The new face of musical theater

We've snuck a sneak peak at the P.S.122 fall season and are particularly excited about an appearance by hipster rockers Japanther who will present a new work featuring “an animatronic robot dinosaur.” We don't know much more about it, but “an animatronic robot dinosaur"! Now when our friends come up to us and ask us whatever can be done to make theater cool again, we have an answer: “an animatronic robot dinosaur." Apparently dance and conceptual art features, too.

Orlando Bloom: perhaps he'd sell more tickets sans moustache?

Earlier tonight I mused on the panoply of screen faves destined for Broadway stages this fall. Just read Matt Wolf's quick post in the Guardian where the expatriate Yank argues that star presence alone won't revive or sustain a lagging West End box office. Unlike us easily swayed Americans (he cites the sold-out Three Days of Rain), an above-the-critics name won't send the Brits buying, though it did lure Ben Brantley. Wolf writes:

In London, the play, not the player, is still the thing, especially since you don't find Judi Dench and Maggie Smith together on stage all that often: their West End duet in David Hare's Breath of Life looks unlikely to be repeated. In the meantime, Juliette Lewis tanked in "Fool For Love," Jessica Lange has done less well on each of her three West End engagements, and tickets proved far from impossible to obtain for Daniel Radcliffe in "Equus," or Orlando Bloom's ongoing run in "In Celebration": the anticipated Julia Roberts-style hysteria never quite hit London.

Kevin Kline: Rhinoplasty candidate?

Hollywood names will make quite a few appearances on Broadway this fall. Following recent announcements about Claire Danes's turn in Pygmalion and Jake Gyllenhaal's mooted appearance in Farragut North comes the news that Jen Garner and Kevin Kline will star as Roxanne and her beaky swain in Cyrano de Bergerac. Kline's an old Broadway hand, of course, but it will be interesting to see how well Garner's grin and gams translate to the stage. Of Garner, Gyllenhaal and Danes, who do you imagine will acquit themselves best in the stage to screen transition? Danes has some intriguing indie theater cred, but our money's on young Jake. Which film actor would you most like to see form an orchestra seat?

A dazzler

Over at the Playgoer, occasional Voice critic Garrett Eisler has launched a new feature, highlighting favorite theater posters. Email him "a jpg of a poster for a theatrical production--a real-life production--that you just think is really, really cool, whether or not the production itself was, or whether or not you even saw it. I'll post the highlights as they come in." It's just getting started, but quite interesting to see what people think construes a striking representation and why. I've included one of my favorites above. Let Garrett know yours.

Fringe, here's to ya'

The Fringe round-ups are trickling in; mine should be online Tuesday afternoon. In the Times, Ginia Bellafante attends a handful of shows and finds Bucharest Calling and The Consuming Passions of Lydia Pinkham and Rev. Sylvester Graham sufficiently consuming. As far as Time Out New York knows, it likes As Far as We Know best. It also has kind words for Lost in Hollywood land and Notes to the Motherland, which I didn't so much care for. They also liked my little sis's show. Meanwhile nytheatre.com continues in their quixotic attempt to review absolutely everything, and typically, they enjoy lots.

How you Behn? Oroonoko author Aphra

Just received the season preview for Theater for a New Audience, a typically robust mix of newer works (Biyi Bandele's adpatation of Oroonoko) and Shakespeare (Antony and Cleopatra starring Christine Baranski. Especially exciting? A revival of Adrienne Kennedy's supremely spooky Ohio State Murders, starring LisaGay Hamilton. That Kennedy isn't more produced or known outside of the Off-Broadway world is very nearly criminal. But unsurprising. Caryl Churchill excepted, evocative, angry plays be women that shie away from easy morals or solutions don't tend to get voted Most Popular.

After the jump, the full TFANA schedule:

Panic on the streets of London

Apparently the British are not immune to the annual impulse toward running articles pronouncing theater in its death throes. We're quite accustomed to stories about the impossibility of producing trenchant plays on Broadway, the preference for musicals based on film and TV, the need for Hollywood names in the amrquee. In the Guardian, Michael Billington diagnoses similar ailments in the West End. In lowering tones, he writes, "Never in my lifetime has London's West End theatre looked so narrow in its range of choices or so out of touch with contemporary reality. And it is high time the crisis was confronted and a debate launched about what we expect of commercial theatre." But unlike some alarmist cries, Billington does suggest some solutions, a few of which could be applied to American playhouses, although we can only long for the subsidized theaters he attempts top rally:

What the West End needs is a radical makeover, even a minor revolution, in the interests of both quality and variety. I'd like to see Sunday openings, lottery money for the rotting fabric, more imaginative use of the buildings themselves: in particular, pre-show talks, jazz and poetry recitals, stand-up comics in the dead hours before the 7.30pm opening. If the commercial theatre can't beat the subsidised sector, it should, in effect, join it: not only by adopting its practices but by employing its personnel. In the old days, the West End theatre relied on actor-managers to give it body and substance. Now what it needs are director-managers, or even dramatist-impresarios, of proven vision.

Here, on the street where you live...

Continuing to peruse the releases for upcoming fall shows, I was very pleased to see this production of The Beebo Brinker Chronicles by the Hourglass Group. Hourglass doesn't have a permanent theater or the financial wherewithal to create productions too terribly often, but they're almost invariably excellent--clever and brash with great roles for the ladies. The Beebo Brinker Chronicles should prove no exception. It's based on the lesbian pulp classics by Ann Bannon and concerns Greenwich Village subcultures in the 1950s. This production, directed by Leigh Silverman, stars Carolyn Baeumler, Marin Ireland, and the peerless David Greenspan. Performances begin September 27.

The Departed

Interesting story by Campbell Robertson in the New York Times about the closing of some Off-Broadway theaters. Though it sound familiar notes about the difficulties of trying to keep a for-profit hose running in the current financial climate, it happily does not get all alarmist about the dearth of Off-Broadway theaters, instead remarking, "here are, in fact, quite a few more commercial Off Broadway theaters than there were a decade ago."

What were your favorite departed theaters? Fave new ones? For me probably the Todo con Nada complex and the Brick, respectively.

Making a spectacle of herself: Jayne Houdyshell

So it isn't only vaguely grizzled men who make me eager to attend the theater. There are also plenty of women who have me rushing to get my tickets (though my desire to watch them typically has rather more to do with their craft than with their flashing eyes and strong chins). One of that number is the imcomparable Jayne Houdyshell, recently seen on Broadway in Lisa Kron's Well. She'll be playing the title character in Adam Bock's The Receptionist, part of MTC's new season.

After the jump, the rest of MTC's offerings...