Fanatics
Showing posts with label Broadway. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Broadway. Show all posts
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Super Bowl Halftime - Beat This!
In terms of all sports halftime shows, everyone is playing for 2nd Place:
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Once ...
I'm on a little bit of a "Broadway" kick as of late, as the TONYs struck quite a chord just as my sister-in-law had tickets for her family to see "MATILDA" and she also won an auction for seats and a backstage tour to "ANNIE," that my youngest will enjoy on Wednesday night at The Palace Theatre.
My youngest, I boast, actually played "ANNIE" when she won the lead role in our local youth drama group in nearby Wellesley.
Anyhow, the "Broadway" kick got me thinking about my incredible experience when I witnessed Steve Kazee in "ONCE," this past winter. As I wrote, it just blew me away.
Here's why:
TL
Monday, June 10, 2013
NewsRoom: Season Two ... the Trailer
Now, that's what I call a trailer...
(PS: The stuff that HBO does to promote its original programming is a page out of the book that the folks on Broadway need to read. Stated clearly and honestly, my prior criticism of Broadway theatre promotion might've been a little unfair since I didn't include specifics on a few of the best methods to sell some more play tickets.).
Here's an example:
(PS: The stuff that HBO does to promote its original programming is a page out of the book that the folks on Broadway need to read. Stated clearly and honestly, my prior criticism of Broadway theatre promotion might've been a little unfair since I didn't include specifics on a few of the best methods to sell some more play tickets.).
Here's an example:
On BROADWAY!
 |
| 2013 TONY Awards Show (Getty Images for DigSportsDesk) |
Is it "writer's block" you ask? No. The thoughts are plentiful and the material to write of is the best in the world.
Is it a sports story? No.
Is it your favorite thing, music, guitar, rock n roll? Classic rockers? No.
Is it the world of motion pictures, is it your dream job? Are you writing about the one place we all love to go to escape, like the plot of Purple Rose of Cairo, when Cecilia (Mia Farrow) heads to that old, South Amboy, NJ theatre to get-away during the Great Depression?
Nope.
I'm trying to write about the BEST.
The Best?
Yep, the BEST!
You mean... BROADWAY!
Yes. That's it. I can write now, although the screen is not clear because tears cloud my eyes.
So just suck it up, gather yourself and your wild and emotional side and say it, man.
Okay!
When it comes to the very best in entertainment, Broadway just blows it all away. It's not even close. When you seek entertainment, there are so many wonderful options. The ARTS, the CINEMA, the FIELD of PLAY, the world of MUSIC - rock, jazz, classical, the blues.
But the magic of BROADWAY just blows them all away. It's the performance, the show-stopping, mind-blowing, spark every raw bone, emotional, stunning spine-tingling, grab-your-soul moment of a great dramatic moment that gets 'ya. It's been going on as along as human beings have been around and, for some reason, we've always tried to entertain ourselves.
Broadway perfects it.
Broadway perfects it.
Lincoln Center is the only thing that's close, I will admit, but the SPECTACLE of Broadway is the best entertainment in the world and I'll include the WEST END of London right along side in my ONE and ONE A categories of entertainment perfection.
The 2013 TONYs Show reminded me of the fact and, it was amplified after the show... when my bride, turned to me and put it so simply.
"The TONYs are the BEST," she said.
Right on.
I love the Academy Awards and I'm always a "sap" when it comes to watching an accomplished and distinguished actor moved to tears of emotion or maybe a rambling, discombobulated speech because of the fact the OSCAR meant so much to the him or her. I'm always game to hear about the actor's story of endless auditions, rejection, years of bartending or waitressing, more auditions, more rejection and then - the PART. The opening, the role of a lifetime and success. It's great to see the stars of HOLLYWOOD, all dressed up and walking the Red Carpet in LA. I just love it.
But, the TONYS. It's the TONYs that get to me.
Last night, the event was staged at Radio City Music Hall, in New York, right down the block from my old office. I've walked by the building 10,000 times and I particularly love it when the theatre is all dressed up for a big event.
 |
| Radio City Music Hall |
Radio City in the heart of Manhattan, just a few blocks away from the THEATRE DISTRICT, and just a block off BROADWAY.
