THERE ARE TWO UNIQUE SHOWS RUNNING IN NEW YORK AT THIS TIME WHICH SHOULD NOT BE MISSED- ONE MOSTLY VOCAL, THE OTHER PHYSICAL.

VOCA PEOPLE, now at the Westside Theatre, is a unique adventure in entertainment. Eight white-faced, white-suited singers, movers and vocal soundmakers throw a complex mixture of action and sound at us- vocal sounds from squeaky gibberish, to the sound of instruments, to lovely harmonies of many familiar songs. Lots of references: James Bond, Pink Panther, Rocky, etc. They create a sound symphony, and do lots of games with the audience (my least favorite part-- but maybe the kids like it). Then they give us their real strength- songs, melodies, in terrific harmonies. It’s almost impossible to describe what they do: sharp choreography and synchronization in the sounds and movements— each of the eight is a virtuoso sound-maker with training in dance and in Mime. Created and Directed by Lior Kalfo, with musical arrangements by Shai Fishman, the whitest costumes and faces in town (by Hana Yefet) and fine lighting by Roy Milo, VOCA PEOPLE is a fascinating, fun experience for all ages.

RICHMOND SHEPARD

Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts com

TRACES, a Circus acrobatic show, now at the Union Square Theatre, is an amazing mix of many difficult disciplines, all performed beautifully and perfectly by a superb cast of advanced gymnast/acrobat/dancers by five charming personalities—four men and one woman (Genevieve Morin). Their gymnastic feats, brilliantly directed and choreographed by Shana Carroll and Gypsy Snider, are performed with impeccable timing, and all are done with a casual air. There is a thrilling adagio with Morin and the strong, solid Antoine Auger, shtick with basketballs, skateboards, a piano is played, calligraphy is drawn and projected, and Morin does a fantastic acrobatic dance with an armchair that is quite funny and a spectacular dance in a mid-air hanging loop. There is tumbling, amazing leap/grab sequences on poles, tumbling, hoop tumbling, mock combat-- it’s all clean moves, with remarkable clarity as they perform their superb acrobatics. By the finale, we have gotten to know (and love) the personas of the five artists— including the wiry Sen Lin, the cute, strong Devin Henderson and the romantic Francisco Cruz. They are all masters, and it’s a great pleasure to see them perform.

RICHMOND SHEPARD

Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts com

ART REVIEW:

You can spot the work of the best artists— they have their own voice, and even as they shift perspectives we recognize their work: Franz Kline, Mark Rothko, Picasso, Joan Miro, Klee, Kandinsky, Lichtenstein, Matisse, Jackson Pollack, etc. I saw an original recently: Monroe Hodder’s 2011 paintings. They turn a corner from her paintings of 2008 to 2010, but the basic view of color and form are there in all of them. Now she paints on a horizontal grid, several inches high, and each defined section has its own unique story in the vertical abstract strokes that communicate different moods and stories. Her work is compelling, fascinating, with its juxtapositions of color and tone. Check out http://www.monroehodder.com for info on where and when Ms Hodder is exhibiting. But beware-- the paintings are dangerous: they are so interesting that if I had one on my wall I’d have to stand (or sit) looking at it so long I wouldn’t get anything else done.

RICHMOND SHEPARD-- lively-arts com

The present production of Noel Coward’s PRIVATE LIVES is, in its totality, an exhilarating experience. A divorced couple, each just re-married, on honeymoons, are in adjoining hotel suites. They meet on the balconies. This first act is a shining classic theatrical gem. Starring Kim Cattrall, an exquisite comedienne with rare comic timing and nuances in her gestures, tones and subtle (and not subtle) actions, and Paul Gross, an excellent actor who gives a fine straight-ahead performance as these two fight, love, battle, love and hate each other. And Cattrall sings, too. And looks lovely. It’s a pleasure to be entertained by her. Simon Paisley Day is quite convincing as the stiff prig she has just married, and Anna Madeley is a delight as the very pretty, dingy foil for Gross. Rob Howell’s set for Act One gives us good balcony. For Act Two he gives us a spare, absurd conglomeration of objects, including globes with fish in them and ducks on the walls. His costumes are imaginative, appropriate, inspired. Act Two has problems— the two leads are alone on the stage. Although sprinkled with fun musical interludes, a terrific dance with zany choreography, piano playing by Gross, Cattrall’s fine singing, this long act has one purpose-- show us the difficulty of their ongoing life together: make love, bicker, dance, make love bicker, music, recapping their past lives together, which gets repetitious and tiring as they lead up to serious conflict. Finally Day and Madeley enter, and there is great comic mayhem. This hilarious finale to the act, concocted by director Richard Eyre, fight director Alison de Burgh and movement director Scarlett Mackmin, is the best chaos/pandemonium in town. The destruction that takes place, the physical action, is absolutely brilliant. Act Three rolls along with snap as certain things might be resolved (or not), and a good time was had by all. Don’t miss Cattrall. I’m betting on a Tony nomination.

