Second Thoughts on My Summer Festival Fatigue

I’ve been feeling badly all week about the grumpiness of Saturday's main B&Me post on summer theater festivals, particularly that line where I said " there are too many people doing theater in New York and many of them should be doing something else."  

I still think the shows I saw were weak but I do recognize the value of the festivals. There are some truly talented artists who participate in them and the festivals provide a place for those theatermakers to hone their craft and for theater lovers to discover them.  

That case has been well made in a few pieces I’ve read, including this one and this one.  Plus, you can find reviews of all the this year's Fringe shows here.

Getting Ready for National Dance Day

Tomorrow, July 27, is National Dance Day, a fun fitness event started and promoted by Nigel Lythgoe, the producer of TV's "So You Think You Can Dance." He and his team have put together two routines for people to learn. Click here for more info. And then, get out there and shake your booty.

What are the Greatest Plays of the Past 100 Years?

It’s always great when theater gets to play with the pop culture big boys and so I was delighted to see that Entertainment Weekly's current issue on “The 100 All-Time Greatest” cultural events has ranked not only movies, TV shows, record albums and books, but plays too. 

But I'm not totally surprised they did it because my old friend Jess Cagle edits the magazine and he was a one-time theater reporter himself. Jess and his staff at EW anointed 50 plays the greatest of the past 100 years. And it’s hard to complain about their top 10:

1. Death of A Salesman

2. A Streetcar Named Desire

3. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

4. Long Day’s Journey into Night

5. Fences

6. Angels in America

7. Waiting for Godot

8. Pygmalion

9. A Raisin in the Sun

10. Our Town

And the other 40 make sense too; among them are: Glengarry Glen Ross, August: Osage County, True West, Look Back in Anger, Master Harold and the Boys, The Homecoming, Ruined, Top Girls, M. Butterfly, Topdog/Underdog, The Orphan’s Home Cycle and Uncommon Women and Others. 

Still, lists are designed in part to get us arguing and what kind of theater lover wouldn’t have at least one gripe?  Here’s mine: how could they have left off Paula Vogel’s remarkable How I Learned to Drive?   

Now what’s yours?

Happy Birthday to TKTS, Which Turns 40 Today

Is there any theater lover who doesn’t love TKTS? Or who hasn’t at some time in their life bought one of its reduced-priced tickets to see a show?

The Theatre Development Fund, which operates the ticket booth that sells same-day seats to theater and dance performances both on and off-Broadway, estimates that TKTS has sold 58.5 million tickets since it first opened its windows on June 25, 1973.    

Plus, over the past five years, its Red Stairs have served as an anchor point and meeting place for the entire Theater District.

Now, to celebrate its 40th anniversary, TKTS is throwing a party that starts at 11 a.m. tomorrow, June 26, at its iconic booth on Broadway and 47th Street.

Leading the festivities will be Harvey Fierstein, Gerard Alessandrini who has created a special Forbidden Broadway-style tribute; and Julie Halston who is scheduled host a karaoke featuring Broadway songs from the past 40 years and to interview people on the ticket line.

But if you can’t make it, you can still join in the celebration by watching this video feature by local CBS News anchor Dana Tyler,  which you can see by clicking here.

Helen Mirren Reigns Again as the Queen in “The Audience”

God Save NT Live!  My high school classmate Lesley and I went last night to see the simulcast of London’s National Theatre production of The Audience in which Helen Mirren reprises her role as Queen Elizabeth II.  Only this time, instead of just imagining her meetings with Tony Blair as he did in the movie “The Queen,” playwright Peter Morgan has invented a collection of the monarch's weekly briefings with the 11 other prime ministers who have served over the six decades since Elizabeth took the throne in 1952.  

I was so eager to see this show that I seriously considered making a trip to London this spring but, luckily for me and my budget, I heard that the National was going to simulcast the show as part of its NT Live series, which screens simulcasts of select London productions to movie theaters in cities around the world.   

So I immediately bought tickets to see the presentation of The Audience at New York University’s Skirball Center. And so did a whole bunch of other theater lovers.  I ran into my friend Ann, who grew up in London; and my theatergoing buddy Bill and his friend Ronnie.  I also spotted the Broadway producer Elizabeth McCann, who, although walking slowly and with a cane, had made her way downtown too.

I don’t yet know what the others thought but Lesley and I had a great time, even though we  clearly knew less about the prime ministers than the on-screen audience at the Gielgud Theatre, who roared at lines, mannerisms and intonations which must have deftly identified each of their former leaders. 

But director Stephen Daldry has put together a characteristically smart production, the performances are all crackerjack, Mirren has expanded her empathy for the queen (click here to read an interviewwith the actress) and a brief interview right before the meatier second act between Morgan and British journalist Emma Freud added some great perspective.

It all adds up to an affectionate—and entertaining—tribute to the flesh-and-blood woman behind the royal image. My only complaint is that the cameras failed to show us Mirren’s onstage costume and wig changes, which reviews said played such a delightful part in the show.  

The production plays its final performance this weekend and although there are rumors that it might come to New York, nothing has yet been announced.  But encores of the simulcast have already been scheduled and you can find out where and when they’re happening by clicking here.

SpringboardNYC Offers Young Actors a Helping Hand as They Take the Scary Plunge Into Show Business

To paraphrase Sondheim, each spring, another thousand people get off the train and look around at another thousand people who just off the plane, who have all come to work as actors, singers and dancers in New York.  And no matter how talented they are,  it can be scary as hell.   

The luckiest of them are the participants in SpringboardNYC, the American Theatre Wing’s college-to-career transition program that gives 36 stars-of-tomorrow all kinds of practical advice about how to get started in show business. 

For two weeks each June, the Springboarders participate in audition workshops, attend Broadway and off-Broadway shows, get advice from top agents, managers and casting directors and take master classes with award-winning directors and performers. This year’s roster of guest speakers included directors Jack O’Brien and Diane Paulus (fresh from her Tony win for Pippin) and actors Alan Cumming, Laura Osnes and Tom Hanks.

I'm lucky enough to be on the Wing's Advisory Committee and so I got the chance to sit-in on one of this week’s sessions in which former program participants (all still in their 20s) shared their experiences about their first years in the business with the newcomers.  And it was so inspiring that I left totally envying the participants. If you’re currently a theater student (or know one) and want to know more about the Springboard program, click here. 

Broadway & Me on NPR!

Forgive me for tooting my own horn but as a theater lover and a longtime NPR fan, I'm delighted to have been interviewed for the report that ran this morning on whether theater audiences have become ruder.  Click here to listen to what I (and others) told reporter Margot Adler about the growing number of talkers, Tweeters and food eaters who are filling theater seats.