Now is the Time to Get in Line!
Shakespeare in the Park's Twelfth Night is now underway—through July 12! So prepare for miserable line experiences unless you want to pay for these free performances featuring Anne Hathaway as well as Michael Cumpsty, Raúl Esparza, Audra McDonald, David Pittu, Jay O. Sanders, Stark Sands, and Julie White.
Once again it's possible to get in a virtual line, so good luck with that! While you're waiting, here's a nostalgic look back at the horrors of the line for Hair.
UPDATE According to a security guy, those who got in line by 10:30 this morning were able to at least score vouchers for tonight's performance. I suspect the rate of line growth after that time was relatively slow, because I got there at 12:53 pm and I came fairly close to getting a voucher even though I had joined the line more than 9 lamp posts from the pedestrian crosswalk near the box office. But for those of you who care: I came home to find that the virtual line had come through for me! I just hope it doesn't rain on the show tonight....
UPDATE The stand-by line looked promising around 6:15 pm. At that time it extended back for two lamp posts.
Showing posts with label Michael Cumpsty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Michael Cumpsty. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
Anne Hathaway News!
BAT favorite Anne Hathaway is to perform Viola this summer in Shakespeare in the Park's Twelfth Night. Be prepared to camp out and get into fistfights over your place in the line: Her co-stars will include Audra McDonald, Raúl Esparza, and Michael Cumpsty, as reported in Wednesday's New York Times. So get ready for a lot of references to Mrs. Shakespeare.
But that's not all! Hathaway is now linked to Get Happy, a Weinstein Company stage and screen project based on a biography of Judy Garland.
Hathaway has great potential as a performer in musicals. Enticing rumors persist of Hathaway performing in a revival of Promises, Promises.
Lately she's been involved in Tim Burton's promising Alice in Wonderland.
Source (2:18)
But that's not all! Hathaway is now linked to Get Happy, a Weinstein Company stage and screen project based on a biography of Judy Garland.
Hathaway has great potential as a performer in musicals. Enticing rumors persist of Hathaway performing in a revival of Promises, Promises.
Lately she's been involved in Tim Burton's promising Alice in Wonderland.
Source (2:18)
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Encores: On the Town
Is On the Town the best Encores! revival or one of the very best? I've gotten word that some people are seriously weighing that question. Having attended Thursday night's performance, I don't count myself among them even though I still think the production is worth attending. (With respect to a longstanding BAT tendency to blog tardily, today is the last performance.)
For me the main (but not the only) reason to see this revival is...historical. From the opening performance of The Star-Spangled Banner to the subsequent delivery of Leonard Bernstein's full score, here's a chance to get a good feel for this 1944 musical made in collaboration with choreographer Jerome Robbins and writers/performers/comedians Betty Comden and Adolph Green. Together with director George Abbott and designer/co-producer Oliver Smith, they put On the Town on Broadway together within a year of the work that inspired it, the Robbins-Bernstein ballet Fancy Free.
I concur with Encores! artistic director Jack Viertel's assessment of the musical in his program notes:
That might help to explain why some of the show's relatively minor parts were among its most successful. Andrea Martin is a hit as the drunken music teacher Maude P. Dilly and Geno Segers made a strong impression singing as the First Workman, but my very favorite performer of the evening was Michael Cumpsty as the "understanding" fiance of the nymphomaniac Claire de Loone. It was also good to see Julyana Soelistyo, a BAT favorite from The Glorious Ones, in the bit part of Lucy Schmeeler. Leslie Kritzer and Jennifer Laura Thompson offered bright moments as Hildy Esterhazy and Claire (respectively), and Justin Bohon, Christian Borle, and Tony Yazbek were good as the three sailors (their five-person dance in "Ya Got Me" was a highlight), but costuming and direction might have helped distinguish the male leads, broadcasting their characters to the audience more.
