abatt

Good news California. For the Gala they have Herman doing an excerpt from Push Comes to Shove. This suggests that perhaps they might be reviving for next season's Koch engagement. Also, they have Murphy doing an excerpt from Fall River Legend, which has also not been revived in some time. Quite a gala lineup. Should be a terrific evening.

The first major nominations for Broadway and off Broadway, the Outer Critics Circle Nominations, have been announced. It's a very good day for An American in Paris, which has 8 noms, including noms for Best New Musical, and individual nominations for Wheeldon (director AND choreographer), Cope and R. Fairchild. Also, Megan Fairchild is nominated for best featured actress in a musicla for On the Town. Here is the press release: Also a nom for Sara Mearns' boyfriend, Josh Bergasse, for ON THE TOWN choreography. 65th Annual Awards Outer Critics Circle Announce 2014-15 Season Nominees “Something Rotten!” Heads the List with 12 Nominations! Followed by 9 for “On the Twentieth Century,” 8 for “An American in Paris” & 7 for “Wolf Hall” The First Broadway/Off-Broadway Award Nominees of the Season! Outer Critics Circle, the organization of writers and commentators covering New York theater for out-of-town newspapers, national publications and other media beyond Broadway, announced today (April 20, 2015) its nominees for the 2014-15 season in 24 categories. Broadway stars Raúl Esparza and Katie Finneran presided over the (11AM) announcement ceremony at Manhattan’s Friars Club. Celebrating its 65th season of bestowing awards of excellence in the field of theater, the Outer Critics Circle is an association with members affiliated with more than ninety newspapers, magazines, websites, radio and television stations, and theatre publications in America and abroad. The winners will be announced on Monday, May 11th. The annual Gala Awards Dinner and presentation of awards to the winners will be held on Thursday, May 21st (4PM) at the legendary Sardi's Restaurant. Outer Critics Circle 2014-2015 Award Nominations OUTSTANDING NEW BROADWAY PLAY The Audience The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Wolf Hall OUTSTANDING NEW BROADWAY MUSICAL An American in Paris It Shoulda Been You The Last Ship Something Rotten! The Visit OUTSTANDING NEW OFF-BROADWAY PLAY Between Riverside and Crazy The City of Conversation The Nether Rasheeda Speaking The Village Bike OUTSTANDING NEW OFF-BROADWAY MUSICAL A Christmas Memory Disenchanted The Fortress of Solitude Hamilton Lonesome Traveler OUTSTANDING BOOK OF A MUSICAL (Broadway or Off-Broadway) Hamilton It Shoulda Been You The Last Ship Something Rotten! The Visit OUTSTANDING NEW SCORE (Broadway or Off-Broadway) Hamilton It Shoulda Been You The Last Ship Something Rotten! The Visit OUTSTANDING REVIVAL OF A PLAY (Broadway or Off-Broadway) The Elephant Man Fashions for Men The Heidi Chronicles Skylight You Can’t Take It With You OUTSTANDING REVIVAL OF A MUSICAL (Broadway or Off-Broadway) Into the Woods The King and I On the Town On the Twentieth Century Side Show OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR OF A PLAY Stephen Daldry The Audience Marianne Elliott The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Scott Ellis The Elephant Man Scott Ellis You Can’t Take It With You Jeremy Herrin Wolf Hall OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR OF A MUSICAL Scott Ellis On the Twentieth Century Thomas Kail Hamilton Casey Nicholaw Something Rotten! David Hyde Pierce It Shoulda Been You Christopher Wheeldon An American in Paris OUTSTANDING CHOREOGRAPHER Joshua Bergasse On the Town Andy Blankenbuehler Hamilton Warren Carlyle On the Twentieth Century Casey Nicholaw Something Rotten! Christopher Wheeldon An American in Paris OUTSTANDING SET DESIGN (Play or Musical) Bunny Christie The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Bob Crowley An American in Paris Scott Pask Something Rotten! David Rockwell On the Twentieth Century Michael Yeargan The King and I OUTSTANDING COSTUME DESIGN (Play or Musical) Gregg Barnes Something Rotten! Bob Crowley The Audience William Ivey Long On the Twentieth Century Christopher Orem Wolf Hall Catherine Zuber The King and I OUTSTANDING LIGHTING DESIGN (Play or Musical) Paule Constable The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Jeff Croiter Something Rotten! Rick Fisher The Audience Natasha Katz An American in Paris Japhy Weideman The Visit OUTSTANDING ACTOR IN A PLAY Reed Birney I’m Gonna Pray For You So Hard Bradley Cooper The Elephant Man Stephen McKinley Henderson Between Riverside and Crazy Ben Miles Wolf Hall Alex Sharp The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time OUTSTANDING ACTRESS IN A PLAY Greta Gerwig The Village Bike Jan Maxwell The City of Conversation Helen Mirren The Audience Elisabeth Moss The Heidi Chronicles Tonya Pinkins Rasheeda Speaking OUTSTANDING ACTOR IN A MUSICAL Christian Borle Something Rotten! Brian d’Arcy James Something Rotten! Robert Fairchild An American in Paris Peter Gallagher On the Twentieth Century Tony Yazbeck On the Town OUTSTANDING ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL Kristin Chenoweth On the Twentieth Century Leanne Cope An American in Paris Tyne Daly It Shoulda Been You Kelli O’Hara The King and I Chita Rivera The Visit OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTOR IN A PLAY Paul Jesson Wolf Hall Richard McCabe The Audience Alessandro Nivola The Elephant Man Nathaniel Parker Wolf Hall Bryce Pinkham The Heidi Chronicles OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTRESS IN A PLAY Annaleigh Ashford You Can’t Take It With You Patricia Clarkson The Elephant Man Francesca Faridany The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Julie Halston You Can’t Take It With You Lydia Leonard Wolf Hall OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTOR IN A MUSICAL John Cariani Something Rotten! Josh Grisetti It Shoulda Been You Andy Karl On the Twentieth Century Paul Alexander Nolan Doctor Zhivago Max von Essen An American in Paris OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL Heidi Blickenstaff Something Rotten! Victoria Clark Gigi Megan Fairchild On the Town Ruthie Ann Miles The King and I Mary Louise Wilson On the Twentieth Century OUTSTANDING SOLO PERFORMANCE Joe Assadourian The Bullpen Jim Dale Just Jim Dale Tom Dugan Wiesenthal Cush Jumbo Josephine and I Benjamin Scheuer The Lion JOHN GASSNER AWARD (Presented for an American play, preferably by a new playwright) Ayad Akhtar The Invisible Hand Halley Feiffer I’m Gonna Pray For You So Hard Elizabeth Irwin My Mañana Comes Markus Potter Stalking the Bogeyman Benjamin Scheuer The Lion Nominations Talley for 3 or more: Something Rotten! 12; On the Twentieth Century 9; An American in Paris 8; Wolf Hall 7; It Shoulda Been You 6; The Audience 6; The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time 6; Hamilton 5; The Elephant Man 5; The King and I 5; The Visit 5; On The Town 4; You Can’t Take It With You 4; The Heidi Chronicles 3; The Last Ship 3 ***Please note: Disgraced, Fun Home and Hand to God received nominations and or awards from Outer Critics Circle in previous seasons and therefore were not considered for this year. 2014-15 Outer Critics Circle Executive / Nominating Committee Simon Saltzman (President) Mario Fratti (Vice-President) Patrick Hoffman (Corresponding Secretary) Stanley L. Cohen (Treasurer) Glenn Loney (Historian & Member-at-Large) And Aubrey Reuben & Harry Haun (Members-at-Large)

Interesting how all the blame or glory is placed on the ballerina in the interview. Does Taylor assume that the danseur has no impact on ticket sales? The Gomes - Vishneva partnership has become legendary. Also, I'm not saying you're wrong Krysta. Maybe the Semionova SL was a sell out. However, there are folks who always buy the standing room tickets becasue they are the cheapest price point, and then go hunting for any empty seat as soon as the usher turns his or her head. The presence of standees does not necessarily mean it's a sold out show.

