Off Broadway
He Says: Tennessee Williams Desires to Streetcar Us to A Lovely Sunday For Creve Coeur
It’s a gorgeous set that we first we gaze upon, courtesy of scenic and lighting designer Harry Feiner (Mint’s Days to Come), as we wait for A Lovely Sunday For Creve Coeur to arrive at the station known as theTheatre at St. Clement’s. Intricate and crowded like the apartment described in this 1976 Tennessee Williams play but not as colorful garish, we realize once the actors make their way onto the set, that the tightness and clutter may become something of an obstacle rather then a blessing. The cast seem to spend more time navigating the narrow passageways watching out for corners and edges to avoid, instead of finding their way through the complex text. And it is complex and wordy in a way that makes the twists and turns harder to understand. Impulse and intention gets wasted and lost in the depth and disarray of space and the small short pathways through the mess obstruct understanding, giving us a preview to what is around the corner in this La Femme Theatre Production. Such a shame, as there are a few strong and provocative ideas and performances shuffling about on that short trolley ride to the park, but much like the pointless meandering of their lonely neighbor, this Lovely Sunday derails almost as soon as the ride begins.
The play, written just after the autobiographical Vieux Carré, was created to be a companion piece to Demolition Downtown, a short work that had been published in Esquire in 1971, but with the back wall criss-crossing the view like the fire escapes of New Orleans, a visual we’ve become accustomed to in the far better and more iconic A Streetcar Named Desire, A Lovely Sunday… rarely achieves the same level of poetic descent that we have learned to expect of Williams. It’s beautifully spoken, but unfocused and flat, at least with this awkwardly staged production.
Set on a hot summer morning in St. Louis in the mid-1930’s with harmoniously humid and heavy original music and sound design by Ryan Rumery (Be More Chill), the play fixes its head on the struggles of four very different women and the aloneness they each feel. Dorothea, or “Dottie”, portrayed like a Blanche DuBois stand-in by Jean Lichty (Cherry Lane’s The Traveling Lady) is a middle-aged civics teacher, transfixed with the idea of holding onto her youth and beauty with hundreds of bending calisthenics, but mainly as a route to finding a hopefully romantic escape from her life of worry and stress. She holds tight to the dream of finding her way into the passenger seat of a flying cloud, owned and operated by her knight in shining armor, the school principal T. Ralph Ellis. She clings to her hope, desperately, that he will take her away from all this heat and heaviness, but we see in the eyes of her good-hearted hard-of-hearing roommate, Bodey, played with unrelentingly inventiveness by the always fascinating Kristine Nielsen (Broadway’s Present Laughter, PH’s Hir) that it might just be one sad slice of folly: a short run, when it really should be long. Magnificently digging out as much gold as she can from the text, Nielsen’s Bodey has another dream, one that she holds just as tightly. It’s an opposing one though, and no matter how many times she is told to give up on her hope, she tunes it out, as if her hearing aid only delivers news that she wants to hear and believe. Bodey, you see, desperately wants Dottie to accept the somewhat unclear advances of her cigar-smoking twin brother Buddy. It’s touchingly obvious that Bodey hopes that cementing a partner for her brother, something that she doesn’t believe is possible for herself, might just give her a chance of being part of something bigger than all the endless dinners for one she sees in her future.
Hope is the key here, and as directed by Austin Pendleton (Perry Street Theatre’s The Saintliness of Margery Kemp), that ideal gets put to an extreme test on this particular Sunday, when the paper arrives into Bodey’s hands and a surprise guest shows up at the door in the haughty form of Helena. Both are uninvited and Bodey does her best to shield her frail roommate from the news. Portrayed by the masterful Annette O’Toole (2ST’s Man From Nebraska), Helena is a well dressed upscale snake, wasting no time sizing up the space and looking down her nose at everything, almost with glee. With such tenacity, she states that she has important business to attend to with Dottie, a plan in her finely coiffed head that would benefit them both, while also holding tight to some news that just can’t wait until the gossipy girls gather on Monday. It’s a tailor-made performance by O’Toole, who handles it solidly and slyly, with her desperation played as smoothly as her finely sewn outfit. It’s a pretense that will certainly get thrashed with powder and liquid by the smarter-than-she-acts Bodey. Their chemistry in the tightness of the apartment never seems entirely rooted in awareness and reality as the close proximity to one another and their continuous coming-together at the table never really gives them room to actively portray their opposition to each other’s presence. It becomes clear that both are trying, although selfishly in their own way, to protect the southern bell and her illusionary complex from crumbling before their very eyes, but their hopes are diametrically opposed and will never unite. Holding strong against one another, even when Helena is confronted with the strange Miss Gluck, the German manic-depressive immigrant who lives above and moves about the apartment without purpose, played heavily by Polly McKie (Irish Rep’s The Home Place), Helena can’t help but to drive forward. She draws in two deep breaths to get her back in her skin, and pushes through, hoping to not prolong this discussion, as she has a deep sensitivity to heat and bright lights, but more importantly in the bigger picture, a fear-based aversion to dining solo.
Each one is frightened to their core by the aloneness of lost identity and self-inflicted independence, causing each to hold hard and strong to their faulty dreams and illusions, just like almost every tragic heroine in a Williams play. Bit unlike the magnificent Gillian Anderson in the phenomenal Young Vic/St. Ann’s Warehouse production of A Streetcar Named Desire that graced our shores back in 2016, Lichty fails to give Dottie much room to maneuver and fall. Rather than holding up her hope to the light of the Sun-day, pretending, as Anderson most incredibly did, that everything is under control and going to go her way in the end, even while shaking under its weight, this Dottie seems to nervously know how this Lovely Sunday will end. She channels the neurotic instability from the first anxious ringing of the phone without ever really presenting the girlish naivety that we need to believe exists somewhere inside. Her blind infatuation should at least attempt to hold her, even superficially at the beginning, giving her a place up high to fall from. As directed by Pendleton, her journey into smashed despair is but a short ride on the cool streetcar to defeat. Trapped like a stuffed bird in a cage, this Blanche is already in desperate need of the kindness of strangers. From the beginning, she climbs about a trolley ride to Creve Coeur, but it has already arrived at the end of the line, seemingly one stop later, barely giving her ample time to settle into her seat.
For more go to frontmezzjunkies.com
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.
By Dennis White
The theater is filled with eerie almost tribal music with birds chirping as the audience finds their seats for Primary Stages’ production of DIG at 59E59 Theaters. It’s a new play written by Theresa Rebeck (Bernhardt/Hamlet) who also directs and as the name implies, DIG is not going to let us just see what’s on the surface. This story wants us to DIG to find out what we don’t see going on underground. The play’s setting is a garden shop that we’re told is failing but is filled with what looks like thriving plants.
David Mason in Primary Stages’ DIG at 59E59 Theaters. Photo by James Leynse.
Roger, the owner, played with elegant restraint by Jeffery Bean (Broadway’s Amadeus, Bells Are Ringing) seems content with keeping his shop even though developers are buying up the neighborhood. But Roger is unaware of how his complacent life is going to change thanks to his longtime friend Lou played by Triney Sandoval (Broadway’s Bernhardt/Hamlet), a man who reluctantly has his tormented daughter Megan come live with him. Megan deftly played by Andrea Syglowski (Broadway’s Pass Over) is a woman lost but even though it seems futile, she has not given up – completely. Entering the shop Megan takes a seat in the corner facing the wall attempting to camouflage herself in greenery covering her face with a hoodie.
She has committed an unforgivable act that has made national headlines. After a failed suicide her father agrees to supervise his daughter’s release even though he cannot forgive her. Megan reaches through her pain and within minutes she offers to repot a plant hoping to convince Roger he needs her help and she’ll work for free. You can feel how Syglowski’s Megan feels caught like the plant’s bound roots pushing against the sides of the pot, trapped and in pain. But she sees hope in the garden shop and Roger. The relationship between Roger and Megan is tenuous at first but the actors reel in the audience. The garden shop is coming alive as a place where they can both grow but it’s not as easy as they find out.
The rest of the cast is vital as they build the grotesque puzzle pieces of Megan’s horrifying past with pros like Mary Bacon (Public’s Coal Country) as Molly. Bacon does a good job as the judgmental nosy customer who turns into a helping hand. Stoner Everett aptly played in what can be described as a life lived in a pot cloud haze by Greg Keller (Playwrights Horizons’ The Thanksgiving Play) seems like a comical diversion but there’s a darker side coming. A surprising element is the appearance of Adam, Megan’s ex-husband, played with the intensity of a caged animal by David Mason (Broadway’s Pictures from Home) who makes the most of this small part. You can feel the audience cringing through the entire scene as writer/ director Theresa Rebeck finally gets her chance to see her play fully realized as she saw it in her mind, line by line.
DIG takes us to places we could not imagine when we first meet the characters. She builds relationships, tears them down, and then gives them some hope by the end. The play’s surprising revelation leaves the audience stunned, gasping at the turn of events and the secrets revealed. Rebeck’s direction seems effortless, moving her actors in the garden shop through this story of realization, forgiveness, and redemption. The scenic design by Christopher and Justin Swader (Off-Broadway’s The Boy Who Danced On Air) fill the garden shop with life, growing and changing reflecting the events of the play. Lighting by Mary Ellen Stebbins (MCC’s Space Dogs) helps set the mood with deep shadows and the original music and sound design by Fitz Patton (Broadway’s Choir Boy) give us an ominous melody to add to the tension, giving DIG a chance to get a lot of it right. The cast led by Syglowski and Bean hit all the right notes as they travel through tormented waters, some raging, while others swirl below the surface. Rebeck’s play with its unexpected twists and turns wrenches our guts and we follow gladly to the end.
For more information and tickets, visit primarystages.org/.
Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors, is now playing at New World Stage, 340 West 50th Street, until January 7, 2024 or beyond.
In this caricature you will find James Daly’s Dracula and clockwise: Andrew Keenan-Bolger, Arnie Burton, Ellen Harvey and Jordan Boatman who make up this amazingly talented cast.
You can read T2C’s mouth watering review here.
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