News & Reviews from New York
   

June 20th

Actor/director Chris Clavelli was struck by tragedy ten years ago-- his six year old son, whom he saw as a young reflection of his own youth, died. A LITTLE MORE THAN YOU WANTED TO SPEND is his one man autobiographical play about events and characters in his life. It is an exuberant, dynamic performance as he plays many characters in his family, including a very funny picture of his alcoholic mother, and conflict with his brother. Each character is clearly defined in voice, attitude and physicality, and this well-produced show is enhanced by projections by Luke Norby and soundscape by Michael G. Keck. It is cleanly directed by John Hickok, as Clavelli’s hopes, dreams, conflicts and tragedy unfold. It is clear that Clavelli needed the catharsis of telling this story of his pain and loss, including going to Grief Counseling and Bereavement Counseling, and a touching, brief encounter with a wise Hassidim. It makes for a gripping theatrical evening by a powerful actor with a wide range of talent and ability.

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

In BILLY’S UNSPAKABLE ACTS, Billy the Mime clearly is at the top of his art. He has clean, clear Mime technique in his definition of character and place- as do the best of professional Mimes, but nobody in the world gives us the depth of contemporary Social Satire that he reaches, the laughs he gets from contemporary depravity. His subject matter, including Thomas Jefferson & Sally, Priest & Alter Boy, Whitney Houston’s Last Bath, World War II, 911, a profound History of Art, San Francisco 1979, is stunningly absurd. He finishes with The Clown & The Beautiful Woman (whom he brings out of the audience). It’s the smartest, most brilliant piece of Theatre in town. He is a technical master, and his wild imagination takes us on unimaginable trips filled with both laughs and profundities.

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

Shakespeare’s THE COMEDY OF ERRORS, directed by Daniel Sullivan, now at Shakespeare –in-the-Park, is a hoot. It’s set in New York in the 1940’s, and is filled with the music and Lindy-Hop dancing of the time, with lovely choreography by Mimi Lieber, that gives a contemporary grace to the sharp angular steps of the old dance. The play, which gives us two sets of twins (two masters, both named Antipholus, underplayed by Hamish Linklater, and two servants- both named Dromio, played by the real comic foil in the show, Jesse Tyler Ferguson) is a great setup for misunderstandings, and the cast is mostly first rate, including a terrific Jonathan Hadary, who gives us a character that is both funny and heartfelt, and Skipp Sudduth as The Duke, who plays it like a Mafia Don, Bensonhurst accent and all, articulating Shakespeare’s words quite clearly. Emily Bergl and Heidi Schreck are lively, sharp, and good-lookin’ as two sisters, and it’s a fun-filled evening whose concept is brilliantly expressed and fulfilled by Sullivan as it’s played on John Lee Batty’s sturdy outdoor set. Costumes by Toni-Leslie James give us a sense of the far past plus the contemporary white fedora of today, and the fluidity of now for the dancers. Lots of fun for 90 minutes in a pleasant outdoor setting.

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

   

May 29

I’M A STRANGER HERE MYSELF- Music from the Weimar and Beyond, written and performed by Mark Nadler, directed by David Schweizer at The York Theatre, is a really well produced show with fascinating projections illustrating Nadler’s narrative and songs that bring to life the atmosphere of an era of free artistic, sexual, and personal expression in Germany’s history between WW I and Hitler. With a creatively designed set by James Morgan, Nadler at the piano is flanked by a perfect duo: Franca Vercelloni on accordion and Jessica Tyler Wright on violin, each costumed with style. It’s also an autobiographical trip about Nadler’s personal journey- a man from the Midwest becoming a cabaret performer. With songs by Kurt Weill, Friedrich Hollaender and others strongly performed by the versatile Nadler, it’s an enjoyable trip to an exciting time gone bye, leavened by the destructive tangent Germany took in the ‘30’s.

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

NOTE-- THE FABULOUS BILLY THE MIME WILL BE AT NEW YORK’S MAINSTAGE THEATRE ON JUNE 17TH. HE’S THE BEST.

June 1, 2013

NIKOLAI and the OTHERS by Richard Nelson, directed by David Cromer, starts in total confusion with a lot of Russian people speaking (in English) in Westport, Connecticut, in 1948, and noisily moving props and furniture, talking trivia, eating and clinking silverware on plates as they discuss the upcoming Balanchine dance preparation of “Orpheus”- music by Igor Stravinsky. They’re all there: Stravinsky (John Glover), his wife (Blair Brown), My old Mime teacher Alvin Epstein as set designer Sergey Sudeikin, Michael Cerveris as Ballenchine, - a huge cast. So- there is lots of uninteresting exposition, the intrusion of a Russian musical chorus into the non-events, lots of ballet chit-chat, a stupid breast-feeding story by Stravinsky, and with Stravinsky’s music played, a discussion of the Orpheus dance piece. Somehow, there is also a discussion of the House UnAmerican Committee, and lots of ballet talk. There is a rather nice dance duo by Natalia Alonso and Michael Rosen to Ballenchine’s actual choreography -- a welcome diversion. Here’s the problem: some of the most brilliant people of our time are portrayed on the stage, and the dialogue is uninteresting, without wit or humor, no flair of brilliance, nothing to tickle the minds of the ilk supposedly on the stage. There was also an absence of the gentility of the Russian intelligentsia, and, with the distracting overabundance of stage business, the totality of the play lost me.

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

   
May 10th, 2013

The revival of the musical ANNIE, book by Thomas Mehan, is a great show in all departments: the songs by Charles Strouse and Martin Charnin are memorable; all the singers, including Lilla Crawford in the title role. and Anthony Warlow as Daddy Warbucks are vocally and musically strong; Katie Finneran has a great comedy physicality as the verbally coarse Miss Hannigan; the set by David Korins, which, with simple lines, brilliantly defines bridgescapes, cityscapes streetscapes and indoor scapes; the perfect lighting by Donald Holder that gently slips color in to slip moods, and the period costumes (‘30’s) by Susan Hilferty, all help lift this revival, directed by James Lapine, choreographed by Andy Blankenbuehler, to the highest level of Broadway Musical. All sing well, all dance well-- no one noticed that the show is a bit long, because its entertainment level doesn’t drop. Extra fun for the oldies like me is to see Franklin Delano Roosevelt depicted on the stage by Merwin Foard. We walked out of this fine production smiling.

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

   
May 09th, 2013

Bette Midler’s portrayal of agent Sue Mengers, I’LL EAT YOU LAST, by John Logan, directed by Joe Mantello, is a vivid portrait of a larger than life Hollywood character, performed with a verve and energy that captures us from start to finish. Midler is a great actress, with a sense of timing and nuance stirred into a very large characterization that can remain subtle and broad at the same time. This look through a Hollywood keyhole, filled with the antics of familiar stars and their foibles, has a grip of fascination on an audience thirsty for gossip, and for a glimpse of the shenanigans under the belly of the movie industry. She sits on a couch in her living room, she smokes, she tells us wondrous tales. A primo combo of actress, play, direction and set (by Scott Pask).

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

LUCKY GUY by Nora Ephron, a bio of newspaperman Mike McAlary, who broke the stories of many famous crimes and events, played by Tom Hanks, is a raucous play performed in a presentational style: every sentence is an announcement, punctuated by “Fuck You!” as reporters gather and compete. It’s a rather simplistic unrolling of the events in McAlary’s life, winding down from his successes to illness to a big prize, and a pudding ending. Director George C. Wolfe mostly opts for brash, tough, loud, cynical, with little of the humor I’ve experienced from Ephron. Hanks is a strong persona, and he gets good support from the cast of pros, including Courtney B Vance, Peter Gerety, Christopher McDonald, Maura Tierney and the rest of the large cast. But it didn’t pull me in— I remained an observer of these noisy people, even for the depiction of the awful, exploitative, manipulative scene with Abner Louima’s violation. You want to see Hanks live and in person? Great. You’ll see him loud and clear in LUCKY GUY.

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

   
May 06th, 2013

KINKY BOOTS is a great show. With book by Harvey Fierstein and music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper, this broad romp about shoe manufacturing, directed and choreographed with verve and lots of zip by Jerry Mitchell, is a hoot from start to finish. Let’s make shoes for a small niche. Billy Porter as the lead transvestite fills the theatre with his voice and radiance. Annaleigh Ashford’s performance shows us a comedic gem (and fine singer) in a role that should be a breakthrough into stardom for her. David Rockwell’s imaginative set is nicely lighted by Kenneth Posner, and Gregg Barnes’ fanciful costumes are a delight. The weak link for me is the young leading man, Stark Sands. I have this weird idea that people in a Broadway musical should really be able to sing. Where I got that I don’t know. Sands is good looking, seems very pleasant, his acting is fine, but his singing doesn’t add up to Broadway for me. It’s on a rather level, not very musical, plane. Fierstein’s jokes and a great singing/dancing cast are so much fun that weaknesses faded out, and I had a great time at KINKY BOOTS.

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

ORPHANS by Lyle Kessler is a surreal nightmare. There are two brothers—Orphans. One, Tom Sturridge, shows us a severely retarded man, whose manner of speaking presents an IQ of about 58, and the physicality of a chimpanzee who bounds around the set, jumping from railing to window ledge to couch. The other brother, Ben Foster, a criminal, brings home a drunk, Alec Baldwin, another orphan, planning to rob him. Unfortunately, Foster speaks so rapidly that much of what he is saying is lost or obfuscated and my companion and I (neither of us with much hearing loss in our ears) were kept wondering what was going on. Pinter-Shminter-- enough with the mystery. So captive becomes captor. Uh huh. Baldwin is fine, but when one third of the cast speaks in a blur, Difficile, mon ami. I believe you have two obligations on the stage: first: to communicate; second: to entertain. Director Daniel Sullivan should know this. This production fails the first, and is only entertaining when Sturridge chimps it up.

Pass.

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

THE NANCE, by Douglas Carter Beane, nimbly directed by Jack O’Brien with impeccable timing, and vivid choreography by Joey Pizzi, is a laugh-filled terrific Burlesque show, headed by America’s greatest comedian, Nathan Lane. He plays a gay vaudeville performer doing a gay(Nance) character in 1938. On the terrific set by John Lee Beatty and super costumes by Ann Roth, it’s full of Burlesque sketches old and new. This is the real deal- filled with actual old time routines enhanced and embellished for today’s audience. With a supporting cast of lively comics, including a fine Lewis J. Stadlin, and Cady Huffman, the material bounces, the actors bounce, and so does the audience. A good time was had by all.

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

COCKTALES (confessions of a Nymphomaniac) by Tjasa Ferme is a wild and crazy Performance Art romp starring Ferme in which she outlines her sexual history-- a journey from Virgin to Gang Bang. It is raw, funny, and totally entertaining. The dynamic Michelle Cox plays her psychiatrist/confessor, and four versatile men, Akash Bhasin, Scott Freeman, Andrew Arena and Rumando Kelley tell life stories as other women, sing, and are good comic foils. Kelley is good looking, has a great body, is a good actor and is loaded with charm— other than that he’s got nothing going for him. Accompanied by live music by Paul LaPlaca, with inspired direction with absurd innovation by Kira Simring, the sexy Ferme and her show will keep you laughing during it, and smiling afterwards.

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

I never saw PIPPIN (book by Roger O. Hirson, music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz) before, and was delighted to find it to be a thrilling, circus and vaudeville spectacular filled with stylized silliness, lively gymnastics and acrobatics, sparkling original costumes (by Dominique Lemieux) and strong performances by the entire terrific cast. It’s sort of about Charlemagne (a powerful Terrence Mann), the king of France, and who will succeed him— perhaps his son Pippin (the really cute, warm, sensitive Matthew James Thomas). Four great women dominate the show: Patina Miller- the powerful interlocutor; Andrea Martin, a great singer, as the king’s grandmother does a number that stops the show; Charlotte d’Amboise, a great dancer, as Pippin’s stepmother, thrills us with a sensual dance, and Rachel Bay Jones, a fine comedienne with an edge, tickles us as Pippin’s love. On Scott Pask’s set, a circus tent with aerial rigging, director Dianne Paulus and choreographer Chet Walker, with circus creation by Gypsy Snider, dazzle us with their imaginative action-packed fol-de-rol, which breaks The Fourth Wall, and includes us in the fun. And great fun it is—some of the best in town.

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

The current revival of Horton Foote’s wonderful play THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL is a beautiful rendering of the work in all departments. The story of an irrepressible old woman (Cicely Tyson in a powerful, nuanced performance) who wants to see her ancestral home one more time, contrary to the wishes of her staid son (Cuba Gooding Jr) and his shrewish wife (Vanessa Williams), is sensitively directed by Michael Wilson, who allows Foote’s words to flow with a natural grace. In Jeff Cowie’s sets, indoors and outdoors, each expresses character as well as setting, with mood-creating lighting by Rui Rita enhancing each. All members of the excellent cast, including Condola Rashad, Tom Wopat, Devon Abner, and Arthur French, bring real, believable people to the stage, and there is a human glow to the whole play. We have visited a part of America, and it stirs an empathy in us. THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL is fine Theatre from one of this country’s greatest writers, played by all involved in a way that moves us and touches our souls.

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

While the musical MATILDA, book by Dennis Kelly, music and lyrics by Tim Minchin, directed by Matthew Warchus, has lots of theatrical flashes and pyrotechnics in it, and a cute as a button leading girl, Oona Laurence, as the smart girl surrounded by fools, it is an overly long, loud, raucous poorly-constructed play, filled, mostly, with caricatures rather than characters. In Act One, we meet the over-the-top parents (the brash Lesli Margherita and the physically agile Gabrial Ebert). We virtually lose them in Act Two, except for a terrific pre-curtain by Ebert. Same with Phillip Spaeth as a slippery snake of a dancer, Rudolpho. Gone. While some of the melodies are memorable, like “When I Grow Up” and “My House,” it’s an English cast, and there are probably interesting lyrics, but they are lost in an accent blur. Matilda’s story is lavishly costumed by Rob Howell whose active sets are full of creative imagination. Lauren Ward, a lovely singer and fine actress, shines as the schoolteacher. Bertie Carvell, in drag, does an amusing turn as the dragon of a headmistress. Choreography by Peter Darling is crisp and angular, and full of energetic pizzazz. But at almost three hours, it’s really not for kids (nor for me).

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

I like Colm Torbin’s play THE TESTAMENT OF MARY, which has a contemporary Mary reminiscing about the death of her son, Jesus, two thousand years ago. But the evening starts by assaulting us with a disorientating, irritating soundscape that drones on for fifteen minutes as we walk up onto the stage and look at props, a live bird, and the actress Fiona Shaw in a glass booth preparing. As directed by Deborah Warner, Ms Shaw gives us a very strong, active, but quite masculine performance of a woman I had thought of as warm, feminine, maternal. Early on, while mostly emotionally sound, her phrasing is off-putting as she speaks in short clips of two or three words at a time. I’d like to see another actress do the part using the same words in complete sentences. The performance grows, and becomes full of sturm and drang, which pushes us away, where a simple statement about the frightful events would have pulled us in. On the crown of thorns depiction, she sang it. The facts, Ma’m, would give us more empathy than the scenery chewing we were subjected to as blood ran down his arms. Then there is a monotonal recitation of the body on the cross. Then she strips and plunges into water-- I felt it all to be a self-indulgent performance. But over-the-top can fool some people into thinking they saw good acting.

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

   
April 30th, 2013

The rendition of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s CINDERELLA now running on Broadway is a great show with fun tangents to the original story by book writer Douglas Cater Beane and spectacular, imaginative, active sets by Anna Louizos, beautifully lighted by Kenneth Posner, with wild splashes of costume by William Ivey Long. Choreographer Josh Rhodes keeps things jumping, director Mark Brokaw times the action perfectly. All cast members are terrific singers (as they should be on Broadway); the leads, Laura Osnas and Santino Fontana, are just right: good voices, good looks and charm, Victoria Clark is a delightful Fairy Godmother, and with its totally excellent cast and memorable songs, this is one of the best musicals in town. At two and a half hours, it’s a tad long for kids under the mid teens, but for the grownups, it’s a marvelous experience of Musical Theatre at its best.

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

JEKYLL & HYDE, book and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse, music by Frank Wildhorn, is LOUD. It starts off with a deafening blast of sound, leading man Constantine Maroulis howls and yowls his songs as he overacts, unrestrained by director/choreographer Jeff Calhoun. The songs aren’t particularly memorable, so, as we say in Show Business, “we walk out whistling the scenery,” (which Tobin Ost has designed with a wonderful contemporary sense of abstraction.) Deborah Cox and Teal Wicks are quite fine as J/H’s women, and so are the rest of the cast. Sorry.

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

Congratulations to Jessie Eisenberg-- The kid is workin’—somehow he got Vanessa Redgrave to co-star with him in his play THE REVSIONIST, about a young man who visits his old Polish cousin, a holocaust survivor. Redgrave gives a strong, moving, many-layered performance; Eisenberg gives us a rapid-fire nervous portrayal of a writer under pressure whose snappy delivery obscures some of his words. Daniel Oreskes is fine as a handy handyman. As a writer, Eisenberg has a sensibility and a sense of humor, as well as the ability to tell a brutal holocaust story, and director Kip Fagan has directed with clarity on John McDermott’s three room set, which he somehow has fitted onto the small stage at The Cherry Lane. It should move to Broadway- give a larger audience the chance to see one of our finest actresses in a fascinating portrayal in an interesting play.

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

   
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