Colin Quinn: Long Story Short

"Colin Quinn: Long Story Short" at the Helen Hayes Theatre, November 15, 2010

Transferring after a relatively successful off-Broadway run earlier this year, Colin Quinn spends a little more than 75 minutes tromping through the history of the world.  Skipping around the globe, his attempt at a sardonic, cynic's view of how we got to where we are boils down to a simple concept.  There are two kinds of people in the world, smart guys and tough guys.  Smart guys best represented by the Greeks, tough guys by the Romans.  The influences of each are omnipresent today, but overall the tough guys generally win.  He summarizes, "We're the descendants of the pricks."

There are quite a few laughs, particularly his descriptions of the Holy Roman Empire as the children of alcoholics, and the Incas' under the influence of cocaine producing the best and worst ideas: architecture and science, vs. beheadings and cannibalism.

In the end, there's not much to learn about history, nor does Mr. Quinn share much profundity of his own thoughts about how the world evolved.  If anyone remembers Mr. Quinn's time on the Weekend Update desk on Saturday Night Live, there won't be any surprises here.  This is a Comedy Central late night stand-up special.  Jerry Seinfeld directs, but his impact seems minimal. 

Most impressive is David Rockwell's set and video projections, though portions of the set appear leftover from Xanadu.

Colin Quinn: Long Story Short runs through November 9.

Next Fall

"Next Fall" at The Helen Hayes Theatre, February 20, 2010

(Photo: Francesco Carrozzini)

Transferring from an Off-Broadway run last summer, Geoffrey Nauffts' play is a touching and provocative story of religion and homosexuality.

Working back and forth in time, we learn the tale of how Adam (Patrick Breen) and Luke (Patrick Heusinger) met, fell in love and struggled to work through the issues of Adam's agnosticism versus Luke's Christian faith.  Since that's not enough, Adam is also roughly 20 years older than Luke, though emotionally they are much closer in age.

As the play opens, Luke has been hit by a car and is hospitalized in a coma.  His divorced parents Arlene (Connie Ray) and Butch (Cotter Smith) have arrived along with Luke's boss Holly (Maddie Corman) and college friend Brandon (Sean Dugan).  Adam arrives late, having been out of town for a class reunion.

Arlene and Buddy have instilled their faith in Luke, and still carry it openly, increasing the tension when Adam expresses his secular beliefs.

Mr. Nauffts has written a very intelligent story that actually manages to explore the issues of faith and science.  Both sides get full measure to present their respective cases.  The heart of the problem between Adam and Luke is that Adam doesn't understand why Luke can't see the missing logic of faith, where Luke doesn't understand why Adam can't take the leap and believe.  During one of their arguments, Adam accuses Luke of loving God more than him.  Luke doesn't respond.  Without spoiling it, I have to say that I was a bit disappointed by the choice in the final scene.

Don't be mistaken, as somber as this may sound, there are plenty of laughs to be found.  Mr. Nauffts has assembled a slew of one-liners and quips that keep the audience bright.  While the parents are out of the room, Adam, Holly and Brandon are discussing how to handle his relationship with Luke, who hasn't come out to his family yet.  Adam says, "You don't see me in a thong on a float, but I'm still a fag!" 

Having seen The Boys in the Band within a few days of this show, it was interesting to see how the openly vicious self-hatred of that story has modulated only a little into a more quiet version. This is noted particularly in the character of Brandon, who can hardly bring himself to say out loud that he's only attracted to black men.  Luke suffers similarly, praying for forgiveness after each time he and Adam are intimate.  Luke is also afraid of his family's rejection, specifically that his father will cut him off from contact with his little brother.  "Next fall" he says, "that's when he'll be off to college, and I'll tell them then. He'll be old enough to decide for himself."

In Arlene, Ms. Ray has managed to take hold of a Julie White character and truly make it her own. Arlene was a confused and unprepared young mother who ended up in prison for marijuana, leaving the care of Luke to his father, who remarried shortly thereafter and had another son.  Ms. Ray enters like a tornado and takes control in a touching yet hilarious performance.  Mr. Cotter's Butch is a father in denial, both of his son's sexual orientation and the severity of his condition.  His emotion is palpable during a climactic scene in Act II.

Mr. Heusinger's Luke is earnest, hopeful and occasionally callow - appropriate for a young man who dropped out of law school to move to NYC to chase an acting dream.  Mr. Breen's Adam does most of the heavy lifting in the play, balancing the feelings of Luke's family and friends against his own.  When he's told he can't see Luke in ICU because he's not "family," you can see his heart drop in his chest. Ms. Corman, and Mr. Dugan get little to do, more than sit around suffering supportively over Luke.

Wilson Chin's set flexes easily into the various locations, hospital waiting room, Adam's apartment, a bench in the park, all service-ably lit by Jeff Croiter.

This is a powerful and emotional play, beautifully written, directed and acted. It's another one not to be missed. 

It got a rare standing ovation from me. 

"Let This Be Known As The Year Inspiration Left The Arts"

"Xanadu" at the Helen Hayes Theatre, May 25, 2007

A large circular mirror overhangs the stage as you enter the theatre, hopefully foretelling of Busby Berkely-like singing and dancing to come. Will hopes be fulfilled or dashed??

Actually, a little of both, courtesy of 1980.

The latest in a string of movie to stage adaptations, Xanadu arrives with no pretense as to what it is and what it is not. If you're ever unsure as you watch, just wait a few minutes and someone in the cast will remind you with a line like, "Even though I was suicidal seven minutes ago, I think I can create the apex of the arts!"

The creative team has insisted that all they took from the 1980 movie with Olivia Newton-John, Gene Kelly, and Michael Beck was just the premise and the songs. As miserable a film as it was, they seem to have kept quite a lot from the thin and poorly designed plot. Still in 1980, Sonny Malone (James Carpinello) is a failing artist, stopped from suicide by the Greek Muse, Clio (Kerri Butler) who renames herself Kira-from-Australia. Sonny discovers an empty theatre called Xanadu, which was built 40 years earlier (but never used) by Danny Maguire (Tony Roberts) when Clio visited him under the name of Tangerine (a missed musical opportunity, by the way). Since the Muses' purpose is only to inspire artists, they are forbidden to create art themselves or fall in love with a mortal, punishment for which is death. Naturally, Clio/Kira does both during the course of the evening. Her evil and older sisters, Melpomene (Mary Testa) and Calliope (Jackie Hoffman) are bitter about their younger sister being head Muse and plot against Clio using a love potion (think Cinderella, and yes, she does lose a skate at one point when she realizes she's fallen in love with Sonny and runs away from him). Of course, it's still a musical comedy and everyone lives happily ever after.

As Clio/Kira, Kerri Butler delivers a delightful knock-off of Olivia Newton-John's breathless singing, with a nice Australian accent to boot. Given what's playing around the corner at the Palace, they might have called this show "Heavenly Blonde" but for the confusion it might cause. She's almost comfortable performing the entire show on roller skates, which should not be an issue by the time opening night rolls around (as it were!). Her Clio/Kira ("call me Kira, 'cause that's my name!") is just a little on the ditsy side, making it easier to pull off as the anachronisms and camp are doled out by the handful.

James Carpinello's Sonny seems to have spent a LOT of time in Queens instead of Los Angeles. More than once, I heard line deliveries a la disco-boy Tony Manero, rather than artist-boy Sonny Malone. He gives an earnest performance, but doesn't quite manage the polish that Ms. Butler delivers opposite him.

There's one scene when Clio has returned to Mt Olympus to face her father Zeus for her actions (making art and falling in love with a mortal) that points up whyTony Roberts must have taken the role of Danny Maguire. Sonny shows up, having followed Clio, and points out that the scene looks just like one from "Clash of the Titans" with Lawrence Olivier as Zeus, Maggie Smith as Thetis, Ursula Andress as Aphrodite and Claire Bloom as Hera. (In this go-round, Mr. Roberts is Zeus - didn't get any Olivier from him, and Jackie Hoffman's Ursula Andress-Aphrodite sounded a bit like the Governator - funny though. Only Anika Larsen's Thetis came close to Miss Smith.) He asks them (paraphrasing) "What were you guys thinking? In a crap movie like that - just playing it for the paycheck?" Wasted in this role of Danny Maguire, I can't help wondering the same thing for Mr. Roberts. He doesn't have much to do, and that which he does isn't written very well.

