Aug 14th Update

CARRIE: THE MUSICAL – PREMIERE CAST RECORDING due Sept 25^th.

Carrie: The Musical – Premiere Cast Recording was produced by Joel Moss and Michael Gore, and features orchestrations by Tony Award® winner Doug Besterman (The Producers, Thoroughly Modern Millie), vocal design by AnnMarie Milazzo, and music direction and arrangements by Mary-Mitchell Campbell.

In addition to Marin Mazzie and Molly Ranson, the cast recording features cast members Christy Altomare, Carmen Cusack, Jeanna de Waal, Derek Klena, Ben Thompson, Wayne Alan Wilcox, Corey Boardman, Blair Goldberg, F. Michael Haynie, Andy Mientus, Elly Noble, and Jen Sese.

AWARD-WINNING CIRCUS AMOK PREMIERES with free performances in September

Free Performances in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx  & Harlem Parks

September 8 - 23

Obie and Bessie Award-winning Circus Amok, New York City’s only one-ring, traveling political circus, once again lands in neighborhood parks throughout the city for the world premiere of its new production, “MOO.” All performances have a running-time of one hour and are free to the public, playing Saturdays and Sundays, September 8- 23, 2012.

From the worlds of Ringling brothers Circus, Bread and Puppet Theater, the Judson dance theater, the new burlesque, and the Theater of the Ridiculous springs Circus Amok!!  In this extravaganza not to be missed, the multi-talented, seven-member troupe and five-piece Circus Amok Band will amaze and astound audiences with “MOO,” a thrilling escapade of danger, mystery, mayhem and madness. This bona fide traveling circus, which tours public parks from Coney Island to Harlem, will delight and incite audiences throughout the city.

In “MOO,” we encounter a circus under siege!  Creditors are knocking down the doors, performers disappearing left and right, and there’s a cow on the loose!  But the show must go on!  Astounding acrobats, stunning stilters, dancing cows, and catastrophic clowns all forge ahead while a wire-walker teeters on the edge of sanity.  Cops, creditors and Carol Channing mix it up in this not-to-be-missed spectacle!

The Picture of Dorian Gray

The premise of The Picture of Dorian Gray is well known to most people, therefore questions arise: can it be told in a fresh way and is it worth seeing something that is so familiar?  Sonnet Repertory Theatre’s new production answers both questions strongly in the affirmative.  This engrossing new adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray is by Michael Raver.  It swiftly brings the audience into the action, and then targets key moments, illustrating the tale without burdening the story with every single detail from the book.

Front- Ned Noyes, Sam Underwood, Roger Clark, Rear - William Connell

It helps that Mr. Raver and director Quin Gordon have an excellent cast to work with.  Sam Underwood gives the early Dorian a layer of innocence, even as he is fully aware of his own beauty and sexuality.  From first to last, Mr. Underwood gives Dorian’s actions a layer of insensitivity, rather than cruelty – more egotist than sociopath.

Dorian's insensitivity is justified by the pronouncements of Lord Henry, wonderfully played by Roger Clark.  Lord Henry speaks as if he is a professor of hedonism, and he has found a rapt pupil in Dorian Gray.  Mr. Clark’s Lord Henry slips easily between different motivations in “educating” young Dorian.   At various moments you can read his emotions in his eyes; adoration for beauty in general, desire to relive his own youth through Dorian, the joy of being a fount of knowledge and experience, as well as the occasional undercurrent of lust, albeit quickly squelched.

It is the attraction by both Lord Henry and the painter Basil Hallward (well played by Ned Noyes) that defines the attractiveness of Dorian Gray.  To witness the way these men gaze upon Dorian is to understand the mesmeric beauty Dorian possesses.

Hanley Smith in one of many roles

The rest of the cast, all the other men and women, are played by William Connell and Hanley Smith.  Mr. Connell brings to life many different characters very well; the inebriated foppish husband, late in the show, is quite funny and touching.  Ms. Smith plays three women, with more depth than expected.  All three women are infatuated with Dorian at different points in his life, and Ms. Smith brings a unique view to each of them.  Ms. Smith also plays the piano, providing musical punctuation to the action.

Finally, Sydney Shepherd performs a unique function in the company.  She plays the cello in accompaniment, but – more importantly – she functions as a visual Foley artist.   She provides sound effects for the largely prop free show.  It provides a perfect base of expectations about the props, because the actual picture in this Picture of Dorian Gray is never seen.  The characters react to the image, viewing the picture as if it is hung in front of the audience.  It is a cleaver idea, successfully executed.

Director Quin Gordon has delivered a fascinating take on The Picture of Dorian Gray, one that expands story by showing more emotion than just “the picture ages and the man doesn’t” tale we all know.

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Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray

August 9 – 19 @ The Studio Theatre at the Pershing Square Signature Center

Playwright (adaptation): Michael Raver

Director: Quin Gordon

Cast: Roger Clark, William Connell, Ned Noyes, Sydney Shephard, Hanley Smith and Sam Underwood

website

Aug 13: Morning Update

Two new shows are coming to New York's off Broadway scene soon.
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First: Detroit at Playwrights Horizon startingAugust 24th.  The Theater synopsis says:

Pulitzer Prize finalist. Somewhere in the suburbs of a mid-sized city, Ben and Mary welcome into their lives the rootless couple who move in next door. But as this foursome bonds over backyard barbecues, the neighborly connection they find threatens to unravel the lives they've built and change them forever. An ecstatic, dangerous new comedy, Detroitexposes the nerves that live just under the surface of American life.

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The second is a new Dusty Springfield musical opening after a run in Los Angeles.

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Links:
Detroit
Forever Dusty

Re-Animator The Musical @ New York Musical Theater Festival

There is no excuse for not knowing what you are getting into when watching Re-Animator The Musical.  It’s based on the Horror Comedy movie Re-Animator, a cult classic.  If the title doesn’t tip the audience off as to what is in store, the “splatter zone” and the ponchos should warn you long before the show begins.

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With the ground rules firmly in place, Re-Animator The Musical provides great goofy fun along with faux gore aplenty.  Re-Animator is the story of good guy Dan Cain and his roommate, the slightly unhinged and defiantly obsessed Herbert West.  Dan is a med student coming to grips with the reality that he can’t save all lives.  West is a med student working to upend that reality with a green goo that re-animates dead tissue – and brings the dead to life.

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Graham Skipper mid Re-Animation

For this formula to work, the cast needs to walk a fine line.  Graham Skipper as Herbert West is frenetically fantastic as the manic student mad-scientist.  He is out to revolutionize the world and, by happy coincidence, humiliate Dr. Carl Hill.  Dr. Hill (played by Jesse Merlin) plagiarized the young West’s Swiss mentor, and has plans to do the same thing to Herbert.  Mr. Skipper hams up the proceedings with wild abandon - bringing audience along with him.

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But for good camp to work, there must be the innocents.  In Re-Animator The Musical, those innocents are Dan and Megan.  They are love struck sweethearts in Medical school, alternate repelled and seduced by Herbert West’s breakthrough.  Rachel Avery plays the role of Megan sweetly, with just enough backbone poking through her doe-eyed wonder to be believable.  It helps that Ms. Aveyr has a lovely voice and a fresh presence.  But it is Chris L. McKenna as Dan Cain that steals much of the show.  Mr. McKenna plays him as a cross between Dudley Do-Right and Florence Nightingale, with a dumb jock body. 

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Misters McKenna and Skipper combine to make Dan and Herbert a great team.

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George Wendt plays Dean Halsey, Megan’s Father, bringing a little sit-com star power to the proceedings – he nails it in the opening scene as an excitable Swiss Nurse.  I know a big guy in bad drag was stale back when William Frawley did it in I Love Lucy, but it sets the tone perfectly.

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Chris L McKenna and Rachel Avery

Re-Animator is part of the New York Musical Theater Festival (NYMF.ORG), on the way to play at the Edinburgh Fringe.  Mark Nutter brings a giddy playfulness to the music and lyrics, and Stuart Gordon does a fine job of direction.

