Getting Reale - Q&A With Tony-Nominated Composer Robert Reale (Part II)Yesterday, I provided the first part of my recent sitdown with Tony-nominated composer
Robert (Rob) Reale.
Today, I'm pleased to provide the second part of my interview in which Reale, discusses the world premiere of
Johnny Baseball, which begins performances this Friday at the
American Repertory Theater (ART) in Boston.
ART describes
Johnny Baseball as follows:
It traces the origin of the Curse to a collision of three orphaned souls: Johnny O’Brien, a hard-luck right-hander on the 1919 Sox; his idol, Babe Ruth; and Daisy Wyatt, a dazzling African-American blues singer and the love of Johnny’s life. These three lives contain both the reason for the Curse and the secret to its end off the bat of Big Papi in 2004. Johnny Baseball packs a thoughtful commentary on American social history into a fun and spirited musical that will bring cheers and tears to baseball fans everywhere.Directed by Tony Award-nominated director
Diane Paulus (
Hair),
Johnny Baseball's impressive company includes
Colin Donnell as Johnny O’Brien,
Stephanie Umoh as Daisy Wyatt,
Burke Moses as Babe Ruth, Charl Brown as Tim,
Jeff Brooks as Tom Yawkey,
Charles Turner as a fan, as well as Joe Cassidy,
Paula Leggett Chase, Kaitlyn Davidson,
Alan H. Green,
Carly Jibson,
Robert McClure and
Kirsten Wyatt.
Here's the second part of my interview with Reale, conducted jointly with Patrick Lee of
Just Shows To Go You:
Reale on Getting Started in Musical TheatreI think at the very beginning, I was most struck by -- it was 25 years ago when I moved here -- and we were doing shows with the 52nd Street Project and we had people donating their time. Like A-List people coming in to help out with these inner-city kids, and I was struck by generous the community is. One of the things I love about theatre in New York and the reason why I think it’s very hard to create theatre outside of New York unless you’ve got an extraordinary town is the support from your peers. That’s extraordinary.
I like to think we’re getting to some of the sweeping stuff. You start out writing musical theatre and you sort of know your own musical history.
For me it was a lot of jazz. I started late. I started at 17. I learned guitar and tried to go to music school and then found out I loved all kinds of music, not just rock and roll. I didn’t get into as much opera in the beginning, but jazz … jazz ensemble … I discovered that.
My brother who founded the 52nd Street Project called me up -- and I was living in Phoenix before I finished school -- he said, “Hey what’s up? Have you thought about writing a musical?” Which I had not. He said, “Because I wrote a play for these seven kids -- a Christmas play -- and now the next year 30 of them showed up, and I don’t know what to do with them. I’ve got to give them a dance number or something.”
So he flew out to Arizona -- we went up to Sedona for a week -- and wrote some songs together and we decided we liked it. I quit the band I was in and moved back here. You know I was out of work for the next ten years. But it was really fun learning to write together. So that’s how we started together. My influences were James Taylor, rock and roll of the time and then a lot of jazz, so I incorporate that.
Reale on Writing Johnny Baseball's Score
This score, it was interesting, and it sounds like a recipe for disaster. It starts in 1919 (but) it’s couched in the 2004 (World Series) Game Four Yankees-Red Sox when Red Sox are on the brink of elimination from the Series, and we’re in the middle innings and a couple characters start telling us the story that happened of why they think the Curse exists, and it’s not in fact the curse of the Bambino -- Babe Ruth had nothing to do with it -- but the curse was based on something else.
In this case, (the curse was) based on racism. The Red Sox were the last team to integrate. So we have an interracial love story, plus love for baseball, and not just Red Sox fans but Yankee fans and any other baseball fans.
It does spread from 1919 to 2004 with the big stops in 1919, 1948 and then back to 2004. So in 2004, I can write whatever I want, obviously. For 1919, I’m restricted to really simple harmonies and then in ’48 I can stretch out a little bit more swing wise, you know. You can still take liberties so when the characters are singing material that is just character-driven, you take a little bit more freedom, liberties with what they’re singing from that point of view.
