News & Reviews from New York
 
June 26th, 2011

BABY IT’S YOU! Is a cheery, happy Rock and Roll musical basically about the creation of the four woman singing group the Shirelles by a New Jersey housewife, Florence Greenberg (powerfully acted and beautiful sung by Beth Leavel), in 1958, and their subsequent musical adventures (and her romantic one with her partner played by strong, handsome Allan Louis). It’s more than that-- it’s a history of R & R in the 60’s, full of hit songs well-performed by four beautiful young women, each a strong musical personality, costumed to the 9’s, with lightning-fast changes (by Lizz Wolf), on Anna Louizes active set, and with Howard Binkley’s fine lighting. The theatre bounced. The 2nd Act is basically a concert with the plot lines subjugated to the music, which is terrific. The joint jumped, and audience faces shone with joy.

RICHMOND SHEPARD

Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com

Choreographer Jennifer Muller’s new work THE WHITE ROOM gives us a first class modern dance company with superb agility, flexibility and grace in lovely, lyrical Martha Graham-based techniques with innovation in movement and action. The work, filled with romance, conflict, love, rejection, with body designs giving us powerful images played against a mostly blank wall (which seems a proper backdrop), and fine Adagios, in Anaya Cullen’s contrasting vivid costumes, with a driving cello-based musical compilation and fine lighting by Jeff Croiter, is a provocative example of Modern Dance at the top level.

RICHMOND SHEPARD

Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com

SIDE EFFECTS by Michael Weller: A politically ambitious middle-aged man (Cotter Smith) and his medicated, bi-polar wife (Joely Richardson)-- he’s a stiffo, she’s a beautiful mercurial whacko. The 90 minute play is a duel between long-time antagonist-lovers- a domestic trauma-drama. The actors are totally believable— he in his closed-in state, she in her wide-open one. The fine designer Beowulf Boritt outdoes himself in the upper-crust set with a billowing kind of detail. Lighting by Jeff Croiter is merely superb and costumes for Ms. Richardson by Wade Laboissonniere are enchanting. There is a traumatic event thrown in by the author to be a catalyst to shake up the shakey and lead to the foregone conclusion and post-conclusion. SIDE EFFECTS is a series of very theatrical encounters by two very good actors, all clearly directed and staged by David Auburn.

RICHMOND SHEPARD

Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com

PLAY DEAD, written by Todd Robbins and Teller, directed by Teller and performed by Robbins, is a good-natured, terrific horror show. Robbins is a unique charismatic personality whom I have reviewed before in his sideshow performance. I liked him in that show. PLAY DEAD, with the addition of magic by Teller, one of the best magicians in the country, tops the old one by far. In addition to the eating of a light bulb as per his sideshow piece, there is disappearing, mind reading, and lots of jokes. Aided by several imps who inhabit the theatre in the dark, this is about as much fun as a horror show can be. If that’s your cup of blood, you’ll have a great time.

RICHMOND SHEPARD

Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com

 
June 23rd, 2011

SPIDER-MAN Turn Off The Dark, book by Julie Taymor, Glen Berger, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, music and lyrics by Bono and The Edge--- It’s a GREAT entertainment with spectacular, absolutely brilliant design (scenic design by George Tspin, lighting by Donald Holder, costumes by Eiko Ishioka, projections by Kyle Cooper, masks by Julie Taymor, makeup by Judy Chin) that takes theatrical effects to a new dimension. It’s shiny, it sparkles, you are IN a Sci Fi video game. The music is fine, though not particularly memorable, and the romantic leads, Reeve Carney as Peter Parker and Jennifer Damiano as Mary Jane are excellent singers. But it’s the action, the flying, the combat, the effects that give the audience what it came for. And it succeeds in spades. Patrick Page is a good Green Goblin villain, if a bit too sweet and gentle for me, but you’ll never forget the final battle swinging over your head. All the ballads, necessary to break up the action, could use trimming— there were some sleepy kids in the audience at the end of the two and three quarters hours show, but they too loved it. Directors Julie Taymor and Philip Wm. McKinley, with choreography (aerial and Earthbound) by Daniel Ezralow and Chase Brock, have given us masterful, exciting, sometimes thrilling, unforgettable entertainment.

RICHMOND SHEPARD

Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com

RAIN- A TRIBUTE TO THE BEATLS is touted as a

re-creation of The Beatles. It’s not. It’s a performance of The Beatles’ songs by young men who resemble the original four, but it is without the innocence, the sweetness of the originals. It’s loud, coarse, uneven, over-amplified, (which takes away the sentimental impact of songs like “Yesterday”) but to people who have never experienced The Fab Four, it’s a rather good show, with excellent projections (designed by Darren McCaulley and Mathieu St-Arnaud) of the times of the group as they progressed through the years, opening with The Kennedys. Costumes by someone uncredited are excellent. The songs are still good, young audience loved these cuties and the twirling lights.

