Good Night, Oscar

B

As a fan of both Oscar Levant and Sean Hayes (Promises, Promises; “Will & Grace”), I was excited by the opportunity to see the latter portray the former on a Broadway stage. Hayes has been developing the project for almost a decade and, after a false start with another playwright, chose Doug Wright (I Am My Own Wife, Grey Gardens) to do the script. The result is a cleverly crafted showcase for dramatic and pianistic talents that Hayes has not had a previous opportunity to display. The emotionally unstable Levant was a frequent guest on Jack Paar’s show because Paar (Ben Rappaport, Fiddler on the Roof) thought his unpredictability was good for ratings. He did appear on Paar’s LA debut show, but not, as the play posits, after being sprung under false pretenses for a four-hour pass from a mental institution by his wife June (Emily Bergl, The Ferryman). Until the telecast begins, we must get through lots and lots of exposition supplied by Paar, June, NBC head Bob Sarnoff (Peter Grosz, A Kid Like Jake), a star-struck aide Max (Alex Wyse, Waitress) who just happens to be Sarnoff’s nephew and Alvin (Marchant Davis, Ain’t No Mo’), the orderly who is tasked to keep an eye on Levant during his brief leave. We also get two rather awkward appearances by George Gershwin (a dapper John Zdrojeski, Heroes of the Fourth Turning) who, although dead for 20 years, appears to Levant during his hallucinations. At the end of his live on-screen conversation with Paar, Levant is wheedled into playing an excerpt from Rhapsody in Blue, which Hayes performs superbly while also remaining in character. Designer Rachel Hauck’s (Hadestown) set is an apt homage to mid-century modern and Emilio Sosa’s (Sweeney Todd) costume for June is a delight. Director Lisa Peterson (Light Shining in Buckinghamshire) gets us through the long exposition before the fun begins as expeditiously as possible. While the other actors served their roles well, most of the success or failure of the play rests on whether Hayes can create a plausible version of Levant. Although I thought he initially overdid the tics and restlessness, I found him increasingly convincing as the play progressed. Although he bears absolutely no physical resemblance to Levant, he actually started to look more and more like him. I’m not sure how much those who did not know Levant as actor, conductor, raconteur or pianist will appreciate the show, but Hayes’ performance is well worth seeing. Running time: one hour 40 minutes; no intermission.

The Wrong Man

C

The first clue that perhaps this was not the right show for me was that I had never heard of Ross Golan (2016 BMI Pop Songwriter of the Year), who wrote the book, music and lyrics for this new musical at MCC Theater. What started as a single song in 2005 about a man unjustly convicted of a murder in Reno has been developed into a concept album, an animated film and now a 90-minute sung-through musical. Since there is no dialogue, one must hang closely on every word of the lyrics to extract the story, a task that I occasionally found difficult. There is little back story or character development. The music itself sounded monotonous to my uneducated ear and the rap-style rhymes were often awkward (e.g. Reno rhymed with Evil). On the plus side, the three lead roles — Duran (Ryan Vasquez; Hamilton), the Sunday alternate for Joshua Henry (Carousel); Marianna (Ciara Renée; Big Fish) and The Man in Black (Anoop Desai on Sundays) — are performed by superb singing actors. They are supported by an ensemble of six whose performance of Travis Wall’s (“So You Think You Can Dance”) exciting choreography is a major strength of the piece. The set by Rachel Hauck (Hadestown) is a mostly empty stage flanked by bleachers on two sides. Chairs and benches are moved around as needed. The musicians are seated at the back of the stage with a plastic shield over the percussion. The main visual element is the lighting design by Betsy Adams (Daphne’s Dive) featuring wall-to-wall rows of colored LED lights that flash in various colors and combinations. Perhaps they are meant to remind us of the bright lights of Reno, but I found them distracting. The monotone costumes by Jennifer Moeller (Sweat) & Kristin Isola (A Walk in the Woods) are in shades of grey. The reason for the repeated donning and doffing of jackets escaped me. Attempting to replicate the magic they worked in Hamilton are director Thomas Kail and music arranger and orchestrator Alex Lacamoire. Most of the people around me seemed to be having a very good time. I envied them. Running time: 90 minutes, no intermission.

NOTE: Once again the possible use of color-blind casting puzzled me. I had assumed that the casting of a black actor as Duran was at least partially intended to illustrate how unfairly blacks are treated by our deeply flawed justice system. The casting of a white actor as his alternate made that theory seem less plausible.

