Results tagged “charlesisherwood”

MUSIC: Come enjoy the Whitney after dark tonight as the museum's live showcase series invites Dan Deacon (pictured) to the stage. If you haven't seen Deacon before, get ready for some Casio keyboard electro-rock compositions and an art dance party.

The most exciting story in New York theater this year had nothing to do with the Broadway stagehands' strike, it was the vibrant growth of what used to be called “experimental theater”, a movement that can now really only loosely be defined by what it’s not: non-naturalistic and not made for TV, with an emphasis on bold physicality, collaboration and, sometimes, multimedia.

It’s not Tracy Letts’s fault that his play, August: Osage County, has been breathlessly overhyped by the critics, from the Times’s Charles Isherwood on down. It’s also not his fault that compared to many other Broadway spectacles the play stands out as a polestar of humor and intelligence. Still, it’s difficult to disassociate the play from the deafening buzz; August: Osage County is being heralded as an Important Theatrical Event, when it’s really just a well-crafted new play that happens to stand out among Broadway’s other lowbrow pygmies. (Tom Stoppard’s Rock ‘n’ Roll is well acted but as affectless as it is thought-provoking; the current revival of Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming is absolutely magnificent but, obviously, not the New American Drama critics lust after.)

SHOP: Still looking for that perfect gift? The Brooklyn Historical Society is holding the 4th Annual NY Creates Craft Fair, and they may have just what you're looking for. Check it out today and tomorrow, and it will be back the 22nd and 23rd for the real last-minute shoppers.

There was a bit of drama Friday at the Broadway theater where The Color Purple performs, just not onstage. The lobby of the theater was mobbed by disgruntled ticket holders demanding refunds when ex-American Idol Fantasia, who stars as Celie, failed to turn up for work. Lobby spies for Post columnist Michael Riedel witnessed an 8-year-old girl “sobbing uncontrollably when she heard Fantasia was not going to be in the show.” But it seems there...

THEATER: As Steve On Broadway notes, Chicago’s stellar Steppenwolf Theater Company, which launched the careers of Gary Sinise and Little Johnny Malkapee, is back on Broadway for the first time since 2001, when their production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest won the Tony for Best Revival. This time they’ve delivered playwright Tracy Letts’s August: Osage County, and after reading today’s rave reviews, you can count on more Tonys flying back to the Windy...

The Critical Mass Halloween Ride is tonight! If you go, get some good pictures!

The New York theater world’s obsession with the almighty Times, which was once astutely likened to kremlinology, has often erupted in strong words about reviewer Charles Isherwood, whose opinion was recently derided as “antique snobbery” by TONY critic David Cote. So it was amusing to discover today that not only had the Times assigned the more mainstreamish Ish to review Fuerzabruta, the latest wet and wild spectacle from the people behind De La Guarda, but that he’d been forced to dance a little jig as well:

EVENT: Join a slew of artists, bid on their work and enjoy complimentary cocktails tonight at a benefit for the Seed Project. Artwork from Swoon, Lisa Dahl, Todd Deluca, Troy Dugas, Lee Everett, Midori Harima & Annysa Ng, Fumiko Toda, Sarah Trigg and a whole bunch more will be auctioned. The Seed Project asks that you buy basil seeds and after planting them:

New York Times managing editor Jill Abramson drew fire in March after her heated dinner party spat with playwright David Hare, in which she reportedly broke it down for Hare thusly: “We are the central arbiter of taste and culture in the city of New York.” Imperious but true. The Times draws a lot of water in this town when it comes to theater; and when there’s big money on the line they are now the dominant factor in determining whether a new production lives or dies.

MOVIE: Michael Moore is in town with his latest film that's pissing off the government while informing the nation, Sicko (trailer here). Get ready to be filled with rage as the carpet is pulled back on the American healthcare system and much, much more.