Why "Lend Me a Tenor" Made It onto our Signature Season

Posted by Bruce Miller
All right. I won't start out with a fib.

I wanted the first show in our 2011-12 Signature Season to be Summer and Smoke by Tennessee Williams. When Carol Piersol told me about her idea for a Tennessee Williams Centennial Festival in Richmond, and invited Barksdale to join in with the Firehouse and Triangle Players, I was VERY excited and I wanted to participate. (The pic of Marlon Brando and Kim Hunter, to the right, appears on the Firehouse website as a sort of Festival logo. You can visit http://www.williamscelebration.org/ for more information.)

I knew Summer and Smoke was the perfect show for us to enter into the Festival, because:
a. it's my favorite Williams play,
b. it's been on my list of plays I'm very eager to direct for a long time, and
c. Barksdale co-founder Stu Falconer left his job as stage manager of the landmark Off Broadway production of Summer and Smoke when he moved to Richmond in 1953 to co-found B'dale.

But life is made up of tough choices. Another project that will be taking place during the coming year, about which I am equally passionate, is our upcoming partnership with Cadence Theatre Company, and our co-pros of Kimberly Akimbo by David Lindsay Abaire, August: Osage County by Tracy Letts, and In the Next Room or the vibrator play by Sarah Ruhl.

Once Phil, Tracy and I started adding up every nickel and dime that will make up our $5 million annual operating budget, it became clear that I had to choose between partnering with Firehouse and Triangle on the Tennessee Williams Festival or partnering with Anna Johnson on the Cadence co-pros. Obviously, I chose the latter.

But I can't wait to see the great programs planned for the Tennessee Williams Festival, and I encourage everyone to give this exciting Richmond event your full support, even if Barksdale is unable to be involved.

What those pesky budget figures made obvious was that I needed to open our 2011-12 Signature Season with a comedy instead of a drama. The simple truth is this: at Barksdale (maybe everywhere), comedies sell more tickets that dramas. Besides, for the last 58 years, our mission at Barksdale has been to create in Central Virginia national caliber productions of the GREAT comedies, dramas and musicals--past, present and future. I'm proud that we produce our fair share of each.

And I LOVE comedies. Who doesn't. Especially great American comedies like our opening production - Lend Me a Tenor.

When exploring comedies written for the stage, there are several time-honored traditions to celebrate, one of which is farce.

A farce seeks to entertain its audience by placing likable (if often misbehaving) characters within improbable and exaggerated situations. The stakes are high; discovery and disaster seem imminent. The characters negotiate their treacherous circumstances, often at break-neck speed, using trickery, mistaken identity, disguised persons or voices, and verbal humor of varying degrees of sophistication. Physical comedy, linguistic nonsense, slamming doors and broadly stylized performances are staples of theatrical farce.

Not counting our musicals (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, for one, includes many aspects of farce) Barksdale's previous farces include:
* Boeing-Boeing (a French farce written in 1960; revived at Hanover Tavern earlier this summer),
* Is He Dead? (written by Mark Twain in 1898; produced at Willow Lawn in 2010),
* No Sex Please, We're British (an English farce written in 1971; produced at Hanover Tavern in 2006), and
* Scapino! (an English adaptation of a 1671 Moliere classic, adapted in 1971; revived at Willow Lawn in 2005).

The last time we staged a contemporary American farce was our 1993 Hanover Tavern production of Arthur Kopit's wacky Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Momma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad. Wow. Who knew it had been nearly two decades since Barksdale produced a contemporary American farce.

In our current sociopolitical environment, American farces seem particularly apt. That's why I decided it was time to end our 18-year fast. As I reviewed the GREAT contemporary American farces, Lend Me a Tenor was right there waiting for me at the top of the heap.

I'm excited that the show is now about to open. I hope to see you at the theatre.

