Old Times

I'm going zero for two here.  This time a 70 minute Harold Pinter play.  I'm all for a mysterious and mesmerizing evening in the theatre, but this play is just flat out obtuse.

The all-British cast (Clive Owen, Eve Best, Kelly Reilly) may add allure and mystery with their fancy accents, but they do nothing for the confounding plot.  I mean it was purposely written to confound and leave the average viewer with a feeling they have no idea what just happened.   I can verify this as I left the American Airlines Theatre and listened to at least 90% of the audience as they shook their head and asked questions like "what just happened here?".  Not being satisfied with these remarks, I went home and read the Wikipedia page about the show and was astounded at what the "experts" purported was going on.  Really?  Was that what we just saw?

Kudos to Christine Jones (sets) and Japhy Weideman (lighting).

I'm all for hoity-toity theatre but this was work neither entertaining nor satisfying for the majority of the audience.  I hope the rest of your 50th Anniversary season is better than this, Roundabout.

The Homecoming

The Homecoming, by Harold Pinter. A Pinter Play. I've always wanted to experience one on Broadway. And now I have. I've seen it. I've read the professionals' reviews. I've even done some research on Harold Pinter. I still don't think I understand what on earth happened on the stage at the Cort Theater!

I do understand, after reading blog after blog, that what the actors were saying was supposed to be different from what we were comprehending. I understand the "layers below" are what you were supposed to come away with. The conflict. Family. Rivalry. Sexual Undertones. Leader of the Pack. Success. Failure. I get that. I do. I really do. However, there is such a sharp contrast between spoken word and message that it is difficult to keep such vastly different concepts separate in your head while the work is being performed. "What did this mean?" "Why did he say that?" A friend of mine used the word absurd to describe it. It seems to fit.

Given that I somehow understand that i don't understand it, I understand now that the actors did an outstanding job at what they did. The pregnant pauses, the stillness, the thoughts left unfinished. Brilliant acting. Brilliant delivery. Kudos to Ian McShane, Raul Esparza, Eve Best, Michael McKean, Gareth Saxe, and James Frain. It seems to me that the show can only be a success when they are all 100% "on" each evening.

Even after hours of rumination on the play and playwright - i get that I'm not supposed to get it - but i just don't get it. Well, i say, Forget it!

A Moon for the Misbegotten

Kevin Spacey brings A Moon for the Misbegotten from the West End (London) to New York with much pomp and circumstance. He even stars in the production as Jim Tyrone - which for him isn't odd. He performed in 3 other plays at the Old Vic - all the while being the artistic director at said theater.

This play was written by Eugene O'Neill - so expect long winded, sometimes boring, many times exceedingly drawn out, but all the while intelligent dialogue. Colm Meaney plays the drunk Irish father (redundant, i know) exceedingly well. Eve Best, appearing with permission of Actors' Equity, commanded the stage with her booming voice and emotional portrayal of Josie Hogan - the only daughter of 3 children in a poor farming family in 1923 Connecticut.

Kevin Spacey actually appeared to be the weakest link in the ensemble. Overacting at times, and at others - going for the comic relief just a little too much. Sure, his character has quirks, but he actually seemed to break character on several occasions just to go for the one word joke or gesture. At the time you chuckle, but when all is said and done, it really didn't seem what Eugene O'Neill might have imagined in the character. On the other hand - Who Knows? - I don't know Eugene O'Neill either -but he sure did have the knack for writing about drunk, Irish, dysfunctional families (i know, redundant again).

Get a discount ticket for this one and see it. Don't pay full price. It's not worth it. Then again, with all the Ticketmaster fees - even the discount isn't worth it.