Jun 29 2009
NEW YORK, 2 a.m. Saturday night/Sunday morning --
What a great start to the Jimmys! Some of the pros on the judges panel clearly thought they were doing community service by judging a group of high school students, but watching the 32 young contestants do their audition solos and ensemble pieces, they were surprised to discover a freshet of real (if unformed) talent. As one said, in only partial exaggeration, a few of the 32 could move to New York right now and get work.
Afterward, Van Kaplan and I adjourned with the five judges to a backstage room at NYU's handsome Skirball Center, and the debate was smart and long. Pictures of the consensus best boys and girls, about a half-dozen of each, were put up on the wall and their performances praised and faulted in surprising detail.
They weren't necessarily the best from Van's or my point of view, but we bit our tongues, being there just to facilitate. In my own case, about half were, and half weren't, but I'm not a pro - well, not that kind of pro. In Van's case, he's had the experience of working with the kids for several days, so he knows a lot more, good and bad. But here the focus was properly on their performances.
The real fun was later, as the Pittsburgh crew of 15 or so that's running the Jimmys piled into a bar across the street from the NYU dorm where most of them are staying. After several days of working with heterogeneous high school students, about half of whom have some idea of musical theater (and even professional credits), while the others are good singers who don't otherwise know what's going on, and after more than a few well-earned drinks, there was some definite letting-off of steam, much of it very funny. You know, backstage stories. My lips are sealed.
Last night's judging was just to create a hierarchy. In tonight's show, with Kathy Lee Gifford as host and Tommy Tune among the presenters, the judges will watch the ensemble pieces again (where they reprise bits of the performances that won their local awards), then adjourn to pick four finalists -- two girls, two boys -- who will do their solo numbers. Then a quick vote for the two winners.
Last night's judges were Bernie Telsey, leading casting director (and much more); Nick Scandalios, Nederlander organization exec v-p; Kent Gash, actor, director, CMU grad and head of a musical theater program at the Tisch School at NYU; Montego Glover, actress on "Color Purple," etc.; and Susan Lee, native Pittsburgher, marketing whiz and idea woman with the Nederlanders.
Montego and Susan were actually sitting in for Alecia Parker of National Artists Management and Scott Ellis of Broadway's Roundabout Theater, both of whom were stuck elsewhere. But they'll be here tonight, with Montego and Susan participating also, for continuity.
BTW, my title turns out to be Judicial Administrator, so don't cross me. I have Powers -- and I don't mean just the Irish whiskey of that name.
A few tickets to the 2009 Jimmy Awards are still available at www.skirballcenter.nyu.edu, at 212-352-3101 or at the Skirball Center, 566 LaGuardia Place (at Washington Square South). The show's at 7:30 p.m.
Pictures: (Top) Van Kaplan talks to some exhausted contestants (director/choreographer Kiesha Lalama-White at left); (2) Elizabeth Bailey of CAPA; (3) Kian McCollum of Chartiers Valley.
Student Blog: Click here for a student's eye blog, by last year's Kelly Critic Award winner, Casey McDermott.
