Madonna and Rosanna Arquette remembered their Desperately Seeking Susan co-star Mark Blum today, joining a lengthy and growing roster of Hollywood and Broadway stars mourning the actor who died of complications from the coronavirus.
“I Want to Acknowledge the Passing of a remarkable Human, fellow actor and friend Mark Blum, who succumbed to Coronavirus,” Madonna posted on Instagram. “This is really tragic and my heart goes out to him, his family and his loved ones. I remember him as funny warm, loving and professional when we made Desperately Seeking Susan in 1985!! Another reminder that this virus is no joke, nothing to be casual about or pretend wont affect us in some way….we need to stay grateful -be hopeful- and follow the quarantine rules!”
“He was a wonderful actor and a very good and kind man,” tweeted Arquette, saying she was deeply saddened by “this very very hard news…”
Others recalling Blum include Marlo Thomas, Dana Delany, Mark Hamill, Judith Light, Josh Radnor and Cynthia Nixon, among many more.
Read the remembrances below.
In addition to starring on stage, in films and on television, Blum was a sought-after acting teacher with New York’s Hb Studio. His generosity with younger co-stars was noted by both Topher Grace and James Van Der Beek.
Van Der Beek, who appeared with Blum in the 1997 Off Broadway production of Nicky Silver’s comedy My Marriage to Ernest Borgnine, recalled the late actor as “generous and kind,” noting “I learned so much from him about how to be a professional – lessons that got me through the insanity that was to come.” Van Der Beek recalls a particular act of kindness Blum showed to one of their co-stars.
One of our family of Mozart in the Jungle passed this morning from the corona virus. Mark Blum was a truly wonderful actor, but more importantly, was a funny sensitive, and beautiful man. Rip. – Malcolm pic.twitter.com/fapOBe6WYp
— Malcolm McDowell (@McDowellMalc) March 26, 2020
It is clear, we will all lose people we know and love. Sweet dreams friend… https://t.co/OWo24SJJHU
— Ron Perlman (@perlmutations) March 26, 2020
So sad to say goodbye to my dear friend, Mark Blum. Will miss him forever. A very good man.
— Brent Spiner (@BrentSpiner) March 26, 2020
8 years ago Mark Blum played my deadbeat dad in the play Lonely, I’m Not, but he was the complete opposite in real life – generous, patient, funny. I was terrified to do live theater for the first time and he was as much a great teacher (mostly by example)… pic.twitter.com/ZJYmmHkkYC
— Topher Grace (@TopherGrace) March 26, 2020
My thoughts are with his incredible wife Janet.
— Topher Grace (@TopherGrace) March 26, 2020
View this post on Instagram
I Want to Acknowledge the Passing of a remarkable Human, fellow actor and friend Mark Blum, who succumbed to Coronavirus. This is really tragic and my heart goes out to him, his family and his loved ones. I remember him as funny warm, loving .and professional when we made Desperately Seeking Susan in 1985!! Another reminder that this virus is no joke, nothing to be casual about or pretend wont affect us in some way. ♥️ we need to stay grateful -be hopeful- help each other-and follow the quarantine rules! #covid_19 #markblum #desperatelyseekingsusan
A post shared by Madonna (@madonna) on Mar 26, 2020 at 12:58pm Pdt
Sharon Waxman informed me of this very very hard news today I’m so deeply sad for his family and for his fans. he was a wonderful actor and a very good and kind man. May you Rest In Peace and power mark. God bless you. https://t.co/r0QUGEYwVK
— Rosanna Arquette...
“I Want to Acknowledge the Passing of a remarkable Human, fellow actor and friend Mark Blum, who succumbed to Coronavirus,” Madonna posted on Instagram. “This is really tragic and my heart goes out to him, his family and his loved ones. I remember him as funny warm, loving and professional when we made Desperately Seeking Susan in 1985!! Another reminder that this virus is no joke, nothing to be casual about or pretend wont affect us in some way….we need to stay grateful -be hopeful- and follow the quarantine rules!”
“He was a wonderful actor and a very good and kind man,” tweeted Arquette, saying she was deeply saddened by “this very very hard news…”
Others recalling Blum include Marlo Thomas, Dana Delany, Mark Hamill, Judith Light, Josh Radnor and Cynthia Nixon, among many more.
Read the remembrances below.
In addition to starring on stage, in films and on television, Blum was a sought-after acting teacher with New York’s Hb Studio. His generosity with younger co-stars was noted by both Topher Grace and James Van Der Beek.
