"Too Much, Too Much, Too Many" at the Roundabout's Black Box Theater. through January 5th

James Rebhorn and Rebecca Henderson

Too Much, Too Much, Too Many is a new play that supplies us with plenty of questions but is apparently satisfied with providing only a few answers. Confounding throughout, but also interesting, it is a play that deals with the loss of a loved one and about how those left behind have chosen to deal with it and with each other. What is seventy-five year-old Rose's (Phyllis Somerville) motivation behind her self-imposed, permanent exile to her bedroom? Surely, there must be more to this move to absolute seclusion than the death of her husband James from drowning. As played in flashback scenes by James Rebhorn, we see how James has suffered from increased dementia associated with Alzheimer's. To read the complete review please go to http://curtainup.com/toomuch13.html

"The Phantom of the Opera" at the Majestic Theatre

“The Phantom of the Opera” Happy 25^th Anniversary on Broadway at the Majestic Theater

Hugh Panaro

Photo: Robert Mannis

Believe it! It has been twenty-five years since I saw the Broadway production of “The Phantom of the Opera.” When the invitation came to make a return visit to the show, I hesitated worrying …well, more on that further down the page. My first encounter with the scarred and scary man behind the mask came in 1943. I was five year old and by then a very sophisticated movie fan.

That particular glossy Technicolor version starred Claude Rains (as the Phantom) and Nelson Eddy, and though I later discovered it was a mere shadow of the famous Gaston Leroux novel, still it was responsible for giving me more than a few enduring nightmares.  That first traumatizing confrontation was to be rekindled later as an adult and only shortly before the much-heralded opening of the Andrew Lloyd Webber-Harold Prince musical version when I watched the absolutely terrifying silent-screen version starring the “Man of a Thousand Faces” Lon Chaney on TCM.

So here I am reporting on how I was once again mesmerized by the mystery and the menace of this horrific but also unabashedly romantic story. I don’t know or really care how many Phantoms have played the role since Michael Crawford originated the role in 1988 (that would be different story), but I was more than pleased by the sensitively acted and beautifully sung performance by Hugh Panaro as the bruised, vindictive but also impassioned musician who seduced his beloved pupil Christine Daae (a wondrously sung and finely acted performance by the beautiful Mary Michael Patterson.)

Congratulations are in order to the entire supporting company, those on stage and off-stage for keeping the performance as fresh and vital as if it had just opened. Keeping faith with the original direction by Harold Prince cannot be easy after all these years. Sir Webber’s operatically conceived score has also become so embedded in our consciousness that were once considered highfalutin arias rings out like a series of pop hit tunes.

What cannot be understated is how much a grand stage spectacle this is, providing as much of the thrills and chills as does the eerie plot. As designed, draped and bedecked to a fare-thee-well by Maria Bjornson (who also designed the sumptuous costumes), both the fragmented lights and shadows world beneath the Paris Opera House and the glittering, gilt-encrusted Belle Epoque world above are a dazzling mixture of menace and magic.

After twenty five-years, the show looks and moves like a dream, all fluid imagery and intoxicating atmosphere enhanced by the spectacular lighting designed by Andrew Bridge. A return visit may give you reason to understand the popularity of this ambitious musical drama, and if you have never seen it you owe it to yourself to experience the kind of musical theater that will probably never have its equal in our time.

“The Phantom of the Opera”

Majestic Theater, 247 W. 44^th Street

For tickets ($27.00 - $132.00) call (212) 239 - 6200  

"Pericles" at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey (through December 29)

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Pericles, Prince of Tyre (Jon Barker) confides in Helicanus (John Hickok)



If nothing else, this rarely done, Greek-mythology-based story is ripe for playing its plot contrivances for laughs. For also not forgetting the sheer romanticism that propels the story, we have to thank director Brian B. Crowe. Now in his eighteenth season with the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Crowe gifts us with a charmingly conceived and cleverly staged version of what is not generally considered to be top drawer Shakespeare. Be prepared, however, to be thoroughly delighted as well as diverted, by this disjointed tale of insufferable suffering. To read the complete review please go to CurtainUp.com.   http://curtainup.com/periclesnj13.html

"Oliver" at the Paper Mill Playhouse (through December 29)

Tyler Moran as Oliver, David Garrison as Fagin. (Photo by Billy Bustamante)


It won't be a surprise to anyone who like me has seen a number of productions, including the one presented at the Paper Mill Playhouse in 1994, that it remains as precious and as quaint as ever in this new staging directed by Mark S. Hoebee. But the chin-up, everything is going to come out all right in the end and with a smile on every face is in keeping with Bart's original concept. As have most revivals, with a possible exception of a notably gritty production I saw at the Shaw Festival in 2006, the purpose of Oliver is to entertain rather than embrace the social ills existing in 19th century London during Dickens's days. To read my complete review please go to CurtainUp.com
http://curtainup.com/olivernj13.html

"King Richard III" and "Twelfth Night" at the Belasco Theatre

  

Mark Rylance as Olivia and as Richard

It is hard not to gush over these two productions sent to us courtesy of London’s Globe Theatre as they are as nothing like any other Shakespeare you have probably seen before, unless you were lucky enough to see these in London. To begin with there is the opportunity to see Mark Rylance as King Richard III and also as Olivia in “Twelfth Night,” as he leads an all-male company (as was the custom during Shakespeare’s time) through these stunningly designed (by Jenny Tiramani) productions that are close to being as authentic and commemorative in style and staging as originally presented, even with having some of the audience watch the play in tiered seating on the stage.

That we have the privilege to share the excitement and the thrill of seeing Rylance capture the devious Richard’s deviously duplicitous nature as well as to see him embrace the graciously aloof femininity of the initially shrouded Countess Olivia is a treat that won’t come around again anytime soon. As extravagantly lighted by candles as well as by a giant candled chandelier, the action of both plays may have you initially startled and/or amused by the obligatory male-playing-female conceit. But your attention will soon be focused simply on the grace and greatness of the performances by Rylance and the entire company.

I doubt if you have ever heard Shakespeare’s prose and poetry spoken as clearly or as comprehensibly. But more importantly, the roles, even the minor ones, are vibrantly acted. Certainly much of the credit for the success of these productions goes deservedly to director Tim Carroll whose reverence for these plays are as evident as is efforts to deepen what we have previously seen or thought we knew about both of these classics.