RICHMOND SHEPARD

Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts com

Notes taken while watching SEMINAR by Theressa Rebeck, a play about four writing students taking a private, expensive, seminar with a renowned writer/editor played by Alan Rickman.

The four are in one of the worst sets ever on Broadway (by David Zinn) an undefined, poorly constructed (the door doesn’t stay closed) blanko (plus a great chandelier) of a living space in the home of the wealthy woman student, Lily Rabe (a solid believable actress) as they spout pretentious trivial horseshit about literature. They are snotty and snide, and I wouldn’t want these people as friends. Some of the dialogue is amusing, some of it spoken too rapidly to understand. Finally, the first really interesting moment: the beautiful lively Asian woman, Hettienne Park, shows her breasts as a casual demonstration of freedom. Blackout. Enter the dynamic Alan Rickman, speaking incomprehensibly at machinegun speed, dropping his voice at the end of sentences. The whole production is directed by Sam Gold at such a rapid pace that many words are obscured. He seems to have chosen naturalism over communication. Audience members were running back to get the earphones. Rickman plays bored distain (really well). I didn’t care about the literary tribulations of the young writers who seem to be seeking the Holy Grail of writing. The play confirms my dislike of writers writing about writing. Rebeck seems to worship writing as an exalted Art, Craft and celestial quest. The set changes to a terrific depiction of the scholar’s lair: book-filled shelves, piles of manuscripts, etc. Unfortunately, it is so dimly lighted (by Ben Stanton) that I wanted to see more of the fine detail that Zinn put into it. Now Rickman comes through with a monologue about his career that really shows his depth and power beyond his cynical surface. Sub-plot is the sexual moofky-foofky between Hamish Linklater (nicely played as the very private writer) and Park, the yearning of Jerry O’Connell and the classic “Professor Shtupps all the Women” syndrome. Many in the audience seemed to by amused and entertained by SEMINAR. I wasn’t.

RICHMOND SHEPARD

Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts com

OTHER DESERT CITIES by Jon Robin Baitz is actually two plays with the same characters: Act One starts as a lightweight domestic comedy about a successful Showbiz (and literary) family-- writers, an ex-movie star/ambassador (Stacy Keach) who is a moneyed right-wing Republican, his dominant wife (Stockard Channing), their son, a TV producer (Thomas Sadoski), their disturbed daughter who has written a book about the family (Rachel Griffiths), particularly about her revolutionary dead brother. This act is liberally sprinkled with humorous lines at the sit-com level: set up-joke, setup-joke, quip. When it reaches plateau, enter a tornado: Judith Light as the aunt. The interaction and views are simplistic politically and relationship-wise. OTHER DEESERT CITIES has a heavy premise: the repressed child may explode, and the book writer and the dead son were indeed terribly damaged by repression. In this first act the drama is undercut by the quips. The humor, full of easy incongruities that give a momentary tickle, lacks real bite. The audience was mostly amused-- they are, after all, used to television rhythm. Act Two is a strong viable drama with little humor as the consequences of past interactions are brought to the fore with revelations. There is much sturm and drang (for me the overwrought is overwritten) and the excellent actors get to show their range as they reveal their characters’ inner lives with conviction. This, for me, would be the reason to see the rather long play. It ends with a corny coda. Joe Mantello has directed with mostly fine pacing, John Lee Beatty gives us an excellent domestic set, Kenneth Posner’s lighting illuminates properly, and costumes by David Zinn are just right.

