Dark Disabled Stories and Downstate Among 67th Obie Winners

Francis Guinan and K. Todd Freeman
in Downstate.
Credit: Joan Marcus

Dark Disabled Stories, Downstate, and The Comeuppance were among the winners of the 67th annual Obie Awards, presented by the American Theater Wing on Jan. 27 for excellence in Off and Off-Off-Broadway theater. The official 67^th Obie Awards season includes shows that opened between September 1, 2022 through August 31, 2023. 

This year instead of a live ceremony, the Obies were presented on NY-1's On Stage program. In lieu of the annual awards ceremony, the American Theatre Wing dedicated funds to the support and growth of the artists, by bestowing winners with grants ranging from $1,000-5,000.

The winners of The 67^th Obie Awards are:

 
BEST NEW AMERICAN PLAY

• Ryan J. Haddad, Dark Disabled Stories (The Bushwick Starr | The Public Theater)

PLAYWRITING

• Hansol Jung, Wolf Play (MCC Theater | Soho Rep | Ma-Yi Theater Company)
• Bruce Norris, Downstate (Playwrights Horizons | Steppenwolf Theatre Company |National Theatre)

DIRECTION

• Dustin Wills, Montag (Soho Rep), Wet Brain (Playwrights Horizons and MCC Theater), and Wolf Play (MCC Theater | Soho Rep | Ma-Yi Theater Company)
• Shayok Misha Chowdhury, Public Obscenities (Soho Rep | National Asian American Theatre Company)
• Faye Driscoll, Weathering (New York Live Arts)

 
SUSTAINED ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTING

• Eric Ting, The Far Country (Atlantic Theater Company) and The Comeuppance (Signature Theatre Company)
• Pam MacKinnon, Downstate (Playwrights Horizons | Steppenwolf Theatre Company| National Theatre)

Political Catch-Up: Nikki Haley's History Lesson

Nikki Haley denies history

Nikki Haley, former governor of South Carolina, former UN ambassador and still-clinging-on presidential candidate, put her foot in her mouth again earlier this week by saying the US has never been a racist country. Just to repeat--She didn't say it's not a racist country now, but that we had NEVER been a racist country. She made a fine distinction, stating that she herself had faced racism as a woman of color and the daughter of Indian immigrants, but that the country itself was not racist. 

Her demure was understandable, but cowardly. Earlier she screwed up by bunting on a softball question at a town hall about the cause of the Civil War and never mentioning slavery. As the governor of a former Confederate state she did not want to risk offending a large swath of potential supporters. With her never-racist answer, she hopes to curry favor with history-deniers and to emphasize America's good points and ignore or minimize its past transgressions. She says that there has been racism in our country, but that we are basically a "good" people at our core and in our founding there was the intent of everybody being treated equally. She is under the mistaken impression that we can all move forward without truly acknowledging our shameful past. 

Off-B'way Update: Obies on NY-1

Obie judge/Costume designer
Dede Ayite

The Obie Awards, presented for distinguished work in Off- and Off-Off-Broadway theater will forgo their usual ceremony and will present their 67th annual prizes instead on NY-1's On Stage program with Emmy winner Frank DeLella hosting on Sat. Jan. 27 at 7:30 pm. The awards were originally presented by the Village Voice and are now under the aegis of the American Theater Wing. Since the Wing is saving money by not staging a ceremony, the awards will be accompanied by grants ranging from $1,000-$5,000. Select winners will be announced in the categories of Playwriting, Direction and Performance for the 2022-23 Off and Off-Off-Broadway season. There will also be an in-depth look at the Obies' history and appearances by Tony Award nominee and Obie Award winner Kara Young (Purlie Victorious, Cost of Living); President and CEO of The American Theatre Wing Heather Hitchens; and Tony & Obie Award-winning playwright and librettist David Henry Hwang, who is also a former Chair of The American Theatre Wing.

