may tomorrow be a perfect day

what a cruel, cruel joke the mormons are playing on me in 2010 – i will be in japan while this is happening in new york:

Donny & Marie - A Broadway Christmas, a new holiday production starring brother and sister Donny and Marie Osmond, will play 12 performances at Broadway's Marquis Theatre Dec. 9-19. Tickets go on sale 10 AM Oct. 20.

The show is "in the holiday tradition of the 'Osmond Family Christmas' television specials," according to the producers. This marks the first time the concert, TV and recording stars — internationally famous for their 1970s variety show, recordings and recent appearances on "Dancing With the Stars" — have shared a Broadway stage.

Expect "their trademark show-stopping Christmas production numbers," including "favorite hits mixed with the irresistible chemistry that made them international stars."

here's some of that irresistible chemistry now:



check out the smart choreography, yet another impressive guest list, and the ice vanities forming what appears to be a busby berkeley-esqe swastika-on-ice.

and the tony goes to...

...without a doubt, american idiot. the times' charles isherwood gushes:

“American Idiot,” directed by Michael Mayer and performed with galvanizing intensity by a terrific cast, detonates a fierce aesthetic charge in this ho-hum Broadway season. A pulsating portrait of wasted youth that invokes all the standard genre conventions — bring on the sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll, please! — only to transcend them through the power of its music and the artistry of its execution, the show is as invigorating and ultimately as moving as anything I’ve seen on Broadway this season. Or maybe for a few seasons past.

if the new york production comes anywhere near the ragged intensity and stunning theatricality of the original berkeley rep production (i haven't seen the ny version yet, but i believe it is largely unchanged) then we have a (tony) winner. hands down.

new york's theatrical myopia

on monday, next to normal – the broadway musical about a mother struggling with bipolar disorder and the effect that her illness has on her family – won the 2010 pulitzer prize for drama.

on tuesday, l.a. times theatre critic and chair of this year's pulitzer jury charles mcnulty wrote this:

In an era in which important new dramatic works rarely get their start in New York, the board's geographical myopia, a vision of the American theater that starts in Times Square and ends just a short taxi ride away is especially disheartening. Does anyone really believe that "Next to Normal" would have been chosen had it been submitted when it was at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C.?

we are (the addams) family

not exactly the way you want your new york times review to begin.

Imagine, if you dare, the agonies of the talented people trapped inside the collapsing tomb called “The Addams Family.” Being in this genuinely ghastly musical ...must feel like going to a Halloween party in a strait-jacket or a suit of armor. Sure, you make a flashy (if obvious) first impression. But then you’re stuck in the darn thing for the rest of the night, and it’s really, really uncomfortable. Why, you can barely move, and a strangled voice inside you keeps gasping, “He-e-e-lp! Get me out of here!”

here's christine baranski, peter macnicol, christina ricci, jimmy workman and mercedes mcnab in the best addams family musical number ever. and you won't see it on the broadway:

the future of broadway is gaga

the new york times' jason zinoman thinks broadway should go gaga:

Melding multimedia images with old-fashioned razzle-dazzle, Lady Gaga’s show (which runs through Sunday) manages to integrate theme, image and even some narrative seamlessly into one of the most engrossing dramatic spectacles in town. As a theater critic who has suffered through too many stale, pop-infused musicals, I suggest that Broadway would be smart to follow her lead.

the great white way...

...will have it's great green day.

why i quit show business #5

broadway.com's 2009 star of the year.

what a difference a day (or 3) makes

ragtime is not closing. ragtime is closing.

leaving tevye in the dust

who said 13 was not a lucky number?