Broadway To Vegas

Copyright: April 18, 2021
By: Laura Deni
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LONGING TO BE TOUCHED IN THE OXY COMPLEX

Anna LaMadrid in The Oxy Complex. Photo by IAMA Theatre Company.

IAMA Theatre Company presents this "compelling new solo comedy about female identity by an exciting Latinx-American voice. Filmed live at L.A.’s Pico Playhouse, The Oxy Complex, written and performed by Anna LaMadrid, is a dark comedy exploring love, sex, loneliness, trauma and the hormone that affects it all — Oxytocin, also known as "the cuddle" or "love" hormone."

Directed by Michelle Bossy, The Oxy Complex is set on the 500th day of quarantine. LaMadrid uses the pandemic as a hook to discuss women who don't just want to be touched but want meaningful connections. The topic is a popular one for dissemination, LaMadrid does it in her own unique fashion.

Excellent lighting helps differentiate the characters - navy blue for a sleep and touch deprived main character Viviana; white for her mother pink for the therapist and a black background for the bar scenes.

Although peppered with profanity, the play is well written, constructed and acted.

Our heroine Viviana suffers from bouts of insomnia. She's tossing and turning in bed. A clock ticks. At 2 am she is lonely for - not sex - but companionship. Ruminating thoughts and hallucinations send her on a journey to look at her past in order to heal.

It's been 500 days without a hug. Her mother calls four times a day with information about the latest virus peak and profers home remedies guaranteed to kill the virus. The mother's idea of a sex talk is to tell her daughter not to get pregnant.

Told in flashbacks the story weaves between our heroine Vivana, her mother, the therapist and a variety of female bar types.

The segments with "Dr. Oye Me" are both interesting and accurate. Textbook dialogue turned into attention holding segments.

Officially - Human sexual response: Oxytocin levels in plasma rise during sexual stimulation and orgasm. At least two uncontrolled studies have found increases in plasma oxytocin at orgasm – in both men and women. Plasma oxytocin levels are increased around the time of self-stimulated orgasm and are still higher than baseline when measured five minutes after self arousal.

It is also associated with empathy, trust, sexual activity, and relationship-building. It is sometimes referred to as the “love hormone,” because levels of oxytocin increase during hugging and orgasm.

Human ingroup bonding: Oxytocin can increase positive attitudes, such as bonding, toward individuals with similar characteristics, who then become classified as "in-group" members, whereas individuals who are dissimilar become classified as "out-group" members.

Oxytocin produces antidepressant-like effects in animal models of depression.

In this play Dr. Oye Me points out the importance of touch. It's skin hunger as humans are wired to need touch. It's a deep primal need.

She recommends one, 30-secomd a hug a day.

Viviana emphasizes that the need she feels is immediate - "it isn't about Mr. Right but about Mr. Right Now. There are flashbacks to various love affairs and situations, including perusing dating sites.

Even if you're not in the 20-something crowd or prone to bar hopping, or hanging out with the girls discussing "who are you dating?" you'll understand and have empathy for the characters in the play.

In various forms, women publicly showing their desperation are; the indignant drunk, the sad drunk who become the 30 something drunk, the angry drunk with confabulated conspiracy theories and the sloppy sex kitten.

As the author puts it, this is about "power of pussy" and the rabbit holes women fall into with various men.

The creative team for The Oxy Complex includes scenic and props designer Justin Huen, lighting designer R. S. Buck, sound designer John Nobori and dialect coach Lauren Lovett-Cohen. 3 camera operators from TAKE Creative. Filming and post-production are by TAKE Creative. The stage manager is Camella Cooper and assistant stage manager is Rose Swaddling Krol. Tanny Jiraprapasuke is the COVID compliance officer. Lexi Sloan produces and Terry Li associate produces for IAMA Theatre Company.

Filmed live at the Pico Playhouse. Presented by IAMA Theatre Company. Continues streaming through April 25, 2021.

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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.

ART AND ABOUT

HOLLYWOOD SCI-FI, ACTION, FANTASY AND MORE AUCTION staged by Julien's auctions takes place live on line. on Thursday, April 29, 2021.

The Hollywood Sci-Fi, Action, Fantasy and More Auction offers some of the most iconic pop culture relics of all time to the public and collectors, part of the two-day auction kicking off with Hollywood Legends & Luminaries and taking place on Wednesday, April 28th and concluding with this event on Thursday, April 29th.

