It doesn’t happen often (not nearly enough, in fact), so when an off-Broadway production lands on television, I am most excited to tell you about it. Mark your calendars for Dec. 21-25, when Thirteen WNET will air The Flea Theater’s acclaimed 2010 production of Looking at Christmas, written by Steven Banks (head writer of Sponge Bob Square Pants) and directed by Jim Simpson. Set on Christmas Eve in New York City, the play focuses on an unemployed writer and a struggling actress who meet while looking at the famous holiday windows along Fifth Avenue. What they don’t realize is that the windows are looking back. The show features The Bats, The Flea’s resident acting company, and broadcasts on WNET on Dec. 21 at 10 p.m., Dec. 23 at 10 p.m., and Dec. 25 at 11 p.m. For airdates in other markets, check your local listings.
BOTS
From Bats to Bots — The New Ohio Theatre will start the New Year with the Manhattan premiere of the critically acclaimed Samuel & Alasdair: A Personal History of the Robot War, a sci-fi surrealist War of the Worlds meets A Prairie Home Companion examination of American nostalgia. (Welles and Keillor, together at last!) The show is a production of The Mad Ones, conceived by Marc Bovino, Joe Curnutte, Lila Neugebauer, and created with the Mad Ones ensemble. Ms. Neugebauer directs, and performances take place at New Ohio in a limited engagement from January 5-21. http://MadOne.wordpress.com
SEEING RED
Red Bull Theater, that is, which is set to produce an exciting reading series in December and January, and featuring such marvelous actors as Marsha Mason, Henry Stram, Jennifer Ehle, Victor Garber, Hamish Linklater, Richard Easton, Stephen Spinella, Mamie Gummer, Michael Stuhlbarg... stop! It’s an embarrassment of casting riches! First up is Gogol’s The Government Inspector, adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher, and directed by Jesse Berger, to be read on Dec. 26 at 7:30, and on January 9, Pirandello’s Henry IV, a new version by Tom Stoppard, no less, and directed by Jack O’Brien, goes up, also at 7:30. For tickets and reservations, visit www.redbulltheater.com.
GOT IT DOWN PATTI
She’s one of the gutsiest and most beloved musical theater divas that we have, and few can match the inimitable Patti LuPone for pure show-stopping stamina and rafter-raising theatrics. And now, just in time for holiday gift giving, comes the trade paperback edition of LuPone’s bestselling memoir of a life in the theater, called, simply, Patti LuPone (A Memoir) just out from Three Rivers Press. From an early performance at age 4 (Baby June-Patti!) to her triumphant turn as Mama Rose in Gypsy, LuPone tells it like it was and is, full of her characteristic wit and sharp-edged show-biz savvy. So stuff the stocking of the theater lover in your life with a copy... and get one for yourself, too. www.pattilupone.net; www.crownpublishing.com.
I CAN SEER IT
Imagine a decadent society in which everything is entertainment. (Well, yes.) At an infamous hall called the Palace Theatre, a hypnotist promises psychic healing to volunteers. One by one they take the stage for a “spectacle of raw shame,” which soon gives way to horror as the Seer stares into a whirlwind poised to swallow more than just the Palace and its host. That’s the intriguing premise of Hypnotik: The Seer Will Doctor You Now, a World Premiere production of The New Stage Theatre Company, currently celebrating their 10th Anniversary Season. Conceived and directed by Ildiko Nemeth, Hypnotik is loosely based on the bizarre and intriguing life of the Viennese occultist Eric Jan Hanussen, a celebrity in the Berlin theater scene during the rise of Hitler’s Third Reich. Enter if you dare! Performances run December 21-January 15 at Theater for the New City. www.NewStageTheatre.org
PICTURE THIS
A different kind of love story — perhaps you could say a loving story — on the way from The Negro Ensemble Company when it presents Cate Ryan’s The Picture Box, about a young black man who comes to work at the home of a white Long Island family, and the bond that develops between the young man and the family’s emotionally abandoned little girl. The production begins performances January 11 at Theatre Row’s Beckett Theatre, with opening night slated for January 15. Charles Weldon directs. http://www.necinc.org
Inside Ink wishes all readers a very happy holiday season and good fortune and new and exciting opportunities for the New Year!
