Theater

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Current Affairs, Television, Theater

John Forsythe 1918-2010

April 5, 2010

Forsythe, left, with Peter Brown in “Kitten with a Whip,” one of my favorite movie titles of all time.

Gay, Literature, Theater

An Understanding of Our Nature

March 16, 2010

“I wanted to sound an alarm. But nothing had happened.” Alfieri, A View from the Bridge by Arthur Miller. In the current revival of A View from the Bridge, the alarms ring throughout. The play’s big Greek epiphany centers on a matter of trust: Eddie Carbone, the dockworker, commits a betrayal so huge that…

Current Affairs, Theater

Mattachine Men

February 1, 2010

Harry Hay, Vincente Minnelli, Rudi Gernreich and gay Liberation–this heady mix of characters and history make for excellent theater in the return engagement of Jon Maran’s The Tempermentals. It’s theater for smart people; Maran’s tale of The Mattachine Society, argurably the first organization to fight for gay rights in the US, builds movingly to its climax via a…

Film, Television, Theater

Jean Simmons 1929-2010

January 25, 2010

Lovely British actress who never quite got her due despite benchmark performances in Hamlet, The Actress, Elmer Gantry and The Happy Ending. Above, as Kanchi in one of my favorite films, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s shattering Black Narcissus (1947)

Film, Theater

Donal Donnelly, Actor 1931-2010

January 7, 2010

Donnelly as the drunken Freddie Malins in John Huston’s last film, The Dead (1987). RIP

Film, Food and Drink, Theater

Another Page

January 3, 2010

Some will go back to work, while others will return from long vacations, visits to family or friends, or the epic drunk they’ve been on since the office Christmas party. For most of us the Monday after New Year’s Day signifies the true turning of time, and a return to business as usual. I’ve long…

Theater

Ardelle Striker, Artistic Director of Blue Heron Theatre 1929-2009

December 16, 2009

In the winter of 1988 I was cast in a production of Wesley Brown’s Boogie Woogie and Booker T. The Off-Off Broadway company, Blue Heron Theatre, was new on the scene but their mission—providing theater that “stimulates audiences to think about the crucial dilemmas of our time – political and economic oppression, racism, and the struggle…

Film, Television, Theater

Gene Barry 1919-2009

December 11, 2009

Barry, center, with Robert Stack and Anthony Franciosa in a favorite show from boyhood, NBC’s “The Name of the Game.” Check out their double-breasted style. I distinctly remember wanting to be all three of them–RIP.

Television, Theater

Dennis Cole 1940-2009

December 1, 2009

A slab of Grade-A beef who graduated from modeling in physique magazines to bits and supporting parts on television, notably on Felony Squad with Howard Duff and Bearcats! with Rod Taylor. Type-wise he was the male Farrah–ironically he married Jaclyn Smith after meeting her while guesting on Charlie’s Angels. RIP.

Music, Theater

Autumn in New York

November 14, 2009

It’s good to live it again: the openings, the excitement, the sheer volume of folks taking their talents out for a walk. New York’s art part is in full swing, from its galleries to its opera houses, dance spaces and theaters crammed to bursting with the kind of startling, involving work that makes me happy…