SOB's Favorite Shows Of The Noughties: #22 - Twelfth Night (2009, Delacorte Theatre, Central Park, New York, New York)
Introduction: Hard as it is to comprehend that we're already 119 months into this "new" millennium, we are fast approaching the end of its first decade. While we have yet to agree on what exactly we should call the '00s, I'll take a cue from the fine folks at The Times of London and the BBC and henceforth refer to them at the Noughties. With that small introduction, I'm pleased to present my list of plays and musicals that wowed me the most during that time. Out of the hundreds and hundreds of shows I've seen over the last ten years, I give you my countdown of my 25 personal favorite shows of the Noughties. Love was in the air, and that breeze blowing straight through Central Park was
William Shakespeare's
Twelfth Night.
Daniel Sullivan’s truly lovely and gorgeous revival was brimming with bawdy charms and an extraordinary ensemble, including
Raúl Esparza as Orsino,
Audra MacDonald as Olivia,
Julie White as her attendant,
Michael Cumpsty as Malvolio and contemporary theatre’s greatest scene-stealer
David Pittu as Feste.
Was it any wonder that rain or shine, this was a formidable mounting with which to be reckoned and revered? Add to that mix film actress
Anne Hathaway’s mesmerizing turn as Viola, and those lucky enough to get tickets witnessed a wondrous new theatre queen being born. I walked out of Central Park both enthralled and enchanted.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
In keeping with the new that unfairly discriminate against bloggers, who are now required by law to disclose when they have received anything of value they might write about, please note that I have received nothing of value in exchange for this post. I paid my own way for this performance.Labels: Anne Hathaway, Audra McDonald, David Pittu, Julie White, Off-Broadway, Play, Raul Esparza, Revival, SOB's Favorite Shows Of The Noughties, Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare
Twelfth Night (The SOB Review) – Delacorte Theatre, Central Park, New York, New York
**** (out of ****)Love is in the air, and its breeze that's blowing straight through Central Park is
William Shakespeare's
Twelfth Night.
It may not have been the playwright who coined that enduring mantra of the stage, “The show must go on.” But just try telling that to the extraordinary ensemble in the current
Public Theatre Shakespeare in the Park production of
Twelfth Night. The night I saw the show, they demonstrated a level of magnificent moxie even the Bard would surely have appreciated.
Early this decade, I experienced what many William Shakespeare purists believe was
the quintessential modern-day mounting of
Twelfth Night. In it, one of the great playwright’s most beloved works known for its gender-bending ways was gender-bending itself with recent Tony winner
Mark Rylance and
fellow (literally)
Royal Shakespearean actors portraying all the characters, male and female alike. Purists would say that this was not unlike how the play about mistaken identity and love would have been mounted long before women were ever allowed to take to legitimate stages.
So while I fully expect that some may sniff that
Daniel Sullivan’s truly lovely and gorgeous revival breaks virtually no new dramatic turf, I say, who really cares? With its bawdy charms, call this
Twelfth Night an impure delight filled with unmitigated thrills.
When you’re blessed to have some of the most revered theatrical royalty of our times on full display, including
Raúl Esparza as Orsino,
Audra MacDonald as Olivia,
Julie White as her attendant,
Michael Cumpsty as Malvolio and contemporary theatre’s greatest scene-stealer
David Pittu as Feste, is it any wonder that rain or shine, this is a formidable revival with which to be reckoned and revered?
Add to that mix film actress
Anne Hathaway’s wondrously mesmerizing turn as Viola, and you’re witnessing a new theatre queen being born. Hathaway doesn’t just acquit herself superbly, she more than proves her Shakespeare mettle with natural grace, and like Esparza and Pittu, she sings divinely as well. Someone needs to figure out how to bring her to a Broadway stage where she belongs.
During my particularly wet performance, I was struck by how unfazed Sullivan’s excellent ensemble seemed to be by the downpour. Indeed, immediately after the first scene of the second act, a rain hold was called. While the showers continued even after the hold was lifted one half hour later, the cast brought home such determined joy, that it was hard not to feel a symbiotic affinity with them for having braved the storm together with you.
Whether skies are clear or cloudy, don’t be deterred from seeing this
Twelfth Night. Either way, you’re not likely to come away anything but enthralled and enchanted.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Anne Hathaway, Audra McDonald, Daniel Sullivan, David Pittu, Julie White, Play, Raul Esparza, Revival, The SOB Review, Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare
SOB Tony Photo: Julie White And Lin-Manuel MirandaGreat to catch up with two Tony Award-winners at the Tony Gala.
My apologies to both
Julie White (
The Little Dog Laughed) and
Lin-Manuel Miranda (
In The Heights) for not capturing that little Tony Award better. But you get the SOB picture.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Related Stories:Things I Learned At The Tonys... (June 17, 2008)
Tony Awards: Win Place Show (June 16, 2008)
Tony Time (June 15, 2008)
Strange: Passing In The Heights For Best Musical? (June 13, 2008)
SOB's 2008 Tony Picks - Who Will Win (June 10, 2008)
SOB's 2008 Tony Picks - Part III (June 6, 2008)
SOB's 2008 Tony Picks - Part II (June 5, 2008)
SOB's 2008 Tony Picks - Part I (June 4, 2008)
And The Tony Nominees Go To... (May 12, 2008)
Labels: In The Heights, Julie White, Lin-Manuel Miranda, The Little Dog Laughed, Tony Awards
From Up Here (The SOB Review) - New York City Center, Manhattan Theatre Club, New York, NY***1/2 (out of ****)What is it about all too many American adolescents who give up hope before it even has had the chance to spring eternal? Could it be that it all has to do with the lower, earliest vantage points by which all children are literally challenged?
In this post-
Columbine era, adults have been tragically reminded time and again of the need to refortify their efforts, remaining vigilant in looking for tell-tale signs and patterns of disturbing behavior, as well as in trying to serve as favorable role models.
If nothing else, many feel compelled to demonstrate that high school life is rarely a harbinger of things to come. That's a lot of responsibility to be sure.
Coming exactly one year after the horrific
Virginia Tech Massacre and nearly 9 years to the day after Columbine,
Liz Flahive's poignant, yet darkly funny
From Up Here opened last evening under the snappy direction of
Leigh Silverman at the
Manhattan Theatre Club's space at the New York City Center.
And what an auspicious debut this budding playwright has made, particularly as Flahive instills her fully realized characters with compassion, along with a heaping healthy dose of what troubled teens need more than anything else: hope. Flahive ably underscores how hope requires elevating the teenage human spirit to a loftier place where they can see that life doesn't begin and end in the place perhaps mistakenly called "high" school.
In
From Up Here, we're never quite sure what exactly high school student Kenny Barrett (
Tobias Segal) actually did to warrant police involvement, let alone the close scrutiny from his school and family. But whatever he did, it has everyone pretty much on edge. And now that he's back in school, he's been assigned an interloper minder in the form of precocious class valedictorian Kate (
Jenni Barber), who's going to help Kenny write a public apology he is set to deliver.
At home, he struggles to communicate with his frustrated, high-strung mother (
Julie White), let alone his stepfather Daniel (
Brian Hutchison), who valiantly strives to keep it and everyone all together as the moral support he's providing everyone, including sexually promiscuous stepdaughter Lauren (
Aya Cash), goes unappreciated. Fortunately for Kenny, his transcendental Aunt Caroline (
Arija Bareikis) descends quite literally upon the family, swooping in just enough to knock this somewhat broken family back into kilter.
In one of the year's most profoundly moving male performances, Tobias Segal deftly exhibits all the knotty tableau of emotions ranging from utter dejection to glimmers of hope his tortured soul endures. Mark my words, this is one hot young actor whose name you'll want to remember.
As last year's Tony-winning Best Actress, Julie White bypasses Broadway for her Gotham follow up with a tightly wound, measured performance laced with an appropriate blend of humor and anxiety for a mother who's at the end of her rope. She's truly brilliant. As is Hutchison in his understated performance.
In fact, all of the portrayals by this uniformly fine cast, including
Will Rogers as Lauren's would-be paramour Charlie, nail the awkward coming to wits angst inherently found both among those growing up and those who must deal with fragile youth in a very honest, straightforward manner.
Special mention must be made regarding
Allen Moyer's sliding set design, accentuated by
Pat Collins' subtle lighting, that effectively straddles the reality of home with the more vague, less certain outside world.
What really struck a chord with me is that for all the awkwardess that most youth must go through,
From Up Here gives immense direction by pointing the way out via a revelatory, resonating route that makes live theatre suddenly relevant again.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Labels: From Up Here, Julie White, Leigh Silverman, Liz Flahive, Manhattan Theatre Club, Off-Broadway, Play, The SOB Review, Tobias Segal
Tony Winner Julie White Transforms HerselfThe other day while taking one of my pre-teen relatives to see the summer action flick "
Transformers" (sigh!), I was relieved to see a friendly theatre face up there on the big screen:
Julie White, a larger than life actress if there ever was one.
Just for the record, she was one of few bright spots in the otherwise overblown movie, which was nothing more than a
long commercial for a certain automobile and truck manufacturer. The non-stop product placements reminded me of yet another reason why I prefer the live theatre experience -- I'll gladly take
The Little Dog Laughed over the drivel I had to endure the other day.
What's ahead for the very recent Tony winner?
Well, it's almost as if she was asked, "Ms. White, now that you've won the Tony, what are you going to do?" She is, of course, heading to Disney: that is, ABC television.
White is
foregoing additional stage work in the foreseeable future to take on the role of Leslie in the upcoming
commercial-cum-television show "
Cavemen." However, it must not be a primary character since she's not even listed among the cast members on the
official ABC programming Web site.
Here's hoping we'll see more of this tremendously gifted actress, albeit in better vehicles, sooner than later.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Cavemen, Disney, Film, Julie White, Television, The Little Dog Laughed, Tony Awards, Transformers
The Little Dog Left
Yesterday marked the final Broadway performance for
The Little Dog Laughed. After slogging through middling reviews and less than 50% capacity crowds through most of its run, the comedy by
Douglas Carter Beane has finally been put to rest after just 112 regular performances.
What's particularly stunning is that there are no other
new plays by
American playwrights currently running on the Great White Way, unless you happen to count
Eric Bogosian's
Talk Radio,
which was written in the 1987, but never produced on Broadway until now. Undoubtedly, Tony voters will label
Talk Radio a revival.
Even though I didn't find
The Little Dog Laughed nearly as satisfying as I had hoped it'd be, I trust that come Tony time, the exhilarating tour de force performance by
Julie White will still be remembered. And that's no laughing matter.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Broadway, Closings, Julie White, Play, Talk Radio, The Little Dog Laughed
