Wisconsin Death Trip Comes Alive In WashingtonAs
noted just last weekend, I will forever consider
Mequon,
Wisconsin to be my hometown, even though I haven't lived there for 15 years. It was there, in high school, that I met one of my longest standing friends, who's now a distinguished
professor at
Georgetown University.
So when he told me about a musical -- premiering this evening at the prestigious academic institution -- with a nod toward the homestate where the two of us met more years ago than I care to admit, I was intrigued.
This evening,
Wisconsin Death Trip enjoys its world premiere. Based on book that my friend has taught in (gasp!) his "Representations of Violence" course (who knew??), he says:
Wisconsin Death Trip is indeed a trip! The film version came out a few years back with Ian Holm and was quite wonderful, superbly eerie. I have heard parts of the score for this theatrical presentation and am most excited about the production. Who knows? Wit was written and workshopped at Georgetown....I really believe in this project!
Since I have enormous respect for the man who introduced me to the
filthy world of
John Waters and the "
Time Warp"
and "
Suspiria," how could I resist in sharing?!
So here goes... If you live in our nation's
capital or plan to be there tonight, February 1-3 or 6-9, you might consider catching this musical presented by Georgetown University’s Theater and Performance Studies Program. Helmed by
Tim Raphael,
Wisconsin Death Trip features a score he composed with
Jeffrey Berkson, along with a new adaption by the duo on a book by
Michael Lesy. The show will be presented in the Gonda Theatre at the Davis Performing Arts Center.
Promotional materials for the musical state:
Shifting between centuries, this daringly original play intertwines the voices of the dead and the living to tell the story of a trailer park drifter living in the margins of Reagan’s America who is haunted by the nineteenth century ghosts of Black River Falls, Wisconsin.
The genesis for the play began in the early 1980’s when Professor Tim Raphael, snowbound in a rural Vermont cabin, stumbled across Michael Lesy’s arresting cult classic "Wisconsin Death Trip." "It was the uncanny familiarity of the lives and events Lesy chronicles in his AmerOdyssey," Raphael recalls, that compelled him to explore the question that animates Lesy’s text: "What Happened Here?"
Performed by a talented cast of Georgetown undergraduates, graduates and staff members, Wisconsin Death Trip is visually stunning and will resonate with fans of Bluegrass, folk music and roots rock alike.
Tickets will only set you back $15 (faculty, staff and seniors get in for just $12, while students pay just $7). To all my DC friends, please go and tell me what you think!
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for ticket information.Labels: Film, Georgetown University, Musical, Washington DC, Wisconsin Death Trip
Seafarer Set To Sail Out Of Broadway BerthWhile the official Broadway Web site for
Conor McPherson's
The Seafarer has always advertised the play as a "strictly limited engagement," it wasn't until yesterday that the production produced an end-date.
Come March 30, the show will enjoy its last performance at the
Booth Theatre to make way for
George Stevens, Jr.'s
Thurgood (the
Laurence Fishburne vehicle about America's pioneering Supreme Court Justice
Thurgood Marshall will begin performances on April 20).
Nominated last year for the Olivier Award for Best New Play,
The Seafarer's arrival on these shores was greeted with
great acclaim. I finally saw it earlier this month and
loved it. I'm really sorry to see McPherson's play close.
When the curtain finally falls on
The Seafarer, it will have played 133 performances.
If you have not seen this show, make every effort to see it.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:The Seafarer (The SOB Review) (January 28, 2008)
After Seeing, Faring With Critics (December 7, 2007)
Seafarer Opens Sail On Great White Way Tonight (December 6, 2007)
All Of Great White Way Gleams Tonight (November 29, 2007)
Add August To The List? (November 14, 2007)
Strike Fallout, Part Two? Opening Nights In Question (November 12, 2007)
McPherson's Seafarer To Navigate Broadway In Fall (June 14, 2007)
Sunday At The Grosvenor House With Laurence (February 19, 2007)
Laurence Olivier Award Nominations Announced (January 18, 2007)
Labels: Broadway, Closing Notices, First Word On New Show, Laurence Fishburne, Play, The Seafarer, Thurgood
Jerry Springer Finally Plays Carnegie HallFour long years after taking London's West End by
storm and winning the Olivier Award for Best New Musical, Stewart Lee and Richard Thomas'
Jerry Springer The Opera finally gets its due in New York City.
But instead of playing Broadway as
originally planned, the f-bombfest and ode to America's trashy side will play just a couple blocks away with two consecutive nights at
Carnegie Hall.
Jerry Springer The Opera will perform tonight and tomorrow night.
Under the direction of
Jason Moore (
Avenue Q), this special concert presentation stars
Harvey Keitel stars as the once
disgraced Cincinnati mayor cum television host, while the incredible
David Bedella reprises his Olivier Award-winning West End role as the devil.
I caught this show during its original London run and found it less shocking than I think it was supposed to be. For some strange reason, I was downright bemused by the premise that Springer is assassinated and goes directly to hell, contending with all his trash TV has wrought. Maybe I've just watched "
South Park" far too many times. Bedella, by the way, was absolutely excellent.
While I've toyed with taking in this New York performance, I'll leave the few remaining seats to those who have never had the chance to see the show.
But if you are going, make sure your sensibilities are prepared, especially if they tend to be delicate. This show is hardly anything resembling family fare with everything from men with diaper fetishes to less than reverent depictions of Christ, all wrapped up in the
thousands of times you'll hear the word "f@#&."
Perhaps most shocking is that the entire piece is sung as an opera. Really.
At least there's truth in advertising.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Labels: David Bedella, Jerry Springer The Opera, Musical, Off-Broadway, Opera
Spamalot's Promosexual?While nobody has really answered
Rocco's call yet on whether
Clay Aiken is any good in
Monty Python's Spamalot stunt casting,
New York magazine's
Ariel Levy takes aim at Broadway's newest
Idol and explains why he just might end up fitting right in.
Eat your heart out,
Perez!
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:Did London Critics Always Look On The Bright Side Of Spamalot? (October 18, 2006)
West End Spamalot Finds Its Grail Tonight (October 17, 2006)
Labels: Broadway, Clay Aiken, Monty Python's Spamalot, Musical, Stunt Casting
The Seafarer (The SOB Review) - Booth Theatre, New York, NY***1/2 (out of ****)Conor McPherson's chilling new play
The Seafarer is so damned good, it's practically enough to put the fear of God in you.
And it's certainly enough to make you forever stay on the wagon, lest you ever drink yourself into oblivion and fall from grace for eternity.
