"The Liar" at the Classic Stage Company

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Toby Roach, Christian Conn and Carson Elrod in background (Photo:Richard Termine)

It seems like only yesterday that David Ives’s wildly irreverent adaptation of Pierre Corneille’s rarely seen or produced 17th century boulevard comedy (“Le Menteur”) tickled my funny bone at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. But I was ready to enjoy and laugh heartily again at the CSC production. I did.

Aside from such plays as “All in the Timing,” “Is He Dead?”, and “Venus in Fur,” Ives's ability to give a classic comedy the gift of his audacious playfulness had previously been proven about six years ago at this same theater with his adaptation of Moliere’s “The Misanthrope” which he called “The School for Lies.” Of course,  hilarious.

Although “The Liar” has been  fibbing his way around the globe since the world premiere at Washington's Shakespeare Theatre Company in 2010, this production, under the exuberantly playful direction of Michael Kahn, who directed the premiere in Washington,  has been cast with some wonderfully deft pretenders and artful poseurs, all adept at the hitting the mark on all those rhymed couplets. If the pentameter-propelled text comes at us faster than a speeding bullet, so do the riotous convolutions of the purposefully silly plot. But who really cares? We are, nevertheless, intrigued enough to follow the amorous misadventures of a country lawyer/egotistical would-be Casanova named Dorante (Christian Conn), as he gets deeper and deeper in the maze he creates with his lies among the Parisian aristocracy. His self-incriminating dilemmas are set in motion with his telling a trio of strolling lovely ladies that he is a distinguished soldier returned from the wars.

The situation is set up delightfully by Cliton (a crafty and chipper performance by Carson Elrod), a vagrant who cleverly reveals to us that he cannot tell a lie. He does seize upon the opportunity to become a valet to the well-dressed Dorante when he targets him while walking in the Tuileries Garden. The smartly minimalist setting designed by Alexander Dodge accommodates the few pieces of movable objects to make its case. It is a kick to see a chandelier make its descent whenever  an  exterior locale becomes an interior.  

Soon enough Cliton becomes Dorante's unwitting collaborator in his master's recklessly misguided wooing of the lovely and impetuous  Clarice (Ismenia Mendes), her winsome best friend Lucrece (Amelia Pedlow) and their respective servants, both played with a comical contrast of personality by Kelly Hutchinson for the usual comedy of errors results. Conn is terrific and often hilarious as the incorrigibly self-serving Dorante who divulges an elaborately plotted but never really executed seduction of Clarice to his best friend Alcippe (Tony Roach.) That's when things get complicated. Not only is Alcippe secretly betrothed to Clarice, but she also is plotting with Lucrece, who secretly loves Dorante. This does not take into account the machinations of Dorante's father Geronte, played by a warm but sometimes bellowing Adam Lefevre to get a wife for his son.

A highlight is a riotously funny duel between Dorante and Alcippe in which neither (well, I won't spoil it for you). Yes, scenery chewing is part of the fun and fun it is if you fall in line with Corneille's theme as spoken by Dorante, “The unimagined life is not worth living.” There may be some who will want to agree more with Cliton's remark “This may be more than what I asked for,” but in the end you will mostly likely have to admit that what you got was good for quite a few laughs.

The real pleasures of this hardly risqué but stunningly convoluted romp are not derived by following its contrivances (impossible), but in falling in line with the constant barrage of giddily contemporized rhymes that drive this daffy farce and by the charm of the actors delivering it. Enormous credit goes to this fine cast that nevertheless strikes their respective 17th century poses with consummate skill and panache. The 17th century haute couture designed by Murell Horton is spectacular and adds additional luster to this grand and funny show.

Classic Stage Company 136 East 13th Street
From 01/11/17 Opened 01/26/17 Ends 02/26/17
 

"Hamlet" and "St. Joan" in rotating repertory at McCarter

 “You get a medal for bravery,” the usher said to me as I separated my two pair of tickets to a double header of William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” on the same day with George Bernard Shaw’s “St. Joan.” Admittedly, it was as daunting an immersion into heavy-duty theater as I would ever normally undertake. But I did it and I’m glad. I am also going to presume that it is as formidable and fun for the cast of four that played all the characters in both plays in the course of one day. Most days it’s one or the other (check schedule.)

That’s right only four actors are performing (almost want to call them performance artists) these two iconic dramas. It is a rematch of an acclaimed Off Broadway engagement in 2013. Bedlam is the name of the company responsible for these adventurous productions and they command our respect and admiration for the laudably un-heavy-handed and generally respectful way each play is being done here in rotating repertory at the McCarter Theater Center.

