AmericanTheaterWeb Original News & Reviews

A special promotional video has been released for the upcoming One Night Only staged reading benefit of the infamous Broadway-play-that-wasn’t, Legends!. Charles Busch, Whoopi Goldberg and Lypsinka will star in the first-ever New York presentation of the play by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner James Kirkwood (A Chorus Line), which will be presented on Monday evening, March 23 at 8PM at Town Hall (123 West 43rd Street). Directed by Mark Waldrop, the presentation will feature a script that has been adapted for this reading by John Epperson. Also starring Bryan Batt (“Mad Men”) with narration by humorist Fran Lebowitz and additional casting to be announced, the special event is a benefit for Friends In Deed - The Crisis Center for Life-Threatening Illness™.

Filmed and edited by Eric Marciano with Meredith Marciano, the 2:30-minute promo video features a backstage peek at Charles Busch and Lypsinka – both deliciously scheming in their respective Legends! characters – as they ready themselves for a glam photo shoot. (Done in homage to the Blackglama ad campaign of yesteryear, the photos from the shoot by celebrity photographer Timothy White are being used as the official artwork for the event.) Discerning viewers may also notice a cameo by director Mark Waldrop:

Tickets ($100, $75 and $60) are currently available through TicketMaster at www.ticketmaster.com or (212) 307-4100. Tickets can also be purchased in person at the Town Hall box office (123 West 43rd Street), Monday through Saturday, 12 Noon-6PM.

$250 VIP Seating, which will include admission to an after-party, is also available by calling (800) 996-5433.

Strong performances from star Matthew Modine, playing small town lawyer Atticus Finch, spunky newcomer Olivia Scott as his daughter and Virginia Kull as a victim/instigator of trouble stand out and make the latest production of Christopher Sergel's adaptation of Harper Lee's classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird at Hartford Stage worth a revisit to the story of racism and innocence in Depression–era Georgia.

Finch, of course, is appointed to defend Tom Robinson (Douglas Lyons), a black man accused of raping white Mayella Ewell (Kull). The townspeople, led by her father, Bob (Mike Boland), are ready to lynch Robinson, but Finch makes sure he gets a fair trial.

Within this highly charged atmosphere, Finch’s tomboy daughter Scout (Scott) and son Jem (Henry Hodges) team up with Dill Harris (Andrew Shipman) spend a summer visiting Dill's aunt and the three friends become terrified and intrigued by their recluse neighbor Arthur “Boo” Radley, the subject of folklore in the town.

Just like the summer heat, nicely depicted in set designer Jeff Cowie’s painted panels rendering the town’s buildings and setting in hazy muted browns and yellows reflecting temperatures too hot for comfort, emotions flare as the various characters, young and old alike, discover the truth about judging someone too hastily and the need to protect innocence.

Under Michael Wilson’s direction, Modine slips comfortably into the skin of the better-off-than-most, but not proud Atticus, trying to do what’s best for Tom, the town and his family. Scott shines as the spitfire Scout and the other children are endearing as well. The outstanding performance of the night comes in Kull’s brief, but gripping scene as the woman who has accused Tom of rape. Her emotions are so tangible, we almost feel sorry for the deceitful, guilt-ridden Mayella, until Kull reaches in and shows us the true nature of the girl. The ensemble cast, costumed by David C. Woolard, is strong all around.

Helping move the action forward is narration from a now-grown Scout (Hallie Foote, illuminated in a spotlight by Rui Rita), who chats as she strolls through the town and remembers the incidents. Cowie’s multi-level set creates three distinct areas that can be adapted for different scenes with additions of props. A door flies in to represent a home; chairs are set up in front of table for the courthouse; leaves are scattered to create a wooded area. Somewhat out of place and distracting, however, are constant sound effects (John Gromada, original music and sound design) to enhance the voices of a crowd or to create the sounds of insects and other wildlife.

Lee’s Pulitzer-prize winning novel is being read by Connecticut school children as part of “The Big Read.” The students will attend performances at Hartford Stage, where they’ll learn a lesson that never grows old, about not judging someone too quickly.

---- Lauren Yarger

To Kill a Mockingbird plays at Hartford Stage (50 Church Street, Hartford) through Nov. 16. Performance times are Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday at 7:30 pm and Friday and Saturday at 8 pm with matinee performances Sundays and selected Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2 pm. Tickets are $23 - $70 with student and other discounted tickets available They may be purchased by calling 860-527-5151 or by visiting www.hartfordstage.org.

Recall for a moment that person you never ask, “So what’s new?” because you know that instead of just saying , “not much,” they’ll launch into a never-ending description of everything that has happened to them that day whether or not you know what or whom they’re talking about and in the middle of telling you everything you never wanted to know about their day they’ll assume that you want to know details of what they were wearing and why they purchased that item as opposed to another and what they had to eat for breakfast while reflecting on some other event that happened involving some other thing you really don’t care about so you simply avoid this person because you don’t want to have to cope with listening to her go on and on in one run-on, never ending sentence during which you never have the chance to get a word in edgewise?

Get the picture?

Now imagine that person telling you about the past three awful experiences she had going out with men and you have Theresa Rebeck's Bad Dates, a one-woman comedy playing at the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven.

Haviland Morris stars as Haley Walker, a divorced waitress, turned restaurant manager, living in a New York apartment with her 13-year-old daughter Vera. Haley flits through the bedroom, closet, bathroom and hallway leading to Vera’s room across the hall on a neatly angled set designed by Frank J. Alberino as she gets ready to go out on three separate dates. She tries on various outfits, sometimes seeking the advice of an unseen Vera who is too absorbed in her loud music (perfectly on cue from sound designer Corrine K. Livingston) to offer an opinion about which of her mother’s hundreds of pairs of shoes stacked all over the place is the best choice (it’s not a fetish, at least not an Imelda Marcos sized one, she tells us).

We hear all about her ex-husband and dates with “The Bug Guy,” a guy she met at a Buddhist event where the participants were interested in becoming one with insects, “Wretched Companion,” who talked incessantly about his high cholesterol and problems with his colon and “Monty,” whose name really isn’t Monty, but whom Haley first refuses to date because he reminds her too much of the cad with that name in the film “Mildred Pierce.” She’s afraid life will imitate art if she gets involved with him, but ends up relenting later. We even get all the details of Rebeck’s convoluted plot twist in which the owners of Haley’s restaurant are members of the Romanian mob who involve her in their money-laundering schemes.

There is some humor, and few “been-there” moments for anyone who has been on a bad date. Morris gives a strong performance and certainly deserves a medal for memorizing and delivering 90-minutes of almost non-stop dialogue without a hitch.

The problem is, however, that Haley isn’t likeable enough for us to care. She describes herself as ruggedly independent, but contrastingly appears to let all of the men in her life and her daughter walk all over her. Subjected to the endless gabfest, we being to feel sorry for Bug Guy, Wretched Companion and Monty and ironically wonder why any of them would want to go out on a date with her.

The humor and strong performance from Morris also don’t eclipse some problems with the play’s structure. Why raze the fourth wall when Haley doesn’t interact with the audience, which becomes unwilling voyeurs as she slips in and out of her clothes and underwear, applies deodorant and brushes her teeth while she continues adnauseam about every little thing that happened on each date?

Since we have been invited in to her world, I’ll get personal and ask why virtually none of Haley’s clothes (costume designer Jessica Wegener) are in colors that would be selected by such a fashion-conscious flaming redhead.

The highlight of the show, directed by Eric Ting, is two stage hands dressed in suits and Fedoras, who like a welcome interruption, bop in time to music playing while they place props during two brief pauses between scenes.

Instead of creating an atmosphere where we feel like we’re laughing and commiserating with a friend, Bad Dates feels more like, well, a bad date.

--- Lauren Yarger

Bad Dates plays at Long Wharf Theatre Stage II (222 Sargent Drive, New Haven, CT) through Dec. 21. Performances are Tuesdays at 7 pm, Wednesdays at 2 and 7 pm, Thursdays and Fridays at 8 pm, Saturdays at 3 and 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $32-$62 and are available by calling 203-787-4282 or online at www.longwharf.org.

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Excerpted from an email that I just received:

Kritzerland is proud to present the first ever CD release of the Original Cast Recording of Anya, with a score by Robert Wright and George Forrest (based on themes by Sergei Rachmaninoff).

Anya, the musical version of Anastasia, opened on Broadway at the end of 1965 at the Ziegfeld Theater and lasted a mere fifteen performances. Nobody would have predicted that a new musical by the team that wrote Kismet (here doing to Rachmaninoff what in Kismet they did to Borodin), written by George Abbott and Guy Bolton, and direction by George Abbott would end up being such a troubled production and such a huge flop. Happily, United Artists Records went ahead and recorded the cast album.

Whatever the show's problems (it's been revised several times since), the album is filled with glorious music, excellent performances, and is indeed a most musical musical. The Rachmaninoff "themes" are masterfully used by Wright and Forrest (no one was better at that sort of thing than they were), and Don Walker's orchestrations and Harold Hastings' musical direction make the most out of all of those gorgeous melodies.

The wonderful cast includes Constance Towers, Michael Kermoyan, Lillian Gish, and Irra Petina, as well as the still alive and kicking George S. Irving. New liner notes are by Walter Willison (Tony-nominee for Two By Two), who was very close to Wright and Forrest. The CD is a limited edition of 1000 copies only. When they're gone, they're gone. The price is $19.98 plus shipping. CDs will ship the second week of April - however, preorders placed directly through Kritzerland usually ship one to three weeks ahead of the street date. To place an order, see the cover, or hear audio samples, just visit www.kritzerland.com

Morning,

Feel like there's not been much more than the clips for two days, so, here's a bit of what I've been up to.

You'll find my review of Blood Type: RAGU on TheaterMania this morning

My review of Distracted is in Backstage as of yesterday.

As of Wednesday, my review of Soul Samurai, which is appearing in The Village Voice

This morning after clips, I want to update the digests, edit to CT reviews from Lauren Yarger, and continue my twittering. If you want to follow me, just click here. I'm using it to create another outlet to announce when new posts have gone onto the site, and to let folks know my whereabouts, vaguely. It may become a spot for some ranting, railing, casually about theater as well.

Enjoy the weekend.

Andy