Morning View - Provincetown

Kevin Spacey Gets Knighted

Via the Daily Mail:

Kevin Spacey claims he feels like 'an adopted son' after being awarded an honorary knighthood for his services to culture and British theatre. The US star, who is finishing a 10-year run as artistic director at London's Old Vic theatre, said he was 'honored and humbled' by the recognition and thanked Britons for supporting his work. He was just one of a host of film stars to be given a gong in this year's Queen's Honours List - with Benedict Cumberbatch winning a CBE and Eddie Redmayne an OBE. The two-times Academy Award winner took over as artistic director of the Old Vic in 2003 and is widely credited with helping turn around the once struggling theatre.

As a foreigner, Spacey doesn't get the title "Sir." Also receiving a knighthood was veteran blues artist Van Morrison.

NEW YORK CITY: Panti Bliss To Perform Five Shows At Irish Arts Center

Via press release:

On the heels of the recent Marriage Equality referendum in Ireland, Irish Arts Center is proud to present Ireland's High Queen, National Treasure, Performance Giant and Accidental Activist Panti in her smash-hit comedy show, High Heels in Low Places. Brought to New York City by Irish production company THISISPOPBABY, High Heels in Low Places runs at Irish Arts Center (553 West 51st St, New York) for five nights from Monday June 8th until Saturday, June 13th with an official opening on Tuesday, June 9th at 7:30 pm. Performances are Tuesday-Wednesday at 7:30 pm and Friday-Saturday at 8 pm. Tickets are from $15 and can be booked online or by calling 866-811-4111. [Photo credit: Conor Horgan]

High Heels in Low Places is Panti’s riotous stand-up show about life after “Pantigate,” which played to rave reviews and chock-a-block houses across Ireland. Critics called it “Hilarious” (Hotpress) and “a wickedly funny evening” (Irish Independent) with “impeccable one-liners” (The Evening Herald). Charting brushes with infamy, near misses with fame, and adventures in the seedy underbelly, the High Queen of Ireland invites you in to her ultra-padded, hyper-real, stiletto-shaped world, as she swaps stories from the gutter and trades secrets of the stars.

Get your tickets here. I'll be there on opening night.

Opening In NYC: Clinton, The Musical

Via press release:

If President William Jefferson Clinton behaved like two different people—one moment noble, the next naughty—that’s because he was! Clinton The Musical explores the two very different sides of the 42nd President of the United States: “WJ,” (Tom Galantich) the wholesome, intelligent one, and “Billy,” (Duke Lafoon) the randy, charming one. With Hillary (Rodham) Clinton (Kerry Butler) at their side, the two will handle issues from The White House to Whitewater, the sax to the sex, social security to social climbers, and in the process make history. Maybe. You cannot miss this “Hillary-ous” new musical and outrageous double Bill! The cast features Tony Award nominee Kerry Butler as Hillary (Rodham) Clinton, Tom Galantich (Tail! Spin!, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) as WJ Clinton and Duke Lafoon (MONICA! The Musical, A Wonderful Life) as Billy Clinton, Emmy Award winner Judy Gold as Eleanor Roosevelt, John Treacy Egan (Nice Work If You Can Get It, Sister Act) as Newt Gingrich, Veronica J. Kuehn (Mamma Mia!, Avenue Q) as Monica Lewinsky. 

Previews begin March 25th at New World Stages.

Courtney Love - All I Ever Wanted

Via the New York Times:

Singer, songwriter, punk-rocker, actress, fashionista, tabloid bonanza and ... piano mover? That’s part of Courtney Love’s latest and thoroughly unexpected gig. The performer who made her name in the 1990s with her primal rasp and confrontational, straight-from-the-id songs will play the lead in “Kansas City Choir Boy,” a music-theater piece she’s performing with its songwriter, Todd Almond, in the 84-seat South Village performance space Here from Jan. 8-17. It’s not “Mary Poppins,” but it’s not Grand Guignol either. Billed as a “theatricalized concept album,” “Kansas City Choir Boy” is a song cycle with very little dialogue: the story of a couple pulled apart by ambition. In Kansas City, he’s a nameless musician who composes on his laptop and his piano; she’s a singer, Athena, and they’re teenage sweethearts. He’s content in the Midwest, while she leaves him behind to make it in New York. He tries to follow her and reconnect, but she has been seduced by the siren call of fame.