(In
Johnny Baseball, there are) basically three (musical stylings) – 1919, 1948 is a little more advanced harmonically, and then 2004 or what we call our main musical suit for this show.
Reale on Working with Diane PaulusYou know, we did a reading with Diane before
Hair. We were doing a play called
The Last Snowman and we needed a director. (My brother's wife) Jenny said, “You should really meet with Diane Paulus -- you’d really like her.”
Of course, she hadn’t done any of the good stuff we all know now. But she was great. We did a one week workshop with her and Willie and I felt like this is our first reading, can we have her all the time.
And then we asked her to do this production -- a reading, a workshop, of
Johnny Baseball -- and then she got the ART position. So then the stars lined up. She’s in Boston. We have a show about the Red Sox. It made sense.
Reale on Diane Paulus' vs. the VolcanoDiane Paulus was stuck by the volcano.
We had an extra week of rehearsal built into the schedule, it was great. And she was here for the first two days, we did read throughs, we started working on the big strokes and with this great music department, we had the cast to ourselves for ten days. So they really know that score cold. Before you go ripping songs out and putting new ones in, they knew it, and the steps and some of the movements with the choreographer and all that sort of thing.
Then the day she was supposed to come back, the volcano happened. So then we lost out on her for like another six days. So they really got to learn the music more than they ever wanted to.
But what was so impressive to all of us on the creative team was that she -- they always refer to her as “The Laser” -- because she knows what needs to be done immediately. She blocked the first act in three days.
It’s like you know how you get an assignment and you’ve got to write something. They give you three days to do it, but you know you can do it in a couple hours. But you still have the time allotted. She really asked if she could direct the whole musical in that time. She spent three days on the first act, three or four days on the second act. We got a good sense of what it would look like. So that was our first hurdle.
Reale on Johnny Baseball's BeginningsWillie (Reale) and I talked about this while we were in this process over the last year because we got the idea for the show right after the 2003 Series when the Boston Red Sox collapsed. Rick Dresser -- writing the book -- is a rabid Red Sox fan.
They’ve been picking on me up in Boston a little bit because we’re Yankee fans and they’re saying “You’re not mentioning the fact that you’re a Yankees fan.” It’s not really about the team, it’s about how much you love the game and how much you love the story.
Rick and Willie -- Red Sox fan and Yankee fan -- having an idea that is so dramatic, such high drama, it’s this rivalry and this collapse of this team, how interesting the losers are in life, so we wanted to talk about it. So we started kicking it around and by about 2006, we had enough for a reading.
It goes back to what we were just talking about. Willie and I said look at how long it actually takes us to write a musical because we both write for television for a living to support our families that way. We figured out it took us roughly three months to do a first draft and really focusing on it. We could do it in six weeks, but in three months you have enough time to go away and come back and really write a draft.
Plus there’s everything to do with when are you going to get a director, is there a theatre interested, is this a commercially viable idea?
Reale on Comeuppance when Show Comes to New York:The original title was
Red Sox Nation. The people up there asked, “How come you changed the name?” Rick said, “You know, it’s really because this open to a lot more than just Red Sox fans." Red Sox fans should love it because it takes place in their town. But it’s about a lot more than that. And it’s really about this character Johnny O’Brien who they call Johnny Baseball in the play so it makes sense.
Reale on the Liberating Effects of Musical Theatre:Once you get musical theatre gets into your blood, you’re thinking of any way whether it’s country western, rock and roll or operatic or light opera or even some jazz-type things. There are a lot of things you can do in theatre. You get to take liberties, which I love.
The love for
Johnny Baseball just may begin this coming Friday when the Reale Brothers' musical world premieres at Boston's American Repertory Theater. I'd say "Break a leg," but they'll need them to slide into home.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Boston, Broadway, Johnny Baseball, Musical, Robert Reale, The SOB Interview, World Premiere
Behanding Begins On BroadwayIf no applause is heard this evening at Broadway's
Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, perhaps it's just the first preview audience's way of honoring playwright
Martin McDonagh's macabre title:
A Behanding In Spokane.
