Broadway To Vegas

Copyright: July 24, 2022
By: Laura Deni
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A BRIEF HISTORY OF PEKKA AND STRANGEBONE TALENT AGENCY IS A LAUGH A SECOND

Fred Strangebone

In an oppressive hot summer, we all could use a good laugh.

Consider the laugh a second A Brief History Of The Pekka and Strangebone Talent Agency, read by the ever unusual Fred Strangebone.

Dating back as far as the middle agencies, it is explained that the agency began by supplying court jesters and then prostitutes who had learned to entertain in a non contact way in order to prevent the spread of the black death. The agency expanded to bear bating and cock fighting, representing the animals. They took their percentage before the animals were mauled or pecked to death.

During the Restoration the agency signed their first female actress who caught the eye of King Charles II, becoming his 34th favorite mistress.

When executions became popular, Pekka and Strangebone represented those were about to be hanged, taking 20% of the last meal and then taking a percentage from selling the corpse to medical students.

With the invention of cinema they signed up dazzling stars. Unfortunately, one was caught having sexual intercourse with a fireplace in a New York hotel.

For American audiences the accent is theatrically precise, easily understood. A downside is that the performance has an abrupt ending.

A frothy delight for a hot summer day. Presented by Wireless Theatre Company.

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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

THE JELL-O MUSEUM in Le Roy, New York is dedicated to exhibits about Jell-O. The museum is owned and operated by the Le Roy Historical Society. Historic LeRoy and the Jell-O Museum/Gallery are located in western New York, 30 minutes southwest of Rochester and 60 minutes east of Buffalo/Niagara Falls.

Come and discover the intriguing story of Jell-O, America’s Most Famous Dessert.

At the museum, visitors can learn about the history of the dessert from its inception. Visitors starting on East Main Street, follow Jell-O Brick Road, whose stones are inscribed with the names of former factory employees. The museum offers looks at starting materials for Jell-O, such as sturgeon bladder and calves' hooves, and various molds.

On Exhibit - Original Advertising Art - Molds - Spoons - Toys - Collectibles - Recipe Books - Canadian Advertising Magazine Ads - Package Inserts - Memorabilia.

Telling somebody they have the intelligence of a bowl of Jell-O may not be an insult after all.

On March 17, 1993, technicians at St. Jerome hospital in Batavia tested a bowl of lime Jell-O with an EEG machine and confirm the earlier testing by Dr. Adrian Upton that a bowl of wiggly Jell-O has brain waves identical to those of adult men and women.

The first four Jell-O flavors were orange, lemon, strawberry, and raspberry. Lime was introduced in 1930. The people of Salt Lake City consume more lime-flavored gelatin than any other city in the United States. During the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, the souvenir pins included one depicting green Jell-O.

Gelatin was popularized in New York in the Victorian era with spectacular and complex jelly molds. Gelatin was sold in sheets and had to be purified, which was time-consuming. Gelatin desserts were the province of royalty and the relatively well-to-do. In 1845, a patent for powdered gelatin was obtained by industrialist Peter Cooper, who built the first American steam-powered locomotive, the Tom Thumb. This powdered gelatin was easy to manufacture and easier to use in cooking.

In 1897, Pearle Wait, a carpenter in LeRoy, was developing a cough remedy and laxative tea in his home. He experimented with gelatine and came up with a fruit flavored dessert which his wife, May, named Jell-O. He tried to market his product but he lacked the capital and the experience. In 1899 he sold the trademark to a fellow townsman for the sum of $450.

The buyer already had some success in manufacturing and selling. He was one of the best known manufacturers of proprietary medicines. Orator Frank Woodward was born in North Bergen in 1856 and moved with his family to LeRoy in 1860. Life was not easy for the boy, but no job was too menial for him, because in his mind every opportunity was a step toward his goal. By 1876 he was making composition balls used by marksmen for target shooting. Then he engaged in the manufacture of a composition nest egg with "miraculous power to kill lice on hens when hatching." This became a widely known and used product in the United States and Canada. His Genesee Pure Food Company produced the successful Grain-O health drink.

