STANLEY KOWALSKI IN HIS BVD’S. This cartoon from a September 2020 issue of The New Yorker will have readers in 2040 scratching their heads, but right now it’s priceless. The caption — slightly paraphrased — is “O.K., it’s a Panda-cam production of ‘Streetcar,’ but it’s still live theater.”
_________________________________________
SAY IT AIN’T SO, BEN BRANTLEY
DEADLINE
“New York Times Theater Critic Ben Brantley Stepping Down From Post,” by Greg Evans, 9-10-20
______________________________
Ben Brantley arrived at The New York Times back in 1993, as the second-string theater critic, when David Richards had just taken over from Frank Rich as chief theater critic. Greg Evans’s announcement article runs down the details of Brantley’s announced retirement (last day: Oct. 15, stated reasons for doing this at this time, what The Times plans to do about a replacement).
Brantley (in photo at a 2014 Library Lions party) is an East Coast sophisticate with Southern roots. He was born in North Carolina, went to Swarthmore (in Pennsylvania) and wrote for The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Women’s Wear Daily and Elle before The Times grabbed him.
I do wish, though, that whoever wrote the Deadline headline could have done it without using the word Post.
READ THE ENTIRE DEADLINE ARTICLE
IN THE HOUSE The jump page of a recent New York Times article about Hillary Rodham Clinton. Top photo: Clinton with André De Shields and others at “Hadestown.” Bottom right photo: Clinton and her husband, President Bill Clinton, surrounded by the cast of “Hamilton.”
HILLARY ADMITS WHAT WE’VE KNOWN ALL ALONG (Sorry, I’ve Been Dying to Write That) — SHE’S IN LOVE WITH THEATER!
THE NEW YORK TIMES
“Hillary Clinton: Broadway’s Superfan,” by Michael Paulson, 10-3-20.
_______________________________________________
In this interview with The Times’s theater reporter Michael Paulson, Clinton confesses that she sings so badly that she was cast in “Bye Bye Birdie” in high school only if she promised the drama teacher she’d keep her mouth shut. She praises “Three Tall Women,” “The Ferryman,” “The Band’s Visit,” “Hamilton,” “Hadestown,” “Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish” and other plays. She admits that sometimes the script can get too personal — as when characters in “The Inheritance” are watching 2016 presidential election returns and are horrified that she’s losing.
When Paulson asks if she would ever become a theater producer herself, she doesn’t say no. When he asks if theater is an escape for her — or a form of therapy, she answers, “Solace, as well as replenishment.”
THEY SAY THE NEON LIGHTS ARE BRIGHT ON BROADWAY 44th Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue earlier this year. That’s the “Jagged Little Pill” marquee on the left.
IS THE END NEAR? IS THE END HERE? WASHINGTON WORRIES OUT LOUD ABOUT BROADWAY
THE WASHINGTON POST
“New York City Can’t Rebound Without Broadway. And Broadway’s Road Back Is Uncertain,” by Peter Marks, 9-8-20
_____________________________________________
Marks, The Washington Post’s chief theater critic, calls the Broadway shutdown, which began in March, “an ongoing human tragedy and economic calamity that has drained the cultural lifeblood of the city.”
Some shows, including the revivals of “Plaza Suite” and “The Music Man,” still swear they’re opening in spring 2021, but observers and insiders alike are pretty sure that not much will be happening at Broadway’s theaters until next fall. What about the restaurants, the bars, the hotels?
Marks talks to the people behind the scenes — at the Broadway Guild, the American Theater Wing, Actors’ Equity and Disney’s theatrical division — and draws some conclusions. With a sliver of hope.
READ THE ENTIRE WASHINGTON POST ARTICLE.
WELL, IT’S FALL. MUST BE TIME FOR THOSE DIGITAL TONY AWARDS. HELLO?
______________________________________
BULLETIN! BULLETIN! OCT. 9, 2020: The latest Tony nominations will be announced on YouTube on Thursday, Oct. 15, at 12 noon. The man reading off the names will be JamesMonroe Iglehart, whom many theatergoers know from the original Broadway cast of “Aladdin!” Good decision. We need a genie about now.
__________________________________________________________________