As You may or may not Like It
As You Like It
By William Shakespeare
Reviewed by Robert Viagas
Rosalind, Orlando and the rest of the merry band of lovers and miscreants in As You Like It who take refuge in the forest of Arden encounter “hippies” and homeless people in Carrie Issacman’s zero-frills staging of William Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy for the Shakespeare Sports Theatre Company.
STC is primarily a traveling theatre, and specializes in an aesthetic self-described on the official website as “unrehearsed Shakespeare.” It’s an apt description. The notion of having the cast read their lines from handheld scrolls instead of bound scripts could not disguise the fact that most of them hadn’t memorized their halting speeches or built much of a coherent characterization beyond eye rolling and hand waving. More than once the action paused while actors glanced nervously at each other waiting for someone else to give the next line. The tactic might work better with plays by Brecht or Foreman, but didn’t really do Shakespeare or the audience any favors.
Among those who acquitted themselves honorably were Charles Lear as the imperious Duke, Joe Crow Ryan as a grizzled Touchstone, and Roger Stude as a disheveled Jacques who stood out with his slapdash but strangely effective “Seven Ages of Man” speech. Director Issacson herself provided a highlight as the coquettish Audrey. Donna Stearns and Melanie Gretchen (who also played Hymen) composed music for Shakespeare’s lyrics.
Some of the actors were in costumes or partial costumes. Most were in street clothes, supposedly circa 1968, when this production is listed in the program as being set. The stage was almost bare, backed by black curtains which the actors sometimes fumbled through, searching for the gap to make their exit.
As You Like It appeared at the tiny Steve and Marie Sgouros Theatre space at the Players Theatre in Greenwich Village through December 8.
Robert Viagas examines The Lifespan of a Fact
The Lifespan of a Fact
By Jeremy Kareken, David Murrell and Gordon Farrell.
Reviewed by Robert Viagas
One of the curses of journalism is the act of “fudging.” Not the wholesale falsifying of stories, but the adjusting of seemingly small details—“insignificant” details—to make a story more exciting, more resonant, perhaps more literary. But which only make it untrue.
If recognized, these fudges undermine the public’s faith in the story, and, ultimately, in journalism itself.
Costarring the Rushmore-like three-generation trio of Cherry Jones, Bobby Cannavale, and Mr. Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe, The Lifespan of a Fact, now on Broadway at Studio 54, dramatizes this issue by presenting just such a situation as it happens at a New Yorker-like literary magazine. Jones plays the editor, who believes she has found the once-in-a-generation story about a young woman’s suicide, written by a renowned author, played by Cannavale.
The story seems like a slam-dunk prize-winner for her and for her magazine, so she assigns the pro-forma fact-checking to Jim, a promising recent college grad, played by Radcliffe. But this first-timer turns out to be more dogged and thorough than either of the veterans expected, and keeps finding tiny but significant fudges in the story that give it sweep and resonance, but which turn out to have been made up by the author.
The author is annoyed and the editor is dismissive at first, but, as the fudges pile up, the situation turns from problematic to disastrous.
It took three playwrights to adapt an essay written by two journalists (Jim D’Agata and Jim Fingal), but these too many cooks have managed not to spoil the broth. The play moves energetically and decisively as Jim keeps discovering more and more inconsistencies. The power of the play comes from the way the audience’s attitude shifts from comic annoyance with the gumshoe-like youngster, to respect for the youngster and alarm at the casual dismissiveness of the two veterans who should have known better.
Directed by Leigh Silverman, the play never gets dry or didactic. It finds plenty of humor in a situation that asks serious questions about whether journalists are less careful than they were years ago? And, if so, are their editors and other gatekeepers, like the authors of this play, equipped enough and dedicated enough to do something about it?
The Lifetime of a Fact is scheduled to play at Studio 54 in Manhattan through January 13, 2019.
An Englishman, an Irishman and an American Wake Up in Plato’s Cave
A review by Joshua Crone
Whatever political realities may have prompted Animus Theatre Company’s captivating revival of Irish dramatist Frank McGuinness’s Someone Who’ll Watch over Me, the universally human dimensions of the play are what ultimately justify its extended sentence. The unrelenting image of two, sometimes three, men chained to a wall burns itself into the brain in the course of the play’s considerable runtime until it becomes less an illustration of the characters’ plight than a symbol of the human condition, a dramatization of Plato’s cave allegory or a sly foray into Beckettian theatre of the absurd—sly because the absurdity is achieved naturalistically rather than imposed formally; it is earned through the suffering of the characters and the fully committed actors who play them, their arms weary from set after set of pushups, their legs and eyes red and raw from real and mind-forged manacles.
