Broadway To Vegas

Copyright: March 12, 2023
By: Laura Deni
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JUST TELL NO ONE DESERVES TO BE HEARD

Just Tell No One, a multi-media, site-specific staged reading took place March 6, 2023 at the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center in New York City.

Material by Ukrainian Playwrights Natal’ya Vorozhbit and Oksana Savchenko as translated by Sasha Dugsdale and John Freedman with Natalia Bratus.

Igor Golyak directed an excellent cast composed of; Jessica Hecht, Bill Irwin, David Krumholtz, Nathan Malin, Will Manning, and Tedra Millan.

Music is heard as the last to enter are seated in the audience.

The announcer's: "We're glad most of you are here," was met by laughter. "We have all sorts of things at the bar and double exits." There is the obligatory phone check. "The program will last 75 minutes unless this pre speech goes on too long."

It's explained that the evening is "a composition of a lot of different works, of different lengths." Trigger warnings are explained.

The official description: "Just Tell No One reveals the human consequences of war. The piece illuminates a part of the world where an incomprehensible set of rules is at play, and people struggle to make sense of the complexity of one another with life and death consequences. This site-specific, multimedia reading immerses the audience in these human stories using dark humor, intimate moments, and images of conflict so exquisitely painful they can no longer be perceived as real."

As night devours morning a female voice imparts: struggling up from the soil - with hands interwoven, so easy to rise up from underground - just don't tell anyone. Footprints that disappear. Just tell no one and I wont tell. To an outsider they beat us. A torn bra and a memory that goes blank, backing away from the check point. They killed us, but you are alive.

Excellent lighting, actors dressed in muted colors, effective camera work. Stage directions are read by the actors.

The wail of a warning alarm brings on the second reading which is the segment in which the trigger warnings are vital. Peppered with abhorrent profanity, this segment is sex at it's vilest.

A door opens to a dark space. He is wearing fatigues. There is a woman. It's speculated that this was a storage area for a mental facility, containing equipment for a stream room used to treat patients. He instructs her to take off her clothes. She refuses. He pushes her down and pushes her head between his legs. "I'm a psycho. I like hurting things." She promises to have sex tomorrow.

He threatens her with every possibly sexual act, which results in him hitting her. He throws himself on her. She is a journalist whom he accuses of intending to write about the war on her Facebook page. She lies there without moving. He comes over and urinates on her. She howls in horror as he threatens to gouge her eyes out and then says that was a joke.

He blames everything on the gays and Jews. It's declared that a dead Ukraine's value is less than that of a dead chicken.

Before The War is the title of the next reading.

A girl cries that she has run over a couple's chicken after the bird ran out and under her car. She offers to pay for it. The woman argues that "it was a layer - worth more. She was a good layer, upwards of 100 a month." The girl opens her bag and purse, discovering it is empty. The couple snickers that they don't accept credit cards. They stress it wasn't a simple chicken, but the one keeping the whole family alive. The wife laughs and says they will call the police and prosecute.

Bombed Out Petrol Station begins with a guard asking for papers from a man driving a car. He is a head teacher and offers his documents. He has been drinking and what he holds out is not his passport, but that of his wife. He says he picked up her passport by mistake. She's at work at the hospital.

The teacher is pushed to the ground and told to put his hands behind his head. A replica of a gun is discovered. The drunk teacher makes confused statements. What he has been teaching is questioned. They killed us but don't tell anyone and we wont tell them. He is told to sober up and return tomorrow with his passport. When he returns to his car he discovers that his passport was under the seat of the car. He returns to the guards with his passport. A school girl appears, her mother having been killed in the war. The teacher begs them to leave her alone.

Last is a section featuring a woman attempting to teacher her eight-year-old daughter to skate. The girl is moving too fast and almost falls; a man catches her. The next morning the man is in a coffee shop and the woman enters, orders coffee but leaves without her java. He takes her coffee and follows her. She heads towards a war memorial. She is wearing a raincoat. Underneath, she is naked from the waist down. She is joined by other woman, all naked from the waist down, all with blooded crotches. The man races to set down the coffee and quickly leaves. The screams from the women are piercing.

ocked intensity of story telling brings the ravages of war into a surreal stage presence.

