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.
Friday, December 1, 2017
Thursday, November 16, 2017
November Is Packed!
Run to get tickets to see Denise Hough's electrifying performance in "People, Places & Things" at St. Ann's Warehouse now through December 3rd. Be prepared though; this is a tough look at addiction. Ms. Hough's Emma is an actress on a downward spiral due to her addiction to just about everything. Duncan MacMillan's play comes to Brooklyn from a hugely successful run at the National Theatre in London. The play itself is pretty standard stuff but, as directed by Jeremy Herrin, and with a magic box of a set by Bunnie Christie it takes us on a surreal journey down the rabbit hole (yes, the allusion to Alice in Wonderland is intended). The supporting cast is excellent, especially Nathaniel Martello-White as Mark, a recovering addict who becomes Emma's friend in rehab.
Another show not to miss is "Animal Wisdom" at The Bushwick Starr which was recently extended through December 9th. Heather Christian's show is part revival meeting and part ghost story as well as a memoire of Ms. Christian's childhood experiences being raised in the deep South. Or, as the program notes state: "Heather talks to dead people, gets freaked out and writes music." Under Mark Rosenblatt's direction "Animal Wisdom" seems so specific to Christian and her friends/musicians that one cannot imagine it performed by anyone else. Hence, a good reason to catch it while you can in the intimate Bushwick Starr theatre.
Kate Hamill's "Pride and Prejudice" is not up to Bedlam's marvelous "Sense and Sensibility" but a step up from "Vanity Fair," both also adapted by Ms. Hamill and starring none other than ... Still, the six actors portraying the multitude of characters from the timeless Austen book have a rollicking good time and take us along for the ride. I only wish Hamill would have left the sneer behind in her portrayal of Elizabeth Bennett. It does a disservice to Austen and her most famous creation. But the Primary Stages production directed by Amanda Dehnert on through December 19th is still a most enjoyable way to pass an evening.
I wish I could be more laudatory about Rajiv Joseph's "Describe The Night" at The Atlantic Theatre Company. I was a big fan of "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo" on Broadway and "Guards at the Taj" which was also at The Atlantic, both tightly crafted and absorbing, but this fictionalized story of the Russian writer Isaac Babel is all over the place. This comes down in part to the direction by Giovanna Sardelli but the play itself is a massive undertaking for any director, spanning almost a century and following multiple interrelated characters. I don't know what the plays original intent was but somewhere along the line it became heavy with veiled allusions to Trump's presidency. Fine performances from Danny Burstein as Babel, Zach Grenier as the Stalinite officer who becomes Babel's unlikely friend and Tina Benko as his mad wife and Babel's lover keep it afloat. How much is fact and how much fiction we may never know even with the list of basic facts about Babel that are available on the way out of the theatre. Most impressive is the set by Tim Mackabee, a towering archive of secret Russian documents always ominously present.
In the "if you blinked, you missed them" category are "The Beckett Trilogy" at The Duke Theatre, "Knives in Hens" at Theatre 59E59, "State of Siege" at BAM Opera House and "Man to Man" at BAM Fisher.
The Beckett Trilogy had a three day run as part of Lincoln Center's white light festival and was a hot ticket. I managed to get a return on the day of the last performance and it was worth it to see Conor Lovett of Gare St. Lazare Ireland enact three monologues adapted from Beckett's "Molloy," "Malone Dies" and "The Unnamable." Of the three, all directed by Lovett's wife Judy Hegarty Lovett, "The Unnamable" came the closest to the feel of the great playwrights best works. Lovett, along with his wife, has spent his career exploring and performing Beckett's work. I think Beckett would have approved.
I caught "Knives in Hens" at the very end of its run spurred on by a great review in The New York Times. I otherwise would have missed it not being a great fan of David Harrower whose "Blackbird" was overhyped and inferior. This is an earlier play which took place somewhere in feudal Scotland in the early 1500's. In its current staging director Paul Takacs places the story in the rural South of this country with a cast of three audaciously talented black actors: Robyn Kerr, Shane Taylor, Devin E. Haqq. I was especially moved by the choreography of Yasmine Lee whose sensuous love-making moments frame the play.
There is really not much to say "State of Siege" at BAM Opera. Adapted from Albert Camus's "The Plague" and directed by Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota for Theatre de la Ville, Paris this dark and quasi-operatic display was pretty dull aside from the impressive set by Yves Collet.
And there is even less to to recommend "Man to Man" at BAM Fisher, a one-woman show by Manfred Karge and directed by Bruce Guthrie & Scott Graham(it took two?) about a German woman who adopts the identity of her dead husband in order to survive to survive in Nazi Germany. As with "Describe The Night," the play attempts to span several decades. There is a lot of use of visual gimmicks which feel too studied and Maggie Bain's accent is more Irish or Scottish than German. Fail.
Another show not to miss is "Animal Wisdom" at The Bushwick Starr which was recently extended through December 9th. Heather Christian's show is part revival meeting and part ghost story as well as a memoire of Ms. Christian's childhood experiences being raised in the deep South. Or, as the program notes state: "Heather talks to dead people, gets freaked out and writes music." Under Mark Rosenblatt's direction "Animal Wisdom" seems so specific to Christian and her friends/musicians that one cannot imagine it performed by anyone else. Hence, a good reason to catch it while you can in the intimate Bushwick Starr theatre.
Kate Hamill's "Pride and Prejudice" is not up to Bedlam's marvelous "Sense and Sensibility" but a step up from "Vanity Fair," both also adapted by Ms. Hamill and starring none other than ... Still, the six actors portraying the multitude of characters from the timeless Austen book have a rollicking good time and take us along for the ride. I only wish Hamill would have left the sneer behind in her portrayal of Elizabeth Bennett. It does a disservice to Austen and her most famous creation. But the Primary Stages production directed by Amanda Dehnert on through December 19th is still a most enjoyable way to pass an evening.
I wish I could be more laudatory about Rajiv Joseph's "Describe The Night" at The Atlantic Theatre Company. I was a big fan of "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo" on Broadway and "Guards at the Taj" which was also at The Atlantic, both tightly crafted and absorbing, but this fictionalized story of the Russian writer Isaac Babel is all over the place. This comes down in part to the direction by Giovanna Sardelli but the play itself is a massive undertaking for any director, spanning almost a century and following multiple interrelated characters. I don't know what the plays original intent was but somewhere along the line it became heavy with veiled allusions to Trump's presidency. Fine performances from Danny Burstein as Babel, Zach Grenier as the Stalinite officer who becomes Babel's unlikely friend and Tina Benko as his mad wife and Babel's lover keep it afloat. How much is fact and how much fiction we may never know even with the list of basic facts about Babel that are available on the way out of the theatre. Most impressive is the set by Tim Mackabee, a towering archive of secret Russian documents always ominously present.
In the "if you blinked, you missed them" category are "The Beckett Trilogy" at The Duke Theatre, "Knives in Hens" at Theatre 59E59, "State of Siege" at BAM Opera House and "Man to Man" at BAM Fisher.
The Beckett Trilogy had a three day run as part of Lincoln Center's white light festival and was a hot ticket. I managed to get a return on the day of the last performance and it was worth it to see Conor Lovett of Gare St. Lazare Ireland enact three monologues adapted from Beckett's "Molloy," "Malone Dies" and "The Unnamable." Of the three, all directed by Lovett's wife Judy Hegarty Lovett, "The Unnamable" came the closest to the feel of the great playwrights best works. Lovett, along with his wife, has spent his career exploring and performing Beckett's work. I think Beckett would have approved.
I caught "Knives in Hens" at the very end of its run spurred on by a great review in The New York Times. I otherwise would have missed it not being a great fan of David Harrower whose "Blackbird" was overhyped and inferior. This is an earlier play which took place somewhere in feudal Scotland in the early 1500's. In its current staging director Paul Takacs places the story in the rural South of this country with a cast of three audaciously talented black actors: Robyn Kerr, Shane Taylor, Devin E. Haqq. I was especially moved by the choreography of Yasmine Lee whose sensuous love-making moments frame the play.
There is really not much to say "State of Siege" at BAM Opera. Adapted from Albert Camus's "The Plague" and directed by Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota for Theatre de la Ville, Paris this dark and quasi-operatic display was pretty dull aside from the impressive set by Yves Collet.
And there is even less to to recommend "Man to Man" at BAM Fisher, a one-woman show by Manfred Karge and directed by Bruce Guthrie & Scott Graham(it took two?) about a German woman who adopts the identity of her dead husband in order to survive to survive in Nazi Germany. As with "Describe The Night," the play attempts to span several decades. There is a lot of use of visual gimmicks which feel too studied and Maggie Bain's accent is more Irish or Scottish than German. Fail.
Tuesday, October 31, 2017
October Offerings
Reader, I walked out... Ayad Akhtar's newest offering, "Junk" at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre at Lincoln Center, does not feel new at all. The play, directed by Doug Hughes and starring the terrific musical actor Steven Pasquale, means to transport us back to the 80's junk bond madness. Instead of transporting us, however, it mires us in a swamp of stagnant writing and direction. I spent much of the first act bored with the action and observing the badly tailored suits the actors. These "masters of the universe" would have been wearing beautifully fitted bespoke attire. That I had so much time to obsess on the suits is.. . well... you get where I'm going. Last thought: Steven Pasquale dropped out of the Encore's production of "Brigadoon" at City Center with Kelli O'Hara. Mistake.
At the other end of the spectrum, Manual Cinema's "Mementos Mori" at BAM Fisher is delightful. The small stage is awash in screens, lighting equipment and projectors, the kind used in schools in the 60's and 70's before the advent of computers and white boards. The stage has the feel of a low-budget movie set gone wild. Actors interact with the shadow puppets, cinematic techniques, sound and even live music played on stage by a trio of very talented and versatile musicians. At the start this shadow puppet mystery feels creaky and old fashioned but the company draws us into the fast paced story of love, loneliness and death. More please.
Then there is "Office Hour" by Julie Cho and directed by Neel Keller at The Public Theatre. Sue Jean Kim as Gina is superb as an adjunct professor of creative writing at a minor university who tries to connect to a student, played serviceably by Ki Hong Lee. However the framing of the play is tedious and unnecessary, beginning with two other adjunct teachers warning Gina to be careful of a withdrawn student in her class whose writing is violent and often shocking. Cho ought to have contained the play to the office hour of the title. "Office Hour" only truly comes alive when Cho plays out the possible scenarios that could happen during that hour between a professor and a possibly violent student alone in a room in an empty building. I'll leave those to your imagination. Cho weakens this with the final scene of the play, an encounter with one of the other adjuncts, a poor and necessary framing device.
"Illyria," also at The Public, written and directed by Richard Nelson (he, of the well acted but excruciatingly dull Apple and Gabriel plays) is divine. Nelson creates imaginary scenes between Joe Papp and a coterie of actors, directors and others as Papp tries to create what would become The Public Theater. The time is1958. We are behind the scenes as Papp and his motley crew which includes a young Colleen Dewhurst, composer David Amram and stage manager Bernie Gersten as they do battle with the city to keep Shakespeare free in Central Park, face down the House of Un-American Activities Committee and attempt to remain friends with each other. The play intentionally models itself on the mumble core movies of the 90's which is not necessarily the smartest move. I get the intent to create intimacy with quiet naturalistic dialogue but several of the older audience members at the performance I attended left mid-play because they couldn't hear (despite the flock of mikes hanging on threads over the actors head)s. But I liked it, I really did, especially the performance of the John Magaro as an extremely cranky and domineering Papp.
At the other end of the spectrum, Manual Cinema's "Mementos Mori" at BAM Fisher is delightful. The small stage is awash in screens, lighting equipment and projectors, the kind used in schools in the 60's and 70's before the advent of computers and white boards. The stage has the feel of a low-budget movie set gone wild. Actors interact with the shadow puppets, cinematic techniques, sound and even live music played on stage by a trio of very talented and versatile musicians. At the start this shadow puppet mystery feels creaky and old fashioned but the company draws us into the fast paced story of love, loneliness and death. More please.
Then there is "Office Hour" by Julie Cho and directed by Neel Keller at The Public Theatre. Sue Jean Kim as Gina is superb as an adjunct professor of creative writing at a minor university who tries to connect to a student, played serviceably by Ki Hong Lee. However the framing of the play is tedious and unnecessary, beginning with two other adjunct teachers warning Gina to be careful of a withdrawn student in her class whose writing is violent and often shocking. Cho ought to have contained the play to the office hour of the title. "Office Hour" only truly comes alive when Cho plays out the possible scenarios that could happen during that hour between a professor and a possibly violent student alone in a room in an empty building. I'll leave those to your imagination. Cho weakens this with the final scene of the play, an encounter with one of the other adjuncts, a poor and necessary framing device.
"Illyria," also at The Public, written and directed by Richard Nelson (he, of the well acted but excruciatingly dull Apple and Gabriel plays) is divine. Nelson creates imaginary scenes between Joe Papp and a coterie of actors, directors and others as Papp tries to create what would become The Public Theater. The time is1958. We are behind the scenes as Papp and his motley crew which includes a young Colleen Dewhurst, composer David Amram and stage manager Bernie Gersten as they do battle with the city to keep Shakespeare free in Central Park, face down the House of Un-American Activities Committee and attempt to remain friends with each other. The play intentionally models itself on the mumble core movies of the 90's which is not necessarily the smartest move. I get the intent to create intimacy with quiet naturalistic dialogue but several of the older audience members at the performance I attended left mid-play because they couldn't hear (despite the flock of mikes hanging on threads over the actors head)s. But I liked it, I really did, especially the performance of the John Magaro as an extremely cranky and domineering Papp.
Monday, October 9, 2017
September is Dust
September flew by with nary a post from your truly.
Although I loved Simon Stephens' "Heisenberg" last year at MTC, his earlier play "On The Shores of the Wide World" now playing at The Atlantic Theatre Company is not in the same league. That two character play was structurally tight and marvelously acted by Mary-Louise Parker and Denis Arndt. The problem with the Atlantic production may be that Neil Pepe, who has a history of directing Mamet, Guare and other specifically American playwrights, isn't able to capture the rhythms of this British playwright. But he also has a sprawling multi-character landscape to cover. This lack of capture extends to the unevenness of the Manchester accents by the American cast, who are otherwise faultless. The one stand-out performance comes from Tedra Milla's Sarah, the hyperactive girlfriend of Alex, the young man at the center of the play. Milla was excellent as #47 in Sarah DeLappe's "The Wolves" last year and she will appear in it again in the Lincoln Center revival of that play later this fall. My other quibble with the play is the title which takes its name from a sonnet by Keats and really has nothing to do with anything except that I expect the playwright liked the sonnet and found a way to force it into the play. The play would have been more aptly titled "Manchester."
"Mary Jane" at NYTW is a powerful play about a single woman coping with raising a severely disabled child. Written by Amy Herzog whose previous play "4,000 Miles" at Lincoln Center was a bit wobbly, and directed by Anne Kauffman, the play is a complicated puzzle of connecting pieces. Carrie Coon is heart-breaking as Mary Jane but each of the supporting cast delivers multiple jewel-like performances. The play will tear you apart but also give you hope in humanity.
The Elevator Repair Service production of "Measure for Measure" at the Public is as unusual as what one expects from them. They take classic works and twist them around, stand them on their heads and just generally have fun with them. It would be hard to measure up to their seven hour reading of The Great Gatsby, "Gatz," and this doesn't, but I forgive them. They make Shakespeare contemporary even if their line readings are sometimes hard to understand. The essence of the play remains and it's a rollicking good time. A shout out to Scott Shepherd who was the narrator (reader?) in "Gatz" and here plays The Duke.
Further downtown at The Flea's new theatre is "Inanimate." Courtney Ulrich directs a dextrous young cast, who all come out of The Flea's acting program. Nick Robideau's adventurous and somewhat experimental play is about a young woman who loves inanimate objects. Apparently this is a thing. Lacy Allen makes Erica's proclivity for inanimate objects believable and the supporting cast plays multiple roles from the Dunkin' Donuts neon sign that she is in love with and an Oxo can opener to the actual human beings in her life who love her.
The revivals of "Cafe Muller" and "The Rite of Spring" presented by the Tanztheatre Wuppertal Pina Bausch at the BAM Opera House is missing Pina (who died two years ago) and the humor the company that she amassed over the years brought to her work. While I am happy that her work continues to live on, the young dancers in these revivals, many of whom probably never worked with her, are lacking the quirkiness and humor necessary to take the works to the next level.
I'd also like to mention Bill T. Jones excellent "Letter to My Nephew" at BAM Harvey, a dance piece that delivers on a visceral level. Jones is an angry gay, black man as well as a citizen of the world. "Letter to My Nephew" addresses racism, homophobia, gentrification, natural disasters and the recent killings in Las Vegas through dance, song and multi-media projections. The dancing is exquisite. The message is powerful. A brave piece.
I was disappointed in Maira Kalman and John Heginbotham's multi-media "The Principles of Uncertainty" based on her blog of the same name for The New Yorker at BAM Fisher. Too much Dance Heginbotham, too little Maira Kalman.
But it was Matthew Aucoin's opera "Crossing" at the BAM Opera House that almost made me want to weep at it's awfulness. Directed by Diane Paulus, "Crossing" is based on Walt Whitman's diaries from his time nursing soldiers during the Civil War. The theme of the opera comes from Whitman's poem "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry": "What is it, then, between us?" Whitman's sexuality is widely speculated about and Aucoin takes the opportunity to create a love story between middle-aged Whitman and one of the wounded young soldiers. Instead of leading us to a greater understanding of Whitman and his sexuallity, he comes across as a creepy pedophile. The music I can't comment on, not having enough understanding of opera.
Although I loved Simon Stephens' "Heisenberg" last year at MTC, his earlier play "On The Shores of the Wide World" now playing at The Atlantic Theatre Company is not in the same league. That two character play was structurally tight and marvelously acted by Mary-Louise Parker and Denis Arndt. The problem with the Atlantic production may be that Neil Pepe, who has a history of directing Mamet, Guare and other specifically American playwrights, isn't able to capture the rhythms of this British playwright. But he also has a sprawling multi-character landscape to cover. This lack of capture extends to the unevenness of the Manchester accents by the American cast, who are otherwise faultless. The one stand-out performance comes from Tedra Milla's Sarah, the hyperactive girlfriend of Alex, the young man at the center of the play. Milla was excellent as #47 in Sarah DeLappe's "The Wolves" last year and she will appear in it again in the Lincoln Center revival of that play later this fall. My other quibble with the play is the title which takes its name from a sonnet by Keats and really has nothing to do with anything except that I expect the playwright liked the sonnet and found a way to force it into the play. The play would have been more aptly titled "Manchester."
"Mary Jane" at NYTW is a powerful play about a single woman coping with raising a severely disabled child. Written by Amy Herzog whose previous play "4,000 Miles" at Lincoln Center was a bit wobbly, and directed by Anne Kauffman, the play is a complicated puzzle of connecting pieces. Carrie Coon is heart-breaking as Mary Jane but each of the supporting cast delivers multiple jewel-like performances. The play will tear you apart but also give you hope in humanity.
The Elevator Repair Service production of "Measure for Measure" at the Public is as unusual as what one expects from them. They take classic works and twist them around, stand them on their heads and just generally have fun with them. It would be hard to measure up to their seven hour reading of The Great Gatsby, "Gatz," and this doesn't, but I forgive them. They make Shakespeare contemporary even if their line readings are sometimes hard to understand. The essence of the play remains and it's a rollicking good time. A shout out to Scott Shepherd who was the narrator (reader?) in "Gatz" and here plays The Duke.
Further downtown at The Flea's new theatre is "Inanimate." Courtney Ulrich directs a dextrous young cast, who all come out of The Flea's acting program. Nick Robideau's adventurous and somewhat experimental play is about a young woman who loves inanimate objects. Apparently this is a thing. Lacy Allen makes Erica's proclivity for inanimate objects believable and the supporting cast plays multiple roles from the Dunkin' Donuts neon sign that she is in love with and an Oxo can opener to the actual human beings in her life who love her.
The revivals of "Cafe Muller" and "The Rite of Spring" presented by the Tanztheatre Wuppertal Pina Bausch at the BAM Opera House is missing Pina (who died two years ago) and the humor the company that she amassed over the years brought to her work. While I am happy that her work continues to live on, the young dancers in these revivals, many of whom probably never worked with her, are lacking the quirkiness and humor necessary to take the works to the next level.
I'd also like to mention Bill T. Jones excellent "Letter to My Nephew" at BAM Harvey, a dance piece that delivers on a visceral level. Jones is an angry gay, black man as well as a citizen of the world. "Letter to My Nephew" addresses racism, homophobia, gentrification, natural disasters and the recent killings in Las Vegas through dance, song and multi-media projections. The dancing is exquisite. The message is powerful. A brave piece.
I was disappointed in Maira Kalman and John Heginbotham's multi-media "The Principles of Uncertainty" based on her blog of the same name for The New Yorker at BAM Fisher. Too much Dance Heginbotham, too little Maira Kalman.
But it was Matthew Aucoin's opera "Crossing" at the BAM Opera House that almost made me want to weep at it's awfulness. Directed by Diane Paulus, "Crossing" is based on Walt Whitman's diaries from his time nursing soldiers during the Civil War. The theme of the opera comes from Whitman's poem "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry": "What is it, then, between us?" Whitman's sexuality is widely speculated about and Aucoin takes the opportunity to create a love story between middle-aged Whitman and one of the wounded young soldiers. Instead of leading us to a greater understanding of Whitman and his sexuallity, he comes across as a creepy pedophile. The music I can't comment on, not having enough understanding of opera.
Tuesday, August 29, 2017
From A Male Perspective
I'm having very mixed feelings about The Playwright's Realm production "The Rape of the Sabine Women, By Grace B. Matthias" at the Duke. My first reservation is that it is a play about rape told from a woman's point of view by a man, playwright Michael Yates Crowley (no, it was not written by Grace B. Matthias ,who is in point of fact the actual teenage victim of the rape in the play). Now, I'm not saying that a man shouldn't have the right to tell a story from a woman's point of view but it's hard to image how a feminist audience will take to a man presuming that he knows whereof he speaks/writes when it comes to rape.
What is missing from the play is the actual rape. We see the events leading up to it but not the actual rape so we are, in effect, left to figure out for ourselves what the circumstances of the rape actually are. It's a bit muddy. Yes, it's described but that's not enough. We are left to wonder which I think is opening the door to misinterpretation. Would a woman have told the story differently? Yes, I think so, because a woman, especially one who has been a victim of rape herself, would know that it needed to be shown not told. And although Grace appears in a state of semi-shock throughout the play it's unclear whether this was her state before the rape or because of the rape. We don't really get a real sense of how the rape itself has affected her except for her fascination with firemen and the desire to become one in order to put out fires. I get the heavy-handed metaphor but am not sure if it is entirely appropriate. She doesn't display anger or pain beyond shock. She even believes that she will marry one of her rapists. Her rapists are high school football stars on whom the hopes and dreams of the community hangs and so her story is pushed under the carpet because it upsets a balance. But theirs is only a gentle negation of what has happened to her. In reality, wouldn't she have been ostracized by this same community?
The most interesting aspect of the play is the use of a painting of The Rape of the Sabine Women that Grace and her classmates are studying in school and how the characters from the painting come alive embodied by Grace's classmates, including her rapists. The best line in the play is uttered by the raped Sabine woman who married her rapist when she says to Grace, "But you have no cattle. Why would he marry you?"
All in all, the ensemble acting is well done as is the direction by Tyne Rafaeli. But this production doesn't have the power and scope of The Playwright's Realm recent production of "The Wolves" by Sarah DeLappe which is being revived at Lincoln Center this fall which addresses some of the same issues and in which Susannah Perkins who plays Grace has a much more developed role. Go see that instead.
What is missing from the play is the actual rape. We see the events leading up to it but not the actual rape so we are, in effect, left to figure out for ourselves what the circumstances of the rape actually are. It's a bit muddy. Yes, it's described but that's not enough. We are left to wonder which I think is opening the door to misinterpretation. Would a woman have told the story differently? Yes, I think so, because a woman, especially one who has been a victim of rape herself, would know that it needed to be shown not told. And although Grace appears in a state of semi-shock throughout the play it's unclear whether this was her state before the rape or because of the rape. We don't really get a real sense of how the rape itself has affected her except for her fascination with firemen and the desire to become one in order to put out fires. I get the heavy-handed metaphor but am not sure if it is entirely appropriate. She doesn't display anger or pain beyond shock. She even believes that she will marry one of her rapists. Her rapists are high school football stars on whom the hopes and dreams of the community hangs and so her story is pushed under the carpet because it upsets a balance. But theirs is only a gentle negation of what has happened to her. In reality, wouldn't she have been ostracized by this same community?
The most interesting aspect of the play is the use of a painting of The Rape of the Sabine Women that Grace and her classmates are studying in school and how the characters from the painting come alive embodied by Grace's classmates, including her rapists. The best line in the play is uttered by the raped Sabine woman who married her rapist when she says to Grace, "But you have no cattle. Why would he marry you?"
All in all, the ensemble acting is well done as is the direction by Tyne Rafaeli. But this production doesn't have the power and scope of The Playwright's Realm recent production of "The Wolves" by Sarah DeLappe which is being revived at Lincoln Center this fall which addresses some of the same issues and in which Susannah Perkins who plays Grace has a much more developed role. Go see that instead.
Saturday, August 5, 2017
Run, Don't Walk
Two shows not to miss while they are still on are The Public Theatre's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park featuring the incomparable Annaleigh Ashford as Helena. If you have to wait on line all day in the park it will be worth your while but there are a couple of other options. The Public Theatre also has a line downtown which you can get to at 11am and still score tickets or you can try your hand at the on-line lottery (which is what I did). I know, you're saying "ANOTHER "Midsummer Night's Dream?" I've only seen it a million times already," but don't! Annaleigh Ashford brings new juice to the play which in this case would be more appropriately titled "All About Helena" or "Helena's Dream." From the moment she hits the stage she owns it, every inch of it.This is not to take away from the performances of the rest of the stellar cast but they are merely her supporting players here. A side note is that I loved the use of elderly actors as Titania's fairies, especially the diminunative 88-year-old Vinie Burrows whom I last saw in "Sumara" at The Soho Rep. I mind-checked her name because she made the otherwise baffling and directionless "Sumara" watchable. The director is Lear DeBessonet, one to watch if you're not already familiar with her name from the recent production of Suzan-Lori Parks' "Venus" as Signature and her various productions of Shakepeare as the Founder of Public Works at the Public Theatre.
The other show you should be buying tickets for RIGHT THIS MINUTE is the PTP/NYC production of Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia" at the Atlantic Theatre. I went not expecting much after having been so in love with the Broadway production several years ago that I begged another ticket and went twice. That production had a stellar cast, including Billy Crudup, Margaret Colin and Raul Esparza, and directed by David Leveaux it would be hard to beat. But I loved this smaller intimate production four floors underground at the Atlantic with it's no-name cast, directed by an in-house director Cheryl Faraone. The play straddles two time periods, 1809 and present at Sidley Park, a large country house in Derbyshire, England and revolves around a mystery. Intrigued? And let's hear it for all the unsung actors and directors of the theatre world who are doing strong work and will never get the recognition they deserve. I had been prepared to leave at intermission (it is a long play) but I was so engaged that after the break I couldn't wait to take my seat again. Let me give a special shout-out to several of the actors: Andrew William Smith as Septimus Hodge, a tutor and a great friend of Byron, Jonathan Tindle as Ezra Chater, a "poet," Megan Byrne as Lady Croom of the 1809 cast; Stephanie Janssen as the historical author Hannah, Jackson Prince as Valentine Coverly, an heir to the estate and a mathematical genius and Alex Draper as the recklessly ambitious academic Bernard Nightingale in the present day cast.
And there is a tortoise...
Less captivating is "The Fulfillment Center" at MTC. Directed by Abe Koogler, this is the second play I have seen by Daniel Aukin. I was blown away by "The Kill Floor" with Marin Ireland at the Claire Tow black box theatre at Lincoln Center a year or so ago. Taking place (for the most part) in an abattoir, the play was much more timely than the recent Pulitzer Prize winning Lynn Nottage play "Sweat," which dealt with some of the similar themes and felt old and regurgitated IMHO. Although the cast of "Fulfillment Center" is uniformly excellent (Eboni Booth, Bobby Moreno, Frederick Weller and the great New York mainstay Deirdre O'Connell) the play, which takes place in a shipping facility in New Mexico, a trailer park and a characterless apartment, lacks the immediacy of "The Kill Floor." The story is similar though, characters pushing to move on, to move up and to have some meaning in their lives. Worth seeing, still.
The very disappointing "Pipeline" by Dominique Morisseau and directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz at Lincoln Center is one to safely miss. Blaine-Cruz directed the deadly Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' "War" at the Claire Tow and Alice Birch's excruciatingly awful "Revolt, She Said" at Soho Rep so either she just chooses bad material or she is doing an injustice to these works. It will be certainly something for me to think about before I buy another ticket to a play she has directed. "Pipeline" an angry play about a black teen who has lashed out at his private school teacher in a moment of frustration and rage and looks to loose everything. But it is as much about his divorced, ostensively single-parent mother who teaches in a large inner-city public high school in Detroit. Karen Pittman gives a high pitched unmodulated performance as Nia, the lonely and unhappy mother, desperate to understand her son and do what is right for him, The stand-out performance comes from Tasha Lawrence as Laurie, a veteran white colleague of Nia's, who lashes out in anger at the futility of their job. Morisseau wrote the play as a tribute to her own mother who taught for 40 years in Highland Park, Michigan. The allusions to Richard Wright's Bigger Thomas in Native son are apt but the overuse of the the Gwendolyn Brooks poems is tiresome and lazy.
The other show you should be buying tickets for RIGHT THIS MINUTE is the PTP/NYC production of Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia" at the Atlantic Theatre. I went not expecting much after having been so in love with the Broadway production several years ago that I begged another ticket and went twice. That production had a stellar cast, including Billy Crudup, Margaret Colin and Raul Esparza, and directed by David Leveaux it would be hard to beat. But I loved this smaller intimate production four floors underground at the Atlantic with it's no-name cast, directed by an in-house director Cheryl Faraone. The play straddles two time periods, 1809 and present at Sidley Park, a large country house in Derbyshire, England and revolves around a mystery. Intrigued? And let's hear it for all the unsung actors and directors of the theatre world who are doing strong work and will never get the recognition they deserve. I had been prepared to leave at intermission (it is a long play) but I was so engaged that after the break I couldn't wait to take my seat again. Let me give a special shout-out to several of the actors: Andrew William Smith as Septimus Hodge, a tutor and a great friend of Byron, Jonathan Tindle as Ezra Chater, a "poet," Megan Byrne as Lady Croom of the 1809 cast; Stephanie Janssen as the historical author Hannah, Jackson Prince as Valentine Coverly, an heir to the estate and a mathematical genius and Alex Draper as the recklessly ambitious academic Bernard Nightingale in the present day cast.
And there is a tortoise...
Less captivating is "The Fulfillment Center" at MTC. Directed by Abe Koogler, this is the second play I have seen by Daniel Aukin. I was blown away by "The Kill Floor" with Marin Ireland at the Claire Tow black box theatre at Lincoln Center a year or so ago. Taking place (for the most part) in an abattoir, the play was much more timely than the recent Pulitzer Prize winning Lynn Nottage play "Sweat," which dealt with some of the similar themes and felt old and regurgitated IMHO. Although the cast of "Fulfillment Center" is uniformly excellent (Eboni Booth, Bobby Moreno, Frederick Weller and the great New York mainstay Deirdre O'Connell) the play, which takes place in a shipping facility in New Mexico, a trailer park and a characterless apartment, lacks the immediacy of "The Kill Floor." The story is similar though, characters pushing to move on, to move up and to have some meaning in their lives. Worth seeing, still.
The very disappointing "Pipeline" by Dominique Morisseau and directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz at Lincoln Center is one to safely miss. Blaine-Cruz directed the deadly Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' "War" at the Claire Tow and Alice Birch's excruciatingly awful "Revolt, She Said" at Soho Rep so either she just chooses bad material or she is doing an injustice to these works. It will be certainly something for me to think about before I buy another ticket to a play she has directed. "Pipeline" an angry play about a black teen who has lashed out at his private school teacher in a moment of frustration and rage and looks to loose everything. But it is as much about his divorced, ostensively single-parent mother who teaches in a large inner-city public high school in Detroit. Karen Pittman gives a high pitched unmodulated performance as Nia, the lonely and unhappy mother, desperate to understand her son and do what is right for him, The stand-out performance comes from Tasha Lawrence as Laurie, a veteran white colleague of Nia's, who lashes out in anger at the futility of their job. Morisseau wrote the play as a tribute to her own mother who taught for 40 years in Highland Park, Michigan. The allusions to Richard Wright's Bigger Thomas in Native son are apt but the overuse of the the Gwendolyn Brooks poems is tiresome and lazy.
Tuesday, July 4, 2017
Mixed Bag
I had the opportunity to see John Guare's "Six Degrees of Separation" on Broadway shortly before it closed. Having seen the original at Lincoln Center with the incomparable Stockard Channing for whom the part of Ouisa was written, I did not expect a whole lot. But, although it would be unfair to compare the performance of Allison Janney to Channing's, the cast which includes John Benjamin Hickey and Corey Hawkins is outstanding and kudos to director Trip Cullman for making the play new. The premise of the play, which spawned the now-famous 'Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon', is a young black man insinuating himself into the lives of a WASP family on the Upper East Side by posing as a friend of their children from Harvard and, coincidentally, the son of Sidney Poitier. How easily they choose to be duped! How attractive fame and celebrity are. And how tragic ultimately for the young man, because, after all, this really just creates a small ripple in their lives. It's a play about aspiration and ultimately very sad.
Benjamin Millepied's L.A. Dance Project at the Joyce was probably the most exciting theatre I saw this month. And it's dance!!! Plus, added bonus, Natalie Portman (or "Portwood" as my dance mad neighbor in Row C called her) was in the house. Just joking. I didn't even see her. The most impressive of the four pieces performed in the program I saw was Justin's Peck's Murder Ballads. Peck is the hot new choreography talent from the New York City Ballet. Here he uses the dancers' virtuosity completely and the colorful casual clothing and backdrop tamp it down and and draw us in and make us feel that it is no big deal. This was followed by Merce Cunningham's Minevent with music by John Cage and performed in full view by Adam Tendler. I'm not a huge fan of Merce but this work, despite the very unflattering unitards, was a wonder of synchronicity. After the intermission we were treated to In Silence We Speak and Orpheus Highway, both choreographed by Millepied. Although my seat mate was back for a second time to see In Silence We Speak, a moving mother-daughter duet, I was stunned by Orpheus Highway and Millepied's use of mixed media, dancers on the screen in the California desert with the same dancers live mimicking their moves, all to The Triple Quartet by Steve Reich, performed, again live, by PUBLIQuartet. A super shout out to Millepied for not just providing inventive choreography but for choosing to work with a superbly trained group of dancers of all different body types.
"War Paint" at the Nederlander Theatre might have been more accurately title "Battle of the Divas." And this is indeed the only reason to visit this new musical about the rivalry between Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden starring Patti Lupone and Christine Ebersole. The new musical from the Scott Frankel and Michael Korie ("Grey Gardens") and directed by Michael Greif("Dean Evan Hansen") fails to deliver. The music is wan and story feels stretched beyond interest. But those voices! I suppose I would be happy to hear either of these divas sing the phone book.
The premise of "Cost of Living" by Martyna Majok at The Manhattan Theatre Club is intriguing and holds ones attention, particularly the performances of two disabled actors. Where it failed for me was that the play ends with a focus on the two non-disabled characters which I felt was a betrayal of the play's promise. I was so much more interested in the quadriplegic Ani and John (and need to point out that the actors playing these roles, Katy Sullivan and Gregg Mozgala, although disabled, are not quadriplegics). Ani, a victim of a car accident who has lost not just her legs but the ability to use her other limbs is full of rage. John, who was presumably born a quad has learned to embrace life, albeit with advantage that being from money provides. Although I felt cheated by the ending, Victor Williams as Eddie does give a tour-de-force performance. Jo Bonney direction is impeccable except in the casting of Jolly Abraham as Jess who overacts and overacts and overacts. Have I stressed that enough?
The Roundabout's "Napoli, Brooklyn" is the not the work of an exciting new playwright to watch, as advertised. Sorry. The play by Meghan Kennedy is pretty standard kitchen-sink drama about an Italian family in Brooklyn, Park Slope apparently, in 1960. Throw in two immigrant parents from Napoli, three rebellious daughters (well, two to be exact), a hammy Irish butcher, a black co-worker, a little lesbianism, domestic violence and a plane crash and voila! You get the idea.... We really didn't need to see this again. It feels like we've been air-lifted back to 1960 and stale ideas. What could have possibly drawn the great Gordon Edelstein to direct a play whose most interesting and intriguing aspect is the picture on the front of the program? Stick to the classics, Gordon!
Benjamin Millepied's L.A. Dance Project at the Joyce was probably the most exciting theatre I saw this month. And it's dance!!! Plus, added bonus, Natalie Portman (or "Portwood" as my dance mad neighbor in Row C called her) was in the house. Just joking. I didn't even see her. The most impressive of the four pieces performed in the program I saw was Justin's Peck's Murder Ballads. Peck is the hot new choreography talent from the New York City Ballet. Here he uses the dancers' virtuosity completely and the colorful casual clothing and backdrop tamp it down and and draw us in and make us feel that it is no big deal. This was followed by Merce Cunningham's Minevent with music by John Cage and performed in full view by Adam Tendler. I'm not a huge fan of Merce but this work, despite the very unflattering unitards, was a wonder of synchronicity. After the intermission we were treated to In Silence We Speak and Orpheus Highway, both choreographed by Millepied. Although my seat mate was back for a second time to see In Silence We Speak, a moving mother-daughter duet, I was stunned by Orpheus Highway and Millepied's use of mixed media, dancers on the screen in the California desert with the same dancers live mimicking their moves, all to The Triple Quartet by Steve Reich, performed, again live, by PUBLIQuartet. A super shout out to Millepied for not just providing inventive choreography but for choosing to work with a superbly trained group of dancers of all different body types.
"War Paint" at the Nederlander Theatre might have been more accurately title "Battle of the Divas." And this is indeed the only reason to visit this new musical about the rivalry between Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden starring Patti Lupone and Christine Ebersole. The new musical from the Scott Frankel and Michael Korie ("Grey Gardens") and directed by Michael Greif("Dean Evan Hansen") fails to deliver. The music is wan and story feels stretched beyond interest. But those voices! I suppose I would be happy to hear either of these divas sing the phone book.
The premise of "Cost of Living" by Martyna Majok at The Manhattan Theatre Club is intriguing and holds ones attention, particularly the performances of two disabled actors. Where it failed for me was that the play ends with a focus on the two non-disabled characters which I felt was a betrayal of the play's promise. I was so much more interested in the quadriplegic Ani and John (and need to point out that the actors playing these roles, Katy Sullivan and Gregg Mozgala, although disabled, are not quadriplegics). Ani, a victim of a car accident who has lost not just her legs but the ability to use her other limbs is full of rage. John, who was presumably born a quad has learned to embrace life, albeit with advantage that being from money provides. Although I felt cheated by the ending, Victor Williams as Eddie does give a tour-de-force performance. Jo Bonney direction is impeccable except in the casting of Jolly Abraham as Jess who overacts and overacts and overacts. Have I stressed that enough?
The Roundabout's "Napoli, Brooklyn" is the not the work of an exciting new playwright to watch, as advertised. Sorry. The play by Meghan Kennedy is pretty standard kitchen-sink drama about an Italian family in Brooklyn, Park Slope apparently, in 1960. Throw in two immigrant parents from Napoli, three rebellious daughters (well, two to be exact), a hammy Irish butcher, a black co-worker, a little lesbianism, domestic violence and a plane crash and voila! You get the idea.... We really didn't need to see this again. It feels like we've been air-lifted back to 1960 and stale ideas. What could have possibly drawn the great Gordon Edelstein to direct a play whose most interesting and intriguing aspect is the picture on the front of the program? Stick to the classics, Gordon!
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