Off Broadway
He Says: NYTW’s Expands the Cycle with a Crowded “runboyrun” & a Solidly Finished “In Old Age”
I’ve been here before, in this place where playwright Mfoniso Udofia has dropped her fascinating and detailed characters down into, both worlds that are parallel universes of sorts projecting forward into the future through her detailed and dynamic saga, The Ufot Cycle. It encircles within in nine slices, a powerfully spiritual immigrant story of family and trauma told by a wide eyed genius that sees deep inside the souls of her troubled characters. She parcels them out, packing in unhurried details, and than finds the space and patient deliberations to let them run fully around within the framework. In May 2017 on the same New York Theatre Workshop stage, two one-act plays from that cycle, Sojourners and Her Portmanteau premiered to acclaim. They were the first and the fourth part of her nine segment transportational drama. Now NYTW delivers another powerful pairing; part three, runboyrun and part eight, In Old Age, dynamically uncovering layers and layers of trauma, buried under the blankets and floorboards, powerfully coupled for us to delve into and unpack. It’s genius in its huge majestic scope and connective tissue, one that itches and claws at the skin to be released into the cold air of Worcester, Massachusetts.
Set in the Ufot family’s present-day Worcester home with the 1968 Nigeria Biafran Civil War running rampant up and around their exhausted souls, runboyrun and In Old Age breath more life and sorrow into the Ufot family story. It’s a storied tale about finding a pathway forward, even when tragic history keeps haunting the basement down below. In runboyrun, the man of the house, Disciple Ufot, intensely portrayed by Chiké Johnson (Milwaukee Rep’s Our Town) comes home after a disastrous day to find his wife, Abasiama Ufot, dynamically played by the phenomenal Patrice Johnson Chevannes (CSC’s Mies Julie) hiding herself under a mountain of blankets. She’s trying to keep warm in a cold house, but the layering against the chill resonates far beyond the crumbling sofa. It’s a telling reintroduction to the female center piece of the cycle, but in runboyrun she’s the support network, even if she can barely crawl out from under to engage.
This is her husband’s sad convoluted story, his PTSD enlivened and spinning into a full break from reality, down in the confines of his own personal hell below. When the spirits come around, bringing the hot air and warfare of Nigeria to the unheated basement, they present themselves as something more than just tormentors, but as simple scared refugees trying to stay alive against all odds. Johnson’s Disciple hears them buzzing in the background, and clutching at his leg, but can’t quite grab hold. He tries to chant the quiet young Disciple, powerfully portrayed by Karl Green (Public’s Socrates) and his caring sister, tenderly played by Adrianna Mitchell (Two River’s Noises Off), away, pleading to be left alone in his discomfort and pain. But they don’t pay him any heed. The memory siblings are kind and warm to each other, filling our hearts with their care, but the spiritual manifestations of his older brother, Benjamin Adesola, strongly portrayed by Osakalumi (Broadway’s Equus) and his mother, played with a powerful combative force by Zenzi Williams (Broadway’s The Crucible) complicate the survival tactics of the young pair, uncovering years of harrowing memories that rip into the sanity of the older Disciple leaving him shaking with terror.
Tearing him and his marriage apart, the visage of those tragic events keeps Disciple’s heat on down in that cold basement and in his spiraling psyche. As directed with a complex overlapping by Loretta Greco (Public’s Lakawanna Blues), the fracturing takes on a weighty but overly crowded flight. The circling seems out of control, but in those hectic last moments, the piece finally feels like it is not tripping over itself in that small basement space designed by Andrew Boyce (Rattlestick/Barrow St’s Buyer & Cellar). But living out its potential to climb.
