MR. AND MRS. MACBETH REQUEST THE PLEASURE OF YOUR COMPANY

They’re one of the most reviled couples in all of dramatic literature, but oh, how we love to hate them! And actors love to play them, too, which should be quite evident when some of our finest performers hit the stage in Classic Stage Company’s fourth season of its popular Open Rehearsal Series with Monday Night Macbeth. This is a cool peek-into-the-process event in which acclaimed actors will work through and explore a different act of Shakespeare’s Macbeth with an equally acclaimed director in front of an audience on four Monday evenings this fall at CSC. The directors are Brian Kulick, Barry Edelstein, Michael Sexton and Anne Bogart, and the actors include Ruben Santiago-Hudson (Nov.19), David Strathairn and Frances McDormand (Nov. 26), and Anne Bogart’s SITI Company on Dec. 3.  For more info, visit www.classicstage.org. 

 

SCHOOL DAZE

Remember adolescent turmoil? Well, who doesn’t? In the provocatively titled The 4th Graders Present an Unnamed Love-Suicide, a boy commits suicide and leaves a play behind as his suicide note, which his classmates then perform. This disturbing and interesting new play comes to New York from Chicago, courtesy of that city’s acclaimed avant-garde troupe The Hypocrites, and the production wraps up The GoChicago! Festival at 59E59 Theaters beginning Nov. 14 (and running through Dec. 2). Sean Graney is the playwright, and Devin Brain directs. For more info, visit www.59e59.org. 

 

GIMME FIVE

One film actress who stays true to her theater roots, and keeps coming back to the stage, is Academy Award winner Marisa Tomei, and we’re always happy to have her back on the boards between film assignments. This month, Ms. Tomei is set to star in The Flea Theater’s world premiere of a new play by Pulitzer Prize finalist Will Eno entitled Oh, The Humanity and Other Good Intentions. You’ll recall that Eno made a huge splash a while back with his play Thom Pain (based on nothing), which played to great acclaim in New York and elsewhere and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. In Oh, The Humanity, Eno provides us with five short plays about people like you and me, facing lives like ours. Not suitable for children, I’m told. The Flea’s artistic director Jim Simpson is at the helm, and Ms. Tomei will be joined on stage by Brian Hutchinson and Drew Hildebrand. Opening night is set for Nov. 29.  www.theflea.org.

 

Marisa’s Human Side: The Oscar-winning actress returns to the stage in Oh, The Humanity.

 

SONGBIRDS...

...are not, apparently, flying south for the winter, but staying right here in the great Northeast. I mean, after all, songbirds — of the cabaret and supper club variety — are native to Manhattan, are they not? And so quite a few of them will be roosting on the stage of The Metropolitan Room during this month and next, including singer-pianist Charles Cochran, who begins a month-long engagement on Nov. 14 with A Song That Keeps Saying, Remember, and Jeanne MacDonald, who celebrates the late, great Peggy Lee in her show Come Back to Me. And there’s more: Christine Pedi does the Great Dames (Liza, Barbra, Julie, Ethel, etc.) through Nov. 30, musical theater vet Luba Mason premieres her new late-night, one-woman show beginning Nov. 23 and none other than Liz Callaway makes her long-awaited New York solo cabaret debut in Between Flights, beginning Nov. 23. For more info, log onto www.metropolitanroom.com.
 

THE HEART HAS REASONS

Perhaps one of the most interesting things to know about the play A Hard Heart is that it was written long before 9/11, the Patriot Act, the new Pope and the current immigration debate, and so it arrives for its U.S. premiere looking quite prophetic indeed. This sure-to-be-controversial drama imagines a country facing invasion; “Praxis” the Queen enlists the Genius “Riddler” to devise a strategy to protect their threatened culture, but is the sacrifice too much? This chilling tale comes courtesy of Epic Theatre Ensemble, with Will Pomerantz directing, and one of our finest New York stage actors, Kathleen Chalfant, leading the cast, which also includes Melissa Friedman, Dion Graham, Alex Organ, Thom Sesma, James Wallert and Sarah Winkler. Epic has also announced that post-show forums will follow every performance, and these discussions will feature such prominent activists as Eve Ensler, Grandmothers Against the War and Senator Robert Kerrey. Opening night is set for Nov. 11, and performances continue through Dec. 9. www.epictheaterensemble.org

 

SHORT CUTS
By Sarah Ricard

 

VINCENT GALLO ON TOUR

The last time Vincent Gallo made major news was for his lewd billboards of “The Brown Bunny,” and, of course, his name is all abuzz in association with “Entourage’s” fictional asshole filmmaker, Billy Walsh. Last week, Pitchfork news announced a new music group featuring the notorious indie filmmaker and Hole guitarist Eric Erlandson called RRIICCEE (catchy, isn’t it?), which will go on tour next month. Regarding the band, Gallo says in a press release, “Improvisation is not a good word for what we're doing. It's more a gesture of composing and performing at the same time, always hoping to avoid musical cliché or jamming.” Listen, Vincent, it’s all semantics, but I always thought performing while composing was, like, the exact definition of improvising. But what do I know? Gallo adds, “We've chosen to remain open, to grow and change more naturally, and when we play live, the music is often created during the performance. If we choose to record a performance, the recording itself is the only evidence of that creative moment. The purpose of recording, then, is to listen back for enjoyment.” I seem to remember the Grateful Dead having a similar philosophy, but I guess they weren’t “jamming” either. Visit pitchforkmedia.com for tour dates and bring on the swirly dance!

 

Don’t Call It Improv: In his latest venture, Vince Gallo goes from indie movies to indie rock.

 

 

NAZI PHOTO HEIST

OK, now that I have your attention, here’s a tip from the “Who Gives a Shit?” newsfeed. Last week, German police investigated the theft of 250 photographs by Leni Riefenstahl, Hitler's official filmmaker, from the basement of a firm in Cologne. The Riefenstahl photos and 300 works by American photographer Elliott Erwitt disappeared from a basement storage unit at the offices of Photo Estate GmbH, a subsidiary of Berlin gallery Camera Work AG. The estimated value of all the works taken could be as much as 4 million euros ($5.9 million). When you think about it, this may raise two questions in your mind: first, who are these people willing to pay that much dough for the photos by a Nazi propagandist, and second, who knew that so many years later, Nazis would still play a hand in stealing art? Some might argue that Riefenstahl, in spite of her association with Hitler, is still an important figure in film history. And yet Pauly Shore isn’t? What kind of world is this anyway?

 

AN EVENING WITH TIM BURTON

Is $50 too much to spend to watch Tim Burton have a “conversation?” I guess that all depends on how much you like Tim Burton. After all, I can only assume that most people have spent a lot more on a lot less in their lives (remind me to tell you about my $150 ticket to see Shirley MacLaine). If seeing Burton is something that interests you, visit the Film Society at Lincoln Center on Wed., Nov. 14 for “An Evening with Tim Burton: Cinema’s Demon Barber.” The program will feature a talk with the director, highlighted by clips of his films and a “first look” at his upcoming adaptation of “Sweeney Todd.” No matter what he does, Burton’s films always have a rich and twisted sensibility. And by “always,” I mean all of his movies except that crappy “Willy Wonka” remake. I was thinking more about “Mars Attacks!” “Beetle Juice” and “Batman.” Tickets are going fast, so hurry to the box office now. www.filmlinc.com