A "Burning" Quandry

I can't call it a review I have to write about today, though it is about a new play I attended over the weekend.

Let's put some things on the table first, stipulations, if you will:

• Getting a new play produced, particularly in New York, particularly by a company of the reputation of The New Group, is an incredible feat of effort.
• Provocative topics and situations are excellent fodder for playwrights looking to get attention to their work (see The Submission).
• "Downtown NYC" is a great place to exercise those skills.

A few more things to stipulate:

• I've seen a lot of lousy theatre in New York and have walked out on the full range, from multi-million dollar Broadway to dusty, uncomfortable black-box off-off-off Bway productions.  
• I've even performed in a couple of the latter types.

As a member of the ITBA, I see frequent invitations to attend and review theatre of all sorts in the city, as mentioned above, Broadway to black-box, off-off-off Broadway productions.  I don't see everything, but I was excited to see the invitation from The New Group for their production of the world premiere of Burning by up-and-coming playwright Thomas Bradshaw.  I've seen a couple of other productions from this company and looked forward to this.  The premise sounded interesting.  The director has made a name for himself.

This play was the first time I've ever walked out despite having been invited to write a review.

I consulted with a few associates about what to do and received a range of responses, two of which I'll paraphrase:

• "don't write a review of a show of which you only saw Act 1" 
• "write about what you did see, then explain why you left"
• "write a 'non-review', discussing the circumstances and your decision to leave early"

As you can see, I've opted for the third suggestion.

Producers offer tickets to reviewers like me to get the word out about their shows.  I have never had a publicist make any requests or qualifications about what I write, other than holding a post until the show officially opens.  As a result, I generally believe my obligation to include seeing the entire show.

Maybe I've been lucky so far.  Maybe I've been in more tolerant moods when I saw shows I didn't like.  Maybe I've just had nothing better to do on those occasions, but until this weekend, I've never walked out of a show I've been invited to review.

I mentioned having performed in dismal shows produced in less-than-stellar facilities.  I've also been in shows when a critic left at intermission and stated that in his review.  As an actor, that really hurts.  I know that pain.

Still, here's the summary I sent to my associates when I asked their advice on how to proceed:

Tonight I attended a performance of a play following a solicitation to the ITBA.  I say attended - actually I left at intermission.

This particular play, with an interesting premise, was produced by a reputable company of notable pedigree, with a notable director.  The actors are skilled and the production values are excellent.  The playwright has an interesting resume, and appears to be in an early and successful phase of career.

But the play itself is the problem.  From the complete lack of compelling (let alone likable) characters, to the unclear shifts in time periods, to the absurd (and not in the Albee style) dialog and reprehensible actions of some characters, to the gratuitous nudity and simulated sex acts, I found no artistic merit in the literary effort.   

I am dumbfounded, not even that someone wrote it, but that others read it and said "hey gang, let's spend the cash to put on this show!"

So, dear readers (both of you), what advice would you offer?

Burning runs through December 17.  Click here for tickets.

Lemon Sky

"Lemon Sky" presented by the Keen Company at the Theatre Row, September 24, 2011

(photo by Richard Termine)

My experience with the Keen Company has usually been very good - solid productions and strong scripts.  This production is a tribute to the late Lanford Wilson in this autobiographical play.  This is the first time they have missed the mark for me.

17 year old Alan (Keith Nobbs) has traveled west to live with Douglas (Kevin Kilner) his estranged father who has remarried and has two sons by his second wife Ronnie (Kellie Overbey).  Douglas is eager to make up for lost time, and Alan is at first receptive, but as time passes,  Doug's old habits resurface.  Complicating the matter are the two foster daughters, Penny (Amie Tedesco) and Carol (Alyssa May Gold), who bring in needed cash to the household budget with their monthly state allocation.

Director Jonathan Silverstein has some strong actors among the uneven cast, but doesn't maximize their strengths.  Mr. Nobbs, last seen in a similar part as narrator/character in Broadway's Lombardi admirably carries much of the load, sharing lots of exposition in direct-address monologues, then quickly stepping into a scene as a confused high school graduate in the early 70s trying to figure out what his life will be. Ms. Overbey also steps up to an underwritten role.

