Theatre Askew's HORSEPLAY: or, The Fickle Mistress is Getting RAVES!

Alexis Soloski reviews HORSEPLAY for The New York Times:

"Ms. Pope, an assured performer with a brazen alto, shines in the role, changing her accent and identity even more often than her bloomers. “I’m whoever I need to be,” Adah tells a lover. With brio and brass, Ms. Pope is, too."

Read the full review HERE.

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Michael Niederman reviews HORSEPLAY for New York Theatre Review:

"[Molly] Pope owns the stage in her presentation of Menken...All of the Askew company play multiple parts, sometimes more than one in the same scene.  Some standouts include  Tiffany Abercrombie, who plays the corpulent Alexandre Dumas and an Ugg-A-Wug Native American Bride, Tim Cusak as both dandy and Jew, Evertt Quinton as the scariest drag queen I’ve ever seen, and Chuck Montgomery as Meknen’s long beleaguered manager and only friend."

"Horseplay remains a vital window into not just one woman’s multiple lives, but also the history of the 19^th century, a time period in which the entire western world was trying on multiple personas, trying which one would fit best."

Read the full review: HERE

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Raven Snook gives HORSEPLAY 3-stars in Time Out New York:

" [Molly] Pope is marvelous, fluidly changing accents and outfits in front of our eyes (costumes, wigs, props and set pieces are all in full view), belting out a few numbers in her smoky voice and maintaining charm when delivering some very dark punch lines. "

"Produced by Theatre Askew, Horseplay is scrappy, campy and all over the place, much like its heroine." 

Read the full review HERE.

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Talkin' Broadway's Howard Miller on HORSEPLAY:

"Under Elyse Singer’s zippy direction, the versatile troupe of actors play multiple roles, often making head-spinning rapid character and gender switches as they relate the varied takes on Menken’s biography in a wildly exaggerated style that reflects her wildly exaggerated story telling. These include Tiffany Abercrombie, Tim Cusack (Theatre Askew’s artistic director), Jan Leslie Harding, Chuck Montgomery, Everett Quinton, and Mark St. Cyr — all of them excellent."

"Molly Pope, in whose acting you’ll find traces of Barbra Streisand, Gilda Radner, Mae West, Carol Burnett, and Bette Midler — [is] a perfect embodiment of the charisma and wit of a woman determined to make her way in what was most certainly a man’s world."

Read the full review HERE.

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Zachary Stewart covered HORSEPLAY for TheaterMania.

"There is no more delightful way to learn about Menken than Trav S.D.'s Horseplay: or, The Fickle Mistress, a Protean Picaresque, now being presented by Theatre Askew at La MaMa's Ellen Stewart Theatre."

"The six-person ensemble plays a dramatis personae of seeming thousands, with each performance as over-the-top and committed as the last."

"[Molly] Pope bites into this role, luxuriating in all of Menken's ridiculous contradictions and unapologetic thespianism."

Read the full review HERE.

La MaMa in association with Theatre Askew present

HORSEPLAY:

or, The Fickle

Mistress

by Trav S. D.

directed by Elyse Singer

February 13 - March 1, 2015

The Ellen Stewart Theatre

66 East 4th Street

(between Bowery and 4th Street)

New York, NY 10003

Tickets: $18 Adults; $13 Students/Seniors

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE

Spotlight On Molly Pope in the NY Times!

For Molly Pope, Adventures 

in Cabaret and ‘Horseplay’

The New York Times' Erik Pipenburg talks to Molly Pope, star of Trav S.D.'s HORSEPLAY: or, The Fickle Mistress, which begins performance this weekend!  Molly plays Adah Isaacs Menken, who was sort of a 19th Century Madonna or Lady Gaga in the way she constantly reinvented her image.  

“When you’re 24, and you sound like Ethel Merman at 65, there aren’t a lot of roles"

Read the full interview: HERE

And get your tickets now!

La MaMa in association with Theatre Askew present

HORSEPLAY:

or, The Fickle

Mistress

by Trav S. D.

directed by Elyse Singer

February 13 - March 1, 2015

The Ellen Stewart Theatre

66 East 4th Street

(between Bowery and 4th Street)

New York, NY 10003

Tickets: $18 Adults; $13 Students/Seniors; ten tickets priced at $10 each are available for every performance as part of La MaMa's 10@$10 ticketing initiative - in advance only via web, phone or at the box office - not available day of show

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE

L Magazine Talks to Molly Pope About HORSEPLAY

 

L Magazine's Dan Callahan chats with Molly Pope, star of HORSEPLAY: or, The Fickle Mistress which begins performances this Friday, February 13th, at The Ellen Stewart Theatre:

"I went to NYU for drama, where I took Dan Safer’s class on solo performance. That class turned out to be super-important for how I wound up creating my own work and developing this neo-retro cabaret persona. I am inspired by Elaine Stritch, Bobby Short, Charles Busch, 30 Rock, The Bee Gees, Bill Claxton, The Judy Garland Show, Dostoyevsky, Carol Burnett and, most of all, Sarah Vaughan.”

Read the full article HERE.

And grab your tickets to HORSEPLAY!

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La MaMa in association with Theatre Askew present

HORSEPLAY:

or, The Fickle

Mistress

by Trav S. D.

directed by Elyse Singer

February 13 - March 1, 2015

The Ellen Stewart Theatre

66 East 4th Street

(between Bowery and 4th Street)

New York, NY 10003

Tickets: $18 Adults; $13 Students/Seniors; ten tickets priced at $10 each are available for every performance as part of La MaMa's 10@$10 ticketing initiative - in advance only via web, phone or at the box office - not available day of show

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE

Trav S.D. on the opening of HORSEPLAY this week

Trav S.D. talks about the production of his play, Horseplay: or, The Fickle Mistress which begins performances this Friday, February 13th at The Ellen Stewart Theatre.

"I feel like an expectant mother whose water is about to break. This week is a climax of sorts, a moment of truth (even as we celebrate artifice).

On Friday we begin previews of Horseplay a play I’ve been working on (off and on) for about fifteen years. Work in earnest began about four years ago when Tim Cusack of Theatre Askew commissioned its completion, and brilliant director Elyse Singer came aboard. We’ve workshopped the hell out of it, winnowed it down from an original six hour length (it was originally written as a six episode serial), shaped it, honed it, and brought on the most talented collaborators we could find to bring it to life."

Read all about the fantastic cast and the rest of Trav's thoughts about this epic production: HERE.

And get your tickets to the show!

La MaMa in association with Theatre Askew present

HORSEPLAY:

or, The Fickle

Mistress

by Trav S. D.

directed by Elyse Singer

February 13 - March 1, 2015

The Ellen Stewart Theatre

66 East 4th Street

(between Bowery and 4th Street)

New York, NY 10003

Tickets: $18 Adults; $13 Students/Seniors; ten tickets priced at $10 each are available for every performance as part of La MaMa's 10@$10 ticketing initiative - in advance only via web, phone or at the box office - not available day of show

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE

First Look @ HORSEPLAY; or, The Fickle Mistress

Take a look at these fabulous shots from HORSEPLAY; or, The Fickle Mistress by Trav S.D.  Wonderful costumes by Becky Hubbert!  Performances begin Friday, February 13th at The Ellen Stewart Theatre!

Everett Quinton, Mark St. Cyr and Molly Pope

Molly Pope and Mark St. Cyr

Molly Pope and Tim Cusack

Molly Pope, Everett Quinton and Mark St. Cyr

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La MaMa in association with Theatre Askew present

HORSEPLAY; 

or, The Fickle 

Mistress

by Trav S. D.

directed by Elyse Singer

February 13 - March 1, 2015

The Ellen Stewart Theatre

66 East 4th Street

(between Bowery and 4th Street)

New York, NY 10003

Tickets: $18 Adults; $13 Students/Seniors; ten tickets priced at $10 each are available for every performance as part of La MaMa's 10@$10 ticketing initiative - in advance only via web, phone or at the box office - not available day of show

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE

Molly Pope on playing Adah Isaacs Menken in HORSEPLAY: or, The Fickle Mistress

Molly Pope talks about playing Adah Isaacs Menken in the upcoming production of Trav S.D.'s HORSEPLAY: or, The Fickle Mistress. HORSEPLAY begins performances on Friday, February 13, 2015, at The Ellen Stewart Theatre.

La MaMa presents

HORSEPLAY: 
or, The Fickle 
Mistress
by Trav S.D.
directed by Elyse Singer

February 13 - March 1, 2015

The Ellen Stewart Theatre
66 East 4th Street
(between Bowery and Second Avenue)
New York, NY 10003

Tickets: $18 Adults; $13 Students/Seniors; ten tickets priced at $10 each are available, in advance only, for every performance - first come, first served

For Tickets & Info: Click Here

6 Questions: Trav S.D.

Author Trav S.D.'s new play, HORSEPLAY, opens at The Ellen Stewart Theatre in February in a production by Theatre Askew and directed by Elyse Singer.  Horseplay stars Molly Pope as Adah Isaacs Menken and we got to ask Trav 6 Questions about the play, his book No Applause, Just Throw Money and his favorite albums:

1. What was initial inspiration for writing HORSEPLAY?
I first learned about Adah Isaacs Menken when, by happenstance, I came into possession of a couple of biographies about her in the late 1980s. It was years before I read the books, but the instant I did so I knew I had to write a play about her (initially it was a screenplay). This was in 2000 or so. And I chipped away at it now and again over the years. Then in around 2011, Tim Cusack asked me if I had anything in the hopper that might be suitable for Theatre Askew, and this play came immediately to mind. Tim and I share a common love for the Theatre of Ridiculous, and I was always going to give this a Ridiculous treatment.

2. What was it about Adah Isaacs Menken that you found interesting?
I often write about people who are slippery with the truth in a theatrical way, and kind of shift identities when the need arises. Often I and others will invent these larger-than-life, fictional, fabulous characters, but Adah was all that and she was REAL. Her REAL story is almost too good to be believed. I mean, plenty of it was indeed invented cock-and-bull, but the verifiable, corroborated FACTS are easily just as fascinating. This is a woman who went EVERYWHERE, did EVERYTHING, knew EVERYONE, and at the same time, she herself was a sort of mysterious hole. Nobody knew the true story of her earliest background, not even her closest friends. This ambiguity about her identity allowed her to kind of live outside the law, to break laws, and make new ones. Black? White? Gay? Straight? On and on and on. It seems like she was all of them and none of them. And because she was a creature of the Victorian era, this means she broke new ground for the age we live in now -- the age when we get to define ourselves, or at least when many of us strive to. An age where is not a case of society telling YOU, "You are a woman and therefore...", but YOU telling society, "I am ME and therefore..." This is a battle that has been waged since the beginning of time.

3. Who inspires you?
Hoohoo, such a long list! But in this context, oh, I guess: Oscar Wilde, Charles Ludlam, John Waters, P.T. Barnum, Charles Busch, Ethyl Eichelberger, both chicks named Jennifer Miller (the one with the beard and the one with the elf ears), Walt Whitman, Andy Warhol, Tammy Faye Starlite, and Everett Quinton (whom I still can't believe is in my fucking play!)

4. What is it like to have Bette Midler recommend your book, No Applause, Just Throw Money?
Very nice, but it also makes me surly, ungrateful and dissatisfied. Like, where are the backstage passes, Bette? Can the two of us go to the racetrack maybe sometime and just hang out? Belmont? Aqueduct? If she has me to dinner, though, I know I would like brisket.

5. What 3 albums would you want with you if stuck on an island?
All Things Must Pass, George Harrison 
The Basement Tapes, Bob Dylan (with all the newly rediscovered tracks so that's cheating!) Sgt. Pepper, the Beatles 

Boring, huh?

6. What does working at La MaMa mean to you?
Well, for me it's all in the name. When I think of the name La MaMa, it has two meanings for me. First, It's the living mother of all indie theatre companies. The experiments that were nurtured here in the mid 60s made everything that's happened since possible. I think in certain ways, the downtown theatre community has backslid, but not in the fundamental idea that it is 100% valid for me or anyone to just sort of plant their flag and say "I am a theatre company, and this thing I am doing is theatre." That spirit of freedom was pioneered at La MaMa. The other meaning in the name...Well, having known both Ellen Stewart and Mia Yoo, I can say that they both radiate this same quality, a sort of ethic of being welcoming and nurturing, of hearing you, and supporting you, not just materially but morally. They go to bat for their shows. They provide for their artists. And ye gods -- they have rehearsal space!

And, lastly, working at the same joint where a lot of my heroes have worked puts the pep in my step! I first had the privilege of mounting a show here in 2011, and I tell you at night, when all is quiet, I look around for the ghosts!

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La MaMa presents
HORSEPLAY: 
or, The Fickle Mistress, 
A Protean Picaresque
by Trav S.D.
directed by Elyse Singer

February 13 - March 1, 2015

The Ellen Stewart Theatre
66 East 4th Street
(between Bowery and Second Avenue)
New York, NY 10003

Tickets: $18 Adults; $13 Students/Seniors; ten tickets priced at $10 each are available, in advance only, for every performance - first come, first served

For Tickets & Info: Click Here