The Imaginary Invalid

B-

As an avid Bill Irwin fan, I have been eagerly awaiting his adaptation of Moliere, now in previews at Roundabout’s Todd Haimes Theatre. I am sorry to report that I found it disappointing. Since I haven’t read or seen the original, I can’t comment on the faithfulness of Irwin’s adaptation, but I thought his version was a bit overwrought and tiresome. Furthermore, except for a bit of mime at the very end, it did not show Irwin doing what he does best. He plays Argan, the hypochondriac at the mercy of a team of doctors more concerned about billing than healing. He throws in modern terms like “primary care provider” so we don’t miss that he is also criticizing our own health care system. Argan’s daughter Angelique (a rather strident Ava Lalezaezadeh) wants to marry the handsome Cleante (Daniel Croix Henderson). Her stepmother Beline (the scene-stealing Crystal A. Dickinson) wants to send her to a convent and is champing at the bit to get hold of Argan’s money. Argan wants to marry her to the ridiculous Thomas (Hiram Delgado), nephew of Dr. Diaforus (Brooks Ashmanskas, not at his best) so he will have a doctor in the family. Argan’s brother Beralde (the always excellent Dylan Baker) wants to cure him of his hypochondria. Argan’s wily servant Toinette (the wonderful Rachel Bloom) pretends to agree with everyone, but slyly manages to manipulate them to her will. The actors break the fourth wall occasionally to solicit the audience’s agreement with their remarks.  I found it only sporadically funny.  Brandon J. Dirden’s direction kept things moving smoothly. The best part of the experience for me was seeing the marvelous costumes by Karen Perry which were truly a feast for the eye. Beowulf Boritt’s set is also a treat, especially the way it is assembled before our eyes by masked men cloaked in black. Most of the audience seemed to be enjoying themselves, but I was expecting more. Running time: 90 minutes; no intermission.                   

Good Time Charlie

A-

As soon as you enter Martinson Hall at the Public Theater and see the exotic garden complete with a torii gate, you are ready for something out of the ordinary and that’s what actor/playwright, Ryan J. Haddad, delivers. Haddad is a gay man of Lebanese extraction from Shaker Heights, Ohio who has not let his cerebral palsy prevent him from having a theatrical career in New York. Over the last several years he has performed a series of autobiographical solo works that have been well received. This time out, he has attempted something more complex, a tribute to the gay uncle (Jonathan Raviv) who introduced him to theater, interwoven with his own life story. Uncle Charlie’s parents (Nael Nacer and Artemis Pebdani), unlike Ryan’s, were unsupportive, forcing him into a career in dentistry when he really wanted to be an actor. Charlie was fortunate enough to meet Lou (Tim Bagley), a recently divorced professor of film studies, at a Cleveland gay bar when Charlie was still a dental student. The 24-year age difference proved no obstacle to what became a lifelong relationship. Through Lou, Charlie met Sheldon (Michael Cristofer), owner/programmer of the local art cinema, who became a very close friend. Charlie, Lou, Sheldon and Janice (Beth Malone), Ryan’s lesbian aunt, became his chosen family. Throughout the play, Haddad employs several metatheatrical devices including breaking the fourth wall to address the audience and having Charlie argue with Ryan over the script. To complicate matters, the same actors portray both Charlie’s parents and Ryan’s parents, which occasionally became confusing. While the first act is mostly light-hearted and raunchy, the mood darkens in the second act when one of the characters suffers a stroke and Charlie is burdened with the care of his parents and closest friend. It struck close to home when Sheldon expressed both his regret at never having had a long-term relationship and his belief that the arts offer life-sustaining power. The total effect of the play was quite original and bracing. The actors are all very good. Long-time theater lovers will be happy to see Beth Malone from Fun Home and Michael Cristofer, author of the Pulitzer winner The Shadow Box. The set by Afsoon Pajoufar and costumes by Enver Chakartash are wonderful. Director Danny Sharron successfully negotiates the many twists and turns. You certainly don’t have to be gay to enjoy it, but you are likely to enjoy it more if you are. Running time: two hours 15 minutes including intermission.
 
  

Other Desert Cities

B

I saw the original Lincoln Center Theater premiere 15 years ago and the Broadway transfer, which I liked somewhat better, a year later. When I learned that the play was being revived on Broadway, I had no intention of seeing it again but the temptation to see Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ed Harris and Allison Janney together on one stage was too strong for me to resist. The third time wasn’t exactly a charm, but it wasn’t a disappointment either. The plot revolves around whether East Coast lefty writer-daughter Brooke Wyeth (Lily Rabe, in a role previously played by Elizabeth Marvel and Rachel Griffith), not long out of an expensive psychiatric clinic, should publish her memoir about a family tragedy that happened 25 years prior, no matter what pain it causes her staunchly Republican parents Polly & Lyman Wyeth (Louis-Dreyfus and Harris, in roles created by Stockard Channing and Stacey Keach) who are living in Palm Springs splendor in self-exile from Hollywood. Polly is a former screenwriter and Lyman is a former actor famous for his dying scenes. Janney plays Polly's alcoholic sister Silda (previously played by Linda Lavin and Judith Light), who cowrote screenplays with Polly until they had a falling out, and who is using her niece to work out her own feelings against her sister. Joe Keery plays Brooke's hedonist younger brother Trip (a role originated by Thomas Sadowsi, followed by Justin Kirk), producer of a "Judge Judy"-type tv show, who is trying desperately not to take sides. They all have at each other for an act and a half, until we learn that things are not quite as they seem. A brief final scene set five years later seems a rather artless way to end the play. Don’t blink or you’ll miss an important non-verbal moment at the very end. The play has dated a bit. The Reagan Republicans with whom the Wyeths associated seem almost quaint today. The first act seems a bit long and repetitive, but things pick up in Act Two. The dialog is full – perhaps over-full -- of one-liners. Baitz’s script generously gives each actor a chance to shine. Louis-Dreyfus and Harris seemed a bit tentative at first but grew stronger as the play progressed. Rabe makes a strong impression as Polly but plays her closer to hysteria than I recall. Keery is perfectly fine as Trip. There is no way Janney resembles Louis-Dreyfus enough to be her sister, but no matter. She steals every scene she is in. The set by Scott Pask is surprisingly drab, unlike any Palm Springs homes I have seen. The costumes by Tom Broecker are attractive except for the one that Polly first appears in, a tennis outfit with a skirt that looks more like an apron. The sound design by Mikaal Sulaiman is good. John Benjamin Hickey keeps things moving and gives each actor their moment. The play has its flaws but is entertaining, nonetheless. I would recommend it more enthusiastically if it were not for the outrageous ticket prices. Minimum prices for orchestra or dress circle seats begin at $340 and go up exponentially from there. The price I paid a month ago has doubled. If you have a bundle of cash, go and enjoy. Running time: 2 ½ hours including intermission.
 
