The Cherry Orchard

"The Cherry Orchard" at Classic Stage Company, December 2, 2012

(photo: Carol Rosegg)

Classic Stage puts up The Cherry Orchard, the last production of its Chekhov Initiative, that included The Seagull, Uncle Vanya and Three Sisters in a new and very casual translation by John Christopher Jones.

Mr. Jones reportedly worked directly with the cast during rehearsals to make the vocabulary choices for their respective characters.  It had to have been great fun for the actors, but the result ends up straddling the border of anachronism and "huh?"  It was my first time seeing this play and I can't help but wonder there's something about Chekov that never makes it through translation.

Still, director Orlando Pabotoy manages to massage the tragic material into some laughs, though they range from clever to uncomfortable.  Beyond that, it still has plenty of dull moments as the dysfunctional family watches their legacy waste away.

Mr. Chekov spins a standard Russian tale of waning fortunes and prideful nobles falling on hard times. Ranevskaya (Dianne Wiest) dithers, giggles and lives in the past, covering her fear of a future of which she can't grasp control.  Lopakhin, a blustering John Tuturro, the former-peasant-made-good, presents the solution, but Ranevskaya can't bring herself to act on his advice.  Daughter Varya the cast-aside homebody, is a consistently engaging Julie Rylance. Katherine Waterston is the favorite, dewy-eyed daughter Anya.  Their uncle Gaev (Daniel Davis) also teeters on the edge of reality.  The more interesting moments come from Michael Urie's Epikhodov, who nearly needs an ER visit as the master of disaster desperately in love with servant Dunyasha (Elisabeth Waterston).  Her eyes fall (quite understandably) for Yasha, another peasant-now-servant (a very sexy Slate Holmgren), whose interest beyond pleasure is living in Ranevskaya's trail of dribbling cash.  With a couple of other archetypes tossed in, the plot is as Russian as they come.

Pacing, however, was a different issue, and it was leaden this night, pushing the few laughs farther between.

Santo Loquasto's white set creates a sepia tone for this family who lives in the past.  I will say that his gauze act curtain around the thrust stage created some difficulty for the audience to get to their seats.  Marco Piemontese continues the finely detailed work for Ms. Wiest's gowns, but phones in a bit for some of the supporting roles.


The Cherry Orchard runs through December 30.  Tickets here.

Unnatural Acts

"Unnatural Acts" at Classic Stage Company, June 18, 2011

This new dramatization by the Plastic Theatre chronicles the events leading up to the "secret court" hearings conducted by Harvard University in 1920, following the apparent suicide of Cyril Wilcox.

Amit Paley, a student journalist for The Harvard Crimson, discovered a reference to the incident in university archives.  Harvard eventually allowed Mr. Paley to review the documents, prompting Tony Speciale of Plastic Theatre to make his own investigation.

The events of the story tumble like dominoes almost immediately as the hearings begin.  First interviewed is Kenneth Day (Roe Bartrampf), the jock of the group who resided in the dormitory where everything took place.  Ken folds quickly, confessing to sexual acts with his dorm mates.  The ring leader is Ernest Roberst (Nick Westrate), the son of a prominent US Congressman.   he attempts to create solidarity among the remaining students facing the hearings, encouraging all to deny the charges.  The remaining students include senior pre-med Nathaniel Wollf (Joe Curnutte), aspiring actor Keith Smerage (Frank De Julio), pre-law Joseph Lumbard (Will Rogers), his roommate, Dartmouth transfer Edward Say (Jess Burkle), senior Eugene Cummings (Brad Koed), senior and drama club president Stanley Gilkey (Max Jenkins), tutor Harold Saxton (Devin Norik) and classics professor Donald Clark (Jerry Marsini).

As Cummings, Mr. Koed serves as something of a narrator, providing the exposition from time to time.  Mr. Bartrampf's Ken Day is every inch the athlete, fully exposed in an early shower scene.  Mr. Burkle's Say swishes and minces bitterly.  He and Mr. Rogers pull off an impressive scene at the top of Act II when their testimony monologues overlap, both supporting and contradicting each other in their individual moments of panic at the ramifications of the hearings' outcome.  It's a beautifully crafted sequence.  A similar juxtaposition occurs with Messrs. Wollf and Smerage, who had their own affair.  As Mr. Wollf testifies, Mr. Smerage delivers his audition monologue, reciting from Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra. Mr. Wollf betrays Mr. Smerage, as Antony's speech explores the betrayal of Cleopatra and Caesar, another clever scene.

Messrs Burkle and Jenkins turn in outstanding performances.  Mr. Burkle's Ernest is spoiled, fierce, flaming and unrepentant.  Mr. Jenkins' Stanley is mean, cruel, vicious and vindictive, turning on his friends instantly and ends up as one of the only two found not guilty by the court.

This is an impressive and important moment in gay history that shouldn't be overlooked.  Mr. Speciale and his company have documented this dark period when even the hint of homosexuality could ruin reputations and even incite suicide.  The play is well-structured and well-directed by Mr. Speciale.

My only real criticism is a bizarre Bill T. Jones-style choreography that accompanies Mr. Koed's final testimony at the end of the play.  All the staging up to this point was clear and purposeful, powerful and effective.  This change in story-telling does little more than distract from the testimony.

Unnatural Acts runs through July 10.  Get tickets here.

The School for Lies

"The School for Lies" at Classic Stage Company, April 30, 2011

David Ives returns to CSC with another update of a classic. This time it's a fresh interpretation of Moliere's The Misanthrope.

And fresh, indeed.  Mr. Ives manages to combine the French salon of the empire with a hilarious farce entirely in verse and using quite contemporary and usually anachronistic language.  It's a similar feat to that of this season's revival of David Hirson's La Bete, but this time it doesn't require the masterful skills of Mark Rylance to achieve success.

Mr. Ives kicks off this grand time with the names assigned to his characters.  The misanthrope, a man incapable of guile or dishonesty, even for the sake of polite society is aptly named Frank (Hamish Linklater).  Celimene (Mamie Gummer) is the widowed owner of the manse where the action occurs, and has a slander charges pending against her. She sports a barbed tongue as sharp as Frank's, but wields it purely for sport, "I never gossip, I just repeat."  Losing the case will render her penniless if her secrets are revealed.  Complicating the suit is Celimene's rival, Arsinoe (Alison Fraser).  She also has three suitors: the obnoxious and untalented, self-styled poet Oronte (Rick Holmes), Acaste (Matthew Maher) a vapid hanger-on, and her oily lawyer Clitander (Frank Harts).  Philante (Hoon Lee) and Elainte (Jenn Gambatese) round out the cast as friends of Celimene and Steven Boyer doubling as servants of both Celimene and Frank.

Mr. Linklater's Shakespearean experience rings through loud and clear as he skillfully manipulate the verse.  His Frank is a bit reluctant, but always rises when challenged.  Equalling his performance is Ms. Gummer, looking and acting more like her mother with each new role.  She commands the range from elegant to acerbic to vulnerable.

Director Walter Bobbie is in high form.  He navigates this farce with aplomb, pulling elegance and pratfalls together, matching Mr. Ive's mix of period and contemporary with laughs aplenty, and a final, touching plot twist.  It's an excellent match of director and writer, showing an enhanced relationship following their pairing last in with Venus in Fur. 

The crisp, upholstered white set is by John Lee Beatty (and Restoration Hardware).  William Ivey Long's costumes are sumptuous and elegant.  

It's an excellent evening of theatre - don't miss it!

The School for Lies runs through May 22.  Click here for tickets.

Orlando

"Orlando" at Classic Stage Company, September 21, 2010

(photo by Joan Marcus)

Virginia Woolf's tale of an Elizabethan nobleman, who lives as a man until age 30, then wakes from a 6 month coma to find he has become a woman who lives another 370 years without aging comes to Classic Stage Company care of Sarah Ruhl.  It's an aggressive challenge to take on a work that Ms. Ruhl herself describes as "...language...so exquisite it would have seemed like a terrible bastardization to just leave the narration behind and make up dialog."  Despite the over theatricality of the novel's premise, that quality doesn't guarantee great theatre.  Ms. Ruhl, in apparent deference to Ms. Woolf's erudition, gives us an evening that is part acting, part exposition where the characters recite their activities in third person more often that portraying a role.  In the end, it feels more like a writing exercise than a play.

The performers are, however, committed fully and this eclectic cast does their best to rise to the challenge.  Francesca Faridany gives a true image of Orlando as a callow youth, carrying the discomfort through the transformation from man to woman, though the full nudity that ends Act 1 seemed completely gratuitous when a mere revelation of the curve of her breast and hip could have communicated the transformation equally.  The three-man ensemble of David Greenspan, Tom Nelis and Howard Overshown ebb and flow in their effectiveness portraying the various characters both male and female including Queen Elizabeth (Mr. Greenspan) and the man Orlando eventually marries (Mr. Nelis).

Visually, the production is excellent.  Allen Moyer's lush green lawn platform, accented with gilt chairs and an oversized ceiling mirror reflects Christopher Akerlind's thoughtful lighting.  I particularly liked Anita Yavich's costume concept which suggested the various periods of history in a timeless white palette, accented by simple add-ons (or not so simple for Queen Elizabeth).

Director Rebecca Taichman, a frequent collaborator with Ms. Ruhl tries to play along, bringing in some clumsily executed choreography from Annie Parsons, but the results are less than successful.

"Orlando" runs through October 17, 2010

The Forest

"The Forest" at Classic Stage Company, May 1, 2010

Early Russian dramatist Alexander Ostrovsky's time spent translating Shakespeare is evident in Kathleen Tolan's adaptation of his play, The Forest.  It captures the classic elements of Russian drama - money, class structure and romance, combined with the Shakespearean elements of misrepresentation and star-crossed lovers.

This is the story Madam Raisa (Dianne Wiest), a vain and selfish woman who runs her household and the lives of all in it through her tight-fisted control of the purse strings.  Hoping to marry off her destitute niece, Aksyusha (Lisa Joyce) to a young and callow, but penniless nobleman, Bulanov (Adam Driver), another lodger at the estate. Raisa's nephew Gennady (John Douglas Thompson), whom she owes money, turns up after a 15 year absence.  A vagabond tragedian posing as a gentleman, Gennady seeks to recover the debt and perhaps a bit more from his aunt, accompanied by his comrade, the comedian Arkady (Tony Torn). Confessions of love for those unexpected and/or unintended turn the wheels of the story.

Ms Wiest manages to find some humanity in the mercurial Raisa, at times as kopeck-pinching as a miser, at times as shallow as a school-girl and at times as cruel and cold as a dragon.  She bellows and flirts, decrees and submits from moment to moment. Her household views her as all-powerful, yet in the presence of other men, she fawns and demures.

Mr. Thompson's Gennady postures and poses, actually winning the bellowing contest with Ms. Wiest. Overall though, it's a merely a serviceable performance, much like the rest of the cast.

Director Brian Kulick, after a slow first act, gets things moving through the sometimes clunky plot in the second.  Santo Loquasto's set harkens back a bit to his last Russian entry, CSC's Uncle Vanya, with a large open staircase of timbers, this time sponged green to invoke the oft-referred to forest.  Marco Piemontese's costumes are appropriate and for Ms. Wiest, gorgeous.

If your interest is in Russian drama, this is a good opportunity to see work that probably wouldn't come along otherwise.  Shakespeare scholars may also find interest here.  As for the rest of us?  Go to see Ms. Wiest rise above her material.

The Forest runs through May 30.

Venus in Fur

"Venus in Fur" at Classic Stage Company, January 23, 2010

A tale of lust, domination and submission, based on a German novel from the late 1800s, David Ives has adapted Leopold von Sacher Masoch's Venus in Furs into a contemporary, clever, 90 minute two-hander.  The theatricality is heightened as he juxtaposes the tale into the setting of a playwright conducting auditions for his own stage adaptation of the original text.

