Something You Did

In previews; opens 4/1.

I respect Primary Stages for trying to open the doors to a younger audience, but they rushed into a quaint show about as full as packing bubbles with last month's Hunting and Gathering, and now they've stumbled into an unfeeling drama that reminds me of a Mitch Hedburg one-liner: "I'm against picketing, but I don't know how to show it." My primary complaint with Something You Did is Carolyn Cantor's direction, which theatrically gets things off on the wrong foot and never regains its balance: Why do maximum security visitations take place in the library? And why does this (presumably indoor) library have a barbed-wired fence? My secondary complaint is with Willy Holtzman's shallow caricatures: Uneeq (Portia), the attitudinal black female cop; Arthur (Jordan Charney), the rotund, smug, and glib lawyer; and Gene (Victor Slezak), an unfathomable asshole who writes provocative op-eds like "All African-Americans Should Be Thankful for Slavery" and is anything but grounded in fact. (OK, well that last character's about as a real as any newscaster on FOX.) Alison (Joanna Gleason), jailed thirty years ago for a explosive protest gone wrong, is a relic of the past, stilted and upright, is fighting for a cause that post-9/11 America must condemn as terrorism. Her musty idealism shines for a few moments here and there, specifically when she tries to apologize to Lenora (Adriana Lenox), daughter of the cop she inadvertently killed, but on the whole, this play is a well-crafted, well-intentioned shrug of a play. Where's the shrapnel?

[Also blogged by: Patrick]

Spring Awakening

**** 1/2 (out of 5 stars)

Eugene O'Neill

My buddy and I were going to do the Wicked lotto but the line was seriously about 200 teenagers long so we were like fuck that shit. We decided to do SRO at Spring Awakening instead ($27.00...easy). The production is holding up quite wonderfully after 515 performances. Lea Michele and Jonathan Groff are still glorious. I'm still obsessed with mega-talented Jonathan B. Wright. And the new guys are turning the shit out old school (Blake Bashoff as Moritz is kinda insane and our two adults- Glenn Fleshler and Frances Mercanti-Anthony- are hysterical one scene and scary the next). Damn I love this show. One complaint: Who are the singers dressed up like Rent cast members upstage right and left? Pit singers? Understudies? They kept pulling focus with all of their look-at-me American Idol gyrating.

Something You Did

While squarely structured and formulaic, Willy Holtzman's Something You Did is nonetheless a solid no-nonsense example of an absorbing "issue" play, the kind that holds the audience in rapt attention partly because of its swift entertainment value and partly because of its topicality. The plot concerns an anti-Vietnam War domestic terrorist (Joanna Gleason) who hopes for parole after thirty years of imprisonment: the playwright makes a lot of hay contrasting America's socio-political climate then and now by pitting the inmate against an ex who has since become a right-wing celebrity. Yes, the play is as tidy as it sounds: despite some lively arguments it is always clear where the playwright stands, and the audience hissed one of the right-winger's speeches as if on cue. But I have a special respect for popular entertainment that a) has something immediately relevant on its mind and b) is made with enough skill to rally an audience around what it says. In many cases when I am invited to a show in very early previews, I'm hesitant to make definitive statements about performances that will, common-sensically, improve within a week. But at this third preview, this entire cast (which includes Adriane Lenox, Victor Slezak, Portia, and Jordan Charney) was already in excellent shape, and Joanna Gleason was extraordinary. Her line readings, one after another, are marvels of subtext.

Rainbow Kiss

Photo/Carol Rosegg

A lot of so-called mature plays out there just talk about how awful life is and lapse into theatrical tricks when it comes down to showing the gritty truth. Simon Farquhar's Rainbow Kiss doesn't pull any tricks, just like it doesn't pull any punches: this is most jolting play I've seen this year. It is as unsettlingly angry as Martin McDonagh (free of farce), as comically tragic as Conor McPherson (minus mysticism) and messy only in its Scottish slang and uncompromisingly dirty view of life. It takes the best of Abby Spalleen's Pumpgirl (the grimy poetics), Mark O'Rowe's Terminus (the rhythmic cursing), and Robert Farquhar's Bad Jazz (the dissonant energy), and puts a lot of other very good shows to shame. With exceptionally physical direction from a fearless Will Frears and outstanding performances from the cast, most notably the anti-heroic Peter Scanavino, Rainbow Kiss is a must-see play.

[Read on]

The Drunken City

photo: Joan Marcus

Playwright Adam Bock has given himself a strenous exercise: he's written a play in which all of the characters are sloppy drunk right from the get-go. It's an engaging idea but at the early preview I saw it hadn't yet amounted to anything more than an exercise: once I was done marvelling at how accurately some of the actors sustained the illusion of being intoxicated (particularly good are Barrett Foa and Maria Dizzia) I realized how little room there was to care about the characters. Bock might be aiming for, but hasn't credibly gotten at, the "true nature" behavior that can be revealed by over-boozing. Although there are random, too-brief moments when the actors freeze and more soberly reveal what they're feeling, the play's tone is situation comedy, and there aren't enough funny shocks of recognition to put it over. (Two nice exceptions: the nifty entrances that begin the play, and the meet-cute between the characters played by Foa and Alfredo Narciso.)

Also blogged by [David], including a discount code.

The Drunken City

The characters of The Drunken City all suffer from either loving too hard or being loved too hard; the problem is that just as the actors slip so well into the drunkenness of their roles, they also end up either overplaying their parts (Barrett Foa), or not going far enough (Alfredo Narciso). However, for this giddy, bubbly midnight hour (and twenty minutes) of play, Adam Bock totally pulls us into his world, with an exaggeratedly lush comic tone that turns into a rich, dry drama about the men and women trapped on the shaky ground of love (literally, thanks to David Korins's slick, sleek set). Trip Cullman's direction uses a chic and minimal modernity that fits "the City" and his actors, though sometimes unbalanced alone, make a wonderfully sloppy chorus. Cassie Beck, as the pressured Marnie, is a marvelous anchor, not wasting a single drop of talent even at her tipsiest; Maria Dizzia, as the jilted Melissa, makes the switch between carefree and cautious go down smoothly; and Sue Jean Kim, as Linda, is always good for another shot of comic relief.

[Also blogged by: David | Patrick]