Van Der Beek, who appeared with Blum in the 1997 Off Broadway production of Nicky Silver’s comedy My Marriage to Ernest Borgnine, recalled the late actor as “generous and kind,” noting “I learned so much from him about how to be a professional – lessons that got me through the insanity that was to come.” Van Der Beek recalls a particular act of kindness Blum showed to one of their co-stars.
One of our family of Mozart in the Jungle passed this morning from the corona virus. Mark Blum was a truly wonderful actor, but more importantly, was a funny sensitive, and beautiful man. Rip. – Malcolm pic.twitter.com/fapOBe6WYp
— Malcolm McDowell (@McDowellMalc) March 26, 2020
It is clear, we will all lose people we know and love. Sweet dreams friend… https://t.co/OWo24SJJHU
— Ron Perlman (@perlmutations) March 26, 2020
So sad to say goodbye to my dear friend, Mark Blum. Will miss him forever. A very good man.
— Brent Spiner (@BrentSpiner) March 26, 2020
8 years ago Mark Blum played my deadbeat dad in the play Lonely, I’m Not, but he was the complete opposite in real life – generous, patient, funny. I was terrified to do live theater for the first time and he was as much a great teacher (mostly by example)… pic.twitter.com/ZJYmmHkkYC
— Topher Grace (@TopherGrace) March 26, 2020
My thoughts are with his incredible wife Janet.
— Topher Grace (@TopherGrace) March 26, 2020
View this post on Instagram
I Want to Acknowledge the Passing of a remarkable Human, fellow actor and friend Mark Blum, who succumbed to Coronavirus. This is really tragic and my heart goes out to him, his family and his loved ones. I remember him as funny warm, loving .and professional when we made Desperately Seeking Susan in 1985!! Another reminder that this virus is no joke, nothing to be casual about or pretend wont affect us in some way. ♥️ we need to stay grateful -be hopeful- help each other-and follow the quarantine rules! #covid_19 #markblum #desperatelyseekingsusan
A post shared by Madonna (@madonna) on Mar 26, 2020 at 12:58pm Pdt
Sharon Waxman informed me of this very very hard news today I’m so deeply sad for his family and for his fans. he was a wonderful actor and a very good and kind man. May you Rest In Peace and power mark. God bless you. https://t.co/r0QUGEYwVK
— Rosanna Arquette...
- 3/26/2020
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Phyllis Newman, known for her Tony Award-winning role as the bath towel-clad Martha Vail in the musical Subways Are for Sleeping, has died. The star of stage and screen was 86.
The news was announced by her son Adam Green, a theater critic for Vogue, via Twitter. “My sister @amanda_green and I had to say goodbye to our beautiful mother today,” he tweeted. “I’ll miss her more than I can say.”
In addition to Subways Are for Sleeping, Newman appeared in numerous Broadway productions including Bells Are Ringing, The Apple Tree, On the Town, The Prisoner of Second Avenue, Awake and Sing, Wish You Were Here and First Impressions. She also had her one-woman musical The Madwoman of Central Park West which was co-written by her and Arthur Laurents. She also received a Tony nom for her performance in Neil Simon’s Broadway Bound.
She received a Drama Desk...
The news was announced by her son Adam Green, a theater critic for Vogue, via Twitter. “My sister @amanda_green and I had to say goodbye to our beautiful mother today,” he tweeted. “I’ll miss her more than I can say.”
In addition to Subways Are for Sleeping, Newman appeared in numerous Broadway productions including Bells Are Ringing, The Apple Tree, On the Town, The Prisoner of Second Avenue, Awake and Sing, Wish You Were Here and First Impressions. She also had her one-woman musical The Madwoman of Central Park West which was co-written by her and Arthur Laurents. She also received a Tony nom for her performance in Neil Simon’s Broadway Bound.
She received a Drama Desk...
- 9/16/2019
- by Dino-Ray Ramos
- Deadline Film + TV
Veteran press agents Jim Byk and Shane Marshall Brown are launching a new theatrical and entertainment publicity office, the duo announced to Deadline today. The new company will be called The Press Room.
Publicist Kelly Guiod will serve as vice president.
Both Byk and Brown move from Sam Rudy Media Relations; Brown, a senior press agent there, will work concurrently with Rudy and The Press Room before pivoting to the new company full time in 2019.
Clients to be represented by The Press Room include this season’s Broadway productions of Kenneth Lonergan’s The Waverly Gallery; King Lear starring Glenda Jackson; the world premiere of Gloria: A Life; and The Book of Mormon.
Also repped by The Press Room: The Royal Opera House’s Cinema Series for Trafalgar Releasing; Shakespeare’s Globe; Michael Morpurgo’s Private Peaceful; the world premiere of Jessica Dickey’s The Convent; New York Classical Theatre...
