Tag Archives: edie falco

THE TRUE

Michael McKean, Edie Falco, and Peter Scolari star in New Group world premiere at the Signature Center (photo by Monique Carboni)

The New Group at the Pershing Square Signature Center
The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre
480 West 42nd St. between between Ninth & Tenth Aves.
Tuesday – Sunday through October 28, $30-$125
www.thenewgroup.org
www.signaturetheatre.org

Obie-winning playwright Sharr White and director Scott Elliott manage to make a story about the 1977 mayoral election in Albany, New York, tense and exciting in The True, a world premiere from the New Group that opened tonight at the Pershing Square Signature Center. A fictionalized version of real events, the vastly entertaining play opens as Erastus Corning II (Michael McKean), who has been mayor of the capital of New York State since 1941, is facing a serious challenge to his long reign following the death of Democratic party leader Dan O’Connell. State senator Howard C. Nolan (Glenn Fitzgerald) is taking on Corning, with the support of Charlie Ryan (John Pankow), who wants to be the new party boss. But tough-talking fixer Dorothea “Polly” Noonan (Edie Falco) isn’t about to let that happen. Noonan, a foul-mouthed firebrand, pulls a lot of strings behind the scenes, and her down-and-dirty, no-holds-barred style gets things done as her calm, easygoing husband, Peter (Peter Scolari), stays out of it all. “I don’t hate politics, by the way. I just want nothing to do with it,” he says, even when confronted with rumors that Erastus, who is married to the mysterious Betty (Tracy Shayne), and Polly are longtime lovers. Desperate for Erastus to beat Nolan, who is leading big in the polls, Polly taps young Bill McCormick (Austin Cauldwell) to be named committeeman and support Erastus within the party machine. “Fuck that fucking Charlie Ryan,” she says. But when Erastus starts questioning whether he still wants Polly on his team, she practically explodes, while also hurting inside, since she has devoted her life to him and the Democrats.

Dorothea “Polly” Noonan (Edie Falco) has some harsh things to say to Howard C. Nolan (Glenn Fitzgerald) in The True (photo by Monique Carboni)

Falco (Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, Side Man) is exceptional as Noonan, a kind of cross between Carmela Soprano from The Sopranos and Jackie Peyton from Nurse Jackie, two roles that earned her Emmys. (In fact, much of the cast and creative team have major television ties: Scolari starred on Bosom Buddies, The Bob Newhart Show, and Girls, McKean was on Laverne & Shirley and SNL and is currently on Better Call Saul, Pankow is a veteran of Mad About You and The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, and White is a writer and producer for The Affair and Sweetbitter.) Falco plays Noonan with a brawling charm, whether she’s sitting at her sewing machine making a culotte or going face-to-face with her political enemies. White (The Other Place, Annapurna) gets right to the heart of the matter, showing how politics has changed over the decades, implying why the Democrats have been losing power in recent years. “Regular people,” Noonan tells Erastus. “They don’t give a shit what you do behind closed doors so long as their lives are working. But their lives aren’t working anymore. Committeeman. Used to know every. Single. Voter. In his district. Every single one. That voter had a problem, they told the committeeman, the committeeman went to the ward leader, the ward leader either solved it? Or went to Dan. And you know what happened at the end of the day? . . . It got taken care of.” Brief but telling references to shifting demographics, race, and women in politics reveal much as Noonan also makes clear that women are not treated the same as men in the political arena. “What I do for Erastus is no different than what you did for Dan. And yet I’m ostracized for it,” she tells Ryan.

Dorothea “Polly” Noonan (Edie Falco) has plans for Bill McCormick (Austin Cauldwell) as her husband (Peter Scolari) looks on (photo by Monique Carboni)

McKean (The Little Foxes, Accomplice) and Scolari (The Foreigner, Hairspray) are both terrific, portraying best friends who try to keep politics — and Polly — from tearing them apart. New Group artistic director Elliott (Evening at the Talk House, Mercury Fur) expertly balances the humor amid powerful dramatic moments, never letting things go awry on Derek McLane’s elegant set, where small changes make dramatic differences. And watch out for a surprise, hilarious late scene that brings the house down — something that does not appear in the script. Kudos are also due Falco’s hair stylist and costume designer Clint Ramos, who capture 1977 in fabulous ways. Noonan represents a different time in the treatment of women, both personally and professionally; she might cook and sew, but she also curses and never backs down from a challenge, particularly from a man. It’s fascinating to imagine what Noonan, who died in November 2003 at the age of eighty-eight, would think of what’s going on in the political arena today, in Albany and the country itself; she would certainly be proud of her granddaughter, New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who calls her “my greatest political hero” and is keeping her grandmother’s legacy alive.

