Heartbreak House: 12/16/2006

Maybe it’s me, maybe I have A.D.D.; maybe it was this production, the pace did seem to lag at times; maybe it was the fact that there is only one intermission after act one and acts two and three are played straight through; maybe it was the typically annoying matinee audience – but at close to two hours and fifty minutes, Heartbreak House seemed unusually long and a little dull. Swoosie Kurtz is always fun to watch on stage, even if she’s more Swoosie than Hesione. Lilly Rabe, Laila Robins and Byron Jennings are all good, too. Philip Bosco is almost unrecognizable and slightly miscast as Captain Shotover. The last few minutes of this play always give me a thrill, but this time it was more out of gratitude that the show was over.

For Tickets and Info: www.roundabouttheatre.org

Spring Awakening: 12/14/2006

Spring Awakening is awesome.

www.springawakening.com

Ludlow Ladd: 12/10/2006

Charlotte Sweet is one of my favorite musicals; so much so that I borrowed a character’s name for my pseudonym for this blog (minus a “d’). I wasn’t even aware that Michael Colby (libretto) and Gerald Jay Markoe (music) had written a prequel to Charlotte Sweet, actually called Ludlow Ladd, until recently. Ludlow Ladd is currently being performed as a staged reading (for, unfortunately, only one more performance on Monday the 11th), benefiting the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, and it is a real treat. It maintains much of the loopy, dark humor and musical style of Charlotte Sweet, while being the perfect holiday show for those who don’t want to see the Rockettes. Let’s hope this great musical gets a full production next and every Christmas in NYC.

For Tickets & Info: www.timelessdivas.com

FringeNYC 2007 Applications Now Available

Applications for the 2007 New York International Fringe Festival are now available, on line. Good luck to all that apply.

Fringe 2007 Application: Fringe Applications

Don't worry, FringeNYC is fine...

I just received the following e-mail:

Hey, Ludlow Lad,

I'm writing to introduce myself, and to put your mind at ease. My name is Elena K. Holy, and I'm the Producing Artistic Director of The Present Company (producers of FringeNYC). I've been alerted to your blogging about the 2007 festival, and I wanted to let you know that firstly, I SO appreciate your kind words about the festival, and secondly, we're on track, don't worry! Your concern is so appreciated.

The applications should be up in a matter of days. As you probably know, there are two of us who work at the Present Company. All of the rest of the staff members are volunteers. Four or five years ago, we converted to an "online" application process. This saved us a few weeks of data entry time, which we converted into a few additional weeks of adjudication time. It's working beautifully. This year, our sql database guru volunteer (who converts the word documents that I make into fill-out-able pdf's and sql databases) moved to London. This is fine, since she is one of the many volunteers who contribute to the festival from all over the world - I haven't seen her in person for a few years anyway! However, she has had a bit of a time getting stable internet service in her new "flat". British Telecom issues. But all is well now. That is one of the reasons we were delayed a bit.

The other reason is that Shelley Burch, our beloved Board President (and the Administrative Director of the festival for years) gave birth to a beautiful little girl on October 30th. In November, after we've closed the books (so to speak) on the prior festival, we have a great deal of analysis to do in order to make any changes to the festival. Every change effects the applications -

So it (understandably!) took a while for these changes to get approval from our very busy Board President. I also take my "big" vacation at Thanksgiving - to be with the entire extended family at the farm in Georgia. It's my one big break during the entire year - and is very restorative. And fattening. And wonderful. This year I took a whole week off.

Oh! And sorry - I hadn't noticed presentcompany.org was down. I'm looking for a new hosting service. . . I'll remove the link from FringeNYC (I learned Dreamweaver!).

Anyway. That's MUCH more than you wanted to know, but since I can't seem to get an approval to be a member of All That Chat, you should feel free to post this reply (or your version of this reply) to let everyone know that FringeNYC '07 is going to be great ("it's eleven - it's like ten, but it's one more") and the apps should be up within a few days.

Tell everyone thanks for their concern. It really means the world to me and everyone at FringeNYC that you give a hoot whether FringeNYC happens. So cool...

Warm regards,
Elena

Will there be an 11th Annual New York International Fringe Festival?

With the celebration of the 10th Annual Fringe last August some people questioned its relevance and importance and how long it would continue. Now I’m beginning to worry that it may not be around for an 11th year. According to the Fringe website, www.fringenyc.org, “application(s) for FringeNYC 2007 will be available on (the fringe) website in November 2006” and “(a)pplications will be accepted from November 1, 2006 - February 14, 2007.” As of today, December 3rd, no application is available. Now anyone that has worked with the Fringe in the past, knows that their timetables are soft. More dirstubingly however, the credit that follows all official listings for The New York International Fringe Festival is “A production of The Present Company” and now The Present Company’s own website, www.presentcompany.org, is down, giving the ominous message – “Gone”.

In a recent Thanksgiving Day posting, I listed Fringe NYC as one of the 9 things I am thankful for in NYC Theater. I am so hoping that we have not seen the last of the Fringe! Elena, tell us we are going to have a #11.

Hedda Gabler [BAM]: 12/01/2006

The Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz production of Hedda Gabler is as stylish a production as one is likely to see. Ibsen's play has been updated to the present with laptops being smashed with hammers instead of manuscripts being burned. I'm no purist when it comes to the classics, but in this case it seems to be heavy on the style but unfortunately light on substance. Directed by Thomas Ostermeier, this version seamlessly runs together all four acts into one intermission-less two-hour and ten minute piece. Katharina Schüttler makes an always interesting and surprisingly young Hedda, but the real star of this production is Jan Pappelbaum’s sleek, revolving, glass, stone and concrete set complete with mirrored ceiling to reveal what would ordinarily be offstage. And Ibsen's famous final tableau looks great on this set as it revolves until the final blackout.

For Tickets & Info: www.bam.org