I was especially thrilled even before the plays began to share in the experience of the actors pre-performance preparations. These include (and please come early) watching the actors helped by the dressers and each other to get into their opulent costumes, also noticing how intently and expertly they warm up like athletes and also go over the required posturing, posing. Most impressive of all is how the men practice the walk of women.

How marvelous that the gloriously baroque Belasco Theater is home to these productions and where it is easy to get into the intimate ambiance that best suits these plays. It is the detail in the performances, however, that is also a marvel. Wearing a billowing, floor-length black silk gown, Rylance appears to either glide or flit across the stage as if he were a member of the Ice Capades. His interpretation of the at-first standoffish soon to be impassioned Olivia has a funnily romantic edge that is a wonderful contrast to his role as the physically and mentally twisted Richard empowering the venomous words that the Bard entrusted to him with undoubtedly more demonic daring than you have ever heard.

I cannot find praise enough for each and every member of the supporting company, whether in women’s garb or not, but Samuel Barnett is a stand-out playing the conflicted Viola in “Twelfth Night” and the also in emotional turmoil Queen Elizabeth in “Richard.” Oh my, beg, borrow or stand (if all else fails), but don’t miss this golden opportunity to see the full company of Shakespeare’s Globe players end the performance doing their famous “jig,” a highlight that will have you doing a jig of your own in your seat.

“Twelfth Night” and “King Richard III”

Belasco Theatre, 111 West 44^th Street

For tickets ($27.00 - $137.00) go to www.shakespearebroadway.com 

"Murder for Two" at the New World Stages

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Brett Ryback and Jeff Blumenkrantz
(photo credit: Joan Marcus)

“Murder for Two” at the New World Stages

Although only two talented performers occupy the stage for ninety minutes, there is a roomful of neurotic murder suspects (all played by Jeff Blumenkrantz) and one very nervous detective (played by Brett Ryback) in this musical murder-mystery farce. For all of the clownish shenanigans that are dispersed amidst some comical digressions at the piano, my patience was tried waiting for things to get resolved.  

More wearisome than winning, “Murder for Two” is a collaborative effort by Kellen Blair (book and lyrics) and Joe Kinosian (book and music) that is at its best when it is musical and at its worst when it attends to the frenetic antics prescribed by the book and by director Scott Schwartz.

The thorny thicket of a plot involves the attempt of a novice detective to figure out who murdered the great American novelist who lies stiffly among his guests on the living room floor of his stately home. Amid the redundant questioning of the usual suspects of both genders there is relief and it comes with the razzmatazz of the songs mainly attended to by Ryback. The tall and lanky Blumenkrantz plays the various male and female suspects, each of whom are dependent upon his ability to change his voice, twist the contours of his face with nary a change of costume.

Granted that Blumenkrantz’s lickety-split transformations are to be admired and they occasionally deserve a laugh, they grow as tiresome as the plot . . . which goes on about twenty minutes longer than it should. Let’s hope that “Murder for Two,” which has moved downtown for an open-ended run following its initial abbreviated engagement last summer at the Second Stage Uptown, finds an audience more receptive to its fun than was I.

“Murder for Two”

New World Stages, 340 West 50^th Street

For tickets $47.00 - $77.00 call (212) 239 - 6200

"Becoming Dr. Ruth" at the Westside Theatre/Upstairs

Debra Jo Rupp as Dr. Ruth
(photo credit: Carol Rosegg)

Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer, a petite, intellectually robust and personally disarming educator about all things sexual is having a revelatory tell-all at the Westside Theatre/Upstairs. . . that is as portrayed to European-accented perfection by Debra Jo Rupp who originated the role this past summer at the Barrington Stage in the Berkshires. It is a treat for New Yorkers and others to see how ingratiatingly Rupp personifies this courageous and provocative woman in this wonderful solo-play by Mark St. Germain (“Freud’s Last Session”).

Although an understudy (Anne O’Sullivan) is noted in the program, it is impossible for me to think that anyone could be as captivating as Rupp as she shares the now 85 year-old Dr. Ruth’s story that begins with as a child survivor of the Holocaust. There is never a dull moment in this autobiographically-structured play in which we are immersed in Dr. Ruth’s personal journey from sorrows to successes from the first word to the last. The real Dr. Ruth will, indeed, have the last word for those who attend Wednesday evening performances on November 6, 13, 20 and December 18) when she will discuss the play as well as answer questions from the audience.   

“Becoming Dr. Ruth” is an inspiring example of a one’s woman’s ability, in the face of many challenges and obstacles, to embrace love and marriage(s) and family, satisfy her thirst for knowledge and education, and to carve out a remarkable and illustrious career as an authority on sex. Her many books on the subject and her popular radio shows about sex have made her a star. But it only as we share her personal exploits and experiences in this poignantly enlivening play do we know what a treasure we have in our midst.

Lectures can be boring, but Rush creates such a lively personality (not that she didn’t have the real role model to copy) that we are easily seduced. The plays opens with Dr. Ruth busy packing up her belongings as she is getting ready to move from her Washington Heights apartment (excellent setting by Brian Prather) to another one in New York City, she welcomes us as guests. Not in the least distracted by our presence, which she graciously acknowledges (“I’m so glad you are here.”), she uses her collections of journals, photos and books to spark her memory interrupted on occasion by the obligatory phone call from her concerned children.

Humor abounds in the text that St. Germain has written to offer balance to some of the sadness that also accompanies the images from her past, particularly those of her parents, her father being a victim of the purge of Jews during the infamous Kristalnacht. Unsurprisingly, romance is never an afterthought but a dominant thread throughout her life and it is beautifully carved, as are also evocative projections, into her narrative. The play has been directed by Julianne Boyd with cleverness and care with attention to detail, particularly Dr. Ruth’s easy and natural transitions into someone with an instinct to entertain as well as to inform.

Although we do get to hear some of her snappy and smart advice on sex to callers, it is the combination of a stirring story and the stunning performance that makes “Becoming Dr. Ruth” a must-see. Perhaps if Dr. Ruth were to say and I would concur that “a good play is like an orgasm,” that is all the encouragement that you need to see “Becoming Dr. Ruth”

“Becoming Dr. Ruth” (through January 12, 2014)

Westside Theatre/Upstairs, 407 W. 43^rd Street

For tickets ($79.00) call (212) 239 - 6200

"Disaster" at St. Luke's Theater

Tom Riis Farrell and Mary Testa
(photo credit: Jeremy Daniel)

Please know that the above title of this new musical is not a critique, but if it was it would be “Delirious.” “Disaster” is, however, a feverishly daffy musical parody of the disaster movie genre that proved immensely popular during the 1970s. It came as a surprise and will remain one of the season’s delights. If “Disaster” has unwittingly left out (unless it is an invasion from Mars) even one single horrifyingly calamitous event known to mankind, I cannot think of it. What disasters have been included to enhance its wonderfully inane story is enough.

