Reviews

Russian Transport

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:07:18 -0500

Erika Sheffer is a brave writer. Here she tackles family relations, immigration and slavery all in one go. Any one of these would be enough for a play, but Sheffer likes to play big. Good for her.

Diana (Janeane Garofalo) and Misha (Daniel Oreskes) got out of Russia when their first child Alex (Raviv Ullman), now a teenager, was just a baby. Their daughter Mira (Sarah Steele) was born here. For this family, life is a struggle out in Sheapshead Bay. This is part reality and part culture. We meet them on the evening that Diana’s brother Boris (Morgan Spector) is about to join the family as the most recent immigrant.

The center of this story is Alex, who is drawn into Boris’s web by the promise of a few hundred extra dollars each week if he will do a pick-up and drop off of “something”. The something turns out to be a teenage girl who has been lured to the U.S. with the promise of a modeling career. She will, instead, be taken to a drop in New Jersey where she will be forced into sexual slavery. Alex’s agreement with Boris sets the family on an ass-over-teakettle trajectory.

If any of you had the good/sad fortune to see the installation at NYU of The Journey you will know that the trafficking of teenage girls is not fiction.

Boris is so creepy that he seems to exude oil from his pores. Played brilliantly by Spector, this is a man who is permanently on simmer and can go hot or cold in a nanno-second. Turns out that the reason Boris can get people to do what he wants is because he has something on everyone. And if he doesn’t, he will create a situation in which he will come out on the winning end. Innocence is no defense when dealing with Boris.

Boris insinuates himself into his sister’s family like a virus sensing a weak immune system. Sheffer’s writing is understated in all the right ways in the scenes between Boris and the teenagers. I was literally squirming in my seat. The scenes between the adults are not quite as successful but they still succeed in bringing home the fact that this tribe is painted into a corner.

Scott Elliot’s staging is a mystery. He seems to avoid center stage in favor of the sides and, in the case, the upstairs. The result is that the tiny stage left table serves as a dining area for 5 people who are nearly sitting on top of one another, while the large couch in the center is practically untouched Also crowded into stage left is a blow-up mattress that the actors must step over throughout the play. It is an awkward set and blocking all around.

But the story comes though loud and clear. Sheffer’s work is not only written well, it is layered like a switchback trail. Where you are is not where you think you are, and even in the play’s conclusion there is well thought-out mystery a plenty.

This is a play that won’t let you off the hook.

WITH: Janeane Garofalo (Diana), Daniel Oreskes (Misha), Morgan Spector (Boris), Sarah Steele (Mira) and Raviv Ullman (Alex).

Russian Transport -By Erika Sheffer; directed by Scott Elliott

Sets by Derek McLane; costumes by Ann Hould-Ward; lighting by Peter Kaczorowski; sound by Bart Fasbender; dialect coach, Doug Paulson; fight director, David Anzuelo; assistant director, Marie Masters; production supervisor, Peter R. Feuchtwanger/PRF Productions; production stage manager, Valerie A. Peterson; associate artistic director, Ian Morgan; general manager, Elisabeth Bayer; artistic associate, Matthew Klein. Presented by the New Group, Mr. Elliott, artistic director; Geoff Rich, executive director. At the New Group@Theater Row, the Acorn Theater, 410 West 42nd Street, Clinton; (212) 239-6200; telecharge.com. Through March 10. Running time: 2 hours 10 minutes.

Wit

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:58:08 -0500

It feels odd to recommend a play where the character dies and we know that before we enter the theatre. (Come to think of it we do that all the time with Shakespeare….) Nevertheless, get thee to this theatre.

This production is seamless. And, as with most theatre, it begins with the text. This is a confluence of excellence that that begins with the word and ends with you handing over your heart tied up in a ribbon. Like Dr. Vivian Bearing (Cynthia Nixon) the playwright Margaret Edson (this is her one and only play – see here for her interview with Jim Lehrer – in 1999 http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/entertainment/jan-june99/edson_4-14.html) is all about the text and the people who devote their lives to it. In a flashback to childhood we see the moment when Bearing fell in love with words. Further on, we see the moment where she falls in love with John Donne and his wit. Her professor E. M. Ashford (the excellent Suzanne Bertish) examines the poetry of Donne with grammatical tweezers and suggests that anyone not interested in this scholarly specificity take up Shakespeare instead of Donne. She dismisses Bearing’s first scholarly attempt at a paper on Donne thusly,

Begin with the text, Miss Bearing, not with a feeling.

And from that moment on, it is Bearing’s life journey. Until she is de-railed by the cancer that did not ask permission to enter.

Cynthia Nixon, in two hospital gowns, socks and red baseball cap covering her bald noggin, speaks to us directly. She is Dr. Vivian Bearing, a professor of poetry. She takes offence when people use language inappropriately. People’s words are mindless even in the direst circumstances. Bearing tells us that they ask her, “How are you feeling today?” when it is clear that she is a cancer patient in a hospital receiving chemotherapy. She says:

I am waiting for the moment when someone asks me this question and I am dead.

I’m a little sorry I’ll miss that.

Welcome to her last few hours on the planet.

Bearing is her own tour guide through her medical hurdles on the way to her own death and the journey she cannot help making into her past. Up until this point Dr. Bearing has avoided self-reflection in favor of study. Everything that she does not consider about herself she considers in spades about John Donne. But as her body is proceeding with the plans it has made without her, Vivian Bearing’s past surfaces like a coastal whale.

Lynn Meadow has set a swift but gentle pace that is punctuated by humor and irony as well as the constant tick of the clock and the clinical element of Bearing’s treatment. As we move back and forward in time we never forget the destination. Dr. Kelekian (Michael Countryman) and his tunnel-visioned assistant Dr. Posner (Greg Keller) – a former student of Bearing’s - recommend a course of treatment that could kill Bearing and will probably not save her. But a cancer patient is a research tool, after all.

It takes every micro particle of strength for Bearing to, well, bear with this regimen. As we watch, Bearing is transformed from a professor into something she never wanted to be: a human being.

Nixon balances on that razor’s edge of death and life with the skill of a tightrope walker. Through her we gain entry in to Bearing’s mind and heart and soul. Nixon is surrounded by an extraordinary supporting cast, who guide her through the maze of this passage and bring the every day life into brilliant relief.

There was a lot of snuffling going on in the audience the day I was there. I thought about my mother who died recently. As I watched her over her last months and days I realized that, although we were there with her, hers was ultimately a solitary path. We could be her honor guard, but not her proxy. The steps, especially the final ones, were hers alone.

