TV’s Endless Cliffhanger
New season fizzles as studios cancel dozens of striking writers’ contracts

THE WAR AT HOME... AND ON OFF-BROADWAY:

 

Even though Hollywood has not had a good run of movies about the war in Iraq (note the box office failures of recent films like Rendition and Lions for Lambs), New York theater may have a better go of it with two current plays on the boards. First up, The Fire Dept. will present an expanded and updated version of its acclaimed At War: American Playwrights Respond to Iraq, an evening of alternately moving, haunting and funny material by noted and emerging American playwrights, woven together to present a kaleidoscope of views on the war, and staged as a single cohesive piece. The Fire Dept. is dedicated to igniting questions, sparking controversy, and responding to the urgency of our time, and some of the actors and writers involved with the company include Peter Gallaher, Kathleen Chalfant, Denis O’Hare, Matthew Modine, Dael Orlandersmith, Josh Lucas, Lynn Nottage and David Straithairn. Performances for At War continue through February 4 at The Bleecker Street Theatre (www.thefiredept.org). Meanwhile, Culture Project is offering up famed New Yorker writer George Packer’s new play Betrayed, based on his article for the magazine about the desperate situation of the Iraqis who had risked their lives to help the American effort in their country and were being hunted down as a result. Directed by Pippin Parker, the cast includes Jeremy Beck, Aadya Bedi, Mike Doyle, Ramsey Faragallah, Sevan Greene and Waleed F. Zuaiter. Betrayed, incidentally, marks Packer’s playwriting debut. Performances begin January 25 at Culture Project, 55 Mercer Street, www.cultureproject.org.

 

ONE-WOMAN FOLK OPERA

Until this week, I had no idea there was such a thing, but now I know about Conjur Woman, Beatrice Manley’s dramatic folk opera, which begins performances at La MaMa E.T.C. beginning January 31, in time to celebrate Black History Month. Obie-winner Sheila Dabney sings the title role (the title, incidentally, is an homage to Billie Holiday) about a conjur woman who uses spells and potions to turn her lover into a tree so that he cannot be sold into slavery. It’s interesting to note that the original music for this compelling piece is composed by La MaMa founder and Artistic Director Ellen Stewart, in collaboration with others, and takes as its inspiration the 1800s music of the slave. George Ferencz directs. For more info, visit www.lamama.org.

 

Let’s Hear It: Shelia Dabney sings her way through a dramatic folk opera in Conjur Woman.

 

 

MOON OVER MIDTOWN

 

In such a historic New York place as the Algonquin Hotel, a new bit of theatrical history is being made. On January 21, performances began for the first original musical created specifically for the hotel’s intimate wood-paneled Oak Room, which is normally known as the nightclub home of starry cabaret performers like Andrea Marcovicci, Karen Akers and Stacey Kent. The musical is called Glimpses of the Moon, with a book and lyrics by Tajlei Lewis and music by John Mercurio, from a novel by Edith Wharton.  Set in 1922, the show follows the jazzy whirl of Manhattan society, from champagne-soaked dinner parties, to luxurious vacation cottages and back to New York’s elegant hotels — hotels like the Algonquin, for instance. Marc Bruni directs. For more info, visit www.GlimpsesOfTheMoon.com. 

 

TO TELL THE TRUTH

 

Have you ever heard of Martha Gellhorn? A gifted writer who wrote a moving, undersung novel about the Depression entitled The Trouble I’ve Seen, she was also famous for her reporting of World War II — she landed at Normandy, was the first reporter into Dachau, and covered the Nuremberg Trials. Yet Gellhorn is not the household name she should be. So leave it to the ever enterprising Keen Company to bring this fascinating woman back to life in a new play entitled The Maddening Truth, which is written by David Hay and stars the wonderful Lisa Emery as Gellhorn.  Performances have just begun at The Clurman Theatre at Theatre Row; 212-279-4200. 

 

SPERLING OF THE MOMENT

 

You’ve heard his wonderful orchestrations in such shows as The Light in the Piazza, for which he won Tony and Drama Desk Awards, and Saturn Returns, The Full Monty, A Man of No Importance and Floyd Collins, among many others. Now The Public Theater has announced that Ted Sperling has joined The Public as Director of The Musical Theater Initiative, a project that, in Artistic Director’s Oskar Eustis’s words, will help “to expand and formalize the Public’s development of new musicals for our time.” (At the Public, Sperling most recently directed See What I Wanna See.) We’ll look forward to what comes from this promising partnership. Congratulations, Ted.