Plays You Love That Not Many Other People Have Heard Of
Plays You Love That Not Many Other People Have Heard Of
#1Plays You Love That Not Many Other People Have Heard Of
Posted: 1/7/07 at 12:38pmThe Last Days of Judas Iscariot- Stephen Adly Guirgis
yankee_fan907
Leading Actor Joined: 10/14/06
#2re: Plays You Love That Not Many Other People Have Heard Of
Posted: 1/7/07 at 12:42pm
"Shear Madness"
I don't know how many people have heard of it, but I saw it in Boston. It's a crazy comedy improv show that the update to fit the times. Absolutely hilarious!
#2re: Plays You Love That Not Many Other People Have Heard Of
Posted: 1/8/07 at 12:02amAMPHITRION 38 and THE APOLLO OF BELLAC, both by Jean Giraudoux, better known for MADWOMAN OF CHAILLOT and INTERMEZZO. AMPHITRION is a delightful rewrite of the Greek myth, and APOLLO is a charming one-act on the nature of beauty.
#3re: Plays You Love That Not Many Other People Have Heard Of
Posted: 1/8/07 at 12:24am
Ooh Yankee_fan907!,
I caught "Shear Madness" in Boston, excellent show!
Anyone hear of "Register Here" ?
ggersten
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/11/06
#5re: Plays You Love That Not Many Other People Have Heard Of
Posted: 1/8/07 at 1:18am
The Convict's Return - a mostly one man show by Geoff Hoyle
Angry Housewives - a musical about three housewives who have a hit with "Eat Your ****ing Cornflakes"
#6re: Plays You Love That Not Many Other People Have Heard Of
Posted: 1/8/07 at 3:16am
"Up" by Bridget Carpenter
When I saw this, it immediately became my favorite play. Its very new, and the theatre i saw it at is a large one, so hopefully more theatres will start doing it.
OasisBroadway
Leading Actor Joined: 9/28/05
#7re: Plays You Love That Not Many Other People Have Heard Of
Posted: 1/8/07 at 9:28amI am not sure whether not many people have heard of it, but I rarely see any discussion of 'Compleat Female Stage Beauty' which I find to be brilliant. I still to this day do not understand why that show was not more popular.
SorryGrateful
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/10/05
#8re: Plays You Love That Not Many Other People Have Heard Of
Posted: 1/8/07 at 9:49am
4.48 Psychosis by Sarah Kane
The Hypocrites did it here in Chicago and I saw it three times. It's absolutely mesmorizing.
#9re: Plays You Love That Not Many Other People Have Heard Of
Posted: 1/8/07 at 10:13am
Speaking of Giraudoux, his Elektra is one of the great plays of the 20th century and surprisingly little-known. I'm not sure if there's ever been a production in this country.
Others little-known plays that I like a lot include White Biting Dog by Judith Thompson and Jest, Satire, Irony, and Deeper Significance by Christian Dietrich Grabbe.
Updated On: 1/9/07 at 10:13 AM
#10re: Plays You Love That Not Many Other People Have Heard Of
Posted: 1/8/07 at 10:42amDone to Death.
Borstalboy
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/9/04
#11re: Plays You Love That Not Many Other People Have Heard Of
Posted: 1/8/07 at 10:48amFor years, I was trying to get people interested in MARY ROSE by J.M. Barrie....now the Vineyard is finally doing it!
#12re: Plays You Love That Not Many Other People Have Heard Of
Posted: 1/8/07 at 10:53am
Ok Shear Madneess does not exactly wualify under Not Many Other People have heard of.
There is a great Thriller called DANGEROUS OBSESSION
#13re: Plays You Love That Not Many Other People Have Heard Of
Posted: 1/8/07 at 12:34pmare many familiar with THE FOREIGNER by larry shue? one of my all-time favorites and the best show i've ever performed in.
Borstalboy
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/9/04
#14re: Plays You Love That Not Many Other People Have Heard Of
Posted: 1/8/07 at 12:41pm
THE FOREIGNER was a huge hit when it came out in the eighties, has been a staple of community theater ever since, and a revival with Matthew Broderick happened a couple of years ago, so yeah I think people have heard of it.
Love the Jacobean tragedies: TIS PITY SHE'S A WHORE, THE CHANGELING, THE WHITE DEVIL, THE REVENGER'S TRAGEDY, and THE DUCHESS OF MALFI.
WOSQ
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/18/03
#15re: Plays You Love That Not Many Other People Have Heard Of
Posted: 1/8/07 at 4:47pm
The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window
by Lorraine Hansberry
This is structurally a mess and 3+ hours long in a quick production, but the characters and scenes are sterling.
#16re: Plays You Love That Not Many Other People Have Heard Of
Posted: 1/8/07 at 5:36pm
>> Speaking of Giradoux, his Elektra is one of the great plays of the 20th century and surprisingly little-known. I'm not sure if there's ever been a production in this country.
Not in New York, although it shows up periodically on the college and university circuit.
:: sigh :: Giraudoux is such a wonderful playwright, and his work is more and more ignored. ONDINE. LA FOLLE. As you noted, ELECTRA. He only wrote perhaps a dozen plays and maybe three or four novels before he died, but his stuff is just flat out amazing, blithe fantasies that warp reality and serve it back to you. That absurd Hepburn film of MADWOMAN did nothing for the play, save take the bare bones of the plot and shove it in directions it simply wasnt meant to travel, let alone sustain.
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#17re: Plays You Love That Not Many Other People Have Heard Of
Posted: 1/8/07 at 6:03pm
"Democracy"
I know this play was on broadway but its run was just to short. I enjoyed everything about this play and thought that it deserved a better run and more critical acclaim.
Mr Roxy
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
#18re: Plays You Love That Not Many Other People Have Heard Of
Posted: 1/8/07 at 6:06pmInner City
#19re: Plays You Love That Not Many Other People Have Heard Of
Posted: 1/8/07 at 7:25pm
Thanks, SeanMartin. I thought perhaps it had been done in colleges, but I'd never heard about a production. It's hard to imagine it being given a big New York production, even by LCT, as the cast is huge and it's not likely to appeal to a large audience.
Other plays I should mention include Kleist's Penthisilea (and really all of his plays) and Guare's Bosoms and Neglect, Four Baboons Adoring the Sun, Lake Hollywood, Women and Water and the original versions of Gardenia and Lydee Breeze, though it's arguable that some of those are pretty well-known. Also, Miller's The Creation of the World and Other Business, Feiffer's Grown Ups, and most everything by Harry Kondoleon.
MargoChanning
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
#21re: Plays You Love That Not Many Other People Have Heard Of
Posted: 1/8/07 at 8:08pm
I recall seeing the full (4 hour?) revised version of Lydie Breeze at NY Theatre Workshop a few years ago with Jefferson Mays, Bill Camp and Elizabeth Marvel. And I remember Guare being at the back of the theater, clearly working hard on the rewrites. I've also seen most of the other Guare plays you mention in NY in the last decade or so.
NY Theatre Workshop also revived Kondoleon's "Play Yourself" (at the Century Theatre) a few years ago in a first rate production starring Marvel and Marian Seldes (I wish more of his work would be revived).
Funny that I remember reading and being blown away by several Giraudoux plays when I was much younger (I discovered him in high school), but I don't think I've ever seen any of his plays on stage.
All of those Jacobean plays Borstalboy mentioned have been staged in NY in the last few years (I saw The Revenger's Tragedy about a year ago).
A French production of 4.48 Psychosis was done at BAM last year.
Shear Madness is not only well known, but has (or at least had) the record for the longest running show in the history of DC and Boston (and one of the longest running ever in Chicago). Actually, I think it boasts in its press materials that its the longest running play in the history of the US, having played more than 50 cities nationwide.
The Last DAys of Judas Iscariot had a highly acclaimed run by Philip Seymour Hoffman's Labyrinth Theatre Company at the Public Theater last year.
FYI -- My high school did The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail when I was in 9th grade.
keen on kean
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/1/06
#22re: Plays You Love That Not Many Other People Have Heard Of
Posted: 1/8/07 at 8:12pmThe Rehearsal by Jean Anoiulh (sp??).
#23re: Plays You Love That Not Many Other People Have Heard Of
Posted: 1/8/07 at 10:13pm
Haha, Shear Madness has quite a record condiering you never hear too much about it.
I guess because the theaters' in a little alley and not on the main strip of the district.
No one for "Register Here"? Really. Hm...
#24re: Plays You Love That Not Many Other People Have Heard Of
Posted: 1/8/07 at 10:35pm"You Can Lead A Horse To Water" by Winston V. Saunders
#25re: Plays You Love That Not Many Other People Have Heard Of
Posted: 1/9/07 at 1:28am
Not that it's exactly a forgotten play, but Brain Friel's "Philadelphia, Here I Come" is a fabulous, almost poetic play with some true heartbreak in it.
And speaking of Michael Frayn, his play "Benefactors" should have had a longer life, but it came right after "Noises Off" and the fact that it was so different from "Noises" probably hurt it.
Another play that should be investigated by theater groups is Terence McNally's infamous "And Things That Go Bump In The Night". O.k., it is very, very, very much a play of it's time (the mid-sixties) and it is not a great play. When I read read it I thought that if a not great play like "Agnes of God" could run for years, why couldn't have this one?
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