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Monday Night at the Theater: The Lady's Not For Burning

Christopher Fry's brilliant play. Have you seen it? I've only seen it on the small screen: from PBS in the 70s, and the BBC just now, with Kenneth Branagh, from the 80s.The Lady's Not for Burning is a...

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Monday Night at the Theater: Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill

Apologies to both my fans -- ran into a friend yesterday and completely spaced about Theatricals.This is a follow-up, in a way, to Friday's Audra McDonald diary. HT to weck, in the comments:Audra...

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Theatricals: I want to tell you about the South Pacific. About what it was like.

About the old Tonkinese woman who sold shrunken heads. To tourists. As souvenirs.(Yeah, I know I blogged about South Pacific before. But the overture has been haunting me for two days now.)So,...

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Monday Night at the Theater: Standup Comedy

Oh, this one's going to be fun, although a bit late for me. First off, Amy Schumer:

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Monday Night at the Theater: Carousel starring Kelli O'Hara

The promo, with some background on the story:

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Monday Night at the Theater: Cats

And to think it was all inspired by T. S. Eliot:

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Monday Night at the Theater: Wagner's Ring Cycle in a funny 30 minutes

Oh, you're going to enjoy this one. It's musical comedy all right, but not in the sense that I usually present them.Nope, this is Anna Russell and her take on Wagner's Ring Cycle. She does all 20 or so...

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Monday Night at the Theater: Fun Stuff

I'm at work again tonight. Will be back ASAP after Midnight Eastern. Meanwhile:Madeleine Kahn is not getting married today:Neither is this Amy, who goes full throttle into complete meltdown (OMG she's...

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Wednesday Night at the Theater: Maria Callas

Me? I like the one from the Royal Opera:Sheer carnality.However, before her, there was a true diva: Maria Callas.

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Monday Night at the Theater: Carol Burnett

OK, a bit of departure this week: it's TV (but she filmed it live on stage, so that counts, right?).

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Monday Night at the Theater: Elaine Stritch~An Appreciation

She first came to prominence in the 1952 revival of Pal Joey, in which she sang "Zip":Elaine Stritch, the brassy, tart-tongued Broadway actress and singer who became a living emblem of show business...

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Monday Night at the Theater: Angela Lansbury

I like the bio they put together when she received the Kennedy Center Honors in 2000:Dame Angela Brigid Lansbury, DBE (born 16 October 1925) is a British-American actress and singer who has appeared in...

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Monday Night at the Theater: Noel Coward's Present Laughter

I couldn't find any great clips of Angela Lansbury in Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit (although if YOU can, I would very much appreciate it) but YouTube provided me with one of his classic plays: Present...

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Monday Night at the Theater: Lauren Bacall

She won two Tony Awards.Bacall worked on Broadway in musicals, earning Tony Awards for Applause in 1970 and Woman of the Year in 1981.http://en.wikipedia.org/...Here she is as Margot Channing in the...

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Monday Night at the Theater: The Threepenny Opera

Donmar Warehouse version.The Donmar Warehouse is a 251 seat, not-for-profit theatre in Covent Garden, London, England. It first opened on 18 July 1977.http://en.wikipedia.org/...Follow the link if you...

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Monday Night at the Theater: Victor/Victoria

I found it at YouTube. I wrote it up. My mouse died, and dKos isn't letting me publish it.Honestly, I think software is the worst thing that ever happened to computers, EVER.Here ya go. Enjoy. I'm...

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Monday Night at the Theater: Sweeney Todd

OMG. Found the whole thing. Follow me below the fleur-de-kos for it. But first:Sweeney Todd is a fictional character who first appeared as the murderer of the Victorian penny dreadful The String of...

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Monday Night at the Theater: La Boheme

Oh, this is fun: Puccini's La Boheme ("The Bohemians" seems the likeliest translation b/c the opera is based on a novel about "the Bohemian life"). This production is set in Paris in the early 20th...

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Monday Night at the Theater: William Inge's Picnic

If you haven't ever seen it, I think you'll really enjoy Picnic by William Inge. This particular production, from Showtime in 1986, might not be THE definitive production, but it's quite good. This...

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Monday Night at the Theater: A classic farce: Lend Me a Tenor

A few words about comedy, which most especially apply to farce: The actors can NEVER play it for laughs. They have to play it as if it were real, and the most important thing ever: something their...

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Monday Night at the Theater: Nathan Lane

As the best cowardly lion since Bert Lahr:And imagine the Nathan Lane character's shock when the dud turns into a huge comedic hit!Nathan Lane (born Joseph Lane; February 3, 1956) is an American actor....

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Monday Night at the Theater: Kinky Boots for Halloween

All blockquotes from Wikipedia, unless otherwise mentioned.Cyndi Lauper's first musical; Harvey Fierstein wrote the book. It won 6 Tony Awards:The musical Kinky Boots led the Tonys with six awards,...

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Monday Night at the Theater: Bernadette Peters

All these clips are from her solo show. All are songs written by Stephen Sondheim...and all showcase why Peters is considered the foremost interpreter of Sondheim's most recent works. (She's much too...

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Monday Night at the Theater: It's Cold Out There

and I want to be somewhere tropical. So, please forgive, but I wish to revisit my favorite musical in its most exquisite version.A Broadway revival of South Pacific opened on April 3, 2008 at Lincoln...

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Monday Night at the Theater: My Fair Lady

Wouldn't it be loverly? Kelli O'Hara:In the mid-1930s, film producer Gabriel Pascal acquired the rights to produce film versions of several of George Bernard Shaw's plays, Pygmalion among them....

