We are happy to welcome guest celebrity blogger playwright Theresa Rebeck, a Pulitzer Prize finalist whose plays include Broadway’s Mauritius and Off-Broadway’s Omnium Gatherum (co-written with Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros), Bad Dates, Spike Heels, The Understudy, Loose Knit, The Butterfly Collection, The Water’s Edge, The Scene, Our House and more. Rebeck, whose play The Novelist will be presented at the Dorset Theatre Festival in August, has blogged for Playbill.com all week; her final entry follows.
Last year I got myself in a lot of trouble by writing a blog about how Agatha Christie wasn’t so bad. The Dorset Theater Festival had presented a pretty good production of one of her many plays, and the audience was just lapping it up, and I got to thinking that doing plays that audiences might actually like was a pretty good idea. Everybody’s always nervous about how theatre audiences are shrinking, or getting older, and how are we going to get them to come back? For me the answer has always been, well, maybe we should produce plays that they like.
That doesn’t mean Agatha Christie, necessarily, or even at all; I’m a living playwright, I think everyone should produce more new plays rather than just keep doing revivals. I do hear from many sources—producers and managing directors, usually—that “audiences don’t like new plays” but I don’t believe it. I think audiences like new plays. They certainly liked them when Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams were writing them. Why would they change their minds? They liked Mauritius and The Scene and The Understudy. They liked The History Boys, and that was a play about a bunch of kids going to a British public school. But it was a very interesting and entertaining contemporary play, by the esteemed Alan Bennett, and it had great characters and some very good jokes, and some striking moments and, well, audiences liked it.
"30 Rock" fans will get to enjoy their Liz-and-Jack banter in true "Saturday Night Live" fashion Oct. 14 when the NBC sitcom airs a live episode, according to deadline.com.
Most of the “30 Rock” stars have plenty of stage experience to help them get over any jitters. Headliner and creator Tina Fey is a Second City and “SNL” alum, and Alec Baldwin and Jane Krakowski have played Broadway and other stages a time or two, to Tony-nominated and Tony-winning effect, respectively. Tracy Morgan also appeared on “SNL” and is a stand-up regular, and Jack McBrayer is another Second City alum.
The fifth season of “30 Rock,” which follows the backstage chaos behind a fictional sketch comedy show, will air Thursdays at 8:30 PM ET on NBC.
Everyone’s favorite ogre’s many incarnations will be chronicled in a special exhibit, Look Inside the Swamp: Shrek from Book to Film to Stage, which opens July 30 at 2 PM at Navy Pier in Chicago.
“This exciting new exhibit will chronicle the beginnings of Shrek, from the beloved book by William Steig to the blockbuster movie franchise from DreamWorks to the Chicago launch of the First National Tour of Shrek the Musical now playing at the Cadillac Palace Theatre,” according to press notes. “The Look Inside the Swamp: Shrek from Book to Film to Stage exhibit will feature an exclusive tour through the creation of Shrek the Musical including character development drawings from the original movie ‘Shrek,’ costumes and sketches, set models, set sketches and photos, Princess Fiona’s tower, Lord Farquaad’s castle, scenes from the show on video, a chance to walk the green carpet and take photos along side the gang of Far, Far Away and much, much more!”
Haven Burton, who stars as Princess Fiona in the Shrek tour, will perform “I Know It’s Today” with the actresses playing Fiona’s child and teenage selves to celebrate the opening of the exhibit.
The touring production of Shrek the Musical continues at the Cadillac Palace Theatre through Sept. 5.
Adam Stafford, currently starring as endlessly ignored husband Amos Hart in London’s West End production of Chicago, got noticed for rescuing three people from a burning building in Maidenhead, Berkshire, the morning of July 29.
Stafford spotted smoke coming from the house, caused by faulty electricity, and ran into the house to warn the residents. At least one resident was unaware of what was going on. Ali Khan told the Evening Standard, “I had no idea the fire was going on until this guy came running in shouting, ‘There’s a fire, get out.’ I heard the alarm but I thought someone had burned their breakfast.”
Stafford, who had been through a fire as a teenager, said, “Once you’ve been in a fire you know the first priority is human life. I just knew I needed to get people out.”
Chicago is currently playing at the Cambridge Theatre in the West End and at the Ambassador Theatre on Broadway.
We are happy to welcome guest celebrity blogger playwright Theresa Rebeck, a Pulitzer Prize finalist whose plays include Broadway’s Mauritius and Off-Broadway’s Omnium Gatherum (co-written with Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros), Bad Dates, Spike Heels, The Understudy, Loose Knit, The Butterfly Collection, The Water’s Edge, The Scene, Our House and more. Rebeck, whose play The Novelist will be presented at the Dorset Theatre Festival in August, will blog for Playbill.com all week; her fourth entry follows.
