Merrily We Roll Along

 A

My only previous experience of Sondheim and Furth’s (Company) 1981 famous flop was the extremely stripped-down version by Fiasco Theater three years ago. While that was enjoyable, it did not provide many clues why Merrily… has become a cult classic. It certainly didn’t prepare me for the exciting experience I had today at New York Theatre Workshop. This production is basically the same version that originated at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London several years ago and went on to the West End where it won the Olivier. There is so much to praise that it is hard to know where to begin. Perhaps the most important of its many strengths is the brilliant casting. The roles of Frank, Charley and Mary fit Jonathan Groff (Spring Awakening), Daniel Radcliffe (Lifespan of a Fact) and Lindsay Mendez (Carousel) like gloves and they play off each other very well. The secondary roles are equally well-cast, including Krystal Joy Brown (Motown)as Gussie, Katie Rose Clarke (Miss Saigon) as Beth, and Reg Rogers (Holiday) as Joe. The songs are well-sung and well-integrated into the action. Jonathan Tunick’s orchestrations for reduced orchestra are fine, but the sound level was occasionally too loud. Soutra Gilmour’s flexible set serves the show well and her period costumes are a delight. Tim Jackson’s (Stepping Out) choreography is a treat. Finally, there is Maria Friedman’s (High Society) skillful direction, which pulls everything together brilliantly so that the gimmick of telling the story of youthful hope leading to middle-age disillusion backwards makes perfect sense. I hesitate to recommend the show too enthusiastically since the entire run is sold out. One can only hope for an extension or a move to Broadway. Running time: two hours 30 minutes including intermission.

The Alchemist

B+

Red Bull Theater is in fine form with this lively version of Ben Jonson’s 1610 farce. The same creative team — Jesse Berger, director; Jeffrey Hatcher, adaptor; Alexis Distler, set designer; and Tilly Grimes, costume designer — who brought us The Government Inspector have created another audience pleaser. The uniformly excellent cast of ten skilled farceurs performs with a combination of precision and abandon. To escape the plague, a wealthy Londoner has retired to the country and left his house under the care of his butler (Manoel Felciano), who invites two con artists, Subtle (Reg Rogers) and Dol Common (Jennifer Sanchez), to join him and turn the house into a base for perpetrating lucrative scams on gullible locals. Their intended victims include Abel Drugger (Nathan Christopher), a meek tobacconist; Dapper (Carson Elrod), a legal clerk with a gambling habit; Sir Epicure Mammon (Jacob Ming-Trent), a rich man and his skeptical servant Surly (Louis Mustillo); Ananais (Stephen DeRosa), a religious fanatic; Kastril (Allen Tedder), an angry young man, and Dame Pliant (Teresa Avia Lim), his widowed sister. The ensuing antics are too convoluted to describe here. The six doors, two stairways and one secret panel all get lots of use. The dialogue is filled with amusing anachronisms. The plot even manages to work in a touch of James Bond and a Brooklyn accent. The frantic activity wears a bit thin after intermission, but that’s a minor complaint. It’s a delightful treat for those who care for this sort of thing. If you liked The Government Inspector, you will probably enjoy The Alchemist. (Running time: two hours including intermission.)

Tootsie

B+

The tag line in the ads for the Broadway adaptation of this 1982 film is “The Comedy Musical.” The inversion of the usual term is apt, because this is one of the few musicals more likely to be remembered for its savvy book by Robert Horn (13 The Musical, “Designing Women”) than for its competent, but not stellar, score by David Yazbek (The Band’s Visit, The Full Monty). It’s not that the score is bad — Yazbek displays his usual facility for matching song to character and his lyrics are often clever — but there are no songs that jump out as something you are likely to want to hear again very soon. The book, on the other hand, very cleverly updates the basic story to the age of #MeToo, successfully changes the setting from the world of soap operas to the Broadway stage, and regularly provides a barrel of laughs. The strong book is matched by a superb cast and first-rate production values. Santino Fontana (Cinderella, Sons of the Prophet) deftly negotiates the dual role of Michael Dorsey/Dorothy Michaels, singing well in both ranges. Lilli Cooper (SpongeBob SquarePants, Spring Awakening) is lovely as Julie Nichols, Dorothy’s co-star and Michael’s love interest. Sarah Stiles (Hand to God, On a Clear Day…) pulls out all the stops as Michael’s neurotic former girlfriend Sandy Lester and Andy Grotelueschen (Cyrano de Bergerac, Into the Woods) is droll as Michael’s roommate Jeff Slater. John Behlmann (Significant Other, Journey’s End) is a riot as the buff but dim Max Van Horn who takes a shine to Dorothy. The always enjoyable Julie Halston (On the Town, Hairspray) scores as the wealthy producer Rita Marshall, who promotes Dorothy’s rise. Michael McGrath (The Front Page, She Loves Me) makes the most of the small but important role of Stan Fields, Michael’s agent. Reg Rogers (The Royal Family, Holiday) is wonderful as Ron Carlisle, the director who has blackballed Michael but is forced to work with Dorothy. The choreography by Denis Jones (Holiday Inn, Honeymoon in Vegas) is lively with a memorable faux-Fosse number that we gratefully get to see a second time during the curtain call. David Rockwell’s (Kiss Me Kate!, She Loves Me) attractive, flexible sets are beautifully lit by Donald Holder (The Lion King) and William Ivey Long’s (Prince of Broadway, It Shoulda Been You) costumes are marvelous. Scott Ellis (She Loves Me, On the 20th Century) directs with aplomb. The implausible progression from the awful show “Juliet’s Curse” to the hit “Juliet’s Nurse” is fun to watch. There is so much to admire that one regrets that the score is not up to the high level of everything else. Nevertheless, it offers a very entertaining evening with far more laughs than you can expect from today’s typical musical. Running time: two hours 35 minutes including intermission.

Privacy *** B

The collaboration between London’s Donmar Warehouse and the Public Theater is off to a good start with this ingenious production created by writer James Graham and director Josie Rourke. Substantially revised from the 2014 Donmar version, the play is an informative essay on the uses and abuses of cybersurveillance, wrapped in the tale of an emotionally closed British writer who moves to New York to learn to open up a bit (or is it really just to pursue his ex?). The admirable Daniel Radcliffe, who never repeats himself in his choice of roles for the New York stage, plays the writer. The other actors — De’adre Aziza, Raffi Barsoumian, Michael Countryman, Rachel Dratch and Reg Rogers — skillfully play a multitude of roles including psychiatrist, parents, neighbors, cyberexperts and intelligence agency officials. We even get an appearance on video by Edward Snowden. There’s also an onstage digital researcher (Harry Davies). Audience participation is an important part of the proceedings. People are urged to turn on their cellphones (silent mode, of course), log onto the theater’s wi-fi network, use Google, take selfies and email photos of favorite New York locales. None of this material goes to waste. The first act sets up the basic situation and settles the writer in New York. In the second act, both funnier and scarier, he ventures into the world of online dating. Radcliffe is front and center the whole time except for a lengthy episode in Act Two which begins as a case of identity theft and turns into something darker. There's a demonstration of the mountain of information collected by one's smartphone that is truly alarming. Lucy Osborne’s set is simple but witty; it features the ultimate overstuffed couch for analysis and a New York skyline made of Amazon cartons. Duncan McLean’s projections add a lot, including identifying the many characters. Paul Tazewell’s costumes are unobtrusive. Occasionally the informative and entertainment elements of the play get in each other’s way. At other times the material threatens to become repetitive. Nevertheless, it makes for a most unusual theatrical experience. Too bad the entire run is virtually sold out. Running time: 2 1/2 hours including intermission.

The Big Knife **

After the success of the recent revivals of "Awake and Sing!" and "Golden Boy," it must have seemed like a good idea for Roundabout Theatre to revive another Clifford Odets play. Unfortunately, it wasn't -- at least not this minor work set in Hollywood in 1948. Charlie Castle (Bobby Cannavale) is a disillusioned leading man whom  studio head Marcus Hoff (Richard Kind) is determined to get to sign a 12-year contract by whatever means necessary. Charlie's idealistic wife Marion (Marin Ireland) threatens to divorce him if he signs. Their screenwriter friend Hank Teagle (C.J. Wilson), who is going back to New York to write a novel about Tinseltown, hopes Marion will leave Charlie and come with him. We also meet Buddy Bliss (Joey Slotnick), the PR man who took the rap and served time for an auto accident that Charlie was responsible for, his unsatisfied wife Connie (Ana Reeder) who has slept with Charlie occasionally, Dixie Evans (Rachel Brosnahan), the ingenue who was in the car with Charlie when the accident occurred and whose silence the studio has bought, the aptly named Smiley Coy (Reg Rogers), Hoff's right-hand man, Charlie's agent Nat Danziger (Chip Zien), gossip columnist Patty Benedict (Brenda Wehle) and the butler Russell (Billy Eugene Jones). While I have much admired Cannavale and Ireland on other occasions, I found them inadequate here. In their defense, their roles are less interesting than the supporting characters, up to and including the butler. The play springs briefly to life in the final scene, but by then it is far too late to care. The dialog is overwrought, the characters are underwritten and the production is undercooked, all adding up to a long tedious evening. Doug Hughes' direction shows no improvement over the mess he made out of "Enemy of the People" last year. On the plus side, John Lee Beatty's set design is superb and Catherine Zuber's costumes are wonderful. If the trite plot really interests you, you can save a lot of money by renting the film version with such Hollywood luminaries as Jack Palance, Ida Lupino, Wendell Corey, Jean Hagen, Rod Steiger, Shelley Winters, Ilka Chase and Everett Sloane. Running time: 2 hours, 25 minutes, including intermission.