TRIBECA TWI-NY TALK: JEFF KAUFMAN / EVERY ACT OF LIFE

Producer and director Jeff Kaufman on the set of Every Act of Life (photo courtesy Jeff Kaufman)

EVERY ACT OF LIFE (Jeff Kaufman, 2018)
Tribeca Film Festival
Monday, April 23, SVA Theater 2 Beatrice, 8:00
Tuesday, April 24, Cinépolis Chelsea 6, 5:00
Wednesday, April 25, Cinépolis Chelsea 2, 6:15
Thursday, April 26, Cinépolis Chelsea 9, 4:00
everyactoflifedocumentary.com
www.tribecafilm.com

Four-time Tony winner Terrence McNally and his husband, producer Tom Kirdahy, appeared in the 2015 documentary, The State of Marriage, about marriage equality, but director-producer Jeff Kaufman and producer Marcia Ross were surprised to learn that no one had made a film about McNally himself. So they did. The result is Every Act of Life, an intimate portrait of the Texas-born activist and playwright, who has also won two Obies, four Drama Desk Awards, and an Emmy and has been a fixture in the theater community for six decades, writing such popular and influential works as Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune; The Lisbon Traviata; Lips Together, Teeth Apart; Master Class; Kiss of the Spider Woman; and Love! Valour! Compassion!

Kaufman and Ross combine archival footage of many of McNally’s works with personal photos and new interviews with an all-star lineup that includes Angela Lansbury, Nathan Lane, Audra McDonald, Larry Kramer, Edie Falco, F. Murray Abraham, Tyne Daly, Billy Porter, Chita Rivera, John Slattery, Rita Moreno, Joe Mantello, and Christine Baranski, among many others. The film follows McNally through every act of his life, from his childhood in Texas living with abusive, alcoholic parents to his homosexuality, from his relationships with Edward Albee, Wendy Wasserstein, and others to his bout with lung cancer and marriage to Kirdahy. Every Act of Life is having its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 23, with Kaufman, Mantello, Abraham, Lane, and McNally participating in an “After the Screening” conversation moderated by Frank Rich. (The film is also being shown April 24, 25, and 26.) Just as the festival got under way, Kaufman, who has also directed Father Joseph, The Savoy King: Chick Webb and the Music That Changed America, and Brush with Life: The Art of Being Edward Biberman, discussed the project via email in this exclusive twi-ny talk.

twi-ny: You first interviewed Terrence McNally and his husband, Tom Kirdahy, for The State of Marriage. How familiar were you with him and his work at that time?

Jeff Kaufman: Marcia grew up in Mt. Vernon, just outside of NYC, and the great love of her youth was coming into the city to go to the theater. It shaped much of her life that followed. I grew up near Seattle with a love of classic movies and art, so my discovery of the theater came a bit later (in part by subscribing to the Fireside Theatre Book Club). We both loved Terrence’s work but also made some lasting discoveries through making this film.

Every Act of Life is an intimate look at the life and career of award-winning playwright and activist Terrence McNally

twi-ny: Do you have a favorite play of his?

JK: For Marcia, her favorite play by Terrence (of many) is Love! Valour! Compassion! She says it speaks so beautifully about relationships. There are many characters and moments and plays of Terrence’s that keep reverberating for me, but I would mention (so others can look them up) the spiritual moments in A Perfect Ganesh and Corpus Christi, the sense of family and scope of life in L! V! C!, and the deep connection to the power of the arts in Master Class.

twi-ny: What made you think he would be a good subject for a full-length documentary? Was it difficult to get him to agree to the film?

