Copyright 2008 The New York Sun Mon, 29 Sep 2008 09:02:33 -0400 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Theater :: Stories from The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/theater istoll@nysun.com (Ira Stoll) webmaster@nysun.com en-us LAURA COLLINS-HUGHES http://www.nysun.com/arts/lost-boy-roberto-aguirre-sacasas-king-of-shadows/85312/ Mon, 8 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST The risk of a playwright's note in a program — that little message penned directly to the audience, no actors or script to get in the way as the writer imparts some context for what the spectators are about to see — is that it can come across as a disclaimer. In the case of Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's note outlining the genesis of his "King of Shadows," which is making its world premiere in a Working Theater production at Theater for the New City, the seeming disclaimer goes something like this... JOY GOODWIN http://www.nysun.com/arts/iraq-war-veterans-in-their-own-words-in-conflict/86767/ Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST As a source of firsthand information about American soldiers' experiences in the Iraq war, "In Conflict," a documentary theater project now at the Barrow Street Theatre, is irreproachable. Artistically, however, Douglas Wager's adaptation of Yvonne Latty's nonfiction book has some problems — primarily a tendency to add histrionic flourishes to material that needs no further amplification. It's a pity that Mr. Wager, who also directed, couldn't resist the temptation to stage exaggerated marching... ERIC GRODE http://www.nysun.com/arts/a-wizard-casts-his-spell-in-the-stable-equus/86652/ Fri, 26 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST From Don Quixote to Forrest Gump, one fictional savant after another has carved his way (they're almost always men) through Western culture, unfettered by the suffocating mores of society as he inspires the surrounding hordes of the "well." Unsurprisingly, the 1960s and early '70s were a particularly fertile time for this reductive but nonetheless comforting thesis. The decade bracketed by the 1962 publication of Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and the 1973 London premiere of... KATE TAYLOR http://www.nysun.com/arts/mamet-versus-mamet/86283/ Mon, 22 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST As a connoisseur of pissing matches large and small, David Mamet must be amused by the offstage drama that surrounds the two dueling Mamet revivals opening on Broadway this fall. Producers of the two shows — "Speed-the-Plow," which opens October 23, and "American Buffalo," which opens November 17 — both went after the same theater, the Ethel Barrymore on West 47th Street, after it was made available by the cancellation of "Godspell." When "American Buffalo" lost out, the New York Post described... ERIC GRODE http://www.nysun.com/arts/decent-melodies-bad-wigs-a-tale-of-two-cities/86187/ Fri, 19 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST Who says you can't walk out of a Broadway musical humming the score anymore? My subway ride home from "A Tale of Two Cities" was filled with fond musical memories, as stirring martial songs of revolution jostled for primacy with plaintive laments sung by young lovers torn asunder as the turmoil of 18th-century France boiled over. A subsequent look at my Playbill, alas, confirmed that the songs in my head were all from "Les Miserables." The memories of "Two Cities," Jill Santoriello's pell-mell... JOY GOODWIN http://www.nysun.com/arts/a-pre-feminist-fantasyland-the-marvelous/86076/ Thu, 18 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST "The Marvelous Wonderettes," a candy-colored import from Milwaukee, is, in a way, the purest form of jukebox musical: a transparent excuse to hear a hit parade from the 1950s and '60s performed live. For theatergoers content to bask in girl-group renditions of tunes like "The Shoop Shoop Song" and "Leader of the Pack" for two hours, it will go down easy as a malted milk shake. Otherwise, even the show's charming cast may not get you through a marathon evening of sugary nostalgia. Roger Bean... Staff Reporter of the Sun http://www.nysun.com/arts/new-200k-playwriting-prize-goes-to-kushner/85980/ Wed, 17 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST Tony Kushner is the first recipient of the Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, a new prize carrying a $200,000 cash gift, the New York Times reported Tuesday. The award, which will be formally presented in a ceremony Wednesday, is the biggest theater prize in the country, and is