Summertime is here. The 07-08 theatrical season is over, and now it's the long wait til Fall for the new one to start. What's a determined theatregoer to do to quench his thirst for exciting new shows? Why escape to surrounding cities to catch the tail end of their Spring seasons of course... At least until summer stock starts up. So two weeks ago I caught the closing weekends of "A Seagull in the Hamptons" at the McCarter (Princeton, NJ), then ditto for "13" at Goodspeed (Chester, CT); then last week was "Our Town" at the Arden (Philly, PA), and this weekend was "The Visit" at the Signature (Arlington, VA). And looking ahead, there's the Charles Busch show in Sag Harbor next week, and the stuff in the Berkshires and Poughkeepsie two weeks after that.
Okay, so starting with "Our Town" (very briefly)... The gimmick that attracted me to the production was that the first act is performed in the regular Arden theatre, but then the second (the wedding act) is performed in a newly restored church next door, then back to the theatre for Act 3. Let's just say it was better in theory than execution. That middle act was in a very un-air conditioned Church, and it was so hot, I had trouble paying attention to the play. Plus, there seemed to be something off about the scenes preceeding the wedding - like the location made sense for the last few minutes of the act, but not so much the rest. Still, the third act back in the air conditioning was quite moving, and the first had enough running around with the Stage Manager (the character) up and down the aisles, and other such schtick to keepme interested. They're doing "Candide" there next season, and I think it should be interesting to see.
This week, while unable to leave NYC, I did manage to squeeze in some local type theatre.
"The Marriage of Bette & Boo." Strange. And depressing. I had honestly no idea what was going on in the first act. I just sat there totally baffled. Luckily, the second act was much clearer - I laughed quite a bit at many of the (intetionally) tasteless jokes, and was moved by the ending. I think this is probably one of those plays that you need to experience (either see or read) more than once to fully appreciate. I already have plans to see this again later in the run and am very much looking forward to a second viewing.
"Macbeth: 2008." This is one of those shows I'd been looking forward to seeing since it was first anounced. It's an adaptation of "Macbeth," in Polish (with only the most famous lines like the dagger speech and "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow") translated verbatim from the Shakespeare. Of course, I wasn't looking forward to the production because it was Shakespeare in Polish - I'm not that crazy - I wanted to see it because it's being performed across the street from St Ann's Warehouse, in an open air former tobacco factory, which allows the audience to be underneath the Brooklyn Bridge to the left, and have the Manhattan Bridge just to the right. An absolutely beautiful view. Because of the unique outdoor 'neath the noisy bridge setting, every audience member is provided with headphones, and all of the dialogue and sound effects are heard through them - the actors are not amplified at all, so you can't hear anything without them on. As for the production? And I thought "Bette & Boo" was weird. Depending on your tolerance for such things, this is either brilliant regietheater or Eurotrash - the terms mean the same thing, but well... you know. It has all of the things one has come to expect from such productions: Update of a classical piece to modern times? Check. Gratuitous nudity? Check. Tons of graphic violence? Check. Someone dressed as Elvis? Lady Macbeth peeing on the floor? Check and check. This made the recent Rupert Goold (starring Patrick Stewart) production look like a classical setting you'd see at the Old Globe. For my part, I found the production visually to be fascinating (it's set in a Muslim country... probably Iraq, and the first scene has Macbeth beheading two men praying. Then the witch (there's only one) comes out wearing a burka... from there it's just wackier and wackier with the burka eventually being removed to show the witch wearing a bright pink slip and having a shaved head), but really emotionally empty. This really felt like a case of style over substance. Still both because of the physical theatre, and the shear novelty of the staging, I do highly recommend trying to see this, even though the entire run sold out before it even started. There are rush tickets and cancellations, though.
"Some Kind of Bliss." Playing at 59E59's postage stamp sized Theater C, this is a 65 minute long, one woman play about a reporter who gets into trouble on her way to interview Lulu. Cute enough. Certainly the right length for this fairly slight story. Held my interest. Not a must see, but you could certainly do worse - though as far as the Brits Off Broadway fare goes, I preferred "Vincent River."
"A Perfect Couple." This is Brooke Berman's follow-up to "Hunting and Gathering." Didn't particularly like her first play, and after this one, I think maybe she's not a playwright whose work I enjoy. This one's about a couple of hip 40 year olds - you know, the type that drinks French press coffee and San Pellegrino, and lives somewhere like Park Slope... or in this case, in the country, near a train that runs every hour. In other words, not people I feel any connection with. So, the story goes that a woman finds a diary entry that her step-mother wrote, that says that her fiance who she dated for 15 years went up to this country house with the woman's best friend (and also friend of boyfriend/fiance) around ten years before, and the step-mother thought she saw some sort of a spark between the two. Not that she was awake all night because they were making such loud sex - only that there was a spark. And of course she totally flips out (yada yada yada). Now maybe it's because I'm not a woman, but this seemed like a really far-fetchedm over-the-top reaction. Add to that that I felt no connection to any of the characters, and I was very glad it was only 75 minutes long.
And that brings me to today, and the bus I'm taking back from DC, where I saw "The Visit" (well, it was in Arlington, but that's just a quick Metro and bus ride from DC). This was my first forray to the Signature, but now that I know the experience is so painless (even the long bus ride from NYC to DC isn't so bad), I'm very likely to return - especially when they premiere Michael John LaChiusa's new musical, "Giant," next year.
[NOTE: I’m finishing this from home. Left DC at 5:50pm – back in my apartment at 10:15pm. And all for $7 round trip ($1.50 there and $5.50 back). Amazing.]
Let me also say that the Signature is a really lovely theatre. First of all, it’s brand new, which is always nice. Secondly, when I got to the theatre before the show with time to kill, first I got upstairs to where the main lobby is, and they had a pianist playing this really pleasant lite jazz type music… which I soon realized was actually lite jazz versions of music by John Kander. Then when I further explored the lobby, I found in the “gallery” section, they had a tribute to (the dearly departed) Fred Ebb, including the type writer he wrote the lyrics to “The Visit” on, sheets of lyrics for the show up on the wall, as well as photos, awards, even a show pillow from “The Happy Time.” Really really nice stuff – and honestly, just reading the lyrics on the wall without even hearing the music, I was already in love with the show. And it hadn’t even started yet. OH, and (skipping ahead) at intermission… they sell warm cookies. Positively genius. NY concessions stands would make even more money than they already do if they could get audience warm cookies at intermission. Sooo yummy. Any theatre that sells warm cookies at intermission instantly has my heart forever. Even if they were responsible for the loathsome “Glory Days” (or as it’s now referred to… “Glory Day” – they were selling t-shirts from their run in the lobby and I was oh so tempted…).
Now I know it’s bad to go to see shows with high expectations, and maybe it’s because I had read so many positive reviews (excepting the *cough* Charles Isherwood NY Times pan *cough*), and this was a new Kander & Ebb musical starring THE Chita Rivera and THE George Hearn, and I had traveled four and a half hours plus just one way to be there and darn it I just had to love it – but I loved it. First of all, we all need to thank our lucky stars that Chita Rivera is still willing to not just appear in, but STAR, in a brand new musical. And she is absolutely ravishing. From the moment she first appears on stage, she has the audience tightly in her grip, and it is impossible to take your eyes off of her. The only unfortunate thing (and this has been mentioned by everyone) is that she plays a character with a wooden leg (as well as an ivory hand, and who knows what else), so she can’t really dance. I mean, if Chita Rivera’s going to be in a musical, you want to see her dance. She does get one sort of dance number (in which she dances as well as a character with one leg can be expected to), and indeed that number stops the show. And really let’s face it – would you rather have someone else do the show just because Chita Rivera’s talents aren’t fully utilized here? I mean that’s just ludicrous. Dancing or no dancing, her singing and her acting spine tinglingly brilliant here. And let’s not forget George Hearn who also does a fantastic job, in the less flamboyant, but no less important or easy to act role of the man who Claire (the Chita Rivera character) wants dead. On that note, I will say that “The Visit” is kind of odd source material for a musical, although if you think about the sources for Kander & Ebb’s other most famous musicals (Cabaret and Chicago), well perhaps it’s really not so odd at all. Gotta love a dark disturbing musical, that still manages to be at times quite funny (no one wrote lyrics quite like Ebb did), and also romantic and sad.