Inside, the TONYS audience is like a summer drama camp for dedicated kids.
Everyone WANTS to be there. They are the very best actors, dancers and singers. They are backed up by the very best in set design and lighting. They are guided by the very best of musical and theatrical directors and producers. In front, they have the world's greatest orchestras, all playing scores of music written by the very best. Some of the tunes are new, original works and we are inspired by them, while others are old favorites, like the opening scene from "PIPPIN," entitled "MAGIC TO DO."
I vividly remember Ben Vereen playing the part of the "LEADING PLAYER." and, oh how well he did, when he won the 1973 TONY for Best Lead in a Musical. The credit and the glory of PIPPIN was largely gained by Bob Fosse, and the clips from '72-'77- to the 1981 release of a DVD of Pippin show the scope of his innovative work. Fosse passed away in 1987, dead of a heart attack undoubtedly caused by one too many a cigarette. I remember watching the 1979 motion picture "All That Jazz" and Roy Scheider's portrayal of the chain-smoking, hard-charging, demanding Fosse and I was mesmerized by George Benson's score, "On Broadway," of which I wrote about not too long ago.
It must have lit the fuse, it sparked of my love of BROADWAY.
So what about last night?
The revival of PIPPIN took four TONYS - and rightfully so. The LEAD PLAYER of 2012-13 is Patina Miller and her portrayal, while different as a female lead, is even more POWERFUL than that of Vereen. Miller's acceptance speech was perfect, genuine, heartwarming and very well delivered to an audience of her peers.
The rest of the list is just as amazing and deserving of a TONY one and all.
Somehow, Matilda wasn't the 2013 TONY winner for Best Musical because Billy Porter and "Kinky Boots" took home the honors and no one could argue their merit.
Matilda wasn't left out. Nope, not at all. Gabriel Ebert took home the TONY as Best Actor in a featured role in a Musical for his work as Matilda's father. That TONY went alongside of Best Book of a Musical, Best Scenic Design, Best Lighting Design - all winners amongst the 12 TONY nominations for Matilda, one shy of the 13 nominations for "Kinky Boots."
On the drama side, the TONYs went to "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" for Best revival and "Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike" - the latter of which I haven't had a chance to see (yet). Of the dramtic actors, Tracey Letts TONY award winning performance and his acceptance speech for his award-winning role in Virginia Woolf was a show stopper for the CBS network show, aired on Sunday night.
Not to be forgotten, TONY host Neil Patrick Harris (Sweeney Todd) but, mostly known as TV star Doogie Howser MD or Barney on "How I Met Your Mother," was written up as "incomparable." I might steal a line from LA Times theatre critic, Charles McNulty, who simply wrote in his second paragraph of his show review, in a short parenthesis, "(Please CBS, make him sign a lifetime contract!).
Well, I agree, except the contract must add Mr. Doogie Howser - as lifetime host of the OSCARS, as well.
Great job CBS. Great job Ms. Patina Miller - you are a great role model for the youth of 2013 and I applaud you for it to the highest possible degree. Great job Broadway. Now, let's get out there and promote the actors, the musicals and the plays with a newfound enthusiasm and sell some tickets.
The criticism I have of The American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League is not of the product. As stated here, the product is the best in the world. The main problem is with the archaic and inefficient methods of the promotional aspects holding back the theatre with "Old school" and "Set in their Ways" mechanisms that hold back more aggressive, enlightened and effective promotion. On Broadway, it's protect the "old school" and the "union rules" so the new kids don't take over the shoppe. Meanwhile, the actors, the playwrights, the directors and the ticket-takers pay the high price of poor "1950s-style" promotion. Too bad.
Monday, February 4, 2013
Of Halftime Acts, Sweet Perfume and Power Outages
"Now the halftime air was sweet perfume
While Sergeants played a marching tune,
We all got up to dance
Oh, but we never got the chance
'Cause the players tried to take the field
The marching band refused to yield
Do you recall what was revealed
The day the music died?"