Seth Rudetsky and Jack Plotnick are the co-authors. Plotnick has also directed to a fare-thee-well what is essentially a non-stop barrage of tragi-comical incidents all of which are strung together with popular songs from the Disco-intense 1970s, many of which are uncannily complimentary to the action. No need to detail the plot, as it would spoil the fun.

 

But where would this loony lark be without a terrific cast playing an endearingly diverse collection of characters who find themselves struggling to stay alive as all hell and more breaks loose on an ill-fated, floating gambling casino in New York harbor? Here’s just a hint. Can an unscrupulous entrepreneur get away with ignoring safety codes while  former lovers are reunited perhaps for the last time? Can a Nun once addicted to gambling resist the pull of her past and the one-arm bandit all the while a dotty diva tries to revitalize her past while carting around her precocious twin children? And can a desperate woman keep her husband from finding out that she is dying before her escalating symptoms (too outrageous to mention) give her away? Oh, there are more victims and/or survivors among a surprisingly large cast for a small-scaled musical.

But more importantly, how many will remain alive to celebrate in an ingeniously funny rescue-by-helicopter finale, an eat-your-heart-out “Miss Saigon” moment. If the slapdash floors and ceilings, cheesy walls and whatnots that set designer Josh Iacovelli has created are not meant to survive, they are as funny to observe while they remain in one piece as are the actors who careen through them. The wonder of this show is that despite the characters being stereotypical archetypes they all have dimensions that make us root for them.

Outstanding among the over-all splendid cast is the good-looking, romantic leading man with a great voice Matt Farcher, the hilarious Jennifer Simard as the obsessive/compulsive Nun, the incredibly versatile Jonah Verdon as both brother and sister, and a sublimely funny Mary Testa as the valiant wife with “issues.” Some cleverly operated puppets deserve kudos as do various body parts that appear and disappear with aplomb. I don’t have the song list but the score is comprised of classics that will undoubtedly bring smiles of recognition to your face as will this company of superlative musical farceurs. What a delightful disaster this turned out to be.

“Disaster”

St. Luke's Theatre, 308 W. 46th Street

For tickets ($39.50 - $69.50) call 212/239-6200
$39.50-$69.50

"After Midnight" at the Brooks Atkinson Theater

 











It should come as no surprise that the enthusiastically received revue Cotton Club Parade, as originally conceived by City Center's Encores! and Jazz at Lincoln Center, would find its way to Broadway. The success of the 2011 production and its follow-up edition in 2012 has evolved into a slightly more enhanced production re-named After Midnight. For the complete review posted on CurtainUp.com please use link:  http://curtainup.com/aftermidnight13.html

“Juno and the Paycock” at the Irish Repertory Theatre through December 8, 2013

 J. Smith-Cameron

What Sean O’Casey’s political tragicomedy “Juno and the Paycock” lacks in plot, it makes up for in characterization. And in the splendid production directed by Charlotte Moore for the Irish Repertory Theatre, characterization gets its due. O’Casey (“Shadow of a Gunman,” and “The Plow and the Stars”) wrote this riveting ferociously subversive play in 1924 eight years after the Easter Rising of 1916, and only two years after the terrible Civil War. He labeled it rightly “a tragedy.” That may be true enough, but the bracing lyrical humor of its lowly Irish folk is expressed on such a high and impressively theatrical plane that it serves to empower rather than to defuse their disconsolate lives and the tragedies that befall them

The story of a chaotic family that misguidedly lives on credit in the false belief they have come into an inheritance is a doozy. In this production, there is no lack of the full flavor of the Irishness that so richly pervades and energizes all the productions given by this theatre company. Given designer James Noone’s dingy setting, David Towser’s dowdy costumes, and Brian Nason’s dreary lighting) the actors, both principals and peripheral players, admirably mine O’Casey’s poetic text poetry even in the midst of the play’s abject realism. J. Smith Cameron’s tough-love performance as the razor-sharp wife and mother of an impoverished Dublin family is riveting. Cameron, a superb actor who has been receiving acclaim for the past couple of seasons acting in Richard Nelson’s series of “Apple Family” plays at the Public Theatre, is making her Irish Repertory Theatre debut. She has winningly framed Juno’s passionately Catholic instincts with the stirring and heroic sobriety of her pagan goddess namesake.

Ciaran O’Reilly is wonderfully blustery as the ale-bloated, blarney-spouting Captain Jack Boyle, the “Paycock,” who, citing the questionable pains in his legs as an excuse refuses to look for work even when it falls into his lap. As Joxer Daly, the Captain’s drinking partner, John Keating doesn’t hide behind the duplicity of fragile relationships, as he polishes off more than poetic quotations and half-remembered songs. Ed Malone gives a poignant portrayal of the wounded son Johnny, who suffers from nightmares and hallucinations, but who has more to worry about when his allegiance to the Irish Republican Brotherhood is questioned. Mary Mallen affixes a sincere countenance and a plaintive courage to the role of the Mary, the family’s main provider and a member of the currently striking union.

Spurning her ardent wooer Jerry Devine (sensitively acted by David O’Hara), Mary is seduced and abandoned by Charlie Bentham, a school-teacher and lawyer (slickly played by James Russell), who brings the news of Jack’s inheritance, and without warning leaves town when the windfall falls through.

The play has its melodramatic digressions, such as the extended scene in which the mourning Mrs. Tancred, as wrenchingly played by Fiana Toibin, details the murder of her activist son to the Boyle family while on the way to the funeral. The somber tone is well timed to put a damper on an impromptu songfest in which the Boyle’s and their obstreperous neighbor Maisie Madigan (Terry Donnelly) display their vocal virtuosity. But it remains for the virtuosity of O’Casey’s writing to take us from boisterous comedy to dispiriting situations to tragic results, and yet leave us with a sense of the heroic. This is in the person of Juno, who, unlike her loafer-of-a-husband, who sees “the whole world in a state o chassis!” (a corruption of the word chaos), is indomitable and a survivor.

“Juno and the Paycock” (through December 8, 2013

132 W. 22^nd Street

For tickets ($55.00 - $65.00) call 212-727-2737

“Good Person of Szechwan” at the Public Theater (through November 24)

 

 Lisa Kron and Taylor Mac Photo credit: Carol Rosegg.a
(Photo credit: )

Finding a good person in Szechwan Province proves problematic for the three representatives of heaven’s hierarchy in Bertolt Brecht’s 1943 political allegory. But as far as I can see, there are no problems with the Foundry Theatre’s acclaimed production (previously at LaMama) that created a joyous and touching experience out of a play that could appear as both too politically didactic and philosophically remote for modern audiences. There is, however, so much audaciously conceived invention in this production with an original and wonderful country-styled score by Cesar Alvarez and as performed by pop-rock group The Lisps and the company that it seems like a totally new play, with no apologies to Brecht needed.

The first bow goes to Foundry’s director Lear DeBessonet who has adhered to the Brechtian message but has re-possessed it as a fantastical almost fairy-tale-told metaphor that delights that eye with cartoon-like razzle-dazzle and tickles the ear with its newly informed text. Although the production is not lavish by today’s standards, it has been designed by artists who know how to have fun with flair. That flair is captured by a company that could not be better at giving a new glow and inference to John Willet’s translation.

Among the sublime cast, there are two really great performances at the play’s center. Taylor Mac is magnificent in drag in the title role of the prostitute Shen Tei who has found a way to survive the poverty of the slums in which she lives. Far from hardened by her lot, Shen Tei is a terminal softy who, however, learns the hard-way that others don’t all share her values. The other great performance is by David Warner as Wang, the Waterseller, who serves as the play’s exuberantly clownish narrator and as guide for the three white-clad Gods, as played with a delightfully dismissive air by Vinie Burrows, Mia Katigbak and Mary Shultz.

Performed within a series of colorfully whimsical miniatures brilliantly designed by Matt Saunders, the story follows the efforts of Shen Tei to have a better life after she has been blessed by The Gods for giving them shelter after being turned away by everyone else in town. The Gods give Shen Tei enough money to open a tobacco shop that unfortunately becomes the target for some of the most unsavory and needy residents in town, all of whom conspire to manipulate Shen Tei.

Her survival techniques come into play as she assumes another identity in order to out-wit those whose intentions are not admirable and certainly not good. Better than good is Lisa Kron (yes, the same Kron who wrote the book for the musical “Fun Home” also playing at the Public) in multiple comical roles. But when it comes to changing personalities, this show belongs to Mac, whose impassioned acting is as terrific as his singing. But who would have thought that Brecht would be the voice behind the most exhilarating, laughter and tears-inducing musical of the season?

“Good Person of Szechwan” (through November 24, 2013)

Martinson Hall at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street.

For tickets call 212) 967-7555

“Fun Home” at the Public Theatre (through December 1, 2013)

 

 Sydney Lucas and Michael Cerveris (Photo credit: Joan Marcus)

 There is more excitement, fun, as well as an unprecedented convergence of terrific entertainment at Public Theatre than has been seen there in a while. This is not meant to imply that the previous productions in previous seasons  have not been worthy but only that right now you can’t go wrong with what you pick to see (how about all?) in the various theatres, including the premiere of Wally Shawn’s “Grasses of a Thousand Colors” and Richard Nelson’s “Apple Family Plays.”

If I sound like a press agent, it is because my enthusiasm for what I have recently seen is at a peak. Composer Jeanine Tesori in collaboration with book writer and lyricist Lisa Kron have given a stunning musical and dramatic edge to Alison Bechdel’s already famously edgy autobiographical graphic novel about a young woman growing up among siblings, one older boy, one younger boy, in the home of parents who owned and operated a funeral parlor in Beech Creek, Pennsylvania. The “fun home” is not only the funeral parlor where the children often played hide and seek among the caskets, but rather the large Victorian home where they live and that has received countless makeovers and filled and re-filled with period collectables and furnishings.

Fun as it was for the children at play, there was also plenty of anxiety and stress as was psychological conflict formulating around them and would rise to the surface in the maturing Alison (as played brilliantly by three actors at three different stages in her life: Beth Malone, Alexandra Socha, Sydney Lucas) who would gradually come to terms with her being a Lesbian.

Alison’s feelings about her own sexual nature are sublimated within the family as are those of her gay father Bruce (Micharel Cerveris) who keeps his homosexual dalliances a secret from his wife Helen (Judy Kuhn). When not attending to the family business or cruising, Bruce uses his self-imposed authority as a disciplinarian with his children to keep order in their lives. In doing so, he has also created a deepening schism between himself and Helen. Helen realizes perhaps too late that she has wasted her life with a conflicted man who did not really love her.

Tesori, who wrote the wonderful music for “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” and “Caroline, or Change” has written an even more sublimely eclectic, melodic and dynamic score. And Kron’s funny, touching and inventive lyrics and text allow the three Alison’s to weave their personal “captions-added” narratives fluidly and often funnily in and out of the action. It is easy to become transfixed right from the start by the primary reflections of the oldest Alison, who represents the adult Bechdel. The past, present and future are clearly embraced as they are extrapolated, under Sam Gold’s sterling direction, from the oldest Alison’s memoirs. It is impossible to not become engaged in what was happening within David Zinn’s almost magically maneuvered settings.

Despite the prominence of the three beautifully defined performances by the three Alison’s (impossible to decide which is the best) Cerveris creates his own imposing universe of a man possessed by a drive that he cannot restrain despite the hurt it brings to Helen, who is played with heart-breaking poignancy by Kuhn. Light family moments are balanced with darker ones. But there is one fantasy song and dance number that is a knockout. Best of all there is that rare depth and perception of the characters that is so rare in musicals.

“Fun Home”

Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street

For tickets call (212) 967 – 7555

“Betrayal” at the Ethel Barrymore Theater (through January 5, 2014)

Rafe Spall and Daniel Craig

(photo credit: Brigitte Lacombe)

What a bummer that the mutual sexual dalliances in “Betrayal” don’t seem as important, as icily fun, or simply as seductive as they did way back in 1980. Although it is occasionally produced, Harold Pinter’s play of interlocking affairs has been afforded some unusual attention in this revival with its chief selling point being move star Daniel Craig playing opposite his movie star wife Rachel Weisz.

At the Ethel Barrymore Theatre under the direction of renowned director Mike Nichols, all of Pinter’s wonderfully worn-out and wearisome emotional, intellectual, and conjugal betrayals, as practiced by a quartet (one unseen)of rather superficial lovers, have been duly inferred and laid out, from end to start (to use the play’s conceit).

However, it is precisely the grim banality of the long, dull affair (although this production barely survives its ninety minutes) between the play’s principal lovers Jerry and Emma that should provoke what we seem to like best about Pinter. Oddly, it doesn’t under Nichol’s detrimentally incremented directives, mainly because sex has replaced sensuality and gratuitous action has replaced closeted inference. As the story devolves in two steps backward and one-step forward flashback scenes, the mostly understated affair begins in a London pub.

Here, in the first of set designer Ian Macneil’s precisely evocative  interiors, we learn that Emma, an art-gallery owner who has not been Jerry’s lover for the past two years, is currently having an affair with a writer named Casey.

From this retrospective point, the play sets out its sequence of scenes backward to the point where an inebriated Jerry first makes a pass at Emma, his best friends’ wife, in her bedroom, during a party. Don’t quibble that neither the characters nor the situations in “Betrayal” appear to warrant the sort of introspection that Pinter affords them. For Pinter aficionados, the play offers his typical gift of minimalist phrases in a text that can be expected to ripple with rhythmic cadences. Credit, if you can call it that, goes to director Nichols for minimizing that familiar affectation.

The current cast has no difficulty with the lilt and punctuation that are the considered essence of a fully-realized Pinter play as they don’t really exist here. Weisz as Emma, Rafe Spall (who, in making his Broadway debut, and the best thing about this production) as Jerry, and Craig as Robert certainly turn words that could sound mechanical into words that sound natural, which is not meant as a compliment. With the glibness, they impart, there comes surrender to humor that may not be in the play’s best interest. It’s nice to see the good-looking Craig, famously known for his film role as James Bond, tackle a difficult role, but as interpreted is as interesting to watch as would be a department store mannequin.

“Betrayal”

Ethel Barrymore Theatre, 243 W. 47^th Street

For tickets ($57.00 - $152.00) call (212) 239 - 6200

“Marie Antoinette” at SoHo Rep. (through November 24, 2013)

 

Marin Ireland (photo credit: Pavel Antonov

Sometimes bare-bones minimalism works beautifully as it does with director Rebecca Taichman’s scaled-down (from previous productions) version by the SoHo Rep. of David Adjmi’s “Marie Antoinette.” Despite its lack of trappings, it is a remarkably vivid, if surreal, consideration of an infamous life filled but also blinded by excess. The action is played out in front of an elongated white wall with virtually no indication of the opulence and extravagance that would normally befit a play about the notoriously shallow and clueless Queen of France.

But there is nothing shallow about Marin Ireland’s vibrantly neurotic performance as the doomed Marie, or the subtly clever and witty text that embroiders her frivolous life up to her fateful death. A tour-de-force performance by any standard, Ireland spews a constant stream of outrageous bon mots, including the “let them eat cake,” as well as some stunning history-based commentary on life at court but all given, sometimes screeched, with a decidedly 21^st century kick.

Her one and only gown looks like petals of a huge red rose and her one ultra bouffant wig say are an impressive wry enough commentary on her personality and the haute couture of the day as does the Lilliputian stature of her husband King Louis XVI, as played with comical fits of inertia by Steven Rattazi, a feckless ruler who knows he can’t satisfy his wife’s apparently conflicted sexual appetite or his own for that matter. No need for scene changes as people of the court and others including a wise and wooly lamb (David Greenspan) who (quite a nice puppet) engages Marie in conversation. Also engaging is Axel Fersen (Chris Stack), a handsome courtier who admires Marie but would like to be of more service to her.

With the help of some rather pathetic projections, Marie’s curtailed life spirals downward as the Revolution gains power and she and her family lose power. The play begins to plod slightly from the point when she is captured by remorseless activists to her tragic end. But up to that point, our fascination is remains focused on Marie within the context of a surreal tableau that may have been minimized but not misguided.

“Marie Antoinette”

SoHo Rep. 46 Walker Street.

For tickets ($20.00 - $55.00) call (212) 352-3101

“Romeo and Juliet” at the Classic Stage Company (through November 3, 2013)

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Julian Cihi as Romeo and Elizabeth Olsen as Juliet.(Photo credit: Joan Marcus)

As if one revisionist production of “Romeo and Juliet” wasn’t enough, we get the dubious pleasure of two, which of course invites comparisons. Given that the Broadway version, under the direction of David Leveaux is sprinkled with a little star dust with film actor Orlando Bloom as Romeo and produced on a budget that allows for some awesome scenery and lighting, the CSC production, under the direction of  Tea Alagic, is minimalist in virtually every respect.

Regrettably, the youthful and attractive Julian Cihi and Elizabeth Olsen in the titular roles are awkwardly sincere as are many young students in acting Shakespeare. But they are also essentially unimpressive as the ill-fated lovers. But they are only a part of a problematic ill-conceived production that invites the normally fine actor as Daphne Rubin-Vega to jazz up the role of the Nurse with a heavy Spanish accent (mostly unintelligible). She parades and postures in a sassy get-up and platform shoes as in a farce or parody.

Although Kathryn Meisle as Lady Capulet is more flashily dressed (everyone else in the company favors basic black) and infers she may have a part-time job selling cosmetics (or something else) in a department store, she at least offers a provocative interpretation of Juliet’s mother. Her broadly insinuating performance suggests she is having more sex in Verona than those two teens in heat.

In contrast to Daniel Davis, who carries high-minded affectation to excess as Friar Lawrence, T.R. Knight over-plays Mercutio as if he were simply high on speed. Director Alagic has the lovers perform the famous balcony scene on the floor, an idea that has some merit considering that there is no indication in this staging of time, place, purpose or mission.

“Romeo and Juliet”

Classic Stage Company, 136 E. 13^th Street

For tickets ($60.00) call (212) 352-3101

“Romeo and Juliet” at the Richard Rodgers Theater (through November 24, 2013)

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Orlando Blum and Condola Rashad

Famed musical comedy author/lyricists Betty Comden and Adolph Green once satirically reminded us in their 1958 musical comedy Bells are Ringing just how important the phone is in getting a message delivered: "Those kids would be alive today," they wrote. They were, of course, referring to Romeo and Juliet the love sick teenagers who unfortunately did not have access to a phone. A cell phone perhaps a text message gone astray could have served as an amusing gimmick in this otherwise passionately invoked, slickly staged, modern-dress production now on Broadway. For the complete review go to CurtainUp.com http://curtainup.com/romeoandjulietbway13.html

"The White Snake" at the McCarter Theatre Center, Princeton, NJ

"The White Snake" (through November 3, 2013)

(l-r) Tanya Thai McBride and Amy Kim Waschke (Photo credit: T. Charles Erickson)

Even as McCarter audiences recall such memorable Zimmerman's forays into myths, fairy tales, fables and legends, as The Odyssey (2000), The Secret in the Wings (2005), and Argonautika (2008), they are also undoubtedly aware of her fantastical 2002 Tony Award-winning homage to Ovid Metamorphoses. As evidenced by this ravishing production written and directed by Mary Zimmerman, The White Snake is likely to be placed high on the list of favorites, as it is already on mine. For the complete review please go to CurtainUp.com  http://curtainup.com/whitesnakenj.html. 

