The Year in Review

Gotham Playgoer Year in Review — 2018

A (excellent)

My Fair Lady

The Ferryman

A- (Very Good)

Admissions

The Boys in the Band

Desperate Measures

Edward Albee’s At Home at the Zoo

Fiddler on the Roof (in Yiddish)

Girls and Boys

Hangmen

The Hello Girls

Lifespan of a Fact

The New One

The Niceties

Oklahoma!

Our Lady of 121st Street

The Prom

Slave Play

Three Tall Women

Travesties

B+ (good)

The Band’s Visit

Conflict

Dan Cody’s Yacht

The Head and the Load

Lobby Hero

Operation Crucible

The Originalist

To Kill a Mockingbird

Transfers

Yerma

B

Amy and the Orphans

Apologia

A Brief History of Women

Carmen Jones

Head over Heels

The Metromaniacs

Feeding the Dragon

The Low Road

Miles for Mary

Paradise Blue

Tchaikovsky: None But the Lonely Heart

Secret Life of Humans

The True

B-

American Son

Blue Ridge

Carousel

Cyprus Avenue

Days of Rage

Fairview

Final Follies

The Hard Problem

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Hindle Wakes

Jerry Springer: The Opera

Kings

Lewiston/Clarkston

Log Cabin

Mlima’s Tale

Mother of the Maid

Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story

An Ordinary Muslim

Pass Over

Skintight

Straight White Men

Uncle Vanya (Hunter Theater Project)

We Live by the Sea

Wild Goose Dreams

C+ (fair)

The Beast in the Jungle

Children of a Lesser God

Daniel’s Husband

Girl from the North Country

The Great Leap

The House That Will Not Stand

A Letter to Harvey Milk

John Lithgow: Stories by Heart

queens

Summer and Smoke

The Thanksgiving Play

This Flat Earth

Waitress

What the Constitution Means to Me

C

The Amateurs

Bernhardt/Hamlet

Bobbie Clearly

Cardinal

The Damned

Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine

I Was Most Alive with You

Miss You Like Hell

Network

Noura

Relevance

The Waverly Gallery

Thom Pain (based on nothing)

Usual Girls

C-

Betty’s Summer Vacation

Collective Rage: Play in 5 Betties

Days To Come

Downstairs

Escape to Margaritaville

Mary Page Marlowe

A Walk with Mr. Heifetz

D+ (poor)

Gettin’ the Band Back Together

The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui

D

Fire and Air

Good Grief

LaBute New Theater Festival

Mankind

The Nap

Plot Points in Our Sexual Development

I (incomplete, i.e. so bad that I did not return after intermission)

Good for Otto

Light Shining in Buckinghamshire

Here is a comparison with last year. Interestingly, the percentage of B’s and C’s is identical, but the percentage of A’s has increased and the percentage of D’s has decreased. So I would say 2018 was a slightly better year. Here’s hoping 2019 will be even better!

2018 2017

A, A- 17%                                  14%                               

B+, B, B-         42%                                  42%

C+, C, C-         32%                                  32%

D+, D, D-           7%                                  11%

F                       0%                                    1%

I                        2%                                    0%

Blue Ridge

B-

Atlantic Theater Company is presenting the world premiere of Abby Rosebrock’s (Dido of Idaho) drama set in a church-sponsored halfway house in the mountains of western North Carolina. I don’t know much about halfway houses, but I found it surprising that the residents were there for such varied problems as opioid addiction, alcoholism, mental illness and anger management. The main focus is on the self-destructive Alison (Marin Ireland; Summer and Smoke, The Big Knife), a devoted high school English teacher at the local high school who, after a long affair with her married principal, attacked his car with an axe and was sentenced to a six-month stay there. She immediately befriends Cherie (Kristolyn Lloyd; Paradise Blue, Dear Evan Hansen), another high school teacher, who is a recovering alcoholic voluntarily there. Cherie is black, but her race does not seem to be a significant issue for anyone. She likes it at the group home and thinks she might switch to a career in social work or public health. Wade (Kyle Beltran; The Fortress of Solitude, Gloria) became addicted to prescribed drugs after a work accident. and blames some of his problems on his mixed race. Cole (Peter Mark Kendall; Six Degrees of Separation, The Harvest) has just been discharged from a mental institution; his reasons for being institutionalized never become sufficiently clear. The founders and staff of the home are Hern (Chris Stack; Ugly Lies the Bone), a white pastor, and Grace (Nicole Lewis; Hair, Sense and Sensibility), his black colleague. The residents not only must hold day jobs in the community but must also undertake service projects as part of their treatment. We see the six interact, mainly at a series of bible study meetings. The lyrics of Carrie Underwood songs are cited. Wade gets to sing and play the guitar. The first act builds slowly to a surprising climax that I did not see coming. The second act features a gripping emotional meltdown, but then spins its wheels and ends on an unsatisfying note. Adam Rigg’s (Fabulation, The House That Will Not Stand) set presents the home’s nondescript living room with a hint of evergreen trees peeking through the vertical blinds. The set is surrounded by a frame that lights up brightly between scenes. Sarah Laux’s (The Band’s Visit, The Humans) costumes suit the characters well. Director Taibi Magar (The Great Leap) shows an affinity for the material. For me the opportunity to see Marin Ireland emote was reason enough to attend. The rest of the fine cast more than holds its own onstage with her. At its best moments, the play is quite gripping. It’s just good enough that one wishes it were even better. Running time: two hours including intermission.

Fabulation, or The Re-Education of Undine

C

As the first installment of Lynn Nottage’s residency, Signature Theatre has revived this work from 2004. Theatergoers who know her only from serious plays such as Pulitzer prizewinners Ruined or Sweat may be surprised to see something in a lighter mode. Undine Barnes Calles (Cherise Boothe; Milk Like Sugar) is the invented persona of Sharona Watkins, who grew up in the Brooklyn projects, won a scholarship to Dartmouth, broke off all contact with her family who, she said, had died tragically in a fire, and for 14 years has run a successful PR firm catering to nouveau riche African-Americans. Two years ago she married Hervé (Ian Lassiter; Junk), a sexy Argentinian. When we meet her, she is yelling at her assistant Stephie (Mayaa Boateng; Fairview) for being unable to find a celebrity to attend the Fallopian Blockage benefit she is planning. Imperious in her gold lamé outfit at her teak desk, Undine is clearly ripe for a comeuppance. In short order, her husband absconds with all her money, she becomes the subject of an FBI investigation, she finds out she is pregnant, she is forced to move back home to the family she rejected and she ends up in jail after being mistaken for a drug addict. We next see her in a drug rehab group session where a college professor (Dashiell Eaves; A Time To Kill) is waxing rhapsodic over the pleasures of cocaine. Guy (Lassiter again) is a security guard in the group who takes a shine to her. We see their first date at a BBQ restaurant. A scene of her frustrating visit to a social services office is a bit heavy-handed. Undine’s attempts to become a better human being are not completely convincing and the second act flounders a bit. Truth is Undine, with her droll asides, is much more entertaining company than Sharona. Ms. Boothe is excellent and is supported by a strong ensemble of seven (Heather Alicia Simms; Fairview; Nikiya Mathis, Skeleton Crew; J. Bernard Calloway, Memphis; Marcus Callender, plus the three actors already mentioned) who play multiple roles. Some of the costumes by Montana Levi Blanco (In the Blood, Fairview) and wigs by Cookie Jordan (Once on This Island) are delightfully outlandish. Adam Rigg’s (The House That Will Not Stand) set converts effortlessly to a variety of locales. Director Lileana Blain-Cruz (Red Speedo, War) keeps things moving. It is sporadically entertaining but the satire misses as often as it hits. Running time: one hour 55 minutes including intermission. 

Noura

C

The program at Playwrights Horizons indicates that Heather Raffo’s (9 Parts of Desire) play about five Iraqi immigrants in New York was inspired by Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. My advice is to forget that fact because the connections between the two plays are tenuous at best. The titular character, performed by the playwright , is a woman approaching 40, an architect back in Mosul, who was uprooted with her husband and son eight years ago by ISIS. As a fair-skinned Christian, she had relatively little difficulty emigrating to the U.S. Her husband Tareq, now known as Tim (Nabil Elouahabi), was a surgeon back in Iraq but had to work in a fast-food restaurant when they arrived in New York. Their highly assimilated son Yazen, now Alex (Liam Campora; Marvin's Room), is mostly interested in video games. Rafa’a (Matthew David; Glamping), a Muslim obstetrician who emigrated several years before them, has been a friend of Noura’s since childhood and is a frequent visitor. As she prepares to celebrate their first Christmas as U.S. citizens, Noura is excited by the prospect of finally meeting Maryam (Dahlia Azama; Veil'd), a 26-year old orphan rescued from a convent bombed by ISIS, whom Noura has been sponsoring. Christmas dinner does not go well. Maryam is definitely not the deferential young woman Noura was expecting. She has already made an important life choice that her hosts find unacceptable and resents the mold they are trying to force her into. The play’s most grounded character, the likable Rafa’a, reveals a secret that he has kept hidden for many years. Tareq confesses to feelings about his wife that he has never admitted to her. Finally, Noura reveals her own shattering secret, one she has hidden for over a quarter century. There are many important issues raised by the play — the difficulties faced by immigrants, conflicting feelings about honoring a past that is forever gone while adjusting to a new life, dealing with nightmare memories of war. finding a balance between community and individualism, and facing the corrosive effects of tribalism, both in Iraq and in the U.S. Some of these are better worked into the fabric of the play than others. I am sorry that the author felt the need to add some melodrama to the mix. I was also troubled by the 180-degree personality change by one of the characters. The actors are good, especially Mr. David. Andrew Lieberman’s (The Glass Menagerie) set, while quite attractive, made little sense to me. Would a woman who can’t muster the commitment to buy a sofa install a massive brick room divider in her apartment? Tilly Grimes’s (The Thanksgiving Play) costumes suit each character well. Joanna Settle’s (9 Parts of Desire) direction is unobtrusive except that I was puzzled by scenes when Noura steps outside for an illicit smoke and we very faintly hear her thoughts. It is a play that, for me at least, did not live up to its ambitions. Running time: 90 minutes, no intermission.

The Head and the Load

B+

After a sold-out run at the Tate Modern earlier this year, William Kentridge’s remarkable multimedia piece about the overlooked role of Africans in World War I is having its North American premiere at the Park Avenue Armory. Although over a million Africans were conscripted by both sides to serve as porters during the war and probably at least 100,000 of them died from hunger, exhaustion and illness, almost no mention of them appears in the history books. Kentridge redresses this omission with a multimedia tribute that combines music, dance and art to powerful effect. The music by Phillip Miller and Thuthuka Sibisi which incorporates African idiom into the score, is played by The Knights and gloriously sung by a talented ensemble. Gregory Maqoma’s choreography is strong, especially a heartbreaking duet for two men. The varied projections by Catherine Meyburgh are an essential part of the production. The art by Kentridge includes an array of metal sculptures and stylized objects carried by the porters that look remarkable when seen in shadow play. Some of his drawings are periodically projected on newsprint. The costumes by Greta Goiris, some fanciful, others realistic, are evocative. Set designer Sabine Theunissen, with a stage that runs the entire length of the Armory’s gigantic drill hall to fill, breaks up the space with a few whimsical towers. The piece uses repeated processionals with cumulative effect. The large cast is excellent without exception. The stage is so wide that it is almost impossible to take in everything that is going on at any given moment. I doubt that anyone would understand the events depicted without reading about them in the program. In London it ran 70 minutes; now it’s 90 minutes. 70 would be better. Nevertheless, it’s a truly unique experience that should not be missed by the adventurous. It runs through December 15.

