Becky Shaw: I found Becky Shaw's first production unconvincing. Playwright Gina Gionfriddo treated her characters as components of her ideas rather than three-dimensional humans. She gave the title character random traits that popped up just in time to fit Gionfriddo's thesis and maybe to teach another character a lesson. I didn't buy any of it. Much of the show was quite funny, however.
I saw this new production because I was intrigued by some of the reviews, and I have been known to change my mind. (It didn't hurt that a friend was nice enough to take me.) This wasn't one of the times I changed my mind. In fact, I was even less convinced that the characters represented real humans. Much of the show was still quite funny, however.
The Receptionist: The press material for this show said, "The Receptionist is a jet-black comedy about bureaucracy and complicity that’s biting in its humor and chilling in its relevance." I found it neither biting nor chilling. It might have been more effective in 2007, but we've had a whole 'nother 19 years to experience the overlap between normal and horrible, and this show tells us nothing new. I suspect it might have already been a tad stale in 2007.
Fallen Angels: Noel Coward's early play Fallen Angels has no interest in anything real or deep or meaningful. The characters aren't deep or multidimensional, nor do they need to be. It's 90 minutes of silliness, some of it hysterically funny. And what comedy of manners wouldn't be at its very best when starring Kelli O'Hara and Rose Byrne? If sometimes the show seems like an extended episode of Absolutely Fabulous, at least it's a first-class episode. The production is physically attractive and smoothly directed. Some characters are miscast, but it doesn't matter. None of its faults matter. What matters is O'Hara and Byrne and they deliver.
Wendy Caster
No comments:
Post a Comment