Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Theater’ Category

Charles Dickens–A Christmas Carol (prompt copy) (1853) [podcast read by Neil Gaiman]

Posted in 19th Century, A Christmas Carol, Audiobooks, Charity, Charles Dickens, Christmas, Death, Dreams, Ghosts, Molly Oldfield, Neil Gaiman, Neil Gaiman, Patrick Stewart, Podcast, Short Books, The NYPL Podcast on December 20, 2015| Leave a Comment »

[LISTENED TO: December 18, 2015] A Christmas Carol

gaimanchristmasJust like two years ago when we saw A Christmas Carol, a few days later I listened to the audio book.  This year, I found a different reading of it by Neil Gaiman.  This one comes from the New York Public Library podcast, and is available on Soundcloud and iTunes.

What makes this reading unique (and now different from Patrick Stewart’s awesome reading and from the McCarter production (which is different from the book as well) is that the version Gaiman read was hand-edited by Dickens for his own performances.  What?

Yes, evidently Dickens performed this story live a few times.  As the NYPL site explians:

Charles Dickens could not only write a crackling good story, he could perform it. And so in 1853, he took his Christmas Carol show on the road, first in Britain and then in the United States. Audiences loved it. Dickens didn’t simply read from his book. He transformed it into a stageworthy script—cutting, pasting together pages of excised passages, adding stage cues for himself, rewriting, then cutting some more…. Indeed, there is only one such copy of A Christmas Carol, created by Dickens himself, and The New York Public Library has it.

Gaiman read the “as the great author intended, following edits and prompts Dickens wrote in his own hand for his unique readings 150 years ago.” (more…)

Read Full Post »

A Christmas Carol [McCarter Theatre, Princeton, NJ, December 10, 2015]

Posted in 19th Century, A Christmas Carol, Acting, C., Charity, Charles Dickens, Funny (ha ha), Ghosts, Greed, McCarter Theatre, Play (Drama), Princeton, NJ, Short Story on December 11, 2015| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: December 10, 2015] A Christmas Carol

xmasLast night we attended McCarter’s production of A Christmas Carol for the second time (first time was two years ago).  We went specifically because it is the last time that they are doing this particular performance of the show (it has been the same for 16 years).  Next year they will be doing something entirely new.

We were pretty staggered by the pricing (last time we got super cheap seats but they were pretty far into the corner which ruined some of the magic).  But there was a Black Friday special and we had awesome seats (the woman next to me was mad that we paid literally half her price, muhahaha, Scrooge alert!).  But wow, what seats!

The show felt more magical and more moving than last time (I was a blubbery mess by the end).  It was awesome to see that the entire set was crooked (a great, disconcerting effect).  And to really see the sets come forward and the spirit of Christmas future as soon as he came out, those were very cool moments.  T. asked if we can sit in the front row next year.

2015-12-10 20.47.46It was also interesting to see who was different in the cast this year.  I recognized a few returning members–James Ludwig is awesome as Fred, Scrooge (Graeme Malcolm) was the same (and was awesome–I loved the way he did little things, like kick a rug into place, which were “accidents” but were totally in character).  And there were clearly some new faces and new actors.   You can see the whole cast at the McCarter site.

And I just read (in New Jersey Stage) that apparently many in the cast are quite well known:

Boasting a gigantic list of Broadway, regional and international credits, the cast of A Christmas Carol includes Leah Anderson, Allison Buck, Billy Finn, Kathy Fitzgerald, Nike Kadri, David Kenner, January LaVoy, James Ludwig, Bradley Mott, Anne O’Sullivan, Sari Alexander, Gabriel Bernal, Andrew Clark, Jean G. Floradin, Heather Gault, Michael John Hughes, Sophie Lee Morris, Gregory Omar Osborne, Patrick Roberts, Daniella Tamasi, and Arielle Taylor.

I just re-read what I had written two years ago and found that I felt exactly the same.  So for the rest of the post I am going to keep everything the same (with a few updates).

It’s like a Christmas tradition. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Zoyka’s Apartment (Berlind Theatre, Princeton, NJ, November 19, 2015)

Posted in Beer, Berlind Theatre, Boris A. Morozov, Bronson Pinchot, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Gender, Play (Drama), Princeton, NJ, Revenge, Russia, Sex, Sexism, Surreal, Unfinished, Zoyka's Apartment on November 20, 2015| 1 Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 19, 2015] Zoyka’s Apartment

zoykaI was offered free tickets to this show.  I read a brief review, saw the word “farce” and decided it would be fun to go to it.

