Monday, December 24, 2012
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Off Broadway: Flipside: The Patti Page Story
Lindsie VanWinkle and Haley Jane Pierce in FLIPSIDE: THE PATTI PAGE STORY |
Clara Ann Fowler
(Haley Jane Pierce) was born into a large, poor family in 1927 in Claremore,
Oklahoma, one of eleven children. Her father,
Ben Fowler (Willy Welch) worked for the railroad, while her mother and older
sisters picked cotton. Despite the
poverty of her early years (the family home lacked electricity), she somehow evolved
into the “Singing Rage” Miss Patti Page (Lindsie VanWinkle), one of the most legendary
female singers in popular recording history, with111 hits on the Billboard
charts and 100 million records sold to her credit. But through it all and beneath Patti Page’s
vibrant, sophisticated public persona, Clara Ann Fowler’s core simplicity and
vulnerability remained.
In 2011, the University
of Central Oklahoma’s College of Fine Arts & Design’s Broadway Tonight presented
the world premiere of Flipside: The
Patti Page Story, written and directed by the multi-talented Greg White
(artist, actor, director, playwright, producer, and professor) based on his
interviews with Miss Page. A year later,
the musical was selected from among nearly 3,500 productions to attend the 2012 Regional & National Kennedy Center Festivals where it won several honors including Best Musical. And now it has arrived at 59E59 Theaters where it is enjoying a limited run (only through year-end) in its New York premiere.
Flipside’s producers are planning a National Tour in 2013-14
and that’s a good thing – at least for the rest of the country.. But it’s too bad that New Yorkers won’t be
given a longer opportunity to see this show as well, since to do so is truly is
a delightful musical experience.
The musical follows
Clara Ann Fowler’s trajectory from the time she first became a featured singer on
radio station KTUL in Tulsa, Oklahoma at age 18 to her meeting with Jack Rael
(Justin Larman), a year later. When Rael heard Page sing, he asked her to join his
"Jimmy Joy Band" and the rest, as they say, was history. After leaving the band, Rael ultimately become
Page's personal manager. (Larman, incidentally,
plays multiple roles in Flipside: in
addition to Rael, he depicts Howard Hillenbrand, KTUL’s Program Director; Otto,
KTUL’s Station Assistant; Al Clauser, a country singer; Guy Lombardo; and
various announcers – and he does a wonderful job across-the board.)
Haley Jane Pierce
plays Clara Ann Fowler with great sensitivity and Lindsie VanWinkle is equally
accomplished as her much more confident alter ego, Patti Page. Willy Welch is fine as Clara’s dad, and Jenny
Rottmayer and Kassie Carroll are charmingly professional in the variety of
roles they are called upon to perform as Clara’s sisters and mother and any
number of backup singers, radio personae, announcers, and reporters. The all do a good job of moving the story
along.
And yet, you probably
won’t be surprised to hear that the pleasure you’ll get from this show will
derive mostly from the music, rather than the story line. The life of Clara Ann Lawson/Patti Page wasn’t
all that dramatic, after all, and certainly wouldn’t rival (in terms of
interest) those of, say, Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, Barbara Stanwyck,
Bette Davis, et al. But as for Miss Page’s
musical renditions? Well, those were terrific. And this show – with an eight piece orchestra
on stage - doesn’t stint on presenting them, coming up with more than two dozen
in all, including “Mockin’ Bird Hill,” “Frankie and Johnny,” “Don’t Sit Under
the Apple Tree,” “Confess,” “Detour,” “How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?,”
“Why Don’t You Believe Me,” “Allegheny Moon,” “Old Cape Cod,” “You Belong to
Me,””Back in Your Own Backyard” and, of course, her signature song “Tennessee Waltz.”
If you do get to see
this show, I think “you’ll remember the night.”
If you don’t, you might never “know just how much you have lost.”
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Off Broadway: 13 Things About Ed Carpolotti
Penny Fuller in 13 THINGS ABOUT ED CARPOLOTTI at 59E59 Theaters |
It
didn’t take very long before Ed Carpolotti’s untimely death threw his widow’s
life into turmoil. Virginia Carpolotti
(Penny Fuller) discovered that under the terms of his will, she was now
president of Ed Carpolotti, Inc., her late husband’s construction company,
about which she knew next to nothing. But
she quickly learned that business at the company had been rather slow (not good
news) although the company did appear to have substantial assets (much better
news). But, unfortunately (and this was
much worse news) those assets had been pledged against hundreds of thousands of
dollars in bank loans (according to Bob O’Klock from the bank) and the loans
were six months in arrears.
