Rock On, Mac Rogers

Major congratulations to Mac Rogers on the return of Universal Robots to the New York City theatrical boards. Read the release below and get your collective heinies there, please. (That's including me, people!)

Manhattan Theatre Source presents

UNIVERSAL ROBOTS

By Mac Rogers

February 12 – March 7, 2009

"The year is 2009. The last human being died in 1971. Each year we gather together to tell the story that we never ever forget."

Manhattan Theatre Source presents the world premiere of Universal Robots, written by Mac Rogers, February 12 through March 7, 2009 at the theatre's Washington Square Park home (177 MacDougal Street).

The Great War has just ended. Czechoslovakia is a republic with an elected president and a thriving artistic community that includes celebrated playwright Karel Capek. But history cracks wide open when a young woman walks into Karel's life with a strange mannequin in a wheelchair… a mannequin that gets up and moves all by itself.

A science fiction thriller, love story, political allegory, redemptive tragedy and fast-paced entertainment, Universal Robots offers a compelling, alternate history of the Twentieth Century, starting with the invention of the robot in 1921 and chronicling the extraordinary consequences of that invention, which changes the world forever.

Mac Rogers freely adapted Czech playwright Karel Capek's seminal 1921 play R.U.R., which introduced the word "robot" to the world. Universal Robots departs significantly from Capek's script, offering a meaty and riveting story of war, love, faith, technology and the power of art to change the world, for both good and ill.

Rosemary Andress directs. The creative team includes Raul Abrego (set design), Kia Rogers (lighting design), and Andrew Bellware (sound design). Saundra Yaklin is the production manager.

Scheduled February 12 through March 7, 2009, Universal Robots performs at Manhattan Theatre Source (177 MacDougal Street, between Waverly Place and West 8th Street, Subway: A/C/E or B/D/F/V to West 4th) Wednesday through Saturday at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $18. Tickets may be purchased in advance at www.theatermania.com or (212) 352-3101. For additional information, visit www.universalrobots.net.

Open since 2000, Manhattan Theatre Source (the Source) is an arts service and producing organization located in the heart of Greenwich Village. Recently named "one of the top five Off-Off Broadway theaters" by New York magazine, the Source launched Obie Award-winning [title of show], which recently completed its Broadway run, and was home to the world premieres of Coronado by Dennis Lehane (Mystic River) and Richard Vetere's Machiavelli. For more information, visit www.theatresource.org.

Mac Rogers (Playwright) was awarded the FringeNYC's Outstanding Playwrighting Award in 2007 for Hail Satan. He wrote the book for 2005 FringeNYC's Outstanding Musical winner Fleet Week: The Musical. Rogers's plays have been produced at HERE Arts Center, The Lucille Lortel Theatre, and Manhattan Theatre Source, and his play The Second String is published by Playscripts, Inc. His short play Happening to Your Body, produced by the Estrogenius Festival, earned praise from The New York Times ["The premise is clever. (Rod Serling would approve of how intriguingly the situation is revealed.) And the language is memorable."]

Rosemary Andress (Director) is a New York-based director with a passion for original work. She directed The A-Train Plays for The Neighborhood Playhouse, Dear Prudence at the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Abel for the Soho Playhouse and True and Solid Ground for the Soho Repertory Theatre, all premieres of new works. She has also directed for the American Theatre of Actors, Summer Play Festival, Expanded Arts, the New York Theatre Workshop and the Harlem Arts Festival.

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Ford's Theatre Presents Living Lincoln; Everything But "Our American Cousin" Being Performed

From the press release:

Paul R. Tetreault, Director of Ford’s Theatre Society, announced the line-up for the free Living Lincoln Series, which will premiere Feb. 16, 2009. This Monday-night series will explore the many aspects of President Lincoln’s personality and life through lectures, panels, play readings and performances. The series is part of the grand reopening for Ford’s Theatre, which reopens in February after an 18-month renovation.

The series begins Feb. 16 with Lincoln Seen and Heard, a words-and-images show that takes Abraham Lincoln from his days in Congress through the American Civil War.

The Feb. 16 program will feature Sam Waterston and Harold Holzer.

On Feb. 23, storyteller Jon Spellman will present Lincoln as Storyteller.

On March 2, Conan O’Brien and Joshua Wolf Shenk will present Lincoln as Humorist.

Ford’s Theatre collaborates with the Shakespeare Theatre Company on April 13 for Lincoln and Shakespeare on Freedom’s Stage, a presentation exploring Lincoln’s love of The Bard.

On April 20, Dr. Edna Medford will moderate a discussion titled Race and Emancipation in the Age of Lincoln.

On April 27, Ford’s will present Oratory in the Age of Lincoln.

The presentation on May 4 will be a reading of The Rivalry, about the Lincoln-Douglas debates with special guest actors.

On May 11, author and historian James McPherson will present Lincoln as Commander In Chief.

