeare Company. Shakespeare wrote these lines some 400 years ago; the worst way to learn them is sitting down and reading them in your head. Start with a few image-rich lines from, say, “Henry V.” Young people should consider choosing something from star-crossed lovers, as when Juliet says, “Come, gentle night; come, loving, black-browed night, give me my Romeo.”

It helps to read through a synopsis of the play first to know the basic plot. Get a partner to whisper the lines while you repeat. With professional actors and students alike, the Royal Shakespeare Company begins with something they call “imaging the text”: Act out the images. It will feel silly, but making a window with your limbs or galloping like a horse embeds the lines in your mind. Listen for the playwright’s beat. Shakespeare mostly composed in iambic pentameter, a rhythm in which unstressed syllables are followed by stressed ones; O’Hanlon describes it as “the rhythm of your heart.”

TONEELGROEP AMSTERDAM AT BAM: ‘THE FOUNTAINHEAD’ BY AYN RAND, ONLY 11/28-12/2 (NEXT ON THE STAGE VOICES CALENDAR) · Nov 23rd

US PREMIERE

The Fountainhead

NOV 28—DEC 2, 2017

THEATER

Based on the book by Ayn Rand
Toneelgroep Amsterdam
Directed by Ivo van Hove

The 2017 Richard B. Fisher Next Wave Award honors Ivo van Hove and the production of The Fountainhead.

Part of the 2017 Next Wave Festival

Its controversy precedes it: Ayn Rand’s notorious 700-page paean to radical individualism, wrapped in a saga of sex, architecture, and skybound ambition. In this brutal reexamination, Belgian director Ivo van Hove updates the action to a buzzing co-working loft, where egos collide over mobile drafting tables and stiff drinks. Blueprints come and go, as idealist New York architect Howard Roark—determined not to conform to public taste—vies with pandering colleagues while navigating the desires of the elusive Dominique Francon. As overhead cameras voyeuristically capture creative and carnal acts from above, Van Hove unravels a bête noire of the left, letting the audience decide where to cast its stones.

Translation by Erica van Rijsewijk, Jan van Rheenen
Adaptation by Koen Tachelet
Dramaturgy by Peter Van Kraay
Set and lighting design by Jan Versweyveld
Music by Eric Sleichim
Video design by Tal Yarden
Costume design by An D’Huys

PERFORMANCES

Tue, Nov 28 at 7pm
Wed, Nov 29 at 7pm
Thu, Nov 30 at 7pm
Fri, Dec 1 at 7pm
Sat, Dec 2 at 7pm

LANGUAGE

In Dutch with English titles

RUN TIME

Approx 4hrs with intermission

VENUE

Peter Jay Sharp Building

BAM Howard Gilman Opera House

TICKET INFO

TICKETS START AT $35

Buy 4 or more events and save 15—30%

Major support provided by Edward Jay Wohlgemuth.

“… [an] awesome, air-clearing thunderclap brought about by Ivo van Hove’s mammoth production …”

— THE GUARDIAN (UK)

“… [Ivo van Hove] creates electrifying theatre in which word and spectacle find a perfect, symbiotic balance.”

— THE GUARDIAN

Photo: BAM.org

Visit BAM: https://www.bam.org/theater/2017/thefountainhead

EARLE HYMAN, REST IN PEACE (1926-2017) · Nov 21st

(George M. Johnson’s article appeared in Broadway Black, 11/18; via Pam Green.)

October 11, 1926 – November 16, 2017

It is with heavy hearts that we report television actor and theater great Earle Hyman passed away* late evening November 16th, 2017, at the age of 91. Hyman was born October 11th, 1926 in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, of African-American and Native American ancestry. Hyman’s parents, Zachariah Hyman (Tuscarora) and Maria Lilly Plummer (Haliwa-Saponi/Nottoway), moved their family to Brooklyn, New York, where Hyman primarily grew up.

According to an interview in The Villager, Hyman’s interest in theater started at the age of 13 after seeing a production of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts.

