tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74323837482855820102024-02-26T06:58:42.030-05:00A Seat on the Aisle.....in the theater or on a plane. Postings on what I've recently seen, where I've recently been, and whatever else might strike my fancy.Alan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629719207399717756noreply@blogger.comBlogger340125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432383748285582010.post-44515824074624608412020-02-16T21:27:00.000-05:002020-03-05T14:09:34.692-05:00THE SABBATH GIRL by Cary Gitter Premieres at 59E59 Theaters<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgURKBF3WqtmSYjE5cOntbMf141VRG0_wOjtyDhaMHCHcKuZYGgiKJ3yFKHyoVV2VLvI-QnF4AVMbqj6GykeuXXJr7zKV-aYjbzWnaCV7VgGiz6-OTGh28UxNAk8u0EvQtQr4aLZNMqe6eq/s1600/SabbathGirl10.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgURKBF3WqtmSYjE5cOntbMf141VRG0_wOjtyDhaMHCHcKuZYGgiKJ3yFKHyoVV2VLvI-QnF4AVMbqj6GykeuXXJr7zKV-aYjbzWnaCV7VgGiz6-OTGh28UxNAk8u0EvQtQr4aLZNMqe6eq/s400/SabbathGirl10.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">L-R: Lauren Annunziata and Jeremy Rishe in THE SABBATH GIRL. Photo by Carol Rosegg.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Observant Orthodox Jews refrain from doing any work on
the Sabbath – and they construe “work” to include even activities as trivial as
turning on an electrical appliance or changing a light bulb.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That can, of course, create problems on Saturday
when some unanticipated need to accomplish some forbidden task arises.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Enter the “Shabbos Goy” – a non-Jewish
neighbor or friend ready and willing to come to their rescue.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Seth (Jeremy Rishe) is a 32 year old divorced Orthodox
Jewish-American currently living on the Upper West Side, having “emigrated”
from his “ancestral” community in Riverdale subsequent to the dissolution of
his three year old quasi-arranged marriage to a nice Jewish girl from a good
Jewish family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here his “Shabbos Goy” of
choice had been his Korean neighbor, Mr. Lee, but Mr. Lee has unexpectedly
moved out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And his new neighbor, as it
turns out, is Angie (Lauren Annunziata) a very attractive Italian-American art
gallery curator who has a great eye for art but not nearly as good an eye when
it comes to boyfriends.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Angie’s latest art discovery (and relationship misstep)
was Blake (Ty Molbak), a 31 year old hotshot whose considerable artistic talent
and sex appeal were more than outset by his narcissism, arrogance and outright
untrustworthiness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Which brings us back
to Angie and Seth.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Superficially, at least, the two would appear to be polar
opposites.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She is a single Italian-American
woman, cool, sharp, secular, passionate, forward-looking – just what one might
expect of the curator of a trendy art gallery in Chelsea.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is a divorced Jewish-American man, awkward,
religious, traditional – just what one might expect of the co-owner (with his
sister, Rachel) of a knish shop on the Lower East Side. But beneath the
surface, Seth and Angie actually have more in common than one might ever have
imagined: they are both lonely, intelligent, charming and compassionate – and
ripe for the discovery of their own “b’sherts” (the Yiddish term for that which
was meant to be).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And so it is not surprising that Angie becomes Seth’s new
“Shabbos Goy” or better yet, his Sabbath Girl, (the title role in <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Sabbath Girl</b> by Cary Gitter,
currently enjoying its New York City premiere at 59E59 Theaters on East 59th
Street in midtown Manhattan).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course
the road to true love never doth run smooth, not even for “b’sherts,” and Seth
and Angie have their hurdles to overcome, not the least of which is Seth’s
knish shop partner, his well-meaning devout older sister Rachel (Lauren
Singerman).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But they are helped along
the way by Sophia (Angelina Fiordellisi), Angie’s romantic, magical
grandmother. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The theme of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The
Sabbath Girl</b>, revolving around the romantic relationship between a nice
Jewish boy and his “shiksa goddess,” may not be remarkably original, but it can
make for wonderful entertainment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
this variation on that tried and true theme is especially charming, not only
because it is very well-written but because the play’s entire ensemble cast is
simply terrific.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lauren Annunziata is
outstanding as Angie as she allows the cool artificial exterior of her hip
persona to be peeled away, disclosing </span><span style="color: #171717; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">her truer self.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jeremy Rishe is equally good as Seth,
conveying his tortuous struggle in reconciling his religious convictions with
the demands of his heart.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ty Molbak
provides great comic relief as Blake, the Fonz-like hip artist who manages to
command Angie’s attention, at least temporarily.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lauren Singerman as Rachel, may be the best
yenta I’ve seen since Molly Goldberg, expressing her own struggle between her
devotion to her faith and her love for her baby brother.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And Angelina Fiordellisi as Sophia adds just
the right touch of magical wisdom to tie it all together in one very
entertaining show.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Alan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629719207399717756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432383748285582010.post-61159853307480799362020-01-13T09:48:00.000-05:002020-01-13T09:48:33.618-05:00MAZ AND BRICKS By Eva O'Connor at 59E59 Theaters<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb7v4R3asneF-G0L_N9-YiqBHT620koLbFfxpVHOSvjHrTPsnSwcwol1258L7qkO44zw-F8_WE9GmoLIP3CIxP0AuHYZjFLv4CSQbo8_JRNSMW2ETpcN0I3jNI5KWEx5WZ2mcMr1Ee4_fV/s1600/MB5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1225" data-original-width="1600" height="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb7v4R3asneF-G0L_N9-YiqBHT620koLbFfxpVHOSvjHrTPsnSwcwol1258L7qkO44zw-F8_WE9GmoLIP3CIxP0AuHYZjFLv4CSQbo8_JRNSMW2ETpcN0I3jNI5KWEx5WZ2mcMr1Ee4_fV/s400/MB5.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">L-R: Eva O'Connor and Cieran O'Brien in MAZ AND BRICKS. Photo by Lunaria.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">No, <b>Maz and Bricks</b> doesn’t address the
issue of the Irish “troubles” but that’s just about the only Irish theatrical
mainstay theme it doesn’t touch on.
Child abuse, rape, trauma, familial estrangement, alcoholism, paternal
love, depression, abortion, suicide, guilt, shame, the Catholic Church – it’s
got them all. So if you’re in the mood
to see another quintessentially Irish two-hander addressing those timeless
subjects, by all means get thee to 59E59 Theaters on East 59th Street in
midtown Manhattan where Fishamble: The New Play Company is staging the US
premiere of Eva O’Connor’s <b>Maz and
Bricks</b>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Surely
you could do a lot worse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The playwright
(who also plays the role of Maz) may have been overly ambitious in the number
of subjects she chose to take on in a single work of only 80 minutes duration but
her enormous talent as both playwright and actress more than make up for any
such shortcoming. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her writing is as much
poetry as prose and she employs her rhyming and rhythmic style effectively in
portraying her characters’ vulnerabilities and sensitivities.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Ms
O’Connor is superb as Maz, a staunch pro-choice campaigner, who meets Bricks
(Ciaran O’Brien) on a tram in Dublin as she is en route to a pro-choice rally
and he is going to pick up his four year old daughter to take her to the
zoo.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mr O’Brien is as terrific as Bricks
as Ms O’Connor is as Maz notwithstanding the fact that, superficially at least,
Bricks is about as different from Maz as one can possibly be: he doesn’t really
care one way or another about abortion and, while Maz may have been traumatized
by her early sexual experiences, his sole interest in life (other than his
daughter) would seem to be bedding any woman who might be available.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And yet there is chemistry between them and
by play’s end, by which time the two have spent a day on the tram and wandering
through the streets of Dublin, we come to realize just how much more they (and,
by extension, all of us) might really have in common than we ever thought.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />Alan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629719207399717756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432383748285582010.post-71358973257319407622019-12-09T08:38:00.001-05:002019-12-09T08:38:24.495-05:00ONE NOVEMBER YANKEE Starring Harry Hamlin and Stefanie Powers at 59E59 Theaters<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_2EaYZLaEJeVPbw3_gM3ByhfpNsnt-8E2dGqDvgySKCfuRtDUc7yQhN8YfxEXSXZiveKHI0mma8_k4IODDcPi2tadQOEzZXhZ_RX8_HSVGxZPpPrqA6qycJD_Rp3L_Dd-cDsuvvcBo_hL/s1600/ONY4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_2EaYZLaEJeVPbw3_gM3ByhfpNsnt-8E2dGqDvgySKCfuRtDUc7yQhN8YfxEXSXZiveKHI0mma8_k4IODDcPi2tadQOEzZXhZ_RX8_HSVGxZPpPrqA6qycJD_Rp3L_Dd-cDsuvvcBo_hL/s400/ONY4.jpg" width="266" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">L-R: Harry Hamlin and Stefanie Powers in ONE NOVEMBER YANKEE. <br />Photo by Matt Urban at NuPOINT Marketing.</span></td></tr>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">One
November Yankee</span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">, constructed by Joshua Ravetch (and I use
the verb “constructed” rather than “written” advisedly) is simply too clever by
half.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Currently enjoying its New York City
premiere at 59E59 Theaters on East 59th Street in midtown Manhattan, it is
really three intricately inter-related plays in one and is rife with puns, foreshadowings,
coincidences, allusions, and pretentiously predictable analogues. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Taken as a whole, the tri-partite play is the tale of one airplane and three sets of siblings: Ralph and Maggie, Harry and Margo, and Ronnie
and Mia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The roles of Ralph, Harry and
Ronnie are all played by Harry Hamlin and the roles of Maggie, Margo and Mia
are all played by Stephanie Powers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">The plane in question is a Piper Cub with the tail number
1NY (whence the play’s title <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">One
November Yankee</b>). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is piloted by
Margo, a rather ditzy librarian who crashes the plane in a remote corner of a New
Hampshire forest, having run out of gas, having removed the plane’s locator
beacon for repair and never having re-installed it before taking off, and
having neglected to file a flight plan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The only other passenger on the plane is Margo’s brother, Harry, an
aspiring novelist who is on the verge of publishing his first novel (entitled <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Very Troubled Journey With a Very Unhappy
Ending</i>).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A pair of self-described
Jewish intellectuals, they were en route to their father’s wedding in Florida
(to his second wife-to-be) when the plane went down.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Five years later, Maggie, a curator at the Museum of
Modern Art, arranges for the museum to grant her brother, Ralph, acclaimed as
one of the top three modern artists in the world (at least everywhere outside
of New York), a $75,000 commission to mount an installation at MoMA.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The installation that Ralph designs is a
replica of the crashed Piper Cub 1NY which he entitles <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Crumpled Plane</i> and which is intended to symbolize “Civilization in
Ruin.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the New York critics like it,
his reputation will be made.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">The analogies between Ralph and Maggie on the one hand
and Harry and Margo on the other are obviously much too blatant to be
missed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both Ralph and Harry are
insecure creative artists; their sisters, Maggie and Margo are pedestrian
pedants, a librarian and a curator.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both
Maggie and Margo are on their third marriages and each has a son. But just in
case the analogy between Ralph/Maggie and Harry/Margo is missed, the most trivial
likenesses in their stories are underscored again, and again, and again….</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Thus, Ralph, while placing the finishing touches on his
installation, inadvertently gets red paint on his brand new shirt just as Harry’s
brand new shirt is similarly covered with blood after the crash.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Margo
extinguishes the flames from the crash with a fire extinguisher that turns out
to be just like the one Ralph places on a pedestal as part of his
exhibition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Harry speculates that his
chances of being rescued are like those of a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“needle in a fucking haystack.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Like that artist Kantano.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His
stuff depicts how small we are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Inconsequential.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dust.”</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And Kantano, as it turns out, is one of the
two artists Ralph most admires and one he beat out for the MoMA
commission.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And on and on and on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">But if you’ve got any disbelief left to suspend, we still
have the third sibling couple – Ronnie and Mia - left to deal with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are hikers who, as luck would have it,
happen upon the plane’s wreckage five years after the crash, in the very month
that Ralph’s installation is being unveiled at the MoMA.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And (wouldn’t you just know it?), discovering
the wreckage affects them even more deeply than one might have imagined since
they lost their own brother, Danny, in a different plane crash and haven’t yet
really come to terms with that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">One
November Yankee</span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"> delivers several messages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One is that art imitates life which imitates
art which imitates life which…but you get the point of that one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another is that all sibling relationships are
love-hate relationships, fraught with jealousy, misunderstanding, animosity and
a remembrance and lack of forgiveness for any sin one’s sibling might ever have
committed, knowingly or unknowingly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
a third is that art is whatever artists or elite art critics say it is – or maybe
that it’s really the other way around: maybe it’s that some “art” really is
trash or debris and not “art” at all no matter who says it is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps a line should be drawn somewhere –
for starters, say, by denying that spattering elephant dung on a picture of
Jesus Christ constitutes “art” – notwithstanding the fact that some
self-proclaimed art critic might say it is. I’m really not sure what the play’s
position on this one is.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Harry Hamlin and Stefanie Powers are both very fine
actors, fully capable of delivering outstanding performances in a variety of
roles but, sadly, you wouldn’t know it from this production. Ralph, Harry and
Ronnie may all have been assigned different personae and costumed differently
but I saw little differentiation in the way Hamlin performed what should have
been three distinctively different roles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And the same was true of Stefanie Powers in the roles of Maggie, Margot
and Mia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I suspect that that might have
been Joshua Ravetch’s doing (although I really do not know this for a fact): as
both playwright and director, he may have sought to emphasize the universality
of the human condition (which might also explain the overuse of foreshadowings,
coincidences, and analogues) even at the expenses of delivering more nuanced
performances. If so, I guess he succeeded but at a serious dramatic cost.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />Alan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629719207399717756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432383748285582010.post-59892030159755076842019-11-27T08:42:00.000-05:002019-11-27T08:42:19.315-05:00EVERYTHING IS SUPER GREAT by Stephen Brown Debuts at 59E59 Theaters<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglMuYOdfOcy3lzORPuWt-bywn3aX5aMD1hI-nBvZgWVJuEjeLDjAwMf6zvt0C8FtINhIWnOBQTCaDpXP89Mg9CsC0NbKmljh4N3pXFWirmARUzPUwLWoJ8UT7LzSylmagunH16JE2LLhOv/s1600/SuperGreat4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglMuYOdfOcy3lzORPuWt-bywn3aX5aMD1hI-nBvZgWVJuEjeLDjAwMf6zvt0C8FtINhIWnOBQTCaDpXP89Mg9CsC0NbKmljh4N3pXFWirmARUzPUwLWoJ8UT7LzSylmagunH16JE2LLhOv/s400/SuperGreat4.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">L-R: Xavier Rooney, Lisa Jill Anderson, Will Sarratt, and Marcia Debonis in EVERYTHING IS SUPER GREAT. Photo by Hunter Canning.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Dysfunctional families, abandonment, disappearances,
dementia, failures to communicate, inter-generational conflict – these are
among the most basic themes traditionally addressed on stage. Seldom, however, are they explored as deftly
and in such light-hearted fashion as they are by Stephen Brown in <b>Everything Is Super Great</b>, his first
full length play to be staged in New York.
And it is why this play, produced by New Light Theater Company and Stable
Cable Lab Co. and directed by Sarah Norris at 59E59 Theaters in midtown
Manhattan, engenders so many more laughs than tears from the audience.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Tommy (Will Sarratt) is an awkward 19-year old whose
father abandoned his family years ago and whose older brother has been missing
for months.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is highly accomplished
when it comes to computers but much less so when it comes to relating to others
in real life – and he has serious anger management problems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Having been fired from his job at Applebee’s
for setting fire to the restaurant after getting into a row with a customer, he
is currently.employed in an entry-level job as a barista at Starbucks and is
living at home with his very well-meaning but smothering mother, Anne (Marcia
Debonis). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Moreover, losing his job at Applebee’s was the least of Tommy’s
problems: as a result of his setting the fire, he was charged with arson, a
felony.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His mother did succeed in
getting the charge reduced to a misdemeanor, but only on the condition that
Tommy undergo therapy to learn how to deal with his anger management problems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Which really is a bit ironic since Anne
apparently has anger management problems herself, subsequently getting into a
fight with a customer at Walmart which gets her fired from her job there too.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Anyway, Tommy is more than willing to undergo therapy -
if he can do it through a course over the internet – but his mother has other
ideas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She insists that he enter into
therapy with Dave (Xavier Rooney), a one-time co-worker of hers at Walmart who
is now a wannabe therapist who believes that his MFA degree will enable him to
treat Tommy effectively through art therapy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But Dave, as it turns out, has abandonment and anger management problems
of his own.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His girlfriend, Rachel, has
walked out on him, taking all her stuff (and some of his), leaving no
forwarding address and no explanation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">And just to add to the play’s overarching themes of dysfunctionality,
disappearances, and abandonment, it turns out that Tommy’s immediate supervisor
at Starbucks is Alice (Lisa Jill Anderson), an attractive 21-year old
pot-smoking former schoolmate of Tommy’s (although she doesn’t remember him at
all) who lives with her grandmother and is her sole care-giver.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, wouldn’t you know it, grandma suffers from
dementia, wanders off one day, and disappears as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">So there you have it: Anne’s husband and Tommy’s father
is gone, Anne’s oldest son and Tommy’s brother is gone, Dave’s girlfriend is
gone, Alice’s grandmother is gone, and all that remains is for this
dysfunctional group to sort it all out as best they can in the most cheerful,
comedic manner one might imagine.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">And they prove to be fully up to the task.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Will Sarrratt (who reminded me a lot of
Thomas Middledith, the star of TV’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Silicon
Valley</i>) is terrific as the quirky, socially awkward and generally dysfunctional
Tommy who is nonetheless quite intelligent and compassionate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lisa Jill Anderson succeeds in conveying a
full <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>range of emotions as Alice, a young
woman unfairly burdened with the responsibility of caring for her high
maintenance grandmother.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Xavier Rooney
is truly delightful as Dave, a lost soul who really isn’t sure who or what he
wants out of life but is certainly going to give it his best shot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And last, but certainly not least, is Marcia
Debonis, whose exuberance, effervescence and just plain well-meaning (if often misplaced)
goodness as Anne suffuse the entire production. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />Alan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629719207399717756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432383748285582010.post-28139383071020661752019-11-21T08:48:00.000-05:002019-11-21T08:48:20.787-05:00EINSTEIN'S DREAMS Premieres at 59E59 Theaters<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj9_PecZNgqypAoaWmkkG070aOlckmuvikmPNu5zmYeMuc0qfTgqJXLpqWWzx5VKeU9AxVMt6zQTPO3eP0sC8UoMPYe7CCXXKZHgRyoC42pAXLtn6Ji2IUI3RWvRDZvtEdkwRYj0GaW-ww/s1600/ED2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj9_PecZNgqypAoaWmkkG070aOlckmuvikmPNu5zmYeMuc0qfTgqJXLpqWWzx5VKeU9AxVMt6zQTPO3eP0sC8UoMPYe7CCXXKZHgRyoC42pAXLtn6Ji2IUI3RWvRDZvtEdkwRYj0GaW-ww/s400/ED2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">L-R: Zal Owen and Brennan Caldwell in EINSTEIN'S DREAMS. Photo by Richard Termine.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Richard
Feynman, the renowned Nobel Prize winning physicist, once remarked <i>“If you think you understand quantum
mechanics, you don’t understand quantum mechanics.” </i> Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity may
not be as incomprehensible as quantum physics but it certainly is difficult to
fathom. How, for instance, can one
really get his mind around the fact that the passage of time itself is
dependent upon the perspective of the observer?
Or that time slows down as one travels faster so that an interstellar space
traveler moving at, say, one-tenth the speed of light could return to Earth
younger than his own children?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">As
a consequence, writers attempting to expound upon these themes are faced with a
difficult choice: they can write dry, scholarly, textbooks which may prove of
value to students of physics, cosmology and mathematics but that may do little
to enlighten or entertain the general reader.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Or they can sacrifice rigorous textbook explanations and adopt, instead,
more metaphorical approaches to these subjects - approaches that may not be totally
factually correct in an objective sense but that still will capture the essence
of the issues involved. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">As
an example, they may note that time spent with a lover passes quickly whereas five
minutes in a dentist’s chair may seem like an eternity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or, as Albert Einstein, himself, once
expressed it:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">“Put your hand on a
hot stove for a minute and it seems like an hour.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sit with a pretty girl for an hour and it
seems like a minute.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s relativity.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">This
sentiment, of course, is a soft psychological truth, not a hard scientific one,
but it does capture the essence of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity to the
effect that the passage of time can only be measured relative to an observer’s own
point of view.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Alan
Lightman is something of a Renaissance Man.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Having graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude from Princeton and
with a PhD in theoretical physics from the California Institute of Technology, he
went on to teach at Harvard and MIT.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
he is not only a physicist and teacher: he is also a published poet, essayist
and novelist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so it should come as
no surprise that he also is the first professor at MIT to have received a joint
appointment in the sciences and the humanities - nor that he has lectured at
more than 100 universities regarding the differences between the ways that
scientists and artists view the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Lightman’s
best known work, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Einstein’s Dreams</i>, originally
published in 1992 and subsequently translated into 30 languages, was an
international bestseller.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the novel, set
in 1905, Albert Einstein appears as a young patent clerk, struggling to make
sense of the world, to distinguish his dreams from reality, and to construct
his magnum opus, the Theory of Relativity. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The book consists of thirty chapters, each envisioning
a different world in which time functions differently:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In one, it is “sticky,” with people “stuck”
in a single moment in their lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
another it is circular.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a third, it
is finite and about to end.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a fourth,
it flows backwards.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a fifth, cause
and effect are not necessarily chronological .<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And in yet another, it branches off into alternative universes. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">And
so the question arises: If such “other” worlds did exist, how would their
alternative conceptions of time affect human behavior?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And finally: Are those one encounters in
one’s dreams any less real than those one encounters when awake?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">(One
is reminded ot the words of Lao Tzu, the Chinese Taoist philosopher who once,
upon awakening from a nap during which he dreamt he was a butterfly, said: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“I do not know whether I was then a man
dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a
man.”</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The
book<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Einstein’s Dreams</i> was adapted
for the musical stage as <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Einstein’s
Dreams</b> by Joanne Sydney Lessner (book and lyrics) and Joshua Rosenblum (music
and lyrics) more than a decade ago and debuted in London in 2005.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, fourteen years later it is finally
enjoying its New York off-Broadway premiere at 59E59 Theaters on East 59th
Street in midtown Manhattan in a production by the Prospect Theater Company and
directed by Cara Reichel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(I’d like to
think that New York theater lovers in some alternative universe didn’t have to
wait quite so long.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">In
this production of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Einstein’s Dreams</b>,
the struggling, dreaming Albert Einstein is played by Zal Owen; Josette, the mysterious
woman of his dreams and a stand-in for time itself, is played by Alexandra
Silber; Michele Besso, Einstein’s close friend, is played by Brennan Caldwell;
and Peter Klausen, Einstein’s officious boss at the patent office, is played by
Michael McCoy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are all excellent in
their respective roles, as are Tess Primack in her dual roles as Mileva,
Einstein’s first wife in real life and as Marta, the patent office’s typist;
Stacia Fernandez as Hilda, Klausen’s world-weary secretary; Lisa Helmi Johanson
as Besso’s wife, Anna; and Vishal Vaidya as Johannes Schmetterling, the patent
office’s eager new emploiyee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I must
say I was most taken with Talia Cosentino in her role as Josie, the exuberantly
intelligent little girl who lit up the stage whenever she appeared. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />Alan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629719207399717756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432383748285582010.post-69846959454644233702019-10-28T08:06:00.000-04:002019-10-28T08:06:56.884-04:00IMAGINING MADOFF by Deb Margolin at Lion Theatre on Theatre Row<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhibv8V4aCuf5IIm3BUDPBftPgJ3guSRRZWsg4ac9hBBooUKmhbo3PImpWRiBu8y649Ovg5sCqOW_YXw4_GyVnrjraHtHM5_8ysjDfZMAVDN7EjP0FsQRg3Okn8ydM830Cso9Sykq7gUgsm/s1600/Madoff5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhibv8V4aCuf5IIm3BUDPBftPgJ3guSRRZWsg4ac9hBBooUKmhbo3PImpWRiBu8y649Ovg5sCqOW_YXw4_GyVnrjraHtHM5_8ysjDfZMAVDN7EjP0FsQRg3Okn8ydM830Cso9Sykq7gUgsm/s400/Madoff5.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">L-R: Gerry Bamman and Jeremiah Kissel in IMAGINING MADOFF. Photo by Jody Christopherson.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">The most important word in the title of Deb Margolin’s
thought-provoking play, <b>Imagining Madoff</b>,
is not “Madoff” but “Imagining.” That is
because this is no simple re-telling of the tale of the greatest Ponzi scheme
in history (Bernie Madoff’s theft of nearly $65 billion from trusting
investors, a crime for which he is currently serving a prison term of 150
years). Rather, it is a highly
speculative philosophical, theological, and psychological investigation of why
Madoff acted as he did and the moral and ethical issues underlying his actions
(and those around him).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Imagining
Madoff</span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"> had its critically acclaimed sold-out New York premiere
earlier this year at 59E59 Theaters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
is now enjoying an encore engagement at the Lion Theatre on Theatre Row on West
42nd Street in midtown Manhattan.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">The play is beautifully written and artfully executed
with Jeremiah Kissel cast as the tortured, enigmatic, and thoroughly amoral
Bernie Madoff; Jenny Allen as his loyal but confused and guilt-ridden secretary;
and Gerry Bamman as Solomon Galkin, Madoff’s friend and a Holocaust survivor
and poet who is the treasurer of his synagogue (the synagogue itself turning
out to be one of the victims of Madoff’s fraud).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">(In Margolin’s original version of the play, the
friend/Holocaust survivor/poet/synagogue treasurer was not the fictitious
Solomon Galkin but the real life Elie Wiesel but when Wielsel objected and
threatened to sue, claiming that the play was defamatory and obscene, Margolin
converted Wiesel into Galkin.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Obedience – to parents, teachers, priests and other
legal, military and religious authorities - is generally considered a
virtue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But not always.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I doubt if anyone today would claim that the
obedience of German citizens to Nazi authorities was a virtue (nor, for that
matter, that the obedience of Americans to those enacting Jim Crow laws was
either). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But then what are we to say
about Abraham’s obedience to God as evidence by his willingness to sacrifice
Isaac if that, indeed, was what God commanded?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Would Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac have been a virtue – or a sin?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Or does it all come down to a question of trust –
Abraham’s trust in God, the average citizen’s trust in his government, or Galkin’s
trust in Madoff – to always do the right thing?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And when they don’t?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is that what
is so dismaying Madoff’s secretary: her misplaced trust in her so-highly
regarded employer?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Jeremiah Kissel, Jenny Allen, and Gerry Bamman are
absolutely superb in their respective roles as Madoff, his secretary, and
Galkin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And while Deb Margolin provides
no perfect solutions to any of these deep philosophical problems, she does ask
all the right questions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that, at
least, is a big step in the right direction.</span> </div>
<br />Alan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629719207399717756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432383748285582010.post-14899722182134532202019-10-06T20:32:00.003-04:002019-10-06T20:32:37.587-04:00LUDWIG AND BERTIE by Douglas Lackey at Theater for the New City<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX_Iqs_-F2ihy5Q8XrN0e3BjiDgcstJhbjTElSZpN9YS_2fjKxf6AlajogZvAa1XUQUtXTYRdMqe9JgdkTLYhcBiXfOBGQXZqnhj1S7_RqPsWMHf5TrthsvTdd4eh1LWShk2kp10emuQM-/s1600/DSC_0999.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX_Iqs_-F2ihy5Q8XrN0e3BjiDgcstJhbjTElSZpN9YS_2fjKxf6AlajogZvAa1XUQUtXTYRdMqe9JgdkTLYhcBiXfOBGQXZqnhj1S7_RqPsWMHf5TrthsvTdd4eh1LWShk2kp10emuQM-/s400/DSC_0999.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">L-R: Stan Buturia and Connor Bond in LUDWIG AND BERTIE. Photo by Anthony Paul-Cavanetta.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Ludwig Wittgenstein (Connor Bond) and Bertrand Russell
(Stan Buturia) had little in common in nature, background, or philosophical
outlook. Russell was an Englishman, a
generation older than Wittgenstein, a heterosexual sensualist, a hedonist, a
pacifist imprisoned for refusing to serve in the First World War, and a
self-proclaimed agnostic. By contrast, Wittgenstein
was an Austrian, a bi-sexual, a decorated combat soldier in the First World
War, and a puritanical religious Catholic coming to grips with his Jewish
roots. Yet the two men had an enormous
effect on one another and were also arguably the two most dominant philosophers
of the twentieth century. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Ludwig
and Bertie</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"> by Douglas Lackey, currently premiering at Theater for
the New City on First Avenue in New York’s East Village, tells their
story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a comprehensive bio-pic of
the lives of the two philosophers, the influence they had on one another’s
philosophies, and the extraordinary relationship that existed between them. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The play is a remarkable achievement on two
levels: on one level, it provides an exhaustive explication of their respective
philosophies (which even those most familiar with the concepts underlying analytic
philosophy should find informative and educational).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And on another level, it also provides an
entertaining theatrical experience for those less committed to the nuances of
philosophical thought in its explorations of these men’s personae.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">In penning <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Ludwig
and Bertie</b>, Lackey has taken some liberty with historical facts (as often
occurs in bio-pics).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For example, he
portrays an argumentative episode involving the aggressive wielding of a poker
as having occurred between Wittgenstein and Russell when it actually transpired
between Wittgenstein and Karl Popper (as describef by David Edmonds and John Edinow
in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wittgensteins’s Poker</i>).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And while it is true that Wittgenstein and
Adolf Hitler were schoolmates, there is no real evidence that they ever
actually met – then or as adults – although Lackey credits Wittgenstein with
having successfully appealed directly to Hitler to achieve freedom from the
Nazis for his siblings despite their Jewish ancestry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But these are minor matters and Lackey does
provide a true picture of the lives of Wittgenstein and Russell in the broadest
sense.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Both Connor Bond and Stan Butuna are outstanding in their
respective roles as Wittgenstein and Russell and they are ably supported by the
rest of the cast: Hayden Berry as the young Wittgenstein; Pat Dwyer as the
philosopher, G. E. Moore; Alyssa Simon as Russell’s paramour, Lady Ottoline
Morrell, and as Wittgensteins sister, Gretl Stonborough; and Daniel Yaiullo as
Wittgenstein’s gay lover.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />Alan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629719207399717756noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432383748285582010.post-79900982157773737442019-10-06T20:10:00.000-04:002019-10-06T20:10:58.463-04:00ROUND TABLE by Liba Vaynberg Premieres at 59E59 Theaters<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1mWU9umZ4emyvbAz_l6QOLbPsCzsqV57mNC-hHC_LEm_PAuEOr0n-h1GgoUHl4C0YInI6Y2HOSZ4AcyQArv-LVe7h4HdoEnno7GWD8SSwJrybv0OgNzx-Rr9S_qjiiBPLdD_fin99Ijnw/s1600/RoundTable016.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1mWU9umZ4emyvbAz_l6QOLbPsCzsqV57mNC-hHC_LEm_PAuEOr0n-h1GgoUHl4C0YInI6Y2HOSZ4AcyQArv-LVe7h4HdoEnno7GWD8SSwJrybv0OgNzx-Rr9S_qjiiBPLdD_fin99Ijnw/s400/RoundTable016.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">L-R: Liba Vaynberg and Craig Wesley Divino in ROUND TABLE. Photo by Carol Rosegg.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">We really can’t know for sure who other people truly
are. Indeed, we really can’t even know
who we ourselves truly are. Or at least
that’s the main message I took away from <b>Round
Table</b> by Liba Vaynberg, the intricately structured thought-provoking play currently
premiering at 59E59 Theaters on East 59th Street in midtown Manhattan. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Not that the play didn’t broadcast other messages as
well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For one: There’s a big difference between
love and romance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, as Laura
(Liba Vaynberg) sees it, love is the very opposite of romance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In her words: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">“Love’s
about like shitting in the same toilet and romance is for people who have
potpourri bowls in their bathrooms.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">For another: It may be difficult to be a feminist and
fall in love…but it’s not necessarily an insurmountable obstacle.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">And for a third: The granting of informed consent is not
just a moral imperative in sexual relations; it is a necessary perquisite in
all aspects of human relations including the very acceptance of another’s love
and even the manner, timing, and scripting of one’s own demise.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">*<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>*<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>*<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Several years ago, Pamela Wolfstein (or someone writing
pseudonymously under that name) wrote a successful romance novel and the
floodgates opened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A whole slew of
writers were retained to ghost-write formulaic imitations of that singular success
story and so they did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Laura, despite
being an avowed feminist herself, was one of them, penning books with covers of
heaving bosoms under the pseudonym Pamela Wolfstein, that were sold at airports
to middle-aged soccer moms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And now, as
it turns out, Laura is the last of them, the originator of the series having
died three years ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So is Laura now
really Pamela Wolfstein herself? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Zach (Craig Wesley Divino) has a PhD from Harvard in
Medieval Literature and currently earns his living as a teacher, writer and
consultant on the subject to video and computer game companies and to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Round Table</i>, the hit television series
based on the Arthurian legends (think <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Game
of Thrones</i>).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indeed, he actually
wrote a couple of the episodes for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Round
Table</i> himself, working out the plot twists for those episodes by
participating in LARP (live action role playing) as King Arthur, as the Knight
Tristan, as the Scholar Giles, and as the Wizard Merlin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In doing so, he was joined by Lena (Sharina
Martin), a bartender in real life who may be a little in love with Zach herself
and who well may be using LARP to replace her own childhood dreams in the
fantasy role of the Sorceress Morgan. And by Jeff (Matthew Bovee), a tax
attorney in real life who role plays Arthur’s foe, Mordred, perhaps in part to help
him to repress or at least displace his own latent childhood homosexual
tendencies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But who then are Lena and
Jeff today - really?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Zach and Laura meet through online dating, which does
seem particularly appropriate for the two of them since online dating might be
viewed as a bridge between virtual reality and, well, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">real</i> reality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They hit it
off but it’s not clear whether their relationship will blossom into love or
simply peter out after several nights of ice cream, sex, and romance, given the
sharp distinction Laura draws between love and romance and her own feminist
leanings.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">At Zach’s urging, however, Laura eventually takes a stab
at LARP herself – role playing as the Druid Laurel and as Queen Guinevere – but
the game doesn’t come as easily to her as it does to Zack, Lena and Jeff (perhaps
because she’s simply somewhat more realistic than any of them are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So where do Zach and Laura go from
there?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Well, if they really are falling in love (and it seems
they are), and if they’re both comfortable with the need for informed consent
in all its aspects (and it seems they are), and if neither Laura’s feminism nor
Zach’s LARP represent insurmountable obstacles (and it seems they don’t), and
If Lena’s feelings for Zach aren’t a real impediment (and it seems they’re
not), then everything should be copacetic, right?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Well, maybe not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Because we left just one thing out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Zach is very ill – probably dying – from some mysterious mental or brain
condition and he has neglected to tell Laura anything about it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Kay (Karl Gregory), Zach’s gay brother, is a competent
and compassionate EMT, and the most sensible and well-grounded of the
bunch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is fully aware of Zach’s
condition and does everything in this power to be of aid to him, ensuring that
he keep his medical appointments and insistently attempting to convince him (albeit
to no avail) that he abandon his foolish devotion to LARP, which Kay perceives
as physically life-threatening in light of Zach’s condition. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But if there is little that Kay can accomplish
in that realm, given Zach’s obstinacy, there is absolutely nothing at all he
can do in regard to Zach’s star-crossed relationship to Laura.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">*<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>*<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>*<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Round
Table</span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"> is an intriguing theatrical production – when if sticks
to its primary plot lines involving the distinction between reality and
fantasy, the nature of the “self,” and the relationship between Zach and
Laura.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it goes off the rails
occasionally with extraneous matters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
don’t think, for instance, that there was any point in introducing the issue of
Kay’s mild frustration with his partner’s persona.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, to mix a colorful metaphor, Lena’s
suggestion at one point that Zach might be undergoing an adult circumcision as
part of a conversion to Orthodox Judaism was just a ridiculous red herring. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">*<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>*<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>*<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">The cast of five is absolutely terrific in both their
real life 21st Century parts and in their legendary Arthurian roles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Matthew Bovee as Jeff is a sensitive and
tentative tax attorney – but he also makes for a ruthless Mordred.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sharina Martin as Lena and the Sorceress
Morgan reminded me a bit of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, another female bartender
of color in real life, although Lena’s fantasies, unlike AOC’s, tended more
toward sorcery than socialism.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Karl Gregory as Kay provided the play with the solid
grounding it required as a counterweight to the fantastical doings of the other
four.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And Craig Wesley Divino as Zach,
Arthur, Tristan, Merlin and Giles, was simply mesmerizing across-the-board.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">But my greatest praise is reserved for Liba Vaynberg who
not only wrote the play but starred in it brilliantly as Laura, the Druid
Laurel, and Queen Guinevere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By writing
the play and then starring in it herself she provided the perfect meta-example
of what LARP, self-identification,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and
the fine line between fantasy and reality are all about.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />Alan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629719207399717756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432383748285582010.post-3725430625463139382019-09-20T08:08:00.000-04:002019-09-20T08:08:04.995-04:00Jill Eikenberry Stars in FERN HILL by Michael Tucker <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhos65Isw_CeDwlY24Swy68QFFUcBN_jjzPR3KfOOVs8v0MB3ileRjIy2ydBqsm7UzrDmNRZOf4VmYt59g-2JK0o2ILzSdKObAVq8oU8Dc7klr82mNha6_yk9lKf10TpcQhQUnTsZxzb3yC/s1600/FernHill065.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhos65Isw_CeDwlY24Swy68QFFUcBN_jjzPR3KfOOVs8v0MB3ileRjIy2ydBqsm7UzrDmNRZOf4VmYt59g-2JK0o2ILzSdKObAVq8oU8Dc7klr82mNha6_yk9lKf10TpcQhQUnTsZxzb3yC/s400/FernHill065.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">L-R: John Glover, Mark Linn-Baker, Ellen Parker, Jodi Long, Jill Eikenberry, and Mark Blum in FERN HILL. Photo by Carol Rosegg. </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Fern Hill</span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"> by Michael Tucker, currently enjoying
its New York City premiere at 59E59 Theaters on East 59th Street in midtown
Manhattan, is a beautifully written and brilliantly performed play about three
“artsy” couples in their golden years and the relationships that exist between
the partners in each of the three marriages: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Vincent (John Glover) is an established painter who will
be entering the hospital for hip replacement surgery in a matter of days and
who will be turning eighty in two months.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>His much younger wife, Darla (Ellen Parker), is an acclaimed
photographer who is about to be honored with her first one-woman exhibition in
Vienna.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Jer (Mark Blum), is a respected writer and college
professor who is celebrating his seventieth birthday today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His wife, Sunny (Jill Eikenberry) is another
talented painter, albeit one not nearly as well established as Vincent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Together they own and reside in Fern Hill, a
farmhouse retreat outside the city.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Billy (Mark Linn-Baker) is a stoner, a foodie and a rock-and-roll
musician who will turn 60 next week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His
Asian wife, Michiko (Jodi Long), first met Billy when he was on tour years ago and
she was one of his groupies; she currently works in a college’s Fine Arts
Department. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">The three couples have been close friends for years and
now are all together at Fern Hill where they are about to celebrate the milestone
birthdays for all three men: Billy’s sixtieth, Jer’s seventieth, and Vincent’s eightieth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And to consider Sunny’s proposal that they form
something of a commune and all move in together at Fern Hill to live out their
final years together.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Sunny’s idea really does make a lot of sense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Far better that they all age together and care
for one another in their twilight years than that they go off to separate retirement
or nursing homes to live out their final days among strangers or, worse yet,
become burdens on their children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Naturally,
Vincent is all for it: he is, after all, the oldest and the frailest of the
group with the shortest remaining life expectancy. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And while he loves his New York loft, the area
in which it is located is rapidly becoming gentrified with “undesirable” hedge
fund types and celebrities and even one of the Kennedy kids, and he doesn’t
like that at all so he really won’t mind giving it up. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that’s reason enough for Darla, his
primary caregiver, to favor the idea as well.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">And, despite their being the youngest of the three
couples, it makes particular sense for Billy and Michiko for an additional
financial reason: Billy’s band, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Olly
Golly</i>, is no longer as popular as it once was and Billy’s and Michiko’s
combined income has declined substantially (although they’re still spending as
much as ever); if they move to Fern Hill, they can sell their New York apartment
and live comfortably from the proceeds of the sale.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And of course Sunny loves the idea: it was
her idea to begin with after all, she loves her friends – and maybe Jer is no
longer quite enough for her.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Jer, however, is the lone holdout.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, he loves his friends but he doubts that
he would love them as much if they were around <u>all</u> the time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More than any of the others, he values his
privacy – as well he should.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For as it
turns out, Jer has been carrying on with a young, promiscuous student – which
might not fit in so well with his living a communal life with his more elderly
friends at Fern Hill.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">When Jer’s adulterous affair is disclosed, Sunny is
understandably upset.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She considers
throwing him out and perhaps she will.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But the issue of whether or not she throws him out is not really what drives
the play.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nor is the issue of whether or
not the six friends actually will form a commune and live together in their
final years at Fern Hill.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">No, what really animates the play are the discussions
among the six friends regarding their own sex lives; the distinctions they draw
between sex and intimacy; their marriages; their own past indiscretions, shortcomings,
and prior adulterous experiences; their perceptions of how they or their
partners may have changed over the years; and their own assignments of credit
or blame for whatever failures may have occurred in their relationships. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">It is all very enlightening but, as Billy put it, it is
also a kind of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rashomon</i> experience in
which the participants each see things in a different way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, for example, Jer sincerely blames Sunny
for his own infidelity since she stopped “adoring” him and stopped “enjoying”
their active sex lives whereas Sunny honestly believes that their sex lives had
been artificial “performances” for years and that she only stopped “adoring”
Jer when he stopped being “adorable.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Tucker has a wonderful ear for language.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Billy’s rendition of his recipe for spaghetti
and clam sauce, for example, might not be in a class with Hamlet’s soliloquy but
it is, without doubt, the most delightful exposition of a recipe for the
classic dish that I have ever heard. And Darla’s explanation of why Jer was so
easily seduced by one of his students was as sharp and succinct as it could be:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">“You were the man.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Men are easy, Jer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They come with a handle.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">The entire cast of Fern Hill is absolutely terrific but
two members of the cast really stood out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Jill Eikenberry’s performance as Sunny, the betrayed and disillusioned
wife, still in love with her husband but wishing that things could just go back
to the way they were, was impeccably nuanced.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And Mark Linn-Baker was simply superb as Billy, the 60-year-old drug and
alcohol addicted Peter Pan who never really grew up and continued to live in
the past – though, all things considered, maybe that wasn’t such a bad idea
after all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />Alan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629719207399717756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432383748285582010.post-12573898861203349712019-09-13T09:15:00.000-04:002019-09-13T09:15:34.461-04:00ONLY YESTERDAY - A Night in the Lives of John Lennon and Paul McCartney<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAeiswClQz_vyQfZmuQLjD4hgzHDDE_QUScKTBr0s3Wqd-zmgNG1M32a9l8jVlgDVgsLTOOcYnoWvzzVNYw_3sH-BRK7rw8QWnCsK1jau9qbVVmHpim99HOaTyo7TJ2-sX6IvNkU_z49p2/s1600/OnlyYesterday020.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAeiswClQz_vyQfZmuQLjD4hgzHDDE_QUScKTBr0s3Wqd-zmgNG1M32a9l8jVlgDVgsLTOOcYnoWvzzVNYw_3sH-BRK7rw8QWnCsK1jau9qbVVmHpim99HOaTyo7TJ2-sX6IvNkU_z49p2/s400/OnlyYesterday020.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">L-R: Tommy Crawford and Christopher Sears in ONLY YESTERDAY. Photo by Carol Rosegg.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">It was more
than fifty years ago, back in 1964, that “Beatlemania” was all the rage, but to
us (and many others, we are sure) it seems like it was “only yesterday.”</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">That year, with six number one singles under
their belt and having received a rousing reception in their debut performance
on </span><i style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;">The Ed Sullivan Show</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> (an estimated
73 million people tuned in to watch them on their black and white TV sets), the
“Fab Four” embarked on a months-long nationwide concert tour before adoring
crowds across America.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">When their
tour was temporarily stalled by a hurricane in Florida, however, they were
forced to put everything on hold for a day or two, making an unscheduled stop
in Key West before continuing on to Jacksonville.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so it was that John Lennon and Paul
McCartney, both in their early 20’s, found themselves holed up together for the
night in a cheap hotel room in Key West with little to do but drink and
talk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Which is just what they did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Until they also cried.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Or at least that’s
pretty much what Paul said happened when he was interviewed more than four
decades later.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was on a radio
broadcast in 2011 that he recalled that night in 1964 when he and John drank,
talked and cried together for reasons he could no longer be certain of but
which he thought probably related to the deaths of both of their mothers when they
were in their early teens - and the emotional toll it took on them.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">This was
really all that the playwright Bob Stevens had to go on when he wrote <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Only Yesterday</b>, a slight but charming
one act play, currently enjoying its New York premiere at 59E59 Theaters on East
59th Street in midtown Manhattan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Only Yesterday</b>, we are treated to Stevens’
imagining of what might have transpired on that night in 1964 as John Lennon
(Christopher Sears) and Paul McCartney (Tommy Crawford) not only drank and
talked – and, yes, cried – but also engaged in good humored horseplay from
Monopoly to pillow-fighting, jammed on their guitars, half-heartedly attempted
to write some songs, and even delivered a blow for integration by refusing to perform
before a segregated audience in Jacksonville.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Somewhat
surprisingly, perhaps, the show is light on the Beatles’ own music but it does
include tunes by Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry - and remarkably entertaining impersonations
of Bob Dylan (by Crawford) and of Elvis Presley (by Sears).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indeed, the Presley impersonation was a real
show-stopper and, if nothing else, it alone is sure to leave you smiling for
days to come.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Alan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629719207399717756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432383748285582010.post-395116066768017932019-09-05T08:39:00.000-04:002019-09-05T08:39:40.862-04:00Traveling Through Time with TECH SUPPORT at 59E59 Theaters<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPJ4GaROi7CUazKee1f97GhRSH_lQ3ys1xsofqohJUv8s2g1fupULClXgS0CcmVKhJHCzoa0mmBD38EAurSlj-YHfyvP9-8rJSyibVeg1QxqmtimaCfjtx-wJ_GEhzcx0mTALVz2ZYH571/s1600/30+TECH+SUPPORT.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPJ4GaROi7CUazKee1f97GhRSH_lQ3ys1xsofqohJUv8s2g1fupULClXgS0CcmVKhJHCzoa0mmBD38EAurSlj-YHfyvP9-8rJSyibVeg1QxqmtimaCfjtx-wJ_GEhzcx0mTALVz2ZYH571/s400/30+TECH+SUPPORT.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">L-R: Margot White, Mark Lotito, Leanne Cabrera, Ryan Avalos, and Lauriel Friedman in TECH SUPPORT. Photo by Russ Rowland. </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Tech
Support</span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"> by Debra
Whitfield, currently premiering at 59E59 Theaters on East 59th Street in
midtown Manhattan, is one for the ages – but not in a good way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a trite rom-com, dependent upon a
preposterous time-travel premise, in which Pamela Stark (Margot White), a
middle-aged rare book dealer living in Manhattan in 2020, inadvertently embarks
on a series of journeys to random years in the twentieth century: 1919, 1946,
and 1978.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Pamela is in the throes of a divorce
and something of a Luddite, capable of adjusting a pop-up toaster or opening a
Tupperware container, but not much more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>She perceives herself as “an analogue girl in a digital world.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so, when her computer’s printer acts up,
she is forced to telephone “tech support” for assistance but when she presses
the wrong button on her phone, she somehow finds herself back in the year
1919.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is there that she meets Charlie
Blackwell (Mark Lotito), the kindly proprietor of Mrs. Blackwell’s Boarding
House; Grace (Lauriel Friedman), an intelligent and politically ambitious
women’s suffragette; Maisie (Leanne Cabrera), a much milder, fragile and
old-fashioned – albeit pregnant - suffragette; and Chip (Ryan Avalos), a decent,
handsome young man who, unbeknownst to him, is responsible for Maisie’s
pregnancy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">(Pamela’s subsequent time travels are
predicated on even sillier contrivances: she fiddles with the dials on a
Victrola and a radio, pushes the wrong door buzzer, and provides a Lyft driver
with a house number but no street name.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">But back to 1919.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pamela prevails upon Maisie not to undergo an
abortion, not because Pamela herself is pro-life (indeed, she actually
professes to being pro-choice) but only because abortions in 1919, unlike in 2020,
are really dangerous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, Pamela
admits to once having had an abortion herself, although she also allows that<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">“I
had a lot of sleepless nights and if I had it to do over again, I’m not sure
I’d make the same decision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I’m glad
I had the choice!”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Anyway, Maisie doesn’t get an abortion
and gives birth to Chip Jr. (Ryan Avalos), the spitting image of his father,
wouldn’t you know, and it’s a good thing for Pamela that she did because when
Pamela lands in 1946 (right after the end of World War II), she meets Chip Jr.
and they fall in love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Wasn’t so great
for Maisie, though, who died in childbirth, which is simply glossed over.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe an abortion illegally performed by a
doctor in 1919 might actually have been safer for Maisie than giving birth that
year, but we’ll never know and won’t really bother to think about.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">And this is what is wrong with the
play.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The playwright consistently
attempts to have things both ways, without actually dealing with serious issues
in any depth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so, in similar
fashion, when Grace’s subsequent marriage to Charlie is teetering on the brink
of collapse because her successful political career is interfering with what her
husband really wants - <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a wife who will
stay home, cook, clean and darn his socks - we are treated to this banal
exchange:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Grace: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">You know that I love my job and I feel that I’m just now starting to
make a difference.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I love you
more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What does it matter how many men
and women I help, if the one who means the most to me isn’t there?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I want to come home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If it means resigning my office, so be it.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Charlie: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I don’t know what to say.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m
flabbergasted.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Grace: You <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">don’t have to say anything except “welcome home.”</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Charlie: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Oh Gracie….I love you so much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
guess all I really wanted to hear you say you loved me enough to give it all up
–<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Grace: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I don’t understand –<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Charlie: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">You don’t have to quit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I won’t
let you quit – you’re doing a lot of good for the city and I want you to know
that you have my “full support.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just hire
another assistant, so we can have dinner together, every once in a while.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">The play is also insufferably knee
jerk pretentious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to Pamela, for
example,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">“…for
some women it’s [abortion’s} become more dangerous because of antediluvian laws
passed by old white men –“ <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">and according to Grace <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">“There
are forward-thinking men and women here {New York] but I’m not so sure about
the rest of the country – especially in the hinterlands.”.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">And there you have it: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Tech Support</b> is a hodgepodge of
homilies and its audience is trapped in this time warp for 85 minutes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I feel sorrier for the play’s cast of
five, all of whom are consummate professionals who will be trapped in this time
warp for the next several weeks (the play is scheduled to run through September
21).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All five actors should be commended
for performing exceptionally well, especially in light of the material they
have been given to work with.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br />Alan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629719207399717756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432383748285582010.post-14704692705649388972019-08-22T11:03:00.000-04:002019-08-22T11:03:46.500-04:00SONGBOOK SUMMIT 2019: The Andersons Play Louis Armstrong at Symphony Space<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgINyWBs1Ks3GwUgh36qgFc1ChlgtqsqisQ3ObWQet9iz55wLRvRpwWlpAcXzRdxYfART1ylY9BATI91jmH_PTe7MLNJduLlYqt_A6fMv74YAFzpExuAi4MmdJ6eRSZ4zgSvQZij1zyTNnz/s1600/Anderson-Twins-21-300x231.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="231" data-original-width="300" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgINyWBs1Ks3GwUgh36qgFc1ChlgtqsqisQ3ObWQet9iz55wLRvRpwWlpAcXzRdxYfART1ylY9BATI91jmH_PTe7MLNJduLlYqt_A6fMv74YAFzpExuAi4MmdJ6eRSZ4zgSvQZij1zyTNnz/s400/Anderson-Twins-21-300x231.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Anderson twins. Photo by Lynn Redmile.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">We
have been privileged to have attended many of the Anderson twins’ concerts
devoted to the lives and music of individual musicians - including Irving
Berlin, Jerome Kern, Hoagy Carmichael, Jimmy Van Heusen, and Duke Ellington –
and we have thoroughly enjoyed them all.
But last night’s performance of </span><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Songbook Summit 2019:
The Andersons Play Louis Armstrong </span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">at Peter Norton Symphony Space's Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre on
Broadway and 95th Street on Manhattan’s Upper West Side was in a class of its
own. This was a truly memorable
performance of the work of </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">one </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">of the worlds' greatest entertainers and jazz ambassadors and it
rose head and shoulders above all of the Anderson twins’ other performances,
wonderful as they all were.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">I’m not really sure why
that should have been the case. I don’t
think that it was due to the performances of Peter and Will Anderson
themselves: while the twin virtuosos on the </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">tenor sax, soprano sax,
clarinet, and flute performed brilliantly in their paean to Louis Armstrong,
they do so consistently, so I don’t think it was that. The twins were very ably accompanied by </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Rossano Sportiello</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"> on piano,</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Paul Wells</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"> on drums, and Vince Giordano on string bass, bass sax, tuba, and vocals and
those three were all equally terrific but then, so too were their counterparts
- Jeb Patton on piano, Chuck Redd on drums and vibraphone, Neal Miner on bass,
and Molly Ryan on vocals – who performed at last week’s concert, <b>Songbook Summit 2019: The Andersons Play Duke
Ellington</b>, so I don’t think it was that either.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR9R3fmC8OCUFHK4h17u-IMVhGKDorETtTVqTYUyCcE1ii6O0UiS6L9J4AG7tWEwhsbhd-jiAlMM5y4CbDX1h71DC7Ggc6Sr1x54Us7BhfeuJELylvk_AC5tW08RB5D-rMWzQDxuz6OBwy/s1600/mikedavis-portrait-2015-jkratochvil-4045.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="526" data-original-width="350" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR9R3fmC8OCUFHK4h17u-IMVhGKDorETtTVqTYUyCcE1ii6O0UiS6L9J4AG7tWEwhsbhd-jiAlMM5y4CbDX1h71DC7Ggc6Sr1x54Us7BhfeuJELylvk_AC5tW08RB5D-rMWzQDxuz6OBwy/s400/mikedavis-portrait-2015-jkratochvil-4045.jpg" width="265" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mike Davis. Photo by Jean Kratochvil.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At least part of it may
be attributable to the performance of Mike Davis, the extraordinary young
trumpet player, who was brought in at the last minute to substitute for Jon-Erik Kellso whose scheduled
flight from Switzerland to America had been delayed. Nothing can be more vital to a concert
celebrating the life and work of Louis Armstrong than the band’s trumpet player
so I had a moment of trepidation when I heard that Mr. Kellso wouldn’t be there
and that the young Mr. Davis would be filling in for him. </span><br />
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<span style="color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My concerns were quickly
alleviated. Mr. Davis performed
absolutely brilliantly and it is hard to imagine how Mr. Kellso, or anyone else
for that matter, could have done any better.
Indeed, I count myself truly fortunate in having had this opportunity to
attend a Mike Davis’ performance.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A second factor that
might help to explain why this concert, <b>Songbook
Summit 2019: The Andersons Play Louis Armstrong</b>, was so spectacular relates
to Louis Armstrong himself. The Anderson
twins’ Songbook Summit concerts are not just musical performances but include
entertaining narrations by Will Anderson relating to each musician’s life,
accompanied by expressive video presentations and Al Hirschfeld
illustrations. And the story of Louis
Armstrong’s life was so remarkable that it lent itself to the most entertaining
of narrations and video presentations.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Born to a fifteen year
old girl who turned to prostitution to support her family, Armstrong was abandoned
by his father, growing up in a New Orleans neighborhood so dangerous that it
was known as “The Battlefield.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
dropped out of elementary school and was incarcerated at the age of eleven for
18 months in the Colored Waifs’ Home for having shot a blank into the air on
New Year’s Eve<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet he surmounted the
most difficult of obstacles and went on to become an icon of the jazz world and
to influence performers and musical genres as diverse as Bing Crosby, Frank
Sinatra, rock and roll, and rhythm and blues.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; line-height: 115%;">Songbook Summit 2019: The Andersons Play Louis Armstrong</span></b><span style="color: black; line-height: 115%;"> begins with a rendition
of “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Muskrat Ramble</i>,” written by Kid
Ory and first recorded by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five, a tune which went
on to become the group’s most frequently recorded piece.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The show continues with exceptional
performances (among others) of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“St. James
Infirmary,” "Struttin' with Some Barbecue," "Potato Head
Blues," "Swing That Music," “What a Wonderful World” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>and, of course,<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> "Hello Dolly." <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; line-height: 115%;">Songbook Summit 2019: The Andersons Play Louis Armstrong </span></b><span style="color: black; line-height: 115%;">is only scheduled to run
through August 23 so there’s scarcely any time left to see it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we sure urge you to make the effort.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You won’t regret it.<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
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Alan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629719207399717756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432383748285582010.post-42555569021967680462019-08-14T09:46:00.002-04:002019-08-14T09:46:53.662-04:00SONGBOOK SUMMIT 2019: The Andersons Play Duke Ellington at Symphony Space<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju2dOIAxnY00n04Aq7cJOjG49D683cxgVL3CHJW5TOl_ZKWgEg0bv20NUdglgVF7Z5dbgVEPC7uM3SJFzNnlHNtrVv1Rd_cuBfzDAz_oQ-WlOdD2aS1HhmtvcTQKRbFMSBlD44txWGAv4u/s1600/songbook+summit+2019+flyer+JPEG+cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1058" data-original-width="1600" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju2dOIAxnY00n04Aq7cJOjG49D683cxgVL3CHJW5TOl_ZKWgEg0bv20NUdglgVF7Z5dbgVEPC7uM3SJFzNnlHNtrVv1Rd_cuBfzDAz_oQ-WlOdD2aS1HhmtvcTQKRbFMSBlD44txWGAv4u/s400/songbook+summit+2019+flyer+JPEG+cropped.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Peter
and Will Anderson’s <b>Songbook Summit</b>
is becoming a “not to be missed” annual event at</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Peter Norton Symphony Space's Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre on
Broadway and 95th Street on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">In l</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">ast year</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">’s program, the Anderson twins,
two </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">exceptionally
accomplished jazz musicians (Peter on the tenor sax, soprano sax, and clarinet,
and Will on the alto sax, clarinet and flute), paid tribute </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">t</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">o four of the greatest American songwriters
of the last century - Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Hoagy Carmichael, and Jimmy
Van Heusen - devoting a week of performances to each of the four. It was one helluva show and we absolutely loved
it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">This
year’s program </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">showcases just two musicians,
Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong, and devotes only six performances over
three days to each of them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that is
the only bone we have to pick with the twins regarding this year’s production.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We would have liked to have seen even more musicians
featured and we assuredly would have preferred to have seen longer runs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A mere six performances over the course of
only three days for each of them just doesn’t seem to do justice to Ellington
and Armstrong, two of America’s all-time jazz greats.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Be that as it may, we
just saw the first half of this year’s program – <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Andersons Play Duke Ellington</i> – running only from August 13-15,
and it was terrific.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Duke Ellington was
the most prolific American composer of all time who shattered musical barriers
with his distinctive style while traveling around the world with his jazz
orchestra for more than a half century.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He passed away in 1974 but the twins bring him to life again, at least
for the ninety minutes of their program.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>(The second half of this year’s <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Songbook
Summit</b> - <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Andersons Play Louis
Armstrong </i>– won’t be staged until August 21-23, so we’re unable to comment
on that program yet.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The Andersons Play Duke Ellington</span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> showcases Ellington’s life and music with video
presentations, entertaining narration by Will Anderson, Al Hirschfeld
illustrations, and an all-star jazz sextet that includes, in addition to the
Anderson twins, Jeb Patton on piano, Neal Miner on bass, Chuck Redd on drums
and vibraphone, and Molly Ryan on vocals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The show begins with a rousing
instrumental rendition of that perennial Ellington favorite<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">”Take the A Train.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>It
continues with entertaining renditions of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">"Mood
Indigo," "Caravan," "In My Solitude," </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">"Satin Doll."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>It provides an intriguing lesson on the
Influence of Japanese music on Ellington with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Ad Lib on Nippon.”</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it
culminates in Molly Ryan’s belting out a show-stopping <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">"It Don't Mean a Thing If it Ain't Got That Swing."<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The audience loved it as
did we.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Little wonder that we’re eagerly
awaiting next week’s staging of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Andersons Play Louis Armstrong.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<br />Alan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629719207399717756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432383748285582010.post-2185185746567550902019-08-04T19:20:00.001-04:002019-08-04T19:20:53.641-04:00SUMMER SHORTS-SERIES B at 59E59 Theaters.<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGhWqQnxaRf4XZL1F23-fpdfNVGnThnvWIQK8sTcJJdwNZzpM3y5xQJbdw-D_WqOfkEgymRy8zSm_Gz4cW4b_RZfPM28SDnOCMJHOxs1eOTd4lNBInzZVcl3fqT8PrnyaDl-_0E6welUVc/s1600/Appomattox3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGhWqQnxaRf4XZL1F23-fpdfNVGnThnvWIQK8sTcJJdwNZzpM3y5xQJbdw-D_WqOfkEgymRy8zSm_Gz4cW4b_RZfPM28SDnOCMJHOxs1eOTd4lNBInzZVcl3fqT8PrnyaDl-_0E6welUVc/s320/Appomattox3.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">L-R: Ro Boddie And Jack Mikesell in APPOMATTOX, part of SUMMER SHORTS - SERIES B. Photo by Carol Rosegg.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">The <b>Summer Shorts </b>program<b> </b>at 59E59 Theaters on East 50th Street
in midtown Manhattan is an annual event consisting of six one-act plays by established
and upcoming playwrights, equally divided between two series, A and B, and it
is generally well worth seeing.
Unfortunately, we were unable to attend a performance of this year’s <b>Series A</b> but we have just returned from
the opening performance of <b>Series B</b>
and I can assure you that this second half of 2019’s program is as good as it
gets. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Series
B</span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">
consists of three plays – <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Lucky</b> by
Sharr White, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Providence</b> by Nancy
Bleemer, and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Appomattox</b> by Neil
LaBute – and each is excellent on its own.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Taken together, however, they make for a truly memorable production.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">The three plays deal with three totally different issues
– PTSD, marriage, and reparations for slavery – but they take a very fresh look
at those issues and that is what makes this production really worth
seeing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is no rehash of
conventional wisdom on those traditional themes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rather, it is an original, nuanced and challenging
look at all of them that will leave you with more to think about than you might
have bargained for.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Phil (Blake Delong) is the “lucky” soldier returning home
in <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Lucky</b> – “lucky” because he was
neither killed nor physically injured during his service in World War II.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the scars he bears are deep, even if they
are not in physical evidence, and his re-integration into peacetime society
does not come easy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both he and his
wife, Meredith (Christine Spang) are forced to confront the un-confrontable and
do so with the greatest sensitivity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Providence
</span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">is
a delightful romp in which Michael (Jake Robinson) and his wife, Renee (Blair
Lewin) have returned to Michael’s boyhood home to attend the wedding of
Michael’s sister to Pauly (Nathan Wallace).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But nothing is as simple as might seem at first blush.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Neither Michael’s parents nor his aunts and
uncles appear to have “good” marriages and several of Michael’s aunts and their
offspring aren’t even on speaking terms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And what does that say about the very institution of marriage?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When Pauly seeks advice from Michael and
Renee regarding his own forthcoming marriage - he doesn’t need any advice about
sex, he knows all about that, but he does want to know what married people
actually talk about – it forces Michael and Renee to see their own marriage in
a new light.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Jake Robinson and Blair Lewin are wonderful as the
relatively young marrieds sorting it all out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But it is Nathan Wallace who truly steals the show with a bravura
performance as the conflicted groom-to-be.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Lucky</span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"> and
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Providence</b> are excellent productions
but Neil LaBute’s <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Appomattox</b> is in a
class by itself and is far and away the best play of the lot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Joe (Jack Mikesell), who is white, and Frank
(Ro Boddie), who is black, are friends - at least to the extent of lunching
together and tossing a football around.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Indeed, their racial difference might even seem to serve to bring them
closer together since Joe is a typical well-meaning liberal who perceives
himself as totally aware of the sensitivities of African-Americans. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But is he? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or is he just another self-satisfied liberal
confident in his own convictions, whether they be about busing or affirmative
action or illegal immigration of reparations – just so long as he’s not
expected to sacrifice too much.<u> <o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Both Jack Mikesell and Ro Boddie are outstanding in their
respective roles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And wherever you might
fall on the political spectrum, I daresay their performances will cause you to
at least re-evaluate your position.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Alan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629719207399717756noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432383748285582010.post-85736948863492690472019-07-22T09:24:00.003-04:002019-07-22T09:26:55.979-04:00DOGG'S HAMLET, CAHOOT'S MACBETH by Tom Stoppard at The Atlantic Stage 2<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_1L63FwlqlXSAHk4xTSZ58h3GfCau-XmVT4EP8eKEcrFAxPUQGC_G2wIG3-7-RjF_RhyphenhyphenNOy4bHF2mn7ZKFb4NyuKDmWUHh2qf0KenR4TEd1HsurlqT-WoWbZFntx-TWIegnX4WmyEqbmy/s1600/Lucy+Van+Atta%252C+Peter+Schmitz%252C+Christo+Grabowski%252C+Connor+Wright+in+Dogg%2527s+Hamlet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1193" data-original-width="1600" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_1L63FwlqlXSAHk4xTSZ58h3GfCau-XmVT4EP8eKEcrFAxPUQGC_G2wIG3-7-RjF_RhyphenhyphenNOy4bHF2mn7ZKFb4NyuKDmWUHh2qf0KenR4TEd1HsurlqT-WoWbZFntx-TWIegnX4WmyEqbmy/s400/Lucy+Van+Atta%252C+Peter+Schmitz%252C+Christo+Grabowski%252C+Connor+Wright+in+Dogg%2527s+Hamlet.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">L-R: Lucy Van Atta, Peter Schmitz, Christo Grabowski, and Connor Wright in DOGG'S HAMLET. Photo by Stan Barouh.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Potomac Theatre
Project (PTP/NYC) was founded in 1987 and moved to New York in 2007. This year, in association with Middlebury
College, it is staging a limited engagement of works by Vaclav Havel, Harold,
Pinter, Samuel Beckett, and Tom Stoppard at The Atlantic Stage 2 on West 16th
Street in downtown Manhattan. Half of
this season’s program, <b>Havel: The
Passion of Thought</b>, consists of three of Havel’s “Vanek plays” – <b>Audience, Private View, </b>and <b>Protest</b> – together with Pinter’s <b>The New World Order</b> and Beckett’s<b> Catastrophe</b>. Last week, we were fortunate enough to attend
a performance of that production and we thoroughly enjoyed it <a href="https://aseatontheaisle.blogspot.com/2019/07/havel-passion-of-thought-5-plays-by.html">(see our recentpost).</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The other half of PTP/NYC’s
thirty-third repertory season showcases Tom Stoppard’s <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Dogg’s Hamlet, Cahoot’s Macbeth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></b>Now, having attended a performance of that show as well, we are delighted
to say that it is just as good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact,
it is terrific.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">In <i>Philosophical
Investigations</i>, Ludwig Wittgenstein challenged the generally accepted view
of language as being fully explicable in terms of signification – i.e., the
idea that all words, in all circumstances, may be understood as simply standing
in for the objects, actions or qualities they represent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That, of course, is the way children learn
languages to begin with: they are shown five, red apples or a boy throwing a
ball and are thereby taught what the words “five,” red,” “apple,” “boy,” “throw,”
and “ball” mean. But while Wittgenstein never denied that such
signification plays an important role in language, he contended that there was
far more to language, meaning and communication than that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">As an example, he imagined a
situation in which two construction workers – A and B – shared a primitive
language consisting only of the four words: “block,” “pillar,” “slab,” and
“beam.” Now if an observer, unfamiliar with the language, were to
hear A shout out “Beam!” and then were to see B handing something to A, it
certainly would be reasonable for him to conclude that the word “beam” merely
signified whatever it was that B handed to A.. But what if it
didn’t? The word “beam,” as A used it and as B understood it, might
actually have meant “bring me that object” or, if B were already aware of what
A would want next, it might even simply have meant something like “Next” or
“Here” or “Ready” or “OK.”</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">In the late 1970s, Tom Stoppard was so inspired by that
passage in <i>Philosophical Investigations</i> and by the blacklisting of
the Czechoslovakian playwright Pavel Kohout that he wrote two plays: <b>Dogg’s
Hamlet</b> and <b>Cahoot’s Macbeth</b>. Both were based on
Shakespearean classics (much as was <b>Rosencranz and Guildenstern Are
Dead</b>); both imagined the ramifications of speakers of different languages
using the same words but with different meanings and/or understanding the same
words in different ways; and the two plays were meant to be produced together
as<b> Dogg’s Hamlet</b>, <b>Cahoot’s Macbeth</b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indeed, Stoppard expressly stated:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">“The comma that
divides <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Dogg’s Hamlet, Cahoot’s Macbeth</b>
also serves to unite two plays that have common elements; the first is hardly a
play at all without the second, which cannot be performed without the first.”</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Dogg’s Hamlet</span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> is
a direct riff on Wittgenstein’s thought experiment regarding the meanings of
words based upon their actual use rather than solely on their
signification. In Stoppard’s play, several high school students including
Abel (Zach Varricchione), Baker (Connor Wright), and Charlie (Madeline Russell)
are preparing a production of Shakespeare’s <b>Hamlet</b> in
English. The catch is that the students only speak Dogg which uses the
same words as English does but with altogether different meanings (“useless,”
for instance, means “good day” and “mouseholes” means “egg”) so that to them,
what we understand as English is truly a foreign language. When
Easy (Matthew Ball), a deliveryman who speaks English rather than Dogg, arrives
with materials to build the play’s set – including bricks, cubes, slabs and
planks - all hell breaks loose.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">That, of course, is because what Easy means by “brick,”
“cube,” “slab,” and “plank” (which is what we and other English-speakers mean
by those words) isn’t at all what Abel, Baker, Charlie and other Dogg-speakers
mean by them. To Dogg-speakers, “brick” means what “here” means to
Easy; “slab” means “yes” or “okay”; “cube” means “thanks” or “thank you”; and
“plank” means “ready.” A collapsing Tower of Babel would seem
inevitable – and it is.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Ultimately, <b>Dogg’s Hamlet</b> does include a performance
of a comically abridged version of <b>Hamlet </b><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">-<b> </b>and then an encore performance of an even more abbreviated
version of that. <b> </b></span>And, as something of a bonus, Easy (and
the audience) manage to learn (or “catch”) a little bit of Dogg to boot.<b> </b><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDYK4zNRwk_87Q1ITdfU-vLurKdLab7b56lJ5Q_MWgLg7k44wvy41viEbCRUHHIgGzPtv5H8_KZIpyu2Tqm0p_BKWKgJ-cPhuuX3t7QW_oy0yiO6BMfcy8CCqzeM77bF50mvhqFFCbFBYV/s1600/Denise+Cormier%252C+Christopher+Marshall%252C+Lucy+Van+Atta%252C+Tara+Giordano+in+Cahoot%2527s+Macbeth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1133" data-original-width="1600" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDYK4zNRwk_87Q1ITdfU-vLurKdLab7b56lJ5Q_MWgLg7k44wvy41viEbCRUHHIgGzPtv5H8_KZIpyu2Tqm0p_BKWKgJ-cPhuuX3t7QW_oy0yiO6BMfcy8CCqzeM77bF50mvhqFFCbFBYV/s400/Denise+Cormier%252C+Christopher+Marshall%252C+Lucy+Van+Atta%252C+Tara+Giordano+in+Cahoot%2527s+Macbeth.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">L-R: Denise Cormier, Christopher Marshall, Lucy Van Atta, and Tara Giordano in CAHOOT'S MACBETH. Photo by Stan Barouh.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Cahoot’s Macbeth</span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> pushes
the envelope even further. Stoppard dedicated this play to the
Czechoslovakian playwright Pavel Kohout who, together with others, was
prevented from plying his theatrical trade in his native country by the
totalitarian Communist Government of Czechoslovakia. In response, Kahout,
Pavel Landovsky, and others formed the “Living-Room Theatre” (LRT) troupe which
supported itself by working as street-sweepers and waitresses by day while
secretly performing plays in homes at night.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br />
One such performance (of an abridged version of <b>Macbeth</b>), taking
place in <b>Cahoot’s Macbeth</b>, is interrupted by the arrival of an
Inspector (Tara Giordano) who understandably sees in the troupe’s “acting
without authority” a metaphorical attack on the authority of the Communist
Government. And once again, Easy appears – only this time he’s
speaking Dogg rather than English!</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br />
Stoppard’s double bill is as effective as George Orwell’s <i>1984 </i>in
its depiction of the transcendent importance of language in human society,
especially in repressed societies. Its play on words, its coded
references, its metaphorical allusions, all of which we have come to associate
with Stoppard, are here used to produce a very effective serio-comic double-barreled
tour de force.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br />
All of the members of the PTP/NYC ensemble deserve recognition for jobs very
well done, with several of them playing multiple roles in these plays within
plays, but I was especially impressed by the performances of Peter Schmitz in
his multiple roles as Dogg, Shakespeare and Claudius in <b>Dogg’s Hamlet</b> and as Duncan and Lennox in <b>Cahoot’s Macbeth</b>, Matthew Ball as Easy in both plays, Christo
Grabowski as Fox Major and Hamlet in <b>Dogg’s
Hamlet</b> and as Banquo and Cahoot in <b>Cahoot’s
Macbeth</b>, and Tara Giordano as Lady in <b>Dogg’s
Hamlet</b> and as the Inspector in <b>Cahoot’s
Macbeth.</b></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">And kudos should go
out to all of those at PTP/NYC who had the insight to create the combination of
Havel’s “Vanek plays” (with a Pinter prologue and a Beckett epilogue) with this
Stoppard double-bill, thereby underscoring the issues of freedom of speech, the
rights of the individual, and the power of the spoken (or written) word.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />Alan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629719207399717756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432383748285582010.post-77262184990459312252019-07-20T19:18:00.002-04:002019-07-22T07:25:26.401-04:00TWO'S A CROWD Starring Rita Rudner at 59E59 Theaters<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY_E5-BOCLcsLnEBqu4U4bja75kopuTWuvZjNudWDAqIgYIvAQeDNAHZro8layR4PvIjpZ1xD2KasEu2go2PJQE03l8wO1pXniGku7HuWQ48KAYsjmpXk6z41NIBhyphenhyphenkmTB2cnTizfc25Xz/s1600/TwosACrowd2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY_E5-BOCLcsLnEBqu4U4bja75kopuTWuvZjNudWDAqIgYIvAQeDNAHZro8layR4PvIjpZ1xD2KasEu2go2PJQE03l8wO1pXniGku7HuWQ48KAYsjmpXk6z41NIBhyphenhyphenkmTB2cnTizfc25Xz/s400/TwosACrowd2.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">L-R: Robert Yacko and Rita Rudner in TWO'S A CROWD. Photo by Carol Rosergg.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Rita Rudner is a comedic icon. A frequent guest on <i>Late Night with David Letterman</i> and <i>The Tonight Show</i>, she has starred in several HBO specials including
<i>Rita Rudner’s One Night Stand</i>, <i>Born to Be Mild,</i> and <i>Married Without Children</i>, in<i> Rita Rudner: Live from Las Vegas </i>on PBS,
and in <i>Rita Rudner: A Tale of Two Dresses</i>
on Amazon Prime.<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>She has performed at Carnegie Hall in New
York; at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles; and at the MGM Grand,
Harrah’s, and the Venetian in Las Vegas.
In fact she holds the record for the longest running solo comedy show in
the history of Las Vegas.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Now she has returned to the stage in New York City,
starring in <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Two’s a Crowd</b> at 59E59
Theaters on East 59th Street in midtown Manhattan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ms Rudner co-wrote the light-hearted two-act
musical comedy with her husband, Martin Bergman, who also directs the
play.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Given Ms Rudner’s resume, I was anticipating enjoying a
cheerful romp of a play and eventually I was rewarded.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it took much longer than I had expected
and required a bit of patience on my part.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I found the play’s first act to be derivative and predictable and I must admit to having been disappointed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">The play begins with Wendy (Rita Rudner) and Tom (Robert
Yacko) being forced to share a room in a Las Vegas hotel as a result of a
computer glitch that resulted in the hotel’s overbooking its rooms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wendy and Tom couldn’t be more
different.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She is as uptight as a woman
can be and is only in Las Vegas on her own in an attempt to decide whether or
not to leave her husband, Gus (Brian Lohmann), in light of her recent discovery
of his infidelity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tom, in sharp
contrast, is free-wheeling and spontaneous and is in Las Vegas to compete in
the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">World Series of Poker</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Which means, of course, that since they have
absolutely nothing in common, Wendy and Tom are sure to end up in bed
together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And there’s’ your first act.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">And then the second act opened and I actually felt as if
I was watching an altogether different show.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Gus unexpectedly appears and it is no longer quite so obvious what to
expect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All four of the play’s actors –
Ms Rudner, Robert Yacko, Kelly Holden Bashar, and Brian Lohmann – express an
exuberance that I found largely lacking in the first act.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even the music of the second act struck me as
far more creative and entertaining than the tunes in the first.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Both Rita Rudner and Robert Yacko were fully accomplished
in their respective roles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I was
surprised and delighted to find that the two supporting actors - Kelly Holden
Bashar and Brian Lohmann – were even more entertaining than the two stars.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ms Bashar plays two very different roles: she
is both Louise, VP of Hotel Operations, and Lili, a hotel housekeeper – and she
is absolutely terrific in both.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I
thought that her rendition of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lili’s
Lament </i>was a real star turn.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Brian Loehmann plays three different roles and handles
them all with great aplomb.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In addition
to being Wendy’s husband, Gus, he is Joe, a room service waiter, and another
unexpected hotel guest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And his
rendition of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fix It All</i> was, like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lili’s Lament</i>, a real show stopper.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">So the bottom line is this:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>even if you’re tempted to leave after the
first act, don’t do it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Stick it out and
you’ll ultimately be rewarded by a very entertaining show.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Alan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629719207399717756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432383748285582010.post-64712851888317269002019-07-17T08:30:00.000-04:002019-07-17T08:30:33.324-04:00HAVEL: THE PASSION OF THOUGHT - 5 Plays by Havel, Pinter and Beckett<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG9DptqRfaEBy1zYAc3GMoV_2xijn_dRMZkk4eeFeEksCRwmdgcEmaSvucyQdiT1bAJkEhJn5q2pmeUleU_aZ6w-8PaEj3H5GX81h91Y1oGjy5PwNyStRLvhYBiHd71m6tu9BErOpFNA_Q/s1600/Michael+Laurence%252C+David+Barlow+in+Havel+the+Passion+of+Thought.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1004" data-original-width="1600" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG9DptqRfaEBy1zYAc3GMoV_2xijn_dRMZkk4eeFeEksCRwmdgcEmaSvucyQdiT1bAJkEhJn5q2pmeUleU_aZ6w-8PaEj3H5GX81h91Y1oGjy5PwNyStRLvhYBiHd71m6tu9BErOpFNA_Q/s400/Michael+Laurence%252C+David+Barlow+in+Havel+the+Passion+of+Thought.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">L-R: Michael Laurence and David Barlow in AUDIENCE by Vaclav Havel, part of HAVEL: THE PASSION OF THOUGHT. Photo by Stan Barouh.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Vaclav Havel will not
only be remembered as a remarkably talented Czechoslovakian poet and playwright
but, even more importantly, as the political dissident most responsible for challenging
Czechoslovakia’s Communist dictatorship. During his lifetime, all of Havel ’s works
were banned in Czechoslovakia and Havel himself was imprisoned for four years
but the playwright ultimately prevailed, contributing to the overthrow of his
country’s Communist government, becoming its first freely elected President
and, subsequent to the separation of the Czech Republic from Slovakia, becoming
the President of the Czech Republic as well.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Perhaps most
noteworthy among Havel’s works are what have come to be known as “the Vanek
plays,” one act autobiographical plays in which the protagonist, Ferdinand
Vanek, a stand-in for Havel himself, seeks to “live in truth,” refusing to make
even small compromises with what he perceives to be a fundamentally dishonest
system, lest such compromises ultimately lead to the most insufferably evil
consequences.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Potomac Theatre
Project (PTP/NYC), was founded in 1987 and moved to New York in 2007. This year, in association with Middlebury
College, it is staging a limited engagement of works by Vaclav Havel, Harold,
Pinter, Samuel Beckett, and Tom Stoppard at The Atlantic Stage 2 on West 16th
Street in downtown Manhattan. One half
of the season’s program, <b>Havel: The
Passion of Thought</b>, is devoted to three of Havel’s “Vanek plays” – <b>Audience, Private View, </b>and <b>Protest</b> – bookended by Pinter’s <b>The New World Order</b> as a prologue to
Havel’s works and Beckett’s <b>Catastrophe</b>
(which actually was written in tribute to Havel) as an epilogue to them. The other half of the repertory season
showcases Tom Stoppard’s <b>Dogg’s Hamlet,
Cahoot’s Macbeth.</b></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">In all three of the
“Vanek plays,” David Barlow plays the role of Vanek and he is absolutely
superb, beautifully conveying with understated elegance the tortuous moral
dilemmas confronting not only Vanek himself but also those with whom he is in
contact. In <b>Audience</b>, Vanek is working at a brewery, the only job he can get
without compromising his principles since his release from prison when it
quickly becomes apparent to him that he is being spied upon by the authorities
and pressured to betray himself. Michael
Laurence, who plays the Brewmaster pressuring him, is delightfully entertaining
in his complex serio-comic role.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtYciGefrJu_JrITZdgMH4YLu1a2yYKT771hmWkLSKj6Hq9htaNb0ETyCQss-kUK_2XGKYUfFGSXzzoDM-n7LfxUjihYI3i_Ui3qYxLQCwSNydmyeXbrhyphenhyphenwZwS5K5aWDQlGEfxEYVz2Rvl/s1600/Christopher+Marshall%252C+David+Barlow%252C+Emily+Kron+in+Havel+the+Passion+of+Thought.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1192" data-original-width="1600" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtYciGefrJu_JrITZdgMH4YLu1a2yYKT771hmWkLSKj6Hq9htaNb0ETyCQss-kUK_2XGKYUfFGSXzzoDM-n7LfxUjihYI3i_Ui3qYxLQCwSNydmyeXbrhyphenhyphenwZwS5K5aWDQlGEfxEYVz2Rvl/s400/Christopher+Marshall%252C+David+Barlow%252C+Emily+Kron+in+Havel+the+Passion+of+Thought.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">L-R: Christopher Marshall, David Barlow, and Emily Kron in PRIVATE VIEW, part of HAVEL: THE PASSION OF THOUGHT. Photo by Stan Barouh.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; text-align: center;">In </span><b style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; text-align: center;">Private View</b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; text-align: center;">, Vanek is invited to a
private viewing of the newly re-furnished home of his friends Michael (Christopher
Marshall) and Vera (Emily Kron). In
this, the zaniest and most slapstick of the three “Vanek plays,” Michael and
Vera cannot seem to abide Vanek’s refusal to simply accept their conventional
wisdom on everything from sex and family to cooking and home furnishing. It is a highly amusing and telling example of
how difficult it is for some people to accept that others don’t necessarily
share their values on everything (nor should they) and they tell it with ribald
gusto.</span><br />
<div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyUa-jmJ2eoHIXqk_3EgHk38AI449C13GfE0CVObnidqWmxXs4RaAQOF389DZCWJ30idyQzp3yahqXA-ySmJlneeIzXN0k6uWYZwX3WkYUW_6SpMTa5k4_OdYUDC7eUw4gex7VBf5DC2rm/s1600/David+Barlow%252C+Danielle+Skraastad+Havel+the+Passion+of+Thought.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1108" data-original-width="1600" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyUa-jmJ2eoHIXqk_3EgHk38AI449C13GfE0CVObnidqWmxXs4RaAQOF389DZCWJ30idyQzp3yahqXA-ySmJlneeIzXN0k6uWYZwX3WkYUW_6SpMTa5k4_OdYUDC7eUw4gex7VBf5DC2rm/s400/David+Barlow%252C+Danielle+Skraastad+Havel+the+Passion+of+Thought.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">L-R: David Barlow and Danielle Skraastad in PROTEST, part ofpart of HAVEL: THE PASSION OF THOUGHT. Photo by Stan Barouh. </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">In <b>Protest</b> (the very best of the three “Vanek
plays”), Vanek confronts a much more difficult and complicated issue: Stanekova
(Danielle Skraastad) is, like Vanek, another very talented writer but, unlike
him, she is no dissident. Rather, she
has chosen to make her peace with the authorities, accepting their interference
with her creative work in exchange for their granting her the opportunity to
earn a good living as an approved writer for government-regulated
television. But does this necessarily
mean that she is a sell-out or less principled than Vanek? To his credit,
Havel has the intellectual integrity to deal with this issue head-on. Might it not be the case that Stanekova’s
willingness to compromise with the government and work behind the scenes in
attempting to achieve greater freedom and better lives for all Czechoslovakians
could actually prove to be more effective than Vanek’s own outright
defiance? And by absolutely refusing to
compromise on anything, might Vanek really just be seeking to gratify his own
ego? </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Ms Skraastad does an
outstanding job playing devil’s advocate to Vanek’s self-assurance.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Pinter’s <b>The New World Order</b>, in which an
unidentified Man (David Barlow) is menaced in an interview room by Desmond and
Lionel (Michael Laurence and Christopher Marshall), universalizes the issues
evoked in the subsequent “Vanek plays” and enriches the overall
production. But I was somewhat
disappointed in Beckett’s <b>Catastrophe</b>
being tacked on as an epilogue. At least
one of the liberties taken with Beckett’s original script, the substitution of
a request for a drink rather than the relighting of a cigar, may have seemed
inconsequential but it did make a difference and not for the better.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Notwithstanding that
minor nit-pick, <b>Havel: The Passion of
Thought </b>is an outstanding production and well worth seeing. (I haven’t yet seen PTP/NYC’s production of
Tom Stoppard’s <b>Dogg’s Hamlet, Cahoot’s
Macbeth </b>but I’m certainly looking forward to it. If it is anywhere near as good as <b>Havel: The Passion of Thought, </b>you’ll
be reading another positive review from me very soon.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><o:p><br /> </o:p></span></div>
<br /></div>
Alan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629719207399717756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432383748285582010.post-41291015293469736812019-06-13T07:07:00.000-04:002019-06-13T07:07:26.811-04:00HANDBAGGED by Moira Buffini Premieres at 59E59 Theatres as Part of Brits Off Broadway<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOFrtHaIPmY1WJaww6D7MyoBHNbbxaUzGsXaArJ0ZCQoAoviLtaIHm7MEFbmr3eVwSc2vLekYCC4TCnd9sw7M8cS7n5dVVF1phR7-RWtwNmP-Np31c6ng4jh-PuqKFDiQSsIJcXvnccXER/s1600/Handbagged8.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOFrtHaIPmY1WJaww6D7MyoBHNbbxaUzGsXaArJ0ZCQoAoviLtaIHm7MEFbmr3eVwSc2vLekYCC4TCnd9sw7M8cS7n5dVVF1phR7-RWtwNmP-Np31c6ng4jh-PuqKFDiQSsIJcXvnccXER/s400/Handbagged8.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">L-R: Beth Hylton, Anita Carey, Kate Fahy, and Susan Lynskey in HANDBAGGED. Photo by Carol Rosegg.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Although they were
born just six months apart, Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher entered the world under strikingly different circumstances: Elizabeth
was born into one of the world’s oldest and most illustrious monarchies and her
future role as her country’s Queen was virtually assured; Margaret was born the
daughter of a grocer, rising through her own merits to become her country’s
first female Prime Minister. In the
1980s, the two “grande dames” met regularly behind closed palace doors and it
would be enlightening to know just what they said to one another in those
private moments. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Unfortunately, neither
Moira Buffini nor anyone else (other than the two women themselves) could let
us in on those secrets but Ms Buffini has done the next best thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She has written <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Handbagged</b>, a totally fictionalized re-imagining of what <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">might</i> have been said behind those closed
doors and, even if this two-act, Brechtian comedy is a theatrical version of
“fake news,” it still has the ring of truth about it and is great fun.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Handbagged </span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">was a hit in London’s West End and now is enjoying
its New York premiere at 59E59 Theaters on East 59th Street in midtown
Manhattan as part of this year’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Brits
Off Broadway</i> program.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>what could be more appropriate for a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Brits Off Broadway </i>program than a play
about Queen Elizabeth and Margaret Thatcher?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The play is really
about Margaret Thatcher and her conservative philosophy, not the Queen, with
the Queen’s presence primarily serving as a contrast to the Iron Lady’s
ideological extremism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One might have
assumed that the Queen would be the more conservative, perhaps even
reactionary, of the two - she does, after all, embody the establishment – but
then one would be wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, Queen
Elizabeth was the more moderate, maybe even the more progressive of the two.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It may be counter-intuitive but that was the
case.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or at least it was in Ms Buffini’s
opinion (and in my own).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We never really
can know for sure since the Queen is constitutionally prohibited from overtly expressing
anything other than support for whatever government is in power in Great Britain
at any given time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Both Queen Elizabeth
and Margaret Thatcher are larger than life figures and it was perhaps that
realization that led Ms Buffini to conclude that neither character could be
captured on stage in her entirety by a single actor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is just idle speculation on my part but
the fact is that the playwright did see fit to cast two separate actors in the
role of the Queen (one older and one younger) and two different actors in the
role of Margaret Thatcher (again, one older and one younger).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or it may be that the playwright wanted to
show how both characters had changed over the years (although, honestly, I
didn’t see much evidence of such evolution in either one).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or maybe the playwright wanted to show how
faulty are our memories of our own younger selves (though I didn’t discern much
of that either).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Be that as it may,
the playwright has written the play with two Queens and two Prime Ministers,
not just one of each.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this
production, Anita Carey plays the elderly Queen Elizabeth and Beth Hilton plays
the younger Liz.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Similarly, Kate Fahy
plays the older Margaret Thatcher and Susan Lynskey plays the younger
Mags.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And fortunately all four actors
are really spot on in their performances.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">But while the
playwright felt that the two leading roles required a doubling of the number of
actors performing them, she had no such misgivings regarding the production’s
other roles – and there are seventeen of them!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>To perform those seventeen parts, she determined that just two actors would
suffice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Actor 1 (Cody Leroy Wilson)
plays eight different roles including those of Kenneth Kaunda (the President of
Zambia), Nancy Reagan (in drag), Michael Shea (the Queen’s Press Secretary),
and Kenneth Clarke (the Conservative Party MP and Cabinet Member known as the
“Big Beast”), among others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And Actor 2
(John Lescault) goes him even one better, playing nine different roles including
those of Denis Thatcher (Margaret’s husband), Gerry Adams (the leader of the
Sinn Fein), Ronald Reagan, Rupert Murdoch, and Prince Philip, among others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The two male actors
are truly remarkable in the range of their performances and it is they who turn
the play into the Brechtian carnival it eventually becomes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it is they who enable the play to shift
seamlessly from a discussion of Margaret Thatcher’s role in the conduct of the Falklands
War with Argentina to her granting the United States the right to use Britain
as an airbase from which to launch a bombing attack on Libya to her reluctance
to accept black majority rule in Zambia or to apply anti-apartheid sanctions to
South Africa.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Ms Buffini has gone
on record that she has “no sympathy for Margaret Thatcher or anything she
stands for.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indeed, she has admitted to
being “glad when she was dead” and has referred to her as a “monstrous woman”
and a “villainess.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But despite her personal
antipathy toward the Iron Lady, Ms Buffini has been exceptionally fair and
even-handed in her writing, eschewing the opportunity to satirize her or to
take any cheap shots.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a credit to
her, not only as a playwright but as a human being, and it has resulted in her having
created a thoroughly entertaining and thought-provoking work that should appeal
both to conservatives and progressives (as well as to royalists and anti-royalists
alike).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />Alan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629719207399717756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432383748285582010.post-77225700911768511722019-06-07T09:19:00.000-04:002019-06-07T09:19:50.966-04:00PUBLIC SERVANT by Bekah Brunstetter Premieres at Clurman Theatre on Theatre Row<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpM6WKz_QxsuUQVyztALNaFtWDfzB15_rL79m7LMs_3N-MUkXGz3IV3NJcgodGXiD9wlbNiO9UeX-GTJWo_GpVylwlEVXUVp3d5jspy0QM4SGkKLZCYUqrdVGKKs5xsuPh-paTT0dM9ZJM/s1600/PublicServant5_CarolRosegg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpM6WKz_QxsuUQVyztALNaFtWDfzB15_rL79m7LMs_3N-MUkXGz3IV3NJcgodGXiD9wlbNiO9UeX-GTJWo_GpVylwlEVXUVp3d5jspy0QM4SGkKLZCYUqrdVGKKs5xsuPh-paTT0dM9ZJM/s400/PublicServant5_CarolRosegg.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">L-R: Christine Bruno and Chris Henry Coffey in PERFECT SERVANT. Photo by Carol Rosegg.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">NBC’s award-winning hit
series, <i>This Is Us</i>, is a remarkable
piece of work. It deals sensitively with
issues ranging from physical disability and infertility (Kate, one of the
drama’s principal characters, is clinically overweight and successfully
confronted her own infertility problem) to the pressures of balancing the
strains of work against those of family <span style="background-color: #fce5cd;">(Randall, Kate’s adoptive brother, elected
to the City Council following a successful career in the financial world, confronts
the problem of satisfying the needs of his constituents with that of
maintaining loving relationships with his wife and three daughters.) <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Bekah Brunstetter, a co-producer and writer on the
show, has drawn on the just those themes in writing <b>Public Servant</b>, a terrific three-hander currently premiering at the
Clurman Theatre on Theatre Row on West 42nd Street in midtown Manhattan. This is readily understandable since Ms
Brunstetter has struggled with infertility issues herself and since her own
father served as a County Commissioner for many years. Ms Brunstetter readily acknowledges that <b>Public Servant </b>was inspired by her
recollections of her father’s political career and the problems he faced in
raising a family, working in the private sector, and seeking to please all of
his constituents at the same time which was, of course, a near impossible task.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Public Servant</span></b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> is being produced
by Theater Breaking Through Barriers (TBTB), u</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #fce5cd;">nder the Artistic Direction of
Nicholas Viselli. TBTB is an acclaimed
Off-Broadway company that integrates able-bodied actors with artists with
disabilities. Originally founded 40 years ago as Theater by the Blind, th</span>e
company's mission is “to change the image of people with disabilities from one
of dependence to independence, to fight stereotypes and misperceptions
associated with disability, and to show how vibrant, fluid and exuberant the
work of artists with disabilities can be”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">(It
may be worth noting at this point that Christine Bruno, one of the three actors
in <b>Public Servant</b> is, herself, a
staunch advocate for the disabled, serving as chair of the SAG-AFTRA NY Local
Board Performers with Disabilities Committee (PWD) and is a member of the
SAG-AFTRA National PWD and Actors Equity EEOC Committees.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The central character
in <b>Public Servant</b> is Ed Sink (Chris
Henry Coffey), a church-going small town politician in North Carolina who has
the very best of intentions but who may have bitten off more than he can
chew. (Rather like Randall in that
respect in <i>This Is Us</i>.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Miriam Hart
(Christine Bruno), one of Ed’s constituents and suffering from cerebral palsy,
has arrived unannounced at Ed’s office in the hopes of soliciting his assistance
in selling her recently-deceased mother’s house. The problem is that plans are underway to
build a new beltway in the town which could render her mother’s house worthless
and she is seeking compensation for that loss.
All of which could interfere with Ed’s own pet project to build a pool
in the town. It really does seem that
you never can do just one nice thing for someone – certainly not without
pissing off someone else.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Moreover, Miriam is
also desperately seeking to become pregnant, so far to no avail. (Rather like Kate, I’d say, in <i>This Is Us</i>.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Which brings us to
the third character in <b>Public Servant</b>,
Ed’s daughter, Hannah (Anna Lentz).
Insecure, promiscuous, insensitive and shallow, but with all the
insufferable liberal certainty that only a nineteen-year-old can muster, she
has come home to visit her father. But
she certainly doesn’t feel that she can tell him that she’s pregnant.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">In her note on how to
stage <b>Public Servant</b>, the playwright
has suggested that the play be thought of “as a triangle that’s being
constantly turned. When one character is the focus, the other two rest at the
corners, and often participate in the focus character’s world.” And the director, Geordie Broadwater, has
succeeded in doing just that. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Thus Miriam’s
disability, her infertility, her problem selling her mother’s house – all are
central to her but somewhat peripheral to Ed and Hannah. And yet it is Ed who does participate in her
world, at least to the extent of assisting her in selling her mother’s house. Similarly, Hannah’s pregnancy is central to
her even if it is peripheral to Ed and Miriam.
And yet Miriam ends up playing an outsize role in assisting Hannah in
her time of need and Ed, as it turns out, is there for her as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">I’m reminded of the
old maxim “Don’t judge a man until you’ve walked a mile in his shoes” and I
think the play truly succeeds at conveying that message, particularly in regard
to today’s pro-life/pro-choice conundrum.
And it does so with great sensitivity.<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5DRQosY5H4_VyM9FnrJXI6BVfCT6vK9TV7r2j8ImrsNGBPNPMV5ZYaIoYb75M-b6Y7VP3ueMcrgQTwC29xy0ut4TP79awzShc2xIj-MoHnP17O74rySsWVPWCOiO459RlgEtS-ZpAGgOP/s1600/PublicServant27_CarolRosegg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1600" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5DRQosY5H4_VyM9FnrJXI6BVfCT6vK9TV7r2j8ImrsNGBPNPMV5ZYaIoYb75M-b6Y7VP3ueMcrgQTwC29xy0ut4TP79awzShc2xIj-MoHnP17O74rySsWVPWCOiO459RlgEtS-ZpAGgOP/s320/PublicServant27_CarolRosegg.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">L-R: Chris Henry Coffey and Anna Lentz in PUBLIC SERVANT. Photo by Carol Rosegg.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">All three actors deliver
superb performances.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Chris Henry Coffey
perfectly embodies the small town businessman, politician, and father who
really wants to do the right thing and sometimes finds himself overwhelmed by
life itself but somehow manages to succeed in the end.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Christine Bruno is incredible, exhibiting a
fortitude in the face of adversity that we’d all be well-advised to emulate and
an empathy for others even when their circumstances are antithetical to her
own.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">And Anna Lentz, in her Off-Broadway
debut has brilliantly captured the inconsistencies, contradictions, and
vagaries of youth.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">I expect that we’ll
be seeing a lot more of her.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The set design by
Edward T. Morris is creative but I don’t think it really works. The stage is basically set as an outdoor
scene in which two white picket fences are set at an angle to one another and
intended, I think, to fulfill the playwright’s suggestion that the play be
thought of “as a triangle that’s being constantly turned.” And to be sure, it does do that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">But the set also
obscures the distinction between inside and outside. Sections of the fence swing open and closed
to reveal and conceal interior scenes – an office, a clinic, a home – and
perhaps the intent there is to suggest that things are often not what they seem
when one goes behind the scenes. If so,
I get the point but I found the process unnecessarily disconcerting.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />Alan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629719207399717756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432383748285582010.post-72687349881819136962019-05-02T07:49:00.000-04:002019-05-02T07:49:55.787-04:00CAROLINE'S KITCHEN Premieres at 59E59 Theaters<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8qThxU0WvWo63RYA3DWmUAGCZNEgBZWgeXXNcKea2rKUb8PpW3zCKKbRtAJ0UitkZsvqjWssaOmxdiA7lUBRANuxm2GYHCoLfhSg0fgGni0ujLUCAuuwKd03feEx-0Nlgb2NNHvKQ7t0j/s1600/CK8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8qThxU0WvWo63RYA3DWmUAGCZNEgBZWgeXXNcKea2rKUb8PpW3zCKKbRtAJ0UitkZsvqjWssaOmxdiA7lUBRANuxm2GYHCoLfhSg0fgGni0ujLUCAuuwKd03feEx-0Nlgb2NNHvKQ7t0j/s400/CK8.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">L-R: Caroline Langrishe and Tom England in CAROLINE'S KITCHEN. Photo by Sam Taylor.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Caroline Mortimer (Caroline Langrishe) is a well-known
television personality with her own cooking show (<i>Caroline’s Kitchen</i>). Her husband,
Mike (Aden Gillett), is a successful banker with a penchant for golf. And their son, Leo (Tom England), has just
graduated with a “First” from Cambridge. As Leo puts it, his mother presents herself as
“the perfect woman with the perfect life and the perfect marriage in the
perfect house with the perfect friends.”:And so it would seem.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Caroline and Mike are on the verge of selling their house
in anticipation of paying off their son’s school debt, gifting him with a flat
of his own, and embarking on the next stage of their own presumably ideal lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And tonight they are planning a champagne celebration
for Leo.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What could possibly go wrong?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Well, just about everything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For starters, things really are not quite
what they seem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Caroline may be an
admired television personality with an enviable marriage but she is also a
discombobulated, religiously fanatic, alcoholic carrying on an affair with Graeme
(James Sutton), a carpenter working at her home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mike may be a successful banker and golf aficionado
but he is also a victim of child abuse, bi-polar, wallowing in remorse over his
own previous infidelity, and seemingly incapable of expressing true affection
for his wife of son.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And Leo is a cigarette-smoking,
vegan, semi-closeted homosexual (Caroline knows he’s gay but Mike does not),
who is heartbroken to have learned of his own partner’s infidelity and who
plans to leave for Syria to help the refugees before the climate change
apocalypse that he deems inevitable destroys us all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Not to be outdone by the Mortimers, Amanda (Jasmyn Banks),
Caroline’s inept, insouciant, and over-sexed assistant, is in the throes of her
own affair with Dominic, a married man (although that doesn’t prevent her from
flirting outrageously with Graeme).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And,
as if not to be left out, it is then that Graeme’s own mentally unbalanced, previously
institutionalized, and violence-prone wife, Sally (Elizabeth Boag), <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>bursts upon the scene and all hell breaks
loose.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">The entire entourage of fidelity-challenged dysfunctional
characters appear in <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Caroline’s Kitchen</b>,
written by Torben Betts and directed by Alastair Whatley, currently enjoying its
US premiere as part of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Brits Off
Broadway</i> program at 59E59 Theaters on East 59th Street in midtown Manhattan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The play (originally entitled <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Monogamy</b>) is a classic example of
British slapstick humor – a kind of hellzapoppin’ farcical pastiche, replete
with mistaken identities, bumbling husbands, sexual revelations, the mandatory
homosexual, and just plain tom-foolery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
genre has never been<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>my cuppa but if
that is the sort of thing that floats your boat, you won’t be disappointed by
this one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />Alan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629719207399717756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432383748285582010.post-84871929212228709252019-04-22T09:45:00.000-04:002019-04-22T09:45:04.875-04:00INSTRUCTIONS FOR AMERICAN SERVICEMEN IN BRITAIN Premieres at 59E59 Theaters<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEievOk6PgowSRyhfHL7Y5DX5PqdJ2vg69FA1DQ41i2Pl6Y5dYJujbn60tPsqR3F0FZfBRPFRvp0jYRxWWtTcCBDh5VED_weukeqJOUbZwWLpircPHIRSFaoIuyh8LvSqa3i4Vd4WyaJ16wv/s1600/Instructions7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEievOk6PgowSRyhfHL7Y5DX5PqdJ2vg69FA1DQ41i2Pl6Y5dYJujbn60tPsqR3F0FZfBRPFRvp0jYRxWWtTcCBDh5VED_weukeqJOUbZwWLpircPHIRSFaoIuyh8LvSqa3i4Vd4WyaJ16wv/s400/Instructions7.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">L-R: Matt Sheahan and Dan March in Instructions for American Servicemen in Britain. Photo by Lidia Crisafulli.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Broad,
slapstick British humor may not be everybody’s cup of tea but if it does happen
to be yours, you might want to catch The Real MacGuffins (Dan March, James
Millard and Matt Sheahan) in <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Instructions
for American Servicemen in Britain</b>, currently enjoying its US premiere as
part of this year’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Brits Off Broadway</i>
program at 59E59 Theaters on East 59th Street in midtown Manhattan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Real MacGuffins, a leading sketch group
on the British comedy circuit, adapted <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Instructions
for American Servicemen in Britain </b>from a pamphlet of the same name issued
by the Americn War Office in 1942 to prepare GIs being sent to England during
World War II for the idiosyncrasies of British (life ranging from cricket to
the country’s inclement weather and from the near-incomprehensibility of the
British monetary system to Brits’ predilection for warm beer).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">The play
takes place in 1942 when a horde of American GIs have arrived in England only
to be confronted by a people ostensibly speaking the same language as Americans
do but with so many customs so different from our own as to make social intercourse
immensely difficult.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two American officers,
Lieutenant Schultz (James Millard) and Colonel Atwood (Dan March) have been
given the responsibility of instructing the newly-arrived American troops and they
are joined in their effort by a British officer, Major Gibbons (Matt Sheahan).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">The
characters are just what we have come to expect in British productions of this
genre.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lieutenant Schultz is another
version of Jack Armstrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Colonel
Atwood is the Iowa farm boy who has risen through the ranks but still remembers
the dance steps to “kick the pig.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
Major Gibbons is the relatively effete officer whose mother (also played by
James Millard) still embarrasses him by telling his associates of the ballet
lessons he took as a child.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">The play breaks
no new ground. The characters are stereotypical
and caricature-ish. But that is not to
say that they aren’t entertaining for they most certainly are. Moreover, all three performers are consummate
comedians and, at least at the performance I attended, the audience really seemed
to love them and to enjoy the show.</span><u><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
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<br />Alan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629719207399717756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432383748285582010.post-54899451266094023342019-01-21T08:11:00.000-05:002019-01-21T08:11:19.192-05:00Gordon Clapp Stars in TRICK OR TREAT at 59E59 Theaters<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1b3Fy2Zk4Q0mM-XnQWR4INt2_-MysEQotB_d5zTaAavWErNh1NTktO4sQowSdJ7Ef0pOLP5iWcgqIDNM4B_x6x45V41rd-4-7MYiM4VM6i-evVuqEnMjkgvkvDVRMcpavOih2Q3f4KXe7/s1600/Trick1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1b3Fy2Zk4Q0mM-XnQWR4INt2_-MysEQotB_d5zTaAavWErNh1NTktO4sQowSdJ7Ef0pOLP5iWcgqIDNM4B_x6x45V41rd-4-7MYiM4VM6i-evVuqEnMjkgvkvDVRMcpavOih2Q3f4KXe7/s400/Trick1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">L-R: Gordon Clapp and Jenni Putney in TRICK OR TREAT. Photo by Heidi Bohnenkamp.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Every
family has its secrets and the Moynihans certainly are no exception. What is going on between Johnny Moynihan
(Gordon Clapp) and Nancy (Kathy Manfre), his wife of more than 40 years, now
that her Alzheimer’s disease is worsening?
What transpired between Johnny’s son, Teddy (David Mason) and Johnny’s
neighbor, Hannah (Kathy McCafferty), years ago that ended Teddy and Hannah’s
romantic relationship - and did Johnny have anything to do with it? Who is Sharon - and what has become of her?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Johnny
and Nancy have kept the family’s secrets for years but now that Nancy’s Alzheimer’s
has worsened, can she still be relied on to do so? Claire (Jenni Putney), who
is Johnny and Nancy’s daughter and Danny’s sister, never was privy to the
family’s secrets herself but that’s all about to change tonight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is Halloween and Claire has just received
a tearful call from her father imploring her to come to his house right away
where all eventually wiil be revealed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Teddy,
as it turns out, is a cop, a police captain in fact and in line to become the
next Chief of Police, an appointment that would delight Johnny since Teddy
would be following in the footsteps of Johnny’s own father who once had held
that post.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But Teddy’s appointment is
far from certain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For one thing,
Claire’s influential husband, Sal, who publishes the town paper, vehemently
opposes it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Moreover, some in the town
continue to hold Danny responsible for the “murder” of Normie Beauchamp, despite
the fact that Danny was acquitted of all charges in that incident.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Additionally, that “bitch” Hannah still has
it in for him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, finally, should the
secret surrounding Sharon be disclosed, it could mark the end of Danny’s
career.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Trick or Treat</span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> by Jack Neary is an exceptionally
well-written play – a family drama, a mystery, and a black comedy all in one –
currently enjoying its New York premiere at 59E59 Theaters on East 59th Street
in midtown Manhattan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Neary’s ear for
dialogue is terrific but that’s not all the play has going for it: it also has
been blessed with a truly extraordinary cast.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">David
Mason is tough, bitter and menacing as Johnny’s son, Teddy, while Jenni Putney
conveys an equally convincing sense of cold, calculating objectivity, tempered
by concern for both of her parents, as his daughter, Claire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kathy McCafferty is splendid as the truly
nosy, obnoxious, trouble-making “bitch,” Hannah, and Kathy Manfre is effective
as Nancy, Johnny’s wife, suffering from Alzheimer’s.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">But
when all is said and done, the play really belongs to Gordon Clapp.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His is an award-worthy performance as Johnny,
a working-class stiff whose own life never measured up to that of his father
and who now seeks to live his life vicariously through his son.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is a man who finds little to take pride in
himself beyond the size of the candy bars he distributes to the neighborhood’s
children on Halloween.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But at the same
time, he is a man deeply in love with his wife, Nancy, and devoted to her care
who, nonetheless, places the preservation of his family (as he perceives it)
above all else – including Nancy’s well-being.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is a performance that will remain with you long after you have left
the theater.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />Alan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629719207399717756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432383748285582010.post-20260751182225332072019-01-18T06:10:00.000-05:002019-01-18T06:10:11.990-05:00ALONE IT STANDS by John Breen Premieres at 59E59 Theaters<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUaVP3C4gILzvtzqT-E8wAqs5w9z_35EXkzpQxKcZYiMbA0lGijxxAyTyhyphenhyphentgVVxT4hWsiydyDPIPWFr_x0HKPXiwZzQR2TSYxnLzwNsjWNN-QX_DU7JBoeiOhQhynp-glNk1PqfoWPq5E/s1600/Alone3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUaVP3C4gILzvtzqT-E8wAqs5w9z_35EXkzpQxKcZYiMbA0lGijxxAyTyhyphenhyphentgVVxT4hWsiydyDPIPWFr_x0HKPXiwZzQR2TSYxnLzwNsjWNN-QX_DU7JBoeiOhQhynp-glNk1PqfoWPq5E/s400/Alone3.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">L-R: Ed Malone, Henry Raber, David O'Hara, Rob McDermott, Chase Guthrie Knueven, and Sarah Street in ALONE IT STANDS. Photo by Heidi Bohnenkamp.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The
US victory over the Soviet Union in ice hockey in the 1980 Winter Olympics came
to be known as the “Miracle on Ice.” It
was, after all, an extraordinary event: the Soviets were overwhelming
favorites, they had taken the gold in five of the previous six Olympics, and
their players were primarily professionals, whereas the American team consisted
exclusively of amateurs and was the youngest team in the tournament. Little
wonder that, two decades later, <i>Sports
Illustrated</i> crowned the “Miracle on Ice” as the top sports moment of the
Twentieth Century, nor that in 2008 the International Ice Hockey Federation
named it the best international ice hockey story of the previous hundred years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Less
well remembered was a similar upset that occurred two years before the “Miracle
on Ice.” Munster, a small Irish provincial rugby team stunned Ireland when, in
1978, it defeated the New Zealand All Blacks (who, at the time, were generally
considered to be one of the greatest teams in rugby history).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To be sure, the event was not as momentous to
the rest of the world as was the “Miracle on Ice,” but it sure was to the Irish
who, at the time, were suffering through war and economic recession.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For the Irish, the upset victory could not
have come at a better time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Alone It Stands</span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">, written and
directed by John Breen, relates the story of that remarkable sports event and
its effect on the Irish people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Originally
opening in 2000 at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin, the play transferred to
London’s West End, and went on to become an international hit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At last it has crossed the Atlantic and is
currently enjoying its New York premiere at 59E59 Theaters on East 59th Street
in midtown Manhattan as part of Origin’s 1st Irish Festival.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">This
is an exceptionally entertaining play, a brilliantly choreographed work, an
exuberantly athletic romp, and a celebratory paean to the indomitability of the
human spirit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A truly talented cast of
six play – wait for it, this is not a typo – sixty-two (62) different
characters including the players on both rugby teams (Munster and the All
Blacks), coaches, spouses, fathers, nurses, fans, street children, baby twins, a
pregnant woman, a pet dog, and - before I forget – a newborn emerging from the
birth canal!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Much of the play is devoted
to the rugby game itself, with grueling scrums aplenty, but the multiplicity of
scenes also include a celebratory bonfire, a wake (you can’t have an Irish play
without a wake!) and, of course, that cheerfully and tastefully executed childbirth
moment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The
play’s entire cast of five men (Chase Guthrie Knueven, Ed Malone, Henry Raber,
Rob McDermott, and David O’Hara) and one woman (Sarah Street) deserve accolades
for their performances, both on the field and off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Casting is almost as gender-blind (and even
species-blind!) as you can get: Sarah Street more than holds her own on the
rugby field and in the scrums although her real star turn comes in a more
natural role as the birthing mother; Chase Guthrie Knueven performs well as a
pet dog but his strongest performances are barreling down the rugby field; and while
several of the male actors do provide a bit of comic relief in their momentary
performances as women, their finest performances still are as male rugby
players. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I guess when push comes to
shove (or scrum or childbirth), boys will still be boys and girls will still be
girls (and dogs will still be dogs).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Alan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629719207399717756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432383748285582010.post-53340715197190472872018-12-15T08:34:00.000-05:002018-12-15T08:34:47.805-05:00World Premiere of BITTER GREENS by Clea DeCrane at 59E59 Theaters<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu9PcT1jxNaZvaUmU7OFlJh5J4Gq3fKyhiADO6a6KJuXaoE5mM4cRJh97zgLRLFwVGomuAocyy76NE98V2FdMg9HZlNRZDW7fRB6gy1W4-mmZdaYrAKWK8oMTSF4zICOUF1vi4tj_splr6/s1600/BG5.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="822" data-original-width="1600" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu9PcT1jxNaZvaUmU7OFlJh5J4Gq3fKyhiADO6a6KJuXaoE5mM4cRJh97zgLRLFwVGomuAocyy76NE98V2FdMg9HZlNRZDW7fRB6gy1W4-mmZdaYrAKWK8oMTSF4zICOUF1vi4tj_splr6/s400/BG5.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">L-R: Regan Sims, Andy Do, Jessica Darrow, Ben Lorenz, and Clea DeCrane in BITTER GREENS. Photo by Brendan Swift.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">I
shouid not be surprised to learn that it was Rainer Maria Rilke’s work that
inspired (or at least influenced) Clea DeCrane in her writing of <b>Bitter
Greens</b>, a well-crafted but less than earth-shattering play about five self-absorbed
but fundamentally insecure millennials currently enjoying its world premiere at
59E59 Theaters in midtown Manhattan. In
“Notes” to the script of <b>Bitter Greens</b>,
Ms DeCrane quotes from Rilke’s <i>Letters to
a Young Poet</i> as follows:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">“That is why us young
people, who are beginners in everything, must, with our whole being, with all
our forces, gather around our anxious, upward-beating hearts, and learn to
love. </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">For we are so often
and so disastrously wrong when we fling ourselves at each other when love takes
hold of us, we scatter ourselves, just as we are, in all our messiness,
disorder, bewilderment... and what can happen there? </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">What can life do with this heap of
half-broken things that we call our communion and that we would like to call
our happiness, if that were possible, and our future?" <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">And,
as if to underscore Rilke’s influence, the lead character in <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Bitter Greens</b>, a 22 year old
brilliantly successful overachiever, is named Reyna – played in this production
by Ms DeCrane herself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Three of the
other four characters in the play – Caitlin (Jessica Darrow), Andrew (Andy Do),
and Lily (Regan Sims) – are also 21 or 22 years old; all were classmates and
friends as undergraduates at Berkeley; and, to a greater or lesser degree, all but
Caitlin have bought into some sort of stereotypical Californian millennial foolishness:
veganism, ultra-environmentalism, naturopathic medicine, etc.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Andrew,
Reyna’s Japanese-American boyfriend, is cute and very much in love with her,
but he is relatively ineffectual and indecisive (he has difficulty even deciding
whether to stay in or eat out) and he certainly constitutes no threat to
her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Caitlin, one of Reyna’s closest
friends from college, is a talented artist but can’t quite believe it herself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And Lily, another of Reyna’s college friends,
is involved with her partner, Indigo, in building a company that manufactures herb-infused
tonics; she is excited over their success in acquiring the funding they need
for their enterprise while glossing over the fact that most of it actually came
from mommy and daddy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Reyna
and Andrew have just returned from Tokyo and she is eagerly awaiting word that
she has landed the dream job she applied for at Green Communications (the most
competitive post-grad program in the country).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There’s not much doubt that she’ll get it: after all, she did intern for
Green Comm all through college (even winning the company’s
Initiative/Leadership award), and she did double major in college, and she did
graduate magna cum laude.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, over the
course of her entire life, she never did fail to get whatever it was that she
set her sights on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Never,
that is, until now.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">When
Reyna learns that she didn’t get the job – and, what is worse, that Andrew got
it instead – she simply goes off the rails.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is a situation with which she cannot cope rationally because she
never really learned how to deal with failure. (It is analogous to the picture
Andrew painted for her of older Japanese children who, when they tripped, invariably
fell on their faces because their overprotective parents consistently prevented
them from falling as young children, with the result that they never learned to
put their hands out in front of them to protect their faces.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so it is that Reyna’s relationship to
Andrew takes a macabre turn in connection with her millennial obsession with vitamin
supplements and super-foods.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">And
it is then that it all goes from bad to worse when Jack (Ben Lorenz) shows up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Jack
is the fifth member of the cast, not quite a millennial himself, but almost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s 28 years old and relatively sexy but
pretty much something of a grubby loser, nonetheless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He dropped out of Stanford six years ago and
is now working at Trader Joe’s while still harboring fantasies of returning to
college some day. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When he delivers an
order of stuffed peppers to Kayla in her presently vulnerable state, the
immediate consequences are relatively foreseeable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ripple effect on the other members of
Kayla’s millennial crowd are, however, less anticipated.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The
press release for <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Bitter Greens</b>
describes the play as “</span><span style="color: #202020; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">an explosive look at
the deep roots of jealousy and privilege, and how relationships can deteriorate
when the foundation in which they were born completely changes”. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">And the entire cast of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Bitter Greens</b> does do a superb job of bringing Clea DeCrane’s play
to life and expressing just what it means to be a millennial in today’s
world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet, when all is said and done,
I doubt if the play’s “explosive” insights would matter all that much to anyone
who’s not a millennial herself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />Alan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629719207399717756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432383748285582010.post-76146047176020462732018-10-11T10:04:00.000-04:002018-10-11T10:04:34.037-04:00Kurt Vonnegut's MOTHER NIGHT Premieres at 59E59 Theaters<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw96Gtv0UhyaNNoh47SR-CJ9F6MFauh4p0g8btNOBCAd0xWYAnhDHiyABp5rB5zeCIIOSQAVqmyaZj7WqXluy6AQL6XzwFFs5uiGn30ul0EJkoz6OCwvi2zK0WSiFkhFU0Nfq6MHPpXMD8/s1600/MotherNight6.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw96Gtv0UhyaNNoh47SR-CJ9F6MFauh4p0g8btNOBCAd0xWYAnhDHiyABp5rB5zeCIIOSQAVqmyaZj7WqXluy6AQL6XzwFFs5uiGn30ul0EJkoz6OCwvi2zK0WSiFkhFU0Nfq6MHPpXMD8/s400/MotherNight6.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">L-R: Gabriel Grilli and Andrea Gallo in MOTHER NIGHT. Photo by Carol Rosegg.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">In
1962, more than a half-century ago, Kurt Vonnegut wrote <b>Mother Night</b>, a meta-fictional novel brimming over with a plethora
of audacious characters, both real and imaginary: Nazi propagandists, double
agents, Communist spies, white supremacists, and on and on. A motion picture adaptation of the novel was
released in1996, featuring Nick Nolte, Sheryl Lee, Alan Arkin, and John
Goodman. But it was not until last year
that the novel was adapted for the stage by Brian Katz, premiering to generally
very positive reviews at Custom Made Theatre Company in San Francisco <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The
play has now arrived in New York, directed by Brian Katz, where it is enjoying
its East Coast premiere at 59E59 Theaters in midtown Manhattan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it is simply terrific.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Mother Night</span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> is the story of
Howard W. Campbell, Jr. (Gabriel Grilli), an American-born writer raised in
Germany since the age of 11, whose literary ability brought him to the
attention of Joseph Goebbels and the Nazi propaganda machine - which he ended
up serving all too well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To be sure, he
had also been recruited as a double agent for the United States and he did pass
along coded secret information to the Allies in his virulently anti-Semitic
radio broadcasts heard throughout Germany.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But it was still the case that those broadcasts inspired the German
people, reinforcing their belief in Hitler’s and Goebbels’ racist propaganda.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or as Vonnegut wrote: “he served evil too
well and good too secretly, the crime of our times.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">As
the play begins, Campbell is in an Israeli jail, writing his memoirs and
awaiting trial for his war crimes by the State of Israel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And as the play ends, he is preparing to
leave the world and contemplating the morals he has learned along the way:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">When you are dead,
you are dead…<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Make love when you
can.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is good for you.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">And,
perhaps most important of all:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">We are what we
pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Between
the play’s opening scene and its closing moments, we are treated to a variety
of flashbacks to different events at different times and in different settings,
in which six other very talented actors play a wide variety of different roles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Campbell is married to Helga (Trish
Lindstrom), a famous German actress, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but
loses her in the war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is approached
by his “blue fairy godmother,” Frances Wirtanen (Andrea Gallo), an American
secret agent who convinces him to spy for the US and pass along coded secret
messages to the Allies in his radio broadcasts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>After the war, he is captured by Lt. Bernard O’ Hare (Dared Wright) of
the American Third Army but manages to avoid the hangman’s noose when Wirtanen succeeds
in “disappearing” him and settling him anonymously in Greenwich Village. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">It
is there that he meets George Kraft (Dave Sikula), a reclusive artist who also turns
out to be a Communist spy, and Lionel Jones (Eric Rice), a
paranoid-schizophrenic dentist and the leader of a white supremacist
organization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And along the way, we also
are introduced to Helga’s younger sister, Resi, and Campbell’s mother (both of
whom are also played by Trish Lindstrom); Helga and Resi’s Nazi father, Noth, (also
played by Dared Wright); Joseph Goebbels (also played by Dave Sikula); and a
young Dr Epstein and Adolf Eichmann (both played by Matthew Van Oss).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Ultimately,
Campbell, betrayed by both Kraft and Resa and his spirit broken, determines to
accept the consequences of his wartime actions, arranges to be captured by
Israel’s Mossad and be taken to Israel, there to await a fair trial for the war
crimes he committed – despite his receipt of another letter from Wirtanen
offering to intercede on his behalf to set him free.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The
play is extraordinary in its scope, a tribute to both Vonnegut and Katz, and to
the performances it has elicited from its very talented cast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Assuredly, this is one well worth seeing.</span><span style="display: none; mso-hide: all;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />Alan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629719207399717756noreply@blogger.com0