Publicist Kelly Guiod will serve as vice president.
Both Byk and Brown move from Sam Rudy Media Relations; Brown, a senior press agent there, will work concurrently with Rudy and The Press Room before pivoting to the new company full time in 2019.
Clients to be represented by The Press Room include this season’s Broadway productions of Kenneth Lonergan’s The Waverly Gallery; King Lear starring Glenda Jackson; the world premiere of Gloria: A Life; and The Book of Mormon.
Also repped by The Press Room: The Royal Opera House’s Cinema Series for Trafalgar Releasing; Shakespeare’s Globe; Michael Morpurgo’s Private Peaceful; the world premiere of Jessica Dickey’s The Convent; New York Classical Theatre...
- 10/1/2018
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
"I'm the end of the line," Arthur Miller once asserted. "Absurd and appalling as it may seem, serious New York theater has died in my lifetime."
Many might argue otherwise. In fact, the best proof that theatre is still alive and kicking is Focus on Playwrights, the new coffee-table book, the cover of which showcases the life-crinkled face that once overlooked the birth of A View from the Bridge, All My Sons, and The Crucible. Yes, photographer Susan Johann’s scintillating collection of over 90 playwrights, whom she’s shot over 20 years -- and the inclusion of sharply revealing interviews with some of the same, is the best retort to anyone ready to cremate modern drama.
Some of those captured for publications such as Vogue and the New Yorker are now deceased (e.g. August Wilson, Edward Albee, and Joe Chaikin) while others are very much functioning (e.g. David Henry Hwang,...
Many might argue otherwise. In fact, the best proof that theatre is still alive and kicking is Focus on Playwrights, the new coffee-table book, the cover of which showcases the life-crinkled face that once overlooked the birth of A View from the Bridge, All My Sons, and The Crucible. Yes, photographer Susan Johann’s scintillating collection of over 90 playwrights, whom she’s shot over 20 years -- and the inclusion of sharply revealing interviews with some of the same, is the best retort to anyone ready to cremate modern drama.
Some of those captured for publications such as Vogue and the New Yorker are now deceased (e.g. August Wilson, Edward Albee, and Joe Chaikin) while others are very much functioning (e.g. David Henry Hwang,...
- 1/20/2017
- by Brandon Judell
- www.culturecatch.com
Vineyard Theatre's production of Nicky Silver's play This Day Forward, opening the Vineyard Theatre's 2016-2017 season began performances Thursday, November 3 and will open on Monday, November 21. This Day Forward features Andrew Burnap Troilus And Cressida, Michael Crane Vineyard's Gloria and 'People of Earth', Holley Fain 'Grey's Anatomy', Francesca Faridany The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, Tony Award nominee June Gable Candide, 'Friends' and Joe Tippett Airline Highway. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below...
- 11/15/2016
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
Vineyard Theatre will soon present Nicky Silver's play This Day Forward, opening the Vineyard Theatre's 2016-2017 season. This Day Forward will feature Andrew Burnap Troilus And Cressida, Michael Crane Vineyard's Gloria, Holley Fain 'Grey's Anatomy', Francesca Faridany The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, Tony Award nominee June Gable Candide, 'Friends' and Joe Tippett Airline Highway.
- 10/5/2016
- by Walter McBride
- BroadwayWorld.com
A new musical by John Kander and Gregory Pierce, Kid Victory, along with the new plays This Day Forward by Nicky Silver and Can You Forgive Her by Gina Gionfriddo, will be produced by the Vineyard Theatre during the 2016-2017 season, it has been announced by the company's Artistic Directors, Douglas Aibel and Sarah Stern. Vineyard Theatre is located at 108 E. 15 St. in New York City.
- 4/15/2016
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
Jim Caruso and Billy Stritch have become known as 'The Entertainer's Entertainers,' thanks in part to their long-running Sunday night residency at Bemelmans Bar at The Carlyle Hotel. The musical duo has been joined at the grand piano by Bono, Liza Minnelli and Michael Feinstein, among many others. This past Sunday night's show was a parade of theatrical types, including Linda Lavin, currently starring in Nicky Silver's Too Much Sun, who belted a torch song. Scroll down for photos from the concert...
- 5/27/2014
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
Too Much Sun - the newest play by Nicky Silver - plays through June 22 at the Vineyard Theatre108 E. 15 St.. Mark Brokaw directs the cast starring the Tony Award-winning actress Linda LavinBROADWAY Bound, 'Alice', joined by Ken Barnett Wonderful Town, And Baby Makes Seven, Richard Bekins Tartuffe, Love Valor Compassion, Matt Dellapina Outside People, Dream Of The Burning Boy, Matt Dickson War Horse, Coast Of Utopia andJennifer Westfeldt The Library, Kissing Jessica Stein. BroadwayWorld brings you a first look at the cast in action below...
