The Christmas season is almost here in New York. I've been noticing this week that the trees around town are suddenly appearing (more and more) to be set with the white, twinkling fairy lights, the ice rinks are up and running...Rockefeller Center, Central Park and now Bryant Park as well. More and more Christmas displays are popping up in store windows and the big thing: The Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular with the Rockettes, Santa Claus and The Living Nativity, is back onstage for another year! Ho, Ho and HO.
It may be only Nov. 9, but in New York it's already Christmas in Manhattan.
We're gearing up for another Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and that brings me back to the four times I participated in the parade:
1. On the Diana Ross float
2. On the Cinderella float (I was the coachman)
3. On the New York Daily News float.
4. And my final year, as the toy soldier saluting on The Santa Claus float at the end of the parade.
Good memories!
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
The Seagull on Broadway with Kristin Scott Thomas
Chekhov's The Seagull on Broadway with Kristin Scott Thomas (remember when she won the Oscar for The English Patient?) is a FABULOUS night in the theatre...wonderful. Don't miss it! It's at the Walter Kerr Theatre on West 48th Street near Broadway, just off Times Square. Also in the cast: Peter Sarsgaard.
Carey Mulligan as the haunting beauty "Nina" is a name to remember. We figured that Election Night was a good night to try for discount seats to this HOT Broadway ticket and we were right! $100 seats for $34 and there were lots of empty seats all around us, while the world outside had their Obama Orgasm.
Carey Mulligan as the haunting beauty "Nina" is a name to remember. We figured that Election Night was a good night to try for discount seats to this HOT Broadway ticket and we were right! $100 seats for $34 and there were lots of empty seats all around us, while the world outside had their Obama Orgasm.
Good theatre on Broadway now....
Good theatre on Broadway now!
August Osage County, Speed The Plow, Dividing the Estate, more:
In the last month I've been trying to ignore the dire predictions from the media that we're going to all be living in cardboard boxes due to the economic crisis by running off to see as much theatre as possible. The good news about the economic peril is: everything on Broadway is HALF PRICE right now!
AUGUST-OSAGE COUNTY- Wonderful family black comedy-drama. Do not miss this...fabulous. Came to Broadway from its original run in Chicago at the Steppenwolf Theatre. Tracy Letts' play is warm, funny, sad, shocking, and much more...the story of a very dysfunctional family in Oklahoma. Currently stars a large cast including Estelle Parsons, Robert Foxworth, Brian Kerwin and a few of the fabulous originals from Steppenwolf.
SPEED THE PLOW- the David Mamet play has been revived with a stellar cast. When I saw it originally back in the 1980s the power of the play was "overshadowed" by the casting of rock star Madonna...it was known as "the Madonna play"...this is no longer true...the story of fast-talking Hollywood producers is fast-paced with thrilling verbal acrobatics. Do not miss. Stars Jeremy Piven (from ENTOURAGE), Broadway star Raoul Esparza (who I met years ago thru friends when he first landed in NYC from Chicago), and Elizabeth Moss (Peggy from AMC's hit show MAD MEN).
DIVIDING THE ESTATE- Another wonderful black comedy about a dysfunctional family and their attempts to get along---with or without an inheritance. By Horton Foote, author of The Trip To Bountiful. Stars Elizabeth Ashley, Penny Fuller (a personal acquaintance), Gerald McRaney, Hallie Foote and others.
AMERICAN BUFFALO- Another Mamet play...revival of a play originally done by Al Pacino. Unfortunately, although the cast is first rate, the production is not thrilling...it's a little show that should have stayed in a little theatre Off Broadway somewhere. It's about small time con men/criminals planning a robbery. And that's all...nothing else happens. I've saved you $50. The actors are good...Cedric the Entertainer & John Leguizamo completely over-shadow young Haley Joel Osment (I see dead people), who is now grown up and attending NYU downtown. It's at the lovely old haunted Belasco Theatre on W. 44th St. The best part of the evening was before the show started when the announcer began saying: Mr. Mamet would like you all to turn your FUCKING cellphones off and KEEP them off. Thank You. I lost it, as did most of the audience. If only the show had that much punch and surprise.
Two weeks ago I went to ON BROADWAY, a one night celebration and fundraising show at CITY CENTER dedicated to "Career Transition for Dancers 23rd Anniversary Jubilee" starring Angela Lansbury, Tommy Tune, Brooke Shields, Jane Krakowski, Cheyenne Jackson, Baryshnikov and a host of Broadway names and talent. Lots of fun, great Broadway production numbers such as the thrilling opening tap number of 42nd Street, the Steam Heat number from Pajama Game and the Two Lost Souls number from Damn Yankees.