 

anon

B

There are at least three possible meanings for the title of Anne Washburn’s latest play, now in previews at MCC Theater. The word is internet slang for an unknown person online. It is also short for QAnon, the insidious conspiracy theory that gripped the country several years ago. Finally, it is an archaic word for “soon,” which turns out to be the scariest definition. My history with Anne Washburn is not a happy one: after being disappointed by three of her plays in a row several years ago, I decided that I had no affinity for her work and gave up on her. When this Washburn premiere turned up on my MCC subscription, I was not thrilled, but decided to grin and bear it. To my surprise, it turned out to be an interesting evening. While the play is far from perfect, it is timely and offers lots to think about. It is set in a San Antonio suburb in late September 2024 in the waning days of the Biden era. Our protagonist is Jeanie (the excellent Crystal Finn), mother of a 15-year-old daughter Delia (a fine Izabel Mar) and an 8 year-old son whom we never meet. We don’t learn a lot about husband Michael (Andrew Garman), except that may be unhappy in his marriage. A gay couple have just moved in across the street: the level-headed Adam (Jeff Biehl) and the excitable Will (the usually excellent Jeremy Shamos). The host of the televised interview with Jeanie that opens the second act is played by Joel Van Liew. One of the central themes of the play is our addiction to social media, but, in a neat twist, it is the parent, not the child, who is the addict. Jeanie spends so much time spinning conspiracies on her TikTok account that she forgets things like picking Delia up after school or preparing dinner. Delia, on the other hand, has forbidden her mother even to mention her on TikTok. The new neighbors stumble across Jeanie’s account and learn that she is incensed by the pride flag they have put up on their house. They become paranoid to a humorous but ridiculous degree until, four nights later, when she actually takes their flag down. In a subplot, Delia’s (short for Cordelia?) latest assignment from her English teacher is to write a soliloquy for a Shakespearean character who does not get one. She chooses Goneril, Lear’s eldest daughter. In a bold move, Washburn begins act two with a several-minute-long television interview in 2027 (not a typo) between the vice-president-general and “digital warrior” Jeanie. I won’t give away who the v-p general is. The play then resumes where it left off back in September 2024 before the flag-snatching. While each of the play’s threads is interesting, they don’t knit together as well as they might. The extremely abrupt ending needs work. As I write, there is still a week before opening, so perhaps things will fall into place. The minimalist set by dots depicts a table with benches and chairs that doubles as the dining space of both families. The projection design by Jared Mezzocchi is simple but effective. Brenda Abbandandolo’s costumes are apt. The lighting by Cha See is evocative. Anne Kauffman’s direction is fluid. As the play now stands, I found it a flawed but intriguing work that I was glad I didn’t pass up. Running time: two hours five minutes including intermission.

Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen

B-

The tragedy of composer/lyricist Duncan Sheik’s recent death at 56 is compounded by the fact that he did not live to see either the upcoming revival of his Tony-winner Spring Awakening or the opening of this, his final musical, now in previews at The Night Egg at The Culture Club. My expectations upon arrival were completely misguided -- I thought the show was based on the life of the famous French author Colette, but it turned out to be based on the eponymous heroine of a popular Japanese manga graphic novel, whose only connection to the former was that she too became a writer. This Colette (Sophia Anne Caruso) is a whore in a mid-range Parisian bordello, with a boyfriend since childhood named Leon (Cory Jeacoma) who turns out to be an utter scoundrel. We also meet some of the other whores – the overweight, over-the-hill Carmen (Elsa Keefe); Ivy (Leanne Antonio), the lesbian infatuated with Colette; Gigi --not that one! – (Jesse Peltier), Mignot (Jaedynn Latter), their no-nonsense madame (Jenny Powers), and, finally, Nana (Nkeki Obi-Melekwe), the higher-class whore for whom Leon furtively lusts. The clients, who include a man who wants to be a bird, another who wants to be a clown who watches the circus girls from inside a trunk, and one who wants to be a dog on a leash, are played by Michael Everett, Caleb Marshall, Austin Lesch and Michael Starr – I would tell you who was which, but I’m uncertain. Sakae (Marc dela Cruz) is a Japanese blocked writer who pays Colette to keep a notebook which he hopes will inspire him. One of the women suggests that Colette enter a story contest offering the winner publication in Le Matin (an inside joke because the real Colette became literary editor of Le Matin). She wins but at a cost. The book by Leah Nanako Winkler plays well. I liked Sheik’s pop rock music better than the lyrics – “For whom do you long” may be exemplary grammar but not very conversational. I didn’t think the songs ever reached the level of Spring Awakening, American Psycho or The Secret Life of Bees. The cast is universally strong, especially Caruso, who has to do most of the heavy lifting. Scott Pask’s set features a scruffy circus ring. Except for a bed that lowers and rises as needed, the set is strictly low-tech – instead of a turntable, we get two stagehands in black pushing a ladder around the ring. Catherine Zuber’s costumes and Brian Tovar’s lighting add a lot to the production. The choreography by Rob Ashford, who also directed, includes one brief pas de deux near the end that struck me as incongruous. The simulated sex scenes were more athletically impressive than lascivious. There is no nudity. When I saw how edgy and youthful the arriving audience looked, I realized that I was definitely not the target audience for this show. Nevertheless, it was an interesting way to spend 90 minutes.

American Psycho ***

This musical version of Brett Easton Ellis’s controversial 1991 novel about Patrick Bateman (the mesmerizing Benjamin Walker), an investment banker by day and serial killer by night, is a triumph of style over substance. Although I have neither read the book nor seen the movie, I gather that the musical has smoothed out a lot of the rough edges and reduced the body count substantially. Satire trumps gore most of the time. The soullessness of consumerist capitalism in the Reagan era is well-captured by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s book, Duncan Sheik’s music and lyrics, Lynn Page’s choreography and Rupert Goold’s direction. The gadgets, brands, clubs and restaurants may have changed but the spirit of entitlement in 1989 New York is not all that different from today’s. Bateman and his coworkers are as vacuous as their pecs are buff. The women are equally unlikable. The monochromatic scenic design by Es Devlin and sophisticated projections by Finn Ross are so striking that they sometimes threaten to upstage the actors. Among them are Helene York as Bateman’s obnoxious fiancee, Jennifer Damiano as his love-struck secretary, Drew Moerlein as his rival, Morgan Weed as his mistress and Alice Ripley, basically wasted, as his mother. The whirling sets, hyperactive videos, bright lights (by Justin Townsend) and gaudy costumes (by Katrina Lindsay) eventually produced a feeling of sensory overload and a diminishing conviction that the story was worth all the effort involved. The second act loses some of the early energy. Nevertheless, as its best moments, the show’s style overcomes its flaws and makes for edgy entertainment. The audience, considerably younger than usual for Broadway, was quite enthusiastic. Running time: 2 hours, 35 minutes including intermission.

My 1,000th Post!

 

Little did I know back in 2010 what I was getting myself into when I started this blog by publishing a few lines about a play I had just seen to share my impressions with a few friends. As my comments grew more extensive, these friends shared them with their friends and the number of readers grew. I began seeing more shows and writing more elaborate reviews, reaching a peak of 112 in 2018. A combination of health problems and the pandemic slowed me down for several years and I hit bottom with only four reviews in 2024. The loyalty of my readers encouraged me not to give up. Thanks to my doctors and Access-A-Ride, NYC's paratransit program, I have been able to resume a good portion of my theatergoing. And so, as I reach this landmark, I offer my gratitude to my readers and resolve to continue for as long as possible to fulfill my stated mission -- to prevent readers from wasting time and money on plays they are not likely to enjoy and to point them toward worthy plays they might not know about.

