The AndyGram

In David Lindsay-Abaire’s Good People, currently playing at Manhattan Theatre Club's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, Frances McDormand is once again playing a rough-around-the-edges character, something that has set her apart in Hollywood.  Her Margie is as hard as the pronunciation of the g in her name.  She has just been fired from her job as a cashier in a dollar store where she eeks out a minimal existence for herself and her severely retarded daughter. To add insult to injury, she was fired by Stevie (Patrick Carroll in a terrific Broadway debut), her baby-faced boss whose now deceased mother was a friend of Margie’s.

The Roundabout Theatre Company’s new production of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest is as beautiful as it is witty.  This production is a transfer from Canada's Stratford Shakespeare Festival.  Brian Bedford’s performance as Lady Bracknell is not the first of its kind, but it certainly is one of a kind.  His gender-bending portrayal of Lady Bracknell is played for real.  I’m delighted to say that it is short on camp and long on laughs.  Mr. Bedford contorts his face into grimaces and calls on a vocal range that goes from basso profundo to most lady-like to give this Lady Bracknell a hilarious air.  

Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, the new rock musical that just moved uptown from the Public Theatre, is timely, enlightening and loads of fun.  It is a satirical musicalization on the life of the seventh president of the United States, Andrew Jackson.  Jackson is played with juvenile abandon by Benjamin Walker who has a terrific voice and commanding presence and looks great in the “sexypants” (the show’s marketing uses the catch-phrase “history just got all sexypants,” it certainly did)  Despite Jackson’s history as a slave owner and slaughterer of Native Americans, he comes off here as charming and certainly not the archetype featured on the twenty dollar bill.    

The Pitmen Painters, a transfer from London’s National Theatre is a funny and engaging look at five miners from the coal fields of Northern England who decide to take an art appreciation night course sponsored by the Workers’ Educational System.  It’s actually three miners, one want-to-be miner and one “dental mechanic.”

Tony Award winning playwright Lee Hall (Billy Elliot) has taken a book by William Feaver, based on a true story, and created a terrific play.  The fine cast, all of whom moved from the London production, has vivaciously brought these men to life.   They are a solid ensemble.

Andrew C. McGibbon has spent the past thirty years working in live theatre as a stage manager, general manager, producer and leader in the convergence of Broadway and online.

Mr. McGibbon worked as a stage manager and general manager for ten years. In 1994 he created a website devoted to live theatre, BroadwayWorld-Wide.com. The site was subsequently bought by, and became Playbill.com. He continued to manage the site for Playbill for four years.  In 2000 he became the website manager for TonyAwards.com. With the 2008-09 season he finished his ninth year on the show. He has also worked as a webmaster for the Broadway League and Jazz at Lincoln Center.  He recently completed a run as the Director of Digital Media for the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and is presently looking for his next adventure.

Mr. McGibbon is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association, the Independent Theatre Bloggers Association, AEA and AFTRA.

In addition to his work in the theatrical industry, Mr. McGibbon is also a partner in Simple Solutions Distributing, a manufacturer of filtration equipment for the waste-water industry.  He is also a professional photographer providing businesses with food photography, aerial photography, event photography, and virtual tours.

Photo: Elizabeth Leitzell