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Theater.MyTriState.us
Welcome to our blog on theater and broadway! New York City and the surrounding areas have a wealth of theater to offer, including plays, musicals, dramas, musical comedies and more.
Hugh Jackman interrupted by cell phone during Broadway show
Hugh Jackman is currently starring in a production of "A Steady Rain" with Daniel Craig. (Craig sports a mustache in this film that can NOT be missed, by the way!) During one of Jackman's scenes, a cell phone went off. Jackman apparently broke character and asked for the cell phone to be turned off, much to the delight of the audience. Apparently, it took a while to accomplish this feet, and the play stalled for several minutes, and then continued.
It's totally unprofessional for Jackman to break character, stop the show and break the fourth wall and speak to the audience. On the other hand, it should be noted that cell phones ringing are not only annoying to actors, but they can be a bit dangerous - not on the same level as flash photography, but we've seen actors jump in surprise when a cell phone suddenly rings and bump into other actors, props, sets and so on. (flash photography is much more dangerous; introduce a flash of light in someone's face who's been standing around on the stage for a while and they're liable to fall into the audience) So, you're being extremely rude if you let your cell phone ring during a show, but the actors need to be professional and soldier through. The actor doesn't have to understand this, but the character does...
Paul Taylor Dance Company
This was our first experience with modern dance, and we have to admit, we didn't exactly know what to make of it. It was sort of like ballet, but with a lot more room to maneuver, if you will; there was a lot less sense of rules or structure, and it seemed as though the performers spent a good deal of time on the ground, for one reason or another. There was also room for comedy, an art form poking fun at itself, and this seemed very welcome to the audience. We saw three pieces: "...Byzanthium," a contemplation on the fall of the Byzantine empire with music by Edgard Varese, "Changes," featuring music sung by The Mamas and The Papas, and "Arden Court," with music by William Boyce. "...Byzanthium" was, in a word, trippy. The costumes, the music, the choreography, all trippy as hell, yo. The lighting was also exceptional and the piece came together in a wonderful way and made for our favorite piece of the night. "Changes" was as far away from "...Byzanthium" as one could get, featuring the sounds and sites of the 1960s, including faux smoking of weed, which was not lost upon the audience. This piece didn't do much for us, but it was, or at least felt, pretty short. "Arden Court" was the final piece, and it brought to mind exactly what you'd picture if someone told you that modern dance liked to poke fun at Swan Lake. "Arden Court" seemed to please the audience and leave them feeling satisfied; indeed, "Arden Court" was the easiest to follow of all three performances. Like hockey, there were two intermissions, and they really seemed to lag, running over 10 minutes in duration, perhaps as long as 15 minutes. This may have been necessary; the cast exerted an enormous amount of energy and we imagined the required vast quantities of gatorade, oxygen, and iv fluids. To watch their fluid, high speed movements was to become exhausted, or at least develop an inferiority complex about your own physical prowess or at the very least remark to your neighbor, "Man, I bet anyone up on that stage right now could kick my ass," which included the smaller ladies as opposed to the diesel fellas. As far as modern dance goes, we feel it necessary to mention that it did imbibe in us a feeling of, "Just what the hell am I looking at here?" This wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but we feel it necessary to mention that we don't know how accessible this is to those who don't attend much ballet, dance or theatrical performances in general. We found a random Paul Taylor Dance Company performance on YouTube that we've included below: FYI, this is not what we saw, so take it for what it is.
The Paul Taylor Dance Company is performing at the NYCity Center on 55th Street from February 25 to March 14, 2009.
Shrek the Musical is now playing
We were watching the local news, a mistake in its own right, but to add insult to injury, the covered the celebrity red carpet the premier of Shrek the Musical. So, the artistic community didn't say all it needed to say with three Shrek movies, but a musical was necessary. We only saw the first one, and the message we remember from that move was that just because an animated film was made for children, there didn't need to be a bunch of singing and the natural extension of the logic of that first film that launched a multi million dollar franchise was a to make a musical. Super.
But whatcha gonna do? Not go see it? Psh, like that'll help. Big Hollywood musicals have been tearing up Broadway and raking in the bucks for years, and in this stagnent economy, entertainment industry professionals will continue to pay it safe and produce crap. So enjoy, everyone! Big budget theater has never been more painful!
UPDATED: Stagehand strike over - theater returns to New York (2007)
The 19 day strike is over! The stagehands got a wage increase and the producers got flexibility on how many hands they have to hire per show. Head over to the New York Times for more info.
UPDATED: Strike induced revenue loss estimated in tens of millions: The New York Times is reporting that experts estimate that the city is losing tens of millions of dollars. True, we're not thrilled with their product, but in this economy, we hate to see any city lose that kind of money. Read the article here.
UPDATED: is it true "Wicked" moved to Hartford?
Broadway Makes Us Sad With Unoriginal Content - Stage Hand Strike Just In Time!
In an effort to give us more things to complain about, Broadway's newest additions are Disney's "The Little Mermaid" and Mel Brooks' "Young Frankenstein". Seriously. OK, Disney's "The Little Mermaid" (opens Dec. 6) was inevitable, they were probably just trying to decide how they wanted to do that whole mermaid thing on stage and figure out why they call her 'little' - she seems to be of above average height and at least 18 or so years of age... Anyway, The New York Times has already voiced their displeasure with a review by Ben Brantley, in which he mentions laughing "3 times". Anyway, with this and "Spider Man: The Musical" to look forward to, who isn't excited about Broadway in the new millennium? OK, we aren't. In fact, we'd say they've crushed our already fragile entertainment spirit.
Which brings us to the strike. The New York Times reports that an agreement could not be reached between Local One and the producers. Only eight shows were spared (you guessed it; one of them was "Young Frankenstein"): "Cymbeline," "Mary Poppins," "Mauritius," "Pygmalion," "The Ritz," "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee," "Xanadu" and "Young Frankenstein." The bigger shows that have been shut down included "Wicked," "Jersey Boys" and "The Lion King" along with 24 other shows.