We are excited to announce the release of the app you’ve all been waiting for. iBroadway is finally here! It’s the easiest, most savvy way to access all things Broadway, all via you iPhone and iPod touch. Watch exclusive videos, read from Theater’s top bloggers (more on that to come), get show listings, and be able to buy tickets all from your phone. To download the app, visit http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ibroadway/id349362702?mt=8. It’s fast and free!
A Look at Broadway’s Ups and Downs during the week
A Little Night Music will be closing its doors after June 20th and therefore, won’t be recasting its lead women. It’s too bad. We were having so much fun at surmising the possibilities. We know we were rooting for Betty White as Madame Armfeldt.
The Drama League and Drama Desk honored very different performances this year. We all know what this is leading up to, a massive battle of who will win the coveted MTV Movie Award (Best Kiss) this year?
Rumors were confirmed that Sutton Foster would appear as the new Reno Sweeney in an upcoming revival of Anything Goes, following in the footsteps of Ethel Merman and Patti Lupone. To which we wonder if soon Foster will soon be venting, half of America loves me, and half hates me.
Beyonce, Jay-Z, and Will and Jada Pinkett Smith attended an after party thrown by 11-time Tony Nominee FELA! at the Palm last week. To which, Memphis replied, we got the guy from…Bon Jovi.
The guest appearances on Glee grew even more Broadway-ier with Neil Patrick Harris singing Aerosmith’s Dream On with Matthew Morrison. We really can’t wait to hear Boyd Gaines and Jonathan Groff’s duet of Love in an Elevator.
Finally, Pee Wee Herman comes to Broadway. Nah, too easy.
I just finished watching critic Mark Blankenship (The Critical Condition) in a conversation on CNN all about Twitter, its supersonic rise, its current pop-cultural bloat and pundit-driven imminent demise. (Full disclosure: Art Meets Commerce and Mark are co-founders of The Critical Condition.)
It’s really fascinating to watch the rapid-fire evolution of social media that is happening all around us. Mark’s fellow commentator Pete Cashmore from mashable.com referred to something called the Gartner Hype Cycle, which describes the rise and fall of technology applications and led to some interesting discussion during the segment.
To me, it’s like living in a real-time time lapse photo. “Now they’re twittering . . . now you’re lame because you’re not . . . now you’re twittering . . . now they’re not . . . now you’re lame because you are . . . now they’re fill-in-the-blanking . . . ” You get the idea. And that whole cycle happens in about a month. Mayflies have a longer life expectancy.
What struck me most , though, was Mark’s observation that Twitter is fundamentally antithetical to what he does at The Critical Condition, which is devoted to criticism of popular culture. In his blog, Mark offers thoughtful analysis of everything from music to movies to advertising to books, and he does a terrific job of making the links between all of those things and the larger society that they are not only all products of, but that they are producing. That can’t be accomplished in 140 characters.
But he does use Twitter to point followers to whatever conversation he’s facilitating on any given day, and that, to me, is the best use of a micro blog. Not as an end unto itself, but as a means to an end, whether that’s highlighting an ongoing interaction or sowing a seed for a future interaction.
And that’s kind of a relief. Fragmented thoughts that aren’t anchored to more complete exchanges feel chaotic to me, like a radio that is picking up two different stations simultaneously. Discrete tweets leave me bemused, but looking at the Twitter application in a larger context shows me its place our cultural conversation. And that’s good (for me), because Twitter—or whatever the next big thing turns out to be—is here to stay.
Zowie—the Rock of Ages opening night was amazing! The crazy energy that is blowing the roof off the Brooks Atkinson eight times a week followed the crowd down the block to the Edison Ballroom which quickly became bobbing, throbbing, dancing, drinking, singing, clapping sea of merrymakers. Early word about the fantastic reviews swept the room, which only added to the air of incandescent intoxication.
What? You haven’t read the reviews? Click here
(Hey, the critics aren’t the only ones who are loving on ROA right now. Check out the fan testimonials that we taped after a recent performance.)
Night Ranger (yes, THE Night Ranger!) played a smokin’ all-acoustic set, Survivor’s Jim Peterik gave a the whole crowd a Rocky (III) moment when he had us belting out Eye of the Tiger, and the girls swooned en masse when Constantine and his band took the stage.
It was, to date, the best opening night party anyone at AMC has ever attended. And the stupendous reaction from the critics was the chocolate on the cherry on the top!
Mayor Bloomberg guest-posted on the Official Google Blog today. He discussed ways New York City is making “it easier for both visitors and residents to explore all the energy, excitement and diversity of New York City’s five boroughs.”
Online, there’s nycgo.com, which uses Google Maps to help people to plan New York City vacations or staycations.
Offline, there’s the Official New York City Information Center at 810 Seventh Avenue, between 52nd and 53rd Streets. But even “offline” is online: the Center features “interactive map tables” and a “gigantic video wall,” which both use Google technology.
Google and New York City: Perfect Together
Our latest company project is the twisted-love story ‘Stitching’ by Anthony Neilsen, directed by our very own Timothy Haskell. It stars Meithal Dohan (you might remember her as the sexy Israeli in Showtime’s Weeds). Check out the website at www.stitchingtheplay.com and be sure to check it out at the Wild Project when it opens June 17.
It’s kind of strange to be cursing in a blog I’m writing at work, but I guess if I’m quoting G-d as played by F. Murray Abraham in “Almost an Evening,” it’s alright.
… And what a highly quotable play it was. The show gets more awesome the longer I think about it.
It is composed of three one-act plays.
Waiting shows purgatory as a vast and unending government-style bureaucracy. Joey Slotnick’s woebegone expressions and exact counting of time spent waiting for entrance into heaven makes the entire piece.
In Four Benches, a James Bond-type gets in touch with his feelings after witnessing an accidental shooting of an innocent man – a “collosus” as his grieving dad calls him repeatedly.
Debate is an argument between two archetypes of deities: one angry and commanding, and one loving and soft. It’s the angry Jew that not-so-subtly explains to the audience that they must remember the difference between COMMANDMENTS and SUGGESTIONS.
I’m a secular Jew with Modern Orthodox parents and I was sitting next to my friend, a lapsed Seventh-Day Adventist, so the whole debate and the commandments/suggestions comment, in particular, garnered a big guffaw from both of us.
My favorite shows are those that elicit both belly-laughs and deep discussions, so I have to give Almost an Evening 5 stars.
It’s finally here! Almost an Evening opens for previews TONIGHT! Visit the website at www.almostanevening.com