Very Marianne Faithfull.

David Mixner Reveals Having Helped Eight Friends With AIDS Commit Suicide

Noted activist and former Clinton White House aide David Mixner made a startling revelation during the premiere of his show here in New York City. Via the Daily Beast:

It is the morning after. We are speaking about Mixner’s emotional on-stage confession—unelicited by anyone but himself—Monday night to the assisted suicides he oversaw of friends dying of AIDS in the 1980s. As Mixner bluntly revealed during Oh Hell No!, his one-man autobiographical stage show: “I killed eight.” One of those eight was his beloved partner Peter Scott, who—along with the seven others—was in the debilitating final stages of the disease and had asked Mixner to help him die. Mixner revealed that he had been part of an underground euthanasia network, aided by medical professionals, who were now “all gone” and could therefore not be punished professionally or prosecuted. Mixner, whose activism spans 40 intense years, himself consulted lawyers before confessing on stage and says he feels a legal prosecution is “unlikely. I am not worried, and what I did was right. In the end I wanted people to know about these decisions I had to take in my 30s that no one should have to take in their 30s.”

Mixner says he would insert a morphine drip into his friends' IV and then call their loved ones so they could be there at the end. Hit the link for much more about Mixner's work in the early years of the movement.

Broadway Sees Rash Of Summer Closings

Broadway tends to see a rash of closing announcements after the Tony Awards and this year is no exception.

Newsies, the surprise hit musical from Disney Theatricals that opened on Broadway in 2012, is quitting while it's ahead, ending its run of just over 1,000 performances at the Nederlander Theatre on August 24 before going on a national tour. It premiered at the Paper Mill Playhouse in 2011, opened on Broadway the following year and went on to recoup its investment after just nine months, faster than any other Disney Theatricals show. It continues to play to houses 85 to 95 percent full. Nevertheless, and true to recent form, Disney is ending the show's run before its box office has a chance to sag, and taking it on the road. Harvey Fierstein's Broadway hat trick will actually come to an end this weekend. His play Casa Valentina, about male heterosexual cross-dressers at a Catskills resort in the early 1960s, ends its run June 29. Upon its April debut it received four Tony nominations but no wins, though Reed Birney did win the 2014 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play. Fierstein will continue to be represented on Broadway after the closings of Newsies and Casa Valentina by Kinky Boots, which he wrote with Cyndi Lauper.

Terrence McNally's AIDS-themed Mothers & Sons closed last night after only 33 previews and 104 regular performances.  The Cotton Club retrospective After Midnight closes this Sunday with Patti LaBelle guest starring all week. (Gladys Knight and Natalie Cole had been scheduled to guest star in the months of July and August, respectively.) Also closing this Sunday is the LBJ drama, All The Way, which stars Bryan Cranston. The Realistic Joneses, starring Toni Collette and Marisa Tomei, closes on July 6th. John Steinbeck's Of Mice & Men starring James Franco closes on July 27th.  The musical Violet, for which Sutton Foster earned a Tony nomination, closes on August 10th.

RELATED: Opening today is the movie version of Douglas Carter Beane's Tony nominated The Nance, starring Nathan Lane. I reviewed the play back in April.

2014 Tony Awards Memorial Reel

TRAILER: Mothers And Sons

(Tipped by JMG reader Alan)

Harvey Fierstein On Reviews

TEXAS: Red-Caped Catholic Loons To Picket The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told

"One word describes the indecent play: blasphemy. Blasphemy is not free speech. Defamation is not artistic expression. The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told is a twisted version of the Bible story told from a pro-homosexual perspective and doesn't belong in any theater. It begins with scenes of 'Adam and Steve' expelled from a Garden of Paradise with full frontal nudity and ends with the Blessed Mother portrayed as a lesbian. This immoral and defamatory play drags the pure and immaculate reputation of the Mother of God into the mud of unnatural vice. As most Americans prepare to celebrate Christmas, the Kalita Humphreys Theater is going out of its way to attack the Mother of God. Not only does this gravely offend her Son Jesus Christ, but it also wounds countless Catholics who regard the Virgin Mary as their own mother. For decades the homosexual movement has been calling for more and more tolerance. However, there's nothing so intolerant as blasphemy."- John Ritchie, head of Tradition, Family, & Property, announcing a protest to be held tomorrow.

RELATED: In April the red-caped Catholic loons staged a noisy protest outside of the Broadway production of The Testament Of Mary.

NPH Hedwig Poster Released

Via Towleroad.

MISSISSIPPI: Football Players Disrupt Campus Production Of Laramie Project

According to the Daily Mississippian, members of the University of Mississippi football team disrupted a campus production of the Laramie Project and shouted "fag" during the show.

Cast members of the play, which is about an openly gay male who was murdered in Laramie County in Wyoming, said members of the audience became so disruptive at times that they struggled completing the play. According to the play’s director and theater faculty member Rory Ledbetter, some audience members used derogatory slurs like “fag” and heckled both cast members and the characters they were portraying for their body types and sexual orientations. Ledbetter said the audience’s reactions included “borderline hate speech.” “I am the only gay person on the cast,” junior theater major Garrison Gibbons said. “I played a gay character in the show, and to be ridiculed like that was something that really made me realize that some people at Ole Miss and in Mississippi still can’t accept me for who I am.”

The players are reportedly enrolled in a freshman-level theater course that requires attending a number of school plays during the term. The school's athletics department has acknowledged the incident and emailed an apology to the head of the theater department, but no disciplinary action has yet been announced.

Broadway Bares 23 Raises Record $1.4M For Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS

On Sunday night Father Tony and I attended the 23rd annual Broadway Bares, where a couple of hundred of Broadway's finest hoofers danced, stripped, pumped, flipped, and spun about on multi-man lighted wheels. Featured stars included Alan Cumming, Judith Light, Andy Cohen, and Adam Lambert, who sang the national anthem. Broadway Cares reports:

Broadway Bares 23: United Strips of America, a randy road trip of modern-day burlesque featuring 220 of New York's sexiest dancers, raised an all-time record high for the fourth year in a row on Sunday, hitting $1,430,241 to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.  The 23rd edition of the consistently sold-out annual show celebrated America's fruited plains and mountains majesties with a host of spectacular stripteases. As more than 6,000 people packed Roseland Ballroom for two performances on June 23 they discovered and uncovered beach babes in California, a sexy Chicago speakeasy, sassy sister wives and a nearly naked groom in Utah, a sensual under sea adventure in Maine, rowdy cheerleaders riding stripped down Texas cowboys and more.  With this year's record total, the 23 editions of BROADWAY BARES have now raised more than $11.3 million for Broadway Cares.

Watch for a glimpse of the spinning wheels at the 2:00 mark.  After that, click over to Boy Culture for tons of up close and sweaty photos.

Larry Kramer Accepts Special Tony Award

True to form, even getting an honorary Tony Award managed to piss off Larry Kramer. Michael Musto reports for Out Magazine:

Downstairs, I found gramps Larry Kramer, who’d been briefly seen receiving a special award for his humanitarian work. He was sitting, but not in a wicker chair. And his normal heart wasn’t smiling. “It was all fucked up,” fumed Kramer. “They kept shunting me around. I was supposed to be on in the first segment, but everybody spoke too long, so they kept putting me off. I had to go on during a commercial break. They promised me they’d show a clip on network, but I don’t think what they showed was very long.” Oh, well, at least Larry told me they stood for him in the theater. “You and Cicely Tyson,” I beamed. “Don’t say anything bitchy!” he warned. Huh? After his harangue, anything I had to say would be as peachy as that hot guy from Pippin.

NEW YORK CITY: Theater Critic Tosses Cell Phone Of Audience Member

Two days ago libertarian author and National Review theater critic Kevin D. Williamson was slapped by an audience member sitting next to him after he grabbed her cell phone and threw it towards the exit. He was then ejected by theater management. The incident has since spawned discussions on numerous sites, but not everybody is defending his action. Today Williamson spoke to Playbill.

"It's bench seating there in the back, so she was basically in my lap," said Williamson. "I asked her politely if she'd put [her cell phone] away because it was distracting, and her response was, 'So don't look.'" After a back-and-forth argument, Williamson grabbed the patron's cell phone and tossed it across the room — aiming for the exit. The angered theatregoer slapped Williamson and "stormed out," crossing directly in front of the action in Natasha, Pierre. "Maybe ten minutes later," Williamson continued, "the security guy came and got me, and that was that." "At that point, there was already a fair disruption underway," he said. "She'd gotten quite loud when I was trying to talk her into behaving herself. Yeah, unquestionably what I did was a disruption, [but] I think I can make the case that I did it in the greater good, [although] it wasn't quiet."

Williamson's Twitter feed has been quite active since the phone-throwing.

BROADWAY CARES: Win Tickets To The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me

Courtesy of Broadway Cares, we've got a pair of tickets to the fundraising one-night-only revival of The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me, which plays the Gerald W. Lynch theater on Monday, May 20th.

For its 20th anniversary, The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me will be re-imagined from a one-man show to one featuring an ensemble cast performing a play that The New York Times originally called "rivetingly angry, intense, frenetic, frank and touching." The special performance is produced by Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and benefits BC/EFA and Sero Project. The one-night-only benefit performance of The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me features an ensemble of talented actors taking on the story, including author Drake, Brandon Cordeiro, two-time Tony Award nominee Robin De Jesús, two-time Tony nominee André De Shields, Claybourne Elder, Tony nominee Rory O'Malley, Anthony Rapp, Chad Ryan, Donald C. Shorter, Jr., Wesley Taylor, Aaron Tone and Tony winner BD Wong.

Enter to win by commenting on this post. If you cannot be in Manhattan on the night of the show, your winning entry is transferable to your favorite local theater buff.  Please remember to leave an email address in your comment. Entries close at midnight on Friday, Broadway-time.  Buy tickets here.

2013 Tony Award Nominees Announced, Cyndi Lauper Scores Big For Kinky Boots

The 2013 Tony Award nominees were announced in NYC this morning at a press conference hosted by Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Sutton Foster. Topping the list with 13 nominations is the Cyndi Lauper-scored Kinky Boots. Notably shut out was Bette Midler and we've got dueling gays in the Best Leading Actor In A Play category. Via Broadway.com:

Best Musical
A Christmas Story
Bring It On
Kinky Boots
Matilda

Best Play
Lucky Guy
The Assembled Parties
The Testament of Mary
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
 
Best Revival of a Play
Golden Boy
Orphans
The Trip to Bountiful
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Best Revival of a Musical
Annie
Cinderella
Pippin
The Mystery of Edwin Drood

Best Leading Actor in a Play
Tom Hanks, Lucky Guy
Nathan Lane, The Nance
Tracy Letts, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
David Hyde Pierce, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
Tom Sturridge, Orphans

Best Leading Actress in a Play
Laurie Metcalf, The Other Place
Amy Morton, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Kristine Nielsen, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
Holland Taylor, Ann
Cicely Tyson, The Trip to Bountiful

Best Leading Actor in a Musical
Bertie Carvel, Matilda
Santino Fontana, Cinderella
Rob McClure, Chaplin
Billy Porter, Kinky Boots
Stark Sands, Kinky Boots

Best Leading Actress in a Musical
Stephanie J. Block, The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Carolee Carmello, Scandalous
Valisia LeKae, Motown: The Musical
Patina Miller, Pippin
Laura Osnes, Cinderella

Gay authors Harvey Fierstein (Kinky Boots) and Douglas Carter Beane (Cinderella) are nominated for Best Book. Hit the link for the full list.

X-Men Stars Are Coming To Broadway

Via the NYT's Arts Beat:

The theater and film stars Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, known for their chemistry in the “X-Men” films as the friends-turned-foes Magneto and Professor Xavier, will return to Broadway together in the fall for an unusual two-play repertory of Harold Pinter’s “No Man’s Land” and Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot,” the producers said on Thursday. Directed by a fellow Englishman, Sean Mathias, the two plays – both bleakly funny existential classics by Nobel Prize-wining writers — will run in rotation, sometimes on adjacent nights and possibly on the same days as matinee and evening performances.

Broadway Week Sales Commence

This is the slowest time of the year for Broadway and the annual two-for-one ticket sale has commenced.  Most of the participating 19 shows have been playing for years and years, so there's probably not much there for the average theater queen.  Your better option might be Off-Broadway Week, which runs January 28th through February 10th and offers the same deal.