Tag: Play

About This Reviewer - Posted on

The Amateurs (Vineyard Theatre)

The Amateurs takes us back to 14th Century Europe where the Black Death is wiping out the population.  We meet a scrappy troupe of medieval pageant players.  They are travelling to outrun the disease with their pageant wagon, a movable stage which was used for centuries to present religious mystery or miracle plays.  The troupe wants to perfect their act, present it to the Duke and hopefully be rewarded with permanent, safer residence within the city walls.  The story they are rehearsing is Noah’s Flood.

When the play opens, our actors are performing the seven deadly sins in mask, although one member has to play both envy and covetousness.  As they travel, they are losing members of their troupe to the plague.  While this all sounds very grim, The Amateurs is actually quite a bit lighter and funnier than expected.  The play is a mashup of situation comedy, history lesson, a challenge to authority, and “let’s put on a show” juxtaposed with a very good, but very long, meta section.  The playwright Jordan Thompson (Marjorie Prime) has a lot to say and is not afraid to take risks.

The scenic design by David Zinn (SpongeBob SquarePants, Fun Home) creates a black world; think a simple mound of darkly colored grass.  A nifty pageant wagon opens up with painted scenery which is used for rehearsals and performances.  One of the major themes in The Amateurs is the role of art during times of crisis and uncertainty.  How art evolves and comments on the human condition, as it did after the medieval period with the Renaissance.  Going even further, the play considers more contemporary parallels.

I cannot put my finger on what exactly was missing for me in The Amateurs.  I left the theater more conceptually impressed than intellectually and theatrically satisfied.  A fine production with a strong cast.  A unique play but slightly boring too.

www.vineyardtheatre.org

About This Reviewer - Posted on

queens (Lincoln Center Theater)

Polish born playwright Martyna Majok wowed me a few seasons ago with Ironbound, the story of an immigrant woman waiting for the bus outside a run down New Jersey factory where she works.  Spanning twenty years and three relationships, this was a study in one woman’s attempt to find security – a decent living, a decent man – in a harsh world that does not value her existence.  An outstanding play, Ironbound is currently running in Los Angeles with Marin Ireland, who was brilliantly riveting in the role.

With her new play queens, Ms. Majok continues to spotlight the immigrant experience, this time on a more ambitious scale.  The action takes place in a basement apartment in Queens, NY in June 2017.  Like Ironbound, however, this one also spans a great deal of time and through various parts of the world between 2001 and 2017.  The play opens with a group of unrelated immigrant women living together, struggling to make ends meet.  One of them is leaving to return to Honduras.

Also like Ironbound, the play moves back and forth in time, and storylines are filled in.  The women hail from different countries including Poland, Ukraine, Syria and Afghanistan.  All drawn to the melting pot and promise of America.  Or to escape.  Living difficult challenging lives with regrets, hopes and dreams.  A young woman arrives in search of her mother whom she has not seen for fifteen years.  Ana Reeder, in a remarkably complex performance, plays Renia.  She left Poland many years ago and is taking in refugees for rent in her basement.

Over the course of nearly three hours, this epic unfolds.  Depending on your individual perspective, queens will provoke multiple feelings.  Empathy, which is sorely lacking in America at the moment.  Sadness, such as a fellow theatergoer who was bawling at the end, the raw emotions perhaps too real for her.  Disgust, for the way human beings treat each other.  Add in marvel too, as you grasp the sheer determination and inner strength of these women as they navigate their complicated lives.

Danya Taymor directed this piece which is being presented at the small Claire Tow Theater in a superlative staging.  Each actress is astonishingly real, some inhabit more than one character.  Laura Jellinek’s set design is simply amazing.  When you walk in the theater, you notice birds painted on the back wall, flying away, in various levels of focus.  A large ceiling hangs in mid-air.  Women may have the glass ceiling to contend with but immigrant women have the basement ceiling.  This specific production of queens is not to be missed.

www.lct.org/lct3

www.geffenplayhouse.org/ironbound

About This Reviewer - Posted on

A Marriage Contract (The Metropolitan Playhouse)

Augustin Daly was a preeminent theater manager, critic, and playwright from the latter part of the 19th Century.   He built and opened Daly’s Theater in 1879 after a fire destroyed the company’s original New York home.  In 1893, he opened a London theater as well.  Of the nearly 100 works credited to his name, nearly all were adaptations.  A Marriage Contract, or Grass vs. Granite, was first produced in 1892 based on a German play whose title is loosely translated as “big city atmosphere.”  Here the setting was transported from Berlin to New York and was originally called A Test Case, or Grass vs. Granite.

