Tag: theater

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School Chaperones March Students Out Of ‘Gay’ Nutcracker

(photos: Michael Brosilow/The House Theatre)
Ohio’s Notre Dame Academy found itself in an unexpected controversy after school faculty and chaperones decided students couldn’t be exposed to a two-men playing the parents in a production of the holiday classic, The Nutcracker. Each year the Catholic school takes its 8th graders on a field trip. This year, the school chose The House Theatre of Chicago’s production of The Nutcracker. According to school alum Carly McGoldrick, the students were marched out of the theater before the curtain even went up once the adults in charge realized the same-sex casting.

The production has received rave reviews.

Notre Dame Academy posted this apology on its Facebook page:

We apologize for our decision for 8th graders leave to a performance of The Nutcracker before it began due to casting choices. The mistake is contrary to our inclusive spirit and reminds us our actions should affirm that we are all God’s children.

To clarify what happened, the decision was made for the NDA eighth-graders to leave a performance of The Nutcracker before it began because upon arrival they discovered that the producer had chosen to cast two men as the main character’s parents. However, the Spirit of Inclusion statement adopted by the NDA Board of Trustees in 2014 affirms that we in the Notre Dame Academy community welcome all into our Gospel community including but not limited to people of all colors, religions, ethnicities, sexual orientations, gender expression, abilities, economic classes, and nationalities.

We consider the decision to not attend the performance a mistake and sincerely apologize to anyone we offended. The action does does not reflect NDA’s true values. Rest assured we will redouble our efforts to live up to our inclusion statement.

Sometimes we teach our children as much from our mistakes as from our successes. We view this as a chance to teach our students the value of taking ownership of one’s mistakes and to reaffirm that our community is committed to inclusion.

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Theatre Review: ‘The Inheritance’ The Gay Epic Housing Many Stories

By Lawrence Pfeil, Jr. On a white platform resting like a blank sheet of paper just above the bare stage, a diverse group of gay men gathers with pencils and paper, laptops, and tablets.  They write their stories — or try to begin. The story germinating inside the youngest to be nurtured by his mentor will grow round them blossoming into an epic reflective of a community continually grappling with its own story.  This is The Inheritance, Matthew Lopez’s two-part play which has opened on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. Structured on, Howard’s End, Lopez reimagines E.M Forster’s masterpiece as New York City’s 21st century, “gay society.”  In the process, he trades the original’s examination of social mores, ridged conduct, and reputation for issues of intergenerational relationships, interpersonal responsibility, and community. Bridging the two is Forster himself aka “Morgan” offering a masterclass to his writing protégé and creating the story within a story framework, not unlike the stage around the central “writing platform.”  Following Forster’s roadmap, The Inheritance is a journey of revelation to find lost connections, that while occasionally veering off path, arrives with an emotional impact like few other plays in recent years.

