Home >  A & E

Wednesday, March 05, 2003

By Christopher Rawson, Post-Gazette Drama Critic

Spring break is a time to catch up on this, that and the other.

Remember Mark Rylance, the fine Anglo-American actor who did his Hamlet at the Public Theater in 1991 and now runs Shakespeare's Globe in London? Variety reports that he is taking his company's all-male production of "Twelfth Night" on a short U.S. tour in the fall -- and that Pittsburgh is on the list! No word yet from the Cultural Trust, the most likely local presenter for such a visit.

Here's another visitor: Ginny Mancini, Henry Mancini's widow, plans to attend the Mancini Awards this year. That celebration of high school musicals in Beaver, Butler and Lawrence counties is set for May 21 at Geneva College, Beaver Falls. Mrs. Mancini has long supported arts education.

The CLO's high school musical awards, of course, are named after Gene Kelly, and they boast their own patron in his widow, Patricia Ward Kelly, who will be back for the May 31 gala at the Benedum.

So isn't it time for John Noble's Westmoreland Night of the Stars to get its own titular show-biz deity? Isn't it time the awards were named for Smithton's own Shirley Jones? If anyone has her ear, would they put a bug in it? These are happy events that anyone would be proud to support.

The off-Broadway production of Tammy Ryan's "Music Lesson" set for this spring has hit a snag -- one of the investors pulled out, so it has been postponed until fall. "This is the play's third option in as many years," Ryan says. "I am not holding my breath. 'Welcome to the theater,' my agent said."

WHY does Playhouse Rep continue to open its shows cold, without the benefit of a preview? Most other pro theaters know better ... except, come to think of it, CLO. But CLO has the excuse of one-week runs.

Point Park dance alumna and longtime Rockette Eileen Grace Noden ('81) was interviewed and photographed for a story on the Rockettes in the March 2 edition of USA Today Weekend.

Sunny Disney Fitchett writes to point out that in addition to the several upcoming Shakespeares I recently mentioned, Little Lake will have a "Romeo and Juliet" in July, directed by Art DeConciliis and featuring Lara Hillier and Michael Karas.

I should also have mentioned the "Macbeth" running Friday through March 16 at Sean Michael O'Donnell's Olde Bank Theater in Natrona. That's in addition to the Starlight "Macbeth," playing at the North Side's Hazlett Theater just three more nights (Thursday through Saturday), starring Rick Hamilton, Robin Walsh, Darren Elliker, Heath Lamberts, et al.

Howard Elson writes: "Ted Pappas' assertion that the Public's revival [next year] of 'The Subject Was Roses' may be 'the first major revival since it won the Tony for Jack Albertson and made a star of Martin Sheen' is inaccurate. The Theatre Factory recently revived it, and it was 'Major,' at least for Trafford!"

That 96 percent (below) for "Beauty and the Beast" is astonishing when you consider it was an extra, not part of the Broadway series subscription, and that the box-office total for the week was $1,113,567.48.

Olivier Awards

I'm in London this week with a Post-Gazette Critic's Choice tour, so it's high time to list the 2003 Oliviers (London's Tonys):

Best actress: Clare Higgins, "Vincent in Brixton" (now in New York).

Best actor: Simon Russell Beale as "Uncle Vanya."

Best actress, musical: Joanna Riding, "My Fair Lady."

Best actor, musical: Alex Jennings, "My Fair Lady."

New play: Nicholas Wright, "Vincent in Brixton."

New musical: "Our House."

Best musical production: National Theatre's "Anything Goes."

Best director: Sam Mendes, "Twelfth Night" and "Uncle Vanya."

Bottom Line

Paid admissions at city's pro theaters for week ending March 2:

• Beauty/Benedum (96%) ........... 21,740
  
• Macbeth/Starlight (79%) ............. 1,992
  
• Anton/Playhouse Rep (100%) ....... 327