On September 9, 1899 he purchased the name and the business of Jell-O from Mr. Wait. The bill of sale bears the name of Everett W. Bishop as witness. Manufacturing was carried on under the supervision of Andrew Samuel Nico of Lyons, NY. Sales were slow and disheartening for the new product. One day in a gloomy mood "O.F." offered Sam Nico the whole blankety-blank business for $35. This story is vouchsafed by George McHardy. In 1900, the Jell-O name was first used by the Genesee Pure Food Company. The advertising campaign proved so successful that in 1902 Jell-O sales mounted to $250,000.

From the beginning Jell-O's advertising was directed by William E. Humelbaugh followed by Frank LaBounty. These men began the distribution of recipes and samples in 1904. A three-inch ad costing $336 in the Ladies Home Journal launched the printed portion of the campaign, and the first of the Jell-O "best seller" recipes rolled off the presses. In some years as many as 15 million booklets were distributed. Noted artists such as Rose O'Neill, Maxfield Parrish, Coles Phillips, Norman Rockwell, Linn Ball, and Angus MacDonald made JELL-O a household word with their colored illustrations.

In 1904, Jell-O introduces the Jell-O Girl, four year old Elizabeth King whose father, Franklin King, was an artist connected with the Dauchy Company - Jell-O's advertising agency. In her right hand the little girl held a teakettle and in her left a package of Jell-O. Advertising kept abreast of the times; and so in 1934 General Foods, a pioneer in selling by radio, signed Jack Benny as the dessert's spokesperson. At this time Post introduced a jingle ("featured" by the agency Young & Rubicam that was familiar over several decades, in which the spelling "J-E-L-L-O" was (or could be) sung over a rising five-note musical theme.

The jingle was written by Don Bestor, who, at the time, was the bandleader on Jack Benny's radio show, "The Jell-O Program Starring Jack Benny."

Jell-O is mentioned in the 1936 popular song A Fine Romance by Dorothy Fields (with music by Jerome Kern), where it is humorously referred to as a mundane alternative to the excitement of romantic love. In 1980, the American composer William Bolcom wrote a popular humorous song about Jell-O, "Lime Jello Marshmallow Cottage Cheese Surprise", satirising its use in combined sweet and savory dishes such as Jello salad.

In 1992, Ivette Bassa won the second ever Ig Nobel Prize in chemistry for inventing blue Jell-O.

The rock group Green Jellÿ was originally named Green Jellö, but had to change their name due to a lawsuit by Kraft Foods which claimed that the band was infringing the trademark for Jell-O.

Today Jello-O is manufactured by Kraft/General Foods in Dover Delaware.

MARY QUANT: FASHION REVOLUTIONARY

UK fashion icon Mary Quant's retrospective exhibition.

This exhibition is a special international retrospective of Mary Quant, the iconic British fashion designer of the 1960s whose clothes personified the energy and fun of swinging London.

In the ongoing exhibition, Quant’s creative approach challenged traditional British institutions and hierarchies in 1960s London. Quant’s husband, Plunket Green, created witty and absurd names for the outfits, inspired by renowned male figures and establishments, such as "Bank of England" and "Barrister."

Quant. dubbed "the mother of the miniskirt" shocked the world in the 1960s by revealing a design for a skirt that exposed women's knees, and this "knee-skimming" design was picked up by the media and spread internationally. Quant's miniskirt was popular among metropolitan women worldwide by 1966 despite conservative critics, according to the museum.

Inspiring young women to rebel against the traditional dress worn by their mothers and grandmothers, Quant created a new look for modern women and turned her tiny boutique, Bazaar, on the King’s Road, London into a wholesale brand available in department stores across the world. This special retrospective brings together over 120 iconic garments from 1955 to 1975 - including fashion dolls, cosmetics, photographs, and fashion magazines a 1961 black and white tunic and trouser ensemble on loan from the Fashion Museum in Bath, England.

