The Play's the Thing

I think you all need to calm down about the Drama Desk nominations. First of all, I think they're mostly fair (other than a few glaring omissions) and they represent the kind of season 2017-2018 has been; overall it was a weak one but the strongest work has been done off-Broadway. People overreact because they're so Broadway-oriented, and need to realize that the nominating committee sees about 280 shows a season, performed all over the city. Theater does not only exist between 41st and 54th streets in midtown Manhattan. Here are some reactions I had to the nominations: The Outstanding Play category is amazing, and good for the committee for only nominating off-Broadway work but I would've nominated Harry Potter and the Cursed Child over Miles for Mary or Admissions. But finally some love for Mary Jane. Outstanding Musical is kind of ridiculous, and I suspect the snobbery around Spongebob Squarepants will make it an easy victory for Mean Girls , which is the weaker o...

And now, here's what I suspect tomorrow Tony nominations will look like: Best Musical The Band's Visit Frozen Mean Girls  Spongebob Squarepants Best Revival of a Musical Carousel My Fair Lady Once On This Island Best Actor in a Musical  Henry Hadden-Paton, My Fair Lady Joshua Henry, Carousel Tony Shaloub, The Band's Visit Ethan Slater, Spongebob Squarepants Best Actress in a Musical Lauren Ambrose, My Fair Lady Hailey Kilgore, Once On This Island Katrina Lenk, The Band's Visit Taylor Louderman , Mean Girls Jessie Mueller, Carousel Jessie Mueller, Carousel Best Featured Actor in a Musical Norbert Leo Butz, My Fair Lady  Grey Hensen, Mean Girls Gavin Lee, Spongebob Squarepants Alex Newell, Once on This Island * Ari'el Stachel, The Band's Visit  * I know the hive mind has decided he's a lock but the OCC and Drama Desks nominated Tony Yazbeck, and I think he can be a spoiler here. Best Featured Actress in a Musical Ariana De...

Tony nominations will be announced tomorrow! Here's what they'd look like if I had my say: Best Musical The Band's Visit Frozen Mean Girls  Spongebob Squarepants Best Revival of a Musical Carousel My Fair Lady Once On This Island Best Actor in a Musical  Henry Hadden-Paton, My Fair Lady Joshua Henry, Carousel Tony Shaloub, The Band's Visit Ethan Slater, Spongebob Squarepants Best Actress in a Musical Lauren Ambrose, My Fair Lady Katrina Lenk, The Band's Visit Taylor Louderman , Mean Girls Jessie Mueller, Carousel Patti Murin, Frozen Best Featured Actor in a Musical Phillip Boykin, Once on This Island  Grey Hensen, Mean Girls Adam Kantor, The Band's Visit Gavin Lee, Spongebob Squarepants Tony Yazbeck, The Prince of Broadway  Alternate:  Jellani Alladin, Frozen Best Featured Actress in a Musical Merle Dandridge , Once on This Island Lindsay Mendez, Carousel Kenita R. Miller , Once on This Island Ashley Park , Mean Girls Ka...

Well, here we are, folks. The last review of the 2017-2018 season. And what a show to go out on. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is simply an event. The Lyric theater has been renovated for the show, the marquee is bigger than anything we've ever seen in New York (akin to the gorgeous facades we see in London), the merch is plentiful, you can order drinks at your seat through an app, people are walking around in wizard robes. These two plays are unlike anything we've ever seen on Broadway. And in a sense, it seems simply like a cash-grab. We've done the novels, the movies, the theme park, of course there should be a stage show. This is all a part of Harry Potter brand. Quite frankly, it seems very icky when you think about it. Is this what Broadway has come to? And yes, the rumors are true: the script itself isn't the most perfect. It's not that it's not well-written, it just lacks any sense of nuisance that you'd find in strong dramatic writing. Yes, ...

I find it impossible to review a production of Tony Kushner's masterpiece Angels in America . Why? Well, for one, the play is the thing. It's one of the most stunning pieces of writing ever, and definitely the best play of the twentieth century. We always discuss who the "new" Shakespeare is (Sondheim? Eminem? Lin-Manuel Miranda?) but going by Angels in America alone, I argue that it is Kushner. His writing is dense and poetic, political, and absolutely beautiful, and yet accessible and entertaining. Unless some director makes some drastic cuts to the script (and he or she should not!), the text is there, the beauty is there. Another reason is that I am so close to the material. I've mentioned before that it is one of my favorite plays (along with Hamlet and The Pillowman ) but I can't even begin to tell you how much it means to me. I read it for the first time when I was maybe fourteen, right around the time the HBO movie was released. I read it and watch...

