By Harry Haun
15 Oct 2004

Fresh from his Musicals in Mutfi triumph in Henry, Sweet Henry last week when he gave an A-1 imitation of Peter Sellers in "The World of Henry Orient," Mark Nelson revealed projects filling both his professional hats: He'll act in a new musical by Daniel Goldfarb called Party Come Home ("I play a 500-year-old Brazilian refugee from the Inquisition," he said with amazing matter-of-factness); then he'll direct the premiere of a new Tina Howe play, Women in Flames, about a fiftysomething playwright and her relationship with a young actor ("I'm researching the sexuality part now," he added mischievously).

Blanche DuBois and her Mitch were back together again, bless 'em—Patricia Clarkson and Noah Emmerich, who played those parts to acclaim in the recent Kennedy Center revival of A Streetcar Named Desire, proving there's life after lunacy and their short run.

Clarkson (a.k.a. "Indie Queen") is, by choice, at liberty these days. "I'm not doing a damn thing right now," she declared happily. "I have a lot of work coming up. George Clooney offered me a part in a new movie he'll direct in March. It's called Good Night and Good Luck, after Edward R. Murrow's famous sign-off. It's about the McCarthy hearings." She declined to say whether she's a victim or a persecutor, just that "it's a beautiful part."

Brenda Blethyn, Emmy-winning Edie Falco and their director, Michael Meyer, wrapped the 'night, Mother rehearsals so they could drop by for the opening (a relatively lighthearted evening in the theatre). Two and a half weeks into it, Falco said the Marsha Norman revival is coming along well. So too, she smiled sweetly, are the political polls.

Blethyn will be making her Broadway debut when 'night, Mother opens Nov. 14 at the Royale, but it won't be her first New York stage appearance. MTC's artistic head, Lynne Meadows, directed her in a 1991 production of Alan Ayckbourn's antic, Absent Friends, opposite Gillian Anderson, who was also making her New York stage debut.

Veterans of other MTC shows were conspicuously present among the first nighters: The Tale of the Allergist's Wife's Michele Lee (working on a one-woman show, Catch the Light, which she hopes to bring in six months hence), Between Us's Kate Jennings Grant (off to North Carolina to film "Forgiven" by, and with, Paul Fitzgerald), The Wild Party composer Andrew Lippa (one out-of-town gig away from Broadway with his musical version of A Little Princess), Sight Unseen's Ben Shenkman (set to play John Cusack's best friend in a film comedy by "Family Ties"/"Spin City" scribe Gary David Goldberg called "Must Love Dogs") and Ain't Misbehavin' director Richard Maltby Jr. (enthusiastic after the latest reading of his next musical with David Shire, Taking Flight).

Reckless looks like the lift-off of The Craig Lucas Season. In January, Long Wharf will premiere his Singing Forest, an epic play sprawled across three acts, running from 1938 Vienna to New York in 2000. "It's about an 82-year-old psychoanalyst," he said.

And in April, his much-antipicated The Light in the Piazza, will illuminate Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont. "Adam Guettel wrote a gorgeous score, and Victoria Clark—what a performance! She carries this extraordinary story on her shoulders beautifully."

Last, and maybe best, sight of the night: Meadow being helped into a white stretch limo hired by a MTC board member. She wanted me to tell the world: "This wasn't my idea."

Left to Right: Debra Monk, Thomas Sadoski, Olga Merediz
photo by Aubrey Reuben

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