When did Second City become so Self-Satisfied?

     In today’s marketing era, an institution is one whose brand is indestructible, no matter whether the quality has slipped.  Second City embodies this definition in its current main stage revue Fool Me Twice, Déjà Vu.  The concept was intriguing, but the execution was off-key and veered dangerously close to being amateurish.  The set-up was that one cast member was in the now while the rest of the cast was in 1991.  It was a time machine he’d invented and the others were visiting him.  It was funny and the first act’s subtext was an examination of the extent to which American life and culture had changed over the past quarter century.  The best scene involved three young mothers energetically celebrating “having it all.”  The by-products were exhilaration, entitlement, and exhaustion.

The Cast of Fool Me Twice, Déjà Vu

     The second act began as an off-kilter version of the first act’s beginning:  the Déjà Vu effect squared.  The twentysomething brother/sister behind me felt the need to point this out to each other, though it only needed explaining for the obtuse or feeble-minded.  Although the variations, especially a family brunch scene, were droll and amusing, the ensemble made the fatal mistake of breaking numerous times.  Though this can seem funny when it happens inadvertently, it became a motif where the cast members were more focused on entertaining one another and themselves than they were in pointing at truths to an audience.  It’s narcissistic – the absolute opposite intention of improvisation – and lazy, which is the worst rip-off of a paying audience by professionals.

     The fully improvised third act was sloppy.  The first game was word/sentence association and went on three times longer than its natural ending, which was a hilarious example by Jamison Webb, who was the glue that held the ensemble together.  I felt Daniel Strauss was checked out of this part.  His best moments were one line in the first act and its repeat in the second act.  Strauss broke the cardinal rule of accepting a detail given him by another cast member and going with it.  Instead, he denied it and justified this by his character’s bad memory.  I couldn’t reconcile this ‘variation’ on the orthodoxy of improv.  Paul Jurewicz worked well, but the audience

Rashawn Nadine Scott

seemed primed to see another John Belushi just because he possessed girth.  Rashawn Nadine Scott sparked in any audience interaction game, while Sarah Shook was kookily attractive, but willing to do anything for a laugh.  I liked Kelsey Kinney a lot in a long improv about Google programmers, but she kept performing the same type of character continually in the first two acts.

     None of this seemed to faze the audience, however.  They were overly conversant with the legendary past of Second City and reacted as if they were watching then in their prime.  Ten years ago or so we saw an excellent troupe exemplified by the Black Republican sketch and the ancient black grandmother giving shockingly honest advice to much younger listeners.  I don’t know what happened to those performers, but they were excellent.  I saw Paradigm Shift in ’97 (partly written by Tina Fey) and found its quick retread of part of act one in the second act and final summative moments to be startlingly fresh.  I still remember Rachel Dratch’s mother of a gargoyle.  Fool Me Twice isn’t fresh, especially in the negative stereotyping of southerners and the easy shots at straight white Anglo-Saxon males.  They could have added Jewish males in the movie business as well, but they didn’t have the guts to go quite that far.  The lack of liberal self-awareness was surprising.  In the past, the ensemble has been able to poke fun at itself, but this was not an element of this production.

     The three-generation family behind us – I figured out that the younger members were explaining what was going on to the grandmother.  How she was able to get into the performance space in her wheelchair was beyond me, but she was sandwiched in like the rest of us.  They left during the improvised set I assume because it was coarse and not very funny.

Jacob Shuda

    The musical direction was stellar and did a lot to punch up the pacing and underscore the specific scenes’ emotions.  Musical Director and pianist Jacob Shuda looked like a star when he took his bow.  The cast should take a cue from him.

secondcity.com

Mary Page Marlowe at Steppenwolf

     Neil was interested in seeing Tracy Lettts’ Mary Page Marlowe (MPM) because it was premiering at Steppenwolf and we wanted a reason to visit Chicago; I was interested after I read a rave in The New York Times (yes, bloggers can be review whores).  Letts has deservedly earned a reputation as a major American dramatist and he’s focused on the middle of the country with intelligent, quirky characters finding themselves in situations that begin mundanely and turn horrific.  With Superior Donuts (2008) and now MPM, he’s examining the details of ordinary lives, the type of people watching the show or people that viewers know.

     Baby boomer Mary Page Marlowe, living in Dayton and then Lexington, leads a life that many women of her generation did (and do) in being raised by parents who came of age before World War II, listened to records and thought about boys in the ‘50s, graduated from college in the ‘60s, got married and worked professionally, had a family, divorced, and I won’t go on from there because I don’t want to spoil the story, which depends on its specific details and the order of their revelation.  Although these were turbulent times that changed the culture in the U.S., MPM is not a leader in any movement.  She’s an ordinary middle-class woman and this frustrates her, along with her tacitly acknowledged Catholic guilt, resulting in behavior she regrets.

