I urge anyone who can sit for four hours and enjoy a play in Dutch to head over to BAM to see Ivo Van Hove's dramatic interpretation of Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead" which continues through the weekend. I've gradually come around to Van Hove since first seeing his ghastly "Misanthrope" at NYTW. But I have reluctantly attended his "The Crucible" and "A View From The Bridge" on Broadway and have grown to appreciate that he is operating on this planet. He is a master of using mixed media but also an intuitive director of actors, here a gorgeous group that includes the exquisite Halina Reijn as Dominique Francon and Ramsey Nasr as the doomed architect Howard Roark, also a gorgeous physical specimen. Full disclosure: They both get naked... more than once. Like Ayn Rand or not, this is powerful drama of success, failure and personal responsibility. But he will continue to strew garbage all over the stage when given the opportunity.
You probably missed the Encores presentation of Lerner & Loewe's "Brigadoon" at City Center earlier this month but let me tell you that it was blissful. The story of a Scottish town that comes to life for one day every 100 years is ridiculous but to hear Kelli O'Hara sing is always a joy. Patrick Wilson was a surprise in a role originally intended for Steven Pasquale (who made the ghastly mistake of taking the lead in "Junk" at Lincoln Center instead). I only really know him as the closeted Mormon Joe Pitt in HBO's "Angels in America" and from a guest turn on the TV show "Girls," but he's actually a fine singer and held his own with O'Hara. "Brigadoon" was directed and choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon who comes from the ballet world. Of course, the dancing is wonderful but Wheeldon, with this and with "American in Paris" on Broadway, is proving himself to be a real force on Broadway.
"Hundred Days" at NYTW is probably a waste of your time if you're not a Millennial living in Williamsburg but, if you are, it's for you. I actually quite like The Bengsons (Abigail and Shaun), having heard their edgy but still folky rock in the fabulous Ars Nova production of "Sundown, Yellow Moon" earlier this year, but their story is just not enough to merit a full length production even with Anne Kauffman's expert direction. Jo Lampert, a singer, musician and performer who was excellent in "New York Animals" at the New Ohio Theatre, brings everything she can to her limited role but it's not enough. "Hundred Days" not a play; it's a concert. It'll be playing at NYTW through December 31 if you want to just kick back, close your eyes and listen to music for 90 minutes over the holidays. You could do worse.
Annie B. Parson's Big Dance Theatre's amusing "17C" at BAM Harvey explores the writings of the 17th Century philanderer and diarist Samuel Pepys and his wife Bess through music, dance and Laugh-in type skits. I haven't seen anything from Parson before but with this particular piece she comes across as a poor man's/woman's Pina Bausch. Even so, I'll take it, but I wish she had given us more dance and less of the long tired monologue delivered by veteran downtown actor Paul Lazar or the repeating schtick with the two college girls working out their relationship via Pepys' diary. Special mention to the costumes by Talla Dia and Karen Boyer, bits and pieces that bring to mind the 17th Century without making this a full blown costume drama.
