Big ups to Peter Askin, Scott Larkin, Will Battersby, and Mike O’Malley

Shout to Rashi, Jeff, Bria, and Liz

Love to all the couples people, Missy, Frank, Dominic, Brendan, Kianné, Tom, Jo, Tiffany, and Maria!

Katie Nolff. If you’re producing a film, you will undoubtedly want her on your callsheet.

Next: My official Move-Back-Home-to-NYC post…coming very soon in June!

J.WU on Broadway

It was 7:30pm on a Friday in New York City. In front of the Cort Theatre on 48th street, an employee diligently urged people to form two separate lines. One stretched rather neatly all the way to 6th Avenue. The other, more blob-like than a line, grew towards 7th. I couldn’t help but feel swept into the fervor of it all. After all, Kenny Leon’s Broadway revival of the August Wilson’s flagship play was merely four performances away from opening night. So as a thousand people filed in, (the theatre seats 1082…and was PACKED), the burning question on my mind was whether Denzel Washington, the production’s unabashed top-liner, was to deserve his inevitable entrance applause.
As the final stragglers battled into their seats, lights hit the set. Branford Marsalis’ original music swelled and kept on until precisely when I couldn’t bear it any longer and suddenly there was Denzel, striding on, taking the stage as fiercely as I can remember an actor daring. We, as a thousand—we as a unit, applauded thunderously.
From that moment to intermission was the most exciting realism I’ve seen on stage in years. Denzel was just as charming as can be. When we thought he could not reel us in any further, he yanked us deeper into his magical front yard. He would joke with his friend, and we laughed as if we’d known him our whole lives. He would tell his wife how he will handle her later in the evening, and we celebrated how intrepid love-making should always be. He would rail at his son about responsibility, and from whichever angle possible, we understood. He would perform his dream encounter with Death, and we were joyously confident that that expensive ticket stub in our pockets was well worth it.
The play takes its intermission after Cory receives strike one from his father, punctuated with Troy’s line “Don’t strike out!” As the house lights went up, I didn’t take that time to speculate on the potential irony of that line for the second half of the play. I, instead, remembered to reflect on how everyone else in the first act was indeed very solid as well. Viola Davis, Chris Chalk, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Russell Hornsby, and Mykelti Williamson did fine jobs. But, I’ll be damned if they’re not just a candle in the sun next to Denzel.
The production’s second half, could not conceal the inherent problems of the play itself. Slowly but surely, I felt the audience working harder and harder to stay strapped into the story. Henderson as Bono didn’t find a moment to land that huge swing at Troy. Hornsby as Lyons, I just didn’t care. He had buff arms though. Williamson as Gabriel takes the cake for landing the most resounding moments in the second half. Tony award winner Viola Davis makes a great play at the scene where Troy reveals his infidelity but fails to show me in a later scene how she comes to decide to mother Troy’s newborn daughter. Blaming the direction would be the easier route for that. Perhaps less so for Chris Chalk (Cory) and his general lack of depth, variety, and ability to convey a true connection to his circumstances. I will attribute the greenness of the violent baseball bat scene to it still being previews but it seems a believable sequence is many fight-calls away in the run.
How does Mr. Washington fare after the intermission when things get heavy and Wilson forces Troy to reveal less charming things? Frankly, with much less brilliance. His lashing out still reminds me of what he found with the ‘King Kong’ sequence back in Training Day. Would have loved to see some more variety in his emotional explosions. That being said, we still missed him in the final scene as the play ungracefully crawled to an end, including a final light cue that I hope would be cut by opening night.
Still, at curtain call, I leapt to my feet because Denzel’s presence, confidence, and execution had been thoroughly amazing in the first half of the play. And hey, he has two Oscars—and I am a fan.

and now, briefly on:
AMERICAN IDIOT

Okay, so ‘Dookie’ was the very first album I bought in 5th grade. It was on a cassette tape. It was awesome. I remember singing the swear words laden lyrics on the school bus and feeling a tremendous sense of victory when the 6th grade bus monitors resigned to just glaring after realizing they couldn’t fight the masses. Then the band fell off my map. It wasn’t until this January when I showed up at Berkeley Rep where they just had closed the premiere run of ‘American Idiot’ that I stumbled upon that album, and in turn their latest album ’21st Century Breakdown’. I immediately fell back in love with their sound. And I won’t apologize for it.
Nor did the show apologize for anything. The sheer volume, the minimal and trivial words inserted here and there in between numbers, the effortful attempt at a cohesive thru-line. They didn’t say sorry about any of that. And I did not care! The show is about Green Day’s music as arranged by Tom Kitt for the 24 actor voices. And what a tremendous job he did. Sheer fun to see those songs performed with such blow-out energy. The choreography wasn’t bad, there was a fun wire sequence, there were moments of humor, and even some of the heartfelt moments landed…but all in all, totally go see the show because the music itself is enthralling!

MORE:

Also, in my two weeks back here in city, made it to Carnegie Hall for an evening with the Takács Quartet as they performed Robert Shumann’s Op. 41, No. 3 in A Major, a New York Premiere of John Psathas’ A Cool Wind, and ending with Beethoven’s Op. 59, No. 3, “Razummovsky” in C major, which was exhilarating. The violist walked schleppily on and off the stage, which was entertaining as well.

Finally, I don’t know much about alcohol at all because, well, I’m allergic to it. But if you’re the type to enjoy spending a hefty amount of cash for the best scotches and brandy in the world, I recommend Brandy Library Lounge in Tribeca. For you actors, it is recommended that you leave your resonators outside on Moore St. because the bar will ask that you keep your volume at a bourgy whisper.

Congrats to Miguel and Annie, who is pregnant with their second child!
Shout to James and Roger over at Suskin Management. Shout to Jay, Danielle, and Kyle over at TalentWorks NY. Shout to Shan…getting two companies off the ground. Shout to Frank, for being the richest liberal I know. Big ups to Matt and that Brandy Lounge crew, Franklin, Ashish, Ajay, Paul, Russel, and Warren. Shout to Nicole and Beth! Shout to Natalie and all the third years about to hit showcase…I’ll see you in LA! Shout to Leta! Shout to Meg Simon! Shout to the fam!
And finally, big shout to NYC for always being my constant. I will see you soon. Most likely for good? =)

On the plane, LA-bound. Peace!

3/4 – And so the show opens with style.

Read the San Francisco Chronicle REVIEW!

The Cast of "Devices" at Opening Night

Hey all, I’m up in Berkeley, California working on the World Premiere production of Naomi Iizuka’s latest play “Concerning Strange Devices from the Distant West” at Berkeley Repertory Theatre with Les Waters at the helm as director.  Les’ last play “In the Next Room” (or “The Vibrator Play”) written by Sarah Ruhl started here in Berkeley Rep and just closed after a fantastic run on Broadway.  I saw it.  It was exquisite.  Now, you’re invited to catch Les back in action with a stellar team including yours truly back on stage after a year break.  Watch this video I put together and hope to see you at the show!

CONCERNING STRANGE DEVICES FROM THE DISTANT WEST

by Naomi Iizuka
directed by Les Waters
@
Berkeley Repertory Theatre
Previews Begin – February 26
Opening Night – March 3
Closing – April 11

For more info and tickets: http://www.berkeleyrep.org/season/0910/3653.asp

MONDAY, JAN. 18, 2010 @ 8PM on FOX.***

Hello all! I hope you enjoyed my appearance on Cold Case, if you missed it, click HERE to watch my scenes from the episode. While that was my TV debut, my episodes of FOX’s “24″ was actually shot first back in June and was my first time on a TV set. As the much anticipated premiere of Season 8 of FOX’s hit action-drama is finally within sight, here’s a video with me and Domenick Lombardozzi (Herc from HBO’s “The Wire”) trying to get you guys even more excited!

Thanks to all who was on or behind the camera on that. Big shout to all my Stuyvesant H.S. kids for making me very proud to be an alum. All my Bingo peeps. All my UCSD people. And all my friends throughout…Make no mistake, big things in 2010!

Hey all, first and foremost, my homepage says that my COLD CASE ep is airing this Sunday but due to NFL runovers, the

New Air Date is: November 22, 9pm on CBS.

Scroll down to see pics from the shoot in a previous post.

Okay! Had a tremendous weekend in San Francisco.  Haven’t been since the only other time at age 14 on a family trip.  Don’t remember anything about that trip but whining about walking up hills, and listening to my Sony Walkman, trying to ignore grownups as much as possible.  Made a video for the first time in a while, hope you enjoy it!

Yes, fun times! I hope to shoot future vids in HD…you know…gon make that upgrade.

Shout to Wiley, Bails and others up North!

Until next time friend!

Okay, shout to first and foremost the fam, for feeding and housing me.  Shout to my boy Shan, and my boy Frank, welcome back!  Shout to Miguel, Annie, and Mia, the sweetest baby alive!  Shout to Matt, Katie, and Ben, you did good Matt, don’t fuck it up.  Shout to Nicole and Beth, amazing reconnect.  Shout to Natalie, and Julian at NYU doin it crazy.  Shout to Jessica, handle that shit girl…and Edmond, holla at me in LA homey! Shout to Eilis.  Shout to Pearly.  Shout to Adria, happy bday! Shout to Reggie, until a better day man.  Shout to Sally Taylor, haha! Shout to my manager, James, and Roger at Suskin Management.  Shout to Jay and Danielle at TalentWorks NY.  Shout to Meg Simon! Shout to Ms. Hall and the Stuyvesant High School Concert Chorus and Chamber Choir, you guys rock!  Shout to MacKenzie.

And now…

Another J. Wu on Broadway entry:

Okay, it’s not really a Broadway show, it was a reading at TACT (The Actors Company Theatre).  Couldn’t get excited about too much actually on a Broadway stage this visit. And the TACT Studio has a Broadway address, so here we go.

“The Devil Passes” by Benn Levy at TACT – October 3, 2009

Recent NYU MFA grad, and my good friend, MacKenzie Meehan, invited me to see her perform in this reading. I show up not knowing anything about the play, the playwright, or the producing company. I ride up a small, shaky, industrial elevator at 900 Broadway to the 9th floor, excited to see my first bit of theatre while back in the city.
From the director’s intro to curtain call, I was reminded yet again that New York City sets a bar for stage work that much of the country struggles to achieve (ahem…Los Angeles…).  While huge names quite often headline productions on Broadway to varying results, “The Devil Passes” represented for me the very best of the intimate, small end of theatre.
The play selection committee at TACT deserves a hefty percentage of the kudos. Benn Levy, the playwright, born in 1900 England, writes a play immaculately balanced with wit, humor, all that is language, and questions of social restraints vs. personal ambitions.
The actors had four days of rehearsal to put this up. Coming off of four months in LA, I have a deeper hatred for shitty actors, and consequently an even sharper ability to recognize great ones. Between the prowess, the sense of play, and the impeccable ability to engage, the whole cast gave us a range of colors that held the standard very high indeed, and I applaud them.
Finally, props to the director Scott Alan Evans for finding such a great balance between simplicity and poignancy with this project. Nothing was overdone, which made his specific choices even more dynamic. Everything flowed effortlessly. Bravo.

Bril.  NYC, I love you.  Now back to LA, back to work.  Until the holiday season in a couple of months, New York!

“New York!!!!!!!!…concrete jungle where dreams are made of…there’s nothing you can’t do…..” – Alicia Keys in Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind”

Keep bumpin it NY.  Anthems don’t get old.

Not up on Blueprint 3?  You’re behind.