Kansas City Swing at the Crossroads Theater, New Brunswick, NJ

"Kansas City Swing" (through October 27, 2013


Robert Karma Robinson as Satchel Paige

Don't let the title fool you. There's very little Kansas City Jazz in the snappily written new play Kansas City Swing co-written by Trey Ellis and Ricardo Khan (who also directed) now having its world premiere at the Crossroads Theatre Company. But there are swinging bats as well as fists in this entertaining and enlightening trip back to 1947 in Kansas City. For the complete review please go to CurtainUp.com  http://curtainup.com/kansascityswingnj.html

A Night with Janis Joplin at the Lyceum Theatre

"A Night with Janis Joplin"




Mary Bridget Davies as Janis Joplin
Photo: Joan Marcus


The flashing lights and the crisscrossing lazar beams that streak around the Lyceum Theatre are meant to dazzle as well as blind the audience. It's all in anticipation of Mary Bridget Davies's entrance as Janis Joplin, the legendary "queen of rock n' roll" whose life was tragically ended at the age of twenty-seven by an overdose of drugs.

The good news is that Davies is sensational and transcends the obligatory razzle-dazzle. The applause, screams, shouts and whistles that welcome the singer will be heard again and again during this searing biographical concert, earnestly written and smartly directed by Randy Johnson. For the complete review please go to CurtainUp.com. http://curtainup.com/janisjoplin13.html

Big Fish

"Big Fish" at the Neil Simon Theatre

 Norbert Leo Butz, Zachary Unger, Sarah Strimel

Big Fish is a warm-hearted and melodic new musical that may be also the most sentimental that will come along this season. A winner in its visual artistry and a delight in its choreographic turns, it is also daring in having a tragic undercurrent to its story of reconciliation. The closure in the conflicted relationship between a father who insists his tall tales are the truth and his son who doesn't believe them, is charmingly embraced by Andrew Lippa's splendid score. As Big Fish takes off on its many flights of fancy, it is wonderfully grounded by the terrific performance of Norbert Leo Butz. Behind and generously surrounding everything is director-choreographer Susan Stroman. She has imaginatively tied the various ingredients into a wondrous theatrical experience, not the least of which is the production's scenic design by Julian Crouch, enhanced by often stunning projections by Benjamin Pearcy and magical lighting by Donald Holder. For the complete review please go to CurtainUp.com. http://curtainup.com/bigfish.html

Lady Day

Lady Day at the Shubert  Theatre (Ends March 16, 2014)

Dee Dee Bridgewater: Photo: Carol Rosegg


Known affectionately and familiarly as Lady Day, Billie Holiday is celebrated as one of the great, now legendary, jazz vocalists of the mid 20th century. Many performers have played Holiday in various screen and stage versions of her life and career, as well as specifically in Stephen  Stahl's play various revised revisions of which have been making the rounds for the past thirty years. For the complete review please go to CurtainUp. http://curtainup.com/ladyday13.html

"Honeymoon in Vegas"

"Honeymoon in Vegas" at the Paper Mill Playhouse, Millburn, N.J. (through October 27, 2013)

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Rob McClure surrounded by Elvises
(Photo: Jerry Dalia) 

 The new musical Honeymoon in Vegas, now in its world premiere at the Paper Mill Playhouse, could be heading for a divorce in Millburn unless some serious tinkering is done. What was an improbable, inane but also modestly successful 1992 romantic film comedy (with Nicolas Cage, Sarah Jessica Parker and James Caan) is still all that and more, except that it has landed on the stage. For the complete review please go to CurtainUp. http://curtainup.com/honeymoonnj.html

Gettin' the Band Back Together

Gettin' the Band Back Together at the George Street Playhouse, New Brunswick, NJ (through October 27, 2013.

Alison Fraser and Mitchell Jarvis (Photo credit: T. Charles Erickson)

This new musical takes pride, and without prejudice, in embracing well-worn cliches and in incorporating as many stereotypical aspects of human behavior as possible. It also empowers the kind of trite plot situation that would normally send shivers down your back. Actually, it has no right being as funny and as entertaining as it is. To read the complete review on CurtainUp please go to http://curtainup.com/gettingthebandbacknj.html. 

Lucy Thurber's The Hill Town Plays

“Lucy Thurber’s The Hill Town Plays

“Scarcity”

I’ve now seen five plays – “Scarcity,” “Where We’re Born,” “Killers and Other Family,” “Ashville,” “Stay” – all  by Lucy Thurber over the course of two weeks as part of the “Inaugural Theater: Village Festival, an annual theatrical event of five plays centered around one playwright or theme running simultaneously in five different West Village venues.” All five plays are being performed between August 14 and September 28 under the auspices of Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in association with Axis Theatre, Cherry Lane Theatre & The New Ohio Theatre.

Only one of the five (“Ashville”) is having its world premiere and one play (“Stay”) has been given a major rewrite. Not having seen any of these plays before, I was anticipating, based on the buzz, for some very special and/or stimulating experiences. A press release explains: “Each of the ‘Hill Town Plays’ examines a pivotal stage in a woman’s life – from a childhood of poverty, alcoholism, and abuse in a western Massachusetts mill town through college and coming to terms with one’s sexual identity, and on to adulthood and a successful writing career.”

While the plays contain fictitious characters, they are presumably and essentially dramatically created reflections of people and events that stem from Thurber’s life and background – – – raised in oppressive poverty. I can only say “Wow” after having seen the terrific, often terrifying and brilliantly acted “Scarcity,” on August 21^st at the Cherry Lane Studio Theater. I’m so glad that I picked “Scarcity” for a starter as it is clear that it is the twelve year-old Rachel, touchingly played by Issy Hanson-Johnston, who is the stand-in for the young Thurber.

