The Rape of the Sabine Women, by Grace B. Mathias

C+

The idea of a dark comedy about rape written by a gay male playwright did not exactly sound promising. Nevertheless, this ambitious, quirky work by Michael Yates Crowley now at Playwrights Realm turned out to hold greater interest than I expected. Grace (Susannah Perkins; The Wolves), a 15-year-old at Springfield High School, is almost a female version of Evan Hansen, socially awkward, with an overworked single mom, and overwhelmed by the events around her. The aftermath of a drunken night with Jeff (Doug Harris), tight end of the school’s football team (the Romans, of course!), recalls the notorious Steubenville case in which more public concern was expressed for the rapists’ ruined future than for the victim. Crowley introduces us to the local newsman (Chas Carey), the guidance counselor (Eva Kaminsky; The Lyons), the lawyer (Jeff Biehl; Poor Behavior), the teacher (Andy Lucien; The Qualms), Grace’s friend Monica (Jeena Yi), and  Bobby (Alex Breaux; Red Speedo), the Romans’ captain with a homoerotic attachment to Jeff. We also meet other townspeople including Jeff’s father - the town’s fire chief, a few fireman, a few football players, a preacher and a doctor. Grace becomes obsessed with the titular painting by David, so we also meet a few Romans and Sabines including Romulus and his wife Hersilia. Much of the play is structured around a court appearance by Grace, which fuels reenactments of past events. The playwright attempts to comment on our hypocritical hyper-sexualized “rape culture,” but his adults are often such cartoon characters that he subverts the message. For me, the impact was also lessened by the ambiguousness of Grace’s experience. Perhaps the point was that rape exists in many forms. An extended metaphor about a coal fire burning beneath the town and the fire burning in men's hearts that leads to rape is tied to Grace's ambition to be a fireman. Grace’s stylized class report on the David painting concludes the play. Arnulfo Maldonado’s set vividly recreates a high school auditorium/gymnasium. Some of Asta Bennie Hostetter’s costumes are a hoot. Tyne Rafaeli’s direction successfully navigates the play’s complex path. While the play tries to do too much and doesn’t fully integrate its various strands, it is an original. Crowley shows promise and I look forward to his next play. Running time: 2 hours including intermission.

For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday

D

Among my many quirks is a longtime inexplicable aversion to Peter Pan and anything or anyone closely related to it, Mary Martin included. Therefore, I probably should have skipped the Playwrights Horizons production of this play based on Sarah Ruhl’s memories of growing up in a large Irish Catholic family in Iowa. However, since I have enjoyed some of her plays (Stage Kiss, The Oldest Boy, In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play) and have been a keen admirer of both Kathleen Chalfant (Wit) and Lisa Emery (Marjorie Prime, Six Degrees of Separation), I decided to take a chance on it. Big mistake. The play is structured as three long scenes. After a charming monologue by Chalfant in front of the curtain, we move to the hospital room where five middle-aged siblings played by Chalfant, Daniel Jenkins, Keith Reddin, David Chandler and Emery have gathered for the impending death of their father (Ron Crawford). Because Chalfant’s relative age reads older, it took me a while to realize that she was their sister and not their mother. The excruciating death scene seemed interminable, even without the long pauses that director Les Waters has inserted. The long middle scene presents the five siblings sitting around a table drinking Irish whiskey and reminiscing. Whenever sharp political differences threaten to intrude, younger sister Wendy (Emery) restores the peace. This scene also has a fantastical element which I will not divulge. In the long final scene, the siblings have been transported to Neverland as Peter Pan, Wendy, the Lost Boys and Captain Hook. Allusions to reluctant adulthood and mortality abound. Also, there’s a well-staged sword fight and some neat flying. The acting is strong. The set by David Zinn opens up nicely for the final scene. Kristopher Castle’s costumes are apt. Since the play clearly has deep personal meaning for Ruhl and was written as a gift to her mother, who actually played Peter Pan in her youth, it pains me to be so negative about it. Nevertheless, at no point did the play really engage me. Running time: 90 minutes, no intermission. It seemed much longer.

