Working

Currently back on stage in Chicago at the Broadway Playhouse is the 1970's not-so-big-a-hit, Working, adapted by Stephen Schwartz from the Studs Terkel book Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do.  I did a bit of research after seeing this one to understand what its first incarnation was like.  Originally on Broadway in 1978, the show only played 12 previews and about 2 dozen regular performances.  It came along just after the smash hit, A Chorus Line, and was seemingly presented in the same manner - a pastiche of stories told by "the average, everyday, working-Joe".  The stories highlighted the cultural, racial, and ethnic struggles, work ethics, career choices (or lack thereof) - and most importantly how hopes and dreams can be blind to all of these factors. 

It now seems Mr. Schwartz, after about 30 years of coaxing, has updated the book and score to be more culturally relevant in 2010 by including references to email, blackberries, computers, and the Internet as well as the outsourcing of jobs to India and the stock market on Wall Street.  He's also broadened the originally strictly blue-collar feel to now include a more diverse service worker element.  The cast has been trimmed down from 17 to 6 people who now play multiple roles.  The musical score, already boasting a potpourri of songsters including Mr. Schwartz, Craig Carnelia, and James Taylor, now also includes two fresh numbers by Lin-Manuel Miranda - an obvious nod to the modern Latino commercial and cultural influences both on and off Broadway.

One of the updates I especially enjoyed was the overt inclusion of the behind the scenes workers (non-actors) in the landscape.  On the generic and open two story steel-beam looking set that is constantly transformed by video projections he exposes the actual stage crew, make up artists, dressers, and stage hands doing their jobs.  The stage manager is also visibly lit in one of the house's boxes transformed into her working area (we hear her queue the lights and curtain at the start).  

The ensemble cast idea seems to have paid off - too many actors sometimes is overwhelming and you don't get to see individual talents as you do when a smaller cast plays multiple roles.  Every one of them here had a stand out performance at one point or another during the show - Emjoy Gavino, E. Faye Butler, Barbara Robertson, Michael Mahler (please come to Broadway, Michael!), Gabrial Ruiz, and Gene Waygandt.  By the names alone - you can tell this is quite an appropriately diverse cast and all earned their hearty applause from the audience throughout the show.

Does it need a bit more work? Probably.  Can this one make it to the Great White Way?  The verdict is out, but I'll tell you after this season of 11 new musicals - some of which are bound to flop - perhaps this could be our 2011 or spring 2012 stand-out revival.  Are three Stephen Schwartz musicals on Broadway at one time a bit much?  Move over Wicked and Godspell - something Working this way comes. 

Invasion!

Get your wallet out now. Pull out $30 bucks and fork it over for a ticket to the box office at Walkerspace for the powerhouse Swedish playwright Jonas Hassen Khemiri's US debut of Invasion!  Ask no more questions.  Do not hesitate.  This is without a doubt one of the best plays I have seen this entire season - and that includes Broadway, off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway. It's an extremely intelligent, linguistically complex, politically charged, attention grabbing, rapid-fire tour-de force for each of its 75 sharply written, cunningly directed, and superbly acted and deliciously well received minutes.

Each of the four young actors - Francis Benhamou, Andrew Guilarte, Bobby Moreno, and Debargo Sanyal (known only as Actors A, B, C and D) performs at full throttle the entire evening - never missing a beat or a word or a queue.  Emotions run the gamut from scene to scene but the pace is relentlessly and purposefully quick.  Scene changes are executed with precision and aplomb  By the time you reach the end, you find yourself at the beginning again.

I won't pretend to understand everything the playwright had to say.  There was too much there for my brain to have absorbed every layer, every overt or subversive gesture, word and idea.  Hours after the play ends and you're sitting at TriBeCa Bread enjoying your 3rd Manhattan, a new meaning or the nuance of a scene will reveal itself to you.  This, I promise.  Everything may not be as it seems.  Don't believe everything they tell you.  Open your eyes and think for yourself.  Think.  Period.

The Body Politic

Wink, Wink, Nod.  James Carville and Mary Matalin must be ecstatic.  A whole play written about them - or at least about their story.  In case you live under a rock - they are two of the most diametrically opposed political operatives / commentators who fell in love and got married.  You know, they say politics make strange bedfellows.  Indeed, Richard Abrons and Margarett Perry (the playwrights and the latter also the director) have captured equal amounts of ideological sparing and the attractions it spawns.

Unfortunately, the story is somewhat stale to an audience bombarded on an weekly, daily, and hourly basis with political trickery, deception, and below-the-belt antics and shenanigans.  Who put that false story out there?  He said, she said.  I knew absolutely nothing about that.  Spin. Spin. Spin.  Make them look bad.  Let them bring themselves down.  Blackberries, laptops, and cell phones.  And lots of Starbucks.

The actors all did a fine job - two presidential candidates - Brian Dykstra (Democrat) and Daren Kelly (Republican) - making bumbling errors and pronouncing things incorrectly never fail to entertain.  Then there are two "older and more experienced" political advisors - Leslie Hendrix (Republican) and Michael Puzzo (Democrat).  Plenty of vitriol, bitterness, and regret going on there.  And then we have the two love-hate birds themselves - Matthew Boston (Republican) and Eve Danzeisen (Democrat).  Not enough chemistry for my taste here.  And it all might have been due to the mis-casting of Mr. Boston.  He appeared to me to be too old and out of step with his much younger opponent, Ms. Danzeisen.

Don't get me wrong - the story is entertaining, light, and mostly enjoyable - if only a scosche too long at 2 hours.  I don't think anyone should expect the  "oh my gosh, i can't believe how it ended" sort of show.  If you go in with the low expectations of such a satirical political romp, you'll do just fine.

That Championship Season

Perhaps the play did win the Pulitzer Prize in 1972, but that doesn't guarantee a good show in 2011.  The play itself only ran for 144 performances in '72, and that should have been a clue.  The subject matter may have been fresh and shocking 40 years ago, but today it's like a bad re-run episode of All in the Family.  Playwright Jason Miller may have penned some good lines and started with some powder-keg material but in the end it's an over-hyped, sad, obvious, and pedantic walk down memory lane indicting men, the education system, small-town America, and the Catholic church all in one fell swoop.  The obvious topics covered (or uncovered as it were) are racism, bigotry, family duty, adultery, success (or lack thereof) and false role models.

I haven't seen a play in a very long time where the quality of the acting was so diametrically opposite to the quality of the script.  The all-star cast delivered in every way it could given the poor material.  Jason Patric, Keifer Sutherland, Brian Cox, Dan Gaffigan, and Chris Noth pour their hearts into the roles.  Trouble is, there are so many dead-ends, undeveloped story lines and lost opportunities in the script that all we're left with is the overbearing coach eternally blathering on about "what makes a winner" and "what it takes to win".  By today's standards, I think anyone (even in small-town America) would wonder why these men are so handicapped by and tied to this coach's "wisdom".  For all our faults, we're a much more open, independent and thinking society today.  I presume that Mr. Miller's desired outcome in 1972 was to see that "the emperor has no clothes", but in 2011 I think all that remains of this show is the picture of a sorry and sad past we should all regret.

The Rubber Room

All around this is a perfect idea.  Write a play about teachers who are suspended from classroom instruction for some infraction and placed in a holding room indefinitely until their cases are adjudicated.  Seems like the makings of a great work of fiction - ripe with conflict and drama.   Only problem is - this is a true story.  Well, not the stories themselves (as far as I know), rather the concept itself.  New York City, from the 1960's until Mayor Bloomberg closed them in 2008, maintained these rooms - almost immediately coined "rubber rooms" for just this purpose.

Now here's where it gets good - - Take 5 different directors  - each of whom gets to rehearse a cast of 5 actors for the show  - and don't let them or their casts collaborate.  Next, call one member of each cast to the theatre each night to perform his or her part.  The result is a fresh, tense, and realistic experience of these characters meeting for the first time in the rubber room each night.  You get 25 different casts all performing the same show.  I'm sold!

So while I only saw 1 out of those potential 25 casts - I have to say the overall show is a power-packed drama.  In short order you get to meet the 5 characters and find out that there just may be 2 sides to every story and accusation.  Are teachers to blame for everything wrong in the classroom?  Where are the parents?  What happened to respect, discipline, and order in the classroom?  Who is really running the schools?

I can't say that each night is going to be a grand-slam, but the one I attended was excellent.  Discussing the performance we both witnessed and the overall state of the education system in NYC afterwards with my friend over a burger, we both realized how each director might play the same character differently and how the stories of each of the characters might totally change left us wanting to see the show again!  While this concept may not work for every show (I doubt you will see this anytime soon in commercial theatre) it certainly felt like it worked with this subject matter.  Anytime someone wants to go back and see a show - that seems like a good thing to me.  And I'm the one with the "no repeats" rule too!

A Perfect Future

David Hay's new work at the Cherry Lane Theatre attempts to explore the "glory days"of a few 1970's college radicals in a Manhattan apartment 30 years later.  Lifetime movie, you may ask?  Unfortunately, worse than than, i regrettably report.

While the cast was aptly chosen for their good looks, the play, rather than focus on the subtleties of the relationships, chose to accentuate the stereotypical and painfully obvious plot twists that these people's lives cold have taken.  John Hudson (Michael T Weiss) is a rude, annoying, pompous, rich, Wall street guy.  Natalie Schiff-Hudson (Donna Bullock) is an over-the-top, former radical turned documentary film maker who seemingly turned "rich guy's wife" allegedly because they used to have good sex and apparently she never bothered to realize her husband was a complete phony, racist, capitalist ass.  Elliott Murphy (Daniel Oreskes) - the radical friend who "kept the faith" and has always "fought the good fight" amazingly comes out of the closet after it's safe to do so and is now a big gay daddy who defends terrorists and fights against AIDS  - and surprise - has lots of relationship issues.   Into this patently obvious storyline comes Mark Colvin (Scott Drummond) a young, good-looking associate at John's office who - get this - looks as straight as a Mormon arrow - but turns out he's gay too.  Over the course of this dinner party, more (expensive) wine was uncorked than at a medieval feast and (surprise) the participants reveal exactly what you would expect them to - that none of them are happy and some of them are not what they seem.

With a blueprint that could make a bad lifetime move look good, even the main prop - the wine - was a disaster.  Someone in the properties department needs a basic lesson in what color red and white wine should be.  (Hint - neither is pink).

Good People

David Lindsay Abaire's new work at Manhattan Theatre Club's Mainstage - The Freidman Theatre (I still call it the Biltmore), may only be taking its first-ever bows but already I can tell this play will be a juggernaut.  Abaire's biting wit and stinging social commentary plunge into the audience like a sharp knife into a raw steak.

The plot centers around Margaret (Frances McDormand) , a down-on-your-luck, brutally honest, not-so-educated, but quick-on-her-feet, god-fearing, life-long resident of South Boston's tough as nails, blue-collar, Lower End known as Southie.  At the curtain goes up (or the geometric panels retract, as it were) she is being fired from her latest job at the local dollar store.  We soon see her back at her apartment socializing with her close friends, Jean (Becky Ann Baker) and Dottie (Estelle Parsons).  With some brutally funny and poignantly sharp dialogue, they are discussing and gossiping about how Margaret will make ends meet for her and her retarded adult daughter.  There's little hope and lots of worry, but through it all there's an sense that this latest turn of events may not be the worst of times for these folks.

Encouraged by her friends, Margaret takes her job hunt to a (now) "comfortable" doctor she went to high school with in Southie over 30 years ago.  They dated briefly and their breakup just might coincide with the time frame that her daughter was born.  He "got out" and made something for himself.  What will she say to him?  How does the meeting go?   These questions and more will be answered.  Or will they?

Even at just the first week of previews, Parsons and McDormand are turning in top notch performances - and it will only get better from here.  My dear friend Donna is usually a bellwether of good actors and great plays - but I fear she may have mis-under-estimated the humor and depth of this fine work.  I encourage her and everyone else to check out some Good People on West 47th.

The Importance of Being Earnest

The Roundabout Theatre Company may have an occasional flop (at least one per season, by recent calculations), but their current production of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest is certainly not in that category.  Esteemed stage actor, Brian Bedford, directs a superb cast at the same time starring in this 3 act romp.  Earnest is one of Wilde's timeless works and this production dishes up barrels of laughs and glamorous sets - a thoroughly entertaining evening in the theatre all around.

One cannot even say that Bedford, playing the role of Lady Bracknell in drag, stole the show.  The entire cast around him never missed a beat and elevated the pedestal upon which Lady Bracknell could perch.  David Furr (John Worthing) and Santino Fontana (Algernon Moncrieff)  - Wilde's two Earnests  - have impeccable comedic timing, dashing good looks, and abundance of energy.  Charlotte Parry (Cecily) and Sara Topham (Gwendolyn) are smartly coquettish and irresistibly innocent as the ladies who fall for their Earnests.  Supporting these two fine couples are the delightful Dana Ivey (Miss Prism) and the charming Paxton Whitehead (Reverend Chasuble). 

Wilde's writing is a good as it gets - and the tale told is one that is timeless.  Comparisons to the 2002 movie are likely to be made by some - but the stage version is still tops in my book.   This comedy of manners is a timeless tale that is is looking to have a long run into the summer at the American Airlines Theater. Get your tickets today.  You might want to use your real name or you might not be able to pick them up.

The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore

When compared with the 1968 movie staring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor (Boom!) almost anything could shine.  As a matter of fact, the play was first mounted on Broadway in 1963 (re-mounted in1964) and played a combined total of 74 performances - receiving poor reviews all around.

So why then did the Roundabout choose this little known flop to re-mount?  One word - Tennessee Williams.   His works are grand and his talent well proven.  Perhaps the secret to this run's success will be two-fold - a complete dumbing down of the unnecessarily over-the-top costumes, Hollywood-like sets, and unnecessary camp and phony glamour but, more importantly, Olympia Dukakis herself.  

The play centers around Flora Goforth (Olympia Dukakis), a wealthy, older, eccentric dying American woman who had fled to an isolated cliff side villa retreat on the Italian coast to write her memoirs and live out her final days.  She receives a very handsome young visitor who is a struggling poet known as "the angel of death" (Darren Pettie) and we are taken on a journey into the minds and hearts of two very different individuals who both deeply want and need something from this relationship.  Round out the cast with an eccentric (read gay) friend, locally known as The Witch of Capri (Edward Hibbert) and Blackie (Maggie Lacey), Mrs Goforth's tortured personal assistant and you end up with a cauldron of wit, sarcasm, humor and love that Mr. Williams serves up deliciously.

Without the baggage of being a big dramatic (or drama-filled) Hollywood star, Dukakis plays the role in her own unique and humble style - leaving out most of the camp and everything that comes along with such a background.  She uniquely slices straight to the heart of Mrs Goforth - exposing her vulnerabilities, wants and needs, all the while maintaining her vitality and and sharp tongue.  Overall, the play, in Tennessee Williams signature style, is a bit too long, but when you're enjoying the banter and emotions on the stage, sometimes that doesn't matter.

Room 17B

Tucked away in the tiny Theater C atop the 59E59 complex lies a silent weapon consisting of hilarity and laughter.   Room 17B is loosely based in an office building, but don't worry, that' not really the important part.  Four gentlemen who never utter more than a grunt, a groan or a scream bring a genre of years past back to life with side-splitting results.  Joel Jeske, Danny Gardner, Brent McBeth and Mike Dobson take 65 minutes that you may have otherwise thrown down the toilet and turn it into sheer physical entertainment.

Part vaudeville, part silent film, part mime, part slapstick, and part physical comedy, these four characters present over 20 skits in and around this mysterious office filled from floor to ceiling with file drawers - many of which hide a prop or device needed to help the silent actors convey the story. Beware, though - - audience participation is mandatory and the theatre is small - so you're likely to be scrutinized very closely for a minor part in the evening's script.

For such a small production I marveled at the professionalism and skills of the actors.  It seemed like they had been working together for years!   Lighting and sound were brilliant and while I'm not a fan of the audience participation schtick - it was all crafted to make each chosen audience member feel like they were made an honorary member of the show.  Kudos to the boys of 17B.

Gruesome Playground Injuries

I'm glad the word "gruesome" was in the title of this show.  As I sat in the "playground" seating area (seats on the rear stage facing outward toward the audience leaving only two "walls" to the actors on stage) I soon learned just how gruesome those injuries were going to be.  It's a clever staging technique that I encourage everyone to ask for and enjoy.

A two-person, injury-ridden play that wraps up in 80 minutes is just about all the audience really could be subjected to on this topic by playwright Rajiv Joseph (soon also to be on Broadway with his work Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo staring Robin Williams).  Although it's graphic, it's not a two-hour horror flick either.  We follow the twisted (one might argue mentally unstable) children, Kayleen (Jennifer Carpenter) and Doug (Pablo Schreiber) from childhood to adulthood.  We start at 8 awkward years old and in various non-linear order end up at about 38 years old - drawn inexplicably to each other by injuries usually physical in nature.  Doug is the more outwardly weird one - getting into fights, showing his aggression, and harboring feelings for his best friend, Kayleen.  Superbly played by Mr. Schreiber, I always felt he was slightly mentally challenged and thus that drove his behavior.  Kayleen, on the other hand, while seemingly odd, is the more outwardly normal one - but not without her own problems - more internally driven - depression and rejection.  She's not loved by her father at all and ends up deeply depressed, cuts herself, takes drugs, and at her lowest point - tries to cut her stomach out.  Yes, gruesome is the operative word in the title.

Certainly not a happy play, but Mr. Joseph does have an ear for dialogue and undertones and the staging at 2ST is brilliantly executed.  There are no heroes in this play, no rescues, and not a whole lot of fun - but with two skilled actors, this play takes slices of life and reminds us about the fragility and delicate balance of life itself.

Three Pianos

Part concert, part history lesson, part poetry, part performance art. Three Pianos is a casual, contemporary, quirky, and off-beat evening in the theatre - and I'm pretty sure you'll walk out knowing just a little bit more about Franz Shubert than you did before you walked in.

Three friends and artists slip in and out between the life and times of Franz Shubert and the present. We are essentially learning about Mr. Shubert and his contemporaries, the history of music, all wrapped in a chaotic and alcoholic haze start to finish translation and analysis of the 24 pieces within the complete work, Winterreise. We learn what the lyrics mean, why he may have written them, and are given glimpses in to the life and times of the artist as well as the contemporary characters. Written, arranged, and performed by Rick Burkhardt, Alec Duffy, and Dave Malloy, this show is sure to delight. As they are having fun on stage, it's sure to rub off on you.

The three friends who are gathered on stage are not quite acting - I would categorize it more as performing. I wouldn't say they were actors, nor were they singers and at least one of them played a bit less on the piano than the other two. It's more casual, fun and fantasy on stage. It certainly helps that the audience gets to imbibe while listening in. Yes - they serve wine. Not just a glass, but bottles flow up and down the aisles! While that may seem antithetical to watching theatre, it certainly pairs up nicely with the atmosphere created here.

Recently extended - but only until January 16th - -so don your scarf and cap and head over to East 4th street to join the wintertime fun!

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!

Other Desert Cities

Perhaps the working title of this play used to be How to Ruin a Family in 12 Easy Steps.  Boy oh boy, What a punch this play packs!  The brilliant playwright Jon Robin Baitz is back from his brief detour to Hollywood and very glad we should be.  Under the direction of Joe Mantello, this production hits all the high notes in all the right places - comedy, religion, social commentary, drama and politics - all within the confines of the (very) white, upper middle class Palm Springs, California home of the Wyeth family.

Take all those powder-keg ingredients and toss in a top notch cast - Linda Lavin, Stockard Channing, Stacy Keach, Elizabeth Marvel, and the very sexy Thomas Sadowski and you've got a 2 1/2 hour weapon of mass destruction on your hands.   How did news of this stellar cast escape the news media, PR people, and me?.   I'm just glad my good friend, Donna, sent me the Playbill offer and I could end the year on such a high quality note as seeing this cast perform this play.

So what's it about?  It's about family, secrets, lies, love, protecting, and possibly at the same time, potentially destroying your children and your entire family.  In many ways, this play is like an season of Brothers and Sisters concentrated into two power-packed acts.  I mention this specifically because I was thinking about the similarities in format and style the entire time I was watching the family drama unfold.  I only realized afterwards as I was reading my playbill that Jon Robin Baitz actually wrote for the series for a season.  Now it all makes sense.

There are a few minor points that I'd like to see clarified in the text - one being the time frame - it's not until you really do the math that you realize the incident they are all dancing around happened in the 1970's (most of the audience spent the intermission discussing the math of how old the characters all were) and the other has to do with the ending.  No spoilers - but let's just say it was not clear to me right away what Mr. and Mrs. Wyeth actually did - it happened too quickly and was not clearly articulated.  It was perhaps the most important revelation of the entire play and it was done too quickly, I had about 3 versions of what was running in my head in parallel for a while.

Whether you like the family drama format, the actors, or the playwright - (or maybe all of the above) - Run, Don't walk - over to the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center and catch a performance of Other Desert Cities. It's currently in previews with an opening night slated for January 13th.  I think this one will be around for a while.  I could even imagine a Broadway transfer being discussed.  Hey - if God of Carnage can do it, this one is a shoe in.

A Small Fire

Adam Bock's new play, A Small Fire, is a solid, well-acted family drama but it leaves you asking more questions than were answered as you exit the theater.  When someone starts to lose their senses - not the mental kind - i mean the actual ones - smell, taste, vision, and hearing - something is wrong.  Very wrong.  Yet we never hear more than one passing reference to a visit to the doctor!  A play that centers around a woman losing all these abilities needs to provide some sort of medical explanation. Perhaps Mr. Bock's intent was to focus on the family drama and not the medical - and I applaud him for that - but some sort of cause or possible explanation should have been at least a small part of this story.

As for the actors, although the play centers around Emily Bridges, (Michele Pawk), this play is Reed Birney's (her husband, John Bridges) to steel and he's done just that.  It's role reversal at its best.  Emily, a tough, hard as nails woman, owns and operates a construction company and seems more at ease with the boys at the site than with her own family, household chores, and femininity in general.   John is more of a homebody - a caring, meek and dependent sort of fellow.  Birney's finesse of the tender moments was sublime.  As his wife is losing her senses one at a time, he finds himself even more dedicated to her - despite the fact that if all this were not happening their marriage may have fallen apart.  Their daughter, Jenny, (Celia Keenan-Bolger), clearly emotionally damaged by the lack of motherly love over the years, is, expectedly, distant and detached.  Ms. Bolger isn't given very much to do or say but it's clear where she stands as she's about to get married and start a life of her own.  Birney's emotional description of the wedding reception scene to his wife (at that point blind) was one of the most poignant scenes in the entire play.  Overall, Ms. Pawk seemed to be a bit lost with character, but gave it her all.

On a disappointing note, Billy Fontaine's (Victor Wiliams) reason for his unwavering support for his boss, Emily, was a complete distraction.  Mr. Bock, not every play needs to have a gay sub-plot - and certainly there was a less distracting way to convey Billy's unwavering support without bringing up AIDS (and pigeons!).   And while I understand the meaning of the ending of the play (she may have lost all her senses, but she can still feel) - did we really need to see such a gratuitous sex?  In this case, less would have been more.

From a production stand-point - I have to point out the extremely well thought-out, unobtrusive and well placed sound and lighting effects.  I don't often point these more technical aspect out (or even notice them), but in this case, they added the perfect emphasis time and time again.  I assume this credit must go to David Weiner and Robert Kaplowitz.

While Mr. Bock's script may not dazzle, the acting in this 90 minute drama is top notch and well worth the price of an off-Broadway ticket over at Playwrights Horizons MainStage.

The Wife

If you're in the mood for something different - edgy and uncomfortable - check out The Wife, now playing downtown at the Access Theater on White Street and Broadway.  Sometimes you need a change of pace and Tommy Smith has penned a work that's sure to leave you reeling and thinking when you leave the massive open floor plan performance space.

A Hasidic couple in NYC is very unhappy.  They lost a baby a few years ago and she hasn't been intimate with him since.  He visits prostitutes.  She wants to leave the marriage and return to Israel.  She secretly finds work cat sitting for a young white neighbor.  He's nice but a little "off".  His ex-girlfriend is one of the prostitutes her husband has encountered.  The prostitute's daughter crosses paths with the husband.  The guy visits the store where the husband works, mentions the wife and upsets the husband.  The neighbor guy ends up killing the daughter in the woods and gets arrested.  The prostitute and the wife end up taking a train trip.  Everyone's got problems in this play and it doesn't end happily for just about any of them.  Through the dark and crazy plot connections are made, paths crossed, and lives destroyed.

All this and more bat-shit-psycho crazy in 75 minutes with no intermission.  It's intense, it's dark, and it's not your mother's afternoon soap opera.  The acting is top notch and the writing is superb.  Don't be shy - leave Broadway for an evening and shake things up in your life.  It's worth well more than the subway ride there and back and you'll get quite a workout climbing the 4 flights of stairs to get to the theatre!

Haunted

If my memory serves me correctly, I believe I heard that Edna O'Brien originally wrote Haunted in a series of tele-plays.  She later asked Brenda Blethyn to read it - and hence we are finally seeing this version of the touching story of an older married couple growing apart in their later years, distracted and turned upside down by the appearance of a younger woman performed on the live stage in the Brits off Broadway 2010 season.

Tony nominated Brenda Blethyn and Niall Buggy take the helm as Mr. and Mrs. Berry.  Mr. Berry is enamored with the appearance of a strange young woman, Hazel, (Beth Cooke) at his door.  While his wife is out to work each day, the retired Mr. Berry finds himself diving deeper and deeper into his fantasy of a happier life with this woman.   So strong is his fantasy, that he tells her his wife is dead and begins to give her gifts of her clothing and belongings in exchange for her providing elocution lessons.  Things spiral helplessly out of control until finally Mrs. Berry returns home to catch the two in a dramatic, well acted, penultimate scene of the play.

Mrs. Blethyn is superb in her portrayal of the quirky, coy, yet biting and witty Mrs. Berry and virtually steals the show with her meaty performances.  O'Brien's work could certainly use some trimming to eliminate the drawn out, repetitive (read boring) nature of some of the dialogue and scenes.  I thought the addition of the rather (comparatively) high-tech video projections between the scenes provided a much needed emotional and mental picture of the subconscious and ominous emotions that O'Brien was intending to convey.

Do the British prattle on too much?  Of course.  This play is no exception, but top notch acting saves the day.  I wish I could say the same for Mr. and Mrs. Berry.

Looking at Christmas

A delightful poem to the the Christmas windows that dot the sidewalks of New York City during the holiday season.  Skip the madness of of Radio City Music Hall and take a relaxing stroll downtown to the Flea Theater to see what I consider to be one of the best new additions to the holiday show repertoire.  Steven Banks, the playwright, is the head writer for Sponge Bob Square Pants and he's penned a charming, witty, and unique take on a chance meeting of two lonely and lovelorn strangers on Christmas Eve in New York City.  Jim Simpson, artistic director at the Flea Theater, could not have made a more entertaining and satisfying choice to produce this holiday season.

As the two strangers, John (Michael Micalizzi) and Charmian (Allison Buck), meet in front of  Bloomingdale's and decide to stroll down the streets of New York on Christmas Eve, they find themselves questioning their relationships, careers, directions, family and friends.  After revealing a little something about themselves in front of each store window, the window then comes alive and adds a little commentary about what it just saw.  This year, according to the paper Charmian is carrying,  the general theme of the windows is Favorite Christmas Stories - Mrs. Claus and an Elf, Hans Christian Anderson's Little Match Girl, Scrooge and Tiny Tim, A Snowman and Snow Princess, and Jesus and Mary in the stables are among the stories represented in the windows.   With a story and character-specific dash of whimsy, we find out a little something about what each window thinks - and at the same time the romance buds a little bit more.

It's no secret where the story is headed.  And while the pace could be stepped up a bit (changing between the couple and the windows), the story still strikes a perfect holiday note.  When you leave the theatre, you just might want to take your own stroll to see the windows for yourself.  Who knows what they'll be saying when you walk away?

Spiderman Turn off the Dark

Let's be clear right up front.  This is not a review.  It's a preview.  I had the unique opportunity to see Spidey roar to life on it's fourth-ever performance.  I went because I wanted to see what a show looked like as they were in the final stages of putting it together.  My fascination with this show is the unique process by which it is being brought to Broadway, not with the show itself.  I don't think I knew anything about the Spidey story growing up.  I stuck to Bugs and Fred and Barney mostly.

Normally, a big new show starts out of town - say in Los Angels, Chicago, or Seattle.  The creative team has never built sets before, never seen how one scene flows into the next from beginning to end, and maybe has only seen the show in a workshop room - never staged at all. They build it all and perform it all in a city away from the eyes of the critical New York press, perfect it, and then, when ready, move it to Broadway for a magical debut.  Makes sense, right?  Sometimes when you are cooking a meal for the first time, you do a "dry run", right?  I know people who get a new job and they drive there 2 or 3 times just to make sure they don't get lost along the way and show up late on the first day!

Well, that's how it all used to work, anyway.  What one of the producers told us on stage just before the preview performance was just this - with one caveat - this show was too big, too complex to do that. There was only one theatre in the world that could handle the massive undertaking - and we were sitting in it.   I'm not so sure I really believe that - but that's the producers' story and they are sticking to it.  And this is where my problem begins.

The house was a sell-out.  By way of history - Spidey's opening has been delayed several times.  So the theatre was filled with people who may have bought tickets month's ago and this particular performance would have been well into the initial weeks of the run - not the 4th preview.  By the sounds of the French, British, German and mid-western and southern US accents all around me - many were tourists.  After all, this is a "big deal" on Broadway, what tourist wouldn't want to get a piece of this action?  The problem is - some of these people paid upwards of $140-$200 per ticket.  (full disclosure, my ticket in the center orchestra, Row O cost me $77).  When you're paying that much to see a show, you may come in with expectations of perfection.  Clearly that was not going to be the case.  I found myself thinking, what's going to happen when these people who paid that much see a show stop, see the lights come up and the actors reset a scene, the stagehands actually on the stage at times?  Will a rope fall on our heads like it did during the first preview? Can I sue them if Spidey falls on my lap and breaks my neck? (OK, i digress...).  Will the people who just expect to be dazzled want to see all that?  Will they walk out in disgust and spread bad news about the show?  Well, here is what I think happened and it's based on, of all things, an interview on Larry King with Al Pacino that recently aired.

Larry was asking Pacino about his performance as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice on the summer stage in Central Park.  Pacino described how it was a unique stage in a unique environment - tree branches fall on stage, an unexpected wind blows your robe above your head, and occasionally it rains - which of course stops the show.  He described how every time it rained and the stage manager announced that the show would pause, the audience seemed to love this.   Larry grimaced and Pacino went on to describe that he could only speculate that people just love to be a part of something unique - and when rain stopped the show - they got to experience something unique - witness how the actors handled it, how the show re-grouped and moved on.  "Always applause", he said.  As if they were cheering us on for being able to handle the interruption.  They were now part of a performance that nobody up to this point had experienced.  People are people.  They all look at the car accident on the side of the road, and apparently they all love when rain stops a show in central park too.

So I apply this principle to the Spidey phenomenon.  My preview performance did stop.  Spidey got stuck. Randall, the production stage manager sitting up in the first box in a little booth who was introduced to us by the producer prior to the show, indeed, had a moment with us.  House lights went up, he fired off some instructions to the actors and stage hands and in a few minutes, we were back on track. During the pause, of course many people decided it was appropriate to clap, cheer on the stuck spidey up on the mezzanine landing spot.  People felt obliged to blurt out comments, others got up and went to the bathroom (and came back in the dark because we were back on in less than 5 minutes).

My point here is that people seem to be publicly condemning the imperfect product, but actually enjoying it at the same time.  Do I have a laundry list of notes for director, Julie Taymor?  Yes.  Do I think she'll ever read this blog post and call me up to discuss them?  Not a chance.  So I'm going to wait until the show opens to see it again and see just how many of those things are gone from my list.  I'll even promise to post the entire list and cross off the ones that were resolved.  But I do have one idea that maybe if everyone was starting this mess all over again would have considered  - - and here it is - -   Everyone must have known this show was going to be mammoth and expensive and technically complex from the get-go.  The producers have sunk an estimated $65M into bringing this show to life - and it will cost them over $1M in running costs each week to keep it running - above and beyond the $65M investment.

Since they were doing something never done before - why didn't they do something in the ticketing world they've never done before - sell tickets to the early performances as dress and technical rehearsals for a fraction of their costs?   The producers are trying to have it both ways - bring a show to Broadway in one of the most unique ways - but all the while stick to the old fashioned model of pricing and selling tickets and they get angry when reviewers prematurely make negative comments - all the while selling full price tickets to the performances.  If every ticket in the house was $40 and the entire preview period was deemed a "dress rehearsal" from the outset - I believe the concept would have generated unique interest - above and beyond the hype for the show itself.  Sell out the preview period with cheap tickets intended to showcase the initial weeks as a work in progress.  Remember, people like to be part of something unique.  Why not sell your strong point - SpiderMan is unique and every aspect of the production, including the ticket pricing and preview performance model should have been be ground breaking and a novel way to publicly birth the show.  Maybe my idea is flawed, maybe someone already thought of it and poo-poo'd it.  Or maybe it was a missed opportunity.

You'll just have to wait for my review which I'll reserve for when the show is officially ready to be reviewed.  I certainly hope some of the items on my list get addressed.

The Extraordinary Ordinary

Scott Burkell and Paul Loesel have a lot to be proud of.  After only two years in development and a short rehearsal period, I had the privilege of attending the opening night of their delightful new tuner, The Extraordinary Ordinary, at the Clurman Theatre on West 42nd Street.

It's a slice of life story with 5 thirty-something friends now all living in New York City, growing older and experiencing life - each exploring, doubting, loving, and learning about themselves along the way. Karen (Courtney Balan) is the neurotic, list-making, perennially single glue who hosts monthly Friday night and holiday get-togethers for the group.  She's got a BFF, Sam (Kristoffer Cusick), another longtime friend from college - fabulously gay and usually bouncing from one dead-end relationship to another who is now dating Joey (Jonathan Parkey), a much younger, wise beyond his years college boy.  Bev (Kelly McCormick) and Zach (Patrick Oliver Jones) are the classic successful, driven married couple who have started to grow apart. Last, but certainly note least, there's the zany, off-beat, and quirky Kate (Pamela Bob) who needs, among other things, to figure out if her boyfriend, Stu, is a keeper or not.

This just might be one of the most delightful show I've seen in a long time - the contemporary story doesn't go overboard with the stereotypes, the relationships and the problems seem real, and most importantly, the cast has some genuine chemistry which is intelligently harnessed with some excellent direction by Chip Klose.  Of course, it also helps when the songs never fail to delight and entertain the entire evening.  Through life's little mishaps, personal self-doubts, afternoons in the park doing crossword puzzles, 3-way phone calls, relationship issues, and the many evenings at Bev's apartment, the message of true friendship and love shines brightly throughout the show.

Call, text, or email your BFF today and take them out to see this upbeat, entertaining, and thoroughly enjoyable musical before it's too late - it only runs thru December 18th.

Priscilla Queen of the Desert

Here she comes boys.... the granddaddy of all drag shows will be rolling it's bus into our town this winter.  For me, I got the chance to go see her out of town in Toronto this past weekend and let me tell you right now - it is going to be over the T.O.P - filled with glitter, glitz, and gay boys in outrageously colorful costumes singing campy pop hits.  One note, probably because there is already one ABBA show running on Broadway, the producers made a wise decision to change (and update) the young character's obsession from ABBA to Madonna.  A very wise choice, indeed. Who doesn't want to see 3 drag queens strutting their stuff to any number of Madge's tunes, right?

By way of background - I've never seen the movie (yes, i know, take my card away).  So this experience was a genuine first.  Many people have told me what the movie was like - and i can read too - but for me not having seen the movie might have made this production even more special.  I have a feeling, like so many iconic movies, no matter what they do on stage, everyone will say "it doesn't compare" or "the movie was so much better".   That's probably a losing battle for the producers so they don't even try to fight it.  Where they win is in the production quality (read camp) of the musical numbers.  Nothing beats a bunch of drag queens in outrageous costumes strutting their stuff on a broadway stage.  Throw in some really cool and over the top video projection and lighting effects and a book that keeps it gay gay gay and you end up with something that's destined for success on the great pink way.

Bringing a show like this to the stage is bound to introduce some complications to downsize and focus the book.  The fact that there was an actual bus on stage was a big score for the production.  Without that one rather large piece of technology, i doubt this show would ever have made it out of previews.  I would also think when it gets to the Palace, the first thing they'll do is remove the Chandelier in the middle of the theatre and replace it with one great big disco ball.  The one downside I feel obliged to highlight is that I didn't feel there was a very deep story being told.  Many have told me that the movie (remember, the inevitable comparison) was touching and tender as well as being campy and gay.  Well, if there is one thing this show is lacking, it's a deep story.  It felt a bit shallow, trimmed down and condensed for the sake of Broadway's unavoidable moderate, fun-loving audiences.

Despite this one minor drawback, the talent on the stage more than made up for lack of story.  Nick Adams (Felicia), Will Swenson (Tick) and Tony Sheldon (Bernadette) helm this production like no others could.  Adams, who most call a triple threat,  is drop dead gorgeous, unbelievably pliable and genuinely adorable all rolled up in one.  And folks, when I say hot, i mean burn your fingers off if you touch him HOT.  Swenson is tender and lovable and Sheldon takes Bernadette to a level I think only Charles Busch could compete with (Busch wasn't in the show, just for the record).

Ladies, when this bus rolls into town at the Palace Theatre you had better have exact change all lined up!  Next stop - Alice Springs!

Long Story Short

It's no secret - Jerry Seinfeld has now conquered Broadway - well only as a director, for now.  Colin Quinn's stand-up comedy routine, Long Story Short, is certainly long on marketing, but falls short on substance and meaningful theatre for a Broadway house.

Is it funny, witty, amusing, and entertaining?  Sure.  Somehow I guess I expected some theatrical magic to accompany Quinn's abridged 75 minute tour through civilization's (cherry picked for the humor) major societies.   Instead all I got was the seemingly left over set from Xanadu (a previous production at the Helen Hayes Theatre), some artful graphics on a large projection screen and lighting that changed colors more times than Sarah Palin said "maverick" on the campaign trail.

It's not like Quinn did back flips or dance moves on the stage - he stood there - occasionally climbing up and down the cheap set telling us mildly amusing jokes and stories in his ever-blunt fashion.  I'm pretty sure that Quinn didn't need Seinfeld  - since he's a pretty funny guy all unto himself - and it was more about his name associated with the show.  Branding.  Seinfeld is known as a comic genius.  What better way to sell tickets to a stand-up comedy routine taking up residence in a Broadway house than to associate yourself with one of the most successful names in the business today.  Quinn and his show are good.  But not that good.  Broadway is still no place for a stand-up comedy routine, no matter who's directing.