Broadway To Vegas

Copyright: March 14, 2021
By: Laura Deni
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LADIES BY LAURA HARVEY HILARIOUSLY DEFENDS WOMEN'S URGES

It's London 1903 in Laura Harvey's based on face hilarious comedy Women centers around the actual fight to have women's public restrooms built. Prior to their installation women on long outdoor journeys women or their maids would have to carry along personal chamber pots.

In this play, deftly directed by Cherry Coookson, members of the Edwardian Ladies Sanitation Association campaign for a ladies' toilet to be built at the corner of Camden Heights Street.

According to historical records:

The first public flushing toilet, (known as Public Waiting Rooms) created by plumber George Jennings, were men’s conveniences. Of course, this affected women’s ability to leave the home, as women who wished to travel had to plan their route to include areas where they could relieve themselves. Thus, women never traveled much further than where family and friends resided. This is often called the ‘urinary leash’, as women could only go so far as their bladders would allow them.

This lack of access to toilets impeded women’s access to public spaces as there were no women’s toilets in the work place or anywhere else in public. This led to the formation of the Ladies Sanitary Association, organized shortly after the creation of the first public flushing toilet. The Association campaigned through lectures and the distribution of pamphlets on the subject. They succeeded somewhat, as only a few women’s toilets opened in Britain.

Then a second group emerged called the Union of Women’s Liberal and Radical Associations, which campaigned for working class women to have public toilets in Camden. Members wrote to The Vestry in Camden for toilet access for women in the already existing men’s toilets. However, the plans for a women’s toilet were set back by several years as men opposed the women’s toilets being situated next to the men’s.

In some cases, plans for women’s toilets were deliberately sabotaged. When a model of a women’s toilet was set up on the pavement in Camden High Street, hansom cabs (driven by men) deliberately drove into the model toilet to demonstrate that it was situated in a most inconvenient position!

It is that historical backdrop that forms the basic for Ladies.

Starring Alison Steadman as Ines; Jessica Dennis as Eloise; Sarah Whitehouse as Tilda; Geoffrey Whitehead as Councillor Smith; Stephen Critchlow as the Pie Shop Man and Hobart; Adam Hall as Officer Wilkins, Paperboy and Morgue Attendant; David Timson as Edward; and Rachel Atkins as Lottie.

Steadman was nominated for the 1991 National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress for the Mike Leigh film Life Is Sweet, and the 1993 Olivier Award for Best Actress for her role as Mari in the original production of The Rise and Fall of Little Voice.

The Edwardian Ladies Sanitation Association - a radical group - whose meetings were cloistered and vocabulary coded.They meet at pie shops, after having relieved themselves at home. Then there is member Eloise who is told - "you're 23 and you only have two meaningful years left to find a husband." Eloise is experiencing what was then called "unladylike urges" and "about to burst" - desperate to use the facilities - anybody's. She is forced to relieve herself in a dark alley which "smells of fish heads and mortal sins."

. They are joined by a female reporter from The Gazette who easily faints but does have enough moxey to stand up to her boss and fight for her stories.

The women conspire and plot ways to approach and convince the men in charge to approve a public restroom for women, while the men dream up arguments to stop such conveniences, claiming they would be used by serial killers and prostitutes.

Several events occur which turn the tide for the Edwardian Ladies Sanitation Association. When a . model of a women’s toilet was set up on the pavement in Camden High Street, men driving hansom cabs deliberately crash into it, killing seven people. The action shifts to the morgue and the jail.

A jailed prostitute with missing teeth tips off the ladies that when the police raided the bordello one of the customers was the straight laced editor of the Gazette a recently elected member of the Morality Purity Committee, who left behind a pair of his monogrammed underpants.

Knowledge of those underpants become an important weapon.

The Edwardian Ladies Sanitation Association gain clout when they team with the association representing Prostitutes and Near-do-Wells.

