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Theater Talkback: Politics and Show Tunes - ArtsBeat Blog - NYTimes.com

Theater Talkback: Politics and Show Tunes

By BEN BRANTLEY

Sara Krulwich/The New York Times Victor Garber and Jennifer Laura Thompson in the 2006 Encores! production of “Of Thee I Sing.”

Were politicians born to sing and dance? I don’t mean the old song-and-dance that this breed is regularly said to perform, but stuff-strutting, spotlighted numbers that involve high kicks and high notes.

There was a time when heads of state were considered entirely appropriate subjects for American musicals. The Founding Fathers jigged their way to a Tony Award 41 years ago in “1776,” and “Fiorello!,” the 1959 portrait of Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia of New York, won a Pulitzer Prize; so did “Of Thee I Sing,” the 1931 Gershwin-Kaufman-Ryskind satire about the road to the presidency.

Sara Krulwich/The New York Times James Hindman, left, as Dwight D. Eisenhower and Cheryl Stern as Mamie Eisenhower in “Where’s Mamie?,” part of the musical “First Lady Suite.”

But after Alan Jay Lerner and Leonard Bernstein’s “1600 Pennsylvania Avenue” — a panoramic view of White House inhabitants through the ages — opened and crashed (only seven performances) in 1976, musical-makers seemed to grow wary of such subjects. There would be exotic cult-making variations on the theme, like Michael John LaChiusa’s “First Lady Suite” and Stephen Sondheim’s “Assassins.” But among those who would rule the world, only a certain Mrs. Perón of Argentina inspired a show that had New Yorkers lining up for tickets.

Recently, though, politicians and the song-and-dance show have snuck back into bed together, making a new kind of music with surprisingly electric results.

The Nigerian activist and presidential candidate (and self-proclaimed president of his own rock ’n’ roll republic) Fela Anikulapo-Kuti has been vividly reincarnated on Broadway in the Afrobeat musical “Fela!” Downtown at the Public Theater, Old Hickory is gyrating to the rhythms of emo-rock (and packing in a young audience) in “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson.” And sweet little Mrs. Perón is said to be returning to Broadway in a revival of “Evita.”

All of which has started me thinking about other candidates (if I may use that word) in the same vein for mu

via artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com

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A Recycling Initiative Focuses on Broadway Sets and Props - NYTimes.com

A Recycling Initiative Focuses on Broadway Sets and Props - NYTimes.com.

EVER wonder where the levitating tire from “Cats” went? The helicopter from “Miss Saigon”? How about the millions of dollars’ worth of scenery, props and costumes associated with the more than a dozen Broadway shows that have closed since late December?

The Living Theater - Column - New York Times

Link: The Living Theater - Column - New York Times.

Early pioneers in forging a serious modern theater in this country — the Provincetown Players, the Theater Guild, Eva Le Gallienne’s Civic Repertory Theater — are now histories in books, although the artists they nurtured and the work they created dug roots that fed the theater of future years in important ways. And while it took place just a generation or two ago, the fertile tumult of the early years of the Off Off Broadway theater movement seems almost as distant. Wading through the tricked-out strollers clogging the streets of Greenwich Village today, it is hard to conceive that not so long ago — well, O.K., getting on toward 50 years now — a scrappy, determined bunch of young artists ignited a vibrant new era in theater by staging plays in local coffeehouses, churches and other commandeered spaces.

Try to Remember Jerry Orbach and The Fantastiks

A History of Vaudeville

Link: Vaudeville, A History.

American Vaudeville, more so than any other mass entertainment, grew out of the culture of incorporation that defined American life after the Civil War. The development of vaudeville marked the beginning of popular entertainment as big business, dependent on the organizational efforts of a growing number of white-collar workers and the increased leisure time, spending power, and changing tastes of an urban middle class audience. Business savvy showmen utilized improved transportation and communication technologies, creating and controlling vast networks of theatre circuits standardizing, professionalizing, and institutionalizing American popular entertainment.

How they razzle-dazzled

Link: Variety.com - How they razzle-dazzled.

Fred Ebb, who died Sept. 11, 2004, gave his final interview at a June 15 press conference that year at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. In a Q&A conducted by Harold Prince, Ebb, along with John Kander, Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock, commemorated the library's acquisition of their respective archives regarding such seminal works of the American musical theater as "Chicago," "Cabaret," "Kiss of the Spider Woman," "She Loves Me," "Fiorello!" and "Fiddler on the Roof." As Kander recently pointed out, "Fred was in especially high form that day." As the two songwriters made abundantly clear in the interview, they can't do it alone, to paraphrase their song from "Chicago." Herewith are a number of comments Ebb and Kander shared with the press at the library.

Hidden Music Secrets » The Early History Of Broadway Musicals

Link: Hidden Music Secrets » The Early History Of Broadway Musicals.

In 1891, the first electric marquis was lit on Broadway. The theater was on Madison Square at the intersection of Broadway and Fifth Avenue at W. 23rd Street. The Flatiron Building now occupies the site. By midway through the following decade, the street blazed with electric signs as each theater announced its shows and stars in white lights. By the turn of the 20th Century the street had an entirely different look, with as many as sixteen theaters on Broadway itself and many others located on the side streets or other avenues.