Crazytown

APPARENTLY ITS THE TIME(s) FOR HYPERBOLE

Hyperbolic (read: wrong) reporting on the commercial theater industry from the New York Times. 

By Ryan Bogner (Producer, Wingnut)

In a recent New York Times article Theater -beat reporter Patrick Healy runs down a bunch of shows in development that had been announced at one point or another to be coming to Broadway that for one reason or another aren't this season.

Though many of the general facts in the article ring true, there are a few misunderstandings and/or misstatements with regards  to the mechanics of the development of a Broadway show.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING Y'ALL

How to survive your holiday.

By Ryan Bogner (Producer, Wingnut)

Firstly you must have good etiquette. 

 

Then you must learn how to make conversation with your relatives

Also don't forget to count the things you're thankful for. Like the existence of this:

Then perhaps enjoy a program or special that deals with the history of this great holiday!

 

Lastly,  fall asleep watching some football.

Happiest of Thankgivings!

 

 

PARDON ME WHILE I GET POLITICAL

Two facts that the Republican Party needs to assess before 2016

By Ryan Bogner (Normally Producer, This week: Political Junkie)

The President won relection thanks largely in part to a shifting demographic...basically he won everyone but White Men, most groups by double digits. 

The Republican Party is really going to have to reassess its policies and do some soul seraching if they every hope to retake the White House, because these trends in demographics will only continue. The Hispanic population in particular is steadily increasing.

There are two facts about the trends and history of the presidency that are facing the republican party that are particularly startiling, not being a political scientist or a witch like Nate Silver probably is, I don't know the full meaning of these facts or their implications, but I do know the GOP needs to look long and hard at them when they are deciding the future of their party.

1. As NBC's Chuck Todd loves to point out, The Republican Party hasn't won the presidency without a Nixon or a Bush on the presidential ticket since 1928. 

2. Since 1992 the Republican Party hasn't won the white house by more than a one-state electoral margin, and they have only won the popular vote once. 

If you've followed my blog posts at all you can pretty much guess where my political leanings lie, but despite that I don't believe that having one majority party and one minority party is good for the country. We need a Republican Party that can nominate viable candidates with big ideas so that there can be an honest and open and productive debate on issues and governence. 

Its the only way to have a strong democracy. So as much as I'm pleased with last night's outcome, I do hope the GOP figures itself out a little bit and nominates better candidates in the future.

 

PAULRYAN90X

Paul Ryan or Tony Horton??
By Ryan Bogner (Producer, Wingnut)

So by now we've all seen these picture of Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan:

And everyone pretty much knows he got those guns by doing the popular workout program p90x. 

I recently have concoted another theory. That Paul Ryan has watched so many p90x videos that he has subconciously taken on some of the mannerisms and speech cadances of p90x founder and workout video star Tony Horton. 

Observe:

 

 

Its a little uncanny no?

CHILDREN OF THE STARS UNITE

By Ryan Bogner (Producer, Wingnut)

What do you get when you take the music of this band:

 

and let some incredibly talented theater artists inject it with this:

some stuff like this:

and maybe a little of this?

You get the show I'm producing at Dixon place next weekend:

SOPRANOOOOOOS INNNNN SPAAAACCE!

Sarah Brightman is about to be a real life space cadet.

By Ryan Bogner (Producer, Wingnut)

It was reported yesterday by playbill.com that Phantom of the Opera star Sarah Brightman will take a flight to the international spacestation. 

Let me say that again:

 

It was reported yesterday by playbill.com that Phantom of the Opera star Sarah Brightman will take a flight to the international spacestation.

Yes, the Sarah Brightman, who before she lost her heart to an Opera Ghost lost it to a starship trooper:

 

Is going to go to here:

I'd be lying if I dind't have the fantasy that she would singe the ending ah section from the title song of the Phantom of the Opera as the rocket she's sitting on top of blasts her into space.

All joking aside, it seems she's doing it as part of her work as a UNESCO ambassador...so it seems like its for a good purpose at the very least. Also, I'm jealous beacuse SPACE and going to it.

Also I think its probably safe to assume (yell at me in the comments if I'm wrong) that this is the first Broadway star to ever escape the atmosphere, so that's pretty damn cool.

Also. This.

 

 

A WEB FAR FAR AWAY

Cool internet artifacts from a Galaxy Far, Far Away.

By Ryan Bogner

One of the great things about the internet age is the access to all kinds of cool original forms of artistic expression based around popular culture. Since there's usually money exchanging hands, creative people can share their riffs on pop culture without (usually) evoking the ire of the owners of the intellectual property.

One of the most common sets of inspiration out there is of course STAR WARS. George Lucas is known to be a fan of fan projects, and the denziens of the web have created some pretty awesome stuff.

Below you'll find my faves:

Image credit: Allstar, Brock Davis

 

Image credit: Jason Peltz,

Credit: http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/tauntaun.html

Credit here

By Paul Galacy found here

Found here (credit unknown)

MITT-STER BURNS

By Ryan Bogner (Producer, Wingnut)

The Media has been ablaze about the leaked Romney fundraising video where Republican Presidential Nominee Mitt Romney made several controversial statements. 

Jon Stewart and his Daily Show posse likened the comments to something a certain cartoon billionaire might say and created this gem:

 

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook 

 

But with all the comparisons I'm sort of surprised that only a couple hundred people have stumbled upon this vid, which was actually created before the leaked video.

 

 

(NOUN)! THE MUSICAL!!!

An annoying trend? A new party game? yes!...Maybe...THE MUSICAL

By Ryan Bogner (Producer, Wingnut)

I was struck with a flash of inspiration after recieving a text from my friend, Broadway's Jason Michael Snow. That was just the following image:

...

This of course plays into two trends of the off-off broadway, off-broadway and festival scene...shows about quirks of the theater that no one in the general public knows or cares about... and shows that are about random subjects titled with just the noun and the words "The Musical" trailing after them.

We've had Golf the musical, Balls the Musical, Boobs the Musical and even Sistas the musical. All of which got me thinking. Why don't we just open the dictionary to a random word and write a show about whatever word we land on?

In the first experience my friend Travis landed on the word Cerise, which is a color name for a reddish brown color. I landed on Mesothelioma which is a type of cancer that is caused by exposure to Asbestos, which clearly would make the better musical of the two.

MESOTHELIOMA: THE MUSICAL! Its a story of a courageous huckster law firm, fighting for YOUR RIGHTS.

All of which is to say, I think this could make a pretty excellent party game (or a great musical theater improv show at UCB).

All you need is a dictionary. Flip to any page in the dictionary and point to a word. You must come up with the plot, a song title and what star will star in (word you randomly select) the musical! Also it has to be a noun. So if you land on a verb or adjective or god forbid an adverb,  pick again.

Here's a few to get you started (selected at random):

Screech Owl: The Musical! 

Knuckle: The Musical!

Progesterone: The Musical!

Enjoy!

 

RYAN BOGNER is a New York based Theater Producer. He has produced Yeast Nation, Here Lies Love, Hurricane and Hey, You Know What Movie Would Make a Good Musical? among others, and is working towards an MFA in Theater Management and Producing at Columbia University. www.heyyouknowwhatproductions.com

EMAIL HIM | TWITTER | OTHER POSTS BY THIS AUTHOR

 

 

VERILY, YE OLDE WEBCOMICS SHALL MAKE YE CHUCKLE

A favorite from the odd corners of the web

By Ryan Bogner (Producer, Wingnut)

Longtime readers of my posts here on crazytown know that every so often I tread out some of my favorite oddities that I've stumbled across in my internet travels. 

You may be familiar with the great webcomic Married to the Sea and have not even realized it. Likely a facebook friend of yours has posted one of the slide style one panel comics on their profiles. You know, they're the ones that are illustrations that look like they came from a textbook or something oldtimey paired with a caption that refers to the odd action in the image, or provides a juxtiposition by having text that's decidely modern.

Like so:

The comic uses a variety of styles from different bygone eras, but my personal favorite style that the creators of this comic use is one of their rarer ones that look like something out of a 16th or 17th century pamphlet, complete with a font to match. 

It kills me, mostly for its strange sort of commentary on the absurdities of everyday life in a bygone era.

My favorites after the jump.