THE MORNING LINE

DATE: Thursday, October 13, 2016

FROM: Melissa Cohen, Michelle Farabaugh

Lana Picciano

PAGES: 8, including this page

October 13, 2016

An Orphaned Play Finds a New Home at Rattlestick

Playwrights Theater

By: Joshua Barone

The sudden closure of Soho Rep’s Off Broadway space in TriBeCa came at a bad time for All for One Theater.

On Sept. 28, Soho Rep announced that it would immediately shutter its 73-seat theater at 46 Walker Street,

known as Walkerspace. All for One — a small company that was renting the space for its play “My Name Is

Gideon: I’m Probably Going to Die, Eventually” — was forced to cancel the production, which was scheduled

to begin performances Sept. 29.

“It was just so heartbreaking,” Nicholas Cotz, All for One’s producing director, said. “This was the biggest

show that I’ve ever produced, and having to tell the cast and crew was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.”

But now the play is back on.

Another downtown company, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, will host “My Name Is Gideon,” which is

scheduled to run Nov. 11 through Dec. 11; the official opening night is set for Nov. 17.

The new production, while a blessing, is also a new financial blow for All for One. Mr. Cotz said the designers

and crew from the Walkserspace staging had already been paid; they will need to be rehired to mount the play at

Rattlestick.

To help offset costs All for One applied for emergency grants and so far has received ones from the Indie

Theater Fund and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. A tier of $100 to $500 tickets for “hero” donors,

which All for One normally uses to subsidize discounted $10 tickets and production costs, has also taken on

new urgency. “We hope there are more heroes out there,” Mr. Cotz said. (General admission tickets are $35.)

After Soho Rep’s announcement, Mr. Cotz said, he quickly heard from theater companies offering to host “My

Name Is Gideon.” He also reached out to a personal acquaintance: Daniella Topol, Rattlestick’s artistic director

and a friend from their children’s playground. Rattlestick happened to have an opening in November. “We

probably visited 20 different theaters,” he said, and Rattlestick was the best fit.

“My Name Is Gideon,” a one-man play written by and starring Gideon Irving, is the New York arrival of Mr.

Irving’s traveling show that has been performed in private homes, as well as the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

“The challenge and the joy of bringing my show into a theater is in discovering how to maintain and play with

that intimacy I’ve found in homes,” he said in a statement.

C3

October 13, 2016

Abbott and Costello Heirs Strike Out in 'Who's on First?'

Lawsuit

By: Reuters

NEW YORK — A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday threw out a copyright lawsuit by the heirs of comedians

Abbott and Costello against the producers of a Broadway play in which a character performed part of their

classic "Who's on First?" routine.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York ruled that the heirs, while suing the producers of "Hand to

God," had failed to establish they held a valid copyright to the routine, which Bud Abbott and Lou Costello first

performed in the late 1930s.

"We identify no merit in any of the theories relied on by plaintiffs to support their copyright claim," U.S. Circuit

Judge Reena Raggi wrote.

The three-judge panel's ruling was a victory for the defendants, who were the producers, playwright and

promoters of "Hand to God." The defendants had argued that "Who's on First?" had fallen into the public

domain decades ago.

Lawyers for the play's producers and the comic duo's heirs did not immediately respond to requests for

comment.

Abbott and Costello first performed "Who's on First?" on radio in 1938, in which a series of rapid-fire

misunderstandings between them followed Abbott announcing a baseball team roster featuring players with

such names as "Who," "What" and "I Don't Know."

The routine has become, as Raggi called it, "a treasured piece of American entertainment history." Time

magazine in 1999 named "Who's on First?" the best comedy sketch of the 20th century.

The lawsuit followed the Broadway opening early last year of "Hand to God," a dark comedy about a shy

adolescent in a Christian ministry using puppets in Texas, whose life is overshadowed by a demonic hand

puppet.

The lawsuit contended that the play infringed the copyright for "Who's on First?" by having the lead charter use

a sock puppet to perform over a minute of the routine almost verbatim.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)

C3

October 13, 2016

Review: ‘The Dudleys’: Dad’s in Control. From Beyond the

Grave.

By: Charles Isherwood

A vintage video game opens a portal into a fractured family’s past in “The Dudleys!,” a meandering, quirky

comedy-drama by Leegrid Stevens presented by the Loading Dock Theater. In one corner of the set at HERE

Arts Center is squeezed a facsimile of a typical teenager’s bedroom, complete with an old-style tube television

and a game console. As the play begins, a character referred to only as the Gamer enters and fires up the

controls

Or rather is ordered to by the zombielike figure who stumbles onstage: Dead Tom (Joe Burby), who we will

soon learn is the Dudley clan’s father. He’s now, as his nickname suggests, dead, but somehow still able to

manipulate his family from beyond the grave. Soon scenes from the family’s past are springing to life in the

center of the stage, mostly a blank space against the back wall on which elaborate video projections race by.

