I saw two very different productions this past week, both exactly 2 hours and 25 minutes long, Shakespeare's "Pericles" directed by Trevor Nunn at TFANA and "Fiddler on the Roof" under the direction of Bartlett Sher on Broadway. Each were impressive productions in their own way.
"Pericles, Prince of Tyre" is a play about redemption, rebirth and hope. It is full of improbabilities, impossibilities if you will. It is a tragedy and a comedy both. The young prince Pericles successfully answers a riddle to win Antioch's daughter's hand in marriage but discovers their incestuous relationship and the king condemns him to death. He sails off and first lands in Tarsus which is suffering from famine, gives them his ship's cargo of corn and wins thanks from their governor Creon and his wife Dionyza. But he is being pursued by Antioch's assassins and sails on until he is shipwrecked and washes up at Pentapolis. He wins and weds the Princess Thaisa before he finds out that King Antioch is dead and he can return to Tyre. Their daughter Marina is born on the voyage but Thaisa seemingly dies in childbirth and is put into the sea in coffin. The coffin washes up at Ephesus where Thaisa is revived by the physician Cerimon. The heartbroken Pericles meanwhile leaves Marina in the care of Cleon and Dionyza. Sixteen years later, Dionyza who resents that Marina outshines her daughter in all things, orders her killed but before this can happen she is captured by pirates and sold to a brothel in Mytilene where she is refuses to give up her virginity and ends up being very bad for business, converting customers to pious chastity. Confused yet? Around this time Pericles, now an old man, returns to Tarsus for Marina. When he discovers she is dead, he is inconsolable. He dons sackcloth and refuses to cut his hair or bathe but his ship sails on and he eventually lands in Mytilene where, you guessed it, he is reunited with his daughter and eventually his wife. And can finally shave and have a bath.
I generally think that TFANA does well by Shakespeare but this production is uneven. The director, Trevor Nunn, has directed many of the Royal Shakespeare Company great productions since the 70's but working with an American cast has proved a stumbling block for him. Christian Camargo fails to impress as Pericles. He lacks a kingly manor and his costume doesn't help much. He looks like he was dressed in one's great-aunt's old curtains. Some of the performances have weight, especially Philip Casnoff as Helicanus, Pericles friend and regent in Tyre, but others seem odd, especially the Thaisa of Gia Crovatin who looks and sounds more like a Real Housewife of Atlanta than a Queen. Lilly Englert fares better as Marina although she also has a Barbie-esque look about her.
Still, the play moves along at good clip and there is much that is entertaining. So go if you will.
"Fiddler on the Roof" boasts Danny Burstein as Tevya and Jessica Hecht as his wife Golde. This is beautifully done tour de force of musical theatre. It's not on a par with the recent revival of "South Pacific" at Lincoln Center which also was directed by Bartlett Sher and starred Danny Bernstein (and Kelli O'Hara, currently in "The King and I" at Lincoln Center and also directed by Bartlett Sher) but it's irrestitable. You, like me, will probably know every word to every song. The singing! The dancing! That's entertainment!
Thursday, February 25, 2016
Thursday, February 18, 2016
Red Speedo (I can't improve on that)
Lucas Hnath's new play"Red Speedo" at NYTW was much, much better than I expected. If you read my blog you will remember that his much over-hyped play "The Christians" left me curiously unaffected. I think that Hnath is still trying to find his way as a playwright which makes it seem strange to me that he is already a recipient of numerous prestigious awards including a Guggenheim last year. Oh, well, what do I know? If you read my blog then perhaps you think I know at least a little but I am having to push back against the hoards of people who rely on Ben Brantley of The New York Times to inform their theatre-going.
There is an actual pool on stage, or, rather running the length of the stage and separating the audience from the actors. A fourth wall perhaps? I thought it a clever and original devise. The play opens with an Olympic calibre swimmer diving in and swimming two lengths without coming up for air. He exits the pool and we see how muscular and defined his body is, a swimming machine. And this is, for the most part, is how we see him for the entire 90 minutes of the play as his lawyer brother, coach and sports therapist ex-girlfriend manipulate him. Or is he actually manipulating them? The set is brilliant and the acting pretty damn good. Alex Breaux as Ray, the swimmer, is a particular stand-out. Peter Jay Fernandez brings a steely resolve to Coach and Lucas Caleb Rooney, as Ray's lawyer bother Peter, has his best Philip Seymour Hoffman on and, while not in that league, certainly claims the part. The only weak performance is Zoe Winters as Lydia, who I have seen and liked before in "An Octoroon" at Soho Rep and "4,000 Miles" at Lincoln Center. In fairness, it is not her fault that Lydia is not a fully realized character. The real problem with play is in the ending. The play is a puzzle of interlocking pieces and Hnath is unable to give us the last piece, the one last twist necessary to make everything click together, so instead "Red Speedo" departs from it's stylistic slickness and becomes a bloody brawl. I expect that's a spoiler.