The series will end on May 18 with Lincoln in Love, the reading of a new musical based on the film Young Mr. Lincoln.

For more information: (202) 397-SEAT or http://www.fords.org/.

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Upcoming Media Appearances

With Christmas around the corner, I've got three media updates for y'all:

Political Panels, Dec. 6 and Dec. 21
Tomorrow, Dec. 6, I'm on a panel following a performance of Too Much Memory, the Fringe Festival hit play by Keith Reddin and Meg Gibson that has now transferred to an Off-Broadway run. The panel features me, Katrina vanden Heuvel (the editor of The Nation), Michael Ratner (of the Center for Constitutional Rights) and the lovely Obie-winning actress Kathleen Chalfant, moderated by Ambassador William vanden Heuvel.

On December 21, I'll moderate a panel following that day's performance of Too Much Memory. The panelists include Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!, JoAnn Wypijewski of The Nation and Mother Jones, and Jared Bernstein of Economic Policy Institute.

The Strategy Room, Fox News
Was on The Strategy Room on Fox this morning to promote the book and to talk Hollywood and Broadway and about some chick named Amy in North Carolina who likes to email in opinions on the shirtless stars she loves and, well, whatever else Amy in North Carolina wants to talk about. I was slightly out of my depth when it came to the obligatory comic-book discussion, but I just assumed everyone at Fox knows Captain America. Had an awesome time with host Jill Dobson and, naturally, the preternatural Ben Widdicombe, whose off-camera pratfall made for a pretty amusing entrance.

The Joey Reynolds Show
Was on The Joey Reynolds Show last night, also talking up the book and whatever else one does discuss at 11pm. We were joined by David Lefkowitz of Totaltheater.com, and also of the radio show Dave's Gone By and the terrific Performing Arts Insider and about 100 other projects that keep him afloat and going. This airs tonight, Dec. 5; click on the Reynolds link for a download.

David and I, of course, have a history. And he was incredibly gracious and kind to me on the air; we shook hands and put in the past what should be in the past. It was completely unexpected (I hadn't a clue he'd be there) and, in the end, really pretty thrilling. He was a gentleman and after so many years, I'm looking forward to breaking bread with him.

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Frankel and Green Form Frankel Green Theatrical Management

As per the press release:

BROADWAY GENERAL MANAGERS
RICHARD FRANKEL and LAURA GREEN
ANNOUNCE THE FORMATION OF
FRANKEL GREEN THEATRICAL MANAGEMENT

Veteran Broadway General Managers Richard Frankel and Laura Green have announced the formation of Frankel Green Theatrical Management. The new general management and consulting services company will allow their team to provide their services to a wider range of clients than they have previously served while working under the banner of Richard Frankel Productions, which is also a producing entity.

"Given how closely Laura and I have been working these many years, we thought a management partnership was the next logical step," said Frankel, "especially given the major role Laura has played in the success of our endeavors and the great respect with which she is held in the theatrical community." Green added, "We want to be sure that we can work on the widest possible range of management projects while expanding our theatrical consulting activities."

Over the past 15 years, Frankel and Green have served as the General Managers for many major productions including Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein (Broadway), Hairspray (Broadway, London and on tour), Gypsy (Broadway), The Producers (Broadway and on tour), The Weir (Broadway), The Sound of Music (Broadway), Smokey Joe's Café (Broadway) and What's Wrong With This Picture? (Broadway).

Although much of Mr. Frankel and Ms. Green's work to date has been for producing teams that have included Richard Frankel as a producing partner, they have recently expanded their activities to include more productions led by other producers. These productions include the upcoming Bruce Lee: Journey to the West produced by Stuart Oken; Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein whose lead producer is Robert F.X. Sillerman and the Off-Broadway 80's rock musical Rock of Ages.

FRANKEL GREEN will continue to manage projects produced by the Viertel/Baruch/Routh/Frankel Group, whose 23 year partnership continues to thrive. Their upcoming shows include the Alan Menken/Glenn Slater musical Leap of Faith, a new Stephen Sondheim revue and a musical based upon the film, The Hudsucker Proxy directed by Jerry Zaks.

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The Huffington Post Awakens to Discover the Arts

Well, that's rather unfair -- here and there, I have found The Huffington Post has its batallion of bloggers covering different arts topics. Followers of this blog, for example, will recall my noisy tete a tete with playwright and Brothers & Sisters creator Jon Robin Baitz after he wrote a blog post on the SAG strike.

But the essay up on the HuffPo right now by Randall Bourscheidt, president of the Alliance for the Arts, is pretty interesting, if lean on specifics. It deals with what will happen to arts policy on a national scale in the wake of Obama's election -- which is to say that for the last, oh, 20 years, we've had very little arts policy on a national scale.

