Дженнифер Ель

• Babel the above and you get "Dzhennifer Fir Tree", how cool is that. It's from a photo-riddle comp at Jein Gallaher's blog (in Russian) with pics of Ms Fir Tree from the Tony anniversary days.
  
• Utopians on the town: Ethan Hawke, Billy Crudup and Brian F. O'Byrne will be hosting the Drama League lunch on May 11. Tix are available, call (212) 244-9494. Mr Hawke, Josh Hamilton and Amy Irving were also spotted at The Year of Magical Thinking.
  
• At BizBuzz, there's a long, enthusiastic chronicle from last week's Utopia marathon. Here's a description of one of my favourite scenes in Shipwreck:
  

  [...] Jennifer Ehle plays Herzens wife, who justifies an affair with Herzen’s best friend on the grounds that she has so much love for both of them, the love should be allowed to flourish freely. The ultimate disaster visited upon the Herzens and their friends brings about a stunning final scene in which philosophy and human drama seamlessly meld. It is truly transcendent. [...]

• More love for the marathon from David's blog. Verdict:

  [...] What can I say? Watching top actors at the top of their form, even Ethan Hawke was good (not great, but good…), it was a stirring day of theater I will never forget. If you have have a chance to see any of them, do, and if you can only see one, make it "Shipwreck". [...]

• Was everyone at that marathon? This is Clarence Carter for Reverse Shot.

  [...] This is not to say that his nautically inflected trilogy (Voyage, Shipwreck, and Salvage) about the exploits of the erstwhile crew of Russian thinkers and would-be revolutionaries circling around the lesser-known figure of Alexander Herzon doesn’t falter or lag across is nearly nine hours of length. This is largely to be expected. But even when the humor flattens out, the expository dialogue grows unwieldy, and historical accuracy jumps the shark, the entire project coasts (pun intended) on a forceful perspective and historical sweep that’s all too rare these days in any art form. I can’t imagine not seeing Utopia in a single afternoon—the bits that rhyme across plays would most likely be forgotten, and more importantly, the salvage act Stoppard performs on his group would be far less apparent, and less affecting because of it. [...]

• Broadway & Me laments the NY Times' grudge against Utopia/Stoppard as evinced by the reading list and Isherwood articles. But, um...what about this, this, this, this, this and this? Nevertheless, a nice defence of the show, and some more star-spotting: Lauren Bacall and historian Arthur Schlesinger were at the performance of Voyage that he attended. And there's this unusual analogy:

  [...] And yes, there are major philosophical issues to ponder like the role of literature in cultural identity and the role of rich men in proletarian revolutions, but there are also laugh out-loud jokes and who's-bedding-whom storylines that are as accessible as those on Desperate Housewives. [...]

• Leonard Jacobs of Backstage reviews Salvage. Positive overall.
  
• ALR of A Collection of Tomes gives The River King 3.5 stars and mentions the hair colour and accent thing.
• eBay has auctions for tickets to Shipwreck and the March 31st marathon at or below cost.
• Also up for auction is a script of Utopia annotated by Tom Stoppard, presumably from the London production.
  
• Terry Teachout of the Wall Street Journal names all three parts of Utopia in his list of Broadway recommendations.