Madeline Weinstein, Jack Edwards and Rebecca Spence

     Letts’ coup de theatre is to portray scenes from her life out of chronological order so that the audience has clues to figure out MPM’s personality and motivations and also renders what could be commonplace when told like an obituary as various startling and defining moments.  Director Anna D. Shapiro has cast six actresses as Mary over the decades.  Rebecca Spence and Blair Brown are standouts in the role.  I’d like to have seen more of Spence, but the next scene she might have played chronologically was cast with another actress.  I wish we could have seen Carrie Coon since she was fierce in Gone Girl (2014), but her understudy was playing instead and was very good, though her wigs looked like wigs.  

     All of the actors in the large cast performed beautifully, especially newcomer Madeline Weinstein as Mary’s daughter Wendy and the veteran Steppenwolf member Alan Wilder as Mary’s final husband.  Without ever underlining, the production demonstrates the time periods easily through Todd Rosenthal’s set design and Linda Roethke’s costumes.  Large screen projections were integral to the scene changes (as they were in the Shaw’s production of Sweet Charity last year), but Sven Ortel’s are decorative and thematic, rather than being descriptive.

The Final Scene with Blair Brown

     The one problem with the performance was its ending.  Rather than a dramatic climax, though there were fraught confrontations earlier, the final moment is one of quiet epiphany.  However, there wasn’t an arresting conclusion with lighting or sound to draw the applause it deserved.  An understated, eloquent play was left hanging and I think Shapiro needs to re-think the moments after the final image so that the audience can react properly.

MPM runs through June 5, 2016.

steppenwolf.org

Annapurna at Ensemble: Powerful but Uneven

     Sharr White’s Annapurna (2011), directed in its regional premiere by Lynn Meyers, starts off as if it’s the sequel to one of Sam Shepard’s classics.  Those crazy, intense lovers in their surreal spaces end up twenty years later in a trailer park.  However, as the play progressed, it became apparent that it was the last embers of a romantic tragedy.  As I said about Ensemble’s earlier production of White’s The Other Place last season, I don’t want to give too much away about the story behind the plot because it becomes far more intriguing than it initially appears.  

Parlato and Pugh*

     Dennis Parlato gives a masterful performance as Ulysses, immediately establishing a complex, all-encompassing rhythm.  He’s playing a semi-legendary character (sort of what Denis Johnson might have been like if he hadn’t kicked drugs and alcohol) faced with a major figure from his past.  Unlike his namesake, he’s not going anywhere; he’s running out of time and is trapped in space.  It took me a while to warm up to Regina Pugh as Emma, even though I have always admired her work.  Susan and I thought she seemed as if she was in a light comedy at the beginning, while Katy and Lisa thought she was finding a way for her character to cope with the initial situation.  Pugh always makes definite choices in her acting, which I respect, but they didn’t all work for me here.  However, after the first half hour, she began to match Parlato beat for beat, resulting in a powerful climax.  

    

The Horrifying Set

     When we sat down as a group, Neil said, “Eric will have a tough time with this set.”  It’s the type of design that gets a Tony nomination and three cheers to Brian c. Mehring for it and for the lighting and to Shannon Rae Lutz for the properties.  It’s a life-size singlewide trailer that was built in the late ‘70s (my Mom has the same kitchen cabinetry) and has been inhabited by someone who’s somewhere between a nuclear slob and a toxic hoarder.  I kept looking for the mummified pet that shows up on Hoarders, but fortunately Ms. Lutz didn’t go that far.  I tried to avert my eyes from looking at it full on because it was like driving by a head on collision.

     There are some clarifications needed from the script.  Annapurna is a collection of mountains in the Himalayas and becomes significant because of Ulysses’ writing.  Katy pointed out some inconsistencies in the exposition details.  This is an established script so it cannot be changed, but I wonder why the original director or a dramaturge didn’t point this out to White.  Also, did Emma buy groceries in Missouri because there isn’t a Piggly Wiggly in Colorado – the setting of the play?  Is this in the script or a choice by Lutz? 

*Photo from Ensemble Theatre website.

Annapurna runs through April 10, 2016.

ensemblecincinnati.org

Mothers and Sons: Almost There

     Terrence McNally’s Mother and Sons (2014) has been directed with clarity by Timothy Douglas in the Thompson Shelterhouse space at Playhouse in the Park.  When I read it in his Selected Works:  A Memoir in Plays (2016), I found its characters’ sense of loss and rage, tempered somewhat by the passage of two decades, poignant and moving.  I warned Neil that there would be tears at the finale.  There were, but unfortunately they weren’t mine.

The Cast of Mothers and Sons*

     The play is a sequel to McNally’s teleplay André’s Mother (1990), where André Gerard had died of AIDS and his lover Cal, Cal’s family and their friends hold a memorial service for him that his mother attends, but she’s unable to come to terms with any of it or fully express herself.  Twenty years later, Katharine, André’s mother, unexpectedly visits Cal.  He has married a younger man and they have a son.  This is a ghost story in which André haunts both Katharine and Cal in very different ways.   The tone moves from politeness to anger, regret and, finally, reconciliation.  

Alvin Keith and Stephanie Berry*

     Alvin Keith and Ben Cherry are very strong as respectively Cal and his husband Will.  Stephanie Berry has the elegant demeanor and beautiful legs called for in the script.  She’s a technically accomplished actress, but she’s emotionally warm and seems accepting, which goes against the initial essence of the character.  The payoff of her character’s thaw seems more muted than in the script.  During the preview we saw, she had a couple of struggles with her lines.  There’s an intriguing, unspoken edge in casting Keith and Berry that strengthens this production, which wouldn’t be there with white performers as in the initial New York productions.  Austin Vaughan plays the youngster Bud with vivacity.  

     Junghyun Georgia Lee’s set design evoked an upper-middle class apartment in New York’s Central Park West; the color and proportion of the chaise couch rooted the play in its milieu.  The lighting was sharp except for the peculiar last cue (and it’s in the script) where it brightens intensely before the blackout.  Neil thought it was supposed to be symbolic and I think he’s right, but it wasn’t necessary because that came across in the relationship between the characters.  The costumes were appropriate, but Katherine’s dress didn’t fit as well as it could have; I caught Berry discreetly pulling it down.

     All in all, this is a good production of an important contemporary script that shows how much life has changed for gays and straights in the decades since AIDS was an immediate death sentence.

Mothers and Sons runs through April 17, 2016.

*Photos from Playhouse in the Park website.

cincyplay.com

Actors Theatre of Louisville still takes risks with The Humana Festival

     It’s always worth a trip to Louisville in March-April to see one of the world premieres at Actors Theatre of Louisville (ATL) as part of the Humana Festival.  This is the 40th year of the festival and the line-up of plays seems intriguing this year.  We decided to call for a couple of tickets, stop for lunch at Havana Rumba (or Jack Fry’s or Hammerheads or the new Game, take your pick), and go to a 4 p.m. matinee of Sarah Ruhl’s For Peter Pan on her 70th birthday.  The synopsis told us something, namely that it was about a woman who’d played Peter Pan onstage when she was younger and her family living in Iowa.

Kathleen Chalfant

     We discovered while reading the program that the cast included Kathleen Chalfant, a great stage actress we’d only seen on film and TV, Scott Jaeck, whom I saw a number of times in Chicago while I was in college, and Keith Reddin , author of some of the most stylistically adventurous comedies of the 1980s including Rum and Coke and Highest Standard of Living, and other top actors we’ve seen on various TV series as guest stars.  Les Waters, artistic director at ATL, directed as he has four other works by Ruhl.  Amy Wegener, ATL literary manager, was the dramaturg.  (This means she does lots of research for directors and actors on existing plays and works as an editor with new plays, especially world premieres like this one).  London based designer Annie Smart was responsible for the set.  Everything sounded great.

The Entire Cast in the Hospital Scene*

     During the prologue, Chalfant immediately connected with the audience as the central character Ann (I wondered if the audience was mesmerized by the actress or the character and I have to say in retrospect it was Chalfant’s magic) and got things off to a bright start.  Then the curtains were pulled back to reveal a naturalistic hospital set that looked more contemporary because of its color scheme than the 1990s mentioned in the program.  An elderly man was dying, surrounded by his grown children and for anyone who’s been at a deathbed, it’s not something that’s immediately entertaining and Ruhl did little to make the experience specific to that group of characters or deeply resonant to an audience.

Wendy and Peter*

     The cast was challenged by a number of factors that it met head on.  First, Chalfant’s Ann never made sense as someone who never grew up and needed reassurances from her brothers.  However, she valiantly made this as truthful as she could.  Lisa Emery’s Wendy, the youngest sibling, had all the desperation of a middle-aged person lost in the family shuffle and unwilling to deal with anything difficult or mature.  Ann seemed like a second mother to her brothers, namely the iconic Wendy, whereas Wendy made much more sense as Peter Pan.  Second, Ruhl loves to shift gears between a gently realistic comedy-drama and a whimsical approach to fantasy and connections to myth (Greek in the past, but J.M. Barrie here).  It seemed charming and original a decade ago in The Clean House, but this script never went deep enough in fleshing out the siblings nor strongly enough in connecting them to the Peter Pan archetypes and then the actual Pan characters and situations in the third scene.  Where was the dramaturg in this?  When was this draft of the script completed?  