Hadestown (Broadway)

A-

Anaïs Mitchell's marvelous folk opera about Orpheus and Eurydice has had a long road to Broadway. What began as a simple stage version in 2006 in Vermont evolved into a concept album in 2010 that won many admirers. Not long after that, Rachel Chavkin came aboard to develop and eventually direct a new stage version for New York Theatre Workshop in 2016 that won wide acclaim, including from me. (See https://gotham-playgoer.blogspot.com/2016/05/hadestown.html) The intimacy of that production with the audience surrounding the performers on three sides made a Broadway transfer challenging, but there was probably no one better equipped to meet that challenge than Ms. Chavkin who had solved a similar problem with Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812. After the off-Broadway run, the show moved out of town — way out of town — to Edmonton, Alberta for further work and then, in a smart move, to London’s National Theatre. Now it has finally reached the Walter Kerr Theatre. I was eager to experience the show again and see how it had been adapted for a large proscenium stage. Fortunately, most of the creative team has remained intact. What has been lost in intimacy has been counterbalanced by enhanced production values. The elaborate set by Rachel Hauck (What the Constitution Means to Me, Tiny Beautiful Things), which suggests a New Orleans bar, comes complete with walls that expand and contract and three concentric revolves, the innermost of which both rises and falls. The costumes by Michael Krass (Noises Off, Machinal) vaguely suggesting an earlier time, are more elaborate. The stylized choreography by David Neumann (An Octoroon) has been pumped up. Happily the two cast members who most impressed me before, Peter Page (Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, Casa Valentina) as Hades and Amber Gray (Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812; Oklahoma! at Bard) as Persephone, are back. Eva Noblezada (Miss Saigon) portrays Eurydice as both feisty and wearied by deprivation. The role of Hermes, our narrator and emcee, has been beefed up for Andre De Shields (The Wiz, Ain’t Misbehavin’) who stops just short of chewing the scenery. The three Fates (Jewelle Blackman, Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer, Kay Trinidad) are fine in full Andrews Sisters mode and occasionally even play instruments. The workers chorus is also excellent. The seven onstage musicians are splendid, especially trombonist Brian Drye. If you have been paying close attention, you may have noticed that I have not said anything yet about Orpheus. Alas, Reeve Carney (Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, “Penny Dreadful”), whom I have admired elsewhere, is miscast as Orpheus. Much of the role requires singing falsetto and his falsetto is far from pretty. Furthermore, he does not display much charisma and there is little chemistry between him and Ms. Noblezada. You might think that a miscast lead would be a near-fatal flaw, but the rest of the show is so strong and so enjoyable that it is little more than a lost opportunity of minor consequence. While there are aspects of the plot, such as the nature of Hadestown as an industrial dystopia of indentured workers, that remain a bit murky, the plot is not the big draw. The score, with its New Orleans jazz, gospel and blues accents, is the main attraction. Those expecting a traditional Broadway show (like the couple next to me who fled at intermission) may be disappointed, because it is at heart a through-sung folk opera. The rest of us will be grateful for the opportunity to enjoy something different. Ms. Mitchell must be prescient: a song she wrote at least ten years ago, “Why We Build the Wall,” has taken on new resonance these days. Running time: two hours 25 minutes including intermission.

What the Constitution Means to Me

C+

This work by Heidi Schreck (Grand Concourse, "Nurse Jackie") now in previews at New York Theatre Workshop is hard to categorize. It combines memoir, civics lesson, polemic, debate and Q&A into a piece that is both engaging and frustratingly disjointed. As a teenager, Ms. Schreck earned money for college by entering American Legion contests that involved delivering an essay on one’s personal experience of the constitution combined with an extemporaneous explication of one it its amendments. The early section of the play recreates one such presentation. The contest is interrupted by personal observations that include the history of domestic abuse over several generations in her family and her own experience of the importance of Roe v. Wade. At one point, Mike Iveson (The Sound & the Fury, Gatz), the actor who has been portraying the American Legion official conducting the contest, breaks the fourth wall with some information about his own life. Next we get a debate on whether to abolish the constitution, for which Ms. Schreck’s opponent is Thursday Williams, a 17-year-old high school senior from Queens. (Ms. Williams alternates performances with Rosdely Ciprain, who is just entering high school.) The audience is invited to react enthusiastically to the debaters and one audience member is selected to be the judge. The ushers distribute pocket editions of the constitution. (It’s the second one I’ve received at a theater this summer; they were also handed out at “The Originalist.”) Finally, under dim lighting, Ms. Schreck and Ms. Williams ask each other three questions allegedly submitted by the previous audience. The questions were not very interesting, which made for a very flat ending. Fortunately, Ms. Schreck is a very appealing performer, which made the event more enjoyable than my summary might suggest. Much of it is quite entertaining, as well as educational. Nevertheless, it does ramble rather aimlessly. Its inner logic escaped me. Considering that it has been presented in various incarnations for a decade, I was surprised how unpolished it seemed. Rachel Hauck (Hadestown, Grand Concourse) has recreated an American Legion social hall, complete with wood paneling and about 200 portraits of Legion bigwigs. Michael Kress’s (Hadestown, Noises Off) costumes seemed apt. The house was barely half-full. Director Oliver Butler (The Amateurs, The Open House) has his work cut out for him bringing order to this rather chaotic event before opening night. Running time: 90 minutes; no intermission.

Amy and the Orphans

B

Kudos to Roundabout Theatre Company for their Underground program that produces early work by promising playwrights such as Stephen Karam (Speech & Debate), Steven Levenson (The Language of Trees) and Joshua Harmon (Bad Jews), who prove worthy of a move upstairs to the Laura Pels Theatre for their next work. This new play by Lindsey Ferrentino (Ugly Lies the Bone) continues their enviable track record. Having an aunt with Down syndrome inspired her to write this tragicomedy about three adult siblings temporarily reunited after their father’s death. Jacob (Mark Blum; The Assembled Parties, Rancho Viejo), a 60-year-old middle school teacher from California, and Maggie (Debra Monk; Curtains, Steel Pier), his recently divorced sister from Chicago, meet at LaGuardia Airport on their way to pick up their younger sister Amy (Jamie Brewer; "American Horror Story") [or, at matinees, their younger brother Andy (Edward Barbanell; "The Ringer")] at the group home in Queens where she [or he] lives and proceed to their late father’s home in Montauk for his funeral. They are dreading the task of telling Amy [Andy] about the death of their father — and mother, who died some months before. Amy’s [Andy’s] protective aide Kathy (Vanessa Aspillaga; Daphne's Dive, The Clean House) insists that state regulations require that she accompany them on the trip. In interspersed scenes, we also meet Sarah (Diane Davis; Golden Boy, The Model Apartment) and Bobby (Josh McDermitt; "The Walking Dead"), a 30-ish couple at a workshop trying to do a communication exercise that might help them reach an important decision. We soon realize that these are the parents of the three siblings and the decision they are trying to reach is whether to institutionalize their Down syndrome baby. The alternation of the two plot lines in two time periods works well. The nature of the topic makes it all the more surprising that the play is basically a comedy with serious overtones. This is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, the humorous dialogue is very entertaining with lots of zingers. On the other hand, the neuroses of Jacob and Maggie flirt dangerously with sitcom humor and Kathy’s exuberance is almost overbearing. I thought the scenes between Sarah and Bobby struck the best balance between humor and pathos. There is a revelation late in the play that punctures the lighter mood. I found the transformation that it elicits in Maggie and Jacob unconvincing. A lot rests on the title character. At my performance, that was Andy and Edward Barbanell played him superbly, especially in the moving final monologue. All the roles must be catnip for actors. Rachel Hauck’s (Latin History for Morons, Hadestown) uncluttered set design facilitates scene changes. Alejo Vietti’s (Holiday Inn, Storefront Church) costumes are evocative. Director Scott Ellis (She Loves Me, Curtains) navigates the changes of time, place and mood smoothly. Even though I had reservations about its flaws while watching it, I surrendered and allowed it to both entertain and move me.  Running time: 90 minutes, no interimssion.

The Red Letter Plays: Fucking A

In 1997 Suzan-Lori Parks made a casual remark to a friend that she wanted to write a riff on The Scarlet Letter and call it Fucking A. What she eventually produced was not one but two plays, both about a poor, illiterate woman named Hester who has been ill-treated by life. For the first time ever, they are being presented in tandem at Signature Theater.

