Grab a Seat for DINNER AT EIGHT Tonight on TCM

If you look at the DVD image for Dinner at Eight, an MGM prestige pic from 1933, you'd guess that it's a Jean Harlow vehicle. And you'd be wrong. In the tradition of Grand Hotel, made in 1932, Dinner at Eight features overlapping stories, fabulous wardrobe and excellent production values, as well as some of the biggest names MGM had to offer.

With two Barrymores (John and Lionel), Wallace Beery, Billie Burke, Marie Dressler, Madge Evans, Harlow, Jean Hersholt and Lee Tracy, there are stars all over Dinner at Eight. Director George Cukor and producer David O. Selznick were also at the top of MGM's food chain, and they were working with an Edna Ferber/George S. Kaufman play adapted for the screen by Herman J. Mankiewicz and Frances Marion. Some pretty fancy names there.

But what's really great about Dinner at Eight is not all the star power, not even the snappy lines handed to Dressler to hurl at other people. It's the interplay between the characters. People remember it as a droll comedy of manners where social climbers and rich folk trade quips before a swanky dinner party. And it is that. Still, the key to Dinner at Eight is that the social climbers have the cash and the rich folk are teetering on the brink of financial disaster. There are machinations, manipulations and doublecrosses at every turn, along with Jean Harlow in a gorgeous slipper satin gown and Marie Dressler doing it up proud as Carlotta.

Dressler had been a big star in vaudeville before she turned to moving pictures, and she'd won an Oscar for Min and Bill, where she brought warmth and charm to the role of Min, a rawboned, rough-and-tumble gorgon running a waterfront dive. In that movie, the sloppy, sozzled object of her affections was played by Wallace Beery, her co-star in Dinner at Eight, who'd won an Academy Award of his own for his role in The Champ in 1932.

The two would be unlikely movie stars now, since neither was what you might call a looker. If you're looking for Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, Dressler and Beery are not it. Beery was perfect for his role in Dinner at Eight, where's he supposed to be a crass mining tycoon who "smells of Montana," but Dressler seems a strange choice for Carlotta, who we're told was a major leading lady of the stage and a famous seductress in her personal life. Let's just say that Dressler was playing against type, and it's to her credit that Carlotta is always believable, amusing and relatable in Dinner at Eight. I'm guessing she's the one most people at home would want to invite to their own dinner parties.

So what exactly is the party we never quite get to in Dinner at Eight? The movie opens with society swells Millicent and Oliver Jordan, played by the lovely Billie Burke, who you might recognize as Glinda the Good Witch in The Wizard of Oz, and Lionel Barrymore, mean old Mr. Potter in It's a Wonderful Life. Millicent is the one planning the party, in honor of a visit from a British Lord and Lady with both money and gold-plated aristocratic credentials. Millicent doesn't know that her husband's shipping company is on the brink of a takeover, and Oliver doesn't know that the brash self-made millionaire he's looking to for a loan is the one behind the buyout.

Beery's Dan Packard and his beautiful wife Kitty, played by Jean Harlow, are expected for the dinner Millicent is planning, along with the Jordans' daughter, Paula (Madge Evans) and her fiance (Phillips Holmes); fading stage legend Carlotta Vance (Dressler), who was once Oliver's lover; an alcoholic movie star Lothario named Larry Renault (John Barrymore) who is secretly involved with Paula; and a sex addict doctor (Edmund Lowe) who's been sleeping with Kitty, who happens to be his patient.

Various plot threads unravel as we get closer to 8 o'clock, with Larry the movie star and Oliver the shipping magnate both experiencing career and health crises, everybody's illicit love affairs uncovered, everybody looking for money, and lots of conflict involving class, cash, sex and social position.

Although the financial woes underline everything, this is a seriously fun movie, with the Harlow/Dressler conversations the best of the bunch. This exchange has gone down in movie history:

Kitty: I was reading a book the other day.

Carlotta: Reading a book?

Kitty: Yes. It's all about civilization or something. A nutty kind of a book. Do you know that the guy says that machinery is going to take the place of every profession?

Carlotta: Oh, my dear, that's something you need never worry about.

Dinner at Eight starts at 8 (of course) Eastern time on Turner Classic Movies. That makes it 7 for the Central time zone people, but we'll have to deal. I didn't have time to send out engraved invitations, but I hope you'll all show up for Dinner, anyway. It's a very tasty movie.

IWU's 9 TO 5: THE MUSICAL Opens Tuesday at McPherson Theatre

Working nine to five
What a way to make a living
Barely getting by
It's all taking and no giving
They just use your mind
And they never give you credit
It's enough to make you crazy if you let it!

