A family story about Vietnamese immigrants working to build a life in America. There are way too many conceits that cloud the potential of this play. The opening setup of the story, when the playwright begins to interview his mother and she demands that he tell her story "the way he talks" (better English and plenty of curse words), is completely unnecessary. We don't need this explanation to understand that when the Vietnamese characters use fluent English, they are really speaking Vietnamese. And when an English-speaking American uses broken English, he is trying to speak Vietnamese. In fact, this is the best conceit of the play - particularly when the English-speaking Americans are speaking English to the Vietnamese characters and all we hear are random exclamations and references to a distilled down cultural language (ex, cheeseburger! red solo cup! Mickey Mouse!).
Another highlight is that Little Man (the playwright as a young boy) is depicted by a puppet, played by Jon Norman Schneider. These scenes are surprisingly emotive and enjoyable - especially when his grandmother teaches him karate to defend himself at school in a montage scene of fighting techniques. But the story itself is hugely disappointing and the play is way too long. Almost nothing is specific to a Vietnamese immigrant story. We learn nothing about the aftermath of the Vietnam War or why these people came to America, leaving behind close family members (who seem to be doing well back in Vietnam). Oh, and did I mention there is rapping? One rap would have been too much, but there are many throughout the play. These lyrics are unimaginative and repetitive, no one is very good at rapping, and literal references to Hamilton highlight the subpar quality in this play. New York City Center (Manhattan Theatre Club) A riveting psychological thriller (written by Max Wolf Friedlich, directed by Michael Herwitz) that hooks you from the moment it begins, and keeps you on the edge of your seat for the full 90 minutes. In the abrupt opening scene, Jane (Sydney Lemmon) points a gun at Loyd (Peter Friedman) - we're not yet sure why, but the moment is charged. Is Jane unhinged? Does she know this man? We find out details slowly: Jane is in this therapy session with Loyd so she can get clearance to return to work after a nervous breakdown. Her job puts her on the front line of evil, moderating and destroying content that no one should see when perusing the internet. But there is a twist towards the end that makes you double back, rethink, and grapple with ethical questions that have suddenly gotten very real. Lemmon and Friedman fully embody these characters and you feel the palpable intensity of their confrontations.
SoHo Playhouse Performing Lucinda Childs' Dance (1979) / Music by Phillip Glass / Film design by Sol LeWitt
This mesmerizing work leans into the repetitious tonal music for which Phillip Glass is known, using the music to not only guide the choreography but also building on the theme with LeWitt's video overlay that displays the same choreography at different scales and with a variety of framing techniques. The physical stamina of these dancers is insane to watch, and the overall result is a beautiful, cohesive, and alluring piece. New York City Center A play about the connection we have to our stuff. Danny DeVito plays Sam, a man who rarely leaves his house and is surrounded by his stuff, which turns out to be literal and emotional baggage. Everything has a story, and Sam eagerly tells one whenever someone asks about, or even touches, something in the room. Mostly this is his friend Foster (Ray Anthony Thomas), who stops by to pass the time and eventually to try and help him clean up the house, and his daughter Amelia (played by DeVito's real daughter, Lucy DeVito), who stops by to scold Sam for not taking the cleanup seriously and urges him to do so. But stuff is Sam's way to remember and to literally hold on to the pieces of his life, including his wife who passed a few years prior.
DeVito is a joy to watch. Sam is the only full fleshed out character, but perhaps this is by design - we're in Sam's head and everything outside of himself and his house is inconsequential, including the lives and well-being of his friend and daughter. Oddly, the DeVito's have very little chemistry as father/daughter, and Thomas gives an uneven performance that is likely a result of the lacking character development. I would love to see what happens to the play if it were only DeVito on stage, only Sam reckoning with his stuff and his life. We get insight into what this might be like when Sam plays a game of Sorry! by himself - he's playing with all 4 colors and it's a competitive game. Sam gives each color a personality and reacts to the luck of the die or menaces the other colors as the game progresses. The game continues for longer than I expected, and DeVito is incredible to watch. As the game escalates you can feel his simmering emotions just below the surface. American Airlines Theatre (Roundabout Theatre Company) Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells are very funny, and they're very funny playing Bud and Doug in this show. Bud and Doug take a few minutes at the beginning of the show to explain what's going on: they have spent every last penny renting the theater in the hopes of securing a producer for their musical, "Gutenberg! The Musical!" Unfortunately for us, that show isn't very good: the plot is nonsense, the songs are actively bad, and any historical reference is... wrong. We do get a disclaimer that the duo did a couple of Google searches and there is "scant" information on Gutenberg's life and story, but with carte blanche to make it all up, the result is disappointing.
Since this performance is a bid for investment, there are no costumes or sets yet - only trucker hats labeled with the different characters. Bud and Doug don the hats expertly as they switch characters to perform the scenes of the show (even the big dance numbers). This low-budget approach is clever but wears thin by the end. Really the whole conceit wears thin pretty fast and as the second act starts you might wonder... how much more of this is there? The show is at it's best when Bud and Doug are talking to the audience, dance transitioning across the stage, explaining the standard structure of a musical, or telling stories about their audience at the nursing home where they work. In fact, I think the show should have taken place at the nursing home, with Bud and Doug practicing for this investor performance but enmeshed in their daily lives. Give us more of Bud and Doug, and at the same time give them the talent to put together a show that actually deserves a producer's investment (and our money too). James Earl Jones Theatre A delightful farce based on a play from the 10th century, Abraham or Fall and Redemption of Mary by Hrotsvit of Grandersheim (c. 935–973). The original play surely took itself more seriously, telling the story of an orphan who is taken in by hermits to ensure she lives a life of chastity without temptation from the evils of the world. But in this modern version we see the story through Mary's innocent eyes (she is only 8 when her parents die from the latest plague that turns them to foam). Mary yearns for someone to love her, and over the course of the play we realize that she does not understand the difference or discriminate between familial love, godly love, and sexual lust (disguising as love). Love is love... right?
The cast is all in, selling the premise very well, and I think this is the main reason that the play works. Haley Wong, as Mary, embodies an 8-year-old girl with her overly expressive facial movements which subtly diminish as she ages. Susannah Perkins and Octavia Chavez-Richmond, as the hermits Abraham and Effrem, lean into the humor of the script and have their own facial expression asides to the audience. Claire Siebers literally wears many hats as the Master of an Inn and the numerous suitors who pay for Mary's attention. And lastly (but not least) Kai Heath, as an endearing soldier, does not need an actual horse - or even a prop - to convince us that she is galloping on one. MCC Theater (The Playwright's Realm) St. Paul & the Broken Bones, led by Paul Janeway on vocals, puts on an excellent live show. I was introduced to the band recently, but they have been around for a little over a decade. It's hard to go wrong when the band includes trumpet, trombone, and saxophone along with the more standard keyboard, drums, guitar, and bass. Their sound is funky with soul, but what really sets this group apart is Janeway's voice. To me it sounds like a mash-up of Frankie Valli and Raphael Saadiq, but also has a unique quality that escapes comparison. The whole band is having so much fun, and that energy permeates through to the audience.
The Wellmont Theater (Montclair, NJ) |
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