being issued by the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust. Mr. Kushner, who won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for "Angels in America: Millennium Approaches," is a two-time Tony Award winner. He has also won Olivier... ERIC GRODE http://www.nysun.com/arts/into-the-breach-out-of-the-chaos-beast-and-anger/86009/ Wed, 17 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST The wooden boxes that litter the set of "Beast," Michael Weller's muddled picaresque, are both instantly familiar and jarringly unusual. Long and wide enough to comfortably house bulked-up young men and women, they are draped in the stars and stripes of the American flag, with unobtrusive handles that make it easier to hoist them on and off airplanes and into the ground. They are military coffins, the seemingly inevitable reminders of the war dead. Current American policy has relegated them so... ERIC GRODE http://www.nysun.com/arts/dancers-ogres-horses/85963/ Wed, 17 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST Do you prefer your singing underdogs prepubescent and British or flatulent and green? Either way, the fall season should have something for you. "Billy Elliot" (opening November 13) garnered ecstatic reviews in London in 2005; Elton John has by many accounts contributed his strongest theater score yet, and three young charmers share the title role of a plucky 11-year-old dancer from strike-ravaged Northern England. "Shrek" (December 14), meanwhile, features an odd hodgepodge of critics'... Associated Press http://www.nysun.com/arts/stratford-festivals-richard-monette-dies-at-64/85579/ Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST Richard Monette, the longest-serving artistic director of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, has died at the age of 64. Monette died Tuesday of a blood clot in his lung in a London, Ontario, hospital, the festival confirmed Wednesday. Monette served as artistic director at Stratford, the largest repertory theater in North America, from 1994 to 2007. During his tenure, he improved the theater's economic stability and shepherded it to record levels of attendance. At a tribute to Monette held a... ERIC GRODE http://www.nysun.com/arts/the-aroma-of-near-success-whats-that-smell/85595/ Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST Maybe it's all those decades of being condescended to as the "Fabulous Invalid," but the New York theater world has long had a soft spot for the runts of the litter, particularly those that can (sort of) carry a tune. Two long-running series of staged musicals (City Center's Encores! and the York Theatre's Musicals in Mufti) pay tribute to the almosts, not-quites, and what-were-they-thinkings that have littered the Great White Way. A series of CDs hail memorable songs from "Unsung Musicals,"... LAURA COLLINS-HUGHES http://www.nysun.com/arts/a-walk-in-the-woods-craig-wrights-lady/85393/ Tue, 9 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST No good can come to a dog in a hunting play, especially if the play is named after the dog. This much is obvious in the first seconds of Craig Wright's provocative and nuanced dark comedy "Lady," when headlights illuminate the blackness of Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and the young dog runs off. "Lady, heel!" Kenny (Michael Shannon) yells, to no avail. It's 5 a.m. in the fogbound woods somewhere in the middle of Illinois, and there's no way the day is going to end well for Kenny and his dog... Staff Reporter of the Sun http://www.nysun.com/arts/albee-honored-by-pennsylvania-academy-of-music/85406/ Tue, 9 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST Playwright Edward Albee is the first recipient of the Pennsylvania Academy of Music creativity award, the institution announced Monday. The award "recognizes artists and innovators who have challenged conventional notions to positively impact humanity." Mr. Albee is slated to accept the award in person at a ceremony on October 15. The dramatist has won numerous Tony Awards, Pulitzer Prizes, and Drama Critics Circle Awards for his plays, including his best-known work, "Who's Afraid of Virginia... Associated Press http://www.nysun.com/arts/curtain-comes-down-on-rent/85301/ Mon, 8 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST Broadway prepared to say goodbye Sunday to "Rent," 12 years and 5,124 performances after it first became a rock musical with a message for theatergoers of all ages. The show, book, music, and lyrics by Jonathan Larson, was born off-Broadway in triumph and tragedy. Larson died of an aortic aneurysm after its final dress rehearsal in January 1996. He was 35. Larson's tale of free-spirited artists and street people in a gritty drug- and AIDS-plagued East Village of the early 1990s touched several... ERIC GRODE http://www.nysun.com/arts/shaking-hips-and-raising-fists-fela/85217/ Fri, 5 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST If any musician were to warrant a jukebox musical right now, it would be the one with the moxie to release an album called "Black President" and the chops to back it up. That record came out almost 30 years ago, and it's one of many scorching titles by Nigeria's Fela Anikulapo Kuti, he of the 27 wives and the 200 arrests and the martyred mother. Kuti's Afrobeat sound may have drawn liberally from other musical giants, among them the Chairman of the Board and the Godfather of Soul. But as the... Staff Reporter of the Sun http://www.nysun.com/arts/report-rodgers-and-hammerstein-catalog-for-sale/85039/ Wed, 3 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization is aiming to sell its entire music catalog to a major record company, Reuters reported Tuesday. The organization is said to be seeking more than $250 million, though several analysts who spoke to Reuters expressed skepticism that the price would rise much above $200 million. The 3,000-song catalog features not only the works of legends Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, but also songs by 100 other artists, including Irving Berlin and Lorenz Hart... Associated Press http://www.nysun.com/arts/white-christmas-to-open-november-23/84746/ Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST Christmas arrives ahead of Thanksgiving on Broadway this season. "Irving Berlin's White Christmas" has announced it will officially open November 23 — four days before Thanksgiving. Preview performances for the stage version of Berlin's celluloid classic begin November 14 at the Marquis Theatre. No word yet on who will be in the cast, but the production will be directed by Walter Bobbie. "White Christmas" features a book by David Ives, who adapted Mark Twain's farce "Is He Dead?" for Broadway... Staff Reporter of the Sun http://www.nysun.com/arts/john-turturro-joins-new-school/84559/ Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST The New School for Drama announced Monday that John Turturro will be its "distinguished artist-in-residence" for the 2008-09 academic year. "We are fortunate to have such a versatile and accomplished artist on hand to mentor our students," the director of the school, Robert LuPone, said in a statement. "John's extensive background and the variety of roles he has mastered speak to the type of well-rounded actor we are training. His first-hand accounts of the intellectual, emotional, physical... VALERIE GLADSTONE http://www.nysun.com/arts/a-theatrical-tribute-to-fela-kuti/84495/ Mon, 25 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST Halfway through previews of his rousing, dance-filled musical, "Fela!" which opens September 4 for a two-and-a-half-week run, the choreographer Bill T. Jones, 56, was still fine-tuning sequences every afternoon. He has won every possible accolade as a choreographer in concert dance and a Tony Award for his work in the hit Broadway musical, "Spring Awakening." But "Fela!," which is based on the life of the great Nigerian musician and political activist Fela Anikulapo Kuti, who died in 1997 at... TOM TEODORCZUK http://www.nysun.com/arts/from-the-mouths-of-ex-cons-the-castle/84489/ Mon, 25 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST 'The Castle" might seem closer in spirit and structure to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting than a dramatic play, but it is reliant upon that time-honored theatrical device, the personal narrative. Four recently released former prisoners recount their lives, with only their chairs and their music stands to accompany them. The effect is more harrowing and powerful than that of most other prison dramas and activist plays. Casimiro Torres, Angel Ramos, Kenneth Harrigan, and Vilma Ortiz Donovan are... Staff Reporter of the Sun http://www.nysun.com/arts/pinsky-to-lead-shakespeare-sing-along/84379/ Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST Former poet laureate Robert Pinsky will preside over a night of songs set to Shakespeare's lyrics, the Shakespeare Society announced Thursday. "Lyrics by W. Shakespeare," a September 15 event at the Kaye Playhouse in Manhattan, will include songs by composers Thomas Arne, Vaughan Williams, Duke Ellington, and Stephen Sondheim, among others... ERIC GRODE http://www.nysun.com/arts/a-first-breeze-blows-through-again/84403/ Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST Ostensibly a dissection of a middle-class black family over the course of a long hot weekend, Leslie Lee's award-winning "The First Breeze of Summer" also looks backward at the tempestuous life of the family's fading matriarch. A similar attempt at modern-day commemoration, as it happens, is taking place at the Signature Theatre. Ruben Santiago-Hudson's incisive revival of the 1975 drama marks the beginning of a season devoted to the Negro Ensemble Company, the pioneering group that launched... ERIC GRODE http://www.nysun.com/arts/zombie-burrowing-into-an-unbeautiful-mind/84298/ Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST The stage is one of the very few places where Joyce Carol Oates's reputation as a master stylist has suffered a few bruises. Not from lack of effort: The dizzyingly prolific Ms. Oates has written enough adaptations of her own fiction ("Black Water") as well as original works to fill a few anthologies. Still, for a woman whose name routinely surfaces during Nobel Prize speculation, Ms. Oates the playwright has typically met with responses ranging from tepid encouragement to benign neglect. Enter... Bloomberg News http://www.nysun.com/arts/godspell-revival-called-off/84193/ Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST A Broadway revival of "Godspell," the 1971 Stephen Schwartz pop musical, has been canceled because the producers came up short on the show's $4.5 million capitalization. Lead producer Adam Epstein made a last-ditch effort during the weekend to cover the gap after an unnamed backer pulled out two weeks ago. He was unable to secure funding, though, in time to meet a deadline yesterday to guarantee the Shubert Organization-owned Ethel Barrymore Theatre, where the show was scheduled to begin... Staff Reporter of the Sun http://www.nysun.com/arts/peter-brook-wins-ibsen-award/84105/ Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST Director Peter Brook won the International Ibsen Award, the award's jury head, actress Liv Ullmann, announced yesterday in Oslo, Norway. The award, which carries a prize of $460,000, was presented to Mr. Brook for his "successful demonstration that all significant theater has a unique ability to bring people together," Ms. Ullmann said. Mr. Brook, 83, has staged landmark productions with companies including the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Opera House. The award was established in... JOY GOODWIN http://www.nysun.com/arts/desir-fantastic-feats-on-a-small-scale/84043/ Mon, 18 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST Down under the Brooklyn Bridge, near the site of the old Fulton Fish Market, the portable carnival known as Spiegelworld beckons for a third consecutive summer. In two vintage, hand-hewn pavilions known as spiegeltents, two cirque-themed shows are on offer this year: the returning "Absinthe," a naughty variety-act cabaret that reshuffles its format each season, and the brand-new "D้sir," billed as a cirque show with a through line (เ la Cirque du Soleil) about the backstage lives and loves of a... ERIC GRODE http://www.nysun.com/arts/parker-performer-and-peyote-at-the-fringe/84040/ Thu, 14 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST Carol Lempert's "That Dorothy Parker" is a competently assembled, crisply produced, scrupulously sincere tribute to a major figure in American letters. What on earth is it doing at the New York International Fringe Festival? As countless theatergoers have learned, frequently to their detriment, the Fringe is generally a lot more comfortable with snickers than salutes. Its favorite son remains the Brecht-in-training-pants "Urinetown: The Musical," and other transfers have included "Debbie Does... Bloomberg News http://www.nysun.com/arts/spacey-to-stage-sculpture-show-at-old-vic/83627/ Tue, 12 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST Hollywood star Kevin Spacey will be helping sculpture come alive at London's Old Vic theater. Replicas of a Jeff Koons "Rabbit," an angst-ridden Alberto Giacometti "Walking Man," and an Andy Warhol "Brillo Box" will be among six figures moving by remote control, with voices provided by Mr. Spacey and others in an "intellectual slapstick comedy" devised by Scandinavian conceptual artists Elmgreen & Dragset. "This is a chance for us to look at other art forms for creative inspiration and to... ERIC GRODE http://www.nysun.com/arts/sizzle-under-the-big-top-in-absinthe/83552/ Mon, 11 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST For the last three Augusts, while much of Lower Manhattan succumbed to the ragtag and often