Opera Buffs from the Theater World

Although the line between opera and Broadway has been blurring more than ever in recent years, precious few American musical-theater composers have "crossed over" to opera. One who is making the jump is composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz, whose credits include the long-running Broadway hit, Wicked, and who is now in the process of writing his first opera - Séance on a Wet Afternoon, based on a novel by Mark McShane and its 1964 British film adaptation (starring Kim Stanley and Richard Attenborough).

It's Not Just for Films

Movies indulge in sequels all the time: "Men in Black," begets a second coming, "Rocky" is the gift that kept on giving whether you wanted to open it or not, "Mission Impossible" has become "ending improbable," and only now is "Harry Potter" finally heading toward its last spell.

A Theatrical Solution for the Housing Crisis

 Years ago, Steppenwolf Theater Company produced a forgettable drama called Summer Brave whose main attraction was a glorious reproduction of a rural retreat. This sprawling vacation home all but summed up summer with its comfortable veranda suggesting lazy afternoons spent in a hammock. It made you want to possess just such a place –u ntil you realized that it's enough to drink in the fantasy from the safety of your seat. Being there would be, to say the least, a lot more complicated than simply "owning" the illusion.

That's Acting!

I think it's fair to say that the general level of theatrical talent is significantly higher in the arena of acting than in such other disciplines as directing and playwriting. This is only natural: Over and above whatever formal training one receives, any human who's part of society can be said to "study acting" by observing the facial expressions, speech and body language of others on a daily basis, whereas few of us are regularly required to pen our own dramatic scenarios and/or instruct people on how to perform them.

Mann's Journey

 Reading Theodore Mann's memoir, "Journeys in the Night – Creating a New American Theater with Circle in the Square" (Applause Theatre & Cinema Books), had a special resonance for me, if only because I was living in Greenwich Village in 1950 when Mann and Jose Quintero opened a small theater at 5 Sheridan Square, across the street from Cafe Society Downtown. I was there when they launched their first production, Dark f the Moon, paying $1.50 for my ticket.

Clive Barnes, 1927-2008: Reflections

I think that an era ended yesterday, November 19, 2008, with the death of Clive Barnes, perhaps the last – and certainly the most active – of the pioneering dance critics and internationally reprinted theater critics whose always forceful opinions and wise reflections influenced 20th century performing arts. His influence perhaps reached its peak from 1965 to 1978 as both the chief dance and theater critic of the New York Times.

That Smell: David Pittu on the Appeal of Bad Musicals

 People love bad musicals -- and I'm not talking about the shows that run for years. I mean the epic flops that tend to attract camp cult worshipers in direct proportion to how awful they are: Whoop-Up, Carrie, The Dance of the Vampires, and so on, ad infinitum.

What's That Smell? The Music of Jacob Sterling is a witty Off-Broadway show about the oeuvre of the fictional, titular composer-lyricist, whose reach far exceeds his grasp. During the proceedings, we're treated to several samples of Jacob's output, one more frightening than the next.

Sondheim Abounds

Who stands at the top of the American musical theater? Many people will at once cite Rodgers & Hammerstein. They were indeed illustrious collaborators, and produced eleven works for the stage starting in 1943. But only four of these are top-notch: Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, and The King and I.

The correct answer to the question is composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim. Of his oeuvre, at least ten shows are masterly achievements, extending from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962) to Passion (1994).

2008 Year-End Musings and Follow-Ups

It's been an especially dramatic, event-filled year in the theater -- and in real life. So I thought I'd take this opportunity to revisit or address for the first time some of the most interesting people, shows, and occurrences of 2008.

You Can't Buy Love, But You Can Buy Rent

Rage and Glory

 After Marlon Brando, George C. Scott was America's finest actor, a performer whose
power and ferocity made him seem like a force of nature. Unlike Brando (who quit the stage forever after starring in A Streetcar Named Desire), Scott loved to appear in plays and continued to do so even after he won fame and fortune in such films as "Dr. Strangelove," "Patton" and "Anatomy of a Murder." Not only that, he also directed and produced many plays, both on and off Broadway.

The Ten Best and Three Worst of 2008

 It remains to be seen whether the New Year on Broadway and Off Broadway will be as dismal as has been predicted by the pundits based on the economic forecast. Perhaps the National Endowment for Arts should apply for a bail-out to help all the theater, dance and music organizations for which funding and survival is in jeopardy.