This play was written by Mikhail Bulgakov, an author I’ve heard of but know little about.  Turns out that all of his plays were banned by the Soviet government.  Including this one, even though it was not an anti-Soviet play.  After the banishment, he wrote to Stalin requesting permission to emigrate, but was denied.

As this play opens, there is a lectern at which an announcer reads a 1990 review of the play by Frank Rich in the New York Times (which you can read here).  Perhaps the most fascinating thing that I heard from the review was this:

Boris A. Morozov’s production of Mikhail Bulgakov’s ”Zoya’s Apartment” at the Circle in the Square. Mr. Morozov is resident director of the Maly Theater in Moscow. His New York cast is headed by such actors as Bronson Pinchot.

Since Pinchot is my new favorite audio book reader, I immediately paid attention. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Jon Haynes and David Woods–The Eradication of Schizophrenia in Western Lapland (2014)

Posted in Bill Hicks, Built to Spill, David Woods, Jon Haynes, Noises Off, Play (Drama), Psychiatry, Ridiculusmus, Violence on October 13, 2015| Leave a Comment »

SschizoOUNDTRACK: BUILT TO SPILL-There is No Enemy (2009).

330px-There_is_No_Enemy It took only three years for Built to Spill to release this, their seventh full length.  I have mentioned this disc before, and I loved it then.  And I love it now.

“Aisle 13” starts with some echoed sounds and then big echoing chords which quickly resolve into a great BtS song.  And after the lengthy songs of the previous records, it’s amazing to hear a song (or several) tha are under 4 minutes.  The album is also full of some great (if odd) lyrics like: “one day I’ll come home to find you covered with ants because you are so sweet.”

“Hindsight” has two separate great riffs in it (and the great line: “is that grass only greener because its fake”).   “Nowhere Lullaby” is a slow ballad with a great vocal line (and strings).  “Good Ol’ Boredom” is almost a dance song—a fast drums beat and echoey guitar intro (although there’s a signature BtS guitar riff over the top).   I like the slide guitar solo in the middle and the lengthy jam section which trades off guitar solos (this song lasts 6 and a half minutes). “Life’s A Dream” slows things down and even includes a section of “ahhh”s and “la la las” in beautiful harmony.  And then there’s a surprise inclusion of horns.

“Oh Yeah” opens with a slow picked guitar and slowly builds up with more instrumentation, although it never really gets any faster.  But it has some great lyrics:

And if god does exist
I am sure he will forgive
Me for doubting for he’d see
How unlikely he himself seems

“Pat” zooms out off the gates with one of the fastest, most punk songs they’ve ever done (live it was even more so). And at under 3 minutes it’s a nice blast of excitement.  “Done” is a slow song with one of my favorite end soloing sections—tons of echo (once again, this was amazing live).  It seems like it should end the disc, but “Planting Seeds” comes out of that song with a great catchy riff.  And as the bridge comes in there’ an even more catchy riff.  It also has some great lyrics:

when bullies grow up they get meaner
yeah they really get it down

they think that they get it but they always get it wrong
they’ll play your favorite song
just to sell shit to you

I’ve heard that they’ll sell anything and I think they might
I think Bill Hicks was right
about what they should do

and just because you love something doesn’t mean it’s yours to buy
been selling it so long that no one even knows the reason why
you’ve been messing with our minds
gettin’ rich wasting our time

“Things Fall Apart” slows things down and even adds a trumpet solo before unleashing a lengthy guitar solo.  “Tomorrow” ends the disc slowly with keyboards. It seems like a downer ending but this 7 minute song has a lot packed into it. After about 90 second the guitars kick in and the song builds.   At 2 and a half minutes the song takes a sharp turn into a slower, darker section with a great solo. It jumps back and forth and ends with a lengthy solo that fades just as some interesting feedback squalls start to build.

This continues the progression of great Built to Spill records.

[READ: August 30, 2015] The Eradication of Schizophrenia in Western Lapland

This play was created by a theater group called Ridiculusmus, who I know nothing about.

The premise of this play was quite interesting.

Audience members are seated on either side of a wall.  Act One and Act Three are performed simultaneously on either side of the wall.  So you can watch Act One and hear Act 3 or vice versa.  The Acts overlap and are connected, so it’s not like a nonsensical experience.

Act One is between a mum and her two sons, while Act three is is between a psychiatrist and one of the sons, set some years in the future.  That’s pretty interesting.

