Category: Editorial

Theatre Review: “The Little Foxes”

Apr. 23 Editorial, Entertainment, Most Fabulous, Politics, Theatre, Theatre Reviews, Top Diva no comments

LILLIAN HELLMAN’S THE LITTLE FOXESDirected by Daniel SullivanWith Laura Linney, Cynthia NixonDarren Goldstein, Michael McKean, Richard ThomasDavid Alford, Michael Benz, Francesca Carpanini, Caroline Stefanie Clay, Charles Turner

This is easily the most entertaining serious play I’ve seen so far this Broadway season. Plays like Oslo and Indecent may be more insightful, even edifying, but Lillian Hellman’s 1939 poisoned chestnut The Little Foxes has far more spicy melodrama. Sure, those other plays don’t exactly fail at entertainment, and Foxes does have some serious issues on its mind, but the reason to see it is exactly the same reason you watch a suspensefully-plotted soap opera.

Set in 1900 Alabama, The Little Foxes follows Regina Giddens – a template for Alexis Carrington, without a doubt – and her conniving brothers as they claw and scratch their way towards wealth and power. Caught in the middle, among others, are Regina’s cultured and much-abused sister-in-law Birdie and Regina’s principled but deathly ill husband Horace.

In a bit of stunt casting, Laura Linney and Cynthia Nixon trade off playing Regina and Birdie (a smaller but still quite juicy role). The night I saw it, Linney was a steely marvel as Regina, and Nixon heartbreakingly vulnerable and sincere as Birdie.

Either way director Daniel Sullivan has crafted a production so rock-solid, and intelligently observed in its details, that any skilled actor would feel secure and supported. Set designer Scott Pask delivers a drawing room that has exactly the right feeling of severe, effortful elegance. Costume designer Jane Greenwood nails the armor-like padded crispness needed to convey Regina’s intimidatingly powerful presence.

The supporting cast is every bit as potent as the leads. Richard Thomas gives the ill Horace a wounded gravitas which makes him a worthy opponent for Regina even in his diminished state. Michael McKean brings disturbing warmth to mastermind brother Ben, and Darren Goldstein shows us the insecurity behind brother Oscar’s bluster (to great effect). At its core, The Little Foxes is a ripping yarn and this production gives that full play. Highly recommended.

For tickets, click here.

To learn about Jonathan Warman’s directing work, see jonathanwarman.blog.

Theatre Review: “Indecent”

Apr. 21 Editorial, Entertainment, Lesbian Affairs, Politics, Theatre, Theatre Reviews, Women's Issues no comments

(l-r): Katrina Lenk as ‘Manke,’ Adina Verson as ‘Rivkele’ in INDECENT, a new play by Paula Vogel, co-created by Paula Vogel and Rebecca Taichman, and directed by Rebecca Taichman, at the Cort Theatre, 138 West 48th Street. © Carol Rosegg

To say that Indecent tells the back story of the first lesbian kiss on Broadway is to undersell its ambition and scope. The play that featured that kiss, The God of Vengeance by Sholem Asch, was a wild Yiddish-language play that shattered all kinds of Yiddish Theatre traditions – the lesbianism was almost the least of it. That said, Asch did craft a romantic scene for two young women that surpassed in frankness and tenderness anything that had come before in literature, and has rarely been equaled since.

For that reason the play has been kept alive in the imaginations of gay theatre artists, like Indecent‘s playwright Paula Vogel and its director Rebecca Taichman. As a matter of fact, the play has its roots in Taichman’s graduate research into the play’s history. God of Vengeance was written in Warsaw in 1907, premiered in Berlin a bit later, and was a sensation throughout Europe in the following years. In the early 1920s, the Yiddish version was given in New York, which led to an English-language version which proved such a hit that it moved to Broadway – where it was in short order closed due to the entire cast being charged with obscenity.

Vogel’s writing and Taichman’s direction are so tightly entwined that it is sometimes hard to know where one begins and the other ends. Indecent is theatrical through and through, and is perhaps most moving in moments where action replaces dialogue completely. The worst that can be said about it is that it is perhaps a bit over-ambitious, trying to cover too much. But that’s a much better problem to have than a lack of ambition. Recommended.

For tickets, click here.

To learn about Jonathan Warman’s directing work, see jonathanwarman.blog.

Theatre Review: “War Paint”

Apr. 17 Beauty, Editorial, Entertainment, Fashion, Most Fabulous, Music, Music Review, Politics, Theatre, Theatre Reviews, Top Diva no comments

WAR PAINT [0174]_ Steffanie Leigh, Christine Ebersole, Mary Claire King, Photo by Joan Marcus, 2017

Some of Broadway’s most solid craftsmen worked on War Paint, and it shows. Most of the creative team previously worked on Grey Gardens, and while this isn’t up to the caliber of that show, it’s still pretty darn good. War Paint follows the decades-long rivalry of cosmetics pioneers Elizabeth Arden (Christine Ebersole) and Helena Rubinstein (Patti LuPone), who between them defined beauty standards for the first half of the 20th Century.