School Girls; or, The African Mean Girls Play (Broadway)

A-

Since I enjoyed this comedy by Jocelyn Bioh thoroughly when I saw it at MCC Theater nine years ago, I was happy to hear that Manhattan Theatre Club was bringing it to Broadway where more people could enjoy it. This production, with an all-new cast and an all-female, all-black creative team, adds some star power to the casting with Denée Benton of “The Gilded Age,” Jasmine Amy Rogers of Boop! The Musical, and Patina Miller, Tony awardee for Pippin. Benton plays Paulina, the reigning mean girl at Aburi Girls Boarding School in central Ghana in 1986. Ama (Lucia Aremu), Gitty (Nia Otchere-Sarfo), Mercy (Jordan Rice) and the obese Nana (Erin Morton), are the long-suffering members of the clique Paulina bullies. Headmistress Francis (Heather Alicia Simms) is the calm center of the school. When the play opens, the girls are excited about the upcoming Miss Ghana contest. A recruiter, Eloise (Miller) is coming to audition the girls for the pageant. Being chosen as Miss Ghana is rewarding not only to the winner but involves a bonus to the recruiter who found her and a contribution to the school she came from. Pauline’s clear path to being selected the school’s contestant is suddenly blocked by the arrival of a new girl, Ericka (Rogers), recently arrived from Ohio and daughter of the country’s leading cocoa producer. Ericka is beautiful, talented and, most importantly, light-skinned. Eloise immediately wants her because her light skin gives Eloise a better chance of winning a bonus, while the headmistress prefers Paulina. We see the lengths to which Paulina and Eloise will go to get their way. Although there are loads of laughs, the insidious presence of colorism darkens the humor. The front curtain is a huge Ghanaian flag which lifts to reveal the school cafeteria designed by Teresa L. Williams. The costumes by Qween Jean for the gown competition are attention grabbers. Whitney White’s direction is fluid. Everything comes together to provide a very enjoyable experience. Running time: 85 minutes, no intermission.
NOTE: If you would like to read my review of the 2017 production, here’s the link:
https://tinyurl.com/ycx7x2cr
 

THEATER BULLETIN: A unique Broadway double presale

Beginning Thursday, September 10 at Noon, two Broadway premieres of plays by Pulitzer-winning playwrights go on sale as a package deal -- Bruce Norris’s 2022 drama Downstate and Bess Wohl’s 2015 Small Mouth Sounds, both directed by multiple Tony winner Joe Mantello. The rules are very complicated so I have attached a link to the press release below, but the gist of it is that if you buy a ticket for the limited Fall run of Downstate for $150 or more, you are assured a ticket for the Spring run of Small Mouth Sounds for “only” $250. I liked the Norris play very much (https://tinyurl.com/2rwdn887) and highly recommend it. While I enjoyed Small Mouth Sounds too (https://tinyurl.com/4h9xnx7b), I can’t imagine it in a Broadway theater, nor can I image anyone paying $250 or more to see it. A large part of the appeal of its earlier production was that that there were only two rows of seats on facing sides of a long, narrow stage, so you felt very close to the action. If Mantello can recapture that feeling of intimacy, he is truly a miracle worker. My advice is to sit tight until September 25, when separate tickets for Downstate go on sale. This is a marketing ploy by Scott Rudin that I hope doesn’t catch on.

Link to press release: 

https://tinyurl.com/mrc3272a

FLASH: The Times just announced that Julia Roberts, Paul Rudd, Sarah Paulson and Martin Freeman will be in the Small Mouth Sounds cast. I suppose it's an easy opportunity for them to appear on Broadway without having to learn a lot of lines and a reason to charge big bucks for tickets.

Paranormal Activity

B-

In 2007 a very low-budget indie horror film with the same name, about a young couple in a haunted house, was a surprise hit that went on to become one of the most profitable movies Hollywood ever made. Its gimmick was that the story was presented as found footage recorded by security cameras, at that time the utmost in high tech. Six sequels followed. Now, playwright Levi Holloway has taken up the gauntlet with a theatrical version for the age of Alexa, FaceTime and Zoom. Lou (Cher Alvarez) and James (Travis A. Knight), a bickering young couple who have been married for almost a year, have just moved from Chicago to London, mainly to escape Lou’s anxiety, depression and blackouts, caused by a sense that she is being haunted. Alas, they learn that you can’t leave your troubles behind, and we eventually learn that Lou is not the only one being haunted. We also meet James’s Bible-thumping Southern mother Carolanne (Shannon Cochran) and a medium, Etheline Cosgrave (Eva Kaminsky), whose podcasts Lou has been avidly following. The actors are all well-suited to their roles. There are enough laughs to keep the rising tension from boiling over. Fly Davis’s cross-section of a rather dowdy London house provides a suitable setting for the action, with failing fuses, tripped alarms, banging doors and more. Designer Chris Fisher gives us two illlusions, one in each act, that got enthusiastic ovations. Note that I mention applause, not screams – I did not hear a single scream during the entire play. There were a few moments that were startling, but not truly scary. For me, things didn’t really kick into gear until the last fifteen minutes when we finally learn more about Lou and James and why they are being punished. The ending is so abrupt that if you blink you will miss it. The younger than usual audience was attentive, but not demonstrative. Most of the major New York critics gave the play enthusiastic reviews. I wish I could join them, but I thought two hours was a long time to sit there for a very modest payoff. 

Amaze

B+

This magic show/memoir featuring Jamie Allan, a British magician/monologist who intersperses memories of his childhood with a series of amazing illusions, sleight of hand and mentalist tricks, has been running at New World Stages for over a year.

Allan grew up over a village pub owned by his loving, supportive parents. His mother, who sang at the pub’s cabaret, died when he was still a child. The show is in large part a tribute to her. 

Some of the tricks are small scale, involving Rubik cubes, playing cards and a jigsaw puzzle, but they are projected on three large screens. The first act ends with a spectacular levitation with a surprise twist at the end. The second act involves more tech, including video screens, iPads and, in a trick that especially baffled me, the calculators on the audience members’ cellphones. There is low-key audience participation, mostly with children. The set and projections are quite elaborate. His two female assistants are duly attractive. At two hours with intermission, it’s a little long. Some of the reminiscences are a bit long-winded and could be trimmed to pick up the pace. Nevertheless, it delivers on its title and is a good family show. Discount tickets are available on TodayTix.

THEATER TALK: September 2026

Now that September is here, the pace of openings both on and off Broadway is picking up greatly. Here are a dozen shows opening in the next two months that caught my eye. 

On Broadway, there are many more revivals than new works: 

Manhattan Theatre Club is bringing Jocelyn Bioh’s comedy School Girls: Or, the African Mean Girls Play, an off-Broadway hit in 2017, to the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre starting September 8^th. (Here’s a link to my review of the 2017 production: https://gotham-playgoer.blogspot.com/2017/11/school-girls-or-aftrican-mean-girls-play.html.)

Roundabout Theatre Company presents Tony winner Bill Irwin starring in his own adaptation of Moliere’s The Imaginary Invalid at the Todd Haines Theatre starting September 25.

On September 29, Jon Robin Baitz’s 2011 play, Other Desert Cities, begins previews at the Hudson Theater, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ed Harris and Allison Janney. That’s a play I reacted to quite differently the two times I saw it (https://gotham-playgoer.blogspot.com/2012/01/other-desert-cities-revisited.html). With this cast, I’m tempted to see it yet again.

Lincoln Center Theater has revived Aaron Sorkin’s 1989 hit, A Few Good Men, with Bradley Whitford leading the cast. 

A hit in London, Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing comes to the Winter Garden Theatre starting October 31^st starring Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell.

In a musical revival with a twist, The Fantasticks finally arrives on Broadway, regendered to be about two mothers and their two sons, at Second Stage’s Hayes Theatre on October 25^th.

As for new shows, here are two of note:

Billy Crystal returns to Broadway in 860, a one-man show about the loss of his home in the Palisades fire, starting October 1^st at the Imperial Theatre.

And, finally, the only new Broadway musical soon to open is Wanted, about Mary and Martha Clarke, two outlaws on the run in 1890’s Texas. With no names I recognized among the creators or the cast, this is truly a dark horse. Previews start October 15^th.

Off Broadway, Greenwich House Theater is presenting a limited-run revival of Marin Ireland’s semi-autobiographical play Pre-Existing Condition about moving forward after a life-altering relationship. It was a New York Times Critic’s pick in its earlier production. The leading role will be played by a different actress each week, including Lupita Nyong’o, Phillipa Soo, Susannah Flood and Edie Falco. Previews begin September 1^st.

