In their latest, The Scottsboro Boys, with Kander completing the lyrics after the passing of his longtime partner, the scoresmiths and their collaborators (David Thompson on book with Susan Stroman directing and choreographing) tackle what might be their most difficult combination of story and stage show. The plot is taken from a 1931 case where nine black teenage boys were falsely accused of raping two white women while riding a train that had stopped in Scottsboro, Alabama. The choice to play out their saga through the conventions of a minstrel show is daring, immensely theatrical, and ripe for social commentary, even if the resulting musical isn't always up to the challenge.

While many would argue that minstrelsy did, in its own particular way, help popularize the music of American blacks of the 1800s, it's better remembered nowadays as a stage show where whites in blackface played offensive racist stereotypes. Black minstrel troupes did exist, but they portrayed the same lazy, buffoonish, happy-go-lucky caricatures as their white counterparts.

In The Scottsboro Boys we're presented with an (almost) all-black minstrel troupe. But here the lead clowns traditionally known as Mr. Bones (Colman Domingo) and Mr. Tambo (Forrest McClendon) save their broad stereotyping for when they and their cohorts portray brutally racist white police officers, lying white prostitutes claiming rape and corrupt and incompetent white representatives of the American legal system; a neat little twist that would never have occurred in real-life minstrelsy and suggests a parallel to the more modern practice of "taking back the word."

Musical theatre treasure John Cullum, the only white member of the cast, displays his usual gracious elegance as the interlocutor; the traditional name for the master of ceremonies. In his relatively small role, Cullum, representing the romanticized white south usually glorified in such pageants, seems oblivious to the horrors being acted out around him and is more concerned with skipping ahead to the crowd-pleasing cakewalk.

While the concept is intriguing, Thompson's book doesn't take advantage of the possibilities, stretching a brief outline of a plot (there's a trial... the Supreme Court finds that trial unconstitutional... there are a bunch of other trials) into an intermission-less hour and forty five minutes that tells us little of the nine strangers suddenly locked up together with the electric chair waiting for them. We hear mention that the north is outraged at the injustice going on in Alabama as well as the fact that the American Communist Party has paid for their legal defense, but these interesting details are left unexplored while attention is paid to a silent woman (Sharon Washington) whose eventual contribution to the drama is far too obvious.

Brandon Victor Dixon admirably plays out the clichés of his angry, system-fighter character, Haywood Patterson, who is taught to write by the sympathetic Roy Wright (Julius Thomas III) and puts that knowledge to good use, but what drags the storytelling down is that the symbolic conflict which gives the piece its best reason for being done as a musical, that between the interlocutor's desire to entertain and the troupe's need to tell the truth, is introduced at the outset but barely expanded upon, leaving a blandly told tale that never challenges the audience to think of the arrested teens as anything but targets of racism and the whites they encounter as anything but corrupt, sadistic or self-serving.

Fortunately, the Kander and Ebb score is exemplary of what puts them among musical theatre's elite. Not only is it filled with interesting and catchy melodies and lyrics boasting cleverness that extends beyond rhyming and wordplay, the duo provides songs that demand to be staged and frequently suggest their own staging. The rousing opener "Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey!" is patterned after the way minstrel troupes would parade through the streets of a town to announce their arrival. Patterson glumly pleads his innocence with a Bert Williams-styled "Nothin'," a song that will undoubtedly be grabbed by character men who are tired of auditioning with "Mr. Cellophane." "Southern Days" is a sentimental anthem that sneaks in an alternate view of the scenes described in the classic, "Strange Fruit" and one lovely ballad, "Go Back Home," gives the evening its tragic heart.

While Stroman's mounting is sharp and professional, with a talented ensemble strutting, high stepping and flashing their tap shoes with great exuberance, she never hits the discomforting satirical nerve the score keeps tickling, soaking the evening in a lively blandness. A nightmare routine involving the tap dancing volts of an electric chair never builds beyond the potential of its visual and her staging of a number that's critical of the "Jew money" that paid for a high-powered defense attorney is too reminiscent of the razzle dazzle of a Kander and Ebb standard that can be caught further uptown.

Cabaret succeeded by suggesting parallels between Nazi Germany and 1960s America. Chicago gained a new life by reflecting back at us how the nation has changed since the OJ trial. By comparison, The Scottsboro Boys takes the safer road and winds up resembling a "feel good" musical, separating our current nation from the world it depicts. That score, and history, deserve something cleverer.

Photos by Carol Rosegg: Top: Derrick Cobey, Julius Thomas III, Brandon Victor Dixon and Josh Breckenridge; Bottom: Rodney Hicks, John Cullum and Brandon Victor Dixon.

Follow Michael Dale on Twitter at michaeldale.

Posted on Friday, March 19, 2010 @ 11:45 AM

Michael Feinstein last appeared on Broadway in 1990 in Michael Feinstein in Concert: Piano and Voice and performed on Broadway in 1988 in both Michael Feinstein in Concert: Isn't It Romantic and in Michael Feinstein in Concert. He received a special Drama Desk Award in 1988 for celebrating American musical theater songs in 1988.

This is Dame Edna's third return to Broadway, following her smash hit (and Tony & Drama Desk Award-winning) Dame Edna: The Royal Tour in 1999, and 2004's Tony Nominated Dame Edna: Back with a Vengeance.

Michael Kuchwara, Associated Press: "Their hybrid entertainment is called "All About Me," and while it's not a natural fit, the two stars work hard to make the matchup work. Their 90-minute show, which opened Thursday, has the feel of a glossy Las Vegas revue, well put-together but unsurprising, especially if you have seen both performers before."

Ben Brantley, The New York Times: "But neither star has time to get a groove going that would define the perimeters of a complete, self-contained fantasy world. No matter how radiantly Mr. Feinstein is singing or how amusingly Dame Edna is riffing, you're aware of the presence of the other, just waiting to break in. The show starts to feel like one long, repeated session of coitus interruptus."

Elysa Gardner, USA Today: "All About Me (* * * out of four), which opened Thursday at Broadway's Henry Miller's Theatre, isn't a conventional musical. It's more a cabaret act writ large, with a generous dollop of stand-up comedy, courtesy of self-proclaimed "gigastar" Dame Edna Everage, aka Aussie funnyman Barry Humphries."

Frank Scheck, Reuters: "But this oil-and-water hybrid is pretty much doomed from the get-go. After a fake "overture" featuring Broadway classics spanning the decades, Feinstein begins the evening by ably performing several numbers from the Great American Songbook (or "Rod Stewart Songbook," as he comically refers to it), including "My Romance" and "The Lady Is a Tramp.""

David Sheward, Backstage: As the curtain fell on "All About Me," the new revue starring the unlikely pair of singer-pianist Michael Feinstein and drag artist-comedian Barry Humphries as Dame Edna Everage, I felt as if I'd just spent 90 minutes watching YouTube clips. Some were funny, some were entertaining, some were so-so, but they were all familiar and felt as if I'd randomly chosen them after typing in the stars' names in the search engine. "

Marilyn Stasio, Variety: "It's a joy to have Dame Edna Everage back on Broadway, regardless of the indignities she's forced to suffer in "All About Me." After umpteen appearances, Barry Humphries' monstrously funny incarnation of an Australian housewife run amok on fame and flattery still retains its savage wit. But Christopher Durang and his multiple co-scribes have to answer for the lame idea of teaming up La Belle Dame Sans Merci with the cafe singer and musical jack-of-all-trades, Michael Feinstein. Better Larry the Cable Guy than a musical-theater performer whose sensibility is so at odds with hers."

