Coram Boy

****

Imperial

So no Tony nomination for best play, eh? I spoze its foaming-at-the-mouth bid to create gargantuan, emotionally wrenching melodrama is a bit transparent but I am willing to forgive that. Coram Boy is all about its wildly theatrical thrill-a-minute theme ride of a production. With its gorgeous scenic design, 40 person/million character cast, ever present score by Handel and some other guy there was always something to throw your popcorn at. Quite frankly I had a blast at this and I wouldn't mind going back again.

An Octopus Love Story

Photo/Mike Klar

There's something fishy about the set-up and resolution of An Octopus Love Story, but the questions it raises about gender identity are a real winner. For me, the show works best when active: the interrogative scene between a smarmy reporter and the public activists (Danny and Jane, who are both gay, but marrying each other to protest marriage restrictions) is very revealing, and the playful "first date" between Danny and Jane, which climaxes with a lip-sync re-enactment of a classic film, gives us a lot between the lines. But the monologues -- or more accurately, one-sided conversations -- are a lot harder to excuse, especially coupled with Mike Klar's passive direction. Ironically, the choice to make the set look somewhat like a glass-walled fish tank actually makes a lot of the action on stage less transparent: the strain to make the set match the watery anecdotes of the play displaces the action. I'd still recommend it, but watch out for the soggy subplots of Danny and Jane's thinly cut friends.

[Read on] [Also blogged by: Patrick]

Cary From The Cock

**
Gene Frankel

There is a lot of courage here in Cary Curran who is baring her soul and pretty much everything else in this autobiographical one woman play generally about her transition from Catholic square to Downtown fag hag. Being close to the same age as her and also having my own transition from a suburban Christian square to Downtown trash fag, I got every reference from The Waltons and Amy Grant (I sang "Thy Word" in church too) to Girlina (oops! I mean `Lina) and that infamous jizzy Jaccuzi (sorry about that). Though there was plenty for me to relate to, unfortunately with notalotta experience carrying a show on her own there was a lack of timing and delivery that really could have sold her sassy material (however it must be noted that I saw only her second performance). Also this seemed to be less of a focused narrative about a single theme and more of a hodgepodge of stories strung together by the simple fact that they're all about herself. My favorite part was her dance tribute to Mother Theresa to Air Supply's "Making Love Out Of Nothing At All". It was hysterical and the audience loved it. She's a kick-ass dancer- that's what she does best.

Memory

The ads make it sound like a highfalutin rumination on the indefiniteness of memory, and the plot description isn't exactly promising - we're going to watch actors rehearsing a play in which a woman remembers the early days of Nazi Germany? But Memory, the opening production of this year's Brits Off Broadway festival, is actually profoundly powerful and completely riveting; it's easily one of the best, most gripping plays I've seen so far this year. The conceit of having the play framed by its own rehearsal is not a convenient gimmick - the deconstruction shrewdly disarms the audience and makes us more emotionally vulnerable to the material, because we are never sure when the rug will be pulled out from under us. The play within the play tells a second story, in which an Israeli contractor has to force a Palestinian man out of his home to make way for the Bethlehem Wall. Of the many different echoes that reverberate from this play's juxtaposed stories, perhaps the most affecting is that we may remember the events of history, but forget its lessons. The production, transferred from Clywd Theatr Cymru in Wales, is knife-edge sharp and the performances (particularly Vivien Parry) are fierce and intense. Highly recommended.

Training Wisteria

The Cherry Lane Mentor Project teams a preeminent dramatist (in this case, Jules Feiffer) with an emerging playwright (Molly Smith Metzler this time) to give notes on a play in development. The plays (three this season) are then produced on Cherry Lane's smaller stage and open to the public for a brief run of performances. The productions are not meant to be open for review, and in the spirit of the Mentor Project, I'm going to respect that. From the I-Had-No-Idea Department: Sixteen Wounded, which eventually bowed on Broadway in 2004, was seen as a Mentor Project production at the Cherry Lane in 2002.

God's Ear

photo: Jim Baldassare

If you've been reading this blog, then you know that I'm easily aesthetically excitable, which is why I tell you that you must go see Jenny Schwartz's God's Ear (there's a 'pay-what-you-can' on Mondays). Full of a deftly repetitious but never monotonous rhythm (think Ives and Stoppard), this expertly directed comic tragedy allows its married couple to flounder through fits of logorrhea before finally stripping away the words they use for distance. The truly abstract portions are a little forced (GI Joe and the Tooth Fairy), but presented with such panache by Anne Kauffman that one is pretty much dared to take exception to a single line in the play. Obfuscation is just another tactic, but the exuberance of English here is so powerful that this strategy will literally be music to your ears. Did I mention the tremendous talent of the cast, especially Christina Kirk and hot talent Annie McNamara?

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Also blogged by: [Patrick]