by Karen Tortora-Lee on July 21, 2010
On July 19, 2010, The New York Innovative Theatre Foundation, the organization dedicated to celebrating Off-Off-Broadway, announced the 2010 nominees at its annual sold-out event.
The Happiest Medium salutes all the nominees this year, as well as all the other fantastic actors and ensembles whose names are not on this list but whose hard work and amazing ability makes it easy for me to get out there, week after week, and do my job. Off-Off Broadway has given me some of the riches theatre experiences I’ve ever had – voices of new playwrights have been illuminated for me, brilliant actors have been showcased for me, and innovated directors have taken dusty chestnuts and held them up in a new way for me. There’s nothing like Off-Off Broadway – I’m proud to call myself a member of its ranks.
An so, without further delay, I give you this year’s nominees. To read any of the THM reviews (where applicable) click the appropriate show links. No links means (sadly) no review. I have also included The Fab Marquee reviews where applicable.
2010 Nominees:
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on July 21, 2010
In a time when full immersion is the key to any good entertainment experience Mardi-Ellen Hill has managed to create a multi media-universe that allows the participant to be drawn into a world of her creation through any number of doors. Choose your favorite: book, game, music, and let the hidden mystery that is the MEND™ Universe unfold.
I got a chance to chat with creator Mardi-Ellen Hill who could explain this multi-level, multi media project far better than I ever could . . .
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on July 20, 2010
Not all plays written in 1893 can weather an update; something is bound to be sacrificed for the sake of modernizing, be it plot, character or theme. But An Ideal Husband is not all plays. Writer Oscar Wilde was a man who had an uncanny ability to write about the time he was living in and observing, while simultaneously writing far ahead of his time; and thus An Ideal Husband in the hands of Director Meghan Formwalt of Big Rodent productions, joyfully skips ahead 70 years to 1964 with hardly a wrinkle to show for the long journey.
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on July 19, 2010
Gospel According To Josh
Looking to hire Josh Rivedal for your next show but can’t get a hold of his resume or reel? Look no further than The Gospel According To Josh - in one fast-moving hour you’ll see Josh run through his catalog of imitations, hear him sing songs both secular and sacred, and see him show his emotional range which starts off as lively stand up comic and ends as bereaved son. Step right up, folks, and you’ll see Josh juggle it all. Is he good at it? You betcha. Is this an entertaining hour?Undoubtedly. But the main thread of the story – Josh’s strange, complicated, ultimately heartbreaking relationship with his father – frays as it strains to contain the overflow of personalities, imitations, anecdotes and song stylings – much the way an above-ground pool buckles when presented with that one last kid hell bent on cannonballing into the deep. All of a sudden there’s just one too many pair of water wings in the pool . . . and similarly Gospel has a few too many distractions that detour from what could ultimately be a very strong piece.
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on July 13, 2010
If you read Stephen Tortora-Lee’s review of the multimedia show about the little puppet that could – Alvin Sputnik – then you already got a taste of one of the shows that’s happening as a part of undergroundzero - a theatre festival happening throughout July and taking place at PS 122. We’ll be covering a few more of the shows being offered, but I also had an opportunity to find out from curator Paul Bargetto exactly how this festival came about, how he finds these talented artists, and how Pinchbottom Burlesque has become the naughty crown jewel of the festival . . .
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on June 30, 2010
People go to shrinks for lots of different reasons – from those who go simply to download their gripes, thoughts, disappointments and vexations on a weekly basis to a nonjudgmental party, to those who are grappling with some serious disorders such as acute stress, obsessive-compulsive disorder, addictions of all sorts, panic attacks . . . the list goes on and on. When we meet Tom Blander (Ryan Tramont) we find that his reasons for coming to Dr. Fine (Brad Fryman) are a little different. Tom is convinced he’s possessed by a demon – and please don’t confuse this for the hallucinations of schizophrenia or the multiple personalities of a Dissociative. No . . . Tom is convinced he has a real, living, fulling autonomous demon egging him on to do Bad Things. So begins Christopher Stetson Boal’s Order (directed by Austin Pendleton) now playing at The Kirk @ Theatre Row.
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on June 25, 2010
It’s not every day that you get a marriage proposal, especially not after the 3rd date, but that’s exactly what’s happening to Vincent (John Fico) as the lights come up on Monica Bauer’s beautifully written one-man show, Made For Each Other (directed by John FitzGibbon). Vincent, a 50ish man flips his cell phone shut and proceeds to give the audience hilarious snapshots of his life in zinging one liners, self deprecating anecdotes and breezy patter. Between the laughs we can tell that Vincent is a man with a heart who’s hoping against hope that this isn’t all as crazy as it sounds.
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on June 25, 2010
Today, in memory of Michael Jackson’s passing, we re-post a great tribute written by Michael’s friend and business associate, Howard Bloom, who shared his memories of Michael with me one year ago.
- Guest Blogger Howard Bloom
Guest Blogger Howard Bloom began his legendary career in music public relations when he co-founded The Howard Bloom Organization Ltd in 1976, and helped build or sustain the careers of Michael Jackson, Prince, Bob Marley, Queen, Billy Joel, John Cougar Mellencamp, Simon & Garfunkel, Bette Midler, Joan Jett, AC/DC, Talking Heads, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, and roughly 100 other stars of the 1970s and 1980s. Here he shares some of his personal reflections on the passing of his client, Michael Jackson, and takes us past all the noise to a quieter place.
* * *
On the night of June 25th, when I was on my nightly mile-long 1 am walk that loops me up to Prospect Park then takes me back to my brownstone, I passed a pair of 18 year olds sitting on a stoop at this lonely hour when the streets and sidewalks are usually utterly devoid of human beings. The guy had long dark black curly hair and the girl had a short, blond haircut and was wearing shorts. The male said something to me as I passed. I walked back, took off my headphones, and asked him to repeat it. He said, “Michael Jackson is dead.”
I asked him why he said that to me. I wondered if he knew me from the Tea Lounge on Union Street, where I do my writing, or from the streets and if he knew my Michael Jackson connection. No, he didn’t. He was telling it to everyone. He wanted no one to ignore it.
He was particularly emphatic about making sure that no one over the age of 30 pass it by or dismiss it. Michael Jackson’s death, he felt, was a loss to all of us whether we realized it or not.
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on June 23, 2010
We all dream about making the world a better place. Some people just can’t sit back and dream about it, however – some people have to take action, like the two brothers in A Dream About Sunflowers (written by Jonathan Wallace and directed by Amber Gallery) who start up “Geeks Without Borders” which (much like Doctors Without Borders) uses technology to assist people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe.
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on June 21, 2010
For you youngsters who get all your music electronically: a liner note is as foreign to you as a 45 rpm adapter so let me break it down for you – liner notes were like mini blog entries that came with an album and often were the first thing some people went for when they got their hands on a record. Back in the day (when you had to Buy a Record at a Store and wait to get it home) before you could listen to the music there was always a little thrill on the car (or bus or subway) ride home – coaxing that vinyl in its paper sleeve out of the album cover and reading the liner notes in anticipation of getting that baby home and slapping it on the turntable. It was here where, like a novelette, the experience of the album, the anecdotes, (the written dvd extras, if you will) were all there in sweet little teaspoon heaping, just the right size to tantalize you and make you want to dive into the album.
But what if liner notes were the only thing you had to go on in order to truly know who your recently-deceased father was? This is the question that Liner Notes (written by Written by John Patrick Bray directed by Erin Smiley and now playing at the Robert Moss Theatre) asks.
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