We really don't care about theatre do we?

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.

haha i'm sure :)

NYT rave for the Sunday in the Park with George revival so I guess that's my spring Broadway outing; just got a balcony ticket for April. August Wilson's Jitney is at the half-price booths every night so I guess I'll jump on that in the next 2 weeks.

My interest has been piqued by The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant at the New Ohio Theatre on Christopher St.

so is Lynn Nottage all that?

http://www.playbill.com/article/lynn-nottages-sweat-wins-pulitzer-prize-for-drama

i saw sweat and it was fine. it was pretty predictable; not entirely sure why this rocks everyone's world... especially against Taylor Mac's 24 hours which definitely did.