ARTS & CULTURE
Trodding the Boards Brian Sands bsnola2@hotmail.com
Les Misérables, or The Sun’ll Come Out Tomorrow? How much have things changed in the past two months since everything shut down? Well, depending on who you are or what you’re asking about, a lot or a little. For, as some places begin to reopen, alas for live theater, it’s turning into a hard knock life. (Hmmm...two Annie references already, more than I’ve probably made here in the past two decades. Maybe we’ll get a new deal for Christmas...if not before!) To go back a bit, the last show I saw before the shutdown was We’ll Meet Again, a tribute to the era’s blonde bombshell singers, at the WWII Museum’s Stage Door Canteen which I found to be a delightful bouquet of great songs terrifically tied together by Sean Patterson’s script and charmingly performed by Hannah Rachal (who also directed) and Bryce Slocumb. The day after that, Friday the 13th
ironically, productions began shutting down, sometimes with little warning. As I tried to juggle my schedule to squeeze in a few last shows before the inevitable stay-at-home order would go into effect, I did make it up to the North Shore to see one that, as of that afternoon, was going on that evening, but was cancelled less than two hours before curtain time. Oh well, I and a friend did have a wonderful meal at Trey Yuen. Since then, it’s been a whole new world. As theater is so ephemeral, I’d like to take this opportunity to recognize those shows whose runs were cut short; those that never opened and, sadly, had to be canceled; and those that were postponed and which we can still look forward to seeing. Runs cut short • The Complete History of Comedy (abridged), Jefferson Performing Arts Society (JPAS)
Bryce Slocumb and Hannah Rachal of We’ll Meet Again
• The Miss Firecracker Contest, Slidell Little Theatre • Peter and the Starcatcher, Rivertown Theaters (rescheduled for Aug. 6-9) • The Piano Lesson, Le Petit Theatre • Rumors, 30 by Ninety Theatre
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Canceled • Bazzar, Cirque du Soleil • Beauty and The Beast, New Orleans Ballet Theatre • The Boardinghouse, Café’ Luke • Cabaret, Loyola • Chaps!, Stage Door Canteen • Charlie Parker’s Yardbird, New Orleans Opera • The Demolition Downtown and The Chalky White Substance, Beaubourg Theatre • Dido & Aeneas, Loyola • Dina Martina’s Forgotten But Not Gone, Daniel Nardicio • Dreams, Radical Buffoons • Driving Miss Daisy, See ‘Em On Stage • Edmund Bagnell--He Plays the Violin, Mark Cortale • The Elephant Man, UNO • Evita, Summer Lyric Theatre
• Fiddler on the Roof, Saenger • Follies, concert version, Summer Lyric Theatre • God’s Favorite, Playmakers Theater • Good People, Playmakers Theater • Hedy!, Stage Door Canteen • The Juilliard String Quartet, UNO • KindHumanKind (return engagement), Goat in the Road Productions and the CAC • Legally Blonde, Summer Lyric Theatre • Moby Dick Rehearsed, 30 by Ninety Theatre • Songs That Won the War (return engagement), Stage Door Canteen • Tennessee Williams and Saints & Sinners Festival • Troilus and Cressida, N.O. Shakespeare Festival • Twelfth Night, N.O. Shakespeare Festival • Urinetown, The Musical, Tulane Postponed, with rescheduled dates when available • An American in Paris, JPAS • Anastasia, Saenger, Aug. 18-23 • Angels in America Part 1: Millen-
10 · The Official Gay Magazine of the Gulf South™: www.AmbushMag.com · May 19 – June 1, 2020 · Official Southern Decadence Guide™ · www.SouthernDecadence.com