B

Fucking A, written a year after In the Blood, is a far more ambitious, complex work. Set in “a small town in a small country in the middle of nowhere,” this dystopian fable resembles a Jacobean revenge drama presented in the manner of Brecht and Weill. Hester Smith (a superb Christine Lahti; God of Carnage) has been forced to become the town abortionist, for which they have carved the letter A into her chest. She has been trying for 20 years to raise the money to ransom her son Boy from prison. The rich girl who snitched on him for his petty theft is now the town’s First Lady (Elizabeth Stanley; On the Town). Whenever Hester visits the Freedom Fund Lady (Ruibo Qian; Bull in a China Shop), she learns that the price of ransom has gone up because of her son’s latest infractions in jail. The Mayor (a droll Marc Kudisch), frustrated that his wife has not borne him a child, is dallying with Hester’s only friend Canary Mary (Joaquina Kalukango; The Color Purple), who hopes that he will marry her after he has his wife eliminated.  We learn that a dangerous criminal, Monster (the wonderful Brandon Victor Dixon) has escaped and is being trailed by three vicious hunters who look forward to torturing him before killing him. When Hester finally scrapes together enough money to arrange a picnic with her son in the prison courtyard, the guard (J. Cameron Barnett; The Emperor Jones) leads in a prisoner called Jailbait (Ben Horner; An Octoroon) who turns out not only not be her son but claims to have killed him. Aside from Canary Mary, the only person showing Hester any kindness is Butcher (the wonderful Raphael Nash Thompson; Othello at The Pearl), who has long been her secret admirer. The First Lady’s unexpected pregnancy sets in motion a crescendo of violence. The play’s tragic ending approaches the level of Greek tragedy. The play is enhanced by musical interludes with some of the actors doubling as musicians. Each of the main characters gets a song. Instead of a song, the butcher gets a bravura five-minute soliloquy during which he enumerates the many infractions of his daughter Lulu. One innovation (which I found merely a distraction) is that when the women discuss matters of female sexuality, they switch to an invented language called Talk with translations projected on supertitles. The casting of Lahti as Hester is an interesting case of nontraditional casting in reverse. The role has been traditionally played by a black actor. Casting a white actor shifts the basis for much of the injustice from race to class. Fortunately, the play can support either interpretation. Rachel Hauck’s (Our Lady of Kibeho) flexible set suits the action well. Emilio Sosa’s (On Your Feet!) costumes are appropriate to their characters. Jo Bonney’s (By the Way, Meet Vera Stark) confident direction holds everything together. Running time: two hours 20 minutes including intermission.

A Parallelogram

A-

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

Animal

C-

Rejoice, Rebecca Hall fans. That marvelous mistress of misery is back in town. You can really see her up close at Atlantic Theater’s Stage 2 which has been reconfigured to divide the audience in two on facing sides. In this psychological drama with a dash of feminism by British playwright Claire Lizzimore, she plays Rachel, a young married woman who is suffering from deep depression. Her long-suffering husband Tom (played by Morgan Spector, her real-life husband who met her during the run of Machinal) can’t seem to help her. Her therapist Stephen (a droll Greg Keller; Belleville) apparently can’t either. We also see Rachel mistreating an old woman (Kristin Griffith); being kissed by Dan (David Pegram, War Horse), a shirtless stud who may or may not have broken into her house; and conversing with a mysterious little girl (Fina Strazza). After 85 minutes of exhausting, escalating emotions, the play is suddenly wrapped up and tied in a bow by an unexpected and unsatisfying explanation. I felt manipulated. Rachel Hauck’s set is minimalist to the point of near invisibility.. Sarah J. Holden’s costumes are congruent with the characters. Gaye Taylor Upchurch’s direction had a few things that annoyed me, e.g. having Rachel and Tom occasionally speak to each other through microphones from opposite sides of the stage. If you are an avid Rebecca Hall fan as am I, you will be rewarded. (Many will find the sight of David Pegram's torso rewarding too.) If Hall is not your cup of tea, skip it. Running time: 90 minutes, no intermission.

NOTE: If you have mobility issues, check with the theater before attending. The elevator has been broken for several days. There is alternative access via a freight elevator, but it involves a long detour through the bowels of the Google Building and one long flight of stairs. 

Latin History for Morons

B

It’s hard to believe that it’s over 25 years since I first saw John Leguizamo in his one-man show Mambo Mouth. On the basis of his new show at the Public Theater, I can report that he is still a consummate entertainer who owns the audience. Marriage and fatherhood may have mellowed him a bit, but he still ventures into X-rated territory. Upset that his 8th-grade son has been repeatedly bullied at school, he sets out to boost his son's self-estem by helping him write a report about his hero. He tries to instill the son with Latino pride by telling him about heroic historical examples from the Aztecs to the Incas and onward. It’s a loose structure that gives Leguizamo plenty of opportunity for hilarious impersonations and dance moves. He presents his findings as a mock lecture complete with blackboard scribblings. At its best, it’s very entertaining, but it occasionally sags and becomes repetitive. Nevertheless, it’s always a pleasure to see Leguizamo at work. Rachel Hauck designed the classroom-like set. Tony Taccone, whose work with one-person shows includes Bridge & Tunnel and Wishful Drinking, directed. Running time: one hour 40 minutes: no intermission.