Driven to distraction, they toast with invisible glasses, drive imaginary cars, play tennis in the presence of the Queen, hop around like bunnies to a childish little song. And these manic games, alternately amusing and disturbing, express their desperation far more effectively than the occasional tearful breakdown. Their unseen captors are referred to, even shouted at, but never seen or heard. In a Kafkaesque twist, the reason for their imprisonment can only be guessed at. And in perhaps the most potent symbol of all, the door to the cell stands open.
There is much to recommend in this gritty, visceral production, from the dirty floor and ochre walls of Scott Tedmon Jones’s set, realistic yet bleakly surreal in the manner of de Chirico, to the masterfully orchestrated ebb and flow of speech, action and emotion under director Alan Langdon’s baton.
But by and large it is the brutally honest performances of the actors that keep this infernal machine in motion. As the American, Leif Steinert’s Adam ranges from stoic voice of reason to blubbering defeatist.
As Michael, the disoriented latecomer and quintessential Englishman, Michael Broadhurst follows the opposite arc, his upper lip gradually stiffening to deliver some of the play’s funniest and most incisive lines.
And Jonathan Judge-Russo’s Edward, chained to center stage and just as central to the story, drives the action in ever-tightening circles with controlled intensity and an impeccable Irish brogue.
The production could benefit from a sound design that does more to suggest a world offstage, perhaps a few ominous sounds at key points to lend credence to their fear of the unseen captors. And there are moments when the tears flow a little too freely, where an effort to restrain them would be more believable and affecting. Finally, the text itself suffers at times from being overly schematic, as it plays out all the possible permutations of persecutor vs. victim in a cell with precisely three anchor points.
But there is so much life and lyricism and breadth of vision in both the text and the production that minor shortcomings are quickly forgotten. What remains, long after the play has ended, is, to quote the director’s own note, a sense of “the resilience of the human spirit,” even under absurd conditions. And since life itself is arguably absurd, regardless of the political or material circumstances under which it plays out, what could possibly be more timely and relevant?
Running thru Decemver 9 – https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/1001209
Chorus Line Stars Old and New Unite at TRU Benefit
By Robert Viagas
Stars of the original production of A Chorus Line appeared alongside members of the 2018-19 international touring production at the Nov. 4 “TRU Love” benefit for Theatre Resources Unlimited (TRU) at Caroline’s Comedy Club in New York City.
Tony Award winner Priscilla Lopez (the original Diana Morales) was among those who paid tribute to her onetime castmate Baayork Lee (original Connie Wong). Lee, now a director, choreographer and co-founder of the National Asian Artists Project, received the TRU Spirit of Theater Award for “a lifetime of creating opportunities for Asian artists.”
Lopez recalled Lee during the original A Chorus Line rehearsals as “the brightest spirit in the room,” and after describing Lee’s little-known efforts as a surrogate parent for her own niece and nephew, saluted her for her remarkable abilities to inspire others, saying, “she’s always ready to make miracles happen.”
Accepting the award, Lee recalled how, her very first Broadway audition, at age 5, for the original cast of The King and I, she told her mother “This is where I want to be.” As an Asian-American artist who has opened to door for so many others, she said, “The door opened little bit [for me] and I stuck my foot in…. We are here to stay!”
Observing that A Chorus Line has been lauded wherever in the world it has played, Lee said, “I think we’re going to go to the moon someday, because A Chorus Line is everywhere.”
Members of the current ACLtour, choreographed by Lee, sang the show’s signature song, “What I Did for Love.”
The theme for the event was “The Power of Community,” which well suited Lee’s fellow honoree, John Chatterton, founder of the Midtown International Theatre Festival, who received the TRU Entrepreneur Award for “providing 17 years of developmental opportunities for a range of independent theater artists.”
Chatterton spoke briefly about his lifelong desire to provide opportunities for artists through the Midtown Festival, and also to provide much-needed critical attention to their work through the publication OOBR (Off-Off-Broadway Reviews).
That mission lined up well with that of the awards’ hosting organization, Theatre Resources Unlimited, which gives money to help jumpstart the careers of young producers, directors and other theatre artists. To support those activities, TRU held an auction at the event that raised more than $5000 with bids on Hamilton tickets, a Uniworld European River Cruise for two, and two pairs of Yankees Legend Suite tickets.
