Archives for June 7, 2012

Gordon Edelstein, the director of Satchmo at the Waldorf, has now nailed down the four key members of the show’s design team. It is, if I do say so myself, a pretty damned impressive lineup:
• Lee Savage, the set designer, is a founding member of Wingspace Theatrical Design. He’s designed shows for Asolo Rep, the Old Globe, the Roundabout Theatre Company, Washington’s Shakespeare Theatre Company, Two River Theater Company, Westport Country Playhouse, Wilma Theater, and the Yale Repertory Theater. His arrestingly stark set for the Berkshire Theatre Festival’s revival of Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts (pictured above) caught my eye when I reviewed that production for The Wall Street Journal in 2009.
• Ilona Somogyi, the costume designer, is currently represented on Broadway by Clybourne Park. A lecturer in design at the Yale School of Drama, she designed the costumes for Hartford Stage’s productions of The Crucible and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, both of which I reviewed enthusiastically in the Journal.
• Stephen Strawbridge, the resident lighting designer of the Yale Repertory Theatre and co-chair of the Yale School of Drama’s design department, has worked on more noteworthy shows than I can list, including Signature Theatre Company’s recent revival of Athol Fugard’s Blood Knot and the off-Broadway premieres of Bernarda Alba, Black Tie, The Glorious Ones, and A Perfect Ganesh. He has also designed nineteen works for Pilobolus Dance Theatre.
• John Gromada, the all-important sound designer and composer of incidental music for Satchmo at the Waldorf, did the honors for six shows that opened on Broadway this past season: The Best Man, Clybourne Park, The Columnist, Man and Boy, The Road to Mecca, and Seminar. He also scored Michael Wilson’s landmark production of Horton Foote’s Orphans’ Home Cycle, which opened at Hartford Stage, then transferred to New York’s Signature Theatre Company.
I am immensely proud to be working with them all.
* * *
Ilona Somogyi talks about her costumes for Hartford Stage’s 2008 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream:

Part of a recording session for John Gromada’s Orphans’ Home Cycle score:

Here’s my list of recommended Broadway, off-Broadway, and out-of-town shows, updated weekly. In all cases, I gave these shows favorable reviews (if sometimes qualifiedly so) in The Wall Street Journal when they opened. For more information, click on the title.

BROADWAY:

• Anything Goes (musical, G/PG-13, mildly adult subject matter that will be unintelligible to children, closes Sept. 9, reviewed here)

• The Best Man (drama, PG-13, closes Sept. 9, most performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

• Evita (musical, PG-13, all performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

• Godspell (musical, G, suitable for children, reviewed here)

• Once (musical, G/PG-13, all performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

OFF BROADWAY:

• Avenue Q (musical, R, adult subject matter and one show-stopping scene of puppet-on-puppet sex, reviewed here)

• The Fantasticks (musical, G, suitable for children capable of enjoying a love story, reviewed here)

• 4000 Miles (drama, PG-13, closes July 1, reviewed here)

• Tribes (drama, PG-13, closes Sept. 2, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON ON BROADWAY:

• The Columnist (drama, PG-13/R, closes July 1, most performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON OFF BROADWAY:

• Man and Superman (serious comedy, G, far too long and complex for children of any age, closes July 1, reviewed here)

• Million Dollar Quartet (jukebox musical, G, off-Broadway remounting of Broadway production, closes June 24, original run reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK ON BROADWAY:

• Other Desert Cities (drama, PG-13, adult subject matter, closes June 17, reviewed here)

• Venus in Fur (serious comedy, R, adult subject matter, closes June 17, reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK IN CHICAGO:

• The Iceman Cometh (drama, PG-13, closes June 17, reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK IN LA JOLLA:

• Hands on a Hardbody (musical, PG-13, closes June 17, reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK IN SAN DIEGO:

• Nobody Loves You (musical, PG-13, closes June 17, reviewed here)

CLOSING SATURDAY IN LOS ANGELES:

• Follies (musical, PG-13, adult subject matter, transfer of Kennedy Center/Broadway revival, original run reviewed here)

CLOSING SUNDAY IN CHICAGO:

• Timon of Athens (Shakespeare, PG-13, reviewed here)

CLOSING SUNDAY IN COSTA MESA, CALIF.:

• Jitney (drama, PG-13, reviewed here)

For those who asked, you can now read all three parts of “The Long Goodbye” in a single file by clicking on the link.
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“Where would be the merit if heroes were never afraid?”
Alphonse Daudet, Tartarin de Tarascon