Directed by
John Crowley, who previously brought McDonagh's acclaimed
The Pillowman to the Great White Way five years ago,
A Behanding In Spokane is officially described as follows:
Carmichael (Christopher Walken) has been searching for his missing left hand for over a quarter of a century. Enter two bickering lovebirds (Anthony Mackie and Zoe Kazan) with a hand to sell, and a hotel clerk (Sam Rockwell) with an aversion to gunfire, and we're set for a hilarious rollercoaster of love, hate, desperation and hope.
A Behanding In Spokane marks Christopher Walken's first Broadway show since his Tony-nominated turn in
James Joyce's The Dead ten years ago. No stranger to the Great White Way, Walken made his Main Stem debut as "Ken" Walken in 1952's
The Climate of Eden with
Rosemary Harris and was later featured in
The Visit (1958) with
Lynn Fontanne and
Alfred Lunt. He then performed as "Ronnie" Walken in
J.B. (1959) and
High Spirits (1964) before adopting his Christopher moniker for 1965's
Baker Street.In
Behanding, Walken is teamed with Zoe Kazan (
Come Back, Little Sheba and
The Seagull) and Anthony Mackie (
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and
Drowning Crow), both of whom have already tread Broadway's boards over the last decade, as well as with indie film star Sam Rockwell, who apart from his participation in four of
The 24 Hour Plays benefits is making his
real Rialto debut here.
Regular readers will know of my deep appreciation for Kazan's work. I've been a fan since her "stunning, breakthrough performance" in
The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie (Off-Broadway, 2006). After seeing her in
100 Saints You Should Know (Off-Broadway, 2007), I remarked, "Kazan once again demonstrates that no young stage actress delivers sassy adolescent insolence quite the way she can."
Fans of "
The Hurt Locker," which has been nominated for nine Academy Awards including Best Picture, will recognize Mackie as the tough Sgt. J.T. Sanborn, who is anxiously awaiting the end of his tour of duty. But Shakespeare in the Park aficionados will recognize this distinguished actor from his work this past summer in
The Bacchae in Central Park.
As for McDonagh himself, count me among the admirers of his, er, body of work, ranging from his
Cripple Of Inishmaan to "
In Bruges." The man is a genius. While many of his characters get bloodied, the playwright is also known for arming many of them with his wicked, biting wit.
That's why the world premiere of his latest work -- a four-hander, if you will -- is particularly intriguing to me. If it receives anything like the praise for McDonagh's four other plays that have been produced on Broadway, expect to see lots of Tony nods for the show. The limited run of
A Behanding In Spokane opens March 4 and is currently slated to close June 6, allowing just enough time for all Tony voters to see this dark comedy.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: A Behanding In Spokane, Anthony Mackie, Broadway, Christopher Walken, John Crowley, Martin McDonagh, Play, Sam Rockwell, World Premiere, Zoe Kazan
Race To The StartThere's no disputing that with five of his plays having trod Broadway's boards over as many recent years, playwright, screenwriter and provocateur
David Mamet is back with a vengeance.
Now, the world premiere for his latest work
Race is set to begin previews November 16 at Rialto's
Ethel Barrymore Theatre, the same venue that gave birth to the Broadway premieres of Mamet's
American Buffalo (1977) and
November (2008), as well as the acclaimed revival of
Speed-The-Plow (2008-09). Marking Mamet's directorial debut on the Great White Way,
Race will open December 6 for an open-ended engagement.
While the contents of
Race are highly secretive, there's no doubt it's another super-charged, combustible work. Indeed, the play's advertising campaign succinctly describes
Race:
From Pulitzer Prize winner David Mamet, comes his most explosive four-letter word yet. Race.
And they're not talking about a sporting event in which humans, horses or cars circle around a track. With
David Alan Grier,
James Spader,
Richard Thomas and
Kerry Washington on deck, it's safe to say that this show revolves, at least in part, around the color of one's skin.
While not tipping his hat regarding the plot, Thomas has been quoted by blogger
Jon Sobel saying
Race is:
so complex, so many perspectives -- to talk about the plot would be reductive. A quick summation would make it seem much simpler than it is. It's about things that no one says. It's strong stuff. Provocative, but not shocking for the sake of being shocking.
As Mamet enjoys a renaissance with a decidedly
less liberal voice, my curiosity is once again piqued.