Following our Day 1 event, Hollywood Legends & Luminaries, featuring property related to glamorous movie stars from Hollywood’s Golden Era including Marilyn Monroe, Doris Day, and Greta Garbo up to the modern era, Day 2 will focus on museum quality props, memorabilia and costumes used by Hollywood’s biggest stars and legends including Al Pacino, Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Will Smith, Tom Cruise, Sigourney Weaver, Jim Carrey, Nicole Kidman, George Clooney, Winona Ryder, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Michelle Pfeiffer, John Travolta and more.

Over 400 lots from the greatest box-office films and movie franchises of the past 50 years – Alien, Batman, Die Hard, Edward Scissorhands, Independence Day, Scarface, James Bond films and more – will star on the auction stage, many of which will be sold to the public for the first time.

Among the marquee highlights of this event will be the full-size prototype Xenomorph costume designed by the Academy Award-winning and revered surrealist artist and sculptor, H.R. Giger from the 1979 seminal sci-fi horror classic, Alien. Long believed to have been lost and destroyed, this original translucent prototype (known as "Big Chap") for the terrifying creature character was created for consideration by the film’s celebrated director Ridley Scott during the early stages of the film’s pre-production. Comprehensive lighting and camera tests were conducted by the pre-production team to demonstrate the potential; however, the non-translucent costume was the final result and the character development with Giger would go on to spawn one of Hollywood’s most legendary horror icons ever to come on screen. This extraordinary costume is now considered the rarest and most elusive artifact from the blockbuster film franchise.

Other items from the Alien franchise include a complete costume worn by Sigourney Weaver as a clone of her legendary character, Ripley, in the film Alien Resurrection, as well as a costume worn by Wynona Ryder from the same film both designed by Academy Award winner Bob Ringwood and inspired by fashion iconoclast Jean Paul Gaultier.

RARE AND WONDROUS: BIRDS IN ART AND CULTURE 1620–1820 Corresponding with an age of exploration, colonialism, and the rise of the great European trading companies – including the West African slave trade – intense interest in natural history and attempts to classify and categorize it grew as specimens of plants, insects, shells, mammals and birds were collected from around the world and brought back to Europe. Ornithology, the study of birds and their classification, made especially great strides in the 1700s with many lavishly illustrated studies of birds being published during the century. But naturalists were not the only ones fascinated by these “exotic” birds. Monarchs and aristocrats collected them in cabinets of curiosities and aviaries, artists painted them, moralizers found symbolic meaning in them and women wore their feathers as accessories.

This exhibition highlights images of exotic birds in European art primarily from the 17th and 18th centuries that show how they became the objects of scientific inquiry, of popular interest, of status, and even of household decoration and personal adornment.

The exhibition will showcase the Museum’s recent acquisition of the important six-volume Ornithologie written by Mathurin-Jacques Brisson and illustrated by François-Nicolas Martinet, published 1760. It will also feature paintings, prints and decorative arts from TMA’s collection, as well as select loans of significant prints and illustrated books from the Yale Center for British Art, the University of Michigan Museums Library and Special Collections, and the Bowling Green State University Libraries Center for Archival Collections. April 24-July 25, 2021 at the Toledo Museum of Art.

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SWEET CHARITY

THE ELTON JOHN FIRST EVER VIRTUAL ACADEMY AWARDS PRE-PARTY to benefit the Elton John AIDS Foundation takes place on Sunday, April 25. It will be hosted by Neil Patrick Harris alongside Elton John and David Furnish, and will feature spectacular stripped back performances by Grammy Award Winner Dua Lipa and a must-see duet with Elton John.

SONGWRITERS HELPING SONGWRITERS Last summer, as COVID-19 created economic hardship for creatives everywhere, a variety of charities were set up to offer assistance. For musicians, there was MusiCares, while Save Our Stages helped shuttered music venues. When a group of songwriters saw that there was no assistance being targeted for their struggling colleagues, they sprang into action. With the backing of Songwriters of North America (SONA), the Songwriter Fund was created by songwriters and for songwriters.

Directed by an all-woman team of acclaimed songwriters Autumn Rowe and Michelle Featherstone with management by Sarah Robertson, the Songwriter Fund offers emergency grants to songwriters in need. It was launched with resources from SONA and SONY Music Publishing, among other private and corporate donations.

