New York is always the world's hub of hip-hop, as well as its capital of theater, but once a year, the best of both worlds fuse together in an unlikely pairing: The Hip-Hop Theater Festival.
Running now through October 11, the HHTF presents spoken word, drama, dance, rapping, singing and other performances that embrace the hip-hop aesthetic. If you want theater to be just a little less snobby--or hip-hop to get a little bit more intellectual--this one's for you. The highlight of this year's festival is Taking Over: The All City Tour, a new play from festival founder Danny Hoch.
The festival is taking over venues throughout four boroughs (sorry, Staten Island!), and many performances are free. But that doesn't mean you can just show up--the free events are ticketed and usually "sold" out--check out the HHTF website to reserve seats.
A stolen copy of the First Folio, the first known collection of William Shakespeare's plays, turned up last week in DC when a rare-book enthusiast took it to the Folger Shakespeare Library. In a case of no good deed goes unpunished, the British man is being considered a suspect in the 1998 robbery of the document from Durham University in England.
While not as rare as the Holy Grail (or even Crystal Skulls!), First Folio copies are still relatively rare, and the Folger has the largest collection in the world, with 79 of the estimated 228 left in the world. (A thousand were supposedly printed.) In case you have one stashed under your mattress, it could be worth over $6 million at auction.
Dead tree media not your scene? See one of the First Folio plays, "Hamlet," for free at the Carter Barron Amphitheatre (16th St. and Colorado Ave. NW) this summer with the Shakespeare Theatre Company. Pick up your gratis tickets at the Washington Post office every weekday or at the theater on the day of the show. But leave kids under 10 at the nunnery, as this show contains "sexual content."
Antonio Banderas will always be Che in the big-screen "Evita" adaptation to us, but the voice of Puss and Boots has set his sights on bringing "Don Giovanni" to Broadway.
The actor received a Tony nomination for "Nine," the Fellini-inspired musical whose own movie is currently filming, but apparently he won't go home until he gets the gold for playing the classical doomed rake.
He's going to have a lot of competition for those tourist eyeballs: Daniel Radcliffe bows this fall with his revival of "Equus" that played in London last year (complete with nudity!) and Katie Holmes will be appearing in an all-star revival of Arthur Miller's "All My Sons" with John Lithgow, Dianne Wiest and Patrick Wilson.
Josh Hartnett isn't even trying New York; he'll be debuting in the stage version of "Rain Man" in the West End. (He's playing the Tom Cruise character, not the Dustin Hoffman character.)
It was threatened, and now it will probably come to pass: Katie Holmes is in talks to appear in Arthur Miller's play "All My Sons" next year on Broadway, meaning that next year's Tony Awards will all be about The Holmes (and the creepy, scenery-devouring shadow of The Cruise as well).
Holmes is rumored to be playing the role of Ann Deever, the play's beautiful young catalyst and the daughter of a man convicted of shipping defective airplane parts to the troops during World War II. Shouldn't she be easing into this Broadway thing? We hear "Chicago" has openings.
Suddenly-super-hot Daniel Radcliffe will make his Broadway debut this fall, when he and the cast of "Equus" visit New York City. We assume you've already heard that the now-18-year-old star will appear naked on-stage for at least part of the production.
While we wouldn't call that the best reason to go see some theater, we can't deny it'll drive some ticket sales. Just know this: "Equus" isn't the kind of kid-friendly show you might expect from the "Harry Potter" actor. Previews at the Broadhurst Theatre start September 5; opening night is 9/25.
It's always baffled us that people will drop hundreds of dollars on Broadway shows without even knowing the plot of the musical they're gonna see. And we've heard more than a few stories that end with "Anyway, had I known those puppets were gonna have sex, I wouldn't have taken my parents."
Fortunately, The New York Times has gone and rounded up all the kid-friendly shows in the city, at least according to a mom of two tweens:
Many shows seem to beckon families with children but on closer inspection come with caveats, be it crude language, racy behavior or complex plot turns. If you're going to make the investment--which can run more than $400 for a family of four--what is worth the tab? What is appropriate?
Of course, if you like your theater on the racy side, just pick out the shows writer Robin Pogrebin suggests skipping. Among them are "Avenue Q" (featuring puppet sex and drinking games), "Spring Awakening" (center stage sex) and "Curtains" (lots of swearing).
If those aren't trashy enough for ya, you'll have to look Off Broadway. Scouting out the toilets at Central Park might be a good start.
The question is, how has Dolly Parton not been on Broadway already? The singer with larger-than-life, er, hair has an image bigger than Patti LuPone's voice, so New York columnist Cindy Adams' news that Parton is prepping a "9 to 5" musical seems like a natural next step.
The show, based on the 1980 movie about a badly behaved boss, will feature a whole new Dolly score to go along with the title song.
The "9 to 5" musical is projected to open at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre LA's Ahmanson Theatre in September before transferring to Broadway in 2009, behind the "Shrek" musical but ahead of proposed adaptations of "Catch Me If You Can" and "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner." Truly, nothing new under the klieg lights.
Update: Cindy Adams slipped up and said Dolly'd be playing at the Old Globe. "9 to 5" will actually debut at LA's Ahmanson Theatre.
Desperate to counter-program your Super Bowl XLII visit with some singing and dancing? Playing at two venues near Phoenix--Grimaldi's Pizzeria in Scottsdale and Arizona Broadway Theatre in Peoria--"Football: The Musical," combines two worlds you never thought would meet.
Creator Alexx Stuart, who has also written musicals about softball and a golf course called the Kilimanjaro Country Club, envisioned a team called the Arizona Wallabys whose owner has a suspicious boating accident right before the team heads to the Super Duper Bowl. All the songs are classic pop or rock songs with new lyrics, so you can almost sing along. For instance, if you know every football player named in the "We Didn't Start the Fire" parody, you should be all set.
We weren't able to get to Scottsdale for the show, but TheaterMaven.com described it as "raw, down to earth tomfoolery." We can totally get into that. Tickets are still available, and there are two performances before Super Bowl Sunday.
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by BS
