Broadway To Vegas

Copyright: April 25, 2021
By: Laura Deni
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SILVER WEDDING BY FIZ MARCUS IS BLACK COMEDY FUNNY

Silver Wedding written and performed by Fiz Marcus, edited by Lester Barry.

Joan is peeved beyond civility. It's her silver wedding anniversary and she's just been informed that her 82-year-old mother, Barbara, and Lionel, a green grocer owner, ("it isn't as even if they were a high class fruiterist") who is nearly ninety, have eloped. According to Joan, he can barely walk and has piggy eyes. "Never trust a man with piggy eyes." She declares that if he's married her mother for money, he's going to be disappointed because she lives on a pension and 12 pounds she won at bingo.

The senior citizen lovebirds, who have known each other for years, began their romance during an Over 60s Trip. They married at a registry office. Joan feels that her mother's attitude and behavior is even worst than her daughter, Lorraine's, when she was a teenager.

Barbara declares that her mother's sudden marriage was nothing more than an effort to upstage her 25th anniversary black-tie party. She just knows that the members of the Ladies Circle will be buzzing and appalled.

After 25 years Barbara is determined to celebrate her Silver Wedding Anniversary in style with a black tie dinner for 60 people at The Metropole. And nobody, but nobody, is going to spoil it for her.

Her husband, Tony, works too hard. 12-hours a day, seven days a week. He argues that the lifestyle she lives requires him to slave for her.

After their marriage Barbara worked for a year in Tony's office. She had pushed him and done everything in her power to make him a success. She enjoys the fruits of their labors.

He's late getting home, but he's always late.

Tony was late for their wedding. She was standing there with her seven bridesmaids. Finally, Tony arrived.

She had worn a hand-me-down dress and the cheap reception featured a beer toast from her low class relatives.

Joan was determined that her 25th wedding anniversary party would be the wedding reception she knew she deserved but never had. She'd purchased a new, couture gown, shoes, and accessories. Then there were flowers for the sit down elegant, catered dinner and champagne reception.

Her daughter Lorraine wouldn't be there because as a travel representative in Spain, this was her busy season - a situation Joan understood. But, her mother - that was a different issue. Not even her mother was going to ruin this night for her.

Then Tony called and .... well, you'll just have to listen to Silver Wedding.

Recorded by Wireless Theatre.

LEAVES IN AUTUMN ADDRESSES RE-FOUND LOVE

Josephine Tewson

Leaves in Autumn written by Susan Casanove. Edited by Joe Siddons. Directed by Tom Brazler.

Starring Emma Noakes, Hazel Douglas, Hugh Walters, Josephine Tewson, Kathleen Waugh, Simon Stanhope, Steven Alexander and Susan Casanove.

Tewson portrayed the nervous and beleaguered next door neighbor Elizabeth "Liz" Warden in Keeping Up Appearances which is currently broadcast in America on PBS; Hazel Douglas was Bathilda Bagedad in Harry Potter and the Death Hollows Part 1 and Hugh Walter appeared as Shakespeare from 1965-1985 in several episodes of Doctor Who.

This is a extremely gentle, light comedy about love, forgiveness and redemption, presumably geared towards the older female. A tinkling piano brings on the action which segues between the present and 42 years ago.

62-year-old Iris (Josephine Tewson) wonders why anyone is interested in her memoirs.

While attending a funeral she ran into Jerry (Hugh Walters), her first love of 42 years ago. Shortly before they had become lovers and best friends he had been involved with Caroline who had left him for a short term liaison with a scoundrel who got her pregnant and split.

That was eons ago when unmarried, pregnant ladies were viewed as contemptible. Everyone blamed the women. A gentleman of the old school, Jerry felt honor bound to make a decent woman of Caroline although he knew the baby wasn't his.

Jerry and Caroline married and moved to Australia to begin a new life sans gossip. Caroline gave birth to her son, Eric, whom Jerry raised.

Now Eric, 42, was grown, married with his own children. Caroline had recently died and Jerry returned home hoping to reunite with Iris.

It doesn't take him long to ask Iris out and she agrees.

She's a wreck and both are nervous. They had been more than just lovers. They had been soul mates, reading each other's thoughts - more comfortable with each other than they had been ever before - or since.

