Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Celebrating the end of DOMA today at Stonewall.

My video of Atty Roberta Kaplan and Edith Windsor who won their suit against the USA.




Tuesday, June 18, 2013

The Comedy of Errors

Posted by Mondschein

"The Comedy of Error" presented by The Public Theater at Delacorte Theater, June 2, 2013


(photo by Joan Marcus)


The first of the Public Theater's presentations of Shakespeare in the Park is Shakespeare's take on Plautus' Menaechmi, complicated with an extra set of twins separated as small children.  There's no adaptation credit given in the playbill, but one might presume that dramaturg Robert Blacker was pivotal in the streamlining of the book down to a 90 minute one-act.  The result is a farce set in a 1940s Ephesus, complete with a jitterbugging, lindy hopping chorus gathered around the jukebox - - Shakespeare meets Guy and Dolls

Director Daniel Sullivan focuses his energies around Hamish Linklater and Jesse Tyler Ferguson as they take on the dual roles of Antipholus and Dromio, respectively.  Mr. Linklater achieves the greater success in creating two distinct characters around the long-lost brothers.  Mr. Ferguson comes in a close second.  Heidi Schreck also manages to find her way as Luciana.  Skip Suddeth brings us a Tony Soprano-style Duke.  The rest of the cast is serviceable if unremarkable, except for Emily Bergl's gasp-worthy pratfall as Adriana.

The pace is good.  The costumes colorful and sets work nicely.  There are plenty of laughs. It's a good night in Central Park.

Tickets are free, distributed the day of each show at the Delacorte box office.  The Comedy of Errors runs through June 30.

Monday, June 17, 2013

"BEFORE YOU KNOW IT" NY PREMIERE 6/23 WITH FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER.

I just watched the review screener. This movie will break your heart. Beautifully made film about three beautiful men. I highly recommend it.

BEFORE YOU KNOW IT, the first feature film to raise the curtain on a profoundly neglected segment of the LGBT community, its senior population, will have its New York Premiere at Lincoln Center.

BEFORE YOU KNOW IT,an observational documentary directed by PJ Raval, addresses issues that aren't often discussed in the LGBT community. The statistics are startling (e.g., LGBT seniors are five times less likely to access social services than their heterosexual counterparts and twice as likely to live alone). BEFORE YOU KNOW IT acquaints audiences with three fascinating individuals.


Get your tickets here: http://www.filmlinc.com/films/on-sale/before-you-know-it1  More after the break:




The Procedure by Marcus Yi


You have one more chance to see The Procedure: Thursday June 20, 5PM, Gene Frankel Theater, 24 Bond Street, New York City. I suggest you take it. (This play is part of the Planet Connections Theater Festivity.

My husband, The Baad Lamb, was actually tearing up at the ending, and I myself got quite caught up in the story which is something that hasn’t happened to me of late in a theater seat.

In The Procedure, an interracial gay couple is faced with a government-mandated microchip implant in order to remain together. Adrian, in his mid-thirties, is a lawyer happily married to Jacob. He is about to become an American citizen in order to remain in the country when he learns that the path to citizenship requires a microchip implant in his eye. He gets pushed and pulled by husband, family, friends and conscience until he finally makes his decision.

The Procedure could have been a tiresome tin-foil hat rant in the wrong hands, but as written by Marcus Yi and directed by Yi and Sonia Nam, it is a fine telling of how every man—gay or straight—has to define what “home” is and how important it is get one’s personal priorities in order and then to act accordingly. Adrian’s dilemma will make you wonder just what you could or could not live without. If you had to choose between a husband you loved, a job you loved, a principle you believed in or a place you loved, how would you attempt to “have it all?” And if you couldn’t have it all, what would you relinquish?

The fact that the central couple is gay is incidental, and isn’t it nice that we are finally living in a time and place where the gay aspects of a play are not distractions?

Stephen Thornton is entirely convincing as Adrian. Fenny Novyane is a delight as Valerie and she delivers the strongest performance. There were only a couple of weak moments: some trite humor in the commercial interludes and a painfully unfunny scene with Adrian and a doctor that stood out like a sore thumb.

The Procedure is a production of Living Room Theater which was created to produce works made in the living room of Marcus Yi. I hope he will continue to write plays.

Tickets are $18 and can be purchased by going to https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/921718 or www.planetconnections.org/the-procedure


Wednesday, June 12, 2013

The Silver Cord

Posted by Mondschein

"The Silver Cord" presented by  Peccadillo Theater Company at the Theatre at St. Clement's, June 8, 2013

(Photo by Carol Rosegg)

A tradition of restorative productions is a sometimes unwieldy proposition.  Peccadillo Theater Company continues its residence at the Theatre at St. Clement's with a revival of the 1927 The Silver Cord by Sidney Howard (who won a posthumous Oscar for the screenplay of "Gone With The Wind).  The Silver Cord was something of a hit in its original run, telling the story of how a sociopathic moher interferes in the relationships of her two sons. 
There are obvious factors to support its revival: small cast, minimal costume and set changes.  Before staging this full production, Peccadillo conducted a reading of the play with Charles Busch as the mother.

If only they had been able to sign him for this run.

Monday, June 3, 2013

Brooklyn Pride starts today. Parade and Festival Saturday June 8

Brooklyn Pride

click on the above link for the schedule and location for all of this year's brooklyn pride events which include the pride flag raising at borough hall, 5K run, "boys in the band" screening at the brooklyn museum, street festival and twilight parade.