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We are the champions

The real problem with the atmosphere in Denver wasn't the altitude. It was that  Joe Buck used up all the oxygen with his yapping. Thank you, you've been a lovely audience, see you next season!  And now back to our regularly scheduled arts news...

Update On Tacogate

Following on yesterday's post: The Globe has a story today that says Royce Clayton wasn't paid to talk about the Taco Bell promotion on Fox's Sounds of the Game. I'm still not sure I believe it - he brought it up twice - although the inducement could have been more subtle. Hey, there, benchwarmer, we're looking for somebody to wear a mike tonight on national TV - do you know about our taco deal? The Globe does say that the announcers were required to keep blabbing about it; the interview with the Taco Bell CEO, Smiley Boy, was also a required part of the deal, as were his box seats, no doubt. (Against my better judgment, I'll admit McCarver gets points for the segue "From shilling to Schilling...")

I hope Commissioner Bud Selig (right, sans cheese) is listening to how DISGUSTED people are with this perhaps inevitable level of whoring. He's the only one with the power to beat this crap back into 1950s television where it belongs. Given the steroid controversy, don't you have enough image problems, Bud?

Demon rabbits, sacrifice and the end of the world

That's the delightful headline on my story on the front of the Globe Weekend section today, about the new ART stage adaptation of the cult film "Donnie Darko." I am really looking forward to this show, which promises a kind of gonzo theatrical energy that was commonplace in Chicago, where I lived for a decade, but is too often absent from Boston's more prominent stages.

One thing missing from the web version of the story: the print version includes a box that tells you tix and info are available at 617-547-8300 or www.amrep.org.
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Taco Bell Promos Gag-Inducing

Kudos to the New York Times for taking Fox to task for its barf-tastic sucking up to sponsor Taco Bell during the first two nights of the World Series. The network really went above and beyond the call of greed in peppering its game telecast with mentions of the stolen base = free taco promo. And I really hope someone is going to ask Red Sox roster-filler Royce Clayton if he was paid or otherwise encouraged to mention the deal - twice - while he was wearing a mike in the dugout for Fox's Sounds of the Game feature. ... Also, while I enjoyed this satirical horse-whipping of Tim McCarver on Call of the Green Monster, it's Joe Buck who I wish would just shut the fuck up for like ten seconds at any point during the game.

"Rent" Returns For A Week

The touring company of the ever-popular Jonathan Larson musical "Rent" will play at the Wang Jan. 8-13, with Heinz Winckler as Roger Davis and Anwar Robinson as Tom Collins. Tix are on sale at the Citi Performing Arts Center box office, at www.citicenter.org and at 800-447-7400. If you're not familiar with the two actors. Winckler won "South African Idol" and Robinson was an "American Idol" also-ran.

Whoa! Rees Out, Martin In at WTF?? (Updated)

Just stumbled across this Variety post. "Sources" told the paper that Roger Rees (right) is leaving the Williamstown Theatre Festival after three years as artistic director, and that departing ART honcho Nicholas Martin, who often directs at Williamstown, may replace him. I guess the Williamstown abbreviation is especially appropriate today. No details on the record yet.

(Updated: Names & Faces got the WTF board chair to confirm Rees is out and Martin is in.)

Boston Music Awards Nominees Announced

The nominations for the 20th annual BMAs are out. Aerosmith Drummer Joey Kramer was named honorary chairman.  Act of the year nominees are Boys Like Girls, Dinosaur Jr., Dream Theater, Killswitch Engage, Lori McKenna and Shadows Fall .  Killswitch Engage tops ballot with seven nominations; Boys Like Girls receives five; Lori McKenna, Matt Nathanson and Josh Ritter – four; Shadows Fall, The Click Five, John Mayer, Buffalo Tom and The Slip – three; Eli “Paperboy” Reed – two. The event is set for Dec. 1 at the Orpheum, with performers yet to be named. For details - and voting - go to www.bostonmusicawards07.com/. This year's charity beneficiaries are Music Drives Us and the Berklee City Music program.

Cri de coeur from a local theater troupe

I wasn't surprised to get some reaction to my post on the closing of Jimmy Tingle's Off-Broadway, but this one rocked me. Zeitgeist Stage Company has gotten glowing reviews for its ambitious production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning "The Kentucky Cycle," and yet...and yet...we're all sitting home watching the Red Sox while the show goes begging for an audience. If we intend to retain our title as the Athens of America, we're better get on our feet...

Director David J. Miller began his letter by quoting my post:

“We can say we want more edgy theater, more on-point political humor, more alternative venues, but how many of us actually get off our asses on a Wednesday night and go out and buy a ticket?”

Mr. Brown –

Your observations resonate particularly strongly for me at this time.  Zeitgeist Stage Company is currently co-presenting the Boston area premiere of The Kentucky Cycle by Robert Schenkkan.  Winner of the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Cycle is 9 plays over 6 hours in 2 parts with 23 actors portraying over 120 roles covering 7 generations of 3 families over 200 years.  Two fringe theater companies have joined forces to present this ambitious production in the 90 seat Plaza Black Box Theater at the Boston Center for the Arts.

The show has received glowing reviews.  In The Boston Globe, Louise Kennedy observed, “Huge, engrossing, and powerful in the way that only an epic can be.”  Carolyn Clay in The Boston Phoenix called it, “A sweeping, small-scale triumph.”  While Iris Fanger in The Patriot Ledger called The Kentucky Cycle, “A theatrical privilege not to be missed!”

However, three weeks into the run, most nights there are more actors on stage than in the audience, and numerous times those in attendance have been in the single digits.  How many people, indeed, actually attend alternative venues for edgy theater on a Wednesday, Friday or even a Saturday night?

Having operated a fringe theater company in Boston for six years and, typically, presenting little known works by lesser known playwrights, we’ve faced our share of small houses and marketing challenges.  However, a Pulitzer Prize winning American Epic presented in an intimate setting - and seemingly presented very well indeed - didn’t appear it would be the tough sell it has turned out to be.

So, please, before bemoaning the lack of theatrical opportunities out there, explore the alternative offerings of the smaller venues all around town.  You may be very pleasantly surprised you did.

Sincerely,
David J. Miller
Zeitgeist Stage Company
http://www.ZeitgeistStage.com

A Half-caf MassMoCA

Sunday's Globe included the full story on the MassMoCa-Christopher Buchel dustup and it appears pretty much as we thought. A good museum with perhaps not the world's greatest bargaining skills ran afoul of a talented asshole. Too bad, because Building 5 installations are often impressive just based on their scale, and this one promised that plus strong political content. But Buchel seems to have proved unbearable.

Tingle closing a loss, and where were we?

It's probably appropriate that I'm just now getting around to writing about the closing of Jimmy Tingle's Off Broadway theater in Davis Square. We can say we want more edgy theater, more on-point political humor, more alternative venues, but how many of us actually get off our asses on a Wednesday night and go out and buy a ticket? Not me, I'm usually home watching the tube for the day job. Tingle is characteristically upbeat about the situation, but this is just another example of how hard the performing arts business is these days. And if a politically charged, comedy/theater venture like this can't make it in Somerville, well, good luck getting something going in, uh, Braintree or anyplace where you'd be preaching to the un-converted. I'm glad Bostonist was on this, anyway. But I can't help feeling a little...implicated. Least we can all do is buy a ticket this weekend.