Frustrated by poor productions of earlier work, Thomas (Wes Bentley) is directing his new play himself.  His "perfect" Wanda and she hasn't turned up yet at his auditions.  He is about to give up for the day when Vanda (Nina Arianda) bursts into the room.  She's late for her appointment (weather, trains, blah, blah) but wants to read even though Thomas didn't have her name on the list.  She quizzes him on the finer points of the story, "It's really just porn, isn't it? I mean...really?"  Exposition ensues and the games begin.  Power flips back and forth as they read each character, and as director and actress work through the story.

Ms. Arianda takes the upper hand very quickly and doesn't let go, even until the confusing and slightly bizarre ending.  It's a powerful performance and worth the price of admission.  Mr. Bentley seems a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing, but manages a few nice moments.  It pointed up, for me, the difference between acting for an audience vs. acting for a camera. There were moments when he seemed to be looking for the lens to register an internal moment.  Nonetheless, he has matured nicely since his role as the quiet bad boy in "American Beauty" so many years ago.  Being pretty can count for something from time to time.


Director Walter Bobbie shows a firm hand as he guides the cat and mouse games, each actor moving to and from each position.  He keeps the tension high without losing the laughs.

Mr. Ives' adaptation starts with a great premise and builds beautifully, keeping the audience on edge.  At the last minute, he suddenly loses focus and as a result, the audience.  I have a vague idea of what I think he intended, but I'm still not really sure.  With some proper attention to the last scene, this could be a pretty darn good play.

John Lee Beatty's sterile audition studio set makes a great canvas for Peter Kaczorowski's lighting.

Uncle Vanya

"Uncle Vanya" at Classic Stage Company, January 22, 2009

(photo: Joan Marcus)

Chekhov remains ever present in the NY theatre, with this revival following closely on the heels of "The Seagull" on Broadway, and "The Cherry Orchard" coming to BAM.

First observation: There's a lot of set crammed by Santo Loquasto into CSC's thrust stage, but he certainly has captured the feeling of rural Russia.

Denis O'Hare's Vanya comes across pretty well in spite of (because of?) his usual manic shtick. Peter Sarsgaard fares better in this bit of Chekhov than in the last ("Seagull") but not by much. Maggie Gyllenhaal, long and languid, gives a lovely and effortless performance.

It's Mamie Gummer who really gives the knockout performance of the evening as Sofya, twisting in pain over unrequited love for the doctor.

Carol Rocamora's translation avoids most of the anachronism I felt in the recent "Hedda Gabler" at Roundabout. Direct Austin Pendleton did find ways to muddy things up from time to time, most notably playing one scene onstage and another offstage concurrently.

Summer 2008 Recap

Ok, ok.

I was a little busy over the summer and only posted about myself. (Isn't a certain level of narcissism required to be an actor/blogger?)

Anyway...

It was not as if I didn't see anything. There were several, but I didn't find any to be particularly outstanding.

Marriage of Bette and Boo (Roundabout at the Laura Pels) June 14, 2008
Christopher Durang's version of Albee, but funnier. Nice turns by Julie Hagerty and Victoria Clark and Zoe Lister-Jones.

Some Americans Abroad (Second Stage Theatre) July 5, 2008
American academia can act stereotypically British - who knew?

Damn Yankees (Encores!) July 13, 2008
I love me some Cheyenne Jackson. I really need to get back and see Xanadu with him in the cast. Sean Hayes can play the piano, too!

[title of show] (Lyceum Theatre) July 19, 2008
The little show that could - now has! The set looked a bit too "set-like," but otherwise they've stayed true to their vision.

Impressing the Czar - Royal Ballet of Flanders (Rose Theatre - Lincoln Center Festival) July 19, 2008
I've never been a big fan of contemporary ballet, and this piece did tend to drag after the first act, but it's a splendid production and marvelously visual. Go Jessica Teague!

South Pacific (Lincoln Center Theater at the Vivian Beaumont) August 2, 2008
I stood in line for cancellations and boy, was it worth it!! Kelli O'Hara continues to refine and shade her performance. Matthew Morrison was in excellent voice and Paulo Szot is still as hot as ever!

Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy (Broadway Theatre) August 5, 2008
Definitely geared for an audience of children, it's homogenized Cirque for pre-teen and tweens.

Spring Awakening (Eugene O'Neill Theatre) August 8, 2008
My fourth time seeing the show. Several understudies performing, but the piece is holding up very nicely.

The Lisbon Traviata (The Center) August 11, 2008
Gay comedy turns into operatic tragedy in the last scene, though the tone is more Lucia than Violetta.

A Tale of Two Cities (Al Hirschfeld Theatre) August 25, 2008
Where to start on this train wreck? I could borrow from Mr. Alessandrini "I know I've seen this show before." Or, "At the end of the play you're another year older." The show is 20 years in the making which might date its inspiration (not to mention writing and musical styling) to another little piece based on a large 19th Century novel which features a French revolution.

The Tempest (Classic Stage Company) September 4, 2008
Prospero as Shylock via Mandy Patinkin (when he wasn't repeating pages of dialog after being distracted by cell phones). Stark Sands adds beefcake to his talent as a lovely Ferdinand. Elizabeth Waterston, willowy and equally lovely as Miranda. Costumes were only flattering on the pretty people. Production was otherwise kinda flat.

Not a stellar summer, but heaven knows it could have been worse!

Lost in Translation

"A Spanish Play" at Classic Stage Company, January 13, 2007

(Spoiler Alert) The Classic Stage Company presents Yasmina Reza's latest play in its English-language debut. From the Theatre Communication Group's website:

A Spanish Play is a meta-drama about a group of five actors rehearsing a foreign play (a Spanish one) that they will stage in their native language (French). Which is to say, they are performing a play in translation. For American audiences, the actors won't be speaking Spanish or French, but English, which is of course what is always spoken in Reza's plays when they're performed in the U.S.

For more from this article about Ms. Reza and this translation by David Ives, click here.

Director John Turturro has taken on the play, using a clever technique to capture some of the actors as they step out of their "Spanish Play" roles and talk about their characters or speak to one or another member of the play's creative team. To accomplish this for the two younger women and the younger man, he uses a hand-held video camera projecting the image on the back wall of the set following the actors, sometimes backstage, sometimes onstage, in a confessional manner. Why he didn't follow through with this for the older couple is not clear. That lack of clarity foreshadows the rest of the production. It also may have helped Mr. Turturro provide structure instead of a rambling series of scenes and monologues. The whole notion of translating the Spanish to French (and then to English for this production) starts to remind me of an old SNL skit set in the smallest restaurant in NY in which the live entertainment sings "Send In The Clowns" in English translated into French, translated back into English. "I'm not that rich. Aren't you a queer?"

The premise of the play within the play is that recently widowed Fernan (Larry Pine), a real estate building manager has begun an affair with an older woman Pilar (Zoe Caldwell) who lives in one of the buildings he manages. She has three daughters, Nuria (Katherine Borowitz), Aurelia (Linda Emond) and Crystal (unseen). Nuria and Aurelia are both actors, but only Nuria has achieved success. Aurelia is married to Mariano (Denis O'Hare) a math teacher with a teeny, tiny, little drinking problem. Nuria is up for the Spanish equivalent of the Academy Award and has come home to visit for the weekend. Aurelia is rehearsing a Bulgarian play from the '70s and is struggling with sibling rivalry. Both daughters are concerned about their mother's affair with Fernan. The play within the play is conventional and does reduce the mother-daughter and sister-sister relationships to stereotype, though there are some great lines. Following Aurelia's panic attack, a drunken Mariano says "The brain needs a mess. Nothing good comes out of clarity." The real interest should be in the transitions to and from the rehearsal we're watching - if only those transitions were more clear.

Riccardo Hernandez' set is a wash of bright yellow punctuated with red that provides two areas sometimes used to delineate whether we're watching the rehearsal or listening to the actor discuss his role. Again, consistent use in this manner would have helped. Christopher Akerlind's lighting provides proper emphasis to make these accomodations as well. Credit must be given to Donna Zakowska for creating two of the ugliest dresses I've seen onstage, candidates for Nuria to wear to her awards ceremony.

The company is consistently strong throughout, communicating their various insecurities and control issues both in and out of character. I'm particularly impressed with the moments when the actors speak directly to the video camera - this close proximity brings their performance even closer than the apron stage provides. In the end, though, there wasn't much substance presented - - form over function, as it were.