risqu้ charms of the Fringe Festival, the dark-wood-and-glass big top known as the Spiegeltent has touched down from Belgium to offer a more refined flavor of decadence. "Absinthe," a Cirque du Soleil-meets-"Moulin Rouge"-meets-Weimar Berlin-meets-"Borat" hodgepodge of airborne eye candy and earthy humor, has given New Yorkers a reason to set foot on the South Street Seaport. In fact, the title of the... ERIC GRODE http://www.nysun.com/arts/that-60s-show-hair/83426/ Fri, 8 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST 'The songs are just laundry lists." It's "one-third music" that "doesn't even belong on the same record player" as its contemporaries. Even the most cursory stroll through any Broadway chat room will unearth statements this damning and worse, and the level of dudgeon spikes dramatically when the show in question has a 4/4 beat. "Passing Strange" and "Spring Awakening" are just two of the recent rock musicals to send commenters into paroxysms of either ecstasy or rage. The above criticisms have... Associated Press http://www.nysun.com/new-york/public-theater-names-new-executive-director/83384/ Thu, 7 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST Andrew Hamingson has been appointed executive director of the Public Theater, one of the nation's most prominent nonprofit theaters, it was announced yesterday by the Public's board of directors. Mr. Hamingson, who worked previously for the Atlantic Theater Company and Manhattan Theatre Club, takes over October 1 from Mara Manus, who announced last season she would step down after six years on the job. "Throughout this rigorous and highly competitive search process, (Andrew's) intelligence... ERIC GRODE http://www.nysun.com/arts/a-specimen-of-small-town-waspdom/83249/ Wed, 6 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST With the exception of "Love Letters" and its revolving door of big-name actors, A.R. Gurney has never relied too heavily on casting stars. In some three dozen finely etched plays written over a quarter century, the inhabitants of his chosen world — the teetering demi-aristocracy of Northeastern WASPs — have long resigned themselves to the fact that their brighter, glitzier days lie irretrievably in the past. Star wattage would only blot out the diminishing surroundings even further. This... ERIC GRODE http://www.nysun.com/arts/animal-house/83164/ Tue, 5 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST If one's sole companionship in the space of two months is the Chinese takeout guy and the treasurer of American Origami, a few changes may be in order. The depressive master folder Ilana Andrews (Kellie Overbey) finds herself in this situation in Rajiv Joseph's dog-eared but nonetheless ingratiating "Animals Out of Paper." Mr. Joseph clearly has seen his share of romantic comedies as well as examples of the similarly oversaturated mutual-uplift-through-mentorship genre: His work, the second of... JOY GOODWIN http://www.nysun.com/arts/the-golden-oldies/83126/ Mon, 4 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST By rights, there ought to be a handful of good new plays about the lives of the 65-and-older crowd — the millions of seniors who have relocated to retirement communities and reckoned with reconstituting both their everyday lives and their social circles. Alas, "Flamingo Court," now at New World Stages, fails to lift the beleaguered genre above the level of the middling sitcom. Penned by 80-year-old Luigi Creatore, a former New York record producer who retired to Florida decades ago, "Flamingo... Staff Reporter of the Sun http://www.nysun.com/arts/guys-and-dolls-returning-to-broadway/82829/ Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST A revival of the musical "Guys and Dolls" will open on Broadway in the spring of 2009 at the Nederlander Theatre, the producer Howard Panter announced Tuesday. The show will be directed by Des McAnuff and choreographed by Sergio Trujillo. The most recent Broadway revival of the Frank Loesser musical closed in 1995. "Guys and Dolls" had its premiere on Broadway in 1950. In 1955, director Joseph Mankiewicz made the musical into a movie starring Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, and Frank Sinatra... Staff Reporter of the Sun http://www.nysun.com/arts/culture-project-teams-with-judson-memorial-church/82747/ Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST The theater company Culture Project has launched a partnership with the Judson Memorial Church, a self-described "venue for avant-garde arts and a foe of art censorship,", the theater announced yesterday. The two politically minded groups will collaborate on a series that includes an ongoing "Guantanamo vigil," a music series, and an event that addresses the debates surrounding the ratification of the Constitution. The alliance comes in conjunction with Culture Project's move from its Mercer... TOM TEODORCZUK http://www.nysun.com/arts/navigating-fringe-nyc-a-users-guide/82699/ Mon, 28 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST As with Forrest Gump's metaphorical box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get at the New York International Fringe Festival, or FringeNYC. Witness a "hipster satire meets Hamlet" catastrophe and it could put you off the theater for a while to come. The list of productions that started out at the FringeNYC and enjoyed illustrious stage lives, however, is long. The greatest success story in the festival's nine-year history is "Urinetown," which made its debut in 1999, then had an... TOM TEODORCZUK http://www.nysun.com/arts/follies-and-foibles-richard-nelsons-some/82700/ Mon, 28 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Spend time in the theater district in London's West End and the sight of armies of American students soon becomes a familiar one. They are visiting London on two- or three-month study abroad programs and are confronted with an exhaustive theatergoing schedule. Richard Nelson's 1989 play "Some Americans Abroad," directed by Gordon Edelstein, is not concerned so much with the students — only two of them appear onstage — as with their professors. The academics are headed by Joe Taylor (Tom... JOY GOODWIN http://www.nysun.com/arts/toxic-testosterone/82731/ Mon, 28 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST A wounded, snarling male ego seethes beneath the surface of "Stain," a clumsy melodrama by Tony Glazer, now at the Kirk. And it tries to take a bite out of everything in its path. Not that Mr. Glazer's play (in an unpolished production by Scott C. Embler), is aware of its own sexism. "Stain" seems to think it is mocking and dismantling the crude frat-boy perspective frequently espoused by its male characters. But the suburban landscape sketched by "Stain" is all too familiar. The women nag and... NELL GLUCKMAN http://www.nysun.com/arts/one-foot-in-each-camp-for-spider-man-musical/82682/ Mon, 28 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST The existence of a "Spider-Man" musical, which is holding open auditions in Manhattan today and is scheduled to open on Broadway for the 2009-10 season, is no real surprise. Broadway has an affinity for blockbuster movie hits, such as "Legally Blonde," and many a Disney cartoon, so three "Spider-Man" movies, given their major financial success, were a likely target. What is a surprise, however, is that the "Spider-Man" musical seems to be following a different, more recent Broadway trend... ERIC GRODE http://www.nysun.com/arts/nameless-homeless-borderline-soulless-ralph/82507/ Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST One's musical preferences speak volumes about one's outlook on life. Beatles versus Stones, Copland versus Schonberg, Biggie versus Tupac, Rodgers and Hammerstein versus Rodgers and Hart: Each offers a digestible (if occasionally — and sometimes self-consciously — misleading) primer on the values and aspirations of the respondent. But what if the answer is "None of the above"? Such is the state of the nameless, homeless, and borderline soulless narrator of "First Love," the pungent 1945 Samuel... JOY GOODWIN http://www.nysun.com/arts/candlelight-and-conversation-laurie-andersons/82505/ Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Laurie Anderson calls it a "concert poem." Depending on your point of view, you might categorize it as an art-rock song cycle or a spoken-word performance set to music. But whatever you term it, Ms. Anderson's "Homeland," which opened on Tuesday in its Lincoln Center Festival incarnation, is the work of a consummate artist at the highest level of her craft. "Homeland," staged with austere elegance at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Frederick P. Rose Hall, unfolds in front of a giant scrim that is... Staff Reporter of the Sun http://www.nysun.com/arts/gavin-creel-diana-degarmo-join-godspell/82407/ Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Tony Award nominee Gavin Creel and 2004 "American Idol" finalist Diana DeGarmo will star in a revival of Stephen Schwartz's 1976 Broadway musical, "Godspell," producers Adam Epstein, Broadway Across America, Stewart Lane, and Bonnie Comley announced Tuesday. Preview performances will begin September 29 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. Daniel Goldstein ("All Shook Up") will direct the revival of the musical, whose original run ended 31 years ago. Joshua Henry, currently performing in "In the... ERIC GRODE http://www.nysun.com/arts/the-beckettian-sleeper-hit-at-lincoln-center/82242/ Mon, 21 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST "Be again, be again. (Pause.) All that old misery. (Pause.) Once wasn't enough for you." Those words from "Krapp's Last Tape," along with every other word that Samuel Beckett ever wrote for the stage, were heard at the Lincoln Center Festival in 1996, courtesy of Dublin's Gate Theatre. Once apparently wasn't enough, though, for festivalgoers, though, so the Gate has dug a little deeper into Beckett's archives and offered up some new misery — along with joy, bafflement, perversity, and general... ERIC GRODE http://www.nysun.com/arts/the-mega-meta-micro-musical/82144/ Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST If you see only one mega-meta-micro-musical this year, make it "[title of show]." A defiantly insider and yet sneakily inclusive musical about two guys who write a musical about two guys who write a musical, "[tos]," as it's known, lovingly demolishes Broadway's most durable art form. In its place is a sweet, raunchy, and just about irresistible portrait of how and why we tell stories. Hunter Bell (the book writer) and Jeff Bowen (the composer/lyricist) gave themselves three weeks to put... Staff Reporter of the Sun http://www.nysun.com/arts/second-stage-buys-a-broadway-theater/82026/ Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST The nonprofit Second Stage Theatre plans to buy and renovate the 499-seat Helen Hayes Theater on West 44th Street, the New York Times reported Wednesday. The company's artistic director, Carole Rothman, told the Times that Second Stage will raise $35 million to purchase and renovate the theater, which will probably be renamed. Second Stage, which has transferred hit productions, such as "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" and "The Little Dog Laughed," to Broadway, will also continue to... ERIC GRODE http://www.nysun.com/arts/the-strangerer-an-existential-crisis-in-coral/81954/ Wed, 16 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Amid the various tabloid flash points in the summer of 2006 — Mel Gibson's drunken tirade, Pluto's demotion to "dwarf planet" status, Zinedine Zidane's World Cup head butt — came news that Albert Camus was the subject of discussions in Crawford, Texas. President Bush's summer reading list, it was confirmed, included the 1942 existentialist classic "The Stranger," a radical departure from the Civil War histories, Greatest Generation biographies, and Tom Clancy thrillers that have traditionally... ERIC GRODE http://www.nysun.com/arts/sam-shepards-horseplay/81868/ Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST 'Some dumb show — struggling with a dead horse, mumbling to yourself in front of a gaping hole you've spent a solid day digging, rambling on to imagined faceless souls." Sam Shepard can generally be counted on to mosey around a point, letting his symbolism-drenched dollops of Western-flavored Southern Gothic fill in the gaps as he goes. But when Hobart Strother blurts out this description of "Kicking a Dead Horse," Mr. Shepard's inert and occasionally inept exercise in Beckettian absurdism, he... ERIC GRODE http://www.nysun.com/arts/baby-doom-christopher-durangs-the-marriage/81755/ Mon, 14 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST The little bundles emerge from stage right, usually (but not always) in the arms of an obstetrician. Four are wrapped in blue blankets, one in pink. One is tossed in from offstage. All five land on the ground with an amplified thud. All but one is a corpse. Christopher Durang had broached the subject of dead babies before his 1985 pitch-black comedy "The Marriage of Bette and Boo," now receiving a potent if occasionally wobbly revival at the Roundabout. The title character of his "Sister Mary... TOM TEODORCZUK http://www.nysun.com/arts/giving-a-boost-to-off-off-broadway/81757/ Mon, 14 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Just shy of its 10th year, the Midtown International Theatre Festival may be an established fixture in New York's theatrical calendar, but it is still growing in ambition. Showcasing 50 plays and musicals at seven downtown venues, the festival, which begins today, now offers a Commercial Division, designed to maximize three works' chances of enjoying a future beyond the festival. "I have often seen wonderful works [here] and elsewhere off-off-Broadway, and it frustrated me that so many of them...