Author Archives: Christopher Arnott
Formerly Known as The Mighty Archie Art Players
Archie and the gang end up writing a ’50s-themed show, Riverdale Rocks (working title: Riverdale Greasers), but I’d much rather see more of these Disney adaptations.From Archie Digest #253, June 2009.
Three Books (like, novels) by Guys Who Wrote Books (like, for musicals)
It’d be unfair to suggest that Jerome Weidman was more of a musical-book writer than a more conventional book writer—I Can Get It for You Wholesale was a well-received novel before it inspired a musical. And it would be unfair to call a novel by Noel Coward an anomaly—he wrote several. But Weidman and Coward … Continue reading
TSITF! Gesundheit!
There’s going to be a First Annual Times Square International Theatre Festival in January. Ignore for the moment that Times Square has been an ongoing international theater festival of sorts for over a century. If you’ve got a script in a drawer that you think might fit the bill, the deadline for submissions is Thursday. … Continue reading
Auntie Mame Meets Liliom at the Goodspeed
The Goodspeed’s Herman-izing again—Mame! And they have just announced where and when—Mame! It’s directed by Ray Roderick—he did My One and Only too But it’ll be a while ‘til we know who’s playing Mame, who who who who? With a couple of weeks to go in their current season, Goodspeed Musicals is whetting appetites for … Continue reading
The Street Scenes Review
Street Scenes Through Nov. 12 at the Yale Cabaret, 217 Park St., New Haven. Conceived by Maayan Strauss and Colin Mannex. Co-directors: Mannex, Strauss and Jessica Rizzo. Set Design: Edward T. Morris. Lighting Design: Benjamin Ehrenreich. Projection Design: Micah Stieglitz. Sound Composition: Palmer. Performers: Mannex, Strauss, Huei Li Leow, Matthew Maturi-Kioi, Tameka Norris, Eric Sirakian. … Continue reading
City Folk in East Haddam: Chats with Burke Moses and Liz Pearce from the Goodspeed Opera House production of City of Angels
To my deepest noir chagrin, I have not yet seen City of Angels at Goodspeed Opera House. Oh, I assuredly will—it’s up through nearly the end of November, and this rousing hardboiled musical is so rarely revived that this production is an unmissable opportunity. I have wonderful memories of the original Broadway production (which won … Continue reading
Cullom of Queens
NHTJ reader Ted Brooks sent this in: a page three article in Crain’s New York, the business paper, about Ray Cullom and his revitalization of the Queens Theatre in Queens, New York. Not where I usually think to look for theater news, but this is a multi-million dollar business transformation story. Cullom, you might recall, … Continue reading
Outrageous Acorn
I’ve hipped you to Acorn TV before. It’s the online mini-network broadcasting famous British series such as Upstairs Downstairs, Midsomer Murders and others distributed on DVD by Acorn Media, for $25 a year. They put up one complete season of each of several series on the Acorn TV site at a time, then rotate them … Continue reading
Yesterday’s Play in a Day
So we did Gozzi’s Love of Three Oranges, with a cast of nine children. The king role absorbed the Truffaldino and Pantalone roles as well, and Smeraldina handled some of the Truffaldino exposition and got a pie in the face (as did Fata Morgana). I’ve posted the entire 12-minute epic on the NHTJ Play in … Continue reading
Play in a Day for November TODAY (Tuesday the 8th)
Doing another of my quirky Play in a Day kids’ theater projects today, Tuesday Nov. 8, at Never Ending Books (810 State St., New Haven). Videos of previous projects are on NHTJ’s dedicated Play in a Day page, here. Often I don’t know for sure which classic script from world theater we’ll be adapting, until … Continue reading