B'way Update: Outer Critics and Chita Rivera Dates Announced

While the Oscars have been busy announcing their noms, the music industry has been gearing up for the Grammys and the NFL is readying itself for the Super Bowl, two New York theater awards have announced their dates. The Outer Critics Circle will give out their nominations for the best of the Broadway and Off-Broadway 2023-24 season on April 22 (the same day the Drama League puts out their noms) via press release. The winners will be announced on May 13 and the awards will be presented on May 23 at a location to be announced. 

Led by its current President, David Gordon, the OCC Board of Directors also includes Vice President Richard Ridge, Recording Secretary Joseph Cervelli, Corresponding Secretary Patrick Hoffman, Treasurer David Roberts, Harry Haun, Cynthia Allen, Dan Rubins, Janice Simpson, and Doug Strassler.  Simon Saltzman is President Emeritus.  Stanley L. Cohen serves as Financial Consultant.  The Board of Directors also serves as the Nominating Committee. Lauren Yarger serves as the Outer Critics Circle Awards ceremony executive producer.

Oscar Nomination Reaction and Early Predix

Barbieheimer dominated the
Oscar nominations.

The Oscar nominations held few surprises--Oppenheimer and Barbie, the two blockbusters of last summer which brought audiences back into the theaters following the pandemic, reaped the most nominations. Oppenheimer is the probable Oscar champ--a big, three-hour epic of an historical personage. There has been some grousing about Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie being overlooked for Best Director and Actress, but they have received nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay and as a producer for a Best Picture candidate respectively. 

This movie year has been an exciting one because I've been able to see most of the nominated films before the nominations came out. It was easier this year because big films reaped many nominations in multiple categories. In previous years, the field was dominated by smaller films like Nomadland, CODA, and Parasite which got fewer citations. Plus many of the acting categories featured performers whose nominations were the only ones for their films--I still haven't seen some of last year's nominees. 

B'way Update: Patriots to Open at the Barrymore

Will Kean as Vladimir Putin in
Patriots which will open at the Barrymore
Credit: Marc Brenner

Well, that was fast. No sooner did I report about the rumor yesterday that Peter Morgan's Patriots would open at either the now available Barrymore or Belasco, then it's announced today the play about Vladmir Putin's rise to power would be going into the Barrymore (where Harmony is about to close) for a limited, 12-week engagement starting with previews on April 1 and opening April 22. This will make for an extremely crowded final week before the Tony eligibility cut-off of April 25. The Heart of Rock and Roll, the Huey Lewis jukebox musical, will also be opening on April 22.

Tony nominee Michael Stuhlbarg (The Pillowman, A Serious Man, The Shape of Water) will play the lead role of Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky and repeating his Olivier Award-winning role of Putin will be Will Kean. 

B'way Update: Ohio Closes; What Will Move into the Belasco or Barrymore?

The cast of How to Dance in Ohio
Credit: Curtis Brown

Another new show has announced its closing. How to Dance in Ohio will join the soon-to-shutter Harmony and play its final performance at the Belasco Theater on Feb. 11 after 27 previews and 72 regular performances. The musical inspired by Alexandra Shiva's documentary on autistic young adults preparing for a dance at their center, opened on  Dec. 10.

"Developing new work is always a risk, but producing this show was an endeavor we eagerly accepted,” said the producers in a statement. “We're incredibly proud that this original, joyful, and life-affirming musical has deeply moved countless audience members at the Belasco Theatre and beyond. Broadway has been changed forever because of How to Dance in Ohio and all the artists involved. We look forward to seeing its legacy continue in new and exciting ways."

Pre-Oscar Viewing: Napoleon

Joaquin Phoenix in Napoleon
which will not conquer the Oscars.

On this weekend before the Oscar nominations are announced, we watched with Ridley Scott's Napoleon on Amazon for $20. (It's no longer playing in theaters in the greater NYC area.) Before it opened earlier in 2023, this historic epic sounded like perfect Oscar-bait (over two hours, real-life figures, historic sweep, plenty of battles, etc.), but it received tepid audience response and mixed to bad reviews. Now it looks like it might only cop a nod for costume design and perhaps special visual effects, and those chances are iffy. 

Slate dubbed the film a "spectacular mess" and I have to agree. If we hadn't listened to the podcast Real Dictators (narrated by Dr. Who Paul McGann) while driving to see my mom in Pennsylvania and relatives in New Jersey on Thanksgiving, I wouldn't have a clue as to what the hell was going on. Phoenix is drab in the title role and Vanessa Kirby adds a modicum of spice as Josephine but not enough to make this overbaked casserole palatable. You have to admire Scott for staging a plethora of epic battle scenes with horses plunging into icy, frozen water and canons ripping limbs from bodies. Yet there is so little in the way of exposition and context, we never learn the importance of these clashes and what the little emperor was trying to accomplish. Did he unify a fractured post-revolutionary France or grab power and territory for his own egotistical gratification? Was he a Hitler-like thug or a champion of the people? Or  both? Scott and his screenwriter David Scarpa never answer those questions. We get some supertitles with a sentence or two of explanation and the date. Oppenheimer was just as complex a subject, but Christopher Nolan made the conflicts, objectives and contexts much clearer.

B'way Update: Stereophonic Transfer, Harmony Closes

Stereophonic will transfer to Broadway
this spring
Credit: Chelcie Parry

As reported in an earlier blog as a rumor, the Broadway transfer for Stereophonic, David Adjmi's acclaimed play about a Fleetwood Mac-like group's struggles to make an album, is confirmed. The play which had a hit Off-Broadway run at Playwrights Horizons earlier this season, will begin previews at the Golden Theater on April 3 with an opening set for April 19 for a limited 14-week run. The cast, reprising their highly lauded performances, will include Will Brill as Reg, Andrew R. Butler as Charlie, Juliana Canfield as Holly, Eli Gelb as Grover, Tom Pecinka as Peter, Sarah Pidgeon as Diana, and Chris Stack as Simon.

Harmony will close on Feb. 4.
Credit: Julieta Cervantes

One opens and one closes: Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman's Harmony has posted its closing notice. The final performance at the Barrymore Theater will be Feb. 4 after 24 previews and 96 regular performances. The musical about the real-life Comedian Harmonists has taken a long and arduous path to Broadway. After a 1997 world premiere at the La Jolla Playhouse in California, a pre-Broadway try-out in Philadelphia was cancelled due to a lack of funds. There were subsequent productions in 2013 in Atlanta and Los Angeles. An Off-Broadway production in 2022 by the National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene won the Drama Desk Award for Sussman's book and inspired a Broadway transfer this season. This closing leaves the Barrymore open. Could a new show slip in before the Tony deadline of April 25? Perhaps a commercial transfer of Appropriate or Prayer for the French Republic which are on limited runs from Second Stage and Manhattan Theater Club respectively?

B'way Update: Gatsby Musical

Jeremy Jordan, Eva Noblezada, and 
Samantha Pauly in
The Great Gatsby at Paper Mill Playhouse.
Credit: Jeremy Daniel

The musical version of The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel of wealth, privilege, sex, and class, will open at the Broadway Theater on April 25, with previews beginning April 2. Tony nominees Jeremy Jordan (Newsies) and Eva Noblezada (Hadestown) will repeat their lead performances of Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan from the production at Paper Mill Playhouse earlier this winter. The show features music & lyrics by Tony Award nominees Nathan Tysen (Paradise Square) & Jason Howland (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Little Women), a book by Jonathan Larson Grant winner Kait Kerrigan (The Mad Ones), and is staged by award-winning director Marc Bruni (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical) and choreographer Dominique Kelley (“Mariah’s Magical Christmas Special”, “Dancing with the Stars”). 

Portraits of Oppression on Oscar Short List

The ABCs of Book Banning
Credit: MTV Documentary Films

There is a common theme among the films on the Oscar short list. Since the list came out I've been trying to catch as many of the shorter films as possible before the final Oscar nominations come out on Jan. 23. Many are available on YouTube or the various streaming services and they don't take up too much time. I even managed to catch a few on Paramount + which we recently rejoined so we could watch the Fellow Travelers limited series. The common thread is the return of oppressive and authoritarian movements or tendencies toward them. The Nazi Holocaust has always been a popular subject for Oscar-nominated docs, but with so many dictatorial leaders coming to the fore these days, new films chronicle repression. 

