We really don't care about theatre do we?

just keep your hands to yourself :D

I'll bring some wine gums

desert sorted, i'll bring criss

Just done this, btw - don't know what I'll bring

great!

big 2 ltr bottle of coke?

sure :-)b

want this shirt
http://images.tbd.com/entertainment/team_edward_017_606.jpg

James 'fucking' Corden in One Man Two Guv'nors at The National Theatre. Yeah ok he was actually pretty good in this. Starts out like an 'ironic' revival of an awful 1960s sitcom, terrible jokes and all, interspersed with moments of 'hilarious' slapstick. Most of the audience seemed to think this actually was the funniest thing they'd seen in their lives, I was considerably more sceptical, but as the slapstick got thicker and the scenarios got more ridiculous it pretty much won me over. The story is so thin as to be nonexistent but most of the performances are top notch. There are a couple of audience interaction moments which beggar belief, and they try something interesting and different with the between-scene music numbers - fun when the cast are doing their turns, not so much when the house band are wearing out their welcome.

I was at an amateur production of Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead last night. Great fun.

13 at the National Theatre, a big ol' mess of bad philosophy, vague mysticism, fill-in-the-blanks zeitgeist, and pointlessly rehearsed old political arguments. I can't figure out what exactly what the message was, but the available options are either obviously stupid, stupidly insulting, or insultingly obvious.

Finally got on the Jerusalem bandwagon, fantastic. Amazing character and performance. Let down a little by my crappy restricted view seat. Wonder what A Farrell of this parish thought...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2012/jan/20/jacobean-tragedies-changeling-duchess-malfi

^sorta wanna see...

we're bringing back a musical we did two years ago to the local Fr!nge Festival. last time, it sold out all but one performance, got great press, and won the venue, but we knew there were weaknesses with the script, so we tasked out to make rewrites.

I was not one of the script writers (of which there were two), but I was asked to consult last time. I made a lot of suggestions that got used, and didn't really bitch about the non-writer credit as I was overwhelmed by the positive experience and got swept up in the teamwork of it all (we all really helped finish writing it together).

This time, though...i'm starting to wonder why I'm not at least getting a "with additional material by" credit. The original music director, who really gave one minor contribution, got this credit.

I actually supplied 13 of the lines, and wrote the entire conceit for the ending, which is the one thing that was holding the show up. kinda feel like I should demand an "additional material by" credit. I don't want a regular writer's credit because the script is still overwhelmingly the two main writers', but I gave more than just a few throwaway jokes.

*sigh*. dunno if it's worth pursuing, not like I'm getting money out of it anyway.

I would pursue it but if it looks like resulting in any kind of stress or bad feeling i'd probably advise you to forget about it.

kinda what I'm thinking

i'm more like a script doctor I guess anyway

pretty much just a dude that says NOT FUNNY when the writers get out of hand

a valuable service!

Was at a cast party for a show my friends did last night. Usually fun, but man, sometimes actors can get so sensitive about press that they wind up being out of character offensive.

Take my close friend, D, for example. He's a compassionate, family man with two kids, who occasionally lapses into childish territory, but no more than any other emotionally stunted actor. He was very friendly and supportive a few years ago when quite a few notable local theatre personalities tragically passed away.

So it was quite uncomfortable and disturbing to me when he got on the topic of this awful show we did together last year (that he wrote). It was one of the worst things I've done, and quietly, many of us involved have admitted as such after the fact. Except him and a few others. We got a bad review in the press by one of the local critics, and he was stung by it at the time.

However, six months later, she tragically died in her sleep. Many people in our circle knew her and were devastated by it...and D knew this. For whatever reason, though, he still hasn't made peace with the review, and starts whining about this woman and her lack of credentials last night. Which would have been somewhat harmless if he wasn't doing it in front of one of the late critic's friends, who I could tell was trying to get him to pump the brakes, before reluctantly tuning him out for two minutes until he got on another topic.

o_O. Awk...ward. Actors who can't see their own faults and hate critics confuse the everliving shit out of me.

