Noises Off

In what might be the most anticipated production of the season, Roundabout's 50th Anniversary, Noises Off hits the boards this week at the American Airlines Theatre.

I saw the last NYC incarnation of this gem 14 years ago - Click Here - with Peter Gallagher, Patti Lupone, Katie Finneran, TR Knight, Faith Prince, and Edward Hibbert.  Needless to say I have fond and vivid memories of the hilarity that ensued.  Of course when I saw the show for the first time I had no idea what was going to happen - this time around, I sort of knew what was going to play out.

This time around, the indomitable Andrea Martin (Dotty) brought her physical comedy to the stage.  Campbell Scott (Lloyd Dallas), tackles the prickly and frustrated director. David Furr (Garry Lejeune), Megan Hilty (Brooke Ashton), Kate Jennings Grant (Belinda Blair), and Jeremy Shamos (Frederick Fellows) tackle the interlopers.  Tracy Chimo (Poppy Norton-Taylor) and Rob McClure (Tim Allgood) tackle the stage crew roles and Daniel Davis (Selsdon) is the bungling alcoholic burglar.

Anyone who knows anything about Nothing On (the play within the play) knows it is a physical comedy inside the physical comedy Noises Off - Three progressively "worse" acts repeated with disastrously funny consequences.  Timing is more than half the battle and tuning the characters just right is the rest.  I'd say they did a great job at the first part - the timing and physicality was nifty. The set (Derek McLane) was quite literally exactly what I remembered it to be - as if they pulled it out of storage.  What the production lacked, I thought, was a sense of mad-cap pace and hilarity.  It was almost very deliberate and plodding.  Certainly Ms. Martin had moments of glory - mostly in Act I as she labored over the sardines and later when she got tangled in the phone cord.  I remember TR Knight having a bigger part than Mr. McClure - and I don't know why.   Ms. Hilty delivered those stilted and quite literally memorized lines perfectly - and by perfectly I mean at just about the most incorrect time and always mugging to the audience like her character is supposed to.   This time around Mr. Scott walked around the entire theater including the mezzanine with his booming director's voice and I don't remember Mr. Gallagher doing the same except for right down front.  There were plenty of stars in this production although none of them shone overly brightly.  There was plenty of talent and great timing in this production, but nothing transported me.  That could be a bit of the 2nd time around syndrome, or it just might possibly be that the production seemed a bit more farcical and deliberately physical than it needed to be.

In the end, it doesn't much matter.  The family behind me had no idea what was going to happen and half my fun was listening to their reactions in Act 2.  I enjoyed this production but not quite as much as I enjoyed my first one.

The Qualms

From a master of dialogue and interesting, quirky, provocative topics, Bruce Norris has shared a slightly uncomfortable, marvelously funny, and touching story that delves into the lives of swingers!  Yes, you read that correctly - Swingers!

The cast of couples is superbly unique, extremely diverse, and wonderfully talented.  The story centers around newcomers to the swingers group - upscale couple Jeremy Shamos (Chris) and Sarah Goldberg (Kristy).  The group starts out with the host couple - the mature John Procaccino (Gary) and younger and ditzy Kate Arrington (Teri) and grows more eclectic with each completely different couple that arrives - heavyset firecracker Donna Lynne Champlin (Deb) and hunky handsome, likely gay Andy Lucien (Ken) and exotic Chinasa Ogbuagu (Regine) and white bread American-as-can-be Noah Emmerrich (Roger).   What a wild mix and what a wild ride they are in for.

Ruminating on faith, love, commitment, religion, and everything related to the meaning of life itself, this group of swingers go on one wild ride this evening.  The audience is along for the ride the entire time - but I must say that the play slowed to an unbearable crawl about 2/3rd of the way through as if Mr. Norris just couldn't wrap it up cleanly enough.  The penultimate scene pertaining to statistics in a large metropolitan city should really have ended the play so cleverly but he needed a comforting reconciliation scene around the gun they brought out in Act I - the banana pudding.

And finally, I love a play that features what is likely to be a new actor - in this case he doesn't even have any lines - but the expression on his face was worth 1000!  Kudos to Julian Leong (Delivery Boy). And Kudos to writing such roles into plays to let everyone get their start!

Dinner with Friends

The simplicity of this play is blinding.  The message is complex and thought provoking.  Donald Margulies is a master of dialogue and rich language and context hidden in plain sight.

Jeremy Shamos (Gabe) and Marin Hinkle (Karen) pair up with Heather Burns (Beth) and Darren Pettie (Tom) in a match of personalities, desires, and commitment.  It's not until Act 2 that we see just how much our characters have changed and only then realize how complex the situation among and between the couples is going to be.   Funny, touching, thought-provoking for sure.

