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Forbes
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Off-Broadway's Bold Voices Take Center Stage At The Lucille Lortel Awards
Andrew Scott. His show, Vanya, won a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Solo Show Since 1986, the Lucille Lortel Awards have been celebrating excellence in Off-Broadway theater. Named for visionary producer Lucille Lortel, who was called 'Queen of Off Broadway,' the awards honor her legacy. In her seven-decade career, Lortel was known for nurturing new playwrights, actors, directors and designers. She bolstered talents like Adrienne Kennedy, Terrence McNally, David Mamet and Wendy Wasserstein. She presented productions of lesser-known plays by Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee and Ionesco. She took risks and championed daring new works that others would not champion. Producing over 500 productions, she gave artists a creative home. Lortel's legacy was front and center at the 40th Annual Lucille Lortel Awards, where the Off-Broadway community gathered to honor this year's productions. Off-Broadway casts and creatives filled the theater at NYU Skirball Center to celebrate awards in 16 categories. 'Off Broadway has always been a home for bold voices, new ideas and fearless creativity,' said George Forbes, executive director of the Lucille Lortel Theatre. Before the packed crowd, Casey York, president of the Off-Broadway League, offered her reflections on the state of Off-Broadway and the power it holds. 'By gathering here tonight, we are not just witnessing history,' said York, who is also managing director of Playwrights Horizons. 'We are hoping to shape it.' While York reflected on challenges, she shared how vital it is to keep going—that performing, producing and supporting Off-Broadway requires courage. Especially now, when people and organizations are being threatened. 'I hope you continue to lean on each other, to step forward instead of retreating and to stand firm in your convictions. We need your vision, your persistence, your voice,' added York. 'Let's also reaffirm our commitment to building a community where differences are celebrated, empathy triumphs over division and creativity drives change.' That sense of community was echoed by this year's nominees and presenters, who reflected on how Off-Broadway shaped their lives. 'Off-Broadway is where A Chorus Line started over 50 years ago with Michael Bennett and Joe Papp,' said Donna McKechnie, who was instrumental in the show's creation and originated the role of Cassie, inspired by her own life. 'Michael found a safe place to create under his vision with the luxury of time and Joe Papp as our champion.' Lauren Patten, a nominee for the Lonely Few, shared her first Off-Broadway memory performing in Sarah DeLappe's exhilarating play, the Wolves. 'It was a very insular experience, learning how to be a soccer team together and electric,' said Patten. 'I remember buying Samuel French plays when I was a teenager and this was the first time I saw one with my name in it.' Nominee Whitney White, who directed Bess Wohl's play Liberation, spoke about Off-Broadway's intimacy. 'Off-Broadway is so raw. It's easier to feel closer to the audience. It's about the performers and the people you touch and you can't get that anywhere else,' said White. Liberation actor Susannah Flood shared how Off-Broadway inspires connection and community. 'There is a lot of fear out there,' said the Lortel-nominated performer. 'People want a place to go to think about these topics and issues.' The evening was also a moving tribute to the pioneers who paved the way. Throughout the night, special honors were presented to groundbreaking playwright Alice Childress, beloved producer and managing director, Carol Fishman, and New Federal Theatre, which was founded by Woodie King Jr. in 1970 to be a creative incubator for Black artists, amplifying stories of marginalized communities. Since then, New Federal Theatre has produced hundreds of plays and helped launch the careers of countless artists, including Ruby Dee, Denzel Washington and Ruben Santiago-Hudson, who presented the lifetime achievement award to Woodie King Jr. and the theater's producing artistic director, Elizabeth Van Dyke. 