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edjames

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  1. From the Late Show with Stephen Colbert. "Dr. Handsome", real name Dr. James Hamblin, explains the virus outbreak to correspondent Bootsie.
  2. Telecharge and Ticketmaster will automatically process refunds to cancelled shows. Here's Michael Reidel's NYPost column on the Broadway shutdown: https://nypost.com/2020/03/12/the-show-will-go-on-how-broadway-will-survive-coronavirus/ The show will go on: How Broadway will survive coronavirus With the coronavirus outbreak, Broadway is facing its worst crisis since 9/11. But it got a lifeline, albeit a thin one, from Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who yesterday prohibited gatherings of more than 500 people. That ruling allows Broadway producers, whose shows have been shut down through April 12, to collect insurance money. The payments won’t cover everything — and many shows may close or not even open — but as one producer said, “It’s something.” As the week began, Broadway seemed determined to stick to the old adage, “The show must go on.” But as the virus — and the panic — spread, producers were shocked to see so many theatergoers clamoring for refunds or new dates. (Telecharge will automatically refund purchased tickets for performances between March 12 and April 12.) After President Trump announced that he was prohibiting flights from Europe to America, the bottom fell out. Tourists buy nearly 65 percent of the tickets sold on Broadway, especially in the spring and summer. Until the coronavirus abates, very few people will be traveling anywhere. Actors Equity, which represents Broadway performers, advocated for a shutdown. An actor in “Moulin Rouge!” stayed home with a fever, and everybody backstage was fearful of his condition. It’s not been determined if he has the virus. Broadway producers met Thursday at noon to decide what to do, and everybody was “calm,” a source said. The producers realized Broadway had to close, but believe the industry can bounce back once the fear has abated. Broadway will go dark tonight amid coronavirus panic. Whether some of its new shows will survive remains to be seen. A few shows in previews don’t have enough cash reserves to see them through this storm. Tracy Letts’ new play “The Minutes,” which was to open on Sunday, was rumored to be in trouble. But a spokesman insists: “‘The Minutes’ will reopen on April 13.” Martin McDonagh’s “Hangmen,” which won great reviews when it played off-Broadway, was also in previews and could find itself in trouble. But its producer Robert Fox says: “We will be looking at the situation, and if there is potential to reopen, we will reopen along with the other plays that are in the same situation.” There were rumors that Broadway’s longest running show — “The Phantom of the Opera” — may have to close down for good. After 32 years, it’s dependent on the tourist trade, which will be thin for the next few months. But Andrew Lloyd Webber tells me that he has no intention of closing it. There are “huge plans to remarket and refresh it,” says Lloyd Webber, who plans to keep it open another 30 years. Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker were due to begin previews Friday in “Plaza Suite.” They both got sick with flu in Boston during the out-of-town tryout, and were understandably worried about opening during the coronavirus outbreak. (Broderick’s sister was just diagnosed with the virus.) But they’re both troopers and have let it be known that when Broadway is up and running again, they’ll be ready to perform. At the end of the day, that spirit is what will save Broadway. Not only has the Great White Way weathered 9/11, but it also survived the Great Depression, the financial crises of the 1970s and 2008 and another virus more deadly than coronavirus: AIDS. That one wiped out untold numbers of theater people. Broadway will come back, one press agent says, because “we’re good at staging comebacks.” And when it does, I see Patti LuPone, the star of the upcoming revival of “Company,” Broderick, Parker, Hugh Jackman and the casts of “Moulin Rouge!,” “The Book of Mormon,” “Wicked,” “Dear Evan Hansen” and “Hamilton” leading the charge. If only Elaine Stritch could be there to lead everybody in “I’m Still Here,” Broadway’s true anthem, now and forever.
  3. I saw it last year at the Atlantic Theater Co off-Broadway, with the original London cast, and I enjoyed it. I will be seeing it again.
  4. Just in case...I'd make sure I understood the cancellation policy. Also, check your travel insurance and credit card policies regarding trip cancellation/interruption. I wouldn't go and would put if off to another date in the future.
