It's been over a month since we took in Gatz, Elevator Repair Service's ingenious adaptation of The Great Gatsby, and we still can't stop thinking about it. So we rang up the show's understated star, Scott Shepherd, to talk about this enthralling production, which brings Fitzgerald's masterpiece to life in a completely unexpected way: by using all of the novel's 49,000 words. (Shepherd has each and every one of them memorized.) The eight hour experience (with a break for dinner and intermissions) begins modestly, when Shepherd enters a shabby office, discovers the book in his Rolodex, and begins reading aloud in a deliberately faltering voice. But as the reader's co-workers begin to file in, they gradually and ever-so-subtly begin to morph into the characters in the book, and in an almost imperceptible way, the story comes alive on a level that no naturalistic adaptation could achieve. more ›

Way back in the winter of 2005, we were fortunate enough to squeeze into a little "Performing Garage" on Wooster Street to watch an eight hour play. Well, six hours plus a dinner break and a couple of intermissions. But still, it was epic, even though it didn't start out that way—Gatz, Elevator Repair Service's enthralling interpretation of The Great Gatsby, begins modestly, when a man (actor Scott Shepherd) enters a shabby office, picks up a copy of F. Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece, and begins reading aloud. Is this it, you wonder? Didn't Andy Kaufman already pull this stunt? Are we going to be read to for six hours? more ›

Elevator Repair Service [ERS] is rightly regarded as one of New York’s most innovative theater companies. Led by Artistic Director John Collins, who moonlights as a sound designer for The Wooster Group, the ensemble creates irreverent, idiosyncratic performances that wrest free from the straightjacket of naturalism with an absurd humor and colorful physicality. more ›

The most exciting story in New York theater this year had nothing to do with the Broadway stagehands' strike, it was the vibrant growth of what used to be called “experimental theater”, a movement that can now really only loosely be defined by what it’s not: non-naturalistic and not made for TV, with an emphasis on bold physicality, collaboration and, sometimes, multimedia. more ›

Start sharpening your spurs, gays and gals, because Jake Gyllenhaal is coming to Broadway! If director Mike Nichols has his way, you’ll soon have your chance to stalk the sensitive heartthrob as he flees through the stage door of Farragut North, a new play about presidential campaign hardball penned by a former Howard Dean staffer. According to today’s Post, Gyllenhaal (who made his stage debut in a Maggie Gyllenhaal-directed production of Cats in their parents’ living room) is all-but-confirmed for the cast. But before that, Nichols will shepherd other boldface names to Broadway with a spring revival of Clifford Odets’s The Country Girl, about a washed up wino actor and his beleaguered wife. With Morgan Freeman and our personal favorite Frances McDormand rumored to play the couple, this has Compelling Theatrical Event written all over it. more ›

The Wooster Group’s production of Hamlet is making its hotly anticipated state-side debut at St. Ann’s Warehouse, following performances in Paris, Barcelona and Berlin. The company has previously tossed Chekhov, O’Neill, and Miller into their deconstructive blender; this is their first Shakespearean scramble. more ›

ART: Running through March 7th at Gavin Brown's enterprise at Passerby is "Radical Living Papers". Some of the passionate writers of forty years ago will have their words become a part of this exhibit, which serves as a snapshot of the Vietnam War era and a history of counter-culture and alt press. Publications (all from the 60s and 70s) include Rolling Stone, The Black Panther, Freep, The Seed and the Los Angeles Free Press. more ›