The past week was filled with a handful of Broadway shows, some not great, some fantastic. Tuesday night I saw That Championship Season at the last minute and found it pretty dreadful. It’s a play about a championship basketball team coming together 20 years after they won the state championship. They have reunions every year but this one is different (kinda) because there are all of these secrets to expose. Except that the secrets weren’t all that interesting. I kept waiting for the big reveal and it ended up being pretty uneventful. The play explores the changing role of white male hegemony between the 50s and 70s and part of the problem seemed to be that much of the audience seemed to agree with the racist, sexist things being said. It’s possible that I’m projecting, but the way the audience reacted to off-color jokes or remarks seemed to be positive as opposed to uncomfortable… Which confused me slightly. And despite an pretty all-star cast, it was just lackluster all around. Quite disappointing.
Not at all disappointing was Priscilla Queen of the Desert. I’ve never seen the movie, but was excited to continue my love for plays about/starring drag queens with this show. And it exceeded my expectations. Three drag queens travel from Sydney to Alice Springs in a bus so that one of them can meet his young son. Filled with disco/top 40 hits and boasting some of the craziest costumes I’ve ever seen, Priscilla was an utter delight. And I have a new raging crush on Nick Adams, who plays Adam/Felicia. So much so that I wrote my first piece of fan mail on a vintage peacock postcard (it seemed appropriate). That’s right. I’m 27 years old and I wrote my first piece of fan mail last night to an actor who plays a drag queen. Apparently some changes were made to the show to make it more “Broadway-friendly” and tone it down slightly from the Australian and West End versions. And while this a little frustrating from an artistic perspective, I’m sure the family with young children sitting in front of me were pleased. Even so there were probably going to be a lot of questions about what they had seen. But I would recommend it to anyone. It’s a fantastically over-the-top theatrical experience and worth it to see the number of costume changes alone!
Have realized that my theatrical tastes now encompass over the top musicals(preferably with drag queens) and witty erudite plays and very little in between. I suppose it makes sense considering my introduction to the theatre was through movie musicals, but it’s a little incongruous.
Saturday night, I saw the new Stephen Adly Guirgis play, The Motherfucker with the Hat. For what sounds like it should be a provocative show (profanity in the title! Chris Rock!), it fell flat overall. The pre-show buzz was that the play was great but that Chris Rock was not, so those were my expectations coming into it. By the end of the play, I was disappointed with the play and pleasantly surprised by Rock’s performance (he reminded me of Julianne Moore in The Vertical Hour in that he acted the way I probably would if I found myself on Broadway in 8th grade– too many small hand gestures and the uncanny ability to get stuck in an awkward pose).
Guirgis is well-known for his gritty, urban, clever plays. He’s one of the most popular playwrights at the Drama Book Shop. I had read some other plays of his, but never had the opportunity to see one and was looking forward to the experience. Sadly, the premise of the play is so tiny in its scope that there’s really nothing to behold. A man on parole, trying to stay sober, suspects his girlfriend since 8th grade of cheating on him. His sponsor, who’s been sober for 15 years, lets him stay with him while he gets his thoughts on track. Fine. The dialogue is occasionally laugh out loud funny but as my “playmate” said had “too many words.” Everyone was saying everything they could. And it was exhausting. And then every plot twist that you could expect happens. Which is not what I remember from Guirgis’ other plays.
And so, putting on my producer hat, I wonder why this play premiered on Broadway. Couldn’t the Public have produced this and maybe the pressure of catering to the Broadway audience would be avoided? Put profanity and Chris Rock on Broadway and people (tourists?) shy away from it. Put it downtown and the show might sell out. And if you’re going to put profanity and Chris Rock onstage, at least make it interesting so that people are scandalized and there’s a buzz about the content of the play rather than the title. Instead there’s some goofy stage combat and one fleshed out character out of five.*
*I almost feel bad for being so negative about this play, but when you’ve enjoyed other work by a playwright and they appear to be phoning it in (I felt this way about Superior Donuts by Tracy Letts), it’s disappointing. There are too many good plays out there not getting produced to see boring plays about romantic/addiction issues. I also think that there’s an an assumption that audiences will recognize a playwright’s name. Unless their name is David Mamet or Tennessee Williams (and even so!), that’s not true.
This trailer for the Broadway production of Jerusalem has just been released. As ever, I’m skeptical of its success over here, but would love to be proven wrong. Rylance is terrific. The play is stunning. But it’s very bleak and very British, neither of which usually lead to Broadway success. But if the producers don’t mind taking a risk on it, I’m more than happy to get to see it again. Hopefully not too much has changed from the UK production.
As a side note, I’m enjoying seeing how theaters/producers get creative with theatrical trailers. They’ve definitely been getting better over the years.
Last Wednesday I was fortunate enough to get a rush ticket to see the current Broadway revival of Arcadia. I saw the West End production(which had the same director and the same set) before I moved to New York (you can read my slightly nonsensical post about it here) and thought it was fantastic.This time around I still enjoyed the play very much, but found aspects of it lacking. The cast was uneven and the direction seemed, perhaps, broader than it had been in London. I was utterly charmed by Billy Crudup’s take on Bernard Nightingale, despite having reservations when I heard he was playing him. His manic enthusiasm brought something new to the part while also seeming very familiar. The manic rakish academic is a type that I’ve come into contact in very frequently, and Crudup is certainly the right man to bring it to stage.
Arcadia is a difficult play to describe, but I will try to do it justice. The play takes place in one room and two time periods in Sidley Park, a country house in England. The action alternates between the two time periods while the props/animals onstage tie the two together. In the early 1800s a precocious mathematician surprises her charming tutor, a contemporary of Byron in school and at Cambridge, with her genius. In the 1990s, two academics, one researching the garden at Sidley Park, the other a voracious, misogynistic Byron scholar spar over books in the estate’s library. Discoveries, true and false, are made. Love is kindled and lost. And it’s very very funny. Each time I see or read this play, something else occurs to me. Something in its brilliance or its soul all of a sudden crystalizes for me. And then I wonder if that thing occurred to me the last time I saw the play or if it’s a new thought. Which might be the point. Either way, it was a great night, though marred slightly by a man who had what appeared to be a heart attack between the 3rd and 4th scenes and the mismanagement by the house staff/stage manager of the situation.*
*As a playwright and a former usher, I am very particular about these sorts of things.
This Sunday marks episode two of the theatrical series I’ve been working on. Information below:
Get in on the second episode and follow the exploits of Audrey, Felix, Lena and Miles. Can their passion lead them to their ultimate goal? Or will the daily grind wear them out?
This time, join the intrepid book shop staff as they navigate callbacks, reality show producers and craigslist in our belated Valentine’s day episode.
Episode Two: Missed Connections
Sunday March 6, 2011 7pm
Drama Book Shop 250 W 40th Street
Written by Matt Alspaugh and Kate Mulley
Directed by Matt Alspaugh
Featuring: Sean-Michael Bowles, Sharone Halevy, Abigail Hardin, Rachel Karp, Carmen Meyers, Kate Mulley and Shawn Verrier
Another French title, another star turn for a British actor. This time it was Douglas Hodge in La Cage Aux Folles. I don’t know if it’s because I lived in London during a very impressionable period of my life, but there is something about these subtle British actors that just slays me in a way that doesn’t happen as often with their American peers. Now, having written that, I suppose I can’t really say that Mark Rylance’s* performance in La Bete is in anyway subtle, and I found David Hyde Pierce’s performance in that show the epitome of subtle brilliance.
I had seen the West End production of La Cage Aux Folles almost 2 years ago, with Jodi, my former colleague at Nick Hern Books. We were a little embarrassed to see it, but thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We didn’t have the good fortune of seeing Douglas Hodge’s performance though, so I was hoping to see it when he came to Broadway. And I’m incredibly glad that I did. The musical itself is a bit of a confection, though filled with hummable tunes and farcical situations. Hodge, however, is utterly heart-breaking as the aging drag queen cast aside by his son. Am embedding a montage from the show, which is probably more entertaining for me than for people who haven’t seen it, alas, but it gives you a good sense of how unapologetically entertaining the show is. Hodge and Kelsey Grammar are only in the show for another 3 weeks, I’d definitely recommend seeing them before the new (equally entertaining, but less subtle) cast members arrive.
* Speaking of Mark Rylance, apparently he came into the bookshop when I was on a plane to Los Angeles. But he also said he would be back. Fingers crossed. And, of course, I didn’t see any celebrities in LA.
I’ve taken a bit of a break from going to the theatre over the past month, partly because I’ve been working on creating my own. But I recently noticed that one of my favorite films about theater/actors, Withnail and I, was added to the Netflix Instant Stream collection. For those of you who don’t know it, it’s a hilarious, sad, brilliant movie about two out of work actors who go to a country house for a weekend get-away. Withnail is a drunk and a snob, “I” (known as Marwood in the screenplay) is much more stable, but gets caught up in Withnail’s mania. As someone who has found herself caught up in other people’s mania from time to time, I find their relationship especially compelling.
I had never heard of the film before I moved to England, but once there I started to hear it referenced pretty often. I’ve since watched it a handful of times, most recently this weekend. Richard E Grant’s performance as Withnail is absolute perfection, a true study in narcissistic self-destruction who garners occasional sympathy. And the references to various theater-related things are spot-on. I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn’t seen it, and recommend a rewatch for those who haven’t seen it in awhile. Just don’t try the drinking game where you match Withnail drink for drink, as I believe it would lead to alcohol poisoning, if not death.
[The above screenshot from the film will be my new work computer background]
This week, I had the pleasure of seeing parts 1 & 3 of The Great Game, the 3-part series developed by Nicholas Kent for the Tricycle Theatre and now playing at the Skirball Center at NYU (I hope to catch part 2, since some of my favorite playwrights have their plays in that batch) It’s 12 one act plays performed chronologically with snippets of verbatim statements about Afghanistan. The first part covers 1842 through 1920, the second part 1979-1996 and the third part 1996-2010. What’s most striking about the piece is the scope of the project and the range of the actors. It’s a true force of nature that lives up to its ambition, while entertaining and education the audience. Marathon shows can be difficult to endure, but there is a great reward to experiencing these plays and understanding both the relationship between Afghanistan and the West and the relationship that artists have to Afghanistan (as you enter the theatre there is a small bazaar with rugs and crafts for sale). Some of the plays end abruptly (short plays about big ideas are very hard to write), some of them mimic one another (the first play and the last play are poignant bookends), but in all, they are an example of some of the best political playwrights at the top of their game writing some very timely theatre. Which begs the question (again): where are the American playwrights and directors doing these kinds of pieces?
There’s a certain frustrating paradox in being a playwright. One that requires a very specific alchemy in order to get the sort of recognition that people hope for. Before I thought it was finding a way to get things produced that was the problem, but now that seems like the least of my worries. Now I think about whether I need an agent, whether I need to do another mass mailing of submissions (the last time I did that was about 4 years ago and I’ve written about 4 full-length plays since), how to break through a little further into the realm of just being on people’s radar. Throw the question of grad school into the mix and it’s a very daunting task. And one that I think I respond to just by coming up with more and more ideas for new plays. The problem with that, of course, is that new plays are great as long as you finish them. But how can you finish them without hearing them read, seeing a reading or production and then revising?And then at that point, if they’ve been produced, theatres might not be interested anymore. It’s exhausting and intimidating and one of the reasons I’m grateful for my very supportive network of writers, family and friends.
For now, I’ll watch the heavy rain fall, stop researching the various ways of self-promoting myself and just do some writing.
I spent a couple days earlier this week reading a new young adult biography of Edith Wharton. I’m not quite ready for the Hermione Lee tome, so this was perfect. A nice, 150-page introduction to one of my new favorite writers. And now, my review is online! Take a look.
Continuing with the theme of YA books, I’m currently reading Rushdie’s new book, Luka and the Fire of Life, written for his youngest son. So far, so good. Like Midnight’s Children and Harry Potter and a video game had a baby.
“As individuals, as communities, as nations, we are the constant adapters of ourselves, and must constantly ask ourselves the question wherein does our finchness lie: what are the things we cannot ever give up unless we wish to cease to be ourselves?”
