Woman Around Town’s Editor Charlene Giannetti and writers for the website talk with the women and men making news in New York, Washington, D.C., and other cities around the world. Thanks to Ian Herman for his wonderful piano introduction.
Like a floating crap game or the back alley dive Pompie’s Place purports to be, the club makes its third appearance in the eminently comfortable back room at Pangea. As introduced by its dapper, unapologetic host, the joint welcomes con men, bootleggers, big house veterans, suckers, molls and dames, the low with mazuma and the high with moxie. It’s all Blues all the time here. Fasten your seat belts and raise a glass – hooch is imported from Atlantic City.
Lezlie Harrison
Proud and sultry, Lezlie Harrison opens with “St. Louis Blues” (W.C. Handy). Potent as bottom of the barrel moonshine, the song goes down smooth, but kicks. Lyrics are squeezed from the bottom of the ‘tube.’ “Kansas City” …hee ah cum… (Jerry Lieber/ Mike Stoller) is a boogie woogie with swinging sax. Harrison’s voice shimmies, then careens off the walls. At one point, the musicians play three-handed, crossing over with infectious glee. Time is clapped, knees rise and fall, thighs are patted. The powerful attitude warns: prepare for me!
Tanya Holt
Tanya Holt takes the stage wearing lament like a heavy coat, periodically bucking forward in slo-mo as if life’s hit her in the gut. “Ill Wind” (Harold Arlen/Ted Koehler) is an exhausted plea, resigned, yet still entreating. Sustained vibrato nests at the wellspring of Holt’s throat like a controlled moan. “When I Get Low I Get High” (Chick Webb/Ella Fitzgerald) is smoky, ravaged, and focused. Every word is pristine, every ohahohoh like butter. You gotta do what you gotta do…she sings opening her eyes wide. Ehud Asherie’s piano erupts in pungent ragtime. Ken Peplowski’s clarinet seems to be having an illicitly good time.
Louis Armstrong/Jelly Roll Morton’s “Wildman Blues” and Duke Ellington’s “Creole Love Call” are delivered as instrumentals. The first is sassy, slinky, and very cool with high clarinet that oozes its way under one’s skin. The second conjures choreography by Alvin Ailey. Piano has classical underpinnings.
Ehud Asherie and Ken Peplowski
Harrison and Holt offer a number of tantalizing songs in tandem. “After You’ve Gone” (Turner Layton/Henry Creamer) aka “After We’ve Gone” is a threat to Pompie who ostensibly forks over less lettuce than a lady needs to survive. Holt is down on her haunches seducing her uncomfortable patron while Harrison shakes her bootie showing what he’ll miss. It’s a rag with humor.
“Willow Tree” finds two juicy voices wailing on top of, beside, and around each other with deference and style. The clarinet solo could make Gabriel jealous. A duet of the iconic “Mood Indigo” (Duke Ellington/Barney Bigard/Irving Mills) in harmony is as languid and sensual as stretching on satin sheets after a hot bath. “Blues in the Night” (Harold Arlen/Johnny Mercer) includes an ooooeeee which is sheer evangelical call-out. Octave transitions are seamless. Piano plays robust honky-tonk.
Vocalists are well chosen. Harrison’s approach is bright and audacious while Holt’s wattage comes from deep, dusky ardor and lyric sculpting.
Lezlie Harrison, Pompie, Tanya Holt
There are comments and cracks personifying character which skillfully add to atmosphere, but the host’s monologue needs work and recordings of outside mayhem are unnecessary.
This is a really good time. A walk on the wildish side with primo musicians in benign surroundings.
Photos by Lou Montasano Opening: Tanya Holt, Lezlie Harrison
Pompie’s Place- A Pop-Up Blues Club Host Arthur “Pompie” Pomposello, for 18 years host and booker of the famed Oak Room at The Algonquin Hotel Vocalists: Tanya Holt and Lezlie Harrison Ehud Asherie- MD/Piano, Ken Peplowski-Reeds. Directed by Gregg Goldston One more show August 10- Jon-Erik Kellso-on Trumpet that night Pangea 178 Second Avenue between 11th & 12th Street Venue Calendar
Five years ago, Director Bartlett Sher introduced Norwegian sociologist Terje-Rod Larsen to playwright J.T. Rogers. Larsen shared a little known backstory of the 1993 Oslo peace accord with the author who, it seems, had long wanted to write about the Israelis and Palestinians. A revealing history describing the secret involvement of Norway, unofficial representatives from both sides and, in particular, his wife, diplomat Mona Juul (then an official in the Norwegian Foreign Ministry) and himself (at the time director of the Fafo Institute for Applied Social Sciences) provides the basis for this riveting play. Though Rogers later interviewed the couple in depth, he stayed away from other survivors preferring to put his own stamp on participants.