But what happens is that after you see Act One/Three, the audience switches sides and you listen to it all over again, this time seeing what you missed last time.  But unlike a farce like Noises Off, where what you see is all the stuff that’s going on behind the scenes, you can hear everything that is being said behind the wall, I don’t think there’s anything new visually that will change the fact that you have just heard all of this dialogue a few minutes ago. It feels terribly redundant to me.

After both of these performances, act two is staged. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Camelot (State Theatre, New Brunswick, NJ, May 3, 2015)

Posted in Camelot, King Arthur, New Brunswick, NJ, Set in New Jersey!, State Theatre, Theater on May 4, 2015| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 3, 2015] Camelot

camelot2I have been raving about every show that I’ve seen lately, so it’s really about time that I wasn’t head over heels by something, right?

Sarah and her mom love Camelot, the musical–Sarah grew up listening to it.  When I saw that it was being staged at The State Theater, it seemed like a great Mother’s Day present for both of them.  Well, a last minute change of plans meant that Sarah’s mom couldn’t go. So we took Tabitha, who enjoyed Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

I don’t know the Camelot story at all, in fact, despite my (what I assumed was good) knowledge of King Arthur, I was not aware of the love triangle with him Guinevere and Lancelot (I guess I just liked the fighting). I also had no idea that Arthur was trying to set up a law by court rather than a law by might.  Which is pretty interesting.  Sarah said I should read The Once and Future King which the musical is mostly based on.

The set was fascinating.  Gigantic metal “waves” on the right side that represented a forest and/or a tree and/or other things dominated the scene.  The left side of the stage had various set that dropped from the rafters–a kingly backdrop, a bed, and other items. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Popovich Comedy Pet Theatre (RVCC Arts, Branchburg, NJ, April 18, 2015)

Posted in Acrobats, Animals, Branchburg, NJ, C., Cats, Dogs, Funny (ha ha), Popovich Comedy Pet Theatre, RVCC Arts, Set in New Jersey!, T. on April 21, 2015| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: April 18, 2015] Popovich Comedy Pet Theatre

popvichThis show was playing at McCarter Theater and at RVCC. It was at least $10/ticket cheaper at RVCC, so good for us!  The RVCC show was a general admission seating situation, so we got there much earlier than we normally do for shows.  Of course, so did everyone else and we wound up sitting pretty far back (I was glad that people were actually coming to an RVCC show!).

But that was okay, because we could still see all of the action and all of the pets perfectly.

Some fascinating things to note about Popovich before I even get to the show.  Despite the name, the show is not only pets.  In fact there are a lot of human clowns and acrobats and performers on stage as well.  Evidently Popovich is quite well-known and has appeared on many TV shows.  And the whole show is told as a vague kind of story.

pop tvWhen we arrived, one of the troupe was standing in the aisle with a cat on his shoulder.  T. got to pet the cat, which was sweet.  Then a man in a cool green outfit (a big flared jumpsuit) with some white face on came down the aisle eating popcorn.  He played some jokes on people in the audience and then climbed on stage.  He was a kind of warm up, doing cheesy jokes (the fingers transferring from one hand to the other joke), and then doing a bit with a balloon that he could not move.  He was a really convincing mime and that bit was great, especially when the other guy came out and tried to pull the balloon away and couldn’t.  It was all simple but when it’s done well, it’s really magical. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Spencers: Theatre of Illusion (RVCC Arts, Branchburg, NJ, March 28, 2015)

Posted in Branchburg, NJ, C., Illusion, Muse, RVCC Arts, Spencers: Theatre of Illusion, T., The Lost Boys on March 29, 2015| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: March 28, 2015] Spencers: Theatre of Illusion

Back in October of 2012 we saw Spencers: Theatre of Illusion.  I saw that they were coming around again, and even though we had seen the show, I remember enjoying it and thought it would be fun to see them again since the kids were a little older now.

I also assumed that the show would be different.  I mean, it had been nearly 2 and a half years.  Sadly, many of the magic acts were exactly the same.  But on the positive side, they were still pretty awesome, and there was a bunch of new material as well.

In my previous write up I said that the pacing was too slow.  I’m sure it wasn’t faster but it didn’t feel slow this time.  That may have been the audience–the room was full of super excited kids and there was plenty of laughter and applause–it worked very well with his leisurely storytelling style (I may have also been anxious last time since our kids were younger and I wanted them to be excited all the way though).