RICHMOND SHEPARD

Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com

 
June 14th, 2011

YANNA AVIS is a beautiful woman with a pleasant voice and loads of appeal in her performance of songs in French and English (with a touch of German). She exudes a lovely sensuality, and is more of an entertainer than a singer. Sure, she stays on key, but it’s HER that’s important rather than the voice. Some of the performance is in shprichtzimmer, and it works in the context of her musical vocabulary. This show at The Metropolitan Room on W. 34th St. seems to try to create the intimacy of a dimly-lighted room, but I wanted to see more of her— I wanted lighting that reveals and enhances rather than obscures her. Her acting is top-notch, and it infuses her songs, as do her warmth and charm in this very enjoyable trip to the continent.

RICHMOND SHEPARD

Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com

 
May 19th, 2011

LUCKY GUY, a cheery Country/Western super entertainment created by Willard Beckham (book, lyrics, music and snappy direction) is a hoot. The leading man, Kyle Dean Massey, is handsome, charming, charismatic, and a terrific singer. The leading lady, Varla Jean Merman (Jeffery Roberson) has gigantic personality (and stature), first banana Leslie Jordan is funny, twinkle-eyed, and he has no stature (4’ 11”), second banana, the cutest chicky in town, Jenn Colella, has beauty, sparks, and is a hellova gum chewer, and ingénue Savannah Wise is a sweet June Allyson. The plot: country boy goes to Nashville and enters a song contest and meets its nefarious denizens. The songs are good, with a classic Country sentimentality and everybody sings them well, and dances up a joyful storm (flashy, zany choreography by A.C.Ciulla). With half-naked singing/dancing cowboys, it’s all high camp with a gay sensibility, and is lots of fun for EVERYBODY. The great set by Ron Bissinger is creatively active, lighting by Paul Miller highlights everything, and the costumes by William Ivey Long are outrageous. LUCKY GUY is more fun that a Saturday night hoedown with a barrel of moonshine. Y’all go see it now— y’heah?

RICHMOND SHEPARD

Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com

 
May 18th, 2011

The musical THE PEOPLE IN THE PICTURE, book and lyrics by Iris Rainer Dart, music by Mike Stoller and Artie Butler, well directed by Leonard Foglia, gives us an old woman, beautifully played by Donna Murphy, who takes us back to a long gone world as she has memory delusions of her past: 1937 Poland, where a Yiddish Theatre troupe goes from Shtetl to Shtetl performing. We travel through old photographs of these people to their lives portrayed on the stage by a lively, able cast of high level professionals. The brilliant set by Riccardo Hernandez is basically picture frame inside picture frame as we alternate past and present, and Ann Hould-Ward’s costumes keep the era alive. It opens with choreography based on old time Jewish folkdancing, and develops into views of the beginning of the holocaust, the pogroms. This is a beautifully produced show, including black and white photo projections from that time, but there is a curious disjointedness to the entirety as it jumps back and forth in time. Murphy shines, and she does get to do a good comic number as her younger self. Sentimentality is sprinkled throughout the revival of the past, and we can’t help but be moved by the result of the realities of that time. I was engaged by the songs, the singers, the sadness of that period of history, and the life force of these memorable people. The folk dance theme gives the show a parenthesis, and I found the totality to be a rewarding evening of Theatre.

RICHMOND SHEPARD

Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com

SAINT HOLLYWOOD is a remarkable multi-media show: a creation of visual projections, multi-multi images and a physically active story-teller, guitarist, actor/singer with multi accents, Willard Morgan, who created the show with Jerrold Ziman. He is backed by three gorgeous women, two who dance and sing, Shannon Antalan and Zoe Rossario, and one, Eunice Wong, as a DJ. Morgan’s performance is a combination of hip Lenny Bruce tone, part rapper, and part straight-ahead joke monologue at times. This is a top-level Performance Art work— a clearly-conceived piece with unending imagination and surprises as he plays character after Hollywood character. It’s non-stop entertainment by a multi-talented, quite amazing performer with star persona-- a complex show with myriad Hollywood scenes projected on panels and drapery (detailed scenic design by Anna Kiraly, imaginative costumes by Uta Bekaia, video design by Alex Koch and Lucia Jessum Lee), terrific lighting by David Tirosh, directed with perfect timing by Jenny Lee Mitchell. Morgan even juggles and plays the harmonica at the same time. What a trip! Open-ended run: Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8: PM at Ideal Glass, 22 E. 2nd St. 212/352-3101. www.sainthollywood.com.

