Tag: Patricia Conolly

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Acting

Assorted Theatre Here and There

NB: If you live in the greater NYC area, read to the end for news of a Westchester show!

It is staggeringly impressive how you can turn a common or garden boozer into a posh venue when you spend a million pounds sterling. To experience this phenomenon I recommend The White Bear in Kennington, London, UK. What was a black box theatre downstairs is now a superior black box theatre upstairs. Downstairs you can get very good fish & chips and the back of the place has been knocked through and made into a bit of upmarket gentrification complete with micro-brewery ales.

We had just got off the plane from New York and went that evening to see the last night of Harry and Meghan – the fact that my old friend and sometime fellow-student, Michael Kingsbury, has run the place for the past 40 years, and done much to elevate the cause of interesting theatre on the London fringe was a motivating factor. A talented quartet delivering sketch comedy style satire. – Packed!

That was Saturday

On Monday we saw The Hills of California, the latest play from Jez Butterworth. It bears all the hallmarks of his work – snappy dialogue with mythological implications and references, tense drama, and high production values.

A powerhouse performance from Laura Donelly – I mean POWERHOUSE – I knew her in The Ferryman – and here she gives whole other dimensions in her work – quite amazingly impressive – not sure if it’s coming to Broadway.

That was Monday

On Wednesday we saw Uncle Vanya at The Orange Tree in Richmond. Very interesting from all sorts of point of view. Directed by the 80 year old Trevor Nunn, late of the RSC, the National and of course Cats which made him rich.

James Lance ( a very fine actor) in the title role was off, and we were told there would be a substitute who had almost no rehearsal and would be carrying the script.

Sadly I cannot tell you the name of this heroic actor. Not only did he not carry the script, his performance was superb. As was the whole production. All the Chekhov elements were there: pathos, bathos – texture, passion, terminal boredom, frustrated desire, and above all humor.

A young man who could have been playing Trofimov (the eternal student) in The Cherry Orchard was seated next to Trish. He admonished us for laughing. Not a surprise to be informed that he had a PHD in Theatre.

Where do you start with such people?

So we fled to Paris

There was an interlude with zero theatre – Rodin, Monet, The Tuileries –

Well we did go to the ballet one night, Don Quixote was the show – I must honestly confess that I had no idea of the story (and I have been in Man of La Mancha in Beijing), but it was of course ravishing on the eye, and breathtaking when you consider what some people can do with their bodies.

Another interlude on the south coast…

The lovely Polly Adams and family and a rogue hot water bottle.

Meanwhile in London …

Colin McPhillamy, Michael Shaw, Matilda Thorpe, Richard Fallon, Roy Drinkwater

Actors – lunch, drinks, coffee … chat

With David Verrey

… As above with Mark Carey

And then … The Picture of Dorian Grey at the Haymarket.

Again, another show with multiple points of interest. First off: it is a solo performance by Sarah Snook (you’ve seen her in Succession), produced initially in Sydney Australia. A staggering tour de force with some very inventive tech. If you are an actor reading this, I highly recommend it from a professional research and development point of view. The show is slated to come to Broadway.

Which brings me to episode 2 in My Guest Today.

Amelia Campbell and Anthony Akin talk to me about the new play What Keeps Us Going by Barbara Dana, to be directed by Austin Pendleton. The cast includes Amelia and Tony, Tim Jerome, and Karen Ziemba – Tony nominations abound!

The play opens May 24th and plays until June 9th at the Schoolhouse Theater in Croton Falls in Upper Westchester. Run do not walk to get tickets!

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Acting

Trish Conolly at NIDA and Elsewhere

One time I was with Trish (my wife) in her native Sydney. The phone rang at about 11:30 one morning. It was Terry Clarke an all round Australian theatre man. In his time, composer, lyricist, director, artistic director, and of course actor. At the time of the call Terry was working at NIDA, the National Institute of Dramatic Art.

“You’re here?!” Said Terry.

I agreed that we were.

“Can Trish come and talk to the kids?”

“I think so. When?”

“Today. Lunchtime. 1 o’ clock.”

I checked with Trish, and in due time we rocked up at NIDA at ten minutes to 1 o’ clock. Terry greeted us and we went on stage to see an auditorium packed with young drama students. I wondered what Trish would say, we had not had time to organize any thoughts about it, and I was mentally reviewing the archives in case she was short of material and needed some back up.

I need not have worried. Trish took a breath and then spoke without (as the saying goes) hesitation, deviation or repetition, for exactly the available hour. The kids loved it.

