As if the reality of media layoffs and non-existant newspaper readerships wasn’t enough of a reason for journalists to take up drinking, along comes Broadway’s ‘Time Stands Still,’ a play focusing on the emotional breakdown of a war correspondent.
Photo by Joan Marcus
Written by Donald Margulies and directed by Daniel Sullivan, ‘Time Stands Still’ touches on the always relevant, yet often sidelined, subject of journalism. This at a time when the profession is battling e-readers and blogs — formats that erase the desire for hard copy newspapers and day-late stories.
While ‘Time Stands Still’ lacks enough focus to drive home the point that hard working journalists give up comfort and love to pursue their calling, the subject is touched upon throughout the play. Laura Linney tackles the role of a war photojournalist that has recently suffered a near-death experience while reporting from the Middle East. Riddled with scars, both physical and emotional, she carries the baggage of front-line reporting. Death, devastation and futility are common themes journalists encounter when covering disaster and war zones. Where the play succeeds is in its slow-paced portrayal of an emotional meltdown.
Linney’s character hobbles back to a New York City apartment with her long-time lover, also a conflicted journalist, and spends the entire play fighting an urge to return to the Middle East. It’s an emotional battle for her, because returning to work would mean losing her boyfriend and risking further injury.
Most of the play focuses not on journalism as a whole, rather, on the emotional hardships associated with love and how people settle for something comfortable in life rather than going it alone. Linney’s boyfriend, Brian d’Arcy James, suffers post traumatic stress disorder following troubles in a war zone and decides he wants to settle down, raise a family, and spend his days obsessing over horror movies.
Eric Bogosian is a magazine editor suffering a mid-life crisis that takes the shape of a simple-minded Alicia Silverstone. After spending years with an over-analitical woman, Bogosian opts for a pretty, young face that he finds comfort in.
By the end of ‘Time Stands Still,’ Linney stands alone, the only one of her cohorts willing to sacrifice for the journalistic cause. Such actions can be read as heroic amongst the young journalists springing up from the Columbia Universities and North Westerns of the world — I’ll own up to being a Columbia Journalism School alum — but to many watching the play, it might seem tragic that Linney’s character finds solace in a life of torment.
After all, when you read the news for free online, be it blog or the New York Times via an iPhone, how tragic it must be to imagine someone risking their lives to write up that quick blurb read between subway stops. Yet, as ‘Time Stands Still’ points out, some stories require a journalist willing to forgo a life of comfort for the greater good. The fact that Linney’s character is unable to give up on her life-long pursuit of journalistic truth is a message the public and media leaders alike must pay attention to.
While many New Yorkers stick their noses up at the thought of a “theatre scene” in Los Angeles, there is plenty of live theatre going on in the spread-out city. Some of it is actually worth watching. Having covered the Los Angeles theatre beat for a long while, it was always my hope to highlight the best of what the town had to offer, and during my time with BroadwayWorld.com, I often had great success in doing so.
Video I produced of 'Mask'
Video I produced of 'Of Mice and Men'
One venerable theatre that lent itself to my cause was the Pasadena Playhouse, a theatre founded in 1917 and the home to many inspiring theatrical works. Actors including Gene Hackman, Raymond Burr and Dustin Hoffman trained at the theatre — it was at one point known as the ‘Star Factory.’
Sadly, the Pasadena Playhouse has announced it will close Feb. 7 due to money troubles. “The playhouse is essentially out of cash and faces more than $500,000 in immediate bills, as well as payments on more than $1.5 million in bank loans,” reports the Los Angeles Times.
Word of a potential disaster for the Playhouse started leaking late last year, with the wife of an audio supervisor writing on the Huffington Post, “If the Pasadena Playhouse closes, we all lose. The actors, the production staff, and most of all, the community.”
Sheldon Epps, the Playhouse’s artistic director said he’s holding out hope for a last-minute donation or help from the city. Read more about the Playhouse’s struggles at the LATimes.
As Los Angels readies to bid the Pasadena Playhouse farewell, I thought it best to remind people of the inspiring work staged at the theatre during my time out West.