We have yet another contender for the least essential production of the season: the current revival of The Iceman Cometh . Now, I'm not naive. I know why this is on Broadway. Scott Rudin put one of the biggest movie stars in the world, and a very strong actor, Denzel Washington, into a role that's been done to death, in a play that has been done to death. This was easy money. But who on earth wanted to see The Iceman Cometh again? This version is heavily edited and it still runs nearly four hours! I've mentioned length a few times on this blog; it doesn't matter how long something is. If it's good, it's good, and it can be as long as it needs to be. But this production, directed by George C. Wolfe, is a slog. The pacing is slow, the group of otherwise very talented actors are out to sea, with performances all over the place (some, like Frank Wood and Dakin Matthews, were intelligible from my orchestra row D seat), and the design of it is just awful (the set ...

The Outer Critics Circle Awards, announced on Monday, are equal parts great and odd. Here are a few thoughts I have about them: It's really, really exciting that all of the nominees of the John Gassner Award are female.  I'm really pleased Mean Girls did not get an Outstanding New Score nomination but I can't say the Desperate Measures one is any better. Torch Song deserved an Outstanding Revival of a Play nomination over Travesties and Lobby Hero . Guess you can't beat Broadway, huh? So happy to see Sean Carvajal nominated! In that category, with those performances (sorry, Greg Mazgola is not a lead in Cost of Living , Victor Williams is), he is the one who deserves to win. Alright, alright, let's address the elephant in the room. I was looking at these nominations, and naturally I was just looking at the list of names. So I saw Michael Urie, did a fist pump at my desk, and moved on. It was not until my boyfriend emailed me later on in the morning did I rea...

When MTC announced they were reviving George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan , I couldn't help but think, "Why? Who wants this?" And Condola Rashad is a very talented actress but is anyone clamoring to see her in this old, creaky play? (I'd argue she's not a draw in any role.) I can say that yet again, MTC completely misses the mark with this production. I hate to be cruel but there are so many missteps that it's irredeemable. Daniel Sullivan must take all of the blame. His Saint Joan is all over the map tone-wise. Some scenes are played broadly, with the comedy heightened. Is this the proper way to do the story of Joan of Arc? You could make the case that the church and the crown are buffoons in this story but you can't have them played like Saturday Night Live characters. Especially when the production shifts to a very serious tone during Joan's trial. Not to mention that embarrassingly bad epilogue; that truly felt like an SNL skit. I would'v...

Eliza Doolittle could've danced all night, and I could've watched Barlett Sher's beautiful production of My Fair Lady all night. I am not the warmest person. I'm a bit cynical and not sentimental in the slightest. I roll my eyes when people talk about how hard they cry over shows that should not bring anyone to tears. But sometimes a production just comes along and is so perfect and stunning, like My Fair Lady , that it is a joy to watch, that prove that underneath that cynical shell, I am at heart a sentimentalist. My Fair Lady isn't a perfect musical. Sure, it can be problematic, and yeah, Higgins is a real jerk, and maybe it is a bit dated for 2018 (I assure you, it is not Carousel ) but Barlett Sher really can work magic to make these familiar, old, even creaky musicals so fresh, and well, magical. Sher's magic begins with his casting. Eliza is played by the splendid Lauren Ambrose. Ambrose's Eliza has great agency, and feels like an equal to Higg...

Word of advice: if you're going to write a musical as god-awful as Summer , make sure there won't be a moment in it when your lead actresses will keep singing "enough is enough." Because seriously, enough is enough. I think that's my sentiment towards Broadway musicals in general. This season we've had a Disney theme park show, a teen movie-turned-musical, a jukebox musical better suited for a cruise ship, and Spongebob Squarepants (albeit the best of them all.) And it's not going to get any better, with another biomusical about Cher coming, as well as Pretty Women , King Kong , Beetlejuice , and Moulin Rouge . Help us, Hadestown , you're our only hope. Summer might just be the worst of the musicals this season. Yes, Escape to Margaritaville is a lazy commercial for the Jimmy Buffet brand but the book to Summer is clearly afraid to make any sort of statement or opinion on its subject. It's afraid to really show Donna Summer in a poor light,...

Last week the Drama League Award nominations were announced . Now, this is always a fun award that doesn't really mean anything because they seem to play by their own rules and basically nominate anyone who was merely competent on stage during the season (except bizarrely Ethan Slater, Denise Gough, and Carrie Coon. What's up with that?) And the award is usually given out as some kind of Lifetime Achievement Award. So this year I suspect Glenda Jackson will win it for Three Tall Women . Which is...fine. I think it's an overrated performance in an overrated production but she's back on Broadway and she's had a storied career and this will probably be the last time she's on a New York stage. She's basically going to win the Tony for just showing up for a show that isn't a complete inessential bore (unlike the other potential Best Actress in a Play nominees) so why not give her the Drama League. (I think there are quite a few better performances from actr...