As for the Bernstein score, I developed a new appreciation of his influences at this early stage of his career. There are strong strains of modernism (European as well as American) and jazz and Cuban music that seemed to stick with the composer throughout his career, but there are also some old-fashioned, much more corny, "lyrical" passages that he (along with Broadway composers in general) discarded over the ensuing years. I also realized how Bernstein & Company seemed to seize upon developments associated with the big wartime hit Oklahoma! (1943), such as the incorporation of dance sequences.
The unusual staging of this production removes sightlines on the upper levels of the theater, which led City Center to almost randomly move some subscribers from central seats in the rear gallery to seats on the sides of the problematic rear mezzanine section. The view from a side of the rear mezzanine wasn't blocked by other audience members (as can be the case with the middle of the rear mezzanine), but there was still only a partial view of the stage.
Tip: To see a kind of movie "sequel" to On the Town, try the edgy 1955 musical It's Always Fair Weather—especially if it's in a movie theater or you can see it on a wide TV screen. Come to think of it, I'd like to see a stage version of this—perhaps it could alternate with a production of On the Town!
Source (3:20)
For me the main (but not the only) reason to see this revival is...historical. From the opening performance of The Star-Spangled Banner to the subsequent delivery of Leonard Bernstein's full score, here's a chance to get a good feel for this 1944 musical made in collaboration with choreographer Jerome Robbins and writers/performers/comedians Betty Comden and Adolph Green. Together with director George Abbott and designer/co-producer Oliver Smith, they put On the Town on Broadway together within a year of the work that inspired it, the Robbins-Bernstein ballet Fancy Free.
I concur with Encores! artistic director Jack Viertel's assessment of the musical in his program notes:
On the Town, for all of its intricate music and dance sequences, operates with what now might be considered reckless abandon. Its plot, concocted by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, is a series of sketches, its characters are eccentric types, and its treatment of shore leave for three sailors destined to go off to war is casual and light...."Indeed, the work strikes me more than ever as a kind of ambitious, plot-linked, burlesque revue with blackout sketches, dance acts, and comedic caricatures—just the kind of thing you might expect from Comden and Green, who at the time were attracting audiences with their musical improvisations (accompanied by Bernstein on piano) in Greenwich Village. This production moves in that direction, but I think it could have gone even farther with good results.
That might help to explain why some of the show's relatively minor parts were among its most successful. Andrea Martin is a hit as the drunken music teacher Maude P. Dilly and Geno Segers made a strong impression singing as the First Workman, but my very favorite performer of the evening was Michael Cumpsty as the "understanding" fiance of the nymphomaniac Claire de Loone. It was also good to see Julyana Soelistyo, a BAT favorite from The Glorious Ones, in the bit part of Lucy Schmeeler. Leslie Kritzer and Jennifer Laura Thompson offered bright moments as Hildy Esterhazy and Claire (respectively), and Justin Bohon, Christian Borle, and Tony Yazbek were good as the three sailors (their five-person dance in "Ya Got Me" was a highlight), but costuming and direction might have helped distinguish the male leads, broadcasting their characters to the audience more.
As for the Bernstein score, I developed a new appreciation of his influences at this early stage of his career. There are strong strains of modernism (European as well as American) and jazz and Cuban music that seemed to stick with the composer throughout his career, but there are also some old-fashioned, much more corny, "lyrical" passages that he (along with Broadway composers in general) discarded over the ensuing years. I also realized how Bernstein & Company seemed to seize upon developments associated with the big wartime hit Oklahoma! (1943), such as the incorporation of dance sequences.
The unusual staging of this production removes sightlines on the upper levels of the theater, which led City Center to almost randomly move some subscribers from central seats in the rear gallery to seats on the sides of the problematic rear mezzanine section. The view from a side of the rear mezzanine wasn't blocked by other audience members (as can be the case with the middle of the rear mezzanine), but there was still only a partial view of the stage.
Tip: To see a kind of movie "sequel" to On the Town, try the edgy 1955 musical It's Always Fair Weather—especially if it's in a movie theater or you can see it on a wide TV screen. Come to think of it, I'd like to see a stage version of this—perhaps it could alternate with a production of On the Town!