Caroline, the woman who has become the instrument of their parting, was gone. Nothing could stand in their way. Or, so they thought, as they planned to marry.

Jerry took Iris to meet Eric and his wife, Sarah. It's Iris' elderly mother Mrs. Adams (Hazel Douglas) who doesn't approve and is determined to stop any marriage.

After all, she reasons, he'd done her daughter wrong by leaving her 42-years-ago for a woman he didn't really have to marry and now he thinks he can just walk right back into her life and pick up where he left off. Mrs. Adams has other ideas.

Presented by Wireless Theatre.

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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

MET SPEAKS WHITE CUBE / BLACK BOX: THE UNIVERSAL MUSEUM AND THE DIGITAL AGE A Virtual Symposium for Rayyane Tabet / Alien Property. Join artists, researchers, and art professionals for a two-day Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC symposium that uses the exhibition Rayyane Tabet / Alien Property as a starting point to challenge the concept of the universal museum—a place to see the whole world under one roof—and its relationship to material and digital cultural heritage.

Day 1: Tuesday, April 27, 2021, 1–3:30 pm ET
Day 2: Wednesday, April 28, 2021, 1–3:30 pm ET
This live symposium takes place on Zoom. Free, though advance registration is required.

GONZALO LEBRIJA'S HISTORY OF SUSPENDED TIME (A monument for the impossible) after a year of planning and on site preparation is now being presented in the lot across from the Palm Springs Art Museum where it will remain for a year.

In this piece, a car appears to defy gravity and time as if hanging over a pool of liquid approximately 40 feet in diameter.

Gonzalo Lebrija, History of Suspended Time (A monument for the impossible) has been lent to Palm Springs Art Museum by Amy Harmon.

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SWEET CHARITY

GEORGE STREET PLAYHOUSE ANNOUNCES Star-Studded Line Up for 2021 Virtual Gala - April 29.

The event will star: Lewis Black, Chris Bohjalian, Felicia Boswell, David Bryan, Jackie Burns, Karen Burthright, Bobby Conte Thornton, Andre De Shields, Joe DiPietro, Ann Dowd, Rachel Dratch, Steve Guttenberg, Jeremy Jordan, Laiona Michelle, Nancy Opel, Maulik Pancholy, David Hyde Pierce, Renee Taylor, Mary Testa and Marlo Thomas.

Gala to Honor Former Governor Thomas H. Kean; James N. Heston; Thomas F. Kelso Honorees will receive the Thomas H. Kean Arts Advocacy Award.

The Thomas H. Kean Arts Advocacy Award was first presented in 1990 to former Governor Kean, whom it recognizes again this year. It pays tribute to an individual, corporation, or foundation whose dedication to the arts enhances the cultural life of New Jersey.

The event, which will take place in a virtual venue accessible from anywhere in the world through a computer or smart television, will feature performances by an incredible Star-studded roster of Friends of George Street Playhouse; will allow guests to mingle via webcam and chat; and represents the latest in George Street’s forays into unique digital programming, highlighted by an ongoing streaming season for 2021.

This year’s virtual event is chaired by George Street Playhouse’s President of the Board Penelope Lattimer, Ph.D. She is joined by committee members Joan Campbell, Paula Gentempo, Janice Haggerty, James N. Heston, Sharon Karmazin, Adele T. Macula, Ed.D., C. Sharon Parker, Jocelyn Schwartzman, Nonny Stahlin, Janice Stolar, and Lora Tremayne.

To attend the Virtual Event on April 29, Gala Experience Tickets are $400 and can be purchased on line at George Street Playhouse.

SPREADING THE WORD

LAST WEEK JAMES CORDEN the Tony winning, British performer who hosts The Late Late Show With James Corden delivered a lengthy tirade against the announcement that a European Super Football (soccer) League was being formed. Corden, who was awarded a CBE by Queen Elizabeth II which was presented to him by the Princess Royal, emphasized that the formation of such a league was for the purpose of making rich team owners richer while depriving small communities of the opportunity to enjoy what is one of the most popular sports in the world. While Corden admitted that his lambasting was probably boring the American audience, he continued, explaining that he was passionately against making already rich sports moguls even richer while taking sports enjoyment away from the masses. The next day Manchester City and Chelsea pulled out of European Super League and European outlets began blasting the 12-team league that also featured three Spanish teams and three Italian sides. On Wednesday, April 21, it was announced that the formation of a Europea Super League had been suspended.

However, on Saturday Real Madrid president Florentino Perez announced that the 12 clubs that agreed to join a new European Super League have "binding contracts" and "cannot leave."

"I don't need to explain what a binding contract is, but effectively the clubs cannot leave," Perez told newspaper AS.

"Some of them, due to pressure, have said they're leaving. But this project, or one very similar, will move forward and I hope very soon."

PROJECTIONS: WOODY ALLEN - THE CINEMA OF NEUROSIS an Online Course conducted by Mary Wild takes place April 30-May 1 from the Freud Museum in London.

The course will present Allen’s work as the Cinema of Neurosis, and highlight the theme in his stories about obstacles that prevent people from enjoying life.

Woody Allen the highly prolific filmmaker has directed over 50 feature titles in a career that spans almost 60 years. His directorial style ranges from slapstick to dramatic art cinema with dark philosophical undertones, often combining tragic and comic elements. He frequently stars in his films, typically in the anxious, insecure intellectual persona he developed for stand-up in the 1960s, which he insists is very different from his own disposition. There are few filmmakers who have represented psychoanalytic concepts as consistently as Allen has; he is the premier Freudian director, having spent several decades undergoing analysis, so it would be remiss of us to omit him. Oedipal fantasies, aggressive impulses, death anxiety, polymorphous perversity, and hypochondria have figured largely in his repertoire, according to the Freus Museum.

“My films are a form of psychoanalysis, except that it is I who am paid, which changes everything.” WOODY ALLEN

It bears mentioning that since the early 1990s, and especially in recent times, Allen’s private life has been a controversial topic in the public discourse. An allegation of child molestation, and marrying his longterm ex-girlfriend’s young adopted daughter, led to a media frenzy and effective ‘cancellation’; Allen as cause célèbre never fails to provoke an impassioned response, with divergent opinions about his moral integrity. However, his professional output remains objectively important to many cinephiles, and he has undeniably made a huge contribution to the popularisation of psychoanalysis in mainstream culture, therefore a dedicated space for interested parties to engage deeply and critically with his content is warranted, continued the institution.

The aim of this course is to present Woody Allen’s work as the Cinema of Neurosis, and highlight the running theme in his stories about obstacles that prevent people from enjoying life. As outlined in Sigmund Freud’s case study of Ernst Lanzer (the ‘Rat Man’), the neurotic individual shows resistance in the pursuit of satisfying experiences. A lot of Allen’s films appear to coalesce on the neurotic structure, revolving around existential crises, self-sabotage, obsessing over minor details, and the compulsion to repeat negative life patterns. Often the neurotic person is referred to as “anally retentive”, or comes across as an inhibited figure retreating from life, delaying commitment, doubting the words they use, and fearing punishment. As we will discover, Woody Allen’s most iconic characters seem to be quintessential neurotics, stuck in the ambivalent space between love and death, forever preoccupied with the question: “What is the meaning of life?”

Advance viewing is optional. Film scenes will be shown during the course. Recommended reading: Apropos of Nothing (W. Allen, 2020) Published by: Arcade.

Part 1: LOVE

Love and Death (1975)
Annie Hall (1977)
The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
September (1987)
Husbands and Wives (1992)
Mighty Aphrodite (1995)
Anything Else (2003)
A Rainy Day in New York (2019)
Part 2: DEATH

Interiors (1978)
Manhattan (1979)
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)
Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993)
Deconstructing Harry (1997)
Small Time Crooks (2000)
Irrational Man (2015)
Projections is psychoanalysis for film interpretation. Projections empowers film spectators to express subjective associations they consider to be meaningful. Expertise in psychoanalytic theory is not necessary – the only prerequisite is the desire to enter and inhabit the imaginary world of film, which is itself a psychoanalytic act. Mary Wild, a Freudian cinephile from Montreal, is the creator of Projections.

SINGLE ASIAN FEMALE by Michelle Law. Directed by Cassandra Tse.

Meet Pearl Wong.

