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June 2006
‘Twelfth Night’ @ Georgia Shakespeare
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Through July 21. Grade: B+
The kiss seems at once entirely inappropriate and entirely right. Disguised as a man, Viola can’t contain her love, and at one point in “Twelfth Night,” she plants a bashful but fully realized smooch on the lips of her employer, Orsino, Duke of Illyria.
But instead of freaking out, Orsino —- played by Brandon J. Dirden in Georgia Shakespeare’s wonderfully satisfying new production —- seems cool with it. He appears to enjoy it more than he’d care to admit, and his body language says to Viola-Cesario (Courtney Patterson), “We’ll just pretend that didn’t happen.”
Considering the way Shakespeare’s wildly convoluted farce pans out, this whiff of foreshadowing speaks resonantly about the messy randomness of romance —- and sits like a quiet gem at the center of a show that’s chockablock with frustrated lovers, mistaken identities and deliberate silliness on the part of the Bard.
Any production that includes Chris Ensweiler’s over-the-top Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Chris Kayser’s Scroogey-stoogey Malvolio and Neal A. Ghant’s Feste isn’t exactly swimming in understatement, either. So here’s to director Karen Robinson for occasionally tempering the tomfoolery and tone to deliver a wise and witty “Twelfth Night, or What You Will.”
Ensweiler and Kayser create studies in ridiculousness from unmodulated excess. Kayser cuts a ludicrous figure without even opening his mouth, but his long letter-reading monologue feels self-indulgent and cloying. “Vain bibble babble,” indeed. I just wish that Ghant had a little more license to yuk it up as Feste. He’s the jester, after all.
Crystal Dickinson gets delicious mileage from the unknowing posture of Olivia, who falls for Viola-Cesario. And Dirden’s Orsino, who is smitten with an indifferent Olivia, sets the mood with his handsomely delivered “If music be the food of love” speech.
Though nicely rendered by Joe Knezevich, Sebastian exists more as a structural device than a fully operable character. Twin brother of Viola and believed to be lost at sea, he stays out of the picture most of the time but is crucial in the final tying of love knots. The portly Bruce Evers has a good time with the aptly named Sir Toby Belch, and Tess Malis Kincaid’s Maria has a lot of fun at Malvolio’s expense.
On the design side, Kat Conley keeps the visuals stark and simple: A runway at the back of the set conveys the passage of time and a sense of wandering, and a stylized whirligig spins and chimes mysteriously when the air is charged with magic. Christine Turbitt’s 19th-century costumes vary from posh gowns to outrageous kilts and yellow stockings for Malvolio’s madcap makeover.
“Twelfth Night” isn’t as well-known as the like-minded “As You Like It” and “Much Ado About Nothing.” But it is a rich and luxurious undertaking for a game ensemble of nitwits who are sometimes required to express the queasy pain of yearning and unrequited love.
With a regal “Hamlet” already in the repertory, Georgia Shakes is two-for-two this season. This is a splendid “Twelfth Night.”
THE 411: In repertory with “Hamlet” through July 21. $15-$40. Georgia Shakespeare, Conant Performing Arts Center, Oglethorpe University, 4484 Peachtree Road N.E., Atlanta. 404-264-0020, www.gashakespeare.org.
THE VERDICT: Near-greatness has been thrust upon us.
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‘Mormon Boy’ at 14th Street Playhouse
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. “Confessions of a Mormon Boy� Through July 16. Grade: B-
Steven Fales jokes that he’s an “Oxy-Mormon,� because his sexual identity and religious background don’t mesh. He’s gay. He’s Mormon. And based on the acccount he gives in his one-man show, “Confessions of a Mormon Boy,� it would be hard to imagine a more splintered existence.
How did the Utah native and sixth-generation member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints come to be a pricey New York call-boy with a taste for Prada and crystal meth?Â
Fales’ struggle to reconcile his same-sex attraction with his strict upbringing is the defining conflict of his 90-minute autobiographical play, which should spark some thoughtful conversations around this weekend’s Gay Pride events. Fales may be a social provocateur, but his ultimate concern is healing.
Though fascinating and highly likeable, “Confessions� is built on a thin premise — what homosexual doesn’t suffer stigma and alienation? — and told in straightforward chronological order in plodding past tense. Fales gets so bogged downed in making his case about the painted-on smiles, hypocrisy and lies of his Mormon existence that you almost feel a rush when he crashes out of the closet and into the steamy underworld of Manhattan prostitution.
Party time. Whoo-hoo.
But beyond Fales’ own considerable misery, “Confessions� gains emotional texture from his harrowing account of the pain he inflicted on his wife and two young children. In a weird twist of fate, his wife’s father was a closeted homosexual who died of AIDS, and his mother-in-law a noted author who wrote about the experience in a memoir.
“What kind of joke were the gods playing on us?� he wonders.
As directed by Tony Award winner Jack Hofsiss (“The Elephant Man�), Fales is a superb technician who does skillful impersonations of the various characters he encounters along his journey — from a ditzy “reparative� therapist to his first wealthy john to his broken-hearted young son.
Unlike Leslie Jordan, who recently brought his own confessional shtick to this same 14th Street Playhouse space, Fales is not an outrageous comic show-off. (He’d probably blame this on being a Mormon.) He’s more ironic, though. He’s beefier. And he has a few surprises about courage that will endear him to audience members.
By the end of his unflinching self-examination, Fales has gained his family’s forgiveness, reclaimed his gift as an actor and found peace with his role as a dad. If he wants to sing Abba tunes to his kids or take them to the Jackie-O exhibit at the Met, that’s his business.
This is a tale about finding redemption in honesty.
THE 411: 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturdays. 2:30 p.m. Sundays. (No performances June 29-July 2.) Through July 16. $35-$55. 14th Street Playhouse, 173 14th St., Midtown. 404-733-5000; www.mormonboy.com or www.woodruffcenter.org
THE VERDICT: At once provocative and uplifting.
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‘Chicago’ at the Fox
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Through Sunday. Grade: B -
For a Broadway musical built on windy jazz and illicit nooky, Kander and Ebb’s “Chicago� wallows in contradiction.
The score is rife with flapper motifs, but it’s more about setting a tone than delivering an authentic jazz reconstruction. And if the casting of Velma and Roxie is true to the spirit of the material, the slinky criminals exude all kinds of sexiness but aren’t conventional babes.
This is why the Theater of the Stars production at the Fox Theatre feels so faithful to the vulgar, lived-in contours of the original story. If you come expecting the glamor quotient of Rob Marshall’s 2003 Oscar winner starring Catherine Zeta-Jones (Velma) and Renée Zellweger (Roxie), you may be disappointed.
For Terra C. MacLeod’s Velma is used up and brash. Michelle DeJean’s Roxie is several spa-years short of petite. And the whole chorus looks dangerously pale, thin and out of gas. (That’s a compliment. Sort of.)