* * *
The 32 nominees for the 2009 National High School Musical Theater Award are: Elizabeth Bailey (Pittsburgh CAPA - Pittsburgh, PA); Erin Borain (Alpharetta High School - Atlanta, Georgia); Alec Brashear (Lower Dauphin High School - Hershey, PA); Rebecca Brinkley (Cedar Ridge High School - Raleigh, NC); David Broyles (Newton South High School - Beverly, MA); Anthony Bruno (Bergen County Academies - Millburn, NJ); Stephanie Cooksey (Stratford High School - Houston, TX); Alejandro Fallick (Stratford High School - Houston, TX); Sarah Franklin (Lutheran High School of OC - Yorba Linda, CA); Grace Hardin (Ridgefield High School - Norwich, CT); Emily Higgins (Danvers High School - Beverly, MA); Seth Johnson (Cary Academy - Raleigh, NC); Julia Knitel (Fair Lawn High School - Millburn, NJ); Krystal Lawton (The School of the Arts - Rochester, NY); Sam Leake (Sterling High School - Wichita, KS); Stephen Mark (Ridgefield High School - Norwich, CT); Chauncey Matthews (San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts - San Diego, CA); Kian McCollum (Chartiers Valley High School - Pittsburgh, PA); Ryan Morton (Orange County School of the Arts - Yorba Linda, CA); Mallory Moser (Trinity Valley School - Fort Worth, TX); Adrien Pellerin (Atlanta International School - Atlanta, GA); Joe Pudetti (Penfield High School - Rochester, NY); Keegan Rice (Shawnee Mission West - Kansas City, MO); Michelle Rubich (Briarcliff High School - NY, NY); Aaron Sauer (Don Bosco Prep High School - NY, NY); Taryn Sprenkle (East Pennsboro High School - Hershey, PA); Samantha Steinmetz (Blue Valley High School - Kansas City, MO); Emma Stratton (Canyon Crest Academy - San Diego, CA); Alex Syiek (Huntington Beach High School - Fullerton, CA); Patrick Thomas (Colleyville Heritage High School - Forth Worth, TX); Gina Velez (La Habra High School - Fullerton, CA) and Jenny Wine (Wichita East High School - Wichita, KS).
Jun 28 2009
Sunday noon -- A picture and short story in Saturday's PG promised I was blogging from The Jimmys in New York, but that starts tonight, with the first round, and I'm just on my way to NYC now.
Named after legendary theater producer Jimmy Nederlander, the Jimmys are the national extension of Pittsburgh CLO's Gene Kelly Awards for Excellence in High School. Pittsburgh CLO has partnered with Nederlander Presentations Inc. (second largest Broadway theater owners); Van Kaplan's staff is heavily involved; and most of the production staff is from Pittsburgh, from music director Michael Moricz and choreographer Keisha Lalama-White to lighting and sound gurus Andy Ostrowski and Chris Evans.
The talent representing Pittsburgh is Elizabeth Bailey, a student at Pittsburgh CAPA who won this year's Kelly for best actress in the title role in "Anna Karenina," and Kian McCollum, from Chartiers Valley, who won for playing Robbie Hart in "The Wedding Singer." In NYC, they're going up against 30 more local winners from similar high school musical competitions in 15 other cities around the country -- all of them based, directly or indirectly, on the example of the Kellys, which next year celebrates its 20th year. (Click here for Elizabeth's and Kian's pictures.)
The 32 contestants have been in NYC since Thursday, working with theater pros. Tonight is the first round of the judging and the finals are Monday. I won't be blogging live, partly because it isn't a TV show (yet -- but they've sent a video crew and are making a documentary), but mainly because I'm involved. My role has been variously described as coordinator of judging or judge wrangler. The judges are five New York agents, casting directors, etc. (actual names when I get them later), with me to keep them on task. I'll know more about that later, too.
But someone is blogging already -- Casey McDermott, a senior at Chartiers Valley and last year's winner of the Kelly Critic prize. She's been here since Thursday with the 32 finalists. The picture is of her and me backstage at the 2008 Kelly Awards. For Casey's blog, which describes the first several days of this Big Apple adventure, click here.
Jun 08 2009
7:30 pm
Many a year at this time, I'd have already been jostling for an hour alongside the red carpet, getting in a word or two with the Tony nominees I knew or was rooting for. The best scheme was always to squirm in beside someone with a TV camera who would attract the press agents peddling the bigger names. It was sort of like the relationship between those small fish and big sharks, where the small fry eat the remnants left behind but also perform some service for their hosts. In my case, I usually knew more than the TV interviewers about the actual shows, so I could slip them a question or two.
But not now. I'm giving myself a year off (as I did last year, too), which means I get to take the couch potato route and see the show that most people see, the one on TV. I recognize the irony -- that the art form which glories in actual shared presence displays its wares, on this night, via the electronic enemy. Still, I'm expecting to have a real good time, no matter who wins.