Wheelchairs, Walkers and Peg Legs

It was a moment that might have gone unnoticed in the dramatic arc of the play, a stage adaptation of Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange: a group of teenage thugs burst into the home of a lame old lady, but instead of cringing in terror, the feisty dowager proceeds to hold them off with her cane. When one of her assailants attempts to disarm her, she brings him down with a kick to the crotch. She is outnumbered, of course, but even after her surrender, audiences remembered that she went down fighting.

The Story of How Kathleen Turner Joined The Third Story

Whenever the irreplaceable author/drag performer Charles Busch writes or stars in a play, attention must be paid. When he stars in a play of his own creation, even closer attention must be paid. And when he co-stars in a new play of his own creation alongside one of the fiercest biologically-female divas of the stage and screen -- well, color me there!

New Members of the Theater Hall of Fame

 Founded in 1971, the Theater Hall of Fame inducted the usual eight new members at a January 26, 2009 ceremony in the Gershwin Theater. Actress Dana Ivey officiated at the 38th annual celebration as Mistress of Ceremonies.

Inductees are voted on by the nationwide American Theater Critics Association and living Hall of Fame members. To be eligible, a person must have a record of outstanding achievement spanning at least 25 years. This year's octet is here presented alphabetically.

Senior Moments

 Dallas' One Thirty Productions was the brainchild of Marty Van Kleeck, Manager of the Bath House Cultural Center. By 2007, Van Kleeck had assumed the managerial reins of the Bath House, a facility owned by the City of Dallas and directly under the aegis of the City of Dallas' Office of Cultural Affairs. That summer, the Mayor's office directed the OCA to initiate a program geared toward senior citizens.

Where Theater Came From and Why It Keeps Coming

If theater didn't exist, we'd have to invent it. It just had to happen. An art this important requires its own creation myth, an after-the-fact explanation for how storytelling became a performing art. The big one is also historical: In the arenas of ancient Greece an inspired thespian named, well, Thespis added an actor to the traditional choruses who regularly performed the civic narrative myths that were huge – and mandatory – popular entertainment.

Banyan Becoming

 In March, Sarasota, Florida's sole summers-only theater company staged a "Banyan Becoming" series of new play readings that may indeed become a regular "in season" offering. Founder and executive director Jerry Finn has announced he will present each reading in 2010 for two evenings instead of one.

Motives for starting the series of three biographical plays were to involve audiences in development of works by local playwrights while making Banyan Theater Company known to snowbirds and tourists as well as year-round Suncoast residents.

James Carpinello Rocks!

 James Carpinello Rocks!

James Carpinello is about to open on Broadway in Rock of Ages, but if you run into him on the street, please don't tell him to "break a leg." That time-honored wish for theatrical good luck would be a big mistake in this case, given that the Saturday Night Fever star's plans to return to the New York stage as the male lead in Xanadu were scuttled when he suffered a serious leg injury during a rehearsal and was replaced by Cheyenne Jackson.

For Kerry O'Malley, It's Dear Abby

An actress doesn't have to have a lot of stage (or screen) time to make an indelible impression; just ask Margaret Hamilton ("The Wizard of Oz"), Judi Dench ("Shakespeare in Love"), Adriane Lenox or Viola Davis (Doubt). Or you can ask Kerry O'Malley, who's playing the small but richly rewarding role of Abigail Adams in the Paper Mill Playhouse production of the great Sherman Edwards-Peter Stone musical,1776.

Stephen Flaherty's American Anthems

It's an exciting time for one of my favorite composers, Stephen Flaherty. The acknowledged masterpiece, Ragtime, which he created in partnership with lyricist Lynn Ahrens and librettist Terrence McNally, is about to have a major revival at the Kennedy Center. And Flaherty has written a brand new piece that will be performed by the New York Pops in a gala concert at Carnegie Hall on Monday, April 27, 2009.

She Dreamed a Dream in Time Gone By

 By now, about twelve kazillion people have seen and heard the YouTube video of dowdy Susan Boyle's amazing performance of "I Dreamed a Dream" on Britain's Got Talent. This thrilling rendition of the emotion-fraught ballad has engendered countless editorials, blog posts, and other sorts of comments from all sorts of people including Patti LuPone, who created the role of Fantine in the original RSC production of Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil's Les Misérables and therein introduced the song -- or, at least, the English version of it, with lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer.

Lydia Revisited

Once upon a time, in the city of El Paso…

Crawling with flashlights through a tent of bedsheets, the Flores children pretend they are ants. They speak their own ant language, rub antennae together, and share ant secrets. And Ceci is their queen.