The play opens in the big metropolis and a city slicker rascal named Robert Fleming is attempting to persuade business magnate Jessekiah Pognip to give his blessing for his daughter’s hand in marriage.  In today’s vernacular:  he’s a “player” and one of a sketchy list of suitors.  He is quickly rejected by the father and another man, the bumbling Nathaniel Grinnell, gives it a shot but is too late to the punch.  For Ned to marry young Sabina Pognip, there needs to be a marriage contract.  Robert is forced to choose between big city excitement (granite) and the teensy country town of East Lemons (grass).

A Marriage Contract is a funny play.  Written 125 years ago, it still can elicit laughs through clever wordplay and is firmly planted in situation comedy land.  Robert may have taken ill with “influenza provincialis” when the small town boredom of East Lemons and its nosy busybodies become too stifling to bear.  Then there is the philandering friend Ned Jessamine (Nick Giedris) who is married to Juno (Jennifer Reddish) who tries not to see “what’s going on.”  Will the couples settle down and figure out their relationships?  Will country life have any shot of competing with the big city?  Will a champagne party cause a scandalous ruckus?  Is the maid really called a “saucy minx” for singing while dusting?

Metropolitan Playhouse specializes in plays from America’s literary past and I enjoyed A Marriage Contract.  The Director Alex Roe effectively stages the play in their small, intimate space and keeps the action (and clowning) moving along.  Amazingly, there is not a whiff of mothballs here, the play is still funny despite its age.  Our two suitors were excellent.  Trevor St. John-Gilbert (Robert) and Tyler Kent (Nathaniel) inhabited their characters exceptionally well.  Both performances are of the period yet come across as freshly contemporary century-old stereotypes energetically painted in three dimensions.  With the exception of one cringingly awful performance (in a very minor part), the cast is good. (I saw the third preview).  Greatness might be achieved by ratcheting up this broad comedy a notch or two.  Overall, A Marriage Contract is a welcome discovery.

www.metropolitanplayhouse.org

About This Reviewer - Posted on

Josh: The Black Babe Ruth (Theater for the New City)

For Black History Month, Theater for the New City decided to remount a production of Josh: The Black Babe Ruth.  Written by Michael A. Jones, the play is based on the life of Josh Gibson, the second Negro Leagues player to be elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.  He was known as the “Black Babe Ruth” due to his home run proficiency.  He tragically died at the age of 35 from complications related to a brain tumor which may have been linked to drug usage.  In this play, we chart the course from the family migration from Georgia to Pittsburgh through his career to his death.

This play comes across as a series of vignettes rather than a traditional story arc.  Satchel Paige, who preceded Josh Gibson into the Hall of Fame, looms large as both men try to break into the all-white major leagues.  In addition to the career storyline, there is domestic drama about his wife, whom he never sees while traveling, and a mistress.  The temptress is portrayed as a bar hopping, drug taking, bad influence party girl.  Connecting all of this is the Guitar Man who strums and sings songs of the period such as Louis Jordan’s “Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby.”  Images of the players, the baseball league and the Jim Crow south are projected on the wall during transitions.  One is a sign announcing an upcoming Klan meeting to discuss opposition to “communism and integration.”  Pictures of lynchings are also featured.

This is a small off-off Broadway house and this production can be commended for very good performances by all of the actors.  David Roberts takes us through the mindset of Josh from brash bravado to the self-destructive breakdown.  As Satchel, Daniel Danielson is appropriately larger than life with the charisma of the famously entertaining pitcher.   The smaller role of Josh’s wife Hattie is played by Daphne Danielle.  Her scene trying to find her husband at the bar through questioning the audience members elicited deserved end of scene applause.

