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      Shaina Taub’s ‘Suffs’ Tells the Suffragist Tale in Song

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      Shaina Taub’s highly anticipated musical explores women’s crusade for the vote through a movement often divided along generational, class and racial lines.On a recent afternoon, Shaina Taub was standing in a rehearsal room at the Public Theater with a group of 18 women in corsets and long skirts, paired with T-shirts and sports bras, planning a grand parade.Taub was suited up — halfway at least — as Alice Paul, a founder of the National Woman’s Party, and a main character of “Suffs,” her new musical about the women’s suffrage movement in the years leading up the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920.“How will we do it when it’s never been done?” Taub sang as the performers bustled up and down the risers. “How will we find a way where there isn’t one?”The song, “Find a Way,” was about the 1913 Women’s Suffrage Procession, the first large-scale political demonstration ever held in Washington. But Taub might have been singing about “Suffs” itself, and its winding, eight-year road to the stage after multiple pandemic delays, three set redesigns and script revisions prompted by the tumultuous politics of the country — and American theater — since the racial justice protests of 2020.“It’s amazing how much the experience of making the show mirrors what they were doing,” Taub said during a break. She slipped off her period-correct high-heeled Oxfords and put on cloth slippers. Would the corsets be staying for the real show?“It’s a hot topic,” Taub said. “But — yes.”From left: Ally Bonino, Phillipa Soo, Taub, Hannah Cruz and Nadia Dandashi in the musical at the Public Theater.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesIn an age of riot grrrl playlists and “The Future Is Female” tattoos, it can be hard to see past the petticoats and big hats and recognize the “ladies” of the suffrage movement as the hard-nosed political strategists they were — and to fully appreciate the radical nature of their demands. “Suffs,” in previews now and scheduled to open April 6 at the Public, aims to release the movement from its starchy image, drawing on the sounds of Tin Pan Alley, early jazz, pop-gospel and what Taub calls “the sounds of the future the suffs were trying to create.”The highly anticipated production — whose extended run, through May 1, is already sold out — may wear its idealism on its sleeve. But it also digs into the complexities of a movement that was often sharply divided along generational, class and racial lines. That last was an aspect of the show, Taub said, that she worked to deepen after the murder of George Floyd.“I’m not trying to glorify or vilify,” Taub said. “I’m trying to humanize, and dramatize.”“SUFFS” BEGAN sprouting in 2014 when the producer Rachel Sussman (“What the Constitution Means to Me”) gave Taub a copy of “Jailed for Freedom,” Doris Stevens’s account of the militant suffragists who, in addition to organizing the parade, assembled the first picket of the White House, which led to dozens being arrested, beaten and force-fed in prison.She tore through it in a single night. “I couldn’t believe how dramatic it was,” she recalled.As an activist-minded theater kid growing up in Vermont, Taub, 33, had been fascinated by the history of the civil rights movement, ACT-UP and other social change movements. Why, she wondered after reading Stevens’s book, had she been taught virtually nothing about this one?“There’s just been this hidden treasure trove in my own backyard this whole time,” she said. “I emailed Rachel at 3 a.m. and said, ‘We have to do it!’”Making a musical just about women battling men didn’t seem very dramatic. “I thought the audience might be a bit ahead of it,” she said. But she saw potential in the internal conflicts.“How do various characters who do want the same things go about it differently?” she said. “That could help me focus on the women most of all.”Today, Taub, whose album “Songs of the Great Hill” will be released April 1, is an in-demand musical theater talent whose (many) other projects include a collaboration with Elton John on songs for a musical adaptation of “The Devil Wears Prada,” set to open in Chicago this summer.But back in 2014, she was a singer-songwriter with regular gigs at Joe’s Pub and other venues. At the recommendation of Sussman (who also teamed up with the producer Jill Furman, of “Hamilton”) the director Leigh Silverman went to see her and instantly became, in Silverman’s words, “a crazed Shaina Taub superfan.”“I was just dazzled,” said Silverman, who at the time was directing her first musical, the Broadway production of “Violet.” “I just thought, how can I get attached to Shaina Taub forever?”Over the next two years, Taub worked on the musical between projects, including “Old Hats,” with the clowns Bill Irwin and David Shiner, and her original musical adaptation of “Twelfth Night,” for the Public’s Shakespeare in the Park. In late 2017, Taub played the first 20 minutes of music for Silverman.“It was thrilling,” Silverman said, before taking a long pause. “Those first 20 minutes did a thing I think the show does incredibly well, which is, it tells a story and gives you an emotional arc of character.”Jenn Colella (“Come From Away”), who plays Carrie Chapman Catt, the leader of the old-guard National American Woman Suffrage Association (who was often at odds with the more radical Paul), participated in the first workshop. She recalled an immediate “crackling of energy.”“We found ourselves sitting straight up, standing when we didn’t need to — crying,” she said. “From go, this was a moving piece.”From left, Jenn Colella, Taub and Susan Oliveras during a rehearsal.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesTaub, who did historical research at Harvard’s Schlesinger Library and read what more than one collaborator described as seemingly every book on the subject, has laced the piece with quotes and detailed references. (She even found a juicy love story in a footnote. “Every musical needs a love story!” Taub said.) But “Suffs,” Silverman emphasized, is not an “eat-your-spinach history musical.”“We’ve done a lot of work around deepening all the characters, the friendships, the betrayals,” she said. “In a way, the movement is the protagonist.”ALICE PAUL WAS a notoriously opaque figure, with a monomaniacal focus and, as the historian Susan Ware (one of many scholars Taub consulted with) has written, no personal life. “She never married, never had a partner, we don’t know about her sexuality,” Taub said.What helped unlock the character, Taub said, was Paul’s “deep, fraught, crazy-making friendships” with other suffragists, which Taub said were not so different from hers with her collaborators.