NYCPlaywrights May 24, 2025
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NYCPlaywrights
May 24, 2025, 5:05:11 PMMay 24
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Greetings NYCPlaywrights
*** FREE THEATER IN NYC ***
Hudson Classical Theater Company presents William Shakespeare's JULIUS CAESAR
Julius Caesar runs May 29 - June 22. All shows are Thursdays to Sundays at 6:30pm. No reservations--arrive by 6:15pm for a good seat. Cushions provided. Hudson Classical Theater Company Shows are “Pay What You Can.” Audience donations help pay for artists stipends and production costs.
Directions to The Soldiers’ & Sailors’ Monument:
Subways: Take the 1 to West 86 or West 96, or take the 2 to West 96. Walk west towards Riverside Park. You can enter the park at West 89th street or take the entrance at West 91st Street. You will see the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument. Take the path to the right of the monument (not the one closest to the river). Walk around the path and you will be BEHIND the monument where audiences will be seated.
https://www.hudsonclassicaltheatercompany.org/index.php
*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***
BREAK A LEG PRODUCTIONS seeking short plays (no longer than 15 minutes) for our 2025 Slam on September 27th at Polaris North. The Slam is a festival of short plays, and at the end the audience votes on a winner. The winner receives $100.
***
Cry Havoc is pleased to announce the third annual cycle of PlayList, a short play development series. Each participating playwright will complete the project with a submission-ready 10-minute play and the project will culminate in a public presentation of the play collection. PlayList is for writers of any background, identity, education or experience level who are interested in honing their work on a short script with a room full of artists experienced in new play development. Applicants need to be local to the NYC area to participate.
***
The “OOF! On One Foot” Contest is part of the Jewish Plays Project, plays2gather and the Berkshire Theater Group’s 2nd Festival of New Jewish Plays, to be held August 28-31, 2025 at the Colonial Theater in Pittsfield, MA. Up to six selected 10-minute plays will receive cash prizes, and their plays will be produced by the JPP in the Festival.
*** FOR MORE INFORMATION about these and other opportunities see the web site at https://www.nycplaywrights.org ***
*** BETTY BUCKLEY ***
Well, in March, Mr. Trump reminisced about seeing Ms. Buckley in that Andrew Lloyd Webber show while addressing the board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, where his handpicked trustees had appointed him chairman. “The place went crazy,” he recalled of the “Cats” performance, before musing, “Is Betty Buckley still alive?” He continued: “Of all the great voices and stars, bigger stars than her, she had the best voice.”
Ms. Buckley, who is alive and well and living in her native Texas, was stunned.
“I knew that he loved the song because he played it at his rallies,” she said a few days before her concert when we talked over breakfast at a hotel in Midtown Manhattan. “But I didn’t know he knew my name. It left me really gobsmacked that my name actually resides in his consciousness.”
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/16/theater/betty-buckley-trump-cats.html
***
Buckley doesn’t think so highly of Trump. During his first term, in a 2019 interview with The Advocate, she talked about ending her friendships with Trump supporters.
When she was at a friend’s house at Thanksgiving, she recalled, “They set this mug, this ‘Drumpf’ mug — I won’t even say his name — at my place at this beautifully decorated house in this beautiful, appointed Thanksgiving feast, gorgeous table. It was this ugly MAGA mug,” she said. “I was like, are you kidding me? I just pushed it aside and put it somewhere else and sat down and pretended that nothing happened. And they were all watching me, like I was some kind of alien creature that they had never seen before.”
More...
https://www.advocate.com/news/trump-betty-buckley-love-hate
***
JEZEBEL: How would you describe your time in Cats?
BETTY BUCKLEY: It really was one of the greatest experiences of my life, with the honor of getting to work with [director] Trevor Nunn, [choreographer] Gillian Lynne, and [composer] Andrew [Lloyd Webber]. The job assignment was: Stop the show. I had stopped shows, but I didn’t know there was any particular formula to make that happen. During previews, I was not stopping the show. I was terrified. I knew that’s what their expectation was. Elaine Page, who is a wonderful singer/actor, in the original London company, had stopped the show [as Grizabella]. And so, I went through a whole process with my voice teacher, Paul Gavert, where I kind of came to a realization that I was trying too hard to please the powers that be. I was doing everything Trevor told me to do. I was choreographed down to my pinky by Gillian Lynne. I was trying so hard to please Andrew. The one person I had forgotten to consult was the being inside me that does this work for me.
More...
https://www.jezebel.com/betty-buckley-has-so-much-to-say-about-cats-1840466337
***
I was really, really proud of the work we did. The first time we presented it to the company in the context of the first run, people were terrified and crying because it was very provocative work for the musical theatre. Honestly, I think Carrie, as a piece, was ahead of its time. Our first performance Linzi went out in her first number and stopped the show cold, which was amazing. I was backstage preparing to go on for this sequence in the house, and I went out and sang my first number and stopped the show cold, too. Our sequences were met with an incredible, very emotional response.
More...
https://playbill.com/article/tony-award-winner-betty-buckley-looks-back-at-carrie-on-stage-and-screen-com-188293
***
But the potent emotional undertow of this production, directed by Michael Wilson, has nothing to do with geographical proximity and everything to do with the formidable Betty Buckley, whose determinedly cheerful, thoroughly heart-bruising Edith will win you over, pull you under and cast you out to sea.
Based on David and Albert Maysles’s 1975 cult documentary, “Grey Gardens,” the musical — with a book by Doug Wright, music by Scott Frankel and lyrics by Michael Korie — teases us in a prologue with a glimpse of Edith, circa 1973, in all her dotty decrepitude. Then she disappears until Act II.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/19/theater/review-grey-gardens-is-revived-in-its-real-setting-the-hamptons.html
***
The original Broadway production attracted major talent (the likes of Ginger Rogers, Pearl Bailey, and Ethel Merman) to replace original star Carol Channing after she left the show. Likewise, Midler’s shoes have been impressively filled, in New York by Bernadette Peters and Donna Murphy (both two-time Tony winners) and on the tour by none other than Betty Buckley.
Buckley, of course, is a Broadway mainstay who has been around since 1776 (the show, not the year). She won her Tony for introducing New York audiences to “Memory” when Cats opened on Broadway. (And, at the other end of the gamut, she led the cast of the notorious flop Carrie: The Musical.)
Buckley is now my fourth Dolly, as I previously saw Channing, Bailey, and Peters in the role (Bailey at this same venue). I’m excited to add this latest performance to that exalted list of predecessors.
Buckley’s Dolly has warmth and wit. Her voice, capable of filling the room beautifully, also has a softness that balances the brassiness of the part and that gives her take on the role a lovely texture.
More...
https://dctheatrescene.com/2019/06/07/review-hello-dolly-starring-betty-buckley-a-golden-age-musical-high/
***
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY DIGITAL COLLECTIONS
Actress Betty Buckley as Martha Jefferson in a publicity shot for the Broadway musical "1776." (New York)
https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/ad82de20-e196-0130-81aa-58d385a7bbd0
***
Betty Buckley - Memory (1983 Tony Awards)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mlllRdIfqw
*** FREE THEATER IN NYC ***
Hudson Classical Theater Company presents William Shakespeare's JULIUS CAESAR
Julius Caesar runs May 29 - June 22. All shows are Thursdays to Sundays at 6:30pm. No reservations--arrive by 6:15pm for a good seat. Cushions provided. Hudson Classical Theater Company Shows are “Pay What You Can.” Audience donations help pay for artists stipends and production costs.
Directions to The Soldiers’ & Sailors’ Monument:
Subways: Take the 1 to West 86 or West 96, or take the 2 to West 96. Walk west towards Riverside Park. You can enter the park at West 89th street or take the entrance at West 91st Street. You will see the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument. Take the path to the right of the monument (not the one closest to the river). Walk around the path and you will be BEHIND the monument where audiences will be seated.
https://www.hudsonclassicaltheatercompany.org/index.php
*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***
BREAK A LEG PRODUCTIONS seeking short plays (no longer than 15 minutes) for our 2025 Slam on September 27th at Polaris North. The Slam is a festival of short plays, and at the end the audience votes on a winner. The winner receives $100.
***
Cry Havoc is pleased to announce the third annual cycle of PlayList, a short play development series. Each participating playwright will complete the project with a submission-ready 10-minute play and the project will culminate in a public presentation of the play collection. PlayList is for writers of any background, identity, education or experience level who are interested in honing their work on a short script with a room full of artists experienced in new play development. Applicants need to be local to the NYC area to participate.
***
The “OOF! On One Foot” Contest is part of the Jewish Plays Project, plays2gather and the Berkshire Theater Group’s 2nd Festival of New Jewish Plays, to be held August 28-31, 2025 at the Colonial Theater in Pittsfield, MA. Up to six selected 10-minute plays will receive cash prizes, and their plays will be produced by the JPP in the Festival.
*** FOR MORE INFORMATION about these and other opportunities see the web site at https://www.nycplaywrights.org ***
*** BETTY BUCKLEY ***
Well, in March, Mr. Trump reminisced about seeing Ms. Buckley in that Andrew Lloyd Webber show while addressing the board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, where his handpicked trustees had appointed him chairman. “The place went crazy,” he recalled of the “Cats” performance, before musing, “Is Betty Buckley still alive?” He continued: “Of all the great voices and stars, bigger stars than her, she had the best voice.”
Ms. Buckley, who is alive and well and living in her native Texas, was stunned.
“I knew that he loved the song because he played it at his rallies,” she said a few days before her concert when we talked over breakfast at a hotel in Midtown Manhattan. “But I didn’t know he knew my name. It left me really gobsmacked that my name actually resides in his consciousness.”
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/16/theater/betty-buckley-trump-cats.html
***
Buckley doesn’t think so highly of Trump. During his first term, in a 2019 interview with The Advocate, she talked about ending her friendships with Trump supporters.
When she was at a friend’s house at Thanksgiving, she recalled, “They set this mug, this ‘Drumpf’ mug — I won’t even say his name — at my place at this beautifully decorated house in this beautiful, appointed Thanksgiving feast, gorgeous table. It was this ugly MAGA mug,” she said. “I was like, are you kidding me? I just pushed it aside and put it somewhere else and sat down and pretended that nothing happened. And they were all watching me, like I was some kind of alien creature that they had never seen before.”
More...
https://www.advocate.com/news/trump-betty-buckley-love-hate
***
JEZEBEL: How would you describe your time in Cats?
BETTY BUCKLEY: It really was one of the greatest experiences of my life, with the honor of getting to work with [director] Trevor Nunn, [choreographer] Gillian Lynne, and [composer] Andrew [Lloyd Webber]. The job assignment was: Stop the show. I had stopped shows, but I didn’t know there was any particular formula to make that happen. During previews, I was not stopping the show. I was terrified. I knew that’s what their expectation was. Elaine Page, who is a wonderful singer/actor, in the original London company, had stopped the show [as Grizabella]. And so, I went through a whole process with my voice teacher, Paul Gavert, where I kind of came to a realization that I was trying too hard to please the powers that be. I was doing everything Trevor told me to do. I was choreographed down to my pinky by Gillian Lynne. I was trying so hard to please Andrew. The one person I had forgotten to consult was the being inside me that does this work for me.
More...
https://www.jezebel.com/betty-buckley-has-so-much-to-say-about-cats-1840466337
***
I was really, really proud of the work we did. The first time we presented it to the company in the context of the first run, people were terrified and crying because it was very provocative work for the musical theatre. Honestly, I think Carrie, as a piece, was ahead of its time. Our first performance Linzi went out in her first number and stopped the show cold, which was amazing. I was backstage preparing to go on for this sequence in the house, and I went out and sang my first number and stopped the show cold, too. Our sequences were met with an incredible, very emotional response.
More...
https://playbill.com/article/tony-award-winner-betty-buckley-looks-back-at-carrie-on-stage-and-screen-com-188293
***
But the potent emotional undertow of this production, directed by Michael Wilson, has nothing to do with geographical proximity and everything to do with the formidable Betty Buckley, whose determinedly cheerful, thoroughly heart-bruising Edith will win you over, pull you under and cast you out to sea.
Based on David and Albert Maysles’s 1975 cult documentary, “Grey Gardens,” the musical — with a book by Doug Wright, music by Scott Frankel and lyrics by Michael Korie — teases us in a prologue with a glimpse of Edith, circa 1973, in all her dotty decrepitude. Then she disappears until Act II.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/19/theater/review-grey-gardens-is-revived-in-its-real-setting-the-hamptons.html
***
The original Broadway production attracted major talent (the likes of Ginger Rogers, Pearl Bailey, and Ethel Merman) to replace original star Carol Channing after she left the show. Likewise, Midler’s shoes have been impressively filled, in New York by Bernadette Peters and Donna Murphy (both two-time Tony winners) and on the tour by none other than Betty Buckley.
Buckley, of course, is a Broadway mainstay who has been around since 1776 (the show, not the year). She won her Tony for introducing New York audiences to “Memory” when Cats opened on Broadway. (And, at the other end of the gamut, she led the cast of the notorious flop Carrie: The Musical.)
Buckley is now my fourth Dolly, as I previously saw Channing, Bailey, and Peters in the role (Bailey at this same venue). I’m excited to add this latest performance to that exalted list of predecessors.
Buckley’s Dolly has warmth and wit. Her voice, capable of filling the room beautifully, also has a softness that balances the brassiness of the part and that gives her take on the role a lovely texture.
More...
https://dctheatrescene.com/2019/06/07/review-hello-dolly-starring-betty-buckley-a-golden-age-musical-high/
***
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY DIGITAL COLLECTIONS
Actress Betty Buckley as Martha Jefferson in a publicity shot for the Broadway musical "1776." (New York)
https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/ad82de20-e196-0130-81aa-58d385a7bbd0
***
Betty Buckley - Memory (1983 Tony Awards)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mlllRdIfqw
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