8:20 pm
Three Billy Elliots! West Side Story! Stockard Channing! (Who was that in duet with her?) "Rock of Ages"! Dolly Parton! Liza! "Hair"! They sure packed them all into that opening medley, didn't they?
Weird but wonderful to watch all the other shows join in on "Let the Sunshine In." Slightly ominous, though, to be reminded by the V-O that we were going to see more than the usual musical numbers this year, the sub-text being that they're eager to sell touring shows, with the inevitable result that fewer awards will actually be awarded on camera. And why is Neil Patrick Harris the host? "I'm on TV," as he said with due modesty.
Lots of star power, though: quick shots of Geoffrey Rush, Edie Falco, Angela Lansbury, then Jane Fonda as the first presenter. Did you notice that she neatly split the pronunciation difference between Ga-DOH and GOD-o?Featured actor in a play: Roger Robinson! I couldn't be happier.
8:50 pm
"Shrek" led off with its strongest suit, word-play comedy, designed to appeal to the grownups while the story plays to the kids. And it featured Christopher Sieber, their best shot at an individual Tony -- with the three leads sitting back down in the audience to watch the finale.
Featured actress in a play: Angela Lansbury, her inevitable 5th Tony. The audience response seemed like the real thing, heartfelt. "Thank you for having me back."A number from "Mamma Mia"!? So yesterday.
First play excerpt: "33 Variations." No, sorry -- just a little film clip. Will Ferrell, "as a Broadway veteran," "trodding the boards." Good joke: "best score," the naked cast of "Hair.
"Book: "Billy Elliot." Score: "Next to Normal"! My first loss. (I expect many more -- like Best Orchestrations, which also went to "Next to Normal," as the V-O just told us.) Their thank-yous got the first abrupt cut-off.
"West Side Story" showed one of its best dance numbers, the Dance at the Gym, in which Tony and Maria have their Romeo & Juliet encounter. Sweet. 9:25Susan Sarandon! "She looks pretty good," I said, in that unemphatic, tentative, noncommittal way you use when your wife is listening to you praise another woman. " She's FABULOUS," said wife growled back.
Director, play: Matthew Warchus, a great choice, but he should have won for "The Norman Conquests," which is a greater accomplishment. Although now that I think of it, it's the British cast. The "God of Carnage" cast is American and had to be rehearsed here, so maybe it was the right result, after all.
"A surprisingly big small play," Warchus called it, by "a writer of great precision and audacity." Note that he could have been talking about either Yasmina Reza and "Carnage" (as he was) or of Alan Ayckbourn and "Norman." Then he thanked his wife for keeping "calm back home," allowing him to "manufacture marital mayhem" on Broadway -- a remark that would also have applied equally to "Norman."
Director, musical: Stephen Daldry, "Billy Elliot." I love that he thanked the crew.
Special event: I predicted "Liza at the Palace," but in retrospect, I wish the Tony had gone to the wonderful "Slava's Snow Storm," which I saw a number of times off-Broadway. I wish everyone could have a chance to see it some time. Certainly everyone has already seen Liza one time or a half-dozen.
9:40 pm
What was that? Granted, my attention is somewhat frayed, pecking away at this laptop as I try to watch (sort of like being backstage, after all), but that quick cut-away to previously awarded Tonys was hard to follow. Did they say that best orchestrations was a tie between "Next to Normal" and "Billy Elliot"? That explains Matthew Warchus' crack about "rather hoping for another tie" (i.e., with himself), the tie being something he would have known about before we were told. So I get a half-point here, after all.
Best book, "Billy"; best choreography, ditto. Did I get those right?
And the regional theater Tony to the Signature Theater of Arlington, Va. -- on the recommendation of the American Theatre Critics Association. I make that point because I'm an ATCA member. So I understand what drives the Theater Wing to have its annual spot extolling itself, but it's always one of the dullest parts of the telecast. (I heard later that my friend Jeffrey Jenkins, who moderates some of the Theater Wings "working in the theater" seminars, showed up in the video clips. So I guess I wasn't watching very carefully, or I just assumed the spot would be boring and worked at making a post.)
