Rage, Quiet Conversations, and Memory: The Other Place

By Jonathan Jones

Thursday, April 28, 2011

The descent into madness is a lonely road. This was the lesson learned in Sharr White’s The Other Place. When I purchased my ticket, I knew only that Laurie Metcalf had received rave reviews and I knew nothing of the plot. This was perhaps the best way to enter this work. There is no unity of time or place. A presentation at a pharmaceutical conference frames and comments on episodes from the life of Juliana (Metcalf) who insistently believes that she and her husband, Ian (Dennis Boutsikaris) are in the process of getting a divorce due to his apparent infidelity. She lulls the audience with tales of her long estranged daughter who has emerged from the abyss through a number of telephone conversations. Juliana has suffered from an ‘episode’ at the conference and she is certain that she is dying from brain cancer. Through this intricately woven tale, we learn that nothing is as it seems. Juliana is obsessed with representations of her missing daughter with whom she plans to reunite at ‘the other place,’ a family home on the Cape which she believes she visits every weekend to escape the pressures of her day-to-day life.

At the beginning of the piece, I was struck by Metcalf’s performance, as she punctuated every emotional beat with a gesture or facial expression that seemed at first to indicate ‘performance’ rather than character. Such is the brilliance of Ms. Metcalf (under the direction of Joe Mantello) that this was Juliana – a woman caught between her past and her future, reliving memories in flashes of light before they slowly, individually, disappear from view.

White’s words are rich and engaging, and at times comical. When Juliana is interviewed by a doctor, she asks her if she has been flirting with suicide, to which Juliana responds, “We’re dating, sure, but it won’t put out.”

Metcalf delivers a terrifyingly real performance in which the audience is privy to the horror that should you begin to lose your mind, you will be the last to know – and little can be done to stop it. Your memories become stories that others tell you. Your history exists in images in a picture album. And those you’ve loved become strangers who haunt your present. You might look fondly upon them – you may even make quiet conversation with them – but they are strangers to you. The other place becomes your reality, and it is a lonely place to be.

The Other Place runs at The Lucille Lortel Theatre, 121 Christopher Street, through May 1^st. Tickets can be purchased at ticketcentral - CLICK HERE

Wet Afternoon; Wet Opera

By Jonathan Jones

Thursday, April 28, 2011

On a wet afternoon, I made my way to Lincoln Center for a day at the opera.

I don’t know opera. I’ve sat through it. I’ve sung it. I’ve loved it. In 2001, I even appeared in it. But I don’t know it. That said, there is little I can accurately say about Séance on a Wet Afternoon, Stephen Schwartz’ work that was commissioned by Opera Santa Barbara, first performed in 2009, based on the1964 British film directed by Bryan Forbes, itself based on the novel by Mark McShane. This is a horror story so compelling that you cannot take your eyes off of the stage. It being opera, one has to remember that the ears should play an important sensory role as well, but here, I’m less certain of the success of the piece.

Stephen Schwartz is a brilliant composer. He can create mood and feeling like the best of them. Listening to Séance, I was enthralled by the orchestral score and reminded of Schwartz’ successes as a film composer. The orchestra in Séance sounds like an Alfred Hitchcock film—as it should. In fact, it was so convincing that I wanted to write Schwartz  a letter imploring him to accept his success in musical theatre and move on to composing exclusively for film, thereby creating an renaissance of film scoring.

Vocally, what was happening was much less clear. With perhaps one exception (a song that ‘plays’ on a recording—sung off stage by the chorus), there was no aria in the piece that could stand on its own. Further, the recitative was distracting and all together bizarre – as though Schwartz forgot that he was writing a song, let the dialogue fall where it may, and set it to music that did not appear to have an identifiable structure. Nonetheless, the skill of the principals was such that the audience lauded every song.

Directed by Schwartz’ son Scott, the chorus operates as reporters whose gestures and staging so closely mimic that of the Ozians from Wicked (“Good News”), that it became almost comical at times, which was truly inappropriate.

As for the plot, a woman conspires to become a renowned medium by kidnapping a child, holding her for ransom, and then claiming to use her mystical powers to find the child and return her safely to her parents. Unfortunately, in a twist straight out of Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, it is revealed that her husband has been placating her delusions for some time, and when she has her mental break (followed by their own version of ‘get the guests’ – truly, who influenced whom?), she decides on a new ending for the kidnapped girl that was so horrifying, I think my heart may actually have stopped.

The story is so strong that it is definitely worth seeing. Yet for the opera aficionados out there, I might say beware – but rather, I invite your comments. What did you think of this Séance?

This video begins with the song that I loved (strangely not listed in the song list on Stephen Schwartz’ website):

Séance on a Wet Afternoon is presented at New York City Opera though May 1^st. It will be presented at Queensland Opera, Australia in 2012.

Who's the Boss Around Here?

By Jonathan Jones

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

In Urinetown,  Office Lockstock tells Little Sally, “Nothing can kill a show like too much exposition.” To which Sally replies, “How about bad subject matter? Or a bad title even? That could kill a show pretty good.” Tony Kushner dives right in during the first scene of The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures preventing the aforementioned offending overuse of exposition, but on subject matter and a bad title, all is lost in this three and half hour exploration of the organization of longshoreman in New York City and utter trivialization of assisted suicide.

The success and brilliance of August: Osage County demystify Mr. Kushner’s attraction to the subject matter of this piece. Eugene O’Neill channeled his familial experience into Long Day’s Journey Into Night, but Tracy Letts’ experience of getting inspiration from the great playwrights of the past is what seems to have equally motivated Mr. Kushner. While listening to the entire cast yell at each other for nearly thirty minutes with expertly crafted quips and barbs is indeed entertaining, what lies beneath is beyond comprehension.

