Theater

Easing back into the Fall

September 08, 2010 , ι Elisabeth Vincentelli

And we're back! Theater action was slow -- OK, nonexistent -- at the end of August, so I used the opportunity to go on vacation and recharge my batteries before the Fall's onslaught. (I missed most... Read on

And we're back! Theater action was slow -- OK, nonexistent -- at the end of August, so I used the opportunity to go on vacation and recharge my batteries before the Fall's onslaught. (I missed most of the Fringe, but that's no loss.) Off-Broadway shows will get us started until the lights on the Great White Way are switched on again at the end of the month, and there's quite a few things to look forward to: Edward Albee's new "Me, Myself & I" at Playwrights Horizons, Charles Busch's "The Divine Sister," New York Theatre Workshop's production of "The Little Foxes,"  Lucy Thurber's "Bottom of the World" at the Atlantic 2. Promising stuff is wildly different ways.
	 
In the meantime, a short plug for a cool meeting of the theater and literary worlds. This Saturday, downtown company the Wooster Group is hosting a literary panel titled "What to Read If You're Poor" at its own home, the Performing Garage. Awesome Woosterite Kate Valk -- one of the top three actors in town, I'd say -- will moderate a discussion with authors Peter Carey, Peter Hedges, Richard Price, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc and Russell Banks. The event is a
	 benefitfor the Bushwick-based collective
	 Still Waters in a Storm.

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Mint condition

August 24, 2010 , ι Elisabeth Vincentelli

The Mint Theatre’s mission is to present obscure plays. The productions are on the conservative side — no fancy experiments there — and put the accent on the text and the acting in a naturalistic... Read on

The Mint Theatre’smission is to present obscure plays. The productions are on the conservative side — no fancy experiments there — and put the accent on the text and the acting in a naturalistic setting. This can be frustrating when things don’t gel, as illustrated by the flatness of a couple of the company’s latest offerings, Jules Romains’ “Dr. Knock, or the Triumph of Medicine” and Lennox Robinson’s “Is Life Worth Living?”
	 
But when the stars align, as with Maurine Dallas Watkins’ comedy “So Help Me God!” and the new “Wife to James Whelan,” you feel the distinct exhilaration of having chanced upon a well-buried truffle.
	 
In today’s review of “Wife to James Whelan,” I lacked the space to give proper props to the cast, which is so good that it makes you buy some of the characters’ less obvious behavior. Rosie Benton excels at showing how being confined to the role of best friend by the man you love can be a form of eternal torture. Janie Brookshire is heartbreaking as a woman fallen on hard times, and Shawn Fagan makes you understand James Whelan, who can be very, very tough to like.
	 
Another reviewer pointed out that most of these people’s problems would be solved if they only talked to each other. Easy to say in 2010 New York, less easy to do in 1930s rural Ireland. I never questioned the characters’ inability to voice their feelings; it was clearly due to a combination of temperament and social custom. And the actors made that clear with a beautiful light touch.
	 
“Wife to James Whelan” has just been extended. If you like an old-fashioned, well-crafted story, this is the show to see right now.

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A buzzworthy project

August 20, 2010 , ι Elisabeth Vincentelli

Maggie Gyllenhaal and Hugh Dancy have reportedly signed up to star in a movie called "Hysteria." The plot sure sounds familiar: "The film charts the pair's fling against the backdrop of the... Read on

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The black-metal musical

August 19, 2010 , ι Elisabeth Vincentelli

I like "Gypsy" and "Anything Goes" and "Mame" as much as the next theater critic, but sometimes I miss the volatile energy of a rock show on stage. While Broadway is gingerly getting used to those... Read on

I like "Gypsy" and "Anything Goes" and "Mame" as much as the next theater critic, but sometimes I miss the volatile energy of a rock show on stage. While Broadway is gingerly getting used to those crazy antics the kids like so much -- or did, before Lady Gaga -- other stages are a step ahead in terms of using extreme music in a theatrical setting. If you missed the world premiere of the first black-metal musical,
	 "Svartediket,"in May, don't feel bad: It's coming back for more performances, starting at the end of August. Okay, so it's playing near Bergen, Norway, but if you're going to see a black-metal musical, it might as well be in the country where that genre developed, in the early 1990s.
	 
As far as I can tell, the show is about people who got sick drinking the water of the titular lake. Turns out there had been drownings in Svartediket, contaminating it. Of course authors Arild Brakstad and Arne Longvastøl added references to Norse mythology -- almost mandatory in black metal -- and the show boasts an underground star in its cast: Kristian Espedal, who, under the name Gaahl, used to front the unhinged band Gorgoroth.
	 
The whole thing intrigues me because it feels organic: black metal is inherently theatrical and theater can thrive on that genre's energy.
	 
Intriguingly, the trailer for "Svartediket" looks like something from a Japanese horror film:
	 
<object width="400" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/5kfGyOgRBf0?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/5kfGyOgRBf0?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="400" height="385"></embed></object>

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Casting mayhem!