In his mesmerizing new and often funny morality play set on Christmas Eve -- in a hellhole of a home (courtesy of
Rae Smith's shambles of a set design) in Baldoyle, a tiny town north of Dublin -- McPherson proves he's all aces. Both writing and directing this cautionary tale, he magnificently weaves a harrowing, on the edge of your seat nailbiter that's as much about giving the devil his due as it is about the potential for redemption for two card-playing good-for-nearly-nothing drunks for brothers.
The younger sibling Sharky (a somber
David Morse in a wonderfully measured performance) is clearly trying to overcome his prolonged battle with the bottle. With his life littered with broken dreams, it's no wonder his wife has left him for his more youthful mate Nicky (a subtle charmer
Sean Mahon). Tending to his elder sibling Richard (a breathtaking
Jim Norton), who appears to have literally drunk himself blind, Sharky is now making a conscious choice for sobriety this holiday.
It certainly can't help that Richard's obsessed with drinking his way through Christmas, or that Sharky's friends Ivan (an utterly unrecognizable
Conleth Hill at the top of his game) and Nicky show up for a long night of cards and hard drinking. But the hand Sharky had not expected to be dealt is manifested in a mysteriously dapper Mr. Lockhart (a devilishly delightful
Ciarán Hinds) accompanying Nicky.
When Mr. Lockhart plays his hand privately with Sharky, he reveals that the two met once before -- exactly 25 years earlier that very evening. Turns out Sharky had been so incoherently inebriated that he couldn't recall the grievous sins he committed way back then. Mr. Lockhart had essentially served as his angel of mercy, albeit a dark one, providing Sharky with salvation at a steep price. Now, Mr. Lockhart is back, as promised, to collect what Sharky owes him.
Mr. Lockhart allows that all can be settled through a high stakes game of poker, giving a brilliant new twist to a deal with the devil.
What makes this play all the more gripping are the ingenious touches from the haunting lighting and sound designs offered by
Neil Austin and
Matthew Smethurst Evans, respectively. Another nice touch that can easily be missed if you're not looking for it is Rae Smith's costume selection for Mr. Lockhart. If there's any doubt who he really is, just check out the inside lining of his suit jacket.
I strongly recommend
The Seafarer. It's one helluva play.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.
Related Stories:After Seeing, Faring With Critics (December 7, 2007)
Seafarer Opens Sail On Great White Way Tonight (December 6, 2007)
All Of Great White Way Gleams Tonight (November 29, 2007)
Add August To The List? (November 14, 2007)
Strike Fallout, Part Two? Opening Nights In Question (November 12, 2007)
McPherson's Seafarer To Navigate Broadway In Fall (June 14, 2007)
Sunday At The Grosvenor House With Laurence (February 19, 2007)
Laurence Olivier Award Nominations Announced (January 18, 2007)
Labels: Broadway, Ciaran Hinds, Conleth Hill, Conor McPherson, David Morse, Jim Norton, Play, Sean Mahon, The Seafarer, The SOB Review
Imitation Is The Sincerest Form...
Imitation Is The Sincerest Form...In part because
Modern Fabulousity so generously links to my site on a regular basis, but also because I found his post "
ABC's Meme" so interesting, I'm providing a link back and playing copycat with my own version.
I give you the SOB ABC's:
A - Age: Older than I look, but younger than I feel.
B - Band listening to right now: Does the cast of
Spring Awakening count as a "band"?
C - Career future: I hope to know more in the next few days.
D - Dad’s name: he goes by Dean, but his real name is Donald.
E - Easiest person to talk to:
Esther.
F - Favorite type of shoe:
Manolo Blahniks, simply because I like saying the name (and it gets bonus points for being a "
Sex And The City" staple).
G – Grapes or Grapefruit: Grapes, preferably red and seedless.
H – Hometown: Depends on how hometown is defined. I grew up in
Mequon, Wisconsin. It will always be home to me.
I – Instrumental talent: I used to play the piano.
J – Juice of choice: Pineapple.
K – Koala Bear or Panda Bear: Koala Bear, because I've been able to hold one (you can't hold a panda).
L - Longest car ride ever: Milwaukee to Houston to Washington DC. I never take the obvious route.
M – Middle name: Dean.
N - Number of jobs you’ve had: 19. They included: dishwasher, shopping mall Santa (age 16, seriously), discount department store clerk, high-end retail sales associate, computer draftsman, college student body president, encyclopedia sales, Capitol Hill intern, project assistant to U.S. Senator, regional representative to same U.S. Senator, legislative assistant to same U.S. Senator, lobbyist, state legislator, public relations firm account supervisor, trade association director of public relations, director of communications for same trade association, director of public relations for travel company, senior vice president of big public relations firm and senior director of public relations for same travel company as before. Best: current job. Worst: last job.
O - OCD traits: being able to tell you which U.S. President corresponds with each number (for example, 26 = my personal
favorite president in history).
P - Phobias: Claustrophobia, but I've really only experienced it once inside
these.
Q - Quote: "If you can't say something good about someone, sit right here by me." (
Alice Longworth, daughter of my favorite president in history)
R - Reason to smile: Live theatre.
S - Song you sang last: "The Song of Purple Summer" by cast of
Spring Awakening.
T - Time you wake up: 7 a.m. whether I want to or not.
U - Unknown fact about me: There's an actual face attached to my eyes.
V - Vegetable you hate: Lima beans.
W - Worst habit: I've been putting off in answering this, but it's procrastinating.
X - X-rays you’ve had: Teeth.
Y - Yummiest food my belly likes: sushi and chocolate, although rarely together.
Z - Zodiac sign: Virgo.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Blogs, Gratuitous Violins, Meme, Modern Fabulousity, Sex And The City, Special Messages, Spring Awakening
Twenty Year Old PhantomToday marks a most auspicious occasion for Broadway's longest running show ever. Andrew Lloyd Webber's
The Phantom Of The Opera celebrates its twentieth anniversary treading the boards of Rialto's
Majestic Theatre, after opening there on January 26, 2008.
As
Kenneth Jones of Playbill points out, after today's showings (both matinee and evening) conclude, the tuner will have enjoyed 8,319 performances.
When
Phantom opened stateside a year and a half after its
West End debut, its two London leads --
Sarah Brightman (then Webber's wife) and
Michael Crawford -- transferred to New York. The original Broadway cast also featured a very young
Rebecca Luker in her Great White Way debut.
The Phantom Of The Opera would dominate the 1988 Tony Awards, winning Best Musical over the original
Into The Woods,
Romance/Romance and
Sarafina! Overall, the show received ten Tony nominations and won seven, including for Crawford,
Judy Kaye (Best Featured Actress in a Musical) and
Hal Prince for Best Direction of a Musical.