“It was that stew of ‘We love each other, we’re hanging out but you’re driving me crazy, we have to do this thing, I don’t want to mess around, I want to work,’” she said, doubling the tempo on her normal mile-a-minute speech.Initially, Taub, whose acting credits also include the Off Broadway productions of “Hadestown” and “Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812,” imagined she might play Doris, whom she described as “the writer-downer, like Mark in ‘Rent.’” But she eventually connected with what she called Paul’s “fear of failure” — and also, as anyone who has watched the 5-foot-3 Taub in action for five minutes might notice, with her intense focus and make-it-happen energy.Taub said she even briefly entertained having the suffragist and labor lawyer Inez Milholland (played by Phillipa Soo, from “Hamilton”), who led the 1913 parade, appear onstage on a real horse. “For a minute, I was like, ‘How much would it cost to shut down Lafayette Street for four hours?’” she said.By late 2019, the plan was to open at the Public in September 2020, shortly after the centennial of the 19th Amendment — and a few months before the presidential election. Then the pandemic hit. “It took a minute for it to really drop that it wouldn’t be happening,” Taub said.Then, in June 2020, came the George Floyd protests, and intense discussions about structural racism in the theater world, including at the Public, which in May 2021 announced a broad “anti-racism and cultural transformation plan.”From the beginning, the show had addressed the uglier sides of a movement that reflected — and sometimes actively bolstered — the racism of American society. It was a time when Jim Crow had solidified and Woodrow Wilson (played in “Suffs” by Grace McLean) had presided over the segregation of the federal work force.One of the first songs Taub wrote was “Wait My Turn,” sung by the suffragist and journalist Ida B. Wells (played by Nikki M. James) in response to Paul’s decree that Black women would march in a separate section at the back of the 1913 parade, to appease Southern white marchers. (Wells refused, and marched with her state delegation.)But amid the 2020 protests, Taub and Silverman realized they needed to revisit not just the show itself, but also their approach to making it. “I realized I had more to do, and deeper to go,” Taub said.They brought in two additional collaborators to the core creative team, assembling an expanded dramaturgical brain trust, nicknamed the Coven, which started meeting weekly. It included Taub and Silverman, along with the choreographer Raja Feather Kelly (who is also credited as a creative consultant) and, as dramaturg, Ayanna Thompson, a prominent Shakespeare scholar at Arizona State University.Thompson, who became a scholar-in-residence at the Public in 2020, was initially puzzled by the invitation. (“The first thing she said to me was ‘I hate musicals,’” Silverman recalled.) In a video interview, Thompson said the idea of a musical about the suffrage movement initially sounded “like a ‘Saturday Night Live’ sketch.”“I just thought ‘Oh my god, that’s the worst idea ever,” she said, imagining “the earnestness, the whiteness, the tweeness.”Cast members rehearsing “Watch Out for the Suffragette,” a vaudeville-style romp in which they portray jeering men.Sara Krulwich/The New York Times“Obviously, that was all my bad preconceived ideas,” she said. “There’s a really rich story here — not just about women battling men, but a really interesting intergenerational battle” that’s “almost Shakespearean in its complexity.”Thompson, who has written extensively on race and performance, also spearheaded a rethinking of the approach to casting. Most of the prominent characters — Paul, Catt, Wells, the Black suffragist Mary Church Terrell — are played by actors of the same race. But the other, mostly white characters, including male historical figures, were cast very deliberately with women and nonbinary actors of a range of races and ethnicities — not just for the sake of a diverse company, but to challenge assumptions about who gets to be (to use a favorite Thompson word) “virtuosic.”“We wanted to give women, and particularly women of color, the same kind of mutability usually granted to white men,” she said.A downtown choreographer and director, Kelly (“Fairview,” “A Strange Loop”), whose work has often examined issues of appropriation, said that when Silverman approached him last summer, he was initially hesitant. “I was like, ‘I’m not a woman,’” he said. “Was that going to be a thing for some people?”One of the challenges, he said, was creating a movement language that would help the audience figure out how to read the bodies onstage. The opening three songs, he said, set up some of the registers.The vaudeville-style romp of “Watch Out for the Suffragette,” sung by ensemble members costumed as jeering men (and inspired by real anti-suffrage songs of the period), is followed by the stylized proper-lady tableau of “Suffrage School” and then the naturalism of “Alice and Carrie,” which establishes the dynamic between Catt and the upstart Paul.As for the diverse casting, Kelly said, “something that was important to me was, how does the musical hold space for all these characters, and allow the perspective to shift, without feeling like it’s checking boxes?”Actors also helped push beyond the boxes. James, a Tony winner for “The Book of Mormon” who has been close with Taub since they both appeared in “Twelfth Night,” had been singing Wells’s number “Wait My Turn” for years at workshops and benefits. But after the summer of 2020, she said, “I started feeling pretty conflicted, and I think Shaina did, too.”In Taub’s initial script, Wells (who actually intersected very little with Paul or the National Woman’s Party after 1913) sang the song, then largely disappeared. “I really encouraged Shaina to find ways to give Ida more of a voice,” James said.Taub added a second-act song for Wells, in which she reflects on the personal costs of her battles. She also reworked a scene between Wells and the genteel Terrell, a founder of the National Association of Colored Women, in which they debate the merits of the inside game (“dignified agitation,” as Terrell, played by Cassondra James, puts it) versus confrontation.It’s a mirror of the conflict between Paul and Catt, with its interplay of sharp disagreement and mutual respect. “Two people can have the same goal, but totally different ideas about how to get there,” James said.“Suffs” is opening in the same theater where “Hamilton” — and America’s runaway romance with the roguish “ten dollar founding father” — was born. Are audiences open to seeing Taub’s feminist founding mothers as similarly three-dimensional heroes, shaded by their flaws rather than simply damned by them?“Suffs” may be about women. But their long fight for the vote, Taub said, can stand in for any of the great social movements in American history, all of which were also messy, fractious, imperfect — and unfinished.She cited a line from the last song: “Don’t forget our failure. Don’t forget our fight.”“You can hold both truths in your hand,” she said. More

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      Interview: Lucinda Spragg Telling It Like It Is

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      Grace Millie of Moon Loaf introduces us to professional feather ruffler, Lucinda Spragg.

      Lucinda Spragg: some would call her a creation of Moonloaf and Grace Millie, although Lucinda would no doubt tell us she is her own woman. And she is most certainly a woman on a mission. Right now she is preparing to bring her one woman show, Lucinda Spragg : An Evening With, to Lion and Unicorn Theatre between 29 March and 2 April, where she will be promoting her latest book: Jabbie Dodgers, as well as sharing her wisdom with us.

      So when she asked/ demanded we interview her, we really couldn’t say no, because, quite frankly, we are a little scared of her!

      It’s lovely to meet you Lucinda, why don’t you introduce yourself?

      Good afternoon, Everything Theatre. Lucinda here. I’m sure most of your readers will have heard of me already…

      Sorry, we have to admit, we haven’t personally heard of you before now.

      Well I’ll spell it out for you if I must. I’m Leader of the Regain Party. A freedom fighter, professional feather ruffler, and renegade. I’m a spanner in the works of the London Coffee House Elite. I’m also the host of my podcast, TripadPfizer.

      Of course, I’m sure the Corybnistas would have another answer for you. They’d probably describe me as a ‘controversial political activist’. Clods. 

      Why are you coming back now then?

      I’ve had something of a brief…hiatus. I’ve been back on the scene since October, resisting the democratisation of truth by the neohippies. Now there’s an album/band name combo for some bleeding-heart indie lefties.

      And why don’t you have her own Twitter account like most normal people, just so we can read more of your thoughts?

      Twitter? I’m banned. All reasonable people are. 

      So who would you consider as those reasonable people who Twitter has banned; are you saying people like Trump and Katie Hopkins? Are these your heroes and the people you most hope to emulate then?

      I believe it was Eric Clapton who sang ‘I had to find myself (find myself), I had to find myself (find myself), no use looking for no one else’. I presume that answers your question.

      I’m based on no one but me, baby. Eric Clapton did also recently sing, ‘is this a sovereign nation or just a police state?’, though, so I do like him. I am also a BIG Laurence Fox fan. 

      If we could speak to Grace for a moment and ask, as a writer and actor, do you find this extreme persona of Lucinda taking you over when you are preparing to walk out on stage?

      I’ve got literally no idea what you mean here?

      There seems a whole collection of extreme right-wingers such as yourself who claim to speak for the unheard, but very few that are left-leaning. Do you feel it would be possible to parody those on the left in the same way?

      There’s a very successful parody of, ‘activist, healer, and radical intersectionalist poet’, Titania McGrath. She’s a character written by the genius that is Andrew Doyle. Titania in no way does “exactly what the show accuses online activists of, reducing complex topics to nuance-free quips” (★ – The Guardian). 

      With so much going on in real life and our government at times looking like a parody of themselves, do you feel you have to become even more extreme to remain relevant?

      Again, not sure why I’m being asked this, but, as a general rule, I would say that parodying extremists involves amping up the levels of ridicule rather than creating genuinely extreme content yourself. Or something like that. 

      Moon Loaf’s last production, TIFO, was a very different show in content. How easy is it to produce two such unique shows? Are both connected though through being based around one strong central character?

      Moon Loaf have emailed me this response to give to you: 

      “Hello! Yes, that’s definitely a connection we’ve found helpful. But you’re right, they are very different characters and different worlds. That’s also what’s quite exciting about it, keeps us on our toes. It’s also been nice swapping round and having Kieran (Dee) directing Grace this time! We promise we’ll stop doing one-person shows soon, honestly…”

      Utterly perplexing. Haven’t a clue what they’re on about. 

      Could we see you make any appearances in future shows, there is surely space on the after-dinner speaker circuit for such an inspirational woman as yourself?

      Oh, certainly! I’m promoting my new book ‘Jabbie Dodgers’ at the moment, so that would be perfect. I’d rather speak before dinner, though, if possible. I like my audience hungry (for uncomfortable truths). 

      Finally, what is the best advice you can give us right now with so much focus on the cost of living crisis we are going through?

      Ditch the Pret subscription, buy a house instead. You can’t invest in a café au lait. You’re welcome, internet.

      Our thanks to Grace/ Lucinda for the time to chat to us. You can catch Lucinda Spragg : An Evening With at Lion and Unicorn Theatre 29 March – 2 April. Bookings here. More

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      For Female Directors, a Generational Shift

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      In Germany, a country with few theater leaders who aren’t men, professional success has often meant becoming one of the guys. Now, a new group of women are developing their own way. dFRANKFURT — Of the 24 new productions expected on Schauspiel Frankfurt’s three stages this season, two-thirds will be directed by women. This is an astonishing statistic in Germany, where gender inequality is still pronounced across the vast theater landscape. Despite advances in recent decades, women run only a small fraction of the 142 publicly owned playhouses, and, according to the latest available statistics, in 2016 only 20 percent of theater directors were female.Two current productions at Schauspiel Frankfurt, the municipal theater company, show how the theatrical ground here has shifted over a generation to allow more confident explorations of female self-expression. Both plays lie far outside the standard repertoire, which is consistent with a general trend in German theater to break out of the narrow canon of acknowledged masterpieces. But only one seems to provide a uniquely female perspective on the work in question.Claudia Bauer, born in 1966, is one of German theater’s most acclaimed and prolific directors. A fixture on stages throughout Germany, Austria and Switzerland for the past quarter-century, she enjoys a certain seniority among Germany’s female theatermakers. But both formally and thematically, her productions often feel very similar to those of her male colleagues. Like them, she has spent much of her career sifting through the (mostly male) theatrical canon: Some of her most acclaimed recent productions have been based on plays by Brecht, Molière and Tennessee Williams.At Schauspiel Frankfurt, Bauer has turned her attention to Luis Buñuel’s 1972 film, “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoise,” adapted for the stage in a surprisingly faithful version by the writing team PeterLicht and SE Struck.In a memorable sequence from Buñuel’s surreal Oscar-winning movie, a band of affluent Parisians, trying in vain to eat a meal together, inexplicably find themselves dining onstage at a theater. That scene takes on a heightened degree of absurdity when it is recreated in Bauer’s antic production. The audience, of course, has been there all along. Getting the actors onstage to acknowledge the spectators’ presence could come off as an all too obvious gag, but here it’s a subversive joke that suggests a sort of mutual recognition between the out-of-touch elites portrayed onstage and the affluent theatergoers of Frankfurt, Germany’s financial center.It is one of the inspired moments when Bauer finds clever ways to translate Buñuel’s mischievous provocations to the stage. Her production eschews the film’s ironic detachment and pretense of normalcy in favor of something far more energetic and flamboyant. With a gypsy swing soundtrack and live video projections by Jan Isaak Voges that roam Andreas Auerbach’s set — an upscale residence inside a giant white container — the production feels halfway between a sitcom and a revue.Aided by a nimble eight-person cast that forms a tight unit, Bauer turns the digressive and episodic film into a gleefully absurd carnival where farce coexists with horror.Like Buñuel’s actors, Bauer’s maintain their composure in the face of increasingly perplexing circumstances. But they also preen and pose with evident relish, performing as much for one another as for the audience. “Discreet Charm” was a hit here when it opened this month, and some local critics wondered whether it might be a contender for next year’s edition of Theatertreffen, an annual celebration of the best German-language theater, to which Bauer has been invited four times. The festival recently instituted a quota to help promote the work of female directors: At least half of the 10 shows chosen must be female-led. However, the past few years have seen the dawning of a new generation of bold and self-confident female theatermakers, and I doubt that Theatertreffen’s quota, intended as a corrective, will be necessary much longer.“I and I,” written by Else Lasker-Schüler some 80 years ago and directed by Christina Tscharyiski, also at the Schauspiel Frankfurt.Robert SchittkoMany of the emerging female directors in Germany seem more committed to work that explicitly engages with feminist and post-feminist topics than directors of Bauer’s generation, who were pioneers in a male-dominated landscape where professional success often meant becoming one of the guys. Along with addressing issues of women’s representation, history and psychology, some of these younger directors — including artists from all over Europe, as well as the United States and Israel — are creating exciting stage aesthetics to address those themes.On Schauspiel Frankfurt’s smaller stage, the Kammerspiele, the Austrian-Bulgarian director Christina Tscharyiski, 33, has bravely taken a stab at one of the strangest, most obscure and most difficult-to-perform German plays of the 20th century: “I and I” (“Ichundich”) by Else Lasker-Schüler.That German-Jewish Expressionist poet and artist, who fled the Nazis in 1933, called her sprawling work, in six acts and an epilogue, a “hell play.” Composed in 1940 and 1941, “I and I” is an infernal romp that features characters from Goethe’s “Faust” and real-life personalities, including Lasker-Schüler herself and much of the Nazi high command. The unlikely group meets up in a version of hell somewhere in Jerusalem, which is where the author lived in unhappy exile until her death in 1945.The play was long ignored as an unperformable oddity: It made it to the stage for the first time only in 1979. In the barely four decades since, productions have been exceedingly rare. Tscharyiski’s take on “I and I,” stylishly designed by Verena Dengler and Dominique Wiesbauer, resembles a kind of Dadaesque haunted house where characters in Hasidic robes, medieval garb and Nazi uniforms wander a stage strewn with ash.Unfortunately, the production’s charms are largely visual, and the shortened performing version of the text fails to cohere in a compelling thematic, narrative or poetic way. Despite inspired performances by Friederike Ott as the poet, Lasker-Schüler’s alter ego, and Florian Mania and Tanja Merlin Graf as a pair of rival Mephistos, the demon who bargains for Faust’s soul, the production seems both overstuffed and underdeveloped, and much longer than its 75 minutes. Yet despite the production’s limitations, it feels momentous that this complex work is being reconsidered 80 years after it was written. And it’s heartening to know that a director as prodigiously talented as Tscharyiski can be enlisted to aid in our rediscovery of a key 20th-century artist whose theater works are too little known.Der diskrete Charme der Bourgeoisie. Directed by Claudia Bauer. Schauspiel Frankfurt, through May 1.Ichundich. Directed by Christina Tscharyiski. Schauspiel Frankfurt, through April 17. More