This appropriately haggard ensemble is what makes John O’Hurley’s turn as Billy Flynn so electric. Flynn may be a mercenary, headline-hogging criminal attorney, but the former “Seinfeld� star plays him as a elegant, silver-crested dandy with the crooning style of Fred Astaire. In this ensemble, he is unique in that his sound is of the period. On the comedic side, you’ll never see a smarmier Flynn, who exists to look down his nose. Completely surrounded by girls and swaddled in white feathers (“All I Care About�), he makes us wonder what’s going on under there. Brilliant.
With his oversize sweater and slouching posture, Kevin Carolan’s Amos Hart is a little heavy on the sadsack shtick. And though Carol Lee’s Matron “Mama� Morton can be a commanding presence, her movement, such as it is, seems oddly off-kilter. The clawlike gesture she makes with her hands doesn’t match her dynamic singing voice.
The word on Peachtree after Tuesday night’s opening was that DeJean’s Roxie takes a little getting used to. Fair enough. DeJean may not be a petite blonde, and scaling a ladder is not her strong suit. But she’s a superb drunk and a marvelous actress who, in the wink of an eyelash, can go from touching to funny, which is exactly what she does in Roxie’s monologue. Too bad that MacLeod’s Velma doesn’t live up to the promise of fireworks that we glimpse at the top of the night. MacLeod is good at conveying the raw, ragged edges in her character’s personality, but she is less successful at finding the nuance.
This revival production— directed by Walter Bobbie with sets by John Lee Beatty and costumes by William Ivey Long — is now 10 years old. That its actresses can’t get laughs from confessional “Cellblock Tango� is probably a sign that it could use a little freshening up.
But if the show looked in danger of bombing in the first 15 minutes, it quickly snapped to life as soon as O’Hurley took the stage. In the way Flynn manipulates Roxie like a puppet (“We Both Reached for the Gun�), O’Hurley seems to control the indelicate rhythms of this “Chicago.�
When all is said and done, he’s the one with killer instinct.
THE 411: 8 p.m. tonight-Friday; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday. Theater of the Stars, Fox Theatre, 660 Peachtree St., Atlanta. $20-$62. 404-817-8700, www.foxtheatre.org.
THE VERDICT: Murder never felt so fun.
‘Hamlet’ @ Georgia Shakespeare
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Grade: B. Through July 22.
When Jasson Minadakis took over Actor’s Express three years ago, everybody kept asking if he was going to do Shakespeare. “God, I hope not,” he said. After producing 36 Shakespearean plays in a decade at the Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival, the guy needed a break.
But thanks to the persuasive skills of Georgia Shakespeare’s Richard Garner, Minadakis returns to “Hamlet,” the Bard’s most monumental tragedy, to show us that he can still strut his Tudor stuff.
Opening Georgia Shakespeare’s 21st season, Minadakis’ take on the tale of the tortured prince is a brisk and uncluttered treatment that allows a fine-looking ensemble to utter the 400-year-old text in a rhythm that’s easily accessible to the modern ear.
If you’ve ever sat through a garbled, four-hour version of Shakespeare’s longest work, you will appreciate this lean and fluent version, starring Daniel May as the dour Dane and Courtney Patterson as the besmirched Ophelia.
May’s performance is deceptively smart and stealthy in the way it hints at the many faces of Hamlet, who himself was an exceedingly fine actor —- unhinged by grief and revenge one minute, amused by the absurdity of his fate the next. After the initial terror of seeing his father’s ghost (Chris Kayser), Hamlet treats him like some nifty supernatural playmate. “Ha, ha, boy, say’st thou so?” he says, peering into the tomb, egging on the apparition.
Patterson plays Ophelia with such high-spirited physicality that you never expect her character’s undoing to be so wholly sad and devastating. Her performance is heartbreaking, and Joe Knezevich’s take on her brother, Laertes, is elegant to a fault. As the incestuously usurping king and queen, Tess Malis Kincaid and Brad Sherrill are more regally human than monstrously sinister. They may be evil, but they remain glamorous under pressure.
A few caveats, though.
While English Toole Benning’s Elizabethan costumes are gorgeously stitched and detailed, they don’t exactly go with the sleekly modern tone, which is echoed by set designer Kat Conley’s spiky scaffolding and the hollow pit of a grave that’s never out of sight.
Liz Lee’s lighting is overly sepulchral at first, making the actors’ faces hard to see. And in trimming the text down to a palatable three hours, Polonius’ famous advice to Laertes has been excised. Except for Hamlet’s “To Be or Not to Be” speech, I can’t think of a more egregious omission.
Nor can I remember the last time a three-hour show felt like two or that Shakespeare’s tale of revenge unfolded so seamlessly. More technically precise than emotionally riveting, this “Hamlet” is a prime example of what Georgia Shakespeare does best, finding the contemporaneity in the classics and staging them with the stylishness of fashion photography. How lucky for us that Minadakis had a change of heart.
THE 411: 8 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and continuing in rotating repertory with “Twelfth Night” through July 22. $15-$40. Georgia Shakespeare, Conant Performing Arts Center, 4484 Peachtree Road N.E., Atlanta. 404-264-0020; www.gashakespeare.org.
The verdict: A clear and uncluttered take on the tragedy.
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Tony report: LaChanze wins for ‘Color Purple’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Let’s hear it for the boys.
The 60th Tony Awards snoozed along as expected Sunday night, with the frothy Canadian import “The Drowsy Chaperone” and Alan Bennett’s superbly literary “The History Boys” picking up award after award. But the soporific show got a wakeup call in the final seconds, when “Jersey Boys” became the first jukebox musical to win the coveted Tony for best musical.
The “Drowsy Chaperone” earned five Tonys. British playwright Alan Bennett’s “The History Boys” took six, including best play. “Jersey Boys,” a biography of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, garnered four.
“The Color Purple,” the musical that had its world premiere at Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre in 2004, won just one award. LaChanze —- who originated the role of Alice Walker’s triumphant heroine, Celie, in Atlanta —- took the prize for lead actress.
“Oh, my God, I won it, I really won it,” said the 9/11 widow and mother of two. LaChanze thanked Walker, producer Oprah Winfrey and the creative team for tackling Broadway. “The Color Purple” had been nominated for 11 awards.
One interesting facet of this year’s Tony race was that neither of the biggest winners —- “Drowsy” and “History Boys” —- were made in America.
“We were a bit nervous about the response,” Bennett said of the decision to move the National Theatre hit from London to Broadway. “But audiences have been so generous and open-hearted. They have surpassed anything we could have hoped for.”
Director Nicholas Hytner won a Tony for “History Boys,” as did actors Richard Griffiths and Frances de la Tour.
Clifford Odets’ forgotten 1937 play —- “Awake and Sing!” —- won best play revival, and 1954’s “The Pajama Game” got the prize for best musical revival.