Even though I've now seen
The Phantom Of The Opera twice (three times if I count
my visit last year to
Phantom - The Las Vegas Spectacular), I've never seen it on Broadway. Is that heresy? I mean, I did see the show in London 20 years ago, but the only other time I took in the show was in Los Angeles in 1998 when I was provided a free ticket.
While I've never truly understood the lasting appeal
of The Phantom Of The Opera, I realize this is often the very first entry level Broadway or West End show for
millions of fans around the world. Over 12.5 million have seen the Broadway incarnation alone, and the production at the Majestic has grossed over $675 million -- more than any film.
And so,
The Phantom phenomenon continues. Happy anniversary to everyone associated with the show.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:Phantom - The Las Vegas Spectacular (The SOB Review) (September 12, 2007)
Where's Oscar The Cat When We REALLY Need Him? (July 20, 2007)
London: The Show Must Go On (June 29, 2007)
Phantom Sequel: So Much For Writing On Otto-Pilot? (June 17, 2007)
Broadway's Longest Running Hits (March 17, 2007)
The Phantom Of Manhattan? (March 12, 2007)
Is It Just Me, Or...(Part II) (February 21, 2007)
Wicked Becomes Broadway's 8th Overall Cumulative Grosser Among Current Hits (June 2, 2006)
Labels: Andrew Lloyd Webber, Anniversary, Broadway, Hal Prince, London, Michael Crawford, Musical, The Phantom Of The Opera
Did Critics Deem Little Sheba Worthy Of Come Back?Last evening, the very first revival of
William Inge's 1950s play
Come Back, Little Sheba -- opened at the
Manhattan Theatre Club's
Biltmore Theatre on Broadway. Directed by
Michael Pressman, the revival stars
S. Epatha Merkerson,
Kevin Anderson and
Zoe Kazan.
In a confounding display of deeply felt assessments that were scattered all across the board, critics' reviews ranged from high praise to major pans. You almost wonder if everyone saw the same show.
Raving that Merkerson offers a performance "that stops the heart,"
The New York Times'
Ben Brantley lauds: "Ms. Merkerson allows a kind of intimate access traditionally afforded by cinematic close-ups, when the camera finds shades of meaning in impassive faces. She rarely signals what Lola’s feeling; she just seems to feel, and we get it, instantly and acutely. Such emotional sincerity is the hallmark of this revival from the Manhattan Theater Club, directed with gentle compassion by Michael Pressman and featuring first-rate performances from Kevin Anderson and Zoe Kazan....But the performances here are so convincingly present tense that you come to accept scene-shaping contrivances -- those too conveniently timed entrances, exits and phone calls -- as if life were really that structured....Like Ms. Merkerson’s anchoring performance, this production resounds precisely because it keeps its voice down."
Hailing this as "one of the finest American plays of the 20th century, a masterpiece of theatrical realism,"
The Wall Street Journal's
Terry Teachout praises: "
Come Back, Little Sheba is close to flawless. I'd never seen it on stage prior to this revival, and I had no idea what a wallop it packed....Ms. Merkerson is a stage actress of the first rank. She brings Lola's melancholy and yearning to life with such soft-spoken understatement that you feel as though you'd wandered through the back door of her house and sat down at her kitchen table for a chat. Ms. Kazan, who is making her Broadway debut after a pair of buzzworthy performances Off Broadway in
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" and
Things We Want, is no less impressive..."
Finding it "gently stirring,"
The New York Sun's
Eric Grode delivers a mixed review: "It doesn't help that Mr. Pressman lets the Freudian cross-currents among Lola, Doc, and their college-age boarder, Marie (Zoe Kazan, the granddaughter of frequent Inge collaborator
Elia Kazan), unfold at a stately, almost lethargic pace early on. But as the collision course between Doc and his sweet, sad Lola draws near, precipitated by the flighty Marie and her two suitors, the director and his largely fine cast tighten the reins and do justice to Inge's strains of Midwestern melancholia."
Calling the production "old-fashioned but still-engaging,"
Joe Dziemianowicz of New York's
Daily News falls into the same camp as Grode: "Inge's story pours on melodramatic moments, as when Doc pulls a liquor bottle from the kitchen cupboard, considers it and puts it away -- for now. The symbolism is not subtle -- Lola's beloved missing dog mirrors her long-gone happiness. But despite such creaks, the story's shattering climactic confrontation still brings gasps.
Anderson's nuanced work shows Doc's desires, disgust and deep sorrow. Merkerson ("
Law & Order") is a poignant Lola."
"Fatally imbalanced," is how Bloomberg's
John Simon describes the show: "
Come Back, Little Sheba' owes not a little to
Tennessee Williams and comes across as a moderately effective Williams knock-off, by now rather dated. A period piece needs impeccable writing and flawless production to make the death-defying leap across the decades. What we have instead in this Manhattan Theatre Club production at the Biltmore Theatre is a measure of likableness and pathos yet nothing truly compelling. Even the business with the little dog Sheba, vanished long ago but regularly and pathetically beckoned by Lola from the front porch, is a rather heavy-handed symbol for trying to recapture the past."
Criticizing that
Little Sheba "registers as one of the writer's most heavy-handed, painfully obvious works,"
Frank Scheck offers thumbs down in the
Hollywood Reporter: "Not only is the playwright's brand of naturalism out of style, but even more so is his bludgeoning use of symbolism. From the titular runaway pooch that represents Lola's faded youth and beauty to the phallic javelin that Marie's boyfriend constantly describes wielding,
Sheba is not exactly subtle in its implications. With the constant references to Doc's former drinking, it's not hard to figure out that by play's end he'll have fallen off the wagon.... Merkerson...underplays with a sad dignity that doesn't quite convey Lola's ridiculousness."
Deeming it as a "creakingly dated play,"
New York Post's
Clive Barnes offers one and a half stars: "Michael Pressman's pedestrian staging is as adequate as the play deserves, and a miscast Merkerson makes an adorable Lola - sincere, compassionate and, well . . . miscast. The best performance comes from Anderson as the dark, sexually twisted, wild and crazy Doc, who runs the dubious gamut of the role like a champion hurdler. He, at least, manages to glitter dangerously amid the play's thick thickets of mediocrity."
As you may have seen from my own
SOB Review, I (unfortunately) have to say I agree with the last three reviews. Will MTC revoke
my subscription? Hope not!
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:Come Back, Little Sheba (The SOB Review) (January 25, 2008)
Little Sheba Comes Back To Broadway Opening Night (January 24, 2008)
Little Sheba To Come Back To Broadway (August 16, 2007)
Labels: Broadway, Come Back Little Sheba, Critics' Capsule, Kevin Anderson, Play, Revival, S. Epatha Merkerson, William Inge, Zoe Kazan
Come Back Little Sheba (The SOB Review) - Biltmore Theatre, New York, NY*1/2 (out of ****)Everybody loves a good comeback. Unfortunately, the revival of
William Inge's melodramatic
Come Back, Little Sheba is not one of them.
