Broke-Ology

photo: T. Charles Erickson

The story behind Broke-Ology makes it the kind of play you want to love, or even enjoy: a young playwright (Nathan Louis Jackson) lands in New York without a dollar to his name, and within a year goes from homeless and sleeping on the subway to a position as a commissioned writer for one of the foremost non-profits in the country (Lincoln Center Theater). Unfortunately, the play itself holds no more drama than your average freshman television series; it's often so predictable that I could guess not only the situations in which the characters would find themselves, but even the words they would use to describe them. The production (somewhat lazily directly by Thomas Kail) does have one thing going for it: a strong central performance by Wendell Pierce, as a proud patriarch whose life and community are crumbling before him. Pierce--along with Francois Battiste and Alano Miller as his adult sons, and Crystal A. Dickinson as his beloved wife--works hard to infuse the play with a level of tension that simply isn't there in the writing. Hopefully Jackson's next work for Lincoln Center, set to premiere next year, will give his actors more to work with.

Wishful Drinking

Based on her book of the same name, Carrie Fisher's Wishful Drinking is 45% autobiography, 45% stand-up, and 10% twelve-step meeting. Much of the material is very funny; little of it is new. The show runs a good 15 to 20 minutes too long, and Carrie Fisher the performer is not in the same league as Carrie Fisher the writer. (A friend of mine commented that Meryl Streep played Carrie better than Carrie plays Carrie, but it's not a fair comment. After all, Meryl could probably play all of us better than we play ourselves.) Wishful Drinking is for the already converted. If you think you'll enjoy it, you probably will. If you think you won't enjoy it, you probably won't.

My Scary Girl

He's a doofy 30-year-old virgin looking for a woman who reads and thinks. She's pretty, demure, and well-read, with one little, uh, quirk. Based on a movie, the campy and delightful My Scary Girl (at the New York Musical Theatre Festival) provides a highly entertaining 100 minutes or so in the theatre. Sung in Korean, with English supertitles, My Scary Girl shows that certain things are universal: love, shyness, and laughing at bloody body parts. With Broadway-style music by Will Aronson, book and lyrics by Kyoung Ae Kang, direction by Jung Joo Byun, and choreography by Sun Ho Shin, My Scary Girl has the makings of an Off-Broadway cult hit. Well performed by Jae Bum Kim, Jin Ui Bang, Jin Hee Kim, Jae Hong Jeon, Sang Hyun Jin, and Gi Ho Yu.

Mo Faya

Part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival, Mo Faya, (book, music, and lyrics by Eric Wainaina, who also plays a lead character) gives us a slice of life in a ghetto in Kenya ("They call it a slum, we call it home.") The music is a lively mix of reggae and African rhythms, the choreography is energetic and entertaining, and many of the performers are excellent (in particular, Dan 'Chizi' Aceda, Valerie Kimani, and Eric Wainaina). Unfortunately, due to a combination of accents, hyper talking, and bad miking, the dialogue and lyrics are frequently unintelligible. However, I suspect that, with some trimming and focusing, there is a good show in there.

Next to Normal

Photo: Joan Marcus

The best seat in the house is a matter of opinion. Some people prefer first row mezzanine center so that they can view the entire stage picture. Other people like four or five rows back in the orchestra so that they are close, but still have some perspective. I prefer to sit as close as possible. On Thursday, I had the wonderful experience of seeing Next to Normal first row center orchestra. (Thanks to Susan and Andrea for getting to Shubert Alley at 7:30 in the morning to buy rush tickets!) Yes, there are things you miss sitting first row--in the case of Next to Normal, you can't see the entire top section of the set. But, oh, what you do get to see. And feel. For example, the first row reveals whole new levels to Alice Ripley's performance. Her lips move nervously while the others talk. Paranoia wafts off her skin. You experience her craziness as you might experience a friend's. And the most emotional scenes are right in your face, as though you are in Dan and Diana's house rather than in a theatre. On a more mundane level, first row allows you to hear the performers' actual voices a bit and not just the amplification and also to appreciate the mechanics of putting together a song that goes from person to person and scene to scene, as the actors go up and down stairs, move furniture, and clean up messes, all in character. The excellent Michael Berry was on for J. Robert Spencer. He plays Dan as a warmer, more loving person, which I liked a lot.

Wishful Drinking

photo: Kevin Berne

A word to the wise: don't eat before you see Wishful Drinking, the acerbic and utterly enjoyable one-woman show written and performed by Carrie Fisher, which opens tonight at Studio 54. No, there's nothing disgusting onstage--unless the sight of a slightly zaftig fifty-three year old woman trying to dry hump a young male audience member doesn't exactly do it for you. Rather, the reason that you should refrain from food prior to Fisher's two-hour confessional is that, if your reaction to the show is anything like mine, you'll be heaving so heartily in your seat that by the end of the evening you find yourself on the verge of nausea. Fisher--back on Broadway for the first time in nearly three decades--holds the audience in the palm of her hand for the show's entirety, skillfully wringing waves of comedy from some of the most unfunny moments of her life: the dissolution of her parents' marriage; her fraught relationship with ex-husband Paul Simon; having the father of her daughter leave her for another man, and then promptly announce that she'd "turned him gay by taking codeine"; and, above all, her almost lifelong battle with substance abuse. All of this material is inherently dramatic--most of these plot-points could easily make their way into a play by Martin McDonagh or Tracy Letts--which is all the more reason to praise Fisher and her comedic prowess. She throws up her hands and laughs at her pain, and you'd better believe we're laughing with her.