Just yesterday morning I streamed two 30-min. pieces linked by right-wing crushing of thought and creativity. The ABCs of Book Banning focuses on efforts in the USA to restrict access or ban books from school libraries which dare to document the stories of anti-semitism, LGBTQ people, African-American history, and other "scary" topics. Last Song from Kabul is a heart-wrenching portrait of Afghanistan's only all-girl orchestra. Of course, once the Taliban took over, their school was disbanded and the students, both male and female, left their families and flew to asylum in Portugal. 

In the two films, there were scenes of fascist thugs burning books--Nazis in the ABC film for historical context and the Taliban in the Kabul piece. In the ABC film, a 100-year-old year speaks before a school board, comparing their book-banning tactics to those of the Nazis her husband died fighting in World War II. The Taliban is also shown burning and destroying musical instruments. I never understood why the extremists hate music. Not just Western music, but ALL music including Afghani and Indian songs.  

SAG and DGA Noms; More Short Films on Oscar Short List

Annette Benning and Jodie Foster's
Oscar chances for Nyad increased with
their GG and SAG nominations.
Credit: Kimberley French/Netflix

More Film Award Season News: The SAG and DGA noms came out and I have squeezed in more short films from the Oscar shortlist. There were a few surprises on the SAG list. Annette Benning and Jodie Foster of Nyad snuck onto the list which surprised me. Now I have to watch it. Luckily it's on Netflix. The cast of May December was shut out and Willem Dafoe of Poor Things was nominated but not Marc Ruffalo from the same picture. Sandra Huller was snubbed in both leading and supporting categories for Anatomy of a Fall and Zone of Interest. I'm thrilled that the The Gilded Age cast was nominated for Best Ensemble in a Drama Series though they will probably lose to Succession. Also thrilled Colman Domingo was nominated for Rustin. Bradley Cooper copped a SAG nomination, but did not get a DGA nod. The tide seemed to have turned against Maestro for some reason. If the Critics Choice Awards also go for Cillian Murphy for Oppenheimer and Lily Gladstone for Killers of the Flower Moon, SAG might follow suit and the Oscars will too. 

B'way Update: Roundabout and Purple Rain

Daniel Dae Kim will
star in Yellow Face
at Roundabout's 
Todd Haimes Theater.

Roundabout Theater Company has announced major productions for its 2024-25 Broadway and Off-Broadway seasons and the new name for one of its flagship theaters. The American Airlines Theater will be renamed the Todd Haimes after the company's late artistic director. Three productions will make up the first season of the newly named Haimes. First up is the Broadway premiere of David Henry Hwang's Yellow Face, a comedy inspired by real events. Daniel Dae Kim (TV's Lost and Hawaii 5-0) stars as a stand-in for the playwright who protests the casting of non-Asians in Miss Saigon and then accidentally casts a white actor in one of his plays. Tony nominee Leigh Silverman (Violet) directs the production which will open in Fall 2024. Yellow Face opened Off-Broadway at the Public Theater in 2007. The events depicted in the play were based on the flop Broadway mounting of Hwang's play Face Value in 1993.

Next up is another Broadway premiere of a play previously seen Off-Broadway. Sanaz Toossi's English won the Pulitzer Prize after it opened at the Atlantic Theater Company in 2022 in a co-production with ATC and Roundabout. The play about an ESL class in Iran will open in the winter of 2024-25 with Knud Adams repeating his directing chores.

Golden Globes Reaction; Oscar Films Update

Oppenheimer was the big winner at the 86th annual Golden Globes Awards, winning five awards including Best Picture--Drama, Best Actor in a Drama (Cillian Murphy), Supporting Actor (Robert Downey, Jr.), Director (Christopher Nolan), and Score. The GGs were duller than usual with an unfunny host (Jo Koy, who spent too much time blaming his bad jokes and delivery on the writers) and an unsuccessful attempt to be more serious. The GGs had always been a big ratings grabber because the attending celebs had access to free booze and tended to let their hair down. But this year, the awards were given a reboot. Dick Clark Productions bought out and disbanded the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, reorganized the electorate to hopefully reflect more diversity and avoid the scandals of the past (such as awarding Pia Zadora an award because her millionaire husband gave the membership some expensive gifts.)

Barbie won the new, made-up category of Cinema and Box Office Achievement, so that Poor Things could triumph in the Comedy Picture category.

Side note: Evidently there was yet ANOTHER award ceremony the night before the GGs in Tinseltown. The Astra Awards presented by the Hollywood Creative Alliance honored Barbie with 8 wins. Oppenheimer got 4. The Hollywood Creative Alliance was founded in 2016 as the Los Angeles Online Film Critics Society and renamed in 2019 to Hollywood Critics Association. In 2023, the organization changed its name a second time, and rebranded its awards as the Astra Awards. These accolades are not to be confused with the Critics Choice Awards, the SAGs, or the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. And what about the Golden Sattelites? Do they still exist?

Nat'l Society of Film Crix Names Past Lives Best Pic

Tae Yoo and Greta Lee in Past Lives,
the NSFC's choice for Best Film.
Credit: A24

The National Society of Film Critics when their usual, off-the-beaten-path way and chose the small independent film Past Lives as Best Picture over blockbusters such as Oppenheimer, Killers of the Flower Moon and Barbie. The group, consisting of more than 60 film critics from across the country, met in NYC and LA on Jan. 6 for their 58th annual voting session to chose the outstanding achievements in cinema. They often pick unusual or unexpected choices for their top prize such as Ingmar Bergman's Persona, Shame, and Scenes from a Marriage,  Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow-Up, Costa-Gravas' Z and Mike Leigh's Life Is Sweet and Topsy Turvy. The organization was formed in 1966 by Hollis Alpert of the Saturday Review, Pauline Kael of the New Yorker, Joe Morgenstern of Newsweek, and Richard Schickel of Life magazine.

B'way Update: Sunset Confirmed, Smash Workshop

Tom Francis and Nicole Scherzinger in
the London revival of Sunset Boulevard,
set for Broadway sometime in 2024.
Credit: Marc Brenner

It's confirmed. In a previous blog, I reported the rumor the minimalist revival of Sunset Boulevard which is about to close in London, will transfer to Broadway. A somewhat vaguely worded press release announced that the show is indeed making the transatlantic leap sometime during this year. Former lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls Nicole Scherzinger will repeat her star performance as Norma Desmond, along with Tom Francis as Joe Gillis, Grace Hodgett-Young as Betty Schaeffer, and David Thaxton as Max Von Mayerling. No specific dates or a theater were reported in the press release. Johnny Olensinski of the New York Post reports the likely venue will be the St. James where Monty Python's Spamalot is currently playing and the opening will be in the fall of 2024.

Olensinki also reports that six-time Tony winner Audra McDonald will possibly become the sixth Mama Rose on Broadway in an upcoming production of Gypsy. 

Book Review: Manhattan Beach

(Found for free in library box outside of a church near our house.) I enjoyed Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad, Look at Me and Emerald City, so when I found a free copy of Manhattan Beach, I snatched it up. As with her previous works, this is a well-written, engrossing story, also extremely well-researched about the period (the Depression and WWII). But I had trouble caring about the three protagonists and figuring out Egan's theme or message to the reader. Is it the shifting nature of identity? Anna, the female diver, her father Eddie, a small-time semi-hood, and his boss Dexter, a big -time hood, all have to take on different guises when necessity or opportunity prevails. They each must take extreme measures to survive and maybe that's Egan's message about America in this era. Economic disaster and war drastically alter the lives of all.

The stories intertwine and the final resolution was satisfying as far as the father and daughter go, but without revealing too much, Dexter just drops out of the picture and his story is not resolved. Also I didn't get the reasons why Eddie and Dexter meet similar fates.

But Egan does get the evocation of New York in the 1930s and '40s right. The social morays and standards which dictate the characters' choices are clear. I also liked the supporting characters Brianne, Anna's hard-bitten but practical aunt, and Nell, Anna's worldly girlfriend, as well as Dexter's depressed desperate sister-in-law. A mixed bag.