Triass Parq, The Musical

"Triassic Park, The Musical"at Soho Playhouse, June 23, 2012

(Looking back, I found this post never got published.)

If you're looking for a bit of cool summer froth, head downtown.

Mixing the metaphors of Gregory Maguire (Wicked), Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis (Urinetown), and Douglas Carter Beane (Lysistrata Jones), creators Marshall Pailet, Bryce Norbitz and Stephen Wargo spin the tale that "...is not Jurassic Park..." from the perspective of the dinosaurs.

Silliness abounds alongside cartoonish concepts of religious foundations as our cast of three Velociraptors, two T-Rexes and a "Mime-a-saurus" recount Michael Crichton's story of creation, fatal flaws and chaos. (In their world, they refer to their creator as Lab instead of God, setting off a series of nonsequiturs that could be funny with a bit more refinement.)  And, since all the dinosaurs were created female so there would be no offspring, all the characters are played as women.

Spoiler alert.

Leading the charge is Morgan Freeman (a very funny and very white Lee Seymour) as the narrator, providing exposition and spoilers ( "It's the frog DNA!") as the evening progresses.  Velociraptor of Faith (a most hunky Wade McCollum), Velociraptor of Innocence (an awkwardly androgynous Alex Wise), BFFs T-Rex 1 (a belting Shelley Thomas) and T-Rex 2 ( hot pink-lidded Claire Neumann) who speak in unison, Mime-a-saurus (an also hunky Brandon Espinoza), and the exiled Velociraptor of Science (a very funny Lindsay Nicole Chambers) round out the cast as they invent creationism for themselves to explain where they came from and how their world works.

Once the frog DNA surfaces with T-Rex 2's spontaneous genital metamorphosis from female to male.  Faith sees it as a demon that should be outcast.  Innocence doesn't understand Faith's unwillingness to accept change as natural.  She learns then about the existence of Science who lives outside the fence in exile.  Further revelations abound along with an under-used goat puppet.

Production values are clever, sets by Cite Hevner, costumes by Dina Perez and lights by Jen Schriever

Wrap all this up in a pop score by Mr. Pailet and run it in 85 minutes, and you get a show full of laughs and energy.

Triassic Parq, The Musical runs through August 5.  Get tickets here

The Divine Sister

"The Divine Sister" at the Soho Playhouse, September 20, 2010

Charles Busch returns to the NY stage with his latest effort, leading his mash-up tale of nuns in a Pittsburgh convent.  The Divine Sister plumbs the borders of The Sound of Music, Agnes of God, Doubt, Song of Bernadette, and Nunsense wrapped up in  a strong dose of Where Angels Go Trouble Follows. 

The jokes are broader than the Hudson, and the "broads" are among the widest Mr. Busch has written to date.

The absurd plot, of a convent/school in early 1960s Pittsburgh on financial skids includes a new member, Sister Walburga (Alison Fraser), imported from Germany to help with fund-raising )or does she have a plan of her own??).  Mother Superior (Mr. Busch) and her BFF and second in command, Sister Acacius (Julie Halston) have decided to approach the rich Jewish, agnostic widow, Mrs. Levinson (Jennifer Van Dyck) to donate her home to the order until a new school can be built.  One problem facing the order is that the postulant Agnes (Amy Rutberg) has a tendency toward miracles, healings and stigmata-ism, bringing unwanted publicity.  Like any good catholic story, there are multiple mother-child relationships hidden behind secret adoptions, accented by occasion musical numbers dubbed as badly as any Italian western out there, and a couple of flashback scenes to Mother Superior's previous life as a crime reporter in the 1940s.  Plots twist and all is revealed to a comic effect only conceivable by Mr. Busch  - a lost book of the bible, the Gospel of Saint Gladys which tells the story of the Jesus' sister Joyce - the titular Divine Sister.  Brilliant!

As the Mother Superior, Mr. Busch is in his highest Rosalind Russell form - an Auntie Mame in a habit.  Ms. Halston has a bit more stretching to do but pulls it off as Sister Acacius, MS' closest ally and confidant.  Ms. Fraser is all but unintelligible as the overly accented Teutonic sister.  Her attempted seduction of Sister Acacius is hysterical.  When Acacius talks about spending time with her husband (Jesus, y'know?) before bed, Walburga suggests luridly, "Perhaps ze sree of us should get togezzer sometime."

Director Carl Andress manages to keep the larger than life performances within the confines of the small Soho Playhouse stage, but one can tell that was not an easy job.  He never shies away from a bawdy choice, or bathroom humor - Noel Coward, this ain't.

The Divine Sister is on an open-ended run, but don't wait to see it.

Mindgame

"Mindgame" at the Soho Playhouse, November 7, 2008

I know it's still in previews, but it does officially open on Sunday, November 9.

I know it's billed as an acclaimed thriller transferring from London.

I know it has a named star (Keith Carradine) and director (Ken Russell), each with his own reputation for excellence.

The play, by Anthony Horowitz, felt like a warmed-over "Deathtrap." The pace was leaden. The British accents only visited England on occasion.

The set was excellent (Beowulf Boritt).

I left at intermission.

UPDATE: November 10, 2008

Seems Mr. Isherwood shares some of my concerns, here.

There Are No Words

"Substitution" presented by The Playwrights Realm at the Soho Playhouse, May 7, 2008

(photo credit: T. Charles Erickson)

In the title of this post, Calvin's Mom (Jan Maxwell) sums up how most people respond to a parent who has just lost a child. Calvin was on a boat carrying his high school ethics class on a field trip which exploded, killing every one on board. The identification of Calvin's body was by deduction, since every one else was accounted for, except one faceless body. She is joined by Paul (Kieran Campion), a substitute teacher who volunteered to help her clean up the flowers and toys left as tributes to the dead students. She is immediately put off by his rambling, nervous, well-meaning and endless patter - all the words she doesn't want to hear anymore. He seems to know a lot about Calvin which she finds disconcerting.

Anton Dudley, who wrote this play with Ms. Maxwell in mind has done beautifully by her. He hasn't done so well by the rest of the cast, however. The monologues which Ms. Maxwell delivers are completely natural in their expressions of pain, anger and resentment. Had he left well enough alone, it could have been an evening of significant catharsis about a single mother dealing with the death of her only child. His initial focus on words and language and their role in the grieving process was provocative. Instead, Mr. Dudley also pursues a misguided subplot about beauty. Paul turns out to be not only Calvin's substitute teacher, but also a substitute father, a beautiful young man who has fallen in love with Calvin's mother before he's even met her. He flings guilt onto Calvin's' Mom relentlessly, thinking it will bring them together so they can share their grief. He pushes too far and too hard. "We have Calvin in common." he says. She recoils, stung, and rejects Paul completely. Even when Paul packs up Calvin's artwork from the classroom for her, she destroys the work in an effort to push Paul away.

Mr. Dudley also intersperses a couple of scenes between two of Calvin's classmates Dax (Brandon Espinoza) and Jule (Shana Dowdeswell) on the bus for the fateful field trip. I suppose these were meant to give a perspective on Calvin, "Think of the least memorable person in our class." she says. "Calvin" he replies, beginning a conversation on how one can identify the least memorable, since that requires remembering them at all. It's a clunky plot convention. A final monologue from Dax as he sees his friends floating in the water above him creates some interesting imagery, but the language is no longer Dax's and it undercuts the effectiveness.

Mr. Campion works hard to make his contradictory role functional. His rapid-fire delivery convey the nervous insecurity of a lonely man reaching out. His movie star looks, however, undercut the author's proposition that Paul dates very little or has very few friends. I think this is another flaw in the writing which keeps credibility at bay, giving Paul the physical beauty that Calvin's Mom no longer reflects on the outside.

Ms. Maxwell is mesmerizing in her monologues. Her pain is palpable and there is not a moment or word wasted in her direct address passages. Mr. Dudley pushes her to the point of shrewish as she rejects Paul over and over again, which belies the love she feels for her lost son.

Katherine Kovner seems to have made every attempt to work through the awkward transitions, but without some rewrites, it's a bumpy ride. Fortunately, much of it smoothed by Ms. Maxwell.

I believe this is the inaugural production for The Playwrights Realm. They have made a noble effort and I look forward to seeing what's next.