TOP PICK - Mary Stuart - to August 16

Left to right: Harriet Walker and Janet McTeer; photo by Alastair Muir.
The Donmar Warehouse production of a new translation/adaptation by Peter Oswald of Friedrich Schiller's 1800 classic drama, Mary Stuart is amazing audiences at the Broadhurst Theatre on W. 44th St. The play features two proud, intelligent Tudor Queens: Mary, Queen of Scots (Janet McTeer) and Elizabeth I of England (Harriet Walter). Brilliantly directed by acclaimed British opera, film and theater director, Phyllida Lloyd, this production was a success in July-August 2005 at London's Donmar Warehouse and then transferred to the West End from October, 2005 to January, 2006.
The following description is from the press materials: "For a Queen to stand, a Queen must fall... Mary Stuart is a thrilling account of the relationship between England’s Elizabeth I and her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots, Elizabeth’s rival to the throne. With its behind the scenes intrigue, scheming and betrayal, the play has the contemporary feel of a modern-day political thriller. Mary Stuart builds to one of the most electrifying dramatic confrontations in world theatre, in which Schiller imagines a fictive meeting between the two monarchs on the grounds at Fotheringay Castle."
A brilliant directorial touch is the decision to dress all the male courtiers and jailors in conservative gray modern business suits, while the women are dressed in period attire. The effect is to make the male ministers and courtiers resemble a throng of scheming modern bureaucrats, while the two queens are trapped in the machinations of the courtiers and in their prescribed roles.
Some viewers reported that the romantic melodrama and long monologues are '"static, old-fashioned" and not to their taste, but all viewers applaud the drama of the rain scene (12 minutes of downpour when Mary walks in the courtyard, unaware why her jailers have allowed her this scrap of freedom) and the dramatic but fictional confrontation between Mary and her cousin Elizabeth in the courtyard. In addition to McTeer and Walter, both splendid and convincingly monumental, the cast includes: Michael Countryman, John Benjamin Hickey, Michael Rudko, Robert Stanton, Maria Tucci, Chandler Williams, Nicholas Woodeson, Brian Murray.
Get tickets right away, while the early discounts are available, on offer at both www.theatermania.com and www.broadwaybox.com, with prices as low as $45/$40 for tickets ordered before April 19. Tickets have also been offered at TKTS booths and to tdf members.
-- Ellen

NIX - Impressionism

Joan Allen and Jeremy Irons; photo by Joan Marcus.
At the Schoenfeld Theatre, W. 45th Street, where it is not likely to last very long. This is a new play by Michael Jacobs, a TV writer best known as creator of TV series such as The Torkelsons, Charles in Charge, and My Two Dads.. This description is from the press release: "Impressionism is the story of a world traveling photojournalist and a New York gallery owner who discover each other and also that there might be an art to repairing broken lives." Despite a wonderful cast, including Joan Allen, Jeremy Irons, Marsha Mason, Andre DeShields, the play has garnered not a single favorable review.
One correspondent notes: "The play is weak, but, I felt that Impressionism had several genuinely sweet, touching moments among the sentimentality and triviality. And Jeremy Irons was very good in his main role, as a pleasant, shy, disheartened guy and also as the father. He was a bit less convincing as the artist. But, nevertheless, he gave one of the better performances I've seen this year."
Another correspondent adds: "It felt like watching three plays melted into one... and none of the three plays worked well with the others. The two leads, although well played, had no chemistry...It was nice to have Marsha Mason breeze in, even as an uninteresting character. At least the secondary characters in Impressionism had a reason to be there. A forgettable play with unforgettable actors."
Excerpts below are from various mainstream reviews, all negative:

