Category Archives: Off-Broadway

White Guy on the Bus

Off-Broadway, Play, Uncategorized March 21, 2017 Leave a comment
WhiteGuyontheBus

Photo by Matt Urban/Mobius New Media

It’s been disquieting to hear a certain level of weariness creeping into the general dialogue about racism.  Headlines covering people of color unfairly detained or even killed may be a near-daily occurrence, but that doesn’t make any individual event less worthy of attention or thoughtful discussion.  White Guy on the Bus provides a gripping reminder that behind each incident is a person with hope for the ones they love and a potential for fear of those who are different.  Though Bruce Graham wrote the script over two years ago, it is shockingly appropriate for a time of deepening gulfs between people of varying races, socio-economic backgrounds, and opportunities.

The time-shifting plot is beautifully constructed.  Each twist that pulls us deeper into the story also jolts us into confronting our own racists thoughts.  How many of us make quick judgements about where to sit or walk based on what we feel about a certain neighborhood?  Yet how can we deny that while such reputation is based on generalizations and stereotypes, those in turn are based on facts and figures?  What happens when we push common ground to the side and focus on differences?  It’s hard not to become as unnerved as the characters we are watching, especially if you are white as most of the audience at 59E59 is.  It is worth noting that the director is another white man.  On the audience hand-out, Bud Martin confesses to being drawn to the play primarily because the story made him uncomfortable.

Two magnetic central performances rivet our attention for the two hour run.  Tony nominated for Jekyll and Hyde, Robert Cuccioli once again displays both calm professionalism as well as a more controlling dark side.  His non-white seat-mate Shatique is played with strength and grace by Danielle Lenee´, previously nominated for a Barrymore Award for this role.  Their supporting cast is a perky Jonathan Silver as devoted like-a-son Christopher, a steady Susan McKey as Ray’s feisty wife Roz and a far weaker Jessica Bedford as Christopher’s righteous wife Molly.

The simple yet clever set is designed by Paul Tat DePoo III and enhanced by Nicholas Hussong’s projections.  Together they move us from Ray’s stunning suburban home, to the critical public bus and to points beyond.  Wade Laboissonniere’s costumes fit the characters in all meanings of that word and help sell important details of the story.

As a five character one-set piece, White Guy on the Bus is attractive to small theater companies with tight budgets.  It has already played Wilmington, Trenton, Denver and Chicago and I imagine it will hit other cities with mixed populations.  That it should also spark discussion wherever it lands is exciting.  You can grab your chance to participate in the conversation by catching it at 59E59 through April 16.  For tickets and information visit http://www.59e59.org/moreinfo.php?showid=252.

The Liar

Off-Broadway, Play, Uncategorized January 27, 2017 Leave a comment
Set Design ALEXANDER DODGECostume Design MURELL HORTON Lighting Design MARY LOUISE GEIGER Original Music ADAM WERNICK Sound Design MATT STINE

Kelly Hutchinson and Carson Elrod in The Liar Photo Credit: Richard Termine

Decidedly cute, The Liar, is currently brightening the Classic Stage Company just off Union Square.  This quick-paced farce is adapted by David Ives of Venus in Fur fame from a comedy written by Pierre Corneille, a man known better for his well-received tragedies.   The light-hearted (and one could say well-timed) story centers on Dorante, a man who tells lies as easily as he skewers his friend with an invisible sword.  Written in iambic pentameter — including a few lines purloined from mighty Shakespeare — the crafty script is dotted with modern references to personal ads, fraternity handshakes, and general self-awareness.  This keeps the 17th century spirit intact while making the work relevant and entertaining for a broad audience.

Director Michael Kahn commissioned the piece in his role as artistic director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington DC, where it received a world premiere in 2010.  A quick perusal of the Who’s Who reveals a seasoned cast well connected with both the director and the writer, as well as a number of quality Off Broadway houses.  The results are surefooted if not stunningly original or particularly generous to audience members seated on the sides of the 3/4 round.