She’s a first-generation Chinese immigrant and a single mother who’s barely keeping her restaurant, Golden Phoenix, afloat. Meanwhile, her older daughter Zoe has moved back home and her teenage daughter Mei is kicking back against her cultural heritage. With the Wongs on the ropes and an ominous secret hanging over their heads, will Pearl’s indomitable willpower – and the healing power of karaoke – be enough to hold the family together?

Starring in the lead role of Pearl Wong is Kat Tsz Hung, who won Best Actor Festival Award in 2016 for the short film Wait. Kat is joined by rising talents Xana Tang and Bridget Wong in the roles of daughters Zoe and Mei. Olivia Parker, Holly Stokes and Zak Enayat complete the effervescent cast.

The Creatives include: set designer Rachael Walker, costume designer Alison Reid, lighting designer Rachel Marlow, sound designer and master of karaoke tracks Sean Lynch and Ben Henson rounds out the creative team in the role of director’s mentor. Collaborating with Proudly Asian Theatre, Single Asian Female also marks the first time Auckland Theatre Company has collaborated with Proudly Asian Theatre Company, and continues ATC’s commitment to championing inclusive, contemporary works that tell the stories of all New Zealanders. Presented by Auckland Theatre Company April 27 - May 15 at the ASB Waterfront Theatre in Auckland, New Zealand.

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM – SONDHEIM IN THE REALM OF FARCE Stephen Sondheim wrote, “When we opened on Broadway…the reception was ecstatic—for everything but the songs. Shortly thereafter, Forum was nominated for eight Tony Awards (and won six), the only major category missing being Best Score.” For Forum, Sondheim tried to unlearn everything his mentor, Oscar Hammerstein, had taught him about songwriting for the theater.

92Y School of Music teacher Louis Rosen explores the show that was, in fact, the biggest hit (in its Broadway run) that Sondheim was ever connected with.

Thursday, April 29, 1:30 p, EST 92Y in New York City.

THE ELECTRIC DAISY CARNIVAL (EDC) has again been postponed. Once slated for May, it's now set to sparkle in Las Vegas on October 22-24, 2021.

Then it's on to Tinker field in Orlando, Florida for a staging November 12-14, 2021.

LITTLE GEM: A PERFORMANCE ON SCREEN by Elaine Murphy. Directed by Marc Atkinson Borrull.

Starring Brenda Meaney, Lauren O’Leary, and Marsha Mason.

"Amber, Lorraine, and Kay, three generations of North Dublin women, find themselves suddenly facing the unexpected in this “warm slice-of-lif e tale.” (The New York Times. Young Amber’s case of indigestion grows into something more, while her mother Lorraine reluctantly attempts therapist-suggested self-care, and Grandmother Kay struggles with a personal itch while adjusting to life a s a caretaker for her beloved Gem. In this hilarious and poignant award-winning work, three women find strength in one another and discover the beauty and complexity of family." Irish playwright Elaine Murphy’s debut play, Little Gem, premiered at the Dublin Fringe Festival in 2008 where it won the Fishamble New Writing Award. It then transferred to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where it won the Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award, the festival's top prize.

This new digital production was filmed remotely at the actors’ homes in Connecticut, London, and New York. It is an adaptation of Irish Rep’s acclaimed 2019 production. Streams April 27 – May 9, 2021

AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE by Henrik Ibsen. Translated from the Norwegian by Paul Walsh.

Directed by Bob Melrose.

What does it mean to be a Public Enemy? Dr. Stockman wants to keep his community safe by shutting down the town’s economy while making the necessary changes in the poisoned water supply to make sure it is safe. His brother, the mayor, fights with all his might to keep the economy open despite the health risks. According to him, the time and money to make the water supply safe would ruin the economy and bankrupt the town. Does this sound familiar? Alley Resident Acting Company members David Rainey and Todd Waite star as the battling brothers in this fight for the soul of the city. Watch the Alley Theatre free streaming for Ibsen’s particularly timely classic.

April 30 - May 23, 2021.

THE TOKYO MOTOR SHOW has been cancelled for the first time in its 67 year history due to rising Covid-19s cases. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said to be considering declaring a state of emergency in cities including Tokyo and Osaka.

When the motor show in 2022 or 2023, the Tokyo event will be rebranded as a 'mobility show' to reflect the increasingly diverse field of transportation solutions available from Japanese manufacturers.

The 2019 Tokyo Motor Show drew 1.3m visitors.

E-Book

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E-Book

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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

JIM STEINMAN the Grammy-winning composer who wrote Meat Loaf's best-selling Bat Out Of Hell debut album as well as hits for Celine Dion, Bonnie Tyler, Barry Manilow and Air Supply died April 19, 2021 in a Connecticut hospital. He was 73.

He also worked as an arranger, pianist and singer. His work included songs in the adult contemporary, rock and roll, dance, pop, musical theater and film score genres. Beginning his career in musical theater, Steinman's most notable work in the area included lyrics for Whistle Down the Wind and music for Tanz der Vampire.

Steinman was credited with book, music, and lyrics for Bat Out of Hell: The Musical, which, following a successful preview run in Manchester, had two runs on London's West End, two runs in Toronto's Ed Mirvish Theatre, a German-language production in Oberhausen, and a short run at the New York City Center.

in 2012 he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

TEMPEST STORM the famed exotic dancer who dated Elvis, had her 44DD breasts insured for $1M and performed in her 80s died April 20, 2021 in her Las Vegas, Nevada home. She was 93.

She was one of the best-known burlesque performers of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.

Storm was inducted into the Burlesque Hall of Fame, where one of her G-strings is part of the museum's display.

She was married four times, once to Herb Jeffries an actor of film and television as well as a popular music and jazz singer-songwriter, known for his baritone voice, with whom she had a daughter.

ANTHONY POWELL Tony, BAFTA and three-time Oscar winning costume designer died Sunday, April 16, 2021. He was 85.

Born in a Manchester, England suburb, after graduating from London’s Central School of Art and Design, Powell apprenticed as an assistant to such designers as the great Cecil Beaton.

Powell, who won a Tony Award for the costumes of 1963’s School for Scandal, received Oscars in 1978 for Death on the Nile and in 1979 for Tess. He had received his first Academy Award for designing the costumes for Maggie Smith’s eccentric Augusta in George Cukor’s Travels with My Aunt (1972).

For the stage, Powell created the gorgeous Sunset Boulevard costumes for the original 1994 Broadway production, its 2017 revival as well as West End stagings. His Norma Desmond's included Patti LuPone, Betty Buckley, Elaine Page and Glenn Close.

He also earned Academy Award nominations for Pirates (1986), Hook (1991) and 102 Dalmatians (2000).

Powell received the Costume Designers Guild’s Career Achievement Award in 2000 for film and the TDF/Irene Sharaff Award Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004 for theatre.

With a career that stretched from the 1960s well into the 21st century, Powell designed costumes for such stars as Dame Maggie Smith, Dame Angela Lansbury, Glenn Close, Lauren Bacall, Paul Newman, Bette Davis, Warren Beatty, Steve McQueen, Sir Sean Connery, Dustin Hoffman, Sir Roger Moore, Harrison Ford, Peter Ustinov, Johnny Depp, Mia Farrow, Betty Buckley and Elaine Page.

In 2004 Powell designed the costumes for Richard Strauss's opera Capriccio for the Paris Opera at the Palais Garnier, starring Renée Fleming, and directed by Robert Carsen. He collaborated again with Robert Carsen in 2010 for the costumes of My Fair Lady starring Alex Jennings and Margaret Tyzack at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. This production also traveled to the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg where it was the first musical comedy ever to be presented on that stage. This production was revived again in Paris in 2012.

LES McKEOWN former front man for the tartan-garbed Scottish Bay City Roller died suddenly at his home on Tuesday, April 20, 2021. He was 65.

He had a history of problems related to alcohol.

McKeown left the group in 1978, but rejoined in 2015 for a series of reunion shows.

He is survived by his wife Peko Keiko and son Jubei McKeown.

BERNICE GIBB RHOADES niece of Bee Gee's singer Barry Gibb was found dead in bed in her Las Vegas home by her husband on Thursday, April 15, 2021. She was 56.

Considered in excellent health, her death was attributed to a suspected heart attack days after receiving her second Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine.

Born in Australia and raised inEngland she is survived by her husband Chino. The couple had lived in Las Vegas for the last 31 years.

Next Column: May 2, 2021
Copyright: April 25, 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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