January 16, 2008

Plays, 1/16.

Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps Ben Brantley on Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps: "Adapted by Patrick Barlow from both the classic spy movie and the John Buchan novel of 1915, this fast, frothy exercise in legerdemain is throwaway theater at its finest. And that's no backhanded compliment."

Also in the New York Times: "[I]n a promotion for his play November, which will open on Broadway on Thursday, David Mamet will continue to write a blog from the perspective of his leading character, Charles HP Smith (played by Nathan Lane), a sitting president about to lose a re-election bid," reports Andrew Adam Newman. And for New York, Boris Kachka talks with Mamet.

"Theater is a resilient little shit of an art form that will go on long after any of us are around to worry about it," writes Neil LaBute. "But it can get stuck, and I believe American theater is currently in danger of this."



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Posted by dwhudson at January 16, 2008 11:22 AM

Comments

Neil LaBute's comment reminds me of Bill Murray's line in 'Cradle Will Rock'"Vaudeville will be around a lot longer than you and your commie friends!" (or something like that)

Neil LaBute on BBC's Collective about his book, Seconds Of Pleasure

I'm going through a LaBute phase and really wish I could see theater work.

Posted by: Jerry Lentz at January 16, 2008 10:26 PM