offoffBway.com

With the Dreamgirls movie opening this week, and everyone going gaga for Jennifer Hudson who plays Effie, we thought we’d show you a clip of the original Effie, Jennifer Holliday, as she blows the roof off of the 1982 Tony Awards with “I’m Telling You I’m Not Going.”
You also get to see the late, great Tony Randall, who was the host that year.

YouTube – ’82 Tonys–Dreamgirls “And I’m Telling You”

Flavorpill now has multiple sites in its ‘network’, focusing on Art, Music, Fashion, World News, and Books, with this review of a new book about thirtysomethings in New York, including one who works at the Village Voice (now that’s specific). FP started a looong time ago, it’s nice to see them grow and become more important.
BTW Flavorpill folk: need a theater site? (Hint, hint.)

Flavorpill LA has an item about – no joke – Machomer, a show by Rick Miller that “eimagines the Bard’s infamous tragedy amidst the hustle and bustle of modern-day Springfield, twisting and mangling the tale to delightful extremes.”
Rick’s other shows include Bigger Than Jesus, and ‘Machomer’ has been touring for 10 years. Must be doing something right. This is kind of in the same vein as Oblivious to Everyone, although this one is of course about fictional characters (Paris Hilton is sort of fictional as well, but, sadly, she exists and Homer Simpson does not, proving that there is no justice in this world). Gotta have a gimmick, and if it’s a good one, more power to ya.
Irvine Barclay Theatre in Cali, Fri 11.24 – Sun 11.26 if you’re out there and want to check it out. If you do, feel free to email us a review. You know us, if it’s even vaguely coherent, we’ll post it.

– Machomer official site
– Rick Miller official site
– Flavorpill LA (listing)

A second opinion on Constantine Maroulis, the American Idol castoff who has now KILLED OUR FAVORITE BROADWAY MUSICAL! (We’re only kidding, dude, we don’t blame you. Show just ain’t selling tickets. Whatcha gonna do? Simon Cowell, that’s whose fault it is!)

judgejru.com // judge jru’s American Idol blog: judge jru hearts Angela Ashman

We’re kind of sad to see The Wedding Singer close (we’ve mentioned it before, y’know). While not exactly a great piece of theatrical art, it was fun and mindless entertainment with numerous 80’s references. Does this mean “Teen Wolf: The Musical” is now DOA? Gosh, we hope not. (We kid. At least, we’re hoping we kid.)
Details of the closing (it ends December 31) are below, along with the holiday schedule.
You can also read this this bizarre article in the Village Voice titled, This Is Constantine Maroulis. He Wishes You Knew That. –
In which an American Idol runner-up tops it all by blow-drying his chest. Well all righty then.

The Wedding Singer

TO CLOSE AT

BROADWAY’S AL HIRSCHFELD THEATRE

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 31

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Soho Rep has been around for way longer than most theater companies of its size, and former Artistic Director Daniel Aukin has moved on, leaving the job to Sarah Benson, who is, like Aukin, a Brit. Interesting. Bill O’Reilly, if he ever went to off-off Broadway theater, would probably be annoyed.

Englishwoman in New York: Sarah Benson takes center stage at Soho Rep (Village Voice)

Michael Riedel reports in the New York Post that “The ax is swinging again at The Times They Are A-Changin’, the new Twyla Tharp musical based on the music of Bob Dylan.” As usual, the blame seems to be falling on the performers rather than on, oh, I don’t know, the concept itself. (Try to imagine the initial meeting for this show. “Hey! It worked for Billy Joel! This is the same thing, right? Right? Someone get Twyla in here!”) According to Riedel (and while some people don’t like him, he’s usually factually correct), the show is on their 3rd leading lady. Here’s a list:
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Reviews of two shows that look interesting from nytheatre.com:
El Conquistador!, which in addition to having an exclamation point on it appears to be a ‘telenovela’-style show, “involving suspense, seduction, murder and revenge.” (Mmmm… revenge…).
Also of note: OFF Stage: the West Village Fragments, which we’ve also mentioned.

Here are some pics from ‘Valentyne and Orson’ which we wrote about yesterday. Today, the New York Times review came out. Coincidence? We think not.

Lil’ teeny pics below, larger sized shots on this page. Get ticket info here.

…while NYC Theaters do, um, nothing.
That said, maybe this makes sense. 9/11 is a very tough topic for New Yorkers to handle, for obvious reasons. In many ways, we don’t really want to remember it. And The Guys did start out here, at the Flea Theater. And to be fair, it is entirely possible that there are theatrical 9/11-themed events going on in the Big Apple that we know nothing about. Down and dirty reporting is not our strong suit.

Playbill News: Canadian Theatres Remember 9/11 With Performances Benefitting Firefighter Charities