JULY, 1996 ----------------------------In this issue------------------------------------------ Rubin's Corner: A Trio of Revivals (and a Diva) Head for Broadway Voices in Contemporary Theatre: Kushner & Mamet-When Playwrights get Passports CyberTheatre Monthly: Which Side of the Proscenium TRE Trivia, What's New in the Forum, Gossip du jour ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rubin's Corner by Robert Rubin Trio of Revivals Heads for Broadway A trio of special shows is headed for Broadway during the 1996-97 season. It seems that the original Broadway musical must learn to co-exist with the Broadway revival during the new theater season. Theatergoers can expect to see Chicago, Applause, and The Royal Family of Broadway during the new Broadway season Chicago, Bob Fosse's sophisticated celebration of dance, joins hands with the heart pounding music of Kander and Ebb to sweep it way down Broadway and take New York by storm!. Seductive, sexy, and stunning, Chicago will have it all. Ann Reinking choreographs this production as a tribute to her mentor and perfectly captures the flash, trash and pulse of Fosse's hall-market style. It is currently anticipate that his all-star cast will include Ann Reinking, Bebe Neuwirth of Damn Yankees, Joel Grey of Cabaret, Marcia Lewis of Grease and James Naughton of City of Angles. The show will open on October 29, 1996 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre. Fresh from the latest "Hart to Hart" movie, Stefanie Powers is set to star in a brand new production of the 1970 Tony Award-winning musical Applause. Beginning in Tampa, Fl in October 1996, Ms. Powers and the entire company of Applause will embark on a cross-country tour prior to opening on Broadway on April 28, 1997. "Applause experience smashing success the first time around garnering five Tony Awards including Best Musical. With a revised script and five new songs, this production boasts a riveting, edge of your seat story, fabulous music, spectacular dancing and a glittering physical production. The musical is based on the movie "All About Eve". The book for the show was written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. Composer Charles Strouse and lyricist Lee Adams have created the score. Gene Saks will direct and Ann Reinking will choreograph. The third member of the trio is the musical version of The Royal Family of Broadway. This classic 1927 comedy by George S. Kaufman and Edna Feber follows the fictional Cavendish family, a theatrical bunch rumored to be modeled after the Barrymores. In his first Broadway musical since the 1992 Tony Award winning Falsettos, William Finn provides a new score. Nine-time Tony Award winner Tommy tune will direct and choreograph the production which will stroll into town for previews in the Fall of 1997. The DIVA Arrives on Broadway Patti LuPone came back to Broadway on July 2nd when she took over the part of Maria Callas in Terrence McNally's Master Class. She took over the role that earned Zoe Caldwell the Tony Award in May. Ms. LuPone has a powerful, unconventional voice and an emotional style of acting. Like the diva in the play she wears her heart on her sleeve. The role in "Master Class" has completed a healing process. Ms. LuPone graduate from the Juilliard School of Drama and the John Houseman Acting Company. In 1979, she met Andrew Lloyd Webber who cast her in her first staring roll as Evita. The problem with this part was that she had to sing this difficult score eight times a week. In 1985 she went to London to play the role of Fantine in the original London production of Les Misérables. This was followed by the Lincoln Center revival of Anything Goes and a TV show called Life Goes On. It was following theses roles that her career and ego ran into a problem. She was hired by Webber to play the role of Norma Desmond in his production of Sunset Boulevard. Her contract called for her to originate the plum role in London, and play it again in New York. But, those plans ended when Webber decided that Glenn Close, who had opened in the Los Angles production, would be his New York Norma. Ms. LuPone felt that the bottom had dropped out of her career. Many of her fans felt that her emotional stability was threatened. It cost the Really Useful Company a million dollars to buy out her New York contract. Even a one woman show, which closed after 53 performances, could not restore the confidence of this actress. Now, Ms. LuPone becomes, the Divine One. And this show could not have come at a more operatic moment in her life. Although she has only signed on for a New York run, she had let it be known that it would fine with her if the producers would like her to play the role in London. Zoe Callwell is not interested in doing the show again. It would mean so much to Ms. LuPone, if she could one again be a diva in New York and London. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Voices in Contemporary Theatre Mamet & Kushner: When Playwrights get Passports Check out the Paris theatre listings sometime (there's a nice one online called Pariscope at www.pariscope.fr/Pariscope/Sortir/Theatre.E.html ) and you'll notice a lot of familiar names - not familiar like Edmond Rostand and Molière but like Tony Kushner and David Mamet. It makes sense - producing a new show is just as expensive in Paris as in London or New York, and the home-grown French theatre has been mired in an artistic lull for some years now. A proven foreign play complete with awards and reputation sounds like an appealing and profitable answer - There's just one catch: they still speak French in Paris. And the reason many of today's hot playwrights are hot because they're using language in fresh and suprising ways. David Mamet, of course, needs no introduction: He is famous (or infamous) as the author of Glengarry Glen Ross, official Broadway record-setter for highest usage of the F-word, and Sexual Perversity in Chicago, unofficial record-setter for play most-protested by people who haven't seen it because of its title. The cognoscenti will quickly mention the viciously on-target saga of hypocracy and deal-making in hollywood: Speed the Plow, and the screenplay of the Paul Newman film The Verdict, and the controversial inkblot of sexual harassment issues, Oleanna . Mamet's special gift is establishing character within a few lines of dialogue - when his characters swear they do not do so for shock value, they swear because of who they are. The Glengarry characters use words as weapons, and they are engaged in a brutal verbal slugfest throughout the play - in English. In French it declines into what France Today called a "Pussycat squabble...with an unnatural French polish". Opinions are more varied on Tony Kushner, who's "gay fantasia on national themes" Angels in America required an encyclopedic program glossary for its French production, clueing its foreign audience in on references from Jeanne Kirkpatrick to Ed Meese. The compilation of this cultural database did not prevent the production from clothing the conservative