I caught Next To Normal on Broadway last weekend, and among the things that amazed me about this exciting new musical, was how much the show has improved since it was mounted off-Broadway at Second Stage last year. The creators have tightened and thematically focused the show, and eliminated only the things that did not work. The mixed-tone and somewhat silly moments that were in the show's off-Broadway stint have been eliminated, leaving an intensely moving work that is the most emotionally rich Broadway musical since "LightIn The Piazza." Next To Normal is, by far, the best musical of the 2008-09 Broadway season, anchored by amazing performances by Alice Ripley and Aaron Tveit. Ripley will almost surely win the Best Actress in a Musical Tony, and Tveit should have won the Tony for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. Just one problem - he was not even nominated. By far the biggest slight of the Tony nominations, I cannot fathom how his incredible Broadway debut was passed over in favor of five other, less than stellar and far inferior, performances.
I also loved all three plays that make up The Norman Conquests trilogy, which I caught in a three-play-in-a-day "marathon" last Saturday. I had feared that the show might be getting unjustifiable great reviews, but this production deserves all of the praise that has been heaped upon it by both the London and New York critics. The shows are funny, extremely witty and emotionally genuine. The acting ensemble is simply priceless, although I cannot avoid singling out Amanda Root's particularly brilliant performace. Director Matthew Warchus, who earlier worked his comic magic on a rather limited God of Carnage script, proves with "Norman" that he is the best comedic director working in English language theater today.
Speaking of undeserved critical praise, the lackluster and uneven Broadway revival of August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come And Gone was a major disappointment for me. While this revival is graced with one excellent performance (by Roger Robinson) the rest of the acting is either mediocre or downright bad. "Joe Turner" may be my favorite Wilson play, so this production was especially problematic for me. Director Bartlett Sher's otherworldly take on the material, which is beautifully staged from a technical perspective, is just plain wrong for this material. This production was woefully inferior to the small scale "Joe Turner" that was mounted by LA's excellent Fountain Theater a few years back.
There is not much good that can be said about Craig Lucas's The Singing Forest , whose closing performance at the Public I caught a week ago. I was impressed by this play at a reading I saw a few years ago at South Coast Rep, although I recognized that a full staging would be difficult to pull off. While I still feel that some of Lucas' writing here is very good, at least as staged at the Public, this play is an unworkable mess.
There is more excellent theater playing in New York right now than in any year in recent memory. Do yourself a favor- go to New York and patronize sample some of this outstanding work. Combining my various recent NY posts, here in order of preference are the shows now playing in New York that I would recommend: Next To Normal, The Norman Conquests, Our Town, Ruined, Mary Stuart, and reasons to be pretty.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Saturday, May 02, 2009
NY Report #2- April/May 2009
On my second spring 2009 trip to New York I had the displeasure of seeing Arthur Laurents' Broadway revival of the classic musical "West Side Story" that is playing to packed houses. Sorry to say, there is almost nothing to recommend this poorly directed, poorly sung, poorly acted production. Matt Cavenaugh as Tony falls woefully short of the vocal demands for that role. Josephina Scaglione as Maria sings her role well, but her acting is wooden and one-note. Sadly, the actress playing Anita that has received much praise was out the performance I saw, and her understudy shouted instead of sang. Curtis Holbrook is a complete ham as Action, an interpretation of the role that is simply wrong for this show. Watching this mess, I could not help but think of the many ways this revival should have been done differently. And notwithstanding the fact the this show is selling out nearly every performance, the audience reaction to the show when I saw it was lackluster at best. I could go on and on about what this production does wrong to one of the best musicals ever written, but nothing matches the travesty that is done to one of the greatest Broadway songs ever written - "Somewhere." The hokey, horribly staged scene in which this song is peformed nearly had me running for the exits. Memo to Broadway: Please stop having Arthur Laurents direct and destroy classic musicals.
I also saw two funny new plays on my quick trip to NY. The first, "God of Carnage" by Yasmina Reza has a dream cast of four (Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis, James Gandolfini and Marcia Gay Harden) and is smartly directed by Matthew Warchus. While I found the play funny, and suspect this production does everything right with the source material, the play itself is rather shallow and forgetable. Nevertheless, it is worth seeing for the fine cast, particularly Ms. Harden's performance which is probably the best comic acting seen in NY this year, and perhaps in many years.
In contrast to the lack of depth in "Carnage,"Neil LaBute's new play "reasons to be pretty" sticks with you long after seeing it. This third play in a thematic LaBute trilogy ("Fat Pig" and "The Shape of Things" are the other two) takles similar themes as "Carnage" (e.g., dysfunction in relationships). LaBute probes the sources of the dysfunction, unlike Reza. The characters in "pretty" also seem like real people rather than the sitcom-ish types found in "Carnage." Of the likely nominees for the Best Play Tony Award this year, I think "reasons to be pretty" is light years ahead of the other new plays and should win the award, although I think it may lose to either "Carnage" or "Dividing The Estate" (the latter of which was a horrible production, but there will be sympathy to give the award posthumously to much loved Horton Foote). I should also note that the performance Thomas Sadoski gives in the lead role in "pretty" is breathtaking, and adds layers of depth to the script.
I will be making another trip to NY in May to see "Joe Turner's Come and Gone," the "Norman Conquests" marathon trilogy, "Next To Normal" (again) and "The Singing Forest." I will report on those shows later in the month.
Finally, in Los Angeles, the one current play I would recommend is "Lydia" at the Taper, which is a lyrical and moving play that is given a beautiful production. The show is very dark, and will turn off people who do not like their theater to address serious and disturbing subject matters. Indeed, the number of walk-out at the Taper the night I saw the show were among the highest I have witnessed there. But no matter; if you like challenging, well written dramas, don't let that stop you from seeing this fine and moving new work.
I also saw two funny new plays on my quick trip to NY. The first, "God of Carnage" by Yasmina Reza has a dream cast of four (Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis, James Gandolfini and Marcia Gay Harden) and is smartly directed by Matthew Warchus. While I found the play funny, and suspect this production does everything right with the source material, the play itself is rather shallow and forgetable. Nevertheless, it is worth seeing for the fine cast, particularly Ms. Harden's performance which is probably the best comic acting seen in NY this year, and perhaps in many years.
In contrast to the lack of depth in "Carnage,"Neil LaBute's new play "reasons to be pretty" sticks with you long after seeing it. This third play in a thematic LaBute trilogy ("Fat Pig" and "The Shape of Things" are the other two) takles similar themes as "Carnage" (e.g., dysfunction in relationships). LaBute probes the sources of the dysfunction, unlike Reza. The characters in "pretty" also seem like real people rather than the sitcom-ish types found in "Carnage." Of the likely nominees for the Best Play Tony Award this year, I think "reasons to be pretty" is light years ahead of the other new plays and should win the award, although I think it may lose to either "Carnage" or "Dividing The Estate" (the latter of which was a horrible production, but there will be sympathy to give the award posthumously to much loved Horton Foote). I should also note that the performance Thomas Sadoski gives in the lead role in "pretty" is breathtaking, and adds layers of depth to the script.
I will be making another trip to NY in May to see "Joe Turner's Come and Gone," the "Norman Conquests" marathon trilogy, "Next To Normal" (again) and "The Singing Forest." I will report on those shows later in the month.
Finally, in Los Angeles, the one current play I would recommend is "Lydia" at the Taper, which is a lyrical and moving play that is given a beautiful production. The show is very dark, and will turn off people who do not like their theater to address serious and disturbing subject matters. Indeed, the number of walk-out at the Taper the night I saw the show were among the highest I have witnessed there. But no matter; if you like challenging, well written dramas, don't let that stop you from seeing this fine and moving new work.
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