The cast of The Inheritance (all production photos: Matthew Murphy)
Though the trend on Broadway is sadly towards the “100 minute, no intermission, in’n’out” format or spectaculars, one-ton puppets, and wizarding magic shows, The Inheritance triumphs doing the exact opposite. For six-and-half hours, over two performances, it grips an audience so tightly one can hear petals drop and does it on a virtually bare stage.  The story of lives as they lose connection to each other, their community, and themselves doesn’t need gimmicks to entertain.  It has a common humanity transcending sexuality, age, gender, or race, to profoundly engage. The Inheritance erupts with unvarnished honesty, overwhelming insight, and a kind of brilliance that’s shaking audiences. In particular, the description of living through the AIDS crisis by one character to another who wasn’t there is so visceral, he “gets it” in no uncertain terms because those of us who were, are there again. Additionally, Lopez has a great gift for the extended monologue.  At a time, when people barely listen to each other, holding anyone’s attention with thoughtful, introspective speeches longer than 240 characters is a talent to be treasured.
Jordan Barbour, Darryl Gene Daughtry Jr., Kyle Soller, Arturo Luís Soria and Kyle Harris in The Inheritance
So, it seems odd The Inheritance’s flaws are in conversational “everyday scenes.” It’s been reported, the play is “drawn largely from Lopez’s personal experiences.” Ironically, the familiar scenes involving the close-knit, circle of friends often feel superficial and didactic, if not unnecessary.  Even so, the action never drags due to Stephen Daldry’s flawless direction and superlative staging. With essentially a platform, a few costume changes, and various props from a cast that almost never leaves the stage, Daldry creates the absorbing world of The Inheritance. He instinctively focuses on what theatre is fundamentally about, great storytelling, fearlessly trusting the material and a stellar cast. Leading The Inheritance’s impeccable ensemble are Andrew Burnap as Toby Darling, John Benjamin Hickey as Henry Wilcox, Paul Hilton as Morgan/Walter Poole, Samuel H. Levine as Adam/Leo and Kyle Soller as Eric Glass all of whom are reprising the West End roles they originated. Expect to see those names again come award season as they each give outstanding and magnetic performances.  Hilton’s superbly nuanced sage and mentor; Levine’s coming of age search for belonging; Hickey’s effortless inhumanity; Burnap’s addiction to his persona; and at the center, Glass fighting for his own humanity make The Inheritance an embarrassment of performance riches.  Paul Hilton alone is not to be missed.
Samuel H. Levine, Kyle Soller and Andrew Burnap in The Inheritance
Most often, an inheritance has a significant monetary value and/or sometimes sentimental.  The historic house in The Inheritance may have both, but its intrinsic value is beyond either of those measures. It’s the stories passed down by and about those who came before which for generations made the house, a home. Such is the inherent value of stories to a community. They bind it together in shared solidarity and guide it by passing down wisdom and experience.  The Inheritance demonstrates the immeasurable gift our predecessors gave us; the invaluable legacy our stories are for future generations; and the power of great storytelling in the theatre.

“If we can’t have a conversation with our past, what will our future be? Who are we? And more importantly: Who will we become?” – Matthew Lopez

The Inheritance By Matthew Lopez PART 1: 3 hours 15 minutes, with two intermissions PART 2: 3 hours 20 mins, with one intermission and 5 min pause The Ethel Barrymore Theatre, New York City, Open End Run More information, performance schedule, and tickets click here. Lawrence Pfeil, Jr., is a freelance writer/playwright who has reviewed film and theatre, both on and off-Broadway, for media outlets including The Randy Report, the New York Blade, and Edge Publications.    

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Theatre Review: Three Cheers For Harvey Fierstein’s New Play ‘Bella Bella’