A new musical, ‘Mask,’ based on the 1985 Universal motion picture, had its world premiere at the Playhouse in 2008 under the direction of Tony Award-winner Richard Maltby, Jr. Watch a video I produced for the production.
Director Paul Lazarus took on John Steinbeck’s classic sotry, ‘Of Mice and Men,’ giving it a Southern California spin with a focus on the plight of Mexican immigrants. Watch a video I produced for the production.
Now playing in London and soon to debut on Broadway, ‘Sister Act the Musical,’ with music by Disney alum Alan Menken, made its world premiere at the Playhouse in 2006. I had the chance to review this still in-progess production.
And I truly enjoyed reviewing the intriguing play ‘Orson’s Shadow’ in 2008 with riveting performances by actors Sharon Lawrence and Scott Lowell as the storied theatre critic Kenneth Tynan.
My only hope is that some type of donation or funding comes along in the near future, helping to re-open the Pasadena Playhouse. Without such breeding grounds for creativity, there is no telling how many pieces of art will go unseen.
After seemingly endless public fighting and controversy, Conan O’Brien is ready to depart NBC’s ‘The Tonight Show‘ with Friday night’s broadcast marking his final time hosting the legendary late-night program.
First hosted by comedian Steve Allen in 1954, ‘The Tonight Show’ has seen many lead the talk show. From Allen and Jack Paar to the venerable Johnny Carson and now O’Brien, the program is full of comic history. Jay Leno reigned as king of ‘The Tonight Show’ from 1992-2009 after nabbing, some would argue “stealing,” the show from David Letterman upon Carson’s retirement.
It hasn’t always been smooth sailing for the show, with ratings dropping and that ill-fated format switch in 1957 to a news-type program. However, there has been a sense of dignity about hosting the legendary broadcast, until now. Who wants a washed up comedian, Leno, to return to late-night with his tail between his legs, besides Jeff Zucker?
With O’Brien departing ‘The Tonight Show,’ and Leno set to return as host March 1, NBC is certain to face an uphill climb as it tries wooing back viewers and re-building the dignity of its storied program. Any TV viewer that ditched ‘The Tonight Show’ once O’Brien took over shouldn’t be that hard to get back, pending they haven’t died of old age. No, NBC shouldn’t be concerned about that demographic. It should, however, be nervous about the 18-to-49 demographic — a group O’Brien plays well to.
O’Brien has been the leader in late night with the 18-to-49 year-old viewers this season, according to BusinessWeek.com. Leno, on the other hand, has been struggling to garner any viewers for his prime-time show. And once O’Brien is able to return to the airwaves in September, Fox could prove a strong competitor to NBC should they snatch up O’Brien for its own late-night program. The network is the most-watched in prime time when it comes to youngsters.
Zucker recently told Charlie Rose he made a “mistake” regarding the whole late-night debacle. When the coveted 18-to-49 year olds follow O’Brien this Fall, perhaps Triumph the Insult Comic Dog can interview the NBC executive and get him to admit something worse. After all, it appears the NBC higher-ups decided to lock up Triumph and most all of O’Brien’s comic creations so that they can’t be used on a competing network.
Perhaps Zucker’s master plan is to have Triumph the Insult Comic Dog co-host ‘The Tonight Show’ with Leno. Now that might be the only positive thing to come out of this late-night madness — a puppet upstaging Leno each and every night. I’d definitely tune in.
It’s not often that my work as an entertainment and Broadway reporter crosses paths with my day job as the New Media Specialist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, so when I heard that an opera was going to be staged in the Museum’s Hayden Planetarium, I was excited to check it out.
Turns out the director of Broadway’s recent Hair revival, Diane Paulus, decided to direct a production of Il mondo della luna (The World on the Moon) by Joseph Haydn in the Planetarium — a perfect setting for a show about a nobleman who is fooled, by a fake astronomer, to believe he has been sent to the moon.
Written in 1777, the story of Il mondo della luna remains intriguing to both art lovers and science enthusiasts, thanks in part to the stunning projections displayed on the Planetarium’s 180-degree dome throughout the production.
I had the opportunity to film the opera’s rehearsal and document this cool production. Check out the video below and if you happen to be in New York City between now and January 28, 2010, try scoring a ticket to this intimate opera.