Mormon Joe in a Parisian silk suit. Some found the translation to be roughed-up to an extent that it created a unique Franco-American tone that suited the piece, others felt it did not Europeanize the script enough - citing the topical references and political jokes; or else it went too far - citing the suit, the lack of Kushner Kitsch or the production staged in an Avignon nunnery which "owed more to Fra Angelico". It's unfair to blame the translators alone in these instances - in both cases the French text was faithful in the essentials - they simply missed nuances of tone that required more literary and dramatic analysis. More at fault are those who choose the scripts for transplant in the first place without examining the why behind their success in this country. One glance at a Woody Allen movie or play makes it clear that there culturally-specific content is far too intrinsic to the story to make a transplant worthwhile - one could present the audience with a doctoral dissertation on the psycho-social mores of Allen's New York to help them "get it", but by that time it wouldn't be any fun. But an examination of Ray Cooney's Out of Order reveals equally quickly that it could transplant - the farcical aspects of a politician hiding his marital infidelities is not at all dependent on Cooney's puns & word-play- and the show's translation as Panique au Plaza works precisely because it substitutes French jokes for the word-play that would not literally translate. While care certainly adapting a foreign play - into English as well as out of it, the process can be successful if the producer or producing company stops to understand why the original succeeded - and makes sure the translator is informed as well. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ CyberTheatre Monthly Which Side of the Proscenium ? As web sites for theatre begin to proliferate, users are becoming more and more confused as to where to go to find the information that they are looking for. The key question to ask, though, is on which side of the 'proscenium arch' you are. Are you primarily a theatre-goer or a theatre-doer? For those on the audience side of the arch, there are actually more resources than for those on or working to help support those on the stage. Not only can you find the marketing and ticket sales information for the larger of your regional theaters, but you can read about your favorite stars and shows, find upcoming production listings and purchase paraphernalia. Sites like the Stephen Sondheim Stage for example, offer biographical and other information about well known writers and performers. These sites, and the SSS in particular, offer outstanding information, sound bytes, clips from shows, discussion, interviews, online forums and more. Similar sites include the Really Useful Company Presents Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber. Other sites, such as Playbill Online, offer listings of theatres, academic programs and bios of well-known performers, as well as providing the ability to purchase tickets online. In particular, Playbill allows the purchasing of New York theatre tickets by providing a web interface to the TeleCharge ticketing system. If you are on the other side of the proscenium, however, there is less out there for you right now. Sites like Theatre Central provide a hub and starting point for finding other sites. There are also several theatre journals on the web, but most of them are only sporadically updated. But don't worry! New sites are on the rise. Sites like Peekaboo, a network for music and theater, which is currently in previews, are currently being created by many industry players. Theatre Communications Group should be launching their site shortly, and other major theatre organizations are covertly on the move as well. These sites will have everything from searchable databases of industry information to online real-time and archived chats with integrated multimedia. Give the web a few months and there will be as much out there for the industry as there is for the fans today. Web sites mentioned in this edition of CyberTheatre Monthly: http://www.sondheim.com/ http://www.realyuseful.com/ http://playbill.com/ http://theatre-central.com/ http://www.i-see-you.com/ (in preview) http://www.tcg.org/ (launching soon) --- Andrew Q. Kraft is the creator and maintainer of Theatre Central. He is also the Vice President of Operations for Peekaboo. Andrew was one of the first theater majors at MIT, where he specialized in stage direction and the application of Internet technology to the arts. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ TRE Trivia: Which came first, the movie or the stage play/musical? * Singin' in the Rain * Educating Rita * Inherit the Wind * Grand Hotel * The Heiress * Victor Victoria * Deathtrap * The Phantom of the Opera * Sleuth * A Streetcar Named Desire * Lost in Yonkers * La Cage Aux Folles Answers to last month's trivia: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum Gigi The Phantom of the Opera Threepenny Opera Starlight Express. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ W H A T ' S N E W in the Theatre & Performance Forum Spotlight on THEATRE TRAVEL Now you can talk about all the regional theatre, national tours, dance and opera in town and even visitor-focused websites in one location. 2-4 cities spotlighted each month. If we haven't gotten to your favorite destination yet, ask, or better still - get us started by posting about a show or after-the-show nightspot. The JOBS BANK Returns Link to audition listings, and other valuable Job Search resources, read or post leads on non-acting jobs, meet other Pros, and upload a resume and headshot to the talentbase. Back Issues Remember, you can always download back issues of TRE from the Forum Library. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Gossip du jour... Cameron Mackintosh is planning a stage musical of Mary Poppins to star Fiona Shaw. Hot on the heels of the Ragtime adaptation, more literary classics will be taking to the stage - next on the horizon are Jane Eyre, Tom Sawyer. Thornton Wilder's Skin of Our Teeth, already a classic play, has been made into a new Kander & Ebb musical. The workshop performance starred James Naughton and Bernadette Peters, but opinions are split as to whether the show will move forward with this cast. With the London Martin Guerre generating mixed reviews, while the Chicago House of Martin Guerre (by Arden and Anna Theresa Cascio, with score by Leslie Arden) enjoys accolades, commercial producers may be re-thinking which version is a New York contender. The New York Post is having a field day dropping numbers about a purported movie deal for Rent, but there's no confirmation to be had anywhere. Bob Fosse, The Dancin' Man, a new Fosse revue with stronger emphasis on choreography than the earlier hit Dancin', is in production in Toronto under the artistic direction of Fosse's ex, Gwen Vernon. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright 1996, Mersinger Theatrical Services