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The bad boys will be acting up this season on the stage of NEW EDGECLIFF THEATRE, which just announced its 2007-08 season, under the theme of "men behaving badly." They'll open with Neil LaBute's Fat Pig (Oct. 4-20), a play about a man in love with a hefty woman. NET brings back The Santaland Diaries (Dec. 6-22), David Sedaris' account of his experiences working at Macy's in New York City as a Yuletide elf. The season will wrap up next spring with David Mamet's 1984 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner, Glengarry Glen Ross (May 8-24, 2008) about a cutthroat competition between real estate salesmen. NET will also present the second year of the Cincinnati Director's Competition (March 6-9, 2008), in which nine different directors will stage shows and one will be selected by audiences as their favorite. Info: 888-588-0137 or newedgecliff.com.
We have more summertime theater in Cincinnati than we did a few years ago. Once upon a time local theaters were dark during August but that's not true today; what and when is happening is still coming into focus. Several months ago NEW STAGE COLLECTIVE (NSC) announced that it would present Michael John LaChiusa's Hello Again at its new space in Over-the-Rhine (1140 Main St.). The musical is about 10 sexual interactions between 10 characters, one in each decade of the 20th century.
The bad boys will be acting up this season on the stage of NEW EDGECLIFF THEATRE, which just announced its 2007-08 season, under the theme of "men behaving badly." They'll open with Neil LaBute's Fat Pig (Oct. 4-20), a play about a man in love with a hefty woman. NET brings back The Santaland Diaries (Dec. 6-22), David Sedaris' account of his experiences working at Macy's in New York City as a Yuletide elf. The season will wrap up next spring with David Mamet's 1984 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner, Glengarry Glen Ross (May 8-24, 2008) about a cutthroat competition between real estate salesmen. NET will also present the second year of the Cincinnati Director's Competition (March 6-9, 2008), in which nine different directors will stage shows and one will be selected by audiences as their favorite. Info: 888-588-0137 or newedgecliff.com. ...
We have more summertime theater in Cincinnati than we did a few years ago. Once upon a time local theaters were dark during August but that's not true today; what and when is happening is still coming into focus. Several months ago NEW STAGE COLLECTIVE (NSC) announced that it would present Michael John LaChiusa's Hello Again at its new space in Over-the-Rhine (1140 Main St.). The musical is about 10 sexual interactions between 10 characters, one in each decade of the 20th century. NSC, which provides a nurturing environment for young performers and creators, engaged recent Williams College grad and Cincinnati native ANDREW LAZAROW to direct, in addition to a cast of 10. Lazarow wrote and directed All We Can Handle, NSC's much praised entry in the 2006 Cincinnati Fringe Festival; the Hello Again cast included two CEA nominees and grads of UC's College-Conservatory of Music, ADAM STANDLEY and ANTHONY DARNELL. But NSC's start-up financial state has forced some tough decisions, leading to the July 23 resignation of Lazarow and his entire cast, citing a lack of collaborative decision-making. (For more, see my analysis at blogs.citybeat.com/ae) Lazarow is seeking another venue for an August presentation of Hello Again or an original translation of the 1897 play on which LaChiusa's musical is based, Arthur Schnitzler's Le Ronde. Meanwhile, NSC's ALAN PATRICK KENNY is taking a retrospective look at his company's last five years by re-staging a show offered during his company's inaugural season in 2003, Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years. Kenny's production was the regional premiere of a song cycle that has been popularly staged by many theaters around the U.S., including the Cincinnati Playhouse in 2005. Kenny has the rights to the show but is still settling on dates; it's likely that the two-person song cycle about a failed marriage will be presented the final three weekends in August. ...
Meanwhile, KNOW THEATRE OF CINCINNATI (where many of the players involved in NSC have been featured) will present another piece of compelling contemporary musical theater, the regional premiere of Thrill Me: The Leopold and Loeb Story (Aug. 9-26), with book, music and lyrics by Stephen Dolginoff. The show is based on the true story of two bright but twisted young men who murdered a 14-year-old boy in Chicago in 1924 to prove they could get away with it — although they didn't. The cast includes STEVE COPPS, making his debut with Know, and MIKHAIL ROBERTS, a CEA-nominee at CCM about to enter his senior year as a major in dramatic performance. Tickets: 513-621-2787. ...
CCM continues to bring excellent musical and dramatic talent to the UC campus: JOSEPH CHISHOLM from Orange Park, Fla., will receive one of seven Cincinnatus Scholarships, which provides full coverage for four years of tuition, books, room and board and other fees, a $76,000 value. Chisholm, elected to Who's Who of High School Students, served as president of his high school's National Honor Society chapter and led the drama club and the Spanish Honor Society. In addition to performing in many musical theater productions, he found time to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity and the American Cancer Society.
contact rick Pender: rpender(at)citybeat.com