The show is divided into six sections that look at the artist’s childhood and professional life, beginning with her boutique store Bazaar on King’s Road in 1955, and her namesake brand "Mary Quant," which attracted young female customers with its daisy logo and stylish makeup kits. Quant said that the whole point of fashion is to make it available to everyone.

Curated by the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, Taiwan is the first stop of the world tour. On display at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum in Taiwan until August 28, 2022.

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SWEET CHARITY

GIBSON GIVES its philanthropic arm of Gibson Guitars, has partnered with Newport Festivals Foundation at this summer’s Newport Folk Festival to celebrate the music icon Sister Rosetta Tharpe and the 55th anniversary of her groundbreaking Newport Folk Festival performance on July 16, 1967. Today, Sunday, July 24, on the Newport Folk Festival Foundation Stage a special performance will feature acclaimed singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist Celisse performing classic Sister Rosetta Tharpe songs such as Didn’t It Rain, as well as a special performance of SRT’s Up Above My Head alongside the youth players from RIOT RI--a local nonprofit that fosters the development of healthy identities in girls, women, trans, and gender-expansive youth and adults, through the power of music.

Gibson will donate six of the soon to be released new Epiphone Power Players guitars to the RIOT RI Foundation.

SPREADING THE WORD

H.E.R. a 5 time Grammy winner, will star as Belle in BC'S live Beauty and the Beast anniversary special.

The televised event will celebrate the 30th anniversary if the origial films 1992 Academy ward nomination for Best Picture.

Hamish Hamilton will direct the event which will air December 15, 2022 on ABC and then stream on Disney3 from December 16.

CHESS with music by ABBA legends Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, and lyrics by the incomparable Sir Tim Rice, returns to the West End for the first time since 2018.

At the height of the Cold War, two chess masters meet in Bangkok to battle for the world championship, but their greatest contest is for the love of one woman. Telling a story of love and political intrigue, Chess features an incredible score including classics such as I Know Him So Well and One Night in Bangkok.

Leading the cast are Hadley Fraser as Anatoly and Samantha Barks as Florence.

Monday, August 1, 2022 at Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London.

WHO AM I THIS TIME? (& OTHER CONUNDRUMS OF LOVE) since Kurt Vonnegut (1922 – 2007), the author of Slaughterhouse-Five, would have been 100 this year, the Equity professional East Lynne Theater Company is celebrating the occasion by offering three of his charming stories in Who Am I This Time? (& Other Conundrums of Love.) Adapted by Aaron Posner, these humorous tales filled with heart take place in the small town of North Crawford, Connecticut in 1962.

The first tale, Long Walk to Forever, is about a soldier who goes AWOL so he can hitchhike home to talk his childhood sweetheart out of marrying the wrong man. In the next one, Who Am I This Time?, a new woman in town falls in love with the man she's performing with in the community theater production of A Streetcar Named Desire. The last of the trio, Go Back to Your Precious Wife and Son, centers on a successful writer who realizes that being married to a film star can be difficult.

The cast includes: Veronique Hurley, Mat Labotka, Mark Edward Lang, Alison J. Murphy, Andrew Lofredo Liz Mattera and Nathan Garcia.

Playwright Aaron Posner is currently an Associate Professor at American University in Washington, D.C. He's directed more than 100 productions at major regional theaters and written about 20 plays.

Costume designer Gail Kennedy works regularly at The Metropolitan Opera. Stage manager Amanda Brinlee has worked both backstage and on stage for ELTC.

Gayle Stahlhuth is directing Who Am I This Time? and taking on a small role. She'll be leaving ELTC so she can work for other theaters, get back to her playwriting, and take a vacation.

This comedy runs from July 27 – September 3, every Wednesday through Saturday at The Cape May Presbyterian Church, where ELTC is in residence in Cape May, NJ.

AMERICAN COUNTRY MUSIC (AMC) AWARDS will move from Las Vegas back to Texas. The ceremony will take place in Frisco, Texas at the Ford Center, which is used by the Dallas Cowboys. The 2023 ACM Awards will be held on May 11, 2023.

For the second year running, the 2023 ACMs will stream on Amazon Prime Video. The awards show became the first-ever major awards show to facilitate a streaming-only format. The move ended a long relationship with CBS.

In the meantime, the 2022 ACM Honors ceremony is set to be held in Nashville on August 24. That event, which honors special and off-camera ACM award winners, will be hosted for the second year in a row by Carly Pearce. Miranda Lambert, Chris Stapleton, Morgan Wallen and many more artists are among the honorees.

PRINCE WILLIAM AND DUCHESS KATE will be visiting Boston in December to host the second annual Earthshot Prize awards ceremony. The Earthshot Prize awards climate initiatives and addresses the impacts of climate change on the planet.

The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation will serve as host partner with Mayor Michelle Wu and the city of Boston.

This year's award ceremony will celebrate 15 finalists, before announcing the five winners of the Earthshot Prize, Winners receive 1 million pounds - $1.1 million - for their solutions, according to the Foundation.

HUGH GRANT has attended Comic Con for the first time. The event taking place at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, CA participated in a panel for the his forthcoming fantasy movie Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. In the movie he plays the villain, Forge. Bridgerton star Regé-Jean Page co-stars.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves will be released in 2023.

CHITA RIVERA in a unique concert event at the The Colonial Theatre in Pitttsfield, MA on September Sunday, July 31, 2022.

The incomparable two-time Tony Award winner will recreate signature moments from her legendary career from West Side Story; Sweet Charity and Bye Bye Birdie to Chicago; Kiss of the Spider Woman; The Visit and more. Her special guest for the evening will be George Dvorsky. In addition to a tribute to her dear friends John Kander and Fred Ebb, the timeless music of Leonard Bernstein, Charles Strouse and Lee Adams, Jerry Herman and Stephen Sondheim will also be featured, accompanied by her long-time trio.

THE LUCILLE BALL COMEDY FESTIVAL at the National Comedy Center in Jamestown, New York takes place for five days beginning August 3, with more than 50 live events. The all-star lineup includes Jeff Foxworthy, Margaret Cho, and SNL Legends: David Spade, Rob Schneider, and Kevin Nealon.

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LEGAL HODGEPODGE

STEPHEN COLBERT STAFFERS won't be charged federal prosecutors in Washington, DC have announced. Nine people associated with CBS' The Late Show With Stephen Colbert were arrested on June 16, 2022 on unlawful entry charges. On Monday, July 18, 2022, police said that members of the group had been told several times that they had to remain with a staff escort while visiting Congressional buildings. "They failed to do so," authorities said.

In a statement obtained by The Washington Post, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said that the group had been invited into the Longworth House Office Building by congressional staffers and that an escort had left them unattended. They had never been asked to leave by the staff members who invited them, CBS News reported.

Prosecutors said that they did not have a strong enough case to pursue the misdemeanor unlawful entry charges.

"We do not believe it is probable that the office would be able to obtain and sustain convictions," officials said, according to the Post.

16 MEMBERS OF CONGRESS WERE ARRESTED near the Supreme Court building during an abortion rights protest. Those arrested included: Assistant speaker Katherine Clark, Ayanna Rressley of Mass; Barbara Lee, Jackie Speier, and Sara Jacobs of Calif; Iihan Omar of Minn; Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey; Andy Levin and Rashida Tlaib of Mich; Jan Schakowsky of Ill; Madeline Dean of Penn; Cori Bush of Miss; Carolyn Maloney, Nydia Velazquez and Alexandraia Ocsio-Cortez of NY; Alma Adams of N. Carolina.

A total of 34 arrests - 16 of them members of Congress - were made at the demonstration Tuesday, July 19,2022, according to Capitol Police, citing violations of laws against crowding and obstructing. The US Capitol Police tweeted: "Demonstrators are starting to block First Street, NE. It is against the law to block traffic, so officers are going to give our standard three warnings before they start making arrests."



2022 KENNEDY CENTERS HONORS have been announced. They are: George Clooney, U2, soul/R&B great Gladys Knight, Christian pop superstar Amy Grant and Cuban composer Tania León. The event will also o recognize he 45th annual celebration of the performing arts. The Kennedy Center honors will take place on December 4 at the national arts center in Washington and will be broadcast later on CBS.

OMAHA COMMUNITY PLAYHOUSE in Omha, Nebraska celebrates their Awards Night on Monday, August 1, 2022.Complimentary Pre show bar and snacks followed by the Awards Show. Dress code ranges from "casual to elegant -wear whatever you'd like!"



INTO THE WOODS featuring a book by Pulitzer Prize and three-time Tony Award winner James Lapine and a Tony Award winning score by Stephen Sondheim.

Directed by Lear deBessonet.

Choreographed by Lorin Latarro.

The cast features Grammy Award winner Sara Bareilles as the Baker’s Wife, three-time Tony Award nominee Brian D’Arcy James as the Baker, Tony Award winner Patina Miller as the Witch, Tony Award nominee Phillipa Soo as Cinderella, Tony Award winner Gavin Creel as the Wolf/Cinderella’s Prince, three-time Tony Award nominee Joshua Henry as Rapunzel’s Prince, Aymee Garcia as Jack’s Mother, Ta’Nika Gibson as Lucinda, Annie Golden as Cinderella’s Mother/Granny/Giant, Albert Guerzon as Cinderella’s Father, Brooke Ishibashi as Florinda, Kennedy Kanagawa as Milky White, David Patrick Kelly as the Narrator/Mysterious Man, Julia Lester as Little Red Ridinghood, Nancy Opel as Cinderella’s Stepmother, Cole Thompson as Jack, David Turner as the Steward, Alysia Velez as Rapunzel, and Delphi Borich, Felicia Curry, Jason Forbach, Alex Joseph Grayson, Paul Kreppel, Mary Kate Moore, Cameron Johnson, Diane Phelan, Lucia Spina rounding out the ensemble.

The production features scenic design by Tony Award winner David Rockwell, lighting design by Tyler Micoleau, costume design by Andrea Hood, sound design by Tony winner Scott Lehrer & Alex Neumann, puppet design by James Ortiz, hair, wig & makeup design by Cookie Jordan, and music direction by Rob Berman.

Performances at the St. James Theatre in New York City.

LEGALLY BLONDE:THE MUSICAL with music and lyrics by Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin and book by Heather Hach.

Directed by Maggie Burrows.

Choreographed by William Carlos Angulo.

Music director Lon Hoyt.

Based on the smash hit movie, Legally Blonde The Musical follows the transformation of Elle Woods from sorority sister to Harvard Law graduate. Her journey of determination, self-discovery and finding true love receives its first Muny production in 11 years. Complete with a chihuahua, a bulldog and a UPS guy, The Muny is ready to "Bend and Snap" for a great time!

Featuring Kyla Stone (Elle Woods), Fergie L. Phillipe (Emmett Forrest), Patti Murin (Paulette), Sean Allan Krill (Professor Callahan), Hayley Podschun (Brooke Wyndham), Kelsey Anne Brown (Margot), Gabi Campo (Serena), Kerri George (Enid), Khailah Johnson (Pilar) and Dan Tracy (Warner Huntington III) are Olivia Kaufmann (Vivienne Kensington), Mackenzie Bell (Standby for Paulette and Brooke Wyndham), Gregory Lee Rodriguez (Standby for Emmett Forrest) and Dave Schoonover (Standby for Professor Callahan). Rounding out the company are Andrés Acosta, Angela Birchett, Veronica Sofia Burt, Shea Coffman, Taylor Marie Daniel, Abigail Isom, Sydney Jones, Emily Madigan, UJ Mangune, Alora Tonielle Martinez, Adelina Mitchell, Natalia Nieves-Melchor, Ben Nordstrom, Liam Pearce, Gabriel Reyes, Matt Rivera, Cristina Sastre, Rochelle Scudder, Christopher De’Shawn Tipps, Julien Valme and Ricky and Myrtle as Bruiser and Rufus. The company will also be joined by the Muny Teen youth ensemble.

The design team leading this production includes scenic design by Tim Mackabee, costume design by Leon Dobkowski, lighting design by Rob Denton, sound design by John Shivers and David Patridge, video design by Hannah Tran, wig design by Liz Printz, animals by William Berloni and production stage manager Matthew Lacey. Associate chorographer Shanita Talmor, assistant choreographer UJ Mangune.

July 25 – 31, 2022 at The Muny in St. Louis, MO.

THE INCREDIBLE BOOK EATING BOY book by Madhuri Shekar. Music by Christian Magby. Lyrics by Christian Albright. Inspired by the book of the same name by Oliver Jeffers.

Directed by Jamil Jude.

Henry loves books. But he hates reading them. Because books are so full of... words! Annoying, complicated, indecipherable words! Then one day he discovers the most amazing alternative to reading - eating the books whole. By chowing down, chomping, and literally digesting the contents of whole libraries, Henry gets smarter, and smarter and smarter... until his tummy doesn't feel so good. A story about literally biting off more than you can chew, this new musical celebrates the joy of reading and the insatiable appetite for knowledge.

Featuring Alexander Chen as Henry - Rhyn McLemore as Ms. Penny/Mom/Books - Brad Raymond as Dad/Doctor. Game Show Host/ Books - India Tyree as Artist/ Olivia/ Reporter/ Books/ Student - Juan Carlos Unzueta as Rover/Jeff/ Reporter/ Books/ Student.

The understudies are Jontvious Johnson, Adrienne Ocfemia and Kyra Peirce.

The creatives are: Kat Conley Scenic Designer - An-Lin Dauber Costume Designer - CBD is Music Director - Jeremiah Davison sound designer - Benjamin Rawson lighting designer - Danielle Swatzie choreographer - Liz Campbell stage manager and Amanda Perez stage management production assistant.

On the Hertz Stage of the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia through August 14, 2022.

ANYTHING GOES music and lyrics by y Cole Porter. P.G. Wodehouse & Guy Bolton and Howard Lindsay & Russel Crouse Original Book. Timothy Crouse & John Weidman New Book.

Directed by the award-winning Broadway director and choreographer Kathleen Marshall.

"Featuring a 50 strong cast and ensemble of the finest we have to offer on the London stage and a full-sized live orchestra, this uplifting production of Anything Goes features heart-warming romance, farcical fun and spectacular show stopping dance routines plus Cole Porter's joyful score, Anything Goes returns to the Barbican in London with an all new cast, starring multi award-winner Kerry Ellis as Reno Sweeney and Olivier Award Winner Denis Lawson as Moonface Martin. Joining them is Olivier Award Winner Simon Callow as Elisha Whitney and Musical Theatre Royalty Bonnie Langford as Evangeline Harcourt.

With: Samuel Edwards, Nicole-Lily Baisden, Carly Mercedes Dyer, and Haydn Oakley.

The creatives include: Derek McLane Set Designer - Jon Morrell Costume Designer - Hugh Vanstone Lighting Designer - Jonathan Deans Sound Designer - Stephen Ridley Musical Supervisor & Musical Director.

At the Barbican Centre in London with performances through September 3, 2022.

MUD ROW by Dominique Morisseau.

Directed by Marshall Jones III.

Featuring Ashley Nicole Baptiste, Lekethia Dalcoe, Alinca Hamilton, Malik Reed, Stacey Sherrell, and Landon Woodson.

Understudies for the production are Destiny Davis, Tisa Harriott and Nate Lyles.

Two generations of sisters navigate class, race, love and family on "Mud Row," an area in the East End of West Chester, Pennsylvania. Elsie hopes to move up in the world by marrying into "the talented tenth," while her sister Frances joins the fight for Civil Rights. Decades later, estranged sisters Regine and Toshi are forced to reckon with their shared heritage and each other, when Regine inherits granny Elsie’s house.

Premiere Stages at Kean University presents the New Jersey Premiere of Mud Row in Kean University’s Bauer Boucher Theatre Center in Union N.J. through July 31, 2022.

