Please click on the title to see the entire review.
When the "unauthorized parody" of Silence of the Lambs now playing at PS 122 turned up on TDF, I decided to give it a try. I knew it would be raunchy, but it was even coarser than I expected. I would blush to repeat the name of Dr. Lecter's big number. Wine and beer are available to bring into the theater -- with a few drinks, it might be more entertaining. As it was, I was growing weary of it long before its 90 minutes were over. The uncomfortable seats didn't help. An earlier version ran for two hours; I was glad I didn't have to sit through that. Jenn Harris's Clarice Starling is delightfully over the top and David Garrison is fine as Hannibal Lecter. The rest of the cast is good too: Annie Funke and Deidre Goodwin can really belt out a song. Ashlee Dupré and Callan Bergmann's dance number as the dream versions of Clarice and Hannibal is hilarious. The songs by Jon and Al Kaplan are serviceable at best. Hunter Bell's book manages to hit most of the film's highlights. Christopher Gattelli's choreography was consistently clever. He also directed. Unless you are a big fan of the movie and have a high tolerance for raunch as well as camp, this is one to skip.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Tribes ****
Please click on the title to see the entire review.
Director David Cromer, whose production of Our Town at Barrow Street Theatre was so widely acclaimed, is back with an Olivier-nominated family drama by Nina Raine about deafness and language. Billy (Russell Harvard), the deaf youngest child of an intellectual family headed by retired academic Christopher (Jeff Perry) and would-be novelist Beth (Mare Winningham), is a very skilled lip-reader, but was deliberately never taught sign language. His seriously depressed brother Daniel (Will Brill) is writing a dissertation on the inadequacy of language. His sister Ruth (Gayle Rankin) is an unsuccessful opera singer. His self-absorbed parents and siblings may hear, but they don't listen. Billy's feeling of isolation when he is left out of their intellectual battles goes unnoticed. When he falls in love with Sylvia (Susan Pourfar), a young woman active in the deaf community who is herself going deaf and who teaches him sign language, Billy's feelings toward his family change dramatically. A subplot about him working for the court system reading lips from surveillance videos misfires. The cast is uniformly excellent. The set by Scott Pask makes good use of the limited space. Staging the play in the round (in the square, actually) works quite well. The play presents interesting arguments about whether embracing deaf culture is liberating or limiting. It is far from perfect, but it is thought-provoking and deeply felt. It's not for everyone, but I was glad I saw it. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes including intermission.
Director David Cromer, whose production of Our Town at Barrow Street Theatre was so widely acclaimed, is back with an Olivier-nominated family drama by Nina Raine about deafness and language. Billy (Russell Harvard), the deaf youngest child of an intellectual family headed by retired academic Christopher (Jeff Perry) and would-be novelist Beth (Mare Winningham), is a very skilled lip-reader, but was deliberately never taught sign language. His seriously depressed brother Daniel (Will Brill) is writing a dissertation on the inadequacy of language. His sister Ruth (Gayle Rankin) is an unsuccessful opera singer. His self-absorbed parents and siblings may hear, but they don't listen. Billy's feeling of isolation when he is left out of their intellectual battles goes unnoticed. When he falls in love with Sylvia (Susan Pourfar), a young woman active in the deaf community who is herself going deaf and who teaches him sign language, Billy's feelings toward his family change dramatically. A subplot about him working for the court system reading lips from surveillance videos misfires. The cast is uniformly excellent. The set by Scott Pask makes good use of the limited space. Staging the play in the round (in the square, actually) works quite well. The play presents interesting arguments about whether embracing deaf culture is liberating or limiting. It is far from perfect, but it is thought-provoking and deeply felt. It's not for everyone, but I was glad I saw it. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes including intermission.
Friday, February 24, 2012
The Lady from Dubuque **
(Please click on the title to see the entire review.)
When the new play Edward Albee was writing for Signature Theatre wasn't ready in time, they bravely -- or foolishly -- decided to replace it with this play, Albee's most notorious flop, which ran for 12 performances on Broadway in 1980. It is indeed a very strange play, uncomfortably blending black humor and pathos. Three suburban couples are playing 20 Questions in the home of Sam (Michael Hayden) and Jo (Laila Robins). Lucinda (Catherine Curtin), a friend of Jo's since college, and her husband Edgar (Thomas Jay Ryan) are treated with contempt by the others. The thrice-married Fred (C.J. Wilson) keeps telling prospective wife #4 Carol (Tricia Paoluccio) to shut up as she tries unsuccessfully to fit in. There is much bickering with occasional asides to the audience. Jo is terminally ill and in great pain, a circumstance that she uses as a license to treat everyone horridly. After the guests leave and the hosts go to bed, Elizabeth (Jane Alexander), an enigmatic older woman of regal bearing and her mysterious black companion Oscar (Peter Francis James) suddenly appear. When Sam discovers the pair in his living room the next morning, Elizabeth tells him that she is Jo's estranged mother. He refuses to believe her. The party guests from the previous night reappear and resume their bickering. Jo unquestioningly accepts the comfort offered by Elizabeth. Is she Jo's mother, the angel of death, or just the lady from Dubuque? Your guess is as good as mine. The play alternates hilarity with inscrutability and tragedy. Jo's piercing screams of pain will not leave my memory soon enough. It is not top-drawer Albee, but I was glad to have the opportunity to see it. I won't go so far as to recommend it though. The cast is fine, except that Hayden's performance seemed a bit overheated. David Esbjornson directed. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes including intermission.
When the new play Edward Albee was writing for Signature Theatre wasn't ready in time, they bravely -- or foolishly -- decided to replace it with this play, Albee's most notorious flop, which ran for 12 performances on Broadway in 1980. It is indeed a very strange play, uncomfortably blending black humor and pathos. Three suburban couples are playing 20 Questions in the home of Sam (Michael Hayden) and Jo (Laila Robins). Lucinda (Catherine Curtin), a friend of Jo's since college, and her husband Edgar (Thomas Jay Ryan) are treated with contempt by the others. The thrice-married Fred (C.J. Wilson) keeps telling prospective wife #4 Carol (Tricia Paoluccio) to shut up as she tries unsuccessfully to fit in. There is much bickering with occasional asides to the audience. Jo is terminally ill and in great pain, a circumstance that she uses as a license to treat everyone horridly. After the guests leave and the hosts go to bed, Elizabeth (Jane Alexander), an enigmatic older woman of regal bearing and her mysterious black companion Oscar (Peter Francis James) suddenly appear. When Sam discovers the pair in his living room the next morning, Elizabeth tells him that she is Jo's estranged mother. He refuses to believe her. The party guests from the previous night reappear and resume their bickering. Jo unquestioningly accepts the comfort offered by Elizabeth. Is she Jo's mother, the angel of death, or just the lady from Dubuque? Your guess is as good as mine. The play alternates hilarity with inscrutability and tragedy. Jo's piercing screams of pain will not leave my memory soon enough. It is not top-drawer Albee, but I was glad to have the opportunity to see it. I won't go so far as to recommend it though. The cast is fine, except that Hayden's performance seemed a bit overheated. David Esbjornson directed. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes including intermission.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Rutherford & Son **
(Please click on the title to see the full review.)
The Mint Theater fills an important niche in New York theatrical life by reviving plays that have either been lost or forgotten. Their latest production is this family drama by Githa Sowerby, a smash hit in London in 1912, when women playwrights were rarely heard from. John Rutherford (Robert Hogan) is head of a large glassworks in the north of England. His tyrannical behavior has, to a greater or lesser extent, ruined the lives of his three adult children -- John Jr. (Eli James), who had run off and married a London shopgirl Mary (Allison McLemore), and has reluctantly returned home upon the birth of their child; Richard (James Patrick Nelson), a well-meaning but ineffectual priest; and Janet (Sara Surrey), an embittered 37-year-old who has begun a secret affair with the trusted plant manager Martin (David Van Pelt). John Sr.'s dour sister Ann (Sandra Shipley) completes this loveless household. Dale Soules has a juicy part as the mother of a plant worker whom Rutherford has fired. When John Jr. claims to have invented a manufacturing process that could save the glassworks and tries to sell it to his father, all the family strains reach the breaking point. The socioeconomic tensions of the period add to the drama. The quality of the acting varies widely: Surrey makes a strong Janet, but James is consistently overwrought and declamatory as John Jr. A word about the accents: I question whether the authenticity gained by trying (with varying degrees of success) to imitate a regional accent, in this case Geordie, justifies the loss of comprehensibility it entails, particularly when the play is performed outside England. I also wonder why the Mint has seen fit to revive this play for the second time in ten years with the same director (Richard Corley), set designer (Vicki R. Davis), costume designer (Charlotte Palmer-Lane) and three of the same actors. All in all, it makes for an interesting, but longish evening. Running time: 2 hours, 40 minutes including two intermissions.
The Mint Theater fills an important niche in New York theatrical life by reviving plays that have either been lost or forgotten. Their latest production is this family drama by Githa Sowerby, a smash hit in London in 1912, when women playwrights were rarely heard from. John Rutherford (Robert Hogan) is head of a large glassworks in the north of England. His tyrannical behavior has, to a greater or lesser extent, ruined the lives of his three adult children -- John Jr. (Eli James), who had run off and married a London shopgirl Mary (Allison McLemore), and has reluctantly returned home upon the birth of their child; Richard (James Patrick Nelson), a well-meaning but ineffectual priest; and Janet (Sara Surrey), an embittered 37-year-old who has begun a secret affair with the trusted plant manager Martin (David Van Pelt). John Sr.'s dour sister Ann (Sandra Shipley) completes this loveless household. Dale Soules has a juicy part as the mother of a plant worker whom Rutherford has fired. When John Jr. claims to have invented a manufacturing process that could save the glassworks and tries to sell it to his father, all the family strains reach the breaking point. The socioeconomic tensions of the period add to the drama. The quality of the acting varies widely: Surrey makes a strong Janet, but James is consistently overwrought and declamatory as John Jr. A word about the accents: I question whether the authenticity gained by trying (with varying degrees of success) to imitate a regional accent, in this case Geordie, justifies the loss of comprehensibility it entails, particularly when the play is performed outside England. I also wonder why the Mint has seen fit to revive this play for the second time in ten years with the same director (Richard Corley), set designer (Vicki R. Davis), costume designer (Charlotte Palmer-Lane) and three of the same actors. All in all, it makes for an interesting, but longish evening. Running time: 2 hours, 40 minutes including two intermissions.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Hurt Village **
(Please click on the title to see the entire review.)
Katori Hall's new play at Signature Theatre about a family from the projects in North Memphis is a mixed bag. On the plus side, the play has great vitality and sharp characterizations by an excellent cast. On the other hand, every 4th word is the N word, the conversations are often extremely obscene, and much of the rapping was beyond my comprehension. I was strongly tempted to leave at intermission (as a handful of people did). Unless you have been hiding under a rock, you won't find this sad tale of how people get trapped in poverty surprising. I especially liked Joaquina Kalukango as Cookie, the 13-year old girl who is the focus of the play. Tonya Pinkins is powerful as her grandmother, the only working member of the family. Marsha Stephanie Blake makes a strong impression as her mother Crank, a recovered crack addict, as does Corey Hawkins as Buggy, her long-absent father, just returned from the war in Iraq. David Gallo's set and Clint Ramos' costumes serve the play well. Patricia McGregor directed. At 2 hours 40 minutes, the play could definitely use some trimming.
A few comments about the Signature Center:
With two plays now running, all the seats in the cafe and the rest of the lobby were taken. It will be interesting to see how crowded it will get when the third theater opens.
