Kiss Me Kate is Revived Right

I was skeptical about a revival of Kiss Me Kate. It is a fairly sexist show based on a very sexist play. It probably did not seem sexist or questionable when first performed. Both Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew and Porter’s Kiss Me Kate are classics, but they are problematic in their treatment of women. Somehow director Scott Ellis has put together a fun, massively entertaining, high spirited show that manages to avoid the stereotypes that inhabit both pieces. This Kiss Me Kate glides effortlessly through and around the problems, while preserving the energy and excitement of the original. 

The company gets Too Darn Hot

The plot of the show is a device to hang some magical Cole Porter songs on. A theater is putting on Taming of the Shrew. The show within a show stars Lilli Vanessi (Kelli O’Hara) and Fred Graham (Will Chase) a formerly married couple. They are still in love - which is obvious to the audience, if not the couple involved. The secondary couple in Shrew, Bianca and Lucentino are played by Lois (Stephanie Styles) and Bill (Corbin Blue), a couple who are dating and still in the discovery phase.

Kelli O’Hara’s voice is enthralling, and she is given full voice in most of the numbers. This brings new heartbreak to So In Love and an adult’s hesitancy to I Hate Men. Will Chase is no match for her voice-wise, no one is, and instead brings an adult perspective and weariness to his numbers Where Is The Life That Late I Led and So In Love.

If that were all that was great here, I could highly recommend Kiss Me Kate, but this revival shines far beyond these two. The ensemble numbers stand out with amazing voices and dancing. Adrienne Walker steals Another Op’nin’, Another Show and James T. Lane leads the ensemble in bringing the audience to their feet in Too Darn Hot.

Corbin Blue, more mature than you might remember, tears up the floor, the stairs, the railings and a ceiling dancing and tapping through Bianca. And Stephanie Styles blazes through Always True to You in My Fashion with a lot of stage business to cover the rather mercurial morals of the song. Only Brush Up on Your Shakespeare falls a little flat, and only due to repeated repetition. 

Corbin Blue tears it up

 

Amanda Green is credited with the additional material, and her material turns the show from a relic that one is a bit embarrassed to enjoy, into a flat out fun study of the growth of love in both sexes. Admirably directed by Scott Ellis, who has experience with revivals like She Loves Me and You Can’t Take It With You, this production playfully pulls you in.

Kiss Me Kate

Music and Lyrics: Cole Porter | Book: Sam and Bella Spewack | Additional Material: Amada Green | Director: Scott Ellis | Cast: Kelli O’Hara, Will Chase, Corbin Blue, Stephanie Styles, Adrienne Walker, James T. Lane, John Pankow, Terence Archie, Mel Johnson Jr., Lance Coadie Williams

website 

Kelli O'Hara and Will Chase ignoring each other

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A Fantasia of Balkan Awaking (Gay Division)

What is the best way to present a tale of gay liberation in a very conservative society? If you want to reach a wide audience, and have them listen, then make it entertaining. The theater company Quendra Multimedia has done just that with 55 Shades of Gay: Balkan Spring of Sexual Revolution.

55 Shades is set in Kosovo, a small and struggling country, where European Union money comes with an expectation of European values. In a small town, Italian aid money supports the building of a new condom factory that will provide much needed jobs for the population. An Italian working on the project has fallen in love with a local Kosovan man and requests permission for marriage. The problem, they are both men in a deeply homophobic town and country.

The request for marriage sets off a furious search for some reason, any reason, to outlaw it. But the town mayor and then the country’s Prime Minister realize that the Constitution, created by the EU and signed to stop the war of independence from Serbia, includes a clause that allows marriage between couples of the same gender. 

To explore that frustration of the locals, the plays produces a series of vignettes, songs and media displays trying to distract the Italian from marrying the local man. That frustration is not reserved for the gay couple, but spreads to the European Union representatives that try to impose their values, the bourgeois artists that back the family laws of heterosexuality, and the Catholic and Muslim churches, finally united in opposition to something.

55 Shades is presented primarily in English with some Albanian and with English dialog is projected on the rear wall during the show. The 5 players are frenetic and focused, bringing a sense of energy and playfulness that softens the possible hard edges of the show. It is billed as a contemporary burlesque and uses the variety format to skewer the bigotry of the locals, the smugness of the EU and the stubbornness of everyone involved.