Vineyard Theater presents the one-man show In Honor of Jean-Michel Basquiat, written and performed by Roger Guenveur Smith, beginning September 9^th.

Starting September 29^th. The Public Theater is presenting Ryan J. Haddad’s Good Time Charlie, which Playbill describes as a “multigenerational story of gay men growing up, falling in love, and cherishing the arts.”

The Public is also presenting the North American premiere of the musical The Curious Case of Benjamin Button after a West End run. Previews begin on October 8. 

These twelve shows vividly illustrate the variety and vitality of the New York theater scene. There should be something here for just about every theatergoer.

If you would like to be on his distribution list to receive each new review, send a request to rsholiton@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

A-

If you’re looking for a witty, hilarious theatrical experience at a reasonable price (my orchestra seat was only $77), I direct your attention to the 20^th anniversary revival of William Finn (music and lyrics) and Rachel Sheinkin’s (Tony winning book) delightful musical, which has been running strong since November off-Broadway. Since I enjoyed it so much 20 years ago, I was afraid to see the revival lest it not hold up to my affectionate memories of the original production. I needn’t have worried: although it may not be as nearly perfect as the Broadway version, it is very good indeed. I didn’t spot an upcoming successor to Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Dan Fogler or Celia Keenan Bolger in the cast, but the present cast is just fine and includes recent Tony winner Alex Newell in a stellar performance as Rona Lisa Peretti, who is managing the event. We meet six tweenagers – Chip Tolentino (Philippe Arroyo), last year’s champion, whose performance this year is affected by his passage through puberty; Missy Clark (u/s Emily N. Rudolph), who is feeling the burdens of expectations of perfection; Leaf Coneybear (Fernell Hogan, a talent to watch), whose family thinks he is not smart; Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre (Laura Marano), whose gay dads are obsessed with winning; Olive Ostrovsky (u/s Cecilia Snow), whose parents are not there to support her; and William Barfée (standout Julian Sewell), a bullied outsider with a unique way of spelling his words with his foot. We also meet the four brave audience members who volunteered to be in the bee; they ran the gamut of age and gender and their personal characteristics were cleverly incorporated into the show. Spoiler alert: none of the volunteers wins. Matt Manuel plays Mitch Mahoney, the “comfort counselor” who escorts each loser offstage. Jon Cryer portrays Vice Principal Douglas Patch, who reads the contest words and the absolutely hilarious sentences they are used in. The contestants are competing fiercely for the chance to go to the National Spelling Bee in Washington. In his review in The New York Times when the show premiered, Charles Isherwood cleverly described the show as A Chorus Line with pimples. The two shows do share the structure of having each competitor break into song with their back story, but that show, for all its glories, was not a hilarious comedy. Finn’s score is still a treat and Sheinkin’s book is as clever as ever, with a few tweaks to bring it up to the minute. The scenic design by Teresa L. Williams captures the essence of a school gymnasium. Emily Rebholz’s costumes suit each character well. Danny Mefford’s choreography is a treat and his direction is skillful. There are a few moments near the end where things lagged a bit, but not seriously. I was happy to see that there were a lot of young people in the enthusiastic audience. If you want to escape harsh reality for a brief while and enjoy some laughs, I can think of no better place to go than New World Stages to catch this show. Running time: 95 minutes; no intermission.

NOTE: it’s always a pleasure to go to New World Stages, where a multiplex that failed was converted to five theaters the perfect size for most off-Broadway shows. 

Schmigadoon

C+

First, some background: Schmigadoon is the stage adaptation of Apple TV+’s six-episode show’s first season, which was intended as a parody of and homage to the musicals of the 40’s and 50’s. The tv series’ co-creators, Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio, wrote a second season about musicals of the 60’s and 70’s which was streamed and a third season about 80’s and 90’s musicals which was not. Triple-threat Cinco Paul wrote the music, lyrics and book for the stage version, which the New York Times made a Critic’s Pick. In a season in which the number of new musicals was so low that there were only four nominees instead of five for best musical, Schmigadoon took home the Tony. Even with these accolades, I was reluctant to see it because I found the TV version too twee and gave up after two episodes. However, after an extremely knowledgeable friend told me it was a “must see” and an opportunity arose to see it at a group price, I bought a ticket. I was not surprised that I did not find it to my taste; I was surprised that six of the ten people I attended with left at intermission. So what was the problem? The first act gets off to a slow non-musical start. When the music finally begins, we get a series of songs that sound a lot alike accompanied by dances (by Christopher Gatelli, who also directed) that look a lot alike. I also did not find the lead characters engaging and felt little stake in the outcome. I won’t even try to explain the details of the plot. Suffice to say that two doctors from New York, while on a camping trip in the Catskills, get trapped in a magical town where everyone bursts into song at the slightest excuse. We learn how they affect the townspeople and how the townspeople affect them. It’s one of the rare shows that improves in the second act, which opens with a terrific group tap number. The writing is sharper, the stakes are higher, and the story takes greater risks. I enjoyed the mandatory dream ballet which features a pas de deux in front of a vending machine. The cast and the production values are topnotch. Alex Brightman as John, the doctor with the commitment problem, who hates musicals and refuses to sing, makes a fine straight man. Sara Chase, as his long-suffering partner Melissa, acts well and sure can belt a song. Ana Gasteyer, Ann Harada, Brad Oscar, Maulik Pancholy, Max Clayton and McKenzie Kurtz all excel in their supporting roles. The costumes by Linda Cho and sets by Scott Pask are a treat for the eyes and the orchestrations by Doug Besterman and Mike Morris please the ear. I wish the entire show were up to the level of the best moments of the second act. The show panders unabashedly to three segments of the intended audience – feminists who will enjoy seeing women learn to be independent, gay men who will appreciate its fairy (no slur intended) tale of universal acceptance, and avid musical lovers who will feel clever identifying all the references to other musicals. If you have access to Apple TV+, I suggest sampling the TV series before you commit to buying a ticket. Running time: two hours 35 minutes including intermission.

THEATER TALK

Summer is the quiet season in New York theater. With very few openings—especially on Broadway—it's a good opportunity to step back from individual shows and think about theatergoing in general and how to improve your chances of having a rewarding experience.

The best place to keep track of what's playing now and what's coming up is Playbill.com. In addition to theater news and feature articles, it lists Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, with summaries, running times, opening and closing dates, and information about where to buy tickets.

One word of caution: I usually ignore the ticket link on Playbill and instead go directly to the show's official website. When you search online, type the name of the show (or opera, concert or ballet) followed by "official website" to make sure you've reached the real site. That's the safest way to buy tickets. More than one friend has unknowingly purchased tickets from a website that looked official but wasn't, only to discover later that they had paid inflated prices and unnecessary fees. Friends who have used TodayTix have reported mixed experiences.

I also recommend signing up for the email lists of Telecharge, Ticketmaster, and Criterion Ticketing. They frequently announce new productions before tickets go on sale to the general public and often include worthwhile discount offers.

Many of New York's best Off-Broadway productions come from nonprofit theater companies such as Manhattan Theatre Club, Roundabout Theatre Company, Atlantic Theater Company, Second Stage, Signature Theatre, Lincoln Center Theater, MCC Theater, and Classic Stage Company (CSC). These companies depend heavily on subscriptions, although they also sell tickets to individual productions. If you find yourself enjoying several shows from the same company each season, a subscription can be an excellent value—and it may encourage you to discover plays you might otherwise have overlooked.

There is, however, one trend that concerns me. Many nonprofit companies have been squeezed by rising costs and reduced government support. As a result, some have cut back on the number of productions they present, rented their theaters to outside producers, relied more heavily on familiar revivals that are likely to sell well—or all of the above. Broadway faces its own challenge: the cost of mounting a new production has become so high that producers are understandably more cautious about what they are willing to risk.