I loved Speed-The-Plow and
was quite blown away by the current Broadway revival of
Oleanna, but
I wasn't quite as enthused by Mamet's last new work
November.
Still, as one of America's foremost playwrights, Mamet is likely to challenge your mind in a
Race to the finish.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Broadway, David Alan Grier, David Mamet, First Word On New Show, James Spader, Kerry Washington, Play, Race, Richard Thomas, World Premiere
Broadway Preview: To Be Or Not To BeOn Monday, the
Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC) announced principal casting for its upcoming world premiere Broadway production of
Nick Whitby's
To Be Or Not To Be.
The show will be headlined by
Craig Bierko (most recently seen on the Great White Way in the short-lived 2001-02 musical
Thou Shalt Not) opposite
Jan Maxwell (last seen on a Main Stem stage in 2007's short-lived
Coram Boy).
Based on
Ernst Lubitsch's satirical
1942 film that took aim squarely at the Nazis, this
Casey Nicholaw-helmed dark comedy will begin its limited run at MTC's
Biltmore Theatre on September 11, with opening night set for October 2. The play is scheduled to run through December 7.
Considering this play is a send-up of a film that was used to ridicule one of the United States' worst enemies, I find it an interesting coincidence that two of the key dates associated with this production's debut and end (
September 11 and
December 7, respectively) are dates that will forever live in infamy among Americans. The original flick premiered less than one year after the United States entered World War II (thanks to the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941), and it famously starred
Carole Lombard opposite
Jack Benny, along with a very young
Robert Stack.
MTC's Web site describes the play as follows:
At the Polski Theatre in 1939 Warsaw, Joseph and Maria Tura are about to open yet another smash with their theatrical troupe. As the German invasion gets underway, the theatre is closed by the censors, forcing the troupe to face desperate times. But when a handsome young bomber pilot enlists their help to catch a spy, what is a group of actors to do? This hilarious black comedy is an ingenious commentary on the World War II era and an inspired tribute to the timeless joys of the theatre.
With some of the excellent works MTC has produced over the few years, this could be one heck of a production worth seeing.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Related Stories:Broadway Preview: The Seagull (July 1, 2008)
Broadway Preview: Equus (June 30, 2008)
Broadway Preview: A Tale Of Two Cities (June 28, 2008)
Broadway Preview: for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf (June 25, 2008)
Broadway Preview: [title of show] (June 24, 2008)
Broadway: What's Next (June 20, 2008)
Labels: Broadway, Casey Nicholaw, Craig Bierko, Film, First Word On New Show, Jan Maxwell, Manhattan Theatre Club, Nick Whitby, Play, To Be Or Not To Be, World Premiere
How Superior Did Critics Find Letts' Donuts?Last evening,
Tracy Letts'
Superior Donuts enjoyed its world premiere at Chicago's Steppenwolf. Directed by
Tina Landau,
Superior Donuts stars
Michael McKean (right) and
Jon Michael Hill (left), along with
James Vincent Meredith,
Yasen Peyankov,
Jane Alderman,
Kate Buddeke,
Cliff Chamberlain,
Michael Garvey and
Robert Maffia.
Critics' sentiments were nearly unanimous in citing
Superior Donuts' "sentimental" streak, with most calling it funny and entertaining while predictably drawing inevitable comparisons with
August: Osage County.
Crediting Landau for making this an "ideal production,"
Variety's
Steven Oxman provides the most praise: "This is most definitely Letts in a mild, even slightly sentimental mode, although he has such a penchant for dark edges that even his comic work comes with physical and emotional injury. Small in scale and certainly fully accessible,
Superior Donuts also shows Letts wading more forcefully into social themes.... But this is also the first play by Letts that's probably best when nothing at all is happening, because while the dialogue is always zesty, the plotting itself is extremely transparent and oddly anti-climactic, never shaking off that sense of being manufactured out of formula.... That said, there are pleasures aplenty. McKean invests Arthur with enough quiet soulfulness to make us care about him, particularly when the character steps forward to deliver his backstory in monologues interspersed between the scenes. And Hill is without question a talent to watch, in a part tailor-made for him."