In many ways, it was a “Drowsy” night.
The three-hour show, broadcast from New York’s Radio City Music Hall on CBS, had no master of ceremonies, and it suffered for it: 60 presenters and zero personality. (Hugh Jackman, where are you?)
By far the most emotional acceptance speech was that of Christian Hoff, the son of Italian immigrants who won for his featured role in “Jersey Boys.” “Thank you, Papa,” said the choked-up singer.
The most nostalgic touch was the appearance of the original Four Seasons and actor Joe Pesci, the man who helped bring them together. The most historic cameo was by Patricia Neal, who won a Tony the first year they were handed out, 1947. Neal got a replacement medallion Sunday night for the award that was stolen shortly after she received it.
The most moving sequence of the evening was the tribute to the late playwright August Wilson, who died of liver cancer last year. James Earl Jones performed a riveting excerpt from Wilson’s “Fences.”
Director Harold Prince, who holds a record 20 Tonys, was cited for lifetime achievement, but he called in his speech from Las Vegas, where he’s directing a new production of Broadway’s longest-running show, “The Phantom of the Opera.”
Actress Julia Roberts may have been panned for her performance in “Three Days of Rain,” but CBS worked the Oscar winner’s name in at the top of every commercial break, the better to keep the Smyrna native’s fans tuned in. “You people are insanely talented,” the glamorous Roberts said to the stage actors in attendance before handing out an award.
John Tartaglia, an original star of “Avenue Q,” trotted out the same puppet shtick he used a couple of years ago, and the odd couple award went to the pairing of two presenters, silver-throated Audra McDonald and Harvey Fierstein, who sounded like his vocal chords had been buffed with a Brillo pad.
Straining to see the monitor, presenter Paul Rudd said, “Oh, I need Lasik,” while co-presenter Lauren Ambrose flashed her best “Six Feet Under” ironic smile. Rudd, who stars with Roberts in “Three Days of Rain,” managed to announce that Bob Martin and Don McKellar had won for the book of “Drowsy.”
“Thank you, America,” said Martin. The Toronto-produced “Drowsy” also scored for Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison’s score and Gregg Barnes’ costumes.
“History Boys” director Hytner took the play-directing award by thanking Bennett, his longtime collaborator at London’s National. “He is the best luck I ever had,” said Hytner, who directed Bennett’s “The Madness of George III” for stage and film and has also made the movie of “History Boys,” to be released this year.
John Doyle won for his down-sized direction of “Sweeney Todd.” “I would thank the costume and set designer, but they have given up the business after working with me,” said the tongue-in-cheek multi-tasker, who also created the clothes and scenery for “Sweeney.”
Early in the evening, a duo of featured-acting winners gave the Tonys a British aura.
Ian McDiarmid accepted his best featured actor prize for Brian Friel’s “Faith Healer” by emoting one of his character’s favorite words —- “Fantastic!” —- and saying how proud he was to be part of a show that didn’t do well on its first Broadway outing, in 1979. And de la Tour thanked the backstage crew of “History Boys.”
The show began with Harry Connick Jr. crooning a medley of Broadway standards and sporting high hair. Soon afterward, his “Pajama Game” director-choreographer, Kathleen Marshall, took her second Tony. Her first was for “Wonderful Town.”
And the Tony goes to …
Play: “The History Boys” Author: Alan Bennett Producers: Boyett Ostar Productions, Roger Berlind, Debra Black, Eric Falkenstein, Roy Furman, Jam Theatricals, Stephanie P. McClelland, Judith Resnick, Scott Rudin, Jon Avnet/Ralph Guild, Dede Harris/Mort Swinsky, The National Theatre of Great Britain
Musical: “Jersey Boys” Producers: Dodger Theatricals, Joseph J. Grano, Pelican Group, Tamara and Kevin Kinsella, Latitude Link, Rick Steiner/Osher/Staton/Bell/Mayerson Group
Book of a Musical: Bob Martin and Don McKellar, “The Drowsy Chaperone”
Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre: Music & Lyrics: Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison, “The Drowsy Chaperone”
Revival of a Play: “Awake and Sing!”
Revival of a Musical: “The Pajama Game”
Leading Actor in a Play: Richard Griffiths, “The History Boys”
Leading Actress in a Play: Cynthia Nixon, “Rabbit Hole”
Leading Actor in a Musical: John Lloyd Young, “Jersey Boys”
Leading Actress in a Musical: LaChanze, “The Color Purple”
Featured Actor in a Play: Ian McDiarmid, “Faith Healer”
Featured Actress in a Play: Frances de la Tour, “The History Boys”
Featured Actor in a Musical: Christian Hoff, “Jersey Boys”
Featured Actress in a Musical: Beth Leavel, “The Drowsy Chaperone”
Direction of a Play: Nicholas Hytner, “The History Boys”
Direction of a Musical: John Doyle, “Sweeney Todd”
Choreography: Kathleen Marshall,”The Pajama Game”
Orchestrations: Sarah Travis, “Sweeney Todd”
Scenic Design of a Play: Bob Crowley, “The History Boys”
Scenic Design of a Musical: David Gallo, “The Drowsy Chaperone”
Costume Design of a Play: Catherine Zuber, “Awake and Sing!”
Costume Design of a Musical: Gregg Barnes, “The Drowsy Chaperone”
Lighting Design of a Play: Mark Henderson, “The History Boys”
Lighting Design of a Musical: Howell Binkley, “Jersey Boys”
Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement: Harold Prince
Special Tony: Sarah Jones
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Tony Blog: Will ‘Color Purple’ win?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THE AJC has given extensive coverage to “The Color Purple” since first learning it would receive its world premiere at the Alliance Theatre. That was 2004. Two years later, we wait to see if it will win Tony Awards at Sunday night’s ceremony. What do you think? Should it? Could it? Will it?
To get you started, here’s a quick look at how Alice Walker’s “The Color Purpleâ€? became a hit Broadway musical with 11 Tony nominations.
1996: Producer Scott Sanders approaches Walker about turning the novel into a musical. She’s hesitant at first but eventually acquiesces. It takes him two years to get the rights from Warner Bros. and Amblin Entertainment, makers of the 1985 Steven Spielberg film.
2000: After a long search for the songwriting team, Sanders settles on pop songsmiths Brenda Russell, Stephen Bray and Allee Willis. Regina Taylor (“Crowns,� “Drowning Crow�) is picked to write the book.
February 2004: Behind schedule on the project, Taylor is released, and Marsha Norman (Pulitzer Prize for “ ’Night, Mother,� Tony for book of “The Secret Garden�) is brought on board — just weeks before a New York workshop.
March 2004: The Alliance announces the musical will kick off its 2004-2005 season. Chicago’s Goodman Theatre and Seattle Repertory Theatre also were considered for the world premiere.