- Ben Brantley in The New York Times writes: "But I’ve concluded that even if I were to back up all the way to the Hudson River, with half-open eyes fixed on the stage where Mr. Irons and Ms. Allen labor so valiantly, Impressionism still wouldn’t look credible. I mean this both in terms of its plot and as a proposition that would entice some very talented people and a vast army of producers."
- Elizabeth Vincentelli in the New York Post writes: "On paper, Impressionism is all class. Onstage, it's a stupefying bore. . . . Allen and Irons put up a stoic front but can't help betraying a certain sense of defeat. . . . But their limp performances also stem from the characters: The actors look as bored by Katharine and Thomas as we are."
- David Rooney in Variety writes: "Distress signals went out when the original opening date was pushed back by 12 days after preview audiences proved unresponsive. The creative team used that time to condense the show from two acts into one, presumably to stanch the intermission exodus. But there's not much here worth saving; the play is a dud, as thin on humor as it is on emotional rewards."
- John Simon for Bloomberg News writes: "Two distinguished actors, Jeremy Irons and Joan Allen, are mired in Michael Jacobs’s Impressionism, at Broadway’s Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre. The play suffers from three major ailments: pretentiousness, trickery and triviality."

PICK - Tartuffe (Pearl Theatre) - to April 26

Rachel Botchan as Mme. Orgon and Bradford Cover as Tartuffe; photo by Gregory Costanza.
Pearl Theatre Company (at Theatre 80 St. Marks) offers a new production of Moliere's Tartuffe, and it is luscious. This production uses the Richard Wilbur translation, by far the best English verse translation, and the actors, virtually all regulars of the Pearl repertory company, are fluent and well paced in verse delivery even in previews.
The director (Gus Kaikkonen) has opted for broad physical comedy, a lot of pratfalls, and it really seems to captivate the audience; I have seen the play in drier and more "classical" productions in the past, with greater emphasis placed on Tartuffe's religious hypocrisy. Here, however, the emphasis is on ribald comedy, not political or theological satire.
Ordinarily, the Pearl's sets are quite spartan, but on this occasion they have managed lush set design and lighting for the opulent hall of Orgon, the affluent and gullible man who sacrifices his family's well-being out of devotion to the pious swindler and hypocrite Tartuffe. The regulars of the Pearl company are out in force for this gleeful comedy: TJ Edwards, Bradford Cover, Rachel Botchan, Sean McNall, Robin Leslie Brown, Dominic Cuskern, and Carol Schultz.
Embarassment of riches, there is another adaptation of Tartuffe in NYC on stage right now -- at the South Street Seaport. I have not seen it. According to nytheatre.com, it's in modern dress with a modern adaptation/translation. The publicity says "Moliere spun his comedy from the stock characters of Commedia, and Mr. Cohen spins his from the golden era of American comedians and films." I haven't seen it, but would be delighted to hear from anyone who has seen that version.

TOP PICK - Incident at Vichy - to April 11

Scene from Incident at Vichy – Photo By Stephen Kunken
At the Beckett Theatre, W. 42nd Street. Arthur Miller's 1964 play is gripping from the very first minutes clear through to the end, a mere 90 minutes of taut drama.
Arthur Miller's drama is about ten men, strangers to one another, who are brought in for questioning to a detention hall resembling a police station. They fret about why they were brought in, some insisting that this is just a routine check of documents, others sure that they will be sent to a labor camp, and one man has heard a rumor about ovens in Poland where people are killed. The men quarrel about politics, debating about communism and fascism, ethics, and art. Is it possible that Germans who are so reverent about music and theater could ever do acts of senseless brutality?
Above all, they argue about whether to sit tight and hope that it will pass by, or whether to take a chance and try to overpower the sole guard. Miller also shows us the sentiments of a German regular officer, SS officers, and French cooperators. We also see that the Jewish victims of discrimination practice prejudice and discriminate against a gypsy who is caught up in the same sweep. I left amazed with the economy of Miller's writing, to pack so much into a brief 90 minutes of theater.
The drama is enhanced by the direction by Scott Evans. This is an ensemble work with a very large all male cast, and I was impressed by the acting. Also, the set by Scott Bradley is quite effective. The play's short run is scheduled to end on April 11, so I suggest that you see it soon.
My husband had seen the original production in 1964 with his parents and said that he didn't understand it then. At the time, he and his parents took it to be a realistic play about the holocaust. Seen today, further away from the events, we are more inclined to see it as a moral and ethical exploration: how people react to evil events affecting themselves or their fellow man.
-- Ellen

PICK - Joe Turner's Come and Gone - to June 14

Lincoln Center Theater presents a revival of August Wilson's play, Joe Turner's Come and Gone. Set in 1911, Herald Loomis arrives with his young daughter at a Pittsburgh boarding house; we learn that he and his daughter have been on the road for three years, ostensibly in search of Herald's wife but in fact, he is really looking for freedom from the awful memories of his abduction and involuntary service for seven years on a forced labor gang. The boarding house is filled with memorable characters who aid or impede his search for his inner freedom. Cast: Marsha Stephanie Blake, Chad L. Coleman, Michael Cummings, Aunjanue Ellis, Danai Gurira, Andre Holland, Arliss Howard, Ernie Hudson, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Amari Rose Leigh, Roger Robinson. Director is Bartlett Sher.
Our first report came from Sue, an avowed August Wilson fan, who calls it a PICK. She says,

"We went to see Joe Turner's Come and Gone, by August Wilson, whom we really love,and I have to say I thought it was a terrific production. It is a very long play at three hours, but not wordy. I thought it flew by. It got a standing ovation. It is very serious drama and therefore, not for everybody ....but perfect for some theatergoers. It is about the sometimes terrible lives of black people just after Reconstruction...The Belasco is a wonderful old theater and we enjoyed ourselves enormously."

An anonymous commenter says: "I second the rave. The acting was tremendous and the play was riveting. I was somewhat apprehensive as the only Wilson play I saw previously -- Radio Golf -- had left me underwhelmed. This was fantastic, and made me understand why Wilson is such a big name. Plus, seeing Chad Coleman live, after loving him as "Cutty" on the Wire, was a treat!"
I think that those who are already fans of August Wilson's drama will find this a "must see", but some people will find the first act talky and slow. However, the high point of the drama is well worth the wait: a scene in which the residents of the boarding house follow their Sunday dinner with wonderful drumming and dancing in an African-American tradition they call "jouba"; then Herald Loomis enters in a fit to recount a horrific vision or nightmare of "dry bones" who walk upon the sea until they sink and drown; the scene is chilling. The play is threaded through with examples of the lingering wounds in the African American community created by slavery and its aftermath.
-- Ellen

PICK - 33 Variations - to May 24

Left, Zach Grenier as Beethoven; right, Jane Fonda as Katherine Brandt. Photo by Joan Marcus. Eugene O'Neill Theatre, W. 49th Street. In Moises Kaufman's 33 Variations, a contemporary musicologist Katherine (played Jane Fonda) sets out to resolve an old musical mystery. Beethoven was one of many composers commissioned to write a variation on a trivial waltz theme composed by music publisher Anton Diabelli. He chose to write not one but many variations, ultimately 33 in all. Why did he devote so much of the latter part of his life to embellishing such a trivial tune?
Katherine's struggles with degeneration caused by late-stage ALS are parallel to Beethoven's growing deafness while working on the variations; each must overcome the progress of his illness in order to complete an obsessive task. Kaufman takes great composers and their music as a metaphor for life and employs a fugal structure to organize a many-layered play. Critic Martin Denton wrote:

"What [playwright Moises Kaufman]does do in 33 Variations is look at the ineffable nature of art. Where does it come from? How does a Beethoven 'hear' so many different and glorious arrangements of the same four notes, finding such diverse moods and emotions within them? And how does a Katherine sift through so-called evidence (sketches, historical accounts, letters, and so forth) to impose meaning on this music?"

Our correspondent Harriet enjoyed 33 Variations and this is her report:

"The play is a wonderful piece of theater and there are lots of nominations possible. There is a Tony nomination for Best Actress in Jane Fonda's performance. There is a Tony nomination for Best Supporting Actor in Beethoven's performance [Zach Grenier]. There is a Tony nomination for Best Play by Moises Kaufman. And, there might even be a nomination for best set design. If there were a nomination for best classical music piano accompanist, it would go to Diane Walsh for her peformance of the 'Diabelli Variations.' The ensemble put together a wonderful story based on research into musical history, with 'variations' on some of the human emotions and stories of the people involved, both in Beethoven's time and now."

You can listen to the Diabelli Variations as recorded by Diane Walsh on the show's website. There is a tremendous amount of glorious music played in the show, but it is not a musical. The play has its flaws, but nonetheless it is a very interesting evening of theater with fine music and a magnetic performance by Fonda.

PICK - Zooman and the Sign - to April 26

A revival lovingly done at the Signature Theater at Peter Norton Space on far West 42nd St. This description is from the publicist "A random act of violence devastates Reuben Tate's family and scares their once caring community into silence. While young Zooman terrorizes the neighborhood, Reuben makes a dangerous appeal which may tear their world apart. This powerful drama by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Charles Fuller (A Soldier’s Play) depicts the horrifying aftermath of violence on a family and community."
Our frequent contributor Harriet selects this as a PICK and reports:

"Zooman and the Sign, now playing at the Signature Theater is part of the year's productions featuring the Negro Ensemble Company. It is a wonderfully acted revival of the 1980 Charles Fuller play which resonates every bit as much dramatically today, since the same 'incident' occurred in Trenton this past fall. No one sees anything and no one was looking in that direction. The fear is powerful. You would have to wonder what you would do in that very situation... Zooman got me very involved with the personal issues, and how much it reverberated almost 30 years later."

PICK - God of Carnage - Open Run

From left: Marcia Gay Harden, Hope Davis, Jeff Daniels, and James Gandolfini in a scene from God of Carnage; Photo by Joan Marcus.
The publicity material says: “God of Carnage is a comedy of manners without the manners. The play deals with the aftermath of a playground altercation between two boys and what happens when their parents meet to talk about it. Written by French playwright Yasmina Reza (Art), in a translation by Christopher Hampton that premiered in London last year.” This French/British import is playing at the Jacobs Theatre on W. 45 St. Running time is 90 minutes.
Our frequent contributor Harriet calls it a PICK and reports:

"God of Carnage" lets four seasoned actors work as an ensemble letting it all fly. It has some vibrations of the four adults in 'Virginia Wolfe,' but the 'types' on the stage are not from the 50s. They're from right now and do they act out!
Things start in a very civilized manner and they deteriorate very dramatically. Who's afraid of a guy with a cell phone? Who's afraid of a woman with a degree in art history? Who's afraid of a wealth management consultant? Who's afraid of a guy with a small business? We might all be if they were in our living room.
"I didn't feel drawn into the play, as I did at Zooman and the Sign. Carnage kept me a spectator watching some urban types acting out...and it would probably be more of a must see for people who like to see stars change from the big screen and TV to the theater."

PICK - Happiness - to June 7

Photo at right by Paul Kolnik.
Happiness, at the Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center is a new musical about a disparate group of New Yorkers caught on a subway train under unusual circumstances. Director and choreographer is Susan Stroman, book is by John Weidman, and the team of Scott Frankel and Michael Korie (both of Grey Gardens) is responsible for score and lyrics.
We received an enthusiastic review from our friend Rosemarie:

“Happiness, a musical, currently in previews at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center, opens on March 30. It is staged in a stalled New York City subway car. (It reawakened memories of my own experience in a stalled subway car in the 1960's, when New York City and most of the northeast experienced a massive power outage.) There are about a dozen people on that stuck train who cannot leave it until they remember and reenact the happiest moment of their lives. The rules are set forth by a trainman played by Hunter Foster, 2004 Tony nominee for his role as Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors. He is excellent as he sings, dances and performs his wry comedic lines. Sebastian Arcelus, a lawyer involved with investment banking and driving hard for success, performs my favorite song, 'Just Not Now,' the reply to every interruption to his rush toward success. The vignettes are moving, sometimes funny, as they uncover character and history. One of my companions who knows dance observed that the choreography by Susan Stroman was unexciting. I am not sure it needs to be exciting to work well.
"We saw the show on the first night of previews and the audience reaction was enthusiastic. I believe it deserves to be a hit, and will be one."