But first and foremost, the company knows this show has to entertain, and 55 Shades does a great job of it. The pace is fast and quick. Some of the techniques hit their mark excellently, like the tree outside the mayor’s office which listens on the proceedings and a few others don’t. But the play more often takes flight than not. It is definitely not a piece for those that like their shows deliberate and linear. But if you are looking for a flight of fun and expression of freedom, 55 Shades of Gay: Balkan Spring of Sexual Revolution provides that.

55 Shades of Gay: Balkan Spring of Sexual Revolution

Playwright: Jeton Neziraj | Director: Blerta Neziraj | Cast: Tristan Halilaj, Bujar Ahmeti, Shegyl Ismaili, Semira Latifi, Alketa Sylaj and Luan Durmishi (vocals)

website

Superhero Fades in the Stretch

Superhero, premiering at the 2^nd Stage Theater, with a book by John Logan and music & lyrics by Tom Kitt (composer of Next to Normal) promises a heady ride. And the show starts off fast and interesting, before getting lost. The second half meanders around a bit before just running out of ideas. It is too bad because there is some amazing singing by Kate Baldwin and (one of my personal favorites) Bryce Pinkham. The debut of Kyle McArthur also starts out strong, before winding down.

Superhero is the story of a 15 young man – Simon (Kyle McArthur) trying to pull his high school life together after the death of his father and the remoteness of his mother (Kate Baldwin).  They have moved to a new city, generic high-rises and problems, where Simon attends school. Whenever he can he draws. He draws superheroes in comic stories that take off on the stage, an interesting idea that is used well early on. 

Kyle McArthur as Simon, in Superhero

Simon sleep-walks through life, looking up only to see the cute environmental activist at school (Salena Qureshi) and his comics. Until ... he happens to see his neighbor flatten a fire hydrant with a single punch. The elusive neighbor, Joe (Bryce Pinkham) might really be a superhero. After Joe gets closer by dating mom and befriending Simon, Joe admits (to Simon only) that he is a real Superhero. Sent from another planet to protect people of earth, when he can. We see Joe use super strength, and we see him bolt out on a beam of light.

Is Joe a sad, pathetically lonely man spinning stories to make friends? Is Joe mentally ill? Is Joe really a superhero?  Oddly, those questions don’t seem to matter in the story. Joe is ultimately unable to be there for Simon and mom because either, a) the demands on a superhero are constant or, b) he is too emotionally damaged to be physically available.

In any event, Joe flakes on being there for Simon and mom. He moves out of the city, and Simon and mom move on with their lives.  It isn’t much of a story for over 2 hours of theater. This is surprising because writer John Logan was the Tony winning writer of Red, and the screenwriter of Skyfall, Hugo and a host of other great stories. Superhero could use a rewrite, or use some deep trims. 

Kate Baldwin and Bryce Pinkham

The songs from the wonderful Tom Kitt are not wonderful. Kate Baldwin and Bryce Pinkham lend their amazing voices, but still can’t give most of these songs flight. A fantastic writer and fantastic composer have collaborated to give us a superhero story that is flat and boring.

I enjoyed Superhero, because listening to Kate Baldwin and Bryce Pinkham sing live, even not the best songs, is a thrill for me. But I cannot recommend it to others. The rewards are few, and spread out over a too long, too dull play.

SuperHero

Book: John Logan, Music & Lyrics: Tom Kitt | Director: Jason Moore | Cast: Julia Abueva, Kate Baldwin, Jake Levy, Kyle McArthur, Bryce Pinkham, Salena Qureshi, Thom Sesma, Nathaniel Stampley

All of the Words, None of the Tension

The Mint Theater Company produces some of the best early 20^th century plays ever. They stage lost plays that bring a new sensibility to today’s questions and morals. Usually. The Price of Thomas Scott, the Mint’s latest production, is a disappointment. The show is well-acted, beautifully staged and terribly predictable.

Tracy Swallows, Donald Corren and Emma Geer in The Price of Thomas Scott

The story is told through the eyes of Mr. Scott’s daughter, Annie Scott. She and her brother open the show hoping for a better life, but one they know that they cannot afford. The son, Leonard, has an opportunity for a scholarship, but he cannot afford the other costs of education. Annie longs to go to Paris to study fashion instead of just decorate hats for the puritanical women at home.

Thomas Scott, the father, would love to sell his little shop and move to the country with his wife. All of their prayers seem answered when and old acquaintance, Wicksteed, comes by with a handsome offer for the little shop. The offer is much more than the property is worth as a drapery, where the family works with hats and fabrics. But Wicksteed is purchasing for a concern that has dancing halls, and dancing is very much against Mr. Scott’s religion.