While Sergeants played a marching tune,
We all got up to dance
Oh, but we never got the chance
'Cause the players tried to take the field
The marching band refused to yield
Do you recall what was revealed
The day the music died?"
- February 3, 1959 - The Day the Music died, seven years before Super Bowl I
Then it struck. The lights were out and the dark side of the moon seemed like Times Square lit-up on New Year's Eve in comparison to the Super Dome, the 2013 venue of the greatest event on earth, the NFL's championship game. The game might go down in history as the most bizarre Super Bowl, complete with stats and scoreboards for "before" and "after" the blackout.
Wackiness. That is NOT how I like my Super Bowls.
Wackiness at an All-Star Game, I can enjoy. Wackiness at the finals of a major sport's championship? No thanks.
In the true American way, we all looked for someone to blame. Yes the "Blame Game" is more American than Super Bowls, Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie, American Pie or Chevrolet.
It was the Super Dome ... it was the NOLA power company. No, it was a conspiracy to break Baltimore's momentum. No, it was Clay Shaw, Oliver Stone and Lee Harvey Oswald.
The PR machines ran PR 101 - distancing themselves from the problem at hand, and both the NFL and Entergy NOLA Power brought out their PR swords.
I tend to think it was just nature playing its hand. The "powers" that be amongst the NFL event planners made several choices. They decided to bring in tons of lighting to bring its special effects into every household, right along with Beyonce.The halftime act drew enough power to light up Sal Lake City for a month, and it was only half the electric company's battle. Tons of extra broadcasts, TV trucks, concession stands, media centers, computers, smart phone signal boosters - you name it. They all brought down the lights so Dandy Don Meredith could be heard with Howard, once again.
Glitz and blitz.
The game, with its bizarre nature, poor execution by the 49ers early and less than efficient game management by the Baltimore Ravens made us cringe at times, but mostly enjoy an exciting finish.
The glitz was over the top, maybe a little too much although one man can not complain about Beyonce. Moi? I prefer the subtleties of the Greatest Halftime Show of All-Time. The NBA Broadway All-Stars. Play On.
And NOTE: What was revealed? The burning bra sensation of the late '60s, that's what.
And NOTE: What was revealed? The burning bra sensation of the late '60s, that's what.
Monday, April 23, 2012
A Bird Grew Up in Virginia
Tug Coker is portraying Larry Bird on Broadway in the new play based on Bird's relationship with Earvin "Magic" Johnson. Coker walked on to the William & Mary Div. 1 team during his college days, but took up acting after being cut after he transferred to Virginia.
How can the Stafford High School graduate, who made no impact in his one season as a William and Mary basketball player 15 years ago, in his Broadway debut portray NBA Hall of Famer Larry Bird?
An honorable mention Post All-Met basketball selection his senior year at Stafford, Coker was nothing more than a practice player in Williamsburg. When he transferred to the University of Virginia, the coaches there gave him a cursory tryout but, citing his lack of speed and jumping ability, said no thanks.
So here is Coker, 34, who never realized his childhood dream of playing in the NCAA basketball tournament, slipping into a Boston Celtics jersey — his favorite team growing up — and copping the mannerisms of one of the most revered players of all-time as a co-star in “Magic/Bird.”
Coker would be more bewildered if he weren’t so amused.
“I find it odd and funny and cute that one of my goals in life was for people to watch me play basketball — but they’re doing it watching me on Broadway,” he said by phone from his Longacre Theatre dressing room, decorated with the same Bird poster that he had in his bedroom as a boy.
“My sports career was not as amazing as I hoped or thought it would be, so it’s funny that people keep asking me about it. I was pretty crushed when I didn’t have a chance to make an impact at either [college]. I just sort of realized I’m not as great a player as I thought I was coming out of high school. I tried to look for another thing.”
Coker had taken drama classes at Stafford, and after his failed bid to make the U-Va. basketball team, he traded the court for a stage. Acting has joined, not necessarily replaced, his previous passion, and he has been able to feed both since landing the role of Bird.
