#theater review

[bumble-b1]

So I got to see Hadestown yesterday and I wanted to share some highlights.

It's obvious even when listening to the album that Orpheus is extremely innocent, but seeing his face and mannerisms makes it even more obvious and more tragic.

When Hades comes for Persephone he and Eurydice exchange looks and Orpheus jumps in front of her to block Hades view.

The woman who played Persephone faked a lisp to seem drunker for most of the play but whenever she said something serious she dropped the lisp which just added to the effect that her words had.

When Orpheus says "to the world we dream about and the one we live in now" everything goes dead quiet. No music, no movement just those words.

When Eurydice is looking for food the fates rip off her jacket and her coat.

The entrance to the train station is a bay door that opens to reveal a bright panel of lights and smoke.

When Orpheus takes the back entrance to Hadestown the set separates to let him through just like the rocks split in the original myth.

When Hades says "I conduct the electric city" the lights get so bright that it is blinding.

When Orpheus sings for Hades there are three spot lights; one for him, one for Eurydice and one for Persephone.

Hades and Persephone dancing. Also the way Orpheus holds Eurydice.

The works all wear caps that make them look almost identical. When Orpheus makes them remember their lives they take the hats off.

The stage is so dark and smoky when Orpheus is walking that even the audience does not know if Eurydice is there.

They light up a set of stairs and a doorway to represent the end of the journey back to the surface. When Orpheus turns around there are audible gasps from the audience and the bay doors slowly close on Eurydice.

At the very end, they reset the entire stage to make it look exactly like it did when they started emphasizing that they will never stop telling the story.

That got a bit long, but there is so much to say. I honestly barely covered half of it. It's an incredible show and if you ever get the chance to see it you should.

#hadestown #Hadestown live #theater #theater review #bjcc #Hadestown Birmingham #staging #musicals #musical theatre

[popentertainment-moviereviews]

DRACULA, A COMEDY OF TERRORS

Starring Jordan Boatman, Arnie Burton, James Daly, Ellen Harvey and Andrew Keenan-Bolger. 

Written by Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen.

Directed by Gordon Greenberg.

Playing at New World Stages – Stage 5 – 340 West 50th Street – New York. Run: Through January 7th, 2024.

A New Live Production, Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors, Reveals A High Camp Side to this Story of The Undead Count

One thing you can count on every Halloween is an appearance of Dracula or, at least, some form of a vampire added to the mix. That could mean a re-run of the many classic films with the undead count such as Universal’s original version of Dracula (with Bela Lugosi) or Hammer’s The Horror of Dracula (with Christopher Lee). But this scary season doesn't necessarily require an appearance of the original bloodsucker himself. It could include some resurrection of his character in a movie, play or live visual presentation in some haunted house.

In 1897, when Irish author Bram Stoker published his long-wrought novel Dracula for just six shillings, he didn’t realize that he’d created one of the most iconic figures of all time. Though this story of an aristocratic, undead mastermind was popular in its day, little did Stoker know that his blood-drinking, soulless monster of the night would become the source of countless permutations, reinterpretations, and re-examinations of this creature and its implications. There’s even a Bram Stoker Festival in Dublin which celebrates the Gothic, the supernatural, the after-dark and Victorian as well as the Count himself.

Of course, along with Stoker’s horror classic, the inevitable humorous satires, parodies, and various send ups cropped up. From a tale of the ageless Count needing to leave his ancient homeland to resettle in England to tap fresh blood, the original gothic narrative has often been revised with sometimes hilarious results.

Now, through Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors, this battle with the master of the undead receives an outlandish rethink. Enabled by a compact, five-person cast – Jordan Boatman, Arnie Burton, James Daly, Ellen Harvey, and Andrew Keenan-Bolger – this rapid-fire comedic reimagining of this archetypal tale garners guffaws and lots of snickering. 

Taking off from the original’s classic characters, they’re transformed into these versions: sweet Lucy Westfeldt, vampire hunter Jean Van Helsing, insect consumer Percy Renfield, and behavioral psychiatrist Wallace Westfeldt, among others. Here they find themselves in a faux British country estate which doubles as a free-range mental asylum. With its cast of slapstick, quick change comics who switch roles with the aplomb of fast handed pickpockets, this Dracula not only makes you scream, but it does it with laughter. The show also exposes a fundamental ridiculousness that illustrates just how resilient the original concept is: it can take jabs even at its core of terror and still retain a certain majestic-ness.

