thebell.blogspot.com

• Above title is inspired by the latest LCT blog offering, in which Brendan Lemon notes some of the funnies overheard in the Beaumont lobby during the intermissions at the marathons.
  
• Brian D. Johnson recounts his experience at the Utopia marathon last Saturday, the "ground zero of Stoppardia". On the cast:

  [...] Ethan Hawke has a great role, Bakunin, and he makes the most of it. Billy Crudup was Belinsky and beloved. He carried much of the weight for the required number of Stoppard Self-Referential Sermons (monologues) about Writing and Art. Jennifer Ehle was the love of my life and the fire of my etc. Brian F. O'Byne was brilliant as Herzen. [...]

  Speaking of Stoppardia, Michael Berry of Cheaper Ironies has a post on Sir Tom's political activities.
  
• David Clement wanted more Utopia after the 12-hour marathon day. That says it all. By the way, can anyone help him out?

  [...] The subject matter (19th century Russian intelligencia in exhile) is kinduh up my alley; like many suburban introvert kids of my generation, or maybe just one other person I hope to meet someday, I got overexcited when I saw Reds and started reading Russian writers from before the revolution. Tom Stoppard's play was like watching all those provocative, nebulous historical ideas take the form of attractive young actors. [...]

• Ditto on time flying while you're in Utopia (marathons), at The Laboratorium. Par contre, Jim Carlson couldn't make it through one part.
• At Broadway & Me, reflection on the audience's "armada of emotions" post-marathon, and some envy at the camaraderie between the actors displayed at the curtain call. Ethan Hawke's "uncontainable joy" is mentioned in particular.
• Has all this talk of marathons given you the itch? There's a question at All That Chat about whether you can get last-minute tickets - one person says that someone was selling discounted premium seats in the morning.
  
• Am, who watched Shipwreck, has an interesting take on the timefoolery element.
• Nice Belinsky quotage from Patrick Kanouse (try substituting "actor" for "poet", etc):

  “A poem can’t be written by an act of will. When the rest of us are trying our hardest to be present, a real poet goes absent. We can watch him in the moment of creation, there he sits with the pen in his hand, not moving. When it moves, we’ve missed it. Where did he go in that moment? The meaning of art lies in the answer to that question.”

• Stephen Smoliar talks about the analogy between the search for utopia (as conceived by Isaiah Berlin and Tom Stoppard) and the search for identity. Bit over my head, but that's not saying much.
• Mondschein of Third Row, Mezzanine makes the connection between the Bakunin sisters and Little Women after seeing Voyage. He enjoyed the performances and production, but was "a bit lost by the pace of the plot and the turnover of characters". And we can add another name to the list of illustrious Utopia attendees, Neil Simon.
• BroadwayWorld's MargoChanning is tipping Utopia as an almost dead-cert for the Best Play Tony. In another thread about the most hauntingly beautiful images on stage, the opening sequence of the plays as well as the end of Salvage are mentioned.
  
• Janmarie Anello is running a promo for her book Forever Yours, the prize for which is the US anniversary edition of Pride and Prejudice.
• QEIII saw The Philadelphia Story as a requirement for her course. Sadly, she was disappointed by it.
• Camille Hickman, a casting associate at the LCT who worked on Utopia, is hosting a free Q&A for aspiring actors on April 24.

Sorry again about the late and absent posts, dear readers. Thanks to Abi for keeping the ship afloat during my Easter trip to Chelsea's place in Brisbane, our first meeting after almost two years of blog-slogging together. A historic event!