I think the next principals at ABT will be Gorak, Copeland and Hammoudi.

Bosses always give themselves raises and bonuses irrespective of their performance. Don't you think that whatever Board has voted for these bonuses was fully stacked by Moore and McKenzie to be simpatico with them?

Yes, Misty has brought in high ticket sales and new audiences. Didn't Prince, who Misty toured with, also donate a substantial amount of money to ABT a few years ago. I suspect the promotion of Misty might also bring substantial sponsorship money to the company from certain corporations, as well as from wealthy individuals. Although I have reservations about Misty (and certain other ABT dancers who are already principals), there is no denying that Misty has had a financially positive impact on ABT. Sad to think that it's all a numbers game, but it is.

Cornejo is another short person who presents casting difficulties. However, the high level of his talent has enabled him to get more roles than Simkin at ABT. For a while I thought they would try and forge a partnership with Lane, but that's not what has occurred. Reyes was his most regular partner. MIsty is short enough to dance with Cornejo, so I'm guessing that in future seasons we can expect to see some pairings of Misty with Simkin and Cornejo. As noted elsewhere, Misty's promotion now seems almost inevitable.

ABT doesn't have pension liabilities or health insurance costs for guest artists. It's not so far fetched to believe that, in the long run, paying a guest artist for two or three performances at the Met is a lot cheaper than promoting someone to a principal contract within the company. I couldn't believe how much Kent and Herrera were making at ABT. I saw a publication with the figures a few years ago. I'm not saying that they don't deserve their compensation. They certainly do. But the amounts were extremely high. The fixed costs of permanent employees adds up in a big way over time. Whatever McKenzie is spending for a one or two performance gig from a superstar like Cojocaru or Osipova is largely offset by ticket sales. The truth of this fact can be discerned by the fact that the Mik did not believe it could even break even on a US tour without Osipova and Vasiliev, and cancelled its tour when Osipova was prohibitied by ABT from appearing with the Mik. Superstars sell lots of tickets. Additionally, I suspect that "sponsors" are lining up to fund appearances by certain dancers. For example, Bolle is spohnsored at ABT by some major Italian companies. In the end, who gets cast at ABT, and who gets promoted, is sometimes as much about money as artistic intergrity, in my opinion.

ABT, at this point, really doesn't have a complete enough roster of its own principal dancers who are capable of dancing an 8 week season of mostly full length ballets. Let's face it. They are operating now with a skeleton crew of lead dancers of their own. They have not made the investment in their own dancers, and must "outsource" from other companies to get through 7 weeks of full lnegth ballets. The skeleton crew works for most of their touring engagements and its brief Koch season. Perhaps having a very small number of principal dancers for most of the year is the only way they can afford to continue operating. I'm not sure. Also, in my opinion they have not always made great choices in who they have promoted. Simkin is a case in point. He's hardly dancing any lead roles this season. Is it because he is too short and a poor partner? Nevertheless, he is occupying a coveted principal spot with virtually no principal roles assigned. Tragic. Additionally, given the fluid movement of dancers from one company to another that is occurring all over the world today, I'm not sure they could hang on to people like Hallberg and Vishneva without allowing them substantial freedom to dance elsewhere. This is the way of the ballet world now. The top dancers in the world go from company to company for artistic freedom, and piles of cash. Ballet stars have become more like opera stars, who are not tied to any one company but instead travel around the world to choose the projects and companies they want to work with.

NYCB rep makes it acceptable to the public to buy tixs in advance without knowing the casting. ON any given night at NYCB you can see numerous different principals. ABT full length ballets are an entirely different matter. You see two, maybe three, principals during an entire evening. Personally, I would never buy advance tixs for any ABT full length ballet without knowing the casting. I always buy NYCB tickets well in advance, without regard to casting.

Wow. McKenzie let Stella do a Giselle excerpt at the Gugg. Maybe there is hope that one day she might actually get to perform it at ABT. I'll hang on to that dream.

The substitutes for lead roles at ABT are always people who are scheduled to perform the role already during the ABT season. The leads are assigned the dates they must be on standby in the theater. Hee Seo didn't just happen to be hanging around the MEt the night Gillian got injured, and agree to go on out of the goodness of her heart. It was her assigned duty. It's not like understudies used in the theater or "covers" for the opera, who never appear in a role unless someone gets sick or injured.

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I think most of the audience was happily entertained, but like Amour I was disappointed. From the point of view of a balletomane, this is some seriously dumbed down choreography. Clearly Cope and Fairchild have to do this 8 times per week, so there is no possible way that could occur if Wheeldon made the choreography more difficult or strenuous. I can accept that this ain't NYCB or ABT. To me, what was more disappointing was that this is supposed to be a romance, but I didn't feel any romance. It just felt flat in so many ways.

If I'm not mistaken, the only home team player who knows the role of Nikiya already but isn't dancing it is Murphy. (Kent is too old and gave up that role years ago, and dear Paloma will already be retired by that point.) Having seen Murphy's Nikiya already in the past, I feel it is not a good fit for her and I would not return to see her in that role. It is probably now too late to start training a new Nikiya from scratch.

I think it's also the content of the mixed programs. Personally, given the fact that ABT has frequently performed Fancy Free in the recent past, as well as the fact that NYCB also performs it, I've had my fill of that ballet. In the battle of the T&V showdown, NYCB wins hands down.

I also thought it was interesting that the tribute to Misty in Time was written by a gymnast, Nadia Comaneci, rather than a dancer. Actually, having her pose without tights with bulging leg muscles exposed sort of fits in her case. She has repeatedly stated that her mission, in part, was to fight against the typical ballet body and the assumption that only women with certain types of bodies can be successful ballet dancers. The Time photo is an extension of that sentiment.

Thanks for the review/info. Looking forward to the Hallberg Legacy show tonight. Kondaurova is doing Diamonds. That should be magnificent.

Any reports on tonight's YAGP gala are appreciated.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/16/arts/music/reynold-levys-new-book-names-names-including-the-met-and-peter-gelb.html?ref=arts# The former president of Lincoln Center has written a book, which will be published shortly. Apparentlhy it addresses all kinds of hot topics, including the demise of City Opera and the tenure of Peter Gelb. Of interest to ballet fans is that the book also apparently praises the management of City Ballet, particularly Kathryn Brown. FYI, Brown is the architect of the NYCB game practice of closing down the third and fourth rings of the Koch Theater in order to artificially limit the supply of available NYCB tickets. She is also the architect of the price gouging dynamic pricing instituted at NYCB. I guess it's no surprise that a millionaire like Levy would find these developments worthy of praise. He should stop by the theater on a night when the program is relatively weak and see all the empty seats to truly evaluate the effect of these policies.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/16/misty-copeland-makes-the-cover-of-time-magazine/?module=BlogPost-Title&version=Blog%20Main&contentCollection=Arts&action=Click&pgtype=Blogs&region=Body For anyone who missed it, there is a link to the cover of Time. According to the NYTimes, there were 5 different covers, and Copeland got one of the 5 covers.

I'm sure it will be up on the ABT site in due course.

Tapfan, there are. Alicia Graf Mack, Linda Celeste Sims. They have high profiles in dance circles, but are not media celebrities.

I think her promotion to principal is now assured. There is no way McKenzie will fail to promote her in light of this development.

I'm assuming Osipova will get the cinema broadcast of Juliet.