Arts Blog

That's Broadway: money makes the world go around

2009-11-20T19:35:55Z

It's called show business. Business is right there in the name. We can fool ourselves into thinking theatre and Broadway are about art. But they're just not. The bottom line...ticket sales...revenues...recoupment - those are the only things theatre is about these days. Strike that - the only things theatre may have ever been about.

The New York Times reported on Wednesday that The Shubert Organization, which owns 17 of the 40 Broadway theaters, signed a three-year development deal with two producers, Frederick Zollo and Robert Cole.

While the deal itself is probably smart business in our current economy, one quote in the article sounds a death knell for any hope of bravery, risk or spontaneity on Broadway.

Patrick Healy wrote that "some industry observers, citing the laws of supply and demand, said that more competition for theater space would provide only more incentive for producers to create plays and musicals that held the widest appeal, perhaps by casting ever more star actors. Demonstrating that a show could be a commercial hit is essential to securing a [theater]."

]]> So there you have it: big stars, popular subject matter and guarantees of recouping investments are now officially on the table with this deal. This has been going on for years (probably decades, if I'm realistic) behind closed doors. But now this kind of business savvy so eagerly embraced by television and movies has just been inked out in a contract for Broadway.

I know that my indignation here is naive and old-fashioned. I am well aware of my innocence and ignorance about how a business must function in the economic climate our country is facing. It still stinks.

Get ready for more shows like Shrek the Musical, Legally Blonde: the Musical, The Little Mermaid, and Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark. Say hello to Miley Cyrus in a revival of Annie Get Your Gun, the Jonas Brothers starring in On the Town and the cast of "Gossip Girl" in Les Liasions Dangereuses, all in Shubert houses. At least until Jujamcyn and the Nederlanders join in. That's Broadway for you.

A Midsummer Night's Housewarming that heals old wounds

2009-11-20T15:54:20Z

I am still smiling at the magical A Midsummer Night's Dream at the new Wyly Theatre. I caught the Dallas Theater Center show last night with my husband and two of my teens and I was moved on so many levels. I was struck by all the teens and kids in the seats, sitting there with their families just like mine, and enjoying themselves.

I reveled in the joy of the production with young actors from SMU and Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts performing spiritedly alongside seasoned company professionals like the marvelous Chamblee Ferguson as the clowning Bottom. I loved all those wacky moments when the fairies fought each other with Nerf guns, water pistols and inflatable weapons. I was stirred by the way the cast physically engaged the audience -- not just running through the seats, but addressing them directly, putting arms around them, encouraging them to draw with chalk on the set during intermission, pulling them up on stage to hold a prop moon aloft as if to say this is OUR theater -- come join the fun!

But what got to me the most is the depth of feeling artistic director Kevin Moriarty brought to the production not just in the way he guided his actors, but in the very casting.

PHOTO: Robyn Flatt, who performed in the show, with her father, Paul Baker. Read on to find out why this production was so special to both of them.

]]> This is, after all, a play about love and reconciliation -- about repairing hearts, about forgiveness, good will and the blessing of a new home. As someone who has covered the Dallas Children's Theater for many years, it was extremely poignant for me to see DCT's executive artistic director Robyn Flatt performing on the new DTC stage. Robyn, who performed in the very first show at DTC, which her father, Paul Baker, founded 50 years ago, had not acted there since her father was ousted from the company more than two decades ago. Her father died, at age 98, on Oct. 25.

After the show, which ends in an enormous party for the cast and audience, with balloons and ginger ale and actors drawing the audience into dancing conga lines, I caught up with Robyn and asked her what her father would have thought of all this.

She smiled, looking as happy as I've ever seen her. "My father was alive for my opening night on Saturday," she said, her eyes glistening. "He died peacefully on Sunday."

PHOTO: Paul Baker with Robyn when she was a toddler

New theater in Grapevine

2009-11-19T23:56:04Z

LifeStage Theatre in Grapevine has a school and an Equity agreement. Unfortunately, its holiday show opens the same night as five other bigger theaters on my beat. (No exaggeration!) So I may not be able to get out to see Word on the Street, a contemporary urban re-telling of the nativity story. But it's definitely got my curiosity up.