While the playwrights Bruce Norris ("Clybourne Park") is attempting Albee, Sarah Ruhl has been known to steal from Richard Foreman("Dead Man's Cell Phone") and Stephen Karam ("The Humans") thinks he is onto something Pinter-esque, Hnath's work is a mash up of David Mamet, Carol Churchhill and Sam Shephard. I think Hnath fares better here that Norris and Karam in their recent productions so that's saying something.
Where do we look for originality these days? Well, fortunately, I think that Annie Baker("The Flick") is on to something as are Anne Washburn("10 Out of 12") and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins ("An Octoroon"). Anne Washburn's "Antlia Pneumatica" opens at Playwrights Horizons on March 11th. Something to look forward to
There is an actual pool on stage, or, rather running the length of the stage and separating the audience from the actors. A fourth wall perhaps? I thought it a clever and original devise. The play opens with an Olympic calibre swimmer diving in and swimming two lengths without coming up for air. He exits the pool and we see how muscular and defined his body is, a swimming machine. And this is, for the most part, is how we see him for the entire 90 minutes of the play as his lawyer brother, coach and sports therapist ex-girlfriend manipulate him. Or is he actually manipulating them? The set is brilliant and the acting pretty damn good. Alex Breaux as Ray, the swimmer, is a particular stand-out. Peter Jay Fernandez brings a steely resolve to Coach and Lucas Caleb Rooney, as Ray's lawyer bother Peter, has his best Philip Seymour Hoffman on and, while not in that league, certainly claims the part. The only weak performance is Zoe Winters as Lydia, who I have seen and liked before in "An Octoroon" at Soho Rep and "4,000 Miles" at Lincoln Center. In fairness, it is not her fault that Lydia is not a fully realized character. The real problem with play is in the ending. The play is a puzzle of interlocking pieces and Hnath is unable to give us the last piece, the one last twist necessary to make everything click together, so instead "Red Speedo" departs from it's stylistic slickness and becomes a bloody brawl. I expect that's a spoiler.
While the playwrights Bruce Norris ("Clybourne Park") is attempting Albee, Sarah Ruhl has been known to steal from Richard Foreman("Dead Man's Cell Phone") and Stephen Karam ("The Humans") thinks he is onto something Pinter-esque, Hnath's work is a mash up of David Mamet, Carol Churchhill and Sam Shephard. I think Hnath fares better here that Norris and Karam in their recent productions so that's saying something.
Where do we look for originality these days? Well, fortunately, I think that Annie Baker("The Flick") is on to something as are Anne Washburn("10 Out of 12") and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins ("An Octoroon"). Anne Washburn's "Antlia Pneumatica" opens at Playwrights Horizons on March 11th. Something to look forward to
Saturday, February 13, 2016
Blackbird not so much on the wire
I had been so looking forward to the current revival of "Blackbird" by the Scottish playwright David Harrower on Broadway. I was too late for the train in 2007 to see Jeff Daniels as Ray and Alison Pill as Una so I was eager to see this recent recent revival with Jeff Daniels and Michelle Williams about the sexual relationship that happened between them 15 years earlier when he was 40 and she 12. Although upsetting and unsettling, we have become somewhat inured to the subject after decades of shows like Law and Order SVU, true stories of girls like Elizabeth Smart kidnapped as adolescents and held captive for years, and Middle Eastern and Indian men "marrying" girls of this age and younger and subjecting them to a life of rape and servitude.
