Make Me

photo: Doug Hamilton

The biggest problem with Leslie Ayvazian's comedy about S&M, which is that it isn't funny, might have been mitigated if it was sexy. But as written and directed (by Christian Parker) it has no heat: this is a play in which three couples in long-term relationships play sado-masochistic bedroom games but you don't have any idea why because nobody has any fun. It's as if the playwright thinks of these roleplaying games between consenting adults as the joyless rituals of the bored, and almost nothing in the play acknowledges that anyone is turned on sexually by them. It's written and performed (by an expert cast that you're embarrassed for which includes Jessica Hecht and Candy Buckley) as if there's a wagging finger hanging over the stage.

Pure Confidence

photo: Ann Marsden

The story, about an industrious slave in the pre-Civil War South whose talent as a horse jockey seems to offer him a path to freedom, might have made for a dry docudrama of the "theatre that is good for you" variety. But instead the play, written by Carlyle Brown, is lively and absorbing and the production, with an exceptional cast directed by Marion McClinton who is best known for staging August Wilson, is a crowd-pleaser. We get caught up immediately in the relationship between Simon (Gavin Lawrence) and his slaveholder (Chris Mulkey) - the two seem to have a disarming respect for each other borne of each seeing opportunity in the other. When slave outwits slaveholder in one of the play's earliest scenes, it's taken in the spirit of sportsmanship, and we get a kick out of Simon, emboldened by the value of his talent, daring to buck the social norms of the times. The play's more comical first act, which is largely defined by Simon's ambitious, aggressive personality, gives way to a more serious second act in which Simon's wife Caroline (Christiana Clark) takes our dramatic focus. While it captures a specific, uniquely challenging and infrequently dramatized time in African American history, the play ponders some of the ironies of what was considered "freedom".

9 to 5: The Musical

Photo: Craig Schwartz

Dolly Parton's lyrics don't rhyme. Alison Janney can't sing. The overly-electronic sound eliminates any sense of actual humans playing instruments in the pit. The book is uneven, dated, and frequently dumb. Lisa Howard, Ann Harada, and Maia Nkenge Wilson are sinfully underutilized. There are moments that are downright embarrassing.

I had a great time.

Dolly Parton's score bounces along with energy and humor. Alison Janney can act and dance and is incredibly likeable. Megan Hilty combines great timing, a wonderful voice, and star power as she both imitates Dolly Parton and somehow manages to play a real person (Hilty should have gotten the Tony nom, rather than Janney). Stephanie Block's evolution from blushing and fearful to brave and happy is beautifully calibrated, and she sings the hell out of the 11:00 number, "Get Out and Stay Out." The book has some very funny moments, and its message of girl-bonding and humanity in the workplace touched me despite the flimsiness of the show, probably because Janney, Hilty, and Block give their characters full human dimensions. Marc Kudish is great fun, and his ability to flex one pec at a time is certainly unique! (Do you suppose he mentions it on his resume?) The choreography is energetic and entertaining, and it was great to see so many people on stage.

9 to 5 is a B- musical that manages to deliver an A- level of entertainment.

10 Things To Do Before I Die

Reviewed for Theatermania.

Our Lady of South Division Street

In Our Lady of South Division Street, the Nowaks are just another family in Buffalo, NY, except for one little detail--years ago, the Virgin Mary appeared to one of their relatives. This funny and moving story of a revelation that forces the Nowaks to reconsider both their history and their identity, is currently playing in an excellent production, nicely directed by Joe Brancato, at the Penguin Rep in Stony Point, north of New York City. It was written by Tom Dudzick (who, full disclosure, is my brother-in-law) and it addresses his favorite themes of belief, miracles, and family in a very enjoyable couple of hours. The cast, led by Peggy Cosgrove as the mother, does a fine job, and Joseph Egan's set is wonderful.

Vieux Carre

Photo: Gregory Costanzo

Tennessee Williams wrote Vieux Carre both early and late in his career. He started it in the late 30s and went back to it in the late 70s. Based on his time spent in a rundown boarding house in New Orleans, Vieux Carre can be viewed as a sort of The Glass Menagerie 2: What Happened After Tom Left St. Louis. In many ways, it is vintage Williams: full of aching loneliness, emotional scars, and the hope/prayer that connecting with another person--particularly sexually--can heal both psychological and physical damage. The Williams stand in--known as the Writer--is young, yearning, and not quite in touch with his homosexuality. He has left his family behind and wants no new parents; his life is his now, however it may turn out. At the boarding house, he gets to know a variety of fragile people: an artist with TB, an upper class woman who both loves and hates her lower class boyfriend, a pair of elderly women slowly starving to death, and a landlady whose nastiness and neediness have blended into one large mass of jagged emotion. In some ways more a series of character studies than a plotted play, Vieux Carre is a clear-eyed yet loving look at the people who fall into life's cracks. The reliable Pearl Theatre is offering an excellent, if flawed, production of the play, directed by Austin Pendleton. The idea of having one bed stand in for everyone's bed is awkward and confusing, and the use of the aisles of the theatre for exits and entrances is jarring. But the performances are excellent; Sean McNall, Rachel Botchan, Carol Schultz, and George Morfogen are particularly moving. Two other points: (1) It's a pity that the play was written in a time when Williams could thoughtlessly give an actual story to everyone except the "Negro maid," who ends up being more of a prop than a person (although Claudia Robinson gives the character dimension through the excellence of her performance); and (2) a number of reviews have referred to the artist, an older man who seduces the Writer, as "predatory" and even "aggressively homosexual." I think that these are misreadings of the character, who is a gentle man who wants desperately to connect with another person and who is offering the Writer all he has to offer. The Writer is an adult, able to say no, and while he accepts the artist's overtures ambivalently, he does accept them and perhaps is the better for it.