I've been waiting for Godot

Even before I started going to the theatre regularly I always enjoyed reading about it. As far back as high school, I liked reading plays and reading about playwrights.

For some reason, when I was a teenager I became especially fascinated with the theatre of the absurd. I read up on playwrights like Eugene Ionesco and novelists like Albert Camus. (You can see where this is leading - the futility of human existence. Even thinking about it now makes my head hurt.)

I don't know why I was so interested - absurdist plays often don't have much of a plot. I could never really figure out what they were about, although I guess I must have enjoyed trying. Maybe I found something appealing in the very fact that they were incomprehensible. Okay, I was a little intellectually pretentious, I know. Maybe I was searching for the meaning of life. (Unfortunately, I never found it, so if you know what it is, please share.)

Luckily, I didn't take my infatuation too far. I never started wearing a beret or carrying around volumes of Sartre or smoking Gauloises. Although I did read Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex and I once went to hear Eugene Ionesco speak in Boston when I was in college and got his autograph. I think I lost interest soon after that. I haven't read or thought about the theatre of the absurd in a long time. I'm still game for a challenging work but now, I like plot - lots of plot.

Of course, the most famous absurdist play is undoubtedly Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett. A poll of 800 playwrights by Britain's Royal National Theatre named it the most significant English-language play of the 20th century. (Never mind that it was written in French!) I first came across the title while reading Notes On a Cowardly Lion, John Lahr's excellent biography of his father, the actor Bert Lahr, who appeared in the 1956 Broadway production of Waiting for Godot.

While I did read Waiting for Godot a long time ago, I've never seen it performed. In fact, for all of my youthful curiosity, I'm not sure I ever saw any theatre of the absurd performed. How absurd is that! (This was before VCRs and DVDs remember. I didn't have many options). I guess, like Vladimir and Estragon, the play's two main characters, I've been waiting.

So I was pretty excited when I read an article in Playbill yesterday about a Broadway revival of Waiting for Godot slated for 2009. (Whenever I think of Godot now, I think of that line from the song "It's a Business" that producer Carmen Bernstein sings in Curtains: "He mounted Samuel Beckett, I don't mean it like it sounds.")

Steve on Broadway has a terrific preview of the production and the history of Waiting for Godot on the Great White Way. For more background, you can listen to a discussion about the play that aired on the radio program On Point in 2003, the 50th anniversary of Waiting for Godot's Paris premiere.

As for me, I'm just hoping that after all these years, I'll actually have a chance to see some theatre of the absurd on stage. I can hardly wait!

Little House on the Internet

The Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis now has a Web site for its new musical Little House on the Prairie, which runs from July 26 to Oct. 5. There are activities for children (or for the kid in you), links to information about author Laura Ingalls Wilder, biographies of the cast and creative team, a short video, and more.

According to Variety, the first-day sale for Little House tickets, on June 26, shattered box-office records for the Guthrie. Nearly 5,500 tickets were sold — surpassing the previous record of 3,639 for last year's stint of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of King Lear, starring Ian McKellen. (Here's a report from the Guthrie blog on what it was like at the theatre that day).

For me, this is one of the most positive aspects of that record: according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, 58 percent of the ticket buyers on that first day had never attended a show at the Guthrie. Ticket sales came from 25 states and several Canadian provinces. Obviously, a lot of people besides me are very excited about this show.

"We knew that the 'Little House' stories resonate in this region in a profound way," said Guthrie director Joe Dowling in a statement. "And now we know that 'Little House on the Prairie' as a musical -- a truly American art form -- speaks to people across the nation in a powerful way."

As much as I've been looking forward to this musical ever since I read about it, even I was a little surprised about the big demand for tickets. I mean, we're in the middle of a recession, with gas prices over $4 a gallon.

I think it says something about the popularity of the Little House books, with their stories of 19th-century pioneer life, to 21st-century readers. (And of course, the popularity of the TV series starring Melissa Gilbert as Laura, who'll play the role of Ma in the musical.)

