Theater Tips: Finding the Best Ticket Prices

The quickest way to find out what discounts are available for a show is to go to Show-Score’s website (www.show-score.com) and type in the name of the show. This should bring up their page for that show. To the right of their capsule description, you will see a box that shows all the ticket prices for that show available at different sources.

If the show is in previews, you will see the average score members have given the show and a list of their brief reviews. If the show has opened, you will also see the average score and individual review summaries for the critics (including me). Further down the page you can find information about the cast and even suggestions for nearby restaurants.

I strongly suggest that you join Show-Score. It’s free and comes with some nice perks. They have Member Socials when they buy a block of discounted seats for a popular show and have an optional get-together at a nearby bar afterwards.

Another benefit of joining is that you get to score the shows you see. It only takes a few minutes and it’s fun to do. Once you have scored several shows, you will be eligible for Member Nights. Producers offer Show=Score free tickets to upcoming shows they want to build word of mouth for and they make them available to active members for a $5 service fee.

It’s the best site I have found for the information you need to become a more knowledgeable theatergoer.

A Parallelogram

A-

The folks at Second Stage Theater seem to be working their way through Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s backlist. Last season they brought Tracy Letts’s 2003 work The Man from Nebraska to town with (to me at least) middling results. Their latest import from Chicago is this 2010 dark comedy by Bruce Norris (The Pain and the Itch, Clybourne Park, Domesticated and The Qualms). I can happily report that the results are much better this time around. It’s hard to describe the play without giving too much away. Think Twilight Zone and Groundhog Day blended with a witty play about relationships. Although there are metaphysical elements involved in the premise, don’t let that worry you. You don’t need to understand them to enjoy the play. There is also a debate over free will vs. determinism and an attempt to answer the question of how we would behave if we knew the future. Did I mention that the play is also very funny? Bee (Celia Keenan-Bolger; The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Peter and the Starcatcher, The Oldest Boy) is a depressive woman in her 30s living with a somewhat older man, the maddeningly self-absorbed Jay (Stephen Kunken; Enron, Frost/Nixon, Rx, The Apple Family Plays, Nikolai and the Others), who has left his wife and children for her. The characters played by Anita Gillette (Chapter Two, The Big Meal, “30 Rock”) are identified as Bee 2, Bee 3 and Bee 4. Is one of them an older version of Bee, unseen by the other characters, who foretells Bee’s future and has a remote control that allows her to rewind time or even fast forward to the future or is she just a manifestation of some medical problem? Last but not least is JJ (Juan Castano), the Latino lawn boy who develops a rapport with Bee. The production is first-rate: the cast is uniformly excellent, the direction by Michael Greif (Dear Evan Hansen, Next to Normal, Grey Gardens) is sharp and the clever set by Rachel Hauck (Animal, Latin History for Morons) transforms wondrously. Jeff Mahshie’s (Next to Normal, She Loves Me) costumes are apt. The play has more to appeal to the intellect and the funny bone than to the heart. It runs a bit long too. But it you want to see a quirky example of superb stagecraft, I highly recommend it. Running time: 2 hours 15 minutes including intermission. 

Pipeline

B

Dominique Morisseau (Skeleton Crew) makes an impressive Lincoln Center Theater debut with this wrenching look at our society seen primarily through the eyes of a black teacher and her teenage son. Nya (Karen Pittman; Disgraced) teaches English in a tough urban high school. Her only child, Omari (Namir Smallwood), is at a private boarding school upstate where he has just been involved in a third incident that could get him expelled. The natural concern of a black mother for the safety of her son in a dangerous world is exacerbated by the fact that he is her only child and that her ex-husband Xavier (Morocco Omari) is providing little for the boy except child support. While Xavier has moved on, Nya still has feelings for him. We see Nya in the classroom, teaching an ominous Gwendolyn Brooks poem, “We Real Cool,” that frightens her; in the lunchroom exchanging barbs with Dun (Jaime Lincoln Smith), the security guard whose flirtations she fends off, and commiserating with fellow teacher Laurie (Tasha Lawrence; Good People), who has been losing the battle against student violence; at Omari’s school where she interrogates his Latina girlfriend Jasmine (Heather Velazquez), another fish out of water at the lily-white school, to find out where Omari is; and at home alone, finding solace in cigarettes and liquor. Morisseau does not spell everything out for us. Only the projections between scenes, escalating from images of black students at school to violent students to handcuffed young blacks on a bus, indicate that the title refers to the school-to-prison pipeline too often traveled by black youth. The acting is uniformly strong; my one quibble is that Smallwood looks too old for a secondary student. The characters are vividly drawn. Jasmine and Laurie are such dynamic presences that they almost hijack the play. The elevated, rather poetic style of speech the playwright occasionally turns to has the effect of making the characters sound more alike than they should. There are individual scenes that are wonderful, but they don’t cohere into as satisfying a whole as I would have wished. The set by Matt Saunders with its cinderblock walls, linoleum floor and bright fluorescent lights creates an aptly harsh institutional setting. The costumes by Montana Levi Blanco befit the characters well. The direction by Lileana Blain-Cruz (War; Red Speedo) is unfussy and assured. Although I have some reservations, I found the play well worth seeing. Running time: one hour 25 minutes; no intermission.