Josh: The Black Babe Ruth is not a great play and the production is paced a little slowly between scenes.  The projected images are very powerful but their intensity competes with rather than enhances the words.  However, for an inexpensive $18 ticket price, this is a live, well-acted biography and rewarding addition to the mirrors we must face on historical American race discrimination.

www.theaterforthenewcity.net

About This Reviewer - Posted on

Miles for Mary (Playwrights Horizons)

Playwrights Horizons has kicked off a new Redux Series on top of its regular programming.  This effort is focused on allowing worthy off-off Broadway plays, often with extremely limited runs, another opportunity to be appreciated and in a larger venue.  Miles for Mary was created by The Mad Ones, written by its cast and director, Lila Neugebauer (The Antipodes, The Wolves).  In the riches of New York theater it’s often difficult to see every great piece, especially when rave reviews come late into a short run.  After seeing this play, I am extraordinarily excited for this series and thankful that this exceptional work has been showcased.

Miles for Mary is about a school in Garrison, Ohio, circa 1988-1989.    The setting is a teacher’s room with slogans on the wall like “Do More.”  There’s the table, the desk, the coffee pot and the teachers.  The play opens with a discussion on the upcoming school year’s annual telethon.  Miles for Mary raises scholarship funds in honor of a promising student athlete who was tragically killed in a car accident years earlier.  The teachers are seen first negotiating this year’s fundraising theme.

Amidst this apparently good natured exercise is workplace tension extraordinaire.  Everyone is trying their darndest to get along.  Passive aggressive behavior oozes.  Stretched out over many meetings leading up to the telethon, the teachers all become more irritating and more irritable.  Filled with all kinds of psychobabble mumbo jumble about feelings, the result is outrageously hilarious.  At some point, Miles for Mary becomes a stand-in for any staff meeting with opinionated, pretentious, pandering group dynamics.

Everyone in this cast was excellent.  Marc Bovino as the nerdy, tightly wound AV guy.  Joe Curnette as the committed but possibly dimwitted coach and health teacher.  Michael Dalto as the group’s leader who over embraces sharing yet tries to lead discussions with a stopwatch.  Amy Staats as Brenda, on speakerphone since she’s out with some illness but still part of this committee.  Stephanie Wright Thompson as the track suit wearing, coffee drinking, quip hurling firecracker.  Stacey Yen as the new member of the committee, just trying to be helpful yet bring fresh new ideas to the group.

Miles for Mary is a play for anyone who has ever been in a meeting and wanted to strangle someone who says stupid things.  Or maybe Miles for Mary is a mirror for those pedantic fools who babble speak about nothing.  Gorgeously paced, this play ranges from extremely silly to incredibly intense and uncomfortable.  Miles for Mary is great theater.  I hope this play becomes a staple across regional theaters everywhere.

www.themadones.org

www.playwrightshorizons.org

About This Reviewer - Posted on

Pete Rex (The Dreamscape Theatre)

In the New Kensington suburb of Pittsburgh, Pete lives in his apartment which is decorated in the finest man cave fashion.  The walls are brown paneling.  A Steelers helmet for wall art.  A string of Planet of the Apes lights.  Empty beer cans in a case by the door.  The couch is red.  An old folding chair.  Incredible Hulk videos placed under the television.  Since Pete Rex is being performed in the tiny Theater C at 59E59, there is a lot of detail to see as you enter this very intimate space.  The setting gives a strong sense of the people we are about to meet.

The play opens with Pete (Greg Cerere) and his best bud Bo (Simon Winheld) in the midst of Madden Tuesday.  The competition is well underway and Bo now wants to play Gronk.  For those not in the know, Madden is the popular long running football videogame series and Gronkowski is a tight end for the New England Patriots.  Madden Tuesday is apparently a standing weekly man cave date.  Pete’s ex-girlfriend Julie (Rosie Sowa) comes by with some disturbing news.

The boys have not been watching television and do not know that dinosaurs are loose in New Kensington and starting to eat people.  Julie grabbed what little food there was left in the supermarket, namely Zebra Cakes, and ran right over.  Pete loves these plastic wrapped Little Debbie brand things.  Meanwhile, the dinosaurs are approaching, the noise is increasing, the overhead light is trembling and things are getting mighty scary.

Is Pete Rex is about escaped dinosaurs terrorizing a small town?  Well, Pete has always been fascinated by dinosaurs and wanted to be a paleontologist.  The mood here is Jurassic-level emotional drama, although the dinosaurs do get to eat a bit in the process.  Alexander V. Thompson’s play covers much territory from man child relationships to crisis management to jealousy to mental stability.  The cast is game and the director (Brad Raimondo) reasonably steers an overabundance of styles including melodrama, absurdity, comedy, horror, ridiculousness and poignancy.  That’s a lot to handle and Pete Rex cannot survive the onslaught.  A nicely written ending wraps up a serious yet wildly overcooked play.

www.dreamscapetheatre.org

www.59e59.org

About This Reviewer - Posted on

Jimmy Titanic (Irish Repertory Theatre)

From Boston’s Tír Na Theatre Company comes Jimmy Titanic, performed by its Artistic Director Colin Hamell.  The setting is Heaven in 2012, long after the Titanic has sunk.  Jimmy is one of the Irish lads who worked on building the ship in Belfast and, unfortunately, was on that doomed first voyage.  Why the last name Titanic you ask?  Well, apparently in heaven there’s a great deal of celebrity associated with famous disaster deaths.  So adopting the name Titanic affords you the chance to dance with an 800 year old bubonic plaque victim.  I kid you not.

Written by Bernard McMullan, Jimmy Titanic is a play with characters ranging from the bowels of the ship to the first class deck.  We travel from the offices of the New York Times to the Mayor of Belfast, then brief encounters with heaven.  God, Peter and an effete Gabriel all make appearances.  For the record, God is sort of a chain smoking godfather type and a bit crusty.  One man plays all of these characters jumping from Jimmy and his bestie to Mr. Astor, throwing in assorted Titanic facts along the way.  The tone frequently and abruptly changes from silly to serious so that the play is never grounded in anything other than an acting exercise.  And, therefore, Jimmy Titanic hits the proverbial iceberg.

www.irishrep.org

www.tirnatheatre.com

About This Reviewer - Posted on

Hangmen (Atlantic Theater Company)

Martin McDonagh is currently nominated for two Academy Awards as the writer and co-producer of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. As a playwright, his resume includes The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Cripple of Inishmaan, and The Pillowman.  Given Mr. McDonagh’s track record and this play’s title, it’s a safe bet that Hangmen will be at least ominous in tone.  By the end, this dark comedy lands firmly in inky black territory, at night, without the benefit of any moonlight while wearing an eye mask.  Hangmen is fantastic.

Set in the mid-1960s in Lancashire, England, the play is first about a man named Harry (Mark Addy) who hangs other men sentenced to death.  He is considered the second best executioner in the land after Albert (Maxwell Caulfield).  While Albert has more hangings to his credit, they were Nazis, so those deaths have “an asterisk” when comparing body count.  The opening scene shows one such episode in a gallows with a boy protesting his innocence.  Two years later, hanging has since been abolished.  Harry, his wife and daughter now own a pub filled with assorted characters.  One day, a wily stranger appears.

Hangmen is mesmerizing, combining terrifying thoughts and ideas with a liberal dose of comedy.  The play sheds a light on attitudes back in the 1960s while also exaggerating the relentless desire for celebrity, no matter what the cost.  The entire cast is superb throughout.  Each character is distinct and realistic, yet theatrical.  The words are even better, eliciting a “wow” from my mouth on numerous occasions.  Hangmen is another triumph for the Atlantic Theater Company.

www.atlantictheater.org

About This Reviewer - Posted on

⊂PORTO⊃ (WP Theater)

In the very funny, very smart ⊂PORTO⊃, Kate Benson has a lot to say.  Not only is she the playwright, she is also the narrator, commentator, thought-bubble maker and humorist playing the ⊂ ⊃ of the title.  Porto is our main character, a single woman in Brooklyn, living life but filled with all the standard, almost required, anxieties of today.  The play begins in darkness listening to musings from ⊂ ⊃ about the making of sausage casings.  Stay with me, please.

