A play is causing a ruckus amongst our friends on the other side of the pond. The Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Marat/Sade (The Persecution and Assassination of Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade) — originally written by Swedish playwright Peter Weiss — seems to be too “perverse” for British audiences. Ironically, the production was first staged at the RSC in 1964, where it was applauded for its progressive, avant-garde approach. Nearly 50 years later, up to 80 audience members a show are walking out on Marat/Sade — which is set in an insane asylum and revolves around inmate the Marquis de Sade’s play about the assassinated Jean Paul Marat. This play isn’t the first controversial theatrical work that upset audiences, however. Hit the jump for a look at other “shocking” stage productions.
Now that The Book of Mormon is Broadway’s second-biggest box-office hit of the year and two revivals of Christian-themed musicals — Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar — are making their way back to the stage this year, we think it’s fair to say that the theater has seen the way of the Lord. Has someone been putting sacrament in the water? Or have playwrights just gotten in touch with their devout — and devoutly satirical — sides? Either way, we’re more interested in how the current slate of God-oriented programming plays measures up to holy productions past, so we’ve ranked seven of them from burn-in-hell blasphemy to virginal virtue after the jump.
The grandson of famed playwright Oscar Wilde claims a new play, Constance, set to open on Friday at London’s King’s Head Theater is not Wilde’s “final play” as the theater company boasts, the Guardian reports. “It is dishonest to foist this on the public,” Merlin Holland says, calling the play “a pretty appalling piece of work” that is “marginally altered in order to sound a bit like Oscar Wilde.” The problem is that, although Wilde sketched the plot for Constance, it was actually written by several other playwrights before it became the play that is about to open.
“I’m completely comfortable calling it a play by Oscar Wilde,” says Adam Spreadbury-Maher, the artistic director of the theater. He adds that the production is careful to credit the lineage of the play and the various hands it passed through. But he isn’t doing himself any favors when he says the production is similar to how Damien Hirst “doesn’t paint all his paintings.” Probably not the best analogy to use when trying to convince people to pay good money to see Oscar Wilde’s last play. [via ArtsBeat]
Lately, the idea of rock stars bringing their material to Broadway has become a bit of a trend, with mixed results. Apparently not put off by Bono’s recent experiences on the Great White Way, Sting is collaborating with Brian Yorkey (the multiple prize-winning book writer and lyricist of the very excellent Next to Normal), on a new musical called The Last Ship, that will begin table readings in New York this October. While there’s no plot summary at the moment, based on the musical’s characters and setting (1980s Newscastle), it sounds like the show will be at least semi-autobiographical.
“I won’t say the score is complete, because the score’s not complete until God knows when,” Yorkey told ArtsBeat. “But he’s written a couple dozen, maybe 20, 24, amazing new songs for the show. He’s writing great theater music. It’s very, very distinctly Sting but it also is theater music. It’s not just pop music transposed into the theater.” What do you think? Does the softer, New Age yogi Sting have a rock musical in him? Or would you be more excited to hear what the Sting of an earlier era would have come up with?
Did you know that Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark isn’t Bono and The Edge’s first critically reviled musical? Back in 1990, the pair wrote the score for A Clockwork Orange 2004, a Royal Shakespeare Company production with a script written by none other than the cult classic’s author, Anthony Burgess (who later expressed his own disappointment in the show). One reviewer’s judgment that the musical was “a clockwork lemon” pretty much sums up the general reaction. A few other adaptations have followed, ranging from traditional plays to multimedia deconstructions.
But it turns out that Burgess, who died in 1993, wrote his own music for the 1990 production, which were passed over in favor of the U2 guys’ score. Now, a new version of the musical, timed to coincide with the novel’s 50th anniversary, is in the works and will feature the premiere of Burgess’s songs. International Anthony Burgess Foundation director Andrew Biswell tells the BBC that the music is “pretty close to West Side Story,” explaining, “There’s this scene in prison, where one of the prisoners is kicked to death, which is very throwaway and jolly. That’s completely different from the corresponding episode in the film, which is very gloomy and depressing.” If you plan to be in Manchester next year, this certainly sounds, um… interesting? [via Movieline]
The 1988 Broadway adaptation of Carrie — based on Stephen King’s book and Brian DePalma’s subsequent film — was such a notorious turkey that it became shorthand for ill-advised stage productions; a compendium book of them even bears the title Not Since “Carrie”. But somehow, the show still has its supporters, and it seems that a few of them have convinced investors that it deserves a second shot. Thus, Carrie will return to the New York stage early next year, albeit this time in an off-Broadway setting.