Supporting actor, musical: Gregory Jbara! What a sweetheart he is and showed himself to be, talking to his kids in his thank you, and bringing out his wife, who took care of them while he was on Broadway taking care of all those Billy Elliots.
Supporting actress, musical: Karen Olivo, speaking up for the dream in us all. I regret not having yet seen "Next to Normal," but I'm intrigued by what I've heard and seen so far.
10:20
Jessica Lange appears. "Also beautiful," says Mary, unprompted. "I like these beautiful mature women." (Well, yeah, to tell the truth, so do I.)
Actor, play: Geoffrey Rush. Classiest speech so far, with its clever leap from "French existential absurdist tragedy" to a witty insistence on the Frenchness of all the other nominees, including the one in the play by David Mam-ay.
And then the necrology -- what a huge, sad list. Natasha Richardson. Harold Pinter. Edie Adams (who starred in the first Broadway musical I ever saw). James Whitmore. Horton Foote. Clive Barnes. Tom O'Horgan. Bea Arthur. Robert Anderson. Robert Prosky. Pat Hingle. Anna Manahan. Eartha Kitt. Hugh Leonard. William Gibson. Paul Sills. And Paul Newman. How can we lose so many? And almost every year it's like this. How profligate life -- and talent -- can be.
Another section of earlier awards announced, and what with glancing down at the laptop, I just didn't get them all. But I did see that "Joe Turner" won for lighting and "Billy Elliot" won a bunch more, as I expected. And did "Shrek" really win for costumes, as I predicted (without any real confidence)?
I loved Frank Langella's riff on failing to be nominated for "Man for All Seasons." Great deadpan, impish humor. Actress, play: Marcia Gay Harden (a good choice). "What a glorious season to be on Broadway." Another classy speech, with deft praise of her fellow nominees.
Then Sir Elton John. (Sir? What's happened to the peerage? Well, whatever, it happened long ago, when England really did become a democracy.)"
Legally Blonde" does a number: call it an ad.
Harvey Fierstein, with that extraordinary growl of a voice, awards best revival of a play to "Norman Conquests," which deserved to win, and best play to "God of Carnage," which I feel less enthusiastic about -- it's a fine, crisp play, but I was rooting for Horton Foote's "Dividing the Estate."
11:15
Sorry, a long wait for this installment. I couldn't tear myself away from the prodction numbers; the one from "Jersey Boys" was better than the show.
I enjoyed the producer's praising the "God of Carnage" cast as "the acting equivalent of Rodger Federer." And it was a treat to see the elusive, diminutive Yasmina Reza in person. (Well, TV gives that illusion.) I didn't think she ever left Paris.
Angela Lansbury introducing Jerry Herman! They don't make ‘em like them any more. Well, of course they do -- show biz is amazing that way -- but you have to wait decades to discover just who they are.
Kristen Chenoweth is always welcome, right? Accepting the musical revival award she handed out, Oskar Eustis wore one of those white ribbons (so did Anne Hathaway) urging repeal of the California ban on gay marriage.
David Hyde Pierce entered with a great joke, then awarded best actor in a musical to Alice Ripley, clearly a popular winner in the hall. You could see how intensely she believed her JFK quote about the power of art over politics. "Musical theater is a fine art," she insisted. Yes, indeed.
Liza, wearing all her troubled, astonishing life in full view, brought a lot of tradition to the best musical award to (of course) "Billy Elliot." Among the thanks-yous, the one I thought stood out was to John Barlow, "Broadway's greatest publicist." There are several others who would contend for the title, but it was extraordinary to hear a publicist so praised -- and this on the same night that much admired and liked publicist Shirley Herz received a Tony Honor (not quite a Tony, but who's counting?).
