You-review-it Monday: 'Billy Elliot,' 'Yankee Tavern,' etc.

April 12, 2010
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Getting to "Yankee Tavern" at the Phoenix Theatre and the opening of "Billy Elliot" in Chicago (more on these to come) meant missing an art opening at the Harrison Center, Melora Hardin at the Cabaret at the Columbia Club, Carrie Underwood at Conseco and more.

So fill me in here at our virtual water cooler. Share what you saw, heard or otherwise experienced this weekend.

Your thoughts?

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  • Good art weekend
    Justin BradyApril 12, 2010 12:25 PM
    Thursday I saw Michael Burke's Women of Troy at the Irvington. Indy is lucky to have him for as long as we can hold on. Anyone who saw his Medea at Fringe knows he is great at making classics modern and fresh feeling. Great performances by all the women involved.

    Friday was Spark A Revolution at the Earth House. My first exposure to Know No Stranger was bind blowing. 31 performance artists created a carnival like experience recreating your favorite internet destinations.

    And Sunday was a trip to Buck Creek Players for Brain from Planet X. REALLY fun satire. Excellent set and costumes. And a great ensemble. Would love to see it with a more energetic crowd than what I saw at the Sunday matinee.
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  • Billy Elliot
    ManuelApril 12, 2010 1:37 PM
    I am eager to hear feedback about "Billy Elliot." I saw it in London several years ago, and was so eager to see it -- and ended up so disappointed. It was just extremely loud, and musically very, very undistinguished -- none of the score is memorable. The kid who played Billy was impressive, but that was it. I wondered if it was the result of the show running for so long and thought perhaps a fresh company might make things right.
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  • 2 plays, 1 band, 1.5 books
    Hope BaughApril 13, 2010 11:55 AM
    I saw "Yankee Tavern" at the Phoenix Theatre, too, although on a different night from you, Lou. I thought it was deliciously creepy. I also loved being able to see another new Steven Dietz play after just seeing "Becky's New Car" at the IRT. The two pieces are very different in tone and subject matter but equally engaging, equally entertaining. "Yankee Tavern" is darker, and about conspiracy theories and ghosts, and about knowing when to ask more questions and when to let go.

    I also drove out to Danville to the Longstreet Playhouse, new home of the Hendricks Civic Theatre. "Grace & Glorie" is this all-volunteer community theatre's 4th production in their new space but it was my first chance to get there. It is a charming, intimate space in a renovated church. I was moved by the show, too. It is an inspirational drama about a hospice worker and the 90-year-old woman she volunteered to help.

    I will, of course, write more about both of these shows on my own blog in a day or two.

    I had planned to hear Anne Shimojima share stories at the Indiana History Center on Saturday night but decided I needed to stay home and catch up on my blog writing instead. But later, on a purely last-minute whim, I joined some family members at Radio Radio in Fountain Square to hear a Bloomington-based band called "Gentleman Caller." Very fun.

    I also read and loved a new novel called Anthill, by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edward O. Wilson. It is about a boy growing up near Mobile, Alabama. He decides to try to save a tract of wilderness from developers...but it is a much more rounded story than that. Lovely writing, a pleasure to read. I will never think of ants, or the South, in the same way again.

    I am in the middle of a new nonfiction book called The 188the Crybaby Brigade: A Skinny Jewish Kid from Chicago Fights Hezbollah, by Joel Chasnoff. It is funny and insightful and fascinating, about an American who joins the Israeli army.

    Hope Baugh
    Indy Theatre Habit
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  1. liek the rest of America

  2. These quaint,obsessed musings by the stalkers are certainly entertaining, but I'm trying to figure out what, if anything, all the yelping below has to do with Zak Brown.

  3. It's evident that Moffett was pushing the right buttons and corporate America is now trying to squash him. He just wanted to withdraw the free pilot services provided to the company by the pilots to try and put some pressure on a company that has not been interested in negotiating a contract in over 5 years. The company does not provide a contract because not having one has saved them a bundle of money. Shame on any Republic pilots not standing behind their union leader just because things are getting tough, can you not see such strategic moves by the company as putting the last union president in a corporate position and into THEIR pocket. Do you really believe the last union president is so appalled at the attempts by Moffett, do you not remember his oppositions to the company? We stood behind him. It has been proven over and over again for thousands of years without fail, a man cannot serve two masters. Anyone that believes people vote contrary to their paycheck and livelihood deserve to be taken advantage of, the recent statements by the former union president are laughable as he denounces the current union president from his new corporate position. Have you ever seen a drafted sports player score points for his previous team, it cannot be done, he is not on the pilots side anymore, he gets his money a different way now than you and I do, and he should not be allowed to remain on the seniority list. A drafted player brings strength, credibility, tactical knowledge, and a strategic advantage to his NEW team, he would not be drafted or paid were it otherwise. We are all forced to choose only one side to play for and support, not doing so has many references in life such as insider trading and shaving points, all illegal for good reason. This basic fact is why corporate moguls, scientist, and engineers all sign non-discloser agreements and non-compete clauses, as protection in case they are lured into switching sides as our former union president has done. No NFL coach ever drafted a player so that both teams could benefit and better understand each other, they are recruited to win the game against that former team, period. Likewise the company does not recruit the former union president by accident or mutual understanding, its strategy. Don't confuse playing the game with good sportsman-like conduct in support of common business and prosperity goals, with the requirement to only play for one side. Good men we all love and favor fall subject to this manipulation, often without their knowledge, and it is not a betrayal of their friendship to oppose them when they switch sides. If we did not love and trust them, they would not have been chosen and lured to the other side in the first place. The deception by the drafted player is not made at a conscious level, it's just human nature and it's all about money and power which corrupts our ability to be objective and loyal to two masters. This is why our court system created the defense attorney, and why our military created counter intelligence. Its strategy and its propaganda, and it works, and that's why the "powers to be" manipulate the chess pieces by sometimes changing their colors. Some players know they are being manipulated when their color is changed, but it brings them more money and power so they do not care. The rest have good intentions but do not even realize they are being manipulated. This tactic is also known by another name, Divide and Conquer. In battle sending an imperfect message with an imperfect team is obviously not ideal, but it's still being sent by YOUR team, your union leader, a leader that has common goals and common rewards with you, they are the best, because we have elected them to do a job for us. If you are not backing Moffett but believing the spin by those that have recently switched sides, you are taking food out of your own mouth. Showing unity and backing an imperfect situation still results in taking just as much ground, it's about unity and bargaining power. It's not necessary to wait around for that perfect attack because it will never come, the company will spin and attempt to destroy anyone that gets in their way. Ultimately it's not about any specific attack anyway, ASAP or whatever it makes no difference, it is and always has been only about power. If this company cared about safety it would not build pairings with 8 hour overnights, come on, are you that naive? Besides, do you really think Hoffa cares, no, he got a call from corporate America and was squeezed into denouncing Moffett. If he didn't they would spin the safety card against him and the Teamsters National with implication for truckers, future contracts, insurance rates etc...saying something like the Teamsters use safety as a bargaining chip, blah blah blah... Do you really think any pilot is going to do something unsafe for the contract, absolutely not, the only ones threatening safety here is the company with reduced rest, fatigue, and poverty. Do you not find it odd that Hoffa and the Teamsters are opposing a Teamster president publicly? Would the Teamsters National not normally support and work with one of their own? Why did they not sit down and help him strategize, correct any mistakes, and charge ahead? Would the Teamsters National not normally support and leverage a contract for all those pilots that have been paying Teamster dues, isn't that why we have all been paying Teamster dues in the first place? I sure haven't been paying dues so that the Teamsters National could come along and write this kind of an article undercutting our union leader and our unity. Whose side is the Teamsters National really on, it's obviously not the Republic pilots side.

  4. No matter what Moffatt does the company is going to spin it like he is the terrorist and brainwash people like you into believing it, wake up, back your players that are trying to change things for you and your livelihood. Where has Hoffa been for the last 6 years, except collecting our dues. Seriously, do you really think an FO going for upgrade, signed off by a checkairman ready for the upgrade, who then fails, is not even capable of returning as a First Officer.

  5. whoa!

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