THE MORNING LINE

DATE: Monday, December 3, 2012

FROM: Michael Strassheim, Emily Meagher, Michelle Farabaugh, Kelly Guiod Jessica Gordon, Adam Machart

PAGES: 29, including this page

Neil LaBute Will Write and Direct 'Reasons to Be Pretty' Follow-Up - NYTimes.com

NOVEMBER 30, 2012, 3:26 PM Neil LaBute Will Write and Direct ‘Reasons to Be Pretty’ Follow-Up

By PATRICIA COHEN MCC Theater has a reason to be happy: Its playwright-in-residence, Neil LaBute, plans to direct the premiere of his play "Reasons to Be Happy" for the theater next year. The new play is described as "companion piece" to Mr. LaBute's savage comedy "Reasons to be Pretty" and features the same four characters - Greg, Steph, Carly and Kent - though in different romantic pairings.

No casting has yet been announced for the new play, which was reported by The Wrap.

MCC's production of "Reasons to be Pretty" debuted at the Lucille Lortel Theater in 2008 before moving to Broadway the following year. Although the move uptown was short-lived, the production was critically acclaimed and nominated for three . That play was billed as the third in a trilogy that included "The Shape of Things" and "Fat Pig," all of which centered around the subject of physical beauty.

"Reasons to Be Happy," scheduled to run from May 16 to June 23, replaces a previously announced production of John Pollono's "Small Engine Repair," which has been delayed because of scheduling conflicts for the cast.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/...11/30/neil-labute-will-write-and-direct-reasons-to-be-pretty-follow-up/?pagewanted=print[12/3/2012 8:48:48 AM] Theater Prize Awarded - NYTimes.com

December 2, 2012 Theater Prize Awarded Compiled by ADAM W. KEPLER

Amy Herzog has won the 2012 New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award for “After the Revolution,” her Off Broadway play about a politically radical family. The award, which comes with a $5,000 prize, was created in 2009 to support an American playwright whose work recently received its professional debut in New York. Ms. Herzog dedicated the award to her extended family, which inspired the characters in “After the Revolution.” The work was produced by Playwrights Horizons in 2010. Previous recipients include Kristoffer Diaz for “The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity,” Tarell Alvin McCraney for “The Brothers Size” and Dan LeFranc for “Sixty Miles to Silver Lake.” The selection committee included the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwrights Edward Albee, James Lapine and Lynn Nottage; the Pulitzer finalist Richard Greenberg; and current and former editors for The Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/03/theater/theater-prize-awarded.html?pagewanted=print[12/3/2012 9:01:01 AM] Monty Python Sued Over ‘Spamalot’ Money - NYTimes.com

December 2, 2012 Monty Python Sued Over ‘Spamalot’ Money Compiled by ADAM W. KEPLER

The musical “Monty Python’s Spamalot” (with Michael McGrath, above left, and Tim Curry) has earned hundreds of millions of dollars on Broadway and abroad, but how some of that money should be distributed is in dispute, the BBC reported. Mark Forstater, a producer of “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” the film on which “Spamalot” is based, is suing Monty Python members over royalty rights. Mr. Forstater argues that he has not been adequately compensated since the musical opened in 2005 on Broadway, where it grossed more than $175 million during its initial run. Three Python members, Eric Idle, Michael Palin and Terry Jones, are scheduled to appear in court in London.

http://theater.nytimes.com/2012/12/03/theater/monty-python-sued-over-spamalot-money.html?pagewanted=print[12/3/2012 8:59:55 AM] War of Wills, Vocabularies and Virtues - The New York Times

December 2, 2012 THEATER REVIEW War of Wills, Vocabularies and Virtues

By BEN BRANTLEY

They sure talk fancy in the clink these days.

“The Anarchist,” the heavily embroidered slip of a play now at the Golden Theater, takes place in a women’s penitentiary, a setting that has been used memorably for many a lurid fiction. The show’s stars (and entire cast) are Patti LuPone and Debra Winger, performers celebrated for generating sparks onstage and on screen. And its author is David Mamet, king of the explosive expletive.

