Entries from February 2008 ↓

Broadway has rarely been known for risk-taking. A commercial institution focused on the bottom line, theater producers like to give the audience what they think they want, over and over again, until the cash registers ring.

But with the opening (in preview) this week of a revival of Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Broadway is both playing it safe in restaging a classic, and taking chances–in the choice of performers–in a way that should leave producers and audiences most satisfied.

Williams’ 1955 Pulitzer Prize-winning play is getting a unique and innovative all-Black recasting, which while staying faithful to the original story of a wealthy, yet dysfunctional family in the Mississippi Delta, now has added nuance because of it.

The theater community has never completely embraced the concept of what it calls “alternative casting.” While White actors have always felt it their right to don blackface to do Othello, heaven help the Black actor who dares to perform a role previously conceived with a White person in mind. Drowning Crow, the 2004 all-Black adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull, received compliments for performance but rankled the nerves of critics seemingly for the shear audacity of touching the classics.

This revival works largely because of its strong cast. It is remarkable how Williams’ words seem just as authentic, just as believable, coming out of the mouth of James Earl Jones as Big Daddy, as they did from Burl Ives in the original production (and later the film) more than fifty years ago. Jones uses his massive voice and presence to portray the most ornery and irascible old man you ever saw, on the evening of his 65th birthday celebration.

Joining him is one of the best actors working in theater today, Tony Award winner Phylicia Rashad as Big Mama. (If you only know her work from The Cosby Show, you don’t know her work at all. Get your butt to the theater!) Rashad is simply delightful to watch as Big Daddy’s doting wife, mistrusted by him but perhaps the only real loving person in the family.

Movie actor Terrence Howard (Academy Award nominated for Hustle & Flow) makes not only his Broadway but his stage debut as their son Brick, the ex-star athlete who is descending rapidly into alcoholism following the death of his very close friend Skipper and the pressure to produce offspring. Calling Howard a movie actor is not a knock, merely a statement of his past credentials. Though less experienced than others on this stage, he more than holds his own in balancing the emotions of a man in a loveless marriage, still mourning the loss of a friend he deeply cared about. Had Howard not been up to the task, he might have withered like a raisin in the sun or some other less skilled celebrities who have attempted to work in the theater.

His wife Maggie is played by yet another Tony winner, Anika Noni Rose. A beautiful, young, social climber who has married into the family, she is skilled at using her abundant feminine charms to get what she wants, but not skilled enough to get Brick to love her. She understands all too well that the price of inheriting Big Daddy’s estate and thus securing her future, is a baby. Rose’s Maggie is a bundle of energy, mixed with raw sex appeal, laced with cunning and guile and just a smidge of spite.

This half-century-old play seems timeless under Debbie Allen’s direction. In light of contemporary discussions of “the DL,” the show’s insinuation of a homosexual underpinning to Brick’s mourning and marital indifference, is perhaps more easily accepted by today’s audience than when it originally opened. It also allows us to better understand the machinations one goes through to keep up appearances for family and society’s sake.

Giancarlo Esposito and Lisa Arrindell Anderson are eldest son Gooper and his wife Mae, a successful corporate attorney and a fertile wife, who have done all the right things to provide heirs to the empire, but who still can’t seem to ingratiate themselves. Both performers amuse us with their calculated missteps before Big Daddy and well-aimed backstabs at Maggie and Brick.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof opens officially on March 6 for a limited run at the Broadhurst Theatre. I give it my “run, don’t walk” recommendation.

Striking members of the Writers Guild of America East and West are reviewing terms of a contract proposal from motion picture and television producers that could end the three month walkout and get writers back to work possibly as early as Monday. More noteworthy is the early report that writers may have gotten most of what they wanted in the agreement.

Writers staged a strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers largely over residual rights to produced work that airs on the internet or that is sold via DVD. Producers have kept all of the revenue for themselves despite the fact that the entertainment industry is moving more and more product into these new technologies. Writers have been asking for as little as 2 cents on the dollar, but the tight-fisted producers have continued to play Scrooge.

But with the industry’s premiere event, the Academy Awards, just weeks away and the threat of a repeat of this year’s Golden Globe Awards, where there was no ability to use writers and nominees who were members of the Screen Actors Guild and the Directors Guild stayed away in a show of support, producers had incentive to come to their senses and return to the bargaining table.

UPDATE: This editorial in today’s Los Angeles Times suggests the strike was worth it.

Washington DC’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts will celebrate the entire ten-play cycle of work by the late Pulitzer Prize-winner August Wilson. August Wilson’s 20th Century is an epic undertaking, rallying together some of the theater community’s most talented artists.

Wilson’s critically acclaimed dramas chronicle the African-American experience in the 20th century and will be offered in the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theatre March 4-April 6. Kenny Leon is the artistic director for the project.

The creative team also includes David Gallo (sets), Reggie Ray (costumes), Allen Lee Hughes (lighting) and Dwight Andrews (music supervision). Todd Kreidler is associate artistic director.

Casting and directors for each of the ten plays follow:

Directed by Kenny Leon, Gem of the Ocean (set in the 1900s) will feature James A. Williams as Eli, John Erl Jelks as Citizen Barlow, Michele Shay as Aunt Ester, Raynor Scheine as Rutherford Selig, Anthony Chisholm as Solly Two Kings and Ruben Santiago-Hudson as Caesar. The role of Black Mary has yet to be cast.

Directed by Todd Kreidler, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (1910s) will feature Eugene Lee as Seth Holly, LaTanya Richardson Jackson as Bertha Holly, Keith David as Bynum Walker, Raynor Scheine as Rutherford Selig, Montae Russell as Jeremy Furlow, Russell Hornsby as Herald Loomis, Dominique Ross as Zonia Loomis, Cherise Boothe as Mattie Campbell, Terrance Thomas as Reuben Mercer, Michole Briana White as Molly Cunningham and Rosalyn Coleman as Martha Pentecost.

Lou Bellamy will direct Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (1920s), which will feature Raynor Scheine as Sturdyvant, Jerry Whiddon as Irvin, Harry Lennix as Cutler, Roger Robinson as Toledo, James A. Williams as Slow Drag, Anthony Mackie as Levee, Ebony Jo-Ann as Ma Rainey, Jeff Allin as Policeman, Rosalyn Coleman as Dussie Mae and Eric Berryman as Sylvester.

The Piano Lesson (1930s), with direction by Kenny Leon, will feature Bill Nunn as Doaker, Ruben Santiago-Hudson as Boy Willie, Jason Dirden as Lymon, Heather Alicia Simms as Berniece, Alexandra Brooke Perrin as Maretha, Afemo Omilami as Avery, Stephen McKinley Henderson as Wining Boy and Cherise Boothe as Grace.

The cast of Seven Guitars (1940s), under the direction of Derrick Sanders, will include LaTanya Richardson Jackson as Louise, Russell Hornsby as Canewell, Harry Lennix as Red Carter, Vanessa Bell Calloway as Vera, Afemo Omilami as Hedley, Keith David as Floyd Barton and Crystal Fox as Ruby.

Fences (1950s) will star Bill Nunn as Jim Bono, Tamara Tunie as Rose, Montae Russell as Lyons, Hassan El-Amin as Gabriel, Anthony Mackie as Cory and Autumn Malhotra as Raynell; the role of Troy Maxon has yet to be cast. Kenny Leon directs.

The Israel Hicks-directed Two Trains Running (1960s) will feature Glynn Turman as Memphis, Russell Hornsby as Wolf, Michole Briana White as Risa, Stephen McKinley Henderson as Holloway, John Earl Jelks as Sterling, Hassan El-Amin as Hambone and Eugene Lee as West.

Jitney (1970s), directed by Gordon Davidson, will include Anthony Mackie as Youngblood, John Beasley as Turnbo, Anthony Chisolm as Fielding, Eugene Lee as Doub, Afemo Omilami as Shealy, Montae Russell as Philmore, Paul Butler as Becker, Roslyn Ruff as Rena and Hassan El-Amin as Booster.

The King Hedley II (1980s) company, directed by Derrick Sanders, will feature Russell Hornsby as King Hedley II, Lynda Gravátt as Ruby, John Earl Jelks as Mister, Stephen McKinley Henderson as Elmore, Heather Alicia Simms as Tonya and James A. Williams as Stool Pigeon.

Directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, the Radio Golf (1990s) company will comprise Harry Lennix as Harmond Wilks, Michole Briana White as Mame Wilks, James A. Williams as Roosevelt Hicks, John Earl Jelks as Sterling Johnson and Anthony Chisholm as Elder Joseph Barlow.

August Wilson (April 27, 1945-Oct. 2, 2005) authored Gem of the Ocean, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Piano Lesson, Seven Guitars, Fences, Two Trains Running, Jitney, King Hedley II and Radio Golf. These works explore the heritage and experience of African Americans, decade-by-decade, over the course of the 20th century. Wilson’s plays have been produced at regional theatres across the country and all over the world, as well as on Broadway. In 2003, Wilson made his professional stage debut in his one-man show, How I Learned What I Learned. Wilson’s works garnered many awards, including Pulitzer Prizes for Fences (1987); and for The Piano Lesson (1990); a Tony Award for Fences; Great Britain’s Olivier Award for Jitney; as well as seven New York Drama Critics Circle Awards for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Fences, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, The Piano Lesson, Two Trains Running, Seven Guitars and Jitney.

Two million football fans called in sick, skipped school or just disappeared for a few hours today. They showed up to line the Canyon of Heroes in Lower Manhattan to celebrate the Giants Super Bowl victory today.

My office is just blocks from where the parade began. I stopped into work first, then made my way over there around 9:45. The streets were already packed ahead of the 11:00 am start. People amused themselves by throwing rolls of toilet tissue back and forth across the street, and spontaneously starting up chants of “Boston sucks” and “Brady sucks” and “18 and 1!”

By the time the parade started, the crowd had quadrupled in size where I was standing. When I got there, it was maybe three rows deep from the curb. At parade start, it was about 12 rows deep. Still more fans were watching from office windows, construction scaffolds and even window sills.

I had my digital camera and would love to tell you I took some great shots, but unfortunately, what I have came out either blurry or from too far away. I may be able to salvage some in iPhoto but it will take awhile.

In the meantime, you can enjoy still and video images from the parade at these websites:

New York Giants website

SportsNet New York

WNBC

New York Times

Pardon me while I crow!

All the so-called experts said it couldn’t be done. All the so-called experts said the New England Patriots were a team of destiny that had too many weapons. Everybody predicted a blowout on their way to a perfect season. Well guess what.

We here in New York knew the Giants could win this game. The Patriots are good, no doubt about, but no team is invincible. The odds were simply not in their favor. Nineteen wins without a defeat is a difficult feat to pull off, and as I said in my pre-game prediction, the Giants were getting their second chance at them after nearly winning the first time.

The Giants defense punched the Patriots in the face. They gave Tom Brady pressure like he hasn’t seen all season, never letting the high scoring Pats offense to get on track. They blitzed, pressured, hurried, sacked and knocked Brady off his feet 18 times.

On the other side, Eli Manning made his bones tonight. That winning drive with just over 2 minutes remaining was a thing of beauty. While even I get tired of the “Manning Mystique” hoopla, you have to hand it to him. He silenced all critics.

Plaxico Burress, David Tyree, Steve Smith, Ahmad Bradshaw, Brandon Jacobs and Kevin Boss, were all standouts on offense, making game saving and game winning catches, controlling the clock and picking up key Patriot blitzes.

Osi Umenyiora, Justin Tuck, Fred Robbins, Kawika Mitchell, Antonio Pierce, Corey Webster, Sam Madison and Gibril Wilson, were among the defensive stars who stymied and frustrated Brady and his receivers and negated their running game all evening.

Veterans Michael Strahan and Amani Toomer, who wondered if they’d ever get another shot at a Super Bowl after experiencing loss in 2000, now have their rings.

While I know not everyone was rooting for the Giants, I think there were a lot of football fans who were rooting against the Patriots. After spygate, the aloof and at times arrogant attitude of Bill Belichick, and just the perception that they were expected to win, I think many fans tired of their act. They 18-1 and go home with no trophy.

The New York Football Giants are the Champions of Super Bowl XLII, and I’m 8-3 in my post season picks.

The parade down the Canyon of Heroes is scheduled for Tuesday morning. I hope to be there.