Source (3:20)
Friday, June 20, 2008
SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE
I was rooting for Broadway veteran (and all-around lighting design big shot) Ken Billington and Sunday in the Park with George to receive a Tony for Lighting Design because the lighting is so dang impressive, eliciting gasps from audience members from the very beginning. Not merely a technical feat, the creative lighting is like a character in the musical—very fitting, considering the extreme importance of light for the artists (George Seurat included) who are the musical's central characters.
As you might already know, Sunday in the Park will end its run on June 29, 2008. The production itself is very good, marrying Stephen Sondheim's trademark intelligence to strong performances from the likes of Daniel Evans, Jenna Russell, and good ol' Michael Cumpsty.
Discounted tickets (including rush tickets) have been available for a while, but go for centrally located seats and certainly be wary of upper-level seats on audience right. The sound of the musicians, who sit in a balcony on audience right, can be overwhelming in that zone, so in this case (having learned from Myra's advice) I'd recommend seats toward the back, not the front, of the section.
As of yesterday on Talkin' Broadway, the General Rush ticket policy is as follows:
Source (3:45)
I was rooting for Broadway veteran (and all-around lighting design big shot) Ken Billington and Sunday in the Park with George to receive a Tony for Lighting Design because the lighting is so dang impressive, eliciting gasps from audience members from the very beginning. Not merely a technical feat, the creative lighting is like a character in the musical—very fitting, considering the extreme importance of light for the artists (George Seurat included) who are the musical's central characters.
As you might already know, Sunday in the Park will end its run on June 29, 2008. The production itself is very good, marrying Stephen Sondheim's trademark intelligence to strong performances from the likes of Daniel Evans, Jenna Russell, and good ol' Michael Cumpsty.
Discounted tickets (including rush tickets) have been available for a while, but go for centrally located seats and certainly be wary of upper-level seats on audience right. The sound of the musicians, who sit in a balcony on audience right, can be overwhelming in that zone, so in this case (having learned from Myra's advice) I'd recommend seats toward the back, not the front, of the section.
As of yesterday on Talkin' Broadway, the General Rush ticket policy is as follows:
Subject to availability, a limited number of tickets are sold at the box office, when it opens, on the day of the performance. The tickets are $26.25 each and 2 tickets are sold per person. The seats are usually located in the rear mezzanine.
Source (3:45)
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
PICKET TICKETS: RICHARD III
I saw Al Pacino's Looking for Richard at Worldwide Plaza some time ago (you know, when it was the cheap movie house), but I only (finally!) saw Shakepeare's Richard III this month, in the briskly-paced Classic Stage Company production starring (and co-directed by) Michael Cumpsty (most familiar to me from his roles in Copenhagen and Democracy).
I thought the play started on a shaky footing, and I can certainly imagine productions more fully fleshed, both in terms of staging and character development, but the quality of the acting and the strong, centuries-old story won me over by the end. As noted by Charles Isherwood in The New York Times, there's an especially good scene between Cumpsty and Maria Tucci, who plays Queen Elizabeth. Much of the time the play's characters seemed almost like cannon fodder biding their time until Richard doles out their fates (Henry Miller once imagined a Hamlet production along those lines) but in this particular scene there the interplay of their personalities generated genuine and eerie electricity.
I saw Al Pacino's Looking for Richard at Worldwide Plaza some time ago (you know, when it was the cheap movie house), but I only (finally!) saw Shakepeare's Richard III this month, in the briskly-paced Classic Stage Company production starring (and co-directed by) Michael Cumpsty (most familiar to me from his roles in Copenhagen and Democracy).
I thought the play started on a shaky footing, and I can certainly imagine productions more fully fleshed, both in terms of staging and character development, but the quality of the acting and the strong, centuries-old story won me over by the end. As noted by Charles Isherwood in The New York Times, there's an especially good scene between Cumpsty and Maria Tucci, who plays Queen Elizabeth. Much of the time the play's characters seemed almost like cannon fodder biding their time until Richard doles out their fates (Henry Miller once imagined a Hamlet production along those lines) but in this particular scene there the interplay of their personalities generated genuine and eerie electricity.
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