Airline Highway

Talk about the down and out - this play delves into the lives of the residents of The Hummingbird Motel in New Orleans - for the good, the bad, and the ugly - and it's mostly ugly.

Julie White (Tanya) is the deficit lady-in-charge at the motel.  Despite the fact that she's a prostitute, she's loved, listened to and respected.  Her friends care so much about her and each other.  One of the other residents even tries to keep her off the pills.  With a great ensemble cast, this show socks you with a 1-2 punch.  It ain't a happy time, but at their core these down and out people have a whole lotta heart and soul.  K. Todd Freeman (Sissy Na Na) takes second position as the transvestite resident with a whole lotta sass.  Hunky Joe Trippett (Baid Boy) strolls into town after he has "escaped" to marry a wealthy woman but as they say - You can take the boy out of the ghetto but you can't take the ghetto out of the boy.

An interesting choice for a late spring show, Lisa D'Amour's work is a frank and honest look at what makes good people - and in this case, it just ain't money.  Joe Mantello's direction is a healthy dose of fun, frivolity, and honesty.

Fetch Clay, Make Man

I sense a conspiracy here.  In a season that promises Rocky, The Musical, we seem to be getting a sister-preview in Fetch Clay, Make Man - the (abridged) story of Muhammad Ali.  God help us all.

Will Power's new play, previously performed at McCarter Theater Center in Princeton is certainly well acted.  Of course it is - with such leading actors such as Ray Fisher (Muhammad Ali), K. Todd Freeman (Stepin Fetchit), and Nikki M. James (Sonji).  There was also no need for microphones partially, i assume, due to the material and characters involved, and partially due to Des McAnuff's direction to scream just about every line of the play.

While, admittedly, I wasn't much interested in the material, I found the play provocative - it made me think and reflect on that time period - and to its credit, it was very well lit, uniquely staged, and extremely well acted (shouting aside).  Float like a butterfly down to New York Theatre Workshop on East 4th and get stung like a bee by this play today!

A Civil War Christmas

Paula Vogel has penned a historical perspective on an age-old tradition - Christmas.  Her version is a dramatic triptych on the holiday which takes place during the civil war.  Each of the 3 main plot perspectives share equally in the joy and sadness of the historical holiday - smack in the middle of the civil war - Stories from the North, the South, and the always steady Abe and emotionally unstable Mary Lincoln centrally located in the White house.

It's not quite a musical but more of a play with music - but less-so a play and more story-telling theatrical experience. The music was all Christmas carols cleverly placed throughout the scenes.  All the fine actors in full regalia and costumes played multiple characters with little-to-no scenery - merely a few props and chairs upon which the fine actors created an entire landscape and mood.  

Of all the extremely talented actors, the one stand-out performer was Jonathan-David (yes, i correctly hyphenated his "name") as Ely Parker, Silver, Frederick Wormley, Moses Levy and others.  Clearly a trained dancer, a fine improv actor, and vocally impressive.  A stalwart and stubborn Mary Lincoln was played with Aplomb by Alice Ripley.

Having already seen Lincoln (Daniel Day Lewis) on the big screen just the weekend before and seeing this show just before Christmas put me in just the right mood.  I doubt this one would go over very well in August, but certainly a heart-warming, entertaining history-lesson on the small stage down at the New York Theatre Workshop on East 4th.

The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures

Tony Kusher's much anticipated new work is fantastically engrossing, scintillatingly intellectual, and mentally exhausting - all at the same time.   From minute 1 to minute 210 (that's 3 and 1/2 hours, folks) you are on the edge of your seat absorbing every word, watching every movement, and processing, processing, processing.  Make no mistake, this is a heady play.  It's not for everyone, but certainly for those who are up for the mental gymnastics that it sponsors.  See it before it's too late.  Run.  Don't Walk.

What is this play about, you ask?   Well, there are so many layers here, it's hard to convey.  It's literally about a man's decision to kill himself before Alzheimer's gets him.  Adding a few more layers - it's a play about politics, relationships, marriage, economics, labor, sexuality, religion, suicide, and sex - just to list a few.  I'm not kidding.  There are others.   But let me try to boil it down to something simpler.  It's about family and struggle.  That's it. Family - all the good, all the bad and everything in-between.  It's also about struggle - in the family, among the family, outside the family and everything in and around the family.  There are really two kinds of families - the ones that look on the outside to be perfect, but are really a big mess on the inside - and the ones who look (and act) like a hot mess on the outside, but at the end of the day nothing, and i mean nothing, could tear them apart.  Gus Marcantonio and his family are the most definitely the latter.  A mess so hot they make August Osage County's Weston family look like dry ice.

The cast is superb - a better ensemble cast than any I have ever seen.  They seemed like an actual family rather than individual actors simply cast in the roles.  The performances were sublime.  At times there were 7 or 8 family members on stage and every single one of them was talking (arguing, more likely) at the same time and you could still follow the argument, the thoughts, and the scene.  And when a play lasts over 3 and 1/2 hours, you bet they were damn good if I'm using such superlatives.  Each and every actor brought his game to the stage.  (Michael Esper apparently brought his game and a rockin' hot bod, puppy dog eyes, and boyish smile to accompany it... but i digress).  Kudos in no particular order or preference to each performer in the cast:  Michael Christofer (Gus), Linda Eamond (Empty), Michael Esper (Eli), K. Todd Freeman (Paul), Hettienne Park (Sooze), Steven Pasquale (V), Molly Price (Shelle), Matt Servitto (Adam), Danielle Skraastad (Maeve), Stephen Spinella (Pill), and Brenda Wehle (Clio).

I don't pretend to know all the layers Mr. Kushner has written into the play.  Heck, I don't even know much about Karl Marx, but that's not what's needed to understand this play.  Listen carefully and absorb the feelings, emotions, the feelings and tones, the over arching them of family, struggle, and identity will reveal themselves to you as the minutes tick away into hours on Gus' (and your) watch.