So far, it has distributed over $400,000 in grants to songwriters who have been hardest hit by closures during the pandemic…and it’s just getting started.

With the repercussions of the pandemic continuing to impact the music industry, the fund is still accepting donations as it gears up to provide another round of much-needed relief to songwriters, with applications opening April 28th. To learn more about the fund or to donate, visit songwriterfund.

SPREADING THE WORD

BROADWAY PRODUCER SCOTT RUDIN 62, has resigned after numerous bullying accusations including throwing a baked potatto at an assistant and smashing a computer on another's hand.

As first reported in The Washington Post Rudin stated: "I am profoundly sorry for the pain my behavior caused to individuals, directly and indirectly.

"After a period of reflection, I've made the decision to step back from active participation on our Broadway productions, effectively immediately. My roles will be filled by others from the Broadway community and in a number of cases, from the roster of participants already in place on those shows."

IN ANTICIPATION OF THE US PREMIERE of Artistic Director Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, DC, Simon Godwin's Romeo & Juliet film, partake in a free pre-show celebration with award-winning actor Claire Danes for a special conversation about her time starring in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet film and reflecting on the ongoing resonance of this remarkable play.

The Great Performances: Romeo & Juliet premiere party will stream for free on April 23 at 8 p.m. ET on Facebook Live and YouTube Live.

Romeo & Juliet premieres on PBS' Great Performances on Friday, April 23 at 9 p.m. ET on PBS (check local listings).

HARVEY GRANAT PRESENTS MARILYN AND ALAN BERGMAN with performances by Christine Andreas and Ann Hampton Callaway. Harvey Granat celebrates one of the most remarkable and successful songwriting teams in history — the multiple award-winning Marilyn and Alan Bergman. With a songbook that includes The Way We Were; What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life; Windmills of Your Mind; How Do You Keep the Music Playing? and many more, and ranges from the score for Yentl to the theme song for Maude, the Bergmans are songwriting royalty.

Harvey talks about how they crafted and tailored songs for luminaries including Barbra Streisand, Frank Sinatra and Fred Astaire, and he shares the charming behind-the-scenes stories you’ll only hear from him. As always, he sings, in his enchanting and inimitable style, with special guest Alan Bergman joining him along with additional performances by Christine Andreas and Ann Hampton Callaway in reminding us why these exquisite songs are among the most enduring of all.

Thursday, April 22, 2021 at noon. 92Y in New York City.

MET ANYWHERE: VIRTUAL EVENTS New York Philharmonic's principal players Carter Brey and Anthony McGill are joined by pianist Inon Barnatan and former New York Philharmonic music director Alan Gilbert "for a nuanced and heart-wrenching performance of Olivier Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time." This Digital Premiere is part of Carnegie Hall's online festival Voices of Hope, which highlights the resilience of artists during times of war, repression, and tyranny.

Tuesday, April 20, 7–8 pm EST.

NECESSARY SACRIFICES a radio play version.

In his fourth commission for Ford’s Theatre, playwright Richard Hellesen explores the two documented encounters between Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln during a period of national crisis.

During the summers of 1863 and 1864, Douglass challenges Lincoln to use his power as president to bring truth to America’s founding ideal that “all men are created equal.”

Psalmayene 24 makes his Ford’s debut directing Craig Wallace as Douglass and Paul Morella as Lincoln.

Presented by Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC. Available until May 30, 2021.

THE ROYALE When is a play about a boxer not really about boxing? When it's the 2016 Obie and Drama Desk Award-winning The Royale which is about the life of the outsider in America as much as it is about charismatic African-American boxer Jay "The Sport" Jackson. The stylized and stunning conception of Marco Ramirez was realized by director Rachel Chavkin.

Stream the Lincoln Center production of The Royale (2016, Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater), by Marco Ramirez, directed by Rachel Chavkin, featuring McKinley Belcher III, Khris Davis, Montego Glover, John Lavelle, and Clarke Peters.

86 minutes runtime. Free streaming on demand, beginning April 27 at 7 pm ET on Broadway On Demand.

MOLIERE IN THE PARK in partnership with the Prospect Park Alliance and LeFrak Center at Lakeside, has announced guest speakers for "In Conversation," a live post-show series following select virtual performances of Christina Anderson’s riveting maritime drama pen/man/ship, directed by Molière in the Park’s Founding Artistic Director Lucie Tiberghien.

