News & Reviews from New York
       

June 27th, 2006
   
Jonathan Bank has discovered another gem for his Mint Theatre- a 1937 domestic drama among the upper crust: SUSAN AND GOD by Rachel Crothers, and he has directed it with brisk flair that keeps this period piece as alive today as it was when it first opened. Into the lives of stiff, rather formal wealthy people blows a gale with ideas about salvation and life she learned from a spiritual group: a flamboyant, self-centered narcissist played by Leslie Hendrix, who I'm sure is channeling Katherine Hepburn. It's a bravura whirlwind of a performance, a tour de force, but totally believable as she tries to influence the others and perhaps save her alcoholic husband. As usual at The Mint, all in the cast are first rate professionals, the set by Nathan Heverin and costumes
by Clint Ramos reflect and emphasize the time. Crothers' play has lots of wit, drama, creative banter, - it's smart writing and really good theatre. Thru July 16th-- 212/315-0231.

Richmond Shepard-- Performing Arts INSIDER and
lively-arts.com

       

June 22nd, 2006
   
Every once in a while a reviewer discovers a sparkling gem in a little theatre off-off Broadway. Hourglass Group's reconceptualization of TROUBLE IN PARADISE, adapted from the 1932 Ernst Lubitsch film about a couple of romantic swindlers, written by Sam Raphaelson, now at the Hudson Guild Theatre on E. 26th St., is to off Broadway what "The Drowsy Chaperone" is
for Broadway-- a stylish, stylized depiction of an era with flair, elegance and first class professionalism in all departments. Conceived and directed by Elyse Singer and written by David
Simpatico, it all takes place on Lubitsch's sound stage as if he is making the movie, and every move, every moment has style with a straight face. It's a great conception beautifully carried out by a terrific cast of high level mature farceurs. Theresa Squire's
costumes, especially the gowns, are quite wonderful, Traci Klainer's lighting design enhances everything on Lauren Helpern's spare Deco set, and the original music by Steven Bernstein captures the essence of the time in a contemporary way, and creates an abstract soundscape at times that lifts everything. Singer gives us action, smart snappy movement, perfectly timed dialogue and a great cast. TROUBLE IN PARADISE is a swell show with great charm, sophistication, and panache, and is entertaining from start to finish. Long may it wave!
212/439-8122 thru July 8th.

       

June 18th, 2006
   
The Boston-based Actors' Shakespeare Project has brought its stylized production of KING LEAR to La MaMa on E. 4th St. starring a wonderful actor, the venerable and still amazingly lively Alvin Epstein in the title role. Many years ago I saw Alvin play the
fool in Orson Welles' "King Lear," and since Orson had broken his foot and was in a wheelchair, Alvin stayed on the stage throughout the play and wheeled him around. Now Orson is gone, and Alvin is very much here at 81 with the talent and the vast experience to play the role. While some of director Patrick
Swanson's bold reconceptualization of the play works, some of it is off-kilter. Played in the round, and designed by David R. Gammons, all action is on a dirt field, and the bleakness of the era communicates well. Costumes are shabby black leather coats on the men and long black gowns on the women. The look is like
Orson Welles' 1939 production of Julius Çaesar with the conspirators as thugs. The off-kilter starts at the beginning with glum, gloomy, soft recitations of the lines with a negative undertone of disaster. The king's entrance is like a funeral procession, undercutting the content-- the trusting, at ease,
contented father who should have strength solidity and enough confidence to give his kingdom to his daughters and cool it for the rest of his life. Perhaps Swanson thought of this opening grimness as foreshadowing. Alvin starts off as a slightly antic Lear-- cute, light in tone, a sprightly old man, a bit ungrounded
from the git-go, and then childishly temperamental. He's totally believable, but perhaps a start with solidity and then a transition to lighter as his brain power drifts away would work better. Some of the casting doesn't work for me: Goneril and Regan need cold confidence and narcissism-- this Goneril, Jennie Israel, rants. The delicate, honest, vulnerable teenaged Cordelia is played by the athletic Sarah Newhouse, a good actress in the wrong part. For me, Ken Cheeseman's fool doesn't work- he recites his quips rather than creating them spontaneously and doesn't have the physicality to fill the role. Excellent in the cast are Allyn Burrows as Kent and Benjamin Evett as Edmond- each fully realizes his
character with strength and a depth of reality. The rest of the players, despite a wide range of American accents and one Irish one (Colin Lane as Gloucester), are all quite good, and about 45 minutes into the play all starts to come together well. Clear lighting accents by Mark O'Maley enhance everything. With very
exciting battle scenes in Act Two created by Robert Walsh, we ultimately have a great actor with the physical capabilities of a young man bringing his own unique vivid persona to a great play. Through July 2nd. 212/475-7710.

