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.
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