Advising readers to "Relax. Have a good time," after pointedly noting this is not going to be the next
August: Osage County,
Chris Jones of
The Chicago Tribune waxes largely enthusiastic: "Landau’s humanely and unpretentiously staged premiere enhances a witty, seductive, live-wire and greatly entertaining dark comedy that you just don’t want to end and you just don’t want to miss. The one thing it most assuredly has in common with its illustrious predecessor is that it lands with an audience. A Chicago audience.... It is a meditation on Chicago’s old soul from a writer clearly entranced with the place but disinclined, by temperament, to be sentimental. Letts can write cliches ... But he’s smart enough to undermine and subvert them when they start to bother you.... Thus his newest work is at once a challenge, a comfort and an insouciant pleasure."
While criticizing
Superior Donuts for serving "up an admittedly more pedestrian vision" of America than Letts' last effort,
Chicago Sun-Times'
Hedy Weiss still serves up a "somewhat recommended" rating: "The whole thing has an undeniable zest, but also feels far from seamless as it lurches from behavioral comedy to urban tragedy to social critique. And its characters -- the young genius undone by his not-so-streetwise escapades, the Maalox-gobbling thug, the female cop with hidden baking skills -- all feel like they've been pressed from pre-existing molds.... Letts is a writer who rarely repeats himself, though
Superior Donuts, directed by Tina Landau, contains many of his trademarks: a sharply funny offhandedness; a playful social commentary rooted in stereotype, but heightened by a certain mix of braininess and raw earthiness; a slightly off-kilter realism; and a turn-on-a-dime ability to switch moods. And Arthur, one of Letts' most intriguing, deftly drawn characters -- gentle but full of suppressed rage -- is given a marvelously natural and believable performance by McKean."
Calling the show "an intimate, sentimental little comedy,"
Jeremy Gerard of Bloomberg weighs in with a mixed assessment: "The result is predictable and silly but, as with
August: Osage County, extremely entertaining, not to mention a full hour shorter.... Much of the show's charm owes to warm performances elicited by director Tina Landau from the Steppenwolf ensemble. At the top of that list would be Michael McKean, pony-tailed, pot-bellied and hirsute as Arthur, and Jon Michael Hill, who, as ants-in-his-pants Franco defies credulousness.... Sitcom jokes and soul-baring rarely co-exist comfortably in the same script. Letts is ambitious, however, and writes terrific characters. Give him time, not prizes."
Deeming the work as "insubstantial and sweet, with virtually no nutritional value,"
Charles Isherwood of
The New York Times nevertheless admits: "minor though this comedy is, it is also hard to dislike.... The best news about
Superior Donuts is probably its unlikeness to any of Mr. Letts’s previous plays....
Superior Donuts is a funny play. It certainly glides by comfortably. But much of the comedy feels tame, safe and solicitous, lacking in the spontaneous acid truth of the flaying insults in
August....
Superior Donuts is not a significant play, but Mr. Letts’s willingness to explore new forms, to confound expectations, has its heartening aspects."
Having taken in last evening's premiere of
Superior Donuts myself, I'll be providing my own SOB Review shortly.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:Letts' Superior Donuts Opens Tonight (June 29, 2008)
Tracy Letts On Superior Donuts: "Pressure's Off!" (June 19, 2008)
Looking Forward: The SOB Top Five (January 2, 2008)
Labels: August Osage County, Chicago, Critics' Capsule, Jon Michael Hill, Michael McKean, Play, Steppenwolf, Superior Donuts, Tina Landau, Tracy Letts, World Premiere
Superior Donuts (The SOB Review) - Downstairs Theatre, Steppenwolf, Chicago, IL**** (out of ****)How is a hero distinguished from a coward?
In
Tracy Letts' profoundly moving new play
Superior Donuts, it all comes down to choosing one's battles. Wisely.
Last night,
Steppenwolf staged the world premiere production of Letts' first play to be set in his adopted hometown of Chicago. And he does so by placing the action in a most unsentimental place: the city's timeworn Uptown neighborhood, a section of Chicago that's been fighting gentrification for years, yet has somehow remained one of the few true microcosms for the city's cultural diversity and divide alike.
