The Originalist

B+

Since Justice Antonin Scalia was the most relentlessly conservative figure on the Supreme Court, whose scathing opinions were anathema to liberals, I was initially reluctant to devote an evening to a play about him. However, my curiosity was piqued by the fact that Ruth Bader Ginsburg considered him her closest friend on the court. Furthermore, John Strand’s play, commissioned by Arena Stage in 2015 as part of its ambitious initiative to produce 25 new plays about American history, was so well received that is was brought back to Washington for an encore run after being staged in Sarasota, Chicago and Pasadena. It has finally reached New York in a production at 59E59 Theater A. The key to the play’s warm reception is a remarkable performance by Edward Gero as Scalia. He not only has an uncanny resemblance to the late justice, but builds a rounded believable version of him. The story is based on Scalia’s custom of hiring a liberal as one of his four clerks to serve as his intellectual sparring partner. In the play, he chooses Cat (British actress Tracy Ifeachor), a flaming African-American liberal, as a clerk for the 2012-13 session. Without giving up their views, the two gradually grow closer together as the year progresses. Scalia charges Cat with the job of researching his dissent on the Windsor same-sex marriage case. To gin up the drama a bit, the playwright has Scalia bring on board Brad (Brett Mack), the smarmy privileged Harvard Law classmate she beat out for the clerkship, to assist her with the dissent. Brad knows something about Cat that he thinks Scalia doesn’t. The play could hardly be more timely with its mention of Roe v. Wade and growing polarization. While generally well crafted, the play occasionally becomes more didactic than dramatic. The set design by Misha Kachman makes effective use of a square parquet stage, a massive desk, a few chairs, a red velvet curtain and four chandeliers. The costumes by Joseph P. Salasovich are apt. Molly Smith, Arena Stage’s artistic director, keeps things moving briskly. I was more comfortable when I thought that Justice Scalia was a monster; learning that he had a human side was discomfiting but ultimately rewarding. Running time: one hour 50 minutes; no intermission. NOTE: Each audience member is presented with a copy of the Constitution at the exit.

Secret Life of Humans

B

As part of its Brits Off Broadway series, 59E59 Theaters has imported this ambitious production by the collaborative New Diorama Theatre, a prizewinner at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival. “Devised by” the company and written by artistic director David Byrne, the play finds dual inspiration from the book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Israeli historian Yuval Harari and the life and work of British mathematician and science historian Jacob Bronowski, best known for his 1973 BBC-TV series “The Ascent of Man.” While Bronowski saw human history as a straight line upward led by science, Harari posits a more twisted path that does not always lead upward. One of Harari’s points is that the move from hunter-gatherer to farmer made human life worse rather than better. The play combines real personages, Jacob Bronowski (Richard Delaney) and his wife Rita (Olivia Hirst), with invented ones — Ava (Stella Taylor), a university lecturer and Harari devotee; Jamie (Andrew Strafford-Baker), Bronowski’s nonexistent grandson; and George (Andy McLeod), a mild-mannered mathematician. The plot revolves around the secrets of a room in Bronowski’s house that he allowed no one to enter. This part of the story is true. In a clever framing device, the lecture by Ava that opens the play morphs into a humorous introduction of Jamie and on to an awkward Tinder date. When Ava finds out that Jamie is Bronowski’s grandson and is temporarily living in his house, she gladly goes home with him. Ava is eager to learn the room’s secrets and persuades Jamie to let her investigate. We also learn that Jacob’s widow regularly visited the forbidden room for her own reasons. What Jamie and Ava uncover is a dark period in Bronowski’s life during World War II. We discover what motivated him to do what he did and what effect this period had on his later life. Jamie wants to protect the reputation of his grandfather, but Ava wants to advance her career. The interplay between exposition of theory about the nature of humankind, biography and invented story is not always seamless. Ava is much more engaging when she is lecturing than when she is interacting with Jamie. Despite some qualms about the play’s unevenness, I admire its high ambition and the high level of the production. The actors are all excellent. The scenic design by Jen McGinley is a wonder of moving bookcases below a blank wall on which evocative projections by Zakk Hein are shown and on which people walk! It’s a complex work that requires close attention, which most people will find worth the effort. Byrne co-directed with Kate Stanley. Running time: one hour 25 minutes, no intermission.