Sunday, April 18 following the 7pm show
A specialist of early modern French literature, Dartmouth Professor of French and Women’s Gender Studies, Faith Beasley, will host a conversation on how women have used literature to engage with social issues of their time.

Wednesday, April 21 following the 2pm show
Author, Theologian & Activist, Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis, and Actress & Community Advocate, Kaliswa Brewster, discuss the intersection of theology and civil rights in the late 1800’s, beginning of the Jim Crow era — when pen/man/ship takes place.

Thursday, April 22 following the 7pm show
Award-winning Playwright, Cori Thomas, Liberian Writer, Womi Neal, and Liberian Actor/Producer, Emery Bright, dive into the political history of Liberia and the colonization movement.

Saturday, April 24 following the 7pm show
Award-winning Playwright, Lynn Nottage, and pen/man/ship Playwright, Christina Anderson, discuss the inspiration behind the play.

THE HARTFORD STAGE in partnership with two extraordinary organizations, EPOCH (Engaged, Public, Oral and Community Histories) at UCONN and Connecticut Public Broadcasting, is returning to an older art form, the radio play. Together they are creating short plays written by a diversity of writers, to be shared intergenerationally, and which will capture the variety of histories that have brought people together.

Love being told a good story and allowing your imagination to fill in the visuals: seeing in your mind’s eye the dimensions only hinted at by the voices? Scene and Heard: LIVE! on Wednesday, April 21 at 5 pm, as the Hartford Stage welcomes their partners—Dr. Fiona Vernal from the University of Connecticut and Tim Rasmussen from Connecticut Public Broadcasting—as well as Michael Bobbitt, their first commissioned playwright, to learn more about this new initiative.

GLOBAL ORIGINS is proud to present Rerouted: a digital discussion group for international plays and performances in partnership with the Gate Theatre in London. Rerouted will be a free, open-access series of webinars for anyone interested in theatre, performance and art, including students, researchers, emerging creatives and artists. Each session will feature a different playtext, film or performance to be chosen, introduced and discussed by brilliant guest practitioners.

Rerouted launches on Tuesday, April 20th with inaugural special guest, award-winning actor and director and Artistic Director of the Market Theatre in Johannesburg James Ngcobo.

Through the discussions we will aim to expand our lens on global art and create a more diverse, exciting and inclusive industry by considering non-British modes of performance. We will converse with artists from all over the world about the art that inspired them and consider how we can decolonise British theatre.

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.






WOOLLY MAMMOTH THETRE COMPANY has announced that four new members are joining its board of directors. Jon Bouker, Kimberly E. Douglas, Sari Hornstein and Dale A. Mott, will join the passionate and engaged group of community leaders and arts enthusiasts on Woolly Mammoth’s Board.

Jon Bouker is Co-Leader of the Government Relations practice at Arent Fox LLP where he represents clients before the government of the District of Columbia, Congress, and the White House and federal agencies.

Kimberly E. Douglas is the Director of THEARC Theater, a program of Building Bridges Across the River. Through her leadership, THEARC Theater is widely recognized as a cultural staple for artists, arts organizations and community East of the River.

Sari Hornstein is a historian and writer who has written extensively on issues related to people with disabilities, advocated on their behalf, and has worked with many non-profits. She currently serves on the Boards of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and ArtStream, an inclusive theatre company, the Advisory Board of the Institute for After School Development, and the Quality Advisory Committee of SEEC.

Dale A. Mott is a non-profit fundraising executive and entrepreneur whose career has included leadership roles with the Smithsonian, CARE, The Phillips Collection, Arena Stage, and Penumbra Theatre Company. In 2018, he founded Edgewood, a theatrical production company and fundraising consultancy, committed to advancing projects celebrating the intersection of innovation, accessibility, creative expression, and social justice.

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO . . .

QUEEN ELIZABETH II who was born on April 21, 1926 in Mayfair, England. Her official birthday - the Trooping of the Colors - is celebrated in June when the weather is better in England. However, for the second year in a row, due to Covid-19, this year's formal celebration was been canceled.

Though in mourning over the death of her husband Prince Philip, it is expected that, at most, a small family dinner will take place on Wednesday.

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Next Column: April 25, 2021
Copyright: April 18, 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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