Dates and contact information after the break.

]]> Performances of WORD ON THE STREET will be held at 7:00 on December 4, 5, 6, 11, and 12. Tickets are $25 and include both dinner and the show. To purchase tickets, please visit www.lifesongstudio.com. LifeStage Theatre is located at 3105 Ira E. Woods Ave in Grapevine.

Cheech and Chong coming to Bass Hall

2009-11-19T20:47:41Z

And this time, there's a cause.

Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong have announced the Cheech and Chong: Get it Legal tour, which will come to Fort Worth's Bass Hall on Friday, April 30. The duo has partnered again, after performing together last year for the first time in over 25 years on the Light Up America Tour. This time, they have another partner: the Marijuana Policy Project.

MPP seeks to have marijuana regulated "in a manner similar to alcohol."

Cheech and Chong are throwing their tour behind its title. Tickets go on sale Friday at 4:20 p.m. They can be bought at basshall.com.

700 Sundays ... or did he say 700 Tuesdays?

2009-11-18T23:00:55Z

To use a Billy Crystal word, I hate to kvetch about Tuesday's opening-night performance of 700 Sundays at the gorgeous Winspear Opera House. But kvetch I must. My wife and I were sitting in mezzanine seats, near the back of the main floor, and although neither of us suffers from a hearing problem (as far as we know), we had trouble hearing. At intermission, my wife went to the ladies' room -- and by the way, it's a major design flaw to have so few bathrooms in such a lavish new building -- but many of the women using the bathroom were also complaining about not being able to hear. Maybe it was only my imagination, but the problem seemed to subside after intermission, so maybe someone (or maybe a lot of people) complained about it. I felt frustrated. You could tell that the material Crystal employs in 700 Sundays is absolutely terrific and the kind that warrants hearing and comprehending every single word. Not being able to hear figures not to be an issue with most of the fare being offered in the Winspear (operas, showy musicals, etc.), but for a piece such as 700 Sundays that involves almost entirely the spoken word, it's imperative that those in attendance be able to hear every single word. It is an incredible building, but I found myself longing to see 700 Sundays again ... just to hear what I missed.

Photo: Billy Crystal in 700 Sundays

Spotlight on Stephanie Dunnam

2009-11-18T20:43:27Z

She was hot, hot, hot in Dallas theater in the early 1980's. Now Stephanie Dunnam is back for awhile- a commanding force of nature in recent roles at Stage West (including the current show "Good Times").

Stephanie Dunnam has an enviable resume of regional theater, Broadway tours, and guest starring roles on network television- from "E.R." to "Chicago Hope," "Boston Public,"and "The Practice" in recent years to "Murder, She Wrote," "Frasier" and "Moonlighting" during her thirties to wayyyyyyyyyyyyy back to "Magnum P.I." and "The Scarecrow and Mrs. King," to only name a few. Obviously she nailed all her auditions no matter what age and type she became- probably because she was a darn good actress.

Capitalizing on opportunities and being at the right place at the right time, Stephanie landed a tv series in the early 1980's- "Emerald Point". It may have lasted about 22 episodes, but she was a major character, along with Andrew Stevens and Sela Ward. For those of us love kitsch, though, her recurring role on "Dynasty" would be a biggie. I bet she could tell a few stories.

She had been discovered here in Dallas while doing lots and lots of theater.
"I have always said, if ever I was in the right place at the right it was here in Dallas just at that time.

