| News & Reviews from New York | |
April
30th, 2012
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April
27th, 2012
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| April
12th, 2012
THE MORINI
STRAD by Willy Holtzman is an odd evening of Theatre. The audience the
night I saw it was full of white-haired music lovers, who, because of
the subject matter, filled the theatre. We all expected that there would
be lots of good music played. Alas, the magical violin-playing of Hanah
Stuart, isn’t 10% of the play. It’s about a very old former
violin prodigy (a totally convincing Mary Beth Peil whose depth of feeling
fills the theatre) who owns a Stradivarius violin that needs repair so
she can sell it, and a young man (a rather flat Michael Laurence who seems
to recite all of his lines) who is a violin maker and repairer. It has
a rather uninteresting beginning full of unenlightening conversation directed
at a snail’s pace by Casey Childs. The boredom is interrupted by
the very occasional lovely, tasteful, Ms Stuart’s wonderful violin
playing— as a flashback to the old woman’s past. There is a
conflagration about Art near the end of Act one, and Mr. Lawrence begins
to open up, and is fine from there on. There is lots of exposition about
the career, etc., of Ms Peil’s life as a concert violinist. The Play
is well-produced, with Neil Patel’s fine set, M.L. Geiger’s
lighting, and terrific projections by Jan Hartley which expand the playing
area beautifully, and the pace and action pick up as the play unwinds.
After the play, Ms Stuart gave us a short violin concert, and I must say
that she, in the play and after it, was the most exciting part of the
evening. The great jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker once said to a friend
of mine “The first thing a saxophone player has to be able to do
is-- make a pretty sound.” Hana Stuart makes a pretty sound—
clean, clear, beautiful, thrilling. Richmond Shepard— Performing Arts INSIER and lively-arts.com
I’m going to say some negative things about END OF THE RAINBOW, Peter Quilter’s play about Judy Garland’s last years. But bear this in mind-- Tracie Bennett who plays Garland, is a great singer, actress, dancer and athlete, and, when she is singing (which takes a while to get to), she rocks the house with both her voice and her performance, which captures nuances of Garland, and gives us a geschrei from deep inside her agonized soul. In Act 2 her athleticism approaches Cirque dimensions. Her singing gives us a great performance that will win Ms Bennett a Tony nomination, and probably The Tony. We were not amused at all by the slow opening of the show, and the annoying over-written characterization. As Bette Davis might have said, “What a bitch!” -- until she began to sing. There is a poorly-written piece about pills— should she take some or not, and an annoyingly repetitive drunk scene as she fights to destroy herself. But as the rest of us know, you can’t argue with a drunk while they are drunk. This out of control addict should have been hospitalized— her overwritten scenes of self-destruction, in which she displays her illness- redundantly- gets tiring. But she gives a hellova performance. She has two co-stars: a terrific Michael Cumpsty in an in-depth performance as her gay piano accompanist, and a rather flat (but good-looking) Tom Pelphrey as her fiancé/manager. Strongly directed and staged by Terry Johnson, with a magnificent flexible, stylized set by William Dudley who also designed the splendid costumes, and fine lighting by Christopher Akerlind, you need patience to get to the good part, but it’s there-- in Bennett’s performance— physical as well as vocal.
Richmond Shepard— Performing Arts INSIER and lively-arts.com |
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| April
09th, 2012
Most painters fit into one genre or another. Occasionally there is one who, in a way, creates his own genre— like Jackson Pollack or Mark Rothko. Nicholas Wolfson is another with his recent tangent away from his realistic work into what I call his “Grotesques,” in which he paints surreal images of politicians with gleaming fangs. Wolfson is a consummate draftsman, and whatever he paints is clean, clear, and vivid. His “American Taliban,” with a fanged man sitting on his porch with a rifle and an American flag behind him is a brilliant political statement as well as a superb painting. Google him— look at his drawings and other paintings too. This is an artist who is a master of his craft, and, at times, his weird imagination will take you on a trip into a fantastical world.
