The Nance Comes Into the Open

Nathan Lane plays the title role in The Nance, now playing at the Lyceum Theatre.  The play showcases the 1930s era look at homosexuality and stereotypes both in the theater and off-stage.  It is the story of Chauncey Miles, a burlesque “nance”, the effeminate comic relief between stripper numbers.  Usually the “nance” on stage was played by a straight man, but Chauncey is homosexual in his private life as well.

Nathan Lane and Jonny Orsini in The Nance

But in the 1930s, homosexual in private life was not easy.  Chauncey is part of a community of sly winks, quick looks and furtive rendezvouses.  He is a successful performer on stage, with a close family that knows he is gay.  The Nance opens with Chauncey picking up a sex partner in an Automat, Ned a straight looking young man from Buffalo.  Ned is broke and Chauncey picks him up as trade, so it is a surprise when Ned wants to stay and be with Chauncey.  Chauncey suddenly has to navigate the world of relationships.

The first act is a fun trip through the family of burlesque, watching the nance in action on stage and watching Ned and Chauncey navigate relationships in real life.  Outside the theater, the mayor of New York (LaGuardia) is cracking down on burlesque.  The strippers and the queer that inhabit burlesque houses don’t present the image Mayor LaGuardia is cultivating for the Worlds Fair City.  But it is all still a few steps or theaters away – until it isn’t.  And Chauncey can’t help himself from standing up to the hypocrisy.

The second act starts fast, with Chauncey giving a court room soliloquy that is, by turns, funny, biting and painfully honest.  But the second act deals with the closure of the theater and the slow implosion of Ned and Chauncey’s relationship – and it is necessarily solemn.  Ned is committed to Chauncey, but that isn’t the world Chauncey grew up in.  Chauncey is a Republican and sees Commies all around him, what he can’t see is a future as a gay man.  He transfers his self-frustrations into critics of Ned. 

Nathan Lane is excellent in the role.  He is hilarious on the burlesque stage, funny off stage and believable as a gay man who doesn’t really think there is a place for him in the world.  As Ned, Broadway newcomer Jonny Orsini is terrific.  Born in the wrong time, Ned is hopelessly in love with Chauncey, doomed to be let down.  But Mr. Orsini is never down in the mouth, his Ned is fun and excited to be experiencing life.  To the very end Ned has trust that life is on the upswing.

The rest of the cast is made up of the burlesque crew, Geoffrey Allan Murphy, Jenni Barber, Cady Huffman and Andrea Burns play the performers.  A sort of family, losing the theater crushes their spirit.  Ms. Barber as Joan burns up the joint.  These players bring the burlesque stage to life in a riot of colors, feathers and bad jokes.

The Nance is an interesting and entertaining show, but a little long.  The second act runs towards the maudlin and, despite the excellent portrayals, you just want it to wrap up already.   Director Jack O’Brien and playwright Douglas Carter Beane have brought a great new play to life, shining a light on the recent past. 

The Nance

Playwright: Douglas Carter Beane

Director: Jack O’Brien

Cast: Nathan Lane, Jonny Orsini, Jenni Barber, Andrea Burns, Cady Huffman and Geoffrey Allan Murphy

Lincoln Center Theater Website

According to Goldman - Don’t Trust Movie People

Theater Breaking Through Barrier’s According to Goldman at the Clurman Theatre is a a new take on the old story of the Hollywood writer shuttle.  It covers a lot of the same territory we’ve seen before, but brings some honest emotion that makes this trip worthwhile.

Pamela Sabaugh, Stephen Drabicki, Nicholas Viselli in According to Goldman

Gavin Miller, well played by Nicholas Viselli, teaches screenwriting at an Eastern college.  He has had success in Hollywood, with family films he isn’t particularly proud of, and has turned this success into a teaching gig.  Into his class walks Jeremiah Collins, touchingly played by Stephen Drabicki.  Jeremiah is a Missionary’s son with an interesting back-story that he turns into a screenplay.

Gavin takes an interest in Jeremiah and his story.  An interest that turns into a collaboration, one

Nicholas Viselli and Pamela Sabaugh

that Gavin thinks might be his ticket back to Hollywood.  What makes this story feel fresh and genuine is Pamela Sabaugh’s performance as Gavin’s wife.  It is a painfully honest portrayal of a wife trying to stand by her husband, even when she questions his judgment.

Mr. Drabicki’s young Jeremiah is an earnest young man, who tries to act honorably in all things.  He’s moral compass makes a second act twist feel a little artificial, even though Mr. Draicki pulls it back to reality quickly.  Mr. Viselli’s Gavin is perfectly believable as the insecure and slightly desperate screenwriter.  It loses a little sympathy only by being a character we’ve seen often before.

But Ms. Sabaugh grounds her performance so much, that both men become more believable.  She wants, so much, to think the best of these men that she drags us alone with her.  Her reaction to their scheming is laced with disappointment, but not surprise.

Director Ike Schambelan does a good job with According to Goldman, helped by great sets from Bert Scott.  The Viselli house is a shrine to movies and the people that make them.  The set reminds the professor constantly that he isn’t where he thinks he should be.  PS – love the idea about Ann Frank’s cat – gold!

According to Goldman

Playwright: Bruce Graham

Director: Ike Schambelan

Cast: Stephen Drabicki, Pamela Sabaugh, Nicholas Viselli

website

Matilda is Excruciating

Matilda - Coming At You.

Perhaps it is because I have never read Roald Dahl’s book of Matilda, or perhaps it was being trapped in a theater for over two hours with a chorus of children screeching at me, but, whatever the reason, I found no joy in Matilda, now at the Sam Shubert Theater.  Matilda arrives on a tray of laurels from London, the most anticipated show since Billy Elliot.  I found it loud, aggressively mean and altogether un-charming.

Starting with the good points, the sets are interesting, fantastical and fun, converting the Shubert into a playground of faux scrabble sets.  And young Frenie Acoba, playing background child Lavender, is a delight.

And there we complete our tour on the charms of Matilda.

The story of Matilda Wormwood is one of excessive hardship for the young child.  Her birth is a surprise to her ballroom competing mother – apparently unaware she was pregnant until her water broke, and her smarmy used car salesman father – unaware the child is a girl even after seeing the little bundle of joy sans “thingy”.  This is their second child, the grunting brother Tommy, hovers in the home scenes screaming at the audience.  Guffaws ensue. 

Judah Bellamy, Lesli Margherita & Gebriel Ebert: Matilda's Family

Lesli Margherita and Gabriel Ebert play these one-note characters excellently; the more I saw them the less I enjoyed them.  Ms. Margherita sings a number that sums up the show for me, “Loud”.  The gist of which is, if you don’t know something, just be LOUD – a message the writers took to heart.   Matilda’s parents berate her for reading and thinking, thrilled when she finally hits five years old when they can finally send her off to school.

School, in this case, is a torture chamber where older students prey on younger students and the staff preys on everyone - which is the textbook definition of bullying.  Here we are introduced to Matilda’s teacher – wane and skittish Miss Honey, Lauren Ward in excellent voice and wilting character.  Miss Honey is frightened by life, class and, most of all, Miss Trunchbull – the Headmistress.  Miss Trunchbull, in true British Panto fashion, is played broadly by Bertie Carvel as the "bloke in the frock".  The word misogyny probably has no place in a kid’s musical like this, but I cannot think of any other way to put it.  Miss Truchbull is unattractive in the extreme, torturous to children and (hilariously?) she was the women’s hammer throw champion of the UK at some point.  A little of Miss Trunchbull goes a long way, and there is a lot of Miss Teunchbull.

Matilda is played by four different girls.  I saw Bailey Ryon for 2/3s of the show and she was competent and pleasant.  She had an expressive voice and personality.  In the last third of the show, Milly Shapiro had to step in, due to an injury to Ms. Ryon.  Ms. Shapiro did a very good job picking up the role without missing a beat.  The two girls' drastically different takes on the role mean that your experience may vary.

Frenie Acoba
Matilda's Friend

Matilda’s brand of pluck and vigor, of course, changes the direction of everyone around her.  She doesn’t change, mind you. In her very first song, she sings about having to be a little bit “Naughty” - and she reprises the song and sentiment at the end of the show.  There isn’t any growth in character of Matilda or any other character.  Miss Honey doesn't find her own voice; Matilda fixes Miss Honey’s problems by frightening Miss Trunchbill.  Matilda’s parents don't change either.  At long last, rather than value their daughter; they hightail it out of the country sans child.  And all ends well.

Argh.

Most songs are yelled at the audience by enthusiastic children, which is energetic if not understandable.  It makes one think fondly of Lou Grant’s comment, “I hate spunk.”  Director Matthew Warchus does an amazing job of keeping the action moving and the audience engaged.  My congratulations go out to him.