Mr. Margulies brilliantly crafted and unassuming plot quietly exposes the complexities and intricacies of relationships - both between man and wife and among couples and best friends too.  Mr. Shamos and Mr. Pettie are friends who end up being polar opposites.  Ms Burns and Ms Hinkle are friends who are polar opposites who have more in common than they might actually think.

Directed by Pam McKinnon, a true 4 character charmer is unfolding at Laura Pels Theatre on West 46th.

Make sure you have time afterwards to discuss Dinner with Friends at a dinner with friends nearby.

Elling

Something told me as soon as the curtain went up - this is not an American play.  (Maybe if i noticed the date and place atop the huge diary entry scrawled on the curtain I'd have realized this too).   Instead, a sparse stage with Ikea-looking furniture clued me in.  Indeed, the play was written by someone from and takes place in Norway .  The subject matter is a bit odd, but enjoyable nonetheless - Two men get released from a mental hospital into what we Americans might call a half-way house.  They are not dangerous people and the show is a comedic, mis-hap laden, and touching chronicle of their rehabilitation and re-introduction into society.

Dennis O'Hare (Elling) and Brendan Frasier (Kjell Bjarne) certainly have chemistry and it instantly permeates the air as the two odd-ball men engage in their banter.  If an American TV series were to be spawned from this play, it might be aptly titled The Odd Odd-Couple.  Richard Easton (Alfonz Jorgensen) and Jeremy Shamos (Frank Alsi) also rounded out the cast but frankly didn't provide much to the overall hilarity of the story itself.  The magic formula for this show lies squarely on the shoulders of O'Hare and Frasier.  I'm not convinced, however, that Jennifer Coolidge (Reidun Nordsletten) is even certified to be up on stage, nonetheless with these two stage pros.  Her performance was often stilted (Gunn) and even confusing at times (Reidun).

There were quite a few laughs and after I warmed up to the idea of the show, I must say I enjoyed it thoroughly.  A few surprises break up the action including the poetry-slam scene in which Shamos had a show stealing moment and the restaurant bathroom scene where Elling meets Alfonz - let's just say the sound effects stole that one.  Note to readers: the next time you buy sauerkraut, look inside the package.  Like Elling, you might just find a pleasant surprise inside.

Clybourne Park

Bruce Norris' book is a gem.  The concept of a "then and now" production is not new, but he has brilliantly crafted a story that demonstrates just how far we've come - and at the same time - how little has changed.  Except for Annie Parisse, I'd not heard of anyone in the cast, but i must say a skilled ensemble all around.

One of the most brilliant aspects of this production (i am not sure if this is how it was intended or just a stroke of genius of the director) is how the entire cast in act one is recycled in act two as other characters.  It makes sense since they are really totally separate stories bound together by a common thread - the house.   

Act I tells the story of Bev (Kristina Kirk) and Russ (Frank Wood) in 1959 and the house they had to sell (no spoilers here) and to whom they elected to sell it.

Act II tells the tale of the same house in 2009 - in much worse shape - and the couple that tries to buy it.   In each time period we are given a glimpse into the internal workings of family, society, and prejudice.

We've certainly changed on many fronts, but then again, perhaps the shoe has just changed feet.

Hunting and Gathering

The funny and quirky show at Primary Stages at 59E59 Theaters about 4 interconnected New Yorkers - A college professor recently divorced, his brother, a perennial couch surfer, a neurotic apartment hopper searching for the elusive "it" place, and a slightly dizzy college student not afraid to try it all out - all tied together with the common bond of dive bars and dating, apartment hunting and Craig'sList, the search for peace of mind, and a place to call home.

Are you a Hunter? Aggressive, on-the-prowl, know what you want, go out and get it?

Are you a Gatherer? Caregiver, cleaner-upper, emotion sharer, the move-in type?

Gutenberg! The Musical!

Bud and Doug have a dream - to take their musical to Broadway - a musical about Gutenberg (yes, the guy that invented the printing press). Right now, they don't have any cast, any theater, or any props. They are just going to "read" us the musical to see what we think! And hopefully a Broadway producer (in the audience) will be won over.

With nothing more than a few cardboard boxes and a bunch of baseball hats with the many characters' names written on them - they entertain away. And never once did they mix up the hats and characters (and i never saw them "peak" at the hat stacks to verify the names).

It's a cheesy laugh riot! Bud and Doug pepper the reading with their own life experiences and all sorts of zany songs and antics.

Take a chance on these two corn-balls at the Actor's Playhouse. Guaranteed you'll leave smiling.