The Play's the Thing

What do we want from plays? Okay, that's a very broad question. After the first scene of Jordan Harrison's new play Log Cabin , during which the affluent gay characters gather in a fancy New York City apartment (that is no doubt owned, not rented) in 2012 to discuss getting married and...AIDS, I turned to my boyfriend and said, "yes, because gay people only talk about being gay." And that's all of these characters, gay, trans, and straight, talk about. (Well, there's some shoehorned race discussions as well, because that's another hot button issue right now so why not?) We don't know much about them other than they're gay, or trans, or only date trans men. The only other info we get about them is that they are wealthy. Because of course they are. These are gay people who are no longer dying of AIDS, who can now get married, have children, be at least somewhat accepted by and have a place in society, and of course, have trust funds and be succ...

It kind of amazes me that Joshua Harmon has had so many plays produced in such a short period of time. This is not a knock at the quality of his writing or his talent. It's more about content and context. In an ever-changing theater landscape, where theater companies seem to be moving away from plays about affluent white people with affluent white problems, Harmon's plays seem like relics. (Although it's telling that they're produced by companies like Roundabout and Lincoln Center and not more adventurous companies like MCC or even Playwrights Horizons.) His latest offering, Skintight , which opened at, you guessed it, Roundabout, is yet another entry that focuses on very rich white people and their first world problems. Is there still a place in 2018 for a play like Skintight , that revolves around an incredibly wealthy Jewish clothing designer (think Calvin Klein), Elliot, his wealthy lawyer daughter, her over-privileged gay 20 year old son (he's studying Quee...

I have a few complaints about The Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park program, and I basically think the Public is just plain full of it, but now is not the time nor the place. If you are fortunate enough to get tickets to their Shakespeare in the Park productions, it's definitely a great experience, even if the production is sub-par. Even if they're doing Twelfth Night for the four hundredth time. But nothing beats watching some of the greatest pieces of art ever created in the middle of Central Park, in the greatest city in the world, on (hopefully) a beautiful summer night. Their first production this season is Othello , which is my second favorite tragedy and probably third favorite work by Shakespeare. And for some reason, regardless of its compelling and powerful nature and relatable themes, it's not performed very frequently. So I was very, very excited to finally see the Moor of Venice on stage. Ruben Santiago-Hudson's production of Othello is stro...

There are so many things wrong with Anthony Giardina's Dan Cody' Yacht that I don't even know where to begin. As soon as the play began, I couldn't help but think, "no, wait, I saw this play already." It exists in the same vein as Admissions , Joshua Harmon's better written play from last season. We're once again thrown into a prestigious Massachusetts suburban high school (this time a public one) with white parents worrying about their already-privileged children's future at college and beyond. We're immediately introduced, in an opening scene filled with so much exposition that the playwright should be embarrassed, to Kevin, a wealthy single, gay father (yeah, he's gay, just so we're clear that everything that follows does not happen because he wants to get into a woman's pants) who has a job in Finance and knows everything there is to know about Finance and making money and being successful. He knows because he wasn't ver...

Thank God for Stephen Adly Guirgis. By the time the first act of Our Lady of 121st Street ended, I thought, "wow, that was the most enjoyable hour of theater in months." The hour just flew by, and I found myself completely engaged and engrossed in this world on stage. Usually when I'm bored at the theater I find myself trying to see how many episodes of The Simpsons I can name with the names of characters in their titles. At Our Lady of 121st Street , there wasn't a thought of Bart Simpson in, well...sight. That's because Stephen Adly Guirgis' writing clearly shows that he understands people, how they act and talk, and well, he's not full of shit. As someone who was born and raised and has lived in New York City her entire life, it is refreshing and exciting to see characters on stage who think and act and sound like true New Yorkers. Within five minutes of the play's opening scene, I couldn't help but realize that I could relate an anecdote fr...

Coco Chanel is credited as saying, " Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off."  This is advice Dominique Morisseau should've adhered to when she was writing Paradise Blue . There is A LOT of ideas tossed around in this play. It's set in 1949 Detroit and deals with racism, gentrification, being haunted by familial history, trauma, domestic violence, the roles of women, and well, jazz. If that seems like a lot to swallow in one two and a half hour play, you are correct. And understandably, none of it is really fleshed out. Morisseau introduces a bunch of ideas that are just half-baked.  There's a lot to mine from an African American club owner battling with the decision to sell his property in a black area during the time of segregation and Jim Crowe. There's a lot to mine from a musician haunted by the crimes of his father and his own history, something that affects his own music and art. But I didn't think it was explore...

After seeing Clare Barron's new play, Dance Nation , at Playwrights Horizons, I am angry. I am angry that Playwrights Horizons put something so underdeveloped and half-baked on their stage. I am angry that this play represents the state of New York theater these days. I am angry that I won't get those two hours of my life back that I spent suffering through it. (And now I am angry at the raves it received. But nothing should surprise me anymore.) It's the kind of play that would make me swear off theater if I wasn't already excited to see The Beast in the Jungle and Torch Song and The Ferryman . And of course, if I wasn't a masochist. I really don't know what I was expecting from Dance Nation . I was okay with Barron's concept of adults playing the 13 year old girls (it happened in The Wolves and worked beautifully; I wouldn't expect, nor would I want, actual teenagers in this play), and I was even okay with one of them being played by an act...