September 2004: The show opens to mixed reviews but sets a box-office record at the Alliance. By the end of October, Sanders has reconvened the creative team for rewrites.
July 2005: Sanders announces the $10 million musical will open Dec. 1 at the Broadway Theatre. Adriane Lenox, the original Shug Avery, is not expected to return due to her Tony-winning stint in “Doubt.�
September 2005: Oprah Winfrey signs on as an over-the-title producer.
Dec. 1, 2005: The show opens to lukewarm reviews.
May 2006: The musical receives 11 Tony nominations, including best musical.
Sunday, June 11: The Tonys are announced at Radio City Music Hall.
Tony Awards: Expecting the unexpected
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
TV Preview. “60th Annual Tony Awards.” 8 p.m. Sunday on CBS.
In the final moments of the 2004 Tony Awards ceremony, some fast-fingered electronic sign-keeper at Radio City Music Hall got ahead of himself. Even though underdog puppet show “Avenue Q� won best musical, a flashing score card inside the theater announced that the winner was “Wicked.�
Oops.
Moral of the story: Never assume the front-runner takes all. The paradigm that worked for “The Producers,� “Hairspray� and “Thoroughly Modern Millie� in recent years no longer holds. The gods seem to be watching Tony voters.
Or, at the least, the industry types who decide the Antoinette Perry Awards seem to have gotten a little less commercial and a little more attuned to quality. Witness the fate of “Wicked� and “Spamalot� — the latter led nominations last year but was bested in total Tonys by “The Light in the Piazza� — and the singling out of gems like “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,� which comes to the Alliance Theatre in August, and “Urinetown.�
This is good for the theater, in general, and makes the Tony show, which is broadcast live tonight on CBS, better TV.
At this year’s event, which marks the awards’ 60th birthday, the musical honors are likely to be spread among top nominees “The Drowsy Chaperone� (13 nominations), “The Color Purple� (11) and “Jersey Boys� (8) — and revivals of “The Pajama Game� (9) and “Sweeney Todd� (6). Don’t expect “The Wedding Singer� (5) or the revival of “The Threepenny Opera� (2) to swoop in at the last second, a la “Avenue Q.�
Atlanta will be following “The Color Purple,� which had its world premiere at the Alliance Theatre in 2004.
Considering that anything can happen, and probably will, here’s a look at tonight’s Tony race, with an eye to the unexpected, the uncelebrated and the uncensored:
Should a jukebox musical win? Tony didn’t think that “Mamma Mia!� — a harmless bit of escapism set to the music of Abba — deserved an award, and the Billy Joel-Twyla Tharp collaboration “Movin’ Out� got what it deserved: honors for choreography and orchestration. But even theater snobs are jumping up and down about “Jersey Boys,� the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, which has already won Drama League and Outer Critics Circle awards for best musical and is certain to “Walk Like a Man� tonight. All bets are on that John Lloyd Young, the cleft-chinned looker who plays Valli, will win best actor in a musical.
The demon barber of … Bourbon Street? The competition between Sondheim’s “Sweeney Toddâ€? and “The Pajama Game,â€? led by Crescent City favorite and Tony nominee Harry Connick Jr., will be close. But I expect “The Pajama Gameâ€? may have the edge among the revivals. Why? Sondheim has become overexposed on the Great White Way — a development that could not have been imagined a few years ago — and revivals of even his most difficult material are becoming commonplace. “Assassinsâ€? was named best revival in 2004, and Michael Cerveris, who now plays the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, won for his portrayal of John Wilkes Booth. Last season, “Pacific Overturesâ€? received a so-so run that garnered no Tonys. Next season, John Doyle, director of the streamlined “Sweeney,â€? brings his streamlined “Companyâ€? to Broadway. Doyle has a strong chance of winning a director’s prize tonight for “Sweeney.â€?
Personal story rivals the play: This is not, repeat, not, a plea for a sympathy vote. Broadway’s LaChanze, who plays Alice Walker’s Celie in “The Color Purple,� deserves a best actress award by virtue of her powerhouse performance. But if you know the actress’ back story, you can’t help but feel a double-whammy when she triumphs as the downcast and put-upon Celie. LaChanze was pregnant with her second daughter when her husband, Calvin Gooding, died in the World Trade Center on 9/11. LaChanze became an audience favorite when “Purple� played at the Alliance. She also was nominated for 1991’s “Once on This Island.�
Character actors rock: Especially, it seems, if they are from the United Kingdom. The portly English actor Richard Griffiths has had a long career on radio, stage and film, playing everything from Falstaff to Uncle Vernon Dursley in the “Harry Potter� movies. Now the actor has a rare chance to show the full range of his gift as the language-loving, boy-fiddling schoolmaster in Alan Bennett’s “The History Boys.� He deserves, and is likely to get, a Tony for actor in a play. So do fellow Brits and featured actor nominees Zoë Wanamaker (“Awake and Sing!�) and Ian McDiarmid, who plays tattered and talky Teddy in “Faith Healer� and is best known for the role of the Emperor in the “Star Wars� trilogy.
Those double-dressing designers: “History Boys� designer and nominee Bob Crowley also styled and directed “Tarzan,� but the Disney spectacle was almost shut out of this year’s Tonys. Only lighting designer Natasha Katz scored a nod, and she deserves the silver medallion for making Crowley’s technical wizardry look so stunning. Crowley himself has stiff competition in the peerless John Lee Beatty, who is nominated for both “The Color Purple� and “Rabbit Hole.� Another double nominee is Santo Loquasto, for the sets of “Three Days of Rain� and for the costumes of “A Touch of the Poet.� Yet another is Catherine Zuber, who frequently designs for the Alliance and is up for “Awake and Sing!� and “Seascape.�
For my money, the entire “Awake and Sing!� design team deserves to win: Zuber, Michael Yeargan for his slowly disappearing set and Christopher Akerlind for his sumptuous lighting. In every way, this revival of Clifford Odets’ lost masterpiece is a stunning achievement. Meanwhile, Paul Tazewell, who designed the “Purple� duds and turned “Pacific Overtures� into one of the Alliance’s most stunning shows ever, deserves the Tony for costuming a musical.
Now back to our first question: No, “Jersey Boys� should not win best musical. Best orchestrations, perhaps. In the book-writing department, “Drowsy Chaperone� wits Bob Martin and Don McKellar should get the prize, because their doubly entertaining musical-within-a-play is in its own class. “Color Purple� composers Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray have a chance to win for score because their music is, if nothing else, “original.� “Drowsy� ought to win best musical.
Tonight, we find out.
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‘Die! Mommy! Die!’ @ Dad’s Garage
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Through July 1. Grade: C+
Things just haven’t been the same for Hollywood diva Angela Arden since her dear sister, Barbara, died in a car crash. The hateful daughter and unsympathetic husband, the loneliness and booze, the shattered singing voice.
