Salon.com > Theater http://www.salon.com Sun, 27 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Writing class from hell http://www.salon.com/2011/12/15/writing_class_from_hell/ http://www.salon.com/2011/12/15/writing_class_from_hell/#comments Thu, 15 Dec 2011 01:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10316047 "Seminar," a play starring Alan Rickman as a preening, acid-tongued teacher running roughshod over a group of tender aspiring writers, opened a few weeks ago on Broadway. Reviews have prompted all the usual observations about the difficulty of dramatizing both writing and reading, activities so internally momentous yet so physically inert. Why, then, do people keep doing it? And do the depictions of writing classes in stage, film and television -- from "Wonder Boys" to "Bored to Death" -- bear any relationship to real life?

To hash this out, I invited Ben Marcus -- a novelist and an associate professor at Columbia University's School of the Arts, where he teaches fiction writing -- to see "Seminar" with me and talk afterward about the ways writing workshops are depicted in the performing arts. His first novel was acquired by the writer, editor and teacher Gordon Lish, considered to be the inspiration for the character played by Rickman, and Marcus also attended one of Lish's legendary seminars, conducted in private homes, like the class in the play. (Marcus' fourth book, the novel "The Flame Alphabet," will be published in January.)

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/12/15/writing_class_from_hell/feed/ 4 The aesthetics of “Sleep No More” http://www.salon.com/2011/10/11/sleep_no_more_imprint/ http://www.salon.com/2011/10/11/sleep_no_more_imprint/#comments Tue, 11 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10106767 ImprintI lined up in the rain with friends on a Friday night outside a warehouse in Chelsea and waited for the doorman to usher us in, one small group at a time. As the doors closed behind we found ourselves in a long, pitch black hallway. Hesitantly pushing forward we discovered a desk, behind which stood a woman handing out a single playing card in exchange for each of our names. Several blacked-out hallways later, we pushed aside a velvet curtain, entering a bar plucked straight from the 1930s. A few cocktails in, slightly buzzed and still contemplating what I’d agreed to, my number was called and I followed instructions to pile into an elevator.

The attendant explained that there would be no talking during my stay at the McKittrick Hotel and that I was to wear a carnival-style mask at all times, but also that I was free to explore the space as I saw fit. As the elevator lurched to our destination and the doors opened, he offered these parting words: “this experience is best had alone.”

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/10/11/sleep_no_more_imprint/feed/ 1 “Sleep No More”: Shakespeare meets Internet games http://www.salon.com/2011/08/16/sleep_no_more_args/ http://www.salon.com/2011/08/16/sleep_no_more_args/#comments Tue, 16 Aug 2011 18:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/feature/2011/08/16/sleep_no_more_args "Sleep No More" is one of the hottest shows in New York right now, which is surprising, considering that I spent most of my two hours during the McKittrick Hotel production wandering around the six-story building, wondering what the hell was going on.

The British company Punchdrunk's production is ostensibly the story of "Macbeth," though mixed with Alfred Hitchcock's film "Rebecca" and told in the form of an interactive maze that owes more to video games -- New York magazine compared the experience with "puzzle-horror first-person video games like BioShock" -- than Shakespeare.

Audiences form groups and are given "Eyes Wide Shut"-style masks as they enter the lounge area, which serves as the show's waiting room. They are told they aren't allowed to speak until they return to the lounge and also not to bother the actors -- but nothing else is off-limits. Then you are let loose in the hotel, where every room is decorated like a spread from "Nightmare Homes Monthly," and run into the "characters" (easy to spot because they aren't wearing masks). They perform their wordless scenes as they race from room to room. Sometimes they dance. Sometimes they fight (also a form of dancing, with some super-intense choreography). In one room, you might find a weeping woman looking at a photograph while packing a suitcase. In the basement, there's a dinner party where guests are either having a blood orgy or doing a sweeping waltz, depending when you arrive.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/08/16/sleep_no_more_args/feed/ 12 How do you measure the revival of “Rent”? http://www.salon.com/2011/08/12/how_do_you_measure_rent_revival/ http://www.salon.com/2011/08/12/how_do_you_measure_rent_revival/#comments Fri, 12 Aug 2011 19:59:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/feature/2011/08/12/how_do_you_measure_rent_revival "Rent" is back in New York, only three years after ending its 12-year Broadway run. I take this news the same way I'd react to hearing that my parents have found the tape of my Bat Mitzvah and put the entire production on YouTube. "Rent"? Really? That show is so... is so... well, dated. Corny. Embarrassing, really: Even in a show that was so specifically about the '90s, "Rent" was already a nostalgia piece about the '80s, a pre-Giuliani world where Tompkins Square Park was full of singing hobos.