As portrayed by Christian Conn, Dorante is smooth if somewhat lacking in the necessary magnetism to fully hold the center.  He keep things flowing as fluidly as the falsehoods roll off the rogue’s tongue.  As the object of his current fancy, Clarice, Ismenia Mendes delivers too many of her lines at a high pitch squeal, leaving her nowhere to go as her situation escalates in intensity.  Amelia Pedlow in the role of Lucrece has slight advantage as her character is silent for much of play’s first half, allowing her to step into her own power in Act Two.

These leading players are greatly upstaged by the stars of the subplot, starting with Carson Elrod as the loyal and eternally truthful Cliton.  His joyful performance perfectly balances physical and verbal humor to delightful effect.  Even better is Kelly Hutchinson who by all appearances is having the time of her life playing twin sisters Isabel and Sabine. Kudos to wig and hair designer J. Jared Janas for finding the perfect clip-on to aid Ms Hutchinson in her rapid changes between the two.

Scenic designer Alexander Dodge supports the lively pace, keeping settings simple with a few flown-in paintings and chandeliers and other set pieces pushed into place by the characters.  Award winning costumer, Murell Horton, decks the cast in easy to move in gowns and tunics with a nod to the proper period.  Original music, which adds a frothy layer, was developed by Adam Wernick in his CSC debut.

Great for a date and a safe bet for Mom, The Liar provides a carefree, low stakes two hours.  Tickets are available through February 26, 2017 at http://www.classicstage.org/season/the-liar/

Don’t You F**king Say a Word

Off-Broadway, Play November 13, 2016 Leave a comment

We’ve all experienced being engrossed in a book only to have the plot fall apart in the final chapter.  Don’t You F**king Say a Word is the theatrical equivalent.  For the first hour the characters and conversation are suitably diverting, but when the inciting incident that provokes the title phrase finally occurs, it is a faint shadow of what we’re expecting.

Playwright Andy Bragen’s background is as a solo performer. In terms of its structure, phrasing and delivery, his script mostly plays out like another monologue only with the lines divided between two people. Interrupted by an occasional exchange, Kate and Leslie speak directly to the audience, taking us through the central relationships over the course of a few years.  Their fast patter creates momentum that is stronger than the described events ultimately achieve.

Sprinkled throughout the snappy script is some important if pat commentary about gender and different views towards competition. The collapse of the playwright’s case begins once the action moves from rapid scenes around New York City to a more traditional living room conversation.  The centrifugal force that has kept us spinning winds down and we along with it.  Breaking the fourth wall is an acceptable convention, but the same exposé doesn’t hold up when the characters are directly talking to one another.  We are confronted by a barrier comprised of false tone, unbelievable mechanics and a waning interest in the characters’ circumstances.

I appreciated and then blissfully forgot the colorblind casting. It was far more difficult to overlook the selection of Jennifer Lim and Jeanine Serralles as supposed college friends who nonetheless appear 10 years apart in age.  I also could not understand how two graduates of Yale’s MFA program didn’t manage to project past the third row.  It is one thing to address the audience and another to speak in the hushed tones you’d actually use if you were in public conversation.  As their romantic partners Russ and Brian, Bhavesh Patel and Michael Braun perfectly paint the landscape that lies between friendly rivalry and grudge match.  Their quivering body language and subtle changes in timbre were realistic and familiar.  (At least that’s the impression of this middle-aged female.)

The direction of Lee Sunday Evans is imaginative, defining several tough tennis matches with a series of frozen poses that work well for the constricted space and time.  Her creative vision is well supported by the simple and clever sets by Amy Rubin and the no-frills costumes designed by Asta Bennie Hostetter.

