Beyond Wicked: Arts Off The Beaten Path, 1/15/08

BEYOND WICKED
Exploring The Arts Off The Beaten Path

By Anna Becker

AND THE TONY AWARD GOES TO…

When you think of the Tony Awards or the Pulitzer Prize, you think of Broadway, right? You might want to re-think. Here are a few fun facts about just where all the prize-winning plays really live…

For 10 of the last 12 years, the Pulitzer Prize for Drama has been won by a not-for-profit, Off-Broadway theatre…Last year, 76% of all the Tony Awards went to shows which premiered at or were produced by not-for-profit, Off-Broadway theatres, including The Atlantic Theater Company’s Spring Awakening and Lincoln Center’s The Coast of Utopia…Since 2000, plays that premiered at off-Broadway theatres have been produced more than 300 times at regional theatres across the country.

With these impressive statistics in mind, here are a few recommendations for new plays from off-Broadway theatres that might just be the next Tony or Pulitzer nominee:

The New Group, co-producers of the Tony Award-winning Broadway hit, Avenue Q: Hot off their recent smash hit Abigail's Party, Artistic Director Scott Elliott teams up with Mike Leigh (Secrets and Lies, Naked) on his latest play, Two Thousand Years, which had a sold-out run at London's National Theatre. Leigh's play tells how an assimilated Jewish family's quiet life in suburban London is upset when their son becomes seriously devout. The show opens on Theatre Row (West 42nd Street) on January 15th and runs through March 8th.

The Atlantic Theater Company, producers of the eight-time Tony Award-winning Broadway show, Spring Awakening, and four-time Tony-winning Beauty Queen of Leenane: F. Murray Abraham and Mark Linn-Baker will star in the world premiere of Almost An Evening, three new short plays by Ethan Coen (screenwriter and Oscar winner, O Brother, Where Art Thou?,Fargo, The Big Lebowski). The shows runs through February 10th at their beautiful and intimate Stage 2 on West 16th Street.

LAByrinth Theater Company, under the artistic direction of Philip Seymour Hoffman (Oscar winner for Capote) and John Ortiz (lead actor in Pulitzer-winning Anna in the Tropics), the recipient of 12 Drama Desk Award nominations, 8 Lucille Lortel Award nominations, and the 2002 Jujamcyn Theaters Award for outstanding contribution to the development of creative talent for the theater: Known for producing plays that are quintessentially New York, the premiere of Unconditional is billed as nine New York tales of love, justice, rage, and betrayal. As a reader of this column, you can mention Code: LABUNWOM and receive a 15% discount. Show dates: February 2nd – March 7th downtown at The Public Theater, where the company is in residence.

The Public Theater (Angels in America, Noise/Funk, A Chorus Line), winner of 40 Tony Awards, 39 Drama Desk Awards, and 4 Pulitzer Prizes: Brian Dennehy, Joe Grifasi, and David Strathairn will star in the world premiere of Conversations in Tusculum, written and directed by Tony-winning Richard Nelson. Here’s their particularly timely teaser line for the show: The country you love and the values it represents are being destroyed by a misguided leader. You can continue to live in relative comfort by not involving yourself, or you can take action to save the democracy you love. Performances begin February 19th.

I’d like to close with a mention of “one to watch.” Clubbed Thumb is a small theatre with over 60 original productions to its credit, seven of which were just anthologized by Playscripts in a collection entitled Funny, Strange, Provocative. I would add “excellent cast and sharp direction” to that title to describe their currently running Amazons and Their Men at the Ohio Theatre. www.clubbedthumb.org. January 5th – 26th.

So go see theatre where it all begins, past your backyard and just a little Beyond Wicked. And there’s a whole lot more intriguing, controversial, entertaining, sexy, hilarious, thrilling, and very award-winning drama out there than I have room to mention here. For information and show listings for the hundreds of others, visit www.offbroadwayonline.com, hosted by the Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York whose statistics are quoted above.