Who's in Once

When I heard this morning that Arthur Darvill was stepping into one of the lead roles in the Broadway production of Once, I was sure I missed a press release or three. Surely producers knew he was one of the stars of Doctor Who, and that his presence might generate a bump in ticket sales. But it's like he appeared on Broadway out of nowhere (via TARDIS perhaps?).

The New York Times and the Associated Press cited immigration issues as the reason no advance notice was given prior to Darvill and his new British costar, Joanna Christie, joining the cast. Both articles claim that they're starting Tuesday, but the Stage Door Dish has physical evidence that they've already started, last Friday according to the blog.

Whether planned or not, sneaking up on Broadway like this is kind of a shrewd move for someone with the sort of fan-following Darvill has. Had there been a big announcement leading up to his first performance, there would have been a lot of anticipation for that first performance, not to mention requests for media interviews (I probably would have been one of them). But now he's "starting" with four performances already under his belt, so by the time Whovians start buying tickets and seeing the show and tweeting and blogging about it, he'll have already settled into the role. You get pretty smart when you hang around the Doctor...

This probably has nothing to do with what really happened, but it makes for a nice theory, don't you think?

Name-Namers

Until I saw Zero Hour, a solo biodrama about the brilliant, difficult Zero Mostel, a few years back, I wasn't aware that Jerome Robbins had given names of suspected communists to the House Un-American Activities Committee. I knew about Elia Kazan, of course, but Robbins had seemed untainted by it all.

There's a not-even-thinly-disguised dancer-choreographer based on him in Finks, a funny, moving new Off Broadway play that at first glance can seem lightweight due to the amount of comedy it contains but is quite substantial. It's by Joe Gilford, whose actor parents, Jack Gilford and Madeline Lee, were blacklisted thanks to Robbins's testimony. Whereas Zero Hour was a diatribe, Finks reaches for understanding, which makes what happened to the playwright's parents all the more powerful. And an Abbott and Costello spoof with a Red Scare slant is brilliant and hilarious.

Great with Two-Handers

Amid all the big spring Broadway openings, don't overlook David Harrower's Good with People. I was reading a book of Pinter plays (how pretentious does that sound!) when I caught this thorny, stirring show, part of this year's Brits Off Broadway festival. Like his much-praised Blackbird, about a now-grown woman confronting the older man she had an affair with when she was girl, it's the ultimate in awkward-encounter plays: A woman in a town in northern Scotland meets one of the now-grown-up young man who took part in an attack on her son when they were teenagers. What's stunning is how minimalist yet penetrating both plays are.

Labor vs. the Environment...a conundrum

Here's an urban conundrum for someone who aims to be socially conscious in the 21st century…when someone tries to hand me a flyer for a business or an event that I have no interest in, do I accept it—even though it's not the environmentally conscious thing to do, since I know it will wind up in my recycling bin that night—on the grounds that I'm helping a fellow laborer, and as soon as they're all handed out this person will be able to do something more fulfilling; or do I put the environment first and decline it, assuming that the hander-outer is paid an hourly rate that's not based on how many flyers he puts into people's hands?

Somehow I don't think Emily Post weighed in on this topic.

More Forgotten Irish Drama from the Mint

Thanks to the Mint Theater Company I've had a lovely time getting acquainted with Irish playwright Teresa Deevy over the last three seasons. Their current offering, Katie Roche, isn't my favorite of three Deevy plays the Mint has presented since 2010, but it's certainly still a worthwhile work, and it does have the wonderful Wrenn Schmidt in the title role. I've enjoyed her work in a couple of other Off Broadway shows (the Mint's Temporal Powers and Be a Good Little Widow), and I think she'll make a dandy Hilde opposite Jon Turturro's Solness in BAM's upcoming The Master Builder.

Talley for Two

It's quite delightful conducting an interview when your subjects are Danny Bursetin, who was equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking in the Broadway revivals of South Pacific, and Sarah Paulson, probably best known for her work on American Horror Story, but also a strong stage presence in Collected Stories and Crimes of the Heart. If the chemistry they displayed offstage is any indication of what they'll be like onstage in the Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of Talley's Folly, they'll be more than just fine.

Secular Celebrations

Sometimes the plays and films and TV shows that best fill me with the Christmas spirit aren't the ones that directly relate to the holiday. Take, for example, Red Bull Theater's jaunty, frolicsome production of Ben Jonson's Volpone, part satire, part morality tale about greed.

Even on the musical front, I prefer the the dark yet hope-filled current Broadway revival of Annie to the overdone spectacle of A Christmas Story, The Musical. I guess Annie is kinda, sorta a Christmas musical, since it takes place in December and ends at Christmas, but it's still a subtler celebration of the season, which is just how I like to mark it.