Hughie
written by Eugene O’Neill
starring Forest Whitaker
directed by Michael Grandage
Booth Theatre
March 23, 2016
Production website
ππππ out of 5
Stuck in the lobby.
I often talk with my students – particularly my seniors about how much of their senior year is spent in the βhallwayβ between the world of high school/adolescence and the next, soon to be open, door of their adulthood. It sucks to spend time in the hallway, I get it. Continue reading Hughie
Fool for Love
Written by: Sam Shepard
Directed by: Daniel Aukin
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
Production websiteΒ Β Β ππππ out of 5.
Fool for Love passed the βgay test.βΒ The first criteria that I look for in enjoying Sam Shepard is the amount of gay that I find on stage.Β Obviously I celebrate all that gay artists and particularly stage artists have done – – but I do not like gay with my Sam Shepard.Β If it isnβt 100% straight, then it just doesnβt tell the story and fits like bad, off-the-rack clothing.
This play was bleak and sexually explosive.Β Seldom did they ever mention the sex act and even more seldom they didnβt go to the easy, cheap overplayed crudeness in language that would fuel a play say by David Mamet.Β Little was said or done with the sexuality but you wonβt find a play that smokes with lust more then this. Continue reading Fool for Love
Kafka on the Shore
based on the book by Haruki Murakami
adapted for the stage by Frank Galati
Ninagawa Company
Lincoln Center Festival
July 23, 2015
Production websiteΒ Β ππππ out of 5.
Only in New York after a quiet cappuccino do you get a chance to see a play with talking cats, transgender librarians, truck drivers, a man named Johnnie Walker that cuts off he heads of cats and refrigerates them, and Colonial Sanders (yes, the one from chicken fame) hustling to get you laid for the night. All of this in an elaborate Peer Gynt-like story of finding yourself by taking the greatest journey. Crazy right? Continue reading Kafka at the Beach
H
appy Days
written by Samuel Beckett
directed by Andrei Belgrader
starring Brooke Adams and Tony Shalhoub
The Flea Theatre
July 13, 2015
Production websiteΒ Β Β ππππ out of 5.
You walk into the theatre of seventy-five seats and see nothing on stage but a large mount of dirt and an obviously painted scrim with clouds and sky. The lights go down and up and then we see our protagonist, Winnie (Brooke Adams) βplantedβ in the ground with only her head and torso above ground. Β A theatre shaking alarm blares off, Winnie opens her eyes and itβs βjust another day.β Winnie spends all of act one Β trapped in this dirt mound with only a capacious bag full of toiletries, and a gun – – Brownie – – a gun – just in case . .
Continue reading Happy Days
Skylight
written by David Hare and Mathew Beard
starring Carey Mulligan and Bill Nighy
Golden Theatre – June 14, 2015
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Production website
ππππ out of 5.
This is going to sound a bit crude but watching this show seemed to me a very literate and brilliantly played out feasting on the Animal Channel. Β Crude I know – – but the constant clashing of horns for both the materialist, Bill Nighy, and the newly drafted idealist, Carey Mulligan was a scary thing.
Early in the evening Kyra (Carey Mulligan) puts a pot of Bolognese on the stove (literally food on the stove) and literally heats it for all of the audience to watch and smell. Β This meal cooks and cooks and when finally served we can only guess how hot it gets and how severely it burns the tongue.
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At its simplest, Skylight is the story of an old rich married man with a sickly wife who befriends and later woos a much younger woman. Β The secret plays out for a long time until the death of the wife andΒ conscious of the youngerΒ woman kicks in. Β Now, separated, they join on this rainy night to rekindle (?) what could have been, or might be, or hasn’t a chance of being.
It was very scary to watch the match up here. Β The language was so brilliantly sharpΒ and you couldn’t find twoΒ better actors/swords to wield against each other.
On a funny note, one of my teenage students with me found it totally unbelievable that a man as OLD as he was could ever have a relationship with someone as YOUNG as she was. Β “What could possibly drive them together?”
Patience young teenager – life will reveal stranger things then this.