Michael Sommers, NJ Newsroom: "Try as they might, Dame Edna and Feinstein achieve zero chemistry, so this outing is diverting only in their separate parts. In spite of packing a 12-member onstage orchestra, the patchy show somehow suggests a cruise ship act rather than a bona fide Times Square attraction. At the end of the night, "All About Me" really is closer to Boca Raton than Broadway in its entertainment values."

Joe Dziemianowicz, NY Daily News: "Things that don't go together: oil and water, porcupines and party balloons, Eric Massa and ticklish young men. And now Dame Edna Everage and Michael Feinstein."

Elisabeth Vincentelli, NY Post: " It's great to have Dame Edna Everage back in town, but she's part of a package that includes Michael Feinstein -- and that's no deal."

John Simon, Bloomberg News: "Feinstein always strikes me as a bit too driven, effortful and sweaty under and over the collar, lacking condign lightness and true elegance. Dame Edna, though, is a true comedian in material, looks, facial expression and body movement (notably semi-spastic walk). The act headily ranges from mostly barbless insult comedy to cheeky audience manipulation. "

Posted on Thursday, March 18, 2010 @ 11:37 PM

Grace, played by Elizabeth Marvel with puppy dog cheerfulness that acts as a defense against accepting how her life has evolved, is a woman with creative impulses and an optimistic view of the world that insists there is good in all people, even as she hides the book she's been writing from her domineering husband, Vet (John Doman). The symbolically named Vet, who used to be known as Snake, is a proud member of the U.S. Boarder Patrol who believes strongly in fences -- both public and personal -- and, as the play opens, is ironing the crease in his uniform's pants in preparation for the next day's ceremony, where he'll be honored for his single-handed bust of a group of illegal Mexican immigrants trying to smuggle in marijuana. He often speaks in the elevated language of the speech he's preparing to make, accenting points with sharp blasts of steam.

Vet, who is white, has a black son, Buddy (Amari Cheatom), from his first marriage. (Their racial difference is never directly approach. Is it indirectly approached? You tell me.) Having gotten into a bit of trouble with the law after being discharged, Buddy appears to be trying to put his life back together, though at first he seems intent on one-upping dad on every one of his accomplishments. Through a video journal we learn of Buddy's plans for a violent rebellious act.

With a projected chapter title announcing each scene, there's the suggestion that we're seeing at least part of the evening's events via Grace's secret writings, but the point of view is as ambiguous as the symbolic meaning of the various unrealistic plot points, played by director James Macdonald's fine cast for naturalistic drama. (Marvel, though, is the only one with a textured character to play; with Buddy being a familiar figure and Vet broad-stroked as an outright stereotype.)

Parks' great asset as a playwright is a skill with language that can effectively balance realism with near-poetry, giving her the ability to intrigue, even if her plot and characters do not.  The Book of Grace plays like a drama that has something interesting to say.  It just needs to speak more clearly.

Photos by Joan Marcus: Top: Amari Cheatom; Bottom: John Doman and Elizabeth Marvel.

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Follow Michael Dale on Twitter at michaeldale.

Posted on Thursday, March 18, 2010 @ 11:24 AM

The grosses are out for the week ending 3/14/2010 and we've got them all right here in BroadwayWorld.com's grosses section.

Up for the week was: LEND ME A TENOR (75.4%), SOUTH PACIFIC (20.6%), IN THE HEIGHTS (15.7%), THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (15.7%), CHICAGO (14.5%), WEST SIDE STORY (13.4%), HAIR (12.2%), FELA! (12.0%), MARY POPPINS (11.8%), NEXT TO NORMAL (9.5%), ROCK OF AGES (8.1%), MAMMA MIA! (8.1%), PRESENT LAUGHTER (7.1%), JERSEY BOYS (6.0%), BILLY ELLIOT: THE MUSICAL (6.0%), THE LION KING (5.7%), THE MIRACLE WORKER (4.5%), COME FLY AWAY (4.4%), ALL ABOUT ME (3.9%), A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC (3.1%), GOD OF CARNAGE (2.6%), A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE (2.6%), WICKED (1.8%), MEMPHIS (1.6%),

Down for the week was: A BEHANDING IN SPOKANE (-3.6%), NEXT FALL (-2.6%), TIME STANDS STILL (-2.2%), RACE (-0.7%), LOOPED (-0.5%),

Posted on Monday, March 15, 2010 @ 04:36 PM

Valerie Harper returns to Broadway this spring in Matthew Lombardo's new comedy Looped, directed by Rob Ruggiero.

Looped tells the story of Tallulah Bankhead, the internationally celebrated actress, being called into a sound studio in 1965 to re-record (or "loop") one line of dialogue for what would be her last film -- the dreadful Die, Die My Darling . Southern, but by no means a belle, Ms. Bankhead was known for her wild partying and convention-defying exploits that outshone even today's celebrity bad girls. And given her inebriated state (and inability to loop the line perfectly), what ensues is a hilarious showdown between an uptight and conservative sound editor, Danny Miller, and the outrageous legend.

Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter: "Bottom Line: Valerie Harper makes a fine and funny Tallulah Bankhead, but will anybody care?"

Charles Isherwood, The New York Times: "With the corners of her mouth dragged down to her ankles, a cigarette in one hand and a drink in the other, Harper camps and vamps with determined proficiency, injecting plenty of life if not much verisimilitude into Lombardo's cruel but enjoyably catty cliche."

John Simon, Bloomberg News: "Valerie Harper does a bravura turn on Broadway as Tallulah Bankhead in Matthew Lombardo's 'Looped.'"

Michael Kuchwara, Associated Press: "Out of this real-life misadventure, playwright Matthew Lombardo has fashioned a frequently funny but at times labored little play, which opened Sunday at Broadway's Lyceum Theatre. Not really a one-woman show, the comedy is more of a battle between Bankhead and an agitated film editor named Danny (Brian Hutchison), who's forced to supervise the re-looping."

Elisabeth Vincentelli, NY Post: " Harper plays the final redemptive scene to the hilt, but ending the show on that feel-good note betrays both Tallulah's life and her art."

Joe Dziemianowicz, NY Daily News: "A second-act subplot about Danny's troubled personal life ends up setting the groundwork for a moving chaser. He asks Bankhead to redo another performance. Though she's totally looped, she obliges in heartbreaking fashion."

David Sheward, Backstage: "Nobody likes a good Tallulah Bankhead story more than I-in fact, I'll launch into my deep-throated imitation and call you "Dahling" at the least provocation-but even I get a bit tired if it goes on for two hours. That's the trouble with "Looped," Matthew Lombardo's new play, now on Broadway..."

Elysa Gardner, USA Today: "That's clearly the perspective of Matthew Lombardo, the author of Looped (* * * out of four). The play, which opened Sunday at Broadway's Lyceum Theatre, is a passionate, if not entirely convincing, rebuttal to anyone who has tried to reduce Bankhead to a punch line."

Posted on Sunday, March 14, 2010 @ 09:33 PM

Some would call those words heroic. Others would call them treasonous. Uttered by Washington Post Publisher Katherine Graham on the seventeenth of June in 1971, those words changed the relationship between the federal government and the free press.

The title Top Secret: The Battle For The Pentagon Papers may scare off a playgoer or two who imagines some dry, dense history lesson, but playwrights Geoffrey Cowan and the late Leroy Aarons (an award-winning journalist and founder of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association) deliver a tight, tense drama that celebrates the patriotism of challenging the government.

Premiering in 1990 as a radio play broadcast over NPR, director John Rubinstein stages the piece in the same manner; having actors speak into downstage microphones with scripts in hand while foley artists execute Lindsay Jones' sound design from an upstage table. Holly Poe Durbin's costumes and minimal moments of movement provide theatrical visuals without taking away from the radio play spirit. The text is based on interviews with real-life participants and trial transcripts released under the Freedom of Information Act with minor alterations made for the sake of clarity and dramatic presentation.

History tells us that in 1971, the New York Times began publishing a series of front page reports revealing public deception and scandal related to U.S. involvement in Vietnam, based on information acquired from top secret Pentagon documents When a federal court stopped the series from being continued after the third installment, Washington Post Editor-in-Chief Ben Bradlee (Peter Strauss), long frustrated at the Times' status over his paper, acquired copies of the documents and had his staff quickly produce a story that picked up where the New York paper left off, knowing that doing so could risk the entire future of his publication.

While the 1^st Amendment guarantees a free press, publishing information that may compromise national security would be considered treasonous. The ensuing legal battle debated the government's right to determine what information should be kept secret over the judgment of a publication's editor.

Narrating the piece is Katherine Graham, an intelligent and cultured socialite who was still a novice at journalistic matters when she took over as publisher of the family business. Kathryn Meisle gives a warm, everyperson presence to the role of a woman who must decide in less than a day if she is prepared to challenge the entire federal government. In a docu-play more concerned with providing information than fleshing out characters, she is the glimpse of humanity that gives the evening empathy while Peter Strauss' gruff and hard-nosed Bradlee and his cohorts deliver their juicy jargon with crackling alacrity.

If the evening has a flaw, it's the piece's one-sidedness which presents Nixon (Larry Pine), Kissinger (Peter Van Norden) and their allies as near-buffoonish sketches. While Americans pride themselves in living in a land of free speech, a more sympathetic look at the reasons why someone would put a boundary around this freedom could make this already interesting and enjoyable play downright fascinating.

Photos by Joan Marcus: Top: Kathryn Meisle, Peter Strauss, Peter Van Norden; Bottom: Peter Van Norden.

Follow Michael Dale on Twitter at michaeldale.

Posted on Saturday, March 13, 2010 @ 04:28 PM

While the situations presented by playwright Geoffrey Nauffts in Next Fall are certainly realistic, the evening suffers from a steady feeling of contrivance as the storytelling pieces fall too neatly into place and a nagging sense that the playwright has avoided certain obvious issues that would add some needed depth to the piece.

Aspiring actor Luke (Patrick Heusinger) lies in a coma after being hit by a taxi, while his partner Adam (Patrick Breen), with whom he's been living in a committed relationship for four years, stresses in the waiting room. Only family members are allowed to see him and if Adam explained to Luke's somewhat ditzy mom (Connie Ray, whose air-headedness has toned town quite a bit since Off-Broadway) and gruff, domineering father, conveniently nicknamed Butch (Cotter Smith), why he should also be at their son's bedside it would out his lover to his parents. (The issue of whether or not the hospital would consider an unmarried gay couple in a committed relationship as family is never brought up.) Compounding the matter is that Butch is making serious decisions regarding Luke's treatment, unaware of any reason why Adam should be consulted in the matter.

Scenes alternate between the present day hospital events and a progression of flashbacks that bring us up to speed on the fellows' relationship, beginning when the young and handsome Luke, on a cater-waiter gig, sets out to meet the older, nebbishy Adam by giving him an unnecessary Heimlich maneuver ("I just wanted to get my arms around you.") and an invitation to see him play the stage manager in Our Town. The thought that this vapid fellow actually has the acting tools to do any justice to the role is a bit more than far-fetched (He mentions to Adam that he wanted to play George and seems disappointed that he was cast as the stage manager instead.) but the plot point allows the author to heavy-handedly point out themes supposedly shared by his play and Thornton Wilder's.

The steady conflict in their relationship stems from Adam's objection over Luke's devout Christianity; not because of his own atheism, but because he doesn't see the sense in a gay man following a faith that condemns his own sexuality. (If we're really supposed to believe that Adam would stay with someone who prays for forgiveness after each time they make love, just in case he's struck down dead before being forgiven for the sin he just committed, then I'd say we have a new low self-esteem champion of the world.) His partner's insistence that accepting Christ insures you a place in heaven despite your sins is countered by a sobering hypothetical ("So then, if Matthew Shepard hadn't accepted Jesus Christ before he died, he's in hell, and his killers who, say, have, are going to heaven? Is that what you're saying?") but the subject is dropped just as things are getting interesting.

Nauffts can write funny lines for his two central characters and have them bring up thought-provoking topics for viewers to ponder later on, but he never gives us any sense of them as a couple in love. There's amusing banter and some physical closeness but little in the way of tenderness and affection. In one scene Adam frantically tries to hide anything in their apartment that hints of homosexuality, anticipating an unexpected visit from his Bible-revering dad. His insistence that his life partner make himself scarce and Luke's refusal to do him that favor doesn't exactly build empathy for their relationship.

While Butch is presented as the obstacle between Adam and his desire to be with his partner during what could be his final moments, the conflict lacks impact because the father is never made aware of his son's sexuality and the true nature of their relationship. He comes off as a bit of a bully, but given that his son's life is on the line such behavior might be understood, especially in a climactic scene where Luke starts standing up for his own rights and Butch has no idea why this stranger is telling him what to do. The scene ends with a moment that seems aimed to strike hard emotionally but is just too coincidental to be believable. Also not believable is quick exchange where Butch uses both a homophobic and a racial slur, because nothing else in the script justifies suddenly painting him as a bigoted man.

But despite holes in the plot the evening's surface is smooth and rather enjoyable, thanks to crisp staging by Sheryl Kaller that emphasizes the wit of Nauffts' dialogue. While the characters lack empathy, the actors (including Maddie Corman and Sean Dugan in roles that exist primarily to give Adam a chance to speak openly) give appealing performances. There are some especially nice moments between Ray and Breen as the mother silently hints that she's beginning to understand Adam's position.

Next Fall is that kind of play that, at first, appears to be tackling some weighty issues. But as the evening progresses it becomes apparent that the author is only lightly tapping them.

Photos by Carol Rosegg: Top: Patrick Heusinger, Cotter Smith and Patrick Breen; Bottom: Patrick Breen, Maddie Corman and Connie Ray.

Follow Michael Dale on Twitter at michaeldale.

Posted on Friday, March 12, 2010 @ 01:42 AM

Michael Kuchwara, Associated Press: "One of the pleasures of "Next Fall" is Nauffts' evenhandedness in presenting both sides of an issue. The playwright doesn't preach or try to tell his compelling story only in black and white. He invests the play with a generosity that doesn't prejudge. Nauffts embraces both the virtues and foibles of his characters. And that inclusion makes "Next Fall" an even richer experience."

Ben Brantley, The New York Times: "A flourishing member of a precious and nearly extinct species has been sighted on Broadway, looking remarkably vital and sure of itself for a creature so often given up for dead. "Next Fall," which opened Thursday night at the Helen Hayes Theater, is that genuine rara avis, a smart, sensitive and utterly contemporary New York comedy. The question now is whether theatergoers will recognize that "Next Fall" embodies something they've been sorely missing, perhaps without knowing it, for years."

Elysa Gardner, USA Today: "An off-Broadway run last year garnered rave reviews and was thrice extended, and Fall has since acquired the financial backing of Elton John and his partner, David Furnish. But many who see the new production - which retains the original director, Sheryl Kaller, and cast, and has been tightened only slightly - are bound to wonder how this heartfelt but pedestrian drama generated so much fuss."

Frank Scheck, Reuters/Hollywood Reporter: "In these recessionary times, it might take more than the imprimatur of celebrity presenters Elton John and David Furnish to make "Next Fall" viable for a Broadway run."

Michael Sommers, NJ Newsroom: "From the sniffles pervading the auditorium, apparently some people are moved deeply by this comedy-drama-weeper. Not me. At least not in the way the playwright intends. Frankly I could scarcely wait to move myself out of the theater and into a martini."

Linda Winer, Newsday: "'Next Fall" is a love story about belief. I'm afraid I am not a believer - not in the love story or in the play. Geoffrey Nauffts' drama, which has leaped to Broadway after a well-received run Off-Broadway last summer, has been embraced by its admirers as a thoughtful and sensitive exploration of a five-year relationship between two gay men of differing faiths in New York. "

David Sheward, Backstage: "Can such a small-scale, touching production make a go of it on a Broadway hungry for razzle-dazzle? In this economy and with no stars-except for Elton John as a producer-"Next Fall" will be lucky if it can. Here's hoping it does."

Elisabeth Vincentelli, NY Post: " The play has lost some of its intimacy in the transfer, and the characters sometimes look lost on Wilson Chin's cheap-looking set -- especially in the scenes set in a hospital waiting room."

Joe Dziemianowicz, NY Daily News: "Which begs the question: Can a serious drama be seriously funny? In the case of this gay love story, it can, due to Geoffrey Nauffts' sitcom leanings. It can be seriously didactic, too."

Terry Teachout, Wall Street Journal: "In art, good intentions count for something-but not much. The intentions of Geoffrey Nauffts's "Next Fall," a new play about a man (Patrick Breen) whose much younger lover (Patrick Heusinger) is dying, are palpably high-minded, and I suspect that many playgoers will think that this makes it worth seeing. Alas, "Next Fall" is cliché-infested and cloyingly sentimental, and the fact that it has transferred to Broadway after a successful Off-Broadway run means only that you can fool some of the people most of the time."

Posted on Thursday, March 11, 2010 @ 10:35 PM

And while I'm not going to try and convince anyone that they shouldn't have any of the above reactions, let me say that that the final page of this play, which I will not describe here, provided the most provocative moment of communal audience discovery I've ever experienced. Yes, a similar moment occurs in at least one American theatre classic, but in context to the rest of the evening Neighbors sends you off with a jaw-dropping finish that delivers an extra jolt after the curtain call and even one more as you exit the theatre.

That's not to say that Neighbors is in perfect shape right now. Its nearly three-hour length can use some trimming, there's at least one long speech that needs a more realistic tone and a moment or two whose significance is a bit baffling. But presented as a Public Theater LAB production, which mounts developing new scripts in front of audiences who pay only $10 per ticket, the piece needs to be accepted as a work in progress. The decision to invite reviewers wasn't made until well into its scheduled two-week run, which has now been extended through March 14^th.

Taking place in what the playwright describes as "a distorted present" Mimi Lien's set reveals two homes in a college town. Staring out his kitchen window, Richard Patterson (Chris McKinney), a black professor who hopes his taking over of a course in Greek drama will give him a boost up the academic ladder, is disgusted as he observes his new neighbors settling in. He has a name for them which his white wife, Jean (Birgit Huppuch), will only refer to as the n-word.

Their actual name is Crow, though their patriarch Jim has recently passed away, leaving behind Mammy (Tonye Patano), who lives with her children, Sambo (Okieriete Onaodowan) and Topsy (Jocelyn Boih) and their uncle, a dandy in a top hat and swallow-tailed coat who goes by the name Zip Coon (Eric Jordan Young). Played by actors who are black, the Crows are traveling entertainers who all wear blackface makeup in their everyday lives (accented by large, red painted-on lips) and live as the famous stereotypes their names suggest. Director Niegel Smith, who mounts the piece with an appropriately flashy hand, pulls no punches in allowing his actors to play the most extreme characteristics of their iconic namesakes.

(Production photos of these actors in makeup and designer Gabriel Berry's costumes were not made available.)

The only member of the Crow family who appears almost normal is Jim, Jr. (Brandon Gill), who also wears the family makeup but is otherwise a typical shy, awkward teenager. Though he normally serves as the act's stage manager, Jim Jr. is nervous about Mammy's expectation for him to take over his father's role on stage.

As samples of what we might expect to see at a Crow performance, Jacob-Jenkins occasionally puts them in front of a show curtain for a series of vulgar comedy bits that involve (fake) sex organs, a watermelon, a plunger and a unique way of putting out a fire. Though these routines are horrifically offensive to modern viewers, they were once staples of blackface comedy that had white audiences doubled over with laughter.

While Richard fears that any association with the Crows would reflect badly on him and hurt his career, his teenage daughter Melody (Danielle Davenport) has struck a budding romance with Jim and the lonely Jean has taken to having afternoon teas with Zip Coon (Young's exceptional work presents a living, breathing cartoon of exaggerated elegance) who has her questioning the way she and Richard see each other in terms of race. By that time you may have noticed specifics about the text that suggest the author is also asking us to consider how each Patterson is seeing the Crows in terms of race.

By the end of the play Jacob-Jenkins is laying out a history of black entertainers in America, from what might be considered the country's first instance of black people taking the stage for the enjoyment of white people to the types that are popular in the 21^st Century, for us to decide if their mainstream appeal comes from a virtual blackface that gives white audiences the same pleasure that the greasy kind did for other white audiences one hundred years ago. Nobody is condemned, but the thought is thrown out there to discuss. And something tells me people who see Neighbors will be discussing the experience for a long, long time.

Photos by Ari Mintz: Top: Chris McKinney and Birgit Huppuch; Bottom: Chris McKinney, Birgit Huppuch and Danielle Davenport.

Follow Michael Dale on Twitter at michaeldale.

Posted on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 @ 10:46 AM

The grosses are out for the week ending 3/7/2010 and we've got them all right here in BroadwayWorld.com's grosses section.

Up for the week was: ALL ABOUT ME (51.0%), LOOPED (17.1%), GOD OF CARNAGE (15.3%), NEXT FALL (14.7%), A BEHANDING IN SPOKANE (9.9%), SOUTH PACIFIC (8.7%), MARY POPPINS (7.1%), BILLY ELLIOT: THE MUSICAL (6.8%), MAMMA MIA! (6.5%), THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (6.5%), PRESENT LAUGHTER (5.5%), CHICAGO (5.4%), THE LION KING (4.2%), WEST SIDE STORY (3.9%), TIME STANDS STILL (3.8%), MEMPHIS (2.9%), WICKED (0.3%),

Down for the week was: FELA! (-16.1%), ROCK OF AGES (-7.9%), HAIR (-6.2%), THE MIRACLE WORKER (-6.1%), NEXT TO NORMAL (-4.7%), RACE (-4.6%), A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC (-3.9%), IN THE HEIGHTS (-3.6%), JERSEY BOYS (-1.0%), A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE (-0.1%),

Posted on Monday, March 08, 2010 @ 06:39 PM

Located in what was the Czech town of Terezin, Theresienstadt was hailed as a "City For The Jews," by Hitler's propaganda machine.  With its official function to protect its guests from growing hostilities, the Nazis populated the prison with writers, musicians, painters and other artists, encouraging them to create. This was the showplace meant to convince inspectors from the Red Cross that the Jews were being treated with respect and being encouraged to let their culture thrive.

While the characters in Signs of Life are fictitious, they play out the true story of imprisoned artists who, under the threat of being sent to the death camp of Auschwitz, were forced to create work that depicted Theresienstadt as a joyous and vibrant community, while secretly smuggling out pictures that told the truth about their lives.

The story centers on 19-year-old Lorelei (Patricia Noonan), an art student who is initially willing to give the Nazis the kind of pretty pictures they want but when she and the others discover the full truth about what is happening to their fellow Jews, she must weigh the value of her own life against trying to alert the world of the lies being told. There's a bit of romance between Lorelei and a young former rabble-rouser (Wilson Bridges) who gets tongue-tied in her presence and hand-makes her tokens of his affection like a portable toilet seat. While Noonan and Bridges have attractive singing voices and play their roles with fine earnestness, there is little substance in their story, as the book's numerous subplots give the musical a patchwork quality.

New York stage veteran Stuart Zagnit gives gentle nobility to his role as a designated elder who is unaware of the consequences of his regular assignments to select Jews to be transferred out of the camp. In a score heavy with ballads, Erika Amato, in the supporting role of a Christian convert who was nevertheless cast aside by her husband, has the strongest material: "Home Again Soon," sung of the horrific fate of the children put in her care, and "I Will Forget," where she defends her decisions about her post-war life. Jason Collins, who plays a gay cabaret singer who is offered a chance to cooperate with his captors in exchange for freedom, offer the evening's most interesting and nuanced portrayal.

Admirable, the authors present the story's two Nazi officers with some degree of humanity. Kurt Zischke is the bureaucrat who doesn't seem especially political and who might be pleasant company under better circumstances. Allen E. Read is the stern and humorless patriot who truly believes that Hitler's policies will benefit his people.  In a realistic moment, both men express their horror at the inhuman scenes to be found in the other camps.

While the subject matter undoubtedly hits the emotions hard, director Jeremy Dobrish's fine enough premiere production has trouble finding any depth in the text that creates its own impact, revealing the project, at this point, to be more of an interesting work in progress.

Photos by Joan Marcus: Top: Nic Cory, Patricia Noonan, Kurt Zischke and Allen E. Read; Bottom: Jason Collins and Erika Amato.

Follow Michael Dale on Twitter at michaeldale.

Posted on Monday, March 08, 2010 @ 02:11 AM

But the dancing ensemble (including top-hatted executioners) are employees of the Red Bull Theater, whose reputation for interesting interpretations of Jacobean drama wasn't built on traditional mountings.

Webster's bloody revenge tragedy (the kind of play where mortally wounded men use their dying breaths to murder their enemies) boils down to a family squabble among royals set off when the widowed duchess (Christina Rouner) falls in love with a lower-class servant, Antonio (Matthew Greer), much to the consternation of her inheritance-hungry twin brother, Ferdinand (Gareth Saxe), and their sibling, the Cardinal of Aragon (Patrick Page). The complicated plot involves numerous murders by various methods, including the ever-popular "poisoned bible" trick.

Director Jesse Berger, who is also the company's artistic director, incorporates the expected Red Bull style of presenting Jacobean works with a mixture of performances and design elements where the classical shares the stage with the (at least somewhat) contemporary. Rouner's duchess foregoes any traditionally regal qualities for a light, romantic touch that can quickly turn aloof and icy. Greer makes for a warm and sympathetic Antonio while Saxe's lunatic Ferdinand and Page's cool and smug cardinal are fun villains. Matthew Rauch gives the most intriguing turn of the night, delving nicely into the troubled conscious of hired assassin, Bosola, and Heidi Armbruster adds a sexy jolt as the cardinal's mistress.

The usually imaginative Beowulf Boritt's set comes off as a bit too plain; covering the entire playing space with blood-red drapes that eventually give way to skeletal scaffolding. Jared B. Leese does a more effective job with costumes that seem to represent a certain fashion while mixing periods.

While the production entertains, it doesn't excite; mostly because it plays more like a succession of interesting staging choices and individual performances rather than a presentation of a unified interpretation. But judging from the director's wry choice of exit music, which got a hearty chuckle from me, that might have been the whole idea.

Photos by Carol Rosegg: Top: Christina Rouner and Gareth Saxe; Bottom: Heidi Armbruster and Patrick Page.

Follow Michael Dale on Twitter at michaeldale.

Posted on Sunday, March 07, 2010 @ 02:47 AM

The title is just the starting point; take a man searching for his missing hand (Christopher Walken), two con artists out to make a few hundred bucks (Anthony Mackie and Zoe Kazan), and an overly curious hotel clerk (Sam Rockwell), and the rest is up for grabs. A Behanding in Spokane is Academy Award-winner Martin McDonagh's hilariously black comedy, a world premiere which marks McDonagh's first American-set play.

Ben Brantley, The New York Times: "Sometimes, in one of theater's more undervalued romantic story lines, an actor meets a set and - flash! - chemistry happens. The opening image of Christopher Walken in Martin McDonagh's "Behanding in Spokane" is such a perfect, demented marriage of character and environment that you can't help grinning like a fool."

Michael Kuchwara, Associated Press: "Far more interesting is the hotel's receptionist (Sam Rockwell), a peculiar man whose strangeness matches Carmichael's. Rockwell effectively channels this man, a fellow who eventually forms a bond with the one-handed guest. The actor gets his own showy monologue in the middle of this short play, which barely runs 90 minutes. But it's quirky for quirk's sake, entertaining but not really helpful in expanding the plot. Still, there is Walken to take up the slack when the weirdness threatens to spin out of control. His performance will haunt you even if the play does not."

Elysa Gardner, USA Today: "As is, this Spokane offers more laughs than insights. While hardly McDonagh's most fully realized effort, it leaves us wondering where his own singular imagination will take him next."

David Sheward, Backstage: "There's not much to Martin McDonagh's "A Behanding in Spokane." While this 90-minute exercise in hilarious terror shares the brutality and pitch-black humor of the Irish playwright's previous works, it doesn't have anything to say about the country of its setting (as his Gaelic-centric plays such as "The Beauty Queen of Leenane" and "The Lieutenant of Inishmore" do) or the nature of storytelling (the theme of "The Pillowman")."

Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter: "Bottom Line: A brilliant cast elevates this profane shaggy-dog comedy to wildly entertaining proportions."

Elisabeth Vincentelli, NY Post: " Christopher Walken has an eccentric charisma, his hangdog, sorrowful demeanor spiked with a twisted kind of charm. The mix is a perfect fit for Martin McDonagh's particular brand of macabre comedy."

John Simon, Bloomberg News: "Even if, like me, you are no great fan of the Irish playwright Martin McDonagh, you will find "A Behanding in Spokane," in which Christopher Walken makes a triumphant return to the Broadway stage, insane yet also fiendishly funny. "

Joe Dziemianowicz, NY Daily News: "Walken's performance is amazing, the stuff Tony Awards are made of. Using his silky voice and haunting eyes, he's spectacularly spooky and funny as Carmichael, a lone-fisted oddball searching for his hand, which, so he says, was severed by hooligans."

Linda Winer, Newsday: "If you are mesmerized by Christopher Walken (and I don't think I could love anyone who isn't), the sight of him in the ratty hotel room is immediately interesting."

Terry Teachout, The Wall Street Journal: "When blood is shed in a Martin McDonagh play, the audience always laughs-and usually gasps. Mr. McDonagh is partial to comic violence, and in "A Behanding in Spokane" he lets it rip. I mustn't be too specific, this being a play full of grisly surprises, but there's one thing about which I can be absolutely precise: "A Behanding in Spokane" is the funniest new play to open in New York since I started writing this column."

Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune: "The latest Broadway play from Martin McDonagh lands somewhere between "Pulp Fiction" and an extended star-driven sketch from "Saturday Night Live." We already knew that McDonagh ("The Beauty Queen of Leenane," "Pillowman") writes with remarkable facility in the self-aware, neo-gothic, Tarantino-esque style. But the formative devil has become more formatively devilish. "A Behanding in Spokane" reveals a more comic and happily anarchic side of this irreverent Irish writer, who consumed American noir as a youth in far greater quantity than Kerrygold butter. "

Posted on Thursday, March 04, 2010 @ 10:47 PM

Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter: "Bottom Line: The emotional impact of the story of Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan still comes through in this uneven Broadway revival."

Elysa Gardner, USA Today: "But like the original, this Miracle Worker benefits greatly from the involvement of two dynamic young actresses. In her Broadway debut as Helen, adorable Little Miss Sunshine star Abigail Breslin manages to make her mute, tortured character moving without turning her into a creature of pity. Breslin's grunts and grasps convey not only frustration but also unmistakable curiosity. She lets us see in Helen the same intellectual potential and thirst for life that Annie recognizes."

Ben Brantley, The New York Times: (Link via El Paso Inc) "How can you not cry, knowing that this breakthrough moment will lead to one of the most astonishing and admirable careers in American history? You are likely to feel, though, that the tears haven't been truly earned by a production that delivers full emotional frissons only in its final, fail-safe scene."

Michael Kuchwara, Associated Press: "Facial expressions mean a lot in "The Miracle Worker," and depending on where you are sitting at Circle in the Square, you will miss some of them. That's particularly true of the play's final moments, the celebrated "water" scene where Helen grasps the idea of language for the first time."

Chris Jones, The Chicago Tribune: "It also is tough to play in the round. Or so, at least, it seems at Circle in the Square. Designer Derek McLane has the Keller's furniture stored up in the air, on wires. That idea mostly seems to cause everyone problems: the parameters of neither the Keller house nor Annie and Helen's treehouse ever seem clear. The rules of space and reality keep changing and the flashbacks involving Annie's late little brother have an uncomfortably Dickensian patina, that keeps torpedoing the freshness of this approach. Most problematic, the show lacks the swirl of the necessarily circular style. "

David Rooney, Variety: "Circle in the Square's last tenant, "The Norman Conquests," was a superlative example of the enhanced scrutiny and heightened involvement that can be afforded by in-the-round presentation. "The Miracle Worker" is a less ideal fit; its staging in this first Broadway revival appears shaped more by necessity than by concept. Kate Whoriskey directs William Gibson's midcentury chestnut with sensitivity, if not with any startling new insight. But the volatile battle of wills between the young Helen Keller and her teacher, Annie Sullivan, remains dramatically and emotionally effective, played with conviction by Abigail Breslin and Alison Pill."

Erik Haagensen, Backstage: "I've never been sure if William Gibson wrote a great play or merely an expert telling of a great story. After seeing the show's first Broadway revival, I'm still not sure, but there's one thing I'd bet good money on: You should never stage "The Miracle Worker" in the round."

Elisabeth Vincentelli, NY Post: " That the theater is in the round adds more burdens. The set distractingly hangs from wires above the stage, and is lowered up and down depending on the scene. Worse, sections of the audience can't see the actors' faces during key moments -- and there's only so much you can express with the back of your head. For a show about the importance of communication, the irony is a bit too rich."

Joe Dziemianowicz, NY Daily News: "While highs and lows are largely lacking in the emotions department, the set provides ups and downs. Furniture above the stenciled stage is constantly being lowered and raised as needed for the show, which is performed in the round, with the audience surrounding the action. As such, there inevitably are scenes when you'll be eyeballing backs. A few eclipsed exchanges isn't a big problem. But a tearjerker that leaves you dry in the eyes - now that's an issue."

Posted on Wednesday, March 03, 2010 @ 10:19 PM

Those were the words Scott Siegel said to the crowd at The Town Hall once their enthusiastic applause and cheers for Carole J. Bufford finally subsided. The young cabaret singer with a modest list of New York credits was plucked by the host of the Broadway By The Year series (his wife and writing partner Barbara was undoubtedly a co-plucker) from the Metropolitan Room's Metrostar Talent Challenge and had just been called out to take a second bow after thrilling the crowd with Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's "Can't Help Lovin' That Man of Mine." Earlier in the evening she held her own in the clowning department, dueting "Funny Face" with the terrific Broadway comic, Christopher Fitzgerald. But granted a moment alone with that masterpiece of torch, she began sweetly and affectionately, keeping a slow and steady tempo that would build in power and unapologetic defiance, challenging anyone to criticize her right to let her heart go where it must.

Now in it's 10^th year, the subscription base for Broadway By The Year leans toward the senior side, with many regulars close to the age of that 83-year-old song. This is a crowd that has heard every major American female vocalist (and in these less closeted times, perhaps a few male vocalists) try their hand at this number. Collectively, I'll take their judgment over any panel on a television talent show and given the loud and long response to Ms. Bufford's efforts, I'd say few would argue with Siegel's pronouncement.

But being a star to that musical theatre-loving crowd of show tune connoisseurs in attendance can still mean you can board a subway train in the middle of Times Square, even right after taking the final bow in a hit musical, and have nobody know who you are. It's old news by now that name recognition sells more tickets than talent, craft and the stage savvy that comes from working regularly in the theatre and that mediocre (or worse) performances by a celebrity making his or her professional stage acting debut on Broadway gets more publicity than the appearance of a seasoned pro whose celebrity status is usually confined to inside the walls of Marie's Crisis.