Directed by Jonathan Cerullo, the event also included performances by the cast of the Off-Broadway musical Sista, the song “Superior” from Thrill Me, the song “Take Me America” from the musical of the same name, and Brenda Braxton performing “Family” from Dreamgirls. As an opening number, Xander Chauncy and the young actors from A Chorus Line set the tone of the event by singing Stephen Schwartz’ “(We Can Build a) Beautiful City” from Godspell.
Johnny B. Dunn’s FREE RANGE is back in the saddle.
[This articled first appeared in BroadwayWorld]
Earlier this season Frank Calo and All Out Arts in conjunction with The Wild Project presented an LGBT Film Event as part of the Fresh Fruit Festival: a reading of Johnny B. Dunn’s new screenplay, FREE RANGE.
It’s a bullying story with a few new twists. National rodeo champion and local hero, Chad Raines, returns home to his father’s ranch after a bull-riding accident to contemplate the end of his career. Father & son are tormented by the loss of Chad’s mother and his brother, whose cries for help went unanswered … until it was too late. Unable to reconcile with his guilt, Chad turns to drugs and liquor.
Here is where Dunn’s tome becomes even more topical and unusual at the same time. The heterosexual rodeo champion – plagued by memories of past actions – seeks redemption by coaching a group of bullied LGBTQ high school students in his state’s rodeo competition. Chad agrees to coach the local high school Gay/Straight Alliance (GSA) to prepare them for a rodeo. Meanwhile, this rodeo would be pitting another brother against brother. Toby, president of the local GSA will compete against Mark, the president of the Rodeo club. They, like Chad and his deceased brother, don’t see eye-to-eye … to say the least, with Toby battling for respect and Mark, emerging as one of the harassers of the GSA. With the seminal event (the Rodeo) impending and haunted by the memory of his brother, who – because of bullying – committed suicide, Chad must decide – like his father and the entire town – what side he’s on.
The reading received highly positive mentions from Jed Ryan of LavendarAfterDark, Evan Meena from Indie-Pictures-Blog, and this commentary from celebrated journalist and playwright, Doug DeVita:
“As a story, “Free Range” builds and sustains interest through its atmospheric dialogue, colorful locations, tense action, and the people one just plain loves, loves to hate, and/or hates to love. And as a potential film, the screenplay has that emotional arc that grabs its audience right from the beginning and takes them along for the sometimes wild ride, getting them rooting for Chad and the students right up through the exciting, and emotionally true, finale. With bullying – of all stripes – once again on the rise, it’s time for a story, and film, like “Free Range” to be told, and shown, to the widest audience possible.”
Interest in turning the screenplay into an independent film has grown greatly in the last few months with producer, Connie Hoy, joining the team.
Connie has worked in the film industry for over twenty- five years. She began her independent film journey by working under such directors as the Coen Brothers, Jim Jarmusch, and Kathryn Bigelow. Her most recent film, BATTLECREEK was released theatrically a year ago. It was directed by Alison Eastwood and starred Bill Skarsgard, Paula Malcomson, Claire van der Boom & Delroy Lindo. Connie produced the 2010 documentary THE HEART IS A DRUM MACHINE which looks at why humans make and love music. In 2010 Connie produced the upcoming feature film QUEENS OF COUNTRY. QUEENS stars Lizzy Caplan, Ron Livingston, Joe Lo Truglio & Matt Walsh. Connie was presented with the 1998 Arizona Women in Film “Vision” award for her contributions to the Arizona film community and her directorial debut HACK. Connie’s credits include Jim Jarmusch’s DEAD MAN starring Johnny Depp & Gaberial Byrne, MYSTERY TRAIN starring Steve Buschemi & Joe Strummer, RAISING ARIZONA, BILL & TED’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE and NEAR DARK Directed by Oscar winner Kathryn Bigelow.
Sizzle reels and Look Books are being coordinated through the offices of Jay Michaels Arts & Entertainment. JMAE has overseen the promotion of independent films including the documentary, HEART OF THE COMMUNITY (about media mogul Steven Ross); film shorts, TWELVE FINGERS; NORMAN; feature lengths, BENEATH THE ROCK; THE WATCHTOWER; and Creative Ammo’s Downtown Urban Arts Film Festival at the TriBeCa Film Center. As a producer, JMAE credits include SLINGS & ARROWS (based on Hamlet); the short film about the automotive industry, CODE RED, and the period piece, EARTHMEN. Currently JMAE has FREE RANGE and filmmaker, Marc Baron’s MEGGABALLS on solicitation.