JK: When we interviewed Terrence and Tom for The State of Marriage, we were so impressed with how direct and open and full of feeling Terrence could be. His life and work have changed many lives, and launched many careers, so his story is about a community of remarkable people as well. Through Terrence’s life and work we connect to a history of the theater, the struggle for LGBTQ rights (as Nathan Lane says, “Terrence has always been ahead of his time”), overcoming addiction (thanks in large part to Angela Lansbury), and what it means to keep searching and growing (and loving) throughout your life. So, for us Terrence, like his plays, speaks to a lot of important concerns.

And since we worked well together in the previous film, it wasn’t hard to get him and Tom to agree. They’ve been great to work with throughout the project.

twi-ny: Terrence gives you remarkable access to his life. Did that happen early on in the process, or did you have to establish a rapport?

JK: Our first conversation about doing this film was with Tom Kirdahy, a theater producer and former AIDS attorney who is also Terrence’s husband. Tom understood completely that honesty and access are essential. None of us wanted a fawning tribute. Terrence wasn’t comfortable with every aspect of our interviews, but he was remarkably forthcoming and unvarnished. I’ve interviewed hundreds of people, but Terrence is unique.

twi-ny: Were there any times he asked for the camera to be turned off?

JK: When he decides to open the door, he opens it all the way. There may have been a few things he pushed back on a bit, but we always got what we needed.

twi-ny: Terrence is known for being a perfectionist and, at times, demanding, yet he is very relaxed throughout the film. Did the making of the film actually go that smoothly? Whose idea was it to have numerous scenes in which two characters speak very comfortably to each other?

JK: I always try to put interview subjects in a positive frame of mind (even while asking a lot, on several levels). Marcia is a great ally in this as well. Often when I’m working with the film crew to set up the shot, Marcia engages in her singular way (and depth of theater knowledge) to help keep the subject engaged and relaxed. Then I conduct the interview. Since you asked, I came up with the idea for the various sequences (Edie and Murray talking about Frankie and Johnny, etc.).

Jeff Kaufman interviewed a vast array of theater people for documentary about Terrence McNally (photo courtesy Jeff Kaufman)

twi-ny: You have amassed a terrific cast of characters from both his personal and professional life for the film. What was that experience like, “casting” the documentary? Was there someone you really wanted to interview but was unavailable?

JK: Casting is key in documentaries, narrative films, and the theater. Also important for our work is to get people to tell stories that put the audience in a scene with the subjects of our films. We were pretty much able to talk to everyone on our list . . . but I would have loved to go back in time and film Terrence with some of the people who are no longer living. We got as close as possible to that by finding unseen footage of Edward Albee and Wendy Wasserstein, having Bryan Cranston read an amazing letter to Terrence about what a writer needs to keep going, and getting Meryl Streep to read a letter from Terrence’s beloved high school English teacher.

twi-ny: In the film, Terrence and the actors talk about the importance of collaboration, which even extended to many of the documentary participants helping the Kickstarter campaign by contributing special rewards for donors. How does collaboration in theater compare with collaboration in film?

JK: Both are essential, and as Terrence says, life is about collaboration as well. I have a strong vision for what I want the documentary to be and say. So does Marcia. However, that only comes together through the work and vision and talent of many people.

twi-ny: What was the single most surprising thing you learned about theater and Terrence McNally while making the film?

JK: I don’t know if this qualifies as a surprise, but Marcia and I were both impressed by finding in Terrence, and others in the film, great artists who could easily rest on their laurels but who instead are still inspired, still learning, and still striving to do new and better work.