Through its compact 90-minute show, elements of goth, camp, and variant sexuality are thrown into a gender-bending, quick-change romp. With all the wacky characters, a pansexual Gen-Z Count Dracula tops the list of existentially challenged characters. 

As a buddy of notorious gay Victorian author Oscar Wilde, the actual Stoker was believed to be a closeted gay man in a repressive England, so his novel was rife with suggestive sexuality and gender reversals. Director/co-writers Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen’s send-up of this novel is meant to be viewed through a very contemporary lens. 

Just as the book transcended other Gothic horror of its day, this comedy rises above being simple holiday fare. Make your way to the Westside’s New World Stages for a comedic jab at the jugular.

Brad Balfour

Copyright ©2023 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: November 8, 2023.

#Dracula A Comedy of Terrors #2023 #Theater Review #Jordan Boatman #Brad Balfour #Youtube

[the-sparkling-theater-kid]

Sweeney Todd Review

Last night, I saw Sweeney Todd on Broadway. Oh my god. I don’t know how to describe how much I loved this show. I’m a newer fan of Sweeney Todd. I knew most of the plot but there were some little details i didn’t know about. I didn’t expect this show to make me laugh, but it did multiple times. I saw Josh Groban as Sweeney Todd, and Jeanna de Waal as Mrs. Lovett. At first, I was upset not to be seeing Annaleigh, but later learned she played Chris in the 2012 Off-Broadway revival of Carrie, which I am not only a big fan of, but am currently in a community theatre production of. I sadly saw this show after Gaten Matarazzo left, and as a Stranger Things fan, I was upset. I thought the Toby I saw (an understudy but I can’t remember whom) was very good, but I still wished I was seeing Gaten.

This show was my first stage door experience, and it was a great first. I was towards the beginning of the line, but wasn’t at the very front. With the first couple of actors who came out, I sadly wasn’t able to get their signature, but I was lucky enough to get Josh Groban’s. I even got a picture and a signature from Maria Bilbao, who is making her Broadway debut as Johanna, since most of the crowd left after Josh Groban went back inside.

#broadway #musical theater #theater review #sweeney todd #sweeney todd 2023 #josh groban #jeanna de waal #maria bilbao

[goingrampant]

I carefully researched, reconstructed, and analyzed a 1970 theater opera adaptation of Carmilla by two gay men. I was able to piece together what a performance would have looked like based on the cast recording, notes from the music director, and numerous photographs posted on the theater website, among other things.

#carmilla #1970 carmilla opera #theater review #video review #lgbt media #la mama #feminism #wilford leach #queue and i are one forever #Youtube

[theaterreviewswithbella]

𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰

date of show: 4/14/24

production: first national tour (2022 revival)

star rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

company was my second sondheim musical. i went into this musical blind, something i don’t do often. i regretted not researching the musical beforehand. i found a lot of aspects of this show confusing and hard to follow. i thought bobby died at the end of act one (i still don’t know what happened).

this cast was very talented. i saw britney coleman (bobby) as barbara in beetlejuice (first national tour) last year, and she ended up being my favorite barbara i’ve seen (the other being kerry butler on broadway, winter garden theatre, original broadway cast). also, props to matt rodin (jamie) for “getting married today”. he sounded amazing!

overall, i give this show a three star. it wasn’t my favorite, but it was good. it could probably have been a four star if i researched the musical a little beforehand, but that’s my fault.

#company musical #theater review #stephen sondheim #broadway tour

[fearsmagazine]

DRACULA, A COMEDY OF TERRORS - Review

DATES: Sept. 4th, 2023 – Jan. 7th, 2024 COMPANY: Drew & Dane Productions THEATER: New World Stages, 340 West 50th Street, New York City ACTORS: Jordan Boatman, Arnie Burton, James Daly, Ellen Harvey, Andrew Keenan-Bolger, Kaitlyn Boyer and Sean-Michael Wilkinson. CREW: Director/Writer - Gordon Greenberg; Writer - Steve Rosen; Producers - Drew Desky and Dane Levens; Scenic and Puppet Designer - Tijana Bjelajac; Costume Designer - Tristan Raines; Lighting Designer - Rob Denton; Original Music and Sound Designer - Victoria Deiorio; Wig and Hair Designer - Ashley Rae Callahan.

(L-R) Andrew Keenan-Bolger, Jordan Boatman, James Daly, Ellen harvey and Arnie Burton in DRACULA, A COMEDY OF TERRORS. Photo by Matthew Murphy

SYNOPSIS: A pansexual GenZ Count Dracula is in the midst of an existential crisis. When he sets his sights on the brilliant young earth scientist Lucy Westfeldt, he meets his match for the first time – as well as a slew of other colorful characters including vampire hunter Jean Van Helsing, insect connoisseur Percy Renfield and behavioral psychiatrist Wallace Westfeldt, whose British country estate doubles as a free-range mental asylum.

(L-R) Ellen Harvey, James Daly and Arnie Burton TERRORS. Photo by Matthew Murphy

REVIEW: Horror comedies come in only two flavors - good and bad. DRACULA, A COMEDY OF TERRORS is a sensational, decadent satire that is the perfect treat for the Halloween season.

Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen's satirical and irreverent treatment of the Stoker novel resides somewhere in between “The Rocky Horror Musical” and a Monty Python film, with flares of the immortal Charles Ludlam. The tone is set right from the start as the cast tosses the novel and the hilarity begins. The previous productions of the play, including an adaptation of the piece as a radio play for The Broadway Podcast Network, clearly have sharpened the dialogue and wordplay to a razor sharp wordplay duel that had the audience laughing out loud within the first few moments. The writers have trimmed the novel down to a 90 minute tale that tries to incorporate key elements of the story, taking liberties with the novel’s climax to nicely dovetail with the themes of their play. The satire runs the spectrum from that of the novel, political, contemporary pop culture, and gender. Except for Dracula, the other actors have dual or multiple roles where the juggling of the characters adds to the merriment.

James Daly and Jordan Boatman in DRACULA, A COMEDY OF TERRORS. Photo by Matthew Murphy

Gordon Greenberg’s direction is superb. It is a finely tuned choreography of dialogue and movement that harkens back to the golden era of silent films to the Marx Brothers. There are some delightful props, including puppets, that add yet another level of humor to the production. Greenberg turns up the energy right at the start and maintains it for 90 minutes, giving the audience little time to recover from the side splitting laughter.

James Daly and Andrew Keenan-Bolger in DRACULA, A COMEDY OF TERRORS. Photo by Matthew Murphy

Tijana Bjelajac’s Scenic Design is a wonderful minimalist and still adds atmosphere to the production. Integrated into the set are nice visual and functional elements that are scaled down for an off-broadway production but are lavish enough, and easily would work for a Broadway staging. Tristan Raines’ costume designs are fabulous. The designs capture the period but also combine contemporary elements that highlight the performances.

Arnie Burton and James Daly in DRACULA, A COMEDY OF TERRORS. Photo by Matthew Murphy

DRACULA, A COMEDY OF TERRORS features an award worthy ensemble cast. The delivery of lines, the body language and facial expressions, their interactions are flawless, and if there were any misfires I didn’t notice. There was a fluidity to their performances that at times it felt like choreography. James Daly is outstanding as Dracula. He is as dynamic and enchanting as Tim Curry’s Dr. Frank-n-Furter, combined with the physique of Rocky. He delivers this multifaceted performance rich with comedic timing. Actor Arnie Burton steals the show as both Mina and Jean Van Helsing. He creates two unique performances that embodies the comedic prowess that is reminiscent of Milton Berle to Harvey Fierstein, with a dash of Bugs Bunny. In contrast, actress Ellen Harvey brings to life Wallace Westfeldt and Percy Renfield. She brilliantly effects switching between the two extremes that eventually becomes an uproarious gag in play. The cast does an astounding job of maintaining the energy level of the play for 90 minutes.

Andrew Keenan-Bolger and Jordan Boatman in DRACULA, A COMEDY OF TERRORS. Photo by Matthew Murphy

DRACULA, A COMEDY OF TERRORS is a side-splitting tour de force that would leave Bram Stoker and Mel Brooks rolling in the aisles, and maybe a bit envious. I’ve always advocated that there is a distinct bond between comedy and horror, and this is at its finest. Outstanding performances, fabulous production designs, brilliant directing, all deliver an energetic feel good and memorable theater experience. You must bring your friends for a night you’ll long remember as the perfect treat of this Halloween season.

James Daly in DRACULA, A COMEDY OF TERRORS. Photo by Matthew Murphy

Opening night is September 18. Performances are Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday at 7PM, Friday and Saturday at 8PM, with matinees Saturday and Sunday at 2PM. Tickets are $99 - $119. Premium seating is available. Tickets are now on sale at Telecharge.com, [phone]. For more information, visit www.DraculaComedy.com.

Review By: Joseph B Mauceri

Listen to our interview with director & co-writer Gordon Greenberg & co-write Steve Rosen on creating DRACULA, A COMEDY OF TERRORS – HERE

#Theater review #off-broadway #DRACULA #A COMEDY OF TERRORS #Gordon Greenberg #Steve Rosen #James Daly #Jordan Boatman #Arnie Burton #Andrew Keenan-Bolger #Ellen Harvey #dracula #bram stoker #comedy #joseph b mauceri #joseph mauceri

[meydia]

13 Nov 2022 | Day 6/∞: Hansel & Gretel at the Met Opera (2008) - Engelbert Humperdinck

#photoset #met opera #engelbert humperdinck #hansel & gretel #hansel and gretel #set design #theatre review #theater #theatre #theater review #opera #opera review #the metropolitan opera #horror #john mcfarlane

[greensparty]

2022: The Year in Green’s Party

This has been another great year on this blog of me sharing a thought or two about pop culture! This was a year I needed pop culture, entertainment and escapism more than ever. I got to do so many awesome things and I can’t believe that in early 2023 this blog turns 10! Here are some of the highlights of 2022:

Retweets and Social Media: There were numerous retweets and shares of my posts this year on social media including 2022 Collectibles Extravaganza sharing my coverage, Dana Carvey liked my tweet about Wayne’s World at Nice a Fest, David Spade liked my tweet about my interview with Siobhan Fallon Hogan, and Sean Baker liked my tweet about Red Rocket being my Best 2021 Movie I Saw in 2022.

Interviews: I got to interview numerous people including Jon “Bermuda” Schwartz of Weird Al Yankovic’s band (plus a bonus portion of the interview), Nice a Fest founder Alex Pickert, musician Colleen Green, actor / director James Morosini, director Marq Evans, director April Wright, director Ryan White, musician Kay Hanley, and actors Brian O’Halloran and Jeff Anderson.

Movie Reviews: I got to review A Hero, Sundown, I Want You Back, Studio 666, Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story, Jurassic World Dominion,  The Beatles and India, George Michael Freedom Uncut, Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song, Thor: Love and Thunder, Clerks III, Sidney, Nothing Compares, Halloween Ends, Let There Be Drums!, Rebel Dread, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, A Christmas Story Christmas, She Said, Avatar: The Way of Water, and Bablyon.

Album Reviews: I got to review Eddie Vedder’s Earthling and the vinyl reissue of Ukelele Songs, John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies’ Firestarter soundtrack and Halloween Ends soundtrack, Florence + The Machine’s Dance Fever, The Rolling Stones’ Live at El Mocambo, The Clash’s Combat Rock / The People’s Hall special edition, Wilco’s Cruel Country, Beabadoobee’s Beatopia, Neil Young and Crazy Horse’s Toast, Neil Young and Promise of the Real’s Noise & Flowers, R.E.M.’s Chronic Town 40th anniversary EP, Oasis’s Be Here Now 25th anniversary edition, Ringo Starr’s EP3, Djo’s Decide, Billy Idol’s The Cage, The Smithereens’ The Lost Album, The Pixies’ Doggerel, L7′s Bricks Are Heavy 30th anniversary reissue, Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Cool It Down, Alvvays’ Blue Rev, Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Return of the Dream Canteen, Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros’ Joe Strummer 002: The Mescalero Years box set, The Beatles’ Revolver Special Super Deluxe Edition, Foo Fighters’ The Essential Foo Fighters, the compilation album ‘Life Moves Pretty Fast’ The John Hughes Mixtapes, Guns N’ Roses Use Your Illusion I and II box set, Bruce Springsteen’s Only the Strong Survive, Jimi Hendrix Experience’s Los Angeles Forum: April 26, 1969, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ Live at the Fillmore, 1997.

Concert Reviews: The year began with a livestream concert review of Mike Garson’s A Bowie Celebration. In person concert reviews came back with reviews of Sheer Mag, Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band, Paul McCartney, Death Cab for Cutie, Alvvays, and not an official review but I did a semi-review of Cheap Trick at Boston Calling.

DVD and Blu-ray Reviews: I got to review some DVD and blu-rays including The Beatles: Get Back, Neil Young and Promise of the Real: Noise & Flowers, and You Can’t Do That on Film.

Book Reviews: I got to cover numerous books released in 2022 including Olivia Harrison’s Came the Lightening: Twenty Poems for George, Pattie Boyd’s My Life in Pictures, and Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee Book.

Theater Reviews: This year I got to do my first official theater review, for On Beckett.

Music Festivals: I got to cover the 2022 Nice, a Fest festival.