Network

C

After seeing ivo van Hove’s version of The Damned, I feared what he would do once he got his hands on this 1976 classic satire written by Paddy Chayevsky and directed by Sidney Lumet. The near-unanimous praise from the London critics somewhat allayed my misgivings, but what I saw tonight in this adaptation by Lee Hall (The Pitmen Painters) mostly confirmed them. Let me say immediately that Bryan Cranston (All the Way, "Breaking Bad") is superb in the role of Howard Beale, the TV anchorman at the center of the action. Seeing him perform is the only thing that made the evening at all worthwhile for me. Everything else about the production is so overblown, so frenetic, so gimmicky and so disjointed that it wore me down long before it ended. Upon arrival, we see that the center of the stage is occupied, for no apparent reason, by actors performing yoga. Jan Versweyveld (The Crucible, A View from the Bridge) has configured the stage as a TV studio with the control room on one side and, for reasons best known to van Hove (A View from the Bridge) , a restaurant with six tables for two on the other. Five of them are filled by theatergoers who eat dinner throughout the play. At one point the empty table is occupied by two actors, having public sex among the diners. The restaurant bar which is at the far edge of the restaurant is not visible to most of the audience, but it doesn’t matter because the only scene that takes place there is captured on the large video screens where you are likely to watch most of the play. (Don’t worry about expensive seats; it’s all on the giant screen.) Beale’s boss and longtime best friend Max Schumacher (Tony Goldwyn; Promises, Promises; The Dying Gaul) fires him because his ratings are down. Diana Christensen (Tatiana Maslany, Mary Page Marlowe, "Orphan Black"), a ruthless young producer without a moral compass, has an affair with Max. Despite the sex scene at the restaurant, there is little apparent chemistry between Goldwyn and Maslany. Frank Hackett (Joshua Boone; Actually), an ambitious executive brought in by the network’s new corporate owner, wants to subordinate the news division to the programming division. Edward Ruddy (Ron Canada (Zooman and the Sign) is the longtime network chief who is trying without much success to preserve the network’s independence. Frank Wood (Side Man, The Babylon Line), a fine actor, has little opportunity to make an impression in the bland role of Nelson Chaney. Nick Wyman (Desperate Measures) is appropriately ponderous as corporate head Arthur Jensen. Alyssa Bresnahan (Napoli, Brooklyn), as Max’s wife, does her best with soap-opera-worthy lines. The production relentlessly assaults the audience with flashing screens, loud music and much scurrying about. The brief forays into audience participation were the only things that seemed half-hearted. Somewhere midst all the cacophony there’s a cautionary tale about the media that still resonates even though the media themselves may have changed. At play’s end, the large screen shows a collage of all the presidents since Ford taking the oath of office. This gave the audience an excuse to applaud George H.M. Bush and Obama and boo Trump. Just another gimmick. Go to see Cranston if you are a fan. Otherwise, just rent the movie. Running time: two hours; no intermission.

To Kill a Mockingbird

B+

I must confess that I thought it was a terrible idea to turn Harper Lee’s classic novel into a Broadway play starring Jeff Daniels (Blackbird, God of Carnage, “The Newsroom”). The film version is so indelibly lodged in people’s consciousness that it did not seem possible for a stage version to compete, even with a script by Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men, “The West Wing”). While I have admired much of Daniels’s work, he’s not Gregory Peck. My doubts grew when I heard that the roles of the three children would be played by adults, a practice I generally detest. I am happy to report that my qualms were mostly misplaced. While Sorkin’s script hews closely to the film in most respects (It’s been so long since I read it that I can’t comment on how closely it adheres to the novel), the changes he makes are mostly improvements. The roles of Calpurnia, Dill and the judge have been expanded, to good effect. A new character, the town drunk Link Deas (a touching Neal Huff; The Iceman Cometh), has been introduced, with his own tragic tale of the dire consequences of an interracial marriage. A few scenes from early in the film, such as Scout’s first day at school, have been left out without serious harm. Even allowing for the fact that the actors playing them are adults, the children seem a few years older than in the novel. This makes dramatic sense because the three, mainly Scout, narrate the story. The level of the acting is superb; even small roles have been cast with fine actors. Daniels is solid, but no match for my memory of Peck. Celia Keenan-Bolger (The Glass Menagerie, A Parallelogram) is superb as Scout. Will Pullen (Sweat, Punk Rock) is fine as her brother Jem. LaTanya Richardson Jackson (A Raisin in the Sun) makes Calpurnia a good sparring partner for Atticus. Gideon Glick (Significant Other) is the wrong physical type for Dill (allegedly based on Truman Capote) but brings out his sensitivity well. Stark Sands (Kinky Boots) plays against type as the racist prosecutor Horace Gilmer. Frederick Weller (Mothers and Sons, Glengarry Glen Ross) is an appropriately sinister Bob Ewell. Erin Wilhelmi (The Crucible) is excellent as his daughter Mayella. Phyllis Somerville (Over Here, “The Big C”) is fine as the acerbic Mrs. Henry Dubose. Dakin Matthews (The Iceman Cometh) as the judge and Danny McCarthy (The Iceman Cometh) as the sheriff are both effective. Gbenga Akinnagbe (A View from 151st Street) is a quietly forceful Tom Robinson. In an interesting casting move, Danny Wolohan (The Low Road, The Flick) successfully plays both Mr. Cunningham and Boo Radley. Liv Rooth (Is He Dead?, All in the Timing) doubles as Dill’s mother and Miss Stephanie. The fluid staging is greatly enhanced by Miriam Buether’s (Three Tall Women) wonderful set that rapidly transforms between locations. The period costumes by Ann Roth (The Nance) are also fine. A few of the changes play to current sensibilities: the jury’s verdict is much quicker and a police shooting is much more violent. The jury’s seats remain empty, as if to lead us to project ourselves into them. Although Atticus is still very much at the center, the play works more as an ensemble piece than a character study. Bartlett Sher (My Fair Lady, The King and I) directs the large cast with consummate skill. All in all, I was pleasantly surprised how well this stage version turned out. Running time: two hours 35 minutes including intermission.