Recorded live in London at the Lion & Unicorn Theatre, the audience responding adds to the well written and acted, delightfully funny production.

Live sound and post production by Tshari King. Live Sound Effects by Jessica Bowles. Lighting and technical Support by Gareth Brown. Sound by Isabel Newbury.

THE MIGHTY CARLINS UPS DYSFUNCTION TO A NEW LEVEL

The Mighty Carlins written by award winning writer Collin Doyle, edited by Paul Darling and directed by Paul Blinkhorn is a vitriolic, profanity laced lash out of three dysfunctional family members who gather on the anniversary of the death of their wife or mother.

This is not your Norman Rockwell family.

Starring Shane Rimmer as the father, Christopher Ragland as Michael and Christian Malcolm as David.

The patriotic of the family has worked for 35 years in a slaughter house. His memory is failing him, probably more to alcohol abuse rather than Alzheimer's. He doesn't like his neighbor who is a Mormon which he pronounces "More Mon." He accuses his neighbor of letting his dog use his lawn as it's bathroom, allowing sump pump water to drain into his yard and parking his vehicle in front of his house. Although I'm not a fan of the Mormon church, whose members seem to have a propensity for gossip and repeating lies as facts, Mormons are noted as being good neighbors who respect other people's property. Thus, one wonders why the three complaints are used rather than other issues which might be more realistic.

His loser sons are David who works 60 hours a week as a security guard. He laments about the travails of his occupation. His wife Mary wants them to set up a website selling pornography by subscription in which Mary, David and a fat women would be having sex together. Seems that for a $10,000 investment, money can be made.

The elder son, Michael, found his then wife Suzanne in bed with his neighbor. Michael was charged with assault after he knocked the lover's tooth out. He has spiraled downhill since, promising to "start taking control of my life."

His future plans include teaming up with a man he met in a bar and stealing the gold statue on top of the local Mormon Temple, which is wrongly referred to a statue of Jesus. Actually it's the angel Moroni, which is on top of most Mormon temples in the world. When his father points out, that "stealing the statue of Jesus" would be illegal he replied: "It's illegal only if I get caught."

His complicated theft involves a helicopter, police scanner, truck, climbers with a welding torch, to cut through the base of the statue and experts at fencing of stolen goods. While Michael has been told the statues on top of other Mormon temples are gold plated, this one is pure gold, worth millions. Michael is willing to take his chances.

It was David who suggested that they annually meet for this Sharing Circle in which each of them remembs something about the deceased. The event ends with a prayer.

Even that seemingly innocent annual event draws vulgarity and accusations. Parents who were both drunks, each other's favorite drinking companion. There is no doubt that she is dead, the insurance company paid off. But, was her death an accident, suicide or murder?

She had fallen down the stairs. Was that an accident? Discovering that it was a suicide would mean the insurance money wold have to be returned. Murder means criminal charges and the father wouldn't be allowed to keep his inheritance.

The sons would like to prove their father murdered their mother and thus be able to claim the money

Music by Michael Seal. Produced by Working West Theatre in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Streamed by Wireless Theatre of London.

Doyle has been widely acclaimed for being able to pen insightful, moving and important commentary about the human psyche. The Mighty Carlins doesn't fit in with my psyche, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't be a perfect fit for others.

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In the pages of How To Earn A Living As A Freelance Writer (the first to be lied to and the last to be paid) you'll find sex, celebrities, violence, threats, unethical editors, scummy managers and lawyers, treacherous press agents, sex discrimination; as well as a how-to for earning money by writing down words.

ART AND ABOUT

THE FACADE COMMISSION: CAROL BOVE, THE SEANCES AREN'T HELPING

Created by Carol Bove

Created by the artist Carol Bove (born 1971), The séances aren't helping is the second commission to be featured on the facade of The Met Fifth Avenue. Working improvisationally, Bove sculpts at scale and in the round, without any preparatory drawings.