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      Interview: Coming Clear about Dirty Hearts

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      Writer Paul Murphy on Dirty Hearts, playing at Old Red Lion 5 – 30 April

      Fringe theatre makers are always coming up with new ways to attract an audience. But we can’t remember one offering a bottle of champagne to a lucky winner if they bought their ticket before the end of February. Of course, gimmicks aside, fringe theatre lives and dies on the quality of its shows. And we reckon Pine Street Productions‘ Dirty Hearts is one that will be worthwhile even without the bribe of that champagne.

      Dirty Hearts will play at Old Red Lion from 5 – 30 April, tickets here.

      So, we thought we’d ask the play’s writer, Paul Murphy, just what it’s all about and why they highlight their No Covid, No Brexit, No Boris rule!

      Let’s start with the obvious, what can you tell us about Dirty Hearts?

      Dirty Hearts is a comedy about the relationships between four friends – Julienne, Ben, Simon and Laura, and what happens when Ben asks Julienne to authenticate a painting owned by one of his clients. It’s about love, truth, friendship and choice.  

      You describe it as “An Existential Comedy for the Age of Anxiety”. That’s quite the mouthful, but what do you really mean by it?

      Everyone has probably said at some point ‘I’m having an existential crisis’: with this show I’m digging a little deeper into what that means. The play is informed by the work of Jean Paul Sartre and Simone De Beauvoir, amongst other. But it isn’t four people sitting around wearing berets and asking; ‘What does it mean to exist?’ It’s about the choices we make and how those choices are what define us as people. It’s about how we see ourselves and how that image of ourselves isn’t always accurate, especially when we’re faced with hard decisions.

      The play looks like it will question the morals of its characters. Is that a fair assessment?

      Moral choices are absolutely at the heart of the play. What’s the right thing to do? Do markets have a responsibility to be moral? The tension between moral absolutism and what Simone De Beauvoir called ‘the ethics of ambiguity’. If that sounds too heavy, don’t worry there’s still plenty of jokes. This isn’t a philosophical symposium, it’s about four people trying to make choices under pressure: the conflict between our ethics and our desires.

      How do wealth managers, art appraisers, doctors and conflict resolution all tie together in the play then?

      Ah, well you’ll have to come and see the play. But the story revolves around one of the characters being asked to authenticate a recently discovered Renaissance painting. That’s the art. The fact that it could be worth tens, if not hundreds of millions of pounds means that for two of the characters the stakes are huge. Conflict resolution provides a framework for how we attempt to resolve conflict, and as every doctor has to abide by the Hippocratic Oath we have a a set of ethics and values that are put to the test. The push and pull of the rational scientific approach and the irrationality of human desire. And when you add love into the mix….

      You make clear in your press release that “This play makes no mention whatsoever of the following: COVID, BREXIT, or Boris Johnson”. In that case, who do you feel should come to see Dirty Hearts?

      The No Covid, No Brexit, No Boris is just my way of saying that if you want a break from the headlines, then this is the show for you. There has been, and will continue to be, some very good work that examines the last few years. But this is a play about conflicting values in a more universal sense, so wherever you sit on the political spectrum there will be an argument that you can relate to. If you think we need a re-evaluation of values as a society you’ll like Simon, if you think capitalism isn’t such a bad think then Ben’s your guy. Need a rational approach to decision making? Laura makes the case. And if certainty is important to you, then Julienne has it covered. 

      Dirty Hearts is a comedy about relationships, so it’s for everyone, regardless of age, background, politics. Everyone has been in love, or been through a heartbreak. If you’ve fallen in love, fallen out of love. Been torn between friends, had to make difficult moral choices, then this is a show for you. 

      What made you decide to give away that bottle of champagne? Are we still seeing difficulties in filling seats in fringe venues because of the massive ticket discounting happening at the larger venues?

      The champagne: well, the play’s above a pub so that seemed appropriate. Selling tickets is always tough, especially for a small independent production. But we have four terrific actors who you will have seen in TV shows like Harlots and The Crown and from work at places like The Almeida. There’s a fantastic director and a wonderful creative team (the set is really going to be something special) so this is a high value production, with tickets at £20 at the most, so it’s a bargain. 

      And what next for Dirty Hearts and Pine Street once this run is completed?

      The next play we’re hoping to do is Unicorn, a three hander set in a tech start-up. Dirty Hearts was only possible because of an investment in Tesla, so Elon Musk, if you’re reading this, send us a cheque for the next one.

      Thanks again to Paul for finding time to chat to us about the play. You can catch Dirty Hearts at Old Red Lion Theatre between 5 – 30 April, bookings can be made via the below link. More

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      Interview: C’mon Kids, Get Writing

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      Helen Monks and Matt Woodhead from Lung Theatre on their latest project, Unmute

      We’ve had Matt Woodhead from Lung Theatre on our podcast way back in Episode 7, when he was telling us all about the Who Cares play and campaign that emerged from it. This time around he came along with his colleague from Lung, Helen Monks.

      Not ones to sit back and take it easy, Lung are now in the midst of seeking out young writers for Unmute, a writing competition for 11 – 18 year olds. It’s a chance to write a monolgue of up to 500 words, with winning entries getting the chance to be performed live on stage as well as being published.

      Helen and Matt tell us all about how to enter the competition, how they gope to hear from voices all around the country, and just what they feel might make a great submission.

      Helen also briefly mentions The Trojan Horse Affair podcast, which looked at what really happened in Birmingham when it was alleged Islamic extremists were infiltrating the city’s schools. The podcast can be found here.

      The closing date for entries is 8 May. You can also find lots of support on how to write and submit your entries on their website here and their Twitter account here.

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      ‘CODA’ Is Being Developed Into a Stage Musical by Deaf West

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      The theater plans to work with the Oscar-nominated film’s producers to adapt the story of a teenager torn between helping her deaf family and singing.The Oscar-nominated film “CODA,” in which a hearing child of deaf parents pursues a passion for singing, is being developed into a stage musical by Deaf West Theater, a highly regarded Los Angeles-based nonprofit with a strong track record in musical theater.The project, which does not yet have a creative team or a production calendar, is a joint venture between the theater and two of the companies that produced the movie, Vendôme Pictures and Pathé Films.“CODA,” written and directed by Sian Heder, is nominated for three Academy Awards, including best picture. The film is about a high school student torn between helping her family, which runs a fishing boat, and pursuing a newfound interest in singing; she is the only hearing member of her family. (CODA is an acronym for child of deaf adult.)“‘CODA’ is unique among the entire canon of feature films in that it features us in our natural setting: among the world at large and among our own, often at home or in private settings,” DJ Kurs, the artistic director of Deaf West, wrote in an email interview. “As a Deaf person, I knew from the start that ‘CODA’ would make a perfect musical: It addresses our relationship with music and how we move through the world of sound like immigrants in a foreign country, learning new, seemingly arbitrary rules on the fly.”Deaf West, founded in 1991, is the nation’s most prominent theater focusing on what it calls “Deaf-centered storytelling,” and its productions are generally performed in both American Sign Language and spoken English by casts that include deaf and hearing artists.The theater has previously staged five musicals, including two revivals that transferred to Broadway, “Big River” in 2003 and “Spring Awakening” in 2015. Both were nominated for Tony Awards. “CODA” would be the second musical originated by the company; the first was “Sleeping Beauty Wakes” in 2007.“Professional musical theater was largely inaccessible to our community for the most part until our production of ‘Big River’ was staged in bigger houses in L.A. and N.Y.,” Kurs wrote. “Now we have musical theater aficionados within our community, and that’s a beautiful thing. I would wager that the art form of signed musical theater is still in its infancy.”10 Movies to Watch This Oscar SeasonCard 1 of 10“Belfast.” More

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      Feature: Moniker Culture celebrates Women, Art, Fashion…and NFTs.

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      This month, Moniker Culture launched an NFT art exhibition celebrating women artists and hosted at the Adidas flagship store in Oxford Street.

      As you entered, you were greeted by an array of vibrant colours, with artists creating their work on-site, and many moving installations. All four floors were utilised for the exhibition with the art work seamlessly accompanying the decor of the fashionable sportswear store. It was a real assault upon the senses – but in an intriguing way.