On the Exhale

B

Marin Ireland (Ironbound, reasons to be pretty), one of our most talented stage actors, seems incapable of giving a less than compelling performance. In this dark drama by Martin Zimmerman now at Roundabout Underground’s Black Box Theatre, she plays a professor in a “concealed carry” state, who is morbidly afraid that some male student, unhappy with a grade, might settle his grievance with a gun. As a single mother, her main fear is that no one would be there to raise her only child. When a gunman does strike, it is not at the university, but at her son’s elementary school. Her son is one of the victims. She deals with her grief in quite unexpected ways. While the acting is impeccable, the material seemed a bit formulaic. During the last 15 minutes, the play took what I felt was a wrong turn that undermined some of its force. The set design by Rachel Hauck is minimal in the extreme — a platform with a black wall behind it. Emily Rehbolz’s costume does not call attention to itself. The lighting by Jen Schriever very effectively enhances the production. Leigh Silverman’s (Violet, Chinglish) unfussy direction is assured. It’s only an hour long, but it’s a very intense hour.

Tiny Beautiful Things ** C

Cheryl Strayed’s 2012 collection of her “Dear Sugar” advice columns from The Rumpus, an online website, was a bestseller. Actor Nia Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) thought it would be a good idea to adapt it for the stage and enlisted Marshall Heyman and Thomas Kail to assist with the concept. Kail (Hamilton) also directs. The result is this sporadically involving 80-minute production now at the Public Theater. An epistolary play with no direct interaction between characters is not an easy thing to bring off, but it can be done (cf. Love Letters). Here, however, it is an unequal exchange with one person responding to questions from several others. Three actors — Phillip James Brannon (Nat Turner in Jerusalem),  Alfredo Narciso and Natalie Woolams-Torres — play a variety of people with a variety of problems, large and small, who write to Sugar for advice. Sugar differs from the typical advice columnist by her willingness to share her own painful experiences with her readers. Nardalos portrays her with no-nonsense directness, folding laundry or packing school lunches as she speaks. Each time one of the other actors appears, he or she is playing a different person so there is little opportunity to build a character. One notable exception is an extended scene in which Narciso plays a man whose son has been killed by a hit-and-run driver; he is absolutely wrenching. While the questions more or less resemble ordinary speech, Sugar’s answers come out in polished prose. I would have preferred reading them at my leisure over hearing them on a stage. Rachel Hauck’s set of Strayed’s kitchen and living room looks so lived in that I found myself studying its details when my interest lagged. Jennifer Moeller’s costumes suit the characters well. Thomas Kail’s direction tries hard to enliven a basically static situation. I admired all the good intentions, but I found the effort ultimately misguided.

All the Ways To Say I Love You ** C

Neil LaBute’s new play for MCC at the Lucille Lortel Theatre is really just an hour-long monologue for an actress on the far side of 50. But when that actress is Tony winner Judith Light, who’s going to complain about it? Light plays Mrs. Johnson, a long-time high school English teacher and counselor, looking back 15 years to a relationship that profoundly affected her marriage, her career and her soul. To say more would be to give away too much. Those expecting the usual dose of bile and surprise from LaBute will be disappointed. Light is impressive — just learning all those lines is amazing — but her performance is too often overheated with few quieter moments to relieve the intensity. Rachel Hauck’s set recreates a high school office convincingly. Emily Rebholz’s has dressed Light plausibly. I wish director Leigh Silverman had gone for a wider emotional palette. Running time: one hour, no intermissionion.

Hadestown ****

New York Theatre Workshop has pulled out all the stops for its production of Anais Mitchell’s folk opera based on the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. They have completely reconfigured the interior of the theater, building a 3/4 circular wooden amphitheater with room for the musicians in the gap. They brought in one of our finest young directors, Rachel Chavkin (The Royale; Small Mouth Sounds; Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812), to develop the project with Mitchell. The casting is nothing less than superb: Damon Daunno (Curly in Oklahoma! at Bard) as Orpheus, Nabiyah Be (Queen of the Night) as Eurydice, Patrick Page (Spring Awakening, Casa Valentina, Spider-Man) as Hades and Amber Gray (Laurey in Bard’s Oklahoma!) as Persephone. From Daunno’s gorgeous falsetto to Page’s mesmerizing basso, they cover the vocal range admirably. Chris Sullivan is a charismatic Hermes, who serves as our narrator. The Fates — Shaina Taub (Old Hats), Lulu Fall and Jessie Shelton — not only sing well, but break out instruments at key moments. The seven-piece band does right by Mitchell’s outstanding score, a blend of folk, country, gospel, blues and New Orleans jazz. Rachel Hauck’s set features a leafless, gnarly tree that overhangs the performing space. Michael Krass’s costumes are suitable without being showy. David Neumann’s choreography provides needed fluidity to the production. Chavkin's masterful direction holds everything together beautifully. It’s not perfect. Some of the narrative themes, particularly in the first act, were either confusing or underdeveloped. However, it’s one of the rare shows that improves in the second act. I’m not sure the production shakes off its concept album roots sufficiently to qualify as a folk opera, but I’m not going to quibble over category in the face of so much talent. The audience included many young people who were fans of the album. The seating is on a motley array of wooden chairs with cushions thoughtfully provided. I enjoyed the afternoon thoroughly. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes including intermission.

Dry Powder ***

Sarah Burgess must be the luckiest playwright in town. For her New York debut, she scored a top-drawer Public Theater production of this dark comedy about the workings of a private equity firm. The starry cast includes Hank Azaria (Spamalot), Claire Danes (Homeland) and John Krasinski (The Office) and the director is Thomas Kail (Hamilton). The Martinson Theater has been reconfigured with seating on four sides surrounding a starkly minimalist set by Rachel Hauck (Night Is a Room) all in cobalt blue, brilliantly lit by Jason Lyons. The actors are sleekly costumed in business attire by Clint Ramos; even the stagehands are dressed for the office. The production values set a high standard for the play to match. It almost succeeds. Burgess has written snappy dialog for vivid characters: Rick (Azaria), head of KMM Capital, has left Goldman and brought along two proteges, Seth (Krasinski) and Jenny (Danes), as founding partners. Blinded by privilege, Rick has precipitated a P.R. nightmare by holding an extravagant engagement party on the very day that hundreds of employees were laid off at a firm KMM recently acquired. KMM’s "dry powder" (available capital) is threatened when some limited partners, angered at being targeted by demonstrators, have pulled out their investments. Seth brings Rick a deal to acquire Landmark Luggage, a failing California firm that, he maintains, will offer both an opportunity to create American jobs and thereby improve KMM’s reputation, as well as a chance to make serious money. Jenny counters that they can make more money doing their usual “rip and flip,” cannibalizing the firm and selling off its assets. The central conflict is between Seth, a pleasant guy who seems to think that private equity is not inherently evil, and Jenny, a near-robotic number cruncher, whose sole focus is on maximizing profit irrespective of public relations concerns. Jenny, in today’s parlance, is “on the spectrum;” her example alone would be enough to give Asperger’s a bad name. If a man had written her character, he would have without a doubt drawn the wrath of all feminists. Her monomania and ongoing disdain for Seth are a source of many of the play’s laughs. Seth’s values are tested when the plans for the deal he has worked out with Landmark’s CEO Jeff (Sanjit de Silva), seemingly a man of principle, are threatened. Rick adapts to each changing situation without concern for morality or consistency. For most viewers there will be few surprises and little new information about high finance. The play also becomes somewhat cartoonish and repetitive at times. Nevertheless, with its outstanding cast and stylish production, it is often tremendously entertaining. Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes. 

Antlia Pneumatica **

After three previous disappointments (Mr. Burns, Ipheginia in Aulis at CSC and 10 out of 12) I did not have high hopes for Anne Washburn’s new play now at Playwrights Horizons. Alas, my low expectations were met. This reunion of 40-somethings to bury a college friend is only superficially similar to “The Big Chill.” It has a major gimmick and a few minor ones, none of which worked for me. Nina (Annie Parisse) and Liz (April Matthis) are sisters from California who have chosen their family’s vacation ranch in the Texas hill country as the site of the memorial service for Sean, their friend from college days in Austin. Ula (Maria Striar) and Len (Nat DeWolf) are friends who have come for the ceremony. Adrian (Rob Campbell), Nina’s former lover with whom she has been out of touch for 14 years, is an unexpected arrival. We also hear the offstage voices of Nina’s children Casey (Skylar Dunn) and Wally (Azhy Robertson). Late in the play, another friend Bama (Crystal Finn) arrives with a story that casts all that has transpired in a new light. We watch the preparations for the feast. We hear snippets of conversations from offstage. A few scenes are performed in near total darkness. The sequence of events is deliberately muddled. All this might have involved me more if the characters had been more interesting. They are clearly individuated, but insufficiently developed. The big reveal was a meager payoff for the long, slow, talky buildup. Rachel Hauck's rustic set is attractive, as are Jessica Pabst's costumes. Ken Rus Schmoll (The Invisible Hand) directs with a sure hand. Washburn is greatly admired by many in the theatrical community. I wish I could see what they see. Running time: 1 hour 50 minutes without intermission.

NOTE: Antlia Pneumatica (The Air Pump) is the name of an obscure constellation, one of several named for scientific instruments by French astronomer Lacalle.

Night Is a Room **

To say that I liked this play the best of Naomi Wallace’s three plays for Signature Theatre’s residency program amounts to faint praise. The current play is set in Leeds, England where we meet Liana (Dagmara Dominczyk), an ad executive with beauty and style who is happily married to Marcus (Bill Heck), a popular history teacher in a girls’ school. In the first scene Liana is visiting the modest garden flat of Doré (Ann Dowd), a frumpy 55-year-old cleaning woman, who at age 15 was forced to give up the baby boy she bore. Doré is Marcus’s birth mother, whom Liana has tracked down at great expense, so she could unite mother and son as a surprise present for Marcus’s 40th birthday. Big mistake. The play skips the reunion and moves ahead three months. Liana, jealous at the many evenings Marcus has been spending at Doré’s, invites her to their upscale flat for tea. Their lives all change dramatically after that evening. After the big “reveal” which I will not give away here, what follows seems anti-climactic. The final scene, set six years later, spins its wheels and ends unconvincingly. The production is better than the material. All three actors, particularly the women, are excellent. Rachel Hauck’s set design is simple but evocative. Clint Ramos’s costumes are well-chosen. Bill Rauch’s direction is confident. If only the play did not peak too early and then go on too long, it would have been a more satisfying experience. Running time: 2 hours 5 minutes including intermission.

Our Lady of Kibeho ***

Playwright Katori Hall’s residency at Signature Theatre resumes with this theatrically engrossing play based on actual events in Rwanda in the early 1980’s when three young women at a Catholic school claimed to have visions of Mary. As the play opens, Father Tuyishime (Owiso Odera),a young handsome priest and Sister Evangelique (Starla Benford), an older martinet nun in charge of the students — two stock characters who could be right out of John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt — are arguing about what to do with 17-year-old Alphonsine (Nneka Okafor), the first to claim to see the Virgin. The priest secretly hopes the apparitions are real while the nun wants to stamp out attention-seeking nonsense. When another student, Anathalie (Mandi Masden), begins to see the visions, Sister Evangelique enlists Marie-Claire (Joaquina Kalukango), the eldest student and a bit of a bully, to interfere should there be other apparitions. Marie-Claire too sees the Virgin in the gripping scene with gasp-inducing special effects that concludes the first act. When word gets out about the visions, the long absent Bishop Gahamanyi (Brent Jennings) shows up and threatens to close the school if the rumors are not contained. Eventually the Vatican sends Father Flavia (T. Ryder Smith) to investigate. The manner in which he tests the girls is barbaric. As the visions come to be accepted, there is much shifting of positions among those who at first belittled the visions and those who supported them. Some are motivated by crass economic considerations, others by faith. But few are able to accept the warning of a coming bloodbath the apparitions portend. In restricting herself to the immediate period of the visions, Hall does not supply much context for what happens. The audience is expected to know in advance about the tribal rivalries between Hutu and Tutsi and the massacres that took place in Rwanda a decade later. That narrowing of focus may rob the play of a bit of its import but not of its theatricality. Rachel Hauck’s modular set is attractive and efficient. Peter Nigrini’s evocative projections add much to the atmosphere. Greg Meeh and Paul Rubin create some marvelous effects. Emily Rebholz’s costumes are very good. Director Michael Greif keeps things moving. One word of caution: a walkway that bisects the theater between rows F and G is used for part of the action, particularly in the second act. If your seat is in Rows A-F, you either will miss some of the action or twist your neck trying not to. Running time: 2 hours 35 minutes including intermission.

Grand Concourse ***

In her new play now in previews at Playwrights Horizons, Heidi Schreck displays a talent for creating vivid characters whom she treats with compassion and humanity. Shelley (Quincy Tyler Bernstine), a 39-year-old nun who runs a soup kitchen in the Bronx, is undergoing a crisis of faith. Oscar (Bobby Moreno), the handsome Hispanic handyman, affects a working-class macho facade that he doesn’t entirely feel. Frog (Lee Wilkof), a homeless regular client, struggles against mental illness. When Emma (Ismenia Mendes), a troubled 19-year-old with a reckless streak, begins work as a volunteer, her behavior has an impact on the other three, especially Shelley. The play is a series of short scenes, punctuated by blackouts, that gradually reveal the characters as they perform their jobs. Many vegetables are chopped. Director Kip Fagan (Schreck’s husband) does an excellent job of choreographing the work sequences. The cast is uniformly excellent. Rachel Hauck’s set design really looks like a working kitchen. Jessica Pabst’s costumes suit each character. The play examines issues of faith and forgiveness, the motivations for doing good, the appropriateness (or lack thereof) of help given, the extremes to which neediness can lead, and the sense of workplace community. The results are both enlightening and entertaining. I do wish that Schreck had further clarified the reasons for Emma's strong impact on Shelley. Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes; no intermission.

And I and Silence **

Naomi Wallace, a playwright in residence at Signature Theatre this season, has a most impressive resume. It includes a MacArthur Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts grant, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, an Obie Award, the 2012 Horton Foote Prize and the 2013 Windham Campbell prize for drama. I wish I could say that the reasons for all her honors were more evident in her new drama now in previews at Signature. The action follows the story of two young women both as teenagers in prison in 1950 and as roommates nine years later. Scenes of their hardships in the outside world are juxtaposed with scenes of their budding friendship in prison. Many of the prison scenes involve Young Jamie (Trae Harris), who is black, coaching Young Dee (Emily Skeggs), who is white, how to be a proper servant, the career they look forward to pursuing after prison. Part of the lessons involve learning where to establish lines that must not be crossed in dealings with their future employers. After prison Jamie (Rachel Nicks) and Dee (Samantha Soule) are living in abject poverty, struggling to find and hold jobs as servants. The disconnect between their personalities in prison and later is exacerbated by the lack of physical resemblance between the two actors playing them. Skeggs’s body type is so different from Soule’s that it is a stretch to accept the two as the same character at different ages. The reasons for their desperation are not made sufficiently clear. The sudden explosion of repressed lesbianism took me by surprise. The actors invest their roles with sincerity and energy. The spartan set by Rachel Hauck is effective, as are Cliff Ramos’s costumes. With the audience split into two facing sides, director Caitlin McLeod needs to work harder to insure that fewer lines are lost when the actors are facing away. It all seemed like a mash-up of “Girls in Prison” and “Thelma and Louise” with a touch of “The Maids” thrown in. I hope that Wallace’s remaining two plays will deliver more evidence of her talents. In case you were wondering, the title is a line from an Emily Dickinson poem. Running time: 90 minutes, no intermission.

Family Furniture ***

(Please click on the title to see the complete review.)
The Bard of Buffalo is back with a lovely new play, now in previews at the Flea Theater. Fortunately for us, A.R. Gurney has found a seemingly inexhaustible font of inspiration in the lives of mid-century WASP residents of that city. Through this prism, he has repeatedly given us a vivid portrait of American social mores circa 1950. The present play is an intimate one, depicting events at the summer home of an upper-middle-class Buffalo family. The father Russell (Peter Scolari), devoted to upholding tradition, is unhappy that daughter Peggy (Ismenia Mendes) is seriously involved with an Italian-American. Son Nick (Andrew Keenan-Bolger), a couple years younger, is working hard all summer to buy a car to have at Williams, so he can drive up to Bennington to visit his girlfriend Betsy (Molly Nordin). The mother Claire (Carolyn McCormick) is busy playing tennis at the club, arranging charity events, and, perhaps, having an affair with a family friend. Peggy is dispatched to Europe for a month to get her away from her boyfriend, with unanticipated consequences. Nick has great difficulty coming to terms with his mother's possible adultery. Two beautiful scenes for father and daughter and another for mother and son were, for me, the highlights of the play. I was puzzled why Russell and Claire seemed much less concerned about their son dating a Jew than about their daughter dating an Italian. A scene in which Betsy tries to help Nick break out of his personal crisis by reading a scene from Hamlet seemed contrived and could have easily been omitted. In fact, I would have omitted the character of Betsy entirely, because the scenes with her diluted the intimacy of the family scenes a bit. The cast is excellent Rachel Hauck's minimalist set, consisting of a few tables, a couple of benches, a chair and a bookshelf, works just fine. Claudia Brown's costumes evoke the period effectively. Thomas Kail's direction is unobtrusive and assured. It's not a major Gurney work, but is nonetheless satisfying. Running time: 95 minutes, no intermission.