The Hello Girls

A-

How grateful I am that a knowledgeable friend urged me to see this thoroughly satisfying chamber musical now at 59E59 Theater A. I had never heard of Prospect Theater Company and knew nothing about the historical footnote on which the show is based, i.e. the experience of American women recruited by the U.S. Army to serve as telephone operators in France in World War I, so I had not planned to see it. To miss it would have been a great shame. The show has been crafted with unusual skill. The music by Peter Mills is varied and often catchy, his lyrics are intelligent and the songs are well-integrated into the ambitious book by Mills and Cara Reichel. The attractive young cast of ten is simply amazing. They not only sing, dance and act; they play instruments (with one exception) and speak French. The story, based on actual people, focuses on Grace Banker (Ellie Fishman), a skilled Bell Telephone operator who is persuaded by her adventurous friend Suzanne (Skyler Volpe, guitar) to apply for the job. As the most experienced of the lot, she is chosen to head the unit, which includes Bertha (Lili Thomas, brass & piano), a married woman who doesn’t want to stay home while her husband is fighting overseas; Louise (Cathryn Wake, clarinet), a saucy French immigrant who wants to help her native country; and Helen (Chanel Karimkhani, cello), a sensitive young girl from a large Iowa farm family. Grace’s nemesis is Lt. Riser (Arlo Hill, percussion), who has been assigned oversight of the unit against his will and has no sympathy for the operation. Private Matterson (Matthew McGloin, accordion & piano) is a flirty soldier attached to the unit. We also meet General Pershing (Scott Wakefield, bass), who values the unit’s work. Andrew Mayer and Ben Moss portray various soldiers and play a mean piano. There is also an offstage percussionist, Elena Bonomo. The energetic choreography by Christine O’Grady makes effective use of a small space. The multilevel wood set design by Lianne Arnold has a lot of pegboard panels, some used for projections. The period costumes, mostly uniforms, by Whitney Locher are evocative. The fluid direction by Prospect’s producing artistic director Cara Reichel is a great asset. On the 100th anniversary of the armistice, it seems fitting to give these trailblazing women the recognition they deserve but were denied until 1977. My only criticism is that there is perhaps too much of a good thing. Trimming it by ten or fifteen minutes might be an improvement. There is so much to admire here that I hope some clever producer finds an off-Broadway house for the show after it closes December 22.  Running time: two hours 25 minutes, including intermission.

Thom Pain (based on nothing)

C

It has been 13 years since playwright Will Eno (The Open House, The Realistic Joneses) took New York by storm with this extended monologue that received an ecstatic review from then Times critic Charles Isherwood, who described it as “stand-up existentialism” and dubbed Eno “a Samuel Beckett for the Jon Stewart generation.” The play became a hot ticket, a Pulitzer contender, and the topic of heated arguments at cocktail parties. I was not one of its fans, but could not resist Signature Theatre’s revival because the star Michael C. Hall (The Realistic Joneses, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, “Dexter”) is an actor whose work I have long admired. Knowing more or less what to expect this time around, I could relax and enjoy a fine actor at work without a sense of disappointment at the play’s circularities and teases. The script reminds me of the comic “Peanuts,” with Lucy repeatedly pulling the ball before Charlie Brown can kick it. Thom repeatedly promises the audience something and then abruptly retracts it or begins a story that he never finishes. Clearly in pain, he alternately charms and alienates the audience. Fragments from his life story including a childhood trauma and a failed romance give a few clues as to the reasons for his state of mind. Lodged amidst the self-laceration and passive aggression are some very funny bits. Michael C. Hall has more charm and less menace than I recall from James Urbaniak’s 2005 performance, which takes some edge off the play. I question Signature’s decision to put it on their largest stage, because it needs intimacy to have its full effect. From the third row, I saw nuances that may have been lost several rows back. The set by Amy Rubin (Miles for Mary) turns the stage and large parts of the theater into a construction site, complete with ladders, tarps, a scaffold, and an onstage excavation. The relevance of this concept to the play is questionable at best. For me, it was one more example of what seems to be a trend this season — overloading a play with dubious visual distractions such as the set for Good Grief and the furniture-moving chorus in The Hard Problem. Did director Oliver Butler (The Open House, What the Constitution Means to Me) not trust that the play itself was enough to hold our interest? If the thought of a rambling 65-minute rant does not appeal to you, skip it. If you are a Michael C. Hall fan, you’ll want to catch it.

Slave Play

A-

Jeremy O. Harris certainly qualifies as this season’s hot young playwright. In addition to this work at New York Theatre Workshop, he has a second play, Daddy, coproduced by The New Group and Vineyard Theatre, coming up in February. He was a MacDowell Colony Fellow and has been commissioned by both Lincoln Center Theater and Playwrights Horizons. The current play has already won the 2018 Kennedy Center Rosa Parks Playwriting Award and the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award. Not bad for someone in his second year at Yale School of Drama. 

This is a difficult review to write because to tell you too much about the play would be to spoil much of the pleasurable surprise I hope you will experience seeing it. I can say that it involves interracial sex and is not just sexy, but also hilarious, provocative and highly theatrical. The setting is specified as MacGregor Plantation in Virginia. The play has three acts performed without a break. In the long first act, we meet Jim (Paul Alexander Nolan; Escape to Margaritaville), a white tenant farmer on the plantation, and Kaneisha (Teyonah Parris; A Free Man of Color), the slave who is cleaning his shack. Next we meet Alana (Annie McNamara; The Sound and the Fury), the bored mistress, and Phillip (Sullivan Jones; The Winning Side), the studly mulatto house-servant/musician. Finally there are Gary (Ato Blankson-Wood; Lysistrata Jones), a black overseer, and Dustin (James Cusati-Moyer; Fire and Air), a white indentured servant whose work Gary is supervising. Things happen. After an abrupt ending, we are in the extended second act, which has an entirely different tone and casts everything we have seen so far in a new light. This act includes two new characters, Tea (Chalia La Tour; The Danger) and Patricia (Irene Sofia Lucio; Love and Information). The short dramatic final act combines elements of the previous two, but features only one of the couples. I realize this description does not give you much to go on, but trust me that it’s better not to know a lot in advance. The cast is uniformly strong. The scenic design by Cllint Ramos (Once on This Island, Torch Song) includes an astroturf stage backed by eight large mylar panels that reflect not only the audience but a painting of the plantation house on the auditorium’s back wall. The costumes by Dede Ayite (American Son, School Girls), especially Alana’s gown, are a treat. The lighting design by Jiyoun Chang adds a lot to the production. Director Robert O’Hara (Wild with Happy, Bella), whose direction of his own plays has not always been optimal, does a smooth job here, capturing the play’s many moods. I assure you that you won’t be bored, although I do feel that the long second act could use a trim. It’s not for those offended by nudity or sexual situations. Others should find it both entertaining and thought-provoking. Running time: two hours five minutes, no intermission.

Downstairs

C-

First the good news: this latest offering by Primary Stages offers the opportunity to see Tyne Daly (Gypsy, Master Class, “Cagney and Lacey”) and her brother Tim (Coastal Disturbances, “Madame Secretary”) together onstage for the first time in New York, both playing roles that cast them against type. Tim, usually a suave charmer, plays Teddy, a middle-aged man with a fragile grip on reality that may be the result of paranoia. Tyne, usually the smart, strong woman, plays Irene, a timid, depressive housewife who lives in fear of her horrible husband Gerry (John Procaccino; Our Mother’s Brief Affair, Nikolai and the Others). The bad news is that the play is by Theresa Rebeck (Bernhardt/Hamlet, Poor Behavior), a playwright whose ability to get her work produced no matter how many disappointing plays she writes never fails to amaze me. Add another disappointment to the list. Despite a interesting premise — Teddy is temporarily occupying a beat-up couch in Irene’s basement against the wishes of her tyrannical husband — the play mostly spins its wheels and dissipates what little tension it builds up well before it finally ends. If there was any point to it, it was lost on me. Despite fine performances by all three actors, I found myself losing interest and patience early on. The slack direction by Adrienne Campbell-Holt (Thirst, Zürich) didn't help either. I did like Narelle Sissons’s (All My Sons, In the Blood) meticulously detailed, dingy, unfinished basement set and Sarah Laux's (The Band's Visit, The Humans) evocative costumes. I admire the Dalys for trying something different, but wish it had turned out better. Running time: one hour 45 minutes, no intermission.

The Prom

A-

Director/choreographer Casey Nicholaw once again demonstrates the Midas touch in choosing material. To the three hits (Mean Girls, Aladdin and The Book of Mormon) he already has on Broadway, he has now added a fourth with this delightful, cannily-crafted show that puts the comedy back in musical comedy. It may recall Bye, Bye, Birdie in depicting the invasion of Middle America by show biz celebrities and also Hairspray in its theme of righting an injustice, but the end result is totally original. It is hilarious, generous and touching. When two “aging narcissists,” as the Times review calls them, Dee Dee Allen (Beth Leavel; The Drowsy Chaperone) and Barry Glickman (Brooks Ashmanskas; Something Rotten!, Bullets over Broadway), are brutally panned for their performances as Eleanor Roosevelt and FDR in the hiphop musical Eleanor, they search for a way to burnish their reputations by becoming celebrity activists. When they read on Twitter about Emma (Caitlin Kinnunen; The Bridges of Madison County), a lesbian high school student whose wish to bring her girlfriend to the prom led to the prom’s cancellation, they find their cause. Joined by their friends Angie (Angie Schworer; The Producers), a chorus girl in Chicago for 20 years, Trent Oliver (Christopher Sieber; Shrek, Spamalot), a Juilliard-trained actor/waiter who is between jobs, and their rotund PR man Sheldon Saperstein (Josh Lamon; Groundhog Day), they hitch a ride to Edgewater, Indiana with a non-Equity Godspell bus tour to lend their help to Emma, whether she wants it or not. The campaign against an inclusive prom is led by the adamant Mrs. Greene (Courtenay Collins; Eating Raoul), whose daughter Alyssa (Isabelle McCalla; Aladdin), unbeknownst to her mother, is Emma’s secret girlfriend. The school principal Mr. Hawkins (David Josefsberg; Altar Boyz, u/s for Michael Potts; Jitney) is sympathetic to Emma and is on the verge of finding a solution when the Broadway Five barge into the PTA meeting, thereby managing to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. There is a cruel trick played on Emma that leads to her breakup with Alyssa. A side plot is that Mr. Hawkins is a big fan of Dee Dee’s and they hit it off. I won’t go into details of the further mayhem that follows. Suffice it to say there is a terrific song for each character, the dance numbers are wonderfully energetic and the ending is touching. The sturdy book by Bob Martin (The Drowsy Chaperone) and Chad Beguelin (Aladdin, The Wedding Singer) includes a slew of insider Broadway musical jokes to make the audience feel smart. The music by Matthew Sklar (Elf, The Wedding Singer) is catchy and the lyrics by Bequelin are often clever. Scott Pask’s (The Book of Mormon, The Band’s Visit) sets are both functional and attractive. The costumes by Ann Roth (The Nance) and Matthew Pachtman (The Book of Mormon) are wonderful. The show has been brilliantly cast. Normally I would be offended at the swishy queen stereotype represented by Barry, but Ashmanskas plays him so well that I didn’t really mind. My only complaint is that, as so often happens these days, the music was overamplified, making the lyrics occasionally hard to hear. The season gets a welcome boost from this thoroughly enjoyable show. Running time: 2 hours 25 minutes including intermission.

A note about color-blind (or alternative) casting: Once again I am puzzled by whether the race of an actor is meant to be significant or not. The actor who normally plays Mr. Hawkins, the school principal, is black. The night I attended, the role was played by his understudy, who is white. If the choice of a black actor was meant to be significant, it would put a certain spin on events in the play. The citizens of Edgewater could not be completely intolerant if they chose someone black as high school principal. Would it then be meaningful that the only one in town who is trying to build bridges is black? It would also add another dimension to the romance between Dee Dee and Mr. Hawkins. On the other hand, if race was not a consideration in the casting and the actor chosen was simply the best actor auditioned, then all my speculation is irrelevant. I wish I knew which. Comments, as always, are welcome.

The Hard Problem

B-

This 2015 play by Tom Stoppard (The Coast of Utopia, Arcadia, Travesties), his first in nine years, has finally reached New York in a sleek Lincoln Center Theater production directed by Jack O’Brien (The Coast of Utopia, The Little Foxes). While not among Stoppard’s best efforts, it offers much of interest. The titular problem refers to determining the nature of human consciousness. When we meet Hilary (Adelaide Clemens; Hold On to Me Darling), she is a psychology student preparing for a job interview at the Krohl Institute of Brain Science with the assistance of her tutor Spike (Chris O’Shea; The History Boys), whose interest in her is not entirely academic. They debate whether altruism is just egoism’s disguised survival mechanism. When she arrives at Krohl for her interview, she meets Amal (Eshan Bajpay: Can You Forgive Her?), a “quant” who is competing for the same job. While he is not hired by department head Leo (Robert Petkoff; All the Way, Ragtime), Amal accidentally attracts the attention of Jerry (the excellent Jon Tenney; The Heiress), the hedge fund manager who has founded the institute, and ends up being hired at the fund. Hilary also runs into former schoolmate Julia (Nina Grollman; The Iceman Cometh), who teaches Pilates to institute employees, and Julia’s lover Ursula (Tara Summers; Gypsy of Chelsea), who works there. Julia’s main function in the play is to impart the information that when she was 15 Hilary had a daughter who was immediately put up for adoption. Ursula gives Hilary advice that will improve her chances of getting the job. We see Jerry in two roles, barking mercilessly at Amal, and being solicitous to his 13-year old daughter Cathy (Katie Beth Hall). Did I mention that she’s adopted? (Wink, wink). Hilary thrives in her new job and is sent to a conference in Venice to present a paper. Spike conveniently is also there and they hook up again. Hilary hires an assistant Bo (Karoline Xu; You Across from Me) who has left the hedge fund for the institute to feel she is doing work that contributes to society. Her boyfriend is none other than Amal. Hilary throws a party to celebrate the publishing of a paper about an experiment that Bo conducted under her guidance that suggests that altruism is innate and egoism is learned. It turns out that Bo tampered with the data to get a result that would please Hilary. As a consequence of the experiment, Hilary also finds out that her prayers for her daughter’s wellbeing have been answered. What you might expect to be the climax takes plays offstage and the play ends on a very quiet note. The ongoing debates over altruism vs. selfishness, coincidence vs. miracle, brain vs. mind take precedence over plot. In addition to the principal roles, there is an ensemble of six (John Patrick Doherty, Eleanor Handley, Olivia Hebert, Sagar Kiran, Baylen Thomas and Kim Wong) whose function consists of moving sets between scenes and sitting on risers at the back of the stage watching the other actors. While David Rockwell’s (She Loves Me, The Nap) scenic design is a wonder of drop-down panoramas, pop-up beds, movable furniture, and sliding panels, it somehow seems distracting for a play that is basically about ideas. Catherine Zuber’s (My Fair Lady, Oslo) costumes are apt. O’Brien’s direction is a bit too busy for my taste. While the play never deeply engaged me, it did hold my interest. I was surprised that Ms. Clemens got a solo bow during the curtain call as her performance, while quite competent, did not reach star level. Running time: one hour 50 minutes; no intermission.