Duvall, Bacall: A double whammy for the Nasher

2009-11-18T18:26:13Z

They uttered two of the most famous lines in movie history and now you can ask them about that or anything else. Robert Duvall and Lauren Bacall will come to Dallas in early 2010 as headliners for an annual series that keeps getting better. It's the NasherSALON Speaker Series at the Nasher Sculpture Center. Duvall arrives Jan. 21, Bacall March 11. "I love the smell of Napalm in the morning!" Duvall roared in Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 classic about the Vietnam war, Apocalypse Now. For the sultry Bacall, her legendary line came in the 1944 adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's novel, To Have and Have Not. Staring dreamily into Humphrey Bogart's eyes, Bacall said, almost in a purr, "You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and ... blow." But the 2010 series promises even more. Pop sensation Gladys Knight (minus the Pips) will appear at the Nasher on June 17, followed by composer Stephen Sondheim on Sept. 16 and author and broadcaster Jim Lehrer on Nov. 18. Lehrer once worked for The Dallas Morning News and covered the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and its aftermath for The Dallas Times Herald. Lehrer's appearance will come four days before the assassination's 47th anniversary. Before joining the Public Broadcasting Service, Lehrer began his television career as the host of Newsroom on KERA-TV (Channel 13), where -- how's this for local trivia? -- his supervisors included Robert A. Wilson, the father of Hollywood actors Owen and Luke Wilson. Each NasherSALON appearance will begin at 8 p.m. in Nasher Hall. Tickets are $65 for adults ($50 for members of the Nasher). Tickets to Duvall's appearance, the first of the season, will go on sale to the public on Dec. 6 at www.NasherSculptureCenter.org/Salon. For further information, call 214-242-5100. Past NasherSALON speakers included novelists John Updike and Larry McMurtry (who appeared with Diana Ossana, with whom he shared an Oscar for the screenplay of Brokeback Mountain), singer Art Garfunkel and celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck.

Photo: Lauren Bacall

Update on 'Midsummer': Added performance on Thursday

2009-11-18T17:39:55Z

I goofed in my entry on A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Dallas Theater Center -- the added performance is this THURSDAY, not Wednesday. Get your ticket info here.

A perfect 'Midsummer' idle, about to vanish with the fairy dust

2009-11-18T00:33:46Z

Anyone who's been paying attention to the arts talk around town knows that Dallas Theater Center's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream has been an unqualified triumph -- the perfect show, perfectly cast, with which to open and show off the new Wyly Theatre in the AT&T Performing Arts Center.

PHOTO by Brandon Thibodeaux: Cedric Neal as Puck and Matthew Stephen Tompkins as Oberon in Dallas Theater Center's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

]]> I saw it Sunday with my husband, son and daughter-in-law, and we were enchanted. Was there ever a more puckishly mischievous Puck than Cedric Neal? A more hilarious, unapologetically scene-stealing Bottom than Chamblee Ferguson? A more splendidly ... well, titanic ... Titania than the magnificent Liz Mikel? I think not.

This show also introduced some DTC stars in the making, notably Matthew Stephen Tompkins, known as one of the area's best actors but (unbelievably) doing his first major Theater Center role as Oberon, simutaneously haughty and vengeful and utterly lovestruck over Titania, and the delightful Abbey Siegworth, a student at Southern Methodist University who is over-the-top fabulous as Helena (someone, quick, do a production of Taming of the Shrew just so she can play Kate).

I have only one complaint with the show itself: the wedding-reception festivities at the end of the show bring everyone in the audience onstage amid bubbles, balloons and general revelry. That deprives the cast of their so-well-deserved curtain call. True, they all get lots of applause during the show, but if ever there was a cast that deserved its moment to shine, its genuine and adoring standing ovations, it's this one.

The show is pretty much sold out through the closing show on Sunday, but the DTC has added an extra performance this Thursday night. And as good as the show is, there are still some logistical issues they need to work out. If you've made your reservations, be warned and get there early: On Sunday, they were still handing out tickets at will call at the box office when someone inside decided to start doling out empty seats to the overflow crowd. This resulted in several instances of standby people having to move when the rightful ticket owners showed up. Not a happy scene.

Also, I tried for nearly a half hour to call the Wyly box office to alert the staff that I'd be arriving right before the 2 p.m. curtain because of transportation problems. No one answered the phone. When I mentioned this to a headset-wearing usher-type named Josh when he chastised me for being late (I wasn't late; I was there before 2 and the box-office people found my tickets right away and ushered me inside), he told me that wasn't his problem, as he works for the AT&T Performing Arts Center, not the Dallas Theater Center. Hmmmmm. He was directing Dallas Theater Center patrons to their seats (not very well, mind you -- he cunningly trying to fit my party of four into three seats), so I think that whoever he works for, that makes it "his problem."

That's Broadway: if "Glee" be the show of nerds...

2009-11-18T00:02:34Z

So there I was this morning, lying in bed waiting for my coffee to brew, when I was called a nerd.

No, not by my boyfriend - by a person I follow on Twitter. Apparently watching and enjoying the television show, "Glee," makes me a nerd. But can a top-rated, well-reviewed, magazine cover-snagging national television show about good looking, talented teenagers singing pop songs really give it's fans a bad name?

My Twitter friend, @sdwags, asked "could today's NY Times article about 'Glee' make us theatre lovers sound any nerdier?! Will we ever be the cool kids?"

]]> Poor sdwags, don't worry, you are cool. You just like Broadway. While the article does make the people watching and discussing "Glee" seem a bit...focused (yeah, that's it), I don't think the argument for nerdiness has been made.

I was in the Drama Club (Secretary in my senior year, thank you) in high school. Did that make me a nerd? Maybe. But I certainly didn't know it. All I knew was that my fellow drama club members and I were having a great time. Maybe we were just lucky that the jocks didn't think of throwing grape slushies in our faces.

We had discussions and knowledge about the world outside Richardson, Texas. To us, Broadway was a fount of art, history and social commentary far beyond just a place to visit on a vacation to New York City. Learning about Shakespeare and Michael Bennett and Stephen Sondheim opened broader doors to us about history, AIDS and using theatre to inspire and educate.

I get it; passionate people are always looked upon with a bit of annoyance. Passion, when viewed by someone who doesn't agree, can seem nerdy. The trophy for Most Devoted Fans passes ever so slightly between Broadway fans and Trekkies every day. But while "Star Trek" and "Battlestar Gallactica" fans can frequently make others uncomfortable with their costumes, handshakes and alien languages, Broadway fans can hide quietly among others without drawing attention...until someone misquotes a Sondheim lyric, then all bets are off.

Will theatre and, more to the point, Glee Club ever be considered cool by the masses? Who cares? What is 'cool' anyway? Think about it this way, "High School Musical" made enough money to spawn two sequels and a nationwide tour. Not to mention the ice show, the new batch of teen superstars and the inspiration for the next generation in the way "Fame" inspired mine. Maybe "Glee" will help bridge the gap between cool and nerdy as well. Something has got to be cool about that.

That's Broadway for you.

More thoughts: "Port Twilight" at Undermain Theatre

2009-11-16T23:30:41Z

I'm still reeling from the sheer mastery involved in Undermain Theatre's Len Jenkin premiere, Port Twilight. Everything about it -- acting, design, even the longish video -- is done so well. The play itself is one of the weightier new works Undermain has done since Erk Ehn's marvelous Beginner nearly 15 yers ago. But like that earlier piece, it is leavened with so much humor that it never gets depressing.

It was great to see Shannon Kearns-Simmons get a chance to be a temptress, and Jonathan Brooks get to show his playful side after his tragic hero in The Black Monk earlier this season. (Both are in the staff photo here.)

But everybody is so good. You can always count on Bruce DuBose. Here you get two doses of him, utterly different in tone. Same with Ian Sinclair, who plays his assistant/sidekick in both subplots. In one, he's gloomy. In the other, he's dangerous and sexy.

How many tiny theaters like Undermain have a Tony Award winner designing the set for two shows in a row? How many can do such a potentially difficult play with such perfection? None, I'd wager.

Aside: It was interesting, two nights in a row, to see such different shows about a Hollywood filmmaker down on his luck desperate to finish a movie he's financing himself. Kitchen Dog's Slasher and Port Twilight treat the plot in such different ways ... and both are definitely worth seeing. But Port Twilight is the work of true theatrical genius here.

Allison Moore's endings

2009-11-16T22:31:23Z

Kitchen Dog Theater has produced four plays by SMU grad Allison Moore, and I've reviewed three of them. I liked them all very much, but I had big problems with the way the first two I saw (Hazzard County and End Times) ended. The current Moore play at Kitchen Dog, Slasher, is really entertaining. I had problems with the ending of this one, too, but in part they were more the fault of Tina Parker's staging than the script itself.

