AmericanTheaterWeb Original News & Reviews

As 2008 draws to a close, I look back over my schedule and realize that I saw nearly 300 shows during the course of the year (this includes Fringe and other Festival going). There have been some good moments, a few sublime ones, and well, some that…. well, let me not finish that thought.

Anyway, I figured that before the year ended, I'd do a quick "best of list" – just going month by month through 2008.

Last January was filled with shows that rest happily in both my memory and heart. Jordan Harrison's adventurous Amazons and Their Men started off my year and was quickly followed by David Ives' New Jerusalem at Classic Stage Company and Fabrik, Wakka Wakka Productions' inventive puppet-parable about how a German industrialist responded to Hitler's rise to power. A couple of performances stand out from January including Rebecca Wisocky's turn in "Amazons" and also S. Epatha Merkerson's soaring, and sensitive, performance in Come Back, Little Sheba.

A few shows in Chicago during the first few days in February were followed by a largish number of New York productions, of which several stand out. First and foremost, the musical The Adding Machine, which seemed to get even better in a second viewing. Patrick Stewart and Macbeth, seen at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, linger with me as does the musical The Blue Flower, which like "Machine" brought a German expressionist aesthetic to musical theater.

As we approached spring in March, we got a chance to see one of Britain's most highly discussed troupes, Kneehigh Theatre, when Rapunzel played a brief run at the New Victory Theatre on 42nd Street. At around the same time, the Vampire Cowboys delivered its latest in comic book-come-to-life theater, Fight Girl Battle World, a lark that rests very pleasantly in the memory. So too does John Belluso's The Poor Itch, which, produced posthumously, played briefly at the Public Theater. As March drew to a close, Broadway seemed to shake with Arthur Laurents' galvanizingly exciting revival of Gypsy, featuring a stunning Patti LuPone and the equally impressive Laura Benanti.

At the beginning of April, a little musical that sounded preposterous completely captured me, Hostage Song from Kyle Jarrow and Clay McLeod Chapman. Who could have imagined that a musical about two people being held captive overseas could provoke not only terror, but also bitter laughs? As April hit its midpoint, John Bucchino's A Catered Affair, one of the most sophisticated shows to hit Broadway in a while, opened. Almost simultaneously, The Walworth Farce, a frighteningly hysterical three-person romp played a brief run in Brooklyn at St. Ann's Warehouse.

With the approach of the Tony Award eligibility deadline, a spate of new shows arrived on Broadway. The most successful were two revivals: the hilarious Boeing-Boeing, which demonstrated that 60s sex farce still could (pardon the pun) fly in the 21st century, and Manhattan Theatre Club's vivid Top Girls, featuring a grand central performance from Elizabeth Marvel. Off-Broadway at the Atlantic Theater Company, the three-person monodrama Port Authority, featured three equally memorable performances from John Gallagher, Jr., Brian D'Arcy James and Jim Norton. The month closed with another odd-ball musical that simply charmed beyond compare, Jollyship, the Whiz Bang. Hopefully, we'll see more of this quirky pirate punk rock tuner in 2009.

Among the highlights in June were Mercedes Ruehl's turn in Edward Albee's The Occupant and a couple of intimate plays seen briefly off-Broadway, Annie Baker's impressive Body Awareness and Philip Ridley's Vincent River. Looking back over the theatergoing for June, another performance that leaps to mind is David Harbour's cunningly nuanced turn as Laertes in the Public's Hamlet, and I must admit to being grateful that the gay hip-hop tuner Bash'd returned for a full-run from an earlier Festival engagement.

July's offerings truly ran the gamut from the interactive Suspicious Package, a grandly clever offering from creator Gyda Arber that used its four-person audience as its cast and sent them, mp3 players in hand, off on an adventure through Williamsburg, to the classically and politically dramatic Scenes From an Execution, which featured a grand central performance from Jan Maxwell. The Midwest was also well-represented during July: from Chicago, The Strangerer, which took President Bush on some terrific flights of fantasy and from Cincinnati, Around the World in 80 Days, a high-speed comic romp. Although both arrived post-Gay Pride, it seems important to note a couple of solo offerings from out artists Taylor Mac and Kenny Mellman. Mac delivered two exceptional shows at HERE Arts Center, and Mellman's musical-in-workshop Say Seaboy, You Sissy Boy? had a brief run at Dixon Place.

Before the Fringe Festival kicked into gear in August, Second Stage Theatre offered up a marvelous bit of comic-drama with Rajiv Joseph's Animals Out of Paper, which not only reaffirmed the playwright's promise, but also featured lovely performances from Jeremy Shamos and Utkarsh Ambudkar. In the middle of the fringe, Signature Theatre Company began its year-long salute to plays developed by the Negro Ensemble Company with a heartfelt revival of The First Breeze of Summer.

One early fall highlight of 2008 certainly was George S. Irving's masterful turn in the equally accomplished production of Enter Laughing at the York Theatre Company. Also in September, what's looking like it will be the final installment of Gerard Alessandrini's long-running Forbidden Broadway opened, proving that there is still plenty to spoof in New York theatre, no matter what Alessandrini might say.

During October, the 2008-2009 Broadway season began in earnest. Dramas abounded. Frank Langella shone in the Roundabout's revival of A Man for All Seasons, and director Simon McBurney delivered a searing revival of Arthur Miller's All My Sons, which featured some exceptional work from its stars, John Lithgow and Dianne Wiest. Off-Broadway, the musical Rock of Ages, soon to be seen on Broadway, proved that a jukebox musical of 80s rock hits could surprise and delight even the most jaded theatergoer, and Sarah Kane's Blasted made its New York debut in an electrifying production at Soho Rep, featuring intense performances from Marin Ireland, Reed Birney and Louis Cancelmi. As the month drew to a close, the first of two David Mamet revivals for the year opened on Broadway. Speed-the-Plow seemed newly minted.

November seems to be overwhelmed by one musical - Billy Elliot - which has brought intelligence, tunefulness, heart and dance together in electrifying ways. Also of note during the month, Mike Birbiglia's charming solo show Sleepwalk with Me and the Lincoln Center Theater and Primary Stages Broadway mounting of Horton Foote's family dramedy, Dividing the Estate. Honorable mention for the month goes to The Language of Trees, a provocative drama from up-and-coming playwright Steven Levenson that played at Roundabout Underground.

Finally, as the year has drawn to a close, we've gotten Shrek the Musical, another big musical on Broadway that, in my opinion improves upon its animated movie source, in addition to Robert Woodruff's taut staging of Edward Bond's provocative Chair. As 2008 has come to a close, two other revivals have leapt to the fore off-Broadway: Jesse Berger's 1950s infused take on the Jacobean tragedy Women Beware Women and Garry Hynes' emotionally rich staging of Martin McDonagh's The Cripple of Inishmaan, seen at Atlantic Theater Company, a co-production with Hynes' own Druid Theatre Company. Finally, although not a December opening, I caught up with Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's Road Show at The Public this, and my emotions about this one (and Liza Minnelli's engagement at the Palace) run high. It's just a treat to find these two veterans back in the theater with new shows.

Now, it's on to 2009 and I would imagine another 300 or so shows.

---- Andy Propst

Doing some random surfing over the weekend and dropped by the Original Cast Records site (www.originalcastrecords.com). They (meaning Bruce Yeko) are taking up where Footlight Records left off with regard to the U.K. label Stage Door Records. OCR is now the exclusive U.S. distributor for the label.

The site is saying that there will be four new titles available in 2009, but until then, are offering up the following:

• Ruggles Of Red Gap – Jule Styne's 1957 TV Musical …the disc also has 9 Jane Powell pop songs from 1957 Verve
• Hermione Gingold 1953 Live @ Cafe De Paris - which also includes 10 songs from Gingold's career of revue songs
• Shirley Jones Then & Now - featuring songs from soundtracks including 4 from April Love and 13 newly recorded from her hit movies plus "Beauty & Beast," "Memory" and "You'll Never Walk Alone"
• New Faces of 1956 - Broadway Cast With Inga Swenson & Maggie Smith; the disc also includes bonus tracks of the Broadway cast of Mrs. Paterson starring Eartha Kitt
• Wish You Were Here - the Broadway Cast, plus 4 bonus tracks 2 sung by Rome and 1 hit sung by Eddie Fisher
• On Your Toes - 1950s Columbia studio cast with Jack Cassidy, plus the 1957 studio Pal Joey sung by Big Band Stars Martha Tilton & June Hutton
• Boulevard (Sunset), sung by Gloria Swanson and written by Dickson Hughes in a studio demo; the two disc set also includes 6 songs from Swanson 30s film musicals

I have a couple of these ("Ruggles," & "New Faces") and look forward to checking them out.

Also want to mention that Idina Menzel's newest single – "Hope" – has been recorded to raise funds for Stand Up 2 Cancer (www.standup2cancer.org). Proceeds from digital downloads of the song (which is terrific) help support Stand Up's terrific work. You can stream the song by visiting:

http://streamos.wbr.com/wmedia/wbr/idinamenzel/audio/idinamenzel_001_hope_128.wax

To purchase, visit: http://www.standup2cancer.org/store

--- Andy Propst

Sir Noel Coward was born just days before Christmas in 1899, and it's for this reason that he was named Noel by his mother. He may never have penned a Christmas tune during his prolific career at songwriter (not to mention his other work as playwright, director and actor), but his tunes are turning into a wonderful Christmas gift for New York theatergoers thanks to Simon Green Sings Coward at Christmas, currently playing at 59E59 Theaters. During the course of this delightful one-hour songfest, Green, along with his pianist, musical director and arranger David Shrubsole, serves up some of Noel Coward’s most memorable songs, a number of them intelligently recreated for twenty-first century listeners.

Greene, who in dark jacket and thin tie actually looks as though he might have walked out of the 1960s movie To Sir With Love, deftly delivers some 20 Coward pieces with impeccable phrasing and an astute blend of sparkling wit and heartfelt emotion (Coward was after all a great believer in genuine sentiment). At moments during the show, Green's interpretations do bring to mind "the master," notably during the hysterical "Three Theatrical Dames," a tune about what the great ladies of the English stage did before achieving success. Greene seems to channel all of Coward's wickedness and naughtiness in this one, which incidentally was written for a benefit concert in the 1950s, and originally performed by John Mills, Kenneth More and Peter Ustinov. "Dames" is just one of the rarities unearthed by Green and Shrubsole. Another is the "Couldn't We Keep on Dancing" which the pair discovered after combing through the British Archive.

At other times during "Sings," Green's enormously affecting and effective, no more so than during his recitation of Coward's poem, "On Leaving England for the First Time." This sequence leads into a beautifully arranged medley of "London Pride," "I Travel Alone," and "Sail Away." In this triptych of songs, some theatergoers might find themselves thinking that they are hearing these songs for the first time, as Shrubsole's arrangements are so unique. During the second song, for instance, it almost sounds as if Coward, Green and Shrubsole were channeling Kurt Weill and this composer's "Lonely House" in particular. In "Pride," Shrubsole's arrangement loses some of the "oldness" and almost homespun quality that is usually visited upon the tune. Purists may bristle, but even they may have to soften once they hear Big Ben seemingly chime in the distance (it's a feat accomplished on the piano alone).

Shrubsole's arrangements also reference (or at least seem to) composers as far ranging as Burt Bachrach and Stephen Sondheim, which brings them terrifically into the present, but can at times mean that theatergoers strain to hear the melodies (at least as they remember them). Throughout Green is a delight, often consulting a set of Coward's diaries to pull out pithy quotes and anecdotes, and his light baritone is beautifully suited to Coward's songs, which seem to be crafted anew, which may make this show one of the grandest holiday presents on stage right now.

---- Andy Propst

Simon Green Sings Coward at Christmas plays through January 4 at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street). Performances are Tuesday through Friday at 8:30pm; Saturday at 5:30 and 9:30pm and Sunday at 3:30 and 7:30pm. Tickets are $25.00 and can be purchased by calling 212-279-4200 or by visiting www.TicketCentral.com. Further information is available online at www.59e59.org

Few contemporary playwrights portray violence as well as Martin McDonagh. In recent Broadway outings, the brutality has been overt – torture and dismemberments in The Lieutenant of Inishmore and The Pillowman. This prolific Irish writer can once again be found onstage in New York with Garry Hynes' gently affecting, often icily hilarious, revival of The Cripple of Inishmaan, playing at off-Broadway's the Atlantic Theater Company, where "Inishmore" began, and while the sort of overt savagery that theatergoers have come to expect from McDonagh never materializes in this play, its presence can always be felt just below the surface.

First seen in New York in 1998, "Cripple," set in the early 1934, takes place on a remote Irish isle, just like "Inishmaan." The title character, Billy (played with heartbreaking physicality and emotional nuance by Aaron Monaghan) has grown up an orphan – his parents having died in a mysterious boating accident when he was just an infant. He's been raised by Kate (Marie Mullen) and Eileen (Dearbhla Molloy), the women who run the island's under-stocked general store. Now well into their twilight years, they fret about Billy endlessly, and wait, like many women their age do, for the latest gossip, which is delivered by local "newsman" JohnnyPateenMike (a supremely oily David Pearse). As the play opens, he arrives in the women's store (the cornerstone to Francis O'Connor's marvelously rustic and flexible scenic design) with three pieces of news, including word of a brewing feud between two locals (one man's goose bit another man's cat) and of an American film crew having descended on the neighboring island of Inishmore.

The second item sets the people of Inishmaan buzzing. Helen (simultaneously a terrifically dangerous creature and alluring coquette in Kerry Condon's performance) and her dim younger brother Bartley (Laurence Kinlan) convince BobbyBobby (a grand mercurial turn from Andrew Connolly) to take them to the neighboring island in hopes of getting a job on the film, and possibly getting away from Ireland altogether. Billy also finagles a ride with BobbyBobby, a move that proves to be a double-edged sword for the young man.

As "Cripple" unfolds, McDonagh reveals, in exquisite detail, the eccentricities of each of these characters, as well as their strange combination of fierce national pride and equally intense distaste for their homeland. During the course of the play, each of the characters actually attempts to rationalize Ireland's importance in the world, musing how the country must not be that bad of a place if Americans, French, "colored people," etc. want to visit.

Hynes' production, which she's staged as a co-production between the Atlantic and her own Druid Theatre Company in Dublin, and the performances deftly navigate the duality of McDonagh's script, which, on one level, is something of a simple slice of life play about this tight-knit community and its idiosyncratic inhabitants' predictable day-to-day existence. What sparks "Cripple" to a level beyond being just a humor infused charmer is McDonagh's ability to combine the ordinariness of Inishmaan with a hefty level of danger. As the offstage goose-cat feud intensifies, theatergoers can't help but think of the bloodshed that results in "Inishmore" over a dead cat. Similarly, as lies are revealed onstage, it seems inevitable, at least for McDonagh, that death, dismemberment, or worse, must follow. Such events never come to pass, although one character does receive a hefty beating – not entirely unwarranted, and Helen, who earns a living delivering eggs, has a field day with using them as weapons.

The real assault that ultimately arrives as Billy's story unfolds and audiences come to care about him and his neighbors is on theatergoers' hearts. As "Cripple" reaches its conclusion, the play's emotional toll is not only quite high, it's also enormously satisfying.

---- Andy Propst

The Cripple of Inishmaan plays at the Atlantic Theater Company (336 West 20th Street). Performances are Tuesday through Friday at 8pm; Saturday at 2 and 8pm; and Sunday at 2 and 7pm. Tickets are $65.00 and can be purchased by calling TicketCentral at 212-279-4200 or by visiting www.TicketCentral.com. Further information – including revised holidaytime schedule – is available online at www.AtlanticTheater.org.

New York Times

President’s on the Menu: Let the Deal-Making Begin
A. R. Gurney casually tosses his own metaphorical shoe in the direction of our departing president in his latest play, “A Light Lunch,” which opened on Friday at the Flea Theater

Variety

Review: A Light Lunch
Less of a potshot at George W. Bush than a backhanded benediction for him, A. R. Gurney's jokey new play, "A Light Lunch," is refreshingly unlike most contempo American political theater.

Back Stage

A Light Lunch reviewed by David Sheward
Just as George W. Bush is leaving office, A.R. Gurney doesn't quite perform the theatrical equivalent of hurling his shoes at the departing president, but he does toss a few bread rolls his way.

CurtainUp

Review: A Light Lunch
A. R. Gurney's willingness to poke fun at himself provides his play written for the Flea Theater's young acting company with its best laugh lines