"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