Don’t You F**king Say a Word is the first production of the writer-centric ABTP.  It is, therefore, doubly disappointing that it is not a fully realized piece, but rather a reflective soliloquy spread too thinly among four people and over 85 minutes.  It is playing at 59E59 through December 4.  For tickets and information visit https://www.ticketcentral.com/59e59/

Oslo

Off-Broadway, Play, Uncategorized July 25, 2016 Leave a comment

Whether or not Oslo is your kind of play depends in large part on your enjoyment of the drama of diplomacy and the language of complex interpersonal communication.  The piece by J.T. Rogers is based on the true events that led up to the Oslo Peace Accords: the extraordinary peace deal between The PLO and Israel signed into being on September 13, 1993.  The little-known backstory — particularly the delicate and perhaps heroic involvement of the Norwegians in the series of intricate and touchy conversations between lifelong enemies — will hold a genuine fascination for some.  For others, the intervening 23 years of failure and violence will overshadow the struggle reproduced on stage.  Yes, Oslo portrays an incredible opportunity, but one that could not be held together long with cleverness, waffles and Johnny Walker Black.

Purely as an entertainment, Oslo has a lot to offer.  Though it clocks in close to 3 hours, it never stops moving.  There is a surprising amount of action in what could have been an overly-talky script.  History has been condensed and characters melded for ease of understanding without great loss of accuracy.  The crackling dialogue flecked with humor is interspersed with clarifying remarks made directly to the audience.  Positions are dealt with even-handedly, delivering the clearest picture possible of what’s at stake for all parties involved.

The vast cast under the seasoned hand of Bartlett Sher is first rate.  While I did not buy his closing remarks about the lasting impact of the proceedings, the always excellent Jefferson Mays as Terje Rød-Larsen makes an eager and human guide.  His noble and gifted wife, Mona Juul, is played by Jennifer Ehle with integrity and warmth that radiates to the exit doors.  Henny Russell in multiple roles adds charm and laughs by turns.  But it is Uri Savir the Director-General of Israel’s Foreign Ministry as portrayed by Michael Aronov who electrifies the space and keeps us rooting for something positive to emerge from the flutter of words.  Designer Michael Yeargan provides simple furniture supplemented with projections by 59 Productions which makes moving through locations quick and easy to follow.  Catherine Zuber’s costumes add “schlub”, utility and class in all the right places.

The short run currently at Lincoln Center Theater’s Mitzi E. Newhouse through August 28 (http://www.lct.org/shows/Oslo/) is sold out.  However it’s a good bet that lovers of mildly-fictionalized history and political intrigue will assure Oslo is repeated from time to time for at least as long as the Mideast face-off persists.

The Golden Bride

Musical, Off-Broadway, Uncategorized July 10, 2016 Leave a comment

The Yiddish musical The Golden Bride first premiered on February 9, 1923, a time when new laws were being implemented that would strongly limit the number of Eastern European Jews permitted to immigrate to America.  It is essential to keep this filter in place when experiencing the latest remounting by the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene at the Museum of Jewish Heritage.  While the lively music by Joseph Rumshinsky and fine operatic singing have weathered the test of time, much of the theme and relationships are bordering on the offensive when viewed through a modern middle-aged lens.  (I can’t begin to imagine what younger audience members would make of it.)

The piece opens like a Russian flavored Gilbert and Sullivan with a brightly colored set behind a cohesive chorus.  The orchestra led by Zalmen Mlotek can be glimpsed through a scrim center stage.  Louis Gilrod’s cute lyrics are in Yiddish with English and Russian titles projected on the top of the proscenium.  Trilling notes are hit and words well articulated by an impressive sprawling cast.

The basic set-up is presented within the first few songs.  Two young women have unexpectedly come into large sums of money and will therefore be able to make great marriages.  This storyline may have worked perfectly as a tool for helping those newly arrived from the Russian Empire to a disorienting home in the USA.  But to the ears of the uninitiated, this plot will seem worn and unwelcome leading to a tough struggle through the next two hours.  Other bits like their fumbling with the English language and the muddled-ness of a hard-of-hearing character are even more potentially wounding in 2016.

There are moments of levity that survive the journey through the years much better.  The core of the comic space is held by high-spirited Adam B. Shapiro in the clownish role of Kalmen.  The relationship between the charming Pinkhes (Bruce Rebold) and his doting wife Toybe (Lisa Fishman) sparkles in both their Russian inn and as they attempt to adapt to their perception of life as upper class Americans.  Glenn Seven Allen and Rachel Zatoff give broad but amusing performances as would-be actors Jerome and Khanele.  Tougher jobs are given to the central young lovers Misha (Cameron Johnson) and Goldele (Rachel Policar).  But despite all the unsavory talk of money and position, there is a sweetness to their bond that shines through.