Film Festivals and Film Events: I got to review a virtual film at Sundance Film Festival, my annual guide to the 2022 Oscar Nominated Short Films, my coverage of the 2022 Independent Film Festival Boston, covered the 2022 Collectibles Extravaganza, and the 2022 IFFBoston Fall Focus.

...And the biggest postings and news of the year:

- 1/2/2022: Green’s Party turned 9!

- 1/28/2022: I wrote my tribute to Mighty Mighty Bosstones, who I have been lucky enough to cover since 2017.

- March 2022: I took a breather from the blog for a few weeks due to a death in the family. 

- 3/26/22: I posted my remembrance of Taylor Hawkins. 32 notes, my biggest post of 2022!

- 3/29/22: I posted my This Month In History column for March. 19 notes.

- 4/14/22: I wrote about returning to my first live concert in over 2 years to see LCD Soundsystem.

- 5/26/22: I posted my remembrance of Ray Liotta. 11 notes.

- 6/19/22: I re-shared my 2021 post about Sesame Street’s Juneteenth Song. 28 notes.

- 7/31/22: I posted my remembrance of Bill Russell and Nichelle Nichols. 18 notes.

- 8/7/22: I shared my return to Kim’s Video at NYC’s Alamo Drafthouse. 

- 9/21/22: I shared the big news that my documentary Life on the V: The Story of V66 has been added to the Permanent Collection of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!

- 10/12/22: I re-shared my 2018 post about This Day in 2018. 15 notes.

- 12/8/22: Tumblr provided their data of Green’s Party Year in Review up until December 8.

- 12/17/22: I re-shared my 2020 Top 5 Seinfeld Episodes During the Holiday Season list. 11 notes.

#green's party #my blog #2022 #year in review #film geek #music nerd #books #concerts #dvd review #theater review #film festival

[ornamentodeux]

The Good Person of Setzuan at the Wilma Theater

The Wilma Theater in Philadelphia has hit one out of the park again with a new production of The Good Person of Setzuan, by Bertolt Brecht. Brecht wrote plays as a vehicle for social and political criticism. Most Americans are familiar with Brecht’s work from the popular song Mack the Knife from the play, The Threepenny Opera, but don’t realize that the play is an indictment of capitalist…

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#Justin Jain #The Good Person of Setzuan #Theater Review #Wilma Theater

[darlenefblog]

Mrs. Doubtfire - The new musical comedy.

"All the benefits of film, and all the limitations of theater when it lazily follows in a film’s footsteps, are starkly evident in the numbing, dull, and astonishingly flat Mrs. Doubtfire." Just one of the reviews of this irritating show.

Rob McClure played Daniel; he was also the lead in the Broadway show. Why he was in the road show production is a mystery to me. He's ok but not anywhere as witty or funny as Robin Williams, but then who could be. Lots of the audience laughed and had a good time. I wanted out. The whole transformation of Daniel to Mrs. Doubtfire didn't work well on stage, we saw too much of the mystery and yet not enough of the inner workings of what amounts to drag. It's hard to explain but trust me it wasn't interesting or very funny.

Another thing that drives me up the wall is when singers are loud for no reason. There's one song, Let Go, where Miranda belts it out and gets soprano and drags out the notes until I wanted to scream. You can hold a note, we get it. Unnecessary for a song that I thought was insightful and would have benefitted from a softer touch. Lydia did the same with a song that needed to portray upset and anger. The arrangement isn't better coming from a child when she hit all the high notes very high and long.

Maybe it was just me I didn't believe the relationship between Miranda and Daniel. It's played without much chemistry between them. More of Daniel wanting his kids than anything else. In the beginning Daniel didn't want the divorce and wanted to get his family together again. It was dropped and they couldn't be civil at all. The actors didn't seem to like each other either, you could feel it. The couple said all the right words about co-parenting but it sure didn't come across in the actions.

My thought on the way home was I should just watch the movie. The show was part of my yearly subscription package, so I stayed till the end. I was also afraid to leave early and walk to the parking garage alone.

#orpheum theatre #mrs. doubtfire #musical theater #theater review

[o-the-mts]

Theater Review: Tuck Everlasting

Tuck Everlasting Book: Claudia Shear & Tim Federle Lyrics: Nathan Tysen Music: Chris Miller Performance at The Footlight Club, Jamaica Plain, MA – April 21, 2024, 2 PM Director: Katie Swimm Music Director: Jeff Kimball Choreographer: Alicia Powell Producer: Val Tracy Summary/Review: Based on the 1975 young adult novel by by Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting is the story of the Tuck family of…

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#Drama #Musical #New Hampshire #Performing Arts #Performing Arts Review #The Footlight Club #Theater #Theater Review

[warrenwoodhouse]

Wizard of Oz The Musical Review (Theatre Reviews) (Reviews)

Date & Time of Production: 17th April 2024 at 7:00 pm

Date & Time of Review: 17th April 2024 at 9:00 pm

Review by @warrenwoodhouse

It was a fantastic night and a wonderful cast. The musical was full of charm, whimsical moments, great set designs, lovely costumes and full of great songs. The lights and music gave a different perspective on the entire story in a narrative manner too. Some really good puppetry work was on stage as well.

I felt such joy seeing people in the audience singing along to some of the big numbers and laughing along. The video backdrops enhanced some of the story too.

It all ended with a standing ovation from the entire audience. Was a fantastic night and not one to miss. Would gladly watch it again if it came back to the #TheatreRoyal #TheatreRoyalNewcastle.

#warrenwoodhouse #2024 #reviews #review #theatre review #theatre reviews #theater review #theater reviews #.review #theatreroyal #theatreroyalnewcastle #theatre royal newcastle #theatre royal #wizard of oz #the wizard of oz #wizard of oz theatre musical #the wizard of oz theatre musical #wizard of oz the musical

[popentertainment-moviereviews]

MACBETH

Starring Ruth Negga, Daniel Craig, Maria Dizzia, Amber Gray, Danny Wolohan, Michael Patrick Thornton, Asia Kate Dillon, Che Ayende, Danny Wolohan, Amber Gray, Emeka Guindo, Paul Lazar, Maria Dizzia, Grantham Coleman, Bobbi MacKenzie and Phillip James Brannon. 

Written by William Shakespeare.

Directed by Sam Gold.

Playing at Longacre Theatre, 220 W. 48th St., New York, NY, 212-541-8457. Duration: 2 hours 20 minutes. Closing Date: July 10, 2022 

With Stars Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga, Macbeth Makes A Return to The Broadway Stage For Better or Worse 

Not being any kind of Shakespearean expert — or even your basic Bard-ite — I wasn't sure what to expect of director Sam Gold's version of Macbeth. Certainly, he had his share of accolades and supporters for earlier interpretations of the legendary scribe's other plays.

A Tony winner for Fun Home, Gold has directed some of the most high-profile recent William Shakespeare productions in New York. On Broadway his King Lear, won accolades for Glenda Jackson. There was also his earlier Hamlet, starring Oscar Isaac, and an Othello which featured former 007 Daniel Craig in the role of Iago. Craig must have had fun since he came back to work for Gold again.

So as I anticipated seeing this production, I saw an opportunity to reevaluate the legendary playwright once again. In particular – Macbeth being one of his seminal, serious tragedies — I'd seek to understand Shakespeare's view of passion, power, and its corruptions. Drawing on Greek tragic dramas, the story looks at the dynamics of aristocratic minds and how its upper-class members often view their worlds differently than those who operate according to more traditional moralities.

Believed to have been first performed in 1606, Macbeth (full title: The Tragedie of Macbeth) dramatizes the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those who seek power. Of all his plays written during James I's reign, Macbeth most clearly reflected Shakespeare's relationship with King James, the playwright's acting company patron.

This tragedy in five acts was written sometime in 1606–07 and published in the First Folio of 1623 from a playbook or a transcript of one. Some portions of the original text are corrupted or missing from the published edition. It's the shortest tragedy in the canon and its relative brevity among Shakespeare's tragedies comes without diversions or subplots.

As the tale goes, Scottish general Macbeth comes across a trio of witches who predict that he will be King. Consumed by ambition and spurred by his ambitiously scheming wife to act, Macbeth murders King Duncan, ascending to the throne. Wracked with guilt and paranoia he then murders others to protect himself. But because of enmity and suspicion, he soon becomes tyrannical. A bloodbath and civil war ensue, driving Macbeth and his Lady into the realms of madness and death. 

Shakespeare's source for the story is the account of Macbeth, King of Scotland along with Macduff and Duncan in Holinshed's Chronicles (1587), a history of England, Scotland, and Ireland familiar to Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Although the events in the play differ from the real Macbeth's history, the tragedy is further associated with the execution of Henry Garnet for complicity in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.

Over the years, this famous play has attracted some of the most renowned actors to the roles of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. The so-called "Scottish Play" has been adapted to film, television, opera, novels, comics, and other media. 