Jennifer Ehle, Jefferson Mays
Like Stephen Sondheim’s song “Someone in a Tree” (Pacific Overtures) or Michael Frayn’s play Copenhagen, Rogers embroiders on what he was told, filling in that which couldn’t be observed. He also admittedly sexed up the characters, making them younger, combining and omitting for dramatic purposes. The implausible-but-true facts are, however, front and center with much of what the author deems “crazy” notably accurate.
In the course of three acts (with two intermissions), we’re made to feel like voyeurs, flies on the wall of a volatile narrative peppered with unexpected comedy emerging when historical enemies let their hair down. There are even jokes and sharp parodies of political figures that emerge when historical enemies let their hair down. Partly narrated by smart, level-headed Mona with wry asides to us, the story illuminates a roster of galvanizing players. It’s not necessary to know the accord’s public history, though some knowledge concerning both sides’ contentions would help.
Daniel Oreskes, Anthony Azizi, Daniel Jenkins, Dariush Kashani
The first act opens and closes on a dinner party at which Terje (Jefferson Mays) and Mona (Jennifer Ehle) intend to inform incipient Norwegian Prime Minister Johan Jorgan Host (T. Ryder Smith) and his wife Marianne Heiberg (Henny Russell) of about 9 months of clandestine meetings they’ve been facilitating between the P.L.O. and Israelis. The initially congenial evening is interrupted by two calls on side by side telephones, one from Israeli Foreign Minister Yossi Beilin (Adam Dannheisser), the other from a P.L.O. representative.
Meeting participants include: fox-like P.L.O. Finance Minister Ahmed Qurie (Anthony Azizi) and unruly Marxist Palestinian, Hassan Asfour (Dariush Kashani) on one side of the table and wary, economic academics Yair Hirschfeld (Daniel Oreskes) and Ron Pundak (Daniel Jenkins) – sent first so as not to involve the actual government on the other. The Israelis are later joined i.e. “upgraded” to tenacious Washington lawyer Joel Singer (Joseph Siravo) and cabinet member Uri Savir (Michael Aronov) who climbs out a Paris hotel window to secretly make his way to meetings, “because as we all know,” Mona dryly comments, “every mid-level Israeli diplomat is a rock star in Norway.”
Daniel Oreskes, Daniel Jenkins, Jefferson Mays, Anthony Azizi, Dariush Kashani
Nor has Terje and Mona’s relationship been depicted as cardboard background. The sociologist is clearly drawn as wildcard instigator and driving force while his highly esteemed wife navigates diplomacy and keeps him at least in sight of protocol. “Take one more step forward,” she vehemently warns as they observe Qurie and Savir, “and I’ll divorce you.”
Acts Two and Three take us through the machinations/demands of the two factions both of whom risk international sanctions. Precautions are taken, but breached. Though we finally meet Shimon Peres (Daniel Oreskes), Arafat and Rabin never appear. Being aware of the outcome, does nothing to hinder absorption.
Every man is objectively depicted, his work and private selves played with specificity. As 60 years of habitual hatred and mistrust come to fore, remarks are condescending, insults searing, yet passions can turn on a dime.
When Savir describes his time in New York, it’s like watching an infectiously enthusiastic teenager. His parody of “asshole” Henry Kissinger verges on incendiary, yet ends in laughter. Fathers are remembered, daughter’s names shared, lots and lots of Johnny Walker Black imbibed. (The future film company will no doubt be paid for placement.)
Anthony Azizi, Dariush Kashani, Michael Aronov, Joseph Siravo, background-Angela Pierce
Though, as we know, the center didn’t hold, what was attempted was remarkable in its approach, risk, and reward. This is an eminently human saga of uplifting compromise where none seemed the least bit possible. Our obstructive Republican Congress, among others, might learn something.
Ensemble work is superb. Jefferson Mays’ rabbitty alertness and nuanced reaction to setbacks, Michael Aronov’s energy and theatricality and Jennifer Ehle’s preternatural, decidedly feminine equanimity add immeasurably. Angela Pierce is charming as the appreciated cook who, Hassan declares, “is to food what Vladimir Lenin is to land reform.”
Director Barlett Sher creates memorable stage images – allowing all three sections of audience sightline, enhances character with physicality, and paces the mercurial stop/start piece masterfully.
Michael Yeargan’s fluid set works in tandem with evocative Projections by 59Projections and Lighting by Donald Holder- love the snow!
