Category — comedy

Inside the acrobatic magic of the award-winning show

Even if it delivered nothing but acrobatics, Leo would be a striking piece of theatre. The show, which won the Best of Edinburgh Award at the Edinburgh Fringe and is now being presented at Theatre Row, exists to make our jaws drop, to make us question our own eyes.

The “tricks” are even more alluring because we see exactly how they’re done. On the right side of the stage, we find Leo (played by German acrobat Tobias Wegner) standing in a colorful room with nothing but a suitcase.  Lounging around, he lies on the floor and puts his feet on a bright red wall. Later, he balances on one leg and slowly bends down to touch the floor with one hand, letting his other arm and leg jut into the air. By the time the show’s over, he’s contorted himself into all sorts of exotic shapes.

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Two services push the theatre into online publishing

And then suddenly, the theatre entered the world of online publishing.

Until this year, scripts were largely absent from the booming field of ebooks, stranding readers who wanted to add their favorite dramas to their Kindle or Nook. In recent months, however, two services have emerged to fill the void.

In November, prominent play publisher Samuel French launched its eBook program. Customers can visit Apple’s iBookstore to download plays and musical by writers like Charles Busch and Israel Horovitz, with new titles being added regularly. Most scripts retail for $8.99, and soon, Samuel French will make them available at all digital retailers

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The “War Horse” sequel finds the power of a good yarn

This month, children’s novelist Michael Morpurgo may be the most prominent author in New York. The stage adaptation of his book War Horse, about a young man and his horse surviving World War I, has been on Broadway since March, and Steven Spielberg’s film adaptation arrives on Christmas Day. Meanwhile, 59E59 is presenting Farm Boy, a War Horse sequel that follows the young man’s family through several generations.

In all cases, it’s evident why Morpurgo’s work is so alluring: His books tell sweeping, emotional stories that blend epic adventure with intimate relationships. “He has an innate storytelling, dramatic quality within his writing.” says Daniel Buckroyd, artistic director of Britain’s New Perspectives Theatre Company, which is producing Farm Boy. Buckroyd adapted and directed the material, and true to Morpurgo’s spirit, he says he wants it to be an exercise in “good old honest storytelling, as though we were gathered round the campfire.”

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The “Ugly Betty” star tackles one of Chekhov’s most interesting characters

He doesn’t have the most lines or the most stage time, but Epikhodov is one of the most interesting characters in the The Cherry Orchard.

Anton Chekhov’s masterpiece follows the final days on a faded Russian estate, where the former owners have lost their money and a former peasant has purchased the land. There’s an existential melancholy in these changing fortunes, and the world itself seems to pity how this Russian society has lost its way. At one point, the sound of a snapping cord shivers in the air, and in the famous final moment, an old servant, unknowingly left behind, lays down to die as the cherry trees outside begin to fall.

In the midst of this change, we meet Epikhodov (pronounced “yep-ih-HOE-dawv”), the estate’s hapless clerk. He pines for a young noblewoman, and he’s so clumsy that everyone jokingly calls him “Master Disaster.”

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The stars of “Lysistrata Jones” balance comedy and heart

Welcome to Building Character, TDF Stages’ ongoing series about actors and how they create their roles
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There are roughly 5 trillion jokes in Lysistrata Jones, the new Broadway musical that transports the ancient Greek play Lysistrata to a modern-day college basketball court. With a book by Douglas Carter Beane and a score by Lewis Flinn, it cracks on everything from the perils of dating and the power of myths to Batman movies and dropped iPhone calls. As the gags whiz by, they create an atmosphere of breathless, fizzy fun.

But there’s heart beneath the humor. Lysistrata Jones (Patti Murin) convinces her fellow cheerleaders to stop sleeping with their basketball-team boyfriends until they finally win a game, which drives the boys crazy. That’s a breezy premise, but eventually, the characters realize their attitudes affect more than a basketball season. By accepting failure on the court or by forcing everyone to do what they say, these kids are short-circuiting their entire lives.

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