And the telecast saved the best for last, a tightly written version of "Tonight," commenting on the evening. Some writer was working quickly and under pressure backstage, but kudos to Neil Patrick Harris, who more than justified his emceeship with faultless delivery. Here's the only lyric I had time to get down: "this show could not be any gayer, if Liza were named Mayor, and Elton John took flight!" I'm off to find the full lyrics, doubtless already available somewhere on the web.
BUT FIRST: how did I do on my predictions? Frankly, I think I was ridiculously lucky, especially with the design awards, where I did some guessing, but a quick count shows me with 20.5 right and 6.5 wrong. That's what? 76 percent? I'll take it. But I better go check before I crow.
LATER: Yes, 20.5 out of 27 is right. I checked Gwen Orel's picks, and she had 13 out of 25, which is really unfair, because she saw more of the nominated shows than I did.
But nothing's fair in the predictions biz, Gwen.
LATER, STILL: I've just read all of Gwen's posts from backstage, and it's extraordinary how much material she recorded and how well she captures the dynamic of the print media room. But what I really enjoy is the personality she gives it (hers, of course). To read her posts, go to pgTHEATERnow at the top of the Theater page (www.post-gazette.com/theater. Or use this direct link. In either case, you'll have to work back through 11 posts, but it's well worth it.
Jun 07 2009
7:30 pm
Many a year at this time, I'd have already been jostling for an hour alongside the red carpet, getting in a word or two with the Tony nominees I knew or was rooting for. The best scheme was always to squirm in beside someone with a TV camera who would attract the press agents peddling the bigger names. It was sort of like the relationship between those small fish and big sharks, where the small fry eat the remnants left behind but also perform some service for their hosts. In my case, I usually knew more than the TV interviewers about the actual shows, so I could slip them a question or two.
But not now. I'm giving myself a year off (as I did last year, too), which means I get to take the couch potato route and see the show that most people see, the one on TV. I recognize the irony -- that the art form which glories in actual shared presence displays its wares, on this night, via the electronic enemy. Still, I'm expecting to have a real good time, no matter who wins.
8:20 pm
Three Billy Elliots! West Side Story! Stockard Channing! (Who was that in duet with her?) "Rock of Ages"! Dolly Parton! Liza! "Hair"! They sure packed them all into that opening medley, didn't they? Weird but wonderful to watch all the other shows join in on "Let the Sunshine In." Slightly ominous, though, to be reminded by the V-O that we were going to see more than the usual musical numbers this year, the sub-text being that they're eager to sell touring shows, with the inevitable result that fewer awards will actually be awarded on camera. And why is Neil Patrick Harris the host? "I'm on TV," as he said with due modesty.
Lots of star power, though: quick shots of Geoffrey Rush, Edie Falco, Angela Lansbury, then Jane Fonda as the first presenter. Did you notice that she neatly split the pronunciation difference between Ga-DOH and GOD-o?
Featured actor in a play: Roger Robinson! I couldn't be happier.
8:50 pm
"Shrek" led off with its strongest suit, word-play comedy, designed to appeal to the grownups while the story plays to the kids. And it featured Christopher Sieber, their best shot at an individual Tony -- with the three leads sitting back down in the audience to watch the finale.
Featured actress in a play: Angela Lansbury, her inevitable 5th Tony. The audience response seemed like the real thing, heartfelt. "Thank you for having me back."
A number from "Mamma Mia"!? So yesterday.
First play excerpt: "33 Variations." No, sorry -- just a little film clip. Will Ferrell, "as a Broadway veteran," "trodding the boards." Good joke: "best score," the naked cast of "Hair."
Book: "Billy Elliot." Score: "Next to Normal"! My first loss. (I expect many more -- like Best Orchestrations, which also went to "Next to Normal," as the V-O just told us.) Their thank-yous got the first abrupt cut-off.
"West Side Story" showed one of its best dance numbers, the Dance at the Gym, in which Tony and Maria have their Romeo & Juliet encounter. Sweet.
