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A Conversation With Christopher Durang
This appeared in my book What Playwrights Talk About When They Talk About Writing, which was published by Yale University Press in 2017. Q: When I’m asked to teach, I discover more about what my philosophy is just because I’m required to articulate it to others. To what degree have you surprised yourself teaching? To Continue reading
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Review: DEAD OUTLAW
I didn’t expect to see two musicals within one year about the disposition of corpses. But, yes, last summer I saw the London hit, Operation Mincemeat and the other day I saw Dead Outlaw. Both shows are based in fact. Mincemeat is about a misinformation operation run by British intelligence during WWII which involved dressing Continue reading
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Thoughts on Two Solo Shows
Some years ago, a famous singer contacted me to explore the idea of my writing a solo show for her. We had a few pleasant meetings to talk about structure and tone and which out of her catalogue of songs to include in the evening. Part of her history, though, included the death of a Continue reading
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“Pericles”
Often when an improv scene is going nowhere, the director will shove an actor onto the stage to bring a new energy, a new texture, a new something to play. And sometimes it works. Particularly if the new actor comes on with a powerful objective or obsession and the people onstage can turn from the unrewarding Continue reading
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Review: “Brooklyn Laundry”
I sometimes wish I knew less about how plays are built. I’ve been going to the theater regularly since my early teens and putting up plays professionally for more than 50 years, so the techniques and conventions of naturalistic dramatic writing are imprinted as pathways as broad as six-lane highways in my brain. On the Continue reading
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Thoughts on “Aristocrats” and “Appropriate”
Brian Friel’s Aristocrats is set in Ireland and Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins’s Appropriate is set in the American South, but they have similar things in mind. Aristocrats takes place in and near a crumbling Irish manor house. Appropriate takes place in a crumbling Southern mansion. The two are crumbling because of a lack of money and will Continue reading
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Review: “Jonah”
I recommend Rachel Bonds’s new play Jonah (currently playing at the Roundabout’s off-Broadway venue) despite the fact that it doesn’t quite work for me. But I often get something valuable out of plays that I don’t think work. Despite the title, Jonah is not primarily about the character of Jonah. He is one of three Continue reading
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Review: “Job”
I’ve said it before, but what the hell: I think there is a difference between being a reviewer and being a critic. A reviewer is someone you check with to decide whether you want to see something. A critic is someone who discusses the work in some kind of depth, on the assumption that you’re Continue reading
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Thoughts on MAESTRO
One of the many posters on Facebook said he didn’t see where the drama was in Bradley Cooper’s film about Leonard Bernstein, Maestro. Here was an enormously successful and talented guy who had one artistic triumph after another who managed to hold onto his family and still shtup whoever he wanted. Where were the obstacles Continue reading
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Jeffrey Sweet--Making the Scene 