Current Events
Manhattan Theater Club - Stage II

Politics is always a tricky subject for a playwright to tackle; either you're preaching to the converted or talking to a brick wall. People don't come to the theater to be lectured; they want to be entertained. I'm happy to report that David Marshall Grant's Current Events emerges victorious on both fronts.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
June 2000
Glass Menagerie, The
Cap 21

Set in St. Louis on the eve of World War II, The Glass Menagerie is a family tale of hope, despair and deception. Mississippi transplant Amanda lives with her two adult children in a modest apartment with shabby furnishings -- a far cry from how she hoped to end up. Her husband abandoned them years before to turn Amanda into a single mother, a status that commanded none of the respect but all of the drawbacks that we have with us sixty years later. Son Tom, who doubles as narrator in the play, works in a warehouse for a piddling salary.

David Lipfert
Date Reviewed:
June 2000
Hotel Suite
Gramercy Theater

Neil Simon's new pastiche of his one-act, hotel-based plays of old, now newly dressed up and called Hotel Suite, is truly the first theatrical experience that I can recall that is both remarkable and stunningly awful. The four tales represented are all by Mr. Simon and have varying degrees of success as plays.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
June 2000
Blind Alley
Puerto Rican Traveling Theater

This is a trio of one-acts, each with realistic female characters in a contemporary urban setting. Hopscotch shows teenagers Haydee (Monica Read) and Dee (Mariana Carreno) dickering over how to spend Christmas. With a mother doing time, Haydee has "graduated" from school dropout population to petty crime, so Dee's more stable situation of separated, inimical parents makes her seem a bastion of stability. Add to that Dee's vestigial moral schema, and she is on her way to escape from the squalid life depicted. Maybe.

David Lipfert
Date Reviewed:
May 2000
Bruce Vilanch: Almost Famous
Westbeth Theater Center

The moppet-haired guy who usually sits to the left of center square Whoopi Goldberg on "Hollywood Squares" is the latest Hollywood denizen to get his own one-man gig.

While amusing at times, Bruce Vilanch's humorous diatribe exploring his long life as a gag writer, celebrity emergency jokester and sometime actor is seriously under-imagined and never as funny as the awards shows he has made a lucrative career writing for, it's almost like watching the outtakes of material that wasn't quite gut-busting enough to make it into Billy Crystal's oeuvre.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
May 2000
American Buffalo
Atlantic Theater

I have a theory that on the set of Paul Thomas Anderson's "Magnolia," everyone in the cast made a vow to do a New York play when it wrapped, because it seems that everyone from that film is illuminating Gotham these days, with Sam Shepard's True West on Broadway (starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and John C. Reilly) and now an electric update of David Mamet's American Buffalo, featuring Anderson secret-weapons Philip Baker Hall and William H. Macy.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
April 2000
Balladeer, The
KGB

Conceived and directed by Caden Manson (of Big Art Group), The Balladeer is a worthy candidate for cult status, unfolding like a downtown theater version of a midnight movie. An ambitious look at the tribulations of a confused group of high schoolers, the piece blends vulgarity, puppetry, ballads and nifty choreography into one brazen stew. For an alarmingly brief 45 minutes, the play manages to cover a lot of ground, but oddly, despite the obvious cleverness on stage, it still seems to come up short.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
April 2000
Frankie and Johnny in the Clair De Lune
Adrienne Theater

One of Terrence McNally's earliest hits is receiving its first Philadelphia performance in years. It's a welcome revival. Its extended (no pun intended) full frontal nudity no longer shocks, partly because this production features 40-ish lovers of average looks and imperfect bodies. These are real people, not glamorous stars like Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer of the movie version. They've just finished having sex as the play begins, and now they start to get to know each other.

Steve Cohen
Date Reviewed:
April 2000
House Arrest
Joseph Papp Public Theater

As a work of tenacity and dramaturgy, Anna Deavere Smith's latest one-woman show, House Arrest, is pretty arresting, but as thoughtful theater, it registers far below expectations. Using the presidency, past and present, as her focal point, Smith employs her usual tactics: she interviewed close to 300(!) public figures, ranging from politicians and Washington insiders to TV personalities and authors. In addition to her usual copious research, she composed a show using verbatim excerpts from her findings.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
April 2000
Altruists, The
Vineyard Theater

The black comic farce gets an overhaul (and I mean overhaul) in Nicky Silver's newest opus The Altruists, a tirelessly energetic but strangely unaffecting tale of a group of New York City residents who enter each other's lives through the aid of family relations, lovers and a dead body. Played with broad conviction by a first-rate group, Silver's writing is certainly admirable, especially in creating a rapid-fire discourse that doesn't grow too wearying. Clever as the play sometimes is, though, it has the feeling of being rushed.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
March 2000
Antigone
Florence Gould Hall

Anticipating Martha Graham's directive to know what the protagonist had for breakfast (Clytemnestra in that case), Jean Anouilh (1910-1987) in fact shows Antigone having her anachronistic petite cafe. Written and first produced during WWII, his adaptation of the Sophocles tragedy is full of domesticating, realistic details, and a modern psychological dimension clearly specifies each character's thoughts and motivations.

