Gifts for theatre lovers - 2009 edition

It's time to pick out a gift for the theatre lover in your life.

Here's my 2008 list and all of the items on it are still highly recommended. But I want to add some new choices to the mix. I've stayed away from movie musicals and cast recordings, figuring they'd have those already.

And as I noted last year, these are great for Christmas, Chanukah, birthdays or any other time of year that you want to do something special for someone special.

1.) Free for All, by Kenneth Turan. I've just started reading this oral history of Joe Papp, founder of New York's Public Theater and the man who brought free Shakespeare to Central Park, and I'm really enjoying it. I'm especially looking forward to reading about the role Papp played in bringing musicals like Hair and A Chorus Line to Broadway. The story of how Free for All finally came to be published is interesting too.

2.) The Play that Changed My Life. This compilation, put together by the American Theatre Wing and edited by Ben Hodges, features essays by and interviews with a diverse group of 19 playwrights, all talking about the works that influenced them. It's always interesting to read what inspires people, especially if you're an aspiring writer yourself.

3.) Ticket album. My friend and fellow blogger Jan, from Broadway & Me, included this item in her list last year and I thought it sounded like a good idea. Then I got one as a gift and I love it! Now, if I want to know when I saw a show, where I sat or how much I paid, I have this close by. The slots are perfect for a Broadway ticket but you'll need to do a little snipping to make bigger ones fit.

4.) For me, one of the highlights of Finian's Rainbow on Broadway was listening to the delightful Kate Baldwin sing "How Are Things In Glocca Morra?" So beautiful. Her first solo cd, Let's See What Happens, includes that song and others by composers Burton Lane and E.Y. "Yip" Harburg written from the 1940s to the 1960s.

5.) Sadly, I never got to see Forbidden Broadway, the show that spoofed Broadway shows. But I have bought a couple of their cds and the songs are very funny, especially if you recognize the originals to which they're paying homage. The 20th anniversary compilation is a good mix of tunes poking (gentle) fun at some classic musicals.

6.) Who wouldn't want theatre tickets, right? Regional theatres do great work and they add so much to the cultural life in their communities. The League of Resident Theatres has links on its Web site to 76 theatre companies across the United States. This is a chance to give a memorable gift while supporting the arts at the local level.

7.) Okay, I know I was going to stay away from cast recordings but if there's a child on your list who loves Disney movies, cds from the musical versions of The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Mary Poppins or The Little Mermaid can be a great way to introduce them to the wonderful world of show tunes.

8.) I always like to have something from Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS on my list because the money it raises helps support critically needed services all over the country. Last year, I bought the 10th anniversary, two-disc Carols for a Cure. This year's catalog is full of terrific gifts. But a purple piggy bank caught my eye. It's never too early to start saving up for your first Broadway show!

Finally, a role of her own

I so was thrilled when I read this sentence in Ben Brantley's New York Times review of the musical Fela!, which opened on Broadway last night:

"Saycon Sengbloh shimmers as the seductress who introduces Fela to Marx and the American black-power movement."

She shimmers!

Now that I've been going to Broadway shows for a few years, it's great to see actors and actresses whose performances I loved work their way up the food chain.

I can remember as clearly as if it happened yesterday walking up to the Broadway Theatre with Steve on Broadway on the day we finally met after months of e-mailing. It was July 22, 2007, and we going to see The Color Purple with Fantasia, who'd gotten great reviews.

Unfortunately, Fantasia was out that day. I was a bit disappointed until Steve found out that Saycon Sengbloh would be playing the role of Celie. He told me he'd seen her in Wicked and she was terrific.

Well, Steve was right. I was so moved by her performance in The Color Purple. In May, I saw Sengbloh in Hair. And next month, I'll be in the audience at Fela!

(In this New York Daily News story, she talks about how she's known her Fela! costar Sahr Ngaujah since they were teenagers in Atlanta.)

Until now Sengbloh, who made her Broadway debut in Aida in 2003, has never done what I imagine every Broadway performer dreams of doing - create a role.