Read:

In the US we have a unique system in which private giving takes the lead in supporting the arts but government support provides a seal of honor by the public sector. Although funding for the National Endowment for the Arts is small compared to the massive investment many countries make in their own cultural life, it is symbolically and practically important, especially to smaller cultural institutions spread throughout the land....

The Obama campaign statement on the arts offered hope in another area. He supported the idea of cultural diplomacy, with eased visa restrictions on foreign artists and a great effort to send artists around the world representing the US....

I would have liked more specific policy prescriptions or expectations from Bourscheidt, who is a great champion of the arts (even if he passed over me once for a nifty position at the Alliance). I really think this is the moment to spell it out in detail, to be bold in vision as well as demands and expectations. Nostrums or near-nostrums no longer cut it. We need more essays like this one from Bourscheidt but we need them longer and stronger, and we need them now.

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New Interview: Tila Tequila

For Metromix.com/AM New York.

Here's the, er, tease:

When you have over three million MySpace friends and you've starred on your own MTV reality show, what's left to achieve? For model, entertainer and singer Tila Tequila, it's writing a book (with journalist/novelist Sarah Tomlinson) that sums up the 26-year-old's philosophy of life. "Hooking Up with Tila Tequila" is not only packed with photos of the openly bisexual, Singapore-born, Texas-raised beauty, it offers juicy Hollywood gossip, tips on getting famous in the digital age, romantic advice, and many too-much-information moments.

On page 3 is a list called "Top Ten Things You Didn't Know About Me." Item one: "I'm a squirter." Was anything at all off-limits for this book?
Not necessarily. The reason is I have to be honest with my fans-I've always been a very vocal, very open kind of person. I also give my fans little known facts about Tila and all about celebrity hookups, stuff like that.

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More on the Ebbing of Journalism

It has been some time so I thought I'd bring everyone up to date, culling from a variety of sources. This is being provided for the benefit of those who think journalism, including arts journalism, is still going swell, because it isn't. It's all dying.

Westchester Paper Lays Off Critic Jacques le Sourd
Let's see: that makes Jacques le Sourd, Michael Sommers, Peter Filichia, Jeremy McCarter, Eric Grode, Clive Barnes and me.

Variety folds its DC bureau

Time Out New York Goes on the Block
Investors looking for $40 million buyout; Chicago edition for sale, too.

'Dramatic Restructuring' Could Become the Norm in 2009
Publishers aren't the only ones looking for new ways to keep dollars coming in. Media banker DeSilva + Phillips announced yesterday a new "operational restructuring practice," which will offer recommendations for improving financial performance, including "identification of revenue enhancement and cost savings opportunities, operating efficiencies, incentive compensation plans, investment savings and evaluation of strategic alternatives."

Tribune cuts more newsroom jobs
More than a dozen newsroom employees at the Chicago Tribune were told Wednesday their jobs are being eliminated, and more cuts are expected next month....

The Tribune has been trimming its newsroom for more than year and has already executed at least two rounds of voluntary buyouts and involuntary layoffs. Wednesday’s layoffs follow cuts of about 100 jobs in the spring and another 80 staffers in August.

'Several Cities' Could Have No Daily Paper As Soon As 2010, Credit Rater Says

Niche Media Shutters Atlanta Peach

UPDATE: Here's even more:

NBCU To Cut 500 Jobs, Layoffs Begin at NBC News Bureaus

Viacom to cut 850 jobs, freeze some raises in 2009

Gannett Cuts 1,770 Jobs

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Arts Advocacy Update LXIX

The content below is from Americans for the Arts' Cultural Policy Listserv, email blast of December 4, 2008:


A gender pay gap for L.A. artists (NYC too)
Los Angeles Times, 12/1/2008
"As a follow-up to its report 'Artists in the Workforce, 1990-2005,' released in June, the National Endowment for the Arts is releasing today [December 1] the results of a closer examination of the gender pay gap between men and women artists discovered by the original study. Surprise -- women artists earn less." According to NEA researchers, "the gender pay gap is wider for artists working in the competitive big-city arts capitals such as greater Los Angeles and New York City."
Surprise, indeed. But when you're talking about the difference between poor and very poor, or very poor and extremely poor, isn't all of this a bit of sophistry anyway?


Knight Foundation Awards $8 Million for South Florida Arts Projects
Philanthropy News Digest, 12/2/2008
"The Miami-based John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has announced thirty-one grants totaling $8 million for projects designed to help transform South Florida's arts scene. Grants ranging from $18,000 to $1.8 million were awarded as part of the Knight Arts Partnership, a five-year, $40 million matching grants program announced in February. Recipients include sculptors, musicians, prominent institutions, and recently formed galleries whose projects are designed not only to raise the standards for arts in the region but also to appeal to residents across age, race, and class."
The largesse here is awfully impressive and a refreshing bit of news in the current environment.