Prince of Broadway

B+

While there are many things I could find fault with about this revue of musical highlights from Hal Prince’s long career, the important thing is that I enjoyed it a lot. When I get the chance to hear over 30 songs, mostly from shows I greatly enjoyed, performed by talented actors backed by a 16-piece orchestra, I am not about to grumble over what could have been better. Some have criticized the very concept of the show, pointing out that it is in no way an artistic biography of Prince. I’ll grant that the total information contained in the narration by the actors who take turns impersonating Prince amounts to less than in his one-page program note in Playbill. Nor does the show make clear what Prince’s unique contribution was to the material selected. Some have groused that stripping songs of their context diminishes them. That might be a problem for people unfamiliar with the shows they were plucked from, but clearly it was no problem for an audience of Manhattan Theatre Club subscribers. There are shows I wish they had included more of and others I wish they had used less of. One could question why they chose to include numbers from shows that have been so recently revived (Fiddler on the Roof and She Loves Me) and two that are currently running (Phantom of the Opera and Sweeney Todd). On the other hand, omitting them would have deprived us of the pleasure of Chuck Cooper’s Tevye and Karen Ziemba’s Mrs. Lovett. Despite all the nits one can pick, the bottom line is that I found the show thoroughly entertaining. The cast of nine is wonderful. In addition to the six whose work I have enjoyed in the past (Chuck Cooper, Emily Skinner, Brandon Uranowitz, Michael Xavier, Tony Yazbeck and Karen Ziemba), there are three talented newcomers (Janet Dacal, Bryonha Marie Parham and Kaley Ann Voorhees). The modular set by Beowulf Boritt ranges from the minimalist (a couch) for A Little Night Music to an elaborate pop-art backdrop for It’s a Bird… It’s a Plane… It’s Superman. William Ivey Long’s attractive costumes supply a lot of the context. Choreographer Susan Stroman, who also co-directed, created a vigorous tap number for Yazbeck’s Buddy in Follies. Jason Robert Brown not only wrote the clever overture which contains fragments of 17 songs but provided the excellent musical arrangements and the closing number. David Thompson is credited with the book, such as it is. Prince himself gets the director credit. If you are a fan of musicals, by all means go. There’s something here for everyone. Running time: 2 1/2 hours including intermission.

Summer Shorts Series B

B-

The 11th edition of the Festival of New American Short Plays continues at 59E59 Theater with its second evening of Summer Shorts.

Each play in Series B offers a critique of a social institution, specifically the Church, the big wedding and big sports.  

In A Woman by Chris Cragin-Day, we meet Kim (Jennifer Ikeda; Linda and Vietgone) and Cliff (Mark Boyett), Kim’s longtime friend and recently arrived pastor, as they address the issue of whether women should be allowed to serve as church elders. It’s very low key and director Kel Haney respects that.

Lindsey Kraft and Andrew Leeds put the “bash” in Wedding Bash. When newlyweds Lonny (Donovan Mitchell) and Dana (Rachel Napoleon), who think their wedding was the greatest ever, invite friends Alan (Andy Powers) and Edi (Georgia Ximenes Lifsher) over for dinner, they get some surprising feedback. It has some very funny moments and a few wry observations about the place of weddings in our culture. I wish the satire had been pumped up a few notches. J.J. Kandel, Festival founder, directed.

The final play, written and directed by Festival stalwart Neil Labute (Reasons To Be Pretty), brings us to the world of professional tennis. Two players, superstar Oliver (John Garrett Greer) and the less successful Stan (Keilyn Durrel Jones) are about to meet in the semifinals of the French Open. They have an extended verbal volley during which some unattractive aspects of pro tennis (or any pro sport) come to the fore. 

All three plays are very well acted. Rebecca Lord-Surratt’s simple set makes effective use of shoji screens. Amy Sutton’s costumes are fine.

It’s a pleasant enough evening, but if you only have time for one program, I suggest seeing Series A instead.

Running time: 90 minutes, no intermission.

Summer Shorts Series A

B+

The 11th edition of the Festival of New American Short Plays is now onstage at 59E59 Theater.  

Summer Shorts Series A opens with Melissa Ross’s (Of Good Stock) two-hander Jack, about a divorced couple George (Quincy Dunn-Baker; The End of Longing and By the Water) and Maggie (Claire Karpen; The Heir Apparent), whose bickering over the loss of their beloved dog Jack reflects their difficultly in finding closure. It’s funny, touching and wise. Mimi O’Donnell's direction finds all the right notes.

Next up is Playing God, an extended sketch by Alan Zweibel (SNL and Curb Your Enthusiasm) in which God (Bill Buell; Rancho Viejo) and his acerbic assistant (Welker White) teach a lesson to the self-satisfied Dr. Fisher (Dana Watkins), an obstetrician whose vacation dates take priority over his patient Barbara’s (Flora Diaz) due date. It’s funny but slight. Maria Mileaf’s direction finds all the laughs.

The evening’s finale, Acolyte by Graham Moore (The Imitation Game), is based on an episode in the life of Ayn Rand. Rand (Orlagh Cassidy) and her boozy husband Frank O’Connor (Ted Koch) are hosting Nathaniel (Sam Lilja) and Barbara (Bronte England-Nelson), a young married couple, Rand disciples who have been admitted to her inner circle. The conversation ranges from Plato to Aristotle to Rand’s Objectivism, a philosophy that placed a high value on pursuing one’s self-interest. Rand puts her philosophy into practice and cleverly manipulates those around her to get their blessing for her to do exactly what she wants. It’s clever and smart, but devotes too much time to a long but interesting monologue by Rand. Alexander Dinelaris (screenwriter of Birdman) directs with assurance.

