Skeleton Crew

Doing what they do best, The Atlantic Theater Company is beginning a run of what might be the most compelling and culturally relevant play of the season.

Written by Dominique Morisseau, Skeleton Crew gives us a glimpse into challenges of very blue collar workers at a car manufacturing plant in Detroit.

Life is tough.   Life makes you tough.  Who is your family and to what extreme will you go to protect them and their livelihood?   These tough, poignant, and in-your-face questions are all asked and answered by the suburb actors on stage.  Lynda Gravatt (Faye) is the stalwart veteran of the plant.  Jason Dirden (Dez) is the young wild-child, Nikiya Mathis (Shanita) is a young expecting mother with a lot of pride in what she makes, and Wendell B. Franklin (Reggie) is the plant manager torn between the white collar world he now lives and the blue collar world he grew up in.  This ensemble was as tight, on-point, and incredibly credible.

Between the rumors of the plant closing, thefts at the plant, a pregnancy, homelessness, and a gun, to say where there's smoke there is fire is the understatement of the year.   Sparks fly.  Pride is always in the way.  Tempers flair.  This riveting piece is most assuredly best performed in an intimate black box theater where emotions are high and contained.

The Little Foxes

The New York Theatre Workshop under the direction of Ivo Van Hove has put a unique and refreshing performance of Lillian Hellman's stage gem.  Bare stage with purple velvet walls, ominous music, video, and, what I can only presume is the director's signature on this work, several anachronistic elements that turned this twisted family ordeal into the a powerhouse performance on East 4th Street.

From the get-go, the feel was "Festen-like".  An incestuous family, dark secrets, money, greed, power, and sex start this gem off and it only kicks into a higher gear with every passing eerie moment.  Elizabeth Marvel (Regina Giddens), Marton Csokas (Ben Hubbard), and Thomas Jay Ryan (Oscar Hubbard) take the helm as the Hubbard children - siblings in a long line of southern Hubbards hell bent on proving they can be even more successful Hubbards than all before them.  Backstabbing, negotiating, side-dealing, and cheating at every turn.  Christopher Evan Welch (Horace Giddens), the terminally ill brother-in-law holds the key to the entire deal and we find out just how far this family is willing to go to achieve their goals.

This is one of those plays that leaves an impression on you for days and weeks afterward.  You'll return to it ruminating on this aspect or that ploy or that relationship.  I did wonder (as did many of those who I chatted with after the play) why the director choose to introduce all the anachronistic elements into the performance - the car alarm sounds, the coffee maker, the airport moving sidewalk, and the video itself.  I found them slightly distracting, constantly wondering "what it meant".   I respect the decision, of course, and will admit they the entire production was a tremendous, high-impact success.

Is there room on Broadway for another Festen so soon?  With the right leading lady and supporting cast, I think so.  Too bad Tallulah Bankhead, Elizabeth Taylor, and Betty Davis can't reprise their roles (the Regina in the original Broadway production in 1939, revival in 1981, and and the movie in 1941 respectively).  I can think of a few evil deals that could be struck for the 2011-2012 season.  But let's not get ahead of ourselves.  I don't have all the cash yet.

Intimate Apparel