Theater Re: Bart Sher…
posted by on June 15 at 22:17 PM
South Pacific won seven Tony Awards in all, including Best Director and Best Revival of a Musical.
(For the first commentor on Christopher’s post below—Sher is the longtime artistic director of Intiman Theatre. This is his third nomination for Best Director, and his first win. Last year, Intiman won the Tony Award for regional theater. At a Tony Awards party this evening, a spokeswoman for Intiman told the crowd: “Bart says he couldn’t do what he does out there if not for the support he has here.” “That’s very, very sweet of [Bart] to say,” whispered a longtime Intiman subscriber sitting next to me, “but it’s just not true.”)
Other big winners tonight: In the Heights (a musical about a Latino neighborhood in upper Manhattan), Passing Strange (a picaresque musical about a middle-class black kid from Los Angeles who travels to Amsterdam and Berlin), and August: Osage County (Steppenwolf’s play about a family of fuckups and pill poppers).
The musical performances tonight were, as usual, ill-suited for television broadcast. They just weren’t designed for, and don’t translate well onto, screens. I wonder how much damage they do each year, as people channel surf into their favorite number from Grease and think: “fuck, that’s awful—see, that’s why I don’t go to theater.”
Between those and the ads for Vesicare (“fewer urges and leaks!”), the message seems to be that theater is for the tone-deaf and the incontinent.
Still: Congratulations, Mr. Sher.
Mr. Sher seems to have confirmed the subscriber's comment in a story by Marcie Silman on KUOW last week:
BART SHER SPLITS HIS TIME BETWEEN FREELANCE DIRECTING, AND HIS JOB AS ARTISTIC DIRECTOR AT INTIMAN THEATER. DESPITE THE SUCCESS OF HIS WORK IN NEW YORK, SHER SAYS HE'LL STAY WITH INTIMAN FOR AT LEAST ANOTHER SEASON.
SHER: "I think the presence of a single audience, against which I can experiment and do different stuff, mixed with these opportunities in New York, the projects are more challenging and I feel more ready for them than ever."
So Seattle's just the minors where you practice for the big leagues?
So what if he does?
Anyone else notice that he may say that stuff about Intiman behind the scenes but that he didn't bother to thank the Intiman when he won? Hmmmm?
@1 - like Steppenwolf in Chicago is the minors for birthing August:Osage County? Phht.
@3 - that's just stupid.
@everyone. Just let the guy enjoy his award. Geez.
@1 - not only did he not mention his own theatre in his speech, he said something to the affect of - Lincoln Center is the greatest theatre in the world. Above his very own, even? Wow.
Yeah, the musical numbers are usually kind of cringe-worthy, but they're also the only way that a lot of people will see the original cast at all. The Sweeney Todd medley from a couple of years ago was a hatchet job (ha!) but if that's how I'm going to get a look at the staging and Patti LuPone at work, I'll watch.
I thought the Grease cast was pretty good. I was amazed that they all actually looked the right age to play those parts.
I'm surprised you didn't mention Liza's outfit, or lack thereof...
Why would he thank Intiman? They had NOTHING to do with this production.
I dislike Paul Haggis the writer/director of the ultra crappy "Crash", but expecting Sher to thank Intiman for "South Pacific" is like expecting Haggis to thank "The Facts of Life" for winning awards for "Crash"....dumb and not necessary.
Lincoln Center IS a much better theatre organization than Intiman.
My biggest beef is that the only show Bart Sher's "experimenting with" at Intiman this season is Namaste Man. Really, guy? A single one-man show is the best you can give the theater that pays your bills, the theater for which you are the artistic director?
The musical numbers may be ill-suited for television, but the one for In the Heights made me significantly more likely to go see it when we're in NYC in the fall than I was before the show. Oh, and Cheyenne's short shorts also made me want to see Xanadu WAY more than I previously did. I'll still pass on Grease, though. Yecch, that was terrible.
Oh, yeah, Cheyenne's cutoffs cut ME off - at the knees! Damn, he's hot.
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