Last Saturday for me began at 3 pm with “Hamlet” that lasted exactly three hours. It featured Edmund Lewis, Andrus Nichols, Tom O’Keefe and company director Eric Tucker undertaking the various roles with, as expected, varying degrees of esprit de corps. The Bedlam approach to “Hamlet” may not be a purists’ delight, but considering the familiarity many of us have with the basic story, their vision of the play and their interpretations of the prominent characters are at the very least refreshing without running the risk of parody.

Except for some unsteadying moments when it appears that Tucker’s Hamlet appears to swing involuntarily from insanity to inanity, (bi-polar?) the complicated and bearded Dane in casual contemporary attire (when not in T-shirt and barefooted) deports himself nobly and rendered his famous soliloquies with exceptional clarity and carefully invested unconformity. Ms. Nichols handles the switcheroo from the duplicitous Queen Gertrude into the unwittingly duped Ophelia by freeing up her pony tail but more importantly making us believe in the transformation.

There’s a decided chill in the air as O’Keefe’s unremorsefully wicked King Claudius stalks tenuously around his newly acquired domain after his heinous murder of Hamlet’s father. He also makes a fairly good case for a bespectacled Polonius, who is even more profoundly foolish than we are use to, but also surprisingly doesn’t play upon the humor inherent in his advice to Laertes. Best moments include Polonius’s tendency to go blank mid speech and also O’Keefe and Lewis as the chatty grave-diggers who mimic the speech of Brooklyn cabbies of yore. This may also be the only time you will get to see a Hamlet do the Charleston...don’t ask.

The playing area is rearranged for each act with floor seating and the bleacher seating shifted to accommodate the action. Those members of the audience not seated in the auditorium are asked to go into the lobby for this activity. Upon returning, some are assigned not only lines but small duties. I accepted the invitation and took a seat on the stage for the final act. A gentleman directly in front of me was given the goblet laced with the poison to hold...and performed his task commendably.

The asides in Hamlet are given additional heft as the actors intentionally interact with the audience. It’s great fun to participate and it doesn’t detract from the intensity of the drama being performed. The actors also use the steep aisles of the Berlind effectively throughout the play. The modernist affectations, including the use of flash-lights on the battlement and the ghostly projections are part of a splendidly unpretentious artistic design that include John McDermott’s settings enhanced by Les Dickert’s eerie lighting.

The seating is again reconfigured for “St. Joan.” As with “Hamlet,” the staging brings Shaw’s harrowing 1923 drama with twenty-two characters up close and personal. Tucker’s direction of the play defines itself without the pretensions often ascribed to period dramas. There is, however, a conscientious alignment with contemporary styles in the costuming that works well enough. Seeing a Princeton baseball cap and a motorcycle helmet here there on a soldier added a bit of humor in an otherwise grim drama. To be honest, “St. Joan” is much more ponderous and a lot less fun than “Hamlet” but not without its worthiness.

While the six scenes in the play, including that brilliantly out of time and space epilogue, resonate with that which is Shaw, there is not a moment in which the actors appear even slightly daunted by his talky salvos. Shaw’s audiences had more patience for speechifying and mostly displayed an  admiration for his incomparable if also insufferable wit. 

As portrayed heroically and with little pretense of being a girl of sixteen, Ms Nichols’s Joan is understandably characterized as more warrior-woman than saint (a stance that has also inspired some of the greatest actors of the twentieth century including Katherine Cornell, Uta Hagen and Lynn Redgrave) the result is a unique performance that, nevertheless, also radiates with the devotion to her faith and dedication to her cause. Besides Tucker’s Joan, a dozen roles are shared by the other three actors, each of whom contribute to making the heartbreaking core of the play also theatrically palatable. To be sure, we are asked to make allowances for the Bedlam point-of-view.

Neither is Shaw’s point-of-view distorted in any meaningful way as we watch and listen to the purpose and the plight of a young 15th century French woman who responds as an undaunted activist to the instructive voices/messengers of God Saints Catherine and Margaret. This, as she is prompted to lead French troops against the English directly in the face of a male-entrenched hierarchy.

It’s always a treat to watch talented performers take on multiple roles to show their versatility.

O’Keefe make an impressive leap from a teasing Bluebeard to a testy Catholic Bishop. But it is no less an awesome transformation than that of Lewis as the infantile Dauphin who is destined to become the King but reluctant to assume any authority over the army, and who then becomes the soulless Chaplain who campaigns for Joan’s death at the stake. You won’t see much if anything that subscribes to the 15th century in the trappings. Again the audience becomes the on- lookers and participants in the infamous trial scene and its aftermath.

While I would like to suggest that seeing both plays, as performed by this excellent young company, makes for an exciting theatrical experience, “St Joan” is less likely come around again as soon as “Hamlet.” So perhaps, for these times, “St. Joan” may offer that glimmer of hope and faith to those ready and willing to stand up against the ignorance and petulance of the powerful.

At Berlind Theatre at McCarter Theatre Center
Performances: Tues. Wed. Thurs. at 7:30 pm; Fri. & Sat. at 8 pm; Sat. at 3 pm; Sun. at 2 and 7:30 pm.
From 01/13/17 Ends 02/12/17 

"The Jag" at New Jersey Repertory Company Opened 01/14/16 Ends 02/12/17

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Dan Grimaldi and Estelle Bajou
Photo credit: Suzanne Barabas

Probably not since the stage version of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang has a car been made the primary object of interest for a show's characters. But unlike that fantastical car that flies, the 1967 Jaguar 420 "Saloon" in Gino DiLorio's entertaining new play remains stationary. But in its stillness, The Jag is able to move the hearts and change the minds of a septuagenarian father, his estranged son and a young woman mechanic equipped with Tourette-tinged Aspergers.

DiLorio works his theatrical magic in a garage/bodyshop in Providence Rhode Island and where dispirited prodigal son Donald "Bone" (Christopher Daftsios) has returned to work on the restoration of the The Jag with his long embittered and virtually blind father Leo "Chick" Chicarella (Dan Grimaldi.)

A widower, "Chick's dream of having a family business were dashed years ago with the tragic death of Bone's brother whose artistry as a mechanic apparently didn't rub off on his less gifted sibling. A wheeler-dealer and burdened with a gambling debt, Bone has returned home determined to finally complete the restoration and sell the Jag that he originally purchased for the favored brother in partnership with his father.

Because of Bone's limited skills he hires a young woman mechanic Carla Car (Estelle Bajou.) Carla is severely lacking in social skills but she has an acute knowledge of Jags. Her entrance as she sees the Jag for the first time and caresses its "bonnet" is as close to a passionate love scene as we are likely to see in this play.

DiLorio's makes good use of coarse vernacular the kind that makes sparks fly between Chick and Bone. Their "figures of expression" are a constant puzzlement and source of humor for Carla. Tightly structured and intense, the interaction of the three characters is beautifully developed for us to see how three needy people learn to test drive their disparate disabilities and dysfunctional behavior under the same roof. What we see under that roof, and awesomely created by set designer Jessica Parks, is a detailed, fully functional, completely out-fitted body shop.

The three principals, under the fine direction of Brendan Burke, keep the dramatic stakes high. Grimaldi, who is probably best known for playing the twin gangster brother on the HBO series The Sopranos, pushes the rage and regrets pedal to the floor as the hard-drinking Chick ("I'm not an alcoholic, I'm a drunk) but reveals his ability to mellow his cantankerous nature in the light of Carla's handicapping naivete.

Ms. Bajou is giving one of the most poignantly exhilarating performances I've seen this year as the highly-strung but intensely-focused Carla. A highlight is seeing her reluctantly coming out of her comfort zone to jitterbug with Chick.

Although Bone is fueled by resentment, Daftios finds a path for us to make us his ally. A resolve with a nice twist in the relationships brings the play to a very satisfying conclusion.

In its world premiere engagement, The Jag marks an auspicious beginning to the New Jersey Repertory Company's 20th anniversary season. It's a good bet for a healthy life in regional theaters and beyond. The audience at the performance I attended was vocal in its approval and responded with prolonged applause at the curtain calls.

"The Jag" at New Jersey Repertory  Company  Opened 01/14/16 Ends 02/12/17
Long Branch, N.J. (732) 229-3166 Tickets: $50 Performances: Thursday, Fridays at 8 pm; Saturdays at 3 pm & 8 pm; Sundays at 2 pm.

"In Transit" at the Circle in the Square (through June 25,2017)

The Cast

That I had to be reminded that I had previously seen and reviewed “In Transit” when it first appeared in a Primary Stage production at 59E59 in 2010, suggests one or two things: it was either negligible and forgettable or that its impact on me at the time was simply that of a pleasant but passing diversion. Now I can say that the newly envisioned version that has arrived at the Circle in the Square is once again diverting but more importantly greatly accessorized and enhanced for Broadway.

This is the work of director-choreographer Kathleen Marshall who has staged the show three quarters in the round. Moving along like an express train, it has more moving parts, more dazzling visual and lighting effects that had the previous version. A terrific cast, all of whom are excellent singers, navigates through this show with notable enthusiasm, often at  break neck speed. Unexpectedly captivating if also intentionally episodic, the show quickly involves us with a group of rather ordinary, let's say unexceptional, men and women. That they all become increasingly endearing as they go about their various pursuits is the strength and the delight of “In Transit.”But what makes it exceptional is the musical concept/conceit that drives the action: A Cappella, or group singing without instrumental backup.

The composers — Kristen Anderson-Lopez, James-Allen Ford, Russ Kaplan and Sara Wordsworth — have created a patchwork of complex harmonics, melodies and riffs that define the show's various characters. The score also resounds admirably with the pulse and the sounds of the city.

Marshall keeps the highly energized company moving gingerly both in the subway and in their occasional forays above ground. Set designer Donyale Werle has created a commendably detailed depiction of a subway station on two levels with a moving tread mill down the center of the lower playing area. The crackling, often incomprehensible public address system gets laughs as does "attitude" from a nasty Booth Lady (Moya Angela, who also plays several other roles). There's an on-going conflict between her and Nate (James Snyder,) a young man laid off from his job in finance by the current recession who may never get to an important job interview because his metro card has been eaten up by a faulty machine.

Chessney Show (repeating his original role but alternating with Steven “Heaven” Cantor) is the street savvy Boxman and the show’s rhythmic, and sound effects-making centerpiece. He serves as a bridge to the other characters as he lyrically describes himself "It's Box for Boom Man, It's Box for Beat Man, It's Box for open, receptive and yet complete, Man." His virtuosic rap arias are integrated with some specifically non-human sounds, providing a generous helping of vocal support.

The Boxman is particularly supportive of Jane (Margo Seibert) the young aspiring actress with a temp job who is off to an audition and in whom he takes a friendly interest. He also helps Nate get through the turnstile. But don't expect Jane to turn into an overnight star or Nate to nail a great new job with a corner office. This being a musical, what you can expect is for Jane and Nate to add a touch of romance to the plot.

  Trent (Justin Guarini) and Steven (Telly Leung) are also prominent as two gay guys who want to get married among the thirty-eight characters who traverse this lyrically-enhanced realm with big problems. Trent is particularly worried about their visit to his religious mother in Texas (Moya Angela again). Ali (Erin Mackey)recently broke up with her boyfriend and is destined (maybe) to spend all her Saturday nights alone. This is a musical that determinedly wants us to feel and share the anxieties and the stress of easily recognizable types in transit. If there is a purposefully prescribed banality to the overly familiar situations these people are facing, we are nevertheless inclined to be empathetic to the strengths and the sensibilities they reveal as resident and very typical New Yorkers.

All the performers are impressive as soloists as they are as backup singers for each other. If I find it difficult to single out specific songs, it is, nevertheless, easy to appreciate a musical in which the lyrics offer a multi-layered portrait of life in Manhattan. We don't often get to enjoy the purity of the a cappella musical, but this is one that winningly asserts itself with its lyrical and harmonic charms.

"Life is For Living: Conversations with Coward" at 59E59

David Shrubsole at piano and Simon Green  (photo credit: Heidi Bohnenkamp

“There are probably greater painters than Noel, greater novelists than Noel, greater librettists, composers of music, singers, greater dancers, comedians, tragedians, stage producers, film directors, cabaret artists and TV stars. If there are, they are twelve different people. Only one man combined all twelve labels - The Master.” - quote (that begins and ends the show) from Lord Louis Mountbatten.

The audience for this intimate entertainment is seated, or rather squeezed, around small cocktail tables in presumably the smallest space at 59E59. The thought of survival in an emergency becomes a question even before the start of Simon Green’s otherwise reverential and rewarding cabaret-styled act in adoration of the ascribed “master” of all things theatrical Sir Noel Coward. It takes only a minute to forget that you feel as if (as my companion described it) “we’ve been stuffed into an ice-cube tray” and surrender to selections mainly taken from Coward’s letters, prose, poetry, and diaries and of course his plentiful canon of songs, purposely chosen for their unfamiliarity than we might otherwise expect.

Mr. Green is a tall, nice-looking gentleman with a poise, presence and demeanor that is tailor-made (liked that snazzy vest) to represent, if not impersonate, the aura of Sir Noel as he segues from text to tune (a couple of dozen) with artful and obligatory precision. Green sings well enough and at times very well, indeed.

It is, however, in the subtext of Green’s special material and in his exemplary performance that we see Coward’s views of a changing world. This is most evident in his ability to give some of the sharp turns and clever twists in the mostly mirthful lyrics a touch of melancholy. Such brittle and, indeed, comical ditties as “What’s Going to Happen to the Tots,” and “I’ve Been to a Marvelous Party” and “I’m Here for a Short Visit” suddenly become astute social commentaries even as they remain insistently quaint.

