I Can Get It for You Wholesale

A-

Classic Stage Company has revived this Harold Rome (Wish You Were Here, Fanny)/Jerome Weidman (Fiorello!) musical about Harry Bogen, a charming sociopath blazing his way through the garment industry in the late 1930s. The original 1962 production was notable for giving Barbra Streisand her first Broadway role at the age of 19 and for giving Elliott Gould’s career a boost. Weidman’s book, based on his own novel, has been revised by his son John (Pacific Overtures, Assassins) with the aim of bringing back more of the edginess of the novel including the reaction to antisemitism motivating some of the characters. While Rome’s music and lyrics are not up there with better-known midcentury classics, they are more than serviceable. Harry, skillfully portrayed by Santino Fontana (Tootsie, Sons of the Prophet), narrates the story himself and does not attempt to hide the awfulness behind his charm. Judy Kuhn (Fun Home, She Loves Me) lends warmth, wisdom and her glorious voice to the role of Harry’s mother. Adam Chanler-Berat (Next to Normal, Fortress of Solitude) is fine as Harry’s hapless partner Meyer and Sarah Steele (“The Good Fight”) does well as Meyer’s wife Blanche. Greg Hildreth (The Rose Tattoo, The Robber Bridegroom) captures the ambivalence of Harry’s less trusting partner Teddy. Julia Lester (Into the Woods) triumphs as their secretary, Miss Marmelstein. In an interesting casting twist, both women competing for Harry’s attention – his friend since childhood Ruthie Rivkin and showgirl Martha Mills – are played by black actors – Rebecca Naomi Jones (Oklahoma, Big Love) and Joy Woods (SIX: The Musical, Little Shop of Horrors), respectively. Both are top-notch. Eddie Cooper, Victor de Paula Rocha, Adam Grupper, Darron Hayes and Hayley Podschun are fine in smaller roles. Mark Wendland’s (Next to Normal, Unknown Soldier) set consists mainly of about 10 plain tables and around 20 plain black chairs that are pushed around to represent several locations as needed. Ann Hould-Ward’s (Beauty and the Beast, Into the Woods) period costumes are a treat. Choreographer Ellenore Scott’s (Grey House, Little Shop of Horrors) number for Harry and Martha is steamy. Director Trip Cullman (Lobby Hero, Punk Rock) mostly keeps things moving briskly although there are a few slack moments during the second act. CSC has provided a valuable service in bringing back this underappreciated musical. I was very glad to have the chance to see it, especially in a first-rate production. Running time: two hours 35 minutes including intermission. NOTE: Seats in Row A do not have arms.

Describe the Night

B+

Atlantic Theater Company is presenting the New York premiere of Rajiv Joseph’s (Guards at the Taj, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo) play that blends fact and fiction, realism and surrealism in an intricate story covering the period between 1920 and 2010 in Russia, Poland and East Germany. With only eight characters, it may not qualify as an epic but it is certainly an ambitious and complex work. Four of the leading characters are based on historical figures: famed Russian writer Isaac Babel (Danny Burstein), Soviet Secret Police chief Nikolai Yezhov (Zach Grenier), Yezhov’s wife Yevgenia (Tina Benko) and an ambitious young KGB agent nicknamed Vova (Max Gordon Moore). Babel and Yezhov meet in Poland in 1920 and become unlikely friends. Sparks fly when Babel meets Yevgenia. We also meet Feliks (Stephen Stocking), a car rental agent, and Mariya (Nadia Bowers; The Farnsworth Invention), a journalist, who are witnesses to the mysterious plane crash in 2010 that wiped out most of the Polish government. Mrs. Petrovna (Bowers again) is Mariya’s landlady. Urzula (Rebecca Naomi Jones; Marie and Rosetta, Big Love) is a young East German singer who wants to escape to the West in 1989. The playwright follows the basic facts of the relationship between Babel and the Yezhovs fairly closely up to 1940, but puts his own fantastical spin on the Yezhovs’ fate. The story jumps around in time and place and challenges the audience to follow along. There are scenes that are quite dramatic, others that are very funny and a few that don’t have much impact but are necessary to connect the dots. The title of the play comes from Babel’s direction to himself in his writing journal. The travels of this journal over 90 years form the backbone of the play. To say more about the plot would risk spoiling the pleasure of discovery. Zach Grenier (33 Variations, Storefront Church), Tina Benko (The Crucible, Scenes from a Marriage) and Max Gordon Moore (Indecent, Man from Nebraska) are a pleasure to watch. While I admire Danny Burstein (Fiddler on the Roof, Golden Boy) for his willingness to take risks, he seems miscast here. The main design feature of the set by Tim Mackabee (The Penitent, Guards at the Taj) remains unused for most of the play. The period costumes by Amy Clark (Chaplin) are excellent. Giovanna Sardelli (Animals out of Paper) directs with a sure hand. While I found the play intellectually satisfying, it did not engage me fully at the emotional level. The characters seem more like pieces of a puzzle than individuals worthy of empathy. Nevertheless, it offers a stimulating theatrical experience. Running time: two hours 55 minutes including two intermissions.

Big Love ****

Since suffering through Charles Mee’s play First Love in 2001, I have studiously avoided seeing anything else by him. I was dismayed to learn that a revival of his Big Love had turned up on my subscription series at Signature Theatre. To my great surprise, the preview I attended turned out to be thoroughly entertaining. I was put in a good mood even before entering the theater. Outside the entrance was an enormous pile of Tiffany-like gift boxes. Inside, the entire ceiling was covered with upside-down flowers. The white walls of the set (by Brent J. Banakis) featured projections of pastoral Italian scenes (by Austin Switser). The back wall of the stage was a beautiful blue sky above rippling Mediterranean waters. The tranquility did not last long. Lydia (Rebecca Naomi Jones) bursts in in a dirty wedding gown, which she promptly strips off for a bath in the onstage tub. She and her 49 sisters have fled Greece for Italy to escape forced marriage to their 50 cousins. The two other sisters that we meet are Olympia (Libby Winters), a valley-girl style airhead who likes to take selfies, and Thyona (Stacey Sargeant), a very angry militant feminist. They seek refuge from Piero (Christopher Innvar), owner of the villa. When their jilted grooms arrive by helicopter to claim their brides, Piero attempts to negotiate a compromise with them. We meet three of the grooms, the assertive Constantine (Ryan James Hatanaka), the sweet Nikos (Bobby Steggert) and the nondescript Oed (Emmanuel Brown). When the grooms refuse to compromise, the sisters decide to take drastic action. When one sister fails to follow through on their pact, she is tried for her betrayal. The judge is Piero’s wise mother Bella (Lynn Cohen). The other characters are Giuliano (Preston Sadleir), Piero’s gay son, and Eleanor (Ellen Harvey) and Leo (Nathaniel Stampley), two weekend guests; their role in the play seemed superfluous. Some of the themes touched on are the conflicting roles that a society expects of its men and the competing claims of love and justice. Much is demanded of the actors. The trio of sisters, as well as the three brothers, burst into song periodically. When frustrated, they throw themselves to the floor or against the nearest wall. Fight directors Rick Sordelet and Christian Kelly-Sordelet somehow have taught them not to injure themselves in the process. The tongue-in-cheek costumes by Anita Yavich are wonderful. Director Tina Landau has successfully knit all the elements together into a very enjoyable theater piece. Running time: one hour, 40 minutes, no intermission.

Murder Ballad **

(Please click on the title to see the complete review.)
This through-sung rock opera by Julia Jordan and Juliana Nash, which received positive reviews at Manhattan Theater Club Stage II last year, has reopened at the Union Square Theater, which has been reconfigured for the occasion. Traditional seats in a U surround a central area set up as a bar, complete with pool table and cabaret seating for those who want to be in on the action. The four characters are lovely Sara (Cassie Levy), who, after a tempestuous affair with hot bartender Tom (Will Swenson), settles for marriage to Michael (John Ellison Conlee), an older, less photogenic professor of poetry. (Too bad the professor wasn't available to assist with the lame lyrics.) When Sara gets the seven year itch and resumes her affair with Tom, there's trouble, as sexy narrator (Rebecca Naomi Jones) tells us. I wish I could join the chorus of praise for the show, but it did not engage me at any level. The tabloid-worthy tale, the deafening music, the pointless running to and fro and standing on chairs were turnoffs for me. I did not particularly care who would be murdered or who did it. The performances are energetic and the voices are fine when they can be heard over the musicians. The large set, designed by Mark Wendland, diffuses the action too much. Jessica Pabst's costumes are apt. Ben Stanton's garish lighting in neon colors is bilious. Trip Cullman's direction seems to be based on the idea that if you keep the actors running around enough, no one will notice the thinness of the material. I might have liked it better had I not seen the other far better environmental pop opera ("Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812") first, but I doubt it. Fairness compels me to state that most of the audience seemed to be enjoying it. Running time:  80 minutes without intermission.