Gov. Ted Strickland and Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher need to wake up and support a tax credit for film-making in Ohio -- editorial
Cleveland Plain Dealer (OH), 12/1/2008
A Cleveland Plain Dealer editorial criticizes Gov. Ted Strickland and Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher for "playing hardball to keep Hollywood out of Ohio. Their failure to negotiate with the high-powered proponents of a bill to create new jobs and industry smacks of the short-sighted political game-playing that has kept us behind the economic eight-ball for far too long."
I'd be curious to know what spurred on the editorial page to write this. I'm very glad they did and I totally support it. I'm just curious to know what's going on behind the scenes. I hope this wasn't one of those "We have a light-news day, let's talk about the arts."


Obama will have to appoint cultural managers, too
Chicago Tribune, 11/30/2008
Charles Storch discusses rumors about president-elect Barack Obama's possible choices for the chairmanships of the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities.
This tidbit is tantalizing:

For NEA chief, many arts people's dream choice is Caroline Kennedy, who was an early and active Obama supporter. Some Illinois arts advocates are promoting Chicago attorney Michael Dorf, a specialist in arts law who was special counsel to the late U.S. Rep. Sidney Yates (D-Ill.), a champion of the NEA and NEH. Dorf declined to comment.

Tweak tax breaks for movie biz
Wisconsin State Journal, 11/26/2008
Johnny Depp's "Public Enemies" gangster movie was filmed in Wisconsin last spring, but a state Department of Commerce report says the movie's effect on the state's economy "has been basically a wash. . . . Worse, the film is having a negative impact on the troubled state budget. The data raise a red flag about the effectiveness of the film industry tax breaks." But rather than eliminate the tax breaks, the editors say to wait and monitor. "The film tax breaks are only in their first year. Their ultimate goal is to grow film industry jobs in Wisconsin. That requires time."
I'm hoping my buddy Jonathan West over at Artsy Schmartsy might have a commentary on this.


Foundations Create Large Economic Benefit, Study Says
Chronicle of Philanthropy, 12/3/2008
"Giving by foundations supports the economy of the United States, with $1 of every philanthropic contribution producing more than $8 in economic benefits, says a new study. While the social effects of foundation giving are often examined, the study is the first extensive look at how philanthropy helps household incomes and the economy, says its sponsor, the Philanthropic Collaborative."
Subtext: We know the market is down horribly, but please don't take our funding away!

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Scott Eckern Repents: Casts John C. Reilly, Jack Black, Margaret Cho, Neil Patrick Harris in Marc Shaiman's "Prop 8: The Musical"

All true but for the Scott Eckern part, who is too busy apparently directing a campaign of personal hate against me. Nice and Christian, I suppose.

Well, watch the video. All else is true.

The full credits are:

Conceived and Written (six weeks later than he shoulda) by Marc Shaiman; Directed and Staged by Adam Shankman; Produced by Adam Shankman, Marc Shaiman and Mike Farah; Edited by Bradly Schulz and Drew Antzis; Cast (in order of appearance):

California Gays and The People That Love Them
Jordan Ballard, Margaret Cho, Barrett Foa, J.B. Ghuman, John Hill, Andy Richter, Maya Rudolph, Rashad Naylor, Nicole Parker

Proposition 8'ers and The People That Follow Them:
Prop 8 Leader: John C. Reilly; Prop 8 Leader's #1 Wife: Allison Janney: Prop 8 Leader's #2 Wife: Kathy Najimy; Riffing Prop 8'er: Jenifer Lewis; A Preacher: Craig Robinson; Scary Catholic School Girls From Hell: Rashida Jones, Lake Bell, Sarah Chalke; The Frightened Villagers: Katharine "Kooks" Leonard, Seth Morris, Denise "Esi!" Piane, Lucian Piane, Richard Read, Seth Redford, Quinton Strack, Tate Taylor, Brunson Green;

Jesus Christ: Jack Black

A Very Smart Fellow: Neil Patrick Harris

Piano Player: Marc "Marc" Shaiman
Co-Choreographer: Anne "Mama" Fletcher

Recorded and Mixed by Frank Wolfe & Greg Hayes
Director of Photography: Michael Barrett
Camera Operators: Jake Szymanski, Bradly Schulz and Drew Antzis; Production designer: Nelson Coates; Costume designer: Shanna Knecht; Costume assistants: Leslie Schilling, Annalisa Adams, Elizabeth Abate; Hair: Laura Sanchez; Make-up: Shauna O'Toole, Atticuss Sharp; Production sound: Bradford Craig; Music editor: Lisa Jaime; Music assistant: Brian Naguit; Snacky: "Snacky"

Special Thanks to Adam McKay for the nudge

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New Review: Cape Disappointment

For New York Press.

Here's the tease:

Do theater artists ever consider critics when picking titles? The Debate Society’s Cape Disappointment is precisely what I mean—it’s the kind of title that’s tantamount to putting a fresh carcass before a starving dog.Yet the 70-minute piece is anything but disappointing. Cape Overachieving might have been better.

