Theatrical Monologist Mike Daisey Invokes Dramatic License and Fabricates Without Telling the Audience

 In Terry Teachout's October 2011 WSJ review of Mike Daisey's The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs (check out script here), he writes:

The trouble with "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs," as with all theatrical journalism, is that Mr. Daisey is in essence asking us to take his word for it. He hasn't brought back pictures or named names, and the artful anger with which he tells his tale inevitably makes it still more suspect.

Well, Mr. Teachout was on to something because Mike Daisey is now rightfully coming under fire in the press for fabricating some of his China encounters and personal experiences in his successful one man show. Check out details of fabrications at the retraction on The American Life, the public radio program that broke the news here. 

Should Mike Daisey have been more clearer about the "dramatic license" taken with regard to the show? Yes!! He certainly would not be in this situation today. Should this take away from the issues surrounding the working conditions of Chinese workers? Definitely not!!!!!! 

Related Posts: 

The Intersection of Reality and Drama

The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs 

As FoxConn Workers Threaten Suicide, Mike Daisey Returns to The Public

Quote from Paula Vogel's "How I Learned to Drive"

Spoken by Female Greek Chorus (as Aunt Mary) in Paula Vogel's How I Learned to Drive.

...domesticity can be a balm for men when they're lost.

Broadway - Cabaret Style

From 54 Below website - Rendering by John Lee Beatty

While sitting at a cramped table of strangers being bumped by passersby and trying to get my waiter's attention so that I can satisfy a table minimum, I am reminded why I am not always fond of cabarets. 

Then Betty Buckley (actress/singer/cowgirl/teacher according to her Twitter profile) enters the stage and charms a room filled with theater lovers. Never mind the noisy shaker at the bar. Never mind the mediocre food. Never mind that I cannot check my bill in the dark to make sure that I have not been ripped off. Never mind the pain in my neck as I twist to see the stage. Betty is on at BB King Blues Club right smack in the heart of the city, and she is belting out Broadway tunes typically sung by men. This is the first time that I am seeing her perform and I relish the experience because I may never see the Tony award winner from Cats perform ever again.

In June, another cabaret style nightclub opens - this time below the famous Studio 54 in midtown. The club promises fine dining (we will see) and cover charges as high as $70 with table minimum of $30. Not cheap. But with an initial line up that includes the diva herself - Patti LuPone (June 5 - 16), Ben Vereen (July 10 - 21), Lea DeLaria (July 23-August 6) and the underrated Jenifer Lewis (July 24 - 28), who can stay away. 

I can't...

The Unforgettable Productions of the Century - Ben Brantley

Greatness is far and few between. Looking at the current productions on and off Broadway, how many would you say are great - are unforgettable? How many will remain at the forefront of your memory? How many will you watch over and over? 

Here is how The New York Times Book of Broadway edited by Ben Brantley (2001) defines the 125 unforgettable productions of the century. 

But first, this lovely quote from the introduction: When the elements of a play or a musical cohere into surreally smooth symmetry or jangling novelty, an electricity starts flowing between the audience and the performers on stage and within the audience itself.

Twenty-five Productions That Defined the Century - Ben Brantley

The 25 productions that defined the century from The New York Times Book of Broadway edited by Ben Brantley (2001):

The Hairy Ape
Show Boat
Waiting for Lefty
Porgy and Bess
You Can't Take It with You
Our Town
Oklahoma!
A Streetcar Names Desire
Death of a Salesman
My Fair Lady
Waiting for Godot
Long Day's Journey into Night
West Side Story
A Raisin in the Sun
The Caretaker
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
A Midsummer Nights Dream (Peter Brook's production)
A Chorus Line
Sweeney Todd
Cats
Glengarry Glen Ross
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Angels in America (Part I: Millennium Approaches)
Rent
The Emperor Jones (Wooster Group production)

"Once: A New Musical"

The first time I attempted to watch the 2007 indie Irish film Once, I fell asleep. The DVD was later mailed back to Netflix, unseen in its entirety. Last year, when a musical version of the film was mounted Off Broadway at New York Theater Workshop to pretty good reviews, I attempted to watch the understated film (which was on countless Top 10 lists) again late one night. This time I did not fall asleep but was instead drawn into the world of an Irish guy and a Czech girl who connect while creating music in Dublin. I finally understood what all the fuss was about and could not wait to see the musical when it transferred to Broadway.

Had I not seen the film, I would think that Once: A New Musical is a pleasant production. And it is. It is funny (it has more humor than the touching film). The polished Steve Kazee (Guy) has a wonderful voice and a rock star physique (I could listen to him all night). And hearing the Academy Award winning song Falling Slowly performed twice in one evening is a complete treat. Those however who connect deeply with indie film, which was shot with a budget of roughly $130K, may find the Broadway production just a bit too theatrical...just a bit too polished. The working class and immigrant experience in Dublin is lost. Some of the passion of composing is lost. And Girl - more like a driven business manager on the stage - is missing some of her youthfulness and naivete.  

Now, don't get me wrong - Once: A New Musical is fresh (no big sappy ending here) and worth seeing. The thirteen actor-musicians do a wonderful job. However, when I hold up the film and adapted stage versions under a spotlight, the film wins over the current production on the New York City stage.

Diversity in the Theater - Part IV

When the study Opening the Curtain on Playwright Gender was published by Emily Sands in 2009, it caused quite a stir. The study found that:

• Plays written by women are less likely to be produced.
• Plays about leading female characters are less likely to be produced.
• When the same exact play is sent to artistic directors – under a playwright name that is male and under a playwright name that is female – the female penned play is considered to be of lesser quality. 
• And surprise, female artistic directors are the harshest critics of plays written by female playwrights. 

If we take a look at original plays which according to IBDB opened on The Great White Way between January 1st 2009 and December 31st 2011, we now find that nine (~20%) were written by women. If we adjust this slightly for solo performances, this is roughly a 2.5% increase since Ms. Sands' study.  How is that for progress?

Related Posts
Part I
Part II
Part III

Diversity in the Theater - Part III

Some time back, as I was standing on line to purchase tickets at a Broadway theater box office, I perked up when I overheard two women chatting about a Broadway play that I planned to see shortly - Tracy Lett's Pulitzer prize winning August: Osage County. Phylicia Rashad - a black actress - recently joined the cast to play the matriarch of a  (typically white) dysfunctional family. One woman (like me later when I later saw the play) had no issues when watching Ms. Rashad in the role of Violet; however, the other could not get over the color blind casting.  

On February 13th, David Henry Hwang moderated an Asian American Performer's Action Coalition (AAPAC) roundtable discussion at Fordham University. The purpose - To begin a discussion about making the theater more inclusive. According to the article - New York City Theater Community Convenes to Discuss Representation of Minority Actors - by Joanna Klimaski, the AAPAC released a report on minority casting on the New York City stage and here are some of the results layered with some census data:
 

Group	% Casted	NY Census %	USA Census %
African Americans	13.20%	15.90%	12.60%
Latino Americans	3.50%	17.60%	16.30%
Asian Americans	2.30%	7.30%	4.80%

While some progress has been made for African Americans (reminder - they've been struggling for years), little has been made for Latinos and Asian Americans - the two largest growing groups in America.

The positive - The AAPAC has started the conversation and that is how change begins. They ask - Why can't we all be just Americans? Why can't we have color blind casting?  I don't see why not. When Jean Doumanian, producer of August: Osage County, was asked by TONY magazine about the decision to cast Ms. Rashad, she simply replied, "Phylicia Rashad is a magnificent actress and that is what this decision was based on."

The negative - NYC theaters remain largely white owned, (I suspect) artistic directors are largely white, (I suspect) theater donors and members are largely white, and (I know) theatergoers (from Broadway League demographic statistics and from what I see every single week when I go to the theater) are largely white. This does not quite support the business case for why the theater industry should make any effort to be more inclusive.

What happens next? The conversation continues.

Diversity in the Theater - Part II

Quote by black playwright Ronald Milner (1938 - 2004) in Jet Magazine dated May 11, 1967:

Broadway doesn't want your blackness - she is a contented fat white cow. You can slip in and milk her, but you will be dancing on the grave of yourself and everyone else you love.

I do not know the context of Mr. Milner's quote; but I am sure that he is a child of his times, Radicalism is inevitable when there is inequality. Good thing is that Mr. Milner was eventually received on Broadway. According to IBDB, three of his plays - What the Wine-Sellers Buy, Don't Get God Started, and Checkmates - played on Broadway between 1974 and 1988. Interestingly, according to Wikipedia, What the Wine-Sellers Buy was the first play by an African American produced by Joseph Papp of the New York Shakespeare Festival. 

Diversity in the Theater - Part I

Which is it?

Non-whites do not attend Broadway shows because there is little diversity on the stage.

Or

Broadway productions do not cast non-whites because there is little diversity in the audience.