If it weren’t for her closet full of slinky outfits and that handy slab of beefcake in extra-large loafers, Angela would have nothing to live for.
And were it not for Norma Desmond and Helen Lawson, neither would playwright Charles Busch, the campy farceur and author of “Die! Mommy! Die!” —- which Dad’s Garage has installed with typically trashy aplomb.
We’re talking arsenic-dipped suppositories the size of nuclear warheads, an acid flashback sequence with enough strobe lights to make your pupils scream and director Kate Warner’s requisite gender-switching.
Casting Anne Towns as Angela’s fatso filmmaker husband Sol Sussman and Luis Hernandez as the conspiratorial maid, Bootsie, was a divine call. But it has an unfortunate downside: Towns and Hernandez hand in such effortless-looking performances that they make Doyle Reynolds’ leather-chewing Angela look like a racehorse done up in turbans and brooches.
That said, Reynolds turns Angela’s all-confessing LSD trip into an overload of staggers, stumbles and hysterical laughter —- danced with the liquid waviness of an overheated mood ring.
The essential glue that holds this sex-farce-turned-thriller together is the presence of gigolo Tony (Theroun Patterson), who must be able to seduce not only Angela but also her daughter Edith (Alison Hastings) and sexually confused son Lance (Steve Emanuelson). Unlike Jason Priestley in the 2003 film starring Busch, Patterson doesn’t have the pansexual fireworks to ignite the Sussman clan, so he plays the part with a knowing, tongue-in-cheek swagger and unconvincing British accent. As a result, “Die! Mommy! Die!” reads more like a series of over-the-top walk-ons than a well-lubricated ensemble piece.
Though it looks like scenic designer Jamie Bullins had a budget of, maybe, $5 for the mod, ’60s-era living room, costume artist Liz Faughnan obviously had a festive time coming up with Angela’s revolving wardrobe of tennis togs, widow’s weeds, glamour gowns and jewelry for every outfit.
Dad’s production of “Die! Mommy! Die!” is the theatrical equivalent of a sugar-enhancer —- it’s so artificially silly that it almost passes for the real thing. But even pathological humorists like Busch require a sprinkling of rigor and respect. Laying it on too thick just looks lazy.
THE 411: 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays. 5 p.m. June 25 and 8 p.m. June 26. Through July 1. $9-$23. Dad’s Garage, 280 Elizabeth St., Inman Park. 404-523-3141, www.dadsgarage.com.
THE VERDICT: Pathological silliness.
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Capsule reviews: Shows this weekend
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Dear Theater Communications Group:
You already know that Atlanta has one of the hottest theater scenes in America. That’s why you picked the city for your annual conference, which runs through Saturday. So congratulations, you are in for a treat. As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s theater critic, I welcome you —- and offer this guide to shows around town. If you have thoughts about Atlanta theater, or questions, I’d love to hear from you on my blog. Go to accessatlanta.com/arts, then click on theater.
Best, Wendell Brock wbrock@ajc.com
DAD’S GARAGE: ‘Die! Mommy! Die!’
See how many times Hollywood glamour puss Angela Arden (Doyle Reynolds) can change outfits. Fasten your seat belt for the acid trip in which she spills the beans about her darkest secrets —- from her insatiable sex life and loveless marriage to her sister’s death and the end of her singing career. Watch gigolo Tony (Theroun Patterson) seduce every member of the Sussman family but fatso husband Sol (Anne Towns). Kate Warner’s production of Charles Busch’s camp classic could be funnier, but the casting of Towns and Luis Hernandez (as Bootsie, the maid) is divinely inspired. A good introduction to the comic free-for-all that is Dad’s.
THE 411: $9-$23. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays. 5 p.m. June 25 and 8 p.m. June 26. Through July 1. Dad’s Garage, 280 Elizabeth St., Inman Park. 404-523-3141, www.dadsgarage.com.
HORIZON THEATRE: ‘The Perfect Prayer’
Suehyla El-Attar’s play about growing up Muslim in Mississippi does more to dispel ignorance about Islam than any piece of theater in recent memory. The tale of El-Attar’s semi-autobiographical Hadia (the always delightful Megan Hayes) is an affectionate account of a young Islamic woman’s struggle to balance the teachings of an ancient religion with the supposed temptations of the modern world. No dating, no pepperoni pizza: What’s a girl to do? Hadia’s journey is fundamentally a comic one. Yet her conflict is profound, reverential and immediately accessible to anyone who’s dealt with strict parents, spiritual ambivalence or dating outside the family comfort zone. At the end of the day, Hadia finds renewed sustenance in the prayer and prostrations that are her birthright, and she attains the wisdom and courage to begin again. Discovered by director Lisa Adler, El-Attar is a marvelous young playwright with a humane and wisely comic touch.
THE 411: $20-$25. 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Fridays. 8:30 p.m. Sundays. 5 p.m. Sundays. Saturday matinee, 3 p.m. June 17 only. Through June 25. Horizon Theatre, 1083 Austin Ave., Little Five Points. 404-584-7450.
THEATRICAL OUTFIT: ‘Keeping Watch’
A promising debut from Atlanta playwright Thomas Ward, the play neatly connects the dots between two diverging storylines about love, death and hypocrisy —- the dearly departed and the dearly deceived. How many times do we get to see a man pretend to preach the funeral of the very woman he is courting? While the narrative about the grieving preacher (Brik Berkes) and Waffle House cook (Susie Grimley) is slighter, it’s more successful than the tale of the high school buddies who gather for one last reunion and a couple of surprise revelations. The conflict between new widower Mike (Jason Loughlin) and newlywed Johnny (Scott Warren) is too slow in coming —- and gets in front of what could have been the most mesmerizing conversation of all: the one between disingenuous Johnny and his wife, Claire (Betty Hart), who is oddly banished to the margins. Whose story is this, anyway? As directed by Tom Key, the tone and pace are so hushed and solemn that it’s hard to detect a comedic pulse —- not to mention a plot. Still, it’s a quietly haunting experience.
THE 411: $16.20-$54. 7:30 p.m. June 8-10, plus 2:30 p.m. June 10. Theatrical Outfit, Balzer Theater at Herren’s, 84 Luckie St., Atlanta. 678-528-1500, www.theatricaloutfit.org.
THEATRE IN THE SQUARE: ‘The Story’
Playwright Tracey Scott Wilson uses the Janet Cooke-Washington Post scandal as the basis for this play, which premiered at New York’s Public Theater in 2003. In “The Story,” ambitious reporter Yvonne (the excellent Candice Afia) discovers a D.C. newsroom that operates like “Dynasty.” When an idealistic young schoolteacher is murdered, Yvonne gets the scoop, but is it true? Director Gary Yates has assembled a top-notch cast —- including the superb Joan Pringle as Yvonne’s steely editor, Pat. Korey Michael Washington’s set is an atypically neat newsroom in gleaming blacks, grays and whites. Nice.
