Accents on stage

In Peter Leo's March 13 comic "Morning File" column on American religious illiteracy, he quotes blogger David Klinghoffer on the ABC-TV miniseries "The Ten Commandments" (April 10-11): "because this is a historical drama set in the ancient Near East, everyone speaks in a British accent, according to universally observed entertainment-industry convention."

That's not the Hollywood convention I know, from the great Bible epics era of "The Robe," "Ben Hur," etc. Then, it seemed an immutable law that the Romans had British accents and the Jews had American, perhaps out of a national memory of our colonial past but probably because the Americans had to be the good guys, that is, the Jews.

All this came to mind again Sunday, reading Sharon Eberson's interesting story about varying movie accents (bad, good and award-winning, e.g., Meryl Streep), with a sidebar in which Andrew Paul of Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre talked about accents on stage. Personally, I'm pretty lenient about accents on stage: I'd rather hear an actor's own accent than have him or her butcher something exotic. Of course we expect more higher up the professional pyramid, but even at the top, I agree with Paul that fine acting makes precision of accent less important.

Generally, we hear right through a familiar accent, the way the fish doesn't notice the water it swims in. So we agree to believe that someone with an American accent is playing a French character, taking our ethnic cues from the context, not accent. But what to do when seeing a non-English play staged in a non-American accent, as when I see a French play in England? Then, I'm more aware of that English accent, making it harder to believe the characters are French.

By the way, one of PICT's regular accent coaches, CMU's Don Wadsworth, just in New York with the CMU senior showcase, has been coaching 40 actors in Irish accents for the big new Broadway musical "The Pirate Queen."

Broadway ShowPlane

Speaking of "The Pirate Queen," created by the devisers of "Riverdance" and Boublil and Schonberg ("Les Mis," "Miss Saigon"), it is one of three new musicals featured on the Post-Gazette's spring Broadway ShowPlane, May 2-6. The others are "Legally Blonde" (yes, based on the movie) and "Curtains," one of the last creations of John Kander and his late partner, Fred Ebb, a backstage mystery that stars David Hyde Pierce. The fourth inclusion is "Frost/Nixon," starring Frank Langella and Michael Sheen. For info about what else is included, look at the theater trips ad at post-gazette.com/theater, or contact Gulliver's Travels, 412-441-3131.

Pittsburgh Playwrights

The Collaborative March Staged Reading Series continues with a different play (or short plays) every day. Although I can't list them all, there are some high-profile directors involved in this project, such as Melanie Dreyer (Jeanne Drennan's "Waxworks," Monday, 8 p.m.). Tammy Ryan's "Pig" (Friday) will have an African-American cast. Perhaps the highest profile cast is that for Mark Southers' "James McBride" (Monday, 6 p.m.), which includes Bingo O'Malley, Larry John Meyers, Robert Isenberg, Joshua Elijah Reese, Karen Baum, Jay Keenan and Jeffrey Carpenter. Richard E. Rauh will be in "Job" (Sunday).

All readings are at the Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre, 542 Penn Ave., mezzanine level, around the corner from Heinz Hall; 8 p.m. unless noted; suggested donation $3-$5; info 412-288-0358.

Week 4

Today: James McManus, "Cherry Smoke." Friday: Tammy Ryan, "Pig." Saturday: Brandon Siple, "The Art of Paring (1A)." Sunday: (3 p.m.) Bob Gorczyca, "The Tree Grows Strong"; (7 p.m.) Corey Rieger, "Job."

Week 5

March 26: (6 p.m.) Mark Clayton Southers, "James McBride"; (8 p.m.) Jeanne Drennan, "Waxworks." March 27: Renee Aldrich, "Unmasked." March 28: Wali Jamal, "For the Sake of the Show." March 29: (8 p.m.) Cory Tamler, "Not Eureka"; (9 p.m.) Tara Adelizzi, "Fueled." March 30: (7 p.m.) Rebecca Gorman, "South Star"; (8 p.m.) Michael McGovern, "Wake Up Screaming." March 31: Brendon Bates, "Pit Fall." April 1: (6 p.m.) Rage Stevenson, "The Only Good Artist Is A Dead Artist"; (7 p.m.) Dan Kirk, "Parlour Games of the Chimera Gemini."

Theater online

We just posted the first Kelly Critics review on the high school musical page -- go to post-gazette.com/theater and click the link in the upper left corner.

The Call Board

The Public Theater has announced the cast of the world premiere of the Stephen Flaherty-Lynn Ahrens musical "The Glorious Ones" (April 19-May 20) directed by Theater Hall of Fame member Graciela Daniele. In it, Natalie Belcon and Paul Schoeffler (CMU grads I remember well) are joined by John Kassir, David Patrick Kelly, Jenny Powers, Julyana Soelistyo and Jeremy Webb.

March 27 is World Theater Day, celebrated since 1961 by the international theater community. Is it celebration enough if I go to see "Riverdance" that night?

Actor Tim Hartman is a man of many parts, among them cartoonist. There's a show into April of his illustrations and editorial cartoons from the past 20 years at The Vault, a coffee house/cafe on California Avenue in Brighton Heights. The homemade cookies are worth the trip, as well.

The bottom line

Paid admissions at city's pro theaters, week ending March 18:

LifeX3/Public (62%) ................ 3,113
Mezzulah/City (68%) ................ 1,279
Forb.BwaySVU/CLO (30%) ............... 542
M.Courage/PlayhseREP (28%) ........... 351