Seeing Whatever Happened To Beverly Daniels last night made me a little nostalgic for my high school days, when a group of people – talented actors, great dancers, good performers – would get together and put on a show.  Back then, there was an earnestness, a lot of heart, a lot of energy, a lot of capability, but somehow  . . . you just weren’t going to get around the fact that it was a high school play.

(...)
Read the rest of Whatever Happened To Beverly Daniels? (449 words)

© Karen Tortora-Lee for The Happiest Medium, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Dream Up Festival, Frank Dunham Jr, Judy Bruno-Bennett, Theater for the New City, Whatever Happened To Beverly Daniels?

Nothing feels better than taking that final bow, and hearing the applause going on and on . . . begging you to come out one more time.  For some very special shows of Fringe, that’s exactly what gets to happen and we at The Happiest Medium are very pleased that some of our very favorites from the Festival are being called back again.

The 2010 Fringe Encore Series

What We Saw:

The Secretaries

Venue: The Lucille Lortel Theater

9/13 @ 10:00
9/15 @ 9:30
9/22 @ 9:30
9/23 @ 10:00

(...)
Read the rest of They’re Baaaaaaaack! The Best Of Fringe Festival 2010 Returns For Fringe Encore (614 words)

© Karen Tortora-Lee for The Happiest Medium, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Amsterdam Abortion Survivor, and Other Bedtime Stories, BUNKED!: A New Musical, Faye Lane’s Beauty Shop Stories, fringe encore 2010, Fringe Festival 2010, Getting Even With Shakespeare, Hearts Full of Blood, How My Mother Died of Cancer, Jurassic Parq: The Broadway Musical, Just In Time – The Judy Holliday Story, Lost and Found, Made in Taiwan, Over and Over, PigPen Presents: The Nightmare Story, POPE! An Epic Musical, running, Saving Throw Versus Love, Soho Playhouse - Huron Club, South Pathetic, The Hurricane Katrina Comedy Festival, The Lucille Lortel Theater, The Players Theater, The Secretaries, The Twentieth-Century Way, Viva Los Bastarditos!, When Last We Flew

Boy, do I remember what it was like to be the new gal around the office – to not have the routine down yet, to get sneered at for ordering from wrong place for lunch (”We don’t use them ever since the egg salad incident . . . but that was before your time”) or to be thought of as stuck up for taking lunch alone in the park  . . . or (even worse) not taking a cigarette break with the other girls from the admin pool.  One false step and you’re branded some sort of outcast who thinks she’s better than everyone else.  Offices can be tough, and a Clique of Secretaries who treat the office like High School all over again can be murder.  And in this new production of The Five Lesbian Brothers’ 1994 dark comedy The Secretaries (directed by Mark Finley) Murder is exactly what it is.

(...)
Read the rest of The Secretaries – Do As I Say, Do As I Do (Fringe Festival 2010) (491 words)

© Karen Tortora-Lee for The Happiest Medium, 2010. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Babs Davy, Dominique Dibbell, Fringe Festival 2010, Lisa Kron, Lucille Lortel Theatre, Mark Finley, Maureen Angelos, Peg Healey, The Five Lesbian Brothers, The Secretaries, TOSOS

What is a magician really?  Is he an illusionist?  A storyteller?  A dream-weaver?  A showman? A creator?

Is he meant to astonish you?  Amuse you?  Entertain you?  Scare you a little?  Touch your soul a little?

A lot of magicians are giving away the “how” these days  - but in Ben Whiting’s solo show, American Gypsy, he’s more intent on giving you the “why” – not just through his own magic, but through the stories and illusions of his own mentor, Jim Cellini . . . and of the man at whose feet his mentor studied – Tony Slydini.

(...)
Read the rest of American Gypsy – The Trick To Success (Fringe Festival 2010) (424 words)

© Karen Tortora-Lee for The Happiest Medium, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Alexander "Sandy" Marshall, American Gypsy, Ben Whiting, Fringe Festival 2010, Jim Cellini, MagicMouth Theatre Company, The Kraine Theater, Tony Slydini

The Conveniences of Modern Living

You know your marriage is on the rocks when your husband would rather spend time with The Dryer than with you.

I’m not talking about any ordinary dryer, mind you, in Daniel John Kelley and Emily Plumb’s The Conveniences of Modern Living Jessica Love plays about a cute a dryer as you’d ever want to have in your home.  She’s earnest, sweet, thoughtful, and yearning for the day when she can go back to Sweden – specifically the Ikea Factory – birthplace, homeland and nirvana.  Till then, she’s trapped here.  But you think she has it tough?  Let me tell you a little about the other folks who live in the apartment she’s housed in . . .

