We really don't care about theatre do we?

well i splurged on a mezz seat for The Humans, $54 all in

Late reply, Morbs, but missed The Humans. Heard nothing but great things about it, though.

The ad in the NY Times for it is full of raves.

Meanwhile (per an ilm posting of mine)-- I caught outside of DC a remake of the opera Carmen--but turned into an Afro-Cuban musical set in 1959 Cuba with music composed by Arturo O'Farrill, and choreography by Sergio Trujillo (who is a big deal on Broadway). Got tix half-price from Goldstar but still not cheap. Music and dancing was good, alas the main male lead was not, and the spoken and sung lines were not. Jose's switch from loyal Batista soldier to revolutionary and guy in love with Carmen was not believable. Broadway author/director Moisés Kaufman needs to rewrite script and find a better male lead if he wants to take this to the great white way.

for the few of you NYers who do care about theater, here's a bunch of free musicals, spoken word, plays, opera and circus for you this summer:

Theater, Cabaret, Opera and Spoken Word at SummerStage 2016: Chicago’s 20th Anniversary, The Metropolitan Opera Summer Recital Series, Roger Guenveur Smith’s ‘Rodney King’, The Classical Theater of Harlem’s ‘Macbeth’, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Nuyorican Poets Café, Liza Jessie Peterson and LuQuantumleap, Stephanie Batten Bland with Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber and more

Liza Jessie Peterson, LuQuantumleap
June 17 – Friday - 7:00pm – Red Hook Park, Brooklyn – FREE SHOW

Rich Medina, RAAA, Urban Word NYC and Hi-Arts: Journal to Journey, Ziearre
June 19 – Sunday - 4:00pm - Red Hook Park, Brooklyn – FREE SHOW

The Metropolitan Opera Summer Recital
Featuring Angel Blue, Ben Bliss, Alexey Lavrov and pianist Dan Saunders
June 22 – Wednesday - 7:00pm - Central Park, Manhattan – FREE SHOW
June 25 – Saturday - Brooklyn Bridge Park, Brooklyn – FREE SHOW

Nuyorican Poets Café featuring
Mahogany Browne’s Redbone and reg e gaines’ The Last Celebrity
June 24 – Friday - 7:00pm - Betsy Head Park, Brooklyn – FREE SHOW

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah: Stand-Up in the Park
Featuring Ronny Chieng, Jordan Klepper, Adam Lowitt, Desi Lydic,
Hasan Minhaj, Michelle Wolf and Roy Wood Jr.
June 26 – Sunday - 7:00pm - Central Park, Manhattan – FREE SHOW

Nuyorican Poets Café presents Craig muMs Grant’s A Sucker Emcee
July 8 – Friday – 7:00pm – Crotona Park, Bronx – FREE SHOW

The Classical Theatre of Harlem presents Macbeth
July 8 – Friday – 8:00pm – Marcus Garvey Park, Manhattan – FREE SHOW
July 9 – Saturday – 8:00pm – Marcus Garvey Park, Manhattan – FREE SHOW
July 10 – Sunday – 8:00pm – Marcus Garvey Park, Manhattan – FREE SHOW
July 12 – Tuesday – 8:00pm – Marcus Garvey Park, Manhattan – FREE SHOW
July 13 - Wednesday– 8:00pm – Marcus Garvey Park, Manhattan – FREE SHOW
July 14 - Thursday – 8:00pm – Marcus Garvey Park, Manhattan – FREE SHOW
July 15 - Friday – 8:00pm – Marcus Garvey Park, Manhattan – FREE SHOW
July 16 - Saturday – 8:00pm – Marcus Garvey Park, Manhattan – FREE SHOW
July 17 - Sunday – 8:00pm – Marcus Garvey Park, Manhattan – FREE SHOW
July 19 - Tuesday – 8:00pm – Marcus Garvey Park, Manhattan – FREE SHOW
July 20 - Wednesday – 8:00pm – Marcus Garvey Park, Manhattan – FREE SHOW
July 21 - Thursday – 8:00pm – Marcus Garvey Park, Manhattan – FREE SHOW
July 22 - Friday – 8:00pm – Marcus Garvey Park, Manhattan – FREE SHOW
July 23 - Saturday – 8:00pm – Marcus Garvey Park, Manhattan – FREE SHOW
July 24 - Sunday – 8:00pm – Marcus Garvey Park, Manhattan – FREE SHOW
July 26 - Tuesday – 8:00pm – Marcus Garvey Park, Manhattan – FREE SHOW
July 27 - Wednesday– 8:00pm – Marcus Garvey Park, Manhattan – FREE SHOW
July 28 - Thursday – 8:00pm – Marcus Garvey Park, Manhattan – FREE SHOW
July 29 - Friday – 8:00pm – Marcus Garvey Park, Manhattan – FREE SHOW
July 30 - Saturday – 8:00pm – Marcus Garvey Park, Manhattan – FREE SHOW

SummerStage Circus:
Acrobuffos, Rob and Miss Jane, Sxip’s Hour of Charm, It’s Showtime NYC
July 9 – Saturday - 7:00pm – Crotona Park, Bronx – FREE SHOW

The Metropolitan Opera Summer Recital
Featuring Michelle Bradley, Kang Wang and Yunpeng Wang
July 9 – Saturday – 7:00pm – Jackie Robinson Park, Manhattan – FREE SHOW
July 11 – Monday – 7:00pm – Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens – FREE SHOW
July 13 - Wednesday – 7:00pm – Crotona Park, Bronx – FREE SHOW

Flight of the Conchords sing Flight of the Conchords
July 24 – Sunday – 5:00pm – Central Park, Manhattan – PAID SHOW – SOLD OUT

Nuyorican Poets Café featuring
Paulo Javier and Maria Lisella Hosting a Night of Queens Poets
July 29 – Friday – 7:00pm – Queensbridge Park, Queens – FREE SHOW

Stefanie Batten Bland with Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber
Pre-Show Master Class with Karisma Jay
July 30 – Saturday – 7:00pm – Queensbridge Park, Queens – FREE SHOW

Roger Guenveur Smith’s “Rodney King”
August 12 – Friday – East River Park, Manhattan – FREE SHOW

SummerStage Circus:
Kalabanté Circus, Iron Skulls and Quim Moya, Sxip’s Hour of Charm
August 20 – Saturday – 7:00pm – Marcus Garvey Park, Manhattan – FREE SHOW

SummerStage Circus:
Kalabanté Circus, Iron Skulls and Quim Moya, Sxip’s Hour of Charm
August 21 – Sunday – 7:00pm – Marcus Garvey Park, Manhattan – FREE SHOW

Chicago The Broadway Musical: 20th Anniversary Concert
August 31 – Wednesday – 7:00pm – Central Park, Manhattan – FREE SHOW

i saw The Humans and it was... very good. I need more.

Seeing Kiki and Herb soon.

Dark stuff -- this story has been in the works for the past year and a half. The stories emerged around the time of the Ghomeshi scandal, and (instead of protesting or meme-ing the situation) everyone has been very patient waiting for either this media outlet or the police to do something.

http://m.chicagoreader.com/chicago/profiles-theatre-theater-abuse-investigation/Content?oid=22415861

that's a hell of an article, scary stuff.

...and closed:

http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2016/06/14/profiles-theatre-closes

damn, that's journalism!

read as much of that horrifying original piece as i could stomach (not much)

Neil LaBute gave them a bunch of U.S./world premiere productions of his scripts, and he's horrified too:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/theater/news/ct-profiles-theatre-chicago-closes-20160615-story.html

Taylor Mac's 24 hour song cycle just went up at $400 a ticket and i really wanna but...

Michael Feingold on O'Neill, his family, Long Day's Journey

http://www.theatermania.com/new-york-city-theater/news/notes-on-oneills-ghosts_77359.html

http://www.theatermania.com/new-york-city-theater/news/notes-on-oneills-ghosts-part-ii_77413.html

saw faith healer at donmar warehouse last night - it was one of the best things i've seen in london. gina mckee in particular did a 30-minute monologue that was absolutely perfect.

it's sold out but if you call into donmar you can get returns p easily. or there's the barclays front row thing on mondays but i couldn't get anything from that.

i thought it was fantastic too and i did get the front row tickets. in fact i managed it on two consecutive weeks so it's highly possible if you log in before 10am.

did you realise that Frank was played by Stephen Dillane aka Stannis Baratheon? Mind Blown when i googled it afterwards. I thought everyone was fantastic in it. Ron Cook was amazing as Teddy and Gina was great but it was Dillane's mix of intensity and casual dismissal that stole the show for me. I would have liked to have seen a bit more done lighting-wise to differentiate the tone of the monologues but that was a v minor criticism.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/09/12/theater/bears-in-space-review-jack-gleeson.html

Oh look something you could go to see if you wanted

so uh what will be up in London, last week of November?

say, one West End and one smaller thing

or a classic and a gonzo brain-fryer

(pref to things i won't get in NY obviously)

Glenda Jackson as Lear, hmmmm

among the American comedy revivals opening soon in London: Kaufman & Hart's Once in a Lifetime and Murray Schisgal's Luv

I'm going to the king lear of glenda jackson and once in a lifetime in november - considering the children at the royal court which starts in november. have you looked at the national theatre? looking forward to seeing the red barn (david hare george simenon adap starring mark strong) next week which I think continues to the end of november but there may be other good things on then too

i got tickets for the 24 hour taylor after all. gonna be a thing.

Mark Rylance has a thing too

a thing he'd had in new york in 2013

didnt see it nor do i remember

anyone see this when it ran 3 years ago? i remember the reviews... West End transfer finally, and Phil Daniels!

https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/this-house

I thought it was great. I considered recommending it but I guess I thought it might be a little...specific?

i know a leetle about Brit politics of that era, having seen many punk documentaries :)

I've seen a couple of other plays by the same writer which were fine but not particularly good - this house I remember thinking was particularly good. brisk and funny with convincing (to me) specificity.

The Black Crook was super excellent
http://www.brooklynrail.org/2016/09/theater/debauching-many-a-pure-mind-the-return-of-the-black-crook

Taylor's 24 hour show had life changing qualities and i'm still unpacking

red barn bad btw

probly wouldn't have made my cut, but thanks

any small/indie London theatre recs? i have West End taken care of with This House... wil likely visit TKTS, see if The Children at Royal Court is available. but their web page doesn't seem to list non-WE stuff?

oh here we go

http://www.offwestend.com/

i've read good things abt the Pleasence Theatre

http://www.offwestend.com/index.php/theatres/shows/58

I can recommend Southwark Playhouse and the Almeida.

I don't have any particular recommendations at the moment - seeing the children in a couple of weeks. most of these "non-west-end" theatres, like the royal court and almeida, have their own sites and booking, although ATG groups together some incl donmar warehouse and trafalgar studios. almeida consistently good to very good and sometimes fantastic - depends when you're here as I think the current prod (which I liked) ends soon. southwark playhouse I have seen good things at but also some quite not good things. the king lear of glenda jackson at the old vic was good in parts - one part that was not good (was bad), sadly, was edgar. played by a grandson of patrick troughton. I realised later I'd seen him before in a not-great play by the guy that wrote this house.

Garrick prod of This House opened last night; on Monday I got a post-show-discussion w/ the playwright (who is ten tons of cute btw), director and cast as well. A very well-oiled, funny, energetic thing, and lucid despite all the 40-yo politics.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/this-house-garrick-theatre-review-james-graham-conservative-lib-dem-coalition-a7449831.html

the theatre designer i think i mentioned at some point at the lexington is rae smith, who was designer for the house (hadn't put two and two together here)

plus in other ppl-we-discussed-at-the-lexington news: i got an email out of the blue from former ilxor colin beckett the very next day!

i strongly disliked the Taylor mac distillation that i saw b4 it was completed

why? I'm a big fan.

you know, i think it would take me a long time to correctly articulate, but for now i would just leave it at i've never loved performance art! i was sort of dragged against my will....

it requires buy-in, that's for sure. Not for everybody!

^^truth

incidentally, i am seeing homos thursday
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/07/theater/homos-or-everyone-in-america-review.html
and the encounter at the end of the month
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/30/theater/the-encounter-review.html
and then six pieces at under the radar
http://publictheater.org/en/Public-Theater-Season/Under-the-Radar-2017/

the encounter pretty incredible if you like that kind of thing

i tend to!

suwm you woulda loved my performance art.