Marking yet another stunning departure from his previous efforts, Letts'
Superior Donuts feels so right, including being right up to the minute, replete with local references including that of a
stray cougar alongside
iconic lore. But Letts is at his best when he's intelligently combatting some urban myths about race.
Which brings me back to the capability for choosing one's battles.
You see,
Superior Donuts proprietor Arthur Prysbyszewski (an astonishing and nearly unrecognizable
Michael McKean) may have evaded the Vietnam draft forty years ago by heading north to Canada (we learn Arthur's essential backstory via his poignant soliloquies interspersed throughout
Superior Donuts), but when his brilliant young employee and promising literary genius Franco Wicks (a wonderfully cocksure
Jon Michael Hill) needs a lifeline, something both vital and raw sparks inside Arthur.
So bleak and dreary has Arthur's life become that he hardly seems to notice or care when his dingy little baked goods shop is broken into. Near the beginning of
Superior Donuts, Arthur arrives to find two police officers Randy Osteen (
Kate Buddeke displaying a heart of gold) and James Hailey (
James Vincent Meredith in one of his funniest performances yet) surveying the damage. The duo is taking the statement of Max Tarasov (a delightfully scabrous
Yasen Peyankov), the Russian-born electronic shopkeeper from next door, who would stop at nothing to buy-out Arthur's space to enlarge his own store and give
Best Buy a run for its money.
With no coffee to offer his lone patron, a street person affectionately referred to simply as Lady (
Jane Alderman), Arthur requisitions some java from the other relentlessly encroaching
neighborhood pariah. It's as if Arthur has permanently thrown in the towel, resigned to defeat.
That is, until Franco walks into his donut shop to apply for an open position. Before long, it's Arthur who's being interviewed, and recognizing that this is not just another kid from the hood, Arthur hires Franco, a drop-out from a local college who lugs around a foot-thick stack of diaries and papers comprising his great American novel. Franco and Arthur hit it off so well that the budding author lets his boss read the material in exchange for advice on how to snare Randy, all while considering the possibilities that life with a published book and upgraded donut shop could offer.
Despite Franco's book smarts, he's also learned plenty from the streets, including the perils associated with gambling. Seems he's run up a hefty debt that's so large that his newly found minimum wage job could never get him out of it. But there's that beloved book. Franco's great American novel becomes central to the plot as the mob comes looking for their money, sparking Arthur's resolve to finally stand up and redeem himself for something so right.
Thanks in large measure to
Tina Landau's loving direction,
Superior Donuts feels genuine, gritty and real, right down to its climactic brawl that forever underscores just how clumsy and inept actual fist fights can be.
Loy Arcenas adds to the remarkable authenticity with a set design in various stages of disrepair, accentuated further by Chris Akerlind's moody lighting.
But best of all, matching Letts' extraordinarily affecting script is
Superior Donuts' exceptional ensemble. Chief among them is the yeoman service of McKean as Arthur who anchors the production in all his humility, however ordinary it may seem. McKean has clearly lost himself in this most unglamorous of roles, but the audience wins as a result. Equally excellent is Hill's Franco, whose tremendous zest for living is infectious, and whose woes make us actually give a damn.
There's a lot more to chew on in
Superior Donuts than what's on its surface. In fact, instead of finding a sugary goo, or worse, nothing at all, there's plenty of humanity and heart to be found deep inside of this intelligent and entertaining play.
I absolutely loved this courageous show that truly lives up to its name.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:How Superior Did Critics Find Letts' Donuts? (June 30, 2008)
Letts' Superior Donuts Opens Tonight (June 29, 2008)
Tracy Letts On Superior Donuts: "Pressure's Off!" (June 19, 2008)
Looking Forward: The SOB Top Five (January 2, 2008)
Labels: Jon Michael Hill, Michael McKean, Play, Superior Donuts, The SOB Review, Tina Landau, Tracy Letts, World Premiere
Letts' Superior Donuts Opens TonightTwo weeks ago tonight,
Tracy Letts'
August: Osage County earned the Tony Award for Best Play. That modern masterpiece premiered nearly one year ago at Chicago's
Steppenwolf. Now, Letts' latest work
Superior Donuts opens this evening at the Windy City theatre where
August: Osage County got its start.