All things Novelist are heating up. The theatrical publishers Smith and Kraus have a new program called Plays In Production, and they publish beautiful little one-off paperbacks of a play script, which you can buy in the lobby. (It’s just like what they do in London, with new plays.) So they’re going to do one for The Novelist and the Dorset Theater Festival. This means I have to finish rewrites and write a preface and come up with a decent photograph for the front cover and clever copy for the back. And then I go back to New York for rehearsals next week, and then we move the whole production up here.
Up-and-coming performers will be featured in a charity-cabaret series, beginning with the show “Broadway Off’Leash” Sept. 13 at 9:30 PM at the Duplex.
Future benefit concerts will occur one Monday a month. The second in the series has been scheduled for Oct. 25 at 9:30 PM.
Proceeds from the “Off’Leash” event will benefit Abandoned Angels Cocker Rescue, an animal rescue charity located in Queens, NY.
John Forslund, the executive producer of JDProductions, which will present the evening, will perform Broadway favorites at “Off’Leash,” along with Alex Agard, Ann Bonner, Lana Grube, Lexie Galante, Mollie Kelly, Quinto Ott, Peyton West, Kennen Butler, Sarah Cumings, Sean Elias, Kaitlin Heath, Tyler Bellmon and Tyler Kane. A special Broadway guest performer will be announced shortly.
The Duplex is located at 61 Christopher Street. Tickets are $10 with a two-drink minimum. To make reservations visit theduplex.com.
The complete pilot episode of Emmy winner and Tony and Oscar nominee Laura Linney’s upcoming series, “The Big C,” is now available for (online) viewing.
Linney (Time Stands Still, Sight Unseen, The Crucible, “John Adams,” “The Savages”) plays a suburban housewife and teacher who is coping with terminal cancer. Bill Condon (“Dreamgirls,” “Chicago”) directs the pilot episode, which also features stage and screen vet Oliver Platt (Guys and Dolls, Shining City, “Huff”) as Linney’s husband and Oscar nominee Gabourey Sidibe (“Precious”) as a student in Linney’s class.
Cynthia Nixon and Liam Neeson are among the guest stars set for future episodes of the series.
“The Big C” officially premieres Aug. 16 at 10:30 PM ET on Showtime. To catch the pilot beforehand, look below:
Stage and screen star Susan Lucci will soon add author to her list of accomplishments. According to the Associated Press, the soap queen and sometime Broadway and cabaret leading lady will release her memoirs next year through It Books, an imprint of Harper Collins.
Lucci is best known for playing Erica Kane on the long-running ABC soap opera “All My Children.” She received a Daytime Emmy Award (out of a total of 21 nominations) for her work on the soap. She was a replacement Annie Oakley in the 1999 Broadway revival of Annie Get Your Gun and has appeared at Feinstein’s at Loews Regency and in several benefit performances for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
Tony Award nominee Jennifer Damiano (Next to Normal), Michael Esper (American Idiot) and Kyle Riabko (Hair) discussed issues of responsibility, as brought up in their respective shows and their own lives, in recent video interviews as part of Liberty Mutual’s Responsibility Project.
Damiano discusses the challenge of connecting both to her character in performance and to an audience afterwards. Esper relates how his own personal experiences have informed how he portrays his character’s choices. Riabko discusses the hippie protests that are central to Hair and what can be learned from them today.
The Radio City Rockettes will expand their annual "Christmas in August" event nationwide this year. The event, which will take place Aug. 12 and celebrates the dancers’ annual holiday season tour, will allow fans across the country (and on the Internet) to participate in a nationwide kick-line.
In addition, you can join in a virtual kick-line at radiocitychristmas.com. If one million kicks are generated at both the live events and online, the Garden of Dreams Foundation will bring disadvantaged children and their families from across America to see the show at Radio City.
Photos and videos of various kicks may be shared with Radio City online from now through Aug. 30. You can submit through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or by texting KICKNY to 46737.
The live kick-lines Aug. 12 will take place in front of Radio City Music Hall and in seven other cities where the tour will stop. The kick-line in front of Radio City will take place at 1:30 PM ET. Kick lines will also take place in Los Angeles (Santa Monica Pier, 11 AM PT), Colorado Springs (World Arena, 12 PM MT), Salt Lake City (Gateway Mall, 12 PM MT), Phoenix (Scottsdale Fashion Square, 11 AM PT), Wichita (INTRUST Bank Area, 1 PM CT), San Diego (Fashion Valley Mall, 11 am PT), and Fresno (Save Mart Center, 11 AM PT).
For more information, visit radiocitychristmas.com.