Despite these challenges, I'm optimistic. Every season brings worthwhile discoveries, and the coming one already looks promising. In my next column, I'll highlight some of the productions that I think are most deserving of your attention.

 

Robert Sholiton has been writing a theater blog called Gotham Playgoer (https://gotham-playgoer.blogspot.com) since 2010. If you would like to be on his distribution list to receive each new review, send him a request at rsholiton@gmail.com

 

Disruption

 

C

This play by Andrew Stein, which received mostly favorable reviews when it premiered in London three years ago, is now onstage at the Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre at The Pershing Square Signature Center. Its main topic could hardly be more timely – the growing influence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in our lives. Just in the three years since the play premiered, some of its premises already seem less improbable. I am therefore sorry to report that this dark comedy with such a relevant theme is largely a disappointment. In a nutshell, the plot revolves around three well educated, well-to-do 40-ish New York couples who are summoned to dinner by a former classmate, Nick (John David Washington), who has become a successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur but whom they hold in low regard. We meet Paul (Joe Tippett), a print journalist, and his dutiful but charmless wife Jill (the excellent Elizabeth Stanley), parents of two young boys, whose marriage is very rocky. Ben (the versatile Conrad Ricamora), a Columbia professor, and Suzie (Shaunette Renée Wilson), a psychiatrist, are seemingly the perfect couple who have deliberately decided not to have children, but Ben has a secret. Barry (Jason Ralph) and Mia (Irene Sofia Lucio), a surgeon and a photographer respectively, would like to buy a Brooklyn brownstone that is beyond their means. Just in passing, we learn that Mia, who is Jill’s sister, has slept with all three men. Nick has summoned everyone to tell them about his latest project, an algorithm that can determine what will make someone happy and “curate coincidence” to cause it to happen. He brings along Raven (Emma Kikue), the sexy young Harvard and MIT grad who is the brains behind the algorithm. He assures his friends that the two are merely business partners. At least three quarters of the play is spent showing which of the husbands would take the bait. Tellingly, Nick doesn’t seem to be at all interested in what would make the wives happy. Along the way, Suzie is the person who most strongly stands up against Nick and warns of AI’s downside. When Nick and Raven discover that the algorithm has begun acting independently, Raven implausibly turns against it and is fired. We jump ahead a year to learn how things turn out. This sounds more interesting than it plays. The actors do their best with roles, some of which are underwritten and/or schematic. The direction by Hersh Ellis is sluggish. I knew something was amiss when I realized I was paying more attention to the fascinating permutations of the stage floor than to the dialogue. Rather than the scenic design serving the play, things seemed to me the other way around. Scenic (and costume) designer Zoē Hurwitz, lighting designer Reza Behjat, and projection designer Yana Biryukova provide a feast for the eyes that I found more interesting than the material it is supposed to support. It’s a triumph of style over substance. The imminent disruption of our lives by AI deserves a worthy play. This is not it. Running time: two hours including intermission.

 

 

Sukkot

C+

Patrick Sullivan (Andy Robinson) is a retired Irish Catholic English professor prone to bursting into a line from Shakespeare at opportune moments. When the play opens, he is on the phone pouring out his heart to the rabbi who will be officiating at the unveiling of his Jewish wife Sharon’s headstone. The rabbi casually mentions that the ceremony will take place during Sukkot, the harvest-time holiday commemorating the Jews’ 40-year desert journey, during which they lived in temporary huts called sukkot. Observant Jews today build a sukkah outside their home in which they are supposed to eat and sleep during the seven days of the holiday. The rabbi also mentions that it is the only holiday during which God commands Jews to rejoice. Patrick is inspired to build his own sukkah outside his California home, complete with Christmas lights, as a way to break out of his debilitating grief and, perhaps, unify his fractious family. That’s the rather shaky setup for Matthew Leavitt’s dramedy, now at 59e59 Theaters. We meet the eldest child Asher (Jonathan Slavin) who must be near 50. After losing his teaching job and his partner, Asher moved back to the family home to be his mother’s primary caregiver during her excruciating final year. Since her death, he has been immobilized by grief, sleeping all day when he is not playing video games. Middle child Mairead (Liza Seneca) is a successful St. Louis gynecologist with an unsupportive husband who put career ahead of childbearing and now must be around 40 with two small children. She is the responsible one who tries to plan ahead. The youngest child Eden (Natalie Lander), nearing 40, is a free spirit residing in Portland who lives for the moment and who had a contentious relationship with her mother. Put them together in one room – or sukkah – and be prepared for the nonstop grievance fest that ensues. Along the way, two characters reveal secrets, one from the past, the other from the present. My problem is that, although they were characters I felt some compassion for, they were basically unpleasant people that I did not want to spend time with. The early scenes between father and son were repetitious. The dialog alternated between realistic conversation and speechifying. Flashes of humor punctuate the play. Reviews of the Los Angeles production were overwhelmingly positive, so I don’t know why it didn’t work for me. Mark Mendelson’s set design features a sukkah as large as many a Manhattan apartment; it even has an oriental rug. The costumes by Caitlin Cisek and Oriana Sophia are apt. Joel Zwick’s skillful direction deserved better material to work with. I found myself looking at my watch frequently and left disappointed. Running time: one hour 45 minutes; no intermission.

Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody

A- 

If you didn’t see this Canadian series about the romance between two closeted gay hockey players when it became a sleeper hit on Netflix, you can stop reading here. There’s little point in seeing or even reading about a parody if you’re not familiar with the material it parodies. If you’re still here and were a fan of the show, read on. Triple threat Dylan MarcAurele has written the clever book, tuneful music and smart lyrics for this very entertaining show now gracing the postage-stamp-size stage of The Culture Club. The original series and the parody are based on a series of popular novels by Canadian author Rachel Reid. Audience research revealed, to the surprise of many, that a large portion of the books’ readers and the show’s viewers were straight women. Go figure. MarcAurele has cleverly used this fact to frame the story with narration by three middle-aged housewives, all named Susan. Shane Hollander, the Canadian hockey star, is at the heart of the story. Not yet out, he falls hard for the bisexual Russian player Ilya Rozanov, who claims to be in the relationship strictly for the sex. With broad strokes, the show reprises the ups and downs of their relationship over several years. To make room for interpolations by the three Susans that occasionally mention current pop culture memes and present-day events, MarcAurele has intelligently trimmed the script. The songs work well to advance the plot and are often melodious. The lyrics, many of which include obscenities, deserve to be heard. Unfortunately, the sound design has amped up the music to a level that occasionally makes that difficult. The two leads, Jimin Moon as Shane and Jay Armstrong Johnson as Ilya, are both very good. Ryann Redmond is a hoot as the main Susan. Cherry Torres amuses as Shane’s verbally abusive mother and Ryan Duncan is strong as Ilya’s disapproving father. Except for the two leads, all the actors play multiple roles. In a nice touch, each night a member of the audience is chosen to play the small but key role of NY hockey player Scott Hunter. The night I attended Scott was played by a very tall, athletic man who, with script in hand, did a pretty good job of acting. The scenic design by Sully Ross is appropriately tacky, as are the costumes by Brendan McCann. The choreography by Brooke and Tiffany Engen makes the most of a tiny space. Director Alan Kliffer keeps the show moving briskly. The audience, about 50/50 men and women, was wildly enthusiastic. All in all, it was a diverting 75 minutes for those who loved the series. Note: Avoid seats in rows B, C or E; they are not elevated above the row ahead.