9:25
Susan Sarandon! "She looks pretty good," I said, in that unemphatic, tentative, noncommittal way you use when your wife is listening to you praise another woman. "She's FABULOUS," said wife growled back.
Director, play: Matthew Warchus, a great choice, but he should have won for "The Norman Conquests," which is a greater accomplishment. Although now that I think of it, it's the British cast. The "God of Carnage" cast is American and had to be rehearsed here, so maybe it was the right result, after all.
"A surprisingly big small play," Warchus called it, by "a writer of great precision and audacity." Note that he could have been talking about either Yasmina Reza and "Carnage" (as he was) or of Alan Ayckbourn and "Norman." Then he thanked his wife for keeping "calm back home," allowing him to "manufacture marital mayhem" on Broadway -- a remark that would have also applied equally to "Norman."
Director, musical: Stephen Daldry, "Billy Elliot." I love that he thanked the crew.
Special event: I predicted "Liza at the Palace," but in retrospect, I wish the Tony had gone to the wonderful "Slava's Snow Storm," which I saw a number of times off-Broadway. I wish everyone could have a chance to see it some time. Certainly everyone has already seen Liza one time or a half-dozen.
Jun 01 2009
Tuesday, May 5
Flew up early to beat the rush -- i.e., the PG ShowPlane group, arriving tomorrow with uber-competent Paul and Jackie Busang of Gulliver's Travels -- and also to see a couple of more shows. For once, Broadway is awash in plays, not just musicals, and I had a devil of a time deciding which eight shows to cram in the standard six-day Broadway week, although this time I could actually do nine, because "The Norman Conquest" has a Saturday morning show. 
For the first night I chose the Bill Irwin-Nathan Lane-John Goodman-John Glover "Waiting for Godot" (that's GOD-o). I give the actors pride of place because Beckett's play is such an established classic. I first encountered it in a drama survey at Harvard in fall, 1959. The play had just made its English language debut in London 1955, and it seemed very strange and new and we congratulated ourselves for being on the cutting edge. Now, as I'm coming up on my 50th anniversary with it on the page and stage, it feels as though it's always been there, the essential play of the 20th century.
With me were dear friend Janes Hewes and my daughter Celia and her husband, Jeb, and it's because of him that we went backstage afterwards -- Irwin, a master of physical theater who for many years rarely even spoke on stage, has long been a student of Jeb's mother, Brenda Bufalino, a master tap dancer.
Wednesday, May 6
Today started with the big morning melee for the press and Tony Award nominees (announced Tuesday), which I've written about at length (see the May 8 post, below).
Then for something very different in the afternoon: Lynn Nottage's "Ruined," off-Broadway at Manhattan Theatre Club's City Center Stage 1, a must-see because it just won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for drama. With me was Gwen Orel, who has contributed to PG theater coverage for almost a decade. "Ruined" is an epic play on a horrendous subject, the rape of women in contemporary African civil wars, but nonetheless it manages to achieve some uplift. It's very much a contemporary version of "Mother Courage," the equivalent character of Mama Nadi being the best part of the play.
BTW, I expect to write reviews of all these shows in the weeks ahead. (NOTE: Now, I already have, most of them. Go to www.post-gazette.com/theater for one group review of three musicals and another of four (five) plays.)
(These are our New York granddaughters, not street mimes. On the left, Alice, playing in the park; just below, Ella, with the clown mask she got for her birthday.)
For dinner, I met the PG group at Barbetta's, a handsome, classy place on Restaurant Row. This year's group wasn't big, just 30-some, but they were lively. And Barbetta's started us off on a very high note.
I can't say quite so much for the group's first show, "West Side Story," which is richly lyrical and makes novel use of Spanish for added authenticity, but lacks the gut-wrenching feel of danger I expected. Maybe it's just too familiar -- this is another show I first encountered in college, when the first national tour came through Boston. But even the most familiar tragedy should still be able to stir you deeply.