David Lipfert
Date Reviewed:
March 2000
Grapes Of Ralph, The
St. Mark's Theater

Dubbed "sketch comedy that doesn't suck," the comedy troupe known as Ralph don't suck by any means but could benefit a bit by watching some of their influences, which they cite as including "Mr. Show" and "South Park." Basically "The Grapes Of Ralph" is a sketch show, not unlike "Saturday Night Live" except grosser and usually funnier, and the comedy has a refreshingly un-PC bend to it.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
March 2000
Arms and the Man
Gramercy Theater

Theater of the most noxious kind, this disastrous revival of George Bernard Shaw's 1894 play Arms And The Man engages in the eye-rolling fop school of dramatics. Every performance is ten times more mannered than it needs to be, the art direction more involved than it needs to be, and the line delivery a lot more pronounced than needed. This is a production that bathes itself in excess but never seems to realize that subtlety is always the ticket to creating the best kind of human comedy, more like the kind Shaw had in mind when he wrote this play.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
February 2000
Director, The
ArcLight Theater

All through Nancy Hasty's twisty, hugely entertaining new play The Director, I couldn't help but wonder what the late Lee Strasberg would have made of it. A psychological drama about a young playwright named Annie (the wonderful newcomer Tasha Lawrence) who calls upon a once-notorious theater director-turned-janitor (John Shea) to helm her latest play, it is one of the rare instances of theater genuinely turning on itself, an intriguing dissection of the dehumanization that can often result in "committing to the work" a little too much.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
February 2000
Fuddy Meers
Minetta Lane Theater

Now playing in an open-ended run at the Minetta Lane Theater after a smash engagement at Manhattan Theater Club, David Lindsay-Abaire's wacky look at a really dysfunctional family has charms to spare but too often falls into that pseudo-Coen Bros. funk that has marked too many comic plays of late. The tone is so bustling at times; you just wish everyone would take a Valium and get some rest. Still, this would be more of a gripe if the cast weren't so wonderful and the overall look of the play so striking (by the remarkable Santo Loquasto, no less).

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
February 2000
Bomb-itty Of Errors, The
45 Bleecker

As I noted in mid-1999, Shakespeare is invading off-Broadway theater at an alarming rate.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
January 2000
Another American: Asking and Telling
Theater at St. Clement's

Not to rag on Naked Boys Singing yet again, but I will. There are hundreds of great stories about the gay and lesbian experience that theatergoers have yet to see, yet unsuspecting patrons are forced to watch high-school level travesties that have all the shock value of a pig rolling in the mud. One show with naked men is fine, but when a season has around a dozen, that's cause to worry.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
December 1999
El Baile or, El Collar
Gramercy Arts Theater

With El Baile, Repertorio Espanol turns from Cuban playwright Abelardo Estorino's exploration of historical themes to a contemporary setting, but one where the past actively weaves its way into the present.  Nina is considering selling her pearl necklace to make ends meet until she can leave Cuba to join her married children in Miami.  This necklace can bring her some valuable dollars but with it would go her most cherished memories.  As played by Adria Santana, Nina is far from drifting into a state of reverie.  She yells at the telephone for being out of order and p

David Lipfert
Date Reviewed:
December 1999
Ghosts
Century Center Ballroom Theater

As part of the ongoing series of Henrik Ibsen plays at the Century Center for the Performing Arts, Ghosts is the fourth to be revived in this space, though it is actually the third of Ibsen's plays in chronological order, written in 1881 right after A Doll's House, perhaps his most revered work. Ghosts is an even darker look at the ultimate dysfunctional family headed by Mrs. Alving (Kathleen Garrett), a somber matriarch who tells her detailed past to the rigid Pastor Manders (Mark Elliot Wilson).

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
December 1999
How The Bitch Stole Christmas
Fez

Another wonderful night will be had at Jackie Beat's Christmas special, confirming that in the acidic drag-queen sweepstakes, Jackie certainly is the one to beat. Dressed to the holiday hilt, Jackie still continues to shed her special brand of holiday joy in the guise of her razor-sharp wit and unmatchable bitchiness. A few segments of How The Bitch Stole Christmas sag, notably her reading of a poem from a fed-up housewife fan that recounts her evil revenge on a lout hubby.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
December 1999
Amadeus
Music Box

It has been 20 years since Peter Shaffer's acclaimed play Amadeus has been on Broadway, and the newest revival is dignified, well acted and also thoroughly wrongheaded. The playwright has revamped the show to remove some of the melodrama that has always bothered him, but in the process has removed the play's sinister allure.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
December 1999
Exact Center Of The Universe, The
Century Center Theater

Joan Vail Thorne's The Exact Center Of The Universe takes us to semi-familiar territory in its story of Vada Love Powell (Frances Sternhagen), an aging Southern belle in the 1950s. She's alarmed by her son Appleton's (Reed Birney) shotgun marriage to a sweet Italian girl (Tracy Thorne), all the while being visited by his new bride's twin sister (also played by Thorne), who is softening the blow for her beloved sibling. Vada Love is a feisty old bird, but not your garden-variety, crotchety old widow.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
November 1999
Bartenders
Theatre/Theater

Louis Mustillo, a veteran character actor ("High Incident"), comes from a bartending family and has spent time behind "the stick" himself.  He puts his twin talents to good use in Bartenders, a one hour monologue comprising five sharply etched portraits of modern-day barkeeps.  Mustillo uses his strong voice and moon-shaped but expressive face to bring these different barmen to life.  One is a colorful, slangy New Yorker who loves working at a businessman's bar where a choice quip and a flattering remark produce regular and generous tips; another is a lonely, drunken

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
October 1999
Carbon Copy Building, The
The Kitchen

I admit it, I'm lazy as hell when I read the comics.  If I have a minute or two, my eyes will sweep across the three or four cartoon blocks in a strip, searching for the funny.  If I have less than a minute, I'll focus right on the last strip, and if it's cute, I'll backtrack to see the set-up.  Of course, that's not the way to treat what some consider an art form, and it's impossible to treat certain cartoonists that way.  Heaven knows, Ben Katchor's work demands a sedate, museum-like trek from block to block, the cumulative effect being more important than any kind of fina

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
October 1999
Contact
Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater

Contact comprises three absorbing and provocative dance dramas. In a forest glade, 1767, a servant pushes a pretty girl on a swing while an aristocrat spreads a picnic basket.  The aristocrat is obviously beguiled by the girl, whose insinuating legs are sent flying over his head like clipping scissors.  His interest in her grows more amorous as she playfully taunts him with each provocative shift of her body. When the doting aristocrat departs to get more champagne, the girl notices that the servant's previously passive behavior is becoming more aggressive.

Simon Saltzman
Date Reviewed:
October 1999
Fully Committed
Vineyard Theater

One of the delightful surprises of the fall season, Fully Committed, is a shining example of economical theater. The gifted Mark Setlock, playing over 30 speaking roles all by himself, and the wonderful director Nicholas Martin (Betty's Summer Vacation) create an identifiable tale of an actor-hopeful in his stress-inducing job as a receptionist at a posh Manhattan restaurant. Left to his own devices, Sam must man the phone lines all by his lonesome while a flighty co-worker is off doing something vague.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
October 1999
Greenland Y2K
HERE - Dorothy B. Williams Theater

To ring in the new millennium at the North Pole is the ambitious goal of an intrepid explorer (Susanna Speier as the Explornographer), but her determination is outflanked by a pesky Y2K Bug (Ian McCulloch). The Bug must be placated at all costs or the electronic tools in Speier's survival kit will go kaput one by one. A tricky negotiation ensues, with each vying for the upper hand. Their complex and ultimately perverse relationship exacts a physical toll on the weary, white-clad Speier.

David Lipfert
Date Reviewed:
October 1999
Henry V
Mazer Theater

A king that can do no wrong is favored with a stunning victory at Agincourt over French forces against impossible odds: The Life of King Henry the Fifth becomes Shakespeare's paean to the British monarchy. Director Laurie Wessely further focuses this production on the protagonist (played by Brad Raider) with judicious cuts to the text, enabling the actors to add generous space around their lines to ensure clarity, yet keep the running time under three hours.

David Lipfert
Date Reviewed:
October 1999
Alison's House
Mint Theater

This turns out to be the first revival for Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Alison's House since its original Broadway production that included Eva Le Gallienne. A new trove of Emily Dickinson's poetry had just come out in 1929; and in response, author Susan Glaspell created this fantasy (with all names and places changed) about love's many expressions.

David Lipfert
Date Reviewed:
September 1999
Countess, The
Samuel Beckett Theater

[Reviewed at Greenwich Street Theater]

Maya Amis
Date Reviewed:
September 1999
Countess, The
Samuel Beckett Theater

The Countess tells of a scandal in Victorian London society: a love triangle involving noted art critic John Ruskin, his beautiful wife Effie and his friend and protege, the preRaphaelite painter John Everett Millais. As the result of a four-month holiday spent by the trio in the Scottish highlands their lives are changed irreversibly. An affair blossoms between Effie and Millais, and with good reason, as the audience later is to learn. The secret the Ruskins hid, not disclosed until the final scene, is truly shocking, and more than justifies Effie's infidelity.

