Depression-era Dance Contests

Paul Taylor's "Sunset" in performance.

There is something brutalizing about those depression-era dance marathons. The contestants are equal parts hopeful and downtrodden. Paul Taylor captures the essence in his latest creation "Marathon Cadenzas," on view in the penultimate PTDC performance of the Spring 2014 season, just completed at David H. Koch Theatre at Lincoln Center. 

Taylor's 140th dance in a 60 year span is as vital and entertaining as any in his repertoire."Marathon Cadenzas" is set to music by Raymond Scott with sets and costumes by Santo Loquasto and lighting by James F. Ingalls. The company are all standouts in this heartbreaking dance.

More PTDC Spring Ahead: Sotheby's auction to benefit PTDC on May 14th

Paul Taylor Dancers with Tracer in 1962 Photograph by Martha Swope, New York City © 2014 Robert Rauschenberg Foundation /Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY 

On May 14th, the Taylor "Spring" extends to an auction at Sotheby's where works by Robert Rauschenberg, a friend and frequent collaborator of Paul Taylor's.The two met in 1954 after Taylor left Merce Cunningham's dance company to set off on his own  Rauschenberg designed the sets and costumes for a number of Paul Taylor productions including: Jack and the Beanstalk (1954), the solo dance performance Circus Polka (1955), Three Epitaphs (1956), The Least Flycatcher, The Tower (1957), Seven New Dances (1957), Rebus (1958), Images and Reflections (1958), and Tracer (1962), for which he also 

created a work of the same title that will be offered in May.

To learn more about the May 14th auction event, click here.

To keep apprised of PTDC performances, visit www.ptdc.org.

Shakespeare At The Bar

It has come to our attention that there are two theatrical companies hard at drink to bring you Shakespeare under the influence.

By W.J. Morgan & Co. Lith. of Cleveland, Ohio.
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

The New York Shakespeare Exchange has created ShakesBeer, a crawl-cum-performance.

In the meantime, the troupe Three Day Hangover has launced DrunkShakespeare.

The former gathers on on April 12, May 31, June 7, August 9 & 16, October 4 & 11 and December 6 at 2:30pm for three hours of beer and Bard at four bars.

Drunk Shakespeare opens in its home at Quinn's Bar & Grill in midtown for drinking and tragedies on March 26th.

For tickets and information about Drunk Shakespeare, go to http://www.drunkshakespeare.com/calendar/

Information about the upcoming crawls and tickets for ShakesBeer can be found at http://shakespeareexchange.org/content/shakesbeer-2014.

ShakesBeer

Paul Taylor's Ever Lively Dance

In posters and on billboards for each of their Spring seasons, PTDC flies off the page. In person, the they do a similar trick.

Francisco Graciano and Michael Apuzzo in Paul Taylor's "Gossamer Gallants,"
once more on the program on March 29th at 2pm.
Photo by Tom  Caravaglia.

Paul Taylor Dance Company always seems to be in motion, just off and above the stage. Theirs is an energetic force. PTDC is always propelling through air.

The momentum is intellectual as well as physical. A Paul Taylor dance is well-thought out and intelligent.
Taylor, in fact, is a man of many parts-- an author with a nice sense of humor, a dance maker with a great sense of humor, irony, and a vision all his own.

There are 8 performances left to the PTDC Lincoln Center Spring at this writing, and we urge you to catch
at least one of our favorites: tonight at 7pm, "Mercuric Tidings" and "Sunset" are on the bill with "Fibers" and "Troillus and Cressida (reduced)." On Wednesday, March 26th, go see "A Field of Grass." Friday, March 28th at 8pm brings a chance to see the new "American Dreamer," and Saturday at 2pm, "Marathon Cadenzas" premieres again; these are numbers 139 and 140 in the Paul Taylor oeuvre. "Piazzolla Caldera" is  on the final program for this season on Sunday, March 30th at 6pm.

You can purchase tickets and view the schedule here and follow PTDC on FB.

Paul Taylor's most recent book are the essays in "Facts and Fancies" published in 2013.

"All The Way" with LBJ: A Year in the Life

Is the fascination we have with politics and politicians all about power and those who wield it?

Robert Schenkkan's "All The Way," at the Neil Simon Theatre through June 29th, looks at one critical year in the life of one of  the great political practitioners.

Bryan Cranston and Betsy Aidem. Photo Credit: Evgenia Eliseeva

Lyndon Baines Johnson (Bryan Cranston) was one of the great negotiators in our country's presidential history.  You know the famously effective politician whose arm twisting got legislation passed, but the author posits an LBJ who may have been a better man than his reputation suggests.  Lady Bird Johnson (Betsy Aidem) has a particularly poignant take on LBJ the man in one scene, making it clear that the man was the politician.

Robert Petkoff, Bryan Cranston.
Photo Credit: Evgenia Eliseeva

LBJ took office in November 1963 as "an accidental President" after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. He had just one year to establish his presidency and launch the campaign for the 1964 elections. That year hinged on LBJ's role in the struggle for civil rights. He was left to polish his predecessor's legacy, and create his own. The pressures he faced during that year are history, and as told by Schenkkan it is a compelling and dramatic story.

Bryan Cranston, Brandon J. Dirden  and
Richard Poe in the back.
Photo Credit: Evgenia Eliseeva

There were the rightfully disgruntled factions in the Negro caucus. He also had to deal with the recalcitrant segments of his own party's Dixiecrats, most prominently represented  by LBJ's mentor, "Uncle" Dick Russell (John McMartin), the Senator from Georgia. Hubert Humphrey (Robert Petkoff) of  Michigan was the Senator most sympathetic to the cause of equality for all Americans.

