By all appearances, For Peter Pan on her 70th Birthday should be a smash. The star is the versatile Kathleen Chalfont. The playwright is MacArthur “genius” Award winner Sarah Ruhl. And at its heart is the universal struggle or how and when we grow up. Yet somehow it all comes up slacker than a broken aerial wire. This work was intended to honor Ruhl’s mother and the rest of us are challenged to understand the point of it all.
The “adventure” begins in a bleak hospital room in which five siblings have gathered at their father’s deathbed. The scene is very long and a particularly tough test in an age when binge-watching has become the norm. It would be artistically daring if only the conversation did more to enlighten us about the family. Instead it’s likely to leave you as fidgety as if you were sitting in an actual waiting room. While the pacing improves from there, the revelation level does not. There’s a worn-out exchange of political views, a cliched examination of birth and pecking order, and a unfulfilled thread about life after death. On occasion the characters share a story that is so unlikely to be forgotten by those involved it is obviously for our benefit. It’s as if Ms. Ruhl wrote some ideas on index cards, shuffled them, and then forgot to put any meat on the bones. The script may fit her ideal of theater as poetry, but it isn’t particularly expressive or even interesting.
Photo by Joan Marcus
Initially, David Zinn’s set seems artistic and magical, but it just keeps getting in the actors’ way. Equipment is hard to use while simultaneously delivering dialogue in a meaningful manner. Pieces of the first scene remain in view for the rest of the act, yet serve no purpose. Worst of all, the inside of the house is placed outside of the house, which seems intriguing until the Obie winning director Les Waters’ staging grows awkward and then confusing.
At the center of all this muck, the actors perform like troopers. The show’s highlight is Chalfont as birthday girl Ann addressing the audience as one from Iowa in the 1990s. She is instantly engaging, sincerely reflectively, and almost completely wasted in this role. The standouts in her supporting cast is the always remarkable Lisa Emery as Wendy in both her own story and the one that takes place in Neverland. David Chandler doing double duty as brother Jim and nemesis Captain Hook (and maybe death?) supplies some laughs in Act II. And kudos to Macy the adopted dog making her New York theatrical debut while generating an “aaaaw” or two.
If you are a devoted fan of Ruhl and want to be able to say you’ve seen all of her work, get yourself a seat. For Peter Pan on her 70th Birthday is scheduled to play through October 1. Playwrights Horizons (https://www.playwrightshorizons.org/shows/plays/peter-pan-her-70th-birthday/) has many loyal subscribers, but there are seats available through some of the usual discount channels. Runtime is 90 minutes.
As Broadway musicals go, the small scale charmer of a flick Groundhog Day doesn’t seem the most obvious of inspiring sources. The comedic drama relies heavily on Bill Murray’s ability to deliver a stinging blow that is somehow forgivable. With the film’s move to the stage, that burden falls on Olivier Award winner Andy Karl as weatherman Phil Conners. He is charismatic and a joy to watch, but his wonderful performance isn’t quite enough to balance out the slightness of the material. The overall experience is theatrical cotton candy: ultimately sweet and instantly vanishing.
Anyone looking to fill an evening this week with good theater that supports a great cause and an even better movement should head over to the Cherry Lane for the Project W Theatre Festival. Running June 6-10, this series of staged readings turns the spotlight on professional theater women in creative and business roles. Pay-what-you-wish donations will be given to Planned Parenthood of NYC, which provides reproductive healthcare and educational programs to women and their families throughout the five boroughs.
Though obviously embellished, Schenkkan’s premise is firmly rooted in current headlines. There are references to true life incidents from as recent as February of this year. Unfortunately, his dialogue — no doubt hastily written — is not realistic and often sounds like a PowerPoint lecture. There is an additional challenge in having only one of the characters with something concrete to say. The events are all in the past, with no action or dramatization of scene. We get a few flashes of insight into Gloria, but for the most part Ms. Tunie is stuck asking, “why”. Alot.
An equally important character is the set by Nigel Hook. Every piece has impeccable timing. Not since Alan Ayckbourn’s Bedroom Farce have I seen furniture collapse so slowly and perfectly. (I will not give away any of its more clever secrets.) The purposeful fiasco is deftly staged by director Mark Bell. His training at Ecole Internationale de Theatre and experience teaching at LAMDA likely influence the more overt style of this buffoonery.
Nora Helmer’s exit from Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House was the door slam heard around the world. Since 1879, scholars, sociologists, and others have speculated about her fate. Now playwright Lucas Hnath attempts to reveal what came next in A Doll’s House, Part 2, using modern language and the commanding Laurie Metcalf to deliver a post-feminist message about marriage, freedom and self-knowledge.
The Unforgettable Line 