#brian flaherty

[transformational]

colombia by brian flaherty

[cathygeha]

REVIEW

The Dredge by Brendan Flaherty

An author with a future ~ Great debut novel!

What I liked:

* The dark theme of the story

* That I was drawn into the story quickly and felt a part of the story

* The psychological aspect of childhood trauma and its impact so many years later

* The small-town vibe and how the various characters interacted

* That though dark, there seemed to be hope at the end of the book, at least for some of the characters

* The plot, pacing, setting, and writing

* The thread of family – good and bad

* That this is a book that will stay with me awhile

* Reading a new to me author that I would gladly read again

* All of it except…

What I didn’t like: * Who and what I was meant not to like

* Thinking about abuse and how it damages and how that damage is sometimes carried into future generations

Did I enjoy this book? Yes

Would I read more by this author? Yes

Thank you to NetGalley and Atlantic Monthly Press for the ARC – This is my honest review.

4-5 Stars

BLURB

"Flaherty writes with stealthy acuity, his prose seemingly simple yet full of coiled power. . . . Multiple hauntings emerge in 'The Dredge,' and you’ll be contemplating them after the last page."—Sarah Weinman, The New York Times

In Brendan Flaherty’s debut novel, two estranged brothers must confront the violence of the past when they find out a pond where they played as children will be dredged.

After some traumatic teenaged years in rural Connecticut, Cale and Ambrose Casey had nothing left to say to each other. Cale ran off to Hawaii to sell luxury real estate. Ambrose stayed behind and built up his construction company. Neither thought they’d be in touch again and were glad for it—until they learned of a real estate developer’s plan to drain and expand Gibbs Pond.

Nearly 30 years before, the Casey brothers buried a secret in that pond, which fell somewhere between self-defense and family preservation.

Lily Rowe, the contractor in charge of the dredging, can also trace her roots—and her trauma—to the banks of Gibbs Pond. After a childhood that saw her and her brother yanked across the country by her abusive father, it was here where she finally stayed put, even if they didn’t. But as ambitious as Lily is, and as much as she wants answers of her own, her family also has secrets to protect. 

Now, the haunted lives of Cale, Ambrose, and Lily collide once more as they reunite to unearth the devastation of the past.

AUTHOR BIO

Brendan Flaherty is from outside Hartford. He went to Washington University in St. Louis and received his MFA from Boston University. He lives with his wife and two sons. The Dredge is his debut novel.

[resonant-theory]

[citizenscreen]

(T-B) Harold Ramis, Joe Flaherty, Brian Doyle Murray, John Belushi, and Gilda Radner for the 1974 Off-Broadway production of "National Lampoon's Lemmings."

[oldshowbiz]

1973.

One of the very first reviews of the new Toronto version of Second City.

[mrs-jake-blues]

Whenever I do open mic I’m usually one of if not the only woman there which a lot of people make a big deal about and I’m always like Gilda would be so proud of me 🥹

[greaterstokesawareness]

Collection: Brian Stokes Mitchell and the original cast reunite for the 25th Anniversary Ragtime Reunion Concert at Minskoff Theater, March 27, 2023

photos and video from Broadway World (x), and from Playbill (x)

review on Playbill.org (x)

short clips from the show on Entertainment Community Fund YouTube (x)

video of curtain call (x)

behind the scenes video at rehearsals (x)

video of Stokes and Audra McDonald performing "Wheels of a Dream" on the Today Show leading up to the concert (x) (x)

clip of "Wheels of a Dream" from the Today Show from Al Roker's Instagram (x)

article "Ragtime Reunion Concert Was Filmed According to Lyricist Lynn Ahrens" on Broadway World (x)

article "On the Wheels of a Dream: The Making of Broadway’s Ragtime" on Playbill.org (x)

article announcing the concert and cast on Broadway World (x)

concert announcement video from Entertainment Community Fund YouTube, December 2022 (x)

video of Stokes discussing the concert on Morning Joe after the show (x)

Stokes interview and video before the show on Broadway World (x)

audio of "Wheels of a Dream" (x)

audio of "New Music" (x)

full show audio (x)

[glimeres]

MDA Telethon 1997 - Brian Stokes Mitchell and Company perform Gettin' Ready Rag from the musical Ragtime

[zonetrente-trois]

[clarahhhhhhhhhhhhhh]

Help! (Please.)