All three plays are well-cast. Dunn-Baker, Cassidy and England-Nelson were especially good. Rebecca Lord-Surratt’s simple set makes effective use of shoji screens. Amy Sutton’s costume designs, especially the period attire for Acolyte, are quite good. Sound designer Nick Moore does wonders for a squash game in Playing God.

All in all, it was a satisfying evening and a big improvement over last year’s edition. Running time: 90 minutes; no intermission.

The Suitcase under the Bed

C

The Mint Theater is to be commended for their ambitious efforts to renew interest in Teresa Deevy, an Irish playwright whose career had some success in the mid 1930’s. I did not see the three full-length plays they have presented since 2010, so I cannot judge how representative these four one-act plays are of her work. I did not find any of them fully satisfying. Marriage or the prospect thereof plays a part in each play. “Strange Birth” is little more than a brief character sketch that ends just as it is getting interesting. “In the Cellar of My Friend” was the most self-contained piece, but the characters were cliched and the situation unconvincing. “Holiday House” seemed like the first act of an abandoned play that attempted to blend Shaw with Coward. “The King of Spain’s Daughter” is grittier than the others, but the relationships among the characters were confusing. The production is admirable. The cast of seven (Ellen Adair, Gina Costigan, Sarah Nicole Deaver, Cynthia Mace, Aidan Redmond, Colin Ryan and A.J. Shively) is strong. Their Irish accents were mostly convincing. One of the main pleasures of the evening is to see them play multiple roles. Before the second and fourth plays, one of the actors recites a poem with a verse that contains the title of the play that follows. The costumes by Andrea Varga and wigs are very good. The sets by Vicki R. Davis are modest, but attractive. Jonathan Bank’s direction is leisurely. The praise Mint’s earlier productions of Deevy’s plays received may have set me up for disappointment. Perhaps some manuscripts are left in a suitcase under the bed for a reason. Running time: two hours 20 minutes including intermission.

Marvin's Room

B-

I do not mean to denigrate Scott McPherson’s award-winning play when I say that a significant reason for the acclaim it received in the early 1990’s was because it was seen as a metaphor for the AIDS crisis. The playwright made this connection explicit in a program note for the 1990 Hartford production. The tragic death of both McPherson and his lover, at the age of 33, drew still more attention to the play. While the scourge of AIDS is far from over, it is no longer the death sentence it was then and the crisis has mostly receded from public view. When I learned that Roundabout Theatre was reviving the play and giving it a Broadway debut, I was very curious to see how well it would stand up unsupported by the context of the early 90’s. The answer, for me at least, is pretty well. Roundabout has assembled a strong cast. Lili Taylor (The Library) is quietly powerful as Bessie, the sister who pulled up her roots in Ohio two decades prior to move to Florida to care for her father Marvin, whose ailments include cancer, multiple strokes and diabetes. Marvin (Carman Lacivita) is visible only as a sihouette, but his cries and gurgles are occasionally heard. The household also includes her dotty Aunt Ruth (a fine Celia Weston) who has recently had wires implanted in her brain to control debilitating back pain. A running gag is that her device opens the garage door whenever she uses it. A crisis develops when Bessie is diagnosed with leukemia by inept Dr. Wally (Triney Sandoval; Important Hats of the Twentieth Century), whose shtick is almost vaudevillian. When a bone marrow transplant is deemed her best option, she contacts her long-estranged sister Lee (a terrific Janeane Garololo [Russian Transport] in her Broadway debut) who, when their father had his first stroke, made the decision not to let his problems interfere with her life. We first meet her conferring with Dr. Charlotte (Nedra McClyde; A Life), the psychiatrist at the youth facility where her sullen 17-year-old son Hank (Jack DiFalco) has been confined for setting fire to the family home. Hank’s younger brother Charlie (Luca Padovan) loves to read but does poorly in school. Lee and her two sons travel to Florida to be tested as possible matches for Bessie. Except for a farcical scene between the sisters and the director of a retirement home (also McClyde), the second act lacks the absurdist humor of the first. Even a visit to Disney World turns somber. The ending, while hardly happy, is somewhat comforting. To quote McPherson’s program note, “At times, even an unbelievably harsh fate is transcended by a simple act of love, by caring for another.” While Roundabout should be praised for bringing this play to a new generation, I wish they had chosen to mount it in one of their smaller venues. It’s an intimate story that seems a bit lost in the vastness of the American Airlines Theatre. The casting is strong. Taylor and Garofolo are plausible as sisters. Jack DiFalco, while promising,  needs to work harder to project his voice; during a critical scene, only half of what he said was audible from the fourth row. Laura Jellinek’s (The Antipodes, A Life) set has a long curving back wall of decorative concrete blocks on which green palms are very faintly projected to suggest Florida. Glass block is used for a partition that revolves with part of the set as well as for the window of Marvin’s room. A gigantic revolving carousel roof descends and an enormous figure of Captain Hook appears for the Disney World scene. A much simpler set would have served the play better. Jessica Pabst’s (Cost of Living) costumes are unobtrusive, except for one humorously spangly number for Ruth. Anne Kauffman’s (A Life, Marjorie Prime) direction captures both the play's absurdity and its compassion. Seeing the play again was a reminder of how tragic it was to lose a promising young playwright who might have had an important place in American theater. Running time: 2 hours 20 minutes including intermission.