To make this production happen, it truly took a village.  The program lists over 200 “supporting producers” who participated in an online fundraising campaign specifically to revive The Golden Bride.  This tells me that there is a thirst for high caliber historically insightful entertainment.   Whether or not this includes you will depend largely on your ability to alter your perspective.  You can test your cultural flexibility through August 28 by purchasing tickets at http://www.nytf.org.

 

Turn Me Loose

Off-Broadway, Play, Uncategorized May 28, 2016 Leave a comment

Standup comedian and civil rights activist Dick Gregory’s rise to fame began when Hugh Hefner heard him address a nearly all-white Southern audience at a black-owned establishment and brought him to the Playboy Club.  His big breakthrough came when he was invited to be the first African American guest to be seated on the famous couch at the Tonight Show.  Whether you remember his scorching political satire, heard about it second-hand or are completely unfamiliar with his history, revisiting his work in Gretchen Law’s Turn Me Loose is an opportunity not to be missed.  Hearing his words through a 2016 filter is a punch to the gut and a sad commentary on the one-step-forward-two-steps-back progression of race relations in this country.

On stage for a solid 90 minutes, award-winning actor Joe Morton is completely captivating in the lead.  Given the still-living Gregory’s real bite, it’s a tall order.  Yet Morton perfectly portrays a span of nearly 50 years solely with adjustments to his posture and a roughening of his voice.  His total control of the audience never waivers as he gets them to rise to their feet in approval or recoil when requested to shout out the N word.  Morton receives occasional and essential support from the versatile John Carlin as every background player including a heckler, cabbie, and radio interviewer.

Law’s script blends chapters of Gregory’s autobiography and clips of his routines with a touch of fiction to keep the storyline tight and clear.  Chris Barreca’s adaptable set holds the audience’s attention firmly on the electricity generated by Morton’s performance and Gregory’s words.  Director John Gould Rubin ensures that every audience member is treated to moments of direct eye contact with his star, helping each segment land with a thump.  The design team of Susan Hilferty (costumes), Stephen Strawbridge ((lighting) and Leon Rothenberg (sound) moves the action seamlessly from club to studio to home.  Unfortunately, the haze meant to recall the days when smoking was allowed is an unnecessary touch that leads to more coughing and watery eyes than nostalgia.

Turn Me Loose is playing at The Westside Theater through July 3, 2016.  For Boomers, it provides a profound reacquaintance with the past.  It is my hope that younger people will also flock to see Papa Pope of Scandal tear into something more worthy of attention than his daughter’s life.  For tickets and information, visit http://www.turnmelooseplay.com.

Stupid F**king Bird

Off-Broadway, Play, Uncategorized April 5, 2016 1 Comment

Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull may have been misunderstood and poorly received in the late 1800s, but it has since become a touchstone of early modernism.  This classic, therefore, makes a perfect framework for Aaron Posner to explore the state of theater and artistic expression in the age of $350 Hamilton tickets and 31 Flavors of Cirque du Soleil.  His “soft of” adaptation, Stupid F**king Bird is sly, witty, and insightful.  It may not quite be the “new form” longed for by both Chekhov and his leading man, but it is long on originality.  It brings such fresh prospective to the Russian masterwork, one can imagine Anton himself chuckling with glee in his seat.

Don’t let the profanity in the title scare you off (or be the reason you purchase tickets).  It merely signals the open and casual nature of the script and the play within a play (sometimes within a play).  We get our first indication of this when Christopher Sears in the role of Con tells the audience to request that he and the others “Start the f***ing play!”  We are also treated to visual queues from Sandra Goldmark’s stripped down set of painted doors on wheels in front of brick walls and exposed lighting that are the background of Acts One and Three.  This works beautifully with the seemingly spontaneous songs, loose narration and talk-backs.  The compact second Act is tonally different with long introspective speeches set against a full working kitchen.  I sense it was supposed to represent a shift towards the characters’ interior life, but between the slower pace, dimmed lighting and endless tinkering with barware, it just dragged the piece down.