The Saviors

 A

I was considerably less impressed than the critics with Bubba Weller’s first play, Well I’ll Let You Go, so I approached his sophomore effort, now at Atlantic Theater Company, with some trepidation. I needn’t have worried – it turned out to be one of the best plays I have seen this season. It’s primarily about two altar boys, Michael (Ivan Howe) and Paul (Julius Kinzel), who are best friends. Michael believes in going by the book and his vision of life is circumscribed by unquestioned expectations of parochial high school, the local Catholic college and a contented life in the parish. Paul is more flexible and compassionate and has broader visions for his future. Judy (Crystal Finn) is the parish’s organist and most prominent member, whose son is doing good at an African orphanage. Julian (Stanley Simons) is a homeless man who turns up at the church one cold winter evening while Michael and Paul are still there. I don’t want to say much more about the plot so you can experience its powerful moments on your own. I have not been in an audience that was so totally rapt in quite a while. The two 14-year-olds are both excellent, as are the other two actors. With one exception, the play is structured as a series of scenes for two in all the possible combinations. David Zinn’s set looks just like the altar of a neighborhood church. Avery Reed’s costumes are apt. Jack Serio, who also directed Weller’s first play, shows a real feel for his sensibility. It was good to see Weller deliver on the promise he hinted at in his first play. As for the title, I leave it for you to decide who’s saving whom. Running time: 95 minutes, no intermission. NOTE: It's on TDF for several performances this coming week.

Theater Bulletin: Birthright extension

 I am happy to report that MCC has extended their sold-out production of Birthright, which the Times made a Critic's Pick and I reviewed favorably, until August 23rd. Go to the MCC website to buy tickets.

From the archives: my very first review August 28, 2010 -- Me, Myself & I * (1* out of 5)

"Much Ado about Nothing" would have been a more appropriate title for Edward Albee's play at Playwrights Horizons. I suspect Albee had more fun writing it than you will watching it. Tons of style, milligrams of content. Lots of shouting and posturing. Elizabeth Ashley and Brian Murray are fun though. Zachary Booth has a nice backside. Don't leave at intermission or you'll miss an amusing stage effect near the end.

Is this a a trend in theater bathrooms?

When Geffen Hall introduced a unisex. all-stall bathroom off the lobby, it was initially a surprise, but I quickly got used to it. However, yesterday at MCC Theater, I encountered something I had never seen before: women in the men's room. Apparently some women have interpreted the sign outside the restrooms that says you can use whichever one makes you comfortable as an invitation to avoid the longer lines to the women's room. I must admit it made me uncomfortable having a woman standing a couple of feet away while I was accomplishing my mission. Has anyone else encountered this at another theater? 

Birthright

 A-

This new MCC Theater production penned by Jonathan Spector, author of Eureka Day, is named for the program that offers free 10-day trips to Israel to young Jewish adults to strengthen their Jewish identity and connection to Israel. In it we meet six participants of a trip 20 years ago at their reunions three weeks later, 10 years later in October 2016 and, finally, in 2024. Chaya (Zoe Winters) and Izzy (Molly Bernard) have been friends since preschool, but the others – Alona (Molly Ranson), Noah (Eli Gelb), Emerson (Nate Mann) and Lev (Hale Appelman) – have not met before the trip. They have bonded into a mishpacha (family) who decide to try to retain that bond over the years. Their first reunion, at Chaya’s home in the Virginia suburbs, is partially an intervention to prevent Alona from abandoning her doctoral studies and making Aliyah (moving to Israel) to join the IDF soldier who deflowered her on the trip. Lev, who mysteriously disappeared halfway through the trip, arrives late and explains that he left the trip to have his own unmediated experience. Noah is a blogging pioneer with unreciprocated feelings for Chaya. She plans to join the Obama campaign. Emerson, who has been kicked out of his rock band, decides to become an EMT. Izzy wants to found a Jewish social justice program that addresses problems in the U.S. Lev shocks the group by announcing that he wants to go to rabbinical school. Chaya's mother Deborah (Liz Larsen) puts in an appearance to share her wisdom.

The second act takes place around the hot tub at Chaya’s house. This time they have gathered for a wedding. (There is a brief nude scene between Emerson and Chaya that led the producers to make the audience put their phones in Yondr bags. Since the scene could easily have been staged in a manner that would not have required this, I think it was either a marketing ploy or a smart move to keep the audience focused on the play during the two intermissions.) We learn how their plans worked out – or didn’t – over the decade since their first reunion. The upcoming election is barely mentioned with Hillary’s election seeming assured.

While the first two acts were interesting, for me the play did not really build up full steam until the final act, set in 2024. This time they are gathered for a shiva (Jewish wake). In addition to their personal loss, they are grieving over the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and the subsequent retaliation wreaked on Gaza. We learn how each of their lives has been adversely affected by these events. Spector is even-handed, allowing his characters to express at least three diametrically opposed viewpoints without taking sides. Although the arguments are cogently presented, I felt that Spector’s focus was more on the characters than on the 

arguments.

Along the way, there is lots of humor as well. A subsidiary theme is the increasing corrosiveness of social media over the years, which Spector literally shows us by projecting emails and chats on the walls.

The actors are all excellent. Occasionally I missed a line when an actor was speaking at high speed and low volume.  Terry Bergman’s direction holds everything  together well. Scott Pask’s beautiful traditional living room set in act one takes on a modern look in act three. The costumes by Clint Ramos are all spot-on. 

In summary, the play was slow to build but worth the wait for the payoff in the final act. I somehow expected that there would be more about the issues but the playwright instead chose to concentrate on his characters. I am not sure how much appeal the play has for non-Jews.

Running time: three hours 20 minutes including two 15-minute intermissions.
 
 

A Walk on the Moon

B

If you have not seen Tony Goldwyn’s 1999 film of the same name starring Diane Lane, Liev Schreiber, Tovah Feldshuh, Anna Paquin and Viggo Mortensen, about the summer of 1969 in a Catskill bungalow colony, you will probably find this musical quite enjoyable. If, on the other hand, you love the film, I’m not sure your response will be as positive. When a play or film is musicalized, the question I ask is whether the quality of the score and choreography compensates for the simplification of plot and character needed to make room for the songs. In this instance it’s a close call. While the music by Annmarie Milazzo is pleasant, there is nothing that could cause an earworm. The lyrics by Milazzo and Pamela Gray are occasionally clunky. The book, also by Gray, who wrote the original screenplay, is intelligent and opens the story beyond the moon landing and Woodstock to a broader canvas that includes feminism and protest movements. The second act actually improves on the screenplay by leaving out an incident that was implausible and unnecessary. I was puzzled why they increased the daughter’s age by a year and left out a scene about her first period. The cast is mostly solid. Talia Suskauer has a strong voice and is convincing as Pearl, a wife and mother who fears that life is passing her by. Max Chernin is credible as Marty, her hard-working, loving, but boring husband. Sam Gravitte has the vocal and acting chops to succeed as Walker, the sexy itinerant blouse man; he drew lots of oohs and ahs when he removed his shirt. Andrea Burns, who I usually look forward to seeing, looks too young to be anyone’s bubby. On the other hand, Sophie Pollono looks too old to play Alison, the 15-year-old daughter, and, for reasons unknown, has been saddled with an unfortunate Brooklyn accent that none of the other actors share. Oscar Williams hits the right notes vocally and dramatically as her boyfriend Ross. As her younger brother Danny, Reid Gardner Clarke doesn’t have much to do. Anthony Faria, David R. Gordon, Megan Kane, Caroline Pernick, Becca Suskauer and Michael Tacconi are fine as the neighboring three couples. The amusing loudspeaker announcements that regulate life in the bungalow colony are voiced by Tovah Feldshuh. The period costumes by Ricky Lurie and hair and wig design by Matthew Armentraut are excellent. The scenic design by Tal Yarden is efficient but his video projections are often hard to make out. The lighting by Robert Wiesel was sometimes garish. The home movie that fills the stage before the play starts seems pointless. Josh Prince’s choreography is used sparingly but effectively. Sheryl Kaller’s direction keeps things moving smoothly. According to the program, some version of this production has been kicking around since 2014, first at Vassar, then at ACT in Cambridge, then at George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick. I can’t imagine why it took twelve years to get to New York, but in a season when new musicals have been scarce, it’s a welcome addition. It’s playing at Roundabout’s Laura Pels Theatre, but it’s not a Roundabout production. Running time: two hours 15 minutes including intermission.

