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Wolf Hall

Broadway, Play, Uncategorized April 22, 2015 Leave a comment

Wolf Hall is a little like that supposedly hot date with whom you didn’t have a terrible time, but you know you’re going to make an excuse not to go out with again. The story of how King Henry VIII divested himself of wife #1 in order to marry wife #2 is sexy, fascinating and historically significant. (Greetings, Church of England!) The tale has been interpreted many times with great success. (Love you, Keith Michell and Jonathan Rhys Meyers!) The twist this time is that we see events through the eyes of Thomas Cromwell. (Farewell the oft portrayed saintly image of Thomas Moore.) Yet even with this legacy, reputation, and potential, there’s something a little off-putting about the results of this rendition.

Based on two popular award winning novels by Hilary Mantel and brought to life by The Royal Shakespeare Company, Wolf Hall is certainly splendid looking. Beginning with a lively dance, the rich costumes and period music draw the audience in. As adapted by Mike Poulton and directed by Jeremy Herrin, Part I moves at a brisk pace injected with a little humor. However, the storytelling is patchy and potentially confusing for the uninitiated. For example, Jane Seymour delivers a single line in a spotlight, a moment which only holds significance to those who know she eventually became Henry’s bride #3.

In Part II, events are told even more episodically. Additionally, while Ben Miles makes a pensive Cromwell, we’ve learned so little about his personal life and credo, we have no sense of him as our guide. The script becomes a series of call and response scenes in which we have no emotional investment. Anne Boleyn may hold the future of the realm in her six-fingered hands, but whether she loses her head or embroiders another pillow is of equal interest and concern.

Sadly, Wolf Hall is neither an insightful piece of historical fiction nor a thoroughly entertaining piece of pageantry. It is, however, 5 1/2 hours long and upwards of $150 a ticket.

Wolf Hall Parts One & Two are playing in repertory at the Winter Garden Theater through July 5, 2015. For tickets and information, visit http://wolfhallbroadway.com/tickets/.

Underland

Off Off Broadway, Play, Uncategorized April 13, 2015 Leave a comment

You aren’t likely to confuse Underland by Alexandra Collier with any play you’ve seen before. Its “Lost-y” WTFness is more typically associated with television and movies. It is a credit to director Mia Rovegno that it works mechanically and, for the most part, narratively. It was not at all to my taste, but I applaud 59E59 for making such a daring selection for their season.

Collier makes great use of the mood and isolation of the Australian Outback where the play is set. From the opening moments it is clear something otherworldly is happening to the entire population, though some townspeople are more aware than their neighbors. Collier moves her players skillfully to make the most of the small stage. Burke Brown’s lighting and Elisheba Ittoop’s sound help create an appropriate menacing tone for the action.

The fantastical dialogue doesn’t always flow. Daniel K. Isaac fares best as Taka, a Japanese businessman who gets sucked into town through a tunnel in Tokyo. His character is enhanced by some subtle and imaginative “business” which sets him apart from the residents. Many of the other actors are weighed down by the thick tenor of their lines. The performances of Kiley Lotz as Ruth, an awkward school girl, and Jens Rasmussen as Mr. B, a domineering PE teacher, are so overblown they could be starring in a silent picture. And the talented Annie Golden is burdened with mercurial speeches that are so drawn out they shoot beyond mood-setting and right into numbing.

Just as there is something lurking in the town’s quarry, there is something just below the surface of this piece. For me, it stayed buried. But to lovers of all things mystical and unexplained, attendance is likely to be an appropriately haunting experience.

Underland is being presented by the terraNOVA Collective in Theater B at 59E59 through April 25. For tickets and information, visit http://www.59e59.org/moreinfo.php?showid=199.

Placebo

Off-Broadway, Play, Uncategorized April 3, 2015 Leave a comment

It took me over twelve hours to work out precisely how the various plot threads in Placebo were related. Judging from the conversations in the ladies room — where much constructive criticism takes place — I was not alone in my engrossment/head-scratching. It is a credit to Melissa James Gibson that I was sufficiently invested in her characters to invest further energy in understanding them. But it is also an indication that this talented playwright should have spent a bit more time polishing her creation before presenting it to a paying audience.

The plot revolves around PhD candidate Louise, brought very much to life by the fabulous Carrie Coon. Louise is desperate to feel connection to her family, her lover and her work on a double-blind medication study. But she fears that, like the placebos of old, she has no legitimate claim to those bonds. Ms. Coon and her colleagues (Florencia Lozano, William Jackson Harper and Alex Hurt) possess superior talent for delivering the hyper-realistic dialogue that makes up much of the play’s 90 minutes. It is to their credit that the piece has the essential warmth that makes the audience want to see her successful and happy.