Screenwriter, Johnny B. Dunn, known for his unique stories, characterization and dialogue, has several awards on his own gun-belt. FREE RANGE: Winner, One in Ten International Competition; SOULS IN A VOID: Winner-First Place, Gemini International Playwriting Competition; FINDING ROOM: Finalist, 2011 BlueCat Screenplay Competition; LOVE RESTORED: Finalist in the Buffalo/Niagara Film Festival screenwriting competition.
“It’s a story that needs to be told,” said Dunn, to Jed Ryan of Lavender After-Dark. Citing similar works, Dunn mentioned the success of BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN: “… research showed that people drove in for miles to see it.” But Dunn is very clear whom he wants his audience to be, “It needs to stay PG-13! It needs to stay at a level that would be welcome to anyone. I think if you had something rated PG-13, it would really be cool if parents went with their kids to go see it, as a way of beginning to build acceptance.”
To learn more, contact Jay Michaels Arts & Entertainment at 646-338-5472 or JMAE.events@gmail.com.
The cast of FREE RANGE at the Wild Project reading of the screenplay. (From l to r – Frank Calo, Johnny B. Dunn, and seated, Jay Michaels)
Adam Belvo and the Brutes
After a powerful run at Planet Connections 2018 Theatre Festivity, spit&vigor – helmed by a genuine theatre professional, Adam Belvo, revives THE BRUTES, a gripping piece of history and drama written by Casey Wimpee. The new production will be at the New Ohio Theatre, 154 Christopher Street. If that address rings a bell, it is the old haunt of the legendary Wings Theatre, now in another pair of capable hands.
Sara Fellini returns as director bringing Mr. Belvo, and other members of the original cast with her. Performances are November 23 — December 9 (Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 3 pm). Tickets are $30. For reservations, please visit https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/999133.
We get a tour of the backstage (literally) goings-on of an historic performance of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar featuring the renowned Booth theatrical family – brothers, Edwin, Junius Jr. and John Wilkes, Booth. There’s another familiar name.
This was the first and only time the three brothers shared a stage together. Events that shaped the world prohibited them from a return engagement. The backstage drama becomes the focus of this portrait of a tempestuous relationship fraught with political conflict ending in an American tragedy.
Fellini stages THE BRUTES in-the-round with a minimalist set pieces that transforms into a theatre, a dinner table, and a nation on the brink of sweeping change. Civil strife, family devolution, and a country sharply divided – 150 years ago or right now – the parable of this drama remains strong.
Ai and other sites under the Five Star Arts banner will discuss the play and the players.
So let’s start with the brother that stayed in the theatre and not in the President’s box …
Tell us about yourself as an artist.
Divination has some spirit
Divination
By Dorian Palumbo
Reviewed by Robert Viagas
Six women who take a class in “Mediumship and Divination” bite off more than they can chew in Dorian Palumbo’s supernatural drama Divination, which had its world premiere Off-Off-Broadway.
This cautionary tale for the grown Harry Potter generation shows what happens when a troubled young woman named Tara (Yating Sun) sets out to explore the latent powers she has only begun to understand, and winds up moving too quickly, drawing the five other nascent clairvoyants in her class into a paranormal whirlpool that endangers them all.
It’s an exciting and interesting idea for a play, but Palumbo’s script needs to develop the enigmatic Tara much more and the supporting characters relatively less. Ken Coughlin’s production winds up emphasizing that difference, with stronger performances in some of those supporting roles, especially Esther Ayomide Akinsanya as the peppery crystal-seller Michelle, and Abigail Choi Arader as the sensitive budding sorceress Badriyah.
Considering the subject matter, the play could also benefit either from more numerous magical special effects, or a more suspenseful build toward the climactic special effect it does have. The play gets A-plus for diversity, creating a naturally interacting multi-ethnic variety of characters who never fall into stereotypes in a play about a variety of spirits whose externals are less important than their hearts.
Divination had its world premiere at the Sargent Theatre in the American Theatre of Actors complex at 314 West 54th Street in Manhattan through Nov. 11.
