The Month of Magical P.R.

The P.R. machine has revved up for the Broadway version of Joan Didion's "The Year of Magical Thinking," and I'm eating it all up. Like a few other million people, I was entraced by this memoir on grief. The New York Times recently ran Didion's diary-like article about working on the Broadway show, and New York Magazine just published evocative behind-the-scenes photos of the play. The one-woman show, starring Vanessa Redgrave and directed by David Hare, opens March 29. (Photos by Brigitte Lacombe via New York Magazine)

Everyone Knows Her

New York loves Miranda July. The performance artist's four-day engagement at The Kitchen is completely sold out. July has received a ton of ink from the NY press in regard to this multi-media performance called "Things We Don't Know About and Definitely Are Not Going to Talk About." I was quite taken with her film "You and Me and Everyone We Know," but I don't frankly understand what all the current fuss is about. Here are some previews and profiles from Time Out and NY Sun. (Image via The Kitchen)

Alex de Large Meets Fosse

I saw this image in the paper. I dig it, so I'm posting it. (Kevin Townley in Eugene O'Neill's "Marco Millions (based on lies)," which recently opened at the Lion Theater on 42nd St.) Photo credit: Andy Criss.

Dating & Jungles in D.C.

If I lived in Washington, DC, this week, I'd see "May 39th" at the Capital Fringe Festival and check out the Henri Rousseau exhibit at the National Gallery of Art. "May 39th" is a play about dating in the year 3006 (it's a comedy, folks). Written by Callie Kimball, the play runs July 21-29. Here's the site for more info. (Full disclosure: Callie was an actress in a short film I directed.) The Rousseau show sounds amazing. The NY Times' Roberta Smith had an interesting article about the exhibit. As a kid, "The Dream" was one of the first paintings to truly entrance me. How I wish it were coming to NY!

Grief on Broadway

When I first heard that Joan Didion's book, "The Year of Magical Thinking" was going to be a Broadway play, I kind of chuckled. The book, which is a memoir about the year after Didion's husband died, is a personal book about grief. Making it into a stage act seemed along the lines of making a musical of "The American Way of Death." I also imagined Joan Didion up there on stage, taking bows and blowing kisses to the crowd as the curtain fell. But now I read that Vanessa Redgrave will play the role of Didion and that the play will be a one-woman monologue. I'm intrigued. This could work very well. The play will open next spring, and I'm sure it will be one of the hottest tickets in town. (Image via NYTimes)

In the Flesh

This sounds like fun. Deborah Harry is playing Athena in Richard Move's danced play "The Show (Achilles Heels)." She'll sing and dance and look amazing (she's 60!) for a limited run engagement at The Kitchen. (Image via The New Yorker)

Jupiter Zoom

If you're in the Washington, DC, area this week and want to see some fun theater, check out "Jupiter Zoom" at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts. Directed and written by Callie Kimball (she acted in a short film I directed many moons ago), "Jupiter Zoom" will be playing from March 21 to 26. Click here for more details. By the way, Callie's blog, Lucky Spinster, which I've been reading for years, was the inspiration for Amp Power.

God Exists

By the grace of God, Britney Spears has declined to take on the starring role in the Broadway revival of "Sweet Charity." Christina Applegate, who has received mixed reviews, will close out the show, which will end December 31. This revival has had a ton of ups and downs, a million off- and on-again permutations, and Britney S.'s taking over the reins would've been the icing on the cake. The idea of B.S. singing some of my favorite Broadway tunes would have turned my stomach and had poor Gwen Verdon and Bob Fosse spinning in their graves.

Albee Goes Lowbrow

I had to read this twice, and you probably will too: Edward Albee, one of our preeminent drama playwrights, is a fan of "That '70s Show," a super lame, brain-draining sitcom on Fox, starring Ashton Kutcher. This week's New York Magazine asked Mr. Albee questions about influences. Here's the section that gave me pause:

NYM: I’ve read that you used to skip your own premieres.

Edward Albee: Yes—if I could find a Monty Python movie, I would go there. I do think Fawlty Towers is one of the greatest television series. Right now, I’m deeply enamored of a really bad show called "That ’70s Show." It’s fucking funny.

I guess he has the escape-route phrase "a really bad show" to save himself from this confession, but he does describe it as "fucking funny." He sees something in it that I simply can't. (Image via South Methodist University)

Sweet Gwen Verdon

I came across this image in a magazine that I was about to toss out, and it struck me. It reminded of the real Sweet Charity--Gwen Verdon. I think this collage accompanied a review of the revival of "Sweet Charity" with Christina Applegate. (This new version has received tepid reviews, by the way.)
If you're interested in the on-again, off-again, on-off-on roller coaster ride of this production, check out this article.
I'm a huge fan of the original Sweet Charity Gwen Verdon, who died in 2000 at age 75. (To learn anything & everything about Gwen, check out this amazing fan website.)
For the past two years, I've listened obessively to the Sweet Charity soundtrack with Gwen, which includes "If My Friends Could See Me Now," "There's Gotta Be Something Better than This," and "I'm the Bravest Individual." It always puts me in a good mood.
I love this image of Ms. Verdon and her then-husband Bob Fosse. (Don't even get me started on my minor addiction to All That Jazz.) I particularly like how they're both clenching down on cigarettes while dancing.