Million Dollar Password - watch more funny videos

In case they haven't fixed it yet by the time you see this, link: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118047264?refCatId=15

and thought maybe Spring Awakening had been re-released in an acoustic version?

Continue reading NYMF 2011 Review #5: The Brain That Wouldn't Die (in 3-D).]]>

Continue reading NYMF 2011 Review #4: Kiki Baby.]]>

Continue reading NYMF 2011 Review #3: Madame X.]]>

Continue reading NYMF 2011 Review #2: Kissless.]]>

1. Ghost
2. Lysistrata Jones
3. Bonnie and Clyde

3 1/2. Spider-Man (yes, technically it counts)

Let me know if I've missed anything.

The back-and-forth is silly.  Last year we had only two new REVIVALS.  The year before we had to pad NEW MUSICALS with "Million Dollar Quartet".  Back in 2006 and 2005 we only had 3 REVIVALS--and 2005 was the Spamalot/Piazza/Scoundrels/SpellingBee year!  And then in 2002, the Millie/Urinetown/etc year, we again had only two REVIVALS  (Into The Woods/Oklahoma).  And in 2000, the year that we had the REVIVALS Kiss me Kate, Music Man and the Darth-Vader JCS, we had so little in the way of new musicals that CONTACT won.

Why does this keep happening?  It's not just "theater dying", were that the case we'd see a year with only 3 new musicals and 3 new revivals.  

End rant.

Continue reading NYMF 2011 Review #1: Fucking Hipsters.]]>

I was at the press event this afternoon and tried out my Droid 3's HD video function for the first time.

Continue reading Godspell Press Event.]]>

                                   IMOGEN
             O Posthumus! alas,
             Where is thy head? where's that? Ay me!
             where's that?

Cymbeline is possibly Shakespeare's most ridiculous romantic comedy.  The plot:

• a wager on whether a lady would cheat on her man
• two princes in exile unaware of their heritage
• a queen who poisons people with what turns out to be Juliet-style sleeping potion
• a headless corpse mistaken for a loved one because his clothes are so similar
• and your standard woman-dressed-as-a-boy bit.

It comes across as a series of one-acts layered end-to-end; the last scene of Cymbeline has seventeen "discoveries" alone.

So the fact that Fiasco Theater's fantastic production of Cymbeline manages it all so effortlessly is to be commended, and that's before I note that the 15 characters in this play are portrayed by 6 fantastic actors.  Actually, the doubling of cast only serves to strengthen a show where characters pop out of nowhere or suddenly disappear for large swaths of time.  Also helpful is Fiasco's acknowledgement and deep understanding of how flawed the play is, while still remaining respectful of Shakespeare.  Fiasco does this Shakespearean Comedy as a comedy: not as an over-the-top production, but finding the humor in taking it seriously.

For example: in the scene with Imogen finding a decapitated body dressed in her lover's clothes, she goes into this whole panicked speech about him that Fiasco's audience cannot but help to laugh at from the start for the situation's absurdity (complete with her insistence that she knows his body's shape).  Compare this to the needlessly weighty production I saw at Lincoln Center a few years back, where Imogen's speech was drawn out, heartfelt, then suddenly fell apart when her line "Where is thy head" caused laughter that felt unintended.  That production's finale with its endless string of "reveals" also caused smatterings of nervous laughter that the onstage cast seemed almost surprised by.  Whereas in Fiasco's production, the cast revels in the hilarity of such convenient loose-end-tying.  Perhaps five more minutes could have been cut from Act One, but that's the closest I have to any real criticism.  See, I usually prefer to my Shakespearean comedies to lie comfortably in actual comedy, and Fiasco does this as well as the best Shakespearean comedies I have seen.

It is a goal in my life to see one fantastic satisfying production of each of Shakespeare's plays, and then be done with all future productions of that play.  

• King Lear with Ian McKellen
• Twelfth Night in Central Park with Anne Hathaway
• Aquila Theater's Comedy of Errors
• The Royal Shakespeare Company's Hamlet
• The Bridge Project's Winter's Tale
• Public Lab's Timon of Athens

and now, Fiasco Theater's Cymbeline. 

Which is great, because it is a rather silly play.

SISTER ACT PIZZA: Basic tomato sauce with slices of imported holy swiss, and that's all fine and good.  But the guy at the register is apparently surprised that more people don't order it based on his wild assumption that everybody remembers and deeply loves this one slice of it that they had like 20 years ago.

ANYTHING GOES PIZZA: The first half of this pie is topped with something blue and you don't know what it is but it's delicious!  

The second half, you realize the blue stuff was always mold.

BOOK OF MORMON PIZZA: Drizzled with high-pedigree truffle oil--and priced accordingly.  But the secret selling point of this pizza is that they don't have the capacity to make as many slices of this pizza as the others, just so they can claim they're always sold out.

CATCH ME IF YOU CAN PIZZA: Well, it used to be served up by a Jewish guy, and came cheeseless & topped with kosher pastrami.  But for some reason it's now topped with cheese, and the pastrami has been replaced with Vegas-buffet-style Shrimp Cocktails.

HAIR PIZZA: Sauceless!  Cheeseless!  Zero toppings!  But you can barely tell because they make you enjoy it in a dimly-lit room.

ADDAMS FAMILY PIZZA: An assortment of topping styles that really don't go well with pizza, served on a crust so overcooked it's mealy.  It's a shame too, because now no other pizza place will ever get to sign a deal to make what could have been a *good* Addams Family pizza.

HOW TO SUCCEED PIZZA: The pizza with that award-winning sauce you loved while growing up, now without the award winning sauce.  With British Stilton cheese, served on the mini-est bagel you've ever seen.

MEMPHIS PIZZA: Skip it.  It's now available in the Netflix frozen pizza section for you to bake at home.

WAR HORSE PIZZA: It's technically not pizza at all, it's mostly fluffy cotton candy.  But watching the guy make it is so amazing!  That is, until he literally shoves each slice down your throat. 

BABY IT'S YOU PIZZA: Arsenic and bleach laced crust.  This pizza will be the death of you.  And possibly the death of all pizza.  

Have you spotted any other Broadway Pizzas lately?

I love what they've done with the posters.

Nearly Naked Theatre in Phoenix, AZ:

Renegade Theater in Orlando, FL:

And if you're considering putting on this hilarious 3-person musical, or are interested in perusal materials, the very fine folks at Samuel French will be happy to arrange that for you.