Margaret Edson has written a play that brings us directly into that journey of one. This production of Wit does Ms. Edson more than proud. This is intimacy without melodrama. This is gut-thumping life without clarification. This is death, not proud, nor mighty and dreadful, but filled with life.

WIT - By Margaret Edson; directed by Lynne Meadow

Sets by Santo Loquasto; costumes by Jennifer von Mayrhauser; lighting by Peter Kaczorowski; sound by Jill B C Du Boff; specialty staging consultant, J. David Brimmer; production stage manager, Barclay Stiff; artistic producer, Mandy Greenfield; general manager, Florie Seery; production manager, Joshua Helman. Presented by Manhattan Theater Club, Ms. Meadow, artistic director; Barry Grove, executive producer. At the Samuel J. Friedman Theater, 261 West 47th Street, Manhattan; (212) 239-6200, telecharge.com. Through March 11. Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes.

WITH: Suzanne Bertish (E. M. Ashford), Michael Countryman (Harvey Kelekian/Mr. Bearing), Greg Keller (Jason Posner), Cynthia Nixon (Vivian Bearing), Carra Patterson (Susie Monahan) and Pun Bandhu, Jessica Dickey, Chiké Johnson and Zachary Spicer (Lab Technicians/Students/Fellows).ows).

Yosemite

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:47:28 -0500

When I see a play like this, once I get over the shock, I think about all the people who worked on it, how they stepped up to the plate and gave it their best. Because the one thing you can say about theatre is that it really does take a village. And when the village gets it this wrong, that’s where the wonder – the kind that says “Whaaat???” – steps up to the plate as well.

This is the story of a family trying to bury its past, literally. A months-old baby has died and his siblings have taken his body into the woods of Yosemite to bury him. It is a long, drawn out process, and we get to sit through much of it. The end.

So much for the set-up.

Did I mention that this play is set in winter? We know that because of the wonderful set that makes you cold just to look at it. It has as its background an enlarged photo of the lower trunks of trees and we can clearly see the snowflakes whirling. There are no snowflakes whirling on the stage itself. They seem to have settled, although we can hear the wind throughout the entire play. It doesn’t actually blow anything in view, but it makes a nice noise.

At rise, Jake (Seth Numrich) is madly digging his little brother’s grave. And the funny part is that the dirt is not frozen one little bit. Now, I get that dirt doesn’t freeze all the way down, but when all you have is one bitty shovel, and it is serious winter, you are going to have one heck of a time just breaking ground, never mind creating a hole that is roughly 4’ long, 2’ wide and 3’ deep. And if everyone else has been on site the entire time it takes to dig this hole, they would be unconscious by the time the play begins. Or frozen solid.

Okie dokie then.

The characters, aside from being under-dressed in casual second hand winter wear all around - each have one emotional button – with the exception of some fine work by Noah Galvin as Jer, who has an inner life that positively glows. Jake is petulant and very, very angry about not only the family situation, but that he is the one digging the grave. The sister Ruby (Libby Woodbridge) is in stun-mode. She can only speak of irrelevant goings on at school (We are supposed to believe that these two are teenagers. Not happening) and the fact that the hole isn’t deep enough. About halfway through our time together, the mother Julie (Kathryn Erbe) shows up. She is carrying a shotgun (I wonder what she will do with that…) and she is dressed even more lightly than her children in a thin cotton top, a short leather coat that she never closes, and no gloves. Her one note is vague and confused that she plays to such an extreme that you wonder if she is certain of her lines and blocking.

The main problem here is the script and the direction. It is difficult to determine what these actors are capable of because text gives them nothing to do, and the direction is MIA. They argue about the size of the grave. They make references to the little brother that are half hearted. The siblings talk about their mother for a bit. When she arrives they all reminisce about their father who has been dead for some time. They spend more time talking about their dead father than they do anything else. Actually a lot of this dialogue sounded as though it came from a family talking to one another just before a wake.

But ultimately nothing happens that resembles a plot. We never get from point A to point B, because those points have not been identified. There is a situation, but no destination.

As for action, these characters stand, they sit, they blow on their hands, they yell and scream at one another, they hug. All to no particular end. At least Jake has a grave to noodle with.

And, may I just say that, judging from the size of that tiny corpse, and having buried my share of animals, the grave was deep enough. It could have held all four people quite nicely. Maybe six. Don’t want to forget anyone.

The normally excellent Rattlestick Company has run off the tracks with this one.

Oh well. Life in the theatre. Next case.

YOSEMITE by Daniel Talbott, Directed by Pedro Pascal

WITH Kathryn Erbe (Julie), Noah Galvin (Jer), Seth Numrich (Jake) and Libby Woodridge (Ruby)

Set Design Raul Abrego, Costume Design (Tristan Raines), Lighting Design Joel Moritz, Sound Design (Janie Bullard)

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater – 224 Waverly Place off Seventh Avenue South) through February 26. Wednesday – Friday at 8PM, Saturday at 2 and 8PM, Sunday at 3PM. Tickest are $55 – ticketcentral.com/212-279-4200.

The Gob Squad’s Kitchen (You’ve Never Had It So Good)

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 12:22:47 -0500

Wow. That is what I have to say. WOW, WOW, WOW. These Gob Squad folk take theatre way off center and manage to bring you into the new loopy orbit. Ordinarily I don’t like the idea of audience participation. Even though I am an actor, or perhaps because I am, I like to see people who have had a bit of a go in rehearsal up there rather than people about whom I might have to be concerned. And I think I would refuse to volunteer myself.

But the Gob Squad makes the transition seamless. They are investigators and collaborators at heart, and the audience is a sea of possible co-workers.

The evening starts with a brief visit backstage where we see the set and the set-up that will be used. We meet the cast, which changes with each performance. Bread and peanut butter are offered. There is a kitchen, a bed and a sort of settee as well as the table where the technical equipment is located. Back to our seats we go, and soon the tale begins, all behind the enormous triptych of a screen.

Simon Will, on camera in the center screen, welcomes us to the set of a remake of Any Warhol’s The Kitchen. It is 1965 and things are about to “become more relevant”. Simon and Nina Tecklenberg set the mood and explain the props – contemporary food will stand in for 1965 items. All except for Wonderbread because what could replace that and, oh by the way, it is still around. The discussion of what to do and how soon overtakes any planned action and the intended movie begins to unravel.

On stage left and right there are two other screens. One is the bed where Sarah Thom is sleeping, but not for long. She is soon replaced by Sharon Smith who doesn’t last long on the bed either. The other screen is a dark area where the settee is located. The actors move from one side of the stage to the other, in various states of curiosity or dissatisfaction, always behind the screens, walking through the kitchen and participating in that film at will. As the “reality” of the actors’ tasks becomes clearer, the difficulty of said tasks becomes clearer as well, and soon each leaves to find replacements. This is where the audience comes in – and only the willing are chosen.