I want to preface my thoughts on Miss You Like Hell with a personal note: stories involving mothers are typically my emotional kryptonite. It's why I still can't talk about The Other Place without crying, or why I sobbed during Next to Normal and Grey Gardens , and why I can't listen to "Stay With Me" or "Children and Art," as brilliant as they are. And so, Miss You Like Hell , the new topical musical by Pulitzer Prize winner Quiara Alegría Hudes and Erin McKeown, despite it's flaws, packs an emotional punch. How could it not? But...is it earned? Yes and no. The concept of Miss You Like Hell isn't quite original but it's still compelling; an immigrant mother from Mexico, Beatriz, attempts to reconnect with her teenage daughter, Olivia, whom she has been estranged from for the last four years. The daughter is only sixteen but has essentially given up on herself (she's sexually promiscuous, has neglected her hygiene, and has even stro...

To steal from a different Rogers and Hammerstein musical, how do you solve a problem like Carousel ? As I asked in my review of Bedlam's Pygmalion revival , does a piece of work that is so inherently problematic and misogynist deserve a stage in 2018? I don't know. I don't have the answer to this. But I do know that had Carousel not been written by arguably the greatest musical writing team in history, it would have been lost to time. I know much has been written about the show lately and I don't think it's unwarranted. When you strip away the beautiful score and the wonderful singing and dancing of Jack O'Brien's latest revival, what you have is the story of an abusive brute and criminal who'd rather die and abandon his family than face his responsibilities. But oh wait! He gets to redeem himself for some reason so he can spend all over eternity in Heaven. If you ask me, Billy Bigelow does not deserve redemption. He does nothing through the course o...

After multiple attempts, a few great performances by actors I love, one turtle, and lots and lots and lots of talk of Dada, Tom Stoppard's work is officially not for me.

Walking into Lynn Nottage's latest play, Mlima's Tale, at The Public, I was concerned it would be an upsetting experience. What I didn't realize is that it would be a dull experience. Yes, it is an upsetting experience. How can a play centered on the death of an African elephant not be? But it wasn't as moving as it should have been. Have I been desensitized by the senseless violence and greed we hear about constantly when it comes to animals? Is there anything left to say about the slaughter of innocent animals for wealth? If Mlima's Tale is any indication then no, there isn't. Nottage doesn't tell us anything we don't already know, she doesn't surprise us with this information about the corrupt ivory trade, and quite frankly, I couldn't find it in me to be interested at all. Yes, the device she employs of having Sahr Ngaujah (who never fails to give great performances) portray the titular elephant, and then his tusks, as they travel around ...

I am not going to mince words here so I'll just say it: Bobbie Clearly shouldn't be on stage at a major non-profit theater. Yet. I am sure Alex Lubischer is a very talented playwright but he's too young to have any kind of experience, theatrical, life, or otherwise. And that's evident with the script of Bobbie Clearly. I mean, I wrote plays when I was nineteen and twenty years old and I thought they were good but that doesn't mean they deserved big productions. And you know why? Because I was young. I didn't have the life experience to truly write a great play. Now, I don't begin to assume anything about Alex Lubischer but after seeing Bobbie Clearly , I can tell you that this play was not ready for a major off-Broadway production. Bobbie Clearly revolves around the titular character and the heinous crime he committed in a small Midwestern town ten years before the action of the play. The play unfolds with townspeople (Bobbie's co-workers, the victim...

More like this flat play, am I right? I think Lindsey Ferrentino is a very talented and versatile playwright but her newest play, This Flat Earth at Playwrights Horizons, is startlingly inept and unfocused. It's as though she threw everything she could at the wall just to see what would stick. This Flat Earth is about the all-too-timely topic of school shootings, and we focus on Julie, a survivor of a recent middle school one. Julie lives with her father in a small walk up apartment in a New England town. It's quickly evident that this family isn't as well off as the other students in the school; they live in an apartment, Julie doesn't have a cell phone or laptop, and has to rent her violin for the school orchestra. And she is, understandably, having a hard time adjusting to things after the shooting. But her character is all over the place--she's inappropriate and cracks jokes about dead students, she's terrified of the noises she hears in the middle of t...

It's the most wonderful time of the year! Next Monday, April 16, the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama will be announced! This year is an interesting one because I don't think there's a clear-cut favorite. And quite frankly, I don't think anything from the last year was particularly Pulitzer-worthy (not that I thought Sweat was but moving on.) Here are a few plays I think could possibly get nominated or even win: Mary Jane by Amy Herzog. It's no secret that I loved this play. It's about a unique situation we don't often see on stage, with a unique protagonist. Herzog does a great job making us feel for Mary Jane and her situation without making the action too heavy-handed or sentimental. It is simply honest. Mary Jane's health insurance issues also make it timely without being preachy, and a great reflection of American life. The Antipodes by Annie Baker. Baker is one of my favorite playwrights but I think this one is one of her weaker works. But a wea...

