Gotham Gal

A Lie of the Mind

The New Group's current production is A Lie of the Mind directed by Ethan Hawke.  The play was written by Sam Shepard in 1986. 

Ethan Hawke is part of the actors in NYC who are interested in using their talents to find intriguing, thought provoking work.  Not only is the production incredibly well directed, the performances are pretty stellar. 

The play is long 2 1/2 hours.  The acting was incredible, that alone pulls you in but when the play ended, I wish I had known what exactly Shepard was trying to tell us.  So, I did a little research on the net today.  Certainly cerebral with many underlying symbols.  Worth reading what the play is about before going.  The scenery sets the tone.  The walls of the stage set are lined with lamps, desks, windows, layers of clutter.  Conceptually, the clutter in your brain. 

A Lie of the Mind is a story of 2 families who begin to unravel even more after a violent incident between a husband and wife, the only connection between these 2 families.  Each spouse returns to their family for support.  The wife is brain-damaged and the husband has so much angry baggage that has been internalized and long forgotten in his mind.  Neither of these families have traditional family structures although they might think they do.  We see how everyone's role changes as they begin to unravel.  In essence, the characters each explore lies inside their mind or what lies inside their mind.

I was looking for some closure as the play wound down but found absolutely none.  Not sure there is closure but more continuation of complete dysfunctional world where one family remains and the other one just flees.

Regardless of all the intensity of the play, the acting is fantastic, almost riveting.  Also, when we left, Channing Tatum was walking in to probably hang with his buds and that was worth the ticket.  He is so incredibly good looking that it is easy to see that even without his talents why he should be on the big screen.

Time Stands Still

 

There is nothing quite like good theater.  You walk out of the theater just feeling energized.

Last night I saw Time Stood Still, the latest production from MTC.  A fantastic cast.  Laura Linney, Eric Bogasian, Brian D'Arcy and Alicia Silverstone.

The story was timely and interesting on so many levels.  Linney and D'Arcy are journalists who have spent the last 8 years shooting and writing about war, famine and every atrocity you can imagine.  After a near death experience for Linney, they both return home.

Bogosian is their editor who has rid of his partner and has instead chosen the young light hearted Silverstone to get married and have a family with at a very late stage of life.

Linney, after coming back from the brink of death, only wants to return to the game where D'Arcy wants to stop the madness and settle into a less frenetic life.

This is a play that can speak to anyone in the audience.  Each character is layered, each character makes difficult life decisions that changes the dynamic of everyone of their relationships.  Although there is a political context to the story, underneath that is a love story.  Interesting conversation to be had after the play.  A relevant topic today of how we are all living our lives without taking the time to step back and smell the roses.  As Silverstone says at one point ( from memory so it probably isn't exactly what she said) , "if the 2 of you only see the tragic things in life instead of seeing the joy, what is the point."

Get the tickets before the play sells out.  Bravo!

Ping Chong, The Devil You Know

One of our dearest friends in the world has been involved with Ping Chong & Company as long as I can remember.  Hence, we have gone to a variety of performances over the years.  Some good, some bad. 

Ping has an incredible artistic mind, he is also a really nice guy.  He is a director, choreographer, video and installation artist.  What would be the world be without avant garde artists?  I give him huge credit and my friend for supporting Ping and other artists like him over the years.  Ping continues to try new things, some end up being fantastic like Sustained Achievement, that I still remember and think about.  Then there have been other performances where I was tortured sitting through it.  Cutting edge stuff can often be brutal but when there are those flashes of briliance, it is obvious why you have to support artists like Ping. 

Last night, we went to the latest production called The Devil You Know, at La MaMa.  Bonus, the play was an hour long.  The actors were marionettes.  Two old homes set on the stage with a huge video installation over the homes that was used for weather and narrative. 

The story takes place in the 1800's in New Hampshire.  In essence, the story is a fable.  The main character, is a farmer.  He is down on his luck.  He is barely making it as a farmer and can't pay his mortgage.  The other farmers want to create a cooperative so they can all help each other but he wants nothing to do with it.  All the farmers are fans of Daniel Webster who they believe will be the next President and has always helped the little people like themselves.  One night, the farmer goes to his barn and meets the devil.  The devil will make sure that he has money and success if he sells him his soul after seven years.  He agrees and his life changes.  He becomes a man so focused on money and himself that he leaves all his other farmers in the dust.  He becomes the new banker and charges the other farmers ridiculous interest rates to borrow his money.  The seven years come due and the devil comes to take his soul.  Daniel Webster shows up before the devil takes his soul and asks for a trial.  The jurors are other Americans from history who have obviously sold their souls to the devil too.  Webster asks them, if you could, wouldn't you go back and not give your soul if you could.  In the end, they let the farmer off, he keeps his soul, lets all the farmers out of their loans and becomes part of the community.

Ping is obviously using a fable to describe the current state of the banking industry.  History repeats itself.  Clever.  The marionettes are fantastic.  Certainly the marionettes represent pawns.  Although the banter of the characters is very basic, the moral ethos about community stands out.  Help your fellow man.  I loved the use of Daniel Webster too.

Another Ping performance.  What would life be with some off the beaten path theater?

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Nightingale

 

Seeing Lynn Redgrave last night, to me, was a moment in NYC history that I felt lucky to capture.  It was a performance that I will not only remember but talk how lucky we were to see it years from now.

Nightingale is a one person play, 90 minutes long.  Redgrave sits in a chair and tells us the story of her Grandmother.  She slowly flips through a notebook as to keep the story going.  Keep in mind she also wrote this story.  She goes in and out of a few characters but the main character is her Grandmother.

It isn't so much about the tale but how Redgrave tells it.  A master storyteller.  Her body movement, her facial expressions, her intonations.  So incredible.  I found myself drifting at times because of her vivid descriptions.  I started thinking about our kids when they were young and cuddly as she talked in first person as her Grandmother about her children.  At one point when her Grandmother was in Switzerland I found myself recalling when I was there in college.

A remarkable performance.  Watching her in such a small setting was a treat.  Her age in some ways made a bigger impact on me because when someone like Redgrave, who is so skilled in her profession, makes you realize you are seeing years of performing and that experience shows us what she is really made of on the stage.  Not sure they make them like her anymore. 

The Starry Messenger

Image via Wikipedia

I am trying to keep in mind a few things about the Starry Messenger which I saw with my friend last night at the Acorn Theater the last production from The New Group. 

First, I was really looking forward to this play.  The cast line-up was terrific.  Matthew Broderick who has spent a fair amount of his career on and off Broadway, a seasoned actor.  Catalina Moreno who was in Maria Full of Grace in which she was nominated for an Oscar for her performance, also Kieran Culkin who I saw a few years ago in subUrbia and he was fantastic.  Those are a few of the highlights from the cast although there are certainly others.

When we got to the theater, they couldn't find our tickets.  Good thing my friend brought along our receipt because she signed us up to do the series of plays through the New Group together this year.  That has yet to happen to me in all the years that I have gone to the theater that the tickets were not there.  Once we sat down, somebody else had tickets for the same exact seats.  It ended up that ours were issued for the wrong date which was clearly the mistake of the theater because ours said that they were for the Friday after Thanksgiving which in no way would have been a date that we had picked.  Someone entered November instead of October.  Whatever, we got a different set of seats.  Both of us had tried to figure out the length of the play.  For some reason, not sure why, it is always difficult to figure out how long a performance is going to last.  Serious searching on the Internet does not always work.  As far as I am concerned, the length of the play should be the first thing highlighted before the name of the production and the cast.  So, we both thought the play was 1 1/2 hours. 

The play begins with an addendum from the director.  They are still working with the lines so some of the actors are still learning them.  One actor is brand new since he was replaced a few days ago and he will be playing his part with a script in hand.  Granted the production had not had the premier yet but I have seen many plays prior to the premier and all of this was a new experience for me.  There were a handful of times that Broderick would stop and say "line" and then the director would feed it to him. 

The play began.  Certainly a work in progress.  I found the writing to be like talking to a boring acquaintance at a party.  The lines were just not that interesting, a few laughs here and there.  I guess the whole premise is about a variety of different people living as small parts of the entire solar system all connected to the teacher of Astronomy ( Broderick ).  I could be so off here so keep that in mind too. 

After an hour and half, the play ended but it really didn't end, it was just an intermission so we had it wrong.  We had dinner reservations at Esca in 15 minutes, which by the way was absolutely fantastic last night, so we both decided to leave since the play was basically bad.  We asked the usher on the way out, how long does the play last to and she said, they are trying to get it down but it is basically a 3 hour play?  3 hours!  Plays of 3 hours are Pulitzer Prize winners and productions of the past that have been continued to be produced through decades continually making an impact and are always praised.  Not this play.

Bottom line, hope the next production is better than this one.  Not sure I am interested in sitting through a play while a playwright attempts to make life bigger than need be.  Oh, and btw, I didn't link to the New Group site because when I did it said it contained malicious software that could fuck up my computer.  So, if you really want to see Starry Messenger, you will have to find it yourself. 

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The Royal Family

Last night we saw our first place of the season.  It was MTC's first production of the year called Royal Family.  The room had a few stars sitting in the audience which I took as a good sign.

I glanced at a good review and was psyched.  When we got there and found out the play was 3 hours and had 2 intermissions, I immediate thought ugh, this better be good knowing the play had been written in the mid-1920's so I was skeptical.  Surprisingly enough, it was wonderful.

The play is centered around a crazy old world theatrical family.  A supposed parody of the Barrymore family.  The entire play takes place in a fairly large apartment in NYC in the East 50's. There is the staff, who is just as comical as the family.  The butler is fantastic played by David Greenspan. The elderly mother who is played by Rosemary Harris is the matriarch of the family who was supposedly a helluva a Broadway actor in her day. Her daughter, played by Jan Maxwell is not only quite a theater actor herself but she is now the glue to the family.  Her brother, who is played by Reg Roger is the playboy, actor, charming, celebrity.  The side kicks are the agent, who manages the entire families careers played by Tony Roberts, the grand-daughter who is the next generation to keep the family name going and then the uncle (Fanny's brother) and wife who are also actors but not at the immediate families level.  There are a few romantic interests but at the end of the day, its about being an actor in the theater, only.

The story, although supposedly about the Barrymore's, is really just about classic family nonsense which every family has.  The yelling, the screaming over each other, the angst, the prima donnas, the drinking and their history which is comical but at the end of the day there are a few absolute stellar performances particularly from Maxwell, Harris and Roger.

Duke Theater, Stunning

I read two reviews on the play Stunning and felt compelled to go.  I took my Dad and his wife.  I had never been to the Duke Theater before which is a small theater, 199 seats, on 42nd Street, connected with Lincoln Center geared towards emerging playwrights.  Great venue. 

The play, Stunning, is about a Syrian Jewish family living in Brooklyn.  The main character, who is a 16 year old girl, Lily,  has just married a middle aged man, is an incredible actress (Cristin Milioti).  She is a bit shell shocked and uneducated as she has known this man since she was 12.  As much as Lily wants to be part of the world she is in, she seems to be uncomfortable and not sure about it.  She has had no life experience, her education ceased when she was about 12 and she really doesn't even like her husband.  Her role is to now have as many children as possible  Yet, she is a child playing a grown-up.

Lily hires a maid, an African American, named Blanche (Charlayne Woodard).  She is also a fantastic actress.  Blanche tries to open Lily's eyes to the world, teach her that she can take control of her own destiny.  But, at the end of the day, can she? 

On the drive out to the beach this weekend, Emily and I were discussing religion.  She doesn't understand why anyone would be so religious.  She understands the community aspects but sees that religion has caused more trouble ( Middle East ) than it is worth and who is to say if religion actually is real.  We had an interesting conversation about it and although she didn't see the play, I told her about it.  Lily, the main character, as much as she wanted to leave the life that she had been born in to, she couldn't.  Where would she go, her family would consider her dead, she would have no support system, she had no education, etc.  It takes a pretty strong independent person to be able to cut those ties.  Emily wondered if another 100 years from now we will still be seeing the Hasidic Jews roaming through Williamsburg as we did the other night.  Who knows?