The patriarch of this family tried to commit suicide in the year preceding the events of the play, and now, he has decided to sell the family home and successfully complete the suicidal act thereafter. The adult children have convened in order to decide as a family whether or not he should commit suicide. Had he shared this desire with one trusted confidant and he or she had to deal with the gravity of his decision, this could be believable, but a family meeting in which no one seems really vested in the matter at hand (the writing, not the acting) defies logic. No matter how many times Gus tried to convey to each of his children why the specter of Alzheimer’s disease and his unending guilt over cheating his union brothers with less seniority out of a guaranteed lifetime income for work they were no longer required to do, the response from the children was never fully realized. There were moments where each “dealt” with the impending suicide through one emotional break or other, but the situation was so grave and so real from the start (he had slit his wrists the year before—this was no game) that I could never get over the lack of seriousness with which the threat was being handled. I didn’t mind the subject matter so much as I minded the way the subject matter was handled (or perhaps not handled is more accurate). 

After the disappointment of the characters not behaving in a truthful manner, I spent a good deal of the three and half hours wondering about the title of the piece. Who is the homosexual who is providing the guide? Two of the children are indeed homosexuals, but this was not their story so much as it was their father’s. Was Mr. Kushner the homosexual—is this his guide to these subjects? Or is it a guide for the homosexual in the audience to understand this world Mr. Kushner has created. I still don’t know. Bad title.

Make no mistake, the cast does an incredible job of breathing life into these wildly unlikable characters. I could dissect the merits of each, but it’s really not necessary. They are working under incredible duress and I am amazed by what they, in concert with director Michael Greif, were able to create in these circumstances (though I am infinitely curious about Mr. Greif’s attraction to geometry given his staging here, in Angels in America, Next to Normal, and Rent – it all starts to look similar and I want to know much more about why his aesthetic is such).

At the end of Act II of August: Osage County, the eldest daughter Barbara howls, “I’M RUNNING THINGS NOW!” The audience has craved someone taking charge in this family for so long that people actually cheered in response. The tepid laughter that followed Adam’s (ex-husband of the lesbian daughter in The Intelligent Homosexual…) drunken pronouncement of love for Empty (his ex wife) and his misguided attempt to 'run things' (see the play – I don’t want to give it all away) bespoke the ongoing allusion though more work (and editing!!) needs to be done here in order for this work to succeed in the way that August did.

The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures is currently running at The Public Theatre in a joint production with Signature Theatre Company in association with the Guthrie Theater as part of Signature’s ongoing season celebrating the works of Tony Kushner through June 12, 2011. Both parts of Angels in America are presented at Signature Theatre through Sunday, April 24, 2011 and The Illusion will play May 17 – July 10,  2011. Tickets at www.signaturetheatre.org

August: Osage County trailer:

Sometimes, It’s Not So Good to Be a Nun

By Jonathan Jones

Thursday, April 14, 2011

The only good thing about Sister Act the musical was that it really made me appreciate how wonderful the film was.

The creative team went wrong in so many ways – the first being that if they could not get permission to use the arrangements from the film, they should not have done the show. That being said, the first act clocks in at about one hour—fifty minutes of which were lackluster and all-together boring, as was nearly every other part of the show that did not involve the choir of nuns singing and dancing.

Given the stage credits of many of the principal and supporting characters, there seemed to have been a desire to give nearly ever character a ballad or two which dragged down the pace of the show, particularly as few if any of these ballads advanced the plot in any meaningful way. “I Could Be That Guy” had 45 seconds of bliss where Hairspray’s Chester Gregory reminded me what a tremendous performer he can be, but it was preceded by four minutes of purposeless dreck. Either his voice is unfortunately shot or the material is so bad, he doesn’t know where to begin (sadly, I suspect both). Victoria Clark’s (Light in the Piazza) Mother Superior was bland and her talents too were lost in the miasma of one bad ballad after another. Marla Mindelle’s Sister Mary Robert (the postulate) was adequate, but Kerry Butler (who is currently being wasted in Catch Me if You Can) would be much better suited for the role. Kingsley Leggs has my sympathies as he has unfortunately been given a poorly constructed role and musical numbers here (in the role of Deloris’ nemesis, Curtis Jackson) just as he was in The Color Purple. Patina Miller tried desperately to breathe life into Doloris Van Cartier/Sister Mary Clarence, but in the midst of such mediocrity, it was tough for me to care.

The set pieces revolved in and out, as is customary in London theaters that have been enhanced to put in transfers from The Olivier Theatre at the Royal National. At some moments, this allowed for some interesting staging by director Jerry Zaks, but did we need a pair of chase scenes? Kar Zieglerova’s giant statue of Mary in the middle of the church was curious and bizarre, but when she was disco-fied for the curtain call, it became clear that Madonna’s disco cross from the Confessions Tour was being channeled.  

Alan Menken has created some of the most memorable melodies in the animated film repertoire (tonight, he was sitting a mere four seats from me). Unfortunately, his talents are limited and some of his songs are virtually identical (“Somewhere That’s Green” recycled as “Part of Your World” for instance). Here, “Be Our Guest” was re-imagined as “Bless Our Show.” The 11 o’clock number “Sister Act” wanted desperately to be “For Good” from Wicked, but was notably inferior. The interpolation of a taste of Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” was fun but certainly not necessary. While the three large numbers for the choir were indeed blissful ("Raise Your Voice," “Take Me to Heaven,” and “Spread the Love Around”), the rest of the score fell flat. In this last week of previews, they should cut all the unnecessary numbers (everything sung by anyone other than the choir) and bring the show in at 90 minutes.

Sister Act will open at The Broadway Theater on April 20, 2011




The London Cast:

The Film: