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One last thing: I know you guys are thinking, “Why haven’t they written anything in a while?” Well, it’s because we’ve forgotten how to write. Not only that, but we’ve got this awesome audio reproduction technology that would just go to waste if we weren’t using it on a weekly basis! Seriously, we are going to keep posting stuff here, but the show is now our main focus! So, join the thousands world-wide who experience the Inexplicable Dumb Show every Monday!

Oh yeah, you can find the show notes for Episode 56 (and beyond) right here.

Deep Fried Theatre:

• The Hippodrome

The Buzz:

• Email from Scott Hayes, Artistic Director of Summerstock at the University of Finlay
  • Scott’s Links:
  • Cheaper by the Dozen
  • Summerstock as Featured in BackStage.com
  • North Central Regional Auditions

Payin’ the Rent:

• Josh Childs
• Prism at the Belcourt Theatre, Nashville, TN
  • at the IMDB
• Netherbeast Incorporated
  • at the IMDB

The Two Shot:

• Hairspray, the Movie
  • on the IMDB

Today we visit with Bill Bowers, Mark Cabus and Kate Goodwin about their experiences at the 2007 Tennessee Governor’s School for the Arts as the five week program comes to a close!

Nominations are live for the 2007 Podcast Awards. You can find out more by going to http://www.podcastawards.com. Here’s the deal, though. The rules for nominations are pretty tight. You can only nominate us once and only for certain categories. I’m going to make it easy on our listeners and readers.

Head over to the nomination page and fill out this information:

Podcast Name: The Inexplicable Dumb Show

Podcast URL: http://www.inexplicabledumbshow.com

Make sure you ONLY nominate us for the “Best Produced” and “Cultural Arts” categories.

Thanks for your continued support!

NYC, Brooks Atkinson Theatre by way of the Old Vic, UK

May 30, 2007

I will be honest�?�my first choice for seeing a show on my day in the City was Spring Awakening. Every year, my wife and I (plus now, our little one) make a family visit to Farmingdale, NY. It�??s on Long Island for those that don�??t know and little more than a forty minute train ride to Penn Station. Consequentially, we take a trek into the city to see a show and I pay my respects to the Drama Book Shop which usually consists of me leaving with a very large bag of plays and a huge tax write off.

With the Tony�??s coming up, the entire town was buzzing about Spring Awakening that I was really stoked to see it. But as fates would have it, there was no matinee and with a little one being looked after on Long Island�?�a matinee was the only option. My wife and I went down our list of shows that we wanted to see with each of us adding our two cents to a growing mound of pros and cons. One front runner was Curtains but what if David Hyde Pierce has the day off. Another was Inherit the Wind�?�it has a powerhouse cast but my wife and I currently hail from Tennessee which automatically filled me with dread at hearing bad southern accents for two hours. Plus, let�??s be honest�?�it�??s still Inherit the Wind�?�still a courtroom drama about evolution�?�still a snooze fest.

But wait! Isn�??t there an O�??Neill play being performed. A Moon for the Misbegotten. I love O�??Neill and I feel that his plays are vastly under-represented in the American theatre cannon. To add insult to injury, there was a marker on the building of his birth denoting him as the �??greatest American playwright�??, this building now houses a Starbucks! I wonder if he was a Venti or Grande guy�?�soy, skim, or whole milk. Ah, modern conveniences!

Oddly enough this production from the �??greatest American Playwright�?? got its start in England by an ex-patriot American. The Old Vic was the birthplace of the newest production of this O�??Neill play. Success there led to it being brought over with Kevin Spacey in the forefront�?�the prodigal son returns home again. He brought along with him: Eve Best and Colm Meaney. A dreamcast if ever I heard of one.

This production takes place on a fantastic set. A lean-to shanty set against a brilliant electric blue sky which leads to a clear understanding of the dichotomy between the rich and the poor. A recurring theme that permeates the entire script. The sky symbolizes unattainable ideal life versus the shanty as the unabridged reality of life as it is and not what we wish it to be. Heaven and hell if you will, clearly displayed for us by the set design by Bob Crowley.

The costumes were greatly appropriate to the time frame and the economic level of the characters. I thought the neutral color pallet was a great counter-point to the amazingly rich colored sky back drop. The costumes were really a part of the character as opposed to simply clothes to wear. Nicely done by Lynette Mauro.

The acting was spot on in most parts but would wander into the realm of the overblown. This is due to the fact that the actors and director would not trust the audiences�?? level of intelligence to comprehend the nuances of O�??Neill�??s play. They seemed to overplay moments to the level of beating us over the head with the point of the scene. O�??Neill plays are not easy. He writes what is his version of his regional dialect. This tends to lead actors to adopt overblown accents and overblown emotional wailing and gnashing of teeth. This seems to be a common problem with producing O�??Neill plays even with very seasoned performers as is the case in this production. Sometimes the play seemed to perform the actors rather than the actors performing the play.

That being said, the strongest performance was not by Spacey, not by Best but by Colm Meaney. His performance seemed stagy in the first scene but he seemed to find his stride and maintained that level of performance throughout the afternoon. He was a joy to watch. His relationship with his daughter played by Eve Best was very touching in the second act. The relationship between Meaney and Spacey at times bordered on being a special moment in theatrical history. Colm Meaney seemed the most comfortable in his character�??s shoes than the others. For me, he stole the show.

Eve Best seemed to think that great acting comes at the cost of a great physical exertion. She seemed to be fretting about the stage with great fury but not great substance. I understand the desired affect this was to create for her character as an awkward and hard loved woman. But again this seemed to be a case of the play performing the actor rather than the actor performing the play. She is Tony nominated and I do not wish to take that away from her; however, I was a little baffled that a nomination would be granted for the performance that I saw. It was not poor, just not an award winning or nomination worthy performance in my opinion. When she would relax into the character, then she gave a masterful performance. These moments came as highlights to her performance but not a major portion of it. She had believable chemistry with Spacey.

Kevin Spacey was interesting to watch. He is definitely a crowd favorite as well as one of mine; however, he again seemed to have moments of disconnection and tended to overplay moments for a desired affect. He was funny in act 1 and a dramatic tortured soul in act 2. His performance had a very calculated feel to it. This left his performance a little flat which seemed to fuel his need to manipulate the audience by over the top gesticulations and vocal dexterity.

All in all, I am really glad to have seen this production with these actors. These stars. I am thoroughly appreciative of being able to see a top level production of an O�??Neill play even though my wife and I lowered the average age in the audience by thirty years. Just next time trust the script and trust that the audience can handle the material without it being pre-chewed and spoon fed to us.