     The major challenge at this matinee was an elderly audience member who fell up some stairs about halfway through the performance and what seemed like a dozen audience members and the house management staff tried to assist.  No one whispered so it was pretty obvious what was going on.  At one point, the house doors were opened to the street for the EMT to assist and then transport the patient.  The performance never wavered, which the audience credited to the cast with a standing ovation.  However, no one from the theatre ever informed the audience what had transpired at the end of the performance and the situation continued for about a half hour.  If Ruhl had been present, she would have seen something remarkable:  the audience, for the most part, was more interested in what was going on with the audience member that fell than it was in the story onstage.  

     If this were reported to her, I’d hope she’d consider revising the play.  The first thing Neil observed was that it wasn’t finished and he was right.  The fantasy elements, while lovely, are not woven densely enough into the texture of the aging Iowa siblings’ story and the relationships between those characters are not detailed enough for an audience to really care.  There’s nothing that would offend any audience member even though the specter of political discourse is raised yet quickly dropped and that’s a problem.  It’s a safe, mild play in which a group of wonderful actors provide far more substance to the proceedings than the play merits at this juncture.  Ruhl’s very hot right now (she’s actually a little overrated) so I doubt any of this will be recommended to her and most likely this current script version will be produced elsewhere because of her name.

     However, we don’t mean for this review to keep audiences from attending the Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville.  There are other scripts and productions going on that are probably wonderful.  We’ve seen other terrific shows there in the past and we’ll certainly return.  One note to Waters and Wegener:  what about reviving one of Reddin’s scripts?  I bet they still hold up.

*Photos by Bill Brymer for ATL

actorstheatre.org

Native Gardens Wins at The Playhouse

     Native Gardens by Karen Zacarias moves swiftly in its world premiere at The Playhouse in the Park.  We decided to see it for a number of reasons, not the least being that award winning Broadway triple threat Karen Ziemba is in the cast.  Zacarias is hot right now, having five premieres at major venues around the country this year, but she has been writing and been produced for over two decades.  It’s the type of play and production where an audience may wish it last another ten minutes or even delve deeper into the issues it raises.

     The premise is classic:  a young, liberal Chilean-Hispanic American couple move into a fixer-upper next door to a middle-aged, conservative Caucasian American couple in a beautifully restored and landscaped (by the husband) Italianate in a Washington suburb.  The new couple find out that their property line actually extends two feet into the garden next door; the younger wife wants to plant a garden of native varieties whereas the older husband’s garden focuses on ornamentals.  The situation could take place, however, in Mt. Adams or Mt. Lookout or the Historic district of Newport.  The specifics in locale, personalities, and conflicts reverberate for anyone with neighbors.  

The Neighbors*

     The Playhouse administration was smart to commission this script after the success it experienced with the earlier The Book Club Play by Zacarias.  In this new work, Zacarias offers a master class in one act comedy structure:  current world, inciting incident, complications and reversals, crisis-climax, (very quick) denouement, new world.  The denouement felt slightly off-kilter because I’m thinking there was an early light cue call, which caught the actors before they were on their marks.  They reacted professionally, but the show felt like it was suddenly over.

Varela and Ziemba*

     The cast worked tightly and in concert.  Ziemba, who could pass for a decade younger than her and her character’s age, provides smooth professionalism and support in the least showy role.  She has a great bit with a chain saw and a contentious oak tree that looked incredibly realistic.  Gabriel Ruiz displays an elegance and intelligence that are attractive until they shade subtly into condescension.  The most intriguing roles are those of the gardeners:  the younger Hispanic woman and the older Caucasian man.  Sabina Zuniga Varela plays a very pregnant force of pragmatic Nature with a brightness that foreshadows a hopeful ending.  

Ruiz and Lescault*

However, it’s John Lescault whose portrait of an aging, unknowingly entitled yet clear-eyed husband that is most indelible.  Lescault moves with an exactness that borders on fastidiousness before exploding.  His background in opera lends itself to the vocal notes he hits for laughs.  These were debuts at The Playhouse.  Here’s hoping they’ll return in the future.

The Jaw-dropping Set*

     Blake Robison directs seamlessly and stages one terrific scene where both couples are simultaneously strategizing like middlebrow, suburban Macbeths and use the same gestures.  Joseph P. Tilford’s set and Mary Louise Geiger’s lighting are gorgeous.  It’s a breath-taking moment walking into the Robert Marx auditorium.

