Go home and wash your hands

Today is the US release date for Contagion! Plus, after months of waiting there is now only TWO WEEKS to go until the premiere of A Gifted Man on CBS so you'd better get the popcorn out on standby!

On a rather different note it appears that Steven Soderbergh, the director of Contagion, is a fan of Jennifer's, he praises her in this indiewire article where Jennifer's quoted as saying:

“This came out of the blue for me,” she said. “I usually have to audition and sort of jump through hoops and I didn’t for this. It completely blew me away for somebody that I admire as much as Steven to have that kind of faith that I could do it. I also took it assuming that, the same way I took the part in ‘Michael Clayton,’ assuming that probably it would be cut, but that I would have a wonderful experience meanwhile doing it, and that didn’t happen this time.”

Jennifer has also been in several video interviews recently during her time at the Venice film festival, including this one with Laurence Fishburne:



Meanwhile, Contagion has had its NYC premier, there are pictures of Jennifer here at Zimbio.

Read on

Finally figured out how you can read the interview here on the blog, instead of having to download it separately. Enjoy.

I found one !

Yes, after two tiresome hours of net hunting, I found a newspaper review in which the author seemed to have actually enjoyed Mr & Mrs Fitch:

In "John Lithgow, Jennifer Ehle star in wickedly funny "Mr & Mrs Fitch" off broadway", the author Robert Feldberg tells us that

Played with great panache by John Lithgow (which you might expect) and Jennifer Ehle (a fine dramatic actress unveiling a shining talent for comedy) [...] what makes the play such fun is the seamless collaboration among writer, actors and director Scott Ellis, who never let's the evening momentum flag.

The Fitches' great shared joy is their love of language. They never use one word when 10 will do; they don't speak plainly when it's so much more satisfying to be clever.

Second good news is that we have a video of Mr & Mrs Fitch premiere party which took place on Monday, February 22, in which Jennifer Ehle gets to speak about her role, and some nice pictures of it.

(Director Scott Ellis, Actors Jennifer Ehle and John Lithgow, playwright Douglas Carter Beane)

The other reviews...well, it's really a simple story - they all seem to have been built on the same pattern (it's quite impressive - and always disconcerting - to see such unanimity...) - a pattern which can be summarized as : Laughs are there but a plot is missing (The Washington examiner)

First part of the reviews: the set is great, the actors are good...

Romping about designer Allen Moyer's ultra-glam setting, complete with a spiral staircase and a grand piano, an aristocratic Lithgow and a bewitching Ehle do their considerable best to evoke Scott and Zelda, Noel and Gertie and the Lunts are rolled into one. (newjerseynewsroom.com)

John Lithgow, an actor who can play comedy with a heavy hand and make it seem
extraordinarily right, is the former [Mr Fitch]; a lower-tier newspaper gossiper feeling pangs of frustration for wasting his life on a trashy column instead of
writing that novel lingering in his imagination. Jennifer Ehle has an endearing quality as the Jersey girl who fell in love with Manhattan, and conveniently, with one who makes his living surveying its nightlife. (broadwayworld.com)

Lithgow and Ehle are working hard to be amusing. (curtainup.com)

...But, second part of the reviews, the play, stuffed with bons mots, epigrams, inside jokes, social and intellectual references and arch put-downs, falls to rise interest during two hours:

It doesn't take long before their repartee sounds more like a debate in which the content is only as good as the speed with which it is delivered. (curtainup.com)

What might have been mildly amusing as a one-act eventually gets strained to the breaking point, and a plot element involving the pair's making up a fictional character who suddenly takes on a life of his own is far too silly to make its intended satirical point (reuters.com)

Quantity has taken over quality in Beane's latest play...(...) The barrage of
self-satisfied quips is so relentless that the show quickly becomes numbing (...) It doesn't make sense, like anything else in this bewildering, sloppily plotted comedy. (nypost.com)

I certainly forgot other reviews of this type - sorry for their authors, but they're all quite the same! - the meanest one being Joe Dziemianowicz's at NY Daily News.

More original ones includes Cindy Adams review with 10 reasons why the Fitches' are not real journalists - I thought that was obvious, given it's theatre...- and, more funny, how it could be fixed.

An article well informed on all the references (87 !!) mentioned in the play. You can complete it if they are some missing.

Ah, the first post of 2009

I hope everyone had a good time ringing in the New Year!

"My Perfect Sunday"

Last November we posted a transcript of a magazine article that a fan kindly sent to us, but we weren't able to get the actual scan to work. Since then, we've figured it out and have added it to our photo album. It's Jennifer Ehle's eloquent description of what would constitute her perfect Sunday, published by the Telegraph's Seven magazine on November 9, 2008. Enjoy!

Continuing Reviewage

What would a post be without a review of Pride and Glory?! More praise is bestowed upon Jennifer Ehle for her portrayal of Abby Tierney, this time in Spanish. From El Confidencial:

[...] Es el caso de la parte dedicada a la enfermedad de Abby, la mujer de Emmerich (buena interpretación de Jennifer Ehle), que proporciona las secuencias con más fuerza de la película. [...]

My rough (aka gringa) translation: "The parts of the movie dedicated to Abby’s illness (great interpretation by Jennifer Ehle) are the most powerful scenes in the film."

Extras

For a great read about the Bridge Project, a new classical repertory theater company, check out this recent New York Times article, which includes quotage from participants Richard Easton and Rebecca Hall as well as instigators Kevin Spacey and Sam Mendes. Go rep! Here's a teaser:

[...] Mr. Easton, who at 75 remembers when repertory still thrived beyond the opera house, found that his recent experience in “The Coast of Utopia” — the trilogy of Tom Stoppard plays that ran in rep at Lincoln Center — reminded him why the system is worth the risk and expense. “You give a more total performance in each role,” he said, “because you don’t have to spend all your expertise in either one.” [...]

At Newsday, there is also an awesome interview with Martha Plimpton, who is currently starring in the musical Pal Joey on Broadway.

Here's to a great 2009!

A very special treat

Hello all, sincere apologies, and apologies the apologies are becoming more regular than posts at the moment! Rest assured that the posterly irregularity is only temporary and due to unavoidable hecticity which we will try and work through as soon as possible.

We'll have a general round up later in the week, but for now (thanks to a kind and observant reader) we have a little gem which passed us by earlier in the month. It is a piece from the Sunday Telegraph's Seven magazine from November 9, in which Ms Ehle describes - with characteristic loveliness - what her perfect Sunday would consist of. We don't yet have the link but will of course let you know if we locate it. Enjoy!

My Perfect Sunday - Jennifer Ehle (actress)

[...] I’d get up between six and seven, which is when my son George (who's five-and-a-half) normally wakes me. We'd go downstairs together, before anyone else was up. We have seven hens, so we'd go and let the girls out. They have a big run which they can walk around in, but we try to give them complete freedom in the field while we're out there with them. We live in the country, two hours outside Manhattan. New York is a great place, but I couldn't live in a city full-time now. When you find your natural habitat in life it's really hard to leave it.

At the weekend we often have friends and my parents to stay. It's our best way of seeing them all. Generally, people don't seem to rouse themselves until mid-morning, and my friend Martha and I have fallen into a routine where she makes them all breakfast. If it's winter, we have a fire going in the kitchen and one in the living-room, and everyone drinks coffee and chats. I get filled in on what happened the night before, after I went to bed.

I have these fantasies of having a big Sunday lunch, so on an ideal day I'd roast a couple of chickens for us. Usually, though, everyone has eaten breakfast not too long ago and so instead, I try to do a meal on Friday night when they all arrive. This summer we had friends staying in tents on our field, which was really lovely. On 4 July, we all went for an after-lunch walk, down to a river we have below our house. Our friend Pedro had us all swimming in it, which was wonderful because we've lived there for seven years and have never done that before. It was like he'd built us a pool. The day was incredibly hot, so it was heavenly.

In the evening, it's that delicious thing of having the place back to ourselves. I like to go outside with my son and put the chickens to bed and look at the shape of the moon. When he was younger, he used to play what he called 'chicken piano'. He'd stand by the roost and touch each hen in turn, they'd all be sleepy, and each one would make a different sound.

