Leopoldstadt

 B

In this ambitious, overstuffed play, Tom Stoppard addresses his relationship to his long-submerged Jewish heritage while simultaneously depicting the life of a highly assimilated Jewish family in Vienna between 1899 and 1955.  With a cast of 38 (26 adults and 12 children), there are a lot of people to keep track of and little time to flesh out many of their stories.  With a few important exceptions, they come across as generic without sufficient detail to individualize them. The extended 1899 episode includes a lot of exposition that occasionally approaches presenting a history lesson. On the other hand, it has colorful scenes of the family celebrating both Christmas and Passover and sets up the play’s most vivid personal conflict in the 1900 episode. We pick up events in 1924 after WWI has impoverished and diminished Austria and in 1938 when the Jewish community faces destruction. One of the three survivors in the 1955 section is a British man representing Stoppard who must confront his repressed early childhood memories and mourn those who have been lost. Watching the fate of this family is a painful experience even though you know its outlines in advance. One of Stoppard’s main achievements is to illustrate the magnetic pull of Vienna on its Jews, irregardless of its deep-seated antisemitism. The acting is generally strong. I was especially impressed by London carry-overs Faye Castelow as Gretl and Arty Froushan as both Fritz and Leo. Newcomer David Krumholtz as Hermann also made a strong impression. Director Patrick Marber mostly succeeds in enlivening what is basically a static play. After the play’s Olivier triumph, my expectations were perhaps too high. I found it slightly confusing, a bit disappointing, but at times powerfully moving. I recommend it to all serious theatergoers. It is now in previews at the Longacre Theatre prior to an October 2 opening. Running time: two hours 15 minutes; no intermission

The Hard Problem

B-

This 2015 play by Tom Stoppard (The Coast of Utopia, Arcadia, Travesties), his first in nine years, has finally reached New York in a sleek Lincoln Center Theater production directed by Jack O’Brien (The Coast of Utopia, The Little Foxes). While not among Stoppard’s best efforts, it offers much of interest. The titular problem refers to determining the nature of human consciousness. When we meet Hilary (Adelaide Clemens; Hold On to Me Darling), she is a psychology student preparing for a job interview at the Krohl Institute of Brain Science with the assistance of her tutor Spike (Chris O’Shea; The History Boys), whose interest in her is not entirely academic. They debate whether altruism is just egoism’s disguised survival mechanism. When she arrives at Krohl for her interview, she meets Amal (Eshan Bajpay: Can You Forgive Her?), a “quant” who is competing for the same job. While he is not hired by department head Leo (Robert Petkoff; All the Way, Ragtime), Amal accidentally attracts the attention of Jerry (the excellent Jon Tenney; The Heiress), the hedge fund manager who has founded the institute, and ends up being hired at the fund. Hilary also runs into former schoolmate Julia (Nina Grollman; The Iceman Cometh), who teaches Pilates to institute employees, and Julia’s lover Ursula (Tara Summers; Gypsy of Chelsea), who works there. Julia’s main function in the play is to impart the information that when she was 15 Hilary had a daughter who was immediately put up for adoption. Ursula gives Hilary advice that will improve her chances of getting the job. We see Jerry in two roles, barking mercilessly at Amal, and being solicitous to his 13-year old daughter Cathy (Katie Beth Hall). Did I mention that she’s adopted? (Wink, wink). Hilary thrives in her new job and is sent to a conference in Venice to present a paper. Spike conveniently is also there and they hook up again. Hilary hires an assistant Bo (Karoline Xu; You Across from Me) who has left the hedge fund for the institute to feel she is doing work that contributes to society. Her boyfriend is none other than Amal. Hilary throws a party to celebrate the publishing of a paper about an experiment that Bo conducted under her guidance that suggests that altruism is innate and egoism is learned. It turns out that Bo tampered with the data to get a result that would please Hilary. As a consequence of the experiment, Hilary also finds out that her prayers for her daughter’s wellbeing have been answered. What you might expect to be the climax takes plays offstage and the play ends on a very quiet note. The ongoing debates over altruism vs. selfishness, coincidence vs. miracle, brain vs. mind take precedence over plot. In addition to the principal roles, there is an ensemble of six (John Patrick Doherty, Eleanor Handley, Olivia Hebert, Sagar Kiran, Baylen Thomas and Kim Wong) whose function consists of moving sets between scenes and sitting on risers at the back of the stage watching the other actors. While David Rockwell’s (She Loves Me, The Nap) scenic design is a wonder of drop-down panoramas, pop-up beds, movable furniture, and sliding panels, it somehow seems distracting for a play that is basically about ideas. Catherine Zuber’s (My Fair Lady, Oslo) costumes are apt. O’Brien’s direction is a bit too busy for my taste. While the play never deeply engaged me, it did hold my interest. I was surprised that Ms. Clemens got a solo bow during the curtain call as her performance, while quite competent, did not reach star level. Running time: one hour 50 minutes; no intermission.

Travesties

A-

In his early plays, Tom Stoppard’s need to show the audience how clever he is was tempered by a playfulness that made this habit bearable and, in the present case, thoroughly enjoyable. I did not expect to be so delighted by this rollicking production imported by Roundabout Theatre from London’s Menier Chocolate Factory. A brilliant director, Patrick Marber (Closer), and a superb cast led by Tom Hollander (King Lear, Tartuffe) combine to make as strong a case for the play as I could imagine. Don’t be intimidated by the complexity of the setup. Stoppard has taken the fact that James Joyce (Peter McDonald; The Weir), Lenin (Dan Butler; Twentieth Century) and Dada founder Tristan Tzara (Seth Numrich; War Horse, Golden Boy), were all living in Zurich in 1917 and has imagined their interactions, as recalled in the addled memory of Henry Carr (Hollander), a minor British consular official, 50 years later. Did I mention that Stoppard presents the story as a riff on Oscar Wilde’s The Important of Being Earnest? You needn’t waste a moment reacquainting yourself with the principal characters. Just arrive early enough to read the two-page cheat sheet in your Playbill and you’ll be fine. We also meet Lenin’s wife Nadya (Opal Aladdin; Hedda Gabler), Carr’s sister Gwendolyn (Scarlett Strallen; A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder), his enigmatic butler Bennett (Patrick Kerr; The Ritz) and the left-leaning librarian Cecily (Sara Topham; The Importance of Being Earnest). Amidst the hilarity, we get arguments on the proper role of the artist in society. There’s also a bit of song and dance. The inventiveness rarely flags. The actors are all wonderful. I expected Tom Hollander to be fine, but was surprised by the manic physical humor of Seth Numrich. Tim Hatley (Private Lives) designed the dark paneled set decorated with blank books and scattered pages, as well as the attractive period costumes. My one complaint is that it may be too much of a good thing. It’s hard to maintain the appropriate level of attention for so long. If you let your attention slip for even a moment, you are likely to miss some allusion or quip. I had a much better time than I expected to. Running time: two hours 40 minutes including intermission.

The Real Thing **

Let me confess right off that I wasn’t that impressed by Stoppard’s romantic comedy when I saw the 2000 Tony-awarded revival with Stephen Dillane and Jennifer Ehle. However, that version was superior to the current revival at Roundabout’s American Airlines Theater. I only attended out of curiosity to see Ewan McGregor and Maggie Gyllenhaal in their Broadway debuts. McGregor is fine as Henry, the Stoppard surrogate who writes plays that have more wit than heart. Gyllenhaal is equally good as Annie, Henry’s mistress in act one and wife in act two. They should have more chemistry together though. Cynthia Nixon as Henry’s first wife Charlotte and Josh Hamilton as Annie’s first husband Max are less successful. Director Sam Gold does not seem to have a firm grip on the material; his decision to interpolate songs of the period sung by the cast between scenes misfires. He seems to like sets that are wide and shallow. The set by David Zinn is almost as unattractive as the one for “Look Back in Anger,” another Roundabout production directed by Gold. For an allegedly well-made play, I found the second act to be a bit scattershot and its echoes of the play’s opening scene rather clumsy. I grew increasingly restless as the second act dragged on. If you crave Stoppard, you'll do better with Roundabout's other revival, "Indian Ink." Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes including intermission.

Indian Ink ***

It took almost 20 years to get here, but Tom Stoppard’s 1995 play (based on his 1991 radio play “In the Native State”) has finally reached New York in a first-rate production by Roundabout at the Laura Pels Theatre. One can speculate on the reasons it took so long — its large cast (15), its relative lack of the playwright’s customary intellectual showmanship, and its appearance between the flashier “Arcadia” and “The Invention of Love.” In any case, we should be glad it has at last arrived. The central character is Flora Crewe (a fine Romola Garai), a free-spirited young British woman whose erotic poetry has caused a bit of a scandal and who has gone to India early in 1930. Her alleged purpose is to give a lecture tour about the British literary world, but actually she has traveled for health reasons. While in Jummapur, she meets an Indian artist Nirad Das (Firdous Bamji,) who paints her portrait, and is wooed by a British colonial functionary David Durance (Lee Aaron Rosen). Shortly after leaving Jummapur for the Indian highlands, she dies. Although her work was scorned in her lifetime, 50 years later she has become all the rage. Her younger sister Eleanor (the always wonderful Rosemary Harris), now in her late sixties, is visited by an American professor Eldon Pike (Neal Huff) who is publishing her collected letters and is far more interested in unimportant details than in the truth. She is also visited by Anish Das (Bhavesh Patel), the painter’s son, who is trying to discover what transpired between Flora and his father. The action alternates between India in the early 1930s and England and India in the 1980s. Sometimes characters from both time periods are onstage at the same time, but there is no possibility of confusion. The play touches upon contrasting aesthetic traditions, the common bond that art provides and some of the effects of imperialism. The pace is unhurried, but if you are patient you should find the emotional payoff in the final scenes gratifying. The supporting cast is excellent. Neil Patel’s set design and Candice Donnelly’s costumes are attractively effective. Carey Perloff’s direction is straightforward and uncluttered. Running time: 2 hours 45 minutes including intermission. NOTE: There is a brief moment of full frontal female nudity.