A gay group has published a new edition of the Holy Bible called the “Queen James Version”, a play-off of the current King James Version used by many religions.
According to their website,
Tag: People
The first Bible targeting gay believers
Theatre Review: Jackie Hoffman’s A Chanukah Charol
Jackie Hoffman’s schtick is telling hilarious self-deprecating jokes about the sad state of her career. So has she changed her tune with A Chanukah Charol, turning the satire outward to spoof Charles Dickens? Nope, not really – she’s actually done something more creative, using Dickens’s hoary holiday chestnut as a frame to…well, continue telling hilarious self-deprecating jokes about the sad state of her career. She was already at “bah, humbug,” anyway, right?
Underground Thursday: "Burroughs" by Chelsea Light Moving
Great new song by Sonic Youth leader Thurston Moore, paying tribute to the most bad-ass queer author ever, William Burroughs (pictured above with Patti Smith, in a picture taken by Allen Ginsburg). Video below.
Theatre Review: "Ten Chimneys"
I don’t know how “the Lunts” – the most revered married stars of the Broadway stage ever, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne – would feel about my reaction to Ten Chimneys, playwright Jeffrey Hatcher’s mostly enjoyable comedy set at their Wisconsin estate of the same name. I liked it better when it was closer to the Noël Coward comedies or continental romances that were their most acclaimed success, and liked it a good deal less when Hatcher decided to imitate Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull. The Lunts, you see, were perfectly good classical actors and would like to have been known as such – unfortunately that’s not how their adoring public wanted to see them.
Hatcher’s Chekhovian ambitions arise because the play peers into the backstage lives of the couple during the rehearsal process for a 1938 production of Chekhov’s The Seagull, on their summer retreat. Hatcher rather tediously invents a love triangle involving the Lunts and the young Uta Hagen, which he models on scenes from Chekhov’s play. It’s a conceit that sounds good on paper but doesn’t create any real dramatic traction – the play is much stronger and engaging when it is a simple backstage comedy in the style of Stage Door, or concerns itself with Alfred’s somewhat repressed homosexual leanings.
In all of the play’s various phases, director Dan Wackerman has gotten behind Hatcher 100% – when the writing is light Wackerman goes with that, when it’s heavy he goes that way. While basically an honorable and intelligent approach, this has the unfortunate (and I’m guessing unintentional) effect of highlighting the weakness of the more Chekhov-inspired scenes.
Obviously I think Ten Chimneys is far from perfect. However, if you are a fan of the legend of the Lunts – as I am – or simply of backstage comedy in general, there is actually plenty to enjoy here.
For tickets, click here.
For more reviews and interviews by Jonathan Warman, see dramaqueennyc.com.
Jonathan Warman to direct "Hard Sparkle: The Short Plays of J. Stephen Brantley"
Jonathan Warman (director, New York premiere of Tennessee Williams’s Now the Cats With Jewelled Claws) will direct Hard Sparkle: The Short Plays of J. Stephen Brantley. Performances are for two nights only October 29 & 30 at The Duplex.
About this production, Jonathan says, “I have collaborated with J. Stephen more frequently than any other playwright. He is the most singular American playwrighting talent I’ve come across in any context, one of the most distinctive voices in the country. I am honored – astonished almost – to have worked with him as often as I have. He has rich reserves of humanity and compassion, and wry humor. His writing – which vibrates with rock and roll energy and yet possesses sweetness and aching psychological subtlety – is highly stimulating and challenging. He is very inspired by the voice of individual actors, and rehearsal (which he loves) especially fires his deeply theatrical imagination. I am thrilled to be pulling together some of his best work for this special, two-night-only showcase.”
The plays are:
Nevertheless – After nearly stabbing her husband at the breakfast table, Iris walked out of her Park Avenue apartment bound for Nashville, Tennessee. Returning to the dingy barroom where she misspent her twenties, she hopes to recapture some of the excitement of a bygone era. What Iris finds is Trevor, a washed-up-before-he-started country crooner, the hard truth, and a new start.
Hard Sparkle – Actress Anne Eaton-Hart has taken to her bed. Swindled of millions and having lost an Emmy to Susan Lucci, Anne is convinced she’s dying. While her devoted accountant Eddie does his level best to lift her spirits, nothing less than divine intervention will resurrect the self-obsessed star.
Break – During the late hours of a summer night on the coast of Eastern Long Island, a displaced Englishman and the drug addict who breaks into his home confront their differences and, more importantly, discover their secret similarities.
Hard Sparkle runs October 29 & 30 at 7pm. The Duplex is located at 61 Christopher Street at Seventh Avenue. Tickets are $12 plus a 2 drink minimum. To purchase tickets, call (212) 255-5438 or visit www.theduplex.com.
For more about Jonathan Warman’s directing work, see jonathanwarman.com.