THE 411: $18-$33. 8 p.m. June 8-10. 2:30 June 11. Theatre in the Square, 11 Whitlock Ave., Marietta. 770-422-8369, www.theatreinthesquare.com.
ALLIANCE THEATER: ‘The Underpants’
Stretched out to cover a single joke and a naked but hardly modest plot, Steve Martin’s sheer-thin sex farce about a ridiculously overblown case of public indecency is a relentlessly silly letdown. But it nonetheless manages to arouse a few naughty tingles, thanks to the elastic energy of director Aaron Posner’s physically dexterous ensemble. When squeaky-clean hausfrau Louise Maske (Elizabeth Wells Berkes) accidentally drops her drawers on the day of the king’s parade, she sets off a reversal of fortune and a parade of titillated guests. Berkes’ Louise is funny in a nice-girls-gone-wild kind of way, and Jeff Portell makes a passable presence as her priggish husband. But the real champs here are the sideliners, supporting players who arrive with the grace of clomping Clydesdales: Lori Larsen as the nosey neighbor, Ariel Shafir as the Latin lover, Todd Weeks as the blithering hypochondriac. Borderline raunchy but never truly offensive, this adaptation of German dramatist Carl Sternheim’s 1911 satire of puritan values finds Martin mining for humor so low it falls to the ankles.
THE 411: $15-$45. 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays. 2:30 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays. 7:30 p.m. Sundays. Through June 18. Alliance Theatre, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E., Midtown. 404-733-5000, alliancetheatre.org.
ALSO KEEP IN MIND: “Hamlet,” directed by Actor’s Express’ Jasson Minadakis and starring Daniel May, opens Friday at Georgia Shakespeare. 404-264-0020, www.gashakespeare.org. And Jonathan Tolins’ “The Last Sunday in June,” directed by Freddie Ashley, is at Actor’s Express. 404-607-7469, actorsexpress.com.
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TCG BLOG: Tell us what you think
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If you read my Sunday story in Arts & Books, and want to comment about the evolution of Atlanta theater, you’ve come to the right place.
If you are attending the Theater Communications Group conference, we’d love to hear from you, too. Tell us what you think about Atlanta theater. Tell us what’s happening at the conference.
And see Thursday’s Access Atlanta for a Special TCG Guide to the best shows going.
Cheers, Wendell
Report from Broadway: Julia Roberts and all
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
New York —- He is tweedy and nervous and tends to wave his hands when he gets excited. His favorite pastime, it seems, is sipping tea and listening to vintage recordings of forgotten musicals.
Man in Chair, as the program calls him, is the narrator of “The Drowsy Chaperone,” the intoxicatingly daffy homage to early Broadway that leads this year’s Tony Awards race with a lucky 13 nominations. As played by Canadian wit Bob Martin, the lonely musical-theater maven pines for the days when the frothy song-and-dance revues of Cole Porter and Gershwin were king. Nowadays, he says, “It’s ‘Please, Elton John, must we continue this charade?’ “
Anyone who has seen John’s banal “Lestat,” which closes today, or the shaggy musical taxidermy posing as Disney’s “Tarzan” will titter at this fusty armchair hero, who also has choice words for Disney’s theatrical ventures. Based on our recent sampling, we agree with the Man’s pronouncement that the Broadway musical is an endangered species.
So now, as the Tony race gears up for the June 11 awards ceremony, we turn to the new plays and revivals of old plays that make Broadway an exciting destination. Look inside for reviews of “The History Boys,” “Faith Healer,” “Three Days of Rain” and “Awake and Sing!” Naturally, we save the last word for “Drowsy Chaperone.”
“THREE DAYS OF RAIN.” Even with the dubious presence of Julia Roberts, Richard Greenberg’s impressionistic play about a pair of famous architects —- and the women and children in their lives —- remains haunting. Greenberg flips time by devising an Act 1 that looks at the chaotic affairs of Walker (Paul Rudd) and Nan (Roberts), survivors of recently departed master draftsman Ned and his neurotic Southern wife, Lina, described as “Zelda Fitzgerald’s less stable sister.” To Walker’s chagrin, his father has willed the celebrated Janeway House to his partner Theo’s son, Pip (Bradley Cooper).
In Act 2, the actors double up to play their parents, and we see the unhappy genesis of the ill-drawn Ned-Lina-Theo triangle —- a messy tangle of depression, desperation and betrayal. In a ridiculous and embarrassing performance, Smyrna-bred Roberts can’t even muster a passable Southern accent. What abides is Rudd’s sweetly soulful interpretation of the stuttering and befuddled Ned. Here’s a man who feels that he has only one choice, and it’s a really bad one. At the Bernard B. Jacobs (formerly the Royale). Through June 18. 1-800-432-7250.
“AWAKE AND SING!” The revival of Clifford Odets’ 1935 masterpiece of unrequited love and unfulfilled promise is, for my money, the best thing on Broadway. In the way that Kenny Leon brought contemporary meaning to “A Raisin in the Sun,” director Bartlett Sher broadens his audience by pairing legendary Ben Gazzara and Olivier Award-winning Zoe Wanamaker with a trio of youthful stars: sexy Lauren Ambrose (“Six Feet Under”), sequoia-tall Pablo Schreiber (Liev’s brother) and Brando-esque Mark Ruffalo.
Like some kind of Yiddish Clytemnestra raging in the family’s claustrophobic Bronx apartment, Bessie Berger (Wanamaker) presses her pregnant daughter Henny (Ambrose) into a dead-end marriage and pushes her Marxist-spouting father (Gazzara) over the edge of despair. Against the hush of a Depression snowfall, the family snaps apart as if struck by lightning, Michael Yeargan’s set slowly disappears, and young Ralph Berger (Schreiber) cries real tears. An unforgettable show and a triumph for a historic play that that ran for only 24 performances when first performed by the Group Theatre. At the Belasco. Through June 25. 1-800-432-7250.
“FAITH HEALER.” Irish master Brian Friel has never written a bad play, nor a better one than this series of monologues about an artist who is excoriated by his own genius. A trio of testimonials by and about the fantastic Frank Hardy (Ralph Fiennes), “Faith Healer” is a portrait of a narcissistic half-sham, half-miracle worker who crucifies himself and his two disciples in an orgy of self-doubt, alcoholism and despair. Frank’s dandified cockney manager Teddy (Ian McDiarmid) tells us that his client was too intelligent to be a illusionist. Frank’s shattered wife, Grace (Cherry Jones), says that he erased everything in his path, including her and their stillborn child. Shifty, self-contradicting and exhaustive, the play is a showcase for the white-hot intensity of Fiennes’ character and the bittersweet resignation of McDiarmid’s Teddy. The problem with Grace and Teddy is that they loved too much. At the Booth. Through July 30. 1-800-432-7250.
“THE HISTORY BOYS.” Oh, yes. The titular boys in Alan Bennett’s scathing sendup of the British preparatory regimen are devastatingly photogenic, and it’s charming the way they mingle horseplay with so much headmasterly hoo-ha about history. So who cares if director Nicholas Hytner’s opening scenes are a jumble of razzle-dazzle video and frenetic dialogue in accents that take a little getting used to?
It’s a tribute to Bennett’s storytelling skills that we have absolutely no idea where the tale of beloved schoolmaster Hector (the excellent Richard Griffiths) and newcomer Irwin (Stephen Campell Moore) is going until well into their lessons on history, literature and language. Scholarly control may not be a virtue of dear old egg-shaped Hector, who keeps his classroom door locked and drives an enormous motorbike to work. Yet his endless digressions on Auden and A.E. Housman will do as much to ready his students for life at Oxford and Cambridge as his colleagues’ pragmatism.
The scene in which a French tutorial turns into a whore-house seduction between the beefy Dakin (Dominic Cooper) and the coquettish Posner (Samuel Barnett) is hysterical —- and kind of poignant, when we realize that Posner is actually lovestruck. Mixing the nostalgia of “Dead Poets Society” with the dire consequences of “Doubt,” “History Boys” is a superbly ironic study of hypocrisy, homophobia and shattered innocence. Frances de la Tour, as the ice-dry Mrs. Lintott, is a wonder of the British stage. At the Broadhurst. Through Sept. 23. 1-800-432-7250.
“THE DROWSY CHAPERONE.” It only took a madeleine to stoke the imagination of Proust’s narrator. For the hero of this giddy satire of Broadway’s gilded age, it’s a vinyl copy of the long-forgotten ’20s confection “The Drowsy Chaperone.” The second he puts it on the turntable, a fully formed production of his favorite song-and-dance frolic springs to life in his living room, complete with show-stopping performances by its original actors.
A self-referencing, tongue-in-cheek tour of theater stereotypes and formulas, “The Drowsy Chaperone” is a caper-ladden account of the ill-fated wedding of Broadway glamorpuss Janet Van de Graaff (Sutton Foster) and debonair leading man Robert Martin (Troy Britton Johnson). Thanks to the tipsy chaperone (Beth Leavel), some greedy producers, a couple of gangsters, a closet-case Latin lover (Danny Burstein) and various other hangers-on, the nuptials become a hysterical series of complications and catastrophes which proves, once again, that show people exist in their own madcap dimension.
With music and lyrics by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison and book by Bob Martin (the narrator) and Don McKellar, “The Drowsy Chaperone” uses a dizzying parade of over-the-top performances and throwaway songs and gags to deliver the season’s most original musical. Though it would be impossible for the show to exhume a real-life matinee idol from the time it depicts, it does bring back Georgia Engel, who appeared on Broadway with Ethel Merman and played Georgette on the iconic ’70s sitcom “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” Her timing operates on the same delayed-reaction mechanism as always, but her airhead Mrs. Tottendale never misses a dance step. The smile that never thaws —- now that’s the metaphor for the whole shebang. At the Marquis. Open-ended. 1-800-755-4000.
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‘The Perfect Prayer’ @ Horizon
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Grade: B+. Through June 25.
Boyfriend Adam is taking good care of his girlfriend Hadia on this special night. He wants to make this rite of passage as smooth as possible. There will be nothing awkward about Hadia’s “first time.”
Hadia, you see, is about to be introduced to the pleasures of pepperoni pizza. And since pork is forbidden to Muslims, she and her beau are treating her first taste with the same breathless, jittery excitement associated with another type of adventure that’s even more frowned upon by Hadia’s estranged parents.
This is one of the more ticklish moments in Atlanta playwright Suehyla El-Attar’s “The Perfect Prayer,” a finely nuanced blend of comedy and political commentary based on her experiences as a Muslim born and reared in the American South: Mississippi, to be exact.
Before anyone accuses the Egyptian-American of heresy, remember that the Horizon Theatre world premiere is fiction. It’s also an affectionately crafted account of a young Islamic woman’s struggle to balance the teachings of an ancient religion with the supposed temptations of the modern world.
El-Attar is both dutiful to Islam and true to the ironies of American life.
Yes, Hadia’s journey is fundamentally a comic one. But her conflict is profound, reverential and immediately accessible to anyone who’s dealt with strict parents, spiritual ambivalence or dating outside the family comfort zone. At the end of the day, Hadia finds renewed sustenance in the prayer and prostrations that are her birthright —- and she attains the wisdom and courage to begin again.
If you find the pepperoni incident revealing, just wait until Hadia (Megan Hayes) tells Adam (Tyler Owens), who is Catholic: “You’re talking to a non-black African-American. Raised in an Arab-Muslim household. In the South.”
“Do your parents live here on purpose?” Adam asks.
Hadia’s mother (Marianne Fraulo) watches “The Young and the Restless” and gets takeout from Burger King. Her father (Tom Thon) is a devout Muslim who prays five times a day and plans a pilgrimage to Mecca. Hadia meets Adam in a university class called “Contemporary Muslim Societies.” Only after sticking his foot in his mouth does Adam discover that the teacher is Hadia’s father.
As the father lectures on the five pillars of Islam, the meaning of set designer Jonathan Williamson’s five columns comes into focus: Muslim in Mississippi, natch.
Though the play wanders a bit toward the end and contains perhaps one too many domestic confrontations, El-Attar is careful not to let us see in advance where Hadia’s journey will take her, or to offer tidy resolutions. She also treats the Arabic language like the poetry that it is and finds the delicate beauty of prayer-as-performance. The cast is wholly in sync with the spirit of the piece.
Directed by Lisa Adler and twice workshopped at Horizon’s New South Play Festival, “The Perfect Prayer” does more to dispel ignorance about Islam than any piece of theater in recent memory. In producing both Tony Kushner’s “Homebody/Kabul” and “The Perfect Prayer,” Horizon’s mission of connecting with Islamic audiences is unique among Atlanta theaters.
First plays (or novels or stories) sometimes have a way of being intensely personal and tender. It can be hard for a writer to surpass the raw immediacy of a debut work. Let’s pray that El-Attar will be undaunted in her quest. At 30, she’s a marvelous young playwright with a humane and wisely comic touch.
THE 411: 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Fridays. 8:30 p.m. Sundays. 5 p.m. Sundays. Saturday matinee, 3 p.m. June 17 only. Through June 25. $20-$25. Horizon Theatre, 1083 Austin Ave., Little Five Points. 404-584-7450.
THE VERDICT: A wise and affecting cross-cultural dance with universal appeal.
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‘Last Sunday in June’ @ Actor’s Express
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Grade: C+. Through July 1.