Among the groups of black leaders, Martin Luther King, Jr. (Brandon J. Dirden) is the acknowledged head. He lobbied the President, often through Humphrey, for the assorted black organizations, which included Stokely Carmichael's (William Jackson Harper) radical SNCC and the much tamer NAACP lead by Roy Wilkins (Peter Jay Fernandez).  LBJ not only supported civil rights, but was instrumental in passing legislation to insure that fairness and equality were the law of the land.

Rob Campbell, Susannah Schulman on the desk. On left on floor:
James Eckhouse and on right on floor: Christopher Gurr
Photo Credit: Evgenia Eliseeva

The sets in "All The Way" often depend on projections to identify the locale of a scene. Credit Christopher Acebo for the simple multi-functional scenic design and Jane Cox for the lighting.

The acting, with Bryan Cranston embodying LBJ in an astonishing performance, and Brandon J. Dirden embodying MLK down to the cadences of his speech, is universally excellent. Under Bill Rauch's well-paced directing, the nearly three hours of politics and power go by in a flash; there is not a wasted minute.

Among other standouts in the outstanding cast are William Jackson Harper, Rob Campbell as Governor George Wallace (and others), and Eric Lenox Abrams as Bob Moses (and others.) Michael McKean is a wry and formidable J. Edgar Hoover.


To find out more about "All The Way," please visit http://allthewaybroadway.com/

The Taylor Spring is Here (At Last)

Michelle Fleet and Robert Kleinendorst in "A Field of Grass"  
choreograhped by Paul Taylor, set to songs by
Harry Nilsson with costumes by Santo Loquasto and
lighing by Jennifer Tipton. First performed in 1993.
Photo by Paul B. Goode

It's spring-- at least it is a Paul Taylor Dance Company spring. The weather outside the David H. Koch Theatre at Lincoln Center, where the season lasts from March 11th through 30th, may still be iffy, but you can count on the warmth and good humor of PTDC to welcome you once inside.

Poster for "Airs" by Paul B. Goode.

Paul Taylor's vision is often edgy and a bit cockeyed, but it is always intelligent and interesting. For Paul Taylor, dance is social commentary or sometimes just social observation. He is often caustic, sometimes pointedly so, sometimes more genially. Paul Taylor sets the ordinary askew in his little jewels of invention.
His sharp insight into the human condition was well on display in the weekend programs we saw.

"Gossamer Gallants" took a place as a favorite when it first presented in 2011. This weekend, it had competition from a new work, that is new to me,  "A Field of Grass," first performed in 1993. In the interests of transparency, it is important to reveal that this reviewer has many favorites in the PTDC repertoire-- from "Company B" to the transcendent "Aureole," and on and on. "A Field of Grass" just happens to be a proximate fave.

Photo by Tom Caravaglia.

Leading a hippie circle-- yes it is that kind of grass-- that includes the outstanding Michelle Fleet, Robert Kleinendorst goes from joy to a little bit of a bummer and back again in "A Field of Grass." The lively songs of Harry Nilsson accompany the ensemble, which on this occasion also included the splendid Aileen Roehl, Sean Mahoney, Francisco Graciano, Heather McGinley and Christina Lynch Markham.

Photo by Paul B. Goode

For "Sunset," set to Edward Elgar's Serenade for Strings and Elegy for Strings, the mood is appropriately more elegiac. The cast puts aside its bell bottoms (designed by santo Loquasto for "A Field of Grass") and trades them in for shirtwaists and crisp khakis (set and costumes designed by Alex Katz.)
Both dances are more balletic than we've come to expect from Paul Taylor, and very beautiful to watch. In "Sunset," the men's movements have a Gene Kelly quality.

Photo by Paul B. Goode

"Airs," a classic out of the PTDC repertoire first performed in 1978,  is danced to Handel. It's formality is belied by the the short gowns and leotards worn by the men and their bare chests (costumes by Gene Moore.) On the same bill, "Dust," set to Francis Poulenc's Concert Champetre, is amusing and lively, but the pièce de résistance on this day's program is "Piazzolla Caldera" (1997).

"Piazzolla Caldera" breaks down the tango. There is the tango for one, a solo that seems impossibly sad in the context of this very sexy dance. A same sex tango relies heavily on horseplay and a tango a trois plays up the aggression that is also germaine to the genre.The music is by Astor Piazzolla and Jerzy Peterburshaky with costumes by Santo Loquasto.

Going forward into the searon, you can see "Gossamer Gallants" on March 22nd at 8pm with "Sunset" and on March 29th at 2pm with other works. "Piazzolla Caldera" reappears on March 21st at 8pm, and with "Dust" on March 30th at 6pm. "A Field of Grass" is on the program on March 26th at 6pm. and "Airs" repeats on the March 29th performance at 8pm.

For more information on Paul Taylor Dance Company, visit www.ptdc.org. For a schedule of the Spring season, visit the David H. Koch Theatere website.

Coming soon to a theater near....

Not so soon, in fact 2014-15 season at the Public:

"Hamilton," written by the Tony and Grammy Award-winning composer and lyricist Lin-Manuel Miranda, will have its world premiere next January as part of The Public’s 2014-15 season at Astor Place. Directed by his In The Heights collaborator Thomas Kail, this new musical features Miranda playing Alexander Hamilton, one of our country’s Founding Fathers and the first Secretary of the Treasury.

The brilliant musical "previewed" at an American Songbooks presentation in 2012. Performances begin at the Public on January 20, 2015.

“Lin-Manuel Miranda is a marvel, but nothing could have prepared us for the astonishing achievement of Hamilton,” said Artistic Director Oskar Eustis. “Alexander Hamilton was born in the West Indies, the only Founding Father who was an immigrant, and Lin’s genius is to tell the story of the birth of the United States as an immigrant’s story. The energy, the passion, joy, tragedy, and raw intelligence of this show are stunning.”

More information at http://www.publictheater.org/

February 25-March 30

Do we exist only as constructs in each other's minds? Explore this concept and Sartre's famous bon mots, "Hell is other people," at the Pearl Theatre's production of "No Exit." For tickets and informaiton, please go to http://www.pearltheatre.org/1314/noexit/

Jolly Abraham as Inez and Sameerah Luqmaan-Harris as Estelle in a scene from "No Exit."
Photo by Al Foote III

March 11-April 12

Paula Vogel's "And Baby Makes Seven" is an uproarious and timely comedy that has not been seen professionally in New York in 20 years. Marc Stuart Weitz directs an ensemble including Ken Barnett,  Susan Bott and Constance Zaytoun. Vogel’s "And Baby Makes Seven" tells the story of Anna and Ruth, a lesbian couple, who enlist their gay friend Peter to help them create a family. But are any of them ready for parenthood?
For tickets and to find out more, visit newohiotheatre.org

March 14-April 5

The Chocolate Factory Theater is presenting the world premiere Target Margin Theater's "Uriel Acosta: I Want That Man!" from March 14-April 5. This new adaptation of one of the central plays of Yiddish history is taken from a variety of literary and historical sources and created and directed by TMT’s Artistic Director, David Herskovits. Original songs are by Rebecca Hart, with toy theater created by Kathleen Kennedy Tobin for this production.
Tickets and information are available at chocolatefactorytheater.org

April 1-12

Singer-songwriter Alexa Ray Joel, Christine Brinkley's and Billy Joel's talented daughter, makes her premiere at Cafe Carlyle.
Visit www.thecarlyle.com to find out more.

April 5

Patricia Kenny Dance Collection presents "Spring Collection" which includes their world premiere of "Unrest" choreographed by Patricia Kenny Reilly. Excerpts of "Unrest" were released on film in an open rehearsal series web forum, and this evening PKDC will share the culmination of the work-in-progress. The evening of dance is at the Queens Theatre for one night only.
For tickets, visit https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pe.c/9883433. To learn more about PKDC, go to www.patriciakennydancecollection.com.

April 17-30

Ripe Time, the Brooklyn-based company led by Rachel Dickstein, will premiere "The World is Round,"
which adapts the Gertrude Stein book, at BAM Fisher. Conceived, written and directed by Dickstein, the work is a fable (for grownups and mature children) full of original live music by Heather Christian and aerial movement choreographed by Nicki Miller. "The World is Round" is Ripe Time’s first new show since 2011 when it launched its celebrated Mrs. Dalloway adaptation Septimus and Clarissa.
Go to www.bam.org/theworldisround for tickets and informaiton.

April 17-May 11

"The Complete & Condensed Stage Directions of Eugene O'Neill, Volume 2" in sequel to the award-winning "... Volume 1" is adapted and directed by Christopher Loar, ensemble member of the New York Neo-Futurists.

Now he's a legendary playwright and a Broadway mainstay, but Eugene O'Neill was once considered an experimental, downtown playwright. His plays defied the melodramatic conventions of the day and much of his work premiered with the Provincetown Players on MacDougall Street. The New York Neo-Futurists return O'Neill to his experimental roots, and "...Volume 2"  spans the years 1913 - 1915, and includes his plays Recklessness, Warnings, Fog, Abortion, and The Sniper.
Tickets and informatiokn at www.nynf.org

April 23- May 18

Part of the Brits off Broadway at 59E59, Harry Melling's debut play, "Peddling" makes its US premiere.
A peddler wakes up in a field, with no memory of how he got there or what happened the night before. In his attempt to find out what happened, everything comes into question.
Learn more at www.59e59.org

50 Shades of Gray, the musical and Beauty and the Beast are among the shows still playing in these listings:
http://tbontheaisleatheaterdiary.blogspot.com/2014/02/around-town.html

"Fast Company" plays through April 6th and "The Pig, or Vaclav Havel's Hunt for the Pig" only through March 29th.. At the latter, dinner is served at the 3 Legged Dog production, provided by the Slovakian restuarant Korzo.

"The Architecture of Becoming" -- Is It Too Many Chefs?

L-to-R Christopher Livingsont, Vanessa Kai, Jon Norman Schneider and Claudia Acosta. Photo by Carol Rosegg.

In Sarah Ruhl's brilliant "Stage Kiss," the character named He disparages a play that required more than
two collaborators-- "Isn’t a bad sign when three people wrote a play? I mean if two people wrote it, it’s
one thing, but three, come on, three?"

So it's probably not a good sign that there are five named playwrights on "The Architecture of Becoming," at City Center Stage II through March 23rd. The enterprise, penned by Kara Lee Corthron, Sarah Gancher, Virginia Grise, Dipika Guha and Lauren Yee is represented by Siempre Norteada (Claudia Acosta), a writer who has a commission on the City Center.  By the way, not only are there 5 writers, there are 3 directors for this hour and a half interlude.