This is the fourth full-length work by the Brooklyn-based company, which has established a reputation for toying with ideas around deconstruction without hurling at the audience all the academic baggage and intellectual gobbledygook that usually comes along with it. Here, the two performer-creators that anchor the group, Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen, together with director Oliver Butler, examine the phenomenon of the drive-in movie in order to satirize and mourn the paltry state of our nation.

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New Interview: Rocco DiSpirito

For Metromix.com/AM New York. Terrific to talk to, too.

Here's a tease:

Ever met a better meatball than your mom's? And would you admit it if you have?
No I haven't, and yes I would admit it—in print, actually—because Mom doesn't read, so she'd never know. I think her meatballs are truly genius, though, because she purées the garlic, onion and parsley in chicken stock and then she adds it to the meat and doesn't overmix it.

Give me three simple rules any home cook can learn.
Taste your food a lot—the difference between a good and a great chef is how often you taste your food. Don't be afraid to cheat—the kitchen is literally the only room in the house where you can get away with it. And don't panic. You can't have a good time otherwise.

You never panic?
Have you seen me dance?

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The Afternoon Report, December 2, 2008

This information, called The Afternoon Report, is provided by a daily email blast from the publicity firm of Boneau Bryan-Brown, which maintains this blog. This feature doesn't run daily but whenever The Afternoon Report seems to point out articles of interest.

A Series of Movie Tie-Ins from Consortium
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY – BY CLAIRE KIRCH
“If Consortium personnel seem a bit star-struck these days, it’s for good reason. Three of the Minneapolis-based book distribution company’s client publishers are releasing movie tie-ins this winter and spring. Theatre Communications Group [TCG], which initially published Doubt by John Patrick Shanley in 2005, is releasing a movie tie-in edition, to coincide with the Dec. 12 release of the film, starring Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman. To date, TCG’s original edition of Doubt, awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 2005, has sold 60,000 copies. Consortium already has shipped the entire 15,000-copy initial print run of the movie tie-in edition, and TCG has gone back to press for another 5,000 copies.”
Good for TCG! Hope they make some money on this.


David Frost recalls interviewing Richard Nixon
NEWSDAY – BY RAFER GUZMAN
“The Nixon interviews remain unparalleled in television journalism, and they've since become a kind of cottage industry. Nearly 30 years later, in 2006, British playwright Peter Morgan staged "Frost/Nixon," a dramatization of the marathon sessions starring Michael Sheen as the journalist and Tony Award winner Frank Langella as the haunted president. On Friday, Universal Pictures will release Ron Howard's film adaptation, also with Sheen and Langella. Frost himself has published not one but two books on the subject. And for completists, Liberation Entertainment will release "Frost/Nixon: The Original Watergate Interviews," a DVD of the broadcast with new commentary by Frost, Tuesday [Dec. 2, 2008].”
Who is not a crook?

More Nixon tapes available in Yorba Linda
LA TIMES BLOGS - LA NOW
“We're not sure what this double whammy is going to do to the image of Richard Nixon. Just as the movie "Nixon/Frost" comes out, the public will also get to hear a whole new crop of those infamous Nixon White House tapes. In fact, some come online at the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda today.”
Tonight, CNN was playing one tape of Nixon calling Biden the day after his wife was killed and sons injured in that horrible, horrible car accident.

This is a link to the actual recording of Nixon talking to Biden.

Here's a decent story on this, for context.

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93rd Street Beautification Association to Part the Red Sea to Stop Illegal Penthouse Construction

I have to give it to Susan Hefti. She is a real trouper and so absolutely dedicated to all that is good over on East 93rd Street, including having the street renamed for the Marx Brothers and having the Landmarks Preservation Commission extend the Carnegie Hill Historic District by one block.

Today, Susan pointed me toward a sample letter on the 93rd Street Beautification Association's website that anyone can use to help stop the construction of a probably-illegal penthouse on top of another penthouse on this endangered block.

You can read the full version of the sample letter here. Meantime, here's a tease:

City of NY
Board of Standards & Appeals
40 Rector Street, 9th Floor
New York, NY 10006-1705

Re: BSA Calendar Number - 162-08-BZ, Property ID - 150 East 93rd Street, Block 1521, Lot 51, Manhattan

To the Board:

Historic East 93rd Street between Lexington & Third Avenues is a very special block. In addition to the world-famous Marx Brothers House, the block boasts a row of 19th century brownstones that are older than any of the brownstones already within the protection of the Carnegie Hill Historic District. These houses date from the same year Abraham Lincoln won re-election (1864) and even pre-date the Lexington Avenue extension.