      The event was very busy- mostly dominated by the Zillennial/Gen Z demographic who busied themselves snapping selfies around the installations and taking the opportunity to create some art work of their own at the many creativity tables dotted around the store.

      Some notable artists/art work were:

      Mariam Omoyele: @o.a.mariamBeryl B: @berylbiliciAndrea Love:  @andreaanimatesMaliha Abidi maliha_z_art‘Brown Ochre’ by Nkosi Ndlovu‘Power in the Puff’ by Shai Digital‘Club Church’ by Jada Bruneyand the work curated by Haart: @houseofafrican

      NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) are one of the latest buzzwords of the 21st century, with anything and everything being sold as some irreplaceable one off that will eventually appreciate with time. The topic often engenders very polarising opinions, which is very understandable. It’s largely an elite few who subjectively inform the rest of the world what new, non-essential item is now considered ‘valuable’ and it’s this unadulterated, consumerist capitalism that often turns the stomach of even the most ardent art lover. The consumerism overshadows the art itself and aggressively reminds us of how divided this world is – where you can literally pass multiple homeless people en route to an exhibition where a digital image may be sold for an exorbitant amount. The juxtaposition of these extremes can be very tricky to reconcile. 

      Yet being an artist is a difficult profession. How will these women continue to do what they love without financial sustenance? And does the introduction of money, no matter the amount, automatically negate the artistic integrity?

      Beneath the lights, trainers and NFTs and at the heart of this event was the positive promotion of women artists and their work, which is the most important aspect of the whole exhibition. These artists have put their life and soul into creating work that inspires, confronts and unites its audiences. Work that pushes the envelope of a very, traditionally, male-centric industry.

      That, in my opinion, is the true non-fungible aspect of this art and it can neither be bought nor sold, yet it is truly priceless.

      To see more of the work on display at the exhibition, visit here. More

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      Debra Messing Masters Baking for ‘Birthday Candles’

