Philadelphia Tribune - Index

Philadelphia Tribune - Sunday, September 07 2008 - Index

Page 2-D
Michael Kuchwara
NEW YORK — Where have
all the new plays gone?
On Broadway this fall, it will
be lonely pair — “To Be or Not
to Be” and “Dividing the
Estate” — that will qualify as
new works in a season studded
with starry revivals such as
“Equus” and “All My Sons.”
Quite a change from last
year, where the fall had plays
by Tracy Letts, Tom Stoppard,
Conor McPherson, Aaron
Sorkin and even Mark Twain
(well, adapted by David Ives) on
tap. And David Mamet showed
up with a new one, too — in
January.
“Broadway has been fairly
unfriendly to the new play for a
while,” said Daniel Sullivan,
acting artistic director last season
for Manhattan Theatre
Club, which will produce one of
those two new works. “When
you are talking between $2
million and $3 million, just to
put on a five- or six-character
play on Broadway, you can’t
blame producers for being
shy.”
No wonder both “To Be or
Not to Be” and “Dividing the
Estate” are being produced by
nonprofit, noncommercial theaters.
“To Be or Not to Be” is a
familiar title — at least to
movie buffs. It’s a stage adaptation
by Nick Whitby of the
1942 film comedy starring
Jack Benny and Carole
Lombard about the tribulations
of a theater troupe in
Warsaw trying to open a play
as the Nazis invade Poland. It
was remade in the 1980s, with
Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft
in leading roles.
The comedy, directed by
Casey Nicholaw of “The Drowsy
Chaperone” fame, opens Oct. 2
at the newly rechristened
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
(formerly the Biltmore).
Heading the large cast of a
dozen actors are David Rasche
and Jan Maxwell.
“To Be or Not to Be” came to
Manhattan Theatre Club
through a commercial producer,
Bob Boyett, who had the
rights but felt because of the
show’s multiple sets and extensive
costumes, it was too big
for him to take on commercially.
“He came to us and asked if
we would put it on, and he
would help out,” Sullivan said.
“It would be very difficult for us
to afford to do it on our own. It
this case, it’s a fortuitous linkage
of the commercial and the
not-for-profit.”
“Dividing the Estate” by
Horton Foote arrives on
Broadway after a successful
off-Broadway run last season.
The play, a revised version of a
work the 92-year-old Foote
wrote nearly two decades ago,
concerns a Texas family’s
squabble over an inheritance.
The comedy will open Nov.
20 at the Booth Theatre with
its off-Broadway cast including
Elizabeth Ashley, Arthur
French, Hallie Foote, Penny
Fuller and Gerald McRaney.
Elsewhere on Broadway, it’s
big names in old plays.
The parade starts with
“Equus,” a revival of Peter
Shaffer’s psychological drama
featuring Daniel Radcliffe, inbetween
starring in all those
“Harry Potter” movies.
The 19-year-old Radcliffe portrays
a troubled young man who
blinds a stable full of horses, and
a psychiatrist, played by Richard
Griffiths, who attempts to find
out why. The answer will be
revealed Sept. 25 when “Equus”
opens at the Broadhurst Theatre.
A lot more will be revealed,
too, because Radcliffe also
strips to the skin in what is
Broadway’s most anticipated
nude scene since Kathleen
Turner briefly doffed her
clothes as Mrs. Robinson in the
stage version of “The
Graduate.”
Nobody takes their clothes
off in Anton Chekhov’s “The
Seagull” (as far we know), the
master’s wryly melancholic tale
of unhappy aristocrats in late
19th century Russia. Kristin
Scott Thomas stars as a selfabsorbed
actress in a production
cheered by the London
critics in 2007. Peter
Sarsgaard also is in the
American cast. The angst and
unfulfillment commence Oct. 1
at the Walter Kerr Theatre.
There’s nothing wrong with a
little heroics and they don’t get
much braver than Sir Thomas
More, who had the moral fortitude
to stand up to Henry VIII
and his desire for a divorce.
The play is Robert Bolt’s “A
Man for All Seasons,” and More
will be portrayed by an actor of
uncommon ability, Frank
Langella. Look for the
Roundabout Theatre Company
production Oct. 7 at its
American Airlines Theatre.
Arthur Miller always was
intrigued, too, by the battle
between right and wrong. And
the highly moral concerns of
his late 1940s drama “All My
Sons” will get another airing
starting Oct. 16 at the Gerald
Schoenfeld Theatre.
The cast includes John
Lithgow, Dianne Wiest, Patrick
Wilson and, attracting the most
attention, Katie Holmes, possibly
because some hope to see
her husband, Tom Cruise,
waiting for her at the stage door
after evening performances.
The play (for those who are
more concerned about plot)
tells the story of businessman
Joe Keller (Lithgow), whose factory
supplied defective cylinder
parts to the military, resulting
in the deaths of 21 pilots during
World War II. Wiest will play
Keller’s wife and Wilson, his
idealistic son.
Theatergoers will also be
treated to a battle between two
Mamet revivals — each showcasing
offbeat casts.
In one corner, we have
“Speed-The-Plow,” Mamet’s cynical
look at Hollywood glamour,
sex and power, featuring Jeremy
Piven, Raul Esparza and, in the
role originated by Madonna in
the play’s first Broadway production,
Elisabeth Moss. Look
for it Oct. 23 at the Ethel
Barrymore Theatre.
In the other corner, John
Leguizamo, Cedric the
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Broadway has scarce offers for fall season
David Germain
TORONTO — Sundance is about
ew talent and small, personal films.
annes is about highbrow cinema
nd celebrity-watching.
The Toronto International Film
estival is about movies, from splashy
tudio releases and potential Oscar
ontenders to obscure foreign flicks
nd the latest avant-garde experients.
North America’s largest cinema
howcase, the Toronto festival opens
hursday with a lineup that includes
he Coen brothers’ dark spy comedy
Burn After Reading” with George
looney and Brad Pitt; Keira
nightley’s historical saga “The
uchess”; Edward Norton and Colin
arrell’s cop drama “Pride and Glory”;
nd the supernatural romantic comey
“Ghost Town,” with Ricky Gervais,
ea Leoni and Greg Kinnear.
While the Cannes and Sundance
estivals cater more to industry
rowds and entertainment reporters,
oronto plays out in theaters
hroughout the city, with everyday
ovie-lovers making up a large part of
he audience.
“This is very much a festival
esigned for the public,” said Piers
andling, festival director. “It’s a very
road, inclusive audience and very
ide-ranging in terms of the films,
rom the small, tiny experimental
ilms through to edgier films through
omedies and through to major studio
ilms.”
Spike Lee said he got a stirring
eception at Toronto two years ago
ith his Hurricane Katrina documenary,
“When the Levees Broke.” He
opes for the same this time with the
orld War II drama “Miracle at St.
In this undated image released by Boneau/Bryan-Brown, Inc., a production number from “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas,” is shown. — AP PHOTO/BONEAU/BRYAN-BROWN, INC., DAVID ALLEN STUDIO
Anna,” which plays Toronto in
advance of its Sept. 26 theatrical
release.
“The people in Toronto really appre-
ciate films,” Lee said. “Toronto’s a
great vehicle, a great launchpad for
the film to come out in the fall.”
Among other Toronto titles: The
Iraq War homecoming drama “The
Lucky Ones,” with Tim Robbins,
Rachel McAdams and Michael Pena;
the journalism tale “Nothing but the
Truth,” starring Kate Beckinsale in a
story inspired by the Valerie Plame
case; “Rachel Getting Married,” with
Anne Hathaway as an addict on leave
from rehab for her sister’s wedding;
the adultery drama “The Other Man,”
with Liam Neeson, Laura Linney and
Antonio Banderas; and the Paris
Hilton documentary “Paris, Not
France,” the directing debut of Adria
Petty, Tom Petty’s daughter.
With hundreds of critics and
reporters on hand, the festival is a
prime spot for filmmakers to get the
word out about movies that lack a big
studio marketing campaign, said Ed
Harris, whose directing debut,
“Pollock,” played at Toronto in 2000,
the film going on to win the supporting-actress
Oscar for Marcia Gay
Harden.
Harris returns this time with the
Western “Appaloosa, “ which he cowrote
and directed. Featuring Harris,
Viggo Mortensen and Renee Zellweger,
“Appaloosa” opens in theaters Sept.
19 after premiering in Toronto.
“There’s tons of press there,” Harris
said. “I’ll pretty much do whatever I
can to help build awareness that this
film is out there.”
Begun in the 1970s to promote
Canadian film, the festival continues
to showcase homegrown works,
including Thursday’s opening-night
premiere, the World War I saga
“Passchendaele,” directed by Paul
Gross, who also stars.
Inspired by stories the filmmaker’s
grandfather shared about his experiences
in the war, “Passchendaele” has
an unusually large scope for a
Entertainer and Haley Joel
Osment star in the playwright’s
Chicago robbery caper,
“American Buffalo.” The opening
is Nov. 17 at the Belasco.
For those still hankering for
new work, look off-Broadway
where a couple of intriguing
possibilities arrive before
Thanksgiving.
Will drama off the playing
field be potent enough in “Back
Back Back,” Itamar Moses’
baseball tale set against the
steroid controversy? To find
out, play ball Nov. 5 at
Manhattan Theatre Club’s
Stage II.
Games of another kind will be
present in “Farragut North,”
Beau Willimon’s cautionary tale
of Washington power politics.
John Gallagher, a Tony winner
for “Spring Awakening,” stars.
The dirty doings are exposed
Nov. 12 at the Atlantic Theater
Company. — (AP)
oronto film fest includes Spike Lee, Coen movies
Actor Jeremy Irons gestures during a news conference for the movie
“Appaloosa” at the Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto Friday.
— AP PHOTO/THE CANADIAN PRESS, JONATHAN HAYWARD
Canadian-financed film, whose budgets
tend to top out at about $8 million,
said Gross, who starred as a
Canadian Mountie in the 1990s TV
show “Due South” and as a theater
director in the acclaimed series
“Slings and Arrows.”
Gross managed to raise $20 million
for his production, which centers on a
wounded sergeant who falls in love
with a nurse, then becomes protector
of her younger brother when the
youth is shipped to the trenches.
“I think the film is large enough to
hold the hall,” Gross said of Toronto’s
cavernous Roy Thomson Hall, where
the festival holds its main premieres.
“I am looking forward to seeing it on a
screen that big. I don’t think I’ll ever
see it on a screen that huge again.”
Films good and bad tend to draw
cheers from Toronto audiences, who
seem genuinely thrilled to catch
movies before they land in theaters.
“I love Sundance and I always will,
and Sundance gave me a career. But
you still have cineastes at Sundance
who will turn their nose up,” said
Kevin Smith, whose debut, “Clerks,”
was a Sundance sensation and who
heads to Toronto with his comedy
“Zack and Miri Make a Porno,” starring
Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks.
“In Toronto, nobody turns their
nose up at almost anything. I’m going
to say this, and then we’re going to
tank, but if you tank in Toronto, then
something’s seriously wrong with that
movie,” Smith said.
“The thing they always say about
Toronto is you have to take off about 20
percent of the audience reaction, because
it’s so effusive. But I’d rather go see it with
an overly effusive audience. As a filmmaker,
that’s an awesome thing, where
it’s like, everybody loves it.” — (AP)