A hell of a good time
Give ’Em Hell, Harry! by Samuel Gallu
Reviewed by Robert Viagas
The tiniest one-man show in one of the smallest Off-Off-Broadway venues thundered out some of the most powerful verbal brickbats about America’s political situation on the eve of the fraught 2019 elections.
Though Give ’Em Hell, Harry! was written more than 40 years ago and toured back then with James Whitmore in the title role of President Harry S Truman, the play sounds to 2018 ears to have been written last week as a reproach to the current holder of that job. And all without mentioning his name.
The thirty-third president, Truman served 1945 to 1953, from the end of the World War II through the Korean War. The play presents him as a folksy and amiable Everyman who was catapulted by fate into the Oval Office by the untimely death of his predecessor Franklin D. Roosevelt. For all his humility, Truman had a spine of steel. This is the man who okayed the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan and personally sacked the popular Gen. Douglas MacArthur for insubordination in Korea. J. Dolan Byrnes plays Truman in this production as such a naturally sweet little guy that when he loses his temper—as Truman often did—it really makes an impact.
But what gives his production its sharp edge is Truman’s warnings about the potential for abuse of power and publicity that he saw in the highest offices of the land. He was talking about the likes of Sen. Joseph McCarthy and other period demagogues, but his cautions ring even truer today. He asserts that the public must remember that it is the boss and elected officials are its servants, reminds us that “the law is for everybody in this country,” warns of “reckless fanatics who could destroy us all,” and insists that one of the biggest dangers in the public discourse is “the Big Lie,” one that leaders “repeat over and over until people believe it.”
He concludes with Truman’s statement that “The most valuable piece of property in this country” is—“the voting booth.”
The play’s title comes from an apocryphal incident at one of the Truman’s fiery campaign speeches. A supporter reportedly yelled out, “Give ’em Hell, Harry!” to which Truman is said to have replied, “I don’t give them Hell. I just tell the truth about them, and they think it’s Hell.” This revival certainly gives Truman’s current successor a good hot taste.
Directed by Joan Kane, Give ’Em Hell, Harry! was presented by Ego Actus at the Episcopal Actors Guild, 1 East 29th Street in Manhattan through October 28.
Baayork Lee: One Singular Sensation
Theater Resources Unlimited’s The 2018 TRU Love Benefit, “The Power of Community” honoring Baayork Lee and John Chatterton
The event honors legendary A Chorus Line co-star and co-founder of the National Asian Artists Project Baayork Lee, who will receive the TRU Spirit of Theater Award for a lifetime of creating opportunities for Asian artists. Ms. Lee is choreographing the upcoming 50th Anniversary celebration of A Chorus Line at City Center. Cast members will be coming to TRU to help celebrate her. TRU is also honoring off-off-Broadway maverick, creator of the former OOBR Awards and the Midtown International Theatre Festival, John Chatterton who will receive the TRU Entrepreneur Award for providing 17 years of developmental opportunities for a range of independent theater artists.
Performance and award show will be directed by Jonathan Cerullo, Broadway/NYC choreography consultant for Say, Goodnight Gracie; assistant director and/or choreographer for Band in Berlin, Anna Karenina, The Three Musketeers, original cast of Legs Diamond; and choreographer for Big Apple Circus’ Carnivale! & Picturesque @ Lincoln Center. He will be assisted by Andrew Winans, with music director Lulu Picart and stage manager Jim Semmelman.
APPEARANCES INCLUDE: Members of the recent U.S. National Tour, Japan International Tour, upcoming China International Tour and upcoming 50th Anniversary New York City Center productions of A Chorus Line (Mel Cabey, Samantha Cho Grossman, Aaron Patrick Craven, Giovanni Da Silva, Steven Del Col, Veronica Fiaoni, Lauren Garriott, David Grindrod, Ryan Koerber, Laura Pierpont, Zoe Schneider-Smith, Madison Tinder, Jake Vielbig and Baayork’s assistant Andrew Winans), plus Sam Simahk (Carousel revival, Curly in Oklahoma! at TUTS, 1st National Company of The King and I), will be joining Tony Award nominated Brenda Braxton (Smokey Joe’s Cafe, Chicago); original A Chorus Line co-stars and Tony Award winners Donna McKechnie and Priscilla Lopez; NAAP co-founders Nina Zoie Lam and Steven Eng, as well as selections from MITF musicals Thrill Me! by Stephen Dolginoff, Sistas (the long-run off-Broadway hit) by Dorothy Marcic, Take Me America by Bill Nable, and more!
