Rock Theater
Monkees as Actors: A Quiz
What do you know about the stage (and quasi-stage) work of The Pre-Fab Four? 1. Davy Jones was in the original Broadway cast of this Dickens-based musical. (The cast appeared on the same Feb. 9, 1964 telecast of the Ed Sullivan show as the Beatles.) 2. David Jones and Micky Dolenz co-starred in the London … Continue reading
Rock Bands Which Share Names With Theater Buildings
1. Le Grand Guignol 2. Theatre Royal 3. Pacific Theater OK, so the last one’s more like a battleground. I enjoy making these lists anyhow.
More Rock Bands Named After Plays
1. Dear Brutus: danceable modern rock band with punk roots from Manchester and Sheffield, England. The play Dear Brutus is a fantasy comedy by J.M. Barrie, a romance in which stuck-in-their-ways characters are offered alternative existences for a night. Much cooler than A Little Night Music/Smiles of a Summer Night. 2. Faust. I feel I … Continue reading
Bands Which Share Names with Sam Shepard Plays
1. Cowboy Mouth. This one could be genuinely confusing to clubgoers/theatergoers, since the play the band is named after is a rock-and-roll affair developed by Sam Shepard and Patti Smith that actually gets staged in rock clubs fairly often. That’s what inspired this list, actually. 2. Angel City: Australian rock band, aka The Angels. Known … Continue reading
NHTJ on WNPR
HOW I’LL SPEND MY SUMMER VACATION: ALICE COOPER, THE VERY PERSONIFICATION OF SCHOOL BEING OUT, IS COMING TO FOXWOODS CASINO. Hey, I just spent an hour yammering live on the Colin McEnroe show on WNPR. I guess they post podcasts of past episodes here. The topic was “Summer Arts Preview,” and the other guests were … Continue reading
Twenty Bands Named After Shakespeare Plays
Summer is the time for multi-stage, stylistically diverse rock festivals. It’s also the time for multi-stage, stylistically diverse Shakespeare festivals. Why not combine the two? All the world’s a stage, after all. Titus Andronicus. Rabble-rousing rock/punk outfit from New Jersey. Their album The Monitor has Civil War undertones, and a character in the video “A … Continue reading
Five Rock Records Which Share Titles With 20th Century Plays
1. Madhouse on Castle Street, Chopper. While, to my knowledge, no specific song on the album builds upon these references, the Connecticut-based power pop band Chopper’s 1995 album Madhouse on Castle Street not only uses the name of a play as the album’s title but has a photograph of a playwright’s home on its back … Continue reading
Outer Spacey
Kevin Spacey, the film actor turned Bobby Darin impersonator turned artistic director of the Old Vic Theatre Company in London, had a problem with the title of the new album by the indie band Cassettes Won’t Listen. The title: KEVINSPACEY. So the actor Kevin Spacey issued a cease-and-desist order against the album KEVINSPACEY. Rather than … Continue reading
Favoritism Thing
Otherwise Known as the Human Condition—Selected Essays and Reviews by Geoff Dyer (Graywolf Press, 2011). This 421-page collection of his essays shows Geoff Dyer to be a critic of varied tastes and exceptional range. (He’s equally renowned as a novelist.) The theater doesn’t seem to be one of his areas of expertise, however. Judging by … Continue reading