Also in the Star-Tribune, Jill Burcum writes about that enduring appeal. She says that Laura Ingalls Wilder's "celebration of ordinary girls in ordinary places made her a childhood friend -- one we may not have thought of in a while, but one long overdue for a celebration like the Guthrie's."

I'll be one of those people attending their first show at the Guthrie and I'm incredibly excited. It's supposed to be a beautiful theatre, with a breathtaking view of the Mississippi River, which I've never seen. In fact, I haven't spent much time at all in the Midwest. (I'm not sure if a weekend in suburban Detroit and a day in Columbus, Ohio count).

Best of all, while I'm in the Twin Cities, I'll be the guest of two wonderful friends - Steve on Broadway and his true love. A great adventure, a great theatre, great friends. Really, it doesn't get any better.

Passing Strange will pass into history

So, I guess this was inevitable, given its lackluster box office: Passing Strange, the musical about a search for "the real," now playing at Broadway's Belasco Theatre, is closing July 20.

I had mixed feelings about the show. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot to love in this musical about a young African-American man's journey of self-discovery that takes him from Los Angeles, to Amsterdam, to Berlin, all set to a rock 'n' roll beat. (Which actually, for me, was a bit loud at times!) While I liked Passing Strange a great deal, and I wouldn't have missed seeing it for anything, I think that way down deep, I respected and admired it more than I truly loved it.

Stew, who received the show's sole Tony award, for the book of Passing Strange, has written some very witty, insightful dialog about race, about family, about finding your place in the world. I love the way the show is structured as a kind of homage to The Wizard of Oz. And Daniel Breaker, who plays Youth, is amazing. Really, I love the entire cast, most of whom play multiple characters Youth meets at various points on his journey.

I also think it's great that this year we have two shows, In the Heights and Passing Strange, in which Latino and African-American artists are telling their own stories, in their own words and music. For me, the thing that's so great about Broadway is that there are so many voices, so many different experiences, represented in a 10-block radius. I'd love to see all of them.

And when I go to New York City for a weekend, I can see five shows easily. For me, Passing Strange definitely has a place in that mix. But I know that I'm not the average New York City tourist. The average tourist sees one, maybe two shows. Obviously a show like Passing Strange, without a recognizable story or cast, is a much more difficult sell.

Look at the box office totals from last week. We live in a world where the Broadway revival of Grease plays to a higher capacity and has a higher average ticket price than the revival of Gypsy, which has three amazing, Tony-winning performances. How can that be?

I wish Passing Strange could have gotten some of the audience for rock 'n' roll musicals that went to see Spring Awakening or Rent. Maybe part of it was the marketing. Perhaps Daniel Breaker as Youth should have been featured more prominently. I mean, Stew's a great guy and all, and he does a great job acting as kind of a narrator for Passing Strange, but he's not the whole story. You want people to realize that this is a love story, a story about a young man's journey, a story about race and about family. I'm not sure any of those things came through unless you actually bought a ticket and went to see it.

Anyway, I'll be looking forward to Spike Lee's film of Passing Strange. And as I said in my review of Passing Strange, while I like musicals with big choreographed dance numbers, showstopping songs and lavish sets, it would be pretty boring if every musical were like that. I'm glad that there was something so unique on Broadway, and I loved seeing a show that challenged my expectations.

Celebrities behaving badly

It's hard sometimes to keep up with all of the articles at Playbill.com, so I'm glad that Theatre Aficionado at Large wrote about this absolutely outrageous incident. Apparently, last spring Jake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon were spotted text-messaging during a performance of August: Osage County.

Here's the original story, from the New York Post's gossip column, Page Six:

March 6, 2008 -- ARE overly-cute lovebirds Jake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon really that busy? An audience member at the Sunday matinee of "August Osage County" looked on in shock as the usually cuddly couple kept their heads down "texting on their BlackBerrys the entire time." It was probably good they "snuck out" at intermission - we're told the other Broadway theatergoers were "much more interested in watching them than the stage."