(...)
Read the rest of The Conveniences Of Modern Living – Were You Just Kissing The Dryer? (Fringe Festival 2010) (734 words)

© Karen Tortora-Lee for The Happiest Medium, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Daniel John Kelley, Emily Plumb, Fringe Festival 2010, Jilted Pigeon Productions, Players Theatre, The Conveniences Of Modern Living

When I was a child there were a few things you could count on, and one of them was that (in the days before VCRs – and yes, honey, I AM that old) if you waited long enough The Wizard of Oz was going to be on TV at some point that year.  Back in the day, TV had that kind of power . . . it could make you wait expectantly for something and then give you the big reveal – making your heart beat faster for that one joyful night.

Seeing Friends Of Dorothy – An Oz Cabaret was a little bit like that and . . . I have a feeling that – just like the hallowed movie – we haven’t seen the last of it.  Dorothy is a Fringe Encore if I ever saw one.  So, while the show has packed up its rigging and its pasties, sit tight.  Here’s a little breakdown of what will certainly come around again:

(...)
Read the rest of Friends Of Dorothy – An Oz Cabaret (Fringe Festival 2010) (655 words)

© Karen Tortora-Lee for The Happiest Medium, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Ambrose, Bianca Del Rio, burlesque, Cabaret, Conatus Productions, Dorothy, Drag, Friends of Dorothy, Go-Go Harder, Harvest Moon, Jenny C'est Quoi, LA MAMA, Miss Mary Cyn, Mr. Fantastic, Schäffer The Darklord, Sizzle Dizzle, striptease, The Ellen Stewart Theatre, Veruca Honeyscotch, Wizard of Oz

Carl Andress

One of the first interviews I ever did as an “official” theatre reviewer was with Carl Andress who was not only charming and lovely but also heaps of fun to chat with.  Back then he was directing Charles Busch and Kathleen Turner in The Third Story which was a show that highlighted the talent of everyone involved.  I have nothing but enormous respect for Carl as a director.

Well, I’m happy that I have another reason to interview this wonderful gentleman because Carl Andress is at it again, teaming up with Charles Busch to do The Divine Sister.  We recently sat down to talk about the fun of doing an homage to some of Hollywood’s best nuns, and the great actresses who played them.

Along the way, Carl also explains what it’s like to do theatre for the pure joy of it, he give some advice to the Fringe crowd on the smartest way to get a show produced these days, and he enlightens me about a simple little device that has changed his life . . .

(...)
Read the rest of Catching Up With The Divine Carl Andress (3,200 words)

© Karen Tortora-Lee for The Happiest Medium, 2010. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Carl Andress, Charles Busch, Julie Halston, Nun Comedy, Soda Stream, The Divine Sister, The Soho Playhouse, The Third Story, Theater for the New City, Times Square Angel

1001 Nights

Sometimes you just need a break from all the Fringe going on all around you.  Alternately, maybe you’re just looking for some good guacamole and chips with a side of laughs.  Or you just want to hang out with your friends at the bar downing some beers with the cozy feeling of a room full of happy people laughing their butts off in the next room at something you can’t quite hear.  Whatever you’re into, I suggest you find the answer at The Creek and The Cave – a surprising find (for me, at least) in the shadow of the Pulaski Bridge in Long Island City, Queens.

(...)
Read the rest of A Creek, A Cave, A Beer, A Theme And 1001 Nights (341 words)

© Karen Tortora-Lee for The Happiest Medium, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 1001 nights, Comedy, Eugene Ashton-Gonzalez, Long Island City, the creek and the cave

If you’re looking for a simple little story, told in a simple little way, but one which deceptively leaves you with the feeling that you’ve just seen a full scale production, The Nightmare Story is the show for you.

Taking a cue from old folk tales, the men of PigPen begin to weave a tale that begins in the dark and is brought out from the shadows.

(...)
Read the rest of PigPen Presents: The Nightmare Story (Fringe Festival 2010) (563 words)

© Karen Tortora-Lee for The Happiest Medium, 2010. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Fringe Festival 2010, PigPen Theatre Co., The Nightmare Story, Ukrainian Folk Music

Get seated early to see Classically Trained, Practically Broke (Franca Vercelloni’s solo show, directed by Myrna E. Duarte and John David West) and you’ll get an earful of what Franca is subject to on a nightly basis – the caterwauling of half drunk patrons who gather around her piano at the bar she works at and who beg for show tunes  - blithely singing in their own key and verbally abusing her at will as if she’s worth nothing.

(...)
Read the rest of Classically Trained, Practically Broke – Beautifully Done (Fringe Festival 2010) (632 words)

© Karen Tortora-Lee for The Happiest Medium, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Classically Trained, Franca Vercelloni, Fringe 2010, FringeNYC, Practically Broke, solo show