During preparation and previews for “Magic/Bird,” and now after its April 11 opening, Coker the accidental Celtic has been able to meet and perform for basketball royalty that he grew up idolizing, including Bird, 55, whom he saw play at the Capital Centre about a quarter-century ago.
Coker visited Bird’s home town in southern Indiana to get a better handle on his subject’s background and dialect by chatting with locals who know him. The fine citizens of French Lick, protective of their most famous export, would eyeball the underwear-model-handsome Coker, a 6-foot-5 left-hander with brown hair, and skeptically drawl, “How you going to play Larry Bird?” Bird is a plainish 6-9 right-hander with a blond nest and a your-ad-here chin.
Coker assured them that with wigs and a false mustache, he could be Birdified and do their boy justice. A New York Times review from opening night opined that “Mr. Coker is . . . saddled with a wig that makes him look like Frankenstein’s monster with a bad dye job.”
That doesn’t necessarily mean that Coker’s fake hair is un-Birdlike, though. Besides, Coker was more interested in what was in Bird’s head, not on it.
“I told Larry that I want this to be truthful and authentic, because the people coming to the theater every night aren’t coming to see me, they’re coming to see him and his story,” Coker said. “So I want to honor Larry in the best possible way.”
* * *
“Magic/Bird” — brought to the stage by Fran Kirmser and Tony Ponturo, the team that created the sportsy Broadway hit “Lombardi” — chronicles the evolution of Bird’s complex relationship with Los Angeles Lakers great Earvin “Magic” Johnson, played by Kevin Daniels.
The play bounces through their bitter one-upmanship rivalry that began with the 1979 NCAA championship game, on to their begrudging mutual respect as pros and ultimately their deep friendship, an unlikely bond that leaves the pair indelibly linked in sports history.
Johnson and Bird were two Midwestern boys — one black, one white; one urban, one rural; one drawn to the spotlight, one allergic to it; one grinning, one brooding; one Tinseltown, one French Lick — each driven by the other as they elevated the NBA to must-see status years before Michael Jordan came along.
From 1980 to 1988, Bird’s and Johnson’s teams combined to win eight of nine NBA titles — three times meeting each other in the championship — and the two later were teammates on the original “Dream Team” that won the gold medal in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. As part of the “Magic/Bird” production, footage from their careers is projected on a 30-by-25-foot screen.
Coker received critical back pats locally for his role as a baseball player in the 2005 Studio Theater production “Take Me Out,” and he has acted in minor roles on several TV shows, including “The Office,” “CSI” and “How I Met Your Mother.” He grew up playing sports in a family that seemed to gravitate toward them, making the Bird role anything but a stretch, physical differences aside.
Even Coker’s nickname has a sports origin. John Herbert Coker III was dubbed Tug in utero when his father, John, and mother, Linda, were at a baseball game in which Philadelphia Phillies reliever Tug McGraw (father of country singer Tim) was pitching.
Known as Tug since, Coker considers theater to be a natural extension of athletics, if not a sport itself. Both require years of practice or rehearsal. Both are live performances in which preparation and instinct intersect. And both evoke an immediate response from spectators.
“Athletes often say, ‘Don’t think,’ ” said Coker, who trained at the American Repertory Theater at Harvard. “That’s the same thing for acting. You do all your thinking before, and then you just let it fly.”
Literally, in Coker’s current role. During the one-act, 90-minute play, he has to take several shots on a regulation hoop, albeit high-percentage attempts; he learned his lesson on a botched reverse layup in previews.
Bird and Johnson attended opening night after taping “Late Show with David Letterman” together. Coker feared the basket might shrink with those two in the audience.
Prior to a meet-and-greet after the premiere, Coker’s only contact with Bird had taken place over the phone. He was so tickled about his semi-relationship with his idol that he told his father, Fredericksburg area orthodontist John Coker Jr., that he would never erase the routine message Bird had left on his phone.
* * *
Coker and “Magic/Bird” director Thomas Kail, a Sidwell Friends graduate who grew up in Alexandria, got acquainted by talking high school hoops in the D.C. area, which made for a pleasant pre-audition conversation.