In addition to these two significant facts, East 93rd Street's unique stepped-down roof-scape, in part a function of the block being one of the steepest hills left in Manhattan, has been celebrated by architects and historic preservationists alike. In fact, Place Matters, the partnership project of the Municipal Arts Society and City Lore, is so charmed by this remarkable stepped-down roof-scape, it has devoted an entire page to this historic block on its web site. So I'm sure BSA can appreciate the fact that any project which threatens the historic character of this little neighborhood is of grave concern to many.

I am writing to express my very serious concerns about the proposed Penthouse for which the applicant is requesting a special permit. Before irreparable harm is rendered upon this block, I respectfully ask BSA to deny applicant's request for the reasons stated above and below:

You'll have to click over to read the rest, which I exhort you to do.

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Gothamist: Scumbag Landlords Forcing Love Saves the Day from the East Village

Just a personal story: spring (I think) of 1985. It was me, the lovely and ultra-hip Jo-Ellen Pryor, the equally ultra-punk Irit Lockspeiser and, I think, Jo-Ellen's ever-fashionable friend Fawn Roth, all of us of Jamaica High School, coming into "the city" -- what us Queens kids called Manhattan -- and heading directly for Greenwich Village, where we danced with the Hare Krishnas in Washington Square Park (no, I'm not joking) and shopped madly at Love Saves the Day, which is being forced out of its home on 2nd Avenue and 7th Street by, according to Gothamist, a "scumbag landlord."

All right, fair is fair: the "scumbag landlord" phrase is in the comments section of the post, not the post itself. Still, I wanted to draw attention to this terrible development. I bought an Andy Gibb bubblegum pack at Love Saves the Day on that day in 1985. I chewed it just a few years ago. I'm speechless. Why is my New York dying?

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Nick Spangler of The Fantasticks: Could He Win The Amazing Race?

Well, I guess this is shameless of me -- the terrific PR fellow for The Fantasticks told me today that Nick Spangler, who plays Matt, will -- well, you can read the 411:

THE FANTASTICKS’ NICK SPANGLER
WILL COMPETE IN THE FINALE OF
THE AMAZING RACE
THIS SUNDAY

Now, I'm all for promoting the theatre but gosh, I've got to check in with professional standards. Ah, heck -- this is the theatrosphere! And seriously, how isn't it sweet that the dude who plays Matt in the revival of The Fantasticks -- well, you can read the 411:

"After nine weeks of competition that has brought him to such diverse destinations as Cambodia, Bolivia, India and Kazakhstan, Spangler will be awarded the series’ million dollar prize if he is first to cross the finish line in Portland, Oregon during Sunday’s episode, which airs at 8PM ET on CBS."

And you know what? I don't know if I'd even have the guts to go to Bolivia to win $1 million, never mind any of the rest of it. So here is my salute to Nick -- and, well, maybe the death of reality TV, someday, someday -- and let's give Nick a sincere and total cheer -- and here, then, is the rest of the press release:

Nick Spangler, currently appearing as Matt in the Off Broadway revival of The Fantasticks, will compete in the season finale of The Amazing Race airing this Sunday, December 7, 2008.

Spangler can currently be seen as Matt at all performances of The Fantasticks.

Spangler, who goes on a personal journey through life, loss, adventure and love eight times a week as the young lover in The Fantasticks, is currently the front-runner on the reality competition which chronicles teams on a race around the world, having won six of nine weekly challenges. Along with his sister and teammate Starr, a former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, the actor has raced through Salvador, Brazil against ten other teams and was the fastest to scale a 240-foot cargo net; hauled fish and unlocked a clue at Angkor Wat that led to victory in Siem Reap, Cambodia; painted a rickshaw and ironed clothes faster than anyone else for a third win in New Delhi, India; braved the Holi Festival and a busy outdoor marketplace in Old Delhi, India; gone head-to-head with rivals in Almaty, Kazakhstan and ate a dish of sheep’s buttocks to secure victory number five; and used his impressive New York City subway skills to navigate Moscow’s subway system.

During the competition, Spangler won six first place finishes, tying the series record. He established a new record during week eight when he won the fifth of those finishes in a row. The Spanglers have already won an amalgam of prizes including his-and-her electric cars, a WaveRunner, and trips to Belize, St. John, Hawaii and Anguilla.

The Fantasticks is a captivating and simple romantic comedy about a boy and girl who fall in love at the hands of their meddling fathers. They’re then separated and forced to confront the harsh realities and hidden dangers of the real world. Having played a record-breaking 17,162 performances in its original run at the Sullivan Street Playhouse in Greenwich Village, The Fantasticks is now playing in the heart of Times Square at The Snapple Theater Center, located at 210 West 50th Street at Broadway.