Apologia

B

If you are a Stockard Channing fan like me, you will enjoy this 2009 play by Alexi Kaye Campbell (Pride), which was revived for her in London last year and has now landed in New York at Roundabout’s Laura Pels Theatre. In my opinion, no one plays a smart, sharp-tongued woman of a certain age better than Ms. Channing (Other Desert Cities, Six Degrees of Separation, A Day in the Life of Joe Egg). In this instance, she plays Kristin Miller, a renowned art historian and social activist who fled the U.S. for London when she was 20 and has never looked back. At her country cottage, she is celebrating her birthday with a dinner for her two adult sons — the composed international banker Peter (Hugh Dancy; Venus in Fur, Journey’s End) and the emotionally fragile would-be writer Simon (also played by Dancy); Peter’s girlfriend Trudi (Talene Monahon; Bobbie Clearly, Log Cabin), a perky earnest Christian from Nebraska whom Kristin has not met before; Simon’s girlfriend Claire (Megalyn Echikunwoke), a stunning television actress with whom he has been living for over a year; and Kristin’s longtime gay best friend Hugh (John Tillinger, best known as director of plays by Orton, McNally, Gurney and Miller). The facts that the oven is not working and that Simon has not arrived bode ill for what turns out to be a worthy entry in any “Dinner party from Hell” contest. Kristin does not approve of her gifts — an African mask from Peter and Trudy and a beauty cream from Claire. Only Hugh’s gift of an old photograph of a youthful protest pleases her. An innocent question by Trudi about why Kristin chose Giotto as her favorite artist elicits a long, showy monologue. Kristin has recently published a memoir, entitled Apologia, about her career, in which she has not even mentioned her sons, an omission that pains them both. We learn that when they were 7 and 9, their father essentially kidnapped them, but Kristin made no attempt to get them back. Emotions boil over and everyone goes to bed. In the middle of the night Simon arrives, his left hand injured by broken glass from a fall. As Kristin tends his wounds, he torments her with a drawn-out story about what happened the night she failed to pick him up at the Genoa train station when he was 13. He says that his main childhood memory of her is her absence. In the morning, after all her guests have left, Kristin is forced to confront the consequences of her choices. As a showcase for Ms. Channing’s prodigious talents, the play succeeds. If, however, you start to look at things too closely, there are many flaws — contrivances such as identical cellphones, cliches such as a wise-cracking gay friend, gimmicks such as double-casting, borrowings such as the scene between Simon and Kristin which strongly recalls one in The Seagull, improbabilities such as Simon and Claire being a pair, and omissions such as information about her late husband and the reasons he took their sons away. As a serious consideration of whether a woman can have it all, it breaks no new ground. Nevertheless, the opportunity to see Ms. Channing in action definitely outweighs all these shortcomings for me. The other actors are fine as well. Dane Laffrey’s (Once on the Island, Bad Jews) set is cozy and appropriately book-filled. Anita Yavich’s (Venus in Fur, The Legend of Georgia McBride) costumes, especially Claire’s dress, are very good. Daniel Aukin’s (Skintight, Admissions) direction is unfussy. If Ms. Channing is a draw for you, you will be content. Running time: two hours 15 minutes including intermission.

Operation Crucible

B+

When it played at 59E59 Theaters last Spring as part of the Brits Off Broadway festival, this taut World War II drama about the bombing of Sheffield in December 1940 was selected as a Critic’s Pick. Now it is receiving an encore run at The Loft at the Davenport Theatre. The four blokes we meet are workmates at a steel mill that supplies armaments critical to the British war effort. Their strenuous work requires tightly coordinated teamwork which we see them perform. We learn about their daily routines and their lives away from work. The frequent German air raids had not targeted Sheffield until that horrendous evening when the sirens tell them to flee the factory. They head homeward, but only get as far as the local hotel where they take shelter in the basement. When a bomb hits the hotel, it collapses around them and they are trapped in a pitch-black tiny space hoping to be rescued. We learn what memories and worries each man is thinking of during the crisis. The cast (Salvatore D’Aquila; Kieran Knowles, who also wrote the play; Christopher McCurry and James Wallwork) are superb individually and as a team. Their ensemble work is brilliant. Bryony Shanahan’s tight direction adds much to the production. The simple set and costumes by Sophia Simensky are apt. Seth Rook Williams’s low lighting is effective and Daniel Foxsmith’s sound design is appropriately ominous. The only negative, and it is not a serious one, is that the thick Sheffield accent is occasionally hard to decipher. The program contains a helpful glossary of local terms. The play's title is a translation of the German's name for their bombing campaign against Sheffield.There has been so little publicity for the reopening of the play that the audience was unfortunately quite sparse. I hope word of mouth changes that. Running time: one hour 20 minutes, no intermission.

The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui

D+

The election of our current president has led to a glut of productions of this parable of fascism and corruption during the rise of Hitler; this version at Classic Stage Company is the fourth in New York this year. Since my track record with Brecht is not good — I will admit somewhat shamefacedly that I have never really enjoyed a Brecht play — it was probably a mistake for me even to get a ticket. However, hope springs eternal and I was curious to see what CSC director John Doyle would do with the play and how Raul Esparza (Company, The Homecoming) an actor I have always enjoyed, would fare in the title role. I should have stayed home. I found the production wanting in just about every respect. First there is the play itself. I did not think transposing Hitler’s rise to the story of a gangster fighting for control of the Chicago cauliflower trust was an apt metaphor. Lest we miss the connections, an announcer bursts in periodically to tell us what event in Germany corresponds to what is happening onstage. Secondly I had a problem with George Tabori’s translation, which alternated between stilted verse and gangster talk. Thirdly, I was puzzled by Doyle’s ugly set which fences off the back of the stage to represent some vague industrial space with workmen’s lockers, helmets hanging on the wall and bright lights shined at the audience periodically. (Regular readers of this blog know how I feel about shining bright lights in the audience’s eyes.) The actors periodically drag chairs and folding tables from this back room to and from the main performing space. The costumes by Ann Hould-Ward (Passion, Allegro) offered little help in defining the characters. I never did figure out why actors donned welder’s helmets from time to time. The quality of the acting varied. I thought Eddie Cooper (This Ain't No Disco) as Roma and Christopher Gurr (All the Way) as Dogsboro/Dullfeet stood out. The other actors were George Abud (The Band's Visit), Elizabeth A. Davis (Allegro), Omozé Idehenre, Mahira Kakkar (The Winter's Tale) and Thom Sesma (Pacific Overtures). As for Raul Esparza, he coped reasonably well with a role that was not a natural fit. The first act builds rather slowly. In my favorite scene, Ui hires an actor to teach him how to walk, talk and sit. After intermission, the audience was a bit smaller. The mood darkens in the second act and we start hearing faint recorded shouts of “Sieg Heil!” in the background. The transformation of this shout to “Lock her up!” in the final moments was about as subtle as a sledgehammer. While a cautionary tale about how fascism develops is certainly welcome today, I don’t feel this is a very effective one. Running time: two hours five minutes including intermission. NOTE: CSC no longer distributes paper programs so you may want to download the digital version on your smartphone before you arrive.

