Results tagged “themusical”

MUSIC: There's not a whole lot going on musically tonight, but the show at Cake Shop seems pretty...sweet. By The End of Tonight and Multitudes will be taking the stage -- the former is described as "the perfect marriage between the math-rockiness of Hella with the glistening, soaring guitars of Explosions in the Sky."

Back before the turn of the century, and concurrent with the spread of air conditioning in Off-Off Broadway theaters, theater buffs John Clancy and Elena K. Holy seized a golden opportunity to exploit the only brief lull in New York’s raging theater scene – when conventional wisdom held that no slob stuck in town during mid-August would want to get stickier in a stuffy theater up two flights of stairs. And so The New York International Fringe Festival slouched toward downtown to be born. Now in its 11th year, and with smash hits like Urinetown under its belt, FringeNYC has swelled to Category 4 proportions – featuring 188 productions in some 20 theaters, it’s expected to make landfall as early as tomorrow! [Disclosure: We participated in the festival in ‘02 and ’04.]

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an unusual sexual assault on Broadway in Brooklyn, an unstable building on Sutphin Blvd. in Queens, and a shooting on West 142nd St. and Amsterdam Ave. in Manhattan.
• Central Park's Sheep Meadow was the first park location to upgrade its wifi Internet connection to high speed. The new 15-megabits-per-second service is five times faster than the previous connection.
• Madame Tussauds wax museum in Times Square wasted no time in dressing its likeness of Lindsay Lohan in prison stripes, after the young star was arrested for drunk driving and drug posession shortly after leaving rehab.
• Former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason is in talks to fill the morning time slot on WFAN left vacant by the abrupt departure of Don Imus.
• Williamsburg! The Musical will premiere August 11th as part of the 11th Annual Fringe Festival.
• Gridskipper has a guide to NYC record stores for vinyl enthusiasts.
• Turning Long Island City into a giant sundial, with the Citibank tower as the shadow-casting spire.
• The City Council is thinking of revising its cell phones-in-schools policy, to allow kids to bring them to school, but not use them there. Schools would be required to set up cell phone storage facilities to secure the devices during the day.

Save Veronica Mars Campaign Does Not Effect Local Mars Bar Availability

Gutenberg! The Musical! may not have been about the Police Academy star, but tonight's installment of Inside Joke is. But before The Gute heads off to The UCB Theater to discuss the art of comedy, he sat down with Gothamist to discuss what he's hiding from TMZ.

The Sanitation Chronicles, a new play by and about New York’s Strongest, premiered on Wednesday. Actor/playwright Paul Brno, who’s been moonlighting for the Department of Sanitation for the past 17 years, says “every day is still a great day to be on a garbage truck.” The “slice of life” play explores the daily prejudices, anger and violence faced by “Sanmen”, all of which is exacerbated when one of the guys shows up for work dressed as a lady. [Tickets.]

Anthony King is a very talented comedian, actor, writer, and artistic director of the UCB theater and together with Scott Brown he has written Gutengerg! The Musical! a hilarious and inventive sendoff of not just theater but of the people who make theater.

Let's face it, this weekend was made for bonding with your couch, napping and eating leftovers. But if you really want to go against the flow, here are some things to get you out of the house...

Evil Dead: The Musical officially came to life this month at New World Stages; we caught the show in previews, in a house packed with Evil Dead fans who reveled in every campy moment. The first two rows are given Gallagheresque ponchos and by evening’s end the audience in this so-called “splatter zone” is bathed in enough blood to run the Red Cross for a month. (If you’re grossed out by the amount of blood in Act One, you’ll never make it through Act Two.)

Today in the Fringe Festival 89 of the 200+ shows for 2006 are on view. There is most assuredly something for everyone – just have a look at the listings. And here are five more reviews (see also seven from last weekend and four from yesterday), of Suicide, the Musical, Fatboy Romeo, The Yellow Wallpaper, Their Wings Were Blue, and Armageddon Dance Party, the last of which is going straight to the top tier of our recommendation list. Search for and buy tickets online, or go to Fringe HQ at 27 Mercer St., or call 212.279.4488. A week in the festival remains, but it will go fast!