Our group was treated to a post-show chat with several cast members, arranged for us by new CMU grad ('08) Tro Shaw, a wiry, plaintive Anybodys in the show. With her was George Akram, a very handsome, laid back Bernardo, who talked about the different Hispanic cultures represented in the cast. Tro remembers getting bitten by the show biz bug at age 4, in a production of "Romeo and Juliet." She was also a gymnast at A.C.T. in San Francisco -- as you can see in her lean, nimble movement.
With them was Matt Hydzik, the standby for Tony, a Hopewell native who won a 1999 Kelly Award in Quaker Valley's "Fiddler on the Roof" (and shared a Shakespeare Monologue and Scene award that year with Gillian Jacob), then went to Penn State. Matt recalled studying with Mario Melodia at the Edgeworth Club and the arts program at Sewickley Academy, and studying also with Ingrid Sonnichsen and Jill Wadsworth. Others in the show with Pittsburgh connections whom we didn't get to meet include Mike Cannon who plays Snowboy and Eric Hatch (Point Park) as Big Deal.
There's also a small Pittsburgh connection for Argentinian Josefina Scaglione, who spent a couple of months in her mid-teens in a summer dance program at Point Park. ..... Thanks to Pittsburgh playwright Jim McManus, a friend of Tro's, who first put me in touch with her.
Did I end up that night at the Sardi's bar for a post-post-show drink? Maybe, maybe not, but I did that more nights than not. Part of the attraction is watching a real pro mixologist (that;'s him in the picture) perform his efficient wonders.
Thursday, May 7
I spent a good part of the day filing my story about Wednesday's Tony nominees press mele -- an OnStage Journal entry far more timely than this one. Then my wife Mary arrived -- that's her, noting Eugene O'Neill's plaque on a Times Square shop.
The PG group went to "Billy Elliot," but since I've seen in several times in both London and New York, I went with Mary to "Living Together," technically the second play of "The Normal Conquests" trilogy, though we saw it first. All three plays intertwine so tightly that it's hard to know where to begin or end, and as soon as you've seen one play you'd like to go back and re-see another to get an extra degree of interlocking detail you missed the first time around. I even think you can tell who's seen which other part when they laugh for seemingly no reason -- it's because they just remembered what scene in another play a character has just entered from or is exiting to.
Friday, May 8
This day I had a treat I look forward to in NYC -- picking up Ella and Alice, our grandchildren, at their West Village school and wandering home with them through Greenwich Village. We usually manage to hit an ice cream or pastry shop, and this time we started out by playing hide and seek in a gorgeous little garden parklet near their school. Then we all went out to supper, celebrating Ella's 11th birthday -- amazing that she's so old.
I missed the PG group's morning walking tour, which is always of a different, interesting corner of NY, and, to increase my regret, always with a really good lunch to follow. 
At night, I went with the PG group to "Guys and Dolls," for which my expectations weren't especially high. As so often happens, the result was that I had an unexpectedly good time. Of course, "Gs and Ds" is one of the greatest musical comedies of all time. It's also the only one containing references to my two homes, Pittsburgh and Rhode Island.
Mary went instead to August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone," which I'd already seen twice, once with some students in my August Wilson course at Pitt and then for the opening. I'm still hoping to get back to see it a third time before it closes its limited run -- though if it does well at the Tonys, I suppose it might extend. (By the way, if you go, cough up a buck for the Lincoln Center Theatre Review in the lobby -- it includes several interesting essays relating to Wilson, plus one by me.)
Saturday, May 9
This was the ShowPlane day that traditionally starts early, in a hotel meeting room, with coffee and discussion of what we've seen so far. There was a nice turnout, which always surprises me, since I'd probably sleep in if I were in their place. As always, the group had plenty to say about what they'd seen -- it always stretches me to try to stay a few steps ahead and have something to tell them, because they always have plenty to tell me. 
Everyone headed in different directions for late morning shopping and then individually-chosen matinees. Some probably preferred even more shopping to a matinee. But Mary and I did more theater in spades, heading first to the 11:30 performance of "Table Manners," supposedly the first part of the "Norman Conquests" trilogy.
