A magician brings surprising true stories to his act

The House of Ghostly Haunts, at Canal Park Playhouse in Tribeca, is a throwback to the traditional spook shows of the mid-twentieth century. Audiences can see the star, Cardone the Magician, levitate tables, escape from a strait jacket, and even use an onstage guillotine.

But the most surprising element of Ghostly Haunts, which plays every Tuesday, may be Cardone’s autobiography. If smoke and mirrors are a requisite part of magic, then Cardone, a lifelong magician, makes sure the mirrors reflect back on him.

This isn’t a matter of ego but education. “When you see a magic show, what do you learn about the guy as a human being? Nothing!” says Cardone, adding that the only other form of performance akin to magic is professional wrestling. “Both sides know it’s choreographed, but they pretend it’s real. The idea is to infuse my real-life character into the show.”

Of course, it would be sacrilege for a magician to divulge trade secrets, so instead of exposing the art of the thrill, he shares the thrill of the art. In one segment, for instance, Cardone reminisces about his grandfather, who influenced him with simple magic tricks, before he makes five razor blades disappear down his throat. He also explores his idol worship of Elvis Presley before summoning him in a séance. (“Elvis is a big part of my life. If I’m going to contact a ghost, what bigger ghost is there?”) Cardone even takes audiences on a mini-field trip to the Playhouse lobby, where he shows off his dime museum. “It’s like coming to my house,” he says.

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Bryce Pinkham and Da’Vine Joy Randolph shape Broadway roles

“I get scared every night. Every single night.” So says Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who’s playing psychic Oda Mae Brown in the Broadway musical Ghost.

It’s easy to understand why she’d be nervous. For one thing, Ghostis based on the beloved and well-remembered 1990 film about Sam Wheat, a ghost who asks Oda Mae to help him find his killer and protect his wife, Molly. It’s also the very definition of a modern major musical. High-tech effects, sophisticated video projections, and a rock score by Dave Stewart and Glen Ballard all make it feel larger than life.

Still, the actors need to deliver to grounded performances. Even in a show about ghosts, they need to seem human.

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The Tony winner fights death in “The Lyons”

Sometimes, an actor has to play a character more than once before he’s happy with his performance.

Just ask Dick Latessa (pictured above left), whose forty years of theatre experience include Cabaret, The Will Rogers Follies, and a Tony Award-winning turn as Wilbur Turnblad in Hairspray.

Currently, Latessa’s on Broadway in The Lyons, Nicky Silver’s dark comedy about a family that’s trying to make peace before Ben Lyons, the patriarch, dies. And sure, there are tender moments, but they always devolve into shouting matches about drinking problems, ancient grudges, and the romantic potential of a cancer patient down the hall.

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How the actress became an action heroine for “Peter and the Starcatcher”

There are eleven men in the cast and only one woman, but still, Peter and the Starcatcher is a boon for female audiences.

In Rick Elice’s action-adventure play, now at Broadway’s Brooks Atkinson Theatre, we learn the origin story of Peter Pan, Captain Hook, and all the other characters from the familiar classic. As they’re performing, the actors create the entire world, using ropes and sheets to suggest ships and islands and turning their own bodies into hallways and doors. The jumping, posing, and tumbling give the play a uniquely physical magic.

And Celia Keenan-Bolger is jumping with everyone else. She plays Molly, a clever girl who works with her father to keep magical “star stuff” from falling into wicked hands. In the midst of a mission, she meets a group of orphaned boys who have been captured by a cruel ship’s captain, and naturally, being brave, she rescues them. One of the boys is Peter (Adam Chanler-Berat), and as they become friends, they help each other through swordfights, ocean rescues, and the scary moment when you fall in love.

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How sets and costumes survive the Broadway farce

Whether it’s Venice in 1743 or the British seaside in 1963 or Broadway in 2012, you’ve got to have doors. Two of them. And not just any doors, at least when you’re staging a farce.

“They need to be on opposite sides of the stage, and they need to slam both ways offstage as well as onstage. And they have to withstand any number of bodies caroming into them.”

That was the first of many tasks faced by Mark Thompson, who designed the sets and costumes for one of London’s more unlikely recent hits: One Man, Two Guvnors, Richard Bean’s chaotic revamp of Carlo Goldoni’s commedia dell’arte staple The Servant of Two Masters. The Evening Standard Award-winning adaptation made its way from the National Theatre to the West End, and now it’s on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre.

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