News/Press Releases
Press Representative: Scotti Rhodes Publicity
» August 10, 2008: A Brush With Georgia O'Keeffe will perform at the Smithsonian
» July 11, 2008: New York Times review of Marie Antoinette: The Color of Flesh
» July 28, 2008: interview with Natalie Mosco for "Roberta on the Arts"
» June 27, 2008: New York Times review of A Brush With Georgia O'Keeffe
» July 30, 2008: TimeOut New York review of Marie Antoinette: The Color of Flesh
» July 11, 2008: Curtain Up! review of Marie Antoinette: The Color of Flesh
» July 25, 2008: "Roberta on the Arts" review of Marie Antoinette: The Color of Flesh
» July 11, 2008: ShowBusiness Weekly review of Marie Antoinette: The Color of Flesh
» July 11, 2008: ShowBusiness Weekly review of A Brush With Georgia O'Keeffe
» July 25, 2008: Marie Antoinette: The Color of Flesh is a Pick of the Week on Backstage
» July 11, 2008: The Color of Flesh Illuminates St. Luke's Theatre starting June 26th
» June 3, 2008: A Brush With Georgia O'Keeffe puts canvas to life at St. Luke's Theatre June 10th
» April 11, 2007: NYTheatre.com review of Marie Antoinette: The Color of Flesh
August 10, 2008
*On November 1st Natalie Mosco and company will present a performance of A Brush With Georgia O'Keeffe at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington DC in conjunction with "Natural Affinities," an exhibit that features 43 of O'Keeffe's paintings "that reveal deep commitment to the American landscape."
July 11, 2008
New York Times Theater Review | 'Marie Antoinette: The Color of Flesh'
How a Queen Lost Her Heart Before She Lost Her Head
By Neil Genzlinger
Only three characters inhabit “Marie Antoinette: The Color of Flesh,” but this impeccably acted play at the 45th Street Theater has the sweep of a historical novel. The history in this case is the French Revolution: its real events swirl outside, while inside at Versailles, emotions swirl just as vigorously around a triangle of love and friendship imagined by the playwright, Joel Gross.
This is no run-of-the-mill triangle. It includes Marie Antoinette (Amanda Jones) and the real portraitist who painted her and became her friend, Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (Samantha Ives). In Mr. Gross’s inventive tale, both fall for a rakish count named Alexis (Jonathan Kells Phillips), who, when the play begins in 1774, is emerging as an aristocratic advocate for the masses. By the time it ends in 1793, just before Antoinette meets the guillotine, he, like many modern-day upper-class idealists, has found that there is a huge gulf between populist pronouncements and rugged reality.
Mr. Gross manages to explore issues of class, many of them sounding quite contemporary, while creating a touching story of love and mutual support. If the play is a few beats too long and the politics occasionally preachy, the three actors are never less than enthralling. Mr. Phillips is first charming, then arresting: his transformation after he has spent a few years putting his theories into practice by fighting in the American Revolution is admirable.
Ms. Ives and Ms. Jones are perfectly believable in their own transformations. Ms. Jones in particular makes a long journey, beginning at naïveté — her reaction to her first sexual experience, courtesy of her oafish husband, the king, is hilarious — and ending in a stark wisdom.
“If you listen closely, you can hear the whole country whispering,” she says as the storm clouds gather around her. “Like crickets. Like locusts beating their wings.”
July 28, 2008
"Roberta on the Arts" Backstage with the Playwrights
by Dr. Roberta E. Zlokower
Natalie Mosco has long been inspired by the life and work of Georgia O’Keefe, finding in O’Keefe a riveting character, whom Ms. Mosco researched for her dissertation and then brought to life in A Brush with Georgia O’Keefe. Ms. Mosco wrote this play and stars in it, as well, and, as Georgia O’Keefe lived a long life, to age 99, Ms. Mosco is onstage, as narrator and actor, throughout most of the evening. It’s well known that O’Keefe married her patron and friend, photographer, Alfred Stieglitz, who showcased her work on the walls of his New York studio. David Lloyd Walters plays Stieglitz, and he truly looks the part, with bristling grey hair and professorial posture. Virginia Roncetti plays Dorothy Norman, Stieglitz’ eventual mistress, plus several other women, and this tightly wound cast works it’s way on and off the intimate St. Luke’s Theatre stage with perfected timing and presence.
Marilys Ernst designed a projection system on a flower-line graphic that allows the audience to see photographs of place and time that set the drama, plus an assortment of O’Keefe’s realistic and more erotically charged flowers. We are transported from Wisconsin, to Chicago, to New York, to New Mexico and back and forth, with the help of aging mannerisms, inflections, and those critical projections. The relationship of O’Keefe and Stieglitz meticulously unfolds, through Ms. Mosco’s narrative, as she addresses the audience and her characters, swiftly shifting from the here to the there. Mr. Walters and Ms. Roncetti remain in character, except in one surprise moment in Act II. Ms. Mosco is a talented artist, who can write and enliven dialogue. Her most poignant moment, for this writer, was in an Act II confrontation with Stieglitz’ mistress, when O’Keefe stood alone in pride and ordered the woman from her home, after Stieglitz’ death. O’Keefe was now in charge of her own destiny, and Ms. Mosco’s physicality and emotions portrayed that life-altering moment.
Also fascinating were the numerous New York locations mentioned in this production, those that still exist, like the Art Students League, or those that we knew, like Doctors Hospital. Stieglitz’ 291 Fifth Avenue studio address, where he exhibited and catalogued his photographs, a Lake George home, where O’Keefe nursed the elder Stieglitz through difficult health issues (he eventually died of a heart attack), and O’Keefe’s refuge in Santa Fe, New Mexico truly draw the audience into the setting, with the intensity of the dialogue and even some sound effects, like wind and crackling fire. Paul Hudson’s lighting, Kevin Judge’s scenery, however spare, and Gail Cooper Hecht’s period costumes merge to add depth and texture to this sophisticated work. St. Luke’s Theatre seems to be the go-to theatre these days for historical drama that inspires the mind. Kudos to Natalie Mosco and Director, Robert Kalfin, for this inspirational and thought-provoking production.
I had a chance to meet briefly with Natalie Mosco after the show, at Zuni, 9th Avenue at 43rd Street, NYC. Ms. Mosco wrote a doctoral dissertation on O’Keefe, which was the inspiration for her play. To her, the play has a vision, about breaking taboos and expectations. When I asked Ms. Mosco about her background, I was amazed that she had danced with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet and Royal Ballet, had been a dance captain for “Hair”, had acted with Marian Seldes at the American Place Theatre, and was a famed personality in the genre of theatre, television, and choreography in Australia and New Zealand for over two decades.
Natalie Mosco also wrote to me after the show, “I don't know if I achieved my goals, but I tried -- I didn't want to write a typical play. I wanted something that reflected O'Keeffe's approach to making art and a use of words akin to her meticulous brushstrokes. Also, I wanted audiences to be as overwhelmed by her breadth of experience as I had been overwhelmed by her volume of artistic output (something I first became aware of when I attended that first posthumous retrospective at The Art Institute of Chicago back in April, 1988).”
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June 27, 2008
New York Times Theater Review | 'A Brush With Georgia O'Keeffe'
The Adventures of Georgia, Queen of the Desert Painitng
By Andy Webster
It has been a big year for art onstage, with the revival of Stephen Sondheim’s “Sunday in the Park With George” and Mercedes Ruehl as Louise Nevelson in “Edward Albee’s Occupant.” Now comes the eager, animated actress-playwright Natalie Mosco tackling Georgia O’Keeffe, perhaps America’s first female superstar painter.
A Brush With Georgia O’Keeffe, at St. Luke’s Theater, densely covers the painter’s life from her Wisconsin childhood to school in Virginia and on to Chicago and New York, to say nothing of her many years in New Mexico. Most of it explores her relationship with the photographer and curator Alfred Stieglitz, her husband, mentor and principal booster, almost twice her age, ably portrayed by David Lloyd Walters. (Virginia Roncetti covers a range of female supporting roles.) Stieglitz, who first exhibited her work in 1916, promoted her until his death in 1946. O’Keeffe died in 1986 at 98.
O’Keeffe herself played down the merit of recording her life’s details, preferring her work to speak for itself, and the play, written by Ms. Mosco and directed by Robert Kalfin, stresses O’Keeffe’s profound artistic dedication. But it largely defines her in terms of her relationships: with Stieglitz; Dorothy Norman, his mistress; her own family; and others. At its weakest moments — a confrontation with Ms. Norman after Stieglitz’s death, for example — it suggests, Hollywood style, a woman more concerned with payback than painting. (It’s a wonder the O’Keeffe biopic hasn’t been done yet.)
What feels missing is the earthy O’Keeffe of Stieglitz’s captivating photographic studies. Instead of O’Keeffe the loner, the desert hermit, Ms. Mosco gives us an effusive, garrulous traveler forever flitting between New York and New Mexico, talking of solitary productivity but always tending Stieglitz.
Where the artist’s essence best comes through is in the lighting design, by Paul Hudson, evoking O’Keeffe’s beloved desert landscapes, and projections by Marilys Ernst, providing gentle glimpses of her remarkable canvases, sometimes flinty and stark, sometimes lush and feminine, often representational yet entrancingly abstract. Both convey the mandatory Southwestern enchantment.
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July 30, 2008
TimeOut New York Theater Review | 'Marie Antoinette: The Color of Flesh'
Critic's Rating: Four Stars!
by Aaron Riccio
The opening of Marie Antoinette: The Color of Flesh plays like a Harlequin romance (bodice-ripping title and all): Alexis (Phillips), a young, maddeningly arrogant count, refuses to sit still for his portraitist, Elisabeth (Ives). He complains of being “forced into immobility while faced with your beauty,” to which she bluntly replies, “Why not just allow my beauty to strike you dumb?” To call these comic attempts lame would insult playwright Joel Gross’s intention: Like Elisabeth, Gross is simply using Alexis, painting light surface strokes until he can introduce the newly crowned Marie Antoinette (Jones).
With the queen in the picture, Gross adds definition, moving away from Elisabeth’s scheming, almost mechanical insolence, and translating Alexis’s rebellious bedroom behavior into that of a political activist off to aid George Washington. Even Marie sheds her adorable naïveté after having sex with the king (seven years into their marriage). This three-hander is basically an 18th-century love triangle, but it’s a clever one, with each participant enamored with both of the others.
The plot spans 20 years, and the script grows weighty, coating the characters’ charm with bland pronouncements about the French Revolution. Thankfully, director Robert Kalfin uses a set-changing footman to foreshadow this unrest, and even the dull penultimate scenes help to evoke nuance beneath the bluster. No flesh is bared—etiquette reigns supreme—but hearts, those colorful, lively things, certainly are.
July 11, 2008
Theater Review | 'Marie Antoinette: The Color of Flesh'
A CurtainUp Review
By Paulanne Simmons
Over two centuries after her death, Marie Antoinette remains one of history's most controversial figures. Was she a young, innocent woman thrust into a bewilderingly explosive situation beyond her control? Or was she a conniving wife and queen who intrigued behind her hapless husband's back?
Joel Gross's Marie Antoinette: The Color of Flesh combines fact and fiction to create a fascinating and enlightening account of the two decades in French history and the life of the queen leading up to her death and the downfall of the French monarchy. For historians, Gross's story of an imagined love triangle between the queen (Amanda Jones), her real-life portraitist, Elisabeth Louise Vigee le Brun (Samantha Ives), and the fictional revolutionary aristocrat and rake, Count Alexis de Ligne (Jonathan Kells Phillips), mixes reality and fantasy in a way that may be somewhat frustrating.
King Louis XVI and his bride did indeed have sexual problems at the beginning of their marriage, but these problems were not due to the coldness of the king and the inexperience of the queen. They were caused be a certain physical condition the king suffered from, a condition that, at the suggestion of Marie Antoinette's brother, was cured by a simple operation well known to Jews and Muslims. And if Marie Antoinette had a lover, it certainly was not de Ligne.