The chronology is rather fuzzy, but much of the play takes place in the immediate aftermath of Tom’s death. He

is survived by his wife, Clara (Erin Treadway), who chirpily discusses over dinner who will pick up his ashes.

She’s working today — and, oh, she’s decided to convert from the family’s Mormon religion to Judaism. “I

have found that I really like the people,” she explains. “They’re good thinkers.”

This irks her youngest son, Derek (Scott Thomas, in funny whiny slacker mode), who still resents having been

forced to go on a traditional Mormon mission to Portugal, in part because of a drug problem. Also he resents

that his late father squandered his college money on a failed business manufacturing mints.

As they squabble, the more responsible Vic (Erik Kochenberger) and the family’s highest achiever, daughter

Sylvia (Marlowe Holden), attending Georgetown Law School, mostly offer shrugs and smirks, although Vic,

too, is a little bitter about the conversion since he was a more firm believer.

“The Dudleys!” is subtitled “A Family Game,” and its principal novelty is the concept: live actors performing

against a backdrop of authentic-looking video-game imagery that scrolls past, wonderfully designed by Reid

Farrington. It’s not today’s high-definition style, but the cruder pixilated versions of the 1980s or so. (It is

apparently 8-bit video animation, of the early Nintendo era, markedly more sophisticated than the first

generations of games.) There are also occasional bursts of crude electronic chiptune music.

Visually, the production offers plenty of diversion, as bright vistas of suburbia scroll past, or Vic struggles to

defeat Mike Tyson in a video game. There is also a paint-gun sequence (it’s, thankfully, not realistic). But the

wobbly plot doesn’t really go anywhere; it’s more a series of disconnected scenes, featuring characters who

aren’t really much more realistically textured than the figures in video games, although they certainly gabble

more.

C5

All the actors have fun with their roles under the direction of Jacob Titus and Mr. Stevens, with Ms. Treadway

standing out in particular as the blithely chipper Clara, blissfully inhabiting her own placid world and seemingly

untouched by her husband’s recent demise — at least at first.

Intermittently throughout the play are projected the scores being racked up by the Gamer, and the various levels

he’s playing. I couldn’t quite tell whether he was gaining much ground (occasionally, indications like “Bonus:

Laughter” flare up), but the play itself, strenuously madcap but with minimal emotional underpinning, didn’t

score many points with me.

October 11, 2016

The next guy to play Shakespeare on Broadway is Adam Pascal

By Mark Kennedy

NEW YORK (AP) — With "Something Rotten!" now counting down the days until its run on Broadway ends,

it's time to call in musical theater's top closer — Adam Pascal.

Pascal, last seen on Broadway this spring in "Disaster!," takes over the part of William Shakespeare on Nov. 7

and will play the role until the show's final Broadway performance on Jan. 1.

It's a familiar position for Pascal, who closed the second revival of "Cabaret" in 2004, closed "Aida" in 2004

and closed "Memphis" in 2012.

"I seem to get asked to close things quite a bit," he joked. "I bring up the rear."

"Something Rotten!" is set in 1595 England and portrays Shakespeare as an arrogant rock star-playwright. Two

brothers desperate to write a hit show in his shadow stumble on the notion of writing the world's first musical.

Pascal takes over at the St. James Theatre from "Nashville" star Will Chase, who took over the role of

Shakespeare from Christian Borle, who won a Tony Award in the part.

Pascal has had a crash course on the show, seeing it Friday night for the first time and seeing pretty much every

performance since then.

"The show is absolutely hilarious and I adore it," he said. (He's also pretty happy to learn some tap dancing.)

As Shakespeare, Pascal will shake his butt, put on a silly disguise and play a preening peacock of a man —

"She's bedazzled. You like that word? I made it up, it's what I do!" — while secretly battling writers' block.

("It's hard to be the Bard," he sings.)

Pascal said he has struggled with reading Shakespeare in the past. "I never gravitated toward it because it

seemed too high-brow. Now I'm bringing him down to my level," he said. "For an ignoramus like me to get to

mock somebody like Shakespeare? The casting in that regard alone couldn't be more perfect."

Pascal came to fame alongside Idina Menzel and Taye Diggs in the original cast of "Rent."

He originated the role of Roger, the AIDS-infected singer frightened of falling in love and earned a Tony

Award nomination for his performance.

Pascal reprised his role as Roger in the Chris Columbus-directed film of "Rent" and was cast alongside Jack

Black as Theo, the lead singer of No Vacancy, in "School of Rock."

Online: http://www.RottenBroadway.com

October 13, 2016

Cast Albums For The Week of October 22