Last night I saw the latest Broadway tribute to songwriters David Shire and Richard Maltby Jr., held at Merkin Recital Hall, across from Juilliard. Recently I attended the Tribute to Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt. This is a great format...on one side of the stage is a "living room set" ala the Tonight Show and on the other side of the stage is a piano and combo and a series of Broadway performers come out and entertain us with selections composed by this evening's guests, as they reminisce and tell funny stories of their careers.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Lehman Brothers Bailed Out by Barclays Bank-
Jim Dykes of Rich & Famous Tours in New York says:
EXCLUSIVE!!!!!!!!
I just spoke to an old friend (today, Tuesday Sept. 16) who works at Lehman Brothers and she whispered into the telephone: "Barclay’s Bank has saved us…looks like I’ll have a job thru the end of the year or maybe longer! Hooray…"
This is unconfirmed…no one has officially released it, but I’ve known this person since 7th grade and she has never been known to knowingly tell a lie.
Apparently, according to my friend, Barclay's is not taking the British part of Lehman Bros. OR the American part that deals with those bad mortgages...but everything else. Details are being worked out as we speak...today...Tuesday, Sept. 16 at 12 noon.
EXCLUSIVE!!!!!!!!
I just spoke to an old friend (today, Tuesday Sept. 16) who works at Lehman Brothers and she whispered into the telephone: "Barclay’s Bank has saved us…looks like I’ll have a job thru the end of the year or maybe longer! Hooray…"
This is unconfirmed…no one has officially released it, but I’ve known this person since 7th grade and she has never been known to knowingly tell a lie.
Apparently, according to my friend, Barclay's is not taking the British part of Lehman Bros. OR the American part that deals with those bad mortgages...but everything else. Details are being worked out as we speak...today...Tuesday, Sept. 16 at 12 noon.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Michael Riedel's Interview with Hal Prince, the legendary Broadway Producer
Hal Prince was watching the Screen Actor’s Guild Awards on TV last January when he turned to his wife and started babbling in gibberish. “Get dressed” she said, “we’re going to the hospital.” On the eve of his 80th birthday, Prince,whose credits include WEST SIDE STORY, EVITA, FOLLIES and PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, had suffered a stroke. But now, only seven months later, he’s back at work, feisty, charming, opinionated, very funny and gearing up for his 61st show, PARADISE LOST, which he’ll direct in the Spring, possibly starring Mandy Patinkin, John Cullum, Judy Kaye and Schuler Hensley with music by the waltz king, Johan Strauss.
At the start of the new theatre season—one that could be rocky, given the economy—I wanted to get Prince’s view of Broadway, his stomping ground since 1936, when, at age 8, he saw his first show. Asked if he thinks the boom that Broadway’s been enjoying for the last 10 years is about to go bust, he says: “Boom is an economic word; it does not mean quality. And that’s where my head is at. There have been a lot of shows, but how many of them do what theatre should be doing: ‘Astonish me!’?”
Prince is too diplomatic to mention names, but the implication is that tourist-friendly family fare such as MARY POPPINS, LEGALLY BLONDE, SHREK and GREASE hardly fit the ‘Astonish me!’ bill. He says: “The problem is that there are too few creative producers. There are a lot of people who are writing checks—and I’m glad they’re making out those checks—but can they honestly say when they are holding their Tony Award, ‘Did I create this show? Or did I just write a check?’ Broadway should be a money-earning, artistic enterprise,” he adds. “There has been a lot of money around. But isn’t it time to put the ‘art’ back in?”
His rule of thumb is that “if you think it’s going to be commercial, chances are it won’t be. FIDDLER, CABARET, WEST SIDE STORY---nobody should have done those shows. They weren’t ‘commercial.’” Prince, whose first show, THE PAJAMA GAME, was budgeted at $169,000, worries about the costs of putting on a show, although he thinks some headway was made during last year’s stagehand strike. “But,” he says, “I used to produce a show a year. If one didn’t work, maybe the next one did. I made a living in the theatre. You can’t do that anymore. You can’t produce a show a year when each one costs $14million.”
He’s no fan of reality-TV shows such as ‘GREASE: You’re the One that I want’ and ‘LEGALLY BLONDE: The Search for Elle Woods.’ “There’s only one word for them—appalling.”
Sneaky ways to jack up ticket prices—aisle seats with a $25 surcharge, for instance—also leave him cold. “I don’t think any of that is appealing,” he says. “And what about the $1.50 ‘maintenance fee’ on each Broadway ticket? Why should the audience maintain the theatre? Isn’t that what the theatre owner is supposed to do?”—M. Riedel
At the start of the new theatre season—one that could be rocky, given the economy—I wanted to get Prince’s view of Broadway, his stomping ground since 1936, when, at age 8, he saw his first show. Asked if he thinks the boom that Broadway’s been enjoying for the last 10 years is about to go bust, he says: “Boom is an economic word; it does not mean quality. And that’s where my head is at. There have been a lot of shows, but how many of them do what theatre should be doing: ‘Astonish me!’?”
Prince is too diplomatic to mention names, but the implication is that tourist-friendly family fare such as MARY POPPINS, LEGALLY BLONDE, SHREK and GREASE hardly fit the ‘Astonish me!’ bill. He says: “The problem is that there are too few creative producers. There are a lot of people who are writing checks—and I’m glad they’re making out those checks—but can they honestly say when they are holding their Tony Award, ‘Did I create this show? Or did I just write a check?’ Broadway should be a money-earning, artistic enterprise,” he adds. “There has been a lot of money around. But isn’t it time to put the ‘art’ back in?”
His rule of thumb is that “if you think it’s going to be commercial, chances are it won’t be. FIDDLER, CABARET, WEST SIDE STORY---nobody should have done those shows. They weren’t ‘commercial.’” Prince, whose first show, THE PAJAMA GAME, was budgeted at $169,000, worries about the costs of putting on a show, although he thinks some headway was made during last year’s stagehand strike. “But,” he says, “I used to produce a show a year. If one didn’t work, maybe the next one did. I made a living in the theatre. You can’t do that anymore. You can’t produce a show a year when each one costs $14million.”
He’s no fan of reality-TV shows such as ‘GREASE: You’re the One that I want’ and ‘LEGALLY BLONDE: The Search for Elle Woods.’ “There’s only one word for them—appalling.”
Sneaky ways to jack up ticket prices—aisle seats with a $25 surcharge, for instance—also leave him cold. “I don’t think any of that is appealing,” he says. “And what about the $1.50 ‘maintenance fee’ on each Broadway ticket? Why should the audience maintain the theatre? Isn’t that what the theatre owner is supposed to do?”—M. Riedel
Curtain Up! A Broadway Update on Dolly Parton, Katie Holmes, Tommy Tune, Jeremy Piven, Mad Men's Elisabeth Moss, SHREK the Broadway Musical
Curtain Up! The new Broadway theatre season is here, so let's shine the spotlight on a few of the big names trying to conquer the Great White Way:
Hello Dolly!--Country music hasn't fared very well on Broadway but if anybody can break the "hick ceiling" it's going to be Dolly Parton. The fabled country star has written an original score for the stage adaptation of "9 to 5: The Musical," now rehearsing in Los Angeles. Dolly, sources say, isn't the least bit diva-ish about her songs. If director Joe Mantello doesn't think a number is right, Dolly heads to the piano to bang out a new one.
She's got stiff competition: Elton John's score to "Billy Elliot," still the show to beat, is the best he's written for the theatre. But if the songs in "9 to 5" are as catchy as the title number, Broadway could start to look like Dollywood.
CRUISIN FOR A BRUISIN: Poor Katie Holmes got off to a rough start when The New York Post reported that she's not exactly setting the box office on fire for the revival of Arthur Miller's "All My Sons." Compared to the box office numbers the previous Mrs. Tom Cruise--Nicole Kidman--posted for her Broadway debut in "The Blue Room", Katie's got the drawing power of a kid off the bus from Allentown, Pa. People involved in the production are starting to call it "The John Lithgow Show" (Lithgow's got the starring role) in an effort to take the pressure off Katie. But, alas, those tabloid reporters and photographers lurking around the stage door all day aren't there to find out what John Lithgow's wearing.
If ALL MY SONS doesn't make any money, Holmes will take the blame. As for her performance (that minor detail), I hear she's coming along nicely in the role, and has some lovely moments with co-star Patrick Wilson (The Full Monty and Phantom of the Opera). "She's not bad at all" says a production source, who adds, in panic: "Don't use my name!" Like everybody else in the show, he's afraid that if he speaks about Holmes without authorization, the Scientologist "goons" will pay him a visit and perhaps make him "disappear."