When it comes to distracting behavior at the theatre, I'm willing to cut the average person some slack. Anyone can forget to turn off their cell phone. Yes, it's disruptive. Yes, in a perfect world, we'd all double-check to make sure our phones are off before the show starts. But we're only human and we make mistakes.

On the other hand, this, well, it's beyond the pale. What possible reason could they have had for text-messaging throughout the play? This isn't passively receiving a call because you forgot to shut off your phone, this is actively engaging in disruptive and rude behavior. If you want to multitask, stay home and do it on the couch in the privacy of your own living room!

In the Playbill article, Susan Martin of the Nederlander Organization, notes that the bright light makes it very annoying to sit next to someone while they're text-messaging. And John Loiacono, house manager at Disney's New Amsterdam Theatre, the home of Mary Poppins, says that while the preshow announcement reminding people to turn off their cell phones doesn't specifically mention text-messaging, that may change.

Now really, is that something you should even have to say? Shouldn't it be obvious? You want to go to the theatre, sit there and enjoy the show. You want to talk on the phone or text-message, go somewhere else!

Reese Witherspoon is 32 years old and Jake Gyllenhaal is 27. We're not talking about a pair of giggly teenagers here. These are adults. Let's put aside for a moment the fact that they're being distracting to everyone around them. Witherspoon and Gyllenhaal are also professional actors - just like the people on stage. It is rude beyond belief for the two of them to be so disrespectful to their colleagues - their fellow actors - who, I'm sure, don't make a fraction of what they earn. It shows how little regard they have for their craft.

There are only two explanations: either the New York Post got it wrong, which is entirely possible. Or, when you achieve a certain level of celebrity apparently you believe that the rules of civilized behavior no longer apply - you can act any way you want in public. I hope it's the former, but I fear that it's the latter.

Kinky Boots - the Musical

I have to admit, I've never heard of an idea for a musical that didn't pique my curiosity a little bit, especially when it combines something else I love - like small, heartwarming British movies based on real-life stories of quirky characters who put aside their differences to band together and overcome adversity.

So, according to this article in Playbill, two Broadway producers have their eye on turning the 2005 British movie Kinky Boots into a musical. All right, I know what you're thinking: another proposal for turning a movie into a Broadway musical? Isn't that the hundred zillionth one so far this year? And we've still got six more months to go.

But I'm actually kind of intrigued that producers Daryl Roth (August: Osage County) and Hal Luftig (Movin' Out, Legally Blonde) are working on this project. Apparently, things are in a very early stage. They're looking for a book writer and a composer. Jerry Mitchell, the Tony-winning choreographer, and director of Legally Blonde, is in talks to direct. Although according to another Playbill article, Mitchell is working on Going Hollywood, a musical version of the 1930 comedy Once in a Lifetime that's planned for San Diego's Old Globe in 2010. So he's likely to be busy for quite some time.

I'm quite fond of this type of movie. You know what I mean: little slices of life that often take place in some rural village or gritty industrial town. There's a problem that needs solving or a big event that's taking place or some kind of crisis. Everyone bands together to save the factory or save the village or help out a mate in trouble or help someone realize their dream or win the competition or raise money for a worthy cause. Along the way, there's lots of opportunity for bonding and camaraderie as people realize an inner strength they never knew they had. And if there are accents and slang that are hard for American ears to decipher, so much the better.

I'm thinking about movies like The Full Monty, Billy Elliot, Calendar Girls Mrs. Henderson Presents and Brassed Off. There are Welsh versions, like The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came But Came Down a Mountain (which I don't think would fit well on a marquee). There are Irish versions, like Waking Ned Devine and Millions. There are Scottish versions, like Local Hero, Australian versions, like The Dish or The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Well, you get the picture.

Anyway, inspired, of course, by a true story, Kinky Boots tells the tale of a drag queen, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, who helps revitalize a dying shoe factory in the British Midlands by coming up with an idea for footwear for performers in his line of work.