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Playwrights: Dennis Paoli, Stuart Gordon & William J. Norris

Music & Lyrics: Mark Nutter

Director: Stuart Gordon

Cast: George Wendt, Marlon Grace, Jesse Merlin, Brian Gillespie, Mark Beltzman, Graham Skipper, Cynthia Carle, Liesel Hanson, Tyler Milliron, Chris. L. McKenna, Rachel Avery

Into the Woods Is Coming

I saw Into The Woods a long long time ago in a galaxy far away.
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Actually it was pre-Broadway in San Diego at the Old Globe.  Standing Room!
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It was great, however the only casting change for Broadway was Bernadette Peters (I saw Markie Post - seriously!).  Anyway, there is a process to enter a daily drawing for free tickets.  Go to http://shakespeareinthepark.org/ to see how.
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Hell: Paradise Found at 59E59 Theaters

Hell: Paradise Found is a funny and lighthearted look at the assumptions we make with regards to the afterlife.  Produced by the University of Alabama, this show is probably reaching a much less religious audience here in New York than it would in the South.  But Hell: Paradise Found neither depends on religion, nor does it mock the religious among us.  The show is a simply a different way of looking at Heaven and Hell.

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It all starts as Simon Ackerman, everyman lawyer played by Matt Lewis, wakes up in an Interview room trying to catch up with an Interviewer determined to hurry through the process.  It is pretty quickly explained that Mr. Ackerman has passed away, and after a cursory interview is sent off to Heaven.  But, when Hell is denied to him, Hell suddenly intrigues Mr. Ackerman.  He sets out to find why he isn’t accepted into Pit of Doom.  And he finds that assumptions, particularly about the afterlife, can be right and wrong at the same time.

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Playwright Seth Panitch has taken a clever idea, and expanded it into a well written piece.  It is a play that treats religion respectfully, but without undue reverence.   In Hell, Mr. Ackerman sees a litany of characters, Mother Teressa, Lizzie Bordon, Don Juan - but not Princess Di, she is in Heaven.   God and Lucifer make an appearance as well, old friends across the millennium.   Only Archangel Gabriel is portrayed unfavorably, Gabriel is an officious toady in Hell: Paradise Found.

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The acting is best when limited to a single character, Dianne Teague as God and Seth Panitch as The Interviewer both turn in first rate performances.  Most of the rest of the cast is enthusiastic but inconsistent.  They are often excellent in the well written roles, Eve, Gabriel or Don Juan for example, but they are less convincing in quicker roles that rely on the audiences’ familiarity with them, Vlad the Impaler, Shakespeare or Lizzie Borden.  Regardless, many of these actors show amazing promise and you should keep an eye out for them in the future.

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The energy the cast gives off is engaging.  Occasionally a joke will fall flat, but another comes right up so the pace doesn’t flag.  The cast never gives less than 100% and their joy is infectious.

Hell: Paradise Found is a fun show, see it and enjoy.

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Hell: Paradise Found

Playwright and Director: Seth Panitch

Cast: Matt Lewis, Dianne Teague, Chip Persons, Lawson Hangartner, Peyton Conley, Alexandra Ficken, Stacy Panitch, Seth Panitch

Website

Musical: Chaplin Coming in the Fall

ON THE BIG NEW MUSICAL ABOUT THE LITTLE TRAMP!

From small-time London music hall performer to big-time Hollywood icon, mere words cannot describe the incredible rags to riches story of Charlie Chaplin. And now that remarkable story comes to life — on Broadway — in CHAPLIN THE MUSICAL. The scandalous affairs. The spectacular divorces. The famous friends. The mortal enemies. CHAPLIN THE MUSICAL takes you behind the scenes and behind the undeniable genius who forever changed the way America went to the movies.

Featuring a book by three-time Tony Award^® winner THOMAS MEEHAN (Hairspray, The Producers, Annie) and CHRISTOPHER CURTIS, music and lyrics by CHRISTOPHER CURTIS, directed and choreographed by WARREN CARLYLE(Follies, Hugh Jackman, Back on Broadway) and introducing ROB McCLURE as the legendary silent film star, this big musical about the little tramp shuffles into Broadway sooner than you think—this summer! So don’t miss your chance to save now on the first show of the season.

Previews begin August 21 (Website)