For this commission, she used a one-to-one mock-up of the Museum's empty niches to construct four abstract sculptures made of sandblasted, contorted stainless-steel tubes and five-foot-wide reflective aluminum disks. Despite the weight and heft of these sculptures, they appear astoundingly lithe and supple, almost mercurial—an effect Bove achieves by pushing her materials to their physical limits. Projecting outward from the niches, the works confound perception.

For her sculptures, Bove chose a series of nonrepresentational forms that resonate with modernist styles such as Art Deco and abstraction—a stark contrast to the traditional figurative sculptures that the architect Richard Morris Hunt intended to feature (yet never realized) on the facade, which was completed in 1902. Bove based the size of the aluminum disks on the diameter of the columns that flank the Museum’s niches and the medallion portraits that adorn the spandrels of the arches. The differing orientations result in a playful rhythmic pattern, yielding a frisson of delight that might throw us slightly off balance. By astutely engaging the Museum’s 119-year-old facade, reimagining its history, and retooling some of its architectural and design elements, the artist subtly calls for us to reevaluate and reckon with the legacies of tradition. As the title—The séances aren’t helping—suggests and Bove’s works demonstrate, grappling with the past can be a challenging yet powerful exercise.

Through November 2021 at The Met Fifth Avenue in New York City.

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SWEET CHARITY

APPLAUSE SHOP an online marketplace created by Laura Heywood and producer Susan Vargo, designed to help theatre artists make ends meet, find joyful new homes for Broadway merchandise and memorabilia, and contribute to arts and social issues charities through financial support, has been launched.

. A portion of every sale is donated to non-profit organizations that support the arts, civil rights, racial equality, arts education and LGBTQAI+ inclusion, including Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS; The Broadway Advocacy Coalition; ASTEP (Artists Striving to End Poverty); The Actors Fund; The Ali Forney Center; Planned Parenthood; Story Pirates Changemakers; The ACLU Foundation; and The NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund.

Applause Shop has acquired over 1500 items from the estate of the late two time Tony Award-winning lighting designer Howell Binkley, a collection of memorabilia and one-of-a-kind gifts spanning 52 Broadways shows including Hamilton, Jersey Boys, Come From Away, Ain’t Too Proud and Kiss of the Spider Woman. His items are being auctioned on a rolling basis which began on March 12, one year after the Broadway shutdown, and proceeds from these items will benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

In addition to Playbills, window cards, and merchandise, Applause Shop offers many opening night gifts and similar items that have never been available to the public. With a stock of over 2,000 items currently available and more added frequently.

THE NATIONAL THEATRE OF IRELAND'S RESPONSE TO THE REPORT ON MOTHER AND BABY INSTITUTIONS In January 2021 the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes published its report investigating the discrimination experienced by vulnerable women and children in Mother and Baby Institutions in Ireland. It asserted that, over 76 years from 1922 to 1998, some 56,000 mothers and 57,000 children were kept in the 14 Mother and Baby Institutions and four County Homes it examined.

The institutions mainly housed women who became pregnant outside of marriage.

. On March 3,2017, the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation announced that human remains had been found during a test excavation carried out at the site between November 2016 and February 2017. Tests conducted on some of the remains indicated they had been aged between 35 foetal weeks and 2–3 years. It was estimated that nearly 800 children had died at one home.

In 1927, the Board of Health directed that a maternity ward be added to the Home so that the mothers could be segregated from the public wards. This was built in 1929. The mothers were required to stay inside the Home for one year, doing unpaid work for the nuns, as reimbursement for some of the services rendered. They were separated from their children, who remained separately in the Home, raised by nuns, until they could be adopted – often without consent.

Some women who had had two confinements were sent directly to nearby Magdalene laundries after giving birth, as punishment for their perceived "recidivism". According to Professor Maria Luddy, "Such a stance, though not intended to be penal, allowed for the development of an attitude that accepted detention as a means of protecting society from these reoffending women."