COMEBACK FOR A TALL TAPPER:
It's been nearly two decades since 69-year old Tommy Tune (a 9-time Tony winner) has had a hit on Broadway. His last was "The Will Rogers Follies" in 1991. After a couple of flops in the mid-90's, Tune just seemed to slip away. It's been a great loss, since his kind of show--elegant, witty, bursting with inventive dancing--is always welcome on Broadway. Tune is back at the helm of a "new" old-fashioned show: "Turn of the Century," now in rehearsals at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago and is written by Jersey boys creators Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, but uses the songs of Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Irving Berlin and Gershwin. The show has had some financial troubles ($2million that was supposed to come from New York investors has yet to materialize). If the Chicago reviews are good, the money will appear and Tune will be back on Broadway.
Jeremy Piven plays a sleazy agent on HBO's ENTOURAGE, and he'll be playing a sleazy producer in the revival of David Mamet's "Speed-The-Plow", co-starring Mad Men's "Peggy"...Elisabeth Moss (in the role created by Madonna). Piven is a very good actor but the trouble is he'll be up against the memory of Kevin Spacey, who was brilliant in the show last year in London. That's not a performance you want hanging over your head.
DREAMWORKS Chief Jeffrey Katzenberg is shepherding SHREK, THE MUSICAL to Broadway, muscling in on territory long controlled by Disney, his former employer and current rival. The $25million SHREK is getting fairly good word of mouth in Seattle, although they've just brought in Rob Ashford to punch it up a bit.
(Michael Riedel-NY Post)
Hello Dolly!--Country music hasn't fared very well on Broadway but if anybody can break the "hick ceiling" it's going to be Dolly Parton. The fabled country star has written an original score for the stage adaptation of "9 to 5: The Musical," now rehearsing in Los Angeles. Dolly, sources say, isn't the least bit diva-ish about her songs. If director Joe Mantello doesn't think a number is right, Dolly heads to the piano to bang out a new one.
She's got stiff competition: Elton John's score to "Billy Elliot," still the show to beat, is the best he's written for the theatre. But if the songs in "9 to 5" are as catchy as the title number, Broadway could start to look like Dollywood.
CRUISIN FOR A BRUISIN: Poor Katie Holmes got off to a rough start when The New York Post reported that she's not exactly setting the box office on fire for the revival of Arthur Miller's "All My Sons." Compared to the box office numbers the previous Mrs. Tom Cruise--Nicole Kidman--posted for her Broadway debut in "The Blue Room", Katie's got the drawing power of a kid off the bus from Allentown, Pa. People involved in the production are starting to call it "The John Lithgow Show" (Lithgow's got the starring role) in an effort to take the pressure off Katie. But, alas, those tabloid reporters and photographers lurking around the stage door all day aren't there to find out what John Lithgow's wearing.
If ALL MY SONS doesn't make any money, Holmes will take the blame. As for her performance (that minor detail), I hear she's coming along nicely in the role, and has some lovely moments with co-star Patrick Wilson (The Full Monty and Phantom of the Opera). "She's not bad at all" says a production source, who adds, in panic: "Don't use my name!" Like everybody else in the show, he's afraid that if he speaks about Holmes without authorization, the Scientologist "goons" will pay him a visit and perhaps make him "disappear."
COMEBACK FOR A TALL TAPPER:
It's been nearly two decades since 69-year old Tommy Tune (a 9-time Tony winner) has had a hit on Broadway. His last was "The Will Rogers Follies" in 1991. After a couple of flops in the mid-90's, Tune just seemed to slip away. It's been a great loss, since his kind of show--elegant, witty, bursting with inventive dancing--is always welcome on Broadway. Tune is back at the helm of a "new" old-fashioned show: "Turn of the Century," now in rehearsals at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago and is written by Jersey boys creators Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, but uses the songs of Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Irving Berlin and Gershwin. The show has had some financial troubles ($2million that was supposed to come from New York investors has yet to materialize). If the Chicago reviews are good, the money will appear and Tune will be back on Broadway.
Jeremy Piven plays a sleazy agent on HBO's ENTOURAGE, and he'll be playing a sleazy producer in the revival of David Mamet's "Speed-The-Plow", co-starring Mad Men's "Peggy"...Elisabeth Moss (in the role created by Madonna). Piven is a very good actor but the trouble is he'll be up against the memory of Kevin Spacey, who was brilliant in the show last year in London. That's not a performance you want hanging over your head.
DREAMWORKS Chief Jeffrey Katzenberg is shepherding SHREK, THE MUSICAL to Broadway, muscling in on territory long controlled by Disney, his former employer and current rival. The $25million SHREK is getting fairly good word of mouth in Seattle, although they've just brought in Rob Ashford to punch it up a bit.
(Michael Riedel-NY Post)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