And
then it got even worse. Turns out that
Virginia unwittingly signed papers assuming personal responsibility for those
loans, as a result of which the bank has now frozen her bank accounts and
threatened to seize all her personal assets – her checking account, savings
account, CDs, IRAs…. And then it got
worse yet: Dino Disperbio, the owner of Smith Trucking (a company with no
trucks and no one named Smith in its history) has just contacted her to say
that Ed had borrowed another half million dollars (at a 50% interest rate, no
less!) from him and, because of other papers Virginia signed, she’s on the hook
for that too. And so, naturally,
Virginia turns to family – Ed’s brother, Frank – only to learn that Ed owed Frank
another $300,000 but that soft-hearted Frank, being family and all, is willing
to settle with Virginia by just taking her house. Could she be out by March?
It
doesn’t seem that Virginia’s plight could get any worse, right? Well, it does. She receives an anonymous note from a
blackmailer threatening to reveal thirteen embarrassing and scandalous things
about her late husband and others unless she gives him a million dollars within
a week. At her wit’s end, Virginia pours
out her heart to her friend, Tootie Vaughn (despite having been warned to say
nothing to anyone).
We
learn all of this and more from Virginia herself in what turns out to be something
of an hour long monologue interspersed with music, without ever really meeting
Ed or Bob or Dino or Frank or Tootie or Danny (Ed and Virginia’s attorney) or
Debbie (their daughter) or Debbie’s husband or children or Joy (Ed’s secretary)
or Virginia’s parents - all of whom are talked about, but none of whom actually
shows up. In fact, the only character other than Virginia herself to actually
appear in this musical, 13 Things About
Ed Carpolotti, now premiering at 59E59 Theaters, is the very accomplished pianist
(Paul Greenwood) who plays a double role as her musical accompanist and her
unconscious mind.
Virginia’s
problems and all the chicanery and mysterious goings-on ultimately are resolved
but I won’t tell you how for that would ruin all the fun. Suffice it to say that the original play by
Jeffrey Hatcher, on which this musical is based, is very cleverly constructed
and charmingly written and that, to the extent that the musical sticks to the
original play, it is fun to see. Penny
Fuller does a first rate job in a demanding role and Paul Greenwood brings a
light hearted charm to his part. But,
unfortunately, converting the play into a musical didn’t bring anything special
to the mix. The score is pleasant but
derivative and the lyrics sophomoric at worst and unmemorable at best. The show is definitely worth seeing and if
you go, I think you’ll enjoy it, but that will be despite the music, not
because of it.
Friday, December 7, 2012
Lincoln Center: Golden Boy
Golden Boy, one of Clifford
Odets’ least politically charged and most commercially successful plays,
originally opened at the Belasco Theatre on Broadway in 1937 where it ran for
more than 250 performances. The play had
a short-lived revival in 1952, served as the basis of a musical starring Sammy
Davis Jr., and was twice adapted for the movies, but otherwise was seldom
revived. Now it is receiving a
well-deserved long overdue revival by Lincoln Center at the Belasco Theatre
where it first premiered three-quarters of a century ago. As it turns out, this revival is terrific and
it was well worth having waited for.
The
plot revolves around young Joe Bonaparte (Seth Numrich), who is torn between
pursuing a career as a musician (he is a highly talented violinist) and a
potentially much more lucrative career as a prizefighter (which could result in
injury to his hands thereby limiting or even destroying his ability to play the
violin). Complicating matters, Joe and
Lorna Moon (Yvonne Strahovski) fall in love.
Lorna, a self-described “tramp from Newark” is the mistress of Tom Moody
(Danny Mastrogiorgio), Joe’s manager.
Tom is married and Lorna has been waiting patiently for him to divorce
his wife so that she might marry him; the entrance of Joe on the scene
complicates her emotional life enormously.
Numrich,
Strahovski, and Mastrogiorgio are wonderful in their respective roles but it is
Tony Shaloub in the role of Mr. Bonaparte, Joe’s father, who really steals the
show. Shaloub’s acting range is
extraordinary: best known for his memorable television roles (as Adrian Monk in
“Monk,” as Antonio Scarpacci in “Wings,” and as a cabdriver in “Taxi”), Shaloub,
an Arab-American, proves equally adept in his depiction of Joe’s tortured,
loving Italian father on stage in this, his Lincoln Center debut.
The
play is rife with sub-plots and secondary attractions, mostly of a
two-dimensional nature: as Odets has written them, none are particularly creative
but taken for what they are, they are mildly entertaining. Anthony Crivello plays the part of the gangster
Eddie Fuseli seeking to wrest control of Joe from Tom Moody in classic grade B tough
guy gangster movie fashion. Lucas Caleb Rooney plays the part of Frank Bonaparte,
Joe’s union organizing brother, in similar caricaturish fashion. And Jonathan Hadary brings a measure of comic
relief to the play as Mr. Carp, Mr. Bonaparte’s neighbor and friend.
This
is not a deep play and it breaks no new ground.