Similar to its role model, Bird is populated by a colorful range of diverse characters.  This makes the piece a perfect fit for The Pearl Theater, which is home to a rich stew of creative talent including a resident acting company.  In the two and a half hour running time, the cast performs comedy, tragedy, musical numbers, improv, performance art and even a pinch of dance.  The range of ability is every bit as impressive as that sounds, starting with Mr. Sears as our tortured love-sick protagonist.  As his best friend Dev, Joe Paulik is a standout as our narrator in speech and song, accompanied by Joey Parsons’ mopey Mash on ukulele.  You will appreciate the interpretation of these roles more if you (re)familiarize yourself with the original script.  All the essential elements are left intact and made even more relevant to today’s audience.  Helping us to make all the necessary connections, The Pearl provides the audience with a well written synopsis and “Insider” prospective.

Stupid F**king Bird is playing at the Pearl Theater through May 8.  For tickets and information visit http://www.pearltheatre.org.

L’amant Anonyme

Musical, Off-Broadway, Uncategorized March 18, 2016 Leave a comment

It is truly impressive that the compact theater in which I recently saw Dead Dog Park could be used to house an opera.  Granted, this one was produced by the appropriately name “little Opera theater of ny” and there are some obvious shortcomings.  Nonetheless, the effort is to be admired and, judging by the smiles around me, the outcome is enjoyable at its own level.

What adaptor/director Philip Shneidman has done is wrap a short comedic opera, L’amant Anonyme, within the true story of its groundbreaking composer, Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges.  (It should be noted that in the opera world “comedic” means that no one is lying dead centerstage when the curtain comes down.)  Chevalier de Saint-George, the mullato son of a French plantation owner and his slave, is best known as the first classical composer of African ancestry.  Scholars have long thought that L’amant Anonyme was inspired by his personal dilemma of being able to love but not marry any of the many white European women in his circle.  This production strengthens the parallel between fact and fiction by having the same actor play St George and his leading man, Valcour.  The script incorporates documented biographical material including the composer’s imprisonment during the Reign of Terror, his exceptional fencing skills and reaction of the Caucasian opera community when it was proposed that he be named director of the Académie royale de musique.  These sections are separated from those taken from the libretto by having the actors announce the act and scene numbers to the audience.

The music, played by the accomplished New Vintage Baroque Chamber Ensemble under the director of Elliot Figg, is pleasant.  If you like Haydn, you’ll be nodding your head here.  That they managed to squeeze eight instrumentalists onto this stage at all is miraculous, so they can be forgiven for having to retune partway through the piece.  The singing is handled by two alternating casts.  I saw the “Red Team”: Everett Suttle, Jennifer Moore, Jesse Malgieri, Marie Masters, Anthony Webb, and Aude Cardona.  At times they were what “Idol” judges would call “pitchy”, but I can only begin to image the challenges of hearing oneself in those deadening acoustics.

The creative team’s effort to support the intertwined stories has mixed results.  The lack of sets — typically an opera staple — allows for clean and clear projection of supertitles produced by Chadwick Creative Arts.  Thomas Schall should be applauded for managing to stage a fencing class in a space the size of a Manhattan galley kitchen.  Completely baffling, though, are Matsy Stinson’s costumes, which bear a strong resemblance to bedspreads.  Presumably for convenience, they are sometimes left in place when shifting from one storyline to the other, which I found confusing.

Whatever its imperfections, at $35 L’amant Anonyme makes for a lively evening and a gentle introduction to what may seem an intimating art form.  It is running at 59E59th Street Theater through March 20, 2016.  For tickets and information visit http://www.59e59.org/moreinfo.php?showid=235.

Dead Dog Park

Off-Broadway, Play, Uncategorized February 23, 2016 Leave a comment

Dead Dog Park opens moments after a black 13-year-old has tumbled from a fourth floor window.  Did he fall as the white police officer who was with him suggests?  Or was he pushed as the youth’s mother and others suspect?  This critical question is examined over the course of the next 70 minutes with dramatic and traumatic results.

