Rancho Viejo

Where do I start?  It was Awful, with a capital 'A'.  Underlined 3 times.  No, it was not the too-late-to-leave notice given by the director (Daniel Aukin)before the show started that the SET was incomplete (it was their fourth preview and i was not aware that they should be BUILDING sets at this point (maybe changing the color of a wall or moving a potted plant.).  No, it was not the fact that the play was 3 hours 15 minutes.  (August Osage County was just as long and was Amazing, with a capital 'A').  What was it, you ask?  THE MATERIAL.  Dan LeFranc has written some excellent pieces for the theater.  One of my favorites is The Big Meal.  Unfortunately, Rancho Viejo comes from some deep, dark, mysterious place that should never have been explored.

The characters are uninteresting, and mysteriously underdeveloped (too many questions about where they came from and how they got to be the way they are and why they even socialize).  I do realize they are all caricatures,  exaggerations of aspects and elements of people we see everyday - exaggerated to the point of farce I might note.  The dialogue is stilted, slow, and awkward.  The conversations are "slit-your-wrists" banal and insipid.  I get it, these people are trapped, lost, insignificant, and human. They are wondering about life.  But did they have to be so damn boring and last for 3 hours??

Now, despite the deep deficit in the material, the actors were magnificent.  Pete (Mark Blum) and Mary (Mare Winningham) were the chief weirdos, carrying the story, well, not forward, but at least from 8 O'clock to 11 o'clock.  Such awkwardness.  Such sadness and mystery.  Patti (Julia Duffy) stole the show with her looks and glances and her so clearly inappropriate comments.  Husband, Gary (Mark Zeisler) was Mister loudmouth obnoxious straight man.  Enough said.  Suzanne (Lusia Strus) drank more wine and had more one-liners than a night at a comedy festival.  Hubby Leon (Tyrone Mitchell Henderson) was possibly the most normal (and youngest) spouse in the bunch.  Mike (Bill Buell) and Anita (Ruth Aguilar) were the comic relief although note to playwright and director - when you write whole monologues in Spanish (not just one of those "you-get-the-idea" dialogues, you lose the audience.  The absolutely adorable (even more-so with his shirt off) yet entirely creepy Tate (Ethan Dubin) was a complete mystery to me from start to finish.  No clue what we were supposed to get from this bizarre character who had almost nothing to do with these people.  And for the record, do we really need a dog (Mochi played by Marti) in the show?  Yes, it was cute.  No it was not necessary and everyone could hear the dog trainer/coach off stage snapping and issuing commands.

I'm not entirely clear, because we got no actual confirmation what part of the set was incomplete, but I think they should light the living room, which is used over and over differently (color/hue), to make it seem like it's not the same damn sectional sofa and pillows in the same damn house the entire time. At least change out the pillow colors or something. (Matt Frey, Dane Laffrey)

If you think my review is bad so far, wait till you hear about Act III.  No set to speak of. (Seriously you need to be finished with your set by the 4th preview).  A bizarre scene on the beach that was out of left field.  Modern dance.  A Cactus.  Fog.  Coyotes.  A straight jacket.  A shirtless boy. Surgery for a hole in the eyeball.  More teeth-brushing everywhere but the bathroom.  Many of the guns pulled out in Act I and II remained un-used.  Limited resolution.  More questions.  Little hope.

Save yourself from eternal damnation and stay home.

The Assembled Parties

A top notch cast.  And Judith Light still all but stole the show.  Set over 20 years, this family drama reveals the good, the bad, and the ugly of a Jewish family who celebrates Christmas.

A tad bit long, but nonetheless thoroughly enjoyable, the parties reveal themselves bit by bit, usually through laughter and familial jabs.  Jessica Hecht leads the family as its sultry, sophisticated patriarch with aplomb.  Mark Blum and Jonathan Walker aptly embody the family secrets.

Act 1 takes place in 1980 and Act 2 takes place 20 years later in the same 14 room apartment on the Upper West Side.  A lot has changed in 20 years but still again, some things remain the same.

When the parties assemble for the holidays, nobody knows for sure what will happen, except to say, a great meal will undoubtedly be served an a vodka will be poured.

Lonely, I'm Not

You'll certainly not be lonely in the cozy Theatre @ 43rd Street watching Paul Weitz' world premier comedy at Second Stage but you may be tad bored after about an hour or so.  The strikingly sparse and modern sets/projections by Mark Wendland and Aaron Rhyne are impeccably lit by Matt Frey.  A plethora of neon - or at least neon-looking LED illuminated - signs placed all over the back of the set abound - signaling not only the next scene but usually the irony or humor to be presented in said scene.  Direction by Trip Cullman is crisp and clean but the pace needs more punch.  A+ on the technicals with some work in the general energy-level department needed.

But what's it about?  Not a great deal of plot complexity here.  Pretty simple actually.  Porter (Topher Grace) was a successful guy.  Nervous breakdown.  Geeky cute.  Recovering.  Neurotic.  Heather (Olivia Thirlby) is an overachieving, successful blind woman.  Takes liking to nervous breakdown geeky cute guy.   Sidekicks, acquaintances, and other multiple characters played with aplomb by 4 additional actors (Mark Blum, Lisa Emery, Christopher Jackson, Maureen Sebastian).  All good.  Strike that.  Very good.   My only complaint is that after about 60 minutes, you're ready for the punch line and it doesn't come for another 30.  Best scene in the play - Job Interview.

William Shakespeare's advice still stands.  Brevity is [still] the soul of wit.

Picked

Upfront I will recognize the fine performances by all the actors - Mark Blum, Tom Lipinski, Michael Stahl-David, Liz Stauber, and even Donna Hanover too!   The fine acting notwithstanding - the playwright, Christopher Shinn, has a creative failure on his hands.

The plot sold on the Vineyard Theatre website sounds enticing, but it never develops.  For two acts over two hours all you get is a frustrating tease.  Will it go in this direction? (No.) Will it go in that direction? (No again.)  Is the obvious homo-erotic tension between the two actors going anywhere?  (Nope.)  The brain scan stuff had great potential.  As with much, it was introduced but we never saw the results of it - i.e. the movie-within-the-play.  (Teased again.).  The actors seem to make substantial life-decisions yet we never really understand where they come from or a complete context.  Contradiction after contradiction; Dead end after dead end.  Don't get me wrong, I understand that Mr. Shinn was going for the ethereal, the psychological, the intangible questions about why we get "picked" and how "getting picked" affects our perception of ourselves as well as how others perceive us and how that affects us and the effects of the constant over-analysis of "why".  Yes, I get that and see where it could have fit in your play.  Main problem being - you didn't translate that into a discrete, linear, comprehensible plot.

The actors, despite all this mismatched, undeveloped work deserved a hearty round of applause.  I think they were as confused as the entire audience as to why they were there.  I found myself speaking with about 6 different theater-going couples out front of the theatre and not one of us had a good word to say.   Why on earth did the Vineyard present this play was the question of the hour.  That, too, like many of our questions about the play, remains unanswered.  If you have options, don't pick this one.

The Overwhelming

This powerful and educational performance is not to be missed. The subject is Africa - Rwanda circa 1994 to be exact. It's a reminder of all we Americans don't know, don't pay attention to, and/or don't care about. It's a perspective on the culture, the violence and the civil war that the rest of the world has either been involved with or known about for a long time. It's a powerful indictment of the American "know it all" culture.

Who is at fault? Who is telling the truth? What, if anything, can we do about it? Should we even be doing anything about it? Why should we think we can do anything about it?

Don't miss this performance at the Laura Pels Theater on 46th.

12 Angry Men