El Ultimo Sueño de Frida y Diego

 

B-

Having greatly enjoyed the two most recent new productions of the Met season, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and Innocence,  I was hoping for a trifecta with this New York premiere. Alas, it was not to be. While I admire the ambition of composer Gabriela Lena Frank and librettist Nilo Cruz, the result of their efforts is a mixed bag. The overstuffed production by director/choreographer Deborah Colker is partly to blame. The libretto is almost a mirror of the Orpheus story. Instead of Diego going to the Underworld to bring Frida back, Frida returns from the Underworld on the Day of the Dead to bring Diego back. That’s the plot in a nutshell, except that it is padded by a totally unrelated subplot about a Garbo impersonator who wants to bring joy to a devoted fan with a visit from her. There are also philosophical meditations on art and life that don’t easily lend themselves to dramatization. The libretto does little to flesh out the two main characters. Isabel Leonard and Carlos Alvarez are credible in the title roles, but Leonard’s voice often did not project well over the orchestra. Most notable vocally and dramatically was Gabriella Reyes, as Catrina, Keeper of the Dead. Nils Wanderer was fine as Leonardo, the Garbo impersonator. I’m sure Jon Bausor’s cluttered sets have many allegorical meanings that I missed. The costumes, by Bausor and Wilberth Gonzalez, are a riot of color. Colker’s staging often crams the excellent large Met chorus onstage either to move around aimlessly or just stand there. Dancers occasionally reflect or emphasize the narrative. Finally, there’s the score, ably conducted by Yannick Nezet-Seguin. It provides a lush sonic carpet to support the voices but has virtually no highs or lows. There were no arias with a clear ending that provided opportunity for applause. All in all, it was a disappointment. Running time: two hours 25 minutes including one intermission.

Indian Princesses

B

This gentle seriocomedy now at Atlantic Theater Company in a coproduction with Rattlestick Theater is named for an actual YMCA program founded in 1954 whose purpose was to foster the bond between fathers and their young daughters through outdoor activities and crafts. As sensitivity to cultural appropriation increased, all Native American references were removed and it was renamed Adventure Princesses, under which name it still operates today. In the present play, we meet five members of a small new “tribe” in a midwestern city and the men in their lives. The time is specified as the recession of 2008, which actually is not that relevant to the story. The religiose Glen (the always excellent Frank Wood) is the tribe’s founder and his hapless granddaughter Samantha (Haley Wong) is its first member. Chris (Greg Keller, also an actor I am always glad to see), a lawyer from New York, has brought his two stepdaughters Lily (Annisa Marie Griego) and Hazel (Serenity Mariana), who actually have some Native-American blood. Mac (Pete Simpson), a construction worker who is mourning the recent death of his wife, has reluctantly enrolled his shy daughter Andi (Rebecca Jimenez), who, at 12, is the oldest of the group. Wayne (Ben Beckley), an out-of-work techie, is adoptive father to Maisey (Lark White), who is black. In decreasing order of importance, the story intertwines the relationships among the girls, between them and their father figures, and among the men. Moments of pathos occasionally punctuate moments of humor. The acting is all top-notch and the themes touched upon, including overzealous attempts to protect daughters from the real world, parental failure to be attentive, racism, the beauty and difficulty of friendships and the fear of new ideas are worthy of our attention. Almost all the characters created by playwright Eliana Theologides Rodriguez are vividly written and portrayed. The production values are high – the set design by Emmie Finckel captures the look of an all-purpose room at a Y and the costumes by Sarafina Bush sync well with the characters – and the direction by Miranda Cornell is assured. It’s a perfectly respectable effort which the audience received warmly, but somehow it never fully engaged me. Perhaps if I were either a father or a daughter I would have appreciated it more. Running time: one hour 50 minutes; no intermission.

Well, I'll Let You Go

B-

This 21st-century midwestern Our Town wannabe by first-time playwright Bubba Weiler has arrived off Broadway after a Brooklyn production at the Space at Irondale, where it received a Critic’s Pick designation from the New York Times and an enthusiastic review in the Wall Street Journal.  I therefore arrived at Studio Seaview with high expectations that I soon regretted. I might have had a more positive response had I approached it cold. Maggie (the always watchable Quincy Tyler Bernstine) is a recent widow whose husband Marv died under murky circumstances in which he may or may not have been a hero. The uncertainty freezes Maggie in her grief, preventing her from even planning a funeral, because she no longer feels confident that she knew him well enough to decide whether he even deserves one. The play consists of seven scenes during which one of the other seven actors shares the stage with Maggie. A la Wilder, there is a narrator (Matthew Maher) who sets the scene and fills in information about the characters. The other characters are Wally (Will Dagger), Marv’s extremely dependent cousin; Joanie (Constance Schulman), a ditsy funeral director; Julie (Amelia Workman), Maggie’s longtime friend and Marv’s brother’s wife; Jeff (Danny McCarthy), Marv’s brother; Angela (Emily Davis), a woman from Maggie’s past that she has forgotten; and Ashley (Cricket Brown), Angela’s daughter. Each scene builds on the previous one, adding a bit of information to explain the circumstances of Marv’s death. There are a few satisfying red herrings along the way. The plot is interesting and well thought out. What frustrated me was that the play was good enough that I wished it had been better. Strangely, the play opens with the two weakest and least essential scenes so it took me a long time to become invested in the story. After what I thought was a natural place to end, there were two more scenes that I wasn’t sure added to the whole. I wish that a play doctor had been engaged to tighten the play up because at almost two hours I was getting restless (especially on the theater’s uncomfortable seats). Another problem was the casting of the important role of narrator; the present actor, the only one new to his role, flubbed several lines and had a distracting lisp. The comic tone of the scene with the funeral director seemed at odds with the rest of the play. Frank J. Oliva’s set is bare bones, with folding chairs and table and props rolled in as needed. For the final scene, the set undergoes a transformation that is a direct steal from David Cromer’s Our Town; the payoff is much less here. Avery Reed’s costumes are apt. Director Jack Serio’s pace during the first few scenes is so slack that it is difficult to build interest. All that being said, I am not sorry I saw the play. I just wish it had been polished further before it reached the stage. Running time: One hour, 50 minutes without intermission.
 