Michael and Tom are a happy gay couple who seem to have everything —- including a Pottery Barn-perfect apartment on New York’s Christopher Street and plans to transfer their well-ordered existence to a new home in the burbs.
But as the city’s Gay Pride celebration unfolds outside their window during Jonathan Tolins’ “The Last Sunday in June,” we discover that their lives —- and those of their inner circle —- may not be so charmed after all.
Timed to coincide with Atlanta’s June 25 Gay Pride event, “Last Sunday in June” is getting a respectable workout at Actor’s Express through July 1. But, alas, what begins as a blisteringly acute sendup of gay manners takes an irreparable misstep once the characters start to dissect the unpleasant flip side of their disappointing and untidy affairs.
As directed by Freddie Ashley, the play gets off to such a gleeful, fang-bearing beginning that you wish the author would follow his impulse to make it a snarky peek into the inner quirks of the disaffected gay middle class. Instead, Tolins is so self-conscious about not repeating the likes of Terrence McNally’s “Love! Valour! Compassion!” that his characters start saying things like “Now if this were a gay play,” such and such would happen next. And indeed it does.
While Matthew Myers and Cary Donaldson summon good appraisals of teacher Michael and attorney Tom, in that order, the comedy really takes off with the arrival of doe-eyed newcomer Joe (Christopher Skinner) and his cynical opposite, Brad (Hunter Hangar). Joe is sweet, Brad embittered to the point of destructiveness, and both actors give spot-on performances. As the operagoing “older guy” —- this is a gay play, remember —- Bill Murphey is a winning presence, and Jacob Wood cashes in on the part of the requisite shirtless hunk.
Another delightful touch is the conspicuous consumer couple’s top-of-the-line juice machine, of all things, which gets recruited into action every time someone makes a hypocritical or untrue statement. Rrrrr-crunch.
But the playful backbiting starts to skid once failed novelist James (Adam Fristoe) traipses in with his anger and self-loathing. James, who’s dated at least two people in the room, is so sour that you can’t help but notice Fristoe’s unintentional grins when he hears some of the comic zingers. As Susan, James’ big bombshell, Rachel Craw makes for a calm, reassuring presence who tries to rub salve into the roughed-up feelings.
On the one hand, you admire Tolins for leavening the stereotypes —- and embracing the fact that gay people exist in a space that’s just as messy, complicated and fraught with struggle as their straight counterparts. But for all the nice detailing (Thomas Cox’s set is immaculately designed, and Jamie Bullins’ costumes are appropriate to the milieu), the play can’t mediate its ever-shifting tone nor impart much insight into the sadness and defeat of its shiny interiors.
THE 411: 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays. 5 p.m. June 4, June 11 and June 25. 2 p.m. June 18. Through July 1. $10.75-$26.75. Actor’s Express, King Plow Arts Center, 887 W. Marietta St. N.W., Suite J-107, Atlanta. 404-607-7469; actorsexpress.com
The verdict: A disappointing take on gay culture.
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‘The Underpants’ @ Alliance
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Through June 18. Grade: C +
In the Alliance Theatre’s new production of Steve Martin’s “The Underpants,” the comic shenanigans have dropped so low they hang around the ankles.
Stretched out to cover a single joke and a naked but hardly modest plot, Martin’s sheer-thin sex farce about a ridiculously overblown case of public indecency is a let down. But it nonetheless manages to arouse a few naughty tingles, thanks to the elastic energy of director Aaron Posner’s physically dexterous ensemble.
Borderline raunchy but never truly offensive, “The Underpants” finds Martin rewriting German dramatist Carl Sternheim’s 1911 satire of puritan values to suit his own absurdist bent.
When a squeaky-clean hausfrau (Elizabeth Wells Berkes) accidentally drops her drawers on the day of the king’s parade, you’d think she was the Monica Lewinsky of her day, to hear her pompous husband (Jeff Portell) rant. He fears his job as a government bureaucrat will crumble, and she’ll go down in history as a tush-bearing harlot. Yeah, right.
Martin is a hard-core humorist, but if you want to find a way to rip into the political fabric or tease out a latent message of sexist comeuppance, you certainly may.
In this winking game of reversed fortunes, mousy Louise uses her sexuality to seize power, and before the clock can say “cuckoo,” a parade of stock vaudevillians reduces the chauvinistic husband to a blithering fool. (Note that the couple’s last name is Maske.)
Martin’s premise is a lot more fun on paper than onstage, although his “no sex, please, we’re German” meets Joe Orton approach does have its giddy moments.
Political incorrectness is par for the course here, so if nervous Jews, fatuous Germans or Latin lovers aren’t your preferred stein of brew, you should beware.
Berkes’ Louise is funny in a nice-girls-gone-wild kind of way — notice how her voice goes down a few octaves when she gets all bothered — and Portell makes a passable presence as a vest-popping prig.
But the real champs here are the side-liners, smaller players who arrive with the grace of clomping Clydesdales. Eaves-dropping Gertude Deuter (the wonderful Lori Larsen) eeks out a sex life by listening in on her neighbors. And since there’s been a dry spell, she’s a willing accomplice when the lingerie lizards start ringing Louise’s bell, as it were.
Enter Frank Versati (Ariel Shafir), a Dali-esque poet with an electricized hairdoo and gymnast’s vigor. Handsome in spite of his clownish getup, Shafir is terrific — though his audience-participation silliness (probably the director’s idea) wears thin quickly. Keep this in mind when you’re considering those third-row seats.
Benjamin Cohen (Todd Weeks) may be an imaginary invalid, but he’s always true to Louise in his (fatigued) fashion. There’s a little Woody Allen in Weeks’ take on his character, yet his flustered demeanor has ironic layers that are indelibly his own. The guy is a real find.
Linda Roethke’s period costumes are superb little commentaries in their own right. It’s funny (yes, frankly, it’s absurd!) how unexciting the titular bloomers are by today’s standards. But then, check out how that Chinese silk robe has the bada-boom to turn spinster-ish Gertrude into a glamor queen. (A tough task, to be sure.)
Kris Stone’s set is a dazzling design of slender Bavarian chalets (that cuckoo-clock motif again), with the Maskes’ pristine domicile in front. The birdcage and Magritte-like window are lovely touches. All that said, Ken Yunker’s lighting seems unnecessarily twitchy. It’s not like we need flickering action to tell us there’s mayhem onstage.
But in general, the overblown approach seems an essential part of the “emperor’s new clothes” cover-up.
After the serious and reflective “Jelly’s Last Jam” and “Intimate Apparel,” the Alliance has good reason to end it’s season on a buoyant note. But like “The Fourth Wall” and “A Death in the House Next Door to Kathleen Turner’s House on Long Island” (blech and double blech), “The Underpants” is an acquired taste — padded laughter that brings you up, then quickly lets you slide back down.
THE 411: 404-733-5000; alliancetheatre.org
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