RICHMOND SHEPARD

Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com

 
May 16th, 2011

A MINISTER’S WIFE, book by Austin Pendleton, music by Joshua Schmidt, lyrics by Jan Levy Tranen, adapted from George Bernard Shaw’s “Candida,” is a charming operetta— a moving play about love and its illusions, concerning a dynamic minister (Mark Kudisch, a powerful Theatrical figure in a dynamic performance— it’s a pleasure to hear him sing), his irresistible wife (the beautiful Kate Fry whose compassion and understanding will move you), and the young poet who is madly in love with her (Bobby Steggert, who is cute as hell, has a lovely voice, and, frankly, comes across as such a little boy, with no cajones, that he wouldn’t stand a chance. I remembered that this was Marlon Brando’s first Broadway role, opposite Katherine Cornell: cajones personified.). The piece is an interesting musical experiment, full of sprichtstimmer, with a question asked and the answer given in song. And all five cast members can really sing, including Liz Baltes and Drew Gehling as the sub-plot, and the music, with its fascinating contemporary counterpoints, captured me. Shaw’s strong story shines through in this well-directed (by Michael Halberstam), designed (by Allen Moyer), lighted (by Keith Parham) and costumed (by David Zinn) in this unusual, very rewarding Theatrical experience.

RICHMOND SHEPARD

Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com

SISTER ACT, music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Glenn Slater, book by Cheri Steinkellner and Bill Steinkellner, based on the movie written by Joseph Howard, is a gentle, really funny, silly, sweet musical with a familiar plot: saw a killing, on the run from killers, hide in disguise (“Some Like it Hot”). It works beautifully as a singer on the run (the dyunamoic Patina Miler) enters a convent disguised as a nun where she meets two of the best singers on Broadway— Victoria Clark as Mother Superior and Marla Mindelle as a postulant. Directed by Jerry Zaks with flash, sparkle and wild imagination, with fun costumes by Liz Brotherston, a smoothly active set by Klara Zieglerova with lighting by the super Natasha Katz, really cute choreography by Anthony Van Laast, the show gives us the cheeriest nuns on the planet. The chorus is great: they sing, they dance, the 70’s Disco beat still works, the songs are melodic as the show mocks in a good-natured, good spirited way. SISTER ACT is a rare treat: a real feel-good family show. You’ll walk out smiling I betcha.

RICHMOND SHEPARD

Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com

BORN YESTERDAY by Garson Kanin has a great cartoon set, full kitsch, by John Lee Beatty, Catherine Zuber exaggerates the costumes similarly with Nina Arianda (as the Galatea) entering as a Charlotte Russe, cherry on top and all, and the performances by her and Jim Bulushi, who really fills the theatre with his strong presence, are larger than life. She is a good comedienne with some great physical moves, and should have a bright future. He unfailingly commands our attention and well fulfills the character. Director Doug Hughes has most of BORN YESTERDAY played like a slapstick farce. The entire cast is excellent, Terry Beaver has a lovely turn as a senator’s wife, and Robert Sean Leonard as the third point of the triangle is quite charming as he plays it totally real. The end is a foregone conclusion which we know, but that doesn’t interfere with our enjoyment of this lively show. The jokes are funny, the action is energetic— it’s all fun as we root for Billy Dawn at the dawn of her life as a person.

RICHMOND SHEPARD

Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com

 
May 05th, 2011

John Guare’s nutty 60’s comedy THE HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES, about a song-writing zookeeper with high ambitions, Ben Stiller, his crazy wife (aptly named “Bananas”) Edie Falco, and his girlfriend, Jennifer Jason Leigh, is a zany, imaginative show with conventions battered about, the 4th wall shattered, and the charisma of the three stars bursting from the stage. Zippily directed by David Cromer, nicely designed by Scott Pask, with Jane Greenwood’s costumes and marvelous lighting by Brian MacDevitt, with eight additional flawless actors, three of them playing slapstick nuns, this is a terrific evening of wild Theatre. Stiller’s torments and frustrations are performed with an earnest reality, Leigh is strong (and good looking) and Falco is superb in a schizophrenic role— funny and sad at the same time. What makes it work so well is the reality, the full conviction played by the actors in a screwball situation. I had a good time. Go see it-- if you don’t like it I’ll give you a dollar.

