Boeing Boeing

This door-slamming "Coffee Tea Or Me"-era farce, in which a fast-on-his-feet bachelor gives the revolving door treatment to three fiances who all happen to be estewardesses, shouldn't be as entertaining as it is: the script is short on laugh lines, and the premise smells of yesteryear's sexism. Yet it's lively ridiculous fun anyhow: thanks partly to the choice to emphasize the immaturity of the bachelor (Bradley Whitford, who even skips around the stage) and the over-the-top sexual ferocity of the stewardesses, the show plays like a cartoon and the punchline is squarely on the three-timer. The show wastes Christine Baranski - she does all she can, but her role as the household's French maid doesn't register as much more than double takes - and I'm in the minority to find the characterization choices by Mark Rylance, as the bachelor's sidekick, to be too oddball and out-there to mesh with the material. But the stewardesses are silly, delicious joy: Gina Gershon as the passionate Italian, Kathryn Hahn as the spoiled American, and most sensationally Mary McCormack as the dominating German. No one will mistake this play for top-drawer farce, but those gals make Boeing Boeing the funniest show on Broadway this season.

Prisoner of the Crown

Photo/Carol Rosegg

Richard F. Stockton's courtroom drama Prisoner of the Crown is filled with so many dubious distinctions about the defendant, Sir Roger Casement, that the play should be a knockout. For example, put to death in 1916, Sir Roger has the "honor" of being the last knight ever to be executed for treason. But the play suffers artistically from some dubious distinctions of its own, most notably how sloppy it looks and misdirected it feels. One of the most vague and anachronistic dramas I've ever seen (scene changes are set to sad jazz; actors even dance into their costume changes), Prisoner of the Crown would rather play than be a play. Some audiences will enjoy a history lesson that uses ammo like "No empire can survive the loss of its moral authority" to cast judgment on our current political mudslinging. But most will be bored and confused by this unimaginative and too comic "swift boat" of a play. Here's a political parallel for you: one cannot run a campaign (or a play) on cleverness: you need passion, too.

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Les Liaisons Dangereuse

photo: Joan Marcus

Despite flashes of nudity and some overtly sexual on-stage business (even the climactic swordfight is staged with some crotch-to-butt thrusting) there isn't much danger in this handsome but mostly unexciting production of Liaisons: Ben Daniels' performance as Valmont is more bad boy romantic hero than icy sexual predator. As his duplicitous, manipulative partner in crime, Laura Linney works tirelessly but the role seems way out of her comfort zone and you're always aware how hard she is laboring. The stakes are therefore not set high enough in the first act (when we're meant to take at least a little perverse pleasure watching the two plotting and seducing) but the material is so strong that the second act (when we're meant to see how pitiful they truly are) works anyway: it's a solidly constructed, highly entertaining play, and even this production's missteps can't completely ruin that.

Les Liaisons Dangereuses

*** (...out of five stars)

Roundabout

Though I've seen the film maybe ten times, this was my first visit to the play the film was based upon. It's really a damn fine play. High drama...sizzling dialogue...all that good stuff we like in our dramas. In this production we have gorgeous scenery and costumes but with Roundabout at the helm that's (generally) a given. This production belongs to that sexy Brit, Ben Daniels, cast here as Valmont, the heartless lover who accidentally falls in love. He slinks about the stage hitting on everyone who comes within pinching-range and delivers his lines with a masculine purr. I will support the general notion that lovely Laura Linney is miscast. Though she's a stellar actress, her warm aura betrays the iciness of the character's nature.

EST Marathon 30: Series A

Focusing on the bad plays in a one-act festival is a waste of time: instead, I want to reward the writers who stuck their necks out a bit to take a risk, or produce something of value. In terms of risks, Michael John Garces's Tostitos is an unfocused ball of anger, but it's filled with a real energy and vitality that isn't often found on the stage. The smaller space at EST (as opposed to with The Shalimar) has helped to develop the feeling of ennui that drives this show, but I have yet to see Andres Munar allow himself to actually feel what's going on around him. Dude, you've worked a lot since Acts of Mercy, and you obviously have talent: grow up a little. As for value, David Auburn hasn't done much since Proof, but his new one-act, An Upset, is both clever and well-acted. In my mind, it's what Deuce should have been: an exciting verbally played tennis match between waxing and waning stars, and how that feels. The structure is a little forced--that is, it's clear where the play has to be going--but the dialogue remains surprising enough to really tell us something about the cost of stardom, athletic or otherwise.

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Saved

The teen film Saved, set in a Christian high school where a popular senior girl ditches her abstinence in order to cure her homo boyfriend, was pitched for satire; this musical adaptation is instead overly earnest and desperate not to offend, weighing down its heroine with so many wet, sincere "these are my feelings" songs that it's easy to forget that it's supposed to be a comedy. Played so often straight, the material feels tired; compared to Altar Boyz, which manages smart comedy while still respecting faith, it feels positively old and square. As long as you can accept that twenty-somethings are playing high school kids, the cast (which includes Curtis Holbrook, Celia Keenan Bolger, Aaron Tveit, and Mary Faber) is delightful - whenever my mind wandered I imagined hijacking them for a revival of Carrie: The Musical - and although the score has too many drippy ballads and some dreadful lyrics ("LIfe is screwy/So grab on to a life buoy") there is at least one song ("Heaven", easily the best production number in the show) that works splendidly as is and confirms that Saved might be savable with further development.