Bertie Carvel as Miss Trunchbull

I am not Matilda’s target audience, which is probably children, particularly those who have read the book.  But Broadway is awash in kid’s musicals right now, Lion King, Newsies, Annie, Cinderella – to bring yet another show aimed at children means it should be something really special.  I am afraid Matilda isn’t that show.

Matilda

Book; Dennis Kelly, Muisc & Lyrics: Tim Minchin, Based on the book by: Roald Dahl

Director: Matthew Warchus

Cast: Sophia Gennusa, Oona Laurence, Bailey Ryon, Milly Shapiro, Bertie Carvel, Gabriel Ebert, Lesli Margherita, Lauren Ward

website

Sleeping Rough: Now Playing at the Wild Project

Now – Saturday, April 27
SLEEPING ROUGH, written by Kara Manning, directed by Sam Buntrock
Produced by Page 73 Productions
Performance schedule: Tuesday - Saturday at 8 PM; Saturday at 3 PM
There is an added performance on Monday, April 8 at 8 PM; no performance on Saturday, April 6 at 3 PM
Ticket price: $35, $25 general

In Kara Manning's SLEEPING ROUGH, an American woman, unable to forgive her country for a grave offense, ignores the entreaties of her daughter and ex-husband and flees to London to graffiti her anguish across the city of her youth. It's December 2008, and as America broadcasts news of financial crisis and political change, a fractured family roams the London streets trying to understand what sparked a fatal decision.

Website

how i learned to become a Superhero Soars

The new play how i learned to become a Superhero sneaks up on you.  Expectations played a large part in my enjoyment, so I want to undersell the piece.  Too much hype or expectations raised too high might well doom a play as fragile and simply touching as Superhero.  The show benefits from lower expectations.

Gwynneth Bensen, Sean Logan and Christopher Sears

Superhero plays out in a small space, with homemade sets built from painted boxes.  It begins with some humorously awkward openings, where the three heroes are introduced.  Safety Pilot is the Ohio raised younger brother of a man who has escaped the mid-west to Brooklyn.  Guardian Angel is a young woman with a loved one that was abducted and now speaks only in clichés.  And Hope is a shy and goofy young man who wants to be helpful and remembered in nearly equal parts.

Their stories are interwoven as we see them in action, both touching and goofy.  Early on, it is

Sean Logan as Hope with Christina Norris

unclear if these people are deluded or understand their limitations.  The show starts by laughing at them, while slowly building empathy for these individuals.  Ultimately we are privy to the reasons they have resorted to building these characters, and then the sophomoric sets and jokes fall by the wayside as we identify with the universal needs that these alter-egos fulfill.

Gwynneth Bensen plays Guardian Angel with a raw pain which she covers with sarcasm and anger.  She has a single mission in life, no matter how improbable it seems, to find an outlet for her rage.  Christopher Sears plays Safety Pilot as a stunned young man who is suddenly alone and set to live with a brother that abandoned him.  He transforms into the only person who stood up for him.  Sean Logan plays Hope with a heartbreaking earnestness.  Hope, the hero, is trying to bring dreams of a better future to those that have none, himself most of all. 

Christopher Sears as Safety Pilot with Zack Griffiths and Curran Connor

What makes how i learned to become a Superhero relatable is that these characters aren’t responding to outlandish circumstances; there are no planets blowing up or radioactive bug bites.  These people find real life tragedies too much to cope with, and so they invent a personality that can overcome the problems.  There responses are painful inadequate for the tasks they have set up for themselves.  The outcomes are often painful in a way that is funny and sad, but never pitiful.

The acting is very good, even though you don’t notice it until the superhero masks drop a little.  Beyond the superheroes, Curran Connor, playing two roles (foil in one and sidekick in another), grounds the play beautifully and is a standout in an excellent cast.

This is playwright Dennis Flanagan’s second full length play and it displays a beautiful sense of organic flow.  Director Christopher Klinger does a wonderful job of letting the show revel itself to the audience.  Superhero doesn’t leave you with a nice set of uniform answers, but with a feeling that we are all in this together.

how i learned to become a Superhero

Playwright: Dennis Flanagan

Director: Christopher Klinger

Cast: Gwynneth Bensen, Curran Conner, Mara Gannon, Zack Griffiths, Sean Logan, Robert Manning Jr. Christina Norris, Christopher Sears, Carrie Watt

website