Obie-winning director Daniel Aukin does his best to bring depth to the thin script. His clever staging moves each beat along and emphasizes the much-needed comic relief. A somewhat awkward and overly lengthy funeral “scene” brings the storytelling to a halt and, like a car on a hill, it takes great energy to get things rolling again. The performance also stops rather than ends, which is always unsatisfying.

That said, if there is anything in your life that used to come easily and now requires effort because of time, physical limitation, or increased cynicism (in other words, if you are human and of a certain age), Placebo is likely to speak to you. And when it comes to theater, that’s the real deal.

Placebo is playing on the Main Stage at Playwrights Horizons through April 5, 2015. For tickets and information, visit http://www.playwrightshorizons.org/shows/plays/placebo/.

The Audience

Broadway, Play, Uncategorized March 30, 2015 Leave a comment

The Audience, a play about Queen Elizabeth II talking with eight of her Prime Ministers, may not sound like compelling drama to many. But when the script is written by Peter Morgan — who so brilliantly explored the relationship between her Majesty and Tony Blair in the Oscar nominated film The Queen — and the role of Elizabeth is once again in the immensely capable hands of Dame Helen Mirren, you are in for an enjoyable and enlightening evening.

If you don’t know your Anthony Eden from your Gordon Brown or your parliamentary procedure from a ham sandwich, there’s no need to panic. The action is introduced and clarified by a droll Geoffrey Beevers as the Equerry. Following his background information won’t secure an A in English history, but it’s enough to help you grasp the significance of the proceedings you are about to witness. Mr. Morgan increases the level of engagement by laying out the events as they relate to one another rather than chronologically. We come to understand how each relationship and experience enriches the others.

Ms. Mirren has obviously continued to study her subject (if one can use that phrase to describe royalty). Her tone, body language and expressions are perfect reflections of Queen Elizabeth without actually being imitation. It is a delight to watch the masterful actress move silkily among ages ranging between 26 and 88, aided by director Stephen Daldry’s clever staging and Bob Crowley’s spot-on design.

The performances delivered by the assorted PMs are of less uniform quality. Richard McCabe as Harold Wilson is a particular revelation, helped along by having the most layered dialogue. Rufus Wright elegantly takes on David Cameron and, in a more recently added flash-back, Tony Blair. Surprisingly, the usually wonderful Dylan Baker as John Major appears ill at ease and occasionally loses track of his accent, while the equally gifted Judith Ivey’s interpretation of Margaret Thatcher is crushed under a tsunami of wig and teeth. It should be noted that I attended the last preview, so these rough edges may be smoothed out during the run. Regardless, there are enough bright spots to increase the heartbeat of any anglophile and the appreciation level of the more casual viewer.

The Audience is scheduled to run through June 28 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater. For tickets and information, visit http://theaudiencebroadway.com.

Between Riverside and Crazy

Off-Broadway, Play, Uncategorized March 20, 2015 Leave a comment

Stephen Adly Guirgis has an almost unmatched talent for writing dialogue. From the inept burglars in Den of Thieves to the titular Motherf**ker with the Hat, his casts sound completely authentic even when what they are doing isn’t completely familiar. Guirgis’s skill creating deep believable characters allows the audience to take a little trip inside a world that is simultaneously commonplace and new.

This gift is in evidence in his latest theatrical work, Between Riverside and Crazy, now playing at 2second Stage Theater after a run at the Atlantic Theater Company. In this dark comedy, we visit with Walter “Pops” Washington — a former cop living in a large rent controlled apartment on Manhattan’s west side — and his extended family. Like many tenants of these highly desirable and marketable dwellings, the landlord wants them out. But Pop’s is protective of his territory and that of his unusual brood. They include Pop’s biological son, Junior, recent ex-con and recovering alcoholic, Oswaldo, and Junior’s girlfriend and perpetual student, Lulu.

It quickly becomes clear that of the three, it is strikingly Junior who feels the most distant from the well meaning yet gruff retiree. Just how these relationships formed is made clear without banging the viewer over the head. Wonderful details and insight are shared in almost every line from the opening moments at the kitchen table. (You will never think of breakfast food in the same way again.)

As with Guirgis’s other creations, the play isn’t all talk. Events pick up speed when Pops is paid a visit by his former partner and her fiancee. What unfolds is a highly enjoyable combination of clever laughs and tragic food for thought. Each emotional turn is perfectly enhanced by Walt Spangler’s literally turning set, which moves the players through space and time. The action is reinforced by Austin Pendelton’s astute direction. He knows just when to leisurely play out a moment and when to jump ahead. His artistry is supported by a practiced cast lead by Stephen McKinley Henderson, who wears the role of Pops like a tailored suit that’s been slept in.

Between Riverside and Crazy is playing through March 22, 2015, in the Tony Kiser theater, 2econd Stage Midtown. For tickets and information, visit http://2st.com/shows/current-production/between-riverside-and-crazy.

Verité

Off Off Broadway, Play, Uncategorized March 13, 2015 Leave a comment

Apparently Jo Darum — the lead character in Nick Jones’s satiric play Verité — is unfamiliar with the so-called “Chinese Curse”: May you live in interesting times. After a rather unorthodox publishing house offers Jo $50,000 to pen her memoir, the housewife and mother decides she must start living a life worth writing about. The results are by turns funny, unexpected and chilling.

In less assured hands, Jo’s surreal journey would be too preposterous to be engaging. Thankfully the appealing Anna Camp’s experience includes turns in Pitch Perfect, True Blood and Equus, giving her all the tools necessary to make us connect emotionally with the play’s enthusiastic if naive heroine. Unfortunately, while some of the scenes crackle, the dialogue is too thin in places to fully support the bizarre premise. At one point Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Winston, who may or may not have gone to high school with Jo, is given a speech that resembles those dreadful scenes at the end of Perry Mason in which all is revealed in a Jamesian level of detail. The woman next to me literally started snoring.

Director Moritz von Stuelpnagel’s skill is tested by the unusual dimensions of the Claire Tow stage. The newest space at Lincoln Center is shallow and long, so those at the end of each row crane their necks while seeing too much of the actors’ backs. Despite this challenge, Mr. Stuelpnagel and his cast deftly handle the rapid changes in tone. Sharp pacing, terrific timing and clever sound cues are clearly in evidence. Furthermore, the LCT3 is to be praised for offering this offbeat experience for $20 and bringing a diverse audience into their theater.

Verité runs through March 15 at the Claire Tow theater in Lincoln Center. For tickets and information, visit http://www.lct.org/shows/verite/

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

Broadway, Play, Uncategorized March 2, 2015 Leave a comment

If you don’t thoroughly enjoy yourself at The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, chances are good that you just don’t like plays. The theatrical interpretation of the award-winning novel takes complete advantage of everything the medium has to offer. Artful script. Check. Talented cast. Check. Clever staging. Check. Audience engagement. Check.

Critics have raved about the lead performance of Alex Sharp who plays Christopher, the autistic teen through whom the story is told. I can only imagine how brilliant he is since I found Taylor Trensch — who takes the role at some performances — utterly enthralling. On stage for the entirety of the show’s 145 minutes, Mr. Trensch is pitch perfect, skillfully knitting ritualistic movement and compulsive behavior in with his rapid fire dialogue. I am generally not a fan of breaking the fourth wall, but I found his Christopher so enchanting I was happy to have him reach out to me directly on occasion. The compassion and pride he inspires is critical to appreciating the production.

But Curious Incident is an ensemble piece and neither Trensch nor Sharp could succeed if they didn’t have such a strong supporting cast. They not only play multiple roles but sometimes function as part of the scenery as well. While everyone is top-notch, Mercedes Herrero in her Broadway debut deserves special mention for having the unenviable task of switching between two of the more outrageous characters, sometimes mere moments apart.

I also applaud the design team who have taken the black box concept to a whole new level. Their combined use of lighting, video, movement and props convey Christopher’s viewpoint in a way that is as elegantly simple as it is brilliant. I don’t want to give a single moment away, but I encourage you to let them finish what they start.

Tickets for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time at the Ethel Barrymore Theater are available at http://curiousonbroadway.com. For those on a tighter budget, consider National Theater Live’s broadcast of the London production when it returns to these shores. Bookmark http://ntlive.nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/36297-the-curious-incident-of-the-dog-in-the-night-time.

Constellations

Broadway, Play, Uncategorized February 23, 2015 Leave a comment

If you have ever played theater games — or watched “Whose Line is It Anyway” for that matter — you are familiar with the “change” exercise. Two players begin a scene and are then given instructions to change something: their last line, their mood, their relationship to one another etc. Now imagine that this exercise goes on for 80 minutes. That is the effect of Nick Payne’s Constellations. It isn’t a play so much as a master class in the performing arts.

Fortunately for the audience, the two actors striving hard for an A+ are Jake Gyllenhaal and Ruth Wilson. Ms. Wilson mines each segment for emotional depth as Marianne, who takes the more complicated journey of the two characters. Every part of her body is so consistently engaged in demonstrating physical manifestations of “feeling”, I became exhausted for her. Mr. Gyllenhaal displays remarkable range while living in the other character, Roland’s, very thin skin. Although he has little to work with besides an unusual trade (beekeeping) and an (unlikely) attraction to Marianne, he manages to be by turns awkward, vulnerable, frustrated, and charming. Frankly, I’d expect nothing less from this extraordinary talent and it’s a joy to experience.