Note: The Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater has been refurbished with very comfortable new seats. The space formerly occupied by the coat lockers, whose use was halted by security concerns, is now filled by a colorful attractive mural of Lincoln Center.

Of Human Bondage

B

The second production of Soulpepper on 42nd Street, the month-long showcase of Canadian theater now at Signature Center is Vern Thiessen’s adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham’s 1915 novel. Although three films have been made from the novel, this is the first stage version. I haven’t read the novel and don’t remember the film version I saw long ago, so I can’t comment on the relative fidelity to the source. However, as an independent work, it held my interest for its creative storytelling, innovate staging and fine cast. Gregory Prest plays the protagonist, Philip Carey, the clubfooted orphan who reluctantly gives up becoming an artist for the more practical choice of a career in medicine. His progress in life is repeatedly threatened by his obsessive desire for Mildred Rogers (Michelle Monteith), a manipulative waitress he meets, who treats him horribly again and again. [This is the role that made Bette Davis a movie star.] As her abusive treatment continued, I could barely stifle the image of Lucy forever pulling the football away from Charlie Brown. After many misadventures, mostly caused directly or indirectly by Mildred, Philip eventually is liberated from his obsession and finds direction and contentment. Press and Monteith are both very good. The other ten hardworking  cast members play multiple roles adroitly, play incidental music on various instruments and move the set elements around for each scene. Lorenzo Savoini's set features a bright red square in the center of the stage floor, a brick back wall and cleverly multipurpose stage furniture repositioned as needed. Erika Connor’s period costumes are attractive. The direction by Albert Schultz, Soulpepper’s artistic director, provides many creative touches. To describe them would eliminate the surprise, so I won’t say more. The pace is a bit slow in the first act, but picks up after intermission. Overall, it was a worthwhile evening. Running time: two hours 40 minutes including intermission.

Kim's Convenience

B+

The Canadians have invaded New York and established a foothold on 42nd Street. More specifically, Toronto’s Soulpepper Theatre Company has taken over the entire Pershing Square Signature Center for the month of July and has brought along seven plays, plus concerts, cabaret and other events to show their mettle. Judging from the two productions I have seen so far, we are the better for it. 

Soulpepper led off with what they are billing as “the most successful Canadian play of the last decade,” Ins Choi’s family dramedy about a Korean immigrant family running a convenience store in a gentrifying Toronto neighborhood. Appa (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee) comes across as the Korean-Canadian answer to Archie Bunker. Umma (Jean Hoon), his long-suffering wife, does not get much stage time, which is probably appropriate to her role in the family. Daughter Janet (Rosie Simon) is 30 years old, highly assimilated and single, working as a photographer, but still living at home. Her brother Jung (playwright Choi) ran off with the contents of the family safe when he was 16 after a violent argument with his father that left Jung in the hospital for a few days. There are also four customers all played by Ronnie Rowe Jr. 

The early scenes are hilarious, especially one in which Appa tries to teach Janet how to detect a potential thief. His rules have something to offend everyone including blacks, fat people, lesbians and others, but his presentation of them is irresistibly funny. A scene between father and daughter during which she complains over her exploitation and he berates her for ingratitude is quite moving. His failure to interest Janet into taking over the store leads him to be tempted by a lucrative offer to buy out the store.  Next we learn that Umma has been secretly meeting her son at her church. Once Jung reappears at the store, you can no doubt figure out the rest. 

Lee is a force of nature as Appa. Simon captures all the right notes for the daughter. Hoon, alas, does not have much opportunity to make an impression. Choi is a stronger playwright than actor. Rowe is wonderful in creating four distinct roles.

The set and costumes by Ken MacKenzie create a realistic foundation. Weyni Mingesha directs with assurance. 

There are many objective grounds on which I could find fault, but the play overcame them all with its heartwarming, universal look at the immigrant family experience and intergenerational conflicts. The situations occasionally veer close to sitcom humor (indeed, the play has been adapted as a television series) and become predictable, but the execution is so flawless that  resistance is futile. I had a good time. Running time: 80 minutes, no intermission.