So while each performance of the Broadway By The Year series naturally takes us back to another time in musical theatre history, it also offers a chance for us to see the kind of Broadway entertainment that might be more abundant if one could become a nationally known celebrity through stage work.

Might the recent revival of Ragtime still be running if its leading man, Quentin Earl Darrington, was known for singing "Ol' Man River" on a 21^st Century equivalent of The Ed Sullivan Show with the same vibrant passion as he did on The Town Hall's stage? Or if his co-star Christiane Noll knocked 'em dead with her quirky modern take on "Life Upon The Wicked Stage," sung from the perspective of a harried mother of a one-year-old? Certainly their gorgeously acted pairing in "Make Believe," sung with tentative longing, would have sold tickets.

For that matter, visitors to Gotham might be lining up for seats for a still-running Finian's Rainbow if Kate Baldwin's elegantly sung "Bill" (Yes, Show Boat was well-represented that night) was followed by Fitzgerald's comically schizophrenic "Sometimes I'm Happy" on a popular television variety show. (Remember popular television variety shows?)

And wouldn't Marc Kudisch, that big-voiced, chisel-faced modern day Jack Cassidy, be a natural cavorting on late-night talk shows, as he did while strumming his ukulele to a silly Ziegfeld Follies entry, "She Don't Wanna," or teamed up with Jeffrey Denman, also on uke, trading Valentine's Day stories to introduce their rendition of "He Loves and She Loves?"

And really, what Broadway house wouldn't go nuts watching two of musical theatre's premiere song-and-dance men, the aggressively showbiz Denman and the boyishly smooth Noah Racy, saluting Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly by using their original film choreography (plus a bit of their own) for a show-stopping, "The Babbitt and the Bromide?"

Young Kendrick Jones scored a place in the now-previewing Off-Broadway musical, The Scottsboro Boys, but to Broadway By The Year regulars, his frequent appearances -- drawing gasps from mesmerized fans as he glides his tap shoes across the floor in what seems like jet propulsion -- have earned him star status. Though he'd rarely sing in his early appearances, for '27 he displayed strong vocals for his solo of "The Five Step" and a frenzied routine where he taught Melinda Sullivan, a perky and entertaining singer/dancer in her own right, "The Varsity Drag."

With ace music director Ross Patterson taking his usual place at piano, leading The Little Big Band, the evening was directed by that character man with the sweet, sensitive vocals, Alexander Gemignani, who appeared for a lovely "My Heart Stood Still." Ron Bohmer's rich baritone lent romantic dramatics to "Give Me One Hour," Chad Kimball delivered "My Blue Heaven" with an easy jauntiness and Bobby Steggert impishly highlighted Ira Gershwin's lyrical playfulness in "S'Wonderful."

264 plays and musicals opened on Broadway that 1927-28 season. Considerably less will have opened by the end of the 2009-10 campaign. But if more of them boasted leading players of the quality seen last Monday at The Town Hall, considerably less wouldn't seem quite so bad.

Photos by Genevieve Rafter Keddy: Top: Carole J. Bufford and Christopher Fitzgerald; Bottom: Jeffrey Denman and Marc Kudisch.

Follow Michael Dale on Twitter at michaeldale.

Posted on Wednesday, March 03, 2010 @ 03:26 AM

Borrowing slightly from A Raisin in the Sun, Norris opens his play in 1959 in a cozy suburban home that those familiar with Lorraine Hansberry's classic will eventually recognize as the place the Younger family will soon call home. As explained in the original, it's in a white neighborhood and for some reason or another (which Norris expands on) it was being offered at a bargain price.

The couple on the way out are Bev and Russ (a gruff Frank Wood and a distressfully perky Christina Kirk, both outstanding) who get paid a visit by Karl Lindner (Jeremy Shamos), the Raisin character who tried to buyout the Youngers in order to keep his community racially segregated. Unsuccessful at that attempt, he now tries to guilt Russ into going back on his deal by complaining about what it would do to property values and, in one of the play's funnier moments, even tries to use Russ and Bev's maid and her husband (Crystal A. Dickinson and Damon Gupton) as examples of how black people just wouldn't be happy in their community.

The second act takes us to the year 2009 and it seems the Youngers were suburban pioneers, at the head of a surge that turned Clybourne Park into a thriving black community. But the neighborhood has seen better days and this time the bargain hunters are a white couple (Shamos and Annie Parisse) coming in as part of a gentrification movement. Their plans to expand and remodel their new home are a cause of concern to a black couple (Dickinson and Gupton), particularly the wife, who says the buildings of the community are symbols of an important time in the area's racial history, meant to be preserved as is.

Both acts begin innocuously enough, but director Pam MacKinnon and the playwright build scenes to inescapable tones of verbal violence, presenting moments that are simultaneously hilarious and cringe-worthy, while clearly marking shades of difference between black/white communication divided by half a century. The changing dynamics between the characters played by Shamos, Dickinson and Gupton are especially telling and are played with intriguing subtlety and precision.

Clybourne Park packs a wallop to both the gut and the funny bone and is clearly one of the best and most enjoyable plays of the season.

Photos by Joan Marcus: Top: Christina Kirk and Frank Wood; Bottom: Damon Gupton, Crystal A. Dickinson, Annie Parisse and Jeremy Shamos.

Follow Michael Dale on Twitter at michaeldale.

Posted on Tuesday, March 02, 2010 @ 01:56 AM

The grosses are out for the week ending 2/28/2010 and we've got them all right here in BroadwayWorld.com's grosses section.

Up for the week was: A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC (0.4%),

Down for the week was: THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (-31.0%), SOUTH PACIFIC (-28.7%), CHICAGO (-28.0%), WEST SIDE STORY (-25.9%), HAIR (-24.9%), MARY POPPINS (-23.7%), THE LION KING (-19.1%), MAMMA MIA! (-18.9%), MEMPHIS (-18.9%), NEXT TO NORMAL (-14.7%), ROCK OF AGES (-12.8%), IN THE HEIGHTS (-11.7%), BILLY ELLIOT: THE MUSICAL (-9.8%), GOD OF CARNAGE (-9.3%), RACE (-9.3%), FELA! (-8.7%), PRESENT LAUGHTER (-8.2%), JERSEY BOYS (-7.4%), THE MIRACLE WORKER (-5.5%), TIME STANDS STILL (-4.3%), A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE (-3.0%), WICKED (-2.1%),

Posted on Monday, March 01, 2010 @ 06:23 PM

But no matter how the material is taken in 2010, The Boys in the Band, undoubted has historical significance, as its 1,000+ performance Off-Broadway run was America's first commercially notable production of a play that put gay men front and center. Transport Group's Off-Broadway revival, staged by the company's artistic director, Jack Cummings III, is only the second New York has seen and delivers an intimate, personal and stellar experience.

Forgoing the company's usual home at the Connelly Theatre, the boys have been relocated to a space on West 26^th Street smartly designed by Sandra Goldmark to replicate a stylish late 1960s Manhattan apartment. The audience circles the living room in three rows, but the action extents inside and beyond the seating area, from the front door on one side to the bedroom on the other. Designer Dane Laffrey uses no stage lights and achieves interesting and natural effects utilizing normal household fixtures. Large windows on two sides provide a view of New York from the 12^th floor. (Kathryn Rohe's character-detailed costumes completes the excellent visuals.) The usual intermission is cut (along with various other text edits) and programs are not distributed until everyone is leaving, making the atmosphere as un-theatrical as possible.