  

Green gets major and marvelous assist from his accompanist and composer David Shrubsole who doesn’t miss a beat following Green’s breezy and purposely fluid narrative. Shrubsole’s own lilting music and lyrics are woven seamlessly into the program that also somewhat mysteriously but not without intent, interpolates songs by Irving Berlin, the Gershwins, and Cole Porter and the less known Ivor Novello, with the latter the closest to him in sentiment if not snap.

The opportunity for Green to snap came during his performance at the Sunday matinee I attended when a woman seated in the first row continued to talk during a song. Green stopped and glared at her and then gently asked her “Is anything wrong ...(silence) You’re speaking. I’m doing a show.” He apologized to the audience and brought us back to Coward’s world without a ripple. A line from one of the amusing songs contributed by Shrubsole defined that moment beautifully: “Everybody thinks they’re someone, including me.”

 "Life is For Living: Conversations with Coward"  at 59E59 through January 1, 2017

"Othello" at New York Theatre Workshop through January 18,2017

David Oyelowo and Daniel Craig (photo: Chad Batka)

Daring and deliberately unconventional interpretations of the Bard’s great tragedy about power and jealousy abound as they do with almost all the play’s in the canon. “Othello” has been envisioned again with an emphasis on the action taking place in its own graphically conceptualized and realistically militarized time, as well as being dutifully respectful to the classic text. In the hands of director Sam Gold (“Fun Home”) for the New York Theatre Workshop,  it becomes the most extraordinary and chilling production of Shakespeare’s tragic play I have ever seen.

That the story’s psychosexual subtext remains its most interesting aspect gives a creative director and his splendid cast plenty of opportunity to dig beneath all the obligatory sound and fury. Othello may not be able to completely escape his origins as the Moor of Venice, but the now un-moored (no pun intended) Army General we see in combat fatigues is played by a brilliantly intense David Oyelowo. He is still waging war with Turkey and in charge of a diverse multi-cultural squad of  tough well-armed soldiers, including that weasel and second-in-command Iago. He is played with steely eyed conviction by a terrific Daniel Craig.  

The evocative setting created designer Andrew Lieberman has the audience seated on bleachers (fairly comfortable) with backs that surround three-sides of the playing area. Flat army cots in rows are moved about on a plain wooden floor and pulled out of view for different scenes, as is all the equipment and the gear that fill the barracks.

We are thrust into a world in which the characters whom we know traditionally are now seen in the light of modern warfare and even politics. As it has always been, it is the sexual politics that are at the forefront of this Othello. Although Shakespeare doesn’t dwell on or insinuate more than meets our eyes and ears in the various relationships, all revolving around Othello’s wife Desdemona’s innocence or lack of, we can always speculate in this case given the depth and the degree of nuance in the performances by both Oyelowo and Craig.

Of all Shakespeare’s tragedies, Othello is the one that I have always found to be the most exasperating. Of course, it is to the play’s credit that it can rile one up time after time. It used to be that seeing this almost melodramatic dramatic trine catapulted to their doom for no more good reason than a misplaced handkerchief would make me want to yell out to Othello, “You stupid fool.”

Although performed with passion run amok Oyelowo, Othello still too easily succumbs to that “green-eyed monster.” A victim of political and amorous intrigue, Othello is also notably burdened by his concealed securities not to mention his epileptic fits. That is enough baggage for any actor. Oyelowo, however, does very well by this given Othello’s tendency to rant and to rage, blinded as much by his sudden success and power as he is by the machinations of Iago, his ensign and closest friend.

Mainly known as a film star rugged-looking Craig has given laudable performances on Broadway in “Betrayal” and “A Steady Rain.” In this his NYTW debut, he is spell-binding and invests the devious, duplicitous Iago with a steadfastly articulate voice and a stealthily Machiavellian swagger. Being more down-to-earth than demure, Rachel Brosnahan (NYTW debut) is not your typical Desdemona but she earns our empathy with her heartbreaking pleas.

Finn Wittrock is virile and charismatic as the duped Lieutenant Cassio. Matthew Maher makes a strong impression as the misguided, always lurking-in-the-shadows Roderigo. There are fine performances by the two other two principal women Marsha Stephanie Blake, as Iago’s wife and Nikki Massoud, as Cassio’s mistress.

The lighting design by Jane Cox and sound design by Bray Poor are as dramatically exciting as are the performances. Three hours and ten minutes have never gone by so swiftly and so thrillingly.

“Othello” (through January 18, 2017)

New York Theatre Workshop, 79 E. 4th Street