RICHMOND SHEPARD

Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts com

If you want to see the most entertaining actress on the New York stage, go see Nina Arianda, playing an actress who comes late to an audition, in David Ives’ VENUS IN FUR. Her range, depth, variety, supple physicality, and total investment in each of her portrayals is astonishing. Aided by an excellent foil, Hugh Dancy, as the author/director of the play she is auditioning for, this two-hander, nimbly directed by Walter Bobbie, with sensational costumes (especially for Ms Arianda) by Anita Yavich, fine set by John Lee Beatty, with perfect lighting by Peter Kaczlorowski, evolves from a broad comic opening to a surreal piece of Performance Art as the two begin to act out the script of the new play, fully realizing the new characters, accents and all, growing more surreal as the conclusion is approached. As the play progressed I found I had two different alternating internal reactions: when they played the actress and the writer, I had full empathy with them. When they played the characters in the play-within-the-play, I was a spectator, an observer. It worked both ways. I was so engaged by the play and the performances, that I couldn’t take my eyes away from the stage for a moment to take notes.

RICHMOND SHEPARD

Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts com

A CHARITY CASE, written and directed by Wendy Beckett, a confusing mish-mash of a play, is supposed to be about abused adopted children, but it could be about any neglected offspring with a solipsistic parent . Characters introduced are: a colorfully-dressed street (bag?) lady (Alysia Reiner), a mother (Alison Fraser), and her seventeen year old adopted daughter (Jill Shackner), which I thought was a look back at the colorful lady’s past as she lurked, high up behind a grill, looking down at her adoptive mother and her younger self. But maybe not. There is a destructive psychological battle with lots of surreal yowling between daughter and self-absorbed mother, a dress-maker. And we get psychological attacks by alternate voices of several imagined birth mothers. It is all played out on a great, tall, two-level set by David L. Arsenault, with excellent lighting by Travis McHale and creative costuming by Theresa Squire. There is some imaginative business o the stage, but as the possibility arises that the colorful bag lady might be the formerly-depressed birth mother coming out of her caccoon, it gets rather crazy and more confusing. The acting by all three women is quite good, and Fraser is terrific in a range of emotions and alcoholism.

RICHMOND SHEPARD

Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts com

Brief notes on the triple bill RELATIVELY SPEAKING:

TALKING CURE by Ethan Cohn: light fare about an aggressive postal worker and his doctor, then,

part 2- his parents at the time of his birth. It’s all over the top— some funny stuff, but not a believable moment in the acting. John Turturro directed.

GEORGE IS DEAD by Elaine May: A virtuoso comic performance by Marlo Thomas as a dingy rich widow, with Lisa Emery as a great foil. I thought Ah- May really knows how to write comedy. The play then seques into a marital drama, and into a real play. It has total believability in all performances by the six actors. Turturro also directed this play.

As the second half of the evening, in HONEYMOON HOTEL Woody Allen throws a truly absurd comedy about a wedding day at us, with a straight face. It is hilarious-- full of incongruities that bring down the house. Directed with sparkling comedic timing by Turturro.

Scenic design by Santo Loquasto, costumes by Donna Zakowska and lighting by Kenneth Posner are all superior.

RICHMOND SHEPARD

Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts com

In FROM BUSK TILL DAWN- The Life of an NYC Street Performer, the highly talented, technically accomplished actor/mime Tim Intravia gives us a totally engaging performance about part of his life-- performing as a silver-painted statue/robot interacting with people, mostly near Times Square, to support himself between legit acting jobs on stage or on television. The skills he displays are unique and exciting, his stories are full of humor as he shifts mood, tone and action as he tells his tales in the one hour show which is well-directed, with perfect timing, by Rebecca Yarsin. It is rare to find a performer as original and as skilled as Intravia, and if you’re lucky, you’ll catch him standing on his box entertaining a crowd, or on stage in a play where the rest of his skills, as displayed in FROM BUSK TILL DAWN, can be enjoyed.

RICHMOND SHEPARD

Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts com