Casa Valentina

When I was recovering from a recent surgery, I suggested to my friends that I would soon be ready to 'get back out there and see some provocative and exciting theatre'.  Little did I know that my very first play out of the gate would be Harvey Firestein's new play, Casa Valentina.   Wow.

It's expected that when you go to the theatre that you are entertained.  When you come away from a performance feeling you have learned something about history and life itself - in addition to some superb entertainment - that's exciting!  As for the provocative part - well just take a listen to the actors
themselves describe a play that depicts a group of 1960's men who escape into the Catskills to are part of a secret sorority who dress up as women:

Casa Valentina Video

Provocative - you bet.  Interesting and educational - absolutely (who knew?).  Storytelling - at its best.  Directed by Joe Mantello, written by Harvey Firestein, and produced by Lynne Meadow and Barry Grove at the Manhattan Theatre Club - this one is going to sizzle.  Don't wait for this tale told by a top-notch cast of characters to open on April 23rd.  Run over to the Samuel J Friedman (Biltmore) Theatre and catch a story told like none other today.

Unnatural Acts

"Fasten your seatbelts, ladies and gentlemen.  Prepare to be mezmerized, electrified, and transported to another time and place for the next two hours" is what the pre-show announcement should proclaim.  Director and co-conceiver, Tony Speciale, has amassed a mightly arsenel of high drama in this haunting play presented at the Classic Stage Company, Unnatural Acts,  filling it with intergue, evidence, tension, speculation, passion, and betrayal.   

The play, inspired by the true story of the Secret Court of 1920 at Harvard University that attempted to rid the institution of "homosexualism" after the suicide of one of its students, Cyril Wilcox, opens on an elegantly, warmly and purposefully lit, darkly-hewn wooden-clad stage where we meet each of the very handsome and well clothed upper-crust Harvard boys attached to the scandal and begin our journey into their intricate, delicately balanced lives filled with intelect, innuendo, pride, double-talk, and deeply-guarded secrets and we follow them to their ultimate demise by play's end.  Each of the elvevn young actors brings an etherial and haunting presence to the stage under what I can only categorize as the superb directorial and choreographical choices of Mr. Speciale.  Actors Jess Burkle, Joe Cumutte, Frank De Julio, Roe Hartrampf, Roderick Hill, Max Jenkins, Brad Koed, Jerry Marsini, Devin Norick, Will Rogers, and Nick Westrate form a perfect union, an ensemble cast in the truest sense of the word.  Amplifying thier fine performances was lighting and lighting effects by Natalie Robin and sound design and the subtle and supremely effective sound effects by Christian Frederickson. 

I am torn between screaming from the mountain top that this play, cast intact, should be moved to Broadway and the thought that a Broadway house would most surely destroy the intimacy and power of the show.  Unnatural Acts is a an evening of compelling, well-written, well-acted, well-directed story-telling that lured me in, captured and held my attention, and, most importantly, kept me thinking about it and discussing it long afterwards.  Now that's powerful theatre!

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.