Excellent FX Design.

Visual Dramaturg, Irina Kruzhilina.
Video & Effects Design, Eric Dunlap.
Sound Design, Eric D Clark.
Stage Manager, Kyra Bowie.
Produced by Sara Stackhouse.

Produced by Arlekin Players Theatre, Just Tell No One is part of Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings, a project of the Center for International Center for Theatre Development (CITD) HOPE Initiative.

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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

HEAR ME NOW: THE BLACK POTTERS OF OLD EDGEFIELD, SOUTH CAROLINA

Jug (2022) by Simone Leigh. Glazed stoneware. Collection of the artist. © Simone Leigh, Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery. Photo: MFA Boston

In the 19th century, white settlers established potteries in Edgefield, South Carolina, an area rich in natural clays. Enslaved African Americans led all aspects of this labor-intensive craft, producing tens of thousands of ceramic vessels each year. While the history of slavery is primarily understood in terms of agricultural production, these wares tell the story of "industrial slavery," where knowledge, experience, and expertise were paramount.

This landmark exhibition highlights these unsung makers who remarkably signed, dated, and wrote poetic verses on many of his monumental jars. Hear Me Now also links past to present by including the work of contemporary artists - including Theaster Gates and Simone Leigh - who respond to the legacy of the Edgefield potters and consider their resonance today.

Focusing on the work of Black potters in the 19th-century American South, this landmark exhibition presents approximately 60 ceramic objects from Old Edgefield District, South Carolina, a center of stoneware production in the decades before the Civil War, together with contemporary responses.

Hear Me Now tells a story about art and enslavement—and about the joy, struggle, creative ambition, and lived experience of African Americans in the decades before the Civil War. The exhibition features many objects never before seen outside of the South, bringing together monumental storage jars by the enslaved and literate potter and poet Dave, later recorded as David Drake (about 1800–about 1870), with rare examples of the region’s utilitarian wares and powerful face vessels by unrecorded makers.

It also links past to present, in part by including the work of leading contemporary Black artists who have responded to or whose practice resonates with the Edgefield story. Established figures like Theaster Gates and Simone Leigh, as well as younger, emerging artists like Adebunmi Gbadebo, Woody De Othello, and Robert Pruitt, have contributed to the show. Working primarily in clay, these artists respond to the legacy of the Edgefield potters and consider the resonance of this history for audiences today.

Co-organized with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the exhibition is accompanied by a scholarly publication and informed by new scientific research. The show will additionally travel to the University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, and the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.

On display through July 9, 2023 at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston.

THE UGLY DUCHESS: BEAUTY AND SATIRE IN THE FENAISSANCE opens at the National Gallery in London on March 16, 2023.

This exhibition will shed new light on one of the most unforgettable paintings in the Gallery’s Collection: Quinten Massys’ An Old Woman (about 1513). Defying Western canons of beauty and rules of propriety, this arresting figure became known as "The Ugly Duchess" after she inspired John Tenniel’s hugely popular illustrations for Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland (1865). She has remained associated with the world of fairy tale ever since.

For the first time, an exhibition will move away from the painting’s Victorian afterlife to focus on its original context, stressing how novel this panel would have been as an early work of secular and satirical art – two areas which Quinten Massys (1465/66-1530) pioneered: the work captures the emergence of the grotesque (in the original sense of the word, denoting the surprising, extraordinary, and comical) as a subject for painting. The exhibition will also reveal what this painting tells us of the vibrant artistic exchanges taking place between Italy and the Netherlands at the time and will interrogate the Renaissance’s attitudes towards older women and the currency placed – then as now – on women’s youth and appearance.

The exhibition will show that An Old Woman belongs to a broader visual tradition that derided and vilified older women, from the grimacing and pitiful maiolica Bust of an Old Woman (about 1490-1510), lent by the Fitzwilliam Museum, to Albrecht Dürer’s iconic and fearsome 'Witch Riding Backward on a Goat (about 1500). Beyond the obvious misogyny, these works show that older women afforded Renaissance artists a space for invention and play that depictions of conventional beauty did not allow. Their unruly bodies were metaphors for social disorder, and there is an undeniable joy in beholding An Old Woman trample beauty standards, social conventions, and gender expectations. The image’s enduring power perhaps lies in this irreverence.