But given the limitations of the play itself, it is highly entertaining
and this production (including set design, acting and direction) is as good as it
gets.
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Lincoln Center: Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
Sonia (Kristine Nielsen), Masha (Sigourney Weaver) and Vanya (David Hyde Pierce) in VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE |
Vanya
(David Hyde Pierce), Sonia (Kristine Nielsen), and Masha (Sigourney Weaver)
were named after characters in Chekhov’s plays by their now deceased parents
who had been college professors and lovers of community theatre in their prime. Vanya and Sonia devoted their lives to their
parents care, remaining in their ancestral home and foregoing any other meaningful
personal relationships, while Masha established herself as a successful actress
(although she was somewhat less successful on the marital front with five
failed marriages to her credit). Sonia
and Vanya are resentful toward Masha who, as they see it, left the entire
burden of caring for their parents to them, while she was gallivanting about on
the world’s stages and enjoying a glamorous life. True enough, perhaps, but to be fair to
Masha, it was she who provided all the money to maintain her parents’ and
siblings’ home and to support them all while she was away; absent her financial
support, who knows what might have come of them all. Now Masha has returned to visit her brother
and sister, with her latest boy toy, Spike (Billy Magnussen) in tow to let them
know that she intends to sell the house.
The
play that Christopher Durang has constructed around these premises, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike,
now playing at Lincoln Center’s Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, is replete with heavy-handed
allusions to Chekhov’s work. Vanya’s and
Sonia’s ethereal next door neighbor Nina (Genevieve Angelson) might have just
wandered in from Chekhov’s The Seagull
and then takes to calling Vanya “Uncle Vanya.”
The siblings quibble over whether or not the ten or so cherry trees on
their property constitute a true “cherry orchard.” (And there is at least one allusion to Ibsen
as well: Sonia may not see herself as a “wild duck” but she does persist in referring
to herself as “a wild turkey.”) And yet,
according to the playwright, Vanya and
Sonia and Masha and Spike is not a parody of Chekhov at all; rather, as
Durang puts it “The play takes Chekhov characters and themes and puts them into
a blender.” And, Durang might have added
(though he didn’t), he threw a big dollop of comedic good humor into the
blender as well.
The
net result is a play that gets off to a slow start but then turns out to be
rollicking good fun. The first half of
the first act is a bit flat with the characters coming across more as two
dimensional caricatures than fully fleshed out individuals. But by the second half of the first act, and
especially in the second act, Durang hits his stride and at least some of the actors
are given the opportunity to turn in truly superlative performances. Which two of them – Nielsen and Hyde Pierce –
do with a vengeance.
Nielsen’s
impersonation of Maggie Smith playing the role of the Evil Queen in Snow White
is absolutely priceless and is one of the play’s high points. So too is Hyde Pierce’s Chaplinesque portrayal
of Doc, one of Snow White’s seven dwarves.
But the play’s finest moment occurs in the second act when Hyde Pierce
goes off on a rant about how much better things used to be back in the fifties,
when families gathered together in front of their black and white TV sets,
sharing the experiences of watching “I Love Lucy” or “The Adventures of Ozzie
and Harriet” or “Bishop Sheen” or “Howdy Doody.”
Nielsen
and Hyde Pierce really do steal the show although Magnussen and Angelson turn
in perfectly adequate performances as Spike and Nina, respectively. I was a bit disappointed in Weaver’s portrayal
of Masha which struck me as rather pedestrian.
But Shalita Grant, the sixth actor in the play, did a fine job as
Cassandra, Vanya’s and Sonia’s cleaning lady who is also a soothsayer and voodoo
practitioner.
In
sum, this is a good (albeit not great) play, providing a couple of hours of
cheerful entertainment. And while a
familiarity with Chekhov isn’t absolutely required to enjoy the play, such a
familiarity would, I think, enhance your experience.
Friday, November 16, 2012
Our Brief Italian Holiday: 10 Days in Venice and Florence
The Grand Canal in Venice, Italy |
The flight from JFK to Dublin was OK but nothing to rave about. Seats are closely aligned in coach and there’s not much room to stretch out. And our ravioli dinner was no great shakes (although today that’s true of virtually all airline food). Our flight from Dublin to Venice on the other hand was much more comfortable.
View from the window of our room at the Hotel Arlecchio in Venice, Italy |
The Piazza San Marco in the Rialto area of Venice, Italy |
On Thursday, November 8, we took advantage of a promotional offer to visit the Isola di Murano (the island of Murano), renowned for its production of Murano glass. We were picked up at our hotel by water taxi and brought to the island where we saw some incredible glass sculptures. We wandered about the island a bit, then returned to our hotel via water bus.