*Photos from Playhouse in the Park Website

Native Gardens runs through Sunday, February 21, 2016.

cincyplay.com

The Enthralling and Hilarious BUYER & CELLAR at Ensemble

     Ensemble Theatre has nailed a number of one-person shows over the years and it does so again with the hilarious and quietly unsettling Buyer & Cellar by Jonathan Tolins.  It demands a confident, strongly energetic performance to make it work.  Director Lynn Meyers smartly cast Nick Cearley, who maintains an almost laser-like focus built on a strong classical technique while performing six different parts with an effervescence that displays his joy onstage.  Brian c. Mehring’s set, lighting, and projections become presences – almost characters – in themselves and that lends another level to exploring the play’s themes.

The Book That
Inspired the Play

     Alex, the narrator, is an actor who finds himself unemployed because of an unfortunate incident at Disneyland.  He takes a very peculiar paid position, which doesn’t require acting per se until he decides to create a narrative for a doll that’s for sale.  I don’t want to say any more because I don’t want to spoil the story’s surprises.  Some audience members may know ahead of time that a very famous diva plays a major role in the proceedings.  The script hilariously starts off with a metaphysical note explaining that this is a fiction and that these are characters andt are not ‘real’ people.  True, but it’s the star-struck aspect of the story that will draw audiences in, as it does Alex, like a moth.

     Tolins points up the American addictions to celebrity gossip and rampant consumerism.  What does it mean when a person’s self-image trumps how they connect with other people?  Or is that the downside to stardom?  When a person’s possessions become a replacement for their experiences, what does that say about their humanity?  Meyers teases out that ambivalence without ever sacrificing the surface charm.  

Nick Cearley*

     Cearley has seemed glib in the past, but never here.  He can be elegant, fabulous, and flamboyant, but he’s always honest and he never repeats or wastes a gesture; it’s an incredibly crisp and intelligent performance and there wasn’t a moment where I was confused about which character he was playing.  As Tolins writes in his script, Alex won’t be impersonating a certain star.  Cearley suggests her, but goes deeper into showing the incandescent charisma and the crippling narcissism that fight to control her.

     Though Meyers paces the show perfectly and Cearley displays almost perfect pitch, it’s a one-person, one-act play that’s about ten minutes too long.  I don’t know what could be trimmed or cut and it won’t be since this is not the world premiere, but it’s the only cavil I have.

*Photo from ETC website

Buyer & Cellar runs through November 1. 2015.

ensemblecincinnati.org

Technically Cutting Edge Sweet Charity at The Shaw

     The Shaw Festival started producing American musicals a few years ago and they’ve really taken off with audiences.  This season it was Sweet Charity (1966), which isn’t from Shaw’s lifetime, isn’t by one of his contemporaries, and expresses a far more sentimental and pathetic view about female sexual exploitation than Shaw’s pragmatic, capitalist-centric Mrs. Warren’s Profession (1893).  Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria (1957), on which the musical was based, also does not meet any of the provisions for the expanded Shaw Festival mandate.  So, why was it produced beyond being a bittersweet but charming show offering a number of good roles to women and half a dozen excellent songs – that’s a lot for any show that wasn’t written by Rodgers & Hammerstein?

Ken MacDonald's Set Design

The Set Comes to Life*

     Director Morris Panych possesses an inimitable, witty style that meshes with set designer and frequent collaborator Ken MacDonald’s clean Mondrian lines and forward thinking theatrical technology for visually arresting productions.  That was immediate with the screen on which the credits appeared as if they were stops on a subway map.  Screens were utilized continually for projections that complemented the major set piece, which could be used as turnstiles in a subway station, a subway train with lights flashing by, underneath a boardwalk, and the two-story dance hall where Charity is employed.  It was a show that never stopped moving and looked at times as if it were a three dimensional movie.  The playbill cover showing Robert Rauschenberg’s Estate (1963) worked as a simile for the production’s energy.

Julie Martell and Mark Uhre*

     Panych’s interpretation pushed the lead characters into a darker zone than earlier incarnations.  Julie Martell projected a tough quality with a close to middle age resignation that pulled Charity out of the relentless naïveté Shirley MacLaine offered in the movie version.  I said to Neil at the intermission that I’d wondered what Bette Midler would be like in the role in her prime and Martell answered that. 

Oscar and Charity*

Kyle Blair’s Oscar isn’t just a neurotic but decent square; in this version, he’s borderline psychotic.  Charity gets pulled in by Oscar, rather than the other way around, but the emotional and physical dumping didn’t work at the end.  It seemed like a cheap gag that Charity should have seen coming even though it’s supposed to refer to the first scene.  I wish Panych had dropped it.  Even though it has a sharp, funny book by Neil Simon, it’s not an unimpeachable classic because the tension between the sweet and the tough doesn’t resolve itself. 