'Woody provided a place where we could walk around and know that we belonged,' said Santiago-Hudson. Childress, who passed away in 1994, was posthumously inducted into the Playwrights Sidewalk. Located in front of the Lucille Lortel Theatre, the walk of fame immortalizes Off Broadway's great playwrights by embossing their names into the sidewalk pavement. Writing, performing and producing plays for four decades, Childress was the first African American woman to receive an Obie Award and devoted her life to the theater. (In fact, the latest production of her play, Wine in the Wilderness, presented by Classic Stage Company, was nominated for two Lortel awards this year, including Outstanding Revival.) LaChanze, who performed in Childress' play Trouble In Mind and directed Wine in the Wilderness, presented the honor to the late playwright's niece, Dedrienne McKenzie and grandniece, Nicara McKenzie, who accepted on her behalf. 'Please continue to live in your power,' said Nicara McKenzie. 'Walk in your light. And speak to your originality—just like my great aunt Alice did.' From left: Dedrienne McKenzie, Nicara McKenzie and LaChanze at the 40th Annual Lucille Lortel Awards Helen J. Shen, a nominee for the Lonely Few The cast and creatives from Here There Are Blueberries. The show won two awards, including ... More Outstanding Play and Outstanding Director From left: Ruben Santiago-Hudson with New Federal Theatre's producing artistic director Elizabeth ... More Van Dyke and founder Woodie King, Jr. The cast and creatives from Our Class, which won four awards, including Outstanding Revival. Nominee Qween Jean, the costume designer for Liberation Lea DeLaria with Alaska Thunderfuck, who starred in Drag: The Musical, which received six Lortel ... More nominations. The duo co-hosted with Kandi Burruss, Jay Ellis, Stephanie Nur, J. Harrison Ghee, Ilana Glazer and Maya Hawke Co-host Ilana Glazer The cast and director of Three Houses, which won Outstanding Musical From left: Drew Elhamalawy, Rotana Tarabzouni, Nadina Hassan and Ali Louis Bourzgui. Some of the ... More cast members from We Live in Cairo nominated for Outstanding Ensemble, along with John El-Jor and Michael Khalid Karadsheh Co-hosts Jay Ellis and Stephanie Nur. This summer they will star in Duke & Roya at the Lucille ... More Lortel Theatre Michael Rishawn, who won Outstanding Featured Performer in a Play for Table 17
New York Times
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Corrections: April 30, 2025
An item in the Dateline feature on April 27 referred incorrectly to Wiltshire, England. Wiltshire is a county, not a village. An article on Tuesday about a missile strike that hit a migrant facility in an area of northern Yemen described incorrectly the operations of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Saada. The organization still operates there; it did not withdraw this year. An article on Tuesday about a major power outage that hit Spain and Portugal on Monday misidentified Pedro Sánchez. He is the prime minister of Spain, not the president. An article on Tuesday about distrust of the new government among the Kurdish community in Syria misstated the location of the city of Aleppo in Syria. It is in the northwest, not the northeast. An article on Saturday about the Broadway musical 'Real Women Have Curves' misstated where Tatianna Córdoba grew up. She grew up in California's Bay Area, not Los Angeles. An article on Monday about the Broadway musical 'Floyd Collins' misstated details about the premiere of the show. It premiered in 1994 in Philadelphia, two years before it made its Off Broadway debut at Playwrights Horizons. An article on Sunday about the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History coming under attack from the Trump administration for its focus on diversity misquoted Vera Ingrid Grant, the guest curator of an exhibit at the Charles H. Wright Museum. She described the exhibition as a 'panoply of art,' not a 'canopy of art.' An article on Sunday about a new citywide exhibition called the Boston Public Art Triennial, relying on outdated information, misstated the title of Nicholas Galanin's sculpture at the Boston Public Art Triennial. It is 'I think it goes like this (pick yourself up),' not 'I Think a Monument Goes Like This.' An obituary on Sunday about the keyboardist and studio operator David Briggs misstated the year that Mr. Briggs joined Elvis Presley's band TCB. It was 1969, the year the band was formed, not 1966. An obituary on Tuesday about the basketball Hall of Famer Dick Barnett misstated the number of points Walt Frazier scored for the victorious New York Knicks in Game 7 of the 1970 N.B.A. finals against the Los Angeles Lakers. It was 36, not 37. Errors are corrected during the press run whenever possible, so some errors noted here may not have appeared in all editions.
New York Times
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
How a Kentucky Man Trapped in a Cave Became a Broadway Musical
When Roger Brucker heard that the story of a trapped Kentucky cave explorer who slowly starved to death was being turned into a musical, he was doubtful. 'Aren't musicals supposed to be fun?' he thought. Brucker, 95, knows more than most about the doomed explorer Floyd Collins. He co-wrote the book 'Trapped!,' which is considered the definitive history of the events that unfolded during the so-called Kentucky Cave Wars, a period of rapid subterranean exploration in the 1920s when the state commercialized its extensive cave systems for tourism opportunities. Collins was an accomplished spelunker in 1925 when he entered Sand Cave alone, only for a 27-pound rock to pin his ankle and trap him underground. Over the course of 14 days, he died of thirst, hunger and exhaustion, compounded by hypothermia. Turning that story into 'Floyd Collins,' which made its Broadway debut at Lincoln Center Theater this week, was an exercise in bringing a bleak history to life through song. Tina Landau, the show's director, bookwriter and additional lyricist, was an undergraduate student at Yale University — decades before she conceived 'SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical' and 'Redwood' — when she came across a blurb about Collins in an anthology on American history. It focused on the media circus around the failed rescue, one of the most prominent national news stories between the two world wars. Landau, 62, said her perspective on the story was different from when she wrote the show, which premiered in 1996 at Playwrights Horizons, in her late 20s. She understands it now as an individual confronting his mortality. 'When we began, I was more attached to Floyd's hopes and dreams and aspirations,' she said. 'Now, I just personally am more invested with the journey that takes him to a place of surrender and letting go.' Brucker, who has seen at least 20 productions of 'Floyd Collins' since 1996, has firsthand experience interviewing some of the event's central characters, such as Skeets Miller, the young Louisville Courier-Journal reporter petite enough to descend into the cave and interview Collins directly. At a technical rehearsal, he spoke with the actor who plays Miller, Taylor Trensch, to stress the reporter's empathy in writing about Collins. 'He changed an anonymous farmer into a real live person called Floyd Collins,' Brucker said. Collins, of course, was not alive for an interview when 'Trapped!' was written, but Brucker has a good sense of how the man compares to the musical's character. Earlier actors in the role of Floyd, Brucker said, were too tall, too short, too leaden in affect or overly enthusiastic (Collins was generally reserved, he said, but lit up when talking about caves). But he thought the actor Jeremy Jordan, a Broadway heartthrob who recently starred in 'The Great Gatsby,' combined the best parts of Collins the character with Floyd the man. One cannot sing show tunes while beneath a rock, so Jordan spends the portion where he is resting on a tilted platform belting and yodeling. 'I thought he was the best Floyd character I've seen,' Brucker said. The musical's original title, 'Deathwatch Carnival,' came from the headline of the blurb Landau read at Yale, referring to the spectators and vendors who visited the mouth of Sand Cave while Collins was trapped inside. Journalists hungry for a scoop exaggerated details such as the size of the rock trapping Collins. As 'Floyd Collins' developed, Landau said, she and Adam Guettel, the show's composer-lyricist, leaned more into Floyd the man. The musical has been particularly lauded for its songwriting, with a final song, 'How Glory Goes,' that sees Collins accepting his death and imagining a heaven with his mother waiting for him. (The song is the name of the second studio album by Audra McDonald, who covered it.) When Landau and Guettel were in Kentucky doing research, Guettel was inspired by the cave to incorporate echoes from Collins's singing as a kind of chorus into the score. While in the state, they also came across 'Trapped!', written by Brucker and the historian Robert K. Murray, who died in 2019. The book, first published in 1979, was both a vivid and comprehensive account of the story, Landau said, which she used as a resource and inspiration. But she said turning all of that history into a musical required editing, like cutting the women who gathered at the cave mouth to propose to Collins. She synthesized a wide range of people, including Collins's extended family, into more central figures like Homer and Nellie, two of his siblings. The show is split between the cave's interior, represented by set design components that evoke the Mammoth Cave system, and its mouth where rescuers and spectators gathered. But although Sand Cave and the tight, muddy squeeze that trapped Collins are on the grounds of what is now Mammoth Cave National Park, it was not even a true cave. 'Sand Cave is presented as a giant panorama of stuff, and it isn't,' Brucker said of the show. 'You have to start thinking of it as the opening under a kneehole desk.' David Kem, who worked as a guide for the National Park Service leading tours of Mammoth Cave for more than 15 years, saw a recent touring production of 'Floyd Collins' in Bowling Green, Ky., in an audience that he said included many approving spelunkers. 'That's a unique challenge to try to convey the cave environment onstage, a place that's so cramped and otherworldly,' he said. (He had one nitpick: 'By and large, nobody walks around singing in the cave.') Kem said he appreciated that the musical presented a broader picture of Collins. 'It isn't flippant with the whole topic of Floyd's death,' he said. 'I think it does do him service.' A new edition of 'Trapped!' was published this month in honor of the 100th anniversary of Collins's descent into Sand Cave. Landau wrote the foreword. 'For me today, a hundred years after his death in Sand Cave, Floyd lives,' she writes. 'He lives in this book; in our musical; in our imaginations; in our fears and aspirations; and in the questions we continue to ask of ourselves, each other and of the universe.'
New York Times
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
‘Hold Me in the Water' Review: Smitten, and Primed to Flirt
In a lake off a beach, on a sun-warmed afternoon somewhere in upstate New York, Cupid was practicing his archery. An arrow, when it flew, pierced a young man's torso, lodging firmly in his heart. Now, technically, there is no mention of the Roman god of love in 'Hold Me in the Water,' the deliciously funny romantic comedy from the playwright-actor Ryan J. Haddad, but there doesn't need to be. Watching his solo performance at Playwrights Horizons, we sense that arrow strike just as surely as if we'd been there with him, the summer he was 26 and taking a dip with his hot new crush. 'This boy who's holding both of my hands and facing me … Well, he never let go,' Haddad tells us in this slender memoir of a show, in which he plays a version of himself called Ryan. 'Not for the entire hour. He held me in that water.' Then, lightly, he adds the crucial fact: 'He made me feel safe.' Haddad, who has cerebral palsy, means physically safe; a lake, with its uncertain footing, poses dangers for him. But this attractive acquaintance, whom he has just met at an artists' residency, seems to understand intuitively what his body needs. The day before, when an already interested Ryan asked for assistance up the steps into a bookshop, the guy (whose identity he blurs: no name, few particulars) knew exactly how to help, as if he had been doing it for years. 'No questions had to be asked,' Haddad says. 'No mishaps. The trust between our bodies — my hand, his hand — was magnetic and instinctual.' Swoon. Thus begins an exhilarating infatuation, physical trust leading quickly to emotional investment, along with palpable chemistry. But this is a rom-com, so there must be obstacles, separations, mixed signals — and agonizing over all of it, which Ryan does once he is back home in Manhattan. An Obie Award winner for his largely autobiographical 2023 show, 'Dark Disabled Stories,' Haddad here casts himself as a kind of ingénue, inexperienced in affairs of the heart. Yet he is also the hero — flirtatious, forthright and pursuing the object of his affection, envisioning a future with him. Over drinks in the East Village after a play, 'the boy' touches Ryan's hand and declares his interest, and Ryan's imagination is off at a gallop, charmingly. 'In the distance, I can hear the church bells chime,' Haddad says. 'I can see our wedding photos, printed in the New York Times Style section. I can smell the fresh coat of paint drying in our soon-to-be-adopted baby's nursery.' Directed by Danny Sharron, 'Hold Me in the Water' is as seamlessly, thoughtfully inclusive as 'Dark Disabled Stories' was. At the top of the new show, after Haddad's dramatic entrance on a lift through the stage floor, and his ebullient greeting — 'Hello, darlings!' — Haddad gives visual descriptions of the set (by dots, the design collective) and himself (costumed by Beth Goldenberg). He notes the projected supertitles, the dimmed but not extinguished house lights, the audience's freedom to pop in and out. ('I'm begging you,' he says, 'if you need to go to the bathroom, go!') All this is ingratiating, sure, but there is a real sense of welcome to it, along with implicit questioning: Do some of the conventions we take for granted need to be so difficult? Is some of what we think of as discipline just rigidity, with shades of meanness? Haddad wants his audience to be comfortable, as a base line. And in several moments, he wants the opposite. Where this rom-com tale gets frankly, vividly sexual, there is a point to that beyond plot — the same confrontational point that the show makes when Haddad asks us whether we have ever dated a disabled person, or considered the possibility of having such a romance. Sexuality is part of being a whole human, full stop. In Ryan's tantalizing romance, he is chasing not only his crush but also a kind of safety that has universal appeal — 'when someone meets your needs without you having to ask and you never have to wonder if your needs are too much for someone else.' Isn't that, for many of us, a kind of holy grail?
Forbes
13-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
The Secret To An Amazing Customer Experience: A Hospitality Mentality
Want to know the secret to creating an amazing customer experience? It's simpler than you might think. I recently interviewed Michael Cecchi-Azzolina on my podcast, Amazing Business Radio, and his answer was refreshingly straightforward: 'Be kind. Just be nice.' Cecchi is the owner of Cecchi's restaurant in New York City and author of Your Table is Ready: Tales of a New York City Maître D'. With nearly 40 years in the hospitality industry, he's learned that kindness trumps everything else. Cecchi noticed something interesting. Customers weren't just thanking him for good service—they were specifically thanking him for his 'hospitality.' This shift represents something important. People don't just want service. They want to feel welcomed, valued and cared for. Cecchi said, 'This is new. I've been doing this for almost forty years, and I've only been hearing this the past year and a half or so.' The trend in what customers want and expect—for all industries, not just hospitality—is an experience that includes employees who are friendly, knowledgeable and helpful. That's hospitality. Years ago, Cecchi interviewed for a job with legendary restaurateur Danny Meyer, who asked him a question that would stick with him for decades: 'What's more important, food or service?' After years of working with world-class chefs, Cecchi's answer is clear: 'It always came down to the service.' His point is, you could have the best product in the world, but if your service is poor, customers won't come back. As Cecchi put it, 'If you have a surly waiter, a maître d' who's rude, a bartender who doesn't acknowledge you ... chances are you're not coming back.' My annual customer service and experience research backs this up. Every year, my survey finds that rudeness and apathy are the top reasons customers leave businesses. Sure, the product is important, but kindness—the opposite of rudeness and apathy—is what keeps them coming back. One of my favorite quotes from our conversation was when Cecchi said, 'We don't sell food. We sell an experience. The experience begins when our front door opens. If the lights are perfect and the music is right and you're getting this wonderful smile from the person at the door ... you're winning.' This is true for every business. You aren't selling insurance, software or consulting services. You're selling an experience wrapped around those things. What does this look like in your business? What's your equivalent of perfect lighting and the right music? It might be as simple as answering the phone with a smile in your voice or remembering a customer's name. Cecchi's first job out of high school was working at Playwrights Horizons. They had no money to pay him, but he wanted the experience. His boss knew Cecchi needed money to live, and it would be a short time before Cecchi would have to move on, so the boss got him a job at the restaurant across the street. Cecchi compared restaurant service to Broadway theater: 'This is a theater. We've got a script. We've got a set ... those actors who were crushing it, they might have had a breakup that day or someone died in the family. You must put that aside.' I call this the Broadway Principle. Legendary actor Richard Burton used to tell himself before performances (paraphrased): 'Tonight, I want to be so good that I cheat the audience that was here last night.' What if everyone, no matter their business or industry, approached customer interactions with that level of commitment? Cecchi's hiring philosophy is not focused on the experience that employees have in the restaurant industry. Although that helps, he's looking for people who genuinely love interacting with others. 'I don't hire people because of their resume,' he explained. 'It takes a really special person to understand what real hospitality is.' In 2011, I interviewed Jim Bush, former SVP of Worldwide Customer Experience at American Express. His hiring philosophy was similar. I'll never forget his advice about hiring. Bush explained that given the choice between someone with 10 years of experience in a contact center or someone who worked at a restaurant, he'd hire the restaurant worker every time because they understood how to take care of people. In other words, they understand the hospitality mentality. At its core, business is emotional. As Cecchi put it, 'Restaurants are an emotional experience. People come in because they're on a date, or celebrating a birthday or an anniversary.' Again, this isn't just true for restaurants. Whether you're buying a car, choosing a healthcare provider or selecting a software vendor, emotions drive decisions. Cecchi shared a story that perfectly captures the power of hospitality: 'I had six women at one table who'd been in the restaurant about 12 times. I jokingly said, 'Thank God there are no other restaurants in New York City.' And one of them looked at me and said, 'Michael, there's no restaurant in New York City that treats us the way you do here.'' That story summarizes what we should all aim for—to be the one business that treats customers like no one else does. And it starts with something as simple as being kind, the core of the hospitality mentality.
