The new king of burlesque

I'm so thrilled for the very talented Christopher Fitzgerald. His portrayal of Igor in Young Frankenstein was one of my favorite parts of the musical. (I wish I could have seen him as the original Boq in Wicked.)

And now, Fitzgerald officially has the title role in the new musical Minsky's. Produced by the Center Theatre Group, it runs from Jan. 21 to March 1 at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles.

The show, written by Bob Martin, (The Drowsy Chaperone) with music and lyrics by Charles Strouse (Annie) and Susan Birkenhead, (Jelly's Last Jam) is billed as "a big, racy, romantic musical comedy set in Depression Era New York City." Fitzgerald plays Billy Minsky, the king of burlesque, "who reigns over the rollicking backstage world of Minsky's, where profit margins are as skimpy as the costumes."

The cast also includes Kevin Cahoon from The Wedding Singer, George Wendt from Cheers and Hairspray, Tony winner Beth Leavel from The Drowsy Chaperone and Rachel Dratch from Saturday Night Live. I didn't see The Wedding Singer on Broadway, but Cahoon is hilarious on the cast recording. And who doesn't love Norm from Cheers?

The Center Theatre Group also served as the producer and pre-Broadway tryout location for Curtains, so I'm hoping that Minsky's will make it to New York if everything goes well on the West Coast. I'm looking forward to seeing Fitzgerald in a starring role on Broadway.

Letts in London

There's a good interview with playwright Tracy Letts at the online magazine MusicOMH, conducted by freelance journalist Natasha Tripney, who also blogs at Interval Drinks. You can read her review here.

Letts talks about bringing August: Osage County to the National Theatre in London for an eight-week run. He says that the Tony and Pulitzer-winning drama, which arrived with most of its Broadway cast intact, is "playing differently" in Britain, and one reason is the U.S. election.

“The world views America with a little more hope and optimism than it has in recent years and I think that changes the reading of the play. It might make it a bit of a period piece but it also makes the play serve as a kind of warning which I still think is very valuable."

Letts also talks about what it was like to have his father, Dennis Letts, appear in the play on Broadway, despite having been recently diagnosed with cancer. (He passed away in February.)

"It was strange, having him in my work place, but delightful, I’m glad we had that time together. He was fascinated by the process, to be around stage actors of this magnitude, of this skill level. Even though he’s only in the first fifteen minutes of the play he came to every rehearsal and watched everything. It was a great experience for him to have at the end of his life, I’m glad he got that chance to do it."

And Letts says that his new play, Superior Donuts, which had a run over the summer at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, will be coming to New York next year. As a big fan of August: Osage County, I was already hoping to see his next play. And an enthusiastic review from Steve on Broadway sealed the deal. This is on my must-see list for 2009.

There's much more to the interview, so check it out!

On the Town

Wow, - Federal Hall, Trinity Church, Chinatown, the Lower East Side - watching the first few minutes of the 1949 musical On the Town is like revisiting my tour of Lower Manhattan. It was so cool to see all of those familiar sites I'd just visited. What a wonderful surprise!
The movie, based on the 1944 Broadway show, features Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly and Jules Munshin as three sailors on a 24-hour shore leave in wartime Manhattan. It's so great to see the city through their wide-eyed enthusiasm. I can relate! They're hoping to do a little sightseeing and meet "a real New York glamour girl." Awww, good luck, guys!

If On the Town were remade today, who knows what filmmakers would have in store for these innocent swabbies on the streets of Manhattan. But never fear, in no time at all they're paired off with three lovely ladies - an anthropologist (Ann Miller), a cab driver (Betty Garrett), and Miss Turnstiles, the queen of the subway (Vera-Ellen). Soon, the six of them are out for a night on the town. What fun!

Sinatra, Kelly and Munshin are so sweet and funny and lovable as the sailors. I especially enjoyed the big production numbers that feature the six of them, like "You Can Count on Me" and "On the Town." I mean, anytime you get to watch Gene Kelly dance it's pretty terrific.