As a witness to the dysfunctional, disturbing behavior of her crudely articulate parents, Rachel is a resourceful as well as resolute survivor who finds solace in books. It is in the small Hill Town in Western Massachusetts where she lives and where she pins her hopes for a brighter future on her exceptionally bright sixteen-year-old brother Billy. Will Pullen is making a notable professional debut as Billy, whose extraordinary scholastic aptitude has made it possible for him to apply for a scholarship to a school for the gifted. He is supportive and loving to his sister with whom he shares the family’s only indication of civility and intelligence and that life may have more to offer than deprivation.

The play resounds with Thurber’s ear for unfiltered earthy talk, especially from the mouths of the brutally out-spoken mother Martha (Didi O’Connell) and her mean-drunk, mostly out-of-work father Herb (Gordon Joseph Weiss). O’Connell gives a memorable performance as Martha the ferociously protective provider with a low-paying job as a manager in a mall. Weiss is close to her equal in arresting our attention as Herb, the volatile alcoholic whose behavior often borders on the deranged. Martha and Herb may be prime examples of parents from hell, but they do create a vivid portrait of poverty-immersed, minimally-educated poor Americans. Their built-in aversions and suspicions to just about everything outside their frame of reference are palpable.

The play, under Daniel Talbot’s splendid direction, pivots on the uneasy relationship that develops between the bright, good-looking Billy and the ill-at-ease school teacher Ellen (Natalie Gold) whose keen interest in Billy and in fostering his education begins to unnerve Martha and Herb.

In as much as “Scarcity” reveals the lack of material things in the lives of this family, help, in addition to food stamps, comes from Cousin Louis a policeman (a very fine and quirky Michael Warner). There is some indication that he has received sexual favors on the side from Martha for bringing the family groceries. This is apparently no secret to Louis’ blousy wife Gloria (Pamela Shaw) who is everyone’s equal in being fowl-mouthed and often quite funny.

Just as funny, but also shockingly revelatory, is how responsive Martha is to Herb’s sexual advances. What gives the play a bitter-edged poignancy is seeing Martha and Herb forming a united front to keep an outsider from invading and disrupting the guarded sanctity of their family. Rachel, her alert young mind already aware of the danger of staying put and complacent, has every reason to formulate, as has her brother, and escape route.

“Scarcity” (Originally produced by the Atlantic Theater Company in 2007, this revival is produced by Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in association with Cherry Lane Studio Theatre, 38 Commerce Street through September 28, 2013.

“Where We’re Born”

My expectations were high for “Where We’re Born” on August 22. But they were dashed by a production that unfortunately I didn’t feel measured up to the needs of the play, essentially a touching, if also brutal account of a complicated young woman who returns to her home town to stay with a family member after her first semester at a prestigious East Coast college. Despite the recognition of Thurber’s voice in the dialogue, the performances appeared egregiously self-indulgent and unfocused, under the labored direction of Jackson Gay. I suspect that Betty Gilpin, an actor whom I have seen give fine performances in a number of Off Broadway plays, might possibly have been guided by another director to give a more persuasive/interesting-to-watch performance in the key role of Lilly.

We are committed to watching Lilly as she is unwittingly drawn into the dangerously enveloping and psychologically polluting environment she has tried to leave behind. Cautiously returning to the small Hill Town in Western Massachusetts, Lilly also wants to be seen and heard as the new woman she is trying hard to become. The year is set at 2003 and Lilly’s intelligence may have afforded her a way out of poverty, but not entirely freed her from the pull of family ties where unabashedly puerile behavior, drugs and alcohol are the most common connective tissue between consenting adults.

Estranged from her mother, Lilly feels strongly attached to her cousin Tony (Christopher Abbott), with whom she has come to stay while on her break. Despite a lingering affection for Tony, Lilly is also attracted to Tony’s live-in girl friend Franky (MacKenzie Meehan), a very pretty waitress. In spite of the committed loving relationship that exists between Tony and Franky, Lilly is apparently eager to exercise her emerging sexual identity and isn’t above attempting to seduce the insecure but also curious Franky. That Tony doesn’t exactly curtail his need for a little extra curricular approval of his virility provides a provocative undercurrent in this play about desires that will not be suppressed, denied or defended.

Two of Tony’s friends Vin (Nick Winthrop Lawson) and Drew (Daniel Abeles) hang out at the ramshackle house and talk and drink a lot as they define for us and probably to themselves what it means to be hangers-on. It was incredibly difficult to hang on to anything or anyone in this production.     

Originally produced by the Rattlestick Playwright Theater in 2003 (with a cast, under the direction of Will Frears, that included Marin Ireland and Thomas Sadusky),

Originally produced by The Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in 2003, this revival of “Where We’re Born”  by Rattlestick will be performed through September 28, 2013.

“Killers & Other Family”

I had forgotten when we approached the Axis Theatre at One Sheridan Square on August 23 that it was the old location of the Absurd Theatre Company where its artistic director the late Charles Ludlam appeared as Camille among other divas of dramatic literature. The old dungeon of a theater is now all clean and chrome and comfortable and home to “Killers & Other Family.” This is the third time around for this tense and disturbing play about a young woman living with her female lover in New York in 2009, but who finds herself unable to disengage from the Svengali-like hold of her former male lover. The series is back on track with strong performances under the direction of Caitriona McLaughlin. “Killers & Other Family” is propelled by a tension that starts early and builds steadily to a stunning conclusion. It left me as wiped-out as the performers also appear to be in this unnerving ninety minute play without an intermission.

It is 2009 and Elizabeth (Samantha Soule) is working on her dissertation and living with her lover Claire (Aya Cash). Their lives are upended by the unexpected arrival of Elizabeth’s brother Danny (Shane McRae) and his friend who is Elizabeth’s former lover Jeff (Chris Stack). They have committed a heinous crime and are on the lam. While the desperate Danny promises Elizabeth that they will be on their way if she gives them enough money to get to Mexico, the unstable Jeff is unable to believe that Elizabeth has jilted him for a woman. Even as the situation becomes increasingly testy and close to unbearable for the bewildered Claire, it serves to trigger in Elizabeth old patterns of behavior. Violence is the inevitable result in the light of Claire’s condescending response to the men and in the face of Elizabeth’s inability to cut loose.

“Killer and Other Family” was originally produced by Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in 2009. This revival with Axis Company will be performed at Axis Theater, One Sheridan Square through September 28, 2013.