(the 'she' that died being the critic)

Profile of Mike Nichols:
http://nymag.com/arts/theater/profiles/mike-nichols-2012-3/index2.html

He's using the original set and score for his Death of a Salesman revival. Hmm.

Just booked tickets to see Juliet Binoche in Miss Julie at the Barbican in September. PSYCHED!!!!!

Off to Other Desert Cities tonight (annual Broadway splurge); haven't seen Stockard Channing in awhile (2 Guare plays) and Stacy Keach never...

saw brimstone and treacle at the arcola in dalston (london) last night... very good though lots of changes from potter's original, and hackneyed use of punk music between acts to show changing britain or some similarly dumb overdone thing.

only saw the film with Shting

jesus just googled that, crazy! is it any good?

the original tv play is brilliant.

stage version last night did have the amusing cliffhanger at the end whereby nobody wanted to applaud too soon after the rape scene that ends it. long, long and awkward silence.

I remember it being good... probably the 3rd Potter I saw after the two versions of Pennies from Heaven.

Plug plug plug to New Yorkers:

A show I adapted and directed is going to run in NYC in August. Details here and here.

thx Eazy.

I'll be at all the shows--say hi if you make it there.

Tech-ed my show today. Love being next door to Mamoun's and the Comedy Cellar.

Showtimes:
http://www.nyc-arts.org/events/20291/fringenyc-an-interrogation-primer

hah, I was at Mamoun's at 6pm... I'll have to figure this out

Saw Sam Shepard's new play, Heartless, last night. As always with him, very hit or miss, but some moments that work are sticking with me. Truly weird, rather than the more naturalistic True West, et al. Back to his shapeshifting roots.

Really liked the Signature space a lot--acoustics were perfect. And all tickets are $25--perfect price for an inconsistent show that I'm very glad to have seen.

Gary Cole is actually terrific in this.

My show's getting a bunch of great reviews. Tix may sell out soon.

http://www.backstage.com/review/ny-theater/off-off-broadway/an-interrogation-primer-at-the-NY-Fringe-Festival/

great stuff Eazy. well done!

i had a great time watching 3 Tom Murphy plays today.

http://www.druid.ie/productions/druidmurphy-the-plays-of-tom-murphy

I'll be dere Saturday, Eazy.

Great great--I'll be there.

seeing this tomorrow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCkwqmYIlDc

it lasts four and a half hours.

Eaz, just look after the show for a guy who has a cane or appears to need one. (hoping I can get there, today is a bitch)

The theater (unfortunately) is up two flights of stairs, in case that makes a difference.

Been a good run, both with audiences and press. Hope to do more with it.

holy shit that was 4 hours of absolutely incredible stagecraft. i have NEVER seen an entire audience give a standing ovation for a full ten minutes but that's what happened.

just found out i won free tickets to see theatre de la ville-paris's staging of ionesco's 'rinocerose' tomorrow night!

btw I really liked the play Eazy directed, and not just cuz 40 mins is about the longest I can sit these days.

Hey, thanks. Didn't think you made it, between the two flights and the cane, and very glad you did.

I get these Theatermania discount emails that encourage you to "Go beyond Broadway..."
The first two shows offered in today's are Cougar the Musical and The Butt-cracker Suite.

I must've asked about the Steppenwolf VaWoolf? revival before , yeah? And has anyone seen Mies Julie in Brooklyn?

This I'd like to see:
http://www.thewrap.com/culture/article/fiona-shaw-returning-broadway-colm-toibins-testament-mary-72086

Haven't heard anything bad about VaWoolf all these years. Never was in the right place at the right time to see it.

This is funny:
http://www.broadway.com/buzz/166904/whos-virginia-woolf-watch-tracy-letts-and-amy-morton-endure-five-awkward-tv-questions/

^Saw it yesterday.

The state of Broadway audiences is such that the douse-your-phones announcement was made BEFORE EACH OF THE THREE ACTS. George's Who's Afraid monologue about the coming death of civilization via technology fulfilled.