Hold On To Me Darling

In its latest installment, The Atlantic Theatre Company is presenting a modern day tale of celebrities, their decisions, the bubble they live in, the people who surround them, and those that take advantage of them.  In once sense a dark comedy, and in the end, a bit of a tragedy.   Hold On To Me Darling, seems to have all of this in more.  In just under 3 hours, if nothing else, it is certainly packed full with these themes plus a bit of country music and a whole bunch of southern accents.


Playwright Kenneth Lonergan is verbose.  Scenes are long, wordy, and themes are repeated over and over - to likely emphasize the point that celebrities in real life often make the same mistakes over and over.

Timothy Olyphant (Strings McCrane) aptly (and easy on the eyes) helms the cast of 6 as a hot country music star who's mother has just died and he is trying to come to grips with his past decisions and how he can go forward without her voice. Quite cleverly, you never see her or hear from her but she is undoubtedly the 7th character in this play. His ensemble cast includes the handsome and terrifically entertaining Keith Nobbs (Jimmy) as Strings McCrane's ambiguously gay and fiercely loyal personal assistant, Jenn Lyons as Nancy, the seemingly innocent yet stealth scheming girlfriend/wife, Adelaide Clemens as the shy, country bumpkin 2nd cousin who connects with Strings, C.J. Wilson as String's obtuse, simple-minded yet grounded hometown brother and Jonathan Hogan, as Mitch, String's estranged father, a character who only appears in the final scene of the play.

Did I mention that the play was long?  3 Hours long.  My theatre going friends and I all commented afterwards that the actors seemed to be having such a good time with their parts, that they often seemed to ad-lib certain jokes or extend certain jokes with additional comments - which of course led to additional laughter in addition to the general amusement of most of the other actors on the stage.

In addition to this seemingly harmless frivolity which probably added maybe 10 minutes to the play - you still have to deal with the other 2 hours 50 minutes.  I think Mr. Lonergan's long and successful career has been in both the theatre and film - but I believe his talents are best suited to film - a place where character development and story can be told at greater length in different scenes.  This is especially important when telling a story which requires memories from what has happened in the past - on a live stage, that becomes problematic and tilts toward more dialogue - your only option to convey the information to the audience.

Overall an entertaining and poignant evening in the theatre. A fine cast.  A great playwright.  A great rotating set (Walt Spangler) Just a little too heavy on the dialogue and exposition.

Bronx Bombers

Major League Baseball and The New York Yankees are actually a part of ("in association with") the new Eric Simonson written and directed two act play, Bronx Bombers.  Yes, it's baseball on Broadway.   And what an iconic team to highlight right here in New York.  Interestingly enough, the last sports show in the round at Circle in the Square was Lombardi.  This one, a recent transfer from The Duke on 42nd also plays well in the round.

The show, as you would imagine, is a baseball lovers delight.  Likely geared to engage the male persuasion, the show takes a look at the greats of the team - combining them all in a quaint dream-like plot.  Act I is a scene from 1977 setting up the conflicts and personalities of Billy Martin (Keith Nobbs), Reggie Jackson (Francois Battiste), Thurman Munson (Bill Dawes), and the ever-caring and genuine star of the show, Yogi Berra (Peter Scolari).

What unfolds is conflict - and what follows in Act II is a dream like sequence of Yogi's that brings all the Yankee greats to a dinner party in his home with his wife Carmen (Tracy Shayne) - Joe DiMaggio, (Chris Henry Coffey), Lou Gehrig (John Wernke), Babe Ruth (C.J. Wilson), Derek Jeter (Christopher Jackson),  Elston Howard (Francois Battiste), and Micky Mantle (Bill Dawes).

What we learn in Act II is that the conflict in Act I was not new at all.  Baseball has always been full of characters, conflicts, and personalities.  And we also gather that fans may wax and wane, but they always come back- especially to this iconic New York team.

I'm not a baseball fan.  I admit it.  The baseball angle didn't jazz me up at all. (I thought it was boring, actually).  But what the show was able to do, even to me, is to tell a story and teach a lesson.  Through all the characters, all the conflicts, and all the noise - there really is one thing that draws men of all ages to the Yankees - and that is tradition above all else.

Will this play hit the mark - being on Broadway now?  I'm not sure, but the tiny audience that watched the show with me seemed to enjoy it.  Especially all those Yogi-isms!  Let's see if wives drag their die-hard husband fans or if they even come on their own!

The Great God Pan

Amy Herzog, last dazzled us with 4000 Miles at Lincoln Center Theater.  Once again, in a magical and emotional journey into memory, identity, and truth, Ms. Herzog assisted by a fine cast and delicate direction does not fail to impress.

Jamie (Jeremy Strong) is a seemingly normal young Brooklynite with a girlfriend (Sarah Goldberg) and family unremarkable to the naked eye.   But - curtain up - in walks Frank (Keith Nobbs), his childhood friend, and modern day messed up type who is back after 25 years to tell Jamie he's going to file charges against his father for molesting him.  Why is Frank telling this to Jamie?  Because allegedly Jamie was one of Frank's father's victims too.  Or so says Frank.

Slowly we realize that Jamie has no real memories of his childhood.  And perhaps, we being to ponder, this is the reason.   Jamie engages his mother  (Becky Ann Baker) and she's curt and uncharacteristically bothered by it (an odd reaction for a social worker, he points out).  His father (Peter Friedman) adds to the fire by telling Jamie about some early family and neighborhood shuffling.  His girlfriend, who through observation and innuendo also has many of her own set of "issues",  has her own take on the subject.   Jamie struggles with his lack of memory and visits his old nanny/babysitter (Joyce Van Patten) who, in her tender and forgetful old age adds even more questions than answers to the memories.

Is Frank who he seems?   Will Jamie ever remember what he needs to know?   Who is the Great God Pan and how will this all conclude?   Stop on over to Playwrights Horizons to find out.  It's well worth the price of admission to see these fine actors execute Ms. Herzog's emotional play under such fine direction.

Lombardi

Who knew a story about a football legend would be so well acted, well executed, and well received by the audience?   I resisted for a long time.  I don't like football - heck I knew neither anything about Vince Lombardi before I entered the theater nor what team he even coached.  Well, let me tell you right here, right now - this show is engaging, informative and entertaining well beyond each of its 89 minutes.

I couldn't believe how well Dan Lauria takes on the persona of Vince Lombardi - the voice, the walk, the stature, the attitude, and smallest of actions and mannerisms.  Judith Light masters the strong, smart, stalwart woman behind the man, Marie Lombardi and Keith Nobbs takes on the young, hungry, naive sports reporter from New York City, Michael McCormick, sent to Green Bay to interview Lombardi for a piece in Look Magazine.  So well executed was this production, I see Tony nods at least for Mr. Lauria as best leading actor - if not also for Light and Nobbs for best supporting actors and possibly for best play for the work by Eric Simonson which was based on the book When Pride Still Mattered:  A Life of Vince Lombardi by David Maraniss.

The pace was brisk, the humor sharp and the drama poignant.  Even for a New Year's Day performance, the audience was engaged and the actors were firing on all cylinders.  In a mere 89 mere minutes we were transported to 1960's Green Bay, Wisconsin to observe Mr. Lombardi, his family and players and learn what made this great American football coach tick.  Touchdown Broadway!