A Very Nosedive Christmas Carol

The "very Nosedive" addition to the classic Christmas Carol title promises the usual festive story, along with bonus, over-the-top extras: and that's exactly what you'll get. Caroling monkeys and sock-puppet Tiny Tims, a Shakespearean Scrooge, and all the other fixings, only this time viewed from the perspective of four very frustrated ghosts, doomed to spend each Christmas doing the same old play. James Comtois knows how to pack in a bunch of hilarity, and the Nosedive Company (members like Brian Silliman and Patrick Shearer) know how to turn his phrases for the maximum of laughter. This is the show that got me out of a Scrooge-like funk of dreary productions, so it's very much recommended (but be advised: tonight's the last night).

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The Santaland Diaries

Photo/Jennifer Maufrais Kelly

When I think of David Sedaris's icily hilarious The Santaland Diaries, I don't leap at the chance to put that up on stage: the audio book is already so cool and precise that such an adaptation seems pointless. And if I did yearn for one man to caustically belittle Macy's Santaland exhibit, it wouldn't be Joe Mantello's sensationalism that I turned to. (The guy turned even the natural drama of Blackbird into a Hollywood-lit play.) And yet, that's the production Jason Podplesky is directing for The Gallery Players, and the result is predictably commercial: it runs smoothly from joke to joke to joke, but when it suddenly ends, you're left craving so much more -- not because you enjoyed yourself, but because you're unsatisfied. B. Brian Argotsinger, who plays David, seems uncomfortable imitating Sedaris's light voice, and is therefore a good fit for the play, which constantly abandons the high-class disdain of the book in favor of the sort of boisterous vocal impersonations found in stand-up dive bars. The final product is all the worse off for being passably funny: it is the junk food of theater.

[Read on] [Also blogged by: Patrick]

Kiki And Herb: The Second Coming

*****

Carnegie Hall

Making their second pit stop at Carnegie Hall, Kiki and Herb have successfully turned their screeching, drunken cabaret act into the hippest, most entertaining, must-see events of the year. Taking swigs off a bottle of Canadian Club, Kiki slurred her way through her catalogue of Christmas tunes that seamlessly segue into songs like "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and in between numbers she hysterically rambled on about politics, religion, life, and Jon Benet Ramsey. Trusty Herb banged away at the piano and back-up shouted the harmony. Three hours of yelling. The nodes on her vocal chords must be the size of testicles. But who cares? Have another drink and let's sing one more song before we die. That's what Kiki is all about. Pre-show and at intermish the people watching was out of control (sighted: John Cameron Mitchell, Jeff Whitty, Rufus Wainwright, Neal Medlyn, Bridgett Everett). I saw drag, tattoos, fedoras, moustaches, piercings, zootsuits, feather boas- a cornucopia of the downtown fabulous and slutty. I was in heaven.

The Seafarer

Photo/Joan Marcus

A wonderful play about our struggles for redemption, Conor McPherson's narrative is only aided by the fact that the world of his play is submerged in one alcoholic vice and raised by a poker addiction. It's also helped by excellent casting, including the talented Conleth Hill, who plays Ivan as a slovenly yet lovable simp, the sort of man who puzzles things out by rolling around his tongue or nonchalantly offering a thumbs up and the splendid Jim Norton as Richard Harkin, the blind but hardly invalid elder brother of our adrift hero, Sharky (David Morse). Morse, a stocky guy, grounds the show with the polite distaste that he mastered on House, along with a more intimidating rage that is all his own (and all the more surprising for it). As these three friends carouse in their own unique blends of blindness, they are joined by the careless young Nicky (Sean Mahon), a man oblivious to the problems with his lifestyle, and the devilish (drop the -ish) Mr. Lockhart (Ciaran Hinds), who is comically portrayed here as an arrogant loser, save for those rare moments when he gets the object of his desire -- Sharky -- alone, at which point the lights start flickering and all hell seems liable to break loose. As the stakes are raised, we see the limitations of these men -- Sharky's real violence, Ivan's reckless past, Richard's stubborn boozing -- but more importantly, learn that together, they just might be able to steer this ship.

[Also blogged by: Patrick]

The Homecoming

Photo/Scott Landis

I confess to having a very negative reaction to Harold Pinter's The Homecoming -- not so much that I can't applaud the powerful alpha-dominating actors to be found in Ian McShane's Max, Raul Esparza's Lenny, or Eve Best's paradoxical Ruth (she blossoms into what many would consider a most withering profession), but enough that I can't recommend the show. Granted, Pinter works with the so-called "pregnant pauses" and writes in a cryptic, often symbolic style, but the characters here seem too much like nasty stand-ins that it's hard to connect enough with a relationship enough to pity its loss. We certainly don't get that from James Frain's Teddy, nor even enough goodness from the balancing figure of Uncle Sam (Michael McKean); instead, we quickly leap into the depravity of a family viewed -- unfiltered -- as animals, the sort of people who find boxing to be a gentleman's sport. Pity the hardworking women who cannot rise above Max's collapsed coinage: "slutbitch." Pity more the audience that has to sit through two hours of the most depressing theater in order to arrive at that very same conclusion.

Man is Man

The problem I have with The Elephant Brigade's production of Brecht's Man is Man is that the youth of the company stands in the way of them realizing "epic theater." All the elements of success are there -- the set is created by actors filming miniature sets, songs are delivered by an off-kilter Lauren Blumenfeld, the fourth wall is completely broken, and Dutch director Paul Binnerts is somewhat of an expert on Brecht. However, in this setting, the ideas are trivialized by the amateurish production brought about by these (intentionally) alienating college students, and more so by the technical difficulties that draw more attention to the aesthetic than the raw ideas. In other words, it's very clear that we're watching a play, but it often seems like we're watching a very bad play.

[Read on] [Also blogged by: Patrick]