It’s May 1973 when a young man wanders into a dilapidated community theater in Reading, PA. The company members welcome him—well, only because they need a set painter that day. The young man then proceeds to soak up all the idealism and the craziness that comes with being part of a struggling theater company with big dreams. When a playwright looks back at his beginnings in the theater and decides to chronicle those experiences in a play, all sorts of things can happen. If you’re Douglas Carter Beane, who grew out of his Reading, PA, community theater days to become one of the stage’s master writers, it’s bound to bring a measure of gimlet-eyed reflection, a large dollop of self-deprecation, and a heaping dose of hilarity.
From the author of As Bees in Honey Drown and The Little Dog Laughed, this delightfully au courant comedy gives us Missy, an avant-garde video artist, who entertains herself re-editing her family's home movies to unsavory effect. Successful and happily ensconced in an affair with married businessman "Suit," Missy's love life is suddenly complicated by the appearance of "Brat," the actor/new love of her best gay friend, "Spaz.
THE STORY: Soos, young, witty and charmingly neurotic, retreats from a failed marriage to her upper-class hometown. The type of WASP domain with the houses that made Martha Stewart forget she was Polish. As party after party unfolds, the getaway
THE STORY: Evan Wyler has just finished a photo session with his shirt off. No, he's not a supermodel; he's a twenty-something New York writer savoring the success of his debut novel. Defined by the media as the hot-young thing-of-the-moment, Eva
THE STORY: Yes, we love the cinema for its great auteurs, its glorious faces and its daring images. But in this tabloid age where big stars go on Oprah and jump around like heartsick schoolboys, what we really love is all that dish! The play
THE STORY: In the 1930s, burlesque impresarios welcomed the hilarious comics and musical parodies of vaudeville to their decidedly lowbrow niche. A headliner called "the nance"—usually played by a straight man—was a stereotypically camp homosexual and master of comic double entendre. THE NANCE recreates the naughty, raucous world of burlesque's heyday and tells the backstage story of Chauncey Miles and his fellow performers. At a time when it was easy to play gay and dangerous to be gay, Chauncey's uproarious antics on the stage stand out in marked contrast to his offstage life.
When the young composer-lyricist Douglas Cohen first secured the musical rights to the novel No Way to Treat a Lady by William Goldman—the acclaimed author of The Princess Bride and Marathon Man—he hoped it would be his big break, the first step on a gilt path to artistic triumph and commercial success in the form of a hit Broadway musical. What happened after that, while memorable, was anything but. How to Survive a Killer Musical chronicles Cohen's decade-long quest to bring that musical to the stage—writing, re-writing, and shepherding it across the US and Europe amidst all manner of adversity and plain rotten luck. It's a fascinating portrait of passion, persistence, and resilience—a coming-of-age story populated with famous mentors and formidable adversaries, told with refreshing honesty and humor. On Cohen's journey, we meet an unforgettable, vividly rendered cast of characters, including: an Oscar-winning screenwriter who invites Cohen to his personal screening room for a marathon midnight writing session; a Tony Award-winning director making his comeback after a horrific accident renders him a quadriplegic; and a celebrated, volatile British director who inspires a fruitful collaboration in London, only to later leave carnage in his wake. Catastrophes abound, including the near-fatal stabbing of a female lead in rehearsal and an onstage accident incapacitating another leading lady—leaving only the author to go on in her place! Whether you’re a fan of musicals or just someone who’s trying to bring a passion project into the world, this tale of fortitude in the face of obstacles, personalities, and egos will make for an eye-opening and frequently hilarious journey.
THE STORY: Whatever became of Tamara Tomorrow? In the early seventies, this local television host, in her antennae and space suit, made cheery predictions of how exciting the future was going to be. Her sudden disappearance from the public eye was
From the author of As Bees in Honey Drown and The Little Dog Laughed, this delightfully au courant comedy gives us Missy, an avant-garde video artist, who entertains herself re-editing her family's home movies to unsavory effect. Successful and happily ensconced in an affair with married businessman "Suit," Missy's love life is suddenly complicated by the appearance of "Brat," the actor/new love of her best gay friend, "Spaz.
THE STORY: Soos, young, witty and charmingly neurotic, retreats from a failed marriage to her upper-class hometown. The type of WASP domain with the houses that made Martha Stewart forget she was Polish. As party after party unfolds, the getaway
THE STORY: Whatever became of Tamara Tomorrow? In the early seventies, this local television host, in her antennae and space suit, made cheery predictions of how exciting the future was going to be. Her sudden disappearance from the public eye was
THE STORY: In the 1930s, burlesque impresarios welcomed the hilarious comics and musical parodies of vaudeville to their decidedly lowbrow niche. A headliner called "the nance"—usually played by a straight man—was a stereotypically camp homosexual and master of comic double entendre. THE NANCE recreates the naughty, raucous world of burlesque's heyday and tells the backstage story of Chauncey Miles and his fellow performers. At a time when it was easy to play gay and dangerous to be gay, Chauncey's uproarious antics on the stage stand out in marked contrast to his offstage life.
THE STORY: Yes, we love the cinema for its great auteurs, its glorious faces and its daring images. But in this tabloid age where big stars go on Oprah and jump around like heartsick schoolboys, what we really love is all that dish! The play
THE STORY: Evan Wyler has just finished a photo session with his shirt off. No, he's not a supermodel; he's a twenty-something New York writer savoring the success of his debut novel. Defined by the media as the hot-young thing-of-the-moment, Eva
It’s May 1973 when a young man wanders into a dilapidated community theater in Reading, PA. The company members welcome him—well, only because they need a set painter that day. The young man then proceeds to soak up all the idealism and the craziness that comes with being part of a struggling theater company with big dreams. When a playwright looks back at his beginnings in the theater and decides to chronicle those experiences in a play, all sorts of things can happen. If you’re Douglas Carter Beane, who grew out of his Reading, PA, community theater days to become one of the stage’s master writers, it’s bound to bring a measure of gimlet-eyed reflection, a large dollop of self-deprecation, and a heaping dose of hilarity.
When the young composer-lyricist Douglas Cohen first secured the musical rights to the novel No Way to Treat a Lady by William Goldman—the acclaimed author of The Princess Bride and Marathon Man—he hoped it would be his big break, the first step on a gilt path to artistic triumph and commercial success in the form of a hit Broadway musical. What happened after that, while memorable, was anything but. How to Survive a Killer Musical chronicles Cohen's decade-long quest to bring that musical to the stage—writing, re-writing, and shepherding it across the US and Europe amidst all manner of adversity and plain rotten luck. It's a fascinating portrait of passion, persistence, and resilience—a coming-of-age story populated with famous mentors and formidable adversaries, told with refreshing honesty and humor. On Cohen's journey, we meet an unforgettable, vividly rendered cast of characters, including: an Oscar-winning screenwriter who invites Cohen to his personal screening room for a marathon midnight writing session; a Tony Award-winning director making his comeback after a horrific accident renders him a quadriplegic; and a celebrated, volatile British director who inspires a fruitful collaboration in London, only to later leave carnage in his wake. Catastrophes abound, including the near-fatal stabbing of a female lead in rehearsal and an onstage accident incapacitating another leading lady—leaving only the author to go on in her place! Whether you’re a fan of musicals or just someone who’s trying to bring a passion project into the world, this tale of fortitude in the face of obstacles, personalities, and egos will make for an eye-opening and frequently hilarious journey.
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