“I left thinking, if nothing else, at least I had a great time in the room,” Coker said. “I never really thought it was my job to win, because I always thought they were going to go hire some 6-9 kid from Wisconsin with blond hair living on a farm and pluck him and put him on Broadway.”
After that tryout, Coker went back two days later to audition for the producers, who then asked him to step outside. He waited. About 10 minutes later, the casting director emerged from the room and hugged him.
“I’d never been hugged by a casting director,” joked Coker, who at first thought the gesture might have been intended to soften yet another basketball rejection. No, it was a congratulatory squeeze. He was Bird.
When Coker eventually got to question his subject, Bird offered a piece of information that a certain former Stafford Indian wished he would have known, say, 20 years ago.
“He told me a little about his off-season workout regimen, and it blew me away,” Coker said. “I sort of wish I could tell the 14-year-old Tug to go back in time and do the regimen Larry was doing.
“I might have been able to step foot on the court in college basketball.”
“Magic/Bird”
At the Longacre Theatre
220 W. 48th St., New York
This story is an interesting take on the career of Tug Coker, star of Magic Bird:
Va.’s Tug Coker finally gets to wear a Celtics uniform - in ‘Magic/Bird’ on Broadway
By Preston Williams
Affable and engaging, Tug Coker comes across as anything but a tortured actor. He does, however, have one deep-rooted conflict that he might never fully reconcile.
How can the Stafford High School graduate, who made no impact in his one season as a William and Mary basketball player 15 years ago, in his Broadway debut portray NBA Hall of Famer Larry Bird?
An honorable mention Post All-Met basketball selection his senior year at Stafford, Coker was nothing more than a practice player in Williamsburg. When he transferred to the University of Virginia, the coaches there gave him a cursory tryout but, citing his lack of speed and jumping ability, said no thanks.
So here is Coker, 34, who never realized his childhood dream of playing in the NCAA basketball tournament, slipping into a Boston Celtics jersey — his favorite team growing up — and copping the mannerisms of one of the most revered players of all-time as a co-star in “Magic/Bird.”
Coker would be more bewildered if he weren’t so amused.
“I find it odd and funny and cute that one of my goals in life was for people to watch me play basketball — but they’re doing it watching me on Broadway,” he said by phone from his Longacre Theatre dressing room, decorated with the same Bird poster that he had in his bedroom as a boy.
“My sports career was not as amazing as I hoped or thought it would be, so it’s funny that people keep asking me about it. I was pretty crushed when I didn’t have a chance to make an impact at either [college]. I just sort of realized I’m not as great a player as I thought I was coming out of high school. I tried to look for another thing.”
Coker had taken drama classes at Stafford, and after his failed bid to make the U-Va. basketball team, he traded the court for a stage. Acting has joined, not necessarily replaced, his previous passion, and he has been able to feed both since landing the role of Bird.
During preparation and previews for “Magic/Bird,” and now after its April 11 opening, Coker the accidental Celtic has been able to meet and perform for basketball royalty that he grew up idolizing, including Bird, 55, whom he saw play at the Capital Centre about a quarter-century ago.
Coker visited Bird’s home town in southern Indiana to get a better handle on his subject’s background and dialect by chatting with locals who know him. The fine citizens of French Lick, protective of their most famous export, would eyeball the underwear-model-handsome Coker, a 6-foot-5 left-hander with brown hair, and skeptically drawl, “How you going to play Larry Bird?” Bird is a plainish 6-9 right-hander with a blond nest and a your-ad-here chin.
Coker assured them that with wigs and a false mustache, he could be Birdified and do their boy justice. A New York Times review from opening night opined that “Mr. Coker is . . . saddled with a wig that makes him look like Frankenstein’s monster with a bad dye job.”
That doesn’t necessarily mean that Coker’s fake hair is un-Birdlike, though. Besides, Coker was more interested in what was in Bird’s head, not on it.