It all seems delightfully unorganized, except that, like the Yale marching band, it is not. It is however, organized in such a gentle way that the structure does not hit you until the performance is nearly done. The screens operate separately and in unison with actors and civilians guiding each other from point to point. Although it is planned out to the point of being choreographed, there is still a spontaneity and innocence that is always present.

Somehow, because of the audience participation, we are included in a very intimate experience. They are us. They are also the actors. Which means the actors are us as well. Interchangeable and still irreplaceable.

This is a theatrical experience where every person has value and each night is a unique experience. You are asked to take off your shoes and step into the pool of ceremony and creativity.

Step on in. The water’s fine.

Gob Squad’s Kitchen (You Never Had It So Good) -

Concept by the Gob Squad, devised and performed by Johanna Freiburg, Sean Patten, Sharon Smith, Berit Stumpf, Sarah Thom, Bastian Trost and Simon Will, with Erik Pold, Nina Tecklenburg and Laura Tonke; video by Miles Chalcraft; sound by Jeff McGrory; stage managers, Sophia Simitzis and Mat Hand; production stage manager, Elizabeth Moreau; acting general manager, Steven Showalter; associate artistic director, Mandy Hackett; associate producer, Maria Goyanes; director of production, Ruth E. Sternberg. Presented by the Public Theater, Oskar Eustis, artistic director; Patrick Willingham, executive director. At the Public Theater’s Newman Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village; (212) 967-7555; publictheater.org. Through Feb. 5. Running time: 1 hour 50 minutes.

Porgy and Bess

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:18:48 -0500

There are times when I sit through a show and count the minutes until I can leave. And then there are times when I sit though a show and am overwhelmed with gratitude for this temple we call the theatre. Porgy and Bess is one of those the latter.

First of all, no, I never saw the opera. And apparently neither did anyone else who is reviewing this show, but they are very familiar with a certain English recording. I’m not. I do know that this team cut two hours from the running time, and I don’t have a clue as to what was eliminated. I have a vague memory of the movie with Sidney Poitier, Dorothy Dandridge, Brock Peters and Sammy Davis, Jr. I don’t know that I really got the deal about this story then. With this production, however, I surely feel as though I did.

The major thrilling element – second to the score of course – is that everyone on Catfish Row is a fully realized character. The minor as well as the major characters, including the characters with no lines, each claim their right to occupy space in this community. This makes the story stand bold, wise, sad and iconic. This is a community of laborers in Charleston in the 1930’s. These people have created a community with a protective layer over itself. They may earn money in the white world, but they do not interact with it unless they have no alternative. Sickness is taken care of with herbs and prayers. Food is their own, grown or caught. Murder is a little more complicated. Murder means white people will be knocking on someone’s door. Better it not be yours.

What happens to Porgy and Bess does not happen in a vacuum. What happens to them happens to all of Catfish Row.

Bess (Audra McDonald) is the local loose woman. Not only are her morals a mess, so is she. She is weak and wanting. She has an addictive nature that will grab onto whatever or whoever is nearest: men, drink or that special white powder that Sporting Life (David Alan Grier) is always at the ready. Her current man is Crown (Phillip Boykin) who is also a low life and whose general ill will knows no limits. When Crown deserts Bess and the community turns its back on her, it is Porgy (Norm Lewis), the local nice guy with a deformed leg (minus the goat cart) who takes her in. Porgy’s is Crown’s opposite. His heart is enormous and his faith in people and the goodness in life is unwavering

Bess is caught like a fly in a web strung between these two men and given an occasional nudge by Sporting Life. As goes Bess, so goes Catfish Row. The upheavals are epic - birth and death, misery and celebration, fear and faith. Because we have gotten to know all of these people, we ride the rollercoaster with them.

In the end, the constant is Porgy who has nothing but himself and his hope. Like his friends, he understands that the journey through life is ultimately a solitary one. People can shelter you and care for you, or they can neglect or ignore you, but they cannot live for you. As the story concludes, Porgy sets off on an impossible journey. He tosses a sack over his shoulder and in it he has somehow packed your heart.

How this story reaches out and snatches you close I do not know. The exquisite discovery of love between Porgy and Bess is almost too private to watch. The danger that slides in with each step Sporting Life takes is unnerving. The hurricane that that overtakes theses people, the white men who threaten them, the deaths smashing up against the shores of happiness – it all rolls out like an extraordinary pageant into which you are more than invited.

This is an intimate story that offers itself to you, and you would do well to accept the invitation. Bravo Big Time.

THE GERSHWINS’ PORGY AND BESS by George Gershwin, DuBose and Dorothy Heyward and Ira Gershwin, adapted by Suzan-Lori Parks and Diedre L. Murray; directed by Diane Paulus; choreography by Ronald K. Brown; orchestrations by William David Brohn and Christopher Jahnke.

WITH: Audra McDonald (Bess), Norm Lewis (Porgy), David Alan Grier (Sporting Life), Phillip Boykin (Crown), Nikki Renée Daniels (Clara), Joshua Henry (Jake), Christopher Innvar (Detective), Bryonha Marie Parham (Serena) and NaTasha Yvette Williams (Mariah).

Sets by Riccardo Hernandez; costumes by ESosa; lighting by Christopher Akerlind; sound by Acme Sound Partners; wig, hair and makeup design by J. Jared Janas and Rob Greene; music supervisor, David Loud; music director and conductor, Constantine Kitsopoulos; music coordinator, John Miller; associate director/production stage manager, Nancy Harrington; technical supervisor, Hudson Theatrical Associates; company manager, Bruce Klinger; general manager, Richards/Climan; associate producers, Ronald Frankel, James Fuld Jr., Allan S. Gordon, Infinity Stages, Shorenstein Hayes-Nederlander Theaters, David and Barbara Stoller, Michael and Jean Strunsky and Theresa Wozunk. Presented by Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel, Rebecca Gold, Howard Kagen, Cheryl Wiesenfeld/Brunish Trinchero/Lucio Simons TBC, Joseph and Matthew Deitch, Mark S. Golub and David S. Golub, Terry Schnuck, Freitag Productions/Koenigsberg Filerman, the Leonore S. Gershwin 1987 Trust, Universal Pictures Stage Productions, Ken Mahoney, Judith Resnick, Tulchin/Bartner/ATG, Paper Boy Productions, Christopher Hart, Alden Badway, Broadway Across America, Irene Gandy and Will Trice. At the Richard Rodgers Theater, 226 West 46th Street, Manhattan; (877) 250-2929; ticketmaster.com. Through June 24. Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes.

WITH: Audra McDonald (Bess), Norm Lewis (Porgy), David Alan Grier (Sporting Life), Phillip Boykin (Crown), Nikki Renée Daniels (Clara), Joshua Henry (Jake), Christopher Innvar (Detective), Bryonha Marie Parham (Serena) and NaTasha Yvette Williams (Mariah).

The Fall To Earth

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:58:28 -0500

Anyone wanting a master class in the art of acting would do well to see this play. Deborah Hedwall is a glorious actor. She is daring and seamless and takes you so deeply into the character of Faye that when the curtain comes down you may experience a jolt as you separate yourself from this woman.

Faye and her daughter Rachel (Jolie Curtsinger) have come to a small town in what seems to be the mountains of the West to retrieve Kenny, (who was son and brother) or, that is, Kenny’s body. As we all know, a death in your circle brings emotion and raw sewage up from those weird places in which they have lain dormant for years and years. The good and the sad come separately and together. There is no controlling them. It is a pile-up.

Add to this reality the fact that Faye and Rachel are more or less estranged and you have a kettle of fish that have seen better days. When Faye and Rachel meet the local police officer, Terry (Amelia Campbell) who is a bundle of jangled paperclips on her own, dysfunction hits a brick wall, and all manner of life-bits are released into the arena.

Joel Drake Johnson’s writing is remarkable because he knows how to create dialogue in which the characters discover as they go. There is no tidy path down which we travel as we follow Faye, who is clearly the leader of this band. Faye bubbles over like a leaky volcano from another dimension. Sometimes hot. Sometimes cold. Words tumble out of her like ropes looking for life preservers. She is sinking under the weight of her son’s death but will not go gentle into that sad night. She is a mess of contradictions: accurate and delusional; confident and desperate; inquisitive and terrified. Hedwall takes Fay on with Olympian skills. She climbs the heights and crashes full frontal into the valleys only to pick herself up again and go forth. Hedwall brings colors to motherhood we rarely see onstage. She is astonishing.

Less developed are the characters of Rachel and Terry, who must spend most of their time listening and reacting to Faye. Rachel is bitter, petulant and has guilt to spare. Terry is a wife and mother whose job forces her to look at sides of life she would really, really rather not see. But, Johnson’s devotion to Faye seems to have robbed him of that same attention to intimacy with the other two women, not that their characters are any less complicated. Although both actors work mighty hard to connect the dots, they never fully do so. And although Brancato’s direction is for the most part very long on trusting his actors as well as the text, in this matter it does little to serve them.

The Fall To Earth is all Faye from start to finish. This may not have been Johnson’s intention, and I have the feeling that many elements will loosen up to more fully balance this production. In the mean time, it is lucky for us that Deborah Hedwall is carrying the banner.

THE FALL TO EARTH by Joel Drake Johnson, Directed by Joe Brancato

WITH Amelia Campbell (Terry), Jolie Curtsinger (Rachel) and Deborah Hedwall (Faye)

Set – James Fenton, lights – Todd Wren, costumes – Patricia Doherty

THE FALL TO EARTH drops into 59E59 Theaters (Elysabeth Kleinhans, Artistic Director; Peter Tear, Executive Producer) welcomes InProximity Theatre Company with the New York City premiere of THE FALL TO EARTH for a limited engagement through Sunday, February 5. The performance schedule is Tuesday - Thursday at 7:15 PM; Friday at 8:15 PM; Saturday at 2:15 PM and 8:15 PM; and Sunday at 3:15 PM. Performances are at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street, between Park and Madison Avenues). Tickets are $35 ($24.50 for 59E59 Members). To purchase tickets, call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200 or go to www.5ge59.org.

One Thousand Blinks

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:39:35 -0500

This is one of those plays that drops like breadcrumbs, which you follow. Each leads you to a point that leads you to another. The moments depend on one another, and for all of that they have your attention. When the journey ends, however, the destination is as murky as you discover the journey actually was.

Morgan (Mark Cajigao) has taken a job in an unnamed country as an instructor. He and his girlfriend Jenny (Estelle Bajou) had reached an impass due to his not having a job, so when the opportunity arose Morgan took it. However, when he arrives he discovers that his class has been indefinitely postponed. His supervisor, Dr. Luk (Rachel Cornish), an efficient woman with just a touch of OCD, offers Morgan a job translating a book, in spite of the fact that he does not know the language in which it is written, and asked to do so in a tenth of the time he estimates the job will take. This means he will sleep little or not at all. He agrees.

Back home, Jenny is having her own sleep issues of her own. She and Morgan speak to each other from separate sides of the stage using their cell phones to bridge the thousands of miles between them. Seems as though when Jenny falls asleep she either has nightmares about a pack of dogs and a particular female named PJ, or she actually becomes PJ. This little factoid makes her an animal in bed, which appeals to her old boyfriend Bram (Drew Hirschfield) who has shown up on the scene having picked up the scent of an absent boyfriend.

Turns out that Bram is a nerd about brain function and has connections to Dr. Suk. It was he who dropped the idea of the job on Jenny who passed it on to Morgan who applied and was accepted.

So Bram is making the moves on Jenny at the same time that Morgan is failing with his translation. Morgan works in a windowless room with only pencil and paper and a small light that tricks the mind into staying awake. He discovers aht his book is a scientific book focused on microsleep. Dr. Luke defines this as the ability to sleep using only half the brain – like a snake. This would make a person capable of more work, and Dr. Luk is devoted to accomplishment. The most foolish error we can make, Morgan, is to underestimate your talent for work.

Things spiral out of control until both Morgan and Jenny rebel against their oppressors. But the dénouement is rushed and unsatisfactory at best. Nick Starr has raised some fascinating points in this piece, and Mamlinda Scorci has directed with a deft hand. But in the end, the elements of this play seem to be forced together like strangers in an arranged marriage.

ONE THOUSAND BLINKS by Nick Starr, Directed by Malinda Scorci

WITH Estelle Bajou (Jenny), Mark Cajigao (Morgan), Rachel Cornish (Dr. Luk) and Drew Hirshfield (Bram)

Set and lighting by Al Roundtree, costume design by Jessa Raye Court, sound and music by Matt Sherwin.

New York, New York December 8, 2011-59E59 Theaters (Elisabeth Kleinhans, Artistic Director; Peter Tear, Executive Producer) welcomes theNEST with the world premiere of ONE THOUSAND BLINKS, for a limited engagement through Sunday, January 29. The performance schedule is Tuesday - Thursday at 7:30 PM; Friday and Saturday at 8:30 PM; and Sunday at 3:30 PM. Performances are at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street, between Park and Madison Avenues). Tickets are $18 ($12.60 for 59E59 Members). To purchase tickets, call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200 or go to www.5ge59.org.

