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07.16.07
Flowers, Light,
Water, and Sky |
In early May, 1965, Lady Bird Johnson visited New York for the then-annual Salute to Spring ceremony and was also here to receive the city's Gold Medal of Honor, awarded at a ceremony in the New York Public Library. The medal was in recognition of her national efforts which these days we would identify as environmentalist. It was rainy for much of the visit, but as usual, Lady Bird had a resolutely sunny, expansive sense of what was possible. She said,
"We want to see landscaped streets at every turn, flower boxes on windowsills and masses of flowers where masses pass. We want to see more historic buildings, churches and monuments aglow with light. We want to hear more fountains splashing with water. We want more parks and plazas opens to the sky with benches where we can enjoy the vistas."
One of the quietest, but most cheering things following September 11th was the creation of The Daffodil Project, led by New Yorkers for Parks. Three million daffodils now bloom annually in over 2,000 sites around the borough, thanks to this project and the 20,000 volunteers who help with planting. A touchingly generous offer from Dutch bulb supplier, Hans van Waardenburg, helps make the project possible. He's pledged to donate 500,000 daffodil bulbs every year as long as the city has enough volunteers to plant them. Volunteer and donation information is here.
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The main photo today of Lady Bird, shown with Mayor Wagner, is by Bill Stahl and is available as a print through the Municipal Archives.
By George Spelvin
COMING SOON TO A THEATER NEAR YOU #1:  Oscar-winning screenwriter Charlie Kaufman is directing his first movie. Synecdoche, New York, which he also wrote, is all about the theater. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays a stage director who ambitiously attempts to put on a play by creating a life-size (!) replica of New York inside a warehouse. By the way, the first word in the title (pronounced sin-NECK-duh-key) is both a play on the town of Schenectady, where some of the film takes place, and a figure of speech in which a part is used to describe the whole. What, you were expecting something less inscrutable from the guy who wrote Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind? A writer at the L.A. Times gushed about an early draft of the script: "No one has ever written a screenplay like this. It's questionable whether cinema is even capable of handling the thematic, tonal and narrative weight of a story this ambitious. But, as one character says, "People starve for something of worth.'" No word yet on a release date (they were still filming in Brooklyn as recently as a few weeks ago), but the producers showed off the movie poster at May's Cannes Film Festival.
IS BROADWAY'S GLASS HALF-FULL OR HALF-EMPTY? When the 2006-07 season ended a few weeks back, there was a lot of hoopla about how Broadway has never sold more tickets or grossed more money,  — and I'm sure that is part of the reason a number of shows felt emboldened to raise their top ticket prices by another five, ten or, um, two hundred bucks. (Yeah, I'm talking to you, Dr. Frankenstein.) But here's a reality check: of the 35 new productions that opened on Broadway last season, only four earned back their investors' money. Four. Vertical Hour, Moon for the Misbegotten, Butley and A Chorus Line (the only one still running). The other 31 shows have yet to recoup or, worse, closed at a loss of at least $60 million, according to Bloomberg News. So why do people still throw their money into a business which fails 80-90% of the time? "You have to look at it like a mutual fund," said Sonny Everett, an insurance broker and partner in a family real-estate business, who was an associate producer on the long-running hit Avenue Q as well as the short-lived flop High Fidelity. "Some shows work out, some don't. You have to love it."
THE TIMES THEY ARE A-SHRINKING: Today, The New York Times increased their newsstand and subscription price from a buck to $1.25 weekdays and from $3.50 to $4 on Sundays. A few weeks from now, on August 6th, it will reduce the physical size of the paper — cutting its page width by about 1½ inches — so we'll be paying more for less. Needless to say, the Times is not reducing its exorbitant ad rates, so theater insiders are struggling to figure out a way to squeeze their shows into the new, narrower ad sizes without losing impact or stretching their budgets. I guess it's only a matter of time before the Times starts putting the more voluminous movie ads up front in the Sunday Arts & Leisure section and push the theater ads to the back with classical music. On the editorial side, look for arts coverage to shrink, too. According to a leaked internal memo from executive editor Bill Keller, stories (and presumably reviews and listings) will be about 5-10% shorter. Maybe they should change their motto to "All The News We Can Fit."
SOME ENCOURAGING NEWS:  Although this next story was barely covered in the press, there was some theater news of potentially huge importance a few weeks back: for the first time in maybe forever, the three major Broadway landlords have put aside their differences and joined forces with presenters on the road and other performing arts organizations to create a nationwide customer loyalty program called Audience Rewards. This is long overdue for the theater business, which still operates mostly like it's 1973.
BECAUSE YOU'RE ONLY AS GOOD AS YOUR NEXT TONY-WINNING HIT: This month at the Public Theater, there will be a workshop of a new play with songs about the Roman emperor Nero by Spring Awakening's Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater. The show had its world premiere last year at San Francisco's Magic Theatre after developmental work at Cornell University in 2005. The workshop is being helmed by Daniel Kramer (whose current London revival of Angels in America has divided critics) and underwritten by Carole Shorenstein Hays. Also on tap for Sheik & Slater: The Nightingale, based on the story by Hans Christian Andersen, directed by James Lapine. Sheik told the Detroit News they hope to have a production ready by next year.
 COMING SOON TO A THEATER NEAR YOU #2: He's been secretive about his long-awaited return to Broadway, but 9-time Tony winner Tommy Tune (pictured) has signed on for two new projects. The first, which he will direct and choreograph, is a sort-of jukebox musical called Turn of the Century, conceived and written by Jersey Boys' Rick Elice and Marshall Brickman who have stitched together a score by famous songwriters of the early and mid-20th century. It's rumored to get its start at Chicago's Goodman Theatre next season. Tune's other project has him stepping into Fred Astaire's shoes in a stage version of Astaire's 1949 film The Barkleys of Broadway, produced by old pals Fran & Barry Weissler. Yes, the same pals who were forced to close Tune's last show out of town — 1995's Busker Alley — and then got sued (albeit unsuccessfully) by an investor.
JUST ASKING: The cast of Xanadu performs at least part of their show in roller skates. The company of The Little Mermaid will be performing their show in "heelies'.  And this fall, one of the entries in the 2007 New York Musical Theater Festival is a production of the long-aborning musical Roller Derby. Does this mean we're due for a revival of Starlight Express? Heck, it's never really gone away. The German production just celebrated its 19th birthday last month. |
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