Riedel: Times Ad Deal Killed Brighton Beach

Well, that's interesting.

Who's Google-Reading Who

I'm behind the times, I know, but I started to add some blog subscriptions to my Google Reader and discovered some interesting stats along the way. To wit:

Playgoer, with an average of 9.6 posts a week, has 1,503 Google Reader subscribers.

Parabasis, with an average 15.4 posts a week, has 231 GR subs.

Theatre Ideas, with 1.6 post a week on average, has 180 GR subs.

Time Out's Upstaged blog, with an average of 8.2 posts a week, has 137 GR subs.

99 Seats, with an average 5.6 posts a week, has 129 GR subs.

On Theatre and Politics, with an average of 4.9 posts a weeks, has 108 GR subs.

Yours truly averages 6.8 posts a week and claims 101 GR subs.

The Clyde Fitch Report, with an average of 20.3 posts a week, has 88 GR subs.

The Hub Review, with an average of 10.3 posts a week, has 59 GR subs.

Sign of Rain

Ripley Grier rehearsal studios are in my building, and I've recently become a fan of their well-stocked snack bar (today's soup is carrot ginger, mmm). I've become used to sharing the elevator with Jerry Zaks, John Kander, Chris Fitzgerald, Cady Huffman, and assorted leg-warmer-clad gypsies; once while rehearsing at R-G myself I ran into John Leguizamo, Haley Joel Osment, and Cedric the Entertainer, heading off for their lunch break. Today while collecting my soup I happened to notice, on the board reporting what shows are in what room, between La Cage and Billy Elliot, a room reserved for Steady Rain. Now what would a two-character show, cast with stars, that's been open for a month, want with a rehearsal room? Replacements? Understudies? A tour? Just askin'.

Idiolect Savant

Back when I was editor of Back Stage West, I used to flag stories in other magazines that would go into an informal stories-we-shoulda-done file (or, if I was more grumpy about it, the why-didn't-we-do-this-story file). The New Yorker's excellent, unassuming profile of dialect coach Tim Monich would have been at the top of the pile.

Hunka Alert

An academic sentence generator.

Behn There

My Time Out piece about Liz Duffy Adams' new play about Aphra Behn, Or, starring Maggie Siff (pictured), is already up.

A Link List

Time is tight, to quote Booker T and the MGs. A quick glance around the Internets:

• Simonized: Proof again why Playgoer is indispensable; a good take from the LA Times; and an uncharacteristic aside from Broadwaystars' aggregator.
  
• The Nov. issue of American Theatre is out, with pieces on Ivo van Hove, Ten Chimneys, Faye Armon, Victor Lodato, and the gender gap. And this is new: for a few online stories, comments are enabled.
  
• Tracy Letts loose.
  
• Holiday shows and Christopher Lloyd a bad match.
  
• At the top of my Christmas list.
  
• Halloween postmortem.