Richmond Shepard-- Performing Arts INSIDER and
lively-arts.com

       

June 12th, 2006
   
In TOO MUCH LIGHT MAKES THE BABY GO BLIND The Neo-Futurists, a group based in Chicago, now at The Kraine on E. 4th St. every Friday at 10:30 PM, give us intellectual comedy that's sharp, creative, contemporary, imaginative and funny, with moments of brilliance. As the team does 30 plays in 60 minutes,
there is a wide breadth of subjects flipping into tangents of imagination and flurries of high creativity. It's rare to find comedy this smart, and it's a compliment to New York City that there are so many young people here hip enough to appreciate humor of caliber this high. About a third of the playlets they showed were new, the rest were repeats from other shows-- all of it is bright, ingenious, and performed with verve and skill by the five member cast who create all the plays. I'll be back. See you there?

Richmond Shepard-- Performing Arts INSIDER and
lively-arts.com

       

June 11th, 2006
   
In THE FIELD by John B. Keane, strongly directed by Ciaran O'Reilly, now at the Irish Rep., there is an elemental battle in rural Ireland in 1964-- a brutal cattle farmer needs the field for grazing and access to water, and another man needs the field so he can
put in a quarry business so that his sick wife can return to Ireland. It's the irresistible force meeting the immovable object-- neither can compromise. Action is centered in a pub, and the play is filled with the flavor of the area and the intertwined lives of the inhabitants of this small village as each of the mostly Irish cast totally inhabits his or her character. This is a beautifully produced, powerful piece of Theatre, and although there are few surprises in the play, fine acting, set by Charles Corcoran,
lighting by Jason Lyons, costumes by Martha Hally, all make for a memorable evening of Theatre with a Celtic flavor.

Richmond Shepard-- Performing Arts INSIDER and
lively-arts.com

       

June 3rd, 2006
   
Just before the Tony's:

Order of preference-Broadway shows I saw this season:

2005-06 BROADWAY PLAYS

1. The History Boys (Broadhurst)
2. The Lieutenant of Inishmore (Lyceum)
3. Well (Longacre)
4. Absurd Person Singular (MTC at Biltmore)
5. Rabbit Hole (Biltmore)
6. Barefoot in the Park (Cort)
7. Awake and Sing (LCT at Belasco)
8. Three Days of Rain (Bernard Jacobs)
9. A Touch of the Poet (Roundabout at Studio 54)
10. Seascape (Booth)
11. The Shining City (MTC at Biltmore)
12. Faith Healer
13. A Naked Girl on the Appian Way (Roundabout-Am.
Air)
14. Festen (Music Box)


2005-06 BROADWAY MUSICALS

1. Sweeney Todd (Eugene O'Neill)
2. Drowsy Chaperone (Marriott Marquis)
3. Jersey Boys (Virginia)
4. The Color Purple (Broadway)
5. The Pajama Game (Roundabout at American Airlines)
6. The Wedding Singer (Hirschfeld)
7. Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life (Gerald Schoenfeld)
8. In My Life (Music Box)
9. Ring of Fire (Barrymore)
10. Hot Feet (Hilton)
11. The Woman in White (Marquis)
12. The Threepenny Opera (Studio 54)
13. Lestat (Palace)
14. Lennon (Broadhurst)

SPECIAL CATEGORY-- both EXCELLENT:
Bridge & Tunnel (Helen Hayes) - One woman show
Souvenir (Lyceum)-- play with music.

       

June 3rd, 2006
   
In 1832, in Paris, a twenty-two year old man was convicted of the double murder of his mother and of his male lover. Paul Verdier has adapted and directed Christian Simeon's seventy-five minute contemporary play about it, HYENAS, and all elements of it are first class. Actor Daniel Pettrow has done a prodigious job of memorization and clearly defines the flash of the many emotional tangents the character takes as he pours out his memory (or rewriting) of the crimes and seems alternately guilty and innocent. Settings in a jail cell and elsewhere are brilliantly
defined by Ken Booth's lighting, and all is enhanced by Ned Judy's sound design and music. The intricate tangles of memory and/or rationalization hold us as Pettrow dynamically explores the character's mind on the eve of his execution. Verdier has staged the piece, basically an internal monologue, with action and with movement both external and internal, and it's an engrossing look at Paris's underworld long ago.

