SOB's Favorite Shows Of The Noughties: #23 - Grey Gardens (2007, Walter Kerr Theatre, 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. As the most sublime show of its year,
Grey Gardens easily ranked as my choice for Best Musical. This unconventional yet completely satisfying tuner was a triumph of the first order.
Arguably at the height of her distinguished career,
Christine Ebersole's virtuoso performance in
Grey Gardens remains one that I can still vividly recall. Ebersole more than masterfully channeled both Edith and Little Edie Bouvier Beales of the funny-if-it-weren’t-so-tragic
seventies documentary of the same name.
What could have been played for sheer parody was instead transformed into a poignant, modern tragedy, where pathetic dismissal gave way to empathy. Credit
Michael Greif's brilliant direction,
Mary Louise Wilson’s powerful Edith and Ebersole’s heartwrenching Little Edie.
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: Broadway, Christine Ebersole, Grey Gardens, Mary Louise Wilson, Michael Greif, Musical, SOB's Favorite Shows Of The Noughties
38 Down, One To Go (Plus One)Even if I wasn't so enamored by the current revival of
Guys And Dolls, it did afford me the opportunity of crossing another Broadway theatre off my list. Thirty-eight down,
one more to go ... if you don't count that
"new" theatre coming to a Broadway near you in September.
It may be heresy to other theatre lovers, but up until seeing
Guys And Dolls during one of its last previews prior to opening, I had never set foot inside the wonderfully restored
Nederlander Theatre (pictured here, photo by Matthew Blank). That's right, I never saw its previous occupant
Rent there, even though it squatted at the Nederlander through 5,123 performances. Fear not,
Rent-heads, I actually took in the very first "Angel" touring company of
Rent during its initial stint in Boston (way back in 1996), as well as a later tour of St. Paul (2000).
Which of Broadway's current 39 theatrical venues have I visited the most? That would be the
Booth Theatre -- home to countless prestige shows and arguably the Great White Way's most uncomfortable seats -- beginning with the 1992 revival of
The Most Happy Fella and as recently as its current occupant,
next to normal. Which brings me full circle:
Frank Loesser wrote the scores to both
Guys And Dolls and
The Most Happy Fella , while
Michael Greif directed both
Rent and
next to normal.
So, dear readers, how many Broadway theatres have you visited? And do you think I should just bite the bullet and finally see that
last remaining show (even though I
have seen it in London, Los Angeles and Las Vegas) to round out my overall Rialto experience?
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Booth Theatre, Broadway, Broadway Venues, Frank Loesser, Guys And Dolls, Michael Greif, Nederlander Theatre, Next To Normal, Rent, The Most Happy Fella
The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide To Capitalism And Socialism With A Key To The Scriptures (The SOB Review) - McGuire Proscenium Stage, Guthrie, Minneapolis, Minnesota**1/2 (out of ****)Last evening,
Tony Kushner's
The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide To Capitalism And Socialism With A Key To The Scriptures enjoyed its world premiere at the
Guthrie in Minneapolis.
Whew! Simply writing that is exhausting. Just try sitting through this three and a half hour
plus production as it clearly remains a work in progress, despite director
Michael Greif's best efforts to rein it in immediately prior its official opening. It's
been reported that just three days ago, the estimable ensemble was still working on script before preview audiences.
If you're anticipating the kind of profound sweeping social statement that verbose playwright
Tony Kushner provided through the groundbreaking
Angels In America or the level of compelling social history he offered via
Caroline, Or Change, you may just find yourself a little disappointed. The title of the play seems to suggest a latter-day "gay fantasia on national themes" as his
Angels works had been dubbed. While Kushner inhabits
Intelligent Homosexual with five gay characters -- none of whom, with the possible exception of one, are particularly likeable -- they remain on the periphery of the central plot. Nevertheless, Kushner manages to offer quite a screed.
If you're then wondering where that unusual title comes from, it's derived from two unlikely 19th Century sources: playwright
George Bernard Shaw's 1928 book "
The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism, Capitalism, Sovietism and Fascism" and
Christian Science founder
Mary Baker Eddy's 1875 tome "
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." The program for this play includes Kushner's notes from "Waking Up" (1997), which embellishes on those themes:
The Intelligent Homosexual ... I have been observing him all my life. He is busy with his life's work, a massive book running to many volumes entitled The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide To Socialism And Capitalism, With A Key To The Scriptures. He has been writing this book, day after day, for forty years; since parturition he's been writing it. He knows it to be incompleteable, he knows he will die writing it, he knows he is working himself to death -- though he does not want to die.
As the ultimate observer, Kushner has swept those themes and so much more into his play about an unlikely intellectual retiree named Gus Marcantonio, intensely portrayed here by the seemingly fearless Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright
Michael Cristofer. Having toiled a lifetime not only as a longshoreman, but also an ardent Communist, Gus possesses a philosophy on life at odds with his 2007 Brooklyn setting.
The play begins in earnest as Gus' sister Bennie (played with subtle grace by
Kathleen Chalfant) and his three adult children -- Maria Teresa or M.T. (as in "Empty"-- get it? because if you don't it
will be underscored for you) (
Linda Emond), Pier or "Pill" (
Stephen Spinella) and Vito (
Ron Menzel) --reunite at their family home. This house was initially shared with other families and stayed with the Marcantonios even through the Great Depression. As the housing bubble ballooned during the early part of this decade, the brownstone was worth a considerable fortune by 2007.
Gus not only sees the economic storm clouds gathering, but he realizes that it might not be long before the bubble is about to burst and the home's value will begin to plummet. Claiming he has
Alzheimer's, Gus gathers his brood to announce two last acts of benevolence. He plans to sell the home while it can earn top dollar, and he will kill himself so that his family will reap an early inheritance and avoid suffering through the indignities that come from his scourge.
Add to that mix a couple of self-loathing gay characters. Provocative themes to be sure. However, Kushner excessively leans on histrionics to make his points. A few too many of his characters bloviate and pontificate ad nauseum on everything from religion to far left politics with an almost fascist ferocity that ironically defies some of the very themes against which the playwright seems to be throwing down his gauntlet. Can there really be that many intellectuals emanating from one blue collar household? It all sounds so, well, labored and forced.
Even more frustrating is the largely unintelligible second of three acts, in which family members squabble at length, including a few highly-charged and raw shouting matches. What is remarkably unfortunate is that rather than allowing each heated argument to play out on its own, Greif appears to have opted to layer them on top of one another in an apparent gambit to winnow down the show's running time. The result is nothing short of a cacophonic mess. No wonder Gus' daughter interrupts the din to call her family nightmarish.
While I've been reading that Kushner's third act is not quite the equal of the first two, I'd argue the opposite. Kushner uses his third act to passionately make his underlying case for connectedness, and he does so with a degree of clarity and pathos only hinted at during the first two acts.
As I said, this is clearly an evolving work. No doubt, Kushner will continue refining
The Intelligent Homosexual. Yet given what he's written about it back in 1997, one can't help but fear he'll be doing so the rest of his life.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Michael Greif, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Play, The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide To Capitalism And Socialism, The SOB Review, Tony Kushner
next to normal (The SOB Review) - Booth Theatre, New York, New York
***1/2 (out of ****)Billy Elliot – The Musical may be the odds-on favorite to take home the Tony for Best Musical this year, but make no mistake that there’s a brooding dark horse in the race. With a fierce, electrifying direction from
Michael Greif,
Brian Yorkey and
Tom Kitt’s
next to normal is giving the musical about the dancing boy(s) a run for its money.
next to normal is nothing if not atypical for Broadway musical fare, but in tackling mental illness and its continued social stigma head-on, the tuner ranks among the best I’ve seen all year. In a bravura performance deserving of a Tony,
Alice Ripley portrays Diana, who on first blush seems like the quintessential housewife and mother of two.
But not everything is as it seems. It’s not long before Yorkey’s book descends into the personal hell Diana must endure and the scorching reverberations her deepening depression has on the rest of the family, including the heartbreaking
J. Robert Spencer as her husband Dan, a haunting
Aaron Tveit as her Gabe and the revelatory
Jennifer Damiano as her daughter Natalie. The entire cast is exceptional.
Even if the score is at times a bit overwrought and it may appear (to some) that Yorkey’s inherent message is an outright rejection of psychiatry, as well as all drugs and treatments for depression (a notion I flatly reject given an eleventh hour endorsement from a surprising volunteer for treatment),
next to normal marks a welcome if downright shocking departure for Broadway.
If you’re like me, it just may melt down into your heart.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Aaron Tveit, Alice Ripley, Brian Yorkey, Broadway, J. Robert Spencer, Jennifer Damiano, Michael Greif, Musical, Next To Normal, The SOB Review, Tom Kitt
