Unusual number of theater references in this week’s (May 20) Entertainment Weekl. Especialy considering the Tony nominations were part of last issue. And that this isn’t even one of those weeks where EW’s monthly “Theater” section runs.
• Tony Kushner’s The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures gets on the magazine’s Must List (with the ethically appropriate disclaimer that Kushner is “married to EW columnist Mark Harris), despite being Off Broadway, a realm this mainstream periodical rarely acknowledges.
• Kenneth Branagh’s Shakespearean background is emphasized in a “News & Notes” story, “From Hamlet to Hammers,” about the success of Thor. Branagh itemizes the similarities between his version of Marvel’s Norse-god superhero and his film of Henry V.
• Larry Kramer is spotlighted for the New York revival of The Normal Heart, with a sidebar on the play’s film prospects.
• Entertainment Weekly’s nonstop coverage of the showtune jukebox TV show Glee previews a May 24 episode set on Broadway, with lots of mentions of Wicked.
• A send-off for the recently deceased Arthur Laurents in the mag’s DVD section touts his original script-writing roles for West Side Story, Gypsy and the very play-like Hitchcock thriller Rope.
• Then there are the people who came out of theater but are best known in other media: an interview with Woody Allen (a playwright and stand-up comic before he became a filmmaker) on his nostalgia-neurotic new film Midnight in Paris; and a little piece on Paul Bettany titled “Paul Bettany Can’t Stop Playing Priests.” Personally, I still register Bettany as a stage actor, having first seen him in the Bush Theater production of Joe Penhall’s Love and Understanding at the Long Wharf Theatre in 1998. He certainly wasn’t being a priest in that.