It chronicles Macbeth seizing of power and subsequent destruction, his rise and his fall the result of blind ambition. Did I get it? Not quite. All the usual visual cues in the costumes and staging weren't there since Gold subverted the normal expectations of how this Macbeth should be experienced. Instead, he puts the cast in plain, simple, modern outfits and uses austere, minimal staging to underscore his take on Macbeth. This approach made the play harder to understand and made me care little for this production. Maybe I should have read the original before seeing this production, but I got lost in the jumble.

Nor did this version make me appreciate the language. Instead, at times I found myself wondering if everyone in the cast was in the same play that I was seeing and hearing.

Both Craig and Ruth Negga did their best to capture the seesaw relationship between Lord and Lady Macbeth, one of the more logical marriages in Shakespeare's catalog. The two feed off each other, both feeling at home in their marital cocoon. Of all the dynamics in Gold's production, the actors get their interplay better than anyone else does.

While there's electricity in Negga's and Craig's performances together, individually they fumble. Negga's mad scene seems sketchy at best. Craig's solo speeches feel like an emotional roller coaster where the brakes work only intermittently.

Like his earlier effort, Gold's Macbeth is both over thought and under designed, full of half-executed ideas and uneven performances. Actors try to play their characters as if they were all in the same version of Macbeth, but the director can't seem to have them inhabit the same world with all his shifting imagery.

How do I ascertain whether a retelling of a classic Shakespearean drama can inform me about this modern world? That's hard enough for any piece of art even more so when a production veers so far from the usual expectations.

The event starts out with Michael Patrick Thornton delivering a routine about the play's parallel to our time, with its genesis during a pandemic. In turn, that observation leads into exposition that jumps between King Duncan (Paul Lazar) receiving news of the battle and the witches (Bobbi MacKenzie, Maria Dizzia, and Phillip James Brannon) who are nothing like what we expect of the witches. They make a brew for Macbeth, Duncan's loyal associate. They predict that he will become Thane of Cawdor and then King. And that his companion, Banquo (Amber Gray), will begat Kings — and in Gold's production that includes shifting gender expectations. Soon after, Lord and Lady Macbeth begin their plotting ways to speed the prophecy along with expectations of power and glory.

Actors watch the proceedings from the exposed wings. Performers create the "fog and filthy air" with handheld fog machines, employed as though they're in a Catholic mass. The costumes the actors wear could have come from their own closets, or maybe even worse than what they have at home. Craig is the exception, donning special garments scene by scene: a smoking jacket, a paisley housecoat, and a full-length fur but to what purpose? That was unclear.

The final confrontation between Macbeth and Macduff (Grantham Coleman) is meant to be a blowout bash but it comes off looking like a street brawl outside a sleazy bar. Despite an effort put in by the two, one can easily imagine them slugging it out more convincingly in a better production. As for the rest of the cast — half the time, I don't think they knew what to give to their performances since they often didn't seem to be in the same play as everyone else.

I left this Macbeth in a fog of confusion. From beginning to end, it featured actors doing things that in an ordinary play, set in modern times, would make sense within a clear, discernible narrative.

Macbeth is meant to be bigger than that. And yet, this version not only obscured "The Scottish Play," it seemed as though it were set in some other world altogether. Certainly not mine.

Brad Balfour

Copyright ©2022 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: June 2, 2022.

#Macbeth #2022 #Theater Review #Daniel Craig #Brad Balfour

[blackownersseekingsuccess]

From Doubt to Hope: How Cornelius Eady's Play ‘Running Man’ Reignited Broadway's Spirit at Lincoln Center

by Levi Wise Kenneth Catoe Jr.

April 8, 2024 - If you haven't already figured it out in the year 2024 post-pandemic, Broadway seems to be in a peculiar place right now. From a rhetorical point of view, every time a play enters Broadway, the same play soon exits. Leaving many to ponder whether Broadway will ever regain its footing. The discourse surrounding Broadway existed in a universe long before Hollywood, and its stars rivaled the social clout of all the Hollywood luminaries of the day. Stars such as Tallulah Bankhead, Mary Martin, Ethel Mermen, and the Barrymore family were more than Drew’s ancestors; these were A-List stars with the most pop mainstream appeal, but nowadays people are more likely to know who Drake is than who Ben Platt is, and this is not to create rivalry but only to ask what’s become of Broadway. Last night, Lincoln Center found the solution.