RICHMOND SHEPARD

Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com

BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO by Rajiv Joseph, directed by Moises Kaufman, is two shows: Robin Williams and everything else. We come to see Robin, and they hit us with Iraq in 2003. Robin, full-bearded, is a tiger in a cage. When an American soldier (Glenn Davis) sticks his hand in the cage, the tiger eats it. He is, after all, a tiger. Another soldier (Brad Fleischer) kills the tiger. From there on, Robin is the ghost of the tiger, and his amusing stories and musings are set against an Iraqi domestic squabble that is screamed, a lot of it in Arabic. There is a lot of boring nonsense between the two soldiers. I think they are trying to make some kind of political statement, but I don’t know what it is. Madness with Sadam Husain’s dead son’s ghost and ranting and torturing. The whole project is misleading. What do we want from Robin? Charm, humor, feeling. He comes through— he can really deliver a line, and he shines when he’s on. But the play is mostly diatribes by Iraqis or a demented American soldier, giving us not enough of what we came for: Robin. There is very little new political insight that would enlighten us with a new viewpoint or new information. We already know things are tough, that women have a hard lot in that part of the world. There are religious and political games, and a conflicted, confused search for and appeal to God. I asked God, and She told me we have to straighten out our own mess. The set by Derek McLane is fascinating, lighting by David Lander is quite good, costumes by David Zinn (except for Robin’s) are fine. For me, I found Kaufman’s direction to be static at times, overblown at times. Why see the play? Robin is a treasure, and it’s a pleasure to see him on a Broadway stage.

RICHMOND SHEPARD

Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com

 
May 05th, 2011

WARHORSE is a theatrical masterpiece. In the atmosphere and projections of images related to World War I, puppeteers bring constructed horses to vivid life as they create the illusion of living breathing animals with intricacy, subtlety and nuance in the movements, lifted and sustained by the music, sound and projections. With a simple plot early on-- good guy vs bad guy and who gets the horse, we are shown a pageant of a life style lifted by a chorus and Irish folky singing. Julie Taymor was the pioneer— this show stands on her shoulders as two huge horses cavort on the stage. The bloody war scenes, with amazing visual effects, are breathtaking. I have not seen an epic like this since Meyerhold at the Hippodrome in the 1930’s. It is basically a love story-- a man and his horse. Adapted by Nick Stafford from the novel by Michael Morpurgo, brilliantly directed by Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris, exquisitely designed by Rae Smith, movement and horse movement by Toby Sedgwick, with lighting by Paule Constable, with puppet design and direction by Adrian Kohler and Basil Jones, with a cast of solid, believable actors, WARHORSE is a thrilling, unforgettable theatrical adventure.

RICHMOND SHEPARD

Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com

JERUSALEM by Jez Butterworth, directed by Ian Rickson:

Notes taken during the performance:

We start with a fairy princess singing, and then we are hit with a lot of noise, and are introduced to the epitome of slob perfectly, repulsively played by Mark Rylance and his amusing bunch of degenerates with working class English accents, plus a demented professor (Alan David). The play is in the new Broadway style: the lowest level of garbage-mouth language. This is another anthropological study of a lower species in their strange repulsive activities— English “hail fellows” (not very “well met”) in a drug or alcohol haze. Words are lost in unfamiliar slang. These people are not sinking—they are sunk. Why are we all assembled here to watch these degenerates, whom we would never want to spend time with? I must admit that Rylance debauches really well, and does a great limp (his character was formerly a stunt rider).

ACT 2: A barbarian celebration ceremony with rag-tag costume accoutrements including a dance performance and a tall tale. He calls his band “Educationally subnormal outcasts,” and he is right. There is an interesting interaction by Rylance with his ex-wife that has the semblance of a play, but it soon slips back into Looney tunes. Costumes and set are creatively designed by Ultz, and there is great lighting by Mimi Jordan Sherin.

ACT 3: Stoned on acid. Is it interesting? Sure. Parts of it are fascinating. So is the lizard house at the zoo or the monkey house-- as long as I can be an observer and not a participant. Rylance’s character, Rooster, has a film over his eyes— all is distorted. There is a promise at the beginning that Rooster has to vacate his house trailer in the woods where he deals drugs, and we wind downhill to the next day’s deadline, with a closing by the fairy princess. There are a couple of moments of magical power, and a dance with the May Queen. An end ritual calls up ancestors. This show is enough to drive an alcoholic off the wagon-- you truly need a drink by the end. It finishes with the strangest bows I’ve ever seen in a theatre: nobody cracked a smile. The play is over. The bows are for us to acknowledge the actors, and it’s usually a grand interaction. Nothing. Perhaps they were still in character— but without cavorting, I don’t think so. Let me know what you think.

RICHMOND SHEPARD

Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com

 
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