Archive for Bloomsday on Broadway
It’s Bloomsday – Celebrate with Stephen Colbert
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Happy Bloomsday, everyone! In what’s becoming a yearly tradition around here, we invite you to celebrate by listening to the vocal stylings of Stephen Colbert in the role of Leopold Bloom, from the 2005 Symphony Space production of “Bloomsday on Broadway”.
Click here for the audio of the Calypso and Lotus Eaters chapters of James Joyce’s Ulysses. As ever, we tip our hats to Truth at ColbertsHeroes for the media.
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Symphony Space speaks about Stephen Colbert’s no-show at Bloomsday 2008
Posted by: | CommentsWe received a letter today from Symphony Space’s Associate Director of Marketing, Brian J. Heck, explaining what happened a few weeks ago when Stephen Colbert was not at his scheduled appearance at the Bloomsday 2008 performance:
Hi DB … I’m so sorry I haven’t contacted you sooner, but I’ve been out on vacation for the past couple of weeks. I just saw all the posts about Bloomsday, and I feel terrible that the “Nation” listened in vain (though I was pleased to see that many still enjoyed it!). I just wanted to pass along the official word … Stephen called and said he wasn’t feeling well once the performance was already under way, so he was replaced with another actor already at the theatre. While we typically would make an announcement about such a replacement, an event with almost 100 participants is likely to have many cast changes, and announcing each of them would severely distract from the proceedings.
Stephen does still serve on our advisory board, had many great things to say in our 30th anniversary video, and is quoted on the cover of our new membership brochure coming out this fall. We look forward to having him back on our stage next season (and, personally, I was ecstatic to see him at number 2 on Entertainment Weekly’s list of 25 funniest people!).
Thank you for letting us know, Brian, it is greatly appreciated. And yes, quite a few of us enjoyed hearing Bloomsday this year, even without our favorite late night TV host. Here’s the video that Brian mentions in his letter. Let’s hope that Stephen gets lots of healing rest (and stays relatively injury-free) during his two-week hiatus.
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Bloomsday on Broadway – STREAMING NOW!
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Click here to hear the Bloomsday on Broadway, streaming live now until late in the evening.
Not sure when Stephen Colbert will be on, just that it is sometime before the musical interludes begin at 11:15p EDT.
Enjoy! Feel free to post your thoughts about the performance in the comments.
EDIT:
Um, sorry kids, for some reason he didn’t perform. I don’t know why – hopefully we’ll hear something. Maybe he got too busy with the Peabody awards and had to work late? I’ve been listening during the entire performance, so I know we didn’t miss him. I’m sorry, I don’t know what to tell you.
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Bloomsday Symphony Space and radio productions to differ
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Just a heads up for people planning on listening to Stephen Colbert in the Bloomsday on Broadway production tomorrow night, be sure you’re listening to the streamed version from Symphony Space, which will NOT be the same one broadcast on WBAI radio. From The New York Times:
Separate Bloomsdays for Theater and Radio
By COLIN MOYNIHAN
Published: June 16, 2008For nearly three decades theatergoers, literature lovers and admirers of Irish culture have traveled to Symphony Space or tuned in to WBAI on June 16 in order to watch or listen to actors honor the life of James Joyce and interpret his novel “Ulysses,” one of the most celebrated and recondite books of the 20th century.
. . .
On Monday night, for the first time since 1981, the theater and radio productions, long the joint effort of the Symphony Space artistic director, Isaiah Sheffer, and Larry Josephson, a producer for WBAI (99.5 FM in New York), will go their separate ways as a result of apprehension about obscenity and government regulation.
In the Symphony Space production Stephen Colbert and Frank and Malachy McCourt will read from the novel’s Ithaca episode. Then after a musical interlude by the soprano Judith Kellock, the event will conclude with a reading by Fionnula Flanagan of the book’s ending episode, Molly Bloom’s drifting nighttime thoughts.
. . .
Both the theater and radio versions are scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. and will run until about 2 a.m.
Mr. Sheffer said the Symphony Space performance would be streamed on its Web site (symphonyspace.org). But he also expressed some desire to rejoin Mr. Josephson.
“I’m a little regretful that we aren’t on WBAI,” he said. “Maybe next year we can get all back together again.”
And again, I can only marvel at Stephen’s commitment to these projects and their demanding schedules. We don’t want you to burn yourself out, man … but thank you!
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More info on Bloomsday at Symphony Space – Live Webcast!
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We reported a few days ago that Stephen Colbert will be peforming in this year’s Bloomsday on Broadway on Monday, June 16, 2008, which starts at 7:00 pm. Today we received a comment from Brian from Symphony Space giving us a little bit more information about the evening:
The complete “Ithaca” episode will be performed by dozens of people between 7pm and 11:15pm. I don’t know exactly when Stephen will appear, but I know he won’t arrive until after it’s begun because he is taping that evening.
I know 2am is a long time to stay in a theatre, but Fionnula Flanagan reading the “Penelope” episode starting at 11:30pm is really extraordinary. I’ve heard her perform it a few times before, and it’s something I will never forget.
And remember, even if you can’t be there, there will be a live webcast on symphonyspace.org.
Fantastic! I’ll be sure to be listening to that webcast.
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Stephen Colbert to be in this year’s “Bloomsday on Broadway”
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Oh, lovely! TheaterMania is reporting that Stephen’s going to be joining several other distinguished participants in another Bloomsday on Broadway:
Colbert, Flanagan, McCourt, Seldes, et al. Set for Bloomsday on Broadway
By: Brian Scott Lipton · May 30, 2008 · New YorkStephen Colbert, Fionnula Flanagan, Frank and Malachy McCourt, and Marian Seldes will participate in Symphony Space’s 27th annual Bloomsday on Broadway, a reading from James Joyce’s classic novel Ulysses, on Monday, June 16 starting at 7pm. This year’s event will be hosted and staged by Isaiah Sheffer.
The event will feature the first-ever performance of the book’s “Ithaca” episode’s complete, unedited text, a musical interlude from Joyce’s Chamber Music, performed by soprano Judith Kellock, and a reading of the famed “Penelope” monologue by Flanagan.
Here’s the link for tickets from Symphony Space; do jump on these, if you can make it to the show (and are a James Joyce fan). For those of you on the fence (or those of us who won’t be able to make the trip), here’s a link to a bit of the audio we had posted here before. Stephen is, as ever, quite wonderful.
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