But then of course what she had to say was of interest, being as she is an Australian actress who has worked in major theatre centers in three continents, almost never been out of work, played many classical roles including sixteen Shakespearean leads, three Blanches and one Stella (in A Streetcar Named Desire), and among many other classical and contemporary roles, a couple of Hedda Gabblers. She’s worked with Sir Laurence Olivier and with Dame Maggie Smith. She’s worked in London’s West End, at the Stratford Ontario Festival, The Guthrie in Minneapolis, and at the time of writing, more times on Broadway than any living Australian (and many Americans), most recently in 2022 as Mrs Dubose in To Kill a Mockingbird. And all of this on stage not screen. Which is why you may not know her name.

In short she’s had a career and now in her 90th year, with seven decades of near constant work behind her, is still having it.

Patricia Conolly will play Vera in Palm Beach Dramaworks’ production of 4,000 Miles by Amy Herzog. They open October 14th and play until the 30th.

Tickets available at:

www.palmbeachdramaworks.org

Categories
Acting

Hangmen – Third Time is the Charm

The image above says it all.

Or does it…?

This represents the third attempt to open this spectacular play on Broadway. I am not on a percentage, let me make that clear, but I urge you to snap up tickets at covid-induced discounts asap. After all, capital punishment – what could be funnier?

Go here for full details.

Following a hugely successful run at The Atlantic Theatre in 2018 a transfer to Broadway was mooted. Some of the cast had availability issues and the transfer never happened.

Then in 2020 the transfer was finally placed and with some new cast members the project got as far as a week and a half of previews (but no opening) and then … well we all know what happened on March 13th of that year.

So now in 2022 – wish us luck.

I am engaged to cover several roles including ‘Harry’ one of the hangmen of the title, Hangmen. I was in the company when the shutdown hit, and at that time my wife (the amazing Patricia Conolly) was appearing as Mrs Dubose in To Kill A Mockingbird in a theatre around the corner. So it seemed not only obviously sensible for me to take the gig but also practical as Patricia had Manhattan housing supplied.

So I was delighted when this came around again, not least because it was a 5 block walk to work.

But then …

Mockingbird closed at two days notice and the Manhattan apartment evaporated.

Mockingbird is slated to return in June of this year. (We all hope).

Talking of Mockingbird and the cover gig (see here for my previous take). In the weeks after Christmas last year the virus went through the company meaning that covering actors were deployed, not only those current, but those from previous casts.

Such is the challenge of keeping a show open in the present situation that public praise has been lavished on the many several covers and swings that have kept Broadway and West End shows going – this was unthinkable back in the day when Noel Langley wrote the backstage novel “There’s a Porpoise Close Behind Us.” In that novel he details in one sentence the disdain verging on contempt in which understudies were held in 1936.

So in 2022 it is heartening to note that on so mighty an organ as NPR I heard a conversation explaining that while the job is more artisanal than directly artistic, it requires skill, courage, more than a little nerve, and the firm management of one’s ego.

I understand that given the virus and what it’s doing to the world at large and actors in particular, my own and my colleagues’ odds of ‘going on’ have risen and bookies in New York midtown are laying bets at better than even chances: who knows? But if you live in NYC don’t be surprised if I ask you for a sofa for the night!

In other McPhillamy news allow me to direct your attention to a charming little radio series by Collin Johnson under the umbrella title, Capital Gains. The BBC plans to re-broadcast this amusing piece beginning February 10th of this year. You can access it at BBC Radio 4 Extra.

Oddly enough, the chap who wrote this, one Collin Johnson was also an actor (like me). He is on record as repeating a phrase first uttered by William Makepeace Thackeray who, when asked why he wrote Vanity Fair, (the 19th century novel, not the hi-glamour magazine), answered, “Bread and cheese.”

Apparently Johnson, soon after he became a young father, motivated by this very same imperative, took on a succession of cover jobs in the West End. I understand that he used to regard the income from these engagements as a writing bursary. This may be apocryphal but I have heard that Capital Gains was written in a broom cupboard adjacent to a dressing room at the Duchess Theatre in London using a large upturned photographic placard of a certain television star balanced on two trestles as a desk.

Colin McPhillamy
Collin Johnson

Are these men related? I think we should be told.

Full disclosure, Collin Johnson is known to me personally.

Categories
Acting

Broadway Is Back (and this blog)

After more than a year of this sort of activity …

… it has to be said that New York City is a bit of an assault on the senses. The decibels are way up. Take a taxi, a Lyft or and Uber and the state of the roads combined with the combat-driving technique that obtains in NYC and you get a thrill-ride, that shakes your corpuscles.