- 5/19/2014
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
Too Much Sun - the newest play by Nicky Silver - plays through June 22 at the Vineyard Theatre108 E. 15 St.. Mark Brokaw directs the cast starring the Tony Award-winning actress Linda LavinBROADWAY Bound, 'Alice', joined by Ken Barnett Wonderful Town, And Baby Makes Seven, Richard Bekins Tartuffe, Love Valor Compassion, Matt Dellapina Outside People, Dream Of The Burning Boy, Matt Dickson War Horse, Coast Of Utopia and Jennifer Westfeldt The Library, Kissing Jessica Stein. BroadwayWorld brings you photos from the opening night after party below...
- 5/19/2014
- by Walter McBride
- BroadwayWorld.com
Too Much Sun - the newest play by Nicky Silver - plays through June 22 at the Vineyard Theatre108 E. 15 St.. Mark Brokaw directs the cast starring the Tony Award-winning actress Linda LavinBROADWAY Bound, 'Alice', joined by Ken Barnett Wonderful Town, And Baby Makes Seven, Richard Bekins Tartuffe, Love Valor Compassion, Matt Dellapina Outside People, Dream Of The Burning Boy, Matt Dickson War Horse, Coast Of Utopia andJennifer Westfeldt The Library, Kissing Jessica Stein. BroadwayWorld brings you photos from the opening night theatre arrivals below...
- 5/19/2014
- by Walter McBride
- BroadwayWorld.com
Too Much Sun - the newest play by Nicky Silver - plays through June 22 at the Vineyard Theatre 108 E. 15 St.. Mark Brokaw directs the cast starring the Tony Award-winning actress Linda Lavin Broadway Bound, 'Alice', joined by Ken Barnett Wonderful Town, And Baby Makes Seven, Richard Bekins Tartuffe, Love Valor Compassion, Matt Dellapina Outside People, Dream Of The Burning Boy, Matt Dickson War Horse, Coast Of Utopia and Jennifer Westfeldt The Library, Kissing Jessica Stein. BroadwayWorld brings you photos from the opening night curtain call below...
- 5/19/2014
- by Walter McBride
- BroadwayWorld.com
Euripides wasn’t much of a yock-meister, but his Medea is getting most of the laughs in Nicky Silver’s new supposed-to-be-a-comedy, Too Much Sun. Now at the Vineyard in a grim production directed by Mark Brokaw, it stars the resourceful Linda Lavin as Audrey Langham, a theatuh actress of a certain age and (self-)regard, who, after a life spent playing “Miss Hannigan in January, Mother Courage in the spring,” finally loses it during tech rehearsals in Chicago for her turn as the filicidal princess. Medea’s rage is as nothing compared to Audrey’s; she turns on the director (“Every idea that comes out of your head is crap!”), the costume designer (“What the hell am I wearing!? Am I waiting for the Mardi Gras parade to pass?”), and finally herself for having wasted years “saying words that aren’t mine in imaginary rooms.” Off she storms, leaving...
- 5/19/2014
- by Jesse Green
- Vulture
Too Much Sun - the newest play by Nicky Silver - will be given its world-premiere production this spring at the Vineyard Theatre 108 E. 15 St. starring the Tony Award-winning actress Linda Lavin, joined by Ken Barnett, Richard Bekins, Matt Dellapina, Matt Dickson andJennifer Westfeldt, it has been announced by Douglas Aibel, The Vineyard's Artistic Director, and Sarah Stern, Co-Artistic Director.Mark Brokaw directs the production, scheduled to begin previews May 1 prior to an official opening night on May 18. The cast just met the press and you can check out full photo coverage below...
- 4/2/2014
- by Walter McBride
- BroadwayWorld.com
Too Much Sun - the newest play by Nicky Silver - will be given its world-premiere production this spring at the Vineyard Theatre 108 E. 15 St. starring the Tony Award-winning actress Linda Lavin, joined by Ken Barnett, Richard Bekins, Matt Dellapina, Matt Dickson andJennifer Westfeldt, it has been announced by Douglas Aibel, The Vineyard's Artistic Director, and Sarah Stern, Co-Artistic Director. Mark Brokaw directs the production, scheduled to begin previews May 1 prior to an official opening night on May 18. The cast just met the press and you can check out a photo preview below...
- 4/1/2014
- by Walter McBride
- BroadwayWorld.com
The Tony Award-winning actress Linda Lavin will return to the Vineyard Theatre 108 E. 15 St. - where she created the role of Rita Lyons in Nicky Silver's acclaimed comedy The Lyons in 2012 - in Mr. Silver's newest work, Too Much Sun, with previews set to begin May 1, 2014 prior to an official opening on May 20. Mark Brokaw, who directed The Lyons - including the play's recent celebrated debut in London - directs Too Much Sun.
- 12/10/2013
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
Vineyard Theatre continues its series of one-night-only readings of notable plays from its acclaimed history in celebration of the companys 30th Anniversary with Nicky Silver's award winning 1993 hit Pterodactyls. An absurdist black comedy about the demise of the Duncan family, and, by extension, the species, Pterodactyls will feature Emmy Award-winner Penny Fuller The Dinner Party, Applause as Duncan family matriarch, Grace Tony-nominee Bobby Steggert Ragtime as son, Todd Virginia Kull The Heiress as daughter, Emma and Claybourne Elder Bonnie amp Clyde as Emma's fianc Tommy the role of family patriarch, Arthur, is Tbd. Pterodactyls will be performed on Monday, December 10, 2012 at 7 Pm at The Vineyard 108 E. 15 St., between Irving Place and Union Square East. Tickets are priced at 75 which includes a pre-show toast in The Vineyard lobby and are available by calling The Vineyard box office at 212-353-0303, or online at www.vineyardtheatre.org. Proceeds from the reading...
- 12/3/2012
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
Charlie Hofheimer is set to join the cast of Nicky Silver's new comedy The Lyons on Broadway at the Cort Theatre 138 W. 48 St. starting tomorrow, June 12. Mr. Hofheimer assumes the role of Curtis Lyons, joining the cast of The Lyons which stars 2012 Best Actress Tony nominee Linda Lavin, Dick Latessa, Kate Jennings Grant, Brenda Pressley and Gregory Wooddell. Mr. Hofheimer takes over the role of Curtis from Michael Esper.
- 6/11/2012
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
Linda Lavin is having a resurgence of late. After moving to North Carolina a few years ago, she is the toast of New York again. Her caustic performance as the monstrous mother Rita in Nicky Silver's "The Lyons," which played Off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre earlier this season and is now at the Cort on Broadway, has brought her a Tony nomination and an Obie Award. (She previously won a Tony for "Broadway Bound" in 1987.) She took the role after appearing in earlier versions of two other productions, which are in current Tony contention as well: "Other Desert Cities" and "Follies." Back Stage chatted with Lavin at this year's Drama Desk Awards and asked her suggestions for new performers.What advice do you have for actors starting out?Linda Lavin: You know, I don't give advice. I share my experience with people. I share my hope and my story.
- 6/5/2012
- by help@backstage.com (David Sheward)
- backstage.com
BroadwayWorld's Richard Ridge brings you interviews with the stars in attendance at the 78th Annual Drama League Awards luncheon, held yesterday, May 18. Below, Ridge speaks with co-hosts John Larouquette and Stockard Channing, presenter Donna Murphy, honorary co-chairs Cynthia Nixon and Judith Light, nominees Audra McDonald and Norm Lewis The Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, Linda Lavin The Lyons, Nicky Silver The Lyons, Russell Harvard Tribes, Da'Vine Joy Randolph Ghost, Cristin Milioti Once, Matthew Broderick and Kelli O'Hara and Joe Dipietro Nick Work If You Can Get It and more...
- 5/21/2012
- by BroadwayWorld TV
- BroadwayWorld.com
On her nights off from The Lyons on Broadway, Linda Lavin - the Tony-nominated star of Nicky Silver's comedy - performs two concerts at the Metropolitan Room 34 W. 22 St. in Manhattan last night, May 6, and tonight, May 7, both at 930 p.m. View photos from last night's concert below - with visits from Tommy Tune, Diane Sawyer, Stockard Channing and more...
- 5/7/2012
- by Stephen Sorokoff
- BroadwayWorld.com
In this taut play, a man is on his deathbed while his wife anticipates his demise. Their adult children have a vicious fight. The son gets beaten badly and the daughter falls off the wagon.
"The Lyons" is a comedy.
And an insightful, truly excellent one.
Linda Lavin ("Alice") is Rita, a savvy woman who leafs through "House Beautiful," looking for decorating tips and chatting to her husband. She reels off old stories about neighbors until he explodes. "What the f*** are you talking about?" Ben (Dick Latessa, Broadway's "Hairspray" TV's "The Good Wife") screams in his opening line.
Unflappable, Rita explains she must redo their tacky living room where the "chairs are the color of disgust and the carpet is matted down with resignation."
When Ben says, "I'm dying, Rita," she responds, "I know, but try to be positive."
Playwright Nicky Silver delivers one perfect line after another. When...
"The Lyons" is a comedy.
And an insightful, truly excellent one.
Linda Lavin ("Alice") is Rita, a savvy woman who leafs through "House Beautiful," looking for decorating tips and chatting to her husband. She reels off old stories about neighbors until he explodes. "What the f*** are you talking about?" Ben (Dick Latessa, Broadway's "Hairspray" TV's "The Good Wife") screams in his opening line.
Unflappable, Rita explains she must redo their tacky living room where the "chairs are the color of disgust and the carpet is matted down with resignation."
When Ben says, "I'm dying, Rita," she responds, "I know, but try to be positive."
Playwright Nicky Silver delivers one perfect line after another. When...
- 4/28/2012
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Pop2it
There was a mad crush of premieres this week on Broadway — seven in all, vying to open just under the eligibility wire for this June’s Tony Awards. (Nominations will be announced Tuesday, May 1.) It’s been a surprisingly deep year in each of the four major categories (play, play revival, musical, musical revival).
• A Streetcar Named Desire Despite the occasional jarring moments in director Emily Mann’s revival of Tennessee Williams’ drama — which features TV stars Blair Underwood (The Event) as Stanley and Nicole Ari Parker (Soul Food) as Blanche DuBois — EW critic Lisa Schwarzbaum found the production “still...
• A Streetcar Named Desire Despite the occasional jarring moments in director Emily Mann’s revival of Tennessee Williams’ drama — which features TV stars Blair Underwood (The Event) as Stanley and Nicole Ari Parker (Soul Food) as Blanche DuBois — EW critic Lisa Schwarzbaum found the production “still...
- 4/28/2012
- by Thom Geier
- EW.com - PopWatch
By Samuel Negin
Nicky Silver‘s newest play, The Lyons, has opened on Broadway and the reviews are fantastic. This is one of the better reviewed plays of the year and Linda Lavin has gotten strongest reviews of any actress this season. This play may knock off one of my previously predicted Best Play nominees. Linda Lavin will certainly get a Best Actress nomination and Dick Latessa, who plays Lavin’s husband, may get a Best Actor nomination (though he may be in the Best Featured Actor category, so I’m not sure how best to judge his odds).
Click to read more…...
Nicky Silver‘s newest play, The Lyons, has opened on Broadway and the reviews are fantastic. This is one of the better reviewed plays of the year and Linda Lavin has gotten strongest reviews of any actress this season. This play may knock off one of my previously predicted Best Play nominees. Linda Lavin will certainly get a Best Actress nomination and Dick Latessa, who plays Lavin’s husband, may get a Best Actor nomination (though he may be in the Best Featured Actor category, so I’m not sure how best to judge his odds).
Click to read more…...
- 4/26/2012
- by Kailyn Corrigan
- Scott Feinberg
The Lyons Cort Theatre, NY
Despite solid performances from Linda Lavin and Dick Latessa, The Lyons is a lost cause before the curtain closes on the first act, and there's no improvement thereafter. A fumbling and confused script by Nicky Silver is the production's greatest weakness, but some forced and postured performances don't help matters.
Linda Lavin is a powerful and commanding presence with the sexiness of a confident, mature woman. She possesses a firm grasp of sadistic humor, getting laughs with facial expressions and eye movements alone, and her first scene with Dick Latessa would have you think that you were in for an enjoyable dark comedy. Lavin and Latessa have a twisted chemistry and establish a comic rhythm that the production's other players are never quite able to jump into. Latessa attaches himself to his hospital bed with more than an IV, creating a believable deathbed atmosphere without...
Despite solid performances from Linda Lavin and Dick Latessa, The Lyons is a lost cause before the curtain closes on the first act, and there's no improvement thereafter. A fumbling and confused script by Nicky Silver is the production's greatest weakness, but some forced and postured performances don't help matters.
Linda Lavin is a powerful and commanding presence with the sexiness of a confident, mature woman. She possesses a firm grasp of sadistic humor, getting laughs with facial expressions and eye movements alone, and her first scene with Dick Latessa would have you think that you were in for an enjoyable dark comedy. Lavin and Latessa have a twisted chemistry and establish a comic rhythm that the production's other players are never quite able to jump into. Latessa attaches himself to his hospital bed with more than an IV, creating a believable deathbed atmosphere without...
- 4/25/2012
- by C. Jefferson Thom
- www.culturecatch.com
Nicky Silver’s debut on Broadway is also a return to form: The Lyons — his jet-black comedy of ineradicable self-interest and families wired to explode, or just corrode — resembles his nineties showpieces of towering pessimism and contempt. True, no one engages in literal cannibalism (à la Fat Men in Skirts) or deliberately infects his insufferable family with AIDS (Pterodactyls), but the old, bold, cold Silver style is very much in evidence. (The badinage is the whole point: I won’t give away any here.) I stand by most of what I said when the show opened Off Broadway last fall: Linda Lavin has not just maintained but magnified the vivid grotesque that is Rita Lyons, nerveless and gimlet-eyed matriarch of a rapidly disintegrating clan of neurotics, wife to dying, cantankerous Ben (Dick Latessa), mother to brittle, divorced Lisa (Kate Jennings Grant) and “creepy” — his father’s description — Curtis (Michael...
- 4/24/2012
- by Scott Brown
- Vulture
New York – Linda Lavin surprised theater pundits at the start of the season by turning down plum featured roles she had originated in not one but two productions transferring to Broadway, Other Desert Cities and Follies. Instead, she opted to do Nicky Silver’s corrosive comedy The Lyons at Off Broadway’s Vineyard Theatre. The tart yet unexpectedly compassionate slice of familial dysfunction has now moved uptown with its impeccable six-member ensemble intact, and Lavin’s exceptional performance as the brittle matriarch of this messed-up clan removes any doubt that she made the right choice. Story: Neil Patrick Harris to
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- 4/24/2012
- by David Rooney
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Over the course of the last decade, and more than a few quirky roles, Michael Esper has always been The Other Guy. In Itamar Moses’ “The Four of Us,” he’s the friend who didn’t get to enjoy a flourishing publishing career. And in “American Idiot,” he’s Will, the guy who stays behind in Jingletown, USA, while his friends go off to experience life’s ups and downs elsewhere. But with his searing performance in the acclaimed “The Lyons,” it’s fair to say to say that Esper has graduated to playing That Guy. And That Guy’s big moment may have finally arrived.“The Lyons,” written by Nicky Silver and directed by Mark Brokaw, is a barbed look at a dysfunctional family facing the imminent death of its patriarch, Ben. All of the characters are at a crossroads of some sort, but perhaps none more so than Ben’s son Curtis,...
- 4/17/2012
- by help@backstage.com (Doug Strassler)
- backstage.com
Nicky Silver's play The Lyons -- a critical and popular success when it debuted last fall at Vineyard Theatre -- will transfer to Broadway's Cort Theatre 138 W. 48 St. with its entire original cast expected to be inteact, including the Tony Award-winning stars Linda Lavin and Dick Latessa, along with Kate Jennings Grant, Brenda Pressley and Gregory Wooddell. Michael Esper is in negotionations to return as well. The Vineyard Theatre production of The Lyons will be presented on Broadway by producer Kathleen K. Johnson. Mark Brokaw directs.
- 3/1/2012
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
By Samuel Negin
The Lyons, a new play by Nicky Silver, will be coming to Broadway. The play has been playing off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre and will be coming to the Cort Theatre this spring. The press announcement has stated that Linda Lavin and Dick Latessa will move with the show, and that Michael Esper, Kate Jennings Grant, Brenda Pressley and Gregory Wooddell, who also appeared in the off-Broadway incarnation, are expected to transfer with the show, as well. The play, directed by Mark Brokaw, is scheduled to open on April 26th, just in time to be eligible for the 2012 Tony Awards.
Click to read more…...
The Lyons, a new play by Nicky Silver, will be coming to Broadway. The play has been playing off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre and will be coming to the Cort Theatre this spring. The press announcement has stated that Linda Lavin and Dick Latessa will move with the show, and that Michael Esper, Kate Jennings Grant, Brenda Pressley and Gregory Wooddell, who also appeared in the off-Broadway incarnation, are expected to transfer with the show, as well. The play, directed by Mark Brokaw, is scheduled to open on April 26th, just in time to be eligible for the 2012 Tony Awards.
Click to read more…...
- 2/23/2012
- by Scott Feinberg
- Scott Feinberg
This week’s biggest opening — and best EW review — may belong to the Samuel L. Jackson/Angela Bassett two-hander The Mountaintop, but our critics also saw four other productions in New York and California. Read the highlights from all five reviews below (click on the bolded title for the full write-ups).
Man and Boy: Correspondent Keith Staskiewicz was captivated by Frank Langella’s “towering performance” as a ruthless financier whose crumbling empire forces him to reconcile with his son in this Depression-set Broadway revival. The play itself however, didn’t fully please. “These two characters’ relationship feels underdeveloped,” he writes,...