He started off , like last time, by doing a seemingly easy but very cool illusion of tearing today’s newspaper in half. He made some jokes about the paper and then proceeded to rip it up and then reunite the whole page.   It’s pretty cool. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery (McCarter Theatre, Princeton NJ, March 13, 2015)

Posted in Baskerville, Funny (ha ha), Gregory Wooddell, Jane Pfitsch, Ken Ludwig, Lucas Hall, McCarter Theatre, Meta, Michael Glenn, Princeton, NJ, Set in New Jersey!, Sherlock Holmes, Stanley Bahorek on March 14, 2015| Leave a Comment »

bask[ATTENDED: March 13, 2015] Baskerville

We saw ads for this show some time last year during a Princeton street festival.  The folks at the McCarter booth really talked up the show and said our kids would love it.  In recent days the play has been getting rave reviews.  Needless to say we were pretty excited to go.

Well, the play was awesome.  I’m not sure that the kids loved it. Clark said he liked parts of it but found the mystery a bit hard to follow. And Tabby was kind of scared by the dark scenes and loud noises.  But everyone seemed to have a good time–even if it did end at 10PM.

And the play it self was really fantastic.  Going in we knew literally nothing about the play except that it had something to do with Sherlock Holmes.  I assumed it was the Hound of the Baskervilles story but I wasn’t sure if there was a twist on it at all.

And I certainly didn’t know anything about the way the play was structured.  In the brief write up in the booklet it seemed like the story might have a meta- component. And it did, but not in the way I expected.  For the meta component was that they really played up the constraints of the theater and wound up making jokes about the stage and how actors often play multiple roles.  For example, they said things like “that rabbit” and then a stuffed and mounted rabbit would wheel across the stage.  Or that he needed his hat and a trap door would open and a hat would be thrown to him.  And the hilarious way the flowers arrived was outstanding–I’m still not exactly sure how they did it. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Cirque Alfonse: Timber! (RVCC Arts, Branchburg NJ, March 6, 2015)

Posted in Acrobats, Branchburg, NJ, C., Cirque Alfonse, Peking Acrobats, RVCC Arts, Set in New Jersey!, T. on March 7, 2015| Leave a Comment »

cirque_alfonse_timber_2[ATTENDED: March 6, 2015] Timber!

Anyone who reads this blog knows that we love our cirques.   From China, from Montreal, from wherever.  So if  you tell me that you’ve invited circus performers who are doing lumberjack skills, you know I’m there.

One thing I loved about this show was just how different it was from most of the shows we’ve seen.  Unlike the Chinese acrobats who are dainty or sleek and strong, or some of the other Montreal cirques which are polished, these acrobats, the troupe of Cirque Alfonse, were big burly bearded men in flannel shirts and long johns and a couple of women (one very strong and the other a lithe dancer). They spoke and sang only in French and created a set that was very much reminiscent of a Québécois logging camp.

timber4One of the best things about the show was the live music.  Most of the acrobats also played instruments–guitars, banjos, a saw, and various percussion.  There was something about the performers being up there that made the show more exciting–especially later in the show when the guy busted out an electric guitar which seemed to update the danger level somewhat.  I do admit that since I don’t know French at all, I have no idea what the songs (some had words) were about.

There was much humor (an outhouse as part of the set) and of course, plenty of visual humor–usually surrounding how they set up their tricks. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (State Theatre, New Brunswick, NJ, December 27, 2014)

Posted in Bible, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, New Brunswick, NJ, Religion, Set in New Jersey!, State Theatre, Theater on December 27, 2014| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: December 27, 2014] Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

josephSarah and her mom love Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.  So when I saw that it was playing at the State Theatre for $7/ticket (as part of the Plays in the Park program) I decided to get tickets for all five of us (why not subject the kids to musicals as well?).

I knew the music a little from Sarah playing it, but I didn’t know it that well.  I always thought it was very funny that someone made a huge production out of what is a rather short Bible story.  But it’s a good story and one that I remember from my religion classes, so it seemed like a good afternoon of fun.

And it was.  This was the company’s 20th production of the show (who knew?).  And many of the people had been with the show for many many years.  So it was like a well-oiled machine.

The only thing that we all agreed we didn’t like so much was Joseph (Michael Ferlita). Not that he was bad, but that he was a bass.  And Joseph isn’t a bass.  It was weird, and at times hard to understand–it came across as more operatic than musical-y.  The rest of the performers were very good (as was the orchestra).  I was also delighted that the many of the men were kind of chunky–something you don’t often see on stage. (more…)

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »