Wednesday, December 18, 2013

BBC/BBC America plan big send off to Matt Smith on "Doctor Who"


For "Who" fans this Christmas, Santa, crackers, figgy pudding and the lot will be taking a backseat as "Doctor Who" takes over Christmas.  BBC America is planning a full day of programming to honro of actor Matt Smith, who has been playing the 11th incarnation of the title character for four years and departs with this year's Christmas special.  

On tap Dec. 25th is the television premiere of the six-minute Doctor Who prequel, "The Night of The Doctor" at 5:00 p.m. followed by an encore of the 50th anniversary special, "The Day of the Doctor."  A world premiere retrospective special, "Farewell to Matt Smith" airs at 7 p.m., followed by the premiere of Smith's last outing (for now --Time Lords always seem to have a way of coming back via cameos with "Doctor Who") of the iconic time traveler in "The Time of the Doctor" at 8 p.m. 

BBC America caught up with Executive producer and lead writer Steven Moffat, Smith and Jenna Coleman (who plays the Doctor's current time traveling companion Clara) to chat about Smith's impending departure and shared this interview:

 

Can you set the scene for this Christmas episode?
STEVEN MOFFAT: It’s his final battle and he’s been fighting it for a while.  The Doctor is facing the joint challenge of a mysterious event in space that has summoned lots of aliens to one place and helping Clara cook Christmas dinner.  There are also elements from every series of Matt’s Doctor, which will come to a head in this special. Things that we’ve laid down for years are going to be paid off. 

How was the read-through?
MOFFAT: It was emotional.   I think possibly the beginning of the end is more emotional than the actual end. It was the same with The Angels Take Manhattan, when Karen and Arthur left.  The read-throughs are the moments that tend to get people because obviously the shoot dissolves into what we hope will be a tremendously exciting wrap party.

Did you know what you wanted Matt’s last words to be?
MOFFAT: I didn’t think I would go that way, but a couple of months before I wrote it I did say to Mark (Gatiss) that I thought I knew what his last moment would be, and indeed his last line.  But if it didn’t fit the scene I wouldn’t crowbar it in.  I’ve had the vague storyline in place for a long while.

What episodes or scenes do you think will define Matt’s time as the Doctor?
MOFFAT: I think ‘The Eleventh Hour’ was such an extraordinary debut.  Everybody for a year of poor Matt Smith’s life had been saying, ‘total mistake. He’s far too young.’ Then he came in and he was brilliant.   ‘Vincent and The Doctor’ was also such a lovely episode and I was thrilled Richard Curtis was able to write for the show.   There’s the physical comedy that Matt has brought and of course fish fingers and custard. I think his relationship with his own TARDIS in The Doctor’s Wife was gorgeous.
 
What do you think distinguishes Matt from the other Doctors?
MOFFAT: I think he does old Doctor better than anybody else. It’s not an accident. It’s something he very, very consciously thought about. Because he was the youngest Doctor, Matt said, ‘he’s only got young skin. Nothing else is young.’ I think Matt makes you think very believably that he is this ancient being.

The Christmas special will introduce the next Doctor, played by Peter Capaldi.  What was it about Peter that you thought was right for the role?
MOFFAT: He’s one of the best actors in the country and is very beloved.  I was at the BAFTAs shortly before we were contemplating Peter and heard the cheer he got from the audience.  Nobody has a bad thing to say about him and that’s not a minor issue when it comes to casting a Doctor. They’ve got to be lovely. And he’s a huge fan of Doctor Who. So we asked and he was incredibly excited to come and audition. We didn’t tell him that he was the only person auditioning because that would be oddly pressuring.

Did you deliberately aim to cast an older Doctor?
MOFFAT: It wasn’t the reason I cast Peter but I do think if we’d cast another Doctor as young as Matt - because Matt’s been so good at being The Young Doctor - I’m not sure what another one would have done. They’d have to have either been deliberately different or just repeat him.  


Can you first tell us a little bit about the Christmas special?
MATT SMITH: The Christmas special for me is a bitter sweet episode because I’m leaving, but Steven has written a brilliant, adventurous, funny episode and I’m really thrilled with it.  It feels wonderfully Christmassy.

What did you want from your last episode?
SMITH: I think it’s good for the Doctor to go out with a bang, a crash and a wallop. I’m pleased it’s really funny and mad.  When I got to the last 20 pages and it was quite a hard read for me, but I hope it’s going to be a belter. 
We’ve got a great director in Jamie Payne and some really lovely double hand stuff with me and Jenna.  Steven’s managed to tie in plot points and narratives that have been threaded through over years and I think that’s ingenious.

Emotionally, how did it feel to be doing your final performance?
SMITH: It felt very emotional to be doing my final episode. My mother is mortified, honestly she was at the front of the campaign for me to stay and wasn’t happy when I said I was going to leave. But, when you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go. Of course, it’s very sad for me in many ways because everything is the last time. It’s the last read through, the last time I put on the bow tie and the last scene in the TARDIS. But the show is about change and I had lunch with Peter Capaldi shortly after the announcement and I think he’s just going to be incredible.  He has the most brilliant ideas.  As a fan, I’m genuinely excited to see what he’s going to do because I think he’s going to do something extraordinary.

So you’re still going to be a fan?
SMITH: Yeah, absolutely, I’ll be a fan.  I’m very grateful to Steven Moffat and that whole team up in Wales for the past four years and you know I want the show to go from strength to strength, which it will. It might take me a couple of weeks to get my head around it. I think it was the same for David and I think it was the same for Karen, when she watched Jenna come in. I don’t think it’s easy, but it’s not my show, it’s the fans show,
so I’ll be a fan and then it will be my show.
 
Have you been given anything by the fans as a leaving present?
SMITH: I was doing a promo shoot for the 50th and these two girls came on set.  They had made me this book which must have had 50 or 60 letters in, saying thank you for being Doctor Who.  Things like that are amazing. I’ve said it before, the fans of this show are really spectacular and they’ve made this an extraordinary journey for me and I’m very, very grateful.  I don’t think there’s another set of fans like it.

Can we expect some nods to past series with this Christmas special? Are we referencing old specials?
SMITH: With Doctor Who you’re always looking back and forward at the same time, because you tend to be jumping around.  I don’t want to give too much away, but obviously when you look at my tenure over the last four years, there are stories and plot points and villains in there that are particular to my Doctor and I think he’s got to face all that.

How did you find the read-through?  Was it emotional?
JENNA COLEMAN: It was a very emotional read-through.  Just going through the process of saying goodbye was difficult.  The script itself is very emotional, but also joyous.  But saying those words and saying goodbye was never going to be easy.   


Is there a sense from the start of the episode that we’re moving towards a regeneration?
COLEMAN: It’s very much an adventure, but it goes off on a different track.  People watching will know that it’s Matt’s last episode, but it doesn’t loom over from the start. 

We were introduced to Clara as the impossible girl last year.  Are we going to find out more about her family background?
COLEMAN:  Absolutely.  I think there had to be a sense of mystery last year to make the plot work.  What’s really interesting is that it does feel like we’re starting again and we get to see her home life as well as her life with the Doctor.

From a few pictures that have been released there are some of you cooking Christmas dinner.  Have you ever done that in real life?
COLEMAN: My mum does the Christmas cooking.  It couldn’t be any other way. 

Are you looking forward to filming next year with Peter?
COLEMAN: It will be a different show next year.  We have a bit of a gap before we start filming the new series, so I have time to get my head around it all.  Me and Peter will get together before Christmas to start rehearsing and the scripts will start coming in.  When I came in I think there was just a week off in production where Arthur and Karen left, so that would have been a strange shift. This episode is very much about Matt and the Eleventh Doctor and Clara and the Eleventh Doctor and their last adventure together.  I have no idea where we’re going next series!

Where will you be watching the special this year?  Will you be at home?
COLEMAN: Yeah I think so.  Last year the whole family got a cottage together where mum still did the Christmas cooking.  We’ll definitely all be together.

What was your reaction when you heard the next Doctor was Peter Capaldi?
COLEMAN: It was kind of that moment ‘of course, makes sense’.  It’s funny as I don’t think he was one of the names that was originally being speculated about and it wasn’t until the week before that his name came up.  He’s going to be so different to Matt and take the show in an interesting direction. 

When were you told?
COLEMAN:  Matt and I were told together during the Royal visit to Roath Lock studios.   We could tell something was going on and we managed to pin the producers down and get it out of them! 

How hard was it to keep the secret?
COLEMAN:  I think I’ve learned my lesson in that the best thing to do is not to tell anybody and then you don’t have your own paranoia that you’ve let something out. 

What will you miss about working with Matt?
COLEMAN:  Everything!  When you’re reading a scene with him he can turn anything on its head.  He’s so inventive, clever and very funny.  There’s just so much that I’ll miss about him. 


Wednesday, December 11, 2013

About Face Theatre's "We Three Lizas" razzles and dazzles for the holidays



From left: Liza is (Mark David Kaplan), Liza Always (Bethany Thomas) and Liza Was (Danielle Plisz) in About Face Theatre’s 2013-14 production of "WeThree Lizas"  Photo by Michael Brosilow.

Cross posted from Broadwayworld.com 
God bless us, everyone (with jazz hands).  

Not to apply a post-structuralism lens to the proceedings, but in a nutshell, About Face Theatre’s “We Three Lizas” applies Queer theory to (among other things) A Christmas Carol, The Gift of the Magi, holiday TV variety shows and even the Weird Sisters from “Macbeth. The end result is a most satisfying Dickensian musical romp that remains accessible to all.

Substantially re-worked and revamped from the intimate Garage space at Steppenwolf last year, the show, with book and lyrics by Scott Bradley (“Carpenters Halloween” and “Alien Queen”) and music.and additional lyrics by Alan Schmuckler (“The Emperor’s New Clothes”), rightfully deserves to be an annual holiday tradition. 

Scott Duff is Conrad (nee Conrad Ticklebottom) and he hasn’t just given up his last name to achieve success in the big city. He’s managed to claw his way to the top by alienating everyone close to him. Once the maker of a must-have product, he has refused to alter the look or design and has lost so much market share, an unseen board of directors has dispatched a hatchet woman (Sharriese Hamilton) to clean up the books and give him the boot from his own company.

His clarion wake-up call comes to him in the form of three bearded witches Danielle Plisz as Liza Was, Mark David Kaplan as Liza Is and Bethany Thomas as Liza Always). The witches promise him three gifts if he drinks their potion. The gifts end up being clarity to his Christmases past, present and future. Incarnations of Liza act as the ghosts of Christmases. 

Duff beings the proceedings sufficiently Grinch-like and as the evening wears on slowly begins to show Conrad’s faults and vulnerabilities. The character is very much broad strokes and caricature (much like your average Scrooge is), but Duff injects enough humanity to his character that you end up genuinely caring for him.  

Dana Tretta is Reggie, Conrad’s much-put-upon right hand whose talents go unnoticed by both her boss as well as her potential love interest. Though petite, Tretta packs a boffo set of pipes that are particularly well suited for “Donna Doesn’t Notice Me.” 

Andrew Swan (“Steamworks: The Musical”) plays Young Conrad opposite Conrad’s true love Beau (John Francisco). . Their duet “Please Handle With Care” serves as both a recommendation to not rattle the packages, nor break hearts. Swan and Francisco’s voices are evenly matched in this touching holiday song that waxes nostalgically about those times when you may have been poor in money, but not in spirit. The pair also displays some nimble footwork as Fosse-style back-up dancers to Liza. 

Patrick Andrews’ choreography offers up enough referential movement that it borders on homage to both Ms. Minnelli and the many talented choreographers who have found inspiration through her.
Of the three Lizas, Plisz (Liza Was) will probably be the most memorable. She has the moves, mannerisms and –perhaps most importantly—a close facsimile of Minnelli’s iconic red Halston turtleneck minidress. Plisz captures all of Liza Was’ youthful exuberance in “I Can’t Believe I’m Me.”   

Bradley’s Liza (or should that be Lizas) finds much in common with “The Unsinkable Molly Brown.” Who wouldn’t argue that Ms. Minnelli’s career has featured more ebbs and flows than the tide? Unlike Molly Brown, the 67 year-old daughter of Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli has certainly had her share of more than just one Titanic-size disaster (“Arthur 2,” her perchant for marrying gay men and don’t even get me started on her wardrobe choice of spandex  while performing the title song in the 1940’s-set flop “New York, New York”). Through triumph and tragedy, Ms. Minnelli has remained “Liza with a Z not Lisa with an S.” It’s that very ability to persevere amidst career missteps, broken hips and broken marriages that has –in part—made Ms. Minnelli a gay icon. 

Ms. Minnelli is also a suitable icon for the holidays, too. Life is hard. People suck. Holidays occasionally disappoint. You can be the butt of the joke or make certain you are in on it. “We Three Lizas” would seem to urge us not to take ourselves –or our holiday traditions too seriously. And when things go wrong (and they most assuredly will), we should all take a cue from Ms. Minnelli: recognize that a mistake is in a certain way its own gift; one which we should put a glittery bow on and stick it under the tree. 

“We Three Lizas” runs through Jan. 5 at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont. Tickets, $45 ($20 students). Call 773.327.5252, www.aboutfacttheatre.com or www.stage773.com.