Yet this 70-minute drama, which opened on Sunday night in a production directed by Mr. Mamet, is not lurid, spark filled or even expletive laden. “Anarchist” exists on the peaks of a philosophical Olympus where ideas on eschatology, etymology, phenomenology and, yes, criminology are exchanged by intellectual (if not moral) equals.

As for its language, why — aside from one unfortunate outburst toward the end — it is as crisp and unsoiled as the sheets in a five-star hotel. While “Anarchist” portrays a notorious convict and the authority figure who controls her destiny, the relationship here feels less like one of jailbird and turnkey than that of a graduate student defending her thesis and a humorless visiting examiner.

“Women Behind Bars” it ain’t. And Ms. LuPone and Ms. Winger must sink or swim in the thick sea of verbiage into which Mr. Mamet has thrown them. Ms. LuPone, a Mamet veteran, navigates these clotted waters like the freestyle champion she is. Ms. Winger, in her Broadway debut, mostly dog paddles.

Mr. Mamet is of course best known for his testosterone-fueled plays about desperate, foul-mouthed men. These include “Glengarry Glen Ross,” which won the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for drama and is currently playing in a revival at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater, just a few doors down from the Golden. I would love to set up the boys of “Glengarry” with the girls of “Anarchist” to see if they could understand a single word of one another’s languages.

That’s because when Mr. Mamet writes about women, his vocabulary tends to take on a lot of extra syllables and to shed a lot of its vulgar snap. The last all-female play of his that I saw was “Boston Marriage” (staged in New York in 2002), in which the characters spoke like Oscar Wilde. In “Anarchist” they sound more like Roland Barthes. Now that I think of it, both plays strongly feature lesbianism, which might be worth discussing at some other point.

But let us return to the loftier plane on which “Anarchist” conducts its dialogue. This is a show, after all, that in its opening minutes presents a dissection of the concept of patience, replete with linguistic shadings. Cathy (Ms. LuPone), who initiates this discussion, knows from patience. She has been in prison for 35 years, since being convicted in the killing of two police officers, while a member of a Weather Underground-type radical movement. http://theater.nytimes.com/...2/12/03/theater/reviews/david-mamets-anarchist-at-the-golden-theater.html?pagewanted=print[12/3/2012 9:04:36 AM] War of Wills, Vocabularies and Virtues - The New York Times

During her long confinement Cathy has discovered God, she says. She has written a manuscript about her conversion, which she offers as evidence of her (pardon the term) good faith. Cathy, you see, is up for parole, and she must convince Ann (Ms. Winger), a warden cum parole officer (her title is never given), that she deserves her freedom.

And so the debate begins. Wearing horn rims and a navy pantsuit, Ann has the severe air of a bureaucratic don who has done her research. She is armed with annotated manuscripts and files. (Amazing, isn’t it, how people in plays can always instantly find the exact passage they’re looking to quote?) She is fully prepared to spar with Cathy — the product of a rich family and illustrious schools — on semantic distinctions between “conscience” and “consciousness,” in English versus French.

“Cut to the chase,” you might think. In fact the chase is afoot. From the beginning these women are engaged in a high-stakes war of wills, as well as ideologies, in which Cathy will use every weapon in her arsenal — intellectual, emotional and sexual — to acquire her freedom. You may suspect, however, that Ann has already made up her mind. And if you know Mr. Mamet’s politics, which he has never been shy about expressing, you know which way Ann leans.

Mr. Mamet has always been preoccupied with words both as power tools and as camouflage. That’s true whether the language is lowdown (as in “Glengarry” and “American Buffalo”) or high-flown (as in “Oleanna”). This has often involved a certain verbal self-consciousness among his characters. But it has never been as acute as in “The Anarchist,” in which both women are especially aware of words as instruments of misdirection and what Cathy calls the opacity of human motives.