With strong costuming by Karen Perry (PR’s Mothers) and telling lighting by Oona Curley (Vineyard’s Good Grief) the play, in its rotating madness, finally feels blown wide open and not clumsy, even as the parallel universes come cracking and spiraling around us all. The older couple cling to one another, in confusion and desperation, in the same way his mind is pulsating, trying so hard to hold on to reality and his wife. These phantoms are determined to repeat the same painful memory over and over again, flooding his senses, unless, or until they are flushed out into the arms of Disciple’s enlivened worried wife, Abasiama.
The runboyrun tale and the staging is complex and frenetic as somewhat suggested in the play’s subtitle, “Civil War” but the battle is somewhat cluttered at the beginning, with lots of space being left unused while one thin strip of basement is overly crowded with the same air/same feelings of memories long past (it’s also hard to see through the heads of other audience members into that same basement), but In Old Age, as directed with a more centered focus by Awoye Timpo (PR’s The Revolving Cycles…), the new chapter finds a cleaner vision. Abasiama is still hiding underneath a pile of blankets. “This is good for me” she says, and even though the time is far into the future, she is still trying hard to find warmth and safety in that same old house. And then a knock is heard at the door. A real knock. Not the knocking of an angry dead husband downstairs, courtesy of original music composer and sound designer David Van Tieghem (Broadway’s Heisenberg), but a flooring expert by the name of Azell Abernathy, beautifully portrayed by the excellent Ron Canada (Broadway’s Network) who has been sent to salvage the house from disintegrating from under her feet. The reality, though, is that salvation is more for the woman under the blankets than the floorboards beneath her feet.
“This be a gift“, he says, not just to her, but to us all, as In Old Age pulsates with a simple but engaging two handed manner, finding pain and dissociation buried deep within the history of these struggling souls. The loud fervor of anger and hurt from down below reverberates throughout the house, just like it did in runboyrun, but the body-less groans almost carry a more pronounced punch into her ribs. The incessant bangs almost get drowned out by the Christian music blaring from the old television that keeps Abasiama warm and cocooned all day and all night, but not enough to shield her. They still shatter her bones and rattle our brains. They unnerve the old woman at the heart of this cycle, but those sounds are not what disturbs Azell. His history and their engagement do more to unsettle him than any noise ever could.
The two deliver the shiny oak red surfaces with a perfect alignment, balancing the enactments with one another with powerful precision, as well as ripping up the floorboards of pain below. The play is subtitled, “Purge and Passing”, which feels just about right, as their history and trauma needs to be purged most purposefully from the basement shadows to finally pass away into the night air. The release is given, something Disciple Ufot tried so hard to do in runboyrun. Together these two disconnected characters, and the very fine actors portraying them, come together, giving us a second-to-last chapter in a saga that connects strongly over the jarring bangs of the past. I’m curious what the final chapter, Adia & Clora Snatch Joy, with the subtitle, “Kismet”, will reconcile. And even more curious to see the whole arch played out in succession.
The words that make up the titles and footnotes of her plays are powerful and packed deep with emotions and meaning. ‘Sojourners‘ signifies someone who is on a temporary stay somewhere foreign, runboyrun is a command for surviving trauma raining down from the skies, ‘Portmanteau‘ signifies a bag to carry clothing in while traveling, and In Old Age pulls out an old women buried in the pain of her history so she can finally learn the true nature of love and connection, even when the noise of her past is suffocating the ideal. Crafted with precision by Udofia in order to examine a Nigerian family who find themselves dropped down in 1970’s United States, the interwoven dynamics are bound to be heavy in familial baggage. Stuffed to the breaking point, straining at the latches, desperate to be released, and unpacked before our eyes. It’s a saga that collides and combusts, and must be savored as the long closed PTSD vaults are released to formulate a bridge between two very different worlds.
For more, go to frontmezzjunkies.com
Off Broadway
Let’s Talk to Lindsay Heather Pearce and Jordan Donica Guest Stars of The New Rock Musical, Exorcistic
Last night the York Theatre Company presented their production of Golden Rainbow, with book by Ernest Kinoy and music and lyrics by Walter Marks, the third offering of the Fall 2023 “Musicals in Mufti” series. Performances continue through Sunday, October 1, 2023.
Jonathan Brody
The show stars Max Von Essen (York’s Tenderloin)
Benjamin Pajak
Benjamin Pajak (Broadway’s The Music Man)
Mara Davi
Mara Davi (Broadway’s Dames at Sea)
Robert Cuccioli
Robert Cuccioli
Robert Cuccioli (York’s Rothschild & Sons)
Danielle Lee Greaves
Danielle Lee Greaves (Broadway’s Parade)
Felipe Barbosa Bombonato
Felipe Barbosa Bombonato (Les Misérables)
Jonathan Brody
Jonathan Brody (The Sorceress)
Nick Cearley
Nick Cearley (The Skivvies),
Jillian Louis
Jillian Louis (York’s The Game of Love),
Gina Milo
Gina Milo (York’s Subways Are for Sleeping)
Maria Wirries
Jillian Louis, Gina Milo, Maria Wirries
and Maria Wirries (York’s Penelope: or How The Odyssey Was Really Written).
Golden Rainbow is directed by Stuart Ross (York’s Enter Laughing), with music direction by David Hancock Turner (York’s Cheek to Cheek and Desperate Measures). The production team includes Lighting Designer Garett Pembrook, Projections/Sound Designer Peter Brucker, Production Manager Aaron Simms, Production Coordinator Noah Glaister, Production Stage Manager Hailey Delaney, Assistant Stage Manager Carson Ferguson, and Company Manager Tori Calderon-Caswell.
Jim Morgan, Producing Artistic Director
Walter Marks and Producer Riki Kane Larimer
The Golden Rainbow cast
Jim Morgan, Walter Marks, Director Stuart Ross
Walter Marks, Benjamin Pajak
Director Stuart Ross, Benjamin Pajak
the Golden Rainbow Cast
Robert Cuccioli
The band
Robert Cuccioli, Benjamin Pajak, Max Von Essen
Robert Cuccioli, Max Von Essen
Walter Marks, Benjamin Pajak, Producer Riki Kane Larimer, Director Stuart Ross
Jim Morgan, Walter Marks, Benjamin PajakProducer Riki Kane Larimer, Director Stuart Ross
Lee Roy Reams, Lorna Dallas, Max Von Essen
Jim Morgan, Lee Roy Reams, Lorna Dallas, Max Von Essen, Jamie deRoy
Jillian Louis, Max Von Essen, Gina Milo, Maria Wirries, Robert Cuccioli
Gina Milo, Jillian Louis, Nick Cearley, Maria Wirries
Jim Caruso, Max Von Essen, Nicholas King
Jim Morgan, Joan Ross Sorkin, Producer Riki Kane Larimer and the York board
By Jacqueline Parker
Nature’s reward for enduring a spate of rain and gloomy weather is a rainbow. The York has delivered just that in their latest production in their Mufti series, Golden Rainbow. This musical from the late 60s is always mentioned among aficionados of this art form with wistful smiles and fond remembrances. The York has brought it back to life in a version that features some new lyrics by original composer/lyricist Walter Marks that carry the storyline into this century.
Robert Cuccioli , Max Von Essen
Photo Credit: Rider R. Foster
From the opening notes of the Jule Styne-esque overture to the rousing finale, the audience was toe-and-finger tapping along to the sounds so evocative of the time when most of us were very young. The story itself is touching—a single father of a boy on the brink of teenhood must wrestle with the choice of saving his livelihood or letting his son move to the other side of the country with his aunt. The connection between father and son is made clear through several songs delivered touchingly by dad Max Von Essen and son Benjamin Pajak.
Mari Davis Photo Credit: Rider R. Foster
The arrival under a false pretense of Mara Davi as Aunt Judy sets the plot spinning and allows Robert Cuccioli as mobster Carmine Malatesta and Danielle Lee Greaves as Jill to play their part in the resolution with songs hilarious and touching.
Max Von Essen and Mara Davis Photo Credit: Rider R. Foster
If the story seems familiar it’s because it is taken from the film “A Hole in the Head,” based on the same source material, that starred Frank Sinatra and Eddie Hodges singing the Oscar-winning song High Hopes. Golden Rainbow opened in 1968 starring Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme in the leads. They were household names at the time, based on their talent and popularity from television appearances and cabaret performances.
Max Von Essen and Benjamin Pajak
Photo Credit: Rider R. Foster
Perhaps most impressive in this production was Von Essen’s version of the hit song “I Gotta Be Me.” It was haunting as it built in intensity and left the audience almost breathless at the end of Act 1.
Benjamin Pajak
Photo Credit: Rider R. Foster
Pajak, familiar to all from his recent appearances in Oliver! and The Music Man was astounding in his ability to project the at times heartbreaking and lovingly joyous emotions of his character.
Mari Davis Photo Credit: Rider R. Foster
Mara Davi’s character has her own roller coaster ride of emotions, which she transmits with style and conviction.
Robert Cuccioli Photo Credit: Rider R. Foster
Robert Cuccioli was hilarious as a mobster singing Taste,
Danielle Lee Greaves Photo Credit: Rider R. Foster
and Danielle Lee Greaves delivered two of the new songs, making me hope for a new recording of this terrific show soon.
Max Von Essen and Benjamin Pajak
Photo Credit: Rider R. Foster
The clock is ticking on this gem of a show – it closes Sunday, October 1st. Get your tickets at yorktheatre.org and find your own pot of gold at the end of this rainbow.
Max Von Essen and Mara Davis Photo Credit: Rider R. Foster
Broadway
Theatre News: Here We Are, Some Like It Hot, A Beautiful Noise, All The Devils Are Here: How Shakespeare Invented The Villain and The Laramie Project
The curtain rose last tonight on the first performance of the final Stephen Sondheim musical. Here We Are, the new musical from David Ives and Sondheim, is on stage at The Shed’s Griffin Theater (545 W. 30th Street), with an Opening Night on Sunday, October 22, for 15 weeks only.
Directed by two-time Tony Award winner Joe Mantello, the cast of Here We Are will feature Francois Battiste, Tracie Bennett, Bobby Cannavale, Micaela Diamond, Amber Gray, Jin Ha, Rachel Bay Jones, Denis O’Hare, Steven Pasquale, David Hyde Pierce, and Jeremy Shamos. The understudies for Here We Are are Adante Carter, Lindsay Nicole Chambers, Bradley Dean, Mehry Eslaminia, Adam Harrington, and Bligh Voth.
Here We Are is inspired by two films, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and The Exterminating Angel, by Luis Buñuel.
Here We Are will include choreography by Sam Pinkleton, set design and costume design by David Zinn, lighting design by Natasha Katz, sound design by Tom Gibbons, orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick, musical supervision and additional arrangements by Alexander Gemignani, hair & make-up design by Wigmaker Associates, and casting by The Telsey Office.
Tickets are on sale on TheShed.org.
For each performance, a limited number of $25 tickets will be available via a weekly lottery, which will open for entries on the TodayTix app each Sunday at 12:01 AM for the coming week’s performances and will close at 12:00 PM on the day before each performance. Winners will be notified by push notification and email between 1 – 4 PM on the day before their selected show, and will have 30 minutes to claim their tickets in the app. Entrants may request 1 or 2 tickets, and entry is free and open to all.
Via TodayTix’s mobile rush program, a limited number of $40 same-day rush tickets will be available for that day’s performance of Here We Are at 9:00 AM each day on a first-come, first-served basis. Users can download the app and “unlock” rush tickets by sharing the program on social media ahead of their desired performance day.
The most award-winning musical of the 2022-2023 season, Some Like It Hot, will play for 13 more weeks through Saturday, December 30, 2023, at Broadway’s Shubert Theatre (225 West 44th Street) before launching a national tour and West End production.
Awarded Best Musical by The Drama League, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle, Some Like It Hot received over 20+ major awards throughout the 2022-2023 season, including four Tony Awards for Best Lead Actor in a Musical (J. Harrison Ghee), Best Choreography (Casey Nicholaw), Best Orchestrations (Charlie Rosen & Bryan Carter) and Best Costumes in a Musical (Gregg Barnes). J. Harrison Ghee made history as the first non-binary performer to take home the Tony Award in their category.
A national tour will launch in September 2024 and a West End production will follow in 2025, produced by The Shubert Organization and Neil Meron in partnership with Ambassador Theatre Group.
At the time of the final performance, the production will have played the Shubert Theatre for over a year, for a total of 483 performances.
Will Swenson and the cast. Photo by Julieta Cervantes.
Will Swenson, who is electrifying audiences with his star turn in A Beautiful Noise, The Neil Diamond Musical, will play his final performance as ‘Neil Diamond – Then’ at the Broadhurst Theatre (235 West 44th Street) on Sunday, October 29. Casting for the role of ‘Neil Diamond – Then’ will be announced at a future date.
The unofficial commencement of “spooky season” takes place this Friday, September 29, when Tony Award® Nominee and Grammy Award® Winner Patrick Page returns to the New York stage in All The Devils Are Here: How Shakespeare Invented The Villain, a new work created and performed by Mr. Page, based on the villains of William Shakespeare. Directed by Simon Godwin, the solo show will play the DR2 Theatre (103 E 15th Street) beginning Friday, September 29, with an Opening Night set for Monday, October 16, for 14 weeks only.
Tickets are now available at allthedevilsplay.com, Telecharge or by visiting the DR2 Theatre box office (103 E 15th Street).
Julie White
Julie White and Brandon Uranowitz will join Ato Blankson-Wood in a staged benefit reading of The Laramie Project. Moises Kaufman and the Members of Tectonic Theatre Project’s The Laramie Project, will bedirected by Dustin Wills (Wolf Play, Wet Brain). The event, which will raise funds to support the work of The Trevor Project, will take place on Monday, October 16th at 7:00 PM at Peter Norton Symphony Space, and is being produced by District Productions. Additional casting is soon to be announced. For tickets and more information, visit https://www.symphonyspace.org/events/vp-the-laramie-project-a-benefit-staged-reading
Pulse Theatre will be presenting Chasing Happy a new comedy by Michel Wallerstein (Flight, Five Women Waiting, Off Hand). Directed by Pulse Theatre co-Founder Alexa Kelly (Strings Attached).
Video by Magda Katz
The company of Chasing Happy features Spencer Aste (Wake Up, Axis Theatre), Jenny Bennett (City of Ladies, Pulse Theatre), Schyler Conaway in his Off-Broadway debut, Christopher James Murray (The Falling Season, Theatre Row), and Elizabeth Shepherd (Relatively Speaking and Conduct Unbecoming on Broadway; War and Peace and Inherit the Wind in London’s West End).
T2C talked to Michel Wallerstein and Spencer Aste to learn more.
Chasing Happy is a modern comedy about personal identity, love, acceptance …and the elusive pursuit of happiness. Nick is in love with another man’s boyfriend. (Oops.) Nick’s mother says George Clooney wants to date her (Really?). Nick’s ex-wife says she has to have surgery.( Now?) …It’s a laugh a minute on an unexpected merry-go-round when you’re chasing happy.
The limited engagement will play a five-week limited engagement, October 11 through November 11, at Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street, NYC). Opening night is Thursday, October 19 at 7PM. Tickets are now on sale at TheatreRow.org or by calling the box office, 212-714-2442 ext. 45.
For more information visit www.ChasingHappyOffBroadway.com.
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