As much as the play had a bit of a mixed message, the characters were all held back by where they came from and who they were.  The stage set which was also well done was completely white and every piece of furniture continued to change at each act like transformers. 

Stunning, is David Adjmi's, the playwright's,  New York debut.  Impressive. 

Everyday Rapture

After attempting to get to see Everyday Rapture three separate times, we finally got there last night.  I was a bit ambivalent considering the play is a musical but the reviews were great.  Also, the play is one and a half hours without intermission and figured, why not. 

Everyday Rapture is in essence a one woman play starring Sherie Rene Scott although there are 2 other backup singers, a young boy and a 5 piece band behind the screen that the audience can see.  It is truly all about Sherie Rene Scott.  It is a pseudo-memoir of her life.  Starting in Kansas, in a mennonite (sort of), god loving family where she loved Jesus and Judy (Judy Garland). 

The play is full of hilarious lines as Scott openly analyzes her thoughts.  She has a true love for Mr. Rogers, had a gay cousin who died of AIDS, an her father had enough of the church thing as he told the family "let the neighbors build their own fucking barn". 

She is the star and she is a star.  She has more talent built in to her than most people have in their little finger.  Her voice is incredible and she belts out the songs in between telling her tale.  Her face reacts to each situation differently.  No wonder she has such an interesting career in theater.

Scott has a serious resume although she calls herself a semi-star but through this particular production, she has definitely moved from semi-star to top billing.   

Accent on Youth

Maybe it is the economy or maybe theaters are advertising more but I have seen an ad for Accent on Youth daily.  It is a MTC production where we are patrons.  I had to reschedule 2 times but we finally go made it last night.  It got pretty good reviews. 

The play is performed at the Biltmore Theater on West 47th street and that is a bonus right there.  This particular venue was renovated a few years ago and there is actually real room between you and the seat in front of you.  You can move around and stretch your legs.  What a concept. 

The production is starring David Hyde Pierce who is absolutely the star of the show.  I am not sure the show would have been as good without him.  It is a 1934 revival which is about the age old question, can a man in his early 60's find love with a woman in her late 20's. 

This particular piece revolves around a very successful absorbed playwright and his young secretary who has been adoring him in the wings for the past 3 years.  The play is funny with some clever lines.

 As Fred put it, an entertaining 2 hours and Pierce makes the show.  I couldn't have said it better myself. 

God of Carnage

 Theater is one of those art forms that when you find something really excellent, you embrace it like no other.  As my friend says, once you see a great play, you have to see a lot of duds or mediocre plays before you get to see something good again.  The last great play I saw was August Osage County.  I'd actually go back and see it again.  God of Carnage hit the same spot. 

First of all, the acting is excellent.  A cast of four actors who have not only had success outside of theater but began as actors of the stage.  James Gandolfini, Marcia Gay Harden, Jeff Daniels and Hope Davis. 

The play is about 2 couples from the Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn.  Their 11 year old boys, have a fight on the playground.  Daniels and Davis play the couple whose child hit Gandolfini and Harden's kid with a stick across the mouth breaking 2 of his permanent teeth.  They sit down to discuss what took place and how they should solve the issue.  As the conversation begins, it is very civil with pleasantries all around but as time flies, the anger rises not only against each other but towards each of their own spouses.  Coffee first, rum later.

Laugh out loud hilarious lines.  The audience laughed so hard that I missed some of the lines.  Although a comedy on the surface, this play is telling a story about my generation of parents.  What you see is not necessarily what you get.  Parents over parenting their children, and backing them up at any cost.  The insane world of the cell phone interrupting conversations.  Ethical and moral issues.  The high and mighty executives against the supposedly down to earth artists and store owner. 

Subtle, hilarious and absolutely worth seeing.  There was a teenager next to me howling.  I am sure many of the subtleties went over his head but that is what makes the play so brilliant.