The score by composer Scott Frankel and lyricist Michael Korie evokes all kinds of music from the 1930s through the 1960s, with generous doses of big band-style swing. Doug Wright’s book, together with Korie’s lyrics, uses the fierce competition between these two female titans of industry to examine their differences, but more importantly to shed light on the similar challenges they both faced in the male-dominated business world.

Of course, the main draw is seeing not one but two living legends in the lead roles. The songs for Ebersole and LuPone go beyond intelligently painting the personalities of the two main characters – they are as exquisitely tailored for their talents as are their glamorous Catherine Zuber-designed outfits. This is nowhere more apparent than in their twin 11 O’Clock numbers. When Christine finishes her song “Pink” – as pure Ebersole as anything Frankel and Korie gave her in Grey Gardens – it’s hard to imagine they could top it. And they don’t, exactly – Patti’s “Forever Beautiful” is more of a lateral move, just as astonishing a number, and ideal for LuPone.

It’s very well-crafted, but not perfect: There are moments when the dramatic tension goes a bit slack, until our heroines have a new historical problem to face. It’s an inherent weakness of most historically-based theatre, and therefore one I am quick to forgive. For the most part, War Paint is smart and marvelously stylish entertainment. Recommended.

For tickets, click here.

To learn about Jonathan Warman’s directing work, see jonathanwarman.blog.

Theatre Review: “The Play That Goes Wrong”

Apr. 10 Editorial, Entertainment, Politics, Theatre, Theatre Reviews Comments Off on Theatre Review: “The Play That Goes Wrong”

'The Play That Goes Wrong' Play performed at the Duchess Theatre. London, Britain

This is silly nonsense! Not trying to be anything but hilariously silly nonsense, and succeeding marvelously at being the absolute best silly nonsense around. The Play that Goes Wrong is entertainment at its purest, irresistibly funny and engaging. All you need to know is that an inept college group is putting on a bad murder mystery play, and failing horribly at it. What fun!

There is, however, some thought and wit and (gasp) character development lurking about. As an example, the main obvious joke about collegiate actor Max (Dave Hearn) is that he is childishly delighted (and pulled out of character) by laughter and applause. A secondary, smarter joke can be seen in how he deals with kisses. He is extremely reluctant to kiss his leading lady, and other moments point toward his only experience with kissing being French kissing a boy (!).

Designer Nigel Hook starts the slapstick before the lights even go down, as “stagehands” attempt to deal with doors that won’t stay closed and the like. That’s hardly the last thing to go wrong, leading one character to scream at one point “this set is a deathtrap!” It’s worth noting that, for a variety of unexpected reasons that’s a big laugh line, as well as tip of the hat to successful stage murder mystery comedy Deathtrap.

Director Mark Bell and the show’s company (several of whom share the writing credit here) have their hands full making sure all this dangerous-looking slapstick comes off with immaculate timing and no actually lethal falling objects. I can’t remember the last time I laughed this often or this hard, so of course I highly recommend this silly, silly nonsense.

For tickets, click here.

To learn about Jonathan Warman’s directing work, see jonathanwarman.blog.

Theatre Review: “Present Laughter”

Apr. 08 Editorial, Entertainment, Most Fabulous, Politics, Theatre, Theatre Reviews Comments Off on Theatre Review: “Present Laughter”

Present LaughterSt. James Theatre

In aging matinee idol Garry Essendine, the central character in Present Laughter, playwright and gay sophisticate Noël Coward created one of the great comic monsters of the modern theater. All the greater because behind his arrogant, preening exterior, Garry is actually a compassionate, loving person, surprisingly devoted to the friends he so often bullies and insults. He just can’t help getting dazzled by his own brilliance (“I still maintain I should have been magnificent as Peer Gynt!”) — and who can’t identify with that?

It’s a truly luscious role, and Kevin Kline makes a full meal of it. He comically plays up Garry’s ego – he’s the most elaborately florid Garry, which is delicious. But he also takes Garry’s relationships with his tight-knit circle of friends totally to heart. This makes for a very textured Present Laughter. Even as you’re rolling your eyes at the excuses Garry makes for himself, you know he sincerely is trying to get it right. This is also the most precisely directed Present Laughter I’ve seen, thanks to Moritz von Stuelpnagel; every intention is crystal clear, and there’s plenty of truly inventive comic business.

While Garry struggles to plan his upcoming tour of Africa, his elegant London flat is invaded by all manner of vivid characters. Cobie Smulders, as femme fatale Joanna, positively slithers around the stage in costume designer Susan Hilferty’s gorgeous bias-cut gown. Kate Burton as Garry’s wife Liz is almost as plummy as Kline, and comedy treasure Kristine Nielsen is perfectly cast as his wry, indispensable secretary Monica. Highly recommended.

For tickets, click here.

To learn about Jonathan Warman’s directing work, see jonathanwarman.blog.

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