Tony Award winner Harvey Fierstein in his new play, Bella Bella
By Lawrence Pfeil, Jr. Before AOC, before Nancy Pelosi, there was Bella, Bella Abzug. Known as “Battling Bella,” she was a graduate of Columbia Law School who became a civil rights attorney, social activist, leader of the women’s movement, member of the House of Representatives, and famously wore hats because “as a young lawyer it helped me to establish my professional identity. Before that, whenever I was at a meeting, someone would ask me to get coffee.”
Bella Abzug
Bella Abzug’s brilliant, often biting words and crusading work are the genesis of Harvey Fierstein’s enthralling, tour de force, new play Bella Bella which opened last night at Manhattan Theatre Club’s City Center Stage I.  Awaiting the fateful results of the 1976 New York Democratic Senatorial primary, Bella holds up in the bathroom of her campaign suite reflecting on her life’s work; and for 90 minutes Mr. Fierstein holds an audience captive with her hilarious, heroic, and often heartbreaking story as few other performers could. Billed as “written and performed by Harvey Fierstein from the words and works of Bella Abzug” it’s difficult to know where Abzug stops and Fierstein begins without being her scholar.  But Bella Abzug knew how to make her point in no uncertain terms and Harvey Fierstein knows how to weave a story for maximum impact.   Together, Bella Bella is a stunningly relevant and eye-opening call to action for a country that doesn’t seem to have progressed much beyond the America outside the window of her john in 1976.
Harvey Fierstein in Bella Bella (photo: Jeremy Daniel)
Bella’s opening diatribe on equality, sexist elections, and how women, who are a 2% differential in the electorate yet 1% of the House, (still only 30%) vote against themselves, is immediately passionate and gripping. Ringing so familiar, one wonders whether she’s been transported to the present or if we’ve been taken back to her, and so it is throughout Bella Bella. Her fight for civil rights and equality fifty years ago mirrors the very challenges still facing America today. Most widely known for her leadership of the women’s movement and the ERA, Abzug was also a pioneer of Federal Gay Rights.  Representing the Lower East Side of Manhattan and Greenwich Village, she embraced her LGBT constituency, even campaigning at the Continental Baths.  In 1974 she introduced in Congress the first Gay civil rights bill, the “Equality Act” which would have banned discrimination based on sexual orientation.  It failed to pass but succeeded in getting Gay rights into the national conversation. In 1970 when Bella Abzug was elected to Congress, Harvey Fierstein was in Brooklyn already writing and performing in drag.  Fifty years and four Tony Awards later he has brought them together on one stage in what can only be described as the perfect pairing of subject and performer.  With her words, he has written a smart, insightful, and impassioned portrait of a woman, a Jewish woman, who recognized the discrimination in her path; but walked it anyway because she believed in equality and had the hutzpah to fight for it.  With his command of the stage, he creates a Bella that is anything but a drag.
Harvey Fierstein in Bella Bella (photo: Jeremy Daniel)
Fierstein gives a vibrant, passionate, and powerful performance with no want of makeup or an Abzug ensemble, apart from her iconic hat.  In plain black rehearsal clothes, Fierstein is at the top of his prowess as the fierce firebrand wisecracking one minute, outraged the next, inspiring throughout. Some works are a labor of love, done for the joy, not the reward. Still, there are a few others, like Mr. Fierstein’s triumphant Bella Bella which are even more. To those lucky enough to hear what she “thinks about in the bathroom,” this is clearly his labor of passion, created and performed because it had to be done and done now, much like work of Bella Abzug herself. Bella Bella Written and Performed by Harvey Fierstein From the words and works of Bella Abzug 90 minutes No intermission Now through December 1st Manhattan Theatre Club at City Center Stage I More Information and Tickets HERE https://bellabellaplay.com/ Lawrence Pfeil, Jr., is a freelance writer/playwright who has reviewed film and theatre, both on and off-Broadway, for media outlets including The Randy Report, the New York Blade, and Edge Publications

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World Premiere: ‘Novenas For A Lost Hospital’

Guest post by Lawrence Pfeil, Jr. of TheOUTFront.com It’s hard to imagine a place filled with more of life’s drama than a hospital, and when it comes to hospitals it’s nearly impossible to imagine one more filled with history’s drama than New York City’s shuttered, St Vincent’s Hospital. Such is the point of departure for Rattlestick Playwrights Theater’s Novenas for A Lost Hospital, an intimate theatrical experience taking audiences on a literal journey through the West Village, September 5 – October 13, 2019. Opening Rattlestick’s 25th anniversary season, the world premiere of Cusi Cram’s Novenas for A Lost Hospital stars Tony Award nominee (Angels in America) and four-time Obie winner, Kathleen Chalfant as Saint Elizabeth Seton. The production and cast of thirteen are under the direction of Rattlestick Artistic Director, Daniella Topol.  This unique walking theatrical production is presented in partnership with Village Preservation, The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Community Center, NYC AIDS Memorial Board, NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing, St. John’s in the Village, and Visual AIDS. For the LGBT+ community, especially gay men, the connection to St Vincent’s Hospital runs deep and very personal. Located on the border of the Village and Chelsea, it was the community’s “go-to” hospital for decades. Injured protesters from the Stonewall Uprising fifty years ago were brought to St. Vincent’s Emergency Room for first aid. When AIDS grew into an epidemic twenty-five years later, far too many men were brought there one last time and their chosen families gathering there to bear witness endless times.  The one saving grace was the staff of doctors and nurses of the hospital-borne out of one plague having compassion on a community facing another. This is but one story in the 161-year legacy that was St Vincent’s Hospital.  Its ties to some of history’s most iconic moments are so much more.  As Dramaturg Guy Lancaster writes,

“St. Vincent’s Hospital was started inside a rented house on East 13th Street in 1849 during a cholera epidemic by four nuns from the Sisters of Charity. It was the first Catholic hospital in Manhattan. Survivors of disasters such as the sinking of the Titanic, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, and September 11th were treated at St. Vincent’s after it moved to its eventual site on 7th Avenue in 1856.