Richmond Shepard-- Performing Arts INSIDER and
lively-arts.com

       

May 28th, 2006
   
Domestic angst in Dublin. In SHINING CITY by Conor McPherson, directed by Robert Falls, the actors (Brian F. O'Byrne, Oliver Platt, Martha Plimpton, Peter Scanavino) are all excellent, the set by Santo Loquasto, Christopher Akerlind's lighting, costumes by Kaye Voyce and the choice of music are all quite good and they do properly fulfill the piece. But the play didn't engage me because of the ordinariness of its lengthy expositional passages. It's basically a long psychotherapy for Platt's character in which he goes on and on in not-fascinating stories, and who wants to sit in on material with no interesting ideas and no wit-- just ordinary recounting with a tiny bit of humor based on our recognition of behavior? Not me. O'Byrne plays a divorced (from Plimpton) ex-priest therapist whose own life is an emotional mess as he
explores finding his personal sexual path. The most interesting scene is his encounter with a low IQ male prostitute in which we are present while something happens, rather than something being talked about. While I enjoyed the performances, I would not
recommend SHINING CITY as fascinating Theatre.

Richmond Shepard-- Performing Arts INSIDER and
lively-arts.com


HOT FEET, ultimately a rather good dance show conceived, directed and choreographed by Maurice Hines, throws us off by an over-zealous opening of dancers wigglin', jigglin', jumpin' and humpin' like really good cheerleaders with colorful Arabian Nights
costumes (by Paul Tazewell, but a lot of it can be seen every weekend for free at Broadway and 50th Street. It takes a while for us to realize that they are doing a version of "The Red Shoes," and that there is a coherent show there. Ingenue Vivian Nixon is a marvelous dancer with amazing flexibility, leading man Michael Balderrama is like a Gene Kelly- relaxed, casual, and a terrific masculine dancer (epitomized by his solo to "Oh, Love"), and their romantic pas-de-deux is quite lovely. Wynnona Smith is strong
in her comedy role, all the dancers are super, with most of the men built like body-builders. The lyrics, mostly from "Earth, Wind and Fire," are banal, but the singers are good. The costumes are interesting, but sometimes puzzling-- silver white for a number
look like the sperms in a Woody Allen movie, black Robocop costumes for a number that look like The Borg from "Startrek," futuristic jungle costumes. And there are some good visuals mixing light (by Clifton Taylor) and set (by James Noone). The actual Red Shoes number is high-level Broadway, there is a
Wagnerian Opera finale, and, of course, they jump and jiggle again at the end. I think the problem with the show is that they tried to dazzle us to excess. There's a good show buried in the excessive trappings.

Richmond Shepard-- Performing Arts INSIDER and
lively-arts.com

       

May 19th, 2006
   
The conceit of the new show THE DROWSY CHAPERONE is that it is a rediscovered 1928 musical. It's a great comic romp with a marvelous cast, all held together by the actual co-author of the book, Bob Martin, on the stage making insider comments on all that transpires. He's a great comic presence with a gay sensibility, and his consciousness of the nuances of Musical
Theatre is a delight. Sutton Foster outdoes herself-- don't miss her NOT showing off: a star is a star is a star. She can do EVERYTHING better than almost anyone (and does), and is spectacular as a prospective bride. Wait 'til you see Georgia Engel
shpritzing in the face of Edward Hibbert nine times. And the chaperone herself, Beth Leavel, is a combination of Mata Hari and Cheshire cat. Troy Britton Johnson as the prosepective bridegroom is handsome, corny, and can tap dance up a storm. The all tap dance up a storm, and choreography of innumerable dance styles is full of great comic invention and virtuosity-- the whole show is choreographed and directed with great verve and
invention by Casey Nicholaw. The costumes by Greg Barnes have the flair of an expanded imagination, and so does the set by David Gallo which folds in and out into surprise after surprise. THE DROWSY CHAPERONE reveres as it mocks (including a brilliant quick sendup of "The King and I." It's a show not to be missed by anyone who loves Musical Theatre.