Leo

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:42:23 -0500

If you took Fred Astaire, Marcel Marceau and Beckett into a big barrel and shoved it over Niagra Falls, Leo (Tobias Wagner) would pop out when the tumbler hit the water below.

Leo is a man trapped in a room that seems to have a personality of its own. A split personality, to be precise. On stage left Leo is in the world ruled by Newtonian gravity. Stage right, through the use of a video projection, he is in a way different world. While your logical mind can grasp this with a “I know how this is done” attitude, the other part of your brain – the one that is DYING to suspend belief – is doing a little tap dance.

To your right you see a man moving from point to point within his lonely room. At the same moment, on your left you see a man floating mid way up a wall. On the right he is balancing himself in a corner. On the left he is airborne. On the right he is moving like a wild marsupial. On the left he is pirouetting like a mythical character come to life. It is a stupendous experience.

In addition to pulling you into this dual world, Wegner also adds a tale of his own. One man in alone in a room with no windows or doors: what does he do? This is the Beckett-ness of this show. Leo is systematic about exploring his confines to the extent that he discovers his lopsided situation in both “rooms” at the same time. What we see is what he is experiencing. What he is experiencing is returned to us ten-fold. He discovers the parameters, celebrates, looks for a way to make a home out of his lot, and finally realizes that what he is in need of is another person. When that is not possible, he makes other arrangements.

This must have been the original fable of Adam. All alone by the telephone. What to do? What to do? Leo never gives up. His intention is to have an open heart and welcome the adventure. The piece gets a bit bogged down in the middle where we hear one song too many coming from the magic suitcase. But that lull is temporary and Leo’s ingenuity springs back once again.

Theatre is not about the words (although they do come in handy) as much as it is about that electricity that must circulate from the actor to the audience and back again. Pared down to its essential elements, Leo is a show that uses that universal language of human connection to deliver a one-two punch.
In any language the result is an enormous BRAVO!

LEO – conceived and performed by Tobias Wegner, Directed by Daniel Brière
Creative Producer Gregg Parks

Set and lighting Flavia Hevia, Video design Heiko Kalmbach, Annimation realized by Ingo Panke, Costume design Heather McCrimmon, Choreography by Juan Kruz Diaz de Garaio Esnaola

The Carol Tambor Theatrical Foundation is thrilled to announce the US premiere of the critically-acclaimed production of LEO, created by Circle of Eleven, from Berlin, Germany. LEO comes to the US as the 2011 winner of the Best of Edinburgh Award given annually by the Carol Tambor Theatrical Foundation. A limited engagement through Sunday, February 5 at The Clurman Theatre on Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues). The performance schedule is Tuesday at 7; Wednesday - Friday at 8 PM; Saturday at 2 PM and 8PM; Sunday at 3 PM. For tickets, which are $48.25, call Telecharge at 212-239-6200 or online

The Piccolini Trio: Circus in a Trunk

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 12:23:29 -0500

There are a few reasons that you want to go see these people. First of all they are smart and inventive and speak that universal language of slapstick. Second of all they are housed in what must be the best kept secret in Tribeca, nevermind all of Manhattan: The Canal Park Playhouse http://www.canalparkplayhouse.com, the landmarked 1826 Canal House that has been restored with such love you nearly travel back in time when you set foot inside. And in addition thee is a Bed and Breakfast, The Canal Park Inn http://www.thecanalparkinn.com.

Seriously – theatre and a bedroom??? What could be better?

The Piccolini Trio is made up of three people who charm and delight with the simplest of means. The common denominator is imagination. A smile and a bow produces applause. Why? Because it feels good. Over and over again.

These people don’t ask for your attention, you give it willingly because they are so eager to please. When the real circus doesn’t show up, they offer themselves to us as a replacement, so everything they do is for our benefit. They could not bear it if we were disappointed in them so Earnest and Inventive are the tools of the evening.

This is not children’s humor. This kind of humor knows no age so the audience – from 6 to 60 – laugh at the same moments and moan together at the same mis-steps. It is a little like listening to Rick Perry speak as if he were doing it on purpose. You see the train wreck coming from a long way off and you enjoy the anticipation as much as the crash itself.

Hats become unreachable objects. Music boxes develop personalities of their own. Bells become entire choirs. Children are pulled into the drama of the clown who tries and misses and tries again. And as the children are pulled in, we taller and older children follow them.

This intimate magic space is a refuge where we can root for the silly and the wonder-filled. The Piccolini Trio doesn’t just remind you of the child within, they pull that kid out without so much as the blink of an eye, and when the show is over, they give that same kid permission to stay up past bedtime forever.

What a treat. Take the kids you have or the kid ou are.

The Piccolini Trio in CIRCUS IN A TRUNK, created and performed by Joy Powers, Joshua Shack and John Stork, and directed by Joshua Shack.

CIRCUS IN A TRUNK begins performances on Saturday, January 7 for a limited engagement through Sunday, January 29. The performance schedule is Saturdays and Sundays at 2 PM & 4 PM. The regular ticket price is $20. A pre or post-show Pre Fixe brunch is available for an additional $8 in advance or $10 at the door. For tickets or more information, call OvationTix on 1-866-811-4111 or visit www.canalparkplayhouse.com.

Outside People

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:35:43 -0500

Ohhhhh I get it. THIS is what Ch’inglish was aiming to do, and at which it failed miserably.

Malcolm (Matt Dellapina) is a nice white American boy, down on his luck without friends, jobs, loves and anything else you could consider as a worldly good. His most recent enterprise was making a documentary on subsistence farmers. His college roommate, Da Wei “David” Wang (Nelson Lee) has tossed Malcolm a life line in the form of a job offer. The catch is that it is in China, to which David returned after Stamford and where he is now a wildly successful young entrepreneur, working in a company that acts as an “agency” for migrant workers arriving in Beijing. On Malcolm’s first night David sweeps him directly from the airport to a private room in a noisy nightclub where they are joined by David’s girlfriend Samanya (Sonequa Martin-Green), the Chinese born daughter of a member of the Embassy of Cameroon. Also in attendance is Xiao Mei (Li Jun Li one of David’s employees who is from Henan Province.

So. Everyone at this private table is outside people.

The conversation trundles along down a bi-lingual path. Chinese and English weave together without subtitles or explanation. Zayd Dohrn is a smart writer who expects that his audience is just as smart. He maps out the journey clearly: David is setting Malcolm and Xiao Mei up, physically and professionally. A little sex and a lot of language immersion. What David does not have on the agenda is love. And when people bring an item to the table that is not on David’s agenda, he is not a happy chappy.