“Ashville”

Chronologically, not that it makes all that much difference, but this play is set in 1997 and the young woman is determined to keep moving toward self-discovery and away from a past muddied by poverty and muddled by disabling relationships. She is now Celia (Mia Vallet, who is giving a terrific performance in her Off Broadway debut). Neighbors who carouse, drink and smoke cigarettes and pot make frequent visits to the small row house where Celia lives with her mother Shelley (Tasha Lawrence), a coarse, crude woman whose main concern is keeping the flame alive with her latest boyfriend Harry (Andrew Garman). Shelley is also keen on fostering the relationship between Celia and Jake (Joe Tippett), a construction worker who loves Celia and who keeps them supplied with cigarettes.

Celia’s attempt to continue her studies doesn’t preclude her curiosity about the somewhat sullen and ambitionless Joe (James McMenamin) who spends a lot of time lounging on the sofa in the adjoining home of Joey (George West Carruth) and his girl friend Amanda (Aubrey Dollar). Amanda’s affection and friendship with Celia also stirs up an unsettling and misunderstood relationship between the two women.

Director Karen Allen keeps the action flowing in a play with many short but riveting scenes. The actors are all excellent and clearly define their unhappiness as well as the inevitable unpleasantness of their situation. John McDermott’s fine set design allows us to see a portion of the interior of three of the row houses each one sharing a back porch and a front walk way. It is good to note that the plays up to this point (with one to go) have already made a great impression upon me and one that I wish will be shared by others.

“Ashville” (world premiere) is at the Cherry Lane Theatre (mainstage) through September 28, 2010.

“Stay”

The final play in the series for me was at the New Ohio Theatre, and it proved to be a fine and satisfying finale to this strongly socio-political-dramatic series of plays collectively about a young woman going through various stages of maturity and self-discovery. Put a hyphen in the middle of “Scarcity,” Thurber’s aptly named play and you have “Scar-City” which could also be an apt description of the milieu in which Thurber has set most of her plays. Forever scarred perhaps but encouraged to write not only about what life has to offer to those who live without money, education and opportunities, but also to those who choose not to be victims of their environment.

Whether serendipitous irony or not, Rachel (from the first play) is back and played with a gutsy assertiveness by Hani Furstenberg. It is 2013 and Rachel is a published author and a professor at a liberal arts East Coast college. Sharing the space in her apartment is her inner-self, surreally manifested for us as “Floating Girl” (Jenny Seastone Stern). Rachel is for real and so is the Floating Girl who hovers, hangs and climbs on bookcases and other objects. and stays mostly out of the way but never out of Rachel’s mind or without voicing an opinion or an option.

Rachel is perhaps the most psychologically tormented of Thurber’s principal characters. In this provocative probe into what prompts Rachel to act both recklessly and with an empowered sense of self, she is visited by her socially volatile, emotionally unstable brother Bill, who has showed up without warning saying he has been fired from his position with a law firm. The reasons he gives for his dismissal provide us with clues to the kind of lives that he and his sister were subjected to as children growing up in poverty. Filled with inner rage and despair over his actions and hoping to find support from his sister, he, nevertheless, steps right into another awkward situation. This one caused by Julia (Mikaela Feely-Lehmann), an emotionally disturbed student who harbors an obsessive infatuation with Rachel.

Seduced by Julia, Rachel takes both a defensive and an offensive position as she finds she has to deal with  the repercussions of her act that includes the reaction of Julia’s possessive boyfriend Tommy (Brian Miskell). The performances are all blisteringly real. This play brought to a conclusion a series that will make me think long and hard about all the young bright and talented people in this country who will have to figure out a way to lift themselves out of a life of poverty or be swallowed up by it.

“Stay” (through September 28, 2013) at the New Ohio Theatre, 154 Christopher Street

"The Cradle Will Rock" at New York City Center Encores! Off-Center

What vintage show could be more timely or topical than “The Cradle Will Rock,” the 1937 musical satire recently revived in concert form by City Center’s Encores! Off-Center series. How auspicious that this legendary musical is inaugurating a series that will be devoted to critically lauded musicals that are deserving of another look but may not have wide commercial appeal. A splendid cast, under the direction of Sam Gold, was assembled to bring to life the ambitiously agitprop composition that its composer, author and lyricist Marc Blitzstein called “a labor opera.”

It is well-known to have caused a furor when it was first presented not necessarily because of its arguably controversial subject matter (unbridled support of the Unions and its denouncement of capitalism) but because of the unorthodox manner in which it was presented to its first audience that got to see it not on a stage as originally planned but amidst them as presented by necessity by the WPA’s Federal theater Project. Much has been written and chronicled about that historic occasion and the musical’s subsequent productions, so I will not go into those details.

What is important is the excitement that has been generated by this concert-styled staging presented for only five days (July 9 through July 13) during which the lucky ones who attended are undoubtedly going to remember it as one of the great theatrical events of the new 2013-2014 theater season. The frame for the story, mostly sung-through, is simple enough with the cast both seated and standing and a little cavorting downstage. Behind them is the raised orchestra under the expert direction of Chris Fenwick. Behind them is a white curtain which reads “In the rich man’s house, the only place to spit is in his face.” Well, that’s what it says!

The story is told from the perspective of individuals among a large group, some of whom are mistakenly suspected of being pro-Union activists, that have been rounded up by the police outside Union headquarters in Steeltown and taken to the local precinct for questioning. The only hitch is that many of them are conservative members of society, either indebted to or under the influence of fervent capitalist Mr. Mister. Prompted by the questioning, there are the bitterly comical flashbacks and the poignantly passionate back-stories of a variety of characters each of whom is defined by Blitzstein’s brittle lyrics and trenchantly melodic arias, many of which often sound as if they evolved from the Kurt Weill-Bertolt Brecht school of music and drama (not a bad thing).

As expected Raul Esparza is dynamite as Larry Foreman, the incendiary union organizer who locks horns with the equally exciting Danny Burstein as the grisly, bullying Mr. Mister. The rest of the cast, including Eisa Davis, Peter Friedman, Aidan Gemme, Judy Kuhn, David Marulies, Martin Moran, Michael Park, Robert Petkoff, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Anika Noni Rose, Matthew Saldivar and Henry Stram also have ample opportunities to define their admittedly stereotypical but very human characters. The audience at the performance I caught was as revved up by the performances as they were by the politically divisive subject matter. Contemporary theater doesn’t get any more powerful, nor does it get to rock with more energy than does “The Cradle Will Rock.” Considering how audiences must have reacted at the first performance in 1937, we can call this a revival of the Blitzstein spirit but in the spirit of seventy-six years later.