Berkeley Rep Blog
Category archive: Our shows
Sneak preview of Compulsion
posted by Pauline Luppert on Mon, Sep 27, 2010
in At the theatre , Our shows
Performances of Compulsion are selling out. Critics are raving. See for yourself:
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Compelling coverage of Compulsion
posted by Terence Keane on Fri, Sep 17, 2010
in News , Our shows
We kicked off the new season last night with the opening of Compulsion. The reviews aren't out yet, but the media is already talking about the show.
Asked why he chose to take on this role, Mandy told the Chronicle, "When I read the script, I was in a little cabin in Colorado. Oskar Eustis sent it to me, and it really hit a nerve in my gut, and I couldn't get over how much I related to it. I called up Oskar and said, 'You're not allowed to do this without me. If you do, I'll have to find some way to hurt you.' My reaction to the play was just very personal and very visceral. I'd rarely read anything I'd had that kind of reaction to, so I pulled out every stop in the world to try and make it happen."
You can read the entire Chronicle story here. Mandy was so articulate in his interview with Leba Hertz that the Chronicle decided to post more excerpts on its blog. Check it out.
Sue Fishkoff wrote about Mandy for JTA as well:
The intensity Patinkin brings to all his work stands him in good stead to play Sid Silver, the Levin character in this play. Silver, like Levin, is a man seared by images from the concentration camps and completely absorbed with bringing what he believed was Anne’s true message to the world...
“It’s about his obsession with an idealistic vision of humanity that this child represented, and his core belief that it must be respected, protected and guarded in perpetuity, and rekindled every day,” said Patinkin. “This play asks us, to what degree are we willing to go for what we believe in? Is the cost worth it? Are we living in a world of endless compromise?”
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I dig making playlists the most
posted by Pauline Luppert on Wed, Sep 15, 2010
in Backstage buzz , Our shows
For almost every show at Berkeley Rep, one of my favorite assignments is to assemble pre-show playlists for our lobbies. The music should set the mood for the show. I read the script, do a little research, bounce ideas off of the literary manager, go crazy at the iTunes store, and rip a few iPods. For John Leguizamo’s Klass Klown, I pulled together a lot of Reggeaton and Hip Hop. For Concerning Strange Devices from The Distant West, I collected contemporary Japanese pop. For Compulsion, I’ve put together a collection of jazz standards and popular songs recorded in the 1950’s—including a variety of influential Jewish American artists, like the Gershwins, Benny Goodman, Stan Getz, and Al Jolson.
Generally, I like to throw in at least one cheeky reference to something in the play. In this case, because Compulsion’s character Sid Silver, like the real-life character Meyer Levin, is married to a beautiful French woman, I threw in Nat King Cole’s rendition of "Darling, Je Vous Aime Beaucoup" (album cover pictured right).
Without further ado, here’s the full pre-show lobby playlist for Compulsion (song title, artist, album title):
- "Caravan," Thelonious Monk, Monk Plays Duke Ellington
- "Sh-boom," Crew Cuts, 1950's Hits & Highlights, Vol. 7 (pictured right)
- "Sweet Sixteen," Al Jolson, The Ultimate Jazz Singer
- "This Can't Be Love" (from The Boys from Syracuse), Benny Goodman, Essential Benny Goodman
- "Everything Happens to Me," Billie Holiday, Lady Sings the Blues
- "Beyond the Sea (La Mer)," Django Reinhardt, Djangology
- "Darling, Je Vous Aime Beaucoup," Nat King Cole, The World of Nat King Cole
- "Israel," Miles Davis, The Birth of the Cool
- "Bewitched," Doris Day (song and lyrics by Rodgers and Hart), 1950's Hits & Highlights, Vol. 7
- "A Kiss to Build a Dream On," Louis Armstrong (co-written by Oscar Hammerstein), Hello Dolly
- "Star Dust," Pat Boone, Star Dust
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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.