Theatergoers must really furrow their brows here just to follow the basic arguments, never mind the layers of motivation woven into them. And without giving away too much, I think it’s fair to reveal “Anarchist” basically concludes that all those polysyllabic words mean nothing, when you come right down to it. Right is right, and wrong is wrong. When you reach the end of “Anarchist,” you may feel you’ve traveled an unnecessarily winding road to get there.

Mr. Mamet’s avowed (and I think disingenuous) theory of acting is of the just-say-the-words school. It’s true that many of his scripts are so precisely cadenced, that just saying the words can take an actor a fair distance. That would seem to be the approach adopted here by Ms. Winger, whose excellent work in film ranges from her star-making performance in “Urban Cowboy” (1980) to “Rachel Getting Married” (2010).

I suppose you could argue that Ann is meant to be a sort of Dostoyevskian inquisitor, a formidable blank wall against which Cathy throws herself. But for “Anarchist” to crackle it requires at least a little psychological give, not to mention variety, from both its participants. Ms. Winger has a couple of winningly dry line readings, but she often seems to be just marking time onstage.

That leaves Ms. LuPone to carry the emotional content of the play all by herself. She does so valiantly and compellingly, and reminds us that this Tony-winning star of musicals is a terrific dramatic actress. In her Cathy you sense the strain of a naturally arrogant woman trying to be humble and, what’s more, trying to convince herself that she believes in her humility.

Any real dynamic in this generally static play comes from the tension of that internal struggle, which clearly takes its toll on Cathy. Toward the play’s end — after an hour of circumlocution and obfuscation and http://theater.nytimes.com/...2/12/03/theater/reviews/david-mamets-anarchist-at-the-golden-theater.html?pagewanted=print[12/3/2012 9:04:36 AM] War of Wills, Vocabularies and Virtues - The New York Times

clarification — Cathy sits down wearily and rasps, “Give me a cigarette.” Though I quit smoking years ago, I knew exactly how she felt.

The Anarchist

Written and directed by David Mamet; sets and costumes by Patrizia von Brandenstein; lighting by Jeff Croiter; production stage manager, William Joseph Barnes; technical supervision by Hudson Theatrical Associates; company manager, Jennifer Hindman Kemp; general manager, Richards/Climan, Inc. Presented by Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel, Howard and Janet Kagan, Catherine Schreiber, Jam Theatricals, Luigi and Rose Caiola, Gutterman Chernoff MXKC, Kit Seidel, Broadway Across America, Amy and Phil Mickelson, James Fuld, Jr., Carlos Arana/Bard Theatricals and Will Trice. At the John Golden Theater, 252 West 45th Street, Manhattan, (212) 239-6200, theanarchistbroadway.com. Through Feb. 17. Running time: 1 hour 10 minutes.

WITH: Patti LuPone (Cathy) and Debra Winger (Ann).

http://theater.nytimes.com/...2/12/03/theater/reviews/david-mamets-anarchist-at-the-golden-theater.html?pagewanted=print[12/3/2012 9:04:36 AM] Is in a Hospital - The New York Times

November 30, 2012 THEATER REVIEW Lewis Carroll Is in a Hospital

By BEN BRANTLEY

“You might as well come in,” the madwoman said. She knew, I guess, that I had been watching her through the window. She had been in a frenzy then: writhing on the floor, throwing herself against the wall, staring into the mirror with icy disgust.

But now she was calm, even regal, especially once she fastened that crimson ruff around her neck. After I had entered the room and sat down, right behind her dressing table, the Queen (for that is her name; she is played by Rebekah Morin) handed me a cordial. Though it came from a medicine bottle, and was the fourth libation I had been offered that evening, I accepted it. It seemed the proper thing to do, and I didn’t want to offend her.

Grown-ups are so perplexing, aren’t they?

Like everyone who had gathered that night at a former outpatient building of the Greenpoint Hospital in north Brooklyn to see the transporting immersive theater project “Then She Fell,” I am over 21. (You have to be, just to get in.)

Yet for much of the hazy two hours I spent wandering through rooms there, I felt like a bewildered but enchanted child, made privy to the arcana of another, darker world. That does not mean that I felt innocent.