Richmond Shepard-- Performing Arts INSIDER and
lively-arts.com

       

May 14th, 2006
   
The genius of writer/director Franco Dragone has branched out into another masterpiece in CIRQUE DU SOLEIL'S "O," now playing ten performances a week at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. The immense playing area is a magical underground grotto where water mysteriously appears and disappears and some of the world's best swimmers, acrobats, divers, gymnasts, dancers, thrillingly take us so far beyond normal human capability that it is breath-taking. There is a reminder of Busbe Berkeley swim formations, there are trapeze artists, a carosel, people flying out of and into water, a sailing ship, a hint of India, Olympic divers, a funeral porocession, a burning man contrasting vividly with all the water, contortionists, and all is punctuated by surreal still figures, like in a Dali painting. It's a mad dream world spectical with brilliant design and costuming, beautiful music,and amazing mechanics-- it all takes acrobatics far beyond anything you can imagine and creates a mesmerizing entertainment, some of it so moving that tears ran down my cheeks from the beauty of it all.

Richmond Shepard-- Performing Arts INSIDER, and
lively-arts.com

       

May 4th, 2006
   
The Irish playwright Brian Friel's FAITH HEALER is now on Broadway with an all star cast: Ralph Fiennes, Cherry Jones and Ian McDiarmid (from "Star Wars"). It's four half hour monologues about the career of a con man (Fiennes) whose powers occasionally work, first from his own viewpoint, a moderately interesting but not very theatrical, account of his story including a bitter insight into who comes to a Faith Healer. Fiennes is an excellent performer, but I'd rather he just simply say the words rather than act them. What he needs is to mesmerize the audience rather than declaim to them. Jones, as his wife, is
terrific, and much realer as she gives her view of the relationship, including a breakdown. For me, the star of the show is McDiarmid as his Cockney manager-- a marvelous performer in a piece with classic British Music Hall flavor. He's Leon Erroll- stylized, large, but totally believable, and totally entertaining. Fiennes does the closer in the manner of the opener. Empty black stage with a stick or two of furniture and costumes by Jonathan Fenson all add
to the bleakness (McDiarmid's is an uplift). This play has a transcendent theme, but it doesn't transcend.

Richmond Shepard-- Performing Arts INSIDER, and
lively-arts.com


THE WEDDING SINGER, book by Chad Beguelin and Tim Herlihy, music by Matthew Sklar, lyrics by Chad Beguelin, starts us off with a big grin and the lively energy of a wedding party with jukes and joops and doodoops. It's all lots of fun- a new "Grease" that
works because all of its elements come together with a great sense of humor and endless creativity. The magical quickly-transforming set by Scott Pask, lighting by Brian MacDevitt and super costumes by Gregory Gale fulfill the vision. This show has more funny, clever songs than I've seen in one show in a long time. It's not often you run into a song like "Come Out of the Dumpster." There are no plot surprises, but so what? It's all about entertainment, and that it is. The cast, as masterfully put together by John Rando, is terrific-- the people in the show
actually look like people, and the fact that some of the leads are just a tad older than their characters doesn't matter. I loved Laura Benanti as the ingénue, Amy Spanger and Felicia Finley are great Hot Blondes, and Rita Gardner's Gramdma Rosie is a turn that will win her lots of nominations and probably awards.
Leading man Stephen Lynch, antagonist, the handsome Richard H. Blake, and all of the rest of the cast, some in multiple roles are Broadway pros who come through as such. Choreography by Rob Ashford is humorous, inventive, and at times takes us a step
beyond into absurd. It's all festive, joyful fun.

Richmond Shepard-- Performing Arts INSIDER, and
lively-arts.com

       

May 1st, 2006

Howard Brenton is a powerful writer who chooses to explore the Dark Side of a broken marriage in his play SORE THROATS now at The Duke on 42nd St. Brutality! Anguish! The Sadistic Beating of the Ex-Wife! Stomp! Bam! A vivid description of a Difficult Childbirth! Depravity! Promiscuity! And LET'S BURN THE MONEY!
There is a touch of "No Exit," and of Joe Orton's Grotesquerie (times ten), but it's Viciousness without the Humor. The actors are terrific: Laila Robins, Bill Camp and Meredith Zinner. All have depth of emotion, total believability without a moment that isn't true. And that, I would say, is that the only reason to see this play. Evan Yionoulis's direction fulfills the vision of this vicious drama, as does the set by Adam Stockhausen, costumes by Katherine Roth, sound punctuation by Mike Yionoulis and lighting by Donald Holder. But the whole experience is uncomfortable, and there are more questions than answers at the end as the play sort of just stops- without a resolution. I know, I know- that IS a
resolution. But not for me.

Richmond Shepard-- Performing Arts INSIDER, and
lively-arts.com

       
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