Seared

B+

After a run last year in Williamstown, Theresa Rebeck’s (Seminar, Downstairs) entertaining comedy set in the kitchen of a tiny Park Slope restaurant has made it to New York in a first-rate production at MCC’s Frankel Theater. If you are a foodie, you will enjoy seeing Harry (Raul Esparza; Company, The Normal Heart), the brilliant but difficult chef, at work. Harry fancies himself a food artist unconcerned with critical acclaim or commercial success. To the great frustration of his partner Mike (David Mason; Trick or Treat) who funded the restaurant and runs the front of the house, Harry refuses to capitalize on a mention in New York magazine praising his scallop dish. Since the quality scallops he insists on are hard to come by in quantity, Harry refuses to make the dish a regular offering. When an attractive, rather mysterious consultant, Emily (Krysta Rodriguez; First Date, The Addams Family), visits the restaurant one night, she bends Mike’s ear with ideas for improving the restaurant. Mike is sold, but Harry is not. Much of the action consists of shouting matches over implementing Emily’s ideas. The relationship that develops between Harry and Emily is not completely hostile. Meanwhile, the restaurant’s sole waiter, Rodney (W. Tré Davis; Zooman and the Sign), quietly observes everything. When Emily persuades Harry to come up with a new signature dish, he develops one based on wild salmon, which is even harder to obtain than quality scallops. The first six minutes of the second act, with a jazz background but no dialogue, present Harry working on his new seared salmon dish. Depending on your interest in cooking, you will either be fascinated or bored. In any case, it is a virtuoso scene for Esparza. The simmering conflicts come to a boil when a major food critic arrives for a visit. The outcome was a surprise, at least for me. Rebeck writes actor-friendly roles. Everyone gets a chance to shine, Mason somewhat less than the others because his role is less fully developed. Esparza makes the most of a role that fits him well. Rodriguez is so much fun to watch that I was willing to overlook the fact that Emily’s motivation is never satisfactorily explained. Tim Mackabee’s (The Last Match, Vietgone) kitchen is wonderfully detailed. Tilly Grimes’s (Underground Railroad Game) costumes are apt. Moritz von Stuelpnagel (Bernhardt/Hamlet, Hand to God), directs with precision. If you don’t mind a lot of shouting and aren’t too concerned about credibility, you are likely to have an enjoyable experience. I did. Running time: two hours ten minutes including intermission. 

Downstairs

C-

First the good news: this latest offering by Primary Stages offers the opportunity to see Tyne Daly (Gypsy, Master Class, “Cagney and Lacey”) and her brother Tim (Coastal Disturbances, “Madame Secretary”) together onstage for the first time in New York, both playing roles that cast them against type. Tim, usually a suave charmer, plays Teddy, a middle-aged man with a fragile grip on reality that may be the result of paranoia. Tyne, usually the smart, strong woman, plays Irene, a timid, depressive housewife who lives in fear of her horrible husband Gerry (John Procaccino; Our Mother’s Brief Affair, Nikolai and the Others). The bad news is that the play is by Theresa Rebeck (Bernhardt/Hamlet, Poor Behavior), a playwright whose ability to get her work produced no matter how many disappointing plays she writes never fails to amaze me. Add another disappointment to the list. Despite a interesting premise — Teddy is temporarily occupying a beat-up couch in Irene’s basement against the wishes of her tyrannical husband — the play mostly spins its wheels and dissipates what little tension it builds up well before it finally ends. If there was any point to it, it was lost on me. Despite fine performances by all three actors, I found myself losing interest and patience early on. The slack direction by Adrienne Campbell-Holt (Thirst, Zürich) didn't help either. I did like Narelle Sissons’s (All My Sons, In the Blood) meticulously detailed, dingy, unfinished basement set and Sarah Laux's (The Band's Visit, The Humans) evocative costumes. I admire the Dalys for trying something different, but wish it had turned out better. Running time: one hour 45 minutes, no intermission.