A Brief History of Women

B

After missing the 2017 season of Brits Off Broadway, Alan Ayckbourn, happily, is back at 59E59 Theater with his 81st play. I could quibble about the title— the play is neither brief nor a history of women. “Sixty Years at Kirkbridge Manor” would have been a better fit, because all four segments of the play take place in that location between 1925 and 1985. Seeing the wonderful set by Kevin Jenkins provides a treat even before the play begins. Jenkins, who is also responsible for the great costumes, has cleverly managed to squeeze a paneled study, a marble-floored entrance hall, a terrace and a corner of a ballroom onto the Theater A stage. The set is subtly altered as the manor house is converted, first to a girls’ school, then to a community arts center and, finally, to a boutique hotel. The set change between the final two segments was so clever that it drew a round of applause. The central character is the calm, reactive Anthony Spates (Anthony Eden), first seen as a 17-year-old farm boy working part time as footman at the manor house, later as a 37-year-old teacher at the girls’ school, then as the 57-year-old administrator of the arts center and, lastly, as the 77-year-old retired hotel manager filling in during his successor’s vacation. One of the pleasures of an evening of Ayckbourn is relishing his superb actors in the multiple roles they are called upon to play. Five of the six — Eden, Frances Marshall, Laura Matthews, Laurence Pears and Louise Shuttleworth —were new to me. The sixth, Russell Dixon, is a welcome returnee who can effortlessly steal any scene he is in. The physical abuse of women described in the first part could well have been ripped from today’s headlines. The attitude toward women expressed by the lord of the manor is antediluvian. One can argue about how much progress has been made over 60 years. As he often does, Ayckbourn injects an interesting theatrical restriction into the proceedings: we can only hear the characters in the room that Spates is in. Others may be chatting away in another room, but we do not hear them. While the roles are juicy and the dialogue entertains, there are a few dry spots along the way. You may find the ending predictable, but you will likely still be moved by it. Ayckbourn is one of the few playwrights who does well directing his own work. Even when he is not at the top of his form, he is worth seeing. I look forward to play #82. Running time: 2 1/2 hours including intermission.

We Live by the Sea

B-

The 2018 season of Brits Off Broadway at 59E59 Theaters is off to a strong start with this powerful play about autism. “Devised by” the London theater company Patch of Blue, working with the National Autistic Society, the play tells the story of Katy (an amazing Alexandra Brain), a 15-year-old year on the spectrum, who lives with her sister Hannah (Alexandra Simonet) and her imaginary dog Paul Williams (Lizzie Grace) in a seaside English village. Their mother ran off when Katy was diagnosed and their father died a year ago, so Hannah has had to put her own life on hold to care for Katy. When Ryan (Tom Coliandris), an 18-year-old who has just moved to town from London after a tragedy, meets the sisters, the three draw strength from each other. The stories Katy likes to tell to provide order to her experience are cleverly recreated with such simple props as an electric fan and a pair of desk lamps. Two onstage musicians, Josh Flowers and Julianna Zachariou, enhance the production with music by The Mason Brothers. Alex Howarth, founder of Patch of Blue, directs with assurance. My heart went out to Hannah, because Katy’s erratic behavior with its frequent outbursts of raw emotion was hard to endure for 90 minutes, let alone 24 hours a day. My center aisle seat in the second row turned out to be too close for comfort when the actors sat down on the steps just inches away. Much as I admired the play, I often found it painful to sit through. Running time: 90 minutes, no intermission.

LaBute New Theater Festival (2018)

D

In 2016 the St. Louis Actors’ Studio brought six one-act plays to 59E59 Theaters for the LaBute New Theater Festival. Last year the number was down to four and this year there are only three. Unfortunately, not only has the number of plays diminished, but the quality has gone down as well. Not one of this year’s plays could be called a success, at least not by me. 

Neil LaBute’s entry, “Hate Crime,” opens the program. Perhaps to show that he is au courant on the topic of same-sex marriage, LaBute gives us a gay gloss on “Double Indemnity.” We meet two lovers, Man 1 (Chauncy Thomas) and Man 2 (Spencer Sickmann) in a hotel room where they are going over the details of their planned murder of Man 2’s older husband-to-be immediately after their upcoming wedding. Man 1, who constantly bullies Man 2, relishes the details of the brutal murder, which will be disguised as a gay-bashing.

In “Winter Break” by James Haigney, we meet three members of an Episcopalian family. Daughter Johanna (Kelly Schaschl), who has recently converted to Islam and renamed herself Aisha, is about to leave for Turkey where she plans to spend 2 1/2 weeks studying with a Sufi mystic. Her mother Kitty (Autumn Dornfeld) tries to respect her daughter’s choices, but is fearful enough to beg her not to go. Her gay older brother Bailey (Sickmann) is an Islamophobe who, fearing that she is a prime recruitment target for jihadist groups, questions whether she really intends to return from Turkey. The situation is believable, but the arguments are a bit circular. Nevertheless, I found this the best of the three.

“Percentage America” by Carter W. Lewis is the most ambitious play, but unfortunately trips over its attempts at satire. Andrew (Thomas) and Arial (Dornfeld), having met through an online dating site, are having their first date at Arial’s Washington, D.C. apartment. (That a woman would make her home the location for a blind date seemed unlikely to me.) After confessing to several liberties in their online profiles, they become intoxicated with the power of truth. At Arial’s suggestion, they decide to play a game whereby they “decipher” a news story by comparing how it is presented by various media, finding the most likely version and stripping away loaded adjectives to get to the verifiable truth. Somehow this game has an aphrodisiac effect on them. The story they decide to investigate involves an encounter between the president and a teenage girl (Schaschl) in the Rose Garden. The way it is treated by various media outlets of course reflects their biases. What the couple think they discover alarms them and raises questions about the cost of pursuing the truth. The concept is promising, but the treatment is clumsy and the play is twice as long as it should be. 

It is disheartening to think that these are the three best plays they could find for this year’s festival. The acting could best be described as competent. I was surprised that the male actors had to do double duty as stagehands between plays. The set design by Patrick Huber is simple and the costumes by Carla Landis Evans are unremarkable. John Pierson directed. Running time: one hour 40 minutes including intermission.

Small World

B+

This two-hander at 59E59 Theaters had a successful run at Penguin Rep Theatre in Stony Point two years ago. In it, playwright Frederick Stroppel presents three encounters between composer Igor Stravinsky and animator Walt Disney. The first, in 1939, actually took place when Disney invited Stravinsky to see a rough cut of the “Rite of Spring” section of “Fantasia.” Stravinsky is horrified at Disney’s turning his evocation of pagan Russia into a story about dinosaurs and volcanoes. Nor is he pleased that the film includes a shot of Stokowski, his enemy. The two men argue their respective views of the proper role of the artist in society. The playwright imagines that they meet again two years later. After the lukewarm reception to “Fantasia” Disney has lost his self-confidence and Stravinsky has gone Hollywood. He unsuccessfully pitches Disney the idea for a film, which turns out to be the germ of his opera “The Rake’s Progress.” The two meet for a final time in the afterworld, where their differences seem less important. The dialogue is witty and does not condescend to the audience.  The views of both men get their due. Stephen D’Ambrose (August: Osage County) is marvelous as Stravinsky and Mark Shanahan (The 39 Steps) makes a fine Disney. Patricia E. Doherty’s (Southern Comfort) period costumes are a delight and the set by James J. Fenton (Southern Comfort) is elegant. Joe Brancato’s (Daniel’s Husband) direction is fluid. My only quibble is about the length. At 75 minutes without intermission, it seems either too short or too long. Some of the ideas are merely mentioned rather than developed. On the other hand, it occasionally seems a bit stretched out, particularly in the middle scene. I think it would be even better as a one-hour play on a double-bill. As it happens, this is the second comedy of ideas I saw this week in which famous figures argue their philosophies in the afterworld. The contrast is striking. This play manages to avoid all the pitfalls that the other (The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens, and Count Leo Tolstoy: Discord) falls into. Ends on October 7.

Rotterdam

B

Brits Off Broadway at 59E59 Theaters is presenting Jon Brittain's Olivier-winning play about the effects of a transgender transition both on the person involved as well as on their relationships with others. Alice (Alice McCarthy) and Fiona (Anna Martine Freeman) are two English lesbians who have been living and working in Rotterdam for seven years. The dour, buttoned-up Alice is trying to summon the courage to come out to her parents via email, when Fiona announces that she henceforth wants to be known as Adrian. Josh (Ed Eales-White), Fiona/Adrian’s good-natured brother, who was Alice’s boyfriend before she met Fiona, is supportive of his sibling’s decision. Alice, however, has trouble figuring out what it all means, especially about her own gender identity. Lelani (Ellie Morris) is a free-spirited young Dutch colleague of Alice’s who takes a shine to her. As Fiona transitions to Adrian, tensions increase. Freeman is extremely moving in a second-act scene when Adrian is overwhelmed by events. My main problem with the play is that Alice is such an uptight sourpuss that it is hard to understand why anyone would want her. Also, there are plot developments near the end that seemed forced. At 2 1/2 hours, the play seemed a bit bloated. The clever, attractive set by Ellan Parry makes maximum use of a small stage; the costumes, especially for Lelani, are vivid. Donnacadh O’Brian directed. Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes including intermission.

Iphigenia in Splott

B

Every Spring, 59E59 Theaters bring us a series of imports from the UK under the rubric Brits off Broadway. This one-person play by Gary Owen originated in Cardiff and then had an acclaimed run in London. The main reason to see it is the electric performance by Sophie Melville as Effie, an angry young woman from Splott, a working-class neighborhood of Cardiff. Effie, whose means of support is unclear, alternates between binges and hangovers and describes herself as the kind of person you cross the street to avoid. I wish we learned more about what led to her self-defeating lifestyle. Effie stops spewing invective long enough to tell us the story of a recent affair with a wounded veteran that made her let down her guard long enough to hope for a better life. Of course it turned out badly. Effie pays a terrible price but acts nobly when she has an opportunity to seek redress. I was disappointed that the play morphed from a fascinating character study to a screed against social welfare cuts, even though, as a cautionary tale, it is certainly timely on this side of the pond as well. My other reservation is the difficulty I had making out some of the words because of the thick Welsh accent and rapid speech. Designer Hayley Grindle and lighting designer Rachel Mortimer have come up with a striking set that features a series of fluorescent lights that resemble a venetian blind aptly falling into disarray. Rachel O’Riordan’s direction is straightforward. The title’s comparison of Effie to Iphigenia is a bit of a stretch. Running time: 80 minutes; no intermission.

Maestro ** C-

Perhaps I am becoming jaded or maybe I just have been making bad choices lately. In any case, for the third time this week, I found myself surrounded by an audience having a far better time than I was. Onstage at 59E59 Theatre A was Hershey Felder performing as Leonard Bernstein. Apparently Felder has made a career out of using his pianistic and acting skills to create one-man theater pieces about such composers as Beethoven, Grieg and Gershwin. Bernstein does not fit neatly into this  group as he was more renowned as conductor than composer, a never-ending sore spot for him. Felder’s approach to his life is mainly chronological and gamely attempts to cover many aspects: conductor, educator, social activist, bisexual and flawed husband. The early scenes with his father, speaking with a heavy Yiddish accent, were embarrassingly stereotypical. Were it not for the lavish production featuring an impressive set by François-Pierre Couture and projections by Christopher Ash, I might have thought I was attending an enrichment program at a home for elderly Jews. The musical clips were frustratingly brief with more music by other composers and less by Bernstein than I would have expected. I was certainly surprised that the longest and most prominent excerpt was from Wagner’s Liebestod. There was a brief moment near the end, in which Bernstein lashes out at the world, that gave me a sense of how much more powerful the piece could have been. Joel Zwick (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) directed. Running time: one hour 45 minutes; no intermission.

Bears in Space ** C-

This cult hit by the Irish theater group Collapsing Horse has arrived at 59E59 Theatres after sold-out runs in Dublin, Edinburgh and London. The four actors — Jack Gleeson, whose Game of Thrones credentials were no doubt a draw for many; Aaron Heffernan, who designed the puppets; Cameron Macaulay, who wrote the music and Eoghan Quinn, who wrote the script, are all appealing performers. The deliberately scruffy puppets and makeshift props are appropriate to the playful spirit. The clever staging includes animation techniques as well as Indonesian puppetry. The story of two ursine astronauts who have a misadventure on the planet Metrotopia struck me as less entertaining than it was meant to be. Douglas Adams did it better in his galactic hitchhiker series. Part of the problem is the theater. Even though there are only seven rows of seats, the action seemed remote and hard to decipher from my seat. I image it was much more effective in some tiny fringe venue. The audience was loving every minute of it, so I felt that I was the odd man out. Dan Colley directed. Running time: 75 minutes, no intermission.

Butler **** A

Kudos to 59E59 Theaters for bringing this worthwhile production by the New Jersey Repertory Company, based in Long Branch, to New York. What playwright Richard Strand has written is an unlikely blend of biography, Civil War history, drama and comedy that is both entertaining and informative. Major General Benjamin Butler (Ames Adamson) is an actual historical figure, whose long and varied career includes the incident depicted in the play. As a newly minted Union officer sent to take command of Fort Monroe in recently seceded Virginia, Butler must decide what to do with three runaway slaves who have arrived at the fort seeking sanctuary. The first scene, an extended exchange between Butler and his hapless adjutant Lieutenant Kelly (Benjamin Sterling), may initially appear to go on too long, but it cleverly sets up most of what follows. The leader of the runaway slaves is Shepard Mallory (John G. Williams), a man who has paid dearly for his habit of running off at the mouth. When Mallory pleads his case with Butler, the two develop an unexpected kinship. Butler tries to find a way to get around the Fugitive Slaves Act so he will not have to hand over Mallory and the other two slaves to Major Cary (David Sitler), the prickly Confederate officer who has been sent to claim them. It hardly seems like promising material for comedy, but the play is very funny. The four characters are vividly drawn and well acted by the cast, all holdovers from the original production. Jessica L. Parks’s attractive set for General Butler’s office looks authentic, as do Patricia E. Doherty’s costumes. Joseph Discher’s direction is seamless. It adds up to a surprisingly enjoyable experience. Running time: 2 hours 5 minutes including intermission.

Hero's Welcome ***

The annual Brits Off Broadway season is back at 59E59 Theatre. The prodigiously prolific Alan Ayckbourn is represented by the U.S. premiere of his 79th play as well as an evening of older short plays which I will review next week.. One of the pleasures of an Ayckbourn season is becoming reacquainted with fine actors who have appeared in previous seasons. This year three actors who graced the 2014 season have returned. Richard Stacey plays Murray, an acclaimed military hero whose return to his home town after 17 years wreaks general havoc. Elizabeth Boag plays Alice, the town’s mayor, whom Murray jilted at the altar. Russell Dixon is her much older husband Derek, a model train fanatic. They are joined by two other stalwarts of the Stephen Joseph Theatre (SJT) of Scarborough, Ayckbourn’s artistic home — Charlotte Harwood doubling as Kara, the abused wife of Murray’s old friend Brad and as Simone, her daughter, and Evelyn Hoskins as Madrababacascabuna (Baba), the young war bride Murray has brought home. Stephen Billington, although an apparent newcomer to SJT, fits in seamlessly as the toxic Brad. Murray’s return is not welcomed by those he upset long ago; nor is his plan to remodel and reopen the pub once owned by his father but now the property of the town council and a candidate for demolition. Past events are explained more fully in a way that generates compassion for the characters. Designer Michael Holt’s set design, greatly assisted by Jason Taylor’s excellent lighting, delineates four distinct areas — a BBC studio, the living room of a mansion, a generic hotel room and a large kitchen with a model train running through it. The play is plot-heavy and would benefit from a bit of tightening. While it does not represent Ayckbourn at his best, it nevertheless offers much to enjoy. As is his custom, the playwright directed. Running time: 2 hours 40 minutes including intermission.

Ayckbourn Ensemble ****

All praise to the folks at the Brits off Broadway festival at 59E59 Theater for bringing us three works by Alan Ayckbourn (two world premieres and a New York premiere) performed in repertory by a superb ensemble of 11 actors from the Stephen Joseph Theatre of Scarborough, the company that Ayckbourn directed for 37 years. I know that I have said on other occasions that playwrights should not direct their own plays, but I hereby make a notable exception for Ayckbourn. After working with a core of the same actors for many years, he knows how to get exactly the right tone from them. I have seen other productions that were marred by overemphatic acting either allowed or encouraged by their directors. 

Farcicals ***

Realizing that only 7 of the 11 actors appeared in both the other plays, Ayckbourn whipped up a pair of one-act farces for the remaining four. “Chloe with Love” and “The Kidderminster Affair” share the same characters, two rather mismatched couples — Penny (Elizabeth Boag) and Reggie (Kim Wall) plus Teddy (Bill Champion) and Lottie (Sarah Stanley). The first shows Lottie’s hilarious attempts to stoke her husband’s interest. The latter describes a hysterical attempt to hide an adulterous indiscretion. Both are sheer froth, but the word play and physical humor in the second play rise to a high level of inspiration. Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes including intermission.

Playing with time and space is a frequent feature of Ayckbourn’s work. We see it again here, both in “Time of My Life” from 1992 and “Arrivals and Departures,” his new play (#76). 

Time of My Life ***

We meet the Stratton family, parents Gerry (Russell Dixon) and Laura (Sarah Parks), their elder son Glyn (Richard Stacey) and his wife Stephanie (Emily Pithon), who have just recently reconciled after a separation, and their younger son Adam (James Powell) and his new girlfriend Maureen (Rachel Caffrey) as they gather at the family’s favorite restaurant, a vaguely Middle Eastern place, for a boozy celebration of Laura’s birthday. After the initial party scene, the play fractures into three strands: we follow Gerry and Laura as they remain at the restaurant, we move a year or two into the future with Glyn and Stephanie, and we go backwards in time with Adam and Maureen to their first meeting. All the action takes place in the restaurant. An added touch is that one actor (Ben Porter) plays the restaurant’s owner and all its diverse waiters. We end up where we started as the birthday party begins. It sounds gimmicky, but it works surprisingly well except for a scene in the second act that goes on much too long. The play’s theme seems to be “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.” Running time: 2 hours, 35 minutes including intermission.

Arrivals and Departures ***

This new play is deliberately less comic than the others. It combines a satiric look at bureaucratic ineptitude with the recollections of two disparate characters, each of whom has been subject to betrayal. A military special forces group led by Quentin (Bill Champion) has concocted a hare-brained scheme to catch a terrorist at a rail terminal in London. Disguised as ordinary people, the group ineptly rehearse their roles before the train arrives. Ez, short for Esme, (Elizabeth Boag) a sullen soldier who is awaiting court martial, is assigned to babysit a chatty older man, Barry (Kim Wall), a traffic warden from Yorkshire who can possibly confirm the suspect’s identity. Awaiting the train’s arrival, Ez looks back on the personal history that has turned her into an edgy, mistrustful person. Much of the second act is a mirror image of the first, except that this time it is Barry who reminisces about his unhappy past. The plan to capture the terrorist does not end happily. I found the ending a bit jarring. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes including intermission.

The ensemble is so uniformly fine that it almost seems unfair to single out anyone. Nevertheless, I will mention that Boag, Champion, Parks, Porter and Wall made especially strong impressions. Jan Bee Brown's set designs for all three plays are simple but effective. 

You may wonder why I rated Ayckbourn Ensemble higher than any of its components. In this case the whole IS greater than the sum of its parts. Seeing the three pieces together in one day increased my admiration of the playwright/director and the superb ensemble cast. 

Blink ***

If you are in the mood for something a bit different, head to 59E59 for this latest entry in their Brits Off Broadway festival. This off-beat love story by Phil Porter has been skillfully crafted, creatively staged, and, most importantly, superbly performed by two fine actors. Sophie (Lizzy Watts) and Jonah (Thomas Pickles) are two socially awkward young people for whom London is a very lonely place. Sophie lives above Jonah as his landlord, but they have never met. Impulsively, she sends him the screen of a baby monitor she had used to look after her late father. He has no idea who sent it, but soon becomes addicted to watching the woman on the screen. When he accidentally finds out who she is, he begins following her everywhere and she pretends not to notice. For a good part of the play, the two address the audience rather than each other. They also play other characters, including a talkative human relations officer and a German conceptual artist, using microphones when they portray them. A good deal of the dialogue at first seems irrelevant, e.g. a detailed plot summary of the soap opera they both watch, but the haziness of the border between background and foreground is part of the off-kilter nature of the play. When an unexpected circumstance leads the two to actually meet, they must learn that a face-to-face relationship is much harder than one based on exhibitionism, voyeurism and stalking. The set design by Hannah Clark, combining generic office furniture with a sylvan backdrop and a grassy surface is both attractive and effective. Her choice of pale beige costumes with sky-blue socks for both actors is apt. Joe Murphy’s direction is admirable. A word of caution: the two friends I ran into afterwards did not share my enthusiasm. Running time: 77 minutes, no intermission.

Simon Green: So, This Then Is Life ***

As part of its Brits Off Broadway festival, British actor Simon Green and his musical director David Shrubsole are appearing in this cabaret-style theater piece, cleverly crafted from a melange of song, poem and spoken word. The eclectic material runs the gamut from Noel Coward to Stephen Sondheim, Walt Whitman to Maya Angelou,  M.F.K. Fisher to Tennessee Williams. The theme is the advice a middle-aged man would give his 21-year-old self were he able to. Green's engaging presentation overcomes a sometimes pinched voice and a wobbly pitch. All in all, it's a pleasant way to spend 80 minutes.

Harbor **

(Please click on the title to see the complete review.)
In this Primary Stages production at 59E59, the harbor is Sag Harbor, where architect Ted (Paul Anthony Stewart) and his somewhat younger husband Kevin (Randy Harrison), a would-be writer, live a seemingly idyllic, unencumbered life. This idyl is punctured by the unexpected arrival in a live-in van of Kevin's long-absent sister Donna (Erin Cummings), a single mother who fancies herself a singer, and her preternaturally wise 15-year-old daughter Lottie (Alexis Molnar), who has a taste for Edith Wharton and Virginia Woolf. Early on, Ted has a terrific rant about his hatred of young children and mothers who display an undeserved sense of entitlement. His feelings do not deter Donna from her mission of manipulating her brother into persuading Ted that they should raise her forthcoming child so she can go off and get a job singing on a cruise ship. (The fact that she claims it is too late for an abortion when she is not even showing the slightest baby bump perplexed me.) Their one-night visit turns into a few months. When Ted learns of Donna's plan and Kevin's reluctance to turn her down, he and Kevin have a gripping conversation that lays bare Ted's true perception of Kevin and of the underlying nature of their relationship. A new equilibrium emerges. The play touches on many interesting topics, such as peer pressure on gay couples to parent, the fragility of equilibrium in a relationship, and the dangers of a life based on illusion. Unfortunately, the tone is wildly uneven: playwright Chad Beguelin seems uncertain whether he is writing a sitcom, a soap opera or a serious drama. When the snappy one-liners recede and the tone turns more serious in the second act, it is a bit unsettling. The actors acquit themselves honorably with the sometimes unconvincing dialogue. Andrew Jackness's scenic design cleverly has the living room walls covered in a faint pastel representation of the house's exterior, but the furnishings looked a bit sparse for this couple. Candice Donnelly's costumes are apt. Director Mark Lamos keeps things moving briskly. (Something strange happened about 10 minutes into the play. An amplified voice instructed the actors to stop while they traced the source of a hearing aid that was creating interference. After a few minutes, the play resumed with the actors repeating most of one scene. It was an unfortunate intrusion). Running time: 2 hours, including intermission.

Cornelius **

This Finborough Theatre production of J.B. Priestley's virtually forgotten 1935 play now at 59E59 in their Brits Off Broadway series received uniformly glowing reviews in London and a rave from the New York Times. This story of a small aluminium importing firm struggling unsuccessfully to stay afloat during the Depression revolves around partner James Cornelius (Alan Cox), who puts on a brave face to keep up the morale of his staff and fend off the creditors until his partner Robert Murrison (Jamie Newall) returns from an extended business trip that is the firm's last hope for survival. Longtime bookkeeper Biddle (the excellent Col Farrell) is a man who loves his work and manages to maintain a positive view of life. Secretary Miss Porrin (Pandora Colin) is an embittered spinster with an unrequited love for Cornelius. Lawrence (David Ellis) is frustrated by his dead-end five-year stint as office boy. Judy Evison (the lovely Emily Barber), a feisty typist filling in temporarily for her sister, elicits Miss Porrin's hatred and strikes a long-dormant chord in Cornelius. Vendors with increasing degrees of desperation visit the office to peddle their wares. Murrison returns from his trip half-crazed and broken. When the play concentrates on how different people deal with adversity, it is on solid ground. Unfortunately, it too often resorts to workplace cliches and, near the end, a very unlikely coincidence. I did not find Cornelius, at least as played by Cox, a convincing character; his various traits did not cohere. It was a pleasure to see a fine ensemble of 12 sharing the stage, but the play ultimately lacked bite. David Woodhead's set and costumes are excellent. Sam Yates's direction is assured. To call Cornelius a forgotten masterpiece would be a gross exaggeration. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes, including intermission.

The Anderson Twins Play the Fabulous Dorseys **

(Please click on the title to see the complete review.)
Once I caught on that the word "play" in the title means "perform the music of" and not "portray," I relaxed and enjoyed this musical tribute to the Dorsey brothers at 59E59. Pete and Will Anderson are blond, handsome 25-year old identical twins, whose performances I greatly enjoyed when they were students in the Juilliard Jazz program. For the occasion, Stage C has been turned into a night club, complete with red fringed lamps. You can buy drinks at the bar and bring them to your table. About 20 swing standards orchestrated for sextet are interspersed with clips from the sappy 1947 biopic, an amusing clip from "What's My Line?" and some rather lame banter. It's hardly a theater piece, but far be it from me to complain when the music and the musicians are so good. And it's a bargain at $25. In addition to the Andersons on saxophone, clarinet and flute, the group includes Jon-Erik Kellso on trumpet, Ehud Asherie on piano, Kevin Dorn on drums and Clovis Nicolas on bass. Since Tommy Dorsey was most notably associated with the trombone, it's puzzling that there is none here. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes including intermission.

Motherhood Out Loud ***

This new offering at Primary Stages, a collection of 20 sketches, some funny, some sad, by 14 playwrights, some well-known, some not, makes for a very pleasant way to spend 90 minutes. Each sketch deals with some aspect of motherhood, from giving birth to being a great-grandmother. Some of the sketches that most impressed me dealt with an autistic son's mother trying to be helpful on his first date, a mother answering her adopted Chinese daughter's questions, a mother trying to deal with her young son's desire to dress as Queen Esther for Purim, a soldier's mother trying to allay her fears, and an adult son facing the first signs of his mother's memory loss. The quartet of actors -- Mary Bacon, Saidah Arrika Ekulona, Randy Graff and James Lecsene -- are all excellent. (I will confess that I always welcome the opportunity to see Ms. Graff onstage.) The large colorful squares of the Mondrian-like backdrop by Rachel Hauck turn into screens for Emily Hubley's whimsical animations and Jan Hartley's projections. Lisa Peterson's direction is seamless. Susan Rose and Joan Stein conceived the project. Admittedly, some of the material seemed cliched, but for me its sincerity made up for its familiarity. I'm sure it will be eagerly performed by theater groups around the country. I hope it finds its audience here in New York.

The Best Is Yet To Come: The Music of Cy Coleman ***

31 songs in 85 minutes -- that's what this lively revue at 59E59 has to offer. A strong cast of six -- David Burnham (who is new to me), Sally Mayes, Howard McGillin, Billy Stritch (who also serves as pianist and music director), Lillias White and Rachel York, backed by eight musicians, provide a whirlwind tour of Coleman's music, including such well-known songs as "I've Got Your Number," "Big Spender" and "Witchcraft." Since David Zippel directed, it's no surprise that 8 of the songs chosen are songs for which he wrote the lyrics, which makes the selection somewhat unrepresentative. Douglas Schmidt's sleek recreation of a supper club bandstand looks great, but doesn't give the singers much room to move around. Lorin Lattaro's choreography makes the best of this limitation. The band was wonderful, but occasionally drowned out the vocalists. The highlight of the evening was Lillias White's rendition of her big number from The Life, "The Oldest Profession." Each of the singers gets a chance to shine, but no one else comes even close to her. Instead of being disappointed that it wasn't better, I'm grateful that it got produced.