Kristin Salaky - Page 7

While I have a sneaking suspicion that playwright Evan Smith meant for his new comedy, The Savannah Disputation, to bring out provocative issues of faith from underneath its many, many, many big laughs, I'm afraid director Walter Bobbie's production at Playwrights Horizon settles for being ninety of the funniest minutes currently gracing Manhattan's stages. Oh sure, maybe some churchgoers will have reservations, but this heathen had a helluva good time.

Though The Paper Mill Playhouse has just opened Master Class and still has productions of 1776 and The Full Monty geared up for their current season, plans are zipping along for the four musicals and one straight play that will make up their 2009-10 campaign. The official announcement comes this Friday afternoon, but they've released these five pictorial clues as hints. See if you can guess what the gang at Millburn has in store next season.

While The Mint Theater Company built its well-earned reputation as New York's leading archivists of plays they proudly proclaim as 'worthy but neglected,' their latest ventures suggest they may want to consider adopting the new slogan, 'I betcha didn't know (insert name of literary giant here) wrote a play.'

I don't know how far along set and lighting designer Maruti Evans was with his work for INTAR's double bill of Eduardo Machado's In Paradise and Nick Norman's She Plundered Him when the company lost its home due to the sudden closing of the Zipper Theatre and its season was rescued by the availability of the much smaller studio space at the Cherry Lane Theatre, but I imagine the switch necessitated some drastic changes in his view of the two pieces. In any case, the end result is perhaps the most memorable and effective part of the evening.

Whether the Prospect Theater Company is presenting a Dadaist piece about the birth of Dada or a kick-ass musical comedy about Tin Pan Alley tunesmiths putting on a show for the Soviet Union, the theatregoer's eye will inevitable be drawn to the elegantly simple dome that towers above their West End Theatre playing space inside The Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul. So for the company's ten year anniversary, their adventurous artistic director, Cara Reichel, conceived and curated a site-specific piece called The Dome, inspired by their home's architecture.

As the denizens who frequent Manhattan's halls where two-drink minimums reign are well aware, the lass or laddie serving your cocktail is often an artist of greater experience and show-stopping talent than the perfectly fine entertainer who is on stage putting his or her own personal spin on 'This Is The Moment.' Being a serious, full-time cabaret singer usually means being the president, CEO, investor and product of your own unintentionally non-profit corporation in a world where hobbyists with deep pockets and lots of friends who don't need to think twic

It was believed by many back in 1932, as it still is today, that the only reason Eugene O'Neill was not awarded that year's Pulitzer Prize for his Mourning Becomes Electra, an epic retelling of Aeschylus' Oresteia trilogy that declares Sigmund Freud as the true victor of the American Civil War, was that after granting him top honors for Beyond The Horizon (1920), Anna Christie (1922) and Strange Interlude (1928) the gang at Columbia figured enough was enough. So history was made that year when the Gershwin, Gershwin, Kaufman & Ryskin lark Of Thee I Sing became the first musical so honored, leaving O'Neill waiting until after his death to nab another, for Long Day's Journey Into Night.

If the blocked sight lines caused by Santo Loquasto's dominating set - the wooden skeleton of a Russian two-story country home - seem at first a bit of an annoyance in Classic Stage Company's engrossing and well-acted production of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, the wonderful moodiness his work helps create becomes more evident as the evening moves onward. With most of the action taking place on the porch pushed to the forefront, the audience can partially view the unseen business of others through thick structural beams. Or perhaps watch scenes with those not directly involved in the forefront. And while the clarity of your view depends on which of the three sections you're seated in, it seems intentional that nobody can tell exactly what is happening in one key moment.

Near the conclusion of Will Ferrell's You're Welcome America. A Final Night With George W. Bush the actor/playwright takes a brief respite from the evening's frivolity to have his title character express sincere emotions that are no doubt shared by everyone in his audience. He looks down with a sorrowful expression and his voice even quivers a bit as he speaks of the brave men and women of the military, and the civilians as well, who have died under his command. He feels grief for those who have lost their spouses, and for the children who have lost parents, because of decisions he felt were best for the nation. Whether or not you believe our former president experiences that same grief, the sincerity of the man portraying him is evident, and the moment of silence he requests becomes a bonding moment for all of those present.

It's a somewhat tricky business describing what makes Donald Margulies' new play, Shipwrecked! An Entertainment - The Amazing Adventures of Louis de Rougemont (As Told by Himself), a worthwhile venture without revealing details best discovered during the performance. Those familiar with the true story of de Rougemont will know exactly what I'm referring to but I'd advise those new to the facts to resist Googling for answers before taking in Primary Stages' charming new production.

'I'm a retired businessman,' the title character of Richard Krevolin and Joseph Bologna's new solo play, Lansky, keeps insisting. 'An honest businessman who kept clean and accurate books.'

Although operetta wasn't completely on its way out when Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II brought Music In The Air to Broadway in 1932, the popularity of the genre was indeed waning a bit as jazzy and witty scores by the likes of George and Ira Gershwin, Rodgers and Hart and Cole Porter dominated the decade's theatre music. But the creators of Show Boat, just five years earlier, weren't done quite yet.

While waiting for my guest to return from the ladies room after Monday night's performance of J.T. Rogers' White People, I amused myself by observing the faces of those exiting the theatre and waiting for the elevator to take them up to street level. The white people in the audience were generally very quiet with serious faces that suggested they were deep in thought. The non-white people I observed all displayed that healthy vibrancy that comes with taking in a lively evening of exhilarating theatre; particularly the woman with the Obama baseball cap who was happily chatting away with her companions and the young man who was sitting in front of me during the show, whose hearty laughter throughout the 90 minute piece told the whole room he was having a ball.

If you can't tell the players without a scorecard at Charles Busch's charming new comedy, The Third Story, or if you need to visit the rest room in the middle of act one and, when you return to your seat, you get the strangest feeling you've entered the wrong auditorium, that's perhaps a little bit of what the playwright had in mind.

I don't know if Carol Burnett ever spoofed Hedda Gabler on her celebrated television variety show, but if she did I'm sure her reaction to a major plot twist late in Ibsen's 1890 drama would have been somewhat similar to Mary-Louise Parker's bug-eyed, open-mouthed, head-shaking, hands on cheeks shtick that drew appreciative howls from the audience at the press performance I attended. I suppose such an acting choice is consistent with a production that frequently has Michael Cerveris, as her bland academic husband, Jorgen Tesman, flashing goofy grins at his new bride while Paul Sparks, as her ex-lover, Eljert Lovborg, emotionlessly barks out his words of passion. Meanwhile, Peter Stormare, as the manipulative Judge Brack, appears to be playing 'Where's Waldo' with his sing-songy accent. (I lost count, but I believe this production has more accents than characters.)

While New York's cabaret scene is filled with great performers who work exclusively in clubs, a great deal on the genre's legendary names (Andrea Marcovicci, Julie Wilson & Karen Akers, just to name a few) first became known through musical theatre. Certainly, the songs of great theatre composers and lyricists are the staples of cabaret and each year new Broadway names try their hand at the solo stage. Our new poll asks BroadwayWorld readers about their interest in cabaret.

When the York Theatre first presented its mainstage mounting of Enter Laughing back in September I wrote that, while far too early to tell, it might well wind up being the funniest, most entertaining production of a musical we'll see this season. Four months later, I must admit that it has indeed been topped... by itself. After taking a hiatus while the space was committed for another show, director Stuart Ross' slam-bang mounting returns to the York a little funnier, a little snazzier and featuring the best male leading performance in a musical the season has seen thus far.

Count me among the many who consider Wilde's 1895 manners masterpiece to be the funniest play ever penned in the English language. Unfortunately, I've seen too many productions that seemed so focused on petty annoyances like character development and acting choices that they've missed the obvious fact that Earnest is a vehicle for some of Wilde's most t-shirt and coffee mug worthy witticisms:

Whether the title of Richard Greenberg's bitterly comic 1990 drama brings to mind a hotel package with all meals included or a corporate union-busting practice, it can be argued that both interpretations refer to methods of maximizing gain while minimizing responsibility. And while both definitions play supporting roles in The American Plan, a third variation on the theme - marry well, be an excellent spouse and secretly carry on with your less-than-affluent lover - takes center stage.

For the past few weeks I've been enjoying Gotham's slight theatrical lull that began just before Christmas and seems to have ended with the inauguration. Oh, it's not that nothing has been opening, but the relative scarcity of new Broadway shows and high-profile Off-Broadway productions has given me more time than usual to check out the goings-on Off-Off Broadway. While figuring out what could fit into my schedule, a recent column by my friend and esteemed colleague Peter Filichia, singing enthusiastic praise for The Roundtable Ensemble's Equity showcase of Linda Escalera Baggs' tense and heart-ripping drama, Silent Heroes, sent me scrambling through old emails to see who to contact for press tickets. Alas, as I'm writing these words there are only three performances remaining for this excellent production (Friday at 8, Saturday at 3 and 8), but at the recession-friendly price of only $18, this very well acted and conversation-stimulating 90 minutes is well worth squeezing into your weekend.