During Broadway’s current busy revival scene, which includes the occasional lackluster "Jukebox Musical' or what's become a relic these days, the 'Black Theater' that typically fails to find its audience among post-pandemic attendees, this is further proof of the axiom that some plays simply need to find their time to succeed. Several of the most famous theater works of today stand on the shoulders of artists whose names aren’t cited, remembered, or compensated. Many of these missing musical masterworks are often the labor of BIPOC creators and women. To remedy this state of affairs, the Cast Album Project—helmed by the multiple Tony Award-winning composer Jeanine Tesori (Fun Home; Caroline, or Change; Kimberly Akimbo) and Obie and Drama League-winning director Anne Kauffman (Marvin’s Room, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window)—reconstructs the scores of lost musicals and records them in concert in the hopes of preserving them for future generations to rediscover.

One such reconstructed work is Running Man by composer Diedre Murray and poet Cornelius Eady. The disappearance of a young African American man is told through an explosive convergence of jazz, opera, and chamber music. This hauntingly beautiful story was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and won an OBIE for composition. Join us for a two-night-only concert of Running Man—finally capturing, for eventual release, a long-belated, first-time cast album. The libretto is based on Cornelius Eady’s cycle of poetry of the same name, published in the book Brutal Imagination by Penguin Random House, and was a finalist for the National Book Award. Ms. Murray and Mr. Eady have also collaborated on the musical theater pieces You Don't Miss Your Water, Brutal Imagination, and Fangs.

But, for me, it was that Lincoln Center setting that only added to the ambiance of the score. The Running Man cast was staged in front of the glassed wall of the venue; the lights were dimmed with lavender lights, with huge high ceilings and tall windows, as if the cast were performing in the late-night sky of NYC. As the audience viewed the masterful performances of the orchestra, singers, and conductors, the NYC evening traffic below Columbus Circle kept pace with the music as the chorus harmonized among the clouds and skyline. It was truly a spellbinding and amazing experience. It was impossible to look away because every single one of the actor's vocals suited the musical arrangement perfectly, and even when a mistake was made, it was so effortless that had the performer not indicated that they wanted to do it over, the audience would have never caught the mistake that was made. Once the show was over, I was ready to see more, but unfortunately, that never happened. The performance lasted around 90 minutes, and after the actors took a few bows, they were whisked away with no encores. Maybe that’s the metaphor for the evening Broadway, which was once here to stay, now only gets whisked away too quickly, but I will always be grateful for last night. 

Levi Wise Kenneth Catoe Jr.

Editor, BOSS, NY

*excerpts from this article were taken from DO NYC

(Cast Album Project:  Running Man, Day 2 at Lincoln Center)

#black theatre #black theme #black literature #black history #broadway #musicals #musical theater #musical theatre #theatre #black entrepreneurship #theater kid #black tumblr #poetry month #black fashion #news updates #album review #theater review #nyc #nyclife #new york #trending

[theaterreviewswithbella]

𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐲 𝐭𝐨𝐝𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰

date of show: 12/26/23

production: 2023 revival (broadway)

star rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

*repost from my main account.

Last night, I saw Sweeney Todd on Broadway. Oh my god. I don’t know how to describe how much I loved this show. I’m a newer fan of Sweeney Todd. I knew most of the plot but there were some little details i didn’t know about. I didn’t expect this show to make me laugh, but it did multiple times. I saw Josh Groban as Sweeney Todd, and Jeanna de Waal as Mrs. Lovett. At first, I was upset not to be seeing Annaleigh, but later learned she played Chris in the 2012 Off-Broadway revival of Carrie, which I am not only a big fan of, but am currently in a community theatre production of. I sadly saw this show after Gaten Matarazzo left, and as a Stranger Things fan, I was upset. I thought the Toby I saw (an understudy but I can’t remember whom) was very good, but I still wished I was seeing Gaten or Joe Locke. 

This show was my first stage door experience, and it was a great first. I was towards the beginning of the line, but wasn’t at the very front. With the first couple of actors who came out, I sadly wasn’t able to get their signature, but I was lucky enough to get Josh Groban’s. I even got a picture and a signature from Maria Bilbao, who is making her Broadway debut as Johanna, since most of the crowd left after Josh Groban went back inside. 

#broadway #musical theater #theater review #sweeney todd #sweeneytodd #sweeney todd 2023 #josh groban #jeanna de waal #maria bilbao #gaten matarazzo #joe locke

[spindle-magic]

If anyone is interested in theater reviews, please follow my review blog on Instagram, anonymous-Elphaba!

#broadway #theater review #theatre #musical theater #theater