Kristin Salaky - Page 2

The Castillo Theatre production of Carmen's Place (A Fantasy), called "an aria to behold" by critics in this opera-within-a musical running through June 16. Carmen's Place features an original pop score by Annie Roboff and Fred Newman, and in its show-within-the-show, some of the best-known and best-loved operatic numbers ever performed. Director Gabrielle L. Kurlander received the AUDELCO "Viv" Recognition Award for Excellence in Black Theatre as Best Director of a Musical Production in 2012 for Newman-Roboff's Sally and Tom (The American Way).

Battersea's Theatre503 has announced the full line-up of writers contributing to THATCHERWRITE - a series of short plays in response to the life and death of one the UK's most divisive Prime Ministers - Margaret Thatcher. Literary Manager Steve Harper has invited a diverse range of writers including established playwrights, members of the venues 503Five writers in residence scheme, and a newly discovered first time playwright, to contribute. THATCHERWRITE will run from 11 - 15 June at Theatre503, above the Latchmere pub in Battersea.

Don Bender and Vincent Lonergan make their side project debuts under the direction of Adam Webster in the world premiere of National Book Award finalist Sherod Santos' Lives of the Pigeons, opening June 1. With shades of Pinter and Becket, and splashes of Mamet and Albee, Santos weaves a tale in which Gus and Max spend a day in the park, like every other day, on a day that, with the arrival of a mysterious man with a cane, is like no other. Santos' 70-minute, 3-character play is a poetic and darkly comic take on individual identity and purpose in life and the nature of absolution, if and when it exists.

Death and the Maiden, written by Argentine-Chilean playwright Ariel Dorfman, and directed by Olivia Blocker will run from May 29th - 31st.

Cast members, George Hamilton (Chicago, La Cage aux Folles) , Maree Johnson, Todd Lattimore (42nd Street, La Cage aux Folles), Gabriela Garcia (Chicago) and Ashley Kate Adams (La Cage aux Folles) begin to develop a new work based on the life of stage and screen actor, George Hamilton at Pearl Studios in NYC May 14 through June 2, 2013.

Ladies and gentlemen. In the course of this evening's performance, the following physical objects will appear onstage: a boxing bag, four golf clubs, a newspaper, two small targets, an oversized golf ball plus snake, a bloody towel, a duck mask, a white spider with spots, a watering can, three boulders wrapped in twine, a yellow suit, two imitation row boats, one tray of fruit, one rolling table, six highball glasses, two white pillows, one large roll of plastic tape, a jeweled wristwatch, one package, gift-wrapped, one jeweled container, plus one blank container, three mirrors with numbers painted on the reverse side, two bows and arrows, one duck in a small cage, one stuffed small mouth plug.

A couple of years ago I went to The Flea Theater and had a fun time with A.R. Gurney's then newest play, Post Mortem. It was a clever little piece taking place in the future about a college student writing his thesis on a long-forgotten playwright named A.R. Gurney, and was filled with self-referential zingers based on his reputation for writing 'middle class comedies of manners' that made him popular with WASP theatergoers.

It's perfectly understandable if years from now, or maybe fifteen minutes after leaving the theatre, the only thing you clearly remember about the Roundabout's new production of A Man For All Seasons is Frank Langella's extraordinary performance as the highly-principled Chancellor of England, Sir Thomas More, who refused to support Henry VIII's wish to separate from the Vatican and form the Church of England in order for him to divorce the aging Catherine of Aragon and wed Anne Boleyn in hopes of their union producing a son and heir.  Not that director Doug Hughes' sturdy mounting of Robert Bolt's 1960 historical drama doesn't contain fine work from the rest of the ensemble, but in a play where the central figure so dominates the proceedings - especially with this production's removal of the narrator/commenter character known as The Common Man - Langella linguistically feasts on the dense, wordy text and gracefully conveys the complexities of a family man who refuses to betray his conscious, no matter the cost to his loved ones or his own head.While Bolt leans on portraying More a bit more on the saintly side than reality dictates, Langella never strikes a false note as he spares philosophically with the self-involved king (Patrick Page), the slickly elegant Spanish ambassador (Triney Sandoval) and the arch Oliver Cromwell (an almost dastardly Zach Grenier).  His distain for the corruption of the men surrounding him is expressed by both roaring bursts and faintly exasperated glances.  To see the actor's transformation of More from a righteous lion to a fragile, quietly defiant prisoner in the Tower of London, awaiting execution, is a heartbreaking experience.  Also very touching is the work of Maryann Plunkett as his long-suffering but devoted wife.