Photo: CNN.com

LLOYD WEBBER/RICE: ‘EVITA’ (REVIEW FROM LONDON) · Nov 19th

By Marit E. Shuman

Rainbow High or Rainbow Low?

In the revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Evita, at the Phoenix Theatre in London, panache seems to overtake sincerity in this gilded, but nonetheless, enjoyable production. Title-role: Emma Hatton, no stranger to the West End (her credits include Elphaba in Wicked) or to the world of jazz and blues, seems to rely heavily on the latter in the delivery of her performance.

A vocally taxing role, Evita swoops from dusky, barely audible low notes all the way up to belted passagio, and then some. To quote Patti LuPone, originator of the role of Evita on Broadway, “There’s a couple of notes that aren’t as strong as your top notes or your bottom notes and that’s exactly where the score sits.” Where LuPone punched through the Es, Fs, and Gs, that characterize the vocal line (at the cost of her vocals, to be fair), Hatton backs down and floats them, in a breathy, bluesy manner. This approach adds a layer of sensitivity to Evita, by the addition of more dynamic contrast, but at what cost? Some of the strength, drive, and fearlessness of Eva Perón seem to be lost.

Playing opposite Hatton, making his West End debut in the role of Che, is Gian Marco Schiaretti. Extremely handsome, he moves about the stage with ease and confidence. Classic Che beard tightly clipped, army reliefs tightly fitted, and vibrato tightly coiled, this “boyband Che” brings charisma to the role, and, when he moves to his higher register and gives up trying to speak-sing, reveals an expressive and powerful voice. Unfortunately, the honesty and gravity of Che, as narrator, are glossed over by all the glitz.

Whereas the roles of Evita and Che seem to be lacking something, in terms of integrity, so too does the music. As is the norm nowadays, with theatres trying to cut costs, the orchestra that Webber’s iconic songs were written for consists of three keyboards–playing the parts of various instruments, such as strings and harps–a couple of trumpets, and a guitar.

All in all, a fun production but fluffy–ephemeral and insubstantial.

Photos: Pamela Raith

BRIAN FRIEL: ‘FATHERS AND SONS’, AFTER TURGENEV (LISTEN NOW ON BBC, RADIO 3—LINK BELOW) · Nov 19th

Listen at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09czx1d

‘Fathers and Sons’ by Brian Friel, after the novel by Ivan Turgenev. Fathers: Charles Dance, James Fleet. Sons: Edward Bennett, George Blagden.

In Turgenev’s prescient 1859 story of generational collision, both young heroes seem, at first, passionate revolutionaries, believing the old Russia should be swept away. But they’re unsure what they’d replace it with. This clash of values is dramatic, funny and recognisably up-to-date, with Julia McKenzie as a batty princess, Lisa Dillon a self-searching widow, Gabrielle Lloyd a loving mother and Martin Jarvis as odd-ball Uncle Pavel.

Turgenev’s darkly observant human comedy examines a particular period in Russian history which, in this epic production, foregrounds the eventual political struggle. And Friel, with benefit of hindsight, allows a glimpse of the future. Movingly, the play reminds us that it’s the eternal values of love, friendship, loyalty and devotion that will, ultimately – hopefully – survive.

Nikolai Kirsanov … James Fleet
Arkady … George Blagden
Vassily Bazarov … Charles Dance
Yevgeny … Edward Bennett
Princess Olga … Julia McKenzie
Anna Sergeevna … Lisa Dillon
Pavel … Martin Jarvis
Arina … Gabrielle Lloyd
Fenichka … Lucy Phelps
Dunyasha … Joanna Cassidy
Katya … Matilda Wickham
Piotr … Kieran Hodgeson
Fedka … Darren Richardson
Prokofyich and Timofeich … Nigel Anthony

Musicians: Michael Lan, Stavros Dritsas, Louis Baily,
Djordje Gajic, Richard Sisson
Music advisers: Lucy Parham, Richard Sisson
Sound design: Mark Holden

Produced and directed by Martin Jarvis and Rosalind Ayres
A Jarvis and Ayres Production for BBC Radio 3.

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