Tom Scutt’s sets and Lee Curran’s lighting impressively convey the multiverse in which Marianne and Roland meet. Both design team members were recognized for their work on the West End production of Constellations.

Unfortunately the conceit on which the script is built — that time is an illusion and the past, present and future all exist together — makes it impossible to forge any real connection to these characters. When the reality is fluid, you can’t get any sense of who these people are as individuals much less as a couple. I kinda sorta wanted them to end up together, but mostly because there was no one else on the stage. Ultimately, I just wished I could go back in time and see If There Is I Haven’t Found it Yet.

Tickets for Constellations at the Manhattan Theater Club at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater are currently on sale through March 15, 2015 at http://constellationsbroadway.com.

Rasheeda Speaking

Off-Broadway, Play, Uncategorized February 16, 2015 1 Comment

There’s something toxic in the air in Dr. Williams’s office. Whether it is emanating from the copier or one of the occupants isn’t easy to determine. Williams is desperate to fire his latest hire, Jaclyn, a middle-age African American woman whom he feels is brusk with his patients and disrespectful of him. But is he just being racially insensitive? Is she really a dedicated employee with a rightfully-earned chip on her shoulder, who would thrive were she given just a little more support?

As portrayed by the charismatic and clever Tonya Pinkins, Jaclyn is a fascinating cypher. She’s clearly an unreliable narrator of events, but the genuine nuggets of hard truth that lie beneath her stories poke through with alarming sharpness. We may not want to have her over for dinner, but we certainly feel for her – at least some of the time. I suspect Pinkins fleshed out Jaclyn’s backstory by thoroughly digesting the rich dialogue provided by Joel Drake Johnson (whose “The First Grade” is still fresh in my mind after four years). Even her little “throw away” lines have weight.

If only Pinkins had a better opponent to play against. Dianne Wiest’s performance seems to have been inspired by a newborn goat. She trots unsteadily around the stage, bleating her lines in an irritating high-pitched tone. By the time her character Ileen is in genuine distress, only dogs can hear her. It’s a hugely disappointing turn from this Oscar winner and theater regular.

Happily, first-time director, Cynthia Nixon, seems to have attracted a younger than usual audience to the theater. I’m a bit puzzled, however, as to why the Sex and the City star chose this play as her directorial debut. Unfolding in a static office setting, the action is limited to occasionally watering the plants and making coffee. Perhaps, like me, Ms. Nixon is interested in team dynamics, particularly when they are filtered through prejudice and assumption. Johnson provides a banquet of food for thought on this complicated subject. Hours after the curtain, I found myself mulling over how I would handle Jaclyn as a boss, a co-worker or an HR professional. That’s quite a takeaway from a little play.

Rasheeda Speaking is presented by The New Group at the Pershing Square Signature Center through March 22, 2015. For tickets and information visit: http://www.thenewgroup.org/rasheeda-speaking.html

The Road To Damascus

Off-Broadway, Play, Uncategorized February 10, 2015 Leave a comment

It is the not-so-distant future. The first black Pope is on his way to Damascus to act as a human shield in hopes of preventing a bombing supported by the first third party President of the United States of America. If that doesn’t sound like an intriguing way to begin a story, then The Road to Damascus is not for you. Tom Dulack carries through with this bold premise with complete commitment and clever attention to detail. By remaining firmly grounded and true to itself, the piece manages to be simultaneously reflective, current and forward thinking.

Given the importance that faith plays in the events that unfold, it’s appropriate that Mr. Dulack and his cast approach the material with total devotion. Each character is given at least one rich and revealing speech, which must delight this group of seasoned professionals. Rufus Collins is so convincing and nuanced in the pivotal role of Dexter Hobhouse, a third rate diplomat on it critical mission, that I half expected to meet one of his three ex-wives in the lobby. Liza Vann as odious NSA agent Bree Benson brings some much needed comic relief to the mix. But it falls to Larisa Polonsky as TV news rising star Nadia Kirilenko to articulate the main plot thread: the complex role that religion has always played in politics and war. Her harsh criticism of all religions, including her own, is particularly timely given the recent fall out from President Obama’s comments at the annual prayer breakfast.

The play runs as one long yet tight 100 minute act. This helps the playwright build an appropriate level of apprehension undiluted by soft drinks, stretching and fresh air. The tense atmosphere is supported by Brittany Tasta’s clean, informative and flexible set. As directed by Michael Parva, the characters (and consequently the audience) are rapidly swept along from decision to decision. There may be a few too many coincidences in the plot twists for some tastes, but I was completely captivated by these people and the hard, very real choices they are given.

The World Premiere of The Road to Damascus, presented by the Directors Company, is playing through March 1, 2015 at 59 East 59th Street Theater. For information or to purchase tickets, please visit:

http://www.59e59.org/moreinfo.php?showid=190

The Unforgettable Line