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      An actress with an obsessive work ethic, Messing is learning to make a cake onstage in “Birthday Candles” on Broadway.“Birthday Candles,” the existential dramedy now in previews on Broadway, relies on a simple recipe: an eight-step process for a golden butter cake. At every performance, the actress playing Ernestine, the show’s Everywoman heroine, bakes that cake onstage, in real time.Here, in Roundabout Theater Company’s production, that actress is Debra Messing, which means that “Birthday Candles” depends on yet another recipe: Find a Hollywood star. Rehearse. Repeat.If you’re wondering whether Messing is a baker, let’s just say that when she tried out the recipe during the first wave of the pandemic, the cake exploded. She had added nearly two cups of baking powder, rather than nearly two teaspoons.“It took me two days to clean out the oven,” she recalled in an interview. “I can honestly say that the baking has become the thing that I am most nervous about.”Considering that Messing never leaves the stage, and that Ernestine ages 90 years — from 17 to 107 — in 90 breathless minutes, this is saying something.MESSING, A 53-YEAR-OLD ACTRESS who marries daffy comedy to a ramrod work ethic, was speaking on a recent afternoon in an upstairs lounge at the American Airlines Theater, where “Birthday Candles” opens April 10. She wore a purple sweater and a surgical face mask, with her famous red hair mounded on top of her head — less of a bun than an entire gâteau.John Earl Jelks, left, with Messing in the play, which opens April 10 at the American Airlines Theater.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesAs Messing tells it, she has always been hungry: “to act, to learn, to progress.” Taken to “Annie,” a musical about a spunky redhead, as a 7-year-old, she decided that acting was for her. Even then, she took her craft seriously; the following summer, she played a blind girl in a play at camp and insisted on rehearsing with her eyes closed. She walked off the stage and into the orchestra pit. It was the first of many workplace injuries to come.Messing wanted to be a musical theater performer, a triple threat. Her dancing, she said, is merely adequate, so she tops out at a double threat. After college at Brandeis and graduate school at New York University, she talked herself into a lead role on the sitcom “Ned and Stacey.” Michael J. Weithorn, the creator, hadn’t thought that she came across as Jewish enough or neurotic enough. But Messing is, by her own proud admission, both of these things.“Happy neuroticism,” said Vivienne Benesch, who is directing “Birthday Candles” and has known Messing since graduate school. (Benesch has a lot of memories from those days; one involves a unitard.)“Ned and Stacey” ran for two years. When it ended, Messing booked “Will & Grace,” a sitcom about a gay lawyer (Eric McCormack) and his best friend, a straight interior designer (Messing). Though a conventional network sitcom, “Will & Grace” was a milestone for queer representation, and it allowed Messing to refine her gift for dizzy, kinetic physical comedy.“She’s not afraid to show up and fall over things in service of the story,” McCormack said in a phone interview, as he was recovering from emergency dental surgery — but still wanted to speak about his friend.McCormack also confirmed her reputation as something of a workaholic. “That is her strong suit,” he said. “She will delve.”When the original run of “Will & Grace” ended, in 2006, Messing starred in a mini-series, “The Starter Wife,” that later came back for an additional season. In 2011, she heard about a new musical drama, “Smash,” a brainchild of the playwright Theresa Rebeck and Steven Spielberg that was planned for Showtime before it moved to NBC.“I was like, ‘I have to be part of this,’” Messing said. “I am going to be able to play a character where I watch people sing and dance all day long.”She was cast as Julia, the book writer of a Broadway-bound musical about Marilyn Monroe. Rebeck recalled being glad to have her, saying: “She’s extremely beautiful. And she’s funny. She’s fearlessly funny.” (Rebeck also said, perhaps less generously, that Messing had a lot of input in Julia’s controversial, scarf-forward wardrobe.)Despite a strong pilot, “Smash” splintered. Messing blamed the firing of Rebeck after the first season, but problems had surfaced earlier. When it ended, after two seasons, Messing went to Broadway for John Patrick Shanley’s oddball romantic comedy “Outside Mullingar.” She played a detective on “The Mysteries of Laura,” another show that didn’t last for long. Then “Will & Grace” was revived — something Messing preferred not to discuss. When it finished in 2020, after three seasons, she was ready for Broadway again.“Birthday Candles,” by Noah Haidle, premiered at the Detroit Public Theater in 2018. A year later, Roundabout, which has a long relationship with Haidle, greenlit a cold reading. Haidle requested Messing because, he said, “She’s good at acting and a very famous person.”Messing, who listens to the “Birthday Candles” script as she falls asleep, said, “Doing the work gives me peace.”Kholood Eid for The New York TimesBenesch, the director, sent the script to Messing, who read it on her bed, laughing, then crying. She arrived for the reading more prepared than anyone Haidle had ever seen. Afterward, Todd Haimes, Roundabout’s artistic director, said that he wanted the play for Broadway. But it seemed as if there were other plays contending for a slot. So, to sweeten the deal, Messing sent him a cake, with sprinkles and “Let’s Do It” written in icing.Had she baked it?“Oh, hell no,” Messing said. “I wanted him to say yes.” The next day, he did, but then the pandemic pushed opening night back a couple of years.THE PLAY, WHICH GESTURES toward modernist classics like Thornton Wilder’s “The Long Christmas Dinner,” takes place on a single set: the kitchen of a middle-class home in Grand Rapids, Mich. Ernestine enters as a teenager. “I am going to be a rebel against the universe,” she says. “Wage war with the everyday.”When the lights go down 90 minutes later, she is a great-great grandmother, reconciled to the universe. In between there are births, death, comedies, tragedies. Every scene takes place on one of her birthdays and the golden butter cake is baked continuously, without benefit of a mixer. (They’re too loud.)During the pandemic lockdown, Messing caught up on “Real Housewives” shows and attempted the ukulele. She also studied the script for “Birthday Candles.” Some parts came to her easily; she identified with the young Ernestine’s passion and expansiveness. The breakdown of the middle-aged Ernestine’s marriage, her experiences of loss — these resonated, too. But what Ernestine undergoes later is unfamiliar. “I haven’t experienced any of it yet,” Messing said.She watched YouTube videos of centenarians: studying how they moved, how they sat. She also worked with a voice coach to learn about what happens to the larynx as women age. Ernestine never leaves the stage, so there are no prosthetics or wigs. Aging, then, is effected through body and voice, plus subtle changes in hairstyle and eyewear.“I’m not 107,” Messing said. “I don’t know anyone who’s 107. So part of it is trusting that the homework will protect me and support me.”It’s working, for Haidle anyway. “Whatever she’s doing,” he said, “it’s like a magic trick.”Part of this trick: Messing listens to the script every night while she sleeps. (“So intense,” Haidle said.) This, she believes, helps her learn lines. It also makes her feel that she is doing her utmost. “Doing the work gives me peace,” she said. “I don’t know if it’s helping or not, but putting it on and falling asleep to it, I like to think that it’s getting embedded in a deeper way.”Nothing about her approach seems light. Typically, actors move through technical rehearsals casually. But during a recent one — as Messing and a co-star, Enrico Colantoni, worked through a scene — she seemed to give a full performance for each pass. She even wanted him to do a real kiss.“Kiss me,” she insisted. “Kiss me, come on.” Under her sweater, blue this time, she was wearing a pain relief patch, because hunching over as a 107-year-old, as she had done in rehearsal the day before, had put a lot of strain on her lower back.Baking has required extra preparation. It’s a science, Messing said, and science was never really her thing. It doesn’t help that each stir, crack and sprinkle is precisely timed to Ernestine’s milestone events.“The milk is the thing that really just makes me want to go to a sanitarium,” she said.But Messing has practiced — and practiced, and practiced — and she believes that by the time the play opens, she will be able to bake the cake comfortably, reliably linking each step to Ernestine’s sweet and bitter journey through life.Still, there are limits. “Frosting?” she said. “Forget it.”At home, she has finally made the cake successfully and marveled at how humble staples — butter, sugar, eggs — combine into something astonishing, a moment of transcendence wrested from the ordinary. So even though allergies and intolerances and an eating plan she adopted around the time she turned 50 mean that Messing avoids nearly all of the ingredients, she tried a bite.“I was like, This is so delicious,” she said. “I was like, Oh yeah, I get it.” More