Claybourne Park Extended until August 12th

Claybourne Park was just extended through August 12th.  This is an amazing show.  My review is here (LINK).
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Buy the play here...

Linda Lavin: Nominated for The Lyons

I went to watch The Lyons last week.  I wanted to see it because Linda Lavin was nominated for Best Featured Role for an Actress in a Play, and I hadn't had the chance to see it before.  Let me say, Linda Lavin deserves that nomination.

Michael Esper, Dick Latessa, Linda Lavin and Kate Jennings Grant - the Lyons family

Ms Lavin is dominating in The Lyons.  And, as an actress, pretty fearless.  Most insensitive lead characters have a mitigating trait later on in the show.  Something, or someone, had caused the caustic demeanor of the character.  Linda Lavin's role as the matriarch of the Lyons family has no such contributing quality. She is a caustic character, and Linda Lavin makes her believable. She is hilarious, providing of course, she isn't your mother.
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Ultimately there was something very refreshing about such a character.  Admittedly, I do have a weak spot for black comedies, and this is the blackest of comedies.  If it sounds remotely interesting to you, see this show.  It is worth it, and is unlike most shows out there.  I do admit, The Lyons is my first Nicky Silver show, and I think it might be very representative of his work.
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Website

Title and Deed: Its Charms Escaped Me

Title and Deed at the Signature Theater is a show which I did not like, although I admire the actor who did a fine job with the material, Connor Lovett.  It could easily be that I just didn’t understand the show, which was very much in the Samuel Beckett tradition.

Title and Deed is a simple one-man show, a monologue delivered to the audience from a visitor from another country.  That non-descript country is definitely not Ireland – despite the Irish accent.  Making the country unidentifiable seems to be a decision designed to remove every possibility of identifying with this person.  Care is taken to make this character abstractly and totally foreign to the audience.  His voice is quiet, his cadence is labored, and the laughs he engenders early in the show are met with an uncomfortable flash that he might have said the wrong thing.

Conner Lovett plays a visitor in Title and Deed

Mr. Lovett’s mannerisms are designed to reinforce a message that every man is traveling far from home – each is alone, even when surrounded by people.  It worked a bit too well for much of the audience, who felt so removed from Mr. Lovett that many were not invested in the outcome.

The character is definitely a fish out of water.  He finds the simplest interactions beyond his grasp, and struggles trying to connect with a woman he admires.   Some might be entranced with the lilt, and the character’s rambling story.  Faced with a passive character that was very difficult to relate to, most of the audience disengaged from the story long before the end of the show.

Charles Isherwood of the New York Times, a man I admire greatly, “got” the show and has a wonderful glowing review.  I am linking it here because I think I missed the point of the show - and he loved it. (NY Times Review)

The amazing acoustics in the smallest of the Frank Gehery designed theaters worked both for and against Mr. Lovett.  His voice reached every viewer, even in his quiet and gentle asides.  However, the audience members’ every twitch, rustle of program and sigh was also heard.  And despite the desire of the audience to enjoy the show, you could hear and feel the audience slip away.

I think the show was acted and directed appropriate to the material; it just wasn’t a show I enjoyed.

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Tile and Deed at The Signature Theater

Playwright: Will Eno

Director: Judy Hegarty Lovett

Cast: Conner Lovett

Website

The Good and Bad of My Reviewing Style

People have said, how did you get into / what was your background?  Well, I got into when someone  who read a few blurbs I wrote on Nincompoopery asked me to review a show ( http://www.scooterm.blogspot.com/ ).  So, short answer, pure luck!  I have a good voice of the average person.
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Yet... with my background, comes the lack of training in Theater.  The good and the bad sides of it.  today both happened to be displayed to me in the pages of the NY Times.
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The bad - I don't get some stuff...
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Today's NY Times Review has a review of Title and Deed from Charles Isherwood (whom I admire greatly).  I really disliked Title and Deed.  I mean really.  And I wasn't alone, nearly all of  the audience was annoyed.  But Mr. Isherwood drew the parallels to Beckett (and in a sensible way).  He makes the play sound like something I would love to see.  He brings a background I don't have.
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And the good?  I'm not a pretentious twit.
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Today's NY Times has a piece of claptrap (on the Front Page no less!) by the other critic, Ben Bratley.  He was complaining that Broadway Tourists give too many Standing Ovations.  In it he suggests, by turns, that the tourists that visit Broadway give the ovations:
- to try to head for the exits quickly
- because they are cheap and a standing ovation makes them feel like they got their money's worth
- because they can't see the stage otherwise
- or because that horrible show Newsies won't stop dancing until people stand
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Aside - Let's just admit for a moment that the depth of his hatred of Newsies is so profound he can't blow his nose without trashing it.  If we all tattoo across our foreheads "Ben Bratley Hates Newsies" will he shut the hell up about it?  Just a question.
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He contrasts this sheepish behavior of the unwashed versus the rarefied air of the true enthusiasts of the Theater that attended the Enocre! series where (and I quote)

I should point out that among audiences for musicals, those who attend the Encores! productions are probably the most sophisticated and discriminating in town. Many of them know the history, in detail, of the show they’re seeing and the resumes of those appearing in it. But can't we all. please, strive to be a little more like them?

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More annoying words have been writen, but not by me.  And that, is the good of not having a theatre background (with an -re)

London Transfer "Cock", Is a Great Play

The new show at The Duke Theater on 42^nd Street, Cock, is amazing.  At the risk of oversetting expectations, it is a great show - funny and thoughtful.  

The play is self-described in the following way:

 “When John and his boyfriend take a break, the last thing he expects is to suddenly meet the woman of his dreams. Now he has a big choice to make. Don't miss the American premiere of COCK, the gripping new play by Mike Bartlett. James Macdonald (Top Girls, Dying City) directs this Olivier Award-winning production from The Royal Court Theatre”

It is an interesting premise and it explores not just sexuality, but what the impact is on those you are involved with. Cory Michael Smith does a stupendous job as “John”, the young man at the center of this story.  John is a charming mess of a person, unable to commit to anything, even being bi-sexual.  The story starts with John’s gay relationship.  The couple seems reasonably well adjusted, with cute, sit-com mannerisms that usually demark “quirky” rather than a flawed relationship.  But John does find it flawed, and the relationship ends. When it picks up again, John admits to having sex with a woman.

Jason Butler Harner, Amanda Quaid & Cory Michael Smith in Cock

The action then transfers to the relationship between John and the woman.  How they meet, how they have sex, and what comes next.

John’s lovers are played by Jason Butler Harner, the Man and Amanda Quaid, the Woman.  Mr. Harner plays the Man as a very together gay man, quick witted, funny and self-assured.  All of that is proven to be false bravado when John returns, after being with a woman.  Anger and self-doubt begin to drive him after John’s transgressions.  As for Amanda Quaid, she is very good, while stuck with a difficult role.  Wanting to change a gay man is a common theme, but what happens when you get one – and he is still gay.

The fourth cast member is Cotter Smith - who plays the role excellently, but I don’t want to spill too much of the story – so you have to take my word for it.

James MacDonald stages this intimate play in a exceedingly intimate venue.  The Duke has been transformed into a steeply stepped theater in the round.  The audience watches Cock as one would watch an actual cockfight; when you look away from the action for a moment, you are facing other theatergoers in a voyeuristic experience.  It serves the playwright, Mike Bartlett’s, words wonderfully.

Cock is in for a limited run at The Duke, do not miss it.

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Jason Butler Harner & Cory Michael Smith

Cock @ The Duke Theater

Playwright: Mike Bartlett

Director: James Macdonald

Cast: Jason Butler Harner, Amanda Quaid, Cory Michael Smith, Cotter Smith

Website

Currently Running: Peter and the Star Catcher

I didn’t review Peter and the Star Catcher when it was first released, but I have seen the show since – last week in fact.  It doesn’t make a lot of sense to do a full review now, but I did want to give my impressions of the show.  I went to see it because I had heard great things about it – and it is nominated for a number of Tonys.  I wanted to see most of the nominated shows before the awards ceremonies.  I think it will be fun to know more before rooting for my favorites (and trashing the rest J).

Pirate Black Stache (Christian Borle) taunts Lord Astor - Molly's father (Rick Holmes)

I am sharing my feedback – not as a review, just as notes.  But the short answer is the show is great and I highly recommend it.

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Peter and the Star Catcher is, at its most basic, might be said to be the back-story of Peter Pan.  The play relates the tall-tale of three orphans (the lost boys), pirates, shipwrecks, Queen Victoria and “star stuff”, catalyst for dreams.  It is told in a beautifully simplistic way, with more imagination that most shows on Broadway ever use.  Ropes are used to define rooms, show waves and point the way forward.  Instead of a full scale fight between ships, Pirate Black Stache moves a model boat among the waves.

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Celia Keenan-Bolger (right) and an
amazing Arnie Burton

This works for two reasons.  First, it is children’s tale, where imagination makes sense.  It seems like an elaborate bedtime story.  The staging and storytelling works perfectly in this sense.   The second reason this show works is the energy and commitment of the players.  The show garnered nominations for best featured actor and actress in a play.

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 Nominated Christian Borle plays Black Stache, as well as other roles.  In the role of Pirate Black Stache, he is manically over the top – perfect for the role.  Nominated Celia Keenan-Bolger plays Molly, daughter of the Captain of Her Majesty’s Ship and Star Catcher in training.   The entire cast works together beautifully.  A salute also has to go out to Adam Chanler-Berat – who plays Boy / Peter.  I saw him (a lot) in Next to Normal, and I wasn’t sure he would work in this role.  I was wrong, he is magical as Peter. Go see this show - it is appropriate for kids, but wonderful for adults.

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It was just announced that Peter and the Star Catcher will go on tour, starting in Denver in August of 2013.

Peter and the Star Catcher Website 

The Innocence Charms of The Wundelsteipen

The second of The Flea’s trio of new plays is The Wundelsteipen, by Nick Jones.  The full title is actually The Wundelsteipen (and Other Difficult Roles For Young People) and refers to setup for the show.  The piece is a number of short plays, as performed by young people at acting summer camp.  It is a device that allows any number of inappropriate choices to be made, and they all seem to work.  Having “young people” create these characters brings them to life with less self-conciseness than an “adult” would bring.  An adult couldn’t very well come into a story about why God would bring a baby to Heaven, and treat it as a comedy.  And, having The Bats (the Flea’s resident players) play “children” allows the audience to laugh the actors in a way that we could not, if they were actually youngsters.

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The seven mini-plays range from pitch perfect (and entirely inappropriate) to just okay, but the actors to a great job with all of them.

Briana Pozner (the Wundelsteipen herself) and Alex Herrald

My favorite of the various plays, in both writing and acting, was Alex Herrald and Tommy Crawford in The Wundelsteipen.  In this piece two brothers, hip deep in puberty and internet porn, make a wish and are rewarded with a visit from the sex fairy.  But the sex-fairy has changed a lot in an age where Playboy magazine is quaint and would hardly be rated PG-13.  Briana Pozner is a fairy, who’s payment for wishes has changed with the times.  It is inappropriate on a million levels, and hilarious.

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Tommy Crawford (standing) and
Dominic Spillane (Caligula - in repose)

Tommy Crawford played a slave opposite Dominic Spillane as Caligula in Caligula In The Morning.  It was all about the trials and tribulations of trying to wake up an Emperor that just doesn’t want to get out of bed.  It is an aspect of Caligula that only a young person would be fascinated by.  It was great.

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The direction, by Tom Costello, kept the cast and audience in the moment excellently.  The show never grew past the idea of a bunch of young people putting this together, and it wouldn’t have worked if it did.

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All of the players participated in the story Everybaby – the story of a young baby summoned by God to Heaven to atone for his sins.  The child (played with wide eyed innocence by Donaldo Prescod) doesn’t understand the idea of original sin, or why he can’t get his playmates to go with him.  Everybaby is a perfect example of a story that reads differently when played by children, rather than adults -  where someone might have really lost a child.

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Not all the pieces worked for me.  College Romance and Salome both seemed like SNL sketches that went on too long.  But the others were very good.  The Wundelsteipen … was a very funny time at the Flea.

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The Wundelsteipen (and Other Difficult Roles for Young People) @ The Flea Theater

Playwright: Nick Jones

Director: Tom Costello

Cast: Maren Langdon, Donaldo Prescod, Dominic Spillane, Tommy Crawford, Hannah Corrigan, Eric Folks, Alex Herrald, Briana Pozner

Website