We really don't care about theatre do we?

i find it astonishing that someone would actually look at their phone during a show, rather than say forgetting to turn it off.

it's routine at movies in NYC. doing it on Broadway takes balls esp at those prices.

yeah, but tourists
concerts are now officially the worst; people arrive with their fucking arms extended and phones on

^lifelong idiot NYers fully capable of this behavior.

My pal's son Will is in this, alas sold out already, w/ other recent LaGuardia grads:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joanne-rendell/theater-on-their-own-terms_b_7785570.html

my aunt wants to take me to something called JOHN at Signature NYC on Aug 8 but it's about young struggling love blegh

trying to figure out something else

it's by the playwright/dir of The Flick, surm, big dual profile in the Sunday Times

she can take me! j/k

in addition to Christopher Abbott, the legendary Lois Smith is in it i think. the reg tix are just $25 anyhoo.

oh u hafta subscribe for the discount, that figgers

http://www.signaturetheatre.org/tickets/production.aspx?pid=4241

yeah she's insisting on it Morbs. she's like do you want to bring your bf? i'm like ... no

btw The Flick just extended here thru January 10.

iiinteresting

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...

Hah, I don't think I was much of this parish at that point.

I thought it was fantastic, one of the best things I've seen, and it gave me a lot of Thoughts about England, particularly as contrasted with Britain. It strikes me as secretly being partially about the Criminal Justice Act, and I really wish I could discuss it with the dude I know who I am pretty certain has strong firsthand views on such things (and may have joked about being the kid on the gatefold of Songs For the Jilted Generation), but I'm pretty certain he didn't see it. I mean, the dude is doing okay, he has a canal boat now, but he doesn't see a lot of £50 plays.

Has anyone seen The Trial as a play? What was it like?

The answer is now yes, Rory Kinnear in the Young Vic production. It was pretty good. Wasn't convinced at first, it started out like a lurid bedroom farce interspersed with brief monologues in a strange kind of joycean proto-language. But it got increasingly nightmarish, though no less lurid - the hints and elided scenes of sex in the novel were dragged into the full glare of our hypermediated and hypersexualised environment - and it had a real sense of bewilderment and persecution. It did pull a punch with the death scene though.

Benedict Cumberbatch thought it (or Kinnear) was worth a standing ovation.

Well if Cumberbatch likes it then who are we to disagree?

Well they're probably bezzie mates so it would have been rude of him not to. Kinnear was very good though, as was Kate O’Flynn playing multiple roles.

i thought the trial was very good - i liked kinnear, don't normally like him, and kate o'flynn was amazing. the set was great. one drawback was that the music was poor and very clichéd, i felt.

i didn't like the clockwork orange style proto-language - i thought that was pretty stupid and didn't add to it

Can't say I'm a fan of Clockwork Orange-speak either :-( Hopefully that didn't elbow Kafka's phrasing too much.

I'll find out in a couple of weeks.

Stage director Peter Brook is revisiting The Mahabharata, his nine-hour epic stage production from 1985, as part of the Young Vic's new season.

The new play Battlefield, will focus on one section of the epic, dealing with the aftermath of a military conflict.

It will premiere in Paris on 15 September before coming to the Young Vic in February.

I'm in.

Well, Marc Maron has a post about loving Annie Baker's The Flick and John and interviewed her for an upcoming show, so maybe she'll be reaching a broader audience soon. Maybe the first mainstream "cool" playwright since Kushner?

lin-manuel miranda begs to differ

Oh, that's true.

Did manage to catch The Trial and liked Kate O'Flynn in those multiple roles of hers.

The mix-up of tenses from Kinnear did add a level of risk. I want to read the book and see if it adds anything -- Kinnear did convey someone who is kinda meek and shy and then has to break out of himself (which Kafka as a person has never done) to attempt to survive (which, again, Kafka himself didn't do).

http://www.npr.org/series/98679384/first-listen

The cast recording for Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton is an NPR First Listen

on first contact of song one, i really don't like it!

I was disappointed too, but haven't listened to the rest.

I will cop to being predisposed to dislike this but i have made a promise to myself to listen to it in its entirety before year's end

Man, big year for Ivo Van Hove in NYC: Bowie musical, A View from the Bridge, The Crucible (with Tavi Gevinson).

Christ, Hamilton. I'm guessing it works onstage, but it sure is hard to take on first listen.

seeing Helen Lawrence next week, STOKED
http://www.bam.org/theater/2015/helen-lawrence

opening night tonight for mary poppins; i will be wearing a headset and saying things like "projection standing by for flight" and "fuck".

Maron interviews Annie Baker on WTF this coming Monday.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/30/theater/cheap-broadway-tickets-can-be-a-matter-of-luck-timing-and-apps.html?ribbon-ad-idx=6&rref=theater&module=Ribbon&version=context®ion=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Theater&pgtype=article

http://www.playwrightshorizons.org/shows/plays/hir-epilogue/
this was excellent and i have thoughts

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/CVf4Vl8U8AA2mj_.jpg

the hell

saw lazarus last night. what a strange, expensive looking bit of karaoke sausage.

I take this thread title as a personal indictment of my failure as a reader and a person generally. 2016 marks the 13th year that this thread has wagged its finger at me

i'd argue that separate NYC / London / etc theater threads are necessary but i guess we don't care about theater do we

maybe the problem is you can't really contribute unless you've seen the play...

not that that usually stops the kind of wankers who post here

maybe the problem is not enough people have seen the play to encourage those who haven't seen it to give us their opinion

inspired by ilxor caek doing same, i will be seeing Ivo van Hove's production of A View from the Bridge shortly.

friend saw the Bowie musical, thought it crap.

xp is anybody else gonna see the bowie play? Would love someone else's impressions to bounce off. Can't recommend it by any stretch but some of van Hove's decisions are good and the acting and singing are strong... there's just no play there.

i wouldn't argue with "crap" honestly but it held up for the first 45 minutes. that sad moment when you find yourself paying way too much attention to the architecture and light plot...

also i must go see Bill Irwin & David Shiner do their latest Old Hats duo-clowning off-Broadway, as i have since the late '80s... bcz guys in their 60s doing pratfalls adds suspense!

http://www.signaturetheatre.org/tickets/production.aspx?pid=4307

am going to nyc in a couple of months to see third rail's the grand paradise... it's sort of immersive theatre, dunno if that's the kind of phrase that draws ire around here, but i saw their play "then she fell" last time i was over and it was beautiful.

not solely going to see that i guess, but it's a big draw... think it just opened.

Under the Radar is up and running, need to pick out a few. $25 tickets all the way around
http://publictheater.org/Programs--Events/Under-the-Radar-Festival/