Serenading Louie | |
---|---|
Written by | Lanford Wilson |
Characters | Mary Gabrielle Carl Alex |
Date premiered | 1970 |
Original language | English |
Genre | Drama |
Serenading Louie is a 1976 play by Lanford Wilson.
The 1976 Off-Broadway production of Serenading Louie played at the Circle Repertory Company from May 2 to May 30, 1976. Marshall W. Mason won an Obie Award for his direction. The cast included Tanya Berezin as Mary, Trish Hawkins as Gabrielle, Edward J. Moore as Carl, and Michael Storm as Alex. The production was designed by John Lee Beatty, with costumes by Jennifer von Mayrhauser and lighting by Dennis Parichy.
In 1984, a production was staged at The Public Theater, opening January 17, 1984. The cast included Lindsay Crouse, Jimmie Ray Weeks, Peter Weller, and Dianne Wiest, who won an Obie Award for her performance. The production was directed by John Tillinger, with lighting design by Richard Nelson.
A revival was staged at London's Donmar Warehouse in 2010, running from February 11 until March 27. The production then toured to Salford, Leicester, and Truro. The cast included Jason Butler Harner as Alex, Jason O'Mara as Carl, Charlotte Emmerson as Gabrielle, and Geraldine Somerville as Mary. The production was directed by Simon Curtis, with design by Peter McKintosh.
The story involves two couples, appearing to live well in identical houses in the suburbs. However, neither couple is happy in their marriage. An affair is being carried on secretly within this foursome, leading to a very violent conclusion. [1]
In her review in The Guardian , Lyn Gardner stated, "This is the stuff of boulevard drama, and dressing it up with Ayckbourn-style tricks of two couples in one space, or theatrical asides, doesn't make it any more interesting". She later added that "the failure of the words to explode even during the final melodramatic moments is symptomatic of this play's ashen emptiness." [2]
Lanford Wilson was an American playwright. His work, as described by The New York Times, was "earthy, realist, greatly admired [and] widely performed." Wilson helped to advance the Off-Off-Broadway theater movement with his earliest plays, which were first produced at the Caffe Cino beginning in 1964. He was one of the first playwrights to move from Off-Off-Broadway to Off-Broadway, then Broadway and beyond.
Dianne Evelyn Wiest is an American actress. She has won two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress for 1986’s Hannah and Her Sisters and 1994’s Bullets over Broadway, one Golden Globe Award for Bullets over Broadway, the 1997 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for Road to Avonlea, and the 2008 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for In Treatment. In addition, she was nominated for an Academy Award for 1989’s Parenthood.
The Donmar Warehouse is a 251-seat, not-for-profit theatre in Covent Garden, London, England. It first opened on 18 July 1977.
The Hot L Baltimore is a play by Lanford Wilson set in the lobby of the Hotel Baltimore. The plot focuses on the residents of the decaying property, who are faced with eviction when the structure is condemned. The play draws its title from the hotel's neon marquee with a burned-out "e" that was never replaced.
The Circle Repertory Company, originally named the Circle Theater Company, was a theatre company in New York City that ran from 1969 to 1996. It was founded on July 14, 1969, in Manhattan, in a second floor loft at Broadway and 83rd Street by director Marshall W. Mason, playwright Lanford Wilson, director Rob Thirkield, and actress Tanya Berezin, all of whom were veterans of the Caffe Cino. The plan was to establish a pool of artists — actors, directors, playwrights and designers — who would work together in the creation of plays. In 1974, The New York Times critic Mel Gussow acclaimed Circle Rep as the "chief provider of new American plays."
Marshall W. Mason is an American theater director, educator, and writer. Mason founded the Circle Repertory Company in New York City and was artistic director of the company for 18 years (1969–1987). He received an Obie Award for Sustained Achievement in 1983. In 2016, he received the Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theater.
Talley's Folly is a 1980 play by American playwright Lanford Wilson. The play is the second in The Talley Trilogy, between his plays Talley & Son and Fifth of July. Set in an boathouse near rural Lebanon, Missouri in 1944, it is a romantic comedy following the characters Matt Friedman and Sally Talley as they settle their feelings for each other. Wilson received the 1980 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the work. The play is unlike Wilson's other works, taking place in one act with no intermission, set in ninety-seven minutes of real time, with no set change.
Burn This is a play by Lanford Wilson. Like much of Wilson's work, the play includes themes of gay identity and relationships.
Kevin Adams is an American theatrical lighting designer. He has earned four Tony Awards for lighting design.
Josie Rourke is an English theatre and film director. She is a Vice-President of the London Library and was the artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse theatre in London from 2012 to 2019.
Jason Thomas Butler Harner is an American actor.
Hugh Vanstone is one of the UK’s foremost lighting designers. He has lit more than 160 productions, working in all spheres of live performance lighting, as well as exhibitions and architectural projects. His career has taken him all over the world and his work has been recognised with many awards, including a Tony Award for his lighting of Matilda the Musical, and the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Lighting Design in 1999, 2001 and 2004.
Dennis Parichy is an American lighting designer. He won the 1980 Drama Desk Award for Talley's Folly and the Obie Award in 1981.
Anthony Ward is a British theatre designer specializing in set and costume design. He studied theatre design at Wimbledon School of Art.
Red is a play by American writer John Logan about artist Mark Rothko first produced by the Donmar Warehouse, London, on December 8, 2009. The original production was directed by Michael Grandage and performed by Alfred Molina as Rothko and Eddie Redmayne as his fictional assistant Ken.
The Vote is a 2015 play by British playwright James Graham. The play received its world premiere at the Donmar Warehouse as part of their spring 2015 season, where it ran from 24 April to 7 May 2015. Directed by Josie Rourke and set in a fictitious London polling station on election night 2015, the play was broadcast live on UK television channel More4 on the night of the election. In 2019, the play was updated in a production for that year's general election.
Ludlow Fair is a one-act play by American playwright Lanford Wilson. It was first produced at Caffe Cino in 1965, a coffeehouse and theatre founded by Joe Cino, a pioneer of the Off-Off-Broadway theatre movement.
Choir Boy is a coming-of-age play by American playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney. The play premiered in September 2012 at the Royal Court Theatre, London, before going on to play productions at New York City Center, Alliance Theatre, Geffen Playhouse, and many more regional theatres across the United States. The show opened on Broadway at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on January 8, 2019, after entering previews on December 12, 2018.
Tanya Berezin is an American actress, co-founder and an artistic director of Circle Repertory Company in New York City, and educator. She has performed on Broadway and Off-Broadway, and has also appeared in a number of films and television series.
Sweat is a 2015 play by American playwright Lynn Nottage. It won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play premiered at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2015; it was produced Off-Broadway in 2016 and on Broadway in 2017. The play is centered on the working class of Reading, Pennsylvania.