January Blew In ...

"[Porto]" at the Bushwick Starr was pretty thin stuff.  Two hipsters walk into a bar... You get the picture. Following on the heels of Clare Barron's wonderful "I'll Never Love Again" (One of my best pics for 2016) at the Starr, this was a let-down.  I feel really strongly about supporting off-off Broadway theatre companies presenting works by up-and-coming playwrights but the play by Kate Benson didn't bring anything new to the table and, apart from a few top-notch performances, in particular Noel Joseph Allain as Doug the Bartender and Julia Sirna-Frest in the title role, there was little of interest unless it's impelling for you to follow the lonely lives of singletons in Brooklyn. I think Benson imagines herself clever by throwing in an on-stage conversation between Simone de Beauvoir and Gloria Steinem discussing feminism. Perhaps this would have been a more interesting play?  I found no fault in the direction by Lee Sunday Evans who will be directing the upcoming LCt3 production of "Bull in a China Shop" by Bryna Turner.  I hope Evans will have more to work with.

Fortunately for me, the follow-up to that disappointing trek out to Bushwick were two extraodinary productions, "The Tempest" at St. Ann's Warehouse in Dumbo and "The Beauty Queen of Leenane" at BAM Harvey.

"The Tempest" is the third in a trilogy of Shakespeare's plays following "Julius Caesar" and "Henry IV" with an all-female cast directed by Phyllida Lloyd and starring Harriet Walter.  Set in a woman's prison in upstate in New York (Bedford Hills?), "The Tempest" is framed by the story of an American woman named Judy Clark (Harriet Walter) who is in prison for life after having participated in a politically motivated crime much like the Brink's robbery.  Hence, the prison is the island to which she as Prospero is exiled.  Presumably we all know the story of the "The Tempest" but what makes the play fresh is the way the story has been woven into a tale of prison life once again using the same actors who were so brilliant in "Henry IV."   I didn't feel transported as I did in "Henry IV" but it worked it's magic.

The Druid's current production of "The Beauty Queen of Leenane" directed by Garry Hynes at the BAM Harvey is a stunner.  I didn't see the Tony Award 1998 Broadway production but am betting that this rivals and even surpasses that  production.  Long a fan of Martin McDonagh since seeing "The Pillowman" on Broadway in the 2005, I knew that this would be a very dark fable.  Set in Ireland, it's the story of an aging mother Mag and her adult daughter Maureen who acts as her caretaker. Theirs is an aggressively hostile relationship and when the daughter has a chance to break away it seems to be thwarted by the mother.  I say "seems" because what you see is not necessarily the reality. Marie Mullen who played Maureen in the 1998 production is here cast as the mother.  So convincing is her portrayal of an elderly infirm woman that it's hard to imagine her as the beautiful 40 year old Maureen less than 20 years ago, a portrayal for which she won a Tony.  The performances of Aisling O'Sullivan as  Maureen, Marty Rea as her presumable suitor Pato Dooley and Aaron Monaghan as Pato's lay-about brother Ray were all seamless.  But prepare to be shocked.

Oh, December

The National Theatre of Scotland never fails to deliver.  The two previous shows were at St. Ann's Warehouse: the award-winning "Black Watch" about a troupe of soldiers in Afghanistan and "Let the Right One In" a theatrical adaptation of the very successful film of the same name about a child vampire looking for connection.  The current production, "The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart," is much looser as presented at the McKittrick Hotel in Chelsea, home to "Sleep No More." We meet in the bar of the hotel, sitting comfortably in groups at tables and plied with free shots of Scotch. And at intermission, when I was feeling weak from hunger having not had a proper lunch, tea sandwiches were served.  The play takes place, in and around the audience and bar, at an academic conference in Scotland.  Prudencia Hart is to deliver her paper on the Devil as portrayed in Scottish ballads but instead comes face to face with him.  Its clever and fun and takes the mickey out of academic theorists.  Plus, free booze.

"Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812" ,however, did not deliver for me.  I haven't read "War and Peace" the big Russian novel by Tolstoy on which it was based but have always assumed it to be deep and tragic. "Natasha, Pierre..." cannot make this claim. The play, as conceived by Dave Malloy and directed by the current New York theatre darling Rachel Chavkin, is a silly circus act operetta. Josh Groban was absent on the day I went but I can't imagine that his Pierre would have upped the action much.  This production was originally mounted by Ars Nova but I much preferred their "Futurity," a musical collaboration with Soho Rep about the imagined correspondence between Ada Lovelace and a Civil War Soldier.  While that production did not lack for originality, "Natasha, Pierre ..." draws heavily on "Candide."   The ensemble though is particularly good and one performance stood out for me, that of Lucas Steele as the rascal Anatole.

"Finian's Rainbow" at the Irish Rep was an especially appropriate musical to mount in this past election year, the subject being racism in America. Too bad the postage stamp sized stage in the newly renovated theatre on West 22nd was too small for such a grand production.  Singing yes, but where were they supposed to dance? Melissa Errico has a gorgeous voice but was perhaps a bit long in the tooth for Sharon. Charlotte Moore did a fine job directing the excellent cast and the score by Yip Harburg and Burton Lane is to die for but the Choreographer Barry McNabb had an insurmountable task given the size of the stage.

And, finally, "The Encounter" written, directed and performed by Simon McBurney.  I wanted to love it.  I really did.  I put on my headphones and was ready for the encounter.  And the set-up was splendid. We meet McBurney at his home in London and start with putting on the set of earphones attached to our seat. He gives us a lesson in how the earphones are going to work at the same time as he repeatedly tries to put his young daughter to bed. This is actually really entertaining and surprisingly engrossing.  Unfortunately once in the story he is telling, that of a Western explorer lost in the Amazon rain forest, starts in ernest, everything begins to go in slo-mo.   I was in snooze land by the time our hero is rescued and McBurney can go to bed (or convince his young daughter to at least).

Best of 2016:   Sarah DeLappe's "The Wolves" at the Duke
                       Simon Stephen's "Heisenberg" on Broadway
                       Cesar Alvarez's "Futurity" Ars Nova
                       Clare Barron's "I'll Never Love Again" at the Bushwick Starr

Honorable Mentions:     Adam Bock's "A Life" at Playwright's Horizons
                                    The National Theatre of Scotland's "The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart"                                           at the McKittrick Hotel

Overhyped:    Bess Wohl's  "Small Mouth Sounds" at Signature
                     Dave Malloy's "Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812" on Broadway

Worst of 2016:   Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' "War" at the Claire Tow Theatre Lincoln Center
                         Alice Birch's "Revolt, She Said" at Soho Rep
                         The Bard's  "The Winter's Tale" at BAM