Napoli, Brooklyn

C

Playwright Meghan Kennedy does not exactly have a knack for titles. Her promising 2013 work for Roundabout Underground was titled “Too Much, Too Much, Too Many.” Whatever relationship that had to the play was lost on me. Now she has “graduated” up a level at Roundabout from the Black Box to the Laura Pels Theatre for this semi-autobiographical drama about an Italian family made up of a tyrannical father originally from Naples, a long-suffering mother and three daughters in Brooklyn in 1960. This title is an improvement, but not exactly an attention grabber. Perhaps she should have called it “Three Sisters See the View from the Bridge” or, for reasons that will be very clear near the end of the first act, just “Boom!” Actually the title of her earlier play would have been more suitable for this one because it suffers from too much plot and too many characters. Nic Muscolino (Lev Gorn) is embittered that he has no sons. His wife Ludovica (the excellent Alyssa Bresnahan) prays to God via an onion that she hopes will restore her ability to cry. 26-year-old Tina (Lilli Kay) has been forced to forgo an education and go to work in a tile factory to help support the family. 20-year-old Vita (Elise Kibler; Indian Summer) has been shipped off to a convent after her father has broken her nose and a few ribs when she threatened him with a pair of scissors to prevent him from attacking 16-year-old Francesca (Jordyn DiNatale) for cutting off her long curls. Francesca is a budding lesbian who is planning to stow away on a ship to France with her very close friend Connie Duffy (Juliet Brett; What I Did Last Summer). Connie’s widowed father Albert (the fine Erik Lochtefeld; The Light Years, Small Mouth Sounds), the neighborhood butcher, has a crush on Ludovica. Celia Jones (Shirine Babb) is an African-American coworker of Tina’s who becomes her only friend. The second act deals with the differing ways each character copes with the cataclysmic event that actually occurred in Brooklyn in 1960. After a fractious Christmas dinner, there is a quiet denouement. My many reservations include a gratuitous SM scene with a lit cigarette, an unclear explication of the circumstances of one character’s departure and a feminist pep talk at the end that seemed anachronistic at best. Furthermore, something is amiss when the most touching moment in the play is a brief exchange between two peripheral characters. Gordon Edelstein's direction was a bit sluggish. The set by Eugene Lee suggests multiple locations by the use of signs and symbols hung high above the stage. The costumes by Jane Greenwood are authentic to the period. The sound design by Fitz Patton and lighting design by Ben Stanton are most effective. All in all, I preferred the playwright’s earlier, more focused offering for Roundabout. Running time: 2 hours including intermission.

The Terms of My Surrender

B+

I will admit that I was skeptical when I heard that Michael Moore was coming to Broadway. Although I admire his films and agree with many of his social and political positions, I did not relish the thought of sitting through an evening-long polemic. Furthermore, anyone willing to pay Broadway prices [check Show-Score or Theatermania for discounts] to see him would no doubt already be a fan so I did not see the value of preaching to the choir. I am pleased to report that most of my reservations were unwarranted. Who knew that indignation could be so entertaining? Moore, with a substantial contribution by director Michael Mayer (Spring Awakening; Love, Love, Love), has cleverly assembled a varied evening that constantly shifts gears before it can become monotonous. There are reminiscences, send-ups, analyses, explications, an interview with a fellow activist and even a quiz show with audience participation. Yes, there are a few rants, but overall, Moore is considerably more subdued than I anticipated. I laughed a lot more than I expected to. This is not a bare-bones production. The set by David Rockwell (She Loves Me, On the Twentieth Century) has elements that pop up or slide in as needed. The huge American flag that forms the backdrop continually transforms with the aid of sophisticated projections by Andrew Lazarow (Privacy). The costumes by Jeff Mahshie (She Loves Me, Next to Normal) are clever. Although basically a one-man show, there are other people involved. The biggest surprise is a boffo finale that is as hilarious as it is unexpected. As to my qualms about the dubious value of preaching to the choir, perhaps there is therapeutic value to being surrounded by like-minded people and getting a well-crafted pep talk. Running time: one hour 50 minutes; no intermission.