| Impressionism | |
|---|---|
 The artwork for the 2009 production of Impressionism | |
| Written by | Michael Jacobs |
| Characters | Thomas Buckle, Katherine Keenan |
| Date premiered | March 24, 2009 |
| Place premiered | Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, Broadway |
| Original language | English |
| Official site | |
Impressionism is a 2009 play by Michael Jacobs about "an international photojournalist and a New York gallery owner whose unexpected brush with intimacy leads them to realize that there is an art to repairing broken lives." [1]
The setting is the small art gallery of Katharine Keenan, where Thomas Buckle has been employed for the past two years. They use the gallery as a hiding place, to separate themselves from a world which has shattered them. He, by his time as a world traveling photojournalist, and she, by horribly failed relationships. Thomas brings Katharine coffee each morning, and tells her stories of its particular origin, although these stories are actually reflections of his own experiences. These lead to flashbacks of iconic moments that have led to their present state, as well as their relationship to the art that hangs in the gallery, which Katharine will not easily sell. In the end, we journey through a love story which shows Katharine and Thomas, that just like the Impressionist art on the walls, the more they step away from the canvas of their lives up to now, the more they realize that their future together might hold more depth than the past that has led them to each other.
Directed by Jack O'Brien with original music by Bob James, the play starred Joan Allen, Jeremy Irons, André DeShields, Hadley Delany, Aaron Lazar, Margarita Levieva, Marsha Mason, and Michael T. Weiss. [2] The Broadway premiere began previews at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre on February 28, 2009. Its original official opening of March 12 was later postponed to March 24, [3] [4] because the producer, Bill Haber, director, Jack O'Brien, and writer, Michael Jacobs believed that, as this was the show's world premiere, more previews were necessary to gauge audience reaction to particular shifts in time and place, which were part of the story. As producer Bill Haber said, "We did not give Jack O'Brien and our extraordinary creative team and company enough time to fully prepare Michael Jacobs's new play for Broadway. Impressionism is a world premiere on Broadway, which has not been work-shopped or played out of town. We are working hard in previews and we need more time to get the show finished for the official opening." [3] The team took the time to sculpt the play back to what the original script had called for, and the intermission, which was added in rehearsal, was eliminated.
The play met with mixed reviews by the critics. [5] [6] [7] [8] Ben Brantley of The New York Times was negative, calling it "undernourished" and its stars "ill-used". [9] Entertainment Weekly , however, gave the play a B and wrote that, "[Impressionism] practices the art of romantic comedy with a nice mix of pathos, intellect, and wit". [10] The New Yorker was enthusiastic and thought the play "is as awkward as it is sublime", noting its "brazen sweetness" and "openhearted humor". [11]
Michael Cerveris is an American actor, singer, and guitarist. He has performed in many stage musicals and plays, including several Stephen Sondheim musicals: Assassins, Sweeney Todd, Road Show, and Passion. In 2004, Cerveris won the Tony Award as Best Featured Actor in a Musical for Assassins as John Wilkes Booth. In 2015, he won his second Tony Award as Best Actor in a Musical for Fun Home as Bruce Bechdel.
Kelli Christine O'Hara is an American actress and singer, most known for her work on the Broadway and opera stages.
Grey Gardens is a musical with book by Doug Wright, music by Scott Frankel, and lyrics by Michael Korie, produced in 2006 and based on the 1975 documentary of the same title about the lives of Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edith Bouvier Beale by Albert and David Maysles. The Beales were Jacqueline Kennedy's aunt and cousin, respectively. Set at Grey Gardens, the Bouviers' mansion in East Hampton, New York, the musical tracks the progression of the two women's lives from their original status as rich and socially polished aristocrats to their eventual largely isolated existence in a home overrun by cats and cited for repeated health code violations. However, its more central purpose is to untangle the complicated dynamics of their dysfunctional mother/daughter relationship.
Isabel Keating is an American actress and singer. She is known for her performance as Judy Garland in the original Broadway production of The Boy from Oz, which earned her a Tony Award nomination and a Drama Desk Award.
Jack O'Brien is an American director, producer, writer and lyricist. He served as the Artistic Director of the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, California from 1981 through the end of 2007.
Michael Jacobs is an American television creator, writer and producer whose work has appeared on Broadway, Off Broadway, television and film. He is the creator/producer or has written and developed several television series including Boy Meets World, Dinosaurs, Charles in Charge, My Two Dads, The Torkelsons, and Girl Meets World. His television shows have won the Emmy, People's Choice, Parent's Choice, Environmental Media Awards, and more.
Emily Skinner, also known as Emily Scott Skinner, is a Tony-nominated American stage actor and singer. She has played leading roles in such Broadway productions as Prince of Broadway, The Cher Show, Side Show, Jekyll & Hyde, James Joyce's The Dead, The Full Monty, Dinner at Eight, Billy Elliot, as well as the Actor's Fund Broadway concerts of Dreamgirls and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. She has sung on concert stages around the world and on numerous recordings.
Jenn Gambatese is an American actress and singer. Gambatese has performed in the musical production of Disney's Tarzan as Jane. Gambatese also played Glinda on the first National Tour of Wicked.
Catch Me If You Can is a musical drama with a libretto by Terrence McNally and a theatrical score by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman. It follows the story of a con artist named Frank Abagnale. A majority of the plot is borrowed from the 2002 film of the same name, which in turn was based on the 1980 autobiography of the same name by Abagnale and Stan Redding.
Annie Baker is an American playwright and teacher who won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for her play The Flick. Among her works are the Shirley, Vermont plays, which take place in the fictional town of Shirley: Circle Mirror Transformation, Body Awareness, and The Aliens. She was named a MacArthur Fellow for 2017.
John Rando is an American stage director who won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical for Urinetown the Musical in 2002. He received his 2nd nomination in the same category in 2015 for the 2014 Broadway revival of On the Town.
Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark is a musical with music and lyrics by Bono and the Edge and a book by Julie Taymor, Glen Berger, and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. Based on the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man, the story incorporates elements of the 2002 film Spider-Man, the 2004 film Spider-Man 2 and the Greek myth of Arachne. It tells Spider-Man's origin story, his romance with Mary Jane Watson, and his battles with the Green Goblin. It includes highly technical stunts, such as aerial combat scenes and actors swinging from "webs".
Ruined (2008) is an American play by Lynn Nottage. The play premiered at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, and won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play explores the plight of women during the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Taylor Hunt Trensch is an American stage and film actor.
The Waverly Gallery is a play by Kenneth Lonergan. It is considered a "memory play". The show, first produced Off-Broadway in 2000, follows a grandson watching his grandmother slowly die from Alzheimer's disease. The play was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2001.
Honeymoon in Vegas is a musical with a book by Andrew Bergman and music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown. The musical is based on the 1992 movie of the same name which Bergman also wrote and directed. The musical had its world premiere at the Paper Mill Playhouse and premiered on Broadway in January 2015.
The Assembled Parties is a play written by Richard Greenberg. It relates the story of a Jewish family living on the Upper West Side of New York City over a twenty-year period, from 1980 to 2000. The play, which premiered on Broadway in 2013, received three Tony Award nominations, including for Best Play.
Mothers and Sons is a play by Terrence McNally, which opened on Broadway in 2014.
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is an American playwright. He won the 2014 Obie Award for Best New American Play for his plays Appropriate and An Octoroon. His plays Gloria and Everybody were finalists for the 2016 and 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama respectively. He was named a MacArthur Fellow for 2016.
Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures is the live show, stageplay and musical production arm of Warner Bros. Discovery. The company forms a part of Warner Bros., one of the major business segments of Warner Bros. Discovery. Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures is led by Mark Kaufman.