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Theater Thread Reincarnated

Edgy DC Aug 30 2006 11:18 AM

Here's the original: http://www.getalifealready.com/cpf/archives/f2_t355.shtml I make it my business to stay away from books and plays and such with take their titles from another, more established, book or play, but I forward this one because of Mets content. Ehreinreich's Jew Grows in Brooklyn to Transfer to 37 Arts Tuesday, August 29, 2006; Posted: 6:00 PM by BWW News Desk Another transfer has been announced for Jake Ehrenreich's Off-Broadway hit A Jew Grows in Brooklyn The show, which played the American Theatre of Actors before becoming a current hit at the Lamb's Theatre (where it opened on June 7th), will move to the 37 Arts Theatre (450 W. 37th St.) on October 11th. The Lamb's run wraps up on September 17th. "Audiences keep coming, and coming back with their friends and their family. I come out to meet with the audience after each show. I'm so grateful because so many people will relate their own life experiences to me; they're from a survivor family, or grew up in Brooklyn, or loved early rock music, or went to the Catskills, or just relate to the American immigrant's journey. There's something universal. So now we're moving Brooklyn a few blocks south of Times Square to an even larger theatre," wrote Ehrenreich in a statement. "A Jew Grows in Brooklyn is an innovative and delightful new musical comedy that tells the autobiographical story of Jake Ehrenreich’s first generation American journey. Through sometimes poignant, often times hysterical stories about his family, Jake weaves together haimish wisdom and a hip modern sensibility to create an entertaining and touching two hours of comedy and song," according to press notes. "The show features a diverse array of music, from Rock to Broadway to Yiddish Theater. Jake is joined on stage by four talented musician/singers, who together celebrate the quintessential Borscht Belt style and even recreate their nationally televised performance of 'Meet the Mets!'" Ehrenreich has performed on Broadway in Dancin’, Barnum, and They’re Playing Our Song and toured internationally as Ringo in Beatlemania. He created the role of Jonah in Jonah for Joseph Papp at The Public Theater and performed Off-Broadway in Songs of Paradise and The Golden Land. He has also been a featured vocalist at The Rainbow Room, recorded with Richie Havens and performed at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Joining Ehrenreich on stage are four musicians/singers. Joseph Egan is the show's set designer, and Elysa Sunshine offers musical direction. A Jew Grows in Brooklyn features sets by Joseph Egan, costumes by Lisa Ehrenreich, lighting by Anjeanette Stokes, and sound by David Ferdinand and One Dream Sound. Performances currently run Wednesdays-Saturdays at 8 PM with matinees Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays at 3 PM. Tickets, which range from $25-$60, can be ordered by calling (212) 239-6200. Call (212) 307-4100 for tickets to the 37 Arts run. Visit [url]www.ajewgrowsinbrooklyn.com[/url] for more information.

Giant Squidlike Creature Oct 03 2006 06:48 PM

Bump.

TheOldMole Oct 10 2006 09:34 AM

Waiting For Godot, by the Gate Theater Company of Dublin, one of the world's foremost Beckett interpreters. At Bard College. Could not have been better. It's interesting how the play has gone from baffling avant-garde to classic.

Edgy DC Oct 10 2006 09:46 AM

My mother took my two nieces, 12 and 9 1/2, to Wicked. It was the 12-year-old's birthday. The lights come up at the end of of intermission and the 9yo (my favorite by a long shot, I'm sorry to say) stands up and says, "Well, that's over." "Well, actually, sweetheart, that's just the intermission." She rolls her eyes up to the ceiling and says, "I'm gonna need some candy," in the way a more mature woman might say, "I'm gonna need a drink." After the show, the birthday girl, who liked the show just fine, is looking at souvenir tee-shirts. My mother asks the 9yo, "Would you like a tee-shirt also?" She waits a beat, considers being diplomatic, and says, "I don't even want the playbill."