I originally visited the landscape portrayed in “Then She Fell,” a site-specific creation of Third Rail Projects, many, many years ago, when I first read (or had read to me) Lewis Carroll’s “’s Adventures in ” and “Through the Looking Glass.” I have since returned often to Carroll’s masterpieces; I even studied them in college. I have also seen all sorts of movie and stage versions of Alice’s adventures (under the influence, in my student days), according to Walt Disney, Tim Burton, Richard Foreman, ad infinitum.

But “Then She Fell,” which admits only 15 people per performance for a personal guided tour of its Wonderland, is the only adaptation that has reconnected me with my earliest experiences with Carroll’s books. And I realized more forcefully than ever just what a genius Carroll (1832-1898) was in giving fantastical shape to the thoughts, fears, confusions and uncanny knowingness of children. He understood exactly what paths to take to set up camp in their imaginations.

Or, to be specific, one particular imagination, that of , the little girl for whom he wrote the Wonderland books. Carroll was undoubtedly in love with the child, whom he posed for photographs that today look uncomfortably erotic. “Then She Fell” addresses the ambiguity of that relationship, but without drifting into the polluted shallows of pathography. This show occupies a dreamscape where the judgments and classifications of the waking mind are inoperative, and where the single self keeps splitting and blurring.

Theatergoers who have participated in the long-running Punchdrunk production “Sleep No More,” which

http://theater.nytimes.com/...klyn.html?_r=0&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1354542320-QeYMtGf6KgfvI52/GjiXCQ&pagewanted=print[12/3/2012 8:47:34 AM] Lewis Carroll Is in a Hospital - The New York Times

reinvents Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” as a movable feast in a multilevel hotel, will be familiar with the form of “Then She Fell.” Directed, designed and choreographed by Zach Morris, with Tom Pearson and Jennine Willett, this show, too, tells its story impressionistically — and partly through dance — in a series of elaborately furnished rooms.

But “Then She Fell” is less spectacular and more intimate than “Sleep No More,” and far more illuminating about its source material. It also keeps a tighter leash on its audience, which is firmly led along designated routes and divided into small and then smaller groups.

Finally, you may end up, as I did, all alone with one of the two actresses playing Alice (Marissa Nielsen-Pincus and Tara O’Con), in a closet occupied by shelves of dolls, a hairbrush and an overwhelming sense of regret.

But that was late in the evening, and I had more or less come of age by then. I had begun my journey two hours earlier, when I was checked in by a doctor and nurses bearing clipboards (planting the suspicion that we might all be patients in a mental institution). I was also given a wine-based drink (devised by the mixologist Kathy Hubler). One of the nurses made prefatory remarks about the “liminal” experience we were about to undergo and the idea of falling as its central dynamic.

And fall we do, even though we’re mostly on our feet. Most of the words heard (and seen) are by Carroll, whose prose and poems are on pages hidden in drawers and pasted on walls and recited or read by different performers. (I had one told to me as a bedtime story by the White Queen, played by Ms. Willett, as I lay on a crisp-sheeted cot in a hallway.)

You are encouraged to rummage through trunks and cabinets (which you may unlock with keys issued to you earlier) in rooms replete with opulent, slightly seedy Victorian accouterments. You are offered dainty comestibles (designed by Megan Johnson and Leigh Friend). And you are bossed around by slender, gymnastic creatures in Victorian garb (proper and improper) who like to crawl up walls and perch in window ledges and perform pas de deux that skirt the pornographic.

Nothing is explained as it’s happening. And if you don’t know Carroll’s life and works, you won’t know who these people are supposed to be. (Programs are given out only at the conclusion.) What you will experience is the feeling that children sometimes have of being swept up into busy, self-important social rituals that make no sense. And of spying on adult activities that don’t make much sense either and are equally creepy and thrilling.

Among the set pieces: a truly that noisily redefines and explodes table etiquette (led of course by the Mad Hatter, embodied by an elegant and antic Elizabeth Carena); several visions of two Alices discovering each other on opposite sides of a mirror in subliminally sensual reveries; your being made to paint a white rose red by the (Mr. Pearson, without the literal-minded burden of bunny ears); and a forlorn session, in a flooded room, on a derelict dock with a bereft, barefoot man (Alberto Denis).

That man will turn out to have been Lewis Carroll, and he has been hovering on the edges of this adventure all along. Yes, that was he who sprang into a room from a courtyard window, just as my journey through Wonderland was beginning. He had tapped on the window, and Alice, who had been brooding in a corner, had leapt into joyous life to open it for him. Yes, you might as well come in.

Then She Fell

http://theater.nytimes.com/...klyn.html?_r=0&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1354542320-QeYMtGf6KgfvI52/GjiXCQ&pagewanted=print[12/3/2012 8:47:34 AM] Lewis Carroll Is in a Hospital - The New York Times

Directed, designed and choreographed by Zach Morris, with Tom Pearson and Jennine Willett, in collaboration with the company; production manager, Debra Stunich; costumes by Karen Young; lighting by Kryssy Wright; music and sound by Sean Hagerty; movement coach, Tori Sparks. A Third Rail Projects production, Mr. Morris, Mr. Pearson and Ms. Willett, artistic directors; presented by Arts@Renaissance. At Arts@Renaissance (garden level of the former Greenpoint Hospital), 2 Kingsland Avenue, at Maspeth Avenue, Brooklyn; (718) 388-5454, thenshefell.com.Through Jan. 6. Running time: 2 hours.

WITH: Elizabeth Carena (Hatter), Alberto Denis (Lewis Carroll), Stacie C. Fields (Nurse), Rebekah Morin (Red Queen), Zach Morris (various), Marissa Nielsen-Pincus (Alice), Tara O’Con (Alice), Tom Pearson (White Rabbit), Zoë Schieber (Doctor/White Queen), Debra Stunich (Nurse) and Jennine Willett (White Queen).

http://theater.nytimes.com/...klyn.html?_r=0&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1354542320-QeYMtGf6KgfvI52/GjiXCQ&pagewanted=print[12/3/2012 8:47:34 AM]

Off Broadway 'Tribes' recoups - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety

Posted: Sun., Dec. 2, 2012, 7:42pm PT

Off Broadway 'Tribes' recoups Production will end 11 month run in January

By GORDON COX

The Off Broadway production of "Tribes" has recouped its capitalization costs, according to producers.

News comes about a month before the drama by Nina Raines is set to shutter. Production began perfs at the Barrow Street Theater on Feb. 16.

Production comes from Scott Morfee, Jean Doumanian and Tom Wirtshafter, who have made a habit of producing shows that carve out a relatively long commercial life Off Broadway. Their staging of "Our Town," also at the Barrow Street, ran for 18 months starting in February 2009.

That production also managed to recoup its costs, which can be difficult for Off Broadway shows given the limited ticket inventory of smaller venues, as well as the marketing challenges of competing with Rialto ad budgets.

Producers didn't specify the capitalization cost of "Tribes," but in general, shows can be capitalized Off Broadway for a fraction of a Main Stem pricetag.

According to producers, the six-character "Tribes" has grossed a total of $2.5 million so far. It closes on Jan. 6.

Contact Gordon Cox at [email protected]

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118062982?refcatid=15&printerfriendly=true[12/3/2012 8:54:04 AM] Grandage's next act is a doozy - Entertainment News, David Benedict, Media - Variety

Posted: Sat., Dec. 1, 2012, 4:00am PT

Grandage's next act is a doozy Maven sets up theater company with accent on stars, community

By DAVID BENEDICT

While the hotly anticipated first preview of comedy "Privates on Parade," starring the estimable Simon Russell Beale, makes its debut Dec. 1 in the West End, there's even bigger buzz among those in the London stage world about the impact of the man behind the show, .

After an agenda-setting 10 years at the helm of the Donmar Warehouse that saw productions including "Frost/Nixon," Jude Law's "Hamlet" and "Red" travel to Gotham and beyond, the director has formed the Michael Grandage Company, with "Privates" the first of a slate of star-driven stagings financed via a moderately risky financial model that includes a commitment to affordable ticket prices.

When Grandage announced he was leaving the 250-seat Donmar, industry speculation was rife. Was he about to embark on a potentially lucrative freelance career, or was he readying himself to succeed Nicholas Hytner as the head of the National Theater -- or would he plunge into movies like his Donmar predecessor Sam Mendes?

Instead he stepped up as a commercial producer, launching his own shingle with former Donmar exec James Bierman. "Privates" launches the company's inaugural 15-month slate of shows, which includes Daniel Radcliffe in a revival of Martin McDonagh's "The Cripple of Inishmaan," starring opposite in the world preem of 's "Peter and Alice" and Law playing the title role in Shakespeare's "Henry V."

Commercial producers armed with stars of that wattage typically hike ticket prices and watch the money roll in. But a crucial determining factor for both Grandage and Bierman is their desire to widen access to theater. That's reflected in their ticketing policy at Cameron Mackintosh's Noel Coward Theater.

The company's £57.50 ($92) top ticket price is comparable to the current West End standard. But not only is the 942-seat house offering only 15 premium seats per night at £85 ($136), there also is a range of seats that are significantly cheaper, with just two other pricing levels: £27.50 ($44) and £10 ($16), with the latter accounting for more than a quarter of the house at every performance.

The opportunity for the season's investors to make a killing is further diminished by the fact that for one performance of each production, the entire house will be free to first-time theatergoers.

It's the type of loss-leader Grandage has tried out previously on the West End -- an education initiative expanded here into something even more ambitious. Called MGC Futures, the program includes training posts for young people, who will shadow all the key creatives; a youth company of actors; a cross-generational project at the end of the year in collaboration with seniors charity Age U.K.; and a website that encourages young people to experience all aspects of the theater biz via every department, from wig-making to marketing.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118062933?refcatid=2203&printerfriendly=true[12/3/2012 8:58:16 AM] Grandage's next act is a doozy - Entertainment News, David Benedict, Media - Variety

Given both the pricing structure and the company's educational endeavors, pressure on the budget is unusually high.

London producers never publish weekly box office figures or specific production costs, but Bierman is willing to discuss finance in terms of the key break-even figure. Most producers begin to get a little nervous at a budget that requires a break-even above 50% of gross potential, but the MGC season break-even is 65%.

Grandage is therefore understandably proud that the total capitalization for the season -- grant- free -- was raised within six weeks of the company's initial-season announcement. Adds Bierman: "There was no cherry-picking. Investors have had to support the season as a whole. But that brings with it the advantages of a spread bet."

It's not just the combination of high-end legit actors and playwrights that proved attractive to investors. As one backer told them, "I could get a potentially higher return elsewhere in theater, but I think you're giving me the best chance of getting my money back."

And MGC has a movie in the works too.

Deals are being struck over Grandage's 2014 film debut "Genius," starring Colin Firth and Michael Fassbender, Logan's drama about the relationship between writer Thomas Wolfe and editor Maxwell Perkins, based on A. Scott Berg's book "Max Perkins: Editor of Genius."

Before that, comes the company's inaugural stage season. The impact it will have on the wider West End ecology remains to be seen, but for Grandage and Bierman, it's definitely not a one-off.

Grandage says the company and business partnership is designed to last "for the rest of our working lives." Neither he nor Bierman will be drawn on details, but for 2015, after "Genius" is in the can, they're already planning another season.

And while all the audience outreach won't be cheap, Bierman recalls kids who'd never been inside a theater being bused in to see Law in "Hamlet."

"We didn't know what to expect, but they were honestly one of the most attentive audiences we had, and they were laughing at the comedy," Bierman says. "I overheard one girl leaving the theater saying, 'I really felt for that Hamlet because my mum's a bitch too.' "

Contact David Benedict at [email protected]

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118062933?refcatid=2203&printerfriendly=true[12/3/2012 8:58:16 AM]