When George is in bed, it's lovely to sit with my husband and watch nonsense on the television, or sit by the fire and play cards and backgammon. I'd probably go up to bed around 9.30. If it really was my ideal Sunday, we would have woken up in the spring, had autumn for the morning (with its crisp air), summer for the afternoon and winter in the evening. [...]

It's raining blockquotes

Before the Rains opened in select cities in Canada on Friday, resulting in a new batch of reviews and, best of all, an interview from the Times Colonist, which features great quotage from Santosh Sivan, Linus Roache, and Jennifer Ehle herself:

[...] "You may think I make films that are always on the edge, but you know, I make children's movies, too," says Sivan, smiling a slightly mischievous smile.

"Every movie will speak to people differently because sometimes I have different things to say," he says. "The Terrorist was about finding a way to kill -- and training yourself to cross that line. Before the Rains is about finding a way not to kill. This one is about making a moral choice to not cross that line -- which also takes great courage, perhaps more courage than it takes to kill."

Sivan says he didn't set out to make a statement movie when he took on Cathy Rabin and Dan Verete's screenplay about a Englishman seeking to create a spice fortune.

"I was interested in exploring this cross-cultural encounter because as a filmmaker, it's an idea that's familiar to me. Movies speak from different traditions as well," he says.

"There is Bollywood. There is Hollywood. There is a whole history of European traditions as well. In Before the Rains, I did try to incorporate different styles. I tried to reference this notion of cultural collision -- and that helped with the overall design as we move from this brand of Eden to a very different reality," says Sivan.

Because Sivan generally has everything in his head before he rolls a second of film, the actors may find themselves in a dramatic game of catch-up.

"You don't really ever have a normal conversation with Santosh," says Roache, an actor probably best known as Thomas Wayne -- Batman's father in Batman Begins -- or newly installed executive A.D.A. Michael Cutter from Law and Order.

"He's such a natural storyteller you have to trust and follow him. He's not the kind of director who's going to indulge in long conversations about motivation. He's extremely visual, so if something's not working, he lets you know. But he's not so particular that he doesn't let you explore," says Roache.

Jennifer Ehle, who plays wife to Roache in the film, says talking can be a detriment to character anyway. "Sometimes, it's not helpful talking things over with a director. You just want to feel safe and secure, which is why you're probably talking to the director in the first place because you want to make him/her happy. Santosh always made us feel comfortable, so I didn't mind the lack of chatter," she says.

"And I think it worked well because we ended up being very spontaneous. We didn't know how some scenes would unfold until we did them . . . and that can be a lot of fun. There were other scenes that were very rehearsed. Santosh seems to direct by instinct, and you learn to follow along," says Ehle, who just wrapped Gavin O'Connor's Pride and Glory alongside Colin Farrell, Edward Norton and Jon Voight.

Roache says like all dramatic endeavours, a movie comes down to energy and inspiration. "Energy breeds energy, and Santosh has nothing but energy. He's truly incredible because he's always working, even when it looks like he's not doing anything. He's working."

The director says being back in his old stomping grounds served as his central inspiration. "I had a chance to explore the history of the place I grew up in -- I learned who made the roads and why. How could you not be excited to tell such a story? In so many ways, I felt like I was given a chance to tell the stories that had yet to be told -- stories about my ancestors, about my people, about those who fight for freedom," says Sivan.

"From beginning to end, it was a privilege." [...]

Katherine Monk, the author of the above interview, also published a review of the film at The Gazette. She astutely observes:

[...] The movie doesn't feel or even look like a survival story, but it's all about survival - not just of the individual, but of an entire culture on the verge of being swallowed whole.

The palpable sense of unease and unpredictability serves the movie extremely well because it cranks up the tension and pulls us out of the image-induced trance. It also blocks any attempt to turn Before the Rains into an epic romance in the tradition of The English Patient.

Thanks to the nuanced performances from the talented - and rather attractive - ensemble, every character earns empathy and respect, despite the flaws, because they all feel authentic.

Talented and attractive, indeed!

In the same vein, Ken Eisner of Straight.com offers some kind (and all too true) words about Ms. Ehle:

[...] Little here is unpredictable, but the film is full of deft touches, courtesy of director Santosh Sivan (who also made Theeviravaathi: The Terrorist). When Henry’s English wife shows up, for example, she is a fine, loving person, not the shrewish colonial you’re expecting to meet. (The fact that she’s played by the too-rarely seen Jennifer Ehle helps.) And one long scene in which T. K. is sorely tested by a tribal council offers a harrowing twist in a tale that turns out to be tougher than it looks.

If you feel so inclined, more reviews can be found at Online Athens, the Austin Chronicle, the Palm Beach Post, the Miami Herald, and the Basehor Sentinel.

At Newindpress there is an interesting article by Santosh Sivan, aptly titled "The art of light." Here is a short sample:

I have always believed that most faces are beautiful. Especially if you can focus on what is going on inside their minds. Sometimes what one sees as flaws is what is really interesting to others. When I film people and their faces, I make them feel secure so they are not conscious and they just perform.
. . .
Water plays a living, breathing character in my films. My unconscious study of nature and the colours, especially black and whites (I studied in a convent) are courtesy Kerala where you find water everywhere, in various moods, from a waterfall to a static pool.
. . .
Some say I follow the Zen way of life but that is an exaggeration. I get up and look at everything as if I’m seeing it for the first time, that’s all.

Linus Roache also discusses the film and his character, Henry Moores, in an interview at Straight.com:

[...] “My character becomes less likable as the story progresses, but, I think, he remains very understandable. I very consciously avoided bringing too much of a modern-day perspective to the part. I just wanted, as much as I could, to play straight that kind of British Raj arrogance: it was inbuilt and inbred. At the same time, he was kind of progressive, and definitely an ambitious guy, trying to make something big happen. In that sense, it does serve as a kind of metaphor for the British Empire, both in its energy and drive and in its ultimate demise and downfall.”
. . .
“The story is very well done when you look at it closely,” Roache avers. “Yes, you can pass judgment on what Henry does, but within that structure, what choices does he actually have? He’s a guy who has everything and thinks he’s entitled to more. Of course, once he has this affair, he’s in a situation where the two cultures collide. Events conspire, in the end, to force him to do nothing, and this is the case when nothing is a very strong action indeed.” [...]

Film Festival Alert: As part of its grand tour, Before the Rains will be featured at the Durban International Film Festival in South Africa, which will take place from July 23 to August 3. (Rains will be shown on August 1 and 2.) Visit the official DIFF website for the official press release and ticket information.

Finally, in the just for fun category, here are a few links about Rosemary Harris, courtesy of our favorite googler, Janet:

• There are some lovely words about Ms Harris in the book When Blanche Met Brando: The Scandalous Story of "A Streetcar Named Desire." (Note that Ellis Rabb was not her husband in 1973, as the book suggests.)
• For a correspondingly lovely picture of Ms Harris as Blanche DuBois, see Tennessee Williams' Memoirs.
• For Ms Harris's thoughts on "first inspirations" and "staying fresh," check out the book Acting: Working in the Theatre. (Note that Jennifer Ehle is quoted on page 45 of the same book and that all of the quotes are taken from the Working in the Theatre seminars, which can be viewed at the American Theatre Wing website.)
• Stay tuned for more of Janet's finds...

When it Rains, it pours!

So many exciting things to post about! First, it looks like Jennifer Ehle will be returning to Russia, figuratively speaking. She will be appearing alongside Kenneth Branagh in the Donmar West End production of Ivanov later this year! This is no ordinary Ivanov, but a new version of the Chekhov play written by none other than Tom Stoppard. Yes, this is the real thing: Jennifer Ehle in a Donmar production of a Stoppard play/adaptation! Mark your calendars for 12 September - 29 November 2008. Wunderbar, no?! Here is how the Donmar West End website describes the new Ivanov:

His marriage is in crisis, and his evenings are spent negotiating loans, avoiding love affairs and fighting to resist the small town jealousies and intrigues which threaten to engulf his life.

Kenneth Branagh plays the title role in Chekhov’s explosive portrait of a man plagued with self-doubt and despair which vividly captures the electrifying atmosphere of Russia on the brink of change.