The configuration of the Linney Theatre for Hurt Village allows seating access from only one side, making it necessary to climb over as many as 12 people to get to your seat. Neither the Linney nor the Griffin Theater has any shield to prevent bright light from the lobby from flooding the theater if anyone exits during the play. I hope these kinks can be ironed out.
Katori Hall's new play at Signature Theatre about a family from the projects in North Memphis is a mixed bag. On the plus side, the play has great vitality and sharp characterizations by an excellent cast. On the other hand, every 4th word is the N word, the conversations are often extremely obscene, and much of the rapping was beyond my comprehension. I was strongly tempted to leave at intermission (as a handful of people did). Unless you have been hiding under a rock, you won't find this sad tale of how people get trapped in poverty surprising. I especially liked Joaquina Kalukango as Cookie, the 13-year old girl who is the focus of the play. Tonya Pinkins is powerful as her grandmother, the only working member of the family. Marsha Stephanie Blake makes a strong impression as her mother Crank, a recovered crack addict, as does Corey Hawkins as Buggy, her long-absent father, just returned from the war in Iraq. David Gallo's set and Clint Ramos' costumes serve the play well. Patricia McGregor directed. At 2 hours 40 minutes, the play could definitely use some trimming.
A few comments about the Signature Center:
With two plays now running, all the seats in the cafe and the rest of the lobby were taken. It will be interesting to see how crowded it will get when the third theater opens.
The configuration of the Linney Theatre for Hurt Village allows seating access from only one side, making it necessary to climb over as many as 12 people to get to your seat. Neither the Linney nor the Griffin Theater has any shield to prevent bright light from the lobby from flooding the theater if anyone exits during the play. I hope these kinks can be ironed out.
Friday, February 17, 2012
Assistance ***
(Please click on the title to see the full review.)
If the miracle drug that combats workplace depression in the current play Rx actually existed, the good folks at Primary Stages should rush a shipment to Playwrights Horizons pronto. The characters in Leslye Headland's new play now in previews there could really use it! The six under-30s in her play are all personal assistants or interns whose hellish job is to cater to the needs of their tyrannical, abusive boss Daniel. Although Daniel is never seen or heard, we get a vivid picture of him from the assistants' half of many phone conversations. Each character finds some way to cope with the constant pressure, sometimes supporting, other times subverting each other. Some of the strongest scenes in the play are monologues during which the character absolutely loses it. Some of their scenes together are hilarious, others are just annoying. The fine cast -- Michael Esper, Virginia Kull, Lucas Near-Verbrugghe, Sue Jean Kim, Amy Rosoff and Bobby Steggert -- show deep commitment to their roles. David Korins' set of a Tribeca office complete with cast iron pillars, brick walls, exposed ducts, industrial lighting, fire sprinklers, Aero chairs and lots of clutter is terrific (just how terrific will be apparent before the play is over!) Trip Cullman's direction keeps the play moving along at a brisk pace. Nevertheless, I found the play tiresome a good deal of the time. But then.... the final scene brought the play to an unexpected and highly theatrical ending that the audience (myself included) absolutely loved. I don't recall being so exasperated and so exhilarated by the same play. Running time: 85 minutes.
If the miracle drug that combats workplace depression in the current play Rx actually existed, the good folks at Primary Stages should rush a shipment to Playwrights Horizons pronto. The characters in Leslye Headland's new play now in previews there could really use it! The six under-30s in her play are all personal assistants or interns whose hellish job is to cater to the needs of their tyrannical, abusive boss Daniel. Although Daniel is never seen or heard, we get a vivid picture of him from the assistants' half of many phone conversations. Each character finds some way to cope with the constant pressure, sometimes supporting, other times subverting each other. Some of the strongest scenes in the play are monologues during which the character absolutely loses it. Some of their scenes together are hilarious, others are just annoying. The fine cast -- Michael Esper, Virginia Kull, Lucas Near-Verbrugghe, Sue Jean Kim, Amy Rosoff and Bobby Steggert -- show deep commitment to their roles. David Korins' set of a Tribeca office complete with cast iron pillars, brick walls, exposed ducts, industrial lighting, fire sprinklers, Aero chairs and lots of clutter is terrific (just how terrific will be apparent before the play is over!) Trip Cullman's direction keeps the play moving along at a brisk pace. Nevertheless, I found the play tiresome a good deal of the time. But then.... the final scene brought the play to an unexpected and highly theatrical ending that the audience (myself included) absolutely loved. I don't recall being so exasperated and so exhilarated by the same play. Running time: 85 minutes.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Blood Knot ***
(Please click on the title to see the full review.)
As the opening play in its magnificent new three-theater complex at W. 42nd Street and 10th Avenue, Signature Theatre has mounted a revival of Athol Fugard's 1961 two-character play, directed by the playwright himself. In this production, now in previews, two fine actors, Scott Shepherd (Gatz) and Colman Domingo (Scottsboro Boys), take over the roles originated by Fugard and Zakes Mokae. Two half-brothers -- Morris, light enough to pass for white, and Zachariah, quite dark -- live in a squalid hut in a colored area of Port Elisabeth, South Africa. Zachariah works as a gatekeeper whose job it is to keep out black children while Morris, who has returned after many years away, keeps house and attentively looks after his brother. Morris has dreams of saving enough money to start a small two-man farm. Zach craves female companionship. Morris talks him into starting a pen pal correspondence with an 18-year old girl who lives far away. Things get complicated when she turns out to be white and writes that she is coming to town on holiday. The decision to spend their hard-earned savings on a gentleman's suit for Morris to pretend to be his brother and meet the girl in his place leads to unintended consequences. Long-suppressed feelings arise and bring out the toxic side of the brothers' relationship. This is the play that made Fugard's career: in it, both his strengths and weakness are already evident. The first act drags on a bit, while the second act has a surfeit of drama. For me, the play's requirement for the characters to serve both as vivid individuals as well as symbols in a parable of apartheid leads to some awkwardness. I have to confess that I have long admired Fugard more than I have enjoyed most of his plays. Christopher H. Barreca's set, Susan Hilferty's costumes, Rick Sordelet's fight direction, and Barbara Rubin's dialect coaching are all excellent.
As the opening play in its magnificent new three-theater complex at W. 42nd Street and 10th Avenue, Signature Theatre has mounted a revival of Athol Fugard's 1961 two-character play, directed by the playwright himself. In this production, now in previews, two fine actors, Scott Shepherd (Gatz) and Colman Domingo (Scottsboro Boys), take over the roles originated by Fugard and Zakes Mokae. Two half-brothers -- Morris, light enough to pass for white, and Zachariah, quite dark -- live in a squalid hut in a colored area of Port Elisabeth, South Africa. Zachariah works as a gatekeeper whose job it is to keep out black children while Morris, who has returned after many years away, keeps house and attentively looks after his brother. Morris has dreams of saving enough money to start a small two-man farm. Zach craves female companionship. Morris talks him into starting a pen pal correspondence with an 18-year old girl who lives far away. Things get complicated when she turns out to be white and writes that she is coming to town on holiday. The decision to spend their hard-earned savings on a gentleman's suit for Morris to pretend to be his brother and meet the girl in his place leads to unintended consequences. Long-suppressed feelings arise and bring out the toxic side of the brothers' relationship. This is the play that made Fugard's career: in it, both his strengths and weakness are already evident. The first act drags on a bit, while the second act has a surfeit of drama. For me, the play's requirement for the characters to serve both as vivid individuals as well as symbols in a parable of apartheid leads to some awkwardness. I have to confess that I have long admired Fugard more than I have enjoyed most of his plays. Christopher H. Barreca's set, Susan Hilferty's costumes, Rick Sordelet's fight direction, and Barbara Rubin's dialect coaching are all excellent.
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