The Glass Menagerie

Stunning.  Enchanting.  Emotional.  Potent.  Transformative.

All these words resonate when it comes to John Tiffany's direction of this new production of Tennessee Williams' classic play.

Casting is the essential ingredient in the success of this production.  Cherry Jones (Amanda), Zachary Quinto (Tom), Celian Keegan-Bolger (Laura), and Brian J. Smith (Gentleman Caller) comprise the perfectly balanced and remarkably talented cast.  Each of these pros brings power and tenderness, anger and awkwardness, and emotion and silence to the incredibly poignant material.

Ms. Jones smothers her children with an incredible southern belle persona.  Mr. Quinto brings an anger and sympathy to the role of the dutiful son trapped in his home.  Ms. Keegan-Bolger brings a remarkable loneliness to Laura.  Mr. Smith brings an innocence and likability to the role I've not quite seen before.  Take  all together, they are simply enchanting.

As Mr. Williams writes, this is a memory play.  So Mr. Tiffany and Bob Crowley (sets) have adorned his version of it with a stage floating apart from the theater among water and the apartment set is, as memory might itself be, both complete in parts and incomplete in others, hence the fire escape rises to the rafters while nothing else quite does.

Mr. Williams writes that memory itself is dim and vague so therefore Natasha Katz (lighting) offers the most focused and purposeful lighting effects.  Mr. Tiffany's gentle and specific movement effects throughout the play remind you of how you slide into and out of a memory.

This production is brilliantly understated and powerfully impactful.  Sometimes less is more.  And more is definitely what you get with this production.  Rise and Shine!

The Columnist

John Lithgow was born to play roles such as this one in David Auburn's new play, The Columnist,  having its world premiere at Manhattan Theatre Club.

Mr. Lithgow, along a cast of superb actors including Margaret Colin, Boyd Gaines, Stephen Kunken, Marc Bonan, Grace Gummer, and Brian J. Smith take us on a carefully crafted interpretation of the famous mid-20th century newspaper columnist, Joseph Alsop.  The times (and The Times) were very different indeed.  News was not a 24-hour multi-media business.  Old-school journalists, at least the successful ones, tended to be insiders with the establishment ("and that's not a compliment" says one of the characters midway through the play).  At the time of the Vietnam war, journalism was opening up and new, younger, more diverse blood in the industry was beginning to develop a voice.

Mr. Lithgow portrays Mr. Alsop with his usual top-notch flair and intensity.  The visual similarities are striking and makes him even more believable.  A Tony nod is likely and well deserved. Mr. Smith, as a young Soviet, shirt on and off, is, once again, a young dynamo - a visual diamond and an aural delight.  Ms. Colin, Mr. Gaines, and Mr. Kunken all provide excellent support to the story and portray their characters with flair and aplomb.

Mr. Alsop would never have approved of this blog nor most of what passes as news today.  Based on what I saw on the stage at the Samuel J. Freidman Theatre (The Biltmore, as I prefer to call it) some of that opinion is probably justified, but indeed, comes along with some less than desirable baggage.

Three Changes

This Nicky Silver play is darkly funny, at times eerie, and overall a strange brew of ideas over at Playwrights Horizons.   It seems that family is the main focus of the playwright and a twisted tale sure does unwind.  

Dylan McDermott (Nate) and Maura Tierney (Laurel) are the main characters who at the beginning, live what appears to be a normal, upper middle class married life on the Upper West Side.  Along co

mes Scott Cohen (Hal), the long lost brother, and his boy-toy hustler, Brian J. Smith (Gordon) and the entire family unit as we see it begins to unravel before our eyes (um, i have to comment once again at how gorgeous Brian J Smith really is - clothes on or off it doesn't matter!)  We immediately find out that Nate is having an affair with Steffi (Aya Cash) and it all goes to hell in a hand-basket from there.

Odd theatrical tricks are employed (very strangely) mostly by Steffi.  We see the cast break the 4th wall upon occasion to narrate the end of a scene or tell the rest of the story to the audience. Was it touching or weird?  Can't be sure.   

In the end, the entire intent of the show was a commentary on how far people go when it comes to family.  In this case, absurdly far.  I won't ruin it for you.  If you do go - you'll probably walk out with a feeling that you #1, have to think some more, and #2 are slightly annoyed that you sat thru the entire play and got the ending you did.

Good Boys And True

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa penned a gem and 2econd Stage Theater with Scott Ellis at the directorial helm pulled this one off big time. Some have called this the American version of The History Boys. It certainly has the necessary ingredients: Religion, High School, Power, Wealth, Tradition, Family, and, of course, Scandal.

Set in the late 1980's - the decade of the birth of the power brokers and privileged - how far will Brandon go to keep his secret quiet? To what ends will he go to prove he's not gay? His mother and father are both the product of private schools, ivy league educated doctors. Their son, Brandon, a legacy at St Joseph's Prep, popular jock and captain of the football team seems to have it all and knows it. How far will he go in manipulating his parents, his teachers and his friends? Will he admit the truth? The whole truth?
 
And what about his mother? Has she actually forgotten the past? Has her drive for wealth and prestige affected the way she raises her son? Has it transformed her memory of what those younger years were like? Caused her to selectively forget certain things? Does she believe her son? Could it be him on the video tape? Why would he do this?
Perhaps today, we might question the extent of the angst, the deception. Sure, kids get into all sorts of things. Would we even be shocked by this tape today? Probably not. Sad, but true. But remember the time - the 1980's . In many ways, an entirely different outlook.
  
Brian J. Smith (Come Back Little Sheba) takes the helm as the seemingly perfect son, Brandon (he's 2 for 2 with the shirt off thing and I'm not complaining one bit.) and J. Smith-Cameron plays Mom. She needs to stop correcting herself when she stumbles over a line and just relax. The most relaxed moments were her most powerful and most emotional. An entire performance like that would seem a bit less like a reading and more like a Tony Award winning performance. And let's not forget a stand out performance by Christopher Abbott as Justin. I felt his pain, his struggle, and the emotional struggle he had over Brandon. I'm really hope to see more of him on stage.

The play was not perfect (just yet). That's what previews are for. There is a vague feeling of a Lifetime Movie, but it's written better, performed better, and developed much better than one of those. Stroll over to West 43rd and catch a performance of a play that may have a shot at a Broadway run.