On July 17th, The Knockturnal had the pleasure of attending Disney’s “Winnie-the-Pooh: The New Musical Stage Adaptation.”
Richard III is Shakespeare in the Park’s latest production at the Delacorte Theatre. The play starred Danai Gurira as Richard, who played Okoye in Black Panther and starred in The Walking Dead. The production features a differently-abled cast, including Ali Stroker from Oklahoma!. The stage was designed by set designer Myung Hee Cho. Metal obkelisks in semi-circles rotate around a central trap door, indicating different scenes. I had little interest in Shakespeare before this play, while still feeling like I had plenty of exposure to the old white man. His English required a new ear gear, which after two and half hours wears itself out.
Ironically I found language to be the highlight of this production. Gurira brought Shakespeare to life. Over an hour and a half into the play, the audience was still roaring at 17th century jokes. Shakespeare’s dialogue takes us right up to the heart of the conspiracy just to somersault into a joke.
His contemporaries like Hume and Voltaire who kings asked advice of, looked down at Shakespeare. He bent genres, he invented language and he combined humor with tragedy in the same monologue. They looked at the most influential writer of their time as a regretful case of all passion and no direction. This production does justice to a written tradition of reinvention. Richard III takes Shakespearean dialogue and characters in numerous directions.
Deaf actress Monique Holt plays the Duchess of York and delivers her lines with sign language. There was a moment in the play when the Duchess confronted Richard as a grieving mother and the theater went silent for what felt like minutes. Sometimes she’s assisted by a translator, dressed in all black, playing the role of her voice and servant. I never struggled to understand the Duchess’ pleas, even when the translator was silent.
The dialogue is where the production shines, but the plot is where it falters. Richard III is a quasi-psychological thriller. Shakespeare’s characters whisper their conspiracies to us through the fourth wall. These elements of Shakespeare were played down in comparison to the banter. No matter how entertaining a scene got I often thought, Who is this and why do they care?
Most criticism of Shakespeare in the Park’s latest production is aimed at Richards’ character. Robert O’Hara, acclaimed playwright and co-director, says that Richard’s “internal deformities” are a form of disability. But these internal machinations are understated in comparison to the rest of dialogue. Richard is supposed to be an outcast, forced into the role of a villain. The pace, the language, and the humor rolled over meaningful development of Richards, “internal deformities.” Without developed characters were left with caricatures. Being a black woman is not analogous to being the ugly son of a noble English family, and being a grieving medieval woman is not analogous to being deaf. That’s more of a token then a motif. Identity can’t become character.
Tina will end its run on Broadway on August 14 before beginning its 30-city national tour in the U.S. in September.
On Sunday, the biggest night on Broadway returned to its iconic home- New York City’s Radio City Music Hall. Outside of the theater, there were sparkling ballgowns as far as the eyes could see as Broadway stars took a night off from their usual eight-times-a-week performance lifestyle to celebrate the magic of theatre at the 75th annual Tony Awards.
On Sunday, an incredible Broadway season was celebrated as the biggest night on Broadway returned to Radio City Music hall for the first time since 2019 (after a smaller ceremony was held at the Winter Garden theatre in September of 2021.)
A story about mental health, trauma, and family issues, all told from the point of view of… an uncouth ten-year-old who still wets the bed?
‘Titanique The Musical’ celebrated its upcoming opening night with a press launch at The Frying Pan in New York City on June 7.
Marifé Hernández and Nizam P. Kettaneh hosted a cocktail reception on May 17th at New York’s French Consulate to celebrate the upcoming Musique Festival.
