It’s been said that one of the defining characteristics of punk rock – besides the anti-establishment attitude and DIY ethos – is the urge to transcend the barrier between the performer up on stage and the traditionally passive spectator. In that sense, there are few artists in today’s theater more punk than Wallace Shawn – which may come as a surprise to those who know him as “that guy” from such movies as The Princess Bride and Clueless.
Results tagged “theprincessbride”
After hearing last week that Harold Pinter won the Nobel Prize in literature, we immediately wondered how long it would be before one of his plays was on a New York stage again. Thanks to a quick visit to nytheatre.com, which looks ahead farther and more nimbly than we can, we’re able to inform you that the Atlantic Theater Company will be staging not one Pinter play but two, and in a very interesting combination: his first (The Celebration) and most recent (The Room; we won’t say it’s his last because even though he’s indicated that he doesn’t expect to write more for the theater, you just never know, and we don’t want to jinx anyone). The shows begin Nov. 16; this scheduling strikes Gothamist as pretty lucky for the Atlantic, which couldn’t have known when it was drawing up the season bill that Pinter would get the Nobel. Now there’s sure to be vastly more interest in the production than there might have been, especially since it provides an opportunity to see the way Pinter’s changed (or not) in style and ideas over the years.
Some fun Guest stuff for all you bastard people: A Fame Audit from Fametracker, an interview with Movie City News and Caryn James' feature on the retrospective in today's Times. It seems that Guest has always wanted to just do only three "mockumentaries" and that he doesn't really like TV except The Office. And Gothamist once shared an elevator with Guest when he was promoting Almost Heroes (Matthew Perry and Chris Farley as 18th century explorers - not being shown in the tribute). Guest asked us what we thought of his seersucker suit, and Gothamist couldn't help ourselves when the words "It's kinda Matlocky" came out. But we didn't mean Matlocky in a bad way!