During this time, we as audience members have multiple opportunities to weigh our own prejudices.  Is one life ever more worthy than another?  And if so, what tips the scales for each of us?  As with the many true life cases we have seen in recent headlines, no matter what happens there are no real winners.  A boy will still be critically injured, a hard-working policeman’s life will remain in ruins and two families will never be the same.

Barry Malawaer’s script keeps the storyline tight.  Tom O’Keefe imbues policeman Rob McDonald with a powerful range of emotion that fittingly never settles for too long.  As the boy’s mother, Eboni Flowers strongly plays both offense and defense in equal measure.  Lawyer John Jones is given a quick tongue and worldly wisdom by Ryan Quinn.  The weak link is Susannah Millionzi as McDonald’s wife Angela, though it’s hard to say whether the role or the actress is at fault.

BEDLAM productions, which brings this work to 59E59, specializes in the utilization of raw, flexible space.  Director Eric Tucker nods to the black box by having his cast occupy the stage simultaneously with different players defining the scene as the precinct, the policemen’s home, a lawyer’s office and a court room. While artistically interesting, this technique often forced the actors to be positioned at odd angles to one another. Without the proper eye contact, they didn’t appear to be listening to one another and therefore couldn’t react as deeply as I felt was necessary.

This is the second play about racism that I have seen in a short span.  Here this theme is spoken of less directly than in Smart People.  In many ways that makes this piece more honest and powerful since the subject tends to be more of a subtle undercurrent in our daily encounters.  If you appreciate having your own standards on the subject tested, spend some time in Dead Dog Park.

Dead Dog Park is presented in association with BEDLAM at 59E59 Street Theaters through March 6.  Visit http://www.59e59.org/moreinfo.php?showid=232 for tickets and information.

Smart People

Off-Broadway, Play, Uncategorized February 8, 2016 Leave a comment

All I really want to say about Lydia R. Diamond’s Smart People is that it lives up to its title in every possible respect.  That one sentence would tell you everything you need to know in order to decide whether it’s for you without risking the possibility of my spoiling a single moment of your experience.  But for those of you who require a lengthier review, here is a little more detail.

A fascinating and compelling piece about race, the action is set around Harvard University in 2008.  Perspective on this always hot topic is provided by a white professor, an Asian psychologist, and two African Americans: a doctor and an actress.  It would be easy to draw on stereotypes, but Ms. Diamond doesn’t fall into that trap.  The foursome is keenly aware of the role race is playing in their lives even while they strive to lead color-blind lives.  Using the period leading up to Obama’s first election adds an interesting twist.  From the vantage point of 2016, we know that America was ready to elect a black president.  But we also must acknowledge that amazing step did not erase racism from our culture; Ferguson, Flint and fluffy white Oscars happened anyway.

I was initially drawn to this production because of the cast: Mahershala Ali (House of Cards), Joshua Jackson (The Affair, Fringe and, yes, Pacey from Dawson’s Creek), Anne Son (My Generation) and Tessa Thompson (Dear White People, Creed).  They are all in top form, giving variation, humor and dramatic timing to the dialogue-heavy script.  All are tasked at key moments to deliver emotional scenes with an unseen partner and all are more than up to the challenge.  But they are even better when working together.  Their chemistry grew throughout the performance and I greatly enjoyed being in their company.  Extra praise should be given to Mr. Jackson who had to accomplish all of this while being hit with the occasional distracting “woo-hoo” from the audience.

Credit for the flow must be shared with the production team.  Kenny Leon – who previously collaborated with Ms. Diamond on Stick Fly – taps into the glimpses of each backstory and gives his characters wonderful nuance and texture.  Scenic Designer Riccardo Hernandez uses Zachary G. Borovay’s projections and simple modular pieces to move us rapidly from one location to the next.  And Zane Mark adds some atmospheric spice with his original music.

Smart People is playing at the Second Stage’s midtown venue (which is suitably staffed with smart people.)  The limited engagement must end March 6, 2016.  For tickets and information visit http://2st.com/shows/current-production/smart-people.