 

Cable Street

A

Every Spring 59E59 Theaters hosts a series of productions imported from the UK. To kick off the current season, they have chosen this ambitious musical about an event little known outside the UK, the Battle of Cable Street in early October 1936. Cable Street is a side street in the East End of London which was largely populated by Jews and Irish. The Jews were mostly tailors and the Irish worked on the docks, where the Jews could not get jobs. The residents were just scraping by during the Depression, beset by rent increases and threats of eviction. Oswald Mosley, head of the British Union of Fascists (BUF), planned a provocative march through East End to intimidate its residents. When they appealed to the government to cancel the march, the government not only refused but sent police to protect the BUF marchers. The British Communists, busy recruiting for the Freedom Brigade in Spain, were initially reluctant to help but were persuaded that it was also important to fight Fascism at home. And so, when the Fascists arrived in the East End, protected by police, they met barricades that forced them to use some of the side streets including Cable Street, where they were met by a coalition of Communists, Jews and Irish. Chaos ensued. While this might not seem a likely subject for a musical, Tim Gilvin (music & lyrics, orchestrations & vocal arrangements) and Alex Kanefsky (book) have created a work that is consistently engrossing, entertaining and even educational. The clever framing device of a present-day tour guide (Jez Unwin) taking people through the East End and, to provide comic relief, repeatedly encountering a Jack the Ripper tour group, leads us to the story. The tour members shed their coats and become the neighborhood residents of 1936. The story focuses on three families – one Jewish, one Irish and one British. The Sheinberg family has two sons, Sammy (Isaac Gryn) and Moishe (Ethan Pascal Peters), the former a hotheaded boxer who lies about his name to get a job operating a press and the latter a devout scholar. The Kennys have an open-minded daughter Mairead (Aoife MacNamara, u/s for Lizzy-Rose Esin Kelly), who works in a Jewish bakery. Ron Williams (Barney Wilkinson) is a Brit from the North who has been driven by the closure of the mills to move to London with his alcoholic mother Edie (Preeya Kalidas) to find work. The book concentrates on Sammy, Mairead and Ron, but there are many other characters who are played by the other fine actors (Max Alexander-Taylor, Debbie Chazen, Michael Dantes, Natalie Elisha-Welsh, Romona Lewis-Malley and Annie Majin) who assume multiple roles irrespective of gender or race. They are all excellent, but I especially enjoyed MacNamara, Wilkinson and Unwin, who manages to be convincing as the tour guide, the devout Jewish father and the head Fascist thug. The music is a mix of Irish folk, Jewish liturgical, British music hall, rock and roll and rap and runs the gamut from ballad to anthem. The lively choreography by Jevan Howard-Jones adds much to the production. The costumes by Lu Herbert befit their characters well. The minimalist set by Yoav Segal consists mainly of a well-worn wooden counter, a few tables and several chairs that are moved around constantly to create different settings. Director Adam Lenson keeps things moving at a brisk, almost relentless, pace. At one point in the play, father Sheinberg says that the Jews will never be fully accepted as British and should keep a low profile. On a day when two Jews were stabbed in London, I have to wonder if he was right. Running time: two hours 30 minutes, including intermission.

Innocence

A

Apparently lightning can strike twice in the same place. Following the enormous success of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay earlier this season, the Metropolitan Opera now has a second brilliantly adventurous new work on its stage, Simon Stone’s production of Kaija Saariaho’s final opera, Innocence. Opera is not usually a place I look to for social relevance, but this opera’s topic is one we hear about practically every week – a school shooting. While that may not seem like a promising topic for an opera, Saariaho and her excellent librettists, Sofi Oksanen and Aleksi Barriere, prove otherwise. A student at an international school in Finland kills ten classmates and a teacher. Ten years later a young man (Miles Mykkanen) is getting married to a Romanian orphan (Jacquelyn Stucker) he met on holiday. We soon learn that the young man is the shooter’s brother and the waitress (Joyce DoDonato) called in as a last-minute substitute to serve at the wedding is the mother of Marketa (Vilma Jää), one of his victim’s. The groom’s parents (Rod Gilfry and Kathleen Kim) give the initial appearance of having been able to move forward with their lives, but they really haven’t; nor have the families of the victims, nor the survivors, nor the teacher (Lucy Shelton) and the priest (Stephen Milling) who overlooked warning signals. Even one of the victims appears from beyond the grave and begs to be released from her mother’s grief. The opera’s title is ironic, because no one connected to the incident, including some of the victims, is blameless. Will the waitress tell the bride about her brother-in-law’s crime? What facts about the crime has classmate Iris (Julie Hega) kept hidden? Can anyone put the shooting far enough behind them to have a reasonably normal life? The music, conducted by Susanna Mälkki, serves the story beautifully, from providing an ominous undercurrent for the large part of the libretto that is spoken to the outbursts of emotion in the arias. Among the strong singers, it’s hard to single anyone out, but Stucker, Jäa, Shelton and Hega made an especially strong impression. As the libretto skillfully intertwines the various strands, the remarkable set by Chloe Lamford rotates in synch, revealing a catering hall, a classroom, a kitchen, a supply closet, a school cafeteria, a lavatory and other locations. (It works so well that I forgive her for the ugly set of the current Broadway production of Death of a Salesman.) The costumes by Mel Page fit each character well and the lighting by James Farncombe is excellent. The five acts are performed without intermission in one hour 45 minutes. I highly recommend it, but unfortunately only two more performances remain. 

The Balusters

 

B+

Pulitzer- and Tony-winning playwright David Lindsay-Abaire and Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC) have a long, fruitful history together, going back to Fuddy Meers in 1999. Other plays by him that were produced at MTC include Kimberly Akimbo (not the musical), Wonder of the World, Rabbit Hole, Good People and Ripcord. Marylouise Burke, the perky, petite actress with a unique voice who has come to be regarded as his muse, has been featured in five of them, including the present comedy of manners, The Balusters. In case you do not know what a baluster is, Merriam-Webster tells us that “a baluster is a vertical, often curved or vase-shaped pillar that supports a handrail on a stairway, porch or balcony, collectively forming a balustrade." To the nine members of the Vernon Point Homeowners Association, who are tasked to preserve the landmarked status of their urban enclave, allowing a neighbor to remodel a porch with historically inaccurate balusters would be the first step on the road to hell. The long-time president of the association is Elliot Emerson (Richard Thomas), the local realtor and unofficial gatekeeper of the neighborhood, who has consistently bullied the other members to get his way. The vice-president is Melissa Han (Jeena Yi), who as an East Asian and a lesbian, scores double points for diversity. The ditsy secretary is Penny Buell (Burke), who continually confuses Melissa for another Melissa, who is Pakistani, much to her chagrin. Willow Gibbons (Kayli Carter), whose partner is trans, is the group’s political correctness enforcer. Isaac Rosario (Ricardo Chavira) is a successful contractor who may or may not exploit his workmen. Brooks Duncan (Carl Clemons-Hopkins) is a partnered gay travel writer who keeps forgetting to close his back gate. Ruth Ackerman (Margaret Colin) is flamboyant and needs lots of attention. Alan Kirby (Michael Esper) is a feckless private school teacher who rarely gets things right. Kyra Marshall (Annika Noni Rose) is the newest member, in whose beautifully restored home the monthly meeting is set. She is determined to make a good impression and recover from a previous foray into board membership that ended badly. Lastly, we meet Luz Baccay (Maria-Christina Oliveras), Kyra’s housekeeper, who recently stopped working for Elliot. Kyra wants to have a stop sign installed on her corner where there have been a few crashes and near misses. Elliot is opposed for aesthetic reasons. We witness meetings of the entire group as well as smaller groupings. There are lots of laughs, mostly at the foibles of the members. Larger issues, such as racism, classism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, DEI and preservation vs. progress are lightly touched upon rather than addressed. It seemed like a cross between the recent Eureka Day which was funnier and The Minutes which was nastier. The acting is uniformly strong. Derek McLane’s classically balanced set is elegant. Emilio Sosa’s costumes are apt. The lighting by Allen Lee Hughes does neat tricks between scenes. Director Kenny Leon let things sag occasionally. At just under two hours without an intermission, it might benefit from a slight trim. If you want to see ten talented actors go after each other amusingly while poking gentle fun at our societal shortcomings, you will enjoy yourself. If you are looking for something with more bite, you might not. Before leaving you, I must confess that I am a victim of the John-Boy effect: It is extremely difficult for me to picture Richard Thomas either as an old man or as a villain.