The Band's Visit

Last night I went to see The Band's Visit for the second time, with five other people. One had seen it before, the other four hadn't. When the show was over, we were all glowing.

We sat in the last row, in the $49 seats. We had some binoculars with us, but we only used them occasionally. Sitting in the last row was just fine, which is a tribute both to the structure of the Ethel Barrymore Theatre and to David Cromer's quietly intense direction. The Band's Visit happens at a whisper, but it is a whisper that fills the theatre with emotion and beauty. (My niece said that the show was "like a poem," which I think is a great comment.)

One of my all-time favorite experiences is seeing something new and wonderful in the theatre, and The Band's Visit is both. It's a quiet show. It has no plot. It's a theatrical iceberg: 80% of its content is below the surface. The score is lovely, the lyrics by turns funny or moving or both. The performances are exactly right. The set is simple and thoroughly serves the show. The band's "Sergeant Pepper's uniforms" are perfect.

I'm so glad that the show won so many Tonys, all of which were completely deserved. It would have been unsurprising for the Tony voters to go for flash rather than quiet, but I guess The Band's Visit left them glowing as well.

Wendy Caster
($49 seats, last row)
Show-Score Score: 99

Heist!

I get invited to a lot of shows, and it's not always easy to decide which ones to see. Often I rely on a familiar name: if person A is directing or person B is acting or person C wrote the music, I know I'm likely to enjoy their contribution, at least. But then there are the shows that have no familiar names. In those cases, I make decisions sometimes almost at random, knowing I'm taking a chance.

Blair Medina and Alec Irion
Photo: Michael Kushner

So I took a chance on Heist! for the simple reason that I love heists. Oh, and the theatre is walking distance from my home. I wasn't optimistic, but I was open to having a good time.

And, I'm glad to say, I had a very good time. Heist! is uneven and needs some polishing, but the basics are there: decent plot, some good songs, a strong sense of what is being spoofed. And this particular production has two huge pluses: director James Will McBride and choreographer Jenna Haimes. McBride keeps the piece moving along at a perfect clip and helps his performers find that silly-musical-comedy sweet spot of overacting just the right amount. Haimes manages to make excellent original choreography out of cliche steps, with some fun quoting of famous shows (I caught Chicago and A Chorus Line, but I suspect there are more).

Art Times: Choreography: Intrinsic or Replaceable?

My latest Art Times essay is up:

In some ways, it’s exciting news: Director Ivo van Hove will stage a production of West Side Story, with new choreography by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. Van Hove says he aims to bring the show “into the 21st century.” De Keersmaeker says, “The challenge will be to offer a new reading.” Their ultimate goal is to revitalize a classic.

(read more)

Jerome Robbins (center) demonstrating
a dance combination for
George Chakiris (left) for the
movie version of West Side Story.

The Possibilities/The After-Dinner Joke

No theatre is offering more bang for your buck--or return on your time--than PTP/NYC with their evening of one acts: The Possibilities, by Howard Barker, and The After-Dinner Joke, by Caryl Churchill. The first consists of four short plays, the second of 66 brief scenes. The shows are smart, thought-provoking, and often fun, and these productions are terrific. Together, they add up to an amazing evening in the theatre.

The Possibilities, from the late 1980s, includes a total of ten plays. I would be quite interested in seeing the six not included in this PTP/NYC evening.

The first play is The Unforeseen Consequences of A Patriotic Act, in which Judith (she of Holofernes' decapitation) refuses to embrace the role of heroine, despite the pleading of a woman (Eliza Renner) who wants Judith to be an example "to women everywhere." This Judith owns her sexuality, and her rage, and has no interest in censoring the blood and lust from her story. The excellent Kathleen Wise as Judith and the equally excellent Renner go head-to-head with great gusto, but, really, you can't mess with Judith and get away with it. It's a fine piece and bizarrely echoes the way that publicists may try to write a personality for a politician or actor that has little to do with the person and much to do with some goal, be it important or not, moral or not.

The Unforeseen Consequences of A Patriotic Act
Eliza Renner, Kathleen Wise, Marianne Tatum
Photo: Stan Barouh 

Brecht on Brecht

It comes as no surprise that Bertolt Brecht's most incisive and cynical writings are painfully timely, right here, right now. The PTP/NYC production of Brecht on Brecht knows this fact and utilizes it, as adding Mexicans and Muslims to a piece about Jews, emphasizing the frightening parallels between now and Germany in the 1930s.