TOP PICK - Othello - April 15 -24

John Douglas Thompson as Othello and Juliet Rylance as Desdemona; photo by Gerry Goodstein.
NOTE: Othello will return to the Duke Theatre for a brief reprise on April 15 -24.
A splendid production of Othello by Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA) awaits you at the Duke on 42nd Street. This production uses a nearly bare stage to extremely good effect; the emphasis is on the text and the clarity of the direction. When my husband and I saw this in an early preview, we were struck by the coherence of the work which made us feel that all elements were united to increase our comprehension of the drama and its rich layers of emotion. While the entire cast is a strong ensemble, I would especially single out fine performances by Ned Eisenbery as Iago, Juliet Rylance as Desdemona, and Kate Forbes as Emilia. John Douglas Thompson made Othello a most credible amalgam of experience and naivete, valor and passion. There were moments in the first act when his delivery was somewhat stilted, but as the drama progressed his performance grew deeper and more affecting.
Othello is directed by Arin Arbus, a young director whose work I have never before seen, but Arbus' biographical sketch in the program reveals this tantalizing nugget: "In association with Rehabilitation through the Arts, Arbus also leads a theatre company of inmates at Woodbourne Correctional Facility, a medium security prison in upstate New York."
-- Ellen

AWAITING REVIEW - Exit the King - to June 14

Exit the King began previews at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on March 7 and is scheduled to open on March 26. ing June. This is a new production of Eugene Ionesco's Exit the King, in a new translation by Neil Armfield and Geoffrey Rush. It is about a megalomaniacal ruler, King Berenger (Rush) whose incompetence has left his country in near ruin. Despite the efforts of Queen Marguerite (Susan Sarandon) and the other members of the court to convince the King he has only 90 minutes left to live, he refuses to relinquish any control. This is Rush's Broadway debut, and Sarandon's first Broadway appearance since 1972. This translation has been seen in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia with Rush in the lead and Armfield at the helm.
A review of the same production in Melbourne by Alison Croggon:

Like Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco is aging well. As the years roll on, he just looks more and more hip. While contemporaries like John Osborne or Arthur Miller have gained a tinge of sepia, the mark of the "classic" that is an expression of its time and must be seen through a lens of metaphor in order to reflect ours, Ionesco sparkles with contemporary bite: he took a short cut and made a metaphor in the first place. He was never concerned with the social applicability of his work, and directed his intelligence towards very simple things - death and loneliness, mainly - writing about them with a directness and clarity that, paradoxically, gave him a reputation as a fiercely difficult playwright.
In a 1958 review of a revival of The Chairs, Kenneth Tynan accused Ionesco of turning his back on reality. "M. Ionesco certainly offers an 'escape from realism': but an escape into what?" he asked. "A blind alley, perhaps... [his] theatre is pungent and exciting, but it remains a diversion. It is not on the main road." Ionesco's reply, in which he claimed that man as a social animal was inevitably alienated, prompted a storm of voices talking at cross-purposes, that in 2007 looks at once faintly puzzling and depressingly familiar. Ionesco's refusal to hoist himself to a progressive ideology, his horrified rejection of any political or social agenda, could only be regarded by his peers as the most reprehensible nihilism. Yet Ionesco's final reply seems to me to be an immensely moving statement of faith in the possibility of what remains, in the face of all of the confusions and impossibilities of language, communicable between human beings:
'When my lieutenant and my boss are back in their homes, alone in their rooms, they could, for example, just like me, being outside the social order, be afraid of death as I am, have the same dreams and nightmares, and having stripped off their social personality, suddenly find themselves naked, like a body stretched out on the sand, amazed to be there and amazed at their own amazement, amazed at their own awareness as they are confronted with the immense ocean of the infinite, alone in the brilliant, inconceivable and indisputable sunlight of existence. And it is then that my general or my boss can be identified with me. It is in our solitude that we can all be reunited.'
As the brutal history of the 20th century collapsed the categories of right and left ideologies into a maze of contradictory mirrors, it began to look rather as if Ionesco's dark but surprisingly joyous vision might have been more prescient than it was allowed in his time. His sceptical humanity is bracing when the possibility of belief seems to be decaying into a kind of mediaevalism, and when the pressures of modernity have made the self uniquely atomised and lonely. Certainly, Exit the King, which charts the gradual death of a monarch who has reigned past his allotted time, has lines that bite deeply into the political present. But the play is ultimately a lament for human mortality, all the more poignant for its pitiless and anarchic comedy.