CARTE BLANCHE — SCOTT MACAULAY AND TWENTY YEARS OF FILMMAKER MAGAZINE: LAWS OF GRAVITY

Jon (Adam Trese) and Denise (Edie Falco) talk over tough times in Nick Gomez’s LAWS OF GRAVITY

LAWS OF GRAVITY (Nick Gomez, 1992)
MoMA Film
Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Sunday, April 7, 2:00
Series runs through April 15
Tickets: $12, in person only, may be applied to museum admission within thirty days, same-day screenings free with museum admission, available at Film and Media Desk
212-708-9400
www.moma.org

Nick Gomez wrote and directed this gritty urban drama about Jimmy (Peter Greene) and Jon (Adam Trese), a couple of guys on the mean streets of Brooklyn who get more than they bargained for when a friend stores some guns in Jimmy’s apartment and Jon thinks he’s ready for the big time. The film features Edie Falco in one of her earliest major performances, as Jimmy’s tough-talking girlfriend, Denise. Powerful acting, dead-on dialogue, and expert location shooting drive this film, which was made for a mere thirty-eight grand. Gomez (Drowning Mona) has gone on to direct multiple episodes of some of the best television shows of the last twenty years, including Homicide, Oz, The Shield, and Dexter, among others. Laws of Gravity is screening at MoMA on April 7 at 2:00 as part of “Carte Blanche: Scott Macaulay and 20 Years of Filmmaker Magazine,” which celebrates the continuing success of the IFP publication that focuses on independent film from the filmmakers’ point of view. Curated by the magazine’s editor in chief, Scott Macaulay, the series continues through April 15 with such other films as Debra Granik’s Winter’s Bone, Hal Hartley’s Amateur, Miguel Arteta’s Chuck and Buck, Barry Jenkins’s Medicine for Melancholy, and Todd Haynes’s Safe. In the Winter 1992/93 issue of Filmmaker, Peter Broderick went behind-the-scenes of Laws of Gravity, detailing the financing, casting process, rehearsals, and equipment and publishing the budget itself, which included $33 for prop blood, $48 for Polaroids, and $60 for phone calls. “The breathless, handheld 16mm camerawork by Jean de Segonzac, which always seems to be racing to catch up with the characters, made its mark on generations of subsequent filmmakers,” Macaulay writes on the MoMA website about the film.

THE MADRID

Mother (Edie Falco) and daughter (Phoebe Strole) have to reevaluate their relationship in THE MADRID (photo by Joan Marcus)

Manhattan Theatre Club
New York City Center Stage 1
131 West 55th St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves.
Extended through May 5, $95
www.themadridplay.com

It’s an intriguing proposition that many people probably consider at least once in their lives. In Liz Flahive’s The Madrid, Martha (Edie Falco) goes ahead and does it. One day, while teaching her kindergarten class, Martha simply gets up and walks out of her life, leaving her career and her family behind. Her gentle, loving husband, John (Tony nominee John Ellison Conlee), and their daughter, Sarah (Spring Awakening’s Phoebe Strole), are stunned and devastated by Martha’s disappearance, as are neighbors and best friends Becca (Heidi Schreck) and Danny (Darren Goldstein). However, Martha’s elderly mother, Rose (two-time Tony winner Frances Sternhagen), seems to take it a little more in stride. A recent college graduate who gets a job at Starbucks while contemplating her future, a confused Sarah is eventually contacted by her mother, who has moved into a ratty city apartment building called the Madrid; soon Sarah must decide whether she wants to have any kind of a relationship with her mother, who insists that Sarah tell no one, especially John, about where she is and what she is doing. Flahive and director Leigh Silverman (Chinglish, In the Wake), who previously teamed up on From Up Here, also for Manhattan Theatre Club, ask lots of questions but don’t necessarily provide the answers in the quirky, unpredictable 130-minute show that examines personal and familial identity and one’s place in the world. Martha never fully explains why she’s done what she’s done, and Falco plays her with an air of repressed mystery, like she’s not sure of the reasons either. Throughout the play, Flahive, a producer on Falco’s award-winning Showtime series Nurse Jackie, has John and Sarah prepare for a garage sale, trying to get rid of so many of the physical objects that remind them of Martha while also attempting to figure out how to deal with her desertion emotionally and psychologically. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it turns out that walking out on one’s life is not exactly a party, something Flahive handles in The Madrid with an at-times frustrating lack of clarity but also with sensitive care and humor. (Falco will be at the 92nd St. Y on April 7 for a Broadway Talks conversation and audience Q&A about the play and more with Jujamcyn Theaters president Jordan Roth.)

SHOWTIME AT 92Y: NURSE JACKIE

Edie Falco will discuss the upcoming season of NURSE JACKIE at the 92nd St. Y on March 29

92nd St. Y, Buttenwieser Hall
1395 Lexington Ave. at 92nd St.
Thursday, March 29, $29, 8:15
212-415-5500
www.92y.org
www.sho.com

Ever since Deadwood concluded its run in 2006 and The Sopranos ended the next year, HBO has been locked in a heated battle with Showtime as the pay-cable network with the best original series. For every True Blood and Boardwalk Empire, HBO has also suffered through John from Cincinnati and now Luck, which has been put out of its misery following the death of three horses involved in the production. Meanwhile, Showtime has been raising the bar with its own series, including Dexter, Shameless, Weeds, Californication, and Homeland. This spring the cable network has joined forces with one of New York City’s most enduring cultural institutions for “Showtime at 92Y,” offering an inside look at three returning series, all premiering April 8, with a trio of special programs at the 92nd St. Y. On March 29, Emmy winner Edie Falco, who plays the complicated, drug-addicted title character in the New York-set drama Nurse Jackie, will be joined by fellow cast members Merritt Wever (junior nurse Zoey Barkow) and Tony nominee Bobby Cannavale (as a new hospital administrator), along with creators Liz Brixius and Linda Wallem, to discuss the show and its upcoming fourth season. On April 9, three-time Emmy winner and Oscar and Tony nominee Laura Linney, who stars in The Big C as Cathy Jamison, a teacher, wife, and mother desperate to enjoy life as she battles cancer, will be part of a panel with Oliver Platt (husband Paul Jamison), John Benjamin Hickey (brother Sean Tolke), Gabriel Basso (son Adam Jamison), Oscar nominee Gabourey Sidibe (live-in student Andrea Jackson), and executive producer Jenny Bicks to talk about the show’s third season. And on April 27, Tony and Emmy winner and Oscar nominee Jeremy Irons, will delve into his scenery-chomping role as Pope Alexander VI in Neil Jordan’s deliciously debauched historical fiction drama The Borgias, which is about to begin season number two. All three discussions at the 92nd St. Y will be moderated by New York Times, IndieWire, and Daily Beast film and television writer Caryn James.

INSIDE MEDIA

Edie Falco will discuss Nurse Jackie’s bedside manner and more at the Paley Center

Paley Center for Media
25 West 52nd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Closed Monday & Tuesday
Suggested contribution: $10 adults, $5 children under fourteen
212-621-6600
www.paleycenter.org

While Timothy Greenfield-Sanders’s and Elvis Mitchell’s “The Black List Project” continues at the Paley Center through May 1, featuring scenes from their third documentary and photographs of a wide range of successful African Americans, the institution formerly known as the Museum of Television and Radio will be hosting a series of very special events, with tickets going very fast. In collaboration with Food for Thought Productions, the Paley Center is in the midst of a three-month series of live staged afternoon readings ($65, followed by a Q&A and a reception); coming up is Arthur Miller’s sister, Joan Copeland, reenacting scenes from her brother’s plays (April 21) and Len Cariou taking on Thornton Wilder and Dorothy Parker (April 26), with future shows dedicated to Tennessee Williams’s IN THE BAR OF A TOKYO HOTEL (May 5) and A. R. Gurney’s LOVE LETTERS (June 17). The cast of THE GOOD WIFE gathers together on April 21 ($25, 6:30), while THE BIG BANG’s Jim Parsons will have the stage all to himself on May 4 ($15, 6:30). On April 26, prima ballerina Cynthia Gregory interviews choreographer Eliot Feld about his career ($25, 7:00), on April 27, actor and photographer Joel Grey will talk about television (don’t forget he was on BUFFY) and more ($35, 6:30), and on April 28, Harry Potter audiobook reader and Broadway star Jim Dale will present “Jim Dale: Still Carrying On,” previewing his new one-man show ($30, 6:30). We’re most excited about “Paging Jackie” ($25, 7:00), in which star Edie Falco and the executive producers behind Showtime’s excellent NURSE JACKIE will screen a sneak-peek episode and take the audience behind the scenes of this unusual, entertaining drama. And looking further ahead, Jimmy Fallon will get into the late-night wars on May 27 ($25, 7:30).