Photo: Stan Barouh

It did come as a surprise, to me at least, that director Jim Petosa chose to present this piece as Story-Theatre-Meets-Godspell, with red noses, zooming shopping carts, and other cheerful accouterments. Much of this direction worked in its own way, but it didn't quite fit with the stories being told.

Another problem with this production is that some of the performers just aren't up to the high-level singing and acting required to do Brecht's more difficult pieces. It also doesn't help that the show ends with an extended monologue ("The Jewish Wife") followed by an extended song ("Surabaya Johnny"). It reminded me of when you've been driving for hours at 70 mph and have to slow down to 40, and how you feel as though you're frozen in place.

And yet there is much here that is worthwhile. First of all, of course, there is Brecht. His writing is razor-sharp, insightful, and full of the sort of rue that is painfully easy for the audience to share. And the cast does acquit itself well on many pieces, particularly the spoken ones. And did I mention it's Brecht?

Wendy Caster
(2nd row, press ticket)
Show-Score Score: 70

Cast: Harrison Bryan, Christine Hamel, Carla Martinez, Jake Murphy, Miguel Castillo, Olivia Christie, Sebastian LaPointe and Ashley Michelle. Production team: Ronnie Romano (Music Director and Pianist), Hallie Zieselman (Set Design), Joe Cabrera (Lighting Design), Annie Ulrich (Costume Design) and Alex Williamson (Production Stage Manager).

Brecht on Brecht

Brecht on Brecht takes the work of dramatist Bertolt Brecht, a polarizing post-war Germany writer whose work criticized anti-Semitism and fascism, and compiles a provocative grouping of his plays, poems and essays. Hungarian playwright and adapter George Tabori’s revue premiered in 1961 and resonates an uncanny timeliness in a world where the power of dictators and intolerance is growing. "If, as our leaders proclaim, loudly over their loudspeakers that the Jews, the Mexicans, the Muslims are responsible for all our misfortune, and since are leaders are extremely wise and never cease to emphasize the fact..." as the script says at one point, could almost be a modern-day tweet.

Harrison Bryan, Christine Hamel, Jake Murphy and Carla Martinez. Photo by Stan Barouh.

The PTP/NYC revival, directed by Co-Artistic Director Jim Petosa offers an engaging yet uneven presentation of the life of the man probably most known for collaborating on The Three-Penny Opera with composer Kurt Weill. One of the best numbers is "Ballad of Mack the Knife," featuring Harrison Bryan who succeeds in projecting menace with a charming twinkle in his eye. Christine Hamel, as Judith from The Jewish Wife, offers an emotionally charged soliloquy as she speaks about needing to leave Nazi Germany and her husband behind - "Character is a question of time," she says. "It only lasts for awhile, just like a glove ... What kind of men are you? Yes, you too! You discover the quantum-theory, you invent heart-operations, but you let yourselves be ordered about by these half-savages, so that you may conquer the world, but you're not allowed to keep the wife you want."

This moment resonates and lingers - bringing the past forward to the present as Hamel projects hurt, fear of the future and the love for those Judith separates from while showing the heartbreak of the refugee, of the persecuted. But moments like this are fleeting. At times, the show seems overly frenetic with a false frivolity. When the cast enters and tosses their music on the floor and dons clown noses the pace of the show races unnecessarily so. Then, suddenly, the action falls as a more quiet pieces like "Nanna's Lied/Songs About My Mother," begin without real transition. The hyperactivity dilutes the fire of Brecht's activism.

Harrison Bryan. Photo by Stan Barouh.

The spare set (scenic design by Hallie Zieselman), consisting of criss-crossed rugs, and a piano create a nice space for the eight-member cast. Music director and pianist, Ronnie Romano, is flawless. Costumes by Annie Ulrich bridge the past and the present with outfits that represent different time periods.

Brecht on Brecht is part of PTP/NYC's (Potomac Theatre Project) 32nd repertory season that runs through August 5 at The Atlantic Stage 2 (330 West 16 St). For more information, see http://PTPNYC.org.

(Press Seat)