For theatergoers The Color of Flesh is quite satisfying. The highly literate dialogue often goes on a bit too long, but Robert Kalfin's energetic direction keeps the play from getting bogged down in its own eloquence. And Kevin Judge's excellent set — three arches fanning out one behind the other — frames the action and gives the small stage an element of depth.
Jones, Ives and Phillips develop their roles magnificently, visibly demonstrating the effects the revolution and maturity has had on their characters. Hugo Salazar, Jr., who plays the silent footman not only facilitates scene changes but also mutely comments on the antics of those he serves.
By the end of the play, le Brun has learned that self-sacrifice is more rewarding than self-promotion. She speaks with real tenderness and her relationships with both the queen and the count become tinged with sorrow and regret. De Ligne comes back from the American Revolution aware that he is neither brave nor heroic He is still passionate about freedom and equality, but he has gone through a reality check that has left him both psychically and physically scarred.
Most nuanced is Jones's portrayal of the queen who is alternately dignified and playful, noble and needy, sexy and subdued. Reputedly, Marie Antoinette's last words were "excuse me" spoken after she had stepped on the foot of the executioner. As The Color of Flesh ends, shortly before Marie Antoinette's execution, the queen seems entirely capable of such elegant politeness.
Exploring political events and historical characters is not always easy onstage. Not the least of the author's problems is the fact that the audience pretty much knows the ending. But with the support of a capable director and a talented cast, The Color of Flesh rises above pedantry and preaching to the exhilarating heights of drama that is both intellectually and emotionally satisfying.
July 25, 2008
Roberta on the Arts Theater Review | 'Marie Antoinette: The Color of Flesh'
by Dr. Roberta E. Zlokower
Marie Antoinette has always been an absorbing subject, but, in Joel Gross’ new play, she’s even more absorbing, as charming, sophisticated dialogue grips the viewers and transports them through two decades of loneliness, friendship, passion, and two revolutions. Those Revolutions, in France and America, tie the dialogue, which I must emphasize, is so eloquent, that it almost reads as poetry. Elizabeth Louise Vigée le Brun (Samantha Ives) is a true life portrait artist, who worked her way into the Royal Court from humble beginnings. In Gross’ production, the vehicle for le Brun’s success is Count Alexis de Ligne (Jonathan Kells Phillips), and, as they say, le Brun uses the oldest professional device to get him to introduce her to Marie Antoinette (Amanda Jones) and the King. Meanwhile, another simultaneous affair occurs between “Toinette” and the Count, and so goes Versailles.
When the people of Paris begin to starve, the Count begins to speak for their cause, much to the chagrin of the Court. The dialogue becomes a bit complex, as the three seduce each other psychically, and themes of betrayal and forgiveness weave through the second act like golden threads, as elegant as the silky, bouffant dresses worn by the female leads. But, as complex as the dialogue may become, the story of this Court is renowned, and we await the remorse and metamorphosis of the doomed Toinette and her conflicted friends. Amanda Jones, as Marie Antoinette, creates an evolving maturity in her character, from lonely and naïve, to sexually curious and repulsed, to vulnerable and impassioned, to maternal and aware, to resigned and doomed. Ms. Jones not only changes costumes and makeup, as she awaits her fate in the Conciergerie, the 18th Century Paris prison, but she also changes persona.
Jonathan Kells Phillips, too, matures from rogue Casanova to a soldier for Lafayette, who is badly wounded on return to France, but filled with pride and patriotism for the plight of the people. I would have wished the Count to be a true character, for “Toinette” to have had even the smallest pleasure during her tormented life. She was forced in her early teens into an arranged marriage for Royal and political convenience, the joining of Austrian and French interests. All things Austrian, clothing and belongings, were left en route, and she arrived in France with everything new and foreign, including Louis XVI. He was an immature, poor lover who left her yearning for love, as it’s told, and then there was the Count. Perfect story line, and Joel Gross threads this tale with gilded language, enunciated and enacted with flawless refinement. In fact, this play could make a superb radio reading, as the three actors say so much and say it so well. At moments, I imagined lush palace gardens or crowded Parisian squares.
The fourth actor is mime (Hugo Salazar, Jr.), a servant with a coat and wig, who behaves in an orderly, obedient manner at first, followed by a rumbling, revolutionary demeanor. The servant changes props, sets the mood, and points to screen graphics of time and place. Mr. Salazar, Jr. is dutiful then petulant, as he silently connects to the audience. As Toinette, Ms. Jones exudes a level of professionalism and confidence, warmth and porcelain beauty that add luster to her polished performance. Ms. Ives is charismatic and clever, as the personality that drives the drama, and Mr. Phillips is charming and assured, as he discovers genuine worth. T. Michael Hall’s costumes are worth seeing this production, on their own. The refined lines of the courtly dresses and the Count’s suit (well worn after the American War journey), speak to research and authenticity. Kevin Judge’s simple sets that frame Karl Scholz’ projections are sized and designed for the intimate St. Luke’s Theatre stage.
Kudos to Joel Gross, Robert Kalfin, Director, and the cast of Marie Antoinette: The Color of Flesh.
ShowBusiness Weekly review
Theater Review | 'Marie Antoinette: The Color of Flesh'
by Andrea M. Meek
In Marie Antoinette: The Color of Flesh, the legendary queen of France (played by Amanda Jones) is a naïve but likeable young woman. Eager for love and friendship, she befriends her portraitist Elisabeth Louise Vigee le Brun (Samantha Ives) and the politically radical aristocrat Count Alexis de Ligne (Jonathan Kells Phillips). Unaware that her two friends are lovers trying to manipulate her for their own ambitions, Marie Antoinette falls in love with the Count. The fictional love triangle spans the 20 years leading up to the French Revolution, and, as the country’s turmoil grows, so does le Brun’s and de Ligne’s respect and love for “Toinette,” who demonstrates remarkable grace and strength in the face of slander.
Originally produced by the New Jersey Repertory Theatre in 2003, Marie Antoinette: The Color of Flesh was also presented with the current cast in a limited engagement at New York’s 45th Street Theatre in 2007. These three actors all demonstrate their talents and range as their characters grow during the two decades of the play. Even Hugo Salazar, Jr., the footman who sets the stage before each scene, plays his minor nonspeaking role with panache. Exquisite costume design by T. Michael Hall pinpoints the era against the minimal set design by Kevin Judge. And even though Gross’s historical drama drags at times, it is filled with humorous moments. The scene that takes place after Marie Antoinette loses her virginity is particularly memorable.
Overall, Marie Antoinette: The Color of Flesh is a worthy imagining of one of history’s most intriguing characters.
ShowBusiness Weekly review
Theater Review | 'A Brush With Georgia O'Keeffe'
by Andrea M. Meek
A Brush With Georgia O’Keeffe, written by and starring Natalie Mosco, takes us through the famed painter’s long life from 1887-1986 with a strong focus on O’Keeffe’s relationship with photographer Alfred Stieglitz (David Lloyd Walters). Stieglitz displayed O’Keeffe’s drawings in his 291 gallery in New York. She later became his model, lover and wife.
Mosco takes on the title role with aplomb, characterizing O’Keeffe with a swagger suggestive of a frontiersman from the painter’s beloved West as she waxes poetry in monologues directed straight at the audience. Mosco’s script weaves reflective speeches within the dialogue in an effortless rhythm. Walters believably switches from Stieglitz to a number of other male character roles. Virginia Roncetti, also plays a variety of female roles in O’Keeffe’s life and executes her multiple roles with ease.
Set design by Kevin Judge is clean and simple: real-life photographs of O’Keeffe and other characters and O’Keeffe’s artwork, projected on an oversized white cutout flower (projection design by Marilys Ernst). Delicate music by composer and sound designer Margaret Pine underscores important moments in the artist’s life. Although the show has a sluggish and somewhat choppy start, the show’s energy soon picks up, and everything convalesces around the drama of O’Keeffe’s relationship with Stieglitz.
A Brush With Georgia O’Keeffe is an elegant and poetic production, striving to be as graceful as the “visual music” O’Keeffe herself aspired to in her own work.
July 11, 2008
We're a "Pick of the Week" on Backstage!
Theater Review | 'Marie Antoinette: The Color of Flesh'
By Karl Levett
The enigma that is Marie Antoinette continues to fascinate. A wildly successful exhibit devoted to the 18th century French queen has just concluded at the Grand Palais in Paris. Crowds flocked and once again, she was the talk of the town. Closer to home, a chance to consider the enigma comes with Joel Gross' fictionalized and intriguing picture of "'Toinette." Gross has chosen to tell his sweeping historical tale with an economy of effects - just four actors, one of whom never speaks, on the simplest of theatrical settings. In doing so, Gross' writing demonstrates a happy sophistication that provides a full-length portrait of the monarch that ranges from disingenuous youth to disillusion and a date with the guillotine.
At the heart of the play is a triangle that cleverly combines private emotions and public politics. The ever-practical portrait artist, Elizabeth Le Brun (Samantha Ives), is painting Count Alexis de Ligne (Jonathan Kells Phillips), a rakish nobleman awash in democratic political ideals. As the ambitious Elizabeth seeks the role of court painter, a romantic entanglement with Alexis ensues. Enter the homesick Toinette (Amanda Jones), a stranger in a strange land, yearning for friendship. The convoluted connection and conflicts of this trio are played out over a 20-year period, against a background of mounting historical disaster. Alexis' idealism leads him to America where he fights with the rebels under Lafayette: meanwhile back at Versailles, the two women who love him form a complex bond.
Robert Kalfin's imaginative direction is exemplified by his handling of the silent footman (Hugo Salazar, Jr.) whose demeanor parallels the approaching revolution. While Phillips' Alexis seems more comfortable as the returning veteran than the rakish count, Ives' Elizabeth is convincingly attractive throughout. But the evening belongs, as it should, to Jones' Toinette in an intelligently nuanced performance that is memorably moving. And in this simple staging, T. Michael Hall's costumes look particularly resplendant.
The telling of history via this emotional focus works very well. It's a focus that could be sharpened if Gross took a blue pencil to several of the longer scenes. A worthwhile project, this is a play that deserves - and will probably achieve - a long life. Gross is currently involved in film and television work. Marie Antoinette is strong evidence that if he spends too much time writing for the large and small screen, it would be theatre's loss.
The Color of Flesh Illuminates St. Luke’s Theatre Starting June 26th
Scotti Rhodes Publicity
P.O. Box 1207
Old Chelsea Station
New York, NY 10113-1207
Tel. (212) 260-8052
scotti@scottirhodespublicity.com
For Immediate Release
COMING TO OFF-BROADWAY!
The Color of Flesh Illuminates St. Luke’s Theatre Starting June 26th
Marie Antoinette: The Color of Flesh by Joel Gross will begin an open-ended Off-Broadway run at St. Luke’s Theatre with previews starting Thursday, June 26th and Opening Night on Thursday, July 10th. Presented by Briana Seferian for Earl Productions and directed by Broadway veteran Robert Kalfin, the play features Samantha Ives, Amanda Jones, Jonathan Kells Phillips and Hugo Salazar, Jr.
Spanning 20 years during the dramatically charged build up to the French Revolution, Marie Antoinette: The Color of Flesh is a fictionalized love triangle between Queen Marie Antoinette, her portraitist, the renowned beauty Elisabeth Louise Vigee-Le Brun, and Count Alexis de Ligne, an aristocrat and political radical. In the early years of their relationship with “Toinette” both the talented painter and the politically passionate Count use the naive young Queen to further their ambitions. Both learn to love the woman they are exploiting even as their actions encourage the Revolution that takes her life.
Joel Gross’s Marie Antoinette: The Color of Flesh was first produced by the New Jersey Repertory Theatre and then mounted in New York by Earl Productions in Spring of ’07 at the 45th Street Theatre, playing to sold-out houses and garnering rave reviews. It has since been published by Dramatist’s Play Service and presented at the Caldwell Studio Theatre in Florida and internationally in Spain, with an upcoming production in Australia. His other plays have been presented in workshops at the Williamstown Theatre Festival the Old Globe in San Diego and the Actor’s Studio. Additional credits include co-writing the film No Escape starring Ray Liotta and the television film Blind Man’s Bluff starring Robert Urich. His film Galahad directed by Mikael Saloman begins shooting late this summer.
Robert Kalfin founded the multiple Tony and Obie award winning Chelsea Theatre Center. Some of his most notable credits are Broadway productions of Strider, Truly Blessed, Happy End and as producer of Harold Prince’s production of Candide at CTC. He directed the Roundabout Theatre Company’s production of Mistress of the Inn with Tovah Feldshuh and The Prince of Homberg starring Frank Langella for the PBS Great Performance Series.
Marie Antoinette: The Color of Flesh begins an open-ended Off-Broadway engagement at St. Luke’s Theatre (308 W 46th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues) with previews Thursday, June 26th, Friday, June 27th, and Saturday June 28th. Opening Night is Thursday, July 10th. Evening performances including previews are Thursdays and Fridays at 8PM. Saturday matinees at 2PM. Tickets are $56.50 and $31.50. Student tickets are $26.50. For tickets and information call Telecharge at (212) 239-6200 or go to telecharge.com.
A Brush with Georgia O’Keeffe puts Canvas to Life at St. Luke’s Theatre June 7th
Scotti Rhodes Publicity
P.O. Box 1207
Old Chelsea Station
New York, NY 10113-1207
Tel. (212) 260-8052
scotti@scottirhodespublicity.com
For Immediate Release
ARRIVING OFF-BROADWAY!
A Brush with Georgia O’Keeffe, a new play by Natalie Mosco slated for an open-ended Off-Broadway run will begin previews Saturday June 7th at the St. Luke’s Theatre before opening June 14th. Directed by Broadway veteran Robert Kalfin, the show is presented by Earl Productions and Briana Seferian in association with Edmund Gaynes and Julia Beardsley. The play stars Natalie Mosco as Georgia O’Keeffe, Virginia Roncetti and David Lloyd Walters.
Mosco’s play follows the remarkable life of the celebrated American painter Georgia O’Keeffe. One of the most important artists of the 20th Century, O’Keeffe was once torn between a career as an artist or musician and seemed to strike a balance between the two by infusing her painting with what she termed “visual music”. As Alfred Stieglitz’s model, muse and lover, she became the widely known subject for a long series of photographs that were part of his artistic legacy. But it was only after Stieglitz’s death that O’Keeffe was finally free immerse herself in nature once again, the source that had truly defined her paintings and offered her 99 year old life its greatest meaning.
Playwright and actress Natalie Mosco has structured A Brush with Georgia O’Keeffe in a way that captures O’Keeffe’s abstract vision. By engaging the use of several different rhythmic styles the playwright brings the same aesthetic inherent in O’Keefe’s painting into a drama about her life.
Natalie Mosco has played leading roles on Broadway (The Magic Show), in London (Grand Hotel) and was a member of the original Broadway production of Hair from which emerged an enduring satire called Haircut that she choreographed with film and stage director Baz Luhrman at the Sydney Theatre Company. She recently appeared in the Paper Mill Playhouse’s acclaimed revival of Follies. As a performer in Australia she played leading roles in musicals, plays and television series.
Robert Kalfin founded the multiple Tony and Obie award winning Chelsea Theatre Center. Some of his most notable credits include Broadway productions of Strider, Happy End (starring Meryl Streep and Christopher Lloyd), and as producer of Harold Prince’s production of Candide at CTC. He directed the Roundabout Theatre Company’s production of Mistress of the Inn with Tovah Feldshuh and The Prince of Homberg starring Frank Langella for the PBS Great Performance Series.
A Brush with Georgia O’Keeffe begins an open ended Off-Broadway engagement at St. Luke’s Theatre (308 W 46th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues) with previews Saturday June 7th, Sunday, June 8th and Monday June 9th. The play opens Saturday, June 14th. All performances including previews are Saturdays and Mondays at 8PM and Sundays at 2PM. Tickets are $56.50 and $31.50. Student tickets are $26.50. For tickets and information call Telecharge at (212) 239-6200 or go to telecharge.com.
April 11, 2007
See us on the home page of NYTheatre.com
nytheatre.com review
Kimberly Wadsworth · April 6, 2007
"You are so very good with the surface of things," says Marie Antoinette to her friend and portrait artist Elisabeth le Brun at one point in Joel Gross's new play The Color of Flesh. It is a fitting compliment for a socialite in 18th-century France, in the years just before the Revolution when the two women first become acquainted. But a surface show is only part of the story—as this staging from Earl Productions soon proves.
Le Brun begins the play as an aspiring painter trying to escape from a childhood spent in poverty. One of her subjects—and an occasional paramour—is the Count Alexis de Ligne, a charming nobleman with a reputation as a Lothario. Le Brun sees her romance with the Count as the perfect chance to become acquainted with France's new queen, Marie Antoinette, and to become the Queen's official portrait artist. Le Brun convinces the Count to charm the young Queen; but the Count is a romantic in his ideals as well as in his affairs, and uses his audience with the Queen to press forward his political ideas of revolution and equality as well. For her part, Marie, just barely out of her teens and homesick for her native Austria, welcomes the companionship of them both, and by the time the Count sails for America on a quixotic mission to serve under Lafayette in the Revolutionary War, Marie is just as worried about his well being as is Le Brun. Over the play's 20-year span, covering the decades just before the French Revolution, the three are irrevocably altered as the Count encounters real revolution, Le Brun's pursuit of "beauty" starts ringing hollow, and Marie grows more desperate for real companions she can trust.
As Marie Antoinette, Amanda Jones ably gives the most nuanced performance of the night; her character needs to go from being a sheltered, naïve ingénue of 18 to a disillusioned—and dethroned—woman of almost 40. The play takes a sympathetic view of her character, and even comes up with a very plausible defense for the famous "let them eat cake" quip; but rather than being saintly, she is presented as ill-prepared, struggling as best she knows in a situation where she is way over her head, and when even her closest friends are a little too awed by her title to give good counsel. Jones, a veteran of Jean Cocteau Rep, rises to the performance with aplomb. But Samantha Ives and Jonathan Kells Phillips also do admirably as Le Brun and the Count, whether engaging in playful banter at the show's opening, or in a heartfelt meeting of the minds towards the show's close. In their scenes with Marie Antoinette, they also walk a fine line between genuine friendship and the admiration of loyal subjects.
Even the "servants" are well served—Hugo Salazar, in the non-speaking role of a footman, sets the stage before each new scene, but as the French Revolution draws near, you can see the smiling graciousness with which he conducts his duties start to give way to a peasant's frustration.
That set, designed by Kevin Judge, is Spartan in its simplicity, with only a few pieces of furniture and a bare white wall standing in for scenes in Paris, Versailles, and Vienna. But I didn't miss a more elaborate set at all: the tiny 45th Street Theater would have been overwhelmed by anything larger, and the cast, richly outfitted in T. Michael Hall's costumes, were even more highlighted by the sparseness of their surroundings. Similarly, the most elaborate lighting effects from designer Paul Hudson are a series of projected title cards giving the date before each scene, and Merek Royce Press's sound design also just gives us a touch of birdsong in the garden here, a hint of a waltz at the Paris Opera there. Clearly, director Robert Kalfin knows that the characters and the story are the real stars of this show, and sought to concentrate chiefly on them rather than trying to recreate the gardens at Versailles onstage and dazzling us with a surface show—for appearances and the surface of things may be pretty, but they aren't the whole story.