The music here is as wonderful as one would expect from John Kander. Even if this doesn’t make it to Broadway (more on that later), I would at least hope we could get a cd out of this. The big humumumumable melody in this show comes at the end of the first act, and I think it’s called “Yellow Shoes.” Granted, it does sound an awful lot like “Second Chance” from Kander & Ebb’s “Steel Pier,” but it’s still a fine song – managing to give the audience something to hum during the intermission, even while being totally disturbed by it.
If I may offer some minor criticism, while the first act was completely fantastic, I did find the second act lagged a bit in the middle. It seemed to sort of fall into this drippy sentimental territory - I first noticed my excitement dropping during a song George Hearn sings while riding in the car with his family for what he thinks will be the last time (I won’t say whether he’s right or not, lest I spoil the ending), and it continued through to what I suppose was Chita’s 11 o’clock number – I think it was called “Love Alone,” but it left me a bit cold. What ultimately saves the musical, not just at the end, but many times, is the brilliant work done by the chorus of townspeople, who are absolutely chilling in the scenes where they are all together. In retrospect, I think they reminded me a bit of the crowds in Britten’s “Peter Grimes” – just absolutely brilliantly creepy, but sending a shiver up your spine, and a tear from your eye.
I’d like to say it would be absolutely criminal if this didn’t make it to New York either on Broadway or off. Actually, I will say it – it would be absolutely criminal if this doesn’t make it to NY. But realistically, my new least favorite critic Charles Isherwood had the nerve to pretty much pan the show in the all important NY Times (can the character of Claire, the richest woman in the world, come to New York and give us tons of money in exchange for killing him?), and to be perfectly honest, how many dark serious new musicals are successful on Broadway? I suppose we can only hope and pray that one of the not-for-profits will pick this up for their upcoming season - it was previously announced for the Public around 2001-ish, although the Mitzi E Newhouse is sort of similar in shape to the Signature; ah, if only the Beaumont weren’t occupied by “South Pacific”… speaking of which, I felt like I was in New York, being in the audience of the show today. First I saw (TalkinBroadway.com’s NY critic) Matthew Murray, then Patrick Pacheco of NY1 and probably some other stuff, then I think Ted Sperling (playing hooky from “South Pacific” post Tonys?), and after the show, Stephen Flaherty. Considering I didn’t see any of them waiting to get the bus from Shirlington Village back to Pentagon to take the subway to Chinatown, those folks probably had more glamorous rides home. But let me say it was absolutely worth all of the time spent to get down there.
I remember my first experience with a musical version of “The Visit” was an operatic version that City Opera did I don’t know how many years ago, called “The Visit of the Old Lady.” And all I remember was that the logo had a woman in profile, carrying a wooden coffin, with a bird (I think it was a vulture) sitting on it. And because that logo was so bizarre and amusing to me, I made my mother buy us tickets to see it. And I have absolutely no recollection of anything about the opera other than that fantastic logo. I think I even have a t-shirt with it somewhere. I suppose that’s a totally random anecdote, but I’ll use it to say that while I remember nothing about the opera, I feel fairly certain I won’t forget Kander & Ebb (and bookwriter Terrence McNally)’s version of “The Visit” or Chita Rivera’s performance in it anytime soon.
I know I always seem to end these things this way, but now I am going to collapse because even more than usual, I am totally exhausted. Besides, since “The Visit” had its last performance tonight at 7pm, tomorrow begins the long days ahead of prayer to the theatre gods to let me see “The Visit” again. Closer to home this time.
(Oh gosh. I just remembered I forgot to mention the simple but fantastic set and not as simple but just as fantastic lighting. So much love to shower on “The Visit.” So tired.)
