Stage: Blog of New Orleans, Gambit

NOLA Project announces 2013-2014 schedule

Will Coviello — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 16:01:00 -0500

The NOLA Project announced its 2013-1014 schedule. It includes a new work by Jim Ftizmorris, a play by company director A.J. Allegra, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and a dark comedy about children's Scientology pageant.…

Saenger Theatre fall schedule to feature Jerry Seinfeld, D.L. Hughley, Kristin Chenoweth and others

Will Coviello — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 13:19:00 -0500

ACE Theatrical Group announced an impressive lineup of concerts, musicals, comedians and more for the Saenger Theatre, which reopens Sept. 28 with two performances by comedian Jerry Seinfeld. The official opening gala is Oct. 5 and features Kristin Chenoweth and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra.…

Review: Hell's Belles

Dalt Wonk — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 11:21:00 -0500

Hell’s Belles, currently on the boards at the Mid-City Theatre, is an antebellum Southern Gothic tale, but you’re more likely to come across a harlot than a Scarlett at this Tara.

The French Finishing School for Little Confederate Women, where Hell’s Belles takes place, was dreamed up and populated by Running with Scissors.…

This weekend in New Orleans: Prince party, Creature From the Black Lagoon in 3-D, Gambit Wellness Expo and more

Megan Braden-Perry — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 17:38:00 -0500

A weekend full of exciting events starts this evening and continues through Sunday night.

Tonight there will be a birthday party for Prince and a screening of Purple Rain, a screening of Creature From the Black Lagoon in 3-D, a bounce show featuring Katey Red, Miss Tee, Rusty Culotta and DJ Rusty Lazer and the play Next to Normal.…

Review: Clybourne Park

Dalt Wonk — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 14:18:00 -0500

Pulitzer Prize-winning Clybourne Park is a full-throttle drama getting a full-throttle treatment in its regional premiere at the Shadowbox Theatre. It’s about housing and racial issues, and the script is both subtle and full of surprises.…

Review: Redesigning Women

Will Coviello — Wed, 29 May 2013 17:06:00 -0500

When they chose to parody the 1980s sitcom Designing Women, Varla Jean Merman (aka Jeffery Roberson), Ricky Graham, Brian Peterson and Jack Long knew there would be an audience for their version. During opening night at Mid-City Theatre, when Graham delivered Julia Sugarbaker’s YouTube-immortalized tirade defending her sister Suzanne’s beauty pageant achievements, most of the audience joined in — not just mouthing the words, but following the steadily rising volume and intensity to the dramatically staggered final pronouncement about “The night the lights went out in Georgia.”

Redesigning Women features three reworked and barely stitched together episodes of the sitcom.…

Le Petit Theatre announces 2013-1014 schedule

Will Coviello — Tue, 28 May 2013 09:49:00 -0500

Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre announced its 2013-2014 schedule. The shows include Lombardi, Hair, Death of a Salesman, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Golda's Balcony.…

Review: Next To Normal

Dalt Wonk — Tue, 21 May 2013 13:07:00 -0500

Just when pompous period melodramas like The Phantom of the Opera seemed to have cornered the market on serious musical theater, Next To Normal ran off with a Pulitzer Prize, among many other honors. This inventive oddity, deftly produced by Southern Rep, might be characterized as the revenge of the middle class.…

Review: Much Ado About Nothing

Will Coviello — Fri, 10 May 2013 17:50:00 -0500

Thick Hollywood-style Southern accents work wonders to mask the sharp tongued battle of wits between Beatrice (Kathlyn Tarwater) and Benedick (A.J. Allegra) in the NOLA Project’s production of Much Ado About Nothing. Their repartee almost sounds loving, belying the romantic comedy’s show-stealing subplot.…

Preview: interview with Audra McDonald

Lauren LaBorde — Fri, 10 May 2013 15:28:00 -0500

This week's Gambit features my interview with Audra McDonald, the five-time Tony winner and star of the ABC series Private Practice, who performs at NOCCA in two shows on May 18. In the interview we talked about her star turn in the recent revival of Porgy and Bess, doing a television show versus Broadway, and her upcoming album.…

Review: The Adventures of Butt Boy and Tigger

Will Coviello — Thu, 09 May 2013 13:04:00 -0500

By the time Butt Boy (Chris Marroy) is repeatedly screaming “Hit the spot,” it’s clear that Steven Dawson’s one-act play The Adventures of Butt Boy and Tigger is every bit as racy as the title suggests. Butt Boy and Tigger (Garrett Prejean) are in the final ecstatic moments of a sexual fantasy shared online and acted out in unison between the two small desks on stage at The Elm Theater.…

New Orleans Puppet Festival's first weekend

Will Coviello — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 17:16:00 -0500

In the opening weekend of shows at the New Orleans Puppet Festival, Skookum Heehee Tumtum Productions makes the most of the cavernous space at the Marigny Opera House. The set features twin scaffoldings more than 20 feet tall, and at one point, a young woman in the story is carried away by an eagle-like suitor to his nest in a flight spanning nearly the full-length of the deconsecrated church.…

Southern Rep announces 2013-2014 season

Will Coviello — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 17:23:00 -0500

Southern Rep has announced its 2013-2014 mainstage season.

