The 60th Annual Drama Desk Awards were presented at Town Hall on May 31. The major awards were The Outstanding New Broadway Play The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Musical Hamilton, Revival of a Play The Elephant Man, Revival of a Musical The King and I, Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, Actor in a Play Alex Sharp, Actress in a Play Helen Mirren, Actor in a Musical Robert Fairchild and Actress in a Musical Kristin Chenoweth. The winners were photographed and interviewed in the media room in the Marriott Marquis, followed by a reception in the Broadway Lounge.
The 71st Theatre World Awards took place in the Lyric Theatre. It was the biggest event in their history with 1,400 people in the audience. Peter Filichia wrote the script, and hosted the wonderful show, which honored twelve outstanding debuts on Broadway and Off-Broadway, plus two special awards, The John Willis Award for Lifetime of Achievement in the Theatre to Chita Rivera, and the Dorothy Loudon Award for Excellence in the Theater to Leanne Cope An American in Paris, presented by Diana Rigg. Some of the other presenters were Matthew Broderick, Raul Esparza, Gretchen Mol and Vivian Reed. Among the winners, were Megan Fairchild and her brother Robert Fairchild, both ballet dancers with the New York City Ballet, Geneva Carr, Alex Sharp, Micah Stock andRuth Wilson. We had the occasion to congratulate the talented winners at an after-party at Copacabana.
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Off- Broadway, The Spoils, by Jesse Eisenberg, presented by The New Group, is a play about two roommates, one who is a wealthy, spoilt, obnoxious, pot smoking Ben (Jesse Eisenberg) and a sweet business student from Nepal, Kunal Nayyar, who has an Indian girlfriend, a medical student. Their problems are seen in the first act, when a former girlfriend and her fiance arrive for a dinner party, and Ben behaves badly. The acting is quite good, under Scott Elliott's direction, but it is an unpleasant play, which will not please everyone in the audience. The opening night party took place at Qi Bangkok Eatery, with guests Wallace Shawn, Daniel Oreskes and the five member cast.
Heisenberg, by Simon Stephens, at the Manhattan Theatre Club, is a 90 minute unbelievable play, with two characters. A neurotic middle aged woman, Georgie Burns (Mary-Louise Parker), plants a kiss on the neck of a 75-year-old lonely butcher, Alex Priest (Denis Arndt) on a platform of the London underground. She engages him in a a conversation, stalks him at his shop, has dinner with him, sleeps with him. relieves him of a large sum of money, with which she takes him to New Jersey, where they dance the tango and become a romantic couple. The two actors act well, under the direction of Mark Brokaw. But the short scenes seem more like an acting exercise than a play.
American Ballet Theatre (ABT) presented its new production of The Sleeping Beauty, choreography by Marius Petipa, staging and additional choreography by Alexei Ratmansky, music by Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky, which actually is not new. It tries to capture the original style of the ballet, following dance notations from the first production. Delving into the past has historical importance, but one must accept that style changes over the years, and modern audiences prefer to keep up with the times. That said, the overlong production is interesting, has sumptuous costumes (over 400) and set design by Richard Hudson, but the matinee performance that I attended was, in general, disappointing. The ensembles, and the principal dancers seemed rather shaky and insecure. Act II, The Wedding Celebration was the highlight, with better dancing by Herman Cornejo as Prince Desire., and a superb Princess Florine by the always dependable Stella Abrera.
Three superb dancers took the stage in the American Ballet Theatre's production of La Bayadere, choreography by Natalia Makarova, after Marius Petipa, music by Ludwig Minkus. Maria Kochetkova replaced the injured Natalia Osipova as a magnificent Nikiya.Leonid Sarafanov made his debut with the company as a brilliant Solor, and Isabella Boylston was a stunning Gamzatti. These three dancers were worth the price of admission. The second act in the Kingdom of the Shades is the highlight, and the ensemble and principal dancers performed marvelously. Boylston is having a spectacular year with the company, and Kochetkova and Sarfanov are a welcome addition to the company. He partners her beautifully, and in his solos he is supreme.
The New York City Ballet closed its season with one of Balanchine's greatest creations, A Midsummer Night's Dream, music by Felix Mendelssohn, with a magnificent cast. Every dancer was splendid, beginning with Maria Kowroski (Titania), Joaquin de Luz(Oberon and Antonio Carmena (Puck), and ending with the beautiful Divertissement, performed by Tiler Peck and Tyler Angle. It is a charming ballet, with adorable children filling the stage as Butterflies and Fairies. All that, plus the gorgeous music, made a fitting conclusion to a wonderful season.
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