Ostensibly about hopes and dreams that have long since gone, just like the titular dog, this revival
feels like a tired old one at that. In essence, we've seen it all before.
Certainly, Inge broke fertile new ground when he wrote this play about alcoholism and an unwed couple's unplanned pregnancy back at the dawn of the 1950s. But there's nothing new here. Time has a way of diminishing the shock value, and this particular production possesses absolutely none.
Well, that is unless you count director
Michael Pressman's well-intentioned, but nonsensical color blind casting. Despite keeping
Little Sheba set in the early 50s, a full decade before the landmark
Civil Rights Act of 1964, he pairs the fine African American actress
S. Epatha Merkerson as a very forlorn Lola with a crackling waspy
Kevin Anderson as her recovering alcoholic husband Doc. They're an unhappily married couple.... of
25 years. And they're sitting on a powder keg.
While it certainly would have been a much better world back then if no one had thought twice about multi-cultural families back 58 years ago, that's unfortunately just not the way it was. In a week when we celebrated
Martin Luther King Jr., yet ironically saw how even all these advanced years later America's first "
black president" could
inject race into a political campaign, their pairing only serves to distract.
Personally, I became more fixated on what I imagined Lola and Doc's backstory to be as I found myself conjuring up how difficult their experience with bigots might have been when they first would have met, way back in America's roaring 20s. My imagined script was far more compelling and interesting than the stilted déjà vu dialogue delivered by the angry drunk of a husband lording over his long-suffering yet completely helpless, hopeless wife. In listening to their banter, I couldn't help but think of all the times since Inge wrote this play that I've heard a similar refrain many times over and many times better.
And then I realized how ludicrous my exercise was. And what a wasted opportunity Pressman allowed to pass him by. He's squandered an opportunity to explore new territory by instead retracing all too familiar steps.
He assembled a decent enough cast, with a very meek and mild Merkerson headlining with a hunkered down portrayal of the hapless Lola, who just can't seem to come to grips with how she's allowed her life to pass her by -- or the fact that her beloved dog Sheba has run away (thus the title). Anderson comes unhinged as her tormented alcoholic husband.
Zoe Kazan breathes what little fresh air wafts through this production -- her first Broadway outing -- as Lola and Doc's coquettish boarder.
Yet almost in spite of the talent he's amassed, Pressman misses a chance to make his story more relevant for today's audiences. It would have been far more intriguing had Pressman revised the play a bit, shifting its timing to a more recent decade when society was really beginning to grapple with interracial marriages. Rather than completely ignore the matter of race,
Come Back, Little Sheba could have served as a thoughtful contemporary examination of the historic challenges mixed race couples had. Instead, we get all the histrionics one would expect from a depiction of the fifties.
Unfortunately, this
Come Back feels more like a stale and unsatisfying throwback. We're left to merely ponder what could have been.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:Little Sheba Comes Back To Broadway Opening Night (January 24, 2008)
Little Sheba To Come Back To Broadway (August 16, 2007)
Labels: Come Back Little Sheba, Kevin Anderson, Michael Pressman, Play, Revival, S. Epatha Merkerson, The SOB Review, William Inge, Zoe Kazan
Saving Green On The Color PurpleYou read about its
closing notice here first. Now score two-for-one seats on
The Color Purple before it vacates the
Broadway Theatre on February 24.
Oprah's apparently going all out to sell the musical's remaining seats in advance. According to an offer I just received, if you buy one ticket, you'll get another one free.
To take advantage of the offer, click
here or visit
BroadwayOffers.com and enter code
CPEURWB (you may also call 212.947.8844 and use the same code). This offer is valid through the remaining lifetime of the show,
except for Saturday matinees and evening performances, as well as those scheduled February 15-17.
Each order requires a minimum
purchase of two tickets and is limited to four tickets (although the confusing disclaimer also says later "limit 8 tickets per order"). When I tried my hand at getting the best seats for the "random" date of February 24, I was able to secure four at a time -- Right Orchestra Row H, Seats 11-17 -- for a total price tag of $236.00 or $59 per ticket. With the added $26.00 in "service charges" and $2.50 "handling fee" for the entire order, the total came to $264.50.
So how does that compare to normal ticketing? Actually, I was able to find what I consider to be better seats for the same performance using the special offer, surprisingly enough. Using a regular search, I found four tickets in Center Orchestra Row R, Seats 102-105 for $466 -- almost twice the price, although with fees added in, the grand total came to $494.50.
Enjoy!
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:The Color Purple Turns Pink, As In Slip (January 24, 2008)
End Of Purple Reign? (December 13, 2007)
Coloring The Town Purple With Discounts (December 1, 2007)
The Color Purple (The SOB Revisit) (August 11, 2007)
Curse Of The Understudy - Part III (July 23, 2007)
Winter Blues For Color Purple (February 5, 2007)
The Tonys: If I Could Vote...for Best Musical (May 31, 2006)
Labels: Broadway, Musical, Oprah Winfrey, Special Offers, The Color Purple, Ticket Prices
Little Sheba Comes Back To Broadway Opening NightFifty-eight years is a long, long time for an old Broadway hit to stage a comeback.
But tonight, the first-ever revival of
William Inge's seminal, groundbreaking play on shotgun weddings and alcoholism --
Come Back, Little Sheba -- opens tonight at the
Manhattan Theatre Club's
Biltmore Theatre.
The original Great White Way production in 1950 helped
Sidney Blackmer and
Shirley Booth each earn Tony Awards, with the latter going on to score an Oscar for her work in the 1952
film version.
Helmed by
Michael Pressman, the new incarnation stars "
Law And Order" favorite
S. Epatha Merkerson as Lola and
Kevin Anderson as her husband Doc. One of my personal favorite young stage actresses,
Zoe Kazan, makes her Broadway debut.
Last summer, Merkerson also starred in the Los Angeles production, which received
mixed reviews.
How will this
Come Back fare with the Broadway critics? Find out tomorrow as I provide my regular critics' capsule, along with my very own SOB Review.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:Little Sheba To Come Back To Broadway (August 16, 2007)
Labels: Broadway, Come Back Little Sheba, Kevin Anderson, Manhattan Theatre Club, Play, Revival, S. Epatha Merkerson, William Inge, Zoe Kazan
The Color Purple Turns Pink, As In Slip
UPDATE (11:10 a.m. EST): I have now received official confirmation that The Color Purple has in fact, posted its closing notice for February 24.According to the news release I've received:
The producers of The Color Purple announced today that the show will play its final performance on Sunday, February 24, 2008 at 7:30pm, after playing 30 preview performances and 910 regular performances at the Broadway Theatre. Now in its third year on Broadway, The Color Purple recouped its entire $11 million investment in its first year on Broadway, having grossed over $103,000,000.
