Martin Moran's poignant one-man memoir, The Tricky Part, will be revisited by the actor 8 PM Feb. 9 for one night only at The Barrow Group Theatre in Manhattan as a benefit for the Group’s new-play development program, from which the solo show sprang.
The play, which received a 2004 Obie Award and two Drama Desk nominations, chronicles a sexual relationship Moran (Titanic, Bells Are Ringing, Spamalot) had for three of his teenage years with an older man, a counselor at a Catholic Boys’ camp, and how that influenced his life.
Seth Barrish, artistic director for The Barrow Group, directed the original production. Barrow Group is at 312 West 36th Street. Visit barrowgroup.org.
Dame Edna is currently in rehearsals for her Broadway return in All About Me, a new evening of song and comedy in which she will co-star with musician Michael Feinstein.
While Feinstein promises to be a gracious co-star, one never knows what could go on backstage when two megawatt talents of the theatre must share the stage. Just to be safe, producers of All About Me will be holding “auditions” for an honorary understudy for Dame Edna on Feb. 17 at the Henry Miller’s Theatre.
Titles have been announced for The 24 Hour Musicals program, a benefit in which short original musicals are created, cast, rehearsed and performed all in the span of one day.
The 24 Hour Company and the Exchange produce the event. The shows will be performed at 7:30 PM tonight at The Gramercy Theatre.
The titles will be:
You Can See the East River From Here, Too by Jeanine Tesori (music and lyrics) and Jonathan Bernstein (book). Ted Sperling directs a cast of Dee Roscioli, John Ellison Conlee and Katie Thompson.
Anti Valentines by Jeff Blumenkrantz (music and lyrics) and Julia Jordan (book). Moisés Kaufman directs Celia Keenan-Bolger, Marnie Schulenburg, Michael Winther and Zachary Prince.
The First of His Heart by Adam Gwon (music and lyrics) and Jonathan Marc Sherman (book). Trip Cullman directs Julian Fleisher, Nancy Opel and Darius DeHaas.
What’s Wrong with Twinkie? by Zina Goldrich and Marcy Heisler (music and lyrics) and Josh Koenigsberg (book). Kathleen Turner directs Alicia Witt, Cady Huffman, Mo Rocca and Raven-Symoné.
Tony Award-nominated In the Heights cast member Olga Merediz will guest on the Food Network’s “Throwdown with Bobby Flay” March 10.
“Throwdown” features Flay competing against various cooks (who specialize in a certain dish or style) to prove who is the true master in the kitchen. The set up is that most of the chefs and cooks believe they are being profiled by the Food Network until Flay shows up to challenge them.
“Throwdown with Bobby Flay” will air from 9-10 PM ET. Check local listings.
Merediz earned a Tony nomination for her performances as Abuela Claudia, a role she continues to play, in the Tony Award-winning musical In the Heights on Broadway.
Florence Henderson — Broadway's original Fanny in the Harold Rome, S. N. Behrman and Joshua Logan musical — popped in to visit with the cast of City Center Encores! recent production of that musical Feb. 5.
Henderson — known to TV audiences as beloved matriarch Carol Brady on “The Brady Bunch” — began her career on the stage appearing on Broadway in Wish You Were Here and Oklahoma! before originating the title role in 1954’s Fanny opposite Ezio Pinza and Walter Slezak (who earned a Tony Award for his role).
Here are some shots of Henderson backstage with her Fanny successor Elena Shaddow (top left) and Encores! cast members Priscilla Lopez (top right) and Ted Sutherland (bottom):
Although it has yet to make its Broadway debut, the new Green Day musical American Idiot is already tempting fans with three versions of “21 Guns.”
The cast of American Idiot appeared on the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards performing “21 Guns” with Green Day’s lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong and the band. The single, which also features lead vocals by Rebecca Naomi Jones, is now available on iTunes.
In addition to the live audio performance of “21 Guns,” a video of the performance is also available on iTunes.
Studio recordings of “21 Guns” are also available on iTunes featuring Green Day and the American Idiot cast performing together, as well as a single with just the members of the stage production. American Idiot will rock Broadway beginning April 20 at the St. James Theatre.
Last week London’s “The South Bank Show Awards” boasted the first public performance of the title song from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s new musical, Love Never Dies.
Now, eager theatregoers can preview bits of other songs from the Lloyd Webber score on Amazon.co.uk. Brief clips are currently available for such tunes as “Only for Him,” “Beneath A Moonless Sky,” “Dear Old Friend,” “The Beauty Underneath,” “Why Does She Love Me?” and “Before the Performance,” among others.
Love Never Dies will make its world premiere at London’s Adelphi Theatre Feb. 20 prior to an official opening March 9. Ramin Karimloo, Sierra Boggess, Summer Strallen, Joseph Millson and Liz Robertson will star in the London cast.
"The whole point was to have fun so I decided to write a role where I didn’t have to wear a girdle — that’s why it turned out to be about nuns," says Charles Busch about his latest theatrical creation, a nun-funpoke called The Divine Sister , now playing to March 7 at Theatre for the New City.
He, of course, has assigned himself the title role — the unsinkable Mother Superior of St. Veronica’s, which, in ways large and small, is overrun with mad nuns. Busch explains, “I actually play a very lovely, sanctimonious nun of the Rosalind Russell-Loretta Young school. I could never be quite as effective as Greer Garson, although I think I’ll wear maybe a little less eyeliner. I love that nuns in Hollywood movies always have false eyelashes.
“I love those movies, and I thought ‘I’m going to get only one shot at playing a nun’ so I had to put in every possible moment that I’ve wanted to play in a nun movie.”
Tony Award winner Mandy Patinkin is currently starring in the world premiere of Rinne Groff’s true-life drama Compulsion at the Yale Repertory Theatre.
Patinkin is cast as Sid Silver in the work that traces one man’s obsessive battle to have his adaptation of “The Diary of Anne Frank” produced on stage. Public Theater artistic director Oskar Eustis stages the production that also features Hannah Cabell and Stephen Turner.
Yale Rep has released footage of the play that will play Berkeley Rep and before transferring to the Public Theater Off-Broadway.
Venus in Fur
Circumcise Me
Conviction
Clothes for a
Summer Hotel
Mazeltov Cocktail
Lend Me a Tenor
Alice in Wonderland
Candida
The Temperamentals
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Come Fly with Me
God of Carnage
Hair
Memphis
Next to Normal
The Phantom of the Opera
Rock of Ages
Time Stands Still
A View from the Bridge
and more!