Bernhardt/Hamlet

C

Roundabout Theatre Company is to be congratulated for commissioning a new play for Broadway by an established playwright starring a superb actor in a lavish production. That being said, I only wish the results had turned out better. Theresa Rebeck (Seminar, Mauritius) has taken a critical moment from the long career of the famous Sarah Bernhardt, added a fashionable dash of female empowerment, and embroidered actual events with a few liberties to pique interest. This would be fine if the play were more involving and coherent. Perhaps if I were a student of theatrical history and/or an avid Shakespearean, I might have found it more gripping. At the age of 55, Bernhardt (the charismatic Janet McTeer; Les Liaisons Dangereuses, God of Carnage) was tired of playing dying courtesans and thought taking on Hamlet might be the box office success she needed to fill her expensive new theater. Her last play, by the promising Edmond Rostand (Jason Butler Harner; The Crucible, Cock), although a critical success, had been a commercial disaster. Constant Coquelin (a droll Dylan Baker; The Front Page, Mauritius) is a veteran member of her company. Louis — for some reason, he doesn’t get a last name — (Tony Carlin; Pygmalion, Junk) is a pompous critic. Alphonse Mucha (Matthew Saldivar; Saint Joan, Junk) is the artist who created posters for all Bernhardt’s plays. We also meet three members of Bernhardt’s company, played by Brittany Bradford, Triney Sandoval and Aaron Costa Ganis. Rebeck’s conceit is that Rostand, although over 20 years her junior and married with young children, is her current lover. Furthermore, she asks him to rewrite Hamlet to remove the poetry and make Hamlet a more dynamic character. (She actually did commission a revision to her specifications, but not by Rostand.) Unable to say no to her, Rostand accepts the job, which requires him to neglect his own play in progress. Her request is the curtain line of the long, turgid first act. In the livelier but unfocused second act, we meet Bernhardt’s adult son Maurice (Nick Westrate; Casa Valentina, Tribes), who returns home from university suddenly to see what is rotten in Paris, and Rostand’s clever wife Rosamond (Ito Aghayere; Junk, Mlima’s Tale) who confronts Bernhardt over the affair. The Hamlet production seems to get lost. Instead of seeing Bernhardt’s Hamlet, we instead get a scene from the play Rostand had suspended work on, Cyrano de Bergerac, with Coquelin playing the career-making title role. The final scene has a clever coup de théatre that unfortunately offers too little too late. McTeer makes a convincing Bernhardt, but when she portrays Hamlet, her speech becomes too quiet and rapid. The impressive revolving set by Beowulf Boritt (Act One, Come from Away) captures the theater’s backstage, Bernhardt’s ornate dressing room and a few other locations. Toni-Leslie James’s (Come from Away, Jitney) period costumes are excellent. The pace set by Moritz von Stuelpnagel’s (Hand to God, Verité) direction often seems rushed. All in all, it was a disappointment. Running time: two hours 30 minutes including intermission.

Poor Behavior *

Primary Stages' first play of the season is now in previews at its new home at The Duke on 42nd Street. If you crave 2+ hours of arguing, bickering, shouting and throwing tantrums, punctuated only by chunks of pseudophilosophical blather and a few feeble attempts at humor, this is the play for you. Two childless married couples, probably in their late thirties and wed for about a decade, are gathered at the vacation home of one of the couples for a weekend in the country. The hosts, Peter (Jeff Biehl) and Ella (Katie Kreisler), seem relatively sane and happy, at least compared to the other couple. Ian (Brian Avers) is an abrasive Irishman who may have married the hysterical Maureen (Heidi Armbruster) either for her money or a green card. After a long night of drinking, Maureen makes an accusation of infidelity which leads to serious consequences. There is much talk about the nature of "good." The actors did not dishonor themselves coping with this less than stellar material, although Avers shouted louder than necessary much of the time. Lauren Helpern's set of the kitchen, dining nook and entryway of the house was quite attractive and looked lived in. Jessica Pabst's costumes were apt. I find it hard to judge Evan Cabnet's direction, because Theresa Rebeck's script presents so many problems. Rebeck, whose work includes Mauritius, Seminar, and Our House, has the rare distinction of being the playwright whose latest play I always like less than the previous one. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes including intermission.

Seminar ***

(Always click on the title to see the complete review!)
Theresa Rebeck's new play at the Golden is a guilty pleasure. If you stop to analyze it for even a moment, the plot is full of implausibilities and contrivances, but, for me at least, they were more than compensated by a terrific cast, some very funny dialogue, and a first-rate production. Alan Rickman stars as Leonard, a famous writer/editor, both sinister and sexy, who has been paid $20,000 to lead a 10-week writing seminar for four budding writers: Kate (Lily Rabe), Martin (Hamish Linklater), Douglas (Jerry O'Connell) and Izzy (Etienne Park). Each of the four has a somewhat stereotypical set of traits. The group banter is entertaining for a while. Then Leonard arrives with his take-no-prisoners critique of their writing. Egos are bruised, sheets are rumpled, careers are molded. Since onstage nudity is almost de rigeur these days, Etienne displays her lovely breasts. The focus of the play wavers and finally settles on Martin, who has thus far been unwilling to submit his work for critique. The role of Leonard is hardly a stretch for Rickman, but he handles it with subtlety. The other cast members are excellent, the direction by Sam Gold is fine, and the sets and costumes by the ubiquitous David Zinn are wonderful. There is a moment (when some of the audience thought the play had ended) when the entire set flies upward to reveal a terrific new set underneath. It's not great theater, but it's entertaining. The audience loved it. Running time: 100 minutes; no intermission.