Congratulations, Saycon. As Celie would say, you are definitely here.

When Joe Papp fired Kevin Spacey

Yesterday I picked up a copy of Free for All, by Kenneth Turan, an oral history of Joseph Papp and New York's Public Theater. I've just started thumbing through it but so far, it looks pretty interesting.

I first heard Papp's name when I was a teenager. I remember watching a play from the New York Shakespeare Festival on TV and being enthralled by it. I'm fairly certain it was this production of Much Ado About Nothing that aired on CBS in 1972.

Last fall, I made my first visit to the Public, for Stephen Sondeim's Road Show. I'll admit that Sondheim wasn't the only draw. I also wanted to see the place where landmark musicals like Hair and A Chorus Line were nurtured.

And yes, there was one other important reason - Kevin Spacey worked there briefly, after dropping out of Juilliard. (There's a Kevin Spacey connection to everything!)

I don't think this story is in the book but I've heard Kevin tell it many times in interviews and it's a nice one.

Here's an account that appeared in the Oct. 24, 1999 issue of Parade magazine:

"I had no prospects, no agent, no money, nothing. Then I got an audition for the New York Shakespeare Festival in the Park by basically browbeating the casting office. I played a messenger with, like, six lines in Henry IV, Part One. It was my first job in New York as a professional actor, and it was pretty exciting, but after that I just couldn't get any acting work.

"I was working as a hat-check guy in a restaurant when I decided to see Joe Papp for a job." [Papp was the influential founder and director of the New York Shakespeare Festival. He gave Spacey a job as office help.]

"While working there, I got cast as the lead in an off-off Broadway play, The Robbers, and got my first New York review - in the Village Voice. It was extremely complimentary, because they compared me to both Marlon Brando and Karl Malden in the same sentence, so for weeks my friends called me 'Marlon Malden.'

"Joe Papp showed up at the play one night and fired me the next day. I was stunned, because it was paying my rent. Joe said, ‘I saw an actor last night onstage, and you've become too comfortable here.’ He did me the greatest favor in the world by literally shoving me out the door.

"Four months later, Joe was in the opening-night audience of my first Broadway play."

A Broadway centennial for Helen Hayes

I'd like to give a shoutout to Helen Hayes, the first lady of the American theater, who made her Broadway debut 100 years ago today.

At age 9, Hayes played the Little Mime in Old Dutch, a two-act musical farce from Victor Herbert set in the Hotel Schoenwald in the Tyrol. It opened at the Herald Square Theatre, at Broadway and 35th Street, and ran for a total of 89 performances, closing on Feb. 5, 1910.

Of course Hayes went on to many more roles on stage, screen and television. She's one of only 10 people thus far to win the four major American entertainment awards - an Oscar, a Tony, an Emmy and a Grammy.

She received two Oscars, for The Sin of Madelon Claudet, in 1932 and Airport, in 1970; two Tonys, for Happy Birthday, in 1947 and Time Remembered in 1958; an Emmy in 1953, for Not a Chance; and a Grammy in 1976, for Great American Documents.

In Time Remembered, a romantic comedy by the French playwright Jean Anouilh, Hayes played the Duchess of Pont-au-Bronc, opposite Richard Burton. In Happy Birthday, a comedy by Anita Loos set in the Jersey Mecca Cocktail Bar in Newark, Hayes played librarian Addie Bemis.

When Hayes died in 1993 at age 92, The New York Times obituary noted the acclaim she received for her stage roles as Mary, Queen of Scots and Britain's Queen Victoria.

In his review of Mary of Scotland, from 1933, Times critic Brooks Atkinson noted, "Slight as she is in stature (and Mary was six feet tall), Miss Hayes raises herself to queendom by the transcendence of her spirit."

Two years later, Hayes opened in Victoria Regina, in which she aged from a young girl to an elderly woman. Atkinson said her ability "to encompass in one evening the youth, maturity and venerability of one human being" was "a humbling personal triumph."