Overnight, I received a message from someon within the current Broadway production of
The Color Purple:
The Color Purple posted notice after tonight's performance. We will close February 24.
I'm currently seeking official confirmation, but if the production has indeed posted its closing notices for the end of next month, the Tony winning musical -- with book by
Marsha Norman and score by
Brenda Russell,
Allee Willis and
Stephen Bray -- will have ultimately played a total of 910 performances at the
Broadway Theatre. The incredible
LaChanze earned a Tony for her brave portrayal of Celie -- a performance I'll never forget.
Last week, the show took in $477,154 at the box office and was filled to 62.4% of capacity. That was up markedly from where it had been just a week earlier when the total take was a paltry $388,937 with just 45.9% capacity. Of course, some of its major mojo luster was gone as
Fantasia Barrino left the show on January 6, but
Chaka Khan joined
The Color Purple. on January 9, while another Idol alum
LaKisha Jones became part of the cast in December.
I'll let you know once I've had official confirmation.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.
Related Stories:
End Of Purple Reign? (December 13, 2007)
Coloring The Town Purple With Discounts (December 1, 2007)
The Color Purple (The SOB Revisit) (August 11, 2007)
Curse Of The Understudy - Part III (July 23, 2007)
Winter Blues For Color Purple (February 5, 2007)
The Tonys: If I Could Vote...for Best Musical (May 31, 2006)
Labels: Broadway, Chaka Khan, Closing Notices, Fantasia, LaChanze, Lakisha Jones, Musical, The Color Purple
Notions I Subscribe ToThis past Friday evening, I was about to start eating dinner when the phone rang.
I don't ordinarily answer my phone during meals -- heck, ask anyone if I answer the telephone at all, and they're bound to tell you I don't -- but when I checked the caller ID, I found an unknown 212 area code number ending in a zero pop up on the screen. I don't know what possessed me to answer, but I did.
Twenty minutes later, I found myself as a new subscriber to the
Manhattan Theatre Company. To be honest, it wasn't really a very hard sell. I've enjoyed quite a few outstanding, and usually always riveting productions -- mostly at their restored
Biltmore Theatre on Broadway, but also a couple over at
New York City Center Stage I.
Of course, this is no ordinary subscription where I'm merely paying for tickets (in this case a grand total of 14 for seven productions over the coming year). The lion's share of what I agreed to is a charitable donation for this rarest of rare commodities on the Great White Way: a not-for-profit theatre company.
As you may recall from my nonstop coverage of the recent Broadway stagehands strike, the Manhattan Theatre Club is one of only three non-profit Rialto theatre companies. The other two are
Lincoln Center and
Roundabout Theatre Company -- both renowned for their range of musical and straight play offerings.
Quite frankly, I love to give. Period.
If you ask me what I would most like to be when I "grow up," I'd probably tell you I wish I could be a philanthropist. While there's nothing quite as admirable as volunteer work, my long work hours just don't enable me to physically offer my helping hand as often as I'd like.
So instead, I try to give as much as I possibly can to the
501(c)(3) organizations that I believe can make a difference, whether it's in helping feed those less fortunate or in providing medical care, or in finding a cure for any number of diseases. Or, naturally, the one where I hope others can be challenged and enlightened, as well as entertained: live theatre.
This is the second not-for-profit theatre company to which I currently subscribe and donate. For the past three years, I've proudly supported Chicago's
Steppenwolf -- a worthy investment in the arts if ever there was one. I've never doubted for one moment that every penny I've donated has been worth it. If ever I had second thoughts, they were dashed when I saw how involved Steppenwolf is with its local community, particularly through its outreach to Chicagoland's middle and high schools via its
Subscriber School Program.
My only other subscription ever was with Minneapolis'
Guthrie. But that was years before they moved into their incredible new facility. Yet I know the vital role this institution has taken on in the Twin Cities, and their own incredible profile of community involvement only continues to grow.
So what was it about the Manhattan Theatre Club that inspired me to give? They asked me.
Which leads me to ask you, have you ever subscribed and/or donated to a nonprofit theatre? I'd love to know which ones and why you subscribed.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Broadway, Charitable Organizations, Chicago, Guthrie, Manhattan Theatre Club, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Special Messages, Steppenwolf, Subscriptions
Is It Just Me, Or... (Part III)
...Wouldn't it have been more appropriate for
Matthew Warchus' upcoming Broadway transfer of the British sex farce
Boeing-Boeing to be staged at the
American Airlines Theatre over the
Longacre? After all, the
airline was the sponsor of the recently departed West End revival. I'm psyched that
Christine Baranski will be joining
Mark Rylance, and the
possibility that
Sarah Jessica Parker may be added the cast has me salivating.
...What happened to all
those people barely one year ago who were sounding the deathknell for the play? With seven new plays currently kicking around the Broadway stage, coupled with a dearth of new musicals, the 2007-08 Theatrical Season must be the year that the straight play made its official comeback. As
I said a year ago: "Personally, I believe everything is rather cyclical. And working in plays' favor is the simple cost factor, along with the wellspring of excellent playwrights out there today, as well as so many thriving, vital theatre companies where plays rule the roost. I’m confident they'll always have a place, even on Broadway."
...When all is said and done, haven't
critics been a little over the top in their criticism for
Mel Brooks'
Young Frankenstein? I mean, I totally understand the
venom directed toward Brooks' rather unorthodox practices, but when all is said and done, the show itself is actually better than OK, even if we don't have a clue what its
weekly grosses are. But here's a news flash -- remember those $450 seats? I played around on Ticketmaster and found that I could get a second row center orchestra mid-week seat for just $130.
...Was there really any doubt that both
Deanna Dunagan and
Amy Morton would each be
eligible for the Best Actress in a Play Tony for their breathtaking work in
August: Osage County? I know
some folks I respect had expressed doubt that the lesser known Dunagan could be nominated in the category, but the Tony Committee has ruled that they both are. Now the question will be, "Which one will actually win the prize?"
...Don't London's theatre offerings
sound tantalizing this year? Despite what the
West End Whingers might think, there's plenty to have those of us on this side of the pond wistfully looking at their offerings. Just ask Rocco at
What's Good/What Blows. I'm pondering an April visit myself.
...Do you wonder when stage musical adaptations of films will ever end now that
Shrek The Musical is a go for later this year?