While riding the uptown Broadway local train from Times Square around 1am on Saturday night after enjoying post-A Man For All Seasons cocktails with my Tudor-geek friend who vigorously detailed all the play's historical inaccuracies for me (more on that one later in the week) I found myself in a car nearby a group of adolescents having a loud and just as vigorous discussion about how all boys were dogs.

On the night when baseball's all-stars were blasting dingers into the bleachers of Yankee Stadium, the cast of Scott Siegel's A Night At The Operetta, was having their own home run derby on the stage of Town Hall, knocking melodies by Victor Herbert, Sigmund Romberg and Rudolf Friml out of the park.  And in both cases, the crowd frequently went nuts.

Not a Julliard grad in the bunch, but Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy, though it plays at a theatre that once housed Ethel Merman, Alfred Drake and Bombay Dreams (just checking to see if you're paying attention) is not exactly aimed at the typical New York theatre audience and it certainly wouldn't be fair to review it as such. But that's not to say it isn't extremely entertaining and a perfectly fun bit of summer diversion. Kinda like Tarzan, the Musical without the book, music and lyrics.

Michael Reidel reports today that Bebe Neuwirth has been signed to play Morticia in Andrew Lippa, Rick Elice and Marshall Brickman's new Addams Family musical and that Nathan Lane is being sought to play hubby Gomez.  That's all very well and good but the casting coup I'd like to see is Adam “Cubby Bernstein” Riegler for the role of Pugsley.  I first caught Adam at the York Theatre's Mufti production of I And Albert where he absolutely slew the audience as a cockney juvenile delinquent, getting a roar of laughter and a big round of applause for saying one line.  (It wasn't even a funny one.)  I hear Adam has been nabbed for Shrek: The Musical, but maybe his agent can dig up some kind of loophole.  As Lucy Van Pelt says, 'This kind of thing always has a loophole.'

As one of the critics who championed A Catered Affair, my favorite new musical of the season, I was sad to hear they've put up the closing notice.  And while I understand Harvey Fierstein may be a little miffed at the reception the show received from many of the critics, I'm not especially happy to read the sweeping generalizations he's quoted as giving in a recent Michael Riedel column.

The time had already come and passed for The Faux Marx Brothers & Co. to hit the stage with the final performance of The York Theatre's Mufti production of Minnie's Boys on Sunday night when Producing Artistic Director Jim Morgan announced that the show had to be held up a bit because there were people stuck in the theatre's elevator.

London's Olivier Awards divides plays into categories honoring 'Best Play' and 'Best Comedy.' Do you think the Tonys should do the same? Let us know on our new poll.

There's little drama to be had in first-time playwright George Stevens, Jr's solo play, Thurgood, a textbook review of the career of civil rights attorney and eventual U.S. Supreme Court JustIce Thurgood Marshall. Set at the Howard University Law School Auditorium with The Playgoers serving as the title character's audience, the ninety minute piece offers a chronological telling of his personal history without much happening in the immediate present. It's a bit like watching a historical documentary of a familiar story with none of that great archival footage.

Every so often a musical comes to town that we're told, 'Breaks all the rules!,' and 'Changes Broadway Forever!' That's nice. Usually this has something to do with having rock music, weak story-telling and an advertising campaign that convinces you that it's like nothing else Broadway has ever seen.

Let's assume our next president stays perfectly healthy and impeachment-free throughout his or her administration and our next vice-president has no official responsibility other than presiding over the senate. Our new poll asks which Broadway star you'd like to see as our new veep.

Lighting designer R. Lee Kennedy has a planetarium's worth of stars flooding the Connolly Theatre's stage at the outset of Transport Group's production of Nancy Shayne's new musical, Marcy In The Galaxy. But gleaming through the clusters is the face of Donna Lynne Champlin, shining with hopefulness and wonder. The galaxy her title character occupies is actually the Galaxy Diner of Hell's Kitchen but Marcy is also one of the countless number of barely distinguishable stars that form the spiraling galaxy of Manhattan. The musical's story of a struggling artist nearing 40 and wondering for how long she can continue the struggle is a familiar one, but though Shayne's material offers no unique spin, her chamber musical is an inviting and sincere charmer mounted by Jack Cummings III with a light and whistful touch.

You know those very annoying packs of young drunkards you run into around 3am or so while wandering the bar-stuffed streets of the Lower East Side or the West Village, trying to find the nearest open pizza joint or Gray's Papaya in a quest to carbo-absorb the evening's alcoholic intake? The kind that insists on merrily prancing the pavement with their voice volumes set to 11 and their wits set at 3rd grade, so excited to be partying in the city? Adam Bock wrote a whole play about them! Well, maybe not a whole play… is ninety minutes a whole play? But in any case, you know something… Once you get to know these annoying brats, they're actually kinda fun to be with. At least when the things they say are written by Adam Bock and Trip Cullman directs the way they say them.