And the entire theatre world will be
watching. Closely.
Helmed by
Tina Landau,
Superior Donuts boasts a fine company of actors, including
Jon Michael Hill,
James Vincent Meredith,
Yasen Peyankov,
Jane Alderman,
Kate Buddeke,
Cliff Chamberlain,
Michael Garvey,
Robert Maffia and
Michael McKean.
Will lightning strike once again for Letts and his fellow Steppenwolf ensemble members? I can't wait to find out as I'll be on hand for tonight's hotly anticipated opening. Tomorrow, look for my critics' capsule.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:Tracy Letts On Superior Donuts: "Pressure's Off!" (June 19, 2008)
Looking Forward: The SOB Top Five (January 2, 2008)
Labels: August Osage County, Chicago, Opening Night, Play, Steppenwolf, Superior Donuts, Tracy Letts, World Premiere
Tracy Letts On Superior Donuts: "Pres-sure's Off!"
There's no rest for the weary, and if you're
Tracy Letts, it's back to Chicago's
Steppenwolf where your next,
now very hotly anticipated new play
Superior Donuts, set in the Windy City's Uptown neighborhood, begins previews this evening.
What? Now that Letts won the Tony for
August: Osage County, you were expecting
Disney World?!
In a very candid interview with
Time Out Chicago, Letts lets loose about the expectations for his latest work:
Time Out Chicago: No pressure with the new play, right?
Tracy Letts: No. Hell no. Pressure’s off, man. Pressure’s off forever.
TOC: Really? Why is that?
Tracy Letts: Well, come on! [Laughs] I mean, what the f*** do I have to do? The pressure’s off!
TOC: So you’ve accomplished it all now.
Tracy Letts: [Laughs] Yeah, yeah, I’ve done it all. No. I enjoy the new play, and I think people are going to enjoy it, too, and that’s all I’m worried about. I’ve had a sense that it’s gonna get clobbered critically.
TOC: Why clobbered?
Tracy Letts: Just ’cause that’s the nature of things, right? You build something up and then you tear something down. Nothing I can do about it.
Asked specifically about
Superior Donuts and its take on how Chicago's changed, Letts says:
The city’s changed a lot. I’m not very expert in saying how it’s changed. Nor is my play about urban gentrification -- Jesus. I keep reading this, and it sounds so f***ing dry, you know? It’s about the people in a donut shop. Urban gentrification is an element of it. Maybe the city hasn’t changed so much as I have. When I moved here, I was a broke motherf***er working in storefront theaters and s***, lucky to get those jobs. Now I’m a hugely wealthy old fat man.
Directed by Steppenwolf ensemble member
Tina Landau,
Superior Donuts features an outstanding cast that includes
Jon Michael Hill (2006's
The Unmentionables),
James Vincent Meredith (2005's
The Pain And The Itch, 2007's
The Crucible and 2008's
Carter's Way)and
Yasen Peyankov (2006's
The Pillowman and 2007's
The Diary Of Anne Frank) with
Jane Alderman,
Kate Buddeke (2003-04's
Gypsy on Broadway),
Cliff Chamberlain,
Michael Garvey,
Robert Maffia and
Michael McKean (2007-08's
The Homecoming on Broadway).
I've been told that the play is actually quite heartwarming. Yes. From Tracy Letts.
Steppenwolf provides its own overview for this 2 hour and 15 minute work:
Arthur Pryzbyszewski owns a decrepit donut shop in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago. Franco Wicks, a black teenager who is his only employee, wants to change the shop for the better. Steppenwolf concludes the season with acclaimed ensemble member Tracy Letts' provocative world premiere comedy about the challenges of embracing the past and the redemptive power of friendship.
