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On
Broadway,
the
revival
of
The
Mystery
of
Edwin
Drood,
book,
music
and
lyrics
by
Rupert
Holmes,
is a
fun
musical
in
the
style
of a
British
nineteenth
century
music
hall,
where
the
audience
votes
to
solve
the
mystery
of
the
disappearance
of
the
title
character.
Opening
night
attracted
guests
like
Debra
Messing,
Jim
Dale,
Stephen
Lang
and
many
others.
The Performers, by David West Read, is a silly play about the porn industry with a lot of vulgar dialogue, which takes place at the Adult Film Awards being given in Las Vegas. It features six good actors wasted in an unbelievable type sitcom. The opening night party took place in E-Space with guests like Colman Domingo., Linda Lavin and Krysta Rodriguez.
Scandalous, book, lyrics and music by Kathie Lee Gifford, music by David Pomeranz and David Friedman, is a musical about the life and trials of Aimee Semple McPherson, a famous evangelist in the 1920s. Carolee Carmello is terrific as the lead, but the musical is dull and boring.
Off-Broadway, Sorry, by Richard Nelson, is the third play about the Apple family, that takes place on election day November 6, 2012. Although the election and other major issues are discussed, the play revolves around the removal of an uncle to a assisted health care facility. As always the cast is first rate, and the dialogue is intelligent. It feels like a family gathering with serious people, who face problems like you and me.
Bad Jews, by Joshua Harmon, is about cousins together in another cousin's studio apartment after a grandfather's funeral. One is nonreligious with a gentile girlfriend and another is super patriotic for Israel. They quarrel over an heirloom and are particularly unlikeable.
Falling, by Deanna Jent, shows the problems suffered by a family with an autistic, violent young man. It is well acted, but sad.
Giant, book by Sybille Pearson, music and lyrics by Michael John LaCihusa, is musical based on a novel by Edna Ferber which takes place in Texas from 1925-1952, starring two excellent singers Kate Baldwin and Brian d'Arcy James, as a woman from Virginia adjusting to married life over twenty-seven years with a rancher. It is overlong and there is little chemistry between the two leads.
The Good Mother, by Fancine Volpe, is about a single mother (an excellent Gretchen Mol) and her encounters with a strange babysitter, a trucker lover, and two people from her past. The play is slow moving and a little weird. The opening night party took place at Qi Bangkok Eatery with guests Claybourne Elder, Larisa Polonsky and Theo Stockman.
The opening night party for Emotional Creature, by Eve Ensler, took place in the Pershing Square Signature Center with LaChanze, Gloria Steinem and Eric Bogosian as guests.
Kelli O'Hara was honored at the New York Musical Theatre Festival Ninth Season Gala at the Hudson Theatre with guests Matthew Broderick, Susan Blackwell and Tony Danza.
I attended a press reception at Bamboo 52, 344 West 52nd St, to taste the new menu and meet the charming owner John Greco. The food was delicious and one can understand why it is so popular.
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I attended a high tea at the British Consulate-General for Diana C. Vickery's children's book The Magical Journeys of Swanky Pants. It was a festive occasion with many children and their parents present.
The Film Society at Lincoln Center is presenting press screenings of Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema November 29-December 5. Of Snails and Men, by Tudor Giorgiu, Romania, 2012, is a wonderful film about a car factory in a small town, which will close leaving many workers unemployed. They conceive a plan to earn money to purchase the bankrupt factory by selling their sperm. It is a penetrating look at life in modern Romania and the acting is just fine. It is an absorbing, impressive film. Best Intentions, by Adrian Sitaru, Hungary/Romania, 2011, is about a young man who returns home to a small town when his mother suffers a stroke and is hospitalized. It is realistic, and depressing. Three Days Till Christmas, by Radu Gabrea, Romania, 2012, shows the flight and capture of the dictator Nicolae Ceausecu and his wife and their execution in a powerful docudrama. Everybody in Our Family, by Radu Jude, Romania/Netherlands, 2012, is a bleak view of the relationship between a divorce couple and the devastating effect on their little daughter, and their families. It is not a pleasant film.
MoMA is presenting a wonderful exhibition Tokyo 1955-1970: A New Avant-Garde November 18-February 25 with paintings, videos, drawings, photography and much more. It shows how the city revived after the devastation of World War Ii. It is well worth a visit. Also there is an Art Theater Guild and Japanese Underground Cinema, 1960-1986 from December 6-February 10. I saw Shinjuku Dorobo Nikki (Diary of a Shinjuku Thief), by Nagisa Oshima, Japan,1969, a chaotic film in which a shoplifter gets his thrills stealing books. There is much discussion of sex by middle aged men, a sex therapy session with the hero and the young woman he is attracted to and many simulated sex scenes. It is quite avant-garde.
Opera in Cinema from Emerging Pictures presented Siegfried, by Wagner, a live performance in October and November by the Teatro alla Scala. Daniel Barenboim conducted the orchestra magnificently. The gorgeous music never sounded better. The singers were outstanding. A powerful Lance Ryan in the title role and a sonorous and profound Terje Stensvold as Der Wanderer and the rest of the cast gave superb performances. It was another impressive production for opera fans.
11-14-12
Restaurant
owner
Richard
Greco
with
a
signature
dish
at a
press
reception
at
Bamboo
52.
344
West
52nd
St.
Tuesday
night
11-13-12
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