The 1997 play is playing on Broadway for the first time and stars part of its original cast.
“Intense, captivating, and funny. Writer Gluck has a devious imagination and a sense of humor that makes real life a feast on stage” – The Chicago Critic
“A remarkable debut play that turns on a major revelation which affects all family members and turns the comedy into a biting life-and-death drama” – BWW
“A drama that is likely to hit home with audiences”– Boca Raton Tribune
This season of off broadway has taken viewers to magical places, shown us the true meaning of life and morality, made us laugh with hilarious solo shows, and so much more. It’s truly been an incredible season, and Sunday’s Lucille Lortel Awards celebrated the magic of these beautiful shows. Created in 1985 by the Off-Broadway League and named for the award winning actress and producer who was honored with a theater in her name, the awards honor the excellence of the time, dedication and craft of Off-Broadway shows.
It was the first time the awards had been held in person in three years, and it was a joyous occasion for all involved. Awards were given to recipients in 16 categories, with two honorary awards also bestowed. The Awards were distributed in a ceremony at NYU Skirball hosted by three pairs of stars from stage and screen: Jared Grimes (Broadway’s “Funny Girl”) and Jeff Hiller (HBO’s “Somebody Somewhere”), Krysta Rodriguez and Jelani Alladin (“Hercules”), and Jennifer Simard and Christopher Sieber (“Company.”) The Lucille Lortel Awards are produced by the Off-Broadway League and Lucille Lortel Theatre, with additional support provided by TDF.
The big winners of the night were David Lindsay-Abaire‘s Kimberly Akimbo, and Heather Christian’s Oratorio For Living Things, each taking home three awards. Additional winners included Black No More, English, Fairycakes, Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord, Letters Of Suresh, On Sugarland, Prayer for the French Republic, Sanctuary City, The Chinese Lady and TWILIGHT: LOS ANGELES, 1992.
The inaugural Outstanding Ensemble award was presented to the cast of Ars Nova’s Oratorio For Living Things. Both Performer in a Musical awards were presented to Kimberly Akimbo – Lead to Victoria Clark andFeatured to Bonnie Milligan. The Atlantic Theater Company production with Book and Lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire and Music by Jeanine Tesori, also received the award for Outstanding Musical. Sanaz Toossi’s English, a co-production of Atlantic Theater Company and Roundabout Theatre Company, took home the award for Outstanding Play.
Two special honorees this year we’re granted incredible awards. Deirdre O’Connell was presented the Lifetime Achievement Award by Heidi Schreck; and David Henry Hwang was inducted onto the famed Playwrights’ Sidewalk by Jeanine Tesori.
We we’re so honored to witness this beautiful celebration of off broadway! Here more about the awards here!
Are ya 1? Are ya 2? Are ya 3?…and the extension of the “Happy Birthday” song continues, much to the dismay of those dreading adding another year to their tally. Noah Haidle’s latest play (and Broadway debut), Birthday Candles challenges the negative connotations of the passage of time and ideas associated with getting older, as it focuses on aging as the concept of adding tools to life’s toolkit and wisdom to one’s rhetorical autobiography (and on the amount of goldfish and buttery, vanilla cake one can consume).
But truly, what’s in a lifetime? Time doesn’t end when you go to college. Time doesn’t end when you find love. Time doesn’t end if/when you get married. Time doesn’t end when you have kids, grandkids, and then on. Hell, time doesn’t end if you end a first marriage and pivot the direction of your career at age 48. If anything, time moves on and new opportunities are presented to you. The good, the bad, the beautiful, the ugly, and everything in between. Birthday Candles touches a bunch of extremely relatable themes such as mental health, questioning one’s self identity, priorities, boundaries, but most importantly (in my opinion) is that it’s never too late.
We had the remarkable opportunity to sit down with Noah and connect on Birthday Candles.
TK: Firstly, what a BRILLIANT piece of work. Congratulations! Poignant, sophisticated, yet casual, relatable, funny yet emotional. How did you go about approaching a piece that could tap into all of those emotions and more?
NH: I knew if I got this one right it could be a very effective play (as opposed to some of the plays I’ve written which have been complete shit), so I tried to approach it with great caution.
TK: Process wise, how long did this take you to write?
NH: Six years. The first word I wrote for this play was in April of 2016 and the last was a week before opening in April of 2022. With a total of just over 15,000 words, that’s like 6.8 words a day, which is pretty much as many as the list of ingredients of mayonnaise. Pretty slow.
TK: One of the things I love most about Birthday Candles is that it shows that life is not perfect, but it happens. People make mistakes. Sometimes huge mistakes, but it’s never too late to change your mind and revisit prior thoughts. Was this theme based on any event(s) in particular for you?
NH: Yes. More than I would prefer.
TK: Debra Messing. That’s it. The way she portrays Ernestine at every stage, it’s remarkable. Do you have a favorite aged Ernestine of hers?
NH: My favorite is her hunched and surly 107 year old. I don’t know if I’ll be so lucky to make it that long, but if I do, I want to be exactly like Debra’s rambunctious yet open hearted 107, including, of course Debra’s otherworldly sense of comedic timing.