The whole setup of the final scene feels contrived -- Moore's fault, not Parker's. Why would the jerk filmmaker be convalescing at the heroine's house? But in homage to the horror movies that the comedy satirizes, we have to have a surprise scary ending...so the director has to be there. That brings me to a more easily correctable, but perhaps weightier, complaint. In the way it is staged, that scary surprise feels tacked on...and not scary at all.

Also, the video depicting a TV news spot that precedes the last scene is executed in clumsy fashion.

None of this keeps Slasher from being a really good time, and the acting is wonderful. But it would be nice to have a Moore show that feels like a final, polished, convincing product sometime.

That's Lisa Hassler in Matt Nager's photo.

We were there: 'Tap Dogs' at the Majestic

2009-11-14T20:54:55Z

Want to get your kids excited about dance? Want to get yourself excited about dance? Cancel whatever you had planned for tonight and head to the Majestic Theatre for the 8 p.m. performance of Tap Dogs, the utterly astonishing tap show created by choreographer Dein Perry.

This show has no plot, no costumes (unless you count plaid shirts, jeans and raggy shorts), no dialogue, absolutely no jazz hands -- this is macho tap. It's just six unbelievably talented guys, on a construction-site set, tapping and tapping and tapping till you're exhausted just watching them. It has moments of humor, but mostly it's just sheer exhilaration at the sight of these guys doing things with their feet that mere mortals wouldn't dare attempt. They dance on tilted platforms (including one that splits underneath as they're dancing), on stairs, on water -- one guy even dances upside down. They dance with buckets and flashlights and spark-shooting welding tools.

You'll leave ready to hear the rhythm in just about anything -- as I'm typing this, I'm imagining what those guys could do with a giant keyboard. Really, just go. Tickets cost $20-$49. Ticketmaster.

We were there: 'Sweeney Todd' at Casa Manana

2009-11-13T06:34:14Z

You've still got five chances to see Casa Mañana's solid production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street -- Friday night, and matinees and evening performances on Saturday and Sunday. It's certainly worth the drive to Fort Worth. Norm Lewis and Joy Hermalyn, both of whom have Broadway credits, are deliciously evil as Sweeney and his meat-pie-making accomplice, Mrs. Lovett. And in case you're wondering, this is the big-scale version of the show, not the stripped-down version that was on Broadway a couple of years ago and on tour last year.

In the eight or nine productions I've seen of this show, Lewis is easily the best Sweeney, with a hypnotically powerful voice and an equally powerful depiction of rage turned to insanity. Hermalyn's Mrs. Lovett isn't quite as gleefully duplicitous as others I've seen, but she almost makes you believe she really does have everyone's best intentions at heart, in her own extremely warped way.

For our full review, check back here Friday afternoon.

PHOTO by Ricky Moon/Special Contributor: Norm Lewis, as Sweeney, is joyfully reunited with his razor.

Say 'farewell' to WRR's Adriana Bate at Hector's

2009-11-11T23:54:48Z

If you're a classical music aficianado, you're probably a fan of Adriana Bate, the much-admired and beloved host of WRR 101.1's Midday Music. Sadly, Dallas has lost Adriana to the lure of the coast (and marital bliss) -- she's leaving to join her hubby, filmmaker Bert Pigg, in Los Angeles. Tuesday was her last day on the air; she's been succeeded (but never replaced) by broadcast veteran Tempie Lindsay, who will be wonderful, I'm sure. But she won't be Adriana (full disclosure: Adriana's one of my best friends).

Hector's on Henderson, 2929 N. Henderson Ave., will host a going-away party for Adriana from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, with jazz piano and vocals from 7 to 10 p.m. by Betsy Stelzer. Happy-hour prices will apply on all bar beverages (cocktails, beer and wine), and Hector's will supply complimentary bar appetizers. Guests are asked to consider making a $15 cash or check donation to Friends of WRR, the nonprofit organization supporting the city-owned station's programming and educational activities. For more info, call 214-821-0432 or e-mail info@hectorsonhenderson.com.

STAFF PHOTO: Adriana Bate in the studio at WRR