33 Variations
Sept. 11-29
Michael Cooper will direct Moises Kaufman's musical play about Ludvig van Beethoven's Diabelli Variations.…

Comedy Central offering free tickets to stand-up specials

Alex Woodward — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 15:30:00 -0500

Comedy Central is in town this week hosting three stand-up comics filming their first one-hour specials for the network. The League's Steve Rannazzisi, Chappelle's Show co-creator Neal Brennan, and Whitney co-star (and prolific Vine user) Chris D'Elia perform at the newly renovated Civic Theatre, and complimentary tickets are offered here.…

Southern Rep to stage reading of Dustin Lance Black's 8

Will Coviello — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 18:26:00 -0500

Playwright and screenwriter Dustin Lance Black's work 8 will be given a staged reading at the Civic Theatre Sunday, April 21 at 7 p.m. The reading is presented by Southern Rep and the Forum For Equality.…

Review: Battle of Angels

Dalt Wonk — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 14:31:00 -0500

Battle of Angels, recently staged at AllWays Lounge and Theatre, was Tennessee Williams’ first professionally produced play. Although it’s an early work, all of Williams’ strengths are there: the everyday language that somehow rises to poetry, the Gothic South and conflicts that teeter on the edge of melodrama.…

Moshe Kasher and Natasha Leggero in New Orleans

Will Coviello — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 17:08:00 -0500

Comedians Moshe Kasher and Natasha Leggero do standup at One Eyed Jacks Monday. It's a junket for the two Los Angeles-based comedians, and they are joined by Reno 911!'s Tom Lennon, as well as local comedians Chris Trew and Ariel Elias.…

Big Easy Theater Awards winners announced

Will Coviello — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 18:26:00 -0500

The Foundation for Entertainment, Development and Education (FEDE) announced winners for theater performances in 2012 at the 25th Annual Big Easy Theater Awards Monday, March 25, at Harrah’s New Orleans.

Special honors included a Lifetime Achievement Award for Luis Q. Barroso, an actor, director, producer and educator.…

Review: Mold

Dalt Wonk — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 09:29:00 -0500

Hurricane Katrina was inevitably called “a catastrophe of biblical proportions.” The multitalented New Orleans writer John Biguenet has presented the catastrophe in three plays, all of which premiered at Southern Rep. Mold, the final installment, is currently on the boards at the Contemporary Art Center, and it is local original theater at its best.…

Book of Mormon, War Horse among shows in Broadway series at Saenger Theatre

Lauren LaBorde — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 13:53:00 -0500

The nine-time Tony Award-winning hit Broadway musical The Book of Mormon opens the 2013-14 Broadway in New Orleans series at the Saenger Theatre, which is slated to reopen this fall. The Book of Mormon, which runs Oct. 15-27, begins the season also featuring Ghost the Musical (Nov. 19-24), Sister Act (Dec. 17-22), Beauty and the Beast (Feb. 4-9), Memphis (March 11-16), War Horse (May 13-18) and Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles (Jan. 17-19).…

Backyard Ballroom gets City Council approval

Alex Woodward — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 13:11:00 -0500

As the New Orleans City Planning Commission (CPC) cited the neighborhood's "resurgence in commercial activity” and arts and entertainment, the New Orleans City Council approved the St. Claude Avenue theater and performance space Backyard Ballroom's request for a conditional use to permit to allow the theater's operation with its newly acquired zoning change.

In October 2012, theater operator Laura Campbell (aka Otter) requested a zoning change for Backyard Ballroom.…

Review: Noises Off

Dalt Wonk — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 11:54:00 -0500

Theater people call them “war stories” — the endless slips and goofs that plague live performance. An actor forgets to take off his glasses and enters as a medieval figure in fashionable modern eyewear.…

Anthony Jeselnik at Harrah's New Orleans June 1

Kevin Allman — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 15:05:00 -0500

Pitch-black social satirist or comedy creep? Anthony Jeselnik, star of many of Comedy Central's roasts and his own show, The Jeselnik Offensive, will be appearing at Harrah's New Orleans June 1 for two shows at 7 and 9 p.m.…

Interview: Sutton Foster

Lauren LaBorde — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 15:52:40 -0600

Bernadette Peters played with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra last night (on her birthday!), and what I'm calling Broadway Lovers Fantasy Week continues with a concert/interview with Sutton Foster at NOCCA on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 (the 7:30 p.m. show is sold out). It's part of Seth Rudetsky's Broadway at NOCCA series which in January brought Patti LuPone to the arts school (in case you missed it, she sang both parts from "A Boy Like That" from West Side Story by herself, among other things).…

Cirque du Soleil previews Quidam at Gambit

Will Coviello — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 11:37:00 -0600

In a publicity preview, juggler/performer Patrick McGuire of Cirque du Soleil's Quidam visited Gambit's offices yesterday and performed a short impromptu juggling exhibition. McGuire is one of the original cast members of Quidam, which debuted in 1996.…