Profile for Tirso de Molina

First off, sorry for the double post above - I tried to click through a server error and ended up with two posts. Second off, did anyone see Fierstein's Spookhouse (with Anne Meara, as memory serves!) or Forget Him? I've read Forget Him but not Spookhouse, and I didn't see either onstage. Of course, any memories of seeing the pre-Torch Song plays - Flatbush Tosca, Freaky Pussy, In Search of Cobra Jewels - would also be cool!

Safe Sex was another collection of three one-act plays. The third one, On Tidy Endings, was a solid piece of writing; it was later filmed for cable (as Tidy Endings) with Fierstein and Stockard Channing. You can watch it on YouTube. The other two plays, though, should never have been inflicted on a paying audience. Although I remember that Fierstein did have an effective monologue in the second play, even that couldn't save a scene performed with its two performers bouncing up and down on the...

Safe Sex was another collection of three one-act plays. The third one, On Tidy Endings, was a solid piece of writing; it was later filmed for cable (as Tidy Endings) with Fierstein and Stockard Channing. You can watch it on YouTube. The other two plays, though, should never have been inflicted on a paying audience. Although I remember that Fierstein did have an effective monologue in the second play, even that couldn't save a scene performed with its two performers bouncing up and down on the...

I would love to see a revival of Torch Song, but I'd want to see it either back at the Helen Hayes or in a comparable off-Bway space - it's not a play that works well when the last row of the balcony is miles away from the stage. I saw the original production as a college student back in (I think) January 1984, when Fierstein and Court Miller came back to the show for a short run(their bios were on inserts in the Playbill!). As other people have said, you'd need someone with Fierstein's outsi...

I'm not surprised at this, given Kirk's long association with Mantello (I can't believe how long ago it was I saw Love Valour Compassion!) and his stage experience. Logistically, of course, it would have been tricky to wait until after Risch settled into the role before deciding whether to stay with him or bring in someone new in January. This way Justin Kirk will have enough rehearsal time with the rest of the cast. This kind of long-range planning also suggests that Other Desert Cities is s...

How long have Risch and Mantello been together? Michael Musto ran a blind item referencing them back in June, so it must be a relatively recent thing (6 or 7 months, maybe?). It wouldn't be worth a blind item in 2011 if they were already together during PAL JOEY, surely. That said, I hope Risch does well in OTHER DESERT CITIES. I didn't know he was the understudy until I read this story, but my ticket falls during his run.

Channeling Claude Rains in Casablanca now: "I am shocked, SHOCKED ..."

I guess I just have an accountant's mentality: I still think it's odd that the producers are paying an extra salary to the standby instead of simply having two understudies for Cavenaugh from within the company, as they're doing with every other role except the older men - unless they expect that Cavenaugh will be missing enough shows that paying Hydzik becomes a smart investment. It's not the double coverage I'm questioning, it's the hiring of an additional performer ONLY to cover a single r...

Sorry if I wasn't clear: I wasn't asking what a standby does or how that works in relation to having an understudy for a role as well. (I already know that.) I was asking if anyone knows why this production hired a standby for Tony, but not for any of the other key roles - this seems unusual to me.

I caught the Wednesday matinee of WSS with standby Matthew Hydzik taking over for Matt Cavenaugh. Sorry if this question has already been discussed (I did do a search, I swear!), but why are the WSS producers paying Hydzik a salary to be the standby for Tony when Mike Cannon (Snowboy) is also understudying the role and is presumably ready to go on? The only other standby listed in the program is necessary: Mark Zimmerman for the four older male roles. But there's no standby for Maria, Anita, ...

Greetings, Does anyone have great recommendations for what to see on a Monday night? I suddenly have an open slot on March 16th, now that MOURNING BECOMES ELECTRA has cancelled its Monday shows starting in March. (And based on the reactions posted here so far, I'm pretty relieved to have them call ME out of the blue and give me a refund!) Since so many shows are dark on Mondays, what might be good on or off-Bway that night? All suggestions gratefully accepted!

When the PAL JOEY tix first went on sale, I bought mine for Dec. 18th just because it fit my schedule - so now I'm pretty happy to find myself holding a front-row mezzanine aisle seat for the new opening night! And I hope Matthew Risch hits it out of the ballpark, personally.

I want to second this recommendation; I went down to the Dimson/Vineyard tonight to see FALSETTOLAND, and it's a wonderful, heartbreaking production -- as close to perfect a realization of the show as I can imagine. Some of the actors are veterans of director Alan Muraoka's 1998 production and some are new to their roles, but there is not a weak link in this cast. Muraoka and his actors had the audience in tears well before the finale. Do not miss this show!

Greetings to all -- For once, on a Friday evening I was as happy to be currently living in Oklahoma as I would have been to be living back home in New York: I'm just back from the gala concert in Oklahoma City honoring Oklahoma City University voice professor Florence Birdwell, and featuring some of her star students over the years, including Lara Teeter (has it really been 25 years since I saw his Tony-nominated performance in ON YOUR TOES?!), John Sawyer, Kelli O'Hara, and Kristin Chenoweth...

I caught the 3/21 matinee of this show, and I have to admit I was disappointed in the quality of the script, despite the best efforts of a group of talented actors. The play itself, once you get past the framing device of the wedding that begins and ends it, is shapeless; there's no apparent reason for why the various flashback scenes occur in the order they do. Though the actors do their best to differentiate between the many characters each plays, sometimes it's hard to figure out whether a...

Okay, here I am, reporting in from the Tuesday 3/20 preview! Basic reaction: this is a very, *very* good show already, and by the time it opens it may be amazing. For me, INHERIT THE WIND is a classic example of a work which isn't a great play, but it *is* great theater; when it's well performed, it's virtually impossible to sink this show. Thanks to a strong cast and Doug Hughes's ingenious, effective production, WIND is well worth the ticket price. As others have noted, Plummer is already g...

An interesting historical factoid: William Jennings Bryan, the real-life Presidential candidate and religious orator who opposed Darrow in the Scopes Trial, resigned as Woodrow Wilson's Secretary of State at the beginning of World War I on Christian pacifist grounds. Lots of modern liberals want see Bryan/Brady as a contemporary fundamentalist a la Bush & Company, but he was more complex than that.

I can't comment on O'Hare's performance as Hornbeck until after I see the show tonight, but I've always found that a fascinating role -- and it's nearly always cast against type; think of Gene Kelly in the movie. This is why I thought O'Hare sounded like an excellent choice on paper, since his "nebbishy" affect onstage would play against the character's deep cynicism. I'll be interested to see tonight how I find him. Of course, it's also fair to assume that all the actors are still fine-tunin...

thanks for the review! I'm seeing the second preview tonight (Tuesday), and now I can hardly wait. (But gee, I'll somehow have to amuse myself in NYC all day. However will I manage?!)

I think it's great that a whole bunch of us are going to be there! I've personally never done an opening night before (I always thought you had to Be Someone to get opening night tickets, so I never tried), so I'm definitely doing a countdown to the big event.