We really don't care about theatre do we?

I might have time for one of those.

Not a big fan of LuPone's (current) voice, but Gypsy was worth the discount ticket. Now I gotta get a gimmick.

*shaking head*

what're yer gripes?

the staging was horrendous, the acting was horrible. i thought benanti was lame and uninteresting and not tony caliber at all and lupone was screechy and over the top (but not in a good way, even for mama rose). i enjoy old musicals, so it's not that i just don't like the show, i just felt like it was some of the worst 3 hours of my life in that theater.

wtf @ that sheep!

You're just not gonna see that on stage anywhere else, and American culture is poorer for it.

wait american culture is poorer for not seeing bad acting and a shitty production?

oh, c'mon. I'd hate to think where you'd place the 3 hours I spent seeing The Wild Party!

We live in a world where revivals of Grease run for years every decade.

that doesn't mean that anything not hairspray or grease revival is automatically better!

even if the show might be better on the surface, you still need a good production/cast. if you can't make me feel anything, i don't care how famous you are. even the bette midler tv movie was more moving imo.

xp: It does if it has a song called "Have an Eggroll, Mr. Goldstone."

I'm not sure the audience even got that the June/Louise acts were sposed to be bad until the characters said so.

Sorry tza, I did get a mild case of goosebumps at "Everything's Coming Up Roses."

I never saw any other version, but I recall Peter Riegert was Herbie opposite the Dreaded Bette. dnw Midler tho.

plus, you felt disgust lol

my audience "got it"

fwiw hairspray and this gypsy were both mounted by the same producers so i don't think you can really make any argument that one is inherently more artful in its intent, regardless of the date it was written.

i was not goosebumped by ecur.

All sorts of variable persons and things are mounted by Broadway producers.

It's harder to screw up Gypsy than a John Waters film whose chief asset is the period music THAT'S REMOVED for a new score!

(i decided against the gyllenhaal vanya mentioned above; going to cripple of inishmaan instead.)

good Irish miserabilism!

When I re-read your post saying "denis o'hare and maggie g in vanya", I started thinking of Denis Leary in Vanya. I'd like to direct that.

It's harder to screw up Gypsy than a John Waters film whose chief asset is the period music THAT'S REMOVED for a new score!

obviously this is going to get me nowhere, but retooling a score to make a commercially viable adaptation (sorry, things don't go to bw unless they have some commercial goals in mind, even w/ the bw not-for-profits, and waters sold rights for it so he had to realize it was going to happen) is one thing that while artistically "questionable" is somewhat justifiable, but putting up a half-assed production (that did not receive good reviews the 1st time it ran at city center) and charging $125 for it is not acceptable to me.

Haven't read the Times review yet, but the summary for Hedda Gabler is

That the director Ian Rickson is responsible for one of the worst revivals I have ever, ever seen has me flummoxed.

i have been trying to figure out how i feel about that production for the past week and i am just not sure. the pacing was REALLY weird. pj harvey's music was neat but i hate trying to put sound design like that in a straight play. it just seems so out of place. i feel like at times it was hard to forget her weeds character because her range was at times very similar to nancy botwin's more sarcastic/frustrated moments. i was really disappointed by peter stormare. i usually love him and expected a lot, but he was pretty awkward, not in a good way.

maybe i should be glad i've seen weeds all of twice. that probably helped. otm re sound design.

i liked it though, had no expectations coming in and was just happy to go for free

you know, i do feel that MLP's range can be very limited.

yeah i have certainly seen a lot worse theater in the past year. i didn't hate it. i don't usually agree w/ brantley anyway. i just haven't been able to say i loved it or hated it... i almost don't have much of an opinion at all.

i'm currently deciding whether or not to spend 3 hours of my life at The Cherry Orchard

can you do so for free? i'd say give it a shot if so.

MLP did plenty of theatre before becoming a cable star, i dunno about her range tho

We care about (musical, mostly) theatre.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45411000/jpg/_45411582__44409308_hair_body_pa-1.jpg

^^what people think of when they think of theater

er, that's
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45411000/jpg/_45411582__44409308_hair_body_pa-1.jpg

RIP Anna Manahan; really strong in The Beauty Queen of Leenane:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/10/arts/10manahan.html

Trying to figure if I want to gamble on Nathan Lane & Bill Irwin in Godot -- I have a $20 tix email.

i'm currently deciding whether or not to spend 3 hours of my life at The Cherry Orchard

― Surmounter, Monday, January 26, 2009 12:38 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

can you do so for free? i'd say give it a shot if so.

― tehresa, Monday, January 26, 2009 12:41 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i didn't end up doing this. but i have no shame. just not my cup o tea

Morbius just GODOIT

The only WfG prod i've seen was Mike Nichols' 20 years ago w/ Steve Martin & Robin Williams (and Bill Irwin as Lucky)...

this thread is quite frustrating because we all seem to be talking about wildly different things but i'm glad it's here nonetheless.

the next two months in glasgow have some great things upcoming:

anne liv young is bringing her newest thing "the bagwell in me" to the arches theatre festival which is also putting on Belgian troup Ontroerend Goed company's "Once and for All We're Gonna Tell You Who We Are So Shut Up and Listen". excited for that.

talking of the Belgians, who are undoubtedly creating the best theatre in the world, the Tramway are mounting an international series (4 Belgian companies and none from anywhere else lol) comprising Jan Fabre's "Orgy of Tolerance", Victoria's "Venizke", C de la B's newest large scale work, "Ashes" and Wayne Traub's "Maria-Magdalena" (although i'm pretty meh about Traub).

i'm so psyched.

i was supposed to be heading to Antwerp to see the latest Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui piece but it seems that has been nixed for financial reasons.

my bf has been asked to direct quite a major thing based (loosly) on the early life of Louise Bourgeouis and i'm going to be designing it too. thriled.

still haven't seen anything by anne liv young. keep hearing things about her -- a couple of my friends know her/have worked with her

sur, you just missed "sherry's march madness" which was a performance in the shape of a fucked up cocktail party (or something) in her own apartment in NYC. sonds pretty lol.

if you are interested you should add her company as a friend on facebook. she does lots of small scale things like that and posts invites to them to "fans" through fb.

yeah, i guess she does that fairly often? one of my friends was in one of her apt pieces a little while ago. SHIRTLESS no less :)

haha, her "snow white" ended with her getting two men in the audience to strip off and close-dance with her on stage (she was naked) while she told the rest of the audience to get out of the auditorium (which we duly did, she's not the sort of person you would defy). she was trying to get them naked too but they only went as far as SHIRTLESS.

i've just skimmed some stuff about her shows, and man, they would annoy me

but you are easily annoyed.

well, ive had 25 years to get annoyed by stuff like that.

the line between annoying and innovative is an important one, nonetheless

and long may it continue.

"stuff like that" doesn't really cover it. i've seen a lot of performance, most of it bad, and her work is pretty unique.

xpost

some of my coworkers saw that one where she plays George and Martha Washington. on-stage cunnilingus etc... i was kind of annoyed i missed it

obv I dunno, I'd have to see it. I'm a lot more wary of "innovative" tags than I was 20 years ago.

I'm interested in how performance art isn't called performance art anymore, so folks don't go into it with the same preconceptions.

lol at dance turning into "movement"

i'm wary of "innovative" too, but i still embrace it. we would be at a disadvantage if we didn't have these sorts of extremeties on the spectrum.