  5. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/03/arts/olivier-awards-juliet-salesman.html ‘& Juliet,’ a Jukebox Musical, Leads Olivier Award Nominations Though panned by critics, a show based on the songs of the pop producer Max Martin is up for nine awards at Britain’s equivalent of the Tonys. LONDON — “& Juliet,” a musical that uses the songs of the chart-topping pop producer Max Martin to retell “Romeo & Juliet,” dominated the nominations for this year’s Olivier Awards — the British equivalent of the Tonys — that were announced in London on Tuesday. The musical, which includes songs by Britney Spears and Ariana Grande, secured nine nominations, despite reviews that were mostly lukewarm at best. Matt Wolf, in a review for The New York Times, said that “& Juliet” made very little plot go a long way, before adding: “I confess to hardly being the preferred demographic for a show that clearly wants to rival the Broadway-bound ‘Six’ in the pop-anthem sweepstakes.” “It’s essentially glorified panto,” wrote Dominic Cavendish wrote in The Daily Telegraph, referring to the campy British theater spectacles that popular around Christmastime. “Whether it outlasts the panto season, that is the question,” he added. The nine nominations for “& Juliet,” including best new musical, put it one ahead of Trevor Nunn’s revival of “Fiddler on the Roof,” which opened at the Menier Chocolate Factory in 2018 before transferring to the West End. “Musically, geopolitically, emotionally, this Fiddler raises the roof,” wrote Mark Lawson in The Guardian. The nonmusical categories were led by two plays: a revival of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” starring Wendell Pierce, and a revival of Henrik Ibsen’s “Rosmersholm” at the Duke of York’s Theater. Both gained five nominations. “Death of a Salesman” was expected to do well, having won praise from critics. Directed by Marianne Elliott and Miranda Cromwell, it reimagined Willy Loman, the doomed title character, as a black man in a white man’s world. “What’s most surprising,” Ben Brantley wrote in his review for The New York Times, “is how vital it is.” “If this ‘Salesman’ had been retooled to be solely about race, it would shrink and oversimplify Miller’s play,” Brantley added. “Instead, race expands and exacerbates Willy’s suppressed fears that the world regards him as outcast, a loser, a clown.” Pierce was nominated for best actor, and will compete with James McAvoy, nominated for “Cyrano de Bergerac” at the Playhouse Theater, Andrew Scott for “Present Laughter” at The Old Vic, and Toby Jones for “Uncle Vanya” at the Harold Pinter Theater. The best actress category sees Phoebe Waller-Bridge nominated for a revival of “Fleabag.” She is up against Hayley Atwell for “Rosmersholm,” Sharon D. Clarke for “Death of a Salesman” and Juliet Stevenson for “The Doctor” at the Almeida Theatre, which transfers to the Duke of York’s Theater in April. The best new play category includes nominations for Lucy Prebble’s “A Very Expensive Poison,” about a Russian assassination on British soil, and Tom Stoppard’s “Leopoldstadt,”about Jewish life in Vienna, at Wyndham’s Theater through June 13. They will compete against Robert Icke’s “The Doctor” and “The Ocean at the End of the Lane,” an adaptation of a Neil Gaiman novel. The winners are to be announced in a ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall in London on April 5.
  6. Well, they did get everyone's attention and there's been a lot of buzz about this production. Not unlike last year's production of Oklahoma. Today's NYTimes talks about the "new" choreography: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/24/theater/revivals-broadway.html
  7. Perhaps I should have said "happier note?" Yes, alcohol, drugs and eventually TB did her in. You don't always have to stick to the hardcore facts. It doesn't have to be strictly factual. Its show biz and liberties are often taken. In this case the show "could have" ended the show when she returns to work with Mack Sennett and they "go off into the sunset..." Just venting...but in a related Broadway experience... Right now I am so pissed off at Telecharge that I'm fuming. I've had problems with the site since yesterday afternoon and without fixing my login problem (they keep sending me a temp password email!). It doesn't fix the issue. They offered to let me purchase over the phone but wouldn't waive the service charge. When they finally did offer to waive the service charge, they wouldn't refund it until after I saw the show in mid-April. I told them to forget it and I'll take a run to the box office. The Telecharge manager wouldn't even get on the phone line. Poor customer service!!!!