The evil Muses: Mary Testa as Melpomene (who was mother of the Sirens - "My daughters, the sirens? They never call!") and Jackie Hoffman as Calliope ("I'm not wearing a bra.") camp it up and have a grand time, particularly during their rendition of "Evil Woman" backed up by the sirens with black ostrich-plume fans (Chicago, anyone?).

Musically, the show is firmly entrenched in the world of the Electric Light Orchestra from the movie soundtrack. Some songs have been added (the afore-mentioned "Evil Woman") along with "Strange Magic," "Fool," and "Have You Never Been Mellow." I was a bit disappointed in the "Dancin' " segment. Of the songs from the original movie, this was one that would seem to have offered an opportunity for a really impressive number with the mix of the 1940's style from Danny's memory, to Sonny's vision for the 1980's "Apex of the Arts" roller disco. Curtis Holbrook, dancing as a Young Danny in a flashback with Clio/Tangerine shows some superior tap skill, which could have been called on again for the "Dancin' " number that followed.

Douglas Carter Beane has beaten my fellow blogger Gil at Broadway Abridged to the punch with his book. Just check out his latest abridged show to see what I mean. Dan Knechtges' choreography drags the audience back to the days of "Solid Gold" from the outset. Some performers are more comfortable than others on roller skates, but repetition in previews will iron out any remaining wrinkles there. David Gallo's rink set evokes both a LA setting as well as lending itself to the Greek themes that periodically arise. Howell Binkley's lights complement nicely. I did wonder why the projection (using the circular mirror) of Sonny's chalk drawing of the Muses in the opening was upside down to the audience, though - difficult to recognize and connect the Muses to the actors when they enter in the opening number. David Zinn seems to have had a grand time creating the melange of Greek and 1980s revival costumes.

In the end, it's great fun and camp, but it still seems like it would be better suited in an Off-Broadway setting.

Maybe a Little More Evolution is in Order

"Jay Johnson: The Two and Only!" at the Helen Hayes Theatre, November 14, 2006

He seems like such a nice man, but I kept asking myself, "Why is this on Broadway?"

Jay Johnson, most notable for the roles of Chuck and Bob on the groundbreaking 1970's TV show "Soap," has evolved this performance over the past couple of years, its most recent installment at the Atlantic Theatre Company in 2004. Apparently the 10+ producers whose names appear above the title thought the show was worthy of Broadway.

The structure of the show is mechanical. He begins with some obscure history about ventriloquism, taking the audience back into ancient history with claims that the Oracles were ventriloquists. Fast forward to a book written a couple of hundred years ago by a Frenchman who concluded that ventriloquism was a mental disorder.

Once the actual ventriloquism starts, Mr. Johnson shows his significant talent for his art, (a bottle, a severed head). It's too bad he doesn't have more to say beyond the description of it as a difficult career choice. Certainly, the high points are when the dummies land the jokes, and there are several funny moments. When he speaks of his mentor, there is real emotion in his voice, but it's not really moving to the audience.

He parades a series of vehicles:

• a speaking snake who's afraid of snakes (1-joke)
• a vulture who feels a sense of death on the stage (more profound than was intended)
• a telephone conversation with imaginary friends (no jokes, despite the effort)
• his first custom-made partner, Squeaky (another almost-touching moment)
• Bob, from "Soap"
• Darwin, a monkey (the name? it just evolved)

Of these characters, we either don't get a chance to really know them or they stay beyond their welcome before they are folded up and packed away. I would have liked more time with Squeaky and Bob, given what we're told about how they entered and impacted Mr. Johnson's life.

The set, by Beowulf Boritt foreshadows a tale of a man on the road, living out of the numerous trunks and suitcases that litter the stage. We don't really get a "road story" in spite of this. Clifton Taylor's lighting is effective, but anticlimactic.

It is the direction by Murphy Cross and Paul Kreppel that is the most puzzling. One would expect much more visual interest from a dancer/choreographer like Ms. Murphy. Mr. Kreppel's resume is much more eclectic which should have provided a more interesting evening with such experience, as well.

In the end, what could have been a very entertaining evening was more like listening to someone look through his photo album.