UPDATE (June 19, 2008, 1:00 p.m. EDT): Castmember Jon Michael Hill blogs about what it's like to work with Tracy Letts and Michael McKean, saying:This is as excited about a play that I have ever been. A lot of it has to do with Tracy and Michael McKean. I have two reasons you want to work with them too:
To bask in their aura of brilliance and hope that some of it rubs off
To laugh so hard that you can no longer tell what kind of sound your body is making (I laugh incredibly hard)
I'll be basking in all their auras with the opening night performance of
Superior Donuts on June 29, and
as I stated earlier this year, this play ranks at the top of my list for shows I'm most eager to see. Now, one half year later, I'm downright excited.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:Looking Forward: The SOB Top Five (January 2, 2008)
Labels: August Osage County, Chicago, Play, Steppenwolf, Superior Donuts, Tracy Letts, World Premiere
100 Saints You Should Know (The SOB Review) - Mainstage Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, New York, NY
***1/2 (out of ****)Coinciding with the tenth anniversary of the death of that
most saintly of 20th Century Nobel Prize winners, recently released passages from
Mother Teresa's remarkable diaries have illuminated what has been characterized as
her personal crisis of faith. All of which begs the question of where faith and disbelief intersect.
Those two intangible elements intersect quite literally in
Kate Fodor’s arresting and provocative new play,
100 Saints You Should Know, now enjoying its "world premiere" at Off-Broadway’s
Playwrights Horizons Mainstage Theatre (in actuality, it was first presented last July at
Steppenwolf's Garage Theatre in Chicago, but I won't quibble that point here).
In this frequently humorous, yet ultimately circumspect morality play directed with sharp veracity by
Ethan McSweeny, another Theresa (Janel Moloney) finds herself on a spiritual quest. Having been a teenage mother -- her acerbic, downright bitter teenage daughter Abby (Zoe Kazan) is now teetering close to the precipice in replicating Theresa's earlier missteps -- she is nearing middle age and searching for more meaning in her life. Perhaps it's no accident that she's found herself cleaning toilets in the rectory of a local Catholic Church.
Matthew (
Jeremy Shamos) -- a priest on leave from that parish is experiencing a crisis of faith -- returns home for respite in the care of his reliably faithful, old-fashioned Irish mother Colleen (
Lois Smith). Fueling Matthew’s crisis is his inability to reconcile his inner longings with church doctrine (or for that matter his own mother's).
When Garrett (Will Rogers), the dimwitted young son of Colleen's grocer, drops by with his latest delivery, he immediately places Matthew on the defensive by asking probing, sexually suggestive questions. While Garrett's pondering is meant to assuage his own carnal guilt, his questions further isolate a despairing Matthew.
Later that same evening, Theresa calls on Matthew, while leaving her daughter out in the car. Theresa is seeking spiritual guidance, but finds she must scale the walls Matthew has built around himself. Meanwhile, a very bored Abby is left to her own devices outside; she chances upon Garrett, who's hanging around hoping to bare his soul to Matthew, but instead shares his innermost secrets and desires with Abby.
Since I won't act as spoiler, let's just say that what transpires from there spins everyone's lives out of control (aided by Rachel Hauck's simple, yet stirring turntable set design). What still resonates and lingers with me is the purity in which Fodor wrote this compelling piece seemingly without any agenda or ax to grind.
In the program notes, Fodor writes, "I was interested in thinking about what true religious longing might feel like, especially if it took a nonbeliever by surprise, and as a mirror image, what it might feel like for a believer to be pulled away from God by a longing for the things in the secular world." To that end, Fodor has succeeded brilliantly without being heavy-handed or preachy.
It doesn't hurt that she is aided tremendously by the uniformly exceptional cast. Certainly, many will go to see
100 Saints You Should Know for the unique opportunity to see the graceful dignity offered by Lois Smith. But Shamos offers his own solemn, if sobering, portrayal as the priest in crisis. Kazan once again demonstrates that no young stage actress delivers sassy adolescent insolence quite the way she can. Rogers' tender yet goofy take on Garrett shows the awkwardness that comes with burgeoning teen sexuality. And Moloney is radiant as the would-be believer.
Regardless of your religious beliefs or lack thereof,
100 Saints You Should Know is worth seeing and knowing.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Labels: 100 Saints You Should Know, Ethan McSweeny, Janel Moloney, Jeremy Shamos, Lois Smith, Off-Broadway, Play, Playwrights Horizons, Steppenwolf, World Premiere, Zoe Kazan