Phillipson, Martel and Rampersad*

     Ensemble veterans Melanie Phillipson and Mark Uhre shone as Charity’s friend Helene and Italian film star Vittorio Vidal, respectively.  He brought some of Mastroianni’s world-weariness to “Too Many Tomorrows”, but also a sense of delight in discovering the diamond in the rough Charity.  Kimberley Rampersad has the elegant line, dance ability, and singing power of a star as Nickie.  I hope she’s cast as a lead in the near future because I could barely take my eyes off her when she was on stage.  The high points were when Charity, Nickie, and Helene performed “There’s Gotta Be Something Better” in the first act and the poignant “Baby, Dream Your Dream” duet by Nickie and Helene in the second.  It’s a great Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields score, which employs only one reprise unlike other musicals of its era that repeated songs constantly, in which every number is a winner.  That’s probably the reason it was revived.

Charlotte Dean's Costumes*

     The cast was certainly up for seeming like authentic New Yorkers of the mid-1960s and they sang the score very well.  Charlotte Dean’s costumes were both gorgeous and shabby, though the high point for me were the raincoats the cast wore 

Subway by George Tooker

in the subway, which looked like George Tooker’s painting Subway (1950), thereby blending in some paranoia with the musical joy.   I was concerned about the men’s (obvious) wigs falling off in the “Rich Man’s Frug” number, but Neil said that type of hairstyle looked fake back then.  The choreography or its execution could have been sharper during that number, though Parker Esse nailed the hippie movement in “The Rhythm of Life,” where Jeremy Carver-James seemed more at home leading the service than Sammy Davis, Jr., did in the movie.  

Jeremy Carver-Jones and "The Rhythm of Life"*

*Photos by Emily Cooper for ShawFest

Sweet Charity runs through October 31

shawfest.com-sweet-charity

The Shaw Produces a Splendid Version of Tony Kushner’s IHO

The Studio Theatre Lobby at ShawFest

     Any theatre that states “Mature Content, Strong Language, Partial Nudity” outside of the auditorium pretty much guarantees that the audience will stay focused, especially when the three-act play runs almost four hours.  Reading those watch words put us in an extremely attentive mood.  We first visited The Shaw Festival in 1997 to see Lillian Hellman’s The Children’s Hour (1934) because no other company was reviving such a controversial work.  That production was both naturalistic with surreal and ghost story elements that are not explicitly stated in the script.  I still remember specific imagery from that matinee.  This year, we attended a much more recent play that few companies have had the chutzpah/faccia tosta to attempt, probably because it requires eleven actors and it’s left-wing political and historical context is somewhat arcane.  

IHO Playbill Cover

     The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures (this version 2011) follows in a long line of top American plays featuring large families (Ah, Wilderness, Awake and Sing, The Little Foxes, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, A Delicate Balance, Brighton Beach Memoirs, The Piano Lesson, The Sisters Rosensweig) that teeter between hilarity and heartbreak.  Yes, I think Foxes is a vicious black comedy and that Cat is a comedy of manners.  Another play that it resembles is You Can’t Take it with You if Grandpa was humane, intelligent, and suicidal and half the kids had graduate degrees.  

The Extended Marcantonio Family Cast*

     Kushner’s Marcantonio family live in the Carroll Gardens neighborhood of Brooklyn; the patriarch was a longshoreman, who later rose to be a leader of his labor union.  Set in 2007 – just before the economic meltdown – it looks back at the rise and fall of the union and, by extension, the plight of the working class over a sixty-year era.  It’s gutsy of Kushner to choose this subject since it’s not one with which American theatre audiences – primarily middle class – wish to concern themselves.  It requires both intense attention and the ability to quickly read the extensive and highly useful dramaturgical program notes.  

     Kushner sweetens the plot with attempted suicide, a variety of sexual and familial relationships that cross a number of boundaries, a pregnancy that almost results in a delivery, fascinating and passionate individual characters, and a beautifully constructed three-act structure that never flags for one moment.  In a period when every other serious play runs about ninety or so minutes without intermission, this salutes his achievement as a playwright.  Director Eda Holmes stages it with clockwork precision including a number of scenes where multiple conversations reach simultaneous crescendos and movement between multiple locales.  Peter Hartwell’s complex, authentic set features shipping containers within the walls signifying that dockworker’s past and is sharply lit by Kevin Lamotte.