Barbara Song

Ever since her magnificent career "comeback" as a cabaret and concert artist in the mid-1970s, beloved Broadway veteran Barbara Cook has been singing gloriously in venues ranging from intimate clubs to grand halls, with instrumental forces ranging from piano, bass, and drums to full symphony orchestras.

Electricity at the 2009 Tonys

 The excitement had been building for weeks. Rentals of black ties were exhausted. Harry Winston and Tiffany's raided their vaults for diamond loan-outs. Designers put finishing touches on gowns. Champagne was being iced all over town. At Radio City Music Hall, from the moment the doors were sealed shut, anticipation bubbled. Yes, of course, it was the American Theatre Wing's 63rd Annual Tony Awards®, broadcast live over three tight hours by CBS. And, for the first time, the entire awards ceremony was simulcast on the giant outdoor Clear Channel Spectacolor screen in Times Square.

The 2009 Phony Awards

Now that the Tonys have been doled out, it's time for the second annual Phony Awards -- a name I've borrowed from my friend and colleague Gerard Alessandrini, with his blessing.

Steven Pasquale: Somethin' Like Love

The notes found in CD booklets are often filled with hyperbole, especially when they happen to be written by the producers. But that's not the case with Steven Pasquale's recently released album of standards, "Somethin' Like Love." John Pizzarelli, who co-produced the recording with his wife, Jessica Molaskey, is only telling the truth when he writes, "Steve has a lyric baritone that can soar on a big stage or be muted for a late-night ballad, and his intelligence as an actor...makes his phrasing and interpretation of lyrics deeper than most of the current crooners in his age group."

The Funny Girl Has Three Faces

 Steven Brinberg has been acclaimed for his performances as Barbra Streisand in major concert venues, nightclubs, and theaters in New York and throughout the U.S., as well as abroad. Of course, he has sung many songs from Funny Girl over the years, but only now is he being given the chance to play the signature Streisand role of Fanny Brice in a production of the entire show -- which is kind of like a pianist who has mastered the Rachmaninoff preludes finally getting a professional shot at the Concerto No. 2 in C minor.

Florida Studio Theater Hosts Improv Coast to Coast

H With its own improvisational performance groups surrounding guests from coast to coasts, Florida Studio Theater turned its Goldstein Cabaret Stage into a venue for spontaneous laughter, July 10-ll. Each hour on the hour – 6-11 p.m. Friday and 5-11 Saturday – performances of 40-45 minutes led to final jams by members of varied troupes joining their hosts in pure invention a midnight finale for FST's first Improv Festival.

A Broadway Summer at Town Hall

Summertime Broadway openings aren't entirely unknown; let's not forget Hairspray and Avenue Q. This year, Burn the Floor is set to bow on August 2. But such events are still rare. So, other than listening to cast albums and re-seeing favorite shows that opened during the previous season, what is a musical theater enthusiast to do until fall?

Bravo Angelo!

 Having survived a financial crisis that actually preceded the current meltdown of the U.S. economy, the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, NJ, now seems to be back on an even keel under its present administration. That's wonderful news, because the theater has a history of excellence -- much of which was the direct responsibility of Angelo Del Rossi, its head honcho for 40 years, from 1963 to 2003.

Oh, Vera, I Can't Wait to Hear That Overture!

 At a pivotal moment in the first act of Mame, the title character turns to her bosom buddy and enthuses, "Oh Vera, I can't wait to hear that overture!" I'm sure we all share the sentiment. There's nothing like a good overture to whet our appetite for the show we're about to see or the recording we're about to hear. Charles Burr, one of the best-ever writers of cast album liner notes, put it succinctly and unforgettably when he described the Mame overture as "a kind of menu in music for the feast to follow."

Boo Who?

 When I was lucky enough to interview the great John Raitt several years ago, he made the following cogent observation about Nicholas Hytner's direction of the mid-'90s revival of Carousel, the Rodgers and Hammerstein masterwork in which Raitt had created the leading male role in 1945: "One minute, you're watching the show and thinking, 'That's a great idea." The next minute, you're thinking, 'What did they do THAT for?!'"

The Misbegotten G.O.P

 "The Misbegotten G.O.P."

In anticipation of seeing the Broadway revival of Finian's Rainbow, a production based on the excellent City Center Encores! presentation, I've been listening to the various recordings of this great musical, and I was reminded that some of my favorite lyrics from the show score are nowhere to be heard on the movie soundtrack album. (See below for details.)

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