TK: Bravo to you for tackling mental health, aging, divorce, illness in relatable and practical ways – what is one key takeaway you wish for audience members to take away from seeing Birthday Candles? (it can be more than one)
NH: That life is a miracle. (Might as well go big, right?)
TK: How many goldfish have you owned in your life?
NH: One. As a kid. Spot. The idea for the play began when I was telling my wife about Spot and she misinterpreted my reminiscences as an expression of deep longing to own another goldfish and surprised me with a new, unwanted goldfish for my birthday. (If you haven’t seen the play, this anecdote will mean nothing, if you haven’t seen the play, you totally should).
We loved chatting with Noah as much as we loved watching his writing play out on stage. With brilliant direction by Vivienne Benesch, this play is funny, heart-wrenching, emotional at its core – a work for all ages.
P.S. – Debra Messing is truly outstanding in this work! What she is able to accomplish in those 100 minutes is beyond impressive and worthy of a visit to the American Airlines Theatre alone.
Birthday Candles is a Roundabout Theatre Company production and runs thru May 29. You can learn more about the show and ticket information by visiting: https://www.roundabouttheatre.org/
“It’s about a Black gay man writing a musical about a Black gay man who’s writing a musical about a Black gay man who’s writing a musical about a Black gay man, etc.,” or in short, it’s about life. That’s what 25-year-old Usher (Jaquel Spivey), the main character of Strange Loop says.
Photo credit: Marc J. Franklin, 2022
The “big, Black, and queer-ass American Broadway show” by Michael R. Jackson (writer, music, lyrics) opened on April 26 at the Lyceum Theatre and it just might be the most self-reflective piece currently on Broadway. Behind the raw and self-deprecating comedy, Strange Loop still manages to address serious issues of identity, racism, religion, and the politics of being fat, Black, and queer, but somehow the delivery is more entertaining than offensive.
Well, don’t fall asleep but it’s a cognitive-science term that was coined by this guy named Douglas Hofstadter. And it’s basically about how your sense of self is just a set of meaningless symbols in your brain pushing up or down through one level of abstraction to another but always winding up right back where they started. It’s the idea that your ability to conceive of yourself as an “I” is kind of an illusion. But the fact that you can recognize the illusion kind of proves that it exists.
We watch Usher, who is himself a Broadway usher and musical theater writer, get in his own way of writing musicals with his self-doubt and unresolved trauma of growing up big, Black, and queer. Those struggles provide the meat for the production, but the core is truly Usher’s inner thoughts, which gives the show its movement.
It is hard to imagine Jaquel Spivey’s portrayal of Usher being his Broadway debut. As Usher, Spivey is powerful, smart, transparent, comical, and familiar as he confronts the audience with queer conversations and a visual representation of trauma through musical numbers and monologue.
Photo credit: Marc J. Franklin, 2022
Technically, Usher is the only character in the show, but he’s far from lonely as six “Thoughts” (portrayed by James Jackson Jr., John-Michael Lyles, L Morgan Lee, John-Andrew Morrison, Jason Veasey, and Antwayn Hopper) surround his every move from the start of the show until the end. These “Thoughts” also come in as Usher’s mom, dad, doctor, dating app prospects, ancestors, self-loathing, financial struggle, sexual ambivalence, etc., and they never leave the stage (at least not completely). And with the pressure from his mom, Usher is writing a Tyler Perry-like gospel play (per her request) which becomes a huge parody scene of its own, revealing stereotypes and downright abuse both in Usher’s family and religious community.
By this end, everything falls apart, both the play we’re watching from the audience and the play Usher is writing (and the one he’s not). It all falls apart or it all comes together in one large number, “AIDs is God’s Punishment.” By this time, the question is finally raised: “So that’s it? That’s really how the show ends? He just turns his back?”
You’ll have to decide whom the aforementioned question refers to once you see the show. And as far as the question of whether he’ll heal, change or be utterly overcome by his own sabotaging thoughts, whether he’ll succeed as a writer or continue to shy away from writing his dark truth, well, these things are all outside the bounds of a very, very strange loop because inside that loop, it seems as if change is just an illusion. And if change is an illusion, what does that make of Usher’s thoughts? What does that make of Usher?
Photo credit: Marc J. Franklin, 2022
Starring ANTWAYN HOPPER, L MORGAN LEE, JOHN-MICHAEL LYLES, JAMES JACKSON, JR., JOHN-ANDREW MORRISON, JASON VEASEY, and introducing JAQUEL SPIVEY
Book, Music, & Lyrics by MICHAEL R. JACKSON
Choreographed by RAJA FEATHER KELLY
Directed by STEPHEN BRACKETT
For tickets, click here.
Almost fifty years after its first run on Broadway, the theater piece is back and just as heartbreaking as it was before.
There is nothing quite like experiencing the world of Broadway for the first time, and Rosie O’Donnell is making sure that this can happen for as many kids as possible.
From Downton to Downtown…Lesley Nicol, famously known as Mrs. Patmore from the award-winning period drama, Downton Abbey, brings her charisma to New York City.
Catch the limited engagement viewing after opening night on April 25th.
Temptation has returned to Brooklyn.
“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” These words, spoken by the eponymous hero to his castaway companion in The Little Prince, apply as much to the magic of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s beloved novella as they do to the magic of theater.