Hayes' final Great White Way appearance came in 1970, in a revival of Harvey with Jimmy Stewart, capping a Broadway career that spanned 61 years.

Andre Holland would make my list

This week, BroadwaySpace released its list of "30 under 30: Broadway's hottest young stars." There are some great names, talented actors whose performances I've really enjoyed.

Then there are others who may be perfectly fine but I'm not sure they belong on a list of "Broadway's most remarkable and noteworthy performers under the age of 30." Hey, I realize these things are subjective.

More importantly, as a couple of my fellow bloggers have pointed out, the list is sorely lacking in African-American faces. Broadway & Me rightly questioned the omission of the very talented Daniel Breaker (Passing Strange, Shrek) and Jon Michael Hill (Superior Donuts.)

Those names would definitely be on my list, but I'd like to add one of my own: Andre Holland. I saw him on Broadway last spring in Joe Turner's Come and Gone. He was wonderful as Jeremy Furlow, a young roominghouse boarder newly arrived in Pittsburgh from the South.

I'm not sure how old Holland is, but he's definitely an actor to watch. While he may not be as noteworthy as some of the people on the BroadwaySpace list, his performance definitely sent me to my Playbill at intermission to find out his name.

And Holland is currently getting some great reviews off-Broadway, at the Public Theater, in The Brother/Sister Plays. Here's what Variety critic David Rooney says about his performance:

"The cast is dazzling, the majority of them creating indelible characterizations in multiple roles. Holland's metamorphoses are especially remarkable, from a plucky kid to a slippery adult and then an awkward teen, just beginning to understand how to use his sexual mojo."

Here's a good Q&A with Holland by Patrick Lee, from Just Shows to Go You. Holland, who grew up in a small town in Alabama and studied at Florida State and NYU, talks about how he got started as an actor.

"August Wilson is what attracted to me to the theatre in the first place. I read Fences in high school and I couldn’t put it down – it was the first time I had read characters in a play who sounded like people I knew."

I hope he's back on Broadway soon - maybe in next spring's Fences revival with Denzel Washington. Wouldn't that be great!

But more importantly, I hope there are opportunities for Holland other talented young African-American actors to do good work in all kinds of roles - and be recognized for it.

Talking back at the theatre

Okay, just my 2 cents on a theatre-related story this week.

The Broadway revival of Oleanna is closing Jan. 3. According to Michael Riedel's column in The New York Post, there was a bit of a dustup between playwright David Mamet and the producers about the post-performance talkbacks. Mamet did not like them but they were popular with audiences.

I don't agree with Mamet's point of view but I understand it. Apparently he believes that the play should stand on its own and not be picked apart by experts. I know some film directors feel the same way. As much as I would enjoy them, Woody Allen doesn't do dvd commentaries on his movies.

Personally, I like talkbacks. If I'd seen Oleanna, I would have stayed for it. (And I like dvd commentaries, too.) I almost always go to the theatre alone, so it's an opportunity to discuss the play with other people who've just seen it that I wouldn't have otherwise.

They can be a great opportunity to spur discussion, help you think about what you saw on stage in a way that maybe you hadn't considered, or raise issues you hadn't thought about. I think playwrights should view them as a way to keep the conversation going. And isn't that the point?

I know Trinity Repertory Company in Providence offers them after every performance of every show. I don't always have time to attend but on the occasions I have, like for the staged reading of The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later, I've definitely gotten something out of the experience.

I realize talkbacks probably work better with shorter shows or maybe after matinees, when people have more time to stay. The 39 Steps has a talkback series on Tuesdays with, among others, comedians, Hitchcock scholars and mystery writers.

It's all about choice. If you don't want to stay, don't. I haven't had a chance to attend a Broadway talkback yet but if the opportunity arises, you know I'll take it. Of course when I go to New York, I'm on vacation so I could sit there all night!