Dolly Parton won two Grammy Awards and was nominated for an Oscar for the music and lyrics of that breezy, catchy little song, set to the beat of a typewriter and written for the movie Nine to Five. Parton also starred in the movie, playing Doralee, a smart, good-hearted secretary who bands together with two friends, played by Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, when they aren't treated right at work. Fed up by their sexist pig of a boss who never gives them credit, the three comically turn the tables, trapping him in his own house and running the company by themselves.

The film was turned into a stage musical called, conveniently enough, 9 to 5: the Musical, almost 30 years after the movie, with lots of new songs supplied by Parton and a book written by Patricia Resnick, the same person credited for the screenplay for the original Nine to Five along with its director, Colin Higgins.

This time out, 9 to 5 starred Allison Janney (The West Wing) as Violet, the Lily Tomlin role, Stephanie J. Block (The Pirate Queen) taking over as Judy, the character Jane Fonda played on screen, and newcomer Megan Hilty as Doralee, Parton's role. Like Block, Hilty was best known at that point as a replacement for one of the leads in Wicked. After 9 to 5, she broke out on TV's Smash, the weird musical drama with all kinds of problems, not the least of which is pretending that Hilty doesn't overshadow the competition.

The stage musical is bright and bouncy, with three good roles for women and one -- the dastardly boss -- for a man. On Broadway, Marc Kudisch took that role, earning a Tony nomination along with Janney, choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler, and Dolly Parton's score. All three actresses were nominated for Drama Desk Awards, with Janney taking it home.

All of that means that there should be plenty of opportunities for Illinois Wesleyan's cast and crew to shine as they present 9 to 5: The Musical at McPherson Theatre starting Tuesday night at 8 pm. Assistant Professor Scott Susong, whose work on shows like Hello Again and Once Upon a Mattress has been terrific in the past, directs this 9 to 5 with a cast of 27, which includes Christine Polich, Lizzie Rainville and Kate Rozycki as Judy, Doralee and Violet, respectively. Josh Levinson plays creepy Franklin M. Hart, Jr. (Or, you know, the Big Bad Boss.)

For this Illinois Wesleyan School of Theatre Arts production, Jean MacFarland Kerr choreographs, while Saul Nache acts as musical director and Saundra DeAthos-Meers conducts.

9 to 5: The Musical opens Tuesday, November 13, and continues through the 18th, with performances at 8 pm Tuesday through Saturday and a 2 pm matinee on Sunday. For ticket information, click here to see the IWU Theatre box office page.

Dance with the Devil in the Globe's DOCTOR FAUSTUS on Screen

Shakespeare's Globe On Screen, a project to share performances from the Globe Theatre in London with audiences worldwide by way of movie screens, brings us a non-Shakespeare choice next week, as Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus comes to local screens Tuesday November 13 at 7 pm.

Marlowe was a contemporary of Shakespeare's who wrote Tamburlaine the Great and Edward the Second, and was known for writing heroes who went too far. He was also fond of getting into trouble (maybe a Catholic in a time when that was dangerous, maybe a counterfeiter to further Catholic causes, maybe a spy) and he died under mysterious circumstances when he got stabbed in the eye in a tavern in 1593 at the age of 29. Live fast, die young, write Doctor Faustus for the stage, get stabbed in the eye.

This Doctor Faustus was directed for the stage by Matthew Dunster, and stars Paul Hilton as the doctor who swaps his soul for a few magic tricks, with Arthur Darvill as Mephistopheles, the wheeler-dealer sent by the Devil to make the bargain. You may recognize Darvill's name from his stint as Dr. Who's pal Rory. The image below shows Darvill in his Mephistopheles garb, accompanied by some scary horned guys.

The Globe billed their production as "a terrifying exploration of the human and the divine," and Neil Norman called it "Rude, robust, bawdy, magical and violent" as well as "a provocatively entertaining production" in the Daily Express. Other critics didn't respond as well to the piece, however, with the Guardian's Brian Logan suggesting that it "musters little by way of divine terror. You leave feeling you have plumbed the contents of the theatre's wardrobe department, not the depths of the spiritual abyss."

If you'd like to check out the promotional video that accompanied the stage production, it's available on Youtube. I have to say, those costumes do look pretty darn cool.

Locally, Doctor Faustus will play on screen at 7 pm on Tuesday the 13th at the Palace Theatre on Towanda-Barnes Road. There are also Decatur and Champaign options if you check its page at Zap2It.

ISU FreeStage Fringe Festival Happening Right Now

Yes, I'm late out of the gate with this one, but I only got the flyer today. And besides, there's plenty of FreeStage Fringe action still happening, with performances tonight through Saturday, November 10, 2012.

So what's up? Tonight your options are The Improvised Musical at 6 pm at Centennial West 301 and/or Where the Sidewalk Ends at 8 pm in Centennial East 115.

Tomorrow night, it's Still Ruminating, a Devised Piece at 8 pm in CW 301 and Axe Lizzy at 10 pm in the Westhoff lobby.

And on Friday the 9th, The Improvised Musical returns at 5:30 pm in CW 301, along with a pair called Sure Thing and The Mystery at Twickham Vicarage at 7 pm in CE 115, Under the Influence (poster seen above) at 8:30 pm in the CPA lobby, and Axe Lizzy making a reappearance at 10 in the Westhoff lobby.

Saturday gives the whole lineup another shot, starting with Where the Sidewalk Ends (poster at left) beginning at 2 pm (CE 115), The Improvised Musical improvising at 4 pm (CW 301), Still Ruminating ruminating at 6 pm (CW 301), Under the Influence influencing at 7:30 pm (CPA lobby), Sure Thing/Twickham revealing whodunnit at 9:30 pm (CE 115) and Axe Lizzy wielding that ax at 11 pm (Westhoff lobby).

And if you're thinking you can't afford tickets to six different shows, guess what? They're all free.

If nothing else, these plays give you the chance to see theatre happen in some cool, non-traditional spaces. Who doesn't want to see ax mayhem running around the lobby outside Westhoff Theatre or a moving piece about substance abuse put on right outside a performance of Noises Off?

That's not something you see every day.

The FreeStage projects provide an opportunity for ISU students to produce, direct, act and design in spaces on and off campus, with a special interest in experimental and original works, including works by women and minorities. FreeStage festivals are held at the end of each semester, with the same kind of flurry of activity and variety of theatrical choices you'll see this week.

Save the Date: Humana Festival 2013 March 29-31 or April 5-7

Actors Theatre of Louisville has announced the dates -- March 29-31 and April 5-7 -- for the "industry professionals" part of its 2013 Humana Festival of New American Plays, the first festival with new Artistic Director Les Waters at the helm. The announcement of what plays Waters and Actors Theatre staff have chosen for next spring's Humana Festival schedule won't come till this Sunday, but during the "industry professionals" event, you can bank on about 10 events, including around 6 new plays by some of America's best playwrights, a trio of 10-minute plays and some kind of compendium/anthology/showcase piece put together by a group of playwrights and performed by Actors Theatre's apprentice troupe.

The whole Humana Festival, which takes place over several weekends in March and April to accommodate press, producers, directors, agents, students, faculty, arts advocates and just plain fans of new plays, generally takes place in the three theatre spaces at Actors Theatre, although there have been offerings in cars, on t-shirts, and in a museum that took audiences a little farther afield. The theatrical offerings "run the gamut from comedies to dramas to plays that forge new theatrical territory. Combined with world-class design and performances, this celebration of American playwrights’ innovation and imagination has something in it for everyone," according to Actors Theatre materials.

This year, the special college weekend will be March 22-24. That experience involves four productions, career development workshops, networking, audition and intern opportunities, and a very good introduction to the Humana Festival process at a reduced rate.

They also offer New Play Getaway options for theatre fans who want more flexibility, with packages available March 15-17, 22-24, 29-31 and April 5-7. 

The Industry Professional weekends overlap the last two of those on March 29-31 and April 5-7, offering the complete lineup of plays as well as other panel discussions and networking opportunities.

Tickets for all of these packages go on sale Tuesday, November 13. For more information, you may contact the Actors Theatre of Louisville box office at 502-584-1205.

And remember to stay tuned for the big announcement on November 11 about what plays will go up this year.

RED = Heartbeat, Passion and Blood at Heartland Theatre

Red, John Logan's award-winning play about painter Mark Rothko, covers a lot of ground. With just two characters on stage -- Rothko himself and an assistant named Ken -- Red manages to work in issues of life, death, artistic integrity, artistic value, creativity, pride, vanity, mortality, legacy, control, class, power and fulfilling a purpose in life. There's a lot there for a mere 90 minutes of theatre.

Heartland Theatre's Red is simply staged and clearly directed and acted, with a strong dramatic punch as we get to know these two men over the course of those 90 minutes. We see the artist and his studio up-close and personal, getting a glimpse into the jagged, difficult mind of someone in the midst of creation. Dean Brown's sharp, uncompromising portrayal of Rothko shows us a smart, verbal, challenging man, someone who understands his own process but has no patience for anyone else's. Why should he? He's Rothko.