An Old Woman has been conserved for the occasion, revealing the full extent of its outstanding execution. The humorous contrast between the painting’s technical refinement and its indecorous subject will shine through now more than ever.

At the heart of the exhibition will be the exceptional reunion of An Old Woman with her male pendant, An Old Man (about 1513), on rare loan from a private collection in New York. The two works have only been shown together once in their history, in the Renaissance Faces exhibition held 15 years ago at the National Gallery. Their joint display will allow visitors to make sense of the woman’s flamboyant costume and gesture: she has put on this expensive, scandalously revealing, and by then old-fashioned outfit in the hope of seducing the old man. She offers him a rosebud as a token of love, but his raised hand seems to indicate rebuke. Viewers are invited to laugh at her vanity, lust and self-delusion.

Who are these figures? There has been speculation that the artist depicted a woman with Paget’s disease – a rare illness causing bone hypertrophy. Yet rather than painted from life, she was more probably a fictional folkloric character from the world of carnival, as shown by several prints. In presenting such figures of fun as elaborate portraits, Massys parodied the dignified genre. This will be made plain in the exhibition by contrasting An Old Woman and An Old Man with more respectable double portraits from the Gallery’s holdings, such as Jan Gossaert’s Elderly Couple (about 1520). Massys also drew from satirical engravings featuring unequal lovers, such as Israhel van Meckenem’s The Ill-Matched Couple (about 1480-90) which will be included in the show.

Leonardo da Vinci will make a surprising cameo in the exhibition. For the first time ever, An OId Woman will be displayed with two related drawings after Leonardo da Vinci that show the same unmistakable face, generously loaned by His Majesty The King from the Royal Collection and the New York Public Library. Massys probably based his painting on this composition by the Italian master, whose grotesque drawings were famed all over Europe. A small group of sheets by Leonardo and his followers will further illustrate the two artist’s shared interest in the comic, expressive, and subversive potential of distorting the human face.

PICASSO AND MAGRITTE lead the 20th/21st Century Art London evening sales. Christie’s first 20th/21st evening sale series of 2023 achieved a total of £167,814,400 / $202,216,352 / €190,301,530 and set new auction records for seven artists, including Michaela Yearwood-Dan, Tyler Hobbs, Wolfgang Paalen and Caroline Walker.

The February 28, 2023 event featured important works by major Impressionist, Modern, and Post-War and Contemporary names, as well as pioneering female artists of the Surrealist movement, including Leonora Carrington, Dorothea Tanning and Remedios.

THE SHINDAGHA MUSEUM the UAE’s largest heritage museum, has opened.

Located in the Creek area, the new museum is located across more than 20 pavilions.

Pavilions include; Dubai Creek – birth of a city; people and faith; emerging city; perfume house; traditional crafts; beauty and adornment; traditional jewellery; traditional healthcare; children house; culture of the sea; community hall; life on land; traditional food house; poetry house and Al Maktoum Residence.

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai visited the new museum this week.

Taking to Twitter, he penned: "Today we inaugurated the Shindagha Museum in Dubai. It extends across 80 historical houses in the Shindagha area. It includes 22 suites. It contains various collections dating back from the middle of the last century to 3000 years. History is our identity, our address, and our roots that increase our connection and love for our homeland."
— HH Sheikh Mohammed (@HHShkMohd) March 6, 2023.

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SWEET CHARITY

ELTON JOHN'S ACADEMY AWARDS VIEWING PARTY takes place tonight, March 12 at West Hollywood Park. The party with a purpose will feature Emmy Award-winning actor Eric McCormack and Golden Globe® Award-winning actress Michaela Jaé Rodriguez will be joining Elton on stage.

Dazzling red carpet arrivals, guest appearances, and a viewing of the Oscars telecast will be topped off with a special musical performance by British-Japanese pop star – the incredibly talented singer and songwriter, Rina Sawayama.