There is a caveat, however. We can't find any "googlable" (Tez's word) confirmation that Jennifer Ehle has been cast in the play. But, the news came straight from the horse's mouth: listen to the Leonard Lopate interview at WNYC.org. Ms Ehle appeared on Lopate's radio show on Thursday in order to discuss Before the Rains. The interview is about 17 minutes long and can be downloaded in MP3 format - a very interesting listen! Flickr has kindly posted this photo if you would like an image to go along with the audio. Note - if you haven’t already done so, you can listen to last year’s Leonard Lopate interview with Jennifer Ehle and her fellow Coast of Utopia castmates at WNYC.org.

The other exciting news is that Before the Rains was released in New York and Los Angeles yesterday. The Rains naturally brought in a flood of reviews:

• Newsday concludes: "The film is well-acted, a broad colonial allegory, and again, visually gorgeous."


• The New York Times explains:
  

  Fatal culture clash, imperialist entitlement, forbidden passion between master and servant: the ingredients of the Indian director Santosh Sivan’s period piece “Before the Rains” may be awfully familiar, but the film lends them the force of tragedy. [...]

• The Village Voice mentions the "wonderfully headstrong Jennifer Ehle" and claims:
  

  [...] Director Santosh Sivan imparts a vastness and a sense of wonder to the film, qualities reminiscent of a Thomas Cole painting: They remind you why the Brits thought conquering India was a good idea in the first place.

• There is more praise at New York Magazine:
  

  [...] But the screenplay, by Cathy Rabin and Dan Verete, builds nicely, and the cinematographer turned director, Santosh Sivan, likes to break up the verdant images with bits of encroaching nature: a frog, some bees, the flies on a cow’s eye. Before the Rains is more engrossing as the focus shifts from Henry, who’s not a bad man, just a spineless one, to Sajani, who thinks her English lover will give her a freedom she has never had—and finally to T.K., who gets stuck cleaning up his sahib’s mess. Rahul Bose has a winning presence—eager with a touch of wariness or wary with a touch of eagerness, and never entirely at home. He keeps the movie from seeming too comfy—a good thing.

• MaryAnn Johanson at Flick Filosopher is completely taken with the film:
  

  [...] We don’t know who seduced whom: we’re the ones who get seduced by Before the Rains from the get-go. Renowned Indian director and cinematographer Santosh Sivan (Bride & Prejudice), in his first English-language movie, introduces us to Henry and Sajani as lovers in a scene that may be one of the most erotic things I’ve ever seen on film. There’s absolutely no nudity, it’s not graphic in the least, but it is smokin’ hot. Ouch. [...] This is a movie made up of shivery delicious moments, beautiful little artistic ahas! that make you remember why you fell in love with movies in the first place. [...]

• There are some interesting comments at TV Guide:
  

  [...] A resolutely old fashioned story of personal tribulations played out against a backdrop of political turmoil, Sivan's film is well acted, beautifully photographed and oddly reassuring. It comes perilously close to suggesting that the injustices of colonial rule were the product of morally weak and misguided individuals rather than a system that empowered and enriched foreign interests at the expense of locals. Though based on an original screenplay by Cathy Rabin, it feels like a handsomely mounted literary adaptation [...]

• Hollywood.com is chock full of positive quotage:
  

  Before the Rains fascinates, enveloping you in its gripping story and lush locations. One of the most ravishing and breathtakingly beautiful films to come around in a long time.

  On the acting:
  

  Law and Order star Linus Roache returns to his comfort zone in English art-house cinema in past movies like Priest, capturing just the right balance between an ambitious man looking for upward mobility professionally and satisfaction personally against a turbulent backdrop of emerging nationalism in India. Love scenes with the gorgeous Nandita Das are sensual and believable--the stuff of classically tragic movie romance. Das is a real find. Not only does the camera love her, she acts with great poignancy as a woman trapped in traditions her heart will not let her follow. The other big female role goes to Jennifer Ehle, a fine actress stuck with a rather thankless role as “the wife.” Along with Das, the other standout in the cast is Indian superstar Rahul Bose, who makes his “right hand man” conflicted and convincing as a man smack in the middle of two worlds with only one way out, caught up in events drifting out of his control.

  On the direction:
  

  Often foreign directors taking on their first English language projects flounder as something gets lost in the translation and they stray too far from roots they are comfortable with. For Indian director Santosh Sivan, the choice of this fascinating, if somewhat soapy story, is perfect. Based on an Israeli short film Red Roofs, the setting, characters and time period have been changed but its universal truths remain, with Sivan working in a new language while shooting in his native land. He successfully walks the fine line between a starkly realistic approach and melodrama, landing somewhere in the middle. Perhaps key to his triumph over the language barriers is the international feel of the whole enterprise and the choice of Indian actors who are able to make the leap themselves. But without question the key ingredient to Sivan’s vision is his own stunning, jaw-droppingly gorgeous cinematography. When director and cameraman are the same, the results, at least in this case, are really something to watch.

• There are also a handful of not-so-good reviews, including those at The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and Time Out New York. Pfft. To each his own.

In other Rains news, the film was shown at the Asian American Film Festival yesterday, and it will continue to make its way around the world by appearing at the Edinburgh International Film Festival at the end of June. This photo is from the Q&A session at Tribeca, courtesy of Flickr.

P.S. Here is more evidence that Jack O'Brien is made of awesome, in case you needed any.

Postdiluvian

Before the Rains' New York premiere at Tribeca has brought a ton of articles, interviews and other goodies, presented here in classic Jerryblog chaotic listage. Enjoy!

• CW11 Morning News has video of a brief interview with Jennifer Ehle talking about Before the Rains, travelling to India with Rosemary Harris and the family, and (almost) spending the night with a certain Mr Clooney.

• Santosh Sivan speaks to the Times of India about composer Mark Killian winning the music award at the Houston International Film Fest and also gives some good news about upcoming release internationally:

  "I’ve got 12 National Awards in all, so winning awards is not a big deal for me," admits the shy cinematographer-filmmaker. "This is a non-formula, non-Bollywood film and Hollywood’s Mark Kilian (Rendition, The Bird Can’t Fly) is the first non-Indian composer to be honoured internationally for an Indian film."
  
  He decided to use Kilian in Before The Rains because he didn’t want a ‘typical’ soundtrack with strings, harmonies and ragas denoting the green stretches of Munnar. “I wanted an element of the unexpected in the music. I think Kilian’s work gave my film an extra dimension. And I shot the greenery in a non-typical manner,” says Santosh. He has yet to release the film in India. “It’s not easy to do that with an English-language Indian film in mainstream theatres,” he complains. But Before The Rains is opening commercially in New York and then goes to the prestigious Edinburgh Film Festival in June, where it will open at the posh Metrodome. “It then goes for release to the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Russia. I suppose the film has now acquired a life of its own beyond the country of its origin,” laughs Santosh.

• Metrodome lists the release date as Friday June 27th 2008.
  
• The Before the Rains official site has been updated since I last saw it and includes a note from Deepak Chopra. You can also listen to the gorgeous soundtrack there.
  

  [...] In America, we've enjoyed a spate of films that read like nuanced short stories ("In the Bedroom", "Little Children", "The Savages"), and now it's a delight to find such layered sophistication coming from India. "Before the Rains" fully deserves to stand in that company. It unfolds along expected lines -- the classic Merchant Ivory costume movie from which we expect exotic scene-setting and just as exotic love affairs, only to wind up in much deeper waters. Touching and thought-provoking, "Before the Rains" doesn't set out to change our conception of how conscience came to grief as British imperial glory died, but it achieves even more. It makes us reflect on how we ourselves will feel when the dispossessed of the world rise to ask us for dignity, freedom, and love without past taints of condescension and guilt.

• Terrible questions and entertaining answers in an audio interview with Jennifer Ehle, Rahul Bose and Linus Roache .
  