Photos by T. Charles Erickson Opening: Michael Aronov, Jefferson Mays, Anthony Azizi
Oslo by J.T. Rogers Directed by Bartlett Sher Through August 28, 2016 The Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center Reopens at The Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center on March 23, 2017
Jimmy (Patrick O’Kane) and Ian (Declan Conlon) last ‘crossed paths’ at 16 when they were on opposite sides of the Troubles (between unionist Protestants and nationalist Roman Catholics, or the IVF: Irish Volunteer Force). A single incident of terrorist violence mapped both emotional futures.
Robert Zawadzki, Patrick O’Kane
The men are now 52. Hardscrabble lives kept them in the same Belfast neighborhood, though out of one another’s sightlines. Jimmy has begrudgingly agreed to meet Ian in a local Belfast pub run by laconic Polish immigrant Robert (Robert Zawadzki). While waiting, he and the barman intermittently talk about the football i.e. soccer game on TV. Long periods of silence make the first part of the play pass like sludge. Jimmy tells Robert that someone will be joining him. “There might be a bit of shoutin’, nothin’ to get upset about.” He nonetheless appears to anxiously seethe.
Within minutes of Ian’s appearance, Jimmy headbutts him hard. Slowly they recall the past, Ian with reticence and regret, though interestingly no guilt; Jimmy with palpable, high volume fury. History molded each man differently. Despite a modicum of emotional exorcism, never the twain shall meet.
Patrick O’Kane
Owen McCafferty’s slight play addresses the ease with which disaffected youth is enlisted in terrorist organizations. And one of that commitment’s personal tolls. Tension is ably sustained between explosive outbursts, but Ian’s lack of communication leaves us with only one side of the story.
Acting is solid with caveats. I found gestures like Declan Conlon’s holding his elbow with his hand at his chin less than believable as wary agitation and Patrick O’Kane’s yelling somewhat one-note. The low key Robert Zawadzki is completely credible.
Alyson Cummins’ Set Design creates a realistic pub one might move intact and open.
Photos by James Higgins Opening: Declan Conlon, Patrick O’Kane
Irish Repertory Theatre in Association with The Public Theater presents The Abby Theatre Quietly by Owen McCafferty Part of the 2016 1st Irish Festival. Directed by Jimmy Fay Through September 11, 2016 The Irish Repertory Theatre 132 West 22nd Street
Inspired by the government sanctioned Powell Geographic Expedition of 1869 which charted the Green and Colorado Rivers into Grand Canyon, Jaclyn Backhaus’s enormously imaginative, humor-peppered melodrama puts us among a group of men who endured hardship, hunger, loss, and life threatening challenges to produce the first cartography and descriptions of the area.
The Company
Of the ten who began, only Powell and five others reached journey’s end. One, having had enough, left earlier at an Indian Agency of his own volition and three were lost (assumed to be killed by Indians) when they abandoned camp sure they’d never make it. One of three 21’x 4’ oak-made boats was splintered. The fourth was smaller and made of pine. Named for Powell’s wife, it was equipped with a strap he could clutch with his left hand to maintain balance while standing on deck. We know what occurred from the naturalist’s published work.
The piece is cast entirely with women who lower their voices, walk, and stand eschewing feminine traits. None of this, I’m happy to report, feels exaggerated or false. To a person, the actors play it straight.
Kristen Sieh, Kelly McAndrew, Donnetta Lavinia Grays
Members of the group include, as they did originally, John Wesley Powell (Kelly McAndrew), an experienced rafter and subsequent professor who lost an arm in the Civil War; his brother Walter, here nicknamed Old Shady for childhood reasons, who sings the occasional spontaneous, barely tolerated ditty (Elizabeth Kenny) ; John C. Sumner (Donnetta Lavinia Grays) a rough-hewn professional guide; Oramel G. Howland (Hannah Cabbell) and brother Seneca Howland (Danaya Esperanza)- the former a printer and hunter, the latter a mountain man; hunter/trapper William H. Dunn (Kristen Sieh): “I don’t do omens, I do forethought”; mountain man William R. Hawkins (Jocelyn Hioh) who acted as $1.50 a day cook; 19 year-old Andy Hall (Danielle Davenport) allowed along for rowing skills; George Y. Bradley (Layla Ksoshnoudi) who was present in exchange for an army discharge; and Frank Goodman (Birgit Huppuch), a British gentleman adventurer. None had whitewater experience.
We learn about right-to-name rules and rituals (the playwright shows this as a credible thrill, also managing to insert a sentence in which the explorers summarily dismiss any previous Indian naming), observe resourceful acquisition of edibles (Goodman’s experience catching “fishies” is charming while Hawkins’s quick-witted kill of a snake actually startles), watch portage, cliff skimming, the loss of a boat and supplies, and rising tensions. Affinities become allegiances when things get tougher and men risk their lives for one another. One particularly harrowing deliverance is accomplished with a pair of pants! It’s a broad, well drawn picture studded with practical details and relationship nuance. Just wait for the wry Indians!
Donnetta Lavinia Grays, Kelly McAndew, Kristen Sieh
Men On Boats feels immersive. (No, the audience doesn’t actually participate.) Time spent navigating treacherous water is immensely vivid. “
Pull…Pull, almost there…One more time! and…Line Pull Pull…Almost to the- Clear! We’re out!…Clear…There!…Watch the Wall!…OH SHIT!” they all shout in trenchant unison, moving in tight units, swaying, turning, dipping, and tumbling as currents and rapids threaten survival. Temporarily free of underlying danger, one shouts “Oooooo, I love it when there’s no rocks!” as if on a benign roller coaster.
Hand-held, two-sided boat bows simulate vessels. Aisles are selectively employed to great effect as are the hidden doorways of Arnulfo Maldonado’s evocative, three-sided photographic Set. And I’ve never ever seen rope put to such mercurial and creative stage use.
Danielle Davenport, Hannah Cabell, Layla Khoshnoudi, Jocelyn Bioh, Elizabeth Kenny
Company stand-outs:
Donnetta Lavinia Grays has crafted a fully formed, physical and emotional character with her laconic, deadpan, can-do Sumner.
Birgit Huppuch’s Goodman, replete with British accent, seems irritatingly chipper until we learn who and why he’s there, whereupon everything fits.
As embodied by Elizabeth Kenny, Old Shady is a bit slow, sweet, and doggedly loyal. Her songs feel as if she’s coming up with them for the first time.
Kristen Sieh is a natural whose thinking we see as clearly as Dunn’s brooding. Masculinity is aptly manifest.
Expedition leader Powell is admirably served by a focused Kelly McAndrew. The actor’s believable interpretation is calm, serious, watchful, authoritative, and fair. Even when in jeopardy, measured response stays in character.
I can’t imagine how Director Will Davis conceived what we saw out of what he read. This is a glass mountain climb with roaringly successful results.
Jane Shaw’s Sound Design, which features innumerable water attitudes seeming to envelop us, is highlighted by wonderfully corny Hollywood music accompanying pivotal moments.
Solomon Weisbard’s Lighting Design helps create innumerable mood shifts and curiously adds to geography.
I admit to not understanding Asta Bennie Hostetter’s Costume choices, many of which are better suited to saloon gambler dandies.
Photos by Elke Young Opening: The Company
Playwrights Horizons & Clubbed Thumb present Men On Boats by Jaclyn Backhaus Directed by Will Davis Playwrights Horizons’ Peter J. Sharp Theater 416 West 42nd Street Through August 14, 2016
In its 10th year at 59E59 Theaters, the Summer Shorts Festival continues to showcase a wide variety of new, often experimental work.
The Helpers by Cusi Cram
Directed by Jessi D. Hill
“Oh, fucking Christ. If you want to do something nice for the person you treated as a shit bag, don’t bring the drink of your choice,” Jane aka Dr. Friedman (Maggie Burke), mutters to herself watching former patient Nate (David Deblinger) approach with what appears to be coffee. Jane drinks tea, in fact, Lady Grey Tea, something Nate should remember after 15 years of therapy with her.
Two years ago, Nate didn’t turn up for a session and disappeared. Jane is still palpably angry and wondering why she agreed to the park meeting. There’s some catch-up small talk, she barbed, he warm and conciliatory. Despite what seems like a series of negative, life changing events, he’s doing fine. Jane, however, has taken to talking to an invisible being-in public. Nate’s seen her doing it. Concerned with the looks given her, he wants to help.
This brief play reveals who she’s talking to and why with Nate volunteering to act as an ear if she’ll keep those conversations private. That an analyst and her patient should act as if they’re intimate friends is unlikely unless affection and trust developed over time after sessions ended. Jane’s comes too quickly to believe. Nate seems to be crossing a line.
Otherwise, dialogue feels natural as delivered by two low key, credible actors who deserve better.
Jessi D. Hill’s Direction is comfortably realistic.
After the Wedding by Neil LaBute
Directed by Maria Mileaf
Elizabeth Masucci as Woman, Frank Harts as Man
A young couple, here named Man (Frank Harts) and Woman (Elizabeth Masucci) sit at opposite ends of the stage in chairs facing us. (Don’t you hate when a playwright is too lazy to give his characters names as if pretentiously delivering some universal truth?) There’s no fourth wall, both address the audience.
Their wedding anniversary of 5 or 6 years- he says 5, she says 6, and the fact that they’re moving, starting a new chapter on the west coast, provokes a look back at life together so far. This is a happy couple, admiring and respectful of one another. They recollect, finishing each other’s sentences with unimportantly slight differences in perception.
At the core of memories is a conceivably preventable tragedy that occurred the night of their honeymoon. Long swept under the rug, it pokes its head out around this time of year. The event, or rather their behavior at the time, is shocking to us, though not, even in retrospect, to them.
This is the most successful of the three slight plays. Dialogue is completely believable, filled with little details. Director Maria Mileaf creates overlapping rhythms essential to flow while showing sufficient glimpses of feeling to keep narrative from becoming a novel exercise.
Elizabeth Mascucci is the more sympathetic actor, taking us in with calm gentility and an openness not mirrored in her partner. Frank Harts does a yeoman-like job but never allows us to feel he’s really sharing rather than saying lines.
This Is How It Ends by Rey Pamatmat
Directed by Ed Sylvanus Iskander
Commissioned by and premiered at the 2011 Humana Festival of New American Plays
Chinaza Uche as Jake, Kerry Warren as Annie/AntiChrist
I assume this is supposed to be a hip look at the apocalypse as experienced by its personified perpetrators: Annie aka The AntiChrist (Kerry Warren), Death (Nadine Malouf), Pestilence (Sathya Sridharan), Famine (Rosa Gilmore), and War (Patrick Cummings) and the single, sweet gay man, Jake (Chinaza Uche) -representing the best of us?- who rooms with Annie until the End of Days.
In short, Annie rather likes having been alive but is determined to do her duty. Death is all business while interestingly insisting she provides a service. Pestilence, who seems put-upon, is having what he thinks is a secret affair with surfer dude, War. Famine, resigned to being alone at the end, has become a voyeur.
Sathya Sridharan as Pestilence, Nadine Malouf as Death, Patrick Cummings as War
I have not a clue what this piece is trying to say; relax and go with it, we’ll all be one? Were it not for some moderately engaging turns- Patrick Cummings is something of a hoot, Chinaza Uche appears bright and innocent, Nadine Malouf offers ballast, the show would be a loud sleeper.
The production utilizes modest projections by Daniel Mueller and an AntiChrist voicei over which is so resonant, it’s literally unintelligible, as a result of which we miss the entire, thundering justification. Sound Design- Nick Moore. Understated Costumes by Amy Sutton cleverly manage to reflect each character.
Photos by Carol Rosegg Opening: Maggie Burke as Jane, David Deblinger as Nate
Throughline Artists presents Summer Shorts- Festival of New American Short Plays Series A: The Helpers by Cisi Cram; Directed by Jessi D. Hill After the Wedding by Neil LaBute; Directed by Maria Mileaf This Is How It Ends by Rey Pamatmat; Directed by Ed Sylvanus Iskander 59E59 Theatres 59 East 59th Street Through September 3, 2016
Before Howard Ashman and Alan Menken hit pay dirt with Little Shop of Horrors, long before they became synonymous with reinvigorating Disney animated movies, 1979’s God Bless You Mr. Rosewater, based on the Kurt Vonnegut book, appeared briefly Off Broadway. Vonnegut’s sharp irreverence, couched first in science fiction, then as fantasy and finally as wry, humanist observation, was almost a rite of passage for a generation of smart young people enmeshed in alternative culture.
The author was older than many admirers, often referring to traumatic World War II experience beyond their ken, but shared with them a social conscience that emerged like a pendulum swinging between cynicism and idealism. This volume in particular might have been written by Bernie Sanders supporters.
Santino Fontana (Eliot)and the office staff
In the first minutes of the production, Eliot Rosewater (Santino Fontana) enters with a pratfall and haplessly donates $50,000 of his family’s foundation to a poet seeking immeasurably less.“Go and tell the truth,” he instructs the nonplussed writer. He’s devoted and he’s loaded/So we haven’t a complaint…sings his staff.
The Rosewater Foundation, created by Eliot’s U.S. Senator father (Clark Johnson) to help descendants avoid paying taxes on the estate, is based in New York City, not Rosewater, Indiana where the family manse stands empty. Though it’s “handled” by a large legal firm, Eliot has inherited control. He wears the crown uncomfortably and is often drunk. Obsessions include Volunteer Fire Departments (we learn why later) and a science fiction novelist named Kilgore Trout who is quoted and later appears as the voice of “real” sanity. (James Earl Jones). A psychiatrist deems Eliot incurable for reasons of not gratefully toeing the gilded line.
Despite, or perhaps because of, advantages, the young man couldn’t be more of thepeople. As written and expertly acted, Eliot seems like sweet, slightly obtuse Charlie Brown with an adult conscience. Equally uneasy in the upper echelon lifestyle curetted by loving wife Sylvia (Brynn O’Malley), frustration builds until our hero decides he must go in search of his destiny and disappears. Letters arrive from Hamlet to Ophelia, the escapee’s perception of himself and Sylvia. The other is Volunteer Fire Departments. We learn about this fixation later.
Skylar Astin (Norman Mushari)
Meanwhile, Norman Mushari (Skylar Astin), a young lawyer at the firm, learns of a codicil in the Rosewater Foundation set-up that states Eliot can be replaced by another family member if he’s proved mentally unstable. The ambitious associate recalls what his professors told him about getting ahead in law. “… just as a good airplane pilot should always be looking for places to land, so should a lawyer be looking for situations where large amounts of money were about to change hands.” One practically sees Eureka! flash over his head.
Leap-frogging Volunteer Fire Departments across the country (including a delightfully staged musical number), Eliot also has a eureka moment and returns to his depressed hometown. He opens the house, sets up an office, and becomes Rosewater’s defacto therapist and philanthropist (black telephone), as well as a member of the Volunteer Fire Department (red telephone.)
Brynn O’Malley (Sylvia) and the townspeople
We meet and compassionately hear from raggle-taggle citizens who grow to think of him as a Saint. Aspiring to be supportive, Sylvia arrives, and tries, how she tries to fit in! Eventually, however, his patrician spouse has a meltdown at a meticulously planned soiree when her guests prefer Cheese Nips to pate and coke to champagne. Brynn O’Malley’s deadpan apoplexy is as convincing as her love for and incomprehension of Eliot.
Kate Wetherhead (Caroline Rosewater), Kevin Del Aguila (Fred Rosewater)
While Eliot is altruistically fulfilling himself, Norman has found Fred (Kevin Del Aguila) and Caroline (Kate Wetherhead) Rosewater, in, wait for it, Pisquontuit, Rhode Island. The couple are bickering malcontents not adverse to swindling rich relatives. Both actors are marvelous in the deftly staged “Rhode Island Tango” and apple-pie-corny “Plain Clean Average Americans.” It appears to be a slam dunk, but of course, is not.
Narrative displays several signature Vonnegut themes, the familiar device of God-like narration (James Earl Jones), and characters found in other books by the author. Lack of this awareness in no way impedes enjoyment. There’s also a brief scene from one of Kilgore Trout’s space adventures – a disconnect, but very funny. Howard Ashman’s book and lyrics are literate, specific, and filled with heart. Alan Menken’s music is, well, fine. This was their first collaboration.
Santino Fontana, James Earl Jones (Kilgore Trout) and company members
Santino Fontana’s embodiment of Eliot is consistently engaging and sympathetic. Really, one wants to take him home to mom. The actor is completely natural and has an appealing voice.
Skylar Ashton (Norman Mushari), who looks too much like Fontana, is a solid player but could have more fun with numbers like “Mushari’s Waltz” in which his ballet seems restrained.
James Earl Jones literally lends resonance to the piece. His Kilgore Trout is a credible curmudgeon.
Of the townsfolk, Rebecca Naomi Jones (Mary Moody), Liz McCartney (Diana Moon Glampers), and Kevin Ligon (Selbert Peach) shine.
Director Michael Mayer uses Donayle Werle’s simply structured Set with skill and aesthetic variety. A fire pole and hose are used to great effect. Small stage business adds immeasurably. Heart and humor go hand in hand.
Choreography by Lorin Latarro is beguiling. Leon Rothenberg’s Sound Design couldn’t be crisper or better balanced.
Another terrific production by Encores.
Photos by Joan Marcus Opening: The Company
New York City Center Encores! Off-Center presents Kurt Vonnegut’s God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater Book & Lyrics-Howard Ashman Additional Lyrics Dennis Green Music-Alan Menken Directed by Michael Mayer City Center 131 West 55th Street
The real Major General Benjamin Franklin Butler, a lawyer, had a checkered political career that included support of moderate southerners. “I was always a friend of southern rights but an enemy of southern wrongs.” He chose, however, to serve in the Union Army. Butler was the first Eastern Union General to take the controversial stand on runaway slaves depicted in this play. Do not stop reading for fear of something military, hyper political, or turgid. Richard Strand’s fine play takes a serious subject and illuminates it with insight, humanity, and humor. It’s completely surprising.
We find ourselves at Fort Monroe in the state of an ostensibly seceding Virginia at the start of The Civil War. Just settling in to his new command, Major Butler (Ames Adamson) is informed by Lieutenant Kelly (Benjamin Sterling) that a runaway slave, three, in fact- though we never meet two, has appeared at the ‘door’ demanding to see the major general.
Benjamin Sterling, Ames Adamson
The pivotal word here is “demanding,” a term evoking reflexive rage in a commander more insulted by audacity than discomfited at the appearance of unwanted visitors. Still, he’s alert enough to question whether his adjutant has specifically used the word because he dislikes – i.e. is prejudiced against – the Negro. He is. In the single instance of overwriting, we listen to a seemingly pompous man who enjoys the sound of his own voice discuss intention and phraseology. It passes. From the moment the slave, Shepard Mallory (John G. Williams), is brought into the office, dialogue is dynamic and intriguing.
Torn by his disgust with slavery and commitment to uphold current law which dictates a return of this “property” to its owner, Butler treats Mallory with respect, immediately having him unshackled, dismissing the wary lieutenant, and offering a glass of sherry. The latter seems an odd gesture, but one that symbolizes Butler’s learned signs of civility. This is the first Negro to whom he’s actually spoken. Both men are nonplussed.
John G. Williams, Ames Adamson
The major general is visibly startled when Mallory insists that as a lawyer, he can surely “twist the law, using convoluted reason to find a loophole.” “Did you use the word convoluted?!” Not only is the slave articulate but, when he addresses the officer by his full name (stamped on surrounding boxes), Butler deduces he can read. Clearly ill informed about slavery, he can’t fathom why this should be a secret. He learns – by demonstration. Informative tidbits weave their way subtly through narrative.
Mallory is quick, sharp, stubborn, and arrogant, much like Butler who, despite better judgment, allows discourse, finding his exotic visitor fascinating. Conversation reveals both men without straying from credibility. The two square off with animosity appropriate to their positions. Butler experiences a ‘dark night of the soul’ resolving to take illegal action, but is thwarted and provoked in that order.
When a Major Carey (David Sitler) of the Confederate Army arrives to claim the escaped men, the commander must decide what he thinks morally right, how to achieve it, and how to live with the consequences. That confrontation is immensely clever.
Ames Adamson, David Sitler, Benjamin Sterling
Ames Adamson is splendid as Butler. Evident pressures of his quandary reflect personal history that doesn’t come up in dialogue. Surprise and curiosity are palpable. The actor’s timing as his character executes a risky, shocking plan is immensely skillful. A big man, he circles his ‘prey’ like a deadly animal with the trapping of manners. To the end of the play, Adamson reflects conflict and complexity.
John G. Williams is a fine match to Adamson’s strengths. His Shepard Mallory is necessarily deferential yet volatile, hyper-watchful, and, against all odds, believably proud. A slight southern accent is pitch perfect as is the difference between the slave’s parodied “Yassa” and normal speech. The actor has natural stage presence we trust early on. He never disappoints.
Benjamin Sterling (Lieutenant Kelly) manages flickers of unspoken opinion as well as he does hair-trigger reaction. A sea change in the character is manifest with plausibility.
David Siter’s Major Cary is vividly stiff, outraged, and gentlemanly. Exactly as he should be. His accent is impeccable. (Dialect Coach- Diego Daniel Pardo)
Director Joseph Discher creates stage pictures as effectively as the cast he helms inhabits their characters. Every player demonstrates physical personality attributes. Vocal rhythms differ. The temperature in the office seems to change. Violence arrives unexpectedly. (Fight Director Brad Lemons) The piece is unrushed so that the measure of each man may be observed by his fellows, yet adroitly moves along.
Jessica L. Parks Set would hold up on Broadway. A superb evocation of time and place. Patricia E. Doherty’s Costume Design is first-rate. Understated (not theatrically over-torn) slave apparel indicates her realism. Steve Beckel’s Sound Design utilizes military marching, period specific music and crowd sounds that add color.
There are moments in the latter part of Butler, the thoroughly engrossed audience vocally reacts to a character – something rare in serious theater. We rose as one at the finish. Not, as is usually the case, like lemmings, but in support of a wonderful production.
Photos by Carol Rosegg Opening: John G. Williams, Ames Adamson
New Jersey Repertory Company presents Butler by Richard Strand Directed by Joseph Discher 59E59 Theatres 59 East 59th Street Through August 28, 2016
Every year 59E59 Theaters hosts a number of plays on their way to The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, giving the small productions an opportunity to breathe on their feet with an objective audience and the theater-going public an opportunity to see interesting, alternative theater. Here are two on the current roster:
Screw Your Courage (Or The Bloody Crown)
Written and Performed by Khlar Thorsen
Directed by Eileen Vorbach
Thrice to thine and thrice to mine/ And thrice again, to make up nine./ Peace! the charm’s wound up. Shakespeare’s Macbeth– a witch
Screw Your Courage is an episodic play, each portion cleverly prefaced by witchy rhyme, part Shakespeare, part Thorsen. It tells the first person story of Claire who becomes obsessed with playing Lady Macbeth for the attention, the dress, and the party when she’s a girl “maybe even mommy will come to see me and even she will think I’m great”(mommy is angry, neglectful; mentally ill), and for the challenge as a working actress. Beneath these reasons lies the belief that she too is cursed and inhabiting the role may save her.
We see Claire in class, in hospital with mom (a bit more madness might help explain), at a quirky workshop, and disastrously trying to produce The Scottish Play herself when unable to secure the role. Finally, as an International Acting Fellow at Shakespeare’s Globe Theater in London, she gets her wish. Kind of.
Author/actress Khlar Thorsen was, in fact, a Fellow in the program she illuminates rather well. She plays all the characters in what is, presumably, her own story. Some are cliché (an acting partner who sounds like a stupid Brando); others exhibit freshness (the domineering leader of a theater workshop.) Accents are well executed. The piece flows with Shakespearean-like speeches adding color and glue.
Thorsen has the perfect exit line as originally intoned by her director at The Globe, but alas goes beyond it nine or ten sentences. ‘A case of not seeing the forest for the trees, perhaps. An interesting and entertaining concept that could be better.
Director Eileen Vorbach manages the switch from theatrically witchy to “real” life. Visually, only the poetry is engaging.
Costume design is hugely unflattering.
Uncredited Sound and Light Design are excellent.
Photograph of Keenan Hurley by Avery Bart
The Man Who Built His House To Heaven
Written and Performed by Keenan Hurley
Directed by Patrick Swailes Caldwell and Emily Mendelsohn
Bob was born in a bad neighborhood, but has lofty aspirations. Pursuing someone ostensibly ‘above him,’ he promises a new car, home, and lifestyle. They marry. As everyone likes him, he gets on…well enough to buy a nice little house which the couple floods with kids. “We’re too many,” he tells his wife. “I’m tired of all these bunk beds. Bob (as in Bob the Builder) builds another storey on his home.
Meeting our protagonist in short shorts, a tee shirt, and laced shoes does not fit the image of a conservative, working class schlub with dreams. Only when he covers these with a shirt, pants and utility belt does the author/actor appear to be Bob. Use of a microphone when playing the protagonist while turning away to voice other characters is also, at first, disconcerting. Like the outfit, however, this evolves.
Sound is imaginatively and skillfully employed. Manipulating a couple of onstage sequencer pedals, Hurley records and plays back his own layered sounds and voice to create both percussive rhythms and a cacophony of invisible players.
Finishing the next level, Bob is still unsatisfied. The house, he says, has potential. Each child must have his/her own room. Another storey is needed. We hear frenzied direction to construction workers in tandem with his kids’ friends’ comments their parents think Bob is crazy.
The structure becomes a tower, replete with games, rides, restaurants, athletic fields…others move in. Bob keeps building. His wife and children don’t see much of him. Shades of The Twilight Zone. Eventually he breaks through to Heaven and we hear the echoing voice of God questioning the enterprise. The end features Bob’s musings on legacy.
This is a well written piece with spiffy details. Dramatic notes: A flashback to promises made his wife is unnecessary and disruptive, we have no idea it’s God, when the Lord first speaks, Keenan Hurley doesn’t come into his own until he ‘changes into Bob. Once that occurs, however, he’s quirkily appealing, holding our attention throughout.
Directors Patrick Swailes Caldwell and Emily Mendelsohn utilize only an orange ladder and a tool box to terrific advantage as various props and structural ‘sets’ as well as occasional metaphors. Performance is smoothly executed even when the sequencer is needed.
Opening Photograph Khlar Thorsen by Karen Santos Photography
59E59 Theaters presents East To Edinburgh New York’s Annual Edinburgh Festival Through July 31, 2016 59E59 Theaters 59 East 59th Street Click to view Venue Calendar for other plays