Many productions mark their setting with topical references, but usually the revivals happen long enough after the original that it seems quaint, not clueless. I mean, how could any actor go onstage now and sing about how tough it is to live on the Lower East Side as a poor artist? Or not feel a modicum of shame whining about the ethical dilemmas of "living in America at the end of a millenium"?

I want to tell the characters, "Wait until right after the millenium, and then come talk to me about the problems in New York." I want to scream, "Stop singing about the different ways to measure a year!"

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/08/12/how_do_you_measure_rent_revival/feed/ 19 Tony Awards: Video highlights http://www.salon.com/2011/06/13/tony_awards/ http://www.salon.com/2011/06/13/tony_awards/#comments Mon, 13 Jun 2011 12:40:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/2011/06/13/tony_awards In case you missed last night's Tony Awards, here are clips of five of the highlights -- from Neil Patrick Harris's "Spider-Man" joke extravaganza to Mark Rylance's poetic but baffling acceptance speech. For the full list of winners, click here.

1. Host Neil Patrick Harris tries to fit as many "Spider-Man" jokes as possible into 30 seconds:

2. Nikki M. James, winner of the award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical (one of nine total awards taken home by "The Book of Mormon"), gives an acceptance speech that is rambling, emotional, spontaneous -- and delightful:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/06/13/tony_awards/feed/ 4 Movie theater’s anti-texting policy enrages patron http://www.salon.com/2011/06/06/almo_drafthouse_cell_phone/ http://www.salon.com/2011/06/06/almo_drafthouse_cell_phone/#comments Mon, 06 Jun 2011 21:07:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/feature/2011/06/06/almo_drafthouse_cell_phone  Everyone knows that using your cellphone in a movie theater is bad. That's why they have those ads before the show encouraging you to silence that piece of plastic for at least 90 minutes. Of course, some theaters are stricter about cell usage and forbid the use of them even on silent, off the crazy notion that the light from your constant texting and/or Angry Birds game is an annoyance to fellow theatergoers.

The Alamo Drafthouse, which Entertainment Weekly once called the No. 1 theater "doing it right"  (as well as a "movie geek heaven"), operates on the no-cellphone practice. Recently, it received an angry message from a former customer regarding this policy.

That this woman did not choose to text her concerns to the theater, thus saving her the humiliation of having her analog recording forwarded around the Internet, is what I like to call "technironic."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/06/06/almo_drafthouse_cell_phone/feed/ 44 How to make posters that defy two dimensions http://www.salon.com/2011/05/19/alfalfa_studio_amphibian_stage_imprint/ http://www.salon.com/2011/05/19/alfalfa_studio_amphibian_stage_imprint/#comments Thu, 19 May 2011 01:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/life//feature/2011/05/18/alfalfa_studio_amphibian_stage_imprint Alfalfa Studio could not have been cast more perfectly as the design studio of choice for innovative Texas-based theater company Amphibian Stage Productions. Bringing the awesome three-dimensional quality of live theater to the flat, two-dimensional space of poster design is no easy feat. But when you combine the über-creative design skills of the New York-based design firm with the equally risk-taking Forth Worth theater company, the results are paper theatrics at its best.

Image courtesy of Alfalfa Studio

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/05/19/alfalfa_studio_amphibian_stage_imprint/feed/ 1 Broadway’s “Spider-Man” gets new trailer, more flying http://www.salon.com/2011/05/11/spider_man_totd_new_trailer/ http://www.salon.com/2011/05/11/spider_man_totd_new_trailer/#comments Wed, 11 May 2011 22:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/feature/2011/05/11/spider_man_totd_new_trailer After booting Julie Taymor to the curb for never being able to get the juggernaut show past  previews, the producers of Broadway's "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" spent another $5 million on the production for a complete overhaul. The new director, Philip William McKinley, was hired out of the circus, and now there are a bunch of new writers who actually know more about comic books than Wagner or Greek mythology.  So what can we expect with these differences?

Promo from January:

New trailer:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/05/11/spider_man_totd_new_trailer/feed/ 3 “The Book of Mormon” leads Tony Award nominations http://www.salon.com/2011/05/03/us_theater_tony_nominations/ http://www.salon.com/2011/05/03/us_theater_tony_nominations/#comments Tue, 03 May 2011 13:04:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/05/03/us_theater_tony_nominations When the Broadway season began last year, a big brash musical about Spider-Man was supposed to muscle its way to multiple Tony Award nominations. Instead, a pair of goofy Mormons may be the ones to beat.