• Reuters' Frank Scheck reviews Rains and gives a so-so verdict; "minor entry in the Merchant Ivory canon", he calls it.
• Darrell Hartman of the NY Sun has quotage from Mssrs Sivan and Bose as well as Nandita Das. Here's Mr Bose:

  [...] "['Before the Rains'] is really the best example of a collaborative effort between East and West: the rigor and stringency of American writing, the almost anal attention to detail by the producers — India is a more savoir faire kind of a place. You have actors from both sides. You have a production designer who's won awards in India, and he'll be collaborating with a guy in Los Angeles who's been doing Indian music." [...]

• Video interview with Mr Bose at IBN.

  Rahul Bose says, "What's the personal issue? A friend on one hand, and on the other hand loyalty to your village. Loyalty to Moore or customs of his village. So TK's character has at one point in time to choose between the two."

• Rains is being claimed for Mother Britain at Cineuropa.

  In this beautifully shot film, an English spice baron, played with appropriate class privilege mixed with angst by Linus Roche, is the very model of an English ex-patriot, with a wife and young son in tow. [...] The impossibly handsome Indian actor Rahul Bose gives a startling performance as a man torn between modernism and tradition, a metaphor for his entire country.

• Report about Mark Killian's live performance of the soundtrack, from Rhythm Village:

  Mark Killian’s performance followed later in the evening, after a screening of Santosh Sivan’s film Before the Rains, which features an original score by Mr. Kilian. He performed pieces from the soundtrack, accompanied by a bansuri flutist as people left the screening, which beautifully represented a defining feature of Rhythm Village -the ability to extend the film going experience beyond the theater.

• Rains makes E. Nina Rothe's top five films of the week:

  Another film opening that same weekend will be Santosh Sivan’s “Before the Rains”. Once again, this is a visually stunning film, superbly acted by Indian multiplex hottie Rahul Bose as well as Linus Roache, Jennifer Ehle and Nandita Das. A character study into the depths of fear, loyalty and love, the ending will leave you breathless. It is a Merchant and Ivory production, which should give you some insight into the incredible quality of cinematography and acting at work here.


• Filmiholic has a couple of shots from the Rains press conference at the Indian Consulate, including one with Ms Ehle. Wireimage has 14 more and Getty Images has a few from the film's Tribeca premiere. Further pics of Ms Das, Mr Bose and Mr Sivan at Rediff.






• 3.5 stars from Notes from the Jaman Lounge:

  [...] Beautifully played by Bollywood mainstay Bose and by Roche, with an effective portrayal of East-West tensions, “Before the Rains” is a worthy addition to the Merchant-Ivory catalog, and an impressive cross-cultural achievement for director-cinematographer Sivan.

• A full 5 stars on the other hand from Lisa Martini of Time Out NY.

  This love story is set against civil unrest in India in 1937. Henry, a charismatic Brit, and Sajani, his sultry love interest, try to forge a romance but are caught up in a constant downpour of loss and despair. T.K., the other primary character, is a youth trapped in a class struggle, who feels conflicting loyalties to both his Indian family and his British employer. You become quite fond of T.K. as he navigates his way between two vastly different worlds—his family's simple village and the British upper-class society. As the frenetic story moves to its conclusion, these worlds converge, with T.K. the better for it. It's a brisk film that keeps you engaged until the end.

• Peter Martin on Twitch reviews the flick at the Indian Film Festival of LA:

  [...] The film presents historical scenes of peaceful civil disobedience, road building through the forest, and village life, but too often it feels like the pages of a pretty pictorial are being turned. Sivan, who also served as cinematographer, fills every frame with beautiful visuals; if only he was able to bring more life to the proceedings, the film as a whole might have been more galvanizing.

• Video interviews with producer Doug Mankoff and Linus Roache at the AFI Dallas fest.
• Iefilmi recaps some of the film's press notes and critical response to it.
• Snip from New York Cool's Frank Avella, in an overview of Tribeca:

  The Spotlight section focuses on films that have already acquired U.S. distribution but have yet to be released including work by such esteemed directors as: Oscar nominee Julian Schnabel; Guy Maddin and Tom Kalin. This section includes the powerful feature, Before the Rains, which is most impressive for four potent performances by Linus Roach, Rahul Bose, Nandita Das and Jennifer Ehle.

• Robert Levin at UWire:

  Indian director Satosh Sivan makes his English language debut with this picturesque melodrama that's filled with strong, stark emotions and symbolic, painterly visuals. Fast-paced and rife with characterizations, it stars Linus Roache as Henry Moores, a British man sponsoring the construction of a road in South India as the independence movement flairs around him. The narrative follows the local fallout from the discovery of the married Moores' affair with Sajani (Nandita Das), his housekeeper from the local village. There's not much in the way of cinematographic subtlety, but the movie looks great and maintains old-fashioned dramatic appeal.

• 3/4 stars at Screen Comment blog:

  After one look at this visually stunning new picture by the team of Merchant Ivory you might think, well, this isn't fair, director Santosh Sivan has had the benefit of a terrific cast in the persons of Linus Roache, Jennifer Ehle and Rahul Bose. Place them in the lush surroundings of 1930s India and other filmmakers might be at a sharp disadvantage. But Sivan triumphs with this historical epic set against the mounting nationalist uprisings of 1930s India and earns his stripes among today's top filmmakers. (***/4)

Today marks the 3rd anniversary of this here blog! Have some cake for us. For a blast from the distant past, have a peek at Internet Archive to see what the Ghost of Blog Past looked like. However, this last year has belonged to Team Kate & Abi (currently caught up in academics) so will leave it to them to review their first year helming el blog. Guys, thanks for the hard work, the endless linkies, the wit...and the occasional sly leg-yank (Pine Terrace!). I could not be prouder or more grateful. Here's to the next three years!

Film Festival Round-up: Interviews and Reviews!

There are lots of goodies from the Sarasota Film Festival, where Before the Rains was screened earlier this week. First, the Herald Tribune has a short, but sweet interview with Jennifer Ehle, which is accompanied by a lovely photo. Here's one of the cutest bits:

[...] When Ehle arrived with her husband and son this week for the Sarasota Film Festival,, she discovered they were given a two-bedroom suite at the Longboat Key Club.

"So I called my folks and they came down to be with us," Ehle said. "Who wouldn't want to come down here?" she said, pointing her hand toward the lush foliage at Selby Gardens, where she was attending a luncheon honoring actress Liv Ullmann. [...]

Ms Ehle also described Before the Rains as "a beautiful film and a mighty good yarn."

There is an even better interview at Buzz Worthy. Apparently slow zinnia days are going to be replaced with busy bee days:

[...] Upon meeting me and noting the fact I had an interesting name (January) — she told me about the small flock of chicks her and husband are raising on their land in New York. She plans on raising a small colony of bees soon, too.

I was "stunned" by that. I've never met an actress that's into bees, or chickens for that matter. Interesting. [...]

Regarding the character she plays in Rains:

[...] Ehle plays Henry's wife, Laura, who is back home in England unaware of his affair.

"She's just mystified by his behavior," said Ehle, who fell in love with the script that highlights India's struggle with British colonialism.

She said there are subtle little shifts in Laura's character and before long, the events taking place come to a head. [...]

At the Bradenton Herald you can see two photos of Ms Ehle in pretty green florality which, according to the captions, were taken during the above interview. (Slides 9 and 10)

At the Tampa Bay Blog there is another interview (can you believe our good fortune?!), this time via phone. On film frothiness:

[...] Ehle's mother is Rosemary Harris, also a Tony winning actor and best-know to movie masses as "Aunt May Parker" in the Spider-Man trilogy. They played young and old versions of the same character in two movies, including Istvan Szabo's Sunshine. Since Mom made the leap (or took the fall) to popcorn cinema, and since Ehle is a lovely woman, why doesn't she play a few frothy, fluffy Bullock/Roberts/Hathaway kinds of roles?

"I don’t know why," she said laughing. "Talk to my manager. I guess people don’t think of me as frothy but God knows I have my moments.

"You know, I actually, really enjoy escapism. I’ve probably seen more escapist movies than any other kind, not that I see a lot because I’m a very happy homebody.

"(My mother) adores being part of (a blockbuster series). I don’t yearn for it. I’m sure the financial security would be lovely. But I actually know lots of people who have been part of those kinds of movies that haven’t given them that financial security. It’s not always the actors who make the most amount of money from those ventures. Sometimes they make enormous amounts. But I don’t yearn for that kind of fame.