I recently found a link on Tumblr to an old recorded Second City sketch where Brian Doyle-Murray was leading a PTA meeting about sex education and the other actors (including Joe Flaherty and Harold Ramis) were sitting among the audience playing concerned parents.

Now, for the life of me, I can't find it. I think the link went to Vimeo?

If anyone is willing to point me in the right direction, I'd really appreciate it. (And, if anyone can point me toward other old Second City/TVTV sketches, I'd really appreciate that, too! - I have attached a clip I found elsewhere on Tumblr (I'm so sorry, I can't remember where), as an offering.)

https://youtu.be/ctfVRdnEjxU?si=QuL3j4IK7q8cMAHF

[superdillin]

Howdy Space Cowboys!!

There's a new series starting on One Shot this week, playing Orbital Blues from @soulmuppet with an absolutely monstrously talented crew!

Join me and the crew of The Rust Bucket:

Brian Flaherty Shenuque Tissera Drakoniques and Edward Spence

[transformational]

door county, wisconsin by brian flaherty

[droughtofapathy]

The Gilded Age's Broadway Divas: Dorothy Scott (Audra McDonald)

As Peggy Scott's pianist mother, Dorothy isn't afraid to give her husband a piece of her mind at every opportunity. Though enmeshed in bettering Black society up north, she worries for her daughter's safety down south. As she should.

Here she is boys, here she is world, the one you've all been waiting for. Six-time Tony winner Audra McDonald. *The* Broadway Diva. Our reigning queen. Our legend. Our great soprano. Audra has won more Tony Awards for performance than any other actor, and is the only one to have an award in each of the four competitive categories for which she is eligible (Best Leading Actress in a Play/Musical, Best Featured Actress in a Play/Musical). As such, she is one of three theatre greats to have nominations across said categories: the others being the late greats Jan Maxwell and Angela Lansbury. With ten nominations in total, she is tied with Julie Harris and Chita Rivera for most performance nominations and will certainly surpass them the next time she comes to Broadway.

Audra McDonald's repertoire is so vast that this post became the hardest to narrow down. I have elected to highlight a little of everything: songs from shows that deserve a little more love here on Tumblr, Audra favorites, obscure gems, etc.

#1: "The Glamorous Life," Sondheim's 80th Birthday Celebration (2010)

We have no choice but to start with Sondheim. The third of six performers in the iconic Ladies in Red segment of the Sondheim 80th Birthday Concert, Audra takes on this exquisite A Little Night Music number sung by the teenaged Frederika in the movie version (we don't talk about it).

Among Sondheim standards such as "The Ladies Who Lunch" (Patti LuPone) and "Losing My Mind" (Marin Mazzie), some considered the inclusion of this number a little misplaced. I adore it.

According to the Word of God (Donna Murphy), some of the Ladies in Red were being sewed or even taped into their dresses just minutes before taking the stage.

#2: Lady Day at Emmerson's Bar and Grill (2014)

Though this particular show features music throughout and has a phenomenal cast album, it is classified as a "play with music," thus Audra was able to win her multi-record-breaking Tony in 2014. She plays the iconic Billie Holiday in 1959 at the tail end of her career. Here, she performs in a run-down nightclub and grows increasingly drunk and demoralized throughout the evening. It is an incredible piece of both singing and acting.

#3: "As You Make Your Bed," Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (2007)

Though the costume is something I feel we should all bear witness to, Audra's demonstration of her full operatic range adds another layer of excellence. A Weill and Brecht collaboration, Rise and Fall of the City of Mahogonny was first performed in 1930. This clip is from the 2007 Los Angeles Opera production starring Audra and Patti LuPone. Audra plays Jenny Smith, "a whore." The production was recorded for PBS's Great Productions and won two Grammy Awards.

Truly, is there anything Audra can't do?

#4: "Wheels of a Dream," Ragtime Reunion (2023)

Ragtime. Oh, Ragtime. That we live in a world where Ahrens and Flaherty's magnum opus lost Best Musical to The Lion King is my villain origin story. Natasha Richardson (Cabaret) beating out Marin Mazzie for Leading Actress is something I have to accept, but this? In 1998, Ragtime won Best Book, Best Original Score, Best Orchestrations, and Best Featured Actress for Audra McDonald's glorious Sarah. Sarah is a young woman at the turn of the century who has a baby with Brian Stokes Mitchell's (Broadway's Leading Man) Coalhouse Walker, and is taken in by Mother (Marin Mazzie), an upper-class white woman with no name after she is caught having partially buried the living child in Mother's yard. It is a masterpiece of musical talent with a breathtaking score and story.

This role won Audra her third Tony in the span of five years. Listening to Audra and Stokes reunite may well be the closest you ever get to hearing divinity. I implore you to seek out the full original cast album.

A reunion concert was planned for April 2020, but was postponed until this past year with Kelli O'Hara stepping in for the late Marin Mazzie as Mother. The concert was done as a benefit for the Entertainment Community Fund, and dedicated in memory of Marin, who passed away in 2018 from ovarian cancer, book-writer Terrence McNally who died of COVID complications in 2020 (lung cancer), and director Frank Galati, who died in 2023, also of cancer complications.

#5: Master Class (1995)

Master Class is yet another Terrence McNally work, this one a play depicting a fictionalized master class given by opera singer Maria Callas towards the end of her life. Audra, as Sharon, takes the part of her student, the second soprano. This play won Audra her second Tony, and garnered a Tony for the brilliant leading actress Zoe Caldwell, whom Audra partially named her firstborn child after some years later. Her daughter's middle name is in honor of Audra's other close friend, the late Madeline Kahn, who like Marin Mazzie, died of ovarian cancer at 57, the same age, though many years prior.

LINK TO MASTERPOST

[soulmuppet]

Looking for a new TTRPG Actual Play?!

As part of Afterburn we are sponsoring several people to show off what a game of Orbital Blues actually looks like. One of these sponsorships is with My First Dungeon who create beautiful fully sound designed Actual Play podcasts. After listening to their Die season we knew we had to team up with them!

The My First Dungeon x Orbital Blues season has launched with the first two episodes!

We've got an interview with co-creators AND Session Zero of the Actual Play featuring Carolyn Page, Drakoniques, Elliot Davis, Shenuque Tissera, Abby Hepworth, and Brian Flaherty

Find it wherever you listen to your podcasts:

[dominustempori]

I'm still here peeps! After a (mostly) unintentional break from Tumblr, I return with new screencaps!

New avenues of exploration led me to the lovely little documentary on Gilda Radner called "Love, Gilda" from 2018. Cute to watch, a little saddened to learn of stories from her life I never knew before, pretty neat to here her "narrate" from I'm guessing were "audio diaries" or clips from all the interviews she did.

And of course, I focused on the chapter of her time with the National Lampoon Radio Hour and subsequent stage show in 1974 and 1975...because that's when Gilda met Harold.

The 2 color photos are most likely from that unaired CBC special that captures the Lampoon crew (John Belushi, Joe Flaherty, Brian Doyle Murray, Harold and GIlda" recording a radio hour skit, and rehearsing for the live stage show. The 4 in black and white, at a guess, are promo pics for the live show.

(70s Harold owns the big hair look, I gotta say.)

[oldshowbiz]

May 1973.

The original cast of Second City Toronto: Joe Flaherty, Gerry Salsberg, Jane Eastwood, Gilda Radner, Dan Aykroyd, Valri Bromfield, and Brian Doyle Murray.