Scenic designer Bill Clark makes excellent use of space for the California suburban ranch house setting, complemented by Josh Bradford's unobtrusive lighting.

Mr. Wilson has many other better-remembered titles in his canon.  Other than the autobiographical nature of this play, it's unclear what drew Keen Company to select it.

I'm hopeful for better results with their next production.

Lemon Sky runs through October 22.

Benefactors

"Benefactors" presented by Keen Company at Theatre Row, April 2, 2011

Photo: Richard Termine, Theatremania

Once again, Carl Forsman and Keen Company prove that producing off-Broadway with a limited budget doesn't have to look like community theatre.  Their current revival of Michael Frayn's Benefactors is a well-paced and thoughtful presentation of two couples in semi-urban London, struggling to be helpful to each other without getting too involved in each other's business.

It's the late 60s and David (Daniel Jenkins) has been assigned the impossible urban renewal task of tearing down a shabby and dying neighborhood, and building new housing to increase the population density, while improving life for the residents.  His wife Jane (Vivienne Benesch) supports the effort, surveying the displaced and helping push the change through.  Neighbors Colin (Stephen Barker Turner) and Sheila (Deanne Lorrette) spend as much or more time at  Daniel and Jane's than they do at home.  Sheila can't quite seem to get ahead of the tasks of running her household, preparing meals and seeing to their two children.  Most days Jane feeds everyone tea and dinner.

Spoiler Alert

As the project faces political opposition, Colin loses his job, and he and Sheila struggle and separate.  Colin takes up the opposition's cause, increasing the already heightened tension after Sheila has moved in with David and Jane.

Colin, David and Jane all serve as benefactors in one form or another.  Colin, pushing the agenda of the political opposition, David, trying to build better housing for the less fortunate and ultimately, Jane, who ends up helping everyone in one way or another throughout the play.

Director Carl Forsman has assembled a strong cast and generally keeps things moving along.  There are a couple of scenes that get bogged down in the construction and design details where additional visuals might have helped.  Ms. Benesch's Jane is the most powerful performance of the evening, balancing love and loyalty to her husband while making the effort to find and express her own voice in the heyday of "Women's Liberation" at the time. Dane Laffrey's simple and elegant set conveys both the period and the concept of construction with walls of gray-washed plywood.

Benefactors runs through April 30, 2011.

Loaded

"Loaded" at the Lion Theatre at Theatre Row, December 3, 2009

This is at least the third time I've seen this story - two men, supposedly very different from each other, hooking up and then trying to take the time to get to know each other.  The result is a series of miscommunications, competitions, disagreements, potential violence, all with a bit of nudity tossed in to keep the audiences' interest. The first two on my list are Together Alone and Two Boys in Bed on a Cold Winter's Night.

This time around, 47 year old Patrick (Kevin Spirtas) has invited adorable 24 year old Jude (Scott Kerns) to spend the night for the first time following several previous hookups.  The short-lived nudity opens this one-act, followed quickly by a series of arguments in which each finds and repeatedly pushes the other's buttons on topics ranging from HIV and safe sex, to lesbians to gay marriage. Both Mr. Spirtas and Mr. Kerns find a nice moment or two when each is able to rise above their two dimensional characters, but it's a difficult task given the weak script by Elliot Ramon Potts.


Even with all the arguing between the two, Mr. Potts brings little enlightenment to the varying subjects. The dialog is frequently trite, despite the best efforts of the two handsome actors.  Director Michael Unger attempts to keep things moving, but the poor transitions keep the flow bogged down.

Adam Koch's NYC apartment set manages well under Herrick Goldman's unremarkable lighting.

Sadly, there's little to recommend here beyond watching two handsome actors for 90 minutes.

Sweet Storm

"Sweet Storm" presented by LABrinth Theater Company at the Kirk Theatre in Theatre Row, August 1, 2009

On an early September night in 1960 in Lithia Springs, Florida, Bo (Eric T. Miller) brings his new bride Ruthie (Jamie Dunn) to the tree house he's built for their wedding night and filled with gardenias. He's as sweet, simple and thoughtful as he can possibly be. Eager to please to a fault, this young preacher only wants to start his new life with the love of his life. This new play by Scott Hudson is his first effort and shows promise.

Ruthie brings more baggage than just her suitcase to the proceedings. Inexplicably paraplegic, she's more than fearful of what her future will hold. Bo's tree house is only the first of several romantic surprises, but her fears prohibit her from appreciating them, and him.

As Ruthie, Ms. Dunn has moments of truth, but those are only scattered through her performance. I really wanted to like her character more, but her and her character's choices prevented that, more often than not. Much of the time, it was unclear why Bo was so drawn to her and often seemed that he didn't really know all that much about her despite having been seeing each other for over a year.

Mr. Miller's Bo, so painfully earnest, good-hearted and good-looking, carries the evening, just as he (literally and figuratively) carries Ms. Dunn. His Bo is much like the Bo from "Bus Stop" but with much more depth of feeling and thoughtfulness. The tree house is built in the tree that he and Ruthie had climbed together a year before, on the spot in that tree where they shared their first kiss.

Director Padraic Lillis manages well with the slightly clunky script, keeping things moving and somehow managing to work through not one, but two, moments with Ruthie on a bedpan. Mr. Hudson works in some interesting points about maintaining faith in a crisis as Bo tries to help Ruthie come to terms with her disability. Lea Umberger's platform set is a nice mix of textures of real and faux.

Finding Focus on a Dream

"The Conscientious Objector" presented by the Keen Company at the Clurman Theatre, Theatre Row, March 11, 2008

Michael Murphy's play presents us with Martin Luther King, Jr. at the height of his reign as a civil rights leader. The program notes that while it "...is first and foremost a play. It is a dramatization and some liberties were taken." Personally, I can only vaguely remember when Dr. King was shot in Memphis in 1968, so I cannot speak to the historical accuracy in Mr. Murphy's work, or lack thereof.

What Mr. Murphy does give us in his interpretation of Dr. King (DB Woodside), is a reluctant and unsure man. The evening begins in 1965 when Dr. King first spoke out against the Vietnam War. Mr. Murphy puts forth that Dr. King felt compelled to take this position despite the fact that it would pull him away from the civil rights struggle. He has written a Dr. King who practically bows and scrapes in the first meeting we see with Lyndon Johnson (John Cullum). President Johnson needs Dr. King to back off the Vietnam issue so that he can continue to get similar legislation passed to the Voting Rights Act. King retreats briefly, but can't disregard the issue for the sake of politics. His advisers, Ralph Abernathy (Bryan Hicks), Stanley Levison (Steve Routman), Andrew Young (James Miles) also want him to choose his battles and stay with those he can win. James Bevel (Jimonn Cole) is the lone dissenter of his supporters and keeps pushing him to fight against the Vietnam war.

Mr. Woodside's King is certainly the reluctant hero. His resolve only forms when pushed forward by others whom he respects, or when forced on the defensive. I'm afraid, though, Mr. Woodside (and Mr. Forsman) have been very poorly served by their dialect coach, Meagan Prahl. I've complained about inaccurate southern accents before, and Mr. Woodside's is simply appalling. I would much rather he had spent his time finding the rhythm and music in King's voice and making the role his own. Consider the choices that Frank Langella and Anthony Hopkins made in their respective interpretations of Richard Nixon. Neither imitates, yet both captured the character in vastly different ways.

Note to Ms. Prahl: While I congratulate you on your first coaching gig, be informed that substituting "uh" for "er" sounds and "eh" for "ee" do not a southern accent make. I have no idea where you grew up, but the Brown/Trinity Consortium pedigree leads me to conclude it was well above the Mason-Dixon Line. I know you're excited about your coaching debut in NYC, but you may want to consider spending your coaching fee to pay the Keen to reprint their playbills without your credit for the remainder of the run.

As Lyndon Johnson, Mr. Cullum (thankfully) avoids an imitation of the late president. He also had significant struggles getting his lines out. Having been in previews for a week, one might expect more from such an accomplished actor.

Rachel Leslie's Coretta Scott King gets little do to, other than look lovely and concerned. Seemed a bit of a waste of talent to me.

Mr. Cole's James Bevel suffers from the substitution of volume for passion at the expense of diction and clarity. Bryan Hicks as Ralph Abernathy couldn't pick up a cue if the other actors dropped it in his lap. Jonathan Hogan, in multiple roles, demonstrates the kind of skill one obtains after 25 years with Circle Rep, not to mention his numerous Broadway, film and television appearances. The younger actors in this cast would do well to study his performance and choices.

Director Carl Forsman seems at times overwhelmed by the material (or at least by the actors in it), unable to fine tune performances when needed. At other times, his touches are quite sensitive and thoughtful - the scene when Coretta is boosting Martin up on the telephone, knowing exactly what his physical appearance is and mothering him in support to give.

Once again, Beowulf Boritt's set is the real star of this production. An American flag drapes the back wall and gently raked stage, interpreted in shades of grey - an absence of color yet not reduced to simple black and white. Josh Bradford's lights make a good start, but could use a bit more refinement to distinguish time and location on the abstract set.

I admire the efforts of the Keen Company. I think this is a group who truly attempts to create valid and relevant theatre in New York. I look forward to their next outing.

I Think She Was Married to Ernest Hemingway

"The Maddening Truth" presented by the Keen Company at the Clurman @ Theater Row, February 7, 2008

The Keen's latest production maintains their high standard of production values with a beautiful set by Beowulf Borittt and serviceable lighting and costumes by Josh Bradford and Theresa Squire, respectively.

The play is a less successful piece by David Hay, whose writing includes an eclectic array of independent films and articles on art and architecture as well as this and another soon-to-be-produced play. The playbill notes state: "The events in this play are inspired by the life of Martha Gellhorn." Ms. Gellhorn (Lisa Emery) was an active war correspondent covering conflicts from Franco's Spain to the liberation of the concentration camps at Dachau to Vietnam to the US invasion into Panama. She was also the third wife of Ernest Hemingway. Mr. Hay takes this fertile opportunity and spins it into a less than interesting mix of action and flashback, awkardly fashioned around a professional relationship with another writer, Peter Wilkinson (William Connell). Mr. Hay pulls from many devices from the theatrical bag of tricks: direct address to the audience, flashbacks, radio broadcast readings from Ms. Gellhorn's writing, internal dialogs with a dead Hemingway.

In the end, the dialog feels forced and unnatural, Ms. Gellhorn's lines sound particularly British, though she was American born and raised (repeated used of words like "piffle," "palaver," and "buck up").

Ms. Emery works hard, but is ultimately miscast since her character is in her middle 60's for the majority of the play. She does her best to make the ill-fitting lines work. Mr. Connell is more successful as the young writer who befriends Ms. Gellhorn, alienates her and regains the friendship late in her life. His British accent helps him through the stilted language he's given with a bit of Hugh Grant style. Peter Benson as Wilkinson's boss at the unnamed British newspaper is wasted here in a small role. Terry Layman doubles as Hemingway and a radio actor. He doesn't have enough material to communicate the first character and is merely an instrument of the plot as the second. Richard Bekins as Laurance Rockefeller does what he can with the apology of a role he's taken.

Director Carl Forsman has also worked hard to make a compelling evening and manages to do so in spite of the weak material. Pacing is good and he makes some nice choices to add depth to the play.

A Moment at the Table

"The Dining Room" presented by the Keen Company at The Clurman Theatre at Theatre Row, September 27, 2007

A. R. Gurney's wonderful 1981 play presents a series of overlapping vignettes that give a glimpse into the many ways a dining room is part of the core of the American WASP. We get to be as much voyeur as audience in this delightful production by the Keen Company. With a cast of six, three men and three women, each actor plays so many roles that they are described in the program as merely, Man 1, Woman 2, and so on.

Director Jonathan Silverstein has assembled a pretty even cast, including Dan Daily, Claire Lautier, Mark J. Sullivan, Samantha Soule, Anne McDonough and Timothy McCracken. Their ages span a generation, but each actor at one point or another plays either parent or child. Stronger among the cast were Samantha Soule, Anne McDonough and Dan Daily.

Ms. Soule had a rather lovely moment as an aging, doddering, family matriarch who no longer recognizes her own family and is terribly uncomfortable at her son's home on Thanksgiving. When she asks to be driven back to her mother's house, her confusion at being told the house was no longer standing was quite touching.

Ms. McDonough also gave a nice turn as an aging aunt, showing her grand-nephew the ins and outs of tableware, from the silver flatware, to the china to the crystal finger bowls. When he reveals that his interest is only for a college anthropology project, her indignation is palpable. She was soon channeling my 13 year old niece with every requisite "duh!"

Mr. Silverstein keeps the pace moving very nicely across Dana Moran Williams' lovely set of a bordered parquet floor with an eclectic mix of Chippendale and Sheraton style furniture, topped with an clever ceiling treatment that turned the Clurman's black box into a much warmer space. Josh Bradford's lighting complemented nicely. Theresa Squires costumes, all in shades of blue tied together well.

I remember seeing "The Dining Room" in the mid 1980s, in another wonderful production under the direction of someone less than talented. Mr. Gurney's writing truly comes through as the strength of this show. It's a wonder there aren't more productions of it - it almost seems fool-proof.

As I Speak of This, I'm Trying to be Kind

"Tea & Sympathy" presented by Keen Company at the Clurman Theatre, Theatre Row, April 3, 2007

I have a certain fondness for "T&S" because one of the first acting scenes I was assigned in high school was from this play.

I was pleased at how well Robert Anderson's script held up since its initial Broadway run of 712 performances beginning in 1953. His tale of a sensitive young man suffering under unfounded suspicions remains a compelling tale.

It's less fortunate that this production is so uneven. As Tom Lee, Dan McCabe (who's building some nice off-Broadway credits) brings the timeless discomfort of a sensitive teenager trying to fit into a boy's school which values virility over intelligence.

Seeing qualities in Tom that remind her of her late first husband, Laura (Heidi Ambruster) aches over his pain and is eager to make up for things she didn't do or couldn't have done the first time. Ms. Ambruster, pretty and eager, doesn't manage to bring the quiet dignity that this role requires. She seems stuck in her craft of awkward poses, arms akimbo, and looking off to nowhere in particular when delivering some of her lines. While Laura is not happy in her current environment, she is certainly comfortable in her own skin. Ms. Ambruster seems to have missed that. She is almost glib when she talks about her first husband, hidden behind a nervous smile that undercuts many of her lines.

As Laura's husband Bill, who is the housemaster where Tom lives, he's got his own set of issues demonstrated by a glimpse of paranoia when he shares his own difficulties with Laura about growing from a boy into a man, almost confessing to the sins of which Tom is wrongfully accused.

As Al, Tom's uber-jock roommate, Brandon Espinosa has a nice turn trying to be loyal to his friend, but torn by pressure from classmates and his own father to separate himself from Tom.

Tom's father, Herb Lee (Dan Cordle) looks more uncomfortable about being on stage that uncomfortable about the situation with his character's son.

Director Jonathan Silverstein treats the script with a nice touch of reverence, but doesn't seem to have been able to communicate that to his cast, with such uneven performances. The set by Beowulf Boritt and Jo Winiarski looks like some of their concept might have gotten lost in translation or just jumbled in the metaphors. All grey set pieces on a wash of blue stage and walls, with a roof frame outline that extends over the audience leaves me wondering how many things they are trying to say. Is the empty roof trying to convey inclusion and safety? Are the "shades of grey" a representation of perception and interpretation? Is the blue background a false sense of the blue-sky 1950s? (If so, the shade of blue was a bit dark.) Josh Bradford's lighting accomodates the proceedings.

Tangent of Tales

"The Fever" presented by The New Group at the Acorn Theatre, Theatre Row, January 13, 2007

I missed the invitation to join Mr. Shawn onstage for champagne when I arrived at today's matinee of his new play, "The Fever." Given the nature of the material, I couldn't help but wonder if that was part of the intended effect.

It was also difficult at first to tell when the "pre-show" ended and the play began. Mr. Shawn warns the audience against short people as dangerous. He offers examples that include Napoleon and Wagner. He then gave a quick overview of his vision of plays today, a clever poke in the eye at Stoppard's Coast of Utopia running at Lincoln Center. He makes the following points:

• Plays are too long
• Stages are too big, taking the actors too long to get in place for their next scene
• Too many characters to follow, too many actors onstage
• Too much preparation required to follow the story
• Too many scenes

He then takes his place in the slice of a set (a clever execution of Pottery Barn/West Elm decor by Derek McLane along with clever lighting by Jennifer Tipton) seated in a leather chair accompanied by a glass of red wine. A one-man show, he begins speaking in total darkness, describing his illness during a visit to an unnamed country in the midst of a revolution. It is here that his "fever" gets the play going.

