Monthly Archives: November 2024

Welcome to the Big Dipper

Musical, Off-Broadway November 26, 2024 Leave a comment

Almost ten years ago, playwright Catherine Filloux took a break from delivering hard hitting dramas that deeply examine the human condition and began working on something far lighter.  The genesis was an episode from her mother’s life involving a busload of Amish and another carrying a troupe of crossdressing singers.  These vastly different groups were forced to stay at the same motel during a snowstorm.  

Now complete with music and lyrics by Jimmy Roberts (I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change) and a book co-written by John Daggett, the musical Welcome to the Big Dipper is having its World Premiere directed by DeMone Seraphin at the Theatre at St. Jeans.  Even with this unique origin story, almost everything about the dialogue, songs, and movement evokes memories of other shows.  Whether you find this humdrum or comforting will depend very much on your love of the musical form in general.

Strictly religious widower Amos King (Robert Cuccioli) is returning from a wedding with his daughter Rebecca (Mia Pinero) and their neighbor, Sarah (Jillian Louis).  Trans choreographer Carly (Jayae Riley, Jr.) is taking the Sirens of Syracuse (Pablo Torres and and Darius Harper) fronted by Jacky/Jake Barnes (Michael Yeshion) to The Ladies of the Lake singing contest.  After their buses collide during a blinding blizzard not far from Niagara Falls, the city of Bigelow finds them shelter at the Big Dipper Inn.  The inn’s owner — Black single mother Joan Wilkes (Debra Walton) — was about to sell her treasured family property to a development firm represented by Bonnie (Jennifer Byrne) in order to cover the cost of college for her brilliant son Dez (Christian Magby).  But she removes the “closed” sign from her desk and agrees to provide sanctuary to the travelers.  Though they have brought few possessions, there’s baggage aplenty.

Jillian Louis, Mia Pinero, Robert Cuccioli, Pablo Torres, Darius Harper, Jayae Riley, Jr., Michael Yeshion; Photo by Carol Rosegg

Despite their proximity and the wild set-up, there is almost no catalytic energy among the guests.  Doorways on wheels in Brian Pacelli’s scenic design facilitate moving between narratives, though the static elements of the set don’t meld easily with all storylines.  Slavery, religious devotion, personal ambition, and romantic attachments whiz by without much investigation.  Filloux’s drive to understand how people respond to one another in crisis occasionally pokes a hole in the thin fabric of plot.  The casting by Michael Cassara is deliberately and appropriately inclusive.  But with so many tropes employed, it is hard to determine who is being lifted up and who is being sent up.  This is not a reflection on the actors, who all seem committed to the constructs provided.  Musical numbers are delivered with polish and passion.  Post-performance discussions with represented community members including transgender social organization CDI and the production’s Amish consultant, J.P. Miller, should add much needed perspective. It’s just unfortunate not to be able to experience more of it directly from the work.

If the rush of the modern world has you feeling anxious, settling into the snowy surroundings of the Big Dipper Inn and the singing talents those walls contain provides 90 minutes of shelter from the storm.  Though little ground is broken, the kindness of the characters and bow-wrapped epilogue are well-suited to the holiday season. 

Welcome to the Big Dipper continues through December 29 at The Theatre at St. Jeans, 150 East 76th Street, between Third and Lexington. (No performance Thanksgiving or Christmas Day.) Tickets can be purchased at https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/34375/1730433600000.  $20 senior and student Rush tickets are available in-person beginning one hour prior to performances, subject to availability. The York Theatre’s Gen York program also offers $30 tickets for patrons under 35. 

We Live in Cairo

Musical, Off-Broadway November 12, 2024 Leave a comment

In 2011, a number of Egyptian youth groups gathered together in Tahrir (Liberation) Square to protest the corrupt authoritarian rule of President Hosni Mubarak.  His 30 year stranglehold on power had led to economic stagnation, human rights violations, and media restrictions.  The young peoples’ acts of civil disobedience in concert with a series of labor strikes forced Mubarak’s resignation and brought about a democratic election.  Their victory was short lived, however, and Egypt now stands at a miserable 18 out of 100 on the Freedom House scale.  

Inspired by a photo of several of the activist artists, brothers Daniel and Patrick Lazour wrote We Live in Cairo, developing the score and book over ten years.  The results are inconsistent in their ability to sway the audience, primarily carried along on waves of tuneful music.  Most numbers combine instruments and musical themes from Egypt with traditional structures including love ballads and rock anthems.  Director Taibi Magar joined the collaboration to add depth and movement to song.  The voices of the all-Arab ensemble blend beautifully (vocal arrangements by Madeline Benson) even when their characters falter.  For the scene depicting the toughest days of uprising, the musicians join the actors center stage, enveloping them with melody.

Michael Khalid Karadsheh, Ali Louis Bourzgui, Rotana Tarabzouni, Nadina Hassan, Drew Elhamalawy and John El-Jor in WE LIVE IN CAIRO at New York Theatre Workshop; Photo by Joan Marcus

The atmosphere developed by the design team wraps the audience in the sights and sounds of the struggle for freedom.  Tilly Grimes’ set is kept simple with a collection of pillows, rugs, lamps and household items filling a few shelves. The visual emphasis is on the evocative projections designed by David Bengali, some of which appear overhead.  He and lighting designer Bradley King added their graphical layers to the look and feel when they joined the crew during the run at A.R.T. in Boston.

Unfortunately, the story, though it was restructured several times, lacks the same level of vibrancy.  While the idea of looking at this revolution through varying lenses of artistry, policy, and simple human compassion is an interesting concept, the issues are all frustratingly abbreviated and the actions poorly motivated. Initially apolitical and fearful, Layla (Nadina Hassan) suddenly turns her entire life inside out based on exposure to a single image.  The societal significance of her boyfriend, Amir (Ali Louis Bourzgui), and his brother Hany (Michael Khalid Karadsheh) living as Coptic Christians in the majority Muslim country is mentioned, but never meaningfully explored.  Fadwa (Rotana Tarabzouni) is so driven by her identity as the child of dissidents that her every opinion becomes a cause which muddies their significance.  The attraction between the majestic Karim (John El-Jor) and the tentative Hassan (Drew Elhamalawy) is covered over as quickly as one of Karim’s satiric murals.  The vagaries of this critical thread border on homophobic.  Even the impact from country’s former status as a British colony doesn’t receive more than a single line.

New York Theater Workshop, which has been helping to nourish this production for nearly 7 of the 10 development years, has done what they can to broaden the world of the play beyond the walls of the theater.  E-tickets include the promotion of local Egyptian restaurants, invitations to post-show topical talkbacks at their sister space, and lighter cultural fare like a hummus-making contest.   A brief historical timeline and the “origin story” of the production are inserted into the program.

Like the ending of the Arab Spring it depicts, We Live in Cairo ultimately fizzles.  But it leaves behind a feeling of purpose that makes the experience worthwhile at this delicate point in our own history.  The Off-Broadway premiere continues through November 24 at New York Theatre Workshop, 79 East 4th Street in Manhattan. The performance runs 2 ½ hours with one intermission and contains images and sounds of a violent nature.  Tickets begin at $49 and can be purchased at https://www.nytw.org/show/we-live-in-cairo/tickets/ or by calling the NYTW box office at 212-460-5475.  You will get a better sense of place seated further back from the stage.  This is the first play of four in the NYTW 2024-25 season and subscriptions are still available for as little as $230.

HOTHOUSE

fringe, Off-Broadway, Theater Event November 3, 2024 Leave a comment

Fringe Festivals are known for launching imaginative artists and exploring unconventional art forms.  Content is uncensored and therefore often provocative, sometimes to the point of discomfort.  Those traits are true of HOTHOUSE, a performance work from 2023’s Dublin Fringe.  Written by Carys D. Coburn (co-founder of the award-winning collective, Malaprop), the theatrical statement piece loosely strings together generational abuse, repressed feelings, and Rachel Carson’s 1962 book Silent Spring, which led to the discontinued use of DDT in farming and the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency.  

Ebby O’Toole Acheampong , Maeve O’Mahony, Peter Corboy, Thommas Kane Byrne, and
Bláithín Mac Gabhann in HOTHOUSE; Photo by Nir Arieli

Entering the well-raked, friendly JL Greene Theatre, we are greeted with a medley of “bird” songs from Bye Bye Birdie to Bird is the Word.  This motif continues into Section 1, a performance within a performance on the cruise ship Crystal Prophecy.  Scenes from the life of Ruth — a young girl growing up in an abusive household who finds solace in Carson’s writing — are played out in cabaret style.  Periodically a species of Las Vegas Showgirl “bird” goes dramatically extinct with a little help from the Captain.  The palette and mood tonally shift in Section 2 as our Captain undergoes a “shamanic transformation.” It is the near future and Ruth’s daughter, Ali, is a passenger cruising on the Crystal Prophecy to see the last of the ice caps.  The epilogue moves us further forward into a time when Annie’s great grandson is growing up in a new normal.  Years are displayed boldly within the burning sun stage left to help us keep track.

The family functions more as a container for Coburn’s thoughts on our rapidly changing world, with issues overtaking narrative and character development.  Along the path we hit stock Irish cultural touchstones from whiskey to Enya.  That doesn’t stop the ensemble from quite literally leaving it all on the floor.  For the full 90 minutes, they work as a unit: dancing, singing, and switching roles in an array of campy life-vest orange costumes designed by Molly O’Cathain from the original Irish production and fabulous wigs by Carina Metz from the U.S.creative team.  Director Claire O’Reilly, a Malaprop co-founder, ignores gender and age in leveraging the talent.  The way she stages a flurry of activity towards the end of Section 2 is particularly clever.  Peter Corboy’s Captain functions as the rudder with Thommas Kane Byrne the most fluttery of the sails.  Maeve O’Mahony (another Malaprop co-founder), Bláithín Mac Gabhann, and Ebby O’Toole-Acheampong breathe life into characters who are tragically emotionally out to sea even on dry land.  While it is unlikely you will whistle any of Anna Clock’s songs upon leaving the theater, the tunes do work to connect the various jigsaw pieces.  

Even with little that would pass as realistic dialogue, HOTHOUSE is certain to spark conversation.  Though short on structure, it is long on dizzying feeling and visual impact (The original festival iteration won for Best Ensemble and Best Production Design.)  The North American debut runs through November 17 at the Irish Arts Center, 726 11th Avenue.  Tickets start at $25 and can be purchased at https://irishartscenter.org/event/malaprop-hothouse.