Winter Parker Night is Dec. 13

We're going to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the publication of "Enough Rope". Mrs. Parker's first book of collected poems came out in December 1926. We've picked the perfect place in Dot City to hold the event: The Dead Poet, 450 Amsterdam Ave (bet. 81st and 82nd), on the beautiful Upper West Side. This is of course where Mrs. Parker once resided. It's one of the coziest little pubs in the city, and perfectly suited for our evening. The Details:

The Dead Poet, 450 Amsterdam Ave (bet. 81st and 82nd)
Thursday, Dec. 13, 8-11 p.m.
Three hours open bar (well drinks, draft beer, wine, and champagne)
Cost: $25 per person

The evening will include the unveiling of a photo of Mrs. Parker to adorn the walls of The Dead Poet, joining the pub's collection (Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, etc). Some special guests are invited, details TBA.

Please feel free to invite friends who may want to attend; it is open to the public.

Posted by Kevin Fitzpatrick on Wednesday, November 28, 2001 at 11:49 PM | Permalink

21st Century Parker

Among the cast, from top, are Anne Levy, Bryan Brendle and Candy Simmons.

I've been waiting for a Dorothy Parker production that isn't set in the Roaring Twenties. Who hasn't thought that "A Telephone Call" couldn't be done with a cell phone in hand, rather than one of those old-fashioned big black rotary dial things? Or watching "Here We Are" performed on the "D" train in Brooklyn? Now I think my wish is going to come true.

Mark your calendars for the first (I believe) 21st Century Dorothy Parker adaptation in NYC. We heard from Candy Simmons of Dream Out Loud Productions who is helping to write and perform in "The Sexes (According to Dorothy Parker)". It is at the New York Comedy Club, 241 E. 24th Street (bet. Second and Third avenues) Nov. 9 and Nov. 13-16 at 7 p.m.

If you read the Archives, people produce their own Parker plays several times a year, all over the country. They all seem to be about the same: period costumes, period hairstyles, etc. So the news that Candy and her company of young Actors is FINALLY bringing Mrs. Parker into 2001 is a cool thing indeed.

"We are aiming for a timeless kind of feeling, but it's definitely a modern
adaptation, cell phones, etc," Candy wrote to us. Candy, along with Anne Levy and Bryan Brendle adapted the script.

"We are all huge fans of Ms. Parker and thought it would be wonderful
to create a stage show from a group of her short stories and poems," she said. "We
wanted to try to create a show that could turn more people on to her writing by showcasing her language in an accessible relevant way. We have written some transitional lines and updated a few words here and there, but we were very careful to preserve the integrity of her work."

The show is backed up by a local jazz combo, D'Flo, regulars at the Elbow Room. The writers picked some of Mrs. Parker's most famous pieces.

Candy says, "The stories we use are: Telephone Call, New York to Detroit, Dusk Before Fireworks, Just a Little One and of course The Sexes, with several poems
thrown in. The show takes place at a present day jazz club and follows several relationships and their inevitable communication issues over the course of an hour."

The cast consists of Bryan Brendle, Jenn Fraser, Anne Levy, Sam Mossler, Candy Simmons and Jennifer Swiderski.

The show is a low $5 cover; and the old Two Drink Minimum (no problem for the Dorothy Parker Society of New York). For reservations: 212-712-7029; and visit the Dream Out Loud website, www.dolproductions.org.

Posted by Kevin Fitzpatrick on Wednesday, November 21, 2001 at 9:30 PM | Permalink

New Parker Show Sparkles

The cast of The Sexes (According to Dorothy Parker) after the show at the New York Comedy Club.

It's taken a group of young actors to finally bring Dorothy Parker into the 21st Century, and they pulled it off marvelously.

I'm talking about "The Sexes (According to Dorothy Parker)" playing now through Friday at the New York Comedy Club, 241 E. 24th Street (bet. Second and Third avenues) at 7 p.m. The cast of six weaves Mrs. Parker's greatest hits into a punchy little show that shouldn't be missed.

It seems like every month someone is taking a Shakespeare play and re-inventing it for modern times. Now Mrs. Parker is the one getting the makeover, and the cast of "The Sexes" gets a big round of approval for it. As all Parker fans know, her dialogue is timeless, and the young cell-phone wielding cast bridges the gap from Roaring Twenties/Great Depression to life during Bush/CNN/Bin Laden.

The show used pieces of Mrs. Parker's short stories, among them Telephone Call, The Waltz, Dusk Before Fireworks, Just a Little One, New York to Detroit, and The Sexes, with some of her one-liners and poems. They mixed them up, set it in a little jazz club, and what comes out is pure magic.

The cast, who all seem to come from Florida (is this a hotbed of talent?) consists of Bryan Brendle, Jenn Fraser, Anne Levy, Sam Mossler, Candy Simmons and Jennifer Swiderski. The director is Tim Herman, and he really moved the action around the room. One of the best parts of the production is that being inside the comedy club, the bar is OPEN, and so the audience can suck down drinks along with the show. The cast is also surrounding the audience, putting them into the production too.

The writers, (Brendle, Levy and Simmons), even used some clever gender reversal in The Sexes and Just A Little One to dynamic effect. Switching The Sexes to two women really put a new spin on the story; the same goes with the classic Just A Little One. You wouldn't think of it, but having the cast using cell phones throughout the show really made it clear that this was 2001, not 1921. And the interweaving of all the monologues, jokes and snappy lines just crackled.

The production tapped the jazz talents of D'Flo, regulars at the Elbow Room, a trio who grooved and kept the music flowing throughout. They added another dimension to the show that really assisted in the transformation.

Try and see this show if at all possible, maybe it will make a return engagement in the near future. It's excellent.

Posted by Kevin Fitzpatrick on Wednesday, November 14, 2001 at 11:41 AM | Permalink