Peter Sarsgaard

It’s a pleasure to be in the company of the entire cast of Ian Rickson’s revelatory production of The Seagull. Let me throw my hat in the air at the outset and hail it as the finest production of Chekhov I’ve seen in a generation.

The production at the Walter Kerr on Broadway began at the Royal Court Theatre, and Mr. Hickson’s use of British and American actors works uncommonly well. There’s none of the usual culture clash of either accent or manner; nor any poeticizing of Chekhov’s text (a traditional weakness among British actors).

It’s a cliché of theater that there are no small parts, only small actors.  read more »

To promote his upcoming role in Anton Chekhov's Seagull on Broadway (curtain call: tomorrow!), actor Peter Sarsgaard gave an interview to the Associated Press and asked that the reporter meet him in his Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn. But he didn’t anticipate the hipsters crowding his favorite coffee house at the time of the interview.

"Peter Sarsgaard wants to meet in a coffee bar in Brooklyn, but balks when he gets there," writes Mark Kennedy. "It's crowded with 30-somethings in carefully rumpled hair, funky glasses, sleek laptops, expensive jeans and oh-so-cool graphic T-shirts. The flavor of the day seems to be smug," the reporter continues.  read more »

ELEGY
Running time 108 minutes
Written by Nicholas Meyer
Directed by Isabel Coixet
Starring Penélope Cruz, Ben Kingsley, Patricia Clarkson, Peter Sarsgaard

Isabel Coixet’s Elegy, from the screenplay by Nicholas Meyer, based on the short novel The Dying Animal by Philip Roth, enters a metaphysical region between life and death that few films have ever dared to explore. Ms. Coixet and Mr. Meyer have managed to capture much of the bittersweet humor of Mr. Roth’s brilliant confrontation of old age, his own included. The director and the scenarist are aided in no small measure by a very accomplished cast headed by Ben Kingsley as David Kepesh, Mr.  read more »

CONCERTS:

This heat sucks … we know. So what better way to beat it than by dancing yourself into a sweaty mess surrounded by hundreds of your under-hydrated peers in a shadeless pool? That’s the question JellyNYC poses all summer long with its free weekend "Pool Party" shows at McCarren Park Pool in Williamsburg. If you’ve missed any of the fantastic acts (Liars, the Hold Steady) that have already performed this season, be sure to catch Brooklyn’s MGMT (It’s pronounced “M-G-M-T,” not “management,” by the way) and England’s fashion-pop duo, Ting Tings, this Sunday. MGMT's debut, Oracular Spectacular, is a pop intellectual’s feast—a giddy mix of disco beats, glam guitar and baroque synths.  read more »

Attending the premiere of Warner Brothers’ Batman: The Dark Knight at AMC Loews Lincoln Square on Monday, July 14: the film’s stars Christian Bale, Maggie Gyllenhaal (wearing charcoal Dries Van Noten splashed with flowers and accompanied by husband Peter Sarsgaard), Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman and Aaron Eckhart; actors Ethan Hawke, Edie Falco, Josh Hartnett, Seth Green and Emile Hirsch; plus Gossip Girl’s Blake Lively, Penn Badgley and Ed Westwick.

So whom did we nab? Screenwriter David Goyer! “This film is intense intense,” he said. “It’s about escalation, both good and bad.” What’s new about this Batman? “He’s the most realistic.  read more »

Chekhov's The Seagull is back on Broadway, this time with indie movie hipster god Peter Sarsgaard as Trigorin, pretty Brit actress Kristin Scott Thomas as Arkadina and Zoe Kazan (featured in the forthcoming film August) as Masha. Pretty great casting, especially considering Ms. Thomas' Olivier award for best actress for the last time she performed The Seagull. But how will Mr. Sarsgaard do compared to Alan Cumming's performance as the broody famous writer who woos an older woman and a budding actress in the Classic Stage Company's production last spring? We'll find out when the play opens open Oct. 1 at the Walter Kerr Theatre. Preview performances begin Sept. 16, according to the Associated Press.

Designer Yves Saint Laurent died at home in his apartment in Paris yesterday at the age of 71. [NY Times]

Tatum O'Neal, who wrote a memoir in 2004 about her drug addiction, was arrested for buying crack on the Lower East Side on Sunday morning from a homeless man. [NY Daily News]  read more »

I was in the elevator coming down from work.  read more »

If you're a celebrity-obsessed (or celebrity-loathing?) Brooklynite, the most exciting piece of today's Manhattan Transfers has to be the news that Peter Sarsgaard and Maggie Gyllenhaal have signed a contract for a grandmotherly $1.75 million Park Slope brownstone. As the Boswell Sisters would say: Yowza!

(Also: Don't miss the personal story of our friend Miranda Purves, who couldn't afford said brownstone but resents the fact that Haalgaard snapped it up before she could! Life in Brooklyn is full of such contradictions.)

If we were to pat ourselves on the back we'd say that we actually took the trouble to confirm what had been a smoldering-hot Stoop-Sale Rumor. Anyone up there at the Pulitzer commission listening?

But if instead we were to indebt ourselves to previous reports that they were looking at the place, with non-transparent sourcing, we'd have to give Kudos to Brooklyn Record, who wrote in to remind us (how could we have forgotten?) that their blog was the first to publish. Hey, you take the risk, you get the credit, right? Here's the link.  read more »

- Max Abelson

The Dying Gaul is Gaslight with e-mail.  read more »