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Related Stories:Is It Just Me, Or...(Part II) (February 21, 2007)
Is It Just Me, Or... (June 14, 2006)
Labels: August Osage County, Boeing-Boeing, Broadway, Is It Just Me, London, Musical, Play, Shrek The Musical, West End Whingers, What', Young Frankenstein
Building The Dream
In honor of
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
Martin Luther King, Jr., and in observance of our
national holiday where we remember his leadership and sacrifice as our pre-eminent force for equality among all Americans, I invite you to
join me in contributing to the National Memorial that will celebrate his life.
The building of the long overdue
Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial will commence this spring on Washington's
National Mall, not far from where America's civil rights leader gave his 1963 speech on the steps of the
Lincoln Memorial as part of the peaceful March on Washington.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Civil Rights, In Memoriam, Martin Luther King Jr., Special Messages, Washington DC
Touring Productions: What's Fair And EquityThanks to Google alerts, I get theatre-related news from throughout the United States that I would never get elsewhere.
Take Alabama's
The Huntsville Times review of the current touring production of
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, in which critic Jon Busdaker eviscerates the show:
Beware. The box office is swindling hard-earned dollars from people expecting a Broadway-style show.
Keep your money close so you don't accidentally spend it on a ticket, because someone's playing the ol' "bait and switch."
I thought Busdaker was about to blow the lid off the fact that the
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels that's currently masquerading as the tour of the Broadway original is not only
not directed by the Rialto production's
Jack O'Brien, nor choreographed by
Jerry Mitchell, but the tour is strictly
non-equity and directed instead by
Philip Wm. McKinley and choreographed by
Vince Pesce.
The bait is advertising the show as the legit progeny of the Broadway original and switching it with a bastardized version that doesn't even have the guts to admit its use
anywhere of a non-equity cast.
While the show leaves Huntsville this afternoon for Fort Lauderdale, I see
nothing on any of the sites suggesting that this is anything but the real deal. What's more, at the
Broward Arts Center, they are still charging $65 for the show's top ticket. Perhaps not much compared with Broadway, but in line with ticket prices for other legitimate Great White Way tour offerings across the country.
As
I've cautioned previously with the touring production of
Hairspray, it's strictly
caveat emptor. Or, if you regularly check
Actors Equity's Web site, you can see that the following tours are but pale imitations of the Broadway originals:
Dirty Rotten ScoundrelsHairsprayThe ProducersThe Wedding SingerDirty and rotten? Absolutely, especially when
they con unsuspecting audiences in each city by not telling the dirty, rotten truth upfront about these shows.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Related Stories:Touring Hairspray Caught In Sticky Net (April 26, 2007)
Labels: Actors Equity, Broadway, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Fort Lauderdale, Hairspray, Huntsville, Musical, Touring Production
Triple Espresso (The SOB Review) - Music Box Theatre, Minneapo-lis, MN1/2*Want to see a good show?
Then you'll want to avoid
Triple Espresso the way I do
Starbucks.
More a musical revue than a musical,
Triple Espresso has inexplicably been a staple of Minneapolis theatre since the spring of 1997. When I learned the show had set a closing date, I figured I'd try to see what kept the show percolating for so long.
While the show dubs itself "A highly caffeinated comedy," I could have used a little of that high octane stuff to get me through the warmed-over schlock that tasted simultaneously like it's been on the burner way too long without ever having been fully brewed to begin with.
Triple Espresso is about an eponymous comedy trio who reunite after 25 years apart. The closest to "real" fame the three -- Hugh Butternut (Michael Pearce Donley), Bobby Bean (Brian Kelly) and Buzz Maxwell (George Tovar), get it?! -- ever came was in a botched appearance on the 70s "
Mike Douglas" talk show.
With lame attempts to involve the audience followed by largely unfunny schtick borrowed unceasingly from all things the 70s, the only thing I was left wondering is how this show could have been so underdeveloped and yet last so long.
Unfortunately,
Triple Espresso is bad to the last drop.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Labels: Minneapolis/St. Paul, Musical, Revue, The SOB Review, Triple Espresso
Good Boys And True (The SOB Review) - Downstairs Theatre, Steppenwolf, Chicago, IL*** (out of ****)If the dearth of new television shows has left you
wondering what all those writers are doing when they're not picketing, look around the country and you may just spot some of them working in live theatre.
Consider the case of Nicaraguan-born playwright
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, who had recently been added as a writer to television's "
Big Love" series on
HBO. While he had already written his
Good Boys And True prior to the strike, he certainly couldn't have been expecting a unique confluence of events to bring him to Chicago's
Steppenwolf.
At the time my favorite Windy City theatre company had announced
Good Boys And True as part of its 2007-08 Theatrical Season,
Amy Morton was initially attached as the play's director. Of course, anyone who's been paying attention to Broadway
theatre knows that Morton is currently wowing crowds at Rialto's
Imperial Theatre in a "little"
ensemble play. When it became obvious she would be unavailable to helm
Good Boys And True,
Pam MacKinnon was brought in.
Then, of course, the
Writers Guild of America strike was authorized and broke out in early November. That enabled Aguirre-Sacasa to join MacKinnon, along with her outstanding cast and crew, in honing the world premiere of his work, which began last month on the Steppenwolf stage.
The result?
Well, having already read C
hicago Tribune columnist Chris Jones
complete pan:
There is no sense of adolescent sexuality in Pam MacKinnon's icy, clipped, weirdly fractured production. There's not enough pain or passion. You don't believe in it for moment.
coupled with
Chicago Sun-Times critic Hedy Weiss' unfortunate
comparison with
Alan Bennett's
The History Boys:
But where Bennett's work is luminous, literate and bristling, and triggers the sort of instantaneous leap of faith that comes with great writing, Aguirre-Sacasa's play is wholly contrived, heavy-handed and flatly rendered.
I was completely prepared to hate the show and question my judgment for agreeing to become one of the show's sponsors (full disclosure here: when approached by Steppenwolf last fall to serve as an individual production sponsor with a donation, I readily agreed).
Quite the opposite occurred.
I found a very honest depiction of how Brandon Hardy (an earnest
Stephen Louis Grush) -- a popular young 80s prep school student, who seemed to have it all including good looks, excellent grades (he was accepted into Dartmouth) and athletic prowess -- dealt with his fears over being gay. Unlike today's adolescents, who fortunately seem to understand and come to terms with their burgeoning sexuality much earlier than was possible a generation ago, Brandon is compelled to hide who he truly is from everyone else at St. Joe's Prep.
Having developed a relationship with his fellow classmate Justin Simmons (
Tim Rock), Hardy yearns for the day at Darmouth when, together with Justin, he can shed the he-man prep school myth he's created for himself. He's become enslaved by it, not only for fear of complete rejection by his fellow classmates and teachers, but also by his parents, who have come to live through his second generation glory, both as star football player and grade-A student. He has to be just that much better than everyone else. He's essentially become the
best little boy in the world.
