Broadway Abridged Blog

Broadway Abridged Live: Les Miserables

2008-07-02T13:34:00.003-04:00

Just got back from vacation and finally got a chance to listen to the first of the two new Broadway Abridged Live "radio" recordings. It's Les Miserables this time, with some changes from the script version as per normal, some new jokes, etc. I like how it turned out!

Check it out here.

Thanks again to Michael Gilboe, Jake Friedman, Rachel Pincus, and Ron Varod !

Edit: and to Jennifer Lynn Jordan, who co-wrote it with me!

High School Tony Awards Honor Schools' Biggest Nerds, Losers

2008-06-17T11:26:00.000-04:00

High School Tony Awards Honor Schools' Biggest Nerds, Losers

I love when people e-mail me!

2008-06-13T10:28:00.002-04:00

From: Publicity Intern LA (Focus Features)
To: Me. Gil.
Subject: contact info
Hello,
I came across your blog while researching Broadway blogs for the new Focus Features film--and musical--"Hamlet 2."
Could you please send me your contact information (full name, mailing/email address and phone number)? I am compiling a list of Broadway blogs and it would help to have this information if we were to contact you.
Thanks,
Stephanie WITHHELD
Online Publicity Intern
Focus Features

Hi there,

I'm happy to give you my name, it is Gil Varod, and as you've figured out my e-mail address is . However, even though you've sufficiently convinced me that you do in fact work for Focus Features (your "from" e-mail address did the trick!) I'm not convinced that I should be giving you my personal phone number and postal mailing address all willy-nilly.

What are you planning on contacting me for or to do? Am I going to get phonecalls in the middle of the night, day after day, asking me if I've seen Hamlet 2 yet and why not? Am I going to get on your postal mailing list for various sorts of junkmail for the next five years? Or one day, am I going to go home and find out that you've sent me a package containing a kit for me to take ten thousand friends to a screening of Hamlet 2?

That would be fantastic. I'm pretty popular and I do have a lot of friends, so I'm glad you offered at such a high number. Ten thousand tickets would probably suffice. Although... I don't know of a movie theater that holds ten thousand friends in a single showing. I'd have to split the ten thousand friends into twelve and a half showings at 800 people each. And that would be really inconvenient for me, because what if two people wanted to sit together, and I ended up separating them into two different showings?

Geez, this would be more difficult than planning seating at a wedding. You've put me into a very precarious position, you know. Maybe you should have thought this out better.

Sincerely,
Gil

did i mention that i have a play in the fringe festival this year?

2008-06-10T15:12:00.003-04:00

you'll have to apologize for me not properly capitalizing things. my left shift key came off and i've learned that in day-to-day typing, i rarely ever use the right shift key. argh.

anyway, yes, i am the co-author of a play that was selected to be part of the 2008 new york international fringe festival. it's called time, et. al.: a cautionary tale about love and time travel and it's a science fiction dark comedy that i'm quite proud of. and apparently, off-off-blogway's interest was peeked by it! or at least by the title!

i promise not to turn this blog into a forum for my private, separate projects. i'll bug you once when i actually have www.timeetal.com working, and a second time when tickets go onsale, and that'll be it.

'Brokeback Mountain' to premiere as opera in 2013

2008-06-09T07:52:00.002-04:00

2013? The future looks SCARY!

NEW YORK - The New York City Opera commissioned Charles Wuorinen to compose an opera based on "Brokeback Mountain," the 1997 short story by Annie Proulx that became the basis for a 2005 movie that won three Academy Awards.

The opera is scheduled to premiere in spring 2013, City Opera said Sunday. It will be City Opera's second Wuorinen premiere, following "Haroun and the Sea of Stories," which was based on a Salman Rushdie novel and opened in October 2004.

"Ever since encountering Annie Proulx's extraordinary story I have wanted to make an opera on it, and it gives me great joy that Gerard Mortier and New York City Opera have given me the opportunity to do so," Wuorinen said in a statement.

"Brokeback Mountain" is a cowboy romance about two ranch-hand buddies who start a homosexual affair when they meet on the fictional mountain in 1963.

Disney is bringing back Beauty and the Beast?

2008-06-03T08:46:00.001-04:00

Sometimes I think Jim Hill just likes to get my proverbial feathers ruffled:

There reportedly has been some talk at Disney Theatrical about possibly bringing "Beauty" back to the Big Apple as a holiday treat. You know? For a short seasonal run like the 2006 revival of "Annie" or the Old Globe Theatre's version of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" ?

Yeah actually I don't think know what "proverbial" means. I suppose there's the interwebs for that, but then I'd have to... open a new tab.

Phantom 2: Electric something something - THE POSTER

2008-06-02T11:14:00.002-04:00

I'm glad to see that SDav 10495 on BroadwayWorld also likes to add the word "Electric Bugaloo" to everything ever:

2 new Broadway Abridged Live Recordings coming soon.

2008-06-02T08:02:00.003-04:00

Yesterday, three performers (Jake Friedman, Rachel Pincus, and Ron Varod) joined Michael Gilboe and I to do two more recordings of "Broadway Abridged: Live!' for the Broadway Bullet podcast. Might be another episode or two until they're broadcast, but I hope it'll be as much fun to listen to as it was to do. We did Les Miserables and Spring Awakening this time around... I think they'll air in that order. As per usual, the scripts are just a little different, with a few new jokes and some stuff you couldn't really do in "print" form.

When we were done with the Spring Awakening one, Ron picked up a guitar and we essentially "scored" the entire thing... hopefully you can catch when he basically breaks out into "I am barely breathing". And the ending is kind of perfect... I won't ruin that for you.

I'll post when Broadway Bullet broadcasts the episode with the next Abridged recording. I think neither will make the June 5th show, so the first of the two may not air until June 17th.

Broadway is a bunch of jerks.

2008-05-31T10:12:00.002-04:00

Because they made a stupid, stupid Shrek musical.

And then they put Sutton Foster in it.

And that made my girlfriend insist that I buy us some tickets today.

But what makes them really jerks is that they also put Brian d'Arcy James, Christopher Sieber, John Tartaglia, and Jennifer Simard in it. Which makes it possible for me to not mind that much about seeing a Shrek musical.

So. Jerks.

On the flipside, seeing Shrek in December has cemented our recent annual tradition of seeing a big overblown low-expectations high-budget musical on our anniversary. This one seems like a fantastic follow up to last year's selection of Little Mermaid. So yeah, traditions are important to me.

Phantom 2: Electric something something

2008-05-30T11:41:00.003-04:00

I do something sometimes. I think it's human nature; I pretend things aren't happening. I pretend things aren't so. I pretend that when Andrew Lloyd Webber's cat "destroys" some of the Phantom Sequel's score, it's really him just making excuses for not wanting to really write it. I lead myself into thinking that just because he intends to write this thing doesn't mean it's going to happen. Sequel musicals simply do not work, and even Andrew Lloyd Webber knows that, right?

So when he's insisting on a November 2009 London bow for Phantom 2: Once Upon Another Time, he's just pulling our chains. This is never *actually* coming out, right?

RIGHT?

GOD HELP ME PLEASE TELL ME I'M RIGHT.

Cubby Bernstein got funnier.

2008-05-28T10:02:00.002-04:00

You gotta love the girl with the "Michael Riedel" sign, and pretty much anything that Kerry Butler does in this one.

I don't think it beats out the best [title of show show] episodes quite yet, but I'm glad to see that they've finally started to figure it out...

Final Rent performance to be sumulcast in movie theaters; the short-sited complain

2008-05-23T10:23:00.002-04:00

The final performance of the Pulitzer and Tony-winning musical Rent, scheduled for Sept. 7 at the Nederlander Theatre, will be filmed for future screenings in movie theatres around the country.

And some people are complaining. It dilutes live theater, or this isn't how it was meant to be done, or it'll kill off theatre's (already-dying) market, or whatever.

Why do people have a problem with the taping of all these things?

Am I the only one who came to love Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, and Sweeney Todd because of their recordings, and far far before I ever saw any of them onstage?

Playbill.com now has an RSS feed

2008-05-22T10:04:00.003-04:00

The four feeds are detailed here:

http://www.playbill.com/rss/

This may have been around for awhile but I definitely wasn't aware; for the longest time I would use Google's search for articles on playbill.com. Which, each time, would insist I hadn't read any articles, even though I had.

Yazbek + Hwang = Bruce Lee!

2008-05-20T08:59:00.002-04:00

For real:

Bartlett Sher will direct the new David Yazbek-David Henry Hwang musical Bruce Lee: Journey to the West, to be produced on Broadway by Elephant Eye Theatrical. Tony nominee Yazbek will pen music and lyrics for the bio musical about the martial arts movie star, and Tony winner Hwang will write the book.

I hope I'm not the only one excited to see a Yazbek/Hwang collaboration.

Stephen Sondheim answered my question.

2008-05-16T16:46:00.001-04:00

http://www.roundaboutchat.com/chat/chat_transcript.html

gil: What are the chances of us seeing your rumored musical version of Groundhog Day, and what drew you to Groundhog Day as a musical?

Stephen_Sondheim: Groundhog Day is, in my opinion, a first-rate movie and it lends itself so clearly to musical treatment. I'm not the first person who's thought of it. Many have. But, I feel to make a musical of Groundhog Day would be to gild the lily. It cannot be improved; it's perfect the way it is. I don't want to touch it, because it's perfect. Pretentious as that sounds.

Less like Cubby Bernstein and more like Cubby Not Very Humorous

2008-05-16T14:04:00.002-04:00

You know what I love?

When you get a whole bunch of talented people to create a viral internet joke that just isn't funny.

(Or am I just plain missing something?)

The gothamist...

2008-05-14T10:42:00.000-04:00

has a great interview with Harvey Fierstein.

"Glory Days" closes immediately

2008-05-08T10:20:00.002-04:00

It's true.

I'm impressed. Most producers try to keep it going for a month or two, under the delusion that a deus ex machina will suddenly show up and save the day. I commend the producers, who decided to go with reality instead.

And as for the two writers who created it, best of luck to you. You're really quite young, and even Sondheim didn't win a Tony award for Best Music till he was 40. Company, and the other times before that were just for his lyrics only.

By the way, did you know that the year of Company's original Broadway production, for the first and only time, the Tonys for Music and Lyrics were split into two categories? (and, Sondheim won both awards)

Broadway Abridged is on Broadway Bullet's "Best Of" Album

2008-05-01T17:50:00.002-04:00

The fantastic podcast Broadway Bullet has a great free digital CD available [i.e. download-able MP3s], which is filled with the 21 best live, in-studio performances. And as a special bonus track is the studio recording of Broadway Abridged Live! - Wicked. If you haven't yet heard the live version of my spoof, do listen. I'm pretty proud of it.

To get it:

Log into www.broadwaybullet.com. If you've never registered, do so (Michael's a good guy, he wouldn't spam ya).
After you log in, you will see a button on the top right of the website that says "Offers".
Click on it to find the link to this CD, and check back often for other exclusive offers for registered Broadway Bullet users.

Note: Don't see the link to the CD? You may be using Firefox... try Internet Explorer. I let Michael Gilboe know, he's good at fixing that sort of thing pretty quickly.

Evil Dead Posters in Toronto

2008-04-30T09:23:00.001-04:00

Fantastic:

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Come see a staged reading of my new play in NYC!

2008-04-29T11:23:00.002-04:00

Some of you have been wondering privately, "why hasn't Gil been abridging anything lately"? Some of you have been downright accusing me.

What I've been busy with is completing my first full-length non-musical play, "Time, et. al.", and I'd like to invite my faithful readers to come see a staged reading of it next month, where I'm thrilled to assume that you'll be just as crabby as you are in my blog comments, which is probably exactly what I deserve.

It's a 3-person science fiction play. Pretty typical: boy meets girl who's 85 years in the past, boy falls in love with girl, boy and girl defeat the odds, boy and girl learn that they weren't really all that compatible. I'd label it "Dramedy", but I think that's just a silly word.

When: Saturday, May 17th, 2PM
Where: The Kraine Theatre, 85 East 4th Street, off of 2nd avenue.
Starring: Mick Bleyer, Rachel Pincus and Josh Burstein
$6 to help us cover the Theatre rental and prepare for a future performance.

Hope you can join us. Use the form below to RSVP!

He's not that adorable.

2008-04-23T01:34:00.003-04:00

I thought didhelikeit.com was pretty cute... You basically have little tiny cartoon Ben Brantleys showing shows and whether he liked...

disliked...

or was indifferent about a show.

Shame the real Brantley isn't anywhere near as adorable as this lil' guy!

Samuel Beckett presents Charlie Rose

2008-04-22T09:12:00.000-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFE2CCfAP1o

Why I don't hate Disney...

2008-04-21T09:15:00.002-04:00

as much as I hate other large companies:

Drew was diagnosed with cancer last month. His chemotherapy kept him from using the Lion King tickets he had given to his girlfriend for Valentine's Day... A few days later, DHL showed up with up with all this free stuff and a nice personalized note...

Read Drew's note.

In other confusing news, [title of show] tickets go onsale today, and this piece of the playbill article saying so confused me:

An original cast recording was released on Ghostlight Records...
A Broadway recording of [title of show] is currently being planned.

I can't wait to finally have a copy of the show with all the Broadway orchestrations!.... for one piano!!!!

Neil Patrick Harris as Javert!

2008-04-18T14:36:00.001-04:00

Not sure how I missed this:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=EhXsJjVdj1E