Broadway Gives Its Regards, to the Tune of $11.2 Billion, to New York - NYTimes.com

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JUNE 5, 2012, 12:56 PM

Broadway Gives Its Regards, to the Tune of $11.2 Billion, to New York

By PATRICK HEALY

The Broadway industry helped generate $11.2 billion in spending by New York City tourists, theaterowners and producers during the 2010-11 theater season, a 9 percent increase over the dollar amount ina comparable economic impact study two years earlier, according to the Broadway League tradeassociation of producers.

The $11.2 billion included $8.95 billion in purchases by tourists from outside New York City who saidthat Broadway was a “very important reason” for their visit; $2.2 billion in expenses to mount and runBroadway shows; and $22.3 million in spending to renovate or refurbish some of the 40 Broadwaytheaters. Based on those figures Broadway helped generate $550 million in taxes to New York Cityduring the 2010-11 season and support 86,000 jobs.

The Broadway League conducts the economic study every two years; in the last report, which analyzedthe 2008-9 theater season, Broadway took credit for generating a total of $10.3 billion. Among the big-budget new musicals on Broadway during the 2010-11 season were the record-setting $75 million“Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” as well as “The Book of Mormon,” “Wonderland,” “Priscilla Queen ofthe Desert,” “Catch Me If You Can” and “Sister Act.” Premium-ticket prices also increased in dollaramount or quantity for several shows between 2008-9 and 2010-11.

Debra Winger to Make Her Broadway Debut in David Mamet's 'Anarchist' - NYTimes.com

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JUNE 5, 2012, 2:38 PM

Debra Winger to Make Her Broadway Debut in David Mamet’s ‘Anarchist’

By DAVE ITZKOFF

Paul Schiraldi/HBODebra WingerAfter a film career that has included “Terms of Endearment,” “Urban Cowboy” and “An Officer and aGentleman,” it was only a matter of time before someone swept Debra Winger off her feet and carriedher over the threshold of Broadway, and the man who’s going to do it (sans naval uniform) is DavidMamet. The producers of Mr. Mamet’s coming play, “The Anarchist,” said on Tuesday that Ms. Wingerwould make her Broadway debut in the production, which is scheduled to begin performances inNovember.

Ms. Winger has appeared on stage in productions of “How I Learned to Drive” and “Ivanov” at theAmerican Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass., and has more recently appeared in films like “RachelGetting Married” and on the HBO series “In Treatment.”

“The Anarchist,” a two-character play about a women’s prison inmate with a radical past who is seekingparole from the prison’s female warden, will also star Patti LuPone as the inmate, with Ms. Wingerplaying the warden. The Broadway production was first announced last November with Ms. LuPoneslated to appear opposite Laurie Metcalf (who starred in the Broadway production of Mr. Mamet’spolitical comedy “November”).

A press representative for “The Anarchist” said that Ms. Metcalf had withdrawn due to a schedulingconflict.

Symbolism and Struggle in a Contest of Dreams - The New York Times

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Hands on a Hardbody

Book by Doug Wright; lyrics by Amanda Green; music by Trey Anastasio and Ms. Green; directed by NeilPepe; musical staging by Benjamin Millepied; music director, Zachary Dietz; sets by Christine Jones; costumesby S usan Hilferty; lighting by Kevin Adams; sound by Steve Canyon Kennedy; arrangements by Mr. Anastasioand Carmel Dean, additional arrangements by Matt Gallagher; voice and dialect coach, Phil Thompson;dramaturgy by Shirley Fishman; production stage manager, Linda Marvel; associate producer, Dana I. Harrel;production manager, Linda S. Cooper. Presented by La Jolla Playhouse, Christopher Ashley, artistic director;Michael S. Rosenberg, managing director. At La Jolla Playhouse’s Mandell Weiss Theater, 2910 La Jolla VillageDrive, La Jolla, Calif.; (858) 550-1010, lajollaplayhouse.org. Through Sunday. Running time: 2 hours 20minutes.

WITH: Keith Carradine (J D Drew), Allison Case (Kelli Mangrum), Hunter Foster (Benny Perkins), JayArmstrong Johnson (Greg Wilhote), David Larsen (Chris Alvaro), Jacob Ming Trent (Ronald McGowan),Kathleen Elizabeth Monteleone (Heather Stovall), Mary Gordon Murray (Virginia Drew), Jim Newman (MikeFerris), Connie Ray (Cindy Barnes), John Rua (Jesus Peña), Keala Settle (Norma Valverde), Dale Soules (JanisCurtis), Scott Wakefield (Frank Nugent) and William Youmans (Don Curtis/Dr. Stokes).

Symbolism and Struggle in a Contest of Dreams - The New York Times

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June 5, 2012THEATER REVIEW

Symbolism and Struggle in a Contest of DreamsBy CHARLES ISHERWOOD

SAN DIEGO — In the new musical “Hands on a Hardbody,” dreams die a sudden death, with the buckling ofknees, a hand gone numb or a descent into hallucination. This Broadway-bound show, making its premiere atthe La Jolla Playhouse here, sings sincerely and with a rough-edged humor of the dusty margins of Americanlife, where people live paycheck to paycheck if they are lucky enough to have a job, and chase a chancy illusionof sudden salvation if they are not.

Consider the strange circumstances that have brought together the dozen or so Texas dwellers in the show.They have gathered to enter an annual contest sponsored by a Nissan dealership in the small city of Longview.The prize? A shiny new pickup. The winner is the man or woman who can keep a hand securely fixed to thetruck for the longest time. They stand hour after hour, day after day on the hot asphalt of the dealership lot asthe brutal Texas sun beats down, the mosquitoes swarm and bite, and curiosity seekers ogle this strangespectacle, placing bets on who will win.

Inspired by the documentary film of the same title — itself named after an actual contest in Texas — “Handson a Hardbody” features a wry, economical book by the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Doug Wright (“I AmMy Own Wife”), along with a soulful score by Amanda Green and Trey Anastasio, a founding member of therock band Phish. The show strikes a fresh, topical note for American musical theater by training acompassionate eye on the struggles of the lower-middle classes. Unlikely as its subject is, “Hands on aHardbody” feels perfectly in sync with our chronically sunken economy and doesn’t cloud its vision by makingconcessions to the kind of splashy spectacle and cozy sentimentality that most Broadway musicals trade in.

Still, the show’s creators, who include the director Neil Pepe and the ballet choreographer Benjamin Millepied,assigned themselves a daunting task in choosing to build a full-scale work of musical theater around an eventthat is necessarily static. There is only so much you can do to animate a story that focuses on people standingstill for days.

The challenge in preparing the show for a planned Broadway run will be to add some dynamism to thenarrative’s built-in suspense. I’m not kidding when I say that that Nissan truck, which sits at center stagethroughout the show, occasionally moving this way and that as the contestants nudge it around, does as muchdancing as the men and women stuck to it like living decals. (It seems a bit perverse to hire an internationallyrenowned dance-maker such as Mr. Millepied to create the sparse choreography; I would like to have seenmore.)

But in its most important aspects “Hands on a Hardbody” impresses. Its characters are drawn with insight,sympathy and a refreshing lack of condescension, despite the plentiful use of colorful local idioms. Their pasts,trials and fervent ambitions are illuminated through an appealing score pungent with blues-rock authenticity.The production boasts a terrific cast led by Hunter Foster as Benny Perkins, a fierce competitor who is not

Symbolism and Struggle in a Contest of Dreams - The New York Times

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above exploiting his rivals’ weaknesses to get ahead, and Keith Carradine as J D Drew, who proves a doggedrival despite being older than most of the other contestants.

And while it hinders narrative freedom, one of the show’s most potent assets is that soberly shining truck. Itpowerfully symbolizes the hopes of the contestants, who test the limits of their physical and mental enduranceto win it. For these men and women, keeping a hand on the truck is by no means a lark, but the contest doesoffer a chance to break free from the circumscribed limits of their lives. Outlast the competition and they willwin a chance to get their stalled destinies in gear.

The contestants vary widely in age and attitude. J D, the oldest, lost his oil-rig job after an accident forced himinto retirement; he has been out of the hospital only a couple of weeks. His loving wife, Virginia (the excellentMary Gordon Murray), has come to support him, but stews with frustration at his stubborn refusal to let hertake a job at Walmart. “For $186 in take-home? And no benefits?” J D says dismissively.

Mr. Wright’s book makes repeated, pointed reference to the brutal realities of the current economy. Even thedealership owner, Mike (Jim Newman), and his exasperated assistant, the peppy Cindy (Connie Ray), facecalamity if the contest doesn’t bring in buyers.

Jesus Peña (Jon Rua) is a Texas-born Latino whose only chance of going to veterinary school is winning thetruck and putting it up for sale. Heather ( Kathleen Elizabeth Monteleone) is a bubbly blonde whose Hondahas been repossessed; a minor subplot involves her flirtation with Mike during the 15-minute breaks thecontestants are allowed every six hours.

The contestants are all afforded an opportunity to sing their hard-luck histories or their determinedaspirations to us. At times “Hands on a Hardbody” feels like a hybrid of “A Chorus Line” and the movie “TheyShoot Horses, Don’t They?” The lyrics by Ms. Green, firmly rooted in the specifics of each character, alsoemphasize the choppy economic seas threatening to engulf the competitors. The young brunette Kelli (AllisonCase) works at UPS and sings of her family hardship: “My mama, she still works today/Her 401(k)’s blownaway.”

Ms. Green and Mr. Anastasio collaborated on many of the songs (others are credited to one or the other), butyou can definitely hear the funky, folksy flavor that distinguishes the music of Phish. Pulsating bass lines,honky-tonk piano and acoustic guitar spiced by a distinct Texas twang or a little mariachi salsa are wed tofoot-tapping or somberly haunting melodies. One of the strongest songs is a gospel number, “Joy of the Lord,”led by the fervently religious Norma (touchingly portrayed by Keala Settle), in which the truck is turned into agiant percussion instrument. Delirious with fatigue, the remaining contestants join in a freewheeling jamboreethat allows them to set aside their understated antagonism and exult in a collective sense of optimism.

For all but one of them, of course, hope will eventually give way to disappointment. Like the musical “Once,”“Hands on a Hardbody” feels restrained and even somber compared with more typical Broadway fare thatshowers the audience in giddy escapism. Nor does it have the romantic hook of a central love story to bind ittogether. Once the contest ends, the characters part ways and return to their struggles.

And while the finale strives to uplift — contestants reassemble to sing of how their lives have moved on —Benny leaves us with a decidedly downbeat conclusion, suggesting that we’re all holding on by our fingertips,in these straitened times, to dreams consistently deferred: “You’re fighting for your breath,” he sings, “rightfrom the moment of your birth.”