In case you haven’t been counting down, today marks the beginning of the New York International Fringe Festival, the country’s largest theatre festival! Though ten years is typically the amount of time people say one needs to be in New York before being a “New Yorker,” the Fringe Festival has had such an impact on the downtown Broadway theatre scene that, were it a human, it probably would have attained resident status without anything near such a delay. But this year is its tenth anniversary, so it’s official, and there are tons of great-looking shows to see to celebrate. Not only are there the usual 200+ new plays and musicals showing at 21 different venues below 14th Street, they’ve also brought back a number of Fringe “alumni” – favorites from years past such as The Bicycle Men (a musical comedy from LA that was in the ’04 Fringe), The Complete Lost Works of Samuel Beckett… (a riff by Chicago’s Neo-Futurists that won raves in 2000), and Daniel MacIvor’s play Never Swim Alone, of ’99 vintage. Over the next couple of weeks we’ll be bringing you brief reviews of as many shows as we can possibly see, as well as reports on various extra Fringe happenings (there are panels, free outdoor performances, and speed painting) and some glimpses behind the scenes, but you should definitely go to the festival’s website and check out the listings (programs are also available at Borders stores in the city). With shows like Corleone: The Shakespeare Godfather, The Fartiste, Muscle-Man vs. Skeletonman: A Love Story…The Musical, The Happiness of Schizophrenia and Walmartopia, we can’t imagine you’ll have any difficulty finding something to spark your interest, even if you’re not normally much of a “theatre person.” Lower Manhattan will be overrun by Fringe-goers for the duration of the festival, so give in and join the madness!

based on the 1981 cult classic horror flick by Sam Raimi. It'll be directed by Bond and Hinton Battle, who also choreographed the show. Tying in with the Midnight Movie plot of a group of friends visiting a wooded cabin and unleashing untold evil, they'll be offering performances starting at 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Also if you're really into the guts and gore aspect of hack 'em up horror, be sure to ask to sit in the first few rows identified as the "Splatter Zone." No news yet whether the evil book will get a tap dance solo. Previews begin October 1 with the opening November 1 at New World Stages.

- Sad news - Lou Rawls died today

Gersh Kuntzman and Marc Dinkin, Creators of SUV: The Musical!

Last week we went on about all the theatre festivals that have found their way to stages lately; this week it seems like there’s a citywide Hamlet-fest or some sort of Shakespeare bug in the air. There are three productions of Hamlet going, so you can choose your poison. Still in previews is what looks like it will be a thoroughly, wonderfully traditional production of the play, at Classic Stage starring Michael Cumpsty, most recently of The Constant Wife and Democracy on Broadway. The other two versions are rather less “classic” in their approach: at La MaMa, Kanako Hiyama not only has pared the play down to an hour and a half, shuffled scenes and told the story from different perspectives, she literally puts you in the action, with the Ghost narrator in the audience and spectators cast as courtiers. Then, at Harlem’s Morris-Jumiel Mansion, Gorilla Repertory is doing the play in full, but *free* and outdoors in a roving, environmental manner. It would be pretty interesting (though pretty exhausting) to see all these adaptations in quick succession – just think how you might be talking after such an experiment.

Far more than most presidential scandals/screw-ups, the Clinton-Lewinsky affair seems perfect for dramatization as a musical (though Les Freres Corbusier did do a good job with Warren Harding a while back, we have to admit). Especially in retrospect, the whole thing was too much of a farce even as it happened to merit the serious treatment an opera or straight play would be liable to give it now – it seems it was almost born to become a goofy musical satire. And with recent White House fumbles on certain disasters weighing on our minds, we more than appreciated the lighthearted fun of Monica! The Musical (book and lyrics by Daniel J. Blau and Tracie Potochnik, music by Adam Blau), which just opened in the NY Musical Theatre Festival. The production is less polished than some of the festival’s other offerings, some of which are well on their way to opening off-Broadway; as one of the producers explained at the beginning of the show, the set and costumes are mostly just “suggestive” of what they might eventually become. Fortunately, there are already a lot of catchy songs with very funny lyrics and the cast is hugely talented and energetic; it might deal with some idiotic goings-on that few people care about now, but that inconsequential melodrama is rendered quite laugh-worthy by this lot.

As Gothamist emerges from Fringe madness, there’s a bit of catching up to do. So today we bring you ideas about what shows to see next, and a review of one of them, Revolution Row, which aims to bring liberals’ bad dreams to life by showing what things might be like if religious conservatives get what they want.

As the Fringe enters its second (and final) full week, Gothamist hopes you’ve been able to see at least a few shows already. Some of them have already closed by now, while a small number are just opening or had their premiere at the start of the festival but are only now having the bulk of their performances, due to venue scheduling stuff. There’s still a lot going on, so this week we’ll continue installments of our “views from the Fringe” so you can get a firsthand idea of what some of the possibilities are. And of course, if these shows don’t appeal to you, you can always use the nifty Slice-o-Matic show finder tool on the festival website. There really is something for just about everyone, even non-theatre types. To cut to the chase (reviews after the jump):

- And in case you forgot, the NYC Fringe Festival continues! Go!

acknowledges the fact that it’s unlikely that anyone in the West Wing actually spoke in rhyming couplets but it’s what is at the core of the story that matters.