"Maybe when I’m 70 I’ll get one of those parts, too."

Now on to the reviews:

Jay Handelman at The Herald Tribune mostly summarizes the plot, but he concludes:

[...] Roache is full of bombast as Henry pushes his road project, but also moving, as you can see his internal emotional and intellectual struggles over what to do about the affair. As his wife, Jennifer Ehle is likewise touching, particularly in a key scene when she realizes the full impact of her husband's actions.

Bose and Nandita Das as the scorned woman also add to the impact of a film that looks at Indian culture and traditions, and is surprising even as its conclusion seems almost inevitable.

Joe Leydon of The Chronicle finds the movie lacking, but praises the performances.

If you thought Before the Rains had completed the film festival circuit, think again. Last night it was showcased at the opening night of the WorldFest Houston International Film Festival. See the press release at Yahoo! for more information. And, Net News Publisher announces that the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles will be screening Rains on April 23. Don't forget that it will also be shown at Tribeca on April 29, May 1 and May 2.

Rains & Belonging

Salutations all!

Firstly, here is what appears to be a marginally revamped poster for Before the Rains. Pretty, no?

The schedule for the Tribeca Film Festival has also now been released. Before the Rains will be shown on April 29, May 1 and May 2. Click here for locations and exact times.

Press-wise, Kerala Next briefly comment on the film's aforementioned wide distribution, adding also that Sivan's piece 'throws in plenty of visual surprises'. Lastly, thank you to the tagboarder who directed our eyes to this short video on the film which we may have missed from last year. (Note: Ms Ehle snippets present.)

Another reader has kindly alerted us to the short interview with Rosemary Harris which is included as part of the extras on the Belonging DVD. Rosemary Harris played May Copplestone in the 2004 television drama, and the following is what she had to say about the project. The novel referred to in the first question is Stevie Davies' The Web of Belonging.

Q: Had you read the novel?

RH: [...] I didn't know of the book before, but I think it's a masterpiece. It's so rich and free, and my sisters are now both reading it, and they keep ringing me up and enthusing about it. I actually have to give my darling older sister, Pamela, the credit for my May wearing a baseball cap!

I once brought back a silky blue one from the States. I lent it to her, and with her blazing blue eyes, she looked so gorgeous in it that I never had the heart to take it away from her, and she now wears it all the time. So I thought May's cap could be an homage to my sister. [...]

Q: Describe May.

RH: [...] May invented the term strong-willed. She's a bit of a monster really. I think she's a little bit round the bend and a complete narcissist. She only sees things from her own point of view. I've certainly known people who can be utterly charming, but ultimately care only for themselves.

I think she's a wicked character to play (especially when she starts talking about cattle dung being a serious threat to the ozone layer in the southern hemisphere!), and I adore her--I think there could be a whole play about her! I don't normally play
such colorful characters as May, and it's fun.

May is the younger sister of Brenda and obviously the difficult one. Apparently I was rather difficult as a child. I was considerably younger than my sister, yet she was terrified of me. I was called the household devil, so I have used my own experiences in playing May. [...]

Q: Would you ever want your children to care for you in your old age?

RH: [...] I don't know if I will need care later in life, but I wouldn't wish it on my daughter or son-in-law! I would like to keep going in a little bungalow, managing my myself for as long as I possibly could.

I am very interested in this new ruling being discussed about housing where developers must build houses with a bedroom on the ground floor and a bathroom just because they can't manage the stairs and things. They seem to think that this will help a lot with the problem of shuttling old people off into nursing homes.

Being an actress, one need never retire. I suppose the longer you can keep your marbles, the longer you can "stay on the branch" and the less competition there is. When I was young, people used to say, "How can you learn all those lines," and I thought, "That's the silliest question," and now I think it is the most sensible. Now when I start a new job, my brain needs to crank up and struggles to memorize for a few days, and then suddenly, something kicks in, and it's lovely to thread all those beads together and relish the mental exercise. [...]

Additionally, here are the relevant thoughts of one reviewer, who after praising Brenda Blethyn's performance, says:

[...] But the limelight in this case has to be shared with Rosemary Harris, playing the mother-in-law, who has some excellent lines and delivers them well. Both turn in top quality performances. [...]

On the story:

[...] The plot is simple: what happens when a middle-aged husband leaves his wife for a younger woman. But the result is not exactly predictable. [...]

Belonging can be purchased on Amazon, in Region 1 and Region 2.

Today's miscellanea:

• Variety have an interesting piece about reconciling theatre and digital technology. The Coast of Utopia is mentioned, although blink and you may miss it.
• Broadway World announce that Martha Plimpton will be one of nine co-chairs at the Drama League Awards in May. Tickets are available for the ruble-laden. The Coast of Utopia won in last season's 'Distinguished Production of a Play' category and Rosemary Harris is listed as a past recipient.
• And finally, a nice article from the Times talks at length about Tom Stoppard's life. It is actually written by Tom Stoppard, which helps.

The Engrossing Blinibake

• Mark Lawson of BBC Radio 4's Front Row interviews Tom Stoppard amid Rock 'n' Roll rehearsals. See 'Editor's Pick' on the right-hand side or scroll down to the download and podcast links. Topics discussed include Rock 'n' Roll, Czechoslovakia, Englishness, parallel autobiographies, and how a play is like a diagram on the back of an envelope.

• More thoughts, this time from Playbill, on Mark Bennett's incidental music score and its ability to recapture 'the dizzyingly-supreme heights' of the production:

[...] To call this incidental is inapt; the music, in Jack O'Brien's New York production of Tom Stoppard's monumental trilogy, was as integral to the whole as the sets and lighting and performances. Stoppard and O'Brien, both, offer Bennett encomiums of praise in the liner notes, and they are well deserved. The rewards of listening to The Coast of Utopia will perhaps be greater for fans of motion picture soundtracks than standard Broadway cast albums; there are no songs here, after all. (Well, not quite; Felicity LaFortune sings "La Marseilles," and joins David Pittu for three Italian arias. ...) But people who like to listen to show tunes, and only show tunes, are advised that there are none here.

The most famous incidental music from plays, perhaps, are the scores by Felix Mendelssohn for A Midsummer's Night Dream and Edvard Grieg for Peer Gynt. (Shakespeare, Ibsen, Stoppard. . . . interesting combination.) In both earlier cases, the numerous music cues were far more accessible once joined into suites. That might well be the case with The Coast of Utopia as well; listening to 38 tracks — many less than a minute long — makes for a somewhat disjointed experience. Even so, Mark Bennett's original music for The Coast of Utopia is quite as engrossing as the whole eight-and-a-half hour clambake. Or, rather, blinibake.

• Judith Newmark of STLtoday discusses the relevance that The Coast of Utopia and Spring Awakening have for the modern world:

[...] Historical plays sometimes speak most eloquently about the present - and the future. With their exceptional backward view, they position us to note the key, cultural transitions that we might have missed reading our daily papers. That's precisely what Sater and Sheik, in a musical, and Stoppard, in plays, put us in position to see in 2007. Both of the acclaimed productions doff a hat to old-style conventions: charming period costumes, lowly serfs silently schlepping furniture in "Coast," autocratic schoolmasters berating their pupils in "Spring Awakening."Furthermore, both plays acknowledge their periods' mores. The brainy aristocrats of "Coast" ice-skate, attend balls and, to change the world, write newspaper articles. The teenagers of "Spring Awakening" become object lessons in the tragic consequences of an unplanned pregnancy or of a kiss between boys. There's no notion of therapy or tolerance; calamitous action breeds calamitous consequence.

... Herzen's intellectual sons fomented the Russian revolution, an
event that, regardless of its hideous consequences, played a large part in shaping our modern world.

... In both plays, the characters are moderns, almost by definition. We know who they are and what they are worried about, even when we encounter them, onstage, in worlds that ended long ago. But they still sound and look like us, albeit in different clothes.

... That's precisely the strength of theatrical art. It doesn't need to be real to be true. It may even seem truer if it hasn't been real for a long time."The Coast of Utopia" and "Spring Awakening" both profit from that gap. Their remote, historic underpinnings allow a contemporary audience to keep its distance and, simultaneously, to recognize that the characters onstage — whether nascent revolutionaries burning for an egalitarian society or nascent flower-children burning for each other — live very close to home. It's just that smart theater artists have had the wit to change the addresses.

• Rock 'n' Roll is now up on BBC Radio 3, but only for another six days. Listen out for Bill Paterson of Melissa and Sunshine fame as Max. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is scheduled for Sunday July 15, 21:40-23:30 (British time) on Radio 3. Until then, Night Waves (available for three more days) explores the play's origins and legacy with those that have been involved in bringing it to the stage, including the director of the very first production, Derek Goldby.

• To mark the fantastic Billy Crudup's birthday, Hollywood.com are drawing our attention to their biography of him, which lists his professions as 'Actor, waiter and parking valet'. Nice to know Tony Award winners started somewhere. Unless acting earns one even less roubles than we thought...Billy's blinibakes, anyone?!

You say Kakegoe, I say Curtain Call

Just a few little tidbits today:

• Zachary Pincus-Roth of the New York Times has a very interesting piece on the uniquely American phenomenon of entrance applause. Whilst flattering, the consensus seems to be that it is a hindrance theatrically. While most of the discussion centers around well-known faces prompting applause, The Coast of Utopia is singled out as an example where the set was the cause of the claps:
  

[...] Billy Crudup and Ethan Hawke did not usually get it when entering amid an ensemble in “The Coast of Utopia.” But the sweeping opening of the first play in the trilogy — when an ocean effect of swirling curtains is transformed into a stage full of serfs — frequently elicited applause. [...]

There is also mention of the Japanese tradition of kakegoe, whereby anything resembling a curtain call is replaced by sporadic shouting at the cast throughout the performance. The Coast of Utopia without a curtain call? Not a happy thought indeed!

• Cinematical has a (little) more info on Ethan Hawke's directorial debut with Jonathan Marc Sherman's Things We Want:

It's a dark comedy about three brothers who have to deal with the suicides of both their parents. The production will be part of New Group's 2007-08 season, with previews commencing on October 7.

Writer Monika Bartyzel is curious about how he'll handle directing the stage, but has a 'sneaking suspicion that he could whip up some great theater'. Me too.

• The links are up for BBC Radio 4's broadcasts of Albert's Bridge and Arcadia. They are only available for seven days after broadcast, taking us up to (depending on where you are) 5/6 and 6/7 July respectively. BBC listeners seem to be getting very excited about all the Stoppardian attention; one calling Arcadia 'the best thing Radio 4 has done for ages'. Happy listening!
  

• According to All That Chat, Catherine Zuber's Downstage Center interview will be available as streaming audio and podcast from www.americantheatrewing.org beginning Monday afternoon today, July 2.
  

Three-time Tony Award-winning costume designer Catherine Zuber talks about the process of costume design and the nature of the collaboration between designers and a director; explains how she chooses her projects -- and how many she takes on each year; recounts the challenge of creating 600 costumes for the Lincoln Center Theatre production of The Coast of Utopia; describes the development of the costumes for the multiple incarnations (and changing cast members) of The Light in the Piazza; shares how she made the career transition from photographer to designer; and dispenses some tips to aspiring designers about how to develop their skills.

• Should your rouble balance be on the high side at the moment, eBay is auctioning a package for the opening night of Rock'n'Roll in New York this Fall. The winner receives two tickets for the performance plus two cast party passes to the post-show shenanigans. The current bid is $985, but all proceeds do go to The Actors' Fund. You have until July 5 to get bidding.

• Last but not least, a very Happy Birthday to the genius that is Mr Tom Stoppard, who turns 70 tomorrow, July 3, and to the fabulous Billy Crudup, who turns 39 on July 8. S dniom roždenija!

To Russia With Love

After the glorious finale to Utopiadom in New York, attention is now being shifted to the country from which it all came. The Guardian interviews Tom Stoppard in Moscow amid the arduous but seemingly fascinating Russian rehearsals (which according to Mr. Butler Harner have been going on since November 2005!) Although in some respects the transition seems to be proceeding well, there does appear to have been the odd hiccup:

When rehearsing the second act on stage, the cast immediately runs into difficulties. Herzen, his wife Natalie and their friend George are discussing Marx:

H: But Marx is a bourgeois from the anus up.
N: Alexander! I won't have that word . . .
H: Sorry, middle class.

"I don't understand when you're having fun and when you're being sincere," Stoppard interjects. Ilya is baffled: "Is it a joke?" "I find it really interesting that you have to ask that!" says Stoppard. "Really interesting." The Russians explain that the joke doesn't work in Russian. "Because we don't really have this word 'bourgeois', meaning middle class." Until recently, Russians have not even used the word "middle class". "Well, what is that word?" asks Stoppard. "It must be equivalent to 'bourgeois'." Ilya explains that when Herzen says "Sorry, middle class", it sounds as if he's saying "Sorry, I said that rude word because I'm middle class". "Look," Stoppard says, "what about 'Sorry, I mean middle class'?" This works. And he realises that this discussion has opened a door.

Jason Butler Harner, meanwhile has written a lovely piece for the Theatre Communications Group. The ex-Mr Turgenev gives another wonderful insight into the memorable episodes of the gargantuan ride, such as Marathon curtain call number one:

On the walk downstage, I had a split second of crystallization. Time stopped. White noise. I inhaled. A profoundly calm, communal moment happened in a hair's breadth…the moment so sought after by the creative spirit and so frequently avoided. The unwavering fervor of the audience pulled me back. And then came the real gift of staring into the eyes of specific strangers and thanking them. The reciprocal strength demanded and garnered in locking eyes and sharing a silent "thank you" and "we made it" leaves one speechless. I will never experience anything like it my lifetime again. The Utopians then celebrated into the wee hours singing rounds of "The Tsar is dead!" in a Midtown bar.

To coincide with Sir Tom's 70th birthday on July 3rd, BBC radio are running a special celebration of his work from June 29-July 15, including the broadcast debut of Rock'n'Roll on Radio 3, July 8. Fellow Guardian-er Michael Billington adds Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead to the schedule, and is finding it hard to believe Mr Stoppard's age after finding him 'as youthfully effervescent as ever'. The only other plays on the BBC Radio 4 schedule yet are Albert's Bridge, Arcadia and 15-minute Hamlet. Fingers crossed for Utopia! All will be available online post-broadcast.

Sticking with the radio theme, Tony Award winner and Utopia costume designer extraordinaire Catherine Zuber is among the next batch of interviewees for Downstage Center. We'll post the link when it's up.

There is also a post-Tonys piece by the Telegraph which seems to have swum past our fishing rod. Again, I apologize on behalf of my country for the uncalled for first sentence. And clearly some Brits need a lesson as to what 'Broadway' means. (Please correct me if I am wrong here). It is also interesting that the aforementioned Michael Billington is one of those who seems to have doubted the ability of a revival! In the comments section meanwhile, reader Simon Coulter asked a question that I think is on all of our minds:

I do though wonder what you do with lots of Tonys and all those other awards - are they dust gatherers or can you keep them on a (rather large) mantelpiece?

Happy thought indeed! The best first sentence award goes to Times Online's Benedict Nightingale, who says that 'there are no dramatists for whom I'd rather risk deep-vein thrombosis than Tom Stoppard' even if the other half of the sentence is 'but his nine-hour flight through mid-19th-century Russian history isn't the easiest ride'.

Elsewhere on the web, theatre-insider Emma spied Ms Ehle through the crowds at the aforementioned Romeo and Juliet performance in Central Park, and describes her as 'the most angelic other-worldly presence I have ever seen'. On a more jovial note, thefridayfive are keen to remake Gone with the Wind with Ms Ehle as Scarlett. Funding, anyone?

A few stragglers

There are still a few straggling bits of news and quotes from the Tonys Awards.

• Greensboro's News-Record reports that North Carolinians are happy to bask in Jennifer Ehle's reflected glory:

  The region got to bask in a bit of reflected glory last week when Jennifer Ehle, who was born in Winston-Salem and attended the School of the Arts, won her second Tony award, this one for best performance by a featured actress in "The Coast of Utopia." Bravo!

• New York Magazine has a short Tonys slideshow featuring a picture of Billy Crudup. The caption reads:
  

  Billy Crudup communes with his Tony for The Coast of Utopia, which closed in May. Is he having withdrawal? “It’s depressing! Totally and utterly depressing. You give up this thing that you’ve devoted all your time and creative energy to, and it’s gone. For theater, it’s even worse because it’s in the ether. There’s nothing left anywhere but your experience.”

  Also, the caption under Liev Schreiber's photo informs us that he was given first dibs on doing The Coast of Utopia:
  

  “I love these awards,” he says. “They’re better than the Oscars. At least these people know how to put on a show.” Schreiber, who was up for his performance in Talk Radio, says he was the first person Jack O’Brien approached for Utopia. “I said no. I don’t have the balls those guys do.” Next up, fatherhood and writing a screenplay. “I don’t want to talk about it, because then I can’t change my mind. They’ll be like, ‘Ah, he didn’t win the Tony. And now he’s failed again.’”

  There is also some speculation as to which part Liev Schreiber was asked to play at All That Chat.
• Variety was backstage at the Tony Awards to interview the winners. Here are the relevant bits - From Tom Stoppard:
  

  [...] "I did tell Jack O'Brien that if he wanted to a do a musical of this, I think 'Serfs Up' would be a good title," Tom Stoppard cracked after his win for "The Coast of Utopia," his saga about Russian intellectuals in the 19th century. The play, produced in Gotham by Lincoln Center Theater, is gearing up for a Russian production, and there's interest in a French incarnation as well, Stoppard said. "Coast" was more of a sweeping success Stateside than it was in its U.K. preem at the National. "Well, I had four years to think about it," Stoppard explained. "I made the thing clearer, and I made the narrative swifter." Stoppard's next Rialto project is a transfer of his play "Rock 'n' Roll." His next writing project? "I don't write at all until I get bitten by something, and then I only write," he said. "I was hoping to write something this summer, but I haven't got any ideas. Do you have any?" [...] [Oh, Tooom?]

  From Jack O'Brien:
  

  [...] "The Coast of Utopia" helmer Jack O'Brien recalled the months spent rehearsing and rolling out the three plays one by one over the course of six months. "We were never out of rehearsal," he said. "I said to the actors, 'You're gonna be so sick of the sound of my voice.'" Added the three-time Tony winner, "No one's ever going to do anything like this again. The awards are just frosting on the cake. But I have to tell you, the cake was pretty delicious." [...]

  From Billy Crudup:
  

  [...] Crudup, like fellow nominee Ethan Hawke, gave up many months of film opportunities to appear in the multiplay epic. "I don't have such a high cost of living that I can't be paid an actor's wage for working on a stage," he said. "I just have the one apartment." [...]

  And from Jennifer Ehle:
  

  [...] Jennifer Ehle, who won her second Tony when she nabbed featured actress in a play for "The Coast of Utopia," won the honors for a variety of characters she played over the course of Tom Stoppard's three-play epic. "I didn't have a favorite; I loved all three," she said of the roles. Does she miss performing the show, which ended its long but limited run May 13? Not so much. But she keeps up to date on her castmates. "We email obsessively," she said. "There's never been a cast that's stayed in touch so much." [...]

• Jeff provides us with a BBC press release reporting that several of Tom Stoppard's works will be broadcast on BBC radio stations this summer.
  

  Sir Tom Stoppard is to be celebrated across BBC Radio with a season of his work on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4 and BBC 7. This includes the radio debut of his most recent play, Rock 'N' Roll, which has been specially adapted by Stoppard with a new final scene. The season also features new Stoppard adaptations of Arcadia, The Fifteen Minute Hamlet and Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead, and listeners are given another chance to hear some of the acclaimed playwright's best radio productions. [more]

• What are the Utopians up to this summer? Well, at least three of them are sticking together. TheaterMania informs us that Jason Butler Harner, Amanda Leigh Cobb, and Robert Stanton will be performing in The Front Page at the Williamstown Theatre Festival this July.
• No news about about any upcoming projects for Jennifer Ehle, but an interview with actor Rahul Bose at Express India gives us hope that Before the Rains (aka Road to the Sky) will debut at the Toronto Film Festival.
  

  [...] The actor is also excited about Before The Rains. Directed by Santosh Sivan and set in 1937, it explores the relationship between a British tea planter and a young Malayali villager who constructs roads. “It’s about infidelity, divided loyalties and betrayals. The film is ready and will hopefully premier at Toronto.” [..]

• Finally, TheaterMania has a review of The Coast of Utopia CD, which was released last week.
  

  [...] Another praiseworthy aspect of the Lincoln Center production was Mark Bennett's music, over-amplified in the theater but enjoyable as heard in a new recording on the Ghostlight label. This is the sort of lush, lovingly orchestrated score you'd expect to hear on the soundtrack of an epic film. There are 38 music cues in all, each of them quite short; the CD contains only 35 minutes of material in total. Among the most compelling pieces are "Trilogy Prologue: 500 Souls," "The Telescope," "Birch Trees," and "Curtain Call." Note that the CD isn't completely instrumental; five of the tracks feature vocals by cast members Felicity LaFortune and/or David Pittu. In a brief appreciation in the booklet accompanying the CD, Utopia director Jack O'Brien hails Bennett's score for, among other things, its simplicity. Would that the work it accompanied had exhibited the same virtue. [...]

"My dress won a Tony!"

Well, I think the Tonys craziness is subsiding, and I believe we've covered all of the photos and videos out there. Still, here are a few more Tony tidbits and random finds (and discussion of fashion, which seems inevitable post-awards!)

• At Day Life, you can see a neato slideshow of pictures of Jennifer Ehle at the Tonys. (The photos, which have already been posted, are from getty images).
• Woot! Broadway.com named Jennifer Ehle a "Tony Trendsetter" in fashion and gave her the award for Best Neckline: "Her plunging Carolina Herrera showed the perfect amount of skin." Martha Plimpton placed fifth in the Best Dressed category, and Billy Crudup was applauded for bringing back the classic tuxedo. Way to go Utopians!
• Livejournaler shigella also loved Ms Ehle's corseted dress, calling her "Tony Awards Eye Candy." The discussion that follows her post is somewhat, umm, entertaining as well.
• On the other hand, bakerloo called her dress "horrendous" and theparkbencher concluded that she had the most "misguided dress:

  [...] Now this is a difficult category, but I’m going to have to go with Jennifer Ehle, who won Best Featured Actress in a Play for The Coast of Utopia. I decided on her instead of Cynthia Nixon’s Unfortunate Neckline Styling 2007, only because I expected more from Elizabeth Bennett. I love Jennifer Ehle and I want her to always be lovely. And she was, but the dress was terribly misguided. [...]

  To each his own!
• Panekattack talks about watching the Tonys ceremony on television and gives a very interesting tidbit about Jennifer Ehle's dress:

  [...] On the other hand, our utter rapture was unmeasurable when Jennifer Ehle won Best Supporting Actress in a Play: Moises' close friend designed Ms. Ehle's dress upon his recommendation. "My dress won a Tony!" he proclaimed. [...]

• Also on the fashion front, Zoe commends Jennifer Ehle's choice of jewelry:

  [...] Jennifer Ehle who won best actress for The Coast of Utopia wore a simple diamond bracelet...Sometimes, as these classy ladies have shown, it is more impressive to pick one or two amazing pieces of jewelry that accentuate your image than to pick one that overwhelms it. Take a note from their book. [...]

• Robert Osborn of the Hollywood Reporter had this to declare: "The most elegant ladies onstage [were] the classy Angela Lansbury and best featured actress winner Jennifer Ehle." He also made mention of the new edition of "Forbidden Broadway," which began on Wednesday:

  [...] All those Tony wins for "The Coast of Utopia" definitely add oomph to "Forbidden Broadway: The Roast of Utopia," the special summer retrospective edition of the "Forbidden Broadway" franchise that debuts Wednesday and runs through August 22 at the 47th Street Theatre. Not only will Tom Stoppard's nine-hour marathon be royally spoofed, but so will Sunday's other big Tony champ, "Spring Awakening," as well as "Mary Poppins" and other current shows, mixed in with encores of the most popular "Forbidden" parodies from the past 25 years. [...]

• FOXNews gives Jennifer Ehle some Tonys kudos and provides us with a quote:

  [...] And congrats, too, to Jennifer Ehle, who picked up her second Tony, this time for "The Coast of Utopia." Ehle is the daughter of famed actress Rosemary Harris, but she told me she still hasn't had a chance to see her mom in "Spider-Man 3" as Aunt May." I hear she's great, but I've been in the play," she said. [...]

• Lonecub of MySpace was a fan of Ms Ehle's acceptance speech: "I also refuse to talk about how endearing Julie White's speech was or for that matter Jennifer Ehle's speech." I cannot imagine how anyone could think otherwise!
• Times Online has an article about Tom Stoppard beating the record for most Tony wins by a play.

  [...] “I would be more than happy to have equalled the playwright of Death of a Salesman and a contemporary of mine, Alan Bennett,” Stoppard said after the awards ceremony on Sunday night. [...]

• There is a also quote by Jack O'Brien at the Associated Press:

  [...] "It's betrayal, marriage, families, the DNA of social change," said "Coast" director Jack O'Brien. "I never imagined that the city, the community would ever embrace this." [...]

• Speaking of Jack O'Brien, Playbill tells us that the production of Puccini's Il trittico that he directed will be airing on PBS this week as part of the Great Performances at the Met series. (This is his other triology.) There is some discussion of this at All That Chat as well.
• Also on Playbill are some photos from the Outer Critics Circle Awards. (They are a little behind!) There are none of Jennifer Ehle, but Martha Plimpton and Jack O'Brien are shown.
• Remember that the Tonys telecast was up against the finale of The Sopranos? Well, Slate has noted further coincidences and connections between the two Tonys.
• Smore2 of All That Chat has some gripes about the Tony Awards and feels that The Coast of Utopia had an unfair advantage over the other plays. Pffttttt.
• Oy! Apparently Pride and Glory's release date has been pushed back to March 14, 2008.

For my own amusement: Many viewers of this year's Tony Awards were surprised to discover that "Lizzy Bennet" is in fact a blonde American.

• Freyalorelei said, "In between I watched a bit of the Tony awards, and apparently Jennifer Ehle has an American accent. It was like finding out that Santa Claus isn't real. :)"
• More bewilderment from CaptainOz: "(eww...Jennifer Ehle has blond hair. She looks so *not* like Liz Bennett. Holy crap! She's not even British!! Good God, I've been totally bamboozled. I'm watching the Tony Awards, btw...and Jennifer Ehle just won for whatever show she's in. Hmm. I'm just weirded out."
• Isabel79 was similarly bamboozled: "What the phage!?! Jennifer Ehle (best know as Lizzie Bennet in P&P 1995) isn't British!?! "
• And, Persephone33 explains, "I did NOT predict Jennifer Ehle winning best supporting actress. I'm so glad she did, and was flabbergasted to hear that her natural accent is decidedly not British. (It gives us non-Brit actresses with passable accents hope.) She's my Lizzie. Love her."

(I don't know why I get such a kick out of these!)

Finally, go to YouTube to see Triumph the Insult Comic Dog interview Martha Plimpton (and other celebrities) on the Tonys red carpet. It is well worth it.

Words stagger after

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• Quotage at NY1:

  [...] Jennifer Ehle also won for Best Featured Actress for an acting triple play that stood out in an already distinguished ensemble.
  
  "To be nominated for a Tony is already phenomenal and to have actually won – I don't know, I think I'm at a loss for words," said Ehle of her win. [...]
  

• BroadwayWorldTV has the full version of their video backstage coverage! Can't see Ms Ehle yet but.....ahhhhh YES! And Jack O'Brien as well! Her bit is about 40% into the video.
  
• BroadwayWorlders rate the best of the past five years' Tony winners. Some picks there for you know who. And some scroogery about her acceptance speech - but at least one person is defending her honour, bless 'em.
  

  [...] The fact that Jennifer Ehle seemed unprepared didn't bother me at all. I was unprepared for her to win, too, so I welcomed her honest, genuine demeanor. She's fab. At least it seemed impromptu and real rather than similar to a Rashad monolgue. [...]

• The Vancouver Sun echoes the same sentiment, even if their facts are a little wobbly (although what she says is true of both Mr Easton and Stoppard!):

  [...] The Coast of Utopia also won two awards early in the evening for best featured actor and actress in a play: Billy Crudup and Jennifer Ehle, who delivered one of the night's most emotionally heartfelt acceptance speeches, calling Stoppard a British "national institution." [...]

• Jennifer Ehle wins "Best Plea" at EW.com:

  [...] Jennifer Ehle, kind of a surprise winner for Featured Actress in a Play for her sterling three roles in Tom Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia, hoping that the play's success will allow theatres to consider the idea of repertory again. Hear, hear! [...]

  Newsday says amen to that:
  

  [...] The nonprofit Lincoln Center Theater had the courage to devote its entire season to a rethinking and restaging of the Stoppard trilogy, which had had its unremarkable world premiere in London. The achievement is extraordinary of itself, but also for suggesting that theatergoers and major actors would embrace the long-promised ideal of a resident repertory company. How gratifying to hear Jennifer Ehle, in her featured-actress acceptance speech, declare, "We all do want a repertory company at Lincoln Center." Maybe the Tonys will push that decades-old dream along. [...]

• Metro, Hello Mag and the Daily Mail (with gorge photos) are claiming her for England, whereas the News Observer and Winston-Salem Journal insist she's a tar heel. For example:

  [...] Jennifer Ehle’s win of a second Tony Award Sunday night was certainly a coup for her. But it was also a win for Winston-Salem, The City of the Arts. [...]

  The Guardian chooses the middle way, "Anglo-American". Though of course, being half American and half British, at heart she is Australian!
  
• Another couple photos of her and Ethan Hawke is up at TheaterMania's and USA Todays' photo features, and the Beeb have her above the fold. #29 on Broadway.com's coverage has her and Mr Hawke joshing with Sir Tom, and she and Mr Hawke are in their "Classy Couples" feature, "bringing their movie star glamour to Tony's red carpet".
• Reuters love:

  [...] Most charmingly enthusiastic speechmaker: Julie White, best actress for "The Little Dog Laughed." The most elegant ladies onstage: the classy Angela Lansbury and best featured actress winner Jennifer Ehle. [...]

• Another wee mention at Fox:

  [...] There were also not a lot of stars for the show. By the time of the after party, there was no sign of people like Ethan Hawke, Zach Braff or Billy Crudup. Ann Heche made a brief appearance; Fantasia was nowhere to be found. Many shows have their own parties following the Tony dinner at Rockefeller Center.

  Only "Talk Radio" star Liev Schreiber and pregnant girlfriend Naomi Watts stuck around for a bit, as did "LoveMusic" star Donna Murphy, who carried her own plate of food. Others who fended for themselves included new Tony winner Jennifer Ehle and presenter Marcia Gay Harden, who couldn't find a seat near the buffet. [...]

• Broadway.com has pics from the Winners' Ball, none of Ms Ehle but some of the Utopian creative team were there. Bob Crowley, one of the geniuses behind Utopia's much-lauded design, scored two awards for play and musical.
• Check out Playbill's cute pic of Jennifer Ehle and Martha Plimpton at "Stars in the Alley".
• Ack with all the excitement we forgot to remind you about the Coast of Utopia CD release yesterday - there was an event at Barnes & Noble with Mark Bennett and some cast members, reports BroadwayWorld. Have a listen to a few clips and order the CD at Ghostlight Records. Barnes & Noble have heaps of clips too.
• One more thing - first person to find or post a video of the acceptance speech wins...a lot of love!
• Nope, still more. Videos of part of Tom Stoppard's acceptance speech at KUTV, and a bit on ITN, photo of Billy Crudup, Ms Ehle and JackO'Brien at CBS, an acceptance speech one at the NY Times, and a couple at Talkin' Broadway, Playbill and ABC News.