On the Town is noteworthy as the first musical feature film to be shot on location, at the insistence of co-directors Kelly and Stanley Donen. This was at the height of Sinatra-mania and special precautions, such as cameras hidden in station wagons, were used to avoid problems with crowds during the filming.

But I think it was worth the effort. Seeing all of those landmarks - the Brooklyn Bridge, Rockefeller Center, the Statue of Liberty, as the sailors sing "New York, New York" was great. It really becomes a love letter to the city. On the Town definitely would have lost something if it had been shot entirely on a sound stage and back lot in Hollywood.

Watching the movie makes me wish I'd seen the semi-staged production put on last month as part of the City Center Encores! series. Now I have a better idea why my fellow bloggers were praising it so highly.

Although I know there are differences between the film and stage versions. A lot of Leonard Bernstein's music was jettisoned for the movie. But I assume the story, by Betty Comden and Adolph Green and based on a Jerome Robbins ballet, is pretty much the same.

While the original Broadway production of On the Town played for 14 months, the two revivals didn't fare nearly as well, closing after only a couple of months. So it's not likely I'll get to see On the Town on stage anytime soon.

Sadly, while a new dvd of On the Town was released in May as part of a Sinatra collection, it's still a bare-bones version, with only the original theatrical trailer included. Couldn't Warner Bros. have come up with a few extras? A two-disc 60th anniversary edition would be terrific.

Judy and Me

When I had the pleasure of meeting Gabriel from Modern Fabulousity, he mentioned in passing Nathaniel, a freelance writer who blogs at The Film Experience.

So I've been checking out his blog and I'm just in time for Musicals Month! Everyone watches the same movie and writes something about it on their blog. Nathaniel will publish his post on Saturday and link to everyone else. Sounds like fun, huh?! I'm all for blogothons.

This month's musical is 1944's Meet Me in St. Louis, starring Judy Garland as a turn-of-the century Midwestern girl, and directed by her soon-to-be husband, Vincente Minnelli.

I've never seen the movie, but I just checked it out on the Internet Movie Database, and Garland plays a character whose first name is Esther! How often does that happen in a musical? Not too often, I bet.

According to Nathaniel, Meet me in St. Louis will air on Turner Classic Movies Friday at 8 p.m. So I'll set the DVR and hopefully I can think of something reasonably intelligent to add to the discussion!

Black Watch

Gratuitous Violins rating: **** out of ****

I've been trying to describe what makes Black Watch so riveting. I think it's because the play, at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn through Dec. 21, is simply one of the most stunning productions I've ever seen. The language is raw and blunt, the images are inventive and unforgettable.

I'm not big on war stories, but director John Tiffany and his creative team have come up with such an intense combination of music and sound and lighting and precise, almost ballet-like movement to re-create the experiences of a storied Scottish regiment in Iraq. (Click here to watch an interview Charlie Rose did with Tiffany and actor Peter Forbes, who plays the officer in Black Watch.)

Aided by writer Gregory Burke's interviews with soldiers who served in Iraq in 2004, actors from the National Theatre of Scotland convey all of their conflicting emotions - the sense of tedium, fear, longing, anger and bewilderment that these men feel, along with their bravado, toughness, playfulness, profanity and intense pride.

In 2004, the Black Watch regiment moved from the relative peacefulness of Basra to an area of constant insurgent attacks. The transfer was wildly unpopular in Britain, where it was seen as an attempt to placate the Americans. On top of that, at the end of 2004, the British government announced that the Black Watch would cease to exist as an independent entity, but would be combined with other units into a new Royal Regiment of Scotland.

So the play chronicles a period of great tension and anxiety for the men of the Black Watch. We see the short bursts of activity and long stretches of tedium. We listen to them gradually begin to express doubts about whether they should even be in Iraq. Mark Grimmer's and Leo Warner's video designs make them spectators in their own war, watching Iraqis and Americans battle from afar. Laura Hopkins' design resembles a military parade ground, with spectators sitting on both sides of the rectangular-shaped set.