Proceeds from this special evening will directly support our global partners to challenge stigma and discrimination and provide compassionate treatment for vulnerable communities impacted by HIV and AIDS.

BROADWAY ROSE THEATRE ONCE UPON A TIME FUNDRAISER GALA takes place Match 18, 2023 ar rgw Broadway Rose Theatre in Tigard, Oregon.

The Happily Ever After Musical revue features enchanting melodies, legendary love songs, and just a little pixie dust, including songs from kingdoms far, far away, including Brigadoon; Camelot, and Oz. Enjoy hits from Tony Award winning musicals and bewitching performances by a few Broadway Rose gems, including Kimo Camat, Joe Theissen, Malia Tippets, and Blythe Woodland, with musical direction by Darcy White. with performers.

Enjoy exclusive experiences, delectable hors d’oeuvres, wine and fairytale-themed mocktails, and more, followed up by opportunities to bid on extraordinary backstage opportunities and events.

Wear something enchanting; cocktail or fairy-tale inspired attire encouraged.

All proceeds support our Season of Fresh Possibilities at Broadway Rose Theatre Company. in Tigard, OR.

SPREADING THE WORD

SIEGFRIED AND ROY'S Las Vegas "Jungle Palace" home was snapped up days after it was put on the market. George Carden and his son Brett Carden, whose family founded the Carden International Circus, paid the asking price of $3M.

Built in 1954, the mansion features chandeliers, custom stained glass, water features and skylights.

The Moroccan-themed compound features an 8,750 square-foot main house, three guest houses, and multiple water features, including three pools and a jacuzzi, six electric gates, two detached studios, a bird sanctuary, and several empty animal enclosures.

The property was purchased by Siegfried & Roy in 1982. According to Redfin, a private party purchased the estate one year ago for $1.87M and now has turned a tidy profit.

ALAN ALDA TALKS TO BOTS and Mike Farrell makes a guest appearance to perform with Alan in the first new M*A*S*H scene in 40 years – a scene written the previous week by Alda offering promps to a chatbot. A fascinating episode for Alda's Clear & Vivid podcast. Most of Alan's other guests are themselves chatbots, including one that falsely claims to be a person and another that insults him horribly when Alan seeks advice.

It's a fabulous podcast, in that it's not only tremendously entertaining, but totally relevant, as chatbots have invaded our lives, whether we know it or not.

Just this past week 60 Minutes had a segment on chatbots and Dr. Phil featured adult women who daily argue with chatbots. The influences think there is nothing unusual about that, as they are getting their opinion out there, even if the person they are arguing with is AI.

We're in the AI age and Alda does a remarkable job of creating a podcast which is timely and important. As for you interacting with chatbots, you'll learn to keep the "conversations" short. The longer the chatbot goes on, the more fragmented it becomes and begins to espouse lies and misinformation.

Don't miss this edition of Alan Alda's Clear & Vivid.

F. MURRAY ABRAHAM that delightfully personable Oscar, Golden Globe and People's Choice winner returns to where he was born - Pittsburgh - to join Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony for Honeck’s dramatic conception of Requiem: Mozart’s Death in Words and Music.

Over a decade ago, Honeck contemporized Mozart’s epic masterpiece by incorporating text into the score. The composition includes traditional Austrian death bells, and the Gregorian chant. F. Murray Abraham, Manfred Honeck, and the Orchestra previously performed Requiem: Mozart’s Death in Words and Music at Heinz Hall in 2012 and at Carnegie Hall in 2014.

Principles for the March 17-19th performances include: Manfred Honeck, conductor - Jeanine de Bique, soprano (debut) - Catriona Morison, mezzo soprano (debut) - Tareq Nazmi, bass (debut) - F. Murray Abraham - Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh - Members of the Westminster Choir.

Abraham is proud to be the spokesman for The MultiFaith Alliance for Syrian Refugees. Honors include The Moscow Art Theatre Stanislavski Award, The Sir John Gielgud Award for Excellence in Shakespeare, Obie Award for Lifetime Achievement, and a member of The New York Theater Hall of Fame.