--Bruce Miller

Plays Rule on B'way - the Second Seven

Posted by Bruce Miller
It’s been more than 48 hours since I discovered that Broadway is enjoying an historic fall, having mounted more straight plays (The Ritz notwithstanding) in 2007 than during any other Fall Season in the last 27 years. And, yes, I know that everyone else probably noticed this months ago, but I didn’t notice it until now, and I’m excited.

It’s not that I don’t love musicals—I do. It’s just that I love plays even more. I’m so used to Broadway trending away from plays that this reversal gives me cause for rejoicing.

One of the questions I receive most often—it comes with the job title—is, “I’m going to New York next Tuesday and can go to only one show. What should I see?” Hopefully these last three posts will help to give at least a little guidance in that department.

Rock ’n’ Roll by Sir Tom Stoppard began previews on Oct 19 and opened on Nov 4 to nearly unanimous, heart-stopping raves. It’s a transfer of the London production that won just about every major award that London has on offer, and it jumped across the pond complete with its three amazing stars: Rufus Sewell, Sinead Cusack and Brian Cox. It’s directed by the deservedly acclaimed Trevor Nunn. It uses rock ’n’ roll as a roadmap to chart its way through the political and personal turmoil of the last several decades, finding connections between love, revolution and music that illuminate our current century. I’m passionate about seeing it and seeing it soon.

August: Osage County by Tracy Letts began previews on Oct 30 and opened on Dec 4, and it also received nearly unanimous, heart-stopping raves. As American as Rock ’n’ Roll is British, August is a transfer of the award-winning premiere at Steppenwolf Theatre, based in Chicago. In the NY Times, Christopher Isherwood says, “Tracy Lett’s fiercely funny, turbo-charged tragicomedy is, flat-out, no asterisks and without qualifications, the most exciting new American play Broadway has seen in years.” When Tracy Letts wrote Killer Joe, Gary Hopper started talking to me about him. When he wrote Bug, Irene Ziegler started singing his praises. Now all of the American theatre community is paying attention. This is another play I’m desperate to see.

The Seafarer, written and directed by Irish playwright Conor McPherson, began previews on Oct 30 and opened on Dec 6, and again received great reviews—although not quite as great as its two predecessors. The Seafarer is a supernatural tale set on Christmas Eve in an Irish bar, where five Irishmen, one of whom may not be who or what he appears, descend into drunkenness and share spine-tingling yarns. I know I’m sounding like a broken record, but this play is surely as Irish as August is American and Rock is British. At the end, it’s also, from most accounts, unexpectedly uplifting.

Shakespeare’s Cymbeline is being revived on Broadway for the first time since 1923 in an all-star production that is lighting up the Vivian Beaumont at Lincoln Center. The play began previews on Nov 1 and opened on Dec 2, starring Michael Cerveris, John Cullum, Phylicia Rashad, John Pankow and Martha Plimpton, under the direction of Mark Lamos. Again, the critics have been mostly enthusiastic, especially toward Michael Cerveris’s performance and Mark Lamos’s direction. Cymbeline was the first show to open after the strike, and it appears that it will have the successful limited engagement that had been planned.

Is He Dead? is that rarest of rarities—a new, previously unproduced farce by Mark Twain. Not known as a dramatist, old Sam Clemens nonetheless penned a couple of hoary chestnuts, and after this one was discovered in the University of California, Berkeley archives, it was “polished”—there’s that running theme again—by David Ives, and from all accounts turned into an effective comic vehicle for the Scott Wichmann of Broadway known as Norbert Leo Butts. The play’s a hit! A HUGE hit!! And, again, that rarest of rarities on 21st Century Broadway—a laugh-a-minute comedy hit!!! Exactly what Broadway used to have in abundance, seldom has anymore, and desperately needs. Our friend Lizzy Holland saw it a few days ago, and claims to have laughed herself silly.