After a bit of give and take, Mr. Scott takes the offer. But he is uneasy. A few scenes later he turns down the offer. And that is the end of the show.

The Price of Thomas Scott is a quick turn, and again the acting is great. Director Jonathan Bank does a great job with the material. But the show doesn’t connect and there is a complete lack of tension. I wish it were different.

The Price of Thomas Scott 

Playwright: Elizabeth Baker | Director: Jonathan Bank | Cast: Donald Corren, Andrew Fallaize, Emma Geer, Josh Goulding, Mitch Greenberg, Nick LaMedica, Jay Russell, Tracy Swallows, Mark Kenneth Smaltz, Ayana Workman, Arielle Yoder

The Waiting Game Brings a Bit of the Fringe to New York

The Waiting Game now at 59 E 59 Theater is direct from an award-winning run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival as Best Overseas Play. It is very much a Fringe play in that it is quickly paced, intelligent and demands a bit from an audience. When given its due, The Waiting Game is a rewarding and excellent piece of theater.

The Waiting Game explores how we hold on to people and experiences, and how we must proactively act to let them go. The story revolves around Paulo (a terrific Marc Sinoway). Paulo’s husband, Sam, lies in a coma in the hospital, brain dead, but his heart still beating a year after an overdose. Paulo is in a relationship of sorts with Tyler (Julian Joseph in a heartbreaking role). Tyler provides Paulo with companionship and sex while demanding very little in return. Paulo has trouble supplying even the little emotional support Tyler needs.

L-R: Marc Sinoway, Joshua Bouchard in THE WAITING GAME. Photo by Carol Rosegg

Paulo also must deal with Geoff (Joshua Bouchard), who was in a healthy relationship with Sam for at least a year before the overdose. Geoff believes that Sam was ready to leave Paulo and live with him, had the accidental overdose not occurred. Paulo resents the idea of Geoff much more than the reality of Geoff.  Geoff entered Paulo and Sam’s marriage as a sex partner, which was acceptable, but Sam and Geoff’s relationship grew, which was outside of the bounds of the agreement. Had Paulo and Sam’s relationship been healthy, the Geoff / Sam relationship would never have grown. As it is, Paulo resents Geoff, but doesn’t deny his importance in Sam’s world.

After waiting for Sam to leave Paulo, now Geoff is waiting for Paulo to let Sam go. Joshua Bouchard does a great job with the role of Geoff, who is sometimes very sympathetic and sometimes not sympathetic at all. On the other hand, Paulo is actively not sympathetic. Self-centered and callous, Paulo has channeled his hurt and confusion into anger and manipulativeness. He forces Tyler and Sam to jump through hoops, while offering very little in return.

The Waiting Game is not an easy play to love, as the pieces don’t fall neatly into place. It suggests emotions and forces the viewer to supply motivation. Why has Paulo retreated into himself? Is the casual drug use a symptom of Paulo’s pain, or was it the cause of Sam’s pain? Why is he such a dick to everyone? Having said that, I did love the show. I found the contradictions honest and raw.

Playwright Charles Gershman has crafted a unique vision at the crossroads of drug use, sex, marriage and HIV status. Nathan Wright has staged it interestingly and pulled out wonderful performances from the actors. It could have used a bit more dialog and a little less distracting stage business, that is where I think the straight transition from the Fringe environment hurts the result. But those are minor nits which are lost in the unique voice The Waiting Game brings.

The Waiting Game | Playwright: Charles Gershman | Director: Nathan Wright | Cast: Joshua Bouchard, Julian Joseph, Ibsen Santos, Marc Sinoway | website

Power Dynamics Laid Bare(foot)

Barefoot is an interesting new play at the the Gene Frankel Theater. As a new show, it has a few teething
problems, but it is generally great entertainment. Clocking in at a brisk pace with no intermission,
Barefoot grabs the viewer right off and propels you through the evening.

It is basically the story of Sylvia, on the cusp of marriage and a fiance that cheated on her. Sylvia
(Kate T. Billingsly) is a successful psychiatrist from Connecticut living in a high end New York
apartment. Her life has generally be very successful. But her world is skewed by the realization
that her fiance, Robert (Judah Tobais) has cheated on her with Teddy, a rather stunning blond
with a damaged psyche. Teddy is excellently by Elissa Klie. The most engaging moments of the
show happen in the first half with the interaction between Teddy and Sylvia. Sylvia’s tough veneer
is stripped raw by Teddy’s confidence and Sylvia’ insecurities. More than that, the two women find
both camaraderie and betrayal in the details of Teddy and Robert’s story.

Elissa Klie, Judah Tobias, Kate T. Billingsley and Will Rosenfelt in Barefoot

Robert played the part of confidant and pursuer in the relationship, but Teddy was aware he was
engaged before these two had sex, and so she was complicit in the betrayal of Sylvia.

While the two women argue and bond, Robert and Marc, Teddy’s fiance, arrive. Robert is apologetic,
while Marc (Will Rosenfelt) is aggressively angry and unapologetic. These two characters are a bit u
nderdrawn, both are caricatures of the duality of male role models, wimp and bully. Ordering a pizza,
a bisexual pizza boy, Chet (Tent Cox), enters the mix to question the sexuality of Robert / the wimp.

The odd personal dynamics of the foursome is reigned back in when Teddy and Sylvia assert control
and the men are kicked out of the apartment.

Directed by Thomas C Waites, Barefoot moves well and brings both laughter and tension easily.
The show would benefit from some tightening and maybe less stereotypical behavior. There are
many moments that felt very honest and real, and some other moments that seem forced. The
acting is generally very good, with excellent turns by the women, who were giving more range to
work with.

Barefoot is a nice little show in an intimate space. The more often it is presented, I have a feeling the better it
will be. It’s limited run allowed few previews. I enjoyed it when it was great, and wanted it to be stronger
where it faltered. Rooting for a show is a sign of involvement and a key to success. You should see it,
it is a great value, and we will be hearing more from this writer in the future.

Barefoot | Playwright: Kate T. Billingsley & Thomas G. Waites, Director: Thomas C. Waites | Cast: Kate T. Billinsgley, Elissa Klie, Judah Barak Tobias, Will Rosefelt, Trent Cox

website

The Difficulty of Finding Balance: Lifespan of a Fact

Three actors, at the top of their game, are inhabiting Studio 54 and tearing into our assumptions about truth. It’s easy in the abstract to draw a line underneath truth, but it is less easy in reality. In Lifespan of a Fact trying to draw that line is complicated and hilarious.

Bobby Cannavale plays John D’Argata, an essayist / journalist who has written a moving essay on a young man’s suicide. Cherry Jones is the publisher who wants to publish this great piece, but runs a quick fact check first to cover her bases.   

Daniel Radcliffe plays young Jim Fingal, whom Ms. Jones has authorized to do a fact check of the article. The play is based on a book by the real Misters Fingal and D’Argata, which covers the same ground. With nothing else to go on, you might conclude this would be a dry and esoteric piece. It is not. It is quick moving, witty, very funny and surprisingly relevant in our times.

The essay in question looks at the impact of this suicide on the community. It tries to capture the world at this moment in time. To do so to the greatest affect, the writer has taken some literary licenses. Mr. D'Argata not only doesn't disagree, he defends the actions. 

Fact-checking Mr. Fingal has been diligent to the point of absurdity. He has a 130 page spreadsheet of questions for a 13 page article. Sure, many of these are nit-picky, but a few are key exaggerations of the truth, which gives the article a deeper meaning, but does so by stretching the truth.

Both of the men get extremely defensive about their work. Mr. D’Argata is defensive of changing the work to alter the flow and underlying emotional impact. Mr. Fingal is adamant that if they don't correct some details, the reader won’t ever get to the feeling of the piece. When Daniel Radcliff drops by Bobby Cannavale’s house to have an impromptu discussion, tempers rise quickly. Cherry Jones strides into this rather testosterone-fueled flare up, to calm things down and try to get an essay that everyone can agree with.

Even though these are 3 famous actors, you forget who they are pretty quickly as their characters take over. Jim Fingal and John D’Argata both admire and despise each other. Cherry Jones comes in as a publisher who cares about selling magazines for the right reason, to move and inform the reader. Her support, like the audience's swings between the two men.

The Lifespan of a Fact clocks in at a brisk 90 minutes, which echoes the deadline in the play. Leigh Silverman keeps the momentum moving and the stakes amped up. Lifespan of a Fact is an intimate show, and Studio 54 wraps it in the right space.

Lifespan of a Fact | Playwright: Jeremy Kareken, David Murrell and Gordon Farrell | Director: Leigh Silverman | Cast: Bobby Cannavale.  Daniel Radcliffe, Cheery Jones