offoffBway.com

For those who need more to read, here is a handy list of theater blogs other than this one.
Ten Blogs About Theater: Good Sources of Info on Broadway and Beyond – Associated Content

offoffonline is a good site with a large collection of reviews. Their handy links page is a good place to start exploring indy theater online.
offoffonline links

If you’ve ever wondered about doing commercials and how much bank you can make, Show Business Weekly has some answers for you. One guy has done over 2800 commercials. That’s a lot of pretending you like some stupid product.

Off Broadway Belasco Ken Davenport has been named one of “40 under 40” by Crain’s NY Business. It’s nice to see someone from theater, much less off-Broadway theater, be included in a grouping like this. Congrats, dude!

There’s others, but this one seems to be refreshingly opinionated. The title alone – ‘what’s good / what blows in new york theatre’ – is enough to keep us coming back for more.

whatblows.blogspot.com

This has to be a first – the show My First Time, where people tell stories about making the beast with two backs (and other positions, we imagine) for the, yes, first time, gave away tickets to virgins on opening night. Thinking of going and downplaying your sexual prowess in order to get a freebie? Well, they’ve got that covered with a psychic.

Here’s a tip to get in: we bet if you show up in a Darth Vader costume, they’ll believe that you’re still a virgin. (THANK YOU! TRY THE VEAL! TIP YOUR WAITRESS!)

This sounds very sketchy to us, but all in fun just the same. And probably the first time this has happened (not even David Merrick would have done this… OK, maybe he would have).

The cast and producer/creator Ken Davenport also rang the closing bell at Nasdaq the other day. Clearly this show is the most important thing in town. Anyone seen it? Any virgins get denied entry? Any non-virgins slip past the sniffer? Email us and let us know.

My First Time

Liev Schreiber says, “I come off as psychotic . . . I’m misrepresented as a scary person. I’m not. It’s all about my size and my eyebrows.” Dude, if you have to tell us that… He also mentions that he made the beast with two backs on the Staten Island Ferry. Hey, whatever floats your boat (rim shot). At least he’s a movie star who does lots of theater. Even if he’s not psychotic.

I’M NOT SCARY – New York Post Online Edition: Seven

In our continuing efforts to put as much information about the original production of DREAMGIRLS as we can, here’s a piece by David Hinckley from the New York Daily News talking about the first three Broadway D’Girls (there’s something they’ve probably never been called before).

New York Daily News – Theater – How the first Dreams came true

Theater Resources Unlimited has more job postings, casting notices, requests for new plays to read, and other hoo-ha than you can shake a script at. (You see what we did there? We made a play on words. We are soooo clever.) The bi-monthly update (see below) has enough to keep you going for at least five months.

TRU Bi-Monthly Update 12/23

Another Jennifer tidbit – Greg Braxton of The Los Angeles Times (reprinted in the Kansas City Star) interviews Ms. Holliday, who says:

Instead of being swept up in the hoopla over the new film adaptation of “Dreamgirls,” Holliday is being swept aside.
“Why is it necessary for them to wipe out my existence in order for them to have their success? It’s scary that they can be so cruel.” [said Holliday]

Well, I don’t think they thought about you at all, actually. Which may not be nice, but when studios produce a $75 million dollar movie, they usually aren’t that concerned with being nice. I don’t think the movie will do any damage to Holliday’s legacy, although admittedly future generations may see Hudson’s version as ‘definitive’, which it isn’t. Then again, this show business, and actors, especially stage actors, always get shafted (see also: Kathleen Chalfant not getting to play her role in Wit for just one glaring example).
As much as we do feel that Holliday is a little over the top in her criticism, this seemed unnecessary:

After weeks of suffering privately with the constant “Dreamgirls” onslaught — particularly the raves surrounding the other Jennifer — she said the final crushing blow came the night before her Ars Nova stint when she watched Hudson on “Entertainment Tonight” as Holliday’s version of “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” from the original cast recording played during the segment.

“When I saw that, I just gave up,” she said. “I thought, ‘This is a hopeless situation. I am being canceled out as an artist.’ ”

Memo to Dreamgirls the movie’s producers: play the new version of the song. If not that’s just mean.

Kansas City Star | 12/25/2006 | It’s no ‘Dream’ for Jennifer Holliday