There's a great deal of warmth and humor in the movie, along with some dramatic twists and turns. The plot leads up to the big Milan Shoe Fair, where the new footwear will be unveiled. Ejiofor's character is sympathetic and well-drawn, not at all a stereotype. There are some other great characters, too, including the likable but hapless factory owner, who's thrust into the job after his father dies and is desperate to keep the family business afloat.

Roth and Luftig talk about the story's heart and humanity, and it is a very sweet, poignant story about an unlikely group of people who come together to help each other out. With a few tunes, it could translate well to the stage. (I mean, what couldn't be improved with the addition of a few tunes and some lively dance steps?)

"The story is really about relationships," Roth told the Hollywood Reporter, "and I want to find the heart at the center of it."

Getting out my dancing shoes

It's a Broadway musical. No, it's a movie musical. Wait, it's a Broadway musical and a movie musical - at the same time! Last summer, it was Hairspray, and now Mamma Mia! gets a chance to make the transition to the big screen, while still playing on Broadway and just about everywhere else.

The movie Mamma Mia! doesn't open until July 18, but the soundtrack goes on sale today. If you want to join me in giddy anticipation, you can check out the Web site, watch clips, read interviews and put on your dancing shoes. Oh, and don't forget your bathing suit, a floppy hat and some sunscreen.

The film magazine Empire has a report from last week's British premiere. The movie's stars, including Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Julie Walters, Stellan Skarsgard, Dominic Cooper and Amanda Seyfried, were there. Christine Baranski was otherwise engaged on Broadway, in Boeing-Boeing. (Speaking of Broadway, I would absolutely love to see Meryl Streep on stage.)

For the uninitiated, Streep plays former pop singer Donna Sheridan, who owns a hotel on a Greek island. Her daughter Sophie (Seyfried), is about to get married to Sky (Cooper). Sophie invites three of her mother's former lovers (Brosnan, Firth and Skarsgard) to the wedding, in hopes of figuring out which one is her father. Baranski and Walters play Streep's ex-bandmates. The whole thing is set to songs by the 1970s Swedish pop group Abba. Got that?

Here's the lineup for next week's talk shows:

July 14 Pierce Brosnan, The Late Show with David Letterman
July 15, Colin Firth, Live with Regis and Kelly
July 15, Meryl Streep, The Late Show with David Letterman
July 16, Meryl Streep, Live with Regis and Kelly
July 16, Meryl Streep Late Night with Conan O'Brien
July 18, Meryl Streep, Amanda Seyfried, The View
July 18, Pierce Brosnan, Live with Regis and Kelly

In this interview with The Guardian, Streep talks about singing, dancing and doing splits for her role. "I just did the splits on instinct. That's what always happens with my acting. As an actor, you're not allowed to think."

Streep's introduction to Mamma Mia! occurred when she took one of her daughters and some friends to see the Broadway musical a month after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

"They walked in and they sat there with their heads in their hands,'' Streep said. "Dimmed is the word - they were sad all the time, you know? The first part was really wordy, and then Dancing Queen started up. And for the rest of the show they were dancing on their chairs and they were so, so happy. We all went out of the theatre floating on the air. I thought, 'What a gift to New York right now'."

The show, which opened in London in 1999, had its first Broadway preview at the Winter Garden Theatre on Oct. 5, 2001. Last week, it played to a capacity audience in New York of 101.5 percent, with an average ticket price of $74.77. I tried to find out how many productions are playing worldwide, and it's a lot. Too many for me to count on both hands.

Judy Craymer, the producer who brought Mamma Mia! to the stage, talks to the Times of London about the show's origins. She was 23 and working for Tim Rice on Chess when she met half of ABBA, and had a hunch that their songs would work in a musical. “It won over the cynics, and people who don’t see themselves as Abba fans. They enjoy the story and being taken on a fun journey to the Greek islands.”

