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Well, silence is never good, so just a note to say greetings from Vermont, where I'm trying to see a laptop screen in pretty harsh sunlight. So far, I have yet to find a place that has real wi-fi at night (when I can unwind and do the news)...so a day without news clippings - most likely tonight or first thing tomorrow. Thanks for understanding and giving me the sort of pass for a week off.

Best,

Andy

Morning -

You'll notice that there is a short selection of clips this morning. I'm travelling and while I want to maintain the site, I also want to have a bit of a break before plunging into the busy 2008-2009 season full force. Expect some news all week and then, a burst of activity right after Labor Day.

Thanks for understanding!

Andy Propst

New York Times

Footnotes
The New School for Drama has announced that the actor John Turturro will be the distinguished artist in residence for the 2008-9 academic year and will teach several master classes. ... “Break Out,” billed as an “extreme dance comedy”...

amNY

'Idol' alum Ace Young to make Broadway debut

About Last Night Blog

TT: As it happened
If you read last week's posting about my recent visit to the New Hampshire graveyard that is thought to have inspired the final scene of Thornton Wilder's Our Town...

The Playgoer Blog

What a Strange Season This Is...
It appears the planets are out of alignment in the theatre universe. Each day seems to bring another story of a cancelled show, an actor replacement, a change of venue, and gloomy days ahead. At the same time there are several Broadway shows setting preview dates "at a theatre to be announced." On the Great White Way alone, we have dueling Mamets, the producers' battle for Hair, no available theatres, and no money.

Playbill

* FringeNYC Encore Series to Feature Blanche, Boy, Kane Sisters and More
* Fringe Festival Announces Overall Excellence Award Winners
* Lilli Marlene, Featuring WWII Hits, to Play Off-Broadway's Havoc Theatre

TheaterMania

Now and Forever
Daniel Reichard joins original cast members Larry Raben, Stan Chandler, and David Engel for the upcoming film version of the musical Forever Plaid.

The Guardian

Yes to pansy but no to bugger: letters show censors' war on permissiveness
New exhibition explores suppression of writers and the road to compromise

MID-DAY ADDITIONS

An Angry White Guy in Chicago Blog

Does Money DeValue the Art?
Does the Quality of the Work Suffer as the External Reward is Increased?

The Producer's Perspective Blog

Turn the lights down low. Turn up the Barry White.

Broadway.com

Q & A: Tom Wopat

See all of the mid-day clips

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New York Magazine - Fall Preview Articles
[Links to all individual stories in ATWNewsClips]

New York Times

Antsy Adolescents Romp at Edinburgh Festivals
Significant shows at the Edinburgh International Festival and the Festival Fringe considered the anxieties and preoccupations of contemporary youth.

‘A Puzzling Obsession’
NYTimes.com Exclusive: Hunter Bell, who co-stars in the musical "[title of show],” in a home video production of a short play he wrote as a child.

New York Sun

A Theatrical Tribute to Fela Kuti
Halfway through previews of his rousing, dance-filled musical, "Fela!" which opens September 4 for a two-and-a-half-week run, the choreographer Bill T. Jones, 56, was still fine-tuning sequences every afternoon. He has won every possible accolade as a…

New York Journal News

Purchase's new music man
Wiley Hausam comes to Purchase PAC with a background in opera, theater, education, programming and artist representation. But it's the fact that his dad was a traveling salesman that might help him most in his new post.

Variety

'Jump' show returns to Union Square
'Break Out' to open on Sept. 23

TheaterMania

Peter Filichia's Diary: We're Giggin'
I got off the plane from the 27th Edmonton International Fringe Festival, and headed right to Barnes & Noble – to moderate a panel celebrating the release of the York Theatre Company cast album of The Gig. ...

Jeff Nominations in Chicago

* 'Miz,' '80 Days' and 'Requiem' top Jeff nominations (Chicago Tribune Theater Loop Blog)
* Jeff Award nominations keep large and midsize theaters separate (Chicago Sun-Times)
* They wuz robbed: Our (affectionate) rebuttal to the 2008 Jeff nominations (Time Out Chicago)

'Vanities' sets B'way Date

* 'Vanities' sets Broadway opening date (Los Angeles Times)
* Arts Briefly, Footnotes (New York Times)
* 'Vanities' sets February date (Variety)

Casting on Second Stage's 'Boys' Life'

* Trio set for Second Stage's 'Boys' (Variety)
* Biggs, Coiro and Scanavino to Star in Second Stage's Boys' Life Revival (Playbill)
* Biggs, Coiro, Federer, March, Scanavino, et al. Set for Second Stage's Boys' Life (TheaterMania)

'Grey Gardens' opens in CA - initial reviews are out

* 'Grey Gardens' can't add much color as musical (San Francisco Chronicle)
* Musical `Gardens' could use some pruning (San Francisco Examiner)
* `Gardens’ at TheatreWorks is solid production of crumbling musical (Chad Jones' Theater Dogs Blog)

The Times UK

David Hare: how the BBC killed the TV play
The BBC's abandonment of the single television play is a spineless betrayal of the playwright, the art and the public

The Guardian

And the tiniest venue award goes to ...
Who were the Edinburgh festival's winners and losers? Brian Logan doles out his gongs for 2008

MID-MORNING ADDITION

The Telegraph

David Beckham musical set for West End stage
Such is old 'Goldenballs'' phenomenal appeal to the public that a librettist is talking to West End producers this week about staging a musical entitled David Beckham – The Theatre of Dreams.

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New York Times

Nicky Silver, a Bit Less Angry, Is Back With a New Play, ‘Three Changes'
Nicky Silver on the stage at Playwrights Horizons, where his new play, “Three Changes,” is in previews, headed toward a Sept. 18 opening. ...

A Guide to the Obscure References in ‘[title of show]
To ensure that no theater reference goes unappreciated in their musical, the creators and two of the co-stars of “[title of show]” created a cheat sheet.

Letter Orchestrations: Who Writes the Songs from Stephen Sondheim

Newsday

Linda Winer: A horse is more than a horse in 'Equus'

Bergen Record

Slow economy dims the lights on Broadway [Associated Press Feature]

The Independent

Exit, the king: Is Alan Ayckbourn set for one glorious final act?
He has fallen out of fashion in the West End, suffered a stroke and entered his last season in charge at Scarborough theatre. But could Britain's most prolific playwright, Alan Ayckbourn, enjoy a last hurrah?

The Times UK

Josh Hartnett in Rain Man
How will Hollywood movie heart-throb Josh Hartnett fare on the London stage in a role in which Tom Cruise excelled?

The doctor will see you now... if you join a very, very long queue
A mix of Shakespeare fans and Doctor Who fanatics are queueing around the block to see David Tennant in Hamlet, but at the stage door the teenagers...

Boston Globe

First lady, second take
"Eleanor: Her Secret Journey," which opens at the Berkshire Theatre Festival Tuesday, captures Eleanor Roosevelt in 1945, in the wake of her husband's death.

St. Paul Pioneer Press

In the context of big-city theater, he isn't much more than Little Mouth on the Prairie
When a theater critic is critical of "Little House on the Prairie," readers have much to say to him.

Denver Post

PHAMALy is basking in Democratic convention spotlight

Los Angeles Times

'Vanities' the musical is a friendship

San Diego Union-Tribune

Shake, rattle and roll!
Playhouse's 'Memphis' uses story of rock's beginnings – 'when all the rules were changing' – to examine race, and more, in America