Carrie’s return may have as much to do with the current cautious atmosphere in the New York theatrical world as it does with the quality of the much-maligned production — with costs (and ticket prices) ballooning, Broadway producers seem only interested in sure things: revivals, big stars, so-called “jukebox musicals.” The theory is that the tourists who keep the New York stage solvent will only part with Broadway dollars if they’re spending them on a brand they’re familiar with; hence the Spider-Man musical, say, or The Million Dollar Quartet. And then, of course, there is the movie-to-stage adaptation — why not come see a live production of something you’ve already seen on film? Movie-to-musical shows have popped up sporadically for decades, but after the smash success of The Producers a decade ago, we’ve seen an onslaught; this season saw the debuts of Catch Me If You Can, Sister Act, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, in addition to long-running hits like The Lion King and Billy Elliot. But successfully staging a beloved movie is harder than it looks; it’s important to remember that for every Hairspray or Little Shop of Horrors, there’s an Urban Cowboy or High Fidelity. After the jump, we’ll take a look at ten popular movies that tanked on the boards.
Yes, that’s right. Everyone’s favorite ludicrous 90s rapper Vanilla Ice (née Robert Van Winkle) will make his British stage debut this December, playing Captain Hook in a “panto” production of Peter Pan at the Central Theatre in Chatham, UK. The theatre’s general manager Tony Hill told the BBC, “Ice is a huge name who I am sure will be a real draw for parents and children alike.” To us, this begs the question – do today’s children know who Vanilla Ice is? Also, really?
Panto, if you didn’t know (we didn’t), is short for pantomime, a form of comedic musical theatre, a yuletide tradition in the UK and Australia, among other countries. Apparently, this form of theatre is particularly popular in the UK, where the family shows are a mixture of ”song, dance, buffoonery, slapstick, cross-dressing, in-jokes, topical references, audience participation, and mild sexual innuendo.” Well, we know Vanilla Ice is tops at buffoonery and audience participation (at least we know we participate whenever “Ice Ice Baby” happens to a party), but can he pull off song and dance? Small children everywhere will soon find out.
The Glass Menagerie, A Streecar Named Desire, The Rose Tattoo, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof — all plays that wouldn’t have existed if Tennessee Williams hadn’t existed first. The American playwright did more to transform 20th-century theater than anyone else, and to celebrate the 71 years of his life we bring you 71 facts about the man whose birthday falls on March 26. After the jump, learn about a schizophrenic sister, a distant father, and a lonely son who felt compelled to write.
But it’s not what you think. Cooper has been cast as the narrator in the upcoming revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (which stars Daniel Radcliffe and begins previews on February 26 at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre), a role that was previously filled by Walter Cronkite in 1995 for the Matthew Broderick version. Before you get too excited at the prospect of seeing the Silver Fox take the stage alongside Harry Potter, be warned: it’s a pre-recorded voice-over part, so you won’t be seeing those national treasure peepers in person. [via EW]
Oh boy. Just when you thought everyone possible had weighed in on Julie Taymor and Bono’s disastrous Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark… it’s time for Glenn Beck to have his say. And guess what? The Fox News host and amateur cultural critic freaking loves the musical, thinks that New Yorkers (with French accents, of course!) hate it because they’re snobby, and goes on to explain how it’s a huge, brilliant metaphor for everything he believes. As Benjamin Sutton at The L Magazine sums it up, according to Beck, “Turn Off the Dark, it turns out, is a musical blockbuster about the American academic-scientific industry’s god complex, the lies surrounding global warming rhetoric, and the villainous research funded by big government.” Aha. Listen to the whole, surreal rant after the jump and follow along as we pick out Beck’s craziest theories and funniest words of praise.
