Valerie Smaldone
Media Personality, Actress, Producer, Writer
Valerie Smaldone, a 5 time Billboard Magazine Award winner, is perhaps best known for her unprecedented success holding the #1 position in the New York radio market as the midday host of New York’s 106.7 FM. She ended her on air run with the station at the end of 2007. In addition, she was the co-creator, writer, producer and host of 'Spotlight On,' a nationally syndicated program that featured in-depth interviews with top recording artists such as Paul McCartney, Elton John, Sting and Celine Dion, to name a few.
Presently, Valerie can be heard on NBC Network News promos and specialty shows and as the announcer for The Boomer Esiason Show on MSG. She writes a weekly nightlife column for TheThreeTomatoes.com, writes a theater column for Examiner.com, and has an interview program on the Italian American Network. She is an interviewer and feature reporter on Broadway for TonyAwards.com and hosts and produces celebrity portrait unveilings for Broadway stars at famed theater district eatery, Tony’s.
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A View From the Bridge and Time Stands Still
Hello my fellow tomatoes:
I saw two terrific plays last week.
One an Arthur Miller classic, the other a new play from playwright Donald Margulies. There are stars in both of these plays.
In Miller's A View From the Bridge, Scarlett Johansson and Liev Schreiber are the names we know so well. Both doing a terrific job in their respective roles. The rest of the cast is equally accomplished, and the set by John Lee Beaty artfully portrays the look of tenements in Red Hook Brooklyn in the 1950's. What we experience in this masterpiece is a man looking for respect, and a wife desperately trying to hold on to her marriage, despite her husband's inappropriate obsession with her niece.
Scarlett Johansson, Jessica Hecht and Liev Schreiber in
A View From the Bridge. Photo: Joan Marcus
A View From the Bridge has a limited run, so by all means put this on your must see list. It plays at the Cort Theatre on West 48th Street.
The second play, Donald Margulies' Time Stands Still, brings us right up to the present. We meet journalists who are on the front lines of a foreign war. As the play begins, the female photojournalist, Sarah (Laura Linney), returns home from her assignment in Iraq after suffering a serious trauma with very bad injuries. She lives with her boyfriend, James the journalist, and they attempt to resume their life together.
But James,played by Brian d'Arcy James wants to change the rules of their globetrotting relationship to live a more "normal" life.
This is a four character play featuring the talented cast of Eric Bogosian and Alicia Silverstone in addition to Linney and James.
So many great themes are brought to life in this piece, including infidelity on the job , and a woman's desire to do what she needs to do. In Sarah's case, document the world's realities by taking pictures.
I loved the part that Laura Linney plays. A mature, strong character, the role of Sarah Goodwin is one that so many actresses would surely love to tackle.
How wonderful to see a complex woman who has steadfastly carved her own path in life.
Laura Linney, Brian d'Arcy James in Donald Margulies
Time Stands Still. Photo: Joan Marcus
So once again, I highly recommend this play.
Time Stands Still is at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on West 47th Street.
That's the theater scoop for this week.
Till next time..
Valerie
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