Nikolai and the Others previews

[lenstersf]

Posted: 4/4/13 at 8:54pm

Begins previews today. Interested to hear from those who have seen it.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 4/5/13 at 12:38am

I was at the first preview tonight and it was very frustrating. I think there's an awesome idea for a play here, but after 3 hours tonight Richard Nelson hasn't quite found it yet.

The play takes place during a Russian weekend in the country in Westport Connecticut. A cavalcade of historical figures descend on the cottage including Nicholas Nabokov, Igor Stravinsky, George Balanchine and his two lead dancers Maria Tallchief and Nicholas Magallanes. I thought this would be right up my alley, but the script meanders through the weekend without much forward motion.

There is an author's note in the playbill that states the people are real, but the situation is not. Facts and figures have been altered for dramatic purposes. The trouble is nothing all that dramatic happens!

Here's something else Nelson writes in his note:

Or to put this another way, my hope is to show a world where the creating of art- in this case dance- lives side by side, cheek by jowl, with all other essential and necessary functions of life; such as eating, drinking, dying, sleeping, dreaming, making love, laughing, remembering, disappointing, and attempting to be generous.

Well this is all very interesting in theory, but Nelson doesn't achieve what Baker (contestedly) achieved with The Flick; watching the mundane doesn't excite and the actors are left at sea treading water to keep afloat.

The scene at the end of act one was the best scene. Everyone gathered to watch Stravinsky and Balanchine choreograph Orpheus, and the two dancers perform it beautifully. It turns out the creation of art IS the most interesting to dramatize.

The staging is problematic because some of the sightlines will be bad. I felt like I was sitting in the perfect section, but other people, especially on the far left, did not have it so lucky.

I think there will be a lot of trimming in the weeks to come, so if you have an interest I would suggest holding off until changes are made.

The actors are all good; what a finely assembled group this is! Unfortunately the play is overstuffed with characters and I felt like we never got to know any of them except for Nabokov (Kunken).

The costumes and wigs are excellent.

[sowren1020]

Posted: 4/5/13 at 2:01am

Even The opening scene setting a table awaiting for another guest, took way too long. Michael Cerveris had nothing to say really, although he looked great and moved perfectly as Balanchine. Blair Brown seemed ill matched with John Glover as his mistress, who became his wife, but they had almost no chemistry between them. John Procaccino had the most moving moments, but at almost 2 &1/2 hours in, it was like watching Chekov under glass. The playwright had a lot of ideas but the Russian ladies in the audience didn't seem to think he captured any Russians they knew. The concept that they spoke Russian fluently to one another and then with a thick Russian accent when they were suppose to be speaking English was clever, but took too long to establish itself, the non-Russians not speaking for almost an hour in.

Stephen Kunken as the title character seemed fine, but at times too whiney and self indulgent as a character rather than the moving outsider who wants to be on the inside of his successful countrymen . Was he really doing favors for his kin or buying favors, it was hard to tell.

Haviland Morris, Best Aidem, Katie Erbe were all very good, but a lot of book reporting going on with one another rather action - except for serving food and monitoring the elderly Alvin Epstein in the show. The staging of the ballet in the barn was beautiful but that should not have been the highlight of the show and it was.

Needs a good 1/3 to be cut. More drinking and maybe a sword fight or at least arm wrestling.

Updated On: 4/5/13 at 02:01 AM

[Luv2goToShows]

Posted: 4/6/13 at 11:00am

I had high hopes for this, hope it improves.

Sorry to hear that the staging is problematic since there were no seats available in the center section, the closest I could get to the center was outer aisle seat in the left center section, last row. I hope the site lines will be ok.

[lenstersf]

Posted: 4/6/13 at 1:20pm

Hope they'll tighten this up during previews...watching it in May.

[customsay]

Posted: 4/14/13 at 10:12am

Knowing Nelson's work I didn't walk in expecting a tight narrative and tidy construction, but the pleasures of his best plays, including the recent Apple family cycle at the Public, which I loved, were absent for me here. This play just rambles, and the ensemble hasn't come together yet. It's previews, I understand; hopefully they'll get there. But there were no standout performances either, in part due to the flatness of the roles as written. None of the actors really gets a chance to shine. The author’s note that Whizzer quotes above makes explicit at least one of Nelson’s main objectives here – to depict a kind of harmony between what he clearly sees as the exalted act of creating art and the more mundane pursuits of everyday life. But the play didn’t capture this for me and there was too much on-the-nose talk about art and artists that cast the whole bunch – Stravinsky, Balanchine, et al. – as stereotypically pretentious and self-absorbed. Nelson fails to really humanize and make three-dimensional these legendary figures. Cromer’s staging seems to be a work-in-progress. Sightlines are funky and he’s got a lot of characters to maneuver around and through that tiny space. Right now some of the action is unfocused and details are missed or don’t register depending on where you’re sitting. Hopefully that gets tightened up too. Michael Cerveris gave a little curtain speech acknowledging the death of Maria Tallchief and the dancer playing Tallchief took a solo bow in tribute. A lovely moment.

[After Eight]

Posted: 4/14/13 at 11:24am

I've not been a great fan of Richard Nelson's work. In fact, most of his plays have bored me to tears, though I did like his book for The Dead. But I most certainly did like this play, which could be subtitled something like Beyond the Cherry Orchard. It's both elegiac and moving.

Though not a play of great moment, it proceeds as a succession of affecting moments. On a sprawling canvas, Nelson has written an intimist piece, full of finely-etched characters and beautifully-wrought details. It's like unrolling a bolt of brocaded silk, and it flows just as smoothly.

The opening dining scene plays out like an orchestrated pageant, from the setting of the table, the talking up of the arrival of the awaited guest, his grand entrance like that of Neptune emerging from the sea, to the meal itself, with its multiple tales being told both in both word and silence. The acting ensemble is wonderful, as is the direction, with each actor fully able to convey his character's nature and feelings through the merest of gestures or facial expressions. Everything is conveyed subtly, glancingly, with the total effect being profoundly meaningful without once being heavy-handed or labored.

The camaraderie and insular nature of emigres in a new land; their sense of loss of what they left behind; their own callousness to "outsiders;" the egomania, insensitivity and petty cruelties of great artists; the satellites who surround and worship them; the betrayals, jealousies and disappointments integral to the human condition: all these themes are evoked here with an accomplished and compassionate hand.

A special commendation must go to the wonderful costumes, which evoke a time, milieu and state of mind all on their own.

All in all, a very satisfying evening in the theatre, and easily the best new play I've seen this season.

[15minutecall]

Posted: 4/14/13 at 11:49am

I was there yesterday afternoon and agree with After Eight. Lovely work on the page and the stage.