August 19, 2010 , ι Elisabeth Vincentelli

As we prep for the fall season -- busy, busy, busy -- every day brings gasp-inducing casting news. Just this morning, I learned that "American Idol" runner-up Justin Guarini is joining the cast of... Read on

As we prep for the fall season -- busy, busy, busy -- every day brings gasp-inducing casting news. Just this morning, I learned that "American Idol" runner-up Justin Guarini is joining the cast of "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" (opening Nov. 4). Thank god for that because this Lincoln Center production is going to need all the help it can get in order to survive at the box-office -- the rest of the ensemble is filled with no-name insider favorites like Patti LuPone, Sherie Rene Scott, Laura Benanti and Brian Stokes Mitchell. No, seriously, it's like "The Expendables" with show tunes up there: Several favorites in one convenient package.
	 
Lincoln Center's actually going nuts with the hiring: Its other big show of the fall, John Guare's "A Free Man of Color," stars Jeffrey Wright and mos (formerly known as Mos Def, formerly known as Dante Terrell Smith).
	 
Also today, the Public announced that Marin Ireland was joining another local fave, Deirdre O'Connell, in Lisa Kron's new "In the Wake," opening November 1. Ireland's always great to watch, and clearly people are noticing because she works a lot: Most recently she was on Broadway in "reasons to be pretty" and "After Miss Julie," off-Broadway in "A Lie of the Mind" and off-off in "Blasted."
	 
Among the other thespians I'm looking forward to in the next two-three months: Elizabeth Marvel tackles Regina Giddens in "The Little Foxes" at New York Theatre Workshop (up-and-comer Cristin Milioti's in this one, too). The brilliant comediennes known Alison Fraser, Julie Halston and, er, Charles Busch are in Busch's take on Hollywood nun movies, "The Divine Sister," at the Soho Playhouse. Sally Hawkins (from the Mike Leigh movie "Happy-Go-Lucky") makes her Broadway debut alongside Cherry Jones in "Mrs Warren's Profession." Patrick Stewart and T.R. "George O'Malley" Knight do Mamet's "A Life in the Theatre." Oh, and there's Paul Reubens, too. You know ... Pee-Wee Herman?
	 
Oh yeah, it's going to be quite the ride for fans of acting this fall.

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Patti LuPone as Desirée?

August 18, 2010 , ι Elisabeth Vincentelli

Mickey Rapkin (author of the recent "Theater Geek," about Stagedoor Manor) comes up with an interesting idea in his recent interview with Patti Lupone: "I mention the current revival of 'A Little... Read on

Mickey Rapkin (author of the recent "Theater Geek," about Stagedoor Manor) comes up with an interesting idea in his recent
	 interview with Patti Lupone:
	 
	 
"I mention the current revival of
	 'A Little Night Music'and how LuPone would have made a perfect Desirée. Apparently she had the same thought. 'I called [director] Trevor Nunn,' she says, 'and he never called me back.' "
	 
Now I love both Miss LuPone and counterintuitive casting but ... no. LuPone as Desirée feels instinctively wrong in the same way that Bernadette Peters felt instinctively wrong as Momma Rose. (Oh, the irony.) Desirée is an aging coquette, a seductress whose renewed relationship with an old flame makes her confront not only her past but her future. LuPone's a fantastic performer, but playing vulnerability is not her forte.
	 
	 
Of course we could reconsider Desirée as a ballsy dame who's mellowing out in her latter years and part of me would love to see LuPone try it. It's not soooo far from what Catherine Zeta-Jones was doing, in fact. But that approach doesn't fit Nunn's twilit production, its gauzy fin-de-siècle aesthetic. It was already a problem with CZJ, whereas Peters blends in seamlessly and pulls everybody else in her wake.
	 
Speaking of recasting: I recently caught Marin Mazzie and Jason Danieley in "Next to Normal." Report in tomorrow's paper.

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Not all in 'Trust' disappoints

August 13, 2010 , ι Elisabeth Vincentelli

I really wish I'd liked Paul Weitz's new "Trust," more. Alas, that play's got issues. Most, however, don't come from the cast, which is as good as you could hope for. I wish Bobby Cannavale would... Read on

I really wish I'd liked Paul Weitz's new
	 "Trust,"more. Alas, that play's got issues. Most, however, don't come from the cast, which is as good as you could hope for. I wish Bobby Cannavale would stop playing macho jerks but hey, he does it so well. Zach Braff's character is the kind of weaselly guy you could picture Michael Cera growing up to be, if he was a dotcom millionaire instead of an actor (I use that term loosely). Ari Graynor excels at the snarky put-down. And Sutton Foster appropriately downplays a troubled woman working as a dominatrix.
	 
I understand Foster wants to stretch her acting chops in a straight play, but let's face it: She's a natural musical-theater star, and that's where she's at her peak. So as a treat before the weekend, here's a
	 video about the Encores! revival of Sondheim's "Anyone Can Whistle" (a production I
	 raved aboutback in April). Yay for the generous excerpts from the musical numbers.

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Welcome to the Cringe Festival!

August 12, 2010 , ι Elisabeth Vincentelli

Today's review is of a show, "Abraham Lincoln's Big, Gay Dance Party," that was in the Fringe Festival last year and graduated to the Acorn, on Theater Row. It won't be there for long... Read on

Today's review is of a show,
	 "Abraham Lincoln's Big, Gay Dance Party,"that was in the
	 Fringe Festivallast year and graduated to the Acorn, on Theater Row. It won't be there for long.
	 