Dohrn gives his characters free reign, and he packs a wallop in all the ways that count. These people latch on to each other with grappling hooks and bring with them the baggage of their short lives. They struggle with their loves and with the glass ceilings and walls that encase them. Cultural differences are reduced to something like caramel – it boils down to trust. And in this new land that China is becoming, trust is a rare commodity, and even then it is base on perception.

Everyone here is without a home base. They are alone even when they are with each other. The ties that bind can cut off a person’s circulation, or they can lead a person to a freedom that has its own unknown dangers. Love only guarantees that you have a heart. The care and feeding of that heart is an entirely different matter, especially for an Outside People.

Evan Cabnet guides this cast into a crystal clear production. There is nothing extraneous here. A fine production and a compelling tale of our shrinking world.

OUTSIDE PEOPLE

By Zayd Dohrn; directed by Evan Cabnet; sets by Takeshi Kata; costumes by Jessica Wegener Shay; lighting by Ben Stanton; sound by Jill B C Du Boff; production stage manager, Charles M. Turner III; production manager, David Nelson. Presented by the Vineyard Theater, Douglas Aibel, artistic director; Jennifer Garvey-Blackwell, executive producer; Sarah Stern, co-artistic director; Rebecca Habel, managing director, and by Naked Angels, Andy Donald, artistic director; and Renee Blinkwolt, managing director. At the Vineyard Theater, 108 East 15th Street, Manhattan; (212) 353-0303, vineyardtheatre.org. Through Jan. 29. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes.

WITH: Matt Dellapina (Malcolm), Nelson Lee (David), Li Jun Li (Xiao Mei) and Sonequa Martin-Green (Samanya).

Chimera

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 11:54:45 -0500

In this day of stem cell research and people giving birth to entire litters of children, Suli Holum and Deborah Stein have chosen to examine a condition called Chimera. A chimera is a person who carries two DNA personalities in her body as a result of a fusion of twins that happened in the womb.

When Jennifer Samuels discovers that her son has a heart murmur, she puts her micro-biological skills to work. Jennifer Samuels needs to find out how her son got broken. She is looking for certainty. She is looking for blame. What she comes up with is something out of Fractured Fairytales. Her husband’s DNA does not carry the defect. Neither does hers – until she tests a few million more times and comes up with the news that she, Jennifer Samuels, has two sets of DNA dancing around inside her. With this discovery her life shifts like a sailboat in a stiff wind. Her relationship to her son, her husband and the world takes flight.

Suli Holum is an engaging performer, and she ahs Stein have created a piece that makes you think and marvel at the same time. A little Laurie Anderson and a little Carl Sagan – both of whom I adore.

The pacing of this piece is a marvel in itself. Holum instructs us to look at the set – which is a barren clinical white – and describes the various items we do not see until we see them. Slight of hand made into slight of mind. The story she tells as the narrator, Jennifer Samuels, and the now a young man son Brian is pulled out and delivered like a prized piece of some animal’s nervous system. Step by step we are drawn into the vortex of this tale.

You cannot predict where this will go. You do not want to. The video and simple effects blend with Holum’s performance with tong firmly planted in cheek. Like the chimera of legend, this story is part lion, part goat and part snake. Fierce, pragmatic and stealthy. You cannot trust any aspect of it, but you never ever want to leave your seat.

Those of you interested in writing – get to this show. The rest of you should go along as well.

Chimera is a wonder that knocks directly on the front door of your and demands entry. This is smart and sympathetic, bold and brave, intimate and idealistic. This theatre that makes you want to create because it inspires you with the breath of its adventure.

CHIMERA - Created by Suli Holum (co-creator, performer) and Deborah Stein (co-creator, writer)

Set Design by Jeremy Wilhelm, Lighting Design by James Clotfelter, Costume Design by Tara Webb and Sound Design by James Sugg. Video Design is by Room 404 Media / Kate Freer and Dave Tennent.

Chimera, a HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP) production, playing as a featured presentation in HERE’s current 2011-12 Season, and also part of the 2012 Under The Radar Festival. This multimedia theatrical work plays a limited engagement January 5 – 28 in the Dorothy B. Williams Theatre at HERE (145 Sixth Avenue).

Kissing Sid James

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 11:31:29 -0500

There are only two elements I found lacking in this production: its length and its title. It is, in a word, too long. And the reference to Sid James falls flat because no one knows who he is until they can look him up at intermission. Sid James was an English based South African comedian. And, I don’t get what’s wrong about kissing a comedian.

Both of these aside, however, this is a terrific, if painful, show. It is terrific because Robert Farquhar has an ear for dialogue and rhythm. He understands how we humans can fill up the space between us with words when silence would be a better choice. It is also terrific because these two actors, Alan Drake (Eddie) and Charlotte McKinney (Crystal) know exactly what to do with this text.

It is painful because we have all been in a situation like this at one time or another. Two people passing time together in a romantic sort of way, when they are really treading water and waiting for the whole thing to be over. Even if they are hoping to fall in love, somewhere inside they know this is not going to happen. So they wait, together, and watch the time pass like some slow moving brook.

Eddie and Crystal have gone off for a secluded weekend of room service and debauchery. Except neither of those things will happen because of how each of them is wired. Eddie has no filter. Words tumble out of him like dust from the wrong end of a Hoover. He also has an enormous heart and generous spirit. Crystal is persnickety and nurses a very short fuse that hides her eternal hopefulness. These two circle round each other like cats in a cage, and when they pounce, nothing good can come of it.

Farquhar’s writing is inventive when it could easily lapse in to repetition of the extremely dull kind. Just as you think this couple has run out of steam, one or the other picks up the bone again and runs with it. They have a room for the weekend and they will be damned if they don’t get the most out of it that they can. Never mind that the place is tacky. Never mind that room service is messed up. Never mind that they are not right for one another. Crystal and Eddie are linked like fugitives, and there they will stay until the race has been run.

At the moment this is a two-act play for no apparent reason. It could easily stand some trimming and transform into a one act. This would add to the comedy/ tragedy because the flow would be uninterrupted until the final moment that arrives with a satisfying smack to the head.

Well done. Very well done indeed.

New York, New York November 16, 2011-59E59 Theaters (Elysabeth Kleinhans, Artistic Director; Peter Tear, Executive Producer) welcomes Red Lion Theatres and Cracking Up Productions to 59E59 Theaters with KISSING SID JAMES, written by Robert Farquhar and directed by Jason Lawson for a limited engagement through Sunday, January 1. Press opening is Sunday, December 18 at 7:30 PM. The performance schedule is Tuesday - Thursday at 7:30 PM; Friday at 8:30 PM; Saturday at 2:30 PM and 8:30 PM; and Sunday at 3:30 PM and 7:30 PM. Single tickets are $25 ($17.50 for 59E59 Members). To purchase tickets, call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200 or go to www.5ge59.org. For more information, visit www.britsoffbroadway.com.

Lysistrata Jones

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 12:59:13 -0500

I am nearly speechless after seeing this show. I think that’s because I feel as though someone reached in to my head and tried to short circuit the wiring. This show is so beyond the pale it is a threat to our collective sanity.

I remember the first Douglas Carter Beane show I saw – The Little Dog Laughed. I can tell you where I was sitting in the theatre. I think I could tell you what I was wearing. It was just one of those events that leaves you floating. I don’t know what happened to Mr. Beane, but I do know that I miss him.

Lysistrata Jones (Patti Murin) is a perky transfer students with great abs who arrives at Athens University just when the basketball team is easing its way into the end of a win-less season. In less time than it takes to shake a pom-pom. Ms. Jones takes it upon herself to transform these losers into people who know what it feels like to win. She sings:

BUT LOSING EVERY SINGLE TIME?
THAT'S NO WAY TO LIVE, YOU'VE GOT TO SHINE,
YOU'VE GOT TO LIVE UP TO YOUR POTENTIAL
I THINK THAT IS LIKE SO ESSENTIAL

Yes there are the requisite number of “like” and “awesome” and “totally” words because this is like about kids right?

Puhleeze.

So the young ladies form a cheerleading squad, and when that doesn’t work they withhold sex until the buys win a game. In retaliation the guys go to a Whore (pronounced HO) House where they are stymied by Hetaira (Liz Mikel) who is an ancient Greek courtesan and our narrator as well as by the femail students themselves who dress up like whores.

How uplifting a story is this?

Anyway, when nothing seems to work, Lysistrata gives up, but she is set straight by the nerdy mascot Xander (Jason Tam) and by Hetaira. Lysistrata comes back kicking with a vengeance and Title IX on her side.

Happiness all around.

Somewhere in here there is some clever stuff – like the basketball player who quotes Whitman – but you have to dig very deep, past the layers of spunky meaningless dialogue and soggy lyrics. It is as if the creators of this show were forced to watch one too many episodes of American Idol. All the singing is embellished – the more notes you can pack into one note the better. The choreography is great but relentless – think cheerleaders on steroids.

And what is the most glaring omission is that we never get to see Ms. Jones reach her decision to create a winning team at this college. It happens in a flash, and we never really get to hang out hats on what motivates her decision. By the time we arrive she is in lift-off mode and all we can do is get out of the way. The result is that we have nothing for which to cheer. All we can do is watch this Twinkie take flight and hope that she doesn’t crash-land on one of us when she re-enters.

A shattering waste of talent and time. Will the real Douglas Carter Beane please come back? We ALL miss you.

LYSISTRATA JONES

Book by Douglas Carter Beane; music and lyrics by Lewis Flinn; directed and choreographed by Dan Knechtges

WITH: Patti Murin (Lysistrata Jones), Josh Segarra (Mick), Jason Tam (Xander), Lindsay Nicole Chambers (Robin), Alexander Aguilar (’Uardo), Ato Blankson-Wood (Tyllis), Katie Boren (Lampito), Kat Nejat (Cleonice), LaQuet Sharnell (Myrrhine), Teddy Toye (Harold), Alex Wyse (Cinesias) and Liz Mikel (Hetaira).

Sets by Allen Moyer; costumes by David C. Woolard and Thomas Charles LeGalley; lighting by Michael Gottlieb; sound by Tony Meola; hair design by Mark Adam Rampmeyer; associate choreographer, Jessica Hartman; orchestrations and arrangements by Mr. Flinn; music director, Brad Simmons; music coordinator, Dean Sharenow. Presented by Paula Herold, Alan Wasser, Joseph Smith, Michael McCabe, John Breglio, Takonkiet Viravan/Scenario Thailand, Hilary A. Williams, Broadway Across America and James G. Robinson, in association with Mr. Meola, Martin McCallum and Marianne Mills. At the Walter Kerr Theater, 219 West 48th Street, Manhattan; (800) 432-7250; telecharge.com. Running time: 2 hours 15 minutes.

Stick Fly

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 12:26:13 -0500

A Stick Fly is one of those unfortunate insects that,, in order to be photographed and examined properly, must be glued to a stick. In that position, we can see its extraordinary physical construction and study its complicated nervous system.

After that we toss it in the garbage.

I’m not clear exactly, which of the many characters on this stage at the Cort Theatre is the Stick Fly. Perhaps all of them. Everyone here is under a microscope. Each is watching and being watched. Each is covert. Each is a risk taker. Each is a minority of one as well as being part of a larger racial and sexual minority.

Lydia Diamond has gathered them all in this house on Martha’s Vineyard, into which the entire audience would like to move, and set the burner to simmer. One by one the characters sneak into the kitchen and mess with the flame.

Kent LeVay, a struggling author, (Dulé Hill) is bringing his fiancée Taylor, a research scientist, (Tracie Thoms) to the family manse for the weekend. It is time to meet the folks. His brother, Flip – a plastic surgeon (Mekhi Phifer) is also coming home with a woman who is not a fiancée but would like to be. Kimber, a social worker, (Rosie Benton) is, however, white and that is enough to set this party on its ear. Also in residence is the patriarch, Joe – a neurosurgeon - (Ruben Santiago-Hudson) and the daughter of the regular maid (Condola Rashad). Absent are the two matriarchs – Mrs. LeVay and Miss Ellie – but very present are their respective secrets.
Everybody has them in this family, and they are all playing their cards close to their vests. As created by Ms. Diamond these are complicated characters who are each a little desperate and each is very, very smart. The after dinner discussions flow from Weber to Bell Hooks to life in the “inner city” to the race relations playing out in present time, to what it is that makes family members want to kill one another slowly.
There are a lot of layers to deal with here and Diamond weaves them with a steady hand. We know what each person wants and we know the stakes. All except Kent, who is the most vague and undeveloped person in the bunch. His character doesn’t give Mr. Hill much latitude, and under Kenny Leon’s direction he does not shine. In general the direction seems vague, and it is the actors who have secured a hold on one another. The overlapping dialogue gets away from them fairly often and Ms. Rashad is unintelligible one too many times. This is unfortunate, because, not only is she a fine actor but her character is critical in the saga of the LeVay family.
This is a great evening of theatre that delves not only into family but racial and sexual politics as well. This is not another story about white people struggling, thank God. It is a story about secrets, and family. It is a story about shame and devotion. It is a story about judgment and hope.
It is a story about all of us. Well done, Ms. Diamond. Come back soon.