In her shocking, bold and astonishing broadway show Dana H, Deirdre O’Conell lip syncs to tapes created by Dana Higgenbotham, telling the harrowing story of her five months of abduction, creating a theater experience unlike any other. The play is crafted by Higgenbotham’s son, Lucas Hnath, and the concept of the tapes is an extremely unique way to do a show, but Deirdre takes on the challenge with grace. She has now earned herself a Tony Award nomination for best leading actress in a play. We spoke to Deirdre on the red carpet for The Vineyard Theater Gala on Monday, taking place at the iconic Daryl Roth theater. The gala honored the amazing New York City Council Member Carlina Rivera, and celebrated the music of the extraordinary late singer-songwriter Laura Nyro with performances and speeches by Latoya Edwards, Julie Benko, Brandon Victor Dixon Mandy Gonzalez, Judy Kuhn, Anika Noni Rose, and Wilson Jermaine Heredia. It was truly such a special night to be apart of as we watched incredibly talented people share stories, words, and miraculous performances in support of this amazing theater. We spoke to Mandy Gonzalez, Julie Benko and Deirdre O’connell about what it meant to be there in support of the arts, check out the full conversation below!
This season on Broadway has taken us to new worlds, taught us life lessons, and entertained us beyond belief with the most magical teams of performers, designers, directors, musicians, and so much more. This year we’ve been brought to the Five Points in 1800’s Manhattan, gotten seranaded by the wives of Henry the 8th, watched life through the perspective of a queer Broadway usher, witnessed the highs and lows of a struggling family through the music of Bob Dylan, sat right in the studio during the making of Michael Jackson’s thriller video, and so much more. It’s truly been a season for the ages, and after Broadway’s reopening in September, being able to witness live performances has never felt so incredible.
The nominations for the 2022 Tony Awards we’re announced on Monday, being read by Adrianne Warren, a nominee herself for her show stopping performance of Tina Turner in Tina: The Tina Turner Musical last year. The nominations couldn’t be more well deserved, with the Pulitzer Prize winning musical A Strange Loop leading with 11 nominations. Not far behind, Larry Kirwan’s Paradise Square walked away with 10 nominations. The nominations this year marked so many historical triumphs, paving the way for years to come.
There is something so astonishing about the creation of a new story based on incredible music, and Connor McPherson’s Girl From The North Country proves that with seven nominations. The show features a family living in a boarding house, trying to survive through the ups and downs of life, with a score made up of the music of Bob Dylan. Mare Winningham plays a woman struggling with dementia, constantly going back and fourth between having a lifeless distance to her, to childlike outbursts. The role is incredibly complex and layered, and Winningham has earned a very well deserved nomination for best leading actress in a musical. “She’s such a great character for the way that Connor Mcpherson has threaded her through the play,” Winningham said while talking about her character. “She’s hearing things that the others aren’t. So even though she is in that boarding house, she is trying to figure out how to survive like all the rest of them, she is hearing music and the others aren’t. In some ways, she’s with you, with the audience, she crosses the fourth wall and participates.”
It’s a new era of Broadway, and the shows we have seen this season have transcended. “I think that I wanted to do something that was so overwhelming that it was only possible in live theater,” The Skin of Our Teeth Set designer Adam Rigg said while being asked about the creation of this incredible show. “I think that coming back after the pandemic, everyone had been staring at screens for two years. And if we’d done it before the pandemic it wouldn’t have been any smaller, but every production that I’d worked on had been very scared back just because of the nature of how we’re working and how we have to work now for safety. But this one we made it to scale, we wanted people to look at it and see that this is what we do- this is what we can do.”
Broadway is a constant representation of what we can do, and what we constantly continue to do. Michael R Jackson built his pulitzer prize winning musical A Strange Loop up from the ground, and he is now nominated for two Tony Awards, for best score and best book of a musical. Not only that, but his show is leading for most nominations this year, with an incredible 11 nominations. “I think the thing that kept me going was trying to understand the experience of Usher,” Jackson said. “I did draw from personal experience to write it, but at a certain point it became not about me, it became about the idea of me, of I, of self. And I wanted to try to capture that, that Black, queer, gay self in a jar. The nuance of it, the specificity of it. I felt that if I could do it on the level of other pieces of art that I felt moved by, that that would love the needle somehow. It just was the story itself, I had to understand the loop.”
We loved getting to chat with the 2022 Tony Award nominees! Tune into CBS on June 12th at 8pm to watch the show!