The late great Spike Milligan, the man who gave us The Goons, once wrote a satirical piece about traveling on the London Underground in the days when you could smoke cigarettes on busses, in cinemas, on planes and of course on tube trains “… and then to add to the commuters’ relief great clouds of stale cigarette smoke are pumped into the carriages…”

You know you’re in midtown Manhattan because of the distinctive sickly-sweet aroma of strong cannabis. Perhaps we’re all mildly stoned these days because of second hand smoke, and given the news maybe that’s a good thing. Aside from that, the improvised lean-to outdoor dining venues add exotic lights and have put 9th Avenue (where we are staying) into party mode.

Mainly though, it is excellent to be able to report that …

Among other shows To Kill A Mockingbird re-opened a couple of weeks ago at the Shubert Theatre on West 44th Street in New York City. And among other actors, that amazing Broadway veteran Patricia Conolly (full disclosure, she is known to me personally), seen here at the stage door about to go to work, resumes her role as Mrs Dubose.

I was at the dress rehearsal. It was a poignant occasion, 1700 people all in face masks, applauding nearly every entrance and giving the show an enthusiastic standing ovation.

And the show itself? One of the great classics of American literature seems more relevant now than ever.

Categories
Acting

Since the World Changed…

They closed the Golden Theatre on West 45th Street on Thursday 12th March, most of Broadway and off-Broadway following within a few hours. On Friday March 20th Hangmen was closed officially.

All that seems like a whole different long-time-ago time now. But then that’s what two weeks (today) of self-isolation can do for you.

Actors are no strangers to being chucked out of work and sometimes suddenly too. But even the most seasoned of us has never been through this. Well that’s not quite true. As I mentioned in my previous post they closed the theatres down at the end of the 16th and in the early 17th centuries due to outbreaks of plague. And stories abound of touring companies being abandoned in far-flung parts because the manager absconded with the takings. That was in the bad old days before there was Equity, the actors’ union.

That’s me and Pete Bradbury up there in the top right. Below is a picture of me ready to step in to the role of Harry Wade, one of the Hangmen of the title. Posted here by kind permission of the production ‘cos sadly, although the chances were slim of you actually seeing me in the part, now the chances are zero.

We were getting into top gear, both working on Broadway shows, my wife Trish in the acclaimed To Kill a Mockingbird – which had recently played to 18,000 high school kids in a sensational free performance at Madison Square Garden – and me in one that on paper at least had all the hit ingredients. This virus thing is more than inconvenient. Just saying.

That’s Patricia Conolly with a dressing room selfie of Mrs Dubose.

So what’s to be done in this in-between moment? Well you can always read a great novel (or write one). The only Tolstoy novel I’ve read is Resurrection, so yes, maybe I will have a go at War and Peace… Or Moby Dick… or one of the longer Dickens…  The watercolors, the jig-saws, that coverlet you’ve always meant to crochet…

Talking of literature, P G Wodehouse can always be relied on for an amusing turn of phrase. Earlier today I came across this for example, “He uttered a sharp exclamation and gave a bound which, had he been a Russian dancer, would probably have caused the management to raise his salary.”

It may not look like much out of context and perhaps you had to be there, but it caused a lot of mirth in the Conolly/McPhillamy household to the extent that tense shoulders began to loosen and worry lines gave way to the creases of laughing smiles.

It does seem though that whatever you do, it really, really, REALLY is better not to go outside (except when deploying the newly minted social distancing for those essential journeys). So much so that this amusing little ballad – stop me if you’ve heard it before – seems now to be the summation of all wisdom currently available. (some vulgar language; viewer discretion advised).

I expect by now you’ve heard this one. But I’ll tell you again anyway…

Tweet: When Shakespeare was quarantined because of the plague he wrote King Lear.

Answering Tweet: I don’t need that kind of pressure.

Tweet: And he did it without toilet paper.

Talking of Nostradamus. It seems unlikely that I’ll be doing any acting anytime soon, so now’s the time to focus on my side hustle – yes, that right ASTROLOGY. You can see my astrological two cents worth here, or check out the rest of the site at www.GalacticFragment.com, and if you’re interested, and I fully acknowledge that astro is not to everyone’s liking – sidebar here: at one time I was on a quest to have a sensible conversation with a scientist about why astrology works. I didn’t pursue this very far because the few scientists I met would start edging towards the door as soon as I mentioned the art of celestial interpretation. I never even got as far as asking them about the implications of the recently discovered sub-atomic particle, the neutrino.

Be that as it might, for the duration of the lock-down I’m offering a chart reading at the deeply discounted price of… pay-what-you-wish. If you’re interested email me at Colin@galacticfragment.com. Something different perhaps? After all, there’s only so much Netflix you can watch…

I hope you’re ok and that you have good supplies of rice, beans, and tinned fish – oh and loo roll!

Even this shall pass away!