HAPPY LIFE by Kathy Ng.

Directed by Kat Yen.

The cast features Sagan Chen, Viet Vo, Priyanka Krishnan, Amy Chang, and Rachel Yong.

A woman leaving behind a lying life tries to move into her new apartment, but the two ghosts living underneath the floorboards will not allow it. A real estate agent discusses the intricacies of the Human Sperm Lottery over a naughty phone chat line. A hot-shot porn editor searches for her dead brother in tree branches and empty McChicken wrappers. Happy Life is a play about the domestic efficiency of stacking the living on top of the dead; about jargon and vomit and the bureaucracy of second chances. What oozes out, when there's no more room?

Loosely inspired by the horrific events of the Hello Kitty murder, a violent abduction and killing of a nightclub hostess in Hong Kong, Happy Life employs magical realism to explore what happens after murder and if agency in the next life can set a new course for the living. The play, set in a Hong Kong apartment haunted by its previous tenants and previous deaths, grapples with the harsh realities of loneliness and those who exist on the fringe of society.

The creative team includes Original Music and Sound Design by UptownWorks, Lighting Design by Evan C. Anderson, Costume Design by Alicia J. Austin, and Scenic and Props Design by Lily Guerin and Production Stage Manager Kyra Bowie.

Performances through August 6, 2022 at Walkerspace Theater in New York City.

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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

CLAES OLDENBURG the Swedish-born sculptor who was a leading force in pop art died July 18, 2022 at his home in Manhattan. He was 93.

His father was then a Swedish diplomat stationed in New York and in 1936 was appointed consul general of Sweden to Chicago where Oldenburg grew up, attending the Latin School of Chicago. He studied literature and art history at Yale University[4] from 1946 to 1950, then returned to Chicago where he took classes at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. While further developing his craft, he worked as a reporter at the City News Bureau of Chicago. He also opened his own studio and, in 1953, became a naturalized citizen of the United States. In 1956, he moved to New York, and for a time worked in the library of the Cooper Union Museum for the Arts of Decoration, where he also took the opportunity to learn more, on his own, about the history of art.

It has been stated that "No pop artist — not even his contemporaries Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein — created a body of public work to rival his."

Oldenburg’s outdoor installations included a giant cherry balanced on a spoon in the sculpture garden at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis; a monumental steel clothespin in Philadelphia’s Centre Square; a 20-ton baseball bat in front of Chicago’s Social Security Administration building; a gargantuan steel and fiberglass typewriter eraser in the sculpture garden of the National Gallery of Art; and a 38-foot-tall flashlight at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.

In 1960, while working as a dishwasher in Provincetown, Mass., Oldenburg found himself fascinated by the shapes of food and tableware. In early 1961, he unveiled an installation called "The Store" comprising plaster models of actual grocery-store items.

For a second version of "The Store," at the end of 1961, Oldenburg rented a real storefront on East Second Street in Manhattan. There he displayed a 10-foot-long ice cream cone, a 5-by-7-foot hamburger and a nine-foot slice of cake. The pieces were made of fabric, and their chief seamstress was Patricia Muschinski, known as Patty Mucha, an artist who was married to Oldenburg from 1960 to 1970. Those were among the first of hundreds of soft sculptures he produced over the years.

His 1974 "Clothespin Ten Foot" sold for more than $3.6 million at auction in 2015. In 2019, he sold his archive of 450 notebooks (along with thousands of drawings, photographs and other documents) to the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles.

President Bill Clinton awarded him the National Medal of Arts in 2000.

His second wife, Dutch-born sculptor Coosje van Bruggen, was his collaborator from 1976 until her death in 2009 from breast cancer.

Survivors include two stepchildren, Maartje Oldenburg and Paulus Kapteyn; and three grandchildren. His younger brother, Richard, who died in 2018, spent 22 years as director of the Museum of Modern Art and later was chairman of Sotheby’s America.

Next Column: July 31, 2022
Copyright: July 24, 2022 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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