Sue at the synagogue in the Jewish quarter of Venice, Italy |
The Jewish Quarter in Venice, Italy |
The
next day, Saturday, November 10, we walked to the train station and boarded a
fast train to Florence. When we arrived
in Florence, we discovered that the Hotel Globus, was less than a 10 minute
walk from the train station so we eschewed a taxi and made our way to the hotel
on foot. We had selected this hotel,
too, based on the positive reviews it had received on both Trip Advisor and
Expedia and again we were generally satisfied.
These were the pluses: the location - a short walk to the train station
and well within walking distance of the sights we most wanted to see (the Ponte
Vecchio, the Pitti Palace, the Uffizi Gallery, and the Accademia, home to
Michaelangelo’s David); a number of good but inexpensive restaurants in the
neighborhood; and a clean, well-furnished and spacious room. The only negative here was that we had to
climb a long flight of steps to get to the first floor reception area and that,
once there, we had to travel via a claustrophobia-inducing elevator to our room
on the third floor (you actually had to keep your finger on the elevator button
the entire time you were ascending or descending or the elevator would stop;
additionally, the elevator itself was only enclosed on three sides!). But this hotel’s personnel were also most
accommodating; and our room here, too, was very well priced with a continental
breakfast and drinks during “Happy Hour” included in the room rate.
View of the Ponte Vecchio, Florence, Italy |
That
day we bought two “Firenze Cards” for 50 euros apiece. These cards would allow us to enter dozens of
museums throughout Florence over the next three days at no additional cost and,
more importantly, to do so without having to wait on interminable lines. We ended up using the cards to visit six
sites – the Pitti Palace, the Uffizi Gallery, the Galileo Museum, the Archaeology
Museum, the Paleontology Museum, and the Accademia Gallery – so the cards did
end up saving us a few euros compared to what we would have spent had we
purchased admission tickets to those six sites individually. But much more importantly, having the cards
saved us considerable time.
The
Uffizi Gallery is wonderful (one of the best museums in the world with an
exceptional collection of Botticelli works) and there is really nothing that
can compete with Michelangelo’s works in the Accademia Gallery – especially his
awe-inspiring statue of David. We
enjoyed the small Galileo Museum as well, with its collections of telescopes
and other scientific instruments from Galileo’s time. We’d seen the Pitti Palace half a century ago
and again we were not disappointed. And
the Paleontology Museum, with its excellent collection fossils not only from
Italy but from all over the world was a real surprise. In fact our only disappointment was the
Archaeology Museum with its rather mundane collection of Etruscan works.
View of the Arno River from the Ponte Vecchio, Florence, Italy |
Our return was exhausting. We took an early train from Florence to Rome, then transferred to another train that took us from the Rome train station to the Rome Airport. At the airport, we boarded our Aer Lingus Flight to Dublin where we transferred after a short layover to our flight from Dublin to JFK.
And so, ten days after leaving New York, we returned home, having consumed too much pasta, too much pizza, too much wine, and way too much gelato! And we'd do it again in a New York minute!
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Off Broadway: Mama, I Want to Sing: The Next Generation
L-R: Tyrone Flowers, Sandra Huff, Ahmaya Knoelle Higginsen, Elijah Ahmad Lewis, Bettina Pennon, and the Gospel for Teens Choir in MAMA, I WANT TO SING: THE NEXT GENERATION. Photo by Jasmin Williams. |
Then, in an example of life imitating art, the real Doris Troy eventually performed in Mama, I Want to Sing in the role of her own mother.
Life has now come full circle: the musical is currently being revived by the Mama Foundation for the Arts at the Dempsey Theater on West 127th Street in Harlem with the appropriate sub-title “The Next Generation” appended and the role of Donna Winter is being played by Ahmaya Knoelle Higginsen, the real life daughter of Vy Higginsen and Ken Wydro. Nor is this an example of opportunistic nepotism. Far from it! Ahmaya Higginson is absolutely terrific in the role of Donna Winter: she not only exhibits a vocal range that is truly extraordinary, but she acts brilliantly as well, providing a performance in which she gradually evolves from her childhood self as a shy, gawky adolescent to her adult self as a poised professional singer.
The other principal actors are similarly outstanding and have backgrounds that would seem to have uniquely qualified them and conditioned them for their roles. Bettina Pennon, a Reverend’s daughter herself who has been singing since the age of four, plays the role of Mama Winter, Doris’ protective mother who is so reluctant to let her daughter go; she has an exceptional voice herself and plays her role with the sensitivity and understanding that she obviously derived from her own life experiences. Tyrone Flowers, who plays the role of Reverend Winters, Doris’ father, is an ordained elder at Pilgrim Cathedral of Harlem and that background is evident in his own singing and portrayal of his part. Sandra Huff, who plays the role of Sister Carrie, Doris’ aunt and godmother, is the worship leader for the Agape Family Worship Center in Rahway, New Jersey and, wow, she really can belt out a song.
Which brings us to Elijah Ahmad Lewis who plays the role of Minister of Music at Doris’ church and who, in that position, is responsible for training and leading the choir. He is simply sensational. He moves with the grace of a dancer and the sensuousness of a circus contortionist. He moves his body in ways that I would not have thought possible if I hadn’t seen them for myself. Imagine an accomplished break dancer with bones of rubber. And the exuberance he conveys is absolutely infectious.
In addition to the lead players, Mama, I Want to Sing: The Next Generation also features several wonderful performers from the Gospel for Teens Choir, the award winning choir that Vy Higginsin founded to pass the tradition of gospel music on from one generation to the next.
At the performance I attended, the overwhelming majority of the members of the audience were of African-American descent and it was obvious from their response to the show that many, if not most, shared the gospel music tradition therein depicted. To that extent, they probably could derive even greater pleasure from this production than could the small minority of us there who do not share that heritage. But in a broader sense, this show has universal appeal in terms of the basic family values it espouses. White or black, Christian or Jew, Italian, Irish, Chinese or whatever – all can recognize, understand and empathize with the pain associated with a young daughter’s loss of her father, with a mother’s reluctance to let go of her child in a dangerous and uncertain world, and with a girl’s desire to strike out on her own and follow her dreams. This show has captured all that and, whatever your background, I urge you to see it.
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Off Off Broadway: Yentl
Isaac Bashevis Singer’s classic short story, “Yentl The
Yeshiva Boy,” is subject to many interpretations. On a politically correct feminist level, it
is the story of Yentl, a strong-willed young Jewish girl whose love of learning
is so great that she rebels against the strictures of her male-dominated
society, posing as a boy in order to enter a yeshiva and study Talmud (something
that only Jewish men and not Jewish women were permitted to do in Poland in the
1800s). A deeper alternative interpretation, however, focuses on Yentl’s
transgender issues: as she saw herself, she was “neither one sex nor the other”
and she had “the soul of a man in the body of a woman.”
Singer and Leah Napolin adapted Singer’s story for the stage
and in 1975 Yentl premiered on
Broadway starring Tovah Feldshuh. Less
than a decade later, the play was adapted for the screen and starred Barbra
Streisand. The play remained true to the
original short story but the motion picture did not: in the play, Yentl, even
after being found out, opts to live out her life as Anshel, her male alter ego,
despite her obvious strong emotional attachment to Avigdor, her male yeshiva
study partner; in the movie, on the other hand, she expresses her true feelings
for Avigdor and re-assumes her female personae.
The Beautiful Soup Theater Collective is currently staging a
revival of Yentl at the Gene Frankel
Theatre on Bond Street in lower Manhattan and, to its credit, it is the play,
not the movie, that is being revived.
And to its further credit, Beautiful Soup has managed to blend both the
politically correct and the psycho-sexual interpretations into one seamless
whole.
The principal actors in this revival are Mallory Berlin as
Yentl/Anshel; Peter Oliver as Avigdor; and Kim Sweet as Hadass, Avigdor’s first
love. All three are excellent in their
respective roles but Ms Berlin is truly outstanding , exhibiting both her
sexual ambivalences and her religio-socio-political rebellion.
Monday, October 15, 2012
Off Off Broadway: 1931-
Eighty years ago, the very talented and very left-leaning Group Theatre (its avowed mission was to express "propaganda for a better life" and its members included Stella Adler, Lee Strasberg, and Clifford Odets) staged the play 1931 – , a one-dimensional cartoonish depiction
of the unemployed during the Great Depression.
Written by Claire and Paul Sifton, the play wasn’t very good and ran for
only twelve performances, which may explain why no one ever thought to revive it
until now.
The relatively new ReGroup Theatre Company (formed less than three years ago) has now taken it upon itself to revive 1931- at The Living Theatre on Clinton Street in downtown Manhattan, as part of its mission to re-publish and re-produce “lost” Group Theatre plays. Given that 1931- wasn’t a very good play to begin with, ReGroup Theatre should be commended for what it has managed to pull off. With 13 actors playing more than 65 different roles and weaving in and out onstage, the play is not so much directed as choreographed. But it is all accomplished relatively seamlessly and Allie Mulholland, the director, deserves credit for a tough job well done.
The play's plot is a simple one. Adam (Stephen Dexter), having been fired from his warehouse job over a minor squabble with his boss, strives relentlessly to find another job. But in 1931, that is no easy task. Millions of others are out of work as well and Adam’s life spins out of control. He loses his home, his health deteriorates, he risks losing the girl he loves. He resorts to begging, joins breadlines, sleeps in parks, even contemplates crime. And he is but a symbol of the millions of others who are in the same predicament. It is all to no avail. By the end of the play, it seems that revolution is the only solution.
Dexter plays his role with considerable passion but there is nothing he can do about the limitations of the role itself, the shallowness of the play, and the playwrights’ failure to provide any real character development. The play’s other actors have even rougher rows to hoe, with even less to work with and, considering how little they have been provided, do a more than adequate job of communicating their cliché-driven, redundant messages.
One finalfinal aside: the play 1931– glorifies the struggling unemployed masses who suffered during the Great Depression and that is a noble, understandable and commendable sentiment. But some have compared the plight of those proud and independent Great Depression casualties with today’s Occupy Wall Streeters and assorted protesters and that is not merely wrong-headed but an insult to the memories of those who suffered so during the 1930s. The unemployed workers featured in 1931- sought only one thing: jobs of any kind so that they might earn money with dignity, avoid the government dole, raise their families with pride in their own abilities, and take responsibility for their own lives. To that end, they left New York and travelled all over the country seeking work. By contrast, today’s Occupiers, the self-proclaimed 99%, aren’t seeking jobs so much as government handouts; they don’t protest over lack of work but over lack of longer unemployment benefits; they leave jobs elsewhere in the country in order to travel to New York to sit in and protest, not the other way around; they want others’ wealth redistributed to them because it’s just not “fair” that they don’t have as much as others even if they never earned it; and their sense of victimized entitlement has replaced their sense of independent self-esteem. We have made enormous economic strides since 1931 but the direction our moral principles (regarding individualism, independence, property rights, redistribution of wealth, and self-esteem) since then is open to much greater question.
The relatively new ReGroup Theatre Company (formed less than three years ago) has now taken it upon itself to revive 1931- at The Living Theatre on Clinton Street in downtown Manhattan, as part of its mission to re-publish and re-produce “lost” Group Theatre plays. Given that 1931- wasn’t a very good play to begin with, ReGroup Theatre should be commended for what it has managed to pull off. With 13 actors playing more than 65 different roles and weaving in and out onstage, the play is not so much directed as choreographed. But it is all accomplished relatively seamlessly and Allie Mulholland, the director, deserves credit for a tough job well done.
The play's plot is a simple one. Adam (Stephen Dexter), having been fired from his warehouse job over a minor squabble with his boss, strives relentlessly to find another job. But in 1931, that is no easy task. Millions of others are out of work as well and Adam’s life spins out of control. He loses his home, his health deteriorates, he risks losing the girl he loves. He resorts to begging, joins breadlines, sleeps in parks, even contemplates crime. And he is but a symbol of the millions of others who are in the same predicament. It is all to no avail. By the end of the play, it seems that revolution is the only solution.
Dexter plays his role with considerable passion but there is nothing he can do about the limitations of the role itself, the shallowness of the play, and the playwrights’ failure to provide any real character development. The play’s other actors have even rougher rows to hoe, with even less to work with and, considering how little they have been provided, do a more than adequate job of communicating their cliché-driven, redundant messages.
One finalfinal aside: the play 1931– glorifies the struggling unemployed masses who suffered during the Great Depression and that is a noble, understandable and commendable sentiment. But some have compared the plight of those proud and independent Great Depression casualties with today’s Occupy Wall Streeters and assorted protesters and that is not merely wrong-headed but an insult to the memories of those who suffered so during the 1930s. The unemployed workers featured in 1931- sought only one thing: jobs of any kind so that they might earn money with dignity, avoid the government dole, raise their families with pride in their own abilities, and take responsibility for their own lives. To that end, they left New York and travelled all over the country seeking work. By contrast, today’s Occupiers, the self-proclaimed 99%, aren’t seeking jobs so much as government handouts; they don’t protest over lack of work but over lack of longer unemployment benefits; they leave jobs elsewhere in the country in order to travel to New York to sit in and protest, not the other way around; they want others’ wealth redistributed to them because it’s just not “fair” that they don’t have as much as others even if they never earned it; and their sense of victimized entitlement has replaced their sense of independent self-esteem. We have made enormous economic strides since 1931 but the direction our moral principles (regarding individualism, independence, property rights, redistribution of wealth, and self-esteem) since then is open to much greater question.
Monday, October 1, 2012
Off Broadway: Ten Chimneys
L-R: Julia Bray, Byron Jennings, Carolyn McCormick, and Michael McCarty in TEN CHIMNEYS. Photo by Carol Rosegg. |
To be sure, Ten Chimneys does provide two hours of cheerful entertainment and some insights into the personae of Alfred Lunt (Bryon Jennings); Lynn Fontanne (Carolyn McCormick); Alfred’s mother, Hattie Sederholm (Lucy Martin); Alfred’s half-brother, Carl Sederholm (John Wernke), Alfred’s half-sister, Louise Greene (Charlotte Booker); Uta Hagen (Julia Bray); and Sydney Greenstreet (Michael McCarty). Hatcher has written a backstage comedy with some interesting story lines and some clever repartee between the principals. Moreover, theatre buffs, in particular, should appreciate the way in which he has managed to elucidate how actors can make overlapping dialogue work and how makeup ought be applied to create particular illusions.
And yet, when all is said and done, it is the ghost of Noel Coward (who is mentioned but does not actually appear in this play although he had been a guest at Ten Chimneys himself and was rumored to have engaged in a menage a trois with the Lunts) hangs over this production – to this play’s disadvantage. Maybe it’s unfair comparing Hatcher to Coward because we have no reason to believe that Hatcher was seeking to compete with Coward in the first place but, given the theatrical personalities involved, such a comparison would seem to be inevitable and, once the comparison is made, it is Ten Chimneys that comes up short.
The play’s principal story line relates to the arrival of Uta Hagen at Ten Chimneys to rehearse her role in Chekhov’s The Seagull. Her subsequent relationship with Lunt is mildly disturbing to Fontanne – not for what it migh portend between Alfred and Uta in the bedroom but rather for the challenge it might raise to the relationship between Lunt and Fontanne onstage. For as we are reminded again and again, the Lunts have a rather inverted view of the stage and reality: their reality, and therefore their love for one another, is what takes place on stage; it is everything that is not on stage that is secondary.
A sub-plot entails Alfred’s meeting up again with his old college roommate, for whom he still might long. But this sub-plot goes nowhere. Finally we are treated to some minimal explorations of what might make Hattie, Carl, Louise and Sydney tick. Hattie, based upon the Freudian beliefs of the 1930s and 1940s, the period in which the play is set, would seem to bear responsibility for Alfred’s homosexuality or sexual ambivalence. Carl, the pool hustler, is presented as being as much an “actor” in his own sphere as Alfred is in his. Louise is the play’s passive-aggressive victim. And Sydney is the obsessively compassionate husband.
All of the actors are to be commended for their performances but the one standout for me was Michael McCarty as Sydney Greenstreet. His depiction was spot on and watching him was like watching the “fat man” being brought back to life from Casablanca or The Maltese Falcon.
Friday, September 28, 2012
Broadway: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Amy Morton and Tracy Letts in WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? Photo by Michael Brosilow. |
Amy Morton, who starred in the Pulitzer Prize and Tony winning August: Osage County and who received a well-deserved Tony nomination for her performance in that play, surely merits a similar nomination for her performance as Martha in this production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Martha is the wife of George, a burnt-out associate professor of history at a small college, and the daughter of the college’s president. While she plays her role as George’s bitter, shrewish, mentally unbalanced, and emasculating wife in a somewhat lower register than did her predecessors, we mean that as a compliment, not a criticism. It has allowed her to create an even richer, more nuanced, and more complex character on stage than we have come to expect. And it has allowed Tracy Letts, the highly regarded Chicago actor who wrote August: Osage County and who is making his Broadway debut here as George, to play his role even more dynamically that had his very talented predecessors.
And Mr. Letts has taken full advantage of that opportunity by turning in a truly powerful performance. Indeed, if it was Martha who dominated earlier versions of this work, it is George who dominates this one. Surely that is a credit to Mr. Letts, but it is a credit to Ms. Morton and to Pam MacKinnon, the play’s director, as well. They all have contributed to what must be deemed a true ensemble success.
Carrie Coon as Honey and Madison Dirks as Nick round out the ensemble cast and do so brilliantly. Nick has just joined the college’s faculty in the biology department and seems to have all the drive that George once may have had but no longer does. (When Martha first married George, both she and her father thought that George someday might succeed his father-in-law as the college’s president but as things now stand, it appears likely that he won’t even make it to the chairmanship of the history department). Honey is Nick’s mousey wife.
As the daughter of the college’s president, Martha has taken it upon herself to welcome new faculty members and their families – which is why she invited Nick and Honey to her home following her father’s late night faculty reception. When Nick and Honey arrive after 2 AM, they already have had too much to drink (as have George and Martha) but that doesn’t stop any of them from imbibing even more. One thing leads to another and the sexual tensions, pent-up emotions, and long held secrets that are released are explosive. Distinctions between reality and fantasy are increasingly blurred and the inevitable crisis toward which the play has been building is…well, inevitable.
If you’ve never seen Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, don’t miss this opportunity to see this outstanding production of Albee’s masterpiece. And even if you have seen it, here’s your chance to see it again as you’ve surely never seen it before.
Monday, September 24, 2012
Off Off Broadway: Something Wild...
Semantha Steinmetz and Jack Haley in 27 WAGONS FULL OF COTTON. Photo by Cecilia Senocak |
In 27 Wagons Full of Cotton, the first and
by far the best of the three plays, Jake Meighan (Jack Haley) burns down the cotton
mill of his rival, Silva Viccaro (Brian Gianci). Jake then pressures Flora (Semantha
Steinmetz), his childless, sexually submissive, somewhat masochistic, and
simple-minded wife, to provide him with an alibi but, whether inadvertently or
purposefully, she fails to do so. When Silva
realizes that Jake is responsible for the fire, he seeks revenge by seducing
(or raping – it’s not clear which) Jake's wife - the first of Williams’ three victimized
women. (We meet the other two – Bertha
and Willie, in Hello From Bertha and
in This Property Is Condemned). Only this time we can’t really be sure that Flora
is a victim after all. Given her
submissive nature, her mild masochism, and her apparently long-festering
resentment of her husband, one can only wonder whether her “accidental”
betrayal of him was truly accidental or not and whether her succumbing to Silva
wasn’t what she really intended in the first place.
In Hello From
Bertha, the second and not nearly as successful play on the program, the victimized
female protagonist is Bertha (Andrus Nichols), an aging
whore in a run-down brothel who is not only sick but probably paranoid as well
and ostensibly on her deathbed. What
little plot there is revolves around Bertha’s tentative reaching out to a
former lover, but nothing comes of that and, relative to Williams’ other works,
the play itself proves to be a meandering disappointment.
David Armanino and Tess Frazer in THIS PROPERTY IS CONDEMNED. Photo by Cecilia Senocak. |
All three of the actors in 27 Wagons Full of Cotton – Samantha Steinmetz, Jack Haley, and Brian Gianci – are truly outstanding in their respective roles but special recognition must be accorded Ms Steinmetz whose nuanced portrayal of a mentally challenged, sexually confused, and alternately submissive and manipulative woman is really extraordinary. And Tess Frazier in This Property Is Condemned deserves similar praise for her exceptional rendition of the otherworldly Willie.
Monday, September 17, 2012
Off Broadway: The Anderson Twins Play The Fabulous Dorseys
Tommy Dorsey, born in 1905, was an immensely talented jazz
trombonist, trumpeter, composer and big band leader. His brother, Jimmy, born in the following
year, was an equally talented jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, trumpeter, composer,
and big band leader in his own right.
Together they reached the pinnacle of success as co-leaders of the
Dorsey Brothers Orchestra until a falling out between them prompted Tommy to
walk out in 1935 to form his own band.
And so the brothers re-climbed the heights, this time each on his own
with his own band. After a decade of
estrangement, the brothers ultimately reconciled: Jimmy joined his brother’s
band which became known as “Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra Featuring Jimmy
Dorsey.” Upon Tommy’s death in 1956,
Jimmy assumed leadership of the band but his leadership was short-lived: Jimmy
died in 1957, less than seven months after his brother passed away.
Pete and Will Anderson, twin brothers who are very musically talented in their own right – they both play the saxophone, clarinet and
flute and co-led the Anderson Brothers Sextet – are now channeling the Dorsey
brothers in their unusual multi-media work The
Anderson Twins Play The Fabulous Dorseys, premiering at 59E59
Theaters. Against a backdrop of
videoclips from the once popular “What’s My Line” TV show in which the Dorseys
appeared as mystery guests and the United Artists 1947 fictionalized
biographical film,” The Fabulous Dorseys,” in which Tommy and Jimmy play
themselves, Pete and Will Anderson lead a terrific jazz sextet in reprising
many of the classics that the Dorseys had played in the 1940s, 50s, and
60s. Bantering over their differing jazz
interpretations and styles, Pete and Will also exhibit their own simulated
sibling rivalry in an attempt to bring to life the passions and attitudes that
motivated the Dorseys in the last century.
As far as the music goes, this is one terrific show. Both Pete and Will are outstanding on all
three of the instruments they play: saxophone, clarinet, and flute. And they are backed up by four other very
talented musicians: Jon-Erik Kellso on trumpet, Ehud Asherie on piano, Devin
Dorn on drums, and Clovis Nicolas on bass.
I was especially impressed by Jon-Erik’s trumpet-playing and Ehud’s
virtuosity on the piano. But so far as everything
else about this production goes – the TV and movie video-clips, the
artificially created similarity between the Dorseys and the Andersons, the
dialog on stage – well, not so much.
Indeed, I don’t think anything would have been lost had the show simply
consisted of this Anderson Brothers Sextet playing a variety of Dorsey Brothers
classics, without the schtick.
The space at 59E59 Theaters in which this show is performed
has been reconfigured as a cabaret with too many audience members crammed into
uncomfortable seats around small tables in too small a space. Again, simple tiered seating might not have
been as clever or creative but it sure would have been more comfortable. But enough of my nit-picking. When all is said and done, despite my
complaints about the show’s structure or the theatre itself, the jazz musical performances
themselves are so good that nothing else really matters. If you’re into jazz, this is one show worth
seeing.
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