Coincidentally,
	 Fringe 2010starts on Saturday. Will we see the next "Urinetown"? It says something that this show was at the Fringe in 1999 and is still trotted out as an example of how far you can go with a dream and a song. But 1999 is quite a few years ago. Sure, the fest has groomed some nice off and off-off hits since -- "Matt & Ben," "Krapp, 39" to name but two -- but that's not a really impressive batting average. Which raises a simple question: What is the Fringe's purpose in New York?
	 
If it's to be a showcase for shows gunning for bigger commercial runs, the batting average is less than impressive. If it's to encourage risk-taking theater, well, that's not the place for that either. Unlike its elder cousin the Edinburgh Fringe, the NYC version has little artistic credibility; in fact, it's often used as a synonym for amateurish balderdash. The shows pretending to be "edgy" aren't; they're merely brash and juvenile at worst, half-baked at best. Of course there are exceptions, and every year some productions rise to the top. But it's a tough slog to find them.
	 
	 
Is the Fringe a democratic endeavor to make theater affordable to all, since tickets cost only $15? Yes, it's cheap, but some of the shows are so atrocious that they could turn some people off theater for ever.
	 
	 
So what's the point of the Fringe? What's its agenda? I'm not being facetious: I really can't figure it out.
	 
	 
On its site, we learn that this is "the largest multi-arts festival in North America," and not much else. So this is about numbers, then? Sure, they're sort of impressive: This year you can see 197 shows, chosen from four times that many applicants. So clearly there's a selection process, but its criteria are elusive. Maybe the point is to make 197 teams of people feel good by giving them a short run in New York.
	 
The price for the audience can be high.
	 
	 
A couple of days ago I attended a press preview where we were shown excerpts (live) from about 10 shows. A couple of them were so bad that I literally had to avert my eyes. I was too embarrassed for the people on stage, though I shouldn't have been -- if your ego, your self-regard are so monumental that you don't realize how clumsy your "dancing" is, then you deserve to crash and burn in public.
	 
At this point, it's as if the Fringe exists in its own parallel universe, separate from the downtown scene that could, in theory, be a close ally. The fest happens every year, like clockwork. Every year there's moans and groans about the quality -- or lack thereof -- of the shows. Every year word of mouth ensures that a few productions sell out. And then we're back to square one 365 days later.

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More 'Secrets of the Trade'

August 11, 2010 , ι Elisabeth Vincentelli

Funny how we can all watch the same play and see different things. And nowhere is this more obvious than with Jonathan Tolins' "Secrets of the Trade," which opened last night at Primary Stages (my... Read on

Funny how we can all watch the same play and see different things. And nowhere is this more obvious than with Jonathan Tolins' "Secrets of the Trade," which opened last night at Primary Stages (my review is
	 here). I liked the play a whole lot, and many of my colleagues
	 didn't, to say the least. Hey, that's fine -- it makes reading reviews fun.
	 
	 
A recurring argument in the anti camp seems to be that the show isn't impressive as a backstage play, and we don't learn that much about the Broadway trade. I thought this wasn't Tolins' point to begin with. He's not out to write a gossipy show or one about how to succeed in show business; he's more interested in what you need to know to become comfortable in your own skin. Hence the importance of the parents in the play.
	 
	 
One critic seemed particularly ticked off by the scene in which the two main characters get dangerously close. I agree that scene is very uncomfortable, and purposefully so. It's not comfortable to watch an older man (John Glover) put the moves on a much younger one (Noah Robbins, who does look very boyish), especially since Senior is in a position to considerably further Junior's career. But we'd be foolish to think this type of situation doesn't happen -- and yes, it's icky. It would have been a compromise for Tolins not to include it though, and I'm glad he went there, as it helped ground his otherwise amiable play.

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More Shakespeare on the horizon

August 02, 2010 , ι Elisabeth Vincentelli

"Spider-Man" may be on indefinite hold but director Julie Taymor has been keeping busy. Her adaptation of "The Tempest" has just been picked as the centerpiece of the New York Film Festival, and will... Read on

"Spider-Man" may be on indefinite hold but director Julie Taymor has been keeping busy. Her adaptation of "The Tempest" has just been picked as the centerpiece of the New York Film Festival, and will screen on October 2. Taymor's hook: Prospero is now Prospera, and is played by Helen Mirren. Theatergoers will also note that Ariel is played by Ben Wishaw (who was wonderful in the MCC production of
	 "The Pride"earlier this year), Stefano is Alfred Molina (recently in
	 "Red")and Sebastian is Alan Cumming.
	 
In other Bard news, Lincoln Center has just announced the works that will be performed in rep by the Royal Shakespeare Company on July 6-August 14 2011 -- in a theater custom-built within the Park Avenue Armory, no less. They are "As You Like It," "Romeo and Juliet," "King Lear," "Antony and Cleopatra," and "The Winter's Tale." Click
	 herefor more info on ticket packages that are already on sale.