Michael Dale - Page 18

Commencing in 1958, Chairman Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward was a 5-year plan to convert Communist China's largely agricultural economy into government-run farming collectives, freeing up resources for manufacturing and building infrastructure. It didn't end well.

From the mid-1960s through to the early years of this century, the musicals scored by the team of John Kander and Fred Ebb have exemplified Broadway pizzazz while exploring darker issues under the glitzy polish.

A younger playgoer knowing nothing about Mart Crowley's classic 1968 Off-Broadway comedy/drama The Boys in the Band except, perhaps, that its original run is regarded as an important landmark in depicting gay men on stage, might be shocked to witness the happenings these days at the Booth Theatre, which now houses the piece's premiere Broadway production.

The fact that Broadway hasn't seen fit to provide a role for Lois Smith in over twenty years can be regarded as one of the top arguments denouncing the popular assumption that Times Square is where you go to take in the best of New York theatre.

The setup would make a hell of a piece of theatrically-minded erotica. Call it Cat (On A Hot Tin Roof) and Mouse, as sexual sparks ignite when elegant playwright on the verge of stardom, Tennessee Williams, visits the home of shy aspiring playwright William Inge for a newspaper interview to promote the Chicago opening of what would be his landmark Broadway success, THE GLASS MENAGERIE.

There's an empty casket on display and a pants-less mourner screaming. 'What kinda fuckin' world is this?!' when the lights suddenly go up on Stephen Adly Guirgis' wild New York escapade, Our Lady of 121st Street.

Depending on how snobby you are about the belief that no American play can truly be said to have premiered until it has opened in New York, Paradise Blue, the ravishing new jazz noir drama by Dominique Morisseau is either the second or third installment in the playwright's trilogy set in her hometown of Detroit.

Ranking up there with MEDEA and OEDIPUS REX, Eugene O'Neill's family tragedy LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT would most likely make any playgoer's list of inappropriate classics to revive on Mother's Day weekend.

Playgoers in the know will arrive at any production of the 1937 West End smash ME AND MY GIRL already humming a bit of its legendary Act I closer 'The Lambeth Walk,' looking forward to a rousing showstopper where composer Noel Gay's peppy earworm is matched with co-bookwriter/lyricists L. Arthur Rose and Douglas Furber's jaunty lyric celebrating that part of London where 'everything's bright and breezy' and you can 'do as you darn well please-y.'

'How're you gonna cap off your prepubescent years?', a stony-faced teacher asks his competitive dance team members, shortly after winning a competition that saw one of their own suffer a season-ending injury.

Though the characters in bookwriter/lyricist Bill Russell and composer Janet Hood's sweet, funny and very entertaining new musical UNEXPECTED JOY are all women, there's a guy in the mix who still has a lot to say.

Despite only three Broadway credits, Marin Ireland must be regarded as one of the absolute best actors to regularly grace New York stages during this century. Through her steady work Off-Broadway (15 productions since 2001 and playing leading roles for several of the city's major non-profits) local audiences have seen her portrayals grow from young women of the past sporting underestimated brilliance (SABINA, THE RUBY SUNRISE) to emotionally frazzled contemporary types (MAPLE & VINE, REASONS TO BE PRETTY) and struggling survivors (KILL FLOOR, IRONBOND).

Escaping disillusionment through the comfort of alcohol while clinging to hopeless pipe dreams is rarely depicted with such crackling energy as it is in director George C. Wolfe's puzzling production of Eugene O'Neill's tragedy THE ICEMAN COMETH.

'Raise your hand if you've ever been underestimated,' instructs Program Director Stephanie Ybarra before every performance of Shakespeare's HENRY V, as performed by The Public Theater's Mobile Unit.

The title character of George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan was burned at the stake nearly 500 years before the play premiered at Broadway's Garrick Theatre in December of 1923, but for many viewers there may have been a sense of topicality to the proceedings.

Czech-born British dramatist Tom Stoppard, whose densely intellectual plays may be the most potent argument known for America's need to step up its public education funding, was first noticed on these Atlantic shores in the 1960s for shining a spotlight on two minor Shakespearean characters in ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD.

'Now, if you want to sing along, you just go right ahead and sing,' the hostess of Broadway's newest musical advises her audience at the top of the show.  'And if you want to dance, go 'head, flail around!'

If, like this theatre reviewer, you've managed to survive the last twenty years without reading a word of J.K. Rowling's wildly popular series of Harry Potter novels, nor taking in a screening of any of the eight film adaptations, the most important thing to keep in mind about the Broadway transfer of the West End theatre sensation, HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD, is that the pair of plays making up the fantasy drama constitute a continuation of the saga and are not intended to stand on their own.

From SOUTH PACIFIC to THE KING AND I to FIDDLER ON THE ROOF and now MY FAIR LADY, director Bartlett Sher has been spending the better part of this young century perfecting his method of mounting ravishing, emotionally stimulating productions of classic 20th Century musicals.

"When I was young I was taught by my grandmother to listen to the night," says the title character of Lynn Nottage's nobly lyrical drama of the ivory trade, MLIMA'S TALE.