“I told Larry that I want this to be truthful and authentic, because the people coming to the theater every night aren’t coming to see me, they’re coming to see him and his story,” Coker said. “So I want to honor Larry in the best possible way.”
* * *
“Magic/Bird” — brought to the stage by Fran Kirmser and Tony Ponturo, the team that created the sportsy Broadway hit “Lombardi” — chronicles the evolution of Bird’s complex relationship with Los Angeles Lakers great Earvin “Magic” Johnson, played by Kevin Daniels.
The play bounces through their bitter one-upmanship rivalry that began with the 1979 NCAA championship game, on to their begrudging mutual respect as pros and ultimately their deep friendship, an unlikely bond that leaves the pair indelibly linked in sports history.
Johnson and Bird were two Midwestern boys — one black, one white; one urban, one rural; one drawn to the spotlight, one allergic to it; one grinning, one brooding; one Tinseltown, one French Lick — each driven by the other as they elevated the NBA to must-see status years before Michael Jordan came along.
From 1980 to 1988, Bird’s and Johnson’s teams combined to win eight of nine NBA titles — three times meeting each other in the championship — and the two later were teammates on the original “Dream Team” that won the gold medal in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. As part of the “Magic/Bird” production, footage from their careers is projected on a 30-by-25-foot screen.
Coker received critical back pats locally for his role as a baseball player in the 2005 Studio Theater production “Take Me Out,” and he has acted in minor roles on several TV shows, including “The Office,” “CSI” and “How I Met Your Mother.” He grew up playing sports in a family that seemed to gravitate toward them, making the Bird role anything but a stretch, physical differences aside.
Even Coker’s nickname has a sports origin. John Herbert Coker III was dubbed Tug in utero when his father, John, and mother, Linda, were at a baseball game in which Philadelphia Phillies reliever Tug McGraw (father of country singer Tim) was pitching.
Known as Tug since, Coker considers theater to be a natural extension of athletics, if not a sport itself. Both require years of practice or rehearsal. Both are live performances in which preparation and instinct intersect. And both evoke an immediate response from spectators.
“Athletes often say, ‘Don’t think,’ ” said Coker, who trained at the American Repertory Theater at Harvard. “That’s the same thing for acting. You do all your thinking before, and then you just let it fly.”
Literally, in Coker’s current role. During the one-act, 90-minute play, he has to take several shots on a regulation hoop, albeit high-percentage attempts; he learned his lesson on a botched reverse layup in previews.
Bird and Johnson attended opening night after taping “Late Show with David Letterman” together. Coker feared the basket might shrink with those two in the audience.
Prior to a meet-and-greet after the premiere, Coker’s only contact with Bird had taken place over the phone. He was so tickled about his semi-relationship with his idol that he told his father, Fredericksburg area orthodontist John Coker Jr., that he would never erase the routine message Bird had left on his phone.
* * *
Coker and “Magic/Bird” director Thomas Kail, a Sidwell Friends graduate who grew up in Alexandria, got acquainted by talking high school hoops in the D.C. area, which made for a pleasant pre-audition conversation.
“I left thinking, if nothing else, at least I had a great time in the room,” Coker said. “I never really thought it was my job to win, because I always thought they were going to go hire some 6-9 kid from Wisconsin with blond hair living on a farm and pluck him and put him on Broadway.”
After that tryout, Coker went back two days later to audition for the producers, who then asked him to step outside. He waited. About 10 minutes later, the casting director emerged from the room and hugged him.
“I’d never been hugged by a casting director,” joked Coker, who at first thought the gesture might have been intended to soften yet another basketball rejection. No, it was a congratulatory squeeze. He was Bird.
When Coker eventually got to question his subject, Bird offered a piece of information that a certain former Stafford Indian wished he would have known, say, 20 years ago.
“He told me a little about his off-season workout regimen, and it blew me away,” Coker said. “I sort of wish I could tell the 14-year-old Tug to go back in time and do the regimen Larry was doing.
“I might have been able to step foot on the court in college basketball.”
“Magic/Bird”
At the Longacre Theatre
220 W. 48th St., New York
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)