Becky Shaw is on her way to Second Stage

Up there in that photo is Mia Barron and David Wilson Barnes, in Gina Gionfriddo's bleak, hilarious, delightful yet scary play Becky Shaw at The Humana Festival. Note: the photo above might look awash in beige, but the play is full of juicy naughty human misbehavior and messiness. Annie Parisse, in the eponymous role, makes a grand entrance in a bright chartreuse, satin, too-short bubble dress. 'Nuff said.

I was in attendance for the festival, along with the literary managers from every major theater company in the country, and left Becky Shaw exclaiming two things: "David Wilson Barnes is a star! WHY is he not famous yet?!?" and "Mark my words: This play is totally going to be at Second Stage next season."

Then the Times review came out and Charles Isherwood was all "David Wilson Barnes is a star!" and I was like, uh, what did I say? Side note: Chuck himself was on my flight to Louisville for the festival, and while is he a very good dresser, he positively radiates snobbishness. We happened to be on the same shuttle to the hotel, and someone was chatting him up about Louisville's many cultural offerings. Here's how the conversation went:

Guy on Shuttle: I hear they have many fine museums here in Louisville.
Isherwood: Mmm, yes.
Guy on Shuttle: In fact, the Museum of Bourbon is supposed to be quite interesting.
Isherwood: My apartment is a museum of bourbon. Ba-dum-bum.

Yup, that's right, he even did the little ba-dum-bum part! It would have been cute, if he didn't look like he was about to burn through someones skull with his eyes.

So now Second Stage announced its season, and again, who called it? Moxie.

Theresa Rebeck's response to Jon Robin Baitz on the HuffPo

Several bloggers are discussing Jon Robin Baitz's excellent piece in The Huffington Post. The piece goes a long way in explaining why it's so hard for playwrights nowadays, why they go to television and film, and why nobody lets Chuck Isherwood sit at their lunch table. It's definitely a must-read, and you should certainly check it out.

BUT I'm interested in a response in the comments. A mysterious commenter named only "Rebeck" (who could it be?) responded:

HILARIOUS. your posting cheered me right up, Robbie. it has never been clear to me why they get so mad when we make a little money from the big old evil TV machine. would it be better for our craft if we jus sat around in crummy overpriced New York studios, worried about how we were going to pay the rent?

my experience has been it helps to have a little money in your pocket, when the New York Times whacks you on the head because of some utterly inane new rule they've come up with as an excuse to dismiss your play. Ben Brantley suddenly decides he likes David Mamet and uses his review of my play to express this fact? Oh brother. Maybe I should dip into my savings and go to Italy for a few days...

Theresa Rebeck's response is interesting, but also sadly unsurprising. She obviously has a point about how it helps to actually get paid, but her mention of the critical response to Mauritius is whiny and embarassing. It's one thing when Brantley and Isherwood carelessly eviscerate work that deserves at least a little respect, but Brantley's review of Mauritius didn't read as a discovery that he likes Mamet - more like an acknowledgement that Rebeck's play (as many, many others said) is just like American Buffalo - only less interesting.

Frankly, I find it difficult to place Rebeck in the same category as those playwrights who would really benefit from a bit more kindness from the critics. With a very few exceptions, her plays aren't really challenging the form. Don't get me wrong, she's written plays I've enjoyed, particularly Bad Dates. But Theresa Rebeck is not.. oh, Will Eno, Adam Rapp, Adam Bock, or the many other playwrights whose work sometimes gets trashed because they're taking risks, and that makes people uncomfortable. Nobody is calling Theresa Rebeck a hipster from Williamsburg in their reviews.

Isherwood says there are no stage actresses who could play Eliza Doolittle.

In tomorrow's Arts & Leisure section, Charles Isherwood discusses his enjoyment of Roundabout's current staging of Pygmalion. He describes Claire Danes, "making her adventurous, her admirable first foray onto Broadway," and goes on to say "I'm hard put to name a single New York stage actress who could handily pull it off, with the possible exception of the up-and-coming Lily Rabe." Yeah Lily Rabe would be good, but, wait - what?

I'm so tired of Isherwood acting like just because he can't come up with ideas of his own, that means that something just doesn't exsist. He recently did it about playwrights, basically saying that there are no young playwrights concerned with politics. Which is obviously hogwash. And there are totally a bunch of actresses who could play Eliza Doolittle! Just because he can't think of any doesn't mean they don't exist.

Here's my hypothetical casting list, with a little help from the theater think tank over at All That Chat. I'm not saying every one of them could "handliy pull it off" as Isherwood says, but there are OPTIONS, people.


-Yes, Lily Rabe would probably be pretty great.
-Lynn Collins, duh.
-Lauren Ambrose
-Bryce Dallas Howard
-Paige Howard - pictured above. Did anyone see Mary Rose? I think she'd be remarkable.
-Aya Cash
-Samantha Soule
-Lisa Joyce - would fucking rock.
-Alison Pill - please Alison, just do something different already.
-Amy Rutberg
-Maggie Siff
-Wynn Everett
-Celia Keenan Bolger
-Elizabeth Moss
-Kerry Butler
-Maria Dizzia
-Zoe Kazan (think outside the box! She would be awesome!)

And there have to be more! Post them in the comments if you have more ideas.

(Thanks to Jesse21 of All That Chat!)