Bid on dinner with the cast of Rent

Imagine a family dinner if your family was the cast of the musical Rent. Fun times, right? All of those struggling young artists singing and dancing on the table.

Well, you and three friends can dine with cast members from the touring production of Rent after the Sunday evening show at the Providence Performing Arts Center. The dinner is being auctioned off, with all proceeds going to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

According to the description, "the Sunday 'Family Dinners' are a tradition with the company and their favorite way to bid adieu to each stop on the tour. No less than 10 members of the company will be there; a great evening will be had by the lucky winner of this auction."

The original Mark and Roger from Rent on Broadway, Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal, are part of the current tour. There's no indication they'll be at the dinner but hey, they've gotta eat sometime, right?

Even if they have other plans, it sounds like a fun evening. You'll probably hear lots of great stories about life on the road and you'll be helping a great cause. Who knows, you may even be breaking bread with a future Broadway star.

The auction ends on Friday afternoon and so far, the high bid is $117.50. If you miss out on that one or you don't live near Providence, here's a list of some other Broadway Cares auctions.

Also, if you're at the theatre over the next month - either on Broadway or a touring production - it's quite likely a cast member will step out of character at the end of the show, explain the work of BC/EFA and ask for your support. Please consider making a donation.

Since its founding in 1988, Broadway Cares has raised over $140 million for critically needed services across the United States for people with AIDS, HIV or HIV-related illnesses.

And remember, some of the money you drop in those buckets will come right back to help people in your community.

This year, for example, Broadway Cares awarded $7.9 million in grants, including $5,000 apiece to AIDS Project Rhode Island, AIDS Care Ocean State and Family Resources Community Action, of Woonsocket.

Superior Donuts needs a boost

I'm worried about Superior Donuts.

Yes, I know tickets are on sale through March but last week it played to 49 percent capacity at the 991-seat Music Box Theatre, the lowest of any Broadway show. And it's down 12 percent from the previous week. The average ticket price was $66.35.

Needless to say those numbers don't inspire confidence, which is a shame.

Of the six shows I saw on my last trip to New York, this play about a rundown little donut shop in a changing Chicago neighborhood is the one that moved me the most. Superior Donuts has heart and humor and it deserves a much bigger audience. (Discounted tickets are available at Playbill and Broadway Box.)

I hope the poster isn't tripping people up. One woman I talked to said she wasn't sure at first whether it was a play or an advertisement for an actual donut shop! Also, I've never been able to get the video on the show's Web site to play properly. But maybe that's just my computer.

Anyway, I thought that Michael McKean as shop owner Arthur Przybyszewski and Jon Michael Hill as Franco Wicks, the young man who comes to work for him, had better chemistry than any other pair I saw on stage. That includes Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig in A Steady Rain.

I had a brief conversation with McKean as he walked up 45th Street after the show, and one thing he mentioned was how playwright Tracy Letts creates such memorable characters. I definitely agree.

(When I saw This is Spinal Tap at a movie theater in Hartford, Connecticut in 1984, I never imagined that 25 years later I'd be walking up 45th Street in New York City with McKean after seeing him on Broadway!)

The New York Times has story today about Hill, the 24-year-old who's simply amazing in his Broadway debut. He and director Tina Landau both talk about how hard they worked to strike a balance with his character so that Franco wouldn't come across as too jokey.

“Arthur is a man who has given up on hope," Landau said, "while Franco is built around the idea of a better America yet to come. For me it was key to get those two almost primordial forces opposing each other.”

Coincidentally, last night someone left a comment on my review of Superior Donuts and it pretty much sums up how I feel, too:

"After seeing August: Osage County last season and Superior Donuts yesterday afternoon, I'm telling everybody that it was our favorite this trip. The Absolute-Must-See Play. No gimmicks or tricks. Just amazing writing and acting that truly exhausted us. This is what theater is supposed to be. An experience you can't get at the movies, etc. We would love to see it again as well."

Update: Sadly, Superior Donuts will close on Jan. 3. But you've still got another month to see it.