Under Gareth Fry's sound design, we're bombarded with booming mortar and rocket fire. Colin Grenfell's subdued lighting echoes the tension and danger in patrols, as well as the tenderness of soldiers reading letters from home. Under movement director Steven Hoggett, the men, standing apart from each other as if in their own separate worlds, act out those letters silently, in a way that's graceful and absolutely heartbreaking.

But what I found most amazing is the way the play relates the story of the tradition-rich and oldest Highland regiment. By lifting one of their mates in the air, turning him every which way, dressing and undressing him in different uniforms, we learn about the nearly 300-year history of the Black Watch - its formation, the wars it fought in, its participation in President Kennedy's funeral. Exposition never sounded so fascinating.

At the beginning of Black Watch a writer, played by Michael Nardone, (who doubles as a sergeant) asks the former soldiers what it was like in Iraq. They're blunt: They know we've already made up our minds - we assume that they joined because they couldn't do anything else, because they couldn't find jobs. In reality, many of them have followed their fathers and grandfathers into the regiment, which draws from a very small part of Scotland. Being in the Black Watch is part of their identity. They wear a scrap of the tartan on their uniforms.

I think it's a tribute to the superb cast - the soldiers are played by Duncan Anderson, David Colvin, Paul James Corrigan, Emun Elliott, Jonathan Holt, Steven Miller, Paul Rattray and Nabil Stuart - that they've all kind of blended into one unit in my mind. Because in the end, that's how they see themselves. They're not doing this for their country or their government, they're doing it for their mates, for reasons they say many of us will never understand.

At the beginning, of Black Watch, these men don't seem very likable - they seem rude, boorish and profane. To be fair, I'm not sure they'd like me either. But two hours later, I felt more sympathetic. I respected them for what they'd been through, for the sacrifices they'd made.

It seems to me that the question at the core of Black Watch is whether those of us who have never gone to war can understand what we send our soldiers to do, or why they go. In the end, it's an unknowable experience for most of us. But we owe it to them to listen.

World AIDS Day 2008

Today is the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day, and bloggers around the world are uniting to raise awareness of the disease.

I'll always remember when David Hyde Pierce broke the fourth wall at the end of the Broadway musical Curtains to ask for donations to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

Of course, I knew about the organization and all of the good work it does. 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.

Still, there was something startling - in a good way - about having an actor who'd been playing a character a minute earlier address the audience as, well, himself. It was a reminder that Broadway is a community that includes not just the performers on stage and people who work behind the scenes but those of us who sit in the audience as well.

Today is another chance to be part of a community.

So please consider making a donation to Broadway Cares or another AIDS-related charity. (Also, check out the great online store at the Broadway Cares Web site, which has gift ideas for all of your holiday shopping needs.)

If that's not possible, and I realize it may not be in this difficult economic climate with so many worthwhile organizations making requests, take a few minutes to learn about the disease and the impact it's having around the world, especially in Africa.

Worldwide, more than 33 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, including more than 1 million Americans. Sub-Saharan Africa is more heavily affected than any other region. In three countries - Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland - the HIV rate exceeds 20 percent of the population.

Theatre blogging - a discussion from London

If you're near your computer this afternoon, there's going to be a panel discussion on blogging and theatre criticism at the Royal Court Theatre in London starting at 6 p.m. GMT. (That's 1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, if I've figured it out correctly.)

You can listen live online here. If you miss it, a recording of the session will be archived at the same spot. It's called "Brickbats in Cyberspace: How blogging is changing the landscape of theatre criticsm in London and beyond."

The panel will include Charles Spencer, lead theatre critic for The Daily Telegraph, Andrew Dickson, arts editor for The Guardian's Web site, Judith Dimant, producer of the theatre company Complicite, and leading bloggers and theatre professionals.

I don't know whether those witty and erudite bloggers the West End Whingers - also known and Andrew and Phil - will be participating, but there is a link to them on the Web site announcing the event, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

And thanks to The Mirror up to Nature for the tip.