The setup might allow you to think of yourself as a guest at the party hosted by the sharp-tongued, alcoholic Michael (a volatile Jonathan Hammond). The guest of honor is birthday boy Harold (dry and droll Jon Levenson) and the flamboyant queen, Emory (John Wellmann) has a special gift for him; a hot young hustler dressed as a cowboy, whose dumbness is sweetly played by Aaron Sharff. Emory's pal Bernard (Kevyn Morrow) is the only black person in the otherwise all-white band and he and Emory share a bond you might not expect. Also on hand are Michael's friend, Donald (Nick Westrate), who, while having no hang-up about his sexuality, has decided to separate himself from New York's gay scene, and the couple Hank (Graham Rowatt) and Larry (Christopher Innvar), who have conflicting ideas of what it means to be in a committed relationship.

What sets the play in motion is an unexpected visit from Michael's old college buddy, Alan (Kevin Isola), who just happens to be in town for one night. Michael wasn't out when he knew Alan and the unspoken reason for his straight pal's visit, as well as the reason he stays for so long despite his outward disgust at what he sees and hears, are among the points that fuel the lightly-plotted piece. After degrees of inebriation set in, Michael introduces a confession-inducting party game that makes Truth or Dare seem like kids' stuff.

It's a credit to the influence of The Boys in the Band that one of the challenges of mounting the play today is to keep what were once considered bold, honest characterizations from playing like tired old stereotypes. The site-specific setup absolutely helps negate that problem, as, not having to play to the back of the house, even the showiest of Cummings' crew are believably natural. The years also affect how certain lines may be taken. References to casual anonymous sex may be less shocking today, but they're also less amusing because we know what's ahead. The twisted logic of Alan's insistence that he is not bigoted toward homosexuals ("I don't care what people do as long as they don't do it in public or try to force their way on the whole damn world.") gets a bit of laughter because it has become a more familiar sentiment in modern times.

An interesting aspect of this production is that the seating and lighting allows everyone in attendance to be in full view of everyone else throughout the evening. While I didn't take a survey, I would presume that the overwhelmingly male audience the night I attended included many gay men who appeared to be of the age where they would remember the world the play depicts. They all seemed to be having a rollicking good time during the funny scenes and truly involved as the mood of the play turned. I'd say that's a more reliable judgment than mine alone as to the resilience of the material.

Photos by Carol Rosegg: Top: Jonathan Hammond, Kevyn Morrow and Kevin Isola; Bottom: Nick Westrate and Jonathan Hammond.

Follow Michael Dale on Twitter at michaeldale.

Posted on Monday, March 01, 2010 @ 12:36 AM

And while Joseph Zellnik (music) and his brother David (book and lyrics) readily acknowledge the influence of Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II and Joshua Logan (they even wrote a character with the nickname "Professor"), their desire to write an old-fashioned, sincere musical love story didn't wash until they read Allan Berube's Coming Out Under Fire, which documented personal tales of gay men and lesbians who served in the United States military during World War II. Yank!, which takes its title from the name of the wartime military magazine written by and for soldiers, is not a nostalgic musical or a spoof; it's simply the kind of romantically melodic and defiantly progressive musical drama that might have played alongside South Pacific during the post-war Broadway years if American popular culture would have accepted a love story between two men. Plot points, even those that smell of musical comedy contrivances, are based on the authors' research of real-life experiences among gay military people, who have been serving this country in uniform long before their sexuality became a part of the national dialogue.

Bobby Steggert, who has proven himself a fine musical theatre actor playing supporting roles in the Broadway revivals of Ragtime and 110 in the Shade, carries the lead in the York Theatre's Off-Broadway production and gives a suburb performance full of tenderness, spunk, vulnerability and solid character growth. He begins the musical as a young contemporary lad from San Francisco, who becomes fascinated with an old journal he found in a second hand store. It's the day-to-day observations of Stu, a young man who was drafted at the age of 18. Steggert then becomes Stu, narrating his awkward progression from inept private to somewhat capable soldier. Helping him along the way is Mitch, an engaged bunkmate with Hollywood handsomeness and, as played by Ivan Hernandez, a rich and flavorful dreamboat of a baritone.

While the other guys are perfectly comfortable showering together, doubling up on beds and taking care of personal business with the help of Betty Grable pinup photos, Stu is anxious about his growing attraction to Mitch, whose friendliness eventually turns more meaningful.

Meanwhile, the young private's boyish good looks attract the attention of Artie (the flashy Jeffrey Denman as a song and dance wise guy), a reporter for Yank who recruits him as a photographer. Though the army officially finds homosexuality intolerable, Artie introduces Stu to a discrete gay military network that looks out for each other. While covering stories, the young soldier sees sides of military life that don't get printed between magazine covers, jotting down every detail. And though Stu and Mitch eventually do share shadowy evening smooches and sing of a happy future together, the dangers of both their love and their assignment at the front lines challenge their chances at happiness.

In an otherwise all-male cast, Nancy Anderson shimmers with personality and captivating vocals, portraying the ideals of femininity used to comfort the lonely boys in uniform by appearing as three contrasting radio singers; one the girl next door, one big-sisterly and another a sultry fantasy. She's also seen as a heroic nurse in a morale boosting movie and finally as the no-nonsense lesbian aid to General MacArthur. While the songs she sings effectively imitate the style of 1940s pop standards, one of the impressive achievements of the writing and of director Igor Goldin's always interesting and frequently dazzling staging is that the score can contain so many pull-out songs that don't halt the progression of the plot.

Denman's charismatic tap dancing is a highlight of any show he appears in, but here, in his New York debut as choreographer of a book musical, he shows a great flair for creating dances that are in character (the soldiers dance with the kind of military precision that keeps them from looking like "dancing soldiers") and build dramatic excitement, as well as entertain. So well integrated are the elements of Yank! that an otherwise lovely dream ballet sticks out sorely for having no apparent purpose. Its time would be better spent fleshing out the character of Mitch a little more, as his underdevelopment is another one of the text's little glitches.

Certainly Yank! will attract attention simply for being "the musical about gays in the army" but that shouldn't distract from the fact that it's also a well-written and tuneful evening with genuine emotional pull.  There's nothing wrong with old-fashioned, as long as its good and Yank! offers a glimpse at a musical theatre past that never was.

Photos by Carol Rosegg: Top: Ivan Hernandez and Bobby Steggert; Bottom: Nancy Anderson.

Follow Michael Dale on Twitter at michaeldale.

Posted on Friday, February 26, 2010 @ 05:45 PM

I had the pleasure of catching Elena Roger when she did it in London a few years back, and thought she was absolutely phenomenal and I'm glad that she's getting the opportunity to do it again here in New York.

The Message Boards are abuzz with the news as well, mostly regarding word that Ricky Martin has been offered the role of "Che". I missed him in Les Miserables, but my many reports he was fantastic in the role and in attracting an audience so I've got a very open mind there...

Can't wait!

Posted on Wednesday, February 24, 2010 @ 11:16 AM