There we ran into Mark Rylance and his wife, musician Claire van Kampen, who were settling in to see the one-day marathon of all three parts of the trilogy. In case you've forgotten, we know Mark in Pittsburgh from his pajama-clad Hamlet at the Public Theater back in 1991, then from his visits in 2003 and 2005 with the Shakespeare's Globe company from London in the all-male, original practices versions of "Twelfth Night" and "Measure for Measure."
Mark was at "Norman" partly to see the work of director Matthew Warchus, who has directed him several times, most notably (to me) in "Life X 3" (London) and "Boeing Boeing" (Broadway). Warchus also directed "God of Carnage," which means he's competing with himself for a Tony. Mark told us he's been offered a Broadway production of "La Bete," that modern Moliere-like comedy with the longest opening comic monologue in the history of the universe (Pittsburgh saw it done at Playhouse Rep by the brilliant Heath Lamberts).
The moment "Tables Manners" ended, even before the curtain call (and I love curtain calls), Mary and I were out the door sprinting five or six blocks to Yasmina Reza's "God of Carnage," a really slick, satisfying comedy -- almost embarrassingly so, because we find ourselves laughing so hard at the self-satisfied upper-middle-class. I'm already casting the Pittsburgh production in my anticipatory imagination.
"Carnage" is short, so we had time for a quick trip to the Drama Book Shop on 40thSt., an essential part of every New York visit, and then a visit and drink with Jeffrey Eric Jenkins and wife Vivian. Jeffrey's been a friend ever since we took graduate theater classes together at CMU in the early ‘80s (he got a degree, I became a theater critic); we've shared leadership roles in the American Theatre Critics Association; and now I get to torment him by being late with my essays for the "Best Plays Theater Yearbook" he edits.
Then Mary was off to feast on the two fine actresses in "Mary Stuart," while I joined the PG group for "9 to 5," an entertaining musical version of the 1979 movie comedy. Afterward, the group met with CMU '04 grad Megan Hilty, who plays Doralee, the Dolly Parton role, and Mark Myars, dance captain and swing. That's Megan and me in the picture, up above -- note the ghost light on the empty stage behind me. (Other Pittsburghers in the cast are Gaelen Gilliland, Fox Chapel High School '92, and Neil Haskell, Point Park.) The cast was high on just having recorded Parton's score.
That night Mary and I definitely did repair to Sardi's, along with Gwen Orel, former PG critic Phil Stephenson and his fiancee Miriam Walden (that's them just above, with me -- why do I look so tired?) and the PG's Sharon Eberson and Maria Sciullo. And who should we run into but Simon Jones, who we'd see the next day in "Blithe Spirit." Together, we all kept that mixologist busy.
Sunday, May 10
The PG group left this morning. Or so I assume -- I was still asleep. 
Mary and I finally got started in time for an all-too-short visit to MOMA and its shops, before "Blithe Spirit," a perfectly light and light-hearted end to a week of theater.
We visited Simon backstage afterward, then watched him sign some autographs and took him across the street to his local, which is of course Sardi's, where he has the added pleasure of visiting his hair, memorialized in his caricature, which dates from 1986.
So we were pleasantly sloshed when we finally grabbed a cab to head for LaGuardia and return to the real world.
Captions, from the top:
1. Posters in Shubert Alley.
2. Alice (not her real nose).
3. Ella (not her real face).
4. Sardi's mixologist, at the upstairs bar with the view of Shubert Alley.
5. Mary and the Eugene O'Neill plaque in Times Square.
6. Christine Ebersole (who plays the ghostly Elvira) and SImon Jones (the pragmatic Dr. Bradman), backstage at "Blithe Spirit."
7. Ella's birthday dinner.
8. Phil Stephenson, Miriam Walden and a tired CR, back at Sardi's!
9. Simon Jones (right) visits his hair (left) amid the caricatures of fame at Sardi's.