NY times Blogger(mania).
Daniel P Quinn Newark, NJ, May 5, 2017, NYTimes Blog: Having seen the spellbinding premiere of PACIFIC OVERTURES, I am weary of Mr. Doyle’s conceits from his first SWEENEY TODD with (actors playing instruments) to his lesser take on COMPANY (again I saw the original) to his disastrous wall moving PETER GRIMES at The Met. . Audiences who never saw the original Sondheim shows may find these adequate, but in a very weird way they are a diminution and distortion of the original works as well. Cheap is cheap.
At this point less and not more of Doyle’s takes would be welcome.
10 Recommend on NYTimes web.
Daniel P Quinn 11/20/14
NJ 1 hour ago on Off-Broadway in Midtown Guise.
Remember they were all movie theatre’s originally when the World wide replaced Madison Sq. Garden. Those failed and the building “graduated” as the neighborhood gentrified to Off — Broadway. Their main amenity besides being underground, were their escalators to and fro between spaces and floors., rather than the endless stairs in most theatre’s in NYC.
Daniel P Quinn
NJ 1 hour ago 11/19/14
We are getting the equation backward and losing our grip on the once noble Great White Way. Off-Broadway and Off-Off still were born as a counterpoint to Broadway, not as a retread vehicle for commercial hits to regress to an Off-venue.
The Great Whit Way once had for a century or more legendary producers like David Merrick, Hal Prince, Joe Papp, Michael David, Greg Mosher not quasi Mao-ist theatre (names in a playbill).
Maybe they could revive Edward Albee’s BOX-MAO-BOX. Producers by committee is a horror, because they have money to burn, and not the least idea how to create art from scratch. Circle In The Square was a beacon of hope, as/was the Vivian Beaumont as non-profit Broadway venues, with O’Neill revival’s every season, no more ! Repertory Theatre exists for over a glorious century now only at the Met, following the ignoble demise of the NY City Opera.
Daniel P Quinn
NJ 4 hours ago 9/24/14 on Bessie Awards
Arthur Mitchell deserves the honor.
His Creole production of GISELLE still reverberates in my memory after a decade or more.
Daniel P Quinn
NJ Yesterday
Architecturally, the Revel is a stunning post-modern 21st century building. With enormous escalators, soaring lobbies, and a stellar skyscape, it should be seen as an icon.
It would fit well in Manhattan, but it is way ahead of its time for Atlantic City.
Nonetheless, like Mies Van der Rohe’s COLONNADES complex in Newark, it’s time will surely come with new vision and ownership.
Daniel P Quinn
NJ Yesterday
Hollywood is at fault for its unending Media machine on TV, the Web, and in gossip columns for hounding artists like Williams, Monroe, Inge, etc. to death. The Paparazzi have become rabid in their mad frenzy for spying on Hollywood types, weddings, affairs: financial and otherwise to only salivate the public. But at what end ? The loss is great for all of us and all too soon.
Daniel P Quinn
NJ 16 July 2014
Too bad we still have no Repertory Theatre like the Beaumont to revive their CAROUSEL, now that it is vacant for the summer. We have lost the NYC Opera, and earlier Summer Music Repertory Theatre at the Koch/State Theatre in the 1960’s. Why is the non-profit Theatre seemingly at sea, year after year ?
Daniel P Quinn
From 1981/94, I produced & directed the US Premiere of Edward Bond’s plays STONE (my debut),DEREK at Lincoln Center, Sophocles’ THE WOMEN OF TRACHIS in NYC and Foundation Theatre, AWAY ALONE @ Irish Arts Center; SACCO & VANZETTI, and Thomas Kilroy’s Irish version of THE SEAGULL as a few examples. These included 5 mini-grants from the NYTimes Company Foundation, and Percy Bysshe Shelley’s THE CENCI (that almost killed me too) on a budget of less than $4,000.
Daniel P Quinn July 22, 2009 ·
I am afraid, the “best” is yet to come if one remembers and follows the hollow trajectory of the Opening Night appearance by the Philadelphia Orchestra at the NJ Homldel Arts Center, with a planned future as an Arts venue for NJ.
Over the years it became politicized and devolved only into a rock concert venue. All other artistic “visions” were abandoned for expediency and the bottom line.
My last visit to a NY Philharmonic concert included being verbally assaulted by the security guards, because I tried to bring in a package of candy, and was forced to throw it away, because “food”, if not bought there was not allowed.
Since then my memories of the Stuttgart Ballet, Touring Broadway shows, Opera with Marilyn Horne, and Joan Sutherland seem like they took place on another planet.
Saratoga beware…all of the Arts can be lost, with little said and less remembered when rock concerts push them off the stage.
Daniel P. Quinn, (Author) Exits & Entrances 2008.
Daniel P Quinn January 14, 2009 ·
I used to care !
Now after 25 years producing plays and musicals Off and Off-Off Broadway, I feel the Tony’s are stuck in their closed shop elitist Broadway world, with a very limited sense of “the best” on Broadway, but no where else…
All for elitist reasons only to make more money for themselves and market the results again and again…
Daniel P Quinn May 11, 2009 · 10:48 am
There is a great deal to say about Lincoln Center from the days when the City Opera upstaged the Met whenever Norman Treigle performed, I dare say anything. I only saw him in Boito’s MEFISTOFELE (about 12 times, Gounod’s FAUST w/Sills, Floyd’s SUSANNAH, Mozart’s FIGARO, and his last performance in Offenbach’s TALES OF HOFFMAN that I sensed would be the last time I saw him on stage, and it was unfortunately enough.
