Goodbye To Don Knotts And Darren Mcgavin

Today’s blog is dedicated to two giants of earlier years of television and movies, as we have lost Don Knotts of the Andy Griffin show and Darren Mcgavin of the Night Stalker. Both these talents had kids and adults alike screaming with laughter and screaming with hysteria as they captured our hearts with their unique styles of comedy sarcasm and individual character. These two will surly be missed but not forgotten as they both left a large body of work to be cherished for decades to come.

Sorry to see you go fellas!

Lee The Cool Guy
C-YA

Weekly Update
Get the Podcast

Black Box Theater Wednesday

Yes folks, it Black Box Theater Wednesday here at RetroVision Theater and this week’s review and recommendation goes to “The Liberation Of Little Lulu” Or ( “Martin Luther King Detained In Limbo” ).

Written by E. Macer-Story and directed by Michael David Gordon and Eugenia Macer-Story, this high energy mad capped zany macabre and by their own admission, minstrel and vaudevillian inspired production is about the confusion one faces while awaiting judgment in limbo long after death.

The time period is the sixties after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King with the back drop of the ensuing riots that take place in protest.

The insanity begins as we see King continuously confused and dismayed by the greeters in limbo who are charged with acclimating the new arrival to the realization of his recent status; just another soul waiting in a very long line to be judged and or processed.
Unable to accept his circumstance King spends most of the play in denial until he is forced to confront Little Lulu aka God.

As good as the aforementioned was, the story was given added flavor by the outrageous character “Chicken little”, a neighborhood nut that hangs out in the local park communing with a multitude of spirits visions and kooky characters all linked by the need to appreciate a huge paper eagle statue that has a mystical presence. Wow. No, Double Wow! It’s nutz but a lot of fun.

I am sure glad that Christian fundamentalists are a little more controlled because a comparable production about the Prophet Mohammad would piss a lot of people off in some parts of the world.

Here are the details:

Playing at The Theater For The New City
155 First Ave. New York City
Thurs-Sat @ 8:00 pm
Tickets are a mere $ 10.00
Call 212-254-1109 for reservations

Click Here for more on the production and cast

Magick Mirror Communications

212-727-0002 Or 212-208-2951

magickmirror

Lee The Cool Guy

C-IT

C-YA

Our Daily Podcast Feed

A Matter Of Privilege

The Vice President has taken the concept of the privileged few to an entirely new level this week as he has thwarted the publics efforts to get the facts of the “accidental shooting” of a close friend and hunting partner. Failing to stick around for local law enforcement to conduct even a cursory investigation, the V.P. reportedly got on a plane back to Washington, apparently leaving the secrete service to clean up the mess. It must be nice!

To date, the V.P. has enjoyed the image of very private man, aloof if you will, who operates behind the scenes to get the president’s dirty work done; taking on the roll of lighting rod for adversarial attacks no matter which side of the political spectrum they come from.

Fending off criticism of the white house for evidently misleading the country with faulty intelligence, sparking the war in Iraq, to the Scooter Libby scandal ,to the poor Katrina hurricane response that led to the loss of more than a thousand lives and billions in possible preventable property damage, the president has been given a pass by the mainstream media. In this writer’s opinion few really believe George W. Bush has never actually been in charge anyway.
It is for this reason, the V.P. could let nearly 18 hours expire without notifying the president of this serious incident and the possible fallout that might occur as a result of it.

The “Vice President seemingly felt he knew best how to handle this situation and to hell with the media ,the American people and even the President of the United States; his boss

Having 24 hour access to a team of communication specialists, one would think the V.P. has an obligation to give the president’s press people, spin doctors and public relations pros a heads up and a chance to get a story together polished, shined and ready for publication within three hours maximum. Anything less is either sheer incompetence or something far more serious; the “Fuck-Em” let them eat cake attitude or worse, “I answer to know one for I am king” madness. If the latter is the case, this nation is in real trouble because even the president has to be wondering if he has been “Dis’d”, and why.




Wow, and they seem like such good friends

More to follow this week
Lee “The Cool Guy”

C-AY

We Got-Em

Finally we got you the movies we have promising for weeks. It took a mega strom here on the eastcoast to to keep Lee “The Cool Guy”stationary long enough to get the boring task of uploading these classics for ya!

Click on the title of your choice and enjoy the film

Night Of The Living Dead
Black Dragons
Doomed To Die

Lee The Cool Guy
C-YA

Daily Podcast Here

It’s Black Box Theater Wednesday

This week Lee “The Cool Guy” gets to perform a public service as we will justly and methodically rip the writer Malik and the director Passion new assholes for their production of “Real Black Men Don’t Sit Cross-legged On The Floor”. From the opening rapping rhyme which was a crappy crime to the huddled angry eight black men seated on the stage floor slave style to the dated dog-eared black panther wannabe effort, this show lacked a clear message, a discernible plot and little regard for the audience’s intelligence.

I attended this madness to help celebrate black history month and give our readers an option of seeing something diverse, creative and positive from a cultural perspective; perhaps different from their own. But Woodie King JR’s New Federal Theater presented this ” been there done that” farce, to unsuspecting theater goers claiming it was an Actor Equity Association Approved Showcase Production. This writer is in the process of validating that claim as Lee “The Cool Guy” is highly suspect of the notion that any organization of any renown would lend it’s backing and allow it’s reputation to be sullied by this crew from the Rikers Island Repertory Review.

The Following information is a warning to those with low thresholds for bad theater as this group of losers would have a difficult time competing with street performers for loose change
Real Black Men Don’t Sit Cross-legged On The Floor will be spoiling the image of competent theater professionals and innocent theater goers for the next two weeks at the Henry Street Settlement located at 466 Grand Street, NYC.

The Cool Guy got taken for $15.00 on this Dogg when I could have just made a donation to the United Negro Better Actors Fund. If no such entity exists lets start one.
Lee “The Cool Guy”
C-YA
Check out the daily Podcast

If it’s Wednesday, It’s a NYC Black Box Theater Review here at RetroVision Theater. After all that’s what we like to do!

The White Horse Theater Company is currently presenting a production of Sam Shepard’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Play “Buried Child”. Opening Friday last, Lee “The Cool Guy” scored a last minute $15.00 Tix for a Sunday 3:00 PM performance that played to a full house.

I was fortunate to be seated in a row of avid theater goers that were familiar with the playwright’s work so I took advantage of their critiquing of this theatrical company’s competency in tackling this great work.

During the fifteen-minute intermission I got an earful of raving from “pleased as pie” theatrical aficionados as they went on about how this group of actors brought passion and energy to the script. I could not disagree.
The performance turned in by this group would have made the writer proud as Bill Rowley, playing Dodge, the likeable grouchy alcoholic grandfather kept the pace going with a powerful, flub free line delivery for the entire 2 hour and forty minute production.

The setting is placed in an old farmhouse in Crystal Lake Illinois during the early sixties. This story is about a young man making a trek across country with a recently met acquaintance to reunite with his farther only to find that things have changed. Rather than realizing comfort, fun memories and open arms, he is greeted with anger mental illness alcoholism and horrible secrets. That’s right, Norman Rockwell’s American family when the lights go out.

It’s been said that a good script brings out the best in bad actors but in this case, a great script garnered a great performance from great actors. This show is a treat and a bargain.

For more on the producer, director the cast and the White Horse Theater Company Click Here