New York News Streaming

In the Acting Company production of Orson Welles?s ?Moby Dick Rehearsed,? gung-ho actors bring everything to life with no more than some crates and ladders for scenery.

The Encores! presentation of ?No, No, Nanette? is secondhand nostalgia, a reworking of a 1970s take on the 1920s.

In his furious satire ?The Unconquered,? part of the Brits Off Broadway festival at 59E59 Theaters, the British playwright Torben Betts shakes the daylights out of the smarmy idea of freedom.

?The Fever Chart,? a well-made trilogy by Naomi Wallace, explores that cauldron that is the Middle East.

More: continued here

LONG ago in a far-off land - actually, it was Broadway in 1960 - Lerner and Loewe’s “Camelot” opened with a smashing cast: Julie Andrews, Richard Burton and the as-yet-unknown Robert Goulet. The New York Philharmonic’s semi-staged version this week doesn’t have quite such a good cast - but it comes very close. Gabriel Byrne’s King Arthur proved an absolute charmer, replacing Burton’s sonorous Welsh preacher voice with the merest touch of an Irish brogue. There are only two really good numbers in the show, and Arthur has one of them in the speech-singy title song. The other, “If Ever I Would Leave You,” goes to the second male of the musical’s love triangle, Lancelot. I’ll bet no one has sung it better than Met Opera baritone Nathan Gunn does here. And therein lies the problem - it’s too damn good! Though he looks, acts and sings like a first-class Broadway star, once he gets to his big number, Gunn opens up like a Tito Gobbi slumming. Out of place or not, it’s a great sound. Marin Mazzie sings Queen Guenevere with gusto, but lacks Andrews’ purity and regality. Then again, who doesn’t? Some of the smaller roles are handsomely done, particularly Christopher Lloyd as a sweetly whimsical Pellinore and Stacy Keach as a gaudily imperious Merlyn. Fran Drescher offers a nasal version of the wicked Morgan le Fey, and, talking of fey, Bobby Steggart, high heels and all, comes close to transvestite as Arthur’s bastard son, Mordred. Yet however good or bad the cast, the basic trouble with “Camelot” is that it’s simply not a very good musical. Frederick Loewe’s music - even when given a gorgeous glossy sheen by the Philharmonic - lies perilously close to his lowest. And while Alan Jay Lerner’s lyrics have their customary felicity, his book, based on T.H. White’s dreary “The Once and Future King,” fails to fit the story into theatrical confines. Lonny Price’s semi-staging doesn’t work nearly as well here as it did for last season’s “My Fair Lady,” with its generic court scenes, jousts, battles and too little magic. Yet can any evening spent in the company of Byrne, Gunn and even the flighty Mazzie be all that bad? CAMELOTThe New York Philharmonic, Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center; (212) 875-5656. Performances tonight and tomorrow.

IF you’re a Tony Award nominator, this is what you’re told over and over: Don’t share your opinions with anybody. Not your fellow nominators. Not your friends. Not your spouse. And certainly not the New York Post. “It is ludicrous,” says one nominator, shredding, with a phone call, the veil of secrecy that’s supposed to surround the Tony nominations. “To think that for a whole season, whenever you run into your friends in the theater and they ask you how liked ‘South Pacific,’ all you can say is, ‘I can’t say.’ What nonsense.” “They act like we’re dealing with issues of national security,” another nominator says. “It’s a big secret that ‘Young Frankenstein’ isn’t very good?” On the eve of this year’s Tony nominations, to be announced Tuesday morning at Sardi’s, several nominators are willing to share their opinions, provided I don’t name any names. So what’s on their minds? Well, the nominators felt the same way about (the late) “Glory Days” as the critics - they hated it. As for the other new musicals this season, “Xanadu” has emerged as a scrappy contender. The producers sent the nominators a copy of a New Yorker rave, and it seems to be doing the trick. “It’s perfectly terrible, and I remember that I had a wonderful time,” one nominator says. The other nominees for Best Musical will be “Passing Strange,” “In the Heights” and “A Catered Affair.” As for “Cry-Baby,” the nominators like the choreography and the score - but the show itself “just lies there,” says one. “South Pacific” will be a big winner on Tuesday - the nominators adore everything about it. In addition to Best Revival, it will be nominated for director (Bart Sher), sets, costumes and orchestrations (a 30-piece orchestra!). The leads - Kelli O’Hara and operatic baritone Paulo Szot - are shoo-ins, with Szot the favorite to win the Tony in June. “I didn’t want to contemplate what it was like for Mary Martin to crawl into bed with Ezio Pinza, but with these two, you wish you had the porno tape!” says one nominator, stepping into a cold shower. On the play front, “August: Osage County” will be nominated, of course, along with Tom Stoppard’s “Rock ‘n’ Roll” and Conor McPherson’s wonderful “The Seafarer.” The fourth slot will probably go to “The 39 Steps,” though the nominators had a great time at Mark Twain’s “Is He Dead?” - which, at 110 years old, is a very old “new” play indeed. As for Revival of a Play, “The Homecoming,” which closed after a limited run, has the most fans. Expect noms for director Daniel Sullivan and lead actor Ian McShane. The highly stylized, Soviet-era “Macbeth” has champions, too, though some nominators scratch their heads and wonder, “Why are we in a kitchen?” “Boeing-Boeing” is likely to snag the third slot, with “Top Girls” slipping in at a No. 4. As for actors, the following are likely to get flowers from their agents Tuesday morning: Patti LuPone (”Gypsy”), Patrick Stewart (”Macbeth”), Nathan Lane (”November”), Tony Roberts (”Xanadu”), Ben Daniels (”Les Liaisons”), Boyd Gaines (”Gypsy”), Stew (”Passing Strange”), Elizabeth Marvel (”Top Girls”) and Cheyenne Jackson (”Xanadu”). In the category of Best Theatrical Special Event: I’m not sure if she qualifies, but if she does, a nomination surely must go to Tricia Walsh-Smith and her YouTube divorce video. Hell, let’s just give her the Tony.

Mr. Reznikov was an actor, director and writer who helped run the avant-garde Living Theater for 23 years.

Kristin Griffith gives a commanding performance in this inventive play about President Richard M. Nixon?s loyal-to-the-end secretary.

More: continued here

A major selling point of this ?Camelot? is the chance to hear this winning 1960 score sumptuously performed by the New York Philharmonic under the musical theater maestro Paul Gemignani.

The actor John Lithgow brings his family?s tradition of storytelling to the stage in a one-man show called ?John Lithgow: Stories by Heart.?