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Faust Songs: Secret Colours’ and 10 Others
The Chicago band Secret Colours released a new song today, called “Faust.” It’s the lead track from a 5-song EP which Secret Colours will release on New Year’s Day. You can find “Faust” on MTV Hive here. “Fall down/Get back up,” it intones. Later, “Original sin/Comes from within.” The music starts with a horse-trot beats, … Continue reading
The A Thought in Three Parts Review
A Thought in Three Parts Through Nov. 19 at the Yale Cabaret, 217 Park St., New Haven. (203) 432-1566, yalecabaret.org. By Wallace Shawn. Directed by Hallie Cooper-Novack. Set & Lights: Adam Rigg. Costumes: Martin Schnellinger. Sound: Palmer. Sound Associate: Keri Klick. Producer: Kate Ivins. Dramaturg: Delilah Dominguez. Stage Manager: Kirstin Hodges. Technical Director: Michael Place. … Continue reading
Phineas and Ferb in Connecticut this weekend: pointy, weird and live
Disney’s done all right on Broadway for a couple decades now, but they’ve ruled the stadium touring circuit for much longer, maintaining high standards despite having very little competition. Disney road shows are often produced by Feld Entertainment, the folks who bring you Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, the monster truck show Monster … Continue reading
Gottfriedspell
Gilbert Gottfried’s Rubber Balls and Liquor (St. Martin’s Press, 2011) is the most unassuming memoir by an abrasive, polarizing international celebrity (hello, Japan!) that you’re ever likely to read. In contrast to his squinting, braying stage persona, in his book Gottfried underplays everything—his fame, his talent, his maturity. I highly recommend you purchase the thing. … Continue reading
A Close Encounter with Jacques LaMarre, Who’s About to Go Too Far at Hole in the Wall Theatre
Unlike Jacques Brel, who is alive and well and living in Paris, Jacques Lamarre has gone too far. At least that’s the view of New Britain’s Hole in the Wall Theater, which is producing four of Lamarre’s one-acts Nov. 18-Dec. 10 at their hole in the wall at 116 Main St., New Britain. “I kind … Continue reading
Guys & Riverdales
Little Ambrose, the tyke in the red cap, is the Stubby Kaye of the Little Archie gang. My daughter Mabel caught the Guys & Dolls reference in this story, reprinted in Archie’s Double Digest #208, June 2010. Ambrose has recently resurfaced as a grown-up in Life With Archie magazine, living in New York and turning … Continue reading
Theater Mystery book review
Death Dance by Linda Fairstein (Scribner, 2006). In which the bestselling Fairsten’s regular heroine Alex Cooper (an NYC Assistant DA) and two NYPD pals are “drawn into the machinations of New York City’s secretive theatrical community.” There are long stretches when nothing theatrical is happening at all, but then there are some richly resonant passages … Continue reading
A Christmas Castle
The Cleveland Play House calls itself “America’s first professional regional theatre,” (begging the churlish question “What’s a professional region?!”). Their next production, The Game’s Afoot (or Holmes for the Holidays) is a world premiere with a Connecticut connection. The title’s no mystery—this is a Sherlock Holmes caper set during Christmastime. Can a more commercial regional … Continue reading
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