The Mother and Baby Home Commission finalised its report in 2020, and it was published in January 2021. The Bon Secours Sisters issued an apology in the wake of the report's publication, stating "We did not live up to our Christianity when running the Home."

Home: Part One is a direct response to the report on Mother and Baby Homes, focusing on the testimonies of survivors. Home: Part One will be broadcast on St. Patrick’s Day 2021, a day where we celebrate our identity should also be a day for us to reflect on Ireland’s history and on the experiences of its citizens. It will be available to watch back for four months after. The testimonies will be read by some of Ireland’s leading actors and public figures, with live music performed by Mary Coughlan and Johnny Taylor.

Readers: Karen Ardiff, Ivana Bacik, Cathy Belton, Jane Brennan, Noelle Brown, Siobhan Callaghan, Orla Casey, Catherine Connolly, Derbhle Crotty, Amelia Crowley, Anne Enright, Hilda Fay, Liz Fitzgibbon, Brenda Fricker, Gráinne Hallahan, Mary Healy, Esosa Ighodaro, Jess Kavanagh, Lauren Larkin, Susan Lohan, Síle Maguire, Ruth McCabe, Gillian McCarthy, Denise McCormack, Mary McDonagh, Eleanor Methven, Sarah Morris, Marie Mullen, Laura Murphy, Mary Murray, Máire Ní Ghráinne, Caitríona Ní Mhurchú, Bríd Ní Neachtain, Donna Anita Nikolaisen, Melissa Nolan, Helen Norton, Marion O’Dwyer, Olivia O’Leary, Aisling O’Sullivan, Geraldine Plunkett, Joan Sheehy, Noni Stapleton, Carmel Stephens, Catherine Walsh, Eleanor Walsh, Ali White.

Filmed portraits, in order of appearance:

Portrait 1: Joan McDermott
Portrait 2: Mary Coll
Portrait 3: PJ Haverty
Portrait 4: Catherine Coffey O’Brien
Portrait 5: Anne Fitzgerald

Full performance with Irish Sign Language by interpreter Amanda Coogan.

The readings will stream on our YouTube channel on March 17, 2021 and be available through July 17, 2021.

Home: Part One is in aid of Barnardos Post Adoption Service.

Production:
Concept by: Graham McLaren & Neil Murray (Directors of the Abbey Theatre)
Curator and Lead Artist: Noelle Brown
Dramaturg: Louise Stephens
Casting Director: Sarah Jones
Producing Assistant: David Doyle
New Work Assistant: Selina O’Reilly
Performance Director: Andrea Ainsworth
Voice Director: Helena Walsh
Production Manager: Cliff Barragry
Company Manager: Danny Erskine
Company Stage Manager: Bronagh DohertyStage Manager: Roxzan Bowes
Stage Manager: Orla Burke
Stage Manager: Tara Furlong
Stage Manager: Anne Kyle
Lighting Design: Kevin McFadden
Composer: Ray Harman
Sound Mixing: Derek Conaghy
Sound Mixing: Morgan Dunne
Online Moderator: Conall Ó Fátharta
Video Production: Areaman
Producer for Areaman: Shane Hogan
Camera Operator: Eleanor Bowman
Camera Operator: Simon Crowe
Camera Operator: Tommy Fitzgerald
Camera Operator: Esme Pum McNamee
Camera Operator: Luke Sweetman
Camera Assistant/Data Wrangler: Aoife Quinn
Location Sound: Rob Moore
Location Sound: Steven Power
Clapper Loader: Kev Moore
Vision Mixing: Shane Hogan
Post-Production: David Keeling
Creative Design: ZOO

SPREADING THE WORD

HUGH JACKMAN

Hugh Jackman with a loaf of his sourdough bread. Photo from Maury Rogoff PR & Marketing

soon to star as Harold Hill in The Music Man used the pandemic isolation to hone his sourdough bread making skills to perfection. Then he asks via IG for heartfelt ‘nominations’ of who he and his wife Deborra-lee should deliver a loaf to.

The winner was ER RN Alina Jackson at Wykoff Hospital in Brooklyn.

Alina's husband wrote to Hugh: "Alina is an Emergency Room Nurse at Wyckoff Hospital in Brooklyn (about as frontline as you can get). While there are many examples of her dedication throughout this pandemic, I’ll just name a few. When the pandemic began, she was in her final semester of her nurse practitioner program- she was working overtime, studying for finals, and being an amazing wife and mother to our 2 year old, Gemma. Now, she is 6 months pregnant; last Monday during the snowstorm, she worked all day Monday, then volunteered to work overnight (many nurses couldn’t make it in). So, she worked 24 hrs, and was given 4 hrs sleep, on a cot... 6 months pregnant. The most amazing thing, and why I think she is so deserving, is she never complains... she’s the hardest working nurse in NY. She’s also eating for 2 and would absolutely love your (sourdough bread) ... I’m sure of it. Alina’s husband - Aaron.

Just as promised Hugh and Deborra-lee delivered.

KATE MIDDLETON The Duchess of Cambridge on Saturday, March 13, paid respects to Sarah Everard, laying flowers at a memorial in Clapham, England. Kensington Palace said Kate "wanted to pay her respects to the family and to Sarah".

"She remembers what is was like to walk around London at night before she was married," the palace added.

Sarah, 33, disappeared on March 3rd on her walk home from Clapham to Brixton, and her body was discovered in woodland in Kent on Friday (March 12th).

London police officer Wayne Couzens has been charged with her kidnap and murder.

A fundraiser for women's charities in commemoration of Sarah Everard has been organized by Reclaim the Streets and within hours raised £200,000 so far.

MUSICALLY SPEAKING CAROL JANTSCH a professor at the Yale School of Music since 2012, is the youngest member of the Philadelphia Orchestra and first woman to hold a principal tuba chair among major orchestras in the United States.

Praised by the Philadelphia Inquirer as having “a sound as clear and sure as it [is] luxurious,” Carol Jantsch has been principal tuba of The Philadelphia Orchestra since 2006. She won the position during her senior year at the University of Michigan, competing against 193 other applicants.

In 2018 she founded Tubas for Good, a 501(c)3 nonprofit that provides instruments for students in the Philadelphia School District. She coaches music students from the district both through Tubas for Good and the Philadelphia Orchestra’s All City Fellowship program. Since 2017 she has hosted an annual Tuba/Euphonium PlayIN, a free community event where players of all ages and skill levels are invited to perform as a mass tuba ensemble on the stage of Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center.

KID 90: SOLEIL MOON FRYE IN CONVERSATION WITH DEMI MOORE Monday, March 15. Free, presented by 92Y in New York City.

Join director and actor Soleil Moon Frye, star of the beloved 80s and currently Peacock sitcom Punky Brewster, for a conversation with Demi Moore about her new Hulu documentary kid 90. When Frye was a teenager, she documented hundreds of hours of her life with her friends – other young stars like David Arquette, Stephen Dorff, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, and more. In kid 90 , Frye shares the footage for the first time, offering an unprecedented, candid, and deeply personal look at how fame impacted the lives of young actors in the pre-internet era. Hear her and Moore discuss why she decided to make the film after holding on to the footage for 20 years, stories left out of the documentary, and much more.

THE MINACK THEATRE in Cornwall, UK has announced that they are planning to reopen as an outdoor museum and garden, from Monday, April 12, 2021. Live performances will recommence at the Minack from May 17, 2021.

Currently scheduled performances are Fisherman’s Friends May 17-19.
Scott Matthews May 21-22
Show of Hands May 28 (two shows)

THEATER AUDIENCE ATTITUDE POLLING conducted by Maryland-based firm Shugoll Research which concentrated on the theater community of Washington, DC, Maryland and Virginia, found that a majority of theatergoers who responded said they would not be comfortable returning to in-theater performances until December, 2021. That figure rises to 60% for January of 2022 and doesn't hit a full two-thirds until March or April 2022.