Brandon is living in a world of privilege. He understands all too well that gay boys just don't enjoy the same open doors as those boys who have never had to question their own sexuality, who just take it for granted that they're straight. Brandon realizes that he has to work double duty, not only in creating the illusion that he's one of them, but also at excelling at everything he does. He's compelled to do anything he can to safeguard his secret, lest there be a hint of gossip about him and Justin.
Very early on, we learn that there's a videotape circulating of a boy, who looks suspiciously like Brandon from the back, clearly having sex with -- or quite possibly raping -- a young teen name Cheryl Moody (
Kelly O'Sullivan). At the very least, we know that the act itself was taped without her consent.
The video ends up in the hands of St. Joe's Coach Russell Shea (
John Procaccino). He realizes that its contents could undermine the school's local standing. Suspecting that the boy in question is his star Brandon, he approaches the boy's mother Elizabeth (a superb
Martha Lavey), who can't even conceive that her son would be capable of such a thing.
Ultimately, Brandon reveals his secret to his mother in one of the most poignant, heartfelt and truthful scenes I've seen portrayed anywhere dealing with a child's
coming out. It's said that
mothers always know. And far from being contrived, this moment is incredibly honest and true, especially considering how light years away acceptance of homosexuality was a mere twenty years ago.
With all due respect to Jones and Weiss, ask anyone who's been where Brandon Hardy was, someone on the cusp of a great future, but afraid to accept his own truth for fear of losing everything simply because of being gay, and he might very well tell you the lengths of deception he'd go to in concealing who he was.
While most young gay men a generation ago would not have gone to the extreme young Brandon does, far too many resorted to shams of marriages or other devices to create and maintain illusions that rob them of time, relationships and, most of all, the dignity to be who they really are. What Aguirre-Sacasa, MacKinnon and the outstanding cast of
Good Boys And True achieve is a reminder for just how damaging and confining closets can be.
Perhaps no one can really understand unless you've been there yourself.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Labels: Chicago, Good Boys And True, Martha Lavey, Play, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Steppenwolf, The SOB Review
Avenue Q (The SOB Revisit) - State Theatre, Minneapolis, MN*1/2 (out of ****)When I first caught the fledgling little
Avenue Q during the 2003-04 Theatrical Season with its original cast -- long before it was awarded the 2004 Tony for Best Musical -- I enjoyed its devious humor that tracked an ingenious parallel universe with television's "
Sesame Street."
I vividly recall a fun time was had by all.
So why was it that when I saw the
current touring production during its recent pass through Minneapolis, I felt like a square peg in a round hole. Have I just become that much older, or is the material not all its cracked up to be?
Snarky, juvenile, mean-spirited and too smart by half were some of the thoughts that came to mind during the performance. Not to mention that I sat and pondered, "Did this
really win the Tony for Best Musical???"
Something with the touring production just didn't click for me, although it
wasn't the fairly decent cast, consisting of, in part,
Robert McClure (Princeton and Rod),
Kelli Sawyer (Kate Monster, Lucy and others),
David Benoit (Nicky, Trekkie Monster, Bear and others),
Cole Porter (yes, seriously, as Brian) and
Jennie Kwan (understudy for Christmas Eve). They at least gave it their all.
Maybe it just doesn't play well the second time around.
Or maybe it was the poor sightlines from my seat (I couldn't see one very significant portion of the stage from my
first seat, and after shifting over, I got stuck behind the bobble-head from hell -- it sucks to be me).
Or maybe it was the fact that it was nowhere near as intimate as the Broadway version (at 805 seats, the
John Golden Theatre ranks as one of Rialto's smaller venues. Meanwhile, Minneapolis' gorgeous State Theatre is downright gargantuan with over 2000 seats. Surely, this show must be seen in a much smaller venue to be truly appreciated).
Or maybe it was the incredibly obnoxious drunk women behind me (they were abhorently cavalier after they toppled over their sticky drinks, which in turn flowed directly under my feet -- it really sucks to be me).
Or maybe I was still harboring a bit of ill will toward the show for its unprecedented, all-out
campaign effort to win the Tony.
Or maybe I could still recall how days after winning the Tony, the
producers sold out to Steve Wynn and Vegas
instead of touring, at least initially (it didn't last very long at the
Wynn Resort's specially built 1200 seat theatre, maybe thanks to a little bit of well-earned "Schadenfreude").
Or it could just be that since first seeing the show years ago, I saw
Dori Berinstein's insider look documentary "
ShowBusiness: The Road To Broadway" in which
Avenue Q was prominently featured (watching that, it struck me that although
Robert Lopez and
Jeff Marx were clearly having a great time writing the score, theirs was really the story of how two slackers lucked out. Their collaboration -- at least the portions shown in the documentary -- didn't inspire. Nor did it seem like the making of great art as they "labored" over rhyming simple words with each other).
Or it could be that I just am tired of mean-spirited, smug, politically-correct crass crap (masquerading, ironically as politically incorrect) that tries to be smart, but ends up feeling juvenile?
Or maybe I'm just too old.
No matter what it was, I just was no longer having much fun, perhaps with the exception of the still brilliant video sequences. In retrospect, I now have to concede that the London critics were
right.
Well, whatever.
Alas
, Avenue Q is still touring, as well as playing London's West End and Broadway.
For now.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for Avenue Q Broadway tickets.Click here for Avenue Q Tour tickets.Related Stories:Avenue Q Deal: I'll Drink To That! (December 1, 2007)
Dori Berinstein - The SOB Interview (November 7, 2007)
ShowBusiness: Year In The Life Of Broadway (October 16, 2007)
London's Avenue Q Reviews: Everyone's a Little Bit Low Road (June 29, 2006)
Avenue Q Settles Into West End Neighborhood Tonight (June 28, 2006)
Broadway's Gamble on Vegas No Sure Bet (June 6, 2006)
Ann Harada to Reprise Avenue Q Role in London (May 8, 2006)
Labels: Avenue Q, Broadway, Dori Berinstein, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Musical, ShowBusiness The Road To Broadway, The SOB Revisit, Touring Production
For Your Viewing Pleasure: Two HarborsUnless there's a connection to live stage productions, I don't typically write about film or television as a rule. But since rules are made to be broken, I'm making an exception.
If you live in the New York City area and don't want to brave the
freezing temperatures outside over the weekend, may I kindly suggest for your viewing pleasure watching
Thirteen/WNET-TV at 11:30 p.m. Saturday night for a quirky little award-winning gem of an indie flick called, "
Two Harbors"?
