Review - Orphans

For those who would enjoy David Mamet plays if there wasn't so much cursing and misogyny, I offer Lyle Kessler's very funny, testosterone-laced drama, Orphans.

A significant early hit for Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre in the mid-1980s, which transferred to Off-Broadway and also had a successful London run, Orphans makes its Broadway debut in a sharply performed production directed by Daniel Sullivan.

Set designer John Lee Beatty's appropriately dreary set puts us in the dilapidating North Philadelphia home of orphaned brothers Phillip (Tom Sturridge) and Treat (Ben Foster), who survive on petty thievery and meals of canned tuna and Hellmann's Mayonnaise.

The brutish, hot-tempered Treat has convinced his mentally unstable, childlike brother that he has allergies that will kill him, which keeps him inside and out of harm while he's out stealing a living.

Treat thinks he's hit the jackpot when he brings home well-dressed and inebriated Harold (Alec Baldwin), who he figures they can hold captive for ransom, but the cool and devious stranger, who is a far more dangerous sort than the young man had bargained for, quickly turns the tables.

Sympathetic to their plight, Harold Offers Treat a generous salary be his bodyguard and even offers to put Phillip on the payroll, though for doing what is never quite clear.

Soon their home is decked out properly and, under Harold's tutelage, Treat is developing a sophisticated fashion sense while Phillip is being introduced to fine cuisine. Of course, both still have mental instability issues and although their exposure to the finer things is at first very funny, the dark subtext of what these boys are able to handle and what exactly Harold has in mind for them darkens the proceedings by the final curtain.

The dynamic chemistry between the three actors is a pleasure to watch. Baldwin's Harold is glib, composed and sweetly paternal in his desire help the boys "better" themselves despite the fact that he sees Treat as a caged lion who would take a bullet for him if trained successfully. Foster keeps Treat on the edge of losing control, struggling with his survival instinct to react violently without thinking a situation through.

Cheerful and trusting, Sturridge's Phillip spends much of the play avoiding contact with the floor by leaping from the stairway banister to the furniture like a kid on a jungle gym. He is the empathetic heart of the production.

Photos by Joan Marcus: Top: Alec Baldwin; Bottom: Tom Sturridge, Ben Foster and Alec Baldwin.

Click here to follow Michael Dale on Twitter.

At separate moments early on in Sara Cooper (book/lyrics) and Zach Redler's (music) ambitious and noteworthy The Memory Show, each of the musical's two characters refers to herself as being a funny person while acknowledging that funny people are often the sad ones.

Both instances are certainly believable because the cast of Transport Group's splendid new production consists of two actresses known for getting laughs, Leslie Kritzer and Catherine Cox. So the story of a 31-year-old single woman who moves in with her Alzheimer's stricken mother is played for a lot of humor - the Brooklyn Jewish kind - which serves as a coping mechanism for the pair and also eases the audience into the show's unconventional musical theatre subject matter.

As suggested by the title, each character, referred to simply as "mother" and "daughter," is putting on a bit of a show for the audience, whose presence they do acknowledge. Though the action takes place with the two of them in mother's living room (The upstage wall of Brian Prather's set is covered with picture frames, some filled, some empty and some that empty as more of her memories disappear.) most of the songs are solos directed to the viewers where they express their emotions about their past relationship and what it has developed into.

Two very strong solos begin the evening. First Cox reacts to a doctor's question, "Who's the President of the United States?" by complaining about what a ridiculous (Actually, the word she uses is fakakta.) question it is. She keeps expressing her annoyance until finally confessing that she doesn't know. Kritzer follows with "Single Jewish Female Seeks Male," a funny, character-driven song that goes beyond its familiar observations about Internet dating and expresses her hesitancy to become her mother's caregiver, given their uneasy past.

Cooper's lyrics tend to dominate the score, with Redler's music, enhanced by gentle chamber orchestrations by Lynne Shankel, providing a conversational tone. I daresay few musical theatre writers would come up with a quirky number like "You and Me, Toilet," where the daughter describes having to clean up after someone who doesn't always remember how to perform a certain bodily function neatly. (Fortunately, the lyric doesn't go into too much detail.) But when the realization of what the future has in store becomes too serious to laugh at, mother expresses her fears in the discomforting "I'm Unlovable" and the daughter sees how she has inevitably developed in the beautiful ballad "Apple and Tree."

Under Joe Calarco's direction, both give dynamic and detailed performances without overshadowing the delicacy of the relationship portrayed. With so little dialogue and interaction between the two characters, The Memory Show may not provide enough of the emotional impact the situation is capable of emitting, though there are plenty of lovely and heart-tugging moments. And the exemplary work of Cox and Kritzer certainly elevate the evening into a memorable night.

Photos by Carol Rosegg: Top: Catherine Cox; Bottom: Leslie Kritzer.

Click here to follow Michael Dale on Twitter.

To post a comment, you must register and login.