When the curtain opens, we are in a hipster bar with foie gras sausages on the menu.  Delicious or revolting animal abuse?  The smarmy bartender (Noel Joseph Allain) thinks one thing and Porto’s friend Dry Sac (Leah Karpel, perfect) is clearly, and drunkenly, on the other side of the argument.  Dry Sac doesn’t eat very much, “just olives and bitterness.”  How we think about ourselves and others, and what we think and why, is the terrain we travel in this play, primarily from a woman’s perspective.  The journey is rich, complex, silly, recognizable, witty and awkward, like life itself.

⊂Porto> is structured with our playwright’s voice walking us through yet also commenting on the action and scene changes.  This is my second Kate Benson play, the first being A Beautiful Day in November on the Banks of the Greatest of the Great Lakes.  Also very funny, that play used sports commentators narrating the action of a family Thanksgiving.  If we are keeping score, Ms. Benson is 2-0 with WP Theater.  Both plays were splendidly directed by Lee Sunday Evans to not only coax out the humor but also the humanity of the characters. 

A coproduction with The Bushwick Starr and in association with New Georges, WP Theater has mounted an outstanding production in all facets.  The set design, lighting, direction and casting are all excellent.  These actors fully inhabit their roles, yet the audience has the luxury of filling in the details with people we know or stereotypes we winkingly know about.  Julia Sirna-Frest plays Porto in an exquisite match of character and performer.  You want to see what happens to her long after this plays ends.

WP Theater focuses on promoting female artists. Mission accomplished with this outstanding play and this production.  If you want to try off-Broadway, this is a great opportunity to see what all the fuss is all about.  Approachable, offbeat, clever, smart, thoughtful and hilarious, ⊂Porto⊃ is just about perfect theater.  Oh, did I forget to mention the ending?  Extraordinarily memorable.

www.wptheater.org

About This Reviewer - Posted on

Fire and Air (Classic Stage Company)

The Ballets Russes and its impresario, Sergei Diaghilev, is the subject matter for Terrence McNally’s latest play, Fire and Air.  He is the winner of four Tony Awards for the plays Love! Valour! Compassion! and Master Class and his musical books for Kiss of the Spider Woman and Ragtime.  So Mr. McNally has covered demanding artists, gay relationships and period pieces before.  The Classic Stage Company is presenting the world premiere of Fire and Air, with direction and scenic design by John Doyle (Broadway’s Sweeney Todd, The Visit, The Color Purple).

Legendary for its influence on art and dance from 1909 – 1929, Sergei Diaghilev galvanized the Paris art scene and engaged his talented circle of Russian èmigrès.  A super mogul, artists who secured Diaghilev’s approval were poised to take on a near-cult like following.  In 1912, Vaslav Nijinski (James Cusati-Moyer) choreographed and performed the controversial and erotic ballet, The Afternoon of a Faun, to widespread acclaim.  Nijinski and Diaghilev were lovers but when the young protégé married while on tour in 1913, he was dropped by the company.  This relationship and the outsized personalities of these two individuals serve as the basis for Act I.  The second Act explores the relationship with the next protégé, Leonide Massine (Jay Armstrong Johnson, superb).

Watching a play about an older Artistic Director playing Svengali to young men is more disturbing in our current climate of #MeToo.  So why is this play never more than interesting?  Douglas Hodge (La Cage Aux Folles) plays the driven Diaghilev not as dandyish, haughty and aristocratic as I might have imagined him.  In addition to the two dancers, there are three associates/friends (John Glover, Marin Mazzie and four-time Academy Award nominee Marsha Mason) who really don’t have enough to do.  That they sit on stage now and then for no discernible reason just distracts from this small character play.  For me, the subject matter was far more fascinating than the performances (fine), the play (good, if sketchy) and the staging (underwhelming).  Fire and Air is timely though and a thought-provoking piece of a historically significant and influential artistic period.

www.classicstage.org