TheOldMole Oct 10 2006 09:47 AM

Talk about a gonfalon bubble ruthlessly pricked.

ScarletKnight41 Oct 10 2006 09:49 AM

Edgy - I think my daughter would slap your younger niece silly over her reaction to Wicked. I've never heard of a kid not liking that show!

Vic Sage Oct 10 2006 12:32 PM

my daughter has memorized it; not just the songs, but the dialogue as well. She made us name one of our dogs "elphaba".

Edgy DC Oct 10 2006 12:40 PM

Don't be slapping. The stakes shouldn't bet that high She loved Pajama Game. I suspect she's a golden age girl, without knowing it, who distrusts high-production spectacle, even if there is goodness beneath it. I could be wrong.

ScarletKnight41 Oct 21 2006 11:21 PM

Brian Friel's "Translations" starts off well, but by the end it's unsatisfying and barely watchable. Don't pay Broadway prices to see it when it comes to New York.

Edgy DC Oct 21 2006 11:49 PM

I don't know what your production had. But that to me is as great as drama gets. Oedipus Rex, The Tempest --- these are silly diversions next to Translations.

Vic Sage Oct 23 2006 10:42 AM

if its as tedious as FAITH HEALER, i'll be sure to miss it.

ScarletKnight41 Oct 23 2006 10:56 AM

Perhaps tedious is the best description. The acting was excellent. The direction was fine. The point of the story was poignant. But the second half of the third act was water torture.

Johnny Dickshot Oct 27 2006 09:42 AM

"The Times they are A-Changin'" is taking a bare-knuckle beating in the papers today. "Bland on bland."

sharpie Oct 27 2006 10:01 AM

It was a terrible idea to begin with. John Lennon and Bob Dylan are my two alltime faves (don't make me choose), each of whom has had a "jukebox musical" done about him this year. I also love going to the theater and go to several shows a year. Therefore, I should be a natural audience for those shows but I had zero interest in seeing them. Even if they got great reviews, which neither of them did, I wouldn't go. The idea of seeing a bunch of people dancing around to "Desolation Row" or "Working Class Hero" isn't my idea of a good time.

Johnny Dickshot Oct 27 2006 10:07 AM

Makes zero sense to me either. Just as silly was the notion that because 'Movin' Out' worked out, I guess, the same team could make a success of Dylan without considering that so many Dylan fans feel Billy Joel SBHMC and so many Billy Joel fans don't get Dylan.

Edgy DC Oct 27 2006 10:36 AM

Screw Faith Healer and screw Ralph Fiennes twice, Translations is the shizzle. It's a tragedy. Things go to Hell. What can I say? The most amazing thing is that almost none of those people will be alive in the next few years. Maire has a chance, but there is this doom that you sense can be staved off by a paladin, but neither Manus nor Owen can make themselves one, and then the evil is suddenly outside of the control of even the men who brought it. But, Lord, the play is over 25 years old, but when you have a contemporary conversation about globalism and cultural imperialsm, and their impact on civilization, they're al there in this great little play set in a barn with a handful of characters (and two nefariious offstage brothers that may or may not exist). Friel was the first dramatist in the Irish Senate since William Butler Yeats. If he lives long enough, he'll one day win the Nobel Prize for Literature, and great men and women of letters will be writing about Translations-this and Translations-that. He was born in Omagh, his father was Derry schoolmaster, and his mother's people with whom he spent his holdays were from Donegal, so the North/South Ireland border ran right up his back, allowing him the unlikely perspective of an existence on a boundary in the struggles of globalism that is, in its symbolism, not unlike what the Berlin Wall was to the Cold War. Listen, all of you, give me 800 words on a major or minor theme in Translations by next Friday. If you're stuck for a thesis, my office hours are from 4:00-5:00 today and Tuesday.

ScarletKnight41 Oct 27 2006 10:59 AM

All of those points are valid. The second part of the third act is still boring as all hell.