Berkeley Rep Blog
Category archive: Our shows
New American Idiot cast videos now online
posted by Chad Jones on Wed, Sep 1, 2010
in Our shows
The cast of Broadway's American Idiot headed over to AOL's Sessions recently to perform a bunch of songs from the show, all of which were captured on video and are now streaming here.
Happily, we can share a few of those videos with you. Here's "Letterbomb."
And here's "Whatsername":
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2010/11 sneak peek: The Composer Is Dead and Ruined
posted by Chad Jones on Thu, Aug 19, 2010
in Backstage buzz , Our shows
Delving into the riches of the 2010/11 Berkeley Rep season, we've already talked about the season opener, Compulsion, starring Mandy Patinkin, and the epic play cycle The Great Game: Afghanistan and Mike Daisey's The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs and The Last Cargo Cult.
Now it's time to explore Lemony Snicket's The Composer Is Dead and Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer Prize-winning Ruined.
Lemony Snicket's The Composer Is Dead
Check out the pedigree on this world premiere. It is written by Lemony Snicket (the bestselling author also known as San Francisco writer Daniel Handler, pictured at right in a photo by Meredith Heuer) with music by Nathaniel Stookey. Based on the children's book, it was originally conceived for the stage by Lemony Snicket and Phantom Limb Company, the amazing puppet troupe under the artistic leadership of Jessica Grindstaff and Erik Sanko. The show was developed with Tony Taccone, who also directs, and Geoff Hoyle, who also stars.
That's a lot of genius piled into a show that will have audiences of all ages giddy with delight.
Earlier this summer, Mr. Snicket/Handler spoke to the Los Angeles Times about his work and mentioned that Lemony Snicket is writing a new four-book series. But he didn't want to say too much about it.
"It's in its first trimester, so you don't want to poke at it too much. It's early, so I don't want to go around bragging about it. That's actually a Jewish tradition, not to set up the baby's room while you're pregnant or even say the baby's name out loud. It's bad luck."
Daniel also talked about his San Francisco neighborhood in this charming New York Times article.
Nathaniel Stookey, the composer of Composer (who happens to be very much alive, thank you very much), has had a busy summer, including a stop in Sun Valley, Idaho, where he conducted The Composer Is Dead with the Sun Valley Summer Symphony. Read about the event here.
And finally, meet Jessica and Erik of Phantom Limb. This video is from late last year when they were working on a show called The Devil You Know with Ping Chong & Co.
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Carrie Fisher feels the force, films for HBO
posted by Chad Jones on Mon, Aug 16, 2010
in Backstage buzz , News , Our shows
We haven't reported on Carrie Fisher in a while, and there's a lot going on, so let's get up to (light) speed.
First of all, at the end of June, Carrie filmed several performances of Wishful Drinking, which, as you'll remember, had two runs here at Berkeley Rep. The live footage shot at the South Orange (New Jersey) Performing Arts Center will be combined with interview footage of Carrie and the people in her life — of course her mother, Debbie Reynolds, will feature prominently.
The Wishful Drinking documentary will air in December on HBO. Carrie talked to the Huffington Post about the movie. Read the interview.
On her ever-eccentric Twitter feed, Carrie announced that her sixth book is in the pipeline. It was also on Twitter that she posted the photo at right, undoubtedly a humorous plug for her recent keynote speech at the American Pyschiatric Association in New Orleans.
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Whetting your appetite for the 2010/11 season
posted by Chad Jones on Fri, Aug 13, 2010
in At the theatre , Our shows
Rehearsals have begun for Compulsion, our season-opening show, which means the new season is officially under way.
There's buzz on an international scale for the shows of our 2010/11 season, so here's a little peek into what you can expect in the coming months.
You may remember playwright David Edgar for his work on the momentous two-play cycle known as Continental Divide, a co-production of Berkeley Rep and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival from 2003 or from his extraordinary adaptation of Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby (seen a few season ago at the California Shakespeare Theater). Well David will be back at Berkeley Rep as one of 12 playwrights addressing the complex history of Afghanistan in The Great Game: Afghanistan.