Diana Barth
Date Reviewed:
September 1999
Countess, The
Samuel Beckett Theater

At last -- a show in New York that didn't try to blast me out of my seat, shock me out of my skin or dazzle me out of my wits. So many recent productions have been gussying up inanity by pitching it at shouting-match volume, I'd begun to wonder if I'd ever have to LISTEN to a play again. After all, who can contemplate the ocean when lifeguards are holding your head under water?

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
September 1999
Cry From The City Of Virgins, A
Japan Society

Even though there seem to be many outward differences, experimental theater in Japan coming out of the turbulent 1960s had a trajectory similar to that in the West. "Underground" playwright Juro Kara's seminal Cry of Virgins, in 1969, capped a decade of ferment in society and the arts. Here presented in its US premiere, this drama cum musical has passed through several revisions, the latest in 1993 for the Shinjuku Ryozanpaku Theater Company, which made its American debut with these performances at Japan Society.

David Lipfert
Date Reviewed:
September 1999
Finnegan's Farewell
St. Luke's Church

A somber crowd files into the basement of St. Luke's Church, facing the stage which contains six chairs, a pulpit, a large papier mache three-leaf clover on a stand. A priest quietly approaches several in the audience, chatting about the deceased, Paddy Finnegan. It seems that Paddy had been painting the kitchen ceiling, and fell to his death, at age 62. Also approaching viewers is Brian, Paddy's youngest son, in his fireman's uniform. We express our condolences. It's remarkable how quickly audience members embrace the situation.

Diana Barth
Date Reviewed:
September 1999
Freak Of Nature, The
Greenwich Village Center

It is sometimes difficult to imagine how fresh these short plays must have seemed to Luigi Pirandello's contemporaries. Surprise and even shock cap a brisk spin through dangerous mental terrain leaving audiences intrigued. Director Slava Stepnov joined three one-acters using the author's own statements about his art, delivered engagingly by Leonardo Torres Vilar.

David Lipfert
Date Reviewed:
September 1999
Big Top Machine
Collective Unconscious

Garnering a well-deserved award for Overall Excellence - Solo Show, this tour-de-force by Kevin Augustine was a frequent sell out at the New York International Fringe Festival. Augustine is an inspired creator and performer who moves easily from text to mime to bunraku-style puppetry (with the aid puppetry assistants Josh Cohen and Anna Kramer in black from head to toe). Big Top Machine captures some of the less glamorous aspects of the traditional circus.

David Lipfert
Date Reviewed:
August 1999
De La Guarda: Villa Villa
Daryl Roth Theater

When I saw this dazzling show last summer, it was like being in the midst of a rave set during a hurricane. You never knew when the mood would change or what would fly at you next. It was exhilarating to behold, and the Argentinian cast kept things at a feverish pace. Unfortunately, the show has settled into a bit of a groove lately. The cast is now mostly American and lack the balls-out electricity of their predecessors. The feeling now is one of watching the rave outside your back window, at a comfortable distance.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
August 1999
Donkey Show, The
El Flamingo

Even Ricky Martin doesn't have anything on the Bard lately. An Oscar-winning 1998 film and more productions around the New York City area than can be counted are only a few ways you can catch Shakespeare in action. Subtitled "A Midsummer Night's Disco," this latest incarantion of Shakespeare's glory is a delightful surprise. With the aid of gloriously chosen disco classics of the 1970s (with the occasional `80s track thrown in), the tale is presented in a nightclub setting aptly named Club Oberon, where all of love's misunderstandings take their toll.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
August 1999
Forty-Second Street Workshop One-Act Festival (1999) - Series A
42nd Street Workshop

Maestro, which pays homage to Keaton, Chaplin and Leonard Bernstein, is performed entirely in silence, except for the sounds of an orchestra passionately playing a symphony, and equally passionately led by the Maestro, who, having entered with dignity and verve, bows to his audience, placed upstage, then faces his orchestra, in the direction of the actual audience. Gerber's baton doesn't miss a nuance, now gentle, now demanding, now almost losing control in his enthusiasm, and always appreciative of his players.

Diana Barth
Date Reviewed:
August 1999
Forty-Second Street Workshop One-Act Festival (1999): Series B
42nd Street Workshop

In The Winning Ticket, sloppy employee Jimmy (David Allan Walker) is ecstatic: he's won the lottery, it's $37 million, and he's about to tell the stuffed shirt boss where to stuff it. Mousey secretary Stella (Elizabeth Ann Townsend) at first protects Jimmy, then avows her love and then hopes they'll quit together. Then...a highly amusing turnaround. The play's charming, funny, beautifully directed and acted, with a particularly winning turn by Ms. Townsend.

Diana Barth
Date Reviewed:
August 1999

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