The Fantasticks company also includes includes Lewis Cleale (Broadway’s Monty Python’s Spamalot, Amour, Once Upon A Mattress), No Country for Old Men’s Gene Jones, John Thomas Waite (Broadway’s Dracula, Amadeus), Tom Flagg (Broadway’s Will Rogers Follies, How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Oklahoma), Richard Roland (Broadway’s Scarlet Pimpernel, Follies, Thoroughly Modern Millie), Margaret Anne Florence (My Super Ex-Girlfriend), Steve Routman (The Keen Company’s The Conscientious Objector, Awake and Sing! at Arena Stage), Michael Nostrand, (A&E’s Emmy Award-winning Peter Pan, national tours of Jelly’s Last Jam, The Mystery of Edwin Drood,) Jordan Nichols (Tulsa in Gypsy at Westchester Broadway) and Evy Ortiz.

The Fantasticks performance schedule is as follows: Mondays at 8PM, Wednesdays at 2PM, Thursdays and Fridays at 8PM, Saturdays at 2PM & 8PM, and Sundays at 3PM & 7:15PM. Tickets are available by calling the box office at (212) 921-7862 or Ticketmaster.com at (212) 307-4100. Specially-priced $31 student rush tickets are also available by calling or visiting the box office.

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Robin Pogrebin of the Times, in Third Article of a Series, Piles On LPC Chair Robert Tierney

I am growing increasingly astonished at the breadth of reporting and sheer writing craft exhibited by New York Times reporter Robin Pogrebin in her series of pieces on the state of landmarking in New York City, specifically the work (or lack of, if you will) of the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

In Pogrebin's first story, "An Opaque and Lengthy Road to Landmark Status," the writer essentially dissects the Landmarks Preservation Commission's work -- or lack of work or efficiency, it would seem -- and lays a fair amount of the blame at the shuffling feet of LPC chair Robert B. Tierney, who has been keeping his chair lukewarm, Pogrebin writes, for five years. The article further tries to get to the root of what seem like extreme lassitude and laissez-faire-ness on Tierney's part, and how the cause of the preservation is being undermined in a widespread and thoroughly alarming way. In this first story (which I didn't realize was going to be part of a series at the time), I was particularly gobsmacked by this:

He’s a guy who’s had no demonstrable interest in historic preservation, who has the most important preservation job in New York City,” said Anthony C. Wood, author of “Preserving New York: Winning the Right to Protect a City’s Landmarks" (Routledge, 2008), and a party to the suit.

In Pogrebin's second story, "Preservationists See Bulldozers Charging Through a Loophole," the story goes on -- it's all about how the sluggishness and ineffectualism of the LPC and Tierney act as permission slips for developers, who generally have the moral fiber of Gregory Rasputin, to demolish and cut corners and do all sorts of terrible things to our urban environment. Here is another particularly moving quote:

“In the middle of the night I’m out there at 2 in the morning, and they’re taking the cornices off,” said Gale Brewer, a city councilwoman who represents that part of the Upper West Side. “We’re calling the Buildings Department, we’re calling Landmarks. You get so beaten down by all of this. The developers know they can get away with that.”

Now comes Pogrebin's latest piece: "Preserving the City: Church and State," which deals with the LPC's effect on the demolition (or preservation) of religious structures. (Interestingly, this is an area I'm not sure quite what I think yet: Does the cause of preservation supercede the right to religious freedom? I think it may not.) Here's a great quote:

Among the religious buildings designated on his watch, Mr. Tierney noted, were the first Catholic churches to become landmarks in 28 years: St. Aloysius on West 132nd Street, known for its ornamental polychrome bands of brick and terra cotta, and the Church of All Saints on East 129th Street, an imposing Gothic Revival masterpiece with wheel clerestory windows. Both won landmark status last year.

But while preservationists applauded those designations, they said the commission bypassed even more important treasures like St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Harlem, completed in 1907 on West 118th Street near St. Nicholas Avenue. Known for its flamboyantly ornate neo-Gothic facade, fan-vaulted ceiling, spiky pinnacles and stained-glass windows, it was cited as one of the seven most important sites worth saving by the Preservation League of New York State.

"My community loves this church," Representative Charles B. Rangel wrote in a 2004 letter to Cardinal Edward M. Egan.

During years of pressure from Harlem advocates, the commission has declined to hold a hearing on St. Thomas, saying the building had already been significantly altered and its congregation was largely inactive.

Some preservationists and architectural historians accuse the commission and the New York archdiocese of grudgingly going along with the designations of All Saints and St. Aloysius in exchange for the omission of St. Thomas.

“This was their bargain,” said Michael Henry Adams, the author of “Harlem: Lost and Found” (Monacelli Press, 2001), a history of the neighborhood’s architecture. “To me it’s like the decision of Solomon.”

Read all three articles and answer this question: Should Tierney resign?

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Who is Sasha Dichter and Why You Should Care

Major props to my friend and colleague Tim Errickson, artistic director of The Boomerang Theatre Company and brave, intrepid chieftain of the Community Dish, for pointing out Sasha Dichter to all of us on the Dish listserv. From Dichter's blog:

Sasha Dichter is, among other things, the Director of Business Development at Acumen Fund, a global non-profit venture capital fund that invests in enterprises that fight poverty in the developing world. Sasha began his career at Booz Allen Hamilton as a consultant in the Communications, Media and Telecom practice, spending most of his time in South America and Europe working on privatizations, acquisitions, market entry, and product development strategies for wireless companies — all this despite renting a lovely studio on the Upper West Side in NY. He received a dual degree from Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School and spent his graduate school summers in Indonesia at the microfinance bank Bank Rakyat Indonesia and at a venture-backed startup called Navic Networks (which, amazingly, was recently acquired by Microsoft). After graduate school Sasha worked at IBM and GE Money in Corporate Citizenship. Sasha joined Acumen Fund in January of 2007.

In other words, not your usual blogger for those of us cruising through the theatrosphere to be thinking about or quoting or bumping into. But Dichter has created, sort of as a subset of his current position, a brilliant and moving manifesto that all heads of all nonprofit organizations may want to give a reading to. It's just poignant and smart and well done. And Tim put out an email to the Dish listserv today linking to it, and I'm so glad he did. Here's the opening:

I’m sick of apologizing for being in charge of raising money.

I work at a great nonprofit organization1 that is doing great things in the world, one that’s attacking daunting problems in a powerful new way. I believe in what we do, and think that we may be catalyzing a shift in how the world fights poverty.

So why did one of my mentors – someone with a lot of experience in the non‐profit and public sector – tell me not to take this job? “Be careful,” he said, “You’ll get pigeonholed. Once a fundraiser, always a fundraiser.”

Anyway, read it. I do wish Dichter found a way to mention the arts in some way, but one can easily extrapolate, I think.

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Mike Leigh's "Ecstasy" Being Revived

As per the press release...

Horse Trade Theater Group
presents
a Black Door Theatre Company
production of

ECSTASY

By Mike Leigh
Directed by Sara Laudonia

PREVIEWS JANUARY 5-8
OPENING NIGHT JANUARY 9

ECSTASY covers the lives of four blue-collar friends living in 1979 London and the drunken frustration in their lives, namely that of Jean, who struggles to escape the confines of her life and the people in it. While ECSTASY speaks to a very specific time and place, the socio-economic despairs and frustrations facing each character make the story universal and timeless; especially on the eve of our own financial crisis.

ECSTASY features Lore Davis, Stephen Heskett, Gina Lemoine, Josh Marcantel, Brandon McCluskey, and Mary Monahan.

The design team for ECSTASY includes Lore Davis (Costume Design), Paul Howle (Lighting Design), Brandon McCluskey (Fight Choreographer), Damon Pelletier (Set Design), and Christopher Rummel (Sound Design).

The production, produced by Horse Trade Theater Group and Black Door Theatre Company, will play at the Red Room (85 E. 4th Street, 3rd Floor) January 9-25, Thursday through Saturday at 8pm and Sundays at 3pm, following preview performances January 5-8 at 8pm. Tickets ($18, $15 preview performances) are available by calling Smarttix at 212-868-4444 or online at www.horseTRADE.info.

Mike Leigh (Playwright) is an English film and theatre director, screenwriter, and playwright. Some of his well-known films include Life is Sweet (1990), the Gilbert and Sullivan biography Topsy Turvy (1999), and the bleak working-class drama All or Nothing (2002). His most notable works are arguably Naked (1993), Secrets & Lies (1996), Vera Drake (2004) Happy-Go-Lucky, and Abigail's Party.

Sara Laudonia (Director) is a veteran of the windy city where she landed after getting her BFA in acting from Otterbein College. During her time in Chicago, she was a founding member of The Treehouse Theatre Company where she had the unique opportunity to hone not only her acting skills, but also to cut her teeth as a director. Some favorite directing projects include: Gilbert Mandrake’s Flying Saucer’s on the Plains, by Corey Hinkle, Fulfilling Koch’s Postulate, by Joan Schenkar, Hell to Get Along With, adapted by Ms. Laudonia from a Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. short story, and Camille: The Forgotten Artist, by Victoria Libertore. In New York she has been Assistant Director to Terry Schreiber on Night of the Iguana and the Director of Sunrise at the Quarry written by Nick Sanzo.

Black Door Theatre Company was created as a vessel for the artistic exploration of the human experience; including classic themes as well as current issues. Whether creating original material, collaborating with emerging artists, or re-thinking existing works, we intend to question, give voice, seek truth, and push the boundaries of form and expression.

Horse Trade Theater Group is a self-sustaining theater development group; with a focus on new work, it has produced a massive quantity of stimulating downtown theater. Horse Trade’s Resident Artist Program offers a home to a select group of Independent Theater artists, pooling together a great deal of talent and energy. It is also the home of FRIGID New York – the first and only festival of its kind in New York City.

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