Written and directed by a very unassuming, and downright polite, auteur named
James Vculek -- who, by the way, in his spare time
does run a fledgling little theatre company in Minneapolis called
Partizan Theatre -- this 2005 black and white film is "based on a true story" of "an obsessed sci-fi collecter uses an impressionable young woman in an attempt to lure aliens to earth, with tragic results."
Using the tagline, "Sometimes love can be an alien concept," "Two Harbors" boasts two of the Twin Cities' finest stage actors --
Richard Ooms and
Claudia Wilkens -- as well as
Catherine E. Johnson,
Alex Cole and
Ari Hoptman.
An audience favorite at over two dozen different film festivals from coast-to-coast, as well as Down Under and our neighbor to the north,
Two Harbors' many honors include:
- 2005 Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival (Best Feature)
- 2005 Milwaukee International Film Festival (Best Feature)
- 2006 Eugene International Film Festival (Best Feature)
- 2006 Victoria (Australia) Festival of Motion Image (Best Feature)
- 2006 Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival (Silver Eddy Award)
- 2006 Winnipeg International Film Festival (Best Actor - Alex Cole)
- 2005 Austin Film Festival (Honorable Mention)
- 2006 Rural Route Film Festival (NYC) (Honorable Mention)
- 2006 SoCal Film Festival (Huntington Beach CA) (Honorable Mention)
If you need a little more prodding, here's the promotion on Thirteen/WNET:
Here's the original trailer for the film:
I had the good fortune to be on-hand for the very first screening of this film and have since made a trip to Milwaukee to see it at the city's iconic new
art museum when "Two Harbors" won "Best Feature" at the Milwaukee Film Festival.
Watch it and let me know what you think!
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Related Stories:Angelina Jolie Is A Zionist Whore! Or, Plan 9 From Baghdad (The SOB Review) (November 20, 2006)
Labels: Claudia Wilkens, Film, James Vculek, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Partizan Theater, Richard Ooms, Television, Two Harbors, WNET
Did Critics' Ballots Favor November?Last evening,
David Mamet's world premiere play
November opened at Broadway's
Ethel Barrymore Theatre, and this morning the election re, er, critics' reviews are in.
Helmed by
Joe Mantello,
November is a presidential election year comedy starring
Nathan Lane,
Dylan Baker,
Laurie Metcalf,
Ethan Phillips and
Michael Nichols. Like a nation that seems inexorably split down the middle, so were the critics in their reviews.
Offering that "Mamet here is better than ever," Bloomberg's
John Simon voted early and often for the show: "A comedy and its production score a joint bull's-eye, and for a couple of hours on Broadway, all is well with the world. Nathan Lane, a great comic actor, gets the part he needed to prove himself the greatest....Lane is a one-man laugh riot as he tries to wangle or bribe, bully or blackmail his way into re-election....Joe Mantello, the director, emerges yet again as equal master of pinpoint detail and overarching orchestration."
Concluding that it's "empty-headed political fun,"
Clive Barnes of
New York Post offers two and a half stars: "With a masterly sleight of hand, Nathan Lane turns slightness into giddy fun in
November, David Mamet's impeccably politically incorrect tale of a US president in pollster hell. Not that all the credit belongs to Broadway's current maestro of the aggressive put-down and the aggrieved double-take. Much the same virtuosity is shown by a suavely buttoned-down Dylan Baker and a hysterically buttoned-up Laurie Metcalf, all three directed with metronomic brilliance by Joe Mantello."
Proclaiming
November a "manically funny new comedy," the Associated Press'
Michael Kuchwara offers his "yes" vote: "Lane is anything but bland as he ricochets around the room, spewing obscenities, mostly of the f-word variety....the cleverly jumbled plot ... demands comic actors at the top of their form. The cast, which also includes Laurie Metcalf and Dylan Baker, deftly navigates its way through the thicket of laughs, nailing every one."
Labeling it "sneaky and scabrously funny,"
Eric Grode of
The New York Sun is mostly positive: "As the Gandhi joke ... demonstrates, the plotting often gives way to a Borscht Belt style that comes a bit too easily to the author. But if anyone on Broadway can pull off this sort of material, it's Mr. Lane. Dangling offers and hurling threats like a
Tammany Hall alderman, Smith stands to leave the
Oval Office (replicated with witty fidelity by set designer
Scott Pask) with either his head held high or his pockets full. Mr. Lane's patented blend of lovable loutishness keeps the audience guessing -- and laughing, as he dispenses profane nuggets of Mametian wisdom with pedantic cluelessness."
Characterizing Mamet's latest as a "glib and jaunty new play
," The New York Times'
Ben Brantley votes no: "Despite the thick swarm of obscenities that are de rigueur in a Mamet play, there’s nothing remotely shocking about
November. If the play had been acted in the old Mamet tradition of louts stewing broodingly in homicidal rage and exasperation, it would probably be more unsettling when the president disgorges racist, sexist and xenophobic diatribes....
November is a David Mamet play for people who don’t like David Mamet. Being a long-time Mamet devotee, I cannot say I see this as a cause for rejoicing. Finding the singular Mamet voice (I mean, other than in its '#@$+*!' verbal punctuation) requires hard listening."
Noting how "it has no sense of proportion or plausibility,"
Joe Dziamianowicz of New York's
Daily News offers thumbs down: "In the past Mamet's work has been incisive, powerful and realistic. Here he goes for an easy, well-worn target and obvious setup: America's highest office is held by a low-life thug (Smith's political party isn't identified). It's so broad that
November is a satire with a big mouth but no bite. There's plenty of bark though. Lane revels in his freewheeling performance, launching one-liners -- some very funny -- and endless expletives. Unlike in his dramas, Mamet's streaming profanity here seems like self-parody or ugly wallpaper -- it just hangs there, demanding attention."
Proffering that Mamet "takes the lazy way out with the election-year sitcom,"
Newsday's
Linda Winer casts a negative ballot: "Instead of wit and fury, we get gags and grimaces. Instead of humor so daring that critics have been known to bite their own lips to maintain decorum, the comedy is so eager-to-please that we strain to hear Mamet's voice beyond the punch lines....[t]here is scant resemblance to real-world satire....Mantello appears unwilling or unable to find the seriously wonderful actor who existed before Lane froze his distinctive trumpet voice and flipper eyebrows in monster comedies. When Mamet's sly street-poet humor meets the hard sell, the language grates."
So there you have it folks, a split vote. I'll be offering my own SOB Review once I see the show right in the middle of primary season.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:November's January Opening (January 18, 2008)
Metcalf Elects To Join November (August 9, 2007)
Will Mamet Offer Hail To Nathan Lane? (May 10, 2007)
Labels: Broadway, Critics' Capsule, David Mamet, Joe Mantello, Laurie Metcalf, Nathan Lane, November, Play