L-to-R Christopher Livingston, Danielle Skraastad, Vanessa Kai and Claudia Acosts. Photo by Carol Rosegg.

There are other storytellers enacted in the vignettes that comprise this "play," including Vanessa Kai's
Tomomi Nakamura, a 1940 Japanese housewife who wants only to tell her own story. "I only want to play
myself I only want to tell my story. I only want to tell my story. Does that mean I am not an actress?"
Siempre Norteada merely connects the pieces, or does her best to do so.

Vanessa Kai as Tomomi and Danielle Skraastad as Virginia, the fishmonger. Photo by Carol Rosegg.

"The Architecture..." is meant to be a paean to the building, in which the Women's Project has found its 

home. There are references to the City Center's rich history. It is also an ode to artists who come to New York to seek inspiration.

The actors, Danielle Skraastad, Jon Norman Schneider, Christopher Livingston, and the aforementioned

Vanessa Kai and Claudia Acosta, all fine, are ill-served by this hodgepodge. 

City Center, the glorious recently restored 90 year old landmark which started life as a Masonic Temple,

and now is home to theater and ballet from around the world, deserves better too.

To find out more about "The Architecture of Becoming," visit http://wptheater.org/ 

Let's cross that "Bridges..."

Marsha Norman has fashioned an appealing drama  with music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown from Robert James Waller's over-the-top romance for the musical version of "The Bridges of Madison County." In this open run at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, Kelli O'Hara plays the Iowa housewife, Francesca, with Steven Pasquale as the itinerant photographer, Robert Kincaid.

Kelli O'Hara as Francesca and Steven Pasquale as Robert Kincaid in "The Bridges of Madison County,"
at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre in an open run.  Book by Marsha Norman, adapted from Robert James Waller, music
and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown. Photo by Joan Marcus.

Robert Kincaid has lost his way, looking for the last of the covered bridges he was sent by National Geographic to photograph. Francesca Johnson takes him to it, and asks him to stay for dinner.

Caitlin Kinnunen as Carolyn and Hunter Foster as Bud in
"The Bridges of Madison County." Photo by Joan Marcus.

Her family, Bud (Hunter Foster) and the children, Michael (Derek Klena) and Carolyn (Caitlin Kinnunen) have gone to the Indiana State Fair so that Carolyn can compete with her prize steer, Stevie. As Francesca tells Robert, they will have a better time without her looking at prize pigs and large zucchini squash.

Hunter Foster as Bud and Kelli O'Hara as Francesca in
"The Bridges of Madison County." Photo by
Joan Marcus.

She married an American soldier in Naples right after the war when they were very young, came to Iowa, made a home for herself but isn't completely comfortable as a farmer's wife.

Kelli O'Hara and Steven Pasquale in a scene
 from "The Bridges.." Photo by Joan Marcus.

There are many seriously powerful voices singing Jason Robert Brown's lovely songs. In addition to the excellent leads, there is Cass Morgan as Marge whose torchy "Get Closer" is very close to a show-stopper. Katie Klaus as the State Fair Singer and Whitney Bashor in a flashback to Robert's ex-wife lend voltage in their roles. Michael X. Martin is very natural as Marge's down-to-earth husband, Charlie.

It's only fitting that such an operatic love story should get the full operatic treatment Brown gives it. "The Bridges of Madison County" is melodramatic and overwrought, but its cast remain cool-headed and dry eyed, even if we cannot.

Suggestion of a setting drops from rafters-- the outline of a roof, window frame, doorway-- and the ensemble doubles as stage hands, pulling up fences, moving in the kitchen table-- in Michael Yeargan's imaginative design for "The Bridges of Madison County."

Fade to violins, cue tears. [For more commentary see VP.]

For more information about and a chance to preview the music of "The Bridges of Madison County," please visit  http://bridgesofmadisoncountymusical.com/.

"Stage Kiss"

    Extended through April 6th
Actors lead different lives from the rest of us. Their nine-to-five is generally more like 7:30 to midnight.
For them, a kiss is work, and for actors just part of their day at the office.

"Stage Kiss," at Playwrights Horizons Mainstage Theater through March 23rd, is immensely clever. The play that wraps around the play within the play in Sarah Ruhl's brilliant new comedy mirrors the events in the play being staged in the first act.

The cast of the play within the play with Jessica Hecht center take a bow.
Photo © Joan Marcus

She (Jessica Hecht), an actress in her 40s, auditioning for the role of Ada Wilcox, is surprised that the actor He (Dominic Fumusa), playing opposite her is her first love, just as Johnny Lowell is Ada's in the melodrama they are rehearsing.

She (Jessica Hecht) and He (Dominic Fumusa) share a "Stage Kiss."
Photo © Joan Marcus

"Stage Kiss" is about and of the theater. The perils of acting, like its joys, are in getting to embody anyone but yourself and getting to try out being someone else. A "Stage Kiss" can be bestowed even on the unlikeliest of partners, as when She rehearses with Kevin (Michael Cyril Creighton), the understudy whose approach to the project is far more tentative and less empassioned than the one He plants.

     

She (Jessica Hecht) and
Kevin (Michael Cyril Creighton)
audtion a "Stage Kiss."
Photo © Joan Marcus

 "Stage Kiss" is in part about creating character, and understanding love. Real life jeopardises theatrical life and messes with stage craft. Like Ada, She has an understanding Husband (Daniel Jenkins), and a life that takes on an over-the-top turn.

• Will She and He rekindle their love?
• Would she rather live in squalor with her first love than go back to her well-to-do husband?
• What can her husband do to tip the balance in his favor?
• Is that first love all we've cracked him/her to be?

Jessica Hecht lends a sophistication and an innocence to her character in "Stage Kiss." Hecht has a distinctive voice that seems to both quesiton and admonish at the same time. In "Stage Kiss," she gets to mimic, impersonate and do accents. At every nudge from The Director (Patrick Kerr), she nails it immediately and creates another persona.

There are so many facets to this superbly intelligent play.

There are in-jokes for theater folk: the ineffectual laissez-faire Director; the actress who hasn't found work for years; the relentless optimism of reviving a less than mediocre play; the dangers of stage romance.

For the marrieds, there are questions about fidelity and temptation, and the risks in workplace romance.

Rebecca Taichman directs this excellent cast,  which also includes Emma Galvin as Angela, Millie and the Maid; Clea Alsip as Millicent and Laurie; and Todd Almond as The Accompanist. Todd Almond has also provided originally music for the production that fits the spirit of the enterprise very neatly.

Clea Alsip and Todd Almond in a scene from Sarah Ruhl's
"Stage Kiss." Photo © Joan Marcus

The sets which build from an empty rehearsal space to an elaborate 1930s drawing room and a truly delapidated and overcrowded East Village  mess of an apartment are the work of the talented Neil Patel. Costume designer Susan Hilferty is responsible for dressing the cast over various periods.

"Stage Kiss" is top-to-toe marvellous. Go and enjoy a wonderfully engaging theatrical experience.

For more information on "Stage Kiss," please visit Playwrights Horizons. For more review, visit VevlynsPen.com.

Jessica Hecht and Daniel Jenkins in a scene from the play within
"Stage Kiss." Photo © Joan Marcus

Michael Cyril Creighton, Daniel
Jenkins and Emma Galvin in a scene
from "Stage Kiss." Photo © Joan Marcus

Jessica Hecht as She and Patrick Kerr
as the Director in a scene from
"Stage Kiss." Photo © Joan Marcus

Isn't It Romantic: Paddy Chayefsky's Look At Love

Is there anything sweeter than romance, or more prone to meddling?

Lillian (Melissa Miller) and her husband Jack (Todd Bartels) with Jerry (Jonahan Hadary) and his sister Evelyn (Denise Lute) first hear Jerry's news in "Middle of the Night" by Paddy Chayefsky, directed by Jonathan Silverstein at the Keen Theatre through March 29th. Photo by Carol Rosegg.

Family and friends impede on the happiness in the May-December romance at the heart of "Middle of the Night." Paddy Chayefsky's play at the Keen Company under Jonathan Silverstein's direction at Theatre Row through March 29th,  is in its first revival since a Broadway run (and national tour) in the mid 1950s.

 Jerry (Jonahan Hadary) and Betty (Nicole Lowrance) in "Middle of the Night" by Paddy Chayefsky, directed by Jonathan Silverstein at the Keen Theatre through March 29th. Photo by Carol Rosegg.

"Middle of the Night" has a fine pedigree, all penned by Chayefsky. It started out as a television for the inaugural show of the seventh season of he Philco Television Playhouse where it starred E.G. Marshall and Eva Marie Saint. It then relocated in 1956 to Broadway where it starred Edward G. Robinson and Gena Rowlands, and went on to star Kim Novak and Frederic March in the Columbia Pictures version in 1959.

In "Middle of the Night," an aging garment Manufacturer, Jerry Kingsley (Jonathan Hadary) is seduced by loneliness and the charms of the Girl from his plant, Betty Preisser (Nicolde Lowrance) into a romance he is not sure is wise. His family, with the exception of his son-in-law, Jack (Todd Bartels) -- his stern sister Eveylyn (Denise Lute) and his daughter Lillian (Mellisa Miller)-- try to dissuade him from continuing the affair.

On Betty's side the objections are even louder. She is only 24 to his 53, and her mother, Mrs. Mueller (Amelia Campbell) doesn't understand why Betty would want to divorce her husband, George (Todd Bartells again) in order to marry an old man. Betty's friend Marilyn (Melissa Miller in the role) is equally puzzled and disapproving.

Mrs. Mueller (Amelia Campbell) and Betty (Nicole Lowrance) in "Middle of the Night" directed by Jonathan Silverstein for the Keen through March 29th. Photo by Carol Rosegg. 

The allure of Paddy Chayefsky's slice-of-life drama is abundantly on display in this heart-warming Keen production. The cast are splendid, with Jonathan Hadary and Nicole Lowrance in especially fine form.

Betty (Nicole Lowrance) and Jerry (Jonathan Hadary) embrace in a scene from Chayefsky's "Middle of the Night" directed by Jonathan Silverstein for Keen Company at Theatre Row through March 29th. Photo by Carol Rosegg.

To learn more about "Middle of the Night," please visit the Keen Company website.

A Day At The Office in "London Wall"

Miss Pat Milligan (Elise Kibler) and Mr. Brewer (Stephen Plunkett)
in a scene from John Van Druten's "London Wall,"
in a Mint Theatre production through March 30th.
Photo © Richard Termine.

"'Work's work,'" Mr. Walker of Messers Walker, Windemere & Co. of London Wall, quotes his father as saying. "'but with women about it never can be.'"

John Van Druten studied, practiced and even taught law, while enjoying a great success as a playwright, and later screen writer. In "London Wall," The Mint Theatre is reviving one of his earlier gems.

"London Wall," playing through March 30th, is a naturalistic work, focusing on the economic exigencies of young working women in a busy law practice. "London Wall" sets off to a lethargic start, like Miss Bufton (Katie Gibson) after her lunch break--"I don't really like being taken out like that in the middle of the day. I'm no good at all for work in the afternoon. I shall probably fall fast asleep over my machine."--but picks up apace and never lets us nap once it does.

Miss Pat Milligan (Elise Kibler) with Miss Hooper (Alex Trow), Miss Bufton (Katie Gibson, seated) and Birkenshaw (Matthew Gumley) in a scene from "London Wall" at The Mint through March 30th.  Photo © Richard Termine.

The other typists in the office have less active social lives than Miss Bufton's. Miss Hooper (Alex Trow) is expecting her boyfriend to a get a divorce from his wife. Miss Janus (Julia Coffey) has spent seven years in courtship with a man in diplomatic service whom she too hopes to marry.

Mr. Brewer (Stephen Plunkett) oversees the office, flirting with all the typing pool, but with an eye to woo young Pat Milligan (Elise Kibler.) Their boss, Mr. Walker (Jonathan Hogan) warns Brewer off, finding his behavior towards the women in the office appalling.

Miss Blanche Janus (Julia Coffey) and Mr. Eric Brewer
(Stephen Plunkett)  in "London Wall"
at the Mint through March 30th. Photo © Richard Termine.

With the smirk of a cad, Brewer is outgunned by Miss Janus, who knows a thing or two about affairs of the heart. Blanche Janus is protective of Pat, and dislikes Brewer who is slimy and insinuating.  Her interest in Pat and her beau, Hec Hammond (Christopher Sears) is in part nostalgic.

Mr. Walker (Jonathan Hogan) with Pat (Elise Kibler) in
"London Wall" at the Mint. Photo © Richard Termine.

The play depicts office life in all its regular mundanity. The firm of Messers Walker, Windemere & Co. is hectic with the comings and goings of workers and clients. Hec is a visitor from a firm downstairs, frequently borrowing a reference book from the general office, as an excuse to see Pat.  Miss Willesden (Laurie Kennedy) is an eccentric but well-heeled client whom Mr. Walker will no longer see, but whose wills and legal actions are part of the firm's business. Mr. Brewer attends to her whenever she appears unexpectedly at the offices.

Brewer (Stephen Plunkett) with Miss Willesden
(Laurie Kennedy) in "London Wall."
Photo © Richard Termine.

"I know office work's no fun. I don't always enjoy it myself. There are lots of things I'd rather be doing, and thinking about, but they can't intrude here," Mr. Walker says. The office in "London Wall" is a great deal of fun, however.


The prolific Davis Mccallum directs this superbly well-coordinated ensemble. Resident dramaturg Amy Stoller contributes to the little realisms of this excellent and engrossing production.

The elaborate sets by Marion Williams engulf the theater space in the office, further emmersing us in the daily life at the law firm in London Wall.

Among this outstanding cast, the benevolent Mr. Walker is admirably brought to life by Jonathan Hogan; the dishonorable Brewer is divinely portrayed by Stephen Plunkett; and Miss Pat Milligan as embodied by the newcomer, Elise Kibler, is an intelligent go-getting young woman. Rounding out the cast is the cheeky officeboy, Birkenshaw (Matthew Gumley.)  In this group of players, no one should be left off this long list of bests, but we will add one more standout in Julia Coffey who gives Miss Janus a keen and warm understanding.

For more about "London Wall," please visit The Mint Theatre.

Around town

Thomas F. Flynn recounts his
esperiences on September 11th
in the new play based on his book of
the same name. At BMCC Tribeca
Performing Arts Center.

1. Raise a glass to the Bard 

2. King Lear for "A New Audience"

3. A noteworthy new venue takes shape at WTC

4. Remembering the day the Towers fell

5.  What would Sartre do?

6. Paul Taylor, Dancemaker

7. Project Shaw
8. Grifting, game theory and comics

Shakespeare and beer....
New York Shakespeare Exchange has come up with another brilliant way to promote the Bard of Avon: The first ShakesBEER of 2014 will kick off in March, with two "Stone Street" crawls scheduled for Saturday, March 1 and Saturday, March 8 with additional Shakespearean bar crawls scheduled throughout the year-- 10 in all.

At each pub, the actors, cheek by jowl with the audience, break out a scene from one of the Bard's works. The ShakesBEERean acting company includes many a Shakespeare hand from the city, NYSX past performances, and from around the country.

In case you need a remindeer, NYSX recently held The Sonnet Project as a tribute to William Shakespeare, and a way to encourage appreciation of his work in a modern context.

For tickets and information, visit www.shakespeareexchange.org/content/shakesbeer-2014

Kings in their dotage
For fans of "King Lear," there can't be too many productions of the great Shakespearean tragedy. There's another one in Brooklyn this spring, following Frank Langella's at BAM. This one features Michael Pennington, two-time Olivier Award nominee, an artist of international stature and one of England’s greatest classical actors, in the title role in William Shakespeare's tragedy. Mr. Pennington leads a company of 22 actors. This is the second production in Theatre for a New Audience's inaugural season, which kicked off with "Midsummer Night's Dream," at its first permanent home, the new Polonsky Shakespeare Center, 262 Ashland Place in Brooklyn, directed by Arin Arbus. "King Lear" begins previews March 14 for an opening March 27 and a run through May 4.

Find out more by visiting http://www.tfana.org/

The PAC at WTC
A new and noteable venue is emerging at the World Trade Center with the appointment of a core team to lead the The Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center (PAC.) David Lan, Artistic Director of London's Young Vic, has been appointed as Consulting Artistic Director alongside Lucy Sexton as Associate Artistic Director. Andy Hayles, Managing Partner of innovative theater consultancy Charcoalblue, will be the theater design consultant. Film director Stephen Daldry has joined the PAC’s Board of Directors.

The artistic team is collaborating with the PAC’s staff, board and numerous consultants to create a global center that will produce and present new work, in multiple disciplines. All of this will take place in an adaptable venue with unprecedented digital connectivity.

Where were you on 9/11?
Thomas F. Flynn jumped on his bicycle outside his Greenwich Village home and followed the first plane downtown. There he became not a witness and reporter, but a participant, caught up in surviving the tragedy that rocked New York a little over a dozen years ago. In "Bikeman,"  Flynn, a veteran journalist, and an award winning writer and producer for the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, recounts his experiences on 9/11.  Flynn was there at the fall of the south tower. "Bikeman," based on Flynn's book, is  directed by Michael Bush and features Robert Cuccioli, Irungu Mutu, Angela Pierce, Elizabeth Ramos, and Rich Topol.

"Bikeman" began performances on January 26th and is set for an opening on February 18th at BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center, 199 Chambers Street.
For information, go to www.Bikeman911.com.  

"Hell is other people."-- Sartre
Can an existential attitude help us cope? Or might it drive us to solitude?  Find out when the Pearl Theatre presents Jean-Paul Sartre's "No Exit," from February 25th through March 30th. Linda Ames Key directs this adaptation from the French by Paul Bowles.

To find out more, please visit http://www.pearltheatre.org/1314/noexit/

Fill your March with dance. 
Paul Taylor is still turning out modern dance classics with attitude, verve and abandon. Beginning in mid March, his company, PTDC begins its diamond anniversary season at Lincoln Center, with the sponsorship of Tiffany's for its Spring gala. The repertory includes two newly minted pieces, so look for Marathon Cadenzas and American Dreamer on your dance card.

For a performance schedule and tickets, please visit www.ptdc.org.

And another thing....
Check out the Gingold Theatrical Group's "Project Shaw" at Symphony Space. Each production is one Monday night only, with "The Philanderer" coming up on February 24th.

For more information and tickets, go to Project Shaw.

Cons are a family affair in "Fast Company"

 www.carlaching.com

Blue (Stephanie Hsu) is the daughter who is excluded from the family business of grifting and sent off to college. There she discovers that you can run a con using advanced mathematical theory.

Carla Ching's new comedy "Fast Company," under the direction of Robert Ross Parker, begins previews March 12th for a run through April 6th at the Ensemble Studio Theatre.


For tickets for "Fast Company," please visit Ovation Tix.

How well do we know even our closest friends?

Domesticity can make for a very dull subject.

In Donald Marguiles' Pulitzer Prize winning play,  in a Roundabout Theatre Company revival, at Laura Pels Theatre through April 13th,"Dinner With Friends," it is laced with the spice of infidelity.

Beth (Heather Burns) spills her misery to her old friend Karen (Marin Hinkle) and her husband's best friend Gabe (Jeremy Shamos) even before the dessert is served. Tom's (Darren Pettie) absence from this regular gathering is actually due to his going to see his girlfriend, and not because he is off on another business trip.

When his travel plans are snowed out, Tom returns home to discover that Beth told Gabe and Karen that he wanted a divorce. Late as it is, Tom drives over to to set the record straight with Karen and Gabe, who feel betrayed by the dissolution of Beth and Tom's marriage.

Gabe and Karen had fixed Beth and Tom up, spent vacations with them and their kids together over the years. While Beth was clearly blind-sided, they were the last to know. Beth muses,  "He was moody. Yes. Distracted. I thought it was work. Or jet lag..." Tom tells Gabe he has never been happier than he has since his marriage ended. He doesn't want therapy, or need advice.

"Dinner With Friends" tells a simple tale of four friends, two couples, each looking to keep passion alive or rekindle it, despite the grind of the day to day domesticity of their lives.

As Tom, Darren Pettie manifests an appropriately defensive menace. He is the the bullying poster boy for leaving your wife. When Tom tells Gabe about his new girlfriend, he sounds as if he is proselytizing: "She saved my life, Gabe. She really did; she breathed life back into me " His enthusiasm for the new is like a slap at the friendship he and Gabe have shared.

Jeremy Shamos has the gift of likability that make his Gabe vulnerable and approachable. He is a content with the life he's chosen: "We’ve all made sacrifices to our kids. It’s the price you pay for having a family," he tells Tom.

Under Pam MacKinnon's direction, the ensemble breathes fresh life into this ordinary story. Heather Burns plays Beth as both put-upon and manipulative. The subtlety in her characterization contrasts with Marrin Hinkle's straightforward portrayal of the judgemental and down-to-earth Beth.

"Dinner With Friends" covers the twelve plus years of marriages and friendships with ease and panache. The attractive sets, designed by Allen Moyer, travel through the many locales "Dinner With Friends" inhabits, from Martha's Vineyard to rooms in the protoganists' homes.

If you have seen the 2001 Emmy-nominated film version or the original 1999 production, you will find this one charmingly done and nicely staged. (Need more opinion? Check out TB review on VP.com.)

To learn more about "Dinner With Friends," please visit http://www.roundabouttheatre.org/

Location, location... It's a drag!

The vagaries of real estate seems such a New Yorker's obsession.

Keira Keeley, Charles Busch, Julie Halston, Mary Bacon and Jonathan Walker in the Primary Stages production
of "The Tribute Artist" © 2014 James Leynse.

In Charles Busch's latest ouevre, "The Tribute Artist," in a Primary Stages production at 59E59 Theaters through March 16th, the real estate is a Greenwich Village townhouse.

The expansive and elegant set, by Anna Louizos, is a grand and dignified persona. The other characters do not fare as well. The live action is marred by improbability, admittedly often very funny, and a slow pace.

Cynthia Harris in the Primary Stages production of "The Tribute Artist" © 2014 James Leynse.

Treading the fine lines between drag queen/female impersonator/and down-and out "celebrity tribute" artist, Jimmy (Charles Busch) seizes a foolproof opportunity. Jimmy's unwarranted optimism lends both fizz and fizzle to playwright Busch's comedy. His friend, Rita (Julie Halston) joins him in a scheme to impersonate Adriana (Cynthia Harris); Adriana was Jimmy's landlady in the beautiful old house, who died in her sleep during a night of carrousing with Rita and Jimmy. 

Julie Haston in the Primary Stages production
of "The Tribute Artist" © 2014 James Leynse.

Halston, a long-time Busch actor and collaborator, and Busch have a natural chemistry and ease. What could go wrong, Jimmy asks? The plot's twists make for many a merry surprise.

Enter Adriana's niece by marriage, Christina (Mary Bacon) and her transgender daughter, Oliver (formerly Rachel) (Keira Keeley), wth a claim on the property. Oliver, ever the romantic, hunts up an old flame of Adriana's on Facebook and hence, enter Rodney (Jonathan Walker.)  Highlights of the producton include an exit scene Busch has written for Rodney, and the fact that young Oliver-Rachel can curse like a stevedore on steroids.

The unrelenting zany in "The Tribute Artist" has some wonderful moments, and some predictible. Don't fault the cast or director Carl Andress for any lulls in the party; sometimes the zany just falls flat.

It's always a pleasure seeing both sides of Busch-- ingenuous actor, inventive playwright. Unfortunately in "The Tribute Artist," Busch the playwright does not do Charles Busch, the actor, justice.
(See also Tamara's Tumblr for additional commentary.)

To learn more about "The Tribute Artist," please visit http://www.primarystages.org/

Theater is about engagement, tears and laughter, and make believe

Fairytales make for good theater, because through them we envision a world different from the daily grind.
There is magic and mystery.

by Sheila Burnett: "Beauty and the Beast" at Abrons Arts Center

"Beauty and the Beast" is a compelling story in which the beast is misunderstood and opposites attract.
In the new production at the Abrons Arts Center, starting March 13th,  the Beast is played by Mat Fraser, a well-known disabled actor and performance artist in his native England; Julie Atlas Muz, choreographer, former Miss Coney Island and burlesque artist, is his Beauty. This moving "Beauty and the Beast" is definitely for mature audiences only.

Jim Himelsbach (live) Paul Zimet (projected)
In Mallory Catlett's "This Was The End."
Photo by Keith Skretch

Phelm McDermott, founding member of Improbable theater company, directs the live-action, improvisational and puppet pageant. Hear what the director and actors say about the development of "Beauty and the Beast"in this video.

To learn more about "Beauty and the Beast," please visit www.abronsartscenter.org

Memory not fairytales drives Mallory Catlett's "This Was The End," at the Chocolate Factory from February 21s to March 8th. In Chekhov's play the eponymous Uncle Vanya asks, "What if I live to be 60?" In Catlett's play, a veteran cast of four, Black-Eyed Susan, Paul Zimet, Jim Himelsbach and Rae C. Wright explore the answer by looking at the manifestations of aging, from memory loss and sleep deprivation to the tolls it takes on the physical being.

Black Eyed Susan in Mallory Catlett's "This Was The End" at the Chocolate Factory through March 8th. Photo by Keith Skretch

To find out more about "This Was The End," and get a small sampling of the show see this and visit http://www.chocolatefactorytheater.org/. 

Emily Schwend's "Take Me Back," at Walkerspace in a Kindling Theatre Company production from February 28th through March 22nd, looks at the American dream through the eyes of a parolee back from a four-year Federal stint. To Bill, living with his diabetic mother, the dream is more like a nightmare. Or perhaps a different kind of fairy tale.

To find out more about "Take Me Back," please visit  them at their FB page and go here for tix.

Former Czech President, Vaclav Havel's last work "The Pig, or Vaclav Havel's Hunt for the Pig," witten by Havel and Vladimír Morávek, adapted into English by Edward Einhorn, presented at 3-Legged Dog in a Untitled Theater Company #61 production from March 6th through March 29th, combines food, drink, revelry, song and politics. 

Before the show, Cabaret Metropol, a New York-based ensemble specializing in classic European cabaret music, performs. The production's “after-party” features a tribute concert of music that inspired the Velvet Revolution, from the Velvet Underground and others, performed by the members of the dynamic cast. Dinner is provided by the Slovakian restaurant Korzo.

For more information about this production and 3-Legged Dog, visit http://www.3ldnyc.org/