| Spirit of Broadway Theater announces 2008 season
What Spirit of Broadway Theater founder and CEO Brett Bernardini avoids for his Norwich theater are what he dubs the "oompha" musicals, or the ones that mulishly drag the audience through predictable, yet illogical plots: boy meets girl, they dance and someone dies. Every year, Bernardini looks through about 200 scripts, winnowing them down to 20, and then further examining how they complement each other, and serve his criteria. "Are they new, fresh, innovative? Does it stretch the envelope, and, quite frankly, do I care about it?" Bernardini said, ticking off some of the qualities he searches for. "I'm looking for pieces that approach subject matter in a new way. Musical theater is strictly an American invention, opera is European. And frankly, no one does it better than America, but one of the problems is we've fallen into a rut." Audiences, Bernardini said, are looking for other options, and he said the theater has developed a loyal following, with people traveling from New York, Boston and Long Island to attend shows; although he also recognizes audience members who only want to see musicals they are familiar with.
Gardner, Fuller, Mason, Boston Play Shows at Westchester's Emelin Theatre
The Emelin Theatre in Westchester County, NY, continues its fall "Theatre in Concert Festival" with upcoming performances by Karen Mason, Emmy Award winner Penny Fuller, Tony Award winner Gretha Boston and Grammy Award winner Marcus Hummon. The Mamaroneck, NY, theatre is now under the artistic directorship of Michael Bush, whose vision for the venue is eclectic � concerts, cabaret performances and recent or new plays and musicals. The "Theatre in Concert Festival" (including readings and cabaret-style concerts) launched Nov. 17 with Everyone Expects Me to Write Another Streetcar. Some of the shows in the festival were seen in the summer 2007 Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's Cabaret & Performance Conference (artistic-directed by Bush). The series will end Dec. 6 with the Emelin's Broadway Holiday Cabaret, a one-night gala performance featuring the stars and artists from the entire festival.
A Disney princess and the city
Chris Rock once said, "Everybody knows a woman with some daddy issues." He was referring to women whose relationships with their fathers in childhood color their romantic expectations of men in adulthood. "Enchanted" is about/for women with Disney issues. Women with D.I. secretly dream of landing a man of the Prince Charming mold, whose devotion to his beloved begins at first sight and never wanes. A steady diet of Disney in girlhood encourages this belief in "happily ever after." "Enchanted" is a "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" for adult females who once swooned at Disney's "Sleeping Beauty," "Cinderella," "Beauty and the Beast" and other lovesick fantasias. A textbook Disney love story spills out of the animated realm into modern-day New York City. Evil Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon) pushes sweet princess Giselle (Amy Adams) into a portal leading to the real world in order to prevent the girl's impending marriage to her son, Prince Edward (James Marsden).
Continued Strike Impacts Peripheral Businesses on Broadway
The Broadway stagehands strike heads into its fourth day, as picket lines continue outside of more than two dozen shuttered theaters. REPORTER: The impact is being felt directly on the street, by all the peripheral businesses that depend on a healthy industry. Aaron James is a photographer who takes pictures of theatergoers in Times Square. JAMES: Can't make no money. People keep passing by. They're not stopping like they used to stop. It should be a fun thing where they come by and take a photograph after the play. But now, since there's no show going on, I guess they're not coming out. REPORTER: For tour bus operators, the strike is good for business. Al Mamann and Noel Arthur were wandering Times Square, trying to drum up business for City Sights New York.
Wright-Penned "Dirty Sexy Money," with Clayburgh and Sutherland, Picked Up by ABC
The new ABC drama "Dirty Sexy Money," created by playwright Craig Wright, has been picked up for a full season by the network. The additional nine episodes to be added to the 13 previously ordered by ABC will bring the total to 22 episodes. The show is still in production on scripts that were penned prior to the writers' strike. Stage veterans Jill Clayburgh and Donald Sutherland join Peter Krause in the new series from ABC-TV and Berlanti Television. Greg Berlanti, Melissa Berman, Bryan Singer and Craig Wright serve as executive producers. In "Dirty Sexy Money," Krause plays an idealistic lawyer who must represent the wealthy and colorful New York Darling family (led by Sutherland and Clayburgh as patriarch and matriarch). Clayburgh ("Running With Scissors") returned to the stage recently with a healthy roster of roles in Broadway's A Naked Girl on the Appian Way and Barefoot in the Park as well as Off-Broadway's The Busy World is Hushed and The Clean House.
Terrence Howard anxious to two-step into Broadway's 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'
Terrence Howard will make his Great White Way debut in February as Brick in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." "It's confirmed. We're there," the show's producer, Stephen Byrd, told me Tuesday. "Terrence and I were together last week; he's on board." Other stellar names strongly tipped for the African-American production of Tennessee Williams' classic play include Phylicia Rashad, Giancarlo Esposito and James Earl Jones as Big Daddy. Sources says the plum role of Maggie the Cat - immortalized by Elizabeth Taylor in the 1958 film version opposite Paul Newman - is coming down to either Anika Noni Rose or Kerry Washington. The play will open at the Broadhurst Theatre, after three weeks of previews, on March 6. Now let's see whether director Debbie Allen makes Brick gay, or fudges it like in the movie! .
Broadway's `Grinch' Will Reopen
NEW YORK (AP) — All the Whos down in Whoville will have holiday work this year after a Manhattan judge ordered the Broadway production of "Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas!" to reopen despite the ongoing stagehands strike. "I'm going to grant the injunction" against the lockout, state Supreme Court Justice Helen Freedman said Wednesday. "I think one Grinch in town is enough." Her ruling came a day after she heard arguments from producers of the show and owners of the theater housing the $6 million production. Producers, citing a special contract between the show and Jujamcyn Theaters, wanted the show to go on. Meanwhile, The Nederlander Producing Co. and producers of seven shows in its nine Broadway theaters have filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan seeking $35 million in damages from striking union members.
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