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October 31, 2007
Musical theater star and lounge singer extraordinaire Robert Goulet died yesterday of pulmonary fibrosis while awaiting a lung transplant in an L.A. hospital; he was 73. In the early 60s Goulet skyrocketed to fame through his performance as Lancelot in the smash Broadway hit Camelot. He soon became a seemingly timeless fixture on both the musical theater touring circuit and the Vegas strip – in 1982 he was proclaimed Vegas Entertainer of the Year –... [continue]
| October 30, 2007
Theater producers and Local One, the Broadway stagehands’ union, may have agreed to return to the bargaining table next week, but don’t rush out and buy Phantom of the Opera tickets just yet. (Or ever.) The Posts’s Michael Riedel points out that Local One is being joined at the table by Tom Short, the boss of their umbrella union, The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE). Since Short will have to give the final... [continue]
19-year-old Gideon Glick may still walk and talk like an ordinary young adult, but the past few years for the Philadelphia-bred actor have been quite extraordinary. An openly gay adolescent since seventh grade, Glick was catapulted to the top of the New York theatrical mountain last year through his portrayal of a young man discovering his homosexuality in the Broadway hit Spring Awakening. (The sexually-charged musical was adapted from the controversial 1891 play by Frank... [continue]
October 28, 2007
Bad news is staggering down from Young Frankenstein’s extravagant Broadway castle: When critics begin gathering with pitchforks and torches next weekend, the show’s star, Roger Bart (he plays the titular role Gene Wilder made famous in the film), may be benched with a herniated disc. A monstrous problem indeed, as the part demands extensive dancing, and according to Michael Riedel, Mel Brooks is panicking. (Isn’t Larry David available?) A little birdy tells Riedel: "One scenario... [continue]
Scotland’s Black Watch is an elite military regiment whose history stretches back almost three centuries. The regiment most recently saw action as part of the British Army’s deployment in Iraq, where seven members lost their lives – five of the men in the space of 11 days in 2004. The National Theatre of Scotland tracked down some of the Black Watch soldiers upon their return to Scotland and, over the course of several months... [continue]
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October 25, 2007
The New York theater world’s obsession with the almighty Times, which was once astutely likened to kremlinology, has often erupted in strong words about reviewer Charles Isherwood, whose opinion was recently derided as “antique snobbery” by TONY critic David Cote. So it was amusing to discover today that not only had the Times assigned the more mainstreamish Ish to review Fuerzabruta, the latest wet and wild spectacle from the people behind De La Guarda,... [continue]
October 22, 2007
Local One, the Broadway stagehands’ union, has never struck in its 121-year history. Since salaries for stagehands – who handle lighting, props, sets and, yes, even Tarzan's vine – currently top off at 100K, who could blame them? But The League of American Theatres and Producers, who control 22 of 39 Broadway houses, are now wringing their hands after the union’s unanimous vote on Sunday to strike. (Last week the Nederlanders, the producers who... [continue]
October 21, 2007
Until last weekend I had just a vague sense of what life in mid-19th century New York was like for the masses – filthy, brutal, corrupt, vulgar, smelly and desperate for dentistry. Now, thanks to a spellbinding 50-minute theatrical tour led by the Axis Company, I’ve got a vivid picture of what passed for living on the city’s streets in those days. The play is called A Glance at New York, and though you’ve probably... [continue]
October 14, 2007
Ann Bannon’s 1950s lesbian pulp novels, The Beebo Brinker Chronicles, have long been beloved for their vivid portrayal of secretive homosexual subcultures in ultra-repressed America. The series has been recently adapted for the stage by Hourglass Group; their production charts the parallel lives of two amorous sorority sisters who painfully part ways after graduation. Beth settles down and starts a family; Laura heads to New York where, after a torrid affair with the titular Beebo... [continue]
October 10, 2007
Both the League of American Theater Producers and Owners and Local One, the stagehands union have put their final offers for a contract agreement on the table. Distance between the two offers could mean that almost all Broadway shows will go dark in the near future. According to The New York Times there are no more negotiating sessions scheduled, so a lockout by the producers and owners looks likely. If that happens, only four shows... [continue]
October 9, 2007
Volatile Dutch actor Youssef Sjoerd Idilbi did two things that are almost unheard of during a Sunday performance of the play Is.Man at St. Ann’s Warehouse. The first warms our heart: He stopped his performance to confront an audience member about a ringing cell phone. His second move brazenly defied the theatrical tradition of ‘the show must go on’. Technical problems with the sound board had caused the cancellation of the previous night's performance; when... [continue]
October 1, 2007
Nightmare: Ghost Stories is a walk-through haunted house by the creators of last year’s shriek-out hit Nightmare: Face Your Fear. Now doubled in size, the house boasts 23 different interconnected rooms of ghosts, psycho killers and gory, dismembered limbs – the sight of which prompted one girl in our group to declare, “No Red Lobster ever again!” An extra fee gets you entrance to a separate but much more frightening side-show: a dark labyrinth haunted... [continue]