  8. The performance last night was good. The score is sublime and proves just how genius Jerry really was. The acting was OK, but by the end of the show, you understand why it doesn't work. They have been tweaking the script for decades. It ends unhappily, and I think that's a major problem. People don't want to go to a musical comedy and end up depressed. Shame. Would have loved to have seen Robert Preston tackle the lead role.
  9. Here is a recap of major media reviews: https://www.broadwayworld.com/reviews/West-Side-Story
  10. MSN says: “West Side Story,” one of the most beloved and enduring Broadway musicals of all time, has often been seen on the Great White Way since it premiered more than sixty years ago, but never quite like this. The revolutionary musical has been reimagined in equally revolutionary fashion this season." https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/emmys/e2-80-98west-side-story-e2-80-99-reviews-radically-reimagined-production-e2-80-98mortally-divided-e2-80-99-but-e2-80-98bold-e2-80-99/ar-BB10fhkN
  11. LA Times says "kinetic, bloody and modern to the core." and "this intrepid reworking of “West Side Story” marks more than a return to form for Van Hove. The production, which set its official opening for Thursday at the Broadway Theatre, restores the vitality to a musical that can seem ersatz and lumbering when treated like a museum piece." https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-02-20/ivo-van-hove-west-side-story-broadway-review
  12. Alas, closing notice for March 15 has been posted. Shame, a truly great play. Broadway’s ‘The Inheritance’ to Close on March 15 Acclaimed in London, the two-part play about gay culture and the legacy of AIDS drew a chillier response in New York, where it is set. “The Inheritance,” an ambitious two-part play exploring contemporary gay life, will end its Broadway run on March 15 after a twisty journey that saw the show soar in London but sink in New York. The play, written by Matthew Lopez and directed by Stephen Daldry, was inspired by E.M. Forster’s masterful novel “Howards End,” and similarly explores issues of class and real estate through the intersecting relationships of a small group of people. In “The Inheritance,” which is set in and around New York City, the intergenerational relationships are shadowed by differing experiences of the AIDS epidemic. The play, which began previews Sept. 27 and opened Nov. 17, is presented in two parts, each running nearly 3 hours and 15 minutes. At the time of its closing, there will have been a total of 46 previews and 138 regular performances (each part is counted as a single performance). The play, with Tom Kirdahy, Sonia Friedman and Hunter Arnold as lead producers, was capitalized for about $9.1 million, according to a spokesman, and will close at a loss. It opened in New York to mixed reviews, and struggled at the box office; during the week that ended Feb. 16 it grossed $345,984, which is just 33 percent of its potential, and played to houses that were only half full.
  13. Alas, another troubled musical at Encores. This review by Laura Collins-Hughes in today's NYTimes revisits this revival. Despite the troubled book, the music is a highlight. I'm seeing it tonight. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/20/theater/mack-and-mabel-review.html
  14. A rather "tepid" opening night review by Ben Brantley in the NYTimes. I'm seeing it in about 3 weeks, so we'll see. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/20/theater/west-side-story-review-sharks-vs-jets-vs-video.html
  15. The love of my life and I went to Radio City last night (Valentine's Day) and saw the Josh Groban Radio City Music Hall concert. As usual, Josh was great but ideally we could have done with a little less yak, yak, yak and more singing. Josh will be "in residency" at Radio City this year. Josh had two special guest join him last night. The first, downtown diva, Brigette Everett, as usual, left me cold. I don't understand her appeal and her performance last night was stupid. The second, however, was just the opposite. A young, twenty-something handsome cellist who goes by the stage name "Eyeglasses." According to Josh's introduction, he is a street musician here in NYC and frequently plays on the subway. But, he also is a second year medical student at MT. Sinai and majors in Ophthalmology (hence the name "eyeglasses") Well worth looking out for. Trust me, very handsome and very talented! He has a number of very good YouTube videos: https://www.facebook.com/EyeglassesStringMusic/photos/pcb.2680122388761509/2680122262094855/?type=3&theater
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