"The Book of Mormon" nabbed a leading 14 Tony Award nominations Tuesday morning, earning the profane musical nods for best musical, best book of a musical, best original score, two leading actor spots and two featured actor nominations.

The musical, about two Mormon missionaries who find more than they bargained for in Africa, was written by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of "South Park," and Robert Lopez, co-creator of the Tony Award-winning musical "Avenue Q." The trio teamed up with Casey Nicholaw, who co-directed with Parker and choreographed.

It has received 12 Drama Desk Award nominations, six Outer Critics Circle Award nominations and a Fred & Adele Astaire Award nomination, which recognizes excellence in dance. The musical is also grossing more than $1 million a week and is selling out -- the place "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" was supposed to be before its implosion.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/05/03/us_theater_tony_nominations/feed/ 1 Female comedy fest devolves into Twitter war http://www.salon.com/2011/04/26/funny_women_london_pay/ http://www.salon.com/2011/04/26/funny_women_london_pay/#comments Tue, 26 Apr 2011 14:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/04/26/funny_women_london_pay Tina Fey has been bringing attention to the lack of women's roles in American comedy (both on-screen and off), but it turns out Britain might be even worse off. Britain has a brilliant comic tradition -- Monty Python, Russell Brand, those two guys from "Peep Show"-- but you'd be hard-pressed to think of a woman famous for her comedy, aside from Jennifer Saunders from "Absolutely Fabulous."

And it's not getting better. One of the largest attempts to encourage British female comedians are the "Funny Women Awards," a "Last Comic Standing"-type event that bills itself as "the UK's leading female comedy brand." This year, the show is charging its contestants an entry fee of $30, causing some funny people to get serious on Twitter. Three British female comedians took offense to this "pay to play" idea, with Shappi Khorsandi, Sarah Millican and Jo Caulfield telling women not to enter the contest, which is run by a woman herself. Khorsandi even wrote, "Aspiring comics! Never pay to enter a competition! Buy a new hat instead," which seems a little demeaning in its own right. Others claimed that men would never be forced to pay $30 for a comedy competition.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/04/26/funny_women_london_pay/feed/ 21 “The Importance of Being ‘Jersey Shore’” http://www.salon.com/2011/04/26/importance_being_jersey_shore/ http://www.salon.com/2011/04/26/importance_being_jersey_shore/#comments Tue, 26 Apr 2011 01:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/04/25/importance_being_jersey_shore

The world is sad, Oscar Wilde said, because a puppet was once melancholy.

Wilde's wry take on Hamlet – as something of a brooding muppet – was recounted in a classic New Yorker essay by Louis Menand, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Harvard professor. "[Wilde] was referring to Hamlet," Menand explains, "a character he thought had taught the world a new kind of unhappiness – the unhappiness of eternal disappointment in life as it is."

Eternal disappointment, or Weltschmerz, if you want to impress friends at a German cocktail party, is probably one of Wilde's lesser-known aphorisms. That may be, however, the ineffable reaction that most people have to MTV's "Jersey Shore."

This would be the query posed by the Broadway cast of "The Importance of Being Earnest," who, in a series of viral videos, recite dialogue from MTV's hit show in the style of Wilde's witticisms.

The results, if anything, prove that the unhappiness unleashed by the aimless self-loathing and inertia of Denmark's prince is alive and well today.

Unfortunately, today's youths might not use such eloquent language.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/04/26/importance_being_jersey_shore/feed/ 3 10 year time capsule: How “The Producers” changed Broadway http://www.salon.com/2011/04/19/10_year_time_capsule_the_producers/ http://www.salon.com/2011/04/19/10_year_time_capsule_the_producers/#comments Tue, 19 Apr 2011 20:08:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/feature/2011/04/19/10_year_time_capsule_the_producers Ten years ago today, "The Producers" opened on Broadway. The show starred Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick in roles originated by Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder in Mel Brooks' 1968 film. The play wasn't just a success, it was a watershed moment in American theater, winning the most Tonys in history (15), spawning a movie based on the musical (which was already based on a movie … more on that later), and selling a record-breaking $3 million in tickets three days after opening.