The Homecoming by Nobel laureate Harold Pinter began previews on Dec 4 and opened on Dec 16 to, again, some truly amazing reviews. The NY Times starts out with, “First of all, it really is that good!” And Linda Winer of Newsday named it her Best Production of 2007. The Homecoming is, of course, a masterwork of 20th Century English language theatre, and apparently, after 40 years, it still sizzles with the right cast and director, both of which this current revival appears to have.

November, the new David Mamet play starring Nathan Lane, began previews on Dec 20 with a planned opening on Jan 17. There’s lots of promise. I’ll let you know more after the play opens.

Until then, have a Happy New Year. I hope to see you at the theatre!

--Bruce Miller

Did Broadway Just Make History...or What?

Posted by Bruce Miller

Is it just me, or is Autumn 2007 going to go down in the record books as one of the most promising four-month periods for non-musicals on Broadway in the last several decades?

First of all, there was the issue of quantity—the subject of today’s blog post. We exited Labor Day with the promise of thirteen (count ‘em) plays slotted for a fall opening, and four musicals. When was the last time since the 70s that you saw a ratio like that?

The worthy entries in order of originally scheduled (pre-strike) first performance were:

Sept 13 - Mauritius, a new play by Theresa Rebeck, produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club;

Sept 14 - Pygmalion, pictured above and to the right, a revival of the classic by George Bernard Shaw, produced by Roundabout Theatre Company and starring no lesser lights than Claire Danes, Jefferson Mays and Boyd Gaines;

Also on Sept 14 – a revival of The Ritz by Terrance McNally, also produced by the Roundabout;

Oct 4 – A Bronx Tale, pictured above and to the left, a somewhat revived, somewhat new play written by and starring Chazz Palminteri, directed by Jerry Zaks;

Oct 12 – Cyrano de Bergerac, pictured to the right, a revival of the classic by Edmond Rostand (didn’t you love the Barksdale production?) starring Kevin Kline, Jennifer Garner and Daniel Sunjata;

Oct 15 – The Farnsworth Invention, pictured below, another brand new play by my favorite TV writer, Aaron Sorkin, about—what else—the beginning of television, starring Hank Azaria and Jimmi Simpson, directed by Des McAnuff;
Oct 19 – Rock ’n’ Roll, pictured to the left, a brainy transfer of a brand new play from London, by perhaps the world’s greatest living English-speaking writer, Tom Stoppard, directed by Trevor Nunn;

Oct 30 – August: Osage County, pictured to the right, the first of the two brand new plays named after months of the year, this one spawned at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre, by Tracy Letts;

Also on Oct 30 – The Seafarer, another brand new play by the prolific Irish playwright Conor McPherson;

Nov 1 – Cymbeline by William Shakespeare, starring Michael Cerveris and Phylicia Rashad;

Nov 8 – Is He Dead?, pictured below, the world premiere of a newly discovered play by Mark Twain, adapted by David Ives, starring Norbert Leo Butz (when you’ve got a name like that you’d better be funny), and directed by Michael Blakemore;
Nov 23 – a revival of The Homecoming by Nobel Prize winning playwright Harold Pinter (all right, some will argue that he’s the greatest living English-speaking playwright, and David Mamet fans, wait your turn), starring Eve Best, Raul Esparza, Michael McKean and Ian McShane;

and last but not least, Dec 20 – November, by David Mamet (yes, some will argue that he's… and Edward Albee fans, you’ll have to wait until his 80th birthday in March to make your case), starring Nathan Lane and Laurie Metcalf, directed by Joe Mantello.

Now that’s a Fall Season that any true-blue theatre aficionado would salivate over. Then of course came the strike, which shuffled some of the dates. And as the plays opened, the assessments of quality were varied, to say the least.

But any way you measure it, it was a Fall Season to make you stand up and cheer. Tomorrow, we’ll talk about quality, which will give us even more to cheer about—and look forward to as we plan our winter/spring NYC theatre weekends.

--Bruce Miller