David recently wrote a fascinating piece about the play for The Guardian in London. He describes The Great Game as a "mosaic of fiction and faction," which is to say imagination and fact. He continues:
"The Great Game is thoroughly contemporary: a hybrid of hybrids. Nonetheless, unlike much postmodern drama, it retains a central, coherent theme: that western interventions in Afghanistan have almost always produced the opposite effect from that which was intended."
You can read David's essay in its entirety here (and also watch a very cool video about the show).
Above photo: (l to r) Jemma Redgrave, Tom McKay, and Nabil Elouahabi star in The Great Game: Afghanistan, an epic production from London receiving its West Coast premiere at Berkeley Rep. Photographer: John Haynes
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Idiots on rampage in Central Park
posted by Chad Jones on Fri, Jul 16, 2010
in News , Our shows
In case you didn't happen to be in Central Park this morning or were not watching Good Morning America, here are some highlights from the cast of American Idiot performing in concert.
You can see the whole concert at the Good Morning America website.
Top photo: The cast of American Idiot performs in Central Park. Photo courtesy of ABC News
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Free American Idiot park concert!
posted by Chad Jones on Wed, Jul 14, 2010
in Events , Our shows
What could possibly be better than spending a beautiful summer morning watching the Broadway cast of American Idiot performing a free concert in one of the world's most gorgeous parks?
Well, the park in question is Central Park, so it's not exactly accessible to those of us living somewhere other than the island of Manhattan. But that's where our bad luck ends. When the cast performs songs from the hit rock musical this Friday, July 16, the good folks at Good Morning America will be there to broadcast the concert coast to coast between 7and 9am on ABC.
While we're on the subject of American Idiot, the website Thrillist, purveyor of cool places and events in cities around the country, is sponsoring a contest. Sign up for a Thrillist newsletter (there's one for San Francisco), and you're entered into a contest to win tickets to American Idiot and a VIP package.
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Berkeley Rep artists head into the big, wide world
posted by Chad Jones on Mon, Jul 12, 2010
in News , Our shows
When artists complete their work at Berkeley Rep, they often head into a diverse and fascinating array of other projects. To keep you up to date on some of our artists’ activities, we'd like to share a few of their projects with you.
Girlfriend choreographer Joe Goode (seen at right) and his Joe Goode Performance Group are reviving the hit site-specific dance/theatre work Traveling Light at the Old Mint in San Francisco. The show continues through August 1. Click joegoode.org for information. We're biased, but we think this show is not to be missed.
Delroy Lindo, who directed Joe Turner’s Come and Gone in 2008, is revisiting the show once again. He's playing Bynum Walker in the play at London's Young Vic. Delroy’s long history with Joe Turner goes all the way back to the original Broadway production in 1988 when he played Harold Loomis. Delroy has given some interesting interviews to The Root and to whatsonstage.com.
American Idiot cast member Joshua Henry (you’ll remember his standout moment as a military hero jumping out of a TV during the song “Favorite Son”) has joined the cast of the Broadway-bound musical Scottsboro Boys, which also happens to star Colman Domingo, last seen at Berkeley Rep in Passing Strange.
Carrie Fisher has already taken her autobiographical Wishful Drinking to Broadway. Now she’s turning the show into an HBO documentary for release next year. She talked to the Huffington Post about it.
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Leaving us In the Wake
posted by Chad Jones on Fri, Jun 25, 2010
in At the theatre , Backstage buzz , Our shows
As we head into closing weekend for Lisa Kron's In the Wake, we'd like to leave you with a few parting thoughts courtesy of the Los Angeles Times.
Charles McNulty, in his essay "The Kushner effect, an Angel in American playwriting," celebrates the lasting legacy of Tony Kushner's epic Angels in America, a play that has inspired a generation of writers to bring national scope and creative imagination to the stage. He writes:
Three plays in recent months have pressed an awareness of the continuing artistic impact of Angels: Rajiv Joseph's Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Julia Cho's The Language Archive and Lisa's Kron's In the Wake...
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American Idiot wins two Tony Awards!
posted by Chad Jones on Mon, Jun 14, 2010
in News , Our shows
The Tony Awards have all been handed out, and the tuxedos and fancy gowns have all been put away for another year.
On Sunday in Manhattan, amid show tunes, high kicks, and gushing thank-you speeches, another show born at Berkeley Repertory Theatre was honored with theatre’s most prestigious and coveted prize: American Idiot, the thrilling musical based on Green Day’s Grammy-winning album that made its world premiere in Berkeley before bursting onto Broadway, nabbed two Tony Awards. Following a performance of "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" by the show’s cast (seen above) – and a shout-out to Oakland, CA paying tribute to their roots in the Bay Area – the beloved punk band kicked off the ceremony by rocking Radio City Music Hall with "Holiday" and "Know Your Enemy." (See a video of the performance below.)
Viewers of the national television broadcast – as well as artists, staff members, and volunteers from Berkeley Rep who joined the festivities in New York – saw Christine Jones from American Idiot accept the Tony Award for Best Scenic Design of a Musical. To make the evening even sweeter, Kevin Adams of American Idiot – who previously won two Tonys (and a nomination for his work on Berkeley Rep’s Passing Strange) – earned the Tony Award for Best Lighting Design of a Musical. This marks the fifth and sixth Tony Awards associated with Berkeley Rep.
“We could not be more proud,” said Artistic Director Tony Taccone, commenting from New York. “It is a tremendous honor to have two shows in the running in the same year – a play and a musical – and an extraordinary experience to see this work recognized by the Tony Awards. All of us at Berkeley Rep send our congratulations to Christine, Kevin, and all of our collaborators on American Idiot.
“At Berkeley Rep, we are committed to developing new plays – and we are lucky enough to have an adventurous and very smart audience. While our primary aim is always to create work that engages, entertains, and challenges our local audience, it also makes Berkeley a great place to launch new shows. So we’re pleased that the nation’s top artists choose to take artistic risks with us, and gratified that our work continues to travel on to wider praise.”
Though Kevin and Christine's awards weren't presented during the CBS broadcast, you can see their complete acceptance speeches here. Kevin even gives a holler to Fred Gefken and Stephanie Buchner of our electrics department. "Berkeley Rep is an amazing place to work," Kevin gushes. "Everyone there is so incredible." And Christine, in her enthusiastic, confetti-filled speech, declares that American Idiot director Michael Mayer is "the Jesus and Judy of Broadway."
Here are the cast of American Idiot and Green Day performances from the Tony Awards.
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Watch the Tonys Sunday night!
posted by Chad Jones on Sat, Jun 12, 2010
in Events , News , Our shows
Win or lose, awards shows can be an awful lot of fun, especially when you know some of the nominees. That's what makes this year's Tony Awards more exciting than usual. Berkeley Rep audiences are well acquainted with a few of the major players whose names you'll hear on Sunday's broadcast (8pm, CBS).
Green Day's American Idiot, the thrilling rock opera that made its world premiere in Berkeley before bursting onto Broadway, is up for three Tony Awards including Best Musical. In the Next Room (or the vibrator play), the comedy Berkeley Rep commissioned from Sarah Ruhl that became a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and marked the Broadway debut of Associate Artistic Director Les Waters, also received three nominations including Best Play.
Here's a complete rundown of our nominations:
- Best Musical: American Idiot
- Best Play: In the Next Room (or the vibrator play)
- Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play: Maria Dizzia for In the Next Room (or the vibrator play)
- Best Scenic Design of a Musical: Christine Jones for American Idiot
- Best Lighting Design of a Musical: Kevin Adams for American Idiot
- Best Costume Design of a Play: David Zinn for In the Next Room (or the vibrator play)
"Local folks have long known that Berkeley Rep is devoted to developing adventurous new work," remarks Tony Taccone, the Theatre's artistic director. "We are pleased that a much wider audience has had an opportunity to see and appreciate our work in the last several years, and naturally we're honored to see these shows nominated for so many prestigious awards. We are grateful for the trust placed in us by the many partners who helped bring American Idiot and In the Next Room to Broadway."
Green Day will perform, as will the cast of American Idiot.
Of course we'll be rooting for Berkeley Rep's nominees, but with the Tony Awards, everybody wins. This is, after all, the only national exposure given to American theatre by a major network. So tune in and show your support — not just for Berkeley Rep but for all the great theatre artists working on stages across the country.
Visit the official Tony Awards website.