WIld Goose Dreams

B-
While the new play by Hansol Jung now at the Public Theater is a co-production with La Jolla Playhouse, the two theaters have apparently taken quite different approaches to the work. While the La Jolla production had a very simple set, the Public has totally reconfigured its Martinson Theater to suggest Seoul, with a technicolor extravaganza of neon signs, backlit posters and photographs, a hot pink catwalk and audience crossover and a two-tiered stage with numerous popups and hidden doors. We also have a mod Greek chorus (Dan Domingues, Lulu Fall, Kendyl Ito, Jaygee Macapugay, Joel Perez, Jamar Williams and Katrina Yaukey) singing binary code, internet messages and emoticons. All of this is allegedly in service of the tender love story of two lonely people who meet online, Guk Minsung (Peter Kim; Yellow Face, Kung Fu), a “goose father” who stayed behind in Seoul to fund a better life for the wife and daughter he sent to America, and Yoo Nanhee (Michelle Krusiec; Chinglish), a young woman who fled North Korea four years before, who is troubled by dreams and visions of the father (Francis Jue; Yellow Face, Kung Fu) she left behind. The problem for me was that all the lavish ancillary bells and whistles practically smothered the main event. While I was often entertained by the latest surprise in Clint Ramos’s (Eclipsed, Barbecue) set, Linda Cho's (The Lifespan of a Fact, Anastasia) clever costumes and the inventive direction of Leigh Silverman (The Lifespan of a Fact, Chinglish), I felt that they somehow diminished the central story. There were occasions when it was confusing to know what was transpiring. My favorite moments were the quieter ones when there was less attempt to grab attention. Francis Jue steals every scene he is in. Ms. Krusiec seemed a bit subdued. Mr. Kim was fine, but a bit too young and too handsome for his role. The chorus members were an entertaining lot. While I did not enjoy some of what was presented, I was certainly never bored. Running time: one hour 50 minutes, no intermission.

Lewiston/Clarkston

B- (Lewiston C+/Clarkston B+)

These two separate but thematically related plays by Samuel D. Hunter (The Whale, Pocatello) are being presented together for the first time at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. Each involves a descendant of Lewis and Clark trying to find meaning by retracing the steps of their forefathers. Both have a scene set on the Fourth of July. 

In the first play, Lewiston, we meet Alice (Kristin Griffith; Animal, Da), a crusty older woman who has sold off most of the ranch that had been in the family since 1850 and is barely hanging on. The few dollars she earns from her roadside fireworks stand are supplemented by the Walgreens earnings of her 50-ish closeted roommate Connor (Arnie Burton; The 39 Steps, Machinal). She is planning to sell her remaining land to the developers of Meriwether Terrace, the condo estate going up next door. The unexpected arrival of her estranged granddaughter Marnie (Leah Karpel; The Harvest, Pocatello), whom she has not seen in over 15 years, disrupts these plans. The abrasive, condescending Marnie has sold her share of an urban farm in Seattle and wants to buy what’s left of the family property. Marnie likes to play the tapes her late mother recorded during her hike following Lewis and Clark’s steps to the Pacific. The three reach some kind of equilibrium. I found the characters less fully developed than I would have liked and their motivations less than clear. 

For the second play, Clarkston, Hunter, affectionately nicknamed the Bard of Boise because all his plays are set in Idaho, actually moves the setting across the border to Washington State. Jake (the ever youthful Noah Robbins; Brighton Beach Memoirs, “Master Harold”…and the Boys), a distant descendant of William Clark, is a recent arrival in town who has taken a job as night stock boy in the local Costco where he is being shown the ropes by Chris (Edmund Donovan; The Snow Geese), an amiable employee also in his 20’s. After graduating Bennington with a major in post-colonial gender studies, the privileged Jake has suddenly left home to follow the historic trail to the Pacific. He has stopped short of his goal to earn some money before pushing on to the ocean. Jake tells Chris that he has recently been diagnosed with early Huntington’s disease which will probably kill him before he reaches 30 and shortly after his diagnosis was dumped by his boyfriend. It turns out that Chris is furtively gay and the two begin a relationship of sorts. We next meet Chris’s mother Trish (Heidi Armbruster; Time Stands Still, Disgraced), an allegedly recovering meth addict, from whom Chris has desperately been trying to cut the cord. The climactic confrontation between mother and son is gut-wrenching. Chris and Jake find a way to comfort each other, at least for the time being.

As usual, Hunter is very compassionate toward his characters, all of whom must struggle for freedom, whether economic or sexual or from addiction. His look at life in the new West is a bleak one.

For this production, Rattlestick has gutted the theater. Dane Laffrey (Once on This Island) has designed two different performance spaces. For the first play, the audience of 51 sits on three sides of the action with a fireworks stand on the fourth. For the second, seating is in two longer facing rows with Costco shelves on both short sides. The costumes by Jessica Wegener Shay (A Kid Like Jake) are appropriate to the characters. The actors are all superb and are so close that you can practically touch them, a proximity that magnifies your connection. Between plays, the audience shares a communal meal during the 45-minute break. You can order barbecued chicken or tofu or bring your own food.

At three hours 45 minutes, it’s a very long evening, especially sitting on barely padded metal chairs. I felt that the direction by Davis McCallum (Pocatello, The Whale) was more than a little sluggish. Each play is 90 minutes, a full evening by today’s standards. I would have preferred skipping Lewiston and just seeing Clarkston, which I felt was clearly the better play.