PRINCE EDWARD THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH

Prince Edward, The Duke of Edinburgh, (green jacket) spent part of his 59th birthday at The Prop Store viewing costumes, including space suits, used in major motion pictures. Photo: The Royal Family.

celebrated his 59th birthday last Friday by visiting the Prop Store in Hertfordshire, where he had the chance to view a range of items that have been used in major feature films.

Prop Store is billed as one of the world's leading vendors of TV and movie props, costumes, posters and entertainment memorabilia.

The store is both a buyer and seller with a global network of studios and sources who keep their showrooms and catalogues full of surprises. With over 30 employees between their office in London and Los Angeles, they have over 25,000 combined square feet of archived props and costumes.

His Royal Highness, formerly the Earl of Wessex, also visited Sky Studios in Elstree.

A film and TV studio with 13 flexible stages, production offices, screening rooms and "the latest technology on tap." Production companies are also promised "good coffee, great food."

As for the birthday boy, Prince Edward, who is now married to a duchess, was elevated from Earl of Wessex to Duke of Edinburgh, by his brother King Charles III. Their father, the late Prince Philip, long ago stated he wanted his youngest son to inherit his title. That upgrade was a nice birthday present.

APOLLO'S FIRE PRESENTS DIASPORA: JEWISH MUSIC OF LONGING AND CELEBRATION takes place Sunday, March 19, 2023 at The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

Apollo's Fire, led by conductor-harpsichordist Jeannette Sorrell, is a Grammy-winning ensemble returns to the Met for the first time in three years. They'll present a thrilling mélange of music—both familiar and recently discovered—from Sephardic and Ashkenazic Jewish traditions, plus selections from Baroque Italy's small, but mighty community of Jewish composers.

"Today, more people are displaced than ever before in our history. Refugees and migrants cry for justice and mercy on the doorstep of both Europe and the U.S. I hope that perhaps the music of the exile experience will help us reconnect with our shared roots—as fragile human beings, sharing a fragile planet."
–Jeannette Sorrell, Artistic Director, Apollo's Fire.

THE DUKE AND DUCHESS OF GLOUCESTER will attend a performance of Le Nozze Di Rigelto by the Royal Academy Opera at the Royal Academy of Music in London on March 21. Her Royal Highness is the President of the Royal Academy of Music.

NO DREAM DEFFERED NOLA has announced the We Will Dream: New Works Festival play selections. Supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and in partnership with the Andre Cailloux Center for Performing Arts and Cultural Justice and HowlRound Theatre Commons, the new festival will run from March 19, 2023-June 19, 2023.

Performances will take place, in repertory, at the Andre Cailloux Center for Performing Arts and Cultural Justice, located in the historic Bayou Road Corridor, New Orleans.

For year one, the festival will produce the following world premieres: Drapetomania: A Negro Carol by M.D. Schaffer March 25th - April 30, 2023.

Where the Suga Still Sweet by Brian Egland April 8 - May 21, 2023.

Defiance of Dandelions by Philana Omorotionmwan April 28 - June 17, 2023.

The festival will also feature a staged reading of Sons of Liberty by Cris Eli Blak in June 2023.

The We Will Dream: New Works Festival seeks to affirm the thought that in spite of challenges in the field and disparities in funding, Black theatre artists from the American South can thrive and create full artistic lives, right where they are.

TOBLERONE will no longer feature that iconic 14,690-foot mountain peak on packaging due to Swiss Law.

The law has nothing to do with the peak's color or religious preferences but rather the "Swissness" legislation introduced in 2017 restricts the use of the national flag’s white cross on a red background, as well as other indicators of Swiss provenance, in foodstuffs, industrial products and services. The brand's owner is also moving some production out of Switzerland.

A more generic, inclusive, Alpine summit will be featured.

Mondelez, a USA company, has owned Toblerone since 2012, announced last year that from the end of 2023 it would move some of the production to its plant in Slovakia, where it also produces the Milka chocolate brand originally made in Switzerland.

OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY

CHERRY LANE THEATRE in New York City has been purchased by film studio A24, which is the company responsible for Everything Everywhere All at Once.

The historic village venue is Off-Broadway's oldest continuously running theatre. The theatre boasts two stages, a 179-seat mainstage and a 60-seat studio.

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THEATRE COMMUNICATIONS GROUP (TCG), the national organization for theatre, has announced Ka?iukapu Baker, Claudia Brownlee, and Lia Wallfish as the recipients of The Willa Kim Costume Design Scholarship 2023.

Administered by TCG with support from The Estate of Willa Kim, the Scholarship provides exceptionally talented costume designers who are enrolled in a university or professional training program with the opportunity to supplement their fine arts training in hand-drawing and painting.

The Scholarship honors costume designer Willa Kim's legacy and her life's work as a pioneer, legend, and inspiration for many of today's theatre artists. The recipients were announced at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts as part of the exhibition The Wondrous Willa Kim: Costume Designs for Actors and Dancers.

The 2023 recipients are:

Kaiukapu Baker is a Native Hawaiian theatre artist from Kahaluu, Oahu. Ka‘iukapu is currently pursing a MFA in Hawaiian Theatre at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa.

Claudia Brownlee is a costume designer from the Washington Metropolitan area. She has worked as a freelance costume designer in the past at NU-World Contemporary Danse Theatre and Pittsburgh Public Theater. Currently, she is pursuing an M.F.A. in Costume Design from Carnegie Mellon School of Drama (‘23).

Lia Wallfish is a Jewish-Israeli costume designer and painter. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Theater at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). She is currently based in Chicago, Illinois where she is a third year student in the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) at Northwestern University.

Scholarship recipients receive up to $7,500 to be used towards tuition, registration fees, supplies and/or travel expenses over a one-year period between January 30, 2023 - January 31, 2024.

The Willa Kim Costume Design Scholarship panel included Nephelie Andonyadis, scenic and costume designer; Dede Ayite, costume designer; Linda Cho, costume designer; Alex Jaeger, costume designer, fashion designer, and celebrity stylist; and Anita Yavich, costume designer.



MEDIOCRE WHITE MALE Written & Directed by Will Close & Joe Von Malachowski.

Starring Will Close.

“Going over ancient history. It's not healthy really, is it?"

“It's up to the audience to decide if he's actually the villan."

A funny & tragic portrait of male anger, fragility & vulnerability. What does it mean to feel abandoned as the world changes? These days, you can’t even say hello to the new girl without getting hauled in front of HR.

The tragicomedy follows the 30-year-old central character MWM, performed by Will Close, still living in the same town and working in a crumbling tourist attraction as a living statue. He longs for a simpler time when he could open his mouth without offending a colleague, but when his job is threatened, and a figure from his past returns to haunt him, he has to face up to some uncomfortable truths.

The searing portrait of male anger, fragility and vulnerability, touches on wider themes about being left behind in a small community, feeling abandoned as the world changes, and confused in the face of progression.

Produced by Best New Play Award Winners Metal Rabbit Productions, in its final London run before it appears on BBC Radio 4. Opening March 12, 2023 at King's Head Theatre in London.

YAACOBI & LEIDENTAL a funny, provocative romp with music written by Israeli playwright Hanoch Levin and featuring songs by Alex Kagan. A new translation by Naaman Tamuz that was recently commissioned by the Levin estate.

Directed by Tel Aviv-based Yonatan Esterkin.

Daniel Faltus is music director.

Starring Sera Heywood-Rakhimova, Michael Redfield and Ilia Volok.

An absurdist tale about a love triangle gone wrong, Yaacobi & Leidental is a comic escapade through the failings of friendship and love. Even as we laugh at the antics of the brash Yaacobi (Ilia Volok), the insecure Leidental (Michael Redfield) and the not-as-sweet-as-she-looks Ruth Shahash (Sera Heywood-Rakhimova), we are reminded of our own shared human frailty in the face of desire and suffering. The cheerful songs, accompanied by Faltus on piano, stand in stark contrast to the cruelties visited on one another by these three friends.

Levin, who died of cancer in 1999 at the age of 56, remains one of Israel’s most prolific and controversial playwrights. His artistic legacy includes 56 plays and political satires, two books of prose, two collections of sketches and songs, a book of poems, and two books for children. Yaacobi & Leidental premiered in 1972 as a co-production between Tel Aviv’s Tzavta and Cameri Theatres, and was the first of Levin’s plays that he directed himself. Since then, it has had several revivals in Israel and has been produced in Germany, France, Spain, England, Poland and Romania.

The creative team for Yaacobi & Leidental includes scenic designer Pete Hickock, lighting designer Michael Blendermann and costume designer Denise Blasor. The stage manager is Christa Troester. Beth Hogan produces for Odyssey Theatre Ensemble.

There will be two public previews, on Wednesday, March 15 and Thursday, March 16, followed by one press preview (also open to the public) on Friday, March 17. Performances of Yaacobi & Leidental through April 30, 2023 at the Odyssey Thetre in West Los Angeles, CA.

Post-performance discussions with the artists are scheduled on Wednesday, March 29 and Wednesday, April 12, 2023.

CRUMBS FROM THE TABLE OF JOY by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage.

Directed by Colette Robert.

Set against the social politics of the 1950s, this charming, funny, and moving play follows 17-year-old Ernestine Crump as she adjusts to life after the passing of her beloved mother. In search of spiritual answers, Ernestine’s father relocates the family from Pensacola to Brooklyn where the Crumps must navigate a changing family dynamic, an unwelcoming neighborhood, and a shifting set of American ideals. Crumbs from the Table of Joy questions the limits of escapism and the power of everyday hope.

Starring Shanel Bailey, Jason Bowen, Sharina Martin, Natalia Payne, and Malika Samuel.

The creatives include: Scenic Designer: Brendan Gonzales Boston. Costume Designer: Johanna Pan. Wig Designer: Nikiya Mathis. Lighting Designer: Anshuman Bhatia. Sound Designer: Broken Chord. Props Designer: Caitlyn Murphy. Vocal & Dialect Coach: Amanda Quaid. Fight and Intimacy Director: Rocío Mendez. Production Stage Manager: Shane Schnetzler. General Manager: Reed Ridgley. Production Manager: Savanah Sanchez Casting: Stephanie Yankwitt, tbd casting. Press Representatives: John Wyszniewski, Everyman Agency.

Presented by the Keen Company, performances through April 1, 2023 at Theatre Row 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

CHAIM TOPOL the actor who became synonymous starring as Tevye in the musical Fiddler on the Roof died March 8, 2023 in Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel. He was 88.

He not only starred as Tevye, the lead role in the stage musical Fiddler on the Roof more than 3,500 times from 1967-2009 but earned an Oscar nomination for the role in the 1971 film adaptation. He was nominated for a Tony Award for a 1991 Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof.

Topol began his acting career during his Israeli army service in the Nahal entertainment troupe and later toured Israel with kibbutz theatre and satirical theatre companies. He was a co-founder of the Haifa Theatre. His breakthrough film role came in 1964 as the title character in Sallah Shabati, by Israeli writer Ephraim Kishon, for which he won a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer—Male.

Topol went on to appear in more than 30 films in Israel and the United States. He was described as Israel's only internationally recognized entertainer from the 1960s through the 1980s.

He was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor for a 1991 Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof.

In 1976, Topol played the lead role of the baker, Amiable, in the new musical The Baker's Wife, but was fired after eight months by producer David Merrick. In 1988, Topol starred in the title role in Ziegfeld at the London Palladium.He returned to the London stage in 2008 in the role of Honoré, played by Maurice Chevalier in the 1958 film Gigi.

Topol was a founder of Variety Israel, an organization serving children with special needs, and Jordan River Village, a year-round camp for Arab and Jewish children with life-threatening illnesses, for which he served as chairman of the board. In 2015 he was awarded the Israel Prize for lifetime achievement.

He is survived by his widow Galia Topol whom he married in 1956 and their children Anat Topol, Ady Topol, Omer Topol.

Next Column: March 19, 2023
Copyright: March 12, 2023 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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