It all takes place on Sunday, November 4, 2018 from 12pm-4pm at Caroline’s on Broadway, 1626 Broadway, NYC. Tickets are available at Eventbrite(https://www.eventbrite.com/e/tru-love-benefit-2018-the-power-of-community-tickets-50935196544); details about the gala are athttps://truonline.org/events/tru-love-2018/. Tickets start at $50 for the performance only, $115 for performance plus three-course luncheon.
Event committee members include: Broadway/Off-Broadway Producers Lisa Dozier King, Pat Flicker Addiss, and Jim Kierstead and Broadway notables Donna McKechnie and Priscilla Lopez (both from the original production of A Chorus Line) and producer/promoter, Jay Michaels.
Ms. Lee was gracious enough to share a few thoughts with Ai regarding life, career and TRU.
- You are part of American theater history. Not just A Chorus Line – where you were the basis for your character – but two of Rodgers ad Hammerstein’s most pivotal works. How does that feel and how did it influence your career goals?
- Please share with us something about the National Asian Artists Project. What was the inspiration for creating it?
- How has theater changed over the years?
- What does being honored by TRU mean to you?
ABOUT ROBERT VIAGAS – Ai Lead Writer
Robert Viagas is an editor, author, manager, and journalist with more than thirty-five years’ experience, most it working on Broadway with Playbill Inc., the iconic theatre program company. The founding editor of Playbill.com, Playbill’s theatre news website, Viagas has published 19 books on the performing arts, and served as a nominator for the annual Tony Awards.
Playbill placed extraordinary responsibility in Viagas’ hands during the past 21 years to spearhead virtually all of that company’s new projects, notably the widely used and cited theatre news site, Playbill.com, for which Viagas served as founding editor. In addition to Playbill Radio, Viagas also founded Playbill Books (including the Playbill Broadway Yearbook series). He has held various titles at the company over the years. His current title is Special Features Editor, overseeing PlaybillUniverse.com, a new website for the Playbill family of websites, developing content for all platforms, from books and print, to websites and social media.
Always fascinated with the entertainment business, Viagas was a pioneer broadcaster on satellite radio. In 2002 he began hosting “Radio Playbill,” a program of news and recordings that was part of the original content offered at the premiere of Sirius Satellite Radio (now SiriusXM). He later hosted Playbill Radio, a 24-hour web radio service that drew on more than 20,000 tracks that Viagas assembled for Playbill. Viagas also was asked by Sony to supply liner notes for the special 40th anniversary re-release of the original cast album of the classic A Chorus Line. The anniversary package was released in October 2015.
He took over writing and editing the “At This Theatre” column from Louis Botto, hosted the Tony Awards webcasts from 2002 to 2008, and produced the special Tony Awards Playbill each year from 2002 to 2012, and again in 2015. He enjoyed the rare honor of serving on the nominating committee for the Tonys 2012-14.
The New York Times’ CyberTimes described him as “encyclopedic” in his knowledge of Broadway.
Among his other books, Viagas was chosen by the original cast of A Chorus Line to tell their story in On the Line: The Creation of “A Chorus Line” (Morrow) and by the creators of the original The Fantasticks to tell their story in “The Amazing Story of The Fantasticks” (Citadel).
When it comes to the difficult area of collaboration he literally wrote the book on it—The Alchemy of Theatre (Applause Books), consisting of essays on collaboration, in which he worked with the likes of Edward Albee, Wendy Wasserstein, Hal Prince, Chita Rivera and others to codify how one collaborates in the world of theatre. The roll-out book-signing event sold out the 92nd Street Y in 2006.
His 2009 book I’m the Greatest Star! (Applause) contained biographies of the 40 people he considers the most brilliant stars of Broadway musical history, from George M. Cohan and Fanny Brice to today’s Nathan Lane and Sutton Foster. The book was also adapted as a stage musical and presented at Hofstra University that same year.
He is a juror for the annual Boston Science-Fiction Film Festival and Marathon, and performs his solo shows, The 10 Secrets of Broadway and The Ghosts of Broadway at libraries and colleges.
Viagas’ experience extends to the world of classical music. In addition to serving at various times as editor of the Playbill programs for the New York City Ballet, the New York City Opera, Houston Ballet, the Opera Company of Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Ballet, he co-authored the book Scales to Scalpels (with Dr. Lisa Wong), about the remarkable Longwood Symphony Orchestra, consisting entirely of professional doctors.
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