Ladies and gentlemen, dear loving readers. As I, Kyrle Lendhoffer, put finger to keyboard today I am thankful that I have a wonderful friend like Kimmo Mustonenen. While I work (and play!) to accommodate myself to my new Los Angeles lifestyle, I can fill my…
Dear readers, as I am still under the weather – and still getting used to living in sunny (too sunny) and beautiful (too beautiful) Los Angeles – I am happy to, once again, allow Kimmo Mustonenen to write a guest review. Here is Kimmo with…
Rio by Kimmo Mustonenen The title is the River of Rio de Janeiro, the “Marvelous City” which returns a macaw to mate with the last female of her species. The problem is that the parrot said, Blu her name, was kidnapped in a child’s jungle…
Greetings, faithful readers. There is much news (and much change!) at Behind the Proscenium. We have moved – emotionally and physically. Physically, from New York (the Big Apple – I love Appletinis) to Los Angeles (The Big ? – but I’ll take the margaritas). Emotionally,…
There are times when one is a witness to history. This week was such a time for me. I sat in on an early rehearsal of what is bound to become the most talked about, most loved theater experience in the history of man. Hyperbole? …
I must admit that I was appalled. Appalled, and then fascinated. I was thumbing through Backstage West while sipping a Green Tea Frappuccino at Starbucks (oh, this is a horrid vice, but the Green Tea is so good – except I find that I’m getting…
This week I had the pleasure to sit down with Heinrich Mantle, the director of the upcoming Manka Black Box theatrical treat Platonov by Anton Chekhov. Mantle has challenged audiences for three decades with his deconstruction and recomposition of many of our most beloved classics. …
Oh, dear reader! What my eyes have seen! That is, what my eyes have seen RECENTLY! I have just returned home from a theatrical experience that has left me speechless – but thank the gods that it has not left me type-less. I ask (rhetorically,…
[Editor’s Note: Kyrle Lendhoffer’s column Behind The Proscenium has been on a management-ordered temporary hiatus for the past couple of weeks. Mr. Lendhoffer would like to set the record straight on recent events and give you some insight into what transpired. Manka Bros. and the…
Theater has existed as long as we have existed. From the first night when Caveperson “A” told a story to his/her fellow Cavepeople to keep their minds off of the saber tooth tigers roaming in the night – to last night’s performance of Haunted Alligators…
This is not an easy time in my life. After spending three days in Bedlam (well, it’s really a Catholic hospital in Mid-Town and I prefer not to mention its name in print), I was finally cleared by the Medieval Inquisition doctors to return to…
Kyrle Lendhoffer’s column, Behind The Proscenium, will not appear this week. Mr. Lendhoffer took ill at a preview of Tennessee Williams’ lost play Haunted Alligators and was hospitalized. He is expected to make a full recovery. Everyone at Manka Bros. wishes him the best. Here…
This week I had the pleasure of talking to Simon Ambrose. Intense. Forceful. Unique. Not just words, but an apt description of someone who is bound to become a theatre great. His most recent work, Monkey Spanking Time won several national awards. His newest work,…
This is an apology. An online mea culpa. I take the proverbial cat o’nine tails and self flagellate. This is an open apology to the great Zenobia Lassiter. Last week, I posted an interview and diatribe against her brilliant new work, Pussy. Yes, I said…
I remember living in the “80s”. It was the time of Wham! and Careless Whisper. It was the time of Broadway’s Les Miserables and Big River. Sadly, it was also the time of Ronald Reagan and Jerry Fallwell and his “Moral Majority”. The reason I…