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Monday Night at the Theater: Pygmalion by G. B. Shaw

Last week, we looked at My Fair Lady. I thought that this week, it would be fun to take a look at the play on which that musical was based: George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion.Shaw's socialism comes...

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Monday Night at the Theater: Rent

I haven't seen this one live, but it's terrific. I hope you will all enjoy it.Rent is a rock musical with music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson[1] loosely based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème. It...

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Monday Night at the Theater: On the Town

This makes me so homesick:

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Monday Night at the Theater: A Little Night Music

A Little Night Music is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler. Inspired by the Ingmar Bergman film Smiles of a Summer Night, it involves the romantic lives of...

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Monday Night at the Theater: Sondheim's Pacific Overtures

Pacific Overtures is a musical written by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman. The show is set in 1853 Japan and follows the difficult Westernization of Japan, told from the point of view of the...

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Monday Night at the Theater: The Merry Widow

A snippet, from YT, of the current Metropolitan Opera version (final dress rehearsal) featuring Kelli O'Hara in her Met debut:Oh, the gorgeous score by Lehar, in English, by the New York City Opera:...

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Monday Night at the Theater: Hugh Jackman in Oklahoma

full and uncut:I was searching back through past diaries and found the poll from last summer wherein I asked whether people wanted me to post on Monday, even if I had to work, or whatever day I had...

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Monday Night at the Theater: Great Moments in Musicals (with poll)

I've been watching a staged concert of Sweeney Todd; but you've all seen that one already. So, a miscellany tonight. Please vote in the poll for your favorite musical meltdown or high point.To begin,...

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Monday Night at the Theater: NYC blizzard edition

I've lived through 'em. It's not there yet, but NYers are going to have fun scaling piles of snow at every intersection. (Wishing you all the best! I know how rough it is.)Let's begin with Elaine...

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Monday Night at the Theater: Stand-Up by Suzanne Westenhoefer

I first saw her when she was hosting an amateur stand-up night at a little bar in the West Village, NYC, besides appearing in much larger venues. Turns out we're both from the same county in PA.I'm at...

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Wednesday Night at the Theater: The Rite of Spring, Nijinski version

I can't speak to the choreography; indeed I don't know from choreography. But the music is as beautiful as it was when Igor Stravinsky wrote it.Stravinsky was a young, virtually unknown composer when...

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Monday Night at the Theater: Ricardo Muti directs The Magic Flute (with...

What's with the ladies in the green hats? That is just...odd. They are clearly cougars before the term was even introduced. Oh, well, on to the background:The opera was the culmination of a period of...

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Monday Night at the Theater: Lewis Black, Stark Raving Black

OMG. His stand-up in Detroit.Lewis Niles Black (born August 30, 1948) is an American comedian, author, playwright, social critic and actor. He is known for his angry face, comedy and style, which often...

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Monday Night at the Theater: Les Miserables

A tenth-anniversary staged concert: you will probably want to watch it in full-screen mode.Set in early 19th-century France, it is the story of Jean Valjean, a French peasant, and his quest for...

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Monday Night at the Theater: The Notorious [Margaret] C.H.O.

Wow. She's terrific.Margaret Moran Cho (born December 5, 1968)[2] is an American comedian, fashion designer, actress, author, and singer-songwriter. Cho, of Korean ancestry, is best known for her...

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Monday Night at the Theater: Robin Williams

I should write something. But I don't know what to write. You all know him; you all love him; and anything I can say would be superfluous.So enjoy these clips for what they are: an indication of the...

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Monday Night at the Theater

I'm watching old Robin Williams YouTubes.See you tomorrow night, with new material. I promise.

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Monday Night at the Theater: Sondheim Teaches

A Sondheim spectacular! Sondheim master classes. Let's start with "My Friends" from Sweeney Todd:

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Monday Night at the Theater: Britten's Albert Herring

Albert Herring, Op. 39, is a chamber opera in three acts by Benjamin Britten. Composed in the winter of 1946 and the spring of 1947, this comic opera was a successor to his serious opera The Rape of...

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Monday Night at the Theater

Do you recognize how extraordinary this paean to feminism is? Sung by Audra McDonald:And b/c this one always gets me: Audra's version is the sine qua non of versions:I had an idea for a different post...

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Monday Night at the Theater: John Oliver on YT: must-see

Who doesn't love stand-up comedy?Oliver first appeared at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2001 as part of The Comedy Zone, a late-night showcase of newer acts, where he played the character of an...

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Monday Night at the Theater: Show Tunes

Don’t have a theme tonight, just a bunch of show tunes:xYouTube VideoxYouTube VideoxYouTube VideoxYouTube Video

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Monday Night at the Theater: Trevor Nunn's Oklahoma! starring Hugh Jackman

I blogged this one before, but it bears repeating b/c it’s the best version of Oklahoma! ever.xYouTube VideoA new production of the musical was presented by the National Theatre in London at the...

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Monday Night at the Theater: Patti Lupone is giving a concert here!

According to the local paper, this will be only the second time she’s sung the songs she’ll be performing at the concert next Saturday. But as I will be unable to attend, I thought it would be fun to...

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Monday Night at the Theater: Comedy Tonight!

This is how it’s done, with Nathan Lane as the narrator, Pseudolus:xxYouTube VideoHowever, this is the one that I could find for the whole show. It’s a student production, so be kind:xxYouTube VideoA...

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