Friday, November 07, 2008

Weekend

I am really looking forward to this weekend; anything that gets me away from my toxic workplace is extremely welcome (clarification for those who don’t know: Style is not my full-time gig and I never actually go into the offices there).

But there’s more to it than that. Earlier this week I was perusing the last New Yorker and feeling pangs of regret. There are so many intriguing productions opening or in previews. Sondheim’s “Road Show,” directed by John Doyle, is at the top of the list of my list of eagerly anticipated productions. Whether good or bad, it’s sure to be intriguing. But you also have Mamet’s “American Buffalo” with a somewhat zany cast of Cedric the Entertainer, Haley Joel Osment, and John Leguizamo. Peter Brook is directing “The Grand Inquisitor” and Ken Russell is making his Broadway debut directing “Mindgame” (with Keith Caradine, by the way). Campbell Scott is in “The Atheist” and Jeremy Piven is in “Speed The Plow.” And this list doesn’t even include relative long-runners I still haven’t seen (“South Pacific”) or relative new-comers that sound incredible (“Blasted,” “A Body of Water” with Christine Lahti!)

If I was in NYC right now, my head would be spinning just to figure out which of a dozen choices I should check out. But you know, “Billy Elliot”’s fight director is David Leong and I’m going to see “Shadowplay” tonight – a world premiere of a marvelous looking show – that he co-directed. And tomorrow I’m going to “tick…tick…Boom!” a local premiere by a brand spanking new theater company. And on Monday, I’m going to hear Frank Rich, cultural critic extraordinaire, speak at U of R.

So this weekend should be a nice wake-up call to remind me that Richmond ain’t exactly a cultural backwater. In fact, throw in “First Friday” tonight and it seems like we’re a pretty darn hopping town. So waiting on New York for some other weekend doesn’t seem like such a bad thing after all. And my head spins enough during the week here; why should I want it to spin on the weekend too?

2 comments:

blogva said...

Dear Dave,

I too am looking forward to the weekend- especially to tick...tick...boom! Chase Kniffen is such a "Maverick" in the best sense of that recently overused word. All of my new office mates (I have taken a part-time office job)are getting excited about being immersed in local theatre and one office friend will be joining me Saturday night at Stage 1's official opening.

See you at the theatre!
Mary

PS: Word on the street is that Scott Wichmann has recently added the role of Super Mario to his credits. Strike up another one man show for Scotty who is obviously the "go to" one man show actor in Richmond these days.

Luv2U- Scotty frm MB

Anonymous said...

I had no idea Mindgame was coming to Broadway!! What is it with CAT this year? The winter show is All My Sons (now on Broadway), and the spring show is . . . Mindgame!! And the runner-up this year to take a spot if we couldn't get rights to the other shows was Body of Water, which -- you guessed it -- recently opened in NYC. If Chapter Two (the summer show) gets a NY revival, we'll know something is up!

Amy