THE WAY FORWARD: THEATER'S EVOLUTION IN MOMENTS OF CHANGE With Oskar Eustis, Patrick Gaspard and moderator Stellene Volandes.

A Three-Part Series Presented by 92Y in New York City and Town & Country Magazine, Curated by The Public Theater.

Part I, Wednesday, March 17, 7 pm, Free Part 2 on April 26; Part 3, May 20.

A year of social isolation and political upheaval has changed the way we think about theater. How did we get here? And how will the theater evolve in the wake of Covid-19? Join us for a free three-part digital series of conversations exploring the past, present, and future of theater during moments of social inflection, curated by The Public Theater. Moderated by Stellene Volandes, editor in chief of Town and Country and editorial director of Elle Decor, these conversations pose fundamental questions about the art form.

What are the historical forces that created the modern theater, and how in turn has theater’s role in our society helped shape our culture at large? How has the last year upended the way artists work? Who will carry theater into the future?

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This is not your typical, totally boring textbook.

In the pages of How To Earn A Living As A Freelance Writer (the first to be lied to and the last to be paid) you'll find sex, celebrities, violence, threats, unethical editors, scummy managers and lawyers, treacherous press agents, sex discrimination; as well as a how-to for earning money by writing down words.

FINAL OVATION

WILHELMINA COLE HOLLADAY was an American art collector and patron, and co-founder of the National Museum of Women in the Arts died March 6, 2021. She was 99 years old.

In 1981, Wilhelmina and Wallace Holladay founded the National Museum of Women in the Arts, donating their collection of works by female artists. For the first few years, the collection was housed in the Holladays' home. She had consulted with the art historian Ann Sutherland Harris regarding long-term placement of her private collection, and Harris suggested she found a museum dedicated to women's art. In 1987, the museum acquired a former Masonic temple in Washington, D.C. as its permanent facility. The museum houses a permanent collection of art, presents changing special exhibitions and performances, maintains a library and research center, publishes exhibition catalogues, and offers educational programming.

Wilhelmina Holladay was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1996 and was awarded a 2006 National Medal of Arts, and a Foremother Award from the National Center for Health Research. Also in 2006, Wilhelmina Holladay was awarded the Légion d’honneur by the French Government. In 2005, Holladay received a Visionary Woman Award Archived 2013-04-05 at the Wayback Machine from Moore College of Art & Design. In 2001 Holladay received a Women's Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award.

Susan Fisher Sterling The Alice West Director of the National Museum of Women in the Arts issued the following statement: "With her passing, we have lost a visionary leader. Along with her late husband, Wallace, she began collecting art by women in the 1970s, spurred by the realization that historical and contemporary women artists were not given their due. She had the audacity not just to collect works by women but also to start this museum, sharing her collection with the public and gathering others whose time, funding, expertise, and works of art bolstered our mission.

"She lived to see the museum flourish and celebrated many triumphs: building and establishing the museum itself; helping us in organizing and staging wonderful programming, often in partnership with other world-class institutions; and creating an endowment.

"Like yours, my life has been enriched by the museum, as I have spent 33 years working beside and for Mrs. Holladay. She and I shared the same core values and an important goal: helping the museum to become a unique and influential arts institution. We will honor her memory in many ways, foremost through our continued work for the mission she truly believed was important in this world: exhibiting, sharing, and celebrating the work of great women artists."

Next Column: March 21, 2021
Copyright: March 14, 2021 All Rights Reserved. Reviews, Interviews, Commentary, Photographs or Graphics from any Broadway To Vegas (TM) columns may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, utilized as leads, or used in any manner without permission, compensation and/or credit.
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Laura Deni

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