A New York Times article notes that "with the worldwide success of the original show, the appealing and high-profile cast, and the international, multigenerational Abba fan base, Mamma Mia! would seem to have huge box-office potential." But despite the recent mini-surge of movie musicals, there have been hits (Chicago) and misses (The Producers).

As popular as the musical has been, I think the movie could improve on it by opening up the dance numbers and adding some breathtaking scenery to the mix. Hey, when it's 90 degrees outside, I could spend a couple of hours in an air-conditioned gigantiplex listening to some ABBA tunes and being whisked away to a sun-dappled Greek island.

Speaking of ABBA, the group's official Web site has a story about bringing Mamma Mia! to the big screen, and the reservations early on that a movie would cut into the show's audience.

“It used to be that one wouldn’t make a film until ‘the stage musical has had its run’,” said band member Bjorn Ulvaeus, “but that rule has been abandoned these days. There doesn’t seem to be a particular timing that is exactly right, but there is plenty of evidence that the stage version benefits from a film version, no matter what kind of business the latter does."

The four members of ABBA - Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Agnetha Faltskog - attended the movie's premiere in Sweden. (By the way, Ulvaeus and Andersson have cameos).

Sadly, there's no chance of a reunion tour. "We will never appear on stage again," Ulvaeus told the Telegraph newsapaper. "There is simply no motivation to re-group. Money is not a factor and we would like people to remember us as we were, young, exuberant, full of energy and ambition."

Slings and Arrows

I've just started to discover the joys of the very witty Canadian show Slings and Arrows, about the actors who make up a provincial Shakespearean theatre festival. After three episodes, I'm definitely hooked. The series, which aired between 2003 and 2006, has a great ensemble cast. It's a thoughtful, tender look at backstage life by people who obviously know and love the theatre.

I first heard about the show when I was listening to Bob Martin, Broadway's original Man in Chair from the musical The Drowsy Chaperone, on the American Theatre Wing's Downstage Center program. Martin was also one of the creators of Slings and Arrows, and appears in the show, as does Don McKellar, with whom he co-wrote the Tony-winning book for The Drowsy Chaperone.

And then Roxie at Stage Left, House Right gushed about the series. Jan, at Broadway & Me, has also raved about it. What more more do I need? Since I'm at a lull in my theatergoing, it's a perfect time to watch.

The theatre company in Slings and Arrows, the New Burbage Festival, is loosely modeled on the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario. While I'm sure the somewhat wacky, quirky characters at New Burbage bear absolutely no resemblance to the fine thespians at Stratford, I'm guessing some of the themes and plot lines are drawn from real life, and that's a large part of what makes the series so interesting.

There's the unstable former actor (Paul Gross) called upon to come back and lead the company after suffering a nervous breakdown on stage years earlier; the diva (Martha Burns) with whom he was once romantically involved; the troupe's former, jaded artistic director (Stephen Ouimette), whose ghostly presence is a constant source of unwanted advice; the adorable, eager apprentice actress (Rachel McAdams); the hunky Hollywood star (Luke Kirby) hired in the hopes that his name will sell tickets; and the business manager (Mark McKinney) who's trying to keep the festival's corporate sponsor happy.

The characters are just extreme enough to be funny, but there's enough of a ring of truth to make them believable. They're all likable and sympathetic. Well, mostly. The plot line about the Hollywood star, for example, is supposedly based on Keanu Reeves being hired to play Hamlet in at the Manitoba Theatre Center in 1995.

You definitely get a sense watching the show of the constant tug between artistic freedom and commercial success, of the need to put on productions that people will actually want to come see. (McKellar plays a very avant-garde director who wants the audience in his production of Hamlet to really see, hear and smell that there's something rotten in Denmark).

At one point, McKinney's business manager is taken to Toronto to see a production of Mamma Mia and he's thrilled that at last, there's a show he can understand! No special knowledge, however, is necessary to understand this show. Just sit back and enjoy.