Contest: Win Tickets to Defying Gravity

Update: The contest is now closed. Thanks to everyone who entered here and on Twitter. The winner was picked at random. Congratulations @MDinda!

Time for another contest! I'm giving away a pair of tickets to Defying Gravity: The Music of Stephen Schwartz and Eric Whitacre at Avery Fisher Hall on Sunday, March 30, at 2 p.m. Accomplished composer and conductor Eric Whitacre conducts over 250 voices in his annual concert collaboration with Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY). Stephen Schwartz (he wrote some musicals you might have heard of, like Wicked, Pippin, and Godspell) and Broadway's original Mary Poppins, Ashley Brown, guest star. Not only do I have a pair of tickets to give away, but the winner will also receive a signed poster and two reception passes for the post-concert open bar/buffet dinner which will be attended by Schwartz and Whitacre. Pretty cool, right? Thanks so much to DCINY for providing.

In order to win, leave a comment on this post or tweet me @PataphysicalSci telling me your favorite Schwartz-penned melody. If you enter on Twitter, you must be following to win. A winner will be chosen at random from all the entries on Friday, February 28, at 5 p.m. Please include your e-mail address or Twitter handle in the comments so I have a way to contact you if you win. Good luck!

The Correspondent

Ken Urban's new play, The Correspondent, now open at Rattlestick, is one of those plays that you'll probably feel the need to talk about after, trying to unravel what you saw. You will also have to suspend your disbelief quite a bit, but at least you won't be bored.

Photo credit: Joan Marcus

The play starts with a meeting between Philip Graves (Thomas Jay Ryan) and Mirabel (Heather Alicia Simms). We quickly learn that Philip's wife just died and he hired Mirabel from a service that promises to get a message to the dead through people who are dying. If you couldn't guess already, it's a scam, but things take some weird turns when Philip starts receiving letters from his dead wife. He also starts a relationship with Mirabel. And then she catches a mysterious young man (Jordan Geiger) leaving the letters. To say anything more would be revealing too much. It's impossible to care about any of the characters as they are all pretty unlikeable and creepy, though I guess you don't really need to in this type of play. It's more about keeping you guessing, and it does that well. There is some gratuitous male nudity, which I normally wouldn't complain about it, but I think nudity, like anything else, should feel warranted by the story. But no complaints from me about the excellent design work. Eric Southern's lighting and Daniel Kluger's sound take Andrew Boyce's realistic Boston apartment set and turn it from a place you'd want to live to a place of suspense and dread.

Contest: Win Tickets to Bikeman, A 9/11 Play

Update: The contest is now closed. The winner was picked at random. Congratulations dlevy!

Happy Presidents' Day! What better way to celebrate than with a ticket contest. I'm giving away a pair of tickets to Bikeman at BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center. Tom Flynn, a producer for CBS Evening News, was outside his Greenwich Village home when he witnessed the first plane hit the World Trade Center. He jumped on his bike and sped down to report the story. This play, which stars Robert Cuccioli, tells Tom's story.

In honor of Presidents' Day, for a contest entry, leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite play or musical which features a president as a major or minor character. You can also tweet about the contest or retweet one of my tweets about it (if you enter this way, you must be following on Twitter to win). You can enter once each way for a total of two entries. A winner will be chosen at random from all the entries on Thursday, February 20, at 5 p.m. Please include your e-mail address or Twitter handle in the comments so I have a way to contact you if you win. Good luck!

If you don't win tickets, you can still see the show for $39* with this special offer:
There are three ways to purchase:
1. Visit Bikeman911.com, select your tickets, go to check out, and enter code BIKERRM
2. Call 212-220-1460 and use code BIKERRM
3. Bring a printout of this offer to BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center- 199 Chambers Street

RESTRICTIONS: *Regularly $59-$79.  Offer valid on performances 1/26/14-4/20/14 only.  Restrictions and blackout dates may apply.  Offer subject to change at any time.  All phone and web orders may be subject to additional fees.  Phone hours 12PM-6PM.  Pricing not valid on previously purchased tickets.  The Producers of Bikeman proudly support the 9/11 Memorial by donating 7.5% from each ticket sold after deducting federal and admission taxes; group, credit card and automated ticket commissions; subscription fees; sums paid to theatrical union pension, health/welfare and annuity funds; and receipts from Actors’ Fund benefit performances.

Contest: Win Passes to the Dress Rehearsal of The Realistic Joneses

Update: The contest is now closed. Thanks to everyone who entered. The winner was picked at random from all the entries. Congratulations Julie!

I've done ticket contests in the past, but for the first time, I'm giving away a pair of passes to a Broadway invited dress rehearsal. It's your chance to go to an industry event and see The Realistic Joneses before anyone else. Will Eno's new play answers the question, "What do you really know about your neighbors?"

In order to win a pair of passes to the invited dress rehearsal on Wednesday, March 12 at 8 p.m., leave a comment on this post telling me who in this all-star cast (Toni Collette, Michael C. Hall, Tracy Letts, and Marisa Tomei) you're most excited to see and why. You can also tweet about the contest or retweet one of my tweets about it (if you enter this way, you must be following on Twitter to win). You can enter once each way for a total of two entries. A winner will be chosen at random from all the entries on Friday, February 14, at 5 p.m. Please include your e-mail address or Twitter handle in the comments so I have a way to contact you if you win. Good luck!

Dancing In The Dark

Dancing in light suits may be gimmicky, but it's a really cool-looking gimmick, now on display in iLuminate at New World Stages.

Photo credit: Carol Rosegg

The show, seen previously in New York under the title Artist of Light and featured on America's Got Talent, does well to combine different styles of dance, including hip hop, Latin, and lyrical, but the shoehorned story is unnecessary and sometimes hard to follow. It is about Jacob, a young artist who takes comfort in his magical paintbrush that grants him the power to bring the characters of his paintings to life. A jealous townsperson steals the paintbrush and turns his creations into monsters. I got some of that from the show, but a lot of it from the press release. It would have been just as effective if each scene was a story in itself without a through line. I also wonder if the suits (designed by John "JRock" Nelson, Grace Eddy, and Marcus Allan Cobb) keep the choreography by Miral Kotb, Nelson, Dario Mejia, Cobb, and Robert Vail from being as complicated as it could be and from letting the dancers show off their full potential. It is a shame to not be able to see the dancers' faces. But the tradeoff is the awesome tricks of light, such as robots seemingly being assembled in front of our eyes and body parts moving on their own.

An Introduction to Joe Orton

Before Loot, I had never seen a play by Joe Orton, so I am grateful to Red Bull Theater for making the introduction. Orton, considered heir to Oscar Wilde, was arrested and imprisoned for stealing and defacing library books in 1962, though he suspected it was actually for his homosexuaity. In 1967, Orton was killed by his partner Kenneth Halliwell, who then committed suicide. Loot, now playing at the Lucille Lortel Theater through February 9, shows what a gifted satirist he was.

Photo credit: Rahav Segev

The play takes place in 1965. McLeavy (Jarlath Conroy) is mourning his wife. His son Hal (Nick Westrate) and partner-in-crime Dennis (Ryan Garbayo) need a place to hide money they stole from a bank, so they stash it in Hal's mother's coffin. Meanwhile dimwitted Truscott (Rocco Sisto) comes from Scotland Yard to investigate and the nurse Fay (Rebecca Brooksher) is trying to secure McLeavy as her next husband. Directed by Jesse Berger, this production lacks energy. Orton's epigrams are still hilarious and the cast delivers them well, but the zany chaos that should be present in farce is too often missing from this production.