See How Beautiful I Am: The Return Of Jackie Susann

The pill-popping, self-proclaimed "Queen of the '60s" and Valley of the Dolls author Jackie Susann is given the "interview quotes cut and pasted into a monologue" treatment in this brisk, solidly entertaining solo show at the Fringe Festival. The subgenre is hardly my favorite, and I'll admit to a groan when I realized this was to be yet another biography monologue that takes place tethered to the deathbed (cancer, age 56), but playwright Paul Minx smartly keeps things moving by organizing the material thematically rather than chronologically. British actress Debora Weston is captivating as Susann, never losing touch with the character's drive and hunger for sensation.

Summer Shorts 2: Series B

Photo/Carol Rosegg

For those of you who have been keeping tabs on this race, you know that there's only one thing I love more than aesthetics, and that's festivals--where else can you catch such an eclectic variety of shows all at once? Compressing so much work often leads to a lot of misfires, all at once, but it also means that when a show succeeds, it really leaves a mark. For Series B, that's Terrance McNally and Skip Kennon's mini-musical, Plaisir D'Amour. It's the most polished of the eight plays, with outstanding performances from Stephanie D'Abruzzo and Jonathan C. Kaplan as they chronicle a relationship from the desperate single life to the troubled married life and eventually, with their own children now married, to the comfortable afterglow of a once passionate life. Far too many one-acts, even decent ones, come across as ultimately empty etudes, but this musically simplistic piece does for a transient comedy what Prelude & Liebestod did for drama.

[Read on]

Fringe/Tiny Feats of Cowardice

Photo/Jim Baldassare

Susan Bernfield's mundane fears (of everything) aren't nearly as interesting as the political musings of Rose Mary Woods (from Stretch). However, that makes her latest play exactly what it claims to be: a tiny feat, for Bernfield is captivating throughout, an Everywoman who, aided by Rachel Peters's music (a nice trick that has not yet become a gimmick), denounces single engine Cessnas, the constant worry of being a mother, the neverending precipices of the world and its possibilities: "Stolen passwords/stoned bikers/hungry sharks/malignant cysts." Her narrative jumps from a trip to Belize to her friendless childhood and surprisingly (but not that surprisingly) to 9/11, and the end result comes across like a Sondheim chamber musical, buttressed by charming lines like, "I think, ah, for you my dears, the sky's the limit. Please don't be astronauts." Daniella Topol, who directs, could help Bernfield a lot by helping to vary the levels of fluttery yet functional fear, but on the whole, it's a very winning performance, and a very winning play. On a scale from 1 to 5, with 1 being "My fears were completely justified," and 5 being "Frighteningly good," Tiny Feats of Cowardice gets a 4.

The King Is Dead

Photo/Jonathan Slaff

I'm not surprised that a play inspired by Stephen King is a little goofy and B-movie-like, but I do wish that Caroline V. McGraw hadn't gotten distracted by the superfluous and spangled Elvis motif, and that she spent more time focusing on her strong central character, Farrah; then perhaps director Jerry Ruiz wouldn't end up trying to maintain a creepy atmosphere all on his lonesome.

[Reviewed for Time Out New York]

Red Haired Thomas

Another Ice Factory production that isn't open for review, but I will say (hint hint) that I look forward to the opportunity to actually review Red Haired Thomas at some point in the future. Just so that you know why I was interested: Robert Lyons wrote it, Oliver Butler directed it, and Bill Coelius is in it.

Love, Incorporated

I have a low tolerance for cute romantic musical comedies but this one (at the Midtown International Theatre Festival) won me over. The plot doesn't have any suspense - from the get-go we know that the wallflower female exec and the dreamy tv newscaster will work it all out - but the show manages to be charming anyhow and, partly thanks to Igor Goldin's direction, never lags. While the characters could use more personality and detail on the page, the four delightful performers in the ensemble - Tally Sessions, Jennifer Blood, Jonathan Rayson, and Hollis Scarborough - compensate splendidly, and Marc Castle's breezy, often catchy score is well-matched to the tone of this material. (It's also often witty besides: Castle is especially good at writing songs or parts of songs that are reprised with a twist by a different character.)