Pretty strange for a story about two men trying to create a Broadway flop, right? But let's go back to a New York Times article about the show's box office records, from April 1, 2001, which inadvertently predicted the future in a terse meeting between then-Miramax producer Harvey Weinstein and Mel:

Mr. Weinstein told Mr. Brooks he wanted to turn the show into a movie. ''There already is a movie,'' Mr. Brooks countered. ''It's called 'The Producers.' ''

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/04/19/10_year_time_capsule_the_producers/feed/ 11 Four scenes we hope make it into “Bring It On: The Musical” http://www.salon.com/2011/04/18/bring_it_on_musical/ http://www.salon.com/2011/04/18/bring_it_on_musical/#comments Mon, 18 Apr 2011 15:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/feature/2011/04/18/bring_it_on_musical "Bring It On" is the "Mean Girls" of cheerleading movies, one that often gets overlooked when we're talking about funny, teen girl-empowering cinema. I mean, sure, it stars Kirsten Dunst, who is, by definition, "super annoying." And for a supporting cast you have not one, but two of the most obnoxious actresses ever to appear on Joss Whedon's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," Eliza Dushku and Clare Kramer ("Faith and Glory").

But "Bring It On" is still one of the best high school films to come out of the aughts, which is why there should definitely be a musical version of it from the guys who brought "Avenue Q" and "In the Heights." Because that means Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote the score and music, and if you've never seen this guy's wedding video, then you are missing out on some of the best impromptu musical theater on YouTube.

It looks like this play has been in development since 2009, meaning that all the kinks in those spirit fingers should be worked out by now.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/04/18/bring_it_on_musical/feed/ 1 Will anyone care about the revamped “Spider-Man” musical? http://www.salon.com/2011/04/15/spider_man_revamped_arachne/ http://www.salon.com/2011/04/15/spider_man_revamped_arachne/#comments Fri, 15 Apr 2011 16:24:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/feature/2011/04/15/spider_man_revamped_arachne From its conception, "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" has been plagued with problems. It was too expensive. It didn't make any sense; with director Julie Taymor choosing to focus the show around a strange Greek mythology that included a "Geek Chorus" and a villainess named Arachne, who inexplicably became the central figure in the musical. Oh yeah, and it had a tendency to horribly maim and injure its own actors -- five total -- including a backup dancer/stunt-double for Spidey (who fell 30 feet during an aerial stunt in rehearsals and sustained massive internal injuries), and Arachne herself (played by T.V. Carpio).

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/04/15/spider_man_revamped_arachne/feed/ 9 Neil Patrick Harris and Christina Hendricks in good “Company” http://www.salon.com/2011/04/06/the_company_nph_philharmonic_live/ http://www.salon.com/2011/04/06/the_company_nph_philharmonic_live/#comments Wed, 06 Apr 2011 20:07:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/04/06/the_company_nph_philharmonic_live This must be the year the live concerts realized they could make way more money if they started filming their productions. We've seen the Arcade Fire, Duran Duran and the National all take part in a new media collaboration with famous directors to have their shows live-streamed on the Internet. And now Broadway's starting to come around as well, which ostensibly should allow them to ease up on their harsh bootlegging policy. (I'm still mad about getting kicked out of "Phantom of the Opera" because I brought in a recorder during a school field trip.)

Stephen Sondheim's "Company" will be getting the cinematic treatment this April, when the New York Philharmonic's version of the show will be taped for a June film release. Usually I'd wonder who would go pay $11 to sit in a movie theater and watch a play, but the lineup of "Company" is so good, it might as well be a blockbuster. Not only is Neil Patrick Harris -- that superstar of every medium -- playing the happy bachelor Bobby, but he'll be hamming it up with Patti LuPone, one of the biggest names on Broadway.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/04/06/the_company_nph_philharmonic_live/feed/ 14 Jon Hamm and Jennifer Westfeldt: The new Camelot couple? http://www.salon.com/2011/03/31/jon_hamm_jennifer_westfeldt_chekhov/ http://www.salon.com/2011/03/31/jon_hamm_jennifer_westfeldt_chekhov/#comments Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/03/31/jon_hamm_jennifer_westfeldt_chekhov There is something oddly familiar about the relationship between "Mad Men" actor Jon Hamm and his long-term girlfriend, writer/director/actress Jennifer Westfeldt. Maybe it's the nostalgia factor that follows Hamm around even in contemporary settings, but seeing the two of them together on red carpets always makes me think of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, minus all the anger issues, and that whole "being married" bit.

Maybe a better comparison would be Sam Shepard and Jessica Lange: both famous in their own right, both low-key presences entirely devoid of tabloid drama, and yet completely compelling to watch together. Jon and Jessica just always look so in love, dammit. Not that I (or the thousands of other women who watch "Mad Men" for the, uh, costume design) begrudge them their happiness. If anything, they are a classy Hollywood throwback: what I imagine L.A. was like before Harvey Levin showed up.

Look at how lovely they are even while (seemingly) wasted during a pre-Emmys party in 2009!

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/03/31/jon_hamm_jennifer_westfeldt_chekhov/feed/ 9 Scenes from “Star Wars the Musical” http://www.salon.com/2011/03/25/star_wars_musical_millenium_falcon/ http://www.salon.com/2011/03/25/star_wars_musical_millenium_falcon/#comments Fri, 25 Mar 2011 15:26:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/feature/2011/03/25/star_wars_musical_millenium_falcon Forget "Glee": In 1996, three high school students from California decided that they were going to do some really epic musical theater. Funded entirely out of their own pockets and with no adult supervision, 17-year-olds Garrin Hajeian, Michael Heilman, and Kevin Bayuk put on a 40-person rock opera of "Star Wars: A New Hope." Adjusting the lyrics from the tunes from "Les Miserables," "Grease," and "Godspell," the three-night production of "Star Wars the Musical" sold out every performance and ended up with a "New York Times" review and a cease-and-desist letter from George Lucas.

According to Kelvin Yu, who played Obi-Wan in the production:

We had a capacity of 300 at our performing arts center, the first night 1200 people showed up and there was a line around the block. Keep in mind; this is long before "Star Wars" was cool again.

The show's history has been chronicled in the documentary, "Star Woids," only two clips from the musical have ever hit the Internet: a scene called "Millennium Falcon" that takes place in the Mos Eisley Cantina, and an amazing rendition of the "Les Mis" song "One Day More" repurposed as "Use the Force."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/03/25/star_wars_musical_millenium_falcon/feed/ 6 Will “The Book of Mormon” save Broadway’s soul? http://www.salon.com/2011/03/25/book_of_mormon_trey_parker_matt_stone_broadway_review/ http://www.salon.com/2011/03/25/book_of_mormon_trey_parker_matt_stone_broadway_review/#comments Fri, 25 Mar 2011 14:26:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/03/25/book_of_mormon_trey_parker_matt_stone_broadway_review "It's cheaper to get to Mexico this weekend than it is to see 'Book of Mormon' on Broadway," griped a friend of mine on Twitter earlier this week. That may not be exactly true (unless you're riding a donkey all the way across the border), the new musical from "South Park" creators Trey Park and Matt Stone (along with "Avenue Q's" composer Robert Lopez) has created the new hot ticket during a season full of washes. It almost makes a believer out of us again: During a time when a $56 million play directed by Julie Taymor with music by Bono can't even get off the ground (because it keeps crashing into it?), there is something spiriting about a show whose music hearkens back to old-school Broadway numbers like Rodgers and Hammerstein.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/03/25/book_of_mormon_trey_parker_matt_stone_broadway_review/feed/ 32 Searching for the nice reviews of “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” http://www.salon.com/2011/03/24/spider_man_turn_off_the_dark_good_reviews_theater/ http://www.salon.com/2011/03/24/spider_man_turn_off_the_dark_good_reviews_theater/#comments Thu, 24 Mar 2011 15:25:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/03/24/spider_man_turn_off_the_dark_good_reviews_theater Spider-Man just can't catch a break on Broadway, unless the break in question refers to the bones of actors who have found themselves in a heap of crumpled costume and webbing after one of the myriad of accidents that have beset the juggernaut musical. And it's getting worse: Not only has "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark's" director Julie Taymor been fired from her post, but actress T.V. Carpio, who plays Arachne in the show, became the fifth major player to get injured during a performance. And this is while the show is still in previews! "Spider-Man" is quickly becoming the "Macbeth" of musicals.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/03/24/spider_man_turn_off_the_dark_good_reviews_theater/feed/ 6 Did Tommy Wiseau have help directing “The Room?” http://www.salon.com/2011/02/14/tommy_wiseau_the_room_director_debate/ http://www.salon.com/2011/02/14/tommy_wiseau_the_room_director_debate/#comments Mon, 14 Feb 2011 23:15:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/feature/2011/02/14/tommy_wiseau_the_room_director_debate Folks, I've got some devastating news today. Tommy Wiseau, the visionary behind the midnight cult classic "The Room," as well as last year's "The House That Drips Blood On Alex" may not be the genius-savant he claims. In an Entertainment Weekly article not yet available online, a man named Sandy Schklair has stepped forward to insist on a directing credit for the movie.

Schklair claims that he was hired by Wiseau to be the script supervisor, but that the star soon became too caught up in with his "acting" in order to direct the feature himself. Why did I put "acting" in quotes? Have you guys seen "The Room?"

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