Hey all you would-be Broadway composer types: Gothamist has just heard that the New York Musical Theater Festival has just started accepting submissions for this year's festival, with a submission period going from Jan. 10 until March 11. The festival itself will run Sept. 12-Oct. 2 at various venues here in lovely NYC.

We thought this was a pretty amusing piece from the Times on the biggest flops thus far in the Broadway theater season. Dracula The Musical, which closed on Sunday, inspired the article, taking a blood bath with an estimated loss of some $7.5 million after a mere five months on Broadway. But that's a neglible loss compared to Bombay Dreams, which the article descibes as losing "the better part of $14 million."

Failure hurts, so there are a lot of miserable producers right about now, given the abundant number of Broadway shows which have recently posted closing notices. Sunday was the last day for Eve Ensler's The Good Body - we liked it, but it just didn't catch on with the masses. We can see how it wasn't exactly great date night fodder, but couldn't the city's female contingency keep it going a hair longer? On January 2nd, it's a double whammy for both Dracula The Musical and Bombay Dreams, each closing that day. Frankly, it's a miracle they lasted this long. Then it was announced that the Marsha Norman play 'Night Mother would be closing on January 9th. That one really didn't surprise us. Gothamist thought the acting (by Brenda Blethyn and Edie Falco) was stellar, but the play seemed melodramatic and dated. Playbill via Yahoo reports here on these and a few other shows also biting the dust.

Gothamist had a blast at the two shows we checked out at the New York Musical Theatre Festival. First up was Top Gun The Musical, which sent up the crass commercial tactic of taking really dumb movies and turning them into musicals. Authors Denis McGrath and Scott White were inspired by a party game where a group of friends were trying to come up with the worst possible movie musical adaptation idea possible. Apocalypse Now was in the lead, until someone came up with Top Gun.

Tomorrow brings a few exciting but very different activities to partake in: First, there is Broadway on Broadway, a live free outdoor concert in Times Square, hosted by Wayne Brady (soon to be seen in Chicago) and Christy Carlson Romano (Beauty and the Beast), to celebrate the musicals and plays the Great White Way has to offer. Some of the participating shows: Avenue Q, Brooklyn, The Musical (who knew?), Chicago, Golda�s Balcony (which means the awesome Tovah Feldshuh, aka attorney Danielle Melnick from Law & Order, will be there), Hairspray, La Cage Aux Folles, Little Women, Mamma Mia!, The Producers, Rent, Wicked and Wonderful Town.

were simply hilarious. A few of our favorite quotes:

Gothamist continues to mine the depths of the 2004 Fringe Festival so you don't have to! With over 200 shows in two weeks, there's an insane amount of talent showcasing quirky new works starting Friday. You can find a full schedule and ticketing info at www.fringenyc.organd remember, tickets are only 15 bucks so you can really see a bunch! Here are some more selections that really jump out to us on the schedule as potentially mindblowing and interesting:

Updated: The show must go on, and Buddy Cianci, The Musical, whose performances were cancelled due to the blackout, will have two newly rescheduled performances: Tuesday, August 19th @ 7:00pm, and Thursday, August 21st @ 7:15pm 11:30pm (believe us, the Thursday show is at 11:30pm, JVG frantically emailed us, damning Fringe and his server, but Gothamist is more than happy to offer minute-to-minute Buddy scheduling issues, because we're getting first-look rights for the made-for-TV movie). Sales are only at the door, 15 minutes before showtime, so Gothamist recommends you go a bit earlier to ensure you'll get a ticket. Buddy writer-producer Jonathan Van Gieson tells us, ""

The Times' Providence Journal features the mythic story of Vincent "Buddy" Cianci, former Providence mayor now serving in prison for racketeering, who is the subject of a new book, as well as a new musical, Buddy Cianci, by that most-famous-of-them-all blogger, Jonathan Van Gieson, which sold out its Fringe Festival run. Cianci's charming but corrupt ways have left an indelible mark on Providence residents, including one who says, "He's a crook, but I'd vote for him again."

Antonio Bandera will be making his Broadway debut in Nine. this spring. Nine is the musical version of Federico Fellini's 8 1/2. Friend of Gothamist D.A. Miller would have a lot to say about Banderas, made a star by Almodovar, now on Broadway and in a musical. The Observer says Antonio and Melanie are looking for a place here. Guess they are confident of the musical's strengths. In any case, the film is wonderful - go buy the Criterion edition.