Les Liaisons Dangereuses Review

My nytheatre.com review of Les Liaisons Dangereuses is up and running, as of today. Here’s a little sample:

“With their new Broadway production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Christopher Hampton’s adaptation of the 1782 novel by Choderlos de Laclos, Roundabout Theatre Company once again proves that when it comes to high-end revivals no other company in town does them better. This classy production exhibits their trademark care, elegance, and good taste. Solid acting, striking design, and clear direction proliferate in this revival, which emerges as a worthy successor to both the original 1987 Broadway production and director Stephen Frears’s classic 1988 film version, Dangerous Liaisons.”

You can read the rest here.

Hunting and Gathering Review

My long overdue review of Brooke Berman’s new comedy, Hunting and Gathering - now playing at 59E59, courtesy of Primary Stages - has just been posted on nytheatre.com:

“Playwright Brooke Berman charmingly chronicles the trials and tribulations of transient New York thirtysomethings in her new comedy, Hunting and Gathering. Her protagonists spend life on the run, hopping from one sublet to the next, holding down multiple jobs to make ends meet, and trying to make meaningful connections in between. One character claims to make ‘transience an art project.’ That’s the playful, unpredictable, and somewhat melancholy essence of Berman’s play, which may wind up being as epochal about present-day New York as Woody Allen’s Manhattan—a film referenced often here—was about the New York of the 1970s.”

Check out the rest here, yo.

Deathbed Review

 

Here’s something I haven’t done in a while: written a review. You can read my review of Mark Schultz’s new play, Deathbed, now on nytheatre.com:

“Mark Schultz’s new play, Deathbed, is frustrating and confounding, despite a fine mounting by Apparition Productions: the acting, direction, and design are all top-notch. And the playwright, it seems, accomplishes what he sets out to do, regardless of how off-putting his theme may be to the audience.”

You can read the rest of the review here.

nytheatre mike’s Favorites of 2007

My turn to weigh in on my favorite shows of 2007. I saw a lot of them - more so than I ever have in one year, I think - and the good news is that most of them were good. (I frequently tell people that I’ve finally learned what the dirty little secret of New York theater is: most of it is really good.)

This isn’t intended to be a comprehensive or representitive list, however - there were a good many shows I missed (like, say, Frost/Nixon, August: Osage County, Young Frankenstein, and Men of Steel, just to name the first four that popped into my head). No, this list is purely subjective and is meant to highlight the shows that I, personally, got the most out of - the ones I responded to most viscerally and that stayed with me the longest after the proverbial curtain came down.

Also, I saw so many good shows this year that I’ve decided to cite my favorite 15 instead of the more traditional 10. There was no way I could do fewer than 15. It just wouldn’t be right. (Incidentally: shows with highlighted titles link back to my original nytheatre.com reviews - if I reviewed them, that is.)

Okay, enough talking - on to the main event! Without any further ado, my favorite 15 shows of 2007 (in alphabetical order):

• 110 in the Shade (Roundabout Theatre Company): This glorious Broadway revival of Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt’s musical adaptation of The Rainmaker featured stellar direction by Lonny Price and a knockout star performance by Audra McDonald. This was tug-at-the-heartstrings type stuff that Broadway does better than anyone else.
• All the Wrong Reasons (New York Theatre Workshop): Former “prompter monkey” John Fugelsang cast off the chains of his television persona and reinvented himself as a solo performer to be reckoned with in this riotous and inspirational show about coming to terms with his unusual Catholic upbringing.
• Blackbird (Manhattan Theatre Club): By far, the most haunting and spellbinding theatrical experience I had all year. Jeff Daniels and Allison Pill delivered tour-de-force performances as former lovers trying to face the fallout of their forbidden romance in David Harrower’s intense and disturbing love story.
• Every Play Ever Written (The Brick Theater’s Pretentious Festival): Actor-writer-director Robert Honeywell continued to prove what an ingenious triple threat he is with this deliriously daffy and razor sharp meta-comedy about a theater history lecture gone terribly, horribly wrong. Featuring hilarious, top-notch performances from Brick regulars Moira Stone, Audrey Crabtree, Lynn Berg, and Honeywell himself.
• Invincible Summer (The Public Theater’s Under the Radar Festival): The solo show of the year, hands down. Author and performer Mike Daisey brought together such seemingly disparate threads as 9/11, his own life, and the history of the MTA in a dazzling display that beat the late Spalding Gray at his own game.
• Macbeth: A Walking Shadow (Manhattan Theatre Source): Andrew Frank and Doug Silver’s smart but audacious adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic tragedy fractured the narrative in a cogent way that made this familiar tale new again. Featuring a pair of outstanding lead performances by Ato Essandoh and Celia Schaefer as the title character and his scheming wife, respectively.
• Macbeth Without Words (Piper McKenzie Productions at The Brick Theater’s Pretentious Festival): Director Jeff Lewonczyk ingeniously re-imagined the Scottish play as a silent movie and came up with one of the best and most memorable Shakespearean productions I’ve ever seen - all with nary a word spoken. The fabulous ensemble cast was led by Brick regulars Fred Backus, Hope Cartelli, Bryan Enk, and the fierce Stacia French.
• Nihils (The Brick Theater’s Pretentious Festival): Trav S.D., the man who was seemingly everywhere this year, gave audiences the funniest show of the year - a one-man demolition of beat poetry, performance art, avant-garde elitism, and all things pretentious. Featuring a brilliantly funny performance by the author himself as the title character.
• Oresteia (Blue Coyote Theater Group): David Johnston’s fantastic adaptation of Aeschylus’ classic (and bloody) tale brought Greek tragedy into the modern age with a deft mix of both old and new language. Director Stephen Speights and the rest of the Blue Coyotes gave Johnston’s script the royal treatment on every front.
• The Chronological Secrets of Tim (Impetuous Theater Group): The quarterlife crisis got the Kevin Smith treatment in Janet Zarecor’s brash, coarse, and completely riotous comedy about a slacker who decides to end it all on his 30th birthday. Full of surprising depth and warmth, and some of the rudest, crudest laughs in all of New York this year.
• The Death of Griffin Hunter (Inverse Theater): Inverse’s revival of Kirk Wood Bromley’s epic 1998 political thriller secured the author’s position as one of indie theater’s biggest thinkers and most nimble linguists. True to form, Inverse regulars Al Benditt, Timothy McCown Reynolds, Bob Laine, and Catherine McNelis all delivered outstanding performances.
• The Seafarer (Booth Theatre): Redemption and the supernatural collided in Conor McPherson’s campfire-like tale of four Irish drunks visited by the Devil on Christmas Eve. David Morse and Ciaran Hinds led one of the best ensembles Broadway saw all year long.
• Till the Break of Dawn (Culture Project at the Henry Street Settlement): One of the year’s most overtly political works also had one of the biggest hearts. Danny Hoch’s ambitious and entertaining play about a grassroots group of hip-hop activists who get a rude awakening during a visit to Cuba made politics and social relevancy cool again.
• Victoria Martin: Math Team Queen (Women’s Project): The year’s biggest and best surprise came in the form of Kathryn Walat’s exuberant comedy about a popular high school bombshell’s quest for respect and validation among the school mathletes. A crowd-pleaser forged from the same underdog pedigree as Rocky and Hoosiers.
• Wickets (HERE Arts Center’s Culturemart): Clove Galilee and Jenny Rogers re-set Fefu and Her Friends aboard a jet airliner and made it fly. Armed with a built-to-scale plane cabin set and one of the hardest working ensembles of 2007, this 4-performance-only workshop was one of the year’s most unique and enjoyable experiences.

The list wouldn’t be complete without a few honorable mentions. Here are 16 more that rocked my world in one way or another:

• 33 to Nothing (Wild Project)
• A Beautiful Child (New York International Fringe Festival)
• And (National Asian American Theatre Festival)
• Bill W. and Dr. Bob (New World Stages)
• Butterfly Suicide (SoloNOVA Festival)
• Cyrano de Bergerac (Richard Rodgers Theatre)
• Hamlet (Gorilla Rep)
• Happy Days: The Musical (Paper Mill Playhouse)
• Inherit the Wind (Lyceum Theatre)
• Scout’s Honor (Cardium Mechanicum at the New York International Fringe Festival)
• Suburban Peepshow (Nosedive Productions)
• Talk Radio (Longacre Theatre)
• The Boycott (Arclight Theatre)
• The NECROPOLIS Series (Gemini CollisionWorks)
• Washing Machine (Fist in the Pocket)
• w.m.d. (just the low points) (Sponsored By Nobody)

I could go on and on, but I’ll leave you with that. My thanks to all the wonderful artists on both of these lists - and all the other ones I saw this year - for making 2007 one of my favorite and most memorable years of theatergoing in recent memory. Happy New Year, everyone - I can’t wait to see what you’ve all got in store for 2008!

Podcasting About the Year That Was

More on the podcast front today as Martin Denton posts nytheatre.com’s 2007 Year in Review podcast, a roundtable discussion featuring him, me, and Leonard Jacobs, national theater editor of Back Stage. Always a fun time hanging, talking, and podcasting with these two, as you’ll hear on the finished product. Take a listen to what I think is a very wide-ranging conversation about a lot of the good stuff New York theater had to offer at every level this year. (I think between the three of us we reviewed something like 500-700 shows this year - and that’s a conservative estimate - so we cover a lot of ground.)

Also, if you click onto the official nytheatrecast homepage, you’ll find a lovely picture of the three of us looking very dashing and professional. Just FYI.

Audience Participation

I’ve noticed a trend in recent months that is becoming increasingly common: audience participation. Has anyone else noticed this? Maybe it’s just me: I, personally, have been drawn into the onstage action at least three different times in the last six months. Here’s a brief recap:

• Back in March, I got hauled onstage at the FRIGID New York Festival’s production of G-Men Defectives, where I was given the opportunity to punch one of the actors in the stomach (only a “stage” punch, mind you) and rewarded with my very own curtain call at the end of the show. How nice.
• In June, I wound up in the middle of the startling and mysterious performance piece, And. This production, which was presented at the National Asian American Theatre Festival, lured almost the entire audience onstage to investigate the nature of performance itself, and the relationship between performer and viewer. Little did we know that, over the course of the show’s hour-long running time, we would become the show.
• Then, there was my appearance in the FringeNYC 2007 production of Susan Gets Some Play (which I chronicled extensively here).

So, what gives? Why all the increased audience participation lately? Or has it always been going on around me and I just didn’t notice? All I can say is that I kind of like it. It adds a little more fun unpredictability to the proceedings, and gives the audience a chance to get involved if they like (and, from what I’ve seen at other shows where I didn’t get brought onstage, they like to get involved).

What’s your take on this practice? Whatever your thoughts are, pro or con, I’d like to know. Leave a comment or email me here.

FringeNYC 2007 Round-Up

My FringeNYC experience this year was as varied as always, exposing the rich diversity of the festival that has become the annual indie theater lynchpin of the summer. As usual I saw both some hits and some misses, but more of the former than the latter. And just about everything I saw was something I would never be able to see anywhere else than at FringeNYC.

I detected two prominent themes running through the shows I saw. The first was politics/social relevance. From the corrosive effects of capitalism and advertising on the everyday American citizen (Kevin Doyle’s not from canada) and shame of one’s own ethnicity and identity (Nancy Moricette’s Jaspora) to the global need for renewable alternative energy sources (The Revolutionaries by Adam Mervis) and even post-partem depression (In the Shadow of My Son by Nadine Bernard), it was refreshing to see so many shows tackling heady and serious topics.  I got a lot of nourishment from these meaty subjects.

The other prominent theme I noticed was intimacy. Whether it was two famous luminaries bumming around town together (Truman Capote’s A Beautiful Child), a trio of urbanites trying to navigate a complicated love triangle (Chad Beckim’s Lights Rise on Grace), an indie theater actress looking for love and nookie (Adam Szymkowicz’s Susan Gets Some Play), or a band of boy and girl scouts discovering themselves and each other while lost in the woods (Ed Valentine’s Scout’s Honor), the efforts of people trying to connect as either friends or lovers proved to be an enduring favorite yet again. Some of these plays were funny, others were more serious and contemplative, but all of them were very moving and all-too-true.

One play that managed to straddle both the political and the intimate was Bucharest Calling by Peca Stefan, in which a quintet of characters searching for redemption also faced the challenges of forging a new cultural mindset in the new world order of the European Union. This was an impressive showing by the visiting members of Romania’s MONDAY Theatre.

In a nice blog post late last week, The Boss admitted that his favorite part of this year’s festival was “the wonderful chance meetings with folks before and after shows.” I concur. I had many of those myself, more so than at any other previous installments of FringeNYC, and they all helped me feel a much stronger sense of the theatre community and camaraderie that The Boss talks about. Chance encounters with a number of folks - including playwright and FringeNYC adjudicator Vincent Marano (whose play, a collapse, appeared at last year’s festival); Plays and Playwrights 2007 alumni and summer review squad member James Comtois; Associate Artistic Director of The Brick Theater, Hope Cartelli; and Brick regular Bryan Enk - doubled my enjoyment of each show I respectively ran into them at. To quote The Boss again: “This level of camaraderie and community really only happens at FringeNYC, and it’s probably my favorite thing about the festival.” Now it’s mine, too.

nytheatre mike Gets Some Play

It’s been a while since I last posted. My bad. You all probably thought I was dead. Hardly - I’ve just been Fringe-ing for the past two weeks. I’m going to write about my overall FringeNYC experience this year within the next couple of days. Today, however, I’d like to talk about an event that, for me, exemplifies the wild, unpredictable energy that gleefully permeates FringeNYC every year.

The event in question came during the first performance of Adam Szymkowicz’s delightful comedy, Susan Gets Some Play, when I got called on stage by its two stars, Susan Louise O’Connor and Kevin R. Free. The wacky premise involves the heroine, Susan (played wonderfully by O’Connor), trying to find a new boyfriend by holding fake auditions for a non-existent show. During the play, she and her best friend, Jay (the hilarious Free) try out several potential candidates - all of whom are played by other cast members.

All except one, that is. Susan Gets Some Play throws a wild card into the mix by hauling one lucky audience member on stage for a shot at the title character’s affections. On the day I attended, that audience member was me.

Here’s what happened. I was randomly (and unexpectedly) approached by Free and fellow cast member Scott Ebersold in the theatre lobby beforehand. Our conversation went something like this:

(Free and Ebersold approach. They are smiling, and they have a Polaroid instant camera.)

Free: Hi. Excuse me: are you single?

Me: (Hesitant, not knowing what this is about.) Yes.

Free: Straight?

Me: (Beginning to see where this is going.) Yes.

Free: Great. Would you like to meet a friend of ours?

Me: (Throwing caution to the wind.) Sure.

Free: Great! Can we take your picture?

Me: Sure.

(They take a Polaroid of me.)

Ebersold: Great. Can you just write your first name and last initial on the bottom? There may be more than one Michael here.

Me: Sure.

(I write my first name and last initial on the bottom of the Polaroid.)

Ebersold: Okay, great! Thanks!

And off they went to recruit some more unsuspecting audience members. There was a near-capacity crowd mulling in the lobby, so I figured there was no way I would be chosen to partake in whatever they had planned.

Little did I know. A mere fifteen minutes later, I found myself trodding the boards with one of New York’s best indie theater actresses. Hearing my name called, and then rising from my seat to take the stage, was an experience similar to the one I imagine studio audience members must have when they find out they’re the next contestant on The Price is Right.

Once on stage, I immediately fell victim to Free’s “pencil trick” (read my review of the show for a full explanation of what I’m talking about), then we got down to business. O’Connor and I read some intentionally ridiculous sides that placed us in the middle of a sci-fi/space botpoiler (complete with moody lighting and the theme music from Alien playing in the background). After reading a few lines, Free pulled me aside and gave me an adjustment:

Free: (Whispering conspiratorially in my ear.) Okay, that was good. I want you to try it again, and this time I want you to yell at her. Just throw a tantrum. Start at 10, and build from there.

Never mind that such a reading would be appropos of nothing in the script. That, of course, was the joke. Right. So, I did my best to follow Free’s direction, bellowing crudely at O’Connor (and generally making a total fool of myself) for about a page before co-star Jorge Cordova (playing Ted, the upstairs neighbor) came in and broke things up. Needless to say, I did not pass the audition.

Now, I definitely would’ve liked Susan Gets Some Play even if I hadn’t momentarily become a part of the action. The fact that I did, though, just enhanced my enjoyment of it, and punctuated the go-for-broke attitude that FringeNYC is all about: anything can happen at this festival and often does.

(By the way, it’s a good thing I wrote my last initial on that Polaroid: I later found out that Free and Ebersold had, indeed, pre-screened another Michael from the audience!)

My Turn To Wax Nostalgic

Now that my show is over, it’s back to business as usual here at the blog. Which means it’s time for me to wax nostalgic about nytheatre.com’s 10th birthday, a milestone that was commemorated recently in a lovely blog post by The Boss. His words got me thinking about my own tenure here at HQ, and inspired some reflection.

I celebrated an anniversary of my own during the month of June: one year on the job here. Next week will mark another anniversary: six years since I originally came on board as a volunteer reviewer.

Wow. Six years. Where has the time gone?

If you’d told me back in 2001 that I would eventually be working as a theatre reviewer, podcast moderator, and general all-around Guy Friday for a nonprofit arts advocacy organization, I probably would’ve said, “Yeah - in my dreams!”

And yet, here I am, in 2007, doing all of those things. Unbeliveable.

It’s been quite an adventure so far, one that started innocently enough back when my longtime friend Don Jordan and I used to run a theatre company together (which was many moons ago) and were trying to get people to come review our shows. The Boss was the only reviewer who ever came to see us on a regular basis. To this day, I don’t know why he did, but Don and I were grateful for the attention and the feedback. We were first introduced to The Boss through his reviews of this show and this show.

His review of the latter, especially, made an impression on me that lasts to this day. It was the first time I’d ever read a less-than-ideal review of a show I was in and thought: this guy is right. I liked how the review was both encouraging and honest, and it made us all feel like we’d accomplished something worthwhile even if we hadn’t quite pulled it off. After that, I became an avid reader of the site.

Several months later, I got in touch with The Boss and asked about the possibility of reviewing for him. Now, keep in mind, that we had never actually met. I was just a regular reader who liked his writing. But, I noticed that he wrote pretty much all of the site content, and it made me wonder if he needed any help (this was long before the site had any kind of steady writing staff). I had been wanting to develop some kind of regular writing habit, and the thought of seeing theatre for free sounded good to me, so I figured I had nothing to lose.

To my great surprise, The Boss emailed me back and we agreed to have lunch. At our meeting we talked about the website’s philosophy (to err on the side of generosity and constructive criticism without an axe to grind), and about what I wanted to get out of doing this (free theatre tickets and a chance to write). Once our cards were on the table, The Boss agreed to take me on on a trial basis: I would write three reviews, and if we both liked the way things were going after that we would continue. I’m happy to report that we never needed to have another meeting on the matter. I met my quota, and neither one of us has looked back since.

There have been many highlights along the way: six Fringe Festivals (including my first in 2001, when a small handful of volunteers including Tim Cusack, David Fuller, Trav S.D., Eric Winick, The Boss, and myself covered nearly 60 shows - quite an achievement at the time), numerous readings and book events for the NYTE anthologies (I took my dad to the Plays and Playwrights 2001 launch party at Under St. Marks, which featured a hilarious excerpt from The Elephant Man - The Musical that he got a big kick out of), the first ever Indie Theater Convocation (an event whose long-term ramifications still have yet to be fully felt, but which has already spawned the birth of our newest website: indietheater.org), and the inception last summer of our podcast program, the nytheatrecast. These events, and many others over the years, have all carried the exciting, shivery thrill of the unknown, as we embarked on uncharted territory and hoped for the best. So far everything has worked out better than we could have ever imagined.

I had lunch with The Boss on nytheatre.com’s 10th birthday. Joined by his cunning associate, The Mix Master (who is the nytheatrecast sound engineer), we talked about future plans. That’s something I love about our meetings: we never talk about the past, only the future. Whatever laurels we may have to rest on, there is no time to do so. We have too many new ideas to try out. The past is past. All that matters now is tomorrow and beyond.

It has been an amazing journey so far, one that has enriched my life more than I can say. And, I look forward to much more of it. I’m not even kidding when I say that the best is still yet to come. Stay tuned everybody.

nytheatre mike Weighs In - Part 2

Picking up where I left off on Monday, I’d like to address something Isaac brought up: reviewers reading the script of a play they’re reviewing before they go see it. This is both a good and a bad idea, I think. On the good side, there is much potential for discerning, as Isaac pointed out, “how much of what’s going on is based on choices…made vis-a-vis bringing the script to life on the stage.” (Which also ties back to what Matt wrote about directors being choice makers and problem solvers.) On the bad side, there exists the very real possibility that reading the script beforehand will blind the viewer to the production on stage in favor of the one already created in his or her head. I don’t think there’s any way one can read a script without doing this to some degree. Which can be very beneficial for anyone who’s working on the production. But, for a reviewer to attempt this with a new play, I think, is ultimately very dangerous.

Then, there’s the whole matter of reviews as marketing. As a former producer myself, I understand the need for a good pull-quote. But, reviewing, in and of itself, is not a marketing technique. Theatre reviewers certainly don’t think of their work as such; producers do. Which is as it should be. But, to think of reviews only in those terms is perhaps a little reductive. Yes, it’s true, a review is only one person’s experience of a given production. But, it’s an experience that theatre artists could potentially learn something from. If the artists look to the audience as their ultimate constituency, then I think they need to include reviewers in that, as well, because reviewers are audience members, too. Isaac hit the nail on the head when he said that “we absolutely cannot look to reviews for any kind of validation.” Definitely not. An artist must validate themselves first, before anyone else tries to do it for them. But, I do believe that theatre artists can (and should) look to reviews to gauge their measure of success.

Reviewing is an imperfect art (or science, depending on how you want to look at it), just like many others. But, I think if it’s approached in a healthy way, it can turn into a conversation between the artist, the reviewer, and the audience that benefits all three. I know I’ve already grown as a reviewer just from having this particular conversation here on the blog, and I’m grateful to Isaac, Don, Matt, and everyone who commented for helping me do that.