Bowen and Bell’s musical “[title of show]” looks to be in good hands at Signature. Previews start Tuesday, and I enjoyed a rehearsal visit last week for my latest Weekend assignment.
“[title of show]” business
April 2, 2010 · No Comments
Tags: Washington Post articles · Theater
Cutting-edge Sondheim
February 13, 2010 · No Comments
Signature Theatre is tackling “Sweeney Todd” for the third time in the company’s history, and I enjoyed getting a sneak peek at the production for a new Weekend article. Break a leg, all! Or cut off a leg, or something like that…
Tags: Washington Post articles · Theater
A “Blue Lagoon” with a citrus twist
January 6, 2010 · 1 Comment
The Orlando production of “The Blue Lagoon: A Musical” opens Saturday, Jan. 9, at the Footlight Theatre at the Parliament House Resort. Jane Horwitz mentions the show in today’s Backstage column in The Post, which also features a nice photo of exceptional New York talents Shayna Albertson and Anthony Johnson, who are reprising their CringeFest performances for the Orlando run, again under the direction of the gifted Kenny Howard. For tickets, visit the online box office of producer Wanzie Presents. And if you’d like a glimpse of Shayna and Anthony in action, so to speak, check out this YouTube clip.

Tags: Pop culture · Theater
Arthur’s Theme
November 13, 2009 · No Comments
Actor Todd Alan Johnson and director-choreographer Stephen Nachamie spoke eloquently about “Camelot” for my new OnStage article in Weekend. The show opens Nov. 18 at Olney. Break a leg, all!
Tags: Washington Post articles · Theater
“Zero Hour” Approaches
August 29, 2009 · No Comments
I enjoyed chatting with Jim Brochu, the creator and star of “Zero Hour,” and Piper Laurie, the show’s director, for an OnStage article in Weekend. “Zero Hour,” about the colorful and complex life of Zero Mostel, opens today at Theater J, and the play is New York-bound in the fall. Break a leg, all!
Tags: Washington Post articles · Theater
Painting the Town “Blue”
July 24, 2009 · No Comments
Tags: Pop culture · Theater
Opening Night
July 22, 2009 · No Comments
Anthony Johnson and Shayna Albertson in “The Blue Lagoon: A Musical,” opening July 22 at the Producers’ Club Grand Theater in New York.

Photo by Tony Spinosa
Tags: Pop culture · Theater
News Splash!
July 15, 2009 · No Comments
“The Blue Lagoon: A Musical,” a subversively funny take on the classic tale of shipwrecked teen cousins in lust, will open on July 22 at the Producers’ Club Grand Theater in Manhattan. The show is slated for four performances as part of International CringeFest, a three-week celebration of naughtily bad plays, musicals and films.
“The Blue Lagoon: A Musical” is based on Henry de Vere Stacpoole’s 1908 novel “The Blue Lagoon: A Romance,” which has inspired several stage and screen adaptations over the years, including the infamous 1980 film starring Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins. The latest incarnation — featuring book, music and lyrics by Jonathan Padget — premiered at the 2007 Capital Fringe Festival in Washington, D.C., where it enjoyed a sold-out run and an enthusiastic response from audiences and critics. Nelson Pressley of The Washington Post praised the show for its “lovely melodic themes” and its playful, alternative style: “two goofy performances and an inflatable baby pool as the lagoon in question — how Fringe is that?”
The New York premiere of “The Blue Lagoon: A Musical” features Shayna Albertson (2008 graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts) as Emmeline and Anthony Johnson (recently on the NETworks North American and Asian tour of “Hairspray”) as Richard. The production is directed by Kenny Howard, who is also helming the CringeFest show “Dragness of God and the Naked Holy Ghost,” among other off-off-Broadway projects this summer.
“The Blue Lagoon: A Musical” — anchoring Act 2 of CringeFest’s “Dames at Sea” theme night — will be performed on July 22, July 27, Aug. 1 and Aug. 6 at the Producers’ Club Grand Theater, 358 West 44th Street. Curtain is at 8 p.m. Tickets are $25 ($15 for students) and are available by phone at 212-242-6036 or online at TheaterMania.com.
For more information about International CringeFest, produced by NY Artists Unlimited, visit NYArtists.org.
Tags: Pop culture · Theater
The Passing Storm
June 29, 2009 · No Comments
I enjoyed the New York Times obituary for Gale Storm, the actress whose career peaked in the 1950s on sitcoms “My Little Margie” and “The Gale Storm Show: Oh! Susanna.” The title character of the latter, writes Anita Gates, “was a social director on a cruise ship who, with her beautician sidekick (ZaSu Pitts), regularly confounded the ship’s stuffy captain and, every third episode, burst into song (a condition of Ms. Storm’s contract).”
More contracts should have such a provision.
Other fun facts: Her screen name (so great, by the way) was “preordained” as part of the prize package she won in the 1939 Gateway to Hollywood talent contest. (Ultimately, I suppose, “The Josephine Cottle Show” wouldn’t have had quite the same ring to it.) Also, she did a 1979 episode of “The Love Boat,” “considered something of an ‘Oh! Susanna’ copycat.”
Words of wisdom: “I’d get tired, but I’d wake up every morning looking forward to the day’s work,” Storm once wrote, referring to the challenges of her first weekly TV series. “I think that the secret to happiness is being surrounded by people you love and having work that you look forward to doing.”
Copy editor’s nitpick: I would have chosen a different phrase than Gates did to describe Storm’s widowed mother, who “became a seamstress to make ends meet.”
Tags: Pop culture
The Final Five
June 14, 2009 · No Comments
So, after 18 months of getting my weight under control, there are five pounds that stand between me and a 100% normal weight for my height. I’m not terribly worried about this last stretch; after dropping 115 pounds and 12 inches from my waist, five pounds is a piece of cake. (Hmmm, wait — maybe I should rephrase that.) Here’s a new photo, for those keeping track.
Tags: FYI
