Last year, we started this blog with a post of Broadway-inspired Valentine’s Day dates. With a whole year of blogging under our belt, we decided to offer advice for 2016’s hopeful romantics – a new list of 14 theatrical twist to classic date-night activities.
read more
It’s almost New Years, and that means people around the world will be setting New Years resolutions to stay more healthy and fit in 2016. I’m no doctor, but I’ve come up with a list of four shows I would prescribe to keep you in tip-top shape in the new year.
read more
There are a lot of theater lovers in the world, and a lot of animal lovers as well. If you need to get your theater and animal fix at the same time, take a look at these productions running on Broadway this season.
read more
Hamilton, the new, hip-hop musical about Alexander Hamilton from In The Heights composer, Lin-Manuel Miranda, seems to be the only show getting press notice recently. However, the summer mega-hit is about to meet some new neighbors, as seventeen productions have announced opening nights between September and December. To kick off the start of the fall 2015 Broadway season, I’ve highlighted four productions (one from each category) which I consider “must sees.”
read more
Just like that, the Tony Race is over. We are pleased to announce that our predictions were the most accurate of any theater publication! We review the Tony predictions of theater experts, and rank them according to how well they did.
read more
Who stands the best chance to take home the hardware? We go through each category, setting the final odds for each nominee. Where would you place your bet?
read more
Before we make our final predictions, we go over those Tony nominees who have near locks on the win.
read more
Over the last two weeks, we have assessed the starting positions of the nominees in each of Tony Award categories. This is an analysis of some of the biggest shifts in favor that we have seen in the last two weeks.
read more
While the Tonys are no horse race, there are still clear favorites, and long shots. We provide analysis on where the nominees of each category stand.
read more
“An Upset,” a one-act play by David Auburn first seen in New York in 2008, is being revived around the city timed to the Open, including three shows at 99 Bowery beginning Sept. 12.
“It’s always hard to put a finger on why something is suddenly in the zeitgeist,” said Ruhl, a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and a Tony Award nominee. “I don’t know why it is happening with tennis in theater right now. But for me, while researching the Bush dynasty, I realized tennis is such a big part of their lives and a wonderful metaphor for family competition and sibling rivalry.”
In “Scenes From Court Life,” Greg Keller plays George W. Bush as a more shrewd politician than his brother Jeb but an inferior tennis player.
“Athletes are almost another species to playwrights,” Keller said. “The writer’s world is so subjective, but for athletes there is always a winner and a loser.”
Tennis holds undeniable appeal for the theater. For starters, it can encompass widely different settings, including the Bush family compound, the public courts of the Lower East Side and Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Tennis, Keller said, is also “one-on-one, but you are not physically touching each other like in boxing.”
He added, “You are in your own little world.”
Bragen has written other works about tennis, including a monologue called “Game, Set, Match.” He said the sport offered intimacy and isolation — great fodder for writers.
“There’s a kind of dance that I feel as a player, but you are alone in your own head at the same time you are connected to other person,” Bragen said.
Ruhl said she liked the combat mixed with decorum, “the formality within the structure of competition.”
Ryan Sweeney, who played Division I tennis at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and is producing and starring in “An Upset,” said, “Tennis is a lonely sport, and Auburn’s script touches on the players’ vulnerabilities.”