Other than the 2012 revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , Edward Albee's work has never been for me. He's a bit too dry and angry for me. And there's only so much I can take of watching affluent people sit around, drink, and be caustic towards one another. I passed on At Home at the Zoo at the Signature earlier this season because I just knew I would not enjoy it. But then the Broadway revival of Three Tall Women opened and although I am not an Albee fan, I am a huge, huge fan of Laurie Metcalf. I will see her do almost anything (but I couldn't sit through Misery ) and her performance in A Doll's House, Part 2 last season is one of my favorites of all time. If she is on stage, I am there. And this time she shares the stage with Glenda Jackson. Would this production change the way I felt about Edward Albee's work? Nope. There many terrific elements in Joe Mantello's revival of the play. His direction is seamless with expert pacing. I would ...

I love the movie Mean Girls . It's a perfect funny and smart movie with an amazing that transcends the "teen movie" label. And now it's a musical. I can see why screenwriter Tina Fey thought it was a good idea to turn it into a musical. In addition to Mean Girls being a very strong property, it has captured the zeitgeist and fourteen years later people still say things like "Four for you, Glen Coco" and "fetch" and "is butter a carb?" Yours truly even has one of those phrases on a t-shirt. The love for this movie alone would turn the musical into a big, fat hit. But something is missing. I'm at loathe to say that lightning doesn't strike twice because that's not quite the problem here. No, I think there are two major problems with Mean Girls . The first being the score by Jeff Richmond and Nell Benjamin isn't strong enough to a make case to turn this movie into a musical. No song is particularly strong or memorable...

I saw the Disney movie Frozen after all of the hype and mania, after it was announced there was a theatrical adaptation in the works. I certainly enjoyed it, although I did find it slight. I do remember wondering how it was all going to work on stage. So much of it is visual animation gags. How would any director figure out a way to make ice and snow shoot from his or her protagonist's hands? Of course, if anyone was going to manage it, it would be Disney. And it was clear by how quickly this musical was green-lit that it didn't matter. They'd figure it out somehow. So now we have Frozen at the St. James Theater. And well, it's presented at face value. And it is a very enjoyable 2:20. The effects are exciting enough, the set and costumes are elaborate, the songs are still there. It's a crowd-pleaser, and if you are there to see Frozen , you're going to leave happy. But I couldn't help but think, "something is missing." As I already mentione...

Here are a few thoughts on the Lucille Lortel Award nominations that were announced earlier this week: It seems bizarre that Mary Jane by Amy Herzog was not nominated for Outstanding Play. First of all, it received six other nominations, so the committee clearly liked it. Second, it is one of the best things of the season, in my opinion, and a much stronger offering than basically everything else in the category, especially The Treasurer and Pipeline . It also would've been nice to see Amy and the Orphans remembered for Outstanding Play. The Outstanding Musical is downright embarrassing. Bella and Hundred Days are two of the worst things I've ever seen, and the praise Desperate Measures received is baffling. It's akin to a well-done high school production, amateurish in every way. The Outstanding Revival category contains four of my favorite shows of the season: Jesus Hopped the A Train, Torch Song, Fucking A, and In the Blood . While I thought The Government Inspec...

Simon Stone's new adaptation of Lorca's Yerma now playing at the Park Avenue Armory is one of the most interesting productions I've ever seen. Stone, who also directs, has created a unique vision and staging, and gets terrific performances by his cast (especially Billie Piper). Unfortunately his own adaptation lets the production down. Yerma has a simple plot: a woman wants to have a child, and the obsession over conceiving one completely takes over her life and ruins it. The Lorca original makes this a community and social issue; it is the woman's duty to provide her husband with an heir, and if she cannot, she will be ostracized by society. Stone's version has set it in the twenty-first century, a time during which is it not out of the ordinary for women to remain childless. Of course, some stigma still exists around women not becoming mothers (whether by choice or otherwise), no matter how much we tell ourselves that women have the choice to do whatever they wa...

Who are The Bengsons? Look, I know who are they are but why are they continuously given an opportunity to spill their guts and invite us into their personal lives? Who thinks they deserve to have their stories told on stage? After 100 Days at NYTW in the fall, I couldn't help but think, "who cares?" The story, music, and performances weren't good enough to warrant an 80 minute "musical." But if you wanted to pass it off as a performance piece, so be it. Maybe it just was not for me. But now The Lucky Ones is running at Ars Nova, and I was convinced this time things would be different. This wasn't going to just be Abigail and Shaun Bengson singing their songs, there was going to be a big cast and a real book! This was going to be a more traditional musical, right? Less of a performance piece? Well. The Lucky Ones , like 100 Days , is autobiographical. This time it focuses on the dysfunction and tragedy in Abigail's family during her childhoo...