STICK FLY By Lydia R. Diamond; directed by Kenny Leon

WITH: Dulé Hill (Kent LeVay), Mekhi Phifer (Flip LeVay), Tracie Thoms (Taylor), Ruben Santiago-Hudson (Joe LeVay), Rosie Benton (Kimber) and Condola Rashad (Cheryl).

Sets by David Gallo; costumes by Reggie Ray; lighting by Beverly Emmons; sound by Peter Fitzgerald; production stage manager, Robert Bennett; associate producers, Sarahbeth Grossman, Michael Maso and Erika Rose; production manager, Aurora Productions; general manager, Peter Bogyo. Presented by Nelle Nugent, Alicia Keys, Samuel Nappi, Reuben Cannon, Charles Salameno, Huntington Theater Company, Dan Frishwasser, Catherine Schreiber, Jay H. Harris/Joseph Sirola, Daveed D. Frazier/Mark Thompson and Sharon A. Carr/Patricia R. Klausner/Rick Danzansky, in association with Kenneth Teaton, Cato and Nicole June, Matthew and Shawna Watley, Howard Kagan and Eric Falkenstein. At the Cort Theater, 138 West 48th Street, Manhattan; (212) 239-6200, telecharge.com. Running time: 2 hours 15 minutes.

On A Clear Day

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 11:30:09 -0500

This isn’t the first time I have disagreed with a few reviewers. I LIKED this show. There were a few potholes in the story, but the entire thing gallops forward with such determination and skill that I stayed on board the wagon.

Normally I don’t like it when shows are re-worked, but this one was intriguing on many levels. Originally this is a story set in the mid-60’s about a woman who has a way with plants and possesses a serious case of ESP. She can tell when phones will ring and anticipate people dropping in. She also is a heavy smoker and wants to check this habit in order to keep her beau. Hence she goes to a shrink, who uncovers her past life from the 19th century when he hypnotizes her. The shrink falls in love with the woman from the past life and works to bring that personality forward in order to let it blend into the insecure patient he is treating.

Fast-forward to the film with Barbra Streisand in which a character was added for Jack Nicholson, story details and song lyrics changed as well as entire songs eliminated and added.

So the fact that this show has been re-invented yet again should not be a big deal.

The main change is that the time is set 1974, a fashion low point, and the patient, Daisy, has been changed to David, (David Turner) who is gay and in a committed relationship. So when Dr. Mark Bruckner (Harry Connick, Jr.) hypnotizes David and discovers a past life (now as a woman from the 1940’s), it is still a woman he falls for, Melinda (Jessie Mueller), but this time she is inside the body of a young man. What was once a sort of wild fairy tale now includes gender equality with a smattering of bisexual consideration. Now that there is an update.

The weird part is that most of this is believable in that odd “let us suspend our disbelief” way that only theatre can produce. The main reason is Harry Connick, who is a captivating performer. He is sincere and whimsical. He is self-effacing and dry. He is very, very funny. And when he shares the stage, he really shares the stage. Finally, there is his singing – which is up there in the category to which Barbara Cook refers when she says that you have to tell a story when you sing. Connick knows his songs and takes no prisoners.

The phenomenal Jessie Mueller as Melinda who, unlike a lot of young performers, also understands about the story of a song and doesn’t trade that in for the sake of sounding like an American Idol contestant, matches Connick note for note. She is glorious, and the combination of their voices is spectacular.

David Gamble is over the top, but straps himself securely to the hood of the car and wears you down with his persistence. Drew Gehling (Warren Smith) and Sarah Stiles (Muriel Bunson) round out the story as the loyal and logical bookends with fabulous comic timing and vocal skills.

Michael Mayer’s direction is predictable enough to cause solo moments to end up down stage center but is saved in large part by Joan M. Hunter’s choreography that enhances and expands the story. The supporting cast is top notch. They portray so many characters it makes your head spin, and with the exception of Kerry O’Malley, who as Dr. Sharone Stein is as exciting as a bowl of white rice, they are cracker-jack.

With the exception of eliminating the first act appearance of the title song so that it’s appearance at the end of the second act makes it more of a dangling participle than a coda, the whole she-bang works. This production is like one of those English Christmas desserts with cream and strawberries and Lady Fingers and God only knows what else. The sound of it, and the logic behind it are mystifying. But you think, “What the heck – it’s a holiday and I’ll try it.” You do, and are glad you did.

Treat yourself to this bowl of cherries.

Music by Burton Lane; lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner; new book by Peter Parnell, based on the original book by Lerner; reconceived and directed by Michael Mayer

WITH: Harry Connick Jr. (Dr. Mark Bruckner), David Turner (David Gamble), Jessie Mueller (Melinda Wells), Drew Gehling (Warren Smith), Sarah Stiles (Muriel Bunson), Paul O’Brien (Anton/Dr. Leo Kravis/Maurice/Mr. Van Deusen/Gene Miller/Wesley Porter in 1974), Heather Ayers (Leora Kahn/Club Vedado Singer/Betsy Rappaport/Cynthia Roland/Radio Singer), Lori Wilner (Vera/Mrs. Hatch/Mrs. Lloyd/Radio Singer), Benjamin Eakeley (Preston/Announcer/Radio Singer/Stage Manager), Alex Ellis (Hannah), Tyler Maynard (Roger/Sawyer/Radio Singer), Zachary Prince (Alan/Wesley Porter in 1944), Alysha Umphress (Paula) and Kerry O’Malley (Dr. Sharone Stein).

Choreography by Joann M. Hunter; sets by Christine Jones; costumes by Catherine Zuber; lighting by Kevin Adams; sound by Peter Hylenski; music coordinator, John Miller; associate producers, Stage Ventures 2011 Limited Partnership; technical supervisors, Hudson Theatrical Associates; orchestrations by Doug Besterman; music director/vocal and instrumental music arrangements by Lawrence Yurman. Presented by Tom Hulce and Ira Pittelman, Liza Lerner, Broadway Across America, Joseph Smith, Michael McCabe, Bernie Abrams/Michael Speyer, Takonkiet Viravan/Scenario Thailand, Michael Watt, Jacki Barlia Florin-Adam Blanshay/Chauspeciale/Astrachan & Jupin, Paul Boskind and Martian Entertainment, Brannon Wiles and Carlos Arana/Christopher Maring. At the St. James Theater, 246 West 44th Street, Manhattan; (212) 239-6200; telecharge.com. Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes.