The dirt on the Fringe Festival NYC

New York's annual August Fringe Festival is over on Sunday.  Here's the dirt on the best show in the festival.
I'm so glad I had a chance to see "Absolutely Filthy," written by and starring Brendan Hunt. But I predict we'll be seeing more of this show, which was originally produced by the Sacred Fools Theater Company in Los Angeles.
I went not knowing anything about the show. I was pleasantly surprised to find a well written, well acted, funny and thoroughly engaging piece about what happens to the Peanuts characters when they're all grown up. Even if you didn't like Charlie Brown or watch any of the TV specials, the characters are etched in popular culture and the characters' attributes are familiar territory.
As the playwright explained it in the program, "… a few people asked me if I am a Peanuts 'fan.' When I was a kid, one did not need to play favorites in this way; Peanuts was simply Peanuts and it was everything."
"Absolutely Filthy" is the story of Pigpen, Charlie Brown's perpetually dirty friend, drawn by his creator Charles Schulz's pen as surrounded by a cloud of dust.
The action takes place on Valentine's Day, 2013 in a large city in California, on the day of Charlie Brown's funeral.
The playwright, who plays Pigpen, was not authorized by the Schulz estate to use the characters, and the characters are called by other names i.e., Pigpen is called "The Mess" in the program.
Charlie Brown has died of encephalitis. Pigpen, now a homeless street person, lives outside the church where his funeral is to be held.  One by one Pigpen meets his long lost gang as they are going to the service. They are disgusted, but saddened, by the way Pigpen's life has turned out. 
Schroder is now a gay rockstar. Marci is an ophthalmologist, Linus is an Iraq war vet suffering from PTSD. The pocket square of his suit is now his security blanket.  Sally, Charlie Brown's sister and Pigpen's old love, is distraught to see Pigpen in his degraded state. Lucy is a businesswoman. No one remembers the black guy's name — Franklin.
Hunt's riffs on the Peanuts' characters are hilarious and the story is very nicely woven together. The totally dysfunctional Pigpen character is both charming and poignant. He blames his parents, his dirt "disease" and the bad decisions and negative thought processes in his life for his ending up where he is.
The most ingenious idea in the show is that Hunt keeps a hula hoop rotating throughout the entire play to represent the cloud of dirt around Pigpen. That Hunt could do this for almost two hours is quite a feat.
"Absolutely Filthy" was winner of best show at the 2013 Hollywood Fringe. I hope it takes New York this year.

Winning the lottery

So you needed binoculars from Midtown to see the Macy's fireworks south of the Brooklyn
Bridge. The rooftop view of Manhattan at night was more spectacular than anything the Grucci family could come up with.
Saturday I saw an excellent Patti LuPone at Caramoor in Katonah in her "Far Away Places" concert, but the real excitement for me over the Fourth of July weekend was winning the lottery for the Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park's final performance Sunday of "Much Ado About Nothing." The cast included
Lily Rabe, Hamish Linklater and Brian Stokes Mitchell. I've been entering this lottery daily for over a year, rather than schlep over to the Delacorte Theater in Central Park at 6 in the morning to wait on line for a chance to get tickets. When I got the email with "Congratulations!" I was elated.
The night was magical, the weather perfect. The set for Shakespeare's comedy was an Italian villa, complete with a garden of tomatoes, grapevines and an orange tree.
Rabe as Beatrice and Linklater as Benedick had great chemistry. She has an unusual voice and real stage presence. When she is off stage, you find yourself waiting for her to come back.
Ismenia Mendes was excellent as Hero, Beatrice's cousin, as was John Glover who played Hero's father Leonato.
To hear Stokes Mitchell as Don Pedro sing was an unexpected treat.
John Pankow was hilarious as Dogberry.
The entire cast was terrific at bringing the words of Shakespeare to life. The actors were incredibly comfortable with the language and at transmitting the meaning of the Bard's words. Their joy at performing is also infectious. The audience was in an appreciative good mood.
Of course, people-watching is another favorite activity at the Delacorte. Catching the last performance of "Much Ado" was one of my favorite actors, Alan Rickman who was there with Rima Horton. Rickman starred with Rabe and Linklater in "Seminar" on Broadway.  Former New York Times theater critic Frank Rich was also in the audience.
Coming up next is "King Lear." I'll keep trying the lottery!

'Disney's On the Record' — mashups and medleys

White Plains Performing Arts Center is presenting the tristate premiere of "Disney's On the Record," a jukebox musical featuring mashups and medleys of 64 Disney songs from the past 75 years.  
Set in a contemporary recording studio, “On the Record” is the story of a recording session that changed the lives of a young unknown who is about to get her big break, a pop diva who is about to meet her match, and a matinee idol who is about to meet the “new kid” who could take his place. Songs are featured from “Cinderella,” “Snow White,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “The Lion King,” “Mary Poppins,” “The Jungle Book,” “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” “The Little Mermaid,” “Toy Story,” “Pocahontas,” “Tarzan,” “Pinocchio,” “Aladdin” and more.
Remaining performances are June 27, 28, 29, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Sundays at 2 p.m. The cast includes Álvaro Francisco, Chelsey Lynn Alfredo, Eric Pagan, Devin Lewis, Gina Noto, Triona O’Callaghan, Paulette Oliva and Joseph C. Bellino. The show is directed by Frank Portanova with musical direction by Stephen Ferri.
Tickets: $30, $25 for students 22 and younger. To purchase tickets: visit the theater box office in City Center in downtown White Plains. Purchase tickets online at www.wppac.com or call 328-1600.
Check it out at http://vimeo.com/98540314.

Marilyn Maye - Here's to Life

When my friend told me she bought us tickets to Marilyn Maye at the 92nd St. Y June 17, I said "Marilyn who?" I didn't remember the singer who was discovered by Steve Allen and performed on the Tonight Show 76 times.  She clearly has her fans and a following. She played to a packed house in her return engagement at the Y.
The 86-year-old rocked a gold sequined jacket over a pants suit. Her voice strong, her set list brimming with songs of optimism, romance, joie de vivre, the tireless Maye sang for an hour and a half, medleys on rainbows and being happy and my favorite, "Here's to Life." She delivers the whole package — Broadway, nightclub, jazz, cabaret. She was backed by the best — conductor and pianist Ted Firth, bassist Tom Hubbard, and Bryan Carter on drums.
Maye said she was a "commitment singer" back in the day for RCA Records. That meant she recorded tunes written for Broadway before a show opened, giving the show a boost at the box office. She made a hit of the song "Cabaret" in 1966. She also made big bucks recording a version of her hit "Step to the Rear" for Ford Motors.
I went on YouTube and saw some early performances. She was a powerhouse.
Forever classy and a classic, Maye will sing a tribute to her early champion in "A Tribute to Johnny Carson" at 54 Below June 26-28.

'Mothers and Sons' closing

What a Tony Award can do. Just two days after the Tony Awards comes the announcement that Terrence McNally's play "Mothers and Sons" with Tyne Daly is closing June 22 at the John Golden Theatre. The play was nominated for a Tony for best play and Daly was nominated for a Tony for leading actress in a play. They lost out to "All the Way" and Audra McDonald (who could win against her?), respectively.
I was riveted by Daly's poignant performance and gripped by the power of McNally's words. McNally skillfully wove the story of a mother making peace with her ghosts and the rapidly changing society in which gays and their families find themselves. 
Discussions are underway to have the show our.
After the performance I saw there was a conversation on stage with the playwright; his partner, Thomas Kirdahy; Daly; and (bonus!) Nathan Lane, for whom McNally wrote several parts. 
I'm sorry to see the show close, but there's more McNally in the fall. In the 2014-15 Broadway season, a revival of McNally's "It's Only A Play," will star F. Murray Abraham, Matthew Broderick, Stockard Channing, Nathan Lane, Megan Mullally and Micah Stock. The limited 17-week engagement begins Sept. 4 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, with opening night Oct. 9.

Museum Mile Festival

Put on your walking shoes and get your culture on today. The Museum Mile Festival  http://museummilefestival.org takes place Tuesday, June 10, from 6-9 p.m. along Fifth Avenue from 82nd Street to 105th Street in Manhattan. The event includes free admission to nine museums, music and art projects along the way.
I, for one, have never visited the Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Avenue at 103rd Street. (Shocking, I know!) http://www.mcny.org/exhibitions/current.  I'm looking forward to seeing "City as Canvas," Graffiti Art from the Martin Wong Collection.

A shout out for indie bookstores

My Connecticut College roommate Ellen Richmond won a $5,000 James Patterson grant at the Book Expo in New York recently for her bookstore, The Children's Book Cellar in Waterville, Maine. http://www.childrensbookcellar.com. Ellen will use the grant to make improvements to the store and maybe offer a community reading program. How wonderful that Patterson is giving away $1 million to independent book sellers like my friend.
Ellen was featured today in an article in the Bangor Daily News.
http://cultureshock.bangordailynews.com/2014/06/09/out-and-about/waterville-book-store-receives-5000-grant-from-writer-james-patterson/.
What better labor of love for an English major and avid reader than a book store? Ellen is the only person I know who doesn't own a TV. She's spends a lot of her free time reading. She really knows her stuff.
Ellen began working at the chain Mr. Paperback in Skowhegan, working her way up in management. She bought the Children's Book Cellar in 2002. I enjoy Ellen's posts on Facebook about all the events and author  appearances at the store. I wish I lived closer — or at least had a grandchild or two to buy for!  Ellen recently added a selection of books for adults, so if I were heading up to Maine this summer I'd stop there for my summer reading.

Maya Angelou and my bad

Everyone's got their Maya Angelou story, and I have mine.
I'm probably the only person in the world who thinks of Maya Angelou and has a negative thought. Dr. Angelou was the cause of a rift between one of my oldest friends and me. Let me explain.
As a reporter for The Scarsdale Inquirer, I was invited to her lecture at Pace University in Pleasantville on Feb. 9, 2005. I was a fan and had loved "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," so I was eager to go. But tickets to the event were much sought after, and it wasn't certain that there would be enough tickets to meet press requests until the last minute. When I told my friend, who like Angelou, is a poet, artist and writer, that I would possibly be there, she begged me to try to get her a ticket. I told her I would, but that it would be very last minute. It looked like a no go, and I told my friend to forget about it. She had another avenue for tickets and was going to try that. But, I got lucky and the p.r. person came through with two tickets at the 11th hour and a half. By then, it was complicated and I didn't ask my friend, I invited someone else. I don't know why, it was just easier. I got lazy.
Well, who do I meet at the event, but my friend, who confronted me. She was surprised, upset and very hurt that I didn't call her. I hadn't realized how very important it was to her to hear Dr. Angelou. I never think of myself as the bad guy in any relationship, but that day, I really was.
I had the privilege of meeting Maya Angelou at a small press conference after her speech, where she was as eloquent and inspiring as she had been in the packed gym where she talked about "being the rainbow in somebody else's cloud."
That day, I was definitely the cloud in somebody's rainbow.
My friend and I have long since repaired our relationship, although it took a while, and whenever I think of that day and Maya Angelou, a flood of shame comes over me.
Since that day I don't take my friendships for granted. I'm trying to be the rainbow. It's not always easy, but the refracted light shines back on me.
I think Maya would approve.