I have lost count of the millions of dollars spent rebuilding Philharmonic/Fisher/ and probably a new named hall down the road. What happened to 3 strikes, you’re out; after I think 5 renovations so far, at least 2 of Philharmonic Hall, and 2 of Fisher as well, Bring back Pierre Boulez and the Rug concerts.
And the Met, still w/that stultifying proscenium sculpture, ruining some opera’s like their recent Norma, or Vespri Siciliani (in a failed revival of a thrilling production), Carmen and Lucia…
And the City Opera as well with horrendous productions of Busoni’s DOKTOR FAUST, PLATEE, so therre are successes and failures to go all around.
For me, Lincoln Center seemed to be a resurrection of the NY Worlds Fair, but I was still in grammar school. And all the accolades for Eisenhower are manifested in the Eisenhower Theatre @ the Kennedy Center.
More complexes redux, but better than none at all, and then there is NJPAC.
Enuf said.
My published NYTimes Arts Blog On Off-Broadway Schubert Expansions.
Daniel P Quinn 11/20/14
NJ 1 hour ago
Remember they were all movie theatre’s originally when the World Wide replaced Madison Sq. Garden. Those failed and the building “graduated” as the neighborhood gentrified to Off — Broadway.
Their main amenity besides being underground, were their escalators to and fro between spaces and floors., rather than the endless stairs in most theatres in NYC.
Daniel P Quinn
NJ Yesterday
Hollywood is at fault for its unending Media machine on TV, the Web, and in gossip columns for hounding artists like Williams, Monroe, Inge, etc. to death. The Paparazzi have become rabid in their mad frenzy for spying on Hollywood types, weddings, affairs: financial and otherwise to only salivate the public. But at what end ? The loss is great for all of us and all too soon.
Daniel P Quinn
NJ 16 July 2014
Too bad we still have no Repertory Theatre like the Beaumont to revive their CAROUSEL, now that it is vacant for the summer. We have lost the NYC Opera, and earlier Summer Music Repertory Theatre at the Koch/State Theatre in the 1960’s. Why is the non-profit Theatre seemingly at sea, year after year ?
From 1981/94, I produced & directed the US Premiere of Edward Bond’s plays STONE (my debut),DEREK at Lincoln Center, Sophocles’ THE WOMEN OF TRACHIS in NYC and Foundation Theatre, AWAY ALONE @ Irish Arts Center; SACCO & VANZETTI, and Thomas Kilroy’s Irish version of THE SEAGULL as a few examples. These included 5 mini-grants from the NYTimes Company Foundation, and Percy Bysshe Shelley’s THE CENCI (that almost killed me too) on a budget of less than $4,000.
Daniel P Quinn July 22, 2009 · 1:26 pm
I am afraid, the “best” is yet to come if one remembers and follows the hollow trajectory of the Opening Night appearance by the Philadelphia Orchestra at the NJ Homldel Arts Center, with a planned future as an Arts venue for NJ.
Over the years it became politicized and devolved only into a rock concert venue. All other artistic “visions” were abandoned for expediency and the bottom line.
My last visit to a NY Philharmonic concert included being verbally assaulted by the security guards, because I tried to bring in a package of candy, and was forced to throw it away, because “food”, if not bought there was not allowed.
Since then my memories of the Stuttgart Ballet, Touring Broadway shows, Opera with Marilyn Horne, and Joan Sutherland seem like they took place on another planet.
Saratoga beware…all of the Arts can be lost, with little said and less remembered when rock concerts push them off the stage.
Daniel P. Quinn, (AuthorHouse) Exits & Entrances 2008.
Daniel P Quinn January 14, 2009 · 10:38 am
I used to care !
Now after 25 years producing plays and musicals Off and Off-Off Broadway, I feel the Tony’s are stuck in their closed shop elitist Broadway world, with a very limited sense of “the best” on Broadway, but no where else…
All for elitist reasons only to make more money for themselves and market the results again and again…
Daniel P Quinn May 11, 2009 ·
There is a great deal to say about Lincoln Center from the days when the City Opera upstaged the Met whenever Norman Treigle performed, I dare say anything. I only saw him in Boito’s MEFISTOFELE (about 12 times, Gounod’s FAUST w/Sills, Floyd’s SUSANNAH, Mozart’s FIGARO, and his last performance in Offenbach’s TALES OF HOFFMAN that I sensed would be the last time I saw him on stage, and it was unfortunately enough.
I have lost count of the millions of dollars spent rebuilding Philharmonic/Fisher/ and probably a new named hall down the road. What happened to 3 strikes, you’re out; after I think 5 renovations so far, at least 2 of Philharmonic Hall, and 2 of Fisher as well, Bring back Pierre Boulez and the Rug concerts.
And the Met, still w/that stultifying proscenium sculpture, ruining some opera’s like their recent Norma, or I Vespri Siciliani (in a failed revival of a thrilling production), Carmen and Lucia…
And the City Opera as well with horrendous productions of Busoni’s DOKTOR FAUST, PLATEE, so there are successes and failures to go all around. or me, Lincoln Center seemed to be a resurrection of the NY Worlds Fair, but I was still in grammar school. And all the accolades for Eisenhower are manifested in the Eisenhower Theatre at the Kennedy Center.
More complexes redux, but better than none at all, and then there is NJPAC. Enuf said.