A devastating new plague, HIV/AIDS, would profoundly affect the institution and the surrounding neighborhood from the 1980s onwards as the hospital became a center for AIDS research and treatment. By the time St. Vincent’s closed its doors on April 30, 2010, 3,500 employees had lost their jobs. The last Catholic hospital in Manhattan was replaced by a luxury condo development.”

Times Square is called as the “Crossroads of the World,” but just a mile south of it, on the same avenue, St Vincent’s Hospital could be called the “crossroads of humanity.”  For five weeks, Novenas for a Lost Hospital will allow audiences to traverse time and tale, walking with compassion through the history of this storied house of healing. More information about Novenas for a Lost Hospital HERE  Previews begin September 5. Official opening night September 19, with performances through October 13. * Guests arriving at the 6:30 time will experience an extended prologue, and audiences at both check-in times will unite for the majority of the event. Due to its traveling nature, audiences are encouraged to wear comfortable shoes and to leave heavy bags at home. Coat check is not available. Purchase tickets HERE  More information about Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, their 25th anniversary season, and subscriptions HERE (photos: Mark Abrahams)

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NYC: Video Highlights From Encores’ “Songs For A New World”

I know my theater folks are going to go for this.

Jason Robert Brown’s Songs for a New World recently returned to the New York City stage via the Encores! Off-Center production where performances ran through June 30.

Colin Donnell, Solea Pfeiffer, Mykal Kilgore, and a luminous Shoshana Bean make up the quartet of vocal superstars tasked with singing Brown’s song cycle, originally produced off-Broadway in 1995.

The central theme of the show underscores the idea that even when everything seems stable and certain, there is “one moment” that can upend and change anyone’s life.

The original off-Broadway cast featured now-Tony Award winner Billy Porter, as well as Broadway veterans Brooks Ashmanskas, Andréa Burns, and Jessica Molaskey.

The Encores production featured direction by Kate Whoriskey. You can check out samples from “Stars and the Moon,” “I’m Not Afraid of Anything,” “I’d Give It All for You,” and many more below.

Back in the 90s, this was THE show that all the young theater kids wanted to sing from.

I have to include at least one song from the show.

While Billy Porter, now currently starring in the FX series Pose, was in the original off-Broadway cast of the show, his record label didn’t allow him to participate in the original cast recording.

Years later, in his fantastic one-man-show At The Corner of Broadway and Soul at the Public Theater, Porter revived his performance of “King of the World.”

Thankfully, Porter released a recording of that concert in full. Singing from some form of prison, either literal or metaphorical, a man demands that he be freed and returned to his rightful place as a leader of men.

Listen below.

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Queer Theater: “217 Boxes Of Dr. Henry Anonymous” In NYC

Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Obie Award winner Laura Esterman
as “Katherine Luder” in 217 Boxes of Dr. Henry Anonymous

Three-time Obie award-winning playwright Ain Gordon has written and directed a new play, 217 Boxes of Dr. Henry Anonymous, that chronicles the successful efforts of Dr. John Fyer to declassify homosexuality as a mental illness.

Fryer’s testimony at the 1972 American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting is considered one of the most significant moments in the history of the gay-rights movement.

As an openly gay psychiatrist who could have lost his medical license, Fryer used a pseudonym, mask and voice modulator to address his colleagues.

The cast includes Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Obie Award winner Laura Esterman (Marvin’s Room), Derek Lucci, and Broadway veteran Ken Marks (Mamma Mia!, Dear Evan Hansen, Dancing at Lughnasa, Hairspray).

Performances begin May 3 at Baryshnikov Arts Center’s Jerome Robbins Theater in New York City (450 West 37th Street).

For more information, head over to the official website here.

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Podcast: A Tale Of Two Theatrical Adventures

Join me for “A Tale of Two Theatrical Adventures” as two longtime out actors have separate, but euphoric experiences with New York Theater on the same weekend.

I followed both simultaneously on social media as they shared the elation of their personal milestones, and the journeys made my Grinchy heart swell.

Up first, Stephen Blackwell.

As his 50th birthday approached, Stephen made the decision to venture forth on his own to the Big Bad Apple for the first time and see his first productions on the Great White Way.

We all know New York City can be expensive for visiting fans of Broadway. As he recounts his big adventure, Stephen also has tips that helped him save money along the way, including:

• The app TodayTix (and the website version todaytix.com) helped Stephen buy discounted tickets to Broadway shows in advance without standing in lines or worrying about what his choices would be.

• Instead of pricey hotels, Stephen stayed in an apartment blocks from the theater district and saved hundreds using AirBNB. If you haven’t tried the popular travel site, Stephen shares his experience.

• And don’t be afraid to reach out to friends you’ve made on social media. Stephen met up with someone he knew from Facebook, and that friend acted as a guide to what to do after an evening in the theater.

The other gentleman in this dual adventure, Ed Dixon, has enjoyed a long, successful career on Broadway, off-Broadway and beyond. He’s an actor, playwright, composer and author.

After more than four decades of great work, Ed was honored by the Drama Desk Awards for his latest project, Georgie: My Adventures with George Rose, on the same weekend Stephen was experiencing NY theater for the first time.

I interviewed Ed weeks before during the aftermath of his grand rave-review opening, but watching him share his big Drama Desk win on Facebook felt like I was there.

You can listen to my previous interview with Ed here.

At a time when it feels there’s so much doom, gloom and grousing on social media, I loved watching these stories play out in front of me in real time on the Book of Face.

Hit play below to listen to the two men’s simultaneous journeys.

Sometimes, it’s great to savor the good times 🙂

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SNL: Theater Nerds Get Down At The “Crucible Cast Party”

Ok, I can post this in full disclosure that not only did I know these folks when I was in high school, I WAS this crowd.

Saturday Night Live sends up the always painful to remember “high school play cast party.” And they nail it right down to the chaste “back rub” that never went anywhere.

Rock on!

Love Hamilton‘s Lin-Manuel Miranda’s rap in the middle of the segment.

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Palm Springs: Victor/Victoria Nominated For 11 “Desert Stars Awards”

Wow. How cool is this?

As regular readers may remember, this past spring I directed and choreographed (theatre is the other half of my career) a production of the musical Victor/Victoria in Palm Springs at the McCallum Theatre in Palm Springs for the College of the Desert. Great experience, wonderful cast and creative team.

Today I got word that the production was nominated for 11 “Desert Stars Awards” by the Desert Theatre League, including two for me for my direction and choreography.

I have to say the best part of the news is seeing so many of my collaborators having their work acknowledged.

Congrats to everyone!

Here’s a list of:

• Outstanding Production Musical/Opera/Pageant – Victor/Victoria – College of the Desert

• Outstanding Director of a Musical/Opera/Pageant – Professional – Randy Slovacek – Victor/Victoria – College of the Desert

• Outstanding Musical Director of a Musical/Opera/Pageant – Professional – Darlene Romano – Victor/Victoria – College of the Desert

• The Michele Gaines Award for Outstanding Choreographer of a Musical/Opera/Pageant – Professional – Randy Slovacek – Victor/Victoria – College of the Desert

• Outstanding Lead Actor in a Musical/Opera/Pageant – Chris Sands – Victor/Victoria – College of the Desert

• Outstanding Lead Actor in a Musical/Opera/Pageant – Professional – Eliott Goretsky – Victor/Victoria – College of the Desert

• Outstanding Lead Actress in a Musical/Opera/Pageant – 2 – Chelsey Clime, Kara Masek – Victor/Victoria – College of the Desert

• The Ron Hamm Award for Outstanding Hair and Makeup Design – Professional – Lynda Shaeps – Victor/Victoria – College of the Desert

• Outstanding Lighting Design – Professional – Keith I. Smith – Victor/Victoria – College of the Desert

• Outstanding Props and Special Effects – Professional – J.W. Layne – Victor/Victoria – College of the Desert

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New Musical IDAHO! Premieres At Las Vegas’ Smith Center

Nate Hackmann (center) leads the cast of IDAHO!
(click pics to enlarge – all photos by Erik Kabik)

For those readers in Las Vegas this weekend, I heartily encourage you to run to The Smith Center where Idaho! The Comedy Musical is killing audiences with tons of laughs and titular tunes.