There was no chemistry between Daniels and Williams. In the context of the play, it would have been important for us to understand the attraction that drew them together 15 years before and which continued to pull her to him 15 years later. Williams performance was all jitters and sharp angels. She entered at a pitch and remained that way for the entire 90 minutes of the play. The part calls for a more nuanced performance. She has spent 15 years yearning for him. What she has not come to terms with for 15 years is not that he violated her 12 year old self but that he deserted her. She has not come just to confront him; she wants him back and if she is to get him back she has to seduce him. As Shakespeare said in "Hamlet": "Suit the action to the word, the word to the action." But it's not there in her performance. It's really important for us to understand what they meant to each other and what might still connect them. Ray is obviously defeated from a life being punished for his actions, first in prison and then in being beaten down by life after prison as an offender, but I expect the playwright intended that we would get a glimmer of the man he had been 15 years before. Unfortunately Daniels does not have the opening for this to happen. During the curtain call he looked unhappy and uncomfortable, perhaps do to frustration. I doubt very much it was because he was having a hard time shaking his character.
The play itself is clunky. I wondered if it had been reworked since it's staging in 2007. And Joe Mantello's direction was workmanlike unlike his deft direction of the disapppointing "The Humans". And I am tired of seeing plays that end with the set being trashed as in the recent "The Glory of the World" at BAM and Ivo Van Hove's "The Misanthrope" at NYTW.
There was no chemistry between Daniels and Williams. In the context of the play, it would have been important for us to understand the attraction that drew them together 15 years before and which continued to pull her to him 15 years later. Williams performance was all jitters and sharp angels. She entered at a pitch and remained that way for the entire 90 minutes of the play. The part calls for a more nuanced performance. She has spent 15 years yearning for him. What she has not come to terms with for 15 years is not that he violated her 12 year old self but that he deserted her. She has not come just to confront him; she wants him back and if she is to get him back she has to seduce him. As Shakespeare said in "Hamlet": "Suit the action to the word, the word to the action." But it's not there in her performance. It's really important for us to understand what they meant to each other and what might still connect them. Ray is obviously defeated from a life being punished for his actions, first in prison and then in being beaten down by life after prison as an offender, but I expect the playwright intended that we would get a glimmer of the man he had been 15 years before. Unfortunately Daniels does not have the opening for this to happen. During the curtain call he looked unhappy and uncomfortable, perhaps do to frustration. I doubt very much it was because he was having a hard time shaking his character.
The play itself is clunky. I wondered if it had been reworked since it's staging in 2007. And Joe Mantello's direction was workmanlike unlike his deft direction of the disapppointing "The Humans". And I am tired of seeing plays that end with the set being trashed as in the recent "The Glory of the World" at BAM and Ivo Van Hove's "The Misanthrope" at NYTW.
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
February has been dreary so far...
Although I'm looking forward to seeing "Blackbird," Lucas Hnath's "Red Speedo" at NYTW and Trevor Nunn's production of "Pericles" at Theatre for a New Audience in the next couple of weeks, I sadly have to post that so far this month the plays I have seen have been less than stellar, ranging from confused to derivative to tired.
I had been looking forward to seeing Lee Waters' production of "The Glory of the World" by Charles Mee about the poet monk Thomas Merton. But how exactly did they come up with the idea of honoring Merton by having a large group of gay men throw him a birthday party? Am I missing something about Merton here? The program notes say that this "raucous" party would have been an event that Merton would have enjoyed. How? What does a group of gay men spouting pop culture references and trashing the stage have to do with a man who lived for 27 years in a Kentucky monastery and purportedly fathered an illegitimate child? The play is bookended by an actor playing Merton with his back to the audience typing away, his words projected on scrims on at the back of the stage. This is at first visually interesting but it goes on long enough to become extremely tedious. Fun fact: Merton died at age 53 in Bangkok, while attending an interfaith conference between Catholic and non-catholic Christian monks. He was accidentally electrocuted by an electric fan while stepping out of his bath.
The less said about "Straight" at the Acorn Theatre the better. Did we really need another mediocre play about a young man coming out of the closet (or not)? In our age of fluid sexuality there is nothing shocking about his situation. If anything, the play feels dated and, with the exception of a very nuanced performance by Thomas E. Sullivan, the acting is not notable. The play, by Scott Elmegreen and Drew Fornarola (It took two to write this? Really?), has a sit-com feel especially given that the entire action of the play takes place on a couch in what looks like the set of "Three's Company". Director Andy Sandberg does an admirable job of making do.
In the category "I should have know better," Bill Irwin and and David Shiner's evening of mime "Old Hats" at The Signature failed to please or amuse.... enough. There were a few entertaining moments, most notable a magic show and film set which both incorporated audience participation, but overall a little bit goes a long way. I also found the singer Shaina Taub whose songs are interspersed throughout the show to be somewhat insufferable. Her band, on the other hand, was extremely hip and far to cool for the venue or the show. Tina Landau, who has directed several Chuck (read Charles) Mee plays as well as the Brother/Sister plays at the Public was obviously out of her element here. One strain of my family comes from vaudeville and I'm sorry to say that I don't think this would have cut it with them.
I had been looking forward to seeing Lee Waters' production of "The Glory of the World" by Charles Mee about the poet monk Thomas Merton. But how exactly did they come up with the idea of honoring Merton by having a large group of gay men throw him a birthday party? Am I missing something about Merton here? The program notes say that this "raucous" party would have been an event that Merton would have enjoyed. How? What does a group of gay men spouting pop culture references and trashing the stage have to do with a man who lived for 27 years in a Kentucky monastery and purportedly fathered an illegitimate child? The play is bookended by an actor playing Merton with his back to the audience typing away, his words projected on scrims on at the back of the stage. This is at first visually interesting but it goes on long enough to become extremely tedious. Fun fact: Merton died at age 53 in Bangkok, while attending an interfaith conference between Catholic and non-catholic Christian monks. He was accidentally electrocuted by an electric fan while stepping out of his bath.
The less said about "Straight" at the Acorn Theatre the better. Did we really need another mediocre play about a young man coming out of the closet (or not)? In our age of fluid sexuality there is nothing shocking about his situation. If anything, the play feels dated and, with the exception of a very nuanced performance by Thomas E. Sullivan, the acting is not notable. The play, by Scott Elmegreen and Drew Fornarola (It took two to write this? Really?), has a sit-com feel especially given that the entire action of the play takes place on a couch in what looks like the set of "Three's Company". Director Andy Sandberg does an admirable job of making do.
In the category "I should have know better," Bill Irwin and and David Shiner's evening of mime "Old Hats" at The Signature failed to please or amuse.... enough. There were a few entertaining moments, most notable a magic show and film set which both incorporated audience participation, but overall a little bit goes a long way. I also found the singer Shaina Taub whose songs are interspersed throughout the show to be somewhat insufferable. Her band, on the other hand, was extremely hip and far to cool for the venue or the show. Tina Landau, who has directed several Chuck (read Charles) Mee plays as well as the Brother/Sister plays at the Public was obviously out of her element here. One strain of my family comes from vaudeville and I'm sorry to say that I don't think this would have cut it with them.
Belinda McKeon comes to the Irish Arts Center
I'm excited to be going to the Irish Arts Center on February 16th at 7:30 hear novelist and playwright Belinda McKeon read from her new book Tender, called "insanely beautiful" by Bustle. Her debut novel Solace was voted Irish Book of the Year in 2011 and won the 2011 Faber Prize. You may have read her essays in The New York Times, The Guardian and The New Yorker. And she lives in Brooklyn, folks!
For more info go to http://www.irishartscenter.org//literature.html.
For more info go to http://www.irishartscenter.org//literature.html.
Thursday, February 4, 2016
The Queen of American Theatre in The King and I, the incomparable Tricia Brown, more Sense and Sensibility and more Humans
First, can I say, is there any more exquisite voice out there in American Musical Theatre than that of Kelli O'Hara? She is sublime in Lincoln Center's production of the rather creaky musical "The King and I." My heart goes out to the theatre goers who opt to attend on her days off. The production is gorgeous. Obviously no expense was spared. But it did not the match the power of the 2010 production of "South Pacific" at Lincoln Center which also starred Ms. O'Hara and for which she ought to have received a Tony. That production was socially and politically relevant in a way that the current production of "The King and I" is not. : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcgtPWebbm4
Tricia Brown at BAM. Wow. This was the last chance to see three pieces Brown choreographed for a proscenium stage. I'm not sure the exact reason for this although perhaps it has to do with expense. Brown is suffering from vascular dementia but her company continues to perform her exceptional work beautifully. I especially liked Set and Reset from 1983 with visual presentation and costumes by Robert Rauschenberg and music by Laurie Anderson. The dancers were fluid and precise in the their gloriously billowy black and white attire. Present Tense from 2003 with visuals by the painter Elizabeth Murray and music by John Cage pleased as well. Pops of primary color came in the costumes matched against the giant Murray canvas at the back of the stage. Less fluid than Set and Reset it showcased a precision of movement and the cohesiveness of the company as a whole. I was less keen on Newark(Niweweorce) from 1987 with original sound orchestration by Peter Zummo (all fog horns and industrial machinery) and monochromatic visuals by Donald Judd. The dancers in metallic gray unitards moved as cogs in a giant machine. It lacked soul for me.
I was not as enamored by "The Humans" as the powers that be. I thought the play, about a family spending a very painful Thanksgiving together, overflowing with revelations and TMI, was not as profound as it strove to be . As with "Clybourne Park" by Bruce Norris which was also much lauded, I get the feeling that we, as a serious theatre-going community, are hoping to discover the next Albee or Pinter in these dark quasi-comic dramas focused on flawed familial relationships. Even the title of the play is trying to steer us toward feeling as if we will gain a deeper understanding of the human condition or, at the very least, question what we believe. " The Humans" with it's excellent cast, especially the great Jayne Houdyshell and Reed Birney, tries so earnestly to be profound and that it's painful to leave the theatre at the end of the play without wanting to carry on thinking about it. That's what Pinter and Albee do. They make us think. And we continue to think and try to understand long after we leave the theatre. I would love to see Houdyshell and Birney in a revival of "Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf. That would be awesome!
Bedlam's "Sense and Sensibility" came through again though. I missed Eric Tucker, the company's founder and director, as Mrs. Jennings this time around but Gabra Zackman, a new addition to the cast, is sure to please all who did not see last year's production. I've written about the previous production here. Don't miss it this time!
Tricia Brown at BAM. Wow. This was the last chance to see three pieces Brown choreographed for a proscenium stage. I'm not sure the exact reason for this although perhaps it has to do with expense. Brown is suffering from vascular dementia but her company continues to perform her exceptional work beautifully. I especially liked Set and Reset from 1983 with visual presentation and costumes by Robert Rauschenberg and music by Laurie Anderson. The dancers were fluid and precise in the their gloriously billowy black and white attire. Present Tense from 2003 with visuals by the painter Elizabeth Murray and music by John Cage pleased as well. Pops of primary color came in the costumes matched against the giant Murray canvas at the back of the stage. Less fluid than Set and Reset it showcased a precision of movement and the cohesiveness of the company as a whole. I was less keen on Newark(Niweweorce) from 1987 with original sound orchestration by Peter Zummo (all fog horns and industrial machinery) and monochromatic visuals by Donald Judd. The dancers in metallic gray unitards moved as cogs in a giant machine. It lacked soul for me.
I was not as enamored by "The Humans" as the powers that be. I thought the play, about a family spending a very painful Thanksgiving together, overflowing with revelations and TMI, was not as profound as it strove to be . As with "Clybourne Park" by Bruce Norris which was also much lauded, I get the feeling that we, as a serious theatre-going community, are hoping to discover the next Albee or Pinter in these dark quasi-comic dramas focused on flawed familial relationships. Even the title of the play is trying to steer us toward feeling as if we will gain a deeper understanding of the human condition or, at the very least, question what we believe. " The Humans" with it's excellent cast, especially the great Jayne Houdyshell and Reed Birney, tries so earnestly to be profound and that it's painful to leave the theatre at the end of the play without wanting to carry on thinking about it. That's what Pinter and Albee do. They make us think. And we continue to think and try to understand long after we leave the theatre. I would love to see Houdyshell and Birney in a revival of "Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf. That would be awesome!
Bedlam's "Sense and Sensibility" came through again though. I missed Eric Tucker, the company's founder and director, as Mrs. Jennings this time around but Gabra Zackman, a new addition to the cast, is sure to please all who did not see last year's production. I've written about the previous production here. Don't miss it this time!
Muldoon's Picnic Coming Up
A heads up to run, not walk, to the Irish Arts Center 553 West 51st Street on Monday, February 8th at 7:30 for the next Muldoon's Picnic when his guests will include Salman Rushdie, Miracles of Modern Science and the Irish writer Glenn Patterson. The following Muldoon's Picnic on March 14th will feature Laurie Anderson. These delightful evenings are not to be missed. http://www.irishartscenter.org
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