City of Angels

Photo: Bella Muccari

City of Angels, a delightful musical by Cy Coleman (the enjoyable music), David Zippel (the mixed-quality lyrics), and Larry Gelbart (the hysterical book), combines the real world (the story of a novelist struggling to write a screenplay) and the reel world (the screenplay come to life). With multiple sets, a large cast, frequent costume changes, and the need for over-the-top performances that don't go too far over the top, City of Angels is an ambitious choice for an Off-Off-Broadway theatre company. However, the folks at the Gallery Players, located in Brooklyn, are more than up to the challenge. The five-piece band is excellent, and the cast handles the humor, singing, and costume changes with aplomb. Particularly outstanding were Blair Alexis Brown, playing secretaries in both worlds; Danny Rothman as the fictional private eye; and John Weigand, who knows how to make the most out of performing in an iron lung. The weaknesses in the Gallery Players' production can mostly, I suspect, be chalked up to lack of funds. The scene changes take too long, and the differentiation between the real and reel worlds is accomplished with a lighting scheme that makes the actors look a little green around the gills (in the Broadway version, the real world was in color and the reel world--scenery, costumes--in black and white). The voiceovers could also be a little clearer. But the strengths of this production far outweigh the weaknesses, and it's not too late for you to see it (it runs through May 23rd).

White's Lies

Reviewed for Theater News Online.

The Forest

A contemporary of Tolstoy's, Alexander Ostrovsky has been described as "the king of 19th Century Russian theatre" (CSC Newsletter) and "the bridge" between Gogol and Chekhov (Pearl Playgoer's Supplement). In The Forest, Ostrovsky assembles a selfish widow, a slow-moving sardonic servant, poor relatives, star-crossed lovers, a wily merchant, and the widow's charismatic actor nephew and his comic friend. Hearts are broken and mended, a gun is brandished, parts of the forest are sold, promises go unkept, and the two itinerate performers provide high-falutin' speeches and low-falutin' humor. The characters and the story would seem to be rooted in Chekhov; however, chronologically speaking, Chekhov's work is actually rooted in Ostrovsky's. The first act drags; some of the plot devices creak; but overall The Forest is worthwhile both as a historical piece and in and of itself. John Douglas Thompson dazzles as the dramatic actor, and Tony Torn sharpens his excellent comic turn with a nice edge of anger. The usually wonderful Dianne Wiest isn't quite; her very contemporary voice works against her. Santo Loquasto's set design, while handsome and effective, includes stairs so steep that the performers seemed in danger. (Is this a theme this year? Sondheim on Sondheim also features stairs that justify hazard pay for the actors.)

Bass for Picasso

Photo: Carol Rosegg

The Theater Breaking Through Barriers production of Bass for Picasso makes surprising mistakes for a play written, directed, and performed by theatre professionals with extensive credits. Described in the press release as "an insanely funny, irreverent 90-minute look at gay and lesbian life in the new millennium," it is in reality a random and arbitrary array of extreme situations and rarely funny one-liners. Each character is assigned a grab bag of traits that don't quite cohere, and their actions reflect the author's attempts to be funny rather than human behavior. Similarly, the cast members play the jokes instead of the situations, italicizing every supposedly funny line (and killing the few that are genuinely funny). Bass for Picasso also strives for significance, touching on drug and alcohol addiction, child custody, and the perils of giving birth at 13--the last in a monologue that seems dropped in from another show. Finally, if you're going to play child abuse for laughs, it would help if the depiction were remotely funny.

The Really Big Once

There is a tremendous amount of talent and imagination on stage at The Really Big Once, but the whole may be somewhat less than the sum of its parts. A company-created piece from the Target Margin Theatre, The Really Big Once riffs on Tennessee Williams, Elia Kazan, and their experiences working together on Williams' magical but badly received experimental piece Camino Real. To the extent that the show focuses on what actually happened, utilizing letters, interviews, and other documentary material, The Really Big Once tells a fascinating story and provides interesting insights into both Williams and Kazan. But the members of the Target Margin Theatre are aiming at much more than passing on information; speaking simultaneously, taking turns playing Williams, dancing, using odd voices and repetitive phrases, they strive to create a fantasia of emotion and passion. The Really Big Once struck me as a jazz piece, with a bunch of talented people expressing their responses to a pre-existing piece of art. But, as can also happen with jazz, it doesn't work for everyone, and the people doing it may end up having more fun than the audience. The talented cast includes McKenna Kerrigan, John Kurzynowski, Maria-Christina Oliveras, Hubert Point-Du Jour, and Steven Rattazzi. Directed by David Herskovits.

De Novo

photo: Alyssa Ringler

The message is blunt and the conclusion is forgone, but the 70-minute documentary drama De Novo is nonetheless absorbing and effective. The show, part of the Americas Off Broadway festival at 59e59, is scripted entirely from court transcripts, letters and interviews concerning the judicial treatment of a Guatemalan teenager who fled his country once marked for death (at the age of 14) by street gangs. Both a bracing glimpse into the life of an undocumented immigrant minor, and a maddening look at the tragic consequences of our immigration laws, the play is purposeful and unblinking. Despite its exclusive use of found texts, it's brought to life with just enough theatricality to involve as drama rather than simply as an informative, well-meaning lesson. The budget is modest but the choices are rich - boxes of government files upstage, and clotheslines clipped with court papers on each side of space, make us always aware that this story is, unfortunately, not unique. Even more effective is the use of Donna DeCesare's graphic images of gang culture, which vividly remind us what is at stake.