Richmond Shepard— lively-arts.com |
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| April
06th, 2012
I’m sorry my review is late—I know it would have saved the show. I loved it. Richmond
CARRIE, based on a novel by Stephen King, with book by Lawrence D. Cohen, and memorable music by Michael Gore and lyrics by Dean Pitchford, is a Broadway level show in all departments including acting, singing (led by the amazing Marin Mazzie as the religious nut mother and a scintillatingly sensitive Molly Ranson as Carrie). The entire cast are all first rate singers in this gripping, fascinating musical (even though, due to the movie, we know how it will end). The spectacular special effects by Matthew Holtzclaw are as good they get-- the guy is brilliant to accomplish what he does in this small theatre. This show, about teenage cruelty and the righteous retribution by the put-upon girl who has special powers, directed with snap and dynamic panache by Stafford Arima, is first class entertainment, and belongs on Broadway with this same top-notch cast. Set by David Zinn and lighting by Kevin Adams are appropriate and perfect for the production, as is the choreography by Matt Williams. The fact that it is closing proves the old Show Business adage: Nobody knows anything!
Richmond Shepard— Performing Arts INSIER and lively-arts.com
Rich Orloff is a very funny writer, and his HA!, now at the Jewel Box Theater on W. 36th St., gives us a very entertaining evening of Theatre-- three stylistically different comedic ventures. The first, “Oedi,” is a straight-out farce mocking the Oedipus legend, full of laughs, with an absurdist flair, including a hilarious Gerianne Raphael as Oedipus’s Jewish mother/wife. Oedipus- schmedipus--as long as he loves his mother. The second, “The News from St. Petersburg,” is gently mocking Humor—it is 1905, and aristocrats and their servants receive news that there was a march on the Palace, and the Czar has been deposed, changing the way the servants relate to their masters. Of course, the rumor is twelve years early, and as it unwinds, a kind of reality arrives. The third, “The Whole Shebang,” gives us God, who, for his final graduation project, has created Earth and its Beings. His successes and failures are recounted. This take-off has no boundaries as it satirizes Everything. The entire talented cast, playing different parts in each play, is terrific--including Evan Thompson, Jarel Davidow, Mike Smith Rivera, Anne Fizzard and Raphael. Ric Sechrest has directed with zip and great comic timing, and all other departments do a fine job in this evening filled with laughs, chuckles, and an occasional guffaw.
Richmond Shepard— Performing Arts INSIER and lively-arts.com |
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| March
15th, 2012
Dustin Hoffman is one of the greatest actors of our time (“Tootsie”, “Rainman”), so I watched an episode of his HBO horseracing series LUCK. Aside from being badly overacted, poorly directed, with an ugly, intrusive music track, uninteresting writing and poor cinematography which is quirky and pseudo-artistic, and sporadically bad lighting that obscures action and attitude, it’s terrific. And you get to see an older, fatter Dustin and a gruffly, embarrassingly awful, caricature by Nick Nolte, in a turkey. Performances (except for Jill Hennessy), are mostly caricatures of sub-human people. I think they’re trying to be “gritty.” Change the first two letters of that word, and you’ll have what they achieved.
Richmond Shepard— lively-arts.com |
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| March
09th, 2012
According to written material, Summation Dance’s DEEP END is inspired by conflicts, frustrations and aspirations in New York City. But this Modern Dance piece, beautifully choreographed by Sumi Clements, is not literal-- not Mime. No matter what its literal provocation was, what inspired it, DEEP END is an engrossing abstract work using Martha Graham-based physicality (contractions, floor work) with precise movement synchronization perfectly performed by ten graceful, well-trained women. The torso-impulse movements flipping through the bodies of these lithe, graceful dancers gives us a fascinating jingle-jangle of coordinated bodies in contrapuntal patterns, which at times can be still as stone, and then they fly. The only actual reference to NYC is the voice of Mario Cuomo and a short burst of sounds of the city about two thirds through the dance piece. Lighting by Simon Cleveland is perfect— sensitive highlighting and revealing of the movements; costumes by Brigitte Vosse allow for the most active movement, and yet remain feminine; the soundscape by Kyle Olson lifts and floats the dancers. This is a terrific Modern Dance company with imagination and flair. Long may they wave!
Richmond Shepard— Performing Arts INSIER and lively-arts.com |
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