It has been an exciting week in show business with labor action affecting both the television and theatrical communities.
Last Monday, members of the Writers Guild of America walked off the set, shutting down production on the late night talk shows, sitcoms and any dramas that hadn’t put enough episodes in the can. The issue is over compensation for internet and DVD usage of produced product. Writers want a piece of the pie, greedy producers want to keep it all for themselves.
As all of us realize, the future of all media is on the internet. No one buys CDs any more, we all download. Networks increasingly release their first run programming on YouTube or other websites, or put out DVDs of entire seasons so viewers can watch the reruns at their own discretion. Currently, writers, actors and directors–the creative people without whom there would be no television–get little if any of the revenue generated from these non-broadcast means of distribution.Writer/comedian and Writers Guild member Tim Kazurinsky, appeared recently on Chicago television station WGN and broke it all down.
Next June, contracts between producers and members of the Screen Actors Guild and the Directors Guild of America expire and the same issues are on the table. Everyone is watching how this negotiating plays out to see if producers will come to their senses and share the revenue, or if they will remain the selfish idiots we’ve always known them to be, and force a walkout by actors and directors.
(In 2000, while still a working actor, I spent five months on the picket line when SAG and AFTRA struck commercial producers, over the very same issue of residuals and internet airing of advertising. I learned first hand how soulless producers are.)
While most performers stand behind their union brothers on the writing side, not everyone is. Apparently, comedian and talk show host Ellen Degeneres has chosen to go on with her show despite the strike. She will come to New York November 19th and 20th to tape her show. Members of the Writers Guild of America East plan a frosty reception.
On the theatrical front, when talks between Local One of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) broke down in their negotiations with the League of American Theatres and Producers, that union representing stagehands authorized a strike. At 11am on Saturday, November 10th members of Local One set up picket lines shutting down nearly all of Broadway.
A total of 35 shows are currently running, with the majority of them affected by the strike. The non-profit houses and a handful of others operate under separate contracts and will remain open. They include: The New Amsterdam (Mary Poppins), Helen Hayes Theatre (Xanadu), Hilton Theatre (Young Frankenstein), Circle in the Square (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee), American Airlines Theatre (Pygmalion), Studio 54 (The Ritz) and Biltmore Theatre (Mauritius) and Vivian Beaumont (Cymbeline).
Explaining their situation to confused ticket-holders, the union issued the following statement:
Theatre owners and producers are demanding a 38 % cut in our jobs and wages. They have built a $20 million fund to be used against us from the sale of theatre tickets to the public.
Broadway is a billion dollar a year industry and has never been more profitable than now.Cuts in our jobs and wages will never result in a cut in ticket prices to benefit the public, but only an increase in the profits for producers.Unlike the producers, we are not fighting for our second or third homes; we are fighting to keep the one that we have.
We ask for your understanding in our efforts to defend ourselves and protect our families.
The strike will not effect off Broadway or off off Broadway plays however, which in my opinion, usually offer more interesting shows anyway. Attendance was up by about 30% over the weekend at off-Broadway houses and at least 57 non-Broadways shows are running.
Writers Guild of America, East statement concerning Ellen Degeneres LINK Writers Guild of America, WestLINK International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Local One LINK
New York theater-goers are enjoying an abundance of riches at the present moment. No, I’m not talking about the over-blown, stunt-cast tourist fare found on Broadway. I’m talking about the more thought-provoking, literate and risk-taking productions being staged off Broadway and in particular the arrival of exciting new playwrights demanding to be heard.
Opening this week at the Public Theater is such an example. The Brothers Size is a compelling, lyrical one-act play that uses a contemporary style and ceremonial presentation to tell the story of two brothers and the friend whose presence threatens to tear them apart.
Like Hoodoo Love, reviewed here last week, this project is the brainchild of a new writing talent, Tarell Alvin McCraney, a May 2007 (yes, just six months ago) MFA graduate of the Yale School of Drama. The Brothers Size was performed at The Public last year as part of the UNDER THE RADAR festival, after getting on the radar screen of some of the theater community’s current movers and shakers.
McCraney draws from West African culture and mythology in naming his characters after Yoruba religious figures. Ogun (Gilbert Owuor), is the god of war and iron and here a hard working auto mechanic and older brother to, Oshoosi, the deity of the wanderer and hunter. This Oshoosi (Brian Tyree Henry), is a recently released ex-convict and friend of Elegba (Elliot Villar), the shape-shifting trickster, who was his prison cellmate. The story is set in San Pere, Louisiana near the Bayou, in the “distant present.
“Using a minimalist set in the black box space of The Public’s Shiva theater, and an off stage drummer to provide musical accompaniment and sound effects, the actors play in and out of a chalk circle drawn on the floor. Who stands inside or out, illustrates the relationships between the characters.
Ogun is trying to help his brother stay on the straight and narrow, by getting him a job at his garage. He has grown frustrated by his brother’s lack of direction and the sacrifices he made to help raise him. Oshoosi is less driven, wanting only the use of a car so he can seek out the pleasures of the flesh he’s lived without while in prison.
As Elegba, Villar plays with a just-below-the-surface sense of danger that makes you suspicious of every word he utters. While Oshoosi has made it clear to his brother he has no desire to go back to jail–in an emotional challenge between the two–it becomes increasingly apparent that Elegba has had a hard time leaving the penitentiary behind. The counterweight he provides to Ogun’s influence compels Oshoosi to face the choices he has made in life.
If there is one drawback to this play it is that it is a tad predictable. With just three characters it is easy to see how the story will play out. But that doesn’t detract from the enjoyment of the various performances. Owuor is an earnest Ogun who has accepted his own place in life while maintaining his dignity. Henry has the juiciest role, allowed to be the free spirit, the beset-upon younger brother and the unknowing co-conspirator all at once and he does so with an arresting stage presence, charisma and sensitivity. McCraney, director Tea Alagic and the three actors, developed and worked on this play together over the past two years and their comfort level with the material and each other is evident.
This play has the unique distinction of a simultaneous staging on both sides of the pond. It runs through Dec. 23 here in New York and November 8 to December 8 at London’s Young Vic theater. Future productions are set for Dublin’s Abbey Theatre and Washington, D.C.’s Studio Theatre.
The Brothers Size at The Public Theater LINK The Brothers Size at The Young Vic LINK The Brothers Size at The Studio Theatre LINK
The educated, city folk among us will tell you everything happens for a reason. They easily cite scientific theory and logic and use cause and effect relationships as the basis for explaining the unexplainable.Others put their stock in religion. “Let go, let God” is their way of placing faith in a higher power that is either merciful or vengeful, depending upon which religious doctrine you adhere to.
Somewhere betwixt and between the two is a whole other belief system entirely. Here the skillful manipulation of herbs, roots, bodily fluids, and minerals puts power and control over actions and outcomes into the hands of those who practice and believe in it.”Hoodoo” (not to be confused with Voodoo) is an African-American folk magic system, with origins in the south, where one can goofer, hex, fix or lay down a trick for various reasons: from snagging a lover to breaking up someone’s relationship, from drawing money and luck to exacting revenge on others.
This mysterious force and its role in the lives of four individuals forms the basis for a fascinating new play, Hoodoo Love, running now through December 9 at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York’s Greenwich Village.Written by a dynamic new voice on the theatrical scene, playwright and actor Katori Hall, Hoodoo Love was originally produced as part of Cherry Lane’s Mentor Project 2006. Hall revised and reworked her play to its current stage with assistance from her mentor in the project, noted playwright Lynn Nottage, who describes it as a “gorgeously haunting play” and Hall as “an inventive and soulful writer.”
Hall sets this play in her native Memphis, Tennessee, during the depression when many southern Blacks were desperately trying to make their way north, away from Jim Crow and poverty. The story is centered on Toulou, a wide-eyed Mississippi girl who has fled the cotton fields and an unhappy home life to pursue her dream of singing the blues. What she lacks in worldly knowledge she makes up for in unbridled enthusiasm and hope.
Her hopes are also wrapped around a man in her life, Ace of Spades, a womanizing blues singer who regularly passes through town on his travels around the circuit of juke joints and dives across the south and midwest. He’s got her nose wide open, among other things, but try as she might, she can’t get him to settle down and make her the number one woman in his life.
To do that will require help and Toulou has it in the form of her neighbor, Candy Lady, a motherly figure and hoodoo woman who knows all about working roots, laying tricks and putting hexes on people. Having had about six husbands of her own, she knows all about collecting locks of hair and toenail clippings, or adding the right potion to someone’s drink to get them to stick around.
But magic such as that often has to be seen to be believed and Toulou isn’t immediately convinced. Complicating matters further is the arrival of her big brother, Jib. A man with a past who now calls himself a preacher, he has come to Memphis to see his baby sister and start a church there, although baby sis is skeptical. Jib is similarly wary of Candy Lady’s use of such heathen methods. As she tells him, “If you want salvation, go to church.” Her approach works if you want certain things to happen.
Hall has a brilliant ear for dialect and a manner of storytelling akin to poetry broken into four distinctly different voices. The play is not just a joy to watch, it is a pleasure to hear. Additionally, she created original songs used in the production. Hall is already being compared to August Wilson in her masterful use of the language, and while that’s nothing to sneeze at, she deserves her own recognition for what she brings to the table.
Her characters are real people we soon care deeply about, even those we may grow to dislike, and this small ensemble brings them all vividly to life. Keith Davis’s Jib is a scoundrel. All at once a smiling charmer while secretly scheming, he quotes and often misquotes Bible verse to suit his purposes. Kevin Mambo plays Ace of Spades with strength and determination mixed with pain and vulnerability, as the target of Toulou’s mojo. Angela Lewis’s Toulou is young and innocent, but never ignorant, and forced to grow up fast. Her transformation is believable and at times painful.
Highest praise, however, goes to Marjorie Johnson as Candy Lady. Fittingly the 2006 AUDELCO Award winner as Best Supporting Actor in this role, when she works her magic to help Toulou lure Ace of Spades, she casts a spell over the audience. It’s a mesmerizing scene.Director Lucie Tiberghien and set designer Robin Vest make effective use of the intimate space in the beautifully renovated Cherry Lane Theatre. Whether out of necessity or creative inspiration, actors make some entrances through the house, and in so doing, put the audience right into the story.
In my highest recommendation, I suggest you run–do not walk–to see this play.
Katori Hall talks about her play Hoodoo Love.
Hoodoo Love at the Cherry Lane TheatreLINK Playwright Katori HallLINK Plays by Lynn NottageLINK 1LINK 2
This morning in New York, Broadway and television stars Taye Diggs and Jane Krakowski announced the nominations for the American Theatre Wings 61st annual Tony Awards. Artists and productions were recognized in 25 competitive Tony categories, along with a special Tony Award honor for best regional theatre.
Diggs made his Broadway debut in the Tony Award-winning 1994 revival of Rodgers & Hammersteins musical Carousel. He later created the role of Benny, the landlord, in the 1996 Tony Award-winning Best Musical Rent, as well as in the shows recent film version. He is set to star in Private Practice, the forthcoming spinoff of TVs Greys Anatomy.
Krakowskis numerous Broadway appearances include the role of Carla in the 2003 production of Nine, for which she won a Tony Award as Best Featured Actress in a Musical. She won an Olivier Award in London for her performance as Miss Adelaide in Guys and Dolls. Her television work includes a six-year stint as Elaine on Ally McBeal.
The 2007 Tony Awards will be telecast Sunday, June 10 on CBS.
Best Play
The Coast of Utopia
Author: Tom Stoppard
Producers: Lincoln Center Theater, Andr Bishop, Bernard Gersten, Bob Boyett
Frost/Nixon
Author: Peter Morgan
Producers: Arielle Tepper Madover, Matthew Byam Shaw, Robert Fox, Act Productions, David Binder, Debra Black, Annette Niemtzow/Harlene Freezer, The Weinstein Company, The Donmar Warehouse
The Little Dog Laughed
Author: Douglas Carter Beane
Producers: Roy Gabay, Susan Dietz, Morris Berchard, Steve Bozeman, Ted Snowdon, Jerry Frankel/Doug Nevin, Jennifer Manocherian/Ina Meibach, Second Stage Theatre, Carole Rothman, Ellen Richard
Radio Golf
Author: August Wilson
Producers: Jujamcyn Theaters, Margo Lion, Jeffrey Richards/Jerry Frankel, Tamara Tunie/Wendell Pierce, Fran Kirmser, Bunting Management Group, George Frontiere and Open Pictures, Lauren Doll/Steven Greil & The August Wilson Group, Jack Viertel, Gordon Davidson
Best Musical
Curtains
Producers: Roger Berlind, Roger Horchow, Daryl Roth, Jane Bergre, Ted Hartley, Center Theatre Group
Grey Gardens
Producers: East of Doheny, Staunch Entertainment, Randall Wreghitt/Mort Swinsky, Michael Alden, Edwin W. Schloss, Playwrights Horizons
Mary Poppins
Producers: Disney, Cameron Mackintosh
Spring Awakening
Producers: Ira Pittelman, Tom Hulce, Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel, Atlantic Theater Company, Jeffrey Sine, Freddy DeMann, Max Cooper, Mort Swinsky/Cindy and Jay Gutterman/Joe McGinnis/Judith Ann Abrams, ZenDog Productions/CarJac Productions, Aron Bergson Productions/Jennifer Manocherian/Ted Snowdon, Harold Thau/Terry Schnuck/Cold Spring Productions, Amanda Dubois/Elizabeth Eynon Wetherell, Jennifer Maloney/Tamara Tunie/Joe Cilibrasi/StyleFour Productions
Best Book of a Musical
Curtains
Rupert Holmes & Peter Stone
Grey Gardens
Doug Wright
Legally Blonde The Musical
Heather Hach
Spring Awakening
Steven Sater
Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre
Curtains
Music: John Kander
Lyrics: Fred Ebb, John Kander & Rupert Holmes
Grey Gardens
Music: Scott Frankel
Lyrics: Michael Korie
Legally Blonde The Musical
Music & Lyrics: Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin
Spring Awakening
Music: Duncan Sheik
Lyrics: Steven Sater
Best Revival of a Play
Inherit the Wind
Producers: Boyett Ostar Productions, The Shubert Organization, Lawrence Horowitz, Jon Avnet/Ralph Guild, Roy Furman, Debra Black/Daryl Roth, Bill Rollnick/Nancy Ellison Rollnick, Stephanie P. McClelland
Journey’s End
Producers: Boyett Ostar Productions, Stephanie P. McClelland, Bill Rollnick, James D’Orta, Philip Geier
Talk Radio
Producers: Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel, Jam Theatricals, Francis Finlay, Ronald Frankel, James Fuld, Jr., Steve Green, Judith Hansen, Patty Ann Lacerte, James Riley, Mary Lu Roffe/Mort Swinsky, Sheldon Stein, Terri & Timothy Childs/Stylefour Productions, Irving Welzer/Herb Blodgett
Translations
Producers: Manhattan Theatre Club, McCarter Theatre Center, Lynne Meadow, Barry Grove, Emily Mann, Jeffrey Woodward
Best Revival of a Musical
The Apple Tree
Producers: Roundabout Theatre Company, Todd Haimes, Harold Wolpert, Julia C. Levy
A Chorus Line
Producer: Vienna Waits Productions
Company
Producers: Marc Routh, Richard Frankel, Tom Viertel, Steven Baruch, Ambassador Theatre Group, Tulchin/Bartner Productions, Darren Bagert, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park
110 in the Shade
Producers: Roundabout Theatre Company, Todd Haimes, Harold Wolpert, Julia C. Levy
Best Special Theatrical Event
Jay Johnson: The Two and Only!
Producers: Roger Alan Gindi, Stewart F. Lane & Bonnie Comley, Dan Whitten, Herbert Goldsmith Productions, Ken Grossman, Bob & Rhonda Silver, Michael A. Jenkins/Dallas Summer Musicals, Inc., Wetrock Entertainment
Kiki & Herb Alive on Broadway
Producers: David J. Foster, Jared Geller, Ruth Hendel, Jonathan Reinis, Inc., Billy Zavelson, Jamie Cesa, Anne Strickland Squadron, Jennifer Manocherian, Gary Allen, Melvin Honowitz
Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play
Boyd Gaines, Journey’s End
Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
Bran F. O’Byrne, The Coast of Utopia
Christopher Plummer, Inherit the Wind
Liev Schreiber, Talk Radio
Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play
Eve Best, A Moon for the Misbegotten
Swoosie Kurtz, Heartbreak House
Angela Lansbury, Deuce
Vanessa Redgrave, The Year of Magical Thinking
Julie White, The Little Dog Laughed
Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical
Michael Cerveris, LoveMusik
Ral Esparza, Company
Jonathan Groff, Spring Awakening
Gavin Lee, Mary Poppins
David Hyde Pierce, Curtains
Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical
Laura Bell Bundy, Legally Blonde The Musical
Christine Ebersole, Grey Gardens
Audra McDonald, 110 in the Shade
Debra Monk, Curtains
Donna Murphy, LoveMusik
Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play
Anthony Chisholm, Radio Golf
Billy Crudup, The Coast of Utopia
Ethan Hawke, The Coast of Utopia
John Earl Jelks, Radio Golf
Stark Sands, Journey’s End
Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play
Jennifer Ehle, The Coast of Utopia
Xanthe Elbrick, Coram Boy
Dana Ivey, Butley
Jan Maxwell, Coram Boy
Martha Plimpton, The Coast of Utopia
Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical
Brooks Ashmanskas, Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me
Christian Borle, Legally Blonde The Musical
John Cullum, 110 in the Shade
John Gallagher, Jr., Spring Awakening
David Pittu, LoveMusik
Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical
Charlotte d’Amboise, A Chorus Line
Rebecca Luker, Mary Poppins
Orfeh, Legally Blonde The Musical
Mary Louise Wilson, Grey Gardens
Karen Ziemba, Curtains
Best Scenic Design of a Play
Bob Crowley & Scott Pask, The Coast of Utopia
Jonathan Fensom, Journey’s End
David Gallo, Radio Golf
Ti Green and Melly Still, Coram Boy
Best Scenic Design of a Musical
Bob Crowley, Mary Poppins
Christine Jones, Spring Awakening
Anna Louizos, High Fidelity
Allen Moyer, Grey Gardens
Best Costume Design of a Play
Ti Green and Melly Still, Coram Boy
Jane Greenwood, Heartbreak House
Santo Loquasto, Inherit the Wind
Catherine Zuber, The Coast of Utopia
Best Costume Design of a Musical
Gregg Barnes, Legally Blonde The Musical
Bob Crowley, Mary Poppins
Susan Hilferty, Spring Awakening
William Ivey Long, Grey Gardens
Best Lighting Design of a Play
Paule Constable, Coram Boy
Brian MacDevitt, Inherit the Wind
Brian MacDevitt, Kenneth Posner and Natasha Katz, The Coast of Utopia
Jason Taylor, Journey’s End
Best Lighting Design of a Musical
Kevin Adams, Spring Awakening
Christopher Akerlind, 110 in the Shade
Howard Harrison, Mary Poppins
Peter Kaczorowski, Grey Gardens
Best Direction of a Play
Michael Grandage, Frost/Nixon
David Grindley, Journey’s End
Jack O’Brien, The Coast of Utopia
Melly Still, Coram Boy
Best Direction of a Musical
John Doyle, Company
Scott Ellis, Curtains
Michael Greif, Grey Gardens
Michael Mayer, Spring Awakening
Best Choreography
Rob Ashford, Curtains
Matthew Bourne and Stephen Mear, Mary Poppins
Bill T. Jones, Spring Awakening
Jerry Mitchell, Legally Blonde The Musical
Best Orchestrations
Bruce Coughlin, Grey Gardens
Duncan Sheik, Spring Awakening
Jonathan Tunick, LoveMusik
Jonathan Tunick, 110 in the Shade
Broadway is to theater as Hollywood is to moviemaking. That is to say they are both commercial ventures interested more in making lots of money than producing anything of great artistic merit.
Thus it should come as no surprise to anyone (certainly not me) that rapper and sometime film and tv actor LL Cool J is being considered for an all-Black revival of the Tennessee Williams play, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, hoping to make its way to Broadway in October.
This latest bit of stunt casting follows P Diddy’s star turn as Walter Lee Younger in A Raisin in the Sun three years ago and is clearly designed to get young, non-theater-going butts in the seats. In fairness, introducing stage plays to a new audience is a noble endeavor and the use of celebrities with limited stage experience is nothing new (have you seen Chicago lately).
But as we said when Puff Daddy/Puffy/P Diddy/Sean Combs was cast, the number of serious Black actors who have legitimately paid their dues and who are otherwise unemployed is a long one. Hiring people with no stage experience is a slap in their face.
This play tells the story of Brick, an alcoholic ex-athlete who fends off the amorous advances of his wife Maggie, before engaging in confrontation with his father, Big Daddy. The original Broadway play in 1955 starred Ben Gazzarra, Barbara Bel Geddes and Burl Ives. Ives reprised his role for the 1958 movie version that also starred Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman.
This revival is being directed by Debbie Allen who replaces Kenny Leon, director of Raisin. While none of the casting decisions have been made as of yet, Danny Glover and Louis Gossett Jr. have been talked about for Big Daddy. Thandie Newton and Tony winner Anika Noni Rose (Caroline, or Change) are under discussion for Maggie. Blair Underwood and the very talented Anthony Mackie have also been mentioned as Brick.