The new musical, lyrics and book by Buddy Sheffield with co-composer credit to Keith Thompson, is a mashed up/parody version of the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical canon with an emphasis on sending up their classic tuner, Oklahoma!. Think applying a healthy dose of double entendre Mel Brooks’ The Producers humor, plus hysterical irreverence like that currently trodding the Broadway boards in hits like Book of Mormon and Something Rotten! and you get an idea of what’s in store.

Sheffield and Thompson’s score is clever and tuneful with plenty of musical inside jokes for the most learned of musical theater fans. Along the way you also get nods to Les Miserables, Fiddler on the Roof and many, many more.

The project got it’s initial exposure at the New York Musical Theater Festival back in 2008 when it was honored with “Best of Fest.” I mention that to note that this is how long it takes to develop a real, honest-to-goodness Broadway musical. Eight years later the show is finally getting a major production here in Las Vegas.

The fruit of that extended developmental period of time is on full display here. The book is tight, the lyrics smart, and the creative team seems open to honest reassessment. Sources report that between the first preview and opening night the second act was tightened by 5 minutes. This is a team that demonstrates a strong sense of clarity in what they want to deliver to an audience.

The official synopsis goes thusly:

Idaho! The Comedy Musical brings a hilarious new love story to life as Cassie Purdy, a mail-order bride from Ohio, arrives to Idaho to marry the notorious Jed Strunk, a real toad gagger who’s got the personality of a festered wart and enough money to buy every last spud in town. Upon her arrival, Cassie encounters the handsome Whip Masters, falling in love to Strunk’s dismay and setting in motion a whirlwind of events that end in three couples either discovering or re-discovering the loves of their lives.

The handsome “Whip Masters” is played to perfection by handsome, gorgeous voiced Nate Hackmann (recently seen in the Broadway revival of Les Miserables) who is worth the price of admission all on his own. A big, huge, golden voice, and comedy chops to match, Hackmann let’s us know up front that, “Heck, it’s a helluva day!” because, after all, “I’m the leading man.”

Jessica Fontana (Broadway’s Cinderella)is the object of his affection, and for good reason. Fontana plays “Cassie” with much sass and a winning soprano.

Also featured in the cast are Matt Loehr (Book of Mormon, The Producers) as “Slim Johnson” (careful of the double entendre there) and Alex Ellis (Catch Me If You Can, On A Clear Day) as “Ida Dunham” (another pun there). Think Oklahoma!‘s “Will Parker” and “Ado Annie” but with a lot more good, clean sexual punning going on.

Carmen Ruby Floyd, Jen Perry and Jay Rogers all join in to farm the fun and frivolity.

Director Matt Lenz has a firm grasp of the very specific kind of humor he working with here, and he delivers keeping the pace turned up high and the humor constantly center stage.

Choreographer Michelle Lynch continually finds terpsichorean creativity throughout including heaping helpings of humor with her “Twister Ballet” and the “Everything’s Up To Date In Kansas City” stand-in “Boise’s Jist as Noisy as Kin Be” led by Loehr.

The audience was clearly happy to take this hay ride as the laughs were constant throughout. This is spud-busting, tater-tickling, home-grown humor here, and the audience was definitely down for the fun.

Myron Martin, president and CEO of The Smith Center who spearheaded the development of the Center as a haven for touring Broadway shows to call home here in Las Vegas, is now taking the Center to the next level hoping to actually create musicals that Las Vegas can send to Broadway.

Idaho! makes for a worthy first effort. Stay tuned to see if the tuner tumbles all the way to the Great White Way.

But in the meantime, head down to the Center’s Reynolds Hall and enjoy Idaho!’s fully baked fun with all the fixings.

Idaho! The Comedy Musical performs now through Sunday, July 17. For ticket info, call 702-749-2000 or click over to at The Smith Center.