The Taming of the Shrew

The directorial concept of this production of Shakespeare's comedy is that it's being improvised backstage by a troupe of USO performers. There is a palpable pleasure in watching the actors (sometimes) succeed at making the Bard's words seem to come to them spontaneously (especially because the small cast covers almost two dozen roles) but the price for this small pleasure is too high: the play itself becomes a muddle. Why, additionally, is Petruchio stomping around in a military uniform and why is that rebel hellcat Kate now played by a man in a not at all feminine fashion? I spent way too much time trying to tease out which odd choices were deliberate and which were accidents, and the result was that I didn't enjoy the play I already knew, nor did I get any fresh insights from this distortion of it.

In The Heights

This new musical with Broadway hopes takes place in, and concerns some (mostly Hispanic) peeps of, Washington Heights. Too often the musical's loose multi-character vibe feels like it's been blueprinted on Rent, but as it lacks that show's galvanizing social message and its gravity, its stories feel awfully trite. The first forty minutes are a washout in terms of storytelling - even with a fair dose of athletic, pulsing choreography and a lively number here and there (half the score is fresh quasi-rap: good; the other half is blandly earnest standard issue old school pop: bad) it gets tiresome soaking up the local color when we don't have a framing story to latch on to. When the main story does come into eventual focus it puts nothing at stake: a girl returns to the neighborhood to spare her family the expense of college, but it's hard to care with no indication that she is anything but happy about it. When we learn (near the end of the first act, in the show's best song "96,000") that someone in the neighborhood has won the lottery and will get out of the Heights, it reveals this show's biggest mistake: it's too gentle to make this 'hood look like anything some of its cute characters would want to escape from.

The Silent Concerto

Now more than ever, because of this race, I'm seeing theater left and right. But I would sooner lose than see another show as unfinished and irregularly acted in as The Silent Concerto. I'm rarely harsh on new work, but when a play throws in references to Beckett and Lorca simply as a means of covering up its own clumsiness, I lose patience. Perhaps if the performers were better, I wouldn't be so down on Alejandro Morales' script or Scott Ebersold's direction, but this evening left me with very little to leave the theater with. I was counting on Fringe darling Susan Louise O'Connor to liven things up, but she's reduced to a few bland one-liners, and entangled with two very misguided actors, one of whom (Julian Stekevych) should win the award for most stereotypes in a character.

His performance, like the play, is very much a gloss, and leaves the audience in absolute apathy for everything that happens to him. That the show doesn't make much sense either, well, that's just icing on the mud cake. And I don't mean that in a good way.

[Read on]

The Be(a)st Of Taylor Mac

****
La Mama

From the outrageous look of this creature in the press photos I assumed I was in for an evening of Hedwig/Kiki style thrash cabaret. To my surprise, Taylor Mac is far more subdued and operated on a more introspective level. Strumming on a ukelele, Taylor sang wonderful little dittys about politics, dudes, and general malaise. This depressed, yet hopeful, drag queen was really no drag queen at all, but a sweet damaged gay boy hiding behind a mask of sequins. I wanted to give him a hug.

The Drowsy Chaperone

I don't love Drowsy - it doesn't come close to fulfilling the promise of its nifty concept, it celebrates the most banal thing about musicals (escapism), almost all its songs are throwaways, and I'm annoyed rather than charmed by the antisocial pathos of its narrating main character. But, on a second visit, I could put all that aside and just enjoy the knock-'em-dead energy of the ensemble and the fun, cartoony performances in the show within the show. They've gotten even more (delightfully) over the top since I saw a preview almost a year ago. While Sutton Foster and Beth Leavel are especially terrif, as is newcomer Peter Bartlett (replacing Eddie Hibbert and getting laughs out of thin air), the surprise for me was Danny Burstein. He's perfected his cheesey, grandiose Aldolpho to the point where his first scene gets applause even without a song. That's purrrrrrr-worthy stuff.

Also blogged by: [David]

The Drowsy Chaperone

****1/2
Broadway

This was my fifth visit to The Drowsy Chaperone. It's starting to get embarassing and it needs to stop. No, not Drowsy, my show stalking. I just can't help it though. It's such fun and a safe bet for a thumbs up when I have an out of town guest who wants to see a Broadway show. The production is holding up remarkably well and Danny Burstein as "Aldofo" continues to go further over the top each time I return. As well he should.

Also blogged by: [Patrick]