Man and Boy: Correspondent Keith Staskiewicz was captivated by Frank Langella’s “towering performance” as a ruthless financier whose crumbling empire forces him to reconcile with his son in this Depression-set Broadway revival. The play itself however, didn’t fully please. “These two characters’ relationship feels underdeveloped,” he writes,...
- 10/14/2011
- by Aubry D'Arminio
- EW.com - PopWatch
New York -- The Jewish mother. She's been a fixture of our pop culture ever since, well, it feels like biblical times.
There's the good kind: Stubborn, loyal, thinks her kids are the best thing since a nice sliced pumpernickel – and will make damned sure everyone else thinks so, too.
And there's the bad kind: to wit, Rita Lyons, in Nicky Silver's new play "The Lyons," a character played with such dexterity, humor and spot-on timing by the wonderful Linda Lavin that you nearly forget the pain she's inflicting at every turn.
Her kids the best thing since sliced bread? Pfft. Rita tells her daughter she might want to get her little boy tested, because he seems, well, retarded.
"Just moderately," says the loving grandma. "It's not a criticism."
Even worse for a Jewish mother, she tells her son, a writer of short stories, that he lacks talent. "You've...
There's the good kind: Stubborn, loyal, thinks her kids are the best thing since a nice sliced pumpernickel – and will make damned sure everyone else thinks so, too.
And there's the bad kind: to wit, Rita Lyons, in Nicky Silver's new play "The Lyons," a character played with such dexterity, humor and spot-on timing by the wonderful Linda Lavin that you nearly forget the pain she's inflicting at every turn.
Her kids the best thing since sliced bread? Pfft. Rita tells her daughter she might want to get her little boy tested, because he seems, well, retarded.
"Just moderately," says the loving grandma. "It's not a criticism."
Even worse for a Jewish mother, she tells her son, a writer of short stories, that he lacks talent. "You've...
- 10/12/2011
- by AP
- Huffington Post
Rachel Griffiths, most recently of ABC’s just-canceled Brothers and Sisters, will make her Broadway debut this fall in the Jon Robin Baitz drama Other Desert Cities. The Australian actress will be stepping into a role first created by stage vet Elizabeth Marvel in an Off Broadway production of the show at Lincoln Center Theatre earlier this year. Griffiths will play Brooke Wyeth, the daughter of a once-prominent Republican bigwig who returns to her parents’ home in Palm Springs for the holidays with news of a planned tell-all memoir about the family. Awkward silences, loud outbursts, and shocking revelations naturally ensue.
- 7/21/2011
- by Thom Geier
- EW.com - PopWatch
Maintaining truthfulness and avoiding stereotypes are the major challenges when playing racial, ethnic, and sexual minorities.Consider the daunting task that Tamer Aziz faces in tackling a character who is gay, Iranian, and Muslim in Jay Paul Deratany's fact-based play "Haram Iran" (now at the Celebration Theatre in Hollywood). Or the issues that black actors deal with in enacting a brutal racist episode within the context of a minstrel show in John Kander and Fred Ebb's musical "The Scottsboro Boys" (currently at New York's Vineyard Theatre). Justin Huen also has his work cut out for him playing Oedipus in Luis Alfaro's play "Oedipus el Rey," a retelling of Sophocles' tragedy set in a Los Angeles barrio (playing the Theatre @ Boston Court in Pasadena, Calif.). Jennifer Lim grapples with a fully assimilated and not very sensitive Asian American in Lauren Yee's satire "Ching Chong Chinaman" (now at New York's...
- 3/31/2010
- backstage.com
The Evolution Theatre Company (Etc) has joined the Columbus Association for the Performing Arts (Capa) as a resident arts group. As such, future Etc productions will be presented in Capa theatres beginning with the 2009-10 season opener, The Agony and the Agony. The Ohio premiere of Nicky Silver's dark comedy about life in the theatre will appear in Studio One of the Riffe Center Theatre Complex September 30 - October 17.
- 10/17/2009
- BroadwayWorld.com
InProximity Theatre Company is proud to present The Maiden's Prayer by Nicky Silver (Beautiful Child, Pterodactyls, The Eros Trilogy, Raised in Captivity, The Food Chain, Fat Men in Skirts, Fit to be Tied, The Maiden's Prayer, Free Will & Wanton, My Marriage to Ernest Borgnine, The Altruists and The Agony & The Agony), directed by Terry Berliner; Starring Jonathan Todd Ross, Jolie Curtsinger, Laurie Schaefer, Josh Clayton, and Ari Rossen.
- 9/10/2009
- BroadwayWorld.com
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