At times, he speaks in something akin to stream of conscious, but then veers into rambling a la Bette Davis but is generally more pithy than entertaining. He spends a great deal of time talking about the role of poor people and how their lot in life is controlled by the rich, which of course, is for their own good. Without them, how would the rich people know that they're still rich. (It was during this part that I wondered if I were supposed to feel like the poor, on the outside looking in during the pre-show champagne.)

It's a long one-act, roughly an hour and forty-five minutes during which Mr. Shawn never leaves the stage. His performance is quite compelling. He carries the audience along his tale from the fevered moments lying on the floor of the hotel bathroom, unable to return to bed, through his memories and visions (for lack of a better word) of his world. He captures the dream-like momentum and skillfully plays the transitions.

Prime Perhaps, But Not Ideal

"The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" presented by the New Group at the Acorn Theatre, Theatre Row, December 6, 2006

I love Cynthia Nixon. I always have since one of her earliest film roles, that of a maid in "Amadeus." I can still see her sobbing at the end. Add to that her run in "Sex and the City" with my good friend Kristin Davis and it's like we're BFF (sort of).

Anyway, she's back onstage in NYC, this time as Jean Brodie, the Scottish teacher "in her prime." Much has already been written about the script and her performance. I won't spend so much time on the play itself, but will focus more on the production.

Scott Elliott, a founder of the New Group, has given what is probably a faithful restoration of the play, with a couple of nice touches, though the pacing felt a little indulgent. Act I ran about 10 minutes longer than the one hour sign posted in the theatre lobby. Placing the students in front of the proscenium in desks facing the stage provide a nice opportunity for Ms. Nixon to deliver her classroom lectures. He moves the story along pretty well making nice use of Derek McLane's single set. Jason Lyons integrated lighting is a key to that success.

The costumes were quite effective, although it appeared that Eric Becker had used up his budget by the time he got to the nun's habit. That only added to the flashback concept looking like an afterthought in this staging.

Ms. Nixon's Miss Brodie is manipulative from the outset. She presents a woman who fancies herself a modern Plato, when she's really more just a pied piper. This woman is one who worships form over function, heaping praise on Mussolini for the cleanliness of his city streets. (He's also established a nature conservancy program. Such vision and virtues can't possibly make a fascist a bad thing, can it?) Her results with the men in her life are not quite as successful. There were several mentions of her accent being difficult to understand. Perhaps because I attended late in the run, this issue had worked itself out. When Miss Brodie should sparkle, Ms. Nixon only glimmers. She does not struggle like Julianne Moore did in "The Vertical Hour," but she doesn't quite sweep you off your feet like Miss Brodie should. She is an accomplished actor, but there are times when skill can't overcome an ill-fitting role.

As the two men, Gordon Lowther (John Pankow) and Teddy Lloyd (Ritchie Coster) fall for her manipulations as well. Mr. Coster's Teddy gets the better material to work with and plays it well. Mr. Pankow's Gordon is somewhat of a departure from his obnoxious baseball fan "Twelve Angry Men." I'll echo other notices that have described his performance as "sweet."

Her girls, of an impressionable age, latch on to her for approval and guidance. Jenny (Halley Wegryn Gross) is the pretty one. Mary MacGregor (Betsy Hogg), who seems to have the only last name of the four girls, is the awkward one. Monica (Sarah Steele) is the emotional one. Sandy (Zoe Kazan) is the dependable one. Of the four, Ms. Kazan gives the standout performance. I did think her nude scene dragged on a little longer than necessary. Her inner struggle as to whether or not she should betray her teacher was thoughtful and effective. Ms. Gross' accent was completely unintelligible. Ms. Steele and Ms. Hogg were both appropriate to their respective roles.

Though not groundbreaking, this was a solid and respectable production. I look forward to Ms. Nixon's next stage outing. I hear that she's been studying voice - maybe a musical next time?