Back on the plane to Jacksonville, with the extremes of Once Upon a Mattress and View from the Bridge in my brain. It is having some trouble putting both of these TWO shows in the same weekend! I will be back to work tomorrow for the next three weeks. I will be moving my acting class from Viewpoints to Meisner work and preparing for my return to NYC in just 3 weeks – – and when I return it will be for TWO full weeks so – – you can be sure I will be feeding my addiction with energy! Till then, catch up with my thoughts for the acting classroom on www.theatreclassaddict.com
Monthly Archives: November 2015
A View from the Bridge
A View from the Bridge
Written by: Arthur Miller
Directed by: Ivo van Hove
Lyceum Theatre
Production website 💉💉💉 out of 5.
So much to love about this production and so much to be totally annoyed with! I found the idea of taking this quintessential piece of American realism with its walls, floors, furnitures, carpets, doilies and hokie Italian artwork and stripping it down to nothing was really exciting. Gone were all the trappings of the set. Replacing the set was a stark bright white floor looking hard, unforgiving and anesthetic. A ring of black benches circled the square and a simple doorway was placed upstage center. Captivating in the very first minute! As the “boxed curtain” rose around the white square we witness two men, Eddie Carbone (an amazing, haunting Mark Strong) and his co-worker taking a shower under a massive steaming running shower. The masculinity and working class grit was there at the beginning. Continue reading A View from the Bridge
Once Upon a Mattress
Once Upon a Mattress
Music by Mary Rogers
Lyrics by Marshall barer
book by Jay Thompson, Dean Fuller, and Marshall Barer
Directed by: Jack Cummings III
Aaron Arts Center
Production website 1/2💉 out of 5.
I really didn’t want to see Once Upon a Mattress. What I really wanted to see was the “dream casting” that pitted Jackie Hoffman (Princess Winifred) and John “Lypsinka” Epperson (Queen Aggravain) together. I wanted to see this. But the problem was I had to sit through almost two hours of Once Upon a Mattress to get to this. It really wasn’t a bad production. Most of it felt like a very competent college production of Once Upon the Mattress that roped in two gay icons of the stage – – Hoffman and Lypsinka. If only there had been more of them and less of the rest. Continue reading Once Upon a Mattress
Death and the Jingle Bell Bracelet Lady
Sitting in the FRONT row of Broadway’s Chicago AND the ladysitting right behind you in the second row has on a god-awful noisy, loud, tinkling, clinking, chiming, binging, banging, ringing put-a-bullet-in-your-head bracelet and she waves and waves her hand. She waves and waves her hand and welcomes parade goers with her hand, and says good-bye to cruise ships with this hand and waves and waves and waves. Continue reading Death and the Jingle Bell Bracelet Lady
Chicago – My Head is Full of Songs
Chicago
John Kander and Fred Ebb (Music; Book/Lyrics)
Bob Fosse (Choreography)
Ambassador Theatre
Production website 💉💉💉 out of 5.
Although I do not know all of the words to any ONE song in Chicago, I certainly know some of the words to most songs – – and none of this gets in my way of singing the complete score as I pack my way back to LGA and to Jacksonville. How can Chicago ever be a bad choice? – even if they kept the curtain closed and just played the music, most of us would be more then happy to sit there for two hours and silently sing along. Continue reading Chicago – My Head is Full of Songs