As the play unfolds, we understand that Rothko has been paid a hefty sum of money to paint a series of murals for the Four Seasons restaurant in New York's fancy Seagram Building. But he decries commercialism and the kind of art patron who just wants something to hang over a mantle. True art should be reserved for the worthy, the discerning, the wise few who evidence the right depth of understanding. When his assistant points out that making these murals for the Four Seasons is the height of hypocrisy, that Rothko is really "just decorating another dining room for the super-rich," creating "the world's most expensive over-mantles," Rothko retorts that he hopes that his dark, disturbing paintings will "ruin the appetite of every rich son-of-a-bitch who eats there."

Is he telling the truth? Or deluding himself that his motives are purer than money and fame? It's hard to know, even when the play is over. But it's that conflict, the reds and blacks swirling around in Logan's script, that makes the performance fly by so quickly, and makes it work so well as a piece of drama.

Christopher Connelly directs his actors -- Brown as Rothko and a fresh-faced Rian Wilson as the assistant -- with an eye on clarity and conflict, creating scenes that pull you in and hold you. Brown is terrific as Rothko, turning from overbearing to small and petty, from frustrated to terrifying, and making it all believable under the skin of one complicated man. And Wilson is a proper foil as the untested young man who just tries to keep up with the master until he's taken as much as he can take.

In the end, this Red is about the art of theatre as much as it's about the art of painting, about the need to create, to communicate, to find an audience who will understand and make the struggle to create worthwhile. For me, the efforts of Connelly and Brown and Wilson -- and scenic designer Kenneth P. Johnson, costume designer Gail Dobbins and lighting designer Anita McDaniel -- were definitely worthwhile to bring Red to life.

RED
By John Logan

Heartland Theatre Company

Director: Christopher Connelly
Scenic Designer and Technical Director: Kenneth P. Johnson
Stage Manager and Board Operator: Rachel Krein
Assistant Director: Noga Ashkenazi
Lighting Designer: Anita McDaniel
Costume Designer: Gail Dobbins
Properties: Melissa Mullen
Sound Designer: Christopher Connelly
Sound Engineer: Isaac Mandel

Running time: 90 minutes, performed without intermission

Remaining performances: November 8-10 and 15-17 at 7:30 pm and November 11 and 18 at 2 pm.

For reservation information, click here.

NOISES OFF a Slapstickstravaganza at ISU

Illinois State University digs deep into the comedy well to bring us Noises Off, Michael Frayn's hilarious farce-within-a-farce, through November 10 at the Center for the Performing Arts on the ISU campus.

For ISU, MFA directing candidate Christopher Dea takes the reins of this slaptickstravaganza about a hapless (very, very hapless) theatre company on the road with a terrible sex farce. Frayn has supposedly said that he got the idea for the script after watching a farce he'd written for Lynn Redgrave from the wings and realizing that what was happening backstage was even funnier than what was on stage. That's why we see both front and back of the stage for both Noises Off and Nothing On, the farce inside Noises Off.

If you want to know what the greater purpose is in the play, there's a line from the character of Lloyd Dallas, the director of Nothing On, that explains it all neatly. It's doors and sardines, of course. "That's what it's all about, doors and sardines," Lloyd says. "Getting on, getting off. Getting the sardines on, getting the sardines off. That's farce. That's the theatre. That's life."

There are plenty of doors and plenty of sardines in this particular production, with doors (and a nifty revolving set) provided by scenic designer Andrew Sierszyn and some very neat and tidy sardines apparently supplied by Props Master Danielle Wiseman. (There's no props designer listed in the program.)

Although the comedy is a bit slow in the early going, the pace picks up in Acts II and III with good results and some clever transitional staging. Among Dea's cast, Nico Tangorra (as Garry Lejeune, the romantic lead on and off-stage) and Hannah Brown (as gossipy Belinda Blair) show the best grasp of the terrible-actors-trying-to-play-terribly-written-roles concept, while Joseph Faifer (as old boozehound Selsdon Mowbray), Kyle McClevey (director Dallas) and Nicholas Spindler (as sleep-deprived stage manager Tim) grabbed the most laughs at the opening night performance I saw.

NOISES OFF
by Michael Frayn

Center for the Performing Arts
Illinois State University

Director: Christopher Dea
Scenic Designer: Andrew Sierszyn
Costume Designer: Jessica Ray
Lighting Designer: Harrison Hohnholt
Sound Designer: Glenn Wilson
Hair and Makeup Designer: Steph Taylor
Fight Director: Paul Dennhardt
Stage Manager: Andrew Blevins

Cast: Ashlyn Hughes, Kyle McClevey, Nico Tangorra, Kelsey Bunner, Lizzy Haberstroh, Matt Hallahan, Hannah Brown, Nicholas Spindler, Joseph Faifer.

Running time: 2:40, including one 15-minute intermission

Remaining performances: November 7-10 at 7:30 pm

For more information, click here.