Kelli Fox and Jim Mezon*

     The jewel in The Shaw’s proverbial crown has to be its acting ensemble that is being pushed to new heights because of the range of works being presented (newer as well as commissioned works and Broadway musicals – more of that in another article).  Jim Mezon and Kelli Fox inspire pity and fear (thanks, Aristotle) in the climactic scene.  Her commitment goes even further with Thom Marriott, who was hilarious, at the beginning of the show.  We saw Kelli Fox in the lead role in ’97 and her increasing power reaches incandescence.  

Fiona Reid*

Fiona Reid deserves a special note.  We’ve seen her a number of times, where she has performed in a grand manner, and we’ve even chatted with her in the parking lot.  As the quiet, watchful aunt, whose past is even more radically left politically than the other family members, she gives such a lived in performance with subtle details like the way she turns in her feet when she’s sitting and being dragged into a conversation/argument, that I wanted to follow the character off the set to find out what she did when she wasn’t around the others.  Her acting range is extraordinary.  All of the others

A Standing Ovation

nail the characters and then some.  One caveat:  a couple of them sometimes sounded as if their New York accents were by way of Boston.

*Photos by David Cooper for Shawfest.

IHO runs through October 10, 2015

shawfest.com-the-intelligent-homosexual

Luna Gale: Fitzpatrick and Meyers shine at Ensemble

     Rebecca Gilman’s Luna Gale (2014) shows off Ensemble's strengths in a heady start for this season.  Gilman’s script premiered at the Goodman last year in Chicago and played in London at the Royal Court.  Lynn Meyers has been able to stage this ahead of regional productions by other major companies (Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Cleveland Playhouse), which keeps Cincinnati on the cutting edge of contemporary drama. 

Molly Israel, Patrick E. Phillips with Annie Fitzpatrick*

     Luna Gale presents the situation of meth addict teenage parents having their infant daughter taken from them.  Various complications occur and I don’t want to give any of them away because the greatest enjoyment for an audience of this type of play is to know as little as possible.  That’s because it’s a melodrama – I could call it a situation drama – and Gilman builds suspense through surprise and the introduction of various socio-political hot topic issues.  These include:  the under funded, understaffed yet overflowing foster care system; the meth epidemic that’s becoming the heroin epidemic; the growing number of grandparents as children’s primary caregivers; personal values versus professional obligations; the influence of evangelical Christianity on governmental institutions; the devaluation of experienced professionals in the workplace by new supervisors.  That list is not exhaustive.

Annie Fitzpatrick*

     Annie Fitzpatrick gives a master class in subtle, naturalistic acting as the social worker Caroline.  She projects intelligence, decency, and wit yet doesn’t refrain from the unappealing aspects of this essentially good woman.  As we were leaving, I overheard young audience members say they thought Fitzpatrick was incredible and they were right.  Patrick E. Phillips uses his whole body to express the young father who develops a sensibility as the play progresses.  He’s frightening and hilarious in the opening scene where he’s unconscious, but physically creating the role.  His final moments are also funny and poignant.  I hope he’s back at Ensemble soon.  Both Molly Israel as the young mother and Natalie Joyce as a former client that aged out of the system seem like teenagers you’d see shopping at Wal-Mart or working at a chain family restaurant and wonder what’s going on in their lives.  You might not think broken families, drugs or custody battles immediately.

     While the other cast members get their parts across, they weren’t as adept because of miscasting, which they didn’t overcome.  Brent Vimtrup plays Caroline’s supervisor Cliff as if he might enroll in reparative therapy; there was something desperate about his interpretation that wasn’t in the script.  Charlie Clark’s Pastor Jay seemed like a nice teddy bear kind of guy.  I didn’t see how he’d inspire followers.  I’d like to have seen the two actors exchange roles.  Kate Wilford, usually a strong performer, didn’t project the grandmother Cindy’s high stakes in the central conflict.  Wilford has a mature, sensible presence that did not work for this character and she didn’t make acting choices to undercut or go against her physicality. Ensemble regular Sara Mackie was in the audience and Neil and I wish she’d played the part because her sweetness and naïveté would have been heartbreaking and more fully have justified the daughter’s rage, rather than Wilford’s bland interpretation.  

The Nursery at Childrens' Services*

     Meyers teases every nuance she can from this script, starting in her collaboration with designer Brian c. Mehring.  He answers the multiple settings challenge with a lazy Susan revolving stage, focusing on a palette of institutional gray, some black, and some splashes of color.  We’ve all seen that hospital waiting room, the public servant’s office, and even the grandmother’s kitchen.  That generic, homey yet sterile room gave me pause about the character even before the scene began.  It’s a bias of mine (and Gilman’s work is all about the complex role bias plays in relationships) that someone without taste – even bad taste – and imagination will be a lesser guardian than someone possessing either or both.

Luna Gale runs through September 27, 2015

*Photos from ETC website

ensemblecincinnati.org

Actors Theatre of Louisville Kicks Off in High Gear with Seven Guitars

     When I saw that Actors Theatre of Louisville (ATL) was producing August Wilson’s Seven Guitars (1996) as the opener for this season, I knew it would be worth seeing.  ATL has astonished us last season with Tarell Alvin McCraney’s The Brothers Size (2009) and a couple of years before that with Kristoffer Diaz’s The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity (2008).  In both cases, the shows required and received great ensemble casts made up of actors of color.  Because of its international reputation, ALT can pull in top veteran stage actors and younger performers that may become stars.

The Male Cast Members of Seven Guitars*

     The Seven Guitars production directed by Colman Domingo (nominated in the past for major theatrical awards) almost as if he were conducting musicians playing a concerto is definitive.  William Boles’ back porch and yard set was so realistically detailed that we moved seats during the intermission so that we could see into the house, though none of the action takes place indoors.  Kathy A. Perkins’ lighting was both natural and possessed by the supernatural elements of the play.  Christian Frederickson’s subtle sound design percolated in such a way that it felt like the characters’ unconscious musings.  Neil wasn’t sure about the slacks that Louise wore, but women were wearing pants by the 1940s and Kara Harmon has provided an extensive wardrobe that requires lightning quick changes by the seven actors that I didn’t even notice.

Sharon Washington, Bowman Wright
and Joniece Abbott-Pratt*

     The reason for first emphasizing the designers was because they have collaborated on a naturalistic, you-are-there look to a production that felt otherworldly and became more so as the show progressed.  Wilson wrote with almost microscopic specificity about African Americans living in Pittsburgh’s Hill District during the 20th century.  However, while their concerns may seem singular, our friend Paul identified strongly with the milieu and the dialogue and he is Caucasian so the work speaks because it is universal.  Those conversations simultaneously bubbled with hilarity and simmered with resentment.  Certain subjects were expressed, dropped, and then taken up again before evaporating or exploding.  The play seemed realistic, but it moved in a looser way that recalled Chekhov.

The Realistic Pittsburgh Set Design

Sharon Washington as Louise*

     The cast was exemplary; I can’t think of other actors that would have been better.  Special kudos go to Sharon Washington as Louise, especially in her second act soliloquy that was hilarious in its drop-dead attitude and to Harold Surratt as King Hedley because he limned a simple man who became mythic.  I wish there was a little more music in the play since J. Alphonse Nicholson as the musician protagonist Floyd was more than up to playing it.  Otherwise, except for a couple of props that Neil and Paul weren’t certain were of the period, this was flawless.

*Photos by Bill Brymer for ATL

actorstheatre.org

The Audience

Is Helen Mirren the Queen, 

or is the Queen Helen Mirren?

     How is it possible for one to catch an evening performance in London's West End and still be home to sleep in one's own bed that night? There's only one affordable way, and that is to view it at the movie theatre during a Fathom Event.  It was my pleasure to see The Audience starring Helen Mirren for which she recently won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for the current Broadway run.

The Young Queen with PM Anthony Eden

     Mirren is best known for her Oscar-winning role in the 2006 film The Queen.  For this stage creation, based on the Queen's weekly meetings with her Prime Ministers, the same writer (Peter Morgan) has broadened our glimpse into Her Majesty's private life.  It's a premise that many like to imagine and the play only solidifies our trust in what those in the know can tell us.  It's all based on speculation, but one still feels a sense of truth after seeing it.  For me, that feeling comes from the convincing performance by Mirren.  

PM John Major,
The Secretary and The Queen

     The play starts with a little history about the Queen and her palace through the eyes (and ears) of her secretary who helps carry the plot from PM to PM.  The other significant device that helps pull one into their world is that it is not presented in chronological order.  That allowed for some rather magical onstage moments with Mirren being transformed from the 1990s back to her first meeting with Churchill.  Costumes, wigs and makeup all assist in transforming Mirren to her teens, but it is her changed voice and movements that are so remarkable.  In the second act, it happens again with her going from the 1950s up to present time right before one's eyes.

At Balmoral with Harold Wilson

     The scenes were sprinkled with several comedic situations, mostly provided by Harold Wilson and Maggie Thatcher.  The inner thoughts of the Queen are handled through conversations with her onstage teenage self offering some of the most poignant scenes of the performance.  The set design subtly changed for the periodic palace remodels and a surrealistic indoor